DISAPPEARANCE OF THE PHENOMENALS.
Argument:—Admonition for ignoring the visibles, and the means of
attaining the insensibility and inactivity of the wise.
Ráma said:—Tell me, O Sage, how it may be possible to convert our
knowledge to ignorance, since it is impossible to make a nothing of
something, as also to make anything out of a nothing.
2. Vasishtha replied:—Verily a nothing or unreality, cannot be something
in reality; nor a real something can become an unreal nothing; but in
any case where both of these (_viz._; reality as well as unreality of a
thing) are possible, there the cognition and incognition of something,
are both of them equally palpable of themselves. (This is termed a
_Chátushkotika Sunsaya_ or quadruplicate apprehension of something,
consisting, of the reality or unreality of a thing, and the certainty or
uncertainty of its knowledge).
3. The two senses of the word knowledge (_i.e._ its affirmative and
negative senses) are apparent in the instance of “a rope appearing as a
snake”: here the knowledge of the rope is certain, but that of the snake
is a mistake or error. And so in the case of a mirage presenting the
appearance of water. (Here the things snake and water prove to be
nothing, and their knowledge as such, is converted to error or want of
knowledge).
4. It is better therefore to have no knowledge of these false
appearances, whose knowledge tends to our misery only; wherefore know
the true reality alone, and never think of the unreal appearance. (Do
not think the visibles either as real or unreal, but know the deathless
spirit that lies hid under them).
5. The conception of the sense of sensible perceptions, is the cause of
woe of all living beings; therefore it is better to root out the sense
of the perceptibles from the mind, and rely in the knowledge of the
underlying universal soul only. (Taking the particulars in the sense of
individual souls, is the cause of misery only).
6. Leaving aside the knowledge of parts, and the sense of your
perception of all sensible objects, know the whole as one infinite soul,
in which you have your rest and _nirvána_ extinction.
7. Destroy all your acts of merit and demerit, by the force of your
discrimination; and your knowledge of the evanescence of your deeds,
aided by your knowledge of truth, will cause the consummation of Yoga
(Siddhi).
8. By rooting out the reminiscence of your acts, you put a stop to their
results and your course in the world; and if you succeed to gain the
object of your search (_i.e._ your spiritual knowledge), by means of
your reason, you have no more any need of your action.
9. The divine intellect, like the Bel fruit, forms within itself its
pith and seeds (of future worlds), which lie hid in it, and never burst
out of its bosom. (So all things are contained in divine mind).
10. As a thing contained in its container, is not separate from the
containing receptacle, so all things that lie in the womb of space, are
included in the infinite space of the universal soul (or the divine
mind) which encompasses the endless vacuity in it.
11. And as the property of fluidity, is never distinct from the nature
of liquids; so the thoughts (of all created things), are never apart
from the thinking principle of the Divine mind. (The words _Chittam_ and
_Chittwam_, and their meanings of the thought and mind, appertain to
their common root the _chit_ or intellect with which they are alike in
sound and sense).
12. Again as fluidity is the inseparable property of water, and light is
that of fire; so the thoughts and thinking, inhere intrinsically
in the nature of the Divine Intellect, and not as its separable
qualities.
13. Intellection is the action of the intellect, and its privation gives
rise to the chimeras of error in the mind; there is no other cause of
error, nor does it last unless it rises in absence of reason.
14. Intellection is the action of the intellect, as fluctuation is that
of the wind; and it is by means of their respective actions, that we
have our perceptions of them. But when the soul ceases from action, then
both of these (_viz_: our intellection and perceptions) are at an utter
stop within and without us. (_i.e._ The soul is the prime mover of our
inward and outward senses).
15. The body is the field and scope of our actions, and our egoism
spreads itself over the world; but our insensibility and want of egoism,
tend to put away the world from us as want of force puts down the
breeze.
16. Insensibility of the body and mind, renders the intelligent soul, as
dull as a stone; therefore root out the world from thy mind, as a boar
uproots a plant with its tusk; (by means of your insensibility of it, and
the full sense of God alone in thee).
17. In this way only, O Ráma, you can get rid of the seed vessel of
action in your mind; and there is no other means of enjoying the lasting
peace of your soul besides this.
18. After the germinating seed of action is removed from the mind, the
wise man loses the sight of all temporal objects, in his full view of
the holy light of God.
19. The holy saints never seek to have, nor dare to avoid or leave any
employment of their own choice or will; (but they do whatever comes in
their way, knowing it as the will of God and must be done). They are
therefore said to be of truly saintly souls and minds, who are strangers
to the preference or rejection of anything (lit., to the acceptance or
avoidance of a thing).
20. Wise men sit silent where they sit and live as they live, with their
hearts and minds as vacant as the vacuous sky; they take what they get,
and do what is destined to them as they are unconscious of doing them.
(The vacant mind without any care or thought, is like a clear mirror <of>
the untainted seat of the Holy God).
21. As sediments are swept away by the current of the stream, so the
saintly and meek minded men are moved to action by a power not their
own; they act with their organs of action with as much unconcern, as
babes have the movements of their bodies, in their half-sleeping state.
22. As the sweetest things appear unsavoury to those that are satiate
and sated with them; so do the delights of the world, seem disgusting to
them, that are delighted with divine joy in themselves; and with which
they are so enrapt in their rapture, as to become unconscious of what is
passing in and about them like insane people.
23. The unconsciousness of one’s acts, makes the abandonment of his
action, and this is perfected when a person is in full possession of his
understanding (or else the unconsciousness of a dead man of his former
acts, does not amount to his abandonment of action). It matters not
whether a man does ought or naught, with his unsubstantial or insensible
organs of action. (It is external consciousness that makes the action,
and not the external doing of it, with the insensible organs of the
body; because the mental impressions make the action and not its
forgetfulness in the mind).
24. An action done without a desire, is an act of unconsciousness; and
they are not recognized as our actions, which have no traces of them in
our minds. (Hence all involuntary acts and those of insanity, are
reckoned as no doings of their doer).
25. An act which is not remembered, and which is forgotten as if it were
buried in oblivion, is as no act of its doer; and this oblivion is equal
to the abandonment of action.
26. He who pretends to have abandoned all action, without abandoning (or
effacing) them from his mind, is said to be a hypocrite, and is devoured
by the monster of his hypocrisy: (of this nature are the false _fakirs_,
who pretend to have renounced the world).
27. They who have rooted out the prejudice of actions from their lives,
and betaken themselves to the rest and refuge of inaction, are freed
from the expectation of reward of whatever they do, as also from the
fear of any evil for what they avoid to perform.
28. They who have extirpated the seeds of action, with their roots and
germs, from the ground of their minds, have always an undisturbed
tranquility to rest upon, and which is attended with a serene delight
to those that have made hebetude their habit.
29. The meek are slightly moved in their bodies and minds, by the
current of business in which they have fallen; but the reckless are
carried onward whirling in the torrent, like drunken sots reclining on
the ground, or as anything moved by a machine, (or as the machines of an
engine).
30. Those who are seated in any stage of yoga, and are graced with the
calmness of liberation, appear as cheerful as men in a play house, who
are half asleep and half-awake over the act in this great theatre of the
world.
31. That is said to be wholly extirpated, which is drawn out by its
roots, or else it is like the destroying of a tree by lopping its
branches which will grow again, unless it is uprooted from the ground.
32. So the tree of acts (the ceremonial code), though lopped off of its
branches (of particular rites and ceremonies), will thrive again if it
is left to remain, without uprooting it by the ritual (of acháras).
33. It is enough for your abandonment of acts, to remain unconscious of
your performance of them; and the other recipes for the same (as given
before) will come to you of themselves.
34. Whoever adopts any other method of getting rid of his actions,
besides those prescribed herein; his attempts of their abandonment are
as null and void, as his striking the air, (in order to divide it).
(Out ward abandonment of anything is nothing, unless it is done so from
the mind).
35. It is the rational abandonment of a thing, that makes its true
relinquishment, and whatever is done unwilfully, is like a fried grain
or seed, that never vegetates nor brings forth its fruit. (The rational
renouncement of a thing, is said in the Veda, to mean its resignation to
God, to whom belongs every thing in the world, and is lent to man for
his temporary use only. And fruitless actions are those that are done
unwillingly, and are not productive of future births for our misery
only).
36. But the act that is done with the will and bodily exertion, becomes
productive with the moisture of desire; but all other efforts of the
body without the will, are entirely fruitless to their actor.
37. After one has got rid of his action, and freed himself from further
desire; he becomes liberated for life (Jívan-mukta), whether he may
dwell at home or in the woods, and live in poverty or affluence.
38. The contented soul is as solitary at home, as in the midst of the
farthest forest; but the discontented mind find the solitary forest, to
be as thickly thronged with vexations as the circle of a familyhouse.
39. The quiet and calmly composed spirit, finds the lonely woodland,
where a human being is never to be seen even in a dream, to be as lovely
to it as the bosom of a family dwelling.
40. The wise man who has lost the sight of the visibles, and of the
endless particulars abounding in this forest of the world, beholds on
every side the silent and motionless sphere of heaven spread all around
him.
41. The thoughtless ignorant, whose insatiate ambition grasps the whole
universe in his heart, rolls over the surface of the earth and all its
boisterous seas with as much glee as upon a bed of flowers.
42. All these cities and towns, which are so tumultuous with the endless
of men, appear to the ignorant and moneyless man as a garden of flowers;
where he picks up his worthless penny with as much delight as holy men
cull the fragrant blossoms to make their offerings to holy shrines.
43. The wide earth with all her cities and towns, and distant districts
and countries, which are so full of mutual strife and broil, appear to
the soiled soul of the gross-headed and greedy, as if they are reflected
in their fair forms in the mirror of their minds; or painted in their
bright colours upon the canvas of their hearts. (Worldly men are so
infatuated with the world, that they take side of things for fair and
bright).