DESCRIPTION OF THE SEED OF THE ARBOUR OF THE WORLD.
Argument:—The arbor of the world as growing from the seed of
Ignorance in the soil of Ignorance.
Bhusunda replied:—Having heard the aforesaid holy speech of the
Vidyádhara, I answered to what he asked in plain words as follows.
2. Well said, O chief of the Vidyádharas, and it proves thee to be
awakened to thy good sense by thy good fortune for thy edification, that
thou dost after so long desire to be raised, out of the dark pit and
dungeon of the world.
3. Thy holy intentions shine as bright as the blazing clouds in the
midday light; and as pure liquid gold melted down by the fire of right
reasoning.
4. Thy clear mind will be able to grasp the meaning, of my admonition to
you with ease; as the clean mirror is capable of receiving the reflexion
of every object set before it. (The clear mind like a clear mirror
reflects every thing in it).
5. You must give your assent to what I say, by uttering the syllable
Om—yes to the same; as you can have no doubt to take for certain truth,
what I have come to know by my long research.
6. Know well and by giving up your ignorance, that what thou feelest
within thee (_i.e._ thy egoism), is not thy very self; and it is hard to
have it (your soul or self), notwithstanding your long search after the
same.
7. Know it for certain that there is no egoism or tuism (_i.e._
subjective or objective knowledge), nor even this phenomenal world, that
may be called the real entity; but all this is the blissful God, who is
no cause of either thy happiness or misery (but reigns absolutely
supreme in himself).
8. Whether this world is a creation of our ignorance, or whether it is
ignorance itself, is what we cannot ascertain by our reasoning; because
there being but one simple entity alone, there is no possibility of the
co-existence of the duality (of subjective and objective).
9. The world appears as the water in the mirage; it is unsubstantial and
though appearing as something real, it is in reality nothing at all. The
phenomenon that appears to view, is himself and nothing otherwise.
10. The world being as the water in the mirage (a mere nullity); there
is neither its existence nor its inexistence neither, there can be no
reflexion of it either (because a void has no shadow); and therefore it
must be but God himself.
11. The seed of the world is the _Ego_ or the subjective self, and the
Tu or the objective world, is to be known as derived from the subjective
self or egoism. Such being the case, the visible world with all its
lands and seas, its mountains and rivers and gods also, is the huge tree
growing out of the same seminal source of egoism.
12. The great arbour of the worlds, grows out of the particle of egoism;
the organs of sense are the succulent roots of this tree; and the far
overspreading orbs of the sky, are the many divergent branches of the
main arbor of the mundane world.
13. The starry frame in the sky, is the netted canopy over this arbour
on high; and the groups of constellations, are bunches of blossoms of
this tree; the desires of men are as the long fibres and lengthening
filaments of the tree, and the lightsome moons are the ripe fruits
thereof.
14. The many spheres of heaven, are the hollows of this large and great
tree; and the Meru, Mandara and other mountains, are its protuberant
boughs and branches.
15. The seven oceans are the ditches of water, dug at the foot and root
of this tree; and the infernal region is the deep pit underlying the
root of this tree; the yugas and cycles of periods are its knots and
joints, and the rotation of time over it, is as the circle of worms
sucking up its juice for evermore.
16. Our ignorance is the ground of its growth, and all peoples are as
flights of birds hovering upon it; its false apprehension forms its
great trunk, which is burnt down by the conflagration of _nirvána_ or
our knowledge of the utter extinction of all things.
17. The sights of things, the thoughts of the mind, and the various
pleasures of the world, are all as false as a grove or forest in the
sky; or as silver in the face of the hoary clouds, or in the coating of
conch and pearl shells.
18. The seasons are its branches (in which they grow and wither away);
and the ten sides of the air are its smaller boughs; because they spread
themselves in all directions; self-consciousness is the pith and marrow
of this tree (and of all sensible creatures), and the wind of the air is
the breath of life, that fluctuates in every part of this tree of the
world.
19. The sun-shine and moon-beams, are the two flowers of this tree;
their rising and setting represent the opening and closing of blossoms;
and the daylight and darkness of night, are as butterflies and
bumble bees fluttering over them.
20. Know at last, that one all pervading ignorance, extends all over
this tree of the world; stretching from its root in the Tartarus, on all
sides of the compass and its top in the heavens above. It is all an
unreality appearing as real existence, and egoism which is the seed of
this fallacy, being burnt up by the fire un-egoism, it will no more
vegetate in the form of this arbour of the world; nor put forth itself
in future births and continuous transmigrations in this visionary world.