ON THE IDENTITY OF THE WILL AND ITS WORK OF THE
DESIRE AND ITS PRODUCTION.
Argument:—The falsity of egoism, and the futility of the
expansion of the intellect in creation. Ignorance as the cause of
this fallacy and the manner of its removal.
Bhusunda continued:—As the supposition of one vacuity (as that
subsisting in a pot or any spot), to be a part or derived from the
universal vacuum is false and wrong; so the conception of the visionary
_ego_ (as produced from the unknown vacuum Brahma), is altogether an
error. (_i.e._ The error of conceiving a subtile or gross spirit called
the _ego_, proceeds from ignorance of the True Spirit).
2. The erroneous conception of limited vacuities, being produced from
the unlimited vacuum, has given rise to the mistaken belief of unreal
and individual souls, as proceeding from the one universal and undivided
soul of God.
3. The divine intellect exists in the form of air in air, which it takes
for its body; it is manifest throughout the aerial sphere and therefore
I am neither the _ego_ nor the _non-ego_ either. (Man is the _ego_ in
his intellectual part, and the _non-ego_ in his material frame).
4. The unity of the subtile intellect is of such a nature, that it
contains the gravity of the immense world in it (_i.e._ in its thought);
in the same manner as a ponderous mountain is contained in an atom (or
as it is composed of atomic particles). The conscious intellect is of
the form of air (empty and all pervading in its nature). (This is
another instance of the vacuous essence of God, according to the
vacuistic theory of Vasishtha).
5. The intellect which is rarer than subtile air, thinks in itself the
gross nature of unintellectual matter; which exhibits itself in the form
of the world. (The dull external world, is a counter part of the internal
conception of the mind).
6. It is well known to the spiritualist, that the egoism of ourselves
and the materialism of the world, are but dilations of the intellect; as
the currents and curlings of streams in eddies are but dilations of
water. (This process of the Divine spirit is called its _vivarta rúpa_).
7. When this process of the intellect is at a stop, the whole course of
nature is at a stand still, like the liquid water of the lake without
its undulation; or like the quiet sphere of the sky, without the stir or
agitation of winds in it. (It means to say that, as the motion of the
spirit causes the action of the world, so its cessation _nivarta-rúpa_,
put an end to the course of nature).
8. Thus there is no other cause of any physical action, in anything in
any part or period of the world; except what is derived from the
agitation of the Intellect, without which this whole is a shapeless void
and _nil_.
9. It is the action of the intellect, that makes the world to appear to
us at all times and places; whether in the sky, water or land, as also
when we wake, sleep or dream (and this action of the mind being put to a
stop in death deep sleep, the world ceases to exist both in the mind and
to our external senses also).
10. The action and inaction of the intellect, is imperceptible to our
understanding, owing to the extreme tenuity of the mind, which is more
transparent than the clear sky.
11. The knowing soul that is unified or settled as one with the Supreme
spirit, is unconscious of its pleasure or pain and the sense of its
egoism; and being melted down into the divine essence, it resides as the
fluidity of the psychic fluid.
12. The sapient mind is regardless of all external intelligence,
fortune, fame, or prosperity; and having no desire or hope to rise or
fear or shame to fall, he sees none of these things before him, as one
sees no object of broad daylight in the gloom of night. (The holy man
has lost sight of all worldly things).
13. The moonlight of the intellect which issues forth from the moon like
disk of the glory of God, fills the universe with its ambrosial flood;
and there is no other created world, nor its receptacles of time and
space, except the essence of Brahma, which fills the whole.
14. Thus the whole universe being full with the glorious essence of God,
it is the mind which revolves with the spheres of the worlds on itself,
like the curling circles on the surface of waters.
15. The revolving world, is evanescently rolling on like a running
stream to its decay, with its ever rising and sinking waves, and its
gurgling and whirling eddies and whirlpools.
16. As the moving sands appear as water (in the mirage of the desert),
and as the distant smoke seems as a gathering clouds to the deluded; so
doth this world appear to them as a gross object of creation, and a
third thing beside the Divine spirit and Mind.
17. As the wood pared by the saw appear as separate blocks, and as the
water divided by the winds has the appearance of detached waves; so doth
this creation in the Supreme spirit, seem to be something without and
different from it.
18. The world is as unsolid and unsubstantial, as the stem of a plantain
tree, and as false and frail as the leaves of the arbour of our desire;
it is plastic in its nature, but as hard as stone in the substance.
(Being like the shadow of something in the hard crystal of the Divine
Mind).
19. It is personified in the form of Virát, with his thousand heads and
feet, and as many arms, faces and eyes; and his body filling all sides,
with all the mountains, rivers and countries situated in it.
20. It is empty within and any pith in it, it is painted in many colours
and having no colour of itself.
21. It is studded all over with bodies of gods and demigods, gandharvas,
vidyádharas and great serpents; it is inert (dull matter of itself), and
is moved by the all moving air of _sutrátma_—the all connecting spirit
of God; and is animated by the all enlivening _anima_ of the Supreme
soul.
22. As the scene of a great city appears brilliant to sight, in a
painting which is well drawn on a canvas, so does the picture of the
world, which is displayed by imagination in the retina of the mind,
appear charming to them, who do not deign to consider (to examine) it in
its true light.
23. The reflexion of the unreal and imaginary world, which falls on the
mirror of the fickle and fluctuating mind; appears to swim upon its
surface, as a drop of oil floats over the face of water.
24. This world is overspread with the network of the feelings imprinted
in the heart, and interspersed with winding eddies of mistake and
misery; it runs with the flood of our affections, and with silent
murmurs of sorrow.
25. The understanding is apt to attribute optionally, the predicates I,
thou and so forth to the original and prime Intellect; but none of these
is apart from the Supreme one, as the fluid is no other than the water
itself. (Jíva—the living soul and Brahma—the universal being synonymous
terms there is no distinction whatever between them).
26. The luminous Intellect itself is styled the creation, (after it has
assumed to itself the title of ego or its personality); or else there is
no other creation or any creator thereof (beside the everlasting
intellect, which is represented as the personal God-Ego and personified
as the creation itself).
27. As the power of impulsion is inherent in every moving substance,
like the blowing of winds and flowing of water; so the intellectual
soul, being of a vacuous form, knows all things in their vacuous or
ideal states only.
28. As seas and oceans are becoming the seeming cause of separate name
of countries, by separating the connection from one land to another,
though the vacuum remains ever the same; so delusion is the cause of
different ideas and dreams of material objects, but spirit remains
unchangeful forever.
29. Know the words mind, egoism, understanding and such other terms,
which are significant of the idea of knowledge; to proceed from
ignorance alone, and are soon removed by proper investigation into them.
30. It is by means of conversation with the wise, that it is possible
for us to remove one half of this ignorance, and it is by investigation
into the sástras, that we are enabled to remove a quarter of it, while
our belief of and reliance in the Supreme spirit, serves to put down the
remaining fourth part of it altogether.
31. Having thus divided yourself into the said four-fold duties, and
destroyed by degree the four parts of ignorance by each of them; you
will find at last a nameless something which is the true reality itself.
32. Ráma said:—I can understand sir, how a moiety of our ignorance is
removed by conversation with the wise, as also how a fourth part of it
driven by the study of sástras, but tell me sir, how the remainder of it
is removed by our belief and reliance in the spirit.
33. Tell me sir, what you mean by the simultaneous and gradual removal
of ignorance, and what am I to understand by what you call the nameless
one and the true reality, as distinguished from the unreal.
34. Vasishtha replied:—It is proper for all good and virtuous people who
are dispassionate and dissatisfied with the world, to have recourse to
wise and holy men, and argue with them regarding the course of nature,
in order to get over the ocean of this miserable world.
35. It is proper also for intelligent persons, to be in diligent search
after the passionless and unselfish men wherever they may be found; and
particularly to find out and reverence such of them, as are possessed
with the knowledge of the soul, and are kindly disposed to impart their
spiritual knowledge to others.
36. The acquisition of such a holy sage, takes away one half of one’s
temporal and spiritual ignorance; by setting him on the first and best
step of divine knowledge. (The subsequent stages of yoga, are based upon
the initiatory step or stage).
37. Thus half of one’s spiritual gloom being dispelled by association
with the holy; the remaining two fourths are removed, by religious
learning and one’s own faith and devotion.
38. Whenever any desire of any enjoyment whatever, is carefully
suppressed in one’s self by his own endeavour; it is called his
self-exertion, which destroys one fourth of spiritual ignorance.
39. So it is the society of the holy, the study of Sástras and one’s own
exertion, which tend to take away one’s sins, and it is done by each of
these singly or all of these conjointly, either by degrees or at once
and at the same time.
40. Whatever there remains either as something or nothing at all, upon
the total extinction of ignorance, the same is said to be the
transcendent and nameless or unspeakable something or nothing (owing to
its being beyond all conception).
41. This is verily the real Brahma, the undestroyed, infinite and
eternal one; and which being but a manifestation of the unsubstantial
will, is understood as an inexistent blank likewise. By knowing the
measureless, immeasurable and unerring being, do you rely in your own
nihility of nirvána, and be free from all fear and sorrow. (He who
thinks himself as nothing, has no care or fear for anything).