LECTURE ON THE EXTINCTION OF THE LIVING SOUL.
Argument:—Extinction of individual souls in the universal, by
their abandonment of desires.
Vasishtha continued:—This primary Purusha or the Male agent—Virát, is a
volitive principle; and whatever he wills to do at anytime, the same
appears instantly before him in its material form of the five elements.
2. It is this will, O Ráma! that the sages say to have become the world;
because by its being intent upon producing the same, it became expanded
in the same form. (The will of the Deity is the deed itself).
3. Virát is the cause of all things in the world, which came to be
produced in the same form as their material cause. (Because the product
is alike its producing cause, being a fac-simile of the same).
4 As the great Virát is collectively the aggregate of all souls, so is
he distributed likewise into the individual soul of every body. (Hence
every soul knowing itself to be a particle of the Divine, cannot think
itself as otherwise).
5. The same Virát is manifest in the meanest insect as also in the
highest Rudra, in a small atom as in the huge hill, and expands itself
as the seed vessel to a very large tree (all which are mistaken as parts
of the illusive world).
6. The great Virát is himself the soul of every individual, from the
creeping insect to the mighty Rudra of air; and his infinite soul
extends even to atoms, that are sensible and not insensible of
themselves.
7. In proportion as Virát expands and extends his soul to infinity, so
he fills the bodies of even the atomic animalcules with particles of his
own essence.
8. There is nothing as great or small in reality in the world, but
everything appears to be in proportion as it is filled and expanded by
the Divine spirit.
9. The mind is derived from the moon, again the moon has sprung from the
mind; so doth life spring from life and the fluid water flows from the
congealed snow and ice and _vice versa_. (So there is nothing as greater
or less or as the source and its outlet).
10. Life is but a drop of the seminal fluid, distilled as a particle by
the amorous union of parents. (This life being transmitted from
generation to generation, there is no one greater or less than another).
11. This life then reflects in itself, and derives the properties of the
soul, and likens it in the fulness of its perfections. (Hence the soul
and life are identified to one and the same principle by many).
12. The living soul has then the consciousness of itself, and of its
existence as one pure and independent soul; but there is no cause
whatever, as to how it comes to think itself a material being composed
of the five elements.
13. It is through opposition of nature that leads one into error, but in
fact nature ever remains the same; as wrong interpretation of language
imbues bad ideas whereas character remains the same.
14. The living soul is conscious of its selfexistence, by its knowledge
of living by itself; it is the instinct of the perception of things by
the mind, and not merely as the breath of life or external air, which is
devoid of consciousness.
15. But being beset by the frost of ignorance, and confined to the
objects of sense, the living soul is blinded of its consciousness and is
converted to the breathing soul or vital life, and so loses the sight of
its proper course.
16. Being thus deluded by the illusion of the world, the soul sees the
duality instead of its unity, and being converted to the breathing of
vital life, it is lost to the sight of the soul which is hidden under
it.
17. We remain confined to this world of ignorance, as long we enjoy
the idea of ego; but as soon as we give up the idea of ego, we become a
free man.
18. Therefore O Ráma! When you will be able to know that there is no
salvation and confinement in this world, as well as no sat and asat,
then and there you will be a true free man.