THE YOGA CONDUCIVE TO HAPPINESS OR THE
WAY TO HAPPINESS.
Argument:—The signs and characters of wise men and of their
wisdom; together with a disquisition into the nature of the
world, soul and the Supreme spirit or Brahma.
Vasishtha resumed:—The man who by his knowledge of the knowable one,
hath placed his reliance in him; who hath set his mind to its pristine
purity, by purging it from its worldly propensities, and has no faith in
the merit of acts; is one who is called the truly wise. (This chapter is
in answer to Ráma’s question about who is a wise man &c.).
2. The learned who knowing all kinds of learning, and being employed in
acts, yet observe their indifference in every thing, are called to be
truly wise. (It is wisdom to act, and not expect).
3. He whose heart is observed by the wise, to retain its coldness in all
his acts and efforts; and whose mind is unaffectedly calm and quiet at
all times; is said to be the truly wise man.
4. The sense of one’s liberation from the doom of birth and death, is
the true meaning of the word knowledge; or else the art of procuring
simple food and raiment, is the practice of artificers only.
5. He is styled a wise man, who having fallen in the current of his
transactions, remains without any desire or expectation, and continues
with as vacant a heart as the empty air.
6. The accidents of life come to pass, without any direct cause and to
no purpose; and what was neither present nor expected, comes to take
place of its own accord. (All accidents are caused by an unknown and
unforeseen fate or chance).
7. The appearance or disappearance of an event or accident proceeds from
causes quite unknown to us, and these afterwards become causes of the
effects produced by them.
8. Who can tell what is the cause of the absence of horn in hares, and
the appearance of water in the mirage, which cannot be found out or seen
at the sight of those objects.
9. Those who explore in the causality of the want of horns in hares, may
well expect to embrace the necks of the sons and grandsons of a barren
woman.
10. The cause of the appearance of the unreal phenomena of the world to
our sight, is no other than our want of right sight (_i.e._ our
ignorance), which presents these phantoms to our view; and which
disappear at a glance of our acute vision (of reason).
11. The living (or human) soul appears as the Supreme spirit, when it is
viewed upon by the sight of our blended intellect; but no sooner does
the light of Divine intellect dawn in our minds, than the living or
animal soul dwindles into nothing.
12. The insensible and unconscious Supreme soul, becomes awakened to the
state of the living soul; just as the potential mango of winter, becomes
the positive mango fruit in the genial spring.
13. The intellect being awakened, becomes the living soul; which in its
long course of its living, becomes worn out with age and toil, and
passes into many births in many kinds of beings (animal, vegetable as
well as insensible objects).
14. Wise men that are possessed of their intellectual sight, look
internally within themselves in the recesses of their hearts and minds;
without looking at the lookables without, or thinking of anything or
many efforts whatever; but move on with the even course of their
destiny, as the water flows on its course to the ocean of eternity.
15. They who have come to the light of their transcendent vision, fix
their sight to brighter views beyond the sphere of visibles; and discern
the invisible exposed to their view.
16. They who have come to the vision of transcendent light (the glory of
God), have their slow and silent motion like that of a hidden water
course; owing to their heedlessness of everything in this world.
17. They who are regardless of the visibles and thoughtless of the
affairs of the world, are like those that disentangled from their
snares; and they are truly wise, who meddle with their business as
freely, as the free airs of heaven gently play with and move the leaves
of trees.
18. They who have come to sight of the transcendent light, athwart the
dizzy scenes of mortal life; are not constrained to the course of this
world, as seafarers are not to be pent up in shallow and narrow pools
and streams. (Sailors are glad to be in the wide ocean, than to ply in
the waters of inland creeks).
19. They that are slaves of their desire (of enjoyment in this and next
life), are bound to the thraldom of works ordained by law and sruti; and
thus pass their lives in utter ignorance of truth. (Hence knowledge and
practice are opposed to one another, the one being a state of bondage
for some frail good and gain, and the other of freedom and lasting
bliss).
20. The bodily senses fall upon carnal pleasures, as vultures pounce
upon putrid carrion; curb and retract them therefore with diligence, and
fix thy mind to meditate on the state of Brahma and the soul.
21. Know that Brahma is not without the creation, as no gold is without
its form and reflection; but keep yourself clear from thoughts of
creation and reflexion, and confine your mind to the meditation of
Brahma, which is replete with perfect bliss.
22. Know the nature of Brahma to be as inscrutable, as the face of the
universe is indiscernible, in the darkness of the chaotic state at the
end of a Yuga age; when there was no appearance of anything, nor
distinction of conduct and manners. (See Manu’s institutes I. 2).
23. And the elements of production existing in the consciousness of
divine nature, were in their quiescent agitation in the divine spirit;
as the movements of flimsy vapours amidst the darkness of an immovable
and wide spreading cloud. (So are the fickle thoughts of the firm mind,
and the moving engines of the fixed machine).
24. And as the particles of water are in motion, in a still pond and in
the standing pool; so are the changing thoughts of the changeless soul,
and so the motions of the element bodies in unchanging essence and
nature of God.
25. As the universal and undivided sky and space, take the names of the
different sides of heaven (without having any name or side of its own);
so the undivided and partless Brahma, being one and same with the
creation, is understood as distinct and different from it.
26. The world contains the egoism, as the _ego_ contains the world in
it; they contain the one within the other, as the coats of the plantain
tree contain and are contained under one another.
27. The living soul or _jíva_ being possessed of its egoism, sees its
internal world (which lies in its egoism), through the pores of the
organs of sense, as lying without it; in the same manner, as the
mountains look upon the lakes issuing out of its caverns, as if they
outward things altogether. (So the mental and internal world appears as
a visibly external phenomenon).
28. So when the living soul sees itself by mistake, to any thing in the
world (_i.e._ in the light of an object); it is the same as one takes a
ball or bar of gold, for an ornament which was or is to be made of it.
(So the soul residing in any body at anytime, is not that body itself
but the indwelling power thereof).
29. Hence they that are acquainted with the soul, and are liberated in
their life time (or become _jívanmukta_); never think themselves to be
born or living or dying at any time (though they are thought and looked
upon as such by others. The soul being eternal and unchangeable).
30. Those that are awakened to the sight of the soul, are employed in
the actions of life without looking at them; (without taking heed of
them in their hearts); just as a house-holder discharges his domestic
duties, while his mind is fixed at the milk pot in the cowstall.
31. As the God Virát is situated with his moon like appearance, in the
heart of the universal frame, so does the living soul reside in the
heart of every individual body like a little or large dew drop,
according to the smallness or bigness of the corporeal body.
32. This false and frail body believed to be a solid reality, on account
of its tripartite figure; and is mistaken for the _ego_ and soul, owing
to the intelligence that is displayed and dwells in it.
33. The living soul is confined like a silkworm, in the cell of its own
making _Karma-Kosha_, by acts of its past life, and resides with its
egoism in the seed of its parents, as the floral fragrance dwells in the
honey cups of flowers.
34. The egoism residing in the seminal seed, spreads its intelligence
throughout the body from head to foot; as the moon-beams are scattered
throughout the circumference of the whole universe.
35. The soul stretches out the fluid of its intelligence, through the
openings of its organs of sense; and this being carried to a sides
through the medium of air, extends all over the three worlds, as the
vapour and smoke fill and cover the face of the sky.
36. The body is full of sensibility, both in its inner as well as outer
parts; but it is in the viscera of the heart, where our desires (vásaná)
and egoism (abhimána) are deeply seated.
37. The living soul is composed of its desires only, and consists of and
subsists under its hearty wishes alone, the same soon come out of
themselves from within the heart, and appear on the outside in the
outward conduct of the person. (Whatever is in the heart, the same
appears also in action).
38. The error of egoism is never to be suppressed, by any other means
whatsoever; save by one’s unmindfulness (nis-chitta) of himself, and
fulness of divine presence (Brahmai karasya) in his calm and quiet soul.
39. Though dwelling on your present thoughts, yet you must rely in your
reflection of the vacuous Brahma; by suppression of your egoism by
degrees and your self-controul betimes.
40. They who have known the soul, manage themselves here without
fostering their earthly thoughts anymore; and remain as silent images
of wood, without looking at or thinking of any thing at all.
41. He who has less of earthly thoughts in him, is said to be liberated
in the world; and though living in it, he is as clear and free in his
mind as the open air (no earthly affections, tie down his rising soul).
42. The egoism which is bred in the pith, grows into intelligence
extending from head to foot; and circulates throughout the whole body,
as the sun beams pervade all over the sphere of heaven.
43. It becomes the sight of the eyes, the taste of the tongue and
hearing in the ears; then the five senses being fastened to the desires
in the heart, plunge the _ego_ into the sea of sensuality.
44. Thus the omnipresent intellect, becomes the mind after losing its
purity; and is employed with one or other of the senses, as the common
moisture of the earth, grows the sprout in the vernal season.
45. He who thinks on the various objects of the senses, without knowing
their unreality and the reality of the only one; and does not endeavour
for his liberation here, has no end of his troubles in life. (Because
sensible objects, afford no intellectual or spiritual happiness).
46. That man reigns as an emperor, who is content with any kind of food
and raiment; and with any sort of bedstead at any place. (And is not
confined to any particular mode of life).
47. Who with all his desires of the heart, is indifferent to all the
outward objects of desire; who with his vacant mind is full with his
soul, and being as empty vacuum is filled with the breath of life.
48. Who whether he is sitting or sleeping, or going anywhere or
remaining unmoved, continues as quiet as in his sleeping state; and
though stirred by any one, he is not awakened from his slumber of
_nirvána_, in which his mind and its thoughts, are all drowned and have
become extinct. (This is the state of the sixth stage of Yoga
meditation).
49. Consciousness though common to all, resides yet in each breast, like
fragrance in flowers and flavour in fruits.
50. It is self-consciousness only, that makes an individual person, and
its extinction is said to form the wide world all about; but being
confined to the soul or one’s self, it vanishes the sight of the world
from view. (_i.e._ The subjective consciousness is the soul or self, and
its objectivity makes the world; and this is the abstract of this
doctrine).
51. Be unconscious of the objects on earth; and remain insensible of all
your prosperity and affluence: make your heart as hard as impenetrable
as stone, if you will be happy forever.
52. O righteous Ráma! convert the feeling of your heart to
unfeelingness, and make your body and mind as insensible as the hardest
stone (upala or opal).
53. Of all the positive and negative acts, of the wise and unwise sets
of men, there is nothing that makes such a marked difference between
them, as those proceeding from the desire of the one, and those from
want of the desire of the other.
54. The result of the desired actions of the unwise, is their stretching
out of the world before them; while that of the acts done without desire
by the wise, serves to put an end to the world before them. (The acts of
desire produce repeated births in the world, while the other puts an end
to the future transmigrations of the soul).
55. All visibles are destructible, and those that are destroyed come to
be renewed to life; but that which is neither destroyed nor
resuscitated, is thyself—thy very soul.
56. The knowledge of existence (of the world), is without its
foundation; and though it is thought to be existent, it is not found to
be so in reality; it is as the water in the mirage, which does not grow
the germ of the world.
57. The right knowledge of things, removes the thought of egoism from
the mind; and though it may be thought of in the mind, yet it takes no
deep root in the heart, as the burnt seed or grain does not sprout forth
in the ground.
58. The man that does his duties or not, but remains passionless and
thoughtless and free from frailty; has his rest in the soul, and his
_nirvána_ is always attendant upon him.
59. Those who are saintly calm and quiet by the controul of their mind,
and by suppression of the bonds (appetites) for enjoyments; but not
having weakened (governed) their natures, have in their hearts a mine of
evils.
60. The wise soul is full of light like the cloudless sky, and is
distinguished from others by its brightness; but the same soul which is
alike in all, appears as dim as the evening twilight in the ignorant.
61. As a man seated in this place, sees the light of heaven (heavenly
bodies), as coming to him from a great distance, and filling the
intermediate space; so the light of the Supreme soul fills and reaches
to all.
62. The infinite and invisible intellect, which is as wondrous as the
clear vacuum of the sky; conceives and displays this wonderful world,
within the infinitude of its own vacuity.
63. The world appears to the learned and unerring, and those who have
got rid of the error of the world, and rest in their everlasting
tranquility, as a consumed and extinguished lamp; while it seems to all
common people, to be placed in the air, by the will of God and for the
enjoyment of all. (The two opposite views of the world with the learned
and ignorant).