SERMON ON SPIRITUALITY.
Argument:—Removal of the Error of plurality arising from the
conviction of Egoism, and inoculation of spiritual knowledge for
Reunion of the soul with the Divine Spirit.
Vasishtha continued:—Egoism is the greatest ignorance, and an
insuperable barrier in the way of our ultimate extinction; and yet are
foolish people seen to pursue fondly after their final felicity with
their egoistic efforts, which is no better than the attempt of madman.
2. Egoism is the sure indicator of the ignorance of unwise people, and
no cool-headed and knowing man is ever known in his egoship or the
persuasion of his self-agency. (But this an article of the Christian
creed).
3. The wise and knowing man, whether he is embodied or liberated state,
renounces the dross of his egotism, and relies in the utter extinction
or nullity of himself, which is as pure and clear as the empty vacuity
of heaven, and free from trouble and anxiety (which await on
self-knowledge and selfish activities in general).
4. The autumnal sky is serene and clear, and so are the waters of the
calm and unperturbed sea; the disk of the full-moon is fair and bright,
but none of these is so cool and calm and full of light, as the face of
the wise and knowing sage, (shining with the radiance of truth and holy
light).
5. The features of the sage and wise, are ever as sedate and steady,
even in the midst of business and trifles; as the figures of warriors in
battle array in a painting, even when engaged in the bustle of warfare
and fury of fight.
6. All worldly thoughts and desires are nothing to the anaesthetic
spirit of the self-extinct sage (in his _nirvána_); they are as
imperceptible as the slender lines in a painting, and as lean as the
rippling curls on the surface of the sea, which are not distinct and
disjoined from its waters.
7. As the rolling waves of the sea, are no other than its heaving water,
so the visible phenomena in the world, are no other than the spirit of
Brahma disporting in itself.
8. Hence the soul that is undisturbed by the wave like perturbations,
and is calm and quiet both in the inside and outside of it as the still
ocean, and which is raised above temporal matters in its holy devotion,
is said to be freed from all worldliness.
9. The ego rises of itself as an uncreated thing, and in the form of
consciousness in the all comprehensive intellect of God, just as the
waves rise and fall in the waters of the deep, and have no difference in
their nature.
10. As the rising smoke exhibits in the sky, the various forms of forts,
warcars and elephants; and as none of them, is any other than the
self-same smoke; so are all these phenomena and notions, noway different
from the nature of their Divine origin (but mere evolutions or
_vivartarúpas_ of the same).
11. By considering the fallacy of your consciousness (of the ego), you
will, O ye my royal hearers, get rid of your error; and then you will
exult in your knowledge of truth, and be victorious (over yourself). Do
not despair, for ye are wise enough to know the truth.
12. As the growing sprout conceives in it, the would be tree with all
its future flowers and fruits; so the ignorant man conceives in his
vacant mind, the false ideas of himself—his soul, his ego and of
everything else according to its fancy.
13. The conceptions of the mind are as false as the sight of things,
such as the sight of a rod in a rising flame, (and that of a circle in
the twirling of a lighted torch). And though the presiding soul is
always true, yet these thoughts of the mind are as untrue as its fancy
of fairies in the orb of the moon.
14. Now my royal hearers, do you continue to enjoy your peace, by
considering at your pleasure, about the rise, end and continuance of the
world; and remain from disease in all places and times.
15. Conduct yourselves with calmness, in whatever turns to be favourable
or unfavourable to you; for unless you deport yourselves as dead bodies,
you cannot perceive the felicity of your final extinction—nirvána or
hebetude. (Be as a dead man, in order to taste the bliss of your
spiritual deadness).
16. He who lives long in this world, by giving up his egoism and
egoistic desires from his mind; and renounces the animality of his life
to live and lead an intellectual life, attains verily the state of
Supreme felicity.
17. Living the animal life (for the gratification of carnal appetites),
leads only to the bearing of woes and misery; and men thus bound by the
chain of their animal desires, are as big boats, burdened with loads of
their ballast and cargo.
18. They are never blest with liberation, who are strangers to reasoning
and addicted to the gross thoughts of ignorance; for how is it possible
to obtain in this life, what is attainable only by the deceased in the
next world. (This means the disembodied liberation—_Videha mukti_, which
is to be had after one’s death).
19. Whatever a man fancies in this life, and desires to have in the next,
(as his hopes of heavenly rewards); he dies with the same and finds them
in his future life; but where there is no such fancy, desire or hope,
that is truly the state of everlasting bliss.
20. Therefore be fearless with the thought of there being no such thing,
as yourself or any one else (that you may believe as a real entity); by
knowing this truth, you will find this poisonous world, turn to a
paradise to you. (Think of nothing, and you will have no fear for
anything).
21. Examine your whole material body, as composed of your outer frame
and the inner mind; and say in what part you find your egoism to be
situated; if no where, then own the truth of your having no ego any
where.
22. Seeing all and every part of it up to the seat of your egoism, and
finding it to be seated no where; you see only an open space (which is
identic with the soul), and whereof no part is ever lost or destroyed.
23. In this (attainment of liberation) you are required to do no more,
than to exert your manliness in relinquishing your enjoyments,
cultivating your reasoning powers, and governing yourself by subduing
the members of your body and mind. Therefore, ye ignorant men, that are
desirous of your liberation, delay no longer to practice the government
of yourselves (by shunning everything that relates not to yourselves).
24. The learned explain liberation to consist in the meditation of God,
without any desire of the heart or duplicity in the mind; and this they
say is not possible to do, without the assistance of spiritual
knowledge. But the world being full of error, it is requisite to derive
this knowledge from spiritual works _moksha sástras_, or else it is very
likely to be entrapped in the very many snares, which are for ever set
all about this earth.
25. Knowing full well the unreality of the world, and the uncertainty of
one’s self and body, and of his friends, family and wealth and
possessions; whoso is distrustful of them and identifies himself with
his intelligence and pure vacuity, verily finds his liberation in this,
and in no other state whatsoever.