SERMON ON THE PRACTICE OF SPIRITUAL YOGA OR
INTELLECTUAL MEDITATION.
Argument:—Elucidation of the doctrine that, the best way of
avoiding worldly affairs, is to refrain from mixing with them.
Vasishtha continued:—The man who is lost in the pleasure or under the
pains, which fall to his share in this life, is lost for ever for the
future; but he who is not thus lost (by keeping his soul aloof from the
vicissitudes of life), is pronounced to be imperishable by the verdict
of the sástras.
2. He who has his desires always rising in his mind, is ever subject to
the changes of his fortune; therefore it is proper to give up desire at
first, in order to prevent the alternation of pain and pleasure.
3. The error that this is I and that the world, does not attach to
immortal soul; which is tranquil and unsupported, quite dispassionate
and undecaying in itself.
4. That this is I, that is Brahma, and the other is the world, are
verbal distinctions that breed error in the mind; by attributing
different appellations, to one uniform and invariable void that is ever
calm and quiet (This is the eternal vacuum of Vasishtha, beside which
there is nothing else in existence).
5. Here there is no ego nor world, nor the fictitious names of Brahma
and others; the all pervading One being quite calm and all in all, there
is no active or passive agent at all in this place (or vacuity).
6. The multiplicity of doctrines and the plurality of epithets, which
are used to explain the true spirit and inexplicable One, are null and
refutable, and among them the word ego in particular, is altogether
false and futile.
7. The man absorbed in meditation does not see the visibles, as the
thoughtless person has no perception of the ghost standing in his
presence; and as one sleeping man does not perceive the dreams,
occurring to another sleeping by his side, nor hear the loud roar of
clouds, in the insensible state of his sound sleep.
8. In this manner the courses of the spirits are imperceptible to us,
though they be continually moving all about us; because it is our nature
to perceive what you know of, and never know anything, which is without
or beyond our knowledge.
9. Knowledge also being as our soul, shows all things like itself
(_i.e._ as we have their ideas or representations of them in our mind);
therefore our knowledge of the ego and the world beside, is not separate
from the soul and the Supreme soul also.
10. So our knowledge (idea or notion), manifests itself in the form of
the world before us; in like manner as our dreams and desires (or
imaginations), represent the same as true to us. These various
manifestations of the inward soul, are no way different from it, as the
waves and bubbles are no other than the water, whence they take their
rise.
11. Notwithstanding the identity of the soul, and its manifestations of
knowledge, notion, idea and others; they are considered as distinct
things by ignorant thinkers, but the learned make no distinction
whatever, between the manifestation and its manifesting principle.
12. As the integral soul becomes a component body, by its assuming to
itself all its members and limbs; so the eternally undivided spirit of
God, appears to be multiplied in all parts of the world, and various
works of creation.
13. So the intellect contains numberless thoughts in itself, as a tray
holds a great many golden cups in it; and whenever this intellect is
awake, it sees innumerable worlds appearing before it.
14. It is Brahma himself that shines in his brightness, in the form of
this fair creation; by being dissolved throughout the whole, in his
liquified form of the Intellect, as the sea shows itself in the changing
forms of its waves.
15. Whatever is thought of in the mind, the same (thought or idea)
appears in the form of the world &c., and the formless thought takes a
definite form; but what is not in the mind, never appears to view.
16. The word intellection and want of thought, are both applied to the
Supreme Intellect, from its almighty power to assume either of them to
itself; this sort of expression is for the instruction of others, or
else there are no such states, appertaining to the ever intelligent soul
in reality.
17. The world is neither a reality nor unreality, but exhibits itself as
such by intellection of the intellect; but as it does not appear in
absence of intellection, the same is inculcated in this lecture. (_i.e._
Never think of the world or anything at all, and it will vanish of
itself withal).
18. Intellection and its absence, are as the agitation and stillness of
the soul; and both of these being under your subjection, it is quite
easy and never difficult for you to restrain yourself, by remaining as
still as a piece of stone.
19. An appearance which has neither its essence or substance, and any
assignable cause for its existence, is the very nature of this egoism of
ours, which we know not whence it has appeared as an apparition before
us.
20. It is very strange that this apparition of your ego, which has no
entity in reality; should take such possession of your mind, as to make
you insensible of yourself.
21. It is by accident that one happens to observe (or resolve) the ego,
in the person of the impersonal Brahma; just as a man by deception of
his eye sight, comes to descry an arbour in the sky.
22. If my ego and the world are really the same with Brahma, then how
and whence is it that come to have their production and dissolution,
and what is the cause of our joy or sorrow in either of these cases.
23. It is by the almighty power of God, that this world of thought (or
the ideal world), comes to be visible to sight; but as the absence of
thought of it, prevents its appearance into us; there be thoughtless of
it in order to avoid its (repeated) sight (in repeated births).
24. It is by mere accident that the vacuous (empty) mind of Brahma,
exhibits the ideal world in itself; just as any man dreams a fairy city,
or sees the objects of his desire and fancy in his mind. How then is it
possible to separate the contained from the containing mind?
25. The creation abides in the divine mind, in the same manner, as the
waves appertain to the sea and statue inheres in the wood; and as the
relation of pots and other things is with the earth, so do all things
pertain to the nature of Brahma.
26. As all things appear in their formless (immaterial) state, in the
unsubstantial and transparent vacuity of the mind; so doth the ego and
this world also appear in the divine mind: (in the same manner as the
shapeless clouds appear in the clear and empty sky, and exhibit
afterwards their various shapes).
27. As the air by its natural inflation, breathes out in various sorts
of breezes, so One whose nature is unknown, evolves himself in every
form of the ego of each individual and of the world. (The breezes are
said to be forty-nine in number. The nature of God is called
_avidyá_—ignorance or what we know not). The meaning is that, as the
formless and vacuous air produces all sorts of winds. So doth God who is
_nihsabháva_ without and beyond _sabháva_ nature produce all natures.
28. As the formless smoke or vapour, presents the forms of elephants,
horses, &c., in the empty clouds; so doth the unsubstantial spirit of
God, represent the formless ego, tu and all things beside in itself.
29. The creation is a component part, of the unknown body of Brahma, as
the leaves and branches are those of the tree; and it contains both its
cause and effect of the other.
30. Knowing the impossibility of the existence of the world, beside the
self ever existent soul; remain at peace and without trouble within
thyself. Be free from attributes and errors, and remain as free and
detached as the free, open and void space.
31. Know that neither you nor ourselves, nor the worlds nor the open air
and space, are ever in existence; and that Brahma alone is ever
existent, in his eternal tranquility, calmness and fulness.
32. Seeing the endless particulars in the universe, do thou remain free
from all particularities as I, myself, thou, thyself &c., and think
thyself in the sole and Supreme One, if thou shalt have thy liberation.
33. Know the knowledge of the particulars, is for thy bondage alone to
them, and thy ignorance of them lends only to thy liberation (from all
these trammels). Sit as thou art and doing thy business, in thy state of
tranquility and total nescience of everything.
34. Let not the visibles attract thy sight, nor allow their thoughts
engross thy mind; thus the world disappearing with thy thoughtlessness
of it, say what else have you to think about.
35. The absence of the states of the visible and its looker _i.e._ of
the subjective and objective, resembling the state of the waking
sleeper, will make remain as void of thoughts, as the vault of the
autumnal sky is devoid of clouds.
36. The Knowledge of the action of the divine Intellect, as distinct
from the invariable of Brahma, is the cause of our making a distinction
of the creation from its creator; just as our knowledge of the
difference of the wind from air, causes us to think of their duality. It
is therefore our want of this distinction, and the knowledge of the
unity of Brahma, that leads us to our liberation.
37. The knowledge of the inflation of the divine spirit, is verily the
cause of our knowledge of the world; whereas the absence of this
knowledge, and want of our own intellection, is what is called our
_nirvána_ or utter extinction in God.
38. As the seed is conscious of the sprout growing out of it to be of
its own kind, so the divine Intellect knows the world that is produced
from it, to be self-same with itself.
39. As the seed becomes the plant from its conception of the same in
itself, so the divine Intellect becomes the creation itself from its
concept of the same.
40. As the thoughts are but the various modifications of the mind, so
the creation is a modality of the divine Intellect; and in this case all
kinds of seeds serve as instances, of having their products of the same
nature.
41. The world is the changeless form of the unchanging essence of One,
and know to be as unchangeable and undecaying as One, himself, who is
without beginning and end.
42. The divine soul is replete with its innate will, whereby it produces
and destroys the world out of and into itself; this form of unity and
duality, is as the appearance and disappearance of an imaginary city.
43. As you have no distinct idea of the things, expressed by the words
sky and vacuum; so must you know the words Brahma and creation to bear
no distinction in the divine spirit. (Creation being but the breathing
or inflation of the spirit and inseparable from it).
44. The great Intellect or omniscience, which is the sempiternal form of
divine essence, has the knowledge of the ego coeternal with itself,
which men by ignorance assume to themselves.
45. There is nothing that ever grows or perishes in the mundane form of
Brahma, but everything rises and falls in it like the undulation of the
sea, to rise and fall in all way and never to be lost in any way.
46. All things being of the form of Brahma, remain in the selfsame
Brahma; as all spaces remain in the infinite space and all waves and
billows rise and fall in the same sea.
47. Wherever you are placed and whenever you have time, attend but for a
moment to the (subjective) nature of the soul in your consciousness
(without minding any of the objects), and you will perceive the true
ego.
48. The sages, O Ráma, have said of two states of our consciousness,
namely its sensible and insensible states; now therefore be inclined to
that which thou thinkest to be attended with thy best good, and never be
forgetful of it. (_i.e._ Attach thyself to the subjective side of it, in
disregard of the objective).