SERMON ON THE SEED OR SOURCE OF THE WORLD.
Argument:—Description of Avarice as the great Bondage of life
and harmlessness of the common blessing of life obtained without
avarice. _i.e._ Prohibition of avariciousness and not of ordinary
enjoyments.
Vasishtha continued:—The false varieties of the world take us by
surprise, as the eddies attract to them the passing vessels; but they
are all found to be of the same nature, as the various waves of the sea.
(As all the waves are but water, so all worldly appearances are mere
enticing delusions).
2. The nature of the whole world, is as unknowably known to us; as that
of the universal vacuum which rests in God alone, is imperceptibly
perceptible to our eyes. (All we see of the sky, is but a blank which is
nothing).
3. As I find nothing in the fancied cities of boys in the air, (which
they think to abound with ghosts etc.); so doth this really ideal world,
appear to be in real existence to boys alone. (But the wise know it as
unreal).
4. The sight and thought of visible appearances, are as the visions and
remembrances of objects in dream; and so is this world but an appearance
to the sight, and a phantom and phantasy in the mind.
5. The phenomenal and the fancy, have no pith nor place except in the
intellect; beside which there is nothing to be had save an unbounded
vacuity only. Where then is the substantiality of the world?
6. The error of the world consists in the knower’s knowledge of it, and
it is the ignorance (of the existence) of the world, that is free from
this error; and the knowing or ignoring of it is dependant to thee, as
the thinking or unthinking of a thing, is entirely in thy power. (Every
one is master of his thoughts).
7. The vacuous intellect being of the form of the transcendent sky, is
of the state of an extended space, to which it is impossible to impute
any particular nature or quality whatsoever. (The gloss explains it by
saying that, the intellect is neither any extended matter, nor entirely
an empty vacuity, since it is the source of all intellectual powers and
mental faculties).
8. The world also being of the form of the intellect (_i.e._ a formal
representation of it); has no particular character or variable property
assignable to it. It is seen to be existent, but having no particular
feature of its own, it is not subject to any variation in its nature
(_i.e._ Being a formless thing, it can have _no vikára_ or change of
form at all).
9. All this being a representation of the vacuous intellect, has no
substantiality whatever in it; it is the substance and not the knowledge
of a thing, that is subject to any change in its form, because knowledge
appertains to the intellect, which is always unchangeable.
10. I see all quiet and calm, and the pure spirit of God; I am without
the error of ego, tu &c., and see nothing about me, in the same manner
as we can never see a forest growing in the air.
11. Know this my voice to be the empty air as my conscious thought, and
know also these words of mine to proceed from my empty consciousness,
which resides in the empty spirit likewise. (_i.e._ Sound proceeds from
the empty spirit and not from the material body) (as some would have
it).
12. That which they designate the transcendent essence, is the eternal
and involuntary state of rest of the Divine soul, and not what it
assumes to itself of its own volition (as that of the creative energy of
Brahmá—the Demiurge). That state resembles that of a slab of stone, with
the figures naturally marked upon, or as the pictures drawn in a plate
or chart.
13. The silent man (_muni_ or _mouni_) whose mind is calm and quiet in
the management of his ordinary business, remains unmoved as a wooden
statue, and without the disturbance of any desire or anxiety.
14. The living wise and listless man sees all along his life time, the
world resembling a hollow reed, all empty within and without it, and
having no pith or juice in the inside of it. (The wise well know the
vanity of the world).
15. He who is not delighted with the outer world, reaps the pleasure of
his inner meditations; but he who is indifferent to both in his mind, is
said to have gone over the ocean of the world (and set free from all his
cares).
16. Give out the words from your lungs, like a sounding reed from its
hollow pipe; and clear your mind from its thoughts, by keeping your body
intact from busy affairs, and employing no other member of it after them
(except your tongue).
17. Touch the tangibles as they come to thee without thy desiring them;
and remain in thy solitary cell without thy wishing for or minding about
them, or grieving at their want.
18. You may relish the various flavours, which are offered to you; and
take them to your mouth in the manner of a spoon without wishing for or
taking a delight in their sweet taste.
19. You may see all sights, that appear before you; without your
desiring for or delighting in them.
20. You can smell the sweet perfumes and flowers, that fall in your way
without your seeking them, take the scents only to breathe them out, as
the odoriferous winds scatter the flowers all around.
21. In this manner if you go on to enjoy the objects of sense with utter
indifference to them, and neither longing after or indulging yourself in
any; you shall in that case have nothing to disturb your peace and
content at any time.
22. But whoso finds a zest for the poisonous pleasures of life,
increasing in himself day by day; casts his body and mind to be consumed
in their burning flame, and loses his endless felicity.
23. Want of desire in the heart, is said to constitute the obtuse
insensibility of the soul, called _samadhána_ by dispassionate sages;
and there is no other better lesson to secure the peace of mind, than
the precept of contentment (lit. absence of desire).
24. The increasing desire is as painful, as one’s habitation in hell
fire; while the subsidence of desires in the mind, is as delightsome as
his residence in heaven.
25. It is desire alone, which constitutes the feelings of the heart and
mind; and it is this, which actuates mankind to the practice of their
austerities and penances, according to the sástras.
26. Whenever a man allows his desire, to rise in any manner in his
heart; even then he scatters a handful of the seeds of affliction, to
sprout forth in the fair ground of his mind. (The more desire the more
pain).
27. As much as the craving of one is lessened by the dictates of this
reason, so much do the pain of his avaricious thoughts cease to molest
them. (Nothing to desire nothing to fear).
28. The more doth a man cherish his fond desire in his mind, the more
does it boil and rage and wave in his breast.
29. If you do not heal the malady of your desire, by the medicine of
your own efforts; then I think you will never find a more powerful
balsam to remedy this your inveterate disease.
30. Should you be unable to put a check to your desire altogether, you
must still try to do it by degrees, as a passenger never fails to get
his goal even by slow paces in time.
31. He who does not try to diminish his desires day by day, is reckoned
as the meanest of men, and is destined to live in misery every day.
32. Our cupidity is the causal seed of the crop of our misery in this
world; and this seed being fried in the fire of our best reason, will no
more vegetate in the ground of our breast.
33. The world is the field of our desires and the baneful sources of
misery only, it is the extinction of them which is called _nirvána_;
therefore never be tempted by the delusion of desire for your utter
destruction.
34. Of what avail are the dictates of the sástras, and the precepts of
our preceptors; if we fail to understand that, our _samádhi_ or final
rest consists in the extinction of our temporary desires.
35. He who finds the difficulty of checking his desires in his mind, it
is hopeless for him to derive any good from the instructions of his
preceptors, or the teachings of the sástras whatever.
36. It is the poison of avarice which proves the bane of human life, as
the native forests of stags prove destructive to them, by being infested
by huntsmen. (Hearts infested by avarice, are as detrimental to men; as
forests infested by hunters are baneful to stags).
37. If one would not deal frivolously, with the acquisition of his
self-knowledge (spirituality); he may but learn to extenuate his
cravings, and he will thereby be led insensibly, to the acquirement of
his spiritual knowledge.
38. Extinction of wish is the extirpation of anguish, and this is the
sense of the nirvána bliss; therefore try to curtail your desires, and
thereby to cut off your bondage, which will not be difficult for you to
do, if you will but try to do so.
39. The evils of death and decrepitude, and the weeds of continued woes,
are the produce of secret seed of desire, which to be burnt betimes
by the fires of equanimity and _insouciance_.
40. Wherever there is inappetency, the liberation from bondage is found
to be even there also; therefore suppress always your rising desires, as
you repress your fleeting breath (in the practice of _ajapá_ or
suppression of breathings).
41. Wherever there is appetence, even there is our bondage in this
world; and all our acts of merit or demerit and all our distresses and
diseases, are the invariable companions of our worldly wishes.
42. The dominant desire being deprived of its province, and the
indifferent saint being freed from its bondage; it is made to weep and
wail, as when a man is robbed by a robber.
43. As much as a man’s desire is decreased in his breast, so much so
does his prosperity increase, leading him onward towards his liberation.
44. A foolish man that is ignorant of himself (_i.e._ of his soul and
spirit), and fosters his fond desire for anything; is as if he were
watering at the root of the poisonous arbour of this world, only to
bring his death by its baneful fruits.
45. There is the tree of desire growing in the human heart and yielding
the two seeds (fruits) of happiness and misery (_i.e._ of good and
evil); but the latter being fanned by the breeze of sin, bursts out in a
flame which burns down the other, and together with it its possessor
also. (The evil desire supercedes the good one).