DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVEN KINDS OF LIVING BEINGS.
Argument:—The septuple orders of living creatures, according to
the degrees of the tenacity and laxity of their desires. (As
mentioned in the preceding Chapter).
Vasishtha added:—These bodies of living beings, that are seen to fill
the ten sides of this world; and consisting of the different tribes of
men, Nágas, Suras, Gandharvas, mountaineers and others.
2. Of these some are sleeping wakers (waking sleepers), and others are
waking in their imaginations only, and hence called imaginative wakers;
some are only wakeful, while there be others who have been waking all
along.
3. Many are found to be strictly wakeful, and many also as waking
sleepers both by day and night; there be some animals that are slightly
wakeful, and these constitute the seven classes of living beings
(inhabiting this world).
4. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, the difference of the seven species of living
beings for my satisfaction; which appear to me to be as different as the
waters of the seven seas.
5. Vasishtha replied:—There have been some men in some former age and
parts of the world, who are known to have been long sleepers with their
living bodies. (Such were the seven sleepers of kehef mentioned in
Sádi’s Gulistan).
6. The dream that they see, is the dream of the existence of the world;
and those who dream this dream are living men, and denominated as waking
sleepers or day dreamers.
7. Sometimes a sleeping man, sees a dream rising of itself before him,
by reason of some prior action or desire of the same kind arising in the
mind; such is the uncalled for appearance of anything or property unto
us; and it is therefore that we are denominated as dreaming men. (The
story of Lílá related before, will serve as an elucidation of this
kind).
8. They who come to wake after their prolonged sleep and dream, are
called as awakened from their sleep and dream, and to have got rid of
them (such are the enlightened men that have come out of their
ignorance).
9. I say we are also sleepers and dreamers, among those sleeping men;
because we do not perceive the omniscient One, who by his omnipresence
is present every where, as the All in all.
10. Ráma rejoined;—Tell me now where are those awakened and enlightened
men now situated, when those kalpa ages wherein they lived and were
born, are now past and gone along with their false imagination.
11. Vasishtha replied:—Those who have got rid of their erroneous dreams
in this world, and are awakened from their sleep; resort to some other
bodies which they meet with, agreeable to the fancies which they form in
their imaginations. (Every one having a peculiar fancy of himself for
anything, assumes that form in his next birth).
12. Thus they meet with other forms in other ages of the world,
according to their own peculiar fancies; because there is no end of the
concatenation and fumes of fancy, in the empty air of the mind.
13. Now know them that are said to be awakened from their sleep, to be
those who have got out of this imaginary world; as the inborn insects,
come out of an old and rotten fig tree.
14. Hear now of those that are said to be waking in their fancies and
desires, and they are those who are born in some former age, and in some
part of the world; and were entirely restless and sleepless in their
minds owing to some fanciful desire springing in them, and to which they
were wholly devoted (so are they that live upon hope).
15. And they also who are lost in their meditation, and are subjected in
the realm of their greedy minds; who are strongly bound to their
desires, by losing or the sacrifice of all their former virtues.
16. So also are they whose desires have been partly awake from before,
and have gradually engrossed all the other better endeavours of their
possessors, are likewise said to be wakeful to their desires.
17. They who after cessation of their former desires, resort to some
fresh wishes again; are not only greedy people themselves, but think
ourselves also to be of the same sort.
18. I have told you already regarding the vigils of their desires, and
now know them to be dormant over their desires, who bear their lives as
they are life beings, and dead to their wishes like ourselves. But hear
further of them that are ever awake.
19. The first patriarchs that were produced from the self-evolving
Brahma, are said to have been ever wakeful, as they had been immerged in
profound sleep before their production.
20. But being subjected to repeated births, these ever wakeful beings,
became subject to alternate sleep and waking, owing to their subjection
to reiterated work and repose.
21. These again became degraded to the state of trees, on account of
their unworthy deeds; and these are said to be duly waking, because of
their want of sensibility even in waking state. (The nocturnal sleep of
the vegetable creation was unknown to the ancients).
22. Those who are enlightened by the light of the sástras, and the
company of wise men; look upon the world as a dream in their waking
state, and are therefore called as waking dreamers by day.
23. Those enlightened men, who have found their rest in the divine
state; and are neither wholly awake nor asleep, are said to have arrived
at the fourth stage of their yoga.
24. Thus have I related to you the difference, of the seven kinds of
beings, as that of the waters of the seven seas from one another. Now be
of that kind which you think to be the best.
25. After all, O Ráma, give up your error of reckoning the worlds as
real entities of themselves; and as you have come to your firm belief in
one absolute unity, get rid of the duality of vacuity and solidity, and
be one with that primeval body, which is free from monism and dualism.