THE SPIRITUAL SENSE OF THE WORLD.
Argument:—The ignorance of self shows the world, but the
knowledge of self disperses it to nothing.
Vasishtha continued:—It is the thought and its absence, that produce the
gross and subtile ideas of the world; which in reality was never created
in the beginning for want of a creator of it (_i.e._ The identity of the
world with Brahma himself, precludes the supposition of its creation).
2. The essence of the intellect being of an incorporeal nature, cannot
be the cause of a corporeal thing. The soul cannot produce an embodied
being, as the seed brings forth the plants on earth.
3. It is the nature of man to think of things, by his own nature, and
hence the intelligent of mankind view the world in an intellectual
light, while the ignorant take in a gross material sense. The
intellect being capable of conceiving everything in itself (whether the
concrete or discrete).
4. The etherial soul relishes things according to its taste, and the
intellect entertains the idea of whatever it thinks upon; the ignorant
soul begets the idea of creation, as a giddy man sees many shapes in his
intoxication.
5. Whenever the shape of a thing, which is neither produced nor
existent, presents itself to our sight; it is to be known as a picture
of the ideal figure, which lies quietly in the divine mind.
6. The vacuous Intellect dwelling in the vacuity of the intellect, as
fluidity resides in water; shows itself in the form of the world, as the
fluid water displays itself in the form of waves upon its surface. So
the world is the self-same Brahma, as the wave is the very water. (But
the world is intellectual display and not material as the wave).
7. The worlds shining in the empty air, are as the clear visions of
things in a dream, or like the false appearances appearing to a
dim-sighted man in the open sky.
8. The mirror of the intellect perceives the pageant of the world, in
the same manner, as the mind sees the sights of things in dream. Hence
what is termed the world, is but void and vacuity. (A something of
nothing).
9. The dormant Intellect (or the sleeping soul of God), is said to be
awakened in its first acts of creation; and then follows the inaction of
the intellect, which is the sleep and night of the soul. (And so it is
with all beings, the time of their action being their waking, and that
of rest their sleep).
10. As a river continues to run in the same course, in which its current
first began to flow; so the whole creation moves in the same unvaried
course as at first, like the continuous current and rippling waves of
rivers.
11. As the waves of river are concomitant with the course of its waters,
so the source of creation lying in the vacuous seed of the airy
Intellect, gives rise to its incessant course, along with its ceaseless
train of thoughts.
12. The destruction of a man in his death, is no more than the felicity
of his repose in sleep; so the resurrection of his soul (in a renovated
body) in this world, is likewise a renewal of his felicity. (Hence there
is neither pain nor fear, either in living or dying but both is bliss).
13. If there is any fear for or pain in sin, it is equally so both in
this life as well as in the next; therefore the life and death of the
righteous are equally as blissful (as they are painful to the
unrighteous).
14. Those who look on and hail their life and death, with equal
indifference; are men that have an unbroken tranquility of their minds,
and are known as the cold-hearted (or meek stoical and platonic).
15. As the conscience becomes clear and bright, after the dross of its
consciousness (of the subjective and objective), is cleansed and wiped
from it; so shines the pure soul which they term the liberated and free
(_mukta_).
16. It is upon the utter absence of our consciousness, that there ensues
a total disappearance of our knowledge of the phenomenals also; and then
our intellect rises without a vestige of the intelligibles in it, as
also without its intelligence of the existence of the world. (This state
of the mind constitutes likewise its liberation or _mukti_).
17. He that knows God, becomes unified with the divine nature, which is
neither thinkable nor of the nature of the thinking principle or
intellect, or any which is thought of by the intellect; and being so
absorbed in meditation, remains quite indifferent to all worldly
pursuits.
18. The world is a reflexion of the mirror of the intellect, and as it
is exhibited in the transparent vacuity of the divine spirit, it is in
vain to talk of its bondage or liberty.
19. It is the oscillation of the airy intellect, and an act of its
imagination, which produces this imaginary world; it is entirely of the
nature of the airy spirit whence it has its rise, and never of the form
of the earth or anything else as it appears to be.
20. There is no space or time, nor any action or substance here, except
an only entity, which is neither a nothing nor any thing that we know
of.
21. It is only a spiritual substance, appearing as a thick mist to our
sight; it is neither a void nor a substantiality either: but something
purer and more pellucid, than the transparent vacuum about us.
22. It is formless with its apparent form, and an unreality with its
seeming reality; it is entirely a pure intellectual entity, and
appearing as manifest to sight, as an aerial castle in a dream.
23. It is termed the _nirvána_-extinction of a man, when his view of
this outstretched gross and impure world, becomes extinct in its pure
spiritual form in the vacuity of his mind. The vast and extensive world
presenting all its endless varieties to view, has no diversity in it in
reality; but forms an infinite unity, like the vacuous space of the sky,
and the fluidity of waters of the one universal ocean on the globe.