ON THE IDENTITY OF THE WORLD WITH INFINITE VACUITY.
Argument:—Want of Divine knowledge, produces the knowledge of the
reality of the unreal world; but the knowledge of God, proves the
nothingness of the World at all times.
Vasishtha continued:—It is from the face of the firmament of Divine
Intellect, that the atmosphere of our understandings, catch the
reflexion of this universe; just as the waters of the deep, receive the
images of the clouds in the upper sky. It is this Intellect which gives
us life, and guides our minds.
2. These living souls and minds of ours, are of the form of the clear
sky; and these countless worlds, are productions of empty vacuity.
3. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, that after all kinds of beings were
entirely liberated, from the bonds of their bodies and their souls also,
at the universal annihilation of things; what is it that comes to be
created again, and whence it gets it undone also.
4. Vasishtha replied:—Hear me tell you, how at the great destruction or
deluge, all things together with the earth, water, air, fire and the
sky, and the spheres of heaven vanish away, and are liberated from their
respective forms; and how this universe comes to appear again to our
imagination.
5. There remains alone the undefinable spirit of God after this, which
is styled the great Brahma and Supreme Intellect by the sages; and this
world remains in the heart of that being, from which it altogether
inseparable and indifferent.
6. He is the Lord, and all this is contained in the nature of this
heart, which passeth under the name of the world, it is by his pleasure
that he exhibits to us the notion that we have of the world, which is
not his real form.
7. Considering this well, we find nothing either as created or destroyed
by him; but as we know the supreme cause of all to be imperishable by
his nature, so do we know his heart to be indestructible also; and the
great _kalpa_ ages are only parts of Himself (as the divisions of time
are only parts of eternity).
8. It is only our circumscribed knowledge, that shows us the differences
and dualities of things; but these upon examination are not to be found
and vanish into nothing.
9. Therefore there is nothing of anything, that is ever destroyed to
nothing, nor is there anything which is ever produced from Brahma; who
is unborn and invisible, and rests always in his tranquility.
10. He remains as the pure essence of intellect, in atoms of a
thousand part of the particles of simple vacuity.
11. This world is verily the body of that great Intellect, how then can
this mundane body (_corpus mundi_) come to be destroyed, without
destruction of the other also (which is indestructible of its nature)?
12. As the intellect awakes in our hearts, even in our sleep and dream;
so the world is present in our minds at all times, and presents unto us
its airy or ideal form ever since its first creation.
13. The creation is a component part of the vacuous intellect and its
rising and setting being but the airy and ideal operations of the
intellect, there is no part of it that is ever created or destroyed of
it at any time.
14. This spiritual substance of the intellect, is never susceptible of
being burnt or broken or torn at anytime; it is not soiled or dried or
weakened at all nor is it knowable or capable to be seen by them that
are ignorant of it.
15. It becomes, whatever it has in its heart; and as it never perishes,
so the notion of the world and all things which inhere in its heart
(mind), is neither begotten nor destroyed in any wise.
16. It subsides and revives only, by cause of its forgetfulness and
remembrance only at different times, and rising and setting of the
notion, gives rise to the ideas of the creation and destruction of the
world.
17. Whatever notion you have of the world, you become the same yourself;
think it perishable, and you perish also with it; but know it as
imperishable, and you become unperishing also.
18. Know then the creation and great destruction of the world, to be but
recurrences of its notion and oblivion, and the two phases of the
intellect only.
19. How can the production or destruction of anything, take place in the
vacuity of the airy intellect; and how can any condition or change be
attributed to the formless intellect at all?
20. The great _kalpa_ ages and all periods of time, and parts of
creation, are mere attributes of the intellect and the intellect but a
predicate of Brahma, they all merge into the great Brahma alone.
21. The intellect is a formless and purely transparent substance, and
the phenomenals are subject to its will alone; and it is according to
the will or wish that one has in his heart (or mind), that he sees the
object appear before him, like the fairy lands of imagination.
22. As the body of a tree is composed of its several parts, of the
roots, trunk, branches, leaves, flowers, fruits and other things.
23. So the solid substance of the divine spirit, which is more
translucent than the clear firmament, and which nothing can be
predicated in reality, has the creation and great destructions &c. as
the several conditions of its own essence.
24. So the various states of pleasure and pain, of happiness and misery,
of birth, life and death, and of form and want of form, are but the
different states of the same spirit.
25. And as the whole body of this spirit, is imperishable and
unchangeable in its nature, so are all the states and conditions of its
being also.
26. There is no difference in the nature and essence of the whole and
its part, except that the one is more palpable to sight by its greater
bulk than the other.
27. As our consciousness, is the root of existence of a tree; so is our
consciousness the root of our belief in the existence of God.
28. This consciousness shows us the varieties of things, as something in
one place and another else where; it shows us the creation as a great
trunk, and all the worlds as so many trees.
29. It shows some where the great continents, as the branches of these
trees and their contents of hills &c., as their twigs and leaves;
some where it shows the sunshine as its flowers, and darkness as the
black bark of these trees.
30. Some where it shows the concavity of the sky as the hollow of the
tree, and elsewhere the dissolution of creation as a vast desolation; it
shows in one place the synod of gods as cluster of flowers, and other
beings in another as bushes and brambles and cuticles of trees.
31. So are all these situated in the formless and vacuous consciousness,
which is the great Brahma itself, and no other than the same nature with
Brahma (in its clearness and transparency).
32. There was a past world, here is the present one, and in another a
would be creation _in futuro_; are all but notions of our minds, and
known to us by our consciousness of them, which is as unchangeable in
its nature as Brahma himself.
33. Thus the supreme and self conscious soul of Brahma, being as
transparent as clear firmament, there is no colour or cloud (or the
changeful shadows of creation and destruction), which are attributed to
it (by way of simile), with the shades of light and darkness in the orb
of the moon.
34. How can there be the taint of anything in the transcendent, and
transparent firmament, and can the imputation of the first, midst and
last, and of far and near attach to infinity and eternity.
35. Want of a comprehensive and abstract knowledge, is the cause of
attributing such and other qualities to the divine nature; and it is
removed by right knowledge of the most perfect One. (These two are
distinguished by the terms, the knowledge of the _parágatmá_ and
_pralayátma_?).
36. Ignorance known as such, by cognoscence of truth, is removed by
itself; as a lamp is extinguished by the air which kindles the light
(_i.e._ The knowledge of ignorance drives away ignorance).
37. As it is certain that the knowledge of one’s ignorance, is the cause
of its removal; so the knowledge of the unlimited Brahma, makes him to
be known as all in all.
38. Thus Ráma, have I expounded to you the meaning of liberation,
consult it attentively with your conscience, and you will undoubtedly
attain to it (in a short time).
39. This net work of worlds, is uncreated and without its beginning; yet
it is apparent to sight by means of the spirit of Brahma, manifest in
that form. Whoso contemplates with the eye of his reason, the eight
qualities of the lord, becomes full with the divine spirit, although he
is as mean as a straw in his living soul.