DESCRIPTION OF NIRVÁNA OR FINAL EXTINCTION.
Argument:—Brahmá’s suppression of his Respiration; his settling
on the wings of air and his form of Virát.
Vasishtha continued:—Now the self-born Brahmá, having compressed his
breath in his form of Virát (or the heart); the aerial or atmospheric
air, which is borne on the wings of wind, lost its existence.
2. The atmospheric air, which is the very breath of Brahmá being thus
compressed in his breast; what other air could there remain, to uphold
the starry frame and the system of the universe.
3. The atmospheric air, being compressed with the vital breath of
Brahmá; the perturbed creation (as described before), was about to come
to its ultimate _quietus_.
4. The firmament being no more upheld by its support of the air, gave
way to the fiery bodies of meteors, to fall down on earth, as starry
flowers from the arbour of heaven.
5. The orbs of heaven, being unsupported by the intermediate air, were
now falling on the ground; like the unfailing and impending fruits of
our deserts, or the flying fates falling from above.
6. The gross desire or the crude will of Brahmá, being now at its end at
the approach of dissolution; there was an utter stop, of the actions and
motions of the siddhas, as that of the flame of fire before its
extinction.
7. The world-destroying winds were winding in the air, like the thin and
flying scraps of cotton; and then the siddhas fell down mute from
heaven, after the loss of their strength and power of speech.
8. The great fabrics of human wishes, fell down with the cities of the
Gods; and the peaks of mountain were hurled headlong, by shocks of
tremendous earthquakes.
9. Ráma rejoined:—Now sir, if the world is but a representation of the
ideal in the mind of the great God Brahmá or Virát; then what is the
difference of earth, heaven and hell to him (who encompasses the whole
in his body or mind).
10. How can these worlds be said, to be the members of his body; or can
it be thought, that the God resides in them with his stupendous form.
11. I well know that Brahmá is wilful spirit of God, and has no form of
himself; and so do I take this world, for a formless representation of
the will or idea in the Divine Mind. Please sir, explain this clearly
unto me.
12. Vasishtha replied:—In the beginning this world was not in existence,
nor inexistence either; because there was the eternal Intellect, which
engrossed all infinity in itself, and the whole vacuity of space with
its essence.
13. This vacuity of it (the subjective chit), is known as the objective
_chetya_ or thought; and the intellect without forsaking its form,
becomes _chetana_ or the power of intellection (or the mind) itself.
14. Know this intellection as the _jíva_ or living soul, which being
condensed (with feelings &c.) becomes the gross mind; but none of these
essences or forms of existence, have any form whatever.
15. The vacuity of the intellect, remains as the pure vacuum in itself
forever; and all this which appears as otherwise, is no other and
nothing without the self-same soul.
16. The very soul assumes to it its egoism (or personality), and
thinking itself as the mind, becomes sullied with its endless desires,
in its vacuous form. (The pure soul is changed to the impure spirit or
volitive mind).
17. Then this intellectual principle, thinks itself as the air, by its
own volition; and by this false supposition of itself, it becomes of an
aerial form in the open air.
18. Then it thinks of its future gross form, and immediately finds
itself transformed to an aerial body, by its volition or _sankalpa_.
(The will being master to the thought).
19. Though the soul, spirit and mind, are vacuous in their natures; yet
they can assume aerial forms to themselves by their will, as the mind
sees its imaginary cities; and so doth the Lord take upon Him any form
it pleases.
20. And as the knowledge of our minds, is purely of an aerial nature, so
the intelligence of the all-intelligent Lord is likewise of an
intellectual kind; and he takes and forsakes any form as he supposes and
pleases for himself.
21. As we advance to the knowledge of recondite truth, so we come to
lose the perception of size and extension; and to know this extended
world as a mere nullity, though it appears as a positive entity.
22. By knowledge of the real truth, we get rid of our desires, as it is
by our knowledge of the unity and the absence of our egoism or
personality, that we obtain our liberation. (_i.e._ The knowledge of our
nothingness).
23. Such is He—the supreme One, and is Brahma the entity of the world.
And know Virát, O Ráma, to be the body of Brahma, and the form of the
visible world. (Brahma, Brahmá and Virát, are the triple hypostasis of
the One and same God).
24. The desires or will, is of the form of empty vacuum, and the
erroneous conceptions which rise in it; the same give birth to the
world, which is thence called the mundane egg.
25. Know all this is _non esse_, and the forms you see, are but
formation of your fancy; in reality there is nothing _in esse_; and
tuism and egoism are no entities at any time.
26. How can the gross world be ever attached to the simple Intellect,
which is of the nature of a void; how can a cause or secondary
causality, be ever produced in or come out from a mere void?
27. Therefore all this production is false, and all that is seen a mere
falsity; all this is a mere void and nothing, which erroneously taken
for something.
28. It is the Intellect only which exhibits itself, in the forms of the
world and its productions, in the same manner as the air begets its
pulsations (in the form of winds), in the very calm air itself.
29. The world is either as something or as nothing at all, and devoid of
unity and duality; know the whole to lie in the empty vacuity of the
Intellect, and is as void and transparent as the same.
30. I am extinct to all these endless particulars and distinctions, and
whether you take them as real or unreal, and be with or without your
egoism, it is nothing to me.
31. Be without any desire and quiet in your mind, remain silent and
without fickleness in your conduct; do whatever you have to do, or avoid
to do it without anxiety.
32. The eternal One, that is ever existent in our notion of Him, is
manifest also in the phenomenal, which is no other than Himself. But our
imperfect notion of God, has many things in it which are unknown to us
and beyond our comprehension; and such are the phenomenals also, that
are so palpable unto us. (We have the innate idea of God, but no
knowledge of his inner or outer nature and attributes, which are
displayed in all existence).