THE PHENOMENAL AS THE REPRODUCTION OF
REMINISCENCE.
Argument:—The situation of the World in the womb of the Vacuous
Intellect; and its outward appearance as the Imagination of the
Mind.
Ráma said:—Tell me sir, whether in your curiosity to observe the
mutations of earthly things and affairs, you beheld them in their
earthly shapes with your corporeal body; or saw them in their ideal
forms, in the imagination of your mind.
2. Vasishtha replied:—It was in my mind, that I thought myself to have
become the great earth; and all what I saw as visible, being but simple
conceptions of the mind, could not possibly have a material form.
3. It is impossible for the surface of the earth to exist, without its
conception in the mind; whatever thou knowest either as real or unreal,
know them all as the work of your mind.
4. I am the pure vacuous Intellect, and it is that which is the essence
of my soul; it is the expansion of this intellectual soul, which is
called its will also. (This will is the eternal predicate of the Divine
Spirit).
5. It is this which becomes the mind and the creative power Brahmá, and
takes the form of the world and this earth also; and this vacuous mind
being composed of its desires, assumes to itself whatever form it likes
to take.
6. It was thus that my mind stretched itself at that time, and put forth
its desires in all those forms as it liked: and from its habitual
capacity of containing every thing, it evolved itself in the shape of
the wide-stretched earth.
7. Hence the sphere of the earth, is no other than the evolution of the
selfsame mind; it is but an unintelligent counterpart of the intelligent
intellect.
8. Being thus a void in itself, it continues to remain forever as such
in the infinite void; but by being considered as a solid substance by
the ignorant, they have altogether forgotten its intellectual nature.
9. The knowledge that this globe of earth is stable, solid and extended,
is as false as the general impression of blueness in the clear and
vacuous firmament, and this is the effect of a deeprooted bias in the
minds of men.
10. It is clear from this argument, that there is no such thing as the
stable earth; it is of the same ideal form as it was conceived in the
mind, at the first creation of the world. (The primary idea of creation
is of its subtile and not gross form. “And the earth was without form
and void”).
11. As the city is situated in a dream, and the intellect resides in
vacuity; so the Divine Intellect dwelt in the form of the creation in
the very vacuum.
12. Know the three worlds in their intellectual light, likening the
aerial palace of puerile fancy and hobby; and know this earth and all
visible appearances, to be the creatures of imagination.
13. The world is the ectype city or reproduction of the intellectual
Spirit of God, and not a different kind of production of the Divine
Will; it is in fact no real or positive existence at all, although it
may appear as solid and substantial to the ignorant.
14. The unreal visible world is known only to the ignorant, who are
unacquainted with its real intellectual nature, and it is he only that
is acquainted with its true nature, who knows well what I have been
preaching to you ere long.
15. All this is the intellection of the Divine Intellect, and
manifestation of the supreme self in itself; the visible world which
appears as some thing other than the supreme soul, is inherent in the
very soul. (All this being selfsame with the Divine spirit, it is exempt
from the imputation of its duality or unity with it).
16. As a gemming stone exhibits of itself, the various hues of white,
yellow and others, without their being infused therein; so the Divine
Intellect shows this creation in all its various aspects within its
vacuous sphere.
17. Whereas the spirit neither does anything, nor changes its nature (on
account of its immutability); therefore this earth is neither a mental
nor material production of it (but a phantasmagoria only).
18. The vacuous Intellect appears as the surface of the earth, but it is
of itself without any depth or breadth, and transparent in its surface
(wherefore it is not the fathomable or opaque body of the earth).
19. It is of its own nature, that it shows itself as anything wherever
it is situated; and though it is as clear as the open air, yet it
appears as the earth, by its universal inherence into and pervasion over
all things.
20. This terraqueous orb, appearing as something other than the Great
Intellect; appears in the very form as it pictured in the mind, like
the shapes of things appearing in our dream (agreeably to their forms
preserved in our memory).
21. The world subsists in the vacuous spirit, and the Divine Spirit
being vacuous also, there is no difference in them, it is the ignorant
soul which makes the difference, but it vanishes at once before the
intelligent soul.
22. All material beings, that have been or are to be in the three past,
present and future times; are mere errors of vision, like the false
appearances in our dreams, and the air built cities of imagination.
23. The beings that are existent at present, and such as are to come
into existence in future; and the earth itself, are of the same nature
of an universal fallacy, in lieu of the Divine spirit pervading the
whole.
24. I myself and all others that are included in this world, have the
visible perceptions of all things as they are preserved in our
reminiscence.
25. Know Ráma the Divine Intellect only, as the supreme soul and
undecaying essence of all existence; and this it is that sustains the
whole in its person, without forsaking its spirituality. Knowing
therefore the whole world as contained in thyself, which is not
different from the supreme soul, thou shalt be exempt and liberated from
all.