DESCRIPTION OF THE PERSON OF VASISHTHA.
Argument:—The conduct of men that are firm _in the resolution_
and the behaviour of Vasishtha in the etherial regions.
Vasishtha continued:—I then having my inane intellectual body, which was
quite free from the composition of the five elements; roved about in the
air in the manner of a pisácha ghost (seeing all and seen by none).
2. I was not perceived by the sun and moon, nor by the gods Hari, Hara,
Indra and others; and was quite invisible to the siddhas, gandharvas,
Kinnaras and Apsaras of heaven.
3. I was astonished to think as any honest person, who is a stranger at
the house of another; why the residents of the place did not perceive
me, though I advanced towards them and called them to me.
4. I then thought in myself that, as these etherial beings are seekers
of truth like ourselves; it is right they should observe me among them
in their etherial abode.
5. They then began to look upon me standing before them, and felt
astonished at my unthought appearance, as the spectators are startled at
the sudden sight of a juggler’s trick or some magic show.
6. Then I managed myself as I ought in the house of the gods, I sat
quiet in their presence, and addressed and accosted them without any
fear.
7. Those who beheld me standing at the compound at first, and were
unacquainted with the particulars (of my sagely character), thought me a
mere earthly being, and known as Vasishtha by name.
8. When I was in sun light by the celestials in heaven, they took me for
the enlightened Vasishtha, who is well known in the world.
9. As I was seen afloat in the air by the aerial siddhas, they called me
by the name of the aerial Vasishtha.
10. And as I was observed by the holy sages to rise from amidst the
waters of the deep; they called me the watery Vasishtha, from my birth
in the water.
11. Hence forth I came to be renowned under different appellations, by
all these sets of beings; some calling me the earthly Vasishtha, and
others naming me the luminous, the aerial and so forth according to
their own kind.
12. Then in course of time, my spiritual body assumed a material form,
which sprang from within me and of my own will.
13. That spiritual body and this material form of mine, were equally
aerial and invisible; because it was in my intellectual mind only, that
I perceived the one as well as the other.
14. Thus is my soul the pure intellect, appearing sometimes as vacuum,
and at others shining as the clear sky; it is transcendent spirit and
without any form, and takes this form for your admonition. (The
incorporeal soul enters into the corporeal body for its dealing with
others).
15. The liberated living soul is as free as vacuous spirit of Brahma,
although it may deal with others in its corporeal body; so also the
liberated bodiless soul, remains as free as the great Brahma himself.
16. As for myself I could not attain to Brahmahood, though I practiced
the rules for obtaining my liberation; and being unable to attain a
better state, I have become the sage Vasishtha as you see before you.
17. Yet I look upon this world in the same light of immateriality, as
the sage sees the figure of person in his dream, when it appears to
him to have a material form, though it is a formless non-entity in
reality.
18. In this manner do the self born god Brahmá and others, and the whole
creation at large, present themselves as visions to my view, without
their having any entity in reality.
19. Here I am the self same vacuous and aerial Vasishtha, and appearing
as a visionary shape before you, I am though habituated to believe
myself over grown, as you are accustomed to think of the density of the
world.
20. All these are but vacuous essences of the self-born Brahmá, and as
that deity is no other than the Divine Mind, so is this world no more
than a production of that Mind.
21. The appearance of myself, thyself and others, together with that of
the whole world, proceeding from our ignorance; is like the apparitions
of empty ghosts before deluded boys, and appearing as solid realities to
your sight.
22. Being aware of this truth, it is possible for you to grow wise in
course of time; and then this delusion of yours is sure to disappear, as
our worldly bonds are cut off with the relinquishment of our desires and
affections.
23. Our knowledge of the density and intensity of the world, is
dissipated by true wisdom; in the same manner as our desire of a dream
of gem, is dispelled upon our waking.
24. The sight of the phenomenals vanishes at once from our view, as we
arrive to the knowledge of noumenal in time; as our desire of deriving
water from a river in the mirage, subsides in our knowledge of the
falsity of the view.
25. The perusal of this work of the great Rámáyana, is sure to produce
the knowledge of self-liberation in its reader, even during his life
time in this world.
26. The man whose mind is addicted to worldly desires, and who thinks
its vanities as his real good, leads a life to misery only like those of
insects and worms, and is unfit to be born as a human being,
notwithstanding all his knowledge of this world and all his holy
devotion.
27. The liberated man while he lives, deems the enjoyments of his life,
to be no enjoyment at all; but the ignorant person values his temporary
enjoyments only, in lieu of his everlasting felicity.
28. By perusal of this Mahárámáyana, there arises in the mind a
coldness, resembling a frost falling on spiritual knowledge.
29. Liberation is the cold indifference of the mind, and our confinement
consists in the passionateness of our minds and hearts; yet the human
race is quite averse to the former, and sedulously employed in the
acquisition of their temporal welfare only in their foolishness, and to
the astonishment of the wise.
30. Here all men are subject to their sense, and addicted to the
increase of wealth and family (lit.—wives), to the injury of one
another; yet it is possible for them to be happy and wise, if they will
but ponder well into the true sense of spiritual sástras.
31. Válmíki says:—After the sage had said these words, the assembly
broke with the setting sun and mutual salutations, to perform their
evening devotion. They made their ablutions as the sun sank down into
the deep, and again repaired to the court with the rising sun at the end
of the night.