PROOF OF THE UNITY OF THE DEITY AMIDST THE VARIETY
OF CREATION.
Argument:—The Unity, Eternity and tranquility of the Intellect,
and the preference of this sástra to others.
Vasishtha continued:—The Intellect which is without its beginning and
end, and is the ineffable light and its reflection, and shines for ever
serenely bright, is never destroyed or extinguished in any wise.
2. Such is the Intellect and so too the soul, which is indestructible
also; for it were destroyed at all at any time; there could neither
be the recreation of the world (without a cause), nor any regeneration
of human souls (if they were dead upon the death of the former
generations of men).
3. All things are subject to change, and have many varieties under them;
but not so the Intellect, which is ever immutable, and always perceived
to be the same in all individuals.
4. We all feel the coldness of frost, the heat of fire, and sweetness of
water; but we have no feeling of any kind regarding the Intellect,
except that we know it to be quite clear and pellucid as open air. (The
gloss explains it to mean, the unchangeableness of the soul in heat and
cold, which affect the bodies and minds of all).
5. If the intellectual soul is destroyed at the destruction of the body,
say then why should you lament at its loss, and not rejoice at its
annihilation, which releases you from the pains of life?
6. The loss of the body entails no loss on the vacuous intellect;
because the departed souls of mlechchha savages, are seen to hover over
the cemetery by their living friends.
7. Should the soul be synchronous with the duration of the body, then
say, why a death body does not move about, while it is yet unrotten and
entire.
8. If the seeing of apparitions, be an affection con-natural with the
mind; then tell me why a man does not often see the sight of ghosts,
except on the occasion of the demise of his friends.
9. Should it be a misconception connate with the mind, to see the
apparitions of departed friends; tell me then, why don’t you see the
ghosts of friends that are dead in a distant country, but of such only
as die before your eyes.
10. Hence the Intellect, being the soul of all and everywhere, it is not
confined in any place; but it is known to be of the same nature, as
every one thinks it to be.
11. It is unconfined and unrestrained any where, and is of the nature of
one compact consciousness that is felt by all, and is the cause of our
knowledge of all things. (It is of what we have a notion only).
12. There can be no other, which may be supposed as the prime cause of
all, at the beginning of creation. Should there be any other that is
supposed to be as such, let the doctrinaires now declare it before me.
13. There was nothing uncreated before creation, nor was there anything
created in the beginning; the duality that at present, presents itself
in the form of the universe, is but a _réchauffé_ or reflexion of the
unity.
14. The phenomenal is no more than a reflexion or copy of the noumenal,
and our impression of its being a visible something, is as erroneous as
all other false sights, which are mistaken for the true reality. (These
errors are the sights of silver in sands, of water in the sandy desert,
and of airy castle in the northern skies).
15. It is a wonder of the almighty power, exhibited in the sphere of the
Divine Intellect; it is the wakeful understanding that sees these
visibles, as one sees the sights in his dream, but never in his
ignorance of sound sleep.
16. The wakefulness and insensibility of the understanding, both amount
to the same thing; because the difference of the visible world is only
verbal and not real; since nothing that is visible to the eye, is
substantial in its essential nature. (Hence the perception of the
visibles, is alike to their non-perception of them).
17. Whatever was thought and said to be visibles by others, the same was
the effect of their error and want of reason; and now if they are
disproved by right season, where can you find the visibles any more.
18. Therefore employ your reasoning now, in the investigation of
spiritual knowledge; because by your diligent and persevering inquiry in
this respect, you will secure to yourself the success in both worlds.
(So says the sruti: “By thy constant study of the subject, thou shalt
see thy god”).
19. Inquiry into spiritual knowledge, will dispel thy ignorance; but
thou wilt never be successful in it, without thy constant application to
it.
20. Leaving aside all anxieties and their causes, and of every jot and
moment of time in the observance of one’s sacred vows day by day, and
the study of this sacred sástra with due attention, leads him to his
welfare in both worlds.
21. Whether one is proficient or not in his spiritual knowledge, he may
still improve in it, by his constant communication of it and discussion
on the subject with his superiors.
22. Whoso requires this precious treasure (of his knowledge), he must
exert for its attainment at the same ratio to be successful in it; or
else he must leave off altogether, if he tires in his pursuit.
23. He must also keep himself from the perusal of heretical works, and
betake himself to the study of orthodox sástras; and he will then gain
his peace of mind by these, as one obtains victory in warfare (so should
one fight for the salvation of his soul).
24. The course of the mind, like that of a stream of water, runs both in
the channels of wisdom as well as folly; and forms a lake wherever it
runs more rapidly, and settles as in its bed.
25. There was never a better sástra than this, nor is any such extant at
present, nor is likely to be in vogue in future; there let the student
cogitate well its doctrines, for the edification of his understanding.
26. Whoso heeds it well in himself, will find his mind instantly
elevated with superior knowledge; and like the effect of a curse or
blessing, which comes too late upon its recipient. (The efficacy of
wisdom is instantaneous).
27. The knowledge of his sástra, is calculated to do you more good, than
you can derive from the tender care of a father or mother; or the
efficacy of your pious actions.
28. Know O holy man, this world is the prison-house of thy soul, and its
cares as the cholic pain of thy mind; and there is no release nor
redress from these, beside the knowledge of thy soul (which is a spark
of the supreme).
29. It is the dark illusion of gross ignorance, that hath misled thee to
the sense of thy egoism; and it is now by your reflection on the purport
of the sástras only, that you can be freed from your deplorable state.
30. The world is a hollow cave, where the horrid hydra of illusion lies
in ambush; and feeds on the empty air of vain enjoyments, that appear at
first pleasant to taste, but prove to be as fleeting as empty air at
last.
31. Pity it is that thy days are flying as fleet as the wind, and thou
art insensible of their advents and exits; and while thou art employed
in thy dealings, thou art fostering thy death in thy negligence.
32. We all live in death, and our lives are sustained by alternate hopes
and fears; until the few days of our life-time terminate in death.
33. The approach of death, is attained with extreme pain and remorse;
when the inner parts of the body are separated from the outer, which
must be besmeared with dust as with the paste of sandal wood.
34. They are grossly ignorant and erroneous, who purchase their wealth
and honour at the expense of their lives; and avoid to gain their
permanent bliss by the precepts of the sástras.
35. Why should he bear the feet of his vile enemies on his head (_i.e._
bow down his head before the meanly great); when he can attain his
highest station of divine bliss in the sphere of his intellect, and with
little or no pain.
36. Shun ye men, your vanity and ignorance; and to persist in the course
of your baseness; and then you will gain by the knowledge of the great
soul, your redemption from the tribulations of the world (which is a sea
of troubles).
37. Seeing me in this manner, preach to you incessantly by day and
night, for the sake of your good only; do you take my advice to turn
your souls to the eternal soul, by forsaking the knowledge of your
persons for that of your souls.
38. If you neglect to make a remedy to day, against the evil of your
impending death; say O silly man, what amends can you make for the hour
of death, when you are laid in your sickbed.
39. There is no other work except this, for the true knowledge of the
soul; and this therefore must be acceptable to you in the same manner,
as the sesame seeds are collected, for the sake of getting their oil.
40. This book will enlighten your spiritual knowledge, as a lamp
lightens a dark room; drink it deep and it will enliven your soul, keep
it by your side, and it will please you as a consort.
41. A man having his knowledge, but untaught in the sástras, has many
things unintelligible and doubtful to him; which he will find to be
clearly expounded to him in the sweetest language.
42. This is the best narrative among the principle works, which are
taken in the light of sástras; it is easily intelligible and delightful,
and has nothing new in it, except what is well known in spiritual
philosophy.
43. Let a man peruse with delight, the many narrations that are
contained herein; and he will undoubtedly find this book, the best of
its kind (on account of elaborate disquisition in this abstruse
subject).
44. Whatever has not yet appeared in full light, even to Pandits—learned
in all the sástras; the same will be found to appear in this book, as
they find gold to appear amidst the sand.
45. The authors of sástras are not to be despised at any time or in any
country; but the reader should employ his reason and judgement, to dive
into the true meaning of the writing.
46. Those who are led by their ignorance or envy, or actuated by their
pride and delusion to disregard and slight this sástra out of their want
of judgement; are to be regarded as killers of their souls, and unworthy
of the company of the wise and good.
47. I know you well Ráma and this audience of mine, as well as your
capacities to learn, and mine to instruct you; hence it is of my
compassion to you that I like to teach you these things, as I am
naturally communicative and kindly disposed to my hearers.
48. I find the development of your understandings, and therefore take
interest to communicate my knowledge to you; and as I am a man and not a
Gandharva or Rákshasa, I bear a fellow feeling towards you all.
49. I see you all as intelligent beings, and pure in your souls also; it
is by virtue of these merits in you that I have become so friendly to
you.
50. Now my friends, learn betimes to glean the truth of your unfondness
for or indifference to every thing you see in this world (because there
is nothing which is truly desirable herein).
51. Whoso neglects to remedy his diseases, of death and hell fire in
this life; say what will he do to avert them when they are irremediable,
and when he goes to a place, where no remedy is to be sought.
52. Until you feel a distaste for everything in this world, so long you
cannot find any abatement of your desires in you. (It is better your
desires to suppress, than toil and moil along to seek their redress).
53. There is no other means to elevate your soul, than depressing your
desires to the lowest ebb (but the more you allow your wishes to grow
and flow, the more you bind the soul and sink below).
54. If there be anything here, you think to be good for you; they serve
at best but to bind your soul, and then disappear as the horn of a hare.
(All tempting good, is as fleeting as a dream).
55. All earthly goods seem to be good, when they are untried and least
understood; but the seeming something proves no such thing, or tends to
your ruin at last. (All seeming good is positive evil).
56. All worldly existences prove to be nil, by the right reasoning (of
Vedanta philosophy; though they are declared as real by Kapila, Kanada
and others): but how they are real and what they are, whether
self-existent or made, or permanent or temporary, (cannot rightly be
known).
57. To say all worldly existences are self-existent, for having no prior
cause assigned to them, nor being created in the beginning, would prove
all that is existent, to be the increate and ever lasting supreme being
itself.
58. There is no causality of sensible bodies, in the Being that is
without and beyond the senses (the lord having no organ of sense, nor
being perceptible by the senses as all material objects); nor is the
mind the cause of sensible objects, (that have the six organs and are
perceptible by them); the mind being but the sixth organ only.
59. How can the one unspeakable Lord, be the varied cause of these
varieties of things, passing under various denominations. How can the
reality have these unrealities in itself, and how can the Infinite Void,
contain these finite solid bodies in it?
60. It is the nature of a plastic body to produce a thing of a plasmic
from it, as the seeds of fruits bring forth their own kinds only; but
how is it possible for an amorphous void, to produce solid forms from
its vacuity, or the solid body to issue forth formless mind.
61. How can you expect to derive a solid seed from a void nothing, and
therefore it is a deception to think the material world to be produced,
from the immaterial and formless void of the vacuous intellect.
62. There are no conditions, of the creator and creation in the supreme
being; these states are the fabrications of verbiage, and bespeak the
ignorance of their inventors (in the true knowledge of the deity).
63. The want of co-ordinate causes (such as the material and formal
causes), as co-existent with the prime and efficient cause; disproves
the existence of an active agent and his act of creation; and this truth
is evident even to boys.
64. The knowledge of God alone as the sole cause, and yet acknowledging
the causality of the earth and other elements; is as absurd as to say
that, the sun shines and yet it is dark. (i.e. As light and darkness
cannot reign together, so the spirit and matter cannot abide
simultaneously from all eternity, which would amount to the belief of a
duality).
65. To say that the world is the aggregate of atoms, or an atomic
formation, is as absurd as to call a bow made of the horn of a hare.
(This is a refutation of the Buddhistic doctrine of the formation of the
visible world, from the aggregation of eternal invisible atoms).
66. If the concourse and collocation of the dull, inert and insensible
material atoms would form the world; it would of its own accord make a
mountainous heap here, and a bottomless deep there in the air (and not a
work of such design which must be the product of infinite Intelligence).
67. Again the particles of this earth, and the atoms of air and water,
are flying every day in the forms of dust and humidity from house to
house and from place to place, and why do they not yet form a new hill
or lake any where again? (Why no new world again).
68. The invisible atoms are never to be seen, nor is it known whence, or
where and how they are; nor is it possible to form an idea of the
formless atoms, to unite together and form a solid mass. (Shapeless
simples are indivisible and incohesive. Aphorism). And again it is
impossible for the dull and insensible atoms to form any thing.
69. The creation of the world, is never the work of an unintelligent
cause; nor is this frail and unreal world ever the work of an
intelligent maker also; because none but a fool makes any for nothing.
70. The insensible air which is composed of atoms, and has a motion of
its own, is never actuated by reason or sense; nor is it possible to
expect the particles of air to act wisely (as they prayed in their hymns
to _the maruta_ winds).
71. (What then are these if not composed of atoms?) We are all composed
of intellectual soul, and all individuals are made of the vacuous
selves; and they all appear to us, as the figures of persons appearing
in our dream.
72. Therefore there is nothing that is created, nor is this world in
existence; the whole is the clear void of the intellect, and shines with
the glare of the Supreme soul in itself.
73. The vacuous universe rests completely in the vacuum of the
Intellect, as force (or vibration), fluidity and vacuity, rest
respectively in the wind, water and in the open air.
74. The form of the intellectual vacuum, is as that of the airy mind,
which passes to distant climes in a moment (and yet holds its seat in
the hollowness of the brain); or as that of consciousness which is
seated in the hollow of the heart, and is yet conscious of every thing
in itself.
75. Such is the vacuous nature of all things, as they are perceived in
their intellectual forms only in intellect (which retains their vacuous
ideas only on the hollow understanding); and so the world also is an
empty idea only imprinted in the intellect.
76. It is the rotatory nature of the Intellect, which exhibits the
picture of the universe on its surface; wherefore the world is identic
and not otherwise than the vacuous nature of the intellect.
77. Therefore the world is the counter part of the intellectual sphere,
and there is no difference in the vacuous nature, of either of them.
They are both the same thing presenting but two aspects, as the wind and
its undulations are one and the same thing.
78. As a wise man going from one country to another, finds himself to be
the same person wherever he goes; and though he sees all the varieties
around him, yet he knows himself as the selfsame quiet and unvaried soul
every where.
79. The wise man remains in the true nature of the elements, hence the
elements never go off from the mind of the wise man.
80. The world is a vacuous sphere of reflections only, resembling a
concave reflector; it is a formless void in its nature, and is
unimpaired and indestructible in its essence.
81. There is nothing that is born or dies in it, nor any thing which
having once come to being, is annihilated ever afterwards any where; it
is not apart from the vacuum of the Intellect, and is as void as the
inane world itself.
82. The world never is, nor was, nor shall ever be in existence; it is
but a silent semblance of the representation passing in the intellectual
vacuity of the supreme spirit.
83. The Divine Intellect alone shines forth in its glory, as the mind
exhibits its images of cities &c. in dream; in the like manner our minds
represent to us the image of world, as day dreams in our waking state.
84. There being no being in the beginning, how could there be the body
of anything in existence; there was therefore no corporeality whatever
except in the dream of the Divine mind.
85. The supreme Intellect dreams of its self-born (or uncreated) body at
first; and we that have sprang from that body, have ever afterwards
continued to see dream after dream to no end. (The world is a dream both
in the mind of God and men).
86. It is impossible for us with all our efforts, to turn our minds to
the great God; because they are not of the nature of the divine
intellect, but born in us like carbuncles on the goitre, for our
destruction only.
87. The god Brahmá is no real personage, but a fictitious name for
_Hiranyagarbha_ or totality of souls (समष्टि), but ever since he is
regarded as a personal being, the world is considered as body and He
the soul of all.
88. But in truth all is unreal, from the highest empyrean to the lowest
pit; and the world is as false and frail as a dream, which rises in vain
before the mind, and vanishes in a minute.
89. The world rises in the vacuity of the Intellect, and sets therein as
a dream; and when it does not rise in the enlightened intellect, it is
as a disappearing from the waking mind, and flying before day light.
90. Although the world is known as false, yet it is perceived and
appears as true to us; in the same manner as the false appearances in
our dream, appear true to our consciousness at the time of dreaming.
91. As the formless dream presents many forms before the mind; so the
formless world assumes many shapes before our sight: and all these are
perceived in our consciousness, which is as minute in respect of the
infinite space and sky, as an atom of dust is too small in regard to the
Meru mountain. (_i.e._ the minim of our consciousness, contained in the
breast, is an imperceptible particle only of sand in it).
92. But how can this consciousness, which is but another name of Brahma,
be any what smaller than the sky (when it contains the skies in itself);
and how can the vacuous world have any solid form, when it has no formal
cause to form it so. (God being a formless being, could not give a form
and figure to any thing, and which is therefore ideal only).
93. Where was there any matter or mould, where from this material world
was moulded and formed (as we make our houses from the pre-existing mud
and clay of the earth); whatever we see in the sphere of waking minds in
the day light, is similar to the baseless dreams, which we see in the
empty space of our sleeping minds, in the darkness of the night.
94. There is no difference between the waking and sleeping dreams, as
there is none between the empty air and the sky; whatever is pictured in
the sphere of the intellect, the same is represented as the aerial
castle in the dream.
95. As the wind is the same with its undulation, so the rest and
vibration of the spirit is both alike, as the air and vacuum is the one
and same thing.
96. Hence it is the intellectual sphere only, which represents the
picture of the world; the whole is a void and without any support, and
splendour of the luminary of the intellect.
97. The whole universe is in a state of perfect rest and tranquility,
and without its rising or setting; it is as a quiet and unwasting block
of stone, and ever shining serenely bright.
98. Say therefore whence and what are these existent beings, and how
comes this understanding of their existence; where is there a duality or
unity, and how came these notions of egoism and distinct personalities.
99. Be ever prompt in your actions and dealings, with an utter
indifference to everything, and unconcern about unity or duality; and
preserve an even and cool disposition of your inward mind. Remain in the
state of _nirvána_, with your extinguished passions and feelings, and
free from disease and anxiety. Be aloof from the visibles, and remain in
the manner of a pure Intelligence only.
100. This chapter is a lecture on entity and non-entity; and
establishment of the spirituality of the universe.