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Title: The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, vol. 3 (of 4) part 2 (of 2)
Author: Valmiki
Translator: Vihari-Lala Mitra
Release Date: August 8, 2014 [EBook #46531]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YOGA-VASISHTHA ***
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THE
YOGA-VASISHTHA
MAHARAMAYANA
OF
VALMIKI
in 4 vols. in 7 pts.
(Bound in 4.)
Vol. 3 (In 2 pts.)
Bound in one.
Containing
Upasama Khanda and Nirvána Khanda
_Translated from the original Sanskrit_
_By_
VIHARI-LALA MITRA
CONTENTS
OF
NIRVÁNA-PRAKARANA.
BOOK VI.
(ON ULTIMATE EXTINCTION.)
CHAPTER I. PAGE.
Description of the Evening and Breaking of the assembly 1
CHAPTER II.
On the perfect calm and composure of the mind 7
CHAPTER III.
On the unity and Universality of Brahma 15
CHAPTER IV.
Want of anxiety in the way of Salvation 18
CHAPTER V.
The narration of Ráma's perfect rest 20
CHAPTER VI.
The narration of Delirium (moha) 22
CHAPTER VII
Magnitude or preponderance of ignorance 29
CHAPTER VIII.
Allegory of the spreading arbour of Ignorance 39
CHAPTER IX.
Ascertainment of True knowledge 44
CHAPTER X.
Removal of Ignorance 50
CHAPTER XI.
Ascertainment of Living Liberation 58
CHAPTER XII.
Reasoning on the doubts of the living liberation 69
CHAPTER XIII.
The Two Yogas of Knowledge and Reasoning 73
CHAPTER XIV.
Narration of Bhusunda and description of Mount Meru 75
CHAPTER XV.
Vasishtha's visit to Bhusunda 79
CHAPTER XVI.
Conversation of Vasishtha and Bhusunda 84
CHAPTER XVII.
Description of Bhusunda's Person 87
CHAPTER XVIII.
Manners of the Mátrika Goddesses 88
CHAPTER XIX.
Bhusunda's nativity and habitation 93
CHAPTER XX.
Explication of the mysterious character of Bhusunda 99
CHAPTER XXI.
Explanation of the cause of the crow's longevity 105
CHAPTER XXII.
Account of past ages 112
CHAPTER XXIII.
Desire of Tranquillity and Quiescence of the Mind 119
CHAPTER XXIV.
Investigation of the Living Principle 124
CHAPTER XXV.
On Samádhi 129
CHAPTER XXVI.
Relation of the cause of Longevity 137
CHAPTER XXVII.
Conclusion of the narrative of Bhusunda 143
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Lecture on Theopathy or spiritual meditation 146
CHAPTER XXIX.
Pantheism or Description of the world as full with
the Supreme Soul 158
CHAPTER XXX.
Inquiry into the nature of the Intellect 176
CHAPTER XXXI.
Identity of the mind and living soul 189
CHAPTER XXXII.
On the sustentation and dissolution of the body 197
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Resolution of duality into unity 204
CHAPTER XXXIV.
Sermon of Siva on the same subject 211
CHAPTER XXXV.
Adoration of the great god Mahádeva 216
CHAPTER XXXVI.
Description of the supreme Deity Parameswara 220
CHAPTER XXXVII.
The stage play and dance of destiny 223
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
On the external worship of the Deity 227
CHAPTER XXXIX.
Mode of the Internal worship of the Deity 231
CHAPTER XXXX.
Inquiry into the nature of the Deity 238
CHAPTER XXXXI.
Vanity of world and worldly things 240
CHAPTER XXXXII.
The supreme soul and its phases and names 247
CHAPTER XXXXIII.
On rest and Tranquillity 251
CHAPTER XXXXIV.
Inquiry into the essence of the mind 256
CHAPTER XXXXV.
Story of the vilva or Belfruit 261
CHAPTER XXXXVI.
Parable of the stony sheath of the soul 266
CHAPTER XXXXVII.
Lecture on the density of the Intellect 272
CHAPTER XXXXVIII.
On the Unity and Identity of Brahmá and the world 277
CHAPTER XXXXIX.
Contemplation of the course of the world 280
CHAPTER L.
On sensation and the objects of senses 285
CHAPTER LI.
On the perception of the sensible objects 291
CHAPTER LII.
Story of Arjuna, as the Incarnation of Nara-Naráyana 299
CHAPTER LIII.
Admonition of Arjuna 304
CHAPTER LIV.
Admonition of Arjuna in the spiritual knowledge 313
CHAPTER LV.
Lecture on the Living soul or Jívatatwa 316
CHAPTER LVI.
Description of the mind 324
CHAPTER LVII.
On Abandonment of desire and its result of Tranquillity 329
CHAPTER LVIII.
Arjuna's satisfaction at the sermon 331
CHAPTER LIX.
Knowledge of the latent and inscrutable soul 334
CHAPTER LX.
Knowledge of the majesty and grandeur of God 340
CHAPTER LXI.
Description of the world as a passing dream 343
CHAPTER LXII.
In the narration of Jívata an example of domestic and
mendicant life 344
CHAPTER LXIII.
Dream of Jívata 349
CHAPTER LXIV.
On the attainment of attendantship on the God Rudra 359
CHAPTER LXV.
Ráma's wonder at the error of men 364
CHAPTER LXVI.
The wonderings of the mendicant 367
CHAPTER LXVII.
Unity of God 371
CHAPTER LXVIII.
On the virtue of Taciturnity 376
CHAPTER LXIX.
Union of the mind with the breath of life 380
CHAPTER LXX.
Interrogatories of Vitála 388
CHAPTER LXXI.
The prince's reply to the first question of the Vitála 391
CHAPTER LXXII.
Answers to the remaining questions 394
CHAPTER LXXIII.
End of the story of the Vitála Demon 396
CHAPTER LXXIV.
Account and admonition of Bhagíratha 398
CHAPTER LXXV.
Supineness of Bhagíratha 403
CHAPTER LXXVI.
The Descent of Gangá on earth 406
CHAPTER LXXVII.
Narrative of Chúdálá and Sikhidhwaja 409
CHAPTER LXXVIII.
Beautification of Chúdálá 416
CHAPTER LXXIX.
Princess coming to the sight of the supreme soul 423
CHAPTER LXXX.
Display of the quintuple Elements 427
CHAPTER LXXXI.
Inquiry into Agni, Soma or fire and moon 438
CHAPTER LXXXII.
Yoga instructions for acquirement of the supernatural
powers of Animá-minuteness &c. 454
CHAPTER LXXXIII.
Story of the miserly Kiráta 455
CHAPTER LXXXIV.
Pilgrimage of prince Sikhidhwaja 463
CHAPTER LXXXV.
Investigation into true happiness 471
CHAPTER LXXXVI.
The production of the Pot (or the embryonic cell) 488
CHAPTER LXXXVII.
Continuation of the same and enlightenment of 492
Sikhidhwaja
CHAPTER LXXXVIII.
The tale of the Crystal gem 498
CHAPTER LXXXIX.
The Parable of an Elephant 502
CHAPTER LXXXX.
Way to obtain the Philosopher's stone 506
CHAPTER LXXXXI.
Interpretation of the parable of the Elephant 510
CHAPTER LXXXXII.
The Prince's Abjuration of his Asceticism 513
CHAPTER LXXXXIII.
Admonition of Sikhidhwaja 518
CHAPTER LXXXXIV.
Enlightenment of Sikhidhwaja 526
CHAPTER LXXXXV.
The anaesthetic Platonism of Sikhidhwaja 534
CHAPTER LXXXXVI.
Enlightenment of Sikhidhwaja 537
CHAPTER LXXXXVII.
Enlightenment of the prince in Theosophy 544
CHAPTER LXXXXVIII.
Admonition of Sikhidhwaja continued 547
CHAPTER LXXXXIX.
Remonstration of Sikhidhwaja 551
CHAPTER C.
Continuation of the same subject 555
CHAPTER CI.
Admonition of Chúdálá 559
CHAPTER CII.
Repose of Sikhidhwaja in the divine spirit 566
CHAPTER CIII.
Return of Kumbha to the Hermitage of Sikhidhwaja 568
CHAPTER CIV.
On the conduct of living-liberated men 575
CHAPTER CV.
Metamorphoses of Kumbha to a female form 580
CHAPTER CVI.
Marriage of Chúdálá with Sikhidhwaja 586
CHAPTER CVII.
The advent of false Indra in the cottage of the happy
pair 593
CHAPTER CVIII.
Manifestation of Chúdálá in her own form 597
CHAPTER CIX.
Appearance of Chúdálá in her presence of her Lord 601
CHAPTER CX.
Final extinction of Sikhidhwaja 610
CHAPTER CXI.
Story of Kacha and his enlightment by the Brihaspati 614
CHAPTER CXII.
A fanciful Being and his occupation of air drawn and
air-built abodes 619
CHAPTER CXIII.
The parable of the vain man continued 623
CHAPTER CXIV.
Sermon on Divine and Holy knowledge 626
CHAPTER CXV.
Description of the triple conduct of men 630
CHAPTER CXVI.
Melting down of the mind 636
CHAPTER CXVII.
Dialogue between Manu and Ikshaku 638
CHAPTER CXVIII.
Continuation of the same 640
CHAPTER CXIX.
The same subject continued 643
CHAPTER CXX.
Continuation of the same. On the seven stages of
Edification 645
CHAPTER CXXI.
Continuation of the same 649
CHAPTER CXXII.
The same. Manu's admonition to Ikshaku 652
CHAPTER CXXIII.
On the difference between the knowing and unknowing 655
CHAPTER CXXIV.
The story of the stag and the huntsman 656
CHAPTER CXXV.
The means of attaining the steadiness of the Turya
state 661
CHAPTER CXXVI.
Description of the spiritual state 663
CHAPTER CXXVII.
Admonition to Bharadwája 675
CHAPTER CXXVIII.
Resuscitation of Ráma 683
YOGA VASISHTHA
BOOK VI.
NIRVÁNA-PRAKARANA.
ON ULTIMATE EXTINCTION.
PÚRVÁRDHA.
OR THE FORMER OR FIRST HALF.
PART I.
CHAPTER I.
DESCRIPTION OF THE EVENING AND BREAKING
OF THE ASSEMBLY.
Argument.--The close of the day, its announcement, the court
breaks for Evening service, and the effect of the Sage's sermon on
the Audience.
Válmíki says:--You have heard the relation of the subject of Stoicism
or composure of the soul; attend now to that of Nirvána, which will
teach you how to attain the final liberation of yourselves[A].
[A] Note. Nirvána or ultimate annihilation of the living or animal
soul, being the aim and end of Buddhism, it is doubtful whether
Vasishtha had derived his doctrine from the Buddhists or they from him.
2. As the chief of Sages was saying his magniloquent speech in this
manner, and the princes remained mute with their intense attention to
the ravishing oration of the Sage:
3. The assembled chiefs remained there as silent and motionless
portraits, and forgot their devotions and duties, by being impressed in
their minds with the sense and words of the Sage's speech.
4. The assemblage of Saints, was reverently pondering upon the deep
sense of the words of the Sage, with their curled brows and signs of
their index fingers (indicating their wonder).
5. The ladies in the Seraglio were lost in wonder, and turned upward
their wondering eyes, resembling a cluster of black bees, sucking
intently the nectarious honey of the new blown flowers (of the Sage's
speech).
6. The glorious sun sank down in the sky, at the fourth or last watch
of the day; and was shorn of his radiant beams as he was setting in the
west (as a man becomes mild with his knowledge, of truth at the end of
his journey through life).
7. The winds blew softly at the eve of the day, as if to listen to the
sermon of the Sage, and wafted about the sweets of his moving speech,
like the fragrance of the gently shaking mandara flowers.
8. All other sounds were drowned in the deep meditation of the
audience, as when the humming of the bumble bees, is pushed in their
repose, amidst the cell of blooming flowers at night.
9. The bubbling waters of the pearly lakes, sparkled unmoved amidst
their embordered beds; as if they were intently attentive to listen
to the words of the Sage, which dropped as strings of pearls from his
flippant lips. (So the verse of Hafiz affixed to the title page of Sir
William Jones' Persian grammar: "Thou hast spoken thy verse, and strung
a string of pearls").
10. The pencil of the declining ray penetrating the windows of the
palace, bespoke the halting of the departing sun, under the cooling
shade of the royal canopy, after his weary journey all along the
livelong day.
11. The pearly rays (or bright beams) of the parting day, being covered
by the dust and mist of the dusk, it seemed to be besmeared as the body
of a dervish with dust and ashes; and had gained its coolness after its
journey under the burning sun (The cool and dusky eve of the day is
compared with the dust-sprinkled body of the ascetic approaching to his
cell).
12. The chiefs of men with their heads and hands decorated with
flowers, were so regaled with the sweet speech of the Sage, that they
altogether remained enrapt in their senses and minds.
13. The ladies listening to the sage, were now roused by the cries of
their infants and the birds in their cages, to get up from the place
and to give them their suck and food. (It means that the birds and
boys, were alone insensible of the Sage's discourse).
14. Now the dust flung by the pinions of fluttering bees, covered
the petals of the night blooming kumuda flowers; and the flapping
_chouries_ were now at rest, with the tremulous eyelids of the princes.
15. The rays of the sun, fearing to be waylaid by the dark night shade,
which had now got loose from the dark mountain caves, fled through the
windows to the inner apartment of the palace (which was already lighted
with lamps).
16. The time watches of the royal palace, knowing it to be passed
the fourth watch of the day, sounded aloud their drums and trumpets,
mingled with the sound of conch-shells, loudly resounding on all sides.
17. The high-sounding speech of the sage, was drowned under the loud
peal of the jarring instruments; as the sonorous sound of the peacock,
is hushed under the uproar of roaring clouds.
18. The birds in the cages, began to quake and shake their wings with
fear; and the leaves and branches of the lofty palm trees, shook in the
gardens, as by a tremendous earthquake.
19. The babes sleeping on the breasts of their nurses, trembled with
fear at the loud uproar; and they cried as the smoking clouds of the
rainy season, resounding between the two mountain craigs resembling the
breasts. (It is common in Indian poetry to compare the swelling breasts
to rising hills, and say _Kucha giri_).
20. This noise made the helmets of the chieftains, shed the dust of
their decorating flowers all about the hall; as the moving waves of the
lake, sprinkle the drops of water upon the land.[A]
[A] In this verse there is the continuation of the world shaking
understood through the intermediate steps. Thus the noise startled
the chiefs, which shook their bodies, and these shook their heads,
which caused their helmets to shake: these again shook the garlands of
flowers upon them, and at last shed their dust on the ground. This kind
of figure is called Krama mála corresponding with Metalepsis gradation;
as we have in the following instance of Dido's exclamation in Virgil.
"Happy, Oh truly happy had I been; if Trojan ships these coasts had
never seen." Here the first seeing is that of the ships and then of the
Trojans in them, and afterwards of Æneas as one among them, and then of
her seeing him, and his seeing her, and lastly of her passion at his
sight.
21. Thus the palace of Dasharatha being full of trepidation at the
close of the day, regained its quiet at the gradual fall of the fanfare
of sounding conch shells, and the hubbub of drum beatings at the
advance of night.
22. The Sage put a stop to his present discourse, and addressed Ráma
then sitting in the midst of the assembly, in a sweet voice and
graceful language. (Mudhura-Vritti is the middle or graceful style
between the high and low).
23. Vasishtha said:--O Rághava! I have already spread before you the
long net of my verbosity; do you entrap your flying mind in the same
way, and bring it to your bosom and under your subjection.
24. Take the purport of my discourse in such manner, as to leave out
what is unintelligible, and lay hold on its substance; as the swan
separates and sucks the milk which is mixed with water.
25. Ponder upon it repeatedly, and consider it well in thy mind, and
go on in this way to conduct yourself in life (_viz_ by suppression
of your desires, weakening the mind, restraining the breathing, and
acquiring of knowledge).
26. By going on in this manner, you are sure to evade all dangers; or
else you must fall ere long like the heavy elephant, in some pitfall
of the Vindhya mountain. (Pitfalls are the only means of catching
elephants).
27. If you do not receive my words with attention, and act accordingly,
you are sure to fall into the pit like a blind man left to go alone in
the dark; and to be blown away like a lighted lamp, exposed in the open
air.
28. In order to derive the benefit of my lectures, you must continue
in the discharge of your usual duties with indifference, and knowing
_insouciance_ to be the right dictum of the _sástras_, be you
regardless of everything besides.
29. Now I bid you, O mighty monarch, and ye, princes and chiefs, and
all ye present in this place, to get up and attend to the evening
services of your daily ritual. (Abnika).
30. Let all attend to this much at present, as the day is drawing to
its close; and we shall consider the rest, on our meeting in the next
morning.
31. Válmíki related:--After the Sage had said so far, the assembly
broke, off; and the assembled chiefs and princes rose up, with their
faces blooming as the full blown lotuses at the end of the day.
32. The Chiefs having paid their obeisance to the monarch, and made
their salutation to Ráma, they did their reverence to the sage, and
departed to their respective abodes.
33. Vasishtha rose up from his seat with the royal sage Viswámitra, and
they were saluted on their departure by the aerial spirits, who had
attended the audience all along.
34. The Sages were followed closely, by the king and chieftains a long
way, and they parted after accosting them, according to their rank and
dignity on the way;
35. The celestials took their leave of the sage, and betook to their
heavenward journey; and the _munis_ repaired to their hermitages in
the woods, when some of the saints turned about the palace, like bees
flying in about the lotus bush (different directions).
36. The king having offered handfuls of fresh flowers at the feet of
Vasishtha, entered the royal seraglio with his royal consorts.
37. But Ráma and his brother princes, kept company with the sage to his
hermitage; and having prostrated themselves at his feet, they returned
to their princely mansions.
38. The hearers of the sage having arrived at their houses made their
ablutions; then worshipped the gods, and offered their offerings to the
manes of their ancestors. They then treated their guests and gave alms
to beggars.
39. Then they took their meals with their Brahman guests, and members
of the family; and their dependants and servants were fed one after the
other, according to the rules and customs of their order and caste.
40. After the sun had set down, with the diurnal duties of men, there
rose the bright moon on high, with impositions of many nocturnal duties
on mankind.
41. At last the great king and the princes, and chiefs of men and the
_munis_, together with the sages and saints, and all other terrestrial
beings, betook themselves to their several beds, with silken coverlets
and bed cloths of various kinds.
42. They lay thinking intensely in themselves, on the admonitions of
the sage Vasishtha; on the mode of their passing over the boisterous
gulf of this world, by means of this spiritual knowledge.
43. Then they slept and lay with their closed eyelids, for one watch of
the night only; and then opened their eyes, like the opening buds of
lotuses, to see the light of the day.
44. Ráma and his brother princes, passed full three watches of the
night in waking; and pondering over the deep sense of the lectures,
of their spiritual guide--Vasishtha. (The present ritual allots three
watches of the night to sleep, while formerly they gave but one watch
to it).
45. They slept only one and a half watch of the night, with their
closed eye lids; and then they shook off the dullness of their sleep,
after driving the lassitude of their bodies by a short nap.
46. Now the minds of these, being full of good will, raised by the
rising reason in their souls, and knowledge of truth; they felt the
crescent of spiritual light lightening their dark bosoms, as the
sextant of the moon, illumes the gloom of night; which afterwards
disappeared at the approach of daylight, and the gathering broils of
daytime.
CHAPTER II.
ON THE PERFECT CALM AND COMPOSURE OF THE MIND.
Argument.--The sages joining the assembly the next morning, and
preaching of Divine knowledge to it.
Válmíki related: Then the shade of night, with her face as dark as that
of the darkened moon, began to waste and wane away; as the darkness of
ignorance and the mists of human wishes, vanish before the light of
reason.
2. Now the rising sun showed his crown of golden rays, on the top
of the eastern mountain, by leaving his rival darkness to take its
rest, beyond the western or his setting mount of _astáchala_ (the two
mountains mean the eastern and western horizons).
3. Now the morning breeze began to blow, being moistened by the
moon-beams, and bearing the particles of ice, as if to wash the face
and eyes of the rising sun.
4. Now rose Ráma and Lakshmana, with their attendants also, from their
beds and couches; and after discharging their morning services, they
repaired to the holy hermitage of Vasishtha.
5. There they saw the Sage coming out of his closet, after discharge
of his morning devotion; and worshipped his feet with offerings of
_arghya_ (or flowers and presents worthy of him).
6. In a moment afterwards, the hermitage of the Sage was thronged by
_munis_ and Bráhmans, and the other princes and chiefs, whose vehicles
and cars and horses and elephants, blocked the pathways altogether.
7. Then the Sage being accompanied by these, and attended by their
suite and armies; and followed by Ráma and his brothers, was escorted
to the palace of the Sovereign King Dasaratha.
8. The king who had discharged his morning service, hastened to
receive the Sage before hand; and walked a great way to welcome him,
and do him honour and pay his homage.
9. They entered the court hall, which was adorned with flowers and
strings of gems and pearls; and there they seated themselves on the
rich sofas and seats, which were set in rows for their reception.
10. In a short time the whole audience of the last day, composed both
of the terrestrial men and celestial spirits, were all assembled at the
spot, and seated in their respective seats of honor.
11. All these entered that graceful hall, and saluted one another
with respect; and then the royal court shone as brilliant as a bed of
blooming lotuses, gently moved by the fanning breeze.
12. The mixed assemblage of the _munis_ and _rishis_ or the saints and
Sages, and the _Vipras_ and _Rájas_ or the Bráhmans and Kshatriyas, sat
in proper order, on seats appropriated for all of them.
13. The soft sounds of their mutual greetings and welcomes, gradually
faded away; and the sweet voice of the panegyrists and encomiasts,
sitting in a corner of the hall, was all hushed and lulled to silence.
14. The sun-beams appearing through the chinks in the windows, seemed
to be waiting in order to join the audience, and to listen to the
lectures of the Sage. (Another translation has it thus:--The audience
crept in the hall, no sooner the sun-beams peeped through the windows).
15. The jingling sound of bracelets, caused by the shaking of hands of
the visitors in the hall; was likely to lull to sleep the hearers of
the sage. (It was a custom in olden times, to make a tinkling sound to
ear, in order to lull one to sleep, as by a kind of mesmerism).
16. Then as Kumára looked reverently on the countenance of his sire
Siva, and as Kacha looked with veneration upon the face of the
preceptor of the God or Brihaspati; and as Prahlada gazed upon the face
of Shukra--the preceptor of demons, and as Suparna viewed the visage of
Krishna.
17. So did Ráma gloat upon the countenance of Vasishtha, and his
eye-balls rolled upon it, like the black bees fluttering about a full
blown lotus.
18. The sage resumed the link of his last lecture, and delivered his
eloquent speech to Ráma, who was well versed in eloquence also.
19. Vasishtha said:--Do you remember Ráma! the lecture that I gave
yesterday, which was fraught with deep sense and knowledge of
transcendental truth?
20. I will now tell you of some other things for your instruction, and
you shall have to hear it with attention, for consummation of your
spiritual wisdom.
21. Whereas it is the habit of dispassionateness, and the knowledge of
truth; whereby we are enabled to ford over the boisterous ocean of the
world, you must learn therefore, O Ráma! to practice and gain these
betimes.
22. Your full knowledge of all truth, will drive away your bias in
untruth; and your riddance from all desire, will save you from all
sorrow. (Desire is a burning fire, but want of yearning is want of pain
and sorrowing).
23. There exists but one Brahma, unbounded by space and time; He is
never limited by either of them; and is the world himself, though it
appears to be a distinct duality beside Him.
24. Brahma abides in all infinity and eternity, and is not limited
in any thing; He is tranquil and shines with equal effulgence on
all bodies; He cannot be any particular thing, beside his nature of
universality.
25. Knowing the nature of Brahma as such, be you freed from the
knowledge of your egoism (personality); and knowing yourself as the
same with him, think yourself as bodiless and as great as he; and thus
enjoy the tranquillity and felicity of your soul.
26. There is neither the mind nor the _avidyá_ (or ignorance), nor
the living principle, as distinct things in reality; they are all
fictitious terms (for the one and same nameless Brahma himself).
27. It is the self-same Brahma, that exhibits himself in the forms of
our enjoyments, in the faculties of enjoying them, in our desires and
appetites for the same, and in the mind also for their perception. The
great Brahma that is without beginning and end, underlies them all, as
the great ocean surrounds the earth (and supplies its moisture to every
thing upon it).
28. The same Brahma is seen in the form of his intellect (or wisdom) in
heavens, on earth and in the infernal regions, as also in the vegetable
and animal creations; and there is nothing else beside him.
29. The same Brahma, who has no beginning nor end, spreads himself like
the boundless and unfathomable ocean, under all bodies and things;
and in whatever we deem as favourable and unfavourable to us, as our
friends and our enemies.
30. The fiction of the mind, like that of a dragon, continues so long,
as we are subject to the error and ignorance of taking these words for
real things; and are unacquainted with the knowledge of Brahma (as
pervading all existence).
31. The error of the mind and its perceptibles, continues as long as
one believes his personality to consist in his body; and understands
the phenomenal world as a reality; and has the selfishness to think
such and such things to be his (since there is nothing which actually
belongs to any body, besides its temporary use).
32. So long as you do not raise yourself, by the counsel and in the
society of the wise and good; and as long as you do not get rid of your
ignorance; you cannot escape from the meanness of your belief in the
mind.
33. So long as you do not get loose of your worldly thoughts, and have
the light of the universal spirit before your view; you cannot get rid
of the contracted thoughts of your mind, yourself and the world.
34. As long as there is the blindness of ignorance, and one's
subjection to worldly desires; so long there is the delusion of
falsehood also, and the fictions of the fallacious mind.
35. As long as the exhalation of yearnings infest the forest of the
heart, the _chakora_ or parrot of reason will never resort to it; but
fly far away from the infected air.
36. The errors of thought disappear from that mind, which is unattached
to sensual enjoyments; which is cool with its pure inappetency, and
which has broken loose from its net of avarice.
37. He who has got rid of his thirst and delusion of wealth, and who
is conscious of the inward coolness of his soul, and who possesses the
tranquillity of his mind; such a person is said to have fled from the
province of his anxious thought.
38. He who looks upon unsubstantial things, as unworthy of his regard
and _reliance_; and who looks upon his body as extraneous to himself;
is never misled by the thoughts of his mind.
39. He who meditates on the infinite mind, and sees all forms of things
as ectypes of the universal soul; and who views the world absorbed in
himself; is never misled by the erroneous conception of the living
principle.
40. The partial view of a distinct mind and a living principle, serves
but to mislead a man (to the knowledge of erroneous particulars); all
which vanish away, at the sight of the rising sun of the one universal
soul.
41. Want of the partial view of the mind, gives the full view of one
undivided soul; which consumes the particulars, as the vivid fire burns
away the dry leaves of trees, and as the sacrificial fire consumes the
oblations of ghee or clarified butter.
42. Those men of great souls, who have known the supreme one, and
are self-liberated in their lifetime; have their minds without their
essences, and which are therefore called _asatwas_ or nonentities.
(These minds, says the gloss, are as the watermarks on the sand, after
a channel is dried up (or its waters have receded); meaning that the
mind remains in its print but not in its substance).
43. The body of the living liberated man, has a mind employed in its
duties, but freed from its desires; such minds are not _chittas_ or
active agents, but mere _sattwas_ or passive objects. They are no
more self-volitive free agents, but are acted upon by their paramount
duties. (Free will is responsible for its acts, but compulsion has no
responsibility).
44. They that know the truth, are mindless and unmindful of everything
save their duty; they rove about at pleasure and discharge their duties
by rote and practice, in order any object to gain.
45. They are calm and cold with all their actions and in all their
dealings; they have the members of their bodies and their senses under
full control, and know no desire nor duality.
46. The saint having his sight fixed upon his inner soul, sees the
world burnt down as straws by the fire of his intellect; and finds
his erroneous conceptions of the mind, to fly far away from it, like
flitting flies from a conflagration.
47. The mind which is purified by reason, is called the _sattwa_ as
said above, and does not give rise to error; as the fried paddy seed,
is not productive of the plant (The sattwa mind is spiritless and dead
in itself).
48. The word Sattwa means the contrary of Chitta, which latter is
used in lexicons to mean the mind, that has the quality of being
reborn on account of its actions and desires. (The chitta is defined
as the living seed of the mind, and productive of acts and future
regenerations, which the Sattwa or deadened mind cannot do).
49. You have to attain the attainable _Sattwa_ or torpid state of your
mind, and to have the seed of your active mind or _chitta_, singed by
the blaze of your spiritual mind or sattwa.
50. The minds of the learned, which are lighted by reason, are melted
down at once to liquidity; but those of the ignorant which are hardened
by their worldly desires, will not yield to the force of fire and
steel; but continue still to sprout up as the grass, the more they are
mowed and put on fire. (The over-growing grass in the fields, though
set on fire, will grow again from their unburnt roots, and became as
rank as before).
51. Brahma is vast expanse, and such being the vastness of the universe
too there is no difference between them; and the intellect of Brahma is
as full as the fulness of his essence.
52. The Divine Intellect contains the three worlds, as the pepper
has its pungency within itself. Therefore the triple world is not a
distinct thing from Brahma, and its existence and inexistence (_i.e._,
its creation and dissolution), are mere fictions of human mind. (It is
ever existent in the eternal mind).
53. It is the use of popular language, to speak of existence and
non-existence as different things; but they are never so in reality to
the right understanding. Since whatever is or is not in being, is ever
present in the Divine Mind.
53a. This being a vacuity, contains all things in their vacuous
state (which is neither the state of sensible existence, nor that of
intellectual inexistence either). God as the Absolute, Eternal, and
Spiritual substance, is as void as Thought. (The universe is a thought
in the mind of God, and existence is thought and activity in the Divine
Mind. Aristotle).
54. If you disbelieve in the intellectual, you can have no belief
in your spirituality also; then why fear to die for fear of future
retribution, when you leave your body behind to turn to dust. Tell me
Ráma! how can you imagine the existence of the world in absence of the
intellectual principle. (There can be no material world, without the
immaterial mind; nor can you think of it, if you have no mind in you).
55. But if you find by the reasoning of your mind, all things to be
mere intellections of the intellect at all times; then say why do you
rely on the substantiality of your body.
56. Remember Ráma, your pellucid intellectual and spiritual form, which
has no limit nor part of it, but is an unlimited and undivided whole;
and mistake not yourself for a limited being by forgetting your true
nature.
57. Thinking yourself as such, take all the discreet parts of the
universe as forming one concrete whole; and this is the substantial
intellect of Brahma.
58. Thou abidest in the womb of thy intellect, and art neither this nor
that nor any of the many discrete things interspersed in the universe.
Thou art as thou art and last as the _End_ and _Nil_ in thy obvious and
yet thy hidden appearances.
59. Thou art contained under no particular category, nor is there any
predicable which may be predicated of thee. Yet thou art the substance
of every predicament in thy form of the solid, ponderous and calm
intellect; and I salute thee in that form of thine.
60. Thou art without beginning and end, and abidest with thy body of
solid intellect, amidst the crystal sphere of thy creation, and shining
as the pure and transparent sky. Thou art calm and quiet, and yet
displayest the wondrous world, as the seed vessel shows the wooden of
vegetation.
CHAPTER III.
ON THE UNITY AND UNIVERSALITY OF BRAHMA.
Argument.--Showing the identity of Brahma with the Mind, Living Soul,
the body and the world and all things and extirpation of all dualisms,
by the establishment of one universality.
Vasishtha continued:--As the countless waves, which are continually
rising and falling in the Sea, are no other than its water assuming
temporary forms to view; so the intellect exhibits the forms of endless
worlds heaving in itself; and know, O sinless Ráma! this intellect
to be thy very self or soul. (All personal souls are selfsame with
the impersonal Self; because it is in the power of both the finite
and infinite souls to produce and reduce the appearance of the worlds
in them, which proves them beyond any doubt as the Chidátmá or the
Intellectual soul).
2. Say thou that hast the intellectual soul, what relation doth thy
immaterial soul bear to the material world, and being freed from thy
earthly cares, how canst thou entertain any earthly desire or affection
in it. (The spiritual soul has no concern with the material world).
3. It is the Intellect which manifests itself in the forms of living
soul or jíva, mind and its desires, and the world and all things; say
then what else can it be, to which all these properties are to be
attributed (if not to the eternal intellect).
4. The intellect of the Supreme Spirit, is as a profound sea with its
huge surges; and yet, O Ráma! it is as calm and cool as thy soul, and
as bright and clear, as the transparent firmament.
5. As the heat is not separate from fire, and the fragrance not apart
from the flower; and as blackness is inseparable from collyrium, and
whiteness from the ice; and as sweet is inborn in the sugarcane, so is
intellection inherent in, and unseparated from the intellect.
6. As the light is nothing distinct from the sun-beams, so is
intellection no other than the intellect itself; and as the waves are
no way distinct from the water; so the universe is in no ways different
or disjoined from the nature of the intellect, which contains the
universe. (The noumenon contains the phenomenon, and become manifest as
the world).
7. The ideas are not apart from the intellect, nor is the ego distinct
from the idea of it; the mind is not different from the ego, nor is the
living soul any other than the mind.
8. The senses are not separate from the mind, and the body is not
unconnected with the senses; the world is the same as the body, and
there is nothing apart from the world. (The body is the microcosm of
the cosmos [Sanskrit: shuddhabrahmánanda]).
9. Thus the great sphere of universe, is no other than the unbounded
sphere of intellect; and they are nothing now done or made, or ever
created before (for whatever there is or comes to pass, continues
forever in the presence of the intellect).
10. Our knowledge of every thing, is but our reminiscence of the same;
and this is to continue for evermore, in the manner of all partial
spaces, being contained in infinity, without distinction of their
particular localities. (All spaces of place occupied by bodies, are
contained in the infinite and unoccupied vacuity of Mind).
11. As all spaces are contained in the endless vacuity, so the vastness
of Brahma is contained in the immensity of Brahma; and as truth resides
in verity, so in this plenum contained, is the plenitude of Divine
mind. (Here Brahma the great means by figure of metonymy, the Brahmánda
or vastness of his creation).
12. Seeing the forms of outward things, the intelligent man never takes
them to his mind; it is the ignorant only, that set their minds to the
worthless things of this world.
13. They are glad to long after what they approve of, for their trouble
only in this world; but he who takes these things as nothing, remains
free from the pleasure and pain of having or not having them. (So said
the wise Socrates:--How many things are here, which I do not want).
14. The apparent difference of the world and the soul of the world, is
as false in reality, as the meaning of the words sky and skies, which
though taken in their singular and plural senses, still denote the same
uniform vacuity. (So the one soul is viewed as many in appearance only).
15. He who remains with the internal purity of his vacant mind,
although he observes the customary differences of external things,
remains yet as unaffected by the feelings of pain and pleasure, as the
insensible block of wood and stone (with his stoical indifference in
joy and grief).
16. He who sees his blood-thirsty enemy in the light of a true friend,
is the person that sees rightly into the nature of things. (Because the
killers of our lives, are the givers of our immortality).
17. As the river uproots the big trees on both its sides, by its
rapid currents and deluge; so doth the dispassionate man destroys the
feelings of his joy and grief to their very roots.
18. The sage that knows not the nature of the passions and affections,
and does not guard himself from their impulse and emotions, is unworthy
of the veneration, which awaits upon the character of saints and sages.
19. He who has not the sense of his egoism, and whose mind is not
attached to this world; saves his soul from death and confinement,
after his departure from this world. (There is a similar text in the
Bhagavadgítá, and it is hard to say which is the original one and which
is the copy).
20. The belief in one's personality, is as false as one's faith in
an unreality, which does not exist; and this wrong notion of its
existence, is removed only by one's knowledge of the error, and his
riddance from it.
21. He who has extinguished the ardent desire of his mind, like
the flame of an oilless lamp; and who remains unshaken under all
circumstances, stands as the image of a mighty conqueror of his enemies
in painting or statue.
22. O Ráma! that man is said to be truly liberated, who is unmoved
under all circumstances, and has nothing to gain or lose in his
prosperity or adversity, nor any thing to elate or depress him in
either state.
CHAPTER IV.
Argument.--Vasishtha exposes the evils of selfish views
_parág-drishti_, and exalts the merit of elevated views
_pratyag-drishti_.
Vasishtha continued:--Ráma! knowing your mind, understanding, egoism
and all your senses, to be insensible of themselves, and deriving their
sensibility from the intellect; say how can your living soul and the
vital breaths, have any sensation of their own.
2. It is the one great soul, that infuses its power to those different
organs; as the one bright sun dispenses his light, to all the various
objects in their diverse colours.
3. As the pangs of the poisonous thirst after worldly enjoyments, come
to an end; so the insensibility of ignorance, flies away like darkness
at the end of the night.
4. It is the incantation of spiritual knowledge only, that is able to
heal the pain of baneful avarice; as it is in the power of autumn only,
to dispel the clouds of the rainy-season.
5. It is the dissipation of ignorance, which washes the mind of its
attendant desires; as it is the disappearance of the rainy weather,
which scatters the clouds in the sky.
6. The mind being weakened to unmindfulness, loses the chain of its
desires from it; as a necklace of pearls being loosened from its broken
string, tosses the precious gems all about the ground.
7. Ráma! they that are unmindful of the sástras, and mind to undermine
them; resemble the worms and insects, that mine the ground wherein they
remain.
8. The fickle eye-sight of the idle and curious gazer on all things,
becomes motionless after their ignorant curiosity is over and has
ceased to stir; as the shaking lotus of the lake becomes steady, after
the gusts of wind have passed away and stopped.
9. You have got rid, O Ráma! of your thought of all entities and
non-entities, and found your steadiness in the ever-steady unity of
God; as the restless winds mix at last with the calm vacuum (after
their blowing and breathing over the solid earth, and in the hollow
sky).
10. I ween you have been awakened to sense, by these series of my
sermons to you; as kings are awakened from their nightly sleep, by the
sound of their eulogists and the music of timbrels.
11. Seeing that common people of low understandings, are impressed by
the preachings of their parish parsons; I have every reason to believe
that my sermons must make their impression, upon the good understanding
of Ráma.
12. As you are in the habit of considering well, the good counsel of
others in your mind; so I doubt not, that my counsel will penetrate
your mind, as the cool rain-water enters into the parched ground of the
earth.
13. Knowing me as your family priest, and my family as the spiritual
guides of Raghus race for ever; you must receive with regard my good
advices to you, and set my words as a neck-chain to your heart.
CHAPTER V.
Argument.--Ráma's relation to Vasishtha, of his perfect rest in
godliness.
Ráma said:--O my venerable guide! My retrospection of your sermons, has
set my mind to perfect rest, and I see the traps and turmoils of this
world before me, with a quite indifferent and phlegmatic mind.
2. My soul has found its perfect tranquillity in the Supreme Spirit, is
as the parched ground is cooled by a snow or of rainfall after a long
and painful drought.
3. I am as cool as coldness itself, and feel the felicity of an entire
unity in myself; and my mind has become as tranquil and transparent, as
the limpid lake that is undisturbed by elephants.
4. I see the whole plenum of the universe, O sage! in its pristine pure
light; and as clear as the face of the wide extended firmament, without
the dimness of frost or mist.
5. I am now freed from my doubts, and exempted from the mirage of the
world; I am equally aloof from affections, and have become as pure and
serene, as the lake and sky in autumn.
6. I have found that transport in my inmost soul, which knows no bound
nor decay; and have the enjoyment of that _gusto_, which defies the
taste of the ambrosial draught of gods.
7. I am now set in the truth of actual existence, and my repose in the
joyous rest of my soul. I have become the delight of mankind and my own
joy in myself, which makes me thank my felicitous self, and you also
for giving me this blessing. (The Sruti says, Heavenly bliss is the
delight of men, and the heartfelt joy of every body).
8. My heart has become as expanded and pure, as the expanse of limpid
lakes in autumn; and my mind hath become as cold and serene, as the
clear and humid sky in the season of autumn.
9. Those doubts and coinings of imagination, which mislead the blind,
have now fled afar from me; as the fear of ghosts appearing in the
dark, disappear at the light of day-break.
10. How can there be the speck or spot of impurity, in the pure and
enlightened soul; and how can the doubts of the objective nature,
arise in the subjective mind? All these errors vanish to naught, like
darkness before moon light.
11. All these appearances appearing in various forms, are but the
diverse manifestations of the self-same soul; it is therefore a fallacy
to suppose, this is one thing and that another, by our misjudgment of
them.
12. I smile to think in myself, the miserable slave of my desires that
I had been before; that am now so well satisfied without them. (The
privation of desire gives greater satisfaction than its fulfilment).
13. I remember now how my single and solitary self, is one and all with
the universal soul of the world; since I received my baptism with the
ambrosial fluid of thy words.
14. O the highest and holiest station, which I have now attained to;
and from where I behold the sphere of the sun, to be situated as low as
the infernal region.
15. I have arrived at the world of sober reality and existence, from
that of unreality and seeming existence. I therefore thank my soul,
that has became so elevated and adorable with its fulness of the Deity.
16. O venerable Sage:--I am now situated in everlasting joy, and far
removed from the region of sorrow; by the sweet sound of the honeyed
words, which have crept like humming bees, into the pericarp of my
lotus-like heart.
CHAPTER VI.
Argument:--Prevalence and influence of delirium (moha).
Vasishtha Continued--Hear me moreover to tell you, my dear Ráma, some
excellent sayings for your good, and also for the benefit of every one
of my audience here.
2. Though you are unlike others, in the greater enlightenment of your
understanding; yet my lecture will equally edify your knowledge, as
that of the less enlightened men than yourself.
3. He who is so senseless as to take his body for the soul, is soon
found to be upset by his unruly senses; as a charioteer is thrown down
by his head-strong and restive horses. (So says the Sruti also. "The
soul is the charioteer of the vehicle of the body, and the senses are
as its horses").
4. But the Sapient man who knows the bodiless soul and relies therein,
has all his senses under the subjection of his soul; and they do not
overthrow him, as obstinate horses do their riders.
5. He who praises no object of enjoyment, but rather finds fault with
all of them, and discerns well their evils; enjoys the health of his
body without any complaint. (The voluptuary is subject to diseases, but
the abstinent is free from them; for in the midst of pleasure there is
pain).
6. The soul has no relation with the body, nor is the body related with
the soul; they are as unrelated to each other as the light and shade.
(And are opposed to one another as sun-light and darkness).
7. The discrete soul is distinct from concrete matter, and free from
material properties and accidents; the soul is ever shining and does
not rise or set as the material sun and moon (and it never changes as
the everchanging objects of changeful nature and mind).
8. The body is a dull mass of vile matter, it is ignorant of itself
and its own welfare; it is quite ungrateful to the soul, that makes
it sensible; therefore it well deserves its fate of diseases and final
dissolution. (The body is frail, and is at best but a fading flower).
9. How can the body be deemed an intelligent thing, when the
knowledge of the one (_i.e._, the soul) as intelligence, proves the
other (_i.e._, the body) to be but a dull mass. They cannot both be
intelligent, when the nature of the one is opposite to that of the
other; and if there is no difference between them, they would become
one and the same thing (_i.e._ the soul equal with the body, which is
impossible).
10. But how is it then, that they mutually reciprocate their feelings
of pain and pleasure to one another, unless they are the one and
the same thing, and participating of the same properties? (This is
a presumptive objection of the antagonistic doctrine, touching the
co-relation of the mind and body).
11. It is impossible, Ráma, for the reciprocation of their feelings,
that never agree in their natures; the gross body has no connection
with the subtile soul, nor has the rarefied soul any relation with the
solid body. (It is the gross mind that sympathises with the body, and
not the unconnected spirit or soul).
12. The presence of the one, nullifies the existence of the opposite
other; as in the cases of day and night, of darkness and light, and of
knowledge and ignorance (which are destructive of their opposites).
13. The unbodied soul presides over all bodies, without its adherence
to any; as the omnipresent spirit of Brahma, pervades throughout all
nature, without coalescing with any visible object. (The spirit of God
resides in all, and is yet quite detached from everything).
14. The embodied soul is as unattached to the body, as the dew drop on
the lotus leaf is disjoined with the leaf; and as the divine spirit is
quite unconnected with everything, which it fills and supports.
15. The Soul residing in the body, is as unaffected by its affections,
as the sky remains unmoved, by the motion of the winds raging in its
bosom. It is figuratively said, that tempests rend the skies, and the
passions rend their recipient bosom; but nothing can disturb the empty
vacuity of the sky or soul.
16. Knowing your soul to be no part of your body, rest quietly in it to
eternity; but believing yourself as the body, be subject to repeated
transmigrations of it in endless forms.
17. The visibles are viewed as the rising and falling waves, in the
boundless ocean of the Divine soul; but reliance in the supreme soul,
will show the light of the soul only.
18. This bodily frame is the product of the Divine soul, as the wave
is produced of the water of the sea; and though the bodies are seen to
move about as waves, yet their receptacle the soul is ever as steady as
the sea;--the reservoir of the moving waves.
19. The body is the image of the soul, as the sun seen in the waves is
the reflection of that luminary; and though the body like the reflected
sun, is seen to be moving and waving, yet its archetype--the soul, is
ever as steady as the fixed and unfluctuating sun in the sky.
20. The error of the substantiality and stability of the body is put to
flight, no sooner the light of the permanent and spiritual Substratum
of the soul, comes to shine over our inward sight. (Knowledge of the
immaterial and immortal soul, removes the blunder of the material and
mortal body).
21. The body appears to be in the act of constant motion and rotation
like a wheel, to the partial and unspiritual observers of materialism;
and it is believed by them to be perpetually subject to birth and
death, like the succession of light and darkness. (Lit.:--As candle
light and darkness follow each other, so is the body produced and
dissolved by turns).
22. These unspiritual men, that are unconscious of their souls; are as
shallow and empty minded, as _arjuna_ trees; which grow without any
pith and marrow within them.
23. Dull headed men that are devoid of intelligence, are as
contemptible as the grass on the ground; and they move their limbs like
the blades of grass, which are moved by force of the passing wind (and
by direction of the Judging mind). Those that are unacquainted with the
intelligent soul, resemble the senseless and hollow bamboos, which
shake and whistle by breath of the winds alone. (The internal air moves
the body and the limbs, as the external breeze shakes the trees).
24. The unintelligent body and limbs, are actuated to perform and
display their several acts, by action of the vital breath; as the
vacillation of the insensible trees and leaves, is caused by the motion
of the breeze; and both of them cease to move, no sooner the current
airs cease to agitate them.
25. These dull bodies are as the boisterous waves of the sea, heaving
with huge shapes with tremendous noise; and appearing to sight as the
figures of drunken men, staggering with draughts of the luscious juice
of Vine.
26. These witless men resemble the rapid currents of rivers, which
without a jot of sense in them, keep up on their continual motion, to
no good to themselves or others.
27. It is from their want of wit, that they are reduced to utmost
meanness and misery; which make them groan and sigh like the blowing
bellows of the blacksmith.
28. Their continued motion is of no real good to themselves, but brings
on their quietus like the calm after the storm; they clash and clang
like the twang of the bowstring, without the dart to hit at the mark.
29. The life of the unintelligent man, is only for its extinction or
death; and its desire of fruition is as false, as the fruit of an
unfruitful tree in the woody forest.
30. Seeking friendliness in unintelligent men, is as wishing to rest or
sleep on a burning mountain; and the society of the unintellectual, is
as associating with the headless trunks of trees in a forest (The weak
headed man like the headless tree, can neither afford any sheltering
shade, nor nourishing fruit to the passenger. So the verse: It is vain
to expect any good or gain, from men of witless and shallow brain).
31. Doing any service to the ignorant and lack witted men goes for
nothing; and is as vain as beating the bush or empty air with a stick:
and any thing given to the senseless, is as something thrown into the
mud. (Or as casting pearls before the swine, or scattering grains in
the bushes).
32. Talking with the ignorant, is as calling the dogs from a distance
(which is neither heard nor heeded by them). Ignorance is the seat
of evils, which never betide the sensible and the wise. (So the
Hitopadesa--A hundred evils and thousand fears, daily befall to the
fool, and not to the heedful wise).
33. The wise pass over all errors in their course amidst the world;
but the ignorant are exposed to incessant troubles, in their ceaseless
ardour to thrive in the pleasures of life.
34. As the carriage wheel revolves incessantly, about the axle to which
it is fixed; so the body of man turns continually about the wealthy
family, to which the foolish mind is fixed for gain.
35. The ignorant fool can never get rid of his misery, so long as he is
fast bound to the belief of taking his body as his soul, and knowing no
spiritual soul besides.
36. How is it possible for the infatuated, to be freed from their
delusion; when their minds are darkened by illusion, and their eyes are
blind-folded, by the hood-wink of unreal appearance.
37. The seeing man or looker on sights, that regales his eyes with
the sight of unrealities; is at last deluded by them, as a man is
moonstruck by fixing his eyes on the moon, and becomes giddy with the
profuse fragrance of flowers.
38. As the watering of the ground, tends to the growth of grass and
thorns and thistles; so the fostering of the body, breeds the desires
in the heart, as thick as reptiles grow in the hollow of trees; and
they invigorate the mind in the form of a rampant lion or elephant.
39. The ignorant foster their hopes of heaven on the death of their
bodies; as the farmer expects a plenteous harvest, from his well
cultivated fields (_i.e._ expectation of future heaven is vain, by
means of ceremonial acts in life).
40. The greedy hell-hounds are glad to look upon the ignorant, that are
fast-bound in the coils of their serpentine desires; as the thirsty
peacocks are pleased to gaze on the black clouds, that rise before
their eyes in the rainy season.
41. These beauties with their glancing eyes, resembling the fluttering
bees of summer, and with lips blooming as the new blown leaves of
flowers; are flaunting to catch hold of ignorant men; as poisonous
plants are displayed, to lay hold on ignorant flies.
42. The plant of desire, which shoots out of the goodly soil of
ignorant minds, shelters the flying passions under its shady foliage;
as the coral plants foster the coral insects in them. (The corallines
are known to be the formation of coral insects).
43. Enmity is like a wild fire, it consumes the arbour of the body, and
lets out the smoke through the orifice of the mouth in the desert land
of the heart, and exhibits the rose of the heath as the burning cinders.
44. The mind of the ignorant is as a lake of envy, covered with the
leaves of spite and calumny: jealousy is its lotus-bed, and the anxious
thoughts are as the bees continually fluttering thereupon.
45. The ignorant man that is subjected to repeated births, and is
rising and falling as waves in the tumultuous ocean of this world, is
exposed also to repeated deaths: and the burning fire which engulphs
his dead body, is as in the submarine fire of this sea.
46. The ignorant are exposed to repeated births, attended by the
vicissitudes of childhood, youth, manhood and old age, and followed
at last by a painful death and cremation of the beloved body on the
funeral pile.
47. The ignorant body is like a diving bucket, tied by the rope of
transmigration to the Hydraulic machine of acts; to be plunged and
lifted over again, in and over the dirty pool of this world.
48. This world which is a plane pavement and but narrow hole (lit., a
cow foot-cave) to the wise, by their unconsciousness of it; appears as
a boundless and unfathomable sea to the ignorant, owing to their great
concern about it. (The wise think lightly of the world; but the worldly
take it heavily upon themselves).
49. The ignorant are devoid of their eye-sight, to look out beyond
their limited circle; as the birds long confined in their cages, have
no mind to fly out of them.
50. The revolution of repeated births, is like the constant rotation
of the wheel of a chariot; and there is no body that is able to stop
their motion, by restraining his earthly desires; which are ever
turning as the spokes affixed to nave of the heart.
51. The ignorant wander at large, about the wide extended earth; as
huntsmen rove amidst the forest, in search of their prey; until they
become a prey at the hand of death, and make the members of their
bodies as morsels, to the vultures of their sensual appetites.
52. The sights of these mountainous bodies, and of these material forms
made of earthly flesh, are mistaken by the ignorant for realities; as
they mistake the figures in painting for real persons.
53. How flourishing is the arbour of this delusion, which is fraught
with the endless objects of our erroneous imagination; and hath
stretched out these innumerable worlds from our ignorance of them.
54. How flourishing is the _kalpa_ tree or all fruitful arbour of
delusion; which is ever fraught with endless objects of our imaginary
desire, and stretches out the infinite worlds to our erroneous
conception as its leaves.
55. Here our prurient minds like birds of variegated colours, rest and
remain and sit and sport, in and all about this arbour.
56. Our acts are the roots of our repeated births as the stem of the
tree is of its shoots; our prosperity and properties are the flowers
of this arbor, and our virtues and vices are as its fruits of good and
evil.
57. Our wives are as the tender plants, that thrive best under the
moon-light of delusion; and are the most beautiful things to behold in
this desert land of the earth.
58. As the darkness of ignorance prevails over the mind, soon after the
setting of the sun light of reason; there rises the full moon of errors
in the empty mind, with all her changing phases of repeated births.
(This refers to the dark ages of Puránic or mythological fictions, and
also to the Dárshanic or philosophical systems which succeeded the
age of Vedántic light, and were full of changeable doctrines, like
the phases of the moon; whence she is styled _dwija_ or _mistress_ of
digits. There is another figure of equivocation in the word _doshah_,
meaning the night as well as the defect of ignorance).
59. It is under the influence of the cooling moon-light of ignorance;
that our minds foster the fond desire of worldly enjoyments; and like
the _chakora_ birds of night, drink their fill of delight as ambrosial
moon-beams. (The ignorant are fond of pleasures, and where ignorance is
bliss, it is foolish to be wise).
60. It is under this delusion, that men view their beloved ones as
buds of roses and lotuses, and their loose glancing eyes, as the black
bees fluttering at random; they see the sable clouds in the braids and
locks of their hair, and a glistening fire in their glowing bosoms and
breasts.
61. It is delusion, O Ráma! that depicts the fairies with the beams of
fair moon-light nights; though they are viewed by the wise, in their
true light of being as foul as the darkest midnight.
62. Know Ráma, the pleasures of the world, to be as the pernicious
fruits of ignorance; which are pleasant to taste at first, but prove
to be full of bitter gall at last. It is therefore better to destroy
this baneful arbour, than to lose the life and soul by the mortal taste
of its fruits. (It is the fruit of the tree of ignorance rather than
that of knowledge, which brought death into the world and all our woe.
Milton).
CHAPTER VII.
Argument:--The effects of ignorance, shown in the evils brought on by
our vain desires and fallacies or erroneous judgments.
Vasishtha continued. These beauties that are so decorated with precious
gems and jewels, and embellished with the strings of brilliant pearls,
are as the playful billows in the milky ocean of the moon-beams of our
fond desires.
2. The sidelong looks of the beautiful eyes in their faces, look like a
cluster of black bees, sitting on the pericarp of a full blown lotus.
3. These beauties appear as charming, to the enslaved minds of deluded
men; and as the vernal flowers which are strewn upon the ground in
forest lands.
4. Their comely persons which are compared with the moon, the lotus
flower, and sandal paste for their coolness by fascinated minds; are
viewed as indifferently by the wise, as by the insensible beasts
which make a prey of them. (Lit. by the rapacious wolves and dogs and
vultures which devour them).
5. Their swollen breasts which are compared with lotus-buds, ripe
pomegranates and cups of gold, are viewed by the wise as a lump of
flesh and blood and nauseous liquor.
6. Their fleshy lips, distilling the impure saliva and spittle, are
said to exude with ambrosial honey, and to bear resemblance with the
ruby and coral and vimba fruits.
7. Their arms with the crooked joints of the wrists and loins, and
composed of hard bones in the inside, are compared with creeping
plants, by their infatuated admirers and erotic poets.
8. Their thick thighs are likened to the stems of lumpish plantain
trees, and the decorations of their protuberant breasts, are resembled
to the strings of flowers, hung upon the turrets of temples.
9. Women are pleasant at first, but become quarrelsome afterwards;
and then fly away in haste, like the goddess of fortune; and yet they
are desired by the ignorant. (But when the old woman frets, let her go
alone).
10. The minds of the ignorant, are subject to many pains and pleasures
in this life; and the forest of their misdeeds, shoots forth in a
thousand branches, bearing the woeful fruits of misery only. (The tree
of sin brought death into the world and all our woe. Milton).
11. The ignorant are fast bound in the net of their folly, and their
ritual functions are the ropes, that lead them to the prison-house of
the world. The words of their lips, like the _mantras_ and musical
words of their mouths, are the more for their bewilderment. (The
ignorant are enslaved by their ritualistic rites; but the Sages are
enfranchised by their spiritual knowledge).
12. The overspreading mist of ignorance, stretches out a maze of
ceremonial rites, and envelopes the minds of common people in utter
darkness; as the river Yamuná overflows its banks with its dark waters.
13. The lives of the ignorant, which are so pleasant with their
tender affections, turn out as bitter as the juice of hemlock, when
the affections are cut off by the strong hand of death (_i.e._, the
pleasures of life are embittered by the loss of relatives).
14. The senseless rabble are driven and carried away, like the withered
and shattered leaves of trees, by the ever blowing winds of their
pursuits; which scatter them all about as the dregs of earth, and
bespatter them with the dirt and dust of their sins.
15. All the world is as a ripe fruit in the mouth of death, whose
voracious belly is never filled with all its ravages, for millions and
millions of kalpa ages. (The womb of death is never full).
16. Men are as the cold bodies and creeping reptiles of the earth, and
they crawl and creep continually in their crooked course, by breathing
the vital air, as the snakes live upon the current air. (Serpents are
said to live a long time without food, simply by inhaling the open air).
17. The time of youth passes as a dark night, without the moon-light
of reason; and is infested by the ghosts of wicked thoughts and evil
desires.
18. The flippant tongue within the mouth, becomes faint with cringing
flattery; as the pistil rising from the seed vessel, becomes languid
under the freezing frost.
19. Poverty branches out like the thorny Sálmali tree, in a thousand
branches of misery, distress, sorrow, sickness, and all kinds of woe to
human beings. (Poverty is the root of all evils in life).
20. Concealed covetousness like the unseen bird of night, is hidden
within the hollow cavity of the human heart, resembling the stunted
_chaitya_ trees of mendicants; and then it shrieks and hoots out from
there, during the dark night of delusion which has overspread the
sphere of the mind.
21. Old age lays hold on youth by the ears, as the old cat seizes on
the mouse, and devours its prey after sporting with it for a long while.
22. The accumulation of unsubstantial materials, which causes the
formation of the stupendous world, is taken for real substantiality by
the unwise; as the foaming froths and ice-bergs in the sea, are thought
to be solid rocks by the ignorant sailor. (So all potential existences
of the Vedantist, are sober realities of the positive philosophy).
23. The world appears as a beautiful arbour, glowing with the blooming
blossoms of Divine light; which is displayed over it; and the belief of
its reality, is the plant which is fraught with the fruitage of all our
actions and duties. (The world is believed as the garden of the actions
of worldly men, but the wise are averse to actions and their results).
24. The great edifice of the world, is supported by the pillars of its
mountains, under its root of the great vault of heaven; and the sun and
moon are the great gateways to this pavilion. (The sun and moon are
believed by some as the doors leading the pious souls to heaven).
25. The world resembles a large lake, over which the vital breaths are
flying as swarms of bees on the lotus-beds of the living body; and
exhaling the sweets which are stored in the cell of the heart (_i.e._,
the breath of life wafts away the sweets of the immortal soul).
26. The blue vault of heaven appears as a spacious and elevated dome
to the ignorant who think it to contain all the worlds, which are
enlightened by the light of the sun situated in the midst. But it is an
empty sphere, and so the other worlds beyond the solar system, to which
the solar light doth never reach.
27. All worldly minded men, are as old birds tied down on earth by
the strong strings of their desires; and their heart moves about the
confines of their bodies, and their heart strings throb with hopes in
the confines of their bodies, as birds in cages in the hope of getting
their release.
28. The lives of living beings are continually dropping down, like the
withered leaves of trees, from the fading arbours of their decayed
bodies, by the incessant breathing of their breath of life. (The
respiration of breath called _ajapá_, is said to be the measure of
life).
29. The respectable men, that are joyous of their worldly grandeur for
a short time, are entirely forgetful of the severe torments of hell,
awaiting on them afterwards.
30. But the godly people enjoy their heavenly delights as gods, in the
cooling orb of the moon; or range freely under the azure sky, like
heavenly cranes about the limpid lakes.
31. There they taste the sweet fruits of their virtuous deeds on earth;
and inhale the fragrance of their various desires, as the bees sip the
sweetness of the opening lotus.
32. All worldly men are as little fishes (shrimps), swimming on the
surface of this pool of the earth; while the sly and senile death
pounces upon them as a kite, and bears them away as his prey without
any respite or remorse.
33. The changeful events of the world, are passing on every day, like
the gliding waves and the foaming froths of the sea, and the ever
changing digits of the moon.
34. Time like a potter, continually turns his wheel, and makes an
immense number of living beings as his pots; and breaks them every
moment, as the fragile play-things of his own whim.
35. Innumerable _kalpa_ ages have been incessantly rolling on, over the
shady quiescence of eternity; and multitudes of created worlds have
been burnt down, like thick woods and forests, by the all desolating
conflagrations of desolation. (According to the Hindus the universal
destruction, takes place by the Violent concussion of all the elements,
and by the diluvian floods also).
36. All worldly things are undergoing incessant changes, by their
appearance and disappearance by turns; and the vicissitudes of our
states and circumstances, from these of pleasure and prosperity to the
state of pain and misery and _vice versa_, in endless succession. (Pain
and pleasure succeed one another).
37. Notwithstanding the instability of nature, the ignorant are fast
bound by the chain of their desire, which is not to be broken even by
the thunder bolt of heaven. (Man dies, but his desires never die, they
keep their company wherever he may fly).
38. Human desire bears the invulnerable body of the Jove and Indra,
which being wounded on all sides by the Titans of disappointment,
resumed fresh vigour at every stroke. (So our desires grow stronger by
their failure, than when they are allayed by their satisfaction).
39. All created beings are as particles of dust in the air, and are
flying with the currents of wind into the mouth of the dragon-like
death, who draws all things to his bowels by the breath of his mouth.
(Huge snakes are said to live upon air, and whatever is borne with it
into his belly).
40. As all the crudities of the earth, and its raw fruits and
vegetables, together with the froth of the sea and other marine
productions, are carried by the currents to be consumed by the
submarine heat, so all existence is borne to the intestinal fire of
death to be dissolved into nothing.
41. It is by a fortuitous combination of qualities, that all things
present themselves unto us with their various properties; and it is the
nature of these which exhibits them with those forms as they present to
us; as she gives the property of vibration to the elementary bodies,
which show themselves in the forms of water and air unto us.
42. Death like a ferocious lion, devours the mighty and opulent men; as
the lion kills the big elephant with his frontal pearls.
43. Ambitious men are as greedy birds of air upon earth, who like the
voracious vultures on the tops of high hills, are born to live and die
in their aerial exploits, as on the wings of clouds in search of their
prey.
44. Their minds liken painter's paintings on the canvas of their
intellects, showing all the variegated scenes of the world, with the
various pictures of things perceptible by the five senses (_i.e._, the
images of all sensible objects are portrayed in the intellect).
45. But all these moving and changeful scenes, are breaking up and
falling to pieces at every moment; and producing our vain sorrow and
griefs upon their loss, in this passing and aerial city of the world.
46. The animal creations and the vegetable world, are standing as
passive spectators, to witness and meditate in themselves the marvelous
acts of time, in sparing them from among his destruction of others.
47. How these moving creatures are subject every moment, to the
recurrent emotions of passions and affections, and to the alterations
of affluence and want; and how they are incessantly decaying under age
and infirmity, disease and death from which their souls are entirely
free. (Hence the state of torpid immobility is reckoned as a state of
bliss, by the Hindu and Buddhistic Yogis and ascetics).
48. So the reptiles and insects on the surface of the earth, are
continually subjected to their tortuous motions by their fate, owing
to their want of quiet inaction, of which they are capable in their
subterranean cells. (The Yogis are wont to confine themselves in their
under-ground retreats, in order to conduct their abstract meditations
without disturbance. So Demosthenes perfected himself in his art of
eloquence in his subterrene cave).
49. But all these living bodies are devoured every moment, by the
all destructive time in the form of death; which like the deadly
and voracious dragon lies hidden in his dark-some den (Here the word
_kála_ is used in its triple sense of time, death, and snake all which
being equally destructive and hidden in darkness, it is difficult
to distinguish the subject from its comparison. Hence we may say,
time like death and snake or death like time and snake or the snake
like time and death, devours all living creatures, insects and other
reptiles also).
50. The trees however are not affected by any of these accidents,
because they stand firm on their roots, and though suffering under heat
and cold and the blasts of heaven, yet they yield their sweet fruits
and flowers for the supportance and delight of all living creatures.
(So the Yogis stand firm on their legs, and while they suffer the food
and rest privations of life and the inclemencies of weather, they
impart the fruits of divine knowledge to the rest of mankind, who would
otherwise perish like the insects of the earth, without their knowledge
of truth and hope of future bliss).
51. The meek Yogis that dwell in their secluded and humble cells, are
seen also to move about the earth, and imparting the fruits of their
knowledge to others; as the bees residing in the cells of lotuses,
distribute their stores of honey after the rains are over. (The Yogis
and the bees remain in their cells during the four months of the
rainy season (varshá-chátur másya), after which they be-take to their
peregrinations abroad).
52. They preach about the lectures as the bees chaunt their rhyme all
about, saying; that the earth which is as a big port; it supplies
the wants of the needy, for making them a morsel in the mouth of the
goddess of death (_i.e._, the earth supports all beings for their
falling into the bowels of death).
53. The dreaded goddess Káli wearing the veil of darkness over her
face, and eying all with her eyeballs, as bright as the orbs of the sun
and moon, gives to all beings all their wants, in order to grasp and
gorge them in herself. (The black goddess Káli or Hecate, nourishes
all as _mátriká_ or _matres_, and then devours them as death, like the
carnivorous glutton, that fattens the cattle to feed and feast upon
them).
54. Her protuberant and exuberant breasts are as bountiful as the
bounty of God, to suckle the gods and men and all beings on earth and
hills and in the waters below. (But how can death be the sustainer of
all).
55. It is the energy of the Divine intellect, which is the
_mátriká-mater_ or mother (mater or materia of all, and assumes the
forms of density and tenuity and also of motion and mobility; the
clusters of stars are the rows of her teeth, and the morning and
evening twilights, are the redness of her two lips).
(She is called Ushá and sandhyá or the dawning and evening lights,
because of her existence in the form of the twilights, before the
birth of the solar and lunar lights. The Vedas abound with hymns to
_ushá_ and _sandhyá_ and these form the daily ritual of the Brahmans to
this day under the title of their _Tri-sandyá_--the triple litany at
sun-rise, sun-set and vertical sun).
56. Her palms are as red as the petals of lotuses, and her countenance
is as bright as the paradise of Indra; she is decorated with the pearls
of all the seas, and clad with an azure mantle all over her body (Hence
the goddess Kálí is represented as all black from her blue vest).
57. The Jambudwípa or Asia forms her naval or midmost spot, and the
woods and forests form the hairs of her body. She appears in many
shapes and again disappears from view, and plays her part as the most
veteran sorceress in all the three worlds. (The text calls her an old
hag, that often changes her paints and garments to entice and delude
all men to her).
58. She dies repeatedly and is reborn again, and then passes into
endless transformations, she is now immerged in the great ocean or
bosom of Kála or Death her consort, and rises up to assume other shapes
and forms again. (Hence the mother-goddess is said to be the producer
and destroyer of all by their repeated births and deaths in their
everchanging shapes and forms).
59. The great Kalpa ages are as transitory moments in the infinite
duration of Eternity, and the mundane eggs (or planetary bodies in
the universe); are as passing bubbles upon the unfathomable ocean of
infinity; they rise and last and are lost by turns.
60. It is at the will of God, that the creative powers rise and fly
about as birds in the air; and it is by his will also, that the uprisen
creation becomes extinct like the burning flash of the lightning. (The
flaming worlds shoot forth, and are blown out as sparks of fire).
61. It is in the sunshine of the divine Intellect, and under the canopy
of everlasting time, that the creations are continually rising and
falling like the fowls of forestlands, flying up and down under the
mist of an all encompassing cloud of ignorance.
62. As the tall palm tree lets to fall its ripened fruits incessantly
upon the ground; so the over topping arbor of time, drops down the
created worlds and the lords of Gods perpetually into the abyss of
perdition. (There is an alliteration and homonym of the words, tála and
páttála meaning both tall and the tála or palm tree).
63. The gods also are dying away like the twinklings of their eyes, and
old time is wearing away with all its ages, by its perpetual tickings.
(The ever wakeful eyes of gods are said to have no twinkling; but time
is said to be continually twinkling in its ticking moments).
64. There are many Rudras existing in the essence of Brahma, and
they depend on the twinkling of that Deity for their existence. (The
immortal gods are mortal, before the Eternal God).
65. Such is Brahmá the lord of gods, under whom these endless acts of
evolutions and involutions are for ever taking place, in the infinite
space of his eternal Intellect and omnipotent will.
66. What wonderous powers are there that cannot possibly reside in the
Supreme spirit, whose undecaying will gives rise to all positive and
possible existences. It is ignorance therefore to imagine the world as
a reality of itself.
67. All these therefore is the display of the deep darkness of
ignorance, that appears to you as the vicissitudes of prosperity and
adversity, and as the changes of childhood, youth, old-age and death;
as also the occurrences of pain and pleasure and of sorrow and grief.
(All of which are unrealities in their nature).
CHAPTER VIII.
ALLEGORY OF THE SPREADING ARBOUR OF IGNORANCE.
Argument:--Description of ignorance as a wide spreading tree.
Vasishtha continued. Hear me now relate to you Ráma, how this poisonous
tree of ignorance has come to grow in this forest of the world, and to
be situated by the side of the intellect, and how and when it came to
blossom and bloom. (The Divine intellect is the stupendous rock, and
the creation is the forest about it, in which there grew the plant of
error also).
2. This plant encompasses all the three worlds, and has the whole
creation for its rind, and the mountains for its joints (Here is a
play of the word _parva_ and _parvata_ which are paronymous terms,
signifying a joint and mountain; Hence every mountain is reckoned as
the joint or land-mark of a country dividing it from another tract of
land).
3. It is fraught with its leaves and roots, and its flowers and fruits,
by the continuous births and lives and pleasures and pains and the
knowledge and error of mankind. (All these are the productions of human
ignorance).
4. Prosperity gives rise to our ignorance of desiring to be more
prosperous in this or in our next lives (by means of our performance
of ceremonial rites), which are productive of future welfare also. So
doth adversity lead us to greater error of practising many malpractices
to get rid of it; but which on the contrary expose us to greater
misfortunes. (Hence it is folly to make choice of either, which is
equally pernicious).
5. One birth gives rise to another and that leads to others without
end; hence it is foolishness in us to wish to be reborn again. (All
births are subject to misery; it is ignorance therefore to desire a
higher or lower one, by performance of _páratrika_ acts for future
lives).
6. Ignorance produces greater ignorance, and brings on unconsciousness
as its effect: so knowledge leads on to higher knowledge, and produces
self-consciousness as its result. (Good tends to best, and bad to the
worst. Better tends to best, and worse to the worst).
7. The creeping plant of ignorance, has the passion for its leaves, and
the desires for its odours; and it is continually shaking and shuffling
with the leafy garment on its body.
8. This plant falls sometimes in its course, on the way of the elephant
of Reason; it then shakes with fear, and the dust which covers its
body, is all blown away by the breath of the elephant's trunk; but yet
the creeper continues to creep on by the byways according to its wont.
9. The days are its blossoms, and the nights are the swarms of black
bees, that overshadow its flowers; and the continued shaking of its
boughs, darts down the dust of living bodies from it, both by day and
night. (_i.e._, Men that live upon their desires and hopes, are daily
dying away).
10. It is overgrown with its leaves of relatives, and overloaded with
the shooting buds of its offspring; it bears the blossoms of all
seasons, and yields the fruits of all kinds of flowers.
11. All its joints are full of the reptiles of diseases, and its stem
is perforated by the cormorants of destruction; yet it yields the
luscious juice of delight to those that are bereft of their reason and
good sense.
12. Its flowers are the radiant planets, that shine with the sun and
moon every day in the sky; the vacuum is the medium of their light, and
the rapid winds are vehicles, that bear their rays as odours unto us.
(Vacuity is the receptacle of light, but the vibrations of air transmit
it to our sight).
12a. Ignorance blossoms every day in the clusters of the bright
planetary bodies, that shine with the sun and moon by day and night;
and the winds playing in the air, bear their light like perfumes to us.
(_i.e._ It is the spirit that glows in the stars, and breathes in the
air, but ignorance attributes these to the planets and breezes, and
worships them as the _navagrahas_ and _marut ganas_, both in the vedas
and the popular Puranic creeds).
12b. Ignorance blossoms in the clusters of stars and planets, shining
about the sun and moon every day; and breathes in the breezes blowing
at random amidst the vacuous firmament. (Hence the ignorant alone adore
the stars and winds in the vedas, but the sapient know the light of God
to glow in the stars, and his spirit to breathe in the air).
13. These innumerable stars that you see scattered in the vault of
heaven, O son of Raghu's race, are the blooming blossoms of this arbor
of ignorance (_i.e._ ignorance shows them as twinkling stars to us,
while they are numberless shining worlds in reality).
14. The beams of the sun and moon, and the flames of fire, which are
scattered about us like the crimson dust of flowers; resemble the red
paint on the fair body of ignorance, with which this delusive lady
attracts our minds to her.
15. The wild elephant of the mind, ranges at large under the arbour of
Ignorance; and the birds of our desires, are continually hovering and
warbling upon it; while the vipers of sensual appetites, are infesting
its stem, and avarice settles as a huge snake at the root. (The text
has the words "and greediness decorates its bark" which bear no
meaning).
16. It stretches with its head to the blue vault of the sky, forming
as a canopy of black arbour of black Tamála trees over it. The earth
supports its trunk, and sky overtops its top; and it makes a garden of
the universe (with its out stretched arms).
17. It is deeply rooted underneath the ground, and is watered with milk
and curds, in the canals of the milky and other oceans, which are dug
around its trunk.
18. The rituals of the three vedas, are fluttering like the bees over
the tree, blooming with the blossoms of beauteous women, and shaking
with the oscillations of the mind; while it is corroded in the inside
by the cankering worms of cares and actions. (It means to say, that the
vedic rites, the love of women, the thoughts of the mind and the bodily
actions, are all attendants of ignorance; and he is wise who refrains
from them in toto).
19. The tree of ignorance, blossoming like the flowers of the garden
of paradise, exhales the sweet odours of pleasure around; and the
serpent of vice twining round it, leads the living souls perpetually to
evil deeds, for the supportance of their lives.
20. It blooms with various flowers, to attract the hearts of wise; and
it is fraught with various fruits, distilling their sweets all around.
(These fruits and flowers are the sensual pleasures, which allure the
ignorant to them).
21. With the aqueducts about, it invites the birds of the air to drink
of them; and being besmeared with the dust of its flowers, it appears
to stand as a rock of red earth or granite to sight. (The water beds
below it, are mistaken for the _salsabil_ or streams of Paradise, and
its rock-like appearance, shows the grossness of _ignorance crasse_ or
_tabula rasa_).
22. It shoots out with buds of mistakes, and is beset by the briars of
error; it grows luxuriant in hilly districts, with exuberance of its
leafy branches. (Meaning that the hill people are most ignorant).
23. It grows and dies and grows again, and being cut down it springs
out anon; so there is no end of it. (It is hard to extirpate ignorance
at once).
24. Though past and gone, yet it is present before us, and though it
is all hollow within, it appears as thick and sound to sight. It is an
ever fading and ever green tree, and the more it is lopped and cropt,
the more it grows and expands itself.
25. It is a poisonous tree, whose very touch benumbs the senses in a
moment; but being pressed down by reasoning, it dies away in a trice.
26. All distinctions of different objects, are dissolved in the
crucible of the reasoning mind; but they remain undissolved in
their crude forms in the minds of the ignorant, who are employed in
differentiating the various natures of men and brutes, and of terrene
and aquatic animals.
27. They distinguish the one as the nether world, and the other as the
upper sky; and make distinctions between the solar and lunar planets,
and the fixed starry bodies. (But there are no ups and downs, nor any
thing as fixed in infinite vacuity).
28. Here there is light, and there is darkness on the other side, and
this is empty space and that is the solid ground; these are the sástras
and these are the Vedas, are distinctions unknown to the wise.
29. It is the same spirit that flies upward in the bodies of birds, or
remains above in the form of gods; the same spirit remains fixed in the
forms of fixed rocks or moves in continued motion with the flying winds.
30. Sometimes it resides in the infernal regions, and at others it
dwells in the heavens above; sometimes it is exalted to the dignity of
gods, and some where it remains in the state of mean insects and worms.
31. In one place it appears as glorious as the god Vishnu, and in
another it shows itself in the forms of Brahmá and Siva. Now it shines
in the sun, and then it brightens in the moon; here it blows in the
blowing winds, and there it sways in the all-subduing _yama_. (Some
Europeans have conjectured and not without good reason, the relentless
god of death the _yama_ of Hindus, to be same with as the ruthless king
_Jamshed_ of prehistoric Persia. So says Hafiz Ayineye, Sekendar Jame
jamast bingars).
32. Whatever appears as great and glorious, and all that is seen as
mean and ignoble in their form, from the biggest and bright sun down
to the most contemptible grass and straw; are all pervaded by the
universal spirit: it is ignorance that dwells upon the external forms;
but knowledge that looks into the inner soul, obtains its sight up the
present state.
CHAPTER IX.
ASCERTAINMENT OF TRUE KNOWLEDGE.
Argument.--Division of the three _gunas_ or qualities. Pure essence of
the Gods Hara and others, nature of knowledge and ignorance, and other
subjects.
Ráma said, You said sir, that all formal bodies are representations of
illusion or ignorance (Avidyá); but how do you account for the pure
bodies of Hari, Hara and other divinities, and god-heads who are of
pure essence in their embodied forms, and which cannot be the creation
of our error or delusion. Please, sir, explain these clearly to (spun)
me and remove my doubts and difficulties on the subject (The exhibition
of gross bodies is the deception of our sense, but the appearance of
pure spiritual forms, can not be production of ignorance or sensible
deception. We may ignore the forms of material substances, but not
those immaterial essences which are given in the sástras. gloss).
2. Vasishtha replied,--The perceptible world represents the
manifestation of the one quiescent and all inherent soul, and exhibits
the glory (_ábhásha_) of the essential intellect (_sach-chit_), which
is beyond conception or thought divine.
3. This gives rise to the shape of a partial hypostasis, or there
rises of itself hypostatics ([Sanskrit: kalákalarúpiní]), resembling
the rolling fragment of a cloud appearing as a watery substance or
filled with water. (This original fiction of the glory of God giving
rise to the watery mist like a lighted lamp emitting the inky smoke,
is represented in the common belief of dark ignorance ([Sanskrit:
avidyá]) proceeding from the bright light of divine knowledge
([Sanskrit: vidyá]), and exhibited by the allegory of the black goddess
of ignorance and illusion ([Sanskrit: avidyá] and [Sanskrit: máyá])
gushing out of the white and fair god lying inactive and dormant under
her; she is hence designated by the various epithets of ([Sanskrit:
shyámá, kálí, jaladha] and [Sanskrit: níradavaraná]) and so forth, and
this is the whole mystery of the Sákta faith).
4. This hypostatic fragment is also conceived in its three different
lights or phases, of rarity, density and rigidity or grossness,
([Sanskrit: sukhsmá; madhyá, sthúlá]) resembling the twilight, midday
light, and darkness of the solar light. The first of these is called
the mind or creative will, the second styled the Brahmá Hiranyagarbha
or the creative power, and the third is known as Virát, the framer of
the material frame, and as identic with creation itself.
5. These are again denominated the three qualities (trigunas),
according to their different states, and these are the qualities of
reality, brightness and darkness _satva_, _rajas_ and _tamas_, which
are designated also as the triple nature of things or their _swabhávas_
or _prakriti_.
6. Know all nature to be characterised by ignorance of the triple
states of the _positive and comparative and superlative degrees_; these
_are inbred in all living_ beings, except the Being that is beyond
them, and which is the supreme one.
7. Again the three qualities of _satva_, _rajas_, and _tamas_ or the
positive, comparative and superlative, which are mentioned in this
place, have each of them its subdivisions also into three kinds of the
same name.
8. Thus the original Ignorance ([Sanskrit: avidyá]), becomes of nine
kinds by difference of its several qualities; and whatever is seen
or known here below, is included under one or of the various kinds.
(Hence the saktas reckon ten different forms of [Sanskrit: mahávidyá],
comprising the primary ignorance and its nine fold divisions).
9. Now Ráma, know the positive or satwika quality of ignorance, to
comprise the several classes of living beings known as the Rishis,
Munis, the Siddhas and Nágas, the Vidyádharas and Suras. (All of these
are marked by the positive quality of goodness inborn in their nature).
10. Again this quality of positive goodness comprises the Suras or gods
Hara and others of the first class that are purely and truly good. The
sages and Siddhas forming the second or intermediate class, are endued
with a less share of goodness in them, while Nágas or Vidyádharas
making the last class possess it in the least degree.
11. The gods being born with the pure essence of goodness, and
remaining unmixed with the properties of other natures, have attained
the state of purity (Holiness) like the divine Hari Hara and others.
(_i.e._ So long the divine nature of a god is not shrouded under the
veil of ignorance (avidyá _ávarana_), he is to be held in the light
of a divinity as a Christ or Buddha); otherwise rajasha or qualified
states of Hari Hara as they are represented by the vulgar, are neither
to be regarded as such.
12. Ráma! whoever is fraught with the quality of goodness in his
nature, and acquainted with divine knowledge in his mind, such a
one is said to be liberated in this life, and freed from further
transmigration.
13. It is for this reason, O high minded Ráma! that the gods Rudra and
others who possess the properties of goodness in them, are said to
continue in their liberated state to the final end of the world.
(Hence the immortals never die and being released from their earthly
coil, their good spirits rove at large in open air; last and until the
last doomsday rorqucamat or final resurrection of the dead).
14. Great souls remain liberated, as long as they continue to live in
their mortal bodies; and after the shuffling of their frail bodies,
they become free as their disembodied spirits; and then reside in the
supreme spirit. (_i.e._ They return to the source from which they had
proceeded).
15. It is the part of ignorance to lead men to the performance of
acts, which after their death, become the roots of producing other
acts also in all successive states of transmigration. (Ignorance leads
one to interminable action in repeated births, by making the acts of
the prior life to become the source of others in the next, so the acts
of ignorance, become the seeds and fruits of themselves by turns, and
there is no cessation nor liberation from them).
16. Ignorance rises from knowledge, as the hollow bubble bursts out
of the level of liquid water; and it sets and sinks in knowledge
likewise, as the bubble subsides to rest in the same water. (Ignorance
and its action which are causes of creation, have both their rise
from the omniscience and inaction of God until they are dissolved
at the dissolution of the world. Physical force rises from and
rests in the spiritual. Ignorance--_avidyá_ being but a negation of
knowledge--vidyá, is said to proceed from:--the negative being but
privation of the positive).
17. And as there is no such thing as a wave; but a word coined to
denote the heaving of water; so there is nothing as ignorance but a
word fabricated to express the want of knowledge. (Hence the believers
in ignorance are mistaken in relying their faith in a power which has
no existence whatever).
18. As the water and waves are identic in their true sense, and there
is no material difference between them; so both knowledge and ignorance
relating to the same thing, and expressing either its presence or
absence, there can be no essential difference in their significance.
19. Leaving aside the sights of knowledge and ignorance, there remains
that which always exists of itself (that is, the self-existent God
exists, beyond both the knowledge and ignorance of men, or whether
they know him or not). It is only the contradiction of adverse parties
([Sanskrit: pratiyogi byavaccheda]) that has introduced these words.
(_i.e._, calling the opponents as ignorant and themselves as the
knowing, in their mutual altercation with one another).
20. The sights of knowledge and ignorance are nothing; (_i.e._, they
are both blind to the sight of truth): therefore be firm in what is
beyond these, and which can neither be known nor ignored by imagination
of it.
21. There is some thing which is not any thing, except that it exists
in the manner of the intellect and consciousness _chit-samvit_, and
this again has no representation of it, and therefore that ens or sat
is said to be inevident avidyá the unknowable.
22. That One Sat being known as this or such, is said to be the
destroyer of ignorance; whereas it is want of this knowledge, that
gives rise to the false conception of an _Avidyá_ or ignorance.
(Avidyá, mithyá, kalpaná signifies ignorance to be a false imagination
and personification also, as it is seen in the images of the ten
Avidyás here).
23. When knowledge and ignorance are both lost in oblivion within one
in the intellect as when both the sun-shine and its shadow are lost in
shade of night. (_i.e._, both the knowledge of the subjective _ego_ and
objective _non-ego_ which is caused by ignorance being concentrated in
the consciousness of the intellect only within one's self).
24. Then there remains the one only that is to be gained and known,
and thus it is, that the loss of ignorance tends to the dissipation
of self-knowledge likewise (which is caused by it); just as the want
of oil extinguishes the lamp. (Egoism and ignorance being akin to one
another, both of them rise and remain and die together [Sanskrit:
ajnánahámkarayoreko satitayorút pattináshau yúgavadeba]).
25. That what remains afterwards, is either nullity or the whole
plenum, in which all these things appear to subsist, or it is nothing
at all. (The one is the view of atheists who deny all existence, and
the other of máyikas who maintain the visible nature as mere illusion.
([Sanskrit: máyámayamidamakhilam])).
26. As the minute grain of the Indian fig-tree contains within it
the future arbor and its undeveloped state, so the almighty power of
omnipotence is lodged in the minute receptacle of the spirit before its
expansion into immensity. (The developed and undeveloped states of the
supreme power, are called its vyákrita and avyákrita forces).
27. The divine spirit is more rarefied than the subtile air, and yet
is not a vacuity having the chit or intellect in itself. It is as the
sun-stone with its inherent fire and the milk with the latent butter
unborn in it. (Hence the spirit of God is said to be embryonic seed of
the universe. [Sanskrit: brahmándavíjam]).
28. All space and time reside in that spirit for their development, as
the spark proceeds from the fire and light issues from the sun in which
they are contained. (The will or word of God produces all things from
his spiritual essence).
29. So all things are settled in the Supreme intellect, and show
themselves unto us as the waves of the sea and as the radiance of gems:
and so our understandings also are reflexions of the same.
30. The Divine intellect is the store-house of all things, and the
reservoir of all consciousness (_i.e._, the fountain-head of the
understandings of all living beings). It is the Divine essence which
pervades the inside and outside of every thing. (All things are
dependent to the entity of God for their existence, and there is no
independent particle whatever).
31. The Divine soul is as imperishable as the air within a pot which
is not destroyed by breaking of the vessel, but mixes and continues
forever with the common and its surrounding air. Know also the lives
and actions of living beings to be dependent upon the will of the
God, as the mobility of the iron depends upon the attraction of the
loadstone. (This passage negatives the free agency of man, and allows
him an activity in common with that of all living beings, under the
direction of the great magnet of the Divine spirit and will).
32. The action of the inactive or quiescent spirit of God, is to be
understood in the same manner, as the motion of the lead is attributed
to the causality of magnetic attraction, which moves the immovable
iron. So the inert bodies of living beings, are moved by force of the
intellectual soul.
33. The world is situated in that mundane seed of the universe, which
is known under the name of intellect attributed to it by the wise. It
is as void and formless as empty air, it is nothing nor has any thing
in it except itself, and represents all and everything by itself, like
the playful waves of the boundless ocean.
CHAPTER X.
REMOVAL OF IGNORANCE.
Argument.--Ignorance and its bonds of Erroneous conceptions, and
reliance on temporal objects, and the ways of getting release from
them, by means of good understanding and right reasoning.
Vasishtha continued:--Therefore this world with all its moving and
unmoving beings is nothing (or no being at all). There is nothing that
has its real being or entity, except the one true _Ens_ that thou must
know. (all beings are not being except the one self-existing Being. So
says Sadi. All this is not being and thyself art the only being. _Haman
nestand anchi hastitue_, so also the sruti _Toam asi nányadasti_. _Tu
est nullum est_).
2. Seek him O Ráma! who is beyond our thought and imagination, and
comprises all entity and non-entity in himself, and cease to seek any
living being or any thing in existence. (In Him is all life and every
thing, that is or is not in Being and he is the source of life and
light).
3. I would not have my heart to be enticed and deceived by the false
attachments and affections of this world; all which are as delusive, as
our misconception of a snake in a rope. (All our earthly relations with
our relatives and properties, are deception that are soon detected by
our good sense and reason, and they vanish as soon as our mistake of
the snake in rope. Therefore let no worldly tie bind down thy heart to
this earth).
4. Ignorance of the soul is the cause of our error of conceiving the
distinctions of things; but the knowledge of the selfsame soul puts
an end to all distinctions of knowledge of the reality of things,
distinctive knowledge of existences--bheda jnána is erroneous; but
their generalization--abheda jnána leads to right reasoning.
5. They call it ignorance _avidyá_, when the intellect is vitiated
by its intellection of the intelligibles or chetyas, but the
intelligibles being left out, it comes to know the soul which is free
from all attributes.
6. The understanding only is the embodied soul _purusha_, which is lost
upon the loss of the understanding; but the soul is said to last as
long as there is understanding in the body, like the _ghatambare_ or
air in the pot lasts with the lasting of the pot, and vanishes upon the
loss or breaking of the vessel. (The soul lasts with the intellect in
the body, but flies away upon the intellect's desertion of it. This is
maintained by sruti).
7. The wandering intellect sees the soul to be wandering, and the
sedate understanding thinks, it to be stationary, as one perceives his
breath of life to be slow or quick, according as he sits still or runs
about. In this manner the bewildered understanding finds the soul to
be distracted also. (The temperament of the mind is attributed to the
soul, which is devoid of all modality).
8. The mind wraps the inward soul with the coverlet of its various
desires, as the silkworm twines the thin thread of its desires round
about itself; which its wants of reason prevent it from understanding.
(The word in the text is _bálavat_ boyishness, which is explained in
the gloss to mean _nirvivekatwa_ or want of reason, and applied to the
mind, means puerile foolishness).
9. Ráma said:--I see sir, that when our ignorance becomes too gross and
solid, it becomes as dull and solid as stone; but tell me O venerable
sir, how it becomes as a fixed tree or any other immovable substance.
10. Vasishtha replied:--The human intellect not having attained
its perfect state of mindlessness, wherein it may have its supreme
happiness and yet falling from its state of mindfulness, remains in the
midmost position of a living and immovable plant or of an insensible
material substance. (The middle state is called tatastha bháva, which
is neither one of perfect sensibility nor impassivity).
11. It is impossible for them to have their liberation, whose organs of
the eight senses lie as dormant and dumb and blind and inert in them
as in any dull and dirt matter: and if they have any perception, it is
that pain only. (The _puryastaka_ are the eight internal and external
organs of sense instead of the ten organs _casandria_. By dormancy
is meant their want of reason, and muteness and blindness express
respectively the want of their faculties of sensation and action,
inertness means here the want of mental action).
12. Ráma rejoined:--O sir, that best knowest the knowables! that the
intellect which remains as unshaken as a fixed tree, with its reliance
in the unity and without its knowledge of duality, approximates its
perfection and approaches very near to its liberation (contrary to what
thou sayest now, regarding impossibility of the dormant minds arriving
to its freedom).
13. Vasishtha replied: Ráma! we call that to be the perpetual
liberation of the soul, which follows persuasion of one common entity,
after its rational investigation into the natures of all other things
and their false appearances. (or else the blind torpidity of the
irrational yogi, amounts rather to his bondage to ignorance than the
liberation of his soul from it).
14. A man is then only said to have reached to his state of solity
_kaivalya_, when he understands the community of all existence in the
unity, and forsakes his desire for this thing and that. (But is said
in sundry places of this work that the abandonment of the knowledge of
the subjective and as well as of the objective, which constitutes the
true liberation of the soul; which means the taking of the subject and
object of thought and all other duties in nature in one self-existent
unity and not to forget them all at once). (So says Sadi, when I turned
out duality from my door I came to knowledge of one in all).
15. One is then said to recline in Brahma who is inclined to his
spiritual Contemplation, after his investigation of divine knowledge in
the sástras, and his discussion on the subject in the company of the
learned doctors in divinity. (The unlearned religionist is either a
zealot or an _opiniatre--abhakta tatwa jnáni_).
16. One who is dormant in his mind and has the seed of his desire lying
latent in his heart, resembles an unmoving tree, bearing the vegetative
seed of future regenerations (transmigrations) within its bosom.
17. All those men are called blocks who liken the blocks of wood and
stone, and to be like brains who lack their brain work, and whose
desires are gone to the rack. These men possessing the property of
dulness as of dull matter, are subject to the pains of repeated births,
recurring like the repetends of their remaining desires. (The doctrine
of transmigration is, that the wish being father to the thought,
every one meets with his lot in his next birth, as it is thought
of or fostered by him in his present life. [Sanskrit: vásaná eva
pratyávrittikáranam]).
18. All stationary and immovable things, which are endowed with the
property of dull matter, are subject to repeated reproductions. (Owing
to the reproductive seed which is inborn in them, like the inbred
desire of living beings), though they may long continue in their
dormant state (like images of saints in their trance).
19. Know O pure hearted Ráma! the seed of desire is as inbred in the
breasts of plants, as the flowers are inborn in the seeds and the
earthenwares are contained in the clay. (The statue says, Aristotle
lies hid in the wood, and the gem in the stone, and require only the
chisel of the carver and statuary to bring them out).
20. The heart that contains the fruitful seed of desire in it, can
never have its rest or consummation even in its dormant state; but this
seed being burnt and fried to its unproductiveness (by means of divine
knowledge), it becomes productive of sanctity, though it may be in its
full activity.
21. The heart that preserves the slightest remnant of any desire in
it, it again filled with its full growth to luxuriance; as the little
remainder of fire or the enemy, and of a debt and disease, and also
of love and hatred, is enough to involve one in his ruin as a single
drop of poison kills a man. (This stanza occurs in Chánakyá's Excerpta
in another form, meaning to say that, "No wise man should leave their
relic, lest they grow as big as before" [Sanskrit: punasva bhavati
tasmádyasmát sesam na kárayet]).
22. He who has burnt away the seed of his desire from any thing,
and looks upon the world with an even eye of indifference, is said
to be perfectly liberated both in his embodied state in this earth,
as also in his disembodied or spiritual form of the next world, and
is no more subjected to any trouble: (Subjection to desire is deadly
pain and freedom from it is perfect bliss. Or as it is said:--Desire
is a disease and its want is ease. [Sanskrit: áshabhai param dukham
nairáshyam paramamsukham]. Again our hopes and fears in constant
strife, are both the bane of pig man life [Sanskrit: bhayáshá
jívapásháh] &c.)
23. The intellectual power which enveloped by the seed of mental
desire, supplies it with moisture for its germinating both in the forms
of animals and vegetables every where (_i.e._ The divine power which
inheres in the embryos of our desires, causes them to develope in their
various forms).
24. This inherent power resides in the manner of productive power in
the seeds of living beings, and in that of inertness in dull material
bodies. It is of the nature of hardness in all solid substances, and
that of tenuity in soft and liquid things. (_i.e._ The divine power
forms the particular properties of things, and causes them to grow and
remain in their own ways).
25. It exhibits the ash colour in ashes, and shows the particles in the
dust of the earth; it shows the sableness of all swarthy things, and
flashes in the whiteness of the glittering blade.
26. It is the spiritual power which assumes the communal form and
figure, in which it resides in the community of material things, as a
picture, a pot (ghata-pata) and the like. (The vanity of the unity is
expressed in the words of Veda "the one in many." [illegible Sanskrit])
27. It is in this manner that the divine spirit fills the whole
phenomenal world, in its universally common nature, as overspreading
cloud, fills the whole firmament in the rainy season.
28. I have thus expounded to you the true nature swarúpa--of the
unknown Almighty power, according to my best understanding, and as far
as it had been ascertained by the reasoning of the wise: that it fills
all and is not the all itself, and is the true entity appearing as no
entity at all.
29. It is our want of the sight of this invisible spiritual power, that
leads us to erroneous conception of the entity of the external world,
but a slight sight of this almighty Ens, removes all our pains in this
scene of vanity.
30. It is our dimsightedness of Almighty power, which is styled our
blindness or ignorance [Sanskrit: avidyá] by the wise. It is this
ignorance which give rise to the belief of the existence of the world,
and thereby produces all our errors and misery.
31. Who is so freed from this ignorance and beholds the glorious light
of God full in his view; he finds his darkness disappear from his
sight, as the icicles of night melt away at the appearance of solar
light.
32. The ignorance of a man flies off like his dream, after he wakes
from his sleep, and wishes to recall his past vision of the night.
33. Again when a man betakes himself to ponder well the properties of
the object before him, his ignorance flies away from before his face,
as darkness flies at the approach of light.
34. As darkness recedes from a man, that advances to explore into it
with a lamp in his hand, and as butter is melted down by application of
heat, so is one's ignorance dispelled and dissolved by application of
the light and the rise of reason.
35. As one pursuing after darkness sees a lighted torch in his hand,
sees but a blaze of light before, and no shadow of darkness about him;
so the inquirer after truth perceives the light of truth, shining to
his face and no vestige of untruth left behind him.
36. In this manner doth ignorance (Avidyá) fly away and disappear at
the sight of the light of reason; and although an unreal nothing, she
appears as something real, wherever there is the want of reason. (Hence
all unreasoning men are the most ignorant).
37. As the great mass of thick darkness, disappears into nothing at the
advance of light; it is in the same manner that the substantiality of
gross ignorance, is dissolved into unsubstantiality at the advancement
of knowledge. (so the advancement of inductive science, has put flight
the dogmatic doctrines of old).
38. Unless one condescends to examine in a thing, it is impossible for
him to distinguish it from another (as the shell from silver and rope
for the snake); but upon his due examination of it, he comes to detect
the fallacy of his prejudgment (as those of the silver and snake in the
shell and the rope).
39. He who stoops to consider whether the flesh or blood or bones of
his bodily frame, constitutes his personality, will at once perceive
that he is none of these, and all these are distinct from himself. (The
personality of a man consisting in his soul, and not in any part or
whole of his body).
40. And as nothing belonging to the person makes the persons, but
something beyond it that forms one's personality; so nothing in the
world from its first to last is that spirit, but some thing which has
neither its beginning nor end, is the eternal and infinite spirit. (The
same is the universal soul).
41. Thus ignorance being got over there remains nothing whatever,
except the one eternal soul which is the adorable Brahma and
substantial whole.
42. The unreality of ignorance is evident from the negative term of
negation and ignoring of its essentiality, and requires no other proof
to disprove its essence; as the relish of a thing is best proved by the
tongue and no other organ of sense. (The term Avidyá signifying the
want of _vidyá_--knowledge and existence [Sanskrit: vidyámánatá]).
43. There is no ignorance nor inexistence except the intelligence
and existence of God, who pervade over all visible and invisible
natures, which are attributed with the appellations of existence
and inexistence. (The whole being God (to Pan--the All) there is no
existence or inexistence without Him).
44. So far about Avidyá, which is not the knowledge but ignorance of
Brahma; and it is the dispersion of this ignorance which brings us to
the knowledge of God.
45. The belief of this, that and all other things in the world, are
distant and distinct from Brahma, is what is called _Avidyá_ or
ignorance of him; but the belief that all things visible in the world,
is the manifestation of omnipresence, causes the removal of ignorance,
by presenting us to the presence of God.
NOTE TO CHAPTER X.
The following lines of the English poet, will be found fully to
illustrate the divine attribute of omnipresence in the pantheistic
_doctrine_ of Vedánta and Vasishtha, as shown in this chapter _et
passen_.
All are but parts, of one stupendous whole, Whose body nature is, and
God the soul; That, changed through all, and yet in all the same; Great
in the earth, as in the etherial frame; Warms in the sun, refreshes
in the breeze; Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees; Lives
through all life, extends through all extent, Spreads undivided,
operates unspent; Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part. As
full as perfect, in a pair as heart: As full as perfect, in vile man
that mourns, As in the rapt seraph, that adores and burns; To him no
high, now, no great, no small; He fills, he bounds, connects and equals
all.
Pope's Mortal Essays I. IX.
CHAPTER XI.
ASCERTAINMENT OF LIVING LIBERATION.
Argument.--Instances of Living Liberation in Hari, Hara and others, and
its consisting in the oecumenical knowledge of the one Brahma in all
and every thing.
Vasishtha said:--I tell you again and repeatedly O pious Ráma! for your
understanding, that you can never know the spirit without your constant
habit, of contemplating on it in your self-cogitation. (So the Sruti.
_Atmá vára, mant avyam_, "the soul is to be constantly thought upon"
and so also the Vedánta aphorism "asakrit upadesat" the soul is known
by repeated instructions on spiritual knowledge).
2. It is gross ignorance which is known as nescience, and it becomes
compact by the accumulated erroneous knowledge of previous births and
past life (namely; the errors of the dualities of matter and spirit
and of the living and Supreme soul, and the plurality of material and
sensible objects).
3. The perceptions of the external and internal senses of body, both
in the states of sensibility and insensibility, are also the causes
of great errors or ignorance _crasse_ of embodied beings. (_i.e._ The
sensible perceptions are preventives of spiritual knowledge which
transcends the senses and is called [Sanskrit: atíndriya]).
4. Spiritual knowledge is far beyond the cognizance of the senses, and
is only to be arrived at after subjection of the five external organs
of sense, as also of the mind which is the sixth organ of sensation.
5. How then is it possible to have a sensible knowledge of the spirit,
whose essence is beyond the reach of our faculties of sense, and whose
powers transcend those of all our sensible organs? (_i.e._ Neither is
the spirit perceptible by our senses, nor does it perceive all things
by senses like ours). So the Srutis He is not to be perceived by the
faculties of our sense, who does and perceives all with our organs.
([Sanskrit: na tatra vaggacchati namani ápanipádau yavanagtahítá]).
6. You must cut off this creeper of ignorance, which has grown up in
the hollow of the tree of your heart, with the sharp sword of your
knowledge, if you should have your consummation as an adept in divine
wisdom.
7. Conduct yourself Ráma! in the same manner in the practice of your
spiritual knowledge, as the king Janaka does with his full knowledge of
all that is knowable to man.
8. He is quite confident in his certain knowledge of the main truth,
both when he is employed in his active duties, in his waking state as
well as when he remains quiet at his leisure. (The end of knowledge is
to know God, and to rely on him both in busy and in active life).
9. It was by his reliance on this certain truth, that Hari was led
to the performance of his various acts in his repeated births or
incarnations. (A god in human flesh does his works as a god).
10. May you, Ráma! be certain of the main truth, which conducted the
three-eyed god Siva in the company of his fair consort; and which led
the dispassionate Brahmá to the act of creation. (_i.e._ the passionate
and unimpassioned and those that are active or inactive are equally
assured of this truth).
11. It was the assurance of this eternal verity, which led the
preceptors of the gods and demons, even Brihaspati and Bhargava, in
their duties; and which guide the sun and moon in their courses, and
even directs the elements of fire and air in the wonted ways.
12. This truth was well known to the host of Sages, including Narada
and Pulastya, Angira and Pracheta, and Bhrigu Krutu, Atri and Suka, as
it is known to me also.
13. This is the certainty which has been arrived at by all other
learned Brahmans and Sages, and this is the firm belief of every body,
that has been liberated in his life time.
14. Ráma said:--Tell me truly, O venerable sir, the true nature of the
truth, on which the great gods and wisest sages, have grounded their
belief, and became freed from their sorrow and grief (in this world of
sorrow and tears).
15. Vasishtha replied:--Hear me tell you! O worthy prince that art
great in arms as in thy knowledge of all things, the plain truth in
reply to your question, and the certitude arrived at by all of them
(named above).
16. All these spacious worlds, that you behold to be spread all about
you, they are all that One or _on_, and are situated in the immensity
of Brahma. (In their real or spiritual nature, and after obliteration
of the erroneous forms in which they appear to you. Their phenomenal
appearances, being but the misconceptions of our errors).
17. Brahma is the intellect, and the same is this world and all its
animate and inanimate creatures also; Myself and Brahma and so art thou
thyself, and such are all our friends and foes beside us.
18. Brahma is the tripletime of the past, present and future, all which
are comprehended in his eternity; in the manner of the continuity of
waves, billows and surges, contained in the immensity of the ocean.
19. It is thus the same Brahma that appears to us in all the various
forms of our perception, and in the different shapes of the actor,
action and its act, as those of the feeder, feeding and the food, and
of the receiver, reception and the thing received. (There being but
the only unity of God, the same is changed to all forms of action and
passion and so says the poet "that change through all and yet in all
the same" and also unvaried in all with a varied name. This the vedánta
says to be the _vivarta rúpa_ or the one changed in many form _vividha_
many, and varta let vertuus changed [Sanskrit: paribatta].)
20. Brahma expands in himself by his power of evolution, or unfolding
himself by his vivarta sakti; Hence He would be our enemy if he would
do any thing unfavourable into us. (God is good and never does any evil
to any one: all he does in and to himself)?
21. Thus Brahma being situated and employed with himself, does nothing
aught of good or evil to any other. The attribution of passions to
him, is as the planting of a tree in empty air. (God is not capable of
any human attribute, as it is usual with anthropomorphists to load him
with).
22. How very delighted are they that are dead to their desires, to
reflect on this truth, that they are continually living and moving in
the all pervading Brahma. (In Him we live and move).
23. All things are full of Brahma, and there is naught of pleasure or
pain herein; Brahma resides in his self-same all and is pleased with
all in himself. (The one is full of bliss with all in himself).
24. The Lord is manifest in his Lordship, and I am no other person
beside himself; this pot and that painting and I myself, are full with
the self-same Brahma.
25. Hence it is in vain to speak of our attachment or aversion to
worldliness, since we bear our bodies and dare to die in Brahma only.
(It is that something, for which we bear to live, and dare to die,
Pope).
26. Our bodies being the abodes of Brahma, it is as false to think to
our bodily pains, as also of our pleasure in bodily enjoyments, as to
take a rope for a serpent. (Hence we can have no sense of our pleasure
or pain, as long we know ourselves to be situated in Brahma and He in
us).
27. How say you, that this or that is your doing, when you have the
power of doing nothing. (The fluctuation of the billows on the surface
of the sea, cannot agitate the waters of the deep below.)
28. Myself, thyself and himself, and all others, are but the breaths of
the universal spirit; and they heave and then subside to rest as waves
of the sea; but the spirit of God, like the water of the deep, neither
rises nor falls as ourselves or the fleeting waves at any time.
29. All persons returning to Brahma after their death, have their
bodies also reduced into Him and retain their personal identity in Him
in the same manner, as the moving and unmoving waters rest alike in the
sea.
30. All moving and unmoving souls and bodies, rest alike in the supreme
Brahma; as the _Jíva_ and its form reside in God, and the whirling and
still waters remain in the same sea.
31. The soul and the body, are the two states of the likeness and
unlikeness of Brahma, the one is the living soul of bodies, and the
other is the gross body itself.
32. Irrational souls, that are ignorant of this truth, are verily
subject to delusion; but the rational souls are not so, but enjoy their
full bliss on earth, while the other is ever doomed to misery.
33. The blind behold the world all dark, while the eye-sighted find it
fully bright and shining; so the wise are blessed with the knowledge of
the one soul of the whole, while the ignorant are immerged in misery,
by their want of such knowledge.
34. As the darkness of the night, presents its goblins and spectres, to
the sight of children only, and not those of the grown up and adult; so
the world presents its delusions to ignorant and never to the wise, who
behold one Brahma only in all things before them.
35. There is nothing here that lives of itself, nor dies away to
nothing; all equally exist in God at all time, and nothing is doomed to
be born or perish herein to happiness or misery.
36. All beings are situated in the universal soul, as the waves in the
vast expanse of the ocean, therefore it is erroneous to say the one
reside in the spirit, and another to be beside it.
37. As there is an inborn light in the crystal, which is capable of
reflecting a variety of rays, so the spirit of God dwells in his own
spirit in the form of the universe, showing various shapes to view by
the inner light of the spirit.
38. As the particles of water flying from the waves, fall into the sea
and mix with its body of water; so the bodies of dying people, fall
into the body of Brahma, wherein they subsisted in their life time. (So
there is neither an increase or diminution of the essence of Brahma, by
the birth or death or increase or decrease of beings in the world).
39. There is nobody nor being beside the being of Brahma, as there is
no wave nor foam or froth of the sea beside the water of the deep.
40. As the billows and waves, the surges and eddies, and their froths
and foams, and bubbles and minute particles, are all formations of
water in the great body of waters; so are all beings but productions
of the spirit in the Infinite spirit. (All matter is reduced to the
spirits, and the spirits are consolidated to material substances by
chemical process).
41. All bodies with their various modes, and organs of sense and their
several functions, and all visible objects and their growth and decay,
together with every thing conducing to our happiness and misery, and
all other energies and their gains, are the works of Brahma in himself.
(_i.e._ they are the self reflective acts of gods and not done for the
sake of others).
42. The production of these various beings in _esse_, is from the
essence of Brahma; as the formation of different ornaments, is from the
substance of gold. There is no other formal cause or formation distinct
from Brahma, and the distinction of the cause and its creation, is the
erroneous conception of the ignorant.
43. The mind, understanding, egoism, and the elemental atoms, and the
organs of sense, are all the various forms of Brahma; wherefore there
is cause of our joy or grief.
44. The words I, thou, he, and this and that, as also the terms of
the mind and matter, are all significant of the self-same Brahma
_átmátmani_, in the same manner as the roaring of a cloud in the hills,
resounds in a hundred echoes through their caverns. (All words applied
to every thing, relate to the one self-same Brahma who is all in all
_to pan_).
45. Brahma appears as an unknown stranger to us, through our ignorance
of him, as the visions seen in a dream by our mind itself, appear
foreign to us. (_i.e._ Our belief in the visibles is the cause of our
disbelief in the invisible God; as our familiarity with the objects of
our waking state, makes us reject our visionary dreams as false).
46. Ignorance of Brahmá as Brahma or what he is, makes men to reject
divine knowledge altogether; as our ignorance of the quality of gold
causes us to cast it off dross. (Brahma to the brute is, as the gem in
the dung hill cast away by the silly cock).
47. Brahma is known as the Supreme spirit and sole Lord, by those who
are acquainted with divine knowledge; but he is said to be unknown and
involved in ignorance by them that are ignorant of Him.
48. Brahma being known as Brahma, becomes manifested such in a moment;
just as gold when known as such, is taken in due esteem.
49. Those who are versed in divine knowledge, know Brahma as without a
cause and causing nothing by himself, and that he is free from decay,
and is the Supreme spirit and sole Lord of all.
50. He who can meditate in himself, on the omnipotence of Supreme
spirit of Brahma; comes to behold him as such in a short time, even
without a leader to guide him in his spiritual knowledge (one's own
faith in Divine Omnipotence, is the surest means to the sight of his
Maker).
51. The want of divine knowledge, that is called the ignorance of the
ignorant; whereas it is the knowledge of God, that constitutes the true
knowledge which removes the ignorance.
52. As an unknown friend is no friend at all, until he is recognized as
such, after removal of one's forgetfulness; so God is no God to one, as
long he continues in ignorance of Him.
53. We can then only know God, when the mind comes to perceive the
unconnection of the soul with the body; and whereby it alienates itself
from all worldly connections in disgust.
54. It is then that we come to know the one true God, when the mind is
freed from its knowledge of duality; and by its distaste of dualism, it
abandons its attachment to the world.
55. We then come to the knowledge of God, when we come to know
ourselves to be other than our persons; and when by getting rid of our
personal egoism, we forsake our affection for this unkindred world.
56. It is then that the thought of God rises in our minds, when we
come to the true knowledge of thinking ourselves the same with Brahma;
and when the mind is absorbed in the meditation of the divine truth in
one's self. (This is the sublimation of the Yogi to the divine state;
or when the Yogi loses himself, in his rapturous vision on the one God.
This kind of meditation is indicated in the formula "Soham" in Vedánta
and _an ald Huq_ in sufism).
57. God being known as the _tout ensemble_ or comprising the whole
_plenum_, we come to believe the same as Brahma; and losing our egoism
and tuism in the same, we come to the knowledge of that entity only
comprising the entire universe. (This belief of the entirety of the
Deity, is expressed in the words "_Tat Sat_" corresponding with _to
on_, _idest_, _alast_, that is, He in the creeds of other people).
58. When I come to know this true and omniform Brahma, as all in all,
and forming the entire whole; I become released from all my sorrow
and grief, and am set free from all my delusion and desire, and the
responsibility of my duties (from the belief of God's agency in all
things).
59. I am quite calm and at ease and without any sorrow or grief, by my
knowledge of the truth, that I am no other than Brahma Himself; I am as
cool as the moon, without her spots and phases in me, and I am the all
entire, without any disease, decay or diminution in me. (This is said
with regard to the universal soul, which engrosses all souls and things
in itself).
60. It is true that I am the all pervading Brahma, and therefore I can
neither wish to have or leave any thing from me; being of myself the
blood, bones and flesh of my body. (The soul is the source of the body,
and the spirit its life, without which it decays and dies away).
61. It is true that I am Brahma the universal soul, and therefore the
intellect, mind and sensibility also; I am the heaven and sky with
their luminaries and quarters and the nether worlds also.
62. It is true that I am Brahma, composing this pot and painting, these
bushes and brambles, these forests and their grass, as also the seas
and their waves. (One God is manifest in many forms).
63. The unity of Brahma is a certain truth, and it is the ego which is
manifest in the seas and mountains and all living beings; and in the
qualities of reception and emission, and of extension and contraction
in all material bodies. (It is the Divinity that actuates the physical
powers in nature).
64. All things of extended forms situated in the intellectual spirit of
Brahma, who is the cause of the growth of creepers and plants, and of
the germination of vegetative seeds.
65. The supreme Brahma resides in his sheath of the intellectual soul,
in the manner of flavour in the cup of the flower; and thence diffuses
itself on all sides in the form of everything everywhere.
66. He that is known as only soul of all, and who is ascertained as
the supreme spirit, and who is designated by the appellations of the
intellectual soul, Brahma the great, the only entity and reality, the
Truth and Intelligence and apart from all.
67. He is said to be the all-inhering element, and Intelligence only
without the intelligibles in it; He is the pure light that gives every
being its consciousness of itself.
68. He appears to the spiritualist to be existent everywhere, as the
tranquil and intelligent Brahma; and contains in himself the powers of
all the faculties of the mind and body, such as the understanding and
the organs of sense, so the sruti; "He is the mind of the mind, the
sight of the eye." [Sanskrit: yascat?u sascat?unmanásá manoyadityádi].
69. Give up the thought of thy difference from Brahma by knowing
thyself as the reflexion of the intelligent soul; which is the cause of
the causes of the existence of the world. Such as vacuum and others,
which are causes of sound and are caused by vacuous spirit of God
(and not as the vacuists and materialists belief them, to be increate
essences from eternity).
70. The intellect of Brahma is the transparent receptacle of all
essences, and my ego is of the same essence, which exudes continually
as a shower of rain, from the transparent spirit of God.
71. I am that light which shines in the souls of yogis, and I am that
silent spirit which is supported by the ambrosial drops of Divine
Intellect; which continually distils its nectarious juice into our
souls, as we may feel in ourselves.
72. I am as a wheel or circle without having the beginning or end of
myself, and by having the pure intellect of Brahma in me. I am quiet in
my deep sleep of samádhi meditation, and I perceive holy light shining
within me. (The yogi in his devotion is absorbed in the calmness of his
soul and is wrapt in divine light).
73. The thought that I am Brahma, affords afar greater delight to the
soul, than the taste of any sweet meat, which gives but a momentary
delight, so the sruti:--God is all sweetness [Sanskrit: rasobetat]
(sweet is the memory of a friend, and sweeter far must be the thought
of God, who is best and greatest friend).
74. One knowing his soul and intellect, knows the indestructible Brahma
and himself as identic with the same; as one whose mind is possessed
with the image of his beloved, beholds her bright countenance in the
shining orb of the moon.
75. As the sights of earthly people are fixed in the etherial moon,
so the sight of intellectual beings, is fixed in the supreme and
indestructible soul, which he knows as self-same with himself.
76. The intellectual power which is situated in the vacuity of the
heart, is verily the verity of the immaculate Brahma himself. Its
pleasure and pain, and mutability and divisibility, are attributed to
by ignorance only.
77. The soul that has known the truth, knows himself as the supreme
Intellect, as the pilgrim on the way sees only his saint before him,
and no intermediate object besides.
78. The belief that I am the pure and all pervading intellect, is
attended with the purity and holiness of the soul, and the knowledge
of the Divine power as the cause of the union of earth, air and water
in the production of the germ of creation, is the main creed of all
creeds.
79. I am that intellect of Brahma which is inherent in all things as
their productive power; and I am that soul which causes the sweetness
of the _beal_ and bitterness of _nimba_ fruits.
80. I am that divine intellect which inheres alike in all flavours,
which is devoid of pain and pleasure and which I perceived in my mind
by my consciousness.
81. I am the undecaying intellect of Brahma, and deem my gain and loss
in equal light of indifference; while I view this earth and sky, and
the sun and moon displayed before my eyes in all their glory.
82. I am that pure and serenely bright Brahma, whose glory is displayed
alike in all of these, and which I behold to shine vividly before me,
whether when I am awake or asleep or whenever I am in the state of
dreaming or profound sleep.
83. I am that Brahma who is without beginning and end, who is known by
his four fold hypostases, and is ever indestructible and undecaying. He
resides in the souls of men in the form of sweetness in the sugarcane
through all their transmigrations.
84. I am that intellect of Brahma, which like the sunshine pervades
equally in the form of transparent light in and above all created
beings.
85. I am that all pervasive intellect of Brahma, which like the
charming moon light fills the whole universe; and which we feel and
taste in our hearts, as the delicious draught of ambrosia.
86. I am that intellect of Brahma, which extends undivided over the
whole and all parts of the universe, and which embraces all existence
as the moving clouds of heaven encompasses the firmament.
CHAPTER XII.
Argument.--Investigation in the doubts respecting living liberation.
Vasishtha said:--Great minded men that are certain of these truths,
are purified from their sins, and finding their tranquillity in the
reliance on truth, enjoy the delight of the even equanimity of their
souls, both in their prosperity and adversity. (Truthfulness and
equanimity are god-like attributes).
2. So the wise men of perfect understandings, being evenly
dispassionate in their minds; feel themselves neither glad nor sad,
either in the enjoyment or deprivation of their lives (which are alike
to them, because death is but the beginning or continuance of life in
another state or world).
3. They remain as unseen and marvelously mighty, as the arms of
Náráyana (god); and as straight and firm and yet as low and fragile as
the body and broken rocks of mount Meru on earth.
4. They roam about at pleasure in woodlands and over islands and amidst
cities also, and like the gods of paradise they wander about the
beautiful groves and sceneries of nature.
5. They roved in flowery gardens shaken by the playful breezes, and
also in the romantic forests on the skirts and tops of mountains.
6. They conquer also their enemies, and reign in their realms with the
chouri and umbrella ensigns of their royalty; they enjoy the various
produce and wealth of their kingdom, and observe the various customs
and usages of their country. (The wise man freely enjoy all things
without being bound into them).
7. They follow all the rules and rites, established by the laws of
their countries; and inculcated as duties for the observance of all.
8. They do not disdain to taste the pleasures, that would make the
beauties smile at; nor are they averse to the enjoyment of luxuries,
that they can rightly use and enjoy.
9. They smell the fragrance of mandara-flowers, and taste the sweet
juice of mango-fruits; they regale themselves with the sweet songs of
Apsaras, and revel in the arbours of Nandara or pleasure garden.
10. They never disregard the duties that bind all mankind to them, nor
neglect to perform the sacrifices and observe the ordinances that are
imperious on domestic life.
11. But they are saved from falling into dangers and evils of all
kinds, and escape the danger of falling under the feet of murderous
elephants, and avoid the uproar of trumpets and the imminent death in
battle-fields (_i.e._ Wise men avoid the dangers to which the ignorant
are liable).
12. They abide with those that are afflicted in their hearts, as among
the marauding plunderers of the country; they dwell among the oppressed
cowardly people, as also amongst their oppressors. Thus they are
conversant with the practices of all opposing parties, without mixing
with any one of them.
13. But their minds are clear of doubts and free from errors unaffected
by passions and affections, and unattached to any person or thing. They
are quite discrete and disengaged, free and liberated, tranquil and
serene, inclined to goodness reclining and resting in Supreme spirit.
14. They are never immerged in great dangers, nor are they ever
involved in very great difficulties. But remain as the boundary
mountains, remaining unimmersed amidst the water of a circumjacent lake.
15. They are never elated with joy, at the fluctuating favours of fond
and fascinating fortune; nor are they swollen, like the sea at the
increasing digits of the moon.
16. They do not fade away under sorrow or sickness, like plants under
the scorching sun beams, nor are they refreshed by refreshments, like
medicinal plants under the refreshing dews of night.
17. They are employed calmly and without anxiety in the discharge of
their duties and in the acts of fruition karma, and neither long for
nor relinquish the fruition, which is attendant upon them (_i.e._ They
do what is to be done, not for reward but as a matter of course).
18. They are neither elated with the success of their undertakings,
nor are they depressed by the mishap of their efforts, they are not
joyous at their joy and hey-day, nor do they sink under in danger and
difficulty.
19. They do not droop down under despondence, nor are they dejected in
despair, they are not merry in their prosperity, nor do they wail and
weep in their adversity.
20. They discharge their customary duties as prescribed by law and
usage, but their minds remain as firm and unmoved, as a mountain at all
the efforts of the body.
21. Now Ráma! Remove your sight for thy own egoism, and keep it fixed
on the true ego which is a destroyer of all sins; and then go on with
your ordinary course of conduct as thou mayest like.
22. Look at these creations and their various creatures, as they have
existed in their successive stages and phases; but do you remain as
firm as rock and as deep as the sea, and get rid of your errors.
(_i.e._ Your observation of nature can only remove your errors).
23. Know this grand whole as the reflexion of one sole Intellect,
beside which there is nothing as a reality or unreality, or as some
thing or nothing. (_Jo kuch hai ohi hai, nehinaur kuch'he_. Whatever
there is, is he himself, and there is _nil_ beside his _ens_ or self).
24. Ráma! have thy greatness as the great Brahma, and preserve the
dignity of human nature about thee; reject all whatever as unworthy of
thee, and with an unattached heart to every thing, manage thyself with
gentleness every where, and thus pass the days here. (As an heir of
eternity).
25. Why dost thou weep with thy heart full of sorrow and grief, and
why dost thou lament like the deluded, and why rovest thou with thy
wandering mind, like a swimming straw to the whistling eddy.
26. Ráma replied--Verily sir, the dart of my doubts is now rubbed
out of my mind, and my heart is awakened to its good senses by thy
kindness, as the lotus is enlivened by thy rising sun-light.
27. My errors are dispersed as the morning fog in autumn; and my doubts
are set down by your lectures; which I will always adhere to.
28. I am now set free from the follies of pride, vanity, envy and
insensibility; and I feel lasting spiritual joy rising within me after
the subsidence of all my sorrows. And now if you are not tired, please
deliver your lectures with your clear understanding, and I will follow
and practice them without fear or hesitation.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE TWO YOGAS OF KNOWLEDGE AND REASONING.
Argument.--The two yogas or Habits of restraining the Desires and
Respiration herein before described, are followed by two others: viz.
the Acquisition of knowledge and the Training to reasoning which are
yogas also.
Ráma said:--I am verily becalmed and set at ease, O Brahman! by
relinquishing all my desires, from my full knowledge of their
impropriety; and by my being staid in the state of the liberated, even
in this my present life. (The heaven of the holy, commences in their
earthly life).
2. But tell me, sir, how a man can have his liberation, by restraining
his respirations for a time; and how the restraint of one's breathings,
can put a restriction to his desires, which reside and rise from the
mind; while it belongs to the body and comes in and out of the heart
and lungs. (Nostrils).
3. Vasishtha said:--The means of fording over the ocean of this earth
is known, O Ráma! by the word Yoga or union, which is composed of the
quality of pacifying the mind in either of the two ways or processes
(as shown below).
4. The one is the acquisition of religious instruction, leading to the
knowledge of the soul and of the Supreme soul, and the other is the
restraining of respiration, which you will learn from the lecture that
I am about to deliver.
5. Here Ráma interrupted and said:--Tell me, sir, which of the two
is more delectable, owing to its facility and unpainfulness; and the
knowledge or practice whereof, releases us from all fear and trouble
whatsoever.
6. Vasishtha replied:--Ráma! although I have mentioned here of two
kinds of Yoga, yet the common acceptation of the term, restricts it
to the restriction of breathing. (The vulgar have no idea of esoteric
occultism or _jnana Yoga_, but call him a Yogi, who is employed in his
exoteric practices, of asceticism and austerities, suppression of
breath; and all kinds of wilful pains).
7. The true Yoga is the concentration of the mind in God, which is the
only means of our salvation in this world; and this is achieved in
either way of the regulation of breathing, or perfection in learning,
both of which tend to the one and same effect, of fixing the attention
in divine meditation.
8. The practical yoga by the regulation of respiration, appears as too
arduous a task to some persons, while proficiency in knowledge seems to
be too difficult of attainment to others. But to my understanding the
ascertainment of truth by theoretical knowledge seems to be far better
than practice. (The theoretical meditation is known as the _rája yoga_,
and the forced contraction of the breath is called the _hatha yoga_ or
forced devotion, and is the device of Dattátreya who was an ancient
Rishi also).
9. Ignorance is ever ignorant of truth, which does not lend its light
to us in either our walking or sleeping states. So the ignorant
practiser is always in ignorance both when he is in his meditative
trance [Sanskrit: yogavidyá] or otherwise; but knowledge is always
knowing, both when the knower is awake or asleep.
10. The practical yoga which stands in need of fixed attention, painful
postures, and proper times and places, is impossible to be practiced,
owing to the difficulty of getting all these advantages at all times.
11. I have thus described to you, O Ráma! both the two kinds of yoga
propounded in the sástras, and the superiority of the pure knowledge,
which fills the intellect with its unfading light.
12. The regulation of the breathings, the firmness of the body
and dwelling in sequestered cells, are all I ween as pregnant of
consummation--_siddhi_; but say, which of these is capable of giving
knowledge [Sanskrit: vritti] to the understanding, which is the
greatest perfection in human nature.
13. Now Ráma! if you think it possible for you, to sit quiet with utter
suppression of your breaths and thoughts; then can you attempt to sit
in your sedate posture of meditation without uttering a single word.
CHAPTER XIV.
NARRATIVE OF BHUSUNDA AND DESCRIPTION OF MOUNT MERU.
Argument.--Vasishtha's visit to Meru in expectation of seeing Bhusunda
and his description of the Mountain.
Vasishtha related:--The vast universe, O Ráma! is but an evolution of
the will of the Infinite Brahmá, just as the various representations
in the mirage, are but eversions of solar rays. (Or these are the
reflexions of the self-same Deity, as the Fata Morgana are the reflex
of solar light).
2. Here the divine Brahmá that is born of the lotiform navel of Brahmá,
takes the title of the creator and preserver of all, that has been
produced by the supreme spirit; and is called also the great father of
all, for his producing the prime progenitors of mankind. (Here Brahmá
resembles Adam of the scriptures).
3. This divine being brought me forth from his mind, where fore I am
called the _mánasaputra_ or progeny of the mind, of the mind of this
holy personage. He made me settle first in the fixed polar circle of
the starry frame, I viewed the revolutions of the planetary spheres,
and the successive Manvantaras before me. (The Manus were all the
progeny of the divine mind, whence they bear their name of Manu or
mind-born).
4. Residing once in the imperial court of the lord of gods--Indra, I
heard the accounts of many long living persons and people, from the
mouths of Nárada and other messengers of the gods. (Nárada is the
Mercury of Hindu mythology, and answers an angel of the scriptures).
5. There was once on a time the sage Sálatapá among them; who was a
person of great understanding, a man of honor and taciturn in his
speech; and said by way of conversation:--
6. That there was in the north east summit of Mount Meru, a spot full
of sparkling gems, where there was a _kalpa_ tree of the _chuta_ or
_mango_ kind, which yielded its fruits in all seasons of the year.
7. The tree was covered all over with fresh and beautiful creepers, and
a branch of it extending towards the south, had a large hollow in its
top, containing the nest of birds of various kinds.
8. Among them there was a crow's nest, belonging to one old raven by
name of Bhusunda, who lived quite happy with himself; as the god Brahmá
dwells content in his lotus-bed.
9. There is no one in the womb of this world so long lived as he, nor
even the gods in heaven, can boast a greater longevity than he among
the feathered tribe; and it is doubtful whether there may be another as
old as he in times to come. (Old as Adam and as old as Methuselah).
10. This crony crow was beauteous even in old age, and had become
passionless and great-minded by his long experience. He remained quiet
with the tranquillity of his mind, and was as graceful as he was full
of knowledge of all times. (Achromatic as old Nestor of the present,
past and future--_trikálajna_).
11. If any one may have the long life of this crow, his life becomes
meritorious, and his old age is crowned with sapience. (The vigour of
life is productive of meritorious works, and its decay is fraught with
wisdom).
12. In this manner, he related the virtues of the bird in full, at the
request of the gods in heaven; and did not utter any thing more or
less, before the assembly of the deities who knew all things.
13. After the gods had been satisfied with the narration of the veteran
crow, I felt a great curiosity in me, to see and know more of this
superannuated bird (for who is it that has not an eager desire to learn
the art of longevity).
14. With this desire, I hastened to the spot, where the crow was said
to rest in his happy nest; and I reached in a short time, to the summit
of Meru, which was shining with its precious stones. (The descent
from heaven to the lofty top of Meru could not be long, since the
gods are said to be all situated on this high mountain. ([Sanskrit:
tasminnadrau trayasvimsat vasatihiga nadevatah]), and again ([Sanskrit:
yávatmerausyitadeváh]).)
15. The peak of the mountain was flaming as fire, with the glare of its
gems and red earth--_gairika_, and these painted the upper sky, with
the bright hue of florid honey and sparkling wine.
16. The mountain shone as brightly as it were burning with the blaze
of the last conflagration, and the sky was reddened by their reflexion
with shades of clouds; appearing as the smoke of fire or the blue
lustre of sapphire.
17. The mountain appeared to be formed by a collection of all kinds of
colours on earth, which gave it the appearance of the variegated sky in
west at the time of the setting sun.
18. The flame of fire proceeding from its crater, and emitted through
the crevice on its top, seemed as the culinary fire of the Yogi,
carried up from his bowels to the cranium in Yoga. (This is styled the
Utkranti Yoga or lifting the physical powers, and concentrating them
all in the head--the seat of intellect).
19. The ruddy peaks and pinnacles of Sumeru, resembled his arms and
fingers painted with lac-dye; in order to lay hold on his consort the
fair moon by way of sport. (It means the mountain tops reaching to and
touching the orb of the moon. So Kálidása makes his Himalaya transcend
the sphere of the sun).
20. The lurid flame of wild fire on this mountain, seemed as the
burning blaze of sacrificial fires, which are fed with clarified
butter were rising to heaven. (Hence fire is styled the bearer of our
offerings to the gods above--_havya-váhana_, because there is nothing
on the earth except the flames of fire--that has the power of rising
upwards, whence they are termed _Urdha--jwalana--havir--bhujas_.
([Sanskrit: urdha jvalana havirbhujam]).)
21. The mount with its elevated summit seemed to kiss the face of the
sky, and to raise its fingers in the form of its peaks and pinnacles,
with their blazing gems resembling the nails of the fingers, in order
to count the scattered stars.
22. The clouds were roaring on one side of it with the loud noise of
the drums, and the young plants and creepers were dancing in the
happy arbours on another, clusters of flowers were smiling as blooming
beauties on this side, and the swarms of humming bees were hovering on
them on that.
23. Here the lofty palm trees seemed to be smiling with shewing
their teeth in their denticulated leaves, on seeing the giddy groups
of Apsaras, swinging and strolling about loosely in their amorous
dalliances under their shade.
24. There the celestials were resorting in pairs to their grottos
in the mountain, in order to relieve themselves of their trouble of
trudging over the rugged paths of the craggy mountain; and they were
clothed in the white vest of the open sky (nudity), and having the
stream of Ganges falling from high for their sacred thread. (Here Meru
means any mountain and Ganga is put for any stream descending from it).
25. The hoary mountain stood as a grey headed hermit, holding the
reeds (with which it abounded) as canes in his hand; and the celestial
inhabitants of the mount, rested in the coverts of the creepers, being
lulled to sleep by gurgling sound of the waters falling from precipice
to precipice.
26. The mountain king was crowned by the full blown lotuses that
grow on its top, and was regaled by the sweet fragrance; which the
odoriferous breezes bore from them. It was decorated with the gems of
the starry frame on its crown, and charmed with the sweet songs of the
_gandharvas_ playing their strains on it.
27. His hoary head pierced the silvery region of heaven, and was one
with it in being the abode of the gods.
28. The many coloured tops of Meru, emitting the various colours of the
red, white, black, blue, yellow, and gray stones that are embodied in
its body, lent the sky its variegated hues in the morning and evening,
while the versicolor blossoms on its tops, invited the Heavenly nymphs
to their rambles and sports over them.
CHAPTER XV.
VASISHTHA'S VISIT TO BHUSANDA.
Argument.--Description of the scenery on the top of Mount Meru.
Allegory of the arbour of desire, the resort of all living beings.
Description of Birds of the mountainous region, and lastly the
character of _káka bhusanda_.
Vasishtha continued:--I saw the _kalpa_ tree on the top of one of these
peaks, which was girt by its branches on all sides; and covered with
flowers appearing as tufts of hairs on its head.
2. This tree was covered with the dust of its flowers, which shrouded
it as a thick mist or cloud; and its flowers shown as bright as
brilliant gems upon it; its great height reaching to the sky, made it
appear as a steeple or pinnacle standing upon the peak. (Allegorically
the Kalpatree is the tree of Desire, which branches out into the
various objects of our wish. Its flowers are all our sanguine hopes
and expectations, which are hidden under the dark mist of futurity.
The crown dwelling in its dark hollow, is the undwelling obscure soul,
which is hid under the impervious gloom of our ignorant minds and false
egoism. Its nest is in the highest divinity, and it is immortal because
it is a particle of Eternal spirit).
3. Its flowers were twice as much as the number of stars in heaven,
and its leaves redoubled the clouds in their bulk and thickness. Its
filaments were more shining than the flash of lightnings, and the
pollen of the flowers were brighter far than the circumambient beams of
the radiant sun. (The flowers of the tree of Desire being our hopes and
expectations, they are of course more numerous than the countless stars
in the sky, but it is to say, what things are meant under the allegory
of their leaflets farina and pistils).
4. The songs of the sylphs dwelling on the branches of this tree,
resounded to the buzz of the humming bees, and the nimble feet and
waving palms of the Apsaras in their sportive dance on every leaflet,
reduplicated the number of the leaves as much again. (The feet and
palms are always compared with the leaves of trees, so these meeting
on every leaf is the lightsome leaping and skipping of the airy sylphs
over them, increased the number of leaves to more than ever so many).
5. The spirits of the aerial siddhas and gandharvas hovering on this
tree, far out-numbered the number of birds that flocked and fluttered
about it; and the greyish frost which wrapped it as a gemming mantle,
out-shone the glossy rind which served for its raiment of fine linen.
6. The top of this tree touches the lunar sphere, and by deriving its
moisture from that humid planet, yields its fruits of larger size than
the orb of the moon itself. And the clouds gathering about its trunk,
have doubled the size of its joints. (i.e. The fruits of high desire
are fairer and larger and more cooling than even the orb of the moon,
and its sections are as bright as the bodies of clouds).
7. The gods rested on the trunk of this tree, and the Kinnaras reposed
themselves on its leaves, the clouds covered its arbours, and the
Asuras slept on its banks.
8. The Fairies repelled their mates by the sound of their bracelets, as
the bees put the beetles to flight by their busy buzzing, and sucked
the honey from the flowercup to their fill. (It means that females very
often taste the sweets of their desire, while men are driven to labour).
9. The arbour of desire extends on all sides of the sky, and fills the
space of the whole world, by embodying the gods and demigods and men
and all kinds of living beings in it. (It is some desire or other that
tends both the mortals and immortals in the course of their lives.
Desire is the in-being of active life, and its want is either dulness
or death).
10. It was full of its blooming buds and blossoms, and was covered with
its tender leaves and leaflets, it was fraught with its flourishing
flowers, and had graced the forest all around.
11. It flushed with its filaments, and abounded with its gemming
florets; it was replete with its radiant vestures and ornamented
trappings, to afford to the wants of its votaries, and it was ever in a
flurry with sportive dance of the tender plants and creepers all around
it.
12. It was full laden with flowers on all aides, and was abundant with
its fruits on all its branches, and being fraught with the copious
farina of its flowers, which it lavished and scattered on all its
sides, it became charming and attractive of all hearts towards it.
13. I saw flock of the feathered tribe fluttering about the happy
bowers, or resting about the broad boughs and branches of the tree;
some of these were reposing in the coverts of the leafy arbour, and
others pecking the flowers and fruits with their bills.
14. I saw the storks and geese which are the vehicles of Brahmá,
feeding on fragments of lotus-stalks, resembling the digits of the
bright moon in whiteness; and picking the bulbous roots of the _arjuna_
and lotus plants in the lakes.
15. The goslings of the geese of Brahmá, muttered the _omkára_, the
initial syllable of the Veda, as they were addicted in it by their
preceptor the god--Brahmá himself.
16. I saw the parrots with their blue pinions resembling the blue
clouds of heaven, and beheld their red dusk beaks shining as the flash
of lightnings, and uttering their shrill sound in the manner of the
_swáhá_ of the veda. (The parrot is the vehicle of the god of fire,
wherefore it is fit for him to utter the syllable _swáhá_; which is
used in the invocation of fire: as _swáhá agnaye_).
17. I saw also the green parrots of the god of fire, scattered all
about like the green _kusa_ grass lying scattered on the sacrificial
alter of the gods; and I beheld the young peacocks with their crests
glowing as the glistening flames of fire.
18. I saw there the groups of peacocks fostered by the goddess Gaurí
(The peacocks of Juno), as also the big peacocks belonging to the god
Kumára; I beheld likewise the vehicle of skanda, which are versed in
knowledge. (One of these is said to be the expounder of a grammar,
known by the name of Kaumári Kalápa Vyakarana).
19. I saw there many bulky and big bodied birds, that are born to live
and breed and die away in their natal air, and never alight on the
nether ground. These were as white as the clouds of autumn and nestles
with their mates in air, and are commonly known under the name of
Aerial Birds.
20. I saw the goslings of the breed of Brahma's geese, and the
younglings of the brood of Agni's parrots. I beheld the big breed of
the peacocks forming the vehicles of war god; (Skanda, Alexander)?
21. I saw the _Bharadwája_ and I saw there many other kinds of big
birds. (Charui, birds with two mouths and gold finches with their
golden crests). I saw also kalavinca sparrows, the little cranes and
pelicans and cuckoos and vultures likewise and cranes and cocks.
22. I saw likewise a great variety of other birds as the Bhushus,
Chushus and partridges of many kinds, whose numbers are no less than
all the living animals of this earth taken together. (That is to
say, the air and water abound with fowls and fishes of as great a
variety and number as the animals on earth, and all of them dwell in
tree of Desire as mankind and other terrestrial animals. _Nemo sine
desiderium_).
23. I then began to pray from my etherial seat, and through the
thickening leaves of the tree to the nest of the bird; amidst the
hollows of far distant boughs towards the south.
24. After some time I came to descry at a distance a body of ravens,
sitting in rows like leaves of the branches, and resembling the
streaks of sable clouds on either sides of the _Lokáloka_--horizon.
(The _Lokáloka_ mountain is a fictitious name for the horizon, which
has light and darkness ever attendant on its either side. The term
_lokáloka_ or light and shade, is also used to represent vicissitudes
of life).
25. Here I beheld awhile afterwards, a lonely branch with a spacious
hollow in it. It was strewn over with various flowers and redolent with
a variety of perfumes. (The houses of great men are always scented with
odours. ([Sanskrit: subásit harmmatalam manoramam]).)
26. It was as the happy abode of virtuous women in heaven, which are
perfumed with sweet scenting clusters of flowers, and there the crows
were sitting in rows, as they were perfectly freed from all cares and
sorrows.
27. Their great group appeared as the big body of a cloud, separated
from the tumultuous air of the lower atmosphere and resting on the calm
firmament of the upper sky; and the venerable Bhusunda was seen sitting
quietly with his exalted body.
28. He sat there as an entire sapphire shining prominent amongst
fragments of glass, and seemed to be of a stout heart and mind, and of
a dignified mien and graceful appearance.
29. Being heedful of the rule of the restriction of his respiration and
suppression of his voice, he was quite happy with his long longevity,
and was renowned every where as a long lived passe (seer).
30. He witnessed the course of ages and periods, and marked their
advent and exodus in repeated succession; and was thereby known as the
time worn Bhusunda in this world, and a being of stout and unflinching
mind.
31. He was weary with counting the revolutions of the Kalpa cycles, and
with recounting the returns of the preserving divinities of the world;
such as the Sivas, Indras, the gods of the winds and other.
32. He was the chronicler of all antiquity, and the recorder of the
wars of the gods and demons, and the hurling of the high hills in
heaven; and yet he was of a clear countenance and profound mind; he was
complacent to all, and his words are as sweet as honey.
33. This old seer related distinctly all that was unknown and
indistinct to others, he was wanting in his egotism and selfishness,
and was the lord over all his friends and children, and his servants
and their seniors and he was the true narrator of all things at all
times.
34. His speech was clear and graceful, sweet and pleasing, and
his heart was as tender as the cooling lake, and as soft as the
lotus-flower; he was acquainted with all usages and customs and the
depth and profoundness of his knowledge, ever the serenity of his
appearance.
CHAPTER XVI.
CONVERSATION OF VASISHTHA AND BHUSUNDA.
Argument.--Reception of Vasishtha by Bhusunda, and the Inquiries of the
sage regarding the life and acts of the crow.
Vasishtha Continued:--I then alighted before the veteran crow with my
brilliant etherial body, as a bright meteor falling from the sky on the
top of a mountain; and this my sudden appearance startled the assembly,
as if they were disturbed by my intrusion.
2. The assembly of the black birds trembled like the lotuses of the
lake, at the shaking of the gentle breeze; and the agitation of the air
at my slow descent, troubles them as much as an earthquake troubles the
waters of the deep.
3. But Bhusunda who was a seer of the three times, was not at all
disturbed at my arrival; but know me as Vasishtha, now in attendance
upon him. (Like a flimsy cloud from the mount).
4. He then rose from his leafy seat, and advancing slowly before me, he
said with sweet sounds distilling as honey. I welcome thee great sage
to my humble cell.
5. Then he stretched both hands to me, holding clusters of flowers
that he had at his will and then strewed them in hand-fulls upon me,
as a cloud scatters the dewdrops over the ground. (The comparison of
raindrops with the shedding of flowers is common in India and well
known by the compound term _pushpa-vrishti_).
6. Take this seat said he, and stretched with his hand a newly shorn
rind of the Kalpa tree; this he had plucked with his own hand, nor
needed the help of his attendant crows in this gladsome task.
7. On the rising of Bhusunda, the menials also arose from their seats,
and then on seeing the sage seated on his seat, they looked to and
betook themselves to their respective seats and posts.
8. Then having refreshed myself with the sweet scent of the Kalpa
creepers all about me, I was surrounded by all the birds that gathered
round me, and had their chief sitting face to face in front of me.
(This time worn etiquette of old India is still in vogue in the
politest courts of the world).
9. Having offered me the water and honey for my refreshment, together
with the honorarium worthy of me, the high minded Bhusunda felt the
cheer of his mind, and then accosted me with complaisance and in words
sweet as honey. (The serving of honey and water to guests of yore
served the offering of brandy and water of modern fashion).
10. Bhusunda said:--O lord! thou hast after long favoured us with your
kind visit, which has by its ambrosial influence resuscitated our arbor
and ourselves. (Such is the visit of a superior to an inferior).
11. I ween, O great Muni! that art honoured of the honourable, that it
is by virtue of my long earned virtues that you are now brought to this
place, and want to be informed from where your course is bent to my
humble abode.
12. You sir, that have long wandered amidst the great gloom of this
world, and know its errors by your infallible experience, must have at
last in the peace of your mind. (Peace after broils and strife. _Pax
post turba_).
13. What is it that makes you take this trouble on yourself today, is
what we wished to be informed at present; and your answer to those that
are expectant of it, will be deemed as a great favour by them.
14. It is by the sight of your holy feet, O venerable sage! that we
are put to the knowledge of every thing; and yet our obligation at
this uncalled for call of yours here, emboldens us to ask this farther
favour of yours. (Nobody asks nobody, that has nothing to do with him).
15. We know that it is your remembrance of us among the long living,
that has directed your attention towards us, and made your holiness to
sanctify this place by your gratuitous visit to us.
16. Though thus we know this as the cause of your calling into us; yet
it is our desire of satisfying ourselves with the sweetness of your
nectarious words, that has prompted to propose this query to you at
present.
17. In this manner did the longival crow, that was clear sighted
with his knowledge of the three times, deliver his inquiry by way of
formality.
18. Vasishtha answered--Yes, O king of birds! it is true as thou sayst,
that I have come here thus to see thy diuturnal self; (because the
aged are honoured as sages, and their shrines are visited as those of
saints).
19. You are verily very fortunate with your cold heartedness, and your
sagacity has haply saved you from falling into the dangerous snares of
this world.
20. Now sir, deign to remove my doubt regarding to your anility, and
tell me truly of what family you are born, and how you come to know
what is worth knowing (respecting the origin and end of beings, and
their good or bad lot afterwards).
21. Tell me sir, if you remember the length of life that you have
passed, and if you recollect by your long sightedness how you came to
be settled in this lodging. (Lit. who appointed this place for your
habitation).
22. Bhusunda replied, I will relate to you all, O great sage! that
you ask of me, and your great soul shall have to hear it attentively
without any inadvertence of your mind.
23. It is certain, O venerable sir! that the topics, which deserve the
attention of great minded souls like yourselves; will prove effective
of destroying the evils of the world, as the influence of the clouds
and their propitious rains remove the heat of the sun.
CHAPTER XVII.
DESCRIPTION OF BHUSUNDA'S PERSON.
Argument.--Vasishtha relates to Ráma of the perfections of Bhusunda's
Body and Mind, which entitled him to the enjoyment of his liberation in
his living time.
Vasishtha said:--Now Ráma, know this Bhusunda, who was of a complexion
as black as that of a cloud heavy with water in the rainy season; to
have a countenance which neither merry nor sorry, and a mind free from
guile and cunning.
2. His voice was grave and mild, and his words were accompanied by a
gentle smile, and he spoke of the three worlds, as if he balanced three
_beal_ fruits in his hands. (His knowledge of the worlds, was as that
of the globe in his hands).
3. He looked on all things as they were mere straws before him, and
weighted the lives of men in proportion to their enjoyments, and by
the ratio of their rations on earth, he had the knowledge of the
knowables and the unknowable one (called the common and transcendental
knowledge-_paránara_).
4. He was big bodied grave and quiet, and sedate as the mount Mandara;
and his mind was as full and clear as the calm ocean after a storm.
5. His mind was perfectly tranquil and quite at ease; and full of joy
within itself; and acquainted with the appearance and dis-appearance of
all beings born in this world.
6. His countenance was delightsome with his inward delight, and his
voice was as sweet as the melody of a sweet song; he seemed to have
taken a new born form on himself, and his joyfulness dispelled the
fears of men.
7. After he had respectfully received and accosted me, with his pure
and dulciate words; he began to recite to me his own narration, as the
rumbling of a rainy cloud, delights the hearts of the thirsty world.
CHAPTER XVIII.
MANNERS OF THE MÁTRIKA GODDESSES.
Argument.--Bhusunda traces his origin from the Mátres, whose manners
and revelries he describes in length.
Bhusunda related:--There is in this world, the god of gods Hara
(Horus?) by name; who is the chief among the celestials, and honoured
by all the divinities of heaven.
2. He had his consort Gaurí constituting the better half of his body,
and by whom he is embraced in the manner of an ivy clasping the young
Amra tree. Her bosom likened a cluster of blooming blossom, and her
eyes resembled the lines of black bees fluttering in the summer sky.
3. The hoary locks of hair on the braided head of Hara, were entwined
as with a white lace, by the snow white stream of Ganges, whose billows
and waves as clusters of flowers on the hair-band.
4. The crown of his head was decorated with the gemming milk-white
disk of the moon, which sprung from the bosom of the milky ocean; and
spread her bright radiance and ambrosial dews about his person. (The
streams of ganguari are represented as consorts of Hara, and the moon
as forming the discus on the braces of the hairs on his head).
5. The incessant effusion of ambrosial draughts, from the disk of the
moon on his crest, has made him immortal by assuaging the heat of the
deadly poison which he swallowed, and has marked his throat with the
bluish hue of the sapphire or _lapis lazuli_, whence he named the blue
gulletted Níla Kantha. (Hara is said to have swallowed the kála-kuta
poison, as Hercules drank his full bowl of henbane).
6. The god is besmeared with powdered ashes on his body, as
emblematical of the particles of dust, to which the world was reduced
by the flame of his all destructive conflagration; while the stream
of water flowing from the Ganges on his head, is typical of the
current of his clear knowledge of all things. (Others make the burning
fire of his frontal eye _bhála netra_ to represent the flash of his
cognoscence--jnánágni).
7. His body is decorated with strings of blanched bones, which are
brighter far than the silvery beams of fair moon, and these serve as
necklaces of argent and pearly gems about his person. (Hence he is
named as Jala-padda-málika).
8. His vest is the open sky with its plates of folded clouds, which
are washed by the milk white beam of the moon, and studded with the
variegated spots of the stars. (This means the nudity of the god, hence
called Digamvara or sky attired).
9. He is beset by the prowling shakals, devouring the burnt carcasses
on funeral grounds, and holds his abode beyond the habitations of men,
in cemeteries and mortuaries in the outer skirts of cities. (Whence his
name of Smashána sáyí).
10. The god is accompanied by the Mátres, who are decorated with
strings of human skulls about their necks, and girt with the threads of
their entrails on their bodies; while the fat and flesh of dead bodies,
and the blood and moisture of putrid carcasses, form their delectable
food and drink.
11. Their bodies are soft and shining as gold, and moving about with
sparkling gem on their heads and bracelets of snakes curled round their
wrists.
12. The acts of this god are dreadful to relate, and strike terror in
hearts of the gods and demons, and all beings beside. One glance of his
eye (coup d'oeil) is enough to set the mountains in a blaze, and his
hunger grasps the whole world in one morsel.
13. The perpetual rest of his meditative mind in holy trance samádhi,
hath restored the world to rest; and the movement of his arms at
intervals, is attended with the destruction of demons.
14. His forms of the elements are intently lent on their fixed
purposes, without being deterred from them by the impulses of his
anger, enmity or affection; and the wind of his breath makes the
mountains to tremble, and turn the humid earth to arid ground.
15. His playmates are the devils with their heads and faces, resembling
those of bears and camels, goats and serpents; and such as have their
heads for hoofs, and their hoofs as their hands, and whose hands serve
as their teeth, and who have their faces and mouths set upon their
bellies and breasts.
16. His face shone brightly with the rays of his three eyes (whereby he
is denominated the triple eyed god _trinetra_); and the _mátres_ were
dependant on him as his dependant demoniac bands--_gana-devatás_.
17. The Mátres joined with the bands of demons, dance about him lowly
at his bidding, and feed upon the living bodies, that are born and dead
in all the fourteen regions of creation.
18 The Mátres having their faces as those of asses and camels, rove at
great distances from him; and are fond of feeding on the flesh and fat,
and drinking the red hot blood of bodies as their wine. They have the
fragments and members of dead bodies, hanging about their persons as
strings of pearls.
19. They reside in the hollows of hills, in the open sky and in other
regions also; they dwell also in the holes underneath the grounds, and
like to abide in cemeteries and in the holes and pores of human and
brute bodies.
20. There are the goddesses known under the names of Jayá and Vijayá,
jayantí and Aparajitá; and again siddha Raktá and Alambushá, and also
another bearing the name of utpatá.
21. These eight are denominated the Nayikai of leaders, of the whole
body of Mátrikas; the others are subordinate to these, and there are
others again subordinate to them.
22. Among all these venerable Mátres, there one by name of Alambushá,
that is the source of my birth; and this I have revealed to you on
account of your great favour to me, by your kind call to my cell.
23. She had the crow by name of Chanda for her vehicle, which had its
bones and bills as strong as the bolts of Indra's thunder; it was as
dark as a mountain of jetblack or blue agate, and served her goddess as
Garuda served the consort of Vishnu.
24. This octad of Mátri goddess were once assembled together, and bent
their course in the ethereal firmament on some of their malevolent
purposes.
25. They made their merry makings and religious revels in the air, and
then turned their course to the left side where they halted at the
shrine of Tumburu, which was sacred to Siva.
26. They there worshipped the forms of Tumburu and Bhairava, which are
adored in all the worlds; and then regaled themselves with a variety of
discourses, seasoned with drinking and to ping.
27. Then they look up the topic among other subjects of their
conversation, as to whether they were slighted and disliked by their
paramour--the spouse of Umá, who is taken to share one half of his
body. (In the shape of androgyne--Umá--Maheswara or Hara--Gaurí; having
the male and female bodies joined in two halves in one bisex forms).
28. We shall now show him our prowess, that he may never think of
despising our great powers even by a contemptuous look, for though the
god feigns to be single and naked, yet we know he is bipartite with his
consorts Umá forming his better half.
29. Thus determined the goddesses overpowered on Umá by some potent
charm of theirs, and by sprinkling a little water upon her, as they
do to captivate a beast, which they are going to sacrifice before
the altar, and by this spell they succeeded both to change the fine
features of Durga, as also to enervate her frame.
30. They succeeded also by their power of enchantment, to detach Umá
from the body of Hara, and set her before them, with an imprecation of
converting her fair form to their meat food.
31. They made great rejoicings on the day of their execration of
Párvati; when they all joined in dancing and singing, and making their
giddy revelries before her.
32. The shouts of their great joy and loud laughter resounded in the
sky, and the jumping and hopping of their big bodies, laid open their
backs and bellies to sight.
33. Some laughed as loudly with the deafening clappings of their palms,
that they rebounded in the sky as the roarings of lions and clouds.
They showed the gestures of their bodies in their warlike dance, and
the sound of their singing rang through the forests and reached in the
mountains.
34. Others sang as loud as it rang through the mountain caves, and ran
to the depth of the ocean; which rebillowed with its surges as at the
time of the full-moon tide.
35. Others drank their bowls, and daubed their bodies from head to foot
with liquor; and muttered their drunken chatters, that chattered in the
sky.
36. They drank over and sang louder and louder, they turned about as
tops, and uttered and muttered as sots. They laughed and sipped and
chopped and fell down and rolled and prattled aloud. Thus they reeled
in fits, and bit the bits of their flesh meats, till these Bacchanal
goddesses did all their orgies in their giddy revels.
CHAPTER XIX.
BHUSUNDA'S NATIVITY AND HABITATION.
Argument.--Account of the birth of Bhusunda.
Bhusunda continued. Thus while the goddesses were in the acts of their
merriment, their bonny vehicles or carrier birds also caught the
infection, and indulged themselves in their giddy jigs and giggles, and
in tippling the red blood of their victims for their liquor.
2. Then giddy with their drink the gabbling geese, that were fit
vehicles for Brahmá's consorts, danced and frolicked in the air, in
company with the crow Chanda the carrying bird of Alambushá.
3. Then as the geese darted down, and kept dancing and drinking and
tittling on the banks of streams, they felt impassioned and inflamed by
lust: because the borders of waters are excitants of concupiscence.
4. Thus the geese being each and all excited by their carnal desire,
dallied with that crow in their state of giddiness, which is often the
cause of unnatural appetites.
5. Thus that single crow--Chanda by name, became spoused to seven geese
at once on that bank; and cohabited one by one with every one of them,
according to their desire.
6. Thus the geese became pregnant after gratification of their lust,
and the goddesses being satisfied by their merry dance, held their
quiet and took to their rest.
7. Then these goddesses of great delusion (mahá máyá), advanced towards
their consort Siva, and presented unto him his favorite Umá for his
food.
8. The god bearing the crescent moon on his fore-head, and holding the
trident spike in his hand; coming to know that they had offered his
beloved one for his meat, became highly incensed on the Mátres.
9. Then they brought out the parts of the body of Umá, which they had
taken in as their food from their bodies; and presented her entire for
her remarriage with the moon-headed deity.
10. At last the god Hara and his consorts being all reconciled to one
another together with their dependants and vehicles, retired to their
respective quarters with gladness of their minds.
11. The geese of Brahmá perceiving their pregnancy, repaired to the
presence of their goddess, and represented to bear their case, as I
have, O chief of sages! already related unto you.
12. The Devi on hearing their words, spake kindly unto them and
said:--you my menials, cannot now be capable of bearing my car in the
air as before; but must have the indulgence of moving about at your
pleasure, until you have delivered of your burthens.
13. After the kind goddess had said these words to her geese, that
were ailing under the load foetuses, she betook herself to her wonted
meditation, and remained in her irreversible rest with the gladness of
her mind.
14. The geese that were now big with the burden of their embryos,
grazed in the lotus bed of Vishnu's navel, which had been the birth
place of the great Brahmá before. (Brahmá the creative power, owed his
birth to the lotiform navel of Vishnu, and the same place was all owed
for the pasture of the geese and the nativity of the goslings).
15. The geese then being matured in their pregnancy, by feeding upon
the lotus-like navel of Vishnu, brought forth their tender eggs in
time, as the calmly creepers shoot out in sprouts in the spring.
16. They laid thrice seven eggs in their proper time, which afterwards
split in twain, like so many mundane eggs in their upper and lower
valves or canals.
17. It was these eggs, O great sage! that gave birth to thrice seven
brethren of ours, all of whom are known under the appellation of the
fraternity of chanda crows.
18. These being born in the lotus bed of Vishnu navel, were fostered
and bred up in the same place, till they were fledged and enabled to
fly and flutter in the air.
19. We then joined with our mother geese in the service of our
Mátri-goddess, who after our long services unto her, was roused from
her intense meditation at last.
20. Now sir, it was in course of time, that the goddess inclined of her
own complaisance, to receive us into her good grace, and favour us with
the gift (of foresight), whereby we are quite liberated in this life.
(It is over one's blindness of the future, that is the cause of the
error and mischief of life).
21. Thought in ourselves of remaining in peace, and in the tranquillity
of our minds; and being determined to betake ourselves to solitary
contemplation, we went to our sire the old crow Chanda for his advice.
(In the Vindhyan mountain).
22. We were received into the embrace of our father, and favoured with
the presence of his goddess Alumbusha; they looked on us with kindness,
and allowed us to remain near them with our self restricted conduct.
23. Chanda said:--O my darlings! Have ye obtained your release from
weaving the web of your desires? You are then set free from the snare
of this world, which binds fast all beings in it.
24. If not so, then I will pray unto this goddess of mine, who is
always propitious to her devotees, to confer on you the blessing of
consummate knowledge (which alone can save you from all worldly evils).
25. The crows replied--O sir! we have known whatever is knowable, by
the good grace of the Goddess Brahmá, it is only a good solitary place,
which we now seek for the sake of undisturbed meditation.
26. Chanda returned--I will point it out to you, in the high mountain
of Meru in the polar region; which is the seat of all the celestials,
and the great receptacle of all the treasures and gems on earth.
27. This mountain stands as the lofty pillar of gold, in the midst of
the great dome of the universe; it is lightet by the luminous orbs of
the sun and moon as its two lamps, and is the residence of all kinds of
animals.
28. This lofty mountain stands as the lifted arm of this orb of the
earth, with its gemming peaks and pinnacles resembling its fingers and
their jewels, and having the moonbeam, as a golden canopy raised over
its head, and the sounding main girding the islands for its bracelets.
29. The mount Meru is situated in the midst of the Jambudwípa (Asia)
as its sole monarch, and is beset by the boundary mountains as its
chieftains on all sides. With its two eye balls of the rolling sun and
moon, it glances over the surrounding hillocks, as the king seated in
the centre, looks on the courtiers sitting all about him.
30. The clusters of stars in the sky, hangs as wreaths of málati
flowers around his neck, and the bright moon that leads the train of
stars, forms the crowning jewels over his head, the firmament on the
ten sides girds him as his vest, and the nágas of both kinds (_i.e._
the elephants and serpents) are warders at his gates.
31. The nymphs of heaven are employed in fanning him with the breeze
from all quarters, and flapping over him their _chouries_ of the
passing clouds, with their hands decorated with the variegated hues of
heaven as their ornaments.
32. His huge body stretched over many leagues, and his feet are rooted
fast many fathoms underneath the earth; where they are worshipped by
the nágas, Asuras and large serpents. (That dwell at the foot of the
mount, while the races of gods are situated on its top).
33. It has thousands of ridges and steeps, craigs and cliffs, below its
two eyes of sun and moon; and these are lauded as celestial regions by
the Gods, gandharvas and kinnaras that inhabit in them.
34. There are fourteen kinds of superior beings, inhabiting the
supernal sphere of this mountain; and these dwell there with their
households and relatives, in their respective circles, without ever
seeing the city or citadel of another. (This means the great extent
and distance of the several separate ridges from one another. Its
fourteen ridges or regions are known as the chaturdasa--vhuvanas, and
fourteen peoples are included under the title of thirteen classes
of celestials--_troadasa-gana-devatás_. These are the brahmarshis,
Rajarshis, Devarshis, Devas, Pitris, Gandharvas, Kinnaras, Apsaras,
Vidyádharas, Yakshas, Rakshas, Pramathas, Guhyakas and Nágas (the last
of whom are not recognized among celestial beings).)
35. There is a large ridge on the north east corner of this mount, with
its gemming summit rising as high and bright as the shining sun.
36. There stands a large _kalpa_ tree on the out side of that ridge,
which is peopled with living beings of various kinds; and appears to
present a picture of the whole world in miniature.
37. The southern stem of this tree has a protruding branch with its
aureate leaves, and its blossoms blooming as clusters of brilliant
gems; and presenting its fruit as lucid and luscious to view, as the
bright and cooling orb of the moon.
38. I had formerly built my nest on that branch, and decorated it with
all sorts of shining gems; and there it was, oh my offspring! that I
sported and enjoyed myself, as long as my goddess sat in her meditative
mood.
39. My nest was hid under the gemming flowers, and stored with luscious
fruits, and its door was fastened with bolts of precious gems.
40. It was full of young crows, who knew how to behave properly with
one another; Its inside was strewn over with flowers, and was cooling
at all times and seasons.
41. Repair therefore, my children! to that nest, which is inaccessible
even to the gods; because by remaining there, you will obtain both your
livelihood and liberation without any molestation. (Livelihood with
liberty, is the best blessing on earth).
42. Saying so, our father kissed and embraced everyone of us; and
presented to us the meat food, which he had got from his goddess.
43. After taking our repast, we prostrated ourselves at the feet of our
father and his goddess, and then flew in the air, from the Vindhyan
range which is sacred to the divinity of Alumbusha.
44. We passed over the nether sky, entered into the region of the
clouds; then coming out of their hollow caves, we flew aloft on the
wings of the winds to the vacuous void of the etherial gods to whom we
paid our homage.
45. Having then passed the solar world, we arrived at another sphere
of the fixed stars above, where we saw the heaven of the immortals and
thence reached the empyrean of Brahmá.
46. There we bowed down to the goddess Bráhmí, and our mother (the
goose) which was her vehicle; and related in length to them the behest
of our father unto us.
47. They endeared and embraced us with kind affection, and then bade us
to do as we were bid by our sire. At this we bowed down to them, and
took our departure from the seat of Brahmá.
48. We then directed our flight to Meru where we found out this _kalpa
tree_ and our appointed nest in it. Here we line apart and remote from
all, and hold our silence in all matters.
49. We passed the region of the regents of the skies, which shone to a
great distance with the blaze of solar rays; we fled through the empty
air with the velocity of winds.
50. I have thus related to you in length in answer to your query,
regarding the manner of our birth and how we are settled in this place;
I have told you also how we came to the knowledge of truth, whereby we
have come to this state of undisturbed peace and tranquillity, now bid
us, O great Sage! what more can we relate to satisfy your curiosity
about us.
CHAPTER XX.
EXPLICATION OF THE MYSTERIOUS CHARACTER OF BHUSUNDA.
Argument.--The stability of the world even at the change and
dissolution of the worldly objects; and the immortality of Bhusunda
even after the Demise of his Brethren.
Bhusunda continued. This world has existed by the prior and bygone
kalpa, in the very same state as it does at present, and there is no
variation in the formation or location of any thing in any wise. (The
ante-diluvean world alike the post-diluvean).
2. Therefore O great Sage! I am accustomed to look to the past and
present with an equal eye, and will relate the events of my passed life
and by gone ages for your information, as if they are existent with me
even at present. (It is the fashion of the old chroniclers, to describe
the long past as if it is actually present before them).
3. I find to-day, O great Sage! the fruit of my pious acts of my passed
life, that have rewarded me with your blessed presence in this my
humble cell.
4. This nest of mine, this branch of the tree, this _kalpa_ arbour and
this myself, are all blessed by your propitious presence in this place.
(The sight of a superior is a great favour).
5. Deign Sir, to accept of this seat and this honorarium, which are
here offered to you by a suppliant bird; and having purified us by
your kind acceptance of our poor offerings, please command what other
service can we render unto you. (_i.e._, what more can I relate to you).
6. Vasishtha said:--Ráma! after Bhusunda had again presented the
seat and honorarium to me, I proffered to him another request in the
following words.
7. I said, tell me, O thou senior among birds, why don't I see here
those brethren of yours, who must be equally senile and strong in their
bodies and intellects, as thou showest thyself to be.
8. Bhusunda answered and said:--I am here destined to remain alone,
O Muni! to witness the continuous course of time, and to count and
recount the revolutions of ages, as they reckon the succession of days
and nights.
9. During this length of time, I had the misfortune to witness all
my juniors and younger brothers, to their mortal frames as trifling
straws, and find their rest in the blessed state (Of eternity).
10. I saw, O great Sage! the very long lived, and the very great
indignity, the very strong and very wise, to be all gorged in the
unconscious bowels of bodiless death. (The great and small equally
fall; and time at last devours them all. Non semper erit æstas).
11. Vasishtha said:--Say, O venerable father! how you remained
unmolested by the deluvian tempest, which outstripped the winds in its
velocity, and bore the great bodies of the sun and moon and stars as
jewels hanging about its neck.
12. (The deluvian tempest is called _tufani nuh_ or hurricane of Noah
in the Koran. The Khandapralaya is a partial deluge of the earth, but
the mahápralaya is the aggregate of all the cosmic revolutions of the
whole world).
12a. Say, O primeval seer! how you escaped unscorched by the burning
flame of solar rays, which melted down the uprising mountains, and
consumed there the woods in one all devouring conflagration. (The
burning sun on the day of the last dissolution, is said in the Koran,
to come down and stand at a lance's distance above the heads of men).
13. Say, O senile sire, how you remained unfrozen under the cold moon
beams, that froze the limpid waters to hard stone; and how you fled
unhurt from the showers of hail, which were poured in profusion by the
deluvian clouds.
14. Say, O ancient bird! why you were not crushed under the snows,
which fell from the deluvian clouds as thickly as huge trees, when they
are felled by axes from the tops of high hills.
15. Say, why this _kalpa tree_ which rises higher than all other
forests, was not broken down, when all other arbors on earth, were
levelled to the ground by the universal tornado.
16. Bhusunda replied:--Our station, O Bráhman! in the open and empty
air, is quite supportless and without any solid or fixed support. It
is either unnoticed or looked upon with disregard and contempt by all,
and our living and livelihood is the most despicable among all living
beings. (All this is meant of the soul, which is here personified as a
bird--a dark crow, and named as the _amara_ Bhusunda, a contemptuous
word often applied to senile people).
17. Thus has the Lord of beings appointed these aerial beings, to
remain free from disease and death in these forests, or fly about in
the empty air in their aerial course. (The forests mean the living
bodies, and the empty air is the field for the rambles of disembodied
spirits).
18. How then, O venerable sir, can any sorrow or sickness betide us
here, where we are born to be immortal, and rove freely in open air;
and are free from those pains and sorrows, which betake those birds
that are bound in snares of their desires, and are subject to their
hopes and fears.
19. We sir, have always placed our reliance on the peace and
contentment of our souls, and never allow ourselves to fall into error,
of taking the insubstantials for substantial.
20. We are quite content with what simple nature requires and affords,
and are entirely free from those cares and endeavours which are
attended with pain. We live only to pass our time in this our own and
lonely lodging (which is allotted to us by providence).
21. We neither wish to live long to wallow in our bodily enjoyments nor
desire death to avoid the retribution of our acts; but live as long
as we have to live, and die when death comes upon us. (Neither love
thy life nor hate, but live well how long or short permit to heaven.
Milton).
22. We have seen the changeful states of mankind, and witnessed many
instances of the vicissitudes of human affairs, and have thereby
banished all sorts of levity from our bodies and minds. (Lit. the
restlessness of body and mind).
23. By the constant light of our internal spirit, we are kept from the
sight of all sorrow and grief; and from our seat on the height of the
kalpa tree, we clearly see the course of the world and the changes
of time. (The kalpa tree of desire is at once the tree of life and
knowledge of the garden of paradise, because both of them are equally
desirable to man; and any one who is seated above this tree, must
know all things by his all knowingness and immortality as the soul of
Bhusunda).
24. Though we are wholly unacquainted with the changes of days and
nights, on this high pinnacle of our heavenly mountain (where there is
the eternal sunshine of Divine presence); yet we are not ignorant of
the vicissitudes of the times and events, in the solar and sublunary
worlds which roll incessantly below us.
25. Though our habitation in the cell of this Kalpatree, is ever
illumined by the light of gems which are inlaid in it; yet we can
know the course of time by the respirations of our breath, which as a
chronometer informs us with the regular course of time. (The ajapá or
breathings indicate the succession of time, as any time piece or the
course of days and nights).
26. Knowing what is real from all that is unreal, I have desisted from
my pursuit after unrealities, and settled in my knowledge of the true
reality; and by forsaking its natural fickleness, my mind is practised
to rest at all times in its perfect peace and tranquillity. (The mind
is no more troubled with the tempting trifles of the world, after it
has come to know their falsity and vanity).
27. We are not led to the snare of false worldly affairs, nor
frightened like earthly crows in our hankering after food by the
hissings of men.
28. It is by the serene light of the supreme felicity of our souls, and
by the virtue of the unalterable patience of our minds, that we look
into the errors and delusions of the world, with out falling in them
ourselves.
29. Know great sage, that our minds remain unruffled, even under
the shock of those dangers and perils, which ruffle the tempers and
understandings of ordinary people; just as the pure crystal remains
unstained by the blackest hues that environ it all around.
30. The course of the world, appears very smooth and pleasant in its
first beginning; but upon mature consideration, it proves to be frail,
fickle and false, as one goes on in it.
31. Thus all living beings are seen to pass away, and whether to return
here again or not, no body can tell; what then is it that we must fear
(knowing death and demise to be the unavoidable doom of nature).
32. As the course of streams runs continually to the ocean, so the
progress of life tends incessantly to the depth of eternity; but we
that stand on the border of the great ocean of eternity, have escaped
from being carried away by the current of time.
33. We neither cling to our life nor fling it away, but bear it as well
as we may, and remain as airy orchids, lightly touching and unattached
to their supporting arbour.
34. It is more over by the good of the best sort of men, who are beyond
the reach of fear, sorrow and pain like yourself; that we have been set
free from all sorts of malady.
35. From the examples of such persons, our minds have become cold, and
unconcerned about the affairs of busy life; and are employed only in
scanning truth and the true nature of things. (Blessed are they that
meditate on the laws of God both day and night).
36. Our souls finding their rest in their unchangeable and unperturbed
state, have the fullness of their light and delight, as the sea has
its flux of floodtide at the rising of the full and new moon upon its
bosom. (The flood of spiritual light in the soul, resembling the flood
of hightide in the sea).
37. Sir, we were as highly pleased at your presence here at this
time, as the milky ocean was overflown at its churning by the Mandara
mountain. (The Mandara mountain is said to have been the resort of the
remnants of men at the great deluge, and was used by them as their
churning stick, to recover their lost properties from the depth of the
waters. The recovery was rather joyous to the men than it could be to
the sea).
38. Sir, We do not account any thing as more precious and more
favourable unto us, than that the holy saints that have nothing to
desire, should take pains to pay their kind visit to our humble cell.
39. What do we gain from our enjoyments, which are pleasant for the
time being, and lose their zest the next moment; it is the company
of the great and good only, that gives the best gifts like the
philosopher's stone.
40. You sir, who are cool and grave in your nature, and soft and sweet
and slow in your speech, are like the beneficent bee, that sits and
sips the juice from the flowers in the three worlds, and converts it to
the sweet balm of honey.
41. I ween, O spiritual Sage! all my sins to be removed at your blessed
sight, and the tree of my life to be blest with its best fruit of
spiritual bliss, which results from the society of the virtuous, and
whose taste removes all diseases and dangers.
CHAPTER XXI.
EXPLANATION OF THE CAUSE OF THE CROW'S LONGEVITY.
Argument.--The eminence of the kalpa tree, and its durability in all
ages. The doings of destiny, and the results of past reminiscence.
Vhusunda continued. This kalpa tree whereon we dwell remains firm
and unshaken amidst the revolutions of ages and the blasts of all
destroying cyclones and hurricanes. (Figuratively said of human
desires, which continue with the soul through all the vicissitudes of
life, and all its endless transmigrations, so says ([Sanskrit: kálah
krínati gacchatyáyustadapi namunchatyásárbayuh]).)
2. This arbor of desire is inaccessible to other people dwelling in
all worlds; it is therefore that we reside here in perfect peace and
delight, and without disturbance of any kind. (_i.e._ We dwell on the
firm rock of our secret hopes and expectations, where no body can
obtrude upon us, and of which no external accident has the power to
despoil us).
3. When Heranyákha the gigantic demon of antediluvian race, strove to
hurl this earth with all its septuple continents into the lowest abyss,
even then did this tree remain firm on its roots, and on the summit of
this mountains.
4. And then as this mountainous abode of the gods, stood trembling with
all other mountains of this earth (on the tusk of the divine Varáha or
boar), even then did this tree remain unshaken on its firm basis.
5. When Náráyana supported this seat of the gods on his two arms
(_i.e._ the Meru), and uplifted the mandara mount on the other two,
even then did this tree remain unshaken.
6. When the orbs of the sun and moon, shook with fear, at the
tremendous warfare of the gods and demons, and the whole earth was in a
state of commotion and confusion, even then did this tree stand firm on
its root.
7. When the mountains were up-rooted by the hail-storms blowing with
tremendous violence, and sweeping away the huge forest trees of this
mount of Meru, even then was this tree unshaken by the blast.
8. When the mount Mandara rolled into the milky ocean, and gusts of
wind filling its caverns (like canvases of a vessel), bore it afloat
on the surface of the water; and the great masses of diluvian clouds
rolled about in the vault of heaven, even then did this tree remain
steadfast as a rock.
9. When this mount of Meru was under the grasp of Kálanemi and was
going to crush by his gigantic might (with its inhabitants of the
gods), even then this tree remained steady on its roots.
10. When the siddhas were blown away by the flapping wings of
Garuda--the king of birds, in their mutual warfare for this ambrosial
fare, even then this remained unmoved by the wind.
11. When the snake which upholds the earth, was assailed by Rudra in
the form of Garuda, who shook the world by the blast of his wings, even
then was this tree unshaken by the wind.
12. When the flame of the last conflagration, threatened to consume the
world with the seas and mountains; and made the snake which supported
the earth on his hoods, throw out living fire from all his many mouths,
even then this tree was neither shaken nor burnt down by the gorgeous
and all devouring fire.
13. Such being the stability of this tree, there is no danger O Sage!
that can betake us here, as there is no evil than can ever betide the
inhabitants of heaven. How can we, O great Sage! be ever exposed to any
danger, who are thus situated in this tree which defies all casualties.
We are out of all fear and danger as those that are situated in heaven.
(The object of one's desire is in a manner his highest heaven).
14. Vasishtha rejoined: But tell me, O Sagely bird! that has borne with
the blasts of dissolution, how could you remain unhurt and unimpaired,
when many a sun and moon and stars have fallen and faded away.
15. Bhusunda said: When at the end of a kalpa period, the order of
the world and laws of nature are broken and dissolved; we are then
compelled to forsake our nest as an ungrateful man alienates his best
friend.
16. We then remain in the air freed from our fancies, the members of
the body become defunct of their natural functions, and the mind is
released from its volitions.
17. When the zodiacal suns shine in their full vigour, and melt
down the mountains by there intense heat, I then remain with my
understanding; under the influence of Varuna's mantra or power. (Varuna
the god of water is said to be allied with the human soul, which is a
watery substance).
18. When the diluvian winds blow with full force, and shatter and
scatter the huge mountains all around, it is then by minding the
párvatí mantra, that I remain as fixed as a rock. (Vasishtha has
explained the meaning of this mantra in the latter part of the _Nirvána
prakarana_).
19. When the earth with its mountains is dissolved into water, and
presents the face of an universal ocean over its surface; it is then by
virtue of the _váyu mantra_ or my volatile power, that I keep myself
aloft in the air.
20. I then convey myself across this visible world, and rest in the
holy state of the spotless spirit; and remain in a state of profound
sleep, without any agitation of the body and mind.
21. I remain in this torpid state, until the lotus-born Brahmà is
again employed in his work of creation, and then I re-enter into the
limits of the re-created world, where I settled again on this arbour of
desire. (The departed soul is free from desire, which it re-assumes to
itself upon its re-entrance into life).
22. Vasishtha said: Tell me, O lord of birds, why the other Yogis do
not remain as steady as you do by your dháraná or fixed attention.
23. Bhusunda replied, O venerable sir! It is because of the inseparable
and overruling power of destiny, which no body can prevent or set
aside; that I am doomed to live in this wise and others in their
particular modes of life.
24. None can oppose or remodel what must come to pass on him; it is
nature's law that all things must be as they are ordained to be. (There
is no helping for what is destined to happen, what is allotted, can not
be averted).
25. It is because of my firm desire that things are so fixed and
allotted to my share, that they must so come to pass to my lot at each
kalpa and over again, and that this tree must grow on the summit of
this mountain, and I must have my nest in its hollow. (The heart is
the hollow of the tree of the body, and the soul is the bird that is
confined there of its own desire).
26. Vasishtha said: You sir, are as longeval as our salvation is
diuturnal, and are able to guide us in the paths of truth; because you
are sapient in true wisdom, and sedate in your purpose of Yoga or deep
meditation.
27. Sir, you have seen the many changes of the world, and have been
experienced in all things in the repeated course of creations; must be
best able to tell me the wonders that you have witnessed during the
revolution of ages.
28. Bhusunda replied--I remember, O great sage! the earth beneath this
mount of Meru to have been once a desolate land, and having no hill or
rock, nor trees, plants or even grass upon it. (This was the primeval
state of the earth, when nothing grew upon it, and agrees with what the
Persian sophist thinks with regard to the priority of the soul to all
other created things, as "_manan wakt budam ke nechak nabud_" I existed
when there is nothing in existence).
29. I remember also the earth under me, to have been full of ashes for
a period of myriads and centuries of years. (This was the age after the
all devouring conflagration on earth).
30. I remember a time when the lord of day--the sun was unproduced, and
when the orb of the moon was not yet known, and when the earth under me
was not divided by day and light, but was lighted by the light of this
mount of Meru.
31. I remember this mountain throwing the light of its gems on one side
of the valley below it, and leaving the other in utter darkness; and
resembling the lokáloka mount presenting its light and dark side to the
people on either side of the horizon. (The sun is said to turn round
the Meru, and the day and night as he is on one or the other side of
this mountain).
32. I remember to have seen the war rising high between the gods and
demons, and the flight and slaughter of people on all sides of the
earth.
33. I remember to have witnessed the revolution of the four yuga-ages
of the world, and the revolt of the haughty and giddy assyrians--asuras
all along; I have also seen the Daitya--demons driven back to the wall.
34. I remember the spot of the earth, which was borne away beyond the
boundaries of the universal flood; and recollect the cottage of the
world, to have only the increate three (the Holy triad) left in it.
35. I remember to have seen no other creature on earth, except the
vegetable creation for the long duration of one half of the four
yuga-ages. (The earth was covered with jungle for a long period after
the great flood).
36. I also remember this earth to be full of mountains and mountainous
tracts, for the space of full four yugas; when there were no men
peopled on earth, nor their customs and usages got their ground in it.
37. I remember to have seen this earth filled with the bones of dead
Daityas and other fossil remains, rising in heaps like mountains, and
continuing in their dilapidated and crumbling state for myriads of
years. (These are the fossil remains of the monsters of the former
world).
38. I remember that formless state of the world, when darkness
prevailed over the face of the deep, when the serpentine support of the
earth fled for fear, and the celestials left their etherial courses;
and the sky presented neither a bird or the top of a tree in it.
39. I remember the time when the northern and southern divisions
(of India), were both included under the one boundary mountain (of
Himalaya); and I remember also when the proud vindhyan vied to equal
the great Meru.
40. I remember these and many other events, which will be too long to
relate; but what is the use of long narrations, if you will but attend
to my telling you the main substance in brief.
41. I have beheld innumerable Munis and manwantaras pass away before
me, and I have known hundreds of the quadruple yugas glide away one
after the other, all of which were full of great deeds and events; but
which are now buried in oblivion.
42. I remember the creation of one sole body named Virát in this world,
when it was entirely devoid of men and asuras in it.
43. I remember that age of the world, when the Brahmans were addicted
to wine and drunkenness, when the Sudras were out casted by the Suras
(Aryans); and when women had the privilege of polyandry (which is still
practised among the Pariahs of Deccan).
44. When the surface of the earth presented the sight of one great
sheet of water (after the deluge), and entirely devoid of any vegetable
produce upon it; and when men were produced without cohabitation of man
and woman, I remember that time also (when Bhrigu and the patriarchs
were born in this manner).
45. I remember that age of the world, when the world was a void, and
there was no earth or sky nor any of their inhabitants in it, neither
men nor mountains were in existence, nor were there the sun and moon to
divide the days and nights.
46. I remember the sphere of heaven shrouded under a sheet of darkness,
and when there was no Indra nor king to rule in heaven or earth, which
had not yet its high and low and middle classes of men.
47. It was after that, the Brahmá thought of creating the worlds,
and divided them into the three spheres of the upper, lower and the
intermediate regions. He then settled the boundary mountains, and
distinguished the Jambudvípa or the continent of Asia from the rest.
48. Then the earth was not divided into different countries and
provinces, nor was there, the distinctions of cast and creed, nor
institutions for the various orders of its people. There was then no
name for the starry frame, nor any denomination for the polar star or
its circle.
49. It was then that the sun and moon had their birth, and the gods
Indra and Upendra had their dominions. After this occurred the
slaughter of Hiranya-Kasipu, and the restoration of the earth by the
great Varaha or boar like incarnation of Vishnu.
50. Then there was the establishment of kings over the peoples on
earth, and the revelation of the Vedas given to mankind; after this the
Mandara mountain was uprooted from the earth, and the ocean was churned
by the gods and giant races of men.
51. I have seen the unfledged Garuda or bird of heaven, that bore
Vishnu on his back; and I have seen the seas breaking in bays and
gulfs. All these events are remembered by me as the latest occurrences
in the course of the world, and must be in the memory of my youngsters
and yourself likewise.
52. I have known in former ages the god Vishnu with his vehicle of
Garuda, to have become Brahmá with his vehicle of swan, and the
same transformed to Siva having the bull for his bearer and so the
vice-versa. (This passage shows the unity of the Hindu trinity, and the
interchangeableness of their persons, forms and attributes).
CHAPTER XXII.
ACCOUNT OF PAST AGES.
Argument.--The various Events of bygone days, and the changes in the
order of things in the world.
Bhusunda continued:--Moreover I will tell you sir, many other things
that I remember to have occurred in the course of the world, and
under the flight of by gone times. I remember the births of the seers
Bharadwája, Pulasta, Atri, Nárada, Indra, the Maríchis and yourselves
also.
2. I bear in my mind the venerable Pulaha, Uddálaka, kratu, Bhrigu,
Angiras and Sanatkumára, Bhringi and Ganesa, and Skanda and others in
their train, who were known as Siddharshis or consummate sages of yore.
3. I retain the memory of Guarí, Sarasvatí, Laxmí, Gayatrí and many
more famous females, who are reckoned as female personifications of
divine attributes. I have seen the mountains Meru, Mandara, Kailása,
the Himalayas and the Dardura hills.
4. I carry in my memory the exploits of the demons Hiranyáksha,
Kálanimí, Hayagríva, Hiranya Kasipu, Vati and Prahláda and many others
of the Dánava or Demoniac race.
5. I keep in my mind the remembrance of the renowned Sibi, Nyanku,
Prithu, Vainya, Nala, Nábhága, Mandháta, Sagara, Dilipa and Nahusa
kings of men and rulers of earth.
6. I know by heart the names of Atriya, Vyasa, Válmíki, Sukadeva,
Vátsyayana and other sages, and know by rote the names of Upamanyu,
Manimanki, Bhagíratha and other pious princes of old.
7. So there are many things of remote past times, and others of later
ages and some relating to the present age; all of which are imprinted
in the memory, wherefore it is needless to recount them over again.
8. O thou Sagely son of Brahmá! I remember thy eight births, in the
eight different epochs of the world, and this is verily thy eight
births in which thou hast become a guest to my nest.
9. You are at one time born of air, and at another of heavenly fire;
you are some time produced from water, and at others from empty
vacuity or of the solid rock. (_i.e._, formed of one or other of these
elementary bodies at different periods of the world).
10. The constitution of created bodies, conforms us with the nature of
the principle elements of which they are formed; and the positions of
heavenly bodies, have a great influence on their production. I have
witnessed three such formations of the world composed of igneous,
aqueous and terrene substances at different times.
11. I remember ten repeated creations, in which the usages of people
were uniform and alike; and the gods were settled in their abodes
(_i.e._, the Aryans led nomadic life). They were coeval with the Asuras
whom they braved in battle, and were located in their homestead.
12. I saw the earth sinking five times under, and lifted up as many
times by the divine _Kurmamanantara_, or incarnation of Vishnu in the
form of the tortoise, from below the overflowing ocean.
13. I witnessed the great tumult of Suras and Asuras or the Gods
and demi-gods, in uprooting and uplifting the Mandara mountain, for
churning out the last ambrosia from underneath the ocean for twelve
times over. (The meaning of _Samudara manthana_ or churning of the sea,
seems to be the refining of the salt water of the deluging sea).
14. Thrice have seen the imposing Hiranyáksha, that levied his tax upon
the gods in heaven, hurling the fruitful earth with all her balmy and
medicinal plants underneath the ocean.
15. I beheld Hari to have come down six times in the shape of Renuka's
son or Parashuráma, and extirpate the Kshetriya race at the intervals
of very long periods.
16. I remember, O Sage! the return of a hundred _kaliyuga_ ages, and a
hundred incarnations of Hari in the form of Buddha, and as the son of
royal Suka or Suddhadana in the land of Kirata.
17. I bear in my remembrance the overthrow of _tripura_ thrice ten
times by Siva, and the discomfiture of Dakhas' ceremony for more than
once by the irritated Hara; and I recall to my mind the downfall of
ten Indras by the offending God, who bears the crescent moon on his
forehead (and the confinement of their thunder-bolts within the caverns
of volcanoes glass).
18. I recollect the battle that has been fought eight times between
Hari and Hara, and the first appearance of Vishnu and Siva, jvaras or
the cold typhoid fevers in these conflicts. (This means the rising of
the malarious fevers of Dinajpur, which raged among the belligerent
forces on both sides).
19. I remember, O silent Sage! the difference in the intellects of
men at every succeeding age, and the various readings of vedas at the
ceremonial observances of mankind. (This means the varieties of reading
of the vedas as pointed in the prati sákha, and the difference of
phonetic intonation as shown in the sikshas, have greatly tended to the
depravity of vedic recitation, and consequently to their inefficacy in
producing their desired consequence also).
20. O sinless saint! The Puránas also though they agree in the main
substance, are so full of interpolations, that they have been greatly
multiplied in successive ages. (It is quite true of works in manuscript
and without their gloss).
21. I remember also many historical works, which have been composed by
authors learned in the vedas in the succeeding ages. (These works are
called Itihásas or legendary accounts, as the epics of Rámáyana and
Mahábhárata by Válmíki and Vyása respectively).
22. I have the recollection of the other wondrous composition of
legendary accounts, under the title of the Mahárámáyana a work
comprising one hundred thousand slokas or tetrastichs, and replete with
sound wisdom. (This was revealed by Brahmá to Vasishtha and Viswámitra).
23. This work presents the conduct of Ráma for the imitation of the
men, and sets the misbehaviour of Rávana to the opprobrium of mankind.
This precept contains the essence of all wisdom, and serves as the
luscious fruit of the tree of knowledge, placed in the palm of all
people. (The substance of these instances is, that virtue is true
happiness below and vice is bane of life).
24. This work is composed by Válmíki, who will compose some others also
in time; and these you will come to know, when they will be presented
to world in time (as I have known them before hand by my foreknowledge
of things, gloss) (This work is called Vasishtha Ráma samváda in the
form of a dialogue as those of Socrates and Plato).
25. This work whether it is a composition of Válmíki, or the
composition of some other person, is published for the twelve times,
and is now going to be almost forgotten by men.
26. The other work of like importance, is known under the name of
Bhárata; I remember it to have been written by Vyása at first, but is
becoming obsolete at present.
27. Whether it is the composition of person known by the name of Vyása,
or a compilation of some other person, it has up to this time undergone
its seventh edition, and is now going fastly to be forgotten.
28. I remember also, O chief of Sages! many tales and novels and other
sástras, composed in every age and Yuga; which have been written in a
variety of styles and diction.
29. O good sage! I remember to have seen also many new productions
and inventions, following one another in succeeding age; and it is
impossible to enumerate this innumerable series of things.
30. I remember the Lord Vishnu descending many times on earth, for
the destruction of ferocious Ráksasas, and is now to appear here the
eleventh time under the appellation of Ráma.
31. I know the lord Hari to have thrice come down in his form of
Nrisinha or leonine man, and thrashed the demon Hiranyakasipu as many
times, as a lion kills a gigantic elephant. (_i.e._ Although the gods
are of smaller forms and figures, yet they got the better of the
giants, by means of their better arms and knowledge of warfare).
32. Vishnu is yet to be born in his sixteenth incarnation at Vasudeva's
abode, for the purpose of rescuing the earth from the burthen of the
oppression of its tyrannic lords and despots.
33. This cosmic phenomenon is no reality, nor it is even in existence;
it is but a temporary illusion, and appears as bubble of water to
disappear in next moment.
34. This temporary illusion of the phenomenals, rises and sets in the
conscious soul of its own accord; as the boisterous billows heave and
subside themselves in the bosom of the waters.
35. I have known the world to be sometimes uniform in its course and in
the state of things, at others there is a partial difference in their
nature and order, and again total change has also been observed to take
place in the constitution of things. (Nature is never uniform, but all
are subject to change more or less from its original state).
36. I remember the former nature and state of things, and the manner
and actions of bygone people and the usages of those times; I saw them
give room to others in their turn and those again to be displaced by
others. (He that wants an even uniformity to see, expects what never
had been, nor ever will be).
37. Every Manwantara or revolution of time; is attended O Brahman! with
a reversion in the course of the world; and a new generation is born to
supplant the old men of renown.
38. I have then a new set of friends and a new train of relatives; I
get a new batch of servants, and a new habitation for my dwelling.
39. I had to remain some times in my solitary retreat by the side of
the Vindhyan range, and some times on the ridge of the Sahya Mountain.
I had at other times my residence on the Dardura Hills, and so my
lodging is ever shifting from one place to another and never fixed in
any spot forever. (The Dardura is the Dardue Hill in Afghanistan).
40. I have often been a resident of the Himalayas, and of the Malaya
Mountain in the South of India, and then led by destiny as described
before, I have found my last abode on this mount of Meru.
41. By getting to it, I built my nest on the branch of an Amra or mango
tree, and continued to live there, O chief of the Munis! for ages and
time without end.
42. It is by my pristine destiny that this tree has grown here for my
residence, therefore, O sage! I can have no release from this body
of mine to come to my desirable end. (_i.e._ the soul like a bird is
destined by its prior acts, to endless transmigrations in material
bodies, which are compared to its habitable trees, and from which it
can have no release, although it pines for its dis-embodied liberation,
as a decrepit old man wishes to get loose of his loathsome body).
43. It is by appointment of the predestination, that the same tree
has grown here in the form of the _kalpa_ arbour, which preserves the
beauty even now, as it did at the time when my father Chanda had been
living.
44. Being thus pre-ordained by destiny I was settled in this place,
when there had been no distinction of the quarters of heaven as the
north or east, nor of the sky or mountain.
45. Then the north was on another side, and this Meru was in another
place; I was then one and alone, and devoid of any form or body, and
was as bright as the essence, which is never shrouded by the darkness
of night.
46. After awaking from the insensibility of my trance (at the beginning
of another _kalpa_ creation or of my generation), I saw and recognized
all the objects of creation (as one comes to see and know the things
about him after waking from the forgetfulness of his sleep); and knew
the situations of the Meru and other hills and dales from the positions
of the stars, and the motions of heavenly bodies.
47. The site of the polar circle of Meru and the course of the planets
being changed in different creations, there ensues an alteration of the
points of the compass, and a difference in the sides of the quarters;
therefore there is nothing as a positive truth, except our conception
of it such and such.
48. It is the vibration of the soul, that displays these wonderful
conceptions in the mind; and excites the various phenomena in nature.
It converts a son to a father and makes a son of the father, and
represents a friend as a foe and again shows a foe in the light of a
friend. (Hence there is no such thing as a positive certainty, but
becomes transmutable to one in opposite nature, as the father supports
the child in its youth, and is supported by the boy in his dotage).
49. I remember many men to become effeminate, and many women also to
grow quite masculine; and I have seen the good manners of the golden
age to prevail in Kali [yuga], and those of Iron-age gaining ground in
its preceding ages.
50. I have seen also many men in the Tretá and Dwápara Yugas or the
silver and brazen ages of the world, that were ignorant of the Vedas
and unacquainted with their precepts; and followed the fictions of
their own invention which led them to heterodoxy.
51. I remember also O Brahman! the laxity of manners and morals among
the gods, demi gods and men since the beginning of the world.
52. I remember after the lapse of a thousand cycles of the four Yuga
ages, that Brahmá created from his mind some aerial beings of unearthly
forms; and these spiritual beings occupied a space extending over ten
cycles of creations.
53. I remember likewise the varying positions and boundaries of
countries, and also the very changing and diversified actions and
occupations of their people. I remember too the various costumes and
fashions and amusements of men, during the ceaseless course of days and
nights in the endless duration of time.
CHAPTER XXIII.
DESIRE OF TRANQUILLITY AND QUIESCENCE OF THE MIND.
Argument.--Relation of the vices and virtues which hasten and prevent
death, and the peace and rest of the mind which is sought after by
mankind.
Vasishtha rejoined:--I then besought the chief of the crows, that was
stationed on one end of a branch of the _kalpa_ tree, to tell me how he
was not liable to fall into the hands of death, when all other animals
moving about the expanse of the world, are doomed to be crushed under
its all devouring jaws.
2. Bhusunda replied, You sir, that know all things and would yet ask me
to tell that you know full well. Such bidding of my master emboldens
your servant to speak out where he should otherwise hold his tongue.
3. Yet when you desire me to tell, I must do it as well as I can,
because it is deemed to be the duty of a dependant, to carry out the
commands of their kind masters.
4. Death will not demolish the man, who does not wear on his bosom
the pearl-necklace of his vicious desires; as a robber does not kill
a traveller that has not the pernicious chain of gold hanging on his
breast.
5. Death will not destroy the man whose heart is not broken down by
sorrows, whose breast is not sawed as a timber by the friction of his
sighs, and whose body is not worsted by toil like a tree by canker
worms.
6. Death will not overtake the man, whose body is not beset by cares
like a tree by poisonous snakes, lifting their hoods above its head;
and whose heart is not burnt by its anxieties, like a wood by its
enraging fire.
7. Death will not prey upon the person, which is not vitiated by the
poison of anger and enmity, and cavity of whose heart does not foster
the dragon of avarice in its darkness, and whose heart is not corroded
by the canker of cares.
8. He is not carried away by the cruel hand of death, whose body is not
already fried by the fire of his resentment, which like hidden heat of
the submarine fire, sucks up the waters of reason in the reservoir of
the mind.
9. Death will not kill the person whose body is not inflamed by the
fiery passion of love; which like the wild fire consumes the hoarded
corn of good sense, and as a pair of sharp scissors rives the heart
strings of reason.
10. Death doth not approach the man, that puts his trust in the one
pure and purifying spirit of God, and hath the rest of his soul in the
lap of the supreme soul.
11. Death does not lay hold on the person that is firm and sedate in
the same posture and position, and does not ramble like an ape from one
tree to another, and whose mind is a foreigner to fickleness.
12. Thus then the mind being settled in unalterable state of calm
repose in its Maker, it is no more possible for the evils and diseases
of this world, to overtake it at any time.
13. The fixed and tranquil mind, is never overtaken by the sorrows and
diseases of the world; nor it is liable to fall into the errors and
dangers, which betide the restless mob here below.
14. The well composed mind, hath neither its rising nor setting, nor
its recollection nor forgetfulness at any time or other. It has not its
sleeping or waking state, but has its heavenly revery which is quite
distinct from dreaming.
15. The vexatious thought which take their rise from vitiated desire
and feelings of resentment and other passions, and darken the region
of the heart and mind, can never disturb the serenity of those souls,
which have their repose in the Supreme Spirit.
16. He whose mind is enrapt in holy meditation, neither gives away to
nor receives anything from others, nor does he seek or forsake whatever
he has or has not at any time. He does his duties always by rote as he
ought without expectation of their reward or merit.
17. He whose mind has found its repose in holy meditation, has no cause
of his repentance, for doing any misdeed for his gain or pleasure at
any time.
18. He has enough of his gain and an excess of his delight and a good
deal of every good, whose mind has met with the grace of his God. (He
that has the grace of God, has every thing given and added to him).
19. Therefore employ your mind, to what is attended with your ultimate
good and lasting welfare; and wherein there is nothing of doubt or
difficulty, and which is exempt from false expectation.
20. Exalt your mind above the multiplicities of worldly possessions,
which the impure and unseen demon of evil presents for the allurement
of your heart, and settle it in the unity of the Divinity. (So did
Satan attempt in vain to tempt our Lord to worldly vanities and all its
possessions).
21. Set your heart to that supreme felicity which is pleasant both in
the beginning and end, and even delectable to taste; that is pleasant
to sight, sweet to relish, and is wholesome in its effect.
22. Fix your mind to what is sought by all the good and godly people,
which is the eternal truth and the best diet of the soul, from its
beginning and during its course in the middle and end and throughout
its immortality.
23. Apply your mind to what is beyond your comprehension, which is the
holy light, which is the root and source of all, and wherein consists
all our best fortune and the ambrosial food for our souls.
24. There is no other thing so very permanent or auspicious among
immortals or mortals, and among the gods and demigods, Asuras and
Gandharvas, and Kinnaras and Vidyádharas, nor among the heavenly
nymphs, as the spiritual bliss of the soul.
25. There is nothing so very graceful or lasting, to be found in cities
and mountains and in the vegetable creation, nor among mankind and
their king, nor any where in earth or heaven as this spiritual felicity.
26. There is nothing steady or graceful, among the Nága-snake or Asura
races and their females, and in the whole circles of infernal region.
27. There is nothing so lovely and lasting in the regions above and
below and all around us, and in the spheres of all other worlds, so
very graceful and durable as the lasting peace of mind.
28. There is nothing that is felicitous or persistent in this world,
amidst all its sorrows and sicknesses and troubles which encompass all
about. All our actions are for trivial matters and all our gains are
but trifles at best.
29. There is nothing of any lasting good, in all those thoughts which
employ the minds of men and gladden their hearts, and which serve at
best to delude the sapient to the fickleness of their spirits.
30. No permanent good is derived from the ever busy thoughts and
volitions and nolitions of mankind, which tend at best to trouble their
minds, as the Mandara mountain disturbed the waters of the deep, at the
time of its churning by the gods and demons.
31. No lasting good results to any body from his continuous exertions,
and various efforts about his gain and loss even at the edge of the
sword (_i.e._, even at the peril of one's life).
32. Neither is the sovereignty of the whole earth so great a boon,
nor is one's elevation to the rank of a deity in heaven so great a
blessing; nor even is the exaltation of one to the position of the
world supporting serpent so great a gain, as the sweet peace of mind of
the good.
33. It is of no good to trouble the mind, with its attention to all the
branches of learning, nor is it of any advantage to one to employ his
wits and enslave his mind to the service of another, nor of any use to
any body, to learn the histories of other people, when he is ignorant
of himself and his own welfare.
34. It is of no good to live long, under the trouble of disease and the
sorrow of life. Neither is life or death, nor learning nor ignorance,
nor heaven or hell any advantage or disadvantage to any body, until
there is an end of his desires within himself.
35. Thus these various states of the world and all worldly things, may
appear gratis to the ignorant vulgar, but they afford no pleasure to
the learned who knows their instability. (Hence longevity and stability
depend on one's reliance in the eternal God, and not on the transient
world).
CHAPTER XXIV.
INVESTIGATION OF THE LIVING PRINCIPLE.
Argument.--Disquisition of the Arteries and organs of the body. The
seat of life and its actions.
Bhusunda continued:--All things being thus unstable, unprofitable and
unpleasant to man, there is one reality only in the view of the wise,
which is beyond all error and imperishable, and which though present in
all things and all places, transcends the knowledge of all.
2. This essence is the soul or self, and its meditation is the remover
of all sorrow and affliction. It is also the destroyer of the erroneous
vision of the world, which has passed every man, and biased his
understanding by his long habit of thinking this phantom of his dream
as a sober reality.
3. Spiritual contemplation dawns in the clear atmosphere of the
unpolluted mind, and traverses amidst its whole area like the solar
light, and it destroys the darkness of all sorrows and erroneous
thought which over spreads it.
4. Divine meditation being unaccompanied by any desire or selfish view,
penetrates like the moon-beams through the darkness of the night of
ignorance.
5. This spiritual light is easily obtainable by Sages like you, and too
difficult to be retained (dháraná) by brutes like ourselves. Because
it is beyond all imaginable resemblance, and is known by the ravished
Sages as the transcendent light.
6. How can a man of common understanding come to the knowledge of
that thing, which is an associate to the clear understanding of the
meditative Sage only.
7. There is a little resemblance of this spiritual light, with the
intellectual light of philosophers, whose minds are enlightened by the
cooling moon-beams of philosophy, as those of the inspired saints are
illumed with spiritual light.
8. Among the associates of spiritual knowledge, there is one
particularly friendly to me, which alleviates all my sorrows, and
advances my prosperity, and this relates to the investigation of the
vital breath which is the cause of life.
9. Vasishtha said: After speaking in this manner the Sagely bird
Bhusunda held his silence, when I calmly joined my rejoinder, and
adduced my question to him by way of amusement, though I was full well
acquainted with the subject.
10. I addressed him saying, O thou long living bird, and remover of all
my doubts, tell me truly, my good friend, what you mean by meditation
of the vital breath (which you say to be the cause of vitality).
11. Bhusunda replied: You sir, who are learned in the knowledge of
Vedánta, and sure remover of all doubts in spiritual science, are now
by way of joke only, putting this question to me who am but a brute
bird and an ignorant crow.
12. Or it may be to sound my shallow knowledge of the subject, and to
instruct me the rest in which I am imperfect, that you like to have my
answer to the question, wherein I can lay no objection (as no body is
unprepared to know more and better of a subject).
13. Hear me, tell you some thing relating to cogitation of vital
breath, which has the cause of Bhusunda's longevity and the giver of
Bhusunda's spiritual knowledge.
14. You see sir, this beautiful fabric of the body, supported upon the
three strong pillars or posts of the three humours; and having nine
doorways about it. (The three humours are the bile, phlegm and wind,
and the nine openings are the earholes, nostrils, the sockets of the
eyes, the mouth).
15. This abode is occupied by its owner or the haughty house
holder--Ahankára or egoism, who dwells in it with his favourite consort
_Puryashtaká_, and his dependants of the Tanmátras at all times. (These
terms have been explained before).
16. You well know the inside of this house which I need not describe,
its two ears are as its two upper storied rooms, the two eyes are as
its two windows, and the hairs on the head are as its thatched covering
on the top of the house.
17. The opening of the mouth is the great door way to the house, the
two arms are as its two wings; and the two sets of teeth answer the
strings of flowers, which are hung on the gate way for its decoration.
18. The organs of sense are the porters to this house, and convey the
sights and sounds, flavours and feelings of things in to it. These are
enclosed by the great wall of the body, and the two pupils keep watch
on tower of this edifice.
19. The blood, fat and flesh form the plaster of this wall, and the
veins and arteries answer the strings to bind the bamboos of the bones
together, and the thick bones are the big posts that uphold this fabric.
20. There are two tender nerves called _Idá_ and _Pingalá_, which lie
and stretch along the two sides of this building.
21. There are three pairs of lotus like organs formed of soft flesh and
bones, and these stretch up and down perpendicularly in the body, and
are attached to one stalk like artery connecting them with one another.
22. Then the etherial air which is inhaled through the nostrils,
supplies these lotiform organs with moisture, as if it poured water
at their roots, and makes them shoot out in soft leaflets, shaking
gently at the breath of air, passing incessantly through the lungs and
nostrils.
23. The shaking leaves agitate the vital air, as the moving leaves of
the trees in the forest, increase the force of the current air in the
firmament.
24. The inflated vital air then passes in many ways, through the holes
of the entrails inside the body, and extends to and fills all the pores
and canals of the frame from top to bottom.
25. These then receive different appellations, according to their
course through the several, and are denominated as the five fold vital
airs of _prána_, _apána_, _samána_, _udána_, and _vyána_; by them that
are skilled in science of pneumatic. (The _prána-váyu_ is the breathing
of the nostrils, the _apána_ is the wind in _ano_, _samána_ is the air
circulating through the whole body, _udána_ is the air of speech, and
the _vyána_ is the air let out through the pores of the whole body).
26. All the vital powers reside in the triple lotiform organ of the
heart, and thence extend up and down and on all sides like beams from
the lunar disk.
27. These vital powers are employed in passing in and out, in taking in
and letting out, in rising and falling, and also in moving throughout
the body.
28. The prána or air of life is said by the learned to be situated
in the lotus formed organ of the heart, which has also the power of
moving the eyelids in their twinklings. (Hence one's life time is
measured both by the numbers of his breathings, as also by that of the
twinklings of his eye).
29. This power some times assumes the form of touch or the feeling
of perception, and at others it takes the shape of breath by blowing
through the nostrils. Some times it is seated in the stomach for
culinary action, and oft-times it gives utterance to speech.
30. What more shall I say, than that it is our lord--the air, that
moves the whole machine of the body, as a mechanic models everything by
means of his machinery.
31. Among these there are two principal airs, by name of _prána_ and
_apána_, which take their two different courses upward and downward,
the one is the breath of life and the other is the vitiated which is
let out.
32. It is by watching the course of these airs that I remain quiet at
this place, and undergo the vicissitudes of heat and cold, as it is
destined to the lot of the feathered tribe.
33. The body is a great machine, and the two airs are its indefatigable
mover. It has the sun and moon or the fire and moonlight, shining in
the midst of its heart.
34. The body is a city and the mind is its ruler, the two airs are as
the car and wheel of the body; while Egoism is the monarch of this
city, and the eight members are as so many horses attached to the car
of the body.
35. Thus by watching the motion of those airs (_i.e._ of the _prána_
and _apána_--inspiration and expiration for the whole of my lifetime);
I find the course of my life to be as interminable, as that of the
continuity of my breathings. (The thought of continuity prolongs the
course of life).
36. The airs serve the body alike in all its states of waking,
dreaming, and sound sleep, and his days glide on imperceptibly who
remains in his state of profound sleep. (so the yogi remaining in his
trance is utterly insensible of the course of time).
37. These breaths being divided into a thousand threads, according as
they pass through the many canals of the body, are as imperceptible as
the white fibres passing inside the stalks of lotus plants.
38. By watching the incessant course of vital airs, as also by
attending to the continued course of time, and thinking in one self of
the interminable course of his respirations, and the moments of time
and train of his thoughts, as also by attempting to restrain their
course by the habit and practice of _pránáyáma_, that he is sure to
lengthen the duration of his life in this world; and attain to his
eternal life in the next.
CHAPTER XXV.
ON SAMÁDHI.
Argument.--On the Breathings of Inspiration, Respiration and
Expiration, and their rise and fall from and in the spirit of Brahma
the origin and end of all.
Vasishtha said:--Hear Ráma, when the bird had said so far, I
interrupted him and said, tell me, O ancient seer, how and what is the
nature of the course of vital airs.
2. Bhusunda replied:--How is it, O sage! that you who know everything,
should propose this question to me as if it were in jest, but as you
ask this of me, I must tell you all I know about it.
3. The vital breath, O Brahman! is a moving force by its nature, and is
always suo motu in its own motion, and pervades both in the inside and
outside of bodies which its animates.
4. The _apána_ or the emitting air also is a self motive power, and in
its incessant motion; and is both within and without the living body,
in its downward or receding direction.
5. It is good for livings being to restrain these vitals breaths both
in their waking and sleeping states, and now hear me tell you, O
learned sage, how it is to be effected for their best gain.
6. The internal vital air (prána), extends from the lotus-like heart
to the crevice in the cranium, its effort to come out (by the mouth
and nostrils), is termed by the wise as rechaka or exhaled air. (The
expiration coming out of the heart, and reaching the cerebrum is called
the rechaka breath).
7. The meeting of breaths at the distance of twelve inches from and
below the nostrils, is called the _puraka_ or inhaling-breath. (This is
termed the [Sanskrit: váhyapúraka] or external inspiration).
8. It is also called _Puraka_, when the breath passes from without,
and enters within the inner _apána_ without any effort, and fills the
inside from the heart to the cerebrum.
9. When the apána air has subsided in the heart, and _prána_ breath
does not circulate in the breast, it is called the _Kumbhaka_ state,
and is known to the yogis only.
10. All these three sorts of breaths, are perceived at the place from
where the _apána_ takes its rise, and this is at the distance of twelve
inches below on the outside of the tip of the nose.
11. Hear now, O great minded sage! what the clear minded adepts have
said, respecting the natures of the ever continuative and effortless.
(_i.e._ self respiring) breathings.
12. Know sir, that the air which is inhaled from the distance of twelve
inches on the out side of the tip of the nose, the same receives of its
own nature the name of puraka or that of another.
13. As the outer part of a pot planted in the earth appears to sight,
so the apána breath stretching to the distance of twelve inches
just opposite to the tip of the nose in the air on the out side, is
perceptible to the yogi, and is called Kumbhaka by the learned.
14. The exhaling air which rises from the heart, and extends to the
tip of the nose, is styled the primary and external _puraka_ breath
([Sanskrit: ádyah váhyapúrakam]) by the adepts in Yoga practice.
15. There is another (or secondary) external _puraka_ air known to the
wise, which takes its rise from the tip of the nose, and extends to the
distance of twelve inches out-side of it.
16. After the prána breath sets out-side the nostrils, and before the
apána breath has yet its rise, this interval of the entire abeyance of
both, is known as the state of perfect equalization, and termed the
external Kumbhaka.
17. The air which breathes out in the heart or pulsates within it,
and without the rising of the _apána_ breath; is styled the external
_rechaka_ in the Yoga system; and its reflection confers perfect
liberation to man.
18. And this rising at the distance of twelve inches, in another kind
of it and called the strong _rechaka_.
19. There is another kind of _puraka_, which is on the outside of the
_apána_; and when it stretches to the inside of the navel within, it is
known under the names of Kumbhaka &c.
20. The intelligent man who meditates by day and night on the octuple
nature, and course of the _prána_ and _apána_ or the inhaling and
exhaling airs, is not doomed to be reborn any more in this miserable
earth.
21. I have thus related to you the various courses of the bodily airs,
a restraint of which in the waking and sleeping states of man, as also
in his states of sitting and waking, is productive of his liberation.
22. Though these are very fleeting in their natures, yet they are
restrained by the good understanding of man, even when he is employed
in his work or is in his act of eating.
23. The man that practises the _Kumbhaka_ or suppression of his
breathing within himself, cannot be employed in any action; but must
remain calmly in this act of suppression, by giving all external
thoughts and actions. (_i.e._, as in a state of torpidity).
24. A few days practice of this Yoga, by abnegation of all outward
objects from the mind, enables a man to attain to the state of his
solity, or his unity with the sole entity of the Deity.
25. Intelligent men have no fondness for worldly things, but bear an
aversion to them as a holy Brahmán has against the sweet milk contained
in a flask of skin. They remain regardless of visible objects, with
his eyes closed against them, as a blind man takes no heed of out-ward
appearances.
26. They are in possession of all, which is the sum total (tout
ensemble) of what is to be had as the best gain; and whether when they
are awake or asleep or walking or sitting, they never lose sight of
that true light which leads them to the other world.
27. Those who have obtained the knowledge of the course of his
breathings, have got rid of all delusion and rest in quiet within
themselves (_i.e._ In watching their inspirations and over-looking the
external phenomena).
28. And whether the intelligent people are employed in busy life, or
sit inactive at home; they are always quiet and at rest by following
the course of their respiration (neither breathing hard or being out
breath).
29. I know, O Brahman! the exhaling breath, to rise from its source of
the lotus like heart, and stretch to the distance of twelve inches out
of it, where it sets or stops. (As is mixed up with the current air).
30. The _apána_ or inhaling breath is taking in from the same distance
of twelve inches, and is deposited in the cup of the lotus situated in
the human heart.
31. As the _prána_ respiration is exhaled out in the air, to the
distance of twelve inches from the heart, so the inhaled air of _apána_
is taken into the breast, from the same distance of the open sky.
32. The _prána_ or exhaling breath runs towards the open air, in the
form of a flame of fire, and the inhaled breath turns inward to the
region of the heart, and goes downward like a current of water.
33. The apána or inhaled breath is like the cooling moon light, and
refreshes the body from without; while prána respiration resembling the
sunshine or a flame of fire, warms the inside of the body.
34. The _prána_ breath warms every moment the region of the heart, as
the sunshine inflames the region of the sky; and then it torrifies the
atmosphere before it, by the exhalation of breath through the mouth.
35. The _apána_ air is as the moonlight before the moon, and being
inhaled inward, it washes the sphere of the heart as by a deluge; then
it refreshes the whole inside in a moment.
36. When the last digit of the moon-like _apána_ or inhaling breath, is
swallowed by the sun of the _prána_ or exhaling breath; it meets with
the sight of supreme spirit, and has no more any cause of affliction.
37. So also when the last portion of the sunlike _prána_ or exhaling
breath, is swallowed by the moon-like _apána_ or inhaling breath; then
there ensues the same visitation of Brahmá in the inside, and the soul
is emancipated from further transmigration in this world. (The meeting
of the two is a _yoga_ or junction of the human and Divine spirits).
38. The _prána_ or exhaling breath assumes the nature of the solar
heat, both in the inside and outside of the body; and afterwards it
becomes and remains as the cooling moonlight. (It is the one and same
breath of air, that takes the two names, according to its two different
natures of inspiration and expiration. gloss).
39. The _prána_ expiration forsakes its nature of the cooling moon, and
turns in a moment to assume the nature of the hot sun, that dries and
sucks up everything before it.
40. As long as the _prána_ exhalation is not converted to the nature
of the moon, after forsaking its solarity, it is so long considered as
unconditioned by time and place, and freed from pain and grief. (The
_prána_ being peculiarised by time, place and number, is long or short
and subject to misery; but its extinction in the interval, is instinct
with the supreme spirit. Patanjali Yoga sutra II 50).
41. He who sees the seat of his soul in the mind situated within his
heart, and at the confluence of the sol-luni _prána_ and _apána_
breathings in the Kumbhaka or retained breath, is no more subjected to
be reborn and die.
41_a_. He who feels the sun and moon of his _prána_ and _apána_
breaths, ever rising and setting in the _kumbhaka_ or retained breath
with his heart, verily sees the seat of his mind and soul placed at
their confluence, and is freed from further birth and death. (The plain
meaning is that, the mind and soul consist in the air deposited in the
heart by the two inhaling and exhaling breaths of _prána_ and _apána_).
42. He verily sees the soul in its full light, who beholds this
bright sun [Sanskrit: prána] shining in the sphere of his heart, in
conjunction with the rising and setting moon beams _apána_ in his mind.
43. This light never fades nor grows faint at any time, but dispels the
darkness of the heart, and produces the consummation--_Siddhi_ of the
meditative mind.
44. As the dispersion of outward darkness presents the world to view,
so the disappearance of inward obscurity gives out the light of the
spirit before the mental sight.
45. The removal of intellectual darkness, produces the liberation of
the soul, and shows the rising and setting sun of the vital breath
vividly to view.
46. When the moon of the _apána_ or inspired breath, sets in the cavity
of the heart, the sun of the _prána_ or expiratory breathing, rises
immediately to gush out of the same.
47. The _apána_ or inhaling breath having set in the cell of the lotus
like heart, the exhaling breath of _prána_ rises at the very moment to
come out of it, as the shadow of the night being dispersed from sight,
the bright sun of the day ushers his light.
48. As the _prána_ expiration expires in the open air, the inhaling
breath rises and rushes in a moment; just as the light having fled from
the horizon, is succeeded immediately by deep darkness.
49. Know ye intelligent men, that the _apána_ breath becomes extinct,
where the _prána_ comes to be born; and the _prána_ respiration is
lost, where the _apána_ takes its rise.
50. When the _prána_ breathing has ceased and the _apána_ has its rise,
it is then that one supports himself upon the Kumbhaka retained air,
and does not depend on two other passing breaths.
51. On the extinction of _apána_, and the rise of the _prána_ breath,
one relying on the Kumbhaka air which is deposited within himself, is
exempted from his pain and sorrow.
52. By depending on the _rechaka_ breath, and practicing the
suppression of Kumbhaka breath, at the great distance of sixteen inches
from the _apána_; a man has no more to be sorry for any thing.
53. By making the _apána_ a receptacle of _rechaka_, and filling the
_prána_ in the inside, and finding himself filled with the _puraka_ all
within his body, a man has no more to be born on earth.
54. When a man finds the perfect tranquillity of his soul, by
subsidence of both the _prána_ and _apána_ within himself; he has no
longer to sorrow for any thing whatever.
55. When a man reflects his _prána_ breath to be devoured by the
_apána_ air both within as well as without himself, and loses his
thoughts of time and space, he has no more any cause for sorrow.
56. He who sees his _prána_ breath devouring the _apána_ air, both
within and without himself, together with his sense of space and time,
has no more his mind to be reborn on earth.
57. When the _prána_ is swallowed up by the _apána_, or the _apána_ by
the _prána_, both in the in-side and out-side of the adept; together
with his thoughts of time and place;
58. At this moment the Yogi finds his _prána_ to set down, and his
_apána_ to rise no more, and the interval between the two, is common to
all animals though it is known to Yogis alone.
59. The Kumbhaka taking place of itself on the out-side, is known as
the divine state, but when it happens to occur in the in-side, and
without any efforts on the part of the adept, it is said to be the
state of the most supreme. (Because God does not breathe).
60. This is the nature of the divine soul, and this is the state of the
supreme intellect, this is the representation of the eternal spirit,
and one attaining to this state, is never subject to sorrow.
61. Like fragrance in the flower, there is an essence indwelling within
the vital breath also, and this is neither the _prána_ nor _apána_, but
the intellectual soul which I adore. (As the true God).
62. As taste indwells in the water, so is there an essence immanent in
the _apána_; and this is neither the _apána_ nor the not _apána_, but
the intelligent soul which I adore.
63. There is at the end of the extinction of _prána_, and beyond the
limit of the exhaustion of _apána_, and situated in the interval
between the extremities of both of these, which I ever adore.
64. That which forms the breathing of breath, and is the life of life,
what is the support and bearer of the body, is the intellectual spirit
which I ever adore.
65. That which causes the thinking (_power_) of the mind, and the
cogitation of the understanding; as also the egotism of egoism, is the
intellectual soul, which I have learnt to adore.
66. That which contains and produces all things, which is all (or
permeated in all things, as every thing is (evolved from) itself; and
what is changed to all at all times, is that mind which I adore for
ever.)
67. What is the light of lights, what is holiness and the holy of
holies, and what is unchangeable in its nature, is the intellect which
I adore.
68. I adore that pencil of pure intellectual light, which rises at the
juncture of the setting of the _apána_ and springing up of the _prána_
breath. (This sloka occurs in the Kashmere Mss).
68_a_. I adore that intellect which trolls on the tip of the nose, at
the point where the _prána_ sets in, and the _apána_ has not yet taken
its rise.
69. I adore the intellect which rises at the time when both the _prána_
and _apána_ breaths have stopped, and when neither of them has taken
its rise.
70. I adore that intellect which appears before the Yogi, and supports
him at the point which he has reached unto upon the setting of the
_prána_ and _apána_ breaths, both within and without himself.
71. I adore that intellect which is force of all forces, and rides
in the car of _prána_ and _apána_ breaths, and when both of them are
compressed in the heart of the yogi.
72. I adore the lord intellect, which is the Kumbhaka breath in the
heart, and the _apána_ Kumbhaka on the outside; and a part of the
_puraka_ left behind.
73. I adore the essence of that intellect, which is attainable by
reflection of the breathings, and which is the formless cause of our
intelligence of the natures of the _prána_ and _apána_ breaths, as also
the motive principle of their actions.
74. I adore the essence of that intellect, which is the cause of the
causes, and the main spring of the oscillations of vital airs, and
giver of the felicity derived from the vibrations of breath.
75. I adore that prime and supreme Being Brahma, who is worshipped by
the gods bowing down before him, who makes himself known to us by his
own power, and who is, by the particles of vital breaths, under the
name of Spirit.
CHAPTER XXVI.
RELATION OF THE CAUSE OF LONGEVITY.
Argument.--Reflection and Restraint of Respiration leading to the
tranquillity of the soul, and the steadiness of the _spirit_, conducing
to long life and felicity on earth.
Bhusunda continued. This is the tranquillity of the mind, which I have
attained by degrees, by means of my meditation of the nature and course
of the vital breath in myself.
2. I sit quiet at all times, with view fixed at the movement of my
breath; and never stir a moment from my meditative mood, though the
mount Meru may shake under me.
3. Whether I am awake or asleep, or move about or remain unmoved in
my seat, I am never at a loss of this meditation even in dream, nor
does it slide a moment from my steadfast mind. (For who can ever live
without breathing, or be unconscious of its ceaseless course, or that
the breath is both the cause and measure of life).
4. I am always calm and quiet and ever steady and sedate, in this ever
varying and unsteady world; I remain always with my face turned inward
in myself, and fixed firmly in the object I have at heart. (This is the
soul--the life of the life situated in the heart).
5. The breeze may cease to blow, and the waters may stop to flow but
nothing can prevent my breathing and meditation of them, nor do I
remember ever to live without them. (The gloss explains by metonymy
the air to mean the planetary sphere, which rests and moves in it,
the _waters_ as the ever flowing [Sanskrit: váyu] currents of rivers,
and the _samádhi_ [Sanskrit: jyotichakraha] meditation as composed of
breath and thought, to be in continuous motion and resistless in their
course).
6. By attending to the course of my inhaling and exhaling breaths of
life, I have come to the sight of the soul (which is their life), and
have thereby become freed from sorrow by seeing the prime soul of all
souls. (_i.e._ The highest soul of God).
7. The earth has been sinking and rising repeatedly, since the great
deluge, and I have been witnessing the submersion and immersion of
things, and the perdition and reproduction of beings, without any
change of the sedateness of my soul and mind.
8. I never think of the past and future, my sight is fixed only on the
present, and my mind sees the remote past and future as ever present
before it. (Meditation makes a man a seer of all time).
9. I am employed in the business that presents itself to me, and never
care for their toil nor care for their reward. I live as one in sleep
and solely with myself. (This is the state of Kaivalya or solity).
10. I examine all what is and is not, and what we have or have not,
and consider likewise all our desires and their objects; and finding
them to be but frailties and vanities, I refrain from their pursuit and
remain unvexed by their cares for ever.
11. I watch the course of my inspiration and expiration, and behold the
presence of the super excellent (Brahma) at their confluence; whereby I
rest satisfied in myself, and enjoy my long life without any sorrow or
sickness.
12. This boon have I gained this day, and that better one shall I have
on another, are the ruinous thoughts of mortal men, and unknown to me
whereby I have so long living and unailing.
13. I never praise or dispraise any act of myself or others, and this
indifference of mine to all concerns; hath brought me to this happy
state of careless longevity. (Platonic imperturbability).
14. My mind is neither elated by success, nor it is depressed by
adversity, but preserves its equanimity at all times, and is what has
brought this happy state on me. (A sane and sound old age).
15. I have resorted to my religious relinquishment of the world, and to
my apathy to all things at all times; I have also abandoned the desire
of sensuous life and sensible objects, and these have set me free from
death and disease.
16. I have freed my mind, O great muni! from its faults of fickleness
and curiosity, and have set it above sorrow and anxiety, it has become
deliberate calm and quiet, and this has made me longlived and unsickly.
17. I see all things in an equal light, whether it be a beauty or a
spectre, a piece of wood or stone, a straw or a rock, or whether it is
the air, water or fire, and it is this equanimity of mine that has made
me sane and sound in every state of life.
18. I do not think about what I have done today, and what I shall have
to do tomorrow, nor do I ail under the fever of vain thoughts regarding
the past and future, and this has kept me forever sound and sane.
19. I am neither afraid of death, disease or old age, nor am I
elated with the idea of getting a kingdom in my possession; and this
indifference of mine to aught of good or evil, is the cause of my
length of my life and the soundness of my body and mind.
20. I do not regard, O Brahman! any one either in the light of a friend
or foe to me; and this equality of my knowledge of all persons, is the
cause of my long life and want of my complaint.
21. I regard all existence as the reflexion of the self-existent one,
who is all in all and without his beginning and end; I know myself as
the very intellect, and this is the cause of my diuturnity and want of
disease and decay.
22. Whether when I get or give away any thing, or when I walk or sit,
or rise and breathe, or am asleep or awake; I never think myself as the
gross body but its pure intelligence, and this made me diuturnal and
durable for ever. (The intelligent soul never dies).
23. I think myself as quite asleep, and believe this world with all its
bustle to be nothing in reality (but the false appearance of a dream);
and this has made me long-lived and undecaying.
24. I take the good and bad accidents of life, occurring at their
stated times, to be all alike to me, like my two arms both of which are
serviceable to me; and has made me longeval and imperishable.
25. With my fixed attention, and the cool clearness of my mental
vision, I see all things in their favourable light (that they are all
good, and adapted to their various uses); I see all things as even and
equal, and this view of them in the same light, has made me lasting and
wasteless. (So says the Bharata: "All crookedness leads to death, and
evenness to the one even Brahma").
26. This material body of mine to which I bear my moiety, is never
viewed by me in the light of my ego; and this has made me undying and
undecaying. (The deathless soul is the ego, and the dying body the
non-ego).
27. Whatever I do and take to my food, I never take them to my heart;
my mind is freed from the acts of my body, and this freedom of myself
from action, has caused my undecaying longevity. (Because action
being the measure of life, its want must make it measureless and
imperishable).
28. Whenever, O Sage, I come to know the truth, I never feel proud of
my knowledge, but desire to learn more about it; and this increasing
desire of knowledge, has increased my life without its concomitant
infirmity. (Knowledge is unlimited, and one needs be immortal in order
to know all).
29. Though possessed of power, I never use it to do wrong or injure to
another; and though wronged by any one, I am never sorry for the same;
and though ever so poor, I never crave any thing of any body; this hath
prolonged my life and kept me safe and sound. (It is the Christian
charity not to retaliate an injury, but rather to turn to him the right
cheek who has slapped on the left).
30. I see in these visible forms the intellect that abides all bodies,
and as I behold all these existent bodies in an equal light, I enjoy an
undecaying longevity.
31. I am so composed in my mind, that I never allow its faculties, to
be entangled in the snare of worldly desires and expectations; nor
do I allow these to touch even my heart, and this conferred on me the
bliss of my unfading longevity.
32. I examine both worlds as two globes placed in my hands, and I find
the non-existence of the visible world as it appears to a sleeping man;
while the spiritual and invisible world appear full open to my view,
as it does to a waking person, and this sight of mine has made me as
immortal as the world of immortality.
33. I behold the past, present and future as set before me; and I see
all that is dead and decayed, and all that is gone and forgotten, as
presented anew in my presence. This prospect of all keeps me alive and
afresh to them alike.
34. I feel myself happy at the happiness of others, and am sorry to see
the misery of other people; and this universal fellow feeling of mine
with the weal and woe of my fellow creatures, has kept me alive and
afresh at all times.
35. I remain unmoved as a rock in my adversity, and am friendly to
every one in my prosperity; I am never moved by want or affluence, and
this steadiness of mine is the cause of my undecayed longevity.
36. That I am neither related to nor belong to any body, nor that any
one is either related or belongeth to me; is the firm conviction that
has laid hold of my mind, and made me live long without feeling sick or
sorry for another.
37. It is my belief that I am the one Ego with the world, and with all
its space and time also, and that I am the same with the living soul
and all its actions; and this faith of mine has made me longeval and
undecaying.
38. It is my belief that I am the same Intelligence, which shows itself
in the pot and picture; and which dwells in the sky above and in the
woods below. That all this is full of intelligence is my firm reliance,
and this has made me long abiding and free from decay.
39. It is thus, O great sage! that I reside amidst the receptacle of
the three worlds, as a bee abides in the cell of a lotus flower, and am
renowned in the world as the perennial crow Bhusunda by name.
40. I am destined to dwell here forever in order to behold the visible
world, rising and falling in tumultuous confusion, in the infinite
ocean of the immense Brahma, and assuming their various forms like the
waves of the sea at their alternate rise and fall for all eternity.
CHAPTER XXVII.
CONCLUSION OF THE NARRATIVE OF BHUSUNDA.
Argument.--Vasishtha's praise of Bhusunda, and his homage to the sage,
Whose return to Heaven through the midway-sky is described at length.
Bhusunda added:--I have thus far related to you, O sage! what I am
and how I am situated at this place. It was by your behest only, that
I was lead to the arrogance of speaking so far to one of superior
intelligence.
2. Vasishtha replied:--O sir, it is a wondrous relation that you have
given of yourself; O excellent! it is a jewel to my ears and fills me
with admiration. (It beggars description, and is _mirabile dictu_).
3. Blessed are those eminent souls (great men), that have the good
fortune to behold your most venerable person, which in respect of
antiquity is next to none, expect the great grandfather of the gods the
lotus born Brahmá himself.
4. Blest are my eyes, that are blessed this day with the sight of your
holy person, and thrice blest are my ears that are filled with the full
recital of your sacred knowledge and all purifying sermon.
5. I have in my peregrinations all about the world, witnessed the
dignity and grandeur of the great knowledge of gods and learned men;
but have never come to see any where, so holy a seer as yourself.
6. It may be possible by long travel and search, to meet with a great
soul some where or other; but it is hard to find a holy soul like
yourself any where. (Man may be very learned and wise as a sapient
(savant), but never so holy and godly as a saint).
7. We rarely come to find the grain of a precious pearl in the hollow
of a lonely bamboo tree, but it is rarer still to come across a holy
personage, like yourself in any part of this world.
8. I have verily achieved an act of great piety, and of sanctity also
at the same time; that I have paid a visit to your holy shrine, and
seen your sacred person and liberated soul this very day.
9. Now please to enter your cell, and fare you well in this place;
it is now the time of midday devotion, and the duties of my noontide
service, call my presence to my heavenly seat.
10. Hearing this Bhusunda rose from his arborescent seat, and held out
a golden twig of the tree with his two fictitious hands. (Holy persons
have the power to add to the members of their bodies).
11. The accomplished (lit. full knowing) crow made a vessel with his
beak and hands, and filled it with the snow-white leaves, and flowers
and pistils of the Kalpa plant, and put a brilliant pearl in it to be
offered as an honorarium--_arghya_ worthy of the divine sage.
12. The prime-born (ancient) bird, then took the arghya with some water
and flowers; and sprinkled and scattered them over me even from my head
to foot, in as great a veneration, as when they adore the three eyed
god Siva.
13. Then said I, it is enough, and you need not take the pains to walk
after me (in token of your respect). So saying I rose from my seat and
made a lift, as when a bird puts to its wings for its aerial flight.
(_Bishtára_--a seat, means also a bedding like the Persian _bistar_ and
Urdu _bistara_ derived from the root _strí_ to spread).
14. Yet the bird followed me a few miles (yojana) in the air, when
I hindered his proceeding farther by compelling him to return after
shaking our hands. (The custom of shaking hands both on meeting and
parting; is mentioned to have been in fashion with the ancients).
15. The chief of birds looked up for some time, as I soared upward in
my ethereal journey, and then he returned with reluctance, because it
is difficult to part from the company of the good (or of good people).
16. Then both of us lost the sight of one another in the intermediate
air, as the sight of the waves is lost after they sink down in the sea;
and I full with the thoughts of the bird and his sayings, proceeded
upward to meet the munis there. I arrived at last at the sphere of the
Pleiades, where I was honorably received by Arundhatí my wife.
17. It was in the beginning of the golden age (satya yuga) before,
and after two hundred years of it had passed away that I had been at
Bhusunda's, and sat with him upon the tree on the summit of Sumeru.
18. Now, O Ráma! that golden age has gone by, and the Tretá or silver
age has taken its place; and it is now the middle of this age, that
thou art born to subdue thy enemies.
19. It is now only eight years past that (or the eight years since) I
met with him again on the same mountain, and found him as sound and
same as I had seen him long before.
20. Now I have related unto you the whole of the exemplary character
of Bhusunda; and as you have heard it with patience, so should you
consider it with diligence, and act according to his sayings. (In order
to be as longlived as he).
21. Válmíki says:--The man of pure heart, that considers well the
narrative of the virtuous Bhusunda, will undoubtedly pass over the
unstable gulf of this world, which is full of formidable dangers on all
sides.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
LECTURE ON THEOPATHY OR SPIRITUAL MEDITATION.
Argument.--Learning from examples and parables. Falsity of phenomenal
and reliance in the noumenal.
Vasishtha said:--I have thus far related to you, O sinless Ráma!
the narrative of Bhusunda; who had passed over the perilous sea of
delusion, by means of his intelligence and wisdom.
2. Keeping this instance in view, and following his practice of
pránáyáma or regulation of breath; you will also, O mighty armed Ráma!
pass over the wide ocean of this hazardous ocean.
3. As Bhusunda has obtained the obtainable one, by means of his
knowledge and by virtue of his continued practice of yoga; so do you
strive to gain the same by imitation of his example.
4. Men of uninfatuated understanding may attain the stability of
Bhusunda, and their reliance in the transcendental truth like him by
their attending to the practice of _pránáyáma_ or restraining of their
breath.
5. Thus you have heard me relate to you many things, relating to
true knowledge; it now depends on your own understanding to do as
you may like to choose for yourself. (Either to betake yourself to
spiritual knowledge or the practice of _pránáyáma_ or either as the
gloss explains it, either to esoteric contemplation yoga or exoteric
adoration _upasana_).
6. Ráma replied:--you sir, that are the luminous sun of spiritual light
on earth, have dispelled the thick gloom of unspiritual knowledge from
my mind at once (by transcendental light of your holy lectures).
7. I am fully awake to and joyous in my divine knowledge, and have
entered into my state of spirituality; I have known the knowable, and
am seated in my divine state like yourself.
8. O the wondrous memoir of Bhusunda that you have narrated! It fills
me with admiration, and is fraught with the best instruction. (Lit. it
is instructive of the highest wisdom).
9. In the account that you have given of Bhusunda, you have said that
the body is the abode of the soul, and is composed of flesh and blood,
and of the inner bones and outer skin (as its materials and plaster).
10. Please tell me sir, who made this fabric and how it came to be
formed; how it is made to last, and who abides therein.
11. Vasishtha answered: Listen now Ráma, to what I will relate to you
for the instruction of the supreme knowledge, as also for removal of
the evils which have taken root instead of true knowledge.
12. This dwelling of the body, Ráma! which has the bones for its posts,
and the blood and flesh for its mortar, and the nine holes for so many
windows, is built by no one: (but is formed of itself).
13. It is a mere reflection, and reflects itself so to our vision; as
the appearance of two moons in the sky by illusion, is both real as
well as unreal. (This vedantic doctrine is opposed to the popular faith
of the creatorship of God).
14. It may be right to speak of two moons from their double appearance
to our sight, but in reality there is but one moon and the other its
reflection. (So are all phenomenal bodies but reflections of the
noumenal).
15. The belief of the existence of body makes it a reality, the unreal
seems as real, and therefore it is said to be both real and unreal at
the same time. (The perception is real but the object of perception an
unreality. Just so the perception of a snake in the rope may be true,
though the snake in the rope is quite untrue).
16. Any thing seen in a dream is true as a dream, and appears to be so
in the state of dreaming, but afterwards it proves to be untrue, so a
bubble of water is true as a bubble, which comes to be known afterwards
to be false in reality. (So all things appearing to be true to sight,
vanish into nothing when they are judged aright, and even a judge may
deem a thing as just, which upon further and right investigation is
known as unjust).
17. The body seems to be substantiality in the doing of bodily actions,
but it proves otherwise when we view the essentiality of the spirit
only; so the reflection of the sun on the sandy desert, makes the
mirage appear as water, whose reality proves to be unreal the next
moment: (so it is of the body).
18. The body existing as a reflexion disappears the next moment. It is
no more than a reflexion, and so it reflects itself.
19. It is your error to think that you are the material body which is
made of flesh and bones. It is the inward thought of your mind that is
situated in the body, and makes you to think yourself as so and so and
such a one. (The reminiscence of the mind of its former body, causes to
think itself as an embodied being, in all its repeated transmigrations.
Gloss).
20. Forsake therefore the body that you build for yourself at your own
will, and be not like them, who while they are asleep on their pleasant
beds, deport themselves to various countries with their dreaming
bodies: (which are all false and unreal).
21. See, O Ráma! how you deport yourself to the kingdom of heaven
even in your waking state, in the fanciful reverie of your mind; say
then where is your body situated. (It neither accompanies the mind to
heaven, nor is it on earth being unperceived and unaccompanied by the
mind).
22. Say Ráma, where is your body situated, when your mind wanders on
the Meru in your dream, and when you dream to ramble with your body
about the skirts of this earth.
23. Think Ráma, how you seem to saunter about the rich domains (of the
gods) in the fancied kingdom of your mind, and tell me whether you are
then and there accompanied with your body, or is it left behind.
24. Tell me, where is that body of yours situated; when you think of
doing many of your bodily and worldly acts without your body, in the
fancied realm of your mind.
25. Tell me, O strong armed Ráma! where are those members of your body
situated; with which you think to coquette and caress your loving
courtezans in the court of your painful mind.
26. Where is that body of yours, with which you seem to enjoy anything;
the enjoyment belongs to the mind and not to the body, and both of them
are real as well as unreal, owing to their presence at one time and
absence at another.
27. The body and the mind are known to be present with coeval with
their actions, and they participate with one another in their mutual
acts (without which they are said to be inexistent). Therefore it is
erroneous to say that, I am this body and am situated here, and these
things are mine, all which are illusory and caused by illusion. (Egoism
and meity are illusive ideas).
28. All this is the manifestation of the will or energy of the mind,
and you must know it either as a long dream or lengthened fallacy of
the mind.
29. Know this world, O son of Raghu's race, to be a display of the vast
kingdom of your imagination, and will vanish into nothing, when you
will come to your good understanding by the grace of your God.
30. You will then see the whole as clearly as in the light of the
rising sun, and know this world to be like a creation of your dream or
volition. (_i.e._ as you wish to have a thing for yourself).
31. So is this world a display of the will of the lotus-born Brahmá, as
I have said before in length in the book of creation.
32. There rises of itself a willful creation within the mind, and out
of its own accord as if it were so ordained by destiny; and the mind
being fully possest of the great variety of forms, is lost at last into
the error of taking them for true.
33. It is a creation of the will only and a display of it in the same
manner, as the fancied chimera of Brahmanship had possessed the minds
of the sons of Indu. (See the narrative of Indu's sons in the upasama
Prakarana).
34. After the soul has passed from its former frame, it receives the
same form which it has in view before it after the fancy of the mind,
which is either of the kind, to which it has been long used and
accustomed, or what it fondly longs in the mind.
35. The body shows itself in the form as it is shaped by the prior acts
of a person, and is also convertible to the intellect by the manly
exertions of some: (whose corporeal bodies may become intellectual
beings, as some persons have mere brutal, while others are highly
intellectual).
36. He that thinks himself as another, is transformed to the nature
of that air (as it is the pattern that moulds a thing after its own
model): and the thought that you are this or that, and have this
thing or others for yourself, is what actually makes you so in this
world. (The metamorphose of the natures and forms of things and
persons to other kinds in Ovid, were all owing to their tendencies and
inclinations towards them).
37. Whatever is thought upon keenly and firmly, the same comes to take
place accordingly; and whatever is thought of with intense and great
force of thought, the same must occur in a short time: (so are all
things done to which we set our minds).
38. We see every day the objects of our desire, presenting their fair
forms to our view, like the comely faces of our beloved ones present
before our sight, in the same manner as the sights in a dream and
distant objects, are recalled to the mind of men; with their closed and
half-shut eyes. (This is the doctrine of reminiscence which reproduces
our long remembered bodies to us).
39. This world is said to be a creation of the thoughts of men, and
appears to sight from habitual reflection of it, in the same manner as
the sights in a dream, appear to the mind of a man in the day time.
40. The temporary world appears to be as lasting, as the river which
appears in the sky under the burning sunshine. (Though in fact both of
them are equally evanescent).
41. This inexistent earth also appears as existent in our cogitation,
as there appears bundles of peacock's feathers in the sky to the
vitiated or purblind eye.
42. It is only the vitiated understanding that dwells upon the
beauties of creation, as the vitiated eye sight looks upon the various
tinges in the sky. But to the clear sighted understanding the one is as
evanescent, as the other is to the clear sighted eye.
43. The sharp sighted man is never led away by the display of worldly
grandeur, as even the most timid man is never afraid of a tiger in his
imagination.
43a. This great show of worldly grandeur can never mislead the
penetrating sight of the wise, as a monstrous creature of imagination
cannot terrify even the most timid. (Because the one knows the falsity
of the show as well as the other does that of imaginary monster).
44. The wise man is never afraid of his imaginary world, which he knows
to be the production of his own mind, from its nature of self-evolution
_bahir mukhata_. (The mind is naturally possessed of both its power
of self involution in the interior soul, as also that of its evolving
itself in the form of the exterior world).
45. He that has stood in the path of this world, needs not fear for any
thing in it, and he that is afraid of it for fear of falling into its
errors, should learn to purify his understanding from all its dross and
impurity. (Stretch your mind, and the world will appear to light, curb
it in yourself and every thing will disappear from view).
46. Know Ráma, that the soul is free from the erroneous conception of
the world, and from the errors which pervade all over it. Look well
into these things, and you will have a nature as pure as your inward
soul.
47. The soul is not soiled by impurity, as a pure gold is not spoiled
by dirt; and though it may sometimes appear to be tarnished as copper,
yet it soon resumes its colour after its dirt is cleansed or burnt
away. Thus the world being a reflexion of the omnipresent Brahma, is
neither an entity nor a nonentity of its own nature.
48. Thus the abandonment of all other thoughts, besides that of the
universal soul or Brahma, is called the true discernment of the mind;
which derives the thoughts of life and death, heaven and hell into
nothing, and proves all knowledge to be ignorance alone.
49. The knowledge of the nullity of everything, except its being a
reflexion of the Intellect, is called the individuality and right
discernment of the mind, which removes the thought of the separate and
independent existence of the ego and tu, and also of this world and its
ten sides: (_i.e._ of the subjective as well as the objective).
50. That all things are but reflexions of the soul, is what is known
as the true and right discernment of the mind; and is derived from its
observation of true nature of things in this real and unreal world.
(The real is the spiritualistic view of the world, and the unreal is
illusory phenomenal appearance).
51. That nothing rises or sets or appears or disappears in this world,
is what the mind perceives by its right discernment of things; and by
its investigation into the true and apparent natures of all. (In their
true light all things are in a state of continued revolution, and
nothing rises anew to view or disappears into nothing).
52. Right discernment gives the mind its peace and tranquillity, and
its freedom from all desires; and makes it indifferent to joy and
grief, and callous to all praise and censure.
53. The mind comes to find this truth as the cooling balsam of the
heart, that we are all doomed to die one day or other, with all our
friends and relations in this world of mortality.
54. Why therefore should we lament at the demise of our friends, when
it is certain that we must die one day sooner or later (and without the
certainty of when or where).
55. Thus when we are destined to die ourselves also, without having any
power in us to prevent the same; why then should we be sorry for others
when we can never prevent also.
56. It is certain that any one who has come to be born herein, must
have some state and property for his supportance here; but what is the
cause of rejoicing in it (when neither our lives nor their means are
lasting for ever).
57. All men dealing in worldly affairs, gain wealth with toil and pain
for their trouble and danger only; what is the reason therefore for
pining at its want, or repining at its loss.
58. These spheres of worlds enlarge, expand and rise to our view, like
bubbles of water in the sea which swell and float and shine for a time,
and then burst and subside in the water of eternity.
59. The nature of reality (the entity of Brahma), is real at all times,
and the condition of the unreal world is unsubstantial for ever, and
can never be otherwise or real, though it may? appear as such for a
time. Why then sorrow for what is nil and unreal.
60. I am not of this body nor was I in it, nor shall I remain in
it; nor is it any thing, even at present, except a picture of the
imagination. Why then lament at its loss.
61. If I am something else beside this body, that is a reflexion of the
pure intellect; then tell me of what avail are these states of reality
and unreality to me, and wherefore shall I rejoice or regret.
62. The Sage who is fully conscious of the certainty of this truth in
himself, does not feel any rise or fall of his spirits at his life or
death, nor doth he rejoice or wail at either in having or losing his
life.
63. Because he gains after the loss of his gross body, his residence
in the transcendental state of Brahma or spiritual existence; as the
little bird _tittera_ builds its nest of tender blades, after its
grassy habitation is broken down or blown away.
64. Therefore we should never rely in our frail and fragile bodies, but
bind our souls to the firm rock of Brahma by the strong rope of our
faith, as they bind a bull to the post with a strong cord.
65. Having thus ascertained the certitude of this truth, rely thy faith
on the reality of thy spiritual essence, and by giving up thy reliance
on thy frail body, manage thyself with indifference in this unreal
world.
66. Adhere to what is thy duty here, and avoid whatever is prohibited
to thee; and thus proceed in thy course with an even tenor of thy
mind, without minding at all about thy reliance on the one and
miscreance of the other.
67. He gets a cool composure of his mind; like the coolness at the
close of a hot summer-day, who shuts out from his view the reflexions
of all worldly objects.
68. Look on this universe, O sinless Ráma, as one common display of
Divine light, like the appearance of day light which is common to all;
it is the mind which taints it with various forms, as the sun-beams are
reflected in sundry piece by objects.
69. Therefore forsake all reflexions, and be without any impression
in thy mind, be of the form of pure intellectual light, which passes
through all without being contaminated by any.
70. You will be quite stainless by your dismissal of all taints and
appearances from your mind, and by your thinking yourself as nothing
and having no true enjoyment in this world.
71. That these phenomena are nothing in reality, but they show
themselves unto us for our delusion only; and that yourself also are
nothing will appear to you, by your thinking the whole as a display of
the Divine Intellect.
72. Again the thought that these phenomena are not false, nor do they
lead to our illusion since they are the manifestation of the supreme
Intellect, is also very true and leads to your consummation.
73. It is well Ráma, and for your good also if you know either of
these; because both of these views will tend equally to your felicity.
74. Conduct yourself in this manner, O blessed Ráma! and lessen
gradually all your affection and dislike to this world and all worldly
things. (_i.e._ Neither love nor hate aught at any time).
75. Whatever there exists in this earth, sky and heaven, is all
obtainable by you, by means of the relinquishment of your eager desire
and hatred.
76. Whatever a man endeavours to do, with his mind freed from his
fondness for or hatred to it, the same comes shortly, to take place,
contrary to the attempts of the ignorant: (whose excessive desire and
dislike turn to their disadvantage).
77. No good quality can have its abode in the heart that is troubled by
the waves of faults; as no stag will set its foot on the ground, heated
by burning sands and wild fires.
78. What acquisitions does he not make, in whose heart there grows the
kalpa tree of desire, and which is not infested by the snakes of ardent
desire or dislike (the two cankers of human breast).
79. Those men who are wise and discreet, learned and attentive to their
duties, and at the same time influenced by the feelings of love and
hatred, are no better than jackals (or jack asses) in human shape, and
are accursed with all their qualifications.
80. Look at the effects of these passions in men, who repine both at
the use of their wealth by others, as also in leaving their hard earned
money behind them. (This proceeds from excessive love of wealth on
the one hand, and hatred of family and heirs on the other as is said
[Sanskrit: putrádapi ghanabhajam bháti], the monied miser, dislikes
even his son).
81. All our riches, relatives and friends, are as transitory as the
passing winds: why then should a wise man rejoice or repine at their
gain or loss.
82. All our gains and wants and enjoyments in life, are mere illusion
or máyá, which is spread as a net by Divine power, all over the works
of creation, and entraps all the worldlings in it.
83. There is no wealth, nor any person, that is real or lasting to
any one in this temporary world; it is all frail and fleeting, and
stretched out as a false magic show to sight.
84. What wise man is there that will place his attachment on anything,
which is an unreality both in its beginning and end, and is quite
unsteady in the midst. No one has any faith in the arbour of his
imagination or aerial castle.
85. As one fancies he sees a fairy in a passing cloud, and is pleased
with the sight of what he can never enjoy, but passes from his view to
the sight of distant peoples; so is this passing world, which passes
from the sight of some to that of others, without its being fully
enjoyed or long retained in the possession of any one. (The passing
world passes from hand to hand, without its standing still at any one's
command).
86. The bustle of these fleeting bodies in the world, resembles the
commotion of an aerial castle, and the appearance of a city in an
evanescent dream and fancy.
87. I see the world as a city in my protracted dream, with all its
movables and immovable things, lying as quiet and still as in profound
sleep.
88. Ráma, you are wandering in this world, as one rolling in his bed
of indolence, and lulled to the long sleep of ignorance; which lends
you from one error to another, as if dragged by a chain of continuous
dreaming.
89. Now Ráma, break off your long chain of indolent ignorance, forsake
the idol of your errors, and lay hold on the inestimable gem of your
spiritual and divine knowledge.
90. Return to your right understanding, and behold your soul in its
clear light as a manifestation of the unchangeable luminary of the
Intellect; in the same manner as the unfolding lotus beholds the rising
sun.
91. I exhort you repeatedly, O Ráma! to wake from your drowsiness,
and by remaining ever wakeful to your spiritual concerns; see the
undecaying and undeclining sun of your soul at all times.
92. I have roused you from your indolent repose, and awakened you to
the light of your understanding, by the cooling breeze of spiritual
knowledge, and the refreshing showers of my elegant diction.
93. Delay not Ráma, to enlighten your understanding even now, and
attain your highest wisdom in the knowledge of the supreme being, to
come to the light of truth and shun the errors of the delusive world.
94. You will not be subject to any more birth or pain, nor will you be
exposed to any error or evil, if you will but remain steady in your
soul, by forsaking all your worldly desires.
95. Remain steadfast, O high minded Ráma, in your trust in the tranquil
and all soul of Brahma, for attainment of the purity and holiness of
your own soul, and you will thereby be freed from the snare of your
earthly desires, and get a clear sight of that true reality, wherein
you will rest in perfect security, as were in profound sleep.
CHAPTER XXIX.
PANTHEISM.
or
DESCRIPTION OF THE WORLD AS FULL WITH THE SUPREME SOUL.
Argument.--Elucidation of the same subject, and further Instruction to
Ráma.
Válmíki relates:--Hearing this discourse of the sage, Ráma remained
sedate with the coma (sama) of his mind, his spirits were tranquil, and
his soul was full of rapture.
2. The whole audience also that was present at the place, being all
quiet, calm and silent (comatose-upasánta), the sage withheld his
speech for fear of disturbing their spiritual repose: (which converted
them to stock and stone).
3. The sage stopped from distilling the drops of his ambrosial speech
any more, after the hearts of the audience were lulled to rest by their
draughts, as the clouds cease to rain drops, having penetrated into the
hearts of ripened grains.
4. As Ráma (with the rest of the assembly) came to be rose from their
torpor after a while; the eloquent Vasishtha resumed his discourse in
elucidation of his former lecture. (On spirituality).
5. Vasishtha said:--Ráma! you are now fully awakened to light, and have
come to and obtained the knowledge of thyself; remain hence forward
fixed to the only true object, wherein you must rely your faith, and
never set your feet on the field of the false phenomenal world.
6. The wheel of the world is continually revolving round the centre of
desire, put a peg to its axis, and it will stop from turning about its
pole.
7. If you be slack to fasten the nave (nábhi) of your mind, by your
manly efforts (purushártha; it will be hard for you to stop the wheel
of the world, which runs faster as you slacken your mind.)
8. Exert your manly strength (courage), with the aid of your mental
powers and wisdom, stop the motion of your heart, which is the centre
of the wheeling course of the world.
9. Know, that everything is obtainable by means of manly exertion,
joined with good sense and good nature, and assisted by a knowledge
of the sástras; and whatever is not obtained by these, is to be had
nowhere by any other.
10. Relinquish your reliance on destiny which is a coinage of puerile
imagination; and by relying on your own exertions, govern your heart
and mind for your lasting good.
11. The unsubstantial mind which appears as a substantiality, has had
its rise since the creation of Brahmá; and taken a wrong and erroneous
course of its own. (The human understanding is frail from first to
beginning, it is a power, and no positive reality).
12. The unreal and erroneous mind, weaves and stretches out a
lengthening web of its equally unreal and false conceptions, which it
is led afterwards to mistake for the substantial world.
13. All these bodies that are seen to move about us, are the products
of the fancies and fond desires of the mind; and though these frail
and false bodies cease to exist forever, yet the mind and its wishes
are imperishable; and either show themselves in their reproduction
in various forms, or they become altogether extinct in their total
absorption in the supreme spirit. (The doctrine of eternal ideas, is
the source of their perpetual appearance in various forms about bodies).
14. The wise man must not understand the pain or pleasure of the soul
from the physiognomy of man, that a sorrowful and weeping countenance
is the indication of pain; and a clear (cheerful) and tearless face is
the sign of pleasure. (Because it is the mind which moulds the face in
any form it likes).
15. You see a man in two ways, the one with his body and the other in
his representation in a picture or statues, of these the former kind
is more frail than the latter; because the embodied man is beset
by troubles and diseases in his fading and mouldering, decaying and
dying body, whereby the other is not. (The frame of the living man, is
frailer than his dead resemblance).
16. The fleshy body is assuredly doomed to die, notwithstanding all our
efforts for its preservation; but a body in the portrait being taken
good care of, lasts for ages with its undiminished beauty.
17. As the living body is sure to die in despite of all your care for
it, the pictured body must be deemed far better, than the false and
fancied fleshy body, produced by will of the mind (sankalpa deha).
18. The quality and stability which abide in a pictured body, are not
to be found in the body of the mind; wherefore the living body of
flesh, is more insignificant than its semblance in a picture or statue.
19. Think now, O sinless Ráma, what reliance is there in this body
of flesh; which is a production of your long fostered desire, and a
creature of your brain (Your mind makes it seem as such).
20. This body of flesh is more contemptible than those ideal forms,
which our dreams and desires produce in our sleeping and waking
states; because the creature of a momentary desire, is never attended
with a long or lasting happiness or misery. (Because the products of
the variable will, are of short duration, and so are their pains and
pleasures also).
21. The bodies that are produced by our long desire, continue for
a longer time, and are subjected to a longer series of miseries in
this world. (So it is said, a "long life is a long term of woes and
calamities").
22. The body is a creature of our fancy, and is neither a reality or
unreality in itself; and yet are the ignorant people fondly attached to
it, for the prolongation of their misery only.
23. As the destruction of the portrait of a man, does no harm to his
person; and as the loss of a fancied city is no loss to the city,
so the loss of the much desired body of any one, is no loss to his
personality in any wise.
24. Again as the dis-appearance of the secondary moon (halo), is no
deprivation of the primary satellite (moon), and as the evanescence
of the visionary world, is no annihilation of the external world. (So
there is no loss of the soul, as the loss of the shadow, is no loss of
the substance).
25. As the dis-appearance of water in the sunny banks of rivers, is
no deprivation of the river's water; so the creations of fancy which
are not negative in their nature, cannot be destructive of what is
positive, nor any damage done to the machine of the body, can ever
injure the dis-embodied soul.
26. The body is a piece of work wrought by the architect of the mind,
in its dreaming somnambulation over the sleeping world; wherefore
its decoration or disfigurement, is of no essential advantage or
dis-advantage to inward soul.
27. There is no end of the Intellect in its extent, nor any motion of
the soul from its place; there is no change in the Divine spirit of
Brahma, nor do any of these decay with the decline of the body.
28. As the inner and smaller wheel, makes the outer and larger wheel to
turn about it, so the inner _annulus_ of the mind, sees in its delirium
spheres over spheres revolving in empty air.
29. The mind views by its primitive and causeless error, the constant
rotation of bodies both in the inside and out side of it; and some as
moving forward and others as falling down, and many as dropped below.
30. Seeing the rise and fall of these rotatory bodies, the wise man
must rely on the firmness of his mind, and not himself to be led away
by these rotations in repeated succession.
31. Fancy forms the body and it is error that makes the unreal appear
as real; but the formation of fancy, and the fabrications of untruth,
cannot have any truth or reality in them.
32. The unreal body appearing as real, is like the appearance of a
snake in a rope; and so are all the affairs of the world quite untrue
and false, and appearing as true for the time being.
33. Whatever is done by an insensible being, is never accounted as its
action (or doing); hence all what is done by the senseless bodies
(of man), is not recounted as done by it. (But by the impulse of the
actuating mind).
34. It is the will which is the active agent of its actions, and this
being so, neither the inactive body nor the unchanging soul is the
actor of any action. (The soul being the witness of the bodily actions
done by the impelling mind. gloss).
35. The inert body being without any effort, is never the doer of any
act, which is desired by its presiding soul; it is only a viewer of
the soul, which witnesses it also. (The body is attendant or dependant
to the soul, as the other is a resident in it, they are both devoid of
action, and unstained by those done by the will of the mind).
36. As the lamp burns unshaken and with its unflickering flame, in the
breathless air and in itself only; so doth the silent and steady soul
dwell as a witness, in all things and of all acts existing and going on
in the world. (So doth the human soul abide and inflame itself in the
body, unless it is shaken and moved by the airy mind).
37. As the celestial and luminous orb of the day, regulates the daily
works of the living world from his seat on high, so do you, O Ráma,
administer the affairs of thy state from thy elevated seat on the royal
throne.
38. The knowledge of one's entity or egoism, in the unsubstantial abode
of his body, is like the sight of a spirit by boys in the empty space
of a house or in empty air. (The substantiality of the unsubstantial
body, is as false as the corporeality of an incorporeal spirit).
39. Whence comes this unsubstantial egoism in the manner of an inane
ghost, and takes possession of the inner body under the name of the
mind, is what the learned are at a loss to explain.
40. Never enslave yourself, O wise Ráma! to this spectre of your
egoism, which like the _ignis fatuus_ leads you with limbo lake or
bog of hell. (The sense of one's personality is the cause of his
responsibility).
41. The mad and giddy mind, accompanied with its capricious desires
and whims, plays its foolish pranks in its abode of the body, like a
hideous demon dancing in a dreary desert.
42. The demoniac mind having made its way, into the hollow heart of
the human body; plays its fantastic parts in so odd a manner, that
wise men shut their eyes against the sight, and sit in their silent
contemplation of the secluded soul. (It is good to fly from the fields,
where fools make a prominent figure).
43. After the demon of the mind, is driven out of the abode of the
body, there is no more any fear for any one to dwell in it in peace; as
no body is afraid of living in a deserted and desolate city.
44. It is astonishing that men should place any reliance in their
bodies, and consider them as their own, when they had had thousands
of such bodies in their repeated births before, and when they were
invariably infested by the demon of the mind.
45. They that die in the grasp and under the clutches of the cannibal
of the mind, have their minds like those of the pisácha cannibals in
their future births, and never of any other kind of being. (The will
ever accompanies a man, in all his future states).
46. The body which is taken possession of by the demon of egoism,
is being consumed by the burning fires of the triple afflictions;
occurring from local, natural and accidental evils, and is not to be
relied upon as a safe and lasting abode of any body.
47. Do you therefore desist to dance your attendance on, and follow
the dictates of your egoism (or selfishness). Be of an extended and
elevated mind, and by forgetting your egotism in your magnanimity, rely
only on the supreme spirit.
48. Those hellish people that are seized and possessed by the devils
of Egotism, are blinded in their self-delusion and giddiness; and are
unbefriended by their fellows and friends, as they are unfriendly to
others in this world. (Egotism is explained in its double sense of
selfishness and pride, both of which are hated and shunned by men as
they hate and shun others).
49. Whatever action is done by one bewitched by egoism in his mind,
the same grows up as a poisonous plant, and produces the fatal fruit of
death. (The fruits are mutual quarrels, enmity and the like).
50. The ignorant man that is elated by his egoistic pride, is lost both
to his reason and patience; and one who is attached to the former by
his neglect of the latter, is to be known as approaching fast to his
perdition. (Pride goes before destruction).
51. The simpleton that is seized by the devil of Egoism, is made as
fuel to the fire of hell (where he is doomed to burn with ceaseless
torment).
52. When the snake of Egoism hisses hard in the hollow heart of the
tree of the body, it is sure to be cut down by the inexorable hand of
death, who fells the noxious tree like a wood cutter to the ground.
53. O Ráma! that are the greatest among the great, never look at the
demon of egoism, whether it may reside in your body or not; because the
very look of it, is sure to delude any one.
54. If you disregard deride or drive away the demon of egoism, from the
recess of your mind, there is no damage or danger, that it can ever
bring upon you in any wise.
55. Ráma! what though the demon of Egoism, may play all its freaks in
its abode of the body, it can in no way affect the soul which is quite
aloof of it. (Egoism contaminates the mind, and cannot touch the soul
that contemns it).
56. Egoism brings a great many evils, upon them that have their minds
vitiated by its influence, and it requires hundreds of years, to count
and recount their baneful effects.
57. Know Ráma, that it is the despotic power of egoism, that makes
men to groan under its thraldom, and incessantly uttering the piteous
exclamations, "Oh! we are dying and burning and such other bitter
cries."
58. The soul is ubiquitous and free to rove every where, without its
having any connection with the ego of any body; just as the ubiquity of
the all pervading sky, is unconnected with every thing in the world.
59. Whatever is done or taken in by the body, in its connection with
the airy thread of life; know Ráma, all this to be the doing of
egoism, which empties and impels the body to all its various actions.
60. Know thus quiescent soul impels also, to be the cause of all the
exertions of the mind or mental operations, as the inactive vacuum is
the material cause of the growth of trees. (_i.e._ the circumambient
air affords room for the expansion of the plant).
61. It is owing to the presence of the soul, that the mind developes
itself in the form of the body and all its members; as it is the
presence of the light, that makes the room display its contained
objects to sight. (The soul is the light of the mind--nous the
container of infinite ideas).
62. Think now Ráma, on the relation between the ever unconnected
soul and mind, to resemble the irrelation subsisting between the
dis-connected earth and sky, and betwixt light and darkness and betwixt
the intellect and gross bodies.
63. Those that are ignorant of the soul, view the quiet mind as
such, after its motion and fluctuation are stopped by the restraint
of respiration--Pránáyáma. (This is the doctrine of the Sánkhya and
Buddhist, that view the becalmed and quiescent mind as the soul).
64. But the soul is self-luminous and ever lasting, omnipresent and
super-eminent, while the mind is deceptive and egoism. It is situated
in the heart with too much of its pride and vanity.
65. You are in reality the all-knowing soul, and not the ignorant and
deluded mind; therefore drive afar your delusive mind from the seat of
the soul, as they can never meet nor agree together.
66. Ráma! the mind has also like a demon, taken possession of the
empty house of the body, and has like an evil spirit, silenced and
overpowered upon the intangible soul in it.
67. Whatever thou art, remain but quiet in thyself, by driving away the
demon of thy mind from thee; because it robs thee of thy best treasure
of patience, and loads all kinds of evils upon thee. (_i.e._ the
impatient mind is the source of all evil).
68. The man that is seized by the voracious yaksha of his own mind,
has no change of his release from his grasp, either by the lessons of
the sástras or by the advice of his friends, relatives and preceptors.
(Greediness devours the greedy that desire to glut all things).
69. The man who has appeased the demon of his mind, is capable of being
released from its clutches, by means of the dictates of sástras, and
the admonitions of his friends, as it is possible to liberate a deer
from a shallow quagmire.
70. All things that are seen to be stored in this vacant city, of the
vacuous world, are all of them polluted by the lickerishness of the
mind, licking at them from inside the house of its body.
71. Say who is not afraid in this dreary wilderness of the world, which
is infested in every corner of it by the demoniac mind. (The rapacity
of the ambitious, converts the fair creation to a scene of horror).
72. There are some wise men in this city of the world, who enjoy the
abodes of their bodies in peace, having tranquilized the demon of their
minds in them. (A peaceful mind makes a peaceful abode).
73. Ráma! All the countries that we hear of in any part of the world,
are found to be full of senseless bodies, in which the giddy demon
of delusion are Raving (and Ranging) as the sepulchral grounds. (The
bodies of ignorant people, are as sepulchres of dead bodies. gloss).
74. Let people rely on their patience, and redeem their souls by their
own exertions; which are otherwise seen to be wandering about in the
forest of this world, like lost and stray boys: (that know not how to
return to their homes).
75. Men are wandering in this world, as herds of stags are roving in
burning deserts; but take care Ráma, never to live contented with a
grazing on the sapless grass, like a young and helpless deer.
76. Foolish men are seen to graze as young stags, in their pastures
amidst the wilderness of this world; but you Ráma must stir yourself to
kill the great Elephant of Ignorance, and pursue the leonine course of
subduing every thing in your way.
77. Do not allow yourself, O Ráma, to ramble about like other men, who
wander like senseless beasts in their native forests of the Jambudwípa.
78. Do not plunge yourself like the foolish buffets, in the bog of
your relatives and friends; it appears to you as a cold bath for a
while, but daubs you with its mud and mire afterwards. (The circle of
relatives may appear as a limpid lake at first; but dive in it, and you
will be daubed with its dirt afterwards).
79. Drive afar your desire of bodily enjoyments from you, and follow
the steps of respectable men; and having well considered thy sole
object of the soul (from the great sayings of the sástras), attend to
thyself or soul only. (Consider the objective soul in thy subjective
self).
80. It is not proper that you should plunge yourself, into a sea of
intolerable cares and troubles, for the sake of your impure and frail
body, which is but a trifle in comparison with the inestimable soul.
81. The body which is the production of one thing (_i.e._ the product
of past deeds), and is possessed by another (_i.e._ the demon of
egoism); which puts another one (_i.e._ the mind) to the pain of its
supportance, and affords its enjoyment to a fourth one (_i.e._ the
living soul), as a complicate machinery of many powers to the ignorant.
(The human frame is a mechanism of the body and mind, its egoism and
living principle).
82. As solidity is the only property of the stone, so the soul has the
single property of its entity alone; and its existence being common in
all objects, it is impossible for any thing else to subsist beside it.
(The soul being the only _ens_, it is of its nature the all in all; the
minds etc. being but its attributes).
83. As thickness is the property of stone, so are the mind and others
but properties of the soul; and there being nothing which is distinct
from the common entity of the soul, it is impossible for any thing to
have a separate existence.
84. As density relates to the stone, and dimension bears its relation
to the pot; so the mind and other are not distinct from one common
existence of the soul: (which pervades and constitutes the whole).
85. Hear now of another view of spiritual light, for dispelling the
darkness of delusion; as it was revealed to me of yore, in a cavern of
mount Kailása. (The former seat of my devotion).
86. There is a mountain peak, bright as the collected mass of
moon-beams, and penetrating the vault of heaven, where the god with the
semi-circular moon on his fore-head, delivered this doctrine to me for
appeasing the miseries of the world.
87. This mountain peak is famed by the name of Kailása, on which the
god Hara--the consort of Gouri, wearing the crescent moon on his head,
holds his residence.
88. It was to worship this great god, that I had once dwelt on that
mountain long ago; and constructed my hermit-cell on the bank of the
holy stream of Ganges. (Which ran down by its side).
89. I remained there in the practice of ascetic austereties, for the
performance of my holy devotion; and was beset by bodies of adepts,
dis-coursing on subjects of the sacred sástras.
90. I made baskets for filling them with flowers for my worship, and
for keeping the collection of my books in them; and was employed in
such other sacred tasks, in the forest groves of the Kailása mountain.
91. While thus I had been passing my time, in discharging the
austereties of my devotion; it happened to turn out once on the eighth
day of the dark side of the moon of the month of _srávana_.
92. And after its evening twilight was over, and the sun light had
faded in the face of the four quarters of the sky, that all objects
became invisible to sight, and stood rapt in their saint like silence.
93. It was then after half of the first watch of the night had fled
away, there spread a thick darkness over the groves and wood lands,
and required a sharp sword to sever it. (Asich' hedyá tami-srá-tenebra
ensis encesibelia).
94. My intense meditation was broken at this instant, and my trance
gave way to the sight of outward objects, which I kept looking upon
for sometime; when I observed a flaming fire suddenly rising in the
forest to my view.
95. It was as bright as a big white cloud, and as brilliant as the
shining orb of the moon; It illumed the groves on all sides, and struck
with amazement at the vision.
96. As I viewed it by the sight of my understanding, or the mental
vision which was glowing in my mind; I came to see the god Siva with
the crescent of the moon on his fore-head, standing on the table land
and manifest to view.
97. With his hand clasping the hand of Gaurí, he was led on ward by his
brace attendant Nandí walking before him; when I after informing my
pupils about it, proceeded forward with the due honorarium in my hand.
98. Led by the sight, I came to the presence of the god with a gladsome
mind; and then I offered handfuls of flowers to the three eyed-god from
a distance, in token of my reverence to him.
99. After giving the honor (Arghya), which was worthy of him, I bowed
down before the god, and accosted him; when he cast his kind look upon
me, from his moon-bright and clear sighted eyes.
100. Being blest by his benign look, which took away all my pain and
sin from me; I did my homage to the god that was seated on the flowery
level land, and viewed the three worlds lying open before him.
101. Then advancing forward, I offered unto him the honorarium, flowers
and water that I had with me, and scattered before him heaps of mandára
flowers, that grew there abouts.
102. I then worshipped the god with repeated obeisances and various
eulogiums; and next adored the goddess Gaurí with the same kind of
homage together with her attendant goddesses and demigods.
103. After my adoration was over, the god having the crescent moon on
his head, spoke to me that was seated by him, with his speech as mild
as the cooling beams of the full-moon.
104. Say O Bráhman, whether thy affections are at peace within
thyself, and have found their rest in supreme spirit, and whether your
felicitous feelings are settled in the true object of divine essence.
105. Whether your devotion is spading unobstructed by the demons of
your passions, and whether felicity attends on you.
106. Have you obtained the obtainable one, that is alone to be
obtained, and are you set above the fears, that incessantly hunt after
all mankind?
107. After the Lord of gods and the sole cause of all created beings,
had spoken in this manner; I replied to him submissively in the
following words.
108. O Lord! there is nothing unattainable, nor is there anything to
be feared by any one, who remembers the three eyed god at all times in
his mind; and whose hearts are filled with rapture by their constant
remembrance of thee.
109. There is no one in the womb of this world, in any country or
quarter, or in the mountains or forests, that does not bow down his
head before thee.
110. Those whose minds are entirely devoted to their remembrance of
thee, get the rewards of the meritorious acts of their past lives;
and water the trees of their present lives, in order to produce their
manifold fruit in future births and lives.
111. Lord! thy remembrance expands the seed of our desire, thou art
the jar of the nectar of our knowledge, and thou art the reservoir of
patience, as the moon is the receptacle of cooling beams.
112. Thy remembrance, Lord! is the gate way to the city of salvation,
and it is thy remembrance which I deem as the invaluable gem of my
thoughts.
113. O Lord of creation! thy remembrance sets its foot on the head of
all our calamities (_i.e._ tramples over them). (Because Siva is called
Sankara for his doing good to all, by removal of their misfortunes).
114. I said thus far, and then bowing down lowly before the complacent
deity, I addressed him, O Ráma, in the manner as you shall hear from
me.
115. Lord! it is by thy favour that I have the fulness of my heart's
content on every side; yet as there is one doubt lurking in my mind, I
will request thee to explain it fully to me.
116. Say with your clear understanding, and without hesitation and
weariness, regarding the manner of the adoration of gods, which
removes all our sins and confers all good unto us. (The query was
quite appropriate as the Tantras of Siva treat principally of such
formularies).
117. The god replied:--Hear me, O Brahman, that art best acquainted
with the knowledge of Brahma; tell you about the best mode of
worshipping the gods, and the performance of which is sure to set the
worshipper free. (From the bonds of the world all at once).
118. Tell me first, O great armed Brahman, if you know at all who is
that god, whom you make the object of your worship, if it be not the
lotus-eyed Vishnu or the three-eyed Siva neither.
119. It is not the god born of the lotus Brahmá, nor he who is the lord
of the thirteen classes of god--the great Indra himself; it is not the
god of winds--Pavana, nor the god of fire, nor the regents of the sun
and moon.
120. The Brahman (called an earthly god _bhudeva_) is no god at all,
nor the king called the shadow of god, is any god likewise, neither I
or thou--the ego and tu (or the subjective self and objective unself)
are gods; nor the body or any embodied being, or the mind or any
conception or creation of the mind is the true god also.
121. Neither Laxmí the goddess of fortune, nor Sarasvatí the goddess
of intelligence are true goddesses, nor is there any one that may be
called a god, except the one unfictitious god, who is without beginning
and end, that is the true god. (The Viswasaratantra of Siva treats of
the one infinite and eternal God).
122. How can a body measured by a form and its dimensions, or having a
definite measure be the immeasurable deity! it is the inartificial and
unlimited Intellect, that is known as the Siva or the felicitous one.
123. It is that which is meant by the word God--Deva--Deus, and that
is the object of adoration; that is the only _ens_ or _on_, _est_ or
Esteor Esten, out of which all other beings have proceeded, and in
which they have their existence, and wherein they subsist with their
formal parts.
124. Those unacquainted with the true nature of the felicitous Siva,
worship the formal idols and images; as a weary traveller thinks the
distance of a mile, to be as long as the length of a league.
125. It is possible to have the reward of one's adoration of the Rudras
and other gods; but the reward of the meditation of the true God, is
the unbounded felicity of the soul.
126. He who forsakes the reward of true felicity, for that of
fictitious pleasures; is like one who quits a garden of mandara flower,
and repairs to a furze of thorny _karanja_ plants.
127. The true worshippers know the purely intellectual and felicitous
Siva, to be the only adorable god; to whom the understanding and
tranquillity and equanimity of the soul are, the most acceptable
offerings than wreaths of flowers.
128. Know that to be the true worship of God, when the Deity of the
spirit (or spiritual Divinity), is worshipped with the flowers of the
understanding and tranquillity of the spirit. (Worship God in spirit
and with the contriteness of thy spirit).
129. The soul is of the form of consciousness (and is to be worshipped
as such), by forsaking the adoration of idols; Those that are devoted
to any form of fictitious cult, are subject to endless misery.
130. Those knowing the knowable one are called as saints; but those
who slighting the meditation of the soul, betake themselves to the
adoration of idols, are said to liken little boys playing with their
dolls.
131. The Lord Siva is the spiritual god, and the supreme cause of all;
He is to be worshipped always and without fail, with the understanding
only. (So the sruti: The vipras adore him in their knowledge, but
others worship him with sacrifices &c.)
132. You should know the soul as the intellectual and living spirit,
undecaying as the very nature herself; there is no other that is to be
worshipped, the true puja is the worship of the spirit. (God is to be
worshipped in spirit only).
133. Vasishtha said:--The soul being of the nature of intellectual
void, as this world is an empty void also; please tell me, my lord, how
the Intellect could become the living soul etc., as you have declared.
134. The god replied:--There being an only vacuous Intellect in
existence, which is beyond all limit; it is impossible for an
intelligible object to exist anywhere which may continue to all
eternity. (The subjective only is self-existent, and the objective is a
nullity; it being impossible for two self-existent things to co-exist
together).
135. That which shines of itself, is the self-shining Being; and it is
the self or spontaneous agitation of that Being, which has stretched
out the universe.
136. Thus the world appears as a city in dream before the intellectual
soul, and this soul is only a form of the inane intellect, and this
world is but a baseless fabric.
137. It is altogether impossible for aught of the thinkables and
visibles, to exist anywhere except in the empty sphere of the
intellect, and whatever shone forth in the beginning in the plenitude
of the Divine intellect, the same is called its creation or the world
from the first.
138. Therefore this world which shows itself in the form of a fairy
land in dream, is only an appearance in the empty sphere of the
intellect; and cannot be any other in reality.
139. The Intellect is the human speech, and the firmament that supports
the world; the intellect becomes the soul and the living principle,
and it is this which forms the chain of created beings. (The seeming
appearances being null and void; the Intellect is all and everything).
140. Tell me, what other thing is there that could know all things in
the beginning and before creation of the universe, except it were the
Intellect which saw and exhibited everything, in heaven and earth as
contained in itself.
141. The words sky, firmament, and the vacuum of Brahma and the world,
are all applicable to the Intellect, as the words arbour and tree are
but synonymous expressions for the same thing.
142. And as both our dreams and desires arise in us by our delusion, so
it is our illusion only which makes us perceive the existence of the
outer world; in the empty space of the intellect.
143. And as it is our empty consciousness, that shows the sight of the
external world in our dream; so it is that very thing that shows us the
same, in the waking dream of ourselves.
144. As it is not possible for the city in a dream, to be represented
any where except in the hollow space of our intellect; so it is
impossible for the waking dream of the world, to be shown elsewhere
except in the emptiness of the same.
145. As it is not possible for any thing that is thinkable to exist
any where except in the thinking mind, so it is impossible for this
thinkable world to exist any other place beside the divine mind.
146. The triple world rose of itself at the will and in the empty space
of the supreme Intellect, as it was a dream rising and setting in the
self same mind, and not as any thing other than it, or a duality beside
itself.
147. As one sees the diverse appearances of _ghatas_ and _patas_, pots
and painting in his dream, and all lying within the hollowness of his
mind; so the world appears of itself, in the vacuity of the Divine
Intellect, at the beginning of creation.
147_a_. As there is no substantiality of anything in the fairy land of
one's dream, except his pure consciousness of the objects; so there is
no substantiality of the things which are seen in this triple world,
except our consciousness of them.
148. What ever is visible to sight, and all that is existent and
inexistent, in the three times of the present, past and future; and
all space, time and mind, are no other than appearances of vacuous
intellect (of Brahma).
149. He is verily the god of whom I have told you, who is supreme in
the highest degree (lit. in its transcendental sense). Who is all and
unbounded and includes me, thee and the endless world in Himself.
150. The bodies of all created beings, of thine, mine, and others, and
of all in this world, are all full with the intellectuality of the
supreme soul and no other.
151. As there is nothing, O sage, except the bodies that are produced
from the vacuous intellect or intellectual vacuity of Brahma, and
resembling the images produced in the fairy land of one's dream; so
there is no form or figure in this world, other than what was made in
the beginning of creation.
CHAPTER XXX.
INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE OF THE INTELLECT.
Argument.--Description of the Pervasion and Supervision of the
Intellect; and its transformation into the mind in living beings. Or
Intellect as universal soul and mind of living beings.
The god said:--Thus the Intellect is all this plenum, it is the sole
supreme soul (of all); it is Brahma the Immense and the transcendent
vacuum, and it said to be the supreme god.
2. Therefore its worship is of the greatest good, and confers all
blessings to men; it is source of creation, and all this world is
situated on it. (The Divine Mind or omniscience).
3. It is unmade and increate, and without its beginning and end; it is
boundless and without a second, it is to be served without external
service (_i.e._ by spiritual adoration), and all felicity is obtained
thereby. (Hence Solomon's choice of Wisdom).
4. You are enlightened, O chief of sages! and there I tell you this;
that the worship of gods is not worthy to the wise, and offering of
flowers and frankincense is of no use to them.
5. Those who are unlearned, and have their minds as simple as those of
boys; are the persons that are mostly addicted to false worship, and
devoted to the adoration of gods.
6. These being devoid of the quietness of their understandings, are led
to ceremonious observances, and to the false attribution of a soul, to
the images of their own making.
7. It is for boys only to remain contented with their act of offering
flowers and incense to gods, whom they honour in the modes of worship,
which they have adopted of their own hobby-choice.
8. It is in vain that men worship the gods for gaining the objects of
their desire, for nothing that is false of itself; can ever give the
required fruit.
9. Adoration with flowers and incense, is inculcated to childish
understandings (and not for the wise). I will tell you now, the
worship that is worthy of men enlightened like yourself.
10. Know, O most intelligent sage, that the god whom we adore is the
true god, who is the receptacle of the three worlds, the supreme spirit
and no other.
11. He is Siva--the felicity, who is above the ranks of all other gods,
and beyond all fictions and fictitious images of men; He is accompanied
with all desires (will or volition), and is neither the enjoyer of
all or any part of the production of his will. He is full with the
imaginations of all things, but is neither the all or any one of the
objects in his mind.
12. He encompasses all space and time, and is neither divided nor
circumscribed by either of them. He is the manifester of all events and
things, and is nothing except the image of pure Intellect Himself.
13. He is consciousness without parts, and situated in the heart of
every thing. He is the producer of every thing, and their absorber also
in himself.
14. Know Brahma to be situated between existence and inexistence and it
is He who styled the God, the supreme soul, the transcendental, the Tat
sat--Id Est, and the syllable Om--on or ens.
15. By his nature of immensity, he spreads alike in all space, and
being the great Intellect himself, he is said to be transcendent and
supreme being.
16. He remains as all in all places, as the sap circulates through the
bodies of plants; thus the great soul of the supreme being, extends
alike as the common entity of all things.
17. It is He who abides in the heart of your spouse Arundhatí as in
yours, the same also dwells in the heart of Párvatí as in those of her
attendants.
18. That intellection which is one and in every one in all the three
worlds is verily the god, by the best knowing among philosophers: (that
god is the universal mind).
19. Tell me O Brahman! how they may be called as gods, who having their
hands and feet, are yet devoid of their consciousness; which is the
pith of the body. (This is said of idols and images).
20. The Intellect is the pith and marrow of the world, and contains
the sap which it supplies to every thing in it. It is the _one and
all--ego-sarvam_ and therefore all things are obtained from it. (The
god Siva is also called the all _to pan-sarva_ and Ego, that is I am
the universal ego and giver of all gifts to all).
21. He is not situated at a distance, O Bráhman! nor is He unobtainable
by any body; He resides always in all bodies, and abides alike in all
places, as also in all empty space and sky. (This omnipresence of the
divine spirit, sets aside the belief of a _swarga_-heaven or _bihesht_
as the special seat of God).
22. He does, he eats, he supports all, and moves every where; He
breathes and feels and knows every member of the body. (This is
according to the sruti; He fills and directs every part of the body
to the end of the nails-ánakhágrat. [Sanskrit: puryyámáste | sa eva
pravishta ánakhágrebhyah]).
23. Know him, O chief of sages! to be seated in the city of the body;
and directing the various functions that are manifest by it, under his
direct appointment.
24. He is the lord of the cavity of the heart, and the several hidden
sheaths--_Koshas_, which are contained within the cavity of the body;
which is made by his moving abodes and moves as he pleases to move it.
25. The immaculate soul is beyond the essence and actions of the mind,
and the six organs of sense; it is for our use and understanding only,
the word chit--intellect is applied to him.
26. That intellectual spirit is too minute and subtile, immaculate and
all-pervading; and it is his option and volition, to manifest this
visible representation of himself or not.
27. This intellect is too fine and pure, and yet manages the whole
machinery for beautifying the world, as the subtle and intelligent
season of spring, beautifies the vegetable world with freshness and
moisture.
28. The beautiful and wonderous properties that reside in the divine
Intellect, are astonishing to behold in their display into the various
form as the sky.
29. Some of these take the name of the living soul, and some others
assume the title of the mind; some take the general name of space, and
others are known as its parts and divisions. (These are but parts of
one stupendous whole &c. Popes Moral Essays).
30. Some of these pass under the name of substance, and others of their
action; and some under the different categories of mode and condition,
genus, species and adjuncts.
31. Some of them shine as light, and others stand as mountains and
hills; some brighten as the sun and moon and the gods above, and others
are as the dark yakshas below.
32. All these continue in their own states, without any option on their
parts; and they evolve of their own nature, and causation of the divine
spirit, as the sprouts of trees grow of their own accord, under the
influence of the vernal spring (season).
33. It is the intellect alone which extends over all the works of
nature, and fills all bodies which overspread the vast ocean of the
world, as the aquatic plants swim over the surface of waters.
34. The deluded mind wanders like a roving bee, and collects the sweets
of its desire from the lotus of the body, and the intellect sitting as
its Mistress, relishes their essence from within. (Spiritual substances
can taste the essence of sweets. Milton).
35. The world with all the gods and gandharvas, and the seas and hills
that are situated in it; rolls about in the circuit of the Intellect,
as the waters whirl in a whirlpool.
36. Human minds resembling the spokes of a wheel, are bound to the
axles of their worldly affairs; and turn about in the rotatory wheel of
the ever revolving world, within the circumference of the Intellect.
37. It was the Intellect which in the form of the four-armed Vishnu,
destroys the whole host of the demoniac asuras; as the rainy season
dispels the solar heat, with its thundering clouds and rainbows.
38. It is the Intellect, which in the form of the three-eyed Siva,
accompanied by his ensigns of the bull and the crescent of the moon,
continues to dote like a fond bee, on the lotus-like lovely face of
Gaurí (his consort).
39. It was the intellect which was born as a bee in the lotus-like
navel of Vishnu in the form of Brahmá, and was settled in his
meditation upon the lotus of the triple vedas; (revealed to the sage
afterwards).
40. In this manner the Intellect appears in various forms, like the
unnumbered leaves of trees, and the different kind of ornaments made of
the same metal of gold.
41. The Intellect assumes of its own pleasure, the paramount dignity of
Indra; who is the crown jewel over the three worlds, and whose feet are
honoured by the whole body of gods.
42. The Intellect expands, rises and falls, and circulates everywhere
in the womb of the triple world; as the waters of the deep overflow and
recede and move about in itself.
43. The full moon beams of intellect, scatter their widespread
brightness on all sides; and display to the full view the lotus lake of
all created beings in the world.
44. The translucent brightness of the mirror of the Intellect, shows
the reflexions of the world in it, and receives benignantly the images
of all things in its bosom; as if it were pregnant with them.
45. The Intellect gives existence to the circles of the fourteen great
regions (of creation) above and below; and it plants them in the watery
expanse of the sea on earth, and in the etherial expanse of the waters
in heaven. (The fourteen regions are the seven continents--_sapta
dwípas_, beset by the seven watery oceans, sapta-samudras on earth;
and the seven planets revolving in the etherial ocean of the skies.
Manu says the god Brahmá planted his seed in the waters; and the Bible
says--God divided the waters above from the waters below by the midway
sky).
46. Intellect spreads itself like a creeper in the vacuous field
of air, and became fruitful with multitudes of created beings; it
blossomed in the variety of the different peoples; and shooted forth in
the leaves of its dense desires.
47. These throngs of living beings are its farina flying about,
and their desires are as the juice which gives them their different
colours; their understandings are their covering cuticles and the
efforts of their minds are buds that unfold with flowers and fruits of
their desire.
48. The lightsome pistils of these florets are countless in the three
worlds, and their incessant undulation in the air, expressed their
gaysome dance with the sweet smiling of the opening buds.
49. It is the Intellect which stretches out all these real and unreal
bodies, which expand like the gentle and good looking flowers for a
time, but never endure for ever. (The body like a fading flower is soon
blown away.)
50. It produces men like moon bright flowers in all places, and these
flush and blush, and sing and dance about, deeming themselves as real
bodies.
51. It is by the power of this great Intellect, that the sun and other
luminous bodies shining over the sky as the two bodies in a couple, are
attracted to one another to taste the fruit of their enjoyment as that
of gross bodies.
52. All other visible bodies that are seen to move about in this
phenomenal world, are as flakes of dust dancing about on eddy. (_i.e._
All things move about and tend towards their central point the
Intellect).
53. The Intellect is like a luminary of the universe, and manifests
unto us all the phenomena of the three worlds, as the flame of a lamp
shows us the various colours of things: (which are reflected by light
on dark and opaque matter).
54. All worldly things exhibit their beauty to our sight, by their
being immerged in the light of the Intellect, as the dark spot on the
disk of the moon, becomes fully apparent to view by its immersion
in the lunar beams. (The black spot on the moon's surface, becomes
white by the brightness of the moon-beams, so the dark world becomes
illumined by the presence of the Intellect in it).
55. It is by receiving the gilding of the Intellect, that all material
bodies are tinctured in their various hues; as the different trees
receive their freshness, foliage and fruitage from the influence of the
rainy weather.
56. It is the shadow (or absence of intellect), which causes the
dullness of an object; and all bodies are inanimate without it, as a
house becomes dark in absence of light or a lamp. (Intellect gives life
to dull matter).
57. The wondrous powers of the intellect (which gives a shape and form
to every thing), are wanting in any thing; it becomes a shapeless
thing, and cannot possibly have any form or figure in the world, over
its dull materiality. (Even inanimate nature of all forms and kinds,
receives its figure from the power of intellect).
58. The intellect is as the skylight, wherein its active power or
energy resembling its consort, resides with her offspring of desire in
the abode of the body, and is ever restless and busy in her actions.
(This active power is personified as the goddess _sakti_ or Energy, and
her offspring-desire is the personification of Brahmá).
59. Without the presence of the Intellect, it is no way possible for
any one to perceive the taste of any flavour though it is set on the
tip of his tongue, or see it with his eyes? (Intellect is the cause of
all perception).
60. Hear me and say, how can this _arboretum_ of the body subsist, with
its branching arms and hairy filaments, without being supplied with the
sap of the intellect.
61. Know hence the intellect to be the cause of all moving and
immovable things in nature, by its growing and feeding and supporting
them all; and know also that the intellect is the only thing in
existence, and all else is inexistent without it.
62. Vasishtha said:--Ráma! after the moon-bright and three-eyed god
had spoken to me in his perspicuous speech, I interrogated again the
moon-bright god in a clear and audible voice and said.
63. O lord! If the intellect alone is all pervading and the soul of
all, then I have not yet been able to know this visible earth in its
true light.
64. Say why is it that people call a living person, to be endowed with
intellect so long as he is alive, and why they say him to be devoid of
intellect, when he is layed down as a dead and lifeless mass.
65. The god replied--Hear me tell you all: O Brahman, about what you
have asked me; it is a question of great importance, and requires, O
greatest of theists! a long explication.
66. The intellect resides in every body, as also in all things as their
inherent soul; the one is viewed (by shallow understandings) as the
individual and active spirit, and the other is known (to comprehensive
mind) as unchanging and universal soul.
67. The mind that is misled by its desires, views the inward spirit as
another or the living soul, as the cupidinous person takes his (or her)
consort for another, in the state of sleep or dreaming. (The unsettled
mind takes every individual soul for the universal one).
68. And as the same man seems to be changed to another, during his fit
of anger; so the sober intellect is transformed to a changeable spirit,
by one's mistake of its true nature. (The _nirvi kalpa_ or immutable
spirit, is changed to a _savi kalpa_ or mutable one).
69. The intellect being attributed with many variable qualities
and desires, is made to lose its state of purity; and by thinking
constantly of its gross nature, it is at last converted to the very
gross object of thought.
70. Then the subjective intellect _chit_, becomes itself the _chetya_
or object of thought, and having assumed the subtile form of a minute
etherial atom, becomes the element of sound; and is afterwards
transformed to the rudimental particle of air _vata tan mátra_.
71. This aerial particle then bearing relation to the parts of time
and place, becomes the vital principle (as existing some where for a
certain period of time); which next turns to the understanding and
finally to the mind.
72. The intellect being thus transformed into the mind, dwells on its
thoughts of the world, and is then amalgamated with it, in the same
manner as a Brahman is changed to chandala, by constantly thinking
himself as such. (Thus this creation is a display of the divine mind
and identic with it).
73. Thus the divine Intellect forgets its universality by its thoughts
of particulars; and assumes the gross forms of the objects of its
thoughts and desires. (Hence we say a man to be of such and such a
mind, according to the thought or desire that he entertains in it,
_i.e._ the whole being taken for a part and the part for the whole).
74. The Intellect being thus replete with its endless thoughts and
desires, grows as dull as the gross objects it dwells upon; till at
last the subtile intellect grows as stony dull, as the pure water is
converted to massive stones and hails.
75. So the stolid intellect takes the names of the mind and sense,
and becomes subject to ignorance and illusion; by contracting a gross
stolidity restrained from its flight upwards, and have to grovel
forever in the regions of sense.
76. Being subjected to ignorance at first, it is fast bound to the
fetters of its cupidity afterwards, and then being pinched by its
hankerings and angry frettings, it is tormented alike by the pleasure
of affluence and the pains of penury.
77. By forsaking the endless felicity (of spirituality), it is
subjected to the incessant vicissitudes of mortality, it now sets
dejected in despair, and lamenting over its griefs and sorrow, and then
burns amidst the conflagration of its woes and misery.
78. See how it is harassed with the vain thought of its
personality--that I am such a one; and look at the miseries to which it
is exposed, by its reliance on the frail and false body.
79. See how it is worried by its being hushed to and fro, in the
alternate swinging beds of prosperity and adversity; and see how it
is plunged in the deep and muddy puddle of misery, like a worn out
elephant sinking in the mire.
80. Look at this deep and unfordable ocean of the world, all hollow
within and rolling with the eventful waves of casualties; it emits the
submarine fire from within its bosom, as the human heart flashes forth
with its hidden fire of passions and affections.
81. Human heart staggers between hope and fear, like a stray deer in
the forest; and is alternately cheered and depressed at the prospects
of affluence and want.
82. The mind that is led by its desire, is always apprehensive of
disappointment; and it coils back for fear of a reverse, as a timorous
girl flies afar from the sight of a spectre.
83. Man encounters all pains for a certain pleasure in prospect, as the
camel browses the thorny furze in expectation of honey at a honey comb
in it; but happening to slip from his intermediate standpoint, he is
hurled headlong to the bottom.
84. One meeting with a reverse falls from one danger to another; and
so he meets with fresh calamities, as if one evil invited or was the
harbinger of the other.
85. The mind that is captivated by its desires, and led onward by its
exertions, meets with one difficulty after another, and has cause to
repent and grieve at every step (or is the cause of remorse and grief).
(All toil and moil, tend to the vexation of the spirit).
86. As a man advances in life, so he improves in his learning; but
alas! all his worldly knowledge serves at best, but to bind down the
soul fast to the earth.
87. Cowards are in constant fear of everything, until they die away in
their fear; as the little shrimp being afraid of the waterfall, falls
on dry land, and there perishes with flouncing.
88. The helplessness of childhood, the anxieties of manhood, the
miserableness of old age; are preliminaries to the sad demise of men
engaged in busy life. (The last catastrophe of human life).
89. The propensities of past life cause some to be born as celestial
nymphs in heaven, and others as venomous serpents in subterranean
cells; while some become as fierce demons, and many are reborn as men
and women on earth.
90. The past actions of men make to be born again as Rákshas among
savages, and others as monkeys in forests; while some become as
Kinnaras on mountains, and many as lions on mountain tops. (All these
are depraved races of men _viz_; the anthropophagi cannibals, the pigmy
apes--_banars_, the ugly mountaneers _Kinnaras_ and the leonine men
_narasinhas_).
91. The Vidyádharas of the Devagiri mountains, and the Nagas of the
forest caves (are degenerations of men); and so are the fowls of air,
the quadrupeds of wood lands, the trees and plants of forests, and the
bushes on hills and orchides on trees; (are all but transformation of
the perverted intellect).
92. It is self same intellect which causes Náráyana to float on the
surface of the sea, and makes the lotus born Brahmá to remain in his
meditation; It keeps Hara in the company of his consort Uma, and places
Hari over the gods in heaven.
93. It is this which makes the sun to make the day and the clouds to
give the rain (or pour in rains); It makes the sea to breathe out in
waves, and the volcanic mountains to blow out in fire and flame.
94. It makes the curricle of time to revolve continually in the circle
of the seasons; and causes the day and night to rotate in their cycles
of light and darkness.
95. Here it causes the seeds to vegetate with the juice contained in
them; and there it makes the stones and minerals lie down in mute
silence.
96. Some times it blooms in fruits ripened by the solar heat, and at
others maturated by the burning fuel; some where it gives us the cold
and icy water; and at others the spring water which cannot be lasted.
97. Here it glows in luminous bodies, and there it shows itself of
impenetrable thickets and in accessible rocks; It shines as bright and
white in one place, and is as dark and blue in another; It sparkles in
the fire and dwindles in the earth, it blows in the air and spreads in
the water.
98. Being the all-pervading, omnipresent and omnipotent power itself,
it is the one in all and the whole plenum. It is therefore more subtile
and transparent, than the rarefied and translucent air.
99. As the intellect spreads out and contracts itself, in any manner
in any place or time; so it conceives and produces the same within and
without itself, as the agitation of waters produces both the little
billows and huge surges of the sea. (The intellect is the immanent
cause of all phenomena).
100. The intellect stretches itself in the various forms of ducks and
geese, of cranes and crows, of storks, wolves and horses also; it
becomes the heron and partridge, the parrot, the dog, the stag, the ape
and Kinnara likewise.
101. It is the abstract quality of the understanding, beauty and
modesty, and of love and affections also; it is the power of illusion
and the shadow and brightness of night and of moonlight likewise.
102. It stretches itself in these and all other forms of bodies, and is
born and reborn in all kinds and species of things. It roves and rolls
all about the revolving world, in the manner of a straw whirling in a
whirlpool.
103. It is afraid of its own desires, as the she-ass is seen to shudder
at its own brayings; and it has no one like itself. ([Sanskrit: mugva
bálá-calá-valá]).
104. I have told you already, O great sage! how this principle of the
living spirit, becomes vitiated by its animal propensities, and is
afterwards debased to the nature and condition of brute creatures.
105. The supreme soul receiving the appellation of the living soul or
principle of action, becomes a pitiable object, when it becomes subject
to error and illusion, and is subjected to endless pains and miseries.
106. The deluded soul is then overpowered by its connate sin, which
causes it to choose the wrong unreality--asat for itself, which being
frail and perishable, makes the active soul to perish with itself.
(This passage appears to allude to the original sin of man, which
became the cause of the death and woes of human life. The connate sin
is compared to the husk which is born with the rice, and not coming
from without. It is otherwise called the inborn sinfulness or frailty
of human nature--Man is to err &c.).
107. The soul being thus degraded from its state of endless felicity,
to the miserable condition of mortal life, laments over its fallen
state, as a widow wails over her fate.
108. Look on the deplorable condition of intellect--_chit_; which
having forgotten its original state (of purity), is subjected to the
impotent Ignorance, which has been casting it to the miseries of
degradation, as they cast a bucket in the well by a string, which
lowers it lower and lower till it sinks in the bottom of the pit. (This
string _araghatta_ is said to be the action of human life, which the
more it is lengthened, the more it tends to our degradation, unless
we prevent by our good action. So the sruti! [Sanskrit: yathákárí
yatháchárí tathá bhalati | sághukárí sádhurbhabati | prápakárí
papíbhavati | punyo bai punyema karmmana bhavati | pápah pápereti |]).
CHAPTER XXXI
IDENTITY OF THE MIND AND LIVING SOUL.
Argument--The pure Intellect shown to be without vitality; and the mind
to consist in the vital power in connection with the sensations and
external Perceptions.
The god continued:--When the intellect collects (takes) the vanities of
the world to itself (and relies on them) and thinks to be a miserable
being; it is said to have fallen into error, (by forgetting the reality
and its true nature); it then resembles a man that is deluded to think
himself for another, in his dream or ebriety. (The living soul is
forgetful of its spiritual nature).
2. Though immortal yet it is deceived to believe itself as mortal, by
its infatuated understanding; as a sick man weeps to think himself dead
when he is still alive.
3. As the ignorant man views the revolving spheres to be at a stand
still, so the deluded intellect sees the world and thinks its
personality as sober realities.
4. The mind alone is said to be the cause of the perception of the
exterior world in the intellect; but the mind can be no such cause of
it, from the impossibility of its separate existence independent of the
intellect. (The intellect is the cause of guiding and informing the
mind, and not this of that).
5. Thus there being no causality of the mind, there cannot be its
causations of the thinkable world also. Therefore the intellect only
is the cause of thought, and neither the mind nor the thinkable world
(which produces or impresses the thought). The gloss says that, "the
intellect whereby the mind thinks, is not the mind nor its dependant or
the objective thinkable world; but it is the pure subjective self-same
intellect only."
6. There is no spectacle, spectator (or sight of) of anything anywhere,
unless it be a delusion, as that which appears oiliness in a stone; and
there is no matter, making or work of any kind; unless it be a mistake
like that of blackness in the moon. (The oily glossiness of the marble
and the shade in the moon, are no other but the inherent properties of
those things).
7. The terms measure, measurer, and measurable are as negative in
nature, as the privation of forest plants in the sky; and the words
intellect, intellection and intelligible are as meaningless in
themselves, as the absence of thorns and thistles in the garden of
Paradise. (gloss. The intellect _chit_ is the subjective intellection,
_chetana_ is _chitta vritti_--the property of _chit_, is the attribute,
and the intelligible _chetya_ is the object of thought. The meaning
is that, there is no separate subject, object or attribute in nature,
but they all blend in the essentiality of God, who is all in all. The
words subjective, objective and attributive, are therefore mere human
inventions, and so are the words thinker, thinking and the thought
([Sanskrit: mantri, mati, mantavya],) and knower, knowing and knowledge
([Sanskrit: víha, vuhvi, víhavya],) and the ego, egoism and egotist
([Sanskrit: ahamkára, ahamkarttá, ahamkáryya]) all which refer to the
same individual soul).
8. The personalities of egoism, tuism and illism; [Sanskrit: ahantvam
tvantvam, tatvam], are as false as mountains in the firmament; and the
difference of persons (as this is my body and that another's), is as
untrue as to find whiteness in ink.
9. The Divine spirit is neither the same nor different in all bodies;
because it is as impossible for the universal soul to be confined in
any body, as it is impracticable for the mount Meru to be contained in
an atom of dust. And it is as impossible to express it in words and
their senses as it is incapable for the sandy soil to grow the tender
herbs.
10. The dictum _netineti_.--It is neither this nor any other, is as
untrue as the belief of the darkness of night subsisting in company
with the day light: and substantiality and unsubstantiality are both as
wanting in the supreme spirit, as heat is wanting in ice.
11. It is as wrong to call it either as empty or solid, as it is to say
a tree growing in the womb of a stone to call it either the one or the
other; is to have it for the infinite _vacuum_ or the full _plenum_.
12. It is the sole unity that remains in its state of pure
transparency forever; and being unborn from the thought or mind of any
body, it is not subject to the misrepresentation of any body. (The
gloss says: Not being born from the mind of Brahmá as this creation,
the Intellect is free from the imperfections of both).
13. It is however imputed with many faults and failings, in the
thoughts and opinions of men; but all these imputations and false
attributes, vanish before one knowing its true nature.
14. The learned devoid of indifference, are employed in many other
thoughts and things; though not a straw of all this vast world, is
under the command of any body.
15. It is in the power of every body to get rid of his thoughts,
but very difficult to get the object of his thought; How then is it
possible for one to have, what it is impracticable for him to try for?
(_i.e._ The full object of desire).
16. The one sole and immutable Intellect which pervades all nature, is
the supreme one and without an equal, and is more pellucid than the
translucent light of a lamp and all other lights.
17. It is this intellectual light which enlightens every thing, it is
ubiquious and ever translucent; it is ever shining without a shade, and
immutable in its nature and mind.
18. It is situated every where and in all things, as in pots and
pictures, in trees and huts, and houses in quadrupeds, demons and
devils, in men and beasts, in the sea, earth and air.
19. It remains as the all witnessing spirit, without any oscillation
or motion of its own to any place; and enlightens all objects, without
flickering or doing any action by itself.
20. It remains unsullied with by its connection with the impure body,
and continues unchangeable in its relation with the changeful mind. It
does not become dull by being joined with the dull body, and is never
changed to anything by its extension over all things.
21. The extremely minute and immutable intellect, retains its
consciousness in itself; and by rolling itself like a rundle of thread,
enters the body in the form of a particle of air (or the vital breath
or air pránáyáma).
22. It is then accompanied with the powers of vision and reflexion,
which are wakeful in the waking state and lie dormant in sleep; whence
it is said to be existent and inexistent by turns.
23. The clear and pure intellect, comes then to think of many things
in its waking state, and is thus perverted from its purity; as an
honest man turns to dishonesty in the company of the dishonest. (The
perversion of the intellect is owing to its attachment to the flesh,
and its entertaining to worldly thoughts).
24. As the pure gold is converted to copper by its alloy, and is again
restored to its purity by removal of the base metal; such is the case
of the intellect owing to its contracting and distracting of vicious
thoughts.
25. As a good looking glass being cleansed of its dirt, shows the
countenance in a clear light; so the intellect being born in the human
body, attains its divine nature by means of its good understanding.
26. Its want of the knowledge of itself as the all, presents the sight
of the false world to it as a true reality; but upon coming to know its
true nature, it attains the divine state.
27. When the mind thinks of itself of its difference (from the
intellect), and the existence of the unrealities (in nature), it gets
the sense of its egoism, and then it perishes though it originally
imperishable in its nature. (The sruti [Sanskrit: tasya bhayam,
bhavati], "it then fears to die" because the personal soul is subject
to death, and not the impersonal or universal soul which never dies. So
the phrase: "Forget yourself and you'll never fear to die").
28. As a slight wind scatters the fruits of trees growing on the sides
of mountain, so the consciousness of self, drops down at the gust of a
slight disease, like a large tree.
29. The existence of the qualities of form and colour and others, is
owing to that of intellect; as the position of subalterns--_adhyasta_
is dependent on the station of the superior--_adhishthata_. And the
pure intellect--infinite and indefinite in itself, is designated as a
unity, duality and plurality by want of right understanding.
30. It is from the essence of the intellect only, that the mind and
senses derive their faculties of thinking and perception; as it is
presence of day light, which gives rise to the routine of daily
business.
31. It is the action of the vital air, which gives pulsation to the
pupils of the eye, and whose light is called the sight, which is the
instrument of perceiving the forms and colours of things that are
placed without it, but the perception belongs to the power and action
of the intellect.
32. The air and skin are both of them contemptible and insensible
things, yet their union gives the perception of touch or feeling;
the mind becomes conscious of that feeling, but its consciousness is
dependent on and caused by the intellect.
33. The particles of scent being carried by the particles of air to the
nostrils, give the sense of smelling to the mind; but it is intellect
which has the consciousness of smelling.
34. The particles of sound are conveyed by the particles of air to the
organ of hearing for the perception of the mind, and the intellect is
conscious of this as in its sleep. (And as a silent witness of the
same).
35. The mind is the volitive principle of action from some desire or to
some end and aim of its own, and the thoughts of the mind are all mixed
with foulness, while the nature of the intellectual soul is quite pure
and simple. (The difference between the sensuous mind and the conscious
intellect, is that the one is the volitive and active agents of its
actions, the other is the passive and neutral witness of all and every
thing that is and comes to take place, without its interference in any).
36. The intellect is manifest by itself, and is situated of itself in
itself; it contains the world within itself, as the crystalline stone
retains the images of all things in its bosom. (The subjective soul
bears in it the objective world, which is not different but self-same
with itself. Hence the nullity of the objective duality, which is
identic with the subjective unity).
37. It is the single and sole intellect which contains the whole,
without dividing or transforming itself to parts or forms other than
itself. It neither rises or sets, nor moves nor grows at any place or
time (but occupies all space and time, in its infinity and eternity).
38. It becomes the living soul by fostering its desires, and remains
as the pure intellect by forsaking them for ever; and then seated in
itself, it reflects on its two gross and pure states. (The two gross
states are the gross world, and the gross mind that dwells only on
gross bodies of the world).
39. The intellect has the living soul for its vehicle, and egoism is
the vehicle of the living principle; the understanding is the car of
egotism and the mind the seat of the understanding.
40. The mind again has the vital breath for its curricle, and the
senses are vehicles of the vital airs; the body is the carriage of the
senses, and the organs of action are the wheels of the body.
41. The motion of these curricles forms the course of this world
(which is hence called _karma_ Kshetra or world of activity); and the
continued rotation of the body (called the cage of bird of life); until
its old age and demise, which is the dispensation of the Almighty
power. (That man must toil and moil till he is worn out and goes to his
grave).
42. The world is shown unto us as a phantasmagoria of the supreme soul,
or as a scene in our dream; it is a pseudoscope and wholly untrue as
the water in a mirage.
43. Know, O sage, that the vital breath is called the vehicle of the
mind by fiction only; because wherever there is the breath of vitality,
there is also the process of thinking carried on along with it.
44. Wherever the breath of life circulates like a thread, and acts
as spring, there the body is made to shake with it; as the forms and
colours of bodies, present themselves to view at the appearance of
light.
45. The mind being employed with its desires, perturbs the vital
breath and body as a tempest shakes the forest; but being confined in
the cavity of the heart, it stops their motion as when the winds are
confined in the upper skies. (The mind being fixed to some particular
object of meditation, stops the course of life and gives longevity to
man).
46. Again the confinement of the vital breath in the vacuity of the
heart, stops the course of the mind (thoughts); as the hiding of a
light, removes the sight of the objects from view. (No thought without
breathing, and no sight without light).
47. As the dusts cease to fly after the winds are over; so the mind
(thought) ceases to move, when the breath is pent up in the heart.
(These are subjects of _Pránáyáma_ or restraint of breath, treated at
large in chapter XXV of this book).
48. As the carriage is driven wherever the driver wishes to drive it;
so the mind being driven by the vital breath, runs from country to
country in a moment.
49. As the stone flung from a fling is lost forever, so the thoughts
of the mind are dispersed in the air, unless they are fixed upon some
object. The thoughts are accompaniments of the mind and vitality, as
fragrance is attendant on flowers and heat upon fire.
50. Wherever there is vital breath breathing (in any animal being),
there is the principle of the mind with its train of thoughts likewise;
as whenever the moon appears to view, it is accompanied with its beams
also. Our consciousness is the result of the vibrations of the vital
air, like our perception of the perceptibles; and this air is the
sustainer of the body also, by supplying the juice of the food to all
the nerves and arteries.
51. The mind and consciousness both belong to the body, the one
residing in the hollow of the vital air, and the other is as clear as
the intellect, and resides alike in all gross and subtile bodies, like
the all pervading and transparent vacuum.
52. It remains in the form of conscious self-existence in dull
inanimate bodies; and appears to be afraid of the vibrations of animal
life (_i.e._ The vegetables and minerals are conscious of their own
existence, without having their vital and animal actions of breathing
and locomotion).
53. The dull body being enlivened by the vital breath, is recognized by
the mind as belonging to itself; and plays many parts and frolics with
it, as in its prior state of existence.
54. The mind vibrates no longer, after the extinction of breathing;
and then, O sage! the pure intellect is reflected in the eight fold
receptacle of vacuum. (These are termed the puryashtakas and consist
of the mind, life, knowledge, the organs of action, illusion, desire,
activity and the subtile body).
55. As it is the mirror only that can reflect an image, and no
other stone; so it is the mind alone these as their octuple
receptacle--_puryashtaka_, and which is the agent of all actions, and
is termed by different names according to the views of different divine
teachers.
56. That which gives rise to the net work of our imaginary visible
world, and that in which it appears to be situated, and whereby the
mind is made to revolve in various bodies, know that supreme substance
to be the Immensity of Brahma, and source of all this world (or as
diffused as all in all which is thence called the visvam--the all _to
pan_).
CHAPTER XXXII
ON THE SUSTENTATION AND DISSOLUTION OF THE BODY.
Argument.--Exposition of the animation of the complicate Body, and its
ultimate decomposition at death.
The god continued:--Hear me, holy sage! now relate to you, how the
active and oscillating principle of the intellect, acts on the human
body and actuates it to all its actions, whereby it receives the noble
title of its active agent. (The disembodied and nameless intellect,
gets many appellations in its embodied state, according to its various
temporal and spiritual avocations and occupations in life. gloss).
2. But the mind of man which is impelled by its former (or pristine)
propensities, prevails over the (good) intellect; and being hardened
in its vicious deeds, pursues its changeful wishes and desires. (The
former evil propensities refer to those of past lives, and allude to
the original depravity of human nature and will).
3. The mind being strengthened by illusion (máyá), the intellect
becomes dull and stultified as stone; and this power of delusion
growing stronger by divine dispensation, displayed the universe to
view. (The máyá is otherwise called _Brahma Sakti_ Divine omnipotence,
which overpowers on the omniscience of God in the acts of creation, &c.
Hence the neutral omniscience is called the Intellect _chit_, and the
active omnipotence is styled the mind).
4. It is by the good grace of this power, that the intellect is allowed
to perceive sometimes, the fallacy of the aerial city of this world,
and at others to think it as a reality. (_i.e._ It comes to detect the
fallacy by exercise of its intellection, and thinks it real by its
subjection-illusion).
5. The body remains as dumb as stone, without the presence of the
intellect, the mind and its egoism in it; and it moves about with their
presence in it, as when a stone is flung in the air.
6. As the dull iron is made to move, by its contiguity to or attraction
of the loadstone; so doth the living soul _jíva_ act its parts, by the
presence of the omnipresent soul in it. (The actions of the living soul
are its respirations, and direction of the organs of action to their
respective function).
7. It is by the power of the all pervading soul, that the living
principle shoots out in infinity forever, as the germs of trees sprout
forth the seed in all places. And as the recipient mirror receives the
reflexion of objects situated at a distance from it, so the living soul
gets the reflex or image of the distant supreme spirit in itself. (God
made man in his own image).
8. It is by forgetfulness of its own and real nature, that the living
soul contracts its foul gross object, as a legitimate twice-born man
mistakes himself for a sudra by forgetting his birth by such error or
illusion.
9. It is by unmindfulness of its own essence, that the intellect is
transformed to the sensuous mind; as some great souls are deceived to
believe their miserableness in the distractedness of their intellect
percipience. (Men are often misled to believe themselves otherwise than
what they are, as it was the case with the princes Lavana, Gádhi, and
Harischandra mentioned before and as it turns out with all miserable
mortals, who forget their immortal and celestial natures).
10. It is the intellect which moves the dull and inert body, as the
force of the winds shakes the waters of the deep to roll and range
about in chains and trains of waves.
11. The active mind which is always prone to action, leads the machine
of the body together, with the passive and helpless living soul at
random, as the winds drive about in different directions, together with
the inert stones (ballast) contained in it. (_i.e._ The mind is the
mover of both the body and soul, but the intellect is the primum mobile
of all).
12. The body is the vehicle, and God has employed the mind and the
vital breath, as the two horses or bullocks for driving it. (The mind
is said also to be its driver, the soul its rider, and the breaths are
its coursers).
13. Others say, that the rarefied intellect assumes a compact form,
which becomes the living soul; and this riding on the car of the mind,
drives it by the vital airs as its racers. (Hence the course of the
mind and its thoughts, are stopped with the stoppage of respiratory
breaths).
14. Sometimes the intellect seems as something born and to be in being,
as in its state of waking and witnessing the objects all around; at
others it seems to be dead and lost as in the state of its profound
sleep. Again it appears as many, as in its dreaming state; and at
last it comes to know itself as one and a unit, when it comes to the
knowledge of truth and of its identity with the sole unity.
15. Sometimes it seems to be of a different form, without forsaking its
own nature; as the milk becomes the butter and curd etc. and as the
water appears in the shape of a billow or wave or of its foam or froth.
(That changed in all, yet in all the same &c. Pope).
16. As all things depend upon light, to show their different forms
and colours to view, so the mental powers and faculties, do all of
them depend upon the intellectual soul for their several actions. (The
intellect in the form of the soul, directs and exhibits the actions of
the mind).
17. Again the Supreme Spirit being situated in the mind within the
body, the animal soul has its life and action; as all things appear to
sight, while the lighted lamp shines inside the room. (As the silent
soul directs the mind, so the active mind keeps the soul alive).
18. The ungoverned mind gives rise to all diseases and difficulties,
that rise as fastly and thickly, as the perturbed waters rise in waves,
which foam out with thickening froth.
19. The living soul dwelling like the bee in the lotus-bed of the body,
is also subject to diseases and difficulties as the bee to the rains
and flood; and it is as disturbed by the casualties of life, as the
calm sea-water are perturbed to waves by the blowing winds.
20. The dubitation that, "the divine soul is omnipotent, and the
living soul is impotent and limited in its powers; and therefore
the human soul is not the same with the Divine"; is the cause of our
woe, and serves to darken the understanding; as the clouds raised by
the sunlight, serve to obscure the solar disk (this doubt leading to
dualism, cuts us from God and exposes us to all the calamities of life).
21. The sentient soul passes under many transmigrations in its
insensibility, and in utter want of its self consciousness; like one
subdued to dull obtuseness by some morphia drug, which makes him
insensible of the pain inflicted upon his own person, (This drug is
some anaesthetic agent as opium, chloroform and the like).
22. But as it comes to know itself afterwards by some means or other,
it recovers from its dull insensibility, and regains its state of
original purity; as a drunken or deluded person turns to his duty,
after he comes to remember himself. (So the lost and stray sheep,
returns to its fold and master).
23. The sentient soul that fills the body, and is employed in
enlivening all its members, does not strive to know the cause of its
consciousness; as a leper never attempts to make use of any part of
his body, which he is incapable to raise. (So the soul that is drowned
in ignorance and dead in its sin, will never rise to reclaim its
redemption by reproving itself).
24. When the soul is devoid of its consciousness, it does not enable
the tube of the lotus-like heart to beat and vibrate with the breath
of respiration; but makes it as motionless as a sacrificial vessel
unhandled by the priest.
25. The action of the lotiform heart having ceased, the motion of the
vital breaths is stopped also; as the fanning of the palmleaf fan being
over, there is no more the current of the outer air.
26. The cessation of the vital air in the body, and its flight to some
other form, sets the life to silence and sink in the original soul;
just as the suspension of the blowing winds, sets the flying dusts to
rest on the ground.
27. At this time, O sage, the mind alone remains on its unsullied state
and without its support; until it gets another body, wherein it rests
as the embryonic seed lies in the earth and water.
28. Thus the causes of life being deranged on all sides, and the eight
principles of the body inert and extinct (in their actions); the body
droops down and becomes defunct and motionless. (The eight principles
called the _puryashtakas_).
29. Forgetfulness of the intellect, the intelligible (truth) and
intelligence, produces the desires of them to vibrate; these give to
remembrances of the past, and their want buries them to oblivion.
30. The expansion of the lotus-like heart, causes the _puryashtaka_
body to expand also; but when the organ of the heart ceases to blow and
breathe, the body ceases to move.
31. As long as the puryashtaka elements remain in the body, so long it
lives and breathes; but these elementary powers being quiet and still,
the body becomes inert and is said to be dead.
32. When the contrary humours, the feelings and passions and sensible
perceptions, and the outward wounds and strokes, cause the inward
action of the organic heart to stop:--
33. Then the puryashtaka forces are pent up in the cavity of the heart,
as the force of the blowing winds, is lost in the hollow of a pair of
blowing bellows.
34. When a living body has its inward consciousness, and becomes inert
and motionless in its outer parts and members, it is still alive by the
action of breathing in the inner organ of the heart.
35. Those whose pure and holy desires never forsake their hearts, they
live in one quiet and even state of life, and are known as the living
liberated and long living seers. (The pure desires are free from the
influence of passions, and tendency to earthly enjoyments; which cause
holy life and give longevity to man). (An unperturbed mind is the best
preservative of health).
36. When the action of the lotus like machine of the heart has
ceased, and the breath ceases to circulate in the body, it loses its
steadiness, and falls unsupported on the ground as a block of wood or
stone.
37. As the octuple body mixes with the air in the vacuum of the sky, so
is the mind also absorbed in it at the same time.
38. But being accompanied with the thoughts, to which it has been long
accustomed, it continues to wander about in the air, and amidst the
regions of heaven and hell, which it has long believed to await on its
exit from the body.
39. The body becomes a dead corpse, after the mind has fled from it
in the air; and it remains as an empty house, after its occupant has
departed from it.
40. The all pervading intellect, becomes by its power of intellection
both the living soul as well as the mind; and after passing from its
embodied form (of puryashtaka), it assumes its spiritual (átiváhika)
nature afterwards.
41. It fosters in its bosom the quintessence (pancha tan mátram) of the
subtile elemental mind, which assumes a grosser form afterwards, as the
thoughts of things appear in dream.
42. Then as the intensity of its thoughts, makes the unreal world and
all its unrealities, appear as real before it, it comes to forget and
forsake its spiritual nature, and transform itself to a gross body.
43. It thinks by mistake the unreal body as substantial, and believes
the unreal as real and the real as unreal. (_i.e._ It takes the unreal
material as real; and the real spiritual as nothing).
44. It is but a particle of the all pervading Intellect, that makes
the living soul, which reflects itself afterwards in the form of the
intelligent mind. (The understanding is a partial reflection of the
Intellect. Gloss). The mind then ascends on the vehicle of the octuple
body, and surveys the phenomenal world as a sober reality. (_i.e._ The
senses of the body, represent the universe as real).
45. The intellect is the prime mobile power, that gives force to the
octuple material (puryashtaka) body to move itself; and the action of
the breath in the heart which is called life, resembles the spiritual
force of a ghost raising an inert body. (The power of spirits entering
and moving inert bodies, forms a firm belief in India).
46. When the aerial mind flies into the vacuous air, after the material
frame is weakened and worn out; then the lifeless body remains as a
block of wood or stone, and is called a dead mass by those that are
living.
47. As the living soul forgets its spiritual nature, and becomes
decayed in course of time and according to the frail nature of material
things; so it fades and falls away in the manner of the withered leaves
of trees.
48. When the vital power forsakes the body, and the action of the
pericardium is stopped; the breath of life becomes extinct, and the
animated being is said to die away.
49. As all beings that are born and have come to life, fade away in
time like all created things in the world; so do human bodies also fade
and fall away in time, like the withered leaves of trees.
50. The bodies of all embodied beings, are equally doomed to be born
and die also in their time; as the leaves of trees, are seen to be
incessantly growing and falling off at all seasons; why then should we
lament at the loss of what is surely to be lost.
51. Look at these chains of living bodies, which are indiscriminately
and incessantly rising and falling like bubbles and billows, in the
vast ocean of the divine Intellect, and there is no difference of any
one of them from another; why then should the wise make any distinction
between objects that are equally frail in their nature, and proceed
from and return to the same source.
52. The all-pervading intellect reflects itself only in the mind of
man, and no where else; as it is the mirror only that receives the
reflexions of objects, and no other opaque substance besides.
53. The acts and fates of men are all imprinted in the spacious and
clear page of the Divine intellect, and yet are all embodied beings
loud in their cries and complaints against the decrees of Heaven which
is owing to their ignorance, and tending to their bitter grief and vain
lamentation.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
RESOLUTION OF DUALITY INTO UNITY.
Argument.--Unity, the source, substance, and ultimum of plurality,
which is resolved to unity. The Doctrine of monotheism. One in all and
all into one.
Vasishtha said:--Tell me, my lord, that bearest the crescent of
the moon on thy fore-head, how the pure and simple essence of the
intellect, which is an infinite unity and ever uniform and immutable
in its nature, is transmuted to the finite dualities of the variable
and impure soul and mind. (Moreover the whole equal to a part is quite
absurd and impossible).
2. Tell me, O great god! how this uncaused prime cause, becomes
diffused in endless Varieties, and how can we get rid of the plurality
of our creeds by our wisdom, for putting an end to our miseries. (By
means of our belief in the true unity).
3. The god replied--When the omnipotent God (sad), remains as one unity
of immensity (Eka Brahma); it is then of course absurd, to speak of his
duality or plurality, and of the manifestation of a part or minim of
himself. (The whole cannot be a part).
4. Taking the monad for a duad, is to ascribe duality to unity; and
the imputation of dualism or bipartition to the simple intellect,
is wholly futile from its nature of indivisibility. (So says the
sruti: The one is no dual nor a bipartite thing. In Him there is no
plurality, diversity or any particularity whatever. [Sanskrit: natu
taddvitíyamasti tati-nya hvibhaktam | nanuneha nánástikincana.])
5. The want of the number one, causes the absence both of unity,
duality; because there can be no dual without the singular, nor a
single one unless there be the number two above it. (_i.e._ There can
be no duality without the prime and preceding unity; nor even the unity
unless it is followed by duality; because the prime number would be
indefinite and indetermined without the succeeding ones).
6. The cause and its effect being of one nature (or essence), they are
both of the same kind, as the fruit and the seed contained in it. The
difference which is attributed to them from the change of one thing to
the other, is a mere fiction of imagination.
7. The mind itself evolves in its thoughts at its own will; the changes
occurring in itself, are no way different from its own nature; as the
mutual productions of seed and fruit, are of the same nature, the same
fruit produces the same seeds, and these again bring forth the same
fruits &c. (So the mind and its thoughts, are the same things and of
the self-same nature).
8. Many modifications incessantly rise in the infinite mind of the
almighty Maker as its eternal will, and these taking place in actu in
positive existences, and substantive forms bear the relation of causes
and their effects in this world.
9. These productions are likened to the waves of waters in the sea, and
mirage to the progeny of a barren woman, and the horns of a hare--all
which are _nil_ and not in being. They are all as negative as the
water on the mountaintop, and as the barley corn growing on the head
of a hare. (In all these instances the producer or container is a
reality; but the produced or contained waves etc. are false; and so is
Brahma the producer and container of all as positive entity, but the
production of the world is null and void).
10. Herein enquiring into the real truth, we must refrain from
logomachy; and find that though all things tend to stablish the unity,
yet it is difficult even in thought to do away with the difference of
things, as that of words and their senses. (that is to say, though
unity is the result of right reason, yet duality is inseparable from
common sense).
11. The essence of divine omnipotence, is not divisible into portions
or their fractions, like the waves of the sea, that are broken into
bubbles and particles of waters.
12. As the leaves and stalks and branches and flowers of trees, are no
other than the same substance; so unity and duality, meity and tuity
and the objectivity of the phenomenal world, are not different from
the essence of the subjective intellect, which contains and puts forth
itself in all these forms.
13. All time and place and variety of figures and forms, being but
modifications of the intellect, it is improper for us to question the
reality of those, and assert the certainty of this intellect.
14. The entities of time and space, and the powers of action and
destiny (divine ordinance), are all derived from and directed by the
intellect and bear their intellectual natures also.
15. As the power of thinking, the thought and its object, jointly
compose the principle of mind; so the whole universe and every thing
that bears a name, are all included under the term chit or intellect;
as the water and its rise and fall, are all included under the word
wave.
16. The thoughts which continually rise and fall, in the great ocean
of the intellect; are like the waves which heave and set down, on the
surface of the boisterous sea.
17. It is this supreme intellect which is known by the various
appellations of the Lord, God, Truth, Siva and others; as also by the
various names of vacuum, unity and the supreme spirit.
18. Such is the nature of God, whom no words can express; and who is
styled the Ego or the subjective "I am that I am" and whom it is beyond
the power of speech to describe.
19. All that is seen all around, are but the leaves, fruits, flowers
and branches of the all creeping plant of the intellect; which being
diffused in all, leaves nothing that is different from it.
20. The divine intellect [Sanskrit: chit] being omniscient [Sanskrit:
mahávidyá] has the great nescience or ignorance [Sanskrit: mahá avidyá]
underlying it (as the lighted lamp is accompanied by the shadow under
it); and then looking at this side of itself it takes the name of the
living soul, and beholds this shadowy world stretched outside the
divine mind, as we see another moon in the reflexion of that luminary,
cast upon a nebular circle beyond it.
21. Then thinking itself as another or a living being _Jíva_, and other
wise than what it is (_i.e._ the immortal spirit paramátma); it becomes
just of the same nature, as it thinks and forms itself by its own will.
22. Being thus transformed from its perfect and immaculate state, to
that of an imperfect and impure nature; it is made to wade amidst the
stream of this world, without ever thinking (of its fall from the state
of original purity).
23. The intellectual form being then assimilated with the elemental
(puryashtaka) body, receives its vital or mortal life and living soul,
which lives by reflexion of the essence of the supreme intellect.
24. The spiritual body is also transformed to the frail living body,
which being joined with quintessence of quintuple elements, comes to
know itself as material substance (dravymas miti).
25. This substance being next infused with the vital breath, receives
soon after its vigor and strength like the seed of a plant; and then it
feels itself to be endued with life, and to be conceived in the uterus
in its own conception.
26. The same erroneous conception of its gross materiality, misleads
to the belief of its own egoism and personality. It conceives also its
state of a moving or unmoving being, and this conception of it converts
it instantly into the like form. (We have the forms, as we picture to
ourselves in our minds).
27. Again the simultaneous meeting of former reminiscence with the
later desire of a person, changes its former habitual and meaner
form, to that of a larger and grosser kind. (Thus one that had been
a contemptible gnat in its previous state of existence, is come to a
big elephant in its next birth, not from its remembrance of its former
state of life, but from its settled desire of becoming the would be
being in the next. So it is the will [Sanskrit: vásaná] that supersedes
the former impression [Sanskrit: samskára] of what one had been before,
and transforms it to what it wishes to be afterwards. Hence the will is
the parent of thoughts).
28. The difference and duality of one from its identity and unity, are
results of one's thinking himself other wise than what he really is;
as a man becomes a devil by thinking himself possessed by a ghost.
29. The thought of the duality of one self-same soul, in its two
aspects of the supreme and human souls; is driven away by the
persuasion that I do nothing, and the agency of all actions rests in
the great God himself.
30. The unity is considered as a duality, by the dualistic opinions
of men; while on the other hand the belief in unity, destroys the
conviction of dualism and plurality from the minds of men.
31. There is no duality or secondary being in the soul, which may be
regarded as the supreme soul, because there is but one soul only, which
is unchangeable and unperishable at all times and every where. (All
other changing and finite beings, are but reflexions of the supreme).
32. All works of imagination are dispersed, with the dispersion of the
fumes of fancy; as one's aerial castle and the fairy city, vanish after
the flight of the phrenzy and the visionary dream.
33. It is painful to raise a fabric of imagination, but there is no
pain whatever in breaking it down; because the chimera of imagination
is well skilled in building the aerial cities, and not in demolishing
them. (Which belongs to the province of reason only).
34. If the fullness of one's desires and fancies, is fraught with the
pains and troubles of life, it must be the want of such wishes and
views, that will serve to set him free from these pains for ever.
35. If even a slight desire is enough to expose a man to many cares in
life, then its utter privation must afford him complete rest and quiet,
in his transient state of being.
36. When your mind has got loose, from the manifold folds of your
serpentine desires; you will then come to enjoy the sweets of the
garden of paradise. (Had it not been for the serpent's insinuation to
taste the fatal fruit, our first parents would be left to enjoy all the
sweets of Paradise).
37. Drive away and disperse the clouds of your desire, by the breeze
of your reason; and come and enjoy your rest, under the calm and clear
autumnal sky of your indifference--_nonchalance_.
38. Dry the impetuous current of your rapid desires, by the charms of
amulets and mantras; and then restrain yourself from being borne away
by the flood, and restrict your mind to its dead inaction.
39. Rely thy trust in the intellectual soul _chidátmá_, seated in the
cavity of thy heart, and look on mankind driven to and fro by the
gusts of their desire, like fragments of straw flying at random in the
perturbed air.
40. Wash out the dirt of thy desires from thy mind, by the pure water
of thy spiritual knowledge; and after securing the perfect tranquillity
of thy soul, continue to enjoy the highest bliss of a holy life.
41. God is all powerful and omnipresent, and displays himself in
all forms every where (He is seen in the same manner as one desires
to behold him in a temporal or spiritual light. [Sanskrit: vrashma
káranena bhogmakáranena bá yathá bhávayate tatha pashyati]).
42. It is the thought or imagination, that makes the false world appear
as true; and it depends upon the thought also, that the world vanishes
into nothing. (The existence and inexistence of the world; depend alike
on the thoughts of divine and human minds; the positive and negative
are all creations of the mind).
43. It is the net work of our thoughts and desires, that is interwoven
with the threads of our repeated births; but the winds of our apathy
and indifference blow off this web, and settle us in the state of
supreme felicity.
44. Avarice is a thorny plant, that has taken deep root in the human
heart; it is fostered under the shade of the arbor of desire, root out
this tree of desire, and the thorny bush of avarice will fade away of
itself.
45. The world is a shadow and a pseudoscope, and rises to view and
disappears by turns; it is an error of the brain that presents the
sight of the course of nature (sansriti), like that of the fairy land
presented to us in a dream.
46. The king that forgets his nature of the Lord, mistakes himself for
a prince, or that he is born or become the ruler of the land; this
concept of his which springs from ignorance of his divine nature,
vanishes soon after he comes to the real knowledge of himself.
47. The king in possession of his present royalty, has no reminiscence
of his past and former state; as we do not recollect the foulness of
the past rainy weather, in the serenity of the present autumn.
48. The thought that is predominant in the mind, naturally prevails
over the fainter and weaker ones, as the highest pitch in music
suppresses the _bass_ tones, and takes possession of the ear.
49. Think in yourself that you are one (unit or the unity), and that
you are the soul (or supreme soul); keep this single reflection before
you, and holding fast to it, you will become the object of your
meditation. (This is called [Sanskrit: átmapújá] spiritual adoration,
or assimilating one's self to the supreme soul).
50. Such is the spiritual meditation of spiritualists like yourself,
who aspire to the highest felicity of the supreme Being; while the
external form of worship, is fit only for ungoverned minds, that
rapt only for their temporal welfare. In formal worship composed of
the worshipper, the formalities of the ritual and the articles of
offerings, are symbolical of ignorant minds, and too insignificant to
the wise.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
SERMON OF SIVA ON THE SAME SUBJECT.
Argument.--The divine state, above the quadruple conditions of waking,
sleeping, dreaming and profound sleep.
The god continued:--Such is the constitution of this world, composed
of reality and unreality, and bearing the stamp of the almighty; it is
composed both of unity and duality, and yet it is free from both. (To
the ignorant it appears as a duality, composed of the mind and matter;
but the wise take it neither as the one or the other, but the whole _to
pan_--the root of pantheism).
2. It is the disfigurement of the intellect by foul ignorance, that
views the outer world as distinct from its maker; but to the clear
sighted there is no separate outer world, but both blend together in
the unity.
3. The perverted intellect which considers itself as the body, is
verily confined in it; but when it considers itself to be a particle of
and identic with the divine, it is liberated from its confinement. (In
the mortal and material frame).
4. The intellect loses its entity, by considering the duality of its
form and sense; and be combined with pleasure and pain, it retains no
longer its real essence.
5. Its true nature is free from all designation, and application of any
significant term or its sense to it; and the words pure, undivided,
real or unreal, bear no relation to what is an all pervasive vacuity.
6. Brahma the all and full (to pans plenum), who is perfect
tranquillity, and without a second, equal or comparison, expands
himself by his own power as the infinite and empty air; and stretches
his mind in three different directions of the three triplicates.
(Namely 1 of creation, preservation and destruction of the universe--2
the three states of waking, sleeping, and dreaming--3 the union
of the three powers--the supernal, natural and material agencies.
[Sanskrit: srishti, sthiti, pralaya, jágrat, nidra, sapta | ádhidaiva,
ádhibhautika, ádhibhauvikanca].)
7. The mind being curbed with all its senses and organs in the great
soul, there appears a dazzling light before it, and the false world
flies away from it, as the shade of night disappears before the
sunlight. (This verse is explained in the gloss to refer both to the
supreme spirit before creation, as also to the yogi who distracts
his mind and senses from the outer world, and sees a blazing light
stretched over his soul).
8. The imaginary world recedes from view, and falls down like a
withered leaf; and the living soul remains like a fried grain, without
its power of vegetation or reproduction.
9. The intellect being cleared from the cloud of illusion, overhanging
the deluded mind, shines as clearly as the vault of the autumnal
sky; and is then called _pashyanti_ or seeing from its sight of the
supernatural, and _utsrijanti_ also from its renunciation of all
worldly impressions. (This is called also the cognoscent soul, from its
cognition of recondite and mysterious truths).
10. The Intellect being settled in its original, pure and sedate state,
after it has passed under the commotions of worldly thoughts; and when
it views all things in an equal and indifferent light, it is said
to have crossed over the ocean of the world. (The course of worldly
life is compared to a perilous sea voyage, and perfect apathy and
indifference to the world, is said to secure the salvation of the soul).
11. When the intellect is strong in its knowledge of perfect _susupti_
or somnolence over worldly matters; it is said to have obtained its
rest in the state of supreme felicity, and to be freed from the doom of
transmigration in future births. (The perfect rest of the next world,
is begun with one's _ecstasis_ in this).
12. I have now told you, O great Vipra, all about the curbing
and weakening of the mind, which is the first step towards the
beatification of the soul by yoga; now attend to me to tell you,
concerning the second step of the edification and strengthening of the
intellect.
13. That is called the unrestricted power of the intellect, which is
fraught with perfect peace and tranquillity; which is full of light,
clear of the darkness of ignorance, and as wide stretched as the clear
vault of heaven.
14. It is as deep as our consciousness in profound sleep, as hidden as
a mark in the heart of a stone; as sweet as the flavour in salt, and as
the breath of wind after a storm. (All these examples show the strength
of the soul, to consist in its close compactness).
15. When the living principle comes to its end at any place, in course
of time; the intellect takes it flight like some invisible force in
open air, and mixes with the transcendent vacuum.
16. It gets freed from all its thoughts and thinkables, as when the
calm sea is freed from its fluctuation; it becomes as sedate as when
the winds are still, and as imperceptible as when the flower-cup emits
its fragrance.
17. It is liberated from the bonds and ideas of time and place (by its
assimilation to infinity and immortality); it is freed from the thought
of its appertaining to or being a part of anything in the world; it is
neither a gross or subtile substance, and becomes a nameless essence.
(The intellect or soul bears distinctive mark or peculiarity of its
own, except that it is some thing which has nothing in common with
anything in the world).
18. It is not limited by time and space, and is of the nature of the
unlimited essence of God; it is a form and fragment of the quadruple
state of Brahma or Virát [Sanskrit: túryya túryyamása], and is without
any stain, disease or decay.
19. It is some thing witnessing all things with its far seeing sight,
it is the all at all times and places, it is full light in itself, and
sweeter far than the sweetest thing in the world. (Nothing sweeter than
one's self).
20. This is what I told you the second stage of yoga meditation, attend
now, O sage! that art true to your vows, and dost well understand the
process of yoga, to what I will relate to you regarding its third
stage.
21. This sight of intellect is without a name, because it contains like
the Divine Intellect all the thinkables (or objects of thought) within
its ample sphere, as the great ocean of the world, grasps all parts
of the globe within its spacious circumference. It extends beyond the
meaning of the word _Brahmátma_ or the ample spirit of the god Brahmá
in its extension _ad infinitum_. (It resembles the comprehensive mind
of God).
22. It is by great enduring patience, that the soul attains in course
of a long time, this steady and unsullied state of its perfection
_purushártha_; and it is after passing this and the fourth stage, that
the soul reaches to its supreme and ultimate state of felicity.
23. After passing the successive grades and until reaching the ultimate
state, one must practice his yoga in the manner of Siva the greatest
of the yogis; and then he will obtain in himself the unremitting holy
composure of the third stage.
24. By long continuance in this course, the pilgrim is led to a great
distance, which transcends all my description, but may be felt by the
holy devotee who advances in his course.
25. I have told you already of the state, which is beyond these three
stages; and do you, O divine sage! ever remain in that state, if you
wish to arrive to the state of the eternal God.
26. This world which seems as material, will appear to be infused with
the spirit of God when it is viewed in its spiritual light, but upon
right observation of it, it is neither the one nor the other (but a
reflexion of divine mind).
27. This what neither springs into being nor ceases to exist; but is
ever calm and quiet and of one uniform lustre, and swells and extends
as the embryo in the womb. (The embryo is to be understood in a
spiritual sense from God's conception of the world in his mind).
28. The undualistic unity of God, his motionlessness and the solidity
of his intelligence, together with the unchangeableness of his nature,
prove the eternity of the world, although appearing as instantaneous
and evanescent. (The solid intelligence is shown in the instances of
solidified water in ice and snow, and in the froth and salt of sea
water).
29. The solidity of the intellect produces the worlds in the same
manner as the congealed water causes the hail-stones, and there is no
difference between the existent and nonexistent, since all things are
ever existent in the divine mind. (Though appearing now and then to me
or you as something new).
30. All is good (siva or solus) and quiet, and perfect beyond the power
of description; the syllable _om_ is the symbol of the whole, and its
components compose the four stages for our salvation. (All is good. And
God pronounced all was good. See the quadruple stages comprised in the
letter _om_, in our introduction to the first volume of this work).
CHAPTER XXXV.
ADORATION OF THE GREAT GOD MAHÁ-DEVA.
Argument.--Of Mahádeva, the father of Brahmá, Vishnu and Siva and the
manner of his worship.
Vasishtha said:--Then Hara, who is the lake of the lotus of Gaurí
(_i.e._ her husband), being desirous of my enlightenment, glanced on me
for a minute, and gave utterance to his lecture.
2. His eyes flashed with light under his heavenly forehead, and were as
two caskets of his understanding, which scattered its rays about us.
(The eyes are the indexes of men's understanding in Physiognomy).
3. The god said:--O sage, call your thoughts home, and employ them
soon to think of your own essence; and to bring about your ends, as
the breezes of heaven convey the fragrance to the nostrils. (The mind
is usually compared in its fleetness with the winds, and therefore the
task of the breezes is imposed upon the thoughts, which are as vagaries
unless they answer one's purposes).
4. When the object long sought for is got in one's possession, what
else is there for one to desire any more. I who have known and come
to the truth, have nothing to expect as desirable nor any thing to
reject as despicable. (When one is possest of his sole object, he is
indifferent about all others, whether they be good or bad).
5. When you have got your mastery over yourself, both in the states of
your peace and disquiet; you should apply yourself to the investigation
of yourself or soul, without attending to any thing besides. (Nothing
better than self-culture, and the advancement and salvation of one's
own soul).
6. You may at first depend on your observations of the phenomenal, (as
preparatory to your knowledge of the noumenal), which you will now
learn from my lecture, if you will attend to it with diligence.
7. After saying in this manner, the holder of the trident told me, not
to rely on my knowledge of the externals, but to attend to the internal
breathings, which move this abode of the body, as the physical forces
move a machine.
8. The lifeless body being without its breathing, becomes dull and dull
and dumb as a block; its power of movement being derived from the air
of breath, but its powers of thought and knowledge are attributed to
the intellect.
9. This intellect has a form more rare and transparent than the vacuous
air, it is an _ens_ which is the cause of all entities; and is not
destroyed by destruction of the living body for want of vital breath.
10. The intellectual is more rarefied and translucent than the ethereal
air, and never perishes with the body; because it remains as the power
of intellection, in the mental (percipient) and living body. (The sruti
says: it is the life of life, and mind of the mind).
11. As the clear shining mirror, receives the reflexion of external
things; so the mind of God reflects all images from within itself, and
from nothing situated without.
12. As the soiled glass receives no reflexion of outward things, so the
lifeless body has no reflexion of any thing, though it is preserved
to our view. (And so are all thoughtless persons considered as dead
bodies).
13. The all-pervasive intellect, though it is formless itself, is yet
prone towards the movement of sensible objects owing to its sensuous
perceptions; but coming to the pure understanding of its spiritual
nature, it becomes the supreme Siva again.
14. The sages then called this immaculate intellect by the several
names of Hari, Siva, Brahmá, and Indra, who are the givers of the
objects of desire to all living beings.
15. It is also styled the fire and air, the sun and moon, and the
supreme Lord; and it is this which is known as the ubiquious soul and
the intellect, which is the mine of all intelligence.
16. It is the lord of gods, the source of celestials, the Dháta or
Brahmá, the lord of gods, and the lord of heaven. Any body who feels
the influence of this great intellect in himself, is never subject to
illusion.
17. Those great souls that are known in this world, under the names of
Brahmá, Vishnu, Hara and others, are all but offspring of the supreme
Intellect, and endowed with a greater portion of it.
18. They are all as sparks of hot iron, and as particles of water in
the immense ocean of creation; so all those that are mistaken for gods,
have sprung from the source of the supreme Intellect.
19. As long as there exist the seeds of error, and the sources of
endless networks of imagination; so long the arbour of gross illusion
does not cease, to sprout in endless ramifications.
20. The veda, its exposition and the vedic literature, are but tufts of
the tree of ignorance for the bondage of men; and these again produce
many other clumps, to hold men fast in their ignorance.
21. Who can describe the productions of nature, in the course of
time and place; the gods Hari, Hara, and Brahmá are among the
number, and have all their origin in the supreme Being--their common
father. (So says the Atharva Sera Sruti: [Sanskrit: sarvvamidram
brahmávishnurudrendráste sampamúyate sarvvani cíndráyánisahamúteh
sakáranam káranánáma.])
22. Mahádeva the great god is the root of all, as the seed is the
source of the branches of trees; He is called the All (sarva), because
He is the essence of all things, and the sole cause of our knowledge
of all existence. (The Purána says to the same effect). [Sanskrit:
trayaste káranátmánah játáh máhámaheshvarát | tapasá topathitvá tam
pitaram parameshvaram |]
23. He is the giver of strength to all beings, he is self manifest
in all, and is adorable and hallowed by all. He is the object of
perception to them that know him, and is ever present in all places.
(The word Mahádeva commonly applied to Siva, originally meant the
great god, as in the definition of the term in the gloss. [Sanskrit:
mahatyaparicchinne átmajnána yogaishvartye mahíyate pújyate iti
mahádevah] So the sruti also: [Sanskrit: yo átmajnána yogaishvaryye
mahati mahívate tasmáducyate mahádevah].)
24. There is no need of addressing invocatory mantras unto the Lord,
who being omniscient and omnipresent, knows and sees all things as
present before him at all places and times.
25. But being always invoked (or prayed unto) in the mind, this god
who resides in every thing is attainable by us in every place; and in
whatever form doth one's intellect appear to him, it is all for his
good. (This passage means the visible form in which the deity makes his
manifestation to the devotee).
26. He takes upon him the visible form, according to the thought in the
mind of the worshipper, and this form is to be worshipped first of all
with proper homage, as the most adorable Lord of gods.
27. Know this as the ultimate of the knowables of the greatest minds;
and whoso has beheld this self-same soul, is freed from fears and
sorrows and the complaints of old age, and is released from future
transmigration, like a fried grain which vegetates no more.
28. By worshipping this well known and unborn first cause in one's self
and at ease (_i.e._ without the formal rite); every one is freed from
his fears, and attains his supreme felicity, why then do you bewilder
yourselves amidst the visible vanities of the world.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
DESCRIPTION OF THE SUPREME DEITY PARAMESWARA.
Argument.--Description of god as the Producer of all, and present in
every form; his purity from his intangibleness and his great grandeur.
The god added:--Know now the lord god Rudra, who in the form of one
self-same intellect, is situated within every form of being, as is of
the nature of self-conscious (Swanubhiati) in every one.
2. He is the seed of seeds, and the pith and marrow of the course of
nature; know it also as the agent of all actions, and the pure gist of
the intellect also.
3. He is the pure cause of all causes, without any cause of himself;
he is the producer and sustainer of all, without being produced or
supported himself by another.
4. He is the sensation of all sensible beings, and the sense of all
sensitive things; he is the sensibility of all sensuous objects, and
the highest object of our sensuousness, and the source of endless
varieties.
5. He is the pure light of all lights (of the sight, luminaries &c.),
and yet invisible by all of them. He is the increate and supernatural
light, the source of all sources of light and the great mass of the
light of Intellect.
6. He is no positive (or material) existence, but the real (or
essential) entity; he is all quiet and beyond the common acceptations
of reality and unreality (Being no absolute or relative entity
or non-entity). And among the positive ideas of the great entity
&c. (mahásattwádi), know him as the Intellect alone and no other.
(Many kinds of Entities are enumerated in Indian philosophy,
such as:--[Sanskrit: matyena chávahárikena | satyena prátibha
sikenábasthátva yena |] Again [Sanskrit: mahásatta, jagat satta, ádisattá
karana vyáktatasattá |])
7. He becomes the colour, colouring and colouror; He becomes as high as
the lofty sky, and as low as the lowly hut. (The colour--_rága_ means
the passion and feelings also; and the sky and hut mean the empty space
and decorated cottage).
8. There are in the expanded mind of this Intellect millions of worlds
like sands in the desert, likewise many of these like blossoms of
trees, have blown away, others are full blown, and many more will come
to blow here after.
9. It is ever burning, as an inextinguishable flame by its own inherent
fire; and though it is ever emitting innumerable sparks of its essence
all about, yet there is no end of its light and heat and fire.
10. It contains in its bowels the great mountains, likening the
particles of dust (or rather as the roes of a fish); it covers also
the highest mountains, as the lofty sky hides the dusts on earth. So
the sruti--Greater than the greatest and smaller than the smallest.
[Sanskrit: aníraníyan mahatimahiyát]
11. It comprehends the great--_mahákalpa_ millennium, like a twinkling
of the eye; and is also contained in a kalpa age, in its quick motion
of a twinkling. (_i.e._ He is eternity as well as jot of time).
12. Though minuter than the point of a hair, yet it encompasses the
whole earth (as its boundary line); and the seven oceans that encircle
the earth with their vests, cannot gird the great Infinity.
13. He is called the great creator of the universe, though he creates
nothing (Like the makers of other things); and though he does all
actions, yet he remains as doing nothing (by his calm quietness).
14. Though the deity is included under the category of substance, yet
he is no substance at all; and though there be no substantiality in
him, yet his spirit is the substratum of all things. (All along he
is the figure of _vaiparitya_ or opposition, which well applies to
Brahma who is all and nil or the _omnium et nullum_, _Sarvamasarvam_.
(Though bodiless, he is the great body of the universe _corpus
mundi_--_viswarúpa_ or _virát_).)
15. He is _adya_--(hodie) today, and _prátar_--practer tomorrow, and
though the preter and future, yet he is always present. Wherefore he
is neither now or then, but sempiternal and for ever.
16. He is not in the babbling and prattling of babes and boys, nor in
the bawling of beasts and brutes, nor in the jargon of savages; but
equally understood by all in their peculiar modes of speech. (This
is the interpretation of the gloss; but the words of the text are
unintelligible and meaningless).
17. These words are meaningless and are yet true, like the obsolete
words occurring in the vedas. Therefore no words can truly express
what is God, because they are not what he is (but mere emblems). These
difficult passages are not explained in the gloss and left out in the
Calcutta edition.
18. I bow down to him who is all, in whom all reside and from whom they
all proceed, and who is in all place and time, and who is diffused
through all and called the one and all--_to pan_.
19. In this verbiology of obscure words, there will be found some fully
expressive of the meaning, as in a forest of thick wood we happen to
fragrant flowers, which we pluck and bear with us in handfuls. (The
entangled phraseology of the stanza will bear no literal translation).
CHAPTER XXXVII.
THE STAGE PLAY AND DANCE OF DESTINY.
Argument.--Of the endless powers or saktis of Siva, among whom the
power of Destiny is described in this.
The God joined:--The beauty of the words said before is palpable, and
their senses all allude to the truth, that the Lord of all is the rich
chest of gems of all things in existence. (The gloss is too verbose in
the explanation of this passage).
2. How very bright are the rays of the gems contained in the receptacle
of the supreme Intellect, that shines forth with the collected light
of all the luminous worlds in it. (It means to say, that the Divine
intellect must be brighter far than all the orbs of light contained in
it).
3. The essence of the intellect flies in the air in the form of the
granular farina, and becomes the embryotic corpuscula; which in the
manner of the vegetable seed, sprouts forth into the germ in its proper
time, soil, moisture and temperature. (The gloss explains the essence
_satta_ to mean the energy--_sakti_, which is represented as the female
attribute of the Divinity).
4. This power of the intellect, moves in the forms of froth and foam,
and eddies and whirl pools in the sea; and rolls its waters against the
hard stones of the beach. (The liquid waters are moving things that are
hard to touch).
5. It is settled in the form of flavour in the clusters of flowers; it
makes them full blown, and carries their fragrance to the nostrils.
6. Seated on bodies of stone (stony rocks), it makes them produce
unstone-like substances (as the trees and their foliage and flowers of
various hues); and makes the mountains to support the earth without
their actually upholding it. (The mountains are called _bhudharas_ or
supports of the earth.)
7. The intellect takes the form of the air, which is the source of
all vibrations, and touches the organ of touch (skin); with as much
tenderness as a father touches the body of his child.
8. As the divine power extends itself in every thing, so it contracts
the essences of all things in a mass within itself; and having absorbed
the whole in the divine entity, makes all nature a vacuous nullity.
9. It casts the reflexion of its own clear image, in the transparent
mirror of vacuum; and takes upon itself the pellucid body of eternity,
containing all divisions of time.
10. Then there issues the power of Destiny, which predominates over the
five principal divinities; and determines the ultimate fate of all that
"this is to be so, and this other wise."
11. It is in the presence of the bright light of the all witnessing eye
of the great God, that the picture of the universe presents itself to
our sight; as the presence of the lighted lamp in the room, shows us
the lights of the things contained in it.
12. The universal vacuum contains the great theatre of the universe,
wherein the Divine powers and energies are continually playing their
parts, and the spirit of God is the witness there of.
13. Vasishtha asked--What are the powers of that Siva (Jove), my lord!
who are they and where are they situated; what is number, and how are
they employed and who is their witness.
14. The god replied--The god Siva is the benignant, incomprehensible
and tranquil supreme soul; He is gracious and formless and of the
nature of the pure intellect only.
15. His essences are volition, vacuity, duration and destiny; and also
the qualities of infinity and fulness.
16. Beside these he has the properties of intelligence and action, as
also of causality and quietude; and there are many other powers in the
spirit of Siva, of which there is no reckoning nor end.
17. Vasishtha rejoined--Whence came these powers to him, and how had
they their variety and plurality; tell me, my lord! whence they arose,
and how they were separated (from omnipotence which comprehends them
all).
18. The god replied:--The god Siva who is intellect only of himself,
has endless forms also (according to his endless attributes), and
the powers that I have said to belong to him, are little and no way
different essentiality. (The properties that are predicated of god,
belong to his intrinsical nature and not derived from without).
19. It is the discrimination of the powers of intelligence, action,
passion, vision and others; that the powers of God are said to be
many and different from one another, like the waves of the sea (which
appears in the different shapes of billows, surges &c.).
20. Thus do those different powers act their several parts for ever, in
the grand stage of the universe; as the ages, years, months and weeks
and days, play their parts under direction of time--the manager of the
stage.
21. That power which appears as the one or another, is called the
divine powers of destiny; and is distinguished by the several
appellations of action, energy or will of God, or the dispensation of
his Time. (Time is said to be the producer, sustainer and leveller of
all things. [Sanskrit: kálí prabhavati dháryyte, pralíyate sarvvam
tasmát kálí hi valavattarah]).
22. That power which determines the states of gods, and those of the
great Rudras as so and so, and what regulates the conduct of all things
from a mean straw to the great Brahmá, is called the predominant doom
or destiny.
23. This destiny continues to dance about the great arena of the
universe, until the mind is cleared of her bugbear and freed from
anxiety by the knowledge of truth (that it is the Divine will which
destines the destiny).
24. The play of destiny is very pleasing to behold, owing to the
variety of its characters and contrivances, and the quick changes of
the scenes, and the repeated entrances and exits of its players and
actors. It is conducted all along with the music of the drums and
trumpets of the roaring clouds of the Kalpánta-doomsday. (_i.e._ On the
last day of universal dissolution, when the dance of destiny and her
play are over).
25. The vault of heaven is the canopy over this stage, the season
flowers are its decorations, and the showers of rain serve for the
sprinkling of rose waters in it.
26. The dark clouds hung about the heavens are, the blue hanging
screens around this stage, and the sexcentenary as of the earth with
the shining gems in their bosom, serve for the ornamented pits and
galleries of this playhouse.
27. The shining sky with its sight of the days and watches, and its
eyes of the twinkling stars; is witnessing the continual rise and fall
of all being, and the plunging and up heaving of mountaintops at the
great deluge.
28. The revolving luminaries of the sun and moon, and the rolling
currents of the Ganges, appear as the pearly jewels on the person of
this actress, and the lustre of the twilight seems as the red red-dye
of her palms.
29. The incessant motion of the upper and nether worlds, with the
continued gingling of their peoples; resemble the footsteps of this
dancing destiny, with the ringing trinkets and anklets fastened to her
feet.
30. The sunshine and moonbeams, represent the lustre of her smiling
face; and the twinkling stars in the sky, resemble the drops of sweat
trickling on her face.
31. These very many worlds are supposed as so many apartments of this
great theatre.
32. The two states of pleasure and pain or joy and grief, which are
destined to the lot of all living beings, show the different shows of
comic and tragic representations.
33. The changing scenes, that are always seen to take place in the play
of destiny, at the great stage of this world; are continually witnessed
by the great God himself, who is neither distant, or distinct from
this, nor is this so from that.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
ON THE EXTERNAL WORSHIP OF THE DEITY.
Argument.--The External worship of God in his outward temple, with
bodily acts and service. And also of Internal adoration in spirit or
the Way to Liberation.
The god continued:--This god who is the supreme Lord, is the adorable
one of the wise; in the form of the intellect and conscious soul, and
as all pervading and support of all.
2. He is situated alike in the pot and painting, in the tree and hut,
in the vehicle and in all men and brute animals; under the several
names of Siva, Hara, and Hari, as also of Brahmá, Indra, Agni, and Yama.
3. He is in the inside and outside of all as the universal soul, and
always dwells in spirit and in the soul of every wise person. This Lord
is worshipped in various forms by different people in the many modes as
described below.
4. Hear me first relate to you, O great sage! how this god is
worshipped in the outward form and formulas; and you will next hear me
relate unto you, the inward form in which he is worshipped in spirit.
5. In all forms of worship you must cease to think of your body, and
separate your mind from your person, however purified it may be (By
your ablution and the like). You must then apply your mind diligently
to think of the pure and bodiless soul, which witnesseth the operations
of the body from its inside.
6. His worship consists in his inward meditation only, and in no other
mode of outward worshipping, therefore apply your mind in the adoration
of the universal soul, in its meditation in your soul only.
7. He is of the form of the intellect, the source of all light and
glorious as millions of suns; He is the light of the inward intellect,
and the receptacle (origin) of egoism and tuism. (_i.e._ of the
subjective and objective).
8. His head and shoulders reach above the heaven of heavens, and lotus
like feet descend far below the lowest abyss of vacuity.
9. His arms extend to the endless bounds of all sides and space;
and hold in them the many worlds in the infinite firmament as their
wielding weapons and arms.
10. The worlds rolling over one another, rest in a corner of his
capacious bosom; His effulgence passes beyond the limit of the
unlimited vacuum, and his person stretches beyond all imaginable
bounds. (Extends through all extent, Pope).
11. Above, below, in all four quarters and in all sides of the compass,
he extends unspent and without end; and is beset in all sides by the
host of gods, Brahmá, Rudra, Hari and Indra, and the demi gods also.
12. These series of creatures are to be considered as the rows of hairs
on his body; and the different courses of their actions, are as the
strings binding the machines of the world together.
13. His will and destiny are powers proceeding from his person, as his
active agencies in nature, such is the Lord--the supreme one, who is
always to be worshipped by the best of men.
14. He is the intellect only and the conscious soul, the all pervading
and the all supporting spirit; and resides alike in the pot and
painting, as in the moving car as also in living animals.
15. He is Siva, Hari, and Hara, Brahmá, Indra, Fire, and Yama; He
is the receptacle of endless beings, and the aggregate body of all
essences or the sole entity of entities.
16. He contains this mundane sphere, together with all the worlds with
their mountains and all other contents in himself; and the all powerful
time which hurls them ever onward, is the warder at the doorway of his
eternity.
17. The great god Mahádeva, is to be thought upon as dwelling in some
part of this body of eternity and infinity, with his body and its
members, and with a thousand ears and eyes. (This is same with the
macrocosm of virát in the vedas).
18. This figure has moreover a thousand heads and a thousand hands with
their decorations. It has as many eyes all over its body with their
powers of sight and so many ears also with their power of hearing.
19. It has the powers of feeling or touch and taste all over its
person, as also, the power of hearing in the whole body, and that of
thinking in its mind within.
20. It is however wholly beyond all conception, and is perfectly good
and gracious to all. It is always the doer of all things that are done,
and the bestower of every blessing on all beings.
21. It is always situated in the inside of all beings; and is the giver
of strength and energy to all. Having thought upon the Lord of Gods in
this manner, the devotee is to worship him in the usual method of the
ritual.
22. Now hear me tell you, that are best acquainted with Brahma, of the
mode of worshipping him in spirit; which consists only in adoring him
in the conscious soul, and not in presenting offerings unto him.
23. It requires no illumination nor fumigation of incense; It has no
need of flowers or decorations, nor does require the oblations of rice
or sprinkling of perfumes or sandal paste.
24. It needs no exhalation of saffron or camphor, nor any painting or
other things (as chouriflappers and the like); nor has it any need of
pouring the water, which is easily obtainable every where.
25. It is only by effusion of the nectareous juice of the
understanding, that the god is worshipped; and this is styled the best
kind of meditation and adoration of deity by the wise.
26. The pure intellect which is known to be always present within one's
self, is to be constantly looked into and sought after, heard about,
and felt both when one is sleeping or sitting or moving about.
27. By constantly talking on the subject, and resuming the inquiry
after leaving it off, one becomes fully conscious of himself; and then
he should worship his lord the self-same soul in his meditation of it.
28. The offering of the heart in meditation of the Lord, is more
delectable to him than the sweetest articles of food, offered with the
choices and most fragrant flowers.
29. Meditation joined with self-consciousness or contriteness of soul,
is the best _pádya_ and _arghya_ water and offering that is worthy of
the Lord; because the best meditation is that which is accompanied with
the flower--self offering to the Lord. (For naught avails the most
intense meditation of the mind, when the heart and soul are not devoted
to the service of the Lord).
30. Without this kind of meditation, it is impossible the supreme soul
in one's self; and therefore spiritual meditation is said to abound
with the grace of God and the greatest enjoyment of happiness and
prosperity. (So the sruti:--Meditation in spirit is attended with all
enjoyment and felicity).
31. As the animal or irrational soul enjoys all its pleasures, in the
abode of its body; so the rational and spiritual soul derives all its
happiness from meditation. (Because the Lord being full of felicity,
pours out the same into the spirit of his devotee).
32. The ignorant man that meditates on the Lord, for a hundred
twinklings of the eye; obtains in reward thereof, the merit of making
the gift of a milch-cow to a Brahman.
33. The man who worships the Lord in his soul, for half an hour in this
manner; reaps the reward of making a horse sacrifice (according to law).
34. He who meditates on the Lord in spirit and in his own spirit, and
presents the offering of his reflections unto him, is entitled to the
merit of making a thousand horse sacrifices.
35. Whoso worships the Lord in this manner for a full hour, receives
the reward of making the Raj sacrifice; and by worshipping him in this
form in the midday; he obtains the merit of making many thousands
sacrifices of such kind.
36. The man who worships him in this way for a whole day, settles in
the abode of the deity.
37. This is called the superior yoga meditation, and the best service
of the Lord, as also the external adoration of the soul.
38. This mode of holy adoration destroys all sins; and whoso practices
it for a minute with a steady mind, he is certainly entitled to the
venerations of gods and demigods, and placed in the rank of emancipated
spirits like myself.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
MODE OF THE INTERNAL WORSHIP OF THE DEITY.
Argument.--The inward form in which, He is worshipped in spirit.
The God resumed:--I will now relate to you, the form of the inward
worship of the spirit in spirit; which is reckoned as the holy of
holies, and dispeller of all darkness.
2. This mode of worship depends also on mental meditation, and is
conducted in every state of life, whether when one is sitting or
walking, or waking or sleeping.
3. It requires the supreme Siva, who is always situated in the body
of man; and who is the cause of the perception of all things, to be
worshipped in spirit and in the spirit of man.
4. Whether you think him, as sleeping or rising, walking or sitting; or
whether conceive him touching or intangible contact with any thing, or
quite unconnected and aloof from every thing about him.
5. Or whether you take him as enjoying the gross objects, or shunning
them all by his spiritual nature; or as the maker of all outward
objects, and the ordainer of all forms of action.--
6. Or whether you consider him as remaining quiescent in all material
bodies, or that he is quite apart from all substantial forms; you may
worship him in whatever form your understanding presents him to you, or
what you can best conceive of him in your consciousness.
7. Whoever has fallen in and is carried away by the current of his
desires and who is purified from his worldliness by the sacred ablution
of his good sense; should worship the _Siva lingam_ as the emblem of
understanding with the offering of his knowledge of it. (The Lingam is
the type of unity, represented by the figure, as the syllable om is the
type of trinity expressed by its three letters).
8. He may be contemplated in the form of the sun, shining brightly in
the sky; as also in that of the moon, which cools the sky with its
benign moon beams. (Because the sun and moon are included under the
eight forms of [God] as we see in the Prologue to Sakuntala. [Sanskrit:
ye he kálah vidharttah] etc.).
9. He is always conscious in himself of all sensible objects, which are
ever brought under his cognizance by means of his senses, as the breath
brings fragrance to the nostrils.
10. He gives flavour to all sweets, and enjoys the sweetness of his
felicity (ánanda) in himself; and employs the breathings as his horses,
and borne in the car of respiration, sleeps in the cell of the heart.
11. Siva is the witness of all sights, and actor of all actions; he
enjoys all enjoyments, and remembers all what is known.
12. He is well acquainted with all the members of his body, and knows
all that is in existence and inexistence; he is brighter than all
luminous objects, and is to be thought upon as the all-pervading spirit.
13. He is without parts and the totality of all parts, and being
situated in the body, he resides in the vacuity of the heart; he is
colourless himself and yet paints all things in their variegated
colours, and is the sensation of every member of the body.
14. He dwells in the faculty of the mind, and breathes in the
respirations of the beings; he resides within the heart, throat and
palate of the mouth, and has his seat amidst the eyebrows and nostrils
(as intelligence and breath of life).
15. He is situated beyond the limit of the thirty six categories of the
saiva sástras, as also of the ten saktis ([Sanskrit: dashamahávidyá])
that are known to the saktas; he moves the heart and gives articulation
to sounds, and makes the mind to fly about as a bird of the air.
16. He resides both in equivocal and alterative words, and is situated
in all things as the oil in sesame seeds.
17. He is without the blemish of parts (being a complete whole in
himself), and is compact with all the parts of the world taken
together. He is situated alike in a part of the lotus-like heart of the
wise, as well as in all bodies in general.
18. He is as clear as the pure and spotless intellect, and the
imputation of parts to him is the work of mere imagination only. He is
as palpably seen in everything at all places, as he is perceptible to
us in our inward perception of him.
19. Though originally of the nature of universal intelligence yet he
appears in the form of the individual soul according to the desire
of men; and residing in every individual, he is divided into endless
dualities (of universal and particular souls).
20. Then this God (the intelligent individual soul) thinks himself as
an embodied being, endued with hands and legs, and the other parts and
members of the body, with its hairs, nails, and teeth.
21. He thinks of being possest of manifold and various powers and
faculties, and is employed in a variety of actions according to the
desires of the mind. He feels glad on being served by his wives and
servants (and thinking himself as their master).
22. He thinks the mind as a porter at the gate, and conductor of the
information of the three worlds unto him; and his thoughts are as the
chambermaids, waiting at his door with their pure attires.
23. He believes his knowledge of egoism as his greatest power and
consort (sakti), and his power of action as his mistress; he thinks his
knowledge of various lores to be his decorations only.
24. He knows his organs of sense and action to be the doors of the
abode of his body, and is conscious of his being the infinite soul and
inseparable from the same.
25. He knows himself to be full of the universal spirit; filled by and
filling others with the same; and bears his admirable figure of the
body, by his dependance on the Divine spirit.
26. That he is filled with the god-head within him, and is therefore no
contemptible soul himself. He never rises nor sets nor is he glad or
displeased at any time. (But enjoys the serenity of the Eternal soul).
27. He never feels himself satiate or hungry, nor longs after nor
forsakes anything; he is ever the same and of an even tenor, temper and
conduct and form at all times.
28. He retains the gracefulness of his person, the clearness of his
mind, and the calmness of his views at all times; he is ever the same
since his birth, and the equanimity of his soul never forsakes him at
any time.
29. He is devoted to the adoration of his God, for longsome days and
nights, and the mind abstracted from his body, becomes the object of
his worship. (The gloss explains it otherwise, and makes the mindless
body the worshipped object).
30. This God is worshipped with whatever offerings are available by the
devotee, and with all the powers of the understanding, employed in the
adoration of the sole Intellectual spirit.
31. He is to be worshipped with all things agreeably to the received
ritual, and no attempt is to be made to make any offering, which was
never made at any time before.
32. Man being endued with the body, should worship the Lord with his
bodily actions (as prostration, genuflexion &c.); and with all things
that conduce to bodily enjoyment.
33. So is Siva to be worshipped with eatables and victuals, food and
drink of the best and richest kind; and with beddings and seats and
vehicles as one may afford to offer.
34. Men must also entertain their souls, which are the abodes of the
Divine spirit in their bodies; with all kinds of things that they think
pleasurable to themselves; such as excellent food and drink and all
things affording enjoyment and pleasure.
35. They must diligently serve the supreme soul in their souls, under
any calamity, difficulty, danger or disease that may befall on them, as
also when they are overtaken by illusions of their understandings.
36. The ends of all the attempts of mankind in this world, being no
more than life, death and sleep, they are all to be employed in the
service of the soul of nature.
37. Whether reduced to poverty or elevated to royalty, or carried by
the currents of casualty; men must always serve their souls, with the
flowers of their best endeavours.
38. Whether overwhelmed by broils, or buffeting in the waves of
mishaps, whether undergoing the troubles or enjoying the comforts of
domestic life, men must serve their souls at all times.
39. When the gentle beams of fellow feeling, overspread the breast of
kind hearted men, and when the sweet influence of sympathy melts the
heart, it is then must meet to serve the soul seated in it.
40. When a man has restrained the turbulent passions of his breast, by
the power of his right judgment; and spread the vest of soft tenderness
and sweet content over his heart and mind; let him then worship in its
serene aspect within himself.
41. Let men worship the soul, on the sudden changes of their fortunes;
both when they come to the possession, or loss of their enjoyments.
(Because the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken them away).
42. The soul should be adhered to and adored, both when you lose or
abandon your legal or illegal possession and enjoyment, of anything on
earth.
43. Isha--the lord of wealth is to be worshipped with relinquishment of
all wealth, which one may have got by his own exertion or otherwise.
(Give your all to the giver of all).
44. Regret not for what is lost, and make use of what you have got; and
adore the supreme soul without any inconstancy in your mind and soul.
45. Retain your constancy amidst the scene of the wicked pursuits of
men, and maintain your vow of the holy devotion of the supreme spirit
at all times.
46. Every thing appears as good in the sight of the Godly, who view all
things in God; and they all seem to be mixed with good and evil to the
worshipper of God and Mammon. Therefore look on all things as situated
in the divine spirit, and continue in your vow of the adoration of the
supreme soul.
47. Things which appear as pleasant or unpleasant at first sight, are
all to be taken in an equal light, by those that are firm in their vow
of the adoration of the one universal soul.
48. Give up thinking yourself as such or not such a one, forsake all
particularities, and knowing that all is the universal One, continue in
your vow of adoring the supreme soul.
49. Worship the supreme spirit as it always resides in all things, in
their various forms and multifarious changes, and that it is all and
all in their modifications also.
50. Forsake both your pursuit after or avoidance of any thing, and
remaining in your indifference of both extremes, continue in your
adoration of the soul at all times.
51. Neither seek nor forsake any thing, but receive what comes to thee
of itself or by thy own lot; and enjoy all things as the sea does the
streams of water, which fall to it of their own accord.
52. Fallen (placed) in this wide world of misery, man should take no
heed of the lesser or greater sights of woe, that incessantly present
themselves to his view. They are as the fleeting tincts and hues that
paint the vacuous vault of the skies, and soon vanish into nothing.
53. All good and evil betide us by turns at the junction of their
proper time, place and action; therefore take them with unconcern to
you, and serve your own soul. (Which is same with the soul of souls).
54. Whatever things are mentioned as fit offerings of the service of
the supreme spirit, it is the equanimity of your soul which is deemed
the best and fittest offering. (A contrite spirit is most acceptable
unto the Lord).
55. Things of different tastes, as the sour, bitter, acid, sharp and
pungent, are useless in the service of the spirit; it is the calm and
sweet composure of the soul, which is delectable to the holy spirit.
56. Equanimity is sweet to taste, and has the supernatural power of
transforming every thing to ambrosia. (The man of an even mind, enjoys
the sweetness of contentment in every state of life).
57. Whatever a man thinks upon with the ambrosial sweetness of his
disposition, the same is immediately changed to ambrosia, as the
nectarious dew drops under the moon beams.
58. Equanimity expands the soul, and gladdens the minds, as the
sunlight fills the vault of heaven; and it is the unchangeable
sedateness of the mind, which is reckoned as the highest devotion.
59. The mind of man must shine with an even lustre, as the bright moon
beams in their fullness, and it must blaze with the transparent light
of the intellect, as a bright crystal in the sunlight.
60. He who is employed in his outward actions of life, with his mind as
bright as the clear sky; and which is freed from the mist of worldly
affections, is said to be the full knowing devotee.
61. The true devotee shines as brightly, as the clear autumnal sky,
when the worldly impressions are quite effaced from the heart, and are
not seen even in dream, when the cloud of ignorance is cleared away,
and the fog of egoism is utterly scattered.
62. Let your mind be as clear as the moon, and as spotless as the
blazing sun; let it hide the thoughts, of the measurer and measured
(_i.e._ of the creator and created) in it; let it have the simple
consciousness of itself, like a newborn child (without its innate
ideas); and perceiving only the steady light of the intellect the seed
of all intelligence; you will then come to attain the state of highest
perfection in your life time.
63. Living amidst the fluctuations of pain and pleasure, attending on
the lot of all living beings, and occurring at their fixed times and
places and actions of man, do you remain in the steady service of your
soul--the leader of your body, by tranquilizing all the passions and
desires of your heart and mind.
CHAPTER XXXX.
INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE OF THE DEITY.
Argument--That the God Siva is beyond his formular adoration and his
nature as that of the pure Intellectual soul.
The God continued:--It is of no consequence, whether the spiritualist
observe formal adoration in its proper time and manner or not; it is
enough if he adore Siva in his form of the intellect within himself,
which is equivalent to the worship of the _átmá_ or soul. (_i.e._
Worshipping the spirit in spirit).
2. This is attended with a delight, which becomes manifest within
himself; and thus full of spiritual light and delight, the devotee
is assimilated to and self same with his God. (This is the state of
ecstacy, in which the adept loses himself in his God).
3. The meanings of the words affection and hatred, do not belong to the
holy soul as separate properties of it; but they blend together and die
in it as sparks in fire.
4. The knowledge that the dignity and poverty of men, as also the
happiness and misery of one's self or others, proceed from God, is
deemed as the worship of the supreme spirit, which ordains them all.
(The gloss explains, that the attribution of all accidents of life to
God, in his adoration also, as it is done by the offering of flowers
unto him).
5. The consciousness of the world as manifestation of the Divine
spirit, is reckoned as his devotion also, as a pot or other taken for
the spirit of God, owing to its residence in it, forms his worship also.
6. The quiet and lightless spirit of Siva, being manifest in his works
of creation, the whole sensible world is believed to be the form of the
supreme spirit.
7. It is astonishing that every soul should forget its own nature, and
think itself as a living soul residing in the body, as they believe the
supreme soul to be confined in a pot or painting.
8. It is astonishing also, how they should attribute false ideas of
worship, worshipper and the worshipped to the god Siva, who is the
infinite soul of all and a pure spirit.
9. The ritual of worship and adoration, which applies to the finite
forms of gods (their idols); cannot be applied to the worship of the
infinite spirit of God.
10. The pure spirit of the eternal, infinite and all powerful, cannot
be the object of ritualistic worship, which relates to finite gods or
idols.
11. Know, O Brahman! that the spirit of God, which pervades the
three worlds, and is of the nature of pure intellect, is not to be
circumscribed by any form or figure. (As that of an idol or any natural
object).
12. Know, O wisest of the wise! that those that have their god, as
circumscribed by time and place (_i.e._ represented as limited and
finite beings), are not regarded by us among the wise.
13. Therefore O sage! retract your sight from idols and idolatrous
worship, and adopt your view to spiritual adoration; and be of an even,
cool and clear mind, be dispassionate and freed from decay and disease.
14. Do you continue to worship the supreme spirit with an unshaken
mind, by making him offerings of your desires, and all the good and
evil that occur to you at any time. (_i.e._ submit to the dispensations
of Providence).
15. O sage, that art acquainted with the sole unity, in the one uniform
tenor of thy soul and mind, thou art thereby set above the reach of the
miseries attending his frail life, as the pure crystal is clear of the
shade and dross of all worldly things.
CHAPTER XXXXI.
VANITY OF WORLD AND WORLDLY THINGS.
Argument.--Refutation of Received Doctrines.
Vasishtha asked:--What is called the god Siva, and is meant by supreme
Brahma; and what is the meaning of soul, and what is its difference
from the supreme soul?
2. That the _tat sat_--_Id. est_ is the true entity, and all else is
non entity; what is vacuum that is nothing, and what is philosophy
that knows everything. Explain to me these differences, for thou lord!
knowest them all.
3. The god replied:--There exist a _sat ens_, which is without
beginning and end; and without any appearance, or reflexion of its own;
and this entity appears as a non entity, owing to its imperceptibility
by the senses.
4. Vasishtha rejoined--If this entity, lord! is not perceptible by
the organs of sense, and unknowable by the understanding, how then, O
Isána! is it to be known at all.
5. The god replied:--The man that desires his salvation, and yet sticks
to his ignorance, is a sage by name only; and such men are subjected to
greater ignorance, by the sástras they are guided by.
6. Let one ignorance removes another, as washerman cleanses one dirt by
another. (_i.e._ Let the erroneous and mutually discordant theories of
the sástras, refute the errors of one another).
7. When the error of ignorance, are removed by the opposition to each
other; it is then that the soul appears of itself to view as a matter
of course.
8. As a child daubs his fingers by rubbing one piece of coat against
another (so is a man darkened the more by the tenets of contradictory
sástras); but gets them cleansed by washing off his hands from both of
them.
9. As they examine both sides of a question in a learned discussion,
and the truth comes out from amidst them both, so the knowledge of the
soul, appears from midst of the mist of ignorance.
10. When the soul perceives the soul, and scans it by itself; and as
it comes to know it in itself, it is said to get rid of its ignorance,
which is then said to be utterly destroyed.
11. The paths of learning and the lectures of a preceptor, are not the
proper means to the knowledge of the soul, until one comes to know the
unity of this thing by his own intuition.
12. All the preceptors of sástras, place the soul amidst the bodily
senses; but Brahmá is situated beyond the senses, and is known after
subjection of sensible organs. So the thing which is obtainable in
absence of something, is never to be had in the presence of that thing
(such is the antipathy of the soul and senses against one another).
13. It is seen however, that many things are used as causes of what
they are no causes at all; as they make use of the lectures of the
preceptor and the like, as means for the attainment of spiritual
knowledge.
14. A course of lectures is of course calculated, to throw light on
the student's knowledge of the knowables; but in matters of abstract
knowledge and invisible soul, it is the soul itself that must throw its
own light.
15. No explanation of the sástras, nor the lectures of the preceptor,
are calculated to give light on spiritual knowledge, unless it is
understood by the intuitive knowledge of the spirit itself.
16. Again the soul is never to be known without learning and lectures,
and therefore both of them must combine with our inquiry to bring us to
the light of the soul.
17. It is therefore the combination of bookish knowledge with the
instruction of the preceptor, joined with the investigation of the
inquirer, that is calculated to enlighten us on spiritual knowledge, as
the appearance of the day with the rising sun and waking world, gives
an impetus to the rise of duties of the rising world.
18. After subsidence of the senses and actions of bodily organs,
together with the imperceptibility of our sensations of pain and
pleasure; that we come to the knowledge of Siva, other wise known as
the soul, the _tat sat_, He that is, and under many other designations.
19. When there was not this plenum of the world, or it existed in its
spiritual or ideal forms; it is since then that this infinite entity
has existed, in its vacuous form which is rarer than the ether.
20. Who is continually meditated upon by the nice discernment of the
seekers of salvation, and is variously represented by the pure minded
and those of vitiated minds.
21. There are others who are situated in the sight of, and not far from
the path of living liberation, who are employed in leading others to
salvation, and in the exposition of the sástras in their works.
22. There have been many thinking and learned men, who have used the
words Brahmá, Indra, Rudra, and the names of the regents of worlds
(for God), in order to justify the doctrines of the Puránas, Vedas and
Siddhántas.
23. Others have applied the fictitious titles of chit or intellect,
Brahmá, Siva, Átmá the soul or spirit, Ísha--the Lord, the supreme
spirit and Íshvara-god, to the nameless god head that is apart and
aloof from all.
24. Such is the truth of nature and of thyself also, which is styled
the siva of felicitous; and which always confers all felicity to the
world and to thyself also. (The word siva means jovus or solas and is
meant to express the joviality and soliety which always attends on all
beings).
25. The words siva, soul, supreme Brahmá and some others, have been
coined by the ancients to express the supreme being; and though
they differ in sound, there is no difference of them in sense and
signification.
26. Know, O chief of sages! that wise men always adore this god whom we
serve also, and unto when we return as the best and ultimate states of
all. (Siva is a _hypostasis_ of the infinite deity).
27. Vasishtha said:--Please Lord! explain to me in short, how the ever
existent Deity remains as non-existent, and could it come to existence
from its prior state of nihility?
28. The god replied:--Know the meaning of the words Brahmá &c. to bear
relation to our consciousness only, and this though it is as clear as
the sky, and as minute as an atom, has the great bulk of the mount Meru
contained in it.
29. Although this is unintelligible to us, and far beyond our
conception and comprehension of it; yet it becomes intelligible to us
when we take it the form of our intellect.
30. By taking it objectively, it becomes intelligible to us in the
manner of our Egoism; and by thinking on its personality we have the
same idea of it, as one has of a wild elephant from its sight in a
dream.
31. These ideas of its egoism and personality, being limited by time
and space, give rise to many aerial forms as attendants upon it. (These
aerial forms are the different attributes of God).
32. Accompanied with these, there proceeds the entity called the
_Jíva_ or living spirit, which is conversant with its oscillation and
respiration, in the form of a pencil of air.
33. After the power of vitality is established and has come in force;
there follows the faculty of understanding; which remains in utter
ignorance at first.
34. It is followed by the faculties of bearing, action and perceptions;
all of which operate inward by without their development in outward
organs.
35. All these powers uniting together, conduce to the excitement of
memory, which exhibits itself soon in the form of the mind; which is
the tree of desires.
36. Hear now what is called the spiritual body by the learned, it is
the inward power of God of the form of the conscious soul, and seeing
the divine soul in itself.
37. There rise afterwards the following powers in the mind; which
develop themselves in the outer organs, although their powers may be
wanting in them. (Such as the blind eyes, deaf ears &c.).
38. These are the essences of air and motion, and of feeling also,
together with the senses of touch and heat emitted by the eyes.
39. There are the essences of colour, water and taste also, and
likewise the essences of smell and flavour too.
40. There are the essences of earth and gold, and the essences of thick
mass; and also the essences of time and space, all of which are without
form and shape.
41. The spiritual body contains all these essences in itself as its
component parts, as the seed of a fruit contains the leaves and germ of
the future tree in its cell.
42. Know this to be _ativáhika_ or spiritual body, and containing the
eight elementary senses, wherefore it is called the _puryashtaka_ also;
and these are developed afterwards in the organs of sense.
43. The primary or spiritual body which is formed in this manner, is
actually nobody at all; since it is devoid of understanding, intellect,
senses and sensibility.
44. It is the supreme Being only, which contains the essence of the
soul, as it is the sea which contains the limpid waters.
45. The soul is that which is possessed of its consciousness and
knowledge, all besides this is dull and insensible matter; and which is
viewed by the soul, as the sight of a fairy land in the dream.
46. It is therefore by consciousness and knowledge that Siva can be
known, and what is not to be known by these can be nothing at all.
47. The supreme soul sees all things within itself, as parts of itself
(produced from its will of becoming or dividing itself into many); and
beholds particles of his atomic self, formed into innumerable bodies.
48. These soon increased in bulk and became big bodies, and bore the
marks of the organs upon them.
49. Then it became of the form of a man, from his thought of being so;
and this soon grew up in its size of a full grown man.
50. So do our bodies appear to us in our living state, as the fairyland
appears to one in his dream.
51. Vasishtha said:--I see the appearance of the human body, to
resemble the vision of the fairyland in the dream; and I see also the
miseries awaiting on human life in this world. Now tell me, my Lord!
how all this misery is to be removed from it.
52. The god replied--All human woe is owing to their desires, and
belief of the reality of the world; but it must be known to be all as
unreal, as waves of water seen in a sea in the mirage.
53. There why such desire, and for what good and use, and why should
the dreaming man be deluded to drink the show of water in the mirage?
54. The viewer of truth, who is freed from his views of egoism and
tuism, and has got off from the deluded and its delusive thoughts, doth
verily behold the true entity of God in his presence, in the utter
absence of all worldly thoughts from his mind.
55. Where there is no desirer or desire or the desired object, but the
only thought of the one unity, there is an end of all error and misery.
56. He whose mind is freed from the true and false bugbears of common
and imaginary error, and is settled in the thought of one unity alone,
sees nothing but the unity before him.
57. The desires of the mind, rise as goblins in the midway sky; and
the thoughts of the world rove about the sphere of the mind, as the
numerous worlds revolve in the sky hence there is no peace of the soul,
unless these subside to rest.
58. It is useless to advise the man to wisdom, who is elated by his
egoism, and is deluded by the waters of the mirage of this evanescent
world.
59. Wise men should advise the prudent only, and throw away their
instruction to boys that are wandering in error, and are shunned by
good people. To give good counsel to the ignorant, is as offering a
fair daughter in marriage to the spectre of man seen in a dream.
CHAPTER XXXXII.
THE SUPREME SOUL AND ITS PHASES AND NAMES
Argument.--The various Processes whereby the supreme soul becomes the
animal soul; and this again extending in all beings.
Vasishtha said:--Tell me Lord! what is the state of the living soul,
after its situation in the open air, and its observation of the vanity
of the elemental and material body on its first creation.
2. The god replied--The living soul having sprung from the supreme,
and being situated in the open firmament, views the body formed in the
aforesaid manner, as a man sees a vision in his dream.
3. The living soul being ubiquitous, enters and acts in every part of
this body, according to the behest of the embodied intellect, as a
sleeping man acts his parts in a dream, and bears his body still.
4. It was the indiscrete infinite soul before, and then became the
discrete spirit called the first male, and this spirit was the primary
cause of creation in itself.
5. Thus this animated spirit became as Siva, at the beginning of the
first creation; it was called Vishnu in another, and became the lotus
born Brahmá or the great patriarch in the other.
6. This great progenitor of one creation, became the intellect in
another, this became the volitive male agent of creation afterwards,
and at last look upon it a male form according to its volition.
7. The primary volition of ideal creation becoming compact in time,
it takes the form of the mind; which feels itself able to effect in
act, whatsoever it wills in itself. (This form of the Mind is called
Hiranyagarbha or Brahmá--the creative power of God).
8. This creation of the world by Brahmá is mere visionary, as the sight
of a spectre in the air or in a dream; but it appears as a positive
reality, to the erroneous sight of the realist. (_i.e._ The world is
ideal to the idealist, but a sober reality to the positivist).
9. The prime male agent that becomes the beholder of his creation,
retains in him the power of exhibiting himself (or displaying his will)
in the empty air every moment, or to retract them in himself into time.
10. To him a Kalpa or great Kalpa age, is a mere twinkling of his eye;
and it is by the expansion or contraction of himself, that the world
makes its appearance or disappearance.
11. Worlds come to appear and disappear at his will, at each moment of
time, in each particle of matter, and in every pore of space, and there
is no end of this successions in all eternity.
12. Many things are seen to occur one after another, in conformity with
the course of our desires; but we never find any thing to take place,
in concurrence with our sight of the holy spirit. (_i.e._ Nothing is
both temporally as well as spiritually good).
13. All things are created (and vanish) with this creation, which
do not occur to the unchanging Siva; and these are like the shadowy
appearances in empty air, which rise of themselves and disappear in air.
14. All real and unreal appearances vanish of themselves, like
mountains appearing in dreams; all these creations have no command over
their causality, space or time.
15. Therefore all these phenomenals are neither real, potential or
imaginary or temporary appearances; nor is there any thing, that is
produced or destroyed at any time.
16. All these are the wondrous phenomena of our ideas and wishes
(sankalpas), exhibited by the intellect in itself; and this world is
like the appearance of an aerial castle in the dream, and subject to
its rise and fall by turns.
17. The visible which appears to be moving about in time and space,
has actually no motion whatever in either; but remains as fixed as an
ideal rock in the mind for ever. (The unreal world can have no actual
motion).
18. So also the extension of the unreal world, is no extension at all;
as the magnitude of an ideal rock has no dimension whatever. (Things in
the abstract, have no imaginable measure).
19. The situation and duration of the unreal world, conform exactly
with the ideas of its time and place, which exist in the mind of the
maker of all (or the great Archetype).
20. It is in this manner that he is instantly changed to a worm (from
his idea of it), and so are all the four orders of living beings born
in this world.
21. Thus the curative power becomes all things, from the great Rudras
down to the mean straws in a minute (from his ideas of these); and even
such as are as minute as atoms and particles of matter (_i.e._ in the
forms of the protozoa and small animalcula).
22. This is the course of the production of the past and present
creations, and it is the reminiscence of the past, which is the cause
of the delusion of taking the world for a real existence.
23. After giving away the thought of the difference between the creator
and the created, and by the habit of thinking all as the unity, one
becomes Siva in a minute, and by thinking so for a longer period, one
is assimilated to the nature of the supreme Intellect.
24. The intellect proceeds from the original intellect (of God),
and rises without occupying any place. It is of the nature of
understanding, and resides in the soul in the manner of empty air in
the midst of a stone.
25. The soul which is of the manner of eternal light, is known
under the denomination of Brahmá and the intellect which seated
in this (soul), becomes weakened as the creative power increase,
and strengthens in it. (_i.e._ The power of the thinking intellect
decreases in proportion, as the power of the creative mind is on its
increase).
26. Next the particles of time and place, join together in the
formation of minute atoms; which by forming the elementary bodies,
have the living principle added to them. (These are called the protozoa
or animalcules).
27. These then become vegetables and insects, and beasts, brutes and
the forms of gods and demigods; and these being stretched out in
endless series, remain as a long chain of being, connected by the
strong and lengthening line of the soul, (called the sútrátmá).
28. Thus the great god that pervades over all his works in the world,
connects all things in being and not being, as pearls in a necklace by
the thread of his soul. He is neither near us nor even far from us; nor
is he above or below anything whatever. He is neither the first nor
last but ever lasting (having neither his beginning nor end). He is
neither the reality or unreality, nor is he in the midst of these.
29. He is beyond all alternatives and antitheses, and is not to
be known beyond our imaginary ideas of him. He has no measure or
dimension, nor any likeness, form or form to represent him. Whatever
greatness and majesty are attributed to him by men, they are all
extinguished in his glory as the fire is cooled in the water.
30. Now, I have related to you all what you asked me about, and will
now proceed to my desired place. Be you happy, O sage, and go your way;
and rise, O Párvatí and let us take our way.
31. Vasishtha said:--When the god with his blue throat had spoken in
this manner, I honoured him with throwing handfuls of flowers upon
him. He then rose with his attendants, and pierced into the vacuity of
heaven.
32. After departure of the lord of Umá, and master of the three worlds,
I remained for some time reflecting on all I had heard from the god,
and then having received the new doctrine with the purity of my heart,
I gave up the external form of my worshipping the Deity.
CHAPTER XXXXIII.
ON REST AND TRANQUILLITY.
Argument.--Ráma admits before Vasishtha the removal of his doubt in
dualistic doctrine.
Vasishtha said:--I well understand what the god said, and you too, O
Ráma! know very well the course of the world.
2. When the false world appears in a false light to the fallacious
understanding of man, and all proves to be but vanity of vanities, say
what thing is there that may be called true and good and what as untrue
and bad. (There is nothing what ever which is really good).
3. As the alternative of something is not that thing itself, so the
optional form of the soul, though not the soul itself, yet it serves to
convey some idea of the soul. (As the explanation of the gloss is;--The
similitude of a thing though not the thing itself, yet it gives some
idea of the original).
4. As fluidity is the nature of liquids, and fluctuation is that of
the winds, and as vacuity is the state of the sky, so is creation the
condition of the spirit or divine soul.
5. I have ever since (hearing the lecture of Sivá), betaken myself to
the worship of the spirit in spirit; and have since then, given up my
eagerness for the outward adoration of gods.
6. It is by this rule that I have passed these days of my life, though
I am tamely employed in the observance of the prescribed and popular
ritual.
7. I have worshipped the Divine spirit, in all modes and forms and
offering of flowers, as they presented of themselves to me; and
notwithstanding the interruptions, I have uninterruptedly adored my god
at all times, both by day and night.
8. All people in general, are concerned in making their offerings
acceptable to their receiver (god), but it is the meditation of the
yogi, which is the true adoration of the spirit.
9. Having known this, O lord of Raghu's race, do you abandon the
society of men in your heart, and walk in your lonely path amidst the
wilderness of the world, and thereby remain without sorrow and remorse.
10. And when exposed or reduced to distress, or aggrieved at the loss
or separation of friends, rely on this truth, and think on the vanity
of the world.
11. We should neither rejoice nor regret, at the acquisition or loss
of friends and relations; because all things almost are so frail and
unstable, in this transitory world.
12. You well know, Ráma! the precarious state of worldly possessions
and their pernicious effects also; they come and go away of their own
accord, but overpower on the man in both states (of prosperity and
adversity).
13. So uncertain are the favours of friends and fortune, and so
unforeseen is their loss also, that it is no way possible for any body
to account for them. (_i.e._ to assign any plausible cause to either).
14. O sinless Ráma! such is the course of the world, that you have
no command over it nor is it ever subject to you; if the world is so
insubordinate to you, why is it then that you should be sorry for so
unmanageable a thing?
15. Ráma! mind your spiritual nature, and know yourself as an expanded
form of your intellect. See how you are pent up in your earthly frame,
and forsake your joy and grief at the repeated reiterations and exits
of your corporeal body.
16. Know my boy, that you are of the form of your intellect only, and
inherent throughout all nature; therefore there is nothing that you can
resume to or reject from you in the world.
17. What cause of joy or grief is there in the vicissitudes of things
in the world, which are occasioned by the revolutions of the mind on
the pivot of the intellect; and resemble the whirling waters of the
sea, caused by an eddy or vortex in it.
18. Do you, O Ráma! betake yourself to the fourth stage of _susupta_
or hypnotism hence forth, as the even tenor of the intellect, is
attended by its trance at the end.
19. Be you as cold and composed with your placid countenance and
expanded mind, as the quiet spirit of God is diffused and displayed
through out all nature; and remains as full as the vast ocean, in the
contemplation of that soul, whose fulness fills the whole.
20. You have heard all this already, Ráma! and are fraught with the
fulness of your understanding, now if you have any thing else to ask
with regard to your former question, you can propose the same. (This
was a question regarding the observance of ceremonial rites).
21. Ráma said:--Sir, my former doubts are all dispersed at present, and
I have nothing more to ask you regarding the same (_i.e._ the dualistic
doctrine that raised the doubts).
22. I have known all that is to be known, and felt a heartfelt
satisfaction at this, and now I am free from the foulness of the
objective, and of dualism and fictions. (Knowledge of the objective
being unspiritual, the dualism of matter and mind as unscriptual, and
the fictions of the gods etc., as mere vagaries of imagination).
23. The foulness of the soul, proceeds from ignorance of the soul; and
this ignorance (of the subjective self), which had darkened my soul, is
now removed by the light of spirituality.
24. I was under the error (of the mortality and materiality of the
soul), which I have now come to understand, is neither foul matter, nor
is it born or dies at any time. (_i.e._ It is immaterial, unproduced
and immortal).
25. I am now confirmed in my belief, that all this is Brahmá diffused
through out nature (in his all pervasive form _vivartarúpá_); and I
have ceased from all doubts and questions on the subject, nor have I
the desire of knowing any thing more about it. (He desires to know
nothing, who beholds the lord in every thing).
26. My mind is now as pure, as the purified water of filtering
machine; and am no more in need of learning any thing, from the
preachings and moral lessons of the wise.
27. I am unconcerned with all worldly affairs, as the mount Sumeru is
insensible of the golden ores in its bosom and having all things about
me, I am quite indifferent to them; because I have not what I expect to
have, nor do I possess the object of my fond desire.
28. I expect nothing that is desirable, nor reject any thing which is
exceptionable; nor is there a mean in the interim of the two in this
world, because there is nothing that is really acceptable or avoidable
in it, nor anything which is truly good or bad herein.
29. Thus, O sage, the erroneous thought of these contraries, is
entirely dissipated from me; wherefore I neither care for a seat in
heaven, nor fear the terrors of the infernal regions.
30. I am as fixed in the selfsame spirit, as the mount Mandárá is
firmly seated amidst the sea, and which scatters its particles
throughout the three worlds, as that mountain splashed the particles of
water in its state of churning the ocean.
31. I am as firm as the fixed Mandárá, while others are wandering in
their errors of discriminating the positive and negative and the true
and false, in their wrong estimation.
32. The heart of that man must be entangled with the weeds of doubts,
who thinks in his mind the world to be one thing, and the Divine spirit
as another. (This duality is the root of doubts in the one ultimate
unity).
33. He that seeks for his real good in any thing in this world, never
finds the same in the unsubstantial material world, which is full of
the confused waves of the eternity.
34. It is by your favour, O venerable sir, that I have got over the
boisterous ocean of this world; and having the limits of its perilous
coasts, have come to the shore of safety and found the path of my
future prosperity.
35. I am no more wanting in that supreme felicity, which is the summum
bonum of all things; and am full in myself as the lord of all. And I am
quite indomitable by any body, since I have defeated the wild elephant
of my covetousness.
36. Being loosened from the chain of desire, and freed from the fetters
of option, I am rich and blest with the best of all things, and this
is the internal satisfaction of my soul and mind, which gives me a
cheerful appearance in all the triple world.
CHAPTER XXXXIV.
INQUIRY INTO THE ESSENCE OF THE MIND.
Argument.--On the means of forsaking all connections and desires, and
the subjection of the mind by spiritual knowledge.
Vasishtha said:--Ráma! whatever acts you do with your organs of action
and without application of the mind to the work in hand, know such work
to be no doing of yours. (An involuntary action is not accounted as the
act of one, in absence of his will in it).
2. Who does not feel a pleasure at the time of his achieving an action,
which he did not feel a moment before, nor is likely to perceive the
next moment after he has done the work. (Therefore it is the attention
of the mind which gives pleasure to an action, and which is not to be
felt in absence of that attention, both before and after completion of
the act).
3. The pleasure of a thing is accompanied only with the desire of its
passion, and not either prior or posterior to the same; therefore it is
boyish and not manliness to take any delight in a momentary pleasure.
(All pleasure and pain are concomitant with their thoughts only; and
these being fleeting there is no lasting pleasure or pain in anything).
4. Whatever is pleasant during its desire, has that desire only for the
cause of its pleasantness: hence the pleasurableness of a thing lasting
till its unpleasurableness is no real pleasure; wherefore this frail
pleasure must be forsaken together with its temporary cause of desire
by the wise.
5. If you have arrived to that high state (of knowing the universality
of the soul); then be careful for the future, and merge yourself no
more in the narrow pit of your personality.
6. You who have now found your rest and repose, in being seated in the
highest pinnacle of spiritual knowledge (by cognoscence of yourself);
must not allow your soul any more, to plunge in the deep and dark cave
of your egoistic individuality.
7. Thus seated on the pitch of your knowledge, as on the top of the
Meru mountain; and remembering the glorious prospect all around you;
you cannot choose to fall down into the hellpit of this earth, and to
be reborn in the darksome cave of a mother's womb. (Because the living
soul is doomed to transmigration and regeneration until its final
liberation).
8. It appears to me, O Ráma! that you are of an even temperament, and
have the quality of truth (satyaguna) full in your nature; I understand
you have weakened your desires, and have entirely got over your
ignorance.
9. You appear to be settled in your nature of purity, and the
temperament of your mind appears to me to be as calm and quiet as the
sea, when it is full and untroubled by the rude and rough winds of
heaven.
10. May your expectations set at ease, and your wants terminate in
contentment, let your dementation turn to rightmindedness, and live
unconnected with and aloof from all.
11. Whatever objects you come to see placed before you, know the same
as full of the Divine intellect, which is consolidated and extended
through all, as their common essence. (The solid intellect forming the
body, and its rarity the mind. "That extended through all yet in all
the same; great in the earth as in the etherial frame", Pope).
12. One ignorant of the soul, is fast bound to his ignorance; and one
acquainted with the soul, is liberated from his bondage. Hence, O Ráma!
learn to meditate constantly and intensely, the supreme soul in your
own soul.
13. It is indifference which wants to enjoy nothing, nor yet refuses
the enjoyment of whatever presents of itself to any body; and know
inappetency to consist in the cool calmness of the mind, resembling
the serenity of the sky. (_Insouciance_ is the want of desire and
renunciation of prurience and not the abdication of enjoyment).
14. Preserve the cold listlessness of your mind, and discharge your
duties with the cool application of your organs of action; and this
unconcernedness of your mind, will render you as steady as the sky at
all accidents of life.
15. If you can combine the knower, knowable and the knowledge (_i.e._
all the three states of the subjective, objective and the intermediate
percipience) in your soul alone; you will then feel the tranquillity of
your spirit and shall have no more to feel the troubles of sublunary
life.
16. It is the expansion and contraction of the mind, that causes the
display and dissolution of the world; try therefore to stop the action
of thy mind, by restraining the breaths of thy desire in thyself.
17. So it is the breath of life, which conducts and stops the business
of the world, by its respiration and rest; restrain therefore the
breathing of the vital air, by thy practice of the regulation of thy
breathing (as dictated before).
18. So also it is the act of ignorance to give rise to ceremonious
works, as it is that of knowledge to repress them; Do you therefore
boldly put them down by your own forbearance, and the instructions you
derive from the sástras and your preceptors.
19. As the winds flying with dust, darken the fair face of the sky;
so the intellect being daubed with the intelligibles (the subjective
soiled with the objective), obscure the clear visage of the soul.
20. The action of the relation between the vision and visibles (_i.e._
the mutual of the eyesight and outward objects on one another), causes
the appearance of the world and its course; as the relation that there
exists between the solar rays and formations of things, makes them
appear in various colours to the eye. (Neither the course of the world,
nor the appearance of colour is in real being, but is owing to the
relative combination of things).
21. But the want of this relativity removes the phenomenals from sight,
as the want of light takes away the colours of things. (The former
is an instance of the affirmative kind (anvayi); and the latter a
vyatireki or negative one).
22. The oscillation of the mind causes the illusions, as the
palpitation of the heart raises the affections, and they are all at a
stop at the suspension of the actions of these organs. So the waves
raised by motion of waters and action of the winds, subside in the
deep, by cessation of the actions of these elements. (The question is
whether the affections are not causes of the palpitation of the heart?).
23. The abandonment of every jot of desire, the suspension of
respiration, and the exercise of intellection, will contract
the actions of the heart and mind, and thereby prevent the rise
of the passions and affections and of illusions also. (Entire
dispassionateness is the perfection of yoga asceticism).
24. The unconsciousness which follows the inaction of the heart and
mind, in consequence of the suspension of the vital breath is the
highest perfection (of yoga philosophy).
25. There is a pleasure in respect to the vision of visibles, which
is common to all living being; but this being felt spiritually,
amounts to holy pleasure _paramánanda_. But the sight of God in one's
consciousness, which is beyond the province of the mind; transcends the
mental pleasure, and affords a divine ecstacy, called the Brahmánanda.
26. The mind being dormant and insensible, affords the true rapture of
the soul; and such as it is not to be had even in heaven, as it is not
possible to have a refrigeratory or cooling bath in the sandy desert.
27. The inertness of the heart and mind is attended with a delight,
which is felt in the inmost soul and cannot be uttered in words; it is
an everlasting joy that has neither its rise nor fall, nor its increase
or decrease. (It is the lasting sunshine and unchanging moonlight of
the soul).
28. Right understanding weakens the sensuous mind (by the blaze of
rationality), but wrong understanding serves to increase its irrational
sensuousness only. It then sees the thickening mists of error, rising
as spectres and apparitions before the sight of boys.
29. Though the sensational mind is existent in us, yet it seems as
quite inexistent and extinct before the light of our rationality, as
the substance of copper appears to disappear by being melted with
gold. (The carnal mind is converted to the rational understanding by
its association with it).
30. The mind of the wise is not the sensuous mind, because the wise
mind is an essence of purity by itself; thus the sensible mind is
changed in its name and nature to that of the understanding, as the
copper is converted to the name and nature of gold.
31. But it is not possible for the mind to be absorbed at once in the
intellect, its errors only are moved by right understanding, but its
essence is never annihilated. (As the alloy of copper in gold).
32. Things taken as symbols of the soul, are all unsubstantial as the
mind and vital principle; all which are as unreal as the horns of a
hare (which are never known to grow). They are but reflexions of the
soul, and vanish from view after the soul is known. (The mind is said
to be an expansion of the soul [Sanskrit: átmanívivartta rúpam|]).
33. The mind has its being for a short time only, during its
continuance in the world; but after it has passed its fourth stage of
insensibility, it arrives to the state of comatosity which is beyond
the fourth stage.
34. Brahmá is all even and one, though appearing as many amidst the
errors that reign over the world; He is the soul of all and has no
partial or particular form of any kind. He is not the mind or any thing
else, nor is He situated in the heart (as a finite being). (Gloss:--The
Divine Soul like the human mind has conceptions of endless things,
which are neither situated in it nor parts of itself, but are as empty
phantoms in the air).
CHAPTER XXXXV.
STORY OF THE VILVA OR BELFRUIT.
Argument.--God represented as the Belfruit or Wood apple; containing
the Worlds as its seeds.
Vasishtha said:--Attend now, O Ráma! to a pleasant story, which was
never told before, and which I will briefly narrate to you for your
instruction and wondrous amusement.
2. There is a big and beautiful _vilva_ or _bel_ fruit, as large as the
distance of many myriads of miles, and as solid as not to ripen or rot
in the course of as many many ages.
3. It bears a lasting flavour as that of sweet honey or celestial
ambrosia; and though grown old yet it increases day by day like the
crescent new moon, with its fresh and beautiful foliage.
4. This tree is situated in the midst of the universe, as the great
Meru is placed in the middle of the earth; it is as firm and fixed
as the Mandara mountain, and is immovable even by the force of the
diluvian winds.
5. Its root is the basis of the world, and it stretches to the distance
of immeasurable extent on all sides.
6. There were millions of worlds all within this fruit as its
un-countable seeds; and they were as minute in respect to the great
bulk of the fruit, that they appeared as particles of dust at foot of a
mountain.
7. It is filled and fraught with all kinds of delicacies, that are
tasteful and delicious to the six organs of sense; and there is not
one even of the six kinds of savoury articles, that is wanting in this
fruit.
8. The fruit is never found in its green or unripe state, nor is it
ever known to fall down ever over-ripened on the ground; it is ever
ripe of itself, and is never rotten or dried or decayed at any time by
age or accident.
9. The gods Brahmá, Vishnu and Rudra, are not sempiternal with this
tree in their age, nor do they know aught of the origin and root of
this tree, nor anything about its extent and dimensions.
10. None knows the germ and sprout of this tree, and its buds and
flowers are invisible to all. There is no stem or trunk or bough or
branch, of the tree that bears this great fruit.
11. This fruit is a solid mass of great bulk, and there is no body that
has seen its growth, change or fall. (It is ever ripe without ripening
or rotting at any time).
12. This is the best and largest of all fruits, and having no pith nor
seed, is always sound and unsoiled.
13. It is as dense as the inside of a stone in its fullness, and as
effluent of bliss as the disk of the moon, drizzling with its cooling
beams; it is full of flavour and distils its ambrosial draughts to the
conscious souls of men.
14. It is source of delight in all beings, and it is the cause of the
cooling moon-beams by its own brightness; It is the solid rock of all
security, the stupendous body of felicity, and contains the pith and
marrow that support and sustain all living souls, which are the fruits
of the prior acts of people. (_i.e._ The souls of all beings are as
fruits formed according to the nature and merit of their previous
acts--karma, and all these souls are filled with delight by the great
soul of God).
15. Therefore that transcendent pith which is the wonder of souls, is
contained in the Infinite spirit of God, and deposited and preserved in
that auspicious fruit--_sriphala_--the bel or wood apple.
16. It is deposited with its wondrous power in that small _bel_ fruit,
which represents the human as well as the divine soul, without losing
its properties of thinness and thickness and freshness for ever.
(_i.e._ All the divine powers--of evolution are lodged in the soul).
17. The thought that 'I am this', clothes the unreality with a gross
form (as the thought of a devil gives the unreal phantom a foul
figure); and though it is absurd to attribute differences to nullities,
yet the mind makes them of itself and then believes its fictitious
creatures as real ones.
18. The Divine ego contains in itself the essential parts of all things
set in their proper order, as the vacuity of the sky is filled with the
minute atoms, out of which the three worlds did burst forth with all
their varieties. (So the substance of the bel fruit, contains the seeds
of the future trees and all their several parts in it).
19. In this manner there grew the power of consciousness in its
proper form, and yet the essence of the soul retains its former state
without exhausting itself. (It means that notwithstanding the endless
evolutions of the Divine soul, its substance ever continues the same
and is never exhausted).
20. The power of consciousness being thus stretched about (from its
concentration in itself), makes it perceive the fabric of the world and
its great bustle in its tranquil self. (It means how the subjective
consciousness is changed to the objective).
21. It views the great vacuum on all sides, and counts the parts of
time as they pass away; it conceives a destiny which directs all
things, and comes to know what is action by its operation.
22. It finds the world stretching as the wish of one, and the sides of
heaven extending as far as the desires of men; it comes to know the
feelings of love and hatred, and the objects of its liking and dislike.
23. It understands its egoism and non-egoism or tuism, or the
subjective and objective and views itself in an objective light, by
forgetting its subjectivity. It views the worlds above and being itself
as high as any one of them, finds itself far below them. (The human
soul though as elevated as the stars of heaven, becomes as low as a
sublunary being by its baseness).
24. It perceives one thing to be placed before, and another to be
situated beside it; it finds some thing to be behind, and others to be
near or afar from it; and then it comes to know some things as present
and others as past or yet to come before it. (The soul losing its
omniscience has a partial view of things).
25. Thus the whole world is seen to be situated as a play house in it,
with various imaginary figures brightening as lotuses in a lake.
26. Our consciousness is seated in the pericarp of the lotus of our
hearts, with the knowledge of our endless desires budding about it, and
viewing the countless worlds turning round like a rosary of lotus seeds.
27. Its hollow cell like the firmaments is filled with the great
Rudras, who rove about in the distant paths of the midway sky, like
comets falling from above with their flaming tails. (The vedas describe
the Rudras as blue necked &c. (nílagríváh). These worshipful gods of
the vedas are found to be no other than wondrous phenomena of the
vacuity which are deified in the Elementary religion of the ancients).
28. It has the great mount of Meru situated in its midst, like the
bright pericarp amidst the cell of the lotus flower. The moon capt
summit of this mount is frequented by the immortals, who wander about
it like wanton bees in quest of the ambrosial honey distilled by the
moon beams on high. (The gloss places the Meru in the northern region
of the distant pole, while the Puránas place it in the midst of the
earth). It was the resort of the gods as also the early cradle of the
pristine Aryans, who are represented as gods.
29. Here is the tree of the garden of Paradise with its clusters of
beautiful flowers, diffusing their fragrance all around; and there is
the deadly tree of the old world, scattering its pernicious farina
for culling us to death and hell. (The gloss explains _rajas_ or
flower dust as our worldly acts, which lead us to the hell torments of
repeated transmigrations).
30. Here the stars are shining, like the bright filaments of flowery
arbors, growing on the banks of the wide ocean of Brahma; and there is
the pleasant lake of the milky path, in the boundless space of vacuity.
31. Here roll the uncontrolled waves of the ceremonial acts, fraught
with frightful sharks in their midst, and there are the dreadful
whirlpools of worldly acts, that whirl mankind in endless births for
ever more.
32. Here runs the lake of time in its meandering course for ever, with
the broad expanse of heaven for its blooming blossom; and having the
moments and ages for its leaves and petals, and the luminaries of sun,
moon and stars for its bright pistils and filaments.
33. Here it sees the bodies of living beings fraught with health and
disease, and teeming with old age, decay and the torments of death;
and there it beholds the jarring expositions of the sástras, some
delighting in their knowledge of spiritual Vidyá, and others rambling
in the gloom of Ignorance--Avidyá (which leads them from error to
error).
34. In this manner doth our inner consciousness, represent the wonders
contained in the pulp of the _vilva_ fruit; which is full of the
unsubstantial substance of our desires and wishes, and the pithless
marrow of our false imagination.
35. It sees many that are tranquil, calm, cool and dispassionate, and
who are free from their restraints and desires; they are heedless of
both their activity and inactivity, and do not care for works whether
done or left undone by them.
36. Thus this single consciousness presents her various aspects, though
she is neither alone nor many of herself, except that she is what she
is. She has in reality but one form of peaceful tranquillity; though
she is possest of the vast capacity of conceiving in herself all the
manifold forms of things at liberty.
CHAPTER XXXXVI.
PARABLE OF THE STONY SHEATH OF THE SOUL.
Argument.--The divine mind is the substratum of the totality of
existence.
Ráma said:--Venerable sir, that knowest the substance of all truths; I
understand the parable of bel fruit which you have just related to me
to bear relation to the essence of the compact intellect, which is the
only unit and identic with itself.
2. The whole plenitude of existence together with the personalities
of I, thou, this and that form the plenum (or substance), of the
intellect; and there is not the least difference between them, as this
is one thing and that another. (All this is but one undivided whole,
whose body nature is and God the soul. Pope).
3. Vasishtha answered--As this mundane egg or universe is likened to a
gourd fruit, containing the mountains and all other things as its inner
substance; so doth the intellect resemble the bel fruit or the grand
substratum, that contains even the universe as the kernel inside it.
4. But though the world has no other receptacle beside the Divine
intellect, yet it is not literally the kernel inside that crust (_i.e._
the substance of that substratum in its literal sense). Because the
world has its decay, decline and dissolution also in time, but none of
these belong to the nature of the everlasting mind of God.
5. The intellect resembles the hard coating of the pepper seed,
containing the soft substance of its pith inside it, and is likened
also to block of stone, bearing the sculptured figures peacefully
sleeping in it. (All things are engraven in the divine mind).
6. Here me relate to you, O moon faced Ráma! another pleasant story in
this place which will appear equally charming as well as wondrous to
you. (It is the story of stone like Brahma).
7. There is a huge block of stone somewhere, which is as big as it is
thick and solid; it is bright and glossy, and cold and smooth to touch;
it never wastes or wears out, nor becomes dark and dim.
8. There are many full blown lotuses, and unnumbered buds of water
lilies, growing amidst the limpid lake of water, contained within the
bosom of this wondrous stone. (It means that the mind of God has all
these images of things engraved in it as in a stone).
9. There are many other plants growing also in that lake, some with
their long and broad caves and others with their alternate and joint
foliums likewise.
10. There are many flowers with their up lifted and down cast heads,
and others with their petals hanging before them; some having a
combined or common footstalk, and others growing separate and apart
from one another; some are concealed and others manifest to view.
11. Some have their roots formed of the fibres of the pericarp, and
some have their pericarps growing upon the roots (as orchids), some
have their roots on the tops and others at the foot of trees, while
there are many without their roots at all: (as the parasite plants).
12. There are a great many conch shells about these, and unnumbered
diseases also strewn all about.
13. Ráma said:--All this is true, and I have seen this large stone
of sálgráma in my travels; and I remember it to be placed in the
shrine of Vishnu, amidst a bed of lotus flowers. (The sálgráma stone
is perforated by the vajra-kíta, and contains many marks inside it,
resembled to the map of the world in the mundane egg of the divine
mind. See vajra-kíta in the works of Sir William Jones).
14. Vasishtha replied:--You say truly, that you have seen that great
stone and know its inside also; but do you know the unperforated and
hollowless stone of the divine mind, that contains the universe in its
concavity, and is the life of all living beings (and not the dull,
lifeless and hollow sálagráma stone which they worship as an emblem of
the divine mind).
15. The stone of which I have been speaking to you, is of a marvelous
and supernatural kind; and contains in its voidless bosom all things as
nothing. (_i.e._ the ideas and not substances of things).
16. It is the stone like intellect of which I have spoken to you,
and which contains all these massive worlds within its spacious
sphere. It is figuratively called a stone from its solidity, cohesive
impenetrability and indivisibility like those of a block.
17. This solid substance of the intellect, notwithstanding its density
and unporousness, contains all the worlds in itself, as the infinite
space of heaven is filled with the subtile and atmospheric air. (The
divine mind like external nature, is devoid of a vacuity in it,
according to the common adage: "Nature abhors a vacuum").
18. The mind is occupied with all its various thoughts, as the world is
filled by the earth and sky, the air and atmosphere, and the mountains
and rivers on all sides, there is not hole or hollow, which is not
occupied by some thing or other in it.
19. The solid soul of God which resembles this massive stone, contains
in it all these worlds which are displayed (to our deluded sight), as
so many beds of lotuses in their blooming beauty; and yet there is
nothing so very pure and unsullied as this solid crystalline soul. (The
soul like a crystal, reflects its light in various forms).
20. As it is the practice of men to paint blocks of stones, with the
figures of lotuses, conch shells and the like images; so it is the
tendency of the fanciful mind, to picture many fantastic of all times
in the solid rock of the soul. (The soul like a crystal stone is wholly
blank in itself, it is only the imaginative mind, that tinges it in
different shades and colours).
21. All things in the world appear to be situated exactly in the
same state, as the various figures carved on the breast of a stone,
seem to be separate though they are bellied in the same relief. (All
distinctions blend in the same receptacle).
22. As the carved lotus is not distinct from the body of the stone, so
no part of existence is set apart from the substantiality of the divine
intellect; which represents its subtile ideas in their condensed forms.
23. This formal creation is as inseparable from the formless intellect
of God, as the circular forms of lotus flowers which are carved in a
stone, are not separate from the great body of the shapeless stone.
24. These endless chains of worlds, are all linked up in the boundless
intellect of the Deity; in the same manner as the clusters of lotus
flowers are carved together in a stone; and as a great many seeds, are
set together in the inside of a long pepper.
25. These revolving worlds have neither their rise nor fall in the
sphere of the infinite intellect, but they remain as firm as the kernel
of a _bel_ fruit, and as fixed as the fidelity of a faithful wife.
26. The revolution of worlds and their changing scenes, that are seen
to take place in their situation in the Divine Intellect, do not prove
the changeableness of the all containing Infinite Mind, because its
contents of finite things are so changeable in their nature. (The
container is not necessarily of the nature of its contents).
27. All these changes and varieties subside at last in the divine
intellect, as the waves and drops of water sink down in the Sea; and
the only change which is observable in the Supreme Intellect, is its
absorption of all finite changes into its infinity. (All finite forms
and their temporary transformations, terminate finally into infinity).
28. The word (Fiat) that has produced this all, causes their changes
and dissolutions also in itself. Know then that Brahma from whom this
_fiat_ and these changes have sprung, and all these being accompanied
with Brahma and the original fiat, the word change is altogether
meaningless. (There is no new change from what is ordained from the
beginning).
29. Brahma being both the mainspring as well as the main stay of all
changes in nature; He is neither excluded from or included under any
change, which occur in the sphere of his immensity (_i.e._ the spirit
of God being the unchanging source of all phenomenal changes, is not
exempted from the mutations that occur in his infinity. So says the
poet: "These as they change are but the varied God &c." Thompson).
30. And know this in one or other of the two senses, that the change
of the divine spirit in the works of creation, resembles the change or
development of the seed into its stem, fruits and flowers and other
parts; or that it is a display of delusion _máyá_ like the appearance
of water in the mirage. (Here the changing scenes of nature, are viewed
in both lights of evolution and illusion).
31. As the substance of seed goes on gradually transforming itself
into the various states of its development, so the density of the
divine intellect (or spirit) condenses itself the more and more in its
production of solid and compact world, and this is the course of the
formation of the cosmos by slow degrees.
32. The union of the seed with the process of its development forms
the duality, that is destroyed by the loss of either of these. It is
imagination only that paints the world as a dull material thing, when
there is no such grossness in the pure intellect. (The gloss explains
this passage to mean that, It is the doctrine of dualists to maintain
the union of the productive seed or spirit of God, with the act of
producing the material world to be coeternal, and the one becomes null
without the other, but this tenet is refuted on the ground of the
impossibility of the Combination of the immaterial with the material,
whence the material world is proved to be a nullity and mere illusion).
33. The intellect and dull matter cannot both combine together, nor
can the one be included under the other, therefore the ideal world
resembles the marks inscribed in the stone and no way different in
their natures.
34. As the pith and marrow of a fruit, is no other than the fruit
itself; so the cosmos forms the gist of the solid intellect, and no way
separable from the same; which is like a thick stone containing marks,
undermarks, underlined under one another.
35. So we see the three worlds lying under one another, in the womb of
the unity of God; as we behold the sleeping and silent marks of lotuses
and conch shells, inscribed in the hollow of a stone.
36. There is no rising nor setting (_i.e._ the beginning or end), of
the course of the world (in the mind of God); but every thing is as
fixed and immovable in it, as the inscription carved in a stone.
37. It is the pith and marrow of the divine intellect, that causes the
creative power and the act of creation; as it is the substance of the
stone, that produces and reduces the figures in the stone.
38. As the figures in the stone, have no action or motion of their own;
so the agents of the world have no action of theirs, nor is this world
ever created or destroyed at any time (but it continues for ever as
carved in the mind of God).
39. Every thing stands as fixed in the mind of God, as if they were the
firm and immovable rocks; and all have their forms and positions in the
same manner as they are ordained and situated in the Divine Mind.
40. All things are filled with the essence of God, and remain as
somnolent in the Divine mind; the various changes and conditions of
things that appear to us in this world, are the mere vagaries of our
erroneous fancy; for every thing is as fixed and unchanged in the mind
of God, as the dormant images on a stone.
41. All actions and motions of things are as motionless in mind of God,
as the carved lie asleep in the hollow of a stone. It is the wrong
superfluous view of things, that presents to us all these varieties
and changes; but considered in the true and spiritual light, there is
neither body nor any change that presents itself to our sight.
CHAPTER XXXXVII.
LECTURE ON THE DENSITY OF THE INTELLECT.
Argument.--Interpretation of the Intellect compared with the Belfruit
and carved stone and its further comparison with the Egg of a Peahen.
Vasishtha continued:--The great category of the Intellect which is
compared with the _bel_ fruit or wood apple, contains the universe as
its own matter and marrow within itself; and it broods upon the same:
as in its dream (by forgetfulness of its own nature of omniscience
before which everything is present).
2. All space and time and action and motion being but forms of itself,
there can be no distinction of them in the intellect. (Hence every part
of creation and all created things, are but composite parts of the
intellect).
3. All words and their senses, and all acts of volition, imagination
and perception, being actions of the intellect, they can not be
unrealities in any respect. (Nothing proceeding from the real one is
ever unreal).
4. As the substance contained in a fruit, passes under the several
names of the kernel, pith and marrow and seeds; so the pith and marrow
of the solid intellect being but one and the same thing, takes many
names according to their multifarious forms.
5. A thing though the same, has yet different names according to its
different states and changes of form; and as it is with the contents of
a fruit, so it is with the subjects included under the intellect.
6. The intellect reflects its image in the mirror of the world, as
these sculptured images are exprest in a slab of stone.
7. The brilliant gem of the supreme intellects produces myriads of
worlds in itself; as the gem of your minds casts the reflection of
every object of our desire and imagination.
8. The casket of the intellect contains the spacious world, which is
set in it as a big pearl of vast size; it is but a part of the other,
though appearing as distinct and different from the other.
9. The intellect is situated as the shining sun, to illumine all things
in the world; it brings on the days and nights by turns, to show and
hide them to and from our view.
10. As the waters of an eddy whirl and hurl down into the vortex of
the sea, so do these worlds roll and revolve in the cavity of the
intellect; and though its contents are of the same kind, yet they
appear as different from one another as the pulps and seeds of fruits.
11. The body of the stone like intellect contains the marks of whatever
is existent in present creation; as also of all that is inexistent
at present (_i.e._ the marks of all past and future creation. The
omniscience of the divine intellect has all thing present before it,
whether they are past and gone or to come to being hereafter).
12. All real essence is the substance of the apple-like Intellect,
whether it is in being or not being and all objects whether _in esse_
or _non esse_, obtain their form and figure according to the pith and
marrow of that intellectual fruit. (All outward forms are the types of
the intellectual archetype).
13. As the lotus loses its own and separate entity by its being
embodied in the stone, so do all these varieties of existence lose
their difference by their being engrossed into the unity of the
intellectual substance.
14. As the diversity of the lotus changes to the identity of the stone,
by its union with and entrance into its cavity; so the varieties of
creation, become all one in the solid mass of the Divine Intellect.
15. As the mirage appears to be a sheet of water to the thirsty deer,
while it is known to the intelligence to be the reflexion of the solar
rays on the sandy desert; so does the reality appear as unreal and the
unreal as real to the ignorant; while in truth there is neither the one
nor the other here, except the images of the Divine Mind.
16. As the body of waters fluctuates itself (owing to the fluidity of
the element); so is there oscillation in the solidity of the Divine
Intellect (owing to its spiritual nature).
17. The lotuses and conch-shells are of the same substance, as the
stone in which they are carved and engraved; but the world and all
its contents that contained in the intellect, are neither of the same
substance nor of the same nature (because of their perishableness).
18. Again the big block of stone which serves for the comparison of
the divine Intellect, is itself contained in the same; and while the
figures of the former are carved out of its body, those of the latter
are eternally inherent in it.
19. This creation of God is as bright as the autumnal sky, and it is as
fair as the liquid beams of the moon. (It means to say, says the gloss,
that God shines in his form of the world jagat-Brahmá or God identified
with the world which is the doctrine of cosmotheism).
20. The world is eternally situated in God, as the figures in the stone
which are never effaced; the world is as inseparably connected with the
Deity, as the god head of god with himself.
21. There is no difference of these, as there is none between the
tree and its plant; all the worlds that are seen all abouts, are not
disjoined from Divine Intellect.
22. These as well as the Intellect have neither their production nor
destruction at any time, because of their subsistence in the spirit of
God, which shows them in their various forms, as the heat of the sun
exhibits a sheet of water in the sandy desert.
23. The world with all its solid rocks, trees and plants, dissolves
into the Divine Intellect at the sight of the intelligent, as the hard
hail stones are seen to melt into the liquid and pure water. (All
solids vanish into subtle air).
24. As the water vanishes into the air, and that again into vacuum,
so do all things pass away to the supreme spirit; and again it is
the consolidation of the Intellect, that forms the solid substances
of hills, plants and all tangible things. (Condensation as well as
rarefaction, are both of them but acts of the great mind of God).
25. The pith that is hidden in the minute substance, becomes the marrow
in its enlarged state; so the flavor of things which is concealed in
the atoms, becomes perceptible in their density with their growth.
26. The power of God resides in the same manner in all corporeal
things, as the properties of flavours and moisture are inherent in the
vegetable creation. (Hence Brahmá is said to be the pith or moisture of
all--_rasovaitata_).
27. The same power of God manifests itself in many forms in things, as
the self same light of the sun shows itself in variegated colours of
things, according to the constitution of their component particles.
28. The supreme soul shows itself in various ways in the substance and
properties of things, as the Divine Intellect represents the forms of
mountains and all other things in the changeful mind.
29. As the soft and liquid yolk of the egg of a peahen, contains in it
the toughness and various colours of the future quills and feathers; so
there are varieties of all kinds inhering in the Divine Intellect, and
requiring to be developed in time.
30. As the versicolour feathers of a peacock's train, are contained in
the moisture within the egg; so the diversity of creation is ingrained
in the Divine mind (as it is said in the parable of the Peahen's egg).
31. The judicious observer will find the one self same Brahmá, to be
present every where before his sight; and will perceive his unity
amidst all diversity, as in the yolk of the peahen.
32. The knowledge of the unity and duality of God, and that of his
containing the world in himself; is also as erroneous as the belief
in the entity and nonentity of things. Therefore all these are to be
considered as the one and same thing and identic with one another.
(This is cosmotheism).
33. Know him as the supreme, who is the source of all entity and
non-entity, and on whose entity they depend; whose unity comprises
all varieties, which appear as virtual and are no real existences.
(Hence the gloss deduces the corollary, that the unreal or negative is
subordinate to the positive, and the variety to the unity).
34. Know the world to be compressed under the category of the
Intellect, as the Intellect also is assimilated with the works of
creation; in the same manner as is the relation of the feather and
moisture, the one being the production and the other the producer of
one another.
35. The mundane egg resembles the peahen's egg, and the spirit of
God is as the yolk of that egg; it abounds with many things like the
variegated feathers of the peacocks, all which serve but to mislead us
to error. Know therefore there is no difference in outward form and
internal spirit of the world, as there is none in the outer peacock and
the inner-yolk.
CHAPTER XXXXVIII.
ON THE UNITY AND IDENTITY OF BRAHMÁ AND THE WORLD.
Argument.--He whose essence is the source of all our enjoyments;
is ascertained as the _Sachchidánanda_ or Entity of the Felicitous
Intellect or the blissful spirit of God.
Vasishtha continued:--That which contains this wide extended universe
within itself, and without manifesting its form unto us, is very like
the egg of the peahen and contains all space and individual bodies in
its yolk. (The mind of God contains the mundane egg).
2. That which has nothing in reality in it, appears yet to contain
everything in itself; as the spotless mirror reflects the image of the
moon, and the hollow egg bears the figure of the future peacock.
3. It is in this manner that the gods and sages, saints and holy-men,
the siddhas and great Rishis, meditate on the true and self subsistent
form of God, as find themselves seated in their fourth state of bliss
above the third heaven.
4. These devout personages sit with their half shut eyes, and without
the twinkling of their eyelids; and continue to view in their inward
souls, the visible glory of God shining in its full light.
5. Thus enrapt in their conscious presence of God, they are unconscious
of any other thought in their minds; though when employed in the acts
of life, remain without the respiration of their vital breath.
6. They sit quiet as figures in a painting, without respiration of
their breath, and remain as silent as sculptured statues, without the
action of their minds. (They forget themselves to stones in their
excess of devotion).
7. They remain in their state of holy rapture, without the employment
of their minds in their fleeting thoughts, and whenever they have any
agitation they can effect anything, as the Lord God works all things at
the slightest nod.
8. Even when their minds are employed in meditative thoughts, they are
usually attended with a charming gladness, like that of the charming
moonbeams falling on and gladding the leafy branches of trees.
9. The soul is as enraptured with the view of the holy light of God, as
the mind is delighted at the sight of the cooling moonbeams, emitted
afar from the lunar disc. (The gloss explains the distant moonlight to
be less dazzling than the bright disc of that luminary).
10. The aspect of pure conscience is as clear, as the fair face of the
bright moon; it is neither visible nor in need of admonition, nor is it
too near nor far from us. (The gloss is silent on the inappropriateness
of the simile).
11. It is by one's self cogitation alone that the pure intellect can be
known, and not by the bodily organs, or living spirit or mind, or by
our desire of knowing it.
12. It is not the living soul nor its consciousness, nor the vibrations
of the body, mind, or breath. It is not the world nor its reality or
unreality, or its vacuity or solidity, or the centre of any thing.
13. It is not time or space or any substance at all, nor is it a god or
any other being, whatever is quite free from all these and unconfined
in the heart or any of the sheaths inside the body.
14. That is called the soul in which all things are moving, and which
is neither the beginning nor end of any thing, but exists from eternity
to eternity, and is not characterised by any of the elementary bodies
of air and the rest.
15. The soul is an entity that is never annihilated in this or the next
world, though the sentient bodies may be born and die away a thousand
times like earthen pots here below.
16. There is no removal of this vacuous spirit from its seat, both
in the inside and outside of every body; for know, O thou best of
spiritualists, all bodies to be equally situated in the all pervading
spirit.
17. It is the imperfection of our understanding, that creates the
difference between the spirit and the body; but it shows the perfection
of our judgement, when we believe the universal soul, to be diffused
throughout the universe.
18. Though warmly engaged in business, yet remain unaddicted to
worldliness by your indifference to the world, and to all moving and
unmoving things that there exists on earth.
19. Know all those as the great Brahma--the immaculate soul, that is
without the properties and attributes of mortal beings; it is without
change and beginning and end, and is always tranquil and in the same
state.
20. Now Ráma! as you have known by your spiritual vision
(clairvoyance), all things including time and action, and all
causality, causation and its effect, together with the production,
sustentation and dissolution of all, to be composed of the spirit of
God, you are freed from your wanderings in the world in your bodily
form.
CHAPTER XXXXIX.
CONTEMPLATION OF THE COURSE OF THE WORLD.
Argument.--Consideration of the changes in the state of things; and
their origination from Ignorance and extinction in the true knowledge
of their nature.
Ráma said:--Sir, if there is no change in the immutable spirit of God;
say how do these various changes constantly appear to occur in the
state of things in this world. (Because it is the change of cause that
produces a change in the effect, as also a change in the state of any
thing, argues a change in its cause likewise).
2. Vasishtha replied:--Hear Ráma! that it is the alteration of a thing
that does not revert to its former state, that is called its change,
as it occurs in the instance of milk, and its conversion to curd and
butter, which never become the pure milk again.
3. The milk is converted to curd, but the curd never reverts to its
former state of milk, such is the nature of change in the state of
things; but it can never affect the great God, who remains alike all
along the first, intermediate and last states of things.
4. There is no such change as that of milk or any other things in the
immutable Brahma, who having no beginning nor end, can neither have
any age or stage of life assigned to him. (_i.e._ The Infinite God is
neither young nor old as any finite being).
5. The states of beginning and end which are attributed to eternal God,
are the false imputations of ignorance and error, as there can be no
change of changeless one. (To say therefore that God is the first and
last, the alpha and omega of all, means that the beginning and end of
all things, are comprised in his everlasting existence).
6. Brahma is not our consciousness, nor the object of our
consciousness. He is as unconnected with us as our soul and intellect,
and is only known to us by the word.
7. A thing is said to be the same, with what it is in the beginning
and end; the difference that takes place in the form is only a mist of
error, and is taken into no account by the wise. (The identity of a
thing consists in its unalterable part).
8. It is the soul only that remains self same with itself, both in the
beginning, middle and end of it, and in all places and times, and never
changes with the change of the body or mind and therefore forms the
identity of the person.
9. The soul which is formless and self-same with itself, forms the
personality and individuality of a being, and because it is not subject
to any modality or mutation at any time, it constitutes the essential
identity of every body.
10. Ráma rejoined:--If the divine soul is always the same and perfectly
pure in itself, when proceeds our error of its changeableness, and what
is the cause of the avidyá or ignorance that shows these changes unto
us?
11. Vasishtha replied:--The category of Brahma implies that, He is
all what is, what was, and what will be in future; that He is without
change and without beginning and end, and there is no _avidyá_
ignorance in him.
12. The signification that is meant to be expressed by the significant
term Brahma, does not include any other thing as what is inexistent, or
the negative idea of ignorance under it (_i.e._ God is what is and not
what is not).
13. Thyself and myself, this earth and sky, the world and all its
sides, together with the elementary of fire and others, are all
the everlasting and infinite Brahma, and there is not the least
misunderstanding in it.
14. Avidyá or Ignorance is a mere name and Error, and is but another
word for unreality; nor can you Ráma, ever call that a reality, which
is never existent of itself. (The words ignorance and error are both of
them but negative terms).
15. Ráma said:--Why sir, you have said yourself of Ignorance in the
chapter on Upasama or Tranquillity, and told me to know all these as
products of error.
16. Vasishtha answered:--Ráma! you had been all this time immerged in
your ignorance, and have at last come to your right understanding by
your own reasoning.
17. It is the practice of glossologists and men of letters, to adopt
the use of the word ignorance, living soul and the like, for awakening
the unenlightened to their enlightenment only.
18. So long as the mind is not awakened to the knowledge of truth, it
remains in the darkness of error for ever; and is not to its right
understanding; even by its traversing a hundred miles.
19. When the living soul is awakened to its right sense by the force of
reason, it learns to unite itself to the supreme soul, but being led
without the guidance of reason, it is successful in nothing with all
its endeavours.
20. He who tells the unenlightened vile man, that all this world is
the great Brahma himself, does no more than communicate his sorrows to
the headless trunk of a tree. (A lecture to the listless man, is not
listened to).
21. The fool is brought to sense by reasoning, and the wise man knows
the truth from the nature of the subject; but the ignorant never learn
wisdom, without the persuasion of reason. (The wise learn by intuition,
but the unwise by no instruction).
22. You had been unwise so long as you depended on your own reasoning
(judgment); but being guided by me, you are now awakened to truth. (No
body is wise of his own conceit without the guidance of his preceptor).
23. That I am Brahma, thou art Brahma, and so the visible world is
Brahma himself; know this truth and naught otherwise, and do as you
please. (All inventions and imaginations of Him are false).
24. Inconceivable is the conception of God, and the visible world is
all that is known of him; know him as one, and the infinite, and you
will not be misled into error.
25. Ráma, think in yourself whether when you are sitting or walking, or
waking or sleeping, that you are this supreme spirit, which is of the
form of light and intelligence, and pervades all things.
26. Ráma! if you are without your egoism and meity or selfishness, and
if you are intelligent and honest, then be as oecumenical and tranquil
as Brahma himself, who is equally situated in all things.
27. Know your self as the pure consciousness, which is situated as one
in all; which is without beginning and end, and is the essence of light
and the most transcendent of all being.
28. What you call, Brahma the universal soul and the fourth or
transcendent state; know the same to be _materia_ or matter and
_natura_ or nature also. It is the inseparable one in all, as the mud
is the essential substance of a thousand water pots.
29. Nature is not different from the nature of the soul, as the clay is
no other than the pot itself; the Divine essence is as the intrinsic
clay, and the divine spirit extends as the inward matter of all things.
30. The soul has its pulsation like the whirling of the whirlpool, and
this is termed _Prakriti_ force or matter, which is no other than an
effort of the spirit.
31. As pulsation and ventilation, mean the same thing under different
names; so the soul and nature express the same substance, which are not
different in their essence.
32. It is mere ignorance which makes their difference, and which is
removed by their knowledge; as it is sheer ignorance which represents
a snake in the rope, and which is soon removed by knowledge of their
nature.
33. As the seed of imagination falls in the field of the intellect, it
shoots forth in the sprout of the mind, which becomes the germ of the
wide spreading arbor of the universe.
34. The seed of false imagination (of _avidyá_ or personified
Ignorance), being scorched by the flames of spiritual knowledge; will
be able to vegetate no more, though it is sprinkled with the water
of fond desire. (_i.e._ Fancy is fed by desire, but fly away at the
appearance of reason).
35. If you do not sow the seed of imagination in the soil of your
intellect, you will stop the germination of the plants of pain and
pleasure in the field of your mind. (Pain and pleasure are imaginary
ideas and not really so in their nature).
36. Ráma! as you have come to know the truth, you must forsake your
false conception of such a thing as ignorance or error existing in the
world; and know that there is no duality in the unity of God. Being
thus full with the knowledge of one supreme soul, you must repudiate
your ideas of pain and pleasure in anything here below. Pain turns to
pleasure, and pleasure to pain, know them both as unreal, as they are
vain.
CHAPTER L.
ON SENSATIONS AND THE OBJECTS OF SENSES.
Argument.--The production of the eight signs or senses in the vital
soul, and their development into the External organs for the perception
of outward objects.
Ráma said:--Sir, I have known whatever is to be known, and seen all
that is to be seen; I am filled with the ambrosial draught of divine
knowledge, which you have kindly imparted to me.
2. I see the world full with the fulness of Brahma, I know the
plenitude of God that has produced this plenary creation; it is the
fulness of God that fills the universe, and all its amplitude depends
on the plenum of the all pervading Deity.
3. It is now with much fondness that I like to propose to you another
question, for the improvement of my understanding; and hope you will
not be enraged at it, but communicate to me the instruction as a kind
father does to his fondling boy.
4. We see the organs of sense, as the ears, nose, eyes, mouth and
touch, existing alike in all animals (whether when they are alive or
dead).
5. Why is it then that the dead do not perceive the objects of their
sense, as well as the living who know the objects in their right manner?
6. How is it that the dull organs perceive the outward objects, as a
pot and other objects of sense which are imperceptible to the inward
heart, notwithstanding its natural sensibility and sensitiveness.
7. The relation between outward objects and the organs, is as that of
the magnet and iron, which attract one another without their coming in
contact together. But how is it that the small cavities of the organs
could let into the mind such prodigious objects that surround us on all
sides.
8. If you well know these secrets of nature, then please to communicate
them to me in a hundred ways, in order to satisfy my curiosity
regarding them.
9. Vasishtha answered--Now Ráma, I tell you in short, that neither
the organs nor the heart and mind, nor the pots and pictures, are the
things in reality; because it is impossible for any thing to exist
apart and independent of the pure and intelligent spirit of God.
10. The Divine Intellect which is purer than air, takes the form of the
mind by itself; which then assumes its elemental form of the organic
body, and exhibits all things agreeably to the ideas which are engraven
in the mind.
11. The same elements being afterwards stretched out into matter or
_máyá_ and nature or _prakriti_, exhibit the whole universe as its
_ensemble_, and the organs and their objects as its parts. (This
passage rests on the authority of the sruti which says--[Sanskrit:
máyántu prakritim vidyánamáyinantu maheshvaram | ashábayavabhutestu
váptamsarvva midamjagat]).
12. The mind which takes the elemental form of its own nature, reflects
itself in all the parts of nature in the forms of pots and all the rest
of things. (It is repeatedly said that the mind is the maker of all
things by reminiscence of the past).
13. Ráma rejoined--Tell me sir, what is the form of that elementary
body, which reflects itself in a thousand shapes on the face of the
_puryastaka_ or elemental world, as it were on the surface of a mirror.
14. Vasishtha replied--This elementary body which is the seed of the
world, is the undecaying Brahma, who is without beginning and end,
and of the form of pure light and intellect, and devoid of parts and
attributes.
15. The same being disposed to its desires, becomes the living soul;
and this being desirous of collecting all its desires and the parts of
the body together, becomes the palpitating heart in the midst of it.
(The word heart _hrid_ is derived from its _harana_ or receiving the
blood and all bodily sensations into it; it, is called the _chitta_
also, from its _chinoti_ or collecting and distributing these in itself
and to all parts of the body).
16. It becomes the ego from its thought of its egoism, and is called
the mind from its minding--_manana_ of many things in itself; it takes
the name of _buddhi_ or understanding from its _bodha_ or understanding
and ascertainment of things, and that of sense also from its sensation
of external objects.
17. It thinks of taking a body and becomes the very body, as a potter
having the idea of a pot forms it in the same manner. Such being the
nature of the soul of being and doing all what it likes, it is thence
styled the _puryashtaka_ or manifest in its said eight different forms.
18. The Intellect is also called the _puryashtaka_ or octuple soul,
from its presiding over the eight fold functions of a person; as those
of perception, action and passion and inspection or witnessing of all
things and the like; as also from its inward consciousness and the
power of vitality. (The gloss gives the following explanations of these
words, _viz._--Perception of what is derived by the organs of sense.
Action of what is done by the organs of action [Sanskrit: karmendriya].
Passion or the feelings of pleasure or pain that is so derived.
Inspection or the silent witnessing of all things by the isolated soul.
And so on).
19. The living soul takes upon it different forms at different times,
according as it is employed in any one of these octuple functions; and
also as it is actuated by the various desires, that rise in it by turns.
20. The octuple nature of the soul causes it to put forth itself, in
the same form, as it is led to by its varying desire at any time; in
the same manner as a seed shoots forth in its leaves, according to the
quantity of water with which it is watered.
21. The soul forgets its intellectual nature, and thinks it's a mortal
and material being, embodied in the form of a living creature or some
inanimate being, and ever remains insensible of itself under the
influence of its erroneous belief.
22. Thus the living soul wanders about in the world, as it is dragged
to and fro by the halter of desire tied about its neck; now it soars
high and then it plunges below like a plank, rising up and sinking
below the waves and currents of the sea.
23. There is some one, who after being released from his imprisonment
in this world, comes to know the supreme soul, and attains to that
state which has neither its beginning nor end.
24. There are others also, who being weary and worried by their
transmigrations in multitudinous births, come after the lapse of a long
period to their knowledge of the soul, and obtain thereby their state
of final bliss at last.
25. It is in this manner, O intelligent Ráma, that the living soul
passes through many bodily forms, and you shall hear now, how it
comes to perceive the outward objects of the pots &c. by means of the
external organs of perception--the vision and others.
26. After the intellect has taken the form of the living soul, and
the same has received its vitality; the action of the heart sends its
feelings to the mind, which forms the sixth organ of the body.
27. As the living soul passes into the air, through the organs of the
body it comes in contact with the external objects of the senses; and
then joining with the intellect it perceives the external sensations
within itself. (The gloss says--The organs of sense like canals of
water, carry the sensations to the seat of the mind).
28. It is the union of the living soul with the outward objects, that
causes and carries the sensations to the mind; but the soul being
defunct and the mind being dormant, there is no more any perception of
the externals.
29. Whatever outward object which is set in the open air, casts its
reflexion on the subtile senses of living beings, the same comes intact
with the living soul which feels the sensation; but the soul being
departed, the dead body has neither its life nor feeling of aught in
existence.
30. When the form of the outward object, comes in contact with the
gemming eye sight of a person; it casts its picture on the same, which
is instantly conveyed to the inward soul.
31. The image that is cast on the retina of the eye, is reflected
thence to the clearer mirror of the soul, which perceives it by contact
with the same; and it is thus that outer things come to the knowledge
of the living soul.
32. Even babes can know whatever comes in taction with them, and so do
brutes and vegetables have the power of feeling the objects of their
touch; how then is it possible for the sensuous soul to be ignorant of
its tangible objects?
33. The clear rays of the eyesight which surround the soul, present to
it the pictures of visible objects which they bear in their bosom, and
whereby the soul comes to know him.
34. There is the same relation of sensuous contact, between the
perceptive soul and the perceptible objects of the other senses also;
the taste, smell, sound, the touch of things, are all the effects of
their contact with the soul.
35. The sound remaining in its receptacle of the air, passes in a
moment in the cavity of the ear; and thence entering into the hollow
space of the soul, gives it the sensation of its nature.
36. Ráma said:--I see that the reflexions of things are cast in the
mirror of the mind, like the images of things carved on wooden tablets
and slabs of stone; but tell me sir, how the reflexion of the image of
God is cast on the mirror of the mind.
37. Vasishtha replied:--know, O best of gnostics that know the
knowable, that the gross images of the universal and particular souls,
which are reflected in the mirror of the mind, are as false as the
images of God and deities which are carved in stones and wood.
38. Never rely, O Ráma, in the substantiality of this false world; know
it as a great vortex of whirling waters, and ourselves as the waves
rolling upon it.
39. There is no limitation of space or time or any action, in the
boundless ocean of the infinity and eternity of the Deity; and you must
know your soul to be identic with the Supreme, which is ubiquitous and
omnipresent.
40. Remain always with a calm and quiet mind, unaddicted to anything in
this world; know the vanity of worldly pleasures and pains, and go on
with a contented mind where ever you will. Preserve your equality, and
commit yourself to an indifferent apathy to every thing.
CHAPTER LI.
ON THE PERCEPTION OF THE SENSIBLE OBJECTS.
Argument.--Erroneous Belief in the Reality of the Body and Mind;
instead of believing the unity and Entity of Brahma as All in All.
Vasishtha resumed:--Ráma, you have heard me relate unto you that, even
the lotus-born Brahmá who was born long before you, had been without
his organs of sense at first (_i.e._ Brahmá the creative power of God,
was purely a spiritual Being, and had necessarily neither a gross body
nor any of its organs as we possess).
2. As Brahmá--the collective agents of creation was endued only
with his consciousness--_Samvid_ for the performance of all his
functions; so are all individual personalities endowed with their
self-consciousness only, for the discharge of all their necessary
duties.
3. Know that as the living soul, dwelling in its body in the mother's
womb, comes to reflect on the actions of the senses, it finds their
proper organ supplied to its body immediately.
4. Know the senses and the organs of sense to be the forms of
consciousness itself, and this I have fully explained to you in the
case of Brahma, who represents the collective body of all individual
souls.
5. At first there was the pure consciousness in its collective-form
in the Divine Intellect, and this afterwards came to be diffused in
millions of individual souls from its sense of egoism. At first was
the Divine soul "the I am all that I am" and afterwards became many as
expressed in the Vedic text "_aham bahusyam_".
6. It is no stain to the pure universal, undivided and subjective
Divine spirit, to be divided into the infinity of individual and
objective souls; since the universal and subjective unity comprises
in it the innumerable objective individualities which it evolves of
itself. (in its self manifestation in the universe).
7. The objectivity of God does not imply his becoming either the
thinking mind or the living soul; nor his assuming upon him the organic
body or any elemental form. (Because the Lord becomes the object of our
meditation and adoration in his spirit only).
8. He does not become the Vidyá or Avidyá--the intelligible or
unintelligible, and is ever existent as appearing non-existent to
the ignorant; this is called the supreme soul, which is beyond the
comprehension of the mind and apprehension of the senses.
9. From Him rises the living soul as well as the thinking mind; which
are resembled for the instruction of mankind, as sparks emitted from
fire.
10. From whatever source ignorance (Avidyá) may have sprung, you have
no need of inquiring into the cause thereof; but taking ignorance as a
malady, you should seek the remedy of reasoning for its removal.
11. After all forms of things and the erroneous knowledge of
particulars, are removed from your mind; there remains that knowledge
of the unity, in which the whole firmament is lost, as a mountain is
concealed in an atom. (The infinity of Deity, envelopes all existence
in it).
12. That in which all the actions and commotions of the world, remain
still and motionless; [as] if they were buried in dead silence and
nihility; is the surest rock of your rest and resort, after feeling
from the bustle of all worldly business.
13. The unreal or negative idea of ignorance, has also a form, as inane
as it is nothing; look at her and she becomes a nullity, touch her and
she perishes and vanishes from sight. (Avidyá like Ignorantia is of the
feminine gender, and delusive and fleeting as a female).
14. Seek after her, and what can you find but her nothingness; and if
by your endeavour you can get anything of her, it is as the water in
the mirage (which kills by decoying the unwary traveller).
15. As it is ignorance alone that creates her reality, her unreality
appears as a reality, and destroys the seeming reality at once.
(Avidyá or Ignorance is the Goddess of the agnostic sáktas, who worship
her, under the name of Máyá or Illusion also).
16. Agnosticism imputes false attributes to the nature of the Deity,
and it is the doctrine of the agnostics to misrepresent the universal
spirit, under the forms of the living soul and the perishable body.
(from their ignorance of the supreme).
17. Now hear me attentively to tell you the sástras that they have
invented, in order to propagate their agnostic religion or belief in
this avidyá, by setting up the living soul and others in lieu of the
supreme spirit.
18. Being fond of representing the Divine Intellect in a visible form,
they have stained the pure spirit with many gross forms, such as the
elemental and organic body, which is enlivened by the vital spirit
dwelling in it.
19. Whatever they think a thing to be, they believe in the same; they
make truth of an untruth, and its reverse likewise; as children make a
devil of a doll, and afterwards break it to nothing.
20. They take the frail body formed of the five elements as a reality,
and believe its holes of the organs as the seats of the sensuous soul.
21. They employ these five fold organs in the perception of the
pentuple objects of the senses; which serve at best to represent
their objects in different light than what they are, as the germ of
a seed produces its leaves of various colours. (This means the false
appearances which are shown by the deceptive senses).
22. They reckon some as the internal senses, as the faculties of the
mind and the feelings of the heart, and others as external, as the
outward organs of action and sensation; and place their belief in
whatever their souls and minds suggest to them either as false or true.
23. They believe the moonlight to be hot or cold, according as they
feel by their outward perception. (_i.e._ Though the moon-beams appear
cooling to the weary, yet they seem to be warm to the love lorn
_amorosa_).
24. The pungency of the pepper and the vacuity of the firmament, are
all according to one's knowledge and perception of them, and do not
belong to the nature of things. For sweet is sour to some, and sour is
sweet to others; and the firmament is thought to be a void by many, but
is found to be full of air by others, who assert the dogma of natures
abhorrence of vacuum.
25. They have also ascertained certain actions and rituals, which are
in common practice, as the articles of their creed, and built their
faith of a future heaven, on the observance of those usages.
26. The living soul which is full of its desires, is led by two
different principles of action through life; the one is its natural
tendency to some particular action, and the other is the direction of
some particular law or other. It is however the natural propensity of
one, that gets the better of the other.
27. It is the soul which has produced all the objective duality from
the subjective unity only; as it is the sweet sap of the sugarcane
that produces the sugarcandy; and the serum of the earth, that forms
and fashions the water pot. (The objective is the production of the
subjective.)
28. In these as well as in all other cases, the changes that take place
in the forms of things, are all the results of time and place and other
circumstances; but none of these has any relation in the nature of God,
in his production of the universe.
29. As the sugarcane produces its leaves and flowers from its own sap,
so the living soul produces the dualities from sap of its own unity,
which is the supreme soul itself. (The spirit of God that dwells in all
souls. (_Swátmani Brahmasatwa_), produces all these varieties in them.)
30. It is the God that is seated in all souls, that views the dualities
of a pot, picture, a cot and its egoism in itself; and so they appear
to every individual soul in the world.
31. The living soul appears to assume to itself, the different forms
of childhood, youth, and age at different times; as a cloud in the sky
appears as an exhalation, a watery cloud and the sap of the earth and
all its plants, at the different times of the hot and rainy seasons of
the year.
32. The living soul perceives all these changes, as they are exhibited
before it by the supreme soul in which they are all present; and there
is no being in the world, that is able to alter this order of nature.
33. Even the sky which is as clear as the looking glass, and is spread
all about and within every body, is not able to represent unto us, all
the various forms which are presented to the soul by the great soul of
souls (in which they appear to be imprinted). Here Vasishtha is no more
an _ákása-vádi_--vacuist, in as much as he finds a difference in the
nature and capacity of the one from those of the other or the supreme
soul.
34. The soul which is situated in the universal soul of Brahmá, shines
as the living soul (Jíva) of living beings; but it amounts to a
duality, to impute even an incorporeal idea of _Avidyá_ or Ignorance to
it; because the nature of God is pure Intelligence, and cannot admit an
ignorant spirit in it (as the good spirit of God cannot admit the evil
spirit of a demon in itself).
35. Whatever thing is ordained to manifest itself in any manner, the
same is its nature and stamp (swabháva and neyati); and though such
appearance is no reality, yet you can never undo what is ordained from
the beginning.
36. As a golden ornament presents to you the joint features of its
reality and unreality at the same time (in that it is gold and
jewellery, the one being real and the other changeable and therefore
unreal); so are all things but combinations of the real and unreal, in
their substantial essence and outward appearance. But both of these
dissolve at last to the Divine spirit, as the gold ornament is melted
down to liquid gold in the crucible.
37. The Divine Intellect being all-pervasive by reason of its
intellectuality, it diffuses also over the human mind; as the gold of
the jewel settles and remains dull in the crucible.
38. The heart having the passive nature of dull intellectuality,
receives the fleeting impressions of the active mind, and takes upon
it the form that it feels strongly impressed upon it at any time. (The
heart is the passive receptacle of the impression of the active mind
and reverberates to the tone of its thoughts).
39. The soul also assumes many shapes to itself at different times,
according to the ever changing prospects, which various desires always
present before it.
40. The body likewise takes different forms upon it, according to
its inward thoughts and feelings; as a city seen in a dream varies
considerably from what is seen with naked eyes. So we shape our future
forms by the tenor of our minds (because our life is but a dream and
our bodies but its shadows--_prathibas_).
41. As a dream presents us the shadows of things, that disappear on our
waking, so these living bodies that we see all about, must vanish into
nothing upon their demise.
42. What is unreal is doomed to perish, and those that die are destined
to be born again, and the living soul takes another form in another
body, as it sees itself in its dream.
43. This body does not become otherwise, though it may change from
youth to age in course of time; because the natural form of a person
retains its identity in every stage of life through which it has to
pass.
44. A man sees in his dream all that he has seen or heard or thought
of at any time, and the whole world being comprised in the state of
dreaming, the living soul becomes the knower of all that is knowable
in his dream. (The sruti says, the soul comprises the three worlds in
itself, which it sees expanded before in its dream).
45. That which is not seen in the sight of a waking man, but is known
to him only by name (as the indefinite form of Brahma); can never
be seen in dream also, as the pure soul and the intellect of God.
(Abstract thoughts are not subjects of dream).
46. As the living soul sees in its dream the objects that it has seen
before, so the intellectual part of the soul sees also many things,
which were unknown to it.
47. Subdue your former desires and propensities, by your manly efforts
at present; and exert your utmost to change your habitual misconduct to
your good behaviour for the future.
48. You can never subdue your senses, nor prevent your transmigrations,
without gaining your liberation; but must continue to rise and plunge
in the stream of life forever more and in all places.
49. The imagination of your mind, causes the body to grasp your soul as
a shark, and the desire of your soul is as a ghost, that lays hold on
children in the dark.
50. It is the mind, the understanding and egoism, joined with the five
elements or tanmátras, that form the puryastaka or ativáhika body,
composed of the octuple subtile properties.
51. The bodiless or intellectual soul, is finer than the vacuous air;
the air is its great arbor, and the body is as its mountain. (_i.e._ It
is more subtile than the empty air and sky).
52. One devoid of his passions and affections, and exempt from all
the conditions of life, is entitled to his liberation; he remains in
a state of profound sleep (hypnotism), wherein the gross objects and
desires of life, lie embosomed and buried for ever.
53. The state of dreaming is one, in which the dreamer is conscious of
his body and self-existence; and has to rove about or remain fixed in
some place, until his attainment of final liberation. Such is the state
of living beings and vegetables (both of which are conscious of their
lives).
54. Some times the sleeping and often the dreaming person, have both to
bear and carry with them their _ativáhika_ or moveable bodies, until
they obtain their final emancipation from life.
55. When the sleeping soul does not rise of itself (by its intellectual
knowledge), but is raised from the torpor of its sleep by some ominous
dream, it then wakes to the fire of a conflagration from its misery
only. (Here waking to a conflagration is opposed to the waking to a
seas of woes of Dr. Young. The gloss says, that it is a structure on
the unintelligent waking of the Nyáyikas).
56. The state of the unmoving minerals, including even that of the
fixed arbor of the _Kalpa_ tree (that is in its torpid hypnotism of
susupti), exhibits no sign of intelligence except gross dulness.
57. The dull sleep of _susupta_ being dispelled by some dream, leads
the waker to the miseries of life in this world; but he that awakes
from his trance with full intelligence, finds the perfect felicity of
the fourth (turya) states open fully to his view.
58. The living soul finds liberation by means of its intelligence, and
it is by this means that it gets its spirituality also; just as copper
being cleansed of its rust by some acid, assumes the brightness of pure
gold.
59. The liberation that the living soul has by means of its
intelligence, is again of two kinds, namely;--the one is termed
emancipation from life or _Jívan mukta_, and the other is known as the
release from the burden of the body or _deha mukta_.
60. Emancipation from life means the attainment of the fourth state of
perfection, and intelligence signifies the enlightenment of the soul,
and this is obtainable by cultivation of the understanding.
61. The soul that is acquainted with sástra, and knows the supreme
spirit in itself, becomes full of the Deity; but the unintelligent soul
sees only horrors rising before it, like spectres of his troublesome
dreams.
62. The horrors rising in the heart of man, serve only to disturb the
rest of the breast; or else there is nothing in the heart of man,
except a particle of the Divine Intellect.
63. Men are verily subjected to misery, by looking at the Deity in any
other light, than the Divine light which shines in the soul of man, and
beside which there is no other light in it.
64. Look at the world whenever you will, and you will find it full of
illusion everywhere; as you find nothing in a pot full of foul water
except the sediments of dirt.
65. In the same manner you see the atoms of human souls, full with the
vanities of this world; it is by the fetters of its worldly desires,
and gets its release by the breaking off those bonds of its desire.
66. The soul sleeps under the spell of its desires, and sees those
objects in its dream, it wakes after their dispersion to the state of
turya-felicity. The spell of gross desire, extends over all animate as
well as in-animate creation.
67. The desire of superior beings is of a pure nature, and that of
intermediate natures is of less pure form. The desires of inferior
beings are of a gross nature, and there are others without them as the
pots and blocks.
68. The living soul (passing through the doors of bodily organs)
becomes united with the outward object, when the one becomes the
percipient and the other the object of its percipience; and then the
entity of both of these, namely of the inward soul and the outward
object being pervaded by the all pervasive Intellect of God, they both
become one and the same with the common receptacle of all. (I.e. All
things blend in the Divine unity).
69. Hence the belief of the receiver, received and reception, are as
false as the water in the mirage; and there is nothing that we can shun
or lay hold upon as desirable or disgusting, when they are all the same
in the sight of God.
70. All things whether internal or external, are manifested to us as
parts of the one universal and intellectual soul; and all the worlds
being but manifestations of the Divine Intellect, it is in vain to
attribute any difference to them. All of us are displayed in the
Intellect, which contains the inner and outer worlds for ever.
71. As the ocean is an even expanse of water, after the subsidence of
all its various waves and billows, and shows itself as clear as sky
with its pure watery expanse to view; so the whole universe appears as
the reflexion of one glorious and ever lasting Deity, after we lose
sight of the diversities that are presented to our superficial view.
CHAPTER LII.
STORY OF ARJUNA, AS THE INCARNATION OF NARA-NÁRÁYANA.
Argument.--The Narrative of Arjuna given in Illustration of the truth,
that the world is a dream and unworthy of our reliance.
Vasishtha said:--Know Ráma, this world to be as a dream, which is
common to all living beings, and is fraught with many agreeable scenes,
so as to form the daily romance of their lives, which is neither true
nor entirely false.
2. But as it is not likely that the living souls of men should be
always asleep; therefore their waking state is to be accounted as one
of dreaming also. (Life is a dream. Addison).
3. Life is a longer dream than the short lived ones in our sleep; and
know it, intelligent Ráma, to be as untrue as it is unsubstantial and
airy in its nature.
4. The living souls of the living world, continually pass from dream to
dream, and they view the unrealities of the world as positive realities
in their nature. (The unreal is thought as real by the Realists).
5. They ascribe solidity to the subtile, and subtilty to what is solid;
they see the unreal as real, and think the unliving as living in their
ignorance.
6. They consider the revolution of all worlds, to be confined in the
solar system; and rove about like somnambulists and fleeting bees about
the living soul, which they differentiate from the supreme.
7. They consider and meditate in their minds, the living soul as a
separate reality, owing to its ubiquity and immortality, and as the
source of their own lives. (This is the living liberation--Jívanmukti
of Buddhists, who consider their living souls as absolute agent of
themselves).
8. Hear me to relate to you the best lesson of indifference (_i.e._
the unattachment to the world and life), which the lotus-eyed lord
(Krishna) taught to Arjuna, and whereby that sagely prince became
liberated in life time. (Here is an anachronism of antedating
Krishnárjuna prior to Ráma).
9. Thus Arjuna the son of Pandu will happily pass his life, and which I
hope you will imitate, if you want to pass your days without any grief
or sorrow.
10. Ráma said:--Tell me sir, when will this Arjuna the son of Pandu,
come to be born on earth, and who is this Hari of his, that is to
deliver this lesson of indifference to the world to him?
11. Vasishtha replied:--There is only the entity of one soul, to whom
this appellation is applied by fiction only. He remains in himself from
time without beginning and end, as the sky is situated in a vacuum.
12. We behold in him the phantasmagoria of this extended world, as we
see the different ornaments in gold, and the waves and billows in the
sea. (Identity of the cause and effect of the producer and produced).
13. The fourteen kinds of created beings display themselves in him; and
in him is the network of this universe, wherein all these worlds are
suspended, as birds hanging in the net in which they are caught.
14. In him reside the deities Indra and Yama and the sun and moon, who
are renowned and hallowed in the scriptures; and in him abide the five
elemental creation, and they that have become the regents (of heaven
and earth).
15. That the one thing is virtue and therefore expedient, and the
other is vice and therefore improper, are both placed in him as
his ordinances (or eternal laws); and depending on the free agency
(sankalpa) of men, to accept or reject the one or the other for good or
evil. (Hence there is no positive virtue or vice, nor God the author
of good and evil; but it is the obedience or disobedience to his fixed
laws, that amounts to the one or other).
16. It is obedience to the Divine ordinance, that the gods are still
employed in their fixed charges with their steady minds.
17. The lord Yama is accustomed to make his penance, at the end of
every four yugas (or kalpa age), on account of his greatness in
destruction of the creatures of God. (Yama the Indian Pluto and god of
death.)
18. Sometimes he sat penitent for eight years, and all others for a
dozen of years, often times he made his penance for five or seven
years, and many times for full sixteen years.
19. On a certain occasion as Yama sat observant of his austerity, and
indifferent to his duty, death ceased to hunt after living beings in
all the worlds.
20. Hence the multitude of living beings filled the surface of the
earth, and made ground pathless and impassable by others. They
multiplied like the filth born gnats in the rainy weather, that
obstruct the passage of elephants.
21. Then the gods sat together in council, and after various
deliberations came to determine the extirpation of all living beings,
for relieving the over burdened earth. (This was to be done by the
Bharata war celebrated in the great epic of the Mahábhárata).
22. In this way many ages have passed away, and many changes have taken
place in the usages of the people, and unnumbered living beings have
passed and gone with the revolutions of the worlds.
23. Now it will come to pass, that this Yama--the son of the sun and
the lord of the regions of the dead; will again perform his penance in
the aforesaid manner after the expiration of many ages to come.
24. He will again resume his penitence for a dozen of years, for the
atonement of his sin of destroying the living; when he will abstain
from his wonted conduct of destroying the lives of human beings.
25. At that time, will the earth be filled with deathless mortals, so
as this wretched earth will be covered and overburthened with them, as
with dense forest trees.
26. The earth groaning under her burden, and oppressed by tyranny and
lawlessness, will have recourse to Hari for her redress, as when a
virtuous wife resorts to her husband from the aggression of Dasyus.
27. For this reason, Hari will be incarnate in two bodies, joined with
the powers of all the gods, and will appear on earth in two persons of
Nara and Náráyana, the one a man and the other the lord Hari himself.
28. With one body Hari will become the son of Vasudeva, and will thence
be called Vasudeva; and with the other he will be the son of Pandu and
will thereby be named the Pándava Arjuna or Arjuna the Pándava.
29. Pandu will have another son by name of Yudhisthira, who will adopt
the title of the son of Dharma or righteousness, for his acquaintance
with politics, and he will reign over the earth to its utmost limit of
the ocean.
30. He will have his rival with Duryodhana his cousin by his paternal
uncle, and there will be a dreadful war between them as between a snake
and weasel.
31. The belligerent princes will wage a furious war for the possession
of the earth, with forces of eighteen legions on both sides. (Those of
Duryodhana were eleven legions, and Yudhisthira were seven).
32. The God Vishnu will cause Arjuna to slay them all by his great bow
of Gándíva, and thereby relieve the earth of her burden of riotous
peoples.
33. The incarnation of Vishnu in the form of Arjuna, will comprise
all the qualities incident to humanity; and will be fraught with the
feelings of joy and vengeance, which are connatural with mankind.
34. Seeing the battle array on both sides, and friends and kinsmen
ready to meet their fate, pity and grief will seize the heart of
Arjuna, and he will cease from engaging in the war.
35. Hari will then with his intelligent form of Krishna, persuade his
insensible person of Arjuna, to perform his part of a hero for crowning
his valour with success.
36. He taught him the immortality of the soul by telling him that, the
soul is never born nor does it die at any time, nor had it a prior
birth, nor is it new born to be born again on earth, it is unborn and
ever lasting, and is indestructible with the destruction of the body.
37. He who thinks the soul to be the slayer of or slain by any body, is
equally ignorant of its nature, never kills nor is ever killed by any
body.
38. It is immortal and uniform with itself, and more rare and subtile
than the air and vacuity; the soul which is the form of the great God
himself, is never and in no way destroyed by any body.
39. O Ráma, that art conscious of yourself, know your soul to be
immortal and unknown, and without its beginning, middle and end; it is
of the form of consciousness and clear without any soil, so by thinking
yourself as such, you become the unborn, eternal and undecaying soul
yourself.
CHAPTER LIII.
ADMONITION OF ARJUNA.
Argument.--Abandonment of Egoism, knowledge of the Adorable one and its
different stages.
The Lord said:--Arjuna, you are not the killer (of any soul), it is a
false conceit of yours which you must shun; the soul is ever lasting
and free from death and decay.
2. He who has no egoism in him, and whose mind is not moved (by joy or
grief), is neither the killer of nor killed by any body, though he may
kill every one in the world. (This is an attribute of the supreme soul).
3. Whatever is known in our consciousness, the same is felt within us;
shun therefore your inward consciousness of egoism and meity, as this
is I and these are mine, and these are others and theirs.
4. The thought that you are connected with such and such persons and
things, and that of your being deprived of them, and the joy and grief
to which you are subjected thereby, must affect your soul in a great
measure.
5. He who does his works with the parts or members of his body, and
connects the least attention of his soul there with; becomes infatuated
by his egoism and believes himself as the doer of his action. (here is
a lesson of perfect indifference enjoined to any act or thought that a
man does by or entertains in himself).
6. Let the eyes see, the ears hear, and your touch feel their objects,
let your tongue also taste the relish of a thing, but why take them to
your soul and where is your egoism situated in these?
7. The minds of even the great, are verily employed in the works that
they have undertaken to perform, but where is your egoism or soul in
these, that you should be sorry for its pains. (The soul is aloof from
pain).
8. Your assumption to yourself to any action, which has been done by
the combination of many, amounts only to a conceit of your vanity,
and exposes you not only to ridicule, but to frustrate the merit of
your act. (So is the assuming of a joint action of all the organs and
members of the mind, and the achievement of a whole army to one's self.
So also many masters arrogate to themselves the merit of the deeds of
their servants).
9. The yogis and hermits do their ritual and ordinary actions with
attention of their minds and senses, and often times with the
application of the members and organs of their bodies only, in order to
acquire and preserve the purity of their souls.
10. Those who have not subdued their bodies with the morphia of
indifference, are employed in the repetition of their actions, without
ever being healed of their disease (of anxiety).
11. No person is graceful whose mind is tinged with his selfishness,
as no man however learned and wise is held in honour, whose conduct is
blemished with unpoliteness and misbehaviours.
12. He who is devoid of his selfishness and egotism, and is alike
patient both in prosperity and adversity, is neither affected nor
dejected, whether he does his business or not.
13. Know this, O son of Pandu as the best field for your martial
action; which is worthy of your great good, glory and ultimate
happiness. (War in a just cause is attended with glory).
14. Though you reckon it as heinous on the one hand and unrighteous
on the other; yet you must acknowledge the super excellence and
imperiousness of the duties required of your martial race, so do your
duty and immortalize yourself.
15. Seeing even the ignorant stick fast to the proper duties of their
race, no intelligent person can neglect or set them at naught; and the
mind that is devoid of vanity, cannot be ashamed or dejected, even if
one fails or falls in the discharge of his duty.
16. Do you duty, O Arjuna, with your yoga or fixed attention to it, and
avoid all company (in order to keep company with the object of your
pursuit only). If you do your works as they come to you by yourself
alone, you will never fail nor be foiled in any. _i.e._ thy object thou
canst never gain, unless from all others you refrain.
17. Be as quiet as the person of Brahma, and do your works as quietly
as Brahma does leave his result (whether good or bad) to Brahma
(because you can have no command over the consequence), and by doing
so, assimilate thyself into the nature of Brahma (who is all in all).
18. Commit yourself and all your actions and objects to God, remain
as unaltered as God himself, and know him as the soul of all, and be
thus the decoration of the world. (The gloss says, it is no blasphemy
to think one's self as God, when there is no other personality besides
that of Deity).
19. If you can lay down all your desires, and become as even and cool
mind as a muni--monk; if you can join your soul to the yoga of sannyasa
or contemplative coldness, you can do all your actions with a mind
unattached to any.
20. Arjuna said:--Please lord, explain to me fully, what is meant by
the renunciation of all connections, commitment of our actions to
Brahma; dedication of ourselves to God and abdication of all concerns.
21. Tell me also about the acquisition of true knowledge and divisions
of Yoga meditation, all which I require to know in their proper order,
for the removal of my gross ignorance on those subjects.
22. The Lord replied:--The learned know that as the true form of
Brahma, of which we can form no idea or conception, but which may be
known after the restraining of our imagination, and the pacification of
our desires.
23. Promptitude after these things constitutes our wisdom or knowledge,
and perseverance in these practices is what is called Yoga. Self
dedication to Brahma rests on the belief that, Brahma is all this world
and myself also.
24. As a stone statue is all hollow both in its inside and outside,
so is Brahma as empty, tranquil and transparent as the sky, which is
neither to be seen by us nor is it beyond our sight.
25. It then bulges out a little from itself, and appears as something,
other than what it is. It is this reflexion of the universe, but all as
empty as this inane vacuity.
26. What is again this idea of your egoism, when every thing is evolved
out of the Supreme Intellect, of what account is the personality of any
body, which is but an infinitesimal part of the universal soul.
27. The Egoism of the individual soul, is not apart from the universal
spirit, although it seems to be separate from the same; because there
is no possibility of exclusion or separation of anything from the
Omnipresent and all comprehensive soul of God, and therefore a distinct
egoism is a nullity.
28. As it is the case with our egoism, so is it with the individuality
of a pot and of a monkey also. (_i.e._ of all insensible and brute
creatures too), none of which is separate from the universal whole. All
existences being as drops of water in the sea, it is absurd to presume
an egoism to any body.
29. Things appearing as different to the conscious soul, are to be
considered as the various imageries represented in the self-same soul
(like the sundry scenes shown in the soul in a dream).
30. So also is the knowledge of the particulars and species, lost in
the idea of the general and the _summum genus_. Now by _sannyása_ or
renunciation of the world is meant, the resignation of the fruition
of the fruits of our actions. (The main teaching of Krishna to Arjuna
in the Bhagavadgítá, tends to the renunciation of the fruits of our
actions).
31. Unattachment signifies the renunciation of all our worldly desires,
and the intense application of the mind to the one sole God of the
multifarious creation, and the variety of his imaginary representations.
32. The want of all dualism in the belief of his self-existence as
distinct from that of God, constitutes his dedication of himself to
God; it is ignorance that creates the distinction, by applying various
names and attributes to the one intellectual soul.
33. The meaning of the word intelligent soul, is undoubtedly that it is
one with the universe; and that the Ego is the same with all space, and
its contents of the worlds and their motions.
34. The Ego is the unity of Eternity, and the Ego is duality
and plurality in the world, and the variety of its multifarious
productions. Therefore be devoted to the sole Ego, and drown your own
egoism in the universal Ego. (Here the purport is given instead of the
literal version of the too verbose tetrastich verse).
35. Arjuna said:--There being two forms of the Deity, the one
transcendent or spiritual and the other transpicuous or material; tell
me to which of these I shall resort for my ultimate perfection.
36. The lord replied:--There are verily two forms of the all pervading
Vishnu, the exoteric and the other esoteric; that having a body and
hands holding the conch-shell, the discus, and the mace and lotus, is
the common form for public worship.
37. The other is the esoteric or spiritual form, which is undefined and
without its beginning and end; and is usually expressed by the term
Brahma--great.
38. As long as you are unacquainted with the nature of the supreme
soul, and are not awakened to the light of the spirit; so long should
you continue to adore the form of the God with its four arms. (or the
form of the four armed God).
39. By this means you will be awakened to light, by your knowledge of
the supreme; and when you come to comprehend the Infinite in yourself,
you shall have no more to be born in any mortal form.
40. When you are acquainted with the knowledge of the knowable soul,
then will your soul find its refuge in eternal soul of Hari, who
absorbs all souls in him.
41. When I tell you that this is I and I am that, mind that I mean to
say that, this and that is the Ego of the supreme soul, which I assume
to myself for your instruction.
42. I understand you to be enlightened to truth, and to rest in the
state of supreme felicity; and now that you are freed from all your
temporal desires, I wish you to be one with the true and holy spirit.
43. View in yourself the soul of all beings and those beings
themselves; think your own self or soul as the microcosm of the great
universe, and be tolerant and broad sighted in your practice of Yoga.
(The word _Sama darsi_, here rendered broad sighted, means one who sees
every[one] in one and [the] same light; whence it is synonymous with
universal benevolence and fellow feeling).
44. He who worships the universal soul that resides in all beings, as
the one self-same and undivided spirit; is released from the doom of
repeated births, whether he leads a secular or holy life in this world.
45. The meaning of the word "all" is unity (in its collective sense),
and the meaning of the word "one" is the unity of the soul; as in the
phrase "All is one" it is meant to say that the whole universe is
collectively but one soul. (The soul also is neither a positive entity,
nor a negative non-entity, but it is as it is known in the spirit. (of
the form of ineffable light and delight).)
46. He who shines as light within the minds of all persons, and dwells
in the inward consciousness or percipience of every being, is no other
than the very soul that dwells within myself also.
47. That which is settled in shape of savour in the waters all over
the three worlds. (_i.e._ in the earth, heaven, and underneath the
ground); and what gives flavour to the milk, curd and the butter of the
bovine kind, and dwells as sapidity in the marine salt and other saline
substances, and imparts its sweetness to saccharine articles, the same
is this savoury soul, which gives a gust to our lives, and a good taste
to all the objects of our enjoyment.
48. Know your soul to be that percipience, which is situated in the
hearts of all corporeal beings, whose rarity eludes our perception of
it, and which is quite removed from all perceptibles; and is therefore
ubiquitous in every thing and omnipresent every where.
49. As the butter is inbred in all kinds of milk, and the sap of all
sappy substances is inborn in them, so the supreme soul is intrinsical
and immanent in every thing.
50. As all the gems and pearls of the sea, have a lustre inherent in
them, and which shines forth both in their inside and outside; so the
soul shines in and out of every body without being seated in any part
of it, whether in or out or where about it.
51. As the air pervades both in the inside and outside of all empty
pots, so the spirit of God is diffused in and about all bodies in all
the three worlds. (This is the meaning of omnipresence).
52. As hundreds of pearls are strung together by a thread in the
necklace, so the soul of God extends through and connects these
millions of beings, without its being known by any. (This all
connecting attribute of God, is known as sútrátmá in the Vedánta).
53. He who dwells in the hearts of every body in the world, commencing
from Brahma to the object grass that grows on the earth; the essence
which is common in all of them, is the Brahma the unborn and undying.
54. Brahmá is a slightly developed form of Brahma, and resides in the
spirit of the great Brahma, and the same dwelling in us, makes us
conceive of our egoism by mistake of the true Ego.
55. The divine soul being manifest in the form of the world, say what
can it be that destroys or is destroyed in it; and tell me, Arjuna,
what can it be that is subject to or involved in pleasure or pain.
56. The divine soul is as a large mirror, showing the images of things
upon its surface, like reflexions on the glass; and though these
reflexions disappear and vanish in time, yet the mirror of the soul is
never destroyed, but looks as it looked before.
57. When I say I am this and not the other (of my many reflexions in
a prismatic glass, or of my many images in many pots of water), I am
quite wrong and inconsistent with myself; so is it to say, that the
human soul is the spirit or image of God, and not that of any other
being, when the self-same Divine spirit is present and immanent in all.
(The catholic spirit of the Hindu religion, views all beings to partake
of the Divine spirit, which is in all as in a prismatic glass).
58. The revolutions of creation, sustentation and final dissolution,
take place in an unvaried and unceasing course in the spirit of God,
and so the feelings on surface of the waters of the sea. (Egoistic
feelings rising from the boisterous mind, subside in the calmness of
the soul).
59. As the stone is the constituent essence of rocks, the wood of trees
and the water of waves; so is the soul the constituent element of all
existence.
60. He who sees the soul (as inherent) in all substances, and every
substance (to be contained) in the soul; and views both as the
component of one another, sees the uncreating God as the reflector and
reflexion of Himself.
61. Know Arjuna, the soul to be the integrant part of every thing, and
the constituent element of the different forms and changes of things;
as the water is of the waves, and the gold is of jewelleries. (The
spirit of God is believed as the material cause of all).
62. As the boisterous waves are let loose in the waters, and the jewels
are made of gold; so are all things existent in and composed of the
spirit of God.
63. All material beings of every species, are forms of the Great Brahma
himself; know this one as all, and there is nothing apart or distinct
from him.
64. How can there be an independent existence, or voluntary change of
anything in the world; where can they or the world be, except in the
essence and omnipresence of God, and wherefore do you think of them in
vain?
65. By knowing all this as I have told you, the saints live fearless
in this world by reflecting on the supreme Being in themselves; they
move about as liberated in their lifetime, with the equanimity of their
souls.
66. The enlightened saints attain to their imperishable states, by
being invincible to the errors of fiction, and unsubdued by the evils
of worldly attachment; they remain always in their spiritual and holy
states, by being freed from temporal desires, and the conflicts of
jarring passions, doubts and dualities.
CHAPTER LIV.
ADMONITION OF ARJUNA IN SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE.
Arguments--The causes of the feelings of Pleasure and Pain, and
Happiness and Misery in this world, and the modes and means of their
prevention and avoidance.
The lord continued:--Listen moreover, O mighty armed Arjuna, to the
edifying speech, which I am about to deliver unto you, for the sake of
your lasting good and welfare.
2. Know O progeny of Kunti, that the perception of the senses, or the
feelings conveyed to our minds by the organic sense, such as those of
cold and heat and the like, are the causes of our bodily pleasure and
pain; but as these are transitory, and come to us and pass away by
turns, you must remain patient under them.
3. Knowing neither the one nor the other to be uniform and monotonous,
what is it thou callest as real pleasure or pain? A thing having no
form or figure of its own, can have no increase or decrease in it.
4. Those who have suppressed the feelings of their senses, by knowing
the illusory nature of sensible perceptions; are content to remain
quiet with an even tenor of their minds, both in their prosperity and
adversity; are verily the men that are thought to taste the ambrosial
draught of immortality in their mortal state.
5. Knowing the soul to be the same in all states, and alike in all
places and times; they view all differences and accidents of life with
indifference, and being sure of the unreality of unrealities, they
retain their endurance under all the varying circumstances of life.
6. Never can joy or grief take possession of the common soul, which
being ecumenical in its nature, can never be exceptional or otherwise.
7. The unreal has no existence, nor is the positive a negative at any
time; so there can be nothing as a positive felicity or infelicity
either in any place, when God himself is present in his person every
where. (They are all alike to God and Godly soul).
8. Abandon the thoughts of felicity or infelicity of the world (nor
be like the laughing or crying philosopher with your one sided view
of either the happiness or misery of life), and seeing there is no
such difference in the mind of God, stick fast in this last state of
indifference to both.
9. Though the intelligent soul, and the external phenomena, are closely
situated in the inside and outside of the body; Yet the internal soul
is neither delighted nor depressed, by the pleasure or pain which
environ the external body.
10. All pleasure and pain relating the material body, touch the mind
which is situated in it; but no bodily hurt or debility affects the
soul, which is seated beyond it.
11. Should the soul be supposed to participate, in the pleasure or pain
which affect the gross body, it is to be understood as caused by the
error, rising from our ignorance only.
12. The gross is no reality, and its feelings of pain or pleasure
are never real ones, as to touch the intangible soul; for who is so
senseless, as not to perceive the wide separation of the soul from the
body?
13. What I tell you here, O progeny of Bhárata, will surely destroy the
error arising from ignorance, by the full understanding of my lectures.
14. As knowledge removes the error and fear of the snake, arising from
one's ignorance in a rope; so our misconception of the reality of our
bodies and their pleasures and pains, is dispelled by our knowledge of
truth.
15. Know the whole universe to be identic with increate Brahma, and is
neither produced nor dissolved by itself, knowing this as a certain
truth, believe in Brahma only, as the most supreme source of all tree
knowledge.
16. You are but a little billow in the sea of Brahma's essence; you
rise and roll for a little while, and then subside to rest. You foam
and froth in the whirlpool of Brahma's existence, and art no other
than a drop of water in the endless ocean of Brahma.
17. As long as we are in action under the command of our general, we
act our parts like soldiers in the field; we all live and move in
Brahma alone, and there is no mistake of right or wrong in this. (Act
well our part and there all honour lies).
18. Abandon your pride and haughtiness, your sorrow and fear, and your
desire of pain or pleasure; it is bad to have any duality or doubt in
you, be good with your oneness or integrity at all times.
19. Think this in yourself from the destruction of these myriads of
forces under your arms, that all these are evolved out of Brahma, and
you do more than evolve or reduce them to Brahma himself.
20. Do not care for your pleasure or pain, your gain or loss, and your
victory or defeat; but resort only to the unity of Brahma, and know the
world as the vast ocean of Brahma's entity.
21. Being alike in or unchanged by your loss or gain, and thinking
yourself as nobody; and go on in your proper course of action, as a
gust of wind takes its own course.
22. Whatever you do or take to your food, whatever sacrifices you make
or any gift that you give to any one, commit them all to Brahma, and
remain quiet in yourself. (With an assurance of their happy termination
by the help of God).
23. Whoever thinks in his mind, of becoming anything in earnest; he
undoubtedly becomes the same in process of time; if therefore you wish
to become as Brahma himself, learn betimes to assimilate yourself to
the nature of Brahma, in all your thoughts and deeds. (It is imitation
of perfection, that gives perfection to man).
24. Let one who knows the great Brahma, be employed in doing his duties
as occur unto him, without any expectation and any reward; and as God
does his works without any aim, so should the Godly do their works
without any object.
25. He who sees the inactive God in all his active duties, and sees
also all his works in the inactive Gods; that man is called the most
intelligent among men, and he is said the readiest discharger of his
deeds and duties.
26. Do not do thy works in expectation of their rewards, nor engage
thyself to do any thing that is not thy duty or improper for thee. Go
on doing thy duties as in thy yoga or fixed meditation, and not in
connection with other's or their rewards.
27. Neither be addicted to active duties, nor recline in your
inactivity either; never remain ignorant or negligent of thy duties in
life, but continue in thy work with an even temper at all times.
28. That man though employed in business, is said to be doing nothing
at all; who does not foster the hope of a reward of his acts, and is
ever contented in himself, even without a patron or refuge.
29. It is the addictedness of one's mind to anything, that makes it
his action, and not the action itself without such addiction; it is
ignorance which is the cause of such tendency, therefore ignorance is
to be avoided by all means.
30. The great soul that is settled in divine knowledge; and is freed
from its wont or bent to any thing, may be employed in all sorts of
works, without being reckoned as the doer of any. (One is named by the
work of his profession, and not by his attendance to a thousand other
callings in life).
31. He who does nothing, is indifferent about its result (whether of
good or evil), this indifference amounts to his equanimity, which leads
to his endless felicity, which is next to the state of God-head. (The
sentence is climacteric rising from inactivity to the felicity of the
Deity).
32. By avoiding the dirt of duality and plurality (of beliefs), betake
yourself to your belief in the unity of the supreme spirit, and
then whether you do or not do your ceremonial acts, you will not be
accounted as the doer.
33. He is called a wise man by the learned, whose acts in life are free
from desire or some object of desire; and whose ceremonial acts are
burnt away by the fire of spiritual knowledge. (It is said that the
merit of ceremonial observances, leads a man only to reward in repeated
births; but divine knowledge removes the doom of transmigration, by
leading the soul at once to divine felicity, from which no one has to
return to revisit the earth.)
34. He who remains with a peaceful, calm, quiet and tranquil equanimity
of the soul, and without any desire or avarice for anything in this
world, may be doing his duties here, without any disturbance or anxiety
of his mind.
35. The man who has no dispute with any one, but is ever settled with
calm and quiet rest of his soul; which is united with the supreme
soul, without its Yoga or Ceremonial observance, and is satisfied with
whatever is obtained of itself; such a man is deemed as a decoration of
this earth.
36. They are called ignorant hypocrites, who having repressed their
organs of actions, still indulge themselves in dwelling upon sensible
pleasures, by recalling their thoughts in this mind.
37. He who has governed his outward and inward senses, by the power of
his sapient mind; and employs his organs of action, in the performance
of his bodily functions and discharges of his ceremonial observances
without his addictedness to them, is quite different from the one
described before.
38. As the overflowing waters of rivers, fall into the profound and
motionless body of waters in the sea; so the souls of holy men enter
into the ocean of eternal God, where they are attended with a peaceful
bliss, which is never to be obtained by avaricious worldlings.
CHAPTER LV.
LECTURE ON THE LIVING SOUL OR _Jívatatwa_.
Arguments.--The unity and reality is the causal subjective, and the
duality and unreality is the objective worlds; and the situation of
God between the two, means his witnessing both of these without being
either of them, because the conditions of the cause and the caused do
not apply to God who is beyond all attributes.
The Lord said:--Neither relinquish or abstain from your enjoyments,
nor employ your minds about them or in the acquisition of the object
thereof. Remain with an even tenor of your mind, and be content with
what comes to thee.
2. Never be so intimately related to thy body, that is not intimately
related with thee; but remain intimately connected with thyself, which
is thy increate and imperishable soul.
3. We suffer no loss by the loss of our bodies (which are but
adscititious garments of our souls); but we lose every thing, by the
loss of our souls which last forever and never perish.
4. The soul is not weakened like the sentient mind, by the loss of the
sensible objects of enjoyment, and incessantly employed in action, yet
it does nothing by itself.
5. It is one's addictedness to an action that makes it his act, and
this even when one is no actor of the same; it is ignorance only that
incites the mind to action, and therefore this ignorance is required to
be removed from it by all means.
6. The great minded man that is acquainted with the superior knowledge
of spirituality, forsakes his tendency to action, and does everything
that comes to him without his being the actor thereof.
7. Know thy soul to be without its beginning and end, and undecaying
and imperishable in its nature; the ignorant think it perishable, and
you must not fall into this sad error like them.
8. The best of men that are blest with spiritual knowledge, do not
look the soul in the same light as the ignorant vulgar; who either
believe the soulless matter as the soul, or think themselves as
incorporate souls by their egoistic vanity.
9. Arjuna said:--If it is so, O lord of worlds! then I ween that the
loss of the body is attended with no loss or gain to the ignorant
(because they have nothing to care for an immortal soul like the
learned).
10. The lord replied:--so it is, O mighty armed Arjuna! they lose
nothing by the loss of the perishable body, but they know that the soul
is imperishable, and its loss is the greatest of all losses.
11. How be it, I see no greater mistake of men in this world; than when
they say, that they have lost anything or gained something that never
belongs to them. It appears like the crying of a barren woman for her
child, which she never had, nor is expected to have at any time.
12. That it is axiomatic truth established by the learned, and well
known to all men of common sense, though the ignorant may not perceive
it verily, that an unreality can not come to reality, nor a reality go
to nothing at any time. (This equivalent to the definite propositions,
"what is, is; and what is not, is naught; or that, positive can not be
the negative, not the negative an affirmative").
13. Now know that to be imperishable, that has spread out this
perishable and frail world; and there is no one that can destroy the
indestructible (or the entity of the immortal soul).
14. The finite bodies are said to be the abode of the infinite soul,
and yet the destruction of the finite and frail, entails no loss upon
the infinite and imperishable soul. Know therefore the difference
between the two.
15. The soul is a unity without a duality, and there is no possibility
of its nihility. (because the unity is certain reality, and duality is
a nullity). The eternal and infinite reality of the soul, can never be
destroyed with the destruction of the body.
16. Leaving aside the unity and duality, take that which remains, and
know that state of tranquillity which is situated between the reality
and unreality, to be the state of the transcendental Deity.
17. Arjuna rejoined:--such being the nature of the soul, then tell me,
O lord, what is the cause of this certainty in man that he is dying,
and what makes him think, that he is either going to heaven above or to
the hell below. (What is the cause of heavenly bliss and the torments
of hell).
18. The lord replied:--know Arjuna! There is a living soul dwelling
in the body, and composed of the elements of earth, air, water, fire
and vacuum, as also of the mind and understanding: (all of which being
destructible in their nature, cause the destructibility of the living
principle, and its subjection to pain and pleasure in this life and in
the next. gloss).
19. The embodied and living soul is led by its desire, as the young of
a beast is carried about tied by a rope on its neck; and it dwells in
the recess of the body, like a bird in the cage. (Both states of its
living and moving about in the body, are as troublesome as they are
compulsory to it).
20. Then as the body is worn out and becomes infirm in course of time,
the living soul leaves it like the moisture of a dried leaf, and flies
to where it is led by its inborn desire. (The difference of desire
causes the difference of new births and bodies. gloss).
21. It carries with it the senses of hearing, seeing, feeling, taste,
touch and smell from its body, as the breeze wafts the fragrance from
the cells of flowers (or as a wayfarer carries his valuables with him).
22. The body is the production of one's desire, and has no other
assignable cause to it; it weakens by the weakening of its desire,
and being altogether weak and wasted, it becomes extinct in its final
absorption in the god-head (because the want of desire and dislike,
makes a man to become like his god; or as perfect as god, who has
nothing to desire and dislike).
23. The avaricious man, being stanch with his concupiscence, passes
through many wombs into many births; like a magician is skilled in
leaping up and down in earth and air. (The magician _máyá_, _purusha_,
means also a juggler or athlete who shows his feats in air as an
aeronaut).
24. The parting soul carries with her the properties of the senses from
the sensible organs of the body; just as the flying breeze bears with
him the fragrance of flowers, in his flight through the sky.
25. The body becomes motionless, after the soul has fled from it; just
as the leaves and branches of trees, remain unruffled after the winds
are still. (_i.e._ As the breeze shakes the tree, so the vital breath
moves the body, and this being stopped, the body becomes quiescent
which is called its death).
26. When the body becomes inactive, and insensible to the incision and
wounds that are inflicted upon it, it is then called to be dead, or to
have become lifeless.
27. As this soul resides in any part of the sky, in its form of the
vital air, it beholds the very same form of things manifested before
it, as it was wont to desire when living. (The departed soul dwells
either in spiritual or elemental sphere of the sky, and views itself
and all other things in the same state as they are imprest in it, in
their relation to time, place and form. Gloss. This passage will clear
Locke's and Parker's question, as to the form which the soul is to have
after its resurrection).
28. The soul comes to find all these forms and bodies, to be as unreal
as those it has left behind; and so must you reckon all bodies after
they are destroyed, unless you be so profoundly asleep as to see and
know nothing.
29. Brahmá--the lord of creation, has created all beings according to
the images, that were impressed in his mind in the beginning. He sees
them still to continue and die in the same forms. (So the soul gets its
body as it thinks upon, and then lives and dies in the same form).
30. Whatever form or body the soul finds on itself, on its first and
instantaneous springing to life; the same is invariably impressed
in its consciousness, until its last moment of death. (This fixed
impression of the past, produces its reminiscence in the future, which
forms and frames the being according to its own model).
31. The pristine desire of a man, is the root of his present manliness,
which becomes the cause of his future success. So also the present
exertion of one, is able to correct and make up not only his past
mistakes and deficits; but also to edify upon his rugged hut of old.
(_i.e._ that is to improve his dilapidated state and build the fabric
of his future fame and fortune).
32. Whatever is pursued with ardent exertion and diligence for a
while, the same in particular is gained among all other objects of
one's former and future pursuit (which are reckoned under the four
predicaments (_Chaturvarga_) of wealth and pleasure for this life, and
virtue and salvation for the next).
33. Whether a man is exposed on the barren rock of Vindhya, or blown
and borne away by the winds, he is yet supported by his manhood;
therefore the wise man should never decline to discharge the legal
duties, that are required of him at all times.
34. Know the heaven and hell of which you ask, to be creatures of the
old prejudices of men; they are the productions of human wish, and
exist in the customary bias of the populace.
35. Arjuna said:--Tell me, O lord of the world! what is that cause,
which gave rise to the prejudice of a heaven and hell. (A future state
of reward and retribution, is a common belief of all mankind on earth).
36. The Lord replied:--These prejudices are as false as airy dreams,
and have their rise from our desire (of future retribution); which
waxing strong by our constant habit of thinking them as true, make us
believe them as such, as they mislead us to rely on the reality of the
unreal world. Therefore we must shun our desires for our real good.
37. The Lord replied:--Ignorance is the source of our desires, as it
is the main spring of our error of taking the unself for the true
self; it is the knowledge of the self therefore combined with right
understanding, that can dispel the error of our desires. (_i.e._
Ignorance of the nature of a thing, excites our desire for it, as our
knowledge of the same, serves to suppress it).
38. You are best acquainted with the self, O Arjuna! and well know
the truth also; therefore try to get off your error of yourself and
not yourself, as this I and that another, as also of your desires for
yourself and other.
39. Arjuna said:--But I ween that the living soul dies away, with the
death of its desires; because the desire is the support of the soul,
which must languish and droop down for want of a desire. (So says sir
Hamilton: Give me something to do and desire, and so I live or else I
pine away and die).
40. Tell me moreover, what thing is it that is subject to future births
and deaths, after the living soul perishes with its body at any time or
place (or after it has fled from it to some other region).
41. The Lord replied:--Know the wistful soul, O intelligent Arjuna! to
be of the form of the desire of the heart, as also of the form that
anyone has framed for himself in his imagination. (_i.e._ The form of
individual soul, is according to the figure that one has of himself in
his mind and heart).
42. The soul that is self-same with itself, and unaltered in all
circumstances; that is never subject to body or any desire on earth,
but is freed from all desires by its own discretion, is said to be
liberated in this life.
43. Living in this manner (or self-independence), you must always look
to and be in search of truth; and being released from the snare of
worldly cares, you are said to be liberated in this life.
44. The soul that is not freed from its desires, is said to be pent
up as a bird in its cage; and though a man may be very learned, and
observant of all his religious rites and duties, yet he is not said to
be liberated, as long as he labours in the chains of his desires.
45. The man who sees the train of desires, glimmering in the recess
of his heart and mind, is like a purblind man who sees the bespangled
train of peacocks tail in the spotless sky. He is said to be liberated
whose mind is not bound to the chain of desire, and it is one's release
from this chain that is called his liberation in this life and in the
next.
CHAPTER LVI.
DESCRIPTION OF THE MIND.
Argument:--On the liberation of the living soul, and description of the
mind as the miniature of the world.
The Lord continued:--Now Arjuna, forsake your sympathy for your
friends, by the coldheartedness that you have acquired from the
abandonment of your desires and cares, and the liberation that you have
attained to in this your living state.
2. Be dispassionate, O sinless Arjuna! by forsaking your fear of death
and decay of the body; and be as clear as the unclouded sky in your
mind, by driving away the clouds of your cares from it, and dispelling
all your aims and attempts either of good or evil for yourself or
others.
3. Discharge your duties as they come to you in the course of your
life, and do well whatever is proper to be done, that no action of
yours may go for nothing (_i.e._ Do well or do nothing).
4. Whoso does any work that comes to him of itself in the course of
his life, that man is called to be liberated in his life time; and the
discharge of such deeds, belongs to the condition of living liberation.
5. That I will do this and not that, or accept of this one and refuse
the other, are the conceits of foolishness; but they are all alike to
the wise (who have no choice in what is fit and proper for them).
6. Those who do the works which occur to them, with the cool calmness
of their minds, are said to be the living liberated; and they continue
in their living state, as if they are in their profound sleep.
7. He who has contracted the members of his body, and curbed the organs
of his senses in himself, from their respective outward objects,
resembles a tortoise, that rests in quiet by contracting its limbs
within itself.
8. The universe resides in the universal soul, and continues therein in
all the three present, past and future times, as the painting-master of
the mind, draws the picture of the world in the aerial canvas.
9. The variegated picture of the world, which is drawn by the painter
of the mind in the empty air, is as void as the vacant air itself, and
yet appearing as prominent as a figure in relief, and as plain as a
pikestaff.
10. Though the formless world rests on the plane of vacuity, yet the
wonderous error of our imagination shows it as conspicuous to view; as
a magician shows his aerial cottage to our deluded sight.
11. As there is no difference in the plane surface of the canvas, which
shows the swelling and depression of the figures in the picture to our
sight; so there is no convexity or concavity in the dead flat of the
spirit, which presents the uneven world to view. (_i.e._ All things are
even in the spirit of God, however uneven they may appear to us).
12. Know, O red eyed Arjuna! the picture of the world in the empty
vacuum is as void as the vacuity itself; it rises and sets in the mind,
as the temporary scenes which appear in imagination at the fit of a
delirium.
13. So is this world all hollow both in the inside and outside of it,
though it appears as real as an air drawn city of our imagination, by
our prejudice or long habit of thinking it so. (A deep rooted prejudice
cannot soon be removed).
14. Without cogitation the truth appears as false, and the false as
true as in a delirium; but by excogitation of it, the truth comes to
light, and the error or untruth vanishes in nubila.
15. As the autumnal sky, though it appears bright and clear to the
naked eye, has yet the flimsy clouds flying over it, so the picture
drawn over the plane of the inane mind, presents the figures of our
fancied objects in it. (Such is the appearance of our imaginary world
and our fancied friends in the perspective of the mind).
16. The baseless and unsubstantial world which appears on the outside,
is but a phantasy and has no reality in it; and when there is nothing
as you or I or any one in real existence, say who can destroy one or be
destroyed by another.
17. Drive away your false conception of the slayer and slain from your
mind, and rest in the pure and bright sphere of the Divine spirit;
because there is no stir or motion in the intellectual sphere of God,
which is ever calm and quiet. All commotions appertain to the mental
sphere, and the action of the restless mind.
18. Know the mind to contain every thing in its clear sphere, such
as time and space, the clear sky, and all actions and motions and
positions of things; as the area of a map presents the sites of all
places upon its surface.
19. Know the mind to be more inane and rarefied than the empty air,
and it is upon that basis the painter of the intellect, has drawn the
picture of this immense universe.
20. But the infinite vacuum being wholly inane, it has not that
diversity and divisibility in it, as they exhibit themselves in the
mind, in the rearing up and breaking down of its aerial castle. (The
imagination of the mind raises and erases its fabrics; but those of
vacuum are fixed and firm for ever).
21. So the earthly mortals seem to be born and die away every moment,
as the chargeful thoughts of the all-engrossing mind, are ever rising
and subsiding in it.
22. Though the erroneous thoughts of the mind, are so instantaneous
and temporary; yet it has the power of stretching out the ideas of the
length and duration of the world, as it has of producing new ideas of
all things from nothing. (So God created every thing out of nothing).
23. The mind has moreover the power of prolonging a moment to a kalpa
age; as of enlarging a minim to a mountain, and of increasing a little
to a multitude.
24. It has the power also of producing a thing from nothing, and of
converting one to another in a trice; it is this capacity of it, which
gives rise to the erroneous conception of the world, in the same
manner, as it raises the airy castle and fairy lands of its own nature
in a moment.
25. It has likewise brought this wonderous world into existence, which
rose out in the twinkling of an eye, as a reflexion and not creation of
it. (Because the disembodied mind can not create any material thing).
26. All these are but ideal forms and shadowy shapes of imagination,
though they appear as hard and solid as adamant; they are the mistaken
ideas of some unknown form and substance.
27. Whether you desire or dislike your worldly interests, show me where
lies its solidity, both in your solicitude as well as indifference
about it; the mind being itself situated in the intellect of the
Divine contriver, the picture of the world, can not have its place any
where else. (The world being in the mind, and this again in the Divine
intellect, the world must be situated also in the same, which is the
main receptacle of the world also).
28. O how very wonderous bright is this prominent picture, which is
drawn on no base or coating, and which is so conspicuous before us, in
various pieces without any paint or color whereof it is made.
29. O how pleasant is this perspicuous picture of the world, and how
very attractive to our sight. It was drawn on the inky coating of
chaotic darkness, and exhibited to the full blaze of various lights (of
the sun, moon, stars and primeval light).
30. It is fraught in diverse colors, and filled with various objects of
our desire in all its different parts; it exhibits many shows which are
pleasant to sight, and presents all things to view of which have the
notions in our minds.
31. It presents many planets and stars before us, shining in their
different shapes and spheres all about. The blue vault of heaven
resembling a cerulean lake, brightens with the shining sun, moon and
stars liking its blooming and blossoming lotuses.
32. There are the bodies of variegated clouds, pendant as the many
coloured leaves of trees on the azure sky; and appearing as pictures
of men, gods and demons, drawn over the domes of the three regions (of
earth, heaven and hell below, in their various appearances of white,
bright and dark).
33. The fickle and playful painter of the mind, has sketched and
stretched out the picture of the sky, as an arena for the exhibition
of the three worlds, as its three different stages; where all deluded
peoples are portrayed as joyful players, acting their parts under the
encircling light of the supreme Intellect. (The world is a stage, and
all men and women its players, Shakespeare).
34. Here is the actress with her sedate body of golden hue, and her
thick braids of hair; her eyes glancing on the people with flashes of
sunshine and moon-beams, the rising ground is her back and her feet
reaching the infernal regions; and being, clothed with the robe of
the sástra, she acts the plays of morality, opulence and the farce of
enjoyments.
35. The Gods Brahmá, Indra, Hari and Hara, form her four arms of
action, the property of goodness is her bodice, and the two virtues of
discretion and apathy, are her prominent breasts. The earth resting on
the head of the infernal Serpent, is her lotus like foot-stool upheld
by its stalk; She is decorated on the face and forehead with the paints
of mineral mountains, whose valleys and caves form belly and bowels.
36. The fleeting glances of her eyes dispelling the gloom of night,
and the twinkling of stars are as the erection of hairs on her body;
the two rows of her teeth emitted the rays of flashing lightnings, and
all earthly beings are as the hairs on her person, and rising as piles
about the bulb of a _Kadamba_ flower.
37. This earth is filled with living souls, subsisting in the spacious
vacuum of the Universal soul, and appearing as figures in painting
drawn in it. This the skilful artist of the mind, that has displayed
this illusive actress of the Universe, to show her various features as
in a puppet show.
CHAPTER LVII.
ON ABANDONMENT OF DESIRE AND ITS RESULT OF TRANQUILLITY.
Argument:--The final lecture to Arjuna on the Peace of mind resulting
from its want of desire.
The Lord said:--Look here, O Arjuna! The great wonder which is manifest
in this subject; it is the appearance of the picture, prior to that
of the plane of the plan upon which it is drawn. (The appearance of
the mind or painting, before that of Viráj or the spirit of God which
exhibits the painting. Gloss).
2. The prominence of the painting and the non-appearance of its basis,
must be as wonderous as the buoyancy of a block of stone, and the
sinking down of gourd shell as is shown in a magic play.
3. The Universe resting in the vacuity of the Divine spirit, appears
as a picture on the tablet of the mind; say then how does this egoism
or self knowledge of your substantiality, arise from the bosom of
the vacuous nullity. (_i.e._ How can substantial spring from the
unsubstantial, or some thing come out of nothing).
4. All these being the vacant production of vacuum, are swallowed up
likewise in the vacuous womb of an infinite vacuity; they are no more
than hollow shadows of emptiness, and stretched out in empty air.
5. This empty air is spread over with the snare of our desires,
stretching as wide as the sphere of these outstretched worlds; it is
the band of our desire that encircles the worlds as their great belt.
6. The world is situated in Brahmá as a reflexion in the mirror, and is
not subject to partition or obliteration; owing to its inherence in its
receptacle, and its identity with the same.
7. The indissoluble vacuum being the nature of Brahma, is inseparable
from his essence; for nobody is ever able to divide the empty air in
twain or remove it from its place.
8. It is owing to your ignorance of this, that your concupiscence has
become congenial with your nature; which it is hard for it to get rid
of, notwithstanding its being fraught with every virtue.
9. He who has sown the smallest seed of desire in the soul of his
heart, is confined as a lion in the cage, though he may be very wise
and learned in all things.
10. The desire which is habitual to one, grows as rank as a thick wood
in his breast; unless it is burnt away in the seed by the knowledge of
truth, when it cannot vegetate any more.
11. This mind is no more inclined to any thing, who has burnt away the
seed of his desire at once; he remains untouched by pleasure and pain,
like the lotus-leaf amidst the water.
12. Now therefore, O Arjuna! do you remain calm and quiet in your
spirit, be undaunted and devoid of all desire in your mind; melt
down the mist of your mental delusion by the heat of your _nirvána_
devotion, and from all that you have learnt from my holy lecture to
you, remain in perfect tranquillity with your reliance in the Supreme
spirit.
CHAPTER LVIII.
ARJUNA'S SATISFACTION AT THE SERMON.
Argument:--The knowledge of truth dispels the doubts, and leads to
display his valorous deeds in warfare.
Arjuna said:--Lord! it is by thy kindness, that I am freed from my
delusion, and have come to the reminiscence of myself. I am now placed
above all doubts, and will act as you have said.
2. The Lord replied:--when you find the feelings and faculties of
your heart and mind, to be fully pacified by means of your knowledge;
then understand your soul to have attained its tranquillity, and the
property of goodness or purity of its nature. (Sattwa Swabháva).
3. In this state, the soul becomes insensible of all mental thoughts,
and full of intelligence in itself; and being freed from all inward and
outward perceptions, it perceives in itself the one Brahma who is all
and everywhere.
4. No worldly being can observe this elevated state of the soul, as no
body can see the bird that has fled from the earth into the upper sky.
5. The pure soul which is devoid of desire, becomes full of
intelligence and spiritual light; and it is not to be perceived by even
the foresighted observer. (It is the soul's approximation to the Divine
state).
6. No body can perceive this transcendental and transparent state of
the soul, without purifying his desires at first; it is a state as
imperceptible to the impure, as the minutest particle of an atom, is
unperceivable by the naked eye.
7. Attainment of this state, drives away the knowledge of all sensible
objects as of pots, plates, and others. What thing therefore is so
desirable, as to be worth desiring before the Divine presence.
8. As the frost and ice melt away before a volcanic mountain, so doth
our ignorance fly afar, from the knowledge of the intellectual soul.
(_i.e._ Intellectual knowledge drives away all ignorance before it).
9. What are these mean desires of us, that blow away like the dust of
the earth, and what are our possessions and enjoyments but snares to
entangle our souls?
10. So long doth our ignorance (avidyá) flaunt herself in her various
shapes, as we remain ignorant of the pure and modest nature of our
inmost souls in ourselves. (Self-knowledge is shy and modest, while
ignorance is full of vanity and boast).
11. All outward appearances fade away and faint (before the naked eye),
and appear in their pellucid forms in the inmost soul, which grasps the
whole in itself, as the vacuum contains the plenum in it.
12. That which shows all forms in it, without having or showing
any form of itself; is that transcendent substance which is beyond
description, and transcends our comprehension of it.
13. Now get rid of the poisonous and cholic pain of your desire of
gain, as also of the permanence of your own existence; mutter to
yourself the mantra of your resignation of desirables, and thus prosper
in the world without fear for anything.
14. Vasishtha said:--After the Lord of the three worlds had spoken the
words, Arjuna remained silent for a moment before him; and then like
a bee sitting beside a blue lotus, uttered the following words to the
sable bodied Krishna.
15. Arjuna said:--Lord! Thy words have dispelled all grief from my
heart, and the light of truth is rising in my mind; as when the sun
rises to awaken the closed and sleeping lotus.
16. Vasishtha said:--After saying so, Arjuna being cleared of all
his doubts, laid hold on his Gándíva bow, and rose with Hari for his
charioteer, in order to proceed to his warlike exploits.
17. He will transform the face of the earth to a sea of blood, gushing
out of the bodies of combatants, their charioteers and horses and
elephants that will be wounded by him; the flights of his arrows and
thickening darts, will hide the disk of the sun in the sky, and darken
the face of the earth with flying dust.
CHAPTER LIX.
KNOWLEDGE OF THE LATENT AND INSCRUTABLE SOUL.
Argument:--The incomprehensible nature of God, expressed by indefinite
predicates, and his Latency in the works of creation.
Vasishtha continued:--Keep this lesson in view, O Ráma! and know
it as the purifier of all sins; remain in your resignation of all
attachments, and resign yourself to God.
2. Know the Supreme soul, in which all things reside, from which
everything has issued, and which is everything itself on all sides of
us; it is changed through all, and is ever the same in itself.
3. It seems to be afar though it is nearest to us, it appears to be
ubiquitous though ever situated in everything. It is by that essence
thou livest, and it is undoubtedly what thou art thyself. (There is but
one unity pervading over all varieties).
4. Know that to be the highest predicament, which is above the
knowables, and is knowledge or intelligence by itself; which is beyond
our thoughts and thinkables, and is the thinking principle or intellect
itself. (Beyond thought Divine. Milton).
5. It is preeminent consciousness and that supreme felicity, and
passing wonder of our sight; which surpasses the majesty of majesties,
and is the most venerable of venerables.
6. This thing is the soul and its cognition, it is vacuum which is the
immensity of the supreme Brahma; it is the chief good (summum Bonum)
which is felicity and tranquillity itself; and it is full knowledge or
omniscience, and the highest of all states.
7. The soul that abides in the intellect, and is of the form of the
conception of all things: that which feels and perceives every thing,
and remains by its own essence.
8. It is the soul of the universe, like the oil of the sesame seed; it
is the pith of the arbor of the world, its light and life of all its
animal beings.
9. It is the thread connecting all beings together like pearls in a
necklace, which is suspended on the breast of empty air; (the sutrátma
that connects all nature). It is the flavour of all things like the
pungency of pepper.
10. It is the essence of all substance (ens entium) and a verity which
is the most excellent of all the truth of truths; it is the goodness
of whatever is good, and the great or greatest good in itself.
11. Which by its omniscience becomes the all that is present in its
knowledge, and which we take by our misjudgment for real entities in
this world (when our ignorance mistakes the manifest world for its
latent cause).
12. We take ourselves the world in mistake of the soul, but all these
mistaken entities vanish away before the light of reason.
13. The vacuum of Brahma or the space occupied by the Divine spirit,
is without its beginning and end, and cannot be comprehended within
the limited space of our souls; knowing this for certain, the wise are
employed in their outward duties.
14. That man is freed from his rising and setting (ups and downs), who
rests always in the equanimity of his soul, and whose mind is never
elated nor dejected at any event, but ever retains the evenness of its
tenor.
15. He whose mind is as vacant as the empty air, is called a mahátmá or
great soul, and his mind resting in the state of unity, remains with
the body in a state of sound sleep. (But this evenness is inadmissible
in business and behaviour to a preceptor. So it is said, [Sanskrit:
mostly illegible].)
16. The man of business also who preserves the evenness of his mind,
remains as undisturbed under the press of his duties, as the reflexion
of one in a mirror. They are both the same, being but shadows of
reality.
17. He who retains the impression in his mind, in their even and
unvaried state, like images in a mirror, is himself as a reflexion in
the Divine Intellect. (All beings live and move inseparably in the
intellect of God. Gloss).
18. So let a man discharge the customary duties of life as they occur
to him, with the pure transparent of his mind; as all the creatures of
God perform their several parts, like images imprinted in the divine
intellect.
19. There is no unity nor duality in the divine intellect, (where the
images are neither inseparably attached to nor detached from it); the
application of the words I and thou to one or the other is all relate
to the same, and they have come to use from the instruction of our
elders. (Human language is learned by imitation).
20. The intellect which of itself is tranquil in itself (_i.e._ in its
own nature), acts its wonders in itself (_i.e._ displays or developes
itself in the very intellect); it is the pulsation of intellect which
displays the universe, as its _vivarta_ or development, and this
pulsation is the Omnipotence of God.
21. The pulsation of the Divine Intellect being put to a stop, there
ensues a cessation of the course of the universe, and as it with the
supreme Intellect, so it is with its parts of individual intellects,
whose action and inaction spread out and curb the sphere of their
thoughts.
22. What is called consciousness or its action, is a non entity in
nature; and that which is a mere vacuum, is said to be the subtile body
of the Intellect. (_i.e._ The intellectual powers have no material
forms).
23. The world appears as an entity, by our thinking it as such; but it
vanishes upon our ceasing to think as such, like the disappearance of
figures in a picture, when it is burnt down to ashes.
24. The world appears as one with the Deity, to one who sees the unity
only in himself; it is the vibration of the intellect only, that caused
the revolution of worlds, as the turning of a potters wheel (is caused
by the rotatory motion given to it).
25. As the measure, shape and form of the ornament are not different
from the gold, so the action of the intellect, is not separate from
it; and it is this which forms the world, as the gold, becomes the
ornament and the world and intellect are the same thing, as the
ornament and its gold.
26. The mind is the pulsation of the intellect, and it is want of this
knowledge that frames a separate world; as it is ignorance of the gold
work, that makes the jewel appear as another thing.
27. The mind being wholly absorbed in the intellect, there remains
this pure intellect alone; as the nature of one's self or soul being
known, there is an end of worldly enjoyments. (He that has known the
intellectual world, is not deluded by his sensuous mind; and whoever
has tasted his spiritual bliss, does not thirst for sensual pleasures).
28. Disregard of enjoyments is an education of the highest wisdom;
hence no kind of enjoyments is acceptable to the wise: (cursed are they
that hunger and thirst for enjoyments of this world).
29. Know this to be another indication of wisdom, that no man that has
eaten to satiety has ever a zest for any bad food that is offered to
him. (_i.e._ No sensual pleasure is delectable before spiritual bliss).
30. Another sign of wisdom is our natural aversion, to enjoyments, and
is the sense of one's perception of all pleasures, in the vibrations of
his intellect (_i.e._ the mind is the store house of all pleasures).
31. He is known as a wise man, who has this good habit of his deeply
rooted in his mind, and he is said to be an intelligent man, who
refrains from enjoying whatever is enjoyable in this world. (For thy
shall hunger hereafter, who stuff themselves with plenty here below.
St. Mathew Ch. v).
32. Again whoso pursues after his perfection, in pursuance of the
examples of others, doth strike the air with a stick, or beat the bush
in vain in search of the same, because it requires sincerity of purpose
to be successful in anything (and not the bodily practices of the
ignorant, as they do in _Hatha Yoga_).
33. Some times they emaciate and torture the body in order to have a
full view of the inner soul (because they think to be an envelope of
the soul, and an obstruction to its full sight); but the intellectual
soul, being settled in a thousand objects of its intelligence, it
sees only errors instead of the light of the soul. (So the hermits,
ascetics, monks, and friars emaciate their bodies, and the religious
fanatics torture their persons in vain).
34. So long doth the unconscious spirit flutter in its fickleness,
and goes on roving from one object to another; as the light of the
understanding do not rise and shine within it. (The ignorant are
strangers to rest and quiet).
35. But no sooner doth the light of the tranquil intellect, appear
in its brightness within the inward soul; than the flattering of the
fickle spirit is put to flight, like the flickering of a lamp after it
is extinguished.
36. There is no such thing as vibration nor suspension of the tranquil
spirit; because the quiescent soul neither moves forward or backward,
nor has its motion in any direction.
37. The soul that is neither unconscious of itself, nor has any
vibration in it, is said to be calm and quiet; and as it remains in the
state of its indifference to vibrations, and gains its forms of pure
transparence, it is no more liable to its bondage in life, nor inquires
its _moksha_ liberation to set it free from regeneration.
38. The soul that is settled in itself (or the supreme soul), has no
fear of bondage nor need of its liberation also; and the intellect
being without its intellection, or having no object to dwell upon,
becomes unconscious both of its Existence as well as extinction. (One
that is absorbed in his self meditation, is unconscious of everything
_in-esse et non-esse_).
39. He that is full in himself with the spirit of God, is equally
ignorant both of his bondage and liberation; because the desire
of being liberated, indicates want of one's self sufficiency and
perfection (or rather the sense of his bondage, from which he wants to
be liberated).
40. "Let me then have my equanimity and not my liberation." This desire
is also a bondage in itself; and it is the unconsciousness of these,
which is reckoned as our chief good. For know the Supreme state to be
that, which is pure intelligence and without a shadow.
41. The restoration of the intellect to its proper form consists in
divesting it of all its intelligibles; and that form of it (which is
marked by desire or the prurient soul), is no more than the oscillation
of the great Intellect. (All animal souls are vibrations of the Divine
spirit).
42. That only is subject to bondage and liberation, which is seen and
destructible in its nature (_i.e._ the visible and perishable body);
and not the invisible soul, which take the name of ego, and has no
position nor form or figure of itself.
43. We know not what thing it is, that is brought under or loosened
from bondage by any one. It is not the pure desire which the wise form
for themselves, and does not affect the body. (It is the vibration of
mind acting upon the body, and causing its actions that subjects to
Bondage).
44. It is therefore, that the wise practise the restraint of their
respiring breath, in order to restraint their desires and actions; and
being devoid of these, they become as the pure Intellect.
45. These being suppressed, the idea of the world is lost in the
density of the intellect; because the thoughts of the mind, are caused
by the vibration of the intellect only (and set in also in the same).
46. Thus there remains nothing, nor any action of the body or mind,
except the vibration of the intellect; and the phenomenal world is no
other, than a protracted dream from one sight to another. The learned
are not deluded by these appearances, which they know to be exhibitions
of their own minds.
47. Know in thy meditation within thyself that recondite soul, which
gives rise to our consciousness of the essences of things, appearing
incessantly before us; and in which all these phantasms of our brain,
dissolve as dirt in the water; and in which all our perceptions and
conceptions of the passing world are flowing on as in a perpetual
stream.
CHAPTER LX.
OF THE MAJESTY AND GRANDEUR OF GOD.
Argument.--Manifestation of mysterious magic of the one, uniform and
pure Monad in multiform shapes, as a display of his all Comprehensive
plenitude fullness.
Vasishtha continued:--Such is the first great truth concerning the
solidity or of the Divine Intellect, that contains the gigantic forms
of Brahmá, Vishnu and Siva in it.
2. It is by means of the greatness of God, that all people are as gaudy
as great princes in their several spheres; and are ever exulting in
their power of floating and traversing in the regions of open air.
(This means both the flight of bird, as well as aerial rambles of
Yogis).
The Taittiríya Upanishad says:--God has filled the world with joy,
and the minute insect is as joyous as the victorious prince: meaning
hereby, that God has given to every being its particular share of
happiness.
3. It is by their dwelling in the spirit of God, that the earth born
mortals are as happy as the inhabitants of heaven; (That have nothing
to desire); nay they are free from the pain of sorrow and released from
the pangs of death, that have come unto the Lord--(O death where is thy
sting, O grave where thy victory? Pope).
4. Yes, they live in Him that have found him, and are not to be
restrained by any body; provided they have but taken their refuge under
the overspreading umbrage of the supreme spirit.
5. He who meditates for a moment, on the universal essence of all (as
the ens entium); he becomes liberated in an instant, and lives as a
liberal minded sage or _muni_ on earth. (The sage that sees his God in
all and every where through out all nature).
6. He does what are his duties in this world, and never grieves in
discharging them. Ráma said:--How is it possible, Sir, to meditate on
the universal soul in all things, when the sage has buried his mind,
understanding and his egoism and himself in the unity of God? And how
can the soul be viewed in the plurality, when all things have been
absorbed in the unity?
7. Vashistha replied:--The God that dwells in all bodies, moves them
to their actions, and receives their food and drink in himself,
that produces all things and annihilates them at last, is of course
unknowable to our consciousness (which is conscious of itself only).
8. Now it is this indwelling principle in every thing, that is without
beginning and end, and inherent in the nature of all; is called the
common essence of all, because it constitutes the _tattwa_ identity (or
essential nature or the abstract property) of everything in the world.
9. It dwells as vacuity in the vacuum, and as sonorousness in sound;
it is situated as feeling in whatever is felt, and as taction in the
objects of touch.
10. It is the taste of all tastables, and the tasting of the tongue;
it is the light of all objects of sight, and vision of the organs of
seeing.
11. It is the sense of smell in the act of smelling, and the odour
in all odorous substance; it is the plumpness of the body, and the
solidity and stability of the earth.
12. It is the fluidity of liquids and the flatulence of air; it is the
flame and flash of fire, and the cogitation of the understanding.
13. It is the thinking principle of the thoughtful mind, and the ego
of our egoism; it is the consciousness of the conscious soul, and the
sensible heart.
14. It is the power of vegetation in vegetables, and the perspective in
all pictures and paintings; it is the capacity of all pots and vessels,
and the tallness of stately trees.
15. It is the immobility of immovables, and the mobility of movable
bodies; it is the dull insensibility of stones and blocks, and the
intelligence of intelligent beings.
16. It is the immortality and god-head of the immortal gods, and
humanity of human beings; it is the curvedness of crooked beasts, and
the supine proneness of crawling and creeping insects.
17. It is the current in the course of time, and the revolution and
aspects of the seasons; it is the fugacity of fleeting moments, and the
endless duration of eternity.
18. It is the whiteness of whatever is white, and blackness of all that
is black; it is activity in all actions, and it is stern fixity in the
doings of destiny.
19. The supreme spirit is quiescent in all that is sedate, and lasting
and evanescent in whatever is passing and perishing; and he shows his
productiveness in the production of things.
20. He is the childhood of children, and the youth of young men; he
shows himself as fading in the decay and decline of beings, and as his
extinction in their death and demise.
21. Thus the all pervading soul, is not apart from anything, as the
waves and froths of the foaming sea, are no way distinct from its body
of waters.
22. These multiformities of things are all unrealities, and taken for
true in our ignorance of the unity; which multiplies itself in our
imagination, as children create and produce false apparitions from
their unsound understandings. (These as they change are not the varied
god as it is generally supposed to be, but various workings of the
intellect).
23. It is I, says the lord, that am situated every where, and it is I
that pervade the whole; and fill it with all varieties at pleasure;
know therefore, O high minded Ráma! that all these varieties are
but creatures of imagination in the mind of God, and are thence
reflected into the mirror of our minds. Knowing this rest in the
calm tranquillity of your soul, and enjoy the undisturbed solace and
happiness of your high mind.
24. Válmíki said:--As the sage was saying these things, the day
passed away under its evening shade; the sun sank down in its evening
devotion, and the assembly broke with mutual salutations to the
performance of their eventide ablutions, until they reassembled on the
next morning.
CHAPTER LXI.
DESCRIPTION OF THE WORLD AS A PASSING DREAM.
Argument:--How our firm faith arises over this entity, and its answer.
Ráma said:--As we are, Oh sage! a dream drawn house, the body of the
lotus-born Brahmá--the first progenitor, is the same no doubt.
2. And if this world is a non-entity--_asat_, we must know our
existence the same, then how is it possible to arise the firm faith
over this entity--_sat_.
3. Vasishtha responded:--We are shining here as a created being by the
previous birth of Brahmá, but in fact, the reflexion of soul shines for
ever, nothing besides.
4. Owing to the omnipresence of consciousness, all beings exist as
reality every where, and if she rises from unreal knowledge, she as
real knowledge destroys the unreal one. (vice-versa).
5. Therefore whatever comes from these five elements, is but
transitory, but owing to the firm belief on _ego_, we enjoy a firm
faith for the same.
6. In a dream, we see good many things as reality; but as soon the
dream is over, we do not find the things dreamt of; so we see the
reality of the world; as long we remain in ignorance.
7. Oh Ráma! as the dreaming man counts his dream as reality, owing to
his faith on it; so this world appears a reality, like the supreme God
who has no beginning and end.
8. That which is to be created by the dreaming man, is to be called his
own; as we can say by guessing knowledge, what is in the seed, is in
the fruit.
9. Whatever comes from non-entity, is to be called non-entity; and that
which is unreal though it can be workable, is not reasonable to think
good.
10. As the thinking result of unreality is to be given up, so the firm
faith which is arising by the dreaming man; is to be given up likewise.
11. Whatever soul creates in dream is our firm belief, but that remains
only for a time being (hence it is _asat_--non-entity).
12. Brahmá's long drawn portion is this entity, hence we think also the
same, but in fact, this entity is a moment to Brahmá.
13. Consciousness is the creator of all elements, she creates every
thing according to her model, hence creator and creation are one and
the same.
14. As the backward and forward whirling motion of water, makes the
deep to swell, and as also fairy comes near in a dream, so all these
are in reality nothing.
15. So this entity with its change (of creation, sustentation and
destruction) is nothing. In whatever manner we look [at the] object,
that will appear in return in the same manner.
16. The rule of the erroneous dream is not to reproduce (in waking
state, what it produces in sleeping state, though it has a power to
create something out of nothing) as the production is not in the world,
but owing to ignorance it appears so.
17. In the three worlds we see wondrous objects, as we see fire burning
in the water like a sub-marine fire.
18. Good many cities exist in vacuity, as birds and stars remain in the
sky. We find lotus in a stone like trees growing without an earth.
19. One country gives every kind of object to the seeker, like a tree
that gives all objects to the seeker (Kalpa taru) and also we see in a
stone and rows of jewels (that is counting beads) giving fruits like
fruitful trees.
20. Life exists within a stone (Sálgram) as frog exists. Stone gives
water as moon-stone gives.
21. In a dream within a minute good many things can be made and unmade,
which in fact, are unreal like one's death in a dream.
22. The natural water of the elements remains in the sky, (that is, in
the cloud), when the heavenly river _Mandákiní_ remains in vacuity.
23. The heavy stone flies in the air, when the winged mountain does so.
Every thing to be got in stone, when every thing can be secured from
the philosopher's stone.
24. In the garden of bliss of Indra every desired object to be got, but
in salvation such kind of desired object is wanting.
25. Even dull matter acts like machine, hence every object acts like
wonderful erroneous magic.
26. By magical art (that is, Gandharva vidyá) we see even impossible
objects such as two moons, Kavandhas, mantras, drugs, and pishacha. All
these are the works of wonderful erroneous magic, which are in fact
nothing.
27. We see impossibility as real as we see possibility, hence
impossibility becomes real by our erroneous ideas only.
28. The erroneous dream though it appears as real is in fact unreal, as
that which is not real does not exist, which is real does exist (unity
is real, duality is unreal, hence existence and non-existence are one
and the same).
29. So this dreaming creation is looked by all worldly being here as
real, as dreamer takes his dream a reality.
30. By passing from one error to another error, from one dream to
another, one firm faithful being comes out.
31. As a stray deer falls into the pit repeatedly for green grass, so
ignorant man repeatedly falls into the pit of this world, owing to his
ignorance.
CHAPTER LXII.
IN THE NARRATION OF JIVATA AN EXAMPLE OF DOMESTIC AND MENDICANT LIFE
Argument:--Narration of the mendicant Jiváta, in illustration of the
transmigration of the soul in various births, according to the variety
of its insatiable Desire.
Vasishtha resumed:--Hear me relate to you, Ráma, the story of a certain
mendicant, who fostered some desire in his mind, and wandered through
many migrations of his soul.
2. There lived a great mendicant at one time, who devoted his life to
holy devotion, and passed his days in the observance of the rules of
his mendicancy. (The state of mendicancy is the third stage of life
of a Brahman, which is devoted to devotion, and supported by begging
of the simple subsistence of life. This story applies to all men, who
are in some way or other devoted to some profession for acquiring the
necessaries of life and the more so, as all men have some ultimate
object of desire, which is an obstruction to their _Nirvána_ or final
extinction in the Deity. For the lord says in the Gospel, He that
loveth anything more than me, is not worthy of me).
3. In the intensity of his _Samádhi_ devotion, his mind was purged
of all its desires; and it became assimilated to the object of its
meditation, as the sea water, is changed to the form of waves.
(_Samádhi_ is defined by Patanjali, as the forgetting of one's self in
the object of his meditation).
4. Once as he was sitting on his seat after termination of his
meditation, and was intent upon discharging some sacred functions of
his order, there chanced to pass a thought over his clear mind (like
the shadow of cloud over the midday sky).
5. He looked into the reflexion of the thought, that rose of itself in
his mind; that he should reflect for his pleasure, upon the various
conditions of common people, and the different modes of their life.
(the proper study of man is man, and the manner of each rightly).
6. All this thought his mind passed from the reflexion of himself and
his God, to that of another person; and he lost the calm composure of
his mind, as when the quiet sea is disturbed by whirlpool or whirl
wind. (This desire of the sage disturbed his breast, like the doubt of
Parnell's Hermit).
7. Then he thought in himself to become an ideal man of his own
accord, and became in an instant the imagined person Jivátá by name.
(Imagination shapes one to what he imagines himself to be).
8. Jivátá, the ideal man, now roved about like a dreaming person,
through the walks of the imaginary city, which he had raised to
himself, as a sleeping man, builds his aerial abodes in dream. (So
every man thinks himself as some one, and moves about in his air built
city).
9. He drank his fill at pleasure, as a giddy bee sips the honey from
lotus cups; he became plump and hearty with his sports, and enjoyed
sound sleep from his want of care.
10. He saw himself in the form of a Brahman in his dream, who was
pleased with his studies and the discharge of his religious duties; and
as he reflected himself as such he was transformed to the same state,
as a man is transplanted from one place to another at a thought. (He
makes the man, and places him in every state and place).
11. The good Brahman who was observant of his daily ritual, fell asleep
one day into a deep trance, and dreamt himself doing the duties of the
day, as the seed hid in shell, performs inwardly its act of vegetation.
12. The same Brahman saw himself changed to a chieftain in his dream,
and the same chief ate and drank and slept as any other man in general.
13. The chief again thought himself as a king in his dream, who ruled
over the earth extending to the horizon; and was beset by all kinds of
enjoyments, as a creeper is studded with flowers.
14. Once as this prince felt himself at ease, he fell into a sound
sleep free from all cares, and saw the future consequences of his
actions, as the effect is attached to the cause, or the flowers are the
forth-comings of the tree.
15. He saw his soul assuming the form of a heavenly maid, as the pith
of a plant puts forth itself in its flowers and fruits, (what is at the
bottom, comes out on the top; and what is the root, sprouts forth in
the tree).
16. As this heavenly maid was lulled to sleep by her weariness and
fatigue, she beheld herself turn into a deer, as the calm ocean finds
itself disturbed into eddies and waves (by its inner caves and outward
winds).
17. As this timorous fawn with her fickle eyes, fell into a sound sleep
at one time; she beheld herself transformed to a creeping plant (which
she likes to browse upon so fondly in her pasture).
18. The crooked beasts of the field and the creeping plants of forest,
have also their sleep and dream of their own nature; the dreams being
caused by what they saw and heard and felt in their waking states.
19. This creeper came to be beautified in times, with its beautiful
fruits, flowers and leaves, and formed a bower for the seat of the
floral goddess of the woods.
20. It hid in its heart the wishes that grew in it, in the same manner
as the seed conceals in its embryo the germ of the would be tree; and
at last saw itself in its inward consciousness, to be full of frailty
and failings.
21. It had remained long in its sleep and rest, but being disgusted
with its drowsy dullness, it thought of being the fleeting bee its
constant guest, and found itself to be immediately changed to a
fluttering bee (which it had fed with its farinaceous food).
22. The bee roved at pleasure over the tender and blossoming creepers
in the forest, and let on the petals of blooming lotuses, as a fond
lover courts his mistresses.
23. It roved about the blossoms, blooming as brightening pearls in the
air; and drank the nectarious Juice from the flower cups, as a lover
sips the nectar from the rubied lips of the beloved.
24. He became enamoured of the lotus of the lake, and sat silent upon
its thorny stalk on the water; for such is the fondness of fools, even
for what is painful to them.
25. The lake was often infested by elephants, who tore and trampled
over the beds of lotus bushes; because it is a pleasure to the
malignant base, to lay waste the fair works of God. (The black big
and bulky elephants, are said to be invidious of the fair and pretty
lotuses; hence the elephant is used as symbolical of the devil, the
destroyer of all good).
26. The fond bee meets the fate of its fondling lotus, and is crushed
under the tusk of the elephant, as the rice is ground under the teeth.
(Such is the fate of overfondness for the fair).
27. The little bee seeing the big body and might of the mighty
elephant, took a fancy of being as such; and by his imagining himself
as so, he was instantly converted to one of the like kind (not in its
person but in the mind). (Thus is a lesson, that no one is content with
himself, but wishes to be the envied or desired being).
28. At last the elephant fell down into a hollow pit, which was as deep
and dry as the dried bed of a gulf; as a man falls into the profound
and inane ocean of this world, which is overcast by an impervious
darkness around. (The troublesome world is always compared with a
turbulent and darksome ocean).
29. The elephant was a favourite of the prince for his defeating the
forces of his adversaries; and he routed about at random with his giddy
might, as the lawless Daitya robbers wander about at night.
30. He fell afterwards under the sword of the enemy, and pierced all
over his body by their deadly darts; as the haughty egoism of the
living body, drops down in the soul under the wound of right reason.
31. The dying elephant having been accustomed to see swarms of bees,
fluttering over the proboscis of elephants, and sipping the ichor
exuding from them, had long cherished the desire of becoming a bee,
which he now came to be in reality.
32. The bee rambled at large amidst the flowery creepers of the
forest, and resorted again to the bed of lotuses in the lake; because
it is hard for fools to get rid of their fond desire, though it is
attended with danger and peril.
33. At last the sportive bee was trampled down and crushed under the
feet of an elephant, and become a goose, by its long association with
one in the lake.
34. The goose passed through many lives, till it became gander at last,
and sported with the geese in the lake.
35. Here it came to bear, the name of the gander that served as the
vehicle of Brahmá, and thenceforth fostered the idea of his being so,
as the yolk of an egg fosters a feathered fowl in it.
36. As it was fostering this strong desire in itself, it grew old and
decayed by disease, as a piece of wood is eaten up by inbred worms;
then as he died with his consciousness of being the bird of Brahmá, he
was born as the great stork of that God in his next birth.
37. The stork lived there in the company of the wise, he became
enlightened from the views of worldly beings; he continued for ages in
his disembodied liberation, and cared for nothing in future. (The soul
that rests in the spirit of God, has nothing better to desire).
CHAPTER LXIII.
DREAM OF JÍVÁTA.
Arguments:--All living souls are occupied with the thought of their
present state, forgetful of the past, and altogether heedless of the
future.
Vasishtha continued:--This bird that sported beside the stalk of the
lotus seat of Brahmá, once went to the city of Rudra with his god on
his back, and there beheld the God Rudra face to face. (The inferior
Gods waited upon the superior deities).
2. Seeing the God Rudra he thought himself to be so, and the figure of
the God was immediately imprest upon his mind, like the reflexion of an
outward object in the mirror.
3. Being full of Rudra in himself, he quitted his body of the bird,
as the fragrance of a flower forsakes the calyx, as it mixes with the
breeze and flies in the open air.
4. He passed his time happily at that place, in the company with the
attendants and different classes of the dependant divinities of Rudra.
5. This Rudra being then full of the best knowledge of divinity and
spirituality; looked back in his understanding into the passed accounts
of his prior lives, that were almost incalculable.
6. Being then gifted with clear sightedness and clairvoyance, he was
astonished at the view of naked truths, that appeared to him as sights
in a dream, which he recounted to him as follows.
7. O! how wonderful is this over spreading illusion, which is stretched
all about us, and fascinates the world by its magic _wand_; it exhibits
the palpable untruth as positive truth, as the dreary desert presents
the appearance of limpid waters, in the sun beams spreading over its
sterile sands.
8. I well remember my primary state of the pure intellect, and its
conversion to the state of the mind; and how it was changed from its
supremacy and omniscience, to the bondage of the limited body.
9. It was by its own desire that the living soul assumed to itself a
material body, formed and fashioned agreeably to its fancy, like a
picture drawn in a painting; and became a mendicant in my person in one
of its prior births, when it was unattached to the objects exposed to
view all around.
10. The same mendicant sat in his devotion, by controlling the actions
of the members of his body, and began to reflect on outward objects,
with great pleasure in his mind.
11. He buried all his former thoughts in oblivion, and thought only of
the object that he was employed to reflect upon; and this thought so
engrossed and worked upon his mind, that it prevented the rise of any
other thought in it.
12. The phenomenon which appears in the mind, offers itself solely to
the view also (by supplanting the traces of the past); as the brownness
of fading autumn, supercedes the vernal verdure of leaves and plants,
so the man coming to his maturity, forgets the helpless state of his
boyhood, and is thoughtless of his approaching decay and decline.
13. Thus the mendicant became the Brahman Jivátá by his fallible and
fickle desire, which laid him to wander from one body to another, as
little ants enter into the holes of houses and things.
14. Being fond of Brahmahood and reverential to Bráhmans in his mind,
he became the wished for person in his own body; because the reality
and unreality have the power of mutually displacing one another,
according to the greater influence of either. (The weaker yields and
makes room to the stronger, like the survival of the fittest).
15. The Bráhman next obtained the chieftainship, from his strong
predilection for the same; just as the tree becomes fruitful by its
continuous suction of the moisture of earth. (The common mother of all).
16. Being desirous of dispensing justice, and discharging all legal
affairs, the general wished for royalty, and had his wishes fulfilled
by this becoming a prince; but as the prince was over fond of his
courtesans, he was transformed to a heavenly nymph that he prized above
all in his heart.
17. But as the celestial dame prized the tremulous eye sight of the
timorous deer, above her heavenly form and station; she was soon
metamorphosed to an antelope in the woods, and destined to graze as a
miserable beast for her foolish choice.
18. The fawn that was very fond of browzing the tender blades and
leaves, became at last the very creeping plant, that had crept into the
crevice of her lickerish mind.
19. The creeper being long accustomed to dote on the bee, that used to
be in its company; found in its consciousness to be that insect, after
the destruction of its vegetable form.
20. Though well aware of its being crushed under the elephant, together
with the lotus flower in which it dwelt, yet it was foolish to take the
form of the bee, for its pleasure of roving about the world. (So the
living soul enters into various births and bodies only to perish with
them).
21. Being thus led into a hundred different forms, said he, I
am at last become the self-same Rudra; and it is because of the
capriciousness of my erratic mind in this changeful world.
22. Thus have I wandered through the variegated paths of life, in this
wilderness of the world; and I have roamed in many aerial regions, as
if I trod on solid and substantial ground.
23. In some one of my several births under the name of _Jiváta_, and
in another I became a great and respectable Bráhman, I became quite
another person again, and then found myself as a ruler and lord of the
earth. (So every man thinks and acts himself, now as one person and in
the stage of his life. Shakespeare).
24. I had been a drake in the lotus-bush; and an elephant in the vales
of Vindhya; I then became a stag in the form of my body, and fleetness
of my limbs (and in the formation of mind also).
25. After I had deviated at first from my state of godliness, I was
still settled in the state of a devotee with devotedness to divine
knowledge; and practicing the rites befitting my position (such as
listening to holy lectures, meditating on the mysteries of nature and
so forth).
26. In this state I passed very many years and ages, and many a day and
night and season and century, glided on imperceptibly in their courses
over me. (It is said that the sedate and meditative are generally long
living men, as we learn in the accounts of the ancient patriarchs, and
in those of the _yogis_ and _lamas_ in our own times).
27. But I deviated again and again from my wonted course, and was as
often subjected to new births and forms; until at last I was changed to
Brahmá's vehicles of the _hansa_--or _anser_, and this was by virtue of
my former good conduct and company.
28. The firm or wonted habit of a living being, must come out
unobstructed by any hindrance whatsoever; and though it may be retarded
in many intermediate births for even a millennium; yet it must come and
lay hold on the person some time or other. (Habit is second nature, and
is inbred in every being; and what is bred in the bone, must run in the
blood).
29. It is by accident only, that one has the blessing of some good
company in his life; and then his inborn want may be restrained for a
time, but it is sure to break out with violence in the end, in utter
defiance of every check and rule.
30. But he who betakes himself to good society only, and strives always
for his edification in what is good and great, is able to destroy the
evil propensities which are inbred in him; because the desire to be
good, is what actually makes one so. (Discipline conquers nature).
31. Whatever a man is accustomed to do or think upon constantly, in
this life or in the next state of his being; the same appears as a
reality to him in his waking state of day dream, as unreality appears
as real in the sleeping or night dream of a man. (It is the imagination
that figures unrealities in divers forms both in the day as also in the
night dreams of men).
32. Now the thoughts that employ our minds, appoint our bodies also to
do their wished for works; and as these works are attended with some
temporary good as well as evil also; it is better therefore to restrain
and repress the rise of those tumultuous thoughts, than cherish them
for our pleasure or pain.
33. It is only the thought in our minds, that makes us to take our
bodies for ourselves or souls; and that stretches wide this world of
unrealities, as the incased seed sprouts forth and spreads itself into
a bush. (The thought bears the world in it, as the will brings it to
view).
34. The world is but the thought in sight or a visible form of their
visible thought, and nothing more in reality besides this phantasm of
it, and an illusion of our sight.
35. The illusive appearance of the world, presents itself to our sight,
like the variegated hues of the sky, it is therefore by our ignoring of
it, that we may be enabled to wipe off those tinges from our minds.
36. It is an unreal appearance, displayed by the supreme Essence (of
God or His intelligence); as a real existence at his pleasure only, and
can not therefore do any harm to any body.
37. I rise now and then to look into all these varieties in nature,
for the sake of my pleasure and curiosity; but I have the true light
of reason in me, whereby I discern the one unity quite apart from all
varieties.
38. After all these recapitulations, the incarnate Rudra returned to
his former state, and reflected on this condition of the mendicant,
whose body was now lying as a dead corpse on the barren ground.
39. He awakened the mendicant and raised his prostrate body, by
infusing his intelligence into it; when the resuscitated _Bhikshu_ came
to understand, that all his wanderings were but hallucinations of his
mind.
40. The mendicant finding himself the same with Rudra standing in his
presence, as also with the bygone ones that he recollected in his
remembrance; was astonished to think how he could be one and so many,
though it is no wonder to the intelligent, who well know that one man
acts many parts in life.
41. Afterwards both Rudra and the mendicant got up from their seats,
and proceeded to the abode of the _Jivátá_, situated in corner of the
intellectual sphere (_i.e._ the mundane world which lies in the divine
intellect).
42. They then passed over many Continents, Islands, provinces and
districts, until they arrived at the abode of _Jívata_, where they
found him lying down with a sword in hand.
43. They saw _Jivátá_ lying asleep and insensible as a dead body, when
_Rudra_ laid aside his bright celestial form, in order to enter into
the earthly abode of the deceased. (The Gods are said to assume human
shapes in order to mix with mankind).
44. They brought him back to life and intelligence, by imparting to
him portion of their spirit and intellect; and thus was this one soul
exhibited in the triple forms of _Rudra_, _Jivátá_ and the mendicant.
45. They with all their intelligence, remained ignorant of one another,
and they marvelled to look on each other in mute astonishment, as if
they were the figures in painting.
46. Then the three went together in their aerial course, to the air
built abode of the _Brahman_; who had erected his baseless fabric in
empty air, and which resounded with empty sounds all around. (The open
air being the receptacle of sounds, the aerial abodes of celestials are
incessantly infested by the sounds and cries of peoples rising upwards
from the nether world).
47. They passed through many aerial regions, and barren and populous
tracts of air; until they found out at last the heavenly residence of
the Brahman.
48. They saw him sleeping in his house; beset by the members of his
family about him; while his Brahmaní folded her arms about his neck, as
if unwilling to part with her deceased husband. (The Brahman in heaven,
was seen in the state of his parting life).
49. They awakened his drowsy intelligence, by means of their own
intelligence, as a waking man raises a sleeping soul, by means of his
own sensibility.
50. Thence they went on in their pleasant journey to the realms of the
chief and the prince mentioned before; and these were situated in the
bright regions of their intellectual sphere, and illumined by their
effulgence of the intellect. (It means to say, that all these journeys,
places and persons, were but reveries of the mind, and creations of
fancy).
51. Having arrived at that region and that very spot, they observed the
haughty chief lying on his lotus like bed.
52. He lay with his gold coloured body, in company with the partner of
his bed of golden hue; as the honey sucking bee lies in the lotus cell,
enfolded in the embrace of his mate.
53. He was beset by his mistresses, hanging about him, like the tender
stalks and tufts of flowers pendent upon a tree; and was encircled by
a belt of lighted lamps, as when a golden plate is studded about by
brilliant gems.
54. They awakened him shortly by infusing their own spirit and
intelligence in his body and mind, and then they sat together
marvelling at each other, as the self-same man in so many forms (or the
self-same person in so many bodies).
55. They next repaired to the palace of the prince, and after awakening
him with their intelligence, they all roamed about the different parts
of the world.
56. They came at last to the _hansa_ of Brahmá, and being all
transformed to that form in their minds (_i.e._ having come to know the
_ahamsa_ I am he or their self-identity); They all became the one Rudra
Personality in a hundred persons.
57. Thus the one intellect is represented in different forms and
shapes, according to the various inclinations of their minds, like so
many figures in a painting. Such is the unity of the deity represented
as different personalities, according to the various tendencies of
individual minds. (There is the same intellect and soul in all living
beings, that differ from one another in their minds only).
58. There a hundred Rudras, who are the forms of the uncovered
intellect (_i.e._ unclouded by mists of error); and they are acquainted
with the truths of all things in the world, and the secrets of all
hearts (_antaryámin_).
59. There are a hundred and some hundreds of Rudras, who are known
as very great beings in the world; among whom there are eleven only
(Ekádasa Rudras), that are situated in so many worlds (Ekádasa
Bhubanas). (The Vedas have thousands and thousands of Rudras in their
hymns as to them, as, [Sanskrit: sahashrena sahashrasah ye rudrá
adhibhúmyá]).
60. All living beings that are not awakened to reason, are ignorant of
the identity of one another; and view them in different and not in the
same light; they are not farsighted to see any other world. That which
is the most proximate to them.
61. Wise men see the minds of others and all things to rise in their
minds, like the wave rising in the sea; but unenlightened minds remain
dormant in themselves, like the inert stones and blocks. (Another
explanation of it is, that all wise men are of the same mind as Birbal
said to Akbar:--Sao Siyane ekmatá).
62. As the waves mix with themselves, by the fluidity of their waters;
so the minds of wise unite with one another, by the solubility of
their understandings, like elastic fluids and liquids. (So says
Mrityunjaya:--the oily or serous understanding ([Sanskrit: tailavat
vunvih]) readily penetrates into the minds of others).
63. Now in all these multitudes of living beings, that are presented
to our sight in this world; We find the one invariable element of the
intellect to be diffused in all of them, and making unreal appear as
real ones to view.
64. This real but invisible entity of the Divine intellect remains
for ever, after all the unreal but visible appearances disappear into
nothing; as there remains an empty space or hollow vacuity, after the
removal of a thing from its place, and the excavation of the ground by
digging it. (This empty vacuum with the _chit_ or Intellect in it, is
the universal God of the vacuist Vasishtha).
65. As you can well conceive the idea of existence, of the quintuple
elemental principles in nature; so you can comprehend also the notion
of the Omnipresence of the Divine intellect, which is the substratum of
the elemental principles.
66. As you see various statues and images, carved in stone and woods,
and set in the hollows of rocks and trees; so should you see all these
figures in the hollow space of the universe, to be situated in the
self-same intellect of the Omnipresent Deity.
67. The knowledge of the known and the visible world, in the pure
intellect of the unknown and invisible deity, resembles the view of the
variegated skies, with their uncaused and insensible figures, in the
causeless substratum of ever lasting and all pervading vacuity.
68. The knowledge of the phenomenal is the bondage of the soul, and the
ignoring of this conduces to its liberation; do therefore as you like,
either towards this or that (_i.e._ for your liberation and bondage).
69. The cognition and nescience of the world, are the causes of the
bondage and liberation of the soul, and these again are productive of
the transmigration and final emancipation of the animal spirit. It is
by your indifference to them that you can avoid them both, do therefore
as you may best choose for yourself. (Here are three things offered to
view, namely, the desire of heaven and liberation, and the absence of
all desires. [Sanskrit: svargakáma mokshakámau nishkámashchatra yah]).
70. What is lost at its disappearance (as our friends and properties),
is neither worth seeking or searching after, nor sorrowing for when
it is lost and gone from us. That which is gained of itself in our
calm and quiet without any anxiety or assiduity on our part, is
truly reckoned to be our best gain. (so says the Moha-Mudgura:--Be
content with what offers of itself to thee. [Sanskrit: yatvabhase
nijakarnmípáttam| bittam tena vinodaya chittam|]).
71. That which is no more than our knowledge of it (as the object of
our senses and the objective world), is no right knowledge but mere
fallacy; the true knowledge is that of the subjective consciousness,
which is always to be attended to.
72. As the wave is the agitation of the water, so is this creation but
an oscillation of the divine intellect; and this is the only difference
between them, that the one is the production of the elements in nature,
and the other is that of the divine will.
73. Again the undulation of waves occurs, in conjunction with the
existing elements at certain spots and times; but the production of the
world is wholly without the junction of the elemental bodies, which
were not in existence at its creation. (It means to say, that the world
is only an ideal formation of the divine mind).
74. The shining worlds shine with the light of the divine intellect,
in which they are situated as the thoughts in its consciousness. It
transcends the power of speech to define what it is, and yet it is
expressed in the veda in the words that, "It is the supreme soul and
perfect felicity" (Siva Parátmá).
75. Thus the world is the form of its consciousness in the divine
intellect, and they are not different from one another, as words are
never separable from their senses. It is said that the world is the
undulation of the Divine spirit, and none but the ignorant inveigh
against, by saying that the wave and water are two different things.
(Kálidása in the commencement of Raghuvansa, uses the same simile of
words and their meanings, to denote the intimate union of Párvatí and
Siva, which is done to express the inseparability of the world with
its maker; corresponding with the well known line of Pope: "whose body
nature is, and God the soul").
CHAPTER LXIV.
ON THE ATTAINMENT OF ATTENDANTSHIP ON THE GOD RUDRA.
Argument:--The remainder of the former story; and the manner of
becoming the attendant Rudras on Siva.
Ráma said:--Tell me sir, what became of the many forms, which the
mendicant saw in his dream; and whether the several forms of _Jívata_,
the Brahman, the gander and others return to themselves, or remained as
Rudras for ever more.
2. Vasishtha replied:--They all remained with Rudra, as parts and
compositions of himself; and being enlightened by him, they wandered
all about the world, and rested contented with themselves.
3. They all beheld with Rudra, the magic scenes which were displayed
before them; till at last they were dismissed from his company, to
return to their own states and places.
4. Rudra said:--Go you now to your own places, and there enjoy your
fill with your family; and return to me after some time, having
completed the course of your enjoyments and sufferings in the world.
5. You will then become as parts of myself, and remain as my attendants
to grace my residence; till at last we return to the supreme at the end
of time, and be absorbed in last _Omega_ of all.
6. Vasishtha said:--So saying, the Lord Rudra vanished from their
sight, and mixed in the midst of the Rudras, who viewed all the worlds
in their enlightened intellects. (These are celestial and angelic
beings).
7. Then did _Jívata_ and others return to their respective residences,
where they have to share their shares of domestic felicity in the
company of their families, during their allotted times.
8. Having then wasted and shuffled off their mortal coil, at the end of
their limited periods, they will be promoted to the rank of Rudras in
heaven, and will appear as luminous stars in the firmament.
9. Ráma rejoined:--All those forms of _Jiváta_ and others, being
but creations of the empty imagination of the mendicant; I cannot
understand, how they could be beings, as there is no substantiality in
imaginary things.
10. Vasishtha replied:--The truth of the imagination lies partly in our
consciousness, and partly in our representation of the image; though
the imagery or giving a false shape to anything, is as untrue as any
nihility in nature. But what we are conscious of must be true, because
our consciousness comprehends everything in it.
11. Thus what is seen in the dream, and represented to us by
imagination, are all impressed in our consciousness at all times and
for ever. (Therefore neither is our consciousness nor the images we are
conscious of are untrue, though the imagery and the work of imagination
are utterly false).
12. As a man when going or carried from one country to another, and
there again to some other place, has no knowledge of the distance of
his journey, unless he is conscious of its length and duration in space
and time; so we are ignorant of the duration of our dream, and our
passing from one dream to another, without our consciousness of it in
our sleeping state.
13. Therefore it is our consciousness that contains all things, that
are represented to it by the intellect; and it is from our intellection
that we have the knowledge of everything, because the intellect is full
of knowledge and pervades everywhere.
14. Imagination, desire and dream, are the one and same thing, the
one producing the other and all lodged in the cell of the intellect.
Their objects are obtained by our intense application to them. Desire
produces imagination which is the cause of dream; they are the
phenomena of mind, and their objects are the results of deep meditation.
15. Nothing is to be had without its practice and meditation of it,
and men of enlightened minds gain the objects by their _Yoga_ or
meditation of them alone. (These are the _Yoga_ siddhas or adepts in
_Yoga_ as _Siva_ &c).
16. These adepts view the objects of their pursuit in all places, such
as the _god Siva_ and others of the Siddha Yogis, such was my aim and
attempt also, but it was not attended with success.
17. I was unsuccessful in want of my fixed resolvedness, but failed in
both for my attending to both sides. It is only the firm resolution of
one in one point, that gives him success in any undertaking.
18. As one going in southerly direction, cannot arrive at his house in
the north, so it is the case with the pursuers after their aims; which
they well know to be unattainable without their firm determination in
it.
19. Whoever is resolved to gain his desired objects, must fix his
view on the object before him; the mind being fixed on the object in
view, brings the desire into effect. (So says Hafiz: If thou want the
presence of the object, never be absent from it).
20. So the mendicant having the demi God Rudra, for the sole object
in his view, became assimilated to the very form of his wish; because
whoso is intent on one object, must remove all duality from before him.
(So says the mystic Sadi: I drove the duality from my door, in order to
have the unity alone before my view).
21. The other imaginary forms of the mendicant, were all different
persons in their different spheres; and had obtained their several
forms, according to their respective desires from one state to another
(as said before).
22. They did not know or look on one another, but had all their
thoughts and sights fixed on Rudra alone; because those that are
awakened to their spiritual knowledge, have their sight fixed on their
final liberation, while the unenlightened mortals are Subjected to
repeated births, by the repetition of their wishes (to be born in some
form or other).
23. It was accordingly to the will of Rudra, that he took this one form
and many others upon him, such as he wills to become a Vidhyadhara in
one place and a pandit in another.
24. This instance of Rudra serves for an example, of the efficacy of
intense thought and practice of all men; who may become one or another
or many more, as also learned or ignorant, agreeably to their thought
and conduct. (One to be many, means the versatility of parts, to act as
many).
25. So one has his manhood and Godhead also (_i.e._ acts as a man and a
God likewise), by his manly and Godlike actions at different times and
places; and to be both at the one and same time, requires much greater
ability and energy both of the mind and body (as it is seen in the
persons of deified heroes).
26. The living soul being one with the Divine, has all the powers of
the same implanted in it; the infinite being ingrafted in the finite,
It is of the same nature by innate nature.
27. The living soul has its expansion and contraction in its life and
death, as the Divine soul has its evolution and involution; in the
acts of creation and dissolution; but the Divine soul destroys no
soul, because it is the soul of souls and the aggregate of all souls;
therefore any one that would be godly, must refrain from slaughter.
28. So the yogis and yoginís continue in the discharge of their sacred
rites, as enjoined by law and usage, and either remain in this or rove
about in other worlds at large at the free will and liberty.
29. A yogi is seen in several forms at once, both in this world and
in the next, according to his desert and the merit of his actions; as
the great yogi and warrior Karta Vírya Arjuna, became the terror of
the world as if he were ubiquitous, while he remained quite at home.
(_i.e._ though confined in one place, yet he seemed to be present every
where).
30. So also doth the god Vishnu appear in human forms on earth, while
he sleeps at ease in the milky ocean; and the yoginis of heaven hover
over animal sacrifices on earth, while they reside in their groups in
the etherial sphere.
31. Indra also appears on earth, to receive the oblations of men, when
he is sitting in his heavenly seat on high, and Náráyana takes the
forms of a thousand Rámas upon him, in his conflict with the myriads of
Rakhasa legions.
32. So did one Krishna become a hundred, to receive the obeisance of
his reverential princes; and he appears as a thousand in the company of
many thousand monarchs in the Kuru assembly.
33. So the god became incarnate in many forms, with parts and particles
of his own spirit for the preservation of the world; and the one lord
became many in the company of his mistresses in a moment. (This was the
company of milk maids in the rásalílá sport of Krishna).
34. In this manner did the forms of _Jívata_ and others, which were
the creatures of the mendicant's imagination, retire at the behest of
Rudra, to the particular abodes of their own and respective desires.
35. There they enjoyed all their delights for a long time, until they
entered the abode of Rudra; where they became the attendants of the
demigod, and remained in his train for a great length of time.
36. They remained in the company of Rudra, dwelling in the groves of
the evergreen and ever blossoming Kalpa creepers of paradise, blooming
with clusters of their gemming florets; and roving at pleasure to
different worlds, and to the celestial city of Siva on the _Kailása_
mountain, and sporting in the company of heavenly nymphs, and bearing
the crowns of immortality on their heads. (This is the description of
the heaven of Hindus).
CHAPTER LXV.
RÁMA'S WONDER AT THE ERROR OF MEN.
Argument.--Application of the mendicant's case to all men, who are
equally mistaken in their choice.
Vasishtha Continued:--As the mendicant saw this transient scene of
error in his mind; so it is the case with all living beings, to look on
their past lives and actions apart from themselves, and in the persons
of other men.
2. The past lives, actions and demise of all reflective souls, are as
fast imprinted in them, as any thought is preserved in the retentive
mind and vacuous intellect.
3. Distant and separate things are mingled together, in the present
sphere of one's soul; and all persons appear as distinct figures in the
dream.
4. And the human soul, though it is a form of the divine, yet being
enclosed in its frail and mortal body, is doomed to misery until its
final liberation from birth and body. Thus I have related to you the
fate of all living souls, in the state and tale of the mendicant
_Bhikshu_.
5. Now know, O Ráma! that the souls of all of us like that of the
mendicant, are vibrated and moved by the impulse of the supreme spirit;
and are yet fallible in their nature, and falling from error to error
every moment (as we find in our dreams).
6. As a stone falling from a rock, falls lower and lower to the nether
ground; so the living soul once fallen from its height of supreme
spirit, descends lower and lower to the lowest pit.
7. Now it sees one dream, and then passes from it to another; and
thus rolling for ever in its dreaming sleep, it never finds any
substantiality whatsoever.
8. The soul thus obscured under the illusion of errors, happens some
times to come to the light of truth, either by the guidance of some
good instructor, or by the light of its own intuition; and then it
is released from the wrong notion of its personality in the body, and
comes to the true knowledge of itself.
9. Ráma said:--O! the impervious gloom of error that ever spreads on
the human soul, causes it to rely in the mist of its errors, as a
sleeping man enjoys the scenery of his dreams.
10. It is shrouded by the thick darkness of the night of erroneous
knowledge, and falls into the pit of illusion which over spreads the
world (máyá or error is the fruit of the forbidden tree whose mortal
taste brought death into the world, while knowledge is the fruit of the
tree of immortality, which liberates the soul from the bonds of birth
and death).
11. O the egregious error of taking a thing for our own, which in
reality belongs to no body but the lord and master of all.
12. It behoves you, sir, to explain to me, whence this error takes
its rise, and how the mendicant with his share of good and right
understanding, could fall into the error (of wishing himself to become
another, that was as frail and mortal as himself). Tell me also that
knowest all, whether he is still living or not.
13. Vasishtha replied:--I will explore into the regions of the three
worlds in my _samádhi_ meditation this night, and tell you tomorrow
morning, whether the mendicant is living or not, and where he may be at
present.
14. Válmíki said:--As the sage was saying in this manner, the royal
garrison tolled the trumpet of the departing day with beat of drum;
which filled the sky with the loud roar of diluvian clouds.
15. The princes and the citizens assembled in the court, threw handfuls
of flowers at his feet, as the trees drop down their flowers in the
ground, wafted by the odoriferous breeze.
16. They honoured the great sages also, and rose from their respective
seats; and the assembly broke afterwards, with mutual salutations to
one another.
17. Then all the residents of the earth and air, went to their
respective residences with the setting sun; and discharged their duties
of the departing day, in obedience to the ordinance of the sástras.
18. They all performed their services as prescribed in their liturgies,
in which they placed their strong faith and veneration. (This shows the
division of caste and creed even in the heroic age of Ráma; which being
more marked in later ages, prevented the people from participating in a
common cause).
19. All the mortals and celestials, that formed the audience of
"Vasishtha", began now to reflect on the lecture of the sage, and the
night passed as short as a moment with some, and as long as an age
with others. (Gloss. They that took the subject for study, found time
too short for their deep meditation of it, while those that were light
minded and eager to hear more, felt time to roll on heavily on them.
A very good lesson for lightening time by the practice of patient
enquiry, and avoiding the troublesomeness of impatience).
20. As the morning rose with the returning duties of men, and employed
all beings of heaven and earth to discharge their matin in services;
the court reopened for the reception of the audience, who assembled
there with mutual greetings and salutations to their superiors.
CHAPTER LXVI.
THE WANDERINGS OF THE MENDICANT.
Arguments:--The wanderings of men agreeably to their pursuits,
described in the character of the mendicant.
Válmíki related:--After the sages Vasishtha and Viswámitra had taken
their seats in the court hall, there met the groups of celestials and
siddhas of air, and the monarch of earth and chiefs of men.
2. Then came Ráma and Lakshmana with their companions in the court;
which shone as a clear lake of lotus-beds unshaken by the gentle
breeze, and brightened by the moonbeams glistening amidst it.
3. The sire of sages opened his mouth unasked by any body, and not
waiting for the request of any one; because wise men are always kind
hearted, and ready to communicate their knowledge to others of their
own accord. (Here the sage spoke impromptu, to keep his promise of
answering to Ráma's query in the preceding chapter, on a future
occasion. Gloss).
4. Vasishtha said:--O. Ráma! that art the moon in the sphere of Raghu's
family, I have yesternight came to see the mendicant, with the all
seeing eye of my intellectual vision after a long time.
5. I revolved over in my mind, and wandered wide and afar to find out
where that man was, and so I traversed through all the continents and
islands, and passed over all the hills and mountains on earth.
6. I had my head running upon the search, but could not meet anywhere a
mendicant of that description; because it is impossible to find in the
outer world, the fictions of our air built castle.
7. I then ran in my mind at the last watch of the night, and passed
over the regions on the north, as the fleet winds fly over the waves of
the ocean.
8. There I saw the extensive and populous country of _Jina_ (China)
lying beyond the utmost boundaries of Valmika (Bhalika or Bulkh); where
there is a beautiful city, called as Vihara by the inhabitants.
9. There lives a mendicant, named Dírgha drik or foresighted whose head
was silvered over with age, and who continues in his close meditation
confined in his homely and lovely cottage.
10. He is used to sit there in his meditative mood, for three weeks
together at a time, and keep the door of his cell quite fast, for
fear of being disturbed in his silent devotion, by the intrusion of
outsiders.
11. His dependants are thus kept out of doors for the time, that he is
absorbed in meditation.
12. He thus passed his three weeks of deep meditation in seclusion, and
it is now a thousand years, that he has been sitting in this manner, in
communion with his own mind only.
13. It was in olden times, that there had been a mendicant of his kind,
as I have already related unto you; this is the living instance of that
sort, and we know not where and when a third or another like this may
be found to exist.
14. I was long in quest like a bee in search of flowers, to find such
another, in the womb of this lotus like earth, with all possible
inquiry on my part.
15. I passed beyond the limit of the present world, and pierced through
the mist of future creations, and there I met with what I sought of the
resemblance of the present one.
16. As I looked into the world lying in the womb of futurity, and
deposited in the intellectual sphere of Brahma; I met with a third one
resembling to Brahmá in his conduct.
17. So passing through many worlds one after another, I saw many things
in futures, which are not in esse in the present world.
18. There I beheld the sages that are now sitting in this assembly, and
many more Brahmans also, that are of the nature of these present, as
also different from them.
19. There will be this Nárada with his present course of life, as also
differing from the same; so likewise there will be many others also,
with their various modes of life.
20. So likewise there will appear this _Vyása_ and this _Suka_; and
these Saunaka, Pulaha and Krutu, will reappear in future creations,
with their very same natures and characters. (This doctrine of
reappearance in a future world, is disbelieved in the sense of the
transmigration of souls, but it is taken as strict article of faith
by all Christians and Moslems, in the name of regeneration and
resurrection which imply the same thing).
21. The same Agastya and Pulastya and the self-same Bhrigu and
Angirasa, all of them and all others, will come to re-existence, with
their very forms and traits of character. (The dead will rise again in
their very bodies &c. Gospel).
22. They will be born and reborn sooner and later, so long as they
are under the subjection of this delusion of regeneration and
resuscitation; and will retain their similar births and modes of life,
like all others to be reborn in this or the future world. (As a Brahman
who is twice born on earth, retains his habits as before).
23. So the souls of men revolve repeatedly in the world, like waves
rolling for ever in the waters of the sea; some of which retain their
very same forms, while others are very nearly so in their reappearance.
24. Some are slightly altered in their figures, and others varying
entirely in their forms, never regain their original likeness; so doth
this prevailing error of regeneration, delude even the wise to repeated
births (from which can never get their liberations). (The desire of
revivification or regeneration, is so deeply implanted in all living
souls, that no body wants to die but with desire to live again in some
future state. "Ye shall not die." Gospel).
25. But what means the long meditation, of twenty days and nights of
the mendicant, when a moment's thought of ours, and the results of our
bodily actions, are productive of endless births and transformations.
26. Again where is the reality of these forms, which are mere
conceptions of the mind; and these ideas and reflexions, growing ripe
with their recapitulation, appear as full blown flowers to sight; and
resemble the water lily at morn, beset by the busy murmur of humming
bees.
27. The gross form is produced from pure thought (_i.e._ the material
from the immaterial mind); as a pile of flaming fire is kindled by a
minute spark or a ray of sun beam. Such is the formation of the whole
fabric of the world.
28. All things are manifest as particles of divine reflexion, and
each particle exhibiting in it a variety of parts (in its atoms and
animalcules); nor are these nor those together are nothing at all, but
they all exist in the universal, which is the cause of all cause, and
the source of all sources.
CHAPTER LXVII.
UNITY OF GOD.
Argument.--The liberation of the mendicant's soul and destruction of
his body, and the application of this instance in the cases of the
confinement and liberation of all souls in and from the bondage of
their bodies.
Dasaratha said:--O great sage, let these attendants of mine, repair
immediately to the cells of the mendicant, and having roused him from
his hypnotism, bring him hither in my presence.
2. Vasishtha replied:--Great king! the body of that mendicant, is now
lying lifeless on the ground; it is now pale and cold and daubed with
dirt, and has no jot of its vitality left in it.
3. His life has fled from his body, like odour from the lotus of the
lake; he is now liberated from the bond of this life, and is no more
subject to the cares of this world.
4. It is now a whole month that his servants have opened the latch of
his door, and standing at a distance looking at his emaciated frame.
5. They will afterwards take out the body and immerge it in water, and
then having anointed it, they will place it for their adoration, as
they do a deified idol. (The bodies of saints are sanctified by their
votaries among all nations, and their tombs are visited with religious
veneration).
6. The mendicant being in this manner freed from his body, cannot be
brought back to his senses, which have entirely quitted their functions
in his mortal frame.
7. It is hard to evade the enchanting delusion of the world, so long
as one labours under the darkness of his ignorance; but it is easily
avoided by one's knowledge of truth at all times.
8. The fabrication of the world is untrue, as the making of ornaments
from gold; it is the error of taking the form for the substance, that
appears as the cause of creation.
9. This delusion of the world, appears to be so situated in the supreme
soul, as the rows of waves are seen to roll upon the surface of the
calm waters of the sea. So it is said in the very words of the Vedas,
that the moving worlds are as the fluctuation of the Divine Soul.
10. The intelligent soul, taking the form of the living or human soul,
sees the phenomenal world, as one sees one dream after another, but all
these vanish away upon his waking to sense and right reason.
11. As every man of understanding sees the original in its image, so
the man of reason views the archetype of the soul in its representation
of the creation; while the ignorant man that sees the world as a
thorny bush or confused jungle, can have no idea of the all designing
framer of his frame work of the universe. (Right reason points out to
spiritual source of the world).
12. The world is represented to the view of every living being, as it
was seen in the vision of the dreaming mendicant, in the form of the
undulations of the supreme spirit, like the fluctuation of waves on the
surface of the sea.
13. As the world appeared to be presented at first in its visionary
form, before the view of the universal or collective mind of the
creative Brahmá; so does it rise in its shadowy form in the opacous
minds of all individual persons. (The world appears in its unspiritual
form, to the minds of the great Brahmá and all other living beings).
14. But to the clear mind this world appears as an evanescent dream, as
it appeared to Brahmá at first; and the multitudes of worlds that are
discovered one after the other, are no more than the successive scenes
of passing dreams in the continuous sleep of ignorance.
15. So do all living beings in their various forms, are subject to the
error of believing the unreal world as a reality, though they well know
it in their minds, to be no better than a continuous dream or delusion.
(The varieties of living souls are included under the unintelligible
terms of universal and individual:--general and particular &c.).
16. The animal soul, though possessed of intellego (or the property of
the intellect); is yet liable to transgress from its original nature
(of holiness and purity); and thereby becomes subject to decay, disease
and death and all kinds of awe. (It is the _chyuty_ of the fall of man
from his primary purity, that brought on him all his miseries on earth).
17. The godly intellect frames the celestial and infernal regions in
our dreams, by the slight vibration of the mind at its pleasure; and
then takes a delight in rambling over and dwelling in them.
18. It is this divine intellect, which by its own motion, takes the
form of living soul upon itself; and wanders from itself to rummage
over the false objects of the deceptive senses.
19. The mind also is the supreme soul, and if it is not so it is
nothing; the living and embodied is likewise a designation of the same,
likening to the shadow of the substance.
20. So the supreme Brahma is said to reside in the universal Brahmá,
according to the distinct view of men, with regard to the one Brahma,
in whom all these attributes unite, like the water with water and the
sky with air. (All these attributive words apply to and unite in the
unity of Brahma).
21. Men residing in this mundane form of Brahma, and yet think it
otherwise than a reflexion of the deity; just as a child looking at its
own shadow in a glass, startles to think it as an apparition standing
before it.
22. It is the wavering understanding that causes these differences,
which disappear of themselves, after the mind resumes its steadiness in
the unity of the Deity, wherein it is lost at last, as the oblation of
butter is consumed in the sacred fire.
23. There is no more any vacillation or dogmatism, nor the unity or
duality, after the true knowledge of the deity is gained; when all
distinctions are dissolved in an indistinct intellect, which is as it
is and all in all.
24. When it is known from the sum and substance of all reasoning, that
it is the one Intellect, which is the subject of all appellations which
are applied to it; there remains no more any difference of religious
faith in the world. (That is one and all, is the catholic religion of
all).
25. Difference of faith, creates difference in men; but want of
distinction in creed, destroys all difference, and brings on the union
of all to one common faith in the supreme being.
26. Ráma, you see the variety from your want of understanding, and
you will get rid of the same (and recognise their identity), as you
come to your right understanding; ask this of any body and you will
find the truth of what I say and be fearless at any party feeling and
enmity. (Confession of faith in one Divinity, that is acknowledged and
adored by all alike, is the root of catholicity, and brings on unity in
philosophy of religion).
27. In that state of fearlessness, the Brahmavádí finds no difference
in the states of waking, dreaming, sound sleep or the fourth stage of
devotion; nor in his earthly bondage or liberation from it, all which
are equal to him. (So says the sruti:--The Brahmavádí is ever blest and
is afraid of nothing in any state of life, in all of which he sees the
presence of his God).
28. Tranquillity is another name of the universe, and God has given his
peace to everything in the world; therefore all schisms are the false
creations of ignorance, as none of them has ever seen the invisible God.
29. The action of the heart and the motion of the vital air, cannot
move the contented mind to action; because the mind which is devoid of
its desire, is indifferent about the vibrations of his breath and heart
strings.
30. The intellect which is freed from the dubitation of unity and
duality, and got rid of its anxious cares and desires; has approached
to a state, which is next to that of the deity.
31. But the pure desire which subsists in the intellect, like the
stain which sticks to the disk of the moon; is no speck upon it, but
the coagulation of the condensed intellect. (As the fluid water is
congealed in the forms of snow and ice).
32. Do you, Ráma! ever remain in the state of your collected intellect,
because it concentrates (the knowledge of) everything (that is _sat_)
in itself, and leaves nothing (that is not _asat_) beyond it. (This is
the most faultless undefective form of faith, that I have abstracted
from all religions).
33. The moon like disk of the intellect, having the mark of inappetency
in it, is a vessel of ambrosia, a draught of which drowns the thoughts
of all that is and is not (in esse--et non-esse) into oblivion.
(Contentment is the ambrosial draught for oblivion of all cares).
34. Refer thy thoughts of whatever thou hast or wantest, to the
province of thy intellect (_i.e._ think of thy intellectual parts and
wants only); and taste thy inward delight as much as thou dost like.
(Pleasure of intellectual culture, is better than physical enjoyments).
35. Know Ráma, that the words vibration and inaction, desire and
inappetency and such others of the theological glossary, serve only to
burden and mislead the mind to error; do you therefore keep yourself
from thinking on these, and betake yourself to your peace and quiet,
whether you attain to your perfection or otherwise.
CHAPTER LXVIII.
ON THE VIRTUES OF TACITURNITY.
Argument:--Four kinds of Reticence, and their respective qualities.
Vasishtha said:--Ráma! remain as taciturn as in your silent sleep, and
shun at a distance the musings of your mind; get rid of the vagaries of
your imagination, and remain firm in the state Brahma.
2. Ráma said:--I know what is meant by the reticence of speech, and the
quietness of the organs, and the muteness of a block of wood; but tell
me what is sleep like silence, which you well know by practice.
3. Vasishtha replied:--It is said to be of two kinds, by the mute like
munis and the reserved sages of old; the practiced by the wood like
statues of saints, and the other observed by those that are liberated
in their life time (jívan mukta).
4. The wood like devotee is that austere ascetic, who is not meditative
in his mind, and is firmly employed in the discharge of the rigorous
rites of religion; he practises the painful restraints of his bodily
organs, and remains speechless as a wooden statue.
5. The other kind of living liberated Yogi is one, who looks at the
world ever as before (with his usual unconcern); who delights in his
meditation of the soul, and passes as any ordinary man without any
distinctive mark of his religious order or secular rank.
6. The condition of these two orders of saintly and holy men, which is
the fixedness of their minds and sedateness of their souls, is what
passes under the title of taciturnity and saintliness (_mauna_ and
muni) (who hold their tongue and their peace, and walk _sub silentio_
and _incognito_ on earth).
7. Thus the taciturn sages reckon four kinds of latitancy, which they
style severally by the names of reservedness in speech, restriction of
the organs, woodlike speechlessness and dead like silence as in one's
sleep.
8. Oral silence consists in keeping one's mouth and lips close, and the
closeness of the senses implies the keeping of the members of the body
under strict control; the rigorous muteness means the abandonment of
all efforts, and the sleepy silence is as silent as the grave.
9. There is a fifth kind of dead-like silence, which occurs in the
austere ascetic in his state of insensibility; in the profound
meditation of the dormant _Yogi_, and in the mental abstraction of the
living liberated.
10. All the three prior states of reticence, occur in the austere
devotee, and the sleepy or dead silence is what betakes the living
liberated only.
11. Though speechlessness is called silence, yet it does not constitute
pure reticence, in as much as the mute tongue may brood evil thoughts
in the mind, which lead to the bondage of men.
12. The austere devotee continues in his reticence, without minding
his own egoism, or seeing the visibles or listening to the speech of
others; and seeing nothing beside him, he sees all in himself, like
living fire covered under ashes.
13. The mind being busy in these three states of silence, and indulging
its fancies and reveries at liberty; makes munis of course in outward
appearance, but there is no one, who understands the nature of God.
14. There is nothing of that blessed divine knowledge in any of these,
which is so very desirable to all mankind; I vouch it freely that
they are not knowers of God, be they angry at it or not as they may.
(Vasishtha being a theoretic philosopher, finds fault with every kind
of practical Yoga or pseudo hypnotism).
15. But this dormant or meditative silent sage, who is liberated from
all bonds and cares in his life time, is never to be born in any shape
in this world, and it is interesting to know much of them as I will
recite to you.
16. He does not require to restrain his respiration, nor needs the
triple restraint of his speech; he does not rejoice at his prosperity,
nor is he depressed in adversity, but preserves his equanimity and
the evenness of his sensibility at all times. (He sticks to what is
natural, and does not resort to anything artificial).
17. His mind is under the guidance of his reason, and is neither
excited by nor restrained from its fancies, it is neither restless
nor dormant, and exists as it is not in existence. (owing to its even
mindedness).
18. His attention is neither divided nor pent up, but fixed in the
infinite and eternal one, and his mind cogitates unconfined the nature
of things. Such a one is said to be the sleeping silent sage.
19. He who knows the world as it is, and is not led to error by its
deluding varieties, and whoso scans everything as it is without being
led to scepticism, is the man that is styled the sleeping silent sage.
20. He who relies his faith and trust, on the one endless and ever
felicitous Siva, as the aggregate of all knowledge, and the displayer
of this universe, is the one who is known as the sleeping silent sage.
21. He who sees the _vacuum_ as the _plenum_, and views this all
_omnium_ as the null and nullum; and whose mind is even and tranquil,
is the man who is called the sleeping silent sage.
22. Again he who views the universe as neither reality nor unreality
either, but all an empty vacuum and without a substratum, but full
of peace and divine wisdom, is said to be in the best state of his
taciturnity.
23. The mind that is unconscious of the effects, of the different
states of its prosperity and adversity and of its plenty and wants, is
said to rest in its highest state of rest and quiet.
24. That perfect equanimity of the mind and evenness of temper, which
is not liable to change or fluctuation; with a clear conscience and
unflinching self-consciousness, are the source of an unimpairing
reticence.
25. The consciousness that I am nothing, nor is there anything besides;
and that the mind and its thoughts, are no other in reality (than
fictions of the intellect); is the real source of taciturnity.
26. The knowledge that the ego pervades this universe, which is the
representation of the "one that is"; and whose essence is displayed
equally in all things, is what is meant by the state of sleepy silence.
(_i.e._ the man that has known this grand truth, remains dumb and mute
and has nothing to say).
27. Now as it is the consciousness which constitutes all and
everything, how can you conceive your distinction from others, who are
actuated by the same power, dwelling alike in all? It is this knowledge
which is called the ever lasting sleep, and forms the ground work of
every kind of silence.
28. This is the silence of profound sleep, and because it is an endless
sleep in the ever wakeful God, this sleep is alike to waking. Know this
as the fourth stage of _Yoga_, or rather a stage above the same.
29. This profound trance is called hypnotism or the fourth state of
entranced meditation; and the tranquillity which is above this state,
is to be had in one's waking state.
30. He that is situated in his fourth stage of yoga, has a clear
conscience and quiet peace attending on him. This is practicable by
the adept even in his waking state, and is obtainable by the righteous
soul, both in its embodied as well as disembodied states.
31. Yes, O Ráma! Be you desirous to be settled in this state, and know
that neither I or you nor any other person is any real being in this
world, which exists only as a reflexion of our mind, and therefore the
wise man should rely only in the bosom of the vacuous intellect, which
comprehends all things in it.
CHAPTER LXIX.
UNION OF THE MIND WITH THE BREATH OF LIFE.
Argument.--Willful existence of the attendants of Rudra, and the
elevation of yogis after their Demise.
Ráma said:--Tell me, O chief of sages, how the Rudras came to be a
hundred in their number, and whether the attendants of Rudra, are
Rudras also or otherwise.
2. Vasishtha replied:--The mendicant saw himself in a hundred forms in
a hundred dreams, which he dreamt one after another; these I have told
you on the whole before, though I have not specially mentioned them to
you.
3. All the forms that he saw in the dream, became so many Rudras,
and all these hundred Rudras remained as so many attendants on the
principal Rudra.
4. Ráma asked:--But how could the one mind of the mendicant, be divided
into a hundred in so many bodies of the Rudras; or was it undivided
like a lamp, that lightens a hundred lamps, without any diminution of
its own light.
5. Vasishtha answered:--Know Ráma, that disembodied or spiritual beings
of pure natures, are capable of assuming to themselves any form of
their fancy, from the aqueous nature of their souls (which readily
unite with other liquids). (The Sruti says, "the soul is a fluid";
corresponding with the psychic fluid of Stahl).
6. The soul being omnipresent and all pervading (like the all diffusive
psychic fluid); takes upon it any form whatever, and whenever and
wherever it likes, by virtue of its intelligence: (which the ignorant
spirit is unable to do).
7. Ráma rejoined:--But tell me Sir, why the Lord Rudra or Siva wore the
string of human skulls about his neck, daubed his body with ashes, and
stark naked; and why he dwelt in funeral ground, and was libidinous in
the greatest degree.
8. Vasishtha replied:--The Gods and perfect beings as the siddhas &c.
are not bound down by the laws, which the weak and ignorant men have
devised for their own convenience.
9. The ignorant cannot go on without the guidance of law, on account of
their ungovernable minds; or else they are subject to every danger and
fear, like poor fishes (which are quite helpless, and entirely at the
mercy of all voracious animals).
10. Intelligent people are not exposed to those evils in life, as the
ignorant people of ungoverned minds and passions, meet with by their
restless and vagrant habits.
11. Wise men discharge their business as they occur to them at times,
and never undertake to do any thing of their own accord, and are
therefore exposed to no danger. (Graha in the text means a shark and
calamities also).
12. It was on the impulse of the occasion that the God Vishnu, engaged
himself in action, and so did the God with the three eyes (_i.e._
Siva), as also the God that was born of the lotus (_i.e._ The great
Brahmá). (All of them took human forms on them, whenever the Daityas
invaded the Bráhmans, and never of their own will).
13. The acts of wise men are neither to be praised or blamed nor are
they praiseworthy or blameable; because they are never done from
private or public motives (but on the expediency of the occasion).
14. As light and heat are the natural properties, of fire and sun
shine; so are the actions of Siva and the Gods, ordained as such from
the beginning, as the caste customs of the twice born dwijas (Aryans).
15. Though the natures of all mankind are the same, as they are
ordained in the beginning; yet the ignorant have created differences
among them, by institution of the distinction of castes and customs;
and as their institutions are of their own making, they are subjected
by them to the evils of future retribution and transmigration. (Men are
bound down by their own laws, from which the brute creation is entirely
free).
16. I have related to you, Ráma! the quadruple reticence of embodied
beings, and have not as yet expounded the nature of the silence of
disembodied souls (as those of the Gods, siddhas and departed saints).
17. Hear now how men are to obtain this chief good (summum bonum) of
theirs, by their knowledge of the intellectual souls in the clear
sphere of their own intellect, which is clearer far than the etherial
sphere of the sky.
18. It is by the knowledge of all kinds of knowledge, and constant
devotion to meditation; and by the study of the numerical philosophy of
particulars in the sánkhya system, that men became renowned as _Sánkhya
yogis_ or categorical philosopher. (The Sánkhya is opposed to the
Vedánta, in as much as it rises from particulars to general truths).
19. The yoga consists in the meditation of Yogis, of the form of the
eternal and undecaying One; by suppression of their breathings, and
union with that state, which presents itself to their mind.
20. That unfeigned and undisguised state of felicity and tranquillity,
which is desired as the most desirable thing by all, is obtainable by
some by means of the Sánkhya Yoga, and by the Jnána Yoga by others.
21. The result of both these forms of Yoga, is the same, and this is
known to anybody that has felt the same; because the state arrived at
by the one, is alike to that of the other also.
22. And this supreme state is one, in which the actions of the mental
faculties and vital breath, are altogether imperceptible; and the
network of desires is entirely dispersed.
23. The desire constitutes the mind, which again is the cause of
creation; it is therefore by the destruction of both of these, that one
becomes motionless and inactive. (Forgets himself to a stone. Pope).
24. The mind forgets its inward soul, and never looks towards it for a
moment; it is solely occupied with its body, and looks at the phantom
of the body, as a child looks at a ghost. (Thinking it a reality).
25. The mind itself is a false apparition, and an unsubstantial
appearance of our mistake; and shows itself as the death of some body
in his dream, which is found to be false upon his waking.
26. The world is the production of the mind, else what am I and who is
mine or my offspring; it is custom and our education that have caused
the _bugbears_ of our bondage and liberation, which are nothing in
reality.
27. There is one thing however, on which is based the bias of both
systems; that it is the suppression of breath, and the restriction
of mind, which form the sum and substance of what they call their
liberation.
28. Ráma rejoined:--Now sir, if it is suppression which constitutes the
liberation of these men; then I may as well say that all dead men are
liberated, as well as all dead animals also.
29. Vasishtha replied:--Of the three practices of the restriction of
the breath, body and mind, I ween the repression of the mind and its
thoughts to be the best; because it is easily practicable and I will
tell you how it is to be done to our good.
30. When the vital breaths of the liberated souls, quit this mortal
frame; it perceives the same in itself, and flies in the shape of a
particle in the open sky, and mixes at last with etherial air.
31. The parting soul accompanies with its _tanmátras_ or elementary
principles; which comprise the desires of its mind, and which are
closely united with breath, and nothing besides.
32. As the vital breath quits one body to enter into another, so it
carries with it the desires of the heart, with which it was in the
breast of man, as the winds of the air bear the fragrance of flowers.
These are reproduced in the future body for its misery only.
33. As a water pot thrown in the sea, does not lose its water, so the
vital breath mixing with the etherial air, does not lose the desires of
the mind, which it bears with it. They are as closely united with it,
as the sun-beams with the sun.
34. The mind cannot be separated from the vital breath (_i.e._ the
desires are inseparable from life), without the aid of the knowledge;
and as the bird _Titterí_ cannot be removed from one nest without an
other (so the soul never passes from one body without finding and
entering into another).
35. Knowledge removes the desires, and the disappearance of desires
destroys the mind; this produces the suppression of breath, and thence
proceeds the tranquillity of the soul.
36. Knowledge shows us the unreality of things, and the vanity of human
desires. Hence know O Ráma, that the extinction of desires, brings on
the destruction of both the mind and vitality.
37. The mind being with its desires, which form its soul and life, it
can no more see the body in which it took so much delight; and then the
tranquil soul attains its holiest state.
38. The mind is another name for desire, and this extirpated and
wanting, the soul comes to the discrimination of truth, which leads to
the knowledge of the supreme.
39. In this manner, O Ráma, we came to the end of our erroneous
knowledge of the world, as it is by means of our reason, that we come
to detect our error of the snake in the rope.
40. Learn this one lesson, that the restraining of the mind and
suppression of breath, mean the one and same thing; and if you succeed
in restraining the one, you succeed in the restraint of other also. (So
it is said, that our thoughts and respirations go together).
41. As the waving of the palm leaved fan being stopped, there is a
stop of the ventilation of air in the room; so the respiration of the
vital breath being put to a stop, there ensues a total stoppage of the
succession of our thoughts. (It is believed that our time is measured
by succession of our breath and thoughts _ajápas_, and the more are
they suppressed, the greater is the duration of our life prolonged).
42. The body being destroyed, the breath passes into the vacuous air;
where it sees everything according to the desires, which it has wafted
along with it, from the cells of the heart and mind.
43. As the living souls find the bodies (of various animals) in which
they are embodied, and act according to their different natures; so the
departed and disembodied spirits--_pránas_, see many forms and figures
presented before them, according to their several desires. They enter
into the same, and act agreeably to the nature of that being.
44. As the fragrance of flowers ceases to be diffused in the air,
when the breezes have ceased to blow; so the vital breath, ceases
to breathe, when the action of the mind is at a stop. (Hence is the
concentration of the mind, to one object only strongly enjoyed in the
_yoga_ practice).[A]
[A] ON THE SIMULTANEOUSNESS OF THOUGHT AND BREATH.
Swedenborg saw the intimate connection between thought and vital life.
He says:--Thought commences with respiration. The reader has before
attended to the presence of heaving over the body; now let him feel
his thoughts, and he will see that they too heave with the mass. When
he entertains a long thought, he draws a long breath, when he thinks
quickly, his breath vibrates with rapid alternations; when the tempest
of anger shakes his mind, his breath is tumultuous; when his soul is
deep and tranquil, so is his respiration; when success inflates him,
his lungs are as timid as his concepts. Let him make trial of the
accuracy, let him endeavour to think in long stretches, at the same
time that he breathes in fits, and he will find that it is impossible;
that in this case the chopping will needs mince his thoughts. Now
this mind dwells in the brains, and it is the brain, therefore, which
spares the varying fortunes of the breathing. It is strange that this
correspondence between the states of the brain or mind and the lungs
has not been admitted in science, for it holds in every case, at every
moment. "He says moreover--Inward thoughts have inward breaths, and
purer spiritual thoughts have spiritual breaths hardly mixed with
material."
* * * * *
See Col. Olcott's Yoga Philosophy Page 283.
45. Hence the course of the thoughts, and respiration of all animals,
is known too closely united with one another; as the fragrance is
inseparable from the flower, and the oil from the oily seeds.
46. The breath is vacillation of the mind, as the mind is the
fluctuation of the breath; and these two go together for ever, as the
chariot and its charioteer.
47. These perish together without the assemblage of one another, as the
container and the contained are both lost at the loss of either (like
that of the fire and its heat). Therefore it is better to lose them for
the liberation of the soul, than losing the soul for the sake of the
body.
48. Keeping only one object or the unity in view will stop the course
of the mind; and the mind being stopped, there will follow as a matter
of course, an utter suppression of the breath as its consequence.
49. Investigate well into the truth of the immortality of thy soul, and
try to assimilate thyself into the eternal spirit of God; and having
absorbed thy mind in the divine mind, be one with the same.
50. Distinguish between thy knowledge and ignorance, and lay hold on
what is more expedient for you; settle yourself on what remains after
disappearance of both, and live while you live relying on the Intellect
alone.
51. Continue to meditate on the existence of all things in one firm and
ever existent entity alone, until by your constant habit of thinking
so, you find all outward existence disappear into non existence (and
present the form of the self-existent only to view).
52. The minds of the abstinent are mortified, with their bodies and
vitality, for want of food and enjoyments; and then there remains the
consciousness of the transcendent one alone.
53. When the mind is of one even tenor, and is habituated to it by its
constant practice; it will put an end to the thought of the endless
varieties and particulars, which will naturally disappear of themselves.
54. There is an end of our ignorance and delusion (avidyá), as we
attempt to the words of wisdom and reason; we gain our best knowledge
by learning, but it is by practice alone, that we can have the object
of our knowledge.
55. The mirage of the world will cease to exist, after the mind
has become calm and quiet in itself; as the darkness of the sky is
dispersed, upon disappearance of the raining clouds.
56. Know your mind alone as the cause of your delusion, and strive
therefore to weaken its force and action; but you must not Ráma! weaken
it so much, as to lose the sight of the supreme spirit, which shines as
the soul of the mind.
57. When the mind is settled with the supreme soul for a moment, know
that to be the mature state of thy mind, and will soon yield the sweets
of its ripeness.
58. Whether you have your tranquillity, by the _Sánkhya_ or Vedánta
Yoga; it is both the same if you can reduce yourself to the supreme
soul; and by doing so for a moment, you are no more to be reborn in
this nether world.
59. The word divine essence, means the mind devoid of its ignorance;
and which like a fried seed is unable to reproduce the arbor of the
world, and has no interruption in its meditation of God.
60. The mind that is devoid of ignorance, and freed from its desires,
and is settled in its pure essence; comes to see in an instant, a full
blaze of light filling the sphere of the firmament in which it rests
and which absorbs it quite.
61. The mind is said to be its pure essence, which is insensible of
itself, and settled in the supreme soul; it never relapses into the
foulness of its nature, as the copper which is mixed with gold, never
becomes dirty again.
CHAPTER LXX.
INTERROGATORIES OF VETÁLA.
Arguments:--Conversation of a prince and a Vetála, and Dissipation of
Error and manifestation of truth.
Vasishtha resumed:--Life becomes no life (becomes immortal), and the
mind turns to no mind, immerges in the soul; no sooner is the cloud of
ignorance dispersed by the bright sun beams of right reason. This is
the state which is termed _moksha_ or liberation (from error) by the
wise.
2. The mind and its egoism and tuism (subjectivity and objectivity),
appear as water in the mirage, but all these unrealities vanish away,
no sooner we come to our right reason;
3. Attend now to the queries of a vetála, which I come to remember
at present, concerning our erroneous and dreaming conception of the
phenomenal world, and which will serve to example by the subject of our
last lecture.
4. There lived a gigantic vetála in the vast wilderness of the Vindhya
mountains, who happened to come out on an excursion to the adjoining
districts in search of his prey of human beings.
5. He used to live before in the neighbourhood of a populous city,
where he lived quite happy and well satisfied with the victims; which
were daily offered to him by the good citizens.
6. He never killed a human being without some cause or harm, although
he roved through the city, pinched by hunger and thirst. He walked in
the ways of the honest and equitable men in the place.
7. It came to pass in course of time that he went out of the city, to
reside in his woody retreat; where he never killed any man, except when
pressed by excessive hunger, and when he thought it was equitable for
him to do so.
8. He happened to meet there once a ruler of the land, strolling about
in his nightly round; to whom he cried out in a loud and appalling
voice.
9. The vetála exclaimed:--Where goest thou, O prince, said he, thou art
now caught in the clutches of a hideous monster, thou art now a dead
man, and hast become my ration of this day.
10. The ruler replied:--Beware, O nocturnal fiend! that I will break
thy skull into a thousand pieces, if you will unjustly attempt to kill
me by force at this spot, and make thy ration of me.
11. The vetála rejoined:--I do not tell thee unjustly, and speak it
rightly unto thee; that as thou art a ruler, it is thy duty to attend
to the petition of every body (wherein if thou failest, thou surely
diest before me).
12. I request thee, O prince! to solve the questions that I propose
to thee; because I believe thou art best able to give a full and
satisfactory answer to every one of them. (These questions are dark
enigmas, which are explained in the next chapter).
13. Who is that glorious sun, the particles of whose rays, are seen to
glitter in the surrounding worlds: and what is that wind (or force),
which wafts these dusts of stars, in the infinite space of vacuum.
14. What is that self-same thing, which passes from one dream to
another, and assumes different forms by hundreds and thousands, and yet
does not forsake its original form.
15. Tell me what is that pithy particle in bodies, which is enveloped
under a hundred folds or sheaths, which are laid over and under one
another, like the coats or lamina of a plantain tree.
16. What is that minute atom which is imperceptible to the eye, and yet
produces this immeasurable universe, with its stupendous worlds and
skies, and the prodigious planets on high and mountains below, which
are the minutest of that minute particle.
17. What is that shapeless and formless thing atom, which remains as
the pith and marrow under the rocks of huge mountains, and which is the
substratum of the triple world (of heaven, earth and infernal regions).
18. If you, O wicked soul, fail to answer to these queries, then shalt
thou be a killer of thyself, by your being made my food this moment.
And know that at the end, I will devour all thy people, as the regent
of death destroys every body in the world.
CHAPTER LXXI.
THE PRINCE'S REPLY TO THE FIRST QUESTION OF THE VETÁLA.
Arguments:--Answer to the first question regarding the Prime cause
of all, shows the infinite worlds to be the trees and fruits of that
original root.
Vasishtha related:--The Rájá smiled at hearing these questions of the
Demon, and as he opened his mouth to give the reply, the lustre of
his pearly teeth, shed a brightness on the white vault of the sky.
(This shows how much the early Hindus prized their white teeth, though
latterly they tinged them with blue vitriol).
2. This world was at first a rudimentary granule (in the Divine mind),
and was afterwards encrusted by a dozen of elemental sheaths as its
pellicles, skin and bark. (Does it mean the component elements or
layers _Bhúta-tatwa_ or _Bhú-tatwa_).
3. The tree which bears thousands of such fruits, is very high also
with its equally out stretching branches, and very long and broad
leaves likewise.
4. This great tree is of a huge size and very astounding to sight; it
has thousands of prodigious branches spreading wide on every side.
5. There are thousands of such trees, and a dense forest of many other
large trees and plants in that person.
6. Thousands of such forests stretch over it, abounding in thousands of
mountains with their elevated peaks.
7. The wide extended tracts which contain these mountains, have also
very large valleys and dales amidst in them.
8. These wide spread tracts contain also many countries, with their
adjacent islands and lakes and rivers too.
9. These thousands of islands also contain many cities, with varieties
of edifices and works of art.
10. These thousands tracts of lands, which are sketched out as so many
continents, are as so many earths and worlds in their extent.
11. That which contains thousands of such worlds, as the mundane eggs,
is as unlimited as the spacious womb of the firmament.
12. That which contains thousands of such eggs in its bosom, bears also
many thousands of seas and oceans resting calmly in its ample breast.
13. That which displays the boisterous waves of seas, is the sprightly
and sportive soul, heaving as the clear waters of the ocean.
14. That which contains thousands of such oceans, with all their waters
in his unconscious womb, is the God Vishnu who filled the universal
ocean with his all pervasive spirit. (And the spirit of God floated
on the face of the waters, Moses. The waters were the first abode of
Náráyana).
15. That which bears thousands of such Gods, as a string of pearls
about the neck, is the Great God Rudra.
16. That which bears thousands of such Great Gods Mahádevas, in the
manner of the hairs on his person; is the supreme Lord God of all.
17. He is that great sun that he shines in a hundred such persons of
the Gods, all of whom are but frictions of the rays of that Great
source of light and life.
18. All things in the universe are but particles of that uncreated sun;
and thus have I explained to you that Intellectual sun, who fills the
world with his rays, and shows them light.
19. The all knowing soul is the supreme sun that enlightens the world,
and fills all things in it with particles of its rays. (The soul is the
sun, whose light of knowledge manifests all things unto us).
20. It is the Omniscient soul, which is that surpassing sun, whose
rays produce and show everything to light; and without which as in the
absence of the solar light, nothing would grow nor be visible in the
outer world. (The sun's heat and light are the life and shower of the
sight of the world).
21. All living beings who have their souls enlightened by the light
of philosophy, behold the sphere of the universe to be a blaze of the
gemming sun of the intellect; and there is not the least tinge of the
erroneous conceptions of the material world in it. Know this and hold
your peace.[A]
[A] By a figure of speech light and knowledge are synonymous terms, and
so are their sources the sun and soul interchangeable to one another.
And as the Divine spirit is the creator of all things, so is the sun
producer and grower of everything in the visible world. Hence has risen
the mistake of taking the sun--the savitar or producer for the Divine
soul the creator among the sun worshippers, who believe the sun to be
the soul of the universe. (Súrya atmájagatah in the sruti). Hence has
grown the popular error of address in the Gáyatrí hymn to the sun,
which was used as an invocation of the supreme soul, and is still
understood as such by theists.
CHAPTER LXXII.
ANSWERS TO THE REMAINING QUESTIONS.
Argument:--The Rájah's replies to the five remaining questions of the
Demon.
The Rájah replied:--The essences of time, vacuum and of force, are all
of intellectual origin; it is the pure intellect which is the source
of all, as the air is the receptacle of odours and dusts. (The mind
contains all things).
2. The supreme soul is as the universal air, which breathes out the
particles contained in the intellect; as the etherial air bears the
fragrance from the cells of flowers. (The soul is called _átmá_
corresponding with the Greek _atmos_ air, in which sense it is the same
with the spirit). (This is the answer to the second question).
3. The great Brahma of the conscious soul, passing through the dreaming
world (it being but a dream only passes from one scene to another
without changing its form). (The soul is conscious of the operations of
the mind, but never changes with the mental phenomena).
4. As the stem (stambha) of plantain tree, is a folding of its
pellicles plaited over one another, and having its pith hidden in the
inside; so everything in the world presents its exterior coats to the
view, while its substance of Brahma is deeply hid in the interior.
5. The words ens, soul and Brahma by which God is designated, are not
significant of his nature, who is devoid of all designations like the
empty void, and indescribable (avyapadesa) in any word in use. (So the
sruti: na tatra vak gachchhate, to Him no words can approach; _i.e._ no
words can express Him).
6. Whatever essence is perceived by one as the product of another, is
like the upper fold or plait of the plantain tree, produced by the
inner one; and all such coating are but developments of the Divine
Intellect lying at the bottom. (As the essence of the cloth is the
thread, which is the product of cotton produced by the pod of the
cotton plant, which is produced from the seed grown by the moisture of
the water &c., the last of which has the Divine essence for its prime
cause and source.)
7. The supreme soul is said to be a minute atom, on account of the
subtility and imperceptibility of its nature; and it is said also to be
the base of mountains and all other bodies, owing to the unboundedness
of its extent. (This is in answer to the fifth question).
8. The endless being though likened to a minute atom, is yet as large
as to contain all these worlds as its minutest particles; which are as
evident to us as the very many aerial scenes appearing in our minds
in the state of dreaming. (The small grain of the soul contains the
universe, as the particle of the mind contains the worlds in it).
9. This being is likened to an atom owing to its imperceptibleness, and
is also represented as a mountain on account of its filling all space;
though it is the figure of all formal existence, yet it is without any
form or figure of its own. (The Sruti says: "_neti-neti_, He is neither
this nor that").
10. The three worlds are as the fatty bulb of that pithy intelligence;
for know thou righteous soul! that it is that Intelligence which dwells
in and acts in all the worlds. (The Sruti says: the vacuity of the
heart is the seat of intelligence, which is the pith of the _mássa_ or
muscular body, and the vacuous air is the seat of the soul, whose body
is the triple world).
11. All these worlds are fraught with design of Intelligence, which is
quiet in its nature, and exhibits endless kinds of beautiful forms of
its own, know, O young vetála, that irresistible power, reflect this in
thyself and keep thy quiet.
CHAPTER LXXIII.
END OF THE STORY OF THE VETÁLA DEMON.
Arguments:--After part of Vetála's tale and Preamble to the tale of
Bhagíratha.
Vasishtha resumed:--After hearing these words from the mouth of the
prince, the vetála held his peace and quiet, and remained reflecting on
them in his mind, which was capable of reasoning.
2. Being then quite calm in his mind, he reflected on the pure
doctrines of the prince; and being quite absorbed in his fixed
meditation, he forgot at once his hunger and thirst.
3. I have thus related to you, Ráma, about the questions of the vetála,
and the manner in which these worlds are situated in the atom of the
intellect and no where else.
4. The world residing in the cell of the atomic intellect, ceases to
subsist by itself upon right reasoning; so the body of a ghost exists
in the fancy of boys only, and there remains nothing at last except the
everlasting one.
5. Curb and contract thy thought and heart from every thing, and
enclose thy inward soul in itself; do what thou hast to do at any time,
without desiring or attempting any thing of thy own will, and thus have
the peace of thy mind.
6. Employ your mind, O silent sage! to keep itself as clean as the
clear firmament, remain in one even and peaceful tenor of thy soul,
and view all things in one and the same light (of tolerance and
catholicism).
7. A steady and dauntless mind with its promptness in action, is
successful in most arduous undertakings, as was the prince Bhagíratha
with his unsevering perseverance.
8. It was by his perfectly peaceful and contended mind, and by the
lasting felicity of the equanimity of his soul, that this prince
succeeded to bring down the heavenly Ganges on earth, and the princes
of Sagar's line were enabled to perform the arduous task of digging
the bay of Bengal. (Where they were buried alive by curse of the sage
Kapila, for disturbing his silent meditations).
CHAPTER LXXIV.
ACCOUNT AND ADMONITION OF BHAGÍRATHA.
Argument:--Conduct and character of Bhagíratha, his private reflexion
and the Instructions of his tutor.
Ráma said:--Please sir, to relate unto me, the wonderful narrative of
prince Bhagíratha, how he succeeded to bring down the heavenly stream
of Gangá on the earth below.
2. Vasishtha replied:--The prince Bhagíratha was a personage of eminent
virtues, and was distinguished as a crowning mark (_Tilaka_), over all
countries of this terraqueous earth and its seas.
3. All his suitors received their desired boons, even without their
asking; and their hearts were as gladdened at the sight of his
moon-bright countenance, as were it at the sight of a precious and
brilliant gem.
4. His charities were always profusely lavished upon all good people,
for their maintenance and supportance; while he carefully collected
even straws (for his revenue), and prized them as they were gems unto
him. (_i.e._ He earned as he gave).
5. He was as bright in his person, as the blazing fire without its
smoke, and was never weak even when he was tired in the discharge of
his duties. He drove away poverty from the abodes of men, as the rising
sun dispels the darkness of night from within their houses.
6. He spread all around him the effulgence of his valour, as the
burning fire scatters about its sparks; and he burned as the blazing
midday sun, among all his hostile bands.
7. Yet he was gentle and soft in the society of wisemen, and cooled
their hearts with his cooling speech. He shone amidst the learned, as
the moon-stone glistens under the moon light.
8. He decorated the world with its triple cord of the sacrificial
thread, by stretching out the three streams of the Ganges, along the
three regions of heaven, earth and infernal regions. (Hence Gangá is
called the tripathagá or running in the trivium in heaven, earth and
hell).
9. He filled the ocean that had been dried up by the sage Agastya, with
the waters of Ganges; as the bounteous man fills the greedy beggar with
his unbounded bounty.
10. This benefactor of mankind, redeemed his ancestral kinsmen from the
infernal region (in which they were accursed by the indignant sage;) and
led them to the heaven of Brahmá, by the passage of the sacred Gangá
(which ran through the three worlds of heaven, earth and hell).
11. He overcame by his resolute perseverance, all his manifold
obstacles and troubles, in his alternate propitiations of the god
Brahmá and Siva and the sage Jahnu, for their discharging the course of
the stream. (The holy Gangá was first confined in Brahmá's water pot,
and then restricted in Hara's crown, and lastly locked up under Jahnu's
seat, whence the river has the nickname of Jáhnaví).
12. Though he was yet in the vigour of his youth, he seemed even then
to feel the decay of age, coming fastly upon him, at his incessant
thoughts on the miseries of human life.
13. His excogitation of the vanities of the world, produced in him a
philosophical apathy to them; and this _sang froid_ or cold heartedness
of his in the prime of his youth, was like the shooting forth of a
tender sprout on a sudden in a barren desert. (So great was the early
abstractedness from the world, prized by the ancient Aryans, that many
monarchs are mentioned to have became religious recluses in their
youth).
14. The prince thought in his retired moments on the impropriety of
his worldly conduct, and made the following reflections, on the daily
duties of life in his silent soliloquy.
15. I see the return of day and night, in endless succession after
one another; and I find the repetition of the same acts of giving and
taking (receipts and disbursements), and lasting the same enjoyments,
to have grown tedious and insipid to me. (So it was with Rasselas the
prince of Abyssinia, who felt disgusted at the daily rotation of the
same pleasures and enjoyments and one unvaried course of life).
16. I think that only to be worth my seeking and doing, which being
obtained and done, there is nothing else to desire or do in this
transitory life of troubles and cares.
17. Is it not shameful for a sensible being, to be employed in the same
circuit of business every day, and is it not laughable to be doing and
undoing the same thing, like silly boys day by day?
18. Being thus vexed with the world, and afraid of the consequence of
his worldly course, Bhagíratha repaired in silence to the solitary cell
of his preceptor Tritala, and bespoke to him in the following manner.
19. Bhagíratha said:--My Lord! I am entirely tired and disgusted with
the long course of my worldly career, which I find to be all hollow and
empty within it, and presenting a vast wilderness without.
20. Tell me lord, how can I get over the miseries of this world, and
get freed from my fear of death and disease and from the fetters of
errors and passions, to which I am so fast enchained. (The Hindu
mind is most sensible of the baneful effects of the primeval curse
pronounced on man, and the accursedness of his posterity and of this
earth for his sake; and is always in eager search of salvation,
redemption or liberation from the same by _mukti_, _moksha_, and
_paritrána_).
21. Tritala replied:--It is to be effected by means of the continued
evenness of one's disposition (obtained by his quadruple practice
of devotion _sádhana_); the uninterrupted joyousness of his soul
(arising from its communion with the Holy spirit); by his knowledge
of the knowable true one, and by his self sufficiency in everything
(tending to his perfection). (The quadruple devotion consists in one's
attendance to holy lectures and in his understanding, reflection and
practice of the same lessons, called the _sádhana chatushtaya_).
22. By these means the man is released from misery, his worldly bonds
are relaxed, his doubts are dissipated, and all his actions tend to his
well being in both worlds.
23. That which is called the knowable, is the pure soul of the nature
of intelligence; it is always present in everything in all places and
is eternal--having neither its rising or setting (_i.e._ its beginning
or end). The animating soul of the world, is identified with the
supreme and universal soul of God. The vedánta knows no duality of the
animal and animating souls.
24. Bhagíratha rejoined:--I know, O great sage! the pure intelligent
soul to be perfectly calm and tranquil, undecaying and devoid of all
attributes and qualities; and neither the embodied spirit, nor the
animal soul, nor the indwelling principle of material bodies.
25. I cannot understand sir, how I can be that intelligence, when I
am so full of errors, or if I be the selfsame soul, why is it not so
manifest in me as the pure divine soul itself.
26. Tritala replied:--It is by means of knowledge only, that the mind
can know the truly knowable one in the sphere of one's own intellect,
and then the animal soul finding itself as the all-pervading spirit,
is released from future birth and transmigration. (The belief of the
difference of one's soul from the eternal one, is the cause of his
regeneration).
27. It is our unattachment to earthly relations, and unaccompaniment
of our wives, children and other domestic concerns, together with
the equanimity of our minds, in whatsoever is either advantageous or
disadvantageous to us, that serve to widen the sphere of our souls and
cause their universality.
28. It is also the union of our souls with the supreme spirit, and our
continual communion with God; as also our seclusion from society and
remaining in retirement that widen the scope of our souls.
29. It is the continued knowledge of spirituality, and insight into the
sense of the unity and identity of God, which are said to constitute
our true knowledge; all besides is mere ignorance and false knowledge.
30. It is the abatement of our love and hatred, that is the only remedy
for our malady of worldliness; and it is the extinction of our egoistic
feelings, that leads to the knowledge of truth.
31. Bhagíratha responded:--Tell me, O reverend sir, how is it possible
for any body to get rid of his egoism, which is deep rooted in our
constitution, and has grown as big with our bodies as lofty trees on
mountain tops.
32. Tritala replied:--All egoistic feelings subside of themselves
under the abandonment of worldly desires, which is to be done by the
very great efforts of fortitude, in our exercise of the virtues of
self-abnegation and self-command, and by the expansion of our souls to
universal benevolence.
33. We are so long subjected to the reign of our egoism, as we have
not the courage to break down the painful prison house of shame at
our poverty, and the fear at our exposure to the indignity of others.
(Poverty is shameful to worldly people, but graceful to holy men).
34. If you can therefore renounce all your worldly possessions and
remain unmoved in your mind (although in actual possession of them);
you may then get rid of your egoism, and attain to the state of supreme
bliss.
35. Bereft of all titular honors, and freed from the fear of falling
into poverty (and its consequent indignity); being devoid of every
endeavour of rising, and remaining as poor and powerless among
invidious enemies; and rather living in contemptible beggary among
them, without the egoistic pride of mind and vanity of the body; if you
can thus remain in utter destitution of all, you are then greater than
the greatest.
CHAPTER LXXV.
SUPINENESS OF BHAGÍRATHA.
Argument:--Great bounty of Bhagíratha and his indigence in consequence;
and his recourse to asceticism with his tutor.
Vasishtha related:--Having heard these monitions from the mouth of his
religious monitor, he determined in his mind what he was about to do,
and set about the execution of his purpose.
2. He passed a few days in devising his project, and then commenced his
_agnishtoma_ sacrifice to the sacred fire, for consecrating his all
to it, for the sake of obtaining his sole object (of Nirvána or being
extinct in the essence of God).
3. He gave away his kine and lands, his horses and jewels, and his
monies without number, to the twice born classes of men and his
relatives, without distinction of their merit or demerit.
4. During three days he gave away profusely all what he had, till at
last he had nothing for himself, except his life and flesh and bones.
5. When his exhaustless treasures were all exhausted, he gave up his
great realm like a straw to his neighbouring enemies, to the great
mortification of his subjects and citizens (paurakas).
6. As the enemy overran his territories and kingdom, and seized his
royal palace and properties; he girt himself in his undergarb, and went
away beyond the limits of his kingdom.
7. He wandered afar through distant villages and desert lands, till at
last he settled himself where he was quite unknown to all, and nobody
knew his person or face or his name and title.
8. Remaining there retired for some time, he became quite composed and
blunt to all feelings from within and without himself; and he obtained
his rest and repose in the serene tranquillity of his soul.
9. He then roved about different countries and went to distant islands
(to see the various manners of men); till at last he turned unawares to
his natal land and city, which was in the grasp of his enemies.
10. There while he was wandering from door to door, as he was led about
by the current of time; he was observed by the citizens and ministers
to be begging their alms.
11. All the citizens and ministers recognized their ex-king Bhagíratha,
whom they honoured with their due homage, and whom they were very sorry
to behold in that miserable plight.
12. His enemy (the reigning prince) came out to meet him, and implored
him to receive back his neglected estate and self-abandoned kingdom;
but he slighted all their offers as trifling straws, except taking his
slender repast at their hands.
13. He passed a few days there and then bent his course to another way,
when the people loudly lamented at his sad condition saying: "Ah! what
has become of the unfortunate Bhagíratha".
14. Then the prince walked about with the calmness of his soul, and
with his contended mind and placid countenance; and he amused himself
with his wandering habits and thoughts, until he came to meet his tutor
Tritala on the way.
15. They welcomed one another, and then joining together, they both
began to wander about the localities of men, and to pass over hills and
deserts in their holy peregrinations.
16. Once on a time as both the dispassionate pupil and his preceptor,
were sitting together in the cool calmness of their dispositions, their
conversations turned on the interesting subject of human life.
17. What good is there in our bearing the frail body, and what do
we lose by our loss of it. (Since neither reap nor lose any real
advantage, either by our having or losing of it at any time, yet we
should bear with it as it is, in the discharge of the duties that have
come down unto us by the custom of the country).
18. They remained quiet with this conclusion, and passed their time
in passing from one forest to another; without feeling any joy above
their inward bliss, or knowing any sorrow or the intermediate state of
joy and grief (which is the general lot of humanity), and the rotatory
course of pleasure and pain in this world.
19. They spurned all riches and properties, the possession of horses
and cattle, and even the eight kinds of supernatural powers (Siddhis)
as rotten straws before the contentedness of their minds.
20. This body which is the result of our past acts, must be borne with
fortitude, whether we wish it or not, as long as it lasts; with his
continued conviction in the discharge of their duties (of asceticism).
21. They like silent sages, hailed with complaisance, whatever of
good or evil, or desirable or undesirable befell to their lot, as the
unavoidable results of their prior deeds; and had their repose in the
heavenly felicity, to which they had assimilated themselves. (So the
sruti: The Divine are one with Divine felicity).
CHAPTER LXXVI
THE DESCENT OF GANGÁ ON EARTH.
Argument:--Reinstatement of Bhagíratha in his Kingdom, and his bringing
down the heavenly stream by means of his austere Devotion.
Vasishtha continued:--It came to pass at one time as Bhagíratha was
passing through a large metropolis, he beheld the ruler of that
province, who was childless to be snatched away by the hand of death,
as a shark seizes a fish for its prey.
2. The people being afraid of anarchy and lawlessness for want of a
ruler, were in search of a proper person joined with noble endowments
and signs to be made their future king.
3. They met with the silent and patient prince in the act of begging
alms, and knowing him as the king Bhagíratha himself, they took him
with them escorted by their own regiments, to install him on the throne
as their king.
4. Bhagíratha instantly mounted on an elephant, and was led by a large
body of troops, who assembled about him as thickly, as the drops of
rain water fall into and fill a lake.
5. The people then shouted aloud, "Here is Bhagíratha our lord; may he
be victorious for ever", and the noise thereof reached to the furthest
mountains, and filled their hollow caves (which reached to the sound).
6. Then as Bhagíratha remained to reign over that realm, the subjects
of his own and former kingdom came reverently to him, and thus prayed
unto their king saying:--
7. The people said:--Great king! the person who thou didst appoint to
rule over us, is lately devoured by death as a little fish by a large
one.
8. Therefore deign to rule over thy realm, nor refuse to accept an
offer which comes unasked to thee (so it is said:--It is not right to
slight even a mite, that comes of itself to any body, but it is to be
deemed as a God-sent blessing).
9. Vasishtha said:--The king being so besought accepted their prayer,
and thus became the sole manager of the earth, bounded by the seven
seas on all sides.
10. He continued to discharge the duties of royalty without the least
dismay or disquietude, though he was quite calm and serene in his mind,
quiet in his speech, and devoid of passions and envy or selfishness.
11. He then thought of the redemption of his ancestors, who excavated
the coast of the sea (and made this bay of Bengal); and were burned
alive underneath the ground (by the curse of sage Kapila); by laving
their bones and dead bodies with the waves of Ganges, which he heard,
had the merit of purity and saving all souls and bodies. (The ancestors
of Bhagíratha were the thousand sons of sagara, who were masters of
Saugar islands in the bay of Bengal).
12. The heavenly stream of the Ganges did not till then run over the
land, it was Bhagíratha that brought it down, and first washed his
ancestral remains with its holy waters. The stream was thence forth
known by his name as Bhagíratha.
13. The king Bhagíratha was thenceforward resolved, to bring down the
holy Gangá of heaven to the nether world. (The triple Ganges is called
the Tripathagá or fluvium trivium or running in three directions).
14. The pious prince then resigned his kingdom to the charge of his
ministers, and went to the solitary forest with the resolution of
making his austere devotion, for the success of his undertaking.
15. He remained there for many years and under many rains, and
worshipped the Gods Brahmá and Siva and the sage Jahnu by turns, until
he succeeded to bring down the holy stream on the earth below. (It is
said that Gangá was pent-up at first in the water pot of Brahmá, and
then in the crown of Siva and lastly under the thighs of Jahnu, all
which are allegorical of the fall of the stream from the cascade of
Gangotri in Haridwar).
16. It was then that the crystal wave of the Ganges, gushed out of the
basin of Brahmá the lord of the world and rushed into the moony crest
of Hara; and falling on earth below it took a triple course, like the
meritorious acts of great men (which were lauded in all three worlds of
their past, present and future lives).
17. It was thus the trivium river of Gangá, came to flow over this
earth, as the channel to bear the glory of Bhagíratha to distant lands.
Behold her running fast with her upheaving waves, and smiling all
along with her foaming froths; she sprinkles purity all along with the
drizzling drops of her breakers, and scatters plenty over the land as
the reward of the best deserts of men.
CHAPTER LXXVII.
NARRATIVE OF CHÚDÁLÁ AND SIKHIDHWAJA.
Argument:--Story of the _Princess Chúdálá and her marriage_ with
Sikhidhwaja and their youthful sports.
Vasishtha related:--Ráma! do you keep your view fixed to one object, as
it was kept in the mind of Bhagíratha; and do you pursue your calling
with a calm and quiet understanding, as it was done by that steady
minded prince in the accomplishment of his purpose! (For he that runs
many ways, stands in the middle and gets to the end of none).
2. Give up your thoughts of this and that (shilly-shallying), and
confine the flying bird of your mind within your bosom, and remain in
full possession of yourself after the example of the resolute prince
Sikhidhwaja of old.
3. Ráma asked:--Who was this Sikhidhwaja, sir, and how did he maintain
the firmness of his purpose? Please explain this fully to me for the
edification of my understanding.
4. Vasishtha replied:--It was in a former _Dwápara age_, that there
lived a loving pair of consorts who are again to be born in a future
period, in the same manner and at the same place.
5. Ráma rejoined:--Tell me, O great preacher! how the past could be the
same as at present, and how can these again be alike in future also.
(Since there can be no cause of the likeness of past ages and their
productions with those of the present or future. It is reasonable to
believe the recurrence of such other things, but not of the same and
very things as of yore).
6. Vasishtha replied:--Such is the irreversible law of destiny and the
irreversible course of nature, that the creation of the world must
continue in the same manner by the invariable will of the creative
Brahmá and others. (_i.e._ The repeated creation of worlds must go on
in the same rotation by the inevitable will (Satya Sankalpa) of the
creative power; wherefore bygone things are to return and be re-born
over and over again).
7. As those which had been plentiful before come to be as plenteous
again, so the past appears at present and in future also. Again many
things come to being that had not been before, and so many others
become extinct in course of time (_e. g._ as past crops return again
and again and vegetables grow where there were none, and as a lopped
off branch grows no more).
8. Some reappear in their former forms and some in their resemblance
also; others are changed in their forms, and many more disappear
altogether (see, for example, the different shapes of the waves of the
ocean).
9. These and many other things are seen in the course of the world; and
therefore the character of the subject of the present narrative will
be found to bear exact resemblance to that of the bygone prince of the
same name.
10. Hear me tell you, also, that there is yet to be born such another
prince, as valiant as the one that had been in the former _dwápara age_
of the past seventh manvantara period.
11. It will be after the four _yugas_ of the fourth creation, past and
gone, that he will be born again of the Kuru family in the vicinity of
the Vindhyan mountains in the Jambudwípa continent. (This extravagant
sloka is omitted in other editions of this work).
12. There lived a prince by name of Sikhidhwaja in the country of
Malava, who was handsome in his person, and endowed with firmness and
magnanimity in his nature, and the virtues of patience and self control
in his character.
13. He was brave but silent, and even inclined to good acts with all
his great virtues; he was engaged in the performance of the religious
sacrifices, as also in defeating bowyers in archery.
14. He did many acts (of public endowments), and supported the poor
people of the land; he was of a graceful appearance and complacent
in his countenance, and loved all men with his great learning in the
sástras.
15. He was handsome, quiet and fortunate, and equally as valiant as
he was virtuous. He was a preacher of morality and bestower of all
benefits to his suitors.
16. He enjoyed all luxuries in the company of good people, and listened
to the lessons of the Srutis. He knew all knowledge without any boast
on his part, and he hated to touch women as straws.
17. His father departed to the next world, leaving him a lad of sixteen
years in age; and yet he was able at that tender age to govern his
realm, by defeating his adversaries on all sides.
18. He conquered all other provinces of the country by means of the
resources of his empire; and he remained free from all apprehension by
ruling his subjects with justice and keeping them in peace.
19. He brightened all sides by his intelligence and the wisdom of his
ministers, till in the course of years he came to his youth, as in the
gaudy spring of the year.
20. It was the vernal season, and he beheld the blooming flowers
glistening brightly under the bright moon-beams; and he saw the budding
blossoms, hanging down the arbours in the inner apartments.
21. The door ways of the bowers were overhung with twining branches,
decorated with florets scattering their fragrant dust like the hoary
powder of camphor; and the rows of the _guluncha_ flowers wafted their
odours all around.
22. There was the loud hum of bees, buzzing with their mates upon the
flowery bushes; and the gentle zephyrs were wafting the sweet scent
amidst the cooling showers of moonbeams.
23. He saw the banks decorated with the _kadalí_ shrubbery glistening
with their gemming blossoms under the sable shade of _kadalí_
(plantain) leaves; which excited his yearning after the dear one that
was seated in his heart.
24. Giddy with the intoxication of the honey draughts of fragrant
flowers, his mind was fixed on his beloved object, and did not depart
from it, as the spring is unwilling to quit the flowery garden (so says
Hapiz,--no pleasant sight is gladsome to the mind without the face of
the fair possessor of the heart: see Sir Wm. Jones' version of it).
25. When shall I in this swinging cradles of my pleasure garden,
and when will I in my sports in this lake of lotuses, play with my
love-smitten maid with her budding breasts resembling the two unblown
blossoms of golden lotuses?
26. When shall I embrace my beloved one to my bosom on my bed daubed
with the dust of powdered frankincense, and when shall we on cradles of
lotus stalks, like a pair of bees sucking the honey from flower cups?
27. When shall I see that maiden lying relaxed in my arms, with her
slender body resembling a tender stalk, and as fair as a string of
milk-white _kunda_ flowers, or as a plant formed of moon-beams?
28. When will that moonlike beauty be inflamed with her love to me?
With these and the like thoughts and ravings he roved about the garden
looking at the variety of flowers.
29. He then went on rambling in the flowery groves and skirts of
forests, and thence strayed onward from one forest to another, and by
the side of purling lakes blooming with the full blown lotuses. (The
lotus is the emblem of beauty in the east, as the rose is in the west).
30. He entered in the alcoves formed by the twining creepers, and
walked over the avenues of many garden grounds and forest lands,
seeing and hearing the descriptions of woodland sceneries (from his
associates).
31. He was distracted in his mind, and took much delight in hearing
discourses on erotic subjects, and the bright form of his necklaced and
painted beloved was the sole idol in his breast.
32. He adored the maiden in his heart, with her breasts resembling
two golden pots on her person; and this ween was soon found by the
sagacious ministers of the state.
33. As it is the business of ministership to dive into matters by their
signs and prognosis, so these officers met together to deliberate on
his marriage.
34. They proposed the youthful daughter of the king of Syrastra (Surat)
for his marriage, and thought her as a proper match for him, on account
of her coming to the full age of puberty (_lit._ to the prime of her
youth).
35. The prince was married to her who was a worthy image (or like
co-partner) of himself; and this fair princess was known by the name of
_Chúdálá_ all over the land.
36. She was as joyous in having him, as the new blown lotus at the
rising sun; and he made the black-eyed maid to bloom, as the moon opens
the bud of the blue lotus. (Lotuses are known as helio-solenus, the
white ones opening at sun rise and the blue kind blooming with the
rising moon).
37. He delighted her with his love, as gives the white lotus to bloom;
and they both inflamed their mutual passions by their abiding in the
heart of one another.
38. She flourished with her youthful wiles and dalliance, like a new
grown creeper blooming with its flowers, and he was happy, and careless
in her company by leaving the state affairs to the management of the
ministers. (The words háv Chavavilasa, implying amorous dalliance, are
all comprised in the couplet "quips and cranks and wanton wiles, nods
and becks and wreathed smiles".--Pope).
39. He disported in the company of his lady love, as the swan sports
over a bed of lotuses in a large lake; and indulged his frolics in his
swinging cradles and pleasure ponds in the inner apartments.
40. They reveled in the gardens and groves, and in the bowers of
creepers and flowering plants; and amused themselves in the woods and
in walks under the sandalwood and a _gulancha_ shades.
41. They sported by the rows of _mandára_ trees, and beside the lines
of plantain and kadalí plants; and regaled themselves wandering in the
harem, and by the sides of the woods and lakes in the skirts of the
town.
42. He roved afar in distant forests and deserts, and in jungles of
_Jám_ and _Jám bira_ trees; they passed by paths bordered by Játí or
jasmine plants, and, in short they took delight in everything in the
company of one another.
43. The mutual attachment to one another was as delightsome to the
people as the union of the raining sky with the cultivated ground; both
tending to the welfare of mankind by the productiveness of the general
weal. (This far-fetched simile and the mazy construction of the passage
is incapable of a literal version).
44. They were both skilled in the arts of love and music, and were
so united together by their mutual attachment, that the one was a
counterpart of the other.
45. Being seated in each others heart, they were as two bodies with one
soul; so that the learning of the sástras of the one, and the skill in
painting and fine arts of the other, were orally communicated to and
learnt by one another.
46. She from her childhood was trained in every branch of learning, and
he learned the arts of dancing and playing on musical instruments, from
the oral instructions of _Chúdálá_.
47. They learned and became learned in the respective arts and parts of
one another; as the sun and moon being set in conjunction (amavasyá),
impart to and partake of the qualities of each other.
48. Being mutually situated in the heart of one another, they became
the one and the same person and both being in the same inclination and
pursuit, were the more endeared to one another (as a river running
to the milky ocean is assimilated to the ocean of milk, so all souls
mixing with the supreme soul form one universal and only soul).
49. They were joined in one person, as the _androgyne_ body of Umá and
Siva on earth; and were united in one soul, as the different fragrances
of flowers are mixed up with the common air. Their clearness of
understanding and learning of the sástras led them both in the one and
same way.
50. They were born on earth to perform their parts, like the God
_Vishnu_ and his consort Lakshmí; they were equally frank and sweet by
their mutual affection, and were as informed as communicative of their
learning to others.
51. They followed the course of the laws and customs, and attended to
the affairs of the people; they delighted in the arts and sciences, and
enjoyed their sweet pleasures also. They appeared as the two moons,
shining with their beams.
52. They tasted all their sweet enjoyments of life, in the quiet and
solitary recesses of their private apartments, as a couple of giddy
swans sporting merrily in the lake of the azure sky.
CHAPTER LXXVIII.
BEATIFICATION OF CHÚDÁLÁ.
Argument:--The distaste and indifference of the happy pair to worldly
enjoyments.
Vasishtha continued:--In this manner did this happy pair, revel for
many years in the pleasures of their youth, and tasted with greater
zest, every new delight that came on their way day by day.
2. Years repeated their reiterated revolutions over their protracted
revelries till by and by their youth began to give way to the decay of
age; as the broken pitcher gives way to its waters out (or rather as
the leaky vessel gives way to the waters in).
3. They then thought that their bodies are as frail as the breakers on
the sea; and as liable to fall as the ripened fruits of trees, and that
death is not to be averted by any body.
4. As the arrowy snows rend the lotus leaves, so is our old age ready
to batter and shatter our frames; and the cup of our life is drizzling
away day by day, as the water held in the palm falls away by sliding
drops.
5. While our avarice is increasing on our hand, like the gourd plant in
the rainy weather, so doth our youth glide away as soon as the torrent
falls from the mountain cliffs to the ground.
6. Our life is as false as a magic play, and the body a heap of rotting
things; our pleasures are few and painful, and as fleeting as the
flying arrows from the archers bow.
7. Afflictions pounce upon our hearts, as vultures and kites dart upon
fish and flesh; and these our bodies are as momentary as the bursting
bubbles of dropping rains (or of rain drops).
8. All reasoning and practice are as unsound, as the unsolid stem of
the plantain tree; and our youth is as evanescent, as a fugacious woman
that is in love with many men.
9. The taste of youthful pleasure, is soon succeeded by a distaste
to it in old age; just as the vernal freshness of plants, gives room
to the dryness of autumn; where then is that permanent pleasure and
lasting good in this world; which never grows stale, and is ever sweet
and lovely.
10. Therefore should we seek that thing, which will support us in all
conditions of life, and which will be a remedy of all the maladies
(evils), which circumvent us in this world.
11. Being thus determined, they were both employed in the investigation
of spiritual philosophy; because they thought their knowledge of the
soul to be the only healing balm of the cholic pain of worldliness.
(Because spiritual knowledge extricates the soul from its earthly
bondage).
12. Thus resolved, they were both devoted to their spiritual culture,
and employed their head and heart, their lives and souls in the
inquiry, and placed all their hope and trust in the same.
13. They remained long in the study and mutual communication of their
spiritual knowledge; and continued to meditate upon and worship the
soul of souls in their own souls.
14. They both rejoiced in their investigations into Divine knowledge,
and she took a great delight in attending incessantly, to the
admonitions and sermons of the Divine prelates.
15. Having heard the words of salvation, from the mouths of the
spiritual doctors, and from their exposition of the Sástras; she
continued thus to reflect about the soul by day and night. (Blessed is
the man, that meditates on the laws of God by day and night. Psalm.)
16. Whether when engaged in action or not, I see naught but the one
soul in my enlightened and clear understanding; what then, am I that
very self, and is it my own self? (The yogi, when enrapt in holy light,
loses the sense of his own personality. So lost in Divine light, the
saints themselves forget).
17. Whence comes this error of my personality, why does it grow up
and where does it subsist (in the body or in the mind)? It cannot
consist in the gross body which knows not itself and is ignorant of
everything. Surely I am not this body, and my egoism lies beyond my
corporeality.
18. The error then rises in the mind and grows from boyhood to old
age, to think one's self as lean or fat as if he were the very body.
Again it is usual to say I act, I see &c., as if the personality of
one consists in his action; but the acts of the bodily organs, being
related with the body, are as insensible and impersonal as the dull
body itself.
19. The part is not different from the whole, nor is the product of the
one otherwise than that of the others. (As the branch and the tree are
the same thing, and the fruit of the one the same as that of the other.
Hence the actions of both the outward and inward organs of the body,
are as passive and impersonal as the body itself).
20. The mind moves the body as the bat drives the ball, and therefore
it must be dull matter also, being apart of the material body, and
differing from it in its power of volition only. (The mind is called
the _antah-karana_ or an inward organ of the material body, and also
material in its nature).
21. The determination of the mind impels the organs to their several
actions, as the sling sends the pebble in any direction; and this
firmness of resolution is no doubt a property of matter. (Like the
solidity of current).
22. The egoism which leads the body forward in its action, is like the
channel that carries the current of a stream in its onward course.
This egoism also has no essence of its own and is therefore as inert
and inactive as a dead body. (The ego [Sanskrit: aham] is subjective
and really existent in Western philosophy). But egoism or egotism
[Sanskrit: ahamkára] is the false conception of the mind as the true
ego.
23. The living principle (Jíva or zoa) is a false idea, as the phantom
of a ghost; the living soul is one principle of intelligence and
resides in the form of air in the heart. (That life is a produce of
organism, acted by external physical stimuli).
24. The life or living principle lives by another inner power, which
is finer and more subtile than itself, and it is by means of this
internal witness (the soul), that all things are known to us, and not
by means of this gross animal life. (Because there is a brute life,
and a vegetable life also, which are as insensible as dull matter.
Hence there is a distinct principle to direct vitality to all vital
functions).
25. The living soul lives in its form of vitality, by the primordial
power of the intellect, the vital soul which is misunderstood as an
intelligent principle, subsists by means of this intellectual power.
(Life is the tension of the power, imparted by the intellect).
26. The living soul carries with it the power, which is infused in it
by the intellect; as the wind wafts in its course the fragrance of
flowers, and the channel carries the current of the stream to a great
distance. (Hence life also is an organism and no independent active
power by itself).
27. The heart which is the body or seat of the intellect, is nothing
essential by itself; it is called _chitta_ or centre for concentrating
_chayana_ of the powers of the intellect, and also the _hrid_ or heart,
for its bearing _harana_ of these powers to the other parts of the
body; and therefore it is a dull material substance. (The heart is
the receiver and distributor of force to the members of the body, and
therefore a mere organism of itself).
28. All these and the living soul also, and anything that appears real
or unreal, disappear in the meditation of the intellect, and are lost
in it as the fire when it is immerged in water. (So the appearances
at a ghata or pot and that of a _pata_ or cloth, are lost in their
substances of the clay and thread).
29. It is our intelligence _Chaitanya_ alone, that awakens us to the
knowledge of the unreality and inanity of gross material bodies. With
such reflections as these, Chúdálá thought only how to gain a knowledge
of the all-enlightening Intellect.
30. Long did she cogitate and ponder in this manner in herself; till
at last she came to know what she sought and then exclaimed, "O! I
have after long known the imperishable one, that is only to be known".
(The knowledge of all things else, is as false as they are false in
themselves).
31. No one is disappointed in knowing the knowable, and what is worth
knowing; and this is the knowledge of the intellectual soul and our
contemplation of it. All other knowledge of the mind, understanding and
the senses and all other things, are but leading steps to that ultimate
end. (The end of learning is to know God, Milton, or: nosce te ipsum;
know thyself which is of the supreme self or soul).
32. All things besides are mere nullities, as a second moon in the sky;
there is only one Intellect in existence, and this is called the great
entity or the _ens entium_ or the sum total of all existence.
33. The one purely immaculate and holy, without an equal or personality
of the form of pure intelligence, the sole existence and felicity and
everlasting without decay.
34. This intellectual power is ever pure and bright, always on the
zenith without its rise or fall, and is known among mankind under the
appellations of Brahma--supreme soul, and other attributes. (Because
beyond conception can have no designation beside what is attributed to
Him).
35. The triple appellations of the Intellect, Intelligence, and
Intelligible, are not exactly definitive of His nature; because He
is the cause of these faculties, and witness of the functions of
Intellections.
36. This unthinkable intellect which is in me, is the exact and
undecaying ectype of the supreme intellect; and evolves itself in the
different forms of the mind, and the senses of perception.
37. The intellect involves in itself the various forms of things in
the world, as the sea rolls and unrolls the waves in its bosom. (The
intellect either means the Divine intellect, or it is the subjective
view of the intellect, as evolving the objective world from itself).
38. This world is verily the semblance of that great intellect, which
is like the pure crystal stone and is manifest in this form. (The world
reflects the image of the intellect, which again reflects the image
of the mundane world, the one in the form of its visible appearance
_múrta_; and the other, in its invisible form _amúrta_. Gloss).
39. The same power is manifest in the form of the world, which has no
separate existence except in the mind of the ignorant; because it is
impossible for any other thing to exist except the self-existing one.
40. As it is the gold which represents the various forms of jewels, so
the intellect represents everything in the world as it sees in itself.
(The Divine is the source and store house of all figures and forms).
41. As it is the thought of fluidity in the mind, that causes us to
perceive the wave in the water, whether it really exists or not (as in
our dream or magic); so is the thought in the Divine mind, which shows
the picture of the world, whether it is in being or in not _esse_.
42. And as the divine soul appears as the wave of the sea, from its
thought of fluidity; so am I the same intellect without any personality
of myself. (Because the one impersonal soul pervades everywhere).
43. This soul has neither its birth nor death, nor has it a good
or bad future state (Heaven or Hell); it has no destruction at any
time; because it is of the form of the various intellect, which is
indestructible in its nature.
44. It is not to be broken or burnt (_i.e._ though every where,
yet it is an entire whole, and though full of light; yet it is not
inflammable); and it is the unclouded luminary of the intellect. By
meditating on the soul in this manner, I am quite at rest and peace.
45. I live free from error and rest as calm as the untroubled ocean;
and meditate on the invisible one, who is quite clear to me, as the
unborn, undecaying and infinite soul of all.
46. It is the vacuous soul, unrestricted by time or place, immaculate
by any figure or form, eternal and transcending our thought and
knowledge. It is the infinite void, and all attempts to grasp it, are
as vain as to grasp the empty air in the hand.
47. This soul pervades equally over all the Sura as well as the Asura
races of the earth; but is none of those artificial forms, in which
the people represent it in their images of clay, likening the dolls of
children.
48. The essences of both the viewer and the view (_i.e._ of both the
subjective and the objective), reside at once in the unity of the
intellect; though men are apt to make the distinctions of unity and
duality, and of the ego and _non ego_ through their error only.
49. But what error or delusion is there, and how, when and whence can
it overtake me, when I have attained my truly spiritual and immortal
form, and seated in my easy and quiet state. (This is calmness of the
soul attending the thought of one's immortality begun in this life).
50. I am absorbed and extinct in eternity, and all my cares are extinct
with my own extinction in it. My soul is in its entranced state between
sensibility and insensibility, and feels what is reflected upon it.
(_i.e._ the inspiration which is communicated to the ravished soul).
51. The soul settled in the great intellect of God, and shining with
the light of the supreme soul, as the sky is illumed by the luminary of
the day. There is no thought of this or that or even of one's self or
that of any other being or not being; all is calm and quiet and having
no object in view, except the one transcendent spirit.
52. With these excogitations, she remained as calm and quiet as a white
cloudy spot in the autumnal sky; her soul was awake to the inspiration
of Divine truth, but her mind was cold to the feelings of love and
fear, of pride and pleasure, and quite insusceptible of delusion.
CHAPTER LXXIX.
PRINCESS COMING TO THE SIGHT OF THE SUPREME SOUL.
Argument:--The prince's wonder of the sight of the princess, and her
relation of her Abstract meditation.
Vasishtha continued:--Thus did the princess live day by day in the
rapture of her soul; and with her views concentrated within herself,
she lived as in her own and proper element.
2. She had no passion nor affection, nor any discord nor desire in her
heart; she neither coveted nor hated anything, and was indifferent to
all; but persistent in her course, and vigilant in her pursuit (after
her self perfection).
3. She had got over the wide gulf of the world, and freed herself from
the entangling snare of doubts (and the horns of dilemmas); she had
gained the great good of knowing the supreme soul, which filled her
inward soul.
4. She found her rest in God after her weariness of the world, and in
her state of perfect bliss and felicity; and her name sounded in the
lips of all men, as the model of incomparable perfection.
5. Thus this lady--the princess Chúdálá, became in a short time,
acquainted with the true God (lit. knowing the knowable one), by the
earnestness of her inquiry.
6. The errors of the world subside in the same manner, under the
knowledge of truth, as they rise in the human mind by its addictedness
to worldliness. (The world is an abode of errors and illusion. Persian
Proverb).
7. After she had found her repose in that state of perfect blessedness,
wherein the sight of all things is lost in its dazzling blaze, she
appeared as bright as a fragment of autumnal cloud, that is ever steady
in its place.
8. Apart from and irrelated with all, she continued in the meditation
of the spirit in her own spirit, as the aged bull remained careless on
the mountain top, where he happened to find a verdant meadow for his
pasture.
9. By her constant habit of loneliness, and the elevation of her soul
in her solitude, she became as fresh as the new grown plant, with her
blooming face shining as the new blown flower.
10. It happened to pass at one time, that the prince Sikhidhwaja
came in sight of the unblamable beauty, and being struck with wonder
at seeing her unusual gracefulness of her person, he addressed her
saying:--
11. How is it, my dear one, that you are again your youthful bloom like
the flowery plant of the vernal season; you appear more brilliant than
the lightsome world under the bright beams of full moon.
12. You shine more brightly, my beloved, than one drinking the ambrosia
or elixir of life, and as one obtaining the object of her desire, and
filled with perfect delight in herself.
13. You seem quite satisfied and lovely with your graceful person, and
surpass the bright moon in the beauty of thy body; methinks you are
approaching to me as when the Goddess of love or _Laxmí_ draws near her
favourite Káma.
14. I see thy mind disdaining all enjoyments and is parsimonious of its
pleasures; it is tranquil and cool, and elated with spiritual ardour,
and is as deep as it is tranquil in its nature.
15. I see thy mind spurning the three worlds as if they were straws
before it, and tasted all their sweets to its full satisfaction; it is
above the endless broils of the world, and is quite charming in itself.
16. O fortunate princess, there are no such gratifications in the
enjoyment of earthly possessions, which may equal the spiritual joy
of thy tranquil mind. The one is as dry as the dryness of the sandy
desert, compared with the refreshing water of the milky ocean.
17. Being born with thy tender limbs resembling the tendrils of young
plantains, and the soft shoots of lotus stalks, thou seemest now to
have grown strong and stout in thy frame of body and mind. (It is the
spirit and spiritual power that strengthens both the body and mind).
18. With the same features and figure of thy body as before, thou hast
became as another being, like a plant growing up to a tree, under the
influence of the revolving seasons.
19. Tell me, whether thou hast drunk the ambrosial draught of the Gods,
or obtained thy sovereignty over an empire; or whether thou hast gained
thy immorality by drinking the elixir of life, or by means of thy
practice of yoga meditation in either of its forms of _Hatha_ or _Rája
yoga_.
20. Hast thou got a Kingdom or found out the philosopher's stone (which
converts everything to gold); hast thou gained aught that is more
precious than the three worlds, or that thou hast obtained, O my blue
eyed lady! something that is not attainable to mankind.
21. Chúdálá responded:--I have not lost my former form, nor am I
changed to a new one to come before thee at present; but am as ever
thy fortunate lady and wife. (There is a far fetched meaning of this
passage given in the gloss).
22. I have forsaken all that is untrue and unreal, and have laid hold
of what is true and real; and it is thus that I remain thy fortunate
consort as ever before.
23. I have come to know whatever is something, as also all that which
is nothing at all; and how all these nothings come to appearance, and
ultimately disappear into nothing, and it is thus that I remain thy
fortunate lady as ever.
24. I am as content with my enjoyments as I am without them, as also
with those that are long past and gone away; I am never delighted nor
irritated at anything whether good or bad, but preserve my equanimity
at all events and thus I remain for ever thy fortunate consort.
25. I delight only in one vacuous entity, that has taken possession of
my heart, and I take no pleasure in the royal gardens and sports, and
thence I am thy fortunate princess as ever.
26. I rely constantly in myself (or soul) only, whether when sitting on
my seat or walking about in the royal gardens or palaces; I am not fond
of enjoyments nor ashamed at their want, and in this manner I continue
thy fortunate wife as ever.
27. I think myself as the sovereign of the world, and having no form of
my own; thus I am delighted in myself, and appear as thy fortunate and
beauteous lady.
28. I am this and not this likewise, I am the reality yet nothing real
of any kind; I am the ego and no ego myself, I am the all and nothing
in particular, and thus I remain your charming lady.
29. I neither wish for pleasure nor fear any pain, I covet no riches
nor hail poverty; I am constant with what I get (knowing my god is the
great giver of all), and hence I seem so very gladsome to thee.
30. I disport in the company of my associates, who have governed their
passions by the light of knowledge, and by the directions of the
sástras, and therefore I seem so very pleasing to thee.
31. I know, my lord, that all that I see by the light of my eyes,
or perceive by my senses, or conceive in my mind, to be nothing in
reality; I therefore see something within myself, which is beyond the
perception of the sensible organs, and the conception of the mind;
and this bright vision of the spirit, hath made me appear so very
brightsome to thy sight.
CHAPTER LXXX.
DISPLAY OF THE QUINTUPLE ELEMENTS.
Argument:--Description of the five siddhis or modes of consummation.
Vasishtha related:--Hearing these words of the beauteous lady, her
husband had not the wit to dive into the meaning of what she said, or
to understand what she meant by her reliance in the soul, but jestingly
told to her.
2. Sikhidhwaja said:--How incongruous is thy speech, and how unbecoming
it is to thy age, that being but a girl you speak of great things, go
on indulging your regal pleasures and sports as you do in your royal
state.
3. Leaving all things you live in the meditation of a nothing (_i.e._
leaving all formal worship, you adore a formless Deity); and if you
have all what is real to sense, how is it possible for you to be so
graceful with an unreal nothing? (Nothing is nothing, and can effect
nothing).
4. Whoso abandons the enjoyments of life, by saying he can do without
them; is like an angry man refraining from his food and rest for a
while, and then weakens himself in his hunger and restlessness, and can
never retain the gracefulness of his person.
5. He who abstains from pleasures and enjoyments, and subsists upon
empty air, is as a ghost devoid of a material form and figure, and
lives a bodiless shadow in the sky.
6. He that abandons his food and raiment, his bedstead and sleep, and
all things besides; and remains devoutly reclined in one soul only,
cannot possibly preserve the calmness of his person. (The yogis are
emaciated in their bodies, and never look so fresh and plump as the
princess).
7. That I am not the body nor bodiless, that I am nothing yet
everything; are words so contradictory, that they bespeak no sane
understanding.
8. Again the saying, that I do not see what I see, but see something
that is quite unseen; is so very inconsistent in itself, that it
indicates no sanity of the mind.
9. From these I find thee an ignorant and unsteady lass still, and my
frolicsome playmate as before; it is by way of jest that I speak so to
you, as you jestingly said these things to me.
10. The prince finished his speech with a loud laughter, and finding it
was the noon time of going to bath, he rose up and left the apartment
of his lady.
11. At this the princess thought with regret in herself and said, O
fie! that the prince has quite misunderstood my meaning, and has not
understood what I meant to say by my rest in the spirit, she then
turned to her usual duties of the day.
12. Since then the happy princess continued in her silent meditation in
her retired seclusion, but passed her time in the company of the prince
in the enjoyments of their royal sports and amusements.
13. It came to pass one day, that the self-satisfied princess pondered
in her mind, upon the method of flying in the air; and though she was
void of every desire in her heart, wished to soar into the sky on an
aerial journey.
14. She then retired to a secluded spot, and there continued to
contemplate about her aerial journey by abstaining from her food,
and shunning the society of her comrades and companions. (During the
absence of the prince from home. Gloss).
15. She sat alone in her retirement keeping her body steadily on
her seat, and restraining her upheaving breath in the midst of her
eye-brows (this is called the Khecharí mudrá or the posture of aerial
journey).
16. Ráma asked:--All motions of bodies in this world whether of moving
or unmoving things, are seen to take place by means of the action of
their bodies and the impulse of their breathing; how is it possible
then to rise upwards by restraint of both of them at once?
17. Tell me sir; by what exercise of breathing or the force of
oscillation, one attempts the power of volitation; and in consequence
of which he is enabled to make his aerial journey (as an aeronaut).
18. Tell me how the adept in spirituality or _yoga_ philosophy,
succeeds to attend his consummation in this respect, and what processes
he resorts to obtain this end of his arduous practice.
19. Vasishtha replied:--There are three ways, Ráma, of attaining the
end of one's object, namely; the _upádeya_ or effort for obtaining the
object of pursuit; second, _heya_ or disdain or detestation of the
thing sought for; and the third is _upeksha_ or indifference to the
object of desire. (These technical terms answer the words positive,
negative and neutrality in western terminology, all which answer the
same end; such as the having, not having of and unconcernedness about
a thing, are attended with the same result of rest and content to
everybody).
20. The first or attainment of the desirable _upádeya_, is secured by
employing the means for its success, the second heya or detestation
hates and slights the thing altogether; and the third or indifference
is the intermediate way between the two (in which one is equally
pleased with its gain or loss. It is a curious _dogma_, that the
positive, negative and the intermediate tend all to the same end).
21. Whatever is pleasable is sought after by all good people, and
anything that is contrary to this (_i.e._ painful), is avoided by
every one; and the intermediate one is neither sought nor shunned by
any body. (Pleasure is either immediate or mediate, as also that which
keeps or wards off pain at present or in future).
22. But no sooner doth the intelligent, learned devotee, come to the
knowledge of his soul and become spiritualized in himself, than all
these three states vanished from his sight, and he feels them all the
same to him.
23. As he comes to see these worlds full with the presence of God, and
his intellect takes its delight in this thought, he then remains in
the midmost state of indifference or loses sight of that also.
24. All wise men remain in the course of neutrality (knowing that an
eternal fate overrules all human endeavours), which the ignorant are
in eager pursuit of their objects in vain, but the dispassionate and
recluse shun every thing (finding the same satisfaction in having of a
thing as in its want). Hear me now tell you the ways to consummation.
25. All success is obtained in course of proper time, place, action and
its instruments (called the quadruple instrumentalities to success);
and this gladdens the hearts of a person, as the vernal season
renovates the earth.
26. Among these four, preference is given to actions, because it is of
highest importance in the bringing about of consummation. (The place
of success _siddhi_ is a holy spot, its time--a happy conjunction
of planets and events, action is the intensity of practice, and its
instruments are yoga, yantra, tantra, mantra, japa &c.).
27. There are many instruments of aerostation, such as the use of
Gutika pills, application of collyrium, the wielding of sword and the
like; but all these are attended with many evils, which are prejudicial
to holiness.
28. There are some gems and drugs, as also some mantras or mystic
syllables, and likewise some charms and formulas prescribed for this
purpose; but these being fully explained, will be found prejudicial to
holy _yoga_. (These magical practices and artifices are violations of
the rules of righteousness).
29. The mount Meru and Himálaya, and some sacred spots and holy
places, are mentioned as the seats of divine inspiration; but a full
description of them, will tend to the violation of holy meditation or
yoga. (Because all these places are full of false yogis, who practice
many fulsome arts for their gain).
30. Therefore hear me now relate unto you, something regarding the
practice of restraining the breath, which is attended with its
consequence of consummation; and is related with the narrative of
Sikhidhwaja, and is the subject of the present discourse. (Here
Vasishtha treats of the efficacy of the regulation of breath towards
the attaining of consummation for satisfaction of Ráma, in disregard of
false and artificial practices).
31. It is by driving away all desires from the heart, beside the only
object in view, and by contracting all the orifices of the body; as
also by keeping the stature, the head and neck erect, that one should
attend the practices enjoined by the yoga sástra (namely: fixing the
sight on the top of the nose and concentrating it between the eye-brows
and the like).
32. Moreover it is by the habit of taking pure food and sitting on
clean seats, that one should ponder into the deep sense and sayings
of the sástras, and continue in the course of good manners and right
conduct in the society of the virtues, by refraining from worldliness
and all earthly connections.
33. It is also by refraining from anger and avarice, and abstaining
from improper food and enjoyments, that one must be accustomed to
constrain his breathings in the course of a long time.
34. The wise man that knows the truth, and has his command over his
triple breathings of inspiration, expiration and retention (púraka,
rechaka and kumbhaka), has all his actions under his control, as a
master has all his servants under his complete subjection. (because
breath is life, and the life has command over all the bodily actions,
as well as mental operations of a person).
35. Know Ráma, that all the well being of a man being under the command
of his vital breath; it is equally possible for every one, both to gain
his sovereignty on earth, as also to secure his liberation for the
future by means of his breath. (So says the proverb, "as long as there
is breath, there every hope with it" [Sanskrit: yábat shusah tábat
áshah] So in Hindi:--_jan hai to Jehan hai_ _i.e._ the life is all in
all &c. So it is said in regard to the _kumbhaka_ or retentive breath,
"repress your breath and you repress all," because every action is done
by the repression of the breath).
36. The breath circulates through the inner lung of the breast, which
encircles the entrails (antra) of the whole inner frame; it supplies
all the arteries with life, and is joined to by all the intestines in
the body as if they to that common channel.
37. There is the curved artery resembling the disc at the top of lute,
and the eddy of waters in the sea; it likens the curved half of the
letter _Om_, and is situated as a cypher or circlet in the base or
lower most gland. (It is called the kundaliní or kula kundaliní nárhí
in the original).
38. It is deep seated at the base of the bodies of the Gods and demi
Gods, of men and beasts, of fishes and fowls, of insects and worms, and
of all aquatic molluscs and animals at large.
39. It continues curved and curbed in the form of a folded snake in
winter, until it unfolds its twisted form under the summer heat (or
the intestinal heat of its hunger _Jatharágní_), and lifts its hood
likening the disk of the moon. (The moon in the yoga sástra, means the
loti-form gland under the upper most crown of the head).
40. It extends from the lower base, and passing through the cavity of
the heart, touches the holes between the eye brows; and remains in its
continued vibration by the wind of the breath.
41. In the midst of that curvilineal artery (kundaliní nárhí), there
dwells a mighty power like the pith within the soft cell of the
plantain tree, which is continually vibrating, like thrilling wires of
the Indian lute (or as the pendulum of a machine).
42. This is called the curvilineal artery (kundaliní) on account of
its curviform shape, and the power residing in it is that prime mobile
force, which sets to motion all the parts and powers of the animal body.
43. It is incessantly breathing like hissing of an infuriate snake and
with its open mouths, it keeps continually blowing upwards, in order to
give force to all the organs.
44. When the vital breath enters into the heart, and is drawn in by the
curved _Kundaliní_; it then produces the consciousness of the mind,
which is the ground of the seeds of all its faculties.
45. As the _Kundaliní_ thrills in the body, in the manner of a bee
fluttering over a flower; so doth our consciousness throb in the mind,
and has the perception of the nice and delicate sensations. (Such as
the lungs and arteries receive the crude food and drink; so doth our
consciousness perceive their various tastes and flavour).
46. The _Kundaliní_ artery stirs as quickly to grasp its gross objects,
as our consciousness is roused at the perception of the object of the
finer senses of sight &c. These come in contact with one another, as an
instrument lays hold of some material.
47. All the veins in the body are connected with this grand artery,
and flow together like so many cellular vessels into the cavity of the
heart, where they rise and fall like rivers in the sea. (It shows the
concentration of blood in the heart by all the veins and arteries, and
its distribution to them in perpetual succession, to have been long
known to the sages of India, before its discovery by Harvey in Europe).
48. From the continued rise and fall (or heaving and sinking) of
this artery, it is said to be the common root or source of all the
sensations and perceptions in the consciousness. (It rises and falls
with the inhaling and exhaling breaths up to the pericranium and thence
down to the fundament).
49. Ráma regained:--How is it sir, that our consciousness coming from
the infinite intellect at all times and places, is confined like
a minute particle of matter, in the cellular vessel of the curved
_Kundaliní_ artery, and there it rises and falls by turns.
50. Vasishtha replied:--It is true, O sinless Ráma, that consciousness
is the property of the infinite intellect, and is always present in all
places and things with the all pervading intellect; yet it is sometimes
compressed in the form of a minute atom of matter in material and
finite bodies.
51. The consciousness of the infinite intellect, is of course as
infinite as infinity itself; but being confined in corporeal bodies,
it is fused as a fluid to diffuse over a small space. So the sunshine
that lightens the universe, appears to flush over a wall or any
circumscribed place. (Such as human consciousness, which is but a flush
of the Divine omniscience).
52. In some bodies it is altogether lost, as in mineral substances
which are unconscious of their own existence; and in others it is
fully developed, as in the Gods and human species; while in some it
is imperfectly developed, as in the vegetable creation, and in others
it appears in its perverted form, as in the inferior animals. So
everything is found to have its consciousness in some form or other.
53. Hear me moreover to explain you, the manner in which consciousness
(or other), appears in its various forms and degrees, in the different
bodies of animated beings.
54. As all cavities and empty spaces are comprised under the term air,
so are all intelligent as well as unintelligent beings comprehended
under the general category of the one ever existent intellect, which
pervades all things in the manner of vacuum. (Here is another proof of
the vacuistic theory of the theosophy of Vasishtha).
55. The same undecaying and unchanging entity of the intellect, is
situated some where in the manner of pure consciousness, and elsewhere
in the form of the subtile form of the quintuple elements. (_i.e._ As
the simple soul and the gross body or the mundane soul. So says Pope:
Whose body nature is, and God the soul).
56. This quintuple element of consciousness is reduplicate into many
other quintuples, as a great many lamps are lighted from one lamp;
these are the five vital airs, the mind and its five fold faculties
of the understanding; the five internal and the five external senses
and their five fold organs, together with the five elementary bodies;
and all having the principles of their growth, rise and decay, as also
their states of waking, dreaming and sleeping ingrained in them.
57. All these quintuples abide in the different bodies of the Gods and
mortals, according to their respective natures and inclinations (which
are the causes of their past and present and future lives in different
forms).
58. Some taking the forms of places, and others of the things situated
in them; while some take the forms of minerals, and others of the
animals dwelling on earth.
59. Thus is this world the production of the action of the said
quintuples, having the principle of intellectual consciousness,
presiding over the whole and every part of it.
60. It is the union of these quintuples in gross bodies, that gives
them their intelligence; hence we see the mobility of some dull
material bodies, as also the immobility of others (as of mineral and
vegetable creations).
61. As the wave of the sea is seen to roll in one place, and to be dull
and at a lull in another; so is this intellectual power in full force
in some bodies, and quite quiescent in others.
62. As the sea is calm and still in one place, and quite boisterous
in another; so is the quintuple body either in motion or at rest in
different places. (Hence rest and motion are properties of gross bodies
and not of the intellectual soul, which is ever quiescent).
63. The quintuple body is mobile by means of the vital airs, and the
vital life (_jíva_) is intelligent by cause of its intelligence; the
rocks are devoid of both, but the trees have their sensibility by
reason of their being moved by the breath of winds; and such is the
nature of the triple creation of animals, minerals and vegetables.
64. Different words are used to denote the different natures of things
(or else the same word is used for things of the same kind); thus fire
is the general name for heat, and frost is that of coldness in general.
65. (Or if it is not the difference in the disposition of the quintuple
elements in bodies, that causes the difference in their natures and
names). It is the difference in the desires of the mind, which by being
matured in time, dispose the quintuple elements in the forms of their
liking.
66. The various desires of the mind, that run in their divers
directions, are capable of being collected together by the sapient, and
employed in the way of their best advantage and well being.
67. The desires of men tending either to their good or evil, are
capable of being roused or suppressed, and employed to their purposes
by turns. (The changeful desires always run in their several courses).
68. Man must direct his desires to that way, which promises him the
objects of his desires; or else it will be as fruitless, as his
throwing the dust at the face of the sky.
69. The great mountains are but heaps of the pentuples, hanging on
the tender and slender blade of consciousness, and these moving and
unmoving bodies, appear as worms on the tree of knowledge (_i.e._
before the intelligent mind).
70. There are some beings with their desires lying dormant in them,
as the unmoving vegetable and mineral productions of the earth; while
there are others with their ever wakeful desires, as the _deities_,
_daityas_ and _men_.
71. Some are cloyed with their desires, as the worms and insects in the
dirt; and others are devoid of their desires as the emancipate yogis,
and the heirs of salvation.
72. Now every man is conscious in himself of his having the mind and
understanding, and being joined with his hands, feet and other members
of his body, formed by the assemblage of the quintuple materials.
73. The inferior animals have other senses, with other members of their
bodies; and so the immoveables also have some kind of sensibility, with
other sorts of their organs. (The members of brute bodies are, the
four feet, horns and tails of quadrupeds; the birds are biped and have
their feathers, bills and their tails also; the snakes have their hoods
and tails; the worms have their teeth, and the insects their stings
&c. And all these they have agreeably to the peculiar desire of their
particular natures. Gloss).
74. Thus my good Ráma! do these quintuple elements, display themselves
in these different forms in the beginning, middle and end of all
sensible and insensible and moving and unmoving beings.
75. The slightest desire of any of these, be it as minute as an atom,
becomes the seed of aerial trees producing the fruits of future births
in the forms of the desired objects. (Every one's desire is the root of
his future fate).
76. The organs of sense are the flowers of this tree (of the body), and
the sensations of their objects are as the fragrance of those flowers,
our wishes are as the bees fluttering about the pistils and filaments
of our fickle efforts and exertions.
77. The clear heavens are the hairy tufts, resting on the stalks of the
lofty mountains; its leaves are the cerulean clouds of the sky, and the
ten sides of the firmament, are as the straggling creepers stretching
all about it.
78. All beings now in being, and those coming into existence in future,
are innumerable in their number, and are as the fruits of this tree,
growing and blooming and falling off by turns.
79. The five seeds of these trees, grow and perish of their own nature
and spontaneity, also perish of themselves in their proper time.
80. They become many from their sameness, and come to exhaust their
powers after long inertness; and then subside to rest of their own
accord like the heaving waves of the ocean.
81. On one side, there swelling as huge surges, and on the other
sinking low below the deep, excited by the heat of the dullness on the
one hand, and hushed by the coolness of reason on the other (like the
puffing and bursting of the waves in the sea).
82. These multitudes of bodies, that are the toys or play things of the
quintuple essences, are destined to remain and rove for ever in this
world, unless they come under the dominion of reason, and are freed
from further transmigration.
CHAPTER LXXXI.
INQUIRY INTO _AGNI_, _SOMA_ OR FIRE AND MOON
Argument:--Investigation into the Kundaliní artery, as the source of
consummation.
Vasishtha continued:--The seeds of these pentuples are contained in
the inside of the great artery, and are expanding every moment by the
vibration of the vital breath in the beings.
2. The vibration of the Kundaliní being stopped, it roused the
intellect by its touch, and the rising of the intellect is attended
with rising of the intellectual powers as follows.
3. This intellect is the living principle from its vitality, and the
mind from its mental powers; it is the volitive principle from its
volition, and is called the understanding, from its understanding of
all things.
4. It becomes egoism with its octuple properties called the
_puryashtakas_, and remains as the principle of vitality in the body in
the form of the Kundaliní artery. (The gloss gives no explanation of
the psychological truths).
5. The intellect abides in _Kundaliní_ entrails in the form of triple
winds. Being deposited in the bowels and passing downwards, it takes
the name of the apána wind; moving about the abdomen it is called the
samána wind; and when seated in the chest it rises upwards, it is known
by the name of the _udána_ wind.
6. The apána wind passing downward evacuates the bowels, but the samána
wind of the abdominal part serves to sustain the body; and the udána
rising upward and being let out, inflates and invigorates the frame.
7. If after all your efforts, you are unable to repress the passing
off of the downward wind; then the person is sure to meet his death,
by the forcible and irrepressible egress of the _apána_ wind (this
irrepressible egress is called _abishtambhá_). (The translator
regrets for his inability to give the English terminology of these
psychological words in the original).
8. And when one with all his attempts, is unable to suppress his rising
breath of life; but it forces of his mouth or nostrils, it is sure to
be followed by his expiration.
9. If one by his continual attention, can succeed to repress the
outward and inward egress of his vital breath, and preserve calm quiet
of his disposition, he is sure to have his longevity accompanied with
his freedom from all diseases.
10. Know that the decomposure of the smaller arteries, is attended with
distempers of the body, but the disturbance of the greater arteries is
followed by serious consequences. (There are a hundred great arteries,
attached to the main conduit of Kundaliní, besides hundreds of small
veins and nerves diverging from them throughout the body. The yogi has
the power of stopping the current of his breath and blood into these by
his restraint of respiration--pránáyáma).
11. Ráma said:--Tell me, O holy sage! how our health and sickness
connected with the organs and arteries of the body (rather than with
the blood and humours circulating through them).
12. Vasishtha replied:--Know Ráma, that uneasiness and sickness, are
both of them the causes of pain to the body; their healing by medicine
is their remedy, which is attended with our pleasure; but the killing
of them at once by our liberation (from the sensations of pain and
pleasure), is what conduces to our true felicity. (Because both health
and sickness are attended with but short lived pleasure and pain, and
cannot give us the lasting felicity to our souls).
13. Some times the body is subject both to uneasiness and sickness
also, as the causes of one another; sometimes they are both alleviated
to give us pleasure, and at others they come upon us by turns to cause
our pain only.
14. It is ailing of the body, that we call our sickness, and it is the
trouble of the mind that we term our uneasiness. Both of them take
their rise from our inordinate desires, and it is our ignorance only of
the nature of things, that is the source of both. (Our intemperance
and covetousness, which are dispelled by our right knowledge).
15. Without the knowledge of the natures and virtues of things, and the
want of the government of our desires and appetites, that the heart
string loses its tenuity and even course; and is swollen and hurried on
by the impulse of passions and inordinate desires.
16. The exultation at having obtained something, and ardour for having
more; equally boil the blood of the heart, and shroud the mind under a
shadow of infatuation, as an impervious cloud in the rainy weather.
17. The ever increasing greediness of the mind, and the subjection
of the intellect under the dominion of foolhardiness, drives men to
distant countries in search of a livelihood. (One's natal land is
enough to supply him with a simple living).
18. Again the working at improper seasons (as at night and in rain and
heat), and the doing of improper actions; the company of infamous men,
and aptitude to wicked habits and practices.
19. The weakness and fulness of the intestines caused by sparing food
on the one hand, and its excess on the other, cause the derangement of
the humours and the disorder of the constitution.
20. It is by cause of this disordered state of the body, that a great
many diseases grow in it, both by reason of the deficit as well as the
excess of its humours; as a river becomes foul both in its fulness and
low water in the rain and summer heat.
21. As the good or bad proclivities of men, are the results of their
actions of prior and present births, so the anxieties and diseases of
the present state, are the effects of the good and bad deeds both of
this life as also those of the past.
22. I have told you Ráma, about the growth of the diseases and
anxieties in the _quintessential_ bodies of men; now hear me tell you
the mode of extirpating them from the human constitution.
23. There are two sorts of diseases here common to human nature,
namely--the ordinary ones and the essential; the ordinary ones are the
occurrences of daily life, and the essential is what is inborn in our
nature. (The ordinary cares for supplying our natural wants are of the
first sort, and the inbred errors and affections of the mind are of
other kind).
24. The ordinary anxieties are removed by the attainments of the
objects in want; and the diseases growing out of them, are also removed
by the removal of our anxious cares.
25. But the essential infirmities of one's dispositions, being bred
in the blood and bone, cannot be removed from the body, without the
knowledge of the soul; as the error of the snake in the rope, is
removed only by examination of the rope. (So the affection will be
found to rise in the mind and not rooted in the soul).
26. The erroneous affections of the mind, being known as the source
of the rise of all our anxious cares and maladies; it is enough to
put a stop to this main spring in order to prevent their outlets,
so the stream that breaks its banks in the rains, carries away the
arbours that grew by it in its rapid course. (The fissures of stopping
the source, and breaking out of the course, are quite opposed to one
another).
27. The non-essential or extrinsical diseases that are derived from
without, are capable of being removed by the application of drugs,
the spell of mantras and propitiating as well as obviating charms; as
also by medicaments and treatments, according to the prescriptions of
medical science and the practice of medical men.
28. You will know Ráma, the efficacy of baths and bathing in holy
rivers, and are acquainted with the expiatory mantras and prescriptions
of experienced practitioners; and as you have learnt the medical
Sástras, I have nothing further to direct you in this matter.
29. Ráma rejoined:--But tell me sir, how the intrinsic causes produce
the external diseases; and how are they removed by other remedies than
those of medicinal drugs, as the muttering of mantra incantations and
observance of pious acts and ceremonies.
30. Vasishtha replied:--The mind being disturbed by anxieties the body
is disordered also in its functions, as the man that is overtaken by
anger, loses the sight of whatever is present before his eyes.
31. He loses sight of the broad way before him, and takes a devious
course of his own; and like a stag pierced with arrows, flies from the
beaten path and enters himself amidst the thickest.
32. The spirit being troubled, the vital spirits are disturbed and
breathe out by fits and snatches; as the waters of a river being
disturbed by a body of elephants, rise above its channel and over flow
the banks. (Violent passions raging in the breast burst out of and
break down their bounds).
33. The vital airs breathing irregularly, derange the lungs and nerves
and all the veins and arteries of the body; as the misrule in the
government, puts the laws of the realm into disorder.
34. The breathings being irregular, unsettles the whole body; by making
the blood vessels quite empty and dry in some parts, and full and stout
in others, resembling the empty and full flowing channels of rivers.
35. The want of free breathing is attended both with indigestion and
bad digestion of the food, and also evaporation of the chyle and blood
that it produces; and these defects in digestion, bring forth a great
many maladies in the system.
36. The vital breaths carry the essence of the food we take to the
inferior organs, as the currents of a river carry the floating woods
down the stream.
37. The crude matter which remains in the intestines, for want of its
assimilation into blood, and circulation in the frame by restraint of
breathing; turn at the end to be sources of multifarious maladies in
the constitution.
38. Thus it is that the perturbed states of the mind and spirit,
produce the diseases of the body, and are avoided and removed by want
of mental anxiety. Now hear me tell you, how the mantra-exorcism serve
to drive away the diseases of the body.
39. As the _karitakí_ fruit (chebule myrobalan) is purgative of its own
nature, and purges out the crudities from the bodies; so the headwork
into the mysterious meaning of the mantras, removes the crude diseases
from the frame. (Such are the mystic letters ya, ra, la, va, in the
liquids y, r, l, v), signifying the four elements of earth, water,
air and fire; curative of many diseases by reflection on their hidden
meaning.
40. I have told you Ráma, that pious acts, holy service, virtuous deeds
and religious observances, serve also to drive the diseases from the
body; by their purifying the mind from its impurities, as the gold is
depurated by the touch stone.
41. The purity of the mind produces a delight in the body; as the
rising of the full moon, spreads the gentle moonbeams on earth. (Every
good act is attended with a rapture, recompenses the deed; or as the
maxim goes "virtue has its own reward").
42. The vital airs breathe freely from the purity of the mind, and
these tending to help the culinary process in the stomach, produce the
nutrition of the body, and destroy the germ of its diseases. (The germs
of growth and decay and of life and death, are both connate in the
nature of all living beings; and the increase of the one, is the cause
of the decrease of the other).
43. I have thus far related to you, Ráma! concerning the causes of
the rise and fall of the diseases and distempers of the living body,
in connection with the subject of the main artery of Kundaliní; now
hear me relate to you regarding the main point of one's attainment of
consummation or siddhi by mean of his yoga practice.
44. Now know the life of the _puryashtaka_ or octuple human body, to
be confined in the Kundaliní artery, as the fragrance of the flower is
contained in its inner filament.
45. It is when one fills the channel of this great artery with his
inhaling breath, and shuts it at its mouth (called the Kurma opening),
and becomes as sedate as a stone; he is then said to have attained
his rock like fixity and firmness, and his siddhi or consummation of
_garima_ or inflation.
46. Again when the body is thus filled with the inflated air, and
the wind confined in the Kundaliní artery, is carried upwards by the
vital breath (of respiration), from the base or fundamental tube at
the bottom, to the cell of the cranium in the head, it touches the
consciousness seated in the brain, and drives away the fatigue of the
process. (This is called the ascent of the vital air in its heavenward
journey).
47. Thence the wind rises upward as smoke into the air, carrying with
it the powers of all the arteries attached to it like creepers clinging
to a tree; and then stands as erect as a stick, with its head lifted
upwards like the hood of a snake. (The art of mounting in the air, is
as the act of jumping and leaping into it).
48. Then this uprising force carries the whole body, filled with wind
from its top to toe into the upper sky; as an aerosol floats upon the
water, or as air balloon rises in the air. (The early Hindus are thus
recorded to have made their aerial journeys by force of the inflated
air, instead of the compressed gas smoke of modern discovery).
49. It is thus that the yogis make their aerial excursions, by means
of the compression of air in the wind pipes in their bodies; and are
as happy (in their descrying the scattered worlds all about), as poor
people feel themselves at having the dignity of the king of Gods.
(Indra).
50. When the force of the exhaling breath (rechaka prabáha) of the
cranial tube, constrains the power of the Kundaliní, to stand at the
distance of twelve inches in the out side of the upper valve between
eye-brows.
51. And as the same exhaling makes it remain there for a moment by
preventing its entering into any other passage, it is at that instant
that one comes to see the supernatural beings before his sight. (It
is said in phrenology, that fixed attention, farsightedness and
supernatural vision, are seated between the eye-brows).
52. Ráma said:--Tell me sir, how we may be able to see the supernatural
siddhas, without feeling them by the rays and light of our eye sight,
and without having any supernatural organ of perception of our own.
53. Vasishtha replied:--It is true, Ráma, as you say, that the aerial
spirit of siddhas, are invisible to earthly mortals with the imperfect
organs of their bodies, and without the aid of supernatural organs.
54. It is by means of the clairvoyance obtained by the practice of
yoga, that the aerial and beneficent siddhas became visible to us like
the appearances in our dreams.
55. The sight of the siddhas is like that of persons in our dream, with
this difference only, that the sight of a siddha is fraught with many
real benefits and blessings accruing thereby unto the beholder.
56. It is by the practice of posting the exhaled breath, at the
distance of twelve inches on the outside of the mouth, that it may be
made to enter into the body of another person. (This is the practice
of imparting one's spirit into the body of another person, and of
enlivening and raising the dead).
57. Ráma said:--But tell me sir, how you maintain the immutability of
nature (when everything is seen to be in the course of its incessant
change at all times). I know you will not be displeased at this
interruption to your discourse, because good preachers are kindly
disposed, to solve even the intricate of their hearers.
58. Vasishtha replied:--It is certain that the power known as nature,
is manifest in the volition of the spirit, in its acts of the creation
and preservation of the world. (Here nature is identified with eternal
will of God).
59. Nature being nothing in reality, but the states and powers of
things; and these are seen some times to differ from one another, as
the autumnal fruits are found to grow in the spring at Assam (these
varieties also called their nature).
60. Vasishtha replied:--All this universe is one Brahma or the
immensity of God, and all its variety is the unity of the same.
(_i.e._ the various modalities of the unvaried one); these different
existences and appearances, are only our verbal distinctions for
ordinary purposes, and proceeding from our ignorance of the true nature
of Brahmá. We know not why these words concerning divine nature, which
are irrelevant to the main subject, are introduced in this place.
61. Ráma rejoined:--Tell me sir, how our bodies are thinned as well as
thickened, in order to enter into very narrow passages as also to feel
and occupy large spaces (by means of the _anima_ and _garima_ yogas,
of minimizing the body to an atomic spright and of magnifying it to a
stalwart giant).
62. Vasishtha replied:--As the attrition of the wood and saw, causes a
split in the midst; and as the friction of two things (as of a flint
and stone) produces a fire between them, in the same manner doth the
confrication of the inhaling and exhaling breath, divide the two prána
and apána gases, and produce the jatharágni in the abdomen. (The prána
air is explained elsewhere as passing from the heart through the mouth
and nostrils, and the apána as that which passes from the region of
the navel to the great toe. The jatharágni is rendered some where as
gastric fire).
63. There is a muscle in the abdominal part of these ugly machine of
the internal body, which extends as a pair of bellows both above and
below the navel, with their mouths joined together and shaking to and
fro like a willow moved by the water and air.
64. It is under this bladder that the kundaliní artery rest in her
quiescent state; and ties as a string of pears in a casket of the
yellow padmariya james. (This place under the navel is called the
múládhára, whence the aorta strength upwards and downwards).
65. Here the kundaliní string turns and twirls round like a string
beads counted about the finger; and coils also with its reflected head
and a hissing sound like the hood of a snake stricken by a stick (it
requires too much anatomy to show these operations of the arteries).
66. It thrills in the string of the lotus like heart, as a bee flutters
over the honey cup of the lotus flower; and it kindles our knowledge
in the body like the luminous sun amidst the earth and sky. (It gives
action to the heart string, which arises its cognitive faculties).
67. It is then that the action of the heart, moves all the blood
vessels in the body to their several functions; as the breeze of the
outer air, shakes the leaves of trees.
68. As the high winds rage in the sky and break down the weaker leaves
of the branches of trees, so do the vital airs coil in the body and
crush the soft food, that has been taken in the stomach.
69. As the winds of the air batter the lotus leaves, and at last
dissolve them into the native element; so the internal winds break down
the food like the leaves of trees, and convert the food ingested in the
stomach into chyle, blood, flesh, skin, fat, marrow and bones one after
another.
70. The internal airs clash against one another the produce of the
gastric fire, as the bamboos in the wood produce the living fire by
their friction.
71. The body which is naturally cold and cold-blooded, becomes heated
in all its parts by this internal heat, as every part of the world
becomes warmed by the warmth of the sun.
72. This internal fire which pervades throughout the frame and flutters
like golden bees over the loti-form heart, is meditated upon as
twinkling stars in the minds of the ascetic yogis.
73. Reflections of these lights are attended with the full blaze of
intellectual light, whereby the meditative yogi sees in his heart
objects, which are situated at the distance of millions of miles from
him. (This is called the consummation of clairvoyance or divyadrishti).
74. This culinary fire being continually fed by the fuel of food,
continues to burn in the lake of the lotus-like muscle of the heart, as
the submarine fire burns latent in the waters of the seas.
75. But the clear and cold light which is the soul of the body, bears
the name of the serene moon; and because it is the product of the other
fire of the body, thence called the _sumágni_ or the residence of the
moon and fire (its two presiding divinities).
76. All hotter lights in the world are known by the names of suns
(as the planetary and cometary bodies); and all colder lights are
designated as moons (as the stars and satellites) and as these two
lights cherish the world, it is named as the _suryágni_ and _somágni_
also.
77. Know after all the world to be a manifestation of the combination
of intelligence and ignorance (_i.e._ of the intellect and soul
matter), as also of an admixture of reality and unreality among who has
made it as such in himself manifest in this form.
78. The learned call the light of intelligence, by the terms knowledge,
sun and fire, and designate the unrealities of ignorance, by the names
of dullness and darkness, ignorance and the coldness of the moon.
(_i.e._ There are antithetical words expressive of Intelligence and
ignorance; the former designated as the light of knowledge and reason,
the daylight and the light of lamp &c., and the latter as the darkness
of night, and the coldness of frost &c.).
79. Ráma said:--I well understand that the product of the air of breath
&c. (by their friction as said before); and that the air proceeds from
the moon, but tell me sir, whence comes the moon into existence?
80. Vasishtha replied:--The fire and moon are the mutual causes and
effects of one another, as they are mutually productive as well as
destructive of each other by turns.
81. Their production is by alternation as that of the seed and its
sprout (of which no body knows is the cause or effect of the other).
Their reiteration is as the return of day and night, (of which we know
not which precedes the other). They last awhile and are lost instantly
like the succession of light and shade (the one producing as also
destroying the other).
82. When these opposites come to take place at the one and same time,
you see them stand side by side as in the case of the light and shade
occurring into the daytime, but when they occur at different times,
you then see the one only at a time without any trace of the other, as
in the occurrence of the daylight and nocturnal gloom by turns. (These
two are instances of the simultaneous and separate occurrence of the
opposites. Gloss).
83. I have also told you of two kinds of causality; namely, the one in
which the cause is co-existent with its effect, and the other wherein
the effect comes to appearance after disappearance of its cause or the
antecedent.
84. It is called the synchronous causation which is coeval with its
effect, as the seed is coexistent with its germ, and the tree is
contemporaneous with the produced seed.
85. The other is named the antecedent or preterite cause, which
disappears before the appearance of its consequent effect; as the
disappearance of the day is the cause of its subsequent night; and the
preteriteness of the night, causes the retardation of the following
day. (In plain words it is the concurrence and distance of the cause
and effect, called the [Sanskrit: samaváyo] and [Sanskrit: amasáváyo
kárana] or the united or separate causality in Nyáya-terminology).
86. The former kind of the united cause and effect (called the
[Sanskrit: sadrúpa parináma] _i.e._ the presence of both causality and
its effectuality); is exemplified in the instance of the doer and the
earthen pot, both of which are in existence; and this being evident to
sight, requires no example to elucidate it.
87. The kind of the disunited cause and effect (called the [Sanskrit:
binásharúpa parináma]) in which the effect is unassociated with
its (cause); the succession of day and night to one another, is a
sufficient proof of the absence of its antecedent causality. (This
serves as an instance of an unknown cause, and hence we infer the
existence of a pristine darkness, prior to the birth of day-light
[Sanskrit: tame ásít] _teomerant_).
88. The rationalists that deny the causality of an unevident cause, are
to be disregarded as fools for ignoring their own convictions, and must
be spurned with contempt. (They deny the causality of the day and night
to bring one another by their rotation which no sensible being (can
ignore). They say [Sanskrit: dinasá rátri nirmmasa katritamsti])
89. Know Ráma, that an unknown and absent cause is as evident as any
present and palpable cause, which is perceptible to the senses; for who
can deny the fact, that it is the absence of fire that produces the
cold, and which is quite evident to every living body.
90. See Ráma, how the fire ascends upward in the air in form of
fumes, which take the shape of clouds in the azure sky, which being
transformed afterwards into fire (electricity); becomes the immediate
cause of the moon (by its presence [Sanskrit: ájnát kárana]).
91. Again the fire being extinguished by cold, sends its watery
particles upwards, and this moisture produces the moon, as the absent
or remote cause of the same. ([Sanskrit: mauna kárana]).
92. The submarine fire likewise that falls into the feeding on the
foulness of the seven oceans, and swallows their briny waters,
disgorges their gases and fumes in the open air, and these flying to
the upper sky in the form of clouds, drop down their purified waters in
the form of sweet milky fluids in the milky ocean (which gives birth
to the milk white moon). (It is said that there is an apparatus in the
bosom of the clouds, for purifying the impure waters rising in vapours
in the atmosphere from the earth and seas below).
93. The hot sun also devours the frigid ball of the moon or (the moon
beams), in the conjunction at the dark fortnight (amávasya), and then
ejects her out in their opposition in the bright half of every month,
as the stork throws off the tender stalk of the lotus which it has
taken. (The sun is represented to feed on, and let out the moon beams
by turns in every month).
94. Again the winds that suck up the heat and moisture of the earth in
the vernal and hot weather, drop them down as rain water in the rainy
season, which serves to renovate the body of exhausted nature. (This
passage is explained in many ways from the homonymous word some of
which it is composed; and which severally means the moon, the handsome,
the _soma_ plant and its juice).
95. The earthly water being carried up by the sun beams, which are
called his _karas_ or hands, are converted into the solar rays, which
are the immediate cause of fire. (Here the water which is by its nature
opposed to fire, becomes the cause of that element also).
96. Here the water becomes fire both by privation of its fluidity and
frigidity, which is the remote cause of its formation as also by its
acquirement of aridity or dryness and calidity or warmth; which is the
immediate of its transformation to the igneous element. (This is an
instance of the double or mixed causality of water in the production of
fire. Gloss).
97. The fire being absent, there remains the presence of the moon; and
the absence of the moon, presents the presence of fire.
98. Again the fire being destroyed, the moon takes its place; in the
same manner, as the departure of the day introduces the night in lieu
of it.
99. Now in the interval of day and night, and in the interim of
daylight and darkness, and in the midst of shade and light, there is
a midmost point and a certain figure in it, which is unknown to the
learned. (This point which is neither this nor that, nor this thing or
any other, is the state of the inscrutable Brahma).
100. That point is no nullity nor an empty vacuity (because it is
neither the one or the other). Nor it is a positive entity and the real
pivot and connecting link of both sides. It never changes its central
place between both extremes of this and that, or the two states of
being and not being.
101. It is by means of the two opposite principles of the intelligent
soul and inert matter, that all things exist in the universe; in the
same manner, as the two contraries of light and darkness bring on the
day and night in regular succession. (so the self moving and self
shining sun is followed by the dull and dark moon, which moves and
shines with her borrowed force and light).
102. As the course of the world commenced with the union of mind and
matter, or the mover and the moved from the beginning; so the body of
the moon, came to be formed by an admixture of aqueous and nectarious
particles in the air. (The body of the moon formed of the frozen
waters, were early impregnated with the ambrosial beams of the sun).
(This bespeaks of the creation of the solar orb prior to the formation
of the satellite of the earth).
103. Know Ráma, the beams of the sun to be composed of fire or igneous
particles, and the solar light to be the effulgence of the intellect;
and the body of the moon to be but a mass of dull darkness (unless it
is lighted by its borrowed light from the sun). (The sun is said to
shine with intellectual light, because it disperses the outer gloom of
the world, as the other removes the darkness of the mind. Gloss).
104. The sight of the outward sun in the sky, destroys the out
spreading darkness of night; but the appearance of the intellectual
luminary, dispels the overspreading gloom of the world from the mind.
105. But if you behold your intellect in the form of the cooling moon,
it becomes as dull and cold as that satellite itself; just as if you
look at a lotus at night, you will not find it to be as blooming
as at sunshine (but may be at the danger of contracting lunacy or
stupefaction of the intellect by looking long at the cold luminary).
106. Fire in the form of sun light enlightens the moon, in the
same manner as the light of the intellect illumes the inner body
(lingadeha); our consciousness is as the moonlight of the inner soul,
and is the product of the sun beams of our intellect. (So says the
Bharata:--As the sun illumes the worlds so doth the intellect enlighten
the soul).
107. The intellect has no action, it is therefore without attribute or
appellation; it is like light on the lamp of the soul, and is known as
any common light from the lantern which shows it to the sight.
108. The avidity of this intellectual after the knowledge of the
intelligibles, brings it to the intelligence of the sensible world; but
its thirst after the unintelligible one, is attended with the precious
gain of its _Kaivalya_ or oneness with the self same one. (Blessed are
they that hunger and thirst for spiritual knowledge, for they shall
verily be satisfied therewith).
109. The two powers of the fire and moon (agni-soma), are to be known
as united with one another in the form of the body and its soul, and
their union is expressed in the scriptures as the contact of the light
and lighted room with one another, as the reflexion of the sunshine on
the wall. (The two powers of igneous and lunar lights are represented
in the conjoined bodies of the Agni soma deities).
110. They are also known to be separately of themselves, in different
bodies and at different times; such as bodies addicted to dullness, are
said to be actuated by the lunar influence; and persons advancing in
their spirituality, are said to be led on by force of the solar power.
111. The rising breath (prána) which of its nature hot and warm, is
said to be Agni's or igneous; and setting breath of _apána_ which is
cold and slow is termed the soma or lunar, they abide as the light and
shade in every body, the one rising upward and passing by the mouth,
and the other going down by the anus.
112. The apána being cooled gives rise to the fiery hot breath of
_prána_, which remains in the body like the reflexion of something in a
mirror.
113. The light of the intellect produces the brightness of
consciousness, and the sun-beams reflect themselves as lunar orbs; in
the dew drops on lotus leaves at early dawn.
114. There was a certain consciousness in the beginning of creation,
which with its properties of heat and cold as those of agni and soma;
came to be combined together in the formation of human body and mind.
115. Strive Ráma, to settle yourself at that position of the distance
of out side the mouth apána, where the sun and moon of the body (_i.e._
the prána and apána breaths) meet in conjunction--amávasya.
CHAPTER LXXXII.
YOGA INSTRUCTIONS FOR ACQUIREMENT OF THE SUPERNATURAL POWERS OF
ANIMA-MINUTENESS &C.
Argument:--Means of acquiring the Quadruple Capacities of Anima minima,
Mahima-maxima, Laghima-lightness and Garima-heaviness, together with
the power of entering into the bodies of others.
Vasishtha continued:--Hear me now tell you, how the bodies of yogis
are capable of expansion and contraction at will; as to be _multum in
parvo_; and _parvum in multo_.
2. There is above the lotus-like diaphragm of the heart, a blazing fire
emitting its sparks, like gold coloured butterflies flirting about it,
and flaring as flashes of lightning in the evening clouds. (This is the
_jatharágni_ or culinary fire).
3. It is fanned and roused by the enkindling animal spirit, which blows
over it as with the breath of the wind; it pervades the whole body
without burning it, and shines as brightly as the sun in the form of
our consciousness.
4. Being then kindled into a blaze in an instant, like the early raise
of the rising sun gleaming upon the morning clouds; it melts down the
whole body (to its toes and nails), as the burning furnace dissolves
the gold in the crucible. (It is impossible to make out anything of
this allegory).
5. Being unextinguishable by water, it burns the whole outer body down
to the feet; and then it coils inside the body, and remains in the form
of the mind in the ativáhika or spiritual body of man. (It is hard to
find out the hidden sense of this passage also).
6. Having then reduced the inner body likewise, it becomes lifeless of
itself; and becomes extinct as the frost at the blowing of winds (or
blast of a tempest).
7. The force of the Kundaliní or intestinal canal, being put out to
the fundamental artery of the rectum; remains in the vacuity of the
spiritual body, like a shadow of the smoke of fire.
8. This smoky shade parades over the heart like a swarthy maiden,
and encloses in her bosom the subtile body composed of its mind and
understanding, the living principle and its egoism.
9. It has the power to enter into the porous fibres of lotuses to
penetrate the rocks, to stretch over the grass, to pop into houses and
stones, to pry in the sky and ply in the ground, and remain and move
about everywhere in the manner it likes of its own will. (This power is
called sakti or energy which is omnipotent).
10. This power produces consciousness and sensibility, by the sap and
serum which it supplies to the whole body; and is itself filled with
juice, like a leather bag that is dipped into a well or water.
11. This great artery of Kundaliní being filled with gastric juice,
forms the body in any shape it likes; as an artist draws the lines of a
picture in any form, as it is pictured in his mind. (Hence it depends
on the gastric artery to extend and sketch out the body according to
its own plan).
12. It supplies the embryonic seed placed in the foetus of the mother,
with the power of its evolution into the fleshy and bony parts of its
future body; as the tender sprout of the vegetative seed, waxes in time
to a hard woody tree. (The act of evolution is attributed in the text
to the triple causality of the physical nutrition in the stomach, the
metaphysical cause of the intensity of thought in the growing mind,
and the psychological tendency of the soul, produced from the fourth
and prime cause of its prior propensity, which is inbred in grain
and essential nature of every being, the intense thought is called
[Sanskrit: hridaya bhávná]).
13. Know Ráma, this certain truth which is acknowledged by the wise,
that the living principles acquire its desired state and stature, be
it that of a mountain or bit of straw. (This passage supports the free
agency of man to go in either way in opposition to the doctrine of
blind fatalism, and the arbitrary power of the Divine will).
14. You have heard, O Ráma! of certain powers as of diminishing
and increasing the bulk and stature of the body, attainable by the
practice of yoga; you will now hear me give you an interesting lecture,
regarding the attainment of these capacities by means of knowledge or
_jnána_. (This is the theory or theoretical part of the practice or
practical art of yoga).
15. Know for certain that there is but only one intelligent principle
of the Intellect, which is inscrutable, pure and most charming; which
is minuter than the minutest, perfectly tranquil and is nothing of the
mundane world or any of its actions or properties.
16. The same chit--intellect being collected in itself into an
individuality (by its power of _chayana_ integration) from the
undivided whole, and assuming the power of will or volition--_sankalpa_
itself, becomes the living soul by transformation of its pure nature
to an impure one. (This power of integration is said to be a fallacy
_adhyása_ or misconception--adhyáropa of human mind, which attributes a
certain quality to a thing by mistake or _áropa_ as [Sanskrit: paratra
parábabhásah]: or mistaking a thing for another _e. g._ [Sanskrit:
shuktau ratrátávadábhásah]: _i.e._ taking the shell for silver from its
outward appearance.)
17. The will is a fallacy, and the body is a mistake; (because there
is no mutation of volition or personality of the infinite intellect);
and the ignorant alone distinguish the living soul from the universal
spirit, as the ignorant boy sees the demon in a shadow. (All these are
false attributes of the true one).
18. When the lamp of knowledge brings the mind to the full light of
truth, then the error of volition is removed from the living soul, as
the cloud of the rainy weather are dissipated in Autumn.
19. The body has its rest, after the wishes have subsided in the mind;
just as the lamp is extinguished after its oil is exhausted. (Mental
anxieties cause the restlessness of the body).
20. The soul that sees the truth, has no more the knowledge of his
body; as the man awakened from his sleep, has no longer the apparitions
of his dream appearing before him.
21. It is the mistaking of the unreal for the real or what is the
same, the ascribing of reality to the unreality that gives the colour
of reality to false material bodies; but the knowledge of the truth
removes the error of the corporal body, and restore the soul to its
wonted splendour and true felicity.
22. But the error of taking the material body for the immaterial soul,
is so deep rooted in the mind; that it is as difficult to remove, as it
is for the strongest sun beams to perceive the mental gloom of men.
23. This impervious darkness of the mind, is only to be perceived by
the sun-shine of knowledge; that our soul is the seat of immaculate and
all pervading spirit of God, and that I myself am no other than the
pure intellect which is in me. (The _anal Huq_ of Mansur).
24. Those that have known the supreme soul meditate on it in this
manner in their own souls, until they find themselves to be assimilated
to the same by their extensive thought of it. (Here we have the
curious doctrine of strong thought _drirha-bhávaná_ of Vasishtha again
which inculcates the possibility of one's being whatever he strongly
thinks himself to be. It is allied to the doctrine of the strength of
belief--faith and _bhakti_ of others).
25. It is hence, O Ráma! that some men convert the deadly poison to
sweet ambrosial food, and change the delicious nectar to bitter gall.
(Thus Siva the God and yogi converts the snake poison to his food and
the sweets offered to his topmost mouth to the bitterest bane).
26. So whatever is thought upon with intensity in any manner and on any
occasion, the same comes to take place as it is seen in many instances.
27. The body when seen in the light of a reality, is found to be a real
existence; but being looked upon as an unreality, it vanishes into
nothing (or it mixes in the vacuity of Brahma).
28. You have thus heard from me, o righteous Ráma! the theoretical mode
(jnána-yukti) of attaining the capacities of magnifying and minimizing
one's person at will; I will now tell you of another method of gaining
these powers, to which you shall have now to attend.
29. You can practice by exhalation of your _rechaka_ breath, to extract
your vital power (life) from the cell of your Kundaliní artery, and
infuse it into another body; as the winds of the air, carry the
fragrance of flowers into the nostrils. (This is the mode of ones
forsaking its own body in order to enliven another).
30. The former body is left lifeless like a log of wood or block of
stone, and such is the relation between the body and life; as that of a
bucket and its water, which is powered out to enliven the plants.
31. Thus is the life infused in all movable and immovable things, in
order to enjoy the pleasures of their particular states at its pleasure.
32. The living soul having relished the bliss of its consummate state,
returns to its former body if it is still in existence, or it goes and
settles some where else, as it may best suit its taste.
33. The yogis thus pass into all bodies and live with their conscious
souls, and fill the world also by magnifying their spirits over all
space.
34. The yogi who is lord of himself by his enlightened understanding,
and his knowledge of all things beside their accompanying evils;
obtains in an instant whatever he wants to have, and which is present
before the effulgence of divine light (anávarana Brahma jyoti).
CHAPTER LXXXIII.
STORY OF THE MISERLY KIRÁTA.
Argument:--Perfection of Chúdálá and the imbecility of the Prince;
efficacy of instruction and its elucidation in the tale of niggardly
Kiráta.
Vasishtha continued:--Thus the royal dame was possest of the qualities
of contracting and expanding herself to any form, and became so expert
in these by their continued practice of them;
2. That she made her aerial journey and navigated at pleasure over the
expanse of waters; she moved on the surface of the earth, as the river
Ganges glides on in her silent course.
3. She dwelt in the bosom of her lord, as the goddess of prosperity
abides in the heart of Hari, and travelled in a moment with her mind
over every city and country over the earth.
4. This fairy lady fled in the air, and flashed like the lightning with
the flashes of her twinkling eyes; she passed as a shadow over the
earth, as a body of clouds passes over a range of mountains.
5. She passed without any hazard through the grass and wood, stones
and clods of earth, and through fire and water and air and vacuum, as
a thread passes through hole of a heart. (Milton says:--That with no
middle flight, to the heaven of heavens I have presented through an
earthly quest).
6. She lightly skimmed over the mountain peaks, and pryed through the
regions of the regents of all the sides of heaven; she penetrated into
the cavities of the empty womb of vacuity, and have a pleasant trip
whatever she directed in her flight. (All this is brain action and no
reality at all).
7. She conversed freely with all living beings, whether they move or
prone on the ground as the beast of earth, or crawl upon it as the
snakes and insects. She talked with the savage Pisácha tribes and
communicated with men and the immortal Gods and demi-gods also. (The
clever princess like the far-seeing seer saw every thing with her
mind's eye, and held her converse (vyavahára) with all).
8. She tried much to communicate her knowledge to her ignorant husband,
but he was no way capable of receiving her spiritual instruction.
(Átmajnána means also her intuitive or self taught knowledge).
9. He understood her as no other than his young princess and the
mistress of his house, and skilled only in the arts of coquetry and
house wifery (and quite ignorant of higher things because the ladies of
India were barred from spiritual knowledge).
10. Until this time the prince had been ignorant of the qualifications
of the princess Chúdálá, and knew not that she had made her progress in
the spiritual science, as a young student makes his proficiency in the
different branches of learning.
11. She also was as reserved to show her consummate learning to her
unenlightened husband; as a Brahman declines to show his secret rites
to a vile sudra.
12. Ráma said:--If it was impossible, sir, for the seeress of
consummate wisdom to communicate her knowledge to her husband
Sikhidhwaja, with all her endeavours to enlighten him on the subject;
how can it be possible for others, to be conversant in spiritual
knowledge in any other means.
13. Vasishtha answered:--Ráma, it is obedience to the rule of attending
to the precepts of the preceptor, joined with the intelligence of the
pupil, which is the only means of gaining instruction.
14. The hearing of sermon nor the observance of any religious rite,
is of any efficacy towards the knowledge of the soul; unless one will
employ his own soul, to have the light of the supreme soul shine upon
it. It is the spirit alone that can know the spirit, as it is the
serpent only that can trace out the path of another serpent.
15. Ráma rejoined:--If such is the course of the world, that we can
learn nothing without the instruction of our preceptors; then tell me,
O sage! how the precepts of the wise lead to our spiritual knowledge
also.
16. Vasishtha replied:--Hear me Ráma, relate to you a tale to this
effect. There lived an old Kiráta of yore, who was miserly in his
conduct as he was rich in his possessions of wealth and grains. He
dwelt with his family by the side of the Vindhyan woods, as a poor
Brahman lives apart from his kith and kin.
17. He happened to pass by his native forest at one time, and slip a
single _couri_ from his purse, which fell in a grassy furze and was
lost under the grass.
18. He ran on every side, and beat at the bush for three days to find
out his lost _couri_, and impelled by his niggardliness to leave no
fallen leaf unturned over the ground.
19. As he searched and turned about, he ran and turned it ever in his
mind, saying:--Ah! this single _couri_ would make four by its commerce,
and that would bring me eight in time, and this would make a hundred
and a thousand, and more and more by repetition, so I have lost a
treasure in this.
20. Thus he counted over and over, over the gains he would gain, and
sighed as often at the loss he did sustain; and took into no account of
the rustic peasantry on his foolish penury.
21. At the end of the third day he came across a rich jewel, as
brilliant as the bright moon in the same forest; which compensated for
the loss of his paltry _couri_ by a thousand fold.
22. He returned gladly with his great gain to his homely dwelling, and
was highly delighted with the thought of keeping off poverty for ever
from his door. (The word _Kerate_ is commonly used for Kiráta--the
miser).
23. Now as the Kiráta was quite satisfied, with his unexpected gain of
the great treasure, in the search of his trifling _couri_; and passed
his days without any care or fear of the changeful world.
24. So the student comes to obtain his spiritual knowledge from his
preceptor, while he has been in quest of his temporal learning, which
is but a trifle in comparison to his eternal concern.
25. But then, O sinless Ráma! it is not possible to attain to divine
knowledge, by the mere lectures of the preceptor; because the lord is
beyond the perception of senses, and can neither be expressed by nor
known from the words of the instructor's mouth. (It requires one's
intuition and spiritual inspiration also to see the spirit in one's own
spirit).
26. Again it is not possible to arrive to spiritual knowledge, without
the guidance of the spiritual guide; for can one gain the rich gem
without his search after the _couri_ like the miserly Kiráta? (This
means that it is impossible to attain the esoteric or abstract
knowledge of the soul, without a prior acquaintance of the exoteric and
concrete).
27. As the search of _couri_ became the cause of or was attended with
the gain of the gem, so our attendance on secular instructions of
the preceptor, becomes an indirect cause to our acquirement of the
invaluable treasure of spiritual knowledge.
28. Ráma, look at this wonderful eventualities of nature, which brings
forth events otherwise than the necessary results of our pursuits (as
the search of _couri_ resulted the gain of the gem).
29. As it often comes to pass, that our attempts are attended with
other result than those which are ought; it is better for us to remain
indifferent with regard to the result of our act.
CHAPTER LXXXIV.
PILGRIMAGE OF PRINCE SIKHIDHWAJA.
Argument:--Sikhidhwaja's abandonment of the world, and remaining as
religious Recluse on the Mandara mountain; followed by the visit of the
Princess and her admonition to him.
Vasishtha related:--The prince Sikhidhwaja continued in utter darkness,
without the sight of his spiritual knowledge; and groped his way amidst
the gloom of the world, as a childless man passes his woeful days, in
utter despair of any glimpse of hope. (As son is the hope of a man both
in this world as well as in the next).
2. His heart burned disconsolate in the flame of his anxieties, without
the consolation of his salvation; and the great affluence of his
fortune, served as full to feed the fire of his hopelessness, for want
of the cooling shower of religion.
3. He found his consolation in lonely retreats, in the caves of
mountains and beside their falling waters; where he strayed at large,
like the beasts of prey flying from the arrows of huntsmen.
4. Ráma, he became as distracted as you had been before; and discharged
his daily rituals, at the humble request and repeated solicitations of
his attending servants.
5. He was as inexcitable and cold blooded, as a religious recluse; he
desisted from the enjoyments of his princely pleasures, and abstained
also from his usual food.
6. He gave his homage with large largesses of lands and gifts of gold
and kine to the gods, Brahmans and his relatives also.
7. He went on performing the austerities of the religious rites, and
the rigorous ceremonies of the chandáryana and others; he travelled
through wilds and deserts and inhabited tracts, to his pilgrimages far
and near.
8. Yet he found nowhere the consolation of his mind, which he kept
seeking all-abouts; as a miner digs the sterile soil in quest of some
mineral, where there is no such thing to be found.
9. He was pining away under the ardour of his anxiety, as it were under
the fiery heat of the sun; in search of some remedy for his worldly
cares, which hunted him incessantly both by day and night.
10. Being absorbed in his thoughts, he sought not for aught of the
poisonous pleasures of his realm; and with the meekness of his spirit
and mind, he did not look at the grand estate which lay before him.
11. It happened one day, as he was sitting with his beloved princess
reclining on his lap; that he spoke to her as follows, in his
mellifluent speech.
12. Sikhidhwaja said:--I have long tasted the pleasures of my realm,
and enjoyed the sweet and bitter of my large property and landed
possessions. I am now grown as weary of them, as they are both the same
and stale to me.
13. Know my delighted lady, that the silent sage is exempt from
pleasure and pain; and no prosperity nor adversity, can ever betide the
lonely hermit of the forest.
14. Neither the fear of the loss of lives in battle, nor the dread of
losing the territory in the reverse of victory, can ever betake the
lonely hermit of the forest; wherefore I ween his helpless state, to be
happier far than the dignity of royalty.
15. The woodland parterres are as pleasing to me, as thyself with the
clusters of their blossoms in spring, and with their ruddy leaves
resembling thy rosy palms; their twisted filaments are as the fillets
of thy curling hairs, and the hoary and flimsy clouds in the air, are
as their white and clean vests and raiments.
16. The blooming flowers resemble their ornaments, and their pollen is
the scented powder on their persons; and the seats of reddish stones,
bear resemblance to the protruberances on their posteriors.
17. The ambient and pearly rills flowing amidst them, resemble the
pendant strings of pearls on their necks; and their foaming waves seen
as clusters of pearls, tied as the knots of their vestures. The tender
creepers are as their playful daughters, and the frisking fawns are as
their playsome darlings.
18. Perfumed with the natural fragrance of flowers, and having the
swarming bees for their eye-lids and eyebrows; and wearing the flowery
garment of flowers, they are offering an abundance of fruits for the
food of the passengers.
19. The pure waters of the falling cascades are sweet to taste, and
cool the body as thy company gratifies my senses. I foster therefore
an equal fondness for these woodland scenes, as I bear for thy company
also.
20. But the calm composures which these solitudes seem to afford to the
soul, are in my estimation far superior to the delight, that I derive
from the cooling moon light, and the bliss that I might enjoy in the
paradise of India and in the heaven of Brahmá himself.
21. Now my dear one, you ought to put no obstacle to these designs of
mine; because no faithful wife ever presents any obstructions to the
desire of her lord.
22. Chúdálá replied:--The work done in its proper time, is commendable
as seasonable and not that which is unseasonable or intempestive; it is
as delightful to see the blossoming of flowers in the vernal season, as
it is pleasant to find the ripened fruits and grains in autumn.
23. It is for the old and decrepit and those broken down in their
bodies by age, to resort in their retirement in the woods; and does not
befit a young man as yourself to fly from the world, wherefore I do not
approve your choice. (So says the poet, "O that my weary age may find a
peaceful hermitage").
24. Let us remain at home, O young prince, so long as we have not
passed our youth, and flourish here as flowers which do not forsake the
parent tree, until the flowering time is over.
25. Let us like flowery creepers grow hoary with grey hairs on our
heads, and then get out together from our home; as a pair of fond
herons fly from the dried lake for ever.
26. Mind also my noble lord, the great sin that awaits on the person
of that disgraceful prince of the royal race, who forsakes to seek
after the welfare of his people during the time of his rule and reign.
(Abdication of the crown was not allowable without an apparent heir).
27. More over mind the opposition you will have to meet with from your
subjects, who are authorized to check your unseasonable and unworthy
act, as you are empowered to put a check to theirs. (The Hindu law is
opposed to the spirit of despotism and lawlessness of the ruling power).
28. Sikhidhwaja rejoined:--Know my royal dame, that thy application is
all in vain to my determination of going away from here; and know me
as already gone from thee and thy realm to the retreat woods afar from
hence.
29. Thou art young and handsome, and aught not accompany me to dreary
deserts and forests; which are in many respects dreadful to and
impassable by men.
30. Women however hardy they may be, are never able to endure the
hardships of forest life; as it is impossible for the tender tendril to
withstand the stroke of the felling axe.
31. Do thou remain here, O excellent lady, to rule over this realm in
my absence; and take upon thee the burden of supporting thy dependants,
which is the highest and best duty of women.
32. Vasishtha related:--Saying so to the moon-faced princess, the self
governed prince rose from his seat; to make his daily ablution and
discharge his multitudinous duties of the day.
33. Afterwards the prince took leave of his subjects, notwithstanding
all their entreaties to detain him; and departed like the setting sun
towards his sylvan journey, which was unknown to and impassable by
every one.
34. He set out like the setting sun shorn of his glory, and disappeared
like the sun from the sight of every body; veil of melancholy covered
the face of the princess, as she saw the egress of her lord from the
recess of her chamber; as the face of nature is obscured from the
shadow of darkness, upon the disappearance of day light below the
horizon. (Here is a continued simile between the parting sun and the
departing prince, and the face of nature and that of the princess).
35. Now the dark night advanced, veiling the world under her mantle of
the ash-coloured dusk; as when the God Hara forsakes the fair Gangá,
and takes the nigrescent Yamuná to his embrace. (The day and night
representing the two consorts of the sun).
36. The sides of heaven seemed to smile all around, with the
denticulated clumps of evening clouds; and with the brightness of the
moon beams, glittering on the shoots of Támala trees. (_i.e._ The skies
seemed to smile with their glittering teeth of the evening clouds, and
smiling moon beams all around).
37. And as the lord of the day departed towards the setting mountain
of Sumeru on the other side of the horizon, in order to rove over the
elysian garden or paradise of the gods on the north; so the brightness
of the day began to fail, as the shade of evening prevailed over the
face of the forsaken world.
38. Now sable night accompanied by her lord the nocturnal luminary,
advanced on this side of the southern hemisphere; to sport as a loving
couple with this cooling light and shade.
39. Then were the clusters of stars seen spangled in the etherial
sphere under the canopy of heaven, and appeared as handfuls of _lájas_
or fried rice scattered by the hands of celestial maiden on the
auspicious occasion.
40. The sable night gradually advanced to her puberty, with the buds of
lotuses as her budding breasts; she then smiled with her moony face,
and littered in the opening of the nightly flowers.
41. The prince returned to his beloved princess after performing his
evening services, and was drowned in deep sleep; as the mount Mainaka
has drowned in the depth of the sea. (Mainaka is a hidden rock in the
sea).
42. It was now the time of midnight, when all was still and quiet all
about; and the people were all as fast asleep, as if they were pent up
in the bosom of stones.
43. He finding her fast asleep in her soft and downy bed, and lolling
in the lap of indolence like the female bee in the cup of the lotus.
44. The prince started from his sleep, and parted the sleeping partner
of his bed from his cold embrace; as the ascending node of ráhu slowly
lets off from its mouth, the eclipsed moon in the east.
45. He got up from one-half of the bed cloth, while the supine princess
lay on the other-half of it; as when the God Hari rises from his bed of
the waters of the milky ocean, leaving the lonely Lakshmí roll in the
waves after him.
46. He walked out of the palace, and bade the guards to stand at their
places; while he was going, he said to arrest a gang of robbers beyond
the skirts of the city, with his full confidence in himself.
47. Farewell my royalty, said he, and then passed onward out of his
princedom; and passed through inhabited tracts and forest lands, as the
course of a river runs to the sea.
48. He passed amidst the gloom of night and through the thickets of the
forest beset by thorny bushes; and full of heinous beasts and reptiles,
with his firm fortitude.
49. In the morning he arrived at an open tract of land which was
free from woods and jungles, and ran the course of the day with his
peregrination on foot from sun rise to the setting sun; when he took
refuge under the bower of the grove.
50. The sun departing from sight left him to the darkness of night,
when he performed his bathing and the daily rite; and having eaten some
root or fruit which he could get, he passed the night resting on the
barren ground under him. (The custom of evening bath, is now falling
into disuse).
51. Again and again the morning appeared and brought to light many new
cities and districts, and many hills and rivers; which he passed over
bravely for twelve repeated days and nights.
52. He then reached at the foot of the Mandara mountain, which was
covered by a dense and immense forest which no human foot could
penetrate; and lay (stood) afar from the reach of man and the
boundaries of human habitation.
53. There appeared a spot beset by sounding rills amidst it, and set
with rows of trees with aqueducts under them; here the relics of a
dilapidated dwelling came to sight, and seemed to bear the appearance
of the deserted mansion of some holy hermit.
54. It was clear of all heinous reptiles and small insects, and was
planted with sacred plants and creepers for the sacerdotal purposes of
the holy siddhas; while it was full of fruit trees which supplied its
occupant with ample food.
55. There was seen a level and pure spot of ground with a water course,
and presenting the green verdure and verdant trees; loaded with
luxuriant fruits and stretching a cooling shade all over it.
56. The prince built here a bower of verdant creepers and leafy
branches, which with their blooming blossoms glistened; as the blue
vault of heaven under the lightnings of the rainy season.
57. He made for himself a staff of bamboo and some vessels for his
food and drink, as also some plates to put his offerings of fruits
and flowers in them; and a jar for the presentation of holy water. He
likewise strung some seeds together for the purpose of his saintly
rosary.
58. He procured the hides of dead animals and the deerskin for his seat
and cover let in cold, and placed them carefully in his holy hermit's
cell.
59. He also collected all other things, which were of use in the
discharge of his sacerdotal functions; and preserved in his sacred
cell, as the Lord of creatures has stored the earth, with every
provisions requisite for living beings.
60. He made his morning devotion, and turned his beads with the
muttering of his mantras in the hours of his forenoon; and then
performed his sacred ablution, and offered the flowers in the service
of the Gods in the afternoon.
61. He afterwards took some wild fruits and ground roots, and the soft
lotus stalks for his food in the evening, and then passed the night
with his lonely self-possession, and in the meditation of his Maker.
62. Thus did the prince of Malwa pass his days with perfect cheer of
his heart in the cottage cell, which he had constructed at the foot of
the Mandara mountain; and thought no more of his princely pleasures
which were utterly lost under the influence of the resignation, which
had now taken full possession of his entire soul and mind.
CHAPTER LXXXV
INVESTIGATION INTO TRUE HAPPINESS.
Argument:--The princess goes in quest of the Prince. Their Meeting and
the Admonition of the _Princess_.
Vasishtha continued:--In this manner, the prince Sikhidhwaja remained
in his monastery in the forest, in his state of perfect felicity; while
the princess remained at home, and did as you shall now hear from me.
2. After the prince had gone away from the palace at midnight, Chúdálá
started from her sleep; as a timid fawn lying in the village, is
startled by fear.
3. She found the bed vacated by her husband and thought it as dreary as
the sky, without the sun and moon. (A deserted wife is as forlorn as a
deserted village or desolate country).
4. She rose up with a melancholy face, and with her heart full of
sorrow and sadness; and her limbs were as lank as the leaves of plants,
without being well watered in summer.
5. Sorrow sat heavy in her heart, and drove the charm and cheerfulness
off her countenance; and she remained as a winter day, over cast by a
cloud or covered by a hoar-frost over its face.
6. She sat awhile on the bedstead, and thought with sorrow in herself;
saying, "Ah woe unto me" that my lord is gone away from here, and
abandoned a kingdom for a retreat in the woods.
7. What then can I do now, than repair to my husband; where he is,
because it is appointed both by the law of nature and God, that the
husband is the only resort and support of the wife.
8. Having thought so, Chúdálá rose up to follow her husband and she
fled by the door of a window into the open air. (This means that her
spirit fled into air, by the power of her yoga).
9. She roamed in her aerial course, and by the force of her breath on
the wings of air; and appeared before the face of the aerial spirits
(siddhas), as a second moon moving in the skies.
10. As she was passing at the night time, she happened to behold her
lord roving about with a sword in his hand; and appearing as a ghost of
a vetála or demon wandering in the solitary forest.
11. The princess seeing her husband in this manner from her aerial
seat, she began to reflect on the future state which awaited on her
husband; and which she foresaw by power of her yoga.
12. It is certain, O Ráma! that whatever is allotted in the book of
fate to befall on any body at any time or place or manner, the same is
sure to take place at the very moment and spot and in the same way (and
all this is well known to the holy seer and seeress by the prophetic
power, which they acquire by their knowledge and practice of yoga).
13. The princess seeing plainly in her presence, whatever is to take
place on her husband; and knowing it to be averted by no means, she
stopped from going to him to communicate the same.
14. Be my visit postponed to him to a future occasion, when it is
destined for me to be in his company again.
15. Thinking so in her mind Chúdálá turned her course from him, and
returned to her inner apartment and reclined on her milk white pillow;
as the crescent of the moon lies recumbent on the hoary forehead of
Hara.
16. She proclaimed to her people, that the prince was gone on some
important occasion; and having relieved with the consolation of his
quick return, she took the reins of the government in her own hands.
17. She managed the state in the manner of her husband, according
to the established rules of toleration; and with the same care and
vigilance, as the husband-woman guards her ripening cornfields.
18. In this manner they passed their days without seeing one another,
and the conjugal pair lived separated from each other; in their
respective habitations of the royal palace and the solitary forest.
19. And in this manner passed on their days and nights, their weeks and
fortnights, their months and seasons in regular succession over one and
another; the one counting his days in the woods and the other in her
princely palace.
20. What is the use of a lengthy description of full eighteen years,
which glided on slowly over the separated couple, the one dwelling in
her palatial dome, and the other in his woodland retreat.
21. Many more years elapsed in this manner, until the hermit prince
Sikhidhwaja was overtaken by the hoary old age; in his holy hermitage
in a cell of the great Mandara mountain.
22. Knowing the passions of the prince to be on the wane, with his
declining age and grey hairs, and finding herself not yet too old to
overtake him in the distant forest.
23. And believing that it was the proper time for her to prevail on
him, and to bring him back to the palace, she thought of joining her
husband where he was.
24. With these thoughts, she made up her mind of going towards the
Mandara mountain; and started from her home at night, and mounted on
the wings of air to the upper sky.
25. As she was moving onward on the pinions of air, she beheld in the
upper sky some Siddhawomen, wearing the thin bark of the kalpa tree and
girt with jewels of clustering gems.
26. These were the inhabitants of the garden of paradise, and going out
to meet their Siddha husbands; and sprinkled over with perfumeries,
shedding their dews as bright moon beams.
27. She breathed the air perfumed by the flowers of the garden of
paradise, and worn by the Siddhas of Eden; and wallowed in the moon
beams, waving like the billows of the milky ocean.
28. She felt a purer moon light, as she ascended the higher atmosphere;
and she passed amidst the clouds, as the flashing lightning moves in
their midst. (The fair princess flashed as the lightning).
29. She said, this flashing lightning though situated in the bosom of
her cloudy spouse, is yet looking at him repeatedly with the winkling
of her eyes; so must I look out for my absent lord, as I pass like the
lightning in the midway sky.
30. It is true, she said, that nature is irrepressible during the life
time of a person; hence it is impossible for my disquieted mind, to
have its quiet without the sight of my loving and lion like lord.
31. My mind roves and runs mad, when I say, I will see my lord, and
when I will see these creepers turning round and clasping their
supporting tree. (And all my philosophy avails me naught against my
nature).
32. My mind loses its patience to see the contraction of these
senseless creepers, and the excursion of the superior siddha females in
quest of their consorts. (All animated nature from the vegetable to the
immortal are bound by conjugal love).
33. How then and when, shall I like them come to meet the man that is
situated in my heart.
34. These gentle breezes, and these cooling moon-beams and those plants
of the forest, do all continue to disquiet my heart and set it on fire
(instead of cooling its fervour).
35. O my simple heart, why dost thou throb in vain and thrill at every
vein within me? and oh my faithful mind, that art pure as air, why dost
thou lose thy reason and right discretion?
36. It is thou O faithless mind! that dost excite my heart to run after
its spouse; better remain with thy yearnings in thyself, than torment
my quiet spirit with thy longings.
37. Or why is it, O silly woman! that thou dost long in vain after thy
husband, who possibly became too old (to require thee any more); he is
now an ascetic and too weak in his bodily frame, and devoid of all his
earthly desires.
38. I think these desires of the enjoyment of his princely honors and
pleasures, have now been utterly rooted out of his mind; and the plant
of his fondness for sensual gratifications, is now as dry as a channel
that pours forth its waters into a large river or sea.
39. I think my husband, who was as fond of me as to form one soul with
myself; has become as callous to soft passions, as a dried and withered
tree.
40. Or I will try the power of my yoga to waken his mind to sense, and
infuse the eager longings and throbbings of my heart into his.
41. I will collect the thoughts of the ascetic devotee to one focus,
and employ them towards the government of his realm; where we may be
settled for ever to our hearts content.
42. O I have after long discovered the way to my object, and it is by
infusing my very thoughts into the mind of thy husband.
43. The unanimity of the minds of the wedded pair, and the pleasure
of their constant union; contribute to the highest happiness of human
beings on earth.
44. Revolving in this manner in her mind, the princess Chúdálá passed
onward in her aerial journey; now mounting on mountains and mountainous
clouds, and then passing the bounds of lands and visible horizons; she
reached the sight of Mandara, and found the glen and cavern in it.
45. She entered the grove as an aerial spirit invisible to sight, and
passed as the air amidst it known by the shaking of the leaves of
trees. (The spirits like winds have motion and the power of moving
other bodies).
46. She beheld a leafy hut in one corner of the wood, and knew her
husband by the power of her yoga; though appeared to be transformed to
another person.
47. She found his body that was decorated before by a variety of
jewels, and glittered as the mount of Meru with its gold; to have grown
as lean and thin and as dark and dry, as a withered and dried leaf.
48. He wore a vest of rays, and seemed as if he had dipped in a
fountain of ink; he sat alone in one spot, and appeared as the god Siva
to be wholly devoid of all desire.
49. He was sitting on the barren ground, and stringing the flowers to
his braided hairs; when the beauteous princess approached before him.
50. She was moved to sorrow at the sight of his miserable plight, and
thus bespoke to herself inaudibly in her mind. Alas, how painful it is
to behold this piteous sight!
51. O! the great stupidity that rises from ignorance of spiritual
knowledge, and which has brought on this miserable condition on this
self-deluded prince.
52. I must not call him unfortunate, as long as he is my husband;
though the deep darkness of his mind (ignorance) hath brought to this
miserable plight. (The living husband however miserable, is always to
be called true fortunate by the faithful wife.)
53. I must try my best to bring him to the knowledge of truth, which
will no doubt restore him to his sense of enjoyment here, and of his
liberation hereafter; and change his figure to another form altogether.
54. I must advance nearer to him to instil understanding in his mind,
or else my words will make no effect in him; who treats me always as
his young and silly wife.
55. I will therefore admonish my husband in the figure of a devotee,
and it is possible that my admonition delivered in this manner, will
make its effect in him; who is now grown hoary with age (old age must
have abated the ardour of youth).
56. It is possible that good senses may dawn in the clear
understanding, which is not perverted from its nature; saying so the
princess Chúdálá took the shape of a Bráhman boy on herself.
57. She reflected a little on the Agni-soma-mantra, and changed her
form as the water turns to a wave; and then alighted on the earth, in
the shape of a Brahman's lad.
58. She advanced toward her lord with a smiling countenance, and the
prince Sikhidhwaja beheld the Bráhman boy advancing towards him.
59. He appeared to come from some other forest, and stood before him
in the form of devotion itself; his body was as bright as the molten
gold, and his person was ornamented with a string of pearls.
60. The white sacrificial thread graced his neck, and his body was
covered with two pieces of milk white vests; he held the sacred water
pot on one hand, and with his pupils staff in the other, he made his
approach to the prince. (The order of the students was called _dandi_
from their holding the sacred stick in one hand, like the pilgrim staff
in Europe).
61. His wrist was entwined by a string of beads, and a long and double
chain of rosary hang from his neck to the ground. (Double and triple
threads of sacred seeds worn about the necks of saints).
62. His head was covered over by long and flowing jet black hairs, in
the manner of the strings of black bees, fluttering about the tops of
white lotuses; and the radiance of his, shed a lustre on the spot.
63. His face ornamented with earrings, glowed as the rising sun with
his lustre of rosy rays, and the knotted hair on the top of his head
with the mandára flower fastened on it, appeared as pinnacle of a
mountain with the rising moon above it.
64. The husband that sat quiet with his tall stature, and his limbs and
senses under his subjection; appeared as a mount of ice with the ashes
rubbed all over his body.
65. He saw the Bráhman boy appearing before him, as the full moon
rising on the aureate mount of Meru; and rose before him with the
respect. (Which is paid to that luminary by her worshippers).
66. Thinking his guest as the son of some God, the prince stood with
his bare feet before him; and addressed him saying, obeisance to thee O
thou son of a God, take this seat and sit thyself there.
67. He pointed out to him with his hand the leafy bed that was spread
before him, and offered him a handful of flowers which he poured into
his hands.
68. The Bráhman boy responded to him saying: "I greet thee in return,
O thou son of a king! that lookest like a dew drop or the beaming
moon-light sparkling on a lotus leaf." He then received the flowers
from his hand and sat upon the leafy bed.
69. Sikhidhwaja said:--Tell me O thou heaven born boy, whence thou
comest and whither thou goest, as for me it is lucky day that has
brought thee to my sight.
70. Please accept this pure water, and fragrant flowers and this
honorarium also; and receive this string of flowers, that I have strung
with my hands; and so be all well with thee.
71. Vasishtha related:--So saying, Sikhidhwaja offered the flowers, the
wreathed blossoms, the honorariums and other offerings; as directed by
the ceremonial law to his worshipful lady.
72. Chúdálá said:--I have travelled far and wide over many countries
on the surface of this earth, and have never met with so hearty a
reception and such honors; as I have now received from thee.
73. Thy humility, courtesy and complacence bespeak thee to be highly
favoured of the Gods, and betoken thee to be attended with long life on
earth. (Because the meek and gentle are said to be long lived on earth).
74. Tell me O devotee, whether you have ever applied your mind towards
the acquirement of your final liberation and extinction; after the
abandonment of all your earthly desires, by the magnanimity and
tranquillization of your soul for a long time. (It is true you have
long forsaken the vanities of the world, but have you set your heart to
seek the eternal emancipation of your soul?).
75. You have, my dear Sir, chosen a very painful alternative for your
final liberation, that you have made the vow of your undergoing the
hardship of this forest life, by forsaking the care of your large
dominion. (The care of the state is painful, but the pains of hermitage
are much more so).
76. Sikhidhwaja replied:--I wonder not that thou must know all things,
being a God thyself and thou wearest this form of the Bráhman boy,
yet the supernatural beauty of thy person, bespeaks thee to be an
all-knowing deity.
77. Methinks these members of the body, are bedewed with the ambrosial
beam of moonlight, or how could thy very appearance shed such
nectarious peace even at the first sight.
78. O handsome boy! I see in thy person a great resemblance of the
features of my beloved one, who is now reigning over my kingdom (and
whom perhaps I will see no more in this life).
79. Please now to refresh thy fair and fatigued frame, with wearing
these flowery chaplet from the head to foot; as the vest of a hoary
cloud, invests a mountain from its top to bottom.
80. I see thy face as beautiful, as the stainless moon; and thy limbs
as delicate, as tender petals of flowers; and I find them now waning
and fading under the solar gleams.
81. Know pretty youth that it was for the service of the gods, that I
had wreathed the flowers together; and now I offer and bequeath them to
thee, that art no less a God to me.
82. My life is crowned today with its best luck by its service of a
guest like thyself, for it is said by the wise that attendance on
guests is meritorious than the merit of attending on the Gods. (Hence
the law of Hospitality is not less binding on the Hindu than it is with
the Bedouin Arabs).
83. Now deign O moon faced deva (deity) to reveal unto me what God thou
art, and the progeny of what deity that dost deign to dignify me with
thy visit; please tell me all this and remove the doubts that disturb
my breast.
84. The Bráhman boy replied:--Hear me, prince, relate to thee all that
thou requirest to know of me; for who is there so uncivil, that will
deceive and not comply to the request of his humble suppliant.
85. There lives in this world, the well known, the holy saint Nárada by
name; who is the snowy spot of pure camphor, on the face of those that
are famed for the purity of their lives.
86. It was at one time that this Godly saint sat in his devotion in
a cavern of the golden mountain; where the holy river of Gangá, fast
flows with her running current and huge billows dashing against the
shore.
87. The saint stepped out once to the beach of the river, to see how
it glided on in its course; like a necklace of gems torn down from the
mountain on high.
88. He heard there at once the tinkling sound of trinkets and
bracelets, and a mixed murmur of vocal voice; and felt the curiosity to
know what it was and whence it came.
89. He lightly looked towards the sacred stream and observed there an
assemblage of young ladies, who equalled the celestial nymphs Rambhá
and Tilottamá in the beauty of their persons; who had come out to sport
by and bathe in the clear waters of the holy river.
90. They plunged and played in the waters removed from the sight of
men, and were all naked with their uncovered breasts; blooming as the
buds of golden lotuses in the lake.
91. These were jogging to and fro and dashing against one another like
the ripened fruits of trees, and seemed to be filled with flavoured
liquor for the giddiness of their observers.
92. Their swollen bosoms formed the sanctuary of the God of love, and
were washed by the pure waters of the sacred river.
93. Their fullness with luscious liquor, put to blush the sweet waters
of the sacred river of Gangá; they were as mound in the garden of
paradise, and as the wheels of the car for the God Káma to ride upon.
94. Their buttocks were as pillars of the bridge in water, obstructing
and dividing the free passage of the waters of the Ganges; and their
upper part of the body, gives a lustre of world's beauty.
95. The shadow of one another's body was clearly visible to the naked
eye, on the limpid waters of the Gangá; like a Kalpa tree in rainy
season, with all its branches.
96. The thick verdure of the verdant season, had put to shade the light
of the day; and the flying dust of flowers, had filled the forest air
with fragrance.
97. Water-fowls of various kinds were sporting on the banks, as they do
by the sea side and about the watering places round the trees; while
the budding breasts of these dames, had put to blush the blooming buds
of lotuses.
98. They held up their faces, which were as beautiful as a bud of
lotuses; while their loosened hairs hung by them, like swarms of
bees; and the loose glances of their eye-balls, were playing as the
fluttering black-bees.
99. Their swollen breasts resembling the aureate lotuses, which were
used by the Gods as golden cups to hide their ambrosial nectar; therein
for fear of its being ravished by the demons and demi-Gods.
100. They were now seen to be hiding themselves in the secret bowers
and caverns of the mountain, like lotuses hidden under foliage; and
now hastening to the cooling beach of the river, to leave their lovely
limbs in its limpid stream.
101. The saint saw the bevy of the young ladies, resembling the body of
the full moon complete with all its digits; and his mind was ravished
with their beauty (as the minds of men are turned to the delirium of
lunacy by looking at the moon-light).
102. He lost the balance of his reason, and became elated with
giddiness; and his breath of his life throbbed in his heart, by impulse
of the delight that raged and boiled in his breast.
103. At last the excess of his rapture, gave effusion of his passion;
as the fullness of a cloud in summer, breaks out in water in the rainy
weather.
104. The saint turned as wan as a waning moon, and as the pale
moon-light in frost; and like a fading plant, torn from its supporting
tree.
105. He faded as the stalk of a creeper parted in two, and withered
away as a sapling after it has lost its juicy sap.
106. Sikhidhwaja asked:--How is it that the pure and peerless saint,
who is liberated in his life time and acquainted with all knowledge;
who is void of desires and devoid of passions, and who is as pure as
the clear air both in the inside as well as outside of his body?
107. How is it that even he the holy Nárada himself, could lose his
patience and countenance who leads his life of celibacy all along?
108. Chúdálá replied:--Know, O princely sage! that all living beings
in the three worlds not excepting even the Gods; have their bodies
composed of both ingredients (of good and evil) by their very nature.
109. Some remain in ignorance, and others in knowledge to the end of
their lives; and some remaining in happiness, and others in misery to
the end of their days.
110. Some thrive in happiness with their virtue of contentment and the
like, and are enlightened in their minds like a room by the light of
the lamps; and as the bosom of the sea by the light of the luminaries
of heaven.
111. Some are tormented by their hunger and poverty, and are involved
in misery like the face of nature under the darkness of clouds.
112. The true and pure reality of the soul (divine spirit), being
once lost to one's sight (the visible or phenomenal world): makes its
appearance before him, like a dark and thick cloud of rainy weather.
113. Though one may be employed in his continuous investigation into
spirituality, yet a moment's neglect of his spiritualism is sure to
darken his spiritual light; as the apparition of the world appears to
sight.
114. As the succession of light and darkness makes the course of the
day and night, so the return of the pain and pleasure indicates the
progress of life. (This variety kills the monotony of life).
115. Thus the two states of pleasure and pain, are known to accompany
over lives from birth to death; as the results of our prior acts (of
merit and demerit).
116. This impression of past life marks the lives of the ignorant
entirely, as the red colouring sticks for ever in a cloth; but it is
not so with the intelligent, whose knowledge of truth wipes off the
stigma of their pristine acts.
117. As the eternal hue of a gem, whether it be good or bad, is
exhibited on the outside of it; and also as a crystal stone, however
clear it may be, takes the colour of the outward object in it (so the
ignorant exhibit their inherent nature in their outward conduct, and
partake also the qualities of their surroundings).
118. But it is not so with the intelligent knower of truth (tatwajna),
whose soul is free from all inward and outward impressions in his life
time; and whose mind is never tinged like that of the ignorant, by the
reflexion of anything about him. (Knowledge of truth is vitiated by
nothing).
119. It is not only the contiguity or presence of things or pleasures,
that taint the minds of the ignorant; but the absence and loss also are
causes of great regret, from the stain they leave in the memory; as it
is not only a new paint that paints a thing, but also the vestiges that
it leaves behind, give it also a colouring. (The remembrance of past
things, gives a colouring to the character of man).
120. Thus as the minds of the ignorant are never cleansed from the
taint of their favourite objects, so they are never free from their
bondage in this world; like the liberated sage by his want of earthly
attachment. Because it is the parvitude of our desires that contributes
to our liberation, while the amplitudes of our wishes lead us to
our continued bondage in this world. (This passage presents us with
the pains of memory, instead of the pleasures which some poets have
portrayed on its face).
121. Sikhidhwaja said:--Tell me my lord, why men feel sorry or joyous
at their pain or pleasure, to which they are bound by their birth in
this world; and for what is far off from them (either as past or gone
and what is in their expectation in future, since both the past and
future are absent from us)?
122. I find your words my lord to be as clear as they are pretty and
full of meaning, and the more I hear them so much the more do I thirst
to listen to them; as the peacock is insatiate with the roarings of
clouds.
123. Chúdálá answered:--It is pleasant to inquire into the cause of
our birth, and how the soul being accompanied with the body, derives
its knowledge through the senses, and feels thereby a delight which is
apparent in babes. (We see by observation how babies are pleased with
the exercise of their limbs and senses).
124. But the living soul (or the vital principle), which is contained
in the heart and runs through the Kundaliní artery as the breath of
life; is subject to pain and sorrow by its very birth. (Hence we see,
new born child coming to cry out no sooner it comes to life after its
birth).
125. The living soul or vital spirit (which is as free as air), comes
to be confined in the arterial chains of the prison houses of the
different bodies; by its entering into the lungs breathing with the
breath of life. (The spirit of God was breathed into the nostrils of
man).
126. The breath of life circulating through the body, and touching its
different parts or the organs of sense, raise their sensations in the
soul; and as the moisture of the ground grows the trees and shrubs on
earth, so doth our vitality produce the sensations of the pleasure and
pain in the soul.
127. The living soul being confined in the arteries of different
bodies, gives a degree of happiness and steadiness to some, which the
miserable can never enjoy. (The poor are bereft to the comforts of high
life).
128. Know that the living soul, is said to be liberated in the same
proportion as it manifests its tranquilized state; and know also that
it is bounden bondage in the same degree, as it appears to be sorry
in the face and choked in its breathing. (The dejected and depressed
spirit does not breathe out freely).
129. The alternate feeling of pain and pleasure, is likewise the
bondage of the soul and no other, but this and it is the want of these
alternations, that constitutes its liberation; and these are the two
states of the living soul.
130. As long as the deceptive senses, do not bring the false sensations
of pain and pleasure unto the soul; so long does it rest in its state
of sweet composure, and the calm tranquillity of the positive rest.
131. The invisible soul coming in sight of some transient pleasure
or want of pain, becomes as joyous as the cheerful sea passing the
reflexion of the bright moon-beams in its bosom.
132. The soul equally exults at the sight of pleasure, as it grieves at
the knowledge of its unsteadiness; as a foolish cat rejoices to see of
fish, which it has not the power to catch or hold fast in its clutches.
133. When the soul, has the pure knowledge of the intelligibles and the
cognition of itself; it comes to know, that there is no such thing as
positive pain or pleasure; and has thereby its calm and quiet composure
for ever, and under every circumstance.
134. When it comes to know that it has no concern with any pain
or pleasure, and that its living is to no purpose at all; it is
then said to be awakened in itself, and to rest in its quietude of
nirvána-extinction (unconsciousness of one's self or its consciousness
of itself as a cypher, is termed the state of its nirvána-annihilation).
135. When the living soul comes to know by its internal intuition, that
pain and pleasure are unreal in their nature; it is no longer concerned
about them, but rests quietly within itself.
136. When the soul comes to the belief, that the visible world is no
other than the vacuity of Intellect or Brahma himself; it gets its rest
in its quietness, and becomes as cool as an oilless and extinguished
lamp. (Here is the vacuism of Vasishtha again).
137. The belief that all nature is vacuity, and all existence is the
one unity together with the thought of an infinite inanity; is what
leads the soul to its unconsciousness of pain and pleasure. (All is but
void and vacancy, and mere air-drawn phantasy).
138. The thoughts of pleasure and pain therefore are as false, as the
false appearance of the world; and this error is inherited by the
living soul from Brahmá the first of living beings in the world. (The
error of taking the unreal for real began with Brahmá himself).
139. Whatever was thought and ordained by the first creative power in
the beginning, the same has taken root in the living soul; and is going
on even to the present time as its nature.
140. Sikhidhwaja asked:--It is only when one feels some pleasure in his
mind, that it runs in the blood through his veins and arteries; but the
holy Nárada could not be affected by the sight, nor drop his semen from
him.
141. Chúdálá replied:--The animal soul being exited (by the existent
sight of women), excites the living breath of _prána_ to motion; and
the whole body obeys the dictate of the mind, as the body of soldier
obeys the command of their commander.
142. The vital airs being put to motion, they move the internal sap and
serum from their seats; as the blowing winds bear away the fragrance of
flowers and the dust of leaves, and drop down the fruits and flowers
and leaves of trees.
143. The semen being put to motion falls downwards, as the clouds being
driven together burst into the rain water.
144. The semen then passes out of the body by the canals of the veins
and arteries, as the running waters pass through the channels and
canals of a river.
145. Sikhidhwaja said:--O thou divine boy! that knowest both the past
and present states of things, as it appears from thy instructive
discourse; please to instruct me at present, what you mean by the
nature of things by the Brahmic power of Brahma.
146. Chúdálá replied:--Nature is that intrinsic character, which is
implanted in the constitution of things at the beginning of their
creation; and the same which continues to this day the essential part
of the ghata, pata, and all other things.
147. It comes on by a _kákátálya_ or accidental course of its own,
as it is compared by the learned with the rise and fall of waves and
bubbles in the water; and the marks of the lacuna in wood and iron.
(The fortuitous combination of the atomic principles, is the cause of
the formation of concrete bodies; according to the Atomic philosophy of
Leucippus, Democritus and the Epicureans of old).
148. It is under the power of this nature, that all things move about
in the world in the various forms; and with all their properties of
change and persistence. It is only the indifferent and inappetent soul
that is liberated from the subjection of nature, while the apparent
is fast bound to its chains and wander with their prurient nature in
repeated transmigrations.
CHAPTER LXXXVI.
THE PRODUCTION OF THE POT (OR THE EMBRYONIC CELL).
Argument:--The birth of the Bráhman boy from the seed of Nárada,
preserved in a pot whereby he was called the pot-born, and his
education.
Chúdálá continues:--It is the nature of everything in the extensive
world to be born in its own kind (_i.e._ the similar only springs from
the similar and nothing of a dissimilar kind). All persons and things
continue to go on in it by their desires and tendencies, whether it be
in the directions of virtue or vice or good or evil. (Nature is the
invariable quiddity of a thing; but its desire or inclination is a
variable property or quality of it).
2. When this desire or want of the mind of a man is either diminished
or brought under his control, he is no longer subject to the acts
of goodness or vice but becomes exempt both from merit and demerit;
and their consequences of reiterated births and deaths by the utter
indifference. (Neutrality in action is the way to one's inanity in both
worlds. This is not a right rule since the commission of a good action
is as commendable, as an omission in the discharge of duty is held
culpable in law and morality).
3. Sikhidhwaja rejoined:--O eloquent speaker! your words are as full
of sense as they are of great import to me, they bespeak your great
penetration into the depths of wisdom.
4. My audience of the sweet exultance of your speech has given me
a satisfaction, equal to that of my draught of a large dose of the
ambrosial water.
5. Now be pleased to give me a brief narration of the story of your
birth and pedigree, and I will hear with all my attention your words of
sound sense and wisdom.
6. Please sir to relate unto me, what the son of lotus-Brahmá--the
venerable sage Nárada, did with the seminal strength, which
unconsciously fell from him on the ground.
7. Chúdálá related:--The _muni_ then curbed back the infuriate elephant
of his beastly mind by the strong bridle of prudence; and bound it fast
in the iron chain of the great intelligence.
8. His virile strength which was as hot as fire, resembled the molten
moon melted down by the flame of the final conflagration; and as
liquified as the fluid quick-silver or other metallic solution.
9. The sage who had a water-pot of crystal stone fast by his side, laid
hold of the same and put the fluid semen in it, in the manner of his
depositing the liquid moon-beams in the disc of the moon.
10. There was on one side of the mount of Meru, a projected rock with a
deep cavern in it; the passage of which was not obstructed by the heaps
of stones which lay before it.
11. The _muni_ placed the pot inside that cave as the embryo is
situated in the belly, and he filled the pot with milk which he
produced by his will; as the lord of creation has filled the milky
ocean with its watery milk. (The sages are said to have miraculous
powers by force of their yoga).
12. The _muni_ neglected his sacred offering and brooded over the pot,
as a bird hatches over its egg; and it was in a course of a month that
the foetus grew up in the pot of milk, as the reflexion of the crescent
moon increases in the bosom of the milky ocean.
13. At the end of the month the pot bore a full formed foetus, as the
orb of the moon becomes full in the course of a month; and as the
season of spring produces the lotus bud with its blushing petals.
14. The foetus came out in the fullness of its time, and with the full
possession of all the members of its body; as the full moon rises from
the milky ocean without diminution of any of its digits.
15. The body became fully developed in time, and the limbs were as
beautiful as the horns of the moon shine brightly in the lighted
fortnight.
16. After performance of the initiatory ceremonies (of tonsure and
investiture of the sacred thread); and the sage instructed him in
whatever he knew, as one pours out the contents of one vessel into
another.
17. In course of a short time the boy became acquainted with all the
oral instructions (Vangmaya) of his father, and became an exact ectype
of the venerable sage. (The best son likens his father).
18. The old sage became as illustrious with his brilliant boy, as the
orb of the moon shines brightly with its train of resplendent stars.
19. Once on a time the sage Nárada went to the empyrean of his father
Brahmá accompanied by his young progeny, and there made his obeisance
to the prime progenitor of mankind.
20. The boy also bowed down before his grandsire, who knowing him to be
versed in the vedas and sciences; took him up and set him on his lap.
21. The lord Brahmá pronounced his blessings on the boy, and knowing
him to be born of the pot and acquainted with the vedas; gave him the
name of Kumbha or the pot.
22. Know me O hermit! to be the son of the sage Nárada, and grand son
of the great lotus-born Brahmá himself; and know by the appellation of
Kumbha from my birth into the pot.
23. I have the four vedas for my companions and playmates, and I always
delighted with their company; in the heavenly abode of my lotus-born
grandsire--the Divine Brahmá.
24. Know the Goddess Sarasvatí to be my mother, and the Gáyatrí hymn
as my maternal aunt; my habitation is in the heaven of Brahmá where I
dwell as the grand-child of the lord of creatures.
25. I wonder at my pleasure, throughout the wide extended world; I rove
about with a soul full of felicity, and not on any errand or business
whatever.
26. I walk over the earth without touching it with my feet, and its
flying dust do not approach my person; nor is my body ever fatigued in
all its rambles. (The spiritual body is intangible and unwearied).
27. It happened this day, that I came to behold thy hermitage in the
course of my etherial journey; and so directed my course this way, to
see thee in this place. (This is the substance of my life, as I have
now related unto thee).
28. Thus O forester! I have given you the whole account of my life as
you have heard just now; because it is a pleasure to good people, to
hold conversation with the good and wise.
29. Válmíki said:--As they were talking in this manner the day past
away to its evening service, and the sun set down below the horizon;
the court broke and every one repaired to his evening ablution, and met
again with the rising sun on the next morning.
CHAPTER LXXXVII.
CONTINUATION OF THE SAME AND ENLIGHTENMENT OF SIKHIDHWAJA.
Argument:--Sikhidhwaja's praise of Kumbha and expression of his sorrow,
he turns to be a disciple of the same and professes his faith in the
vedánta doctrines.
Sikhidhwaja said:--Sir, it appears to me that the hoarded merits of
all my former lives, have brought you today to my presence here; as an
unforeseen hurricane drives the waters of the sea on the dry mountain
tops. (_i.e._ thy speech is as cooling draught to my perished soul).
2. I reckon myself as highly blest among the blessed today to be thus
favoured by your presence, and cooled by your speech distilling as
ambrosial dews from your lips.
3. Never did a more sensible speech, touch and cool my soul to such a
degree as yours ere this; wherefore I deem your holy presence as more
precious to me, than the gaining of a kingdom.
4. The unrestrained delight which is felt in general (from the words of
the wise), which are free from self-interest and selfish motives; is
far superior to the self-restricted pleasure of sovereignty, which is
delightful once in imagination only (and not in its actual possession).
5. Vasishtha said:--As the prince was uttering these encomiums, the
Bráhman boy Kumbha passed over them in silence; and interrupted him by
saying:--
6. Chúdálá said:--Please put a stop, sir, to these words of yours, and
give me an account of yourself as I have given mine to you; and tell me
who you are, and what you do in this lonely mountain.
7. How long is it that you have passed in this forester's life of
yours, and what is your main object in view. Tell me the bare truth,
because it is beyond the probity of an ascetic, to utter anything but
the plain truth. (The ascetics are names of _satyavrata_ or vowed to
truth).
8. Sikhidhwaja replied:--Lord as you are the offspring of a God,
everything must be well known to you; and as the Gods are full well
acquainted with the secrets and circumstances of all people, I have
very little to relate to you about me.
9. It is from my fear of the world (and its temptations), that I have
abandoned it and taken my abode amidst this forest; and this though you
well know, will I now briefly state unto you.
10. I am Sikhidhwaja the ruler of a country, which I have long
relinquished for a seat in the forest; and know, O knower of all
truths, that it is my fear of the trap-doors of the world and future
transmigration in it, that has driven me to this retired wilderness.
11. It is no more than the reiteration of pain and pleasure, and of
life and death in this accursed world; and it is to evade all these,
that I have betaken myself to my austerities in these solitary woods.
12. I wander about on all sides, and perform my rigorous austerities
without any respite; and I give no rest to myself, but keep my vigils
like a miser over his little stock.
13. I am without any effort or attempt, and so without any fruit and
fruition also; I am lonely, and so helpless likewise; I am poor and
therefore friendless also, and know me Divine personage! to be pining
in this forest like a withered tree perforated by worms.
14. I observe strictly all my sacred rites without any fail or failure,
and yet I fall from one sorrow into a sea of sorrows; and have grown
too pensive, that even the ambrosial draught is unpleasant to me.
15. Chúdálá said:--It was once on a time that I had my great progenitor
(Brahmá) to tell me which of the two, the observance of duties or their
non-observance for the sake of knowledge (_i.e._ whether practice
or theoretical knowledge); is the more useful to and preferable by
mankind.
16. Brahmá replied:--Knowledge is no doubt the supreme Good, as it
leads to ones acquaintance with the unity of the Deity and the oneness
of himself; but action is inculcated to man at the duty of his life,
both for the pleasure and passing of his life time.
17. Let them that have not acquired their intellectual light and the
sight of the soul, be employed in their duties by their offsprings and
fellow creatures; for who that is devoid of a silken robe, will go
about naked and not wrap himself with a blanket or coarse cloth.
18. The ignorant that are actuated by their desires and live upon their
hopes, meet with their objects as the reward of their action; but the
knowing and speculative theorist, having neither any desire in his mind
nor action of his body, meets with no reward of either.
19. An action without its object goes to naught and for nothing, as
the fruit bearing plants become fruitless and die away without being
properly watered in their time. (There it is doubtful whether the
comparison of watering refers to the desire or action. The gloss refers
it to the action without which no desire is successful).
20. As the effect of a certain season on plants &c., is displaced by
that of the succeeding one; so the fruit of an action, is frustrated by
its want of its desire (of the object).
21. As it is the nature of kusa-grass never to fructify, though they
bear the flowers in time; so my son, no action can produce any fruit
without the desire of the main object (as its final cause). (Here
Chúdálá addresses her husband as her son).
22. As the boy possest the idea of a ghost in his mind, sees the
apparition of a devil before him; and as a sick man having hypochondria
of his malady, is soon attacked by it (so everyone meets with what he
has in his mind).
23. As the kusa-grass presents the fair flowers to view, without ever
bearing their fruits; so does the speculative theorist meditate on the
beauty of his theory, without producing its results by its practice.
24. Sikhidhwaja said:--But it is said that all human desire is vain,
and its accompanying egoism is a fallacy; and that they are the
creatures of our ignorance, like our error of a sea in the burning
sands of a desert.
25. So it is to the gnostic theist, whose ignorance is altogether
removed by his knowledge of all things as the Divine spirit; such a man
of course has no desire rising in his mind, as there is no appearance
of the sea in the sands before the eyes of the wise.
26. It is by forsaking his desires, that a person is freed from his
bonds of his disease and death; and his internal soul arriving to the
perfection of the Deity, is exempted from future birth.
27. But know the human mind to be fraught with desires, from which the
learned few are only exempt; it is by their transcendental knowledge of
the knowable one, that the Divinely wise alone are exempted from their
regeneration in this mortal world.
28. Chúdálá replied--It is true, O princely sage! that knowledge is
said to be the chief good (summum bonum), by the Gods Brahmá and others
and also by all sapient sages; and notwithstanding thy knowing of this,
why is it that thou remainest in this state of thy gross ignorance?
29. What mean these pots and staffs, these wooden stools and those
seats of kusa-grass; and why is it, O royal prince! that you delight in
these false playings of fools?
30. Why is it that you do not employ your mind to inquire into
the questions as to what thou art, and how has this world came to
existence, and how and when will cease to exist (in your consciousness
of reality). Instead of making inquiries in these solemn truths, you
are passing your time like the ignorant in your fooleries only?
31. Why don't you discuss about the natures of bondage and liberation
in the company of the learned, and pay your homage at their venerable
feet?
32. Do you want, O prince to pass your life in the discharge of your
painful austerities, as some insects finish their days in perforating
the stones in which they live?
33. You can easily obtain the delight you seek, if you will but betake
yourself to the service of holy man; and keep company with the tolerant
and wise souls, arguing with them on spiritual subjects.
34. Or you may continue to remain in your grotto, in this forest living
on the simple food of holy men; and by forsaking the evil propensities
of your mind, abide here as an insect in a hole under the ground.
35. Vasishtha related:--Being thus awakened to sense by his wife--the
Divine boy--Sikhidhwaja, melted into tears; and with his face bathed in
water, spoke to the lad as follows:--
36. Sikhidhwaja said:--O Divine child! it is after a long time, that
I am awakened by thee to my senses; and I perceive now that it was my
weak-headedness, which drove me from the society of respectable to this
lonely forest.
37. Ah! I find now that my mind is purged to-day of its endless sins,
which has brought thee to my presence here, and remonstrate with me on
my past misconduct.
38. O beauteous boy! I deem thee henceforward as my monitor and father
and my best friend forever, and acknowledge myself as thy pupil;
wherefore I bow down at thy feet and pray thee to take piety on me.
39. Please admonish me now on the subject of Divine knowledge, as you
are best acquainted with it; and whereby I may be freed from all my
sorrows, and be settled with perfect peace and bliss of my mind.
40. You said at first, that knowledge is the supreme bliss or summum
bonum of mankind; now tell me, which is that knowledge which saves us
from misery; whether it is the knowledge of particulars which lead us
to the acquaintance of specials, or that of the general which brings
us to the transcendental. (The former is the inductive knowledge
of ascending from particulars to the universal, and the latter is
deductive knowledge of deducing everything from the primitive one).
41. Chúdálá replied:--I will tell thee prince as far as I know about
it, and what may be best acceptable to thee; and not throw away my
words in vain, like crowing ravens about a headless trunk.
42. Because the words that are uttered to the impertinent questions
of a person and not heeded by him, are thrown in vain; and become as
useless to him, as her eye sight in the dark.
43. Sikhidhwaja said:--Sir, your words are as acceptable to me as the
ordinances of veda (gospel truth); and though you utter them without
previous meditation (extempore), yet I have full faith in them.
44. Chúdálá replied:--As a boy obeys the words of his father, knowing
it to be pronounced for his certain good; so must you receive my words
(knowing them to tend to your best welfare).
45. Think my advices to be all good for you, after you hear them with
proper attention; and hear unto my words, as you hear music without
inquiring into their reason or rhyme.
46. Hear me now relate to you an interesting story of a certain person,
whose conduct and character resembled in every way to thine; and who
was brought back to his sense after his long aberration. This is a tale
to dispel the worldly cares and fears of the intelligent.
CHAPTER LXXXVIII.
THE TALE OF THE CRYSTAL GEM.
Argument:--The slipping of a precious stone in ignorance, and picking
of a glossy glass in view of it.
Chúdálá related:--There lived once a rich man, combined with opposite
qualities (of charity and penury) in his character; as the sea contains
the water and the submarine fire in its depth.
2. He was as skilled in arts, as he was practiced in arms; and was
trained up in all dealings, as he was expert in business. But his
great ambition in all his pursuits, kept him from the knowledge of the
most high. (His excess of worldliness, was a preventive to spiritual
knowledge).
3. He employed all his endeavours to obtain the imaginary gem of the
philosopher's stone _chintámani_ (by means of his pujas and prayers and
other sacred rites); as the submarine fire wants to devour the waters,
and dries up the bed of the sea.
4. His great avidity and persevering patience, succeeded after a lapse
of a long time to obtain the precious gem at last; because there is
nothing which may not be effected by the ardent zeal of man. (Omnia
vincit labor).
5. He succeeded in his attempts by his unwearied labour, joined with
his firm resolution and well directed plan; as the meanest man is
favoured with a fortune, by his employment of these means. (Fortune
crowns all strenuous efforts with success).
6. He saw the stone as lying before him, and ready to be grasped in his
hand; as a hermit sitting on the peak of a mountain, thinks the rising
moon as easy to be grasped by his hand. (Too ardent desire presents the
shadow of the object to one's view).
7. He saw the brilliant gem before him, but became mistrustful of his
sight and the reality of the object before it; as a poor man hearing
of his sudden elevation to royalty, mistrusts the report and doubts its
being meant for him.
8. He was then immerged in himself to think with amazement for a long
time, he overlooked and neglected to lay hold on his great gain, and
kept dubitating in his mind in the following manner.
9. Whether this stone is gem or not, and if so, whether it be the
philosopher's stone or any other; shall I touch it or not, for I fear
lest it fly away from my touch or be soiled by it.
10. No one hath until this time obtained the long sought philosopher's
stone, and if ever it was obtained by any one, it was, says the sastra,
in his next life.
11. It is no doubt that my miserliness only, that makes me view aslant
this brilliant gem before me with my eyes; as a purblind man sees a
flashing fire-brand and deep-laid moon in the sky.
12. How could the tide of my fortune run so high at once, that I should
succeed so soon to obtain the precious stone, that is the pink and acme
of perfection and productive of all treasure.
13. There must be few and very few indeed of those fortunate men, who
can expect their good fortune to court and wait on them; at a little
pains in a short time.
14. I am but a poor and honest man, and one possest of very little
qualification nor of any worth and account among mankind; and it is
impossible that so miserable a wretch, could ever be blessed with this
masterpiece of perfection.
15. The incredulous man hung for a long time in a state of suspense,
between his certainty and uncertainty; and was infatuated by his mental
blindness, that he did not even stretch out his hand to lay hold on the
jewel lying open before him.
16. Hence whatever is obtainable by anyone at any time, is often missed
and lost sight of by either his ignorance or negligence of it; as the
precious gem in the parable, which was proffered and lay palpable in
full view.
17. As the undetermined man hung in the balance of his suspicion, the
precious gem flew away and vanished from his sight; as the merited man
avoids his slighter, and as the shaft flies from its string or the
stone from its sling. (Fly from the fool as the arrow flies from the
bow-string).
18. When prosperity appears to one, she confers on him her blessings of
wisdom and prudence &c.; but as she forsakes her foolish votary, she
deprives him of all his discretion. (Such is the case with this once
wise and afterwards foolish devotee of prosperity).
19. The man tried again to invoke and recall the precious gem to his
presence, because the persevering spirit is never tired to try again
and again for his expected success.
20. He came to behold before him a brittle piece of glass, shining with
its false glare as the former gem; and this was placed in his presence
by the invisible hands of the _siddha_ that had come to tempt him and
deride his folly.
21. The fool thought this brittle thing to be the real gem now lying
before him, as the ignorant sot believes the sparkling sands to be the
dusts of the purest gold.
22. Such is the case with the deluded mind, that it mistakes the eight
for six and a foe for a friend; it sees the serpent in the rope and
views the desert land as the watery expanse, it drinks the poison for
the nectar and spies another moon in the sky in the reflexion of the
true one.
23. He took up that sham trumpery for a real gem, and thought it as the
philosopher's stone that would confer on him whatever he desired; with
this belief he gave up in charity all he had, as they were no more of
any use to him.
24. He thought his country to be devoid of all that was delightsome
to him and its people as debasing to his society; he thought his lost
house was of no use to him, and his relatives and friends to be averse
to his happiness.
25. Thus thinking in his mind, he determined to remove himself to a
distant country and enjoy his rest there; and then taking his false gem
with him, he went out and entered an uninhabited forest.
26. There his deceptive gem proving of no use to him loaded him all
imaginable calamities, likening to the gloomy shadow of the black
mountain and the horrid gloom of deep ignorance.
27. The affections which are brought to one by his own ignorance, are
by far greater than those which are caused by his old age and the
torments of death. The calamity of ignorance supercedes all other
earthly affections, as the black hairs rise on the top of the body and
cover the crown of the head.
CHAPTER LXXXIX.
THE PARABLE OF AN ELEPHANT.
Argument:--Freedom of the Incarcerated Elephant; and his falling again
into the Pit.
Chúdálá said:--Hear O holy hermit! another very interesting story of
mine, which well applies to your case; as the ruler of a land and to
serve to awaken your understandings: (from its present theory).
2. There lived a large elephant in the Vindhya mountains, which was the
head and leader of a great number of elephants; and had as clear an
understanding in its big and elevated head, as the lofty summit of the
mountain was humbled down at the bidding of Agastya--the sage. (Agastya
is recorded as the first Aryan emigrant, who crossed the Vindhya and
settled in southern India, and civilized the wild mountainous and rude
people of Deccan by his wise law and instructions).
3. His two tusks were as strong as the thunderbolts of heaven, and as
long and stunning as the far reaching flashes of lightning; they were
as destructive as the flames of final desolation (kalpánta), and as
piercing as to bore and uproot a mountain.
4. He came to be caught by an iron trap laid by elephant catchers in
his way, and was fast held in it as the Vindhya by the Muni's charm;
and as the giant Bali was bound in the chains of India. (Vindhya and
its people were spell bound by the Agastya sage).
5. The captive and patient elephant was tormented by the iron goad in
his proboscis, and suffered the excruciating pains of his torture;
like the Tripura giant under the burning fire of Hara. (Siva is called
Tripura-hara for his quelling that giant by his fire arms).
6. The elephant lay in this sad plight in the net for three days
together, and was thus watched over by his hunter for a distance. (See
the paper of elephant catching in the Asiatic Researches).
7. The great suffering of the elephant made him open his mouth widely,
and utter a loud scream that growled about like the loud noise of
roaring clouds.
8. Then he exerted the force of both his tusks, and succeeded thereby
to break asunder the iron bar; as the Titan of old, broke open the
bolts at the gate of heaven.
9. The hunter saw the breaking of his hard fetters by the infuriate
beast from a distance, as Hara beheld the breaking of the demon Bali
(Belos) from his subterranean cell beneath the mountain, in order to
invade his heaven on high.
10. The elephant catcher then mounted a tall _tála_ (palm) tree, and
leaped from its top in order to fall down on its head; but haplessly
he fell down on the ground, as the demon was hurled down to hell by
victorious Hara.
11. The hunter missed the head of the huge animal, and fell headlong
upon his legs on the ground; as a ripe fruit, is dropped down by the
hurrying winds.
12. The great elephant took pity in seeing him falling, and lying
prostrate before him; as the mind of the noble, is compassionate on
others even in their own piteous state.
13. The noble animal thought in his mind, that it was no valour on his
part to trample over the self-fallen; and had thus the magnanimity of
sparing the life of his own enemy.
14. He broke only the chains in two pieces, and took his way before
him; leaving away all obstacles and barriers, as the rushing waters
bear down the strongest bridge.
15. His strength broke the strong net, but his piety spared the life of
the weak man; he went off as the sun sets, after dispelling the evening
clouds.
16. The hunter rose up from the ground after he saw the elephant had
gone away; and he found himself to be as same and sound after his fall
as he had been before it; and as the elephant was relieved from his
pains, after his liberation from the chains.
17. Notwithstanding with great shock which the man had felt by his
fall from the tall palm tree, he felt no hurt with any part of his
body; whence I ween, the bodies of scoundrels are fortified against
every harm.
18. The wicked gain greater strength by execution of their repeated
crimes, as the rainy clouds gather the more by their frequent showers.
Thus the hunter went after his fresh excursion.
19. The elephant catcher felt very sorry, at the escape of the elephant
and unsuccessfulness of his attempt; as one in dejected mind, is to
lose a treasure that has fallen into his hand.
20. He sought about and beat the forest, to find out the hiding
elephant amidst the thickets; as the ascending node of Rahu rises in
the sky, to lay hold on the moon covered under the clouds.
21. After a long search, he came in sight of the elephant halting under
a tree; as when a warrior returns from the battlefield, and breathes
the air under a shady arbour.
22. The cunning huntsman collected a great many tools, capable to
entrap the elephant at his resting place.
23. He dug a circular ditch round about that place in the forest, as
the great creator of the world had stretched the ocean encircling this
earth.
24. He then covered the great pit, with green branches and soft leaves
of trees; as the season of autumn covers the face of the empty sky with
fleecy and flimsy clouds.
25. The elephant roaming at large in the forest, happened to fall down
into the pit one day; as the fragment of a rock on the coast, falls
headlong on the dried bed of the sea.
26. The big elephant was thus caught in the circular pit, which was as
deep as the dreadful depth of the sea; and lay confined in it, as some
treasure is shut up in the hollow womb of a chest.
27. Being thus confined at the bottom of that far extending pit, still
passes his time in endless trouble and anxiety; like the demon Bali in
his dark cave under the grounds.
28. This is the effect of the silly elephant, letting unhurt his cruel
hunter who had fallen ere long before him; or else he would not be
thus pent up in the pit, if he made an end of him in time.
29. Hence all foolish people that had not foresight to prevent their
future mishaps, and provide against their coming mischances by their
precautions at present, are surely to be exposed like the calamity as
the vindhyan elephant. (Hence all unforeseeing men are designated as
_gaja murkha_ or elephantine fools).
30. The elephant was glad with the thought of his freedom from the
hunter's chains, and thought no more of any future mishap; which was
the sole cause of his being by another mischance, which lay at a long
distance from him.
31. Know, O great soul! that there is no bondage of man except his own
ignorance; and the jail prisoners are not under such thraldom, as the
intellectual servitude of freemen under their errors and prejudice.
The enlightenment of the soul and the knowledge of the cosmos as one
universal soul, is the greatest freedom of man; while the ignorance of
this truth, is the root of the slavery of mankind to the errors of this
world.
CHAPTER LXXXX.
WAY TO OBTAIN THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE.
Argument:--Chúdálá's Interpretation of the Parable of the Precious
stone and the Glassy Gewgaw.
Sikhidhwaja said:--Please explain unto me, O Divine boy! the purport of
the parables of the true and false gems; and the unfettered and pent up
elephant, which you have spoken before to me.
2. Chúdálá replied:--Hear me now expound to you the meaning of my
stories, and the purport of the words and their senses; which I
have stored in your heart and mind, for the enlightenment of your
understanding.
3. That searcher after the philosopher's stone, was undoubtedly
acquainted with science, but had no knowledge of the truth
(tatwajnána); he searched the gem but knew not what it was, and the
same man is thyself.
4. You are versed in the sciences as he, and shinest above others as
the shining sun on the mountain tops; but you have not that rest and
quiet, which is derived from the knowledge of truth; and are immerged
in your errors, as a block of stone in the water.
5. Know O holy man! that it is relinquishing of errors, which is said
to be the philosopher's stone (because they are the only men that have
set themselves above the reach of error). Try to get that O holy man!
in your possession, and set yourself thereby above the reach of misery.
6. It is the relinquishment of gross objects, that produces the pure
joy of holiness; it is the abandonment of the world, that gives one
the sovereignty over his soul, and which is reckoned as the true
philosopher's stone.
7. Abandonment of all is the highest perfection, which you must
practice betimes; because it is contemning of worldly grandeur, that
shows the greatest magnanimity of the soul.
8. You have O prince! forsaken your princedom together with your
princess, riches, relatives and friends, and have rested in your
resignation; as Brahmá the lord of creatures, rested at the night of
cessation of the act of his creation.
9. You have come out too far from your country, to this distant
hermitage of mine; as the bird of heaven the great _Garuda_ lighted
with his prey of the tortoise, on the farthest mount of the earth. (The
legend of Gaja-_kachchhapa_ borne by _Garuda_, is narrated at length in
the _Purána_).
10. You have relinquished your egotism, with your abandonment of all
worldly goods; and you purged your nature from every stain, as autumnal
winds disperse the clouds from the sky.
11. Know that it is only by driving away the egoism of the mind as
well as all desires from the heart, that one gets his perfection and
has the fulness of the world or perfect bliss in himself. But you have
been labouring under the ignorance of what is to be abandoned and what
is to be retained, as the sky labours under the clouds. (It is not the
abandonment of the world, but the greedy desires of the mind, that is
attended with true felicity).
12. It is not your abandonment of the world, which can give you that
highest felicity the _summum bonum_ that you seek; it is something else
that must be yet sought after by you. (True happiness is a thing of
heavenly growth, and is to be obtained by the grace of God only).
13. When the mind is overflown by its thoughts, and the heart is
corroded by the canker of its desire; all its resignation flies from
it, as the stillness of a forest flies before the tempest.
14. Of what avail is the abandonment of the world to one, whose mind
is ever infested by his troublesome thoughts; it is impossible for a
tree to be at rest, that is exposed to the tempests of the sky. (Inward
passions disturb the breast, as tempests rend the sky).
15. The thoughts constitute the mind, which is but another name for
will or desire; and so long as these are found to be raging in one, it
is in vain to talk of the subjection of the mind.
16. The mind being occupied by its busy thoughts, finds the three
worlds to present themselves before it in an instant; of what avail
therefore is the abandonment of this world to one, when the infinite
worlds of the universe are present before his mind.
17. Resignation flies on its swift pinions, soon as it sees a desire to
be entertained in it; as a bird puts on its wings, no sooner it hears a
noise below.
18. It is _insouciance_ and want of care, which is the main object
of the abandonment of the world; but when you allow a care to rankle
in your breast, you bid a fair adieu to your resignation; as one bid
farewell to his honoured and invited guest.
19. After you have let slip the precious gem of resignation from
your hand, you have chosen the false glossy gewgaw of austerity for
some fond wish in your view. (All outward observances of rites and
austerities proceed from some favourite object fostered in the mind,
while the pure bliss of holiness is obtained from the purity of the
heart only, and without any need of outward acts).
20. I see thy mind is fixed in wilful pains of thy austerities, as the
sight of a deluded man is settled on the reflexion of the moon in the
waters (from his error of its being the true moon).
21. Forsaking the indifference of your mind, you have become a
follower of the prurience of your heart; and chosen for yourself the
mortification of an anchorite, which is full of from its first to last.
22. He who forsakes the easy task of his devotion to God, which is
fraught with infinite bliss; and betakes himself to the difficult
duties of painful austerity, is said to make a suicide of his own soul.
(The sruti calls them self-suicides (_átmaghanojánah_); who neglect the
felicity of their souls).
23. You betook yourself to the vow of self-resignation, by your
relinquishment of all earthly possessions; but instead of observing the
forbearance of resignation, you are bound to the painful austerities of
your asceticism in this dreary wilderness.
24. You broke the bonds of your princedom, and decamped from the bounds
of your realm thinking them as too painful to you; but say are you
not constrained here to the faster and far more irksome toils of your
asceticism, and the unbearable chains of its rigid incarceration.
25. I think you are involved in much more care to defend yourself from
heat and cold in the defenceless forest, and have come to find yourself
to be more fast bound to your rigours than you had any idea of this
before.
26. You thought in vain to have obtained the philosopher's stone
before, but must have come to find at last; that your gain is not worth
even a grain of glassy bauble.
27. Now sir, I have given you a full interpretation of the avidity of
a man to pocket the invaluable gem; you have no doubt comprehended
its right meaning in your mind, and will now store its purport in the
casket of your breast.
CHAPTER LXXXXI.
INTERPRETATION OF THE PARABLE OF THE ELEPHANT.
Argument:--Ignorance which is the cause of worldly desire, flies with
loss of wishes.
Chúdálá continued:--Hear me, O great prince! now explain to you the
meaning of the story of the Vindhyan elephant, which will be as useful
as it will appear wonderful to you.
2. That elephant of the vindhyan range, is thy very self in this
forest; and his two strong tusks are no other than the two virtues of
reasoning and resignation, on which you lay your strength. (_Viveka_
and _vairágya_ _i.e._ reason and resignation are the most potent arms
of men).
3. The hunter that was the enemy of the elephant and waylaid him in his
free rambles, is the personification of that great ignorance, which
hath laid hold of thee for thy misery only.
4. Even the strong is foiled by weak, and lead from one danger to
another and from woe to woe; as the strong elephant was led to by the
weak huntsman, and as you O mighty prince! are exposed by your imbecile
ignorance in this forest.
5. As the mighty elephant was caught in the strong iron chain, so are
you held fast in the snare of your desire (of a future reward); which
has brought all this calamity on you.
6. The expectation of man is the iron chain, that is stronger and
harder and more durable than the other; the iron rusts and wastes away
in time, but our expectations rise high and hold us faster.
7. As it was in the hostility of the huntsman, that he marked the
elephant by his remaining unseen in his hiding place, so thy ignorance
which lurks after thee, marks thee for his prey from a distance.
8. As the elephant broke the bonds of the iron chains of his enemy, so
have you broken asunder the ties of your peaceful reign and the bonds
of your royalty and enjoyments.
9. It is sometimes possible, O pious prince! to break down the bonds of
iron fetters; but is impossible, O holy prince, to put a stop to our
growing desires and fond expectations.
10. As the huntsman that had caught the elephant in the trap, fell
down himself from on high to the ground; so was thy ignorance also
levelled to the ground, seeing thee deprived of thy royalty and all thy
former dignity. (The pride and ignorance of a man sinks down with his
misfortune).
11. When the man who is disgusted with the world, wants to relinquish
his desire of enjoyment, he makes his ignorance tremble in himself,
as the demon that dwells on a tree, quakes with fear when the tree is
felled.
12. When the self-resigned man, remains devoid of his desire for
temporal enjoyments; he bids farewell to his ignorance, which quits him
as the demon departs from the fallen tree.
13. A man getting rid of his animal gratifications, demolishes the
abode of his ignorance from the mind; as a woodcutter destroys the
bird-nests of the tree, which he has sawn or cut down on the ground.
14. You have no doubt put down your ignorance, by your resignation of
royalty and resorting to this forest; your mind is of course cast down
by it, but it is not yet destroyed by the sword of your resignation. (A
cast down or sunken spirit or mind is not really killed, but revives
and lives again in time).
15. It rises again and gains renewed strength and minding its former
defeat, it has at last over powered on you by confining you in this
wilderness; and restraining you in the painful dungeon of your false
asceticism.
16. If you can but now kill your fallen ignorance in any way, it will
not be able to destroy you at once in your rigorous penance; though it
has reduced you to this plight by your abdication of royalty.
17. The ditch that the huntsman had dug to circumvent the elephant, is
verily this painful pit of austerity, which thy ignorance has scooped
to enthral you in.
18. The many provisions and supplies with which the huntsman had
filled the hollow, in order to entice the elephant; are the very many
expectations of future reward, which your ignorance presents before
you, as the recompense of your penitence.
19. O prince, though you are not the witless elephant (gaja-murkha);
yet you are not unlike the same, by your being cast in this forest by
your incorrigible ignorance.
20. The ditch of the elephant, was verily filled with the tender plants
and leaves for the fodder of the elephant; but your cave is full of
rigorous austerities, which no humanity can bear or tolerate.
21. You are still encaged in this prison house of the ascetic's cell,
and doomed to undergo all the imaginative torments of your penance and
martyrdom. You verily resemble the fallen Bali, that is confined in his
subterranean cell.
22. You are no doubt the empty headed elephant, that art fast bound
in the chain of false rigours, and incarcerated in this cave of your
ignorance; thus I have given the full exposition of the parable of
the elephant of Vindhyan mountain, and now glean the best lesson for
thyself from this.
CHAPTER LXXXXII.
THE PRINCE'S ABJURATION OF HIS ASCETICISM.
Argument.--The prince coming to his sense, took all his relics of
asceticism and set them on fire.
Chúdálá continued:--Tell me prince, what made you decline to accept the
advice of the princess _Chúdálá_, who is equally skilled in morality,
as well as in Divine knowledge.
2. She is an adept among the knowers of truth, and actually practices
all what she preaches to others; her words are the dictates of truth,
and deserved to be received with due deference.
3. If you rejected her advice, by your over confidence in your own
judgment; yet let me know, why she prevented you not, from parting with
your all to others. (There is a proverb that men should rely on their
own judgment and that of their elders; but never on those of other
people and women).
4. Sikhidhwaja replied:--But I ask you another question, and hope you
will reply to it, _i.e._ how do you say that I have not relinquished my
all, when I have resigned my realm, my habitation and my country all
together; and when I left my wife and all my wealth behind.
5. Chúdálá replied:--You say truly O prince! that you have forsaken
your kingdom and habitation, and your lands and relatives, and even
your wife and wealth, but that does not make your relinquishment of
all, since none of these truly belong to thee; they come of themselves
and go away from man; it is your egoism only which is yours, and which
you have not yet got rid of.
6. You have not yet abandoned your egoism, which is the greatest
delight of your soul; you cannot get rid of your sorrows, until you are
quite freed from your egoistic feelings.
7. Sikhidhwaja said:--If you say that my kingdom and possession, were
not my all, and that this forest which I have resorted to forms my
all at present; and these rocks and trees and shrubs form my present
possessions, then I am willing to quit all these even, if that would
constitute resignation of all.
8. Vasishtha said:--Hearing these words of the Bráhman boy--Kumbha, the
cold blooded prince Sikhidhwaja held silence for a while, and returned
no answer.
9. He wiped off his attachment to the forest from his heart, and made
up his mind to slide away from it; as the current of a stream in the
rainy weather, glides along and carries down the dust and dirt of the
beach.
10. Sikhidhwaja said:--Now sir, I am resolved to leave this forest,
and bid adieu to all its caves and arbours; say now does not this
relinquishment of all, form my absolute abnegation of all things.
11. Kumbha replied:--The foot of this mountain with all its wood-lands,
arbours and caverns are no properties of yours, but the common fells
and dales of all; how then can your forsaking of them, form your
self-abnegation at all?
12. The best boon of your egoism which has fallen to your lot, is still
unforsaken by you; you must get rid of this, in order to be freed from
the cares and sorrows of this sublunary world of woes.
13. If none of these things is mine, then my hermit's cell and grove,
which I own as mine are what I am willing to resign, if that would make
my total abnegation.
14. Vasishtha said:--The self-governed Sikhidhwaja being awaked to his
sense, by these admonitions of Kumbha--the Bráhman boy; he remained
silent for a moment, with the light that shone within him.
15. His pure conscience returned to his mind, and the blaze of his
right knowledge, burnt away the dross of his attachment to the
hermitage; as a gust of wind drives the dusts from the ground.
16. Sikhidhwaja said:--Know me sir, to have now taken away my heart
from this hermitage, and forsaken my attachment to all its sacred
bowers and arbours; now therefore consider me to have resigned my all
and every thing in world.
17. Kumbha replied:--How can I consider you as fully resigned, by your
resigning these groves and arbours and everything appertaining to them;
none of which belong to you, nor are you their master or deserter in
anyway. (Know there is but one being, who is the sole master of all).
18. Thou hast another thing to be forsaken by thee, and that is the
greatest and best thing that has fallen to thy lot in this world; it
must be by your resignation of that thing, that you can set yourself
free from all. (The prince was so very infatuated with his knowledge
of the gross sensibles, that he would never come to know what egoism
meant).
19. Sikhidhwaja said:--If this even be not the all that I have, and
which you want me to resign; then take these earthen pots and basins,
these hides and skins and this my cell also, and know me to forgo all
these forever and betake myself elsewhere.
20. Vasishtha said:--So saying the dispassionate prince rose from his
seat, with his composed and quiet mind; as when an autumnal cloud rises
on the top of a mountain, and disperses elsewhere.
21. Kumbha saw from his seat, the motions and movements of the prince,
with her smiles and amazement, as when the sun laughs from above, to
see the foolish attempts of men on the earth below.
22. Kumbha looked steadfastly on Sikhidhwaja, and sat silently with the
thought, "Ah! let him do whatever he likes for his sanctification and
renunciation of the temporal articles of this world, which do not serve
for his spiritual edification at all."
23. Sikhidhwaja then brought out all his sacred vessels and seats from
his grotto, and collected them all in one spot; as the great ocean
yielded up all her submerged treasures, after the diluvian flood was
over.
24. Having collecting them in a pile, he set fire to them with dried
fuel; as the sun-stone or sun-glass burns down the combustible by its
fire.
25. The sacred vessels and chattels which were set on fire and burnt
down by it, were left behind by the prince who sat on a seat beside
Kumbha; as the sun sets on the mount Meru, after he had burnt down in
the world by the fire of dissolution.
26. He said to his rosary, you have been confident to me your master,
as long as I turn you on my fingers as my counting beads.
27. And though I have turned you over and over, with my sacred mantras
in this forests; yet you have been of no service to me at all.
28. And though I have travelled with you, Oh my reliquary! and seen
many holy places in thy company; but as you proved of no good to me, I
now resign you to the flames.
29. The burning fire rose in flames and flashes in the sky, and they
appeared as stars glittering in it; he then cast his seat of the deer's
skin on the fire, and said: I have borne you about me so long on my
back as an ignorant stag.
30. It was by my ignorance, that I held you so long with me; and now
you are at liberty to go your own way; where may peace and bliss attend
on you forever.
31. Ascend with the rising fire to heaven, and twinkle there as the
stars on high; so saying he took off his hide garment from his body
with his hands, and committed it to the flames.
32. The funeral pyre of the prince spread as a sea of fire and it
was driven about as a conflagration by the winds blowing from the
mountains; when the prince thought of throwing his water pot also into
the fire.
33. And said to it, you sir, that bore the sacred water for all my
sacerdotal functions; O my good water pot, it is true that I have not
the power of rendering the proper recompense of your past services.
34. You were the best model of true friendship, good nature,
benevolence and constancy to me; and the best exemplar of goodness and
all good qualities in thy great bounty.
35. O thou! (my water pot), that wast the receptacle of all goodness to
me; now depart your own way, by your purification in the same sacred
fire, as thou wast at first found by me (from the potter's fire). Be
thy ways all blissful to thee! so saying he cast his water pot into the
consecrated fire.
36. Because all good things are to be given to the good or to the fire;
but all bad things are cast off, like the dust of the earth; and as
foolish men fall to the ground, by their secret craft.
37. It is well for thee, my low mattress, to be put to fire and reduced
to worthless ashes; so saying, he took up his wet matted seat, and cast
it into the flaming fire.
38. The seat on which he used to sit in his pure meditation on God
(_i.e._ his _kusásana_ or his seat made of kusa-grass), he soon
committed to the flames; because it is better to give up a thing
betimes, of which one must get rid shortly afterwards.
39. This my alms-pot which contained the best articles of food, which
were presented to me by good people; I now commit to this flame with
whatever it has in it.
40. The fire burns a thing but once, and the burnt article ceases to
burn any more; hence I shun all the implements to my ceremonial rites,
in order to set me free from the bondage of all actions for ever more.
41. Be ye not sorry therefore, that I forsake you thus; for who is
there, that will bear about him things that are unworthy of himself.
42. So saying, he threw into the fire all his cooking vessels, and the
plates and dishes of his kitchen; and all things whatever he had need
of in his hermitage. And these began to burn in a blaze, us the world
was burnt down by the all destructive fire of the kalpánta.
CHAPTER LXXXXIII.
ADMONITION OF SIKHIDHWAJA.
Argument:--As the prince was going to immolate himself after this, he
is recalled from his rashness by the wisdom of his young monitor, who
admonishes him to the relinquishment of his mind and not of the body.
Vasishtha said:--He then rose up and set fire to his hut of dry leaves
and grass, as it is the case with foolish men very often to demolish
the structure of their own fancy and caprice. (_i.e._ To undo the
doings of their own hobbies and wild imagination).
2. Whatever else there was left beside aught of the chattels and goods
of the hermit Sikhidhwaja took them all one after another, and set fire
to them with his composed and unconcerned mind, and observing a strict
taciturnity all the while.
3. He burnt and broke down every thing, and then flung away from him
his eatables and preserved condiments; his clothings and all, with a
quite content state of his mind. (This unconcerned state of the mind is
called _avahittha_ or insouciance; which cares for no mortal thing).
4. The hermitage was now turned to a desolation, for its having
been a human habitation awhile before; and resembled the relics of
the sacrificial pavilion of Daksha, after its devastation by the
all-devouring fire of Vírabhadra. (The legend of _Daxa-yajna-bhanga_,
forms the subject of many Puránas, poems and dramas, but the mystery
and allegory of the fable remains as dark and inexplicable as the Runic
characters).
5. The timorous fawns being affrighted at the lighted fire, left their
lairs where they lay chewing the cud at their ease; and fled afar to
distant deserts, as the townsmen free from a burning quarter to distant
abodes.
6. Seeing the vessels and utensils to be all in a blaze, with the fuel
of the dry woods on all sides; the prince seemed to remain quite
content and careless amidst the scene, with the possession of his body
only.
7. Sikhidhwaja said:--I am now become an all abandoning saint, by my
abandonment of all desire and every object; and wonder that I should
after so long a period of my life, be awakened to my right knowledge,
by the holy lectures of my heavenly child.
8. I have now become a pure and perfect unit, and quite conscious of
the ineffable joy in myself; of what use and to what good, are all
these appendages of my ever varying desires to me. (No temporal object,
leads to our permanent good; save our own bodies, which feel the inward
bliss of the soul).
9. As the knots of the chain that bind the soul to this world, are cut
asunder and fall off one after another; so the mind comes to feel its
quiet composure, until it attains to its ultimate rest and inaction.
10. I am quite composed, and in perfect ease with the extinction of my
desires; I am joyous and rejoice in myself, that my ties are all broken
and fallen off from me; and that I have at last, fully accomplished the
abandonment of all things (_sarva tyaga_).
11. I am become as nude as the open sky, and as roofless as the vault
of vacuity; I view the wide world as an expanse of vacuum, and myself
as a nullity within the whole inanity; say, O divine boy! is there
anything still wanting to my complete renouncement of all.
12. Kumbha replied:--Yet you must be aware! O prince Sikhidhwaja!
that you are never released from all the bonds of this life, by your
renunciation of every mortal thing; appertaining to this your mortal
and transitory state of your being.
13. I see the gravity and purity of the nature of your soul, which
is placed far above the reach and track of the commonality; by its
abandonment of the innumerable seeds and sprouts of fond desires, which
incessantly rise as thistles and thorns on the human breast. (If virtue
we plant not, vice will fill the place; and the rankest weeds, the
richest soils deface).
14. Vasishtha said:--On hearing these words of Kumbha, the prince
Sikhidhwaja reflected on its purport within himself for a short while;
he spoke these words in reply as you shall, oh mighty armed Ráma, now
hear from me. (_i.e._ The prince was not so very easily prevailed upon
by his eloquent monitor).
15. Sikhidhwaja said:--Tell me, O heaven born child! what else dost
thou see remaining in me; except the serpentine entrails within myself,
and supporting the body composed of a heap of flesh, blood and bones.
16. And if this body reckoned an appendage to myself, I will then
ascend to the top of this mountain, and let it fall to be dashed to
pieces on the ground; and thus get rid of my mortal part for ever.
17. Saying so, as he was proceeding to immolate his body on the craggy
hill before him; he was interrupted by his monitor Kumbha, who spoke to
him as follows:--
18. Kumbha said:--What is it prince that you are going to do, why do
you attempt to destroy this innocent body of yours from this hideous
height, as the enraged bull hurls its calf below the hill?
19. What is this body, but a lump of dull and gross matter, a dumb
and poor painstaking thing; it never does you any harm, nor can you
ever find any fault in it; why then do you wish in vain to destroy so
harmless and faultless a thing?
20. It is of itself a dull and dumb thing (as your beast of burden);
it ever remains in its torpid meditative mood, and is moved to and fro
by other agencies; as a plank is tossed up and down, by the adverse
current and waves in the sea.
21. He who hurts or annoys his inoffensive body, deserves to be put to
torturous punishment; like the ruffian rogue who robs and annoys the
holy saint, sitting in his solitary cell.
22. The body is quite guiltless of all the pain and pleasure, which
betide the living soul by turns; as the tree is wholly unconcerned
with the fall of its fruits and leaves, which are dropped down by the
blowing winds.
23. You see the gusts of winds dropping down the fruits, flowers and
leaves of trees; then tell me, O holy men! how you can charge your
innocent tree, with the fault of letting fall its best produce.
24. Know it for certain, O lotus eyed prince! that the immolation of
your body even, is not enough to make your total renouncement of all
things, _sarva tyága_ you must know is not an easy matter.
25. It is in vain that you intend, to destroy this inoffensive body of
yours on this rock; your quitting or getting rid of your body, does not
cause your renunciation and freedom from all. (Death releases us from
the bondage of the body, but not from the stings of conscience).
26. There is an enemy of this body which agitates it, as an elephant
shakes a huge tree; if you can but get rid of that mortal enemy of your
body and soul, you are then said to be freed from all.
27. Now prince, it is by avoiding this inveterate enemy of yours, that
you are freed from the bondage of your body, and everything besides in
this world; or else however you may kill your body, you can never put a
stop to its regrowth (in some form or other).
28. Sikhidhwaja rejoined:--What is it then that agitates the body
and what is the root of our transmigrations and of the doings and
sufferings of our future lives? And what is it by the avoidance of
which, we avoid and forsake everything in the world?
29. Kumbha replied:--Know, holy prince, that it is neither the
forsaking of your realm nor that of your body, nor the burning of
your hut and chattels, nor all these things taken together, that can
constitute your renouncement of all and everything.
30. That which is all and every where, is the one only cause of all;
it is by resigning everything in that sole existent being, that one
becomes the renouncer of all.
31. Sikhidhwaja said:--You say that there is an all--_to-pan_, which is
situated in all to whom all things are to be resigned at all times. Now
sir, you that know all, what this all or omnium can be.
32. Kumbha replied:--Know, O holy man, this all pervading being is
known under the various appellations of the living soul jíva, the
life Prána and many more also; it is neither an active or inactive
principle, and is called the mind which is ever liable to error.
33. Know the mind to be the seat of illusion, and to make the man
by itself; it is the essential constituent of every person, and the
speculum of all these worlds in itself.
34. Know the mind, as the source of your body and estates; and know it
also, as the root of your hermitage and everything else; just as one
tree bears the seed of another. (The ingrained desire of the mind is
the seed of all extraneous accidents).
35. It is therefore by your giving up this seed of all events, that
you really resign everything in the world, which is contained in and
depends on this primary seed and mainspring of the mind. All possible
as well as impossible renunciations, depend on the resignation of the
mind.
36. The man that is under the subjection of his mind, is ever subject
to cares, both when he is attentive to his duties or negligent of them;
as also when he rules his realm, or flies from it to a forest; but the
man of a well governed mind, is quite content in every condition of
life.
37. It is the mind which revolves incessantly in the manner of the
rotatory world, and evolves itself in the form of the body and its
limbs; as the minute seed displays itself in the shape of a tree and
its branches and leaves.
38. As the trees are shaken by the blowing winds, and as the mountains
are shook by the bursting earthquakes; and as the bellows are blown by
the inflated air, so is the animated body moved about by the mobile
force of the mind.
39. These miserable mortals that are born to death and decay, and those
happy few that live to enjoy the pleasures of life; and the great
sages of staunch hearts and souls, are all of them bound alike to the
thraldom of their minds. (The mind governs all, and there are few to
govern it).
40. The mind acts its several parts, in all the various forms and
figures of the stage of the world; it shows its gestures in the
motions of the body, it lives and breathes in the shape of the living
spirit, and it thinks and cogitates in the form of the mind. (The mind
and the heart, the living soul and the active body, are all the one and
same thing).
41. It takes the different epithets of the understanding _buddhi_,
consciousness _mahat_, egoism _ahamkára_, the life or _prána_ and the
intellect, agreeably to its sundry internal functions in the body,
or else it is the silent soul, when it is without any action to be
assigned to it.
42. The mind is said to be all in all, and by getting release of this,
we are released of all diseases and dangers; and then we are said to
have avoided and abandoned all and every thing.
43. O ye, that want to know what resignation is, must know that it
is the resignation of the mind, which makes your renunciation of all
things. If you succeed in the abnegation of your mind, you come to know
the truth, and feel the true felicity of your soul.
44. With the riddance of your mind, you get rid of the unity and
duality of creeds, and come to perceive all diversities and pluralities
blend in one universal whole; which is transcendental tranquillity,
transparent purity and undiminished felicity: (which is _anámaya_
without alloy).
45. The mind is the field for the course of every body, in his career
in this world; but if this field be over grown with thorns and
brambles, how can you expect to grow rice in it?
46. The mind shows its manifold aspects, and plays its many parts at
will; it turns and moves in the forms of things, as the waters roll in
the shapes of waves.
47. Know young prince, that your abandonment of all things by the
resignation of your mind, will redound to your joy, not unequal to that
of your gaining a kingdom to your self.
48. In the matter of self-abnegation, you are on the same footing with
other men; in that you resign whatever you dislike, and want to have
some thing that you have a liking for.
49. He who connects all the worlds with himself, as the thread
that connects the pearls in a necklace, is the man that possesses
everything, by renouncing all things from himself. (This is the
attribute of _sutrátmá_--the connecting thread of the supreme soul,
which unites all units to it, by living all things as apart from it).
50. The soul that is unattached to all things, doth yet connect and
pass alike through them all; as the thread of the divine soul, connects
the world as a string of pearls. (It spreads unspent).
51. The soul that bears no attachment to the world, is like an oilless
lamp that is soon extinguished to darkness; but the spirit that is warm
with its affections, likens an oily lamp, that burns with universal
love, and enlightens all objects about it.
52. The lord that lives aloof from all, resembles the oilless lamp in
dark obscurity; but the same Lord manifesting himself in all things,
resembles the oily lamp that lights every object. (The two hypostases
of the supreme spirit--the unknowable and the Manifest, the aprakásátmá
and the saprakásátmá).
53. As after the relinquishment of all your possessions (both in your
estate as also in this forest), you still remain by yourself; so after
your resignation of your body, mind and all, you have still your
consciousness by you, which you can never get rid of.
54. As by the burning of your articles, you have burnt no part of your
body; so by your resignation of all things, you can not resign yourself
or your soul, which would then amount to _nirvána_ or utter extinction
(which is tantamount to _moksha_ or ultimate absorption in the supreme
spirit).
55. Sarvatyága or total abnegation, means the voidance of the soul of
all its worldly attachment, when it becomes the seat of all knowledge;
and likens to the etherial paradise of the hosts of celestial beings.
56. Sarvatyága or self-abnegation is like the water immortality, which
drives away all fear of disease and death by a single draught of it;
and it remains untouched by the cares of the world, as the clear
firmament is untinged by the spots of clouds.
57. Sarvatyága again is the entire abandonment of all affections,
gives a man his true greatness and glory; and as you get rid of your
temporary affections, so you get the stability of your understanding,
and the firmness of your determination.
58. Sarvatyága or abandonment of all, is fraught with perfect delight;
as its contrary is attended with extreme misery. This is a certain
truth, and knowing as such, choose what you think best for you.
59. He who gives away his all in this life, comes to be in possession
of them in his future state; as the rivers which pour their waters into
the sea, are again filled by its flood tide.
60. After resignation of all things from the mind, its hollowness is
filled with full knowledge of them, which is highly gratifying to the
soul; as an empty box, is stored with rich gems and jewels in it.
61. It was by virtue of his resignation of all things, that Sákyamuni
became dauntless amidst the troubles of the Kali-age, and sat as firm
as a rock. (Hence the yogis of prior ages, have remained as pure air).
62. Total resignation of all things, is tantamount to the acquisition
of all prosperity; because the lord gives every thing to him, who
dedicates and devotes his all unto Him.
63. You have now, O prince, become as quiet as the calm atmosphere,
after your abandonment of all things; now try to be as graceful as the
lightsome moon, by the complaisance of your manners.
64. Now, O high minded prince, forget at once your past abdication of
your crown and kingdom, as also your subsequent of all things in this
hermitage; drive away the pride of your total abandonment of all you
had, and be of a clear and complacent countenance.
CHAPTER LXXXXIV.
ENLIGHTENMENT OF SIKHIDHWAJA.
Argument:--On the abandonment of the affections of the mind.
Vasishtha continued:--As the disguised boy was admonishing in this
manner on the relinquishment of mind (_i.e._ the mental passions and
affections); the prince ruminated inwardly on its sense, and then spoke
as follows.
2. Sikhidhwaja said:--I find my mind fluttering always, as a bird in
the open sky of my bosom; and lurking incessantly as an ape, in the
wilderness of my heart.
3. I know how to restrain my mind, as they do the fishes in the net;
but know not how to get rid of it, when it is so much engaged with the
objects of sense.
4. Please sir acquaint me first with the nature of the mind, and then
teach me the method of relinquishing it for ever from me.
5. Kumbha replied:--Know great prince, cupidity to be the intrinsic
nature of the mind; and know the word desire to be used as a synonym
for the mind. (The mind and will are synonymous terms).
6. The abandonment of the mind is very easy, and more facile than
the stirring of it; it is attended with a greater delight, than the
possession of a kingdom can afford, and is more pleasant than the scent
of fragrant flowers.
7. But it is very difficult for the ignorant, to get rid of or forsake
the desires of their minds; it is as hard to them as it is for a boor
to wield the reins of a kingdom, and for a heap of grass to be as high
as a mountain.
8. Sikhidhwaja said:--I understand the nature of the mind, to be
replete with its desires; but I find my riddance from it, to be as
impossible as the swallowing of an iron-bolt by anybody.
9. I find the mind as the fragrant flower in the great garden of the
world, and the crater of the fire of all our woes; it is the stalk of
the lotus of the world, and it is the bag that bears and blows the
gusts of delusion all over the world. Now tell me how this thing may be
easily removed from us.
10. The mind is the locomotive engine of the body, it is the bee that
flutters about the lotus of the heart; now tell me how I may with ease
get rid of this mind.
11. Kumbha answered:--The total extirpation of the mind, consists in
the entire extinction of the world from it; the learned and the men of
long foresight, call this to be the abandonment of the mind (_i.e._
when it is cast out with all its thoughts and cares).
12. Sikhidhwaja rejoined:--I think the extinction of the mind, is
better than our abandonment of it, on account of securing the success
of our purposes; but how can we know the gradual expurgation of the
mind, from the hundreds of diseases to which it is subject.
13. Kumbha replied:--Egoism is the root (seed) of the arbour of
the mind, with all its branches and leaves and fruits and flowers;
therefore root out the mind with its very root of egoism, and have thy
breast as clear as the empty and lurid sky.
14. Sikhidhwaja rejoined:--Tell me, O sage, what is the root of the
mind, what are its sprouts and fruits; tell me also how many stems and
branches it has, and how is it possible to root it out at once.
15. Kumbha replied:--Know prince that egoism and all the words
expressive of the self as meity &c., and indicative of the mind, are
the seeds of the tree of the mind.
16. The field of its growth is the supreme soul, which is the common
source of all entities; but that field being filled with illusion, the
mind is deluded to believe itself as the first born sprout springing
out of this field. (The first born germ of the Divine spirit being the
living soul, which originates in the mind).
17. The certain knowledge of the mind in its discrete state, is called
its understanding (which in its concrete state is known as sensation);
the _buddhi_ or understanding is the state of maturity of the germ or
sprout of the mind. (The infant mind is ripens into the understanding).
18. The understanding or _buddhi_, being subject to various desires,
takes the name of chitta or wasteful mind; and this mind makes the
living being, which is as hollow within it, as a carved image of stone
(or moulded metal), and a mere false conception.
19. The body is the stem of this tree of the mind, and is composed of
the skin and bones and juicy matters.
20. The branches of the tree of the mind, extend to a great distance
all about it; and so the sensible organs of the body, protruding wide
about it, perish at last in seeking for its enjoyment.
21. Now try to lop off the branches of the tree of thy mind, and try
also to root out the noxious tree at once.
22. Sikhidhwaja said:--I can some how or other lop off the branches of
the tree of mind, but tell me, O my sagely monitor, how I may be able
to pull it out by its very root at once.
23. Kumbha replied:--All our desires are the several branches of this
tree, which are hanging with loads of fruits; and are lopped off by the
axe of our reason.
24. He alone is able to lop off the plant of his mind, who is
unattached to the world, who hold his taciturnity and inward
tranquillity, who is judicious in all discussions, and does whatever
offers of itself to him at any time.
25. He who lops off the branches and brambles of the arbour of his
mind, by his manliness of reason and discretion; is able also to root
out this tree at once from his heart.
26. The first thing to be done with the mind, is to root it out at
once from the heart and the next process is to lop off its branches;
therefore employ thyself more to its eradication, than to the severing
of its boughs and branches.
27. You may also burn it as the first step, instead of lopping the
branches; and thus the great trunk of the tree of mind being reduced to
ashes, there remains an entire mindlessness at last.
28. Sikhidhwaja said:--Tell me O my sagely guide, what is that fire
which is able to burn away the seed of the tree of mind, which is
covered all over with the cuticle of egoism.
29. Kumbha replied:--Prince, the fire which is able to consume the seed
of the noxious plant of the mind, is the expostulation of the question,
"what am I that bear this corporeal form upon me."
30. Sikhidhwaja said:--O sage! I have repeatedly considered the
questions in my own understanding, and found that my egoism does not
consist in aught of this world, or this earth, or the woods which form
its garniture.
31. That my ego lay no where in the hills and forests where I resided,
nor in the shaking of the leaves before me; nor did it lie in any part
of my gross body, or in its flesh, bones or blood.
32. It does not lie in any of the organs of action, nor in the organs
of sensation; it does not consist in the mind or in the understanding,
or in any part of the gross body.
33. As we see the form of the bracelet in gold, so do I conceive my
egoism to consist in the intelligent soul; because it is impossible for
any material substance, to have anything as intelligence (as I perceive
my egoism to be possest of).
34. All real existence depends on the supreme soul for its subsistence,
so all real entities subsist in the supreme essence; or else it
is impossible for any thing to exist in a nullity, as there is no
possibility for a forest to subsist in a vacuity (without a firm
ground).
35. Thus sir, knowing it full well, that my egoism is an aspect or
shadow of my internal soul and worthy to be wiped off from it; yet I
regret at my ignorance of the intrinsic spirit from which it is to be
wiped off, and the internal soul be set in full light.
36. Kumbha replied:--If you are none of these material objects as you
say, nor doth your egoism consist in materiality; then tell me prince,
what you think yourself to be in reality.
37. Sikhidhwaja answered:--I feel myself O most learned sir, to be that
intelligent and pure soul, which is of the form of intelligence, which
acquaints me of all existence, and which discriminates their different
natures.
38. I perceive thus my egoism to be attached to my body, but whether it
is a caused or causeless principle, is what I am perfectly ignorant of.
39. I am unable O sage, to rub out this sense of my egoism as an
unreality and unessentiality; and it is on that I greatly regret in
myself (for my inability to get rid of my egoism as you led).
40. Kumbha said:--Tell me O prince, what is that great foulness, which
thou feelest to be attached to thee, which makes thee act as a man of
the world, and whether thou thinkest it as something or a mere delusion.
41. Sikhidhwaja replied:--The sense of my egoism, which is the root of
the tree of my mind, is the great foulness that attaches to me; I know
not how to get rid of it, for however I try to shun it, the more it
clings about me.
42. Kumbha said:--Every effect is produced from some cause or other,
and this is the general law of nature everywhere; anything otherwise is
as false as the sight of a second moon in the sky, which is nothing but
a reflexion of the true moon.
43. It is the cause which produces the effect, whether it be a big one
or the small rudiment of it; therefore explore into the cause of your
egoism, and tell me what it is.
44. Sikhidhwaja replied:--I know my sagely guide, that it is mere
illusion--_máyá_, which is the cause of the fallacy of my egoism; but
tell me sir, how this error of mine is to subside and vanish away from
one.
45. It is from the proclivity of the mind towards the thinkables, that
I am suffering all these pains and pangs within myself; now tell me O
muni, about the means of suppressing my thoughts, in regard to external
objects.
46. Kumbha said:--Tell me whether your thinking and knowing, are the
causes of your thinkables and knowables, or these latter actuate your
thinking and knowing powers. If you can tell me this, then shall I be
able to explain to you the process of the cause and effect.
47. Now tell me which do you think to be the cause and not the cause,
of knowing and knowable, and of thinking and the thinkable, which are
the subjects of my question to you.
48. Sikhidhwaja answered:--I think, O sage, that the sensible objects
of the body &c., are the causes of the thinking and thinkable
(thoughts), and of knowing and the knowables or knowledge. (Because
unless there be things in actual existence, we can neither think of or
know anything, nor have any idea or knowledge of it at all).
49. Our knowledge of the entity of things, appears only in the sensible
forms of bodies; or else the mere abstract thought of a thing, is as
empty as an airy nothing.
50. As I can not conceive the non-entity of a positive entity, nor the
abstract nature of a concrete body; so I know not how my egoism, which
is the seed of my mind, can be at once ignored by me.
51. Kumbha said:--If thou rely on thy material body as a real
existence, then tell me, on what does your knowledge depend, when your
soul is separated from the body.
52. Sikhidhwaja replied:--The body which is evident to view, and a real
entity, cannot be taken for an unreality by any body; as the palpable
sun light, cannot be called darkness by any man of common sense.
53. Who can ignore the body, which is replete with its hands and feet
and other members; which is full of activity and vivacity, and whose
actions are so palpable to sight; and which is so evident to our
perception and conception.
54. Kumbha said:--Know prince, that nothing can be said to exist, which
is not produced by some cause; and the knowledge or consciousness that
we have of it, cannot be but the product of mistake and error.
55. There can be no product without a similar cause, and no material
form can come out from a formless and immaterial agent. How can any
thing come to existence, without having its seed of the like nature?
56. Whatever product appears to present itself to anyone without its
true cause, is as false an appearance as the mirage in the sand, before
its deluded observer.
57. Know thyself to be no real existence, but a false shape of your
error only; and with whatever earnestness you took to it, you will
never get any water from this delusive mirage.
58. Sikhidhwaja said:--It is as useless to inquire the cause of a
nonentity, as it is fruitless to look into the origin of the secondary
moon which is but false reflex of the true one. Believing in a nullity,
is as decorating the person of a barren woman's son.
59. Kumbha replied:--The body with its bones and ribs, are products
of no assignable cause; therefore know it as no entity, because it is
impossible for the frail body to be the work of an Everlasting Maker.
60. Sikhidhwaja said:--Now tell me sir, why we should not reckon our
fathers the causes and producers of our bodies, with all their members
and parts, since they are known as the immediate causes of these.
61. Kumbha replied:--The father can be nothing and no cause, without
his having another cause for himself; because whatever is without a
cause is nothing in itself.
62. The causes of all things and effects are called as their seeds, and
when there is no seed in existence, it is impossible for a germ to be
produced in the earth from nothing. (Ex nihilo nihil fit).
63. So when you cannot trace out the cause of an event, account the
event as no event at all; because there can be no thing without its
seed, and the knowledge of a causeless effect or eventuality, is an
utter impossibility and fallacy of the understanding.
64. It is an egregious error to suppose the existence of a thing
without its cause or seed, such as to suppose the existence of two
moons in the sky, of water in the mirage and of the son of a barren
woman.
65. Sikhidhwaja said:--Now tell me sir, why should not our parents be
taken as the causes of our production, who had our grandfathers and
grandmothers for the causes or seeds of their birth likewise; and why
should we not reckon our first great grandfather (Brahmá), as the prime
progenitor of the human race?
66. Kumbha replied:--The prime great grandfather, O prince, cannot be
the original cause, since he also requires a cause for his birth, or
else he could not come into existence.
67. The great grandfather of creation even Brahmá himself, is the
cause of production by means of the seeds of the supreme spirit which
produced him; or else the visible form in which he appeared, was no
more than a mere delusion.
68. Know the form of the visible world, to be as great a fallacy as the
appearance of water in the mirage; and so the creativeness of the great
grandfather Brahmá, is no more than an erroneous misconception.
69. I will now wipe off the dark cloud of your error, that our great
grandfather Brahmá was conceived in the womb of the supreme spirit
(whereby he is styled the _padma_-yoni or born of the lotus like navel
string of God); and this will be the salvation of your soul. (And
Adam's ancestors without end. Young).
70. Now therefore know, O prince, that the lord God shines forever with
his intelligent soul and mind in Himself; it is from him that the lotus
born Brahmá and the whole universe, are manifest to our view, and that
there is nothing which exhibits itself without Him.
CHAPTER LXXXXV.
THE _anaesthetic_ PLATONISM OF SIKHIDHWAJA.
Argument:--Dispersion of the gloom of ignorance from the mind of
Sikhidhwaja. His coming to the Light of Truth and the Tranquillity of
his soul.
Sikhidhwaja said:--If the view of the whole universe is but a phantom,
and our knowledge of myself, thyself and of this and that, is but an
error of our mind, then why is it that we should be concerned about or
sorry for anything.
2. Kumbha replied:--The erroneous impression of the existence of the
world, has so firmly laid hold of the minds of men; as the frozen water
appearing as crystal, is believed as dry land by people.
3. It is said by the learned, that the knowledge of gross matter is
lost with the dispersion of ignorance; and that there is no other way
of getting rid of this long contracted prejudice, without our riddance
from ignorance.
4. It is the acuteness of the understanding, which is the only means of
our coming to the knowledge of truth; that the creation and dissolution
of the world, are dependant on the will and causality of the supreme
Being.
5. He whose understanding becomes, is sure to lose his rooted prejudice
by degrees; and come to the knowledge of the nihility of the material
world.
6. In this way of refining your mind from its prepossession of gross
ideas, you will come to find the erroneous conception of a prime male
(ádipurusha), as that of Brahmá (or Adam) as the first creative power,
to be as false as the water in the mirage.
7. The great grandfather of the world being a nullity, the creation
of all creatures by him (who is thence called _Prajápatih_ or lord
of creatures); is likewise as false and null, as it is absurd for an
impossibility to come into being.
8. The perception of a thing _in esse_, is as false as the conception
of water in the mirage; a little reflexion is enough to remove this
error, like the mistake of silver in cockles and conch-shells.
9. Any work which appears to exist without its cause, is only a phantom
of fallacy, and has no essential form whatever in reality.
10. Whatever is done by one's erroneous knowledge or mistake of a
thing, comes to be of no use to him; as the attempt to fill a pot with
the water of the mirage, proves to be utterly vain.
11. Sikhidhwaja said:--Why can't we call the supreme Brahma, to be
the cause of Brahmá--the first creator of the world who is called the
son of God, the one unborn and without end, and the inexpressible and
everlasting.
12. Kumbha replied:--The God Brahma, being neither the cause nor the
effect of any action, is but an invariable unity and transcendent
spirit, and is never the cause or effect of anything.
13. How can the incomprehensible and unknowable Brahma, be designated
as the creator, when he is not predicable by any of the predicates of
the creator or created or as the instrument or cause of anything.
14. The world having no separate cause, is no separate product of any
causality whatever; it is no duality but one with the unity, without
its beginning or end, and co-eternal with the eternal one. (_To
pan_--God is all in all).
15. He that is inconceivable and unknowable, is perfect felicity,
tranquillity and ever undecaying, and can never be the active or
passive agent of anything, on account of the immutability of his nature.
16. Hence there is nothing as a creation, and the visible world is but
a nihility, and the Lord God is neither an active nor passive agent,
but quite still and full of bliss.
17. There being no causal power, the world is not the production of any
body; it is our error only that this world as a production without any
assignable cause.
18. The uncaused world is the product of nothing, and therefore nothing
in itself; for if it be the production of nobody, it is a nullity like
its cause also.
19. The non-existence of anything or the not being of everything
(except that of the supreme Being), being proved as a certain truth; we
can have no conception of anything, and the absence of such conception,
it is in vain to suppose the existence of an egoism or tuism.
20. Sikhidhwaja said:--Sir, I now perceive the truth, and find the
reasonableness of all that you have said; I see now that I am the pure
and free soul, and quite aloof of any bondage or its liberation from
bonds.
21. I understand Brahma as no cause of anything, for his entire want
of causality; and the world is a nullity for its want of a cause, and
therefore there is no being whatever which we reckon as a category.
22. Thence there is no such category as the mind or its seed, nor its
growth nor decay; I therefore bow down to myself of which alone I have
a consciousness in me.
23. I am alone conscious of myself, existence in myself and have
no real knowledge of any thing else beside me, and which appear as
fleeting clouds in the womb of the sky.
24. The distinct knowledge of the different categories of time, place,
action in the world, is now entirely blended in the knowledge of the
unity of the tranquil spirit of Brahma (which composes all varieties in
itself).
25. I am tranquil, calm and quiet and settled in the spirit of God; I
do not rise nor fall from nor move about this prop. I remain as you do
in immovable spirit of God, which is all quiet, holiness and felicity
in itself.
CHAPTER LXXXXVI.
ENLIGHTENMENT OF SIKHIDHWAJA.
Argument:--Kumbha's Lecture on Effacing the Impression of Phenomenals
from the mind of Sikhidhwaja or vanity of the visible world.
Vasishtha said:--Sikhidhwaja having thus found his rest in the
spirit of Brahma, remained quiet for some moments, as the steady and
unflagging flame of a lamp in a calm.
2. And as he was about to be absorbed in his unwavering meditation, he
was suddenly roused from his trance by the diverting voice of Kumbha.
3. Kumbha said:--Prince, I see you are not to wake from the sleep of
your entranced meditation, wherein you are situated in your perfect
bliss; you must neither be absorbed in your contemplation, nor be a
stranger to your abstract meditation altogether (but must observe your
middle course between Platonism and perturbation).
4. The mind that is undivided in its attention, is cleansed from all
duplicity; and being freed from its knowledge of parts and particulars,
becomes emancipated in its living states.
5. Being thus enlightened by Kumbha, the prince became full of
enlightenment; and being roused from his trance, he shone as brightly
as a rich gem when taken out of its cover.
6. The prince who in his state of quietism, beheld the unreality of
visible things; and now perceived them spread all about him, thus spoke
about them to Kumbha.
7. Sikhidhwaja said:--Though I know full well about all these things,
yet I want to propose some queries regarding them; to which I hope you
will give your answers, for my correct and perfect knowledge of them.
8. Tell me, how can we intermingle the impure conception of the
universal or mundane soul representing the _mundees_ or universe,
with the pure idea of the supreme soul, which is ever calm, quiet and
transparent. (The universal soul, is called _viswátmá_, viswarúpa and
viráta, and is opaque with its contents; while the supreme is quite
pure and clear, and untinged with the shade of creation).
9. Kumbha replied:--You have asked well, O prince, and this shows the
clearness of your understanding; and if this is all that you want to
know, hear me then explain it fully to you.
10. Whatever is seen here and every where together, with all the moving
and unmoving beings which it contains, are all of them perishable, and
are extinct at the end of every kalpa age (in which the creator wishes
to create a new world).
11. Then there remains the true and essential reality at the end of the
kalpa age, amidst an obscure chaotic state, which is deprived both of
light and darkness.
12. This essential reality is the divine intellect, which is pure
and quiet and as clear as the transparent air; it is free from all
attributes and imputations, and full of transcendental intelligence.
13. The one that remains at the end of a kalpa, is the supreme soul
which extends over all space, and is purely bright, transparent and
quiet; it is enveloped in light and is pure intelligence.
14. It is inscrutable and unknowable, it is even and quiet, and full
of bliss; it is called Brahma--the great, the final extinction of all
bodies and is full of all knowledge.
15. It is the minutest of the minute, and the largest of whatever is
large in the universe; it is the greatest and greatest of aught that is
great and heavy, and it is the best of whatever is good and excellent.
16. It is so very small, that if you place this sky beside it, the
latter will appear as big as the great mount of Meru by the side of a
small mite.
17. It is again so very big and bulky, that this stupendous world being
placed side by side to it, the latter must appear as an atom before it
or vanish into nothing.
18. This is attributed with the epithet of universal soul, for its
pervading all over the universe and being its intrinsic soul; while
its extrinsic appearance, is called by the title of Virát.
19. There is no difference between this attribute and its attributive,
as there is none between the air and the wind or the air in motion; and
as the sky and vacuum are synonymous words, so the very same intellect
is the phenomenal world, and the same consciousness is manifested in
the forms of egoism and tuism.
20. As the water becomes the wave at a certain time and place, by
cause of the current wind; so the world rises and falls at times in
the supreme soul, without any external cause (except the will of the
supreme spirit).
21. As gold is transformed to bracelets at certain times and place,
by means of some or other; so the spirit of God is transformed to the
visible world at certain times, without any other assignable cause
whatever (save by the supreme will).
22. The most glorious God, is the Lord of his Kingdom of the world; He
is one with his creation, ever pure, quiet and undecaying, and pervades
over all these worlds which are scattered as turfs of grass all around
us.
23. This transcendentally good and great God is the only real
existence, and comprises all temporary and finite existences within
himself; and we know by our reason, that this glorious creation of the
universe is all derived from him.
24. Know him, O prince, to be the essence of the extended universe, and
to extend over all in his form of an entire intellect, and an unity
that never admits of a duality (under all the varieties and diversities
in nature).
25. There is no reason therefore, for our conceiving a duality beside
his unity; since it is the sole principle of the supreme soul, that is
fully manifest in all in its ever undiminished and unextinguished state.
26. The Lord always remains as the all in all, and as manifest in all
the various forms; and being neither visible nor perceptible by us, he
can neither be said to be the cause or effect of anything (but is the
unknown all in himself).
27. The Lord being neither perceptible nor conceivable by us is
something super-eminently good and superfine; He is all and the soul
of all, too fine and transparent, and is known only by our conception
of him; and no sensible perception whatever. (The knowledge of God, is
innate and inborn in us. Locke).
28. Being inexpressible by words, and manifest in all without
manifestation or appearance of himself; cannot be the cause of whatever
is real or unreal. (Anything that is indefinite in itself, cannot cause
another of a definite or indefinite form).
29. That which has no name of itself, cannot be the seed of another;
no nameless nothing can grow anything, nor can a commensurable world
spring out of an incommensurable spirit. (A material and measurable
thing, must have a material mensurator for its origin. Hence it is
wrong to say: God measured the seas without a measuring rod).
30. The exhaustless mass of divine intellect, is indeed no cause or
casual instrument or effect of any thing; because the product of the
divine soul, must be some thing of the form of the invisible soul,
which is its everlasting consciousness or intelligence.
31. So, O sage, nothing is produced by the supreme Brahma nor does
anything arise from Him, like the waves from water which have their
winds for their causality. (But the spirit of Brahma, is as the still
water and has no stir or perturbation in it).
32. All distinction of time and place, being absent in the uniform and
unchanging spirit of Brahma, there can be no creation or destruction
of the world from him, and hence the world is increate and without any
cause.
33. Sikhidhwaja said:--I know that the waves of water, have their cause
in the winds of the air, and so I understand this world and our egoism
&c., have their causality in the supreme spirit (which produces the
worlds by its will, and acquaints me of my egoism by its intelligence).
34. Kumbha replied:--Know now the positive truth, O prince as I tell
you after all, that there is nothing as a separate world or our egoism
&c. existent in supreme spirit; though the world and the Ego exist as
one with the divine spirit, without bearing their distinct names and
personalities at all. (_i.e._ The world and its gods as one and the
same thing).
35. As the subtile ether, contains the subtle element of vacuum in its
bosom; so the divine soul entertains in itself, the fine spun idea of
the mundane system without its substance.
36. Whether you behold this world in its true form of divine
intelligence, or in any other form of gross matter; it is to be
understood rightly as no other than a representation of the divine
intellect.
37. The full knowledge of a thing, makes it sweet to the understanding,
though it be as bitter as gall to taste; but the imperfect knowledge
of a thing, as that of the world makes it appear as full of woe,
though it is no such thing in reality. (Hence the crying and laughing
philosophers took two different views of the world).
38. Ambrosia the water of life being taken in the light of poison, will
act as poison in the constitution of the patient; so the lord of the
intellect appears in a favourable or unfavourable light, as knowledge
and ignorance of him represents him to our understanding.
39. The blessed lord God appears to us in the propitious or
unpropitious aspect, as our true and false knowledge paints him to our
minds, just as the blinding eye sees many a false sight in the light of
the sun.
40. The essence of Brahma, always remains the same in his essential
form of the intellect; though the turpitude of our understanding, will
now represent him in one form and then in another at a different time
and under different circumstances.
41. In fact the body and the embodied soul, appear as any other
sensible object in the world; but being viewed in reality in their
abstract light, they blend in the spiritual form of God.
42. Therefore it is in vain to make any inquiry, concerning the nature
of the world and our egoism &c.; because what is really existent is to
be inquired into, and not that which is a nullity in itself.
43. It is vain to ask about an appearance, which being looked into
vanishes into nothing; as it is in vain to speak of the essence of
gold, when it presents us no figure of it.
44. Therefore there is no entity of the world and our egoism, without
the existence of God, these things having no cause, are self-same with
the one self-existent Deity.
45. The world does not appear to be prominent, and to rest by itself
to view; it rests in relief in the spirit of God, and shows itself as
separate to us by illusion only.
46. These existences being composed of the five elements, produce many
other beings; as the copulations of the male and female, produce their
offspring in infinity; so the divine intellect being joined with the
illusory intelligence, presents endless form to our view.
47. It is by the inherent knowledge of the divine soul, that it
represents itself the shapes of many things that are comprised in
his omniscience. He is full in himself and manifests his fullness in
himself, and is never wanting in his fullness which always subsist in
Him. (So the sea is ever full with its waves and waters, which roll for
ever in its bosom).
48. The fullness or plenum of the world is derived from the fullness of
God; and yet the divine fullness remains entire, as when you deduct the
infinite, that remains the infinite also as the remainder.
49. The divine intellect though forever the same and serene, appears to
shine forth in the creation with our knowledge of the same, and set at
its dissolution with our imperceptibility of it; so our egoism being
the same with the divine ego, appears to be different from it, as our
fluctuating minds depict it in various lights.
50. The ego never becomes many, nor forsake its undecaying state; it is
of a luminous form and having no beginning nor end of its essence; but
assumes as many forms, as the ever varying mind imposes upon it. (The
unchanging soul assumes many forms with the changeful mind).
51. The self-same soul believes itself as _Virát_--the lord of the
world at one time, and as contemptible being at another; it sometimes
sees itself in its true form of a divinity, and its thought makes it
think as some other thing at another time.
52. The world appears as a vast and extended space, perfectly quiet
in its nature, inexpressible by words and their senses, (as its real
nature). All its objects are of wonderful shape to view, and appear to
us according to our conceptions or without showing their real nature's
unto us. (The true nature of things is hidden from our knowledge).
CHAPTER LXXXXVII.
ENLIGHTENMENT OF THE PRINCE IN THEOSOPHY.
Argument:--Effacing the impression of visibles from the mind continued.
Kumbha continued:--Know that nothing is produced from, nor destroyed by
the ever tranquil spirit of God at any time; but everything appears as
the panorama of the one all (_topan_) God; like the various kinds of
ornaments made of the same metal of gold.
2. Brahma remains forever in his own essence, and never becomes the
seed or cause of any other thing; he is ever of the form of our innate
conception of him, and therefore never becomes any other than our
simple idea of him.
3. Sikhidhwaja said:--I grant, Oh sagely monitor, that there subsists
no separate world nor any other egoism in the one pure Siva (Zeus
or Jove), except his own essence of omniscience; but please to tell
me, what thing is this world and individual egoisms that seem to be
infinite in number, and appear as distinct creations of God?
4. Kumbha replied:--The essence of God is without its beginning and
end, and extends to infinite space and time.
5. The same also is this transparent cosmos, and the very same is
the body of this world; which is simple and of the form of divine
intelligence, and neither a void nor any extraneous thing.
6. The essential property of God being his intelligence, he is said to
be of essence of intellect; and as fluidity is the property of water,
so is intelligence the essential property of everything; and there is
no reason to suppose an unintelligent principle as the prime cause of
all.
7. The Lord is infinite in himself and is so situated in his infinitude
for ever, without the grossness of the infinitesimals ever attaching to
their pure intelligence in the subjective soul.
8. We cannot attribute the creation of the impure world, to the pure
essence of the divine spirit; because the purity of the divine soul,
cannot admit the impurity of creation, which would amount to a duality
of purity and impurity in the supreme soul: (which is altogether absurd
to believe).
9. The Lord can never be supposed as the seed or cause of the universe,
since his nature is inscrutable and beyond our conception, and cannot
be thought of as the root of anything whatever.
10. Therefore there is no creation or production of an effect, without
its cause or seed; nor does reason point out to us, any other source of
creation.
11. Therefore there is no gross creation whatsoever, except of the form
of the intellect itself; and hence all that is visible to us, is no
other than the solid intellect itself.
12. The feeling of egoism and the term world, are meaningless words
and mere inventions of men; because nothing whatever can be called an
effect or product, which has no cause assigned to it.
13. The duality of the world appears in the unity of God, in the same
manner as a flower called the sky flower appears in the hollow vacuum
of the sky (by mere delusion). And all things being perishable in their
nature, exist only in the intellect in which they live and die. (If the
world be of the solid intellect, then the very intellect becomes the
cause of the same, by means of the solidification of its own substance;
but it is not so, because it is impossible for the same thing to be
both the cause and effect of something by itself).
14. Destruction is not the giver of life to destruction, nor is it a
giver of life to perishable things; hence intellect is the giver of
light to all: but you may call whatever you like the best.
15. What difficulty you have, provided all things are to be called one,
when all have come from the intellect; the duality what you call, that
is the mystery of intellect-chit only.
16. The intellect therefore is the only true entity, which admits no
unity nor duality in it. And therefore, O prince, you must know the
nullity of all other entities beside it.
17. The feeling of thy egoism, is as false as thy conception of any
other thing; and thus the idea of egoism proving to be false, what else
can there be except the only entity of the intellect.
18. Thus egoism (being) no other than a form of the intellect, there is
no difference whatever between them; hence the words I, thou &c. are
mere human inventions to distinguish one from another (when there is in
reality no difference in the personality of any body).
19. Whether you remain in your embodied or disembodied state, continue
to remain always as firm as a rock; by knowing yourself only as the
pure intellect, and the nullity of all things besides.
20. By thinking yourself always as the intellect, you will lose the
sense of your egoism and personality; and so will your reflexion on the
contexts of the texts of the vedas, lead you to the same conclusion.
(There are numerous texts to the effect that God is the only entity,
and this all is naught but God).
21. From all these know thyself as the pure essence, which is uncaused
and unmade, and the same with the first and original principle; that
thou art same with the emancipate and everlasting Brahma, and multiform
in thy unity; that thou art as void as vacuity, having neither thy
beginning, middle or end; and that this world is the intellect and that
intellect is the very Brahma himself.
CHAPTER LXXXXVIII.
ADMONITION OF SIKHIDHWAJA CONTINUED.
Argument:--The non-entity of the mind, proved from the non-existence of
sensible objects, and the want of these proving only the entity of one
Brahma only.
Sikhidhwaja said:--I understand, that there is no such thing as the
mind also; but as I have no clear and correct knowledge of this
subject, I beg of you to tell me, whether it is so (as I believe) or
not.
2. Kumbha replied:--You have truly said, O prince, that there is no
such real entity as the mind at any time and in any space whatever; and
that which appears as the mind, is no other than a faculty of the only
one everlasting Brahma.
3. Anything besides which is fallible or unconscious of itself,
as the mind or anything of this world, can never be a positive or
self-existence substance; therefore the words I, thou and this or that
are only coinings of our imagination, and have no existence in reality.
4. There is no reality of the cosmos or any of its contents; and
all that seem to be in existence, are no more than the various
representations of the one self-existent Brahma himself. (Because there
is no duality beside the unity of Brahma).
5. It is said that there was no mind or its personification of Brahmá,
and the final dissolution of the world, and this proves the unreality
of both of them. Again it is said that the mind took the form of Brahmá
and created the world in the beginning, which proves also the mind to
be the divine mind, and represented by substitution of the metaphor of
Brahmá.
6. As there can be no material object without the prior existence of
a material cause, so it is impossible to believe the existence of the
sensible mind and the myriads of the sensible objects in absence of
their material cause, which never existed from before. (The spirit
alone was the pre-existent thing, which could not create anything
except in its own immaterial form).
7. Hence there is no such thing, as a dull and unconscious world; and
all that appears to exist as such, is no other than a representation of
the Divine spirit (which reflects itself in various ways) as the gold
exhibits its ornaments to view.
8. It is entirely false to believe, that the nameless and formless
Deity does this all; and because the world is visible, yet there is no
proof of its reality in our subjective knowledge of it.
9. That the nameless and formless spirit of God, which has no shelter
nor support for itself, should make this world for the abode of others,
is a laughable assumption of the ignorant only (therefore this world is
his own abode and the stage of his own action).
10. From these reasons it is plain that there is no world in existence,
nor even the mind, which is but a part of it; the world being a
non-entity, there can be no mind which is conversant alone with it.
11. The mind means no more than the wish, and then only there is said
to be a wish in any one, when there is an object to be wished for;
but this world which appears to be so very desirable, being a nullity
itself, how can there be the mind to desire it. (The mind is a nullity
for want of any of its objects to dwell upon or engage its attention).
12. That which is manifested unto us under the name of the Mind, is
no other than a manifestation of the spirit of God in itself, and is
designated by various appellations.
13. This visible which is so desirable to everybody, is no production
of any one; it is an uncaused entity ever existent in the divine mind,
from before its production by the mind of Brahmá the creator. (Being
prior to the mind, it is no production of it).
14. Therefore the divine soul, is of the form of an intellectual
vacuum, and is a void as the transcendent air; it is full with the
light of its intelligence, and having no shadow of the gross world in
it.
15. The slight light which shines in the divine soul, is like the
twilight that fills the etherial sphere; is the reflexion of the mirror
of the supreme intellect, and is neither the dim light of the mind, nor
any reflexion of the phenomenal world. (The nature of spiritual light,
as quite distinct from the mental and physical lights).
16. Our knowledge of I, thou and this world (_i.e._ of the subjective
and objective), are never real nor reliable; it is like the appearance
of our dreams, that serve only to delude us to mistake.
17. As the absence of the desirable world, removes our desire of it; so
the privation of our desire, displaces the mind which is the seat of
our wishes.
18. The ignorant believe that this visible world is the mind, (because
it is the display of the divine mind and the mind dwells upon it);
but the unreal and formless mind had not this visible form, before it
developed itself in the form of creation. (The world is not the mind
because it is posterior in the order of creation, being created by the
mind of the great Brahmá).
19. But this world is said to be coeval with the eternal mind, which is
altogether impossible; because we read nowhere in the sástras, nor find
in the ordinary course of nature, that a visible object has ever come
into existence without some cause or other, either in the beginning of
creation or at any time afterwards. (Hence the visible world is not
coeval with the mind its maker).
20. How can eternity, uncreatedness and everlastingness be predicated
of this visible world, which is a gross material substance, and subject
to decay and dissolution.
21. There is no testimony of the sástras, nor ocular evidence nor any
reasonable inference, to show any material thing to be uncaused by some
agent or other, and to survive the final dissolution of the world.
22. There is no written testimony of the vedas, and of other sástras
and Siddhántas to show, that any material thing is ever exempt from its
three conditions of birth, growth and decay, and is not perishable at
the last dissolution.
23. He that is not guided by the evidence and dictates of the sástras
and vedas, is the most foolish among fools, and is never to be relied
upon by good and sensible men.
24. It is never possible for any one to prevent the accidents, that are
incidentals to perishable things, nor can there be any cause to render
a material object an immaterial one.
25. But the immaterial view of this world, identifies it with the
unchangeable Brahma, and exempts it from the accidents of action and
passion, and of growth and decay.
26. Therefore know this world to be contained, in the undivided and
unutterable vacuity of the Divine Intellect; which is infinite and
formless void, and is for ever more in its undivided and undivisible
state.
27. Brahma who is omniform and ever tranquil in himself, manifests his
own self in this manner in the forms of creation and dissolution all in
himself.
28. The lord now shows himself to our understanding, as embodied in his
body of the world, and now manifests himself unto us, as the one Brahma
in his spiritual form.
29. Know after all, that this world is the essence of the one Brahma
only, beside which there is no separate world or any thing else in
existence; and it is our imagination only which represents it sometimes
in one form and then in another.
30. All this is one, eternal and ever tranquil soul, which is unborn
and without any support and situated as it is. It shows itself as
various without any variation in its nature, and so learn to remain
thyself with thyself as motionless as a block of wood, and with thy
dumb silence in utter amazement at all this. (The principles of vedánta
philosophy being abstraction and generalisation, it takes the world and
all things in their abstract light, and generalises them all under the
general spirit of God).
CHAPTER LXXXXIX.
REMONSTRATION OF SIKHIDHWAJA.
Argument.--Further exhortations to spiritual knowledge and its
confirmations.
Sikhidhwaja said:--O sage, it is by thy good grace, that I am freed
from my ignorance, and brought under the light of truth; my doubts are
removed, and I am situated with my tranquillity of my spirit.
2. I have become as one knowing the knowable, and sits taciturn after
crossing over the sea of delusion; I am quiet by quitting my egoism,
and am set out of all disquiet by my knowledge of true self.
3. O! how long a time have I wandered, amidst the mazy depths of the
world; after which I have now arrived to the safe harbour of my peace
and security.
4. Being so situated, O sage, I perceive neither my egoism, nor the
existence of the three worlds; it is ignorance to believe in their
existence, but I am taught to believe in Brahma alone.
5. Kumbha replied:--How is it possible for the egoism, tuism or suism
of any body, to exist anywhere; when this universe, this air and sky,
have not their existence anywhere.
6. Sit quiet as usual be calm and as silent as a sage; and remain as
still as the calm ocean, without the perturbation of the waves and
whirl pools within its bosom.
7. Such is the quiet and tranquil state of Brahma, who is always one
and the same as he is; and the words I, thou, this and that, and the
world, are as void of meaning, as the universal vacuity, is devoid of
anything.
8. What you call the world is a thing, having neither its beginning
nor its end; it is the wonder of the Intellect, to shine as the clear
light, which fills the etherial firmament.
9. The changes that appear to take place in the spirit of God, are as
extraneous as the different colours that paint the vault of heaven,
and the various jewelleries which are wrought upon gold; these have no
intrinsic essentiality, and never affect the tranquillity of the divine
spirit, nor the uniform serenity of the empty sky, nor the nature of
the pure metal of gold.
10. As the Lord is self-born, so is his eternal will inherent in and
born with himself; and what we call as free will or fate, depend on the
nature of our knowledge of them.
11. Think yourself as something, and you become a bondsman to your
desires; but believe yourself as nothing, and you are as free and
enfranchised as free air itself.
12. It is the certain knowledge or conviction of thyself as a
reality, and that thou art subject either to bondage or freedom, that
constitutes thy personality.
13. It is the privation of thy knowledge of thyself or thy egoistic
personality, that leads thee to thy consummation; whereas thy knowledge
of thy personality exposes thee to danger; therefore think thyself as
himself and not thyself (according to the formula ("so ham ana ham,"
_i.e._ I am he and not myself) and thou art safe from all calamity.
(This is no more than one's self resignation to God)).
14. No sooner you get rid of the conviction of yourself, than your
soul is enlightened by the light of true knowledge; and you lose the
sense of your personality, and become consummated in your knowledge of
yourself as one with the Holy spirit.
15. The inscrutable nature of God admits of no cause, because causality
refers only to what is caused and cannot come to existence without a
cause, and not to the uncaused cause of all.
16. As we have no knowledge of an object which is not in existence, so
we cease to have any knowledge of our personality, if we but cease to
consider ourselves as caused and created beings. (The sophists to think
themselves as increate and say--_man an wakt budam ke hichak nabud_,
_i.e._ I exist from a time when there was nothing in existence).
17. What is this world to us if we are unconscious of ourselves, and
if we are freed from our knowledge of the objective world, we see but
the supreme soul remaining after all.
18. Whatever is manifest here before us, is all situated in the spirit
of the lord; all these are transcendent, and are situated as such and
same with the full and transcendental spirit of God. (The fulness of
the world, abides in the fulness of the divine spirit).
19. Therefore all these that are protuberant to view, are as figures
carved on a rock; and the light that pervades the whole, is but the
glory of the great God.
20. In absence of this visionary world from view, its light which is
more pellucid than that of the transparent firmament will vanish away
into nothing.
21. The insensible world seems to move about as a shadow or phantom in
the air, whence it is called _jagat_ or the moving world; but he alone
sees it in its true light, who views it as motionless and without its
sense of mobility, and as perfectly sedate and stationary in the spirit
of God.
22. When the sight of the visibles, together with the sense of
sensibles and the feelings of the mind, become insipid to the torpid
soul that is absorbed in divine meditation; it is then called by the
wise as _nirvána_ absorption or the full light and knowledge of God.
23. As the breezeless winds sink in the air, and the jewellery melts in
its gold; so doth the protruding form of the world, subside in the even
spirit of God.
24. The sight of the world and the perceptions of the mind, which
testify the existence of the world unto us, are but the representations
of Brahma; as the false mirage, represents the water in the desert
sands.
25. As when the vast body of water subsists without a wave to ruffle
its surface, so doth the spirit of God remain in its state of calmness,
when it is free from its operation of creation.
26. The creation is identic with Brahma, as the lord is the same with
his creation, and this is true from the dictum of the veda, which says,
"All this is Brahma, and Brahma is this (_to pan_)".
27. The meaning of the word Brahma or immensity, equally establishes
the existence of the world; as the signification of the word world or
cosmos, establishes the entity of Brahma.
28. The meaning of all words taken collectively, expresses a multitude;
which is synonymous with Brahma--the great and immense aggregate of the
whole.
29. And if we reject the sense of the greatness of God and of the
world, as they are usually meant to express, yet the little or
minuteness of God that remains at last, is so very minute that words
cannot express it. (So the sruti, neither the greatness nor minuteness
of God is expressible by words).
30. The lord that remains as the inherent and silent soul of all
bodies, is yet but one soul in the aggregate; he remains as a huge
mountain of his intelligence, as in the form of the whole of this
universal cosmos.
CHAPTER C.
CONTINUATION OF THE SAME SUBJECT.
Argument:--Difference of Brahma from the world, consisting in the
indestructibility of his essence.
Sikhidhwaja said:--If it is so, O most intelligent sir, that the work
is alike to the nature of its maker; and therefore the world resembles
Brahma in every respect.
2. Kumbha replied:--Where there exists a causality, there is an
effectuality also accompanied with it; so where there is no cause
whatever, there can be no effect also following the same.
3. Therefore there is no possibility of any cause or its effect in this
world, which is manifest before us as the self-same essence of the ever
tranquil and the unborn spirit of God.
4. The effect that comes to pass from a cause, is of course alike
to the nature of its causality; but what similarity can there exist
between one, which is neither the cause nor effect of the other?
5. Say how can a tree grow which has no seed for its growth, and
how can God have a seed whose nature is inscrutable in thought, and
inexpressible in words.
6. All things that have their causality at any time or place, are of
course of the nature of their causal influence; but how can there be a
similarity of anything with God who is never the cause of an effect?
7. Brahma the uncausing uncaused cause of all, has no causality in him;
therefore the meaning of the word world, is something that has no cause
whatever. (Jagat means what is going on forever).
8. Therefore think thyself as Brahma, according to the view of the
intelligent; but the world appears as some thing extended in the sight
of men of imperfect understandings.
9. When the world is taken as one and the same with the tranquil
intellect of God, it must be viewed in the light of the transparent
spirit of Brahma. (_i.e._ spiritually and intellectually they are both
the same).
10. Any other notion, Oh prince, which the mind may entertain about the
nature of God, is said by the intelligent, to be the destruction of the
right concept of the Deity.
11. Know O prince, that the destruction of the mind (or mental error),
is tantamount to the destruction of the soul; and slight forgetfulness
of the spirit, is hard to be retrieved in a whole kalpa. (He that loses
the sight of his Lord for a moment, loses it forever).
12. No sooner you are freed from your personality, than you find
yourself to be full of Divine knowledge, and your false personality
flies away for your consummation in spirituality.
13. If you think the world to be existent from the meaning of the word
_viswa_ or all, then tell me how and whence could all this come into
existence.
14. How can you call one to be a Brahman, who lifts up his arms and
proclaims himself about to be a sudra?
15. He who cries himself saying that he is dead, after the sinking of
his pulsation; take him for the dead, and his living to be mistaken for
life.
16. All these erroneous appearances, that present themselves before us,
are as false as a circle described by the whirling flame of a torch;
and as delusive as the water in the mirage, a secondary moon in the
mist, and the spectre of boys.
17. What then is the true name of this erroneous substance, misleading
us to the wrong, which is commonly designated as the mind, and is
wrapped in ignorance and error.
18. The mind is another name for ignorance, and an unreality appearing
as a real entity. Here ignorance takes the name of the mind, and
unreality passes under the title of reality. Ignorance is the want of
true knowledge, as knowledge is the privation of ignorance.
19. Ignorance or false knowledge, is driven by our knowledge of truth;
as the error of water in the desert, is dispelled by the knowledge of
mirage.
20. As the knowledge of mirage removes the error of water in the sandy
desert, so the knowledge of the mind as gross ignorance, removes the
erroneous mind from the inward seat of the heart. (The heart and mind
are often used for one another).
21. The knowledge of the want of a mind, serves to root out its
prejudice at once; as the knowledge of the rope as no snake, removes
the fear of the reptile in the rope.
22. As the knowledge of the privation of the snake in the rope, removes
its bias from the mind; so the knowledge of the want of the mind,
removes this offspring of error and ignorance from within us.
23. The knowledge of there being no such thing as the mind, removes its
false impressions from the heart; because the mind and our egoism, are
the brood of our ignorance only.
24. There is no mind nor egoism, seated in us as we commonly believe to
be; there is one pure intelligence only both with and without us, which
we can hardly perceive.
25. You who had so long the sense of your desire, your mind and your
personality from your ignorance only; are quite set free from all of
them at this moment, by your being awakened to the light of knowledge.
26. All the troubles that you have to meet with, owing to your
fostering the inborn desire of your heart; are all driven away by your
want of desire, as the wind disperses the flaming conflagration of the
forest.
27. It is the dense essence of the Divinity that pervades the whole
universe, as it is this circumambient ocean which surrounds all the
continents of the earth.
28. There is nothing in existence as I, thou, this, or that or any
other; there is no mind nor the senses, nor the earth nor sky; but they
are all as the manifestations of the Divine spirit.
29. As the visibles appear in the forms of the frail pot and other
fragile bodies on earth; so the many false invisible things appear to
us in the forms of the mind, egoism and the like.
30. There is nothing, that is either born or dies away in all these
three worlds; it is only the display of the Divine intellect, that
gives rise to the ideas of existence and non-existence.
31. All these are but representations of the supreme soul, now evolved
and now spread out from it; and there is no room for unity or duality,
nor any error or fallibility in its nature.
32. Mind, O friend, that you are the true one, in the shape of your
senses; and these will never be burnt at your cremation, nor will you
be utterly destroyed by your death.
33. No part of thyself is ever increased or annihilated at any time,
the entirety of thy pure self is immortal, and must remain entire for
ever.
34. The powers of thy volition and nolition, and the other faculties
of thy body and mind, are attributes of thyself; as the beams of moon,
are the significant properties of that luminary. (The attributes are
denotative of the subject).
35. Always remember the nature of thy soul, to be unborn and increate,
without its beginning and end, never decaying and ever remaining the
same; it is indivisible and without parts, it is the true essence, and
existing from the beginning and never to have its end. (The immortality
of the soul).
CHAPTER CI.
ADMONITION OF CHÚDÁLÁ.
Argument.--Obligation of the Prince for the instructions of his
Monitor. And his attaining the Jívan-mukta emancipation in lifetime.
Vasishtha said:--After the prince had so far attended to the lectures
of Kumbha, he remained for some time in silent and deep meditation of
his soul as if in a state of trance.
2. He continued with his intent-mind and fixed eyes and quite
speechless all the while, and resembled the figure of a silent sage,
and a carved statue without its motion and sensation.
3. And then as he awoke after a while with his twinkling eyes, he was
thus accosted by Chúdálá in her disguised form of Kumbha the Bráhman
youth.
4. Kumbha said:--Say prince, how you enjoyed yourself in your short
lived trance; did you feel in it that sweet composure of thy soul, as
the yogis experience in their bed of steadfast meditation and unshaken
hypnotism?
5. Say, were you awakened in your inmost soul, and set at large beyond
the region of error and darkness; say, have you known the knowable one,
and seen what is to be seen?
6. Sikhidhwaja replied--O Sir, it was by your good grace, that I have
beheld a great glory in the most high heaven of heavens.
7. I have beheld a state of bliss which is full of ambrosial delight,
never yet known to mortals, and whose sight is the most ultimate reward
of the wishes of the best and most intelligent men, and of saints and
mahátmas of great and high souls.
8. It is in your society today, that I have felt a delight, to which I
have never experienced in my life before.
9. O lotus eyed sage! I have heretofore, never enjoyed such a degree
of spiritual bliss which knows no bounds and is a sea of ambrosial
delight.
10. Kumbha said:--The mind becomes composed and tranquil, after
subordination of its desire of enjoyments, and its indifference to the
taste of sweet and bitter, and its full control over the organs of
sense.
11. There arises a peace in the mind, which is purer than any earth
born delight; and is as delightsome as the dew drops falling from
flowers under the bright beams of cooling moonlight night.
12. It is today, O prince, that your bad desires like the bitter taste
of bodies, are bettered by your advancement in knowledge.
13. It is by your holiness, O lotus-eyed prince, that the filth of your
person is purged out; like the fruits of trees, falling off after they
are ripened.
14. As the desire of the impure heart, becomes purified by reason it
is then only capable of receiving the instructions of the wise, as
the pipe draws the water inside. (Else, advising the fool is folly or
spreading pearls before swines).
15. After the bitterness of your disposition, was tempered by my
lectures; you have been awakened today to your spiritual knowledge by
me.
16. You are just now cleansed from your impurity, and immediately
purified by your pure knowledge; even now it is that you have received
my admonition, and have been instantly awakened to your knowledge.
17. You are purged today, from the merits and demerits of your good and
bad conduct; and it is by the influence of good society, that you have
got a new life in you.
18. It was before the midday of this day, that I have come to know the
edification and regeneration of your soul to spiritual light.
19. I find you now, O prince, to be wakened in your mind, by your
taking my words to your heart; and having now got rid of the feelings
of your mind, you are awakened to your spiritual knowledge.
20. As long as the mind has its seat and operations in the heart of
man, so long does it retain its companion of ignorance by its side;
but no sooner doth the mind forsake its residence in the heart, than
pure knowledge comes to shine forth in it as the midday light.
21. It is the suspense of the mind between unity and duality, that is
called its ignorance; and it is the subsidence of these that is known
as knowledge, and the way to the salvation of the soul.
22. You are now awakened and emancipated, and your mind is driven
away from your heart; you are now the reality and rescued from your
unreality, and are set beyond this world of unreality. (The spiritual
state is held to be real and all else as unreal).
23. Rest in the pure state of thy soul, by being devoid of cares and
anxieties; forsaking all society and relying your soul in no body and
in nothing here; and by your becoming as the devout and Divine and
silent sage or saint or _muni_.
24. Sikhidhwaja said:--So I see sir, that all ignorant people rely
mostly on their minds; but the few that are awakened to the knowledge
of God, do not mind their minds (_i.e._ they are not led away by the
inclinations of their minds).
25. Now sir, please tell me, how the living liberated men conduct
themselves in their lifetime in this world; and how do these unmindful
men like yourself, manage yourselves herein.
26. O! tell me fully and dispel by the lustre of your glowing words,
the deep darkness that is seated in my heart.
27. Kumbha replied:--All that you say prince, is exact and
incontrovertible truth; the minds of the living liberated men are dead
in themselves, and like blocks of stone, never vegetate nor sprout
forth in the wishes.
28. The gross desire that germinates in its wishes, which become the
causes of the regeneration of men in some form or other, is known by
the name of mind; and which becomes altogether extinct in men, knowing
the truly knowable one.
29. The desire which guides the knowers of truth, in this life of
action (or the active life) in the world; is known by the name of
goodness (satva), and which is unproductive of future birth.
30. The great-souled and living liberated men, being placed in their
quality of goodness and having their organs under control; do not place
any reliance in their minds.
31. The darkened mind is called the mind, but the enlightened one is
known as the principle of goodness; the unenlightened rely in their
minds, but enlightened men of great understanding confide in their
goodness only.
32. The mind is repeatedly born with the body, but the nature of
goodness is never reborn any more; the unawakened mind is under
perpetual bondage, but the enlightened soul is under no restraint.
33. Now sir, you are become of the nature of goodness, and deserves the
title of the forsaker of all things; and I understand you to have quite
got rid of the propensities of your mind.
34. I find you today as brilliant as the full moon, freed from the
shadows of the eclipse; and your mind to have become as lucid as the
clear firmament, without any tinge in it.
35. You have got that equanimity, which is characteristic of the
consummate yogi; this is called that total renunciation of all, which
you exhibit in yourself.
36. The enlightened understanding is freed from the trammels, of its
desire of heaven and future rewards, and its observance of austerities
and charity, by means of its superior knowledge. (The divine knowledge
is called the superior or _parávidyá_ in opposition to the worldly or
_aparávidyá_).
37. All austerities and mortifications, serve but to procure a short
lived cessation of pain; but the happiness which is wholly free from
its decay, is to be found only in one's equanimity and indifference
under all circumstances of life. (The original word is _samatá_ or the
sameness or evenness of disposition at all times).
38. That thing must be truly good, which is different from the
enjoyment of temporary bliss of heaven, and altogether different from
an existent pleasure, which is both preceded as well as followed by
pain.
39. We are all doubtful of the happiness, that most await on us
hereafter in heaven; and what are our religious acts, but for the
purpose of procuring some happiness to those, who are unacquainted with
the consummate felicity of their souls, derived from their spiritual
knowledge.
40. Let them use their ornaments of brass, who have no gold ornaments
for their persons; so let the ignorant adhere to their ritual and not
the wise who are quite happy in their knowledge. But you, O prince,
have happily come both to your knowledge and happiness in the company
of Chúdálá and others.
41. Why therefore are you devoted in vain, to the observance of your
austerities; because the mortifications and penance of asceticism, are
prescribed for the expiation of the prior misdeeds of men (and neither
for their salvation or eternal felicity of the souls).
42. The beginning and end of asceticism are both attended with pain,
the middle alone promises a short and temporary happiness; and as
mortifications are mere preparatory to the purification of the soul.
(it is better to acquire this purity by divine knowledge, than by the
painful practices of hermitage).
43. Remain steady in that pure knowledge, which is said to be the
result of penitence; and the purity of the soul being had with the
clearness of the intellectual sphere, all things and thoughts will be
as perspicuous to view as in the clear light of the sky.
44. All things are seen to rise and disappear in the vacuous sphere of
the divine intellect, and the thoughts of our good and bad actions,
are as the drops of rain which mix with the waters of the immeasurable
ocean of the Divine soul.
45. Therefore, O Sikhidhwaja, abandon the barren soil (of rituals), and
resort to the abundant field (of divine knowledge); and ask of me to
know your best good, as men desire to know of their best friends.
46. As a wife that requires her husband, refrains from asking petty
things of him; so should you refrain from asking of trifling blessings
from thy God, if thou dost require thy communion with him. And know
the objects of thy desire, are not always for thy good. (Therefore let
his will be done and not theirs).
47. As no wise man runs to grasp the sun, in his reflexion in the
water; so should you never pursue after the pleasures of heaven or
felicity of liberation, after thou hast found him in thy own spirit.
(Better to posses the whole God than pray for a partial blessing).
48. Forsake what is unstable, though it may appear as stable to thee;
and thou always stable, by leaving the unstable to perish by itself.
(_i.e._ All adscititious properties are unstable).
49. Knowing the instability of things, preserve the stability of thy
mind, because the motionless mind perceives no fluctuation of its
thoughts, nor the changes and motions of things (as in sound sleep).
50. All our evils proceed from the acts of our bodies, as well as from
the thoughts and action of our minds; these two are main springs of the
miseries of men, in all places and times.
51. Curb the fickleness of your mind, and be ever calm and quiet; if
you desire to enjoy the happiness of quiet and rest.
52. Know all motions and its want to dwindle into perfect rest, in the
mind of the truly wise men; hold them therefore in equal light and be
happy forever.
53. Sikhidhwaja said:--Tell me sir, how can the motion and force of a
thing be one and the same with its immobility and rest; and you who are
the remover of my doubts, will I dare say quickly clear this point to
me.
54. Kumbha replied:--There is one thing only, which also the all and
whole of this universe; it is as the water of the sea, and is agitated
by its intelligence, as the sea water is agitated into billows.
55. The immensity of Brahma, which is named the only essence and is of
the form of the pure intellect; is beheld in the shape of the formal
world by the ignorant.
56. The agitation of the intellect is all in all in the world and
constitute the moving principle of the universe (or the main spring of
the cosmos).
57. The agitation of the intellect being concomitant with the divine
spirit, it is alike to its stillness, and the unity of these two forms
the spirit of God called Siva or Zeus.
58. The agitation of the divine spirit in the work of creation,
vanishes before the sight of perfect understandings; though it appears
to be in active operation to the ignorant, who view it as they do a
false snake in the rope.
59. The intellect is ever busy and active, from which it derives its
name (chit--intellect). But the inactive spirit which is all pervasive,
is both inexpressible as well as inconceivable, owing to its devoid of
all attributes (turíyátíta).
60. It is by long study of the sástras and association with the wise,
as also by continued practice of yoga, that the light of the supreme
spirit dawns in the inner soul, like the rising moon with her benign
beams.
61. The supreme spirit is only to be perceived by our understanding,
from the benign rays which it spreads over it; and this says by the
wise to be the light of the holy spirit.
62. You have now known the essence of your soul, which is without its
beginning, middle and end, and must for ever continue in it as your
real and true state; there is no other distinct form of the great
intellectual soul, wherefore know this as yourself, and remain from all
sorrow and pain.
CHAPTER CII.
REPOSE OF SIKHIDHWAJA IN THE DIVINE SPIRIT.
Argument:--Anxiety of the Prince at the Disappearance of Kumbha, and
his falling to a trance in his deep and hypnotic meditation.
Kumbha continued:--I have already related to you, O prince, how have
all this phenomenon of the world sprung from Brahma, and how it
disappears also in him.
2. Having thus heard from me, and understood and reflected in yourself
all what I have said; you are at liberty, O sagely prince, to repose in
the supreme bliss, which you have well known and felt within yourself.
3. I am now to repair to my heavenly abode, at this time of the
conjunction of the moon, when it is very likely that the sage Nárada,
may have come before the assemblage of the gods from his seat in the
high heaven of Brahmá.
4. He may be angry in not finding me there, and it is not mannerly in
youth to tease their superiors at any time.
5. May you ever abide at your ease, by your utter abandonment of every
tint of desire, and by your firm reliance in these holy precepts, which
the wise have always in their view.
6. Vasishtha said:--At hearing these words, as Sikhidhwaja was about to
throw his handful of flowers, and make his obeisance to his departing
monitor, he vanished immediately from his sight and mixed in the
etherial air.
7. As one absorbed in meditation, does not see the things present
before him even in his waking state; so the prince lost sight of Kumbha
from before his presence.
8. The prince was plunged in deep sorrow, after the departure of Kumbha
from before him; and remained as a painted picture, with his thoughts
dwelling on his vanished friend.
9. He thought how marvellous it was, and how very inscrutable are the
ways of providence, that it should bring him to the light of the
self-manifest Lord, through the means of strange person of Kumbha.
10. Where is this sage Nárada, said he, and who is his son this Kumbha
to me; and how came it to happen after so long, that I should come to
be awakened by him.
11. O! how very fully has that son of the divine sage, explained every
thing to me with his good reasons; and O how I am now awakened from my
long slumber in ignorance.
12. How had I been plunged in the mud of my acts for such a long time,
and was rolling on the wheels of distinguishing between what was right
or wrong to be done.
13. O how very pure and cold, tranquil and quiet is my present state;
and I find my essence to be as cooling to me, as I am washed in the
cold bath of refrigeratory.
14. I am quite calm and lost in my trance, and sit alone as one with
the unity; I have no desire for even a straw, but remain solely by
myself.
15. Thinking thus in himself, he sat as quiet as a statue carved in
wood or stone.
16. He then became silent, and had no desire nor refuge for his
reliance; and remained in his immovable posture, like the peak of
mountain.
17. Being then freed from fear in an instant, he remained a long time
with the tranquillity of his soul and mind; and being united with the
holy spirit in his hypnotism, he continued long in his sleepy trance,
with his soul shining as the rising sun.
CHAPTER CIII.
RETURN OF KUMBHA TO THE HERMITAGE OF SIKHIDHWAJA.
Argument.--Chúdálá's return after three days, and her rousing the
Prince from his trance.
Vasishtha said:--Now hear me relate to you about Sikhidhwaja, sitting a
block of wood on one side, and the reappearance of Chúdálá to him from
the other.
2. After Chúdálá had hypnotized her husband Sikhidhwaja, in her guise
of the sagely Kumbha; she disappeared from her, and traversed into the
regions of air.
3. She forsook her form of the son of the Divine sage in the empty
sky, and which she had took upon her by her magic spell. The enchanted
form melted away in the air, and she appeared in her female form of
beauteous fair.
4. She bent her airy course to her palace in the city, where she showed
herself as their queen, before her assembled attendants and courtiers,
and discharged the royal duties of her absent lord.
5. After three days she took again to her aerial journey, retook her
enchanted form of Kumbha, and advanced to the hermitage of Sikhidhwaja
in the forest.
6. She saw there the prince in his woodland retreat, and sitting in his
posture of deep meditation and resembling a figure carved in wood.
7. Seeing him thus, she exclaimed repeatedly in herself; O heyday! that
he is reposing here in his own soul, and is sitting quiet and tranquil
in himself.
8. I must now awaken him from his trance in the supreme Being, or else
his soul will soon forsake its mortal frame, owing to his disregard of
it, and the end of his worldly bondage by his excessive devotion.
9. It is desirable that he should live some time longer, either with
his royalty in the palace or with devotion in this forest; and then we
both of us will depart together, by shuffling our mortal coils.
10. It would be difficult to instruct him, in all (seven) stages of
devotion (saptama bhumi); and as there is no end of these things, I
will try to train him in the practical part of yoga only.
11. Thus pondering in herself she made a loud shout, which startled
the wild beasts; but did not rouse the entranced prince, though she
repeated her loud shouts before him.
12. When neither her shouts and shrieks could rouse him, who remained
unshaken as a stone in the rock; she shook him with her hands, to bring
him back to his sense.
13. Though shaken and moved and thrown down on the ground, yet the
prince neither awoke nor came to his senses; then Chúdálá thought on
another expedient in his guise of Kumbha.
14. She said, Ah! I see my lord is absorbed in his prophetic trance,
and I must find some expedient to rouse him to his sense.
15. Or why should I try to rouse him deified spirit back to its
sensation, when he so well absorbed in his state of disembodied or
abstract meditation (in which he enjoys himself and has forgotten his
embodiment in the material frame and become as the disembodied or
_videha_ spirit).
16. I also wish to get rid of my female form, and to reach that state
of supreme beatitude like him, which is free from further births and
transmigrations.
17. Thus thinking in herself, Chúdálá was about to abandon her own
body; when her better understanding recalled her undertaking that
attempt.
18. Let me feel the body of the prince at first, she said, whether
there is an end of his life, or there is any feeling or pulsation in
his heart.
19. Should he be alive, he must come back to his sense; as the juicy
root of trees, recalls the flowers in the flowering season of spring.
20. If he is alive he will walk about like myself, in his state of a
living liberated soul; but if he be found to be no longer living, then
I shall follow him to the next world.
21. With this mind Chúdálá felt his person, and examined it with her
eyes; and then perceiving him to be living, she thus said rejoicingly
to herself:
22. He has still the relic of his life, pulsating in his breast, the
beating of the pulse and the throbbing of his breast, show his life to
be not yet extinct.
23. Ráma said:--How can the little spark of the vital flame, be known
to reside in the body of the self distracted yogi; whose mind is as
cold as stone, and whose body becomes as callous as a clod of earth or
a block of wood.
24. Vasishtha replied:--The relic of life remains in the heart, as an
imperceptible atom and in the manner of sensibility; just as the future
fruits and flowers, are contained in their seeds.
25. The calm and cold yogi, who is devoid of his knowledge of unity and
duality, and views all things in the same light; who remains as quiet
as a rock and without the pulsation of his heart, has yet the vibration
of his intellect within him; (which keeps him alive).
26. The body of the temperate and tranquil minded man, never wastes
or swells in bulk; it never decays nor grows up in heights, but ever
remains in the same state.
27. The man whose mind vibrates with its thoughts of unity and duality
(_i.e._ which perceives the difference of things); has the change and
decay of his body, which is never the case with the yogi of unchangeful
mind. (The action of the mind impairs the body, but its inaction
preserves it entire).
28. The action of the heart, is the spring of the life of every body in
this world, just as the honey in the flower cup, is the cause of its
future fruit.
29. These frail bodies of mortals, are notwithstanding subject to the
fits of joy and anger, and of the quickness and dulness every moment;
and these, O Ráma! are the seeds of repeated births, and are hard to be
checked or subdued.
30. The mind being still and quiet, the body becomes as dull as it
were lifeless; when it is subject to no passion nor change whatever;
but remains as even as the still and clear firmament which nothing can
disturb.
31. The man of even and dispassionate mind, is never ruffled nor
tainted by any fault; but remains as calm as the waters of the
billowless and breezeless ocean.
32. The body is never lifeless, nor is its life ever imperceptible,
unless the mind is defunct in its action; and is in course of long
practice, that the mind becomes inexcitable and numb in itself.
33. The body which is without the action of its mind and vitality,
quickly melts away to rottenness; as the snow melts away under the
solar heat.
34. The body of Sikhidhwaja was felt to be hot, though it was without
its active mind; it was therefore known to be possessed of its
vitality, which prevented it from wasting and rotting away.
35. The noble lady, having perceived the body of her husband to be in
that plight; held it fastly with her hands, and began to consider what
to do with it.
36. She said, I will try to raise him by infusion of my intellection
into his mind; and this will no doubt bring him back to his senses.
37. If I do not raise him now, he must rise himself after sometime; but
why should I wait till then, and must remain alone all the while.
38. Having thought so, Chúdálá left her body--the frame work of the
senses; and entered into the body of the body and joined with the
intellectual essence of the same.
39. She then gave a vibration to the intellection of her living lord,
and after putting it in its action and motion, she returned to her own
body; as a bird flits on the twig of a tree which is shaken thereby,
it comes back to its own nest again.
40. She rose in her figure of the Bráhman boy Kumbha, and sat upon
a flowery bed, where she began to chaunt her hymns of the sáma veda
(psalmody); with her soft tunes resembling the melodious chime of
buzzing bees.
41. The prince felt an intellectual exhilaration, on hearing the
tuneful chime of the psalms; and his dormant life was awakened to its
sensibility, as the lotus bud comes to bloom by the breath of the
vernal season.
42. His eyelids oped to light, as the lotus bud blooms at the sunlight;
and the whole body of the prince, became vivid with his renewed life.
43. He beheld the Bráhman boy Kumbha, singing sáma psalms before him;
and appeared in his divinely fair form, as the divinity of music was
present in person.
44. O fortunate am I, said he, to have found my friendly Kumbha again
before me; and so saying, he picked up some flowers and offered them to
him.
45. O how great is my good fortune, said he to his guest, to be thus
recalled to your gracious memory; or what else is it, that could cause
a divine personage like yourself, to be so favourably disposed towards
me.
46. It is only the cause of my salvation, that has caused you to come
to and call at mine, or else what else can it be to bring a godson down
to revisit me.
47. Kumbha spoke:--O sinless prince, my mind was ever intent on thee,
ever since I departed from thee; and now it has come back to me, to
have found thee well in this place.
48. I do not reap so much delight in the ever delightful region of
heaven, as I do here in your presence; because I have the great work of
your redemption not pending before me.
49. I have no friend or companion, that is dearer to my soul than
yourself; nor have I any faithful pupil, nor confidential disciple like
you in this world.
50. Sikhidhwaja replied:--Ah! I see now that the arbours of this
mountain, are about to yield the fruits of my meritorious acts, that
have made a retired recluse like yourself to condescend to desire my
company.
51. If these woods and trees and myself who am so devoted to you,
should find favour in your sight than the bliss of your heavenly abode,
then may you please to take your residence with me in this lonely
forest.
52. For my part who am so blest with the gift of thy _samádhi_, that I
have always my perfect repose in God even in this place; have no desire
for heavenly delights (which cannot be better than my absorption in the
Divine spirit).
53. Reclining in that state of pure effulgence, I enjoy my fill of
heavenly bliss even in this earth below.
54. Kumbha interrogated:--Have you ever had your repose in the state of
supreme felicity, and were you ever freed from the infelicity, which is
ever attendant on the knowledge of duality.
55. Have you ever felt a disgust to all temporary enjoyments, and have
rooted out your taste for insipid pleasures of this earth.
56. Has your mind ever rested in that state of even indifference, which
has no liking for the desirable nor dislike to what is undesirable, but
is ever content with whatever awaits upon it at any time?
57. Sikhidhwaja replied:--It is by your favour sir, that I have seen
all what transcends human sights; that I have reached beyond the verge
of the universe, and obtained the best obtainable and most certain
bliss.
58. It is after long that I am freed from decay and disease, and gained
all which is to be gained, and wherewith I am quite content.
59. I require no further advice, from anyone for my edification; I feel
fully gratified with every thing in all places, and am quite at ease
and out of disease everywhere.
60. I have nothing to know that is unknown to me, and nothing to obtain
that is not obtained by one; I have forsaken whatever is not worth
having, and my soul has its reliance in the supreme essence.
61. I rest quite aloof of all, being devoid of my fear and error and
apathy at any thing; I am always manifest in the even and equal tenor
of my mind, and in the equality of my soul with all others; I am free
from all imagination, as the clear sky is free from all taint and
cloud.
CHAPTER CIV.
ON THE CONDUCT OF LIVING-LIBERATED MEN.
Argument:--Kumbha and Sikhidhwaja's travel, and their conversation on
various subjects; Kumbha's ideas of the predestined law of nature.
Vasishtha related:--In this manner did these knowers of the knowable
God, continue in their mutual conversation on spiritual matters, until
the third watch of the day in that forest.
2. Then rising together they wandered in the delightful dales, and
about in cooling lakes and pleasant rills.
3. In this manner they kept roving in that forest for full eight days,
and passed their time in conversations on various subjects.
4. Then said Kumbha to the prince, let us walk to some other forest to
which he gave his consent, with uttering the word om, and then they
walked forward in each other's company.
5. In this manner they walked over many forest lands, and passed beside
many jungles and shores; and they saw many lakes and thick woods, and
rising hills and their thickets of dense woods and plants.
6. They traversed many woodland tracts and rivers, and saw many
villages, towns and woods on their way; they passed by many sweet
sounding rivers and groves, and many holy places and the abodes of men.
7. They were united together in equal love and friendship, and being of
equal age and the same tenor of mind, they were of equal vivacity; and
both walked or stayed together with their unanimity.
8. They worshipped the gods and the manes of their ancestors in the
holy places, and ate what they got at any place; and lived together
both in marshy and dry lands in concord and peace.
9. The loving pair bearing equal affection to one another in their
hearts, dwelt together in mutual concord amidst the _tamála_ woods and
in the forests of the _Mandara_ hills.
10. To them no place was their home or own, but they alike in all;
nothing occurred to disturb their minds, which were always as
undisturbed as a mountain amidst the winds.
11. They walked sometimes amidst the flying dust, and at others amidst
the far stretching fragrance of sandal wood forests. They were now
daubed with ashes, and then besmeared with the sandal paste.
12. They were sometimes clad in good garments, and sometimes in
variegated raiments; now they were covered with the leaves of trees,
and were decorated with flowers at another.
13. Remaining thus in mutual company for some days, and having the
unanimity of their hearts and minds; the prince turned to be as
perfected in his nature, as another Kumbha himself.
14. The holy and faithful Chúdálá, seeing the divine form of her
husband Sikhidhwaja, began to reflect within herself in the following
manner.
15. How divinely fair has my husband become, and how very charming are
these wood-land scenes; by living long in this place, we must be an
easy prey to the God of love.
16. I see that although one is liberated in his life time, yet the
sense of his liberation, cannot give him freedom from his obligation
of tasting the pleasures that are presented before him. I think it is
ignorance to refuse the king of a proffered enjoyment.
17. Seeing the husband to be noble minded, and free from all bodily
disease and debility; and having a flowery grove before, it must be a
wretched woman, that rejects to advance to her lord at such a time.
18. That wretched woman is verily undone, who is seated in her bower
of flowers and has her husband presented before her; and yet fails to
approach to him for her satisfaction.
19. Accursed is the woman, who being wedded to a handsome husband, and
having him alone in her company fails to associate with him.
20. Of what good is it to one acquainted with true knowledge, to reject
a lawful pleasure that presents itself before that person.
21. So I must contrive some artifice in this forest, whereby I may be
successful to make my husband join with me.
22. Having thought so in her mind, Chúdálá who was disguised in the
from of Kumbha, thus uttered to the prince, as the female _kokila_
mutters to her mate from her flowery bower in the forest.
23. This is the first day of the new moon of the lunar month of
_chaitra_, and this is a day of great festivity in the court of Indra
in heaven.
24. So I must have to repair to the synod of the gods, and present
myself before my father in that assembly. So my departure is ordained
by destiny, nor can it be averted by any means.
25. You shall have to expect my return till eve in this forest, and
spend the meantime, by diverting yourself in these flowery arbours,
which will lull your anxiety for me to rest.
26. I shall positively return here from the azure sky, by the dusk of
this day; and soon join your company, which is ever delightful to me.
27. So saying, she gave a stalk of flowers of the Nandana forest to her
beloved, to serve as a token of her affection for him (and as a pledge
of her return to him before it fades away).
28. The prince said "you must return soon" to me; and she instantly,
disappeared from his sight, and mixed with the air, as the light
autumnal cloud vanishes in the empty sky.
29. He flung flowers after her, as she mounted in the sky; and these
floated in the air, like icicles in the cold season.
30. Sikhidhwaja standing on the spot, first beheld her flight, and
then her disappearance from him; as the peacock looks at the flight of
a cloud with uplifted eyes (so immutable is the friendship of a true
friend).
31. At last the body of Kumbha vanished from the sight of Sikhidhwaja,
and mixed in the open air, as the waves of the sea subside in the still
and smooth waters.
32. Chúdálá then reached her celestial city, resembling the garden of
paradise with its Kalpa arbours in full bloom, and its shining turrets
waving with flags, hoisted on both sides of its charming paths.
33. She entered secretly her private apartment, and met the company of
the maids waiting for her; as the graceful beauty of the vernal season,
meets the long expectant arbours of the forest.
34. She attended to her state affairs, and discharged them quickly; and
then flew aloft in the air and dropped at Sikhidhwaja's abode, as the
autumnal fruits and flowers drop on the ground.
35. She appeared there with a melancholy face, and as deeply dejected
in her mind; just as the fair moon is darkened under the mist, and the
beauteous lotus are hid under a fog.
36. Believing her as his Kumbha, Sikhidhwaja rose up and stood in his
presence; but being troubled in his mind to see him so sad and sorry,
he asked the cause and thus addressed him saying:--
37. I greet thee, O Kumbha, but why appearest thou so sad today; thou
art the son of a deity and must not be sorry at anything, but please to
take thy seat here.
38. Holy saints and the knowers of the knowable one like you, are never
moved by joy or grief; but remain untouched by them, as the lotuses
remain intact in the water.
39. Vasishtha said:--Being thus accosted by the prince, Kumbha sat on
his seat, and then said in reply, with a voice as thin and soft as the
sound of a bamboo flute.
40. I know that the knowers of truth, who are not patient under all
bodily accidents and mental anxieties, are not truthful men, but cheats
who cheat people by their pretended truthfulness.
41. Know prince that the most learned are the most ignorant, who
expect foolishly to evade the condition in which they are exposed by
their nature.
42. The sesame seed has naturally the oil inherent in it, and the body
has also its incidents connatural with it; he who is not subject to his
bodily accidents, is able to sever the wind and air with his sword.
43. It is of course to evade the evils that are incidental to the body,
but it is to undergo patiently what is unavoidable by our bodily powers.
44. Again as long as we have our bodies, we must exert our bodily
organs to their proper actions; and never attempt to suppress by our
understanding, as it is done by many wise men.
45. Even the great Brahmá and the gods, are subject to the conditions
of their bodily frames; nor have they with their great understandings,
the power to avoid what is determined by irrevocable destiny.
46. It is beyond the power of both the wise and unwise, to deter the
power of destiny; which makes all things to run in their destined
course, as the waters of rivers run into the sea.
47. The same irrevocable destiny, determines equally the fates of the
wise and unwise, and guides them as by her fingers to the same goal,
until they get their release from the body.
48. The ignorant however, whether exposed to their states of prosperity
and adversity, are always destined to undergo their effects upon their
bodies.
49. Thus therefore it must be known by both the wise and unwise, that
all beings are destined to roll in their re-iterated rotations of
pleasure and pain (according to the results of their prior merits and
demerits); and that there is no power to change the ever changeful
ordinances of unchanging destiny.
CHAPTER CV.
METAMORPHOSES OF KUMBHA TO A FEMALE FORM.
Argument:--Kumbha's relation of her transformation to a woman by right,
and her attachment to the prince.
Sikhidhwaja said:--If such is the case, sir, that destiny over rules
all events, why should you be sorry for aught that has befallen to you,
knowing that you are a godson and knowing the knowable also.
2. Kumbha replied:--Hear, O prince, the wonderful accident that has
befallen on me; and I will relate to you all that has happened to me in
body.
3. The heart becomes light when its griefs are imparted to a friend, as
the thickened gloominess of the cloudy atmosphere, is dissipated after
discharge of its waters in rains.
4. The troubled mind is restored to its serenity, by its communication
with a sincere friend, as the turbid waters of a jar is cleared by its
being filtered with _kata_ seeds.
5. Hear now that after I departed from here, by handing over the spike
of flowers to you; I traversed though the regions of air, till I
reached the heavenly abode of the God.
6. There I met my father, and accompanied him to the court of the great
Indra, where having sat a while, I got up with my father and then
parted from him at his abode.
7. Leaving the seat of the Gods in order to come down on earth, I
entered the region of air; and kept my pace with the fleet steeds of
the chariot of the sun, in the airy paths of the skies.
8. Thus wafted together with the sun, I reached the point of my
separation from him; and there took my path through the midway sky, as
if I were sailing in the sea.
9. I saw there in a track before me, a path stretching amidst the
watery clouds of air, and marked the indignant sage Durvása gliding
swiftly by it.
10. He was wrapt in the vest of clouds, and girt with girdles of
flashing lightnings; the sandal taints on his body were washed off by
showering rains, and he seemed as a maiden making her way in haste, to
meet her lover at the appointed place.
11. Or as a devotee he hastened to discharge in due time his fond
devotion, on the beach of the river (Ganges), flowing under the shade
of the beaching boughs of the rows of trees on the shore. (This refers
to the custom of hastening to perform the _sandhyá_ rites on the river
side in the evening, as it is customary with other nations to hasten
to the mosque or church at the call to prayers and the striking of the
church-bell).
12. I saluted the sage from my aerial seat, and said, you, wrapt as you
are in your blue vest of the cloud, seem to advance in haste, as an
amorous woman to meet her lover (by hiding herself in her black mantle
in the darkness of night).
13. Hearing this, the reverend sage was incensed and pronounced his
curse upon me; saying, "Be thou transformed to an amorous woman as thou
thinkest me to be."
14. "Go thy way, and bear my curse, that every night thou shall become
a woman, with thy protuberant breasts and long braids of hairs on thy
head, and fraught with all womanish grace and dalliance (and seek about
thy lover)".
15. As I was thunderstruck and deeply dejected at this imprecation, I
found the old _muni_ had already disappeared from before me; and then
I bent my course this way from the upper sky, being quite sick in my
heart (at this direful fulmination).
16. Thus I have related to you all, regarding my being changed to a
damsel at the approach of night; and my constant thought of the manner,
how I shall manage myself under my womanhood.
17. How shall I divulge to my father, the shame of my being a swollen
breasted maid at night; and can I reconcile myself to my dire fate,
throughout the course of my life. O how wonderful is the decree of
fate, that we are fated to bear in this world in the course of time!
18. I am now ill-fated to become a prey to young men, and the subject
of fighting among them, like a piece of flesh among ravenous vultures.
19. O what a fun have I become to the ludicrous boys of the Gods in
heaven, and ah! how shameful have I been before the sages, who must be
quite ashamed of me, and how shall I remain anywhere and before any
body in my female form at night.
20. Vasishtha said:--After saying so far, Chúdálá became as mute as a
silent _muni_; and remained as quiet as if she were in a swoon.
21. The pretended Kumbha then, seeming to recover his senses and his
patience also, thus spoke out to himself; ah! why do I wail like the
ignorant (for this change in my changeful body), when my soul suffers
no change by this?
22. Sikhidhwaja spoke:--Why sorrow you sir for the body, that art the
son of a God; let it become whatever may become of it, it can never
affect the intangible soul.
23. Whatever pain or pleasure betides us in this life, is all
concomitant with the changing body, and can never touch the unchanging
soul.
24. If you who are acquainted with the vedas, and fortified against all
events; should allow yourself to be so much moved by these accidents,
say what will be the case with others, at all the casualties of life,
to which they are incessantly subject.
25. To be sorry in sorrow; is very sorrowful in the wise; and therefore
you who have yourself spoken these precepts before, should now be
overwhelmed in sorrow, but remain as unmoved, as you are wont to be
unshaken all along.
26. Vasishtha related:--In this did the two hearty friends, continue to
condole with one another; and console themselves by turns, under the
cooling shade of the grove where they sat together.
27. At last the bright sun who is the light of the world, set down in
darkness like an oilless lamp, by involving Kumbha under despondency of
her female form.
28. The full blown lotuses closed their folia, like the closing
eyelids of the busy worldlings; and the footpaths became as deserted
by their passengers, as the hearts of loving wives are forlorn in the
absence of their husbands, devoted to travelling and staying in distant
countries.
29. The upper sky borrowed the semblance of the lower earth, by its
spreading the curtain of darkness over the groups of its twinkling
stars, like the outstretched nets of fishermen enfolding the finny
tribe. (The similarity of the dark curtain of the sky overspreading
its shining stars, to the black nets of fishers enveloping the silvery
fishes under them).
30. The black vault of the sky, was smiling above with its train of
shining stars, as the blue bed of lakes was rejoicing with its chain of
blooming lilies below; and the sounding black bees and beetles on the
land, resounded to the cries of the ruddy geese in the water.
31. The two friends then rose and offered their evening prayers at
the rising of the moon, and chanted their hymns and muttered their
_mantras_, and took their shelter under the sylvan retreat.
32. Afterwards Kumbha, changed as he was in the female form, and
sitting before Sikhidhwaja, lisped his faltering speech to him in the
following manner.
33. Sir, I seem to fall down and cry out and melt away in my tears, to
see myself even now changed to my feminine figure in your presence.
34. See Sir, how quickly are the hairs on my head lengthened to curling
locks, and to how they sparkle with strings of pearls fastened to them,
like the brilliant clusters of stars in the azure sky.
35. Look here at these two snowy balls bulging out of my bosom, like
two white lotus-buds rising on the surface of waters in the vernal
season.
36. Look how my long robe is stretched down to the heels, and how it
mantles my whole body, like the person of a female.
37. Look at these gemming ornaments and wreathes of flowers decorating
my person, like the blooming blossoms of spring ornamenting the forest
tree.
38. Lo! the moon-bright vest covering the crown of my head (like the
disk of the moon resting on the hairy crest of Siva); and the necklaces
hanging about my body (like the flowery wreathes of Káma).
39. Look at my features, how they are converted to their effeminate
comeliness, and see how my whole frame, graced all over with feminine
loveliness.
40. O! how very great is my sorrow, at this sudden change of mine to a
woman; and ah! tell me friend, what am I to do, and where to go with
this my female form.
41. I perceive also the change to take place in my inner parts, and in
my thighs and posteriors; Kumbha said so far to her friend, and then
remained quite mute and silent.
42. The prince also, seeing him thus, remained in his mute gaze and
silence, and then after a while, he oped his mouth and spoke as
follows:--
43. It is of course very sorrowful and pitiable, to see you thus
transformed to a female; but you, sir, who know the truth, know also
that there is no contending with fate.
44. Whatever is destined, must come to pass; and wise men must not be
startled at or feel sorry for the same; because all those events betake
the body only, and cannot affect the inward soul.
45. Kumbha replied--So it is, and I must bear with my feminine form,
with an unfeminine soul. (So it is no disgrace to be an effeminate
female, combined with the grace of a manly soul).
46. I will no more sorrow for, what is never to be averted; but must
endure with patience what I cannot abjure. Relying on this principle,
they alleviated their sorrow for what was impossible to avoid.
47. They passed their nights in peace, and slept in the same bed
without touching one another; and Kumbha rose in the morning in his
masculine form again, without any trace of his female features and
feminine beauty or grace.
48. Kumbha was Kumbha again, by being shorn of his female form; and
thus he passed as bisexual and biform being of the Bráhman boy Kumbha
by day, and of Chúdálá the princess by night.
49. In his male form, Kumbha continued as a friend to the prince in the
day time; and in female form of Chúdálá, he lived as a virgin maid with
him at night.
50. Thus did Chúdálá cling to her husband, as a string of necklace
hangs upon the neck and breast of a person. They then continued to
wander in the company of one another, to different countries and over
distant hills, to satisfy their curiosity.
CHAPTER CVI.
MARRIAGE OF CHÚDÁLÁ WITH SIKHIDHWAJA.
Argument.--The Gandharva form of marriage, its Courtship and ceremonial
rites.
Vasishtha resumed:--After the lapse of some days in this manner,
Chúdálá thus bespoke to her husband, in her guise of the pretended
Bráhman boy (or Kumbha).
2. Hear me, O lotus eyed prince, she said, what I tell you in good
earnest; that since I am obliged to become a woman every night, and
continue to be so for ever more.
3. I wish to fulfill the part of my womanhood, by joining myself to a
husband by legal marriage for all that time.
4. I want to taste the pleasure of conjugal union, with a dear friend,
who is of his own accord so very friendly to me, and without any
endeavour on my part: so I hope you will interpose no difficulty in my
way.
5. So I choose you sir, as my husband, of all others in the three
worlds: therefore be pleased to accept me for your wife every night.
6. The delightsome pleasure of conjugal union, has come down to us ever
since the commencement of creation; and therefore our obedience to the
ordinance of nature, can entail no guilt on our part.
7. I desire this that we may do as we like, without desiring or
disliking anything; and be far from expecting the consequence of what
we like or dislike.
8. Sikhidhwaja answered:--I see friend, neither any good nor evil, of
accepting your proposal; so you are at liberty to do as you like.
9. Being possessed of the indifference of my mind, at every thing in
the world; I see everything in the same and in an equal light: so I let
you have your option as you may like.
10. Kumbha replied:--If so, then I say that this day is very
favourable for celebrating the marriage ceremony; it is the full moon
of Srávana, and all lucky asterism according to my best calculation.
11. On this day of the full moon, our marriage may take place both in
the day as well as night-time in the Gándharva form (by mutual choice
and consent).
12. It will be celebrated either on the summit of the Mahendra
mountain, or on the delightful table-land there abouts; or in the
grotto of some mineral mine, and in the light of the shining gems and
mineral ores in the mountain; (serving as lamps and candle lights in
the festivity).
13. The rows of stately trees all around, will shed their flowers at
the nuptial ceremony; and the twining creepers on them, will represent
the dance of _nanch_ girls by their tremulous shaking. (Dance and music
being necessary accompaniments of marriage festivities).
14. Let the bright luminary of the night, accompanied by his consort
train of shining stars, witness our marriage from the high sky with
their wide open and glaring eyes.
15. Rise, O prince, for your marriage; and let us both hie to cull the
forest flowers, and prepare the sandal paste and collect the scattered
gems, in order to deck our nuptial seats therewith.
16. Saying so, they both rose together, and culled the flowers and
collected the gems.
17. Then in a short time, they repaired to the gemming steppe, and
heaped it with flowers of various kinds.
18. They had their marriage vests and necklaces ready on the spot, and
the God of love helped with the supply of every thing required on the
occasion.
19. Having thus prepared the paraphernalia of their nuptials, and
stored them in a golden grotto of the mountain, they both repaired to
the sacred stream of the heavenly Ganges Mandákiní, for making their
holy ablutions therein.
20. Here Kumbha served as the priest, to lave the holy water profusely
on the lofty head and elevated shoulders of the prince; as the
elephantine clouds of Indra, pour the rain water in plenteous showers,
on the towering tops and height of hills.
21. So also did the prince act the part of the ministering prince, and
washed the body of his beloved princess now in the form of Kumbha. Thus
did the two friends anoint and absterge by turns, the persons of their
quondam and future consorts.
22. Bathed and purified, they adored the gods, the munis and the manes
of their ancestors, for the sake of their honour, and without any
desire of getting any good or gain from them: for they well knew that
they could benefit nothing their service, as the deities, the deified
spirits and the divine sages.
23. They took their frugal and repast, as their nature and the course
of the world required; and seasoned with the nectarine juice of their
good and refined intelligence.
24. They wore the whitish barks of Kalpa trees, as their clean marriage
raiments, and ate its fruits as their wedding cakes; then they repaired
to the altar for their nuptial ceremony.
25. At this time the sun descended below his setting mountain, as if to
consummate their conjugal union in secret.
26. As it now became dark and dusk they discharged their evening
service and offered their prayers; and groups of stars now appeared on
the plain of the firmament, to witness their union in marriage.
27. Then came the sable night the only friend of the happy pair,
spreading the veil of darkness over the face of nature, and smiling
with the blushing of snow white lotuses and lilies of the valley.
28. Kumbha collected the rich stones, and placed those gemming on the
table land of the mountain, while Brahmá lighted his two lamps of the
sun and moon together in the heavens.
29. Being then changed to the female form, Kumbha anointed the prince
with the fragrant sandal paste, agallochum, camphor powder and
pulverised musk.
30. She adorned his person with strings, bracelets and wristlets of
flowers, and dressed in a robe of the thin bark of Kalpa tree.
31. His body was also decorated with the filaments of Kalpa plant, and
clusters of _párijáta_ flowers and with many other flowers and gems
from his head to foot.
32. She appeared also at this time in her bridal garb and maiden like
figure, with her big and swollen breasts, and with all her youthful
grace and blandishments.
33. She thought that as she was now attired and appeared as a nuptial
bride, she must now offer herself to a husband worthy to her.
34. Here am I as a lovely bride, said she to herself, and there is my
husband in my presence; I must ask him to accept my hand, nor is this
time to be slipped from hand.
35. So saying, she approached her husband sitting apart from her in the
wood; and appeared as Rati--the goddess of love, was advancing towards
her loving Káma.
36. She went to him and said:--"I am Madaniká by name and thy loving
wife I therefore bow down at your feet, with the regard due to a
husband."
37. So saying, the beauteous lady, bent down her head with female
bashfulness; and made her obeisance to her lord, with the pendant locks
on her head.
38. And then she said to him:--"O thou my lord! do thou adorn me
with ornaments also, and then light the nuptial fire, to attest thy
acceptance of my hand."
39. Thou appearest as exceedingly fair to my eyes, and makest me quite
fond of thee; and thou seemest to me to surpass the God of love in the
beauty of person, even when he wedded his Rati at first in his youthful
bloom.
40. O prince, these wreathed flowers on thy person, appear as the
brightsome beams in the body of the moon; and those strings of flowers
pendant on thy bosom, seem to me as the stream of Ganges, gliding on
the breast of the Sumeru mountain.
41. With the flowing braided hairs on thy head, thou appearest as the
mount of Mandara, with the clusters of creepers hanging down from its
top; while thy head itself appears as golden lotus, with its hanging
hairs resembling the filaments of the flower, and studded with strings
of blackening bees.
42. The gemming ornaments and flowery decorations of thy person, add to
it the lustre and gracefulness of the mount Meru, with its mineral ores
on one side and its floral beauty on the other.
43. After her flattering speech was over, the new bride and bridegroom,
and future husband and wife sat contented together, unmindful and
forgetful of their past conjugal relation.
44. The brave princess now Madaniká by name, and the noble prince
Sikhidhwaja the saint, both sat together on a golden seat (of the
mineral mountain); which added fresh lustre to the beauty and
decoration of their persons.
45. They were bedecked with their head dresses, garlands of flowers
and ornaments of gems and pearls, and were furnished with flowers and
ointments, and clad in fine cloths all over their bodies.
46. The young lady Madaniká blazed as Venus with her maddening beauty,
and appeared as the goddess Gowrí--the surpassing paragon of beauty, at
her wedding festivity.
47. The noble lord having embellished his noble lady with his own
hands, thus spoke to her after her toilet; "O thou fawn eyed fairy,
thou art as graceful as the goddess of grace and prosperity".
48. I pray for all that prosperity to attend on thee, as it does with
Sachí.--The queen of heaven, in the company of her lord Indra; and as
it subsisted between the mutual pairs of Hara and Gowrí; and Hari and
his consort Lakshmí--the goddess of fortune.
49. Thou appearest as a limpid lake of lotuses, with thy breasts
blooming like lotus buds; and thy black blue eyes resembling the
cerulean lotuses (nilumbiums); and the sweet fragrance of thy lotus
like person, inviting the buzzing bees fluttering all about thee.
50. Thou appearest likewise as a tender shoot of the Kalpa plant of
Cupid, with thy rubicund palms resembling its reddish leaves; and thy
swollen breasts likening to its blooming buds, and every part of thy
body, is as delicate as its delicious fruits.
51. With thy cold and cooling body, and thy moon like face and its
smiles as moon beams, thou art as beautiful as the full-moon, and
equally delightful to sight.
52. Rise therefore my beauteous lady and ascend on the matrimonial
altar, and there perform the marriage ceremony, standing on the slab
of stone, marked with creeping plants and their fruits. (The gloss
says, that this stone or stool, is also painted with the colours of the
nine sorts of precious gems _nava-ratna_, that are sacred to the nine
planets).
53. Vasishtha said:--The altar was studded with strings of pearls,
and bunches of flowers suspended on all sides; and it had four large
cocoanut fruits, hang over the four sides of its square.
54. There were pots filled with the holy water of Gangá set about it,
and the sacred matrimonial fire was lighted amidst it, and fed with the
fuel of the sandal wood and other fragrances.
55. They turned round the flaming fire by the right hand side, and then
sat on seats of leaves with their faces turned towards the east.
56. After sitting on the altar, the matrimonial couple kindled the
nuptial fire, and made offerings of sesame seeds, and fried rice upon
its flames.
57. The married pair turned again about the sacred fire, and offered to
each other their own selves and loves as their marriage dowries.
58. They showed to one another their shining faces, as their nuptial
presents; and completed the ceremony by going round the fire, and
scattering the fried rice upon it.
59. The husband and wife now parted other hands, from their hold of the
palms of one another; and their smiling faces, appeared as the lunar
disk on the new moon.
60. After this they went to sleep on a flowery bedstead which they had
newly prepared before, when the moon had already run her course of the
first watch of the night.
61. She cast her beams to fall aslant on the bedstead, as when the
attendant women cast their glances askance on the bridal bed.
62. She next spread her bright beams all about the leafy bower of the
pair; as if to listen to the pleasant conversation, of the new married
couple.
63. The pair having sat there awhile, in the light of the mineral
lamps, retired to their sleeping bed, which they had prepared
beforehand in a secluded spot.
64. It was a bedding of flowers, and beset by heaps of flowers of
various kinds. (It is called the pushpa-talpa and is still in vogue
even in the present form of marriage).
65. There were heaps of lotuses of golden hue, as also mandára and
other sorts of flowers, to drive away fatigue by their fragrance.
66. The flat of the flowery bed of the bridal pair, resembled the
plane of the broad and bright moon, and a level surface covered by the
cooling ice.
67. It bore likewise the resemblance of the wide sea, whose waters are
impregnated by the bright moon, and whose surface supplies a bed to
Ananta--the sleeping spirit of the endless God.
68. The loving pair then lay themselves down, and rolled upon their
snow white bed of flowers; as when Mandara mountain, rolled about and
churned the Milky ocean.
69. They passed their bridal night in mutual caresses and conversation
on topics of love, and the live long night glided before them as a few
moments only.
CHAPTER CVII.
THE ADVENT OF FALSE INDRA IN THE COTTAGE OF THE HAPPY PAIR.
Argument.--The travels of the pair, and their meeting the false Indra,
and their call to Heaven.
Now as the orient sun, gilded the world with his golden rays; the queen
consort of Sikhidhwaja, changed her form of Madaniká to that of the
Bráhman boy Kumbha.
2. She stood confest as such before her friend, sitting in the cavern
of Mandara, where they lived in conjugal union together, as a pair of
sylvan deities by night.
3. They roved about in the daytime, amidst the sylvan forests and
amongst the trees and plants loaded with fruits, and flowers of various
hues.
4. They passed the day as the two loving friends together, and spent
the night as a wedded couple; and never separated from the company of
one another either by day or night.
5. They rambled about the caverns and arbours of the mountain, and
sported under the bowers of _támala_ and _mandára_ trees.
6. They roved about the skirts of Dardura, Kailása, Mahendra, Malaya,
Gandhamádana, Vindhádri and Lokáloka.
7. On every third day or night, when Chúdálá found the prince to be
fast asleep; she used to take upon herself her former form of the
princess, and repair to her royal palace, whence she returned to her
husband in the forest, soon after her discharge of the state affairs as
before.
8. Thus the loving pair lived as two friends by day, and as husband and
wife at night; both decked in flowers, and sleeping on their flowery
bed.
9. They remained for a month in a gemming grotto of the Mahendra, and
under the shade of the delightful _sarala_ trees; where they were
greatly endeared by the sylvan deities and the Kinnara foresters.
10. They lived a fortnight in the arbour of Suktimat mountain, beset by
mandára trees and Kalpa plants; and feasted upon the fruits which they
could reach with their hands.
11. They passed two months on the southern ridge of the winged mountain
of Maináka, and its bowers overhung by the fruits and flowers of the
celestial _párijata_ trees.
12. They dwelt a month in the valley of Jammu, at the foot of Himálayan
range and beside the Jambu river; they regaled on the fruits of _Jám_,
which gave its name to the whole country (Jambudwípa).
13. They travelled through the northern Kuru country for ten days, and
for seven and twenty days, they sojourned in the districts lying north
of Kosalá. (Oudh).
14. In this manner they passed over many countries and hilly districts,
living together as two friends by day, and as a conjugal pair at night.
15. Thus many months rolled away in their travels through many places,
till there arose a thought in the mind of Chúdálá, to make a trial of
her associate, and said:--
16. I will make a trial of the heart of my partner, and see whether it
is liable to have any attraction toward beauty and pleasurable objects.
17. Thinking so, Chúdálá showed by her magic skill the god Indra,
sporting in the company of celestial nymphs in that forest.
18. Sikhidhwaja seeing the god with his companion there, advanced
before him and worshipped him, as he deserved, and said:--
19. "O lord of gods!" will you deign to reveal unto me, the cause of
your advent to this forest from your seat in the high and far distant
heaven.
20. Indra replied:--It is the attraction of the virtues, that has
brought us down to these woods, as the flying kites of the air are
drawn on earth, by the string fastened in their breasts.
21. Now rise from here, and proceed with us to heaven; where the
celestial nymphs are in eager expectation of seeing thee, since they
have heard of your wondrous virtues.
22. Wear these sandals and hold the sword, and anoint thy body with
the ointment of these pills, and ascend to the upper sky and thence to
heaven, in the manner of _siddhas_ and perfect _yogis_.
23. On reaching to the region of the gods, you will enjoy all sorts of
delights, which awaits on the living liberated souls in this world and
the next, and to which I come to invite you at present.
24. No holy man like yourself, doth ever neglect the proffered occasion
to their prosperity, nor should you scorn to take your heavenward
course with ourselves at his moment.
25. Let there be no impediment to your ascent to and enjoyment of
heaven, where you will enjoy your full bliss, and which will be blessed
by your presence as the three worlds by that of Hari.
26. Sikhidhwaja said:--I know O lord of gods, the delights that there
abound in heaven; but I have my heaven every where, and there is no
particular place which I deem as heaven.
27. I am content every where, and am pleased with every place; and my
soul being desirous of nothing from its fulness in itself, I am fully
satisfied every where.
28. O God! if it be forever to remain in one place and in the same
state, what you call heaven; then pardon me for I decline to it
(because I am at liberty here to go wherever I like).
29. Indra answered:--I know, O holy saint! that those that have known
the knowable, and are perfect in their understandings, are indifferent
to their sensual gratification; it is however not the part of the wise
to reject an enjoyment, which offers itself unto him by the gracious
allotment of his destiny.
30. After the God had said so, the prince remained silent and returned
no answer; when the God told him saying, "If you are resolved not
to leave this place, then I must leave you here, and take my way to
heaven".
31. Sikhidhwaja said:--I must not go there now ("though I may do so on
some future occasion"). Upon this the God made farewell to Kumbha (who
had invoked him down by his spell, and disappeared from the spot).
32. All the other Gods that were in the train of Indra, vanished also
from view upon the disappearance of their chief; as the huge surges of
the sea, subside in the deep together with their foaming froths, and
the shoals of whales and fishes that played and lashed about the main,
after a lull of the gales that had raised them.
CHAPTER CVIII.
MANIFESTATION OF CHÚDÁLÁ IN HER OWN FORM.
Argument:--Chúdálá's artifices to deceive Sikhidhwaja, and
Sikhidhwaja's strength of mind.
Vasishtha related:--The princess retracted the enchantment by which she
had presented the God Indra before the prince; and was glad to find,
that he had subdued (_lit._--put to blush) his desire of enjoyment.
2. He remained with perfect tranquillity and equanimity of his mind, at
the advent and in the presence of the God Indra, and was fearless and
indifferent to and unmoved even by the persuasion of that God.
3. I will again try to know by some artifice or other, whether this
prince is subject to the passions of anger or annoyment or any other
feeling, which serve at best but to blind-fold the understanding.
4. With this intention she took upon her the form of the chaste
Madaniká, at the approach of night; and when the moon had already
appeared above that forest land.
5. The wind was blowing gently, bearing the sweet fragrance of flowers;
and Sikhidhwaja was sitting by the side of a river, to perform his
evening devotion.
6. At this time she entered her bower formed by the twining creepers,
and decorated with garlands of flowers, resembling the covert of a
sylvan goddesses.
7. She slept there on the bed of flowers decked by herself, and adorned
with wreaths of flowers on her own person; she had her beloved one
seated in her heart; and laid her on a pillow.
8. Sikhidhwaja sought for her in the gardens and groves, and found her
out at last sleeping in the bower, with the pretty paramour enfolding
her neck in his arms.
9. He had his hairs hanging on his neck and shoulders, and his
beauteous body daubed with pasted sandal wood. He had a chaplet of
flowers on his head, which was distorted from his crown, and lay loose
on the pillow over which it rolled.
10. The flowing tresses of the mistress, fell in two fold braids, on
her shoulder blades of golden hue; and hung over her ears and eye-brows
and her cheeks and face.
11. He beheld the amorous pair, with their smiling faces; and both
kissing and embracing one another, as when the ivy entwines a large
tree. (Their bodies and lip-like leaves are joined together).
12. They lay with their wreathed flowers, hanging loosely on their
persons; and both were enamoured of one another by the mutual contact
of their bodies, which infused their reciprocal passion in the heart of
each other.
13. They were both infatuated and ravished by their mutual love, and
were both bruising their breasts on the bosoms of one another.
14. Seeing this, Sikhidhwaja felt no change in his disposition; but was
rather pleased to find them sleeping so very happily in one another's
embrace.
15. "Remain ye lovers, he said, as you are in your hearts' content; and
I will put no obstacle in your way, nor make you afraid of me by my
presence in this place." Saying so, he withdrew from there.
16. Immediately at this time, she also withdrew her charm, and
disclosed herself as the beauteous Venus, and loving spouse of the
prince.
17. She came out and saw the prince sitting in a crag of the mountain,
in the posture of his intense meditation, and with both his eyes open.
18. The lady Madaniká advanced towards him with a bashful countenance,
and then sat silent by his side with her down cast look and melancholy
appearance; as if abashed and ashamed of her past misconduct.
19. Then as Sikhidhwaja was released after a moment from his
meditation, he cast his eyes upon her; and spoke to her with an
exceedingly sweet voice, which bespoke the frankness of his mind.
20. Lady, said he why do you come so soon to me, and leave off the
enjoyment of thy happiness? Oh! happiness is the end and aim of all
beings on earth. (Oh happiness! our being's end and aim. Pope).
21. Go, return to thy lover, and gratify him with all thy endearments;
because mutual love which is so much desired by all, and is hard to be
had by any in this world.
22. Think not, madam, that I am at all angry or sorry for this affair;
as I am always contented in myself, with knowing the True One, that is
only to be known.
23. Myself and my companion Kumbha, are always dispassionate in our
dispositions; but thou that art sprung from the curse of Durvása as
a woman, art ever at liberty to do whatever thou likest, without
incurring any displeasure of ours.
24. Madaniká replied:--So it is! Oh highly favoured one of Heaven, who
knowest that women by their nature are ten times more passionate than
men, and should not therefore be chid on account of their gratification
of their natural passions.
25. I am but a frail woman, and find you absorbed in deep meditation, I
could not choose other wise than take me a partner as you saw, in the
depth of the forest and in the night: (Solitude and the darkness of
night, being so very favourable to love affairs).
26. The weak sex in general, and the maidens in particular, are ever
fond of paramour by their very nature for the gratification of their
lust, which they can never have the power to check.
27. A woman becomes graceful in the company of man, and no anathema or
prohibition, nor the menaces of men, nor regard of chastity, is of any
avail to retard them from it.
28. I am a damsel and a weaker vessel and an ignorant and independent
lass, therefore sir, it becomes you to forgive my fickleness, because
forgiveness is the most prominent feature of holiness.
29. Sikhidhwaja replied:--Know my belle, that anger has no seat in my
heart, as there grows no plant in the sky; and it is only for fear of
incurring the ignominy of good people, that I must decline to take thee
as my spouse.
30. But I can associate with thee as before in mutual friendship for
ever more, without bearing any yearning or grudge in our hearts, either
for or against one another (but remain in disinterested amity for life).
31. Vasishtha replied:--After Sikhidhwaja had consented to continue in
his indifference and disinterested friendship, with his only companion
in the forest; Chúdálá was highly pleased to wit the nobleness of his
mind, and thus said to herself.
32. O the transcendent tranquillity, which this lord of mine has
gained, and whose dispassionateness has set him above anger, and his
living liberation hath attained.
33. No delight doth attract his heart, nor any excellence ever allures
his soul; whose mind is not elated by pleasure or prosperity, nor
depressed by pain or calamity.
34. Methinks all the imaginable perfections, have jointly met in his
person; as the goddess of prosperity, is united with the personage of
Náráyana. (The Lord is the model of all excellence and perfection).
35. It is now the proper time for me, to bring to his remembrance all
and every thing relating to myself; by relinquishing my figure of
Kumbha, and disclosing myself to him in my form of Chúdálá.
36. With this thought, she shuffled off her shape of Madaniká, and took
the complexion of Chúdálá upon herself.
37. She then issued forth as Chúdálá, from out of the body of Madaniká,
and stood confest before him, as a jewel when taken out of the chest
and exposed to view.
38. The prince beheld her unblemished and lovely figure, and found his
beloved Madaniká transformed to his wedded spouse Chúdálá again.
39. He saw his own wife present before him, like a lotus flower
blooming in the spring; and as the goddess of prosperity rising out of
the earth, or as a brilliant gem laid open from its casket.
CHAPTER CIX.
APPEARANCE OF CHÚDÁLÁ IN THE PRESENCE OF HER LORD.
Argument:--Recognisance of Chúdálá, relation of her adventures and
reunion with her lord.
Vasishtha related:--Sikhidhwaja was surprised to see princess, so
suddenly appearing before him; he looked upon her with his eyes staring
with mute astonishment, and then broke his silence, with uttering the
following words in his faltering speech.
2. What art thou, O lotus eyed maid, and whence comest thou to this
place? why comest thou here, and how long hast thou been herein? say
for what purpose dost thou abide in this forest.
3. Thy gait and figure, thy features and thy form, thy sweet smiles,
manners and courtesy, bespeak thee plainly, to be an ectype or
counterpart of the image of my wedded wife.
4. Chúdálá replied:--So it is my lord, as thou thinkest me to be thy
lawful consort; I am no doubt thy princess Chúdálá, who has met thee
today in her natural and undisguised form, as thou also hast found her
as the same.
5. I assumed to me the counterfeit forms of Kumbha and others, only to
remonstrate with thee on thy mistaken course; and used every art and
stratagem to recall thee only to the right path.
6. Ever since thy foolish renunciation of thy kingdom, for the purpose
of the performance of thy ascetic austerities in the forest. I have had
recourse to the employment of every art, in order to reclaim thee to
the right path of religion.
7. I awakened to the light of truth in my form of Kumbha, and all the
other forms which I took upon myself, were chiefly intended for thy
instruction (and rousing thee from thy lethargy).
8. The forms of Kumbha and others, were no real but magical appearance
before thee; and thou that knowest the knowable, can very well discern
the whole affair in your meditation.
9. You will be convinced of all this, if you will but look into it by
the light of your meditation and not otherwise. After Chúdálá said so
far, the prince sat in his meditative mood and in the posture of his
meditation--_yogásana_.
10. He saw the whole affair, rising and exhibiting itself plainly
before his mental vision; ever since the renunciation of his royalty,
until his meeting with Chúdálá at the end (from first to last).
11. All these he saw rising in his soul, in one moment of his
meditation; and the successive events appeared before it, since the
resignation of his kingdom to the present instant.
12. The prince felt glad in himself, at seeing all these in his
meditation; and he greatly rejoiced with his full open eyes, when his
meditation was over at the end of the scene.
13. He extended both his arms with the hairs standing at an end of
his body through joy, and his countenance shining with the gladness
of his heart; while the fondness of his heart had its vent, in the
tears trickling in his eyes, and his limbs slackened by his want of
self-control.
14. And then embraced her to his bosom, as a weasel does its mate
for a long time; and this continued embrace of theirs, indicated the
permanency of their passion for one another.
15. No body nor even the hundred hooded Vásuki serpent, can express
with its hundred tongues, the height of the happiness which the happy
pair felt on this occasion of their reunion; when their two bodies met
together, like the two orbs of the sun and moon in their conjunction;
or as their two disks were joined in one, by adhesion of some paste or
clay.
16. The two constant lovers continued in their close contact, like two
contiguous rocks sticking to one another; till at last they parted
apart, with the profuse perspiration of their bodies.
17. They then gradually relaxed their arms from their mutual embraces,
and their hearts which had ere long over flowed with delight, became
now as light as two empty pots of water.
18. They loosened their arms, and stared at one another with their
fixed and mute gaze of amazement; and they sat silent with their deep
felt love, after the fervour of their delight was over.
19. Then did the prince lay his hand under the chin of his legal and
royal consort, and bespoke to her in soft and sweet words distilling
with honey.
20. Matrimonial love, is righteous and sweeter far than the celestial
ambrosia itself; how then was it, O my moon faced love, that thou
couldst continue so long without tasting its sweets?
21. Thou hast doubtless undergone much privation, and suffered
great pains in the absence of thy husband, and so also was the toil
exceedingly great, that thou hast taken on thyself, in order to redeem
me from the dungeon of the world.
22. I know not with whom to compare thee, for the great wisdom that
thou hast displayed in thine act of my redemption, for even the pious
ladies Sachí and Arundhatí and the great goddesses Gourí, Gáyatrí and
Sri (Ceres) and Sarasvatí, fall short of thy admirable qualities.
23. I see, my love, that even the personified powers of understanding
and prosperity, the persons of the graces and clemency, and the virtues
of forgiveness, sympathy and universal love, are unequal to thy
unequalled virtues and beauty.
24. I know no adequate recompense, that will compensate thy labour
and repay my gratitude to thee, that hast spared no patience nor
persevering pains, in the cause of my instruction and redemption.
25. O say, what retribution will requite thy pains, and gladden
thy mind; for thy redeeming me from the dark pit of ignorance, and
reclaiming me from the boundless wilderness of errors.
26. It is the true virtue of faithful wives, to raise their fallen
husbands much more than the sástras or learning, riches, the spiritual
guide and his teaching, can serve to save a man from his degradation.
(Such accomplished wife, is very hard to be in India found in these
days of degeneration).
27. Faithful and affectionate wives, are by far more serviceable to
their husbands, than a brother or relation or any friend or servant, or
even a _guru_ or one's riches ever can be.
28. The faithful wife is the best guide of man, and her person serves
to be his best abode and attendant than anything else in this world.
Therefore the wife deserves to be always regarded above all others,
with utmost diligence and attention.
29. The happiness of both worlds depends entirely on the person of the
disinterested and virtuous wife, who serves as a raft to her husband,
for his going across the wide ocean of the perilous world.
30. How shall I, O virtuous lady! repay the recompense of what thou
hast done for me, and whom I now regard as the wisest and best of all
the virtuous ladies in the whole world.
31. Thy name must ever afterwards remain foremost of virtuous women in
the world, in all future narratives of female virtues and respectable
character among female sex.
32. Methinks the virtuous lady Arundhatí and others, whose names are
immortalized for their virtues, in the record of sacred history, will
feel jealous of thee as they came to learn thy chastity and other
admirable qualities. So my dear, let me embrace thee again to my bosom.
33. Vasishtha related:--Saying so, Sikhidhwaja again held Chúdálá to
his fast embrace, as the weasel does his mate in their mutual fondness.
34. Chúdálá said:--My lord, I was sorry to find you entirely devoted to
your dry ceremonial duties, and it was for that reason, that I took so
much pains to dissuade you from them, and lead you to the knowledge of
the intelligent soul.
35. Now tell me, my lord, what shall we do in this place and what is
the use of your extolling my virtues so far.
36. Sikhidhwaja replied:--O you most excellent among women, you are
here at your liberty to do whatever you think best; as it is the
prerogative of respectable ladies, to manage everything in their own
way.
37. Chúdálá answered:--Now my lord! as you have come to know, that you
are released from the network of this world, and are set free on the
shore from all its broils: you must have perceived now that your past
austerities were all in vain and gone for nothing.
38. You must have known that it is all in vain, when you say "I do this
or that, and will get its reward, and will thus be settled in life
etc."; say, do you smile to think of these and other vagaries of your
simple understanding.
39. Do you know that these vagaries are the creatures of your avarice,
and mere creations of your fancy? (because there is nothing that can do
or bring out of your will or by your own power).
40. Don't you yet perceive that these false creations of your
imagination, are as unreal as the situation or appearance of mountains
in the empty air?
41. Say what is it that you have learnt after all, what is it that you
depend upon, and what is the object that you seek at present, and in
what light you view all your bodily acts either of your past or future
life.
42. Sikhidhwaja replied:--O dear lady, with thy blooming eyes,
resembling the leaves of a full blown blue lotus, I am likewise
situated in and at the same place, wherein thou art located also.
43. I am tranquil and alike (or likened to) the object of my
meditation, and am situated in the true ego long after leaving the
sense of my personality: I am arrived to that state (of rapturous
delight) which is known to and felt by the heart only (lit, by way of
the heart).
44. There is no power any where, nor even that of Hari and Hara,
that is able to obstruct that heart-felt joy of mine, which makes me
think myself as nothing else or less than the very intellect (or a
particle--chinmátra) itself.
45. I am now free from errors, and liberated from the trammels of the
world; I am neither this nor that, nor am I glad nor sorry at any thing
or at any event in the world.
46. I am neither any gross or subtile matter, nor am I like a ray of
the solar light, that emanates from the body of the sun, and falls
below by traversing through the midday sky. (_i.e._ The human soul is
the image of God, and not a particle of the undivided essence of the
Deity).
47. I am of the essence of that glorious light, which is ever without
its increase or decrease; I am always tranquil and ever even in my
nature, and I am quite at ease, having no desire of mine own, nor
anything to expect from any body.
48. O thou most chaste lady, know me to be of that essence, which
exists as extinct every where; I am what I am and what I cannot
describe, and no other than this.
49. O beauteous lady, with thy eye balls glancing like the flitting
waves of rivulets! I bow down to thee as my instructor; because it is
by thy good grace that I have come across the turbulent ocean of the
world.
50. I shall no more be soiled with the dirt of the earth, after being
cleansed from it like a bit of gold from its alloy by repeated burnings.
51. I am quite calm and easy, quiet and free from passions, and never
divided in my attention nor distracted in my mind. I am beyond all
things, I am ubiquitous and all pervading, and am situated as I am
(without any change in me).
52. Chúdálá said:--If you remain in this manner, O thou lord of my
life, and dearly beloved one of my heart, then tell me, my lord, what
is it that is now best agreeable to your most noble disposition.
53. Sikhidhwaja answered:--I know of nothing, O good lady, that is
either delectable or detestable to me; I do the same as you do, and am
exactly of the same mind like yours in every thing.
54. O thou that art as fair as the firmament, know that I have nothing
to choose for myself, beyond what I am possest of; and leave it to you
to choose and do whatever you think proper for us.
55. I will act as you will do, like your shadow or reflexion in the
mirror; because my mind being devoid of its desire and effort, I will
patiently bear with whatever comes to pass on me.
56. I will neither excite nor prevent, nor praise or blame thee for
aught thou doest; but leave thee at thy full liberty, to do whatever
thou best choosest for thyself.
57. Chúdálá replied:--If it is so as you say, then hear me tell you
what is best to be done by you at present; you are to set yourself
to imitate the conduct of living-liberated persons, and set yourself
released from your ignorance, by knowing the unity of the Deity,
pervading all things in every place.
58. We are both as devoid of desires, as the empty void of the sky is
without its population; but that which I wish to do is what you do not
wish at all. (_i.e._ I wish to manage the state, which you dislike to
do).
59. Say what man is there, who neglects his life and livelihood, and
remains only, in his intellect? (No one can make his intellectual
culture without having his life and living). And as there are three
stages of human life, namely, its beginning or boyhood, its middle or
youth, and its end or old age, and we being situated in the midst of
it, must do the duties appertaining to this state, before we proceed to
the last stage of our being.
60. And as we are by birth the prince and princess of a realm, it is
paramount on us to rule our state, and pass our days in the discharge
of the duties of our royalty until our end.
61. Sikhidhwaja said:--Tell me, O fickle minded lady, what you mean by
the three stages; and how we stand at the midmost one, without having a
whit to care for the final one.
62. Chúdálá replied:--Know prince, that we are royal personages by
births, and must all along continue as such from the first to the last
stage of our lives.
63. Why then do you allow the imbecility and hermitage of old age, to
overtake you in the prime of your youth; when it is your duty to remain
in your city and palace, and govern your princely state.
64. And then I will reign there as thy consort queen, and crown the
ladies in the royal apartment; and all young maidens of the city will
dance about in jovialty, to see their prince and princess again in the
royal palace.
65. And then the city glittering with its uplifted flags, and
resounding with its loud beating drums, and decorated with wreaths of
flowers hanging all about it; will resemble a vernal garden, smiling
with its verdant plants, blooming buds and blushing flowers all around.
66. Vasishtha related:--Hearing these words of the princess, the king
smilingly spoke to her in his mellifluous words, which bespoke them to
proceed from the simplicity and frankness of his soul.
67. If such is your pleasure, O long sighted (eyed) lady, to incite
me to earthly pleasures, then tell me what cause had I to slight the
heavenly happiness, which was proffered to me by god Indra.
68. Chúdálá replied:--Know prince, that I also have no taste in earthly
enjoyments, nor any great zest for its grandeur or greatness. I depend
upon the bounty of nature, and live as I receive from her hand.
69. Hence I have no relish for heavenly joys or earthly royalty, nor
do I derive any pleasure from the performance of virtuous and manly
acts. My delight is in the undisturbed equanimity of my mind, and the
positive rest of my position.
70. It is only after I have lost my feeling of pleasure in something,
and that of pain in another, that I gain my equanimity and indifference
to both, and am settled in my perfect rest and tranquillity.
71. Sikhidhwaja responded:--You have rightly said, O large eyed dame,
with your calm and cool understanding; that it is all alike, whether we
get or lose a kingdom, since we derive no lasting good nor suffer great
evil, either from its gain or loss.
72. Let us remain in perfect ease, by shunning all thoughts of pleasure
or pain; and getting release of the envy, emulation and jealousy; and
continue in the same state of thoughtlessness as we are at present.
(Lovely lasting peace of mind, sweet delight of human kind; that
neither envy nor ambition knows &c. see ode on contentment).
73. In this manner did the conjugal pair, pass the day in their sweet
endearments and mutual conversation; and the day glided on swiftly and
sweetly over their feast of reason and flow of the soul.
74. They rose on the departure of the day, to discharge their duties on
the parting days; and though they were ill provided for the emergencies
of night, yet they well knew how to suit themselves to every occasions
in every place.
75. Disdaining heavenly bliss, the loving pair lived together in
perfect contentment with their conjugal bliss; and they both slept in
the same bed-stead, loving and loved by one another.
76. The live long night passed away swiftly in their heaven like
happiness of conjugal enjoyment, and upon their conferral of reciprocal
love and affection; and by exciting their anxiety for mutual embrace.
CHAPTER CX.
FINAL EXTINCTION OF SIKHIDHWAJA.
Argument:--Return of the Royal pair and retinue to their realm, their
long reign therein until their ultimate extinction in the Divine source.
Vasishtha related:--Then rose the orient sun above the horizon, like a
brilliant gem appearing out of its containing casket; and dispelled the
darkness of the sky, as the blazing gem enlightens the room with its
rays.
2. His dawning rays pierced the eyes of sleeping men, and oped their
eyelids, as they open the folia of the closed lotuses; and they roused
the lazy world to activity, as if the sun beams gave the sound of the
morning bell. (The _áráti_ bell is rung at dawn, like the matin cry of
the Muezzin, to raise the sleeping men to their morning service).
3. The loving pair rose from their bed of flowers, in the grotto of the
mount brightened by its mineral gold; and sat on their soft and cool
leafy seats, to make their morning prayers and discharge their matin
functions.
4. Then rose Chúdálá and stood before a golden urn of water, where she
made the presence to take his solemn oath by the names of seven oceans
of the earth. (This oath is more binding than swearing by the water of
Ganges).
5. She then made him sit by the sacred water pot, and facing towards
the rising sun in the east; and performed the rite of his installation
to his kingdom, in this sequestered retreat.
6. After the solemnity of the ceremony was over, they both sat on the
same bedding (vishtara), when the god like Chúdálá spoke to her husband
in the following manner:--
7. Now my lord, leave off your quiet character of a _muni_ or hermit,
and assume the vigour of the eight rulers of the upper skies and nether
world. (These ruling powers are Indra, Varuna &c.).
8. After Chúdálá had done speaking in this manner, the prince assented
to what she said; and told her that he will do as she bade him, and
return to my realm with you.
9. He then said to the princess, who was standing at the post of the
warder (_i.e._ who was in attendance); on her inaugurated lord. "Now
will I, my dear, install you in the rank of the queen regent in my turn
and return for yours."
10. Saying so, he caused holy lavation in an adjacent pool, and
inaugurated as the regnant Regina of his royalty and realm.
11. Then the prince requested her to exert the powers, of her
consummation in yoga meditation; and to produce and bring to their
presence a large force and retinue, as they wanted and thought suitable
to their royal dignity.
12. Hearing these words of prince, the praiseworthy princess produced
by the power of her yoga, a body of forces, as large and over-spreading
as bodies of out-stretching clouds in the rainy season.
13. They beheld their cloud like forces, to be composed of lines of
horses and elephants, and flags flying in the air in the form of
scattered clouds, while the forest land was covered over by the feet of
foot-soldiers.
14. The sound of music, resounded in the hollow caves of mountains and
woods; and the flash of the coronets on the head of the soldiers, drove
away the darkness of the sky.
15. Then the royal pair mounted upon a royal elephant, which exuded
with the perfume of its ichor; escorted by the army on both sides of
their procession.
16. The prince Sikhidhwaja sat with the princess on the same seat,
and was accompanied by a mighty force composed of foot-soldiers and
chariots, that furrowed the ground as they drove on forward.
17. The mighty force gushed out like a rolling mountain, and seemed to
blow off and break down the rock and highlands, as the cyclone carries
off every thing in its way.
18. The prince then proceeded from the Mahendra mountain, seeing
on both sides the mountains and flatlands, rivers, forests and
habitations of men, as he went onward with his great array.
19. He showed and pointed out to his royal consort, the places where he
sojourned before, on his way from out of his city, which he now beheld
in his heavenly brightness, upon his arrival there in a little time.
20. All his chiefs and chieftains, advanced to meet their prince; and
welcomed with shouts of his victory, from their heart felt joy or from
the revival of their hopes; on the occasion of his happy return.
21. The prince entered the city, accompanied by his two regiments on
both sides, and attended by bands of musicians playing in concord with
the singing and dancing party.
22. He passed through the market place, and beheld the beauty of the
shops one after the other; and was hailed by groups of the city women,
who pelted their handfuls of flowers and fried rice at him, as he
passed on by them.
23. He saw numbers of flags and banners hoisted on every side, and
beheld strings of pearls hung over the doorways of houses. The women of
the city were singing and dancing in merriment all around, and giving
it the appearance of Kailasa--the happy abode of gods.
24. He entered his royal palace with all his retinue, and was welcomed
by the congratulations of his courtiers and attendants. He gave due
honors to all his servants, and then dismissed the train, as he entered
the inner apartment.
25. He ordered a festivity to be observed for a week, and then employed
himself to the management of the state affairs, and in conducting his
meditation in the inner apartment.
26. He reigned over his realm, for the period of a thousand and ten
rains; and desisted from bearing the burthen of their bodies, and
expired together with his royal consort about the same time.
27. Having quitted his mortal frame, he obtained his extinction like an
oilless and extinguished lamp, and attained the state, whence the high
minded soul, has no more to return and be reborn on earth.
28. It was by his observance of equanimity, that he enjoyed the
peaceful reign of above a thousand years; and had the good fortune to
live and die together with the princess, with whom he became extinct in
the deity at last.
29. It was by his _sama-drishti_ or view of all persons and things
with an even sight and in the same light, and his avoidance of fear
and sorrow, together with his want of pride, envy and enmity, and the
dispassionateness of his disposition, also his observance of the duties
to which he was bound by his birth, that made him put off his death for
more than a thousand cold seasons (years), and a peaceful reign for all
time, with the co-partner of his felicity.
30. Now Ráma, try to imitate this prince, and be like him in every
thing; whose virtues had made him the crown of all other Kings on
earth; who enjoyed all the enjoyments of life, and lived a long life
until he attended his final state of immortality. Do you, O Ráma!
pursue your own callings, and never be sorry at any accident in life.
Be ever prompt and vigilant in your duties, and enjoy the prosperity
both of temporal enjoyments and spiritual liberations at once.
CHAPTER CXI.
STORY OF KACHA AND HIS ENLIGHTENMENT BY THE BRIHASPATI
Argument:--His coming to knowledge of himself by the instruction of his
father Brihaspati.
Vasishtha related:--Now I have narrated to you fully, and finished my
relation of the narrative of Sikhidhwaja; and hope you will imitate his
example, to set you free from all sorrow and misery.
2. Shut out the visible world from thy sight, and shut in thy passions
and affections in close confinement within thy heart; and continue with
the dispassionateness of thy mind, for ever attached to the supreme
spirit.
3. Reign in thy kingdom with the leteration of Sikhidhwaja, and conduct
yourself in a manner, that may secure to you the fruition of both
worlds (namely--the peace and tranquillity of thy mind in this and the
liberation of the soul in the next).
4. As Sikhidhwaja came by degrees to attain his enlightenment, so also
did Kacha the son of Brihaspati receive the light of his reason, as I
shall now relate unto you.
5. Ráma said, please to tell me sir, in short, how this Kacha the
saintly son of the sage Brihaspati, came to his reason and right
understanding, after he was deluded before by error as Sikhidhwaja.
6. Vasishtha began by saying:--Hear Ráma, another tale as interesting
as that of Sikhidhwaja, and the manner in which Kacha the progeny of
the god like Brihaspati was awakened to the light of truth.
7. As he has passed the period of his youth, and was about to enter the
career of worldly life, and had ere this acquired the full knowledge of
worlds and things, he proposed the following query to his father.
8. He said, tell me, O father, that knowest all righteousness, how
the animal spirit that is bound to the body by means of the too thin
thread of life, is released from the bondage of it in this temporary
world.
9. Brihaspati replied:--The soul, my son, is well able to fly away
easily and swiftly over the perilous ocean of the world, by means of
its abandonment of concerns with it.
10. Vasishtha added:--Kacha hearing this holy dictum of his father,
abandoned all his earthly properties and expectations, and left his
house and went to the forest where he took his shelter.
11. Brihaspati was filled with sorrow at his departure; because it is
the nature of good hearted men, to feel equal anxiety both at the union
as well as the separation of their friends and inmates.
12. After the sinless Kacha had passed three and five years in his
solitude, he came to meet unawares his reverent father, seeking for him
in the wood.
13. The son rose and did homage to his venerable father, who embraced
him in his arms and to his breast; and then bespoke to his father--the
lord of speech, in words that flowed like honey from his lips.
14. Kacha said:--You see father, that I have for these full eight
years, forsaken every thing and betaken myself to this solitary
retreat, and still why is it, that I do not enjoy the lovely and
lasting peace of mind which I have been seeking so long?
15. Vasishtha related--Upon hearing these sorrowful words of Kacha, the
lord of speech for Brihaspati told him again to abandon his all, and
then left him and made his way to the upper sky.
16. After his father's departure, Kacha cast off his mantle made of the
bark and leaves of trees; when his frail body appeared out of it like
the clear autumnal sky, after the setting of the sun and the stars of
heaven.
17. He then removed to another forest, where he took shelter in the
cave of a rock, that defended him from rains and rainy clouds, as the
autumnal sky protects the landscape from the floods of rain.
18. He lived afterwards all apart on one side of a wood, with his naked
body and tranquil and vacant mind, and breathed only the breath of his
life; and as he was afflicted on one occasion in this state of his body
and mind, he happened to see his father standing before him.
19. The pious son rose from his seat, and did reverence to his sire
with all the marks of filial piety; being then clasped in his close
embrace, he asked him in his faltering words as follows:--
20. Kacha said:--Behold my father how I have forsaken every thing,
and have even cast away my ragged wrapper and my shelter of reeds and
weeds; and yet why is that I do not find my rest in my god, and what
must I yet do to attain to that state.
21. Brihaspati said:--I told you my son, to forsake your all, and
this all means the mind, which comprehends all things in it; it is by
forsaking your mind that you can gain your perfect felicity, because
the learned know the mind to be all in all, on account of its being the
container of every thing in itself, and there being nothing, besides
the ideas of them in our minds.
22. Vasishtha related:--Saying so, the lord of speech--Brihaspati
flew hastily into the sky; and his son Kacha, strove henceforth to
relinquish the thoughts and operations of his mind.
23. But as found it impossible to subdue his mind, as also to suppress
its action and motion; he then recalled his father to his mind, and
thought in himself to be got into his presence.
24. He considered in himself, the mind to be no part of his body, nor
anything among the known categories in nature; It is quite aloof and
apart from all, and therefore perfectly guiltless in itself, why should
I then abandon so innocent and constant a companion of mine.
25. I shall therefore have recourse to my father, to learn how and why
the mind is accounted as the greatest enemy of men. Learning this fully
from him, I will forthwith forsake it from me, and purchase my felicity
thereby.
26. Vasishtha related:--Having thought so, Kacha went upward to the
upper sky, and meeting the lord of speech there, he bowed down to him,
and did his homage with filial love and affection.
27. He then called him aside, and asked him to tell him the true nature
and form of the mind, so that he could be enabled to detect it thereby,
and forsake it accordingly from him.
28. Brihaspati answered:--The mind is known as the egoism of a man,
by men acquainted with the mental science or psychology; the inward
feeling of one's egoism, takes the name of his mind and no more.
29. Kacha rejoined and said:--O sire of unlimited understanding, that
art the preceptor of thirty-three millions of gods; explain to me this
intricate point of identity of the mind or intellect or egoism.
30. I see the difficulty both of forsaking his mind, as also of
his forgetting his egoism or self-personality; and own also the
impossibility of one's consummation, without his relinquishing both
of these; tell me now, O thou greatest of yogi thinkers, how is it
possible to get rid of them in any wise.
31. Brihaspati answered:--Why my son, the demolition of our egoism
is as easy as the twinkling of our eyelids, and easier far than the
crushing of flowers; and there is not the least pain in your rejecting
this feeling.
32. Now hear my boy tell you how this is to be done in a trice, and how
it is to be removed like long standing bias of ignorance, by the true
knowledge of the nature of a thing.
33. There is no such thing in reality my son, as what you call your
egoism or personality; it is an unreality appearing as reality, and
a false chimera like the ghost of little boys. (Men fear death as
children fear to go in the dark, thinking there are ghost and goblins
lurking therein of Bacon's Essays).
34. Like the fallacy of water in the mirage, and the mistake of a
serpent in the rope; and alike all other errors appearing as truths,
the misconception of egoism is a mere delusion of the understanding.
35. As it is the delusion of our vision, that represents a couple of
moons in the sky, and shows many things as their doubles; so it is
the error of our understanding that presents to us our false egoism,
instead of the one real and everlasting ego.
36. There is one real Ego alone, which is without beginning and
end, and quite pellucid in itself; it is more transparent than the
clear atmosphere, and an Intelligence that knows all things. (Pure
omniscience).
37. He is always every where, as the light of all things and the life
of all living beings; It is his essence only that spreads throughout
all nature and shines in all her phenomena, as the same essence of
water, displays itself in all the rolling surges and waves and moving
bubbles in the sea.
38. Such being the case, tell me what is this special egoism of ours,
and how and whence could a separate personality come to exist; where
can you find dust to raise from water, or behold water to spring from
fire. (Things of the same kind spring from the same source, and the
product is never different from the original).
39. Shun my son your false belief of the difference of this one and
that another, and thyself a quite another person (a tertium quid); and
abstain to think thyself as a mean and contemptible being confined
within the limits of space and time. (_i.e._ Know thyself as identic
with the boundless and everlasting spirit and no other).
40. Know thyself (soul) as unbounded by space and time, and ever
overspread all over in thy essential transparency, which is always the
same in all seeming varieties, the one invariable, pure and simple
Intellect.
41. Thyself (soul) is situated, in the fruits, flowers and leaves of
all the trees on every side of thee; and abides in every thing like the
pith and marrow for its subsistence, and as moisture for its growth.
The pure intellect eternally inheres in every thing as its soul and
essence, tell me then O Kacha, whence you derive the belief of your
egoism and personal existence (as an embodied person).
CHAPTER CXII.
A FANCIFUL BEING AND HIS OCCUPATION OF AIR DRAWN AND AIR BUILT ABODES.
Argument:--Man likened to a fantastic being, his egoism a mere
phantasm, and his repeated births and bodies compared to aerial castles.
Vasishtha related:--Kacha the son of the divine preceptor Brihaspati,
being thus advised by his venerable sire in the best kind of yoga
meditation; began to muse in himself as one liberated from his personal
entity, and lost and absorbed in essence of the sole and self-existent
Deity. So says the sufi Sadi:--"_Dui rachum badar kardam Eke binan Eke
danam. &c._" When I kept the duality of my personality out of my sight,
I saw before me all blending in one, ineffable blaze of light.
2. Kacha remained quite freed from his egoism and meism, with the
tranquillity of his mind, and cut off from all the ties of nature, and
all apart from the bonds of worldly life. So I advise you, Ráma, to
remain unchanged and unmoved amidst all the changes and movements of
earthly bodies and vicissitudes of a mortal life.
3. Know all egoistic personality to total nihility, and never hesitate
to remove yourself from this asylum of unreality, whose essence is as
nothing at all as the horns of a hare whether you lay hold on it or
lose your grasp of it (and as inextricable and inexplicable as the
horns of a dilemma).
4. If it is impossible for your egoism to be a reality, why then talk
of your birth and demise or your existence and inexistence; which is as
it were planting a tree in the sky, of which you can neither reap the
fruits or flowers.
5. After annihilation of your egoism there remains the sole ego, which
is of the form of intellect only and not that of fickle mind; It is
tranquil and without any desire, and extends through all existence; it
is minuter and more subtile than the smallest atom, and is only the
power of intellection and understanding. (_i.e._ the omniscience).
6. As the waves are raised upon the waters and the ornaments are made
of gold; so our egoism springing from the original ego appears to be
something different from it.
7. It is our ignorance or imperfect knowledge only that represents the
visible world as a magic show, but the light of right knowledge, brings
us to see the one and self-same Brahma in all forms of things.
8. Avoid your dubiety of the unity and duality (_i.e._ of the
singleness of the prime cause, and variety of its products); but remain
firm in your belief of that state, which lasts after the loss of both
(_i.e._ the one and all the same). Be happy with this belief, and never
trouble yourself with thinking any thing otherwise like the false man
in the tale.
9. There is an inexplicable magic enveloping the whole, and this world
is an impervious mass of theurgy or sorcery, which enwraps as thickly,
as the autumnal mists obscure the firmament, and which is scattered by
the light of good understanding.
10. Ráma said:--Sir, your learned lectures, like draughts of nectar,
have given me entire satisfaction; and I am as refreshed by your
cooling speeches, as the parching swallow is refrigerated by a shower
of rain water.
11. I feel as cold within myself, as if I were anointed with heavenly
ambrosia; and I think myself raised above all beings, in my possession
of unequalled riches and greatness, by the grace of God.
12. I am never satiated to the fullness of my heart, at hearing the
orations of thy mouth; and am like chakora or swallow that is never
satiate with swallowing dewy moon-beams by night.
13. I confess to thee that I am never surfeited by drinking the sweet
of thy speech, and the more I hearken to thee, the more am I disposed
to learn from and listen to thee; for who is there so cloyed with the
ambrosial honey, that he declines to taste the nectarine juice again?
14. Tell me sir, what do you mean by the false men of the tale; who
thought the real entity as a nonentity, and look at the unreal world as
a solar and solid reality.
15. Vasishtha related:--Now attend to me, Ráma, to relate unto you the
story of the false and fanciful man; which is pleasant to hear, and
quite ludicrous and laughable from first to last.
16. There lived once a man, like a magical machine somewhere; who lived
like an idiot with the imbecility of his infantine simplicity, and was
full of gross ignorance as a fool or block-head.
17. He was born somewhere in some remote region of the sky, and was
doomed to wander in his etherial sphere, like a false apparition in the
air, or a mirage in the sandy desert. (as a phantom or phantasmagoria).
18. There was no other person beside himself, and whatever else there
was in that place, it was but his self or an exact likeness of itself.
He saw naught but himself, and aught that he saw he thought to be but
his self.
19. As he grew up to manhood in this lonely retreat, he pondered in
himself saying: I am airy and belong to the aerial sphere; the air is
my province, and I will therefore rule over this region as mine.
20. The air is my proprietory right, and therefore I must preserve it
with all diligence, then with this thought he built an aerial house for
his abode, in order to protect and rule his etherial dominion.
21. He placed his reliance inside that aerial castle, from where he
could manage to rule his aerial domain, and lived quite content amidst
the sphere of his airy habitation for a long time.
22. But in course of time his air built castle came to be dilapidated,
and to be utterly destroyed at last; as the clouds of heaven are driven
and blown away in autumn, and the waves of the sea are dispersed by the
breeze, and sunken down in a calm.
23. He then cried out in sorrow, saying; O my air built mansion, why
art thou broken down and blown away so soon; and, O my air drawn
habitation, where art thou withdrawn from me. In this manner, he
wailed in his excessive grief and said; Ah, now I see, that an aerial
something must be reduced to an aerial nothing.
24. After lamenting in this manner for a long time, this simpleton dug
a cave in the vacuity of the atmosphere; and continued to dwell in that
hollow cavity, in order to look up to his aerial realm from below. Thus
he remained quite content in the closed air of the cave for a long
period of time.
25. In process of time his cell was wasted and washed away, and he
became immerged in deep sorrow upon the immersion of his empty cave.
26. He then constructed a hollow pot, and took his residence in its
open bowel, and adapted his living to its narrow limits.
27. Know that his brittle earthen pot also, was broken down in
course of a short time; and he came to know the frailty of all his
habitations, as an unfortunate man finds the fickleness of all the
hopes and helps, which he fondly lays hold upon.
28. After the breaking of his pot, he got a tub for his residence (like
the tub of Diogenes); and from there he surveyed the heavenly sphere;
as any one beholds it from his particular habitation.
29. His tub also was broken down in course of time, by some wild
animal; and thus he lost all his stays, as the darkness and the dews of
night, are dispelled and sucked up by the solar light and heat.
30. After he had sorrowed in vain for the loss of his tub, he took his
asylum in an enclosed cottage, with an open space in the midst, for his
view of the upper skies.
31. The all devouring time, destroyed also that habitation of his; and
scattered it all about, as the winds of heaven dispersed the dried
leaves of trees, and left him to bewail the loss of his last retreat
and flitting shelter.
32. He then built a hut in the form of a barn house in the field, and
thence watched over his estate of the air, as farmers keep watch and
take care of their granaries in the farms.
33. But the driving winds of the air, drove away and dispersed his
hovel, as they do the gathering clouds of heaven; and the roofless man
had once more to deplore at the loss of his last refuge.
34. Having thus lost all his abodes, in the pool and pot, in the
cottage and hut; the aerial man was left to bemoan over his losses, in
his empty abode of the air.
35. Being thus situated in his helpless state, the aerial man reflected
upon the narrow confines of the abodes, which he had chosen for himself
of his own accord; and thought on the multifarious pains and troubles,
that he had repeatedly to undergo, in the erection and destruction of
all his aerial castles by his own ignorance only.
CHAPTER CXIII.
THE PARABLE OF THE VAIN MAN CONTINUED.
Argument.--Interpretation of the parable of the Aerial man.
Ráma said:--Please sir, give me the interpretation of your parable of
the false man, and tell me the allusion it bears to the fanciful man,
whose business it was to watch the air or sky (and to make his new
posts for that purpose).
2. Vasishtha replied:--Hear me, Ráma, now expound to you the meaning of
my parable of the false man, and the allusion which it bears to every
fanciful man in this world.
3. The man that I have represented to you, as a magical engine (máyá
yantra), means the egoistic man, who is led by the magic of his egoism,
to look upon the empty air of his personality as a real entity (and
whose sole care it is to preserve its vital air as its only property).
4. The vault of the sky, which contains all these orbs of worlds; is
but an infinite space of empty void, as it was ere this creation came
into existence, and before it becomes manifest to view.
5. There is the spirit of the inscrutable and impersonal Brahma,
immanent in this vacuity and becomes apparent in the personality of
Brahmá, in the manner of the audible sound issuing out of the empty
air, which is its receptacle and support.
6. It is from this also that there rises the subtle individual soul
with the sense of its egoism, as the vibration of current winds springs
from the motionless air; and then as it grows up in time in the same
element, it comes to believe its having an individual soul and a
personality of its own.
7. Thus the impersonal soul being imbibed with the idea of its
personality, tries to preserve its egoism for ever; it enters into many
bodies of different kinds, and creates new ones for its abode upon the
loss of the former ones.
8. This egoistic soul, is called the false and magical man; because it
is a false creation of unreality, and a production of vain ignorance
and imagination.
9. The pit and the pot, and the cottage and the hut, represent the
different bodies, the empty vacuity of which, supplies the egoistic
soul with a temporary abode.
10. Now listen to me to relate to you the different names, under which
our ignorant spirit passes in this world, and begins itself under one
or other of these appellations.
11. It takes the various names of the living soul, the understanding,
mind, the heart, and ignorance and nature also; and is known among men,
by the words imagination, fancy and time, which are also applied to it.
12. In these and a thousand other names and forms, doth this vain
egoism appear to us in this world; but all these powers and faculties
are mere attributives of the true ego which is imperceptible to us.
13. The world is verily known to rest without its basis, in the
extended and vacuous womb of the visible firmament; and the imaginary
soul of the egoist is supposed to dwell in it, and feel all its pain
and pleasure in vain. (But the sense of the unreality of the world, as
also of one's personality, exempts from the sensations of pleasure and
pain).
14. Therefore O Ráma, do not like the imaginary man in the fable, place
any reliance in your false personality; nor subject yourself like the
egoistic man, to the fancied pleasure and misery of this world.
15. Do not trouble yourself, like the erroneous man, with the vain care
of preserving your vacuous soul; nor suffer like him the pain of your
confinement in the hollow of the pit, pot and others.
16. How is it possible for any body, to preserve or confine the vacuous
spirit in the narrow limit of a pot and the like; when it is more
extended than the boundless sky, and more subtile and purer than the
all pervading air.
17. The soul is supposed to dwell in the cavity of the human heart, and
is thought to perish with the decay and destruction of the body; hence
people are seen to lament at the loss of their frail bodies, as if it
entailed the destruction of their indestructible soul.
18. As the destruction of the pot or any other hollow vessel, does
not destroy the subtile air, which is contained in the same; so the
dissolution of the body, does not dissolve the embodied and intangible
soul.
19. Know Ráma, the nature of the soul, to be as that of the pure
intellect; it is more subtile than the circumambient air, and minuter
far than the minutest atom; it is a particle of our consciousness only,
and indestructible as the all pervasive air, which is never to be
nullified.
20. The soul is never born, nor does it die as any other thing at any
place or time; it extends over the whole universe, as the universal
soul of Brahma, which encompasses and comprehends all space, and
manifests itself in all things.
21. Know this spirit as one entire unit, and the only real entity; it
is always calm and quiet, and without its beginning, middle and end.
Know it as beyond the positive and negative, and be happy with thy
knowledge of its transcendental nature.
22. Now extricate your mind from the false cogitation of your egoism,
which is the abode of all evils and dangers, and is an unstable thing
depending on the life of a man; it is full of ignorance and vanity, and
its own destruction and final perdition (in hell fire). Therefore get
rid of your egoistic feeling, and rely only on the ultimate and optimum
state of the one everlasting Deity.
CHAPTER CXIV.
SERMON ON DIVINE AND HOLY KNOWLEDGE.
Argument:--Consideration of the Real and unreal, and of good and evil;
Exhortation to the former and Dehortation from the latter.
Vasishtha said:--The mind sprang at first from the supreme spirit of
Brahma, and being possest of its power of thinking, it was situated in
the Divine soul, and was styled as the Divine mind or intellect.
2. The fickle mind resides in the spirit of God as the feeling of
fragrance abides in the cup of a flower; and as the fluctuating waves
roll about in a river. Know, Ráma! the mind to radiate from its central
point in Brahma, as the rays of the sun extend to the circumference of
creation.
3. Men forget the reality of the invisible spirit of God, and view the
unreal world as a reality; as deluded persons are apt to believe a
serpent in a rope (as they do in magic play).
4. He who beholds the solar beams, without seeing the sun whence they
proceed; views them in a different light than the light of the sun.
(Whoso sees the world without its God, is an ungodly man, and sees a
Godless world).
5. He who looks at the jewel without looking into the gold whereof it
is made, is deluded by the finery of the jewellery, without knowing the
value of the precious metal of which it is made.
6. He who looks at the sun together with his glory, or sees the
sun-beams as not without the sun whence they proceed, verily beholds
the unity of the sun with his light, and not his duality by viewing
them separately. (The monotheism of vedánta comprises everything in the
unity of the Divinity).
7. He who looks on the waves without seeing the sea, wherein they rise
and fall, has only the knowledge of the turbulent billows disturbing
his mind; and no idea of the calm waters underlying them (like the
tranquil spirit of Brahma).
8. But who looks on the waves, without exception of the water of which
they are composed; he sees the same water to be in common in all its
swellings, and has the knowledge of its unity and commonalty in all its
varieties.
9. In this manner, seeing the same gold in its transformation into
sundry sorts of jewels; we have the knowledge of the common essence of
gold in all of them, notwithstanding their formal distinctions to sight.
10. He who sees the flames only, and is unmindful of the fire which
emits the flashes; is said to be ignorant of the material element, and
conversant with its transient and evanescent flash only.
11. The phenomenal world presents its aspect in various forms and
colours, as the multiform and variegated clouds in the sky; and whoso
places his faith and reliance on their reality and stability, has his
mind always busied with those changeful appearances.
12. He who views the flame as the same with its fire, has the knowledge
of the fire only in his mind, and does not know the duality of the
flame, as a thing distinct from its unity.
13. He who is freed from his knowledge of dualities, has his mind
restricted to the one and sole unity; he has a great soul that has
obtained the obtainable one, and is released from the trouble of diving
into the depth of the duality and plurality of all visible objects.
14. Get rid of thy thoughts of the endless multiplicities and varieties
of things, and keep thy mind fixed steadily within the cavity of thy
pure intellect, and there employ it in the meditation of the supreme
Intellect, in privation of the thoughts of all sensible objects. (This
is the Buddhistic meditation of the soul only, by abstraction of the
mind from all objects of sense).
15. When the silent soul forms in itself its effort of volition, then
there rises in it the power of its versatile desires, like the force of
the fluctuating winds rising from the bosom of the quiet air.
16. Then there rises the wilful mind from it, as a distinct and
independent thing of itself, and thinks in itself as the undivided and
universal Mind of the mundane world.
17. Whatever the volitive mind wills to do in this world, the same
comes to take place immediately, agreeably to the type formed in its
volition.
18. This mind passes under the various names of the living principle,
the understanding, the egoism, the heart &c.; and becomes as minute
as an animalcule and an aquatic mollusc, and as big as a mountain and
fleeter than the swiftest winds.
19. It forms and sustains the world at its own will, and becomes the
unity and plurality at its own option; it extends itself to infinity,
and shows itself in the endless diversity of objects which fill its
ample space.
20. The whole scenery of the universe, is nothing otherwise than a
display of the eternal and infinite mind; it is neither a positive
reality nor a negative unreality of itself, but appears to our view
like the visionary appearance in a dream.
21. The phenomenal world is a display of the realm of the divine mind,
in the same manner as the Utopia and Elysium, display the imaginary
dominions formed in the minds of men; and as every man builds the airy
castle of his mind.
22. As our knowledge of the existence of the world in the divine mind
alone, serves to remove our fallacy of the entity of the visible world;
so if we look into the phenomenal in its true light, it speedily
vanishes into nothing.
23. When we do not consider the visibles in their true colour, but take
them in their false colour as they present themselves to view; we find
them to ramify themselves into a thousand shapes, as we see the same
sea-water in its diversities of the various forms of foam and froth, of
bubbles and billows, of waves and surges, and of tides and whirlpools.
24. As the sea bears its body of waters, so doth the mind show itself
in the shape of its various faculties (which are in constant motion
like the waves of water); the mental powers are always busy with their
manifold functions under the influence of the supreme intellect,
without affecting its tranquillity. (The movements of the mental
powers, can never move the quiet intellect to action).
25. Yet the mind doth nothing otherwise of itself and apart from the
dictates of the intellect, whether in its state of sleeping or waking,
or in its bodily or mental actions.
26. Know that there is nothing anew, in whatever thou dost or seest or
thinkest upon; all of which proceed from the inherent intellect which
is displayed in all things, and in all the actions and thoughts of men.
27. Know all these to be contained in the immensity of Brahma, and
besides whom there is nothing in existence; He abides in all things and
categories, and remains as the essence of the inward consciousness of
all.
28. It is the divine consciousness that exhibits the whole of the
imaginary world, and it is the evolution of the consciousness, that
takes the name of the universe with all its myriads of worlds.
29. Say how and whence rises your supposition of the difference of
things from one another, and wherefore you take this thing as distinct
from the other; when you will know that it is your consciousness alone
that assumes these various forms, and represents itself to you under
the various shapes and colours. (If therefore there is no other object
of which you are conscious besides our consciousness itself (_i.e._
if there be nothing objective beside the subjective itself); then you
have nothing to fear about the bondage of your soul to any object
whatsoever; nor anything to care for your liberation from such bondage).
30. Ráma, relinquish at once the vanity of your egotism, together with
all its concomitants of pride, self-esteem and others, and give up
altogether your thoughts of bondage and liberation (proceeding from
the belief of your objectivity and subjectivity); and remain quiet and
self subdued in the continued discharge of your duties, like the holy
Mahátmás of elevated souls and minds.
CHAPTER CXV.
DESCRIPTION OF THE TRIPLE CONDUCT OF MEN.
Argument.--Siva's interpretations of the three duties of action,
Enjoyment and charity to his suppliant Bhringi.
Vasishtha said:--Take my advise, Ráma, and strive to be an example or
the greatest man in thy deeds, enjoyments, and bounty; and rely in thy
unshaken endurance, by bidding defiance to all thy cares and fears.
(_i.e._ Remain as a rock against all accidents of life).
2. Ráma asked:--Tell me sir, what is the deed that makes the greatest
actor, and what is that thing which constitutes the highest enjoyments;
tell me also what is the great bounty, which you advise me to practice.
3. These three virtues were explained long before by the God Siva, who
holds the semi-circular disc of the crescent moon on his forehead; to
the lord of the Bhringis, who was thereby released from all disease
and disquiet. (Were the fair Bhringis the Fringis or Franks of modern
times? If not, then who were this class of demigods?).
4. The God who has the horn of the moon as a crown on his head, used
to hold his residence of yore, on a northern peak of the north polar
mountain, together with all his family and attendants.
5. It happened that the mighty, but little knowing lord of the
Bhringis, asked him one day, with his folded palms, and his body lowly
bending down in suppliant mood before the godlike lord of Umá. (Umá
is the same in sound and sense with Ushá the dawn, appearing from the
eastern ridge of the northmost mountain).
6. Bhringi said:--Deign to explain to me, my lord, what I ask thee to
tell for my knowledge; for thou knowest all things, and art the God of
Gods.
7. Lord! I am overwhelmed in sorrow, to see the boisterous waves of
this deep and dark world in which we have been buffeting for ever,
without finding the calm and quiet harbour of truth.
8. Tell me, my lord, what is that certain truth and inward assurance,
whereon we may rely with confidence, and whereby we may find our rest
and repose in this our shattered mansion of this world.
9. The lord replied:--Place always your reliance in your unshaken
patience, and neither care nor fear for anything else, and ever strive
to be foremost in your action and passion and in your relinquishment of
everything (passion and relinquishment here are used in the senses of
passivity and liberality).
10. Bhringi rejoined:--Explain to me fully, my lord, what is meant by
being the greatest in action and passion; and what are we to understand
from the greatest liberality or abandonment of every thing here.
11. The lord replied:--He is said to be the greatest actor, who does
his deeds as they occur to him, whether of goodness or of evil, without
any fear or desire of fruition. (_i.e._ Who expects no reward of his
acts of goodness, nor fears for the retribution of some heinous deed,
which he could not avoid to do).
12. He who does his acts of goodness or otherwise, who gives vent to
his hatred and affection and feels both pleasure and pain, without
reference to any person or thing, and without the expectation of their
consequences, is said to be the greatest actor in the theatre of this
world.
13. He is said to act his part well, who does his business without
any ado or anxiety, and maintains his taciturnity and purity of heart
without any taint of egoism or envy.
14. He is said to act his part well, who does not trouble his mind
with the thoughts of actions, that are accounted as auspicious or
inauspicious, or deemed as righteous or unrighteous, according to
common opinion. (_i.e._ Best is the man that relies on his own probity,
and is not guided by public opinion).
15. He is said to perform well his part, who is not affected towards
any person or thing, but witnesses all objects as a mere witness; and
goes on doing his business, without his desiring or deep engagement in
it.
16. He is the best actor of his part, who is devoid of care and
delight, and continues in the same tone and tenor of his mind, and
retains the clearness of his understanding at all times, without
feeling any joy or sorrow at anything.
17. He does his duties best, who has the readiness of his wits at the
fittest time of action; and sits unconcerned with it at other times,
as a retired and silent sage or saint (_i.e._ discharge your business
promptly, but be no slave to service).
18. He who does his works with unconcern and without assuming to
himself the vanity of being the doer of it, is accounted as the best
actor, that acts his part with his body, but keeps his mind quite
unattached to it.
19. He is reckoned as the best actor, who is naturally quiet in his
disposition and never loses the evenness of his temper; who does good
to his friends and evil to his enemies; without taking them to his
heart.
20. He is the greatest actor, who looks at his birth, life and death,
and upon his rising and falling in the same light; and does not lose
the equanimity of his mind under any circumstance whatever.
21. Again he is said to enjoy himself and his life the best, who
neither envies anybody nor pines for any thing; but enjoys and
acquiesces to whatever is allotted to his lot, with cool composure and
submission of his mind.
22. He also is said to enjoy every thing well, who receives with his
hands what his mind does not perceive; and acts with his body without
being conscious of it and enjoys everything without taking it to his
heart.
23. He is said to enjoy himself best, who looks on at the conduct and
behaviour of mankind, as an unconcerned and indifferent spectator; and
looks upon every thing without craving anything for himself.
24. He whose mind is not moved with pleasure or pain, nor elated with
success and gain, nor dejected by his failure and loss; and who remains
firm in all his terrible tribulations, is the man who is said to be in
the perfect enjoyment of himself.
25. He is said to be in the best enjoyment of himself, who hails with
an equal eye of complaisance his decay and demise, his danger and
difficulty, his affluence and poverty, and looks on their returns and
revolutions, with an eye of delight and cheerfulness.
26. He is called the man of greatest gratification, who sustains all
the ups and downs of fortune with equal fortitude, as deep sea contains
its boisterous waves in its fathomless depth.
27. He is said to have the highest gratifications who is possest of
the virtues of contentment, equanimity and benevolence (lit. want of
malice); and which always accompany his person, as the cooling beams
cling to the disk of the moon.
28. He too is greatly gratified in himself, who tastes the sour and
sweet, the bitter and pungent with equal zest; and relishes a savoury
and an unsavoury dish with the same taste.
29. He who tastes the tasteful and juicy, as also the untasteful
and dry food with equal zest, and beholds the pleasant as well as
unpleasant things with equal delight, is the man that is ever gratified
in himself.
30. He to whom salt and sugar are both alike, and to whom both saline
as well as saccharine victuals are equally palatable; and who remains
unaltered both in his happy and adverse circumstances; is the man who
enjoys the best bliss of his life in this world.
31. He is in the enjoyment of his highest bliss, who makes no
distinction of one kind of his food from another; and who yearns for
nothing that he can hardly earn. (Happy is he, who does not itch beyond
his reach).
32. He enjoys his life best, who braves his misfortune with calmness,
and brooks his good fortune, his joyous days and better circumstances
with moderation and coolness.
33. He is said to have abandoned his all, who has given up the
thoughts of his life and death, of his pleasure and pain, and those of
his merits and demerits at once from his mind.
34. He who has abandoned all his desires and exertions, and forsaken
all his hopes and fears, and effaced all his determinations from the
tablet of his mind, is said to have relinquished every thing in this
world, and to have freed himself from all.
35. He who does not take to his mind the pains, which invade his body,
mind and the senses, is said to have cast away from himself, all the
troubles of his mortal state. (Because the mind only feels the bodily
and sensuous pains, and its unfeelingness of them is its exemption from
troubles).
36. He is accounted as the greatest giver (forsaker) of his all, who
gives up the cares of his body and birth (life); and has abandoned the
thoughts of acts, deemed to be proper or improper for himself. (These
are the social, civil, ceremonial and religious acts, which are binding
on worldly people).
37. He is said to have made his greatest sacrifice, who has sacrificed
his mind and all his mental functions and endeavours, before the shrine
of his self-abnegation.
38. He who has given up the sight of the visibles from his view, and
does not allow the sensibles to obtrude upon his senses, is said to
have renounced all and every thing from himself.
39. It was in this manner that the lord of gods Mahádeva, gave his
instructions to the lord of the Bhringis; and it is by your acting
according to these precepts, that you must, O Ráma! attain to the
perfection of your self-abnegation.
40. Meditate always on the everlasting and immaculate spirit, that is
without its beginning and end; which is wholly this entire immensity
and has no part nor partner, nor representative nor representation of
itself. By thinking in this way you become immaculate yourself, and
come to be extinct in the self-same Brahma, where there is all peace
and tranquillity.
41. Know one undecaying Brahma, as the soul and seed of all various
works or productions that are proceeded from him. It is his immensity
which spreads unopened throughout the whole existence; as it is the
endless sky which comprehends and manifests all things in itself.
42. It is not possible for anything at all, whether of positive or
potential existence, to subsist without and apart from this universal
essence of all, rely secure with this firm belief in your mind, and be
free from all fears in the world.
43. O most righteous Ráma, look always to the inner soul within
thyself, and perform all thy outward actions with the outer members of
thy body, by forsaking the sense of thy egoism and personality; and
being thereby freed from all care and sorrow, thou shalt attain to thy
supreme felicity.
CHAPTER CXVI.
MELTING DOWN OF THE MIND.
Argument.--The Dissolation of the Mind and its Affections, as the only
way for salvation of the soul.
Ráma said:--O all-knowing sage please to tell me, what becomes of the
essence of the soul after one's egoism is lost in his mind, and both of
them are dissolved into nothing.
2. Vasishtha replied:--However great and predominant is one's egoism
over himself, and how much so ever its concomitant evils of pride and
ignorance, may overpower on man; yet they can never touch the pure
essence of the soul, as the water of the lake can not come in contact
with the lotus-leaf.
3. The purity of the soul appears vividly in the bright and placid
countenance of a man, after his egoism and its accompanying faults are
all melted down in his mortified mind.
4. All the ties of our passions and affections are cut asunder and
fall off, upon breaking the string of our desires, our anger becomes
weakened, and our ignorance wears out by degrees (our desire or
greediness being the root of all evils).
5. Our cupidity is weakened and wearied, and our covetousness flies
away far from us; our limbs become slackened, and our sorrows subside
to rest.
6. It is then that our afflictions fail to afflict as our joys cease to
elate us; we have then a calm every where and a coldness in our heart.
7. Joy and grief now and then overcast his countenance, (as a cloud
and sunbeam hide the face of the sky); but they cannot over shadow his
soul, which is bright as eternal day.
8. The virtuous man becomes a favourite of the Gods, after his mind is
melted down with its passions; and then there rises the calm evenness
of his soul, resembling the cooling beams of the moon.
9. He bears a calm and quiet disposition, offending and opposing to
none, and therefore loved and honored by everyone; he remains retired
and assiduous to his task, and enjoys the serenity of his soul at all
times.
10. Neither wealth nor poverty, nor prosperity or adversity, however
opposite they are to one another; can ever affect or mislead or elate
or depress the minds of the virtuous (who have already melted them down
in themselves).
11. Accursed is the man that is drowned in his ignorance, and does not
seek the salvation of his soul, which is easily obtainable by the light
of reason, and which serves to save him from all the difficulties of
this world. (Reliance in the immortality of the soul, supports a man
amidst all earthly calamities).
12. He that wants to obtain his longed for felicity, by getting over
the waves of his miserable transmigrations in the vast ocean of this
world; must always inquire in himself as what am I, and what is this
world and what am I to be afterwards; what means this short lived
enjoyments here, and what are the fruitions of my future state. These
inquiries are the best expedients towards the salvation of the soul.
CHAPTER CXVII.
DIALOGUE BETWEEN MANU AND IKSHAKU.
Argument:--Manu's Exposition of the Inquiries what am I &c. to Ikshaku.
Vasishtha said:--Know Ráma, that the renowned king Ikshaku was the
first founder of your race; and learn O thou progeny of that monarch,
the manner in which he obtained his liberation.
2. Once on a time when this monarch was reigning over his kingdom, he
came to think upon the state of humanity in one of his solitary hours.
3. He thought in himself as to, what might be the cause of the decay,
disease, and death, as also of the sorrow, pleasure and pain, and
likewise of the errors to which all living beings are subject in this
mortal world.
4. He pondered long upon these thoughts, but was unable to find out
the cause he so earnestly sought, and happening to meet the sage Manu
one day, coming to him from Brahmá-loka or the seat of Bráhmans, he
proposed the same queries to him.
5. Having honoured the lord of creatures, as he took his seat in his
court; he said to him to be excused for asking him some questions to
which he was impelled by his impatience.
6. It is by thy favour sir, that I take the liberty of asking thee the
question, regarding the origin of this creation, and the original state
in which it was made.
7. Tell me, what is the number of these worlds, and who is the master
and owner thereof; and when and by whom is it said to be created in the
vedas.
8. Tell me, how I may be extricated from my doubts and erroneous
opinions regarding this creation, and how I may be released from them
like a bird from its net.
9. Manu replied:--I see O king, that you have after a long time come
to exercise of your reasoning, as it is shown by your proposing to me
so important a question as this.
10. All this that you see nothing real (they are merely phenomenal and
unsubstantial); they resemble the fairy castles in the air, and the
water in the mirage of sandy deserts. So also anything which is not
seen in reality, is accounted nothing in existence.
11. The mind also which lies beyond the six senses, is reckoned as
nothing in reality; but that which is indestructible, is the only thing
that is said to exist, and is called the _Tatsat_ the only being in
reality.
12. All these visible worlds and successive creations, are but
unsubstantial appearances in the mirror of that real substance.
13. The inherent powers of Brahma, evolve themselves as shining sparks
of fire; and some of these assume the forms of the luminous worlds;
while others appear in the shapes of living souls.
14. Others again take many other forms, which compose this universe;
and there is nothing as bondage or liberation here, except that the
undecaying Brahma is all in all; nor is there any unity or duality in
nature, except the diversity displayed by the Divine Mind, from the
essence of his own consciousness (samvid).
15. As it is the same water of the sea, which itself is in the various
forms of its waves; so doth the Divine Intellect display itself in
every thing, and there is nothing else beside this. Therefore leave
aside your thoughts of bondage and liberation and rest, secure in this
belief from the fears of the world. (This is pantheistic belief of one
God in all).
CHAPTER CXVIII.
CONTINUATION OF THE SAME.
Argument:--Manu's answers to the other questions of Ikshaku as "Whence
is this creation &c."
Manu continued:--It is by the divine will, that the living souls of
beings are evolved from the original intellect, (in which they are
contained), as the waves rise from the main body of waters contained in
the ocean.
2. These living souls, retain the tendencies of their prior states in
former births, and are thereby led to move in their course of light
or ignorance etc. in this world, and to accordingly subject either to
happiness or misery, which is felt by the mind and never affects the
soul itself.
3. The invisible soul is known in the knowable mind, which is actuated
by it (the soul); as the invisible node of Rahu, becomes visible to
us in the eclipse of the moon (which is affected by it): (so the
mind acting under the impulse of the soul, becomes liable to pain or
pleasure according to its desert).
4. Neither the preceptor of sástras nor the lectures of our spiritual
preceptors, can show the supreme spirit before our sight; but it is our
spirit which shows us the holy spirit, when our understanding rests in
its own true essence (apart from its egoism and meism).
5. As travellers are seen to be journeying abroad with their minds,
free from all attainment and aversion to any particular object or spot;
so the self-liberated souls are found to sojourn in this world, quite
unconcerned even with their bodies and the objects of their senses.
6. It is not for good and Godly men either to pamper or famish their
bodies, or quicken or weaken their senses; but to allow them to be
employed with their objects at their own option.
7. Be of an indifferent mind (udásina) with regard to your bodies and
all external objects; and enjoy the cool composure of your soul, by
betaking yourself entirely to your spirituality.
8. The knowledge that "I am an embodied being" is the cause of our
bondage in this world; and therefore it is never to be entertained by
them, that are seekers of their liberation.
9. But the firm conviction that "I am no other than an intellectual
being, and as rarefied as the pure air"; is the only belief that is
able to extricate our souls from their bondage in this world.
10. As the light of the sun pierces and shines, both within and without
the surface of a clear sheet of water; so doth the light of the Holy
spirit, penetrate and shine both inside and outside of the pure souls
of men, as well as in everything else.
11. As it is the variety of formation, that makes the various kinds
of ornaments out of the same substance of gold; so it is the various
dispositions of the one soul, that makes the difference of things in
the world. (The same soul exhibiting itself in sundry forms).
12. The world resembles the vast ocean, and all its created are
like the waves upon its surface; they rise for a moment, only to be
succumbed to the latent flame of their insatiable desires.
13. Know all the worlds to be absorbed in the vast ocean of the
universal soul of God, as all things are devoured by death or time
(Kála), and lie buried like the ocean itself in the insatiable womb of
Agastya or Eternity.
14. Cease to consider the bodies of men as their souls, and to behold
the visibles in a spiritual light; rely solely in thy spiritual self,
and sit retired from all except alone with thyself.
15. Men are seen foolishly to wail for the loss of their souls, though
lying within themselves; as a fond mother moans on missing her child,
forgetful of its sleeping upon her lap. (We miss our souls though
situated within ourselves).
16. Men bewail for themselves as lost upon the loss of their bodies,
and exclaim as it saying "Oh I am dead and gone" and so on, not knowing
that their souls are ever undecaying and imperishable.
17. As the fluctuation of water shows many forms upon its surface,
so the will of God exhibits the forms of all things in the divine
Intellect. (Just as the active principle of our imagination, represents
endless varieties of scenes in the mirror of our minds).
18. Now king, keep the steadiness of your mind, repress thy imagination
and the flights of thy fancy; call thy thoughts home and confine
them to thyself; remain calm and cool and unperturbed amidst all
perturbations, and go and rule thy realm with thy self possession.
CHAPTER CXIX.
THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.
Argument.--On the Expansion of Divine Powers, and the Perfection of
Human Soul.
Manu resumed:--The Lord with his creative power exerts his active
energy, and plays the part of a restless boy (in his formation of the
worlds); and again by his power of re-absorption he engulphs all into
himself, and remains in his lonesome solity.
2. As it is his volition that gives rise to his active energy for
action, so it is his nolition that causes the cessation of his
exertion, and the intromission of the whole creation in himself.
3. As the light of the luminous sun, moon and fire, and as the lustre
of brilliant gems spread themselves on all sides; and as the leaves of
trees put forth of themselves, and as the waters of a cataract scatter
their liquid particles all about.
4. So it is the lustration of divine glory, which displays itself in
the works of creation; which appears to be intolerable to the ignorant,
who know not that it is the self-same god though appearing to be
otherwise.
5. O! it is a wondrous illusion that has deluded the whole world, which
does not perceive the divine spirit, that pervades every part of the
universe.
6. He who looks on the world as a scenery painted in the tablet of the
Divine Intellect, and remains unimpressible and undesirous of every
thing, and quite content in his soul, has put an invulnerable armour
upon himself (which no dart of error has the power to pierce).
7. How happy is he who having nothing, no wealth nor support, has yet
his all by thinking himself as the all intelligent soul.
8. The idea that this is pleasurable and the other is painful, being
the sole cause of all pains and anxiety, it is the consuming of these
feelings by the fire of our indifference to them, that prevents the
access of pain and affliction unto us.
9. Use, Oh King! the weapon of your restless anaesthesia (samádhi), and
cut in twain the feeling of the agreeable and disagreeable, and pare
asunder your sensation of love and hatred by the sword of your manly
equanimity.
10. Clear the entangled jungle of ceremonious rites (karma kanda), by
the tool of your disregard of the merit or demerit of acts (dharma
adharma); and relying in the tenuity of your soul (as rarer than the
rarefied air), shake off all sorrow and grief from you.
11. Knowing thy soul to be full of all worldly possessions, and driving
all differences from thy mind, bind thyself solely to reason (viveka)
and be free from all fabrications (kalpaná) of mankind; know the
supreme bliss of the soul, and be as perfect and unfailing as itself,
and being embodied in the intellectual mind, remain quite calm and
transparent, and aloof from all the fears and cares of the world.
CHAPTER CXX.
CONTINUATION OF THE SAME. ON THE SEVEN STAGES OF EDIFICATION.
Argument:--The three stages of the seekers of Liberation, and the three
others of the Liberated.
Manu continued:--Enlightenment of the understanding by the study of the
sástras and attendance on holy and wise men, is said to be the first
stage of yoga by yogis. (These seven stages have been spoken of before
in other words in the Utpatti-prakarana).
2. Discussion and reconsideration of what has been learnt before, is
second stage of yoga; the third is the rumination of the same in one's
self and is known under the name of _nididhyásana_ or self-communion
of meditation. The fourth is silent meditation in which one loses his
desires and darkness in his presence before the light of God. (This
is called the atmásakshyat kara also; and all these four stages are
expressed in the vedic text. [Sanskrit: átmáváre svítavá mantabá
nididhyásitava karttavasveti]).
3. The fifth stage is one of pure consciousness and felicity, wherein
the living-liberated-devotee remains in his partly waking and partly
sleeping state. (This is half hypnotism).
4. The sixth stage in one's consciousness of ineffable bliss, in which
he is absorbed in a state of trance or sound sleep. (This is known as
samádhi or hypnotism).
5. One's resting in the fourth and succeeding stages, is called his
liberation, and then the seventh stage is the state of an even and
transparent light, in which the devotee loses his self consciousness.
6. The state above turya or fourth stage, is called _nirvána_ or
extinction in God; and the seventh stage of perfection relates to
disembodied souls only and not to those of living beings.
7. The first three stages relate to the waking state of man, and the
fourth stage concerns the sleeping state, in which the world appears in
the manner of a dream.
8. The fifth stage is the stage of sound sleep, in which the soul is
drowned in deep felicity; and the unconsciousness of one's self in the
sixth stage, is also called his turya or fourth state: (because it is
beyond the three states of waking, sleeping or dreaming and sound sleep
[Sanskrit: jagatnidrasusuptáh]).
9. The seventh stage is still above the _turya_ state of
self-unconsciousness; and which is full of divine effulgence, whose
excellence no words can express nor the mind can conceive.
10. In this state the mind being withdrawn from its functions, it is
freed from all thoughts of the thinkables, and all its doubts and cares
are drowned in the calm composure of its even temperament.
11. The mind that remains unmoved amidst its passions and enjoyments,
and is unchanged in prosperity and adversity, and retains full
possession of itself under all circumstances, becomes of this nature
both in its embodied and disembodied states of life and death.
12. The man that does not think himself to be alive or dead, or to be a
reality or otherwise; but always remains joyous in himself, is one who
is verily called to be liberated in his life time. (The happy minded
are accounted as liberated in life).
13. Whether engaged in business or retired from it, whether living with
a family or leading a single life (_i.e._ whether leading a social or
solitary mode of life), the man that thinks himself as naught but the
intellect, and has nothing to fear or care or to be sorry for in this
world, is reckoned as liberated in this life.
14. The man who thinks himself to be unconnected with any one, and to
be free from disease, desire, and affections; and who believes himself
to be a pure aerial substance of the divine intellect, has no cause to
be sorry for anything.
15. He who knows himself to be without beginning and end, and decay and
demise, and to be of the nature of pure intelligence; remains always
quiet and composed in himself, and has no cause for sorrow at all.
16. He that deems himself to belong to that intellect, which dwells
alike in the minute blade of grass, as well as in the infinite space
of the sky, and in the luminous sun, moon and stars, and as also in
the various races of beings, as men, Nágas and immortals; has no cause
whatever for his sorrow.
17. Whoso knows the majesty of the divine intellect, to fill all the
regions both above and below and on all sides of him, and reflects
himself as a display of his endless diversity, how can he be sorry at
all for his decay and decline.
18. The man that is bound to (or enslaved by his desire), is delighted
to have the objects he seeks; but the very things tending to his
pleasure by their gain, prove to be painful to his heart at their loss.
(Hence the wise are never elated or dejected, at either gain or loss of
temporal things, but are ever pleased and content with their spiritual
souls only which they can never lose).
19. The presence or absence of some thing, is the cause of the pleasure
or pain of men in general; but it is either the curtailment or want of
desires that is practiced by the wise. (The diminishing of desires is
practiced by yogis in the fourth and its two succeeding stages; but its
utter annihilation occurs only in the seventh and last stage of yoga).
20. No act of ours nor its result (whether good or bad), conduces
either to our joy or grief, which we do with unconcern or little desire
or expectation of its reward.
21. Whatever act is done with ardent employment of the members of the
body, and the application of the whole heart, mind and soul to it, such
an act tends to bind a man; otherwise an indifferent action like a
fried grain, does not germinate into any effect.
22. The thought that I am the doer and owner of a deed, overpowers all
bodily exertions, and sprouts fourth with results, that are forever
binding on the doer (_i.e._ an indifferent action may pass for nothing,
but a conscious and meditated act is binding on the actor).
23. As the moon is cool with her cooling beams; and the sun is hot by
his burning heat; so a man is either good or bad according as the work
he does.
24. All acts which are done or left undone, are as fugacious as the
flying cotton on cotton trees; they are easily put to flight by the
breath of understanding (Jnána or wisdom). All the acts of men are lost
by discontinuance of their practice (as in Jnána khanda).
25. The germ of knowledge growing in the mind, increases itself day by
day, as the corn sown in good ground soon shoots forth into the paddy
plant.
26. There is one universal soul, that sparkles through all things in
the world, as it is the same translucent water, that glistens in lake
and large oceans and seas.
27. Withhold sir, your notions of the varieties and multiplicities of
things, and know these as parts of one undivided whole, which stretches
through them as their essence and soul.
CHAPTER CXXI.
CONTINUATION OF THE SAME.
Argument.--The causes of the Elevation and degradation of living being.
Manu continued:--The soul is originally full of bliss by its nature,
but being subject to ignorance, it fosters its vain desire for temporal
enjoyment, whence it has the name of the living soul (which is
subjected to misery). This corresponds with the scriptural doctrine,
that man was originally made in the image of his Maker (_i.e._ full of
bliss); but being tempted by delusion to taste the forbidden sweetness,
became the mortal and miserable human soul.
2. But when the desire of pleasure, is lessened by the _viveka_ or
discriminative knowledge of man, he forsakes his nature of a living and
mortal being, and his soul becomes one with the supreme spirit. (Man by
his knowledge retrieves his godly nature).
3. Do not therefore allow your desire of earthly enjoyment, to draw
your soul up and down to heaven and hell; as a bucket tied in its neck
with a cord, is cast down and again lifted up from a well.
4. Those selfish folks who claim something as theirs from that of
another, are grossly mistaken and led into error, and are destined like
the dragging bucket to descend lower and lower. (The more niggardliness
the more degradation or the more selfishness the greater baseness).
5. He who gets rid of his knowledge that, this is I and that is
another, and that this is mine and that is the others, gradually
rises higher and higher according to his greater disinterestedness.
(Disinterestedness characterises an elevated mind).
6. Delay not to rely your dependance in your enlightened and elevated
soul, stretching over and filling the whole space of the sky, end
comprehending all the worlds in it. (This magnanimity is characteristic
of the catholicity of Hindu religion).
7. When the human mind is thus elevated and expanded beyond all limits,
it then approaches the divine mind, and is assimilated to it. (This
extinction is called its nirvána).
8. Any one who has arrived to this state, may well think in himself to
be able to effect whatever was done by the Gods Brahmá, Vishnu, Indra
(by his intellectual body Varuna and others; who were of such elevated
souls and minds).
9. Whatever acts are attributed to any of the Gods or other persons, is
no more than the display of divine pleasure in that form.
10. Whoso is assimilated to the divine intellect, and has become
deathless and unmindful of his mortal state, has a share of supreme
felicity for his enjoyment, which bears no comparison: (unspeakable
delight attends on the soul of the spiritualist).
11. Continue to think this world as neither a vacuum nor a plenum; nor
a material or spiritual substance. It is neither an intellectual being,
nor a quite insensible thing.[A]
[A] Should you think it a nullity by the Sruti which says _neti-neti_
it is naught, you deny the creatorship of God, who has created it as
something substantial and tangible.
Again on the other hand, if you consider it as a hypostatic reality,
you introduce in that case positive duality, beside the reality of
one unity alone. So every other position being liable to objection,
you must think it as neither the one nor the other, but as something
incomprehensible, or reflexion of the Divine Mind.
12. By thinking in this way, you will have composure of your
disposition, or else there is no separate place or time or condition
for your liberation or salvation.
13. It is by the absence of our egoism and ignorance, that we get rid
of our personal existence, and it is our contemplation of the nature
of God, and his presence before us in our meditation (sákshat kára) of
him, that constitutes our _moksha_ or liberation.
14. It is the even delight and perpetual tranquillity of the soul, that
constitutes our bliss and liberation; and these are to be obtained by
means of calm and cool reasoning in the sense of sástras, avoiding all
impatience and fickleness of our mind and temper, and the pleasure
derived from our taste in poetry and light studies and trifling
amusement. (It requires us to be free from the fluctuations of our
desires and options of which there is no end).
CHAPTER CXXII.
THE SAME. MANU'S ADMONITION TO IKSHAKU.
Argument.--On the Elevation of Humanity and its ultimate liberation.
Manu continued:--Now the living liberated yogi, in whatever manner
he is clad, and however well or ill fed he may be, and wherever he
may sleep or lay down his humble head, he rests with the joy of his
mind, and in a state of perfect ease and blissfulness, as if he were
the greatest emperor of the world. (Hence the fakirs are called _shah
sahibs_ by people).
2. He breaks down all the bonds of his caste and creed, and the rites
and restraints of his order by the battery of the sástra; and roves
freed from the snare of society, as a lion breaking loose from his
cage, and roaming rampant every where. (Here the sástra means the
upanishads on the esoteric faith of spiritual freedom).
3. He has his mind abstracted from all sensible objects, and fixed on
an object which no words can express (_i.e._ the unspeakable rapture of
his mind); and he shines forth with a grace in his face, resembling the
clearness of an autumnal sky.
4. He is always as deep and clear (_i.e._ grave in his mind and clear
headed), as a large lake in a valley; and being rapt in holy and
heavenly joy, he is always cheerful in himself, without his care for or
want of anything else.
5. He is ever content in his mind without having anything for his
dependance, or any expectation of the reward of his actions; and is
neither addicted to any meritorious or unworthy acts, nor subject to
joy or grief for aught of pleasure or pain.
6. As a piece of crystal does not receive or emit any other colour
in its reflexion, excepting that of its pure whiteness; so the
spiritualist is not imbued with the tinge of the effects of his
actions. (_i.e._ The spiritualist does not benefit by the retribution
of his acts).
7. He remains indifferent in human society, and is not affected either
by the torture or subministration of his body; he deems his pain
and pleasure as passing on his shadow, and never takes them to his
heart, as they do not touch his intangible soul. (It was by virtue of
this indifference, that the holy saints did not shrink under their
persecutions and martyrdom).
8. Whether honoured or slighted by men, he neither praises nor
is displeased with them; and remains himself either connected or
unconnected with the customs and rules of society.
9. He hurts no body, nor is hurt by any; and may be free from the
feelings of anger or affection, fear and joy (and other passions which
are allotted to humanity).
10. No one can have the greatness of mind of his own nature, but it is
possible for the author of nature, to raise the greatness of mind even
in a boy.
11. Whether a man quits his body (dies) in a holy place, or in the
house of a low chandála; or whether one dies at this moment (in youth),
or many years afterwards (in old age).
12. He is released from his bondage to life, no sooner he comes to his
knowledge of the soul and gets rid of his desires; because the error of
his egoism is the cause of his bondage, and the wasting of it by his
knowledge, is the means of his liberation.
13. He the living liberated man is to be honoured and praised, and to
be bowed down to with veneration, and regarded with every attention, by
every one who is desirous of his prosperity and elevation. (Because we
honour ourselves by honouring the great).
14. No religious sacrifice nor wilful austerity, no charity nor
pilgrimage, can lead us to that supremely holy state of human dignity;
which is attainable by us only by our respectful attendance upon the
godly, who have got rid of the troubles of the world. (Hence attendance
on saints and at their holy shrines, is accounted as productive of our
sanctity).
15. Vasishtha said:--The venerable sage Manu, having spoken in this
manner, departed to the celestial abode of his sire Brahmá; and Ikshaku
continued to act according to the precepts, which were delivered to him
by the sacred seer.
CHAPTER CXXIII.
ON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE KNOWING AND UNKNOWING.
Argument.--Theoretical and Practical Yogas and the practices of Aerial
journey &c.
Ráma said:--Tell me sir, that art most learned in spiritual knowledge,
whether the living liberated man of this kind (as you have described)
attains to any extraordinary power; (or remains neutral with his
theoretical knowledge of yoga only).
2. Vasishtha replied:--The all-knowing sage, has sometimes a greater
knowledge of one thing than another, and has his mind directed in one
particular way than any other; but the learned seer of a contented
mind, has his soul quite at rest in itself.
3. There are many that have by their consummate knowledge of particular
mantras, tantras, and the virtues of certain minerals, attained the
power of aerial flight &c.; but what is there that is extraordinary
in these (when these powers are in constant practice in the flight of
ordinary birds and flies?).
4. So the powers of self-expansion and contraction &c., have been
acquired by others by their constant practice of the same, (anima,
laghima and the like), which are disregarded by other seers in
spiritual knowledge.
5. There is this difference of these knowing seers, from the bulk
of idle practitioners in yoga, that they are content with their
dispassionate mind, without placing any reliance in practice.
6. This is verily the sign of the unconspicuous seer in yoga, that he
is always cool and calm in his mind, and freed from all the errors of
the world; and in whom the traces of the passions of love and anger,
sorrow and illusion and the mischances of life are scarcely visible.
CHAPTER CXXIV.
THE STORY OF THE STAG AND THE HUNTSMAN.
Argument.--Degradation of the divine soul of man to the state of the
animal soul.
Vasishtha said:--Know now that the Lord (Divine soul), stops to take
upon itself of the nature of the living or animal soul, as a Brahman
(by birth) assumes the character of a vile sudra for some mean
purpose, by disregarding the purity of its original nature. (This is
the degradation of the lordly and blissful soul, to the state of the
sensitive animal soul, by reason of its meaner propensity).
2. There are two kinds of living beings, that come into existence in
the beginning of the repeated creations; the one coming into existence
without any causality, and are thence called to be causeless or
uncaused (such as that is they are not made like pots and the like
(_ghatádi_)), by means of the instrumental causality of the potters
wheel, stick &c.
3. Thus the soul emanating from the Divine, is subjected to various
transmigrations, and becomes many kinds of beings (in succession),
according to its previous acts and propensities. (Thus it is the
tendency of the soul towards good or evil, that is the cause of its
rise and fall or elevation or degradation).
4. All beings emanate originally without any cause, from the source of
the divine essence; and then their actions become the secondary cause
of continuous transmigrations (until the end of the world). (All souls
are bound to their revolutions in repeated births, until their final
extinction in the deity on the last day of resurrection, or by their
prior liberation by _mukti_ or _nirvána_).
5. The personal acts of men, are the causes both of their happiness as
well as misery; and again the will which is produced by the conscious
knowledge of one's self, becomes the cause of the action (_i.e._ the
will proceeding from one's consciousness of himself, is the cause of
his action, which again becomes the cause of his pleasure or pain as
its result).
6. Now this will or desire of any action or fruition, being likewise
the cause of one's bondage to this world, it is to be got rid of for
his liberation from it; and this what they call _moksha_, is no more
than our release from the bond of our desire. (Every wish enchains the
soul to earth, and drags it along to repeated birth).
7. Be therefore careful to make your choice of what is right and
proper, from whatever is wrong and improper; and try betimes to
contract your wishes within the narrowest scale.
8. Do not let yourself to be possessor or possest of any thing or
person, but give up thinking on anything, beside what remains after
the thoughts of all other things. (_i.e._ Think alone of thine and the
supreme soul, which remains in the absence of everything else).
9. Anything to which the senses are addicted at all times, serves to
bind the soul the more that it has its zest for the same; as also to
unbind and release the mind in proportion to the distaste which it
bears to it. (_i.e._ Love a thing to be enslaved to it, and hate the
same to be saved from it).
10. If there is anything which is pleasing to thy soul, know the same
as thy binding string to the earth; if on the contrary thou findest
nothing to thy liking here, you are then freed from the trammels of all
the trifles on earth.
11. Therefore let nothing whatever tempt or beguile thy mind, to
anything existent in either the animate or inanimate kind; and regard
everything from a mean straw to a great idol as unworthy of thy regard.
12. Think not thyself to be either the doer or giver, or eater or
offerer, of whatsoever thou doest or givest, or eatest or offerest in
thy holy oblations of the Gods; but art quite aloof from all thy bodily
actions, owing to the immaterial nature of thy self or soul.
13. Concern not thyself with thy past acts, or thy cares for future,
over which thou hast no command; but discharge well thy present duties,
as they are and come to thy hand.
14. All the feelings and passions of men, as their appetites, desires
and the rest, are strung together with their hearts; and therefore it
is requisite to sever these heart strings with the weapon of a brave
and strong heart (because the feelings are fostered in weak hearts and
minds only).
15. Now break your sensuous mind by the power of your reasoning mind,
and restrain its rage of running into errors; as they break the iron
pegs by force of iron hammers (and remove one thing by another of the
same kind--similia similibus curantur.)
16. So intelligent men rub out one dirt by another, and remove one
poison by another poisonous substance; and so do soldiers oppose one
steel by a weapon of the same metal.
17. All living beings have a triple form, composed of the subtile,
solid and the imperceptible spiritual bodies; now lay hold and rely on
the last, in utter disregard of the two former.
18. The solid or gross body, is composed of the hands, feet and
other members and limbs; and subsist in this nether world upon its
subsistence of food only.
19. The living being has an intrinsic body also, which is derived from
within; and is composed of all its wishes in the world, and is known as
the mental or intellectual part of the body.
20. Know the third form to be the transcendental or spiritual body,
which assumes all forms, and is the simple intellectual soul; which is
without its beginning or end, and without any alteration in its nature.
21. This is the pure turya state, wherein you must remain steadfast as
in that of your living liberation; and reject the two others, in which
you must place no reliance.
22. Ráma said:--I have understood the three definite states, of waking,
dreaming, and sound sleep, as they have been defined to me; but the
fourth state of _turya_ is yet left undefined, and I beg you to explain
it clearly unto me.
23. Vasishtha answered:--It is that state of the mind, in which the
feelings of one's egoism and non-egoism, and those of his existence and
inexistence are utterly drowned under a total impassibility; and the
mind is settled in one invariable and uniform tenor of tranquillity and
transparency.
24. It is that state in which the selfish feelings of mine and thine,
are altogether wanting; and in which one remains as a mere witness and
spectator of the affairs of life. This is the _turya_ state of living
liberation. (It is the state of a philosopher who lives to see and
philosophise and mix with nothing).
25. This is neither the state of waking, owing to its want of any wish
or concern, nor it is the state of sound sleep, which is one of perfect
insensibility.
26. It is that calmness in which the wise man sees every thing, to be
going on in the world; and it is like the state of insensibility of the
ignorant, in which they perceive no stir in the course of the world.
(The calmness of the wise like the dullness of others is their _turya_
also).
27. The evenness of the mind after subsidence of every jot of its
egotism in it, like the setting of the turbid waters underneath, is the
_turya_ state of the _insouciance_ of the soul.
28. Hear me relate to you an instance on this subject, which will
confer as clear a light to your enlightened mind, as that of all seeing
Gods.
29. It happened once that a huntsman, roaming for his prey in some part
of a forest, chanced to see a sage sitting silent in his solitude; and
thinking it as something strange, he accosted him saying:--
30. Have you seen, O sage, a wounded stag flying before me this way,
with an arrow fixed in its back?
31. The sage replied:--You ask me, where your stag has fled; but my
friend, know that sages like ourselves and living in the forest, are as
cool as blocks of stone (and insensible of every occurrence on earth).
32. We want that egoism which enables one, in conducting the
transactions of the world; and know my friend, that it is the mind,
which conducts all the actions of the senses. (All actions of the
organs of senses being under the direction of the mind, as well as all
sensible perceptions under its attention).
33. Know that the feeling of my egoism, has been long before dissolved
in my mind; and I have no perception whatever of the three states of
waking, dreaming and sound sleep. But I rest quiet in my fourth state
of impossibility, wherein there is no vision of the visibles.
34. The huntsman heard these words of the sage, but being quite at a
loss to comprehend its meaning, he departed to his own way without
uttering a word.
35. I tell you therefore, O Ráma, there is no other state beyond the
fourth or _turya_ quietism; it is that unalterable impassivity of the
mind, which is not to be found in any other.
36. The waking, dreaming and sound sleep, are the three palpable
conditions of the mind; and these are respectively the dark, quiet and
insensible states, in which the mind is situated in this world.
37. The waking state presents us the dark complexion of the mind, for
its susceptibility of all the passions and evils of life; and the
sleeping state shows us its quiet aspect, for want of its cares and
anxieties.
38. The state of sound sleep is one of insensibility, and the state
beyond these three bears the feature of death in it. Yet this dead
like figure possesses the principle of life in it, which is diligently
preserved by yogis from harm and decay.
39. Now Ráma, the soul which remains in its quiet rest, after its
renunciation of all desire, is said by sages to be in the coma or cool
calmness of itself, and the liberated state of the holy and devout yogi
on earth.
CHAPTER CXXV.
THE MEANS OF ATTAINING THE STEADINESS OF THE TURYA STATE.
Argument.--The means of attaining stability on Insouciance.
Vasishtha resumed:--Know Ráma, that the conclusion which is arrived at
in all works on spiritual philosophy, is the negation of every thing
except the entity of the supreme soul; and that there is no principle
of ignorance (avidyá) nor that of delusion (máyá), as a secondary agent
under one quiescent Brahma, who is ever without a second.
2. The spirit of the Lord is always calm, with the serene brightness of
the divine Intellect in itself; it is full of its omnipotence, and is
attributed with the appellation of Brahma.
3. The Divine Spirit is ascertained by some as the formless vacuum
itself, and by others as omniscience, and is called as the Lord God by
most people in the world.
4. Do you avoid all these, O sinless Ráma, and remain quite silent in
yourself, and be extinct in the divine essence, by restraining the
actions of your heart and mind and by the tranquillity of your soul.
5. Have a quiet soul in yourself, and remain as a deaf and dumb man in
your outward appearance; look always within yourself, and be full with
the Divine Spirit.
6. Discharge the duties of your waking state, as if you are doing them
in your sound sleep; forsake every thing in your inward mind, and do
whatever comes to thee outwardly, without taking any into thy heart.
7. The essence of the mind is only for one's misery, as its want
is for his highest felicity; therefore the mind must be drowned in
the intelligent soul, by destroying the action of the mental powers
altogether.
8. Remain as cold as a stone, at the sight of anything, which is
either delightsome or disgusting to thee; and by this means learn to
subdue everything in the world under thy control.
9. The objective is neither for our pleasure or pain, nor is it the
intermediate state of the two; therefore it is by diligent attention to
the subjective, that we can attain the end of all our misery. (Live to
thyself alone and unmindful of all others, in order to be completely
blest).
10. He who has known the supreme soul, has found within himself a
delight; resembling the cooling beams of the full bright moon; and
being possest of the full knowledge of the essence of all things in the
three worlds, performs his parts in a manner as he did not attend to
them.
CHAPTER CXXVI.
DESCRIPTION OF THE SPIRITUAL STATE.
Argument:--The seven stages of yoga Meditation, and the true state of
spirituality.
Ráma said:--Tell me sir, the practices of the seven stages of yoga; and
the characteristics of yogis in every stage.
2. Vasishtha related:--Know Ráma, mankind to be divided into two
classes of the zealous and resigned (_i.e._ the active and the
inactive); the one expectant of heavenly reward, and the other inclined
to supreme felicity. Know now their different characters as follows:--
3. Those that are addicted to enjoyments, think the quietude of
_nirvána_ as nothing to their purpose, and give preference to
worldliness above the final bliss of others; and he that acts his part
on this sense, is styled an active and energetic man.
4. Such a man of the world bears his resemblance to a tortoise, which
though it has its neck well hid in its shell, still stretches it out to
drink the salt water of the sea it inhabits; until after many births,
he gets a better life for his salvation (as when the tortoise is
removed to a lake of fresh water).
5. But he who reflects on the nothingness of the world, and the
uselessness of his situation in it; such a man does not allow himself
to be carried on, by the current of his old and rotatory course of
duties here in day after day.
6. And he who reflects in himself, after being released from the burden
of his business, on the delight of his rest after labour, he is the man
who is said to repose in his quiescence.
7. When a man comes to reconnoitre in himself, how he shall become
dispassionate, and get over the boisterous ocean of the world; such a
man is said to have come to his good and right sense, and to stand on
the way to his tolerance.
8. He who has an unfeelingness in his heart, of the very many thoughts
that daily rise in his mind; and manages his gravest and greatest
concerns, without being much concerned about them in his mind; each a
man is said to taste the delight of his stayedness day by day.
9. He who condemns the rustic amusements and mean employments of men;
and instead of taking up the faults and failings of others for his
merry talk, employs himself to meritorious acts.
10. Whose mind, is engaged in agreeable tasks and unpainsome acts; who
is afraid of sin, and disdains all pleasures and bodily enjoyments.
11. Whose discourses are full of love and tenderness, and appropriate
without any harshness; and whose speeches are suitable to the time and
place in which they are delivered.
12. Such a man is said to stand on the first step of yoga, when he
makes it his duty to attend the society of the good and great, whom he
learns to imitate in his thoughts, words, and actions.
13. He collects also the work on divine learning from every where, and
reads with attention and diligence; he then considers their contexts,
and lays hold on the tenets, which serve to save him from this sinful
world.
14. Such a man is said to have come upon the (first) stage of yoga,
or else he is a hypocrite who assumes the guise of a yogi for his own
interest only. The yogi then comes to the next step of yoga, which is
styled the stage of investigation--_Vichára_.
15. He then hears from the mouths of the best pandits, the explanations
of the srutis and smritis, the rules of good conduct, and the manner of
meditation and conduct of yoga practice.
16. He then learns the divisions of categories and distinction of
things, together with the difference between actions that are to be
done or avoided; all which being heard from the mouth of an adept
in yoga, will facilitate his course through the other stages, in
like manner as the master of a house enters with facility into every
apartment of his dwelling. (The guidance of a _guru_ or spiritual
guide, is essential to the practice of yoga).
17. He wears off his outer habit of pride and vanity, his jealousy
and avarice, and the other passions which formed as it were an outer
garment of his person, as a snake casts off his slough from him.
18. Having thus purified his mind (from the vile passions), he attends
to the service of his spiritual preceptors and holy persons, and makes
himself acquainted with the mysteries of religion. (This is the second
stage of yoga, which is one of moral discipline and search after truth).
19. He then enters into the third stage of unsociality or avoidance
of all company, which he finds to be as agreeable to him as a bed of
flowers. (Lit.: a bedstead be strewn with flowers).
20. Here he learns to fix his mind to its steadiness, according to the
dictates of the sástras; and passes his time in talking on spiritual
subjects, in society of hermits and devotees.
21. He sits also with the dispassionate _Vairágis_, and religious
recluses _sanyásis_ who are disgusted with the world; and relying on
the firm rock of his faith, he wears out his long life with ease.
22. He passes his moral life with cheerful delight of his loneliness,
and pleasing tranquillity of his mind in his woodland retreat and
wanderings.
23. By study of holy books and performance of religious acts, he gets a
clear view of things, as it generally attends upon the virtuous lives
of men.
24. The sensible man who has arrived to the third stage of his yoga
practice, perceives in himself two kinds of his unconnectedness with
the world, as you will now hear from me.
25. Now this disconnection of one with all others is of two sorts, one
of which is his ordinary disassociation with all persons and things,
and the other is his absolute unconnection with every thing including
himself. (_i.e._ One's entire irrelation with both the subjective and
objective).
26. The ordinary unconnection is the sense of one's being neither
the subject or object of his action, nor of his being the slayer of
or slain by anybody; but that all accidents are incidental to his
prior acts (of past lives), and all dependant to the dispensations of
Providence.
27. It is the conviction that, I have no control over my happiness or
misery or pain or pleasure; and that all prosperity and adversity,
employment and privation, and health and disease, ever betide me of
their own accord.
28. All union is for its disunion, and all gain is for its loss; so the
health and disease and pain and pleasure come by turns, and there is
nothing which is not succeeded by its reverse. Because time with its
open jaws, is ever ready to devour all things.
29. The negative idea of inexistence, which is produced in the mind,
from our want of reliance in the reality of things; is the very sense
which is conveyed by the phrase of our ordinary unconnection with all
things.
30. With this sort of the disunion of every thing in the mind, and our
union with the society of high minded men; and disassociation with the
vile and unrighteous, and association with spiritual knowledge:--
31. These joined with the continual exertion of our manliness in our
habitual practice of these virtues, one assuredly arrives to the
certain knowledge of what he seeks (_i.e._ his god), as clearly as he
sees a globe set in his hands.
32. The knowledge of the supreme author of creation, sitting beyond the
ocean of the universe, and watching over its concerns; impresses us
with the belief, that it is not I but God that does every thing in the
world, and that there is nothing that is done here by me, but by the
great God Himself.
33. Having left aside the thought of one's self agency on any act,
whoso sits quiet silent and tranquil in himself, such a one is said to
be absolutely unconnected with every thing in the world.
34. He that does not reside within or without anything, nor dwells
above or beneath any object; who is not situated in the sky, or in
any side or part of the all surrounding air and space; who is not in
anything or in nothing, and neither in gross matter nor in the sensible
spirit.
35. Who is present and manifest in every thing, without being expressed
in any; and who pervades all things like the clear firmament, who is
without beginning and end and birth and death. Whoso seeks this Lord of
all, is said to be set in the best part of this stage.
36. Contentment is as sweet fragrance in the mind, and virtuous acts
are as handsome as the leaves of a flower; the heart string is as stalk
beset by the thorns of cares and anxieties, and thralls with the gusts
of dangers and difficulties.
37. The flower of inward discrimination, is expanded like the
lotus-bud, by the sun-beams of reason, and produces the fruit of
resignation in the garden of the third stage of yoga-practice.
38. As it is by association with holy men, and by means of the
assemblage of virtuous acts, that one arrives on a sudden to the first
stage of yoga:--
39. So is this first step to be preserved with care, and grown up like
a tender sprout, with the watering of reasoning at its root (in order
to lead it to the succeeding steps or stages).
40. The yoga practitioner like a good gardener, must foster the rising
plant of spiritual knowledge, by the daily application of reasoning
to every part of it. (The parts of the plant of spirituality, are its
dispassionateness, unworldliness and the like, which require to be
reared up by proper reasoning).
41. This stage being well managed, and all its parts being properly
performed, introduces the succeeding stages (all of which depend on the
first as their basis).
42. Now the better state of the third stage, as it has been already
described, is one of all desires and arrogations in the mind of the
yogi.
43. Ráma said:--Now tell me sir, what is the way of the salvation of an
ignorant man, of one of a base birth, and addicted to baseness himself;
who has never associated with the yogis, nor received any spiritual
instruction.
44. Who has never ascended on any of the first, second or succeeding
stages of yoga, and is dead in the like state of ignorance in which he
was born.
45. Vasishtha replied:--The ignorant man that has never attained to
any of the states of yoga in his whole life, is carried by the current
of his transmigration to rove in a hundred births, until he happens by
some chance or other, to get some glimpse of spiritual light in any one
of them.
46. Or it may be that one happens to be dissatisfied with the world,
by his association with holy men; and the resignation which springs
thereby, becomes the ground of one of the stages of his yoga.
47. By this means, the man is saved from this miserable world; because
it is the united voice of all the sástras, that an embodied being is
released from death, no sooner he has passed through any one stage of
yoga (or union with his maker).
48. The performance of a part only of some of the stages of yoga,
is enough for the remission of past sins; and for conducting the
expurgated person to the celestial abode in a heavenly car. (The wicked
man turning from his wickedness, and doing what is right and saveth his
soul).
49. He enjoys the Parnassian groves of Sumeru in company with his
beloved, when the weight of his righteous acts, outweighs those of
unrighteousness.
50. The yogi, released from the trap of his temporal enjoyments, and
has passed his allotted period; expires in due time, to be reborn
in the houses of yogis and rich men, or in the private mansions of
learned, good and virtuous people.
51. Being thus born, he betakes himself to the habitual practice of the
yoga of his former birth; and has the wisdom to begin at once at the
stage to which he was practiced, and which was left unfinished before
(hence arises the difference in the capacities of youth).
52. These three stages, Ráma, are designated the waking state; because
the yogi retains in them his perception of the differences of things,
as a waking man perceives the visible to differ from one another.
53. Men employed in yoga acquire a venerable dignity (in their very
appearance), which induce the ignorant to wish for their liberation
also (in order to attain to the same rank).
54. He is reckoned a venerable man, who is employed in all honorable
deeds, and refrains from what is dishonourable, who is steadfast in the
discharge of all his social duties, whether they are of the ordinary
kind or occasional ones.
55. He who acts according to customary usage, and the ordinances
of sástras; who act conscientiously and according to his position;
and thus dispenses all his affairs in the world, is verily called a
venerable man.
56. The venerableness of yogis germinates in the first stage, it
blossoms in the second, and becomes fruitful in the third stage of yoga.
57. The venerable yogi dying in state of yoga, comes first to enjoy the
fruition of good desires for a long time (in his next birth); and then
becomes a yogi again (for the completion of his yoga).
58. The practice of the parts enjoyed in the three first stages of
yoga, serves to destroy at first the ignorance of the yogi, and then
sheds the light of true knowledge in his mind, as brightly as the beams
of full-moon illume the sky at night.
59. He who devotes his mind to yoga, with his undivided attention from
first to last, and sees all things in one even and same light, is said
to have arrived to the fourth stage of yoga.
60. As the mistake of duality disappears from sight, and the knowledge
of unity shines supremely bright; the yogi is said in this state to
have reached the fourth stage of yoga, when he sees the world as a
vision in his dream.
61. The first three stages, are represented as the waking state of the
yogi; but the fourth is said to be the state of his dreaming, when the
visibles disappear from his sight; as the dispersed clouds of autumn
gradually vanish from sight, and as the scenes in a dream recede to
nothingness.
62. They are said to be in the fifth stage, who have their minds lying
dormant in them, and insensible of their bodily sensations. This is
called the sleeping state or hypnotism of yoga meditation.
63. In this state there is an utter stop of feelings, of the endless
varieties of things and their different species, in the mind of the
yogi, who relies in his consciousness of an undivided unity only;
and whose sense of a duality is entirely melted down and lost in the
cheerfulness of his wakeful mind.
64. The fifth stage is likewise a state of sound sleep, when the yogi
loses all his external perceptions, and sits quiet with his internal
vision within himself.
65. The continued sedateness of his posture, gives him the appearance
of his dormancy, and the yogi continues in this position, the practice
of the mortification of all his desires.
66. This step leads gradually to the sixth stage, which is a state of
insensibility both of the existence and inexistence of things as also
of one's egoism and non-egoism (of his own entity and non-entity).
67. The yogi remains unmindful of everything, and quite unconscious
of the unity or duality, and by being freed from every scruple and
suspicion in his mind, he arrives to the dignity of living liberation.
(This tetrastich is based on the sruti which says, [Sanskrit: bhidyate
hadayagranyi, chidyate svvammshyayah tasmindvashte parávare]).
68. The yogi of this sort though yet inextinct or living, is said to be
extinct or dead to his sensibility; he sits as a pictured lamp which
emits no flame, and remains with a vacant heart and mind like an empty
cloud hanging in the empty air.
69. He is full within and without him, with and amidst the fulness of
divine ecstasy, like a full pot in a sea; and possest of some higher
power, yet he appears as worthless on the outside.
70. After passing his sixth grade, the yogi is led to the seventh
stage; which is styled a state of disembodied liberation, from its
purely spiritual nature.
71. It is a state of quietude which is unapproachable (_i.e._
inexpressible) by words, and extends beyond the limits of this earth;
it is said to resemble the state of Siva by some, and that of Brahmá
by others. (The two views of the Tántrikas and Vedántists).
72. By some it is said to be the state of the androgyne deity, or the
indiscriminate of the male and female powers; while others have given
many other denominations to it, according to their respective fancies.
(The other systems have different appellations to designate this state).
73. The seventh is the state of the eternal and incomprehensible God,
and which no words can express nor explain in any way. Thus Ráma, have
I mentioned to you the seven stages of yoga (each branding the other in
its perfections).
74. By practice of these perfections, one evades the miseries of this
world; and it is by subjection of the indomitably elephantine senses,
that one can arrive to these perfections.
75. Hear me relate to you Ráma, of a furious elephant, which with its
protruded tusks, was ever ready to attack others.
76. And as this elephant was about to kill many men, unless it could
be killed by some one of them; so are the senses of men like ferocious
elephants of destruction to them.
77. Hence every man becomes victorious in all the stages of yoga, who
has the valour of destroying this elephant of its sensuality the very
first step of it.
78. Ráma said:--Tell me sir, who is this victorious hero in the field
of battle, and what is the nature of this elephant that is his enemy,
and what are these grounds of combat where he encounters him, and the
manner how he foils and kills this great foe of his.
79. Vasishtha replied:--Ráma! it is our concupiscence which has the
gigantic figure of this elephant, and which roams at random in the
forest of our bodies, and sports in the demonstrations of all our
passions and feelings.
80. It hides itself in the covert of our hearts, and has our acts for
its great tusks; its fury is our ardent desire of anything, and our
great ambition is its huge body.
81. All the scenes on earth are the fields for its battle, where men
are often foiled in their pursuit of any.
82. The elephant of concupiscence kills members of miserly and covetous
men, in the state of their wish or desire, or exertions and effort, or
longing and hankering after anything.
83. In this manner does this fierce greediness, lurk in the sheath
of human breast under the said several names, and it is only our
forbearance from those desires, that serves as the great weapon of
their destruction.
84. This ubiquious desire of our possession of everything in the world,
is conquered by reflection on the ubiquity of the soul in all of them;
and that the unity of my soul, stretches over and grasps all things
that I covet.
85. He is doomed to suffer under the colic pain of this venomous
avarice, who minds to continue in this world, in the manner as it goes
on with the rest of mankind.
86. It is the mitigation of the smart poison of avarice, that is our
highest wisdom, and it is our liberation, when the calm and cooling
countenance of inappetency appears to our sight.
87. Words of advice stick to the sapient mind, as drops of oil adhere
on glass mirror; and that our indifference to the world is the only
preventive of its thorns, and is the best advice to the wise.
88. It is as advisable to destroy a desire by the weapon of
indifference, no sooner it rises in the breast, as it is proper to root
out the sprout of a poisonous plant, before it spreads itself on the
ground.
89. The concupiscent soul, is never freed from its miserliness; while
the mere effort of one's indifference, makes it set quiet in itself
(without cringing at others).
90. It is by your carelessness about everything, and by your lying
down as supine as a dead carcass, that you can kill your desire by the
weapon of your indifference, as they catch and kill fishes with hooks
(by sitting silent beside some pond or lake).
91. Let this be mine or that I may have it, is what is called desire
by the wise; and the want of every desire for wealth &c., is called
resignation by them.
92. Know that the remembrance of some thing, is alike the desire of
having the same in one's possession again; and it includes both what
was enjoyed before or next.
93. O high minded Ráma, you must learn to remain as a block in your
mind, by forgetting whatever you think of or otherwise; all of which
must be buried in oblivion, for your estrangement from the world.
(Retire, the world shut out, imagination's airy wing repress--Young).
94. Who will not lift up his arms, and have his hairs standing at their
end, to hear and reflect in himself that, want of desire is the summum
bonum of every one's desire. (Desire of nothing is the most desirable
thing, is a paralogism in logic).
95. It is by sitting quite silent and quiet, that one attains to the
state of his supreme felicity, a state before which the sovereignty of
the world seems as a straw.
96. As a traveller traverses on foot through many regions, in order to
reach to his destination, so the yogi passes through all his ordinary
acts, to reach his goal of final bliss.
97. What is the good of using many words, when it can be expressed
in a few; that our desire is our strongest bondage, and its want our
complete liberation.
98. Now Ráma, rest quiet in your joy, with knowing that all this
creation is full of the increate, everlasting, undecaying and tranquil
spirit of God; and sit quiet and delighted in yourself with viewing the
visibles in their spiritual sense.
99. Know that it is the ignoring of every thing and the quiet posture
of the yogi, which is called as yoga by the spiritual; and continue to
discharge your duties even in your yoga state, until you get rid of
them by the privation of your desires.
100. It is also the unconsciousness of one's self, which is likewise
styled yoga by the wise; and it consists of the entire absorption
of one's self in the supreme, by wasting away his mind and all its
operations.
101. Again this self absorption is the conceiving of one's self, as he
is the all pervasive spirit of Siva, which is increate, self-conscious
and ever benevolent to all. This conception of one's self is tantamount
to his renunciation of every thing besides himself.
102. He who has the sense of his egoism and meism (_i.e._ that this is
I and these are mine), is never released from the miseries of life; it
is the negation of this sensation that produces our liberation, and
therefore it is at the option of every body, to do either this or that
for his bondage or salvation.
CHAPTER CXXVII.
ADMONITION TO BHARADWÁJA.
Argument:--Relation of the Quietude of Ráma, and the Queries of
Bharadwája; with further description of states of waking and others,
and of the ultimate turíya condition of the fourth stage of yoga.
Bharadwája asked:--Válmíki saying:--Tell me sir, what did Ráma do
after hearing the lecture of the sage; whether he with his enlightened
understanding put any other question, or remained in his ecstatic
quietude with his full knowledge of yoga and the supreme soul.
2. And what did next that supremely blest yogi (Vasishtha) do, who is
adored by all and honoured even by Gods; who is a personification of
pure understanding, and free from the state of birth and death; who is
fraught with every good quality and kindly disposed for ever to the
welfare and preservation of the peoples in all the three worlds.
3. Válmíki replied:--After hearing the lecture of Vasishtha, combining
the essence of the vedánta philosophy, the lotus-eyed Ráma became
perfectly acquainted with the full knowledge of yoga.
4. He felt the failing of his bodily strength, and the falling of the
members of his body, he stared with his glaring eyes, and his clear
intellect was shrouded under a cloud. He awoke in a moment from his
entranced state, and felt a flood of rapturous joy within himself.
5. He forgot the fashion of putting his questions, and hearing their
answers; his mind was full with the ambrosial draught of delight, and
the hairs of his body stood up like prickles in his horripilation.
6. An inexpressibly ineffable light overspreads his intellect with its
unusual glare; which cast the bright prospects of the eight dignities
of yoga into utter shade. (The eight dignities--(_ashta-siddhis_) are
so many perfections arrived at by practice of yoga).
7. In this way did Ráma attain the supereminent state of Siva, in which
he sat sedate without uttering a word.
8. Bharadwája said:--Oh! how much I wonder at such a high dignity,
which Ráma had attained; and how much I regret at the impossibility of
its attainment, by a dull and ignorant sinner as myself.
9. Tell me, O great sage, how it may be possible for me to attain to
that stage of perfection, which it is impossible for the gods Brahmá
and others to arrive at any time; and tell me likewise, how I may get
over the unfordable ocean of earthly troubles.
10. Válmíki replied:--It is by your perusal of the history of Ráma from
its first to last, and by your following the dictates of Vasishtha
as given in these lectures; as also by your consideration of their
true sense and purport in your understanding, that you may be able to
attain to the state that you desire. This is all that I can tell you at
present.
11. The world is an exhibition of our ignorance, and there is no
truth in aught that we see in it; it is a display of our error only,
wherefore it is entirely disregarded by the wise, and so much regarded
by fools.
12. There is no entity of anything here, beside that of the divine
Intellect; why then are you deluded by the visibles, learn their
secrets and have a clear understanding. (or have the clearness of your
understanding).
13. The perception of the delusive phenomenals, resembles the waking
dream of day dreamers; and he alone is said to be waking, who has the
lamp of his intellect ever burning within himself.
14. The world is based on vacuity, and it ends in vacuum also; its
midmost part being vacuous likewise, there is no reliance placed upon
it by the intelligent and wise.
15. Our primeval ignorance (avidyá) being accompanied by our primordial
desires, it presents all what is inexistent as existing in our
presence; just as our fancy paints an Utopia or fairy city to our view,
and as our sleep shows its multifarious dreams before us.
16. Being unpracticed to taste the sweet plantain of your beneficent
intellect, you are deluded greedily to devour the delirious drug of
your desire, and make yourself giddy with draughts of its poisonous
juice.
17. He who lays hold on true knowledge for his support, never falls
down into the pit of ignorance during his wakeful state; and those who
depend on their subjective consciousness alone (as in the _turíya_
or fourth stage of yoga), stand above all the other states (of
fallibility).
18. So long as the adepts in yoga, do not plunge themselves
(lit.--their souls), in the fresh and sweet waters of the great
fountain of their consciousness; they must be exposed to the boisterous
waves of the dangerous ocean of this world. (Spiritual knowledge alone
saves a man from the troubles of life).
19. That which has no existence before, nor will remain to exist
afterwards (such as all created and perishable things in the world);
must be understood to be inexistent in the interim also, as our night
dreams and fleeting thoughts that are never in being, and so is this
world and whatever is seen in it.
20. All things are born of our ignorance, as the bubbles are swollen by
the air; they glisten and move about for a moment, and then melt into
the sea of our knowledge.
21. Find out the stream of the cooling waters of your consciousness,
and plunge yourself deep into it; and drive out all external things
from you, as they shut out the warm and harmful sun-beams from their
houses.
22. The one ocean of ignorance surrounds and over floods the world,
as the single salt sea girds and washes the whole island; and the
distinctions of ego and tu etc., are the waves of this salt sea of our
erroneousness.
23. The emotions of the mind, and its various feelings and passions,
are the multiform billows of this sea of ignorance; our egoism or
selfishness is the great whirlpool, in which the self willed man is
hurled of his own accord.
24. His love and hatred are the two sharks, that lay hold of him in
their jaws; and drag him at last into the depth (or to his death),
which no body can prevent.
25. Go and plunge yourself in the calm and cooling sea of your
solitude, and wash your soul in the nectareous waters of your ambrosial
solity; dive and dive deep in the depth of unity, and fly from the salt
sea of duality, and the brackish waves of diversities.
26. Who is lasting in this world, and who is passing from it, who is
related to anyone, and what does one derive from another; why are
you drowned in your delusion, rise and be wakeful (to your spiritual
concerns).
27. Know thyself as that one and very soul, which is said to be
diffused all over the world; say what other thing is there except that
and beside thee, that you should regret or lament for (since the one
soul is all and that is thyself, thou hast all in thee, and there is
nothing for thee to regret that thou hast not or dost require to have).
28. Brahma appears to the ignorant boys, to be diffused through all the
worlds; but the learned always rely on the undiffused felicitous soul
of God.
29. It is the case of unreasonable men, to grieve as well as to be
pleased on a sudden and without cause; but the learned are always
joyous, and it is a sad thing to find them in error.
30. The truth of the nice subtility of the divine soul, is hid from
eyes of the ignorant; and they are as doubtful about its nature, as men
are suspicious of land and water where they are not. (Water appears as
ground in dark, and sand seems as water in the barren desert).
31. See the great bodies of the earth, air, water and sky, which are
composed of atomic particles, to be so durable as to last for ever; why
then mourn at the loss of anything in the world (which is never lost at
all).
32. From nothing comes nothing, and something cannot become nothing; it
is only the appearance of the form, which takes place in the substance
of things.
33. But it is by virtue of the prior acts in the former births of men,
that they are reborn in different shapes to enjoy or suffer the results
of those acts; adore therefore the lord God and author of the worlds,
who is always bountiful and bestower of all blessings.
34. The worship of this God destroys all our sins, and cuts off the
knots of snares of this world.
35. You may worship Him in some form or other, until your mind is
cleared and your nature is purified; and then you can resort to the
transcendent spirit of the formless Deity.
36. Having overcome the impervious gloom of ignorance, by force of the
purity of thy nature; you may pursue the course of the yoga, with the
contrition of your inner soul, and belief in the sástras (and in the
dictates of your spiritual guide).
37. Then sit a moment in your fixed meditation (samádhi), and behold
the transcendent spirit in thy own spirit; in this state the dark
night of your former ignorance, will break forth into open and bright
daylight.
38. It must be by one's manly exertion or by virtue of the meritorious
acts of former births only, as also by grace of the great God, that men
may obtain the obtainable one. (The unknown God is said to be knowable
and obtainable by yoga only).
39. It is neither the birth nor character, nor the good manners nor
valour of a man, that ensures him his success in any undertaking,
except it be by the merit of his acts in former births.
40. Why sit you so sad to think of the events of inscrutable and
unavoidable fate, since there is no power nor that of God himself to
efface what has been already written destined in the forehead (or luck)
of anybody. (Fate overrules even _Jove_ himself).
41. Where is the expounder of intellectual science, and where is the
pupil that can comprehend it fully; what is this creeping plant of
ignorance, and what is this inscrutable destiny, that joins two things
together, are questions too difficult to be solved.
42. O Bharadwája! Let your reason assist you to overcome your illusion,
and then you will no doubt gain an uncommon share of wisdom.
43. See how a high mettled hero overpowers on all his imminent dangers,
and stretches his conquest far and wide; and behold on the other hand,
how a mean spirited man is tried and grieves at the ordinary casualties
of life.
44. A good understanding is the result of, and attendant upon the
meritorious deeds of many lives; as it appears in the acts of wise men,
and in the lives of all living liberated persons.
45. Know my son, that the same action is fraught both with your freedom
as well as bondage, accordingly as it proves favourable or adverse to
you. (As true faith is attended with salvation, but false faith or
hypocrisy with damnation).
46. The righteous acts of virtuous men, serve to destroy the sins of
their past lives; as the showers of rain water, extinguish the flame of
a conflagration in the forest.
47. But my friend, I would advise you rather to avoid your religious
acts, and attach your mind to the meditation of Brahma, if you want
to avoid your falling into the deep eddy of this world. (Because all
actions bind a man to the world over and over again).
48. So long as one is attached to the outer world, being led to it by
his insatiable desires, or so long as one is led by the insatiable
desires of his mind, to attach himself to the outer world; he is
exposed to the contrary wind and waves of the sea, and has only to find
his rest in the calm water of his loneliness.
49. Why do you lean so much upon your sorrow only to blind your
understanding, rather support yourself on the strong staff of your good
understanding, and it will never break under you.
50. Those who are reckoned in the number of the great men, never allow
themselves to be altered and moved by their joy or grief; and to be
carried away like straws by the current of the river.
51. Why do you sorrow, friend, for these people, who are swinging in
the cradle of the circumstance of life in the dark night of this world,
and playing their several parts with giddy amusement.
52. Look at the gamesome time, that sports joyously in this world, with
the slaughter and production of endless beings by turns.
53. There is no body of any age or sex for his game in particular, he
chases all in general like the all devouring dragon.
54. Why talk of mortal men and other animals, that live to die in a
moment; even the whole body of gods (said to be immortals), are under
the clutches of the remorseless and relentless death.
55. Why do you dance and make yourself merry in your amusement, when
you are in danger of losing by degrees the powers of your body and
limbs; sit but silently for a while, and see the drama of the course of
this world (combining its comedy and tragedy together).
56. Seeing the ever varying scenes of this changeful theatre of the
world, the wise spectator, O good Bharadwája, never shrinks nor
shudders for a moment (knowing such to be its nature).
57. Shun your unwelcomed sorrow, and seek for the favourable amidst all
that is unfavourable; nor sadden the clear and cheerful countenance of
your soul, which is of the nature of the perfectly blissful intellect
of God.
58. Bear always your reverence towards the gods, Bráhmans and your
superiors; and be a friend even to irrational animals; in order to meet
with the grace of God, according to the dicta of the vedas (that the
grace is the leader to the light of truth, and thereby to the way of
liberation).
59. Bharadwája rejoined:--I have known by your kindness all these and
much more of such truths, and come to find that, there is not a greater
friend to us than our indifference to the world, nor a greater enemy
than this world itself to us.
60. I want to learn at present the substance of all the knowledge,
which was imparted by the sage Vasishtha, in many works of great
verbosity.
61. Válmíki answered:--Hear now, Bharadwája, of the highest knowledge
(which is taught by that sage) for the salvation of mankind; and the
hearing of which will save you from your drowning in the iniquities of
the world.
62. First bow down to that supreme being, who is of the nature of the
sole entity combined with intellect and felicity; (all which are his
forms in the abstract), and who is ever existent with his attributes of
creation, sustentation and destruction: (which are said to be so many
states of himself).
63. I will tell you in short, and upon the authority of the sruti; how
you may come to the knowledge of the first principle, and the manner
in which it exhibits itself in the acts of creation, preservation and
destruction of the universe.
64. But tell me first, how you have lost your remembrance of what
I have told you on this subject; since it is possible by your
reconsideration of all that from first to last, to know every thing
from your own memory, as they have a survey of the earth from a small
globe in their hand.
65. Now consider all this in your own mind, and you will get the truth
which will prevent all your sorrows; associate moreover with the
learned and study the best books, which with the help of your reasoning
and resignation, may lead you to endless felicity.
CHAPTER CXXVIII.
RESUSCITATION OF RÁMA.
Argument.--Bharadwája's Enlightenment and the duties of the Enlightened.
Válmíki continued:--The yogi should be peaceful and tranquil, and
exempt from all forbidden acts and those proceeding from a desire of
fruition; he must avoid all sensual gratifications, and have his belief
in God and his holy religion of the vedas.
2. He must rest quiet in his seat, and have his mind and members of the
body under his control; and continue to repeat the syllable Om, until
his mind is cleared (from all its doubts).
3. He must then restrain his respiration, for the purification of his
inner organs (the heart and mind); and then restrict his senses by
degrees, from their respective outward objects.
4. He must think on the natures and causes of its body and its organs
of sense, of his mind and its understanding, as also of his soul and
its consciousness; and repeat the srutis or the holy texts which relate
to these subjects.
5. Let him sit reclined in the meditation of Virát, the God of visible
nature at first, and then in the internal soul of nature; next to this
he must meditate on the formless spirit, as a part and abstracted from
all; and at last fix his mind in the supreme cause alone. (Rising from
the concrete to the discrete deity).
6. Let him cast off in his mind, the earthly substance of his flesh
and bones to the earth; and commit the liquid part of his blood to the
water, and the heat of his body to fire.
7. He is then to consign the airy and vacuous parts of his body to
air and vacuum, and after having thus made over his elemental parts
to the five elements; he shall deliver the organs of his sense to the
particular divinities from whom they are derived.
8. The ears and other organs, which are for the reception of their
respective from all sides, being cast aside on all sides, he is to
give the skin of his body to electricity (which imparts to it the
sensations of heat and cold by the electric shock).
9. Let him then resign his eye sight to the solar disc, and his
tongue to water, he must next give up his breath to air, his voice to
fire, and his palms to the god Indra (water and fire mean Varuna and
Agni--the regent gods of these elements).
10. He must then offer his feet to the god Vishnu, and his anus to
Mithra; and after giving up his penis to Kasyapa, he should dedicate
his mind to the moon.
11. He must afterwards lay down his understanding to Brahmá, and the
other inward faculties to special divinities, and at last abdicate his
outer senses also to their presiding duties.
12. Having thus resigned his whole body to the gods, he should think
himself as the all comprehending Viráta; and this he must do in
pursuance to the dictates of the veda, and not of his own will or
fabrication.
13. The lord that embodies the whole universe in himself, in his
androgynous form of half-male and half-female, is said to be the source
and support of all sorts of beings.
14. He was born in the form of creation, and it is he that is settled
in everything in the universe; and caused this earth to appear from the
bipartite mundane egg, as also the water which is twice as much as the
land.
15. He produced the heat twice as much as the water, and the air also
which is double in its volume to that of heat, and lastly the vacuum
which is twice more in its extent than the air which it contains. Each
latter one lying next above the former. (So the sruti:--each succeeding
one is above its preceding element).
16. These form the world whether they are divided or undivided from
their succeeding and surrounding ones; the earth being girt by the sea,
and the same by submarine fire.
17. Thus the yogi by contracting his thought of the former one under
the latter, will engross his thought of heat under that of air, and
this again under his idea of vacuum, which last is swallowed up by his
thought of the great cause of all.
18. In this manner must the yogi remain for a moment in his spiritual
form only, by contraction of his corporeal body (composed of the
elemental particles, his desires and prior acts and his primeval
ignorance--avidyá), under the same (because the material part is
contained under the spiritual, and not the latter under the former as
it is erroneously supposed by materialist).
19. The spiritual body is represented by the wise, to be composed of
the ten senses of perception and conception, the mind or memory and the
understanding faculties; which is above and outside the corporeal half
of the mundane egg. The yogi must think himself to be this supermundane
spiritual being. (This form is styled Hiranyagarbha).
20. The former or intramundane half, which is composed of the quadruple
subtile elements, is represented by the figure of the four faced
Brahmá; and differs from the former by its being an evolution of
unevolved spirit.
21. That nameless and formless being in which the world subsists, is
called Prakriti or matter by some, and Máyá or delusion by others, and
also as atoms by atomic philosophers.
22. The same is said to be ignorance--_avidyá_, by agnostics, whose
minds are confused by false reasoning; and it is after all that hidden
and unknowable something, in which all things are dissolved at the
ultimate dissolution of the world.
23. Again everything which is quite unrelated with the divine spirit
and intellect (_i.e._ material substance); comes to existence at the
recreation of the world; and retains and remains in its primary form to
the end of the world.
24. Think of creation in the direct method, and of its destruction in
the reversed order; and then betake yourself to the fourth stage of
turíya, after you have passed over the three preceding steps. (The
direct method of creation is the procedure from vacuity to air, and
thence to heat, water and earth; or the meditation of the creative
power under the three hypostasis or substantiality of Hiranyagarbha,
Brahmá and Prakriti; and the reversed order is the annihilation of
these in the quiet state of the unpredicable Deity).
25. And in order to that state of blissfulness, you must enter into the
supreme spirit by removing from your mind all its impressions (lingas),
of matter and sense, mind and understanding and all desires and acts;
that lie unexpanded and hidden in it.
26. Bharadwája responded:--I am now quite released from the fetters of
my impressions, as my intellectual part has found its entrance into the
sea of _turíya_ or transcendent blissfulness.
27. The indistinct nature of my soul from the supreme spirit, makes
me identic to it; and I find myself to be devoid of all attributes,
and only an intellectual power like the same (the human soul being as
intelligent a principle as the divine).
28. As the vacuity contained in the hollow of a pot, becomes one with
the universal and all pervading vacuum after the pitcher is broken; so
the human soul vanishes into the supreme spirit, after it flies from
the confines of the body after its destruction.
29. As a fire brand being cast into the burning furnace, becomes the
one and same fire with it; so the kind mixing with its kind, becomes
indistinctly known under common name, one: (Here we have the axiom, the
even being added to the even, whole is even).
30. Again as straws swimming in the salt sea, are transformed to the
sea salt; so all animal souls and the inanimate even mixing with the
divine soul, become animated also. (Here is opposite dogma of unequals
being equal; because the greater includes the less under it).
31. As saltpetre being thrown into the sea, looses its name and nature
and becomes the sea salt; so everything is swallowed in the universal
soul and assimilated to it.
32. As water mixing with water, salt with salt, and butter with butter;
lose their distinctions and not their substances; so my self and all
other substances mixing with the divine spirit, lose our distinct
appellations without losing our substantialities.
33. All bodies being absorbed in the all-knowing and ever blissful
intellect of the great creator of all; become equally all pervading and
tranquil and everlasting and blessed for ever.
34. So I think myself as that eminently transcendent being, which is
without any part or partner, without action or passion, without the
organs of sense, and neither loving nor hating any one.
35. I think myself as that sole entity, which is of the form of truth
and immutable in its nature and desires, which is devoid of virtue and
vice, perfectly pure and the supreme cause of all worlds.
36. I am that blissful Brahma, who is without a second and without
decay, and of the form of pure light; who is expressed by these
negative properties, and is beyond the three degrees of quality; as
the _satva_, _rajas_ and _tamas_--the positive, comparative, and
superlative, which do not relate to him as they do to others.
37. Thus should one meditate himself as Brahma, even when he is
employed in discharging the duties destined to his station in life: and
his continued practice of this kind of meditation, will gradually wear
out all other impressions from his mind.
38. The mind being thus set down, the soul will then appear of itself
within the man; and the appearance of the inward spirit, serves to
destroy all his internal grief, and fill its place with his heart felt
joy.
39. He also perceives the height of the truth shining in himself, that
there is no other blissful God beside his own intellect; and this is
what he calls his ego and the supreme Brahma likewise.
40. Válmíki said:--Friend, give up your observance of religious acts;
and be devoted yourself to the meditation of Brahma, if you want to
stop the revolution of the wheel of this world upon you.
41. Bharadwája replied:--I have well understood the drift of the
knowledge, you have imparted to me; I have acquired clearness of my
understanding, and I have no more any reliance in the world.
42. I am now desirous of knowing about the duties of those, who have
gained the spiritual knowledge of God; as to whether they are subject
to or freed from the performance of meritorious acts (_i.e._ whether
their knowledge is sufficient to to save them or requires their acts
also).
43. Válmíki said:--The seekers of liberation are not liberated from
the doing of those duties, whose avoidance entails the guilt of the
omission of duty upon them; but he must refrain from doing the acts of
his desire (of fruition), and those which he is prohibited to do.
44. When the living soul comes to feel the spiritual bliss in itself,
and to find his sensuous appetites disappear from his mind; as also
when he perceives his organs of sense lying quite calm and quiet under
him; he may then consider himself as one with the all pervading spirit
of the lord (and therefore freed from the bonds of action and all
earthly duties).
45. When the sentient soul conceives in itself, the sense of its
conversion to the essence of God (as conveyed by the formula _Soham_
He ego, I am He); and beyond the bounds of his body and its senses,
and the reach of his mind and understanding; it is then freed from its
obligation of worldly duties.
46. When the soul is free from all its action and passions, and remains
aloof from all titles and attributes; when it gets rid of the feelings
of pain and pleasure, he is then exonerated from the burthen of his
duties.
47. When one sees the supreme soul to pervade over all beings, and
beholds all creation to exist in the universal spirit; and when he
finds no difference between the mundane soul and the supreme spirit, he
is then released from the bonds of his action.
48. When the living soul has passed over the three states, of waking,
dreaming, and sound sleep; and enters into the fourth or turya state of
perfect bliss, he is then freed from the binding of his earthly duties.
49. The fourth state of turíya, which consists in the residence of the
living soul, in the lap of the universal soul of God, is the state of
the soul's liberation from its condition of sleep or hypnotism, and is
full of its spiritual blissfulness.
50. This _turya_ state or the consciousness of one's felicity, derived
from the fixedness of the soul in the supreme; is the great end of yoga
meditation.
51. After the mental operations of a man have ceased in a man, he
perceives nothing within himself except the turya state; which is a
calm quiescence of the soul, in the sea of the ambrosial waters of one
sole unity.
52. Why are you plunging yourself, under the waves of the briny waters
of the sea of duality; fly to the Lord of worlds and adore the great
God, who is abundant of all blessings.
53. I have thus related to you my son, all the doctrines of Vasishtha,
as the best means to the way of your knowledge and practice of yoga
meditation.
54. You will verily be able, O wise Bharadwája, to learn everything
from these, by means of your digesting the substance of this sástra,
and reconsidering the purport of the precepts of this great preceptor.
55. It is by continued practice, that we attain to the perfection of
any thing, according to the dictum of the vedas; therefore must you
avoid to attend to all things besides, and concentrate your mind to the
object of your practice.
56. Bharadwája rejoined:--Tell me O sage, the course of conduct which
Ráma followed, after he had received his knowledge of yoga or uniting
his soul with the supreme spirit.
57. By knowing this I will also try to practice upon the same model,
that I may succeed to attain to the same state of spiritual elevation
and rapture like him.
58. Válmíki said:--When the virtuous and high minded Ráma, was absorbed
and sat entranced in the divine essence, it was then that Viswámitra
addressed the venerable Vasishta and said.
59. Viswámitra said:--O highly endowed son of Brahmá--wise Vasishtha,
you have even now shown the efficacy of your preceptorship, by
hypnotising and laying dormant the powers of Ráma.
60. He is verily the best to yoga, who mesmerises the body of his
pupil, by his kind look, touch and sound; and causes his inspiration by
the infusion of the holy spirit of Siva in him.
61. So it was with Ráma, whose pure soul was dispassionate by its own
nature; and whose earnest desire of hebetude led him to that happy
state, by means of his conversation with his _guru_ or spiritual guide.
62. It is the intelligence of the student which is the cause of his
understanding, by means of the guidance of his spiritual preceptor;
but when these three roots or principles are imperfect, how can the
understanding arrive to its perfection.
63. It is evident, that knowledge is in need of both the pupil and
preceptor for its communication; where both of them are competent
and worthy of one another; it is certain that the result will be so
likewise (as in Ráma's case). (The commentary adds the good sástras, as
the third means of gaining knowledge).
64. Now be pleased to rouse Ráma from his torpor, which you alone can
do, by your beatification in the apathy; whilst we being employed in
worldly affairs, are too far from it.
65. Please sir, remember the cause that calls us hither, and the
business to which we are invited at earnest request of king Dasaratha
himself (for the performance of a certain sacrifice).
66. Therefore O sage, do not frustrate that object of ours, by the
purity of thy mind; we have a service to perform to the Gods, and which
is the cause of Ráma's incarnation on earth.
67. Ráma is to be conducted by me to the abode of the siddhas, and then
shall he be called to the destruction of the Rákshasas; after which he
will be led to the salvation of Ahalyá and to his marriage with Sitá.
68. He will break the great bow of Siva in a chivalrous feat at that
marriage, and then he shall encounter the furious Parusha-Ráma, and
restrain his way to heaven.
69. The fearless Ráma will then forsake his uncared for paternal and
ancestral realms, and under pretext of his banishment, betake himself
to the Dandaka woods of foresters.
70. He will restore the sanctity of many places of pilgrimage, and
will thereby save the lives and souls of beings from sin and its wages
of death. He will show to the world the sorrows of men at the loss of
their wives, from his own example of the loss of accompanying Sitá by
Rávana.
71. He will set the lesson of the husband's duty of recovering the
wives from the hands of their ravishers, by his recovery of Sitá by
slaughter of Rávana, and by his assembling the ape-savages of the
forest in his favour.
72. He will prove the purity of Sitá to please his plea, and will be
employed in the observance of all religious acts, with his entire
liberation in this world, and want of the desire of fruition in the
next.
73. But in order to secure the future welfare of men, he will encourage
the practice both of spiritual devotion and ritual acts, according to
the instruction of those best acquainted with those subjects.
74. He will liberally bestow his liberation to every living being of
every kind. These and many others are the duties of Ráma to this world
and to myself also. (Viswámitra means a friend to the world, and the
good services of Ráma done to it were reckoned by the sage as done to
the sage himself).
75. Such are the acts that are to be performed by Ráma, wherefore he is
to be thanked by every one here for all his conquests which no one else
can make. So fare you well.
76. Válmíki resumed:--After these words of the sage, were listened to
by the princes in the court and by the assembled siddhas and great
yogis as Vasishtha and others; they thanked the hero, and remained to
think of his lotus-like feet with respect and esteem.
77. But the sages Vasishtha and others, were not to be satisfied until
they could hear further about the lord of Sitá; whose virtues they all
eagerly expected to hear those fully and recite in their carols.
78. Vasishtha then said to Viswámitra:--Tell me sir, who was this
lotus-eyed Ráma in his past life, whether he had been a god or sage or
an ordinary man.
79. Viswámitra replied:--Believe what I say, that this Ráma is that
primary Male, who had churned the sea for the good of the world, and is
known only by the deepest learning of the vedas.
80. He is full of spiritual joy, meek and gentle, and has the mark of
the auspicious calf (lamb) upon his person; he is bountiful to all
living beings, and is soon appeased by all (that rely in him).
81. He destroys every one in his rage, and abandons all the frail
trifles of this world; he is the first male and creator of all, and is
the supporter and nourisher and kind friend of all.
82. He has passed over the unsubstantial and illusory things of this
world; he is the sea of felicity, and is dived in by the dispassionate.
83. He is some times known as a liberated soul, and relying in himself;
at others he is seen to be settled in his _turya_ state of hypnotism,
and sometimes as a male or female agent of creation.
84. He is the God of the triple veda, and beyond the reach of the three
qualities of things; he is the soul of the veda and the wondrous male
(Virát), that is displayed in the six branches of veda.
85. He is the four armed and four-faced Brahmá--the creator of the
world, he is also the great Mahádeva with his three eyes, who is the
destroyer of the world.
86. He is the uncreated creator, that is born by his yoga or union with
the power of delusion (máyá). He is the ever wakeful and the ever great
spirit of God, which though it is formless doth yet form and support
this frame of this universe, by transforming himself to the form of a
man-lion.
87. As victory is borne upon the wings of valour, and as light is borne
upon the flame of fire; and as learning bears and conveys the fruit of
good understanding, so is this god-like Ráma borne upon the wings of
the bird of heaven (_i.e._ as Garuda bears Vishnu upon his back).
88. Blessed in this king Dasaratha, who has the supreme prime male for
his son, and fortunate is the ten headed Rávana, for his finding a
place in the mind of Ráma (as his enemy). (The enemies of the gods are
not less fortunate than the godly; because their fall under the blessed
hands of gods, secures to them the blissful seats of heaven and not of
hell).
89. Oh! how lamentable is the state of heaven by the absence of Ráma
from it; and how pitiable is the infernal region from its loss of
Lakshmana who is present here. Happy is this midland of Oudh at
present, from the presence of the two gods from those two regions in
this place.
90. This Ráma is an incarnation of the god Vishnu, who sleeps in the
midst of the sea; he is the incarnate and undecaying supreme soul, and
is a consolidation of the divine intellect and felicity in his person.
91. The yogis of subdued organs discern Ráma in spirit, but we of
ordinary understanding can see him only in his outward figure.
92. We hear that he has come down to blot out the iniquities of the
race of Raghu, and hope that the venerable Vasishtha will kindly guide
him to the affairs of the world.
93. Válmíki said:--Saying so far, the great sage Viswámitra held his
silence, when the vehement Vasishtha oped his mouth and addressed Ráma
saying:--
94. Vasishtha said:--O great armed Ráma! O highly intellectual prince!
it is not the time for you thus to slumber in yoga, rise and rejoice
the hearts of your people.
95. Until you satisfy the wants of men and their expectations of you,
you are not filled to attain the acme of your pure _samádhi_ meditation.
96. Therefore attend to the temporal affairs of your state for some
time, and discharge the onus of your duties to the gods; and then
betake yourself to the state of your entrancement, and be happy forever.
97. Notwithstanding Ráma was addressed in this manner, yet as he
remained transfixed in his trance and uttered not a word in reply;
then the spirit of Vasishtha entered into the heart of Ráma, through
dormitory passage of _susumná_.
98. It infused its force to the respiratory beings, mental faculties,
organs and to the vital spirit of Ráma, it ran through the veins and
arteries and inflated the organs of sense; then Ráma slowly oped his
eyelids, and saw before him the sage Vasishtha with the learned men
about him. He remained gazing upon all without any wish or effort of
his own; and without considering aught of his duties, or what he was to
avoid.
99. He heard the voice, which his preceptor Vasishtha had uttered to
him; and in reply respectfully answered him saying:--
100. Ráma said:--By your kindness sir, I am taught to have no concern
with aught of the injunctions or prohibitions of the law; yet it is my
duty to abide by all, what my preceptor bids me to do.
101. I ween, O great sage! that of all the sayings of the vedas,
Ágamas, Puránas, and smritis, it is the word of the preceptor, is the
highest law, his bidding is commandment and its opposite a positive
prohibition.
102. So saying, the virtuous Ráma bowed down his head at the feet of
the venerable Vasishtha, and then bespoke of his indifference to the
world, to all present in the assembly.
103. Ráma said:--May ye all prosper, and know the most certain truth to
which I have arrived; that there is nothing better than the knowledge
of the self, and none superior to the preceptor from whom it is derived.
104. The siddhas and others responded saying:--Such is the impression
of Ráma, in our minds also; and it is by your favour and conversions
also, that this belief is ratified in us.
105. We thank you, Ráma Chandra, and wish all happiness to attend on
our great prince; and beg leave of the sage Vasishtha for our departure
as we are called here (to attend to his lecture).
106. Válmíki said:--so saying they rose with giving praises to Ráma,
and blessing him with showers of flowers falling upon his head from
their hands.
107. Thus have I related to you the whole narrative of Ráma, do you
now, O Bharadwája, follow the same course of yoga, and be happy forever.
108. Now this relation of mine of the consummation to which Ráma had
arrived, together with my rehearsal of the varied sayings of the sage
which are as so many strings of gems to be worn on the breasts of yogis
and poets, will serve by the grace of the sage, to give you liberation
(from the troubles of the world).
109. Whoever hears and attends to these discourses of Ráma and
Vasishtha, is sure to be relieved in every state of life; to be united
with Brahma after his release.
110. End of the Mahá Rámáyana of the sage Vasishtha and spoken by
Válmíki, relating the boyhood of Ráma and consisting of thirty-two
thousand sloka stanzas.
* * * * *
END OF THE THIRD VOLUME.
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes
Variations in spelling, punctuation and hyphenation have been retained
except in obvious cases of typographical errors. The somewhat erratic
use of brackets has been corrected where possible.
Words in italics are represented thus; _italic_ while words in bold
are represented thus; =bold=.
Chapter LXII has been wrongly headed as LXI in the original text.
The heading and sub-heading have been corrected.
Decent has been changed to descent in para 14, chapter XIV.
In chapter XXXIX, para 8, "the eight forms of as we see" has been
changed to "the eight forms of [God] as we see"
In chapter LI para 12, "remain still and motionless; if they were
buried" has been changed to "remain still and motionless; [as] if
they were buried"
In chapter LIII, para 43,"one who sees every in one and same light"
has been changed to "one who sees every[one] in one and [the] same
light"
In chapter LXI, para 15. "In whatever manner we look object,"
has been changed to "In whatever manner we look [at the] object,"
Two paragraphs of text duplicated in the table of contents have been
removed.
The sanskrit is frequently unclear, and in some places illegible
(represented by ?).
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of
Valmiki, vol. 3 (of 4) part 2 (of 2), by Valmiki
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