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Title: The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, Vol. 4 (of 4), Part 2 (of 2)
Author: Valmiki
Translator: Viharilala Mitra
Release date: July 21, 2023 [eBook #71249]
Language: English
Original publication: India: Low Price Publications, 1899
Credits: Mark C. Orton, Juliet Sutherland, Édith Nolot, Krista Zaleski, windproof, readbueno and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YOGA-VASISHTHA MAHARAMAYANA OF VALMIKI, VOL. 4 (OF 4), PART 2 (OF 2) ***
Transcriber’s Notes
Inconsistent punctuation has been silently corrected.
Obvious misspellings have been silently corrected, and the following
corrections made to the text. Other spelling and hyphenation variations
have not been modified.
Page number for chapter CXXXIX in table of contents, corrected
from 342-> 742.
Page number for chapter CLXV in table of contents, corrected
from 808-> 880.
Page number for chapter CLXXXXIV in table of contents, corrected
from 1745-> 1045.
Page 570, section 16 - missing line “_nihilo nihil reverti posse_; there the
whole universe is a void nothing).” added from from the Parimal
edition.
Page 653, section 12 - fool -> foul
Page 658, section 9 - with -> without
Page 708, section 55 - there was darkness nor day -> there was darkness nor day
Page 799, section 7 - of one's or bad -> of one's good or bad
Page 980, section 17 - creator -> creation
Page 901, section 1 - He who is delighted -> He who is delighted
Page 901, section 2 - whose mind is moved -> whose mind is moved
The spelling of Sanskrit words are normalized to some extent, including
correct/addition of accents where necessary. Note that the author uses
á, í, ú to indicate long vowels. This notation has not been changed.
The LPP edition (1999) which has been scanned for this ebook, is of
poor quality, and in some cases text was missing. Where possible, the
missing/unclear text has been supplied from another edition, which has
the same typographical basis (both editions are photographical reprints
of the same source, or perhaps one is a copy of the other): Bharatiya
Publishing House, Delhi 1978.
A third edition, Parimal Publications, Delhi 1998, which is based on an
OCR scanning of the same typographical basis, has also been consulted.
The term “Gloss.” or “Glossary” probably refers to the extensive
classical commentary to Yoga Vásishtha by Ananda Bodhendra Saraswati
(only available in Sanskrit).
Angle brackets: <...> have been used by the transcriber to indicate
editing of the text to insert missing words. The translator (in a very
few places) uses square brackets [...].
THE
YOGA-VÁSISHTHA
MAHÁRÁMÁYANA
OF
VALMIKI
in 4 vols. in 7 pts.
(Bound in 4.)
Vol. 4 (In 2 pts.)
Bound in one.
Containing
The Nirvana-Prakarana, Uttaradha
_Translated from the original Sanskrit_
_By_
VIHARI-LALA MITRA
THE
YOGA-VÁSISHTHA-MAHÁRÁMÁYANA
CHAPTER CVI.
Invalidation of the Doctrine of cause and effect 569
CHAPTER CVII.
The nature of ignorance or illusion of the Mind 577
CHAPTER CVIII.
Description of the knowledge and ignorance of the soul 579
CHAPTER CIX.
Fighting with the invading armies at the gate of the city 585
CHAPTER CX.
Battle of the wise Princes, with the ignorant Barbarian 590
CHAPTER CXI.
The flight of the soldiers on all sides 596
CHAPTER CXII.
Flight of the Foreign Fœs 602
CHAPTER CXIII.
Description of the Ocean 607
CHAPTER CXIV.
Description of the Prospects all-around 612
CHAPTER CXV.
The same subject continued 617
CHAPTER CXVI.
Narration of the speech of Crow and Cuckoo 625
CHAPTER CXVII.
Description of the Lotus lake, Bee and the Swan 637
CHAPTER CXVIII.
Description of deer, peacocks, cranes &c. 643
CHAPTER CXIX.
Lamentation of the Lovelorn Traveller 648
CHAPTER CXX.
Description of various objects on all sides 652
CHAPTER CXXI.
Exposition of the story of Vipaschit 657
CHAPTER CXXII.
The King’s survey of the sea, and his locomotion on it 659
CHAPTER CXXIII.
The King’s Excursions on all sides 662
CHAPTER CXXIV.
Quadripartite state of the King Vipaschit 665
CHAPTER CXXV.
On the Living liberation of the Prince 669
CHAPTER CXXVI.
Resuscitation and conduct of the Vipaschitas 679
CHAPTER CXXVII.
Cosmology of the universe 683
CHAPTER CXXVIII.
The vacuum of Brahma and the sight of the world therein 686
CHAPTER CXXIX.
Vipaschit’s becoming a stag 692
CHAPTER CXXX.
Entering of the stag into the fire 698
CHAPTER CXXXI.
Bhása’s account of the worlds and his journeys throughout 702
CHAPTER CXXXII.
Bhása’s Relation of the Transmigrations of his soul 710
CHAPTER CXXXIII.
Story of the Wonderful carcass 713
CHAPTER CXXXIV.
The Story of the carcass continued 717
CHAPTER CXXXV.
Disappearance of the carcass, and the Reappearance of the earth 724
CHAPTER CXXXVI.
Story of the Gnat and Hunter 726
CHAPTER CXXXVII.
Description of the states of waking, sleeping and dreaming 730
CHAPTER CXXXVIII.
The Pervasion of the mind throughout the universe 737
CHAPTER CXXXIX.
Description of the Dissolution of the world 742
CHAPTER CXXXX.
Workings of Imagination 750
CHAPTER CXXXXI.
Description of the Termination of a Kalpa-period 758
CHAPTER CXXXXII.
Ascertainment of Karma or acts of men 760
CHAPTER CXXXXIII.
Ascertainment of Nirvána or ultimate Extinction 767
CHAPTER CXXXXIV.
Investigation into the nature and Vicissitudes of things 778
CHAPTER CXXXXV.
Description of the Waking, Dreaming and Sleeping states 785
CHAPTER CXXXXVI.
Disquisition of sound sleep 794
CHAPTER CXXXXVII.
The Phenomenon and Perspection of dreams 798
CHAPTER CXXXXVIII.
Investigation into the nature of dreams 802
CHAPTER CIL.
Investigation into the Original cause 807
CHAPTER CL.
Transcendental Admonitions 812
CHAPTER CLI.
View of Inexistence 818
CHAPTER CLII.
The sage’s discourse at night 820
CHAPTER CLIII.
One soul is the cause of all 823
CHAPTER CLIV.
Relation of Past events 826
CHAPTER CLV.
Relation of Future Fortune 829
CHAPTER CLVI.
Expostulation on Sindhu by his Minister 835
CHAPTER CLVII.
The Ultimate Extinction or Nirvána of Sindhu 839
CHAPTER CLVIII.
Fall of the Huge body of the Hunter 844
CHAPTER CLIX.
Wandering of Vipaschit 847
CHAPTER CLX.
Description of heaven and Hell 855
CHAPTER CLXI.
Explanation of Nirvána 861
CHAPTER CLXII.
Annihilation of ignorance 867
CHAPTER CLXIII.
Means and manner of governing the senses and sensible organs 870
CHAPTER CLXIV.
Unity of the Divinity and the Mundane World 878
CHAPTER CLXV.
On the Similarity of Waking and Dreaming 880
CHAPTER CLXVI.
On the Attributes of the Divine spirit, in the form of a
Dialogue 883
CHAPTER CLXVII.
Absence of the threefold states of Waking, Dreaming and Sleep 888
CHAPTER CLXVIII.
Story of the Hewn statue or Carved Image 894
CHAPTER CLXIX.
Description of the calm and tranquil Mind 901
CHAPTER CLXX.
On the conduct of the sapient Man 907
CHAPTER CLXXI.
Meditation of Pure Vacuum 911
CHAPTER CLXXII.
Establishment of the identity of the Diety and the World 918
CHAPTER CLXXIII.
Brahma Gítá or a Lecture on spirituality 924
CHAPTER CLXXIV.
The same or a lecture on Nirvána 929
CHAPTER CLXXV.
Paramártha Gítá or Lecture on Transcendentalism or the solity 933
CHAPTER CLXXVI.
Brahma Gítá. Account of Brahmánda or Mundane system 943
CHAPTER CLXXVII.
Brahma Gíta. Description of Divine Nature 946
CHAPTER CLXXVIII.
Brahma Gíta. Narrative of Aindava 952
CHAPTER CLXXIX.
The Doctrine of Pantheism or the One as all 960
CHAPTER CLXXX.
Brahma Gíta or the story on austere devotee 963
CHAPTER CLXXXI.
Brahma Gíta continued 968
CHAPTER CLXXXII.
Brahma Gíta continued. Sovereignty of the seven continents 973
CHAPTER CLXXXIII.
Description of the seven Continents 979
CHAPTER CLXXXIV.
A Lecture on the all comprehensiveness of the soul 988
CHAPTER CLXXXV.
Admonition to and clairvoyance of Kunda-danta 995
CHAPTER CLXXXVI.
Demonstration of all nature (and thing) as Brahma himself 998
CHAPTER CLXXXVII.
Of the Living creation 1009
CHAPTER CLXXXVIII.
Description of the Living soul 1017
CHAPTER CLXXXIX.
On the unity of the Divine spirit 1021
CHAPTER CLXXXX.
Ecstasies or inertness of Ráma 1024
CHAPTER CLXXXXI.
Solution of the great question of unity and duality 1037
CHAPTER CLXXXXII.
On the attainment of spiritual Anæsthesia 1040
CHAPTER CLXXXXIII.
Mental torpor or tranquility 1043
CHAPTER CLXXXXIV.
Ráma’s rest in Nirvána insensibility 1045
CHAPTER CLXXXXV.
Lectured on the Enlightenment of Understanding 1051
CHAPTER CLXXXXVI.
Story of wood-cutter and his gem 1060
CHAPTER CLXXXXVII.
On the Excellence of Universal Toleration 1064
CHAPTER CLXXXXVIII.
Excellence of Universal Toleration 1069
CHAPTER CLXXXXIX.
State of Living Liberated Man 1075
CHAPTER CC.
The Loud applause of the court on the sage’s speech 1081
CHAPTER CCI.
Explanation of rest and repose in ultimate and perfect bliss 1089
CHAPTER CCII.
Remembrance of the assembly to their Hypnotic rest 1094
CHAPTER CCIII.
Description of Nirvána or self extinction in divine meditation 1096
CHAPTER CCIV.
Identity of Abstract Intellectuality and Vacuity 1102
CHAPTER CCV.
Reputation of the doctrine of the causality of creation 1106
CHAPTER CCVI.
The great inquiry, or questions of the Buddhist 1112
CHAPTER CCVII.
Replies to the aforesaid queries (of the Buddhist) 1117
CHAPTER CCVIII.
Solution of the great question 1122
CHAPTER CCIX.
On the consciousness or the intuitive knowledge of extraneous
existences 1126
CHAPTER CCX.
Reputation of the conception of a duality in unity 1132
CHAPTER CCXI.
Lecture on transcendent truth 1138
CHAPTER CCXII.
On ascertainment of truth 1143
CHAPTER CCXIII.
Narration of Ráma’s prior pupilage under Vasishtha 1147
CHAPTER CCXIV.
Description of the great jubilee of the assembly 1154
CHAPTER CCXV.
Eulogy on this work and the mode of its recital 1161
CHAPTER CCXVI.
Conclusion of the celestial messenger’s message of liberation 1164
CHAPTER CVI.
INVALIDATION OF THE DOCTRINE OF CAUSE AND EFFECT.
Argument:--Arguments in proof of the intellectual vacuum, and the
representation of the world therein.
Ráma said:--Tell me again, O Venerable sir, how is intellectual vacuity
which you say to be the entity of Brahma; because I am never satiate to
hear the holy words, distilling as ambrosia from your lips.
2. Vasishtha replied:--I have fully explained to you that the two
states of sleeping and waking imply the same thing; as the twin virtues
of composure and self-controul are both the same, though they are
differentiated by two names.
3. There is in reality none difference of them, as there is none
between two drops of water; they are both the one and same thing, as
the vacuous essence of Brahma and the Intellect.
4. As a man travelling from country to country, finds his self
consciousness to be every where the same; so and the very same is the
Intellect, which dwells within himself in its vacuous form, and is
styled the intellectual sphere.
5. This intellectual sphere is as clear, as the etherial sky; wherein
the earthly arbours display their verdure, by drawing the moisture of
the earth by their roots. (This passage rests on a text of the Sruti;
and means that the intellectual sphere of men as the sky of trees is
always clear, though they live upon the sap of earth).
6. Again the intellectual sphere is as calm and quiet, as the mind of
a man, who is free from desires and is at rest in himself; and whose
composure is never disturbed by anything.
7. Again the intellectual sphere is like the quiet state of am; who
had got rid of his busy cares and thoughts, reposes himself at ease;
before he is lulled to the insensibility of his sleep.
8. Again as trees and plants growing in their season, rise in and
fill the sky, without being attached to it; such also is intellectual
sphere, which is filled by rising worlds after worlds, without being
touched by or related to any.
9. Again the intellectual sphere, is as clear as the cloudless sky; and
as vacant as the mind of the saintly man, which is wholly purified from
the impressions of visibles, and its thoughts and desires are about any
thing in the world.
10. The intellectual state is as steady as those of the stable rocks
and trees; and when such is the state of the human mind, it is then
said to have attained its intellectuality (or else its restless state
is called the active mind and not the intellect).
11. The intellectual chasm, which is void of the three states of
the view, viewer and visibles (or the subjective and objective); is
said to be devoid also of all its modality and change. (It means the
imperceptibility of soul).
12. That is called the intellectual sphere, where the thought of the
various kinds of things, rise and last and set by turns, without making
any effect of change in its immutable nature.
13. That is said to be the intellectual sphere, which embraces all
things, and gives rise to and becomes everything itself; and which is
permeated throughout all nature for ever.
14. That which shines resplendent in heaven and earth, and in the
inside and outside of everybody with equal blaze; is said to be the
vacuity of the intellect.
15. It extends and stretches through all, and bends altogether,
connected by its lengthening chain to infinity; and the vacuity of the
intellect envelops the universe, whether it rises before us an entity
or non-entity.
16. It is the intellectual vacuum which produces everything, and
at last reduces all to itself; and the changes of creation and
dissolution, are all the working of this vacuity. (But how can the
vacuous nothing produce any thing from itself or reduce any into it
(_Ex nihilum nihil fit, et in nihilo nihil reverti posse_; there the
whole universe is a void nothing)).
17. The vacuity of the intellect produces the world, as the sleeping
state of the mind, presents its sights in our dream; and as the dream
is dispersed in our deep sleep, so the waking dream of the world is
vanished from view, upon dispersion of its fallacy from the mind.
18. Know the intellectual vacuum to be possessed of its intellection,
and as quiet and composed in its nature; and it is by a thought of it,
as by twinkling or winking of the eye, that the world comes to exist
and disappear by turns. (Manu calls these the waking and sleeping
states of the soul, and as causes of the existence and inexistence of
the world).
19. The intellectual Vacuum is found in the disquisitions of all the
sástras, to be what is neither this nor that nor any thing any where;
and yet as all and everything in every place and at all times. (_i.e._
Nothing concrete, but every thing in the abstract).
20. As a man travelling from country to country, retains his
consciousness untravelled in himself; so the intellect always rests in
its place in the interim, though the mind passes far and farther in an
instant.
21. The world is full of the intellect, both as it is or had ever been
before; and its outward sight being dependent on its ideas in the mind,
gives it the form and figure as they appear unto us.
22. It is by a slight winking of its eye, that it assumes and appears
in varied shapes; though the intellect never changes its form, nor
alters the clearness of its vacuous sphere.
23. Look on and know all these objects of sense, with thy external and
internal organs, and without any desire of thine for them; be ever
wakeful and vigilant about them, but remain as quite sleepy over them.
24. Be undesirous of any thing and indifferent in your mind, when you
speak to any one, take any thing or go any where; and remain as deadly
cold and quiet, as long as you have to live.
25. But it is impossible for you to remain as such, so long as you fix
your eyes and mind on the visibles before you; and continue to view the
mirage of the world, and look upon its duality rising as two moons in
the sky.
26. Know the world to be no production from the beginning; because
the want of its prior cause prevents its sequence; and there is no
possibility of a material creation, proceeding from an immaterial
causality.
27. Whatever appears as existent before you, is the product of a
causeless cause; it is the appearance of the transcendent One, that
appears visible to you. (The world is the visible form of the invisible
One).
28. The world as it stands at present, is no other than its very
original form; and the same undual and undivided pure soul appears as a
duality, as the disc of the moon and its halo present their two aspects
to us.
29. Thus the strong bias, that we have contracted from our false notion
of the duality; has at last involved us in the error of taking the
false for true, as to believe the shadow of a dream for reality.
30. Therefore the phenomenal world is no real production, nor does it
actually exist or is likely ever to come to existence; it is likewise
never annihilated, because it is impossible for a nihility to be nil
again.
31. Hence that thing which is but a form of the serene vacuum, must
be quiet, calm and serene also; and this being exhibited in the
form of the world, is of its own nature quite clear and steady, and
imperishable to all eternity. (The Beo-vyom or vacuum being a void,
cannot be annulled to a nullity again).
32. It is nothing what is seen before us, nor aught that is visible, is
ever reliable as real; neither also is there ever a viewer for want of
visible, nor the vision of a thing without its view.
33. Ráma rejoined:--If it is such, then please to explain moreover, O
most eloquent sir, the nature of the visibles, their view, and viewer;
and what are these that thus appear to our view?
34. Vasishtha replied:--There being no assignable cause, for the
appearance of the unreal visibles; their vision is but a deception, and
yet it maintained as true by the dogmatism of opponents.
35. Whatever there appears as visible to the vision of the viewer, is
all fallacy and offspring of the great delusion of Máyá only. But the
world in its recondite sense, is but a reflexion of the Divine mind.
36. The intellect is awake in our sleeping state, and shows us the
shapes in our dream, as the sky exhibits the various in its ample
garden; thus the intellect manifests itself in the form of the world in
itself.
37. Hence there is no formal cause or self evolving element, since the
first creation of the world; and that sparkles any where before
us, is only the great Brahma Himself (not in his person or formless
form, but in his spirit or intellectuality).
38. It is the sunshine of the Intellect within its own hollow sphere,
that manifests this world as a reflexion of his own person.
39. The world is an exhibition of the quality, of the unqualified
vacuity of the Intellect; as existence is the quality of existent
beings, and as vacuity is the property of vacuum, and as form is the
attribute of a material substance.
40. Know the world as the concrete counterpart, of the discrete
attribute of the transcendent glory of God; and as the very reflexion
of it, thus visibly exposed to the view of its beholders.
41. But there being in reality no duality whatever, in the unity of
the Divinity; He is neither the reflector nor the reflexion himself;
say who can ascertain what he is, or tell whether he is a being or not
being, or a something or nothing.
42. Ráma rejoined:--If so it be as you say, that the Lord is neither
the reflector nor reflexion, and neither the viewer nor the view
(_i.e._ if he is neither the prototype nor its likeness, and neither
the subjective nor objective); then say what is the difference between
the cause and effect, what is the source of all these, and if they are
unreal why do they appear as realities?
43. Vasishtha replied:--Whenever the Lord thinks on the manifestation
of his intellect, He beholds the same at the very moment, and then
becomes the subjective beholder of the objects of his own thought.
44. The intellectual vacuum itself assumes the form of the world, as
the earth becomes a hill &c. by itself; but it never forgets itself for
that form, as men do in their dream. Moreover there is no other cause
to move it to action, except its own free will.
45. As a person changing his former state to a new one, retains his
self consciousness in the interim, so the Divine Intellect retains its
identity, in its transition from prior vacuum to its subsequent state
of the plenum.
46. The thought of cause and effect, and the sense of the visible and
invisible, proceed from errors of the mind and defects of vision; it
is the erroneous imagination that frames these worlds, and nobody
questions or upbraids himself for his error. The states of cause and
effect, and those of the visible and invisible &c., are mere phantoms
of error, rising before the sight of the living soul and proceeding
from its ignorance, and then its imagination paints these as the world,
and there is nobody that finds his error or blame himself for his
blunder.
47. If there be another person, that is the cause, beholder and enjoyer
of these (other than the Supreme One) then say what is that person, and
what is the phenomenal, that is the point in question; or it is liable
to reproof.
48. As the state of our sleep presents us only, an indiscernible
vacuity of the Intellect (which watches alone over the sleeping world);
how then is it possible to represent the One soul as many, without
being blamed for it?
49. It is the self-existent soul alone, which presents the appearance
of the world in the intellect; and it is the ignorance of this truth,
which has led to the general belief of the creation of the world by
Brahmá.
50. It is ignorance of this intellectual phenomenon, which has led
mankind to many errors, under the different names of illusion or
_máyá_, of ignorance or _avidyá_, of the phenomenal or _drisya_, and
finally of the world or _jagat_.
51. The manifestation in the intellectual vacuum, takes possession of
the mind like a phantom; which represents the unreal world as a reality
before it, as the false phantom of ghost, takes a firm hold on the
mind of an infant.
52. Although the world is an unreality, yet we have a notion of it as
something real in our empty intellect; and this is no other than the
embodiment of a dream, which shows us the forms of hills and cities in
empty air.
53. The intellect represents itself as a hill or a Rudra, or as a sea
or as the God Virát himself; just a man thinks in his dream, that
he sees the hills and towns in his empty mind.
54. Nothing formal that has any form, can be the result of a formless
cause (as God); hence the impossibility of the existence of the solid
world, and of its formal causes of atomic elements, at the great
annihilation both prior to creation, as also after its dissolution. It
is therefore evident, that the world is ever existent in its ideal form
only in the Divine Mind.
55. It is a mere uncaused existence, inherent in its vacuous state in
the vacuous Mind; and what is called the world, is no more than an
emptiness appertaining to the empty Intellect.
56. The minds of ignorant people are as glassy mirrors, receiving
the dim and dull images of things set before their senses; but those
of reasoning men are as clear microscopes, that spy the vivid light
of the Divine Mind that shines through all. (This light is called
_Pratyagnánátma_ or the nooscopic appearance of Divine soul).
57. Therefore they are the best of men, who shun the sight of visible
forms; and view the world in the light of intellectual vacuity; and
remain as firm as rocks in the meditation of the steady Intellect, and
place no faith or reliance on anything else.
58. The Intellect shows the revolution of the world in itself by its
incessant act of airy intellection; as the sea displays its circuition
throughout the watery world, by the continual rotation of its
whirlpools.
59. As the figurative tree of our desire, produces and yields our
wished for fruits in a moment, so the intellect presents every thing
before us, that is thought of in an instant. (It is the subjective
mind, that shows the objects of its thought within itself).
60. As the mind finds in itself, its wished-for gem and the fruit of
its desire; in the same manner doth the internal soul, meet with its
desired objects in its vacuous self in a minute.
61. As a man passing from one place to another, rests calmly in the
interim; such is the state of the mind in the interval of its thoughts,
when it sees neither the one nor another thing.
62. It is the reflection of the Intellect only, which shines clearly
in variegated colours, within the cavity of its own sphere; and though
devoid of any shape or colour, yet it exhibits itself like the vacuity
of the sky, in the blueness of the firmament.
63. Nothing unlike can result from the vacuous Intellect, other than
what is alike inane as itself; a material production requires a
material cause, which is wanting in the Intellect; and therefore the
created world is but a display of the Divine Mind, like the appearance
of dreams before our sleeping minds.
CHAPTER CVII.
THE NATURE OF IGNORANCE OR ILLUSION OF THE MIND.
Argument:--Proof of the cosmos as the reflexion of the gem of the
Intellect, and the Immateriality of the objective material world.
Vasishtha continued:--The world is the subjective Intellect and inborn
in it, and not the objective which is perceived from without. It is the
empty space of the Intellect which displays the noumenals in itself,
and here the _tripart_ or the triple state of the Intellect, its
intellection and the _chetya_ or intellectual combine together. (_i.e._
The thinking principle, its thinking and thoughts all unite together).
2. Here in its ample exhibition, all living beings are displayed as
dead bodies; and I and you, he and it, are all represented as lifeless
figures in a picture.
3. All persons engaged in active life, appear here as motionless blocks
of wood, or as cold and silent bodies of the dead; and all moving and
unmoving beings, appear to be seen here as in the empty air.
4. The sights of all things are exposed here, like the glare of the
chrystalline surface of the sky; and they are to be considered as
nothing, for nothing substantial can be contained in the hollow mind.
5. The bright sun-beams and the splashing waves, and the gathering
vapours in the air; present us with forms of shining pearls and gems in
them, but never does any one rely on their reality.
6. So this phenomenon of the world, which appears in the vacuum of the
Intellect; and seems to be true to the apprehension of every body, yet
it is never relied on by any one.
7. The Intellect is entangled in its false fancies, as a boy is caught
in his own hobby; and dwells on the errors of unreal material things
rising as smoke before it.
8. Say ye boys, what reliance can you place on your egoism and meity,
so as to say “this is I and that is mine.” Ah, well do I perceive it
now, that it is the pleasure of boys, to indulge themselves in their
visionary flights.
9. Knowing the unreality of the earth and other things, men are yet
prone to pass their lives in those vanities and in their ignorance of
truth, they resemble the miners, who instead of digging the earth in
search of gold, expect it to fall upon them from heaven.
10. When the want of prior and co-ordinate causes, proves _a priori_
the impossibility of the effect; so the want of any created thing,
proves _a posteriori_ the inexistence of a causal agent (_i.e._ there
is no creation nor its creator likewise).
11. They who deal in this uncreated world, with all the unreal shadows
of its persons and things; are as ignorant as madmen, who take a hobby
to nourish their unborn or dead offspring.
12. Whence is this earth and all other things, by whom are they made,
and how did they spring to sight; it is the representation of the
Intellectual vacuum, which shines in itself, and is quite calm and
serene.
13. The minds of those that are addicted to fancy to themselves, a
causality and its effect, and their time and place; are thus inclined
to believe in the existence of the earth, but we have nothing to do
with their puerile reasoning.
14. The world whether it is considered as material or immaterial, is
but a display of the intellectual vacuum; which presents all these
images like dreams to our minds, and as the empty sky shows its hues
and figures to our eyes.
15. The form of the vacuous intellect is without a form, and it is only
by our percipience that we have our knowledge of it; it is the same
which shows itself in the form of the earth &c., and the subjective
soul appears as the subjective world to our sight.
CHAPTER CVIII.
DESCRIPTION OF THE KNOWLEDGE AND IGNORANCE OF THE SOUL.
Argument:--The Knowledge of the objective continuing with our
ignorance of the subjective and the story of the wise prince
Vipaschit, attacked by his rude enemies.
Ráma rejoined:--He whose mind is bound by his ignorance, to the bright
vividness of visible phenomenal; views the palpable scenes of the
noumenal, as mere his idle dreams, and as visionary as empty air.
2. Now, O sage, please to tell me again, the nature and manner of this
ignorance of the noumenal; and to what extent and how long, does this
ignorance of the spiritual bind fast a man.
3. Vasishtha replied:--Know Ráma, those that are besotted by their
ignorance, think this earth and the elementary bodies, to be as
everlasting as they believe Brahma to be. Now O Ráma! hear a tale on
this subject.
4. There is in some corner of the infinite space, another world with
its three _lokas_ of the upper and lower regions, in the manner of this
terrestrial world.
5. There is a piece of land therein, as beautiful as this land of ours;
and is called the _sama bhúmi_ or level land, where all beings had
their free range.
6. In a city of that place, there reigned a prince well known for his
learning, and who passed his time in the company of the learned men of
his court.
7. He shone as handsome as a swan in a lake of lotuses, and as bright
as the moon among the stars; he was as dignified as the Mount Meru or
polar pinnacle among mountains, and he presided over his council as its
president.
8. The strain of bards, fell short in the recital of his praises, and
he was a firm patron of poets and bards, as a mountain is the support
of its refugees.
9. The prosperity of his valour flourished day by day, and stretched
its lustre to all sides of the earth; as the blooming beauty of lotus
blossoms, under the early beams of the rising sun, fills the landscape
with delight every morning.
10. That respectable prince of Bráhmanic faith, adored fire as the lord
of gods, with his full faith; and did not recognize any other god as
equal to him (Because _agni_ is said to be the Brahma or father of the
gods).
11. He was beset by conquering forces, consisting of horse, elephants
and foot soldiers; and was surrounded by his councillors, as the sea is
girt by his whirlpools and rolling waters.
12. His vast and unflinching forces, were employed in the protection of
the four boundaries of his realm; as the four seas serve to gird the
earth on all its four sides.
13. His capital was as the nave of a wheel, the central point of the
whole circle of his kingdom; and he was as invincible a victor of his
foes, as the irresistible discus of Vishnu.
14. There appeared to him once a shrewd herald, from the eastern
borders of his state; who approached to him in haste, and delivered a
secret message that was not pleasing unto him.
15. Lord! may thy realm be never detached, which is bound fastly by
thy arms, as a cow is tied to a tree or post; but hear me relate to
you something, which requires your consideration. (The word go--Gr.
ge.--Pers. gao--cow, means both the earth and a cow and hence their
mutual simile).
16. Thy chieftain in the east is snatched away from his post, by the
relentless hand of a fever where upon he seems to have gone to the
regions of death, to conquer as it were, the god Yama at thy behest.
17. Then as thy chief on the south, proceeded to quell the borderers
thereabouts; he was attacked by hostile forces who poured upon him from
the east and west, and killed by the enemy.
18. Upon his death as the chieftain of the west, proceeded with his
army to wrest those provinces (from the hands of the enemy).
19. He was met on his way, by the combined forces of the inimical
princes of the east and south, who put him to death in his half way
journey to the spot.
20. Vasishtha continued:--As he was relating in this wise, another
emissary driven by his haste, entered the court-hall with as great a
rush, as a current of the deluging flood.
21. He represented, saying:--O lord, the general of thy forces on the
north, is overpowered by a stronger enemy, and is routed from his post,
like an embankment broken down and borne away by the rushing waters.
22. Hearing so, the king thought it useless to waste time, and issuing
out of his royal apartment, he bade as follows.
23. Summon the princes and chiefs and the generals and ministers, to
appear here forthwith in their full armour; and lay open the arsenal,
and get out the horrible weapons (of destruction).
24. Put on your bodies your armours of mail, and set the infantry on
foot; number the regiments, and select the best warriors.
25. Appoint the leaders of the forces, and send the heralds all around;
thus said the king in haste, and such was the royal behest.
26. When the warder appeared before him, and lowly bending down his
head, he sorrowfully expressed: “Lord, the chieftain of the north is
waiting at the gate, and expects like the lotus to come to thy sunlike
sight”.
27. The king answered:--Go thou quickly there, and get him to my
presence; that I may learn from his report the sterling events of that
quarter.
28. Thus ordered, the warder introduced the northern chief to the royal
presence; where he bent himself down before his royal lord, who beheld
the chieftain in the following plight.
29. His whole body and every part and member of it, was full of wounds
and scars; it breathed hard and spouted out blood, and supported itself
with difficulty.
30. While he with due obeisance, and faltering breath and voice, and
contortion of his limbs, delivered this hasty message to his sovereign.
31. The chieftain said:--My lord, the three other chiefs of the three
quarters, with numerous forces under them, have already gone to the
realms of Yama (Pluto), in their attempt to conquer death at thy behest
(_i.e._ to encounter the enemies on every side).
32. Then the clansmen finding my weakness, to defend thy realms alone
on this side, assembled in large numbers, and poured upon me with all
their strength.
33. I have with great difficulty, very narrowly escaped from them to
this palace, all gory and gasping for life as you see; and pray you to
punish the rebels, that are not invincible before your might.
34. Vasishtha continued:--As the yet alive and wounded chieftain,
had been telling his painful story in this manner to the king; there
appeared on a sudden another person entering the palace after him, and
speaking to the king in the following manner.
35. O sovereign of men, the hostile armies of your enemies, likening
the shaking leaves of trees, have all beset in great numbers, the
skirts of your kingdom, on all its four sides.
36. The enemy has surrounded our lands, like a chain of rocks all
around; and they are blazing all about with their brandishing swords
and spears, and with the flashing of their forest-like maces and lances.
37. The bodies of their soldiers, with the flying flags and shaking
weapons on them, appear as moving chariots upon the ground; while their
rolling war-cars, seem as sweeping cities all about.
38. Their uplifted arms in the air, appear as rising forests of fleshy
arbours in the sky; and the resounding phalanx of big elephants, seem
as huge bodies of rainy clouds roaring on high.
39. The grounds seeming to rise and sink, with the bounding and bending
of their snoring horses; give the land an appearance of the sea,
sounding hoarsely under the lashing winds.
40. The land is moistened and whitened around, by the thickening froth
fallen from the mouths of horses; and bears its resemblance to the
foaming main, fell with its salt spray all over.
41. The groups of armed armaments in the field, resemble the warlike
array of clouds in the sky; and likens to the huge surges, rising upon
the surface of the sea, troubled by the gusts of the deluge.
42. The weapons on their bodies, and their armours and coronets, are
shining forth with a flash that equals the flame and fire of thy valour.
43. Their battle array, in the forms of circling crocodiles and long
stretching whales; resemble the waves of the sea, that toss about these
marine animals upon the shore.
44. Their lines of the lancers &c., are advancing with one accord
against us; and flashing with their furious rage and fire, are uttering
and muttering their invectives to us.
45. It is for this purpose, that I have come to report these things
to my lord, so that you will deign to proceed in battle array to the
borders, and drive these insurgents as weeds from the skirts.
46. Now my lord, I take leave of you, with my bow and arrows and club
and sword as I came, and leave the rest to your best discretion.
47. Vasishtha added:--Saying so, and bending lowly to his lord, the
emissary went out forthwith; as the undulation of the sea disappears,
after making a gurgling noise.
48. Upon this the king with his honorable ministers, his knights and
attendants and servants; together with his cavalry and charioteers, the
men and women and all the citizens at large were struck with terror;
and the sentinels of the palace, trembled with fear, as they shouldered
their arms and wielded their weapons, which resembled a forest of trees
shaken by a hurricane.
CHAPTER CIX.
FIGHTING WITH THE INVADING ARMIES AT THE GATE OF THE CITY.
Argument:--Adopting ways and means to quell the disturbances of
the hostile enemies.
Vasishtha continued:--In the mean while, the assembled ministers
advanced before the king, as the sages of yore resorted to the
celestial Indra, being invaded by the Daityas--Titans around.
2. The ministers addressed:--Lord! We have consulted and ascertained,
that as the enemy is irresistible by any of the three means (of peace,
dissension and bribe or concession); they must be quelled by force or
due punishment.
3. When the proffer of amity is of no avail, and the offer of hostages
doth also fail; it is useless to propose to them, any other term for a
reconciliation.
4. Vile enemies that are base and barbarous, that are of different
countries and races, that are great in number and opulence; and those
that are acquainted with our weakness and weak parts; are hardly
conciliated by terms of peace or subsidy.
5. Now there is no remedy against this insurrection, save by showing
our valour to the enemy; wherefore let all our efforts be directed,
towards the strengthening of our gates and ramparts.
6. Give orders to our bravos to sally out to the field, and command the
people to worship and implore the protection of the gods; and let the
generals give the war alarm with loud sounding drums and trumpets.
7. Let the warriors be well armed, and let them rush to the field; and
order the soldiers to pour upon the plains in all directions, as the
dark deluging clouds inundate the land.
8. Let the outstretched bows rattle in the air, and the bowstrings
twang and clang all around; and let the shadows of curved bows, obscure
the skies as by the clouds.
9. Let the thrilling bow strings, flash as flickering lightnings in
the air, and the loud war whoop of the soldiers, sound as the growling
clouds above; let the flying darts and arrows fall as showers of rain,
and make the combatants glare, with the sparkling gold rings in their
ear.
10. The king said:--Do you all proceed to the battle, and do promptly
all what is necessary on this occasion; and I will follow you
straightaway to the battle field, after finishing my ablution and the
adoration of Agni--the fiery god.
11. Notwithstanding the important affairs, which waited on the king;
yet he found a moment’s respite to bathe, by pouring potfuls of pure
_Gangá_ water upon him, in the manner of a grove watered by a showering
of rain water.
12. Then having entered his fire temple, he worshipped the holy fire
with as much reverence, as it is enjoined in the sástras; and then
began to reflect in himself, in the following manner.
13. I have led an untroubled and easy life, passing in pleasure and
prosperity; and have kept in security all the subjects of my realm
stretching to the sea.
14. I have subdued the surface of the earth, and reduced my enemies
under my foot; and have filled the smiling land with plenty, under the
bending skies on all sides.
15. My fair fame shines in the sphere of heaven, like the clear and
cooling beams of the lunar orb; and the plant of my renown, stretches
to the three worlds, like the three branches of _Gangá_.
16. I have lavished my wealth, to my friends and relatives, and to
respectable Bráhmans; in the manner, as I have amassed my treasures
for myself; and I quenched my thirst with the beverage of the cocoanut
fruits, growing on edges of the four oceans. (That is to say:--his
realms were चतुराब्धिसोमा or bounded by the four oceans on
all sides).
17. My enemies trembled before me for fear of their lives, and they
groaned before me as croaking frogs with their distended pouches, and
my rule extended over and marked the mountains, situated in the islands
amidst the distant seas.
18. I have roved with bodies of siddhas, over the nine regions beyond
the visible horizon; and I have rested on the tops of bordering
mountains, like the flying clouds that rest on mountain tops.
19. With my full knowing mind, and my perfection in Divine meditation;
I have acquired my dominions entire and unimpaired, by cause of my good
will for the public weal. (It means the prince’s high attainments in
spiritual, intellectual as well as territorial concerns).
20. I have manacled the lawless Rákshasas, in strong chains and
fetters; and kept my cares of religious duties, and those of my
treasures and personal enjoyments within proper bounds, and without
letting them clash with one another.
21. I have passed my life time, in the uninterrupted discharge of those
triple duties of mine; and have relished my life with great joy and
renown. But now hoary old age hath come upon me, like the snow and
frost fallen upon the withered leaf and dried straw.
22. Now hath old age come, and blasted all my pleasures and efforts;
and after all, these furious enemies have overpowered upon me, and are
eager for warfare.
23. They have poured upon me in vast numbers on all sides, and the
victory is doubtful; it is therefore better for me to offer myself as a
sacrifice, to the god of this burning fire, which is known to crown its
worshipper with victory.
24. I will pluck this head of mine, and make an offering of it to the
Fire-god (as a fit fruit to shrine; and say:--O Igneous god, I
make here an offering of my head to thee).
25. I give this offering, as I have ever before given my oblations to
fire; therefore accept of this also, O god, if thou art pleased with my
former offerings.
26. Let the four urns of thy fiery furnace, yield four forms of mine,
with brilliant and strong bodies, like that of Náráyana, with his
mighty arms.
27. Thus will I be enabled, with those four bodies of mine, to meet my
enemies on all the four sides; and be invulnerable like thyself, by
keeping my thought and sight, ever fixed in thee.
28. Vasishtha replied:--So saying, the king took hold of a dagger in
his hand; and separated the head from his body with one blow of it, as
boys tear off a lotus bud from the stalk with their nails. (In many
instances, the head is mentioned to be torn off by the nails).
29. As the head became an oblation, to the fire of dusky fumes; the
headless trunk of the self-immolated sovereign, sprang and flew also
upon the burning furnace.
30. The sacred fire, being fed with the fat and flesh of the royal
carcass; yielded forth with four such living bodies, from amidst its
burning flames; as it is the nature of the good and great, to make an
instantaneous of fourfold, of what they receive in earnest.
31. The king sprang from amidst the fire, in his fourfold forms of his
kingly appearance, and these were as luminous with their effulgence, as
the radiant body of Náráyana, when it rose at first from the formless
deep. (The spirit of god rising over the surface of the deep).
32. These four bodies of the king, shone forth with their resplendent
lustre; and were adorned with their inborn decorations of the royal
crown and other ornaments and weapons. (The fire born form allude to
the Agniculas or fiery races of men).
33. They had their armours and coronets on, together with helmets,
bracelets and fittings for all and every part of the body; and
necklaces and ear-rings hung upon them as they moved along.
34. All the four princes were of equal forms, and of similar shapes and
sizes in all the member of their bodies; and were all seated on horse
back, like so many Indras riding on their _Uchai-srava_ horses (having
their ears pricked up, as in the plight of their heavenward flight).
35. They had their long and capacious quivers, full with arrows of
golden shafts; and their ponderous bows and bowstrings, were equally
long and strong with the god of war.
36. They rode also on elephants and steeds, and mounted on their
war-cars and other vehicles in their warfare; and were alike
impregnable by the arms of the enemy, both themselves as well as the
vehicles they rode upon.
37. They sprang from the bosom of the sacred fire, as the flames of the
submarine fire, rise from amidst the ocean, by being nourished with the
oblations that were offered upon it.
38. Their flowery bodies on jewelled horses, made resplendent on all
sides as four smiling faces of the moon; and their good figures looked
like Hara-Hari, as if they have come out from fire and water.
CHAPTER CX.
BATTLE OF THE WISE PRINCES, WITH THE IGNORANT BARBARIAN.
Argument:--Description of the warfare before the city gates,
betwixt the Royal armies and the Rude Invaders of the Realm.
Vasishtha continued:--In the mean time the battle was raging in its
full fury, between the royal forces, and the hostile bands that had
advanced before the city gates.
2. Here the enemies were plundering the city and villages, and there
they set fire to the houses and hamlets; the sky was obscured by clouds
of smoke and dust, and the air was filled by loud cries of havoc and
wailing on every side.
3. The sun was obscured by the thickening shadow, of the network of
arrows spread over the skies; and the disk of the sun now appeared to
view: and was then lost to sight the next moment.
4. The burning fire of the incendiaries, set to flame the leaves of
the forest trees; and the fire brands of burning wood, were falling as
loosely all around, as the iron sleets of arrow breast were hurling
through the air.
5. The flame of the blazing fire, added a double lustre, to the
burnished and brandishing weapons; and the souls of the great
combatants falling in battle, were borne aloft to the regions of Indra,
where they were ministered by the heavenly nymphs.
6. The Thundering peals of fierce elephants, excited the bravery of
bravados: and missile weapons of various kinds, were flung about in
showers.
7. The loud shouts and cries of the combatants, depressed the spirits
of dastardly cowards; and the hoary clouds of dust flying in the air,
appeared as elephants intercepting the paths of the midway skies.
8. Chieftains eager to die in the field, were roving about with loud
shouts; and men were falling in numbers here and there, as if stricken
by lightnings in the battle field.
9. Burning houses were falling below, and fiery clouds dropt from
above; flying arrows in the form of rocks, were rolling on high; and
descending upon and dispatching to death, numbers of soldiers that were
ready to die.
10. The galloping horses in the field gave it the appearance of wavy
ocean afar; and the crashing of the tusks of fighting elephants,
crackled like the clashing clouds in air.
11. The shafts of the arrows of the combatants, filled the forts and
its bastion; and the flashing of the same on the top of it, made a
glare of fire around.
12. The dashing of one another in passing to and fro, tore their
garments into pieces, and the furling of flags in open air and the
clashing of shield between combatants made a pat-pat noise all around.
13. The flash of the tusks of elephant, and the crash of weapons
dashing on stony rocks, and the loud uproar and clangour of the
battlefield, invited the elephants of heaven to join in the fray.
14. The flights of arrows, ran as rivers into the ocean of the sky; and
the flying lances, swords and discuses, which were flung into the air,
resembled the sharks and alligators, swimming in the etherial sea.
15. The concussion of the armours of the clamorous combatants, and the
clashing of the arms in commingled warfare, represented the sounding
main beset by islands.
16. The ground was trodden down to a muddy pool, under the feet of
the foot soldiers; and the blood issuing out of their bodies from the
wounds of the arrows, ran as river carrying down the broken chariots
and slain elephants in its rapid course.
17. The flight of the winged shafts, and the falling of the battle
axes, resembled the waves of the arrowy sea in the air; and the broken
arms of the vanquished, floated as aquatic animals upon it.
18. The sky was set on fire, by the flames issuing forth from the
clashing arms; and the celestial regions were filled with the deified
souls of departed heroes, now released from the fetters of their
wrinkled and decaying frames of earth.
19. Clouds of dingy dust and ashes filled the firmament, with flashes
of lightnings flaming as arches amidst them; the missile weapons filled
the air, as the tractile arms occupied the surface of the earth.
20. The contending combatants hooted at one another, and broke and cut
their weapons in mutual contest; the cars were cleft by clashing at
each other, and the chariots were reft by dashing together.
21. Here the headless trunks of the _kabandhas_ (anthropophagi),
mingled with the gigantic bodies of the _vetála_ demons, were
disastrous on every side; and there the demoniac _vetála_ plucking
their hearts for their hearty meal.
22. The bravos were tearing the arteries of the slain, and breaking
asunder their arms, heads and thighs; while the uplifted and shaking
arms of the Kabandhas, made a moving forest in the air.
23. The demons moving about with their open and jeering mouths, made
their maws and jaws as caskets for carrion; and the soldiers passing
with their helmets and coronets on, looked fiercely on all around.
24. To kill or die, to slay or to be slain, was the soldier’s final
glory in the field; as it was their greatest infamy, to be backward in
their giving or receiving of wounds.
25. He is the gladdener of death, who dries up the boast of soldiers
and chieftains, and drains the flowing ichor of ferocious elephants
(_i.e._ puts an end to them); and one who is entirely bent on
destruction.
26. There were loud applauses given to the victory, of unboasting and
unrenowned heroes; as there were the great censures, which were poured
upon the nameless and dastardly cowards.
27. The rousing of the sleeping virtues of prowess and others, is as
glorious to the great and strong; as the laying out of their treasures,
for the protection of their protégés.
28. The proboscides of the elephants, were broken in the conflict of
elephant riders and charioteers; and oozing of the fragrant fluid of
ichor from their front, was altogether at a stop.
29. Elephants left loose by their flying leaders, fell into the lakes,
and cried like shrill storks in them; and here they were pursued and
overcome by men who inflicted terrible wounds upon them with their
hands.
30. In some place the unprotected as well as the uninvaded people,
being downtrodden and half dead in their mutual scuffle; fled to and
fell at the feet of their king, as the daytime takes its shelter under
the shining sun.
31. They being maddened by pride with the force of giddiness, became
subject to death (_i.e._ they called death, to be re-born); as
millionaires and traders seek a better place in dread of their life.
32. The red coats of soldiers, and the red flags lifted upon their
arms as a wood of trees; spread a rubicund colour all around, like the
adoration of the three worlds.
33. White umbrellas, resembling the waves of the Milky ocean, when
churned by the Mandara mountain; covered the weapons of the soldiers
under them, and made the sky appear as a garden of flowers.
34. The eulogies sung by the bards and Gandharvas, added to the valour
of the warriors; and profluent liquor of the tall palma trees (_i.e._
the toddy juice), infused a vigour to their veins, as that of Baladeva
(who fought dead drunk in battle).
35. There was the clashing of arms of the Rákshasas, who fought
together in bodies; who were as big as lofty trees, and fed on
carcasses, with which they filled their abodes in the caverns of
mountains.
36. There was a forest of spears rising to the sky on one side, with
the detached heads and arms of the slain attached to them; and there
were the flying stones on another, which were flung from the slings of
the combatants, and which covered the ground below.
37. There was the clapping of the arms and hands of the champions,
resembling the splitting and bursting of great trees; and there was
heard also the loud wailings of women, echoing amidst the lofty
edifices of the city.
38. The flight of fiery weapons in the air, resembled the flying fire
brands on high, with a hissing and whistling sound; and the people
betook themselves to flight from these, leaving their homes and
treasures all behind.
39. The lookers were flying away, from the flying darts all about, in
order to save their heads; just as the timid snakes hide themselves,
for fear of the devouring _phoenix_, darting upon them from the sky.
40. Daring soldiers were grinded under tusks of elephants, as if they
were pounded under the jaws of death, or as the grapes are crushed in
their pressing mills.
41. The weapons flying in the air, were repelled and broken by the
stones, flung by the ballistics; and the shouts of the champions,
resounded as the re-echoing yells of elephants, issuing out of the
ragged caverns.
42. The hollow sounding caves of mountains, resounded to the loud
shouts of warriors; who were ready to expose their dear lives and
dearly earned vigour in the battle field.
43. The burning fire of firearms, and the flames of incendiarism
flashed on all sides; these and mutual conflicts and chariot fightings,
went on unceasingly all around.
44. The battle field was surrounded by the surviving soldiers, who
were as staunch hearted as the Mount Kailása, with the strong god Siva
seated therein.
45. The bravemen that boldly expose their lives in battle, enjoy a
lasting life by their death in warfare, and die in their living state,
by their flight from the field. (The text is very curt and says:--The
brave live by dying, and die by their living).
46. Big elephants being killed in the battle field, like lotus flowers
immerging into the waters of lakes; great champions were seen to stalk
over the plains, as towering storks strutted on the banks of lakes.
47. Here showers of stones were falling in torrents, with a whizzing
sound; and the showers of arrows, were running with a whistling noise
around; and the uproar of warriors were growling in the skies. The
flying weapons were hurtling through the air, and the neighing of
horses, the cries of elephants and the whirling of chariot wheels,
together with the hurling of stones from the height of hills, deafened
the ears of men all about.
CHAPTER CXI.
THE FLIGHT OF THE SOLDIERS ON ALL SIDES.
Argument:--Description of the Discomfiture of the Royal army, and
their use of pneumatic arms.
Vasishtha continued:--Thus the war waged with the fury of the four
elements, in their mutual conflict on the last doomsday of the world;
and the forces on all sides, were falling and flying in numbers in and
about the battle field.
2. The sky was filled with the stridor of the fourfold noise of drums
and conch-shells; and the rattling of arrows and clattering of arms on
all sides.
3. The furious warriors were violently dashing on one another, and
their steel armours were clashing against each other, and splitting in
twain with clattering noise.
4. The files of the royal forces, were broken in the warfare; they fell
fainting in the field, and were lopped off as leaves and plants, and
mown down as straws and grass.
5. At this time the trumpets announced the advance of king, with a peal
that filled the quarters of the sky; and the cannons thundered with a
treble roar, resounding with uproar of the _kapa_ or doomsday clouds.
6. They rent asunder at the same time, the sides of the highest hill
and mountains; and split in twain, the rocky shores and banks every
where.
7. The king then issued forth to all the four sides, in the four fold
or four parted form of himself; like the four regents of the four
quarters of the sky, or like the four arms of Náráyana, stretching to
so many sides of heaven.
8. Being then followed by his fourfold forces (composed of horse,
elephants, war-cars and foot soldiers); he then rushed out of the
confines of his city of palaces, and marched to the open fields lying
out of the town.
9. He saw the thinness of his own army, and the strong armament of his
enemies all around; and heard their loud clamour all about, like the
wild roar of the surrounding sea.
10. Flights of arrows flying thickly through the air, appeared as
sharks floating in the sea; and the bodies of elephants, moving in the
wide battle field, seemed as the huge waves of the ocean.
11. The moving battalions wheeling circular bodies, seemed as the
whirling eddies in the sea; and the coursing chariots with their waving
flags, appeared as the sailing ships with their unfurled sails.
12. The uplifted umbrellas were as the foams of the sea, and the
neighing of horses, likened the frothing of whales. The glaring of
shining weapons, appeared as the flaring of falling rain under the
sunshine.
13. The moving elephants and sweeping horses, seemed as the huge surges
and swelling waves of the sea; and the dark Dravidian barbarians
gabbled, like the gurgling bubbles of sea waters.
14. The big elephants with their towering and lowering bodies, seemed
as they were mounting or dismounting from the heights of mountains, and
breaking their hollow caves, howling with the rustling winds.
15. The battle field looked like the vast expanse of water, in which
the slain horses and elephants seemed to be swimming as fragments of
floating rocks, and where the moving legions, appeared as the rolling
waves of the sea.
16. The field presented the dismal appearance of an untimely
dissolution; appeared as an ocean of blood, stretching to the borders
of the visible horizon.
17. The fragments of the shining weapons, showed themselves as the
sparkling gems in the womb of the sea; and the movement of forces,
resembled the casting of ballast stones into it.
18. The falling weapons, were as showers of gems and snow from above;
and presented the appearance of evening clouds in some place, and of
fleecy vapours in another.
19. Beholding the ocean like the battalion of the enemy, the king
thought of swallowing it up, as the sage Agastya had sucked in the
ocean; and with this intent, he remembered his airy instrument, which
he thought to employ on this occasion; (and which would disperse the
cloud of the hostile force like the wind).
20. He got the airy instrument, and aimed it at all sides; as when
the god Siva had set the arrow to his bow on Mount Meru, to slay the
demon Tripura. (This passage shows the slaughter of Tripura, when the
Indo-Aryans had their habitation on Meru or the polar mountains).
21. He bowed to his god Agni--Ignis, and let fly his mighty missile
with all his might; in order to repel the raging fire, and preserve his
own forces from destruction.
22. He hurled his airy bolt, together with its accompaniment of the
cloudy arms; both to drive off as well as to set down the fire of the
enemy.
23. These arms being propelled from his octuple cross bow, burst forth
into a thousand dire weapons, which ran to and filled all the four
sides or quarters of the sky.
24. Then there issued forth from these, an abundance of darts and
arrows; and currents of iron spears and tridents; and volleys of shots
and rockets.
25. There were torrents of missiles and mallets, as well as currents of
discs and battle axes.
26. There were streams of iron clubs, crows and lances; and floods of
bhindipalas or short arrows thrown from the hand or through tubes; and
also swashes of spring nets, and air instruments of incredible velocity.
27. There was an effusion of fire bolts, and a profluence of
lightnings, as also showers of fallings shorts, and scuds of flying
swords and sabres.
28. There were falls of iron arrows, and javelins and spears of great
force and strength; and purling of huge snakes, that were found in
mountain caves, and grew there for ages.
29. It was in no time, that the force of these flying arms, blasted
the ocean of the hostile forces; which fled in full haste and hurry in
all directions, as heaps of ashes before the hurricane and whirlwind.
30. The thunder showers of arms, and the driving rain of weapons, were
driven away by the impetuous winds; and invading hosts hurried to all
sides, as the torrent of a river breaks its embankment, and overflows
on the land in the rains.
31. The four bodies of troops (consisting of horse, elephant, chariots
and foot-soldiers), fled vanquished from the field to the four
directions; just as the mountain cataracts precipitate on all sides
during the rains.
32. The lofty flags and their posts, were torn and broken and hurled
down as large trees by storm; and the forest of uplifted swords were
broken to pieces, and scattered like the petals of _mariche_ flowers
over the ground.
33. The sturdy bodies of stout soldiers, were rolling as stones on the
ground, and besmeared with blood gushing out of their wounds; while the
groans of their agony, broke down the stoutest hearts.
34. Large elephants rolled upon the ground with their elevated tusks
rising as trees; and roared aloud with their crackling sounds, vying
with thunder claps and roaring clouds.
35. The clashing of the weapons against one another, was as the
crashing of the branches of trees against each other; and the horses
clashing on one another, sounded as the clashing of waves of the sea.
36. The crackling of war cars and their huge wheels, sounded as the
rattling of the hail storm on high; and the mingled noise of the
clashing of carriages, horse, elephants and foot-soldiers, sounded as
the crashing of stones.
37. The harsh sound of war hoops and shouts, was loud on all sides; and
cries of dying soldiers, crying “we die, we are slain,” swelled in the
air all around.
38. The army appeared as a sea, and their march was as the whirling of
an eddy with its gurgling sound; and the bloodshed on their bodies,
exhibited the roseate hue of the evening sky.
39. The waving weapons, appeared as a lowering cloud moving upon the
shore; and the ground besmeared in blood seemed as the fragment of a
purple cloud.
40. The lancers, mace bearers and spearmen, seemed to bear the tall
_tala_ trees in their hands; while the cowardly crowds of men, were
seen to cry aloud like the timid deer in the plain.
41. The dead bodies of horses, elephants and warriors, lay prostrate on
the ground liken the fallen leaves of trees; and the rotten flesh and
fat of the bruised carcasses, were trodden down to mud and mire in the
field.
42. Their bones were pounded to dust under the hoofs of the horses; and
the concussion of wood and stones under the driving winds, raised a
rattling sound all around.
43. The clouds of dooms-day were roaring, and the winds of desolation
were blowing; the rains of the last day were falling, and the thunders
of destruction were clapping all about.
44. The surface of the ground was all muddy and miry, and the face of
the land was flooded all over; the air was chill and bleak, and the sky
was drizzling through all its pores.
45. The huts and hamlets, and the towns and villages, were all in
a blaze; and the people and their cattle, with all the horses and
elephants, were in full cry and loud uproar.
46. The earth and heaven, resounded with the rolling of chariots and
rumbling of clouds; and the four quarters of heaven, reverberated to
the twanging of his four fold bow on all the four sides.
47. The forky lightnings were playing, by the friction and clashing
of the clouds; and showers of arrows and missiles fell profusely from
them, with the thunder bolts of maces, and darts of spears.
48. The armies of the invading chiefs, fled in confusion from all the
four sides of the field; and the flying forces fell in numbers like
swarms of ants and troops of gnats and flies.
49. The myrmidons of the bordering tribes, were burnt amidst the
conflagration of fiery arms; and were pierced by the fiery weapons,
falling like thunderbolts upon them, from the darkened sky. The flying
forces resembled the marine animals of the deep, which being disturbed
by the perturbed waters of the sea, plunge at last into the submarine
fire.
CHAPTER CXII.
FLIGHT OF THE FOREIGN FOES.
Argument.--Account of the routed soldiers, and the names of their
countries and places of retreat.
Vasishtha continued:--The Chedis of Deccan, who were as thickly crowded
as the sandal wood of their country, and girt with girdles resembling
the snakes about those trees, were felled by the battle axes, and
driven afar to the southern main--the Indian Ocean.
2. The Persians flew as the flying leaves of trees, and striking
against one another in their madness, fell like the vanjula leaves in
the forest.
3. Then the demon-like Darads, who dwell in the caverns of the distant
Dardura mountains, were pierced in their breasts, and fled from the
field with their heart rending sorrow. (The Dardui is a people of
Afghanistan).
4. The winds blew away the clouds of weapons, which poured down
torrents of missile arms, that shattered the armours of the warriors,
and glittered like curling lightnings.
5. The elephants falling upon one another, pierced their bodies and
gored each other to death with their tusks; and became heaps of flesh,
similar to the lumps of food with which they filled their bellies.
6. Another people of the same country, and of the Raivata mountains,
who were flying from the field by night; were waylaid by the horrid
Pisáchas, that tore their bodies and devoured them with voracity.
7. Those that fled to the _tala_ and _tamala_ forests, and to the old
woods on the bank of the _dasárná_ river; were caught by lions and
tigers crouching in them; and were throttled to death under their feet.
8. The _yovanas_ living on the coasts of the western ocean, and those
in the land of cocoanut trees; were caught and devoured by sharks, in
the course of their flight.
9. The sákas or _Scythians_ being unable to endure the impulse, of the
black iron arrows for a moment fled to all directions; and the Rumatha
people were blown away and broken down, like the lotus bed by the
blowing winds.
10. The routed enemy flying to the Mahendra mountain, covered its three
peaks with their armours of black mail, and made them appear as mantled
by the sable clouds of the rainy weather.
11. The legions of these hostile forces, being broken down by the arms
of the king, like the large mines of gold, were first plundered of their
raiments by the highway robbers, and then killed and devoured by the
nocturnal cannibals and hobgoblins of the desert.
12. The surface of the land was converted to the face of the sky; by
the broken fragments of weapons glistering on like the stars of heaven
twinkling in myriads above.
13. The caverns of the earth, resounding to the noise of the clouds
above, appeared as a grand orchestra, sounding the victory of the king
both in earth and heaven.
14. The peoples inhabiting the islands, lost their lives under the
whirling disks; as those dwelling in the watery marshes perish on dried
lands for want of rain.
15. The vanquished islanders fled to the Sahya mountains, and having
halted there for a week, departed slowly to the respective places.
16. Many took shelter in the Gandhamádana mountains, while multitudes
of them resorted to the Punnága forests; and the retreating Gandharvas
became refugees in the sanctuaries of the Vidyádhara maidens.
17. The Huns, Chins and Kirátas, had their heads struck off by the
flying discuses of the king; and these were blown away by the opposite
winds, like lotus flowers by the blast.
18. The Nilipa people, remained as firm as trees in a forest, and as
fixed in their places as thorns on stalks and brambles.
19. The beautiful pastures of antelopes, the woodlands and hilly
tracts on all sides; were desolated by showers of weapons, and the rush
and crush of the forces.
20. The thorny deserts became the asylum of robbers, after they
deserted their habitations to be over grown by thorns and thistles.
21. The Persians who were abundant in number, got over to the other
side of the sea (the Persian Gulph); and were blown away by the
hurricane, like stars blasted by the storm of final desolation.
22. The winds blew as on the last day of destruction, and broke down
the woods and forests all about; and disturbed the sea by shaking its
hidden rocks below.
23. The dirty waters of the deep, rose on high with a gurgling noise;
and the sky was invisible owing to the clouds of weapons, which
obscured its face on all sides.
24. The howling winds, raised a clapping and flapping sound all about;
and there fell showers of snow also, which flowed on earth, like the
waters of the sea.
25. The charioteers of Vidura country, fell down from their cars, with
the loud noise of waves; and were driven to fall into the waters of the
lake, like bees from lotuses.
26. The routed foot soldiers who were as numerous as the dust of the
earth, and well armed from head to foot; were yet so overpowered under
the showers of darts and discs, that they were blinded by the tears of
their eyes, and disabled to beat their retreat. (_i.e._ They were as
dust, set down by the showers of darts from above, and tears of their
eyes below).
27. The Huns were buried with their heads and heels, in their flight
over the sandy deserts of the north; and others were as muddied as the
dirty iron, by their being fastened in the miry shores of northern
seas. (The Huns had been the progenitors of the present Hungarians,
residing beyond the Baltic. They are said to have been as dark
complexioned as their cognate Dravidians of Deccan in Southern India).
28. The Sáks (Saccae or Scythians), were driven to cassia forests on
the bank of the eastern main; there they were confined for some time,
and then released without being despatched to the regions of death.
29. The Madrasees were repulsed to the Mahendra mountains, whence they
lightly alighted on the ground as if fallen from heaven; and there they
were protected by the great sages, who preserved them there with tender
care as they bear for the stags of their hermitage.
30. The fugitives flying to the refuge of the Sahya mountains, found
in lieu of their imminent destruction, in the subterranean cell, the
two fold gain of their present and future good therein. Thus it comes
to pass that, many times good issues out of evil, where it was least
expected. (We know not what were the two great gains made at this
place, except it be made to mean, that the hidden cell of _sahya_ or
patience is the door to prosperity and success).
31. The soldiers flying to Dasárná at the confluence of the ten rivers,
fell into the Dardura forest like the fallen leaves of trees; and there
they lay dead all about by eating the poisonous fruits thereof.
32. The Haihayas that fled to Himálayas, drank the juice of
_Visalya-karaní_ or pain killing plants by mistake; and became thereby
as volant as Vidyádharas, and flew to their country.
33. And then the people of Bengal, who are as weak as faded flowers,
showed their backs to the field, and fled to their homes; from which
they dare not stir even to this day, but remain as Pisáchas all along.
34. But the people of Anga or Bihar, that live upon the fruits of their
country; are as strong as Vidyádharas, and sport with their mates, as
if it were in heavenly bliss.
35. The Persians being worsted in their bodies, fell into the _tala_
and _tamala_ forests; whereby drinking their intoxicating extracts,
they became as giddy as drunken men. (The addictedness of Persians to
their delicious drinks, is well known in their Ána Cronatics).
36. The light and swift mettled elephants of the swarthy Kalingas,
pushed against their four fold armies in the field of battle, where all
lay slain in promiscuous heaps.
37. The salwas passing under the arrows and stones of the enemy, fell
into the waters which girt their city, wherein they perished with the
whole of their hosts, that are still lying there in the form of heap of
rocks.
38. There were numbers of hosts, that fled to different countries in
all directions; and many that were driven to the distant seas, where
they were all drowned and dead, and borne away by the waves.
39. But who can count the countless hosts, that fled to and lay dead
and unnoticed in every part of the wide earth and sea, on the fields
and plains, in forests and woods, on land and water, on mountains and
dales, on shores and coasts and on the hills and cliffs. So there is
nobody who can tell what numbers of living beings are dying every
moment, in their homes and abodes in cities and villages, in caves and
dens, and every where in the world.
CHAPTER CXIII.
DESCRIPTION OF THE OCEAN.
Argument:--Relation of the cessation of arms, and description of
majestic ocean.
Vasishtha continued:--The hostile forces of the enemies thus flying
on all sides, were pursued to a great distance by the four forms of
Vihaschit as said before.
2. These four forms of almighty power, and of one soul and mind; went
on conquering the four regions on every side, with one intent and
purpose.
3. They chased the retreating enemies without giving them any respite,
to the shores of the seas on all sides; as the currents of rivers keep
on their course without intermission, to the coast of the far distant
ocean.
4. This long course of the royal forces, as well as of the enemies,
soon put an end to all their provisions and ammunitions, and all their
resources and strength were exhausted at last, as a rill is lost under
the sands ere it reaches the lake.
5. The king beheld his forces and those of his enemies, to be as
exhausted at the end; as the merits and demerits of a man are lost up
on his ultimate liberation.
6. The weapons ceased to fly about, as if they were at rest after they
had done their part in the sky; and as the flames of fire subside of
themselves, for want of fuel and the combustibles.
7. The horses and elephants went under their shelters, and the weapons
stuck to trees and rocks; and they seemed to fall fast asleep, like
birds upon their spray at night fall.
8. As the waves cease to roll in a dried up channel, and the snows to
fall under the clouded sky; and as the clouds fly before the storm, and
the fragrance of flowers is borne away by the wind.
9. So the flying weapons were submerged like fishes, under the falling
showers of rain; and the dripping drops of darts, were thwarted by
the thickening showers of snow (_i.e._ the dropping arrows were driven
away, by the drifts of snow).
10. The sky was cleared of the whirling disks, that were hurled by
hundreds, and hurtling in the hazy atmosphere; and it got a clean sweep
of the gathering clouds, that were soaring up in surges, and pouring
down in floods of rain.
11. The firmament presented the appearance of an immense ocean,
composed of the limpid fuel of the vast void; and containing the
sparkling gems of the stars in its bosom, and the burning submarine
fire of the sun in the midst of it.
12. The great vacuum appeared as extensive and deep, and as bright and
serene, and devoid of the dust of rajas or pride, as the minds of great
men (which are of equal extent and depth of knowledge &c.).
13. They then beheld the oceans, lying as junior brothers of the skies;
being of equal extent and clearness, and stretching to the utmost
limits of the horizon.
14. These with their deep sounding waves and foaming froths, are as
gratifying to the minds of people; as the roaring clouds with their
showers of snow, are ravishing of human hearts.
15. They having fallen down from high heaven, and stretching wide their
huge bodies on the earth below; seem to be rolling grievously on the
ground, with their deep groanings and breathings, and raising up their
billowy arms, in order to lift themselves on high.
16. They are gross and dull bodies, yet full of force and motion, and
though they are mute and dumb, yet full of noise and howling in their
hollow cavities; they are full of dreadful whirlpools, as is this world
with all its dizzy rounds.
17. The gems sparkling on the banks, add to the brightness of the sun
beams (in the morning); and the winds blowing in the conch shells,
resound all along the coast.
18. Here the huge waves are growling, like the big clouds roaring
loudly on high; and the circling eddies are whirling around, as the
shattered corallines were scattered along.
19. The hoarse snorting of sharks and whales, is howling in the bosom
of the deep; and the lashing of the waters by their tails, sounded as
the splashing of the oars of vessels in them.
20. Here are the horrid sharks and alligators, devouring the fleecy
mermaids and marine men in numbers; and a thousand suns shining in
their reflexions on the rising waves.
21. Here are seen fleets of ships floating on the surface of the
waters, and rising aloft on the tops of the waves; and driven forward
by the blowing winds, howling horribly through the furling sails and
cracking cordage.
22. The ocean with his hundreds of arms of the heaving waves, handles
the orbs of the sun and moon; and displays varieties of sparkling gem,
with reflexions of their ’beams in them.
23. Here were the shoals of sharks, skimming over the foaming main; and
there were the water spouts, rising like columns of elephants’ trunks
to the skies, and representing a forest of bamboos.
24. In some places, the rippling waves were gliding, like curling
creepers, with hairy tufts and frothy blossoms on them; and in others,
little rocks resembling the backs of elephants and bearing the vernal
flowers, were scattered in the midst of the waters.
25. Some where were the heaps of froth and frost and hills of icebergs,
resembling the edifices of the gods and demigods; and else where were
the groups of sparkling little billows, that laughed to scorn the
clusters of shining stars in the skies.
26. Here are branches (chains) of rocks concealed in its depth, like
little gnats hidden in the hollows underneath the ground; and there are
the huge surges, which make pigmies and dwarfs of the high hills on
earth.
27. Its coasts are spread over with sparkling gems, like beds of
gemming sprouts and shoots of flowers on the ground (or) as the ground
strewn over with the germinating shoots and sprouts of gemming blossom;
while the glistening pearls bursting out of their silvery shells
sparkle amidst the spreading sands.
28. The sea seems to weave a vest of silken stuff, with its fleecy
waves; and decking it with all its floating gems and pearls; while the
rivers flowing into it from all directions, serve to colour it with
their various waters.
29. The coasts studded with gems and pearls of various hues, display as
it were the beams of a hundred moons, in the versicoloured nails of its
feet.
30. The shadows of the beaching _tali_ forests, falling on the swelling
waves of the sea, were imbued with the hues of the marine gems; and
appeared as moving arbours with their variegated foliage, fruits and
flowers.
31. There are seen the shadows of sundry fruit trees, reflected in the
waters gliding below; and as rising up and falling down with their
reflexions in the moving waves and billows. The false and falling
shadows, gathered numbers of marine beasts under them, for gorging the
falling fruits. (This is pursuing a shadow).
32. Again the greedy fishes were collected some where, and leaping to
catch the birds that were sitting on the fruit trees, and seen in their
reflexions on the waves.
33. Here are seen many sea monsters also, that break the embankments,
and rove about at random in the watery maze, as birds fly freely in the
vacuous air.
34. The ocean being a formless deep, bears the image of the three
worlds impressed on its bosom; it bears also the image of the pure
vacuum in itself, as it bore the image of Náráyana in its breast.
35. Its great depth, clearness and immeasurable extent, gives it the
appearance of the majestic firmament, which is reflected in its bosom,
as it were imprest upon it.
36. It bears the reflexion of the sky and of the flying birds thereof,
as if they were the images of aquatic fowls swimming on its surface, or
resembled the blackbees fluttering about its lotus like waves.
37. Its boisterous waves are borne to the skies by the violent winds,
and washing the welkin’s face with their briny sprays; and the deep
sounding main, resounding from its hollow rocks, is roaring aloud like
the diluvian clods.
38. The gurgling noise of the whirlpools, resembles the loud thunder
claps of heaven; and the submarine fire is sometimes seen to burst out
of the deep, like the latent flame of Agastya, that consumed the waters
of the main.
39. The watery maze presents the picture of a vast wilderness, with its
waves as the waving trees; the billows as its branch boughs, its surfs
as blossoms, and the foams and froths as flowers.
40. The high heaving surges with the shoals of fishes skimming and
skipping upon them; appear as fragments of the sky fallen below, and
carried away by the gliding waters.
41. Thus the hostile forces were driven afar to the shores of the salt
seas; extending far and wide and bounding the earth on every side;
while the lofty mountains rising to the skies with their verdant tops,
intercepted the sight on all sides.
CHAPTER CXIV.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PROSPECTS ALL AROUND.
Argument:--Description of the forest trees, the hills and seas,
the forest and hill peoples, and clouds on high.
Vasishtha continued:--Then the royal army beheld whatever there was on
sides of them; namely, the forests and hills, the seas and the clouds,
and the foresters and hill people, and the trees of the forest.
2. They said: behold, O lord, that high hill, which lifts its lofty top
to the sky, and invites the clouds to settle upon it; while its midmost
part is the region of the winds, and the base is composed of hard and
rugged stones.
3. See, O lord, how they abound with fruit trees of various kinds, and
the groves whose fragrance is wafted around by the gentle winds.
4. The sea breaks down the peninsulas with its battering breakers,
and disperses the stones of the rocks on its banks; it shatters the
bordering forests with its wavy axes, and scatters their fruits and
flowers all over the waters. (The gloss explains the peninsula to mean
the maritime lands of Madras).
5. Behold the sea-breeze wafting away the clouds, settling on the tops
of mountains, by the sufflation of the leafy boughs of trees dancing
over them; in the manner of men, blowing away the smoke with their fans.
6. Here are arbours on its coasts, like the trees in the garden of
paradise; whose branches are as white as the conch-shells growing in
the full-moon-tide, and whose fruits are as bright as the disk of the
moon.
7. Lo, these trees with their spouses of the creepers, are honouring
you with offerings of gemming flowers, from the rosy palms of their
rubicund leaves.
8. There is the Rikshabana rock, howling as a ferocious bear; and
devouring the huge sharks and swallowing the swelling waves, in its
cavern-like mouth, and under its stony teeth.
9. The Mahendra mountain with loud uproar, growls at the roaring clouds
(moving below its height); as the stronger champion hurls defiance
against his weaker rival.
10. There the enraged Malaya mount lifts his lofty head, decorated with
forests of sandalwood; and threatens the loud ocean below, rolling with
its outstretched arms of the waves on the shore.
11. The ocean rolling incessantly, with its gemming waves on all sides;
is looked upon by the celestials from high, as if he bore away the
treasured gems of the earth.
12. The wild hillocks, with woods and ruddy rocks on the tops, and
waving with the wafting gales; appeared as huge serpents, creeping with
their crescent gems, and inhaling the breeze.
13. There were the huge sharks and elephants, moving and grappling with
each other upon the surges; and this sight delights the minds of men,
as that of a rainy and light cloud opposing and pursuing one another.
14. There is an elephant fallen in a whirlpool, and being unable to
raise itself from the same, it left its proboscis on the water, and
dies with sputtering the water from snout on all sides.
15. The high hills as well as the low seas, are all equally filled with
living beings; and as the oceans abound with aquatic animals, so are
all lands and islands full of living beings.
16. The sea like the earth and all the worlds, are full of whirlpools
and revolutions of things, and all these are mere falsities, that are
taken for and viewed as realities.
17. The ocean bears in its bosom the liquid waves, which are inert in
themselves, and yet appearing to be in continual motion; so Brahma
contains the innumerable worlds, which seem to be solid without any
substantiality in them. (The worlds are as empty and unstable waves).
18. It was at the churning of the ocean, by the gods and giants of
yore; that it was despoiled of all its bright and hidden treasures,
which have since fallen to the lot of Indra and the gods.
19. It has therefore adopted to wear on its breast, the reflexions
of the greatest and brightest lights of heaven, as its false and
fictitious ornaments. These are seen even from the nether worlds, and
of these no one can deprive it.
20. Among the shining sun is one, whose image it bears in its bosom,
with equal splendour as it is in heaven. This bright gem is daily
deposited as a deposit in the western main, to give its light to the
nether world. It is called the gem of day दिनमनि, because
it makes day wherever it shines.
21. There is a confluence of all the waters from all sides to it, and
assemblage of them in its reservoir, gives it the clamorous sound, as
it is heard in the crowds of men in mixed processions.
22. Here is a continued conflict of the marine monsters in their mutual
contentions, as there is a jostling of the currents and torrents of the
waters of rivers and seas, at the mouths of gulfs and bays.
23. There the large whales are rolling and dancing on the rising waves;
and spurting forth spouts of water from their mouth; and these shedding
showers of pearls, are borne aloft and scattered about by the blowing
winds.
24. The streams of water, flowing like strings of pearl, and bearing
the bubbles resembling brilliant pearls (abdas) amidst them; adorn the
breast of the ocean as necklaces, and whistling by their concussion.
25. The sea winds serve to refresh the spirits of the siddha and sádhya
classes of spirits, that dwell in their abodes of the caverns of
Mahendra mountains; and traverse the howling regions of the sounding
main.
26. Again the winds exhaled from the caves of the Mahendra mountains,
are gently shaking the woods growing upon it, and stretching a cloud of
flowers over its table lands.
27. Here is the Mount Gandhamádana, full of mango and kadamba trees;
and there the fragments of clouds, are seen to enter into its caves
like stags, with their eyes flashing as lightnings.
28. The winds issuing from the valleys of Himálaya mountains, and
passing through the encircling bowers of creeping plants, are
scattering the clouds of heaven, and breaking the breakers of the sea.
29. The winds of the Gandhamádana mountain, are exhaling the fragrance
of the _kadamba_ flowers growing upon it; and ruffling the surface of
the sea with curling waves.
30. After twisting the fleecy clouds, in the form of the curling locks
of hair, on the pinnacles of Alaka (the residence of Kubera); the winds
are passing by the alleys of the Gandhamádana groves, and forming
cloud or canopy of flowers at this place.
31. Here the odoriferous airs, bearing the sweet burthen of fragrant
flowers and gums, and moistened by the admixture of icy showers, are
creeping slowly amidst the alleys.
32. Lo there the _nálikera_ creepers, diffusing their sourish scent
to the breezes, which being acidulated by their sourness, are turning
towards the regions of Persia.
33. Here the winds are wafting the odours, of the flowery forests of
Ísana on the Kailasa mountain; and there they are breathing with the
perfume of the lotuses of the mountain lakes; and blowing away the
camphor-white (fleecy) clouds from the face of the sky.
34. The fluid ichor which flows from the frontal proboscis of
elephants, is dried and stiffened by the breezes issuing out of the
caverns of the Vindhya mountain.
35. The females of the _savara_ foresters, covering their bodies with
the dry leaves of trees, and accompanied by their swarthy males, in
leafy apparel, have been making a town of their jungle, by extirpating
the wild animals, with their iron arrows.
36. Behold, great lord, these seas and mountains, these forests and
rivers, and these clouds on all sides, look as if they are all smiling
under your auspices, as under the brightness of sun-beams.
37. Here they also describe the flowery beds, of the Vidyádhari wood
nymphs; and their sports (which omitted on account of their
uselessness).
CHAPTER CV.
THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.
Argument:--Description of the hills and forests, rivers and other
objects on all sides.
The Royal companions related:--Hear, O high minded lord! the Kinnara
females from their abodes of leafy bowers, where they enjoy themselves
with singing their songs; and the Kinnara also being enrapt with the
music, listen to it attentively by forgetting their business of the day.
2. There are the Himálaya, Malaya, Vindhya, Krauncha, Mahendra,
Mandara, Dardura and other mountains; which from their distant view,
appear to the sight of the observer, to be clothed in robes of hoary
clouds, and seen as heaps of stones covered with the dry leaves of
trees.
3. Those distant and indistinct chains of boundary mountains, appear to
stretch themselves like the walls of cities; and those rivers which are
seen to fall into the ocean with their gurgling noise; appear as the
woof and texture threads of the broad sheet of waters of the ocean.
4. The ten sides of the sky, which are spread over the tops of
mountains; appear as the royal consorts, looking on thee from their
lofty edifices, and smiling gladly at thy success. The many-coloured
and roaring clouds in the sky, resembling the variegated birds of air,
warbling their notes on high; and the rows of trees which are dropping
down the showers of flowers from high, appear as the arms of heavenly
nymphs, shedding their blessings upon thy head with their hands.
5. The high hills overgrown with rows of trees, and stretching all
along the sea shore; appear as ramparts; and these being beaten by the
surges, seem as mere moss gathered on the coast.
6. O! the extensive, all sustaining and wondrous body of the ocean,
that supported the body of Hari sleeping upon it; contained the
unrighteous creation at the great deluge, and it covered all the
mountains and rocks and the submarine fire under it.
7. There is the northern ocean, to which the Jambu river, pours all the
gold of the Meru or polar mountain, and it contains numerous cities and
forests and mountains and countries. It washes the face of the sky and
all its lights, and is therefore adored by gods as well as men.
8. Here is this polar mountain, reaching to the solar sphere, and
presenting the trees on its top as its cloud-capt head; may the earth
extending to this mountain be thine, and may not this mount which hides
the sun under its clouds, obstruct the extension of thy realm.
9. Here is this Malaya mount on the south, growing the fragrant sandal
wood, which converts all other woods to its nature. Its sweet paste
decorates the persons of gods, men and demons, and is put as a spot on
the forehead like the frontal eye Siva; and is sprinkled over the
body belike the bedewed persons of females with sweat.
10. The waves of the ocean are continually laving the coast, overgrown
with forests of the sandal wood, and encircled by folds of snakes;
while the woodland nymphs wandering on this mount, throw a lustre about
it by the beauty of their persons.
11. Here is the hill called Krauncha, with its groves resonant with the
cooing of cuckoos; and its rugged caves and rivers resounding harshly
to one another; while the bamboos are crackling with their mutual
friction, and the humble bees have been humming about; among these is
heard the warbling of emigrating cranes on high, and the loud screams
of peacocks, which are terrific to the serpent tribe.
12. Behold here, O great lord, the sport of woodland nymphs, in the
groves of their soft leafy bowers; and listen to the tinkling sound of
their bracelets, which are so sweet to the ears of hearers.
13. There behold the drizzling ichor, exuding from the foreheads of
elephants, and the swarming bees giddy with the drink; which has made
the sea to melt in tears, on account of its being slighted by them.
14. Lo there the fair moon, with his train of fairy stars, sporting in
their reflexions, in the lap of his sire, the milky ocean, from which
it was churned as its butter or froth.
15. See there the tender creepers, dancing merrily on the table-lands
of the Malaya mountain; displaying their red petals as the palms of
their hands, and winking with their eyes formed of fluttering bees.
The blooming flowers bespeak their vernal festivity, and the warbling
cuckoos fill the groves with their festive music.
16. Here the rain-drops produce the pearly substance of
_vansa-lochana_, in the hollows of bamboos; and the _gaja-mati_ or
frontal pearl, in the skull of elephants; and large pearls in the womb
of pearl-shells. So the words of the wise, are productive of unlike
effects in different persons.
17. So the gems are productive of various effects, according as they
are produced in varied forms in different receptacles; as in men and
stones, in seas and forests, in frogs, clouds and elephants. They
gladden and distract the mind, cause fear and error, fever and death,
and many other preternatural and supernatural effects.
18. Lo here the city smiling under the rising moon, and singing in
praise of that ambrosial luminary, through all its windows, doorways
and openings, as it were from the mouths of its females; and responsive
to his eulogy sung by the Mandara mountain, from the many mouths of its
caves and caverns, and the pipes of hallow bamboos.
19. The wondering women of the siddhas, behold with their astonished
and uplifted faces and eyes, a large body of cloud borne away by the
winds; and dubitate in their minds, whether it is a mountain peak
carried away by the winds, or is it a forest of the snowy mountain
flying upward in the air, or is it a column to measure the distance of
the earth and sky, or a balance to weigh their weight.
20. See the moorlands at the foot of the Mandara mountain, how cool
they are with the cooling breezes wafting the coldness of the waves of
Ganges; and see its footlands inhabited by the fair Vidyádhara tribe;
and behold its flowery woodlands all around, overtopped by shady clouds
of flowers above.
21. See the forests and groves and the hursts spread there abouts, with
the huts and hamlets and habitations of men scattered therein. Look at
the holy shrines, and the sacred brooks and fountains lying in them,
the very sight of which, disperses our woes, poverty and iniquities.
22. Mountain craigs and ridges, overhung on all sides of the horizon;
the dales and caverns, and the groves and grottos, are overshadowed by
clouds; the limpid lakes, resemble the clear firmament; such sights are
sure to melt away masses of our crimes.
23. Lo here my lord, the ravines of the Malaya mountain, redolent with
the odour of the aromatic sandal wood; and there the Vindhyan hills,
abounding with infuriate elephants; the Kailása mount yielding the
best kind of gold, in its olden laureate lore; and the Mount Mahendra,
fraught with its mineral ore (_aguru_--agallochum); the summits of
the snowy mountain are plenteous, with the best kind of horses and
medicinal plants; thus while every place found to abound with
richest productions of nature, why does man set to repine in his time
worn cell, like an old and blind mouse in its dirty hole.
24. Behold the dark and rainy cloud on high, appearing as another
world, to submerge the earth under its flood; and threatening it with
its flashing and forky lightnings, and gliding as frisky shrimp fishes
in the etherial ocean.
25. Oh! the bleak rainy winds, blowing with the keen icy blasts of
frozen snows, poured down profusely by the raging rainy clouds on high.
They are now howling aloud in the air, and now chilling the blood, and
shaking the body with horripilation.
26. Oh! the cold winds of winter are blowing, in their course with the
dark clouds of heaven; and scattering cluster of flowers, from the
twigs and branches of trees. And there are the drizzling rain drops
dropping in showers, amidst the thick forests, redolent with the odours
of kadamba blossoms.
27. There the winds are bearing the fragrance of the breaths of languid
females, as if it were the celestial odour of ambrosia, stolen by and
borne on the wings of zephyr.
28. Here the gentle breezes are breathing, with the breath of the new
blown lilies and lotuses of the lake, and sweeping their tender odours
to the land; and the blasts are bursting the flakes of the folded
clouds, and wafting the perfumes from the gardens and groves.
29. Yonder the mild airs are lulling our toils, cooled by their contact
with the evening clouds of heaven; and resembling the vassal florists,
perfumed all over in their culling the flowers from the royal gardens.
30. Some of these are perfumed with the odours of different flowers,
and others with the fragrance of lilies and lotuses; in some places
they are scattering showers of blossoms, and shedding the dust of
flowers at others. Some where the air is blowing from the hoary
mountain of frost, and at others from those of blue, black and red
minerals.
31. The sun is scattering his rays, as firebrands in some places, and
these are spreading a conflagration with loud cluttering in the woods,
like the riotous rabble in a country.
32. The winds like wicked attendants on the sun, are spreading the
conflagration caused by the solar rays; and carry their clattering
noise afar.
33. The cooling winds blowing from the woods, and bedewed by the gentle
beams of the moon, or moistened by the watery particles of heaving
waves; though cheering to the souls of others, appear yet as fiery hot
to separated lovers.
34. Lo here, O lord! how the _savara_ women, on the low lands of the
eastern main, are covered in their rude and rough leafy garments,
and wearing their sounding bracelets of brass; and see how they are
strutting about, in the giddiness of their prime youth.
35. See how these newly loving lasses, are clinging round the bodies
of their mates, for fear of darkness of the approaching night; in the
manner of timid snakes twining about the trunk of sandal wood trees.
36. Struck with fear by the alarm, given by the sounding bell at day
break; the loving consort leans on the bosom of her lover, as the
darkness lingers in the enclosed room.
37. There is a furze of kinsuka flowers, blooming as firebrands, on
the border of the southern sea, which is continually washing them with
lavations of its waves, as if it wanted to extinguish them.
38. The winds are wafting their fuming farina, which are flying upwards
like mists of hazy clouds to heaven; the flowers are falling about like
flames of fire, and the birds and black-bees are hovering over them as
extinguished cinders of fire.
39. Behold there on the other side, the real flashes of living wild
fire, blazing in the forests on the east; and to their flames are borne
above the mountain tops, by the flying winds of the air.
40. See the slow moving clouds, shrouding the lowlands lying at the
foot of the Krauncha mountain; and observe the crowding peacocks
dancing under them, and screaming aloud with their grave and shrill
cries to the clouds. Lo there the gusts of rain-winds rising high, and
blowing the fruits and flowers and leaves of trees afar on all sides.
41. Behold the sun setting mountain in the west, with its thousand
peaks of glittering gold; shining amidst the dusky hue of the evening
sky; and the sloping sun descending below in his chariot whirling down
with its rattling wheels in the rustling of evening winds. (But the
solar car is a velocipedes with a single wheel only).
42. The moon that rises upon the eastern mount of Meru like a full
blown flower, in order to give light to the darkened mansion of this
world; is itself accompanied by its black spots, sitting as black-bees
upon the blossom. Hence there is no good thing in this perverted world,
which is free from its fault and frailty.
43. The moon light is shining like the laughter of the god Rudra,
amidst his dome of the triple world; or it is as the white wash of the
great hall of the universe, or it likens the milky fluid of the
milky ocean of the sky.
44. Look on all sides of the sky, tinged with the evening twilight, and
the variegated hues of mountain tops; and filled with the milky beams
of the moon, that was churned out by the Mount Mandara from the milky
ocean.
45. Look there, O incomparable lord! those hosts of Guhyka ghosts,
that are as hideous as the large _tála_ or palm trees; and also those
puny Vetála younglings are pouring upon the ill-fated dominions of the
Hunas; and devouring troubled inhabitants at night.
46. The face of the moon shines brightly like the beauteous face of a
fairy, so long as it does not appear out of its mansion at night; but
it is shorn of its beams, and appears as a piece of fleecy cloud, by
its appearance at day light; as the fairy face becomes disgraced, by
appearing out of the inner apartment.
47. Look at the lofty peaks of the snowy mountain, covered with the
fair vesture of the bright moon beams; and see its craigs washed by
floods of the falling Ganges; behold its head capped by perpetual
snows, and begirt by creepers of snowy whiteness.
48. Behold there Mandara mountain touching the sky, and crowning the
forest with its lofty ridges; here the winds are wafting the cradle
chimes of Apsara nymphs, and there the mountainous mines gemming in
various hues.
49. See the high hills all around, abounding with blooming flowers like
offerings to the gods; see the thickening clouds round their loins,
and resounding hoarsely within their hollows, while the starry heaven
shines over their heads.
50. There is the Kailása mountain on the north, vying with firmament in
its brightness; below it there is the hermitage of _Skanda_, and the
moon shines in her brilliance above.
51. Lo, the god Indra has let loose his winds, to break the branches
of trees, and demolish the huts on the ground, the fragments of which
they have been carrying afar.
52. The winds are wafting the profuse fragrance of flowers after the
rains, and filling the nostrils of men with their odours; while the
flights of bees are floating as clouds in the azure sky.
53. Methinks the goddess Flora has chosen for her abode, the blooming
flowers in the forests; limpid waters in the marshy grounds, and in
villages abounding in fruitful trees, and flourishing fields.
54. The windows are overgrown with creeping plants in the rains, and
the house tops are decorated with the flowers of the climbing creepers
upon them. The ground is strewn over with the dropping flowers up to
the heels, and the breezes are blowing the dust of the flowers all
about. All these have made the woodlands the seats of the sylvan gods.
55. The rains have converted the rustic village, to a romantic paradise
or fairy land; by the blooming _champaka_ flowers, the swinging of the
rural nymphs in their cradles, of creepers, by the warbling of birds
and gurgling of water-falls, the blossoming of the tall palm trees in
the skirts; the tender creepers blooming with clusters of snow white
blossom, the dancing of peacocks on the tops of houses, and the borders
shaded by the sal trees; and the rainy clouds hanging over the village
and the bordering hills.
56. Again the soft and sweet breathing breezes, the variegated leaves
of the plants and creepers, the verdure of the village, the cries of
cranes and other fowls, and the wild notes of the foresters; these
together with the jollity of the swains, and the merriment of the
pastoral people, over their plenty of milk, curd, butter and ghee, and
their glee in their peaceful abodes, add a charm to this hilly tract.
CHAPTER CXVI.
NARRATION OF THE SPEECH OF CROW AND CUCKOO.
Argument.--Description of the battle field, and of the hills and
sky, and the story of the foolish crow.
The companions added:--Look lord, the field of battle, stretching to
the bordering hills; look upon the heaps of shining weapons, and the
scattered forces of elephants, horse, infantry and war chariots.
2. Look at the slain and their slayers, and the combatants attacking
their corrivals; and how their dying souls are borne by celestial
nymphs in heavenly cars to heaven.
3. The victor finding his adversary worsted in warfare, ought not slay
him unjustly, unless he is justified to do so by laws of warfare (as a
youth is justified to take unto him no other woman but his legal wife).
4. As health and wealth and prosperity, are good for men when they
are rightly gained; so it is right to fight for those by whom one is
supported.
5. When one kills his opposing corrival in combat, without violation of
the laws of warfare, he is justly styled a heavenly champion, and not
one who takes undue advantage of his enemy.
6. Behold there the bold champion brandishing his sword, as if he is
swinging a blue lotus in his hand; and casting the dark shadow of the
evening dusk on the ground. Such a hero is courted by Laxmi for her
spousal.
7. Look at those flourishing weapons, flaming as the flying embers of
wild fire, in a mountain forest; or as the dreadful dragons of the sea,
dancing on land with hundreds of their flashing hoods and heads.
8. Look at the sky on one side, resembling the sea with its watery
clouds, and shining with strings of its stars on another; see how it
is covered by dark clouds on one side; and how it is brightened by moon
beams on the other.
9. Look at the firmament, ranged by multitudes of revolving planets,
resembling the rolling chariots of warriors; and crowded by myriads of
moving stars, likening the soldiers in the battle field; and yet it is
the error of the ignorant to think it an empty vacuum; an error which
is hard for the wise to remove.
10. The sky with its over spreading clouds, its fiery lightnings, its
thunder bolts that break down the mountain wings; its starry array,
and the battle of gods and demigods that took place in it; is still
as inscrutable in his nature, as the solid minds of the wise, whose
magnitude no one can measure.
11. O wise man, thou hast been constantly observing before thee, the
sun, moon and all the planets and stars in the firmament, together with
all the luminous bodies of comets, meteors and lightnings; and yet
is astonishing that your ignorance will not let see the Great
Náráyana in it.
12. Thou dark blue sky, that art brightened by moon-light, dost yet
retain thy blackness, like the black spot amidst the lightsome disk of
the moon; and such is the wonder with ignorant minds, that with all
their enlightenment, they will never get rid of their inward bias and
prejudice.
13. Again the clear sky which is full with endless worlds, is never
contaminated by their faults, nor ever changed in its essential state;
and resembles the vast and pure mind of the wise, which is full with
its knowledge of all things, and devoid of all their pollutions.
14. Thou profound sky, that art the receptacle of the most elevated
objects of nature, and containest the lofty clouds and trees and
summits in thy womb; that art the recipient of the sun, moon and
the aerial spirits that move about in thee; art yet inflamed by the
flames of the fiery bodies that rise in thee to our great regret,
notwithstanding thy greatness, which helps them to spread themselves
high in heaven.
15. Thou sky that art replete with pure and transparent light, and
great with thy greatness of giving quarters to all the great and
elevated objects of nature; but it is greatly to be pitied, that the
dark clouds to whom thou givest room to rise under thee, molest us like
base upstarts, with pelting their hailstones at random.
16. Again thou dark sky, art the attestor of all lights; as the
touchstone is the test of gold; and thou art a void in thy essence, yet
thou dost support the substances of stars and planets of clouds and
winds and all real existences at large.
17. Thou art the day light at daytime, and the purple red of evening,
and turnest black at night; thus devoid of all colour of thyself thou
dost exhibit all colours in thee; hence it is impossible even for the
learned, to understand aright thy nature and its convertible conditions
also.
18. As the helpless man is enabled to achieve his purposes, by means
of his patient perseverance; so the inane sky has risen above all, by
means of its universal diffusion. (The gloss says that, extension of
knowledge, is the cause of elevation).
19. The sun that persists in his wonted course, rises to the vertical
point in time; but the unmoving straws and trees, and the dormant hills
and places, and stagnant pools and ponds, are ever lying low on the
ground.
20. The night invests the sky with a sable garb, and sprinkles over
it the fair moonlight like the cooling dust of camphor; with the
decoration of stars like clusters of flowers upon it. The day mantles
the firmament with bright sun beams, and the seasons serve to cover it
in clouds and snows, and in the gaudy attire of vernal flowers. Thus is
time ever busy, to decorate the heavenly paths of his lords the sun and
moon, the two time keepers by day and night.
21. The firmament like the magnanimous mind, never changes the firmness
of its nature; although it is ever assailed by the disturbances of
smokes and clouds of dust and darkness, of the rising and setting sun
and moon and their dawns and dusks: and of the confluence of stars and
combat of gods and demons.
22. The world is an old and decayed mansion, of which the four sides
are its walls, the sky its covering roof above and the earth its ground
floor below; the hills and mountains are its pillars and columns, and
the cities and towns are its rooms and apartments; and all the various
classes of animal beings, are as the ants of this abode.
23. Time and action are the occupants of this mansion from age to age,
and all its ample space presents the aspect of a smiling garden; it is
feared every day to be blown and blasted away, and yet it is a wonder
how this frail flower should last so long and for ever more.
24. It is the air methinks, that puts a stop to the greater height or
rising of trees and hills; for though it does not actually restrain
their growth, yet its influence (pressure from above), like the
authority of noble men, puts a check to the rise of aspiring underlings.
25. O fie for that learning, which calls the air as void and vacuity;
seeing it to contain millions of worlds in its bosom, and producing and
reducing also unnumbered beings in its boundless bosom.
26. We see all things to be born in and to return into the air; and
yet we see the madness of men, that reckon the all containing and all
pervading air, as something different from God.
27. We see the works of creation, to be continually producing, existing
and extinguishing in air, like sparks of fire; I ween this pure and
sole air, which is without beginning, middle and end, as the universal
source and terminus of all, and no other distinct cause as God.
28. The vacuum is the vast reservoir of the three worlds, and bears in
its ample space the innumerable productions of nature; I understand
infinite vacuity as the body of the Intellect, and that transcendent
being, in which this erroneous conception of the world, has its rise
and fall.
29. Therein the woodlands on mountain tops, the solitary forester
chants his charming strains amidst his sylvan retreat; and attracts the
heart of the lonely passenger, who lifts up his head to listen to the
rapturous times.
30. Hearken O Lord, to the sweet music, proceeding from the thick
groves on yonder lofty mountain; and emitted with the heart rending
strains, of love born Vidyádhara nymphs; and behold the lonely and
lovesick passenger, whose lovesick heart being smitten by the sound,
has neither the power to proceed forward or recede backward from the
spot, or utter a word.
31. I hear a lovelorn Vidyádhara damsel, singing her love ditty
amidst the woods of the hill with her heaving sighs and tears flowing
profusely from her eyes. She sang saying: “Lord, I well remember the
day, when thou ledst me to the recess of the bower, holding my chin and
giving kisses on my cheeks with thy smiling face, and now the pleasing
remembrance of that gladsome moment, hath left me to deplore its loss
for years”.
32. I heard her tale, O Lord, thus related to me from the mouth of a
forester on the way. He said:--Her former young lover, was cursed by
a relentless sage to become an arbour for a dozen of years; and it is
since this ill fated change of his, that she has been reclining on that
tree, and singing her mournful ditty unto the same.
33. And now observe the wonder, that on my approach the arborescent
lover, was released of his sad curse, and shedding a shower of flowers
upon her, he changed his form and clasped her unto his arms with his
face smiling as his blooming flowers.
34. The tops of hills are decorated with flowers, as the heads of
elephants are painted with white dye; the sky is whitened with the
stars and falling meteors, as the summit of the mountain is etiolated
with hoar-frost and snows.
35. Behold there the beautiful stream of Kaveri, gliding along with
shoals of fishes skimming in its waters; to its boisterous waves
resounding with the cries of shrill and clamorous cranes; see its banks
mantled in vests of flowers, and its shores freely grazed by timid
fauns without any fear.
36. Look the Bela rock, which is washed by the billows of Varuna--the
god of the sea; its stones shining as gold under the solar rays; and
sparkling as the marine fire when they are laved by the waves.
37. Look at the abodes of the Ghosha shepherds at the foot of the
mountain, which are continually covered under the shrouding clouds;
and behold the beauty of the blossoming _palása_ and _patala_ trees
thereabouts.
38. Look at the plains, whitened by the full-blown whitish flowers;
see the _mandara_ tree with twining and flowering creepers; look at
the banks crowded by cranes and peacocks; look at those villages and
the water falls, resounding as music from the mouths of mountain caves
and forests, and redounding to the joy of the happy inhabitants of the
valley.
39. Here the buzzing bees are sporting about the new blown petals of
plantain flowers; and inspiring fond desire in the breasts of the
Pamara foresters; who enjoy a bliss in their rustic pastures and hidden
hilly caverns, which I ween, is not attainable by the immortal gods in
their garden of Eden. (So says Hafiz:--Thou canst not have in heaven,
the blissful fount of Roknabad, nor the flowery groves of Mossella).
40. Behold the black bees sporting and swinging in their cradles of the
flowery creepers of the forest; and to the Pulinda forester singing
to his beloved, with his eyes fixed upon her face; and mark also the
sportive Kiráta, forgetting to kill the deer roving beside his lonely
cavern.
41. Here the weary traveller is regaled, by the sweet scent of various
full blown flowers, and is cooled in his body by the odorous dust,
wafted by the breeze from the flowering creepers; while the winds
bearing the watery particles of the waves, which lave the vale on all
sides, render the spot more delightful than the spotted disc of the
moon (_i.e._ the people have more of coolness here, than the gods have
in the moist sphere of the moon).
42. Here the unceasing gliding of waters, and the continued waving of
the palm trees; together with the dancing of the blossoming branches,
and the undulation of the spreading creepers in the air; the forest
of lofty sála trees in the borders, and the hanging clouds over the
bordering hills, all combine to add a charm to this village of the
vale, not unlike to that of the gardens in the orb of the moon.
43. The flashing of lightnings, and the deep roaring of clouds; the
merry dance of peacocks and their loud shrieks and screams, and their
trailing trains displayed in the air, decorate the valley with a
variety of variegated gems.
44. The bright orb of the moon appearing on one side, and the dark
clouds rising as huge elephants on the other; serve to embellish the
village in the valley, and the hills in the skirts, with a beauty
unknown in the heavenly kingdom of Brahmá: (which is the empyrean or
city of fire only).
45. O! how I long to lodge myself in the mountain grotto, amidst
the fragrant arbours of the beauteous _Mandána_ forest, and in the
delightsome groves of blooming _santánaha_ blossoms, and where the busy
bees are continually fluttering, over the _mandára_ and _paribhadra_
arborets.
46. O, how much are our hearts attracted, by the cries of the tender
deer, browzing the verdant and delightsome verdure; and by the blooming
blossoms on hills and in dales, as by sight of the cities of mankind.
47. Look on yonder village in the valley, where the waterfall appears
as a column of clear chrysolite; and the peacocks are in their merry
dance, all about the precipitate cascade.
48. See how the joyous peacocks, and the gaysome creepers, bending down
under the burden of their blossoms; are dancing delightfully, beside
the purling water of the cataract.
49. I believe the lusty god of desire (Káma or Cupid), sports here at
his pleasure, in this village of the valley protected by the hills all
around. He is sporting with the handsome _harita_ birds (the green
partridges and parrots) in the verdant groves, and beside the crystal
lakes, resounding with the sweet warblings of water-fowls.
50. O most prosperous and magnanimous lord, that art the centre of all
virtues, and the highest and gravest of men; thou art like the towering
mountain, the refuge of mankind from heat, and the cause of their
plenty (_i.e._ the rainy clouds on mountain tops, are the causes of
plenteous produce).
51. Thou cloud that bathest in holy waters (_i.e._ that resist from the
waters of seas and rivers); that art exalted above all earthly beings,
and choosest to abide in hills and wildernesses like holy hermits,
and art taciturn like them, from the pure holiness of thy nature;
thou appearest also as fair in the form when thou art emptied (of thy
waters) in autumn; all this is good in thee; but say why dost thou
rise in thy fulness with flashing lightnings in thy face, and roaring
thunders in thy breast, like lucky upstarts of low origin?
52. All good things being misplaced (or out of their proper place),
turn to badness; as the water ascending to the clouds, turns to hoar
frost and cold ice.
53. O, wonder! that the drops distilled by the clouds, fill the earth
with water; and wonder it is that this water supports all beings, and
makes the poor grow with plenty (of harvest).
54. Ignorant people are as dogs, in their unsteadiness, impudence, in
their impurity and wayfaringness; hence I know not whether the ignorant
have derived their nature from dogs or these from them.
55. There are some persons, who notwithstanding all their faults, are
yet esteemed for certain qualities in them; as the dogs are taken into
favour, on account of their valour, contentedness and faithfulness
to their masters. (So are men serviceable to their masters for these
virtues in them).
56. We see all worldly people pursuing the course of their worldliness
as madmen, and pushing on in the paths of business at the sacrifice of
their honor, and likely to tumble down with fatigue. I find them flying
to and fro as trifling straws, and know not whether it is of their will
or madness or stupidity, that they have made choice of this foolish
course.
57. Among brute creatures, the brave lion hears the tremendous thunder
claps without shuddering: while the cowardly dog trembles and shuts his
eyes with fear at the sound.
58. I believe, O vile dog, that thou hast been taught to bark at
thy fellows, and to ramble about in the streets, by some surly and
strolling porter or peon (among men).
59. The divine creator, that has ordained varieties in all his works,
has made the nasty breed of his daughter Saromá all equal in their
filthiness. These are the dogs, that make their kennels or dog holes in
dirt, that feed upon filth and carrion and copulate in public places,
and carry about an impure body every where. (This is a slur against the
progeny of one’s daughters, who generally turn to be vicious).
60. “Who is there viler than thee”; says a man to his dog; to which
he answered, “the silly man as thee is the vilest of all”. There are
the best qualities of valour, fidelity and unshaken patience, combined
in the canine tribe; and these are hard to be had in human kind, who
grovel in the darkness of their ignorance amidst greater impurities and
calamities. (The instinctive sagacity of beasts, is a surer safe guard
to them, than the boasted reason of man).
61. The dog eats impure things and lives in impurity; he is content
with what it gets, feeds upon dead bodies and never hurts the living,
and yet men are fond of pelting stones on him every where; thus the dog
is made a plaything by men, contrary to the will of God.
62. Looking at the crow flying there upon the offerings, left on the
_lingam_ or phallus of Siva on yonder bank; and there appearing to
sight to tell its tale to people, saying; “Behold me on high, with all
my degrading sin” (of stealing from the altars of deities).
63. Thou croaking crow, that crowest so harshly, and treadst the marshy
lake; it is no wonder that thou wouldst vex us with thy cries, that
hast put down the sweet buzz of humming bees.
64. We see the greedy rook, devouring ravenously the dirty filth, in
preference to the sweet lotus stalk. It is no wonder that some would
prefer sour to sweet, from their long and habitual taste of it.
65. A white crow sitting in a bush, of white lotus flowers and their
snowy filaments, was taken at first for a _hansa_ or heron, but as it
began to pick up worms, it came to be known as a crow.
66. It is difficult to distinguish a crow, sitting in company with a
cuckoo, both being of the like sable plumes and feathers; unless the
one makes itself known as distinct from the other, by giving out its
own vocal sound.
67. The crow sitting on a forest tree, or on a mould of clay or high
built building, looks on all sides for its prey; as a nightly thief
mounts on a _chaitta_ tree; and sits watching there from the ways of
people.
68. It is impossible for a crow, to abide with cranes and storks by
the side of a lake, which abounds in lotus flowers, that diffuse their
sombre farina all about.
69. For shame that the noisy crow, should have a seat on the soft lotus
bed in company with silent swans, and play his disgraceful part and
tricks among them. (_i.e._ It is impudence on the part of the ignorant,
to open their mouths, where the learned hold their silence).
70. Thou crow that criest as the hardest saw, say where hast thou left
or lost thy former reservedness to-day. Why dost thou brood over the
young cuckoo, the sweetness of whose voice thou canst never attain, and
whom thou canst not retain as thy young.
71. One seeing a dark crow sitting as a black steg, in a bed of white
lotuses, and crowing aloud with delight at that place, said unto him
saying:--It is better for thee O clamorous crow to rend ears of those
with thy cracking voice, that are not tired with splitting the head of
others with their wily verbiage.
72. It is well when the cunning consort with the cunning, as the crow
and the crab meeting at a pool; or the rook and the owl joining in an
arbour; for the two rogues though seemingly familiar, will not fail to
foil one another by their natural enmity (ká ko lu kiká).
73. The cuckoo associating with the crow, and resembling him in figure
and colour; is distinguished by his sweet notes from the other; as the
learned man makes himself known by his speech in the society of the
ignorant.
74. The blossoming branch is well able to bear, the spoliation of its
flowers by the cuckoo; and will not yet suffer the association of crows
and cranes, and cocks and vultures upon its twigs. (_i.e._ It is
possible to bear with an injury from the good, but not to tolerate the
society of bad people).
75. How delightfully do people listen to the sweet notes of the
cuckoo, which unites the separated lovers together; but who can brook
to hearken unto the jarring cries of the crow or hooting of the owl,
without disgust.
76. When the sweet notes of the young _kokila_, serve to ravish the
ears of hearers, with the gladsome tidings of the vernal season; there
is the grating cry of the crow, immediately obtruding upon their ears,
and demanding the melodious cuckoo as its foster child. (It is well
known to all here, that young cuckoos are fostered in the nests of
crows).
77. Why and what hast thou been cooing so long, O thou tender cuckoo,
with so much joy and glee in yonder grove; lo! thy pleasant vernal
season is too soon over with its fading flowers, and behold the stern
winter approaching fast, to blast the blossoming trees with its icy
breath, and bidding thee to hide thy head in thy nest.
78. A separated mistress seeing a sweet kokila, pour forth his notes to
the tender blossoms of the vernal season thus address to him saying:
“say, O sweet cuckoo! who taught thee to tell, that vernal season is
_tava tava tua tua_, _i.e._ “for thee and thy enjoyment,” this is
verily a woeful lie thou tellest me, instead of saying “it is mine and
mine” that art enjoying thy companion.” (It would better rendering in
English to reverse the application of the words mine and thine).
79. The cuckoo sitting silent in an assemblage of crows, appears as one
of them in its form and colour of its feathers; and the graceful gait
of the cuckoo, makes it known from the rest, as the wise man is marked
in the company of fools. It is hence that every body is respected by
his inward talents and outward deportment, more than by outer form and
feathers.
80. O brother kokila! it is in vain that thou dost coo so sweetly, when
there is none to appreciate its value; it is far better therefore, that
thou shouldst sit quiet in thy secluded covert under the shady leaves,
when these flocks of crows are so loud in their cries; and when it is
time for the falling dews, and not of vernal flowers.
81. It is to be wondered, that the young cuckoo forsakes its mother for
its fostering crow; which on her part begins to prick it with its bill
and claws. As I reflect on these, I find the young cuckoo growing in
its form to the likeness of its mother; and hence I conclude, that the
nature of a person prevails over his training every where.
CHAPTER CXVII.
DESCRIPTION OF THE LOTUS-LAKE, BEE AND THE SWAN.
Argument:--Description of a Lake of lotus, and the bees and swans
frequenting them.
The companions said:--Behold there, O lord! the lotus lake on the
tableland of the mountain; reflecting the sky in its bosom, and
resembling the pleasure pond of Káma or Cupid. Behold there the beds of
white, red and blue lotuses, with their protruding stalks; and listen
to the mingled sounds of the water fowls sporting thereon.
2. Lo the full blown lotus standing on its stalk with its thousand
petals, and the royal gander or swan resting on its pericarp; it is
crowded by double streaked bees, and birds of various kinds, as if it
were the abode of the lotus-seated Brahmá himself.
3. All the sides are overspread by mists and fearful frost, and the red
dust of the farina of full blown flowers and lotuses, have been flying
all about; the bees and birds giddy with the odours spread around, are
humming and warbling their tunes and notes in the open air; and the
clouds are spreading above as an aerial canopy.
4. There is the lashing sound of the breaking waves, beating against
the shore; and here is the rumbling noise of the humming bees, vying
with one another; somewhere the silent waters are sleeping in the deep,
and elsewhere the fair lotus of the lake, are lying hid in the bushes.
5. The pearly particles of water, are lulling away the heat of the
people; wild beasts are prowling on the bank, overgrown by wild
thickets all around; the waves are laving the stones on the bank, and
the land appears as the clear sky on the earth.
6. The bosom of the lake displays the rays of lightnings, from the
redness of the clouds by the dust of flowers borne above by the winds;
and one side of it is obscured by a dark rainy cloud hanging over it,
while the other side exhibits the variegated rays of the evening skies
above it.
7. There is a fragment of the autumnal cloud, borne aloft by the
driving winds; and appearing as it were a part of the sky supported
upon the air.
8. The rippling waves of the lake by gentle breeze, and the wettish
humming bees fluttering over the bed of the lotus lake, made a noise
all around; like the falling of flowers from the branches of trees,
lying on the bank of a river.
9. The large lotus leaves are waving like fans made of palm leaves, and
the foaming froths were puffing as the snowy _chowries_ of princes; the
buzzing bees and cooing cuckoos, were singing to and lauding the lake
which lay like a lord, in the assemblage of lotuses, resembling the
consorts of his _harem_. (The lake is likened to a lord).
10. Lo the chorus of black bees, singing their charming chimes before
him; and the yellow farina of the lotus flowers, have strewn his waters
with dust of gold. The yellowish froths are floating like fragments of
its gold coloured flowers; and the flowery furzes on the bank, decorate
it as its headdress.
11. The deep fountain, having the beautiful lotuses on its bosom;
enjoys their sweet fragrance, as princes derive from the assemblage, of
talented men in their courts.
12. The pellucid lake, reflecting the clear autumnal sky on its
surface; resembles the mind of the wise man, which is ever clear and
composed, with the light of the true sástra.
13. The limpid lake is little discernible in winter, when the keen
blasts have covered it with hoar frost, and converted its blueness to
white.
14. So the world appears to the wise, a vast sheet of the glory of God;
and all these distinct forms of things, like waves of the sea are lost
at last, into the bright element of Eternity.
15. It is by one’s own exertion, that every body should try to raise
himself above the sea of error, or else he must be continually whirling
in the whirlpool of blunder, like all other ignorant men.
16. As the waters of wells, tanks, lakes and seas, differ from one
another in their quality; so the persons of men and women, are
different from each other in their respective dispositions.
17. Who can count the aquatic plants and lotuses, which grow in the
lakes as plentifully, as the passions and desires spring in the
fountain of the human heart; and which are carried away by the waves of
accidents, or hurled into the whirlpool of perdition.
18. Oh, the wonderful effect of bad company, that the lotus growing
in the company of aquatic plants, loses its fragrance in the current
waters, and shows its thorny stalks to view.
19. The good qualities of a person like those of the lotus, are lost
under the assemblage of vicious faults in the same; such as the pores,
the hollowness and the too fine and fragile fibres of the lotus stalks,
make them entirely useless to any body.
20. But the lotus which adorns its natal waters, and fills the air with
its fragrance; is as a nobleman born with the noble qualities of a
noble family, and whose virtues are impossible for the hundred hooded
serpent--Vásuki also to relate. (Such a person is called the lotus of
his family).
21. What other thing can equal the lotus in its praise, which in form
of Laxmí, rests on the bosom of Hari, and graces his hand in the manner
of a _bouquet_ or nose gay.
22. The white and blue lotuses, are both esteemed for their quality of
sweet scent, though they differ in their colour; and hence the one is
sacred to the sun and the other to the moon.
23. The blooming beauty of the lotus-bed, is not comparable to that
of the full blown flowers of the forest; nor does the lotus-lake bear
comparison with the starry heaven also; but they are to be compared
with the comely and smiling face of the dancing girl in her fete.
24. Blessed are bees, that have all along enjoyed their lives in
revelling over the sweets of flowers, without having any other thing to
care about.
25. Blest are the bees and cuckoos, that feast upon the flavour of
mango fruits, and regale themselves with the fragrance of their
flowers; all others not so blest, are born only to bear the name of the
species.
26. The bees cloyed with honey, and giddy with the flavour of lotuses,
in the lake where they revel; laughed to scorn some others of their
tribe, that led their humble lives on the common farina of flowers.
27. The black bee that buzzed to the lotus, lived and sported in its
company and slept in its honey cup at night; was in trouble at the
approach of autumn, not knowing what flower to choose for its fare, and
were to resort for its rest.
28. A black bee sitting on the unblown bud of a flower, appeared as a
black man placed over a trident by _kála_.
29. O thou insatiate bee! that ever rovest over hills and dales, and
suckest the sweets of all kinds of flowers; why wanderest thou still,
unless it were for thy restless discontent.
30. Thou soft bodied bee, that art bred up in sweets, and feedest upon
the farina of flowers; it is better for thee to resort to the lotuses
of the lake, than bruise thy body in thorns and thistles.
31. O humble bee, if thou art deprived of thy mellifluous food and
thy fair fare of the farina of flowers in stern winter; thou shouldst
yet repair as wise men do to such as may suit thy taste, and be
congenial to thy nature; rather than be mean and debase thyself, by thy
attendance upon the base and mean.
32. Look there, O lord! the assemblage of milk white swans, swimming
in the lake, and feeding upon the silvery fibres of lotus stalks, and
guggling as gravely, as the chaunters of the Sáma Veda.
33. Here the gander pursuing the geese, seated in their cradles of
lotus bushes; thinks the limpid lake as the blue sky, and the lotus
cradle as a cloud, and stops from his pursuit (for fear of falling down
on earth). (Mistake of the terrestrial lake, for the aerial mandákiní).
34. Let no body be so unfortunate, O lord, as was this gander, which
in pursuit of the shadow of the goose.
35. The sweet music of the swan as it sings of its own accord, is
inimitable by the crow or crane, although they are taught to learn it
for many years in its society.
36. Although the swan and drake are both of the same kind, and of like
form and figure, and live upon the same sort of food; yet they differ
widely from one another in their respective species and qualities.
37. The swan soaring in the sky, with his snow white wings and
feathers; appears as the hoary lotus sitting upon its stalk; and then
it gladdens the minds of men, as the full-moon with her icy beams.
38. The elevated stalks of lotuses, rising as the lofty stems of
plantain trees, with the lotuses sitting as the goddess Flora upon
them, afford delight to swans only, and to no other bird.
39. Lo, how the lake is adorned like a beauteous lady, with the
waves resembling her waving bracelets, and the ripples likening her
necklaces; while the aquatic plants and flowers, represent wreaths and
garlands on her bosom.
40. The strings of fluttering bees, are as streaks of black spots on
her person; the swelling of cranes and storks are as the tinklings of
her anklets, and the rippling waves are as the glances of her eyes.
41. The lake is graced like a lady, by the young swans crying by her
side as her young ones; and looking up to the mountain as her lord, for
a fresh supply of fresh water from his profluent cascade.
42. Don’t you, O harmless swan, says one, reside with the malicious
water fowls and birds of prey, in one and the same lake; it is better
that thou dost remain with thy own kind, that may assist thee in
distress.
43. Look to thy end, O silly bee, says one, that art now so giddy
with thy drink of the sweet honey of flower, and treadst on the heads
of elephants, to sip and suck their exuding ichor, and ramblest at
large among the blooming lotuses, that the winter of scarcity is fast
approaching to thee, when thou shalt be constrained to live upon the
dewdrops drizzling on blades of grass or dripping from stones.
44. O lord! the milk white swan with wide stretched wings entered into
the lotus bush, to see after his young ones, they on seeing him, begin
to cackle, as a child does on seeing his father before him. The young
ones said, O father, it is all delusion, like white pearl in silver and
one sees fog over his head at mid-day.
45. The swan is as silently floating over the limpid waters of the
lake, as the bright moon is gently gliding along the translucent
atmosphere of the firmament; and as it passes through, the beds of
lotuses, its wings bruise against the blossoms, causing them to distil
their fragrant fluid, which is gulped in by fishes, in the manner of
the holy water of Ganges.
CHAPTER CXVIII.
DESCRIPTION OF DEER, PEACOCKS, CRANES &C.
Argument:--This chapter is devoted to the description of some
beasts and birds, some fishes and a traveller.
Some companion said:--Behold the crane, which notwithstanding its
destitution of all good qualities, has one special instinct of uttering
the onomatopoeia signifying the rain.
2. O crane that resemblest the swan in the colour of thy feathers, thou
mightest well be taken for a young swan, wert thou but without the
rapacity of the king-fisher (mudgu).
3. So there is a line of king-fishers, that are expert in diving amidst
deep waters, and catching the fishes in its wide extended beaks, now
sitting idle on the shore, and not venturing to dart themselves into
the water, for fear of the sharks, floating there with their open
mouths and wide stretched jaws.
4. Thus murderers also dart upon men, in the manner of diving
king-fishers, and cry out saying, “_madgu madguru_, this king-fisher is
our instructor in killing.”
5. Seeing a white heron with its long neck and uplifted head, sitting
silently and watching on the shore, the people took it at first for a
_hansa_ or hernshaw; but finding it afterward to catch a shrimp from
the marsh water, they came to know it as a heron at last.
6. A crane was observed by a woman, to be sitting on the shore like a
devotee the live long day, while it was in reality watching for prey,
until the evening shade, as the day labourers are wont to do for their
bread.
7. Look there, says a wayfaring woman to her companion, how these
rustic women are culling the lotuses amidst the frosty lake; if you
like you can follow them, but I will fall back from you.
8. Look there, O lord! (says the companion to the king), how that
traveller appeases his angry mate, and leads her to the flowery bower
of the weedy bush.
9. Look then, O lord, at the dalliance of the lady, and at her smiling
face mixed with her frowning looks; and hearken to her speech to her
associate.
10. The crane, king-fisher and other rapacious birds, that live
together in the same place, are all of the same mind and purpose; but
the fool and wise man can never agree, though they abide together in
the same society for ever.
11. As the cricket caught under the bill of wood pecker, whistles to
his face; so the retribution of our past misdeeds, flies as a flag
before us, and unfolds itself unto us (wherever we may happen to go, or
chance to be reborn).
12. As long as the cruel crane of fate, keeps clucking upon the tall
tree on the shore; so long doth the fearful shrimp (of the living
soul), keep itself concealed in the bog (of the body) with its inward
trepidation. Hence there is no rest or quiet of the body and soul,
until the ultimate _quietus_ of both.
13. The bodies of animals, which are devoured by rapacious beasts
and birds, and then disgorged unhurt and entire out of their bowels;
resemble I ween to their rising from the lap of sleep, or a state of
profound trance.
14. The fear that overtakes the fishes in their native waters, at the
sight of rapacious animals, is far greater than those of thunder claps
or thunder bolts falling upon them; and this I know from remembrance of
my past life of a fish, and cannot be denied by the wise.
15. Behold there the herd of deer before thus reposing in raptures over
the bed of flowers, under the shade of trees on the borders of the
lake; and look also at the hive of the bees about the new blown flowers
of the grove.
16. Look the high minded and lofty headed peacock craving and crying
aloud for rain water, to the great god of the clouds and rains; and
the god Indra in return pours in floods to fill the whole earth with
water; for the greatness of gods looks to the general and individual
good.
17. The peacocks like suckling babes, attend on the clouds as their wet
nurses; or it may be, that the black peacocks are the offspring of dark
clouds (that endears and unites them thus to one another).
18. Lo the wanderer looking with wonder on the eyes of the antelope,
and finding their resemblance with those of his dear one at home,
remains stupified as statue at the sight of the objects exposed to his
view.
19. The peacock instead of drinking water from the ground, snatches by
force the snake from underneath; wherefore I am at a loss to know which
of these to blame for its malice. (The peacock kills the snake, but
this one destroys all living creatures).
20. Why is it that the peacock shuns to drink in the large lake, which
is as liberal as the minds of great men; and is content to swallow the
drops of rain water, spit out and spirted by the cloud; unless it be
for shame of stooping down his head, to drink the water of the lake.
21. See the peacock dancing, with displaying his gaudy train to the
clouds; and oscillating their starry plumage in the rain, as if they
were the offspring of the rainy season.
22. The rainy dark cloud which was carried by the wind from the bed of
ocean, appeared over the forest lake and met with the gleeful dancing
peacock below.
23. It is better for thee, O chátaka! to pick up the blades of grass
for thy food, and drink the water of the fountains, and rest in the
shady plantain grove of the forest; than to dwell in the hollow cave of
a withered tree in sultry heat, by thy pride of never stooping down for
thy subsistence.
24. Think not, O peacock! this cloud to be a sea and the abode of
sharks; but know to be a watery cloud, born of the smoke of wild
fire, and of the vapours of the mountain and ascending to the sky.
(Therefore thou canst not fear to dance before it).
25. The peacock seeing the cloud that was so profuse of rain even in
autumn, becoming sometimes so scant of its supply as not even to fill a
tank (such as in times of drought), sustains its thirst with patience,
in gratitude to the past favours of the cloud; nor does it fain to
blame its former supporter for failing, nor deigns to drink any other
earthly water like the common people.
26. The peacock that was wont to drink the crystal drops of the
clouds, would not now stoop to drink the dirty water of the ditch,
though pressed and pinched by drought and thirst; because the sweet
remembrance of his past beverage, supports him from fainting, and the
expectation of fresh draughts, preserves him from dying.
27. Travellers mitigate the toils of their journey, by mutual
conversation on the way; as the ignorant that cannot commune with
themselves, communicate their thoughts with others, to beguile the
tediousness of their lives.
28. Look there, O lord! to the slender stalks of the lotuses,
supporting the burden of the water on the lotus leaves; like yon tender
damsels carrying the water pots on their heads.
29. Being asked why they were carrying those of lotus flowers and
leaves and for what use; they replied, to make cooling beds for
assuaging the fever heat of the love sick wives of travellers from
their homes.
30. These impassioned damsels, with their swollen breasts and youthful
dalliance, and the motions and gestures of their bodies, served to
excite the remembrance of the separated brides, whom the travellers had
left behind at their far distant abodes.
31. Ah surely, says a traveller, that dear one of mine, must now be
weeping and wailing, or falling down and rolling on the ground, at the
sight of yonder dark cloud in the sky in my absence.
32. Lo there the lines of black bees, fluttering on the cups of
lotuses, and the little bees giddy with the dulcet liquor of flowers;
the gentle breezes are blowing on all sides, and wafting the fragrance
of the opening blossoms; while the leaves of trees are dancing to the
tunes of the rustling winds.
CHAPTER CXIX.
LAMENTATION OF THE LOVELORN TRAVELLER.
Argument:--The lovesick traveller, relating the woes of his
separation to his beloved one.
The companions continued:--The traveller having returned home, and
finding his beloved one by the arbour of _mandara_ trees, began to
relate to her the pangs of his protracted separation.
2. Listen to my marvellous tale, said he, and what happened to me one
day, when I sought to send some one to thee with my tidings.
3. I sought long but sought in vain, at the time of my painful
separation, to send one to thee at this house of mine; but where such
a one be found in the world, who would take a severe interest in the
affliction of another, for the sake of charity or mere friendship?
4. Lo, I came to behold even then and there, a big cloud on the top of
a mount, resembling the steed of cupid, that appeared jocundly before
me, accompanied by the swift lightening as his precursor.
5. I advanced before him and addressed unto him, saying: ah brother
cloud, thou bearest the rainbow of Indra, as a collar about thy neck,
and are graceful in thy course, have pity on me for a moment. Please go
to my dear one and tell her my tidings, with thy low voice, sympathetic
tears and breath of sighs; because the tender form of the pliant
creeper, will not be able to bear thy loud uproar.
6. I know not, O dark cloud! to what abode to direct thee to find my
beloved one, who is pictured in the plate of my heart by the pencil of
my mind, and is forever situated in my bosom.
7. But now, O my friendly cloud! my distracted mind has lost that
figure of my beloved in my breast, together with the sight of her
person from my eyes; and now having lost the freedom of my body in a
foreign country, I have become but a wooden framework without my love,
which is its living soul: for what living body can bear the pangs of
separation.
8. People then thought me dead, and with tears in their eyes, began to
prepare my obsequies and collect wood for my funeral.
9. I was borne away to be burnt on a dreadful funeral pile, which was
horribly crackling with the cracking wood, of the blazing fire on the
burning ground.
10. There, O my lotus eyed love, I was laid on the pile by some persons
with their weeping eyes; and the pyre was surrounded by a number of
men, who stood as spectators of the horrible sight.
11. At that time the curling smoke of the pyre, began to enter into my
nostrils like the creepers or stalks of lotus plants; and as when the
dark and lengthy body of the curvilinear snake, enters into a hole in
the ground.
12. But all this, I was defended by the strong armour of my firm
love to thee; as the unborn or selfborn son of god Brahmá, was defended
from the showers of darts, of the whole host of demons and thinking
myself to be plunged in the cooling pool of thy love within my heart; I
was untouched by the flames of fire burning all about me.
13. All this time I lay in the ecstacy of my love to thee, and I felt
raptures of joy rise in my breast, from my fancied association with
thee. I deemed myself as drowned in an ambrosial lake, while I was in
that state of rapture, and thought sovereignty of the whole world, too
insignificant before my ecstatic transport.
14. Methought I felt raptures of inexpressible delight fill my whole
soul, at the thought of all thy blandishments and graces, and in the
allurements of thy speech, sweet smiles and sidelong glances, and all
the gestures and motions of thy person, that spread an ambrosial charm
all around me.
15. Methought we clasped in mutual embraces, and together in amorous
folds; till exhausted with surfeit, I lay upon the cool soft bed, as
if I was drowned in the cold and icy ocean of the lunar disc.
16. At this moment as I lay long in my bed, bedewed with cool sandal
paste, and the cooling beams of the full-moon; I heard a thundering
noise accompanied with flames of fire, rising from the burning pile of
woods under me, as it was the submarine fire, proceeding from the milky
ocean wherein I was lying.
17. The companions resumed:--When the husband had said so far, his
listening spouse cried out aloud; saying “Ah me! I am dead, I am gone,”
and for fear of hearing the sad consequence, fell into a swoon and
became senseless.
18. The husband finding her fainting, began to wave over her fan of
lotus leaves, besprinkled with water; and taking her up to his bosom,
tried to restore her to her senses.
19. Being then desired by her to finish his tale, he began to relate
the remainder by holding her chin with his hand.
20. As I felt the pain of the burning flame touching my body, I cried
out and groaned in affliction; the spectators hastened to extinguish
the blazing pile, and felt delighted to find me alive.
21. The attendants then with loud shouts of joy, like the sound of
drums &c. and with garlands of flowers, raised and embraced me to their
bosoms; and went on shouting and singing and dancing and laughing with
exultation.
22. I then saw the funeral ground resembling the formidable body of
Bhairava--the god of destruction. It was equally covered with ashes,
wreathed with snakes and studded with human skulls: and the scattered
bones that were strewn over the ground, seemed as the beams of the moon
crowning the head of Siva.
23. Here hot winds were blowing from the funeral piles, as from the
burning fire on Hara’s head; and bearing the burnt ashes of the dead
bodies, as a dark mist all around; they bore stink of the rotten bones
to the air, and carried about the rustling noise of the bones jostling
against one another.
24. The burning piles and their flashing flames and flying sparks, and
the fiery winds scorching the trees and herbage; give this place the
appearance of the play ground, of the gods of wind and fire, and of the
sons of sun--Yama and Saturn.
25. Thus I saw the funeral ground full of terrors, and covered with
skeletons of half-burnt bodies and putrid carcasses also; it is
infested by hungry dogs and howling jackals, and other voracious
beasts, and the ravenous ravens and vultures. It is a place where the
Vetála--demons and Pisácha--hobgoblins, revel with fearful shrieks and
jarring sounds.
26. I beheld there the biers of dead bodies, borne by their mourning
friends, with loud cries and lamentations that filled the air all
about. I saw the beasts and birds, that tore their entrails and
arteries, yet moist with blood, and I saw the ground strewn over with
half burnt logs of wood and bushes.
27. In some places the glaring pyres, gave a gloomy light, and in
others the tufts of hair, were heaped as spots of clouds; somewhere
the ground was besmeared with blood, and looked like a lurid sheet of
cloth; and elsewhere the clouds were roaring, as the setting sun went
down the western hill (or horizon).
CHAPTER CXX.
DESCRIPTION OF VARIOUS OBJECTS ON ALL SIDES.
Argument:--Prolusion on the winds and the forest trees and wild
bees; then on celestial nymphs, birds &c.
The companions continued:--Thus the loving pair after taking to one
another in the aforesaid manner; began to sip their delicious wine. And
now attend, O lotus eyed lord to the other things of things of this
place.
2. Lo, there the winds, shaking the plantain leaves and clusters of
their flowers, and blowing to all sides, with the dust of various sorts
of flowers, with which they have adorned themselves.
3. There the breezes are blowing, loaded with odours exhaled by the
flowers of the forest; and there the gentle zephyrs are wafting the
perfumes, which they have stolen from the locks of their favourite
fairies.
4. Here are the blasts blowing from the salt sea on the south; and
driving as fastly as the stern lion rushes into the fastness of woods
and mountain caves; and as forcibly, as the fierce giants attacked the
gods on the top of Mount Meru.
5. Again there is the high wind playing and shaking with the high
_tamála_, tála and other palma trees; while the gentle gales, are
softly gliding over the waves, and wafting their moisture to the tender
plants below.
6. There the soft breezes are wheezing, with the dust thrown out by the
flowers; while gentle zephyrs are moving about as princes amidst the
bowers and flower gardens.
7. There the god Aeolus plays his sweet sylvan pipe, in the holes of
the hollow bamboo; in the manner of the female sweet musicians, tuning
their reeds in the city of Pándu or Hastinápura. (Here is a palpable
anachronism with regard to the anterior of prince Pándu).
8. Here every plant is fraught with bees, except the _karnikara_
flower; which is avoided by them, on account of its disregard of the
god of air, by withholding to pay him the tribute odour and farina.
9. The _tála_ or palm tree, that rises as high as a column but yields
no fruit nor flower to the hungry passenger, owing to its inaccessible
height, is as disgraceful in itself as the uncharitable rich man.
10. Ignorant and unworthy people, build their pride on outward show,
as the _kinsuka_ flower displays the beauty of its colour to view, in
absence of its fragrance.
11. Look at the _Karnikara_ flower, blooming only to decay; because its
want of fragrance makes it as worthless and despicable, as unworthy and
ignorant men are disregarded by all.
12. So the _tamála_ tree with its blushing blossoms, beguile the
thirsty _chátaka_ by its false appearance of a rainy cloud, so the fair
outside of the foul, deceives the unwise by his inward foulness.
13. Look at these robust, woody, shady and cloud-capt hills, which
afford shade and shelter to others; and are possessed of many more
qualities, befitting the kings of men; are standing in the manner of
lofty bamboos (having all these qualities in them).
14. Look at yonder cloud on the mountain top, resting as it were upon
the seat of its table land of bright gold, and twirling its yellow
mantle of lightnings; appearing as the god Hari clad in his vest of
aureate yellow.
15. Look on the blooming _kinsuka_ flower, with the flutter-bees and
birds about them appearing as a fighting warrior, pierced by flying
arrows, and besmeared with crimson blood.
16. Lo the golden _mandára_ flowers, touching the amber-coloured clouds
of heaven; appearing as the giddy Gandharva lads, lying on the top of
the Mahendra mountain.
17. Behold the weary wayfarers, laying and lulling themselves to rest,
under the shade of the Kalpa trees in the garden of paradise; while
the siddhas and Vidyádharas are sitting there at ease, and singing
their songs to the tune of their stringed instruments.
18. Behold also the celestial nymphs, stretched there at ease,
tittering and singing in the groves-bowers of the Kalpa arbour of Eden.
19. There is the silent abode of the great sage Mandapala, famed in the
legends; and the cave of the celebrated vulture said to be his wife.
20. See there the line of hermitages of the ancient sages; where the
envious animals forget their mutual animosities, and together in
perfect concord and amity.
21. There are the coral plants, growing with other shrubs and bushes,
by the side of the sea coast; and the drops of water trickling upon
them, glisten as gems by the solar rays.
22. The waves are rolling with precious gems, on the bosom of the
ocean; like playful damsels rocking on with their ornaments on the
breasts of their lovers.
23. Here the jingling noise of the jewelleries of the celestial nymphs,
sauntering from the celestial regions, to the infernal abodes of the
serpents through the midway skies.
24. Here those hollow mountain caves, whistling with a sound resembling
the buzzing of wild bees, falling down giddy with drinking the ichor
exuding from the forehead of elephants.
25. Lo the sea ebbing with the waning moon during the dark fortnight
of the month; and the receding tides describing and leaving the linear
marks of their regression upon the sands on the shore.
26. Lo the woodland decorated as a beauty, with clusters of flowers
hanging as wreaths and garlands on every side; breathing fragrance all
about, and attired in the robe of its cooling shade.
27. The variegated foliage from its party-coloured dress, and the
waterfalls seem as its sweet smiles; and the flowers strewn about,
appear as the flowery bed of the happy woodland dame. (The word _vana_
means the _vana-devi_ or woodland goddess, corresponding with a dryad,
sylva or Flora).
28. Here the high-minded sages and hermits, are as highly delighted
with their quiet sylvan retreats; as the celestials are joyous in
gardens of Eden. (Eden and Udyána are both the same).
29. The placid and indifferent minds of sages, are equally delighted
with these solitary woodlands, as the restless and impatient minds of
lovers and worldly people.
30. The waters of the sea, whether running into the land, or washing
the foot of the rock on the sea-shore; are equally shining and sounding
as their tinkling ornaments or anklets (nupurs).
31. The _punnága_ flowers blooming on mountains, appear as golden mines
upon them; and the goldfinch birds flying over them, look like winged
angels in the aerial course.
32. The mountain forests appear to be in a conflagration, with their
full blown _champaka_ flowers blazing as fire, and the bees and clouds
hovering over them as smoke; while the current winds are spreading
above their dust and petals like the sparks of fire.
33. Lo the _kokila_ swinging and singing, on his seat of the topmost
stalk of a _karavira_ tree; when his mate comes and embraces him there,
and sings responsive to his songs with her clamorous chattering. (It is
a sarcasm on pettish wives, that often interrupt the silent musings of
their consorts with their tastelessness).
34. See the salt waters of the briny ocean, roaring aloud against
shore; but the coast-lands are kept in subjection under the hands of
their able masters. (The rule of kings stretched to the seashore).
35. O lord! deign to make this earth (_i.e._ the continent of
Jambudwípa or Asia), stretching to the four seas on the four sides, as
thy footstool; and establish thy rule over the remaining potentates,
that escaped the brunt of thy valour; appoint rulers over all the
provinces on all sides; and provide them with proper force and arms,
which are necessary to keep them in order; and continue to govern thy
realms with mercy and moderation.
CHAPTER CXXI.
EXPOSITION OF THE STORY OF VIPASCHIT.
Argument:--Boundaries of Vipaschit’s Realms. His adoration of
fire and attempt to proceed further.
Vasishtha related:--Then the king Vipaschit and his companions, sat
on the coast of the sea, and did whatever was requisite for the
establishment of his sovereignty.
2. They then chose spots for their abodes at that place, and made
houses for themselves according to their positions; they settled the
boundaries of the provinces, and set guards for their defence.
3. At last they went down into the ocean, and then proceeded to the
other side of the world; in order to show his glory; like that of
Vipaschit, to other parts of the world.
4. Then came on the dark night, in the form of an all overshading
cloud; and the people all sank into the lap of sleep, after finishing
their daily works and rituals.
5. They were amazed to think in themselves, how insensibly they were
led to so great a distance in so short a space of time, and to meet the
ocean like currents of rivers falling into it.
6. They said: “It is a wonder that we have come so far, without
any attempt on our part; and therefore this great velocity must be
attributed, to the swiftness of the vehicles of the great god Agni (or
Electricity itself)”.
7. Lord! say they, how extensive is the view that lies before our
sight; stretching from one end of the Jambudwípa to its other extremity
of the vast salt ocean, and thence again to the islands in it, and
other lands and seas beyond them.
8. There are islands and seas beyond these, and others again beyond
them; how many such and many more, may there be of this kind, and how
inscrutable is the delusion which is thus spread before our minds.
(_i.e._ All these are but our mental delusions).
9. Let us therefore pray the god of fire (electricity), that we may
see at once every thing on all sides by his favour, and with any
exertion of or pain on our sides.
10. So saying and thinking in this manner, they all reflected on
the god with one accord, and meditated on him, as they sat in their
respective places.
11. The god appeared to them, and stood manifest before their sight in
his tangible form, and spoke to them saying:--“Ask ye my sons, what
favor you desire of me.”
12. They said: O lord of gods, that abidest beyond this visible and
elemental world, ordain, that by means of the vedic mantra and our
purified minds, we may know the knowables in our minds.
13. Give us, O God, this great and best boon, that we ask of thee; that
we may know by thy light, whatever is knowable by either the external
senses; mind or by our self-consciousness. (_i.e._ By the three means
of knowledge).
14. Enable us to see with our eyes O lord! the paths, which lead the
siddhas and yogis to the sight of the invisibles; and make us also to
perceive in our minds the things, that imperceptible to them.
15. Let not death overtake us, till we have reached to the ways of the
siddhas; and let thy grace guide us in the paths, where no embodied
being can pass (_i.e._ in our journey to the next world, when we have
shuffled our mortal coil).
16. Vasishtha said:--“So be it”, said the igneous god, and instantly
disappeared from their sight; as the submarine fire bursts forth, and
vanishes at once in the sea.
17. As the fiery god disappeared, there appeared the dark night after
him; and as the night also fled after a while, the sunshine returned
with the reviving wishes of the king and his men, to survey the wide
ocean lying before them.
CHAPTER CXXII.
THE KING’S SURVEY OF THE SEA, AND HIS LOCOMOTION ON IT.
Argument:--The king walks on foot on the sea, his chase of sharks
and other marine animals.
Vasishtha related:--Rising then in the morning, they regulated the
affairs of the state according to the rules prescribed by law; and were
eager to see the sea, as if they were impelled by some preternatural
force, which nothing less than the power of ministerial officers could
restrain.
2. But they were so exasperated by their mad ambition, that they forgot
their affection for their families, and forsook them all weeping before
them, for undertaking their perilous sea voyage.
3. They said, “we will see what there is on the other side of the sea,
and then return instantly to this place.” Saying so they muttered the
invocatory mantras of the Fire god, who inspired them with the power of
walking on foot and dryshod over the sea.
4. All the representatives of the king, being followed by their
companions on all sides, proceeded to the borders of the several seas,
and then walked on their feet over to watery maze.
5. They walked on foot upon the waters, as if they were walking upon
the surface of the ground, and all the four bodies of the quadruple
king, now met together in one place, and immediately afterwards they
separated apart with all their forces.
6. Marching on foot over the vast expanse, they surveyed all that was
in and upon the sea; and disappeared altogether from the sight of the
people on the shore, as a spot of cloud, vanishes from view in autumn.
7. The forces travelled on foot all over the watery path of the ocean,
with as much fortitude; as the elephants of the king, traverse with
patience on land, when they are bound to a distant journey.
8. They mounted high and went down, along with the rising and lowering
waves; as when men climb upon and descend from steep mountains, and as
one rides and goes galloping on horseback, or in the manner of Hari
floating upon the billowy ocean, or in his act of churning the sea.
9. They paced over the whirlpools, as the straws float upon waters; and
they promenaded as gracefully amidst the encompassing waves, as the
beauteous moon passes through the surrounding clouds.
10. The brave soldiers that were so well armed with weapons in their
hands, and so well protected by the power of their _mantras_ and
amulets; that they were as often disgorged from bowels of the sharks,
as they came to be devoured by them: (because they could neither
masticate nor digest them).
11. Pushed onward by the waves, and driven forward by the winds, their
bodies were carried to the distance of many a league in a moment.
12. The huge surges which lifted them to great heights, represented
the enormous elephants, on which they used to mount, and ride about in
their native land.
13. The vast expanse of water appears as the void space of the sky;
and the succession of heaving waves in it, represents the folds of
gathering clouds in heaven, and as they were dashing against one
another, they emitted the flash of lightnings anon.
14. The loose and loud surges of the sea, resembled the loosened
elephants in the battle field; and though they dashed against the shore
with all their force; yet they were unable to break them down, as the
elephants are baffled in their attempt to break down a stone built
rampart.
15. The waving waves reflecting the rays of the brilliant pearls and
gems, which they bore with them from shore to shore; resemble the
eminent men, who though they pass alone from place to place, appear
yet to be accompanied by their train and glory every where.
16. The surf tramples over the mass of hoary froth with contempt, as
the snowy white swan treads upon the bed of whitish lotuses in disdain.
(The surf and the swan, being whiter far than the froth and the lotus).
17. The sounding main, which was as loud as the roaring clouds, and the
re-billowing billows, which were louder than they, bore no terror to
them that stood as rocks thereon.
18. The cloud-kissing waves of the ocean, now rising above the
mountains, and now falling low at their feet, were likely to touch the
solar orb, and then sink into the infernal.
19. They were not afraid of the rising or falling waters; but passed
over the sea as upon sheet of cloth; and shrouded by the drizzling
clouds, which formed a canopy over them.
20. Thus the companions of the king crossed the ocean, which was full
of sharks and alligators, and tremendous eddies; they were sprinkled by
water like showers of flowers, and adorned with marine gems and pearls;
and they crossed over on foot, as others do in navies.
CHAPTER CXXIII.
THE KING’S EXCURSIONS ON ALL SIDES.
Argument:--The King and his train, pass over the islands and
proceed towards the west.
Vasishtha related:--Thus they proceeded onward, to explore into the
visible phenomena, exposed before them by Ignorance (avidyá or external
nature); and continued to walk on foot, over the watery maze and the
islands it contained.
2. They passed over the ocean to some island, and then from that island
to the sea again; and in this manner they traversed on foot, over many
a mountain and wilderness in interminable succession.
3. Then as the king was proceeding towards the western main, he was
seized and devoured by a voracious fish, which was as the undying breed
of Vishnu’s fish, and as fleet as a boat in the stream of Bitasta
Beyah. (Vishnu’s fish was the deathless incarnation of himself).
4. The fish fled with him in his belly to the milky ocean; but finding
him too hard for his digestion, he bore him in his bowels to a great
distance in another direction.
5. He was then borne to the saccharine ocean on the south, and was
there cast out in the island of Yakshas; where he was overpowered to
the love of a female fiend by her art of enchantment, (or) where he was
enchanted into the amour of a female Yakshí, by her skill in sorcery.
(The yakshas are the present yakhas of Ceylon, or Egypt, and are said
to be equally adept in the art of máyá or magic).
6. He then went towards the east, and passing by the Ganges, he killed
a shark that had pursued him, and arrived at last at the district of
Kánya Kubja the modern Cawnpore.
7. Then proceeding towards the north, he came to the country, of
Uttara-kurus, where he was edified by his adoration of Siva, and
became exempted from the fear of death, in all his wanderings on all
sides of the earth.
8. In this way, travelling long and afar, both by land and sea; he
was often attacked by wild elephants on the boundary mountains, and
repeatedly gorged and disgorged by sharks and alligators in the seas.
9. Then proceeding towards the west, he was picked up by an eagle and
set upon his back; and the bird took to his golden pinions, and bore
him in an instant to the Kusa-dwípa across the ocean.
10. Thence he passed to the Krauncha-dwípa on the east; where he was
seized and devoured by a Rákshasa of the mountain, but whom he killed
afterwards by ripping up his belly and its entrails.
11. Roving then in the south, he was denounced to become a yaksha by
curse of Daksha the king of that part: until he was released from that
state by the king of the Saca-dwípa after some years.
12. He then passed over the great and smaller seas lying in the north,
and after passing over the great frigid ocean, he arrived at the
country of gold, where he was changed to a stone by the siddhas of that
place.
13. In this state he remained a whole century, till by the grace of
his god Agni--ignis, he was released from the curse of the siddha, who
received him again into his favour.
14. Then travelling to the east, he became king of the country of
cocoanuts; and after reigning there for full five years, he was
restored to the remembrance of his former state.
15. Then passing to the north of the Meru Mountain, he dwelt among the
Apsaras, in the groves of kalpa trees for ten years, and subsisted on
the bread fruits of cocoanuts.
16. Going afterwards to the Salmali-dwípa in the west, which abounds
in trees of the same name, he dwelt in the society of birds for many
years, having been previously instructed in their language, when he had
been carried away by Garuda.
17. Thence journeying in his westerly course, he reached to the
Mandara Mountain which abounded in verdure and _madára_ forests; and
here he sojourned for a day in company with Mandarí--a Kinnera female.
18. He then journeyed to the Nandana garden of the gods, which abounded
in kalpa trees rising as high as the waves of the milky ocean; and he
remained in the company of the woodland gods for a septenary, sporting
with the Apsara damsels in their amorous dalliance.
CHAPTER CXXIV.
QUADRIPARTITE STATE OF THE KING VIPASCHIT.
Argument.--The actions of the Individual prince, appertaining to
his quaternary forms.
Ráma said:--Tell me sir, whether the different states and acts of the
prince, relate particularly to any one part of his quadripartite body,
or generally or severally to all and each part of himself; because it
is equally impossible that all and every part should act the same part,
as that the several parts of the same person, could act differently
from the other. (It is unnecessary to be multipartite to act alike, as
well as impossible for the same personality to act differently in its
many persons or parts or forms, which are all one and the same being).
2. Vasishtha replied:--Any person that is conscious of his self
identity, and its invariability and indivisibility, may yet think
himself as another person and doing different things, as a man does in
his dream.
3. Again it is the clearness of the soul, that shows the abstract
images of things in itself, as it did in that of Vipaschit or the wise
prince; and as a mirror reflects the discrete figures of objects, and
of the sky and sea, in its clear and empty bosom.
4. As reflectors made of the same metal, reflect one another in
themselves; so all things which are in reality but of an intellectual
or ideal nature, reflect themselves in the intellect. (The mind is the
repository of the ideal forms of things, and it is mental fallacy only
which makes them appear as real ones. This is the idealistic theory of
Berkeley).
5. Hence whatever object presents itself, to any one of the senses
of any body, is no other than the concretion or density of his
intellectual idea of the same in its nature. (Hence the sensibles are
but solidified ideas, and ectypes of the ideal; and not as causes or
prototypes of our eternal ideas).
6. It is the one and self same thing appears as many, and the
varied ones are but the invariable one in reality; there is no positive
variety nor uniformity either in _esse_, because all apparent variety
is positive unity (_i.e._ all is one, and the one in all).
7. Hence whatever part of the prince, was conscious of anything,
which presented itself before him of any time; the same is said to be
the state of his being during that time. (_i.e._ Whatever a man is
conscious of doing or suffering at any time, the same forms the state
or mode of living for the time being).
8. And as it is possible to a yogi, who sits secluded in one place;
to see all present, past and future events at one view before him; so
it is possible for a prince, sitting retired in his palace, to manage
all affairs of his whole domain; and much more for the king Vipaschit,
who delegated his viceroys, as members of his body to all parts. (This
passage explains the quadripartite kings, to mean himself and his three
viceroys on three sides).
9. So doth a cloud stretch itself to all the quarters of the sky, and
perform at once the several functions of quenching the parched earth
with its water, and of growing the vegetables and fructifying the
trees. So also doth a man boast of his manifold acts at the same time.
10. So also are the simultaneous acts of the lord God, and those of the
lords of men and yogis; who design and perform at the same time, the
multifarious acts relating to the creation, preservation and management
of the world.
11. So doth the one and selfsame Vishnu, with his four arms and as many
forms, act many parts and separably also, as the preservation of the
world on the one hand, and the enjoyment of his fair consorts on the
other.
12. Again though the two hands of a person, are enough to discharge the
ordinary affairs of life; yet it is requisite to have many arms, in
order to wield many weapons in warfare.
13. It was in the same manner, that the self same monarch was situated
with his fourfold persons, in all the four sides of the earth; where
though they were impressed with the consciousness of their self
identity, yet they all acted their several parts as quite distinct and
apart from others.
14. They were all alike conscious of the pains and pleasures attending
on their lying down on naked grounds, their passing to distant islands
and their travelling to different forests and groves, and desert lands
also.
15. They all remembered their journeys over hills and mountains, as
well as their voyages by water and air; they knew how they floated on
the seas, and rested on clouds.
16. They knew how they mounted upon waves of seas, and rode on the back
of flying wind; and how they lay on the shores of seas, and at the foot
of mountains.
17. Again the prince proceeding to Scythea, or the land of _sacas_ on
the east; passed into the enchanted city of the yakshas, lying at the
foot of the Eastern mountain or Udaya-giri; where being spellbound by
their sorcery, he lay asleep for full seven years in the wood of the
leafless mansá sijá trees.
18. Rising afterwards from his drowsiness, he was converted to the
torpid state of a stone by his drinking some mineral water, and was
condemned to remain for seven years more with the mineral substances of
the earth.
19. He was then confined in a cave of the western mountain--Astáchala,
which reaches to the region of the clouds and is shrouded by darkness;
and he became enamoured of the company, of Pisácha and Apsara females.
20. He then arrived at a region which was free from fear, and where
there rose a high mountain with water-falls in all sides of it; here
the prince was lost in the forest of _haritaki_ or chebula--myrobalans,
and become invisible for years.
21. The prince that had erewhile been spellbound by the yaksha,
travelled afterwards to the frigid climate; and there being transformed
to a lion, he roved about the Raivata hills for ten days and nights.
22. And then being deluded by the black art of Pisáchas, he was changed
to the form of a frog, and lived in that state in the caves of the
golden mountain for a decad of years.
23. Travelling afterwards to the country of Kumárika (Cape Comorin),
he dwelt at the bottom of the northern ridge of the Black mountain.
Then going to the _saca_ country, he was transformed to a hog, and
lived in a dark hole for a hundred years in that shape.
24. He lived for fourteen years as a squint-eyed, in the land of
_marivaca_; when the western form of the prince was turned to a
Vidyádhara, by virtue of his skill in learning various lore.
25. There he enjoyed sexual intercourse at his full satisfaction under
the scented bower of _alá_, and passed his time in amusement.
CHAPTER CXXV.
ON THE LIVING LIBERATION OF THE PRINCE.
Argument:--Mutual assistance of the four persons of the prince to
one another, and their true meaning.
Vasishtha continued:--Now of the quadripartite bodies of the prince,
that which was transformed to a tree, in the valley called the vale of
fearlessness in _sacadwípa_: supported itself by sucking the better
water of the rock which it drew by its roots.
2. It was then that the western part of the royal person, came up to
the relief of the former or eastern part, and released it from the
curse of its vegetable state of full seventy years, by the power of its
incantations.
3. Again the western person of the king, passing to the frigid clime,
was there transformed to a stone by curse of the chief of the Pisácha
tribe; but was released afterwards from that state by southern
personage, by his offering of meat food to the carnivorous Pisácha.
4. At another time as this western personage, was settled beyond the
western horizon, it was changed to the form of a bull by a female
fiend, that had assumed on her the form of a cow, and was freed at last
from that state by the southern person.
5. Again the southern figure of the prince, was doomed to live as a
demon on a mountain tree in the Kshemaka, and was liberated at last
from it by the yaksha prince.
6. Then again, the eastern person of the prince, was metamorphosed to
the shape of a lion, on a mountain in the province of Vrishaka, and was
delivered for its metamorphoses by the western personality.
7. Ráma rejoined:--How is it sir, that the single individuality of
the prince, which was confined in one spot as that of a yogi; could
be ubiquious at one and the same time, could perform the various
acts of different times and places at once, by the all comprehensive
universality of the mind.
8. Vasishtha replied:--O Ráma! Let the unenlightened think whatever
they may, respecting this world (_i.e._ let them take its unreality for
positive reality); but do you attend to what I say, regarding the light
in which it is viewed by the enlightened yogis (who view it in its
spiritual light, and conduct all their operations in the mind only).
9. According to spiritualists, there is no other essence, except one
universal Intellect; the phenomenal are an utter inexistence, and the
creation or increate entity of the world, blends into nothing. (The
intellect is a formless and all-pervading essence, and acts in many
ways in all places).
10. This universal Intellect is the eternal residence of and one with
the eternal and universal soul; and it is this that constitutes the
essentiality and universality of the Supreme soul at all times.
11. Say, who can obstruct any where or by any force the course of the
great mind, which is ubiquious and all comprehensive, and exhibits
itself in various forms in the endless varieties of its thoughts.
(Hence there is nothing in reality, except they be but representations
of the inward thoughts of the mind; or manifestations of the
omnipresent One in various shapes).
12. What is it to us and what can we call to be ours, when all these
sights are exhibited in the supreme soul or Intellect in all places and
times; and all that is present, past and future, are comprised
that all-comprehending mind.
13. So that the far and near, a moment and an age, are the same to it,
which is never altered in its nature (so says the sruti:--It is both
near and afar, the past and the present &c.).
14. All things are situated in the soul, and yet look at the act of
Ignorance, that they appear to be placed without it, as we behold them
with our naked eyes (as phantasms of the hidden soul).
15. The soul is the substantial omniscience of vacuous form, and
exhibits the three worlds in its vacuity, without changing its
vacuousness (but shows like the magic lantern, the phantasmagoria of
these in itself).
16. The universal soul appears in the universe, as both its viewer and
the view in itself, or as the subjective and objective in its self-same
nature; but how is it possible for the inherent soul of the apparent
world, to admit of a visible form in any way, unless it be by the
delusion of our understanding to think it so.
17. But tell me thou sage that knowest the truth, what thing is
impossible to the active agency of the selfsame Deity, to whom all
things are alike possible at all times and places; and so also to the
wise king Vipaschit, who was alike conscious of his self identity in
all his quadruple forms. (The Lord that spreads unspent, and acts alike
in all. Pope).
18. The enlightened Intellect of the yogi, that has not yet arrived at
its transcendent state of unity with the Deity; and retains the sense
of its individuality; can yet readily unite itself with the souls of
others in all places.
19. There is nothing impossible to the supreme soul; but the half
enlightened soul, that lingers between its knowledge and ignorance, and
has not attained to transcendent wisdom, is confounded in its intellect
regarding the true knowledge of things.
20. The soul that is some what advanced in its knowledge, is said to
have partly progressed towards its perfection (siddhi); hence the four
parts of Vipaschit situated on the four sides, made up a perfect whole.
(The whole number in common calculation, is usually divided into and
made up of four quarters).
21. These four parts were as so many states or degrees of perfection,
which lighted on Vipaschit like the rays of heavenly light; and these
states mutually helped and healed each other, as the members of the
body assist and supply to the defects of one another.
22. Ráma said:--Tell me, O venerable Bráhman, why the quadruple king
Vipaschit, ran on all sides like brutes, if he was so enlightened in
every part, and why he did not sit collected in himself as he was.
23. Vasishtha replied:--What I have related to you regarding
enlightenment, applies only to the case of yogis, who though they
are combined of many parts in their minds, do yet remain sedate in
themselves in the same state.
24. But the Vipaschitas were not so wholly enlightened as the holy
yogis, but being partly enlightened, they remained in the midmost state
between the two, as if hanging betwixt both state of enlightenment and
ignorance at the same time.
25. They bore upon them the marks of both at once, namely of the one by
their discretion and discernment, and of the other by the passions and
affections of their minds, that led them to the two different ways of
liberation as well as of bondage.
26. Those who are ever vigilant in the discharge of their pious acts,
and are wavering between their temporal and eternal concerns, as the
Vipaschitas continued in their course of action, such persons cannot be
perfect and esoteric yogis in this life.
27. The devotees that are devoted to their devotion of a particular
deity as the Vipaschitas were of the god of fire, are styled as the
dháraná yogis; and not transcendent or _param_ yogis, unless they
attain to transcendental knowledge (or jnána yoga, which removes the
_avidyá_--ignorance).
28. The learned yogi does not see any mist of ignorance, to obstruct
his sight of the lights of truth; but the ignorant devotee is blind to
truth, though he may be received into the favour of his favorite deity.
29. The Vipaschitas were all of them subject to ignorance, and they
rejected the knowledge of the true soul, by their attachment to gross
material bodies, which are at best but vain unrealities. Listen
therefore to what I will now relate, regarding those that are liberated
from their grossness even in their lifetime.
30. The yogis retain of course their knowledge of the concrete, in
their conduct of the external affairs of life; but liberation is the
virtue of the mind, consisting in its freedom from subjection to gross
materials, and subsisting in the mind only, and not in the body or its
sensibility.
31. But as the bodily properties are inseparably connected with the
body, and its sensibility can in no way be separated from it; the
liberated soul is therefore no way attached to it, nor doth the
yogi ever take any heed of it in his mind (his thoughts being solely
fixed in the solity of the soul).
32. The mind of the liberated yogi, is never reunited with his body,
any more than pollen is ever rejoined with its parent stalk; although
the bodily properties of the living liberated yogi, ever remain the
same as those of worldly persons. (Freedom consists in the minds and
soul, and not in the bonded body).
33. The bodies of both are of course equally perceptible by all, but
not the minds which are hidden in them; the liberated soul cannot be
seen by others; but the incarcerate spirit is known to every body, by
its addictedness to the discharge of its bounded duties.
34. Self-liberation is as well perceptible to oneself, as his
perception of the sweetness of honey and the taste of other things, are
well known to himself; and one is well acquainted with his liberation
and bondage, from his consciousness of pleasure and pain from the one
or other.
35. It is thus by one’s inward perception of his liberation, that he is
called the liberate; and it is also the inward coolness of his soul, as
well as the indifference of his mind, that constitute his liberation
even in his life time.
36. Neither the bondage, or liberation of the soul, nor the pleasure or
painfulness of one’s mind can be any how known to another; whether you
divide the body into pieces or place it upon a royal throne. (Though
the features of the face, are said to be indicators of the inward mind).
37. Whether laughing or crying, the liberated soul feels no pleasure or
pain therein; because it is situated in both states in the unalterable
spirit of God.
38. The minds of liberated persons, are settled in the divine spirit
and no where else, even when they are in the act of receiving or doing
any thing with their bodies: But the learned men of the different
schools, are seen to be quite otherwise from their unacquaintance with
liberation (and being moved by the circumstances of life).
39. The bodies of liberated persons, are not affected by external
events, and though such a one may appear to be weeping, yet he never
weeps in grief; nor does he die, with the death of his mortal body.
40. The great man that is liberated in his life time, does not smile
though he has a smiling face; nor is he affected by nor angry at any
thing, though he seems to be moved by affections and anger. (_i.e._ His
feelings are never lasting).
41. Undeluded he sees the delusions of the world, and unseen by any he
sees the failings of others; and all pleasure and pain seem as ideal
unto him.
42. Every thing is as _nil_ to the liberate, as flowers growing in the
garden of the sky; and the existence of the world is non-existence unto
him, who sees the unity alone in all existence. (The One being all and
all being one; all others are lost in the only One).
43. The words pleasure and pain, are as aerial flowers to him, who are
indifferent to them, who have become victorious over their feelings, by
their liberation from all sensations in their life time.
44. They that have known the truth, are unaltered in their natures; as
the mouths of Brahmá, are unflinching in the recital of Vedas. (?)
45. And as Siva ripped the upper head of Brahmá, as a bud of lotus,
with the nail of his hand; and the god neither resented it, nor grew
another head instead, which he was well able to do: so the meek yogi
remains unresentful at any harm done to him.
46. Of what use is the upward or sky-looking face to him, whose inner
or intellectual eye shows him the voidness of all things around; hence
the possession of the external organ of sight, is useless to him, who
sees everything within himself.
47. Every one gets as it is allotted to him by his fate, in retribution
of his past actions; and his fatality (of retributive justice), does
not betide mortals only; but binds the god Siva also to the sweet
embraces of Gaurí, as well as to his melancholy contemplation for
ever; and so also doth the milky ocean, bear the ambrosial moon in his
ample bosom. (An irrevocable binds even Jove himself, as Hara to his
nakedness, and Hari to his serpent bed).
48. Good minded men are seldom seen to abandon their passions, though
they are capable of doing so in their life time; but they become quite
dispassionate upon their death, when the five elemental principles of
their bodies, are burnt away upon the funeral pile. (All lie level with
the dust in their silent graves).
49. But the living liberated man, gains nothing by his doing anything,
nor loses aught by his doing of naught; nor has he any concern with any
person, nor interest whatever with anything here on earth.
50. What avails one’s passionateness or dispassionateness in this
world; since what is fated in this life, cannot be averted by any means.
51. The god Hari, who is liberated in his life, does not yet cease from
his work of slaying the Asuras, or to have them slain by the hands of
Indra &c.; he becomes incarnate, to die himself or by hands of demons;
and is repeatedly born and grown up, to be extinct at last. (Such is
the general doom of all).
52. No one can give up his alternate activity and rest at once, nor
is there any good to be reaped by his attachment to the one, or
relinquishment of the other.
53. Therefore let a man remain in whatever state he may be, without
having any desire of his own; because the god Hari is without any
desire in himself, being the form of pure Intellect or Intelligence
only. (Desire subsists in the mind, and not in the intellectual soul).
54. The changing time changes and moves the steady soul, like a ball
on every side; as it turns about the fixed sun round the world in
appearance (and not in reality).
55. The lord of the day, is not able to restrain his body, from its
apparent course; though he is seated in his _nirvána_ as he is, without
any desire of changing his place.
56. The moon also appears to be waning under her wasting disease,
though she remains ever the same in all kalpa ages of the world; so the
soul of the liberated person continues the same, though his body is
subject to decay by age.
57. The fire too is ever free and liberated in itself, because
nothing can extinguish its latent heat at any time; and though it was
suppressed by the sacrificial butter of marutta, and the seminal liquid
of Siva for a while, yet it revived again as it was before. (Light and
heat are coeternal elements).
58. Vrihaspati and Sukra the preceptors of the gods and demigods, were
liberated in their life time, and with all their ambitious views of
predominance, they as dull and miserable persons.
59. The sagely prince Janaka is perfectly liberated in his mind,
and yet he is not loathe to rule over his princedom, and to quell
his enemies in battle. (Liberation consists in the mind, and not in
cessation from action).
60. The great kings Nala, Mandháta, Sagara, Dilípa, Nahusa and others,
were all liberated in their lives; and yet they reigned and ruled over
their realms, with all the vigilance of sovereigns.
61. A man acting either wisely or foolishly in life, is neither bound
to or liberated in this world; but it is his ardent desire of or apathy
to worldliness, that constitutes his bondage to or liberation from it.
62. The demoniac princes Vali, Namuchi, Vritra, Andhaka, Mura and
others, lived quite liberated in their lives; though they acted as
unwisely, as if they were elated by their ambition and passions.
63. Therefore the existence or disappearance of the passions, in the
conduct of any body, makes no difference in his spiritual character;
but it is the pure vacancy of the human soul and mind, that constitutes
his liberation in this world.
64. Being possest of the knowledge of God as pure vacuum, the living
liberated person is assimilated to the likeness of vacuity itself; and
is freed from the duality of thinking himself otherwise than the divine
spirit. (The sense of self personality, is lost in the knowledge of
the universality of the divine soul).
65. He is conscious of the fallacy of phenomenal appearances, which he
knows to be no more than as the variegated rainbow reflected in empty
air (by the ineffable light of the glory of God).
66. As the various colours are seen to shine in the rainbow, in the
field of empty air; so these myriads of brilliant worldly bodies, are
but vacuous particles appearing in infinite space. (The great worlds
are as minute atoms in the sight of great God).
67. This world is an unreality, appearing as a reality in view; it is
unborn and increate, and yet it is irresistibly conspicuous to our
sight, like the appearance of the sky in the empty firmament.
68. It is without its beginning or end, and yet appearing to have both
of these; it is a mere void, and seeming as a real substantiality;
it is increate, and yet thought to be a created something; it is
indestructible, though thought to be subject to destruction.
69. Its creation and destruction are phenomena occurring in the
vacuous essence of God, as the structure of a wooden post and statue,
takes place in the substance of the wood. (Here the Divine essence is
considered as the material cause of the world, and the one being void
the other is considered equally void also).
70. The mind being freed from its imagination, and drowned in deep
meditation (samádhi), as in the state of a sleepless sleeper; it comes
to the sight of an even intellectual vacuity, engrossing the sights of
all the worlds, as if absorbed in it.
71. As a man passing from one place to another, is unmindful of the
intermediate scenes; so the attention being directed solely to the
sight of the intellectual void, the thought of all the world and other
existences is wholly lost in the same. (Such sight of the single point
in view is called the _sakhá chandra darsana_. _Nyáya_).
72. In this state of intense meditation, the thought of a duality is
lost in that of the unity; and this idea of oneness disappears in that
of a vast void, which terminates to a state of conscious bliss (which
is the _summum bonum_ of yoga philosophy).
73. In this state of _insouciance_, the duality of the world is lost in
the nullity of vacuity; the knowledge of self personality is dwindled
to spirituality, and all futurity presents itself clearly to the view
of the clairvoyance of the enrapt yogi. (This forms the _púrnatá_ or
perfectibility of yoga practice).
74. The perfect yogi remains with his mind, as clear as the vacuous
sky, enveloping the phenomenals in its ample sphere; he sits silent
and as still and cold as a stone; he views the world in himself, and
remains quiet in rapturous amazement at the view.
CHAPTER CXXVI.
RESUSCITATION AND CONDUCT OF THE VIPASCHITAS.
Argument:--Release of the Dead from the error of the world, their
wanderings and fancies of themselves.
Ráma said:--Now tell me sir, what the Vipaschitas did, being cast in
the seas, islands and forests, in the different parts of the earth.
2. Vasishtha replied:--Hear now, Ráma, of the Vipaschitas, in all their
wanderings amidst the forests of tála and tamála trees, upon the hills
and in the islands of different sides.
3. One of the Vipaschitas, that was roving about the westerly ridge of
a mountain in Kraunchadwípa, was crushed to death by the tusk of an
elephant, as it tears a lotus in the lake.
4. Another of these was smashed in his contest with a Rákshasa, who
bore his mangled body aloft in air, and then cast it amidst the marine
fire, where it was burnt to ashes.
5. The third was taken up by a Vidyádhara, to the region of the
celestials; where he was reduced to ashes by curse of the god Indra,
who was offended at the prince’s want of respect towards him.
6. The fourth that went to the farthest edge of a mountain in the
Kusadwípa, was caught by a shark on the sea shore, which tore his body
to eight pieces.
7. In this manner did all these four lose their lives on all sides, and
they all fell as sorrowfully as the regents of the four quarters, at
the last dissolution of the world on the doomsday.
8. After they were reduced to the state of vacuity amidst the vast
vacuum, their vacuous and self-conscious souls, were led by the
reminiscence of their former states to behold the earth (to which they
had been so much attached).
9. They saw the seven continents with their belts of the seven oceans,
and also the cities and towns with which they were decorated every
where.
10. They beheld the sky above, with the orbs of the sun and moon
forming the pupils of its eyes; and also the clusters of stars, that
were hanging as chains of pearls about its neck, and the flaky clouds
that formed its folded vest.
11. They saw with their intellectual eye, the stupendous bodies that
rose out of chaos at the revolutions of past kalpa cycles, and filled
the amplitude of the sky and all sides of the horizon with the gigantic
forms. (These were the big bodies of the many Unitarian Saivas that
appeared at the beginning of repeated creations).
12. Being possest of their consciousness in their spiritual forms, they
descended to observe the manners of elemental bodies that were exposed
before them.
13. All the four Vipaschitas were actuated by their previous
impressions, to the inquiry into the measure and extent of the
ignorance, which led people to the belief of the body as soul itself,
in want of their knowledge of the spiritual soul (as it is the case
with gross materialists).
14. They roved from one continent to another, to witness in what part
of this ideal globe of the earth was this ignorance (avidyá) most
firmly seated, so as to give it the appearance of a visible substance.
15. Then passing over the seven continents and oceans, the western
Vipaschit, happened to meet with the God Hari standing on a parcel of
firm land.
16. Receiving then the incomparable knowledge of divine truth from him,
he remained in his _samádhi_ meditation at that spot for full five
years.
17. Finding afterwards his soul to be full with divine presence, he
relinquished even his spiritual body, he fled like his vital breath, to
the transcendent vacuum of final extinction _nirvána_.
18. The eastern Vipaschit was translated to the region of moon (by his
adoration of that luminary), and was seated beside that full bright orb
(for his great purity and piety). But the prince, though placed in the
exalted sphere of the moon, continued ever afterwards to lament for
the loss of his former body. (So heavenly souls are said to long for
their bodies).
19. The southern prince being forgetful of his spiritual nature,
thinks himself to be reigning in the Salmalidwípa, and employed in the
investigation of external and sensible objects.
20. The northern one dwelling amidst the limpid waters of the seventh
ocean, thought himself to be devoured by a shark, which retained him in
his belly for the space of a thousand and one years.
21. There he fed upon the bowels of the shark, which killed the animal
in a short time; and then he came out of its belly, as if it gave birth
to a young shark.
22. Then he passed the frigid ocean of snows and over its icy tracts,
stretching to eighty thousand yojanas (or leagues) in dimension.
23. He next arrived a spot of solid gold, which was the haunt of
gods, and stretched to ten thousand yojanas, and here he met with his
end.
24. In this land the prince Vipaschit attained the state of a Godhead,
in the same manner as a piece of wood is turned to fire in a burning
furnace.
25. Being one of the principal gods, he went to the Lokáloka or polar
mountain, which surrounded the globe of the earth, as an aqueduct
begirds the base of a tree.
26. It rises to the height of fifty thousand yojanas, and has the
inhabited earth on one side of it which faces the sunlight, and eternal
darkness reigning on the other.
27. He ascended to the top of the polar mount, which pierced the starry
sphere; and as he was seated upon it, he was beheld in the light of a
star by the beholders below.
28. Beyond that spot and afar from this highest mountain, lay the deep
and dark abyss of infinite void.
29. Here was the end of the globular form of this earth, and beyond it
was the vacuity of the sky, of fathomless depth, and full of impervious
darkness.
30. There reigns a darkness of the hue of a swarm of black bees, and
as the shade of the black tamála trees; there is neither the stable
earth nor any moving body under the extended sky; this great void is
devoid of support, nor does it support anything whatever at any time.
(This is chaos).
CHAPTER CXXVII.
COSMOLOGY OF THE UNIVERSE.
Argument:--Account of the Earth and the starry frame below the
endless Vacuum, which envelops the Universe.
Ráma said:--Please, tell me sir, how this globe of the earth is
situated, how and where the polar mountain stands upon it, and do the
stars revolve about the same.
2. Vasishtha replied:--As boys build their fancied castles in empty
air, so is this world the creation of the imagination of the mind of
Brahmá, and no more than this.
3. As the dimsighted man sees the shadow of the moon, and other false
sights before his eyes, so the creative Power--Brahmá sees in the
beginning, the phantoms of the phenomenal world in the vacuity of its
Intellect (like a shadow of the prototype in the Divine mind).
4. As an imaginary city is situated in the mind, and is invisible to
the eye; so the notion of the world is posited in the intellect, and
not exhibited in actuality.
5. Whenever there is the reflexion of anything whatever in the
mind, and arising spontaneously of its own nature (from previous
reminiscence); the same presents itself even then and in that state
before the sight (as in a dream).
6. As the dimsighted eye, sees false sights in the sky; so the deluded
mind, sees the earth and the orbs of heaven (_i.e._ the heavenly
bodies).
7. As the current water flows on the surface of rivers, and there
resides the latent fire underneath; so the notions of things presenting
themselves as dreams of the mind, are manifested as real ones before
the sight.
8. Hence as thoughts and notions of things, occur and subside
continually in the mind; so the earth and heavenly bodies, appear
incessantly to revolve in their spheres (and the stars to rise and set
in endless succession).
9. The world is entirely inexistent, to dull and inanimate beings; it
is visible to those that have the visual organs but utterly invisible
to the blind, and altogether unknown to them that are born as such. It
is imperceptible to the insensible, and perceptible only in the same
manner as it is presented in the mind. So it is in the power of the
mind alone, to represent it in some form or other to one’s self.
10. It is thus according to the mental conception (of some
astronomers), that the bodies of stars, are considered to be as large
as the earth; and the unreal world (of spiritualist), is believed as a
real entity (by the materialist).
11. The world has both light and darkness, owing to the presence or
absence of the sun; beyond which there is the great abyss of vacuity,
which is a vast expanse of darkness, except where there is a glimpse of
Zodiacal light.
12. The polar circle is called the polar mountain, from the
protuberance of the poles at both ends; it is termed also the Lokáloka
or having a light and another dark side, owing to the course of the sun
towards or away from it. Its distance from the starry circle, derives
it also of Zodiacal light.
13. Beyond the polar circle, and afar from the sphere of the sky, there
is the sphere of the starry frame, which revolves around them at a
great distance on all the ten sides.
14. This starry (zodiacal) belt, girds the firmament up and down, from
the heavens above to the infernal regions below, in the vast vacuity of
space; and extends to all sides.
15. The starry sphere (or belt of the zodiac), turns round the polar
circle of the earth, and its nether regions, as it appears to our
imagination, and not otherwise (as fixed and motionless).
16. The sphere of zodiacal stars, is twice as distant from the poles,
as those are distant from the middle of the earth; in the same manner
as the covering crust of a ripe walnut is aloof from the sheath of its
seeds.
17. Thus the starry belt is settled at double the distance from the
poles, as the polar circle is situated from the equator; and it turns
all about the ten sides, as a _bel_ fruit whirls in the sky.
18. The aspect of the world is according to the modality, in which it
is situated in the imagination of Brahmá, and as it is reflected from
its archetype in the Divine mind (or its consciousness of it).
19. There is another sphere of the heavens, which is afar from the
starry frame, and twice in its extent than that; this is lighted by the
zodiacal light and beyond it there reigns a thick darkness.
20. At the end of this sphere, there is the great circle of the
universe; having one half of it stretching above and one below, and
containing the sky in the midst of them. (This is called the _Brahmánda
kharpara_, or the mundane sphere).
21. It extends to millions of yojanas, and is compact with all its
contents; it is a mere work of imagination, and formed of vacuity in
the immensity of vacuum (which is the mind of God).
22. The sphere of light turns on every side, of the great circle of
vacuity, with all the lightsome bodies of the sun, moon and stars in
its circumstance: there is no upside nor downward in it, but are all
the same herein.
23. There is no actual ascending, descending nor standing, of any
planetary body therein; they are mere manifestations of the intellect,
which exhibits these variations in the workings of the mind.
CHAPTER CXXVIII.
THE VACUUM OF BRAHMA AND THE SIGHT OF THE WORLD THEREIN.
Argument:--Vipaschita’s wanderings beyond the sphere of the world
and the regions of darkness.
Ráma! I have told you all these by my personal perception of them, and
not by any guess-work of mine, because it is by means of their purely
intelligent bodies, that yogis like ourselves have come to the clear
sight of these things in nature, which are otherwise unknowable to the
material body or mind.
2. Thus the world of which I have spoken, appears to us as in a dream,
and not in any other aspect as it is viewed by others (As either an
imaginary or solid material body).
3. Now whether the world is viewed in the light of a dream or any
other thing, it is of no matter to us; since it is the business of the
learned, to speak of its situation and what relates thereto (and not of
its nature or essence).
4. There are the two poles (merus) situated at the utmost extremities
of the north and south of the world; and it is the business of the
learned, to enquire into the endless kinds of beings lying between them.
5. These varieties are well known to the people of those particular
parts; and not to us here, where they do not appear in their native
beauty.
6. The two poles (as said before), standing at the farthest extremities
of the globe, limit the earth with its seven continents and seas, and
stretch no farther beyond them.
7. Now hear, O Ráma, that the whole body of water on earth, is ten
times as much, as the extent of the two continents (lit., valves),
which are surrounded by it.
8. The two continents attract the circumambient waters around them, as
the magnet attracts the needles about it; and the water (in its turn),
upholds the continents (and islands), as the Kalpa tree supports the
fruits upon it.
9. All things on earth are supported by it, as the fruits of a tree are
supported by its stem; wherefore every thing on earth falls down on it,
as fruits fall upon the ground.
10. Far below the surface of the water, there is a latent heat
underneath, which is ever burning without any fuel, which is as still
as air, and clear as the flame of fire.
11. At the distance of ten times from it, there is the vast region
of air; and as many times afar from that, there is the open space of
transparent vacuum.
12. At a great distance from that, there is the infinite space of the
vacuity of Divine spirit; which is neither dark nor bright, but is full
of Divine Intelligence.
13. This endless void of the supreme spirit, is without its beginning,
middle or end; and is named as the universal soul, the great Intellect
and perfect bliss (nirvána or insouciance).
14. Again there are myriads of orbs, in the distant parts of these
spheres; that appear to and disappear from view by turns.
15. But in reality, there nothing that either appears or
disappears, in the uniformly bright soul of Brahma; where every thing
continues in the same manner, throughout all eternity.
16. I have thus related to you, Ráma, all about the phenomenal worlds,
that are perceptible to us; hear me now to tell you, what became of
Vipaschit in the polar region.
17. Being led by his former impressions and accustomed habit, he kept
wandering about the top of the mountain (as he was wont to do before);
but fell down afterwards in the dark and dismal pit therein.
18. He found himself lying as dead at that spot, when the birds of air,
as big as mountain peaks, alighted upon his dead body, which they tore
to pieces and devoured at last.
19. But as he died on the holy mount, and had a spiritual body of
himself; he did not feel the pains and pangs which are inevitable upon
the loss of the material body, but retained his clear consciousness all
along.
20. Yet as his self-consciousness, did not attain the transcendent
perceptivity of his soul; he remembered the grossness of his past acts
and deeds, and was sensible of them, as any living body.
21. Ráma asked:--How is it possible sir, for the unembodied mind, to
perform the outward actions of the body; and how can our spiritual
consciousness, have any kind of perception of any thing?
22. Vasishtha replied:--As desire drives the home-keeping man from
his house, and as imagination leads the mind to many places and
objects, so the mind of this prince was led from place to place (as his
reminiscence portrayed them before it).
23. As the mind is moved or led by delusion, dream, imagination and
by error or misapprehension and recital of stories, (to the belief of
things); so the mind of the prince was led to the credence (of whatever
appeared before him).
24. It is the spiritual or intellectual body (or the mind), which is
subject to these fallacies (and not the corporeal body); but the human
mind, forgets in course of time, its spiritual nature; and thinks on
its materiality (_i.e._ takes it for a material substance).
25. But upon disappearance of these fallacies, in the manner of the
mistaken notion of the snake in a rope; there appears the spiritual
body only, in lieu of the corporeal one.
26. Consider well, O Ráma! that the spiritual body is the only real
substantiality; because all that appears to exist here beside the
intellect, is no existence at all (without the mind, which makes and
unmakes them).
27. As the mind of a man going from one place to another, passes on
quietly over the intermediate places, and is quite unconscious of them;
such is the case with the intellect, which passes to endless objects,
without ever moving from its fulcrum, or changing itself to any other
form.
28. Say therefore, where is there a duality, and what object is there
deserving your amity or enmity, when all this totality is but one
infinite Deity, and known as the transcendent understanding.
29. The transcendental understanding is that calm and quiet state of
the Intellect, which is without the workings of the mind; and though
the prince Vipaschit was settled in his spiritual body, he had not yet
attained to that state of transcendentalism. (This is Platonism or
musing of the soul in itself).
30. He being in want of this percipience, found his mind on the
stretch; and with his spiritual body, he saw a dark gloom, as it
appears to a foetus confined in the embryo.
31. Amidst this gloom, he beheld mundane egg split in twain,
and perceived the surface of the earth, situated in the lower valve
thereof. It was a solid substance, as bright as gold, and extending to
millions of yojanas.
32. At the end of this he saw the waters, eight times in extent to that
of the land; and these in the form of crusts of the oceans, formed the
two valves (continents) of the earth (_i.e._ the Eastern and Western
hemispheres).
33. After passing over this, he reached to the region of light, blazing
with the sun and stars; emitting flames of conflagration issuing from
the vault of heaven.
34. Having passed that region of fire, without being burnt or hurt in
his spiritual body; he was led by his mind to another region, where he
thought and felt himself to be borne aloft by the winds to his former
habitation.
35. As he was carried in this manner, he felt himself to be of a
spiritual body; for what is it beside the mind, that can lead any body
from one place to another.
36. With this conviction of himself, the patient prince passed over the
region of the winds; and got at last to the sphere of vacuum, which was
ten times in extent to that of the former.
37. Passing over this, he found the infinite space of the vacuum
of Brahma; wherein all was situated, and whence all had proceeded,
which is nothing and yet something, of which nothing can be known or
predicated.
38. Moving along this empty air, he was carried far and farther onward
in his aerial journey; until he thought in his mind, he could see from
there, all the other spheres of the earth and water, and of fire and
air, which he had passed over before.
39. There were again the formations of worlds, and repeated creations
and dissolutions of them to be seen in it; and trains of gods and men,
and those of hills and all other things; going on in endless succession
therein.
40. There was a recurrence of the primary elements, and their assuming
of substantial forms; and repetitions of creations, and reappearances
of worlds and the sides of the compass.
41. Thus the prince is still going on in his journey through the
infinite void of Brahman; and finds the succession of creations and
their dissolutions in it to no end.
42. He has no cessation from his wanderings, owing to his conviction
and assuetude of thinking the reality of the world; nor does he get rid
of his ignorance, which is from God also. (Man is created in ignorance,
and barred from tasting the forbidden fruit of knowledge).
43. Whatever you view in your waking, or see in your dream; is the
perspicacity of the Divine soul, and ever displays these sights in
itself.
44. This world is an apparition of our ignorance, like the spectres
that are seen amidst deep darkness; but know that it is the transparent
intellect of God which represents it so, and will ever do the same.
45. And as the dark sight of the gross world, as well as the clear
light of its transparency, do both of them proceed alike from the
selfsame mind of God; it is impossible to conceive, whether it is the
one or the other, or both alike.
46. Hence, O Ráma, this prince being uncertain of the transparency of
the Divine spirit has been wandering for ever more, in the dark maze
of his preconceived worlds; as a stray deer, roves amidst the tangled
wilderness.
CHAPTER CXXIX.
VIPASCHIT’S BECOMING A STAG.
Argument:--The fates of the four Vipaschitas, and the
transformation of one to a stag.
I have heard of the liberation of two Vipaschitas, by grace of Vishnu;
and want now to know what became of the two brothers, that have
wandering all about.
2. Vasishtha replied:--One of these two, learnt by long habit to subdue
his desires, and by his wandering in many islands, had at last settled
in one of them, and obtained his rest in God.
3. Having relinquished the sight, of the outward livery of the world,
he saw millions of orbs rolling in the vacuity and is still enrapt with
the view.
4. The second one (or other) of them, was released from his personal
wanderings, by his continuance in the contiguity of the moon, where
his constant association with the stag-like mark on the disc of that
luminary, changed his form to that of that animal, which he still
retains in his situation upon a hill.
5. Ráma asked:--How is it sir, that the four persons of Vipaschit,
having but one mind, and the same desire and aim in view, could differ
so much in their acts, that brought upon them such different results of
good and evil?
6. Vasishtha replied:--The habitual desire of a person, becomes varied
according to the various states of his life, in course of time and in
different places; it becomes weaker and stronger in degree, though it
is never changed in its nature.
7. It is according to circumstances that the selfsame desire or object
of a person, is modified in different forms; and whatever of these is
greater in its intensity, the very same takes the precedence of others,
and comes to pass in a short time.
8. In this divided state of their desires, the four persons of the
prince, arrived to four different states in their modes in life; so
that two of them were immerged in their ignorance, the third became a
deer, and the last gained his liberation at last.
9. The two former have not yet arrived at the end of their nescience,
but have been grovelling in darkness by their blindness to the light of
truth; which can hardly dispel the darkness, that is continually spread
by ignorance.
10. It is only the light of philosophy, that is able to drive the
gloom of ignorance; which however deep rooted it is, then flies at a
distance, as the shade of night is dispersed before the light of day.
11. Attend now to what this Vipaschit did in the other world, where he
was cast on the coast of gold, across the far distant ocean of sweet
waters, and which he mistook for the habitable earth.
12. Beyond this he beheld an orb in the vacuity of Brahmá, which was as
he thought the vacuum of the great Brahma himself.
13. Here he was led by his excellent virtues, amidst the society of the
learned; and learning from them the visible world in its true light, he
was amalgamated into the state of Brahma himself.
14. No sooner had he arrived at that state, than his ignorance and his
body disappeared from him, as the sea in the mirage vanishes before the
closer view, and as falsehood flies before truth.
15. Thus I have related to you all the acts of Vipaschit, and about the
eternity of ignorance as that of Brahma, because it is coeval with him
(because the positive idea of knowledge, is always blended with that of
its counterpart or the negative idea of ignorance).
16. See the millions of years, that have been passing in eternity, but
the mind by its nature, is quite unmindful of their course and number.
(So also is the idea of eternity, of which we have no definite idea).
17. As the knowledge of horses is said to be false, when known, so the
knowledge of the world (as a separate existence) is a falsity, but
being truly known, it is found to be Brahma himself. (?)
18. There is no difference of _avidyá_ or ignorance, from the essence
of Brahma; because the one subsists in the other; for Brahma is the
perfect Intellect himself that shows the difference in the modes of
intellection. (All differences are displayed in the Divine Mind).
19. Another Vipaschit, that was wandering all about in the universal
sphere, could not come to the end of his ignorance (avidyá), in his
course of a millennium.
20. Ráma said:--How was it, sir, that he could not reach to the utmost
pole of the universe, nor could he pierce its vault to get out of it?
Please explain this fully to me, which you have not yet done.
21. Vasishtha replied:--When Brahma was born at first in mundane egg,
he broke the shell with both his hands, into the upper and lower halves.
22. Hence the upper valve of the shell, rose too far upwards from the
lower half; and so the lower valve, descended as far below the upper
part.
23. Then there are the circles of earth, water and air, which are
supported upon these valves; while these two serve as bases for the
support of other spheres.
24. In the midst of these there is the vacuous sky, which is infinite
in its extent, and which appears unto us, as the blue vault of heaven.
25. It is not bounded by the circles of earth and water, but is a pure
void, and basis of all other spheres that rest upon it.
26. He passed by that way into the infinite void, as the circles of the
starry frame revolve amidst the same; in order to examine the extent of
ignorance and to obtain his release from it, as he was taught to find.
27. But this _avidyá_ or ignorance being coalescent with Brahma, is as
infinite as the Deity himself; and there she is as unknowable as God,
as yet nobody has been able to know her nature. (God and Nature are
both unknowable).
28. Vipaschit continuing to mount afar and higher in the heavens, found
the nature of _avidyá_ or ignorance to be coextensive with the extent
of the worlds, through which he traversed on high.
29. Now see how one of these persons was liberated, and another
grazing about as a stag; see the other two fast bound to their former
impressions, and constrained to rove about the worlds, which they took
for realities in their ignorance.
30. Ráma said:--Tell me kindly, O sage, where and how far and in what
sorts of worlds, have these Vipaschitas been still roaming, with
getting their intermission.
31. At what distance are those worlds, where they are born over and
over again; all this is very strange to me, as they have been related
by you.
32. Vasishtha said:--The worlds to which the two Vipaschitas are
carried, and where they have been roving; are quite invisible to me,
notwithstanding all my endeavours to look into them. (It is the _terra
incognita_).
33. So the place where the third Vipaschit is roving as a deer, is also
in a land which is known to nobody on earth.
34. Ráma said: you have sir, that the Vipaschit who is
transformed to a deer, has been roving on a hill; tell me therefore, o
most intelligent seer, where is that hill situated, and how far is it
from here.
35. Vasishtha answered:--Hear me tell you, how far off is that world
from here, where Vipaschit has entered after passing through the vast
vacuity of the supreme spirit; and has been wandering there in his form
of a deer.
36. Know it to be somewhere amidst these three worlds, where he has
been roving as a stray deer; because this is the vast vacuity of the
Divine spirit; in which all these worlds are interspersed at great
distances from one another.
37. Ráma rejoined:--How is it consistent, sir, to say with good reason,
that Vipaschit was born and dead in this world, and is still roving
as a deer in it? (Why did he wander about in infinity, if he were to
remain a finite being herein? gloss).
38. Vasishtha replied:--As the whole must well know all the parts
of which it is composed, so do I know every thing every where, which
is situated in the all comprehensive soul of God, whereto I have
assimilated myself. (Vasishtha means to say, that he knew all in his
_svánubhava_ or all knowing mind. Gloss).
39. I know the absent (_i.e._ all things past and future), and all that
is destroyed, as well as all forms of things whether small or great,
are all interwoven together and exhibited before me, as if they were
the production of this earth of ours.
40. Hence all that I have told you, O Ráma, regarding the adventures of
the prince, was the work of his fancy, and took place in some part of
this world, where he lived and died.
41. The Vipaschitas all wandered about the other worlds in empty air,
and all this was the work of their imagination, which is unrestricted
in its flight through boundless space.
42. One of these has happened to be born here as a deer, and it is in
the dale of a mountain, somewhere upon this earth. (It is believed that
all mortal souls transmigrate to this again, after their wanderings are
over in other spheres).
43. The place where the prince is reborn in his form of a stag, after
all his wanderings in other spheres were over; is in this orb of earth,
where he is placed on a certain spot by an act of unaccountable chance
(káka táliya).
44. Ráma said:--If it is so, then tell me sir, in what region of this
earth, on what hill and in what forest of it, is this stag placed at
present.
45. What is he doing now, and how does he nibble the grass in the
verdant plain; and how long will it be, before that veteran seer may
come to the remembrance of his former state and past actions.
46. Vasishtha replied:--It is the same stag, which has been presented
to you by the ruler of the province of Trigarta; and is kept close in
your pleasure garden for your sport.
47. Válmíki said:--Ráma was quite surprised with all the people sitting
at the court, upon hearing the sage say so; and ordered his attendant
lads in the hall to bring it forthwith before his presence there.
48. Then the brute stag was brought and placed before the open court,
when the court-people found it plump and fat, and quite tame and
gentle. (Lit.: content with its own state).
49. Its body was spotted all over, as with the stars of heaven; and its
eyes were as outstretched as the petals of lotus flowers, and by far
more handsome than the eyes of beauteous damsels.
50. It looked with its timorous glances, on the blue sapphires which
decorated the court; ran to bite them with its open month, thinking
them to be blades of grass.
51. Then as it gazed at the assemblage, with its raised neck, uplifted
ears and staring eyes through fear; so they raised their heads, pricked
up their ears, and looked upon the animal with their open eyes, for
fear of its leaping and jumping upon them.
52. At last the king with all his ministers and courtiers, were all
amazed at the sight of the animal, and thought it was all a magic,
which they saw before them.
53. The wondering eyes of the assembled people, and the shining gems on
the persons of the princes, made the court hall appear, as if it were
studded with full blown lotuses all around. (The simile of blooming
eyes and blossoming lotuses, is common in all Indian poetry).
CHAPTER CXXX.
ENTERING OF THE STAG INTO THE FIRE.
Argument:--The stag burnt in the meditation of Vasishtha, and
turned in its former figure of the Prince.
Válmíki related:--Ráma then asked Vasishtha, to tell him by what means
Vipaschit was released from his brutish shape and restored to his human
form again.
2. Vasishtha said:--The way by which a person has had his rise, is the
only means that conduces to his success, welfare and happiness in life
(and a departure from this course, brings on his ruin).
3. Vipaschit had been a worshipper, and it is by his re-entrance into
the refuge of that deity only; that his changed form of the stag, may
be altered and restored to its former figure, of bright and unalloyed
gold.
4. I will now try the means of his restoration in your presence, as you
may all witness it with your open eyes; and this stag will of itself
enter into the fire before your sight.
5. Válmíki related:--Saying so, the benevolent sage, touched his water
pot with his hand, and muttered his mantras upon it in the proper form
(_i.e._ with fixed attention).
6. He thought intently upon the god of fire, with his flashing flames
all around him; and immediately there sprang a blaze of fire, upon his
reflection on it (in the midst of the royal hall).
7. This was a pure flame, kindled without any coal or fuel, and burning
with a rumbling noise, without emitting any smoke or soot or sloe.
8. Brighter and brighter it burnt in its beauty, and shone as a dome
of gold, by shedding a golden lustre all about; it was as flushing as
the blushing _kinsuka_ blossom, and as glowing as the evening clouds of
heaven.
9. The assembled hosts receded backward, upon beholding the spreading
flame; but the stag flushed with the fervour of its former faith, on
seeing its adored deity manifest before its sight.
10. As it looked on the fire with its ardent desire, he got rid of his
sins, as if they were burnt away by its flames; and then advancing
slowly towards it, he jumped at once amidst the blaze, as a lion
springs aloft on his prey.
11. At this moment, the Muni moved his mind to meditation, and found
the sins of the prince were burnt away from his soul; and then
addressed the god, saying:--
12. O lord, that bearest the sacrificial butter to the celestials,
recall to thy mind the past acts of the prince, in his faith to thee;
and kindly restore him, to his former handsome figure again.
13. As the sage was praying in this manner, he saw the stag to be
released from the flame, and running towards the assembled princes,
with the velocity of an arrow flying towards its butt end or mark.
14. Having entered into the burning fire, he appeared as a flaming
body, and was seen by the assembly to be of a form, as bright as the
appearance of an evening cloud.
15. Thus the stag was changed to the form of a man, before the sight
of the assembled princes; as a spot of cloud is seen to assume another
figure in the face of the bright vault of heaven.
16. It was seen amidst the flame, to assume a figure as that of pure
gold; which afterwards took the form of a man, of handsome shape and
appearance. (So the funeral fire purifies the soul of its impurities,
and gives it a brighter form afterwards).
17. He appeared as the orb of the sun, or as the disc of the moon in
the sky; or as the god Varuna in the waters of the deep, or as the
evening cloud or rising moon.
18. There was the reflexion of the sun in the pupils of his eyes, as
it was reflected on the surface of water, or on a mirror or bright
gem; and the fire of his faith, blazed serenely in the sockets of his
eyeballs.
19. Shortly afterwards this blaze of light disappeared from the court,
as the light of a lamp is blown away by the breath of wind; or as the
tinges of evening clouds vanish in the sky under the shades of night.
20. The man then stood as plainly in the hall, as the idol of a deity
is seen to stand in a dilapidated temple (without its brightness); or
as an actor is seen behind the scene (without his dress).
21. He stood silent holding a rosary on his hand, and having his sacred
thread, hanging down a chain of gold about his neck; he wore a robe of
pure white blanched by the fiery heat; and appeared as the bright moon,
rising before the assembly.
22. On seeing the brightness of his person and attire, the courtiers
all and every one, cried out saying, “O to the lustre”; and because he
was as lustrous as day light, he was named, “Lustre” by all.
23. The courtiers also confirmed it by saying that, because he is as
bright as brightness itself, let him be styled the “bright or Bhása”,
the name that he bore on him ever afterwards.
24. He sat in the hall in his meditative mood, and remembered all the
incidents of his past life and former body.
25. The assembly was struck with wonder, and remained quite motionless
and speechless and absorbed in thought; as Bhása was reflecting in his
mind the adventures of his past life.
26. Then the prince rose from his reverie after a short while, and
advanced towards the assembly, under his newly obtained title of Bhása
or the light.
27. He advanced at first towards Vasishtha, and saluted him with
delight; and then addressed him saying:--“I bow down, sir, before thee,
as the giver of my life and light of knowledge of myself.”
28. Vasishtha raised him by touching his head with his hand; and said:
“May thy protracted ignorance, O prince, dissipate this day and for
ever after”.
29. Victory to Ráma, said Bhása, and bowed down to Dasaratha; who
rising a little from his seat, thus accosted him smilingly and said:--
30. Dasaratha said:--You are welcome, O prince! be seated on this
seat; you have wandered through many difficulties of the world, now
take your rest here.
31. Válmíki related:--Thus accosted by the king, the prince now bearing
the name of Bhása, took his seat on a cushion, after making his
salutation, to the venerable sages Visvámitra and others.
32. Dasaratha exclaimed:--O the pains, that Vipaschit has so long
undergone, under the thraldom of Ignorance; in the manner of a wild
elephant, tied in fetters at his feet by ruthless huntsmen.
33. O to what miseries is man exposed, owing to his want of precise
understanding, and by his false knowledge of the reality of these
worlds, that are seen to be revolving in empty shape.
34. How wondrous are these worlds, so extensive and so remote, which
Vipaschit has traversed out, and how incredible are the pains, through
which he has passed so long.
35. O how wonderful is the nature and glory, of the inane Intellect
of the vacuous spirit of the Supreme, that exhibits in empty air, the
blank thoughts of his all comprehensive mind, as sole and substantial
ones (to the apprehension of ignorant mortals).
CHAPTER CXXXI.
BHÁSA’S ACCOUNT OF THE WORLDS AND HIS JOURNEYS THROUGHOUT.
Argument:--There is no substantive world, separate from the
thoughts in the Eternal mind.
Dasaratha said:--I understand that Vipaschit has acted unwisely, in
taking so much pains in his wanderings for a knowledge of the spheres;
because it is all in vain to inquire into unrealities and useless
matters, and it was his ignorance or _avidyá_ alone, that led him to
the search.
2. Válmíki related:--At this moment the sage Viswámitra, who was
sitting beside the king; oped his mouth and said on the subject now
under consideration.
3. Viswámitra said:--O king, there are many such men, who without a
good understanding, and for want of best knowledge; are apt to think
that all things are possible to be known by them.
4. Hence it is that the sons of king Vatadhána, have been wandering in
this manner, and for very many years, in search of true knowledge, all
over this earth, and without ever being able to arrive at it.
5. It is for exploring the limits of this earth, that they have been
employed with ceaseless toil and unwearied labour, as a river runs in
its incessant course for ever.
6. This great world (the earth), is situated as an orb in the air,
like an imaginary tree of boys growing in the sky, or as a toy ball of
fanciful Brahmá, rolling about in empty air.
7. As creeping emmets move about a sugar ball, without falling off from
it; so do all living bodies move about their support of this earth,
which is sustained in the empty air.
8. Those that are situated on the lower surface of this globe, are
moving thereabouts as erectly, as those that are on its upper side
(and though this earth is turning up and down yet no one sides away
from it).
9. The sun, moon and planets, together with the starry frame and
the heavenly stream (the milky way); are attracted to turn round it
incessantly, without ever coming in contact with it.
10. The sky girds and surrounds it on all sides, though the firmament
appears to be above our heads, and the earth below our feet.
11. The living beings below the earth, are both moving downward or
flying upward, as the beasts and birds on the upper side of it; and the
region to which they fly is called the upper sky (whether it be in this
or that side of it).
12. There is on some part of this earth, a warrior race by name of
Vatadhánas; and there were born three princes of this royal family, in
days of yore (and are said to be living still).
13. They were firmly intent like Vipaschit, to know the limits of the
visible world; and set out in their journey to explore the same, with a
firm and unfailing resolution.
14. They passed from the land to water, and the waters to other lands
again; and thus they passed many lives and ages, in their repeated
inquiries with their resuscitated bodies in reiterated births (because
the steady pursuit of one, follows him in his successive births).
15. Thus wandering for ever all about the earth, they like ants moving
on a sweet cake, found no end of it, nor reached to any other spot,
beyond the same even in their thought of another one.
16. They are still turning around it in the air, like busy emmets about
a roll; and they are yet in the same search without being tired of it.
(Alexander said, “Earth is this thy end?” but these princes found no
end of it).
17. Because whoever stands on any part of the globe, thinks it as the
uppermost, and all other places on every side of it, to be lower than
it; and so the antipodes below think themselves as upmost.
18. They then said among themselves that, if they could not find the
end of the earth all their toil, they must give up the pursuit and
remove themselves elsewhere.
19. So it is with this world, O king! which is no more than display of
the thoughts of Brahmá; it is a work or creation of the mind only, and
a delusion as that of a protracted dream.
20. The mind is the Supreme Brahma, and Brahma is self-same with his
very mind; they are both of the form of the intellect, and there is no
difference between them, than that of open air and the sky.
21. The intellect operates in itself, like the running waters in
whirlpools; and as the eddies and their swelling bubbles, are no other
than the very water, so the operations of the mind, are modifications
of the mind itself.
22. The sky which is but vacuum, and was a void in the beginning; shows
itself in the form of the world; which is neither created nor ever
destroyed.
23. Whatever the intellect suggests (from its preconceptions and
predilections); the mind (which is the active principle), obeys the
same and is inclined in the same way; and continues to view the outer
world, as it has ever existed in thought.
24. The visible world is of the same form, and equally imperishable as
the intellectual; it is the eternal God that manifests himself in this
manner, which is otherwise nothing of itself.
25. There is an atom of the divine Intellect, an infinity of minuter
atoms in the shape of ideas, just as there are innumerable stones
in the body of a rock; they reside in the spirit of God, and are as
translucent as the divine spirit.
26. They abide in their own natures in the unexpanded spirit of God;
but they do not live independent of themselves, as there nothing
that is separate from the supreme spirit.
27. Therefore this world is said to be the manifestation of the Divine
Mind; and this conclusion arrived at by the learned, by means of
their logical consideration of the antecedent and subsequent (_i.e._
by both their _a priori_ as well as _a posteriori_ arguments).
28. It is strange therefore that the human soul, should sorrow for
its degradation and think itself as a different thing, though it is
inseparable from the one universal soul.
29. Now let the so called prince Bhása, who is otherwise known as the
mighty monarch Vipaschit by his former appellation; what other strange
things, he remembers to have seen, in all his wanderings through worlds.
30. Bhása replied:--I have seen many sights, and wandered untired
through many regions; and remember also to have felt various
vicissitudes in my life.
31. Hear O king, how much I have known and felt, in my course through
remote regions in the spacious firmament on high; and know the joys and
griefs, which I have enjoyed and suffered, in my transmigrations in
different bodies and distant worlds, from a long long time out of mind.
32. It was by favour of the god of fire, and by the good and bad turns
of fate; that I have seen a great many scenes, in my course in various
forms and lives, like the revolving waters in a whirlpool, with a calm
and constant and resolute mind.
33. Actuated by past reminiscence and misled by mistaken view of
visibles; I was impelled by my firm zeal to inquire into all worldly
things, in the different forms and changes of my body.
34. I had been an arbour for a thousand years, having my senses
undeveloped in me, and feeling the rigours of all climates and seasons
within myself. I had no mind nor mental action, save those of drawing
the sap of the earth by my roots, and expanding myself into fruits and
flowers.
35. I had been a mountain stag for a hundred years, with my skin of
golden hue, and my ears as flat as leaves of trees; I fed on blades of
grass, was charmed with all kinds of music, and being the weakest of
all animals of the forest, I could do no injury to any one.
36. I lived for half a century as a _Sarabha_, a wild animal with
eight legs; I dwelt in the caves of Krancha mountain, and brought on
my death by falling down from a craig, in attempting to fight with the
raining clouds on high. (The _Sarabha_ is a fabulous beast that dies by
jumping down the hill).
37. I had also been born once as Vidyádhara, and had lived upon the
table land of Malaya mountains, and amidst the happy bowers of Mandara,
redolent with the sweet scent of sandal woods and kadamba flowers. Here
I have breathed the sweet air perfumed by gum agallochum, and enjoyed
the company of Vidyádharí-fairies.
38. I was born as a cygnet of the swan of Brahmá, and tasted the honey
of aureate lotuses for more than a century, and sported on the banks of
the heavenly stream of Mandakiní, on the celestial mount of Meru.
39. For a hundred years, I remained by the side of milky ocean,
feeling the cooling breezes wafting the moisture of its waves, and the
fragrance of the forests and listening to the songs of the songsters of
springs, which join to vanish the infirmities and sorrows of life.
40. I was once born as a jackal, in the woods of Kalenjara mountains,
and roved about the blossoming _gunja_ and _karanja_ forests; here I
was trodden down by an elephant, and was about to expire, when I beheld
that elephant to be killed by a lion in his turn.
41. I was at one time transformed to the form of a celestial nymph, and
accursed by a siddha to dwell alone in some other sphere; where I lived
for the period of half a yuga upon the _sahya_ mountain, smiling with
the blooming blossoms of _santanaka_ arbours.
42. I next lived as a Valmika bird of raven, in my nest amidst the
_karavíra_ plants, growing on the marshy grounds at the foot of a
mountain; and there I passed my solitary life of a hundred years, with
a fearful breast and ceaseless scrambles on the dreary rocks.
43. I saw afterwards a level plain somewhere, with shady bowers of
sylvan creepers under the shade of _sandal_ trees; and beheld some
females amusing there with swinging, like fruits on the branches of
trees, and to be ravished away by the passing siddhas.
44. At another time, I passed my days as an anchorite, under the shade
of Kadamba trees at the foot of a mountain; where I dwelt on the
meditation of the single object of my devotion, and thus foolishly met
my end with the pain of not meeting my object.
45. I saw also this universe to be full of beings, which fill it as
fishes people the ocean on every side; the air, sky and light, are all
inhabited by beings, as well as this earth of ours.
45. There is another wonder which fills this universe, as the shadow
of the sky fills the ocean on all sides; it pervades in the air, water,
sky and light, as well in all forms of things on earth. (This is the
reflexion of Brahma in all creation, as that of the sky in water.
Gloss).
46. I also another wonder in a woman, who contains the three
worlds in her ample womb; and who is pictured with the forms of hills
and all things, resembling their reflexions in a mirror.
47. I asked her saying: O thou big bodied and big bellied one! tell me
who thou art; to which she replied and said:--know me sir, to be the
pure and clear Intellect, that contains all these worlds within herself.
48. She added and said:--O sir, as you see me so wondrous in my form,
so must you know all things in the world to be of the same kind; but
people who view them in their natural form find them otherwise, unless
they look into them in their spiritual light, when the gross forms
vanish into nothing.
49. These numberless beings on earth, are continually hearing, even
without the directions of the Vedas and sástras, a warning voice
arising from some part of their bodies, bidding them what is right or
wrong for them to do. (This is called _anáhata dhwani_ or the voice of
conscience).
50. Nature reigns over all elements like _anáhata dhwani_. The elements
appear immovable at sight, but in fact, they possess inherent mobile
forces; no one can assign any cause over them except delusion or _máyá_.
51. I once went to a place, where there were no females to be found,
nor had the people any desire for them; and yet many among the living
there were fastly passing away, and many others newly coming to
existence.
52. I have seen the wonder of some portentous clouds in the sky,
charging against each other with a jarring noise; and pouring down
their rains with fragments of things on all sides, which were picked up
and used as weapons by men.
53. I have another wonder somewhere that, these earthly cities
and buildings, were passing in their aerial course, amidst a mist of
thick darkness; and then vanishing in the air, returning to be your
habitations here below.
54. Another wonder that I saw was, that all these men and gods and
reptiles, having left their differences of species, came to be of one
kind in common with all other beings. (All distinctions are lost in the
end). Because all things proceed at first from vacuum, and to this they
return at last.
55. I also beheld a spot which was full of light, and shone forth
brightly without the lights of the sun, moon and stars. I remember well
that effulgent glory, before which there was darkness nor day
and night, and nothing else in existence.
56. I saw also a place never seen before, which was devoid of gods and
demons, men and animals of all kinds, it was without the vegetable
creation, and habitation of any kind of being; and a world where the
present and future, and all worlds are blended into eternity.
57. In short, there is no place which I have not seen, nor any side
(of the compass) where I have not been; there is no act or event
which I have not known, and in a word there is nothing unknown to me,
that is unknown to the knower of all. (The soul that becomes one with
Omniscient soul, becomes all-knowing like the same).
58. I remember to have heard the jingling sound of the armlets of
Indra, which resembled the noise of the rattling clouds on high; or
likened the jangling jar of the gems, which glistened on the peaks of
the Mandara mountain, in its trepidation of churning the milky ocean.
CHAPTER CXXXII.
BHÁSA’S RELATION OF THE TRANSMIGRATIONS OF HIS SOUL.
Argument:--Bhása relates his repeated births, the wonders he has
seen, and the vanity of the world.
Bhása continued:--It was once at the foot of the Mandara mountain,
that I dwelt as a siddha under the shady bower of Mandára trees; and
had been sleeping in the sweet embrace of an Apsara, Mandará by name;
when it happened, that the current of a river bore us both away, as it
carries down a straw in its course.
2. I supported my partner now floating on the water, and asked her to
tell me how could it happen to be so; when she with her tremulous eyes
answered me thus, saying:--
3. Here it occurs at the full moon, that this mountain which is sacred
to the moon, gives rise to its outlets, which then rush out as rapidly,
as ladies run to meet their consorts at the rising of the moon.
4. It was owing to my rapture in your company, that I forgot to tell
you of this; saying so she lifted me up, and fled with me into the air,
as a female bird mounts into the sky with her young.
5. I was to the top of that mountain, where I remained seven years,
with my dried and unsoiled body, as a bee remains unsullied on the
pericarp of a lotus flower growing in the bed of the Ganges.
6. I thence saw some other worlds beyond the starry circle, which were
encircled by one another like the coatings of a plantain tree. They
were bright by their own light, and were peopled by luminous bodies.
7. There were no distinctions of directions nor divisions of daytime
(for want of the sun); there no sástras or rules of conduct, nor
vedas for religious guidance; there was no difference of the gods and
demigods, but the whole was bright with its own light.
8. I was next born as a Vidyádhara, and lived for twice seven years
as an ascetic under the name of Amarasoma, dwelling in the grove
of kadamba trees, at the foot of a cloud-capt mountain, which was
frequented by aerial cars of the celestials, for their pleasure, the
sport and diversion.
9. Then I was borne with the velocity of winds, afar amidst the
etherial regions on high; whence I beheld numberless elephants and
horses, lions and deer, and woods and forests filled with beasts and
birds, all moving along in the form of clouds beneath.
10. It was thus with the force of the bird of heaven--Garuda, that I
mounted up to heaven from earth, and passed through infinite space, by
favour of the god of fire, in order to see the extensive range of the
delusion of Avidyá or Ignorance, which was displayed all around.
10. It was thus by favour of the god of fire, and the fervour of
my desire to see the extensive range of the delusion of Avidyá or
Ignorance; that I mounted up to heaven from earth, with the force of
the bird of heaven--_Garuda_; and passed through the infinite space,
that was spread all around.
11. I felt in myself to fall off once, away and afar from the solar
world; it seemed to be an etherial ocean inhabited by stars, amidst
which I was situated as one, with the consciousness of my fall and
course of time.
12. With the only consciousness of my fall from the sky on high, I
felt in myself the sense of falling fast asleep from fatigue; and then
in that state of sound sleep of my body, I thought I saw the sensible
world in my mind, as if it were in my waking state.
13. I saw again the same world within the horizon, and the same
_mandára_ mountain of the gods amidst it; whilst I had been fluttering
in the midst of its abyss, as a bird sitting on a slender twig, is
shaken and tossed about by the blowing wind.
14. I saw with my eyes to the utmost extent of the sensible world, and
again and again I was led to the sight of the visibles, and enjoyment
of the sensibles only (in the repeated transmigrations of my soul).
15. Thus I passed a long series of years, in viewing the visible and
invisible objects (both of my waking and dreaming hours); as well as in
passing through the passable and impassable paths (of this and other
worlds).
16. I could not find anywhere, the limit of this Avidyá or Ignorance,
which showed unto me the visibles only (in my waking and dreaming,
and in this world and others). It is a fallacy that has taken the
possession of our minds, as the apparition of a goblin takes a deep
root in the breasts of boys.
17. This and this (_i.e._ the visible) are not realities, is the firm
conviction of all in their right reasoning; and yet the false sight of
this and this as a reality, is never to be removed from any body.
18. We find our pleasures and pains, occurring to us every moment,
with the changes of time and place; their course is as constant as the
currents of rivers, which are ceaselessly succeeding one another.
19. I remember to have seen a world, with all kinds of moving and
unmoving beings in it; and a verdant mountain top in the midst,
rustling with the blowing breeze, and shining of itself without the
light of the luminaries. (This is the pinnacle of the glory of God).
20. This mountain peak is delightsome to solitary recluses, it is quite
free, alone and unlimited, and beyond all fear of change or decay. I
have never seen in this brightsome world, a glory which is comparable
to this divine effulgence.
CHAPTER CXXXIII.
STORY OF THE WONDERFUL CARCASS.
Argument:--Description of a carcass falling from above, and
covering the whole surface of the Earth.
Vipaschit said:--I saw another great wonder, in some part of some other
world, which I will now rehearse unto you; it was a horrible sight
that attends on sin, and which I had to see by my blind attachment to
ignorance.
2. There is somewhere amidst the vast vacuum, a wonderfully bright
sphere, which is quite impassable by you; it is situated in a vacuity
like this of ours, and so different from it, as a city in dream differs
from one in sight. (Because the romantic view of the vision is not
realizable to ocular sight).
3. As I saw rambling in that sphere, in search of the object that I
have in my heart, and looking to all sides of the void; I saw a huge
and unmoving shadow, like that of a body of locusts spread over the
earth.
4. I saw astonished at the sight, and cast my eyes on all sides to see
what it was; I came to find the mountainous form of a man, falling fast
from the sky; and hurling down like a whirlpool upon the earth.
5. Who can be this person? said I, is it the lord Virát with his
mountainous body, or a mountain falling from the clouds? It fills the
sky and the whole space of heaven, and hides the light of the day under
its all developing shadow?
6. As I saw pondering in me what might this portent mean; (as whether
it was the figure of Virát or the form of Brahmá himself); I saw soon
after, the bulky body of the sun falling down from heaven, it seemed
to be hurled down by the hurricane of desolation and dashing with a
hideous crash against the backbone or great belt of the mundane egg of
Brahmá.
7. Soon as this hideous and prodigious body, fell down upon the
earth, it filled its whole surface, and covered the face of the seven
continents and oceans.
8. I dreaded my imminent destruction, together with that of whole earth
under its blow; and determined to enter into the ever burning fire by
my side.
9. Then the lord fire--the source of vedas, and my adored divinity in
a hundred repeated births, appeared manifest before me in his cooling
moon-like form, and said, fear not, no evil will betide thee.
10. I then addressed the god, saying: be victorious, O my lord and
adored one in repeated births; save me from this untimely desolation,
which is now impending on all.
11. Thus invoked by me, the god responded again saying the same words:
“Fear thou not, but rise, O sinless one, and follow me to my region of
the empyrean”.
12. Saying so, he made me sit on the back of his parrot, and flew with
me up to heaven; by burning athwart a part of the falling body.
13. Getting to the upper sky, I found the body as if it were made of
wood, and it was this which struck so much terror below, as it is
attended with the falling of a portent--a comet or meteor from above.
14. Then as it felt down in full force, the earth shook beneath its
weight, with all trembling waters and tottering mountains, and shaking
woods and forests. The mountains burst forth in cataracts, which
overflowed on the land, and bored it to horrible holes.
15. The earth groaned from her bowels, and the sky roared on all its
four sides; the heavens resounded to the roar, and mountains growled
with the fearful howling of all beings, as at the approach of their
last doom.
16. The earth groaned under the burden, and all the quarters trembled
with fear; the vacuum was filled with the echo of cries rising from the
earth, and the _Garuda_-eagles were on their flight through fear.
17. There arose a harsh and hideous uproar on high, from the loud
bursting of the mountains below; and like the crashing and clattering
of the dark and dense clouds of deluge, when they are shattered and
scattered, by the blasts of diluvian winds.
18. The earth trembled and roared at the impetuous fall of the hideous
carcass, and the resounding sky re-bellowed to the sound from its
hundred mouths; the mountains burst out on all sides, and their falling
fragments and pinnacles, were hurried headlong, and buried underneath
the ground.
19. Its fall was as the breaking down of a mountain pinnacle or
fragment, smashing the tops of the lower hills, rending and splitting
the ground, and levelling all things on earth with the dust.
20. It perturbed the waters of the deep, and hurled down the hills to
the ground; it crushed all living beings, and gave ample range to the
sport of the agents of destruction (the Rudras).
21. The falling of the sun upon the earth, and his hiding the face of
the continents under him; the crushing of mountains and the breaking
down of towering cities.
22. The celestials saw all these from above this earth, which forms one
half of the mundane egg, turning to a vacuum form; (_i.e._ vanishing
into the air).
23. As I was looking on that mountainous body of flesh, (_i.e._ the
huge carcass); I observed that the ample space of all the seven
continents of the earth was not enough to contain this single body.
24. Seeing this, I applied to the good grace of the god of fire; and
asked him saying, Lord what is this and what does it mean.
25. Why did the sun also fall down from heaven, along with that corpse;
and how is it that the space of the whole earth and all its oceans, has
not sufficient room to compass it?
26. The God of fire replied:--Hold your patience, my son, for a while,
until this portentous event passes away; when I will explain this
marvellous matter fully to you.
27. Soon as the God had said these words, there flocked an assemblage
of the celestials all around us; and it consisted of all kinds of
beings that are born and move about in the aerial regions.
28. There were the siddhas, sadhyas, Apsaras, Daityas, Gandharvas and
Kinnaras among them; together with the Munis, Rishis, yakshas and
Patres, Matres and the gods also with them.
29. All these celestials then, bowed down their heads in veneration;
and all joined with their prostrate bodies to praise the dark goddess
of Night, who is the refuge and resort of all.
30. The celestials said:--May that goddess protect us her protégés, who
is immaculate and incomparable, and has the grey braids of Brahmá’s
hairs, tied at the top of her _khattanga_ ensign, and the heads of the
slain Daityas, strung to the neck-chain hanging on her breast; who
wears the feathers of _Garuda_ on her head, and who after devouring the
world, drinks off the deep also at the end.
CHAPTER CXXXIV.
THE STORY OF THE CARCASS CONTINUED.
Argument:--Description of the body of the Goddess, and her food
of the carcass, and drink of the blood.
Vipaschit continued:--All this time I was looking at the carcass, that
had fallen from above, and covered the whole surface of the earth under
it.
2. I distinguished that part of its body which was its belly, and
had hid in it the whole earth, with all its seven continents and
immeasurable mountain.
3. I was then told by the god of fire, that there was no limitation of
its arms and thighs, and of the extent of its head; and that it had
fallen from beyond the polar region, which inaccessible to mankind.
4. The Goddess who is so much lauded by the celestials, is the
manifestation of vacuum, which of itself becomes dry (_i.e._ is
naturally empty and void).
5. She is represented as accompanied by ghosts and furies, as followed
by demons and hobgoblins, which walk in her train, and shine as stars
and meteors in the open firmament.
6. Her long and muscular arms, are stretched to the skies as the tall
pines of the forest; and her eyeballs flash forth with living fire, and
scatter the solar beams all around.
7. The flashing weapons in her hands, were jangling in the sky; and her
missiles were darting like flocks of birds flying from their aerial
nests.
8. Her flaming body and flashing eyes and limbs, glistened with the
glare of a bush of reeds set on fire, or as the sparkling of a flight
of arrows in the midway air.
9. Her glittering teeth, shed the lustre of the beaming moon, and
brightened the faces of the four quarters of heaven, with a milk white
splendour; while her tall slender stature, reached to and touched the
sky.
10. She stood supportless, like the stretching clouds of the evening
sky; and was mounted on a dead body, as if she rested on the blessed
seat of Brahmá. (_Brahma pada_ the throne of God, Elysium, Valhalla or
Nirvána).
11. She shone in her brilliant form, like the crimson clouds of
evening; and added to the ocean of the etherial expanse, the burning
blaze of submarine fire.
12. She was flaunting in her decorations of human skeleton and bones,
and flourishing her weapons of the mallet and others; and darting her
arrows all around, as a mountain scatters its flowers all about.
13. She mounted aloft in the air, with her neckchain of human skulls,
sounding with a harsh clattering noise; resembling the rattling of
stones, falling down a mountain with the precipitate rains.
14. The gods then prayed to her saying: O mother goddess! we make an
offering of this carcass to thee; do thou join with thy adherents, and
soon take this corpse for your food, and make an end of it.
15. Upon this prayer of the gods unto her, the goddess began to draw in
with her inhaling breath, the blood and pith of the carcass into her
bowels and intestines.
16. As the goddess was absorbing the dead blood, by her inhalation of
it, the red fluid rushed into her wide open month, like the entrance
of the evening clouds, into the cavity of the western mountain (of the
setting sun).
17. The etherial goddess drank the blood, thus drawn in by her breath;
as long as her lean skeleton-like frame, grew fat from her satiety, and
she stood confest in her form of Chandika.
18. Being thus filled and fattened, by full draughts of the sanguineous
beverage; she had the appearance of a blood red cloud, with flashing
lightenings shooting from her eyes.
19. The pot bellied goddess, being then giddy with her bloody drink;
became loose in her attire, began to flounce her ornaments, and
flourish all her weapons in the empty air.
20. She began to dance and toss about in the air, which was almost
filled by the bulk of her body; while the gods kept watching on her
movements, from their seats on the distant border or boundary mountains.
21. Immediately upon this, the whole host of her female ghosts and
goblins, composed of Rupikas and others, flew upon the carcass, as the
rainy clouds alight upon mountains.
22. The mountainous carcass, was laid hold by the clutches of
Kumbhandas, and torn to a thousand pieces by them; while the Rupikas
bored its belly, and the yakshas gored its back with their elephantine
tusks.
23. But they could not get or break its arms, shoulders and thighs;
because these members of its body, stretched far beyond the limits of
the mundane or solar system.
24. They could not therefore be reached unto by the ghosts, who are
confined within the limits of this world, and could not go beyond,
where those parts were rotten away of themselves.
25. As the goddess was dancing in the air, and her hobgoblins were
prancing over the carcass; the celestials remained sitting on the
mountain tops, and kept looking on this dreadful scene.
26. The disgusting morsels of putrid flesh, and the stench of the
rotten carcass filled the air and blood red clouds shrouding the scene,
seemed as burning bushes, forming the fuel of the furnace (for roasting
the rancid meat).
27. The chopping of the fetid flesh, raised a _sap-sap_ sound; (meaning
the sap of the carcass); and the breaking of its hard bones, sent forth
a _kat-kat_ noise (purporting to cut them to pieces).
28. The concourse of the demons, caused a clashing sound; resounding as
the clashing occasional by the collision and concussion of rocks and
mountains against one another.
29. The goddess devoured her mouthfuls of flesh, roasted in the fire
that flashed forth from her mouth, and the offals and fragments that
fell down from it, covered the earth below with filth; while the drops
of blood that distilled from the draughts she had drank, reddened the
ether with tints of vermilion hue.
30. The celestial spectators saw their premises, within the precincts
of the visible horizon; and the surface of the continents of the earth,
to present the sight of an universal ocean of blood.
31. All the mountains on earth, were covered with blood, which
reflected their redness to the cloud on high; which gave the appearance
of a red mantling veil, spreading over the faces of the female regent
deities of all sides of heaven.
32. The sky below blazed with the flash of the weapons, which
brandished in the hands of the goddess all around; and there was no
vestige of any city or habitation to be seen on earth. (Lit.: they were
lost to sight, but retained in memory: i.e. things absent from sight,
are present in the mind).
33. It was an incredible sight to see, that all the moving and unmoving
objects of nature should be engrossed and absorbed in the bodies of the
ghosts of insatiate death.
34. The dancing demons were waving their arms in air, in a manner as
if they weaving nets for catching the aerial birds; and were
lifting and dropping them up and down, so as they seemed to measure the
height and depth of the firmament.
35. They stretched out the entrails of their victims, from the earth
below to the solar circle above; and appeared to measure the distance
with lines and cords.
36. The gods seeing the earth thus endangered by the portentous carcase
and its surface converted to an extensive sheet or ocean of blood.
37. They felt themselves dismayed and distressed, from their seat above
the polar mountain; and beyond the boundary of the seven continents,
where the stench of the putrid carcass could not stink into their
nostrils.
38. Ráma asked:--How is it sir, that the stench of the carcass could
not infect the gods, in their seats on the polar mountain; when the
fallen dead body is said to extend even beyond the limits of the
mundane system?
39. Vasishtha replied:--It is true, O Ráma, that the dead body
stretched beyond the limits of the mundane sphere; but its belly lay
within the boundaries of seven continents, and that its head and thighs
and its head and feet were without it.
40. But from its breasts and the two sides and its loins and waist,
which lay out of this sphere, one could have a clear view of the polar
circle, as well as that of its mountainous top.
41. Sitting in those parts and places, the gods could well behold the
pinnacles of the mountain; which were surely bright to sight, and as
white as the rainless clouds of the skies (_i.e._ white as fleecy
clouds).
42. Then the maters of furies of heaven, kept on dancing on the wide
spread dead body; while the hosts of ghosts were devouring its flesh,
as the corpse lay its face turned downwards (_i.e._ upside down or
topsy turvy).
43. Seeing now the streams of reddish blood running around and the
putrid stink of rotten body spreading on all sides; the gods all felt
sorrowful at heart, and grieved among themselves with exclaiming (as
follows).
44. Ah alas! whither hath that earth disappeared, with all the bodies
of waters upon her; where are those multitudes of men fled from it, and
where are the mountains swept away from its surface.
45. Alas for those forest of sandal, _mandara_ and _kadamba_ woods
which had so ornamented the earth! and woe for the flower gardens, and
the happy groves of Malaya mountains!
46. Where are those uplands of the lofty and gigantic snowy mountains
of Himálaya which appear now to be reduced to lurid clay, by ire of the
redhot blood, of the bloody ghost of the carcass.
47. Even the gigantic Kalpa trees, that grew below the Krauncha
mountains, in the continent of the Krauncha dwípa; and which had spread
its branches up to the Brahma-loka, are now reduced to dirt.
48. O thou lordly milky ocean! where art thou now, that hast produced
the moon and the goddess Laxmí from thy bosom; and that didst yield the
párijata flower and the celestial ambrosia of the gods of yore.
49. O thou ocean of cards! what has become of thee, that was full with
thy waving forest of billows; which rose as high as mountains, and
bore about sweet butter with their foaming froth.
50. O thou mellifluous sea of honey, which was bordered by mountains
studded by cocoa-nut trees; whose fruits afforded sweet liquor for the
beverage of goddesses, where hast thou and they fled at present.
51. O Krauncha dwípa! that didst abound in Kalpa arbour which were
inseparably clasped by the twining ivy of golden hue; say where art
hid with thy towering Krauncha mountain.
52. O Puskara dwípa! where art thou now with thy limpid fountains,
which were ever decked with beds of lotus bushes, sported upon by the
silvery swans of Brahmá?
53. O where are thy Kadamba groves gone, with their outstretched
branches on all sides; and whose sheltered coverts were frequented by
aerial nymphs, for their secluded amusements.
54. O where is the _Gomedha_ dwípa gone with its springs of sweet
waters, and the flowery gardens about its holy places? And where
those vales and dales, which were beautified by Kalpa trees and their
golden creepers?
55. Ah! where is the Saka dwípa with its forests of heavenly and ever
verdant arbours, the very remembrance of whose fair spectacles, raises
in the minds the sense of holiness and the sensations of heavenly bliss.
56. Ah! where are those tender plants, which waved their leaves at
the gentle breeze; and where are those blooming flowers, which had
brightened the scene all around.
57. The devastation of all these beauties of the landscape, fills our
mind with pity and grief; and we know not how much more piteous and
painful must it be to the majority of mankind.
58. Ah! when shall we see again, the sugar-cane field beside the sea of
saccharine waters; and the hardened sugar candy on the dry lands about;
when shall we see the sweetmeats made of molasses and confectionary
dolls of sugar.
59. When shall we see again, sitting on our golden seats on Mount Meru
the merry dance of the beauteous Apsaras daubed with sandal paste
in their arbours of tála and tamála trees; and wafted by the cooling
breeze of Kadamba and Kalpa trees on sylvan mountains?
60. Ah! we remember the memorable Jambuvatí river, which flows with the
sweet juice of jambu fruits, and passes through the Jambudwípa to its
boundary ocean (_i.e._ the Indian ocean in the south).
61. I oft remember said one, the giddy song and dance of celestial
nymphs, in the thick and shady groves of _sailendra_-trees, and in the
coverts of mountains beside the heavenly stream; and it rends my heart
like the lotus flower, as it opens its petals in the morning.
62. Another one said:--Look at this ocean of blood, sparkling like the
melted gold on the top of the golden mountain of Meru; and brightening
the beams of the rising and setting sun, or as the moon-beams spread
over the face of all sides of heaven.
63. Alas! we know not where the earth is gone, with all her
circumambient oceans about the continents; nor do we know where that
high hill of Himálaya has fled, which was the resort of many rainy
clouds, and yielded the lotus flowers on its summit.
64. We know neither where those rivers, forests and groves have gone,
which decorated the earth before; and pity for the cities and villages
and their people, that are now to be seen no more.
CHAPTER CXXXV.
DISAPPEARANCE OF THE CARCASS, AND THE REAPPEARANCE OF THE EARTH.
Argument:--The corpse was eaten up by the ghosts, and its blood
sucked up by the goddess.
Vasishtha resumed and said:--After the corpse had been partly devoured
by the demons, the gods who had been sitting on the polar mount, with
Vásava or Indra at their head spoke to one another in the following
manner.
2. Lo! the voracious goblins have not yet wholly devoured the corpse;
but flung its fat and flesh into the air to prove the paths of vehicles
of Vidyádharas; and these being wafted away and scattered about by the
winds, appear as huge masses of clouds overspreading the skies.
3. See them also throwing away the relics of their food and drink, over
the seven continents and oceans of the earth, and making it again to
reappear to view (in the forms of its mud and waters).
4. Alas! that the once delightsome earth, is now polluted by the impure
carrion and blood; and covered under the garniture of its forests, as
the sky is over shadowed by clouds.
5. The big bones of its bulky body, form the mountains of this earth;
and what is this high Himálaya, but the huge back bone of
gigantic skeleton.
6. Vasishtha said:--As the gods were speaking in this manner, the
demons were employed in the meantime to construct the earth anew with
the materials of the carcass, after which they flew in the air, and
kept on dancing and flouncing there.
7. As the ghosts were disporting in their giddy dance in the air, the
god commanded the liquid portion of the dead body, to be collected
together in one great basin of the ocean the abodes of whales and
sharks.
8. And as this ocean was from the pleasure (_gaudium_) of the gods, it
is thenceforth styled the ocean of wine (or merriment of the deities;
in distinctions from the oceans of milk and other beverages).
9. The demons having done their dancing in the pandemonium in air, come
down to drink their full draughts of that Stygian pool; after which
they repair to their aerial abysm to dance again.
10. The demoniac orgies are still wont, to indulge themselves in
drinking of that bloody pool; and to dance in their airy circles, in
company with their co-partners. (It refers to strong drink and drunken
sots).
11. And because the earth was besmeared, with the fat and flesh
(_medhas_) of the corpse, it is thenceforward termed the _mediní_ or
corpus. (The earth is said to have been formed of the flesh of the dead
body of the demon Madhu, killed by Hari in the beginning of creation).
12. At last disappearance of the dead body of the demon, there
appeared again the succession of day and night; and the lord of
creatures having formed all things anew, restored the earth to its
former shape. (This is event of the war between the gods and titans of
yore).
CHAPTER CXXXVI.
STORY OF THE GNAT AND HUNTER.
Argument:--Explication of the story of the carcass, and the
Narrative of Asura and others.
Bhása said:--Hear now, O lord of the earth, what I then said to the
god of fire, from my seat under the wing of his riding parrot, and the
answer which the god made to my query.
2. I said, O lord, of the sacrificial fire and sacrifice, deign to
explain unto me the mystery of the carcass, and the accompanying events
(of the goddess and her demons).
3. The god fire replied:--Attend, O prince, and I will tell you
all of what has happened; and relate to you all about the carcass, as
it is well known in all the three worlds (_i.e._ in the traditions of
all people).
4. Know there is an eternal formless and transcendent Intellect, in the
form of the boundless and formless vacuity; wherein there are countless
worlds, subsisting as minute atoms in endless space.
5. This intellectual void, which contains all and every thing in
itself; happened of its own spontaneity, to be conscious of its
contents in course of time.
6. I conceived by its innate knowledge, the abstract idea of igneous
particles of in itself, just as you find yourself to be in the state of
travelling in your dream; by thinking yourself as such in the state of
your waking. (One dreams whatever he thinks in himself).
7. It was thus that the Divine Intellect saw the particles of fire, as
in the unconscious state of its dream; and as one sees the lotus dust
(for any thing,) before him in his imagination.
8. Then as this Intellect reflected on the expansion of these
particles, it became itself assimilated with them; and evolved itself
in the thought in the shape of powers and organs of sense, in those
particles of its body.
9. It then beheld the sensible organs, as receptacles of their
particular faculties; and saw the world with all its beings, appearing
before it as in its dream; and as we see a city in our dreaming state.
10. There was one among the living by name of Asura, who became haughty
and proud of his dignity, he was vain and addicted to vanities, and had
no parents nor forefathers of his own.
11. Being elated with giddiness, he entered once into the holy
hermitage of a sage, and destroyed and defiled the sacred asylum in his
rage.
12. The sage denounced his curse upon him and said “whereas thou hast
demolished my abode with thy gigantic figure, be thou now be born as a
contemptible gnat, by thy immediate death under my curse.”
13. The burning fire created by the rage of the sage, burnt down the
Asura to ashes, even at that moment and on the very spot, as the wild
fire consumes the woods, and as the submarine fire dries up a channel.
14. Then the Asura became as air, without his form and its supporting
body; and his heart and mind became as insensible as in a swoon.
15. His sensibilities fled from him, and became mixed with the etherial
air; and were hurled up and down thereabouts, by the course of the
flying winds.
16. They existed in the form of the intelligent and airy soul, which
was to be the living soul in connection with the body; composed of
particles of the undivided elements, of earth, fire, water and air (or
the air in motion as distinguished from the vacuous air).
17. The quintessence of five elements being joined with a particle of
the intellect, begets a motion of their own accord as the vacuity of
the sky, produces the wind by its breath and of its own nature.
18. At last the particle of intellect, is awakened in the airy soul; as
the seed developes its germs in connection with the earth, water and
air, and in course of time.
19. The understanding (or intellectual part) of the Asura, being fully
occupied with the thought of the sage’s curse and that of its having
the nature of a gnat; brooded over the reflection of the parts of its
body, and became the very gnat in its shape.
20. This puny insect which is born by daylight in dirt, and is blown
away by the breath of wind, is the short-lived ephemeral of a day.
21. Ráma asked:--How can living animals be born from other sources
(as dirt &c.), if they are but the creatures of our dream as you said
before? So please to tell me, whether they have really their birth; or
be anything otherwise.
22. Vasishtha replied:--Know Ráma, all living beings from the great
Brahmá to the animalcule and vegetable below, have two kinds of birth;
the one is that they are all full of Brahma, and the other that they
are the creatures of our errors.
23. The false but rooted knowledge of the previous existence of the
world, and of all creatures besides, leads to the belief of the
regeneration of beings from the reminiscence of the past; and this
called the erroneous conceptions of births in the visible world.
24. The other is the viewing of the representation of Brahma, in all
things appearing to exist in this non-existent and unreal world; and
this called the pantheistic view of the world, and not as a production
either by birth or creation of it.
25. Thus the gnat being produced by its delusive knowledge of the
world, and its continuance in the same state of blunder; did not
allow it to see the one Brahma in all, but led to different views and
attempts, as you shall hear just now.
26. It passed half a day of its lifetime in whistling its faint voice,
among the humming gnats in the bushes of reeds and long grass; and
drank merrily their juice and dews, and sported and flew all about.
27. The next day it kept fluttering over a pool of mud and mire, in
company with its female copartner.
28. Being then tired with its swinging, it rested on a blade of grass
in some place, where it was trodden over by the foot of a deer, which
killed him on the spot, as it was by the fall of a rock upon him.
29. Now as it died by looking the face of a deer, it was reborn
in the shape and with the senses of the same (from its reminiscence of
them).
30. The deer grazing in the forest, was killed by arrow of an archer;
and as he saw the countenance of the huntsman in his dying moment, he
came to be born next in the same form.
31. The huntsman roaming in the forest, happened to enter into the
hermitage of a hermit, by whom he was reclaimed from his wickedness,
and awakened to the light of truth.
32. The _muni_ said:--O erring man! why did you roam so long,
afflicting the innocent deer with your arrows; why do not rather
protect them, and observe the law of universal benevolence in this
transitory world?
33. Life is but a breath of air, and overhung by the clouds of
calamities, and is as frail as a drop of falling water; our enjoyments
are a series of clouds interspersed by fickle and flickering
lightnings; youth is fleeting and its pleasures are as the gliding
waters, and the body is as transient as a moment; therefore O my
child! attain thy felicity while in this world, and expect thy
_nirvána_-extinction at the end.
CHAPTER CXXXVII.
DESCRIPTION OF THE STATES OF WAKING, SLEEPING AND DREAMING.
Argument:--The Hunter’s Inquiry into the means of salvation and
the sage’s instruction about them.
The Huntsman said:--Instruct me now, O sage, the way to my salvation
from misery; and teach me the best mode of conduct, which may neither
be too difficult nor too facile to practice.
2. The sage replied:--Now be submissive to me, and throw away your bow
and arrows; and betaking yourself to taciturnity and conduct of sages,
be free from trouble and remain herein.
3. Vasishtha related:--Being thus advised by the sage, the huntsman
threw away his bow and arrows; and betaking himself to the conduct of
sages, remained still even without asking for food.
4. In course of a few days, his mind turned to the investigations of
sástras; as a full blown flower enters into the minds of men, by means
of its far smelling fragrance.
5. Once he asked his preceptor, O Ráma, to tell him, how and in what
manner, outward objects come to be seen within us in our dream.
6. The sage said:--This very question, O my good fellow, had also
arisen at first under my scrutiny; how these shadows of things beyond
us, rise like the bodies of clouds in our sleeping hours in the sphere
of our minds.
7. I then applied to my meditation, and practiced the closeness of
my attention for my introspection into this matter; and steadily sat
in my _padmásana_ posture of folded legs, and intensely intent upon
investigation of this incident.
8. Sitting in this manner, I stretched my thought all about and afar;
and then retracted them, into the recess of my mind; as the rising sun
stretches out his beams in the morning, and afterwards draws them back
into its disc in the evening.
9. I sent forth my breathings in quest of knowledge, and then called
to myself; and thus continued in exhaling and inhaling my breaths, as
flowers let out and contract their fragrance by turns.
10. My breath being accompanied with my mind, was reposed in the air
before me; and then it was with the air inhaled by the pupil sitting
before me, and intromitted into his nostrils.
11. Thus my breath being mixed with his, was admitted into his heart;
as a snake is drawn in by the breath of a bear, sitting with his wide
open mouth at the entrance of his hole.
12. Thus I entered into his heart, by means of my vehicle of my breath;
and was put into difficulty of being confined therein, by my folly of
following my breath in its passage into his breast.
13. I passed there amidst the arteries and _aorta_, and was led through
all the conduits and blood-vessels into all the nerves and veins, both
large and small and inside and outside the body.
14. I was at last confined in the cage of the ribs on both sides of
the body, and had the fleshy masses of the liver and spleen presented
before me. This was the painful habitation of my living soul, and these
were as potfuls of meat set before it.
15. My intestines kept coiling within me with a hissing sound, and were
surrounded by a flood of red hot blood continually flowing and boiling,
like the waves of the ocean heated under the hot sunshine.
16. I had fresh supplies of sweet scents, incessantly borne to my
nostrils by the blowing breeze; and these tended to infuse both life to
my body, and sensibility to my soul.
17. But then I was tormented as in hell-fire, by the boiling blood,
bile and phlegm; in my dark and dismal dungeon. (Which was moreover
infected by the stink of dirt within).
18. It is the free and slow passage of the vital airs through the
lungs, that regulates the circulation of blood in all parts of
the body; and this determines the state of the bodily humours, a
derangement of which tends to generation of future diseases.
19. The vital airs pushing against each other, burst forth in explosion
within their cavities; while the culinary fire is burning as the
submarine blaze, through the tubular stomach, resembling the hollow
pipe of a lotus stalk.
20. The external air carries the particles of things, through the outer
organs of sense into the body; and these then enter into the mind,
either in their gross or pure state, as thieves enter into a house at
night.
21. The chyle is carried with a chyme by the internal winds, to all
parts of the body by the passage of the intestines; as the outer air
bears the low and loud sounds of songs in all direction.
22. I then entered into his heart, which is difficult of access, and
I passed therein with as much jostling, as a strong man makes his way
amidst a thickly crowded throng of men.
23. Soon afterwards I found the sight of some shining substance, at a
distance from the heart (_i.e._ the culinary fire); as a man scorched
by sun shine, finds the sight of cooling moon in the gloom of night.
24. It was the spiritual light, which reflected like a mirror all this
triple worlds in itself, and threw its rays upon all things therein; it
was the essence of whatever there is in existence; and the receptacle
of all living souls.
25. The living soul or life, says the _sruti_ pervades the whole body,
as the fragrance of a flower runs through all parts of it. Yet it is
the heat of the heart in which it chiefly resides, as the perfume of
the flower dwells in the pistils, after the blossom is expanded by the
solar heat.
26. I then crept unperceived into that heat, which was the cell of the
living soul; and was there preserved by the vital airs from extinction,
as a burning lamp in a lantern, is preserved by its interior airs from
its being blown out or extinguished. (Because the light is put out in a
receptacle).
27. I entered into that heat as fragrance passes into the air, or as
the hot wind pushes into the cold air, or as water rushes into a pot
(_i.e._ I pass through several sheaths, to the seat of bliss).
28. I passed into the second sheath, which is as bright as moon light
and as clear as a spot of white cloud; and thence I ascend to the
fair sheaths known by the names of the cells of butter, sweets and
milk-white water.
29. Being tired with my arduous passage through these sheaths, I
returned and rested in the genial warmth of my breast, where I saw the
full view of the world, appearing as a dream before my sight.
30. It showed the images of the sun and moon, and the pictures of the
seas and hills, with the shapes of gods and demigods and human forms;
it presented also the sights of cities and countries, and the face of
the sky on all sides around.
31. It exhibited also the oceans with their islands, and the course of
time and seasons and all moving and unmoving objects to my view.
32. This vision of my dream, continued steadfast and quite alike even
after I was awake, wherefore I remained in the same state after my
sleep as I had been when sleeping, because the view recurred to me in
my waking state, as it had occurred to me in my sleep. (_i.e._ The
world is but a waking dream).
33. Now listen to me, O huntsman, what then I did. I said to myself,
“what, is this a waking dream I see before me?” and as I was thinking
in this manner, I had this knowledge of it awakened in me.
34. Verily it is the representation of the Divine Intellect, and it is
the manifestation of the Deity himself; and all these objects under the
different names, are but manifestations of the Divine spirit in various
shapes in the world.
35. Wherever there is the substance of Intellect, there is the cosmical
image of the Deity impressed upon it; in its empty vacuous form, which
it never forsakes (for aught of a gross nature).
36. Ah! it is now I perceive, said I to myself, that all these
appearances passing under the names of the world; are mere
representations of the intellect, in the form of a passing dream.
37. It is a little expansion of the essence of the intellect, which
is termed a dream (or an imperfect view of things); and it is also a
greater expansion and extension of the same, which is said to
waking; both being the display of the self-same intellectual essence.
38. A dream is said to be dream in the waking state, and not while one
continues in his dreaming state, when it appears as waking; so our
waking is but a dream, whence the two states of our waking and sleeping
dream.
39. Even our death is a dream, which continues with our intellect even
after our death; because the intellect which resides in the body, does
not die even in a hundred deaths of the body; for who has ever heard of
the death of the soul (which is same with intellect) of any body.
40. This Intellect is a void and vacuous substance, dwelling in and
expanding with the body; it is infinite and undivided, and remains
indivisible and indestructible, both with as well as without the
destructible body.
41. The vacuous particle of the intellect, which is indestructible by
its nature, and shines forth eternally and _ad infinitum_ by itself;
has the so called world for its pith and sap and ever attached to
itself.
42. The vacuum of the intellect, contains within its bosom, the
minute particles of ideas; each of which represents a part of the
great variety of objects, that compose its totality (“as parts of an
undivided whole”).
43. The soul breaking off from its view of the visibles, rests in its
receptacle of heart; and sees the various sights in its dream, which
are unfolded by the intellect before it.
44. Again the soul being inclined to the outer mind of sights, exposed
before it by its own intellect; it comes to see the visions of the
external objects, which pass under the phenomenal world.
45. The soul sees in itself and in the same state, the sights of all
things both within and without it; such as, this earth and sky, the
winds and waters, the hills and cities, and all things spread on all
sides.
46. As the solar disc which is situated in the heaven above, appears
also in the waters below in full blaze; so the soul is situated both in
the inside and outside, in the form of the world, (or with the form of
imprest ideas in it).
47. Therefore knowing that it is the intellectual soul, that sees
the internal dream and the external world in itself; whoso abstains
from craving anything is surely blest (because he has every thing in
himself. Every soul or mind being full of the thoughts and sights of
all things in itself, can be no more in want of anything).
48. The soul is both inseverable and uninflammable (_i.e._ it can
neither be cut asunder nor burnt away); and whoso says otherwise, he
must be betrayed by the delusion of duality, as a boy is decoyed by the
deceitful yaksha (hocus-pocus).
49. He who sees his inward soul, to view the world internally in
itself, is said to be dreaming in himself; and whoso finds his soul
looking outwardly on the external world, is known to be waking.
50. Thinking so for regarding the dreaming and waking states, I was
inquisitive to know the state of sound sleep, and went on making my
inquiries therein.
51. But I thought of what good is the sight of the visible to me?
Better remain quiet in myself, because it is the thoughtless oblivion,
and consciousness of self, is true insouciance or the stupor or
_susupti--somnum_ or hypnotism.
52. As the hair and nails of the body, are never thought of, though
they are well known to belong to and to be attached to it; so the mind
is quite unconscious of all material and immaterial objects in nature,
in its state of sound sleep when it rests in its self-consciousness
alone.
53. Tired with the rambles and sights of my waking and dreaming
states, I sought my quiet rest in the state of my thoughtless
self-consciousness; and this being the sole aim and end of sound sleep,
there is no other meaning of the susupti hypnotism.
54. It is possible even in the waking state, to have this sound sleep
of susupta hypnotism; by our determination of thinking of naught, save
that of sitting quiet in one and same state (of abstractedness).
55. The state of abstraction being arrived at, is termed susupti--sound
sleep; but when the sleep is light (Vikshepa), it is called
_swapnam--somnum_ or dream.
56. Having ascertained my torpor to the hypnotic susupti, I was
resolved to seek after the _turíya_ or fourth state of supreme bliss;
and with this resolution, I set out in search of it with my best
introspection and diligence.
57. I tried my utmost, but could get no indication of its true form and
feature: and found out at last, that it was not to be had without our
clearsightedness, as the sunlight is imperceptible to the dimsighted
eye.
58. That is called clearsightedness, wherein our view of the world, as
it appears unto us is utterly lost; and whereby we see in that light in
which it exists in the Divine Mind.
59. Therefore the three states of waking, dreaming and sound sleep, are
all included under this fourth state; wherein the world is seen as it
exists, in the light of a nihility.
60. This then is the _turya_ or ultimate view of the world, that it is
produced by no cause and from nothing; but it is Brahma himself that
exists in this state of tranquillity, from all eternity.
61. The impossibility of the pre-existent and primordial causes,
precludes the possibility of the production of anything and of the
creation itself; it is the Intellection of the intellect only, that
gives rise to the conception of creation; as it is the nature of water
to assume its fluidity and exhibit its dilation.
CHAPTER CXXXVIII.
THE PERVASION OF THE MIND THROUGHOUT THE UNIVERSE.
Argument:--The joining of the two souls of the sage and his pupil
together made them twain, and gave a two fold view of objects:
but their union in unity made them one, and presented the one and
same view of things to both the united pair.
The ascetic sage continued:--I then thought of being united with his
consciousness, and breathed out the breath of my life to be joined
with his, as the ripe _mango_ sends forth its flavour, to mix with the
fragrance of lotus flowers.
2. I did not forsake my vital heat (or energy), until I entered into
his intellect; and began with infusing my outward sensations, into the
organs of his external senses.
3. I then attracted my outward sensations, by the internal sensibility
of my heart, and mixed them with those of his, as a drop of oil is
mixed with and diluted in water.
4. As my sensuousness was intermingled with his sensations, I became
sensible of a duplex feeling of all external objects, which appeared in
their reduplicated forms to my senses.
5. All things on all sides seemed to be doubled about me, and there
appeared two suns and two moons to be presented to my sight. So the
heaven and earth appeared in their two fold forms before me.
6. As one face is seen as two in some glasses, so all things presented
their double forms to the mirror of my eyes. And all these biplex
shapes seemed to be as closely united together as the world (_i.e._ the
body and mind).
7. And as the same intellect resides in the form of oil in two sesame
seeds, so I saw the two worlds mixed up together with my intellect
united with his in his body.
8. And though my consciousness was united with his in the same body,
yet it was not wholly assimilated with his (owing to the difference of
our desires); but they view the world respectively, in the different
lights of milk and water (_i.e._ as appearing pleasant to the one and
painful to the other).
9. Yet as I looked awhile into his consciousness, and compared and
measured it with mine; they were both found to be the same thing and of
the self same essence. (Consciousness is joint knowledge of ourselves
in connection with others).
10. My consciousness was joined with his in the same manner, as one
season joins with another (at its end); or as the confluence of two
rivers runs together, and as the smoke mixes with the clouds, or the
wind carries the fragrance of flowers with it.
11. This our consciousness being mixed up together, the double view of
the world now became one; just as the erroneous sight of the two moons
in the sky, is soon changed to one upon aright its right view.
12. Then my power of discernment which was in his person, became finer
and finer without wholly losing itself in his, and resided together in
his very body.
13. Afterwards the faculties of the mind which resided in his breast,
were found to be directed to the observation of external objects; and
to take delight in noticing the occurrences of the day (_i.e._ the
present objects).
14. He being at rest from his weariness, after taking his meal and
drink; felt drowsy and inclined to sleep, as the lotus flower shuts its
petals at nightfall, after sucking the nectarious liquid of the lake.
15. He withdrew his mind from observing occurrences, that circulated
all about the busy scene of the external world; as the setting sun
retrenches his rays from the face of the world, as he goes to take his
rest in the evening.
16. The functions of his senses receded into heart, and the operations
of his mind retired to his brain, and remained hidden therein, like the
members of a tortoise drawn inside its shell.
17. His eyelids were closed, as his heart had shut up; and he remained
as dead as a lifeless block or as a figure in painting or statuary.
18. I also followed the course of his mental faculties, and settled
with them in his mind, and my senses being under the direction of the
mind were reposed in the recess of his heart. (The sensations are said
to pass from their organs, and run through the veins and arteries to
the recess of the heart).
19. Then insensible of all outward perceptions, and their conceptions
too in my mind; I remained with that heat (or spirit) in me, as
sleeping on a soft bed, and perceiving naught but a void all about me.
(This is termed the blissful state of _ánanda-maya_--felicity).
20. And as the breathing of our vital breath, was neither obstructed in
the _aorta_, nor passed with rapidity through the lungs, as it does in
cases of excess in eating and drinking and fatigue, it passed evenly by
its passage of the nostrils.
21. Then our souls remained with the supreme soul in the breast, and
kept the course of the naturally ungovernable mind under subjection (of
the blissful soul).
22. The soul is then employed in its consciousness of supreme bliss
in itself, and takes no notice of the actions of others; and the body
also then rests in perfect blissfulness, in that state of sound sleep.
(Sound sleep of hybernation or hypnotism is the perfect rest of the
body and soul, when undisturbed by dreams).
23. Ráma asked:--Say sir, what does the mind do now in its subjection
under the vital breath, which was the cause of its operations in the
waking state? The mind has no form also beside the breath, how then
does it subsist without the same.
24. Vasishtha replied:--Even so, there is neither the body beside its
being the notion of one’s self; it is the imagination of the mind
alone that makes the body, just as the dream causes the appearance
of a mountain and other things. (There is no existence of the mind
independent of the vital air of breathing. Gloss).
25. So there is not the mind also in absence of its idea or thought of
something; as there is no production of the visible world, for want of
its causes at the beginning of creation. (Therefore the phenomenal
world is only the effect of our previous reminiscence. Gloss).
26. Therefore all these are forms of Brahma, as he is the soul
of all; and the world itself is not otherwise than the image of
God. (Hypothesis of theological Pantheism, that all things are
manifestations of God).
27. The mind and body are both Brahma, to them that know the truth;
though they are otherwise to our knowledge of them, than what they are
in theirs. (The common knowledge of them, is that of Soulism).
28. The manner in which the triple world is Brahma, and how he is the
soul of all these varieties; is as you, O intelligent prince, shall now
hear me to relate unto you.
29. There exists for ever the only pure Intellect (or Intelligence),
which is of the form of infinite vacuum; and it is that alone which
shows itself always in all forms, without being either the world itself
or its visible appearance. (The formless God exhibits all forms).
30. The Lord being omniscient, took upon him the form of hypostasis
of the mind, without forsaking his nature of pure intelligence, and
exemption from disease and decay (which the material body is subject
to).
31. Then as the Lord thought upon the movement of his mind, he assumed
the substantivity of the vital breath upon himself; and know, O Ráma,
that best knowest the knowable, that these are but modalities of the
selfsame being of God.
32. Now as this inflation of the air, appears to be a model form of
the Divine essence; so the sensations and bodily perceptions, and the
entities of space and time, are but various modifications of the same
being.
33. Thus the whole world is entirely the formation of the Divine Mind,
and as this mind is the very intellect of the supreme Brahma; so the
totality of creation is only the expansion of the mind of Brahma
himself.
34. The formless Brahma who is without his beginning and end, who has
no reflexion of himself, and is free from disease and decay, is the
quiet intellect and the only quiescent _Ens_ of Brahma, that was the
whole universe for its body. (Whose body nature is, and God the soul.
Pope).
35. The supreme being omnipotent, and so the mind also retains its
potency every where, though it remains as empty air.
36. The volitive mind is Brahma, which immediately produces in itself,
whatever it wills at any time; and the reproduction of every thing in
the mind, is a truth too well known even to boys.
37. Now behold, O Ráma the almighty power of the mind, which at first
made itself (or became) a living being by its breathing; and then an
intelligent being, by its power of thinking; and next became the living
soul, with its body; it made the three worlds, and became the prime
male in the form of Brahmá; it became embodied from its aerial form,
in the shape of Virát; thus it created every thing in itself of its
own will, as men produce all things in their imagination, and see the
cities of their fancy in dream.
CHAPTER CXXXIX.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DISSOLUTION OF THE WORLD.
Argument:--Predominance of the mind over the vital breath, and
the view of final Dissolution in Dream.
Vasishtha related:--Whatever the mind wills, regarding the creation of
the world, the same immediately appears before it; whether it be the
production of the non-existent to view, or annihilation of existing
ones, or the representation of one as the other--_pratibháshika_.
2. [Now in an answer to Ráma’s question, “how does the mind subsist or
have its action or thought without being moved by the vital breath”, he
says that] whenever the mind fancies itself as the vital breath, and
can neither subsist nor do any thing without its being actuated by the
air of respiration; it is then said to be subject to vitality (_i.e._
to exist with the breath of a living being and no more).
3. It thinks it cannot live long without the association of respiration
(as in the state of transient and breathless dream) but must come
back to its life and living action (of thinking) with the return of
breathing. (The thinking power of the mind is suspended with the
breathing, in the states of dreaming and wondrous sight seeing).
4. Again as the mind fancies itself to be accompanied with the vital
breath in some living body; it finds itself instantly joined with same,
and beholds the world rising as an enchanted city to view.
5. The mind thinks of the convenience of its union with the vital
breath and body; and with this persuasion it is pleased to remain for
ever as a triplicate being, combined with its intellectuality, vitality
and corporeality.
6. Know now that the uncertainty of knowledge, which, keeps the mind in
suspense, is the cause of great woe to mankind; and that there is no
way of getting rid of it except of the true knowledge of _tattwajnána_.
7. He who has the knowledge of the distinction of his self and another
(_i.e._ of the ego and nonego--the subjective and objective as
different from another); can have no redress from his error, save by
means of his spiritual knowledge of the only spirit.
8. There is no way to true knowledge, except by means of the
investigations of liberation; therefore be employed with all vigilance
to inquire into the means of liberation.
9. Verily the very conceptions of ego and _alias_ I and another are
erroneous, and proceed from utter ignorance; and there is no other
means to remove them, except by means of liberation. (The knowledge of
_ego_ and _tu_ is the bondage of the soul: and the want of egoism and
tuism, leads it to its liberation from all).
10. Hence any thought which is habitual to the mind, comes to be firmly
impressed upon it in time; and hence the idea that the vital breath is
one’s life and all, makes his mind dependent upon the breath. (_i.e._
As the thought of one’s being this or that, makes him as such; so the
firm belief of the mind as breath, makes it subject to the same).
11. So also when the body is in a healthful state with its vitality,
the mind is dependent on it and has its free play; but being in ill
health, it feels its life embittered and forgets to know itself in its
true nature.
12. When the respiration is quick in discharging the duties of the
body, and the mind is engaged in its busy thoughts, then neither of
them capable of meditation, unless they are repressed in the
breast.
13. These two the mind and respiration, stand in relation of the car
and driver to one another, and what living being is there, that is not
driven along by them in their train?
14. It was in this manner that the supreme spirit, hath ordained the
mind and vital breath, in the very beginning of creation; and therefore
this law of their co-operation, continues unaltered to this day.
15. Hence the mind and vital airs are acting in concert in all living
bodies, and conducting them at all times in all places in their stated
course or action all along (except those of yogis who have repressed
them under their subjection).
16. The co-equal course of both, serves to the regular conduct of the
functions of life (as in the waking state); but their unequal course,
produces dissimilar effects (as that of dreaming when the mind alone is
active); and the inactivity of both causes the inertness of the body
and soul (as in the state of sound sleep).
17. When the intestines are blocked by the chyle of food taken into
them, and the breathing becomes dull and slow; the mind also becomes
calm and quiet, and then ensues the blissful state of sound sleep.
18. When the stomach is filled with food, and the lungs are languid
with weariness, the breathing then remains without its inflation,
and brings on state of sweet and sound sleep of _susupti_ or
_hypnotism_.
19. Again when the intestinal parts are cool and phlegmatic, or
exhausted by effusion of blood owing to some sore or wound, and the
breathing being stopped in the body, there comes the state of numbness
of sleep.
20. The ascetic said:--Then I had entered into his heart, it became all
dark to me as night; and he fell into a sound sleep, from his satiety
with the fulness of his food.
21. I was there assimilated into one with his mind, and lay in deep
sleep with himself without any effort of my own.
22. Then as the passage of his lungs was re-opened, after digestion
of the food in his stomach; his breathings resumed their natural
vibration, and he began to breathe out slowly and softly in his
slumbering state.
23. After the sound sleep had become light and airy, I beheld the sunny
world arising out of my breast, and appearing manifest before me in my
dream.
24. This world seemed to rise out of the troubled ocean, and to be
filled with water (seas) upon its surface; it was released from the
darkness of diluvian clouds, which had enveloped it, like the mists
overhanging on oceans.
25. There was a hurricane blowing over it, bearing aloft the rocks
and stones, in its whirling and uproarious course; and carrying away
uprooted arbours, with the furze and grassy turfs along with them.
26. It was carrying away and casting all about, the fragments and
remains of the last conflagration of desolation; and hurling down the
detachments of celestial cities from high.
27. Then as I was looking at a certain place, I found my self situated
with my consort in one of the abodes of a splendid city rising at that
spot.
28. And there as I was sitting in company with my consort and children,
and attended by my friends and servants, and supplies with dishes and
cups of food and drink, I was all on a sudden carried away by the waves
of the deluging waters.
29. The flood swept me away together with the edifice and the city,
wherein we were situated; and we were floating on the tops of
mountainous waves, and buffeting in the water.
30. There arose a loud dashing noise louder than the roaring sea; I was
stunned by the stridor, and was insensible of the fates of my family.
31. Men were driven away and hurled down into the whirling eddies, and
were buried deep into the dreadful mud, with their wailings and loud
cries, with the beating of their breasts.
32. The houses and huts were breaking and cracking, their beams and
posts were splitting, the pillars and supports were bursting, and the
roofs and coverings were falling down, while the females were looking
out with their faces fixed at the windows. (_i.e._ Women stared from
within the doors and windows and dared not to stir without).
33. As I was looking awhile at all this, being affected at the sight;
and was weeping sorrowfully at the event, I saw the whole edifice
falling down on the ground.
34. The walls on the four sides broke down, and buried the old and
young and female inmates under them; and these were borne away by the
waves at last, as the impetuous waterfall carries away the shattered
and scattered stones to a hundred different ways.
35. I was then blown away into the waters of the deluge, leaving behind
me my family and friend; and accompanying only my mind and vital breath
with me.
36. I was tossed about by the waves, and borne away to the distance of
leagues after leagues; and was thrown upon the floating woods, which
roasted me by their inburning wildfire.
37. I was dashed against the floating planks and timbers, and slashed
in many parts of my body, then falling into a whirlpool I was hurled
into the abyss of _pátála_.
38. Being thus tossed all about, and hurled up and down, I had been for
a long time, buffeting amidst the waves and waters, and their gurgling,
roaring and rumbling sounds.
39. I was then buried under the mud, caused by the friction of the
drowned mountains against one another; and was again lifted upward like
an elephant, by the influx of a flood of water.
40. As I was halting on a hill covered with foam and froth; immediately
I was run over by a rush of water, as a man is overtaken by his enemy.
41. Being then ingulfed in the water, and carried away by the waves and
current wheresoever they pleased, I lost the sight of whatever I was
seeing, and was greatly dejected in my mind.
42. At this moment there, I had come to know by my reminiscence, that
certain _muni_ will lecture to the public, the Vasishtha’s address
of Ráma hereafter.
43. I remembered my former state of holy trance (_samádhi_) and
exclaimed; O, had I been an ascetic in another world.
44. I have entered into the body of another person, in order to see the
sights in his dreaming; and all that I am now seeing (of this flood
and others), is no more than a dream, and mere error of the mind and
falsehood.
45. It is from our habitual bias in the present scene, that I believed
these falsehoods as true in me; and though I was troubled to see myself
to be borne away by the flood in my dream; yet I feel myself happy at
present to find, it was but the unreality of a dream.
46. What I saw as water, was the whirling eddy in the ocean of the
universal deluge, and as false as the water of mirage; and the hills
and woods, and the cities and towns, that were swept away by the flood,
were as false as any visual deception.
47. There were the gods and aerials, men and women, and huge snakes
also borne away by the flood; and the great cities and mansions of the
rulers of men (_i.e._ royal edifices), all floating upon the waters.
48. I saw the mountain merged in and mixed up with the waters, and
being battered and shattered by the waves; I saw the approaching
dissolution of the world, and thus considered within myself.
49. There is even the god Siva with his three eyes, swimming upon and
swept away as a straw by the waves: O fie for shame! that there is
nothing impossible for the fates.
50. Fragments of houses floating upon the waters, looked like lotus
flowers flaunting under the sun-beams.
51. It was astonishing to see the bodies of Gandharvas, Kinnaras,
and of men and Nágas, floating on the waters, like swarms of bees
fluttering over lotus-beds in the lake.
52. The fragments of the splendid edifices of the gods and demigods and
others, decorated with the ornamental works of the vidyádharas, were
floating like golden vessels on the wide expanse of the ocean.
53. The god Indra was floating on the glassy water, as if he were lying
in his crystal palace; he mounted over the waves, as if he rode on his
elephant; and was swinging on the surges as upon his cradle.
54. The waves rising to the sky, were washing the faces of the stars,
and the winds were scattering them all about; as they drop down the
flowers of the garden of Eden on the mansions of the gods, and as men
strew the ground with fried rice.
55. Waves as high as mountains rose to the sky, and then their breakers
flying aloft like stones flung by ballistas, fell upon the lotus seat
of Brahmá, and turned it about with the god also, who was sitting upon
it in his deep meditation.
56. The clouds were roaring aloud with deep and appalling thunder,
and the billows were flashing like frightful lightnings in the
air; elephants, horses, and ferocious lions were wandering in the
atmosphere, and forests as large as the earth, were floating in the sky.
57. The dark blue waves of over-flowing waters, pushed with such
violent force against one another; as if the god of destruction was
propelling them one after another to the act, of utter annihilation (or
as the powers of destruction were propelling one another).
58. The waves were carrying down into the deep, the gods, men, and
Nágas, together with their abodes in heaven, earth and the regions
below.
59. The irresistible flood having flooded over all sides, of earth,
heaven and the infernal region, the bodies of the gods and demigods,
were all floating together like shoals of fishes; and their heavenly
cars and vehicles were swimming over on the surface of the waters, as
in the field of battle.
60. The body of dark blue waters, resembled the azure form of Krishna;
and their foaming froths, likened the milk white calves about him. (The
text is utterly meaningless).
61. The waves pushed one another, with the _burber_ sound for drowning
every thing; and the females both of the gods and giants were heard to
wail aloud with cries of _hola_ and howling. (Hola is the exclamation
of wailing, corresponding with _waílá_ in Persian).
62. The loud cries raised by all, at the falling down of their houses,
were resounded by the waters on all sides; and the clouds roving over
the rolling waves, appeared as the covers of fallen and floating domes.
63. Ah it was piteous to behold, how the whirling waters of whirlpools,
hurled down even the gods into the deep; and how Indra, Yama, and
Kubera, breathed out their last breaths in the form of flying and
flimsy clouds.
64. There the learned and saintly persons, were carried away with the
ignorant, in the shape of dead bodies and devoid of their pride; and
the cities of the gods Brahmá, Vishnu, and Indra, were swept away, all
broken and crushed to pieces.
65. The bodies of weak women, were washed and carried over by the
waves, and there was no body left to save them from the grasp of death;
which devoured them altogether under his horrid jaws.
66. The floods which flowed at first with their serpentine course into
the caves of mountains, overflooded them to their tops at last; and the
cities of the gods, which floated at first as boats upon the waters on
mountain tops, were hurled to the bottom at last.
67. The gods and giants and all other beings, together with their
residences in heaven, and the continents and mountains on earth, were
all submerged and shattered like lotus-beds by the waters; and the
three worlds were turned to an universal ocean and all their grandeur
and splendour were swallowed up by time, together with all the sovran
powers of earth and heaven.
CHAPTER CXXXX.
WORKINGS OF IMAGINATION.
Argument:--The sage’s situation at the end of the Deluge, and his
description of the reproduction of creation.
The Huntsman said:--Tell me sir, how a sage as yourself, could be
exposed to that state (of the dream or delusion of the Deluge); and why
were you not delivered from your meditation.
2. The sage replied:--At the end of the Kalpa age, all kinds of beings
meet with their destruction; namely, there is a termination of the
erroneous forms of the worlds, and a cessation of the luminous bodies
in the heaven.
3. Sometimes the dissolution takes place gradually at the end of a
_kalpa_; and at others it comes on all on a sudden, with a simultaneous
turmoil and disorganization on all sides.
4. So when there was an outbreak of waters on every side, and the gods
were repairing to Brahmá the first cause of all; for redress from the
impending danger, they were all swept away by the overflowing tide.
5. Moreover, O forester! know time to be the most mighty destroyer
of all things; and every thing must occur in its time, as it is
predestined at the beginning. (Time devours all things).
6. The time of one’s dissolution being nigh, there ensues a detriment
in the strength, intellect and prowess of everybody not excepting even
the great. (Nothing is of any avail before fate).
7. I have told you also, O fortunate forester! that all that is seen
in a dream is mere dreaming; and nothing of it, comes to take place in
reality herein.
8. The forester responded:--Sir, if the dream is a mere falsity and
error of imagination; then what was the good of your relating all
this, that know well what is good and useful for mankind.
9. The sage replied:--There was much use of my relating all this to
you, O intelligent huntsman, for improvement of your understanding; and
as you have come to know, that the visibles are all as false as the
sights in sleep, you shall now know what is real and true.
10. Now as long as the waters of deluge lasted, I remained seated in
the heart of the said medium, and saw some other false sights in his
dream.
11. I saw the waters of the deluge, to recede to the unknown region
from where they had overflown; and the huge waves disappeared
altogether, as when the winged mountains fled away for fear of the
thunders of Indra. (Who lopped of their pinions of yore. See the legend
in stanza--Book I. Kumára sambhava of Kálidása).
12. I was borne aloft by my good fate to some distant shore, where I
was seated as firmly as upon the elevated peak of a high and solid
mountain.
13. Thence I saw the waters to subside in their basins, and the stars
of heaven shining upon them, like the sparkling particles of their
splashing billows, or as their foaming and floating froths.
14. The reflexions of the stars in water, seemed as the shining gems
in the bosom of the ocean; and the stars that shone above in the
firmament, appeared as the nightly flaming bushes on the tops of
mountains. (There are the medicinal plants that are said to burn by
night. Vide Kumára Sambhava Stanza--Book I.).
15. The firmament studded with lustrous stars, and had the appearance
of an island beaming with gold; and the azure sky seemed wrapt over
with the blue garments of celestial dames.
16. The blue diluvian clouds that floated in the sky, resembled a bed
of cerulean lotuses in the etherial lake; and the lightnings that
flashed in their bosoms, likened the yellow farina of flowers, flying
all about the midway sky.
17. Masses of mountain-like clouds flushed with frost, and poured down
showers of rain on all sides; the floods of the deluge rolled down with
their reflexions, as bearing the huge Kalpa forests in their bosom.
18. Afterwards the basin of the universal ocean was dried up, and
turned to an empty and dry hollow on all around; and the mountain of
the Mandara and Sahya hills, that had been drowned under the waters
were found to be melted down to mud or washed away by the receding
flood.
19. Here the sun and moon were found to be sunk in the slough, and
there the gods Yama and Indra to be hid under the soil; somewhere the
serpents and _takshakas_ were rolling in the mire, and elsewhere the
Kalpa woods lay buried with their tops and branches underneath the mud.
20. In some places the heads and hands of people were scattered over
the ground, and looked like lotus buds and flowers torn from their
stalks and strewn about the bare and barren land.
21. There were the Vidyádhara females drowned up to their necks in the
slime, and crying in their piteous chimes in one place; and there were
the big bodied buffaloes of Yama lying in another, and resembling the
huge bodies of dead elephants appearing in dream. (The buffalo of Yama
is no less bulky than the Airávata elephant of Indra).
22. In some place the bulky body of Garuda, bulged out like the huge
mountain of the gods; and in others the embankments were swept away; as
if they were slashed by the mace of Yama fallen upon the ground.
23. There were the remains of the dead _hansa_ of Brahmá, muddled in
the mire somewhere, and the relics of Indra’s elephant were huddled in
the mud in another place.
24. In the meanwhile I found a flat land in one spot, where I resorted
for rest from my weariness; and was there overtaken by sound sleep,
that insensibility stole upon me.
25. Then waking from my sound sleep, I found myself seated in the heart
of the hunter; and retaining the possession of my sensibility, I was
led by my innate desire to see the similar sights of desolation as
before.
26. I beheld upon my waking, the said flat land to lie in the very
heart of the hunter where I was situated; and was seized with greater
grief and sorrow at my sight of the spectacle. (The reproduction of the
world being but the renovation of our woe, and happy are they who work
no more to the sight).
27. I saw therefrom the rising of the bright and beautiful sun on the
next day; and by means of the solar light, I came to the sight of
the worlds and the sky, of this earth and its hills, which presented
themselves to my view.
28. But I soon found that, the earth and sky, the air and all
its sides, together with the hills and rivers, were all but the
reproduction of my mind (from its previous ideas of them); as the
leaves shoot forth from the trees. (Because the insensible stones, have
no perception of the visibles).
29. Then on seeing the things, as they were exposed to my sight on
the earth; I began to manage with them in a manner as I had somewhat
forgotten their right and proper use. (Reminiscence of the past being
often liable to obliteration).
30. After my birth I passed sixteen years at that spot, and had the
knowledge of this person as my father, and that one as my mother,
and this spot as my dwelling place, and all this knowledge rising
spontaneously from my self-cogitation.
31. I then saw a village and the hermitage of a Bráhman at that place;
and there I beheld a house and found a friend therein, and many more
other places.
32. Thus I remained in the society of my friends, in the village huts
and hamlets; and passed many days and nights, in the states of repeated
watchfulness and returning sleep.
33. Remaining thus in company with these, I came to lose in course of
time the light of the understanding I had attained before, and forgot
myself as one of them by my habitual mode of thinking, as the man
forgot himself to a fish (as it is related before in the story of Dama,
Vyála and Kata).
34. In this manner, I remained as a village Bráhman (or parish-person)
for a long time; relying only in my body as begotten by a Bráhman, and
quite forgetful of other.
35. I believed my material body only to constitute my person, and my
wife alone as my copartner; I understood my desires only to be the
essence of my soul, and thought that riches only were the sole object
of gain in life.
36. I had an old cow only for my treasure, and the greens of my
garden as my only provision; my collections were only the sacred fire
and sacrificial animals, and my utensil an only water pot. (Kines
constituted the wealth of the ancient Indians, as the _pecus_ or sheep
were reckoned as riches by the old Latins; hence _godhana_ means kine
money, as _pancha godhanam_--the value of five cows corresponding with
the _penta pecuniae_ of the Romans).
37. My hopes were as frail as perennial plants, and my conduct the same
with that of other men; and the state of my living was as mean, as of
the mud and mire about my dwelling.
38. I passed my days in pruning and weeding the garden of my greens;
and in performing my daily ablutions, in the rills and rivulets
reckoned as holy by men.
39. I was employed in providing my food and drink, and in procuring the
fuel and cow-dung for fire; and remained entangled in the snare, of
scrutinizing about what was right or wrong for daily observance.
40. In this way a whole century of my life time, passed away at that
place, when it happened on a time that a holy hermit passed by that way
from a great distance, and became my guest in my humble abode.
41. Being welcomed and honoured by me, he entered in my dwelling, and
took his rest after washing and bathing himself. Then after his meal he
sat on his bed, and began to tell his fate at the approach of night.
42. He spoke of many climes and countries, and of many lands and
mountains; and talked of their different customs and manners, which
were pleasant to hear, and related to various subjects.
43. All these, he said, are the display of the One Intellect, which is
infinite and immutable in its nature; and manifests itself in the form
of cosmos, which is for ever present with it as it is now seen to be.
44. Being thus enlightened by him, I was filled as it were with a flood
of light, and remained listening to him with attention, all whatever he
said on this and other subjects.
45. I heard also my own tale from him, and learning that the person
which contained me within its womb, is no less than the body of Virát
himself, I was eager to come out of the same.
46. So long as I was not aware, that its mouth is the only door way for
my exit of that body; I kept moving through it, as if I were wandering
amidst the vast extent of the earth and oceans.
47. I then left that spot, beset as it was by my friends and relations;
and entered into his vital part, in order to make my egress with the
vital breath.
48. Intending then to see both the inside and outside of the Viráta’s
body, in which I resided, I continued to mark well the process of its
outer movements as also of its inner thoughts.
49. I fixed my attention to my consciousness, and remained settled at
my station without changing its spot; and then breathed out with his
breath, as the fragrance of flowers accompanies the wind.
50. The rising with his respiration, I reached the cavity of his mouth;
and mounting afterwards on the vehicle of the wind, I went on forward,
and beheld all that lay before me.
51. I observed there the hermitage of a sage, situated in the grotto of
a mountain at a distance; and found it full with anchorites, and myself
sitting in my _padmásana_ among them. (He saw the sight to which he was
habituated all along his life).
52. These anchorites stood before me as my pupils, and were employed in
their duty of taking care of my person in its state of _anaesthesia_.
53. After a while that man was seen among them, in whose heart I had
been residing; and he appeared as lying flat and at ease upon his back,
after taking some food which he got in the adjacent village.
54. Seeing this wonder I remained quiet, and did not speak any thing
about it to any body waiting upon me; I then re-entered that body for
my own amusement.
55. I got to region of vitality which was situated within the
heart, and was by my lasting desire to see the friends I had before,
and I left behind.
56. As I was looking around, I saw the end of the world approaching
with its direful aspect; and changing the course of nature, together
with the positions of the world.
57. The mountains appeared altered and changed to another state,
the sky presented another face, and the whole world seemed be
dislocated from its place.
58. I could find no trace of my former friends or habitation nor mark
the situation of that tract of land, nor find the direction where it
lay before; all these seemed to be swept away by the winds, nor could I
know where they were taken.
59. I then found the world appearing in another form, and presenting a
sight altogether different from what it had been before, and quite anew
to view.
60. I saw the twelve suns of the twelve signs of the zodiac, shining
all at once and burning in all the quarters of heaven and melting down
the high mountains, like snows and icebergs to water.
61. The volcanic fire spread from mountain to mountain, and the fire of
conflagration flew from forests to forests; the earth was parched with
all the gems in her bowels, so that there remained no vestige of them
save in the memory of men.
62. The seas were dried up, and the earth was full of burning embers
on all sides; and there rose a strong gale, which wafted the ashes all
away.
63. Subterranean, terrestrial and etherial fires, began to issue forth
in flames and flash on all sides; and the face of the whole universe
flushed with a blaze, glistening like the glowing clouds of the evening
sky.
64. I entered amidst this burning sphere, as a flying moth falls into a
flame; and was confined within its cave, as the roving bee is closed
up in the calyx of the shutting lotus, and was quite unscorched and
unscathed by the burning flame.
65. I then flew amidst the flames as freely as air, and flickered as
the flash of fleet lightnings in the cloud; and sometimes hovered over
the burning fire, as the light winged butterfly flies upon the lotus of
the lands (_sthala_ padma).
CHAPTER CXXXXI.
DESCRIPTION OF THE TERMINATION OF A KALPA-PERIOD.
Argument:--Continuation of the subject of fire and flame, and hot
winds and fiery clouds at the final Dooms-day Dissolution.
The sage continued:--Though repeatedly burning amidst those fires, yet
I was neither consumed nor felt the least pain therein; and though
falling from one fire into another; yet I thought all this as a dream
in my dreaming (_i.e._ one dream in another).
2. The fires flew aloft, and filled the vault of heaven with flames;
and I was flying as a fire-brand amidst and all about it. (So the
sinless soul soars in the highest empyrean of heaven).
3. As I was wandering with my spiritual light and unwearied soul amidst
this universal conflagration, there arose on a sudden a tremendous
hurricane (raised by the rarefied air on all sides).
4. It howled and growled aloud like the roaring of clouds on high; and
blew fiercely all along, bearing down and carrying away every thing
before it.
5. The whirling and howling tornado, raged with redoubled force in the
forest; lifting aloft large tracts of woods in the form of clouds, and
intermixed with rolling firebrands, resembling the revolving suns above.
6. Flames of fire flashed above, like the evening clouds of heaven, and
blazed like hundreds of fiery pools on high; and the earth with the
habitation of men, giants and gods, burned as burning mountains on all
sides.
7. The burnt, unburnt and half burnt devils and demons, were roving
together throughout the heated air, and grappling each other in the
etherial streams.
8. The gods and goddesses, were falling down as flames of fire; and
the abode of the celestials, were melted down in showers of fire.
9. Flashes of fire were flickering as lightnings, from the burning
vault of heaven; and clouds of dark smoke hid the face of the vertical
sky in darkness.
10. The faces of the earth and sky and of all sides of heaven, were
wrapt in a flaming veil like that of the evening cloud; and the whole
universe with its seven spheres, appeared as a massive mountain of
flaming fire.
11. On one side the sparks of flaming fire, were flashing over
the head; and on another a huge mountainous mist of smoke hid the
hemisphere from sight. In the midst there appeared a mountainous body
of fire as that of Hara--the god of destruction, dancing amidst the
destructive winds of the Rudras blowing on all sides.
CHAPTER CXXXXII.
ASCERTAINMENT OF KARMA OR ACTS OF MEN.
Argument:--Here God is ascertained as the Cause of the visionary
world; and Refutation of the Theory of Karma or Human Deeds and
Destiny.
The sage resumed and said:--Continuing thus in the vagaries of my false
imagination, I was led to many such painful sights, until they raised
in me the feelings of woe and sorrow, and my curiosity gave way to
weariness.
2. I then thought in my mind that it is a mere dream in the mind of
another person, which I have come to see from my seat within his
breast; therefore I must refrain from such sights, and restrain my
sorrow for them in vain.
3. The Huntsman asked:--It was for the investigation of the nature of
dream, that you had entered into the bosom of another person; say then
what have you come to know about it, and how are your doubts removed
(with respect to its false phantasms).
4. How came you to see the ocean in the breast, which never exists
therein, and how did you see the conflagration in the heart and the
tornado in the bowels, which are never to be found in any of those
places.
5. You said you saw the earth and sky, and the rivers and mountains and
many other things in the mind; but how can these and the world itself,
be in any manner situated therein.
6. The sage replied:--All these things and the world also are mere
non-entities, as there was no pre-existent material cause for the
production of the world, before its coming to existence; therefore
neither the term creation nor its sense, is in any way applicable to
this world or it is seen by us. (It is therefore but the mere phantasm
of an everlasting dream).
7. Hence the world creation and its meaning, proceed from ignorance of
the supreme soul, which is immutable in its nature; and it is ignorance
of this truth (lit. true knowledge), that produces the fallacy (lit.
the false knowledge) of creation. (Therefore the world (_i.e._ the idea
of the world), is ever present in the Divine mind).
8. Therefore I say, O thou fortunate one, that after you come to your
knowledge in this respect (_i.e._ of the nature of God), and your
ignorance of His supremely pure nature is removed:--
9. You will no more believe like myself, the false impression of
your consciousness (of the existence of the world); but must come to
know that, this causeless and uncreated world, is only the expanded
reflexion of your own mind.
10. Where is the body and the heart, and where are these elements
of water &c.; what is this dream and what are these conceptions and
perceptions, and what is life or death or anything else? (All which are
nothing in reality).
11. There is but one transpicuous Intellect everywhere, before which
the subtile ether is opalescent, and the biggest mountain is but a mite.
12. It is of its own nature that this intellectual vacuity, reflects on
something in its thought; and sees the same as its aeriform body; and
this it is what is called the world.
13. As it is our intellect alone, which reflects itself in various
forms in our dream; and as there is nothing besides it that then
presents itself to our view, so this world is no other than the aerial
form of the intellect only.
14. This universe is a quiet vacuity without any stir or shadow of
anything in it; and it is the dimness of the purblind eye of the
intellect, that presents these false shapes to sight, as blind men see
black spots in the clear sky.
15. To my sight the world is neither an entity nor a non-entity, nor is
it a mere void or the shadow or reflexion of anything; but the formless
infinity of the vacuous intellect only: (or the infinite vacuity of the
formless intellect only).
16. As it is in the state of our sleep, that the pure intellect sees
itself in the various forms of its dream, without any cause whatsoever;
so doth it view every thing in its own vacuum in waking also; without
the external objects of sight or its act of seeing them.
17. It is something that is unspeakable and without its beginning and
end; it is apparent with its own conceptions which are one with it and
make no duality in its nature (Lit., whose nature is free from unity or
duality, or as Sádi says:--_azchunin O chunan_, from this & that and so
& such).
18. As there is but one endless duration, embracing the periods both
of creation as well as annihilation; and as the tree comprehends all
its parts, blossoms and fruit under it; so is Brahma the Soul of all.
(These are but parts of one stupendous whole. Pope).
19. As the great edifice of one, appears as an empty space to another;
so as one’s sight of a castle in a mirage, appears as nothing to
another; so this visible world of waking people, is the dream of
sleeping persons, and rising on the ground of their imagination.
20. It is as the transpicuous vacuity of the intellect, exhibits itself
from time to time in itself; that we see the things in our dream, as
we behold them when we are awake; and so also we see the sights in our
waking state, as we behold them in our dreams in sleep.
21. As the fragrance of flowers, lies hid in the invisible air; so the
world lies concealed in the invisible intellect, which sees through
every pore of it.
22. It is by shutting out your thoughts of all and everything from your
mind, that thou mayst quite pure in thyself; and it is then only
that thy infinite soul has its everlasting peace and rest, when it is
freed from all cares, both within and without itself.
23. The Huntsman said:--Tell me sir, how can men get rid of their
thoughts and cares of life, when they invariably accompanied by
the acts and reminiscences of their past lives. Tell me also what kind
of men are subject to the tendencies of their past conduct, and who are
they that are released from them.
24. The sage replied:--Those souls that are full of intelligence and
have their spiritual bodies, are never subject to renewed births nor
to the consequences of their past actions; and such were the bodies
of Brahmá, and Kapila and others, that became manifest of themselves
(suam-bhávah), and such were the supernatural bodies of the gods and
divine incarnations.
25. Their bodies were not of this world, nor were they subject to
its dualistic illusory imaginations; but they were forms of pure
intelligence and of a subtile and spiritual nature.
26. In the beginning of creation, there was no primordial act of any
body, to fashion his form or frame of mind; but there existed the sole
and self-existent Brahma only, who manifested himself in the form of
the world (which is therefore a manifestation of the Deity himself, and
is thence called _tanmaya_ or full of the Divine essence).
27. As the great Brahmá and others, were the manifestations of the
supreme Brahma in the beginning, so there have been many thousands more
that were manifested from the same divine essence, which are known as
pure intelligences, and superior orders of beings. (Such are the gods
and angels and spirits of different denominations).
28. But these persons who are deluded by their ignorance of truth,
to think themselves other than or apart from Brahma, and as dull and
unintellectual beings, and as a distinct duality from the nature of
God:--
29. They are seen to be born again the next time, in consequence of
their past actions, and accompanied with the results of those acts,
whereby they are confined in their unintellectual bodies, in order to
lead their unspiritual lives, quite forgetful of their divine nature,
and subjected to the false belief of their materiality.
30. But such as preserve the purity of their divine character, by
thinking themselves as inseparable from the Divine soul, are known here
as uncontaminated by their former acts, as the persons of the divine
Brahmá, Vishnu and Siva or the holy trinity.
31. All those that know the true nature of the soul, remain with its
purity in the spirit of God; but such as understand it in the light of
the living spirit, live in themselves as detached from the Divine soul.
32. Whenever one knows himself as a mere living being, he is then
certainly accompanied by his ignorance or avidyá; and the soul takes
the name of the animal spirit or life, which is conversant only with
the world wherein it is situated.
33. But as he comes to know in course of time, the true and divine
nature of his soul, he is then reinstated in his real state and becomes
one with the supreme soul of all.
34. As the fluidity of water exhibits itself in the form of whirlpools
in some waters; so the divine intellect shows the in-existent world as
existent, to those understandings which are ignorant of the nature of
the supreme soul. (It is the nature of the omniscient mind, to picture
in itself, the appearances of things that are not in actual existence).
35. The world is the reflexion of omniscience, and not the
representation of our dreaming or waking states; therefore it can have
no action or property of itself, when it is nothing in reality.
36. In fact neither the knowledge of the world nor ignorance of it, or
its action or motion or any of its properties, is anything in reality;
all these are the results of our thought, that represents the unreal as
real one unto us.
37. In truth Brahma being the very creation or the great cosmos itself,
is verily the soul of all beings; it is in vain therefore to suppose
our prior acts as cause of our births. That God is the creator of the
universe, is a mere assumption made from his omnipotence (which is
supposed to make everything out of nothing; but as _ex nihilo nihil
fit_, God is himself diffused throughout all nature).
38. It is impossible for any body to have the bindings of his prior
acts upon him, at his first creation in the world; it was only
afterwards through his ignorance that he fabricated to himself a fate
or causality of his actions for his fruitions in afterlives (_i.e._ in
his subsequent and succeeding births or transmigrations in the world).
39. Say whether the vortex of sea has any body or action of its own; it
is but the whirling water, as Brahma himself is apparent in the form of
this seeming world.
40. As the persons appearing in our dream have no prior acts for their
appearance; so were the living beings in their first formation, endued
with pure understanding only (for want of their prior acts to actuate
them at first).
41. It is a mere supposition, that they had their causal acts at first
creation; and that all living beings have been roving ever since (in
repeated births), being fast bound by the chain of their prior acts.
(Man was pure in his creation, but since his first act of transgression
or original sin, and then his actual sins, have subjected him to the
miserable doom of undergoing repeated births).
42. But this creation is no act of creation, but verily the
manifestations of Brahma himself; and such being the case (that the
world is the selfsame Brahma), say what can acts mean, whence they
proceed and where they lie.
43. It is only the ignorance of the supreme soul, which binds us to the
bondage of acts; but its fetters fall off from the believer of Brahma
by his knowledge of truth. (Those who rely on their acts of faith,
are subjected to them; but the believer in One is released from their
bonds).
44. Know the outward acts of faith, to proceed from ignorance of the
universe; but as the wise man advances in his knowledge, he extricates
himself from the bondage of all religions and ceremonial acts and
observances.
45. Whereas the external acts of faith entirely devoid of any
substantiality or meritoriousness in them, it is no way difficult to
get of them at once; it is solely our spiritual bond which is our
chief concern, beside which there is no bond whatsoever.
46. So long there is the dread of the dreadful illusion of this world,
as long as you do not attain to your wisdom; and so long do you
exhibit your wisdom, that you do not fall into the vertiginous eddy of
worldly affairs. Therefore try always, ye men of pure hearts and soul,
to acquire your wisdom and learning; because there is no other way of
your flying from the fears of the world, save by means of your right
understanding.
CHAPTER CXXXXIII.
ASCERTAINMENT OF NIRVÁNA OR ULTIMATE EXTINCTION.
Argument:--Praise of wisdom and Intellectual knowledge, and
arguments in support of the Intellectuality of the world.
The sage continued:--The wise man shines in the assembly of the
learned, as the sun illumines the assemblage of lotuses, in his
investigation of the duties of religion and ceremonial acts, leading to
the welfare of men in both worlds.
2. The heavenly felicity which is attained by the learned and wise by
means of their spiritual knowledge, is as an ocean of bliss; before
which the prosperity of god Indra even, appears to dwindle away as
rotten straws amidst the billows.
3. I find no such felicity or prosperity, in the three regions of this
earth or heaven above or in the pátála below, which is greater or
comparable with the blissfulness of learning and wisdom.
4. The learned have as clear a sight of the true state of all things,
as the moon-light gives a clear view of the sphere of stars in the
cloudless sky.
5. The visible world, soon vanishes from sight, and turns to the
invisible Brahma, by the sapience of the wise; as a rosary of cord,
appearing at first as a snake, is soon found to be a line upon its
inspection.
6. That Brahmá--the god is ever situated in his Brahma-hood or godhead
is a truth evident by itself; and that it is his nature that gives rise
to the terms creation, destruction, body and others. (Gloss: that the
words creation &c., appertain to his very nature, and are not distinct
from him).
7. He to whom the existence of the world is _nil_ and naught, has no
care or concern for acts and duties, which are no more than blank
letters to him.
8. It is possible to believe in the production of the material world,
from the prior existence of its material cause; but in want of such
there can be no world, nor can there be a cause of it, when it is
itself null and void.
9. It is only the reflection of Brahma, that takes the names of the
earth and all other things; wherefore it is not necessary for these
mere reflexions to have any cause at all. (The substance of God, being
the cause of the shadow).
10. As the men seen in a dream, have no real cause except the
imagination of the dreamer; such are the persons seen in our waking
dreams, but mere reflexions of our imaginations, and not the production
of their parents.
11. As there is not the causality of the prior acts, for the appearance
of persons in human forms in our dream; so neither is there any actual
cause for people seen in waking dream, to assume the garb of humanity
upon them.
12. Both prior acts as well as desires, are equally false in their
causality, of framing living beings in different shapes in their
repeated births, just as they are no causes of producing the persons
seen in our dreams.
13. Men appear as dreams and their impressions, in the course of their
births and deaths; and they are conscious of this state or that as they
think themselves either as the one or the other (_i.e._ we seem to be
or not, as we think ourselves to be).
14. People appear to be as they think of their being, from their
consciousness of themselves; and they seem to be in the same state in
their dream, as they appear in the waking state, both in their intents
and actions. (The dreamer and the dreamt do not differ from their
waking states).
15. The desires and sensations of the dreaming man, are alike those of
the waking, and differing only in the dimness of the former, from the
distinctness of the latter. Thus a dreaming man is sensible of deriving
the same satisfaction, in obtaining the object of his wish as the
waking man; though the one is of a concealed and the other of an overt
nature. (Therefore there is no difference between the states).
16. Whenever our pure consciousness of things, shines forth of its own
nature in either of its two states of clearness or faintness; it is
then the reflexion of the one takes the appellation of waking,
and the other is known as the dreaming state.
17. As long as this consciousness continues to glare in any body, since
his first creation until his final emancipation, he is said to be a
living being, under his repeated births and deaths.
18. The import of the words waking and dreaming, is not at all
different from that of consciousness; whose irrepressible reflexion
constitutes the essence of both states, as light is the essentiality of
luminaries.
19. As heat is the gist of fire, and motion the marrow of the
sufflated air or wind; or as the fluidity of water is the pith of the
billows, and coolness the quiddity of breeze (so is consciousness the
quintessence of both our waking and dreaming states).
20. The whole universe is an unruffled chasm, and an unchanging
unreality; and this seeming reality of the world, is even united with
its negative sense of nihility.
21. Brahma in its exoteric sense, is both the production as well as the
destruction of the world, and equally alike its visible form and its
notion also; but being viewed in its esoteric light, it only of
the nature of the pure Intellect, and the One alone, that is for ever
calm and quiet and undecaying in itself.
22. Whatever thought of causality or effect, passes in the mind of
Brahma at any time, the same comes to take place immediately, as men
construct their houses as they please in cities.
23. The whole creation abides in the mind of God, as the city you dream
of is in your thought; the cause and effect herein, being the same in
one case as in the other.
24. The causality and effectuality are both contained in the womb of
the dense Intellect; and these are exerted in the same manner in the
act of creation of the world, as in that of the construction of thy
imaginary castle.
25. The Divine Intellect employs its will, in the causation of its
intended creation; as you form the plan for the construction of your
projected edifice: Thus the causality and its effect are combined
together in the one and same mind.
26. The divine mind develops itself in its own form of the sky, and the
world that is for ever situated therein, is then called the creation
and lying in the expanse of that sky. (Gloss. The srutis deny the
existence of the outer and visible world).
27. The light which the sun of our consciousness, cast upon the
imaginary city in the mind; is of its own nature what is signified
by the terms causality and its effect. (_i.e._ Our consciousness is
the cause of our knowledge of the world--the false creation of our
imagination).
28. The forms in which the mind displayed itself at first, the
same continue to exist ever since in the same state; and these are
invariably designated by the terms of time, space and the rest.
29. Whatever names are borne by the things, which are exhibited in the
vacuity of the Intellect; they are ever after viewed as realities under
the designations of some as causes and others as their effect (as the
cow is the cause of the production of milk, and the pot is the cause of
its reception, and so forth).
30. The creation which was miraculously displayed in its ideal form in
the Intellect, consisted at first of mere ideas, which received the
name of the (material) world afterwards. (So the sruti: whatever is
thought of in the mind at first, receives a name (or a word) for its
designation afterwards).
31. This triple world is of a vacuous form, and is situated in
the vacuity of the intellect; just as the clear air contains its
insufflation inbred in it. (The inherence of vibration inborn in it).
32. As the vapours and clouds covering the face of the sky, give
the appearance of blueness to it; so the dizziness of ignorance,
misrepresents the clear intellect in the form of the gross world.
33. But on receiving the true reflexion of the spirit in the intellect,
by means of intense meditation, the notion of the creation turns to
that of non-creation; as the false notion of the snake in the rope, is
changed to that of the rope upon its revision.
34. The dead find the future world, as what they used to see in their
dream; but that world as well as this, are equally as formless as the
vacuum of the Intellect. (Both this world and the next, are situated in
the Divine-Mind, and are of the same form as that).
35. The Huntsman said:--Tell me sir, why are men regenerated in new
bodies; for their sufferings and enjoyments in future births; and
tell me also what are the principal and accompanying causes of our
reproduction in this world.
36. If it is on account of the pious or impious acts, which are done
in our present destructible bodies, that we are destined to their
retributions afterwards; then say why our indestructible souls, should
be brought to feel their results in other bodies, which seems to be
very absurd to me.
37. The sage replied:--The words piety and impiety, our desires and
acts, are words of the same import, and significant of their causality
in framing the living soul according to their own stamp; but these are
mere suppositions, and neither true causes of the schesis of our souls,
nor of the modes of our lives.
38. It is the mind which is situated in the vacuous intellect, and
is possest of the power of intellection that imagines in itself the
various states of things (and the happiness and miseries of life),
and gives names to them accordingly. (So says the sruti:--The sapient
seeing the different form and states of things, coin words to designate
them and their various modes also).
39. The conscious soul comes to know by means of its intellection, its
own body in its vacuous self; and after death it sees the same to exist
as in its dream or imagination (_i.e._ in its ideal form).
40. The knowledge of the dead in regard to the next world, is likewise
in the manner of a dream; and though this dreaming state of the soul
continues for a long duration, it bears no truth in its nature.
41. If a new body is framed by another person (such as parents or the
creator himself), for the re-entrance of deceased spirit into it,
then can the new born body have any remembrance of the past, and how
can this body be what the dead person had before, and as for his
intellect, it is a mere vacuity, and cannot pass from one body into
another.
42. Therefore no one that is dead is born again, or is to be reborn
afterwards at any time; it is only an idea of the mind, that I was so
and am reborn as such; and a vain wish in its vacuity, to be born again
some form or other.
43. It is by nature and habitual mode of thinking, that men are
impressed with belief of his regeneration, both by popular persuasion
and scriptural evidence of a state of future retribution, which is
altogether false and fanciful.
44. The soul is an aerial and vacuous substance, giving rise to the
phantoms of visibles, in the forms of shadowy dreams in its spacious
vacuity; and always views its births and deaths in endless repetitions
in this world.
45. It views every particular object, in the illusive net work, which
is spread in its ample sphere; and seems to see and act and enjoy
everything, without being in the actual enjoyment of any thing.
46. In this manner millions and millions of worlds, are constantly
rising before its sight; which appear to be so many visible phenomena
in its ignorance; but which when viewed in their proper light, prove to
be the display of One all pervading Brahma only.
47. But none of them ever occupy any space, nor do any one of them ever
exist anywhere in reality; but there is that one Brahma that spreads
undivided through all, and knows all these an undivided whole,
and yet every one of them forming a world of itself. (The Lord is full
and perfect in each and all of these).
48. Now all beings in these worlds, are connected with one another in
a common link (of the universal soul of all); they appear as realities
to the erroneous sight of people, but being viewed in their true light,
they proved to be self-same with the unborn One.
49. That undecaying One which is known as true reality, to the knower
of the knowable (_i.e._ to him who knows the truth), and what is
understood as unreal by the enlightened sage, is believed to be true
by the ignorant. (This is the contrariety between both).
50. The belief that all things every where are realities, because they
are all but reflexions of the selfsame One; is enough to reconcile
these opposite parties, and to settle in one common faith of universal
catholicism (of One, to pan).
51. Or in order to ascertain, whether the world as one views it is real
or unreal, let one consult his own consciousness about it, and rely on
its verdict, with regard to its reality or otherwise: (because nothing
can upset the undeniable conviction of consciousness).
52. Who can doubt the evidence of consciousness, or confute its
dictates of this kind or that; or with regard to the difference or
identity of things, or their unity or duality.
53. The knowledge of the knowable God; in as much as it is known to us
is right, and establishes the identity of the knowable One with his
knowledge; but the position that the known or visible world, is identic
with the unknown and invisible god, is false and mistaken knowledge.
(_i.e._ God is seen in his works, but the works are not the God).
54. Such being the meaning (of this mystery), the knowable One is
not distinct from knowledge of Him; but being seated in our finite
understanding, is quite unknown to and apart from the ignorant, that
have no knowledge of the knowable One.
55. The Knowable One is known to us in proportion to our knowledge of
him; but not so to those that are ignorant of Him; as our knowledge
increases, so the knowable soul spreads of itself over our souls.
56. Hence the unreal worlds, that appear of themselves as real ones
before the eyes of the ignorant, are naught and nothing to my sight.
57. Being rightly understood, all things are but forms of the one
intellect, and equally void as itself, and this appears in a thousand
shapes to the understanding of gross instincts.
58. As the one intellectual soul assumes many forms to itself as it
exhibits in its dreams, and engrosses them all again into one, or the
single form of its unity in its sound sleep; so doth the Divine soul
appear in one or more forms to our intellects also.
59. Thus our consciousness of God though one and same, yet it appears
in various forms according to the various apprehensions of men; and
are either vacuous or formal, as our dreams and the works of our
imagination.
60. The consciousness of the dreams that we have in the vacuum of our
minds, is what take the name of the worlds; but the sound sleep of the
mind or its unconsciousness of anything, is called its _pralaya_ or
anaesthesia: and this analogy applies equally to them.
61. This substantial totality of existences, are mere perceptions of
the mind only; and whatever appears in any manner in the thought in
any manner at any time or place, the same seems to present itself in
reality before us even then and there.
62. It was the thought alone at first, that manifested itself in the
forms of the primary elements of fire and water, and the earth and in
the beginning of creation, all which rose in the mind in the manner of
dreams and the phantoms of its imagination.
63. Again the inward impressions of these things, that are preserved
in the vacuous space of our consciousness; the same unite together of
themselves, and exhibit unto us this world, in the form as we view it
in our presence.
64. Our consciousness appears unto us, in both its transient as well
as permanent states; while in reality it is no temporary thing, but
continues with us even at the end of all transitory things, as our
transient lives also.
65. Our consciousness accompanies us for ever, wheresoever we remain or
go; conceive in yourself for instance as passing on either towards the
east or west; you see many things and cities on your way; but can never
lose your memory of the past, nor the consciousness of yourself as you
proceed onward. (The knowledge which the mind has of its operations, is
never effaced from it).
66. Anything that the mind has seen or willed or is long practiced to
do or think upon is never effaced from consciousness, unless it be
from numbness of the Intellect. (Gloss. So one is never at a loss to
realize his wishes, unless he is remiss in his efforts to bring them to
effect).
67. You may rove wherever you please, either to the east or west, and
you will find your consciousness to continue same, and never
changing with the change of your place. (So doth one’s consciousness
accompany him even after his death).
68. We have seen the man of steady consciousness, attain to the object
or state of his wish, by his firm perseverance; while on the contrary
the unsteady minded are sure to lose them both: (_i.e._ his wished for
object together with the consciousness of himself).
69. The man of steady consciousness, is possessed of both states
whether he goes to the north or south; but the one that is unsteady in
himself and to his purpose also, is deprived of both (himself and his
object). (Consciousness is joint knowledge of ourselves, in connections
with others, so that the mind knows both what it is, as well as what it
wills).
70. The man of firm intent that thinks of his being both in heaven
and earth, has them both by fixing his mind in one, while his body is
placed in the other; as the man thinking of going both to the east and
west, may do both by walking one way and thinking of the other. But the
man of unsteady purpose is neither for this world or that, nor walks
one way or the other (but stands in the middle).
71. By steadfast belief in the One, we find the intellect alone
pervading the whole vacuity of space; but this one appears as many and
many thousands to the understanding of ignorant sceptics.
72. Be the body destructible because of its materiality, or
indestructible by reason of it being the reflexions of the divine
intellect; yet it is after all but a mere appearance in the dream
of the living soul, whether in this or in the future world. (The
indestructible intellect, cannot be the destructible body, because the
destruction of this would involve the other to destruction also).
73. That the souls of men do not die with their bodies, is evident
from the instances of the ghosts and spirits of the barbarians, that
are invoked by wizards, and made to relate the incidents of their past
lives.
74. Men in the country of barbarians that have long been dead and burnt
down to ashes, are known to reappear before people, and delivering
their errands, to have disappeared with their living souls.
75. If it is impossible for departed souls to reappear like the
living as the Chárvákas say; then let me ask them, why do they not
reckon their absent friends as dead also, and unable to return. (This
argument maintains the doctrine of spirituality, of the capability of
the reappearance of departed spirits from the analogy of the return of
absent people to their homes; as Butler proves the rising of the dead
at the Resurrection, upon the analogy of our waking from sleep).
76. If the property of action be true of the living, why should it not
be equally true of the dead also; upon the analogy of our conception of
the idea of the action of the one as well as of the other.
77. The doctrine of the visionary dream of the world, being the
established and irrefutable truth of Aryan sástras; it is quite
compatible and conformable with the tenet of eternal ideas maintained
in Indian philosophy.
78. These worlds are equally as true as well as false to view, as the
sight of the appearances in the disc of the moon, which appears as
realities to the eyes of beholders, without having any substantiality
in them (The lunar spots are considered as mere marks--_kalankas_
though to all appearance they seem as habitable parts--_chandra-loka_).
79. The subjective world is real, in having all its objects as parts
of the true Entity; and the subjective mind is a reality, in its being
composed of pure ideas only. The Intellect is true as reflexion only,
and so they are all true without having any reality of themselves.
80. All these are immutable and quiet, and lie quiescent in the vacuity
of the Divine Intellect; they are irremovable and unconspicuous of
themselves, and lie immanent in the Divine soul.
81. It is the steady consciousness, that is conscious of whatever is
fixed upon at any time or place; and represents all things whether real
or unreal, that is inbred or inherent in it.
82. Let our bodies rise or fall, and our destinies overtake us as they
will; let happiness or misery befall on us as they are decreed, they
cannot affect the serenity of the indifferent soul.
83. Hence it is of no matter unto us, whether these are realities or
otherwise, or whether it may be so and so or not; avoid your desire for
any thing, and be wise and at rest after all your wanderings.
CHAPTER CXXXXIV.
INVESTIGATION INTO THE NATURE & VICISSITUDES OF THINGS.
Argument:--The Intellect manifested in the World, which is but a
manifestation of the Divine--mind and its Omnipotence.
The sage continued:--The visible world is being a something in nothing
an entity based upon non-entity (_i.e._ a substance based upon the
intellect), resembles our consciousness of things seen in our dream
only. And as all things are eternally situated in the Divine Mind,
there can be no meaning in our being bound to or liberated from them.
2. These worlds that appear to rove before us, are seen as the mites
flying about in the solar rays (or as the bright circlets seeming to
swim before our closed eyes); they are but evanescent phantoms in the
air, and appearing as stable bodies in the minds of the ignorant.
3. Whatever is seen to be placed before us in any form or state, is
soon found to change its mode and manner before us; so likewise is the
changeful state of all things herein, that are continually rotating
like the waters in a whirlpool.
4. The earth, air, water &c., are the materials that combine to form
frail bodies, that are doomed to decay and dissolve in a short time;
and yet they are computed by the ignorant to last for ages--as yugas &
kalpas. (Everything is changing and nothing lasting).
5. The world is a dream, and the totality of existence a mere nihility;
and yet the notion of entity that we of this nullity, is no
other than a reflexion of the one Eternal Intellect.
6. Like this solar world of ours, there are hundreds and thousand
others to be seen in the skies; nor is it incredible that others have
the like notions of other peoples.
7. We see the seas and lakes, teeming with living beings of various
kinds, and find the pools and bogs full of frogs everywhere; but
none of them know anything about the other reservoirs, nor of their
inhabitants neither beside those of their own.
8. As a hundred men sleeping in one and the same room; see as many air
built castles differing from another in their dream; so there appear
different worlds in the airy intellects of some, which are seen and
unknown to others.
9. As many aerial cities are seen, in the dreams of many men, sleeping
together in the same room; so do these aerial worlds appear in empty
sphere of our minds, and are said to be in being and not being in the
same time (_i.e._ being but a dream which is no-being or nothing).
10. The sky is a miracle of the mind, and a phenomenon of itself;
it is visible without its form, and appears as limited without its
limitation, and as created without its creation. (vacuity being
increate).
11. The vacuum bearing the nature of the vacuous mind, is vainly styled
the firm firmament; it presents to view the forms of fleeting objects
in it, as the understanding represents its ideas and passing thoughts
to our knowledge.
12. The remembrance of a thing, is the cause of its dream by night, as
the desire of something causes its conception in the mind; and as the
apprehension of one’s death, proceeds from his seeing in the instances
of others.
13. In the beginning of creation, the world appears as an image in
the mind; which is no other than a flash or reflexion of the Divine
Intellect, and to which no other name than a _réchauffé_ of the Divine
Intellect, can be properly assigned.
14. The saying that Brahma shines as the very world means to say that,
he did not shine anew in the form of the world, but has this form
eternally subsisting in his omniscience.
15. It is said that the cause is (identic with) the effect, because the
common cause of all, is specialized in its form of the effect (_i.e._
the one becomes as many). The action which was confined in the cause
at first (as vegetation in the seed), becomes evolved in the germ of
creation afterwards.
16. When such things (or conditions) occur in the mind in dreams, as
have not been seen or known before, they are called _sanskáras_ or
pristine impressions in the mind (as our inward-passions and feelings),
and not the external objects of sense, which are not inbred in the mind.
17. These mental impressions or reminiscences, are perceptible to us in
our dreaming and not in the waking state; and though they are unseen in
our waking; yet they are not lost unto us so long as we retain those
impressions in the mind. They naturally appear in the soul in dreaming,
as the visibles appear to sight in the waking state.
18. Thus the vedántist comes to know the inexistence of the outer
world, and by knowing the knowable One, they come to attain the
consummation of their object (which is the attainment of their final
emancipation or _moksha_).
19. The impressions of the waking state, which occur in the state
of dreaming, are the newly made imprints of the waking hours on the
memory; and these make the sleeping hours seem as waking to the
dreaming soul.
20. These recent ideas fluctuate in the mind, as by the breath of the
wind, and they occur and recur of themselves, without the agency of
pristine impressions.
21. There is one sole Intellect only, possessed of its many multitudes
of airy dreams; and being dispossessed of them at last, it remains
solely by and in itself.
22. The consciousness that we have of the dreams, ranging at large in
the empty sphere of our Intellect, is verily what is denominated the
world by us; and the want of this consciousness in our sound sleep,
is what is termed the extinction of world by ourselves. This analogy
applies also to the nature of the self-existed One.
23. There exists only the infinite sphere of one eternal Intellect, and
there appears an infinity of shapes, perpetually rising and setting in
its open in the manner of dreams. These are born of its own nature and
are called the world, and bear the same intellectual form with itself.
24. Thus the atomic particle of the Intellect, contains the form of
the whole cosmos within its bosom; which is an exact ectype of its
archetype, as the shadow under a mirror, is the true representation of
the prototype.
25. The cavity of the Intellect contains the consciousness which is
diffused in it like the dilution of an atom; and extends throughout
without beginning and end, and this is called the cosmos.
26. Hence as far as the vacuity of the Intellect extends to all
infinity, there is the appearance of the wide world connected with it,
as immanent in and identic with itself at all times. (The intimate
connection of the subjective mind and objective world together).
27. The intellect is selfsame with the world, and therefore all minds
and intellectual beings as myself and thyself, are worlds or microcosm
also; and it for this reason that the great macrocosm of the
world, is said to be comprised in the corpuscle of the mind.
28. Therefore I who am a minute soul, am of the form of the whole
world also (being its container in the mind); hence I abide everywhere
likewise, even in the midst of an atom also.
29. Being in the form of the _minutiae_ of the intellect, I am also
as great as the universal soul, and as expanded as the open air all
around; I also see all the three worlds about one, wherever I abide or
move. (All things are present in the mind, at all places and times).
30. I am an atom of the intellectual soul, and am joined with the
intellectual soul of the universe; it is my sight of the supreme spirit
in my meditation, that I am lost in it as a drop of water is lost in
the ocean.
31. Having entered into the Divine spirit, and feeling its influence in
me, I am filled with its cognition; and behold the three worlds within
me, as the seed lies hid in the pericarp or in the seed vessel (to be
developed in its future foliage).
32. I see the triple world expanding within myself (according to our
reminiscence of the same which is engraven in the mind), beside which
there is no outer world on the outside of any body. (The world lies in
the conception of mind only, and the exterior one is but a reflexion of
the same).
33. Whenever the world appears in any form, whether of a gross or
subtile nature, as in the states of our waking or dreaming; both these
forms of the interior or exterior worlds, are to be known as the
reflexion of the ideal one imprinted in the intellect.
34. When the living soul indulges itself in the sight of the world,
in the state of its dreaming; it is to be known as a reflexion of the
expanded particle of the intellect, which the sleeping soul delights to
dote upon.
35. The Huntsman rejoined:--If the visible world is causeless or
without its maker, then how could it come into existence, and if it be
a caused or created exterior world, how could we have any knowledge of
it in the sleeping and dreaming of the soul.
36. The sage replied:--All this is without a cause, and the world
proceeded at first without any causality whatever. (The Muni means
to say that there cannot be any independent or instrumental cause of
creation save the emanation of One oneself).
37. It is verily impossible for gross and perishable bodies and
transient beings, to come to being without a cause; but that which is
a facsimile or shadow only of the antitype and original model of the
eternal mind, cannot possibly have any cause at all.
38. It is Brahma himself that thus shines refulgent, by nature of his
intellectual effulgence; hence the world’s creation and destruction are
utterly inapplicable to what is without its beginning and end.
39. Thus the uncaused creation, abides in the substance of the great
God, and shines forth with divine glory to all infinity. It is to
gross minds only, which are prepossessed with the grosser ideas of
materiality, that it appears in the form of a gross material body.
40. What numberless varieties do there appear in the unvaried Brahma,
and what un-numbered diversities of shapes and forms are seen in the
formless One, that is ever unchanged and imperishable.
41. Brahma is formless in his person (which is of a spiritual form);
yet he exhibits himself in many forms, in his being the mind (or mirror
of all ideal forms); where he represents his spiritual self or soul, in
all the various forms of moving and immovable bodies.
42. He makes the gods, sages and seers in his likeness, and directs
them to their different degrees and duties also; he stablishes the laws
and prohibitions of conduct, and appoints the acts and observances at
all times and places.
43. All existences and privations, productions and destructions, of
moving or unmoving bodies, whether great or small ones, are subject to
his decree, and can never transgress any of his general laws.
44. Ever since the general decree, nothing takes place without its
proper special cause; as you can never expect to exude oil from sand
(save from oily seeds).
45. The destined decree of providence, is the leader of all events
in the world; it is as one part of the body of Brahma, by which he
represses the other part of himself (_i.e._ his will); as we restrain
the action of one hand by the other. (One over-ruling fate governs even
Jove himself).
46. This unavoidable destiny overtakes us, against our prudence and
will, like the sudden fall of a fruit on a flying crow (काकतालीय) and
drives us along with its course, as the tide or eddy bears down the
waters with it.
47. The preordination of certain effects from certain causes, is
what is called destiny; without which there result all disorder and
disturbance, and in want of which the great Brahma even cannot abide.
It is therefore the imperishable soul of all existence.
48. Thus then this destiny is the cause of all, and although it is
unseen and unknown, yet it acts on all as it is destined for them ever
since their very production. (This is no more than the unchangeable law
of nature).
49. The uncausing Brahma that causes nothing, is believed by the
ignorant as the causal agent of creation; which they mistake as the
production of its maker by error of their judgment.
50. The wise man however, seeing the sudden appearance of world
before him, like the rotation of a wheel, considers its causes as
such and such or this and that, as they have been determined by their
preordained destiny.
51. So all existent bodies have their special causes, in their
primordial destiny, which determines their subsequent lots in endless
succession. Hence the occurrences, of our waking state, resembling the
visions in our dream, are never without their antecedent causes.
52. Thus when I dreamt the erroneous dream of the destruction of the
world, caused by concussion of the elements and waters I had its cause
inbred in me, in my reminiscence of the great deluge I had heard of in
traditional narration.
53. In this manner we see the reflexions of almighty power in all
things that come under own reflection (or observation), just as we
see the crystals and shell-fishes shining with their intrinsical
brightness. May this Omnipotent power that is ever-living soul of
souls, and known to us in our imperfect notion of him, be glorified for
ever and ever.
CHAPTER CXXXXV.
DESCRIPTION OF THE WAKING, DREAMING AND SLEEPING STATES.
Argument:--The three Humours of Human body Composing the three
states of its earthly existence.
The sage continued:--The living soul (or man) perceives the dream of
the outer world, by means of the external organs of sense; and that of
the inner world by the internal senses; but the quickness of both the
internal and external senses, gives the sensations of both these worlds
to the soul.
2. When the outer senses are busily employed with outward objects, then
the perceptions of mental objects and inner functions become faint and
fainter by degrees.
3. When the external senses are all directed to the inside, and the
inner senses are concentrated in the mind; then the object of thought
and the idea of the world however minute they had been before, assume
gradually a more expanded form, and present their extended appearances
to the soul. (Brooding upon a thought, dilates it the more).
4. In this manner the world which is nothing in reality, being once
thought upon as something however small in its idea, dilates itself to
an enormous size in the mind, which cast at last its reflexion on the
external organs of sense also, and make it appear so big and vast to
sight.
5. When the eyes and senses of a living person, are occupied with outer
objects, then the soul beholds the intellect, the form of the exterior
world only (so the external senses carry their impressions to the mind
also).
6. The intellectual and aeriform soul, is composed of the congeries
of all outward sensations; namely of the ears or hearing, touch or
feeling, seeing and smelling, and taste as also of the four internal
sensations of will or volition.
7. Therefore the living soul is always present at every place,
accompanied with all the senses in its intellect, hence the airy
intellect is to be ever unobstructed, because it always knows and sees
every where.
8. When the phlegmatic humour or fluid of the body, fills the veins and
arteries of the living person; the soul is then lulled to sleep and to
see false visions in its dream.
9. It seems to swim in a sea of milk, and to soar in the moonlight
sky; it thinks it sees a limpid lake about it, filled with full blown
lotuses and their blooming buds.
10. It sees in itself the flowery gardens of the vernal season,
and mantled in vest of flowers, vying with the bespangled sky, and
resounding with the warbling of birds, and the buzz of humming humble
bees.
11. It sees all mirth and festivity afoot in its mansion, and the
merry dance of sportive damsels afloat in its compound; and views its
court-yard filled with provisions of food and drink (to its heart’s
content).
12. It beholds profluent streams like adolescent maidens, running
sportfully to join the distant sea; girt with the swimming flowers
and smiling with their flashy foams; and darting about their fickle
glances, in flitting motion of the shrimps, fluttering on the surface
of the water.
13. It views edifices, turrets, rising as high as the summits of
the Himálayan mountains, and the tops of ice bergs (in the frigid
climes); and having their white washed walls, appearing as if they were
varnished with moon-beams.
14. It sees the landscape covered by the dews of the dewy season, or as
hid under the mists of winter, and shrouded by the showering clouds of
the rainy weather, and views the ground below overgrown with herbaceous
plants, and the muddy marshes grown over with blue lotuses.
15. The woodlands were seen to be overspread with flowers, and resorted
to by droves of deer and the weary traveller; that halted under the
cooling umbrage of the thickening foliage of the forest, and were
soothed by soft breezes of the sylvan spot.
16. The flowery arbour had all its alleys and arcades, bestrewn over
with the flaring farina of flowers; and the crimson dusts of _Kunda_,
_Kadamba_ and _Mandara_ blossoms, were blushing and mantling the
scenery all around.
17. The lakes were attired in azure with blue lotuses, and the ground
wore the flowing floral garment of flowers; the woodlands were clear of
clouds, and the firmament was clear and cold under the autumnal sky.
18. The mountain range was crowned with rows of _Kunda_, _Kadamba_
and _Kadalí_ or plantain trees, which waved their leafy fans on their
exalted heads, which appeared to nod at the dancing of the leaflets.
19. The tender creepers were shaking with negligence, with the unblown
buds and blossoms upon them; appeared as young damsels dancing
gracefully, with strings of pearls on their slender persons.
20. It sees the royal hall and the regal synod, shining as brightly as
the blooming lotus-bed in the lake; and he sees also the fanning white
_chouries_ and waving over them, like the feathered tribe, flapping
their wings over the floral lake (or lotus beds).
21. It sees also the running rills softly gliding in playful mood,
with curling creepers and flowers wreathed with their currents; and
murmuring along with mixed music of birds on the spray beside them.
22. The dhará--terra or earth was filled and flooded, by dhára
or torrents of water falling from the _adharas_ or cataracts, of
_dharádharas_ or mountains; and all the sides of heaven were obscured
by the showers of rain and snows, falling all about its vault.
23. When the internal channels of the body are filled with the fluid of
bile (pitta), the soul remains with its internal vigor as an atom in
its cell, and then sees the dreams of the following nature in itself.
24. It sees flames of fire about it, and red _kinsuka_ flowers upon its
withered trees and blasted by the winds; it sees also the forms of red
lotus flowers, burning as flames of fire before it.
25. The inner nerves and veins became as dry of the gastric juice, as
when the limpid streams turn to dry sand banks; and there appear flames
of wild fire, and dark smoke flying over the darkened face of nature.
26. There appear fires to be blazing around, and the disk of the sun
seems to dart its burning rays; wild fires are seen in forests, the
withered and the dried ponds emit a poisonous gas, instead of their
limpid waters.
27. The seas are seen with their boiling waters, and turning to beds
of hot mire and mud; the horizon is filled with sultry winds, and the
forests with flying ashes, while the deserts appeared quite desolate
all about.
28. The moving sands spreading about, and flying like a flight of
storks in the air; the landscape appearing otherwise than before, and
the former verdure of the trees, are no more coming to sight.
29. It sees the fearful wayfarer, covered over by the burning sand of
the parching desert; and looking wistfully on the distant tree by the
way side, spreading its cooling ambrosial shade over the parched ground.
30. It sees the earth burning as a flaming furnace with all its lands
and places hid under the ashes, and a dark cloud of dust covering the
face of the sky on all sides.
31. The world appears in a flame on all sides, with all its planetary
bodies, cities and seas, together with the hills and forests and the
open air, all which seem to be burning in a blaze.
32. It sees the empty clouds of autumn, spring and hot seasons, that
serve to favour the fires instead of quenching them; and beholds the
lands below covered with grass and leafy creepers, which entrap them as
vestures of clouds.
33. It sees the ground glittering as gold on all sides, and the waters
of the lakes and rivers, and the snowy mountains even all tepid and hot.
34. When the channels of the body are dried up, for want of the gastric
juice, they are filled with wind and flatulence; and the soul retaining
its vigour, sees various dreams of the following description.
35. The understanding being disturbed by the wind, sees the earth
and the habitations of men and the forests, and sees in dream, quite
different from what they appeared before.
36. The soul beholds itself as flying in the air, with the hills and
hilly lands all about it; and hears a rumbling noise as that of the
whirling of the wheels of a chariot.
37. It seems to be riding about on horse back, or upon a camel or eagle
or on the back of a cloud, or riding in a chariot drawn by ganders or
swans.
38. It sees the earth, sky and cities and forests, all appearing before
it; and trembling as in fear like bubbles in the water.
39. It finds itself as fallen in a blind ditch, or in some great
danger, or as mounting in the air, upon a tree or hill.
40. When the conduits of the body are filled, with a combination of all
the three humours of phlegm, bile and flatulence; then the soul is led
by the windy humour to see several dreams of the following nature.
41. It sees rainfalls flowing down the mountains, and hailstones
hurling down its sides to its terror; it hears the bursting of the
hills and edifices, and sees the trees to be moving about.
42. Woods and forests, appear to gird the distant horizon; which is
over cast by huge clouds, and traversed by big elephants and lions.
43. The palm and támala trees, appear to be burning around; and the
hollow caves and caverns, to resound with the harsh noise of the
flashing fire and falling trees.
44. The mountain craigs seeming to be clashing and crashing against one
another, and the caverns resounding to their hoarse and harsh crackling.
45. The mountain tops also seem to clash against each other, and emit
a harsh and hideous noise about them; and the streams running amidst
them, appear as wearing necklaces with the loosened creepers and bushes
which they bore away.
46. Fragments of rocks are seen, to be borne away by the mountain
streams to the ocean; and the torn bushes which they carried down,
seemed to spread as far as the utmost pole.
47. Craggy hills seemed to crash each other with their denticulated
edges, and crashed and split themselves with their harsh and hideous
sounds.
48. The forest leaves with creepers were scattered all around by the
strong wind, and the broken stones of the mountain made their bed over
the moss below.
49. The tall _tála_ trees fell to the ground with _marmara_ sound, like
the wars of the Gods and Titans of yore; and all birds flew with a
harsh scream, like the crying of men at the last day of desolation of
the world.
50. All woods, stones and earth mixed together as one mass, like
_jaríkrita jíva_ in dream.
51. Silence reigned there like worm underneath the earth, and frog
underneath a stone, boy within the belly, and the seed within the fruit.
52. Like boiled rice and solidified liquid in the bowel, and the
sapling within the wall of a pillar.
53. The vital air ceased to blow, and the all things are blamed, as if
they are encased within the hollow of the earth.
54. Deep darkness reigned there, and _susupti_ appeared like deep dark
well within the cavern of a mountain.
55. As heavy food is digested by the digestive organ of the body, and
afterward by a separate juice a new energy comes within, so the vital
air which once disappeared, makes its appearance again.
56. As after digestion certain kind of juice appears within the body in
the shape of vitality, so stone begins to fall therein.
57. As fire increases more fire, a little adds little more; so the
combination of triple humours, composes the inward and outward essence
of the body.
58. Thus the living soul being confined within the bonds of the body,
and led by force of the triple humours (phlegm etc.); sees (by means of
its internal senses), the dreams of the absent world, as it beholds
the visions of the visible phenomena, with its external organs of sense.
59. It is according to the more or less excitement of the senses, by
the greater or less irritation of the humours, that the mind is liable
to view its internal vision, in a greater or less degree; but the
action of the humours being equable, the tenor of the mind runs in an
even course.
60. The living soul being beset by irritated humours (from the effects
of intoxication, mantras or poison and the like), looks abroad over the
wide world, and sees the earth and sky and the mountains to be turning
round; and flames of fire issuing from burning piles.
61. It finds itself rising to and moving about the skies, the rising
moon and ranges of mountains; sees forests of trees and hills, and
floods of water washing the face of heaven.
62. It thinks itself to be diving on and floating on the waters, or
rambling in heavenly abodes, or in forests and hilly places, and finds
itself to be floating in the sky, upon the backs of hoary clouds.
63. It sees rows of palms and other trees ranged in the sky, and sees
the false sights of hell punishments, as the sawing and crushing of
sinful bodies.
64. It fancies itself to be hurled down by a turning wheel, and rising
instantly to the sky again; it sees the air full of people, and thinks
itself as diving in the waters upon the land.
65. It sees the business of the daytime, carried on everywhere at
night, the sun shining then as in the day time; and a thick darkness
overspreading the face of the day.
66. The mountainous regions are seen in the skies, and the land is seen
to be full of holes and ditches; rows of edifices are seen in the air,
and amity is found to be combined with enmity (friends turning to foes
and _vice versa_).
67. Relatives are thought as strangers, and wicked people are taken
for friends; ditches and dells are viewed as level land, and flats and
planes appear as caves and caverns.
68. There appear hoary mountains of milky whiteness and crystal gems,
and resonant with the melody of birds; and limpid lakes are seen to
glide below, with their water as sweet as butter.
69. Forests of various trees appear to sight, and houses adorned with
females, appearing as lotuses fraught with bees.
70. The living soul thought it lies hid within, and closed in itself;
yet perceives all these sights without, as if it were awake to them.
(Thus the derangement of the humours, causes these errors of sensation
of perceiving what is not present to the senses).
71. In this manner it is the work of vitiated humours, to represent
many such sights of external objects, in the forms of dream to the
minds of people.
72. It is usual with men of disordered humours, to see many
extraordinary sights and fearful appearances, both within and without
them (_i.e._ in their dreaming and outward sight also).
73. When the internal organs are equable in their action, then the
course of nature and the conduct of people, appear in the usual state.
74. Then the situations of cities and countries, and the positions
of woods and hills, are seen in the same calm, clear and unperturbed
state, as they are known to exist, agreeably to the natural order of
things; such as cool and clear streams, shady forests, and countries
and paths traversed by passengers.
75. Days and nights decorated with the pleasant beams of the sun and
moon, and the rays of the starry array; and all other appearances,
however unreal in their nature, appear as wonders to the sight and
other senses.
76. The perception of phenomenals is as innate in the mind, as
vacillation is inherent in the wind; and viewing the unreal as real,
and the intrinsical or what is derived from within it, as separate and
extrinsic or derived from without, is the essential property of its
nature.
77. It is the calm and quiet spirit of Brahma, that gives rise to
all things which are equally calm and quiet also; the world is mere
vacuum, without having any reality in it. It is the vacuous mind that
represents endless varieties of such forms in the sphere of its own
vacuity, as the endless reflexions of its vacuous person.
CHAPTER CXXXXVI.
DISQUISITION OF SOUND SLEEP.
Argument:--Relation of sleep after dream, and followed by dream
likewise, concluding with proof of the unity of God.
The Huntsman said:--Tell me, O great sage, what did you do and see
afterwards, from your seat in the erroneous spirit of that person.
2. The sage replied:--Hear me tell you next, what I did and saw
afterwards, by my union with and my situation in the spirit of that
infatuated person.
3. As I resided in the dark cave of his heart, in the confusion of the
last doomsday; there arose methought a hurricane, which blew away the
mountains as straws, on the day of the final desolation of the world.
4. It was soon followed by outpourings of rain water from the mountain
tops; which bore away the woods and hills in the torrent.
5. As I dwelt in that cavity and in union with the vitality of the
individual, I perceived even in that state of my spiritual minuteness,
the falling rains and hailstones from the mountain tops.
6. I was then folded in the chyle of that person, and fell into a state
of sound sleep, and felt a deep darkness enveloping me all over.
7. Having laid down in my sleep for some time, I was gradually raised
from my sleepy state; as the closed lotus of the night, unfolds its
petals in the morning.
8. Then as a man lying in darkness, comes to see some circular disks
appearing to his sight; so I saw some flimsy dreams flying about and
hovering upon me.
9. Being released from the chain of sleep, I fell to a chain of dreams;
and saw a hundred shapes of things, arising in my spirit, as the
shapes of unnumbered waves and billows, rise in the bosom of the sea.
10. Very many forms of visible things, appeared in the cell of my
consciousness; as a great many flying things are seen to be volitant in
the still and motionless air.
11. As heat is inherent in fire, and coldness is innate in water, and
as fluidity is characteristic of liquids, and pungency is immanent in
pepper &c.; so is the world inborn in Brahma.
12. The nature of the Intellect being uniform and selfsame in itself;
the phenomenal world is engrained in it, as the dream of a new born
child, presents itself to the sight of a sleeping man. (Sight is here
applied to the mind’s eye).
13. The Huntsman rejoined:--Tell me sir, how is it possible for the
Intellect to have the sight of anything in its state of sound sleep,
since dreams never occur in the mind except in the state of slight and
light sleep.
14. Again in the state of sound sleep both of yourself, as also of the
person in whose heart you dwelt; how could the sight of the creation
appear to you (or has the term _sound sleep_ any other sense than
the state of utter nescience?) (Sound sleep is the state of utter
insensibility or _anaesthesia_--gloss).
15. The sage replied:--Know that creation is expressed by the words,
_viz. jáyati_ is born, bháti appeareth, and _kachati_ shineth; and are
applied indiscriminately to all material things, as pots and pictures
(घट पट) as well as to the world also; all these words
are used to express a duality (or something different as proceeding
from Unity), by men whose brains are heated with dualism, or the notion
of a duality (as different from the nature of the Unity or the only
One).
16. Know that the word _játa_ or born means only being (sattwa), and
its synonyms are _prádurbháva_--manifestation, which is derived from
the root _bhu_ to be.
17. Now the meaning of Bhu is being, which expresses the sense of being
born also, and the _sarga_ meaning production or creation, it is same
with being also.
18. With us learned men, there is nothing as jáyáti or what is made
or may be said to be born or destroyed; but all is one calm and quiet
unborn being only. (An eternal ideal entity).
19. The whole and soul of this entity, is the one Brahma alone
(the only Ens to On or the Om); and the totality of existence, is
the Cosmos, macrocosm or the world. Say then what hypostasis or
unsubstantiality is there that can be positively affirmed or denied of
it, which is of them alike.
20. That which is called _sakti_ or the active energy of God, resides
literally in the Divine spirit, but not as a free or separate power of
itself; because all power subsists in Omnipotence, which is self same
with Brahma, and not as an attribute or part of him. (Vedánta ignores
the predicates of potentiality as predicable of Brahma, who is the very
essence of Omnipotence).
21. The properties of waking, sleep and dreaming, do not belong to the
nature of God, according to the cognition of men learned in divine
Knowledge; because God never sleeps nor dreams, nor does he wake in the
manner of His creature. (No changing property appertaining to finite
beings can ever be attributable to the Infinite, who is as He is).
22. Neither sleep nor the airy visions of dreaming, nor also anything
that we either know or have any notion of, can have any relation to
the nature of the Inscrutable One; any more than the impossibility of
our having any idea of the world before its creation. (So the Persian
mystic Berun Zátash, aztohmate chunan to chunin. His nature is beyond
our comprehension and presumption of it as so and such).
23. It is the living soul which sees the dream, and imagines the
creation in itself; or else the pure intellect is quite unintelligible
in its nature, and remains as clear as either in the beginning of
creation.
24. The Intellect is neither the observer nor enjoyer (_i.e._ neither
the active nor passive agent of creation); it is something as nothing,
perfectly quiet and utterly unspeakable in its nature.
25. In the beginning there was no cause of creation, or creative agent
of the world; it is only an ideal of the Divine Mind, and exists for
ever in the same state, as a vision in the dream or an airy castle of
imagination.
26. It is thus that the individual Intelligence, is apprehended as a
duality by the unwise, but never by the intelligent; because ignorant
men like silly infants are afraid of the tiger or snake that is painted
upon their own person; but the intelligent knowing them too well to be
marked upon their own bodies, never suspect them as anything otherwise
than their own person.
27. The One invariable and translucent soul, which is without its
beginning, middle and end, appears as varying and various to the
unreflecting dualist and polytheist; but the whole appearing so
changeful and conspicuous to sight, is all a perfect calm and quiet and
serene prospect in itself.
CHAPTER CXXXXVII.
THE PHENOMENON AND PERSPECTION OF DREAMS.
Argument:--The rise of dream from sound sleep; and the vision of
friends and relations in Dreaming.
The sage continued:--Hear me now, O strong armed archer, how I awoke
from my sound sleep, and saw the sight of the world in my dream; just
a man rising on the surface from the depth of the sea, surveys the
heavens above him.
2. I saw the heavens, as hewn out of the etherial vacuum; and I beheld
the terrestrials, as sculptured out of the earth; but found them all,
to be fashioned out of the Divine Mind; or framed in that manner, by my
visual organs or ocular deception only.
3. The world appeared, as the early or long sprung blossom of the
arbour of the eternal mind; or as the ceaseless waves of the vast
ocean, or as phantoms of my deluded eye sight.
4. It seemed to appear from the bosom of the sky above, or to have
proceeded from all sides of heaven; it seemed moreover as a masonry
carved out of the mountains of all quarters of the firmament, and also
as a prodigy rising out of the earth or Tartarus.
5. It seemed also to have sprung out of the heart, as any of its
feelings or affections; and to have filled all the space of vacuity,
as the all pervading clouds of heaven; methought it likewise as the
produce of a large forest, or like seeds or grains growing out of the
earth.
6. As pictures of houses with apartments, are painted upon the planes
of level plates; so the figures of living beings, are drawn upon the
smooth flatness of the Intellect, together with all the members and
organs of their bodies.
7. These worlds appear to have sprung in some unknown part of Infinity,
and to have presented themselves to our view, like flying herds of
distant regions coming to our sight; or as presents are brought
to the presence of prince from different parts of lands, or as the
retributions and rewards of one’s or bad deeds in this life,
meet him in the next and successive transmigration.
8. The world is but a blossom of the great arbour of Brahma, or a
little billow of vast ocean of Eternity; it is a sculpture on the
colossal pillar of the Intellect, without being carved out or cast upon
it. (It is the macrocosm moulded in the mind of God).
9. The firmament is the ample field, filled with an infinity of worlds,
appearing as our earthly abodes in the empty city of air; the mind
wanders at random all over it as an infuriate elephant, with an airy
empty life, as fickle and fleeting as a breath of air.
10. The edifice of the world appears to be built without its
foundation, and is unsupported by walls; and the sky appearing so
bright and variegated, is without any colour or taint of its own;
it is the magical power of the great magician, that has displayed
these wonders and spread a curtain of delusion over the ignorant and
infatuated world. (Instead of knowledge, man has rather eaten the fruit
of the tree of ignorance).
11. Though the creation seems so exuberant, at all places and in all
times; yet it is quite quiescent, and unbounded by any limitation of
space and time; and though it appears as multitudinous yet it is the
single unity; and though seemingly multifarious, yet is all but one
invariable uniformity.
12. The instance of the fairy land is exactly alike to that of this
world, in respect of the unreality of both; and it is the same error
which occurs to us in our dream, possesses us also even in our
waking state of dreaming. (Equality of day and night dreams).
13. It is the reflexion of the mind only, that represents the absent
past, as well as the future which is yet to be, as already present
before it; whether they relate to aught of time or place, or substance
or action or anything relating to its creation or its destruction.
14. There are numberless beings contained under every species of
animals, which contain others _ad infinitum_ in their ovaries, bearing
animalcules like seeds of pomegranate fruits.
15. The rivers, forests and mountains, are seen to be beset by clouds
of the sky, and studded with the gemming stars of heaven; and the sea
is heard to resound with the loud larum of battle drums, raised by the
warring winds with the conflicting currents.
16. I then beheld there a visible sphere before me, amidst which I saw
the village of my prior dream, and recognized the spot of my former
residence therein.
17. I saw there all my former friends and relations, at the very spot
and of the same age as I had seen them before; I saw my wife and my
very children seated in the very same house.
18. Seeing my fellow villagers and my former village scenes, my heart
wished to meet them as violently, as the sea-waves swell to meet the
shore.
19. I then began to embrace all my relatives, and felt happy at my
joining with them; and being enrapt by my desire of seeing more and
more, I utterly lost all my remembrance of the past.
20. As a mirror receives the reflexion of whatever is present before
it, so the mirror of the mind is wholly occupied with the objects of
its future desires, and becomes unmindful of the past.
21. It is the vacuity of the Intellect, that has the knowledge of
everything; nor is there any other principle of understanding beside
the intellect, which ever subsists by itself.
22. He who has not lost his pure understanding, and his remembrance of
himself; is never misled by the goblin of dualism or doubt, to think of
a duality.
23. He whose understanding is awakened by his constant inquiry into
truth and divine knowledge, and by his study of good sástras and
attendance on divine sages, does not forget his enlightenment any more
(nor relapses to his former ignorance).
24. He who is imperfect in his divine knowledge, and whose mind
is bound down by worldly desires; is liable to lose his good
understanding, as it were by the influence of an unfavourable planet or
inauspicious star.
25. Know thou, O huntsman! that thy understanding also, which is not
yet cultivated by association with the wise, is liable to fall into
error of duality, and involve thee thereby to repeated difficulties.
26. The Huntsman answered:--It is all very true, O sage, that
notwithstanding all thy lectures, my understanding does not find its
rest in the knowledge of only true One.
27. My understanding is still hanging in doubt, as to whether it is so
or not; and though I rely in my conception of the truth as you have
declared, yet my mind finds no rest in it.
28. Ah! that though I fix my faith on the doctrine you have preached,
yet I cannot rest secure in it, so long as my ignorance reigns supreme
in me.
29. Unless the understanding is enlightened in the company of wise men,
by attending the doctrine of the best sástras, and due examination of
their precepts, there can be no end of the errors of the world, nor any
rest for the weary soul, wandering continually in the maze of errors.
CHAPTER CXXXXVIII.
INVESTIGATION INTO THE NATURE OF DREAMS.
Argument:--Truth and untruth of Dreams.
The Huntsman said:--If the sight of the world is no more than a
vision in dream, then tell me, O great sage, where lies its truth or
falsehood, which is a matter of great doubt and difficulty to me.
2. The sage replied:--That dream is true and comes actually to take
place, which rises in our consciousness under the conditions of proper
place and time, and right actions and things. (These are the morning
dreams relating to pious acts and sacred things in some adjacent place).
3. A dream that is caused by use of some gem or drug or by effect of
some mantra or amulet, comes to pass in actu, whether it is favourable
or not to the dreamer.
4. When the earnest desire of a man, presents itself in the shape of a
dream before his mental sight, it comes to occur by accident by law of
chance.
5. Whatever we believe with certainty in our consciousness, the same is
sure as fate, we are sure to see and become the same (by the natural
tendency and constitution of our minds).
6. Certainty removes the uncertainty, if any one reaches there, the
other falls down absolutely.
7. No object is ever situated, either in the inside or outside of any
body; it is the consciousness alone, that assumes to itself the various
forms of worldly things, and remains in the same state as it knows
itself to be.
8. The certainty arrived at by evidence of the sástras, that the
phenomenals are as appearances in a dream, makes it to be believed as
so indeed; but a disbelief, in this belief makes one a sceptic, who
wanders about in his doubts for ever. (Without coming to a settled
belief).
9. If one gains his object by any other means, notwithstanding his
belief in the visionariness of the world; that gain is to be reckoned
as a visionary one only.
10. Whatever is ascertained as true in the world, by the strong
consciousness of any body in his waking state; the same comes to be
known as otherwise or (untrue), in course of time and change of place
either sooner or later.
11. In the beginning the world existed in Divine Intellect, and was
represented in its subtile and incompressible form; It had its essence
in the mind of God, and then extended its tenuous substance to any
length _ad libitum_.
12. Know that beside the true and immutable entity of the intellect
of Brahma alone, all others are both real and unreal, and lasting and
transient also. (They are real as reflexion of the Divine Mind, and
unreal and transitory in their phenomenal aspects.)
13. Whereas Brahma is the only ens and soul of all, there can be no
other that may be styled as such; say therefore what else is there,
that may be called a reality or non reality either.
14. Whether therefore a dream be true or false at anytime, it cannot be
deemed as the one or the other, by either the ignorant or enlightened
part of mankind.
15. The phenomenal world appears before us, by delusion of our senses
and misconception of our consciousness; the visible worlds commonly
passed under the name of illusion (máyá), hath naught of reality or
certainty in it.
16. It is the Divine Intellect that flashes forth in the mind, with the
glare of the glaring world; just as fluidity is seen to be thrilling
and flowing still, in all bodies of waters and liquids.
17. As one sees a dream at first, and falls fast asleep afterwards;
so doth everybody behold the phenomenals in his waking state, and
then falls naturally into a deep and sound sleep. (This refers to the
alternate creation and annihilation of the world).
18. Know then, O great sage, that the waking state is analogous to that
of dreaming; and know the dreaming state to be as that of waking,
and that both these states are but the two phases of the one and same
Brahma (as the liquid and condensed states of ghee or butter are both
the same).
19. The Divine Intellect is a vacuous and incomprehensible entity,
and the spacious universe is its reflexion only; the three states of
waking, dreaming and sleeping, are the triple hypostases of the same
being (or Divine Existence).
20. There is no law regarding the efficacy of dreams, say how can you
determine any rule for ascertaining the results of various dreams.
21. As long as the mind dwells on the appearance of dreams (either in
sleep or waking), so long it is troubled with its vagaries; therefore
the sage must wipe off their impressions from his consciousness.[1]
22. It is the humour of the mind that gives rise to dreams, like
pulsation in air causing the current wind; there is no other cause of
dreams nor any laws for governing them; except the sound sleep (or
insouciance), when these appearances entirely subside or vanish away.
23. It is the manner of the learned, to impute the cause of the
impressions in our consciousness, to external appearances of this thing
or that (or ghata patadi &c.); but relying on the doctrine of the
causelessness of external objects (or the objective), they prove to be
no other than mere imaginations of the subjective mind (or noumenal
only).
24. In this therefore there is other law with respect to this,
than the appearances of things whatever they be, are generally granted
as such by the common sense of mankind (vyávahárikam).
25. Thus there being no law in dreaming, there is some times some truth
in some dreams, and at others there is no truth in any of them at all;
and in want of any constancy, it is only a fortuitous occurrence.
26. Whatever appears subjectively to one’s self, either from his own
nature or by means of artificial appliances; and whatever one is
habituated to think of anything in himself, he sees the same in the
very form, both in his dreaming as well as waking states.
27. The appearances of things, both in the sleeping and waking states
of men, are the mere reflexions of their minds; and they remain the
same whether when one is waking or lying in the visionary city of his
dreams.
28. It is not enough to call the waking alone as waking, because the
dream also appears as waking to the waking soul that never sleeps. (The
soul is ever wakeful).
29. So also there is nothing as dreaming, and may be called by that
name; it is only a mode of thinking in the Divine Mind, which sees
sleeping and waking in the same light.
30. Or it may be that there does not exist, either of the two states of
waking or dreaming, because the ever living soul of dead person,
continues to behold the visibles; even after its separation from the
body, and resurrection after death.
31. The soul remains the same, and never becomes otherwise than what it
is, in any state whatsoever; just as the endless duration never changes
with the course of time, and the ocean continues alike under its
rolling waves, and the airy space remains unchanged above the changing
clouds.
32. So the creation is inseparable from the supreme soul, whether it
exists or becomes extinct; and as the perforations and marks in a stone
are never distinct from it; so are the states of waking and sleeping
coincident with the soul Divine.
33. Waking, sleeping, dreaming and sound sleep, are the four forms of
bodies of the formless and bodiless Brahma; who though devoid of all
forms, is still of the form of whole creation, cosmos and the mundane
soul.
34. The supreme soul, that pervades and encompasses all space is
visible to us in only form of infinite space or sky; the endless
vacuity therefore being only the body of supreme Intellect, it is no
way different from it.
35. The air and wind, the fire and water, together with the earth and
clouds on high, are reckoned as the causes of all creation, and subsist
in their ideal shapes in the mind of Brahma alone.
36. The Lord is devoid of all appellations and attributes, and remains
united with his body of the Intellect, containing the knowledge of all
things within itself; and the phenomenal is never separate from the
noumenal.
CHAPTER CIL.
INVESTIGATION INTO THE ORIGINAL CAUSE.
Argument:--Conversation of the two sages, and relation of Human
Miseries.
The Huntsman said:--Tell me, O sage! What then became of the world that
you saw in your dream; relate in full all its accounts until its final
extinction (or nirvána).
2. The sage replied:--Hear me then tell thee, O honest fellow, what
then passed in the heart of the person wherein I had entered, and
listen to the wondrous tale with proper attention.
3. As I remained there in that forgetful state of my transformation,
I saw the course of time gliding upon me, with its train of months,
seasons and years, passing imperceptibly by me.
4. I passed there full fifteen years in my domestic life, and happy
with enjoyment of my conjugal bliss.
5. It happened there once upon a time, that a learned sage, came as a
guest to my house, and I received the venerable and austere devotee
with honour within my doors.
6. Being pleased with my honourable reception of him, he took his meal
and he rested himself at ease, when I made him the following inquiry
regarding the weal and woe of mankind.
7. Sir, said I, you are possest of vast understanding, and know well
the course of the world; and are therefore known neither to fret at
adversity, nor delight in prosperity.
8. All weal and woe proceed from the acts of men, engaged in busy life
in the world; so as the husbandman reaps good or bad crops in autumn,
according to the manner of his cultivation of the field (such is the
common belief of men).
9. But then tell me, whether all the inhabitants of a place, are
equally faulty in their actions at the one and same time; that they
are brought to suffer and fall under some severe calamity or general
doom all at once.
10. We see alternate famine and drought, portents and catastrophes
repeatedly overtaking a large portion of mankind at the same time; say
then is it owing to the wickedness of the people at the one and very
time.
11. Hearing the words of mine, he stared at me, and looked as if he was
taken by surprise, and seemed to be confounded in his mind; and then he
uttered these words of equal reverence and ambrosial sweetness.
12. The sagely guest said:--O well spoken! these words of yours bespeak
thy highly enlightened mind; and that you have well understood the
cause of the phenomenal, be it a real or unreal one, tell me; how you
came to know it.
13. (Then seeing me sitting silent before him, he added); Remember the
universal soul only, and think naught what thou art and where thou
sittest; ponder well in thyself, what am I and from whence, and what
is the phenomenals, whether it is anything substantial or ideal of the
mind only.
14. All this is the display of dream and how is it that you do not know
it as yet? I am a visionary being to you, as you are the phantom of a
dream before me.
15. The world you see, is a formless and a nameless nothing, and mere
formation of your imagination; it glares with the glare of the glassy
Intellect, and is a glaring falsehood in itself.
16. The true and unfictitious forms of the Intellect is, as you must
know; that it is omnipresent, and therefore of any form whatsoever, you
think or take it to be any where.
17. Now in assigning a causality to things, you will find that the
Intellect is the cause of all; and in ascribing one cause to anything,
you have the uncaused and uncausing Intellect for everything.
18. It is the universal soul that spreads through all, and in whom all
living beings reside, that is known as _virajátma_ or common soul of
all; and the same viewed as residing in us, is known as _sútrátmá_ or
individual souls linked together in a series (composed of all souls).
19. There will be other living beings in future, with the virajan soul
pervading in all of them, and causing their weal or woe according to
their desires. (Lit. causing the affluence and want of men according to
their respective acts).
20. The soul is disturbed by derangement of the humours of the body
and then the limbs and members of the bodies of men, become perturbed
likewise.
21. Drought, famine and destruction, may come upon mankind or subside
of themselves; because:--
22. It is possible, O good soul! that there are many persons living
together, are equally guilty of some crime at the same time; who
wait on their simultaneous punishment, falling as the fire of heaven on
a forest at the same time.
23. The mind that relies on the efficacy of acts, comes to feel
the effects of its actions; but the soul that is free from such
expectation, is never involved in its acts, nor exposed to its result.
24. Whatever one imagines to himself, in any form at any place or
time; the same occurs to him in the same proportion as he expected it;
whether that object be with or without its cause (_i.e._ actual or not).
25. The visionary appearances in dreams, are in no way accompanied with
their immediate or accessory causes, as all actual existences are;
therefore this visionary world is the appearance of the everlasting
Intellect of Intelligence, which is Brahma itself.
26. The world appearing as an erroneous dream, is a causeless unreality
only; but considering it as the appearance of Brahma, it has both its
cause and reality (Hence it is called _sadasadátmaka_ _i.e._ both a
reality and unreality also).
27. The casual occurrence of dreams, deludes our consciousness of them;
and so the fortuitous appearance of the world, is equally delusive of
our apprehension of it. Its extension is a delusion, as the expansion
of a dream.
28. Everything appears to be caused or uncaused, or as casual or causal
as we take it to be (hence while we deem our dreams as causeless
delusions, we are apt to believe the equally visionary world, as a
caused and sober reality).
29. It is a deception of the understanding to take the visionary world,
as the product of a real causality. It is natural to the waking state
to it for a reality, what appears as quite calm and unreal in
our sleep and dreams.
30. Now hear me tell you, O great minded sage, that the one satya--Ens
or Brahma is the sole cause of existences; or else what other thing is
it that is the cause of all nature and this all pervading vacuum.
31. Say what can be the cause of the solidity of the earth, and the
rarity of air; what is the cause of our universal ignorance, and what
is the cause of the self born Brahma.
32. What may be the cause of creation, and what is the origin of the
winds, and fire and water; and what is the source of our apprehensions
of things than mere vacuum or the vacuous intellect.
33. Tell me what can be the cause, of the regeneration of departed
souls, into the mass of material bodies? It is in this manner that
the course of creation is going on in this manner from the beginning
(without any assignable cause).
34. Thus are all things seen to be going on, and recurring in this
world, like the rotations of wheels and spheres in air; from our
constant habit of thinking and seeing them as such.
35. Thus it is the great Brahma himself, who in the form of Brahmá
or creator, spreads and moves throughout the world; and receives
afterwards as many different names, as the different phases and forms
of that he displays in nature, such as the earth, air &c.
36. All creations move about like the fluctuations of winds, in the
spacious firmament of the Divine Mind; which conceives of itself
various forms of things in its own imagination.
37. Whatever it imagines in any form or shape, the same receives the
very form as a decree of fate; and because these forms are the very
images or ideas of the Divine Mind, they are deemed to form the very
body of the Deity.
38. In whatever likeness was anything designed at first by the Divine
Intellect; it bears the same form and figure of it to this day (and so
will it continue to bear for evermore).
39. But as the Divine Mind is all powerful and omniscient, it is able
to alter them and make others anew, by its great efforts again (_i.e._
God can unmake what he has made, and make others again).
40. Whenever anything is supposed to have a cause, it is thought also
to be subject to the will of that cause; and wherever there is no
supposition of a cause, there is no apprehension nor capability of its
alteration also. (_i.e._ The world is both as changeable as well as
unchangeable, according as it is believed to be made by or selfsame
with its Maker).
41. Like vibration in air, the world existed as first in the ideal
of the Divine Mind; and as it was an unsubstantiality before, so it
continues ever still.
42. They who amass for themselves, the merits or demerits of their
pious or impious deeds; reap accordingly the good or bad rewards or
results thereof in this life. There are others who are crushed under a
thousand calamities, falling upon them like showers of hailstones or
the thunderbolts of heaven.
CHAPTER CL.
TRANSCENDENTAL ADMONITIONS.
Argument:--Conversation of the impossibility of the departed
soul, to reenter into the former body.
The house keeping sage then said as follows:--It was by this kind of
reasoning, that my sagely guest expostulated with me, and made
acquainted with whatever was worth knowing.
2. I then restrained my guest, to remain longer with me by entreaties;
and he consented to abide at mine, which resembled the abode of a dead
(ignorant) person. (Those that are dead to reason, are called dead
people).
3. The sage that spake to me those edifying words, which were as bright
and cooling as moonlight; behold him to be the venerable personage,
that is now sitting beside you.
4. He said without my request the following speech, for removal of my
ignorance; as if the sacrificial god rose out of fire, being pleased
with my sacrifice.
5. Hearing these words of the sage, the huntsman was confounded with
wonder; and could not know the sage that expounded the theory of
dreaming, now sitting confest before me.
6. The Huntsman said: O! it is a great wonder, and inconceivable in
my mind, that the sage that expounded the nature of dreams, is now
manifest before me.
7. I wonder at this, O sage! that the sagely guest whom you saw in your
dream, and who explained the cause of dreams to you, should now be seen
in this waking state.
8. Say how could this visionary sage seen in your airy dream, come to
appear in a solid body, and sit sedate at this place, like the fancied
ghost of boys.
9. Please to explain to me this wonderful narration of yours, in due
order; as to who he is and whence and wherefore he comes in this
questionable form.
10. The sage replied:--Hear me patently, O fortunate man, to relate to
you about this wonderful narrative. I will tell this briefly to you,
but you must not be hasty about it.
11. This sage that now sits by thee, had told me then for my
acquaintance of him; that he was a learned man, and has come hither now
with his tale too long to relate.
12. He said these words, saying, that he remembered his former nature,
which was as bright and fair as the clear sky, at the end of the foggy
season (of the month of _mágh_).
13. O! I remember also that I became a sage afterwards, with an
expanded mind; my heart was swollen with joy, and remained bathed
(amazed) at my wondrous change.
14. I was glad at that state of my life, from my desire of the
enjoyments of the world; but was deceived like a weary passenger,
pursuing a mirage with eager expectation of water.
15. Alack! that the phantoms of the phenomenal world, should so allure
even the wise; as the tempting fiends of hell, deceive mankind only to
deceive them.
16. Alas! and I wonder at it, that I was misled by my ignorance, that
I was misled by my erroneous knowledge of the world, to this state of
life, which is utterly devoid of every good.
17. Or what ever I am, I find myself to be full of errors only, and
there is no truth whatever in me; and yet it is the error of errors and
the greatest blunder, that we should be so beguiled and betrayed by
unrealities.
18. Neither am I nor this or that any entity at all; and yet it is a
wonder, that all these false appearances, should appear as realities.
19. What then must I do at present to break my bondage to these
falsities; I see the germ of error lying inside myself, and this tear
off and cast away from me.
20. Be there the primeval ignorance, prevalent all over the world; she
can do us no harm, that is a mere negation herself; It is now that I
must try to get rid of my error, of deeming the unreal as real.
21. That this sage is my preceptor and I am his pupil, is all a
mistake; because I am in and the very Brahma, and the person sitting
here by me, is as the man in the moon or in the cloud.
22. Then thought I of speaking to that great sage of enlightened
understanding; and so thinking, I addressed him saying:--
23. O great sage! I will now go to my own body (from out of the body of
this person), in order to see what I may be doing there.
24. Hearing this, that great sage said smilingly to me, Ah! where are
those bodies of you two; that are blown away afar in their ashes.
25. You may go there yourself if you please, and see the matter
yourself; and by seeing their present state, you will know every thing
relating to them.
26. Being thus advised by him, I thought on entering my former body.
27. I told him, do you remain here, O sage, until I come back to this
place, after seeing my former body; so saying I became a breath of air,
and fled from my abode.
28. Then mounting on the car of wind, I wandered through the air,
and was wafted to a hundred ways like the odour of a flower, carried
rapidly all about by the odoriferous breezes for a long time.
29. Roving long in this manner, I sought to enter that body, by the
passage of its lungs; but finding neither that or any other passage, I
kept floating in the air.
30. Then with deep felt sorrow, I returned to my place, and became tied
again to that stake of the world, by my returning affections to it.
31. Here I saw that venerable sage sitting before me, and asked him
intensely in the following manner in my house in this place.
32. Tell me sir, said I, for thou knowest all the past and future; and
knowest what all this is, by means of thy all seeing sight.
33. How was it that the person in whose body I had entered, as also my
own body likewise, could neither of them be found anywhere.
34. I then wandered throughout the vast expanse of the sphere of this
earth, and searched amidst all fixed and living bodies herein, but
could not find that opening of the throat from which I had come out.
35. Being thus addressed by me, that high minded _muni_ or sage then
said unto me; it is not possible for thee with thy bright and brilliant
eyes to find it out unaided by my advice.
36. If you should search after it with the light of thy yoga
meditation, it is then possible for thee to find it out as fully, as
one sees a lotus placed in his palm.
37. Now therefore if you wish to listen to my words, then attend to my
advice, and I will tell thee all about it.
38. Know then that as it is the sunlight that expands the lotus
blossoms in the lake, so it is the enlightening beams of Brahmá only
that developes the lotus of understanding, and that you can know
nothing of yourself.
39. Know then that as you sat once in your devotion, you dreamt in
your reverie, of entering into the heart of another person, and were
confirmed in your consciousness of that belief.
40. The heart wherein you thought to have entered, you believed to have
seen the three worlds therein; and the great sphere of heaven and earth
contained in its bosom.
41. In this manner as you absorbed in your reverie, and thought
yourself to reside in the body of another person; you happened to fall
asleep, and your hermitage in the forest suddenly caught fire and was
burnt down.
42. The burning hut sent forth clouds of smoke to the sky, and the
blazing cinders, flew to the orbs of the sun and moon.
43. The flying ashes covered the sky, as with a grey cloud or ash
coloured blanket; and the blue vault of heaven was spread over as with
a canopy.
44. Wild animals issuing out of their caves and caverns, sent forth
horrid yells and growling abroad; and the bursting sparks filled the
horizon.
45. The tall palm and other trees, caught the flame and appeared
as trees of fire; and the flying and falling fires, cracked as the
clattering cloud.
46. The flames ascending far above in the air, appeared as fixed
lightenings in the sky; and the firmament assumed a face as that of
molten gold.
47. The fiery sparks flying afar to the starry frame, doubled the
number of stars in heaven; and the flashing fires in the bosom of the
sky, delighted the eyes of damsels (as at the sight of fire works).
48. The blowing and booming fires, rebellowing in the hollow sky;
startled the sleeping foresters in the woods, who rushed out of their
caves and caverns, and wandered about in the forest.
49. The wild beasts and birds being half burnt in their caves and
nests, lay and fell dead on the ground; the lakes and river waters
boiled with heat, and the foresters were suffocated by the fumes.
50. The young _chauri_ bulls, were parched in the flames; and the stink
of the burning fat and flesh of wild beasts, filled the air with a
nasty stench.
51. This all devouring wild fire, raging as a conflagration or diluvian
fire, hath wholly consumed and swallowed up your hermitage, as a
serpent devours its prey.
52. The Huntsman asked:--Tell me sir, what was the real cause of this
fire; and why the Bráhman lads that dwelt in their pupilage there, were
burnt down also.
53. The sage replied:--It is the vibration or effort of the volitive or
designing mind, that is the true cause or incentive of the production
or demolition of the desired object; and so its quiescence is the cause
of the absence of the three worlds.
54. As a sudden fear or passion is the cause of palpitation of the
heart, so an effort or desire of the mind is the mobile force (or
primum mobile) for the causation of the three worlds.
55. It is the pulsation of the Divine Mind, that is the cause of the
imaginary city of the world; as also of the increase of population and
of rains and draughts.
56. The will in the Divine Mind, is the source of the creative mind
of Brahmá, which in its turn gives rise to the minds of the first
patriarchs, who transmit it to others in endless progression, all of
which proceed from the first quiet and calm intellect, through the
medium of vacuum.
57. The learned know well, that the effulgence of the pure and vacuous
Intellect, shines in the vacuum of their intellects; but the ignorant
think it as it appears to them, which is not the reality (which it is
not in reality).
CHAPTER CLI.
VIEW OF INEXISTENCE.
Argument:--The world is a vision, and to be known only by
conception, perception and meditation.
The other sage rejoined:--Afterwards the whole village together with
all its dwellings and trees, were all burnt down to ashes like the
dried straws.
2. All things being thus burnt away, the two bodies of you two, that
had been sleeping there, were also scorched and burnt, as a large piece
of stone, is heated and split by fire.
3. Then the fire set after satiating itself with devouring the whole
forest, as the sea sat below in its basin, after its waters were sucked
up by the sage Agastya.
4. After the fire was quenched and the ashes of the burnt cinders had
become cold; they were blown away by gusts of wind, as they bear away
the heaps of flowers.
5. Then nothing was known, as to where the hermit’s hut and the two
bodies were borne away; and where was that visionary city, which was
seen as vividly as in waking, and was populous with numbers of people.
6. In this manner the two bodies having disappeared, their existence
remains in the conscious soul, as the memory of externals remains in
the mind, at the insensibility of the body in the state of dreaming.
7. Hence where is that passage of the lungs, and where is that Virajian
soul any more? They are burnt away together with the vigour and
vitality of the dead body.
8. It is on account of this, O sage, that you could not find out those
two bodies; and wandered about in this endless world of dreams, as if
you were in your waking state.
9. Therefore know this mortal state, as a mere dream appearing as
waking, and that all of us are but day dreams, and seeing one another
as we see the visionary beings in our dreams.
10. You are a visionary man to me, and so am I also to you; and this
intellectual sphere, wherein the soul is situated within itself.
11. You have been ere while a visionary being in your life, until you
thought yourself to be a waking man in your domestic life.
12. I have thus related to you the whole matter, as it has occurred
to you; and which you well know by your conception, perception and
meditation of them.
13. Know at last that it is the firm conviction of our consciousness,
which shines for ever as the glitter of gold in the vacuum of our
minds; and the intellectual soul catches the colour of our deeds,
be they fair or foul or a commixture of both, in its state of a
regenerated spirit.
CHAPTER CLII.
THE SAGE’S DISCOURSE AT NIGHT.
Argument:--Refutation of the Reality of Dreams, and the reason of
the Preceptorship of the Hunter.
The sage resumed:--Saying so the sage held his silence, and lay himself
in his bed at night; and I was as bewildered in my mind, as if blown
away by the winds.
2. Breaking then my silence after a long time, I spoke to that sage and
said: sir, in my opinion, such dreams appear some truth and
reality in them.
3. The other muni replied:--If you can believe in the truth of your
waking dreams, you may then rely on the reality of your sleeping dreams
likewise; but should your day dreams prove to be false, what faith can
you then place on your night dreams (which are as fleet as air).
4. The whole creation from its very beginning, is no more than a dream;
and it appears to be comprised of the earth etc., yet it is devoid of
everything.
5. Know the waking dream of this creation is more subtile, than our
recent dreams by night; and O lotus eyed preceptor of the huntsman, you
will shortly hear all this from me.
6. You think that the object you see now, in your waking state in the
day time, the same appear to you in the form of dream in your sleep; so
the dream of the present creation, is derived from a previous creation,
which existed from before as an archetype of this, in the vacuum of the
Divine Mind.
7. Again seeing the falsity of your waking dream of this creation, how
do you say that you entertain doubts regarding the untruth of sleeping
dreams, and knowing well that the house in your dream is not yours, how
do you want to dote upon it any more?
8. In this manner, O sage, when you perceive the falsity of your waking
dream of this world; how can you be doubtful of its unreality any more?
9. As the sage was arguing in this manner, I interrupted him by another
question; and asked him to tell me, how he came to be the preceptor of
the huntsman.
10. The other sage replied:--Hear me relate to you this incident also;
I will be short in its narration, for know O learned sage, I can dilate
it likewise to any length.
11. I have been living here, as a holy hermit for a long time; and
solely employed in the performance of my religious austerities; and
after hearing my speech, I think you too will like to remain in this
place.
12. Seeing me situated in this place, I hope you will not forsake me
here alone; as I verily desire to live in your company herein.
13. But then I will tell you sir, that it will come to pass in the
course of some years hence, and there will occur a direful famine in
this place, and all its people will be wholly swept away.
14. Then there will occur a warfare between the raging border chiefs,
when this village will be destroyed, and all the houses will be thinned
of their occupants.
15. Then let us remain in this place, free from all troubles, and in
perfect security and peace, and live free from all worldly desires, by
our knowledge of the knowable.
16. Here let us reside under the shelter of some shady trees; and
perform the routine of our religious functions, as the sun and moon
perform their revolutions in the solitary sky.
17. There will then grow in this desert land and deserted place, many
kinds of trees and plants, covering the whole surface of this lonely
place.
18. The land will be adorned by fruit trees, with many a singing bird
sitting upon them; and the waters will be filled with lotus beds, with
the humming bees and _chakoras_ chirping amidst them. There shall we
find happy groves like the heavenly garden of paradise for our repose.
CHAPTER CLIII.
ONE SOUL IS THE CAUSE OF ALL.
Argument:--Arrival of the Huntsman, and the sage’s preceptorship
of him.
The other sage said:--When both of us shall dwell together in that
forest, and remain in the practice of our austerities; there will
appear upon that spot, a certain huntsman, weary with his fatigue in
pursuing after a deer.
2. You will then reclaim and enlighten him, by means of your
meritorious remonstrance; and he then will commence and continue to
practice his austerities, from his aversion to the world.
3. Then continuing in his austere devotion, he will be desirous of
gaining spiritual knowledge, and make inquiries into the phenomena of
dreaming.
4. You sir, will then instruct him fully in divine knowledge, and he
will be versed in it by your lectures on the nature of dreams.
5. In this manner you will become his religious instructor, and it is
for this reason that I have accosted you with the epithet or title of
the huntsman’s _guru_ or religious guide.
6. Now sir, I have related to you already regarding our errors of this
world; and what I and you are at present, and what we shall turn to be
afterwards.
7. Being thus spoken to by him, and learning all these things from him,
I became filled with wonder, and was he more amazed as I remonstrated
with him on these matters.
8. Thus we passed the night in mutual conversation, and after we got
up in the morning, I honoured the sage with due respect, and he was
pleased with me.
9. Afterwards we continued to live together in the same homely hut
of the same village, with our steady minds and our friendship daily
increasing.
10. In this manner time glided on peacefully upon us, and the
revolutions of his days and nights, and returns of months, seasons and
years; and I have been sitting here unmoved under all the vicissitudes
of time and fortune.
11. I long not for a long life, nor desire to die ere the destined day;
I live as well as I may, without any care or anxiety about this or that.
12. I then looked upon the visible sphere, and began to cogitate in my
mind; as to what and how and whence it was, and what can be the cause
of it.
13. What are these multitudes of things, and is the cause of all these;
it is all but the phenomena of a dream, appearing in the vacuity of the
Intellect.
14. The earth and heaven, the air and the sky, the hills and rivers,
and all the sides of firmament; are all but pictures of the Divine
mind, represented in empty air.
15. It is the moonlight of the Intellect, which spreads its beams
all round the ample space of vacuum; and it is this which shines as
the world, which is an ineffaceable fac-simile or cartography of the
supreme Intellect in the air.
16. Neither is this earth nor sky, nor are these hills and dales really
in existence; nor am I anything at all; it is only the reflexion of the
supreme Mind in empty air.
17. What may be the cause of aggregation of solid bodies, when there is
no material cause for the causation of material bodies in the beginning.
18. The conception of matter and material bodies, is a fallacy only;
but what can be the cause of this error, but delusion of the sight and
mind.
19. The person in the pith of whose heart, I remained in the manner of
his consciousness, was burnt down to ashes together with myself.
20. Therefore this vacuum which is without its beginning and end,
is full with the reflexion of the Divine Intellect; and there is no
efficient or instrumental or material cause of creation, except its
being a shadow of the substance of the Divine Mind.
21. All these pots and pictures, these prints and paints before us,
are but the prints of the Divine Mind; nor can you ever get anything,
without its mould therein.
22. But the Intellect too has no brightness of it, except its pure
lucidity; for how can a mere void as vacuum have any light, except its
transparency.
23. The Intellect is the pure Intelligence, of the extended entity of
Brahma; which shows in itself the panorama of the universe, what else
are the visibles, and where is their view besides.
24. There is but one Omnipresent soul, who is uncaused and uncausing,
and without its beginning, middle and end; He is the essence of the
three worlds and their contents. He is something as the universal
intelligence, and shows all and every thing in itself (and reflects
them in all partial intelligences according to their capacities).
CHAPTER CLIV.
RELATION OF PAST EVENTS.
Argument:--The living liberation of the sage, by means of his
habitual meditation.
The sage continued:--Having thus considered the vanity of the visibles,
I remained free from my anxious cares about the world; and became
passionless and fearless, and extinct in _nirvána_, from insensibility
of my egoism.
2. I became supportless and unsupporting, and remained without my
dependence upon any body; I was quite calm with my self-composure, and
my soul was elevated and rested in heaven.
3. I did as my duty called, and did nothing of my own accord; and
remained as void and blank as vacuum, which is devoid of all action and
motion.
4. The earth and heaven, the sky and air, the mountains and rivers, and
all that lies on all sides and the sides themselves, are not but shadow
in the air, and all living bodies are no more than the embodied (died)
Intellect or Intellectual bodies.
5. I am quiet and composed, and manage myself as well as I can; I am
quite happy in myself; having no injunction nor prohibition to obey,
nor to act an inner or outer part (_i.e._ not having a double part to
play, nor any duplicity in the heart).
6. Thus I resided here in my even temper, and the same tenor of my mind
and actions; and it is by mere chance, that you have come to meet me
here.
7. Thus I have fully explained to thee about the nature of dream and my
personal self; together with that of the phenomenal world and thyself.
8. Hence thou hast well understood, what is this visible world that
lies before thee; as also what these beings and these people are, and
what Brahma is after all.
9. Now knowing these things, O thou huntsman, to be mere false,
must now have your peace of mind, with the conviction that, all this is
the representation of the Intellect in empty air. Yea, it is this that
is dimly seen in these, and naught besides.
10. The hunts-man rejoined:--If so it be then both me and thee and the
gods even, you say to be nullity; and that all of these are but the
phantoms of a dream, and that all men are no men, and all existence as
non existence (sadasat).
11. The sage replied:--It is verily so, and all and every one of us is
situated as the spectre of a dream to one another, and as _phasma_ in
the cosmorama of the world.
12. These spectres appear in forms, according to one’s conception of
them; and the only One appears as many, like the rays of light. All
these radiations cannot be wholly true or untrue, nor a mixture of both
of them.
13. The visionary city of the world that appears in our waking state,
is but a waking dream or an apparition of our minds, and appears as the
prospect of a distant city before us, that we never saw before.
14. I have fully explained all this to you already, and you have been
enlightened in the subject to no end; now you have grown wise and well
known all and everything; do therefore as you may like best for you.
15. Though thus awakened and enlightened by me, your reprobate mind is
not yet turned to reason, nor found its rest either in transcendental
wisdom, or in the transcendent state of the most high.
16. Without assuetude you cannot concentrate your vagrant mind into
your heart; nor can you without the practice of constant reflexion
attain the acme of wisdom.
17. It is impossible to attain the summit of perfection, without your
habitual observance of wisdom; as it is incapable for a block of wood
to contain any water in it, unless it is scooped out in the form of a
wooden vessel.
18. Habitual reliance in sapience and constant attendance to the
precepts of the sástras and preceptors, tend to the removal of
the mind’s suspense between unity and duality (_i.e._ between
God and the world), and set the mind to its ultimate bliss of
_nirvána_--anaesthesia in quietism.
19. Insensibility of one’s worth and state and inertness to all
worldly affections, refraining from the evils of bad associations, and
abstaining from all earthly desires and cravings of the heart--
20. These joined with one’s deliverance from the fetters of dualities,
and enfranchisement from all pleasurable and painful associations, are
the surest means that lead the learned to the state of unalterable
bliss--_nirvána_ (which is ever attendant on the Deity).
CHAPTER CLV.
RELATION OF FUTURE FORTUNE.
Argument:--The sage relates the elevation of the Huntsman to
heaven by means of his austere devotion.
The God Agni said:--Upon hearing all this the huntsman was lost in
wonder, and remained as dumfoundered as a figure in painting in the
very forest.
2. He could not pause to fix his mind in the supreme being, and
appeared to be out of his senses and wits, as if he was hurled into a
sea.
3. He seemed to be riding on the wheel of his reverie, which pushed him
onward with the velocity of a bicycle; or appeared to be caught by an
alligator, which bore him with rapidity, up and down the current of his
meditation.
4. He was drowned in doubt, to think whether this was the state of his
_nirvána_ or delirium; wherein he could not find his rest, but was
tossed headlong like a headstrong youth in his foolhardiness.
5. He thought the visibles, to be the work of his ignorance; but he
came to think upon his second thought, this delusion of the world, to
be the production (display) of Providence.
6. Let me see, said he, the extent of the visibles from the beginning;
and this I will do from a distance, by means of the spiritual body,
which I have gained by means of devotion.
7. I will remove myself to a region, which is beyond the limit of the
existent and inexistent worlds; and rest myself quiet at a spot, which
is above the etherial space (_i.e._ in heaven).
8. Having thus determined in himself, he became as dull as a dunce, and
set his mind to the practice of his yoga devotion, as it was dictated
to him by the sage, saying that no act could be fruitful without its
constant practice.
9. He then left his habit of huntsmanship and applied himself to the
observance of austerities, in company with the sages and seers.
10. He remained long at the same spot, and in the society of the sagely
seers; and continued in the practice of his sacred austerities, for
very many years and seasons.
11. Remaining long in the discharge of his austere duties, and
suffering all along the severities of his rigorous penance; he asked
once his sagely guide, as to when he shall obtain his rest and respite
from these toils, to which the muni responded unto him in the following
manner.
12. The muni said:--The little knowledge that I have imparted unto
thee, is a spark fire and able to consume a forest of withered wood;
though it has not yet burnt down the impression of this rotten world
from your mind.
13. Without assuetude you cannot have your beatitude in knowledge; and
with it, it is possible to attain it in course of a long time. (_i.e._
No knowledge is efficacious without its long practice, hence a novice
in yoga is no _yogi_ or adept in it).
14. Such will verily be your case, if you will rely in my assurance of
this to you, and wear my words as a jewel about your ears, knowing them
to be oracular in this world.
15. You praise the unknown spirit of God, in your ignorance of his
nature; and your mind is hanging in suspense between your knowledge and
ignorance of (divine nature).
16. You are led your own accord to inquire into the nature and
extent of the cosmos, which is but a phantom of delusion. (The world
being but a delusion, it is in vain to investigate about it).
17. You will be thus employed for ages, in your arduous understanding
of making this research, until Brahmá--the creative power will appear
before you, being pleased at your investigation into his works.
18. You will then ask the favour of thy favouring god, to release you
from your ponderous doubt of the reality or delusiveness of the world,
saying:--
19. Lord! I see the cosmorama of the phenomenal world, is spread out
every where as a delusion before our sight; but I want to see a spot,
which exhibits the true mirror of the Divine mind, and which is free
from the blemish of the visibles.
20. The mirror of the vacuous mind, though as minute as an atom,
represents yet the reflexion of this vast universe in some part or
other within it. (_i.e._ The minute atom of the mind, is the reflector
of vast universe).
21. It is therefore to be known, how far this boundless world extends
to our woe only; and how far does the sphere of the etherial sky
stretch beyond it.
22. It is for this that I ask your good grace, to make me acquainted
with the infinite space of the universe; accept my prayer, O thou lord
of gods, and readily grant this my request.
23. Strengthen and immortalize this body of mine, and make it mount
upon the regions of sky, with the velocity of the bird of heaven
(Garuda or Phoenix).
24. Make my body increase to the length of a league each moment; until
it encircles the world in the manner of its outer and surrounding sky.
25. Let this pre-eminent boon be granted to me, O great and glorious
God, that I may reach beyond the bounds of the circumambient sky, which
surrounds the sphere of the visible world.
26. Being thus besought by thee, O righteous man, the Lord will say
unto thee, “Be it so as though desirest,” and then he will disappear as
a vision from thy sight, and vanish into the air, with his attendant
gods along with him.
27. After the departure of Dis Pater with his accompanying deities, to
their divine abodes in heaven; thy thin and lean body emaciated by thy
austerities, will assume a brightness as that of the brilliant moon.
28. Then bowing down to me and getting my leave, thy brightsome body
will mount to the sky in an instant, in order to see the object of thy
desire, which is settled in thy mind.
29. It will rise high into the air as a second moon, and higher still
as the luminous sun itself; and blaze above as brightly as a burning
fire, in defiance of the brightness of the luminaries.
30. Then it will fly upwards in the empty sky, with the force of the
strong winged phoenix; and run forward with the rapidity of a running
current, in order to reach at the bounding belt of the world.
31. Having gone beyond the limit of the world, thy body will increase
in its bulk and extent; and become as swollen as the diluvian ocean,
that covered the face of the whole universe.
32. There thou wilt find thy body, growing bigger and bigger still; and
filling like a big cloud the empty space of air, which is devoid of all
created things.
33. This is the great vacuum of the Divine spirit, filled with the
chaotic confusion of elements, flying about as whirlwinds; and the
unbounded ocean of the infinite Mind, swelling with the waves of its
perpetual thought.
34. You will find within this deep and dark vacuity, numberless worlds
and created bodies, hurling headlong in endless succession; just as you
perceive in your consciousness, a continued series of cities and other
objects appearing in your dream.
35. As the torn leaves of trees, are seen to be tossed about in the air
by the raging tempest; so you will see multitudes of worlds, hurled to
and fro in the immensity of the Divine Mind.
36. As the passing world presents a faint and unsubstantial appearance
to one looking down at it on the top of a high citadel; so do these
worlds appear as mere shades and shadows when viewed in their spiritual
light from above.
37. As the people of this world view the black spots attached to the
disk of the moon, which are never observed by the inhabitants of
that luminary; so are these worlds supposed to subsist in the Divine
spirit, but they are in reality no other than the fleeting ideas of the
infinite Mind.
38. You will thus continue to worlds after worlds, moving in the midst
of successive spheres and skies; and thus pass a long time viewing the
creation stretching to no end.
39. After viewing the multitudes of worlds, thronging in the heavens
like the leaves of trees; you will be tired to see no end of them in
the endless abyss of Infinity.
40. You will then be vexed in yourself, at this result of your
devotion, as also at the distention of your body, and stretch of your
observations all over the immensity of space.
41. Of what good is this big body, which I bear as a ponderous burthen
upon me; and in comparison with which millions of mountain ranges, as
the great Meru etc., dwindle away into lightsome straws.
42. This boundless body of mine, that fills the whole space of the sky;
answers no purpose whatever, that I can possibly think of.
43. This ponderous body of mine, that measures the whole space of
the visible world; is quite in the darkness--ignorance without its
spiritual knowledge, which is the true light of the soul.
44. I must therefore cast off this prolated body of mine, which is of
no use to me, in the acquisition of knowledge or in keeping company
with wise and holy men.
45. Of what good is this big and bulky body of mine, to scan the
unknowable infinity of the endless and supportless Brahma, whose
essence contains and supports the whole of this universe, and is hard
to be ascertained.
46. Thinking so in yourself, you will shrivel your bloated body, by
exhaling your breath (as you had expanded it by your inhalation of it),
and then shun your frame as a bird cast off the outer crust of a fruit
after suction of its juicy sap.
47. After casting off the mortal clod and coil of your body, thy soul
will rest in empty air accompanied with its respirative breath of life,
which is more tenuous than the subtile ether (over which it floats).
48. Thy big body will then fall down on earth, as when the great mount
of Meru fell on the ground, being cleft of its wings by ire of Indra;
and will crush all earthly beings, and smash the mountains to dust
underneath it.
49. Then will the dry and starved goddess Kálí, with her hungry host
of Mátris and furies, devour thy prostrate body, and restore the earth
to its purity, by clearing it of its nuisance.
50. Now you heard me fully relate unto your future fate, go therefore
to yonder forest of palm trees, and remain there in practising your
austerities as well as you may like.
51. The huntsman rejoined:--O sir, how great are the woes that are
awaiting upon me, and which I am destined to undergo in my vain pursuit
after knowledge (of the infinite nature and works of God).
52. Pray tell me sir, if you have anything to say, for my averting the
great calamity that you have predicted; and tell me also, if there be
no expedient to avoid the destined evil.
53. The sage replied:--There is no body nor any power whatever, that
is ever able to prevent the eventualities of fate; and all attempts to
avert them, are thrown on one’s back.
54. As there is no human power to the left on the right, or fix the
feet on the head; so there is no possibility to alter the decree of
fate.
55. The knowledge of the science of astrology, serves only to acquaint
us with the events of our fate; but there is nothing in it, that can
help us to counteract the shafts of adverse fortune.
56. Therefore those men are blest, who with their knowledge of sovran
predestination are still employed in their present duties; and who
after the death and burning of their bodies, rest in the eternal repose
of Brahma in their consciousness.
CHAPTER CLVI.
EXPOSTULATION OF SINDHU BY HIS MINISTER.
Argument:--The aerial spirit of the Huntsman is reborn on Earth
as prince Sindhu, who kills Vidúratha, and is remonstrated by his
Minister.
The Huntsman said:--Tell me Sir, what will then become of my soul in
its aerial position, and of my body in its situation on earth.
2. The sage replied:--Hear me attentively to tell you, about what is
to become of your lost body on earth, as also of your living soul
sustained in the air.
3. The body being subducted from thy whole self, thy soul will assume
an aerial form, and will remain in empty air, united with its vital
breath.
4. In that airy particle of your soul, you will find the surface of the
earth, situated in the recess of your mind; and you will behold it as
clearly, as you view the world in your dream.
5. Then from the inward desire of your heart, you will see in the
amplitude of your mind, that you have become the sovereign lord of this
wide extended globe.
6. The will of this idea rises of itself in your mind, that you have
become a king by name and in the person of Sindhu, who is so highly
honoured by men.
7. After eight years of thy birth, thy other will depart from this
mortal world, and leave to thee this extensive earth, reaching to its
utmost boundaries of the four seas.
8. You will find in the border of your realm, a certain lord of the
land by name of Vidúratha, who will rise as thy enemy, and whom it will
be difficult for thee to quell.
9. You will then reflect in yourself, of your past and peaceful reign
of a full century; and think of the pleasures you have so long enjoyed
in company with your consort and attendants.
10. Woe unto me, that this lord of the bordering land, has now risen
against me in my old age; and has put me to the trouble of waging a
formidable warfare against him.
11. As thou shalt be thinking in this wise, there will occur the great
war between thee and that lord of the land; in which all your quadruple
armaments, will be greatly worsted and thinned.
12. In that great war, thou wilt succeed to slay that Vidúratha, by
striking him with thy sword, and keeping thy stand on thy war-car.
13. You will then become the sole lord of this earth, to its utmost of
the four oceans; and become to be dreaded and honoured by all, like the
regents of all the sides of heaven.
14. Having thus become the sovereign monarch of the earth, and reigning
over it and the name of the mighty Sindhu, thou wilt pass thy time in
conversation with the learned pandits and ministers of thy court.
15. The minister will say, It is a mighty wondrous deed, O lord, that
thou hast achieved, by slaying the invincible Vidúratha in thy single
combat.
16. Then thou wilt say, tell me O good man, how this Vidúratha waxed so
very rich, and possessed his forces as numerous as the waves of ocean;
and what cause impelled him to rise against me.
17. The Minister will reply:--This lord has Lílá as his lady, who had
won the favour of the fair goddess Sarasvatí; who is the supportress of
the world, by her extreme devotion to her. (Sarasvatí is the goddess of
wisdom and hand-maid of God. See Sir Wm. Jones’ prayer).
18. The benign goddess took this lady for her foster-daughter, and
enabled her to achieve all her actions, and even obtain her liberation
with ease. (Wisdom facilitates all human act).
19. It is by favour of this goddess, that this lady is able to
annihilate thee at a single nod or word of hers; wherefore it is no
difficult task to her to destroy thee all at once.
20. Sindhu then will answer him saying:--If what thou sayest is true,
it is wondrous indeed, how then could the invincible Vidúratha come to
be slain by me in warfare.
21. And why he being so highly favoured by the goddess, could not get
the better of me in this combat (by slaying me with his hand).
22. The Minister will reply:--Because he always prayed the goddess with
earnestness of his heart, to give him liberation from the cares and
troubles of this world.
23. Now then, O lord, this goddess that knows the hearts of all men,
and confers to all the objects of their desire, gave thee the victory
thou didst seek, and conferred him the liberation he sought by thy
hands.
24. Sindhu then, will respond to it; saying:--If it is so, then I must
ask, why the goddess did not confer the blessing of liberation on me
also, that have been so earnestly devoted to her at all times.
25. The Minister will then say in his reply:--This goddess resides as
intelligence in the minds of all men, and as conscience also in the
hearts of all individual beings, and is known by the title of Sarasvatí
to all.
26. Whatever object is constantly desired by any one, and earnestly
asked of her at all times; she is ever ready to confer the same to him,
as it is felt in the heart of everyone.
27. You lord never prayed for your liberation, at the shrine of this
goddess; but craved for your victory over your enemies, which she has
accordingly deigned to confer unto you.
28. Sindhu will then respond to it and say:--why is it that prince did
not pray the goddess of pure wisdom for his obtaining a kingdom like
me; and how was it that I slighted to pray her for my final liberation
as he did?
29. And why is it that the goddess knowing the desire of my heart for
liberation, left me only to desire it without attempting to seek after
the same? (_i.e._ Why does the goddess give us the knowledge of what is
good, without enabling us to exist and persist after its attainment)?
30. To this the minister will reply saying:--The propensity of doing
evil (or slaughter), being inherent in your nature (from your past
profession of huntsmanship), you neglected to stoop down to the
goddess, and pray unto her for your liberation.
31. It is well known since the creation of the world, that the
intrinsic gist forms the nature of man; and this truth being evident to
all from their boyhood to age, there is no body to ignore or repudiate
it at any time.
32. The purity or impurity of the inner heart, to which one is
habituated by his long practice or custom, continues to predominate
over all his qualities and actions to the very last, and there is no
power to contravene it in any manner.
CHAPTER CLVII.
THE ULTIMATE EXTINCTION OR NIRVANA OF SINDHU.
Argument:--Description of the nature of Sindhu, his resignation
of the kingdom, his discrimination and final liberation.
Then Sindhu will say:--Tell me sir, what kind of a vile-person and how
ignorant I had been before whereby I still retain the evil propensities
of my past life, and am doomed to be reborn in this earth (the vale of
misery).
2. The minister will say in his reply:--“Hear me attentively, O king,
for a while; and I will tell you this secret, which you require me to
relate, and will surely remove your ignorance.”
3. There is a self existent and undecaying Being from all eternity,
which is without its beginning or end, which is designated the great
Brahma, and passes herein under the little of I and thou, and of this
and that &c.
4. I am that self same Brahma, by the consciousness of my self
cogitation (_ego cogito ergo sum_). This becomes the living principal
with the power of intellection (_vivo qui intellego_ I live because I
think). This power does not forsake its personality; (but retains its
_persona_ of I am that I am).
5. Know this Intellect to be a spiritual or supernatural substance,
having a form rarer and more transparent than that of the subtile
ether; it is this which is the only being in existence, nor is there
anything which is of a material substance. (This passage maintains the
immateriality of the world).
6. This formless takes the form of the mind, by its being combined,
with volition and its views of this and the next world, (_i.e._ its
worldly enjoyments and future bliss), in its state of life and death,
and of waking and sleep. (That is the mind is sensible of these passing
and alternate phenomena).
7. The mind, though formless, stretches itself into the form of the
phenomenal world; just as the formless air dilates itself, in the form
of force or oscillation in all material bodies.
8. The world is identic with the mind, as the seeming and visible
sky is the same with empty vacuity; so the corporeal is alike the
incorporeal, and there is no difference whatever, between the material
and mental worlds.
9. This net work or least of worlds resides in the mind, in their
immanent impressions in it, and the outer world is in reality. And
that the cosmos consists of ideas in the formless mind, its formal
appearance has no real substance in it. (The immaterial ideas of the
mind are real, and not the material objects or the sober reality of the
subjective only).
10. There arose at first the pure (satya) personality of the impersonal
and universal spirit of God (Brahma), in the person of the creative
power known under the title of Brahmá. This personal god assumed to
himself the appellation of ego from his will of creation, and the
undivided spirit, was divided into many impure personalities (rájasa
and támasa), from its desire of becoming many (aham bahu syam-sim multa
and plurimá).
11. The sindhu will say: Tell me sir, what you mean by rájasa and
támasa bodies (or impure personalities); and how and whence are these
appellations at first _in primo_ to the supreme being--_parapada_--the
Indefinite One.
12. The monitor will reply saying:--As all embodied beings herein, are
possessed of members and limbs of their bodies; so the bodiless spirit
is comprised of an infinite variety of minor spiritual forms under it,
which are known as the good or bad spirits.
13. The selfsame spirit then designates all these several parts of
itself by various appellations, and the incorporeal spirit assumes to
itself, an endless variety of material and terraqueous natures and
names. (That changed through all, yet in all the same; known by this or
that or one or other nature and name).
14. Thus the universal spirit continues to exhibit in itself, all the
various forms of this visionary world at its own will; and gives a
distinct name and nature to each and every one of these representations
of itself.
15. When the Divine spirit, deigned to covert itself into the
personality of Brahmá, and in those of me or thee and other
individualities; it became altered from its state of original holiness
and purity to those impurity and foulness, known as _rájasí_ and
_támasí_. (When God breathed his spirit into the nostrils of Adam, it
lost its purity and sanctity by contamination of flesh).
16. The unalterable pure nature of the holy spirit of God, being thus
transformed to unholiness, it passed into different states of impurity
in the living souls of beings. (The same living soul passing different
degrees of purity and impurity).
17. The spirit of God being blown at first as the living soul (in an
animal body); the soul that comes to perceive its incarceration in
flesh and its doom to suffering, is said to be of the pure nature of
sáttikí.
18. Those who while they are living in the world, are possest of
politeness and good qualities; they are said to be merely of a good
nature _Kevala sáttiki_.
19. Those who being born in repeated regenerations are destined to
the enjoyments of life, and to their final liberation at last, are
designated as the राजस राजसी.
20. Those again who being born in this nether world, are inclined to
the practice of their manly virtues only; such souls are famed as the
merely rájasí (shining), and are few in their number.
21. Those souls which have been undergoing their repeated
regenerations, ever since the beginning of creation; and are
continually roving in the bodies of inferior beings, are said by the
wise, to belong to the species of the most impure _támasa támasí_;
though it is possible from them to attain their salvation at last.
22. Those which have been wandering in many births, in the forms of
vile animals, and until they attain their salvation at the end; such
souls are designated as merely vile _Kevala tamasi_ by the wise, who
are versed in the science of psychology.
23. In this manner have these philosophers classed the emanated soul of
beings into many grades and species; among which O my respected sir,
your soul is reckoned among the vilest of the vile _tamasa tamasí_.
24. I know you to have passed through many births of which you know
nothing; and these have been as various as they were fraught with the
variegated scenes of life.
25. You have in vain passed all your lives in doing nothing that is
useful; and more particularly your late aeronautic life, with that
gigantic body of yours.
26. Being thus born with the vile species of thy soul, it is difficult
for thee to obtain thy liberation from the prison house of this world.
27. Sindhu will then say in his response:--Tell me sir, how can I
divest myself of this inborn vile nature of my soul; that I may learn
to abide by thy counsel, and try to purify my soul and rectify the
conduct of my life.
28. There is nothing in all these three worlds, which is hard to be
acquired by means of earnest endeavour and intense application.
29. As a fault or failure of the previous day, is corrected by its
rectifications to day; so can you purify your pristine impure soul by
your pious acts of the present day.
30. Whoever earns for any thing and labours hard to earn it, is sure to
gain it in the end, wherein the remiss are sure to meet with failure.
31. Whatever a man is intent upon doing, and tries to effect at all
times; and whatsoever one desires with earnestness, and is constantly
devoted to the same pursuit, he is to succeed in it, and have his
object without fail.
32. The sage related:--The king being thus remonstrated by his
minister, was resolved to resign the burthen of his state, and to
renounce his realm and royalty even at that very moment.
33. He wished to retire to some far distant forest, and prayed his
ministers to support his realm; but he declined to take the charge,
though the state was free from all its enemies (_i.e._ though it was a
peaceful realm).
34. He then remained in the company of wisemen, and was enlightened by
their discourses; as the sesame seeds became odorous by being placed
amidst a heap of flowers.
35. Then from his inquiries into the mysteries of his life and birth,
and into the causes of his confinement in this world, he obtained the
knowledge of his liberation from it.
36. It was thus by means of his continued inquiries into truth, and his
continual association with the wise and good, that the soul of Sindhu
attained a holy sanctity in comparison with which, the prosperity of
Brahma even, is as a straw or the dried leaf of a withered tree, which
the winds of the sky toss about to and fro.
CHAPTER CLVIII.
FALL OF THE HUGE BODY OF THE HUNTER.
Argument:--The aerial body of the Hunter, and its downfall from
the high heaven.
The sage resumed and said:--I have thus related these future events,
as if they were past accounts unto thee; do now, O huntsman what thou
wishest and thinkest best for thyself.
2. Agni the god of fire said:--Hearing these words of the sage, the
huntsman remained aghast in wonder for a while; and then rising with
the sage, went to bathe themselves to the nearest pool.
3. In this manner they continued together, to conduct their religious
austerities and discussions at the same spot; and remained in terms of
disinterested friendship with one another.
4. After some time the muni met with his final extinction--_nirvána_,
and by casting off his mortal body, obtained his last repose in the
state of transcendent tranquility.
5. In course of time and the lapse of ages, it pleased the god Brahma
to give him a call, in order to confer upon him the object of his
desire.
6. The huntsman being unable to resist the impulse of his longing,
begged to obtain the very same boon of his god which the sage had
predicted to him.
7. Be it so, said the god, and he repaired to his favourite abode;
and the huntsman flew aloft into the open air, in order to enjoy the
fruition of his austere devotion.
8. He flew with incredible velocity, to the extensive vacuous space,
which lies beyond the spheres of worlds; and it was in course of an
incalculable duration, that the ever expanding bulk of his body, filled
the regions of the upper sky, as a mountainous range is stretched along
and across this lower world.
9. He fled with the force and swiftness of the great Garuda (the eagle
of Jove), up and down and to all sides of heaven: until the huge bulk
of his body, occupied the whole area of the open air, in the process of
an indefinite period of time.
10. Thus increasing in his size with the course of time, and infatuated
in the maze of his delusion, began to grow uneasy in himself.
11. From the great anxiety of his mind, he suppressed the respiration
of his breath; until he breathed out his last breath of life in the
air, and his body dropped down as a carcass in the nether earth.
12. His mind accompanied with his vital breath, fled through the air
into the body of Sindhu, who became the ruler of the whole earth, and
the great antagonist of Vidúratha.
13. His great body resembling a hundred mountainous ranges, became a
huge mass of carcass; which fell down with the hideous clattering of
thunders, as one earth falling upon another.
14. At a certain time, it shines as a _Kesandraka_, at others it
appears as a covering of the huge range of buildings in sky.
15. I have already related to thee, O learned sir, how this huge
carcass had fallen from above, and filled the surface of the globe of
this earth.
16. The globe of the earth, where upon this huge carcass had fallen,
resembled in every way this earth of ours, which appears unto us as a
city in our dream.
17. The dry and big bellied goddess _chandí_, then devoured this
carcass, filling her bowels with its flesh, and stuffing her entrails
with its red hot blood.
18. The earth is called _mediní_ or fleshy from the flesh of this
corpse, which overspreads its surface with its prodigious bulky frame.
19. It was this huge fleshy body, which was reduced to the substance of
the earth in time; and had the name of the earth given to it from the
dust of this body.
20. This fleshy earth gave rise to forests and habitable parts; and the
fossil bones rose high in the forms of mountains from underneath the
ground, which grew everything useful to men.
CHAPTER CLVIX.
WANDERING OF VIPASCHIT.
Argument:--The god of fire, after directing Vipaschit to wander
over the world according to his desire, disappeared from his
sight.
The god of fire added:--Go now O sapient Vipaschit, to your wished for
abodes, and with the steadiness of your mind, conduct with propriety
every where on earth.
2. Indra the lord of the assemblage of creatures, has been performing
his hundred fold sacrifices in his celestial abode; and there I am
invited to attend by an invocation of him.
3. Bhása said:--Saying so, the lord Agni disappeared from that place;
and passed through the transparent ether like the electric fire of
lightning.
4. I was then led by my predestination to roam about in the air; and
direct my mind into the investigation of my allotted acts, and the
termination of my ignorance.
5. I beheld again an innumerable host of heavenly bodies, roving about
in the air; holding their positions at different stations of the
firmament, and containing inhabitants of different natures and customs.
6. Some of these were of one and same form, resembling floating
umbrellas in the sky; and attracting the hearts of men, by their
shining appearance and slow motion. (The great velocity of heavenly
bodies, appear to be slow when they are seen by the naked eyes of men
from this distant earth).
7. Some of them are of earthy substance, but shining and moving onward
like mountains in motion.
8. Some were of woody appearance, and others of stony substance;
but they are all lightsome bodies, and all moving onward in their
uninterrupted course.
9. I beheld also some figures like carved statues of stone, standing
in the open space of my mind, and talking together all their live-long
days.
10. In this manner I beheld for a long while, many such figures like
images in my dream, and was quite bewildered in my utter ignorance of
them.
11. I then intended to perform my austere devotion, in order to obtain
my liberation; when the god Indra appeared unto me and said: “no
Vipaschit, you are doomed to become a stag again, and not entitled to
your liberation now.”
12. You are propelled by your previous predilection to prefer the
pleasures of heaven; therefore I must direct you to dwell in my
paradise, and wander there amidst my gardens of _mandara_ trees.
13. Being thus bid by him, I rejoined and said to him: I am weary, O
lord, with the troubles of the world, and want to get my release from
them; ordain therefore my immediate emancipation from them.
14. The god listened to my prayer and said: emancipation attends on
the pure soul, which is purged from all its desires; and this had been
already expounded to you by the god of fire (in his narrative of the
sage and hunter); ask therefore some other boon, said he, and I begged
him to tell me of my next and future state.
15. Indra replied and said:--I find you to be fated to be changed to
the state of a deer hereafter, from the fond desire of your heart, to
wander about and feed freely in the fields.
16. By becoming a deer, you will have to enter the holy assembly (of
Dasaratha); where another deer like you, has obtained his liberation
before, by listening to the spiritual instructions formerly delivered
there by me.
17. Therefore be born as a deer in some forest on earth with your
pensive soul; and you will then come to recollect your past life from
its relation by Vasishtha (in the court of king Dasaratha).
18. You will learn there, that all this existence is but the delusion
of a dream, and the creation of imagination; and the account of your
future life depicted in its true colour.
19. After being released from the body of the deer, you shall regain
your human form, and perceive the rays of holy light shining in your
inward spirit.
20. This light will then dispel the long prevailing gloom of ignorance
from your mind, and then you shall attain your _nirvána_ supineness, as
the calm and breathless wind.
21. After the god had said so, I had the presentiment of being a deer
in this forest, and entirely forgot my human nature, under my firm
conviction of having become a beast.
22. I have been ever since residing in the recess of these woods, under
the impression of my being changed to a stag; and feeding ever since
upon the grass and herbs growing on the mountain top.
23. Here I saw once a body of troopers coming to a hunting excursion;
and being then affrighted at the sight, I betook myself to flight.
24. They then laid hold of me, and took me to their place; where they
kept me for some days for their pleasure, and at last brought me hither
before Ráma.
25. I have thus related to you all the incidents of my life; and the
magical scenes of the world, too full of marvelous events.
26. It is the production of our ignorance, which pervades over all
things, and branches out into innumerable forms in everything that
presents itself to our view; and there is nothing whatever to dispel
this darkness, except by the light of spiritual knowledge.
27. Válmíki relates:--Then as Vipaschit had held his silence after
speaking in this manner; he was accosted by the well minded Ráma with
the following words.
28. Ráma said:--Tell me sir, how a person without any desire of his
own, sees the object of another’s desire in himself; and could the deer
thought of by yourself, come to the sight of others in Indra’s Paradise?
29. Vipaschit replied:--Let me tell you that the earth where upon the
huge carcass had fallen, was once before trodden upon by Indra, with
the pride of his performance of a hundred sacrifices.
30. There strutting along in his haughty strides, he met the anchorite
Durvásas sitting still in his meditative mood; and believing him to be
a dead body lying on his way, he knocked it down with his feet.
31. At this the angry anchorite threatened the proud god with
saying:--O Indra! as you have dashed me with your feet by thinking me a
lifeless corpse, so will a huge carcass shortly fall upon this ground
and slash it to pieces and reduce it to dust.
32. And as you have spurned me as a dead body, so art thou accursed to
be crushed under the falling carcass on earth.
33. He transformed into a deer, as he was king of kings before, and
remained in his appearance according to his ideas.
34. In truth neither is the actual world a reality, nor the imaginary
one an unreality; it is in fact the one and same thing, whether we
conceive it as the one or other (_i.e._ either as the real or unreal).
35. Listen now, O Ráma, to another reason, which appertains to this
subject, and clearly settles the point in question. (That God being
Almighty and all in all, it makes no difference whatever, whether the
world is viewed as his creation or as a pantheon).
36. He in whom all things reside, and from whom everything proceeds;
who is all in all; and who is every where in all must be the One that
you may call all, and beside whom there none at all.
37. It is equally possible to him, to bring forth whatever he wills to
produce; as also not to produce, whatever he does not wish to bring to
existence.
38. Whatever is desired in earnest by any body, must eventually come
to pass to him in reality (as the desired doership of Vipaschit); and
this is as true as the instance of light, being ever accompanied by its
shade.
39. If it is impossible for the desire and its act, which are opposite
in their nature, to meet together in fact; then it would be impossible
for the omnifarious God to be all things both in being and not being;
therefore the objects of our desire and thought, are equally present
with us as the real ones.
40. There is a reality (or entity of God) attached to every form of
existence, and there is nothing which of itself is either an entity or
nullity also.
41. O the great magic or illusion, which is overspread every where, and
pervades over all nature in every form and at all times; and binds all
beings in inextricable delusion.
42. The nature of the great God comprises the community of spirits
in his spirit, and combines in itself all laws whether permissive or
prohibitive acting in concert and eternal harmony.
43. It is his infinite power that has displayed the ignorance or
Illusion, which spreads over all the three worlds from time with or
without its beginning; and it is our delusion only, which depicts all
things in their various forms to our view.
44. Or how could the creation that was once destroyed by the great
deluge, come to resuscitate again; unless it were a _réchauffé_ of the
reminiscence of the past one, else the elementary bodies of air, fire
and earth, could not possibly be produced from nothing.
45. Therefore the world is no other than a manifestation of the divine
nature; and this is the verdict of the sástras, and the conviction of
mankind from the very beginning of creation.
46. Things which admit of no sufficient proof for their material
existence, are easily proved to exist, by their being considered under
the light of the understanding.
47. Things of a subtile nature, which are imperceptible by the senses,
are known in their essence by the understanding of the learned; hence
the essence of Brahma is pure understanding, of which we are quite
ignorant owing to our ignorance of the Intellect.
48. The world is obvious to us from its figure, as the air is evident
by its vibration; hence no body is born or dies herein, (save that it
appears to or disappears from our sight).
49. That I am living and the other is dead, are conceptions of our
mind; hence death being but the total disappearance of the visible
world from our view, it must be as pleasing to us as our sound sleep
itself.
50. If it be the recognition of the visibles, which is called the life
or revivification of man; then there are no such things in the world,
as are commonly termed the life and death of beings.
51. At a time, the intellect appears a duality, and at other an unity,
both are nothing but intellect.
52. It is the Intellection of the Divine Intellect, that infuses its
intelligence into all minds; hence what is life without the intellect
and the faculty of intellection.
53. The intellect being free from pain, there is no cause of complaint
in any intellectual being; since the word world and all that it means
to express, are but manifestations of vacuous intellect.
54. It is wrong to say, that the intellect is one thing and the
body another; since the unity is the soul of all and pervades all
multiformity; and as the waves and whirlpools are seen in the waters,
so are all these bodies known to abide in the Supreme being.
55. The universal pervasion of divine essence, as that of the subtile
air, is the cause of causes and the sole cause of all; hence the world
is a subtile substance also, being but a reflexion of the Divine
Intellect.
56. It is wonderful, how this subtile world appears as a solid body to
us; it is only our conception of it as such that makes it appear so
unto us; but conception is no substance at all, therefore the world has
no substantiality in it.
57. It is the demon of error that reigns over us in its aerial form,
deludes us to take the shadowy world for the substance; while in fact
this creation of error is as nil and void, as the vacuous creation of
the intellect. (_i.e._ The sensible world is as void and null as the
ideal one).
58. Hence this nether world below and the etherial worlds above, are as
void as the hyperphysical world of the Divine Intellect; and all these
being but reflexions of the Divine mind, are exhibited in various ways.
59. The Intellect being a subtile entity, there is nothing as a solid
substance anywhere; the phenomenals are all unsubstantial rarities,
though they appear to us solidified realities.
60. The knowledge of the true verity and that of the unreality, are so
blended together; that we must remain in mute silence like a block of
wood or stone, to pronounce anything in the affirmative or negative
about either.
61. The visible whole is the infinite Brahma, and this universe
displays the majesty of the great God; and all these bodies are the
various forms, exhibiting the infinite attributes of the deity.
62. In this manner, is the substance of the Divine Intellect displayed
in itself; and it is the vacuous spirit of God, that manifests this
unsubstantial world in its own vacuity.
63. The number of living beings, since the beginning of creation, is
unlimited in every place; and of these there are many, that exist
either in their corporeal or incorporeal forms.
64. There are other siddha and spiritual beings, abiding with their
subtile natures and tenuous forms in the supreme Being; they live in
groups in all elements, but never come to see one another of their own
kind.
65. The exuberance of the visible world, being purely of aerial and
vacuous form; they are never seen in their true and intellectual light,
except when they appear to us in their aerial shapes in our dreams.
66. The world being well known, remains as it does in our inward
conception of it, in the form of a hazy mist appearing to our sight at
the end of night (_i.e._ dark and obscure).
67. It is a dark and indistinct maze, with nothing distinguishable in
it when seen from a distance; it becomes clearer at a nearer view, and
by keeping yourself afar you lose sight of it altogether.
68. As the particles of water fly off, and fall again into the sea; so
do the atoms of intellect in all living beings, continually rise and
subside, in the vast ocean of the Divine Mind. (So doth every thing
proceed from and recede into the Divine Spirit).
69. This grandeur of creation is as the crowding throng of our dreams,
which ere before lay slumbering; in the hollow space of the Divine
Mind, therefore know these effusions of the divine Intellect, as calm
and quiet as the unruffled spirit of God (that ever reposes in its calm
felicity).
70. I have seen the infinite glories of creation, and have felt the
various results of my deeds to no end; I have wandered in all quarters
of the globe for ages; but I found no rest from the toils and troubles
of the delusive world, except in the knowledge of my vanities of the
world.
CHAPTER CLX.
DESCRIPTION OF HEAVEN AND HELL.
Argument:--The Breaking and Rejoining of the Court and the
dissolution of the Ignorance of Bhása and his Liberation in Life.
Válmíki related:--As Vipaschit was going on saying these things, the
sun wishing to put an end to his speech, proceed with his rapid strides
to enlighten another world.
2. Loud trumpets gave the alarum of the departing day, and filled the
air on all sides with their swelling sound: and all the quarters of
heaven seemed to re-echo in their joy, the fanfare of victory.
3. The king Dasaratha gave Vipaschit, many gifts in money, maidservants
and houses; and bestowed on him many rich and royal presents worthy of
kings, and then rose from his seat.
4. The king, Ráma and Vasishtha, having taken leave of the assembly,
and saluted one another in their proper order, retired to their
respective abodes.
5. Then having bathed and refreshed themselves, they passed the night
in ease and repose; then resorted to the assembly in the morning, and
were seated in their respective seats.
6. The sage Vasishtha then resumed the subject of the last discourse;
and spoke his sweet words with such complacence of his countenance, as
if the comely moon was shedding her ambrosial beams, from her bright
and cooling face.
7. Let me tell you, O king, that Vipaschit has not been able with all
his endeavours, to ascertain the true nature of Ignorance; nor is it an
error of the mind which makes the unreal appear as real.
8. The nature of Ignorance as long as it is unknown, appears to be
eternal and endless; but being understood, it proves to be as null and
nothing, as the limpid water in a mirage.
9. You have already heard, O wise monarch, the narration of Bhása the
minister of Vipaschit; and shall now hear of his liberation in his
living state.
10. It is likely that he will come to be acquainted with truth from
some other source or discourse, and then he will be liberated in his
life time; by being freed from his ignorance.
11. And because this ignorance or Avidyá, is ever accompanied with
Intellect of the Lord himself, it is for this very reason, that the
unreality is erroneous by taken for the reality itself.
12. If this ignorance--_avidyá_--nescience, be an attribute of
God, then it is no other than the very God; and the unknown or the
mysterious nature, is not otherwise than the inscrutable nature of God.
13. This ignorance is infinity (in the infinity of created things), and
is productive of endless shoots like the sprouts of spring, some of
which are insipid and others sapid, some are luscious, while others are
mellow and inebriating.
14. Some growing as thorny plants, all hollow within and hollow
without, while others are straight and herbaceous as the succulent
reeds or sugar cane.
15. Some of them are unfruitful and unprofitable, and others are
attractive of the heart by their untimely blossoming, which is
predicative of evil only and no desirable good. (Early blossoms are
ominous).
16. Avidyá or Nescience has no form nor shape, save that of its
shapeless bulk, which fills all worlds; it is a long and broad mass of
darkness, and infested by demons and devils (that take in the dark and
at night).
17. Like false light and phantasms in the open air, and like the linked
and twisted motes of light curling about in the sky; do all these
visibles appear to our view in the clear firmament, and are in reality
but fallacies of our vision.
18. The variegated views which are stretched all about the empty air,
without any connecting chain or link between them; are as the many
coloured rainbows of heaven, which are described by the falling rains
and melt into the empty air.
19. The world resembles a rainy river, with all its orbs appearing
as the countless waves of water, with the dirty and foaming froths
floating over it; and the fearful eddies and whirlpools, resembling the
revolving planetary bodies.
20. The world is a vast and dreary desert, ever exhibiting the waters
of mirage on its surface; while in reality but a body of dust, and
filled with the ashes of dead bodies.
21. As a man wandering in the fairyland of his dream, finds no terminus
of his journey; so have I been roving forever in the land of my waking
dream, without finding any end to my travelling.
22. The web of desires that I have been fondly weaving so long, proved
at last to be fragile and frail; hence men of firm minds learn betimes,
to abandon their desires for the whole range of visible objects.
23. All those objects (ideas) that are contained in the empty space of
the Intellect, are as precious germs safely stored in the casket of
the mind; and appear by our misconception of them, as visible objects
placed in the open space of air.
24. Those worlds are as the celestial cities of the siddhas, which
are situated in the air and are quite invisible to us; but these that
appear to our view, are non-entities, and mere phantoms of our fancy.
25. The heavenly abodes of the siddhas or godly souls, are feigned as
teeming in gold, precious gems and rubies, with rivers yielding pearls
and fields of diamonds; they abound with victuals and eatables, and
rivers running with limpid and drinkable waters.
26. They are said to abound in honey and wines, in milk and curds, in
butter and clarified butter also; there are streams of sweet beverage,
and celestial nymphs in groups.
27. There fruits and flowers grow in the gardens at all seasons, and
heavenly damsels sport in the bowers at all times; and all sorts of
gains and enjoyments, readily attends on the immediate desire of every
body.
28. There a hundred suns are shining, on one side, and a thousand moons
on another; and some inhabitants are dressed in gold and purple, while
others are quaffing their fill of ambrosial draughts.
29. There is a spontaneous darkness in one place, and full sunshine
in another, and an everlasting joy in some place; and the siddhas or
perfected spirits are continually wafted as by a breeze, from one of
these to another, with their light and ponderous bodies.
30. Some meet with their birth and death at each moment, while there
are others that live to enjoy their everlasting joys of heaven.
31. There are magnificent palaces and great dignities of all sorts; it
is fraught with the delights of all seasons, and filled with whatever
is desirable to mind, and delectable to the spirit.
32. But these desirable blessings, attending upon the pious deeds of
virtuous; find no place in the quiet minds of the righteous (which
fixed divine felicity alone).
33. There is nothing that is desirable to the soul, which is devoted to
the contemplation of Brahma only; say therefore, O ye unholy, of what
good are all these blessings, if they do not lead to divine felicity.
34. If in the beginning there was no creation at all, owing to its want
of a creator; say then what is this world, of what it is composed, and
how came it to existence.
35. If the world is not the act of causality and nothing in reality,
then how does appear to be existent? It is the everlasting will of
God, that manifests itself in the manner in the Divine Mind; just as we
see the display of our rising thought and wishes in our mind.
36. It is even so, O ye simpletons, that you or I or he, come to see
our imaginary castles in the air; by the stretch of our imagination, or
the liveliness or flight of our fancy.
37. He who has the single object of divine felicity, for his sole
pursuit in life; comes to attain the same supreme bliss, after he
forsakes his mortal body.
38. But whoso pursues after the two fold objects of heaven and heavenly
bliss, by means of his religious rites and sacrifices in this life;
acquires both of them afterwards, as the unity of purpose secures one
only to one.
39. The siddhas reign in the said manner, according to the thoughts in
their minds; while the unholy are doomed to the torments of hell, owing
to the sinful thoughts of their minds.
40. Whatever one thinks upon, he feels the same in himself, as long as
he possesses his mortal body; and after he loses his material body, he
feels it in his mind, which is but a part of the body.
41. When a living person quits one body for another, he carries with
him the same mind into the other that he had in the prior one, and sees
the same things in its thoughts, which he was accustomed to look upon
before.
42. A good conscience has all goodly prospects before it, as a vitiated
soul meets with ghastly aspects on all sides; the airy mind sees only
such aerial shapes in its vacuity.
43. Pure souls only come to enjoy the sights of these siddha cities in
the air, but impure spirits are subjected to suffer their torments in
hell.
44. There is a continual rotation of the unwieldy stones of grinding
mills, for crushing the vicious souls; and the hurling of wicked into
blind wells or dark pits, out of which they can rise no more.
45. There some bodies are cast amidst the frozen snows, where they are
petrified to stones; and many are thrown into the burning coals of
devils, or led amidst the burning sands of trackless deserts.
46. The clouds dropped down living fire, and the skies poured forth
fiery showers; and red-hot bolts and arrows darted down from heaven.
47. Stones and disks and swords, were floating on the running stream of
the sky; and falling like fragments of clouds upon the breasts of the
accurst, and breaking them as with the strokes of felling axes.
48. The hot iron sleets and brimstones, falling with a hissing sound;
and weapons were hurled from engines, with a loud tremendous noise.
49. Missiles and bolts and discs, together with pikes and clubs, and
swords and shafts were falling in showers; and traps and tackles and
malls and mallets were striking in hundred.
50. There the hot and burning sands, buried the passengers under the
ground; and there burning meteors were falling like torches; while
large ravens were devouring the dead bodies around.
51. Blazing piles also ingulfed the dead, from which they could never
get out; while darts and spears and bolts and arrows, were piercing the
other bodies all about.
52. Hunger and dismay and excruciating pains, tormented by turns, the
bodies of dead apostates; while others were hurled down from high hills
and heights, on rough and hard stones below.
53. Some were weltering in blood, and rolling in pools of dirt, rotten
flesh and disgusting pus; and others were crushed under stones and
weapons, and beneath the feet of horses and elephants.
54. Hungry vultures and owls, were picking up and tearing the dead
bodies, out of caves and places; and their limbs and members, were
mangled and scattered all over the ground.
55. It is thus that men are prepossessed, with these thoughts of the
punishment of their guilt, from the sacred writings; and thereby come
to suffer the same, both in their bodies and minds, from their inward
impressions of them.
56. Whatever form or figure, ever appears in the vacuum of the
Intellect; or whatsoever is dreamt or thought of at anytime; the same
holds fast the imagination, and presents itself before the mirror of
the mind of its own accord.
CHAPTER CLXI.
EXPLANATION OF NIRVÁNA.
Argument:--Manifestations of the self-existent Intellect. Its
light guiding to Divine knowledge, and ignorance thereof leading
to darkness.
Ráma said:--Tell me sir, whether these various events incidental to the
lives of the hermit and hunter, were owing to any cause, or of their
own spontaneity (_i.e._ whether they were the effects of any cause, or
of their spontaneous occurrence as mere dreams and phantasies).
2. Vasishtha replied:--These occurrences are as the appearance of
eddies, in the vast ocean of the unknown soul (or mind); and are known
to be in their continual rotation in the vortex of the soul, of their
own accord and in their airy forms.
3. As the oscillating particles of air, are ever in motion in the
air; so the current of thoughts is continually in action, in the vast
vacuity of intellect (or mind).
4. Whatever issues from its source in any shape, retains its original
form unless it is converted to and restrained in any other form; so
the aerial thoughts of the vacuous mind are always aerial, unless they
are drawn in painting or exhibited in another form. (Just so a clod of
earth is always the earth, till it is moulded to the form of a pot or
any other thing).
5. It is the vacuous essence of the Divine Intellect, that inheres
in every form that is exhibited by and derived from it; so it is the
substance of the body, that permits through out all its members and
limbs; as it is the woody substance of the tree, that is diffused
through all the leaves and branches, that shoot forth from it. (Gloss.
The difference consists in the permanence of the permeating principle,
and the temporiety of the pervaded growth).
6. Brahma appears to remain permanent in some existences, as in the
four elemental forms of earth etc.; while he seems to be transcient and
evanescent in others, as in the frail bodies of mortal bodies, all of
which abide in their aerial state in the vacuous spirit.
7. All these various objects therefore, being but reflections of the
Intellect impressed upon the soul; it is impossible for us to determine
which of these is substantial or unsubstantial or real or unreal.
8. All these are altogether unknowable except that we know them as
reflexions in the inanity of the Intellect; say ye therefore that are
wholly ignorant of all what you think this visible world to be, whether
a reality or unreality.
9. Whatever you behold anywhere in the universe, is but an exhibition
in the vacuum of the Divine Intellect; and what avails it to you that
know the truth, whether you believe it as such or not. Rely therefore
in your belief of it as it is.
10. These forms of reflexions rise of themselves in the Divine Mind,
as the waves and billows exhibit themselves on the surface of the
sea; they are the spontaneous offspring of the Divine Spirit, and are
of themselves both their causes as well as effects (or self caused
effects).
11. It is the display of the transcendent vacuum of the Divine Mind,
that passed under the appellations of its will or volition, or its
imagination and creation, or the creation of its imagination; hence
this world is to be understood under any one of these senses, and not
of its being composed of earth and water.
12. It is this appearance of the Divine Mind, that appears in this
manner and nothing besides; it is the Divine itself that resides in the
Divinity, and passes under the title of Avidyá or Ignorance, from our
ignorance of its nature.
13. There is no material grossness in the integrity of the Divine
Intellect; which is purely vacuous and immaterial; and composes the
whole universe, this is transcendental knowledge, and its perfection is
liberation.
14. It is the reflexion of the vacuous Intellect, which spreads over
the whole universe; it is rare and uncompressed, and ever calm and
quiet, and passes by the name of the world.
15. The meditative man whose eye-sight is fixed in his musing, whose
body is emaciated in devotion, and whose mind is abstracted from the
concrete, and is absorbed in intellection, is only capable of seeing
the Intellectual world.
16. Whatever the vacuous essence of the intellect, exhibits in any form
at any place; the same appears to be present there of its own nature.
17. The unthinking man and unreasonable soul, sees only erroneous
sights in the midst of skies; as one who is dim-sighted and purblind by
birth, does not cease from seeing the double moon in the sky.
18. Whatever is seen anywhere, is no other than the unpolluted Brahma
himself; and the vacuous sphere of the Intellect being for ever clear
and transparent, is never sullied by any foulness (of gross matter).
19. The intellect without forsaking its pure form of
self-consciousness, exhibits varieties of gross objects in the form of
dreams within itself. So also is our consciousness of the world, in the
manner of our dreams.
20. By comparing the dicta of the sástras with one another, and
weighing them well with acute judgement, one will find his rest in
himself; but the man of shallow understanding will not find it so.
21. The ignorance which floats upon the sea of your understanding, does
not contaminate my mind, in the manner of dirt polluting a pure and
clear stream.
22. As there is neither the earth nor any earthly thing, to be met with
in our sleep, though we are conscious of them in our dream; so also the
phenomenal world has no real existence, though we are conscious of it
in our waking.
23. As the clearness of the Intellect, like sunlight or flaming fire,
shows us many things in our sleeping dreams, so doth its light exhibit
the visibles to our view in our waking dreams also by day.
24. There is no difference between the two states of dreaming and
waking, they are both of the same nature, and the difference lies in
the modes of our apprehension of them.
25. The waking man never apprehends his waking state to be a dream; but
the dead man that rises again to life in the next world, thinks his
past life to have been but a state of dreaming.
26. The shortness and length of time, occupied by the two states
of dreaming and waking, is generally considered to constitute the
difference between them; but during the time of their presence, they
are both considered alike the other (_i.e._ the dreaming man thinks
himself as waking).
27. The sleeping and waking dreams, bearing alike the same quality of
presenting false objects to view, are necessarily of the same nature;
and there is no difference whatever in their outward features, as there
is neither elder and younger of two twin brothers. (Dreaming and waking
are twin brothers, like sleep and death neither of which is more or
less).
28. Whatever is the waking dream, just so is the waking in dream also;
neither of which leaves anything--being, behind the two states of
waking and dreaming. (They present many things when present, but leave
nothing lasting in their absence or when they are past and gone).
29. As we know the inconstancy of hundreds of dreams, all along the
length of our life time; so the unredeemed and unenlightened soul, sees
hundreds of waking states (in its repeated transmigrations in life,
_i.e._ in this living world).
30. As the living mortals may well recollect the very many sleeping
dreams, they have seen throughout their lives; so the immortalized
souls of siddhas well remember, the number of waking dreams which they
had seen, in their past transmigrations in different bodies.
31. Thus our waking is equipollent with our dreaming, and our dreams
are equivalent with waking, in their correlation with one another in
like quality, and our perception of both alike.
32. As the word worlds and phenomenal, are significant of the one and
same meaning; so the terms dreaming and waking are homonymous, and
interchangeable to one another--_mutatis mutandis_.
33. As the fairy-land in a dream, is as clear as the open space of the
Intellect; so is this world an inane void and blank, and without the
grossness of _avidyá_ which ignorance imputes to it. (Ignorance views
the fair ideal world as a foul material one).
34. The world is a vacuous substance, and represented as a gross stuff
by ignorance; so I am as free as air and any airy thing in the world,
and it is my imagination only, that binds me to my grossness.
35. Therefore do not confine your free and unconfined nature, in
the bondage of gross matter; and never change the pure vacuum of
your person to a material stuff, nor disfigure your formless and
intellectual self in a gross and finite form.
36. There can be no bondage nor liberation, of aught whatever in this
visible world of our ignorance or _avidyá_; because all things herein
are mere reflexions of the formless void of the Divine Intellect.
37. Here there is no display of ignorance, nor any misconceptions of
ours of any thing; there is neither any bondage nor release of aught
whatever, and nothing that is either existent or inexistent (since all
are but reflexions of Divine Intellect).
38. There is nescience, nor knowing of anything here by us; because it
is the uncreated Intellect alone, that manifests itself in this manner;
it reflects all forms in itself, as if they are all its dreams or
creations.
39. As a man passing from one place to another, has his mind kept in
abeyance in the interim; so should we keep our minds quiet and still
betwixt our sight of the visibles and our dreams. (In action of the
mind is reckoned as _nirvána_).
40. As one has his body and mind, quite quiet and calm in his sleep at
night; and in the respite of his sights and thoughts, in the states of
his waking and dreaming; this very state of insensibility is called
_nirvána_ of the yogi.
41. Know our knowledge of the difference of objects (as the one is
immaterial and the other material), is equally untrue as that of
our waking and dreaming states; because it is impossible for us to
conceive any other thing as matter, to consist in the immaterial
Intellect.
42. Our knowledge of identity and diversity, proceed however from the
same vacuous intellect; which combines the unity and duality also, in
unbroken union or harmony in itself.
43. Knowing all as parts of undivided whole, all these are the same
whatever they appear to be; hence the visible however diversified they
may appear, are all one and the same principle.
44. Hence the etherial sphere of Brahma, contains all in itself; and
who as an aerial point concentrates all in it; and the creation is the
unity of Brahma, together with all its varieties.
45. Knowing all things as full of God, you must however reject them all
(as mere reflexions of the Deity); and rest yourself at last in the
vacuous Intellect, as the great rock of your refuge.
46. Now, O fortunate Ráma, remain to act in conformity with the rules
of your order, and laws of society and the statues of your position
and dignity; continue to go on, eat and drink and rest in your usual
course, rely in your desired object, and ever recline in the glorious
and holy lord of your intellect, and the supreme God of all.
CHAPTER CLXII.
ANNIHILATION OF IGNORANCE.
Argument:--Here Duality is reduced to the unity of Brahma; and
good counsels given for subversion of ignorance.
Vasishtha continued:--All objects being convertible to the conceptions
of the vacuous intellect, the whole universe is supposed to have its
seat in the hollow mind; and therefore both the outward sights of
things, as also the inward thoughts of their forms, are all but ideal
images in the empty mind.
2. The world being but a dream, and of the form of an ideal city in the
mind, has nothing substantial in it; and is therefore a quiet vacuity
in itself, without having anything of any kind, or any diversity
whatsoever contained therein.
3. It is the uniform display of the Intellect, appearing as multiform
unto us; and this variety though unsubjective to the soul, is looked
upon by it within itself, as we view the fairy-land of our dream,
rising from ourselves. (Query:--whether our dreams are subjective or
objective to us?)
4. In the beginning this world appeared, as the aerial castle of a
dream in the vacuum of the Intellect; it was a mere reflexion of the
Divine Mind, and though it was of the form of a false shadow, remained
as substantive to the supreme spirit.
5. The knowing theosophist well knows this mystery, which is mysterious
to the unknowing ignorant; because the word creation bears the sense of
both the reality as well as unreality in it.
6. The knowing spiritualist as well as the unknowing agnostic, both
acknowledge the reality of creation; but they can neither understand
how it exists, nor communicate to one another their right conception of
it.
7. They both know the meaning, of the word creation in their minds; the
one having the sense of its sedateness ever wakeful in their minds
(from their spiritual view of it); and the other having the sense
of its unsteadiness always waking in them (from their sight of the
changeful scenes of the outer world); so they resemble the sober and
drunken men, that view the world in its steady and shaking states.
8. As the liquid waters in a river, rise incessantly in restless waves;
so the rolling worlds, push forward into being, in the vast expanse of
the Divine Mind.
9. These creations which are not of the nature of the intellect, have
yet their sites in the Intellect, like the thoughts that rise and fall
in it; and these though they are invisible in their nature, appear as
visible things, like the fair objects and fairy cities in our dream.
10. It is spreading shadow of the divine Intellect, which pass under
the name of the world; and this formless in itself, appears as having a
form, like the shadow of anything else.
11. It is a gross error, to take the unsubstantial shadow for a
substantial body; as it is a gross error to suppose the empty shadow of
a ghost as an embodied being.
12. The world is as unreal as an imaginary city, and as false as a
string of rain drops; why then do you rely in an unreality, which is
palpable from the testimonies of both the ignorant and knowing men.
13. The words then that are used to express this thing and that, are
mere empty sounds, as those emitted by a splitting block of wood or a
bamboo; or those heard in the dashing of waves or blowing of winds; it
is the current air which conveys the empty sound into the open vacuum
of the sky, but they are all unreal and meaningless, and bear but a
conventional sense, with which it has no connection whatsoever.
14. It is light of the lord that reflects itself in his creation, and
the reflexion of his _fiat_ that reverberates through the whole; while
in reality there is neither any sound nor substance, that is to be
heard or seen in the universe (except the voice and the sight of the
Lord).
15. Whatever shines or exists herein, is the transcendent reality
of the Lord; otherwise there is nothing that could appear at first
without its cause (all being but parts of the one undivided whole--to
_pan_).
16. Therefore from (thy knowledge of) the distinctions of words and
things; know the one as all in all, and remain as quiet and calm as the
indefinite and infinite void itself.
17. Forsake the fickleness of thy mind, by means of the calm repose of
thy soul; the purity of thy understanding, and by an even tenor of thy
disposition; because an inconstant soul is troublesome in life.
18. It is one’s self that is a friend or enemy to himself, and if one
will not try to guard and save himself by his own self, there is no
other to do so for him. (He who is no friend to himself, is his own
enemy himself).
19. Get over the ocean of the world while you are young, and make your
good understanding the ferry boat, to bear your body safely to the
other shore.
20. Do what is good for you today, and why defer till tomorrow; you can
do nothing in oldage, when your body becomes a burden to yourself.
21. Know your as oldage (if it is fraught with learning); and
account decrepitude as death itself in your lifetime. Youth is verily
the life of the living, provided it is fraught with learning.
22. Having obtained thy life in this living world, which is as
transient as the fleeting lightning; you must try to derive the essence
from this dirty earth, by availing yourself of the benefit of good
_sástras_ and the company of the wise.
23. Woe to the ignorant! that will not seek their salvation in life;
that are sinking in the pits of mud and mire; and never striving to
lift themselves above them.
24. As the ignorant rustic is afraid at the sight of the earthen images
of ghosts, and bends down to them; which those that are acquainted with
the meaning of the word ghost never do.
25. So those that see God in an idol or in his visible creation, are
misled to think it their god and adore it as such; but those that know
the true meaning of the term, never pay their adoration to any visible
object.
26. As things in motion come to rest afterwards, and the visible
disappear from the sight of the learned, who are acquainted with their
true meaning. (The world recedes, and the light of God opens to their
view).
27. As the sights in a dream, seeming to be true in the state of
dreaming, disperse at last upon waking, and upon the knowledge of their
unreal nature.
28. So doth this world, which is conceived as something existing in the
vacuum of the understanding; melts at last into empty air and nothing,
upon our knowledge of its intellectual nature.
29. This living world is as a wilderness, burning with the
conflagration of various evils attendant on life; and here we are
exposed as weak antelopes, living upon our precarious sustenances; and
here we are governed by our ungovernable minds and restless passions
and senses of our bodies; all these require to be subdued in order to
obtain our liberation from repeated births and deaths.
CHAPTER CLXIII.
MEANS AND MANNER OF GOVERNING THE SENSES AND SENSIBLE ORGANS.
Argument:--Government of the senses and fixedness of the Mind,
and the study of yoga sástra.
Ráma rejoined:--I know sir, all knowledge to be in vain and useless,
without proper government of ourselves and senses; tell me therefore
how these may be kept under control, in order to give us the true
knowledge of things unbiased by the senses.
2. Vasishtha replied:--Addictedness to enjoyments and display of
manhood, and devotedness to the acquisition of the means of life or
wealth; are preventives of self-controul and liberation of one’s self,
as blindness is an obstruction to one’s sight of a light.
3. Then listen to this least advice of mine as the shortest and best
means, for the government of yourself and your senses; and this is sure
to lead one to his successfulness, by his own endeavour and with no
toil or trouble.
4. Know the intellect as the man that mans you, and its power of
intellection which makes you a living man; and whatever the living
soul thinks of within itself, it verily becomes the very same (but the
ignorant man becomes effeminate).
5. Let the strength of your consciousness, ply the pointed goad of
your acute good sense; and you will doubtless subdue your ungovernable
elephantine mind, and come off victorious shortly at last.
6. The mind is the captain of the army of your bodily and mental
senses; subdue therefore this leading mind, and you will conquer the
whole host of your senses. Just so does a man walking on boots, tread
over the thorns lying by his way.
7. [In order therefore to subdue your mind], you must settle your
self-consciousness in your consciousness of the omnipresent vacuum of
the Divine soul, and rest yourself quiet in the recess of your heart;
and then your mind will sit quiet of itself, as the snows of winter
settle down of themselves in autumn.
8. Thus by stopping the action of your consciousness, you will
also shut up your mind, and put a stop to the operation of all its
faculties; as you can never been able to do by means of all your
devotion and austerities, your pilgrimages, your knowledge and
sacrifice, and all other ceremonies and acts and duties.
9. Whatever comes to occur in the consciousness, the same must be
forgot or buried in the consciousness of the great God alone; and so
the forgetfulness of all enjoyments and their objects, amounts to our
victory over them. (The way to overcome the pleasures of life, is to
bury their remembrance in oblivion).
10. We must try by all means, to shut out the objects of sense from
our consciousness; and this state of our unconsciousness of them, is
tantamount to the state of godliness or heavenly bliss.
11. Again the contentment which arises, from our acting in conformity
with the rules of our order, is another cause of preserving the
steadiness of the mind; therefore remain firm in the practice of your
particular duties, and seek no happiness besides.
12. He who relinquishes his inclination, towards the attainment of
what is unlawful for him; and remains content with earning his lawful
gains, is verily said to be a man of subdued appetites, and one who has
governed.
13. He who is pleased with his inward and conscious gratification, and
is not grieved at the unpleasant things all about him, is said to have
well governed and benumbed his mind.
14. By suspension of the action of consciousness, the mind too comes to
forget and forsake its activity, and the sensations also being relaxed
from their restlessness, pursue their discrimination and judgement.
15. The discriminative and judging soul, becomes ennobled and
magnanimous, and keeps its command over the feelings and senses; and
is not impelled by the waves of its desires, to be tossed about on the
surface of the wide ocean of this world.
16. The man of well governed senses comes, by his association with the
wise, and his constant study of religious works, to know all things in
the world in their true light.
17. All worldly errors are dispelled by the light of truth; or else
one must fall into the pit of misery, by his mistake of falsehood for
truth; as the ignorant traveller is ingulfed in the dreary sands, by
his mistake of the mirage for water.
18. Knowing this world as the unknowable intellect itself, that is the
knowledge of the material world as the immaterial mind of God; is the
true light in which the cosmos is viewed by the wise, who have neither
the fear of their falling into the snare of error, nor require their
release from it.
19. As the dried up waters of a river, are seen no more to glide even
slightly in their course; so the formless phenomenals of the world,
never appear in the sight of the wise, nor leave their slightest
vestiges behind in their mind.
20. The knowledge of the world as an infinite void, and freed from the
erroneous individualities of myself and thyself; leads to the knowledge
of a supreme-self, which is apart from all, and the only ego that fills
the whole.
21. All this conception of our subjective egoism and the objective
world, are but errors of our brain proceeding from ignorance; they are
all situated in the void of Intellect, and are void of themselves; and
all bodies are but empty shadows in air, and as quiet as quietus or
nullity itself.
22. This world appears as a shadow of the Intellect, in the vacuity
of the very Intellect; it is a void amidst the void of the Intellect,
which is certainly a void itself.
23. No body can deny its similitude, to the shadowy sight in a dream;
it is an unreal notion, and as unsubstantial as all notions can be, and
as the notion of a void is void itself.
24. This dream is no other than our consciousness of it, and the airy
realms that it presents to our view for the time; so doth the Intellect
show us the sight of the world, without any action or passion or
instrumentality of itself.
25. So I am of the substance of the very Intellect, which is without
its activity, passivity and instrumentality; and the world being
unassignable to any causality or instrumentality, subsists only in our
simple conception of it.
26. As the conception of one’s death in a dream, is no reality at
all; and the sight of water in the mirage, is a visual deception only
(so the sight of the world appearing to view, is no real existence or
entity at all).
27. The vacuous intellect reflects its thoughts at first, in the clear
mirror of its vacuity (or concavity); which is a mere hap-hazard of
chance, and has no firm base or support (nor any form or figure of
itself).
28. The world appears as fixed and firm, without its foundation
anywhere; and seems to be shining brightly, with its darksome opacity;
know then this fixity and this brightness of it, to be the diuturnity
and glory of the eternal and glorious God.
29. The vivacity of living beings, displays the spirit of the ever
living God; the air is his vacuity, and the running waters, show the
vortiginous current of the eternal soul.
30. As every member of the body is constituent part of the whole frame;
so all the various parts of animated and inanimate nature, constitute
the entirety of the one cosmical deity. (These are but parts of one
undivided whole, whose body nature is and God the soul. Pope).
31. As the crystal mirror shows the shade of everything in itself, so
doth the transparency of Divine soul, exhibit the reflexions of all
things in it; the silent soul is as quiet as the mute crystal, but
shows the varying scenes of nature, as interminably as a clear mirror
reflects everything.
32. There is no beginning or end of the supreme being (nor of his acts
and attributes, which are displayed in nature); it is the intermediate
of the two that is dimly seen by us, the rest is all enveloped in
ignorance, though there is no ignorance in the Omniscient.
33. The living soul wakes from its sleeping dream, to fall back to its
waking dream again; and thus it continues for ever in its dreaming
whether waking or sleeping which are both alike to it.
34. The soul finds its rest only, while it remains in the fourth state
of its sound sleep; or else it passes all along from dreaming to
dreaming, in both its state of sleeping and waking, which continually
haunt after it, unless it is drowned in its _susupti_ or sound sleep of
_hynotism_, the only resort of the wise.
35. But waking and sleeping and dreaming and sound sleep, are all alike
to the enlightened soul; which is equally indifferent in all states,
and whether it is asleep or awake, is never infested by dreams nor set
beside itself.
36. The knowledge of unity or duality, and that of Ego _and tu_ or the
subjective and objective; never disturbs the enlightened; who views the
whole as an empty void, and is alike insensible of all as well as null.
37. The distinction of unity and duality, made in the meaningless
speech of the unwise, is laughed at by the enlightened and wise, as the
aged and intelligent men laugh to scorn, at the pranks and prattlings
of young lads.
38. The controversy of unity and duality, is of spontaneous growth in
the heart like an indigenious plant; which without its pruning will not
put forth its blossoms, to perfume the atmosphere of the understanding.
39. The discussion of unity and duality, is as benificial to man as
his best friend; in sweeping away the dirt and dross of ignorance from
their minds, as they drive away the dust from within the doors of their
houses.
40. Then the minds of men are settled in the Divine Mind, when there
ensues a mutual communion between themselves, and a communication and
participation of their reciprocal joys and felicity with one another.
41. These men being always joined together in their fellowship, and
serving one another with the mutual delight and obligingness of
their hearts; attain to that state of the enlightenment of their
understandings, whereby they are admitted into their communion with the
Most High.
42. It is possible for a man to be benefited, even by his careful
preservation of a trifle (at some time or other); but it is never
possible for any body, to attain the most recondite knowledge of God,
without his diligent inquiry into the same.
43. Whatever highest position one may enjoy in this material world, is
to be recognised by all as nothing, provided that one does not remain
aloof from all kind of vices.
44. What is that happiness which is gained by the possession of a
kingdom, which at last is no better than mere botheration of the mind;
while the mind that has gained its peace and tranquility in truth and
Divine knowledge, spurns at the state of gods and kings as mere straws
to him.
45. The sleepy as well as the wakeful, are alike apt to see the
visibles, and are rapt with the sight; but the saints that are calm and
quiet and at rest with themselves, are averse to sight-seeing, and see
the only one in themselves.
46. Without painstaking, and your continued practice of contemplation,
you can not succeed to attain this state of infinite felicity; for know
this state of transcendent bliss, is the fruit of intense devotion only.
47. Thus have I said at length, to impress in you the necessity of
intense devotion; but to what good is all this say the evil-minded to
me, and thus slight and take no heed of all that I have been so long
delivering unto you.
48. It must be by means of steady attention to these lectures, and
by long and repeated practice of devotion; as also by hearing these
sermons and discoursing upon them that the ignorant can come to the
right light of truth.
49. He who having once read this spiritual work, slights it afterwards
as already perused by him; and turns to the study of unspiritual books,
is a vile wretch that collects the burnt ashes after the fire is
extinguished. (Irreligious works are the ashes of the fiery religious
ones).
50. This excellent work is to be read always, like the recital of the
vedas, which are embodied herein; and this is calculated to reward the
labor of the student, by its being constantly read with reverence, and
rightly explained with diligence.
51. The student will learn from this _sástra_ all that he expects to
find in the vedas; because it embodies both the practical as well as
spiritual doctrines of the sacred scriptures, and a knowledge of both
of them, is available by proper perusal of this work.
52. By learning this book, one may have a knowledge of the doctrines
of the vedánta, tarka and siddhánta _sástras_, because this is the
only work, that treats of the tenets of all schools. (Here the word
drishti is homonymous with _darsana_, which is rendered as a school of
philosophy by Colebrooke).
53. It is from my sympathy for you all, that I propound these doctrines
to you; and by way of imposture, that I impose these lessons on your
credulity. You are best judges of my discourse and can well detect,
whether there is anything as deception in my prolusions.
54. The knowledge that you may derive, by weighing well the
instructions given in this great work; will serve you as salt, in order
to season and relish the teachings of other _sástras_, that are at best
but sundry dishes before it.
55. The materialist who is conversant with the visibles, disparages
this book for its occult teachings of spiritualism; but don’t you be
the killer of your souls as to neglect your eternal salvation, in order
to revisit this material world, and to be busied with your temporal
affairs.
56. Biased minds cling to the dogmas of exploded systems, and ignoble
men drink the foul water of tanks, dug by their ancestors; you are
reasoning men yourselves, therefore do not remain for ever fast bound
to your ignorance.
CHAPTER CLXIV.
UNITY OF THE DIVINITY AND THE MUNDANE WORLD.
Argument:--Intromission of the Living soul and all bodies, that
is the subjective and objective into the Divine Essence.
Vasishtha continued:--The atoms of living souls in the world, are as
the particles of rays in the orb of the sun (or as the sparks of fire
in a furnace); and as all these parts taken collectively, make the one
undivided whole; so there is no division of the unity of the Deity,
throughout the whole creation.
2. By attaining the transcendental knowledge of all being the One, and
the One as all; every thing loses its shape and form before us, and
there remains nothing whatever as a distinct being or duality.
3. The true believer or knower of truth, sees the self-same object
in all states and forms of things; and this is the transcendent and
translucent Brahma only, and nothing else whatsoever at any time.
4. He is the same, that is known to the ignorant, as their objects
of sense; but we do not recognize either ourselves or others, or the
sensible objects of the ignorant as such.
5. The belief of the ignorant man in the reality of himself, thyself
and all others, does not affect the knower of truth, as the delusion
of mirage never overtakes the man on Mount Meru: (where the deceptive
sands of the deserts are wanting).
6. As the man intent upon one object, has no consciousness of any
other thing in his mind; so one enrapt at the sight of God alone, is
conscious of nothing besides.
7. There neither is nor was nor shall ever be, any such thing as the
material world at any time; the world in _esse_ is the image of Brahma
himself, and abides in his spirit.
8. The world is the splendour of the chrystalline vacuum of the Divine
Intellect, and subsists in the vacuity of the supreme soul itself;
it is in this light that the universe is seen in the _dhyána yoga_ or
abstruse contemplation of yogi.
9. As there is nothing in an empty dream or in the aerial castle of
imagination except the clear atmosphere of the Intellect; so there is
no essence or substance nor form or figure of this world, that we view
in our present waking state.
10. At first there was no creation of any kind, nor this world which
appears to us (in its material form); it exists in its aerial form
in the Divine Mind from all eternity; and there being no primary or
secondary cause of it, how is it possible to call it a material thing
of its own spontaneous growth.
11. Therefore there is nothing that sprang itself out of nothing at
first, nor was there ever a creator called Brahmá or other by the
ignorant, in the beginning; there is nothing but an infinite void from
eternity to eternity, which is filled by the self-born or increate
spirit, whose intellect exhibits this creation, contained for ever and
ever in its vacuity.
CHAPTER CLXV.
ON THE SIMILARITY OF WAKING AND DREAMING.
Argument:--The steadiness of the Intellect in waking and
Dreaming, which are alike to one another.
Vasishtha continued:--In the state of waking dream the dream passes
under the name of waking; and in the state of dreaming wakefulness,
this waking goes by the name of sleeping.[2]
2. The dream terminates into waking, and the waking man rises from his
dreaming, and falls back into it again; so one awakened from his dream
like waking, falls afterwards to his waking dreams.
3. The dream of the waking dreamer, is to be called a dream also, as
the waking dream of this world; and so the waking (or consciousness) of
the sleeping waker, is to be styled his waking state.
4. Therefore that wakefulness (or consciousness) of one, remains
in his dreaming state, is to be called his waking likewise and not his
dreaming; so also the waking dream (of the existence of the world),
and the imaginations of airy castles while one is waking, is to be
designated his dreaming and never as his waking.
5. Whatever lasts for a short while, as a temporary delusion or flight
of imagination, passes under the name of a dream even in one’s waking
state; and so the short watchfulness of consciousness in the state of
dreaming, is known as dreaming and never as waking.
6. Therefore there is no difference whatever, between the two states
of waking and dreaming, beside the absence of one of these two in
the other (_i.e._ the absence of shortness in waking, and that of
durability in the dream). Again they are both unreal, owing to their
blending with one another (_i.e._ dreaming blended with the view of
the phenomenals in waking; and the wakeful consciousness blending with
dreaming).
7. The waking dream of the world, vanishes under its unconsciousness in
death; and the consciousness of dreaming is lost, under the knowledge
of its being an airy nothing. (The world recedes as heaven opens to
view. Pope).
8. The dying person that does not come to perceive the vanity of the
visionary world at his death-bed can have no sight of the state of his
waking (or resurrection), in the next or future world.
9. Whoever believing himself as alive, among the varying scenes of this
vacuous world, lives content with them; he can never come to the sight
of the visions, which await upon him.
10. As the intellect displays its wonders, in the exhibitions of the
various scenes of worlds, to the sight of one in his dream; so doth
this universe appear before the minds of men, at the time of their
waking.
11. These creations which are so conspicuous to sight, are at best but
nothing in their transcendental light and all the forms of things, are
as the empty shadows of them appearing in our dreams.
12. As the world with all its varieties of visible objects, appear in
its inane and shadowy form in the dream; so it is seen in its vacuous
and intellectual form only, in our waking state (although it seems to
be tangible body).
13. It is the nature of the vacuous Intellect, to show the form of the
world in its own firmament; so doth this earth appear unto us, amidst
the spacious atmosphere, like the orbs of light in the skies.
14. It is the wondrous display of the Intellect, that shines before
us under the name of universe; and these wonders are as inborn and
innumerable in itself, as the watery and earthly particles, are connate
with, and diffused throughout nature.
15. What thing is there in it, which you can mistake for a reality in
this unreal world; that is situated as a vacuous body in the infinite
womb of vacuity.
16. The words recipient, receipt and reception, or the percipient,
perceived and perception (_i.e._ the subject, object and attribute),
are all meaningless with regard to this vacuous world; and whether it
is a reality or unreality, we have no perception of it. (Because the
presence of everything is lost, at the absence of its properties, which
are adscititious only).
17. Whether it is so or not or be it anything otherwise (as others
may have it); yet why should mistake it for anything at all, in
whatever light you take it, it will amount to your mistake of an
empty ball for a fruit (so says the vedánta:--जगद्ब्रह्म स्वरूपत्वात्
प्रागभाब तथा प्रध्रंसाभाब एबं अन्यान्य भाबानाम दुर्निरूप्यत्वात् केबलात्यन्ताभाबोऽस्ति ।).
CHAPTER CLXVI.
ON THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE DIVINE SPIRIT: IN THE FORM OF A DIALOGUE.
Argument:--Definition of supreme soul and its synonyms and its
simile to a blue stone.
Vasishtha continued:--The true sense of the word soul or self, is to
be understood from the title which is applied to it; and this title of
the soul is borne out by the simile, of the solid and transparent blue
stone.
2. It is from the beginning of creation, that the vacuous soul is
thus diffused in itself; and the reflexion which it casts in its own
vacuity, the same passes under the name of this world or creation.
3. There runs no river in it, nor there rises nor sinks any rock in the
same; it is the mere vacuum subsisting in its infinite void, wherein
the intellect reflects itself without any action or bidding or fiat of
it.
4. This reflexion of the Divine Intellect, was without its utterance of
“word” and quite without its “will” or “thought”. It was also without
the appliance of any subsequent material (as matter), and this is the
true sense of the word soul or self.
5. The soul itself is the whole world, which has no other expression
for it; and being devoid of a name, it is expressible by no other name
though they give many names to it.
6. Its name being nameless, whatever appellation they put to it, is not
opposite but inappropriate to it; what is the good therefore of giving
it a name or no name at all.
7. Its namelessness or giving it a misnomer or improper expression, is
all the same; since all what is visible, is no other than a display of
the wondrous fabric of the Divine Mind.
8. Whatever shines in any manner, in the empty space of the Divine mind
at any time; the same shines forth even then and in that manner, as
the rays of that Intellect (emanating therefrom, and concentrating into
all other minds).
9. It is denominated by one as soul, by another as _asat_, and by some
as nothing; all these are the mystery of intellect only, but in fact,
all are the attributes of soul.
10. The word itself conveys the meaning of self--soul. It is without
beginning and end, and no language can express it; in fact, it is an
undivided whole.
11. Now listen to a long narrative which hangs on this subject, and
which will serve to gladden your hearts and ears, by removing the
duality from your sight, and by enlightening your understanding (with
knowledge of the unity).
12. Know that there is a very large crystal stone, extending itself to
thousands of leagues in space; and stretching like the solid cerulean
fabric of the firmament, or as the blue sky all around us.
13. It is all of a piece without any joining of parts in it, and is as
dense and compact as the hard adamant; it is thick, big and bulky in
its size, but at the same time as clear and far as the face of the sky.
14. It continues from countless times, and endures to endless duration;
and with its comely and pellucid body, it appears as the clear
firmament, or the blank vacuum on high.
15. No one ever knows its nature or genus, from his having never seen
anything of the same kind, nor does any body know from when and where,
it hath come to existence. (All know it is, but none knows how and
whence it is).
16. It does not contain anything substantial, as the material elements
within itself; and yet it is as dense and solidified in itself as a
crystalline, and indissoluble as an adamant.
17. Yet it is composed of innumerable streaks and strokes, which are
embodied in itself; and these resemble the veins and fibres on lotus
leaves, and the marks of conches etc. in Hari’s feet.
18. These marks are named as air, water, earth, fire and vacuum, though
there are no such things to be found therein; except that the stone
was possest living soul, which it imparted to its marks.
19. Ráma rejoined:--Tell me sir, how that stone of yours, could have
life or sensibility in it; the stone is an insensible thing, and could
not give names to the marks on its body.
20. Vasishtha replied:--That immense and luminous stone, is neither a
sentient nor inert body; no body knows its nature and state, and there
is no other like it.
21. Ráma said:--Tell me sir, who ever saw those marks, which are
imprinted in the bosom of that stone; and how could any one ever break
that stone, in order to see its contents and its marks.
22. Vasishtha replied:--It is hard to break this hard stone, nor has
anybody been ever able to break it; by cause of its extending over
infinite space, and encompassing all bodies within its bosom. (So
says the sruti:--There is nothing but is encompassed by it--the all
pervading soul).
23. It is full of numberless spots in its spacious cavity; and these
consist of the marks of mountains and trees, and of countries, towns
and cities.
24. There are also small and large dots in it, with any form or figure
of them; but serve to represent the forms of men, and gods and demigods
in them, as an outline shows the images of things.
25. There is a long line drawn in it in the form of a circle, which
represents the great circle of the visible sky or horizon; and this
contains the two central points, signifying the sun and moon.
26. Ráma said:--Tell me sir, who ever saw those marks of such forms;
and how it is possible for any body, to look into the cell of a solid
or hollow ball.
27. Vasishtha replied:--It is I, O Ráma, that beheld those marks of
different forms in that impenetrable block; and it is possible for you
to look into it, if you will but like to do so.
28. Ráma said:--How could you sir, look into those marks inside that
solid stone, which you say, is as stiff as adamant, and incapable of
being broken or perforated by any means.
29. Vasishtha replied:--It was by means of my being seated, in the
very heart of that stone; that I came to see those marks, as also to
penetrate into their meanings.
30. Who else is able to penetrate into that rigid stone beside myself,
who have been able by my penetration, to pry and pierce into the
mysteries of those hidden marks.
31. Tell me sir, what is that stone and what are you yourself; explain
to me where you are and what you are speaking, and what are those
things that you have seen and known to mean.
32. Vasishtha replied:--It is the supreme soul, which is the sole
entity and sober reality; and this is represented by figure of speech,
as the great stone, of which I have been speaking to you.
33. We are all situated in the cavity of this supreme spirit, and the
three worlds form the flesh of this Great being, who is devoid of all
substantiality.
34. Know the spacious firmament to be a part of this solid rock, and
the ever flying winds as fragment of its body; the fleeting time and
evanescent sounds together with all our varying actions and desires,
and the imaginations of our minds, to be but the fugacious particles of
its substance.
35. The earth, air, water and fire, and the vacuum and understanding
also, together with our egoism and sensibilities, are the portions and
sections of its totality.
36. We are all but bits and parcels of the great rock of the supreme
soul, and every thing whatever there is in existence, proceeds from
that source, and we know of no other cause or causality whatsoever.
37. This large stone is the great rock of Divine Intellect, and there
is nothing whatever, which is beside and beyond its intelligence. Say
then if there be any such thing and what it bears.
38. All things are but mere notions of them, as those of a pot or cot,
a picture and all others; they appear in us as our dreams, and rise
before us as the waves of water (which are no other but water).
39. It is all the substance of Brahma and the essence of the great
Intellect, which fills and pervades the whole; know therefore all these
as one, with the substantiality of the Supreme spirit, and all as quiet
and calm as itself.
40. Thus all this plenum is situated, in the bosom of the great rock
of the intellect; which is without its beginning, middle and end, and
without any hole therein, or doorway thereto. Therefore it is the
Supreme soul only which contemplates in itself, and produces (as the
object of its thought), this ideal creation of the universe (or the one
converted into many), and which passes under the title of the visible
or phenomenal world.
CHAPTER CLXVII.
ABSENCE OF THE THREE FOLD STATES OF WAKING, DREAMING AND SLEEP.
Argument:--Refutation of the four fold Appellations of the World,
and the three fold states of the Living soul.
Vasishtha continued:--The four titles, namely, the self-styled, the
misnamed, the nameless, and the otherwise named, under which the
world passes in their different senses; are all meaningless to the
spiritualist (who view the world in its spiritual light, and as
selfsame with the Supreme spirit, as it is related in the preceding
chapter).
2. These different words do not disturb the mind of the spiritualist,
whose soul is at rest in the Supreme spirit, and who pays no regard to
the use of words (or terminology of theology).
3. All these visibles rise from the Intellect only, and bear no names
of their own; they are of the nature of pure vacuum, and appear unto us
in their simple vacuous forms (as phantoms in the air).
4. This is the soul, and this its title (that is giving a name to a
nameless spiritual thing), is an erroneous conceit or coinage of the
brain. The spirit admits of no expressions; therefore take heed of no
word but mind its meaning.
5. Whatever appears to be moving or staying or doing any action, is as
calm and clear as the void air, and devoid of action as the Divine soul.
6. All things however sounding, are as silent as the still stone said
before; and though they seem to be ever moving, they are ever as quiet
as the void of the sky, and as still as the quiescent stone.
7. Though all things appear to be acting in their various ways, yet
they are as motionless as the unmoving vacuum; and though the world
appears to be formed of the five elements, yet it is but a void and
devoid of its quintessence.
8. The world with its fulness of things, is but a congeries of your
conceptions; it is full with the all pervasive and pellucid Intellect,
which shows the visions of great cities, like the vacant sights in our
dream (or as a dumb and shadowy show, without any sound or substance in
it).
9. It is full of action and motion, without any activity or mobility
in it, like the passing city of our imagination; it is the air built
castle of our error, and as the fairy land in our dream.
10. It is a false conception or notion of the mind, and as the fading
shadow of a fairy; it is creation of our fancies, but altogether
unsubstantial in its substantiality.
11. Ráma rejoined:--I ween this world as a waking dream, and
reproduction of our remembrance of it; because it is reminiscence of
the past only, that presents the absent to our view, and brings the
outer objects to our knowledge. (Hence remembrance is the cause of
resolving everything to our knowledge of them).
12. Vasishtha replied:--No Ráma, it is the reflexion which the glassy
mirror of the Intellect, casts before us at anytime, the same appears
to us even then in its vacuous form; and there is no idea or thought
of anything, that lays a firm hold on the mind, or has its foundation
there. (Refutation of innate conceptions and prior reminiscence).
13. Therefore the phenomenon always belongs, to the noumenon of the
Supreme spirit; and the fluctuating phenomenals ever abide in it, as
the undulating waves play in the calm waters of the sea.
14. The uncaused world, exists of itself in the Supreme soul; and
becomes extinct of itself, in the vacuity of the universal soul.
15. The world is viewed in the same light by every one, as it is
reflected in himself, hence the ignorant are always in fault in having
a wrong view of it; but not so the wise, who know it as nothing.
16. Again the lord god Brahma himself, has exhibited the lucid nature
of his being, according to the four states or conditions, which are
natural to the soul.
17. These are the three states of waking, dreaming and sleep, together
with a fourth called-the _turíya_ or the state of sound sleep, and
these names are applied to the soul by the Supreme soul itself.
18. But in reality none of these quadruple states, belongs either to
the Divine or the living soul, which is always tranquil, and which is
of the nature of an indefinite void.
19. Or it may be said in respect to the soul, that it is either always
wakeful, or in its ever dreaming state; or in a state of continuous
rest and sleep. (The Divine soul never sleeps. Sir W. Jones. The ever
wakeful eyes of Jove. Homer).
20. Or it is ever in its fourth state of _turya_, which is beyond all
these triple states; but whether it is in this or that or what state,
we know nothing of, being ourselves always in a state of disquiet and
continued agitation.
21. We know nothing of the inanity of the vacuous soul, as to whether
it is as the chasm in the foam or froth, or whether it is as the air in
a bubble or spray; or whether it is as the gap amidst waves of the sea
or what it is at all.
22. As a thing is known to be in its imagination, so it is impressed
also in our conception of the same; and as anything appears either
as real or unreal in the dream, we retain the like idea of it in our
waking also.
23. All this is the display of our consciousness, and whatever
reflexion it exhibits unto us it is but an empty shadow in the hollow
of the vacant mind, which resides in the vacuity of the vacuous
intellect, that pervades the infinite vacuum of the soul.
24. Consciousness is the pith and marrow of vacuous Intellect, and
retains this form (of its quiddity) at all times; it neither rises nor
sets, and this world is inherent in it (_i.e._ it is subjective and
derived from within).
25. The creations on the beginning, and the dark nights of dissolution,
are but parts of its body, and resemble its nails and hairs. (_i.e._
The light which was the first work of creation, likened the whiteness
of its nails, and the darkness of the universal deluge, equalled the
blackness of its hairs).
26. Its appearance and disappearance, that is its clearness and
dimness; are no other than as the breathing air of the great Intellect.
(_i.e._ The exhaling and inhaling breaths of the Intellect, are causes
of its expansion and contraction).
27. Therefore what means the waking, sleeping or dreaming of the soul,
and what signifies the term sound sleep or the turíya of the soul
(which is ever awake) So the word volition and nolition are meaningless
when applied to the soul, which is always composed and indifferent.
(These attributes belong to the mind only).
28. It is the inward consciousness, that exhibits its inner concepts as
outward objects; how then is there a duality or anything objective, and
what means this remembrance of extraneous matter.
29. Therefore all these that appear to our sight, are without their
base or foundation; they are the reflexion of our consciousness in open
air, which is wholly devoid of any material object.
30. Though the external world is said to be a reality, it is because of
its being a concept of the divine mind, out of which it has risen to
view; and reminiscence is said to be its cause also, by reason of our
remembrance of the first creation, which continue all along with us.
31. But there is no outward object at all, owing to the absence of
material elements; and the want of the five principles of matter,
before and at the time of first creation.
32. As there are no horns of hares, and no trees growing in the air,
and as there is no son of a barren woman, nor a dark moon shining in
the sky.
33. So this visible world, and these personalities of ourselves; which
are mere misrepresentations of our ignorance, are things invisible and
inexistent in themselves, and are seen and known by ignorant only.
34. To them the world appears as an erroneous body, and our
personalities and abstractions of persons; but there is nothing as
fictile or abstract to the spiritualist, who view them all in one
undivided whole--the Divine spirit or soul.
35. It is consciousness the pith and marrow of the soul, that exposes
all these concepts of it to light; and the manner in which it displays
them to the imagination, so do they make their appearance to our sight.
36. Whenever our misconception portrays its concept in a material form,
or gives a name and form to an airy nothing; we come to see the same
form in our imagination, in the empty void of our mind.
37. The great Intellect has the appearance of the sky for itself, which
in the ordinary use of language, is expressed by the word matter, as
consisting of the four elements, and the endless void which is devoid
of them.
38. The unchanging and undecaying intellect, bears to itself the form
of air only; which it conceives by mistake as the stable earth; just as
imaginary men believe the air built castle to a reality.
39. The intellect being an incorporeal substance, has neither this
form nor that nor of any kind at all; it has its pulsation and rest of
itself, like the breath and stillness of winds in the air.
40. As the intellect manifests itself in its own sphere in the two
states of its volition and nolition (or action or inaction); so the
world seems to be in its states of motion and quiescence; which take
place in the bosom of vacuum.
41. As the sphere of the Intellect remains unchanged, at the rise and
subsidence of its thought; so doth the sphere of air remain unvaried,
with all the creation and its dissolution in its bosom.
42. The world is always in the same unvaried state, whether you call it
so or otherwise; and the seeming revolutions of bodies and succession
of events, are well known to be nothing to the learned and wise, and
not to others.
43. Because the wise soul dwells in the hearts of all, which it views
alike as its own self; but the ignorant soul is unconscious of its
identity, from its sight of the outer world, and its knowledge of the
difference of bodies from one another.
44. What is there the interior or exterior of it, and that what is
visible and invisible in it; all this is in the Lord whether active or
quiescent, know all to be the _om_ or _on_ and rest quiet.
45. There can be no reasoning, without an insight into the meanings of
the significant terms and their significates; and it is consideration
of both sides of the question that leads to our right judgment. Hence
it is reasoning that leads us to truth, as the light guides us amidst
the darkness of night.
46. Therefore drive off the multitudes of multifarious desires and
doubts from your mind, by means of the clearness (light) of your
understanding (obtained by your habit of right reasoning), and also
by your attention to the true interpretation of the _sástras_; and
then rise and fly aloft to the higher region of light and truth, and
attain the highest, best and most perfect state of Divine felicity and
self-liberation.
CHAPTER CLXVIII.
STORY OF THE HEWN STATUE OR CARVED IMAGE.
Argument:--The false and ignorant Attribution of creation, to the
increate and self-manifest world.
Vasishtha continued:--As the unconscious tree, displays various forms
in its branches; so doth the unconcerned spirit of God, exhibit the
airy semblance of creation in air.
2. And as the ocean describes the whirlpools, insensibly upon its
surface; so doth the spirit of God, exhibit this rotatory worlds
unconcernedly, on the surface of its own vacuum, and as they are seen
by all.
3. The Lord gives also to the sensible part of his creation, their
internal faculties of the mind, understanding and egoism, as also many
other powers under different appellations.
4. The phenomenal world is the production of the insensible Intellect,
whose volitive faculties are as loose as the rolling eddies of rivers
and seas.
5. The mind and understanding and all mental faculties, proceed from
the Divine Intellect; in the same manner as the whirlpools and eddies,
and waves and surges rise on the surface of the sea.
6. As a picture is nothing except its canvas, so the world which is no
more than a painting, is drawn on the substratum of the intellect; and
this is a vacuous substance, with the lustre of the world in it.
7. What I have said before of the insensibility of the tree and sea,
in the production of the branches and whirlpools by them; the same
instance applies to Intellect also, which shows the creation rising in
its vacuity, not by an act of its intention or will, but by ordinance
of fate, which governs all things, (and rules over Jove himself). This
is the doctrine of fatalism.
8. And as a tree exhibits its various forms, receiving the several
names of a plant, a shrub, a creeper &c.; so doth the intellect display
its many features, like its flowers &c., and called by the different
appellations of earth, air, water &c.
9. And as the branches and leaves of a tree, are not different from the
tree itself; so the productions of the great Intellect, are no other
than its very substance (or are essentially the same with itself).
10. And as there are many things, made of the substance of a tree,
bearing different names to themselves; so the productions of the
Intellect, and the offspring of a living being, pass under several
forms and appellations (of boy, girl, infant, adult and the like).
11. The offshoots of the Intellect are all these creatures, which grow
in and rise from the mind (of their own spontaniety); they appear to be
the works of the mind as their cause, but are no better than the dreams
(arising of themselves in the mind).
12. Should you say, why these conceptions of creation rise in vain in
the mind (if the creation is nothing in substance); I answer that they
rise in the manner of dreams in the state of sleeping, which you cannot
deny to enjoy. (The thoughts of creation like those of imagination and
the conception in our dreaming, are not unattended by a certain degree
of delight, during the time of our enjoyment of them. Gloss).
13. As the tree displays various forms in the productions, and the
imagination presents different shapes to our mental sights; so the
intellect is employed in realizing many such creations in empty air.
14. As the odours of flowers fly about invisible in the open air, and
as pulsation abides inherent in the wind; so the intellectual powers,
are intrinsic in the very nature of the soul.
15. These creations likewise are ingrained in the Divine spirit, as
fragrance is inborn in flowers and vacuity is ingenite in the air; and
as vacillation and velocity are innate in the winds.
16. As the air, wind and the flower, are receptacle of inanity,
oscillation and odours respectively; so the Intellect is container of
creation, although it is literally but an empty vacuity.
17. Vacuity is no other than vacuum itself, as fluidity is not separate
from liquids; fragrance is as inseparable from flowers, as pulsation is
never to be the disjoined from the wind.
18. Heat is not disparate from fire, nor is coldness apart from snow;
know thus the world to be no way different nor disengaged from the
transparence of the vacuous Intellect.
19. In the beginning, the Divine Intellect sees the creation appear
in itself, as a dream rising in the mind; thus the world having no
extraneous cause, and being subjective to the Intellect (as derived
from within itself); is no way a heterogeneous mass or different from
the Divine mind.
20. The instance of the dream is the best illustration of creation, and
you can judge it well by the nature of the dream you dream every night;
say what is there substantial in it, beside its being essential to the
universal soul.
21. The dream is not the effect of any impression in the mind, nor the
result of remembrances stored in the memory; because it shows us many
sights, unseen and unthought of before; say therefore how these come to
pass.
22. If what is seen in a dream, comes to present itself at the time of
our remembrance of the dream?
23. Therefore these revolving worlds; are as the rotatory whirlpools
(in the wide ocean of the infinite mind); they are the fortuitous
appearances of chance, and whatever occurs in the mind, passes
afterwards for its dreams.
24. The creations being insensibly produced from the Divine Mind,
like the waves and whirlpools in the ocean; receives its stability
and continuity afterwards, in the manner of the continuation of the
whirling waters and ever rolling billows.
25. Whatever is born without its cause, is equal to the unborn; because
the unborn are forever similar to those, which have no cause for their
birth.
26. As the precious gems growing insensibly of themselves, have their
lustre inherent in them; and as this brilliance is no substance
or anything real at all, so the appearance of the world has no
substantiality of itself.
27. Some how or other, the world has its rise, like the wave or eddy
in a river; and then it continues to go on as the continuous course of
the stream.
28. There are numberless worlds of intellectual forms, gliding in the
vast vacuity of the Intellect; and passing as aerial dreams without any
cause whatsoever.
29. All these again become causes and productive of others, and they
all of vacuous forms including even the great Brahmá and the gods
and angels (all of whom are aerial beings, and others of the same kind).
30. All that is born in and produced from void, are null and void also;
they grow in the void or air, and return also into vacuity.
31. It is the vacuum that appears as the _plenum_, as in the instance
of an empty dream seeming as something; the man that denies his own
percipience of it, is no better than a boor or brute.
32. The unreal appearing as real, is the fabrication of error and
ignorance; but the spiritualist who knows the truth, views the world as
the wondrous display of the Divine Mind and falsification.
33. It is the longstanding and deep rooted prejudice, that produces the
erroneous conceptions of the creation and destruction of the world; it
is wisdom to know it in its true light, and foolishness to take the
wrong view of it.
34. The light of the Divine spirit, being once seen in this causeless
void of the visible world, it continues for ever before our sight;
as the dream that we see in our vacant minds in sleep, remains ever
afterwards in our remembrance.
35. It happens that the intellect comes to present, the adventitious
appearance of the world to our minds; in the same manner, as the sea
shows its whirls and waves to our sight, of its own nature.
36. Such is the nature of the Intellect also, that it shows itself in
this manner (as the sea); and exhibits the revolving worlds, in its own
etherial essence only (of its own accord).
37. Then the aerial Intellect, by a retrospective view in itself,
invented certain worlds afterwards, significant of the mental
and intellectual powers as well as of material elements and their
properties.
38. Ráma said:--If it is so sir, that all these powers are the
spontaneous growth of chance, how can the mental power of memory be
produced on a sudden, when it is well known to be the product of
remembrance or former impressions in the mind. Please explain me this.
39. Vasishtha replied:--Hear me Ráma, and I will destroy your doubt, as
the lion kills an elephant; and will establish the one invariable unity
as the broad day light of the sun.
40. There is an only universal soul, that is invisible amidst the
vacuum of his Intellect; as the uncarved doll remains unseen, in the
wood of every forest tree. (All things are contained in the Divine
soul, as the future images in blocks of wood and stone. Aristotle,
Addison).
41. We see the carpenter that carves out the puppet, from the wood
of the tree (and the mason who hues out the statue from the block of
stone); but we know not the soul, which chisels out the figure of the
world from the great bulk of Instinct.
42. The statue does not appear in the rugged block, unless and until
it hewn out by the skill of carver, so the hidden world does not
make its appearance in the Intellect, till it is brought to view by the
ingenuity of the Mind (the universal architect).
43. The uncarved body of the world (_Corpus-mundi_), does yet appear
its aeriform state; which is original and genuine form in the
Divine Intellect (until is moulded in this its fictitious shape by
creative mind).
44. In the beginning of creation, the inventive Intellect forms of its
natural originality, the concept of the future world; appearing as an
airy dream in the sight of the soul (and then the imaginative mind
frames it according to its conceit in various forms).
45. The vacuous Intellect conceives in its empty bosom, the airy ideal
of the world; as if it were a toy or doll gliding of itself in itself.
46. It conceives itself as the essential part of the great Brahma, and
the seed of the mundane system; and then imagines itself as the source
of life and the living soul, and the receptacle of egoism.
47. It imagines itself as the understanding and the mind also; and to
be the reservoir of space and time. It deems itself as the root of the
knowledge of I, thou, he, and others, and as the quintessence of the
quintuple elements.
48. It sees in itself the congeries of the inward and outward senses,
as also of the eight faculties of the mind; and both the spiritual as
well as the elemental bodies contained in itself.
49. It thinks itself as the great trinity, consisting of the three
persons of Brahmá, Vishnu, and Siva; and sees the sun, moon and stars
all in itself. It considers itself as the whole creation and the
interior and exterior part of everything.
50. All these being the imaginary creations of the Intellect; there
is nothing whatever beside itself; but it is quite transparent in its
essence, there is no concrete matter in it; and neither remembrance
of gross materials is ever attached to it, nor any duality whatsoever
subsisting in the unity of its nature.
51. The world is a causeless, uncaused and increate thing; and a
nothing at all in reality; its creation is a dream, and its appearance,
is as that of a delusive shadow in empty air.
52. It appears as a phantom in vacuum, and as an intelligence in the
Intellect; it is intelligible as it is, and that is in the sense of a
nihility.
53. What is the remembrance of a thing, any more than the dream of
something, which is nothing in reality; and what is time of which we
have no conception, except it be an imagination or devise of the mind
in empty air.
54. What is contained in the inside of the compact intellect, the
very same appears on the outside of it; but in reality there is no
substantiality in the exterior object of sight, as there is naught in
the interior object of thought; all which are but the glitterings of
the Intellect.
55. Whatever issues out of the bodiless and nameless something, which
is forever quiescent and calm in its nature; are deemed as causeless
and uncaused productions, appearing before the blinded sight.
56. Know therefore that this world, is to be viewed in the same
intellectual light; as you see the supreme Brahma himself; and know it
to be the very aerial castle of your dream, as it is represented in the
vacuous space of your mind in your sleeping state.
57. There is no such thing, as the visible or phenomenal world at any
time; where can you find any dust on the watery surface of the sea; and
how can you see anything visible, in the invisible spirit of Brahma.
58. If the world should appear as anything at all to your sight, you
must view it as the manifestation of God himself, in his unthinkable
and incomprehensible nature. (Nature is the body of God).
59. The world is full of the glory of God, from the fullness of Divine
glory; nor is the one derived from the other; but a full representation
of Divine splendour on the face of nature.
60. Though I have been repeatedly giving these lectures, yet the
deluded minds of men are far from receiving them; they believe the
world of their dream as if it were in waking, and knowing even its
unreality they will never get rid of their rooted prejudice.
CHAPTER CLXIX.
DESCRIPTION OF THE CALM AND TRANQUIL MIND.
Argument:--Character of the unexcited and self-liberated man and
his happiness in Life.
Vasishtha continued:--He who is delighted with his delights,
nor dejected in his distress; who looks only within himself for his
peace and solace, is verily called the liberated man in his life time.
2. He is called the self-liberated man, whose mind is moved from
its steadiness in solid rock of intellectuality, towards the worldly
enjoyments that are spread before him (and which are ever attractive of
unrestrained minds).
3. That is called the liberated soul, which reclines in its
intellectuality, and has its mind ever fixed in it; which delights in
intellectual culture, and has repose therein.
4. He is verily styled the liberated soul, who reposes in the supreme
soul; whose mind does not slide from divine contemplation, nor takes
any delight in visible objects all around.
5. Ráma said:--Sir, I ween the man that feels no pain in pain, nor
derives any pleasure from what is pleasurable, and is entire insensible
of both, to be a mere block, and devoid both his senses and sensibility.
6. Vasishtha replied:--We call him the self reposed, who rests in his
vacuous intellect only; and whose soul derives a spontaneous delight
from the purity of his understanding, such as it finds in nothing and
no where besides.
7. He is said to have his rest in the supreme soul, whose mind is
cleansed of its doubts in all things; and who has obtained by means of
his discrimination, the true and certain knowledge of everything. (So
says the sruti: No doubts disturb the mind of one, whose soul confides
and has found its rest in God).
8. He is said to rest and have his repose in God, who takes no delight
in any earthly thing whatever; and though he is outwardly employed in
discharging the duties of his life, yet his soul is fixed in his god.
9. He is known to have his quiescence, whose activities are all without
any aim or expectation; and he goes on and lives content, with whatever
he gets and offers itself to his lot.
10. He alone is happy and successful, in this world of woe and misery;
who in his long restless, helpless and tedious journey in it, has
found his repose in the supreme spirit, by means of his intellectual
improvements.
11. They who after running their long race, in the active course of
worldly life; have come at last to set themselves at ease and quiet,
at the latter end of their lives, are as men that appear to fall fast
asleep, and enjoy their repose after the vexatious dreams of their busy
days.
12. They shine and pass as brightly, in the open sphere of their
intellects, as the glorious sun rises in the sky, and runs his daily
course without stopping any where.
13. Good people seem to be sleepy in their minds, though they are seen
to be wakeful and employed in business with their bodies; they remain
as inactive as any inert body, though they are never dormant in their
souls (which are ever awake to their eternal concerns).
14. They who lie asleep on their beds, and are drowned in their
reveries and dreams; are said and believed to be sleeping: though they
are not insensible of the workings of their minds.
15. When the tired traveller, halts after his long and wearisome
journey, and ceases to utter a word owing to his hard breathing, such
dumbness does not bespeak his dead silence or torpidity.
16. The man of transcendent knowledge, and perfect peace and
tranquility of his mind and soul; remains as blind to the splendours
of day as the purblind owl, and as quiet as any body in the darkness
of night, when the whole creation sleeps in the gloom of ignorance and
unconsciousness.
17. That man is happy, who sleeps over the varied scenes of this
visible world, and does not sights of woe, which it presents to view
at the time of waking. (The gloss quotes a corresponding passage from
the _Bhagavad Gítá_).
18. He who pays no regard to ceremonial rites, and remains sincere
to the welfare of his soul; such a man is said to be self satisfied,
from his communion with himself, and is never, O Ráma, deemed as dead
himself.
19. He who has passed over the miseries of this world, and got to the
other side of it (next world); remains supremely blest in himself, by
his sense of heavenly bliss in his inward soul.
20. He who is fatigued with his long and tiresome journey in this
world, and is ever deluded by four senses and sensible objects; gets
weary of and cloyed with his enjoyments in life, and meets with the
spectres of despair at the end.
21. Being overtaken by hoary old age, he is battered and shattered
by the hoar-frost of diseases; and then like the old and worn-out
antelope, he wishes in vain to traverse his native forests and plains.
22. Forsaken by the supreme soul, the sole and faithful guide in our
journey through life; we are exposed to the intricate maze of thorns
and thickets, till the weary traveller is at a loss of the shady grove
whereto take his rest.
23. Here we are robbed of our passport and passage money, by the
highway men of our sins and sensualities; till we are overcome by our
weakness, and exposed to numberless dangers and difficulties on the way.
24. He that is possest of his soul by means of his spiritual knowledge,
gets over the ocean of the world to the spiritual regions; where he
rests calmly in the bedstead of his spirit, and without the bedding of
his body.
25. The man who moves about, without any aim or attempt of himself and
without his dream and sound sleep; whose mind is ever wakeful and whose
eyes are never closed in sleep, such a man sleeps softly in the lap of
his soul.
26. As a horse of real breed, sleeps in his standing as well as
running; so the self-possest person sleeps in himself, even though he
employed in the acts of life among mankind.
27. How very sound and profound, is the trance or reverie of the
philosophic mind, that it is not disturbed, even at the crackling of
thunders or cracking of volcanoes.
28. How exquisite is the ecstasy of the right discerner of truth, who
sees all within himself, which the external observer with his open
eyes, finds as lying afar without himself.
29. The man who with his open eyes, sees the world disappear from his
sight; is giddy with his ecstatic views, and not with ebriety liquor.
(He sleeps calmly in the trance of ecstacy).
30. Ah! how happily he sleeps in his reverie, whose soul is satiate and
at rest, after it has swallowed the visible world in itself, and drank
the ambrosial draught of self satisfaction.
31. How happily doth the self-possest man sleep in his solity, who is
ever joyous without any joy or anything to enjoy; who is joyful in
enjoying the everlasting felicity of unity, and who sees effulgent
light of his inward spirit, without any mortal thing on the outside.
32. Happy is the self-possest soul, which is blind to the objects of
common desire, and rejoices in the blaze of transcendent light in
itself; which delights in subtile and spiritual joys, as much as others
luxuriates in their solid food and gross enjoyments.
33. Happily sleeps the spiritual man, with the inward peace of his
mind; who shuts his eyes against the outer world, which abounds only in
sights of woe, and restlessness of the giddy mob.
34. The self-possest rest in perfect peace of their minds, who bemean
themselves as the meanest of the mean in their outer demeanour; but
deem themselves as the greatest of the great in the greatness of their
souls; they have their repose in the lap of the vast void of their
selves.
35. The spiritualist sleeps happily in the universal soul, with its
body resting in its vast vacuity; which contains an infinity of worlds
in every atom of it.
36. The spiritualist rests perfectly blest in Supreme Spirit, which is
full of ineffable light, and in which he sees the repeated creation
and dissolution of the world, without being destroyed himself.
37. Blest is the godly man, that seeing the world as a dream in his
sleep, rests in the Spirit of his god, where he sees everything as
clear as day light, and as bright as open sky.
38. How blest is the psychist with his musings, who contemplates on the
essences of all substances, and engrosses the entity of whole nature in
himself; and whose comprehensive mind grasps the cosmos in itself, as
the vacuity of the sky, comprehends the whole universe within its ample
womb.
39. How happily does the self-communing sage, sleep in his abstract
contemplation of the clear and bright heavens in himself; and who views
the whole universe in the light of the clear firmament, resounding with
the sound of his own breathings or snoring.
40. How happily doth the self-communist, rest in the depth of his
inmost thoughts; who finds himself as null and void, as the infinite
vacuum itself, and views the universe hovering as a dream, in a corner
of that vacuity.
41. How cheerfully does the self-musing sage, lie down in his humble
bedstead, which he finds as a matting made of straws, swept before him
by the tide of time, and the current contented circumstances.
42. The sage, who by his diligent self-consultation, has come to know
the true nature of himself (_i.e._ of his soul); lives in his lifetime
as in the state of dreaming, and deems as an aerial figure of his dream
subsisting in empty air.
43. The sage who by his diligent self-cogitation, has come to the
knowledge of his own vacuousness; comes to the same knowledge of all
nature at large, till at last he comes to reduce and assimilate himself
to vacuity.
44. The waking man falls to sleep, and the sleeping person rises to
wake again, and in this manner they pass their time in endless turns;
but the sound sleeper alone is ever wakeful to his true friend of
spirituality (because sound sleep is one’s absorption in the quiet of
Divine Spirit).
45. He who having passed his days in this life, in company with his
best friend of self-liberation (jívan mukti) in his lifetime; comes
to enjoy the sweet companionship of that friend (amurta-mukti), in
his future life for a long period of time, he is verily entitled to
his perpetual rest and everlasting bliss, in the list of the Divinity
itself forever.
CHAPTER CLXX.
ON THE CONDUCT OF THE SAPIENT MAN.
Argument:--Our acts are our best friends and relatives; their
virtues and the enjoyments of their fellowship.
Ráma said:--Tell me sir, who is that friend with whom he lives, and
what is the nature of this enjoyments, whether it is subjective or
objective, that is whether derived from within oneself, or from
external objects.
2. Vasishtha replied:--Our own conduct alone is our only true friend,
whether it is ingenite in our nature, or derived by our extrinsic
training and education from others. (The two words _svaprabáha_ and
_swapráya_ in the text, are explained in the gloss as _sahaja_--innate
and _abhyasta_ or learnt.)
3. Our inborn good conduct is as infallibly and friendly to us, as the
natural beneficence of our parents; and our extraneous good behaviour,
is as overruling upon us, as the controul and restraints by a faithful
wife in the intricate maze of life.
4. A fearless course of life, and a well earned livelihood, and a well
regulated mode of living; together with a dispassionate temper and
coolness of mind, are replete with unrestricted and ambrosial sweets.
5. An unblemished life acquired from early youth, is able to save a
person from all dangers and difficulties in the world, and render
him confidential for every trust, and a repository of all wealth and
treasures.
6. It is able to preserve men from all evils, as a father prevents his
boys from daubing their bodies with dust and dirt; and hinder them from
all acts of wickedness.
7. Such a life gives a man the fervour of fire, and the sweet of
flowers; it adds a clearness to his mind and countenance, as the
sunlight brightens the face of the day.
8. It supports a man as the father feeds and fondles his child, and
protects him from every accident, as the father is ever ready to shield
his children from all harm.
9. As fire purifies the body of gold from alloy, and separates the
gross that is to be rejected; so does it show the good qualities, from
whatever is to be shunned and avoided.
10. It gladdens the hearts of men with polite speech, which is policed
from rusticity; and is a repository of all laudable pursuits, as a
treasury is full of moneybags and precious gems.
11. As the sun never shows darkness to view, so the good man never
exposes his dark side to sight; as the loving wife shows only her
affection to her beloved, so does he show his tenderness only to people.
12. He speaks and behaves kindly with all men, and doth them good only;
and his words are always sweet and cooling, and without interested or
selfish view.
13. He is the well-wisher of men, and is therefore revered by them all;
he speaks smilingly to all without any craving of his own, and bears
the form of goodness only to all beings.
14. Should he happen to meet an enemy in a contest, who is ready to
strike the first blow on him; he tries to evade it by eluding his
opponent by some artifice or sleight of art or skill.
15. He is the patron of gentle and polite men, and protector of women
and his family; and is as the nectarious physic to the souls, of all
those that ailing under sickness and sick-heartedness.
16. He is particularly a patron of learning, and patronizer of the
learned; he is a servitor of venerable men, and a favourer of the
eloquent and argumentative. He is a compeer and _alter ego_ to his
equals in births and breeding.
17. He conciliates the favour of princes, noblemen and the liberal
towards him; and in conducting all sacrifices, acts of charities,
austerities of devotion and pilgrimages, by contribution of his honest
means.
18. He partakes of his good food and drink, in company with his friends
and Bráhmans; and joining with his wife and children, and all the
dependants and inmates of his family (_i.e._, he never eats alone),
and he never keeps company save with the good and great.
19. He abstains from all enjoyments, deeming them as straws and causes
of disease; and indulging himself in conversing upon good subjects,
with his view to the edification and beatification of mankind.
20. In this manner he passes his time, in company with his friends and
family; he is content with his own state, and glad at what fortune has
provided for him (_i.e._, his own lot and profession).
21. Ráma rejoined:--Tell me Sir, in short, who are his wives and
children and his friends also; what are their different forms, and what
are the qualities and virtues they are respectively possessed of.
22. Vasishtha replied:--Sacred ablutions and charities, religious
austerities and meditation are his so many sons; that are all of great
souls, and entirely devoted to him.
23. His wife is named Chandra-lekha, who is like a digit of the moon
in her appearance, and whose very sight delights the eyes; she is his
constant companion, always loving to him and content in herself.
24. She is the ravisher of his heart, and dispeller of the gloom of his
mind, by reason of her loving kindness to him; she is the delight and
delighter of his soul, and is ever a faithful helpmate unto him.
25. He has another consort by name of _Samata_ (_i.e._ of the same
mind) with herself; who is dear to his heart, and keeps at the door to
his house, and pleases him by her very appearance.
26. She fixes her mind always, at the mansions of virtue and patience;
and runs before and guides the steps of her emburdened lord, to the
abode of the blessed and felicitous.
27. That strong man has another wife named Maitri or friendship, whom
he bears along with _Samata_ on his either shoulder; and who advises
him how to quell the enemies of his king’s states (in royal service).
28. She is his clever counsellor in all honourable acts, and gave
proof of the veracity of her advices; by augmenting his wealth and
rendering him honourable before all.
29. Being thus employed in the discharge of his duties, in the circle
of his friends, family and advisers, the sapient man always
pleased in himself, and never frets nor grumbles at any person or
anything whatever.
30. The wise man ever remains as he is, silent and sedate in his mind;
he remains always as unmoved as a picture in painting; though he may be
moving about in the ordinary affairs of life.
31. He remains as dumb as a stone in fruitless discussions; and feigns
himself as a deaf man in useless conversation.
32. He continues as a dead body, in acts which are against the social
usage; but in conversations regarding polity and good manners, he is
as eloquent as the wise Brihaspati, and as fluent as the snake Vásuki
(with its hundred tongues).
33. When engaged in some righteous discourse, he exposes the fallacy
of sophistical reasoners; and clears all doubts in a moment, by the
versatility of his conversation on various subjects all at once.
34. He is tolerant and magnanimous, bounteous and charitable; he is
pliant and gentle, sweet in his speech and handsome in his look, and
famed for his pious acts.
35. Such is the character of enlightened men of their own nature, and
no practice nor education can ever make any one as such; as the sun and
moon and fire are bright by themselves, and there is none and nothing
else, that can ever make them shine.
CHAPTER CLXXI.
MEDITATION OF PURE VACUUM.
Argument:--On the nihility of the Phenomenal, and substantiality
of the Noumenal vacuum.
Vasishtha resumed and said:--It is the manifestation of our vacuous
consciousness, that exhibits the phenomenal world unto us; whereas
there is in reality no such thing as this world, or its appearance, or
a vacuum in nature or a thing as consciousness in ourselves.
2. Whatever is apparent before us, is the manifestation of the
Intellect, and vainly styled the world; just as the open air called
the sky, is no other than the air itself. (So the vacuum known as the
world, is not otherwise than the very vacuum).
3. As a man going from one place to another, sees a gap and blank
between; and yet thinks of the place he has seen and left behind, so is
the world a mere gap and thought of the mind.
4. Before creation there was nothing, how then could this something
appear from that nothing; the latter having no material cause, is no
material or visible thing. (Ex nihilo nihil fit. So the sruti: _sat eva
asit, na kinchit idam agra asit_).
5. Then there was not an atom--the origin of the world in existence;
how then and from where, could this revolving world, have its rise and
form?
6. Therefore this formal and visible world, could not have sprung from
it, as no child could ever be born of a barren woman. Hence there
is nothing as the visible world, and the conception thereof must be
entirely false (as that of a ghost or goblin).
7. Whatever then appears as visibly present before us, is only the
blank vacuity of the Intellect; and this is the transcendental state,
in which the supreme unity appears unto us (according to the doctrine
of srutis).
8. As it is in depth of our sound sleep, there appears a fleeting dream
before us; so it is with the supreme Intellect, which never forsakes
the serene and unalterable tranquility of its divine nature.
9. But exists of itself in itself, and in its calm and quiet state,
ever before the appearance of creation; and manifests intellectual
vacuity, in the form of the visible world, as it appears unto us.
10. As the idle thoughts of the mind, present themselves as airy
castles in our sleep; so doth the vacuum of the supreme Intellect,
exhibit the appearance of the creation in its own empty space.
11. As the empty air evolves itself, in the manner of whirlwinds in
itself; so does the intellectual vacuum exhibit the phenomenal world,
subsisting in its very self (in the noumenon).
12. Hence the three worlds that appear so visibly to our view, are
quite unintelligible and unexposed to our sight in their very nature;
it is the Supreme Deity itself, that appears in this manner of its
subsistence in its own vacuous substance.
13. There is nothing as the formal earth, or anything whatever at any
time; or be it anything either formal or formless, (_i.e._, whether as
plastic nature or subtile air or spirit, or whatsoever you may choose
to call it; it is the Great Deity alone, that manifests itself in this
manner).
14. As the formless mountain appearing in dream, disappears in air
upon waking; and as the visible world in waking becomes invisible in
sleep, so does the triple world appear and disappear by turns, in the
transparent and tranquil intellect only.
15. To the watchful and enlightened mind, the world appears as identic
with God; but however intelligent we may be, can never know that
we are all along sleeping in our waking.
16. As the mind is unoccupied with any object, in the interim of one’s
journey from one place to another; so the minds of all livings beings,
are naturally unoccupied with any preconceived idea; and this blankness
is the true state of the intellect. (This passage contradicts the
doctrine of innate ideas in the mind).
17. That unemployed state of mind, which one has in the interval of his
journey from place to place, is what bears the name of transcendent
void, wherein all existence is contained. (This passage is opposed to
the preceding one. To say the intellect to be a perfect void and blank,
and again the container of all, is quite contradictory).
18. Now this void of the mind, and the vacuity of the world, are
similar to one another as regards the similarity of their contents; as
neither of them contains anything besides the principles of the five
elements, either in their ideal or gross forms of elemental bodies,
called as the real and unreal ones. (Sadasadátmaka).
19. The ideal or unreal ones, are the inward conceptions of the mind,
and are called as _manaskáras_; while the real or gross forms of them,
are styled the _rúpalokas_ or visible objects, and both of these are
but different modes of divine essence. All of them are like the eddies
and waves, rising on the surface of the infinite ocean of the Deity.
20. Hence there is no such thing as the objectivity of the world,
except that it be of the nature of that vacancy of the mind, as a
traveller has in the interim of his journey from one place to another.
21. As the rising and setting of the passions and affections in the
mind, are mere modes of it; so the being and not being of anything,
and the presence and absence of the world, are mere modalities of the
Divine Mind.
22. The chasm that there is between one thought and another, is truly
characteristic of the voidness of the Divine Mind, (which reposes
forever, in its everlasting and tranquil intellectual felicity
_sachchidánanda_); the visible world is but a wave in the ocean of
Eternity, or as the mirage in a sandy desert.
23. The Divine spirit never changes from its state of calm repose,
and vacant mindedness, as that of a traveller in the interval of his
journey from one place to another. Such is the state of this world
which is ever calm and quiet.
24. From the beginning or since the time of the first creation of the
world, nothing was made, that seems to be made; it is only a magic show
that appears so palpably to sight.
25. Alas! all this is nothing, that is so bright to sight; and yet it
is something right, when viewed in the light of Brahma himself; and
then it affords us fresh delight.
26. Ah! where shall I go, and what can I get from this ungodly world,
which is ever prone to unrighteousness; it is an unsubstantial sight,
and passes for substantial, and yet no body understands that it is
Brahma the very god, that exhibits himself in this mode and manner.
27. It is no production nor reflexion, neither the archetype nor its
ectype; what then are these phenomenals, and how and from where? All
these that appear to view, are of the vacuity of Brahma, who exhibits
himself in this manner (in all shapes).
28. As a gem shines itself of its own lustre, and not derived from
without; so does the vacuous Intellect shine of its own splendour,
shown forth in the creation, which is selfsame with itself.
29. It is in that calm and quiet vacuity, that this sun shines with all
his glory; or rather a spot of that vacuum shines in the shape of the
sun, which is but a _modicum_ or molecule of it, and nothing beside.
30. Though situated therein, yet neither does the sun nor the moon
shine of itself; it is that God that illumes those luminaries, neither
of whom can illumine that transcendent Being the supreme Lord unto us.
31. It is his lustre, that enlightens this visible (the mundane)
sphere; and it is he alone that is the enlightener of the sun, moon,
and stars and fire as also of all other shining bodies, that shine with
their borrowed light from him.
32. Whether He is formless or fictile, bodiless or embodied, is the
verbal disquisition of the ignorant only at all times; whereas it is
well known to the learned, that any supposititious form of Him, is as
unreal as the potentiality of a sky flower growing in empty air. (Here
are _ákás-latas_--sky-plants or orchids in air, but no _ákás-pushpa_ or
sky-flower, which must grow on the plant and not in the air.)
33. As a ray of sunbeams, a particle of sand or sunstone, shine
brightly in sunshine; but the sun and moon also do not shine even as
conspicuously as those particles, before the great glory of their
Maker. (The sun is a grain of sand, and the moon a molecule, before the
glory of the Great God).
34. The shining sun, moon, and stars being but offshoots, of the
flaming gem of the vacuous Intellect of the Deity; say how can they be
otherwise than flashes of the same gem, from which they are emitted.
(The flash is not separate from the gem).
35. The divine state or _hypostasis_ being divested of intellectuality,
and being devoid of its voidness also, becomes deprived of its
essentiality, as also destitute of all quality; being thus drained of
all its properties and attributes, it becomes full of the _plenum_ and
totally of all existences.
36. The earth and all elemental bodies reside in it, in a manner as
they are absent therein, and all living beings living by it, do not
abide in the same. (All these opposites meet in its nature).
37. All things combine therein in unity, and in their atomic forms,
without forsaking their grossness without; while the Divine never
forsakes its uniformity, without any mixture of duality in its pure
entity of unity.
38. Anything here is nothing, nor is anything a nothing altogether;
therefore it is too difficult to say, what thing it is and what not.
(The nature of God is inscrutable).
39. There is one thing which is infinite, and without any intersection,
and is ever extended in everywhere; and this is the essence of the vacuous
intellect, containing the germ and gist of the universe in itself.
40. As the mind is vacant and still, in the interim of its passing
from one thought to another; such is the nature and form of the world
(_i.e._, of a quiet void), although it appears so variegated to view.
41. Though it appears to be multifarious, yet it is the uniform
intellect only, which extends invariably over all vacuity; and sees as
in its dream, the forms of the five elemental bodies hovering about it.
42. As the intellect passes from its rest of sleep, to the sights in
its dream; so it passes from the state of _pralaya_ or the void of
universal desolation to the commotion of creation. (The sleeping and
waking of the soul causing the extinction and resuscitation of the
world. Manu I).
43. As sleep and dream recur to every soul, so the extinction and
renovation of the world, occur to all alike; so also is waking akin to
the _turíya_, or enlightened state of the soul: hence the world is no
other than a phenomenon in the intellectual vacuum. (The words waking
and enlightenment are synonymous terms).
44. Thus the whole universe is no more, than a stage of waking,
sleeping and dreaming and turíya scenes; such is the understanding of
the learned on this subject; and we know nothing in what light, it is
viewed by the ignorant.
45. The Lord is inscrutable amidst the living brute and all inert
creation; nor can we come to any conclusion, in respect to the
nature of that Being, who is beyond the knowledge, of our mind and
understanding.
46. This much is knowable of Him, that he is of the pure Intellect, and
that all things are full of Him; yet they are not of the form of that
Reality, which manifests itself in the form of the universe.
47. The words permeation and diffusion, of the Divine spirit in
creation; are used by the learned only, for explanation of the
Omnipresence of the Deity; else there is no scent, _i.e._ nothing of
the import of the word pervasion (of Divine essence) in all nature.
(Nature is the mere body; but God its soul is a bodiless Being).
48. It is since the first creation of the world, that this great
essence of the vacuous Intellect, is situated of itself, in the souls
of great souled (or high minded men).
49. The all pervading Intellect is ever situated, in the minds of
the sages, whose souls are full with the presence of the One supreme
spirit; and it is that Intellect, which conceived in itself the idea,
which passes under the name of the world.
50. The knowledge of the felicity of the world, like that of a dream
upon waking, is attained with delight, but the want of this knowledge,
as of some bad dream at the time of sleeping, makes us uneasy all the
while.
51. The silent saint that knows the truth, is always in the selfsame
state of tranquility, whether he be walking or sitting any where, or
remain in the states of waking and sleeping.
52. The wise man that remains indifferent to everything, and sits
content even in his distress; and cares not whether he lives or dies,
has nothing whatever either to gain or lose.
53. The wise man, who is outwardly employed in worldly affairs, without
taking any thing to heart, and neither parts with nor craves anything;
remains inactive in his active life.
54. Utter indifference is characteristic of the wise man, just as heat
and cold, are natural to fire and snow, and this habit of the mind, is
not acquired by practice or education.
55. He who is not by his nature, of this disposition of his mind, is
ever ignorant of truth; and ignorance of this truth, is the sign of a
character, that inclined to base desires.
56. The truly wise man, remains perfect and pithy in his own good
nature; he is quite satiate with the sweet ambrosial draught, of his
transcendent tranquility; he is sedate in his mind, and without his
varying desires of this thing or that.
CHAPTER CLXXII.
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE IDENTITY OF THE DEITY AND THE WORLD.
Argument:--The world a Pantheon or full with the fullness of God;
and our erroneous conception of its materiality.
Vasishtha continued:--The world is devoid of any material element, as
the earth and others; and I ween the first creator to be the Mind only,
which is the fruitful tree of desires.
2. The word mind derived from the act of minding, came to be used
afterwards as a name for the thinking power, as it was from the
whirling of waters, that is got the name of a whirlpool.
3. It is by its connection with the Intellect, that it has its
understanding and the other faculties; or else it would as blank
as the void of the air, which could have no dust were it not for the
earth underlying it.
4. The mind is neither the body nor heart, nor the senses nor desires
nor even has it any of these; and though these are commonly attributed
to it, yet in its true sense, it is devoid of all properties.
5. How can reminiscence be the cause of reproduction of the world?
The former creator or Brahmá, being liberated or extinct with the
extinction of that world, could not have retained his reminiscence
of it; nor could the new creator of the new world, possibly have any
remembrance of what he knew not all. (There have been many by gone
Brahmás before).
6. The holy and liberated souls, have neither their bodies nor
reminiscences any more; nor the passing currents of other rivers,
return or whirl back, like the whirlpools of some. (So the sruti:--The
liberated souls, return no more to mortality).
7. Or if he have any body at all, owing to the reminiscence of his
former state; it must be an unearthly and immaterial body, quite still
and rarefied as in imaginary forms. (Such are the spiritual bodies of
gods and angels).
8. As our imagination presents to us, a visionary mountain to the
mind’s eye; such is the air-drawn body of the all engrossing Virát;
presented unto us without any earthly form. (Virát is Pantheon).
9. There is therefore no such thing as reminiscence, at any time
whatsoever; it is merely built on popular belief, and not upon the
reason of wise men. (Because the creator had no remembrance of a prior
creation in his first formation of the world).
10. Ráma rejoined:--How do you say sir, that rememberest everything
that there was no previous remembrance in the first creator; who
must have remembered the creation of a first _kalpa_ or learnt it, O
inspired sage, by his inspiration also. (So says the sruti:--Brahmá
performed austerities and was inspired by the Lord, see Manu I).
11. Vasishtha replied:--The pre-existence of reminiscence is possible
in the outward or visible world, which admits of cause and effect; but
can it be where there is no such world, but a mere vacuum only.
12. There is nothing visible here, from the highest heaven to
the lowest pit; if it so a nullity only, then what is its
reminiscence and to what use is it.
13. The remembrance of the prior world in its absence, is called its
reminiscence; but when there never was nor is any visible world at all,
how can you think of its reminiscence; even in fancy.
14. The entire absence of the phenomenals at all times, makes it
identic with the invisible Brahma himself; and this being the truth of
it, say how can you fancy the reminiscence of anything.
15. Therefore the prime creator, could have no remembrance of a prior
existence; nor could he have any bodily form, being of a spiritual form
of pure intelligence only.
16. We should remember the past from our present state, that we are
mortal beings undergoing repeated transmigrations, and not bring other
persons and things to our remembrance, as others think it to mean. (We
should remember ourselves only).
17. Reminiscence means the retention of past things, in our remembrance
or inward memory; but what can we remember, when there nothing was nor
is, nor shall ever be anything.
18. All this stupendous fabric, is the supreme Brahma itself; who
remains as immovable as a mountain, and without its beginning, middle
or end. What then is the reminiscence or presence of it?
19. The Lord being the universal soul, is the soul or essence of all
things; and shines like the lustre of the vacuous Intellect; outwardly
he is quite calm, as I may say he is reposing in our remembrance.
20. So the remembrance of the Lord, is as he is seen in the light of
nature; hence the habitual meditation of the lord, corresponds with the
contemplation of external nature. (Because apart from nature we have no
idea of God, unless we think as the Lord of nature. This is called the
natural religion, or the worship of God in nature, the ancient vedic
religion).
21. Whatever is known to us is nature, and the same is the object of
our meditation. Hence the appearance of any thing (in the mind), is
called to be its remembrance.
22. And as anything which is absent or inexistent, appears visible (by
error) before our sight, like the false appearance of water in the
mirage: such is the case with our misleading memory also (which is
hence called a treacherous memory).
23. Again any prejudice which is rooted in the minds of men, and
appears as right by long habit of thinking it as such; this also passes
for memory also (though it is a wrong impression in the mind).
24. Any sudden accident or passing event, that strikes the mind for a
moment; pass also under the name of memory; though it may or may not
happen any more.
25. Any idea that rises of itself in the mind, becomes so impressed in
it, by its being fostered for any length of time; that any other thing
bearing resemblance thereto, passes for an object of our memory.
26. Any thing whether obtained or not by any means, passes also for an
object of memory; as the ventilation of wind by means of a fan. (It
means a negative idea is ever accompanied with its affirmative one in
thought and memory).
27. Again whatever occurs in the mind, by parts of the whole subject,
is also called its memory (how imperfect so ever it may be); just as
any part of the body is called the body also.
28. There are also many chimeras, rising of themselves before the mind,
like magic shows appearing before our sight; and if the remembrance of
these be called memory, then say what truth or reliance is there in it.
29. Consider then how very imperfect and erroneous, this faculty of
memory is to man; and as there is no visible creation at all, its
memory therefore is altogether meaningless.
30. Hence then the world being but a display, of the density or volume
of the Divine Intellect; it is reflected at present as a visible object
in the minds of the ignorant, who have given them the name of memory,
which in reality is nothing at all.
31. I cannot tell you about the means of liberation, nor do I know
wherein it consists; yet however to clear the doubt of the inquirer, I
will relate something about it at present.
32. Until there is an end of the sight of the visibles, and an oblivion
of the remembrance of past events; and a cessation of _avidyá_,
ignorance and delusion, it is hard to be attained. (_i.e._ A slave
to this world and errors, is never emancipated in this life--_jívan
mukta_).
33. The ignorant have a belief, in whatever is quite unknown to us;
since they can never conceive whatever is imperceptible to their senses
(_i.e._ whose minds never rise beyond sensible objects.)
34. The enlightened are unacquainted with the gross errors, which lurk
in the darkness of ignorant minds; as the ever luminous sun, knows
nothing of what passes in the gloom of night.
35. Whatever likeness of any thing, ever appears to be impressed in the
mirror of the mind; the same being habitual to thought, as any thing
studied or stored in the mind, receives the name of reminiscence from
its impression in the memory.
36. But these glaring impressions in the imagination, being rubbed
out of the mind like the colours of a painting, there remains no more
any tinge of the mistaken world therein, as in the clear minds of the
learned.
37. The mirage shows the appearance of water in it, which is a mere
delusion and never true; so is the dream that shows this creation to
view, which is no more in reality than a false vision.
38. It is the vacuous Intellect, which contains the creation in it; and
shows its representation in ourselves; thus the world appears in the
void of the Intellect only, and not any thing as fallen or detached
from it. (It is a picture in the plate of the mind).
39. The supreme soul shows this form in itself, and makes its unreality
appear as a reality unto us; and though this form was manifested at the
beginning, yet it is no more than the display of an unreality. (_i.e._
Being seen in God it is real, but without him it is unreal and nothing).
40. Then say, whence and where is this world, with all its pleasant as
well as unpleasant things; it is never anything of a plastic form, nor
an appearance proceeding from reminiscence.
41. The world having no cause (either material or instrumental), in the
beginning, appears as the very form of the supreme, it is to our woe
only, that we view its visible form, or search in our memory (for a
pristine pattern of it).
42. Both of these views are wrong, and tend to our bondage in the
world; but the view of its voidness in the vacuity of the Intellect, is
the only means to our release and liberation from it.
43. The view of the apparent world in its vacuous form, and as situated
in the vacuity of the Intellect, and its identity with _swarúpa_ or
self same spirit of God, and as undetached in their essence from the
divine essence (is the only means of our liberation herein).
44. The view of the situation of the visible bodies, as those of
the sun, moon, and mountains &c., in the empty space of the Divine
Intellect; like those of the invisible ones, as space, time, and other
ideal objects therein, is the only means of our release from the
bondage of this world.
45. The view of the self same spirit, situated or dwelling in the
recess of the Intellect, and identic with its own notion of itself, and
bearing resemblance to the nature of the dream, which proceeds from
its essence, is the only means of our emancipation from our temporal
bondage.
46. How can any earthly or other elemental body, have its place in
the spirit of God, which is not of the form of the earth or any other
element; it shines of itself and in itself, in and as the quiet void of
the Intellect itself.
47. How and from where could the earth and other elements, proceed
in the beginning as in the state of our dreaming; unless they were
inherent in and coeval with the divine essence, as the many objects of
our dream rise from our own nature.
48. These effusions of the spirit, as named afterwards as the earth
&c., and deemed as material objects; but say, how could the spiritual
emanations or mnemonic effluences, assume such corporal and tangible
forms.
49. The world is neither the production of our error, nor is it a
representation of our delusion or as a magic show; nor is it the
permeation of the spirit as pervading all nature, but it is the very
essence of the selfsame deity itself.
50. It is the Divinity Brahma itself that shines in the form of this
wondrous world; it is the self-same unity, which appears to manifest,
and yet so very obscure as mysterious unto us. What is visible is only
pure light, and that of the serene clearness of open air, which glows
and grows dim by turns, by the vicissitudes of the light and shade of
creation and destruction. (These as they change are but the varied God.
Thomson’s Seasons).
CHAPTER CLXXIII.
BRAHMA GITA OR A LECTURE ON SPIRITUALITY.
Argument:--The attribution of all physical force to the Divine
spirit, like the ascribing of all our bodily actions to the Mind.
Ráma rejoined:--If the nature of the Divine spirit is, as the notion
which is Universally entertained of it; that it is common soul of all,
and infinite in its pervasion, why then is it supposed to be the soul
of the living body only, and called the Ego or a personal being?
2. How does the Intellect become inert, as a block of wood or stone in
the state of our sleep, and why is it said to exist or become extinct
in the state of its numbness (when it is said to be universal in its
nature).
3. Vasishtha replied:--It is by common usage and mode of speech, that
the universal soul is said to reside as the ego or personal being in
the body; as it is by common use of language only, to take the hands
of the body as hands, and not to understand the feet as such. (So the
embodied soul only is called the ego).
4. As the leaf of a tree is considered only as a leaf or part of the
tree, so the universal soul residing in the tree (as vegetable life),
passes under the designation of a tree only.
5. And as vacuity in the sky, is styled the sky also; so the universal
soul dwelling in matter, is designated as that matter likewise. (And so
the common vacuum indwelling a pot, passes under the name of the pot
also).
6. And as an aerial castle in a dream, appears as a tangible castle to
the dreamer for the time; so the universal soul living in our sleep,
dream, and waking, is thought to be sleeping, dreaming or being awake
at that time.
7. As stony trees or cliffs are seen to rise on mountains, and waves
on the surface of waters; so the huge mountain also rises as a stony
tree, from the bosom of the all pervading spirit.
8. As the living body gives growth, to dull and dead nails and hairs,
so the living soul of the universe, grows the insensible stones and
trees upon it. (So the spirit produces the matter, and the insensible
rises from sensibles).
9. As the conscious soul becomes unconscious, as a stone or block of
wood in its sleep; so the universal soul becomes inert, before creation
and after its dissolution. And again as the sleeping soul, sees the
train of dreams rising out of it, so the tranquil spirit of God,
beholds the lustre of creation issuing out of it.
10. And as the sensible and insensible soul of man, produces both
sensible offspring and insensible excrements from its body; so the
universal soul, produces both living beings and inert bodies from
itself.
11. The sensible as well as the insensible, are both embodied in the
person of the universal soul; which is possessed of both the movables
and immovables in itself, although it is formless in its substance.
12. All these contraries in nature, disappear before the sight of the
truly learned; as the false sights in dream, disappear from view of the
awakened man, who knows the falsity of dreams.
13. All this is the vacuity of the Intellect, where there is no sight,
view nor its viewer; as a dreamer being awakened from his dreaming,
neither sees his dream nor his dreaming sights any more.
14. Millions and millions of creations, are appearing in and
disappearing from the vacuum of the Intellect, in the manner of
recurring waves, and the revolving whirlpools in the sea.
15. As the waters of the ocean, show various shining forms in the
rising waves; so the Intellect raises many creations, bearing different
names in its own intellectuality.
16. The world as it is, appears as the very Brahma to the truly
learned, while to the ignorant mass of men, it appears as many and
changing, for want of the precise knowledge of it.
17. The wave that knows its nature, of calm and cool water only, thinks
no more of its being a fluctuating wave (so the man that knows himself
as Brahma, thinks no longer of his frail and mortal state).
18. The conception of the undulation of the divine spirit, from the
fluctuating appearance of creation, is a mistaking of the calmness of
the Divine nature; the fluctuation belongs to the powers residing in
the Divinity.
19. The vacuous Intellect never forsakes its tranquility; and the
variety of knowledge that rises in it, like the varying train of
dreams, is attributable to the mind, which they call Brahma or the
great progenitor of all.
20. Thus the prime lord of creatures, was the formless and undecaying
mind; it was of intellectual form like an imaginary being, and supposed
as the cause of all.
21. Who says “thou art nothing,” that saying is like the word gold,
which has no form of itself, but whose purity is gold.
22. The increate Brahma, being of an intellectual and vacuous form, and
an imaginary body endued with volition, appeared as the prime Ego or a
personal being, and containing the world in his person.
23. It is the empty void of the Intellect, which displays these wonders
that are known to constitute the continued bustle, of the alternate
creation, sustentation, and destruction of the world.
24. The clear and increate light, to which the intellect evolves itself
of its own accord; and which bears resemblance to the evolution of airy
dreams from the mind; is termed the first father of all. (Light was
the first work of God, or coeternal with the Eternal spirit. Hail holy
light Heaven’s first-born, or the Eternal coeternal beam. Milton).
25. As a wave assumes one form or other, and rolls on interminably
over the vast expanse of the sea; so runs the heavenly mind, in the
forms of the revolving creations and their dissolutions.
26. The light of the intellectual vacuum, which passes under the
name of Virát; is of the same mind as Brahma, and stretches out the
creation, like a castle or city of imagination.
27. Virát is the combined form of the triple states of waking, dreaming
and sleep; the two first are analogous to the creation and supportance
of the universe, and the last is similar to the utter darkness of
dissolution.
28. From the chaotic state of his dissolution, there sprang light and
darkness (in the forms of days and nights), like dark and white hairs
growing on his head; and the rotations of time resembling the joints of
his body.
29. His mouth represented the fire, his head the upper sky, and the air
below his navel; his foot-stool was the earth, his eyes were the sun
and moon, and the east and west were his two ears. In this manner did
the Lord Virát manifest himself, in the imagination of his mind (Virát
represents the concrete universe).
30. Thus did the expanded vacuous form of Virát, represent the whole
visible world in his ideal person; which was a figure of his own
imagination, as any of the unsubstantial forms of our dream or fancy.
31. Whatever is thought of in the vacuity of the Intellect, the same
comes to be vividly exhibited therein; such is verily the form of this
world, which we conceive in ourself.
32. Virát is verily an aeriform being in himself, and appears to be as
wide extended as the vast extent of the universe; and is in his own
nature, like a city or mountain, that we see in our dreams.
33. Whatever one thinks himself to be, he conceives in him to have
become the same, without his actually being as such, so an actor is
seen to play his part in dream, from the concept of his acting on the
stage.
34. Whatever be the tenets of the Vedánta, Buddhism, Sánkhya and
Saugata systems of the philosophy; and whatsoever may be the doctrine
of Tryaksha, Pashupati and other propounders of Ágama sástras; they
all agree in acknowledging Brahma, as the giver of the boons that they
respectively desire; and all of them obtain the particular object of
bliss from the same. Such is the glory of the great God, whose soul
fills all bodies, and whose bounty supports them all (lit., whose body
comprehends the whole).[3]
CHAPTER CLXXIV.
THE SAME OR A LECTURE ON NIRVÁNA.
Argument:--Subsistence of Brahma after evanescence of the world,
likened to the continuance of Intellection after disappearance of
dreams upon waking.
Vasishtha continued:--The Intellect alone glistened in the beginning,
with its thought of creation, appearing as the vision of a dream before
it. This was the representation of the three worlds, and a reflexion of
the light of Brahma Himself. (The Divine spirit was the archetype, of
which the world was an ectype or _réchauffé_).
2. These creations were as the endless billows in the ocean of the
Divine Mind, and rising from the fluidity of his omniscience; hence
there is no difference between the creation and its absence, nor is
there any woe in the one or bliss in the other.
3. As the dream and sound sleep of the soul, do both of them appertain
to its sleeping state; when the mind remains as vacant as empty air; so
the visible and invisible creation (_i.e._ its presence and absence)
are both of them alike in the vacuity of the Intellect (where they both
resemble but an empty dream).
4. This world appearing like a city seen in our dream, in our waking
state; is not worthy of reliance of the wise, who are well acquainted
with its nature of a visionary appearance.
5. And as we find the falsity of the visionary city in the dream, upon
our waking, so we come to find our mistake of the reality of the world
at last.
6. As upon waking, we come to find the falsity of all our efforts and
desires; in the visionary city of our dream; so do we find at last, all
our aims and attempts in our waking state in this world, to be equally
false and fleeting.
7. If any one assigns any other cause, then why that one does not
admit, what he said, is mere fancy.
8. When guessing knowledge is no better than a dream of the world; so
ocular authority is more strong than inocular one.
9. It is better to judge the soul and other attribute by near example,
than by the far off; otherwise it is like a fall from the top of a hill
in a dream.
10. Perfect insensibility is entire inertness, and a changeless state
of body and mind; while the nature of the world, and the state of
things herein, are incessantly restless and changeful; therefore it is
incapable to conduct _samádhi_ or intense meditation in either of these
two states.
11. Meditation in worldly life, must be too sensitive and variable;
while its intensity or trance stupifies a man to a stone; but true
liberation consists neither in the changeableness of mind, nor in its
stone like insensibility.
12. I think nothing is obtainable from the stone like apathetic trance,
as there is nothing to be from the drowsy stupor anybody.
(Hence both fickleness as well as mental torpor are repugnant to
meditation and self-liberation).
13. It is therefore by means of consummate knowledge only, that
reasoning men can dispel their ignorance; and there is no chance of his
being born again, who has secured his liberation in his life time.
14. Inflexible abstraction is said to have no bounds, and it consists
in sitting steadfast in profound meditation, without distraction or
diversion, such a posture is said to be all illuminating, or eternal
sunshine to the Yogi.
15. It is called the endless hypnotism or absorption of the soul, and
is the fourth or last state of contemplativeness. It is also styled as
_nirvána_ self-extinction, or losing one’s self in his reveries; and
this is what they designate _moksha_ or liberation from all bonds and
cares of the world. (This is the abstract Platonism of the ancients).
16. It is the density or depth of pansophy, and the intensity of
excogitation; and there being an entire absence of the retrospect
of the phenomenals in it, it is known as the state of perfect
transcendentalism or glory.
17. It is not the stone like inertness of some philosophers (Gautama
and Kanada), nor the hypnotism or sound sleep of others (Hiranya
garbas); it is neither the unoptativeness or want of option of the
Pátanjalas, nor is the inexistence or utter annihilation of the
Buddhist.
18. It is the knowledge of Brahma as the prime source of all, and
nihility of the visible creation; it is knowing God as all and yet
nothing that exists; and therefore it is to know Him as He is--in his
all pervading spirit.
19. It is the consummate knowledge of all (as nothing), that gives us
our positive rest of _nirvána_ (in our nothingness); and in knowing
that the world as it is, equal to its inexistence.
20. That all this variety is no variety at all, nor all these any
entity in reality; all apparent realities are mere unrealities, and
it is the end of all our conceptions and inductions, that is the only
reality (_i.e._ God the first and last of all--the Alpha and Omega).
21. The entire nihility of the visible world, is the state of its
_nirvána_ or extinction; and the settled knowledge of this in any one,
constitutes his supreme felicity.
22. This state is attainable by one’s pure understanding, and his habit
of constant reconsideration; joined with a knowledge of the _sástras_,
and scrutiny into the right sense of significant words and their
significates.
23. This work is the best guide to liberation, by means of its
constant study; or else it is attainable by no other means, save by
enlightenment of the understanding. ज्ञानतोमुक्तिरेब ।
24. Neither pilgrimage nor charity, nor sacred ablutions or learning;
nor meditation or Yoga contemplation, nor religious austerities nor
sacrifice of any kind (is liberation ever attainable by mankind, except
by means of divine knowledge).
25. The world is only a delusion, causing the unreal appear as
real; it is the empty vacuum only which presents the appearance of the
world, which is as a dream in the vacancy of the Intellect.
26. No religious austerity nor pilgrimage, is ever able to remove our
error of the world; they can at the best procure for us the reward of
heaven, but never secure unto us our liberation or final beatitude.
27. Our error is extirpated only, by the light of the _sástras_ and of
our good understanding; but above all, it is spiritual knowledge alone,
which is the best means to our liberation and final salvation.
28. But it is the vivid light of the scriptures, which is sure to
destroy our error of the world; as the sunshine serves to dispel the
gloom of night.
29. The light, clearness and shade, of creation, preservation and
destruction respectively, appear by turns in the clear vacuous mirror
of the Intellect; as the ventilation of breeze in air, and fluctuation
of waves in water.
30. As the rudiment of the future form, is contained in the heart
or embryo of every thing; and as the air contains in its incessant
motion (_sadágati_) within itself; such is the existence of the world,
inherent in the Divine Intellect, and so has it its evolution and
dissolution therein, like the rise and fall of wind in empty air.
CHAPTER CLXXV.
PARAMÁRTHA GÍTÁ OR LECTURE ON TRANCENDENTALISM OR THE SOLITY.
Argument:--The appearance of the world in our Ignorance, and its
Disappearance before the light of true knowledge.
Vasishtha continued:--The vacuity of the Intellect which presented the
shadow of a dream at first, could not possibly assume the form of a
causal and sensible body (as that of Brahmá), in order to be visible
and form the visible world. For how is it possible for the intellectual
vacuum, to have a bodily form at all.
2. In the beginning of creation, O Ráma, there was nothing except a
shadow dream in the Intellect. And neither was there this creation nor
the next world in visible existence.
3. The world appeared only in the form, of an unsubstantial notion of
it; and the vacuous intellect remained as quiet with its ideal world,
as the mind rests quietly with the nightmare in its dream.
4. Such is the essence of the Intellect, which is translucent and
without its beginning and end; and though it is a clear void in itself,
yet it bears the ideal model of the world in its mirror.
5. So long as this is unknown, the world appears as a gross substance;
but being known as contained in the Divine spirit, it becomes a
spiritual substance also; because how is it possible for any gross
matter, to attach itself to the transcendent vacuum, of which there is
no beginning and end?
6. This pure and abstract knowledge of the world, is as that of a city
in dreaming; and such being the state of the world ere its creation,
how can any earthly or other matter, be ever joined with the same?
7. The light of the Divine soul, shining amidst the vacuity of the
Intellect, is termed cosmos or the universe; consisting as it is
supposed, of matter, mind and faculties.
8. It is want of understanding only, which makes us suppose a thing,
which is turning round like a whirlpool, and having the force of the
wind in it as the stable earth, although it has no basis or stability
of it.
9. Afterwards the same Divine spirit (jíva), wishing to display its own
glory (thought in its personality of Brahmá), of the ideal forms of the
earth and other things (in its imagination).
10. Then the great minds of (Brahmá), shone with a purer light of
itself; and this is called his creation which is of an aerial form and
no other. (Light being the first work of creation).
11. That pure light, was nothing substantial of itself; but the
brightness of the Intellect only, shining with the effulgence of the
Divine spirit. (This was the psychic light of the soul in itself).
12. This light is the body of the spirit, which shone as intellectual
light in the void of the Intellect; and it presented the appearance of
the world in it, in the manner of dreams floating before the empty mind.
13. There being no other inference to be derived, nor any other cause
to be possibly assigned (to the production of the world), or of its
being produced of itself; it is certain that the divine spirit, sees
itself in the form of creation, within the vacuum of its Intellect in
the beginning. (As anything cannot come by itself or from nothing; the
world must therefore be either a nothing or a form of something that is
ever existent of itself).
14. This body of the world (corpus mundi), having no property of a
tangible body, is never fragile in its nature; but it is as void as the
emptiness of the Intellect, and as inane as the empty air.
15. Its form is that of the supreme Being, which is without any form
whatever; and identic with the Divine form, it comprehends all bodies
in itself, and extends undivided as all in all in its ownself.
16. This will be better understood in the instance of a dream, which
rises of itself and shows itself in various forms; but as all these
varieties are nothing but empty visions, so the diverse scenes and
sights of the world, are no more than shows of the Divine spirit.
17. The Divine soul of Brahma, assumed to itself the state of the
living spirit; and without forsaking its transparent form, became of
the form of mind (in the person of the great Brahmá--the creative
Power).
18. This power extends the universe in its aerial form in air; which
appears to be changed from its unchangeable state of transparency, to
that of a gross nature (_i.e._ the visible and material world).
19. The Mind is Brahmá himself, who gives an external and visible
form to the world, that was seated invisible in his heart; and
is continually employed in the process of repeated creation and
destruction of all.
20. The immaterial mind of Brahma, evolved the world from its
protoplasm, which was originally seated in his heart; and thence it
appeared in a different form as a counterpart of the original, or as
the formless representation of something in a dream.
21. The God Brahmá though in himself dwelling with his formless mind,
in his embodied form of the triple world, and of being diffused in
endless forms of sensible and insensible beings therein.
22. But there was neither the earth, nor any material form, nor even
anything of a visible appearance therein; it was only his mind which
exhibited itself, in the form of the formless and vacuous world. (The
Divine hypostasis of the personified mind of Brahma, was only a mental
and aerial form, and not a material one).
23. Then the lord Brahmá thought that, this mental form of his, was
nothing in substance, as it did not appear to sight; it was the
Intellect only, which shone in this manner within itself, and had no
solidity or substantiality in it. (The Intellect is the omniscience of
God, and the Mind is the intelligence of Brahmá).
24. This mental conception or abstract contemplation of the world,
is inexpressible by words, and makes the meditator remain in mute
astonishment; and causes him to continue as dumb in this ordinary
conduct in life. (This is the state of platonic supineness or
_insouciance_).
25. The Intellect being infinite and unlimited, the mind is lost
in infinity in its reflection; hence Brahmá having long remained
in his silence, became awakened to his knowledge at last. (Brahmá
the Demiurgic Mind having recovered itself from its wonder and
bewilderment, becomes detached at last from the divine mind).
26. After the insensible mind of Brahmá, had come to its sense, it
revolved in itself with its thoughts; as the liquid waters of the sea,
turns in whirlpools by agitation.
27. So the insensible air is put to ventilation by its internal motion,
and so all living souls which are identic with the calm and quiet
supreme soul, slide away like the gliding waters, from their main
source.
28. And as the winds and waves, which are identical with the calm air
and still water, blow and flow in all directions of themselves, so the
minds of living beings which are same with supreme Intellect, run in
several ways in their own accord.
29. Hence the vacuous intellect of all living beings, is the same with
the Divine intellect; and this, O most intelligent Ráma, is otherwise
known as the supreme soul also.
30. The Divine soul appears unto us, to have its twinklings like the
vacillation of air; its closing causes the close or end of the world,
as its flashing exposes the creation to view.
31. Its glancing causes the visibility of creation, and its winking
makes it invisible or extinct to view, while the want of both these
acts (opening and closing of its sight), is tantamount to the formless
void of the world.
32. But the view of the opening and shutting of its sight, or the
visibility and disappearance of the world in one unvaried light, makes
the equality of existence and non-existence in the mind, and bespeaks
the perfection of the soul.
33. Seeing and not seeing, and their results of creation and
extinction, make no difference in the Divine Intellect which is always
the same. (The veda says _Íkshati_ or glancing of God, and not his will
or word is the cause of the world).
34. Know therefore this world, to be as calm and quiet as the Divine
soul; and that it is of the nature of the uncreated vacuum, which is
ever the same and no decay.
35. The sensuous and conscious intellect, exhibits itself as the
insensible and unconscious vacuum; the very intellect shows itself in
the form of the world, which is in a manner its body and residence.
36. The Intellect is neither born or made, nor does it ever grow or
decay; it is never visible nor perceptible, nor have we any notion of
it; it displays its wonders in itself, without any extraneous substance
in it.
37. All that is called the phenomenal, is the brightness of the blazing
gem of the great Intellect, and proceeding from the quarry of its
vacuum; as the sunshine which illumines the world, issues from the orb
of that luminary.
38. It is Brahma himself that shines forth as the creation, just
as our sleep exhibits the visionary world in its dream; so is all
this creation as quiet as sleep, and yet full with the bustle of the
slumbering world.
39. Whatever is known in any manner in the mind, either as existent or
inexistent in the world; the same is the reflexion of the Intellect,
whether it be an entity or non-entity.
40. Should the impossibility of existence, lead us to the supposition
of some cause as of the primary atoms and the like; then what cause
can there be assigned to the appearance of sights in our dream (and of
fabrics without their foundation).
41. If the origin of the world is not ascribed to Brahma, as the
origination of dreams to the Intellect; then neither is there any truth
in the existence of the one, or in the appearance of other, which
is never true.
42. The minds of men are inclined towards the particular objects of
their fancy; hence those that believe and delight in God, take him as
the origin of all things that appear unto them.
43. Whatever is in the minds of men, and to whatever their hearts are
constantly devoted; they know the same as the only objects of their
lives, and the very gist of their souls.
44. He who delights in Brahma, becomes of the same mind in a moment;
and so any one who is gratified in any thing, is incorporated with the
same in his mind.
45. The man who has obtained his rest in God, has found the highest
bliss in his mind; though he shows himself as otherwise in his outward
conduct and social dealings.
46. There is no reason for the supposition of unity or duality herein,
when the whole existence is as I have propounded, and it is in vain to
look at anything else.
47. There nothing as visible or invisible, or anything as formless
or having a form herein; there is nothing as subject or object, nor
aught of reality or unreality here, when the whole is the very Brahma
himself.
48. This world is without a beginning and end, and is known to the
world as soul; but in fact, one Brahma rules over all without any fixed
rule, like a path without a name.
49. That which is conceived as the serene Brahma, is considered as the
bright Brahmá or Demiurgus also; just as what is known as the calm and
clear firmament, the very same is said the empty void likewise.
50. As the nebulae which seem to bedim the face of the sky, are
something in appearance and nothing in substance; just do our
mental faculties appear to flutter in and obscure the clear atmosphere
of the Intellect, and seem to be as dualities or otherwise than the
serene intellectual principle.
51. But the mental, bodily and all other perceptive and active powers
of living beings, are the common properties of the intellectual soul;
just as the very many gaps and hollows in various bodies, are in common
with the vacuity of the one universal vacuum only. (_i.e._ All these
are the aerial powers of psychic principle).
52. As the quiet soul passing from its sleeping to the dreaming state,
retains its identity and invariableness; so the divine soul passing
into creation after its quiescence, remains the very unchanged unity as
ever.
53. Thus the supreme spirit reflects the shadow of its great Intellect,
in the forms of creation and dream; hence neither is this creation nor
the vision in dreaming, any thing in its substance than a mere shadow
(of the picture in the Divine Mind).
54. It is the bright picture of the Divine Mind, that exhibits its form
in the vacuity of the Great Intellect; and so the ideal appearance as
the visible creation, like the fairy land in dream (and the airy castle
of imagination). (The word cháya--shadow means both the glory of God,
as also the darkness of illusion. Gloss).
55. From the impossibility of the appearance of the world, by any means
as it is conjectured by different schools, and from its want of a prior
cause; it must be that the intellect saw itself thus exhibited in its
own vacuity.
56. In the beginning of creation, the formless void of the Intellect,
showed itself in this visible and intangible form; and represented
itself as a picture of its mind or dream or its imagination.
57. Like the dream it was a blank and without any attribute; it is
changeable but not frangible, and although it was the substance of
intellectual voidness, yet it was vitiated with the stain of our
misapprehension of it, called _avidyá_. (The world is purely of an
intellectual form, and it is our ignorance which imputes a gross form
to it).
58. Like the dream, it seems to possess some properties in its
appearance; but is wholly devoid of any in its substance; it is never
different from the spiritual nature of the Lord, though it appears
otherwise to our misconception of it.
59. The phenomenal world likens a mountain seen in dream, and is
inseparable from the soul wherein it resides; therefore the visibles
appearing in the vacuity of the Intellect, are more vacuous than the
vacuum of the firmament.
60. That which is the supreme soul; and devoid of all form; the very
same and of the same nature is all this, that we call the visible world.
61. Whatever conception we have in our dream, the same is the display
of our intellect; so the cities and castles that we see in the dreams,
are no real existences; but appearances presented unto us by the
intellect.
62. As the recognizance of our acquaintances in dream, and the
remembrance of the impressions in our memory, are altogether
unsubstantial (owing to the absence of their prototypes in us); so the
sight of the visibles and the perception of perceptibles quite unreal
also (because none of those things are present in us).
63. Therefore leaving unrealities of our recognitions,
perceptions and remembrances, which are so much relied upon by the
ignorant; we should take them in the light of the direct manifestations
of the Deity in those forms.
64. As the waves of the sea, continue to roll incessantly on the
surface of the waters; so innumerable worlds that are continually
revolving, on the surface of the supreme soul, are of the same nature
with itself.
65. All laws and their anomalies, as well as all varieties and
complexities unite in harmony in the Divine nature. (There all discord
is concord, and all partial evil is universal good).
66. Therefore that Brahma is all in all, and there is none and nothing
besides; He alone is the soul of all, as all these live in Him.
67. The roving mind thinks the world to be roving about with all its
contents; but the steady minded take it to be quite sedate and quiet;
hence it is impossible for the learned also, to settle their minds
without the habitual sedateness of their attention.
68. There is no other means, for suppressing the mind from the sight of
the visibles; without the constant habit of attending to the lectures
(of the preceptor) on this sacred _sástra_.
69. Though it is difficult to repress the mind from its thoughts of
this world, either in its states of living or death, (_i.e._ either
in its waking or sleeping states); yet it is possible to do so by
effacing its impressions at once, from the study of this spiritual
sástra.
70. The knowledge of the nihility of the visible body, and that of the
mind also in want of the body; both in this world as well as in the
next world, will always serve to preserve our peace and quietism (and
this is attainable by means of studying this _sástra_).
71. The mind, body and the visibles, are all three of them suppressed
under the sense of their nothingness; as the mind, its force and the
moving clouds, do all disappear in absence of their cause (_i.e._
motion).
72. The cause of restlessness is ignorance only, which is altogether
dispelled by the study of this _sástra_; and those whose minds are a
little enlightened, have their composure from attending to the recital
and preaching.
73. The unintelligent will be able to understand the teachings of the
former part from the latter; and he that understands the words and
purports of these lectures, will never return disappointed (in his
expectation of _nirvána_ or ultimate rest).
74. Then know this _sástra_ as the best means, to the dispersion of
the error; and to the production of an universal indifference or
_insouciance_ everywhere.
75. Therefore try your best, to weigh well the precepts of this
_sástra_; and whether you study one or both parts of this work, you
will doubtless be freed from your misery thereby.
76. Should this _sástra_ prove unpalatable, owing to its being the
composition of a holy sage; in that case the student may consult the
sacred srutis, for the perfection of his spiritual knowledge.
77. Do not spend your time in false reasoning, nor offer your precious
life to flames and ashes; but let your sapient understanding commit the
visibles to the invisible soul (_i.e._ view them in their spiritual
light, and bury the gross phenomenal in utter oblivion and appear in
the noumenal soul only).
78. No one can buy a jot or moment of his lifetime, at the cost of
all the gems in the world; and yet how many are there, who foolishly
misspent their time in their worldly dream?
79. Though we have a clear conception of the world, yet it is a false
sight together with that of its beholder--the living soul; it is as
false as the dream of one’s own death in his sleep, and his hearing the
wailing of his friend at his demise.
CHAPTER CLXXVI.
BRAHMA GÍTA. ACCOUNT OF BRAHMÁNDA OR MUNDANE SYSTEM.
Argument:--The world resembling a dream and an atom of the Divine
mind, and Brahmá’s account of it.
Ráma rejoined:--There innumerable worlds in the universe, many of
which have gone before, many are in existence, and many as yet to be;
how then is it sir, that you persuade me to the belief of their nullity.
2. Vasishtha replied:--you well know, Ráma, the relation which the
world bears to a dream, in that they both mean a passing scene; and
this sense of it, can be denied by no one of this audience.
3. The words which are spoken by the wise, who know their application
and sense; are neither understood nor received in the hearts of common
people, though they are in common use.
4. When you will come to know the knowledge One, then you will
discern the three times clearly and behold them as present before you.
5. As it is the intellect alone, that displays itself in the form of
the world in our dream; so doth the Divine Intellect also, exhibit the
worlds in itself, in the beginning of creation; and there is no other
cause of their production.
6. Hence there are innumerable worlds, revolving like atoms in the
infinite space of air; and there is no one who can count their number,
and descry their modes and natures.
7. It was of old that my venerable sire--the lotus-born Brahmá, and
all besmeared with the fragrant dust of that flower, has delivered a
discourse on this subject, which I will now relate unto you.
8. It was of old that my sire Brahmá, told me about the number of
worlds, and their respective situations in the heavens, whence they
thus appear unto us. To this he said (as follows).
9. Brahmá said:--O sage, all this is Brahma, that is manifested as the
world; it is infinite entity of the Deity in its abstract essence; but
viewed in the concrete, the world is a nonentity.
10. Attend to this narration of mine, which is as felicitous to the
soul, as it is pleasant to the ear; it is called the narrative of
mundane egg, or of the mundane body or mass.
11. There is in the infinite vacuum, a vacuous substance known as the
vacuity of the Intellect, in the form of a minute atom only. (Such as
the grain of the mind is, in the hollow cerebrum of the head).
12. It saw as in a dream in itself, of its being as the living soul,
resembling the oscillation of the wind in empty air. (The living
principle or spirit, is a breath of air).
13. The Lord thus became the living being, with forsaking its vacuous
form; and thought itself to become the ego, in its aeriform form.
14. He had then his egoism, and egoistic sense in himself; and this was
the knowledge of himself as an unit, which is an act of delusion only.
15. Then he thought himself, as changed to the conditions of the
understanding, mind and ego, as in his dream; and was inclined of his
own option, to impose mutability upon his immutable nature.
16. He then saw in his mind as if in dream, the five senses attached
to his body; these are as formless as the appearance of a mountain in
dream, which the ignorant are apt to take as a solid body. (The five
formless faculties of sense, are thought to be composed of the five
organs of sense by the gross corporealist).
17. Then he beheld in the atom of his intellect, that his mental body
(or his mind), was comprised of the three worlds; in their aerial
or abstract forms, apparent to view, but without their substance
or solidity or any basis at all. (This is the mental form of
Virát--cosmos).
18. This stupendous form was composed of all beings, whether of the
moving or unmoving kinds.
19. He beheld all things comprised in himself, as they are seen in
dream or reflected in a mirror; and the triple world appeared in his
person, as the picture of a city newly printed on a plate.
20. He saw the three worlds in his heart, as they are seen in a
looking glass; together with all things contained therein, in their
vivid colours of many kinds (_viz._ the view, viewer and the act
of viewing;--the doer, deed and the action of doing;--the enjoyer,
enjoying and the enjoyment).
21. He observed minuter atoms subsisting within the minute atoms; and
stupendous worlds also on high, clustering together in groups and rings.
22. These being seen in ignorance of their natures; appear as gross
material bodies; but viewed in the clear light of their essence, they
prove to be the display of the divine mind only.
23. Thus the viewer who views the world, in the light of Brahma, finds
this view of it, as a vision in this dream; and comes to know that
there is no real viewer to view of it, nor any cause thereof nor any
duality whatsoever.
24. All these that appear all around us, are quite quiescent in their
nature, and in the Divine spirit alone as their main substratum; they
are all situated in the universal soul from eternity to eternity.
25. Myriads of worlds that are situated in the Divine spirit, appear to
be settled without the same; just as the waves of the sea, rise above
its waters and scatter its salt spray in the air.
CHAPTER CLXXVII.
BRAHMA-GÍTÁ. DESCRIPTION OF DIVINE NATURE.
Argument:--The fallacy of assigning a cause to the causeless
world; which is likened to a dream of the Divine Mind.
Ráma rejoined:--If the world is without a cause, and proceeds of itself
from the essence of Brahma, as our dreams, thoughts and imaginations,
proceed of themselves from the nature of our minds.
2. And if it be possible for anything to proceed from no cause, then
tell me sir, why we can never have anything without its proper causes.
(Such as the production of paddy without its cultivation).
3. Vasishtha replied:--Ráma, I am not speaking of common practice
of men, for the production of anything by application of its proper
causalities; but of the creation of the world, which is not in need
of the atomic principle and material elements, as it is maintained by
atomist. (Text). (Whatever invention is adopted by any one, in order to
produce a certain end, is never effected without the application of its
proper means and appliances).
4. In whatever light this visible world is imagined by anybody, he
views it in the same light; while another sees it in a different
manner, according to his own imagination of it.
5. There are some who imagine it as the diffusion of the Divine soul,
and think it as one with the nature of the Deity; while others think
it as the living body of Virát, with the insensible parts of it,
resembling the hairs and nails growing upon his body.
6. The meanings of the words causality and not causality do both of
them belong to the deity; because the Lord being almighty, has the
power to be either the one or other as he likes.
7. If there be anything whatever, which is supposed to be beside
Brahma in its essence; it is then reasonable to suppose him as the
cause of the same, which could not otherwise come to existence.
8. But when all things, that appear so different from one another,
are all of them without their beginning or end or co-eternal with the
Eternal One. Then say, which of these can be the cause of the other.
(Hence the world is one with the lord and has no cause of it).
9. Here nothing comes to exist or desist at any time; but are all
eternally existent in the self-existent One; as one and the same with
his vacuous self.
10. What is the cause of anything, and to what purpose should any be
caused at any time; the Lord expects nothing from his creatures, and
therefore their creation is equal to their not being created at all.
11. Here there is no vacuum or plenum, nor any entity nor non-entity
either, nor any thing between them; as there is nothing predicable of
the infinite vacuity of Brahma (as either this or that).
12. Whatever is is, and what not may not be; but all is Brahma only,
whether what is or is not (_i.e._ what is past or gone or yet to be,
_i.e._ all what is present, past or to be in future).
13. Ráma rejoined:--Tell me sir, how the Divine spirit is not the
cause of all, when it is believed to be the sole cause, by all who are
ignorant of its quiescent nature (as you maintain).
14. Vasishtha replied:--There is no one ignorant of God, since every
one has an innate conviction of the Divinity as the consciousness of
himself; and whoso knows the vacuous entity of the Deity, knows also
that this nature admits of no scrutiny or discussion.
15. Those who have the knowledge of the unity of God, and his nature
of quiescence and as full of intelligence; know also, his unknowable
nature is beyond all scrutiny.
16. Ignorance of God, abides in the knowledge of God (because one
acknowledges the existence of God, when he says he is ignorant of his
nature); and this is as our dreaming is included under the state of
sleeping. (Gloss. Philosophers dream many false ungodly theories of
causation, while they are sleeping in the quiescent spirit of God.)
17. It is for the instruction of the ignorant, concerning the
omnipresence of God, that I say, He is the soul of all or as all in
all; while in reality his holy spirit is perfectly pure and undecaying.
18. All existences are thought either as caused or uncaused, according
to the view that different understandings entertain respecting them.
(But neither of these views, refutes the doctrine of the unity of the
Deity. Gloss.)
19. Those that have the right conception of things (as manifestations
of the unity in different forms); have no cause to assign any cause to
them whatever (as the atomic principles or elements): therefore the
creation is without any cause whatever.
20. Therefore the assigning of a cause to this creation, either
as matter--_prakriti_ or spirit--_purusha_, by undermining one’s
self-consciousness of Divine pervasion; is mere verbiage of sophists
for their own confusion only.
21. In absence of any other cause of creation (save that of our
consciousness of it), it is naught beside an appearance in our dream;
and there is nothing as the gross material form or its visible
appearance whatsoever.
22. Say what cause can the ignorant assign, to their sight of the land
in their dream, than to the nature of the Intellect, which exhibits
such phenomena to minds. Say if there can be any other meaning of
dreams.
23. Those who are unacquainted with the nature of dreams, are deluded
to believe them as realities; but those that are acquainted with their
falsehood, are not misled to believe them or this world as real ones.
24. It is the impudence of fools to broach any hypothesis of causality,
either by their supposition, arrogance or in the heat of their debate
(as it is the case with all the different schools of philosophy).
25. Is the heat of fire, the coldness of water, and the light of
luminous bodies, and the natures of things their respective causes, as
the ignorant suppose them to be? (Or is it the attribute of Brahma that
is so manifested in these their several causes? The entity of Divine
unity, is the prime sole cause of causes).
26. There be hundreds of speculative theorists, that assign as many
causes to creation without agreeing in any; let them but tell the cause
of the aerial castle of their imagination.
27. The virtues and vices of men are formless things, and are attended
with their fruitions on the spiritual body in the next world; how
can they be causes of our corporeal bodies in this world. (As it is
maintained by Mímámsá philosophers).
28. How can our finite and shapeless knowledge of things, be the cause
of the incessant rise and fall, of endless, and minute bodies in the
world, as it is maintained by _vijnána váda_ or gnostic school. (These
assert the existence of things depends upon our knowledge or perception
of them as such).
29. It is nature says the naturalist, which is the cause of all
events but as nothing result from the nature of anything, without its
combination with another; it is too indeterminate in its sense.
30. Therefore all things appear as causeless illusions to the ignorant,
and their true cause to be a mystery to them; while they are known to
the intelligent as the wondrous display of the Divine Intellect, that
shows everything in itself.
31. As one knowing the falsehood of dreams, is never sorry at his loss
of anything in dream; so those that have the knowledge of truth in
them, never feel any sorrow even at the possession or separation of
their lives.
32. In the beginning there was no production of the visible world,
nor is it anything more than the vacuum of the intellect; in its own
and true form it appears as a dream, and is no other than that in its
essence.
33. There is no other supposition, which is more apposite to it: than
its resemblance to the dream; and our conception of the world, has the
great Brahma only for its ground work.
34. As fluidity, waves and whirlpools, are the inherent properties of
pure water; such are the revolutions of worlds, but appearances on the
surface of the Divine Mind, and have the Divine spirit of Brahma at
their bottom.
35. As velocity and ventilation, are inborn in the nature of pure
air; the creation and preservation of the world, are ingrained and
intrinsical in the nature of God.
36. As infinity and vacuity are the inherent properties of the Great
vacuum, so is the knowledge of all things existent and non-existent,
and of creation and annihilation immanent in the Divine Mind.
37. All things in existence and lying dormant in the Divine Mind, are
yet perceptible to us, because we participate of the very same mind.
38. This creation and its destruction also, both abide side by side in
the dense intellect of the Divine Soul; as the thickening dreams and
sound sleep, both reside together in the calm sleeping state of our
soul.
39. As a man passes from one dream to another, in the same dormant
state of his soul; so doth the supreme soul see the succession of
creations, taking place alternately in its own essence.
40. The clear atmosphere of Divine Soul, which is devoid of earthy and
other material substances; yet appears in their utter absence, to be
possessed of them all, in the same manner as the human soul, sees many
things in its dream, without having any of those things in itself.
41. As the human mind sees at a thought the forms of a pot, or painting
rising before it; so the all seeing mind of God, sees at a glance of
its thought, worlds upon worlds appearing at once in its presence.
42. The all seeing soul, sees all things as they are in itself;
and finds them to be of the same intellectual nature with its own
intellect; and as all things are equivalent to the words expressive
of them. (As there is a mutual correspondence between the significant
words and their significates).
43. Of what use then are sástras, and of what good is the reasoning
upon their verbiage, when our inappetency is the best way to felicity;
and there being no creation without its cause, we have nothing to do
with what appears but seemingly so.
44. It being proved, that the want of want is our best bliss below; the
sensation of want or desire, must be the source of perpetual misery
to man; and though our desires are many, yet the feeling of it is one
and the same, and betrays the prurient mind, as the various dreams by
night, disclose the cupidinous nature of the soul.
CHAPTER CLXXVIII.
BRAHMA-GÍTA. NARRATIVE OF AINDAVA.
Argument:--The formlessness of the world, for its formation from
the formless mind.
Ráma rejoined:--The world is known to consist of two sorts of beings,
namely the corporeal or solid substances and the incorporeal or subtile
essences.
2. They are styled the subtile ones, which do not strike against one
another; and those again are said to be solid things, which push and
dash against each other.
3. Here we see always the dashing of one solid body against another;
but know nothing of the movement of subtile bodies, or of their coming
in contact with another.
4. We know yet something, about the quick motion of our subtile senses
to their respective objects, and without coming in contact with them,
as we find in our perception of the distant orb of the moon (without
touching it).
5. I repudiate the theory of the half-enlightened, who maintain the
material world to be the production of the will or imagination; nor can
I believe that the immaterial intellect, can either produce or guide
the material body.
6. It is the will I ween, that the material breath of life, moves the
living body to and fro; but tell me sir, what is that power which
propels, the living breath both in and out of the beings.
7. Tell me sir, how the intangible intellect moveth the tangible body;
and carries it about, as a porter bears a load all about.
8. Should the subtile intellect, be capable of moving the solid body at
its will; then tell me sir, why cannot a man move a mountain also by
his own will?
9. Vasishtha replied:--It is the opening and closing of the mouth of
the aorta in the breast, that lets in and out the vital breath, through
the passage of its hole and the lungs.
10. As you see the bellows of ironsmiths about you, having a hollow
inside them, so it is the hollow of the aorta, which lets in and out
the vital air, by the breathing of the heart.
11. Ráma rejoined:--It is true that the ironsmith closes and expands
the valves of the bellows; but tell me sir, what power blows the wind
pipe of the heart, and lets the air in and out of the inner lungs.
12. How the single breath of inhalation becomes a centuple (in order to
pass into a hundred channels of the arteries), and how these hundreds
combine again into one (in their exhalation); and why are some as
sensible beings, and others as insensible as woods and stones.
13. Tell me sir, why the immovables have no oscillation at all; and why
the moving bodies alone are possessed of their pulsation and mutation
(and why the vegetable creation deprived of motion, when it is
possessed of sensibility in common with the animal creation).
14. Vasishtha replied:--There is an internal percipience (inner man),
which moves the interior cords of the body; just as the ironsmith plies
his bellows in the sight of men.
15. Ráma rejoined:--Say sir, how is it possible for the subtile and
intactile soul, to move the vital airs and tangible entrails in the
animal body.
16. If it be possible for the imperceptible perceptive soul, to put in
motion the intestinal and tactual entrails of the body; then it may be
equally possible for the thirsty soul, to draw the distant water to it.
(In order to quench its thirst, instead of going to the watery pool).
17. If it be possible for the tangible and intangible, to come together
in mutual contact at their will; then what is the use of the active
and passive organs of action (if the will alone be effective of any
purpose).
18. As the intangible powers of the soul or spirit, bear no connection
whatever with the outward objects of the world; some think they can
have no effect on the internal organs of the body (in putting them to
action). So please explain it more fully to me.
19. Tell me, how you yogis perceive the outward corporeal things in
your inner incorporeal souls; and how your formless souls, can have any
command over or any contact with solid bodies.
20. Vasishtha replied:--Hear me tell you for rooting out all your
doubts, and these words will not only be pleasing to your ears, but
give you a conception of the unity of all things.
21. There is nothing here, at any time, what you call as a solid
substance or tangible body, but all is a wide and extended vacuum of
the rare and subtile spirit.
22. This spirit is of the nature of the pure Intelligence, quite calm
and intangible; and all material things as the earth, are as visionary
as our dreams, and the creatures of imagination.
23. There was nothing in the beginning, nor shall there be anything
at the end; for want of a cause for its creation or dissolution; the
present existence is an illusion, as any fleeting shape and shadow
appearing before the dreaming mind.
24. The earth and sky, the air and water, and the hills and rivers that
appear to sight; are lost sight of by the abstracted yogi; who by means
of his abstraction, sees them in their ideal and intangible forms.
25. The outer elements and their inner perceptions, the earth, the wood
and stones; are all but empty ideas of the intellect, which is the only
real substratum of the ideas, and there is no reality besides.
26. Attend now to the narrative of Aindava, in elucidation of this
doctrine; this will not fail to gratify your ears, though I have once
before related this to you. (In the former narration the world was
identified with the mind, and here it is represented as identical with
the Intellect itself).
27. Attend yet to the present narration, which I am going to relate in
answer to your question; and whereby you will come to know these hills
and others, to be identic with your intellect.
28. There lived once in days of yore, a certain Bráhman in some part
of the world, who was known under the name of Indu, and was famed for
his religious austerities and observance of vedic ceremonies.
29. He had ten sons by whom he was surrounded like the world by its ten
sides (of the compass); who were men of great souls, of magnanimous
spirits, and were revered by all good and great men.
30. In course of time the old father met with his demise, and departed
from his ten sons as the eleventh Rudra, at the time of the dissolution
of the world.
31. His chaste wife followed his funeral (by concremation), for fear of
the miseries of widowhood; just as the evening twilight follows like a
faithful bride, the departing daylight with the evening star shining
upon her forehead (in token of the vermeil spot on women’s forehead).
32. The sons then performed the funeral ceremonies, and in sorrow for
their deceased sire, they left their home and domestic duties and
retired to the woods for holy devotion.
33. They practiced the best method for the intensity of their
attention, and which is best calculated to secure the consummation of
their devotion; and was the constant reflection of their identity with
Brahma (in the formula we are the lords of all, about us).
34. Thinking so in themselves, they sat in lotus like posture; and
wishing to gain the knowledge of the unity of all things, they did what
you shall be glad to learn from me.
35. They thought they sustained in them the whole world, which is
presided over by the lotus-born Brahmá; and believed themselves to be
transformed, to the form of the mundane God in an instant.
36. Believing themselves as Brahma, they sat long with the thought of
supporting the world; and remained all along with their closed eyes, as
if they were mere figures in painting.
37. With this belief they remained fixed and steady at the same spot,
and many a month and year glided over their heads and motionless bodies.
38. They were reduced to dry skeletons, parts of which were beaten and
devoured by rapacious beasts; and some of their were at once
severed and disappeared from their main bodies, like parts of a shadow
by the rising sun.
39. Yet they continued to reflect that they were the God Brahmá and
his creation also, and the world with all its parts, were contained
in themselves (_i.e._ They considered themselves as Virát the form of
macrocosm).
40. At last their ten bodiless minds, were thought to be converted to
so many different worlds, in their abstract meditation of them. (_i.e._
Each of them viewed himself as a cosmos).
41. Thus it was by the will of their intellects, that each of them
became a whole world in himself; and remained so in a clear or abstract
view of it, without being accompanied by its grosser part.
42. It was in their own consciousness, that they saw the solid earth
with all its hills &c. in themselves; because all things have reference
to the intellect, and are viewed intellectually only (or else they are
nothing).
43. What is this triple world, but its knowledge in our consciousness,
without which we have no perception of it, and with which we have a
clear conception of every thing. So all things are of the vacuous
nature of our consciousness, and not otherwise.
44. As the wave is no other than the water of the sea, so there is
nothing movable or immovable whatever, without our conscious knowledge
of it.
45. As the Aindavas remained in their vacuous forms of intellectual
worlds in the open air; so are these blocks of wood and stone also,
pure intellectual beings or concept in the sphere of our minds.
46. As the volitions of the Aindavas, assumed the forms of the world,
so did the will of lotus-born Brahmá take the form of this universe.
(So says the veda: The divine will produced the world, just as the
adage goes, the will is the mother of the act).
47. Therefore this world together with all these hills and trees;
as also these great elements and all other bodies, appertain to the
intellect only, which is thus spread out to infinity.
48. The earth is the intellect, and so are its trees and mountains, and
heaven and sky also the intellect only; there is nothing beside the
intellect, which includes all things in itself, like the intellectual
worlds of the Aindavas.
49. The intellect like a potter, forms every thing upon its own wheel;
and produces this pottery of the world, from the mud of its own body
(out of its own intellectual substance).
50. The sensible will being the cause of creation, and framer of the
universe, could not have made any thing, which is either insensible
or imperfect in its nature, and neither the mineral mountains nor the
vegetable production, are devoid of their sensations.
51. Should the world be said to be the work of design, or of the
reminiscence or former impression or of the Divine will; yet as these
are but different powers of the Intellect, and are included under it;
the world then proves to be the production of the intellect, under some
one of its attributes as it is said before. (Hence there is no gross
body as the product of intelligent Intellect).
52. Therefore there cannot be any gross substance in the Divine
Intellect which blazes as a mine of bright gems, with the gemming light
of consciousness in universal soul of God.
53. Anything however mean or useless, is never apart from the Divine
soul; and as it is the nature of solar light to shine on all objects,
so doth the light of intellect, take everything in the light of the
Great Brahma, which pervades alike on all.
54. As the water flows indiscriminately upon the ground, and as the sea
laves all its shores, with its boisterous waves; so doth the intellect
ever delight, to shed its lustre over all objects of its own accord,
and without any regard to its near or distant relation.
55. As the great creator evolves the world, like the petals of his
lotiform navel, in the first formative period of creation; so doth the
divine intellect, unfold all the parts of the mundane system from its
own penetralia, which are therefore not distinct from itself.
56. The Lord is unborn and increate, and unconfined in his nature
and purely vacuous in his essence; he is calm and quiescent, and is
immanent in the interim of _ens_ and _nil_ (_i.e._ of existence and
non-existence). This world therefore is no more than a reflexion of the
intellectual or its ideal pattern in Divine Mind.
57. Therefore the ignorant man, who declares the insensibility of
inanimate objects, is laughed at by the wise, who are sensible of their
sensibility in their own kinds. Hence the rocks and trees which are
situated in this ideal world, are not wholly devoid of their sensations
and feelings.
58. The learned know these ideal worlds in the air, to be full with the
Divine soul; and so they know this creation of Brahmá’s will, to be but
an airy utopia only, and without any substantiality in them.
59. No sooner is this material world, viewed in its aerial and
intellectual light, than the distresses of this delusive world betake
themselves to flight, and its miseries disappear from sight.
60. As long as this intellectual view of the world, does not light to
the sight of a man, so long do the miseries of the world, beset him
thicker and thicker and closer on every side.
61. Men besotted by their continued folly, and remaining blind to their
intellectual view of the world, can never have its respite from the
troubles of the world, nor find their rest from the hardness of the
times.
62. There is no creation, nor the existence or inexistence of the
world, or the birth or destruction of any one here; there is no entity
nor nonentity of any thing (beside the essence of the One). There is
the Divine soul only, that glows serenely bright with its own light in
this manner; or there is no light whatever except the manifestation of
the divine spirit.
63. The cosmos resembles a creeper, with the multitude of its budding
worlds; it has no beginning nor end, nor is it possible to find its
root or top at any time, or to discover the boundless extent of its
circumference. Like a crystal pillar, it bears innumerable statues in
its bosoms, which are thickly studded together without having their
initium or end.
64. There is but one endless being, stretching his innumerable arms to
the infinity of space; I am that vacuous soul embracing every thing ad
infinitum, and I find myself as that stupendous pillar, in my uncreated
and all comprehensive soul, which is ever as quiescent and transparent
and without any change in itself.
CHAPTER CLXXIX.
THE DOCTRINE OF PANTHEISM OR THE ONE AS ALL.
Argument:--The intellectuality and incorporality of the World,
preclude the idea of its materiality.
Vasishtha continued:--Now as the triple world is known, to be a purely
intellectual entity; there is no possibility of the existence of any
material substance herein, as it is believed by the ignorant majority
of mankind.
2. How then can there be a tangible body, or any material substance
at all; and all these that appear all around to our sight, is only an
intactile extension of pure vacuity.
3. It is the emptiness of our intellectuality, and contained in the
vacuity of the Divine Intellect; it is all an extension of calm and
quiet intelligence, subsisting in the serene intelligence of the
supreme One.
4. All this is but the quiescent consciousness, and as a dream that we
are conscious of in our waking state; it is a pure spiritual extension,
though appearing as a consolidated expanse of substantial forms.
5. What are these living bodies and their limbs and members, what are
these entrails of theirs, and these bony frames of them? Are they
not but mere shadows of ghosts and spirits, appearing as visible and
tangible to us. (Or very likely they resemble the phantoms of our
dreams, and the apparitions that we see in the dark. Gloss).
6. The hands, the head, and all the members of the body, are seats of
consciousness or percipience; where it is seated imperceptible and
intangible, in the form of the sensorium or sensuousness.
7. The cosmos appears as a dream in the vacuum of the Divine Mind; and
may be called both as caused and uncaused in its nature, owing to its
repeated appearance and eternal inherence in the eternal Mind.
8. It is true that nothing can come out from nothing, or without its
cause; but what can be the cause of what is eternally destined or
ordained in the eternal mind. (Predestination and Preordination being
the uncaused cause of all events).
9. It is possible for a thing to come to existence, without any
assignable cause or causality of it; and such is the presence of every
thing that we think of in our minds (and so also is the appearance of
this world in its intellectual light).
10. If it is possible for things, ever to appear in their various forms
in our dreams, and even in the unconscious state of our sleep; why
should it impossible for them to appear also in the day dream of
our waking hours, the mind being equally watchful in both states of its
being.
11. Things of various kinds, are present at all times, in the all
comprehensive mind of the universal soul; these are uncaused entities
of the Divine Mind, and are called to be caused also, when they are
brought to appearance.
12. As each of the Aindavas, thought himself to have become a hundred
in his imagination; so every one of these imaginary worlds, teemed with
millions of beings--the mere creatures of our fancy.
13. So is every body conscious of his being many, either consecutively
or simultaneously at the same time; as we think of our multiformity
in the different parts and members of our bodies. (Or as the king
Vipaschit viewed himself, as dilated in the sun, moon and stars, so
also one man thinks himself as many, in different states of his life).
14. As the one universal body of waters, diverges itself into a
thousand beds and basins, and branches into innumerable channels
and creeks, and as one undivided duration, is divided into all the
divisions of time and seasons (so doth the one and uniform soul become
multiform and many). (As the sruti says:--aham-bahu-syam).
15. All compact bodies are but the airy phantoms of our dream, rising
in the empty space of our consciousness; they are as formless and
rarefied, as the hollow mountain in a dream, and giving us a void
notion of it.
16. As our consciousness consists of the mere notions and ideas of
things, the world must therefore be considered, as a mere ideal
existence; and it appears in the sights of it and observes in the same
light; as the fleeting notions of things glide over the void of the
intellect. (The mind is conversant only with the ideas and not with the
substance of things).
17. Our knowledge and nescience of things, resemble the dreaming and
sleeping states of the soul; and the world is same as the intellect,
like the identity of the air with its breeze.
18. The noumenon and the phenomenon, are both the one and same state
of the Intellect; being the subjectivity of its vacuous self, and the
objectivity of its own intellections and reveries; Therefore this world
appears as a protracted dream, in the hollow cavity of the sleeping
mind.
19. The world is a non-entity, and the error of its entity, is caused
by our ignorance of the nature of God from the very beginning of
creation. In our dream of the world, we see many terrific aspects of
ghosts and the like; but our knowledge of its non-entity, and of the
vanity of worldliness, dispel all our fears and cares about it.
20. As our single self-consciousness, sees many things in itself; so
does it behold an endless variety of forms, appearing in the infinite
vacuity of the Divine Mind.
21. As the many lighted lamps in a room, combine to emit one great
blaze of light; so the appearance of this multiform creation, displays
the Omnipotence of one Almighty Power.
22. The creation is as the bursting bubble, or foam and froth of the
mantling ocean of omnipotence; it appears as a wood and wilderness in
the clouded face of the firmament, but disappears in the clear vacuous
atmosphere of the Divine Mind; and there is no speck nor spot of
creation in the infinite ocean of the Supreme Intellect.
CHAPTER CLXXX.
BRAHMA GÍTÁ OR THE STORY ON AUSTERE DEVOTEE.
Argument:--Vasishtha’s elucidation of the story of Kunda-danta at
the request of Ráma.
Ráma rejoined:--I pray you sir, to remove the shade of a doubt from my
mind, as the sunshine dispels the darkness from before it; in order to
bring to light whatever is dark and obscure in the world.
2. I beheld once a self-governed ascetic, who came to the seminary,
where I was sitting amidst the synod of the sages and learned men, and
conversing on subjects of theology and divinity.
3. He was a learned Bráhman, and of a godly appearance; he came from
the land of the Videhas or the Mithilas, and was practiced in religious
austerities, and was as unbearable in the lustre of his person as the
terrific seer Durvásas self.
4. On entering the assembly, he made his obeisance to the illustrious
persons; when we also saluted him in return and advanced his seat for
him to sit down.
5. The Bráhman being well seated, I picked up many discourses with
him from the Vedánta, Sánkhya, and Siddhánta philosophy, and when his
weariness was gone, I made this question to him, saying:--
6. Sir, you seem to be tired with your long journey to this place,
please tell me, O eloquent sir, from where you have started here today.
7. The Bráhman replied:--so it is, O fortunate prince, I have taken
great pains to come up to this place; and now hear me to tell you the
reason, that brings me hither to you.
8. There is a district here, known by the name of Vaideha, it is
equally populous as well as prosperous in all respects; and is a
resemblance of its semblance of the heavenly paradise.
9. There I was born and educated, and held my residence at the same
place; and named as Kundadanta from the whiteness of my teeth, bearing
resemblance to the buds of _Kunda_ flowers.
10. I resigned afterwards my worldly concerns, and betook myself to
travel far and wide about this earth; and resorted to the asylums of
holy sages and saints, and to the shrines of gods to rest from my
fatigue.
11. I retired next to sacred mountain, where I sat silent for a
long period, practicing my devotional austerities.
12. There I found a desert, which was devoid of grassy pastures and
woody trees; and where the light of the sun and the shade of night,
reigned by turns, as it was the open sky on earth.
13. There is in the midst of it a branching tree, with little of its
verdant leaves and leaf-lets; and the luminous sun dispensed his gentle
beams, from the upper sky and through cooling foliage.
14. There hung suspended under one of its boughs, a man of a holy mien;
who blazed as the resplendent sun pendent in the open air, by the cords
of his wide extending beams and radiating rays.
15. His feet were tied upwards by a clotted cord of _munja_ grass, and
his head hung downward towards the ground beneath; and this gave him
the appearance of an offshoot of the banian tree rooted in the earth
below.
16. Having then after a while, approached to him at that place, I saw
him to have his two folded palms affixed to his breast (as if he was
intent upon the meditation of the lord, with the devoutness of his
heart).
17. Advancing nearer to the body of the Bráhman, I found it to be alive
by its respiration, and from its having the feeling of touch, and the
perception of heat and cold, and that of the breeze and change of
weather.
18. Afterwards I employed myself solely, in my attendance on that
devout personage only; and underwent all the rigours of the sun and
seasons, until I was received into his confidence.
19. I then asked him saying; who art thou lord, that hast thus
betaken thyself to this sort of painful devotion; say, O long sighted
seer, what is the aim and object of this thy protracted state of
self-mortification at the peril-expense of thy precious life.
20. He then replied to my question saying:--Tell me first O devotee,
what is the object of thy devotion and those of all other persons,
that are devoted to the particular objects of their pursuit. (So it is
useless to inquire into the aim and object of another, when there is no
body without his particular end in view).
21. This he said as introductory to his speech to me; but being pressed
further by my importunate inquiries, he gave the following answer to my
questions.
22. I was born, said he, at Mathura where I grew up from childhood to
youth in the house of my father; and acquired my knowledge of philology
and the arts in course of this time.
23. I then learnt this also, that princes are the receptacles of all
pleasures and enjoyments, and that it is the early bloom of youth, that
is capable of the fruitions of life.
24. Since then I began to reflect on my being the possessor of the
seven continents of the earth; and to foster the ardent expectation, of
the gratification of all my desires of this life.
25. It is for this purpose that I have come to this place, and have
employed myself in this state of devotion, for attainment of objects of
my desire.
26. Therefore, O thou disinterested and self offered friend of mine, do
thou now return to thy own country and desired abode; and leave me to
remain in this state, with my firm resolution for the accomplishment of
my desired object.
27. Being thus bid by him to depart from that place, listen you now to
what I replied unto him; this you will wonder at its rehearsal, and the
wise will be gladdened in their hearts to learn.
28. I addressed him saying:--O holy saint, let me remain here at thy
service, and underneath this holy tree, until you obtain the desired
boon of your devotion.
29. On my saying so, the meek minded devotee, remained as cool and
quiet as a block of stone, and with his closed eye lids, he persisted
in his dormancy as a dead body, without any motion in his outer limbs.
30. I too continued to stay before him, as quiet and quiescent as a
block of wood, and endured without shrinking the rigours of the climate
and seasons, for full six months at that spot.
31. I saw at one time, effulgent as the blazing sun, descending from
the solar orb, and then standing in presence of the devotee.
32. As this deific personage was adored mentally by the ascetic, and by
bodily prostration of myself; he uttered his words, in a tone as sweet
as the exudation of ambrosial sweetness.
33. He said: O painstaking Bráhman, that hast long been pendent on
the projected bough of this branching banian tree, suspend thy severe
austerities, and accept thy desired boon, which I am ready to confer on
thee.
34. Thou shalt as thou wishest, reign over the seven oceans and
continents of this earth; and with this present body, thou shalt rule
over it, for seven thousand years.
35. In this manner did this secondary sun, give his blessing to the
devout ascetic; and was prepared to plunge into the bosom of the ocean
out of which he rose of himself. (The sun is usually said to rise from
and set in the mountain top, but he is made to rise out of and sink in
the sea, according to the Grecian mythology).
36. The Deity having departed, I accosted the ascetic hanging below
the branch, and said to him I witnessed to day what I had heard from
before, that the gods are ever propitious to their suppliants.
37. Now O Bráhman, as you have gained the object of your desire, it is
desirable that you should give up your austerity, and pursue the proper
callings and the course of your life.
38. He having assented to my proposal, I ascended on the tree and
loosened his feet therefrom; as they let loose the feet of an elephant
from the fetters tied to its prop and post.
39. Having then bathed himself, he made his offerings with his pure
hands for the remission of his sins; and then with the fruits which he
was fortunate to pluck from the tree, he broke the fast of his long
lent.
40. It was by virtue of his meritorious devotion, that we obtained
plenty of the delicious fruits of that holy tree; where upon we
refreshed ourselves, and subsisted for three days.
41. Thus this Bráhman being desirous of obtaining the sovereignity of
the earth, consisting of the septuple continents girt by the seven
oceans all around, made his painful maceration with his uplifted feet
and downward head, until he obtained desired boon from the god of day,
and refreshed himself for three days at the spot, till at last both of
us set out on our journey towards the city of Mathurá.
CHAPTER CLXXXI.
BRAHMA-GÍTÁ CONTINUED.
Argument:--The guest’s description of sanctuary of the
goddess Gaurí.
The guest Kunda-danta resumed his narration and said:--We then betook
ourselves to our homeward journey, and bent our course towards the holy
city of Mathurá, which was as fair and splendid as the solar and lunar
mansions, and the celestial city of Amaravati of Indra.
2. We reached at the rustic habitation of Raudha, and halted at the
mango forest over an adjacent rock. Then we turned towards the city of
Salísa, where we remained two days in the cheerfulness of our spirits.
3. We passed our itinerant time, with that hilarity of our hearts,
which ever attends on travelling through unknown places and scenes; and
the succeeding season of our halting, was passed in our repose under
the cooling shade of woodland arbours, and refreshing ourselves in the
cooling brooks and breezes.
4. The faded flowers which were thrown down in profusion, from the
flowery creepers growing on the banks of rivers; the dashing of
the waves, the humming of the bees, and the singing of birds, are
delightsome to the souls of passing travellers.
5. The thickening and cooling shades of beachening trees, the droves
of deer and the flights of chirping birds; and the frozen ice and dew
drops, hanging tremulously as pearls on the leaves of verdant trees,
and at the ends of the blades of green grass (are refreshing to the
soul of the weary passenger.)
6. We passed many days through woods and forests, and over hills and
dales, through caves and defiles, over marshes and dry lands, and in
cities and villages; and also crossed over a great many rivers and
channels and running waters.
7. We passed our nights under the arbours of thick plantain forests;
and being weary with walking over snow and dew, we laid ourselves on
beds made of plantain leaves.
8. On the third we came to a jungle full of gigantic woods and trees,
which for want of human habitation, seemed to have divided the empire
of heaven between themselves (meaning that there was to be seen
nothing, except the skies above and woods below).
9. Here that devotee left the right path, and entered into another
forest, with uttering these useless words to me (which were discursive
and preventive of our returning to our respective habitations).
10. He said:--Let us go to the sanctuary of Gaurí here, which is the
resort of many munis and sages from all quarters; and is the asylum to
which my seven brothers, have repaired for attainment of their objects.
11. We are eight brothers in all, and all of us have fostered great
ambitions in various respects; we are all equally resolved to devote
ourselves to rigorous austerities, for the success of our determined
purposes.
12. It is for that purpose that have sought their shelter in
this holy asylum, and with fixed determination practiced various acts
of self mortification, whereby they have been expurgated from their
sins.
13. Ere this I accompanied my brothers to this place, and remained here
with them for six months together; and now I find this same sanctuary
of Gaurí in the same state as I had seen it before.
14. I see the piece of ground, overhung by the shady flower of trees;
under the shade of which I see the young fauns to be reposing in this
their peaceful retreat; I see also the leafy bowers with the sprays of
birds thereon, listening to the recital of the sástras, conducted by
the sages underneath.
15. Let us therefore go to the asylum of the sages, which resembles the
seat of Brahmá crowded by the Bráhmans on all sides; here shall our
bodies be purified of their sins, and our hearts will be sanctified by
the holiness of the place.
16. It is by sight of these holy men of superior understanding, that
the minds of even the learned and saintlike persons, and even those of
the knowers of truth are purified (wherefore it must be sanctifying to
us also).
17. Upon his saying so, we both went together to that asylum of the
recluses of sages and hermits; but to our great disappointment, we saw
nothing but the appearance of a total desolation.
18. There was not a tree nor plant, and neither a shrub nor creeper to
be seen on the spot; nor was there any man or _muni_ or a boy or child
was met thereabouts; nor any altar or priest was there anywhere.
19. It was only a vast desert, all void and devoid of bounds; an
unlimited space of burning heat, and appeared as the blank expanse of
the sky, had fallen down on the ground below.
20. Ah wœ to us! what is all this come to be! said we to one another;
and saying so, we continued to rove about for a long while, until we
chanced to espy an arbour at some distance.
21. It presented a thickly shady and cooling aspect, resembling that of
a dark and drizzling cloud in the sky; and there was observed an aged
hermit, sitting in his meditation beneath it.
22. We two sat upon the grassy spot, spread out in front of the
eremite; and though we kept sitting there for a long time, yet we could
find no respite in the abstracted meditation of the _muni_.
23. Then feeling uneasy at my staying there for a long while, I broke
my silence in impatience, and cried out in a loud voice, saying,
suspend, O sage, the life-long musings of your mind.
24. My loud cry awakened the _muni_ from the trance of his reverie,
as the roaring of a raining cloud wakens the sleeping lion, rising
straight with his yawning mouth (and stretched out limbs).
25. He then said unto us, who are ye pious persons, that are in this
desert; say where is that sanctuary of Gaurí gone, and who is it that
has brought me hither. Tell me what means this change and what time is
this.
26. Upon his saying so, I replied to him saying, you sir, know all this
and not we; say how is that you being a sage and seer do not know
yourself?
27. Hearing this the holy man betook himself to his meditation again,
and there saw all the events that had occurred to himself and us also.
28. He remained a moment in deep thought, and then coming to himself
from his abstraction, he said unto us, learn now about this marvelous
event, and know it to be a delusion only by your good common sense.
29. This young kadamba tree, that you are seeing in this desert, and
that gives me a shelter underneath it, and is now flowering in kindness
to me.
30. It was for some reason or other, that the chaste goddess Gaurí,
dwelt for full ten years upon it, in the form of the goddess of speech,
and underwent all the inclemencies of the seasons sitting there upon.
31. It was by her that a goodly grove, and an extensive forest was
stretched out at this place, which became therefore known by her name,
and was decorated by the flora of all the seasons.
32. It was a romantic spot to all grades of gods and men, who kept
singing and sporting here in concert with the melody of tuneful and
sportive birds; the air was filled with clouds of flowers, which
brightened as myriads of moon in the sky; while the flying dust of full
blown lotuses, perfumed the air on all sides of the forest.
33. The pollen of mandara and other flowers, perfumed the air around;
and the opening bud and blooming blossoms brightened as moons; the
flowering creepers sent forth their fragrance all about, and the whole
courtyard of the forest, seemed to strewn over with perfumery.
34. Its bowers were the seats of the god of the vernal season and
flora; and the orchestra of black-bees, sitting and singing in concert
with their mates on the top of flowers; the flower beds were spread as
the outstretched sheet of moon light, and as cradles for the swinging
sports of siddha and celestial damsels.
35. Here were brooks frequented by cranes and herons, and aquatic birds
of various kinds; and there spacious lawns on the ground, graced by
cocks and peacocks, and land birds of various hues.
36. The gandharvas and yakshas, siddhas and the hosts of celestials,
bowed down to this kadamba tree, and their coronets rubbed against the
branch, which was sanctified by the touch of the feet of the goddess
Sarasvatí _alias_ Gaurí. And the flowers of the tree, resembling the
stars of heaven, exhaled their fragrance all around.
37. Gentle zephyrs were playing amidst the tender creeper, and
diffusing a coldness throughout the secret bowers, even in the light
and heat of the blazing sunshine; while the flying dust of the kadamba
and other flowers, spread a yellow carpet all over the ground.
38. The lotus and other aquatic flowers, were blooming in the brooks,
frequented by storks and cranes and herons and other watery birds, that
sported upon them; while the goddess regaled herself amidst the flowery
groves, which displayed her wondrous powers in the variety of their
flowers.
39. It was in such a forest as this, that the goddess Gaurí the consort
of the god Hara, resided at this spot for a long time, for some cause
known to her godly mind; and then by changing her name and form to that
of kadamba--Sarasvatí, she waved as gracefully as a kadamba flower, on
the crown of the head of her spoused partner Hara or Siva.
CHAPTER CLXXXII.
BRAHMA GÍTÁ CONTINUED. SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEVEN CONTINENTS.
Argument:--Meeting of the Kadamba Hermit with his brothers, their
bane and blessing and final success.
The old anchorite resumed and said:--The goddess Gaurí dwelt for a full
decade of years, on this very Kadamba tree of her own accord; and then
she left this arbour of her own will, in order to join her lord Hara on
his left side.
2. This young Kadamba tree, being verified by the ambrosial touch of
the goddess, never becomes old, nor fades or withers; but ever remains
as fresh as a child in the lap of her mother.
3. After the goddess had left this place, that great garden was
converted to a common bush, and was frequented only by woodmen, who
earned their livelihood by woodcutting.
4. As for myself, know me to be the king of the country of Malwa, and
to have now become a refugee in this hermitage of holy ascetics, by
abdication of my kingdom.
5. On my resorting to this place, I was honoured here by the
inhabitants of this holy asylum; and have taken any abode beneath this
kadamba tree, where I have been in my meditative mood ever since that
time.
6. It was some time ago, that you sir, had come here in company
with seven brethren, and betaken yourselves to the practice of your
religious austerities.
7. So did you eight persons reside here as holy devotees since that
time, and were respected by all the resident devotees of this place.
8. It came to pass in process of time, that one of them removed from
here to the Srí mountain; and then the second among them, went out to
worship the lord Kártikeya in another place.
9. The third has gone to Benares and the fourth to the Himálayas; and
the remaining four remained at this place, and employed themselves to
their rigorous austerities.
10. It was the earnest desire of each and every one of them, to become
the sovran lord of all the seven continents of the earth.
11. At last they all succeeded to accomplish their objects of their
self same desire, by the grace and boon which obtained from the
respective deity of their adoration, that was pleased with the
austerity of his particular devotee.
12. The brethren returned to their habitation, when you had been
employed in your devotion; and after their enjoyment of the fruition of
this earth in golden age, they have ascended to the empyrean of Brahmá.
13. O sir, those brothers of yours, finding their respective gods
propitious to them, and willing to confer blessings upon them, had made
the following request of them saying:--
14. Ye gods! make our seven brothers, the lords of the seven continents
of the earth; and let all our subjects be truthful and sincere, and
attached to the occupations of their respective orders.
15. The gods that were adored by them, gladly occupied their prayer;
and having assented to their request, disappeared from them, and
vanished in the open sky.
16. They all went afterwards to their respective habitation, and met
death except this one who is now here.
17. I only have been sitting alone, devoutly intent upon meditation;
and have remained as motionless as a stone, beneath this kadamba tree,
which is sacred to the goddess of speech.
18. Now as the seasons and years, have been rolling on upon my devoted
head, I have lived to see this forest, to be broken and cut down by
woodmen, living in the skirts of these woods.
19. They have spared only this unfading kadamba tree, which they had
made an object of their veneration, as the abode of the goddess of
speech; and me also whom they believe to be absorbed in inflexible
meditation.
20. Now sirs, as you seem to have newly come to this place, and bear
the appearance of aged ascetics; I have therefore related to you all
that I have come to know by my cogitation only.
21. Rise then ye righteous men, and proceed to your native homes; where
you will meet your brothers in the circle of their family and friends.
22. You will find eight of your brothers, remaining in their abode; and
resembling the eight high minded Vasus, sitting in the high heaven of
Brahmá.
23. After that great devotee had said so far, I interrupted him
saying:--I have a great doubt in this wondrous relation of yours, which
you will be pleased to expound it to me.
24. We know this earth to be composed of seven continents only, how
then is it possible for eight brothers, to be the lord of them all, at
the one and same time.
25. The kadamba ascetic said:--It is not inconsistent what I have
related to you, there are many such are seemingly incongruous, but
become evident when they are explained.
26. These eight brothers, having passed their periods of asceticism,
will all of them become lords of the seven continents of the earth, in
their domestic circles. (_i.e._ Each thinks himself as such).
27. All these eight brothers, will remain in their respective houses
on the surface of the earth; and will there become the lords of the
septuple continents, in the manner as you shall now hear from me.
28. Every one of these eight persons had each a wife at home, who were
of unblemished character and persons withal; and resembled the eight
stars or planets of heavens, in the brightness of their bodies. (They
were equally chaste and fair and loving wives also).
29. After these eight brothers have departed, to conduct their
protracted devotion abroad; their love lorn wives became disconsolate
at their separation, which is altogether intolerable to faithful wives.
30. They in their great sorrow of spirit, made painful austerities to
the memory of the absent lords; and conducted a hundred _Chándráyana_
vows and rites, to the satisfaction of the goddess Párvatí. (The
Olympian Juno, and the patroness of chastity).
31. Invisibly the goddess appeared to them, and spake her words to them
separately in their inner apartments; after each and every one of them
had performed her daily devotion to goddess.
32. The goddess said:--O Child, that hast been long fading away by thy
austerities, like the tender shoot under the scorching sun; now accept
this boon to thy heart’s desire, both for thyself as also for thy
husband.
33. Hearing this voice of the goddess of heaven, the lady Chirantiká,
offered her handfuls of flowers to her, and began to address her prayer
to the goddess, to her heart’s satisfaction.
34. The reserved and close tongued damsel, uttered her words in a slow
flattering voice flushed with joy; and addressed the heavenly goddess,
as the peahen accosts the rising cloud.
35. Chirantiká said:--O goddess, as thou bearest eternal love to
Siva--the god of gods, such is the love I bear also to my husband, O
make him immortal.
36. The goddess replied:--Know, O goodly minded lady, that it is
impossible to gain immortality, from the inflexible decree of destiny,
ever since the creation of the world. No devotion, austerity nor
charity can buy life, ask therefore some other blessing.
37. Chirantiká said:--O goddess! if it be impossible to attain
immortality, then ordain it thus far; that he being dead, his soul may
not depart beyond the confines of this house of his.
38. When the body of my husband, falls dead in this house; then confer
me this boon, that his parted soul may never depart from this place.
39. Be it so, O daughter, that your husband being gone to other
world, you may still continue to be his beloved wife, even after his
demise.
40. Saying so, the goddess Gaurí held her silence in the midst of the
air; as the sound of the clouds is stopped, after its betokening the
welfare of the world.
41. After disappearance of the goddess in air, the husbands of these
ladies returned to them from all sides, and at the lapse of some time
after they had received their desired blessings.
42. Now was there a mutual interview of the wives with their husbands,
and general meeting of the brothers with each other, and with their
friends and relatives.
43. Hear now a wonderful event, which happened to them at this time;
and which presented itself as an obstacle, towards the achievement of
their noble purpose.
44. It was at the time when the brothers were employed in their
devotion, that their parents had gone out with their wives in search
of them, and were wandering about the hermitages of saints, with their
sorrowful hearts.
45. Unmindful of their personal pains and pleasures, for the sake of
the welfare of their sons, they intended to see the village of Kalapa,
which lay on their way.
46. Passing by the village of _munis_ or saints, they espied on their
way a white man of short stature, with grey and erect hairs on his
head, and his body bedaubed with ashes.
47. Thinking him to be an ordinary old passenger, the parents forgot to
do him due honour, and let the dust of the ground they trod upon, fly
unwarily to his sacred person. This irritated the old passenger, who
thus bespake to him in his ire.
48. You great fool that are going on pilgrimage in company with thy
wife and daughters-in-law; don’t you heed me the sage Durvásas, that
you slight to do me due reverence.
49. For this act of thy negligence, the boons so dearly earned by thy
sons and daughters in law will go for nothing, and will be attained
with their contrary effect.
50. On hearing this malediction the old parents and their daughters
in law, were proceeding to do him reverence, when the ancient sage
disappeared from their sight and vanished in air.
51. At this the parents and their daughters, were greatly dismayed
and disheartened; and returned disappointed to their home, with their
melancholy countenances.
52. Therefore I say, there was not the only inconsistency, in each of
the brothers reigning over the seven continents all at once; but there
were many other odds awaiting upon them as on all human wishes; and
these occurring as thickly one after the other as the sores and ulcers
growing on goitres. (Or pouches on the throat).
53. There are as many oddities and vanities, always occurring in the
wishes, and aerial castles of the vacuous mind; as the numberless
portents and comets and meteors and unnatural sights, are seen to
appear in the empty sky.
CHAPTER CLXXXIII.
DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVEN CONTINENTS.
Argument:--Brahmá’s relation of the contending sides of blessing
and imprecation.
Kunda-Danta rejoined:--I then asked the hermit of Gaurí’s asylum, whose
head was hoary with age, and whose hair resembled the dried blades of
withered grass.
2. There are but seven continents only, that composed this earth; how
then could every one of the eight brothers, become the sole lord of
earth at one and the same time.
3. Again how could a person, that had no egress from his house, conquer
the seven continents abroad, or govern them himself (by sitting quietly
at home).
4. How could they that had the boon on one hand, and its contrary curse
on the other, go in either way which are opposed to one another, as the
cool shade of trees and the heat of sunshine?
5. How can opposite qualities reside together at the same time, which
is as impossible as the container and contained to become the same
thing? (Here the blessing of the gods and the curse of the sage, must
counteract one another, and neither of them could effect anything).
6. The Hermit of the asylum returned:--Attend, O holy man, to my
relation of the sequel of their tale; and you will come to see the
sequence of their contrary fates.
7. As for you two, you will reach to your home, after eight days from
this place; and there meet with your relatives, with whom you will live
happily for some time.
8. These eight brothers also, having joined with their families at
home: will breathe their last in course of time; and have their bodies
burnt by their friends and relations.
9. Then their conscious souls, will remain separately in air for a
little while; and there continue in a state of torpidity, as in the
insensibility of sleep.
10. All this interval their acts will appear, in the vacuous space of
their minds, for the sake of receiving their retributive justice; and
also the blessing of gods and the curse of the sage, will wait on them
at this time.
11. The acts will appear in the shapes of the persons to whom they
were done and the blessings and imprecation likewise will assume their
particular forms, in order to make their appearance before them.
12. The blessings will assume the forms of fair moon-bright bodies,
having four arms on each, and holding a lotus bud, a club and other
weapons in each of them.
13. The curse will take the forms of Siva with his three eyes, and
holding the lance and mace in his either hand; and having a dark
terrific body, with a surly grim and frowning countenance.
14. The Blessings will vauntingly say:--Avaunt thou accursed curse! it
is now our time to work; as it is with the seasons to act their parts
at their proper times.
15. The curse will say in his turn:--Be afar from here; ye blessed
blessings, and do not intrude upon my time; it will take effect as any
one of the seasons, nor is there any body capable of counteracting its
wonted course.
16. The blessings will rejoin and say; Thou cured curse, art but a
creature of an human sage; but we are messengers of the God of day; now
as preference is given to the first born God of light, over a human
being (who is the last work of God); it is proper that we should have
our precedence here (in the present case).
17. Upon the blessings saying so, the personified curse of the sage got
enraged, and returned in reply saying, I am no less the creation of
a God than you are since we are born of the God Rudra by his consort
Rudrání--the Fury.
18. Rudra is the greatest of gods, and the sage was born with a portion
of Rudra’s prowess; saying so the accursed curse lifted up its head, as
high as the exalted summit of a mountain.
19. On seeing the haughty high-headedness of the personation of curse;
the personified image of the boon smiled scornfully at him, and then
made his reply in his speech of well weighed words.
20. O thou miscreant curse, leave thy wickedness and think on the end
of this affair; as also about what is to be done, after termination of
all this altercation of ours.
21. We must have recourse to the father of the gods, for his favourable
decision of the case, is it not therefore better for us to do even now
what must come to be finally determined by him.
22. The curse on hearing these words of the personified boon replied,
well, I agree to what you say; because a fool even cannot decline to
accept the reasonable proposal of a person.
23. Then the curse agreed to resort to the abode of Brahmá; in company
with the divine Blessing; because the great-minded gods are always
resorted to by the wise, for the dissipation of their doubts.
24. They bended down before Brahmá, and related all that had occurred
between them; and the god on hearing the whole on both sides, replied
to them in the following manner.
25. Brahmá said:--Hearken unto me, ye master of blessing and curse,
and let him have the precedence of the other, that is possessed of
intrinsic merit and essence.
26. Upon hearing this from the mouth of the great god, they both
entered in their turn into the heart of one another, in order to sound
their understandings, and descry their respective parts.
27. They then having searched into the eternal essentialities of one
another, and having known their respective characters; came out in
presence of the God, and besought him by turns.
28. The curse said:--I am overcome, O Lord of creatures, by this my
adversary, in my having no internal merit in myself, and finding the
curses of my foe, to be as sound and solid as the hard stony rock and
the strong thunderbolt.
29. But both ourselves and the blessings, being always but
intellectual beings, we have no material body whatever to boast of at
any time.
30. The Blessing replied:--The intellectual blessing, which its giver
(the god in the sun), has given to its askers the Bráhmans, is here
present before you; and this is entrusted to my charge (to be delivered
unto them).
31. The body of every one is the evolution of one’s intelligence, and
it is this body which enjoys the consequence of the curse or blessing
that is passed on one according to his knowledge of it; whether it is
in his eating or drinking or in his feeling of the same, in all his
wandering at all times and places. (_i.e._ The consciousness of one’s
merits and demerits, accompanies him every where, and makes him enjoy
or suffer their results accordingly).
32. The blessing received from its donor, is strengthened in the mind
of the donee in time; and this acting forcibly within one’s self,
overcomes at last the power or effect of the curse. (_i.e._ Firm good
will, turns away the evil ones).
33. The donor’s bestowal of a blessing, to his supplicants for it;
becomes strong and effectual only, when it is deeply rooted and duly
fostered in one’s self. (_i.e._ A good given us by others, is of no
good, unless we cultivate it well ourselves).
34. It is by means of the continued culture of our conscious goodness,
and by the constant habit of thinking of our desert, that these become
perfected in one’s self, and convert their possessor to their form. (It
is the habitual mode of the mind’s thought, that makes the future man,
be it a holy or accursed one).
35. The pure and contrite conscience alone, consummates one’s
consciousness in time; but the impure conscience of the evil minded,
never finds its peace and tranquility. Hence the Bráhmans’ thoughts of
the blessing, had taken the possession of their minds, and not that of
the curse: because the earlier one, has the priority over the latter,
though it be that of a minute only (as the law of primogeniture,
supersedes the claim of youngsters to state); and there is no rule;--
36. Nor force of pride to counteract this law. (Hence the blessing of
the god, being prior to the curse of the sage, must have its precedence
over the latter).
37. But where both sides are of equal force, there both of them have
their joint effect upon the same thing; so the curse and blessing being
conjoined together, must remain as the commingling of milk with water.
38. The equal force of the blessing and curse, must produce a double or
divided effect on the mind of man; as a person dreaming of the fairy
city in his sleep, thinks himself as turned to one of its citizens
(without losing the idea of his own personality: so a man has a
different idea of himself, in different states of his life).
39. Now pardon me, O Lord for my repetition of the same truths before
thee that I have learnt from thee, and permit me now to take leave of
thee, and depart to my place.
40. Upon his saying so, the curse felt ashamed in itself, and fled away
from the presence of the god; as the ghosts and goblins fly away from
the air, at the dispersion of darkness from the sky.
41. Then the other blessing (which was given by the goddess Gaurí to
the ladies of these brothers), concerning the restriction of their
departed ghosts, to the confines of their house, came forward and
presented itself before Brahmá in lieu of the curse, and began to plead
his case, as a substitute does for his constituent.
42. He said:--I know not, O Lord of gods, how human souls can fly over
the seven continents of the earth, after their separation from their
dead bodies (Deign to explain this therefore unto me.)
43. I am the same blessing of the goddess, that promised unto them
their dominion over the seven continents in their own house; and also
their conquest of the whole earth within its confines.
44. Now tell me, O Lord of gods, how am I to restrain their spirits to
the narrow limits of their own abodes; and at the same time confer the
domain of the septuple earth, to each and every one of them (as it is
destined to them by the blessing of the God of day.)
45. Brahmá responded:--Hear me, O thou blessing of conferring the
realms of the seven continents on each of them; and thou the boon of
detaining their departed spirits within the confines of these mansions;
that both of you are successful in executing your respective purposes
on them.
46. Now do you retire from this place with full assurance in
yourselves, that the delivered ghosts of these brothers; will never
quit nor ever depart from their present abodes after their demise; but
continue to reside there forever more; with the belief of their being
the Lords of the seven regions of this earth. (It is the firm belief
of the mind of the possession of anything, that makes it the true
possessor thereof, much more than its actual enjoyment of the same).
47. Their souls will remain at proper distances from each other, after
the loss and extinction of their frail bodies; and will deem themselves
as lords of the seven regions of earth, though dwelling in the empty
air of their own abodes.
48. How could there be the eight regions and seven continents of the
earth, when to all appearance the surface of the earth, presents but a
flat level everywhere.
49. Tell us Lord! where are these different divisions of the earth
situated, and in what part of their petty abode; and is it not as
impossible for the small place of their house to contain this wide
earth in it, as it is for the little cell of a lotus bud to hide an
elephant in its pericarp.
50. Brahmá replied:--It being quite evident to you as to ourselves
also, that the universe is composed of an infinite vacuity only; it is
not impossible for its being contained within the hollow of the human
heart, as in the minute particle of the vacuous mind, which contains
all things in it in the manner of its dreams.
51. If it were possible for the minute granule of their vacuous minds,
to contain the figures of their houses and their domestic circles
within itself, why should it be thought impossible for them, to
compress the greater and lesser circle of this earth also, within their
ample space.
52. After the demise of a person, the world exhibits itself in the
same form as it is, in the minute atom of his mind; and this is but a
vacuous mass of the visible and material world, in its invisible and
imaginary figure.
53. It is in this invisible particle of the mind, that the world is
seen in its abstract form, within the precincts of the body and abode
of every body; and this earth appears to be drawn in it as in a map,
with all its sevenfold continents and the contents thereof.
54. Whatever is manifest in the mind, is a mere mental conception and
inborn in the mind, and there is no such thing as an extraneous or
material world in reality. It is the vacant mind that presents these
vagaries of the world and all other visibles before its vision, as the
vacuous firmament shows the variety of atmospherical appearances to our
sight.
55. The personified benediction, having learnt this abstract truth,
from the mouth of the divine Brahmá, who had conferred this boon to
the Bráhmanical brothers, abandoned his erroneous conception of the
material world, and repaired to the abode of the deceased brethren,
that had been released from the mistake of their mortal bodies.
56. The personated blessing bowed down to the bounteous Brahmá, and
departing from his presence with speed, entered into the parlour of the
eight brother kings, in his eight-fold spiritual personality (called
the ashta siddhi).
57. They beheld the brothers there in their respective residences, each
sitting as the Lord of the earth with its septuple continents, and all
of them employed in the performance of their sacrifices and enjoyment
of their blessings, like the eight Lordly Manus for the whole period of
a day of Brahmá.
58. They were all friendly to each other, though unacquainted with the
respective provinces of one another; each of them was employed in his
concern with the world, without clashing with the authority of another
over it.
59. One of them who was handsome in the bloom of his youth; held his
happy reign over the great city of Ujjain, which was situated in the
precincts of his own house, or rather in the environs of his own mind.
60. Another one of them had his domain over the country of Scythia
(sáka), where he settled himself for his conquest of the Nágas
(saccae); he cruises as a corsair in the wide outlandish seas, for his
victory on every side.
61. Another reigns secure in his capital of Kusadwípa, and confers
perfect security to his subjects from all alarm; and like a hero who
has quelled his enemies, he rests in peace on the bosom of his beloved,
after all his conquest.
62. Some one of them indulges himself to sport, in company with the
celestial Nymphs of Vidyádhara; in skimming over the waters of the
lakes on mountain tops, and in the gushing water falls on their side.
63. Another one is engaged these eight days in conducting his horse
sacrifice in his royal abode at Krauncha dwípa, which he has greatly
aggrandised with his accumulated gold, from the other continents.
64. Another one is employed in waging a battle in the Sálmali
continents, where his war elephants have assembled, and have been
uprooting the boundary mountain from their bases with robust tusks.
65. The Monarch of the Gomedha continent, who had been the eighth and
last of the Bráhman brothers, was smitten with love for the princess
of the Pushkara dwípa; upon which he mustered a large armament for
ravishing her in warfare.
66. The monarch of the Pushkara continent, who was also the master of
the Mountainous regions of Lokáloka; set out with his deputy to inspect
the land of the gold mines.
67. Thus every one of these brothers, thought himself to be the Lord of
his respective province, as his imagination portrayed unto him in the
region of his mind.
68. The Blessings then, having relinquished their several forms and
personalities, became united and one with the consciousness of the
Bráhmans, and felt and saw whatever passed in them, as if they were
passing in themselves likewise. (The divine blessing on them being no
other than the approbation of their conscience).
69. So these brothers became and found in themselves, what they had
long been longing after, in their respective lordship over the seven
regions of the earth, which they continued to enjoy ever since to their
heart’s content.
70. It was in this manner that these men of enlarged understandings,
obtained what they sought in their minds, by means of their austere
devotion and firm devotedness to their purpose. So it is with the
learned that they find everything beside them, whatever they are intent
upon in their minds, by means of their acting upon the same principle,
and using the proper means conducing to that end.
CHAPTER CLXXXIV.
A LECTURE ON THE ALL COMPREHENSIVENESS OF THE SOUL.
Argument:--Nature of the unenlightened soul, to represent
unnumbered worlds within itself.
Kunda-danta said:--I then asked devotee sitting beneath the
_kadamba_ tree, to tell me how the seven large continents of the globe,
could be contained within the narrow limits of the abodes of each of
these brothers (which is next to an impossibility).
2. The kadamba devotee replied:--The essence of the intellect though
so very vacuous in itself, is notwithstanding the most capacious and
ubiquious of any thing in existence; and is present in its own nature
with every thing, wherever it is known to exist.
3. The soul sees itself in the form of the triple world, and every
thing besides in its different nature and figure, without changing
itself to any one of them. (_i.e._ The soul remains unchanged in all
the changeful scenes of nature).
4. Kunda-danta rejoined:--But how do you attribute the quality of
variety or multiplicity, to the purely simple and immutable nature
of the Supreme soul, as you see them appertaining to the intrinsic
character of everything else in nature. (Or as Pope says:--That changed
through all, yet in all the same; great in the earth, as in the
etherial frame).
5. The kadamba devotee replied:--The sphere of the intellectual
vacuum, is all quiet and serene, and there is nothing as any variety
or multiformity in it; the changes that are apparent in its face, are
no more, than the waves and eddies, whirling on the surface of the
changeless main.
6. It is in the immensity of intellectual vacuity, that infinite
creations seem to be continually purling about, as the rising waves are
seen to be whirling in the sea; and it is in its fathomless depth that
they appear to sink, like the waters subsiding in the hollow of the
deep.
7. The substantial forms of things, that rise in the unsubstantial
essence of the intellect, are as the various forms of substances, seen
in the dreaming state of the soul, and all which are utterly forgotten
in its state of sound sleep--susupti.
8. As a Hill seen in dream is no hill at all, and as things appearing
to be in motion in dreaming, are found afterwards to be perfectly
motionless; so are all things in nature but mere unrealities, and
though as real from the real nature of soul itself. (_i.e._ It is
the intellect that fashions everything in its own manner, and its
imagination gives a form to an airy nothing).
9. The intellect is an immaterial substance, and neither creates nor
perceives any thing material by itself; but conceives everything as it
is manifested to it in its idea in the beginning. (_i.e._ The ideas of
things are inborn in the mind).
10. As the intellect sees a great variety of objects in dream,
which it takes for realities for the time; so its belief in the reality
of its ideas, causes it to conceive them as real entities.
11. The vacuous intellect, which glitters of itself in its own state of
transparence; comes to find the world shinning in the same light within
itself. (_i.e._ The world is subjective with the intellect, and not a
part from our intellectual light of the same).
12. As we have the consciousness of heat in the fire, even when it is
seen in a dream; so we are conscious of the presence of everything in
our minds, even in the absence of the thing itself from us. (It was
thus that the Bráhman brothers were conscious of their lordship, even
in their want of the realms themselves).
13. And as we have the idea of the solidity of a pillar, from our dream
of it in sleep; so have we the idea of the great variety of things in
existence; although there is no diversity or difference in the nature
of the One unvaried unity that pervades the whole. (And that shows its
unchangeable self, as many and changed through all--_Aham_-bahusyam).
14. In the beginning all substances were as pure and simple, as the
essence of their maker by and after which they were made; and they
still continue to be in the same state of their ideal purity, as they
were originally made out of that airy entity and unity.
15. As the tree is diversified in the various forms of its roots and
fruits, and its leaves, flowers and the trunk; so is the Supreme unity
varied in all and everywhere in his self-same and undivided essence.
16. It is in the fathomless ocean of the Supreme essence, that the
immensity of creation is subsisting like the waters of the deep; and
it is in the boundless space of that transcendent vacuum, that the
infinity of the worlds have been rolling on, in their original vacuous
and apparently visible forms.
17. The transcendental and comprehensible _i.e._ the immaterial soul
and the material world, are but commutual terms as the tree and arbour,
and their difference lies in the intelligibleness of the one and
unintelligibility of the other; but true intelligence leads us to the
unconceivable One, while our ignorance of the same, deludes us to the
knowledge of many, and tends to our distress only. (True happiness in
our reliance on the unknown One only).
18. The mundane and supermundane is surely the One and same thing,
according to the deduction of spiritual philosophy; and the knowledge
of this sublime truth, is sure to lead one to his ultimate liberation.
19. The world is the product of the will of God, and the will is a
power or faculty appertaining to the personality of the Deity; and the
same being transmuted to the form of the world, it is proved that the
world is the formal part of the Supreme soul. (Whose body nature is,
and God the soul).
20. He whom no words can define, and yet who defines the senses of
words; who is subject to no law or prohibition, or to any state or
condition of being, but appoints them for all sorts of beings, is
indeed the only Lord of all.
21. He that is ever silent but speaks through all, who is inactive
as a rock but acts in all; who is always existent and appears as
inexistent, is the Supreme Lord of all.
22. That subtile essence that constitutes the solidity of all gross
bodies, and remains undecayed in all frail bodies, is the pure Brahma
himself; He has no volition or nolition of creation or destruction, and
there is no possession or want of the property of anything.
23. It is the one and invariable soul, that rests always in its state
of rest and sleep, and perceives the succession of creation and
destruction of the world, in its alternate states of dream and sound
sleep, which present themselves as two pictures before its sight.
24. It is also in the substratum of the intellect, that unnumbered
worlds seem to rise and set in succession; they appear as passing
pictures before the mind, without being rooted or painted therein.
25. As the mixing of one thing with another, produces a different
effect in the mixture; so doth the union of the mind with the organs of
sense, cause a variety of impressions to be imprinted in the intellect.
(So the commixture of curd and sugar creates a different flavour in the
condiment, gloss).
26. All things have their existence in the essence of the intellect
only, without which nothing is knowable to any body; hence there is
nothing anew in nature, except its being but a representation of the
original idea in the mind (and this is evident from the identity and
similarity of the ectypes with its antitypes, gloss).
27. Hence our consciousness of the identity of things with the essence
of our intellect, proves them to be as immaterial and immovable as
their fixed ideas in the mind.
28. Thus the world which is so visible and perceptible to us, is
nothing but a mere nullity in reality; and whatever appears as existing
herein, together with the great gods and angels, are no more than the
false visions in our dream and fancy.
29. We see the various fluctuations and phenomena, rising in the waters
of the vast ocean of the intellect; and appearing in the forms of our
joy and grief, and those of moving and unmoving bodies in creation.
30. O that the nature and course of the world, should so obscure the
bright mirror of the intellect; as to hide it under the dirt of our
passions, and cover it under the clouds and snows of our ignorance.
31. As spectres and dissolving views appear in the air, before the
sight of the dimsighted; so doth this shadow of the world appear as
substance, to the view of the unspiritual myopist.
32. Whatever we imagine, the same we find, and seem to enjoy for the
time; and as we are delighted with the view of our imaginary city, so
do we indulge ourselves in the sight of this air-drawn utopia of the
world.
33. As we seem to enjoy our ecstasy, in the fairy land of our fancy; so
we are betaken by the delusion of this unreal world, under the belief
of its reality.
34. There is one eternal destiny, which ever runs apace in its wonted
course; and destines all beings to continue in their allotted careers
as ever before.
35. It is destiny that produces the moving bodies from living beings,
and the motionless ones from the unmoving; it is that predestination
which has destined the downward course of water and fluids, and the
upward motion of the flames of fire.
36. It is that blind impulse, that impels the members of the body to
their respective actions; and makes the luminous bodies to emit their
light; it causes the winds to wind about in their continuous course,
and makes the mountains to stand unmoved in their proper places.
37. It makes the luminaries of heaven, to roll on in their regular
revolutions, and causes the rains and dews of the sky, to pour down in
their stated seasons; and it is this eternal destiny that directs the
courses of years, ages and cycles, and the whole curricle of time to
run its wonted course.
38. It is the divine ordinance, that has ordained the limits of the
earth and the distant ocean and seas, and has fixed the position of the
hills and rocks in them; it has allotted the natures and powers of all
things, and prescribed the laws of rights and duties for all and every
one.
39. Kunda-danta rejoined:--The reminiscence of the scenes of past
life, occurs in the present state of existence, in the forms of our
imagination and of desire for the same; and these inward thoughts
become the gist and marrow to frame our lives in their fashion; but
tell me sir, how could the first created beings in the beginning of
creation have any reminiscence, whereupon their lives and natures were
moulded?
40. The devotee replied:--All these that offer themselves to our view,
are quite unprecedented and without their original patterns in the
mind, and resemble the sight of our own death that we happen to see
in a dream. It is the omniscience of Brahmá, that caused the first
creation, and not his memory of the past as it is with us and other
created beings.
41. It is the nature of our intellect, to represent the imaginary city
of the world in its empty vacuity; it is neither a positive reality,
nor a negative unreality either; being now apparent and now lost to
sight by itself.
42. It is the clearness of the intellect, which represents the
imaginary world in the manner of a dream; but the pure vacuous
intellect, neither sees nor bears the remembrance of the world in
itself. (It is the sight of a thing, that leaves its traces in the mind
afterwards; but when there is no sight of a thing, there can be no
remembrance of it).
43. The wise that are devoid of joy and grief, and remain unchanged in
prosperity and adversity; are men of right integrity and equanimity in
their nature, and move on as equably as the wheel of fortune leads them
onward.
44. As the intellect retains in it, the remembrance of what it has seen
in its dream; so does it bear in itself the false impression of this
triple world to its end.
45. It is only the reflexion of our consciousness, which passes under
the name of the world; now knowing the nature of your consciousness as
mere vacuousness, you will blot out the impression of the world also.
46. That which is all and everything, and from which all have issued
and in which they exist; know that All as all which fills all space,
wherein all things are situated.
47. I have thus fully explained to you, how you may come to know this
creation as its creator--the Great Brahmá Himself; and have also
expounded to you the means, whereby you may get rid of your impression
of the phenomenal world.
48. Now rise ye Bráhmans and repair to your abodes, as the bees resort
to their cells and calyxes of lotuses at the dusk of the day; go and
perform your evening services, while I remain here in my pensive
meditation, and absorbed in my spiritual ecstasy forever.
CHAPTER CLXXXV.
ADMONITION TO AND CLAIRVOYANCE OF KUNDA-DANTA.
Argument:--The return of the interlocutors to the abodes; Demise
of the brothers and enlightenment of Kunda-danta.
Kunda-danta rejoined:--The old sage having said so far, closed his eyes
in meditation; and he became as motionless as a statue or picture,
without any action of his breath and mind.
2. And we prayed him with great fondness and endearment, yet he uttered
not a word unto us; because he seemed to be so rapt in his abstraction,
as to have become utterly insensible of the outer world.
3. We then departed, from that place, with our broken hearts and
dejected countenances; and were received after a few days journey, by
our gladsome friends at home.
4. We live there in joyous festivity, as long as the seven brothers
were living; and passed our time in narrations of our past adventures,
and relations of the old accounts of by gone times.
5. In course of time the eight brothers disappeared (perished) one by
one, like the seven oceans at the end of the world, in the vast ocean
of eternity; and were released like many of my friends also, from their
worldly cares.
6. After sometime, the only friend that I had, sunk also like the
setting sun in darkness; and I was left alone to bewail their loss in
sorrow and misery at their separation.
7. I then repaired in the sorrow of my heart, to the devotee under
the Kadamba tree; in order to derive the benefit of his advice, to
dissipate my dolor.
8. There I waited on him for three months, until he was released from
his meditation, when upon my humble request of him, he deigned to
answer me as follows.
9. The devotee replied:--I can not pass a moment, without my
employment in meditation; and must without any loss of time, resort to
my wonted devotion again.
10. As for you, you can not derive the benefit of my transcendent
advice to you; unless you engage yourself to practice my precepts with
all diligence.
11. Now I tell you to repair to the city of Ayodhyá (Oudh), where
the king Dasaratha reigns, and remains with his son Ráma (and other
children and members of his royal family).
12. Do you now go to this Ráma, who has been attending on the lectures
of the sage Vasishtha, the preceptor and priest of the royal family,
and delivered before the princes assembled in the imperial court.
13. You will there hear the holy sermon, on the means of attaining our
final emancipation; and will thereby obtain your best bliss in the
divine state like that of mine.
14. Saying so, he was absorbed in the cooling ocean of his meditation;
which I directed my course to this way, and arrived at last
before Ráma and this princely assembly.
15. Here am I, and all these are the incidents of my life, as I have
related herein, regarding all what I have heard and seen, as also all
that has passed on me.
16. Ráma said:--The eloquent Kunda-danta that made this speech to me,
has been ever since sitting by my side in this assembly.
17. This very Brahmin bearing the name of Kunda-danta, that has sat
here all along by me; has heard the whole of the sermon, which has been
delivered by the sage, on the means of obtaining our liberation.
18. Now ask this Kunda-danta, that is sitting here by me at present,
whether he has well understood the context of this lecture, and whether
his doubts are wholly dissipated or not.
19. Vasishtha said:--Upon Ráma saying so to me, I looked upon
Kunda-danta, and made him the following interrogatory, saying:--
20. Tell me, Oh you goodly Bráhman Kunda-danta, what you have learnt
and understood, by your long attendance upon and hearing of my
lecture, calculated to confer liberation on men.
21. Kunda-danta replied:--Sir, your lecture has wholly removed the
doubts of my mind, and I find myself now as perfect master of myself,
by my victory over all selfish passions, and by my knowledge of the
knowable One.
22. I have known the immaculate One that is to be known, and seen the
undecaying One that is worth our seeing; I have obtained all that
is worth our obtaining, and I have found my repose in the state of
transcendent felicity.
23. I have known this plenum, to be the condensation of that
transcendental essence; and that this world is no other than a
manifestation of this sel-fsame soul.
24. The universal soul being also the soul of every individual, is
likewise the soul inherent in all forms of things; it is only the
self-existent soul, that becomes apparent in all existences and all
places.
25. It is possible for the human mind, which is minuter than the
molecule of a mustard seed, to contain the whole world in itself;
though it is naught but a mere zero, before the clear sight of the
intelligent.
26. It is possible also for a little room, to contain the seven
continents of the earth (in its map or picture); though the room itself
is no more than a mere empty space.
27. Whatever object is perceptible to us at any time or place, is only
the concrete form of the divine spirit; which is quite apart from every
thing in the discrete.
CHAPTER CLXXXVI.
DEMONSTRATION OF ALL NATURE (AND THING) AS BRAHMA HIMSELF.
Argument:--Elucidation of the sacred text that “all is Brahma”;
and the equality of curse.
Válmíki said:--After Kunda-danta had finished his saying in the said
manner, the venerable Vasishtha delivered his edifying speech on
spiritual knowledge and said:
2. Whereas the elevated soul of this person, has found his rest in the
paradise of spiritual philosophy; he will see the world like a globe in
his hand, and glowing with the glory of the great God.
3. The phenomenal world is a false conception, it is verily the
increate Brahma himself shining in this manner; this erroneous
conception is the very Brahma, that is one and ever calm and undecaying.
4. Whatever thing appears any where, in any state, form or dimension;
it is the very Deity, showing himself in that condition of his being,
form and mode of extension.
5. This unborn or self-existent Deity, is ever auspicious, calm and
quiet; he is undecaying, unperishing and immutable, and extends through
all extent, as the extensive and endless space.
6. Whatever state of things he proposes in his all-knowing intellect,
the same is disposed by him in a thousand ways, like the branching out
of a plant in the rains.
7. The great mundane egg, is situated as a particle in the bosom of
the great intellect of God; and this world of ours is a particle also,
being comprised in a grain of our brains.
8. Know therefore, my good friend, thy intellectual sphere to be
boundless, and without its beginning or end; and being absorbed in the
meditation of thy personal extinction, do thou remain as quiet as thou
art sitting, relying in thy unperturbed and imperishable soul.
9. Wherever there is anything in any state or condition in any part of
the world, there you will find the presence of the divine spirit in its
form of vacuity; and this without changing its nature of calm serenity,
assumes to itself whatever form or figure it likes (or rather evolves
them from within itself at its free will).
10. The spirit is itself both the view and its viewer; it is equally
the mind and the body, and the subjective and objective alike; It is
something and yet nothing at all, being the great Brahma or universal
soul, that includes and extends throughout the whole.
11. The phenomenal is not to be supposed as a duality of, or any other
than the self-same Brahma; but it is to be known as one and the same
with the divine self, as the visible sky and its vacuity.
12. The visible is the invisible Brahma, and the transcendent One
is manifest in this apparent whole (because the noumenon shows the
phenomenon, as this exhibits the other): therefore it is neither
quiescent nor in motion, and the formal is altogether formless.
13. Like dreams appearing to the understanding, do these visions
present themselves to the view; the forms are all formless conceptions
of the mind, and more intangible ideas of the brain.
14. As conscious beings come to be unconscious of themselves, in their
dormant state of sleep; so have all these living and intelligent
beings, become unconscious and ignorant of themselves and their souls,
and turned to torpid trees that are lost to their sensibility.
15. But the intellect is capable to return to its sensibility, from its
state of vegetable torpidity in time; as the dormant soul turns to see
its dreams in sleep, and then to behold the vivid outer world after its
wakening.
16. Until the living soul is liberated from its charm of self delusion,
it is subjected to view its guileful reveries of elemental bodies,
appearing as a chain of airy dreams, before the mind’s eye in sleep.
17. The mind gathers the dross of dullness about it, as the soul
draws the sheath of sleep upon itself; this dullness or dimness of
apprehension is not intrinsic in the mind, but an extraneous schesis
contracted by it from without.
18. The intellect moulds the form of one, who is conversant with
material and insensible things, into a motionless and torpid body; and
it is the same intellect, which shapes the forms of others, that are
conscious of their intellectual natures, into the bodies of rational
and moving being. (The dull soul is degraded to the state of immovable
things and rooted trees, but intelligent souls, are elevated to the
rank of moving men and other locomotive animals).
19. But all these moving and unmoving beings, are but different
modifications and aspects of the same intellect; as the nails and other
parts of the human body, are but the multifarious modalities of the
same person.
20. The order and nature of things has invariably continued the same,
as they have been ordained by the Divine will ever since its first
formation of the world; and because the creation is a transcript of its
original mould in the Divine mind; it is as ideal as any working of
imagination or a vision in dreaming, both in its states of being and
not being.
21. But the intangible and quiescent Brahma, is ever calm and quiet in
his nature; he is never permeated with the nature of things, nor is he
assimilated with the order of nature.
22. He appears as the beginning and end of creation, or as the cause of
its production and dissolution; but these are the mere dreams of the
Divine intellect, which is always in its state of profound sleep and
rest.
23. The world is ever existent in his spiritual nature, and without any
beginning or end of himself; the beginning and end of creation, bear no
relation with his self-existent and eternal nature.
24. There is no reality in the nature of the visible creation,
or in its existence or dissolution; all these are no other than
representations shown in the spirit of God, like figures described in a
picture.
25. As a legion drawn in painting, does not differ from its model in
the mind of the painter; so these tangible objects of creation, with
all other endless varieties, are not different from their prototype in
the mind of God.
26. Notwithstanding the want of any difference, between the noumenal
and phenomenal worlds; yet the mind is prone to view the variance of
its subjectivity and objectivity, as it is apt to differentiate its own
doings and dreams, in the states of its sleep and ignorance. It is the
profound sleep and insouciance of the soul, that cause its liberation
from the view, as its sensibility serves to bind it the more to the
bondage of the visibles.
27. It is the reflexion of the invisible soul, that exhibits the
visible to view, just as the subtile sunbeam, displays a thousand solid
bodies glaring in sight; and shows the different phases of creation and
dissolution as in its visions in dreaming.
28. The dreaming state of the sleeping intellect is called its
ideality, and the waking state of the self-conscious soul is termed its
vitality, as in the instances of men and gods and other intellectual
beings.
29. After passing from these, and knowing the unreality of both these
imaginative and speculative states, the soul falls into its state of
profound sleep or trance, which is believed as the state of liberation
by those that are desirous of their emancipation.
30. Ráma said:--Tell me, O venerable sir, in what proportion doth the
intellect abide in men, gods and demons respectively; how the soul
reflects itself during the dormancy of the intellect in sleep, and in
what manner does it contain the world within its bosom.
31. Vasishtha replied:--Know the intellect to abide alike in gods and
demons, as well as in all men and women; it dwells also in imps and
goblins, and in all beasts and birds, reptiles and insects, including
the vegetables and all immovable things (within its ample sphere).
32. Its dimension is boundless and also as minute as an atom; and it
stretches to the highest heaven, including thousands of worlds within
itself.
33. The capacity that we have of knowing the regions beyond the solar
sphere, and even of penetrating into the darkness of polar circles; is
all the quality of our intellect, which extends all over the boundless
space, and is perfectly pellucid in its form and nature.
34. So very great is the extent of the intellect, that it comprehends
the whole universe in itself; and it is this act of his comprehension
of the whole, that is called the mundane creation, which originates
from it.
35. The intellect spreads all around like the current of a river,
which glides all along over the ground both high and low, leaving some
parts of it quite dry, and filling others with its waters. So doth
the intellect supply some bodies with intelligence, while it forsakes
others and leaves them in ignorance.
36. It is intelligence which constitutes the living soul of the body,
which is otherwise said to be lifeless and insensible; it resides in
all bodies like the air in empty pots, and becomes vivid in some and
imperceptible in others as it likes.
37. It is its knowledge of the soul (_i.e._ the intellectual belief in
its spiritual), that removes the error of its corporeity; while the
ignorance of its spiritual nature, tends the more to foster the sense
of its corporeality, like one’s erroneous conception of water in the
mirage.
38. The mind is as minute as the minutest ray of sunbeams; and this is
verily the living soul, which contains the whole world within it.
39. All this phenomenal world is the phenomenon of the mind, as it is
displayed in its visionary dreams; and the same being the display of
the living soul, there is no difference at all between the noumenal and
the phenomenal.
40. The intellect alone is assimilated into all these substances, which
have substantiality of their own; whatever is seen without it, is
like its visionary dream, or as the forms of jewelleries made of the
substance of gold. (_i.e._ The intellect is the intrinsic essence of
all external substances).
41. As the same water of the one universal ocean, appears different in
different places; and in its multifarious forms of waves and billows;
so doth the divine intellect exhibit the various forms of visibles
in itself. (_i.e._ Nothing is without or different from the divine
essence).
42. As the fluid body of waters, rolls on incessantly in sundry shapes
within the basin of the great deep; so do these multitudes of visible
things, which are inherent in and identic with the divine intellect,
glide on forever in its fathomless bosom.
43. All these worlds are situated as statues, or they are engraved as
sculptures in the aerial column of the divine intellect; and are alike
immovable and without any motion of theirs through all eternity.
44. We see the situation of the world, in the vacuous space of our
consciousness; as we see the appearances of things in our airy dreams.
We find moreover everything transfixed in its own sphere and place, and
continuing in its own state, without any change of its position or any
alteration in its nature. (The invariable course of nature, is not the
fortuitous production of blind chance).
45. The exact conformity of everything in this world, with its
conception in the mind of man, with respect to their invariable
equality in form and property, proves their identity with one another,
or the relation of one being the container of the other. (_i.e._ The
mind is either same with or container of the world).
46. There is no difference between the phenomenal and noumenal worlds,
as there none between those in our dream and imagination. They
are in fact, the one and same thing, as the identity of the waters,
contained in tanks, rivers and seas, and between the curse and blessing
of gods.
47. Ráma said:--Tell me sir, whether a curse or blessing, is the
effect of any prior cause or the causation of subsequent consequences;
and whether it possible for any effect to take place without
its adequate causality. (Here is a long legend of the transformation
of Nundi and Nahusha given in illustration of this passage in the
commentary).
48. Vasishtha replied:--It is the manifestation of the clear firmament
of the divine intellect in itself, that is styled as the world; just as
the appearance and motion of waters in the great deep, is termed the
ocean and its current.
49. The revolution of the eternal thoughts of the divine mind,
resembles the rolling waves of the deep; and these are termed by sages,
as the will or volitions of the ever wilful mind of God.
50. The clear minded soul comes in course of time, to regard this
manifestation of the divine will, in its true spiritual light; by means
of its habitual meditation and reasoning, as well as by cause of its
natural good disposition and evenness of mind.
51. The wise man possest of consummate wisdom and learning, becomes
acquainted with the true knowledge of things; his understanding
becomes wholly intellectual, and sees all things in their abstract
and spiritual light; and is freed from the false view of duality (or
materiality).
52. The philosophic intellect, which is unclouded by prejudice, is the
true form of the Great Brahma himself; who shines perspicuous in our
consciousness, and has no other body besides.
53. The enlightened soul sees this whole plenitude of creation, as the
display of the Divine Will alone; and as the exhibition of the tranquil
and transparent soul of the Divinity, and naught otherwise.
54. This manifestation of the Divine Will, in the boundless space of
the universe; likens to the aerial castle of our imagination, or the
city of palaces seen in our dream.
55. This all productive will, is selfsame with the Divine Soul; and
produces whatever it likes to do any place or time. (Lit. Whatever it
wills, the same takes place even then and there).
56. As a boy thinks of his flinging stones, at the aerial castle of his
imagination; so the Divine will is at liberty to scatter, myriads of
globular balls, in the open and empty space of boundless vacuity.
57. Thus everything being the manifestation of the Divine will, in all
these three worlds; there is nothing as a blessing or curse (_i.e._
good or evil) herein, which is distinct from the Divine Soul.
58. As we can see in our fancy, the gushing out of oil from a sandy
desert; so can we imagine the coming out of the creation, from the
simple will of the Divine Soul.
59. The unenlightened understanding, being never freed from its
knowledge of particulars and their mutual differences: It is impossible
for it to generalize good and evil, under the head of universal good.
(“All partial evil is but universal good”. Pope).
60. Whatever is willed in the beginning, by the omniscience of God; the
same remains unaltered at all times, unless it is altered by the same
omniscient will.
61. The contraries of unity and duality, dwell together in the same
manner in the formless person of Brahma; as the different members of an
embodied being, remain side by side in the same person. (The knowledge
of all contrarieties, blends together in omniscience. Gloss).
62. Ráma said:--Why some ascetics of limited knowledge, are so very
apt to confer their blessings, as also to pour their imprecations on
others; and whether they are attended with their good or bad results or
not.
63. Vasishtha replied:--Whatever is disposed in the beginning, by the
Divine will which subsists in Brahma; the very same comes to pass
afterwards, and nothing otherwise. (Lit. there is no other principle
besides).
64. Brahmá the Lord of creation, knew the Supreme Soul in himself, and
thereby he became the agent of the Divine will; therefore there is no
difference between them (_i.e._ betwixt Brahmá and Brahma); as there is
none between the water and its fluidity.
65. Whatsoever the Lord of creatures--Brahmá, proposes to do at
first as inspired in him by the Divine will; the same takes place
immediately, and the very same is styled this world.
66. It has no support nor receptacle for itself, but appears as vacuous
bubble in the great vacuity itself; and resembles the chain of pearls,
fleeting before the eyes of purblind men in the open sky.
67. He willed the productions of creatures, and institution of the
qualities of justice, charity and religious austerities; He stablished
the Vedas and sástras, and the five system of philosophical doctrines.
(Namely; the four Vedas and the Smritis, forming the five branches of
sacred knowledge, and the five branches of profane learning--consisting
of the Sánkhya yoga, Pátanjala, Pásupata, and Vaishnava systems. Gloss).
68. It is also ordained by the same Brahmá, that whatever the
devotees-learned in the Vedas, pronounce in their calmness or dispute,
the same takes place immediately (from their knowledge of the Divine
will).
69. It is he that has formed the chasm of vacuum in the inactive
intellect of Brahma, and filled it with the fleeting winds and heating
fire; together with the liquid water and solid earth.
70. It is the nature of this intellectual principle, to think of
everything in itself; and to conceive the presence of the same within
it, whether it be a thought of thee or me or of anything beside (either
in general or particular).
71. Whatever the vacuous intellect thinks in itself, the same it sees
present before it; as our actual selves come to see, the unreal sights
of things in our dreams.
72. As we see the unreal flight of stones, as realities in our
imagination; so we see the false appearance of the world, as true by
the will of God, and the contrivance of Brahma.
73. Whatever is thought of by the pure intellect, must be likewise of
a purely intellectual nature also; and there is nothing that can do it
otherwise (or convert it to grossness), as they defile the pure metal
with some base alloy.
74. We are apt to have the same conceptions of things in our
consciousness, as we are accustomed to consider them, and not of what
we are little practiced to think upon; hence we conceive all that we
see in our dreams to be true, from our like conceptions of them in our
waking state. (It is thus that we conceive this purely ideal world as a
gross body, from our habit of thinking so at all times).
75. It is by uniting one’s intellectuality, with the universal and
divine intellect, and by the union of the subjective and objective and
their perceptibility in one’s self, by means of the _tripúti yoga_,
that we can see the world in its true light.
76. One universal and vacuous intellect, being all pervading and
omnipresent, is the all seeing subject and all seen objects by itself;
hence whatever is seen or known to be anywhere, is the very verity of
the intellect and no other.
77. As oscillation is inherent in air, and fluidity is immanent in
water; so is amplitude intrinsical in Brahma, and the plentitude is
innate in the Divine mind.
78. Even I am Brahma also in his self manifest form of Virát, which
embodies the whole world as its body; hence there is no difference of
the world from Brahma, as there is none between air and vacuity.
79. As the drops of water as a cataract, assume many forms and run
their several ways; so the endless works of nature take their various
forms and courses, at different places and times.
80. All beings devoid of their senses and understanding, issue as
waters of the waterfall, from the cascade of the divine mind; and
remain forever in their uniform courses, with the consciousness of
their existence in Brahma.
81. But such as come forth from it, with the possession of their senses
and intellects in their bodies, deviate in different ways like the
liquid waters, in pursuit of their many worldly enjoyments.
82. They are then insensibly led, by their want of good sense, to
regard this world as theirs (_i.e._ the sphere of their actions,
कर्म्मक्षेत्र); being ignorant of its identity with the uncreated
spirit of God.
83. As we see the existence and distribution of other bodies in us,
and the inertness of stones in our bodies; so the Lord perceives the
creation and annihilation of the world, and its inertia in himself.
84. As in our state of sleep we have both our sound sleep and our
dreams also; so doth the divine soul perceive the creation as well as
its annihilation, in its state of perfect rest and tranquility.
85. The divine soul perceives in its state of tranquility, the two
phases of creation and destruction, succeeding one another as its day
and night; just as we see our sleep and dreams recurring unto us like
darkness and light.
86. As a man sees in his mind, both the dream of moving bodies as
well as immovable rocks in his sleep; so does the Lord perceive the
ideas, both of the stable and unstable in his intellectual tranquility.
(_i.e._ It is possible for the intellect to conceive the ideas of gross
bodies also).
87. As a man of absent mind, has no heed of the dust flying on any part
of his body; so the divine spirit is not polluted, by his entertaining
the ideas of gross bodies within itself.
88. As the air and water and stones, are possessed of the consciousness
of their airy, watery and solid bodies, so are we conscious of our
material, intellectual and spiritual bodies likewise.
89. As the mind that is freed from seeing the objects of sight, and
liberated from entertaining all their thoughts and desires also, flows
along like a stream of limpid waters; so doth the current of the divine
spirit glide on eternally, with the waves and eddies of creation and
dissolution, perpetually rolling on and whirling therein.
CHAPTER CLXXXVII.
OF THE LIVING CREATION.
Argument:--Description of nature and destiny, and of creation and
its teeming with vitality.
Ráma rejoined:--Tell me sir, how can one paramount destiny, guide the
fates of these endless chains and varieties of beings; and how can one
uniform nature, be the predominant feature of all these various kinds
of beings.
2. Say why is the sun so very shining among the myriads of gods, and
cause is it that lengthens and shortens, the durations of days and
nights (in summer and winter).
3. Vasishtha replied:--Whatever the Lord has ordained at first of
himself (_i.e._ of his own will and wisdom); the same appearing as
the fortuitous formation of chance, is called the very system of the
universe.
4. All that is manifested in any manner by omnipotence, is and
continues as real in the same manner; because what is made of the
pith of divine will and intelligence, can never be unreal; nor is it
possible for the manifest and obvious to be evanescent.
5. All that is situated or appears to us in any manner, being composed
of the divine intellect, must continue to remain for ever in the same
manner; this appearance of creation and its disappearance in its
dissolution, are both attributed to the unseen power of its destiny.
6. To say this one is such and that is otherwise, is to attribute them
to the manifestation of Brahma as so and so; and these formations of
theirs, together with their ultimate dissolution, are called the acts
of their destiny.
7. The three states of waking, sleeping and dreaming, appearing to the
nature of the soul, are no way separated from it; as the fluidity and
motion of water, are not otherwise than properties of the same limpid
liquid.
8. As vacuity is the property of air, and warmth of the sunshine, and
as odour is the quality of camphor; so the states of waking, sleeping
and dreaming, appertain to the very nature of the soul, and are
inseparable from it.
9. Creation and dissolution follow one another, in the one and same
current of the Divine Intellect; which in its vacuous form, subsists in
the vacuous spirit of Brahma.
10. What is believed as creation, is but a momentary flash of the
Divine Intellect; and that which is thought to be a kalpa period, is
but a transient glare of the same. (A kalpa age is but a fleeting
moment in the eternal duration of Brahma).
11. The sky and space and the things and actions, that come to our
knowledge at any time; are as mere dreams occurring unto us, by a flash
of the glaring nature of the Divine Intellect.
12. The sights of things and the eternal thoughts, and whatever occurs
at any time or place; are all presented unto us by our minds, from
their formless shapes or ideas in the vacuous intellect of God. (The
mind derives the formal images, from their ideals subsisting in the
Divine Intellect).
13. Whatever is thus manifested by the mind or designed by it at any
time, the same is termed its destiny, which is devoid of any form like
the formless air.
14. The uniform state of things for a whole kalpa age, measuring but a
moment of Brahma; is what is expressed by the word nature, by natural
philosophers that know all nature.
15. The one soul--consciousness or universal intelligence (of God),
is diversified into a hundred varieties of living beings; and every
portion of this general intelligence, retains the same intellection
like its original, without forsaking its nature (Note: As the one
element of fire, diversifies itself into many forms of sparks, without
losing its properties of heat and burning).
16. The intelligences that appertain to and manifest themselves, in
the supreme intelligence of God, do some of them imagine to assume
to themselves some embodied forms, in utter ignorance of their
intellectual natures.
17. The earth, air, water and fire and vacuum, are severally the
receptacles of many properties; but it is the vacuous intellect which
is the great repository of these, that appear as dreams hovering all
about it.
18. This place contains the vast receptacle, for the reception of
all tangible and solid bodies; and this spacious earth with all the
population on its surface, is seated in the midst of it.
19. It has a place for the vast body of waters, or the great ocean in
it; and affords a seat to the sun--the source of light; it has a space
for the course of the winds, and a vacuum containing all the worlds in
it.
20. It is the reservoir of the five elements, which are the quintuple
principles of our knowledge; and it being thus the container of the
quintessence of Brahma, what is seen or anything else before it.
21. The learned call this intelligence as the intellect and
omniscience; it is omniform, uniformed and all-pervading, and is
perceived by all owing to its greatness and its great magnitude.
22. Brahmá the son or offspring of Brahma; is the selfsame Brahma
himself; who by expanding his intelligence, has expanded the vacuum
under the name of firmament; and as an awning of silk in cloth. (In
fact nothing was made by the father but by the son).
23. When delusion rules over the intellect of Brahmá and over the
subtile and gross matters; then how is it possible for other things,
that are but parts of them, to stand good in law?
24. It is simply by his will (and without any external appliance), that
this god Brahma stretched the network of the universe, as a spider
weaves its web out of itself; it revolves like a disc or wheel in the
air, and whirls like a whirlpool in the hollow depth of the intellect,
appearing as it were a sensible sphere in the heavens.
25. These spheres present some bodies of great brightness, and others
of a lesser light; which there are some scarcely visible to us, and all
appearing as figures in a painting.
26. All created objects appear in this manner and those that are not
created never appear to view; but they all appear as visions in a
dream, to the sight of the learned.
27. The intellect is the selfsame soul, and the Lord of All, and the
seeming visibles are all really invisible; they are all evanescent
for their want of lasting bodies; and neither are they visible by
themselves, nor are they ever perceptible to or seen by us.
28. The vacuous intellect, sees these as its dreams in the great
vacuity of the intellect, and this world being no other than a
phenomenon of the vacuous intellect, can have no other form than that
of mere vacuum.
29. Whatever is manifested by the intellect in any manner, the same is
called its form and body; and the countenance of that manifested form
for a certain period, is termed its nature or destiny.
30. The first manifestation of the divine intellect, in the form of
vacuum and as the vehicle of sound; became afterwards the source of
the world, which sprouted forth like a seed, in the great granary of
vacuity. (The conveying of sound and the containing of worlds are the
nature of vacuum).
31. But the account given of the genesis of the world, and of the
creation of things one after the other, are mere fabrication of sages
for instruction of the ignorant, and has no basis on truth. (Because no
reason can be assigned for the Lord’s production of the material world).
32. There is nothing that is ever produced of nothing, nor reduced to
nothingness at any time; all this is as quiet and calm as the bosom of
a rock, and ever as real as it is unreal. (The world is real in the
ideal, but an utter unreality in its materiality).
33. As there existed no separate body before, so there can be no end of
it also; all things exist as inseparable infinitesimal with the spirit
of God, and can therefore neither rise nor set in it where they are
always present.
34. The vacuous world existing in vacuum of the divine spirit, is a
pure vacuity or blank only; how is it possible then to rise or set in
it, or go beyond it to rise or set elsewhere.
35. What is the world, but a ray of the ever shining gem of divine
intellect; before whose omniscience, every thing shines for ever in its
own light and nature.
36. The Divine spirit though unknown to all, makes itself some what
conceivable to us in our consciousness of it, and in our thinkableness
of it, and by means of our reasoning and reflection.
37. We can get some knowledge of it by our reason, as we can draw
inferences of future events by means of our reasoning; this knowledge
is rarer than that of the subtile element of air, and fainter than our
prescience into the future of all things.
38. Then this transcendental essence of the divine spirit, being
about to reflect in itself, becomes the thinking principle called the
intellect, which is somewhat intelligible to us.
39. Having then the firm conviction of its consciousness in itself,
it takes the name of the living soul, which is known by the title of
Anima, meaning the supreme spirit or soul.
40. This living soul embodied in itself the nameless _avidyá_ or
ignorance, which shrouded the atmosphere of its intellect, and
superceded the title of the pure intelligence. (The living soul
_jívátmá_ is involved in ignorance _máyá_, of its original state of
_Chiddáta_ or the intelligent soul).
41. It is then employed in the thoughts, of its bodily conduct and
worldly carrier only; and being forgetful of its spiritual nature, is
engaged in the discharge of his temporal functions.
42. Being thus forgetful of its nature of vacuum, which possesses the
property of conveying the sound, it becomes prepossessed with the error
of taking the future material bodies for real, in lieu of the reality
of the intellect.
43. It gets next the motion of its egoism, with the idea of time, in
its spiritual body; and then these two run together, in quest of the
material elements, which are the seeds for the growth of the forth
coming world.
44. Then the thinking power of the living soul, begets the sense of
consciousness within itself; and produces therein the conviction of the
unreal world, as a positive reality.
45. After this the thinking principle or the mind, bursts out like a
seed into a hundred sprouts of its wishes; and then by reflecting on
its egoism, thinks as a living being at the very moment.
46. Thus the pure spirit passing under the name of living soul, is
entangled in the maze of its erroneous and unreal reality, has been
rolling like a heaving wave in the depth of the universal spirit. (All
living souls of animate beings, are as bursting bubbles in the ocean of
the eternal spirit).
47. The mind by constantly reflecting at first on the vacuous nature of
the living soul; is stultified at last to think it as solidified into
the nature of animal life or the vital air or breath of life.
48. This being became the source of articulate sounds or words, which
were expressive of certain meanings, and significant of things, that
were to be created afterwards; and were to be embodied in the wording
of the Vedas. (The Lord spake and all things came out at his bidding,
which were afterwards stated in the Book of Genesis).
49. From him was to issue forth the would be world, by virtue of the
words which he spake to denote the things he meant; the words that he
invented were fraught with their meanings, and productive of the things
which they expressed.
50. The intellect being employed in this manner (in the thoughts of
creation), takes upon it the title of a living being; which being
garbed in significant words, was productive of all existent entities.
(The volitive principle of the divine intellect, takes the name of the
living soul or Brahmá the creative agent).
51. It was this self-existent entity that produced the fourteen
spheres, which fill the whole space of vacuity; and which give rise to
so many worlds that subsist therein.
52. But before this being had the power of his speech, and of the
use of his limbs and body, it remained to reflect only on the
significations of words, having had his mind alone the only active
part of himself. (So the mind alone of a living body, is the only
active part of it in its embryonic state, before its attainment of the
functions of all its other parts and members).
53. As the air devolopes a seed to a plant, by exhaling on its outer
coat, so doth the intellect develope the bodily functions of living
beings, by working in its internal parts. (_i.e._ The mind actuates the
action of the body).
54. And as the oscillating intellect or mind, happens to come across
the idea of light; it beholds the same appearing to view; as it is
conveyed before it by its significant sound (_i.e._ as meant by the
word).
55. Light is only our intellection or notion of it, and nothing without
it; as feeling is our consciousness of it, and not the perception
derived by means of the touch of anything. (This is theory of Berkeley).
56. So is sound but our consciousness of it, and a subjective
conception of our mind; as vacuum is a conception of the vacuous mind,
and as the receptacle of sound caused by itself.
57. As in this state of sound it is known to be the product of
air in its own vacuity, so everything else is the product of our
consciousness, and there nothing as a duality beside it.
58. So the properties of odour and flavour, are as well as the
substances of sound and air; and these unrealities seem as real ones,
like the dreams that are seen and thought of in our minds.
59. Heat which is the seed or seat of the arbor of light, and evolves
itself in the radiance and other luminous bodies; are the forms of the
same intellect, that shows itself in all things.
60. So is flavour a mere quality of empty air, is thought of as a
reality in every article of our food and drink; and is a mere name
without its substance.
61. All other things, which were hereafter to be designated by
different names as fragrance &c., are but so many forms of the thoughts
and desires existing in the mind of this living being or Brahmá.
62. This being had in his mind the seed of all forms and dimensions,
from which was to proceed this terrestrial globe, that was to become
afterwards the support of all creatures.
63. All things yet unborn, appeared as already born in this divine
mind, which was filled with the models of all future existences of
every kind; and all these formless beings had their forms afterwards,
as it thought and willed them to be (_i.e._ The ideal became the real
at last).
64. These forms appeared to view as by an act of chance, and the organs
whereby they came to be seen, were afterwards called by name of eyes,
or the visual organs of sight.
65. The organs which gave the perception of sounds, were named the
ears; and those which bore the feeling of touch to the mind, were
called the organs of feeling or त्वक्.
66. The organ of perceiving the flavours, was styled the tongue or
organ of taste; and that which received the perception of smell, were
termed the nose or organ of scent.
67. The living soul being subjected to its corporeal body, has no
perception of the distinctions of time and place by means of its bodily
organs, which are so imperfect and soulless on the whole. (_i.e._ He
is not thoroughly diffused all over the body, but has its seat in the
mind also, which perceives the abstract ideas of time and space and all
other abstract natures of things).
68. In this manner are all things but imageries of the soul, and ideals
of the intellect, and wholly confined in the soul; they neither appear
nor set on the out side of it, but are set as silent engravings in the
stony and stiff bosom of the same.
CHAPTER CLXXXVIII.
DESCRIPTION OF THE LIVING SOUL.
Argument:--The Living soul is identified with Brahma or the
universal soul; its birth is but a fiction of speech; and the
erroneous conception of its animal soul and body, is fully
exposed herein.
Vasishtha continued:--The fiction of the first rise of the living
soul; from the calm and quiet spirit of God as said before, is merely
fictitious and not a true one; but was meant to elucidate the nature of
the animate soul, as the same with and not distinct from the Supreme
soul.
2. In this manner the fiction (of the living soul) means that, this
being a part of the supreme soul is verily the same with it. (As the
air in the pot or _cot_, is the same as universal air or vacuum).
It is when the subjective soul is employed with the thoughts of the
objective, that it is termed the living God or spirit. (Hence the
quiescent and creative souls, are but the states or hypostases of the
same soul).
3. The inclination of the self-intelligent or subjective soul, towards
thinkable objects of thought, garbs it under a great many fictitious
names or epithets, which you shall now hear me, O Ráma, relate to you
in all their varieties.
4. It is called the living soul or jíva, from its power of living and
thinking; and from its addictedness towards the thinkables, it is
termed the thinking principle and the intellect.
5. It is termed intelligence for its intellection of this thing as
that, as well as for its knowledge of what is what; and it is called
the mind from its mending, willing and imagining of many things. (The
three powers of the mind are here reckoned, as retention, volition and
imagination).
6. The reliance in self that, “I am” is what is called egoism; and the
principle of percipience called the mind by the vulgar, is when freed
from everything, styled the intellect by the wise and those acquainted
with the sástras.
7. It is called the aggregate of the octuple principles or totality of
existence, when it is combined with all its wishes of creation; and
then named as subtile nature, before its production of the substantial
world.
8. Being absent from or imperceptible to our perception, it is called
the hidden nature; and in this manner many other fictitious names are
given to it by way of fiction or fabrication of our imagination. (The
word _avidyá_ here meant as absent, is elsewhere explained as unknown
and as ignorance and illusion also).
9. All these fictitious appellations that I have told thee here, are
mere inventions of our fancy, for the one formless and changeless
eternal being.
10. In this manner are all these three worlds, but the fairy lands of
our dream and the castles of our imagination; they appear as objects
made for our enjoyment and bliss, but are in reality an intactible
vacuity.
11. So must you know, O best of embodied beings, that this body of
yours is of a spiritual or intangible nature; it is the intellectual
body formed of the vacuous intellect, which is rarer than the rarified
air.
12. It never rises nor sets (_i.e._ it is neither born nor dies) in
this world, but continue with our consciousness of ourselves, until
our final liberation from the sense of our personalities. This mental
body or mind of ours, is the recipient of the fourteen worlds and all
created objects.
13. It is in the extensive regions of our minds, that millions of
worlds continue to be _created_ and dissolved in the course of time;
and an unnumbered train of created beings, are growing and falling as
fruits in it in the long run of time. (The mind and time, contain all
things).
14. This intellectual body beholds the world, both inside and outside
of it; as the looking glass reflects and refracts, the outward and
its inward images both in as well as out of it; and as the open air
reflects and shows us the upper skies.
15. The mind must bear these images in its mirror, until its final
dissolution with all things at the end of the world; when all minds
and bodies and all the world and their contents, are to be incorporated
in the great vacuum of the Divine Mind.
16. The compactness of the Divine Mind, which comprehends all images
or ideas in itself, imparts them partly in all individual minds, which
are but parts of itself, and which are made to think likewise. (This
passage maintains the innate ideas derived immediately from God).
17. This spiritual body that was employed in viewing the inborn world
in itself; is turned as the form of the Great Brahmá by some, and as
that of the God Virát by others.
18. Some call him the _sanátana_ or sempiternal, and others give him
the name of Náráyana or floating on the surface of the waters. Some
style him as Ísha and by his name as Prajápati--the Lord of creatures
(Patriarch).
19. This being chanced to have, his five organs of sense on a sudden,
and these were seated in the several parts of his body, where they
still retain there seats as before.
20. Then his delusion of the phenomenal, seemed to extend too far and
wide, without any appearance of reality therein, all being a vast waste
and void. (The noumenal only is the true reality).
21. It was all the appearance of that eternal and transcendental
Brahma, and not of the unreal phenomenal which is never real; it is the
very Brahma, which is without its beginning and end, and appearing in a
light quite unintelligible to us. (Being imperceptible in his person,
his reality is hid under the garb of unreality).
22. Our inquiry into the spiritual form of the deity, leads us to take
the delusive world as such; just as the longing of the ardent lover
after his loved one, leads him to the view of its bloated phantom in
his dream (_i.e._ in our search after the spiritual, we are misled to
take the corporeal as such).
23. As we have the blank and formless notion of a pot, presented in
the real shape of the pot in our minds; so have we the notions of our
bodies and the world also, represented as realities in dreams and
imagination.
24. As the dreamed objects of our vacuous minds, seem to be real ones
for the time in our sleep; so all these aerial objects in nature,
appear as solid substances in the delusion of our dreams by daylight.
25. This spiritual and formless body (of the deity), comes to be
gradually perceived in us and by itself also; as we come to see the
aerial forms presenting themselves unto us in our dream.
26. It is then embodied in a gross body, composed of flesh and bones,
and all its members, and its covering of the skin and hairs; and in
this state it thinks (of its carnal appetites and enjoyments).
27. It then reflects on its birth and acts in that body, and upon the
duration and end of that body also; and entertains the erroneous ideas
of the enjoyments and incidents of its life.
28. It comes to know its subjection to decay, decrepitude and death,
and of its wanderings on all sides of the wide sphere of this globe; it
gets the knowledge of the knower and known, and also of the beginning,
middle and of all acts and things.
29. And thus the primordial spirit, being transformed to the living
soul, comes to know the elementary bodies of earth, air, and water
&c, and the varieties of created beings and conduct of men and finds
itself as contained and confined within the limits of its body and
of this earth, after its having been the container of all bodies and
space before. (The difference here spoken of, is that of the personal
soul of the jíva or living being, and that of the impersonal soul of
Brahma--the universal spirit).
CHAPTER CLXXXIX.
ON THE UNITY OF THE DIVINE SPIRIT.
Argument:--Unity of the impersonal and personal _spirit treated_;
and the materiality of the living soul refuted.
Vasishtha continued:--This spiritual body (or the personal spirit),
as that of Brahma--the primeval creator of all; being possessed of
its volition, comes as by an act of chance and of its own motion, to
think and brood on its thoughts; (which it had derived from the eternal
spirit of Brahma).
2. It continues to remain in the same state, as it is ever conscious of
in itself; and sees of its own nature, this universe exposed before it
as it had in his mind, nor is there and wonder in this.
3. Now this viewer--Brahma, and his viewing and the view of the world,
must either all be false (as there is no duality in nature); or they
must all be true, having the spirit of Brahma at the bottom.
4. Ráma rejoined:--Now sir, please to tell me, how this spiritual and
shadowy sight of the primeval Lord of creation, could be realized in
its solidified state, and reality can there be in the vision of a dream.
5. Vasishtha replied:--The spiritual view is ever apparent by itself
within ourselves; and our continuous and ceaseless sight of it, gives
it the appearance of a solid reality.
6. As the visionary sights of our dreams, come to be realized in times,
by our continuous poring upon them; so doth the spiritual appear
as real, by our constant habit of thinking them as such. (So it is
recorded in the case of King Harischandra of old).
7. The constant thought of the reality of our spiritual body, makes
appear as a real object to our sight; as the constant craving of deer
after water, makes it appear in the mirage of the parched desert before
them.
8. So the vision of this world, has like every other fallacy, misled us
like the poor and parching deer, to the misconception of water in the
mirage; and does this and all other unrealities appear as real ones in
our ignorance.
9. Many spiritual and intellectual objects, like a great many unreal
things, are taken for the material and real, by the avidity of their
desires and ignorant admirers.
10. The impression that I am this, and that one is another, and that
this is mine and that is his; and that these are the hills and skies
about us; are all as erroneous as the conception of reality in our
dreams and false phantoms of the brain.
11. The spiritual body which was at first conceived, by the prime
creator of all--Brahmá, assumed a material form as that of a globe
under his sight. (Meaning the Mundane egg).
12. The living soul of Brahma, being born of the mundane egg in a
corporeal body; forgot or rather forsook to think of its incorporeal
intellectuality, and thought himself as composed of his present
material body only. He looked into it and thought, that this was his
body and the recipient of his soul: (instead of the souls being the
fountain of the body).
13. Then it becomes confined in that body, by its belief of the
unreality as a sober reality; and then it thinks of many things within
itself, and goes on seeking and running after them all. (But the
steady soul is sedate, and has all within itself, without seeking them
elsewhere without).
14. This God then makes many symbolical sounds and forms (invents)
words for names and actions; and at last upon his utterance of the
mystic syllable Om or (on) the Vedas rang out and sang in currents of
verbiage.
15. Then through the medium of those sacred words, the god ordained the
ordinances for the conduct of all mankind; and everything turned to be,
as he wished and thought it to be in his own mind. (Hence Brahmá is
said the creative mind of God).[4]
16. Whatever exists in any manner, the same is the self same Brahmá
itself; and yet no body perceives it as such, owing to the predominant
error of all, of believing the unreal world as a real existence.
17. All the things from the great Brahmá down to all, are but false
appearances as those of dreams and magical show; and yet the spiritual
reality is utterly lost to sight, under the garb of material unreality
(_i.e._ The unreal matter is taken for real spirit).
18. There is nothing as materiality anywhere and at any time; it is the
spiritual only which by our habitual mode of thinking and naming, is
said to be substantial, elemental and material.
19. This our fallacy of materiality, has come to us from our very
source in Brahmá--the creator; who entertained the false idea of the
material world, and transmitted this error even into the minds of the
wise and very great souls.
20. How is it possible, O Ráma, for the intelligent soul, to be thus
confined in a clod of earth, all this must either be an illusory scene,
or a representation of Brahma himself.
21. There can be no other cause of this world, except the eternal
causality of Brahma; who is self-existent, only without any action or
causation of himself; thus the Supreme soul being wholly devoid of
the attributes of cause and effect, what can this world be, but an
extension of the Divine essence?
CHAPTER CLXXXX.
ECSTASIS OR INERTNESS OF RÁMA.
Argument:--Description of liberation, as heedlessness of the past
and future, ignorance of the knowables, and thoughtlessness about
the thinkables.
Vasishtha continued:--Gaining the knowledge of knowables, is called our
bondage in this world; but it is our release from the bonds of knowable
objects, that is termed our liberation from it.
2. Ráma rejoined:--But how can it be possible, sir, to get our escape
from the knowledge of the knowables, and how can our rooted knowledge
of things, and our habitual sense of bounden to them, be removed from
us.
3. Vasishtha replied:--It is the perfection of our knowledge, and
feeling of it as such, that removes our misjudgment; and then we get
our liberation from error, after disappearance of our inborn bias.
4. Ráma rejoined:--Tell me sir, what is that simply uniform feeling,
and what is called that complete and perfect knowledge said to be,
which releases the living soul entirely, from its fetters of error.
5. Vasishtha replied:--The soul is full with its subjective knowledge
of intuition, and has no need of the objective knowledge of the
knowables from without; and perfect knowledge is our inward sense of
the same, and not expressible in words.
6. Ráma rejoined:--Tell me sir, whether the knowableness of knowledge,
that is whether the internal knowledge of the knowing soul, is the same
or separate from itself; and whether the word _jnána_ or knowledge, is
taken in its instrumental or abstract sense (_i.e._ whether it is used
to mean the power by means of which we derive our knowledge, or the so
derived knowledge itself).
7. Vasishtha replied:--All perception is knowledge, and this term
is denotative of its causality also (as we say, my knowledge is my
guide, _i.e._ the instrumentality of my guidance). Hence there is no
difference between knowledge and the known or the knowable, as there is
none between the air and its ventilation.
8. Ráma rejoined:--If it be so (that there is no difference between
them); then tell me, whence arises the error of difference in
our conception of them; the conception of the materiality of the
perceptible or objective world, must be as erroneous as that of the
horns of a hare, which had never been _in esse_, nor are likely to be
at any time in future.
9. Vasishtha replied:--The error of the reality of external objects,
gives rise to the error of the reality to our knowledge of them also;
but there is no inward object of thought, nor of the outward senses,
has ever any reality in it.
10. Ráma rejoined:--Tell me, O sage, how can you deny the existence of
those objects, which are evident to the senses of mine, thine and all
others alike; and which are ever present in their thoughts in the minds
of sensible beings.
11. Vasishtha replied:--It was at the time of the first creation of the
world, that the self manifested God Virát, exhibited the outline of the
cosmos in a corner of his all-comprehensive mind; but as nothing was
produced in reality, there is no possibility of our knowing any as a
knowable or real entity.
12. Ráma rejoined:--How can our common sight, of the present, past and
future prospects of this world; and our daily perception of things,
which are felt by all in general, be regarded as nothing by your
teaching. (Common sense can not be controverted by abstruse philosophy).
13. Vasishtha replied:--Just as the dreamer’s vision in sleep, the
deer’s mistake of water in the mirage in sand, the illusory sight of
a moon in the sky, and the prospects of our delusive fancies, do all
disappear on right observation; so the false perceptions of worldly
things, and the mistaken conceptions of our own entities, are as
erroneous as the sights of the false lights in the empty air. (These
dissolve as dreams upon waking, and the testimony of one waking man, is
enough to disperse the deceptive sights of all dreamers and sleepers).
14. Ráma rejoined:--If our knowledge of I and thou and of this and
that, is as false as that of all other things in the womb of the world;
why then were these brought into existence, not left to remain in their
ideas in the mind of their creator, as they had existed before his
creation of them?
15. Vasishtha replied:--It is certain that everything springs from
its cause, and not otherwise; what then could there be the (material)
cause, for the creation of the world therefrom, after the dissolution
of everything at the universal destruction?
16. Ráma replied:--Why sir, cannot that being be the cause of
recreation, which remains undestroyed and indestructible, after
destruction of the prior creation?
17. Vasishtha replied:--Whatever substance there abides in the cause,
the same is evolved in effect also; hence the essence of Brahma being
composed of his intellect only, it could not give rise to the material
world from itself; as the substance of a pot, cannot produce that of a
picture or cloth.
18. Ráma replied:--Why sir, the world existed in its subtile (or ideal)
state, in the person (mind) of Brahma (God); from which it issued forth
anew and again, after dissolution of the former creation.
19. Vasishtha said:--Tell me, O intelligence Ráma, how could the Lord
God (whose nature is composed of pure intelligence), conceive the
entity or quintessence of the world in himself, and which like the
productive seed, sprang out in the form of the future creation. Say
what sort of entity was it.
20. Ráma replied:--It is an entity of Divine intelligence, and is
situated in the subjective soul of God in that form. It is neither a
vacuous nullity, nor an unreal entity.
21. Vasishtha said:--If it be so, O mighty armed Ráma, that the three
worlds are Divine intelligence only; then tell me why bodies formed of
pure intelligence (as those of the gods and angels), and those having
the intelligent soul in them (as those of human beings), are subject to
their birth and death.[5]
22. Ráma said:--If then there has been no creation at all at any time
from the beginning; then tell me sir, whence has this fallacy of the
existence of the world come to be in vogue.
23. Vasishtha replied:--The inexistence of cause and effect, proves
the nullity of being and not being (_i.e._ its annihilation also); all
this that is thought of to exist, is the thought and thinking of the
divine soul, which is the triputi or triple entity of thinker, thinking
and the thought together. (_i.e._ The soul is both the subjective and
objective, as also their connecting predicate by itself).
24. Ráma rejoined:--The thinking soul thinks about the implements and
the acts, as the looker looks on the objects of his sight; but how can
the divine looker be the dull spectacle (and the object the same with
the subject); unless you maintain that the objective fuel burns the
subjective fire (which is impossible).
25. Vasishtha replied:--The viewer is not transformed to the view,
owing to impossibility of the existence of an objective view; it is the
all seeing soul, that shows itself as one solid plenum in itself.
26. Ráma rejoined:--The soul is the pure intellect only, and is without
its beginning and end; it thinks only on its eternal and formless
thoughts; how then can it present the form and appearance of the
visible world.[6]
27. Vasishtha replied:--The thinkables being all causeless of
themselves, have none of them any cause whatsoever; and it is the
privation of the thinkables, that bespeaks the liberation of the
intellect. (The production of the thinkables, is as impossible as the
birth of the offspring of a Barren woman. Gloss).
28. Ráma rejoined:--If it is so, then say how and whence have we the
thought of our conception of ourselves; and our knowledge of the world,
and our sense of motion and the like; (as they are suggested to us by
our common sense, and the universal testimony of all people).
29. Vasishtha replied--The impossibility of cause, precludes the
possibility of any production; how and whence could the thinkables
proceed, when all is quite calm and quiet everywhere, and the knowledge
of creation is but an error and a delusion.
30. Ráma rejoined:--Here tell us sir, how this error comes to
overshadow the unknowable, unthinkable and the immovable being, that
is selfmanifest and ever untainted and clear by itself (Swaprakása or
Swayamprakása).
31. Vasishtha replied:--there is no error or mistake herein, owing to
its want of any causation also; our knowledge of egoism and tuism, is
drowned altogether in that of one unevanescent Unity.
32. Ráma replied:--O venerable sir, I am so bewildered in the error
of my consciousness, that I know not what other question I am here to
make; I am not so enlightened as the learned, to argue any more on this
point.
33. Vasishtha replied:--Do not desist, O Ráma, from making your
inquiries concerning the causality of Brahma; until you are satisfied
with the proof of his causelessness, as they test the purity of gold
on the stone; and then by knowing this, you will be able to repose
yourself, in the blissful state of the supremely Blest.
34. Ráma rejoined:--I grant sir, as you say, that there is no creation
for want of its cause, but tell me now whence is this my error of the
thinkable and its thought (so rooted in me that I can not get rid of
it).
35. Vasishtha replied:--There is no error in the belief of the uncaused
creation, and in its perfect calmness; but it is for want of your habit
of thinking it so (and your bias of the reality of the world), that
really makes you so restless.
36. Ráma rejoined:--Tell me sir, whence rise this habit as well as the
desuetude of this mode of our thinking; and how does our rest proceed
from the one, and our disquiet from the other mode of thought.
37. Vasishtha replied:--Belief in the eternal God, breed no error in
that of the eternity of the world; it is the habit of thinking it
otherwise, that creates the error of creation. Be you therefore as
sound in your mind, as the solid minded sages have been.
38. Ráma rejoined:--Please to tell me sir, in your preaching of these
lectures to your audience, what other mode of practice there may be, in
our attainment of a quietude like that of the living liberated sages.
39. Vasishtha replied:--The lesson that we preach, is to know one’s
self as Brahma and resting in the spirit of Brahma; and this knowledge
is sure to release the soul, both from its longing for liberation, as
also from its dread of bondage in this world.
40. Ráma rejoined:--This doctrine of yours, by its all negative
distinctions of our knowledge of time and space, and of our actions
and thing, serves to drive away our consciousness of all existence
whatsoever from the mind.
41. Vasishtha replied:--Yes, because all our objective knowledge, of
the distinctions of time and place and of actions and things in our
minds; is the effect of our ignorance of the subjectivity of the soul,
beside which there is no other substance--before the liberated spirit.
42. Ráma rejoined:--The absence of our knowledge of an intelligent
agent, and also of an intelligible object; deprives us altogether of
any intelligence at all; the impossibility of the union of the unity
and duality together, must preserve our distinct knowledge of the
knowing principle and the known or knowable object. (The transitive
verb to know must have an object, and cannot like a neuter or
intransitive verb, be confined to or reflect upon its agent. Gloss).
43. Vasishtha replied:--It is by your act of knowing of God, that you
have or get your knowledge of Him; therefore the word is taken in its
active sense by you and others (Who have to know a thing before it is
known to them). But with us (or sages like ourselves), who are possest
of our intuitive knowledge of ourselves as the deity, it is but a
self-reflexive verb. (Gloss. _Buddhi_ with the ignorant, means knowing;
but with the sapient, it means feeling).
44. Ráma rejoined:--But how do you feel your finite selves or egoism,
and your limited knowledge, as same with the infinite soul and
omniscience of the deity; unless it were to ascribe your imperfections
to the transcendental divinity, who is purer than the purest water, and
rarer than the rarefied ether.
45. Vasishtha replied:--It is the feeling of the perfections of
the divine soul in ourselves, that we call our egoism; and not the
ascription of our imperfect personalities unto him. And here the
duality of the living and divine souls, bears resemblance to the unity
of the ventilating breeze with the universal and unfluctuating air.
जीबब्रक्षनोरैक्यं ।
46. As the waves of the ocean, have been continually rising and
subsiding in it; so the objective thoughts of one’s egoism and the
world besides, must be always rising and falling in the subjective soul
of the supreme being, as well as self-liberated persons (Hence the
subjective and objective cannot be the one and same thing).
47. Vasishtha replied:--If so it be, then say what is the fault, that
is so much reprehended in the popular belief of a duality; and in
disregarding the creed of the Unity, which is eternal and infinite,
full and perfect in itself, quite calm and quiet in its nature, and is
termed the transcendent One.
48. Ráma rejoined:--If it be so (that the living soul, is as the breeze
or breath of the calm air of Brahma and same with it), then tell me
sir, who and what power is it, which conceives the ego, tu and others,
which feels and enjoys all as their agent, if the fundamental fallacy
of the world be the root of all. (The whole being false, there is
nothing as one or an another or as bondage or liberation).
49. Vasishtha replied:--The knowledge of the reality of the objective
or knowable things, is the cause of our bondage (in this world); true
knowledge does not recognise their reality, and full intelligence
which assumes the forms of (and shows) all things in itself, sees no
difference of bondage or liberation before it. (All things are alike in
the full light of intelligence).
50. Ráma rejoined:--Intelligence like light, does not show us all
things in the same light; it shows us the difference between a pot and
a picture, as light shows the white and black to view. Again as the
light of our eye sight shows us the different forms of outward objects,
so does our intelligence confirm and attest the reality of our visual
perceptions.
51. Vasishtha replied:--All outward objects having no cause of their
creation, nor any source of their production, are as incredible as
the offspring of a barren woman; and the appearance of their reality
which is presented to our sight, is as false as that of silver in
a conchshell or in the glittering sands, and not otherwise. (The
phenomenal is a mirage, and deception of sight).
52. Ráma rejoined:--The sight of the miserable world, whether it
be true or false, is like the startling apparition in a dream, and
attended with pain only for the time; tell me therefore the best means,
how to avoid and get rid of this error.
53. Vasishtha replied:--The world being never the better than a dream,
it is the reflection of the idea of its reality, that is the best
method of getting rid of the snare of its tempting joys and sorrows.
54. Ráma rejoined:--But how to effect this object, which may redound to
our bliss and rest; say how to put an end to the sight of the world,
which shows the sights of falsities as realities, in the continuous
train of its deluding dreams.
55. Vasishtha replied:--It is the due consideration of the
antecedent and subsequent states of things, which must remove the
erroneous impression of their reality; just as the conception of
the substantiality of sights seen in our dreams, is eliminated upon
reflection of their subsequent disappearance (and bearing no trace of
former forms behind).
56. Ráma rejoined:--But how do the rising apparitions of the world,
disappear in the depth of our minds, and what do we then come to
perceive, after the vestiges of our gross remembrances have faded away?
(The mind is never vacant of its thoughts of visible objects).
57. Vasishtha responded:--After the false appearance of the world, has
vanished like the faded sight of a city from view; the unconcerned mind
of the unconcerned soul, looks upon it as a painting, wholly washed out
by the rain (_i.e._ as a clear blank or vacuity).
58. Ráma asked:--What then becomes of the man, after subsidence of
the worldly sights and desires from his mind; like the gross looking
objects of a dream; and after the mind rests in its state of listless
indifference.
59. Vasishtha replied:--Then the world recedes from his sight, and then
this predilection of it, and his desire for its enjoyment depart and
die away along with it.
60. Ráma rejoined:--How can this blind and deep rooted predilection,
which has accompanied the soul from many previous births, and branched
out into multifarious desires, resign its hold of the human heart all
at once?
61. Vasishtha replied:--As the knowledge of truth, serves to disperse
the rooted error of the material world from the mind, so the sense of
the vanity of human desires, and of the bitterness of their enjoyment,
dissipate their seeds at once from the heart (where they can take root
no more).
62. Ráma rejoined:--After dissipation of the error of materiality, of
the visible spheres of worlds; say, O sage, what is that state of the
mind which follows it, and how its peace and tranquility at last?
63. Vasishtha replied:--After dissipation of the error of the material
world, the mind reverts to its seat in the immaterial soul; where it is
released from all its earthly bonds, and finds its rests in the state
of an indifferent _insouciance_--vairágya.
64. Ráma rejoined:--Tell me sir, if the error of the world is as
little, as that of a child’s idea of sorrow, then what trouble there is
for a man to remedy it?
65. Vasishtha replied:--All our desires, like the fond wishes of boys,
being wholly extinct in the mind, there remains no more any cause of
any sorrow in it; and this you may well know from the association of
desires in all minds.
66. Ráma rejoined:--Tell me sir, what is the mind, and how are we to
know its nature and workings; and what good do we derive, by our best
investigation of the mental powers and properties.
67. Vasishtha replied:--The inclination of the intellect towards the
intelligibles, is called the mind, for its mending the thinkables only;
and the right knowledge of its workings, leads to the extinction of all
our worldly desires. (_i.e._ The thoughts of things, are productive of
our desires for them; banish your thoughts, and you get rid of your
desires at once).
68. Ráma rejoined:--Tell me sir, how long continues this tendency of
the intellect towards the thinkables, and when does the mind come
to have its unmindfulness, which causes our coma or _anæsthesis_ of
Nirvána.
69. Vasishtha replied:--There being a total absence of thinkable
things, what is then left for the intellect to be intent upon; the
mind dwells upon its thoughts only, but the want of thinkable objects,
leaves nothing for it to think upon.
70. Ráma rejoined:--How can there be the absence of thinkables, when we
have the ideas in store to think and reflect upon; nor is there any one
who can deny the existence of ideas, which are ever imprinted in the
mind (_i.e._ the eternal ideas).
71. Vasishtha replied:--Whatever is the ideal world of the ignorant,
has no truth in it and is denied by the learned; and the conception
which the sapient have of it, is that of a nameless and formless unity
only.
72. Ráma rejoined:--What is that knowledge of this triple world of the
ignorant, which has no truth or reality therein; and what is the true
knowledge of the wise about it, which is inexpressible in words?
73. Vasishtha replied:--The knowledge of the ignorant, regarding the
duality of the world, is wholly untrue from first to last; but the
true knowledge of the wise, neither recognizes a duality herein; nor
acknowledges the production hereof; (but views it in the light of a
nullity and void).
74. Ráma rejoined:--Whatever is not produced in the beginning, can
not of course exist at any time; but how is it, that this unreal and
unapparent nothing, could come to produce in us its conception of a
something?
75. Vasishtha replied:--This causeless and uncaused unreality of
the world, appears unto us as a real entity; like the daydream that
presents the false sight of the cosmos as a reality in our waking.
76. Ráma rejoined:--The sights that we see in our dreams, and the
images that we conceive in our imagination; are but perceptions derived
from our impressions of them in our waking state.
77. Vasishtha replied:--Tell me, O Ráma, whether the things that you
see in your dream, or conceive in your imagination, are exactly of the
same forms, that you see in your waking state.
78. Ráma replied:--The things that we see in our dream, and conceive of
in our fancy or imagination; do all of them appear unto us in the same
light, as they show themselves to us in our waking state.
79. Vasishtha questioned:--If the impressions of the waking state,
come to represent themselves in our dreaming (and if our dreams are
alike our waking sights), then tell me Ráma! why do you find your house
standing entire in the morning, which you beheld to have fallen down in
your dream.
80. Ráma answered:--I see that the things seen in waking, do not appear
the same in dreaming; but tell me sir, why they seem to resemble those
that have been seen before.
81. Vasishtha replied:--It is neither the notion nor idea of anything,
that appears as a reality in our minds; but the inherent impression of
the world in the soul, that exhibits it to us from first to last.
82. Ráma said:--I find it now, that this world is no better than a
dream; but tell me sir, how to remedy our fallacy of its reality, which
holds us fast as a goblin.
83. Vasishtha replied:--Now consider how this dream of the world has
come into vogue, and what may be the cause thereof; and knowing that
the cause is not different from its effect, view this visible creation
in the light of its invisible origin.
84. Ráma said:--But as the mind is the cause of the sights, seen in our
dreams in sleep, it must therefore be the same with its creation of
this world, which is equally unsubstantial and undecaying as itself.
(The world is the permeation of the Divine mind--its maker or pervader).
85. Vasishtha replied:--So it is, O most intelligent Ráma, the world is
verily the _manas--mens_ or the mind of God, which is no other than the
consolidation of the Divine Intellect or intelligence. Thus the world
being situated in the mind, and this in that, it is this mind only that
exhibits these dreamlike shows, which originate from it, and have no
other source besides.
86. Ráma rejoined:--But why am I not to think the identity of the
world with Brahma himself, as there is the identity of the divine
mind with him, and that of the mind with the creation. And likewise
as the relation of sameness subsists between a component part and its
_ensemble_ or the integral whole, as there is between the branch of a
tree and the tree itself? (because these are but parts of one undivided
whole). But it would be absurd to identify the undivided and formless
Brahma, with the divided and formal world.
87. Vasishtha replied:--It is impossible, O Ráma, to identify this
frail world with the eternal Brahma, who is increate to identify this
perishable, quite calm and quiescent and intact in his nature.
88. Ráma added:--I come to find at last and by a haphazard, my
erroneous conception of the world from first to last; as also the error
of my attributing the qualities of activity and passivity, to the
nature of the transcendent being.
89. Vasishtha concluded with saying:--Now I have fully exposed
the erroneous views of the world (entertained both by the wise and
ignorant), both by the elegance of my poetical diction, as also by the
enlightening reasonings of the learned; both of which are calculated to
remove the mistaken views of the vacuity and delusion of the world, by
establishment of the truth of the whole, as being composed of essence
of the One sole and Supreme entity.
CHAPTER CLXXXXI.
SOLUTION OF THE GREAT QUESTION OF UNITY AND DUALITY.
Argument:--Concerning the identity of the world and God, or the
total absence of the universe.
Ráma rejoined:--If it is so sir, as you say, the world must be a great
riddle; as it can neither be said to be in existence with all its
contents, or it is a perfect nullity with every thing quite extinct in
it.
2. This existence that shows itself as the world to sight, appears as a
delusion or deception of vision in view; though it cannot properly be
called an illusion, if it is composed of divine essence as you mean to
say.
3. Vasishtha replied:--The fortuitous appearance in which Brahma,
manifests himself of his own accord; is known to him as the world and
subsisting in himself.
4. Ráma rejoined:--How does Brahma manifest himself as the world,
before existence of space and after its extinction (at the ultimate
dissolution of creation); and how does the divine spirit shine itself
as the world in want of the light of the luminaries?
5. Vasishtha replied:--The world shines in this manner in the light of
the Divine Intellect; and know this light to proceed from the Divine
spirit, which is thus diffused all over the universe.
6. As the light of the lamp or chandelier, enlightens the house with
its lustre; it was thus the holy light of the Divine spirit that shone
itself, without presenting its outward appearance, or having any one to
look upon it (before creation).
7. Thus it is an immaterial and imperishable entity, without any
appearance of or looker on it; it shines with the light of the
intellect, upon the basis or stand of the Divine spirit.
8. It shines in its visible appearance, in the sight of the spirit
only, that constantly looks upon it, as it sees its dreams in sleep.
9. It shines only in the light of the intellect, and appears as the
created world before its creation; all its visible and shining sheen
being derived from the Supreme.
10. The One supreme intellect alone, assumes the triple forms of the
sight, seer and seeing (_i.e._ the subjective, objective and the
attribute), in the beginning of creation; and shows itself as the
created world of its own nature and accord.
11. We have the resemblance of such like appearance, presenting unto us
in our dreams and creatures of our fancy; and it is in the same manner,
that this creation shines before us with the light of the intellect.
12. This world (shining so bright and fair), is like a vacuous body
appearing in the vacuity of the intellect; the creation has neither
its beginning nor end, it is a development of the intellect, which is
distributed through it.
13. It has become habitual to our nature, to suppose the existence of
the world, but the false impression of its visibility, is lost in the
consciousness of high-minded men.
14. To them this creation presents no visible forms, nor any sensible
appearance at all; it is to them a representation of fallacy only, as
the mistake of a man in a statue, or taking a false apparition as real.
15. In this manner the blunder of a duality in the soul, produces a
dualism in the mind; but ere the existence of creation, there existed
no dualism of the creator and the created, or of the manifester and the
manifested.
16. The want of a cause causes the appearance of a duality (_i.e._ of
the causal agency and its effect, in the vacuity of the intellect);
but tell me how could there be a cause when there is no creation in
existence. (The creation presupposes a cause, but not otherwise nor its
absence).
17. It is the Divine intellect alone, that manifests itself in the
manner of the world, in the total absence of all visible objects; and
though this seems to be the waking state of the Supreme soul, yet it
is neither its waking, sleeping nor dreaming state.
18. The visible world is no production of dream, but a manifestation
of Brahma himself; and there existed the Divine intellect only, in the
manner of the infinite void, before the birth of the atmospheric vacuum
of the world.
19. The intellect which beholds this universe as its body, without
being distributed or changed in the form of the world; is purely of a
spiritual or vacuous form, that manifested itself in this visible form
before it came to existence.
20. And this visible world that is so manifest to view, is as void and
vacuous as the empty air.
21. Now knowing this in your own understanding, you must remain devoid
of all dualism in your mind; be as mute as a block of stone, nor give
heed to the words of the universe in your heart, nor care for their
sayings of earthly enjoyments, (for fear of losing your spiritual
bliss).
CHAPTER CLXXXXII.
ON THE ATTAINMENT OF SPIRITUAL ANAESTHESIA.
Argument:--Ráma’s coma and trance, and his revival by the
spiritual lecture of his preceptor.
Ráma rejoined and said:--Alas! that I have so long strayed about, in
the erroneous maze of the world; without the knowledge of its being a
mere void and vacuum.
2. I now come to know the fallacy of my conception of the world, which
is but a mere nullity; which never is nor was, nor shall ever prove to
be a positive reality.
3. It is all still and supportless, and existing in our false knowledge
of it; it is an endless formation of the solid intellect, and a mere
vacuous conception of ours, without any figure or form or colour or
mark of its own.
4. It is the transcendental vacuum and of a wholly inconceivable
nature; and yet how wonderous it is, that we call this our world, our
earth and the sphere of our action.
5. How it appears as a duality (apart from the unity of God), and
how these worlds and mountains seen as separate and solid bodies of
themselves; when they are in reality but the pellucid sky appearing as
thick and opaque to our misconception of them.
6. This creation and the future world, are as the dreams that we see,
but working of our imagination; while it is the intellect only that
shows itself as these intelligible objects, which could not otherwise
present their visible aspects to our conceptions of them.
7. The thought that I am situated in heaven or hell in this life, makes
this world appear as such unto us; because the visibles are all objects
or creatures of our consciousness of them. (It is the mind that makes a
heaven or hell).
8. There is nothing as visible or its vision, nor this world or its
creation, unless it is caused as such, by the intellect within us; it
is neither a scene in our waking or sleeping, nor is this anything as
real in its nature.
9. If this be but an erroneous sight, how could the negative error
produce this positive spectacle, should it but a false conception
of the mind, then tell me, O sage, how could this blank fallacy bring
forth the thought of this real existence.
10. It is not possible for error, to creep into the infallible mind
of omniscience; nor is it probable that error should reign over this
perfect creation at large; it is therefore the Lord himself, that
exhibits his glory in this manner.
11. What can we think otherwise of the continuity of space, infinity
of vacuum and infinity of time, than they are the attributes of
omnipotence; and how are we to look on the transparency of the air and
crystal, without thinking them as manifestation of his nature?
12. An erroneous notion is as false, as the sight of one’s own death in
a dream; but how can this world which is so palpable to sight, be lost
to or expunged from our sight, without losing our sight of its great
manifester also? (To ignore the world is to ignore its maker also, as
the denial of God leads to that of the world).
13. The sights of the mirage, fairy cities and double moons in the sky,
are of course deceptions of vision and productions of our error; but
the same analogy does not apply to our sight of the world.
14. The boys’ apparitions of ghosts, never lay hold on adults and the
waking, nor on any one in the day light and open air; this and similar
errors arise in our ignorance only, but they vanish upon our second
thought and true knowledge of them.
15. It is improper in this place to raise the question, regarding
whence this bug bear of error could rise among mankind; since it is
evident from our own reasoning, that there is no such thing as _avidyá_
or ignorance (which is the cause of error) ever in existence, nor an
_asat_ or not being even in being. (Because the Veda says सदेवईदमग्र आसीत्
the existence existed from before).
16. It is evident by rational reasoning, that whatever is invisible and
imperceptible to us, the same is called as _asat_ or not being, and the
conception of idea or that is termed an error.
17. That which is not clearly obtained by any proof or reasoning, and
is as impossible as the sky-flower or the horn of a hare, how can that
be believed to be as anything in existence.
18. And a thing however apparent to sight, but having no cause or
evidence of its reality, cannot be believed as thing in existence,
but it must be a nullity like the issue of a barren woman.
19. Therefore there can no error at any time, nor can an error ever
produce anything whatever; it is therefore the manifest omniscience of
Providence, that is conspicuous in every part of this wide and grand
display.
20. Whatever then is seen now to shine before us, is the manifestation
of Supreme being itself; the same Supreme spirit fills this plenitude,
and is full with it in itself. (So the Veda पूर्ण मदः पूर्णमिदं &c.).
21. There is nothing that is either shining or unshining here at any
time, unless it be the calm and quiet and transparent spirit of God,
that inheres in its body of the mundane world.
22. It is the one unborn, undying and unchanging everlasting Being,
that is the most adorable and ever adored Lord of all, that fills
and pervades the whole with his essence. He only is the word ego,
selfmanifest--pure and all pervading, while I and all others are
without our egoism, and shine only in that unity (literally, without
our duality).
CHAPTER CLXXXXIII.
MENTAL TORPOR OR TRANQUILITY.
Argument:--Ráma’s ecstatic hybernation and union with the Supreme
unity.
Ráma rejoined:--There is the only One alone whom neither the gods nor
the _rishis_ know or comprehend; He is without beginning, middle and
end, and it is that being that thus shines himself, without this world
and these phenomena.
2. It is useless to us to mind the difference, between the unity
and duality, and to be led to the doubts created by the misleading
verboilogy of erroneous doctrines; without relying in the state of one
tranquil and unvarying Spirit.
3. The world is as clearly a vacuous body, appearing in the womb of
vacuity; as the string of pearls and the aerial castles, that are seen
in the open sky.
4. The world is attached in the same manner, to the solidity of the
invisible intellect; as vacuity is inherent in vacuum, lapidity in the
stone, and fluidity in water.
5. Though the world, appears to be spread on all sides of space; yet it
is no more than an empty vacuity, lying calm and quiet, in the hollow
womb of the great intellect.
6. This world appearing so fair and perspicuous, to the sight of
ignorant people; vanishes as a phantom into nothing, at the sight of
the boundless glory of the transcendent God.
7. The impression of difference and duality, existing between the
creator and creation, among worldly men; vanishes upon reflection, like
waves into the waters of the sea.
8. The existence of the world, together with all our miseries in it,
before the light of our liberation; as the darkness of night flies away
at sunrise, and the light of the day disappears, before the gloom of
night.
9. Whether in plenty or poverty, or in birth, death or disease; or in
the troubles and turmoils of the world, the wise man remains unshaken,
though he may be overpowered by them.
10. There is no knowing nor error in this world, nor any pain or
pleasure, or distress or delight in it; but they are all attributes of
the deity, whose pure nature is unsullied by them.
11. I have come to know, that this existence is the immaculate Brahma
himself; and is the want of our knowledge, which says anything to be
beside the spirit of the Great God.
12. I am awakened to, and enlightened in divine knowledge; and find
external existence cease to exist in any presence.
13. Perfect knowledge tells us, all these worlds to be but Brahma
himself; but want of this knowledge says, I was no Brahma before, but
have now become so by my knowledge.
14. The known and the unknown, the dark and the bright are all but
Brahma, as vacuity and unity, and brightness and blueness, do all
appertain to the one and same sky.
15. I am extinct in the deity (in my divine knowledge), and sit
dauntless of anything; I am devoid of all desire, with my leaning in
perfect blessedness; I am as I am, ravished in my infinite bliss,
without my sensibility of what or which.
16. I am wholly that one and sole entity, which is naught but perfect
tranquility; I see nothing but a calm and quiet, which utterly absorbs
and enrapts me quite.
17. Knowing the knowable (the unknown One) is to unknow one’s self
and ignore the visible; as this cognition continues to dawn in the
soul, the whole cosmos sinks into oblivion and seems a block of stone,
without the name and sign of anything being known.
CHAPTER CLXXXXIV.
RÁMA’S REST IN NIRVÁNA INSENSIBILITY.
Argument:--Ráma’s feeling of his comatosity, and _his relation_
of it to his preceptor Vasishtha.
Ráma said:--In whatever manner and form, the living or individual soul
conceives the universal soul within itself; it has the same conception
or idea presented before it, agreeably to its concept thereof. (_i.e._
The divine spirit appears in the same form in us, as we think it to be).
2. All these worlds lie in concert in their spiritual state, in the
boundless spirit of the great Brahma; but they appear to us in various
lights, like the different rays, radiating from the one and same gem.
3. The great and bright quarry of the Divine Mind, contains all these
gemming worlds in its unbounded bosom; all of which unite to shed and
scatter their conjoined light upon us, like the commingled rays of the
gems contained in the womb of a vast mine.
4. All these several worlds, shining together like so many lamps of a
lustre; are clearly perceived by some and are imperceptible to others,
as the blaze of day light is dazzling to the clear-sighted, but quite
dim to the blind.
5. As the rushing of the contrary currents, describe the whirlpools
in the waters of the deep; so do the contact and conflict of the
elementary atoms, produce the consolidation and dissolution of worlds,
which are no acts of creation.
6. The creation is everywhere but a coagulation, of the drizzling drops
of the gelid intellect; who can therefore count the countless watery
particles, that are incessantly oozing out of it, and are condensed in
the forms of worldly spherules.
7. As the part is not different in its substance, from that of the
whole; so the creation is not otherwise than its creator, except in
the difference of the two terms of devious significations.
8. The causeless and uncausing unity, being the archetype of infinite
variety; these numberless multiplicities are only ectypes of that sole
moiety, and neither a duality nor pluralities whatever; nor do these
copies and counterparts, ever rise or fall apart from their original
prototype (but the both are showing the same).
9. It is that intelligence which shows the intelligibles in itself; it
produces these unproduced productions to view, as the sun light exposes
the visibles to light.
10. It is from my inappetency of all things in existence, that I have
accomplished that perfection, and acquired that prosperity for myself,
which is termed _insouciance_ or the nirvána extinction.
11. It is not by our understanding this bliss, nor can we have any
knowledge of it by our percipience; neither is there any knowledge
whereby we may know, the unknown one which is alone to be known. (Here
is a pun and play of the word bódha or knowledge, which is explained in
the gloss to a great length).
12. It is a knowledge that rises of itself, and a waking of the soul
resembling its somnolence; it throws a light as that of the midday sun
in the inmost soul, and is neither confined in or absent from any place
or time. (_i.e._ The full blaze of spiritual light, fills the soul at
all times and places or as Pope says: It wraps my soul, and absorbs me
quite).
13. It is after the subsidence of all desire within, and desistance
from all actions without accompanied with one’s desistance from all
wishes, that this stillness attends upon the enlightened soul.
14. The saint of awakened understanding, that is confined in himself,
and absorbed in his meditation; is neither inclined to the prurience of
any thing, nor to the avoidance of aught whatever. (“Have what I have,
and dare not leave, enamoured of the present day.” Young).
15. In this state of rapture, the mind of the saint, though in full
possession of its mental faculties; remains yet as fixed and inactive,
and unmindful of all worldly things and bodily actions; as a burning
taper, that consumes itself while illumes others, without any
shaking or motion of its own. (_i.e._ Thoughtful and inactive).
16. The soul becomes as Viswarúpa or incorporated with the world, in
its condition of thoughtfulness, when it is called the Viswátma or
the mundane soul; or else it is said to be situated in the state of
the immense void of Brahma, when it is devoid of and unoccupied with
its thoughts. Hence creation and its cessation, both appertain to the
Divine Intellect, in its states of activity or thoughtfulness and its
wants or stupor.
17. He who is enrapt in divine ecstasy, and settled in his belief of
the identity of the Deity with his excogitation of him, remains closely
confined in himself with his rapture and secure from distraction of his
mind (and perturbation of worldly thoughts).
18. He who relies only in the cogitation of his self, regardless
of all other things in the world; comes to find the reality of his
self-cognition alone, and else beside, to be as _nil_ as empty air.
(Literally: as empty air is not distinct from vacuity).
19. The man of enlarged understanding, has an unbounded store of
knowledge in himself; but this ultimately ends in the knowledge of the
unspeakable one. (The end of all knowledge is the knowledge of God).
20. It is therefore in our quietism, that we feel the very best entity
of our consciousness, to be either dormant or extinct; and this state
of tranquility of the mind, is unutterable in words.
21. That which is the acme of all knowledge, is the abstract and
abstruse knowledge of all as the true One; hence the world is a real
entity, in as much as it abides in the eternal One (in its abstract
light).
22. The felicity of Nirvána--ecstasy, with the utter extinction of all
desire, and the consciousness of a cool and calm composure of one’s
self, is the _summum bonum_ or highest state of bliss and perfection;
that is aimed at to be attained even by the gods Brahmá, Vishnu and
Siva.
23. All things (desirable to the soul), are always present with it,
in all places and at all times; they are ever accompanied with our
concepts of them in the intellect, which is the only pure entity that
is ever in existence, and is never dissolved. (The thought survives the
thing it represents).
24. Too hot is the busy bustle of the world, and very cooling is the
bliss of Nirvána insensibility; it is therefore far better to have
the cold heartedness of _insouciance_, than the heart burning heat of
worldliness.
25. As an artist conceives in himself, the contrivance of a statue
sculptured in relief, in the slab of his mind; so the Great Brahma sees
this universe inscribed in him, in rilievo and not carved out of him.
26. Just as the spacious ocean looks upon the waves, heaving upon the
surface of its waters; so doth the great Brahma see the myriads of
worlds, rolling about in the midst of its intellect.
27. But ignorant people of dull understandings, behold those fixed
inseparable spectacles, in the light of separate spectres, appearing in
various shapes and forms, in the spheres of their intellect.
28. In whatever manner doth any body conceive anything in his mind, he
verily thinks and beholds it in the same light, by his habitual mode of
thinking the same as such.
29. As a man waking from his sleep, finds no truth in aught he saw in
his dream; whether it be the death or presence or absence of a friend
or other; so the enlightened soul sees no reality in the Life or death,
of any living being seen in this visible world because none lives by
himself, nor dies or departs away of himself, but all are deputed alike
in the tablet of the eternal mind.
30. The thought and conviction of this truth in the mind, that whatever
appears to pass under and away from our sight, is the fixed inert and
quiescent _réchauffé_ of its divine original, is sure and enough to
forfend the mind, from its falling into the error of taking the copy
for its mould.
31. This lesson will certainly tend to lessen the enjoyments of your
body, that none of them will ever serve to prevent its fall to naught;
as also to protect you from the error of accounting for the reality of
these numberless, that are at best but passing sights in your dream.
32. Inappetency of earthly enjoyments increases our wisdom, as wisdom
serves to diminish our worldly desires, thus they mutually serve to
augment one another, as the open air and sunshine.
33. The knowledge which tends to create your aversion to riches, and
to your family and friends, is of course averse to your ignorance and
dullness; and the one being acquired and accomplished by you, serves to
put an end to your ignorance at once.
34. That is the true wisdom of wise men, which is unalloyed by avarice,
and that is the true learning of the learned, which is not vitiated by
any yearning.
35. But neither wisdom and inappetency, singly and simply, nor their
combined and augmented states, are of no good unless they have attained
their perfection, but prove as vain as the blaze of a sacrificial fire
in a picture, which has not the power of consuming the oblation offered
upon it.
36. The perfection of wisdom and inappetence, is a treasure which
is termed liberation also; because any body who has reached to, and
remains in that state of infinite bliss, is freed from all the bonds of
care.
37. In this state of our emancipation, we see the past and present,
and all our sights and doings in them as present before us; and find
ourselves situated, in a state of even calm and tranquility, of which
there is no end nor any breach whatever.
38. The self-contented man who finds all his happiness in himself,
is ever cool and calm and tranquil in his soul, and is devoid of all
desire and selfishness in his mind. He relies in his cool hearted
indifference and apathy to all worldly objects, and sees only a clear
void stretched before him.
39. We scarcely find one man, among a hundred thousand human beings,
who is strong enough and has the bravery, to break down the trammels
of his earthly desires, as the lion alone breaks of the iron bars of
his prison house. (The adamantine chain of avarice, binds us all alike
to this nether earth).
40. It is the inward light of the clear understanding, that dispels the
mist of desires that overcasts the cupidinous mind; and melts down the
incrassated avarice, as the broad sunshine dissolves the thickened ice
in autumn.
41. It is the want of desire that is the knowledge of the knowable,
(or what is best and most worthy of being known), and stands above
all things that are desirable or worth our desiring; it bears its
resemblance to the breath of air, without any external action of it.
(_i.e._ The man that is without any desire of his, lives to breathe
his vital breath only, without doing any external action of his; but
breathes as the current mind, to no purpose whatsoever).
42. He sits quiet and firm in himself, with his thoughts fixed in
ascertaining the truths and errors of the world; and looks all others
in the light of himself, without having to do with or desire of them.
43. He sits reclined in the immensity of Brahma, with his enlightened
view of the visibles as subsisting in Him; he remains indifferent to
all things, and devoid of his desire for anything, and sits quiet in
the quiescence of his liberation; which is styled as _moksha_ by the
wise.
CHAPTER CLXXXXV.
LECTURE ON THE ENLIGHTENMENT OF UNDERSTANDING.
Argument:--Vasishtha’s commendation of Ráma’s knowledge, and his
further questions for his trial and Ráma’s replies.
Vasishtha said:--Bravo Ráma! that you are awakened to light and
enlightened in your understanding; and the words you have spoken, are
calculated to destroy the darkness of ignorant minds, and rejoice the
hearts of wise.
2. These phenomenals that ever appear so very bright to our sight,
lose their gloss at our want of desire and disregard of them; it is
the knowledge of this truth, that is attended with our peace and
tranquility, and our liberation and inexcitability.
3. All these imaginary sights vanish from our view, at the suppression
of our imagination of them; just as the want of ventilation in the
winds, reduces them to the level of the one common, and calm still air.
4. The enlightened man remaining unmoved as a stone, or moving
quietly in his conduct in life (_i.e._ who is ever unruffled in his
disposition), is verily said to have his clear liberation.
5. Look at yogis like ourselves, O Ráma, that having attained this
state of liberation, have been cleansed from all our iniquities; and
are now set at quiet rest, even in the conduct of our worldly affairs.
6. Know the great gods Brahmá, Vishnu and others, to have been situated
in this state of quiet and freedom, that they are remaining as pure
intelligences, even while discharging the offices of their godship.
7. Do you, O Ráma, attain the enlightenment of holy sages, and remain
as still as a stone like ourselves.
8. Ráma replied:--I see this world as a formless void, situated in
the infinite vacuity of Brahma; it is an uncreated and unsubstantial
nihility, and with all its visibility, it is an invisible nothing.
9. It is as the appearance of water in the mirage, and as a whirlpool
in the ocean; its glare is as glitter gold in the dust, and of
sands in the sandy shores of seas in sunshine.
10. Vasishtha said:--Ráma! if you have become so enlightened and
intelligent, then I will tell you more for the edification of your
understanding; and put some questions for your answer to them, in order
to remove my doubts regarding them.
11. Tell me, how can the world be a nullity, when it shines so very
brightly all about and above our heads; and how can all these things,
which are so resplendent to sight, and always perceptible _to_ our
senses.
12. Ráma replied:--The world was never created in the beginning, nor
was anything ever produced at any time, it is therefore as nil as the
offspring of an unprolific woman and a creation of our imagination only.
13. It is true that there is no result without its cause, or that
nothing comes from nothing, but can be the cause of the world when it
is a nullity, and a production of our error only.
14. The immutable and everlasting deity, cannot be the creator, without
changing itself to a finite form; how can therefore be there a cause of
this frail and finite form?
15. It is the unknown and nameless Brahma, that shows himself as the
cause of the world, which having proceeded from him is his very self,
nor does the word world bear any other sense at all (nor it can be made
to bear any other sense).
16. The first intelligence named as the God Brahmá, rises from and
abides for a little while, that unknown and nameless category of the
universal spirit, as the conscious soul and having a spiritual body.
(This is called the _jívátmá_ or the living soul with a personal body
of it).
17. It then comes to see on a sudden, the luminaries of the sun and
moon and the heavenly hosts, rising in the infinity of the Divine Mind,
and thinks a small moment as a long year as its reverie of a dream.
(The Morning and evening of the creation of Brahmá, occupying many a
year of mortals).
18. It then perceived the ideas of space and time, together with those
of their divisions and motions also; and the whole universe appearing
to its sight, in the vast immensity of vacuity: (of the Divine Mind).
19. Upon the completion of the false world in this manner, its false
contriver the _soi-disant_ Brahmá, was employed in wandering all over
the world as his creation.
20. So the living soul of every body, being deluded by its mistaken
conception of the world as a positive reality, traverses up and down
and all about it, in its repeated wanderings amidst its false utopia.
21. And though the events of life, takes place according to the wishes
of the soul; yet these are mere accidents of chance; and it is a
mistake to think them as permanent result of fixed laws.
22. Because it is as wrong to suppose the substantiality of the world,
and the permanency of the events; as to grant the birth of a child
born of a barren woman, and the feeding of it with the powder of the
pulverized air.
23. Nothing can be positively affirmed or denied, regarding the
existence of the world; except that whatever it is, it is no other than
the diffusion of the all pervasive spirit of the Eternal one.
24. The world is as clear as the transparent atmosphere, and as solid
as the density of a rock; it is as mute and still as a stone, and quite
indestructible in its nature.
25. The world is originally ideal, from the ideas of the eternal mind;
and then it is spiritual, from the pervasion of the all pervading
spirit of Virát; it is thus a mere void, appearing as a solid body to
us.
26. Thus Brahma being the great vacuum and its fulness, where is any
other thing as the world in it, the whole is a dead calm as quietus,
and a void devoid of its beginning and end (_i.e._ a round sphere).
27. As the waves have been ever heaving and diving, in the bosom of
the waters of the deep; and as the waves are not distinct from those
waters, so the worlds rolling in the breast of the vacuous Brahma, are
no other than the selfsame essence of Brahma himself.
28. The few that are versed in their superior or esoteric, as well as
in the inferior or exoteric knowledge; live as long as they live and
then dive at last in this Supreme, as drops of water mix into the sea.
29. The exoteric (or phenomenal) world, abides in the esoteric (or
the noumenal) Brahma; and is of the same transcendent nature as the
Divine Mind; for it is never possible for the gross, changeful and
transitional nature, to subsist in the pure, unchanged and quiet state
of the deity.
30. For who that knows the nature of dream as false, and that of mirage
as a fallacy can ever believe them as realities; so any one that knows
the visible Nature to be of the nature of Brahma, can ever take it for
dull and gross material substance. (Nature being one with its God, is
equally of a spiritual nature).
31. The enlightened sage, that has the esoteric knowledge of the world,
and reflects it in its spiritual sense; cannot be misled to view it in
its gross (material) light, as the holy man that tastes ambrosia, is
never inclined to drink the impure liquor of wine.
32. He who remains in his _Nirvána_ meditation, by reverting his view
from the sight of the visibles, to the excogitation of his self; and
represses his mind from the thoughts of thinkables, he is verily seated
in the tranquility of Supreme spirit.
33. Vasishtha said:--If the visible creation is situated in
Brahma--their cause and origin, as the germ or sprout of a plant
is seated in its producing seed; how then can you ignore the
substantiality or distinction of either of them from their originating
source the seed or God (who is said in the sruti, as the seed of the
arbor of the world,--sansáramahirúpavíja &c.).
34. Ráma replied:--The germ does seem to be seated or situated in the
seed (as a separate or different substance); but as it is produced
from the essence of the seed, it appears to be the same substance with
itself. (Were it not so, the germ would become another plant than that
of the seed).
35. If the world as it appears to us is inherent in Brahma, then it
must be of the same essence and nature as Brahma; and these being
eternal and imperishable in Brahma, needs have the world to be so also
(and not of the seed and sprout, or the begetter and begotten).
36. We have neither seen nor ever heard, that any finite, formal
or perishable, has ever proceeded from an infinite, formless and
imperishable cause (therefore this world is not as it appears to us).
37. It is impossible for a formless thing, to remain in any form or
other whatsoever; as it is never possible for an atom, to contain a
mountain in its bosom.
38. It is the voice of an idiot only who says, that the stupendous
world with its gigantic form, abides in the formless abyss of Brahma;
as bright gems are contained in the hollow of a box or basket. (The
basket has a base to support any thing, whereas the vacuity of Brahma
has no basis at all).
39. It does not befit any body to say that, the transcendence and
tranquility of God, supports the material and moving world upon it; nor
that a corporeal body (the corpus mundi), is an imperishable thing (as
the divine spirit).
40. Our perception of the world having a form, is no proof of its
reality; because there is no truth whatever in the many curious forms,
that present themselves before us in our dreams. (This is a refutation
of the Buddhists’ reliableness in perception).
41. It is an unprecedented dream, that presents us the sight of the
world, of which we had no innate or preconceived idea in us; while our
usual dreams are commonly known, to be the reproduced representations,
of our former impressions and perceptions, and the results of our past
remembrances of things &c.
42. It is not a day dream as some would have it to be, because the
night dreams disappear in the day time; but how does a dreamer of his
own funeral at night, come to see himself alive upon his waking in the
day? (This continuous sight of the world day by day, is not comparable
to a transient dream by day or night, but a permanent one in the
person of the Great God himself).
43. Others again maintain that, no bodiless things can appear in our
dream, since we dream of certain bodies only; but this tenet has no
truth in it, since we often dream of, as well as see the apparitions of
bodiless ghosts both by day and night.
44. Therefore the world is not as false as a dream, but an impression
settled like a dream in our very conscious soul; it is the formless
deity, that manifests itself in the various forms of this world, to our
understandings.
45. As our intellect remains alone and in itself, in the forms and
other things, appearing as dreams unto us in our sleep; so doth Brahma
remain solely in himself in the form of the world we see: for God being
wholly free and apart from all, can not have any accompaniment with him.
46. There is nothing that is either coexistent or inexistent in him
(that is what can be either affirmed or denied of him); because we have
no concept or conception of him ourselves, nor do we any notion
or idea we are to form of him.
47. What is this nameless thing, that we can not know in our
understanding; it is known in our consciousness (_i.e._ we are
conscious of it), but it is in _esse_ or _non-esse_, we know nothing of
(this world).
48. It is an inexistence appearing as existent, as also an existence
seeming to be unexistent; all things are quite manifest in it at all
times and in all forms (but how and whence they are is quite unknown).
49. It is the development of Brahma in Brahma, as the sky is evolved in
vacuity; for nothing can be found to fill the vacuum of Brahma, except
Brahma himself (or his own essence).
50. There I, my seeing and my sight of the world, is all mere fallacy;
it is the calm and quiet extension of the Divine intellect only, that
fills the infinite vacuity of his own spirit, and naught beside.
51. As the ærial castle of our imagination, has no building nor reality
in it; so is this world but a calm and quiet vacuity, and unfailing
vacant ideality.
52. It is a boundless space full with the essence of the Supreme
spirit, it is without its beginning and end, wholly inscrutable in its
nature, and quite calm and quiet in its aspect.
53. I have known my own state also, to be without its birth and death,
and as calm and quiet, as that of the unborn and immortal Brahma
himself; and I have come to know myself (_i.e._ my soul) also, to be as
formless and undefinable, as the Supreme soul or spirit.
54. I have now given expression, to all that I find to be impressed in
my consciousness; just as whatever is contained in the seed, the same
comes to sprout forth out of it.
55. I know only the knowledge that I bear in my consciousness, and
nothing about the unity or duality (of the creation and creator);
because the question of unity and duality rises only from imagination
(of the one or other).
56. All these knowing and living liberated men, that have been
liberated from the burthen of life by their knowledge of truth; are
sitting silent here, and devoid of all their earthly cares, like the
empty air in the infinite vacuity.
57. All their efforts of mixing with the busy bustle of the world,
are here at an end; and they are sitting here as quiet and silent as
yon mute and motionless picture on the wall, medalling on the bright
regions in their minds.
58. They are as still as the statues engraven in a rock, or as people
described in fancy tales, to dwell in the ærial city built by Sambara
in air (_i.e._ as the inhabitants dwelling in the Elysian of Plato, or
in the utopia of Sir Thomas Moore); or as the airy figures in our dream.
59. This world is verily a phantom appearing in our dream of the
creation; it is a structure without its base, and a figure intangible
to our touch. Where then is its reality? (Its tangibleness is a
deception of our sense).
60. The world appears as a positive reality to the blinded ignorant,
but it found to be a negative nullity by the keen-sighted sage;
who sees it in the light of Brahma and a manifestation of himself,
and as still as the calm air, reposing in the quiet vacuity of that
transcendent spirit.
61. All these existences, with their moving and unmoving beings, and
ourselves also, are mere void and vacant nullities, in the knowledge of
the discerning and philosophic mind.
62. I am void and so are you too, and the world beside but mere blanks;
the intellect is a void also, and by having all several voids in
itself, it forms the immense intellectual vacuum, which is the sole
object of our adoration (being as infinite and eternal, as well as all
pervading and containing all as the supreme spirit).
63. Being thus seated with my knowledge of the infinite vacuity of
Brahma, I take thee also, O thou best of biped beings, as indistinct
from the knowable One, who is one and same with the all comprehending
vacuum, and so make my obeisance to thee.
64. It is from the all comprehensiveness (_i.e._ omniscience) of the
vacuous intellect, that this world rises and sets in it by turns; it is
as clear as the transparent air, and has no other cause of it but the
undulation of the same.
65. This hypostasis of Brahma is beyond all other existences, and
above the reach of all sástras, it is by attaining to this state of
transcendentalism, that one becomes as pure and superfine as empty air.
66. There is nothing as myself, my feet and hands, or this pot or
aught else that I bear, as any material existence; all is air and
empty and inane as air, and knowing this, let us turn ourselves to our
airy intellects only. (_i.e._ I think ourselves as intellectual and
spiritual beings only, in utter disregard of our bodies and earthly
things).
67. You have shewn me sir, the nullity of the world and the vanity of
all worldly things; and the truth of this doctrine is evident in the
light of our spiritual knowledge, in defiance of the sophistry of our
opponents.
68. The sophist that discomfits the silent sage with his sophistry, can
never expect to see the light of spiritual knowledge to gleam upon him
(spirituality is got by silent meditation and not by wrangling).
69. The Being that is beyond our perception and conception, and
without any designation or indication; can be only known in our
consciousness of him, and not by any kind of reasoning or argumentation.
70. The Being that is without any attribute, or sight or symbol of his
nature, is purely vacuous and entirely inconceivable by us, save by
means of our spiritual light of him.
CHAPTER CLXXXXVI.
STORY OF A WOOD-CUTTER AND HIS GEM.
Argument:--Illustration of the efficacy of knowledge derived from
Books and Preceptors. In the story of the Wood-cutter, and his
obtaining a precious Gem.
Válmíki relates:--After the lotus-eyed Ráma, had said these words, he
fell into a trance and remained silent, with his mind reposing in the
state of supreme bliss. (The ecstatic state of rapture and transport of
the devout).
2. He felt himself supremely blest at his repose in the Supreme spirit,
and then awaking after a while from his holy trance, he wistfully asked
his sagely preceptor, saying:--
3. Ráma said:--O Venerable sir, that art the dispeller of my doubts, as
the clear autumn is the scatterer of dark clouds; that the doubt which
had so long rankled in my breast, has at last quite set at rest.
4. I find this knowledge of mine to be the best and greatest of all,
and capable of saving me from the boisterous ocean of this world; it
transcends all other doctrines, which are mere verbiology to ensnare
the heedless minds of men.
5. If all this is certainly the very Brahma, and our consciousness of
him; then O Venerable sir, he must be unspeakable and inexpressible in
words, even by the most learned and wisest of men.
6. Remaining thus in the meditation of the knowable One, and without
any desire in our minds of any earthly good; we are enabled to attain
the consciousness of our highest bliss (The Turíya state), which is
unattainable by learning and unutterable in words. (The divine state is
only known one’s self, but never to be spoken or expressed).
7. How can this certain and invariable state of felicity, be obtained
from the dogmas of the sástras; which are at variance with each other,
and are employed in the enumeration of their several categories. (The
ever varying sástras cannot give us any knowledge of this invariable
felicity).
8. We can gain no true knowledge from the tenets of the different
sástras, that are best but contradictory of one another; it is
therefore in vain to expect any benefit from them, that are based upon
mere theories of our pretended leaders.
9. Tell me therefore, O Venerable sir, whether it is of any good to us,
to learn the doctrines of the sástras or attend to the teaching of our
preceptors (when our true knowledge is derived from within ourselves:
_i.e._ from our intuition, self-consciousness and our personal
experiences).
10. Vasishtha replied:--So it is, O mighty armed Ráma, the sástras
are not the means to divine knowledge; those being profuse in wordy
torrents, and this beyond the reach of words.
11. Yet hear me to tell you, O thou best of Raghu’s race, how the
dictates of the sástras and the lectures of your preceptors, are of
some avail towards the improvement of your understanding.
12. There lived in a certain place some wood-cutters, who had been ever
unfortunate and miserable in this lives (or who were miserably poor
all their lives). They pined and faded away in their poverty, like the
withering trees in summer heat.
13. Excessive poverty made them cover themselves with patched up rags,
and they were as emaciated in their despair as the fading lotus flowers
for want of their natal water.
14. Being parched by famine, and despairing of their lives; they only
thought of the means of filling their bellies.
15. In this state of their distress and despondence, one thought
gleamed in their minds; and it was to carry the woods day by day to the
town, and to live upon the profits of their sale as fuel.
16. Thus determined they went to the forest to fell down the woods,
because any plan that is hit upon in distress, is best to be availed
of, for the preservation of life.
17. Thus they continued daily to go to the forest to fell the woods,
and fetch them to the town for sale; and to fill their bellies and
support their bodies with the sale proceeds thereof.
18. It happened that the skirts of the forest whither they went, were
full of woods with hordes of treasures, consisting of gold and precious
gems, lying hidden under the trees, and also exposed to view.
19. It then turned out that some of the log-bearers, happened by their
good luck to espy the brilliant gems, which they took with them to
their homes from the forest.
20. Some saw the valuable sandalwood trees, and others beheld beautiful
flowers in some place; some found fruit trees somewhere, all which they
took and sold for their food and livelihood.
21. Some men of dull understanding, slighted all these goods; and kept
collecting the blocks of wood, which they bore to the way side of the
forest, and there sold at trifling prices. (Nothing is valued at home
unless it is taken to a distance).
22. Among all these wood men, who were employed in common in collection
of woods, some of them happened by their good luck, to find some
precious gems there, which set them at ease for every care.
23. Thus amongst all of these that had been toiling and moiling in the
same field of labour; now it happened to obtain their desired boon the
Philosopher’s gem. (That converts all things to gold, and is desired by
all but found by few).
24. Now they having obtained the desirable gem, which bestowed upon
them all the blessings of affluence and prosperity; they became
preeminently happy with their fortune, and remained quite content in
the very woods.
25. So the seekers and sellers of worthless wooden blocks, being
gainers of the all bounteous gem of their heart’s desire (Chintámani);
remained happily with themselves, as the gods dwelling together in
harmony in the Elysian field.
26. Thus the Kir woodmen, having obtained their best gains of what
forms the pith and gist of every good in the main, remained in quiet
and quite content in themselves, and passed their days without any
fear or grief, in the enjoyment of their everlasting equanimity and
felicity.
27. This world is compared to the wilderness, and all its busy people
are as the day-labouring Kiri foresters, daily toiling and moiling in
their hard work, for their help of daily bread. Some amongst them are
happy to find the precious treasure of true knowledge, which gives them
the real bliss of life and lasting peace of mind.
CHAPTER CLXXXXVII.
ON THE EXCELLENCE OF LEARNING.
Argument:--Study of the sástras whether for temporal ends or
ultimate bliss tends mainly to the edification of the Mind.
Ráma said:--Do thou, O greatest of sages, deign to give me the best
treasures of knowledge, as the wood-cutter obtained their precious
treasures of the Philosopher’s stones, and whereby I may attain to the
full, perfect and indubitable knowledge of all things.
2. Vasishtha replied:--The woodmen that I have mentioned bear allusion
to all mankind in general and their great poverty that I have
described, refers to the extreme ignorance of men which is the cause of
all their woe (three fold miseries--_tritapas_ of the body, mind and
soul, or of this world and the next. Gloss).
3. The great forest which is said to be the place of their residence,
is the vast wilderness of knowledge, which the human kind have to
traverse under the guidance of their preceptors and the sástras; and
their labour in felling and selling the wood for their daily food, is
the hard struggle of human kind in their life time for their simple
fare and supportance.
4. The unavaricious men that are unemployed in business, and are
yet desirous of the enjoyments of life; are the persons that devote
themselves to the acquisition of learning. (Such is the literary body
of students and scholars).
5. And those people also, who pursue their callings for the provisions
of life, and are dependents others for their supportance; become
successful in the acquirement of learning in their minds, by their
practice of the precepts and studious habits.
6. As the wood-cutters, who sought for the worthless wood at first,
get the very valuable gems at last; so men prosecuting their studies
for a paltry maintenance and self supportance, succeed to gain divine
knowledge at the end. (Secular knowledge often leads to the spiritual).
7. There are some sceptics who say by way of derision, what is the good
to be derived from poring upon books? but these have been found to have
turned to true believers at last. (Those who came to deride, returned
believers at the end and confessed the truth).
8. Worldly men devoted to the objects of their fruition in life, and
acquainted with the objects of mental and spiritual truths; coming
distrustfully to listen to the doctrines of the sástras, have become
fully convinced of their truths at last.
9. Men are led away to many ways by the different tenets of the
sástras, and by direction of their various desires and inclinations;
but they come to meet at last in the same path of glory, as the gemming
forest of the woodmen.
10. He who is not inclined to the injury of others, but goes on in his
own beaten course; is called the upright man, and it is his judgement
which is sought and followed by every one.
11. But men ignorant of truth, are dubious of the result of righteous
conduct, in earning their livelihood; and are doubtful also of the
benefit, which is derived from the study of the sástras. (Hence they
fall to misconduct and neglect their studies also, in order to earn
their bread by foul means).
12. But men persisting in their righteousness, gain both their
livelihood and liberation at once; as the honest woodmen obtained their
wood as well as the gems together, and in the same place.
13. Among these some succeeded to get the sandal woods, and some to
gain the precious gems, while others met with some common metals, and a
great number of them, found the wood of the forest trees only. (So are
our lots differently cast among different individuals, according to our
respective deserts).
14. Some of us gain the objects of our desire, and some acquire riches
or deeds of virtue and merit; others obtain their liberation; and
attain their proficiency in the sástras.
15. Know, O Ráma, that the sástras deal only with instructions for the
acquirement of the triple blessings of our livelihood, riches and
virtue; but they give no direction for our knowing the supreme One,
who is inexpressible in words. (Because no word nor thought can ever
approach to the unknowable One).
16. The words and their significations (which are used in the sástras),
serve only to express the intelligible objects which are signified by
them, as the seasons denote the seasonal fruits and flowers which they
bear; but the knowledge of the supreme being, is derived from one’s
intuition, and is felt in our consciousness alone.
17. Divine knowledge is said in the sástras, to transcend the knowledge
of all other things; and the transparency of the Divine person,
surpasses the brightness of all objects, as the beauty of the female
body excels the lustre of the brightest gems. (The personal grace of
females, transcends the beauty of all their decorations).
18. The transcendental knowledge of the Deity, is not to be derived
from the doctrine of the sástras, nor from the teachings of our
preceptors; it cannot be had by means of our gifts and charities; nor
by divine service and religious observances, can we ever know the
unknowable One.
19. These and other acts and rites, are falsely said to be the causes
of divine knowledge, which can never be attained by them; now attend
to me, O Ráma, and I will tell you the way to your rest in the Supreme
soul.
20. The study of the sástras, serves of course to purify the mind
from vulgar errors and prejudices; but is the want of desire or
aversion to worldly enjoyments, that makes the mind look within itself,
wherein it sees clearly the image of God shining in it.
21. This sástra stablishes right understanding in lieu of ignorance,
and this right reasoning serves to drive away all gross errors from the
mind at once.
22. The sástra or learning serves principally to cleanse the mirror of
the mind, from its dross of errors at first, and then it purifies the
person of its possessor, by the force of its doctrines. (So the sástra
has the power of purifying both the body and mind of the learned man).
23. As the rising sun casts his image spontaneously, on the dark bosom
of the ocean; so doth the luminary of sástra or learning, shed of its
own accord the bright light of truth, in the minds of ignorant.
24. As the sun enlightens all objects, by his presence before them;
so doth the light of learning illume the dark understandings of the
illiterate, by its benign appearance therein.
25. In this manner there is an intimate relation, between the learning
derived from the sástra, and the mind of the man that is desirous of
his liberation; in as much as the sástra alone affords the knowledge of
the otherwise unknowable One to our minds.
26. As the sight of the sun and the ocean, shows us the blue waters of
the one, turning to a bright expanse by the rays of the other; so the
instance of the sástra and its doctrines, shows the enlightenment of
human intellect by means of the other.
27. As boys in their play with pebbles, rub them against one another
in the water, and have their hands cleansed of dirt by abrasion of
the stones; so the discussion of the sástras, clears the minds of the
disputants of their errors, by refutation of discordant opinions.
28. So also do learned men, by their confutation of repugnant
doctrines, clear their minds of doubtful questions; and become
perfected in forming right principles, and ascertaining the truth from
falsehood.
29. The sástras distil with sweetness of the holy texts, and infuse
the sweet balm of true knowledge into the mind; they are as profuse of
dulcitude, as the sugarcane exudes with its saccharine juice, which is
so delectable to taste.
30. As the rays of sunlight falling on the walls of houses, become
perceptible to us, by means of our visual organs; so the light of
spiritual knowledge, pierces into the souls of men, by means of our
hearing the sástras through the medium of our ears.
31. Learning acquired for the acquisition of the triple good of this
world, namely virtue, wealth and the objects of our desire; is no
learning at all without the knowledge of the sástras leading to our
liberation. Much learning both in theory and practice, is worth nothing
without the salvation of our souls.
32. That is the best learning, which gives us the knowledge of truth;
and that is true knowledge, which causes our equanimity in all states
of our being; and that is called perfect equanimity, which produces our
hypnotism in waking (_i.e._ whereby we may sleep in insensibility over
the waking and tumultuous world).
33. Thus are all these blessings obtained from learning of the sástras,
therefore let every one devote himself to the study of the sástras with
all diligence.
34. Hence know, O Ráma! that it is the study of the sástras, and
meditation of their recondite meanings; together with one’s attendance
on his preceptor, and audience of his lectures and counsels, as well
by his equanimity, and observance of his vows and discipline, that he
can attain his supreme bliss, in the everlasting God, who is beyond all
worldly things, and is the supreme lord God of all.
CHAPTER CLXXXXVIII.
EXCELLENCE OF UNIVERSAL TOLERATION.
Argument:--Sama-darsana or equanimity agreeing with stoic
fortitude under all the various shades of its meaning,
elaborately treated here.
Vasishtha continued:--Hear me Ráma, to tell you again for the
perfection of your understanding (after what I have said already in
praise of the virtue of equanimity); because the repetition of a
lesson, serves to impress it the more in the memory of inattentive
persons.
2. Ráma! I have told you before about the existence of the world, after
I had related to you in length regarding its creation or production;
whereby you have come to know, that both the appearance and subsistence
of the world (_i.e._ its coming to and being in existence), are mere
fallacies of our understanding.
3. I have next explained to you also, in the Upasama-Prakarana or my
lecture on Insouciance, of the necessity of observing and maintaining
a total indifference in regard to the whole creation (which is here
repeated as leading to our _nirvána_ or lukewarmness in this our living
state).
4. In my discourse on indifference, I have described to you the
different stages of nonchalance; the attainment of the highest pitch
of which, will conduce ultimately to your obtaining the blissfulness
of the _nirvána_ numbness, which is treated of in this book on
_anæsthesia_. (From the stage of Upasama or allaying of all excitements
to that of _upasánti_ or absence of excitability, there are some
intermediate states spoken of before).
5. You shall have here to hear (or learn) from me, regarding the manner
in which the learned are to conduct themselves in this phenomenal
world, after they have learnt and obtained, whatever there is to be
known and obtainable herein (_i.e._ after their attainment of divine
knowledge and wisdom).
6. A man having received his birth in this world, should habituate
himself from his boyhood, to view the phenomenals as they are of
themselves, and without any concern with himself; in order to have
his security and happiness apart from all others. (_i.e._ Constrain
yourself to yourself, and without any concern of yours with any).
7. Regard all in the one and same light with yourself, and observe
a universal benevolence towards all beings, and then placing your
reliance in your own equanimity, conduct yourself safely and securely
every where.
8. Know the plan of your even-mindedness, to be productive of the
fruits of purest and most delicious taste; and bearing the blossoms of
unbounded prosperity, and the flowers of our unfading good fortune.
9. Meekness of disposition, yields the fruit of universal benevolence,
and makes the prosperity of the whole world wait at its service.
(Blessed are the meek; for they shall enjoy all the blessing &c.).
10. Neither the possession of a kingdom on earth, nor the enjoyment
of the best beauties herein; can yield that undecaying and essential
happiness, which is derived from the equanimity of the meek.
11. The utmost limit of a cool disposition, and the entire want of all
anxious cares, are the two antidotes that set at naught the fervour and
vapours of sorrow from the human mind.
12. It is very rare to meet a person, amidst the spheres of all these
worlds; who is fraught with the ambrosia of cool insouciance, who is
friendly to his enemies and whose enemies are his friends, and who
looks on all alike as he does to himself.
13. The mind of the enlightened man, shines as brightly as the luminous
moon; and dazzles with drops of ambrosial dews; the sages all lived to
drink the cooling draught of immortality, as you learn from the lives
of the royal sage Janaka and others of immortal fame.
14. The man practising his demureness, has his faults described as his
qualities, his sorrows seem as his pleasure (_i.e._ he rejoices in his
misery); and his death is eternal life unto him.
15. Sámyam or stoicism is ever accompanied, with a good grace, good lot
and placidness; all of which are constant attendants on the stoic sage,
as faithful wives fondly cling to the sides of their beloved husbands.
16. Equanimity is the perpetual prosperity of the soul, and not the
transitory hilarity of the mind; therefore there is no treasure (_i.e._
spiritual bliss) whatsoever, which is a stranger to the meekness of
spirit.
17. He that is honest in all his dealings, and steady in his own
professions; and liberal in his minds (_i.e._ taking no heed of the
faults of others); are men as valuable as richest gems, and are deemed
and desired by all as gods upon earth. (Because men with godly virtues,
are deemed and deified as gods).
18. The even minded man, that is righteous and upright in all his
doings and dealings, who is magnanimous in his soul and benevolent
in his mind; such a man is neither burnt by fire, nor ever soiled or
sullied by water (_i.e._ nothing can alter the even tenor of his mind
and the smoothness of his conduct).
19. Who can foil that man that does what is right, and observes things
in their true light; who is not susceptible of joy or grief (but goes
on in the even course of his life).
20. The righteous and unflinching man, is relied upon and esteemed
by all his friends and enemies also; he is honoured by his king and
master, and loved by all wisemen with whom he has any dealing.
21. The wise and even sighted men are of indifferent minds, and do
not try to flee from evil, nor rejoice to receive any good; they are
content with whatever comes to pass upon them, as aught of good or bad,
they care for naught.
22. These meek minded men are unmindful of any good or desirable thing,
which they may happen either to lose or leave from them; because they
have to resort to the happy state of their equanimity (Samatá or stoic
sameness); of which no calamity or chance can deprive them.
23. Men enjoying the felicity of equanimity, laugh to scorn at the
tribulations of the world; and live uninjured under all the varying
circumstances of life; they are venerated by the gods also, for the
invariable samatá or sameness of their minds, (as those of the gods
themselves).
24. If the (unfavorable) course of events, ever happened to ruffle the
countenance of the forbearing man; yet the inward equanimity of his
mind, serves to shed the ambrosial beams, of a placid moon light within
himself.
25. Whatever the even minded man acts or does for himself, and
whatsoever he says in opprobrium of the misdeeds of others; are all
lauded with applause by the majority of men (who like to see the
goodness of others, and to learn of and correct their own faults).
26. Whatever good or evil is known or seen to be done by the impartial
observer, at any time whether past or present; are all approved of by
the public (under the impression of their being done for common good).
27. The man that sees all things in the same light (of indifference),
is never displeased or dejected in his countenance at any calamity or
danger, that may betide him at any time.
28. The prince Sibi of old, is recorded in history to have passed
pieces of flesh from his own body, and to have fed a hawk therewith,
in order to save the life of a captive pigeon from his claws. (This
is an instance of samadristi or fellow feeling even towards the brute
creation).
29. Again mind the impassible prince, who did not sink into despondence
seeing his beloved consort to be maltreated before his sight. (This is
an instance of unimpressible fortitude).
30. Mind also how the king of _Trigarta_, offered his only son who
was accomplished and successful in all his desires to the horrible
_Rákshasa_; upon his being vanquished by the fiend, at a certain wager
he had laid with him.
31. Look at the great king Janaka, how he remained undismayed and
undejected, at the burning of his well decorated city of Mithila.
32. Look at the quiet and submissive prince of Sályadesa, how he
calmly struck off his head from his body, as if it were the plucking
off of a lotus leaf or flower from its stem, in order to satisfy the
demand of a deity for the same.
33. The Sauvíra sovereign, who had won the big Airávata elephant of
the god Indra, in a combat with him; made at last a gift of him to the
very god, with as much unconcern, as one offers a heap of white kundu
flowers, or huge heaps of rotten straws upon the sacrificial fire.
34. You have heard how the elephant named kundapa, employed his trunk
in sympathy to the Bráhman’s kine, in lifting them from being plunged
in the mud; and afterwards devoted his body to the service of the
Bráhman; wherefore he was taken up to heaven in a celestial car.
35. Let your continued observance of toleration, preserve you from acts
of intolerance, which tend at best to the oppression of others; and
know that the spirit of intolerance, is as the goblin of the kadamba
forest (whose business was the havoc and depredation of all living
beings). (_i.e._ By want of forbearance, you make yourself an enemy to
all, and make them as enemies to you).
36. Remember the young and gentle Jadabharata, who by the natural
hebetude of his mind, devoured the firebrand that was thrown into his
almspot, thinking as a piece of meat, and without any injury to himself
(To the meek and tolerant, a furnace of fire, becomes a bed of roses
and flowers).
37. Think of the soberminded kura, who notwithstanding his following
the profession of a huntsman all his lifetime, was at last translated
to heaven, and placed by the souls of the righteous men after his
demise.
38. Think of the listlessness and want of concupiscence, in the person
of the royal sage Kapardana, who being seated in the garden of paradise
in his youth, and beset by celestial damsels all about, felt no desire
for any of them.
39. Know how many princes and Lords of peoples have from the
unperturbed apathy of their souls, resigned their realms and society
of mankind, and betaken themselves to lonely forests and solitary
caves of Vindhyan Mountains, and there spent their lives in motionless
torpidity.
40. Think of the great sages and saints, and of divine and devoted
adepts, who were adored by even the gods, for the steadiness of their
holy devotion, that have passed away in the observance of their rigid
and unruffled vows of an universal indifference.
41. Call to your mind the instances of many a monarch, of ordinary men
and of base and mean huntsmen also, that have been honoured in all ages
and countries, for their observance of an unimpressed equality in all
states and circumstances of their lives.
42. All intelligent men strictly observed the rule, of preserving
their equanimity in their course through life; whether it be for the
achievement of their acts for this life or the next, as also for the
success of their understandings of every kind.
43. They neither long for longevity nor desire their death in
difficulties; but live as long as they have to live, and act as they
are called to act, without any grudge or murmur.
44. It is the business of the wiseman, to conduct himself in the career
of his life, with a contented mind and placid countenance, both in his
favourable and unfavourable circumstances, as well as in the happiness
or misery of himself or others.
CHAPTER CLXXXXIX.
STATE OF LIVING LIBERATED MAN.
Argument:--The liberated man neither gains nor loses anything,
by his observance or neglect of the acts of life; and yet he
is enjoined to act in conformity with the prescribed rules of
conduct of his society and country.
Ráma said:--Tell me sir, why the wise and liberated man is not freed
from his subjection to the prescribed rules of conduct, when his soul
is beatified with the spiritual light, and his mind is emancipated from
all earthly cares.
2. Vasishtha replied:--The observance and avoidance of all ritual and
pious acts, are equal and of no avail to the truly enlightened man;
who is indifferent to aught of good or evil to his life (_i.e._ who
is neither solicitous to have anything desirable or leave what is
unfavourable to him into the world).
3. There is nothing whatever in this frail world, which may be
desirable to the man of right understanding, not aught of positive
evil, which deserves the avoidance and abhorrence of the wise man.
4. The wise man derives no positive nor permanent good, by his doing of
any act prescribed by custom or usage; nor does he lose anything by his
neglect of them; wherefore it is best for him to stand in the middle
course, and according to the common rules of society and his country.
5. As long as there is life in the body, it is called a living body and
has its motion also; therefore measure your movements according to the
breathings of your life, nor accelerate nor slacken them beyond their
just measure (_i.e._ neither outrun thy breath, nor halt in thy course).
6. If it is equal to any one, to walk either by this way or that to his
journey’s end, yet it is much better for him, to walk by the beaten
path, than in a strange and unknown one. (So if it be the same thing to
sleep at home or abroad; yet it must be safer and more comfortable to
every one to sleep at his own lodge than elsewhere).
7. Whatever actions are done at any time, with meekness and mildness
of disposition, and with a placid frankness of the mind, is ever held
as perfectly pure and contrite in its nature, and never blameable in
anywise.
8. We have seen many wise, learned and farsighted men, to have
conducted themselves very honorably and blamelessly in this world,
which is full of faults and pitfalls, and beset by traps and snares on
every way.
9. Every one is employed with perfect compliance of his mind, in
discharging the duties of the particular sphere in which he is placed;
some commencing their career in life, in the state of householdership
and others ascending gradually to state of living liberation (when they
are not exempted from observances of particular duties also).
10. There are many wise and well discerning kings and princes, like
yourself and those sitting in this assembly who are vigilantly employed
in the ruling of their respective states, without their attachment or
tenacity to them, and without their desire of reaping any fruition from
them, and by way of the disinterested discharge of duty.
11. There are some that follow the usages, according to the true sense
of the Vedas, and take their food from what is left after their daily
offerings to the sacrificial fire. (The early Aryans ever fed upon
cooked food, after their first offerings to the gods by their mouth of
the fire (_Agner vaidevanam Mukham_)).
12. All men belonging to any of the four classes, are employed in the
observance of their respective rites and duties, and in the acts of the
worship of the gods, and in their meditations with different ends and
views (Kamya-karma).
13. Some men of magnanimous minds, and higher aims of future liberation
or _Moksha_, have renounced all their ritual acts _karma kánda_; and
remain inactive as ignorant people, with their spiritual knowledge of
the only One.
14. Some are seen to be sitting silent and insensitive, in their
posture of deep and unbroken meditation; in dreary and dismal deserts
untraversed by the deer and wild beasts; and in distant and lovely
solitudes, where no trace of a human being was never seen even in a
dream.
15. Some are found to resort to some sacred place of pilgrimage, and
there to perform their acts for future rewards; while others are known
to recline in some holy hermitage or sacred shrine of saints, and there
to pass their lives in the practice of resignation and indifference and
quite unknown to men.
16. Many are seen to leave their own houses, and quit their native
countries, in order to avoid the enmity and scorn of their fellow
countrymen; and betake themselves to other lands, where they settle as
strangers.
17. There are many who being dissatisfied with their families, forsake
their company and desert their homes; and rove about as wanderers, from
forest to forest, over hills and dales, and cities and towns, without
being settled any where.
18. How many are there that travel to the great city of Benares, and
to the holy city of Allahabad and visit the holy hills and cities, and
the sacred shrine of Badarikásrama (for performance of their acts of
righteousness there).
19. How many are seen to resort the holy places at Sálagrama, and
to the sacred cell in Kalapagráma, how many are on their way to the
holy city of Mathura, and the sacred hill at Kalinjar.
20. See the numbers of pilgrims thronging in the woodlands on Mahendra
mountains, and upon table lands of Gandhamádana hills; see also the
pilgrims on the plains of Dardura hills; as those also upon the level
lands of Sahya Mountains.
21. See the pilgrims thronging on the craigs of the Vindhyan range,
and those dwelling in the hollows of the Malaya Mountains; see them
that dwell in the happy groves of Kailása, and those in the caverns of
Rikshavata mounts.
22. In these as well as many other holy places and mounts, you will
find a great many hermits and far-sighted devotees dwelling in peace,
and wholly devoted to their holy devotion.
23. Those among them that have become _sannyasins_, are deserters of
their prescribed duties, while they that are _Brahmacharins_, are
strict observers of the law and their sacred rites: but those that have
the faith of Buddha, are apostates from the holy faith, and fanatics in
their practices.
24. Some of these have left their native homes, and others have quitted
their natal lands altogether; some have their settled habitations in
some place, and others leading their nomadic lives from place to place.
25. Among these, O Ráma, that dwell in the sublunar sphere of this
globe, as also among them that live at the antipodes, and are known as
daityas:--
26. Some are of clear understandings, and well acquainted with the
civil laws of their society; some are of enlightened understanding, and
others again are acquainted with the past, and have a foresight of the
future.
27. Some are of unenlightened understandings, and are always in
suspense, and suspicion of their minds; they are addicted to vice, and
unable to govern themselves, are always under the government of others.
28. Some there are who are half-enlightened, and proud withal of their
knowledge of truth; they break loose from the observance of customary
duties, and are not yet the esoteric yogi or spiritualist.
29. Thus among these great multitudes of men, that are wading in the
vast ocean of life, every one is striving to get the end, according to
his different aim and object.
30. But it is neither one’s confining himself at home, or remaining
in his native country, nor his betaking him to hermitage or dwelling
in some solitary forest; nor the observance of customary duties;
nor practice of painful austerities, whereby one may ford over the
unfordable gulf of this world.
31. Neither dependence on righteous acts nor the forsaking of them;
nor one’s employment in the observance of customary usages, or his
attainment of great powers, can be of any avail to him, in saving him
from the turmoils of the world.
32. It is one’s self-control only, that is the means of his salvation
(lit., getting over the sea of the world); and the man whose mind is
not attached, or tied down to anything in this world, is said to have
got or gone over it.
33. It is no matter whether a man does or neglects, the righteous deeds
of his religion and society; provided he keeps the contriteness of his
mind in both, and is never attached to nor affected by either: such a
man is deemed a sage and saved from his return to this nether world.
34. The man that does neither any righteous or unrighteous action in
his life, but has his mind fixed in this earth, and attached to earthly
objects, is deemed a hypocrite, and destined to revisit this earth in
his repeated births.
35. Our minds again are of the nature of nasty flies, which are prone
to fly about and pour upon the sores of worldly pleasures; from which
it is hard for us to deter them, as it is impossible for us to kill
them at once for attainment of our salvation (or, our minds are as
surfeited bees, cloyed with the honey of their cells from which they
cannot fly away. Gloss).
36. It sometime comes to happen and by the good fortune of a person,
that his mind turns of itself towards its perfection; and then by a
flash of inward light within itself, comes to see the presence of the
divine spirit in the very soul.
37. The mind being enlightened by the flash of spiritual light in the
soul, becomes enrapt at the sight, and losing all earthly attachment,
is unified with the supreme unity.
38. Being unmindful of everything, and conscious of thy entity as a
particle of the infinite vacuity, remain perfectly happy with thyself,
and in the everlasting felicity of thy soul.
39. Being replete with the knowledge of transcendental truth, and
devoid of the faults and frailties of thy nature, have the magnanimity
of thy soul, with the equanimity of thy mind and elevation of thy
spirit; and thus remain O thou support of Raghu’s royal race, without
sorrow and fear of death and rebirth, and be as holy as the holy of
holies.
40. Know the translucent state of the most Holy Brahma, to be quite
clear of all the grossness and foulness of nature, and free from all
the qualities and properties that are attributed to Him. He is beyond
our conception and above the reach of our thought. He is increate and
ever existent of Himself, and manifest in his abode of our intellect.
Knowing him then as thyself, remain quite free and dauntless for ever.
41. There is nothing more that can be gleaned, from greater verbosity
on this subject; nor is there anything remaining to be communicated to
you, for your best instruction in divine knowledge. You are roused, O
Ráma, to your full knowledge of the essential doctrines of divinity,
and you have become cognizant, of whatever is knowable and recondite in
nature.
42. Válmíki says:--After the chief of sages had spoken so far, he
saw Ráma rapt in his ecstasy and bereft of his mental efforts; and
the whole assembly sitting fixed in the one and same tenor of their
meditation. They were all entranced in their reveries and musings, in
the mysterious nature of the Divinity; as the humming bees ramble over
the lotus petals with their soft and silent murmur, and revel upon the
sweetness of the honey cups of flowers.
CHAPTER CC.
THE LOUD APPLAUSE OF THE COURT ON THE SAGE’S SPEECH.
Argument:--Narration of the plaudits of the assembly, accompanied
with the showering of flowers and uproar of musical instruments,
at the end of the holy sermon.
Válmíki continued:--Upon the termination of the holy sermon on
Nirvána--anesthesia, there arose loud hubbub without the court house,
which put a stop to the sage’s proceeding further in continuation of
his discourse.
2. But the whole audience in the court hall, was immerged in a state of
stead fast hypnotism, and settled intentiveness in the Supreme; and the
faculties of their mind were quite clear, and their workings at rest.
3. The whole audience on hearing the lecture on investigation after
intellect, became passengers on the raft of _sat_, and they all gained
their salvation.
4. Immediately there arose a loud chorus of applause, from the mouths
of the emancipated sages or siddhas, dwelling in the upper regions of
the skies, and it filled the concave of heaven, with the acclamations
of praise to the venerable sage.
5. In the same manner there rose shouts of praise also, from the holy
sages seated in the assembly; together with the loud acclamation given
by the son of Gádhi--Viswámitra, who sat at their head.
6. Then was heard a swelling sound, filling the face of the four
quarters of the firmament; just as the blasts of wind filled the
hollows of the withered bamboos in the forest, and make them resound
with a sound with a soft sweet melody.
7. Next arose a flourish of trumpets from the celestials, mingling with
the hosannahs of the siddhas; which rumbled together and resounded
loudly, amidst the hollow caves of distant mountains and dale.
8. Along with the flourish of celestial trumpets, there fell showers of
flowers from above, resembling the driving rain of snows, which blocked
the faces on all sides of heaven.
9. The floor of the court hall was strewn over with flowers, and the
fanfare of the drums and timbals, filled the mouths of hollow caves and
caverns; the flying dust covered the face of the sky, and the rising
odours after the rain were borne upon the wings of the winds to all
sides.
10. Then there rose a mingled rumble of the shouts of applause, and
the peal of heavenly trumpets; joined with the whistle of the hissing
showers of flowers, and the rustling of the winds all about.
11. The courtiers all looked around with their uplifted faces and eyes,
and were struck in their minds with wonder and surprise; while the
beasts all about the palace and in the parks, remained amazed at the
event with their pricked up ears.
12. The women and children in the inside, sat staring with their wonder
stricken eyes; and the princes sitting in the court hall, looked
astonished on one another with their smiling faces.
13. The face of the firmament became exceedingly brightened, by the
falling showers of flowers from above; and the great concavity of the
world, was filled with the hissing sound of the falling rains.
14. The showers of flowers and drizzling rain drops, with their hissing
sounds, made the royal palace an appearance of festivity. (With the
scattering of fried rice, sprinkling of rose water and blowing of
conchshells).
15. Not only the palace, but all places in the worlds, seem to
celebrate their festive mirth, with tossing of flower garlands, joined
with celestial music.
16. The shouts of the siddhas and their ejaculations of joy, rolled
and growled as high in the upper sky; as the rolling billows and
rebillowing waves, howled in the depth of the ocean and sea.
17. After the hubbub of the heavenly hosts had subsisted, (in the lull
of the rains and rackets); the following words of the siddhas proceeded
from above, and were heard to be uttered in an audible and distinct
voice.
18. The siddhas said:--We have erewhile since time erst began, listened
to delivered thousands of sermons, in the assembly of siddhas or
perfect beings, on the means of attaining liberation, (which is the
highest pitch of perfection of the living soul); but never heretofore
heard a lecture so impressive on the mind, as this last locution of the
sage.
19. We see boys and women and the bending brute creatures, together
with the creeping and crawling animals, are all enrapt by this soothing
speech, which will doubtless enrapture its readers and hearers in
future.
20. The sage has used every argument and example, for rousing Ráma to
his beatification; such as it is doubtful whether he had ever shewn
such affection to his Arundhatí or not.
21. Hearing this lecture on liberation, even the brute creation of
beasts and birds, become emancipated from the burthen of their base
bodies; and as for men, they forget altogether the trammels of their
bodies in their embodied state.
22. Our draught of these ambrosial drops of divine knowledge, through
the vessels of our ears; has not only satiated our appetite for wisdom,
but renovated our understandings, and added a fresh beauty to our
spiritual bodies.
23. On hearing these words of the heavenly host of siddhas, were struck
with wonder, and looked upward with full open eyes; and then as they
cast their looks below, they beheld the surface of the court-hall, to
be strewn over with flowers and lotuses, falling in showers from above.
24. They saw heaps of _mandara_ and other celestial flowers, piled
up to the roof of the lofty hall; and observed the court yard to be
covered over with blossoming plants and creepers, and with wreaths and
garlands of flowers without an interstice.
25. The surface of the ground, was strewn over with buds and blossoms
of Párijata plants; and thick clouds of Santanaka flowers, shadowed
over the heads and shoulders of the assembled people in the court.
26. The saffron flowers of Harichandana (yellow sandal wood), hung
over the jewelled crests of the princes; and seemed as an awning of
rainy clouds, spread over the glittering chandeliers of the court hall.
(Harichandana is a tree in the garden of Paradise).
27. Seeing these events in the court, the people all gave vent to the
repeated shouts of their loud applause; and talked to one another of
this and that, as was fitted to the solemnity of occasion.
28. They then adored the sage with the prostration of their bodies and
limbs, and made him their obeisances, with offerings of handfuls of
flowers.
29. After the loud peals of applause had somewhat abated; the king also
rose and prostrated himself down and then worshipped the sage, with the
tray of his presents and wreaths of flowers held in his hands.
30. Dasaratha said:--It was by your admonition, O thou Lord of
Arundhati; that I was released from this my mortal frame; and gained
the transcendent knowledge which filled my soul, and joined it with the
supreme essence in perfect bliss.
31. We have nothing in this nether earth, nor is there anything with
the gods in heaven, which I ween is worthy enough to be given, as a
proper offering in thine adoration.
32. Yet I beg to pray you something in order to acquit myself of my
duty to you, and to render my services to thee prove effectual to me,
and hope you will not be irritated at this address of mine.
33. That I adore you myself with my queens and my weal in both worlds,
together with all these dominions and servants of mine (all which I now
offer humbly at your venerable feet).
34. All these possessions of mine are yours entirely at present, so
my lord take them as yours, and make them as parts of your hermitage;
please to dispose of these as you please, or use them as you like.
35. Vasishtha replied:--Know, O great king, that we Bráhmans are
pleased, only with the mere obeisances of people; we are verily
satisfied with receiving reverence of men, and these you have already
done and shown to me.
36. You know to rule the earth, and therefore its sovereignty is
suitable to thee; nor can you show a Brahmin to have ever reigned as a
king, keep therefore what is yours to yourself and prosper therein.
37. Dasaratha answered:--What is this trifle of a realm to me, which I
am ashamed to call and own as mine; it cannot lead me to the knowledge
of its true Lord, therefore do so as I may clearly and truly know the
most high.
38. Válmíki relates:--As the king was saying so, Ráma rose from his
seat, and threw handfuls of flowers on the sacred person of his
preceptor; and then lowly bending himself before him, he addressed him
as follows.
39. Venerable sir, as you have made the king speechless, by telling him
that you are pleased with mere obeisance of men; so I am taught to wait
here, with my bare prostration at your venerable feet.
40. Saying so, Ráma bowed down his head, lowly at the feet of his
guide; and then scattered handful of flowers on his pure person, as the
trees on the sides of a mountain, sprinkle their dew drops at the foot
and base of the mount. (Gloss. The branches of trees serving as their
hands, and the leaves as their palms).
41. Then the pious prince made his repeated bows of reverence to his
venerable preceptor; while his lotus like eyes were suffused with the
tears of his inward joy and piety. (Ánandásru--tears issuing from pious
and joyous feelings).
42. Next rose the brother princes, of Dasaratha’s royal race; namely
Bharata, Satrughna and Lakshmana, together with their equals in kith
and kin; and they all advanced to the sage, and bowed down to him with
their respectful reverence.
43. The other chiefs and nobles and regents, that sat in their order at
a distance; together with the saints, sages and the clergy at large,
rose in groups from their seats, and did their homage to the sage, with
flinging handfuls of flowers upon him.
44. At this instant the sage was almost covered with and hid under the
heap of flowers, that were poured upon him from all sides; in the same
manner as the snowy mountain of Himálaya, is wrapped and concealed
under the snows of water.
45. After clangor of the assembly was over, and the peals of their
_pranáma-hailings_ had ended; Vasishtha remembered his saying with the
assembled sages, of proving to them the truth of his doctrines, and
of removing the doubts of his audience regarding the miracles he had
wrought.
46. He then shoved off with both his arms, the heaps of flowers from
about his sides; and showed out his fair face from amidst them, as when
the disc of the moon, shines forth from within the hoary clouds.
47. Then there ensued a hush over the flourish of the trumpets, and a
silence upon the fanfare of applauses; the falling of flowers was at a
stop, and the murmur of siddhas above, ceased with the clamour of the
assemblage below.
48. After the princes and assembled nobles, had made their obeisances
and greetings, there occurred a calm stillness in the assembly, as when
a lull takes place in the atmosphere after a storm.
49. Then the chief of sages Vasishtha, upon hearing the applauses
poured upon him from all sides; spoke softly to the royal sage
Viswámitra, from the unblemished purity of his soul.
50. Hear me, O sage, that art the lotus of the princely race of Gádhi,
and ye sages that are assembled here, namely Vámadeva, Nimi and Kruta,
together with Bharadwája, Pulastya, Atri, Nárada and Ghrishti, and
Sándilya.
51. Hear me also, O ye sages Bhása, Bhrigu, Bharanda, Vatsa and
Vátsyáyana, with all others that are assembled here at present, and had
the patience to listen to this contemptible discourse of mine.
52. Please now with your well known affability to me, point out to me
whatever you have found as meaningless or unintelligible and ambiguous
in my discourse.
53. The audience responded:--O Venerable sir, we have never heard or
marked in single word in this spiritual and divine discourse of
thine, that is meaningless or unintelligible to anybody.
54. We confess that whatever foulness was inbred in our natures, by our
repeated births in this sinful world; has been all purged out by your
holy lecture, as the alloy in gold is burnt away by the purifying fire.
55. O sir, our minds are as expanded by your divine sermon, as the blue
lotus buds are opened to bloom, by the cold and ambrosial beams of moon
light.
56. We all bow down to thee, O thou chief of sages, as our best guide
in divine knowledge; and the giver of true wisdom to us, with regard to
all things in nature.
57. Válmíki relates:--The sages said so far and then hailed and bowed
down to Vasishtha again, and their united applause of him, rose as high
as the loud roar of raining clouds.
58. Then the speechless siddhas, poured down again their showers of
flowers from above; and these hid the body of the sage under them, as
the clouds of winter cover the rocks under ice and snows.
59. Afterwards the intelligent and learned men in the court, gave
their praises to King Dasaratha and to Ráma also; saying that the four
princes were no other than the four fold incarnation of the God Mádhava
or Vishnu himself.
60. The siddhas said:--We hail the four princes of Dasaratha line, who
are the quadruple forms of the self incarnate Vishnu, and are quite
liberated from the bonds of flesh, in these their living states of
humanity.
61. We hail king Dasaratha, as having the mark of the sovereignty of
the whole world. (Imprinted in his person); that is of this world which
extends to the limits of the four oceans, and lasts forever in his race.
62. We hail the sage Vasishtha, who is as bright as the sun, and
stands at the head of the whole host of sages; and also the royal sage
Viswámitra of renowned fame and dignity.
63. It is through their means (_i.e._ because of their assemblage in
this court), that we had this fair opportunity of hearing this divine
discourse, which is so full of knowledge and fraught with reason, that
it serves to dispel the great gloom of error at once.
64. So saying the siddhas of heaven again let fall their handfuls of
flowers in showers; and made the assembly look up to them in silence,
with their uplifted eyes and gladdened minds.
65. And then there was a mutual greeting of the siddhas from above, and
of the assembled people to them from below.
66. At last the assembly broke, with their respectful greetings to
one another, accompanied with their mutual offerings of flowers and
salutations. And the celestial and terrestrial, the great _Munis_ and
sages, the Pandits and Bráhmans; together with the princes and nobles,
bade adieu to and took leave of one another (in order to repair to
their respective abodes).
CHAPTER CCI.
EXPLANATION OF REST AND REPOSE IN ULTIMATE AND PERFECT BLISS.
Argument:--Ráma’s conclusion on the lecture of Vasishtha, and
Viswámitra’s request over Ráma.
Válmíki related:--After the assembly had rejoined the next day,
there was observed a profound silence over it; and there appeared a
cheerfulness in the countenances of princes from the enlightenment by
the last lecture.
2. The people seemed to be smiling in their faces, by reflecting on
their former errors and follies, after their coming to the light of
truth. (The reminiscence of the freaks and follies of boyhood, is a
source of delight in old age).
3. The wisemen in the assembly, appeared to be sitting fixed in their
steadfast meditation, by having the feelings and passions of their
minds, curbed and subdued upon their access to the relish of true
knowledge.
4. At this time, Ráma sat with his brothers, in their posture of
_padmásana_--having their legs crossed upon one another; had the palms
of their hands folded together, and their eyes fixed steadfastly upon
the face of their preacher.
5. The king Dasaratha remained in a sort of entranced meditation, and
thought himself as liberated in his life time, and placed in a state of
infinite bliss.
6. The sage after holding his silence, as long as he was adored by his
reverential audience, spoke to them at last in distinct words, and
wanted to know what they would now like to hear about.
7. He said, O lotus eyed Ráma, that art as the cooling moon in the
clear sphere of thy race, tell me what thou now wishest to hear, as
most desirable and delightsome to your mind.
8. Tell me the state in which you find yourself at present, and in
what light you view the appearance of the appearance of the world now
before you.
9. Being thus addressed by the sage, Ráma looked at his face; and then
bespoke to him in his distinctly audible voice, and his plain and
unfaltering accents.
10. Ráma said:--It is all owing to thy favour only, O Venerable sir,
that I have attained to my state of perfect holiness, and become as
pure as the clear atmosphere in autumnal calm and serenity.
11. I am entirely freed from all the errors, which are so detrimental
to the right course of our lives in this world, and an act as pure as
the clear sky, in the true and very state of finite vacuity. (The very
state of the deity).
12. I am set free from all bonds, and released from all attributes and
adjuncts; I find myself situated in a crystalline sphere, and shining
there as clear as crystal.
13. I am quite pacified in my mind and am neither willing to hear or do
anything else; I am quite satiate in myself, and require nothing more
for my satisfaction. I am quite at rest as in the state of hypnotism.
14. My mind is quite calm in its thoughts, and entirely pacified in its
wishes; all my desires have fled from it, and I find my mind to rest in
its perfect peace and supreme bliss.
15. I am staid in all my thoughts and allayed in my desires, whilst
living in this waking world; I am enrapt and entranced, while I am
quite sane and sound and sleepless at all hours by day and night.
16. With my soul devoid of all wishes and expectations, I live while I
am destined to live in this material body of mine; and remain smiling
(_i.e._ rejoicing) as long as I sit to listen to your inspiring lessons.
17. Now I am no more in need of admonition or instruction of the
sástras, or of the acquisition of riches or friends; nor am I
willing either to get rid of them at any time. (Because of my utter
indifference to them as is theirs also to me).
18. I have found and am in the enjoyment of that unalloyed happiness,
which attends on one in heaven or Paradise, or in his attainment of the
sovereignty of the whole world.
19. The world which I perceive within myself by my outward senses, is
conceived to be brighter far and more transparent than the outward
atmosphere, by being viewed in the light of the intellect, and
considered as a part of its infinite vacuous sphere.
20. This world I ween, is certainly a vacuum; and it is by my belief
in the nihility of the phenomenal, that I am awaked to my immortality.
(The visible world is a passing and vanishing sight, and it is by our
belief in the spiritual only, that we see the everlasting scene).
21. Let me remain content with all that is, or comes to pass on me,
whether they are desirable to me or occur themselves; and let me act
as the law enacts to its full extent and without fail, but without any
object of mine or expectation of reward.
22. I am neither content nor discontented with anything, nor rejoice
nor repine at any event; I do what is my duty in society, without
retaining the erroneous conception of reaping their reward.
23. Let this creation be otherwise or go to perdition, let the winds of
the last destruction blow with their fury also; or let the land smile
in its plenty and beauty, yet I sit unmoved by them, and remain in the
divine self or spirit.
24. I rest in myself which is unseen or dimly seen by others, and is
undecaying and untainted in itself; I am not enchained to my wishes,
but am as free as air, which you cannot compress in your clutches.
25. As the fragrance of flowers upon the trees, is wafted by the breeze
and deposited in the air, so is my soul borne away from the confines of
my body, and posited in empty vacuity (where it ranges at large in its
freedom).
26. As these princes and rulers of people, live and enjoy themselves in
their realms at pleasure; and whether they are enlightened or not, they
are employed in their respective occupations.
27. So do I enjoy myself with the steadiness and equanimity of my
mind, which is freed from all fear, grief or joy and desire.
28. I am happy above all happiness (derived from this frail world); my
happiness is in the everlasting One, than which there is no happiness
to be preferred by me. But because I live here as a human being, you
are at liberty to appoint me to any duty, in common with all mankind
and becoming to humanity.
29. I cannot be averse, to manage myself with the trifles of this
world, as long as I am destined to them; in the same manner as boys
are never to be blamed, for indulging themselves in their playthings
in their boyhood. So long sir, as I shall have to live in this body of
mine, I must do my bodily acts, with my mind fixed in the sole One only.
30. I must live to eat and drink, and continue in the course of my
business in life; but I am freed from all fear of my failings in them,
by the kind counsels to me. (That the liberated man is at liberty to do
or undo his duties).
31. Vasishtha replied:--O Bravo Ráma! that you have chosen for yourself
the most meritorious course of life; wherein you shall never have to
repent, from the beginning to the end of your career.
32. By this cold indifference in thy self, and complete equanimity in
every state, you have verily secured to the unbroken rest in your life,
as the visible firmament has found in infinite vacuity.
33. It is by your good fortune, that you have got rid of your sorrows,
and it is fortunate to you to be set so well composed in yourself; it
is your good luck to be freed from the fears of both worlds, and it is
happy for you to be at your heart’s ease and rest.
34. You are lucky, my lord, to be so fraught with your holy knowledge;
and to have purified the lineage of Raghu, with your knowledge of the
present, past and future.
35. Now prepare yourself to accomplish the object, of the chief of
sages--The great Viswámitra’s request and by completion of his holy
sacrifice at your sire’s behest, continue to enjoy the sovereignty of
the earth; in subordination to your royal parent.
36. May the mighty king reign for ever in prosperity, over this
prosperous realm of his; in conjunction with yourself and his other
sons, relatives and nobles and in possession of all his infantry,
cavalry, his chariots and his lines of elephants &c., and without any
disease and fear of his enemies.
CHAPTER CCIL.
RECUMBENCE OF THE ASSEMBLY TO THEIR HYPNOTIC REST.
Argument:--Entrancement of the audience to a state of somnolence
known as Hybernation, hypnotism and Ecstasis in Theosophy.
Válmíki related:--Upon hearing these words of the sage, the assembled
princes and lords of men in the court, felt a _sang froid_ or coolness
in their souls, as if they were all besprinkled with ambrosial waters
upon them.
2. Ráma with his lotus like eyes and moon like face, remained as
resplendent, as if they were filled with ambrowaters, or the nectarious
liquid of the Milky ocean.
3. Then the sage Vámadeva and others, who were fraught with divine
knowledge, exclaimed with their admiration for the preacher; O the holy
instruction, that you have imparted unto us this day!
4. The King with his pacified soul and joyous mind, shone as shining
in his countenance, as if he had a new light infused in himself (and
causing the hairs on his body to stand on their ends, from his inward
gladness).
5. After many other sages, who were well acquainted with the knowledge
of the knowable One, had thus pronounced their praises; the enlightened
Ráma (lit. who was purged from his ignorance), oped his mouth again,
and spoke in the following manner.
6. Ráma said:--O thou seer, that knowest the past and future; thou hast
cleansed away all our inward dross, as fire serves to purge gold from
its impurity.
7. Venerable sir we have now become cosmognostics or all knowing, by
our knowledge of the universal soul, though we are confined in these
visible bodies of ours, and seeming to all appearance, as knowing
nothing beyond them.
8. I feel myself now as perfect and full in all, and to have become
quite undecaying in myself; I am freed from all fear and apprehension,
and am quite cognoscent with all things.
9. I am overjoyed to no end, and am happy beyond all measure; I
have risen to a height from which there is no fear of falling,
and am elevated to the supreme acme of eminence and perfection.
(Parama-purushártha).
10. Alack! how am I cleansed by the holy and cooling water of divine
knowledge, which you have so kindly poured forth in me, and whereby I
am as joyous, as a full blown lotus in the lake of my heart.
11. I am now set, sir, by your favour to a state of happiness, which
brightens to me the face of universe with ambrosial delight.
12. I now hail myself, that have become so fair within myself with the
clearness of my mind, and by disappearance of all sorrow from it. I
have received a grace in my face, from the peace of mind and purity of
my wishes. I am joyous in myself with my inward joy, and I wholly
pure with the purity of my soul.
CHAPTER CCIII.
DESCRIPTION OF NIRVÁNA OR SELF EXTINCTION IN DIVINE MEDITATION.
Argument:--Sounding of midday trumpet, performance of daily
ablution, and description of the setting sun. The meeting of the
assembly on the next morning upon the discourse on Nirvána.
Válmíki related:--As Ráma and the sage had been remonstrating in this
manner, the sun advanced towards the zenith, to listen to their holy
conversation in royal dome.
2. The solar beams spread on all sides, with greater force and
effulgence; as if to expose to clearer and greater light the sense of
Ráma’s speech.
3. Then the lotus beds in the tanks of the pleasure gardens, all about
the royal palace, began to expand their embosomed buds to bloom before
him, as the princes shone forth in brightness amidst the royal hall.
4. The air was exhilarated with joy at hearing the holy lectures of the
sage; and seemed to be dancing with the sunbeams, glistening in the
strings of pearls, suspended at the windows of the palace.
5. The premature gleams of the sun, glistened as bright at the
glittering glass doors and shining chandeliers of the court hall; as
the gladdened hearts of the audience, glowed at enlightening speech of
the sage.
6. After Ráma was settled in his sedateness, his face shone as bright
as a blooming blue lotus by its reflexion of the rays of the sage’s
look upon it. (Here the blue complexion of Ráma, is compared to a
blue lotus, blooming under the moon bright look of fair Vasishtha’s
countenance).
7. The sun advancing towards the summit of the horizon, like the marine
fire rising on the surface of the blue ocean; sucked or dried up by
his darting flames the dewy humidity of the sky, as the submarine heat
resorbs the waters of the deep.
8. The cerulean sphere of heaven, appeared as the lake of blue lotuses,
and the shining sun seemed as the golden pericarp of the flower; his
bright beams resembled the aureate farina of flowers, and his slanting
rays likened the aslant pistils in the air.
9. He shone as the dazzling crown upon the head of the azure queen of
the worlds; and was hanging down like the resplendent earring, pendant
on the ear of heaven; while the little lay hid under his glaring light,
like bits of diamonds lying concealed under the effulgence of a blazing
ruby.
10. The ethereal maids of all the quarters of heaven, held out the
mirrors of silvery clouds before his face, with their uplifted arms of
the mountain peaks all around; and these are emblazoned by solar rays,
like the rainless clouds on mountain tops.
11. The sun stones in the quarries on earth emitted a fury blaze, which
emblazoned the skies around, with a greater light than that of the sun.
12. The trumpets sounded aloud, with the wind blown by the mouths of
trumpeters; and the conchshells blew as loudly at midday, as the winds
of the last deluge, set the sea waves to their tremendous uproar.
13. Then the spherules of sweat, appeared on the faces of the princes,
as the dew drops falling on lotus leaves; and they were so closely
connected together, as to give them the appearance of strings of pearls.
14. The thickening noise of the hurry and flurry of men, resounded as
hoarsely within the hollow walls of the hall, that they filled the ears
of men, as the dashing waves fill the concave of the hollow sea.
15. The waiting maids then came forward with cups of liquid camphor in
their hands; in order to sprinkle them on the persons of the princes;
to assuage their fervour of the solar heat.
16. Then the assembly broke, and the king rose from his seat in company
with Ráma and the princes and Vasishtha, together with all the lords
and nobles, that were present in the assembly.
17. The assembled lords and princes, the ministers of the state and
religion, together with the high priests and sages; rose from their
seats, and having gladly made their greetings to one another, took
their leave and departed to their respective abodes.
18. The front of the royal inner apartment, was fanned with flappers of
palm leaves, wafting the clouds camphor powder, that was scattered
for allaying the midday heat.
19. Then the chief of sages--Vasishtha, oped his mouth and spoke out
to Ráma, amidst the sonata of noonday music, that resounded amidst the
walls of the royal hall.
20. Vasishtha said:--Ráma! you have heard whatever is worth hearing,
and known also all that is worth your knowing; and now I see nothing
further, that is worth communicating to you for your higher knowledge.
21. Now you have to reconcile in yourself, and by your best
understandings, all that you have been instructed by me, and what you
have read and learnt in the sástras, and harmonise the whole for your
guidance.
22. Now rise to do your duties, while I hasten to the performance of
sacred ablutions; it is now midday, and the proper time of our bathing
is fastly passing away.
23. And then whatever else you have to enquire about, for the
satisfaction of your wishes, you can propose the same to me tomorrow
morning, when I shall be happy to expatiate on the subject.
24. Válmíki related:--After the sage had spoken in this manner, the
mighty king Dasaratha saluted the parting chiefs and sages, and
honoured them according to their proper ranks and degrees.
25. And then being advised by Vasishtha, the virtuous king with Ráma by
his side, proceeded to give their due honours, to the sages and siddhas
and to the Bráhmanas also one after the other.
26. He gave them gems and jewels, and monies and bouquets of flowers;
and he gave to others riches equivalent to the values of the gems and
jewels; while he gave strings of pearls and necklaces to some also.
27. He honoured some with his respects and civilities, and others with
monies suited to their worth and degree, while he gave his gifts of
cloths and seats, food and drink, and of gold and lands to others.
28. He saluted others with perfumeries and aromatic spices and wreaths
of flowers; he honoured the elders with due respects, and gave his bare
regards to others.
29. Then the king rose from amidst the assembly, with the whole body
of his courtiers, and the holy sages and Vasishtha with him; as the
splendid moon rises in the sky, with the train of stars about him. (The
moon is masculine in Sanskrit, and twin brother of the sun).
30. The rising of the assembly and its people, was attended with a
rumbling noise, as it is heard in the treading of men, over a bog of
knee deep mud and mire.
31. The clashing of the concourse against one another, and the cracking
of their armlets and wristlets by their friction with each other;
joined with the broken jewels and scattered pearls, slipped from the
torn necklaces of the nobles, gave the floor of the court hall, the
appearance of the spangled heaven.
32. There was a close concussion of the bodies, of sages and saints,
of Bráhmans and princes and nobles all jumbled together; and there was
a rapid undulation of the chourie flappers, waving in the hands of
fanning maid servants.
33. But there was no huddling or dashing or pushing one against the
other; as they were intent upon reflecting on the sense of the sages
preaching, and rather asking excuses of one another, with the gestures
of their bodies, when they came in contact with others.
34. At last the king and the sages and nobles, accosted one another
with sweet and soft words; and took their parting leave (for repairing
to their respective abode for the day).
35. They then left the palace, and proceeded to their residences, with
their gladdened faces and contented minds; as when the immortals
repair to all parts of heaven, from the synod of the king of
gods--Indra or Sakra.
36. After every one had taken leave of others, and arrived at his
house; he employed himself in the discharge of his ritual services of
the day.
37. Thus the king and all, performed their daily ablutions and services
as usual, until the end of the day.
38. As the day ended with the discharge, of the duties of the daily
ritual; so the sojourner of the etherial path--the tired sun, sat
down to rest in the west (as the birds of air repair at eve, to their
respective nests). (The sun is said to be the _unka_ or falcon of
heaven; resting at his _aspiand_ or nest in the west, by a poet of
Persia).
39. After the performance of their vespers, the prince Ráma and the
people at large, passed their nights awake and fastly, with talking
about and thinking upon the discourse of the day.
40. Then the rising sun advanced in the east, with sweeping away the
dust of darkness from before his path, and strewing about the starry
flowers on his way, in order to fix his seat in the midst of his dome
of the universe.
41. The infant or rising sun, reddened the skies with his rays,
resembling the crimson hue of kusambha flowers; and then he embarked
on the board of his bright orb, amidst the wide ocean of the etherial
region. (The sun sailed in the etherial sea, through the scattered
island of the hidden stars and planets on his way. Gloss).
42. Then the regnant princes and lords of men, together with the
nobles, peers and their ministers, met at the court hall of King
Dasaratha; when there gathered also the great saints and sages, with
Vasishtha at their head.
43. They entered into the court and took their seats, according to
their different degrees and ranks; just as the stars of heaven appear
and occupy their places, in their respective constellations and circles
in the expanse of heaven.
44. Then the king and his ministers, advanced and bowed down to
Vasishtha, and ushered him to his high seat or pulpit; and they all
poured forth their praises to him, after that sage was seated in the
rostrum.
45. Now the lotus-eyed Ráma, who sat before the king and the holy sage,
oped his lotus like mouth, and spoke in the following manner, with his
natural good sense, and usual elegance of speech.
46. Ráma said:--O Venerable sir, that art acquainted with all
religions, and art the great ocean of knowledge; thou art the axe of
all knotty questions and doubts, and remover of the griefs and fears of
mankind.
47. Please tell us whatever more is worth our hearing and knowing;
for thou knowest best whatever there remains to be said, for the
edification of our knowledge.
48. Vasishtha replied:--Ráma you have gained your full knowledge, and
have nothing more to learn; you have attained the perfection of your
understanding, and obtained the summum bonum which is sought by all
(but found by few), and wherewith you are quite content in yourself.
49. You better consider in yourself and say, how do you find yourself
and your inner mind at present; and what else is there, that you wish
to know and hear from me.
50. Ráma rejoined:--Why sir, I find myself fully perfected in my
understanding; and being possest of the peace and tranquility of my
mind, with the blessing of Nirvána or ultimate beatitude of my soul, I
have nothing to ask or desire of thee.
51. You have said all that you had to impart to me, and I have known
all that is worth my knowing; Now sir, take your rest with the Goddess
of speech, who has done her utmost for the instruction of us all.
52. I have known the unknown and knowable One, that is only to be known
by us as the true reality; and knowing this all as the One Brahma, I
am freed from my knowledge of the duality (of the living and supreme
soul); and having got rid of the deception of the diversity of the
visibles, I am released from my reliance in all worldly things.
CHAPTER CCIV.
IDENTITY OF ABSTRACT INTELLECTUALITY AND VACUITY.
Argument:--The abstraction and intellection of all knowledge,
merging in the infinite vacuum.
Vasishtha resumed and said:--Hear me moreover, O Ráma, to tell thee,
a few words on transcendental knowledge, that the mirror of the mind
shines more brightly, by expurgation of the external images that are
reflected on it, than when it is eclipsed by those outward shadows.
(_i.e._ Wipe off visibles from the mind).
2. Again the significant words that the symbols of the objects of
our knowledge, are as insignificant as the hissing murmurs of waters
and waves, and the phenomenal is but a semblance of the noumenal, as a
dream is the _réchauffé_ or reflexion of the mind, and the visible world,
is but a recast of the visionary dream.
3. The waking state is that of dreaming, and its scenes are those of
our dreams; and presenting themselves before us in both these states
from our remembrance of them: they are the inward concept of our
consciousness, and appearing to be situated without it. (_i.e._ They
are the innate ideas of our minds, and not perceptions of our outward
organs of sense).
4. As I am conscious of the clearness of my intellectual sphere,
notwithstanding the view of the fairy lands in its state of dreaming;
so I find my mind, to be equally clear in my waking also of all its
imaginary forms of the three worlds and their contents, which in
reality a formless vacuity only.
5. Ráma rejoined:--If all things are formless amidst the formless void
of the universe, as in empty vacuity of the intellect; then tell me
sir, whence arise these endless shapes and forms, as those earth,
water, fire and those of these hills, rocks and pebbles?
6. Tell me why the elements are of different forms and qualities and
why the empty air, space and time have no forms nor properties of
theirs; what makes the wind so very fleet, and what is the cause of the
motions and actions of waving bodies.
7. How came the sky to be a vacuum only, and why is the mind of the
same nature also; these are all the various natures and properties of
things, require to be well explained from my knowledge therein.
8. Vasishtha replied:--You have well asked these questions, Ráma, as
they naturally suggest themselves to every inquirer after truth; but
tell me in one word, why do you see the varieties of earth and sky, as
well as of all other things that you see in your dream.
9. Whence do you see the waters in your sleep, and how are the pebbles
scattered about you in your dream; why do you see the flaming fires in
your vision, and all sides of heaven appearing before your sight.
10. Say how you have the idea of time in your dreaming, and perceive
the actions and motions of persons and things at that time; and tell
me from where do all those accidents proceed, that you see to occur in
your sleeping and dreaming moments.
11. What is it that creates, produces and gives the formless dream its
fascinating form, and then dissolves it to nothing at last; you find it
produced and presented to your view, but cannot say how it acts and of
what stuff it is composed.
12. Ráma replied:--The dream of the dreaming world, has no form nor
position of its own; its soul and substance is mere void, and the earth
and rocks which it presents to sight, are nil and _in nubibus_ (and
leave not a rack behind).
13. The vacuous soul only, is its sole cause, which is likewise as
formless and supportless like itself; The formless void is never in
need of a support for it.
14. Nothing whatsoever of it is ever produced, nor bear any relation
with our consciousness; they are the reflexions of the intellect only,
and are situated in the recess of the mind.
15. The mind is the evolution of the intellect, which reflects the
images of things in the form of ideas upon the mind; hence the notions
of time and space, and of air, water, hills and mountains, are all
reflexions of the intellect upon the mind.
16. Our consciousness is also a void, and receives the impressions of
vacuum in the form of its vacuity; and those of the stone, air and
water, in the forms of their solidity, fluidity and liquidity. (_i.e._
The vacuous mind receives and retains only the abstract ideas of all
concrete bodies in the universe).
17. In reality there is nothing as the earth or any solid body or its
form or sight in existence; but they all exist in their abstract states
in the great void of the intellect, and are equally void in their
natures with itself.
18. In fact there is nothing in reality, nor anything which is visible
to sight, there is only the infinite vacuity of intellect, which
represents all things in itself, and is identic with all of them.
19. The intellect has the notion of solidity, in the abstract in
it; and thereby conceives itself in the forms of the earth, rocks
and hills. (The idea or conception of solidity, gives rise to the
perception of solid bodies, and not the perception of solids, that
produces the abstract idea of their solidity; or that the innate ideas,
give birth to appearances in the concrete).
20. So by its conception of oscillation and fluidity, it perceives the
form of air and water in itself; and so also by its inward conception
of heat, it feels the fire in itself without forsaking its intellectual
form.
21. Such is the nature of this intellectual principle, in its airy and
vacuous form of the spirit, soul or mind; that developes itself in all
these various modalities and schemes, without any cause or incentive.
(These modes or states of being, are here called _nishkáranaguna_,
and _Akárana gunotpannaguna_ in Nyáya philosophy, and same with the
_Vibhu-nishthaguna_ of Vedánta; all meaning them to be the increate and
eternal qualities or attributes of the supreme soul or deity).
22. There is nothing any where in nature, beside these intellectual
attributes of itself; as there is no sky or vacuum without its vacuity,
nor the vast expanse of the ocean, devoid of the body of waters in it.
23. Know then there is nothing else anywhere, nay not even the sense of
thyself or myself or any other, except in the recess of intellectual
vacuity; so commit thyself to that all teeming void; and remain quite
sedate in thyself.
24. As you see the earth and heaven and all their contents, in thy
dream and creation of thy fancy, in the recess of thy mind and in the
midst of this house of thine; so should you behold everything in their
incorporeal forms to be contained in the ample space of the infinite
vacuum of the divine intellect and its all-knowing intelligence.
25. The vacuum of the intellect shines forth as the substratum of all
bodies, but without a body of its own in the beginning of creation;
because nothing having any prior material cause for its corporeal
existence, it is the intellect alone which must be understood, to
exhibit all formal existence in its vacuous space and to our ignorance.
26. Know your immaterial mind, understanding and egoism, together with
the material existences of the elemental bodies, these hills, skies and
all others, to be situated as dull and dumb stones, in the quiet, calm
and clear sphere of the infinite intellect.
27. Thus you see there is nothing produced nor destroyed, nor anything,
that may be said to exist of itself; this world as it appears to exist,
exists in this very form (of its immateriality); in the vacuity of the
divine intellect.
28. It is the sunshine of the intellect, that manifests the world in
its visible shape and form; as the sunlight shows the hidden objects of
darkness to view, and as the fluidity of water, gives rise to the waves
and bubbles.
29. This appearance of the world, is no real appearance; it is the
representation of the intellectual vacuum only, in its true and proper
senses and light, as it is viewed by the wise; though the ignorant may
view it in any light as they please.
CHAPTER CCV.
REFUTATION OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE CAUSALITY OF CREATION.
Argument:--The existence of the world in its spiritual sense, and
nullity of its creation, destruction and material existence.
Ráma rejoined:--If it is so, sir, that the whole plenum is vacuum, as
the phenomenon in our dreams; it must follow therefrom, that the world
we see in our wakings is vacuity also, and there can be no doubt in it.
2. But tell me sir, in answer to this important question of mine; how
the formless and bodiless intellect appears to become embodied in all
these various forms of bodies, that we see in the state of our waking
dream. (_i.e._ The vanishing visions of our sleeping dreams, prove
them to be quite vacuous and nil; but not so the lasting scenes of our
waking state which appear to be substantially positive; and how does
the negative intellect assume this positive form).
3. Vasishtha replied:--Ráma, the visibles that appear to view in our
waking dream by day light, are all vacuous bodies; owing to their being
born, resting and supportance in empty vacuity; hence you cannot on any
reason doubt about their vacuousness (whose or when their production,
sustentation, substance and supportance, do all depend on the infinite
and all comprehending vacuum, which is the very attribute of the unity
of the formless deity. Gloss).[7]
4. This infinite and eternal void, being entirely devoid of all the
material causes (_i.e._ earth, air, water and fire, which are necessary
for the production of anything); it is impossible that creation could
come out from this nothing in the beginning. (_Ex nihilo nihil fit_).
5. And as the formless intellect could not bring forth the earth &c.,
for the formation of solid bodies; it is impossible to believe this
phenomenal appearance, to have their real existence in nature. (The
subtile mind cannot make or become any solid body).
6. Therefore the airy intellect sees the visibles in the day time,
in the manner that it sees the visions in its dreams by night. It
sees them all rising, in their intellectual light within itself; but
appearing as real and formal objects, set without it by its delusion.
(Máyá or Illusion).
7. It is the reflexion of the workings of the intellectual soul, that
appears as real within the hollow sphere of the intellect; it resembles
the representations of the memory in the mind in our sleep, and takes
the name of the visible world.
8. It is the clear perception of these intellectual representations, in
the vacuum of the mind only, that is styled by us as a vision or dream,
while it is the gross conception of them in the mind, that is called
the gross or material world.
9. It is thus the different views, of the same internal thought and
ideas, have different names and appellations, given to them by the very
intellect itself; the finer and purer ones being called as thoughts,
and the grosser ones, as sensible and material objects.
10. Thus it is the same reflexion of the intellectual, which takes the
names both of the dream as also of the world; the working of the mind
and its reflexion in itself are natural to intellect, and though the
visions subside with the disappearance of the dream upon waking, yet
the working and reflecting of the mind are never at rest, either in
waking or dreaming.
11. Many such visions of creation rise and set alternately, in the
vacuity of Brahma’s mind, and are never apart from it; just as the
empty air is either in motion or at rest in the hollow of the great
void, and always inseparable from it. (Hence the air, vision, dream
&c., are all void, and the world is but a phantom in it).
12. Ráma said:--Sir, you have spoken of millions of worlds to me
before; tell me now which of them are situated within the sphere of the
mundane egg, and which of them are beyond this egg (or supermundane
ones).
13. Which of them are the terrestrial globes and which the vacuous
spheres; which of them are igneous bodies in the sphere of fire, and
what are the airy bodies in the regions of air.
14. Which are the superfices of the earth, situated in the midst
of vacuity; of which the hills and forests set at the antipodes,
are opposed to one another on both sides, and hang up and down
perpendicular in empty air.
15. Which are the aerial bodies with their living souls, and which the
inhabitants of darkness with their darksome shapes; what are they that
are formed of vacuum only, and what can they be, whose bodies are full
of worms and insects.
16. What sorts of beings settle the etherial sphere, and what are they
that live in the midst of rocks and stones; what are they that dwell in
the vessels and basins of water, and what be they that people the air
like the aerial fowls of air.
17. Tell me, O thou greatest of philosophers, how this mundane egg of
ours is situated among them. (These are questions of cosmogony, and
bear no relation to theology).
18. Vasishtha replied:--These wondrous unknown, unseen and unheard
of worlds, are mentioned and described in the sástras with their
exemplifications also; and they have been received and believed as true
by their students.
19. Ráma, the cosmology of the world, has been described--given by gods
and sages, in hundreds of their sástras called the _Ágamas_; all of
which you are well acquainted with.
20. Now as you are well acquainted with the descriptions, that are
given of them in the sástras; it is not necessary to relate them again
in this place. (The cosmology of the world has been given before in the
narrative of Lílá).
21. Ráma rejoined:--Tell me yet, O Venerable sir, how the great void of
the intellect came to be produced from divine spirit; tell moreover its
extent and duration in time and space.
22. Vasishtha replied:--The great God Brahma, is without beginning and
ever existent and without decay; there is no beginning, midst nor end
of him, nor are there any shapes of figures in his transcendent vacuum.
23. The vacuum of Brahma is without its beginning and end, and is
spread unspent and unbounded to all eternity; it is this which makes
the universe, which is ever without its beginning and end.
24. The reflexion of the intellectual vacuum in its own vacuity, is
called the universe by itself to no purpose (_by itself_ or the human
mind, which views the world in the wrong light of creation, and not as
the Divine Mind itself. Gloss).
25. As a man sees a fair city in his dream by night, so is the sight
of this world to him, in his dream by day light. (The Sanskrit word
_Bhano_ in the text meaning reflexion, corresponds with the Greek Phano
to see, and hence phantom or false sights).
26. Think not the solid rock to have any solidity in it, nor the fluid
waters any fluidity in them; do not think the empty firmament to be a
vacuity, nor the passing time to have any flight or counting of it.
(All these are seemingly so, but they are nothing in reality).
27. All things are fixed in their formless, invariable and ideal states
in the divine intellect; but it is the fallacious and fickle nature of
the human mind, to give and view them in different forms, according to
its own fancy.
28. The mind views the non-created eternal ideas of the intellect, as
created objects before its sight, just as it sees rocks where there are
no rocks, and the sky in a skyless place in its dream.
29. As the formless and insensible mind, sees the formal world in its
sleep, as if it were in its waking state; so does it see the invisible
and formless world in its visible form, during its waking hours of the
day also.
30. As the motion of air always takes place amidst the air at rest
(_i.e._ as the winds fluctuate amidst the still air); so also doth the
spirit of Brahma, oscillate in his own spirit incessantly, and without
its rise or fall.
31. This world resides in the same manner in the divine spirit of
Brahma as the property of fluidity is inherent in water; and vacuity
appertains to vacuum; and as substantiality is essential to all
substances in the abstract.
32. The world is neither adventitious nor extraneous to the soul, and
does not occur to or transpire from it, in the life or deaths of any
body; it is causeless and comes from no cause, and is neither joined
with nor set separate from the divine spirit.
33. The One that has no beginning nor end; nor has any indication of
itself; that is formless and is of the manner of the intellectual
vacuum only, can never become the cause of the visible and material
creation. (Therefore the world is to be supposed to exist in its ideal
and immaterial form, in the vacuity of the divine intellect).
34. Thus as the forms and features of a whole body, are but parts and
properties of its entirety _tout ensemble_; so is this vacuous world
situated, in the undivided and formless vacuity of Brahma (“as parts of
one undivided whole”, Pope).
35. All this is a hiatus and quietus, without its support and
substratum, it is but pure intelligence, without any grossness or
foulness herein; there is no entity nor nonentity here, nor can
anything be said to exist or not exist (independent of the Divine Mind).
36. All this is but an air drawn city, of our imagination and dream;
and everything here, appears to be stretched out in a fairy dance all
about us; but in reality it is only a calm and quiet vacuity, full with
the unchanging and undecaying spirit of God.
37. The whole is the hollowness of the divine heart, and the vacuous
sphere of the Omniscient Intellect; it is its intellection, that
reflects many a transparent image in its own sphere and to no end. This
it is which is called the world or the image of the divine soul, which
continues forever and ever, (and is said--the world without end. Amen).
CHAPTER CCVI.
THE GREAT INQUIRY, OR QUESTIONS OF THE BUDDHIST.
Argument:--Entity of Brahma and non-entity of the world,
illustrated in the story of the king of Kushadwípa.
Vasishtha resumed:--The uncreated phenomenon of creation, that appears
to view, is nothing in reality. It is the transcendental principle of
supreme Brahma, that is the only true reality.
2. It was on this subject, that I was once asked by some one, to my
reply to a certain question of his; which I will now relate to you,
O high-minded Ráma, for strengthening your understanding to the full
knowledge thereof.
3. There is the great island of Kushadwípa, surrounded by the seas on
all sides; like a watery belt about it, and this land is renowned (for
its beauty), all over the three regions of the world.
4. There is the city called Ilávatí, situated on its north eastern
side, and is beset by a colonnade of pillars, gilded all over with
gold, and glittering with radiant beams, reaching from earth to the
skies.
5. There formerly reigned a prince, known by the name of Prajnapti; who
ruled on earth as the god Indra in heaven; and to whom this earth or
land paid its homage (as the skies do to the regent of heaven).
6. It was on one occasion, that I happened to alight at the presence of
this prince; as the sun descends on earth on the last day of desolation.
7. The prince hailed and adored me with offerings of flowers and
presents, made me sit by him with due reverence; then in the course of
my conversation with him, he fondly asked me as follows.
8. Tell me sir, said he, what becomes of the world after the
destruction of all things; and when the causalities of recreation are
all extinct and annihilated, in the undefinable vacuum of desolation.
9. What then becomes the prime cause of the causation of things, at the
recreation of the world; and what are accompanying elements for the
reproduction of objects, and how and whence they take their rise.
10. What is the world and what was the beginning of its creation; what
was the primeval chaos, and whence is this earth? What is the air the
support of the seas, and what is hell, which is filled by worms and
insects? (_i.e._ Whence are these varieties from the one source of
Brahma?)
11. What be the creatures contained in the womb of air (_i.e._ the
celestials), and what are they that are contained in bosom of the
mountains (_i.e._ the demons); what are the elementary bodies and their
productions, and how the understanding and its faculties have come to
existence?
12. Who is the maker of all these, and who is their witness; what is
the support of the universe, and what are these that are contained
therein? I am quite certain, that the world can never have its ultimate
destruction.
13. All the Vedas and sástras are opposed to one another, in their
different views and interpretations; and every one of them has made a
supposition, according to its particular view.
14. From our knowledge of the world, we know not whether it is
indestructible or an unreality in itself. (_i.e._ If it is an ideal
unreality, it needs have no cause nor is it destructible at all; but
should it be a reality and destructible thing, then what must be the
cause of the production and destruction thereof? Gloss).
15. Again tell me, O thou chief of sages, what is the form and cause of
those bodies that are doomed to dwell in hell; after the demise of men
on earth, and cremation and destruction of their bodies here.
16. What are the accompanying causes of the regeneration of bodies,
after their destruction on death? The virtues and vices of departed
souls, being both of them formless things, cannot be their
accompanying causes, towards the formation of their corporeal frames.
17. It is quite an absurd reasoning, that want of matter could possibly
produce a material body; just as it is impossible to believe, that
there should be an offspring, without the seminal cause of its parents.
18. Tell me sir, what else should be the cause, of the production of
material bodies (after death); and for want of any such cause, it is
improper also, to deny the existence of a future state.
19. It is contrary to the dictates of Vedas and sástras, as also to the
conviction and common sense of mankind, to deny the future state of
our existence. The resurrection of our bodies is as unavoidable as our
transportation to a distant land by decree of law, though it be against
our wish or will.
20. How are beings born and actuated in the course of their lives, by
invisible causes which are quite unconnected with them (_i.e._ by the
merit or demerit of the acts of their past lives, which are altogether
detached from their present bodies?). Just as the pillars of stone were
converted to gold (by word of the Bráhman), and without being gilded
over by it. Say, sir, how this vast treasure was obtained in a moment
by the Bráhman. (_i.e._ What could be the cause of this preternatural
event).
21. How that to be called a great one, which remains for a moment only?
further what necessity is there to frame strict laws for the present
to reap harvest in future, when that does not stand good on sound
reasoning?
22. Tell me sir, how do you reconcile such discordances in the Vedas,
which mention the existence of a being and not being in the beginning;
and tell us also that, the Not being existed before creation, and
then the Being or creation was born of the not being. (The discordant
passages are असद्बा इदमग्र आसीत् उतो सदजायत । again असदेब इदमग्र आसीत्
सदेब सोम्य इदमग्र आसीत् ।).
23. How could the primeval nonentity become Brahmá, or how could the
latter be produced from the former; or if it were the mighty vacuity
which gave birth to Brahmá, then tell me sir, why there were no other
Brahmás also, born of its spacious womb.
24. Tell me how the vegetable and other creations, could be produced
without their different sources; and how they derived their nature of
propagating their kinds, by their own seeds and property.
25. Tell me why the life and death of one man, are coeval with those of
his friend or adversary; and do people happen to obtain their wishes in
their next lives by dying in the holy places of Prayága &c.
26. Should the wishes of men, be crowned with success in their next
lives; then tell me sir, why the sky is not filled with myriads of
moons, when the worshippers of that luminary, are daily seen to be
dying with the expectation, of becoming a brilliant orb like it, in the
next state of their existence in heaven.
27. Say how can men succeed to their wishes in future, when most of
them desire to gain the same object, and it falls to the lot of one of
them; just as a maid expected to be wedded by many, is destined to and
secured by one man only.
28. Again how can a woman be called a wife, who is either unchaste, or
leads a life of celibacy even when dwelling in her husband’s house?
29. Say sir, what is the difference between the blessing and curse,
which are pronounced on the Bráhman brothers, for their sovereignty
over the seven continents on the one hand, and their having no such
thing on the other; when they remained thinking themselves as monarchs
of the world in their very house.
30. The acts of piety consisting of charities, austerities and
obsequious ceremonies, which are productive of unknown rewards in the
next world, and are of no benefit to their observers on earth; then
what is the good derived from them, if they are not attended with any
earthly benefit to the earthly body, but to a future body with which no
one here has any concern. (Lit. to which none bears any affection).
31. Should it be said that the soul of the pious observer, reaps
the reward in its future state; this also is impossible because the
disembodied soul is incapable of enjoyment; and should it have another
body to enjoy hereafter, but of what use is that distant body to the
person of the present observer (of the pious acts)?
32. Should these acts be accompanied with any reward, either in this
life or in the next, they could be known to the actor, but in want of
this, their observance appears to be an irreconcilable incongruity.
33. These are my doubts (in the sástras and practices of men), which
I beg you will kindly remove by your cool and clear reasoning, as the
moon-light disperses the evening twilight.
34. Now sir, deign to dispel my doubts in my inquiry after
transcendental truth, that it may conduce to my good in both worlds;
because the company of the righteous, is ever fraught with very great
blessings to all people.
CHAPTER CCVII.
REPLIES TO THE AFORESAID QUERIES (OF THE BUDDHIST).
Argument:--Desultory replies of the sage to the foregoing
questions in the three following chapters.
Vasishtha replied:--Hear me prince, and I will clearly expound to you
the doctrine, which will root out your doubts all at once.
2. All these entities in the world, are inexistent nullities for ever;
though they appear as realities in our consciousness.
3. Whatever appears in any manner in our consciousness, (either as
existing or non-existent, or as so and so); the same is thought as real
as it seems to be, without our consideration of its true nature of a
reality or otherwise.
4. Such is the nature of this consciousness, that it is thought to be
one and same with the bodiless soul, by every one who knows what it is
(by his acquaintance with the science of psychology).
5. It is this knowledge (or the idea) of a thing in the mind, either
in waking or dreaming, that they call to be its body; hence it is this
erroneous consciousness of anything, that is believed as its body, and
there is nothing else beside this that they call a solid body.
6. The world shines (or shows itself) before us, like the sights seen
in a dream; and the privation of all causes towards the production of
the (material) world, prove it to be not otherwise than the phantom of
a dream.
7. Thus this pure and immaculate knowledge of the universe, is termed
the very Brahma himself (because God is said to be infinite knowledge
only. सत्यं ज्ञानमनन्तं व्रह्म). The very same shines as
the world, which is not otherwise than that.
8. Thus doth the world remain quite pure and unchanged, from ever
before and forever more; and so it is thought and said to be, by the
Vedas and all good and great sástras, as also by the joint assent of
all thinking men, in all ages and countries.
9. They are the most ignorant fools, and resemble the croaking frogs
dwelling in the recess of dark caves and pits; who deny the sole
existence of the beings which is impressed in the consciousness of all
beings, which is full and perfect every where, and is acknowledged by
all great souls.
10. There are many at present, who are deluded by their notions of
the appearances of things, and the evidence of their senses, and have
fallen into the error of understanding the gross body, as the cause
of consciousness and inward impressions (_i.e._ they maintain the
objectivity of their knowledge as derived from without, and deny the
subjective consciousness derived from within).
11. They are giddy with their wrong notions, and are not worthy of
our discourse; because no conversation can be held with them that are
intoxicated without intoxication, and are learned with their ignorance
or learned fools.
12. When the discourse of the learned, is not capable of removing the
doubts of men in all places; such discourse is to be understood as the
foolish talk of the universe.
13. He who relies in his belief in the sensibles only, and regards the
believer of the invisible as a fool; such a man (_i.e._ the Buddhist or
Charvaka), is considered for his unreasonable reasoning, as a block of
stone or stony block head.
14. The fool that maintains this (materialistic) doctrine, in
opposition to all rational philosophy, is said to be a frog of the dark
cave (or as a blind mole of the hole); because he is blind both to the
past which is out of his sight, as also to the invisible future and is
concerned only what is present before him.
15. It is the veda and the sayings of wisemen, and the inferences
of their right reasoning (in support of the invisible), as I have
maintained in these lectures, that can remove the doubts in these
matters.
16. If the sensible body (_i.e._ its sensation) be consciousness
(according to the Buddhist); then why is the dead body unconscious
of anything? (To this the Buddhist retorts by saying:) Should the
conscious and all pervading soul be the body, then why doth not
the dull corpse think as the living body? In reply to this foolish
question, it is thus said in the veda:
17. This world is an imaginary city of the divine mind, in its form of
Brahmá--the creator; and it is hence that the phenomenon of the world,
appears to our minds as a phantom in our dream (or as a reflex of the
same).
18. Therefore all this that you see, is but the creation of the divine
intellect, and an intellectual entity in itself; and you are not amiss
in your judgement, if you consider them as phantoms in your dream, and
appearing in the vacuity of your mind.
19. Hence this earth and the skies, these hills and cities, are all but
appearances in the void of the intellect, and conception of your mind,
as those appearing in the reveries of dream, or as air built castles.
20. It is the dense vacuum of self-consciousness, which is called the
great Brahmá or the personal god of creation; and it is the display
of his will in the concrete, which is known as Virát or the visible
universe; thus is the pure and discrete consciousness of Brahma,
condensed into the form of the world.
21. Whatever is imagined in the imaginary city of Brahma, the same is
conceived as existent in reality; as you conceive the objects of your
desire or fancy, to be present before you in actuality (_i.e._ The
thought of a thing appears as the thing itself).
22. So whatever is thought of in the fancied city, or fairy land of
one’s imagination at any time; the same seems to be present before him
for the time being, as you see in the air-drawn castle of your fancy.
23. Hence as Brahma in his form of the mind, thinks of the action of
living and quietus of death bodies; so are they thought of by all
mankind.
24. After the great dissolution of the world (and dissolution of all
things), it is said to be reproduced and renovated anew from nothing;
but as the want of any material cause, cannot produce the material
world, it is certain there is no material being in existence.
25. Brahmá--the lord of creatures, having got rid of the world upon
its dissolution, was freed also from all his remembrance and ideas of
creation for ever; therefore it is the reflexion of divine light only
which appears as the world before us.
26. Thus the supreme soul of Brahma, reflected itself in itself in the
beginning, in the manner of an imaginary castle of his will, which was
air-drawn as the visible sky in the invisible vacuum, and known as the
cosmos or world subsisting in empty space.
27. As an imaginary castle is the creation of the brain or intellect,
and presents to our minds only its intellectual form alone; so does the
world appear to us in its intellectual form, and only as an evolution
of the intellect, and without having any other cause for its appearance.
28. Whether there be any body or not any where, there is the vacuous
intellect which is every where (_i.e._ the hollow space of the mind
comprehends both the plenum as well as the vacuum of the world). And
know the divine spirit to pervade all over this totality, whether it be
the embodied duality or vacuous unity.
29. Hence the vacuous mind of a dead body, beholds the figure of the
whole world within its vacuity; the empty mind of a living being, sees
the shapes both of solid and subtile bodies, in its imagination or
dream. (It means to say that, the death of the body does not involve
the death of the mind).
30. As the living man thinks this immaterial world, to be a solid mass
of dull matter; so doth the dead person think this vacuous universe, as
a solid and substantial existence lying exposed before him in its mind.
31. But as the enlightened or awakened soul of a living body, sees no
trace of scenes of its dream upon its waking; so the redeemed soul of a
dead being sees no trace of the objects-sight in this world, upon its
redemption and beatification in the next world.
32. The very same is the case with the enlightened soul, of every body
in this world; that it bears only the inward conception of it within
itself; but no outward perception thereof without. Therefore there is
no material reality in existence, as there is no substantial causality
in vacuity.
33. As the sleeping man sees the visionary world of his dream, in
the light of a real existence; so the unenlightened person views the
phenomenal world, as a sober reality before him; and so do the souls
of the dead, deem the empty void of air as the world of their departed
spirits. (Thus there are three different worlds, for the sleeping,
waking and departed souls of men).
34. The unpeopled or open air, appears as the earth and heaven, and
full of mountains &c. as before to the souls of the departed (from
their bearing those impressions with them even to the next world, and
so on throughout all their future transmigration).
35. The departed soul perceives its separation from a dead body, and
thinks of its regeneration in another frame on earth; where it will
have its enjoyments and suffering again as before.
36. The soul never gets rid of this delusion of its regeneration, (and
of its desire of renovation also), so long as it neglects to resort to
the means, of obtaining its salvation and final liberation; it is by
means of its knowledge of truth and absence of desire, that is freed
from its error of reproduction.
37. Hence it is the consciousness of the soul, of its righteous or
unrighteous desire; that represents the picture of this airy world, in
the hollow sphere of the mind. (Thus the world is only the picture and
production of one’s own desire).
38. The world is therefore neither of a substantial nor vacuous form,
but the display of divine intelligence; the want of this knowledge
is the source of all misery to man, but its true knowledge as
representation of divine wisdom, is fraught with all bliss and joy.
CHAPTER CCVIII.
SOLUTION OF THE GREAT QUESTION.
Argument:--Answer to the question of _future rewards_ and
punishment of departed souls in another world.
Vasishtha continued:--Hear me now to tell you, why men happen to meet
with their (unexpected) good or fortune at home; and in the same manner
how rewards and retributions, come to attend on departed souls from
unforeseen causes in the far distant (or next) world.
2. You know the whole world to be the volitional city (or fabric) of
Divine will, and appearing as phenomenal to our outward sight, and
as noumenal in the light of our inward insight of it, and as Brahma
himself in its spiritual light. (_i.e._ God has so willed the world,
as to be viewed in the triple light of the physical, intellectual and
spiritual also).
3. In this volitional city, everything appears in the same light, as
one would behold it in any of its different aspects.
4. As in your own house, you are master of the direction of your
offspring, and of the disposal of your things and affairs as please;
so is the Lord the sole disposer and dispensator of all things in this
world of his will, as he likes of his own accord.
5. As in the desired dwelling of your liking, you find everything to be
as well disposed as you wish it to be; so doth he direct and dispose
all things in this world of his.
6. The disorder that there appears to take place in the order of
nature, is to be attributed to the Divine Will as the sovran law of all.
7. The good or evil which waits on men, owing to the obedience to or
transgression of law; is both attributable to the Divine Will (which
has originated the laws and ordained their results).
8. It is the dispensation of the Divine will also, whereby all living
bodies have their perceptions of worldly things; just as they have
the conception of the existence of the world, which in reality has no
entity of it.
9. It is by will of the divine intellect, that everything appears to
be existent before us; as it is the oscitation and occlusion or the
gaping and closing of the intellect, which causes the appearance and
disappearance of the world to our view.
10. The king said:--Tell me sir, if the world was the production of the
divine will, why was it not known to exist before with the eternity of
the Will divine, and why and when it came to be manifested and known
to others afterwards; tell me also, whether the world is an unstable
and vanishing appearance in the air, or it has any fixity in the divine
mind or stability in nature.
11. Vasishtha replied:--Such is the nature of the vacuous and
volitional city of divine intellect; that it comes to being and not
being in succession, in the states of repeated waking dreams of
creation, and in the sleeping oblivion of its desolation.
12. Like the mud built house of playful boys, and the air drawn castles
of fanciful men, do the appearances of creation, appear both as real
and unreal in the divine intellect as well as to our minds.
13. As you build and break your imaginary city in the air, and make
and unmake a fabric of your will elsewhere; whether it be of your own
or choice or for any other reason, so it is with the Divine will,
to construct and protract or retract or annul any of its works _ad
libitum_.
14. Thus are all beings, continually rising and falling, in this
vacuous city of the divine will; which is ever shining in its nature,
with the pure light of the divine mind. (God throws his own light on
the work of his will).
15. The whole plenum of the world is a vacuum, and full with the
dense intelligence of omniscience; therefore it is this omniscient
intelligence, which doth still whatever it thinks upon and wills. (This
passage shows that the Vedánta Brahma, is not inactive or Nishkriya as
many believe; but the living God, and sole agent of all things and
director of all accidents in this world).
16. Therefore it is not the hidden but self manifest God, that does all
things even at the distance of Millions of miles, and myriads of ages,
as if they lay before him at the present time.
17. So there is nothing in any country or in any world, which is not
known nor thought of by the sole and unhidden soul of all. (The gloss
applies it to every individual soul, which is conscious of its merits
and demerits everywhere).
18. As a brilliant gem reflects its light and shade within itself, so
doth the gem of the intellect reflect by its own light the various
vicissitudes of the world in itself. (_i.e._ The human mind is sensible
of its deserts).
19. Laws and prohibitions, which are necessary for the preservation
of people, are implanted in the human soul. (As they are the eternal
varieties of the divine mind), and accompany it every where with their
just rewards.
20. The soul never sets nor rises (_i.e._ It neither dies nor revives,
but supposes itself as such by its error only); It is Brahma himself
and his reflexion in others, and emanating always from the divine soul
its source and origin.
21. As from being the viewer, it supposes itself to be the view, and
thinks its imaginary world as a visible phenomenon; (_i.e._ believes
itself both as the subjective as well as objective); so it thinks
itself to be born, living and dying (by the like error of its own).
22. When the soul of its own nature ceases to cast its reflexion, or
suppresses it within itself, and remains quietly in the vacuous sphere
of divine intellect, by assimilating itself with the universal soul of
Brahma, it is then said to be _quietus_ of quiet in death. (The word
for death in the text is _Sánta-Samita_ or extinct, or instinct in the
divine soul).
23. The emission and intromission of its reflexion, are as natural to
the ignorant and imperfect living soul of animal beings; as oscillation
and calm are congenital with air (or as respiration and inspiration
with breath).
24. Now as you see in the city of your imagination, the growth, decay
and death of people, at different times and places;--
25. So it is the nature of this imaginary city of God, to exhibit these
changes everywhere, as in the cases of animals, vegetables and all
things in all the three worlds.
26. But God neither wills nor does everything himself, in this creation
of his will, but he acts by general laws and secondary causes, as
in the cricket play of boys, and growth of grass from grass, and
production of trees and their fruits &c. from seeds.
27. It is the nature of the almighty intellect of God, to bring forth
forthwith to being whatever it wills to be and appear. (The almighty
thought, will or word, is variously said to be the prime cause of all).
28. All things being originally of intellectual form, appear afterwards
in various forms, and with different natures; as the almighty intellect
invests them with.
29. Hence everything here, is verily of an intellectual form, by their
originating from the divine intellect; and as the intellect includes
all things in itself, it is omniform and shows itself in any form it
likes.
30. This very intellect is the omniscient and universal soul, without
having its beginning, middle or end; it is omnipotent and something
which is nothing, and an entity appearing as non-entity; It appears
such as it remains anywhere, and shows itself as anything; it is the
origin of all things and beings, and the source of all vegetables and
grass.
CHAPTER CCIX.
ON THE CONSCIOUSNESS OR INTUITIVE KNOWLEDGE OF EXTRANEOUS EXISTENCES.
Argument:--Reconciliation of the opposite results of virtuous and
sinful acts, on one and same person at the same time.
Vasishtha continued saying:--The life of a person is dear and useful to
him, as long as he lives and not afterwards; but hear me tell you the
good of a man’s dying in some holy place, with a wish for future reward
in his next life.
2. God has ordained certain virtues and merits to certain places, even
from the beginning of his imaginary city of this world (as to all other
things at their very beginning).
3. Whatever merit is assigned to any place, the same awaits on the soul
of the person, after its release from bondage, by his performance of
the acts of piety enjoined by the sástras.
4. Hence any great sin that is committed by any body anywhere, is
either partly or wholly effaced by the good act of the person,
according to comparative merit of the holy place, or the degree of
absolution in the mind of the penitent sinner.
5. In any case of the insignificance of the sin, with regard to the
greater sacerdotalism of the place; there the sinner is quite absolved
from his guilt, and attains the object of his wish (in his future life).
6. But in case of the equality of the merits of penitence, with the
holiness of the place; the penitent man receives two bodies in his next
life, that is both a physical body and spiritual soul.
7. Such is the effect of the primeval guilt and merit of mankind, that
they are endowed with double bodies, consisting of their physical
frames and spiritual souls (the one maculate and the other immaculate)
and such the divine soul even from before.
8. The principle is called Brahma in its sense of the whole, and as
Brahmá--the totality of the living soul _jíva_; and also as _aham_
or the ego, meaning any living soul in particular; and as he remains
in any manner of the whole or part, so he manifests himself in his
semblance of the world.
9. The reflexion of purity acquired in some holy place, appears to the
penitent soul in the same manner; as it appears in its contrary light
to the guilty soul, which is not so absolved from its sin in any holy
place. (These different reflexions, present the appearance of heavenly
bliss to the soul of one, and that of hell torments to the other, as in
their visions of paradise and Styx in dream).
10. The one sees the visions of his own death, and the weeping of his
living relatives; and deems himself as a departed ghost to the next
world, all alone and without a single soul beside him.
11. He sees also the deaths of his friends there, and thinks also that
he hears the wailings of their relations at that place; he sees the
chimeras of all these in his phrensy, as a man of deranged humours sees
the spectres of bugbears in his delirium.
12. So it happens with great souls also, to see the sights both of good
grace and affright, according to the measure of their merit or guilt
in this life; and thus thousands of hopeful and hideous shapes, float
about in the imaginations of men, owing to the purity and depravity of
their natures.
13. The friends of the dying man, lying insensible as a dead body; weep
and wail over his corpse, and then take him to the funeral ground for
his cremation.
14. But the guiltless man being accompanied by his self-conscious and
righteous soul sees the approach of his decrepitude and death, with
firmness and without any feeling of sorrow (as if he had no decay nor
death).
15. With his present body he sees himself to be a living being; and
with his invisible part or inward soul, he sees his conquest over death
by the merit of his holy pilgrimage (and the immortality of his soul in
the future world).
16. The guiltless man is in fear of his death for a moment only, but is
conscious of the indestructibility of his inward soul, as a man clad
in mail, is dauntless of the shafts of his unarmoured antagonist. (The
pure soul is invulnerable to the shafts of death).
17. In this manner the relatives of the deceased, find his pure soul,
to obtain its immortality after his death; and that life and death are
indifferent to the virtuous and purified person.
18. The sights of all the three worlds, are equally fallacious both in
their tangible and intangible forms; as the vision of one object in a
dream, is as false as another in their visionary nature. (The gloss
says that, one error succeeds another, in the same way as one lie is
followed by another).
19. We have clear conceptions of the fallacies, arising in our minds,
both in our dreams and imagination; but the fallacies of our waking
dreams by broad daylight, are more obvious and never less conspicuous
to our apprehension than either of them (the latter being more general
and lasting than the former ones).
20. The king said:--But tell me sir, how virtue and vice, both of which
are bodiless things (as being the abstract qualities of our actions),
assume to themselves the bodily forms of living beings, in the course
of the transmigration of our souls. (Virtuous souls being blessed with
human bodies, while vicious spirits are doomed to suffer in various
brutish forms).
21. Vasishtha replied:--There is nothing impossible to the creative
power of Brahmá, to be produced in the imaginary fabric of this world
of his mind; nor is it impracticable to the substantive divine will to
give substantial forms to understand things. (The substantive will is
called _satyasankulpa_ which brings the inexistent to real existence).
22. There is nothing which is unimaginable, and cannot be produced by
the mind of Brahmá; as it is with us to have no idea of anything and
nothing in being, of which we have no imagination in our finite minds.
(Brahmá has given forms to all the imaginary ideas of his mind, which
we cannot do to our formless and abstract idea of any).
23. A visionary city in the dream and an imaginary castle of fancy, do
both present the like ideal form to the mind; and yet both of them are
composed of a train of ideas, which appear as real objects for the time
being. (So the ideal seems as real for a time).
24. All the numerous thoughts, which lie as a dead and dormant mass, in
the states of our deep and sound sleep; appear to us in endless forms
in the vision of our dream and waking our imagination and leave their
traces in the memory.
25. Who is there that has not had the notion, of the aerial castles of
his dream and imagination; and found them not to be composed of our
concepts only, in the airy world of our vacuous consciousness.
26. Therefore what thing is there, that is not capable of being
produced in this ærial world, which is the production of the airy
imagination of the vacuous intellect; and what thing also which is
substantially produced therefrom? (The creatures of the mind, have
mental forms only).
27. Therefore it is this fallacy only, which appears in the form of
the visible universe; where there is nothing in real existence or
inexistence; but all things appear to be _in esse_ and _non esse_, in
the _Nabhas_ and in the _Nubibus_ of the divine mind.
28. Anything that is perceived in any manner, the same is thought as
a manifestation of its Áker in the same manner; and the enlightened
seekers of truth, find no impropriety in their belief as such. (These
as they change, are the varied God. Thomson’s “The Seasons”).
29. Hence when a man is taught by the tenets of his religion, to hope
for the enjoyment of flowery banks (lit.--hills), and streams flowing
with nectar in paradise (lit.--heaven); it is very probable that he
will meet with the same things, in his future life in the next world.
(So the Moslem is taught to expect the gratification of all his carnal
desires in heaven, as the promised rewards of his holy Koran. The
Hindus likewise have bodily delights to expect in their different
heavens).
30. Hence the acts that are done in this world by any body, are
attended with their like rewards unto him in the next; and there is no
inconsistency in this belief, though it appears so to the unbeliever
(The adage--as you sow, so shall you reap, holds equally true in every
religion with regard to future retribution, as in every case here
below).
31. Should there be anything, which may be said to be permanent in this
world, it must be ever present in the view of its viewer; let then any
man say upon this criterion, which he does not lose the sight of all
other things before his eye sight, except the ideas of things in his
mind, which are ever present in his knowledge, and never lost sight of
in his consciousness.
32. I have given you the analogy of our dreams and thoughts, to prove
the essentiality of our notions and ideas; and whereas the worlds
appertain to the will and subsists in the mind of omniscience, they are
not otherwise than the essence of the Great Brahma Himself.
33. As there is nothing wanting or impossible to be produced, in the
ærial castle of your imagination; so there is nothing which does not
and cannot exist in the will and mind of the almighty.
34. Whatsoever is thought of in any form, in the Divine Mind, the
same remains fixed therein in the very form; and the same appears to
be situated in the same nature before our views in its photo or in a
scenography.
35. Hence this semblance of the Divine Mind, is perceived only by our
internal senses, and not perceptible to the external organs, or to both
of these at once; because it is for our minds only to perceive the
impressions of the eternal mind, and to impel the internal organs (by
their inward efforts), to receive those reflexions.
36. As the lord has willed everything at first, so it lasts with him to
the very last of his creation (_i.e._ from the very beginning of his
Sankalpa, to the end of the kalpa epoch); when his will of creating the
world anew, gives another form to the state of things in future.
37. The Lord manifests himself as he wills, in the manner of his will,
and in the form of another world in every kalpa duration of creation;
as the minds of men come to see another world and another state of
things in their each successive dream.
38. There is nothing which does not exist, in this worldly city of
Divine will, and all that exists therein is naught but the production
of the Divine Intellect; therefore this world is to be known, as full
of the forms of the productive mind of God.
CHAPTER CCX.
REFUTATION OF THE CONCEPTION OF A DUALITY IN UNITY.
Argument:--End of Vasishtha’s Replies to the important queries,
and his showing the unity of the world with Brahma himself.
Vasishtha resumed and said:--Now hear me tell you in reply to the
question, why the heaven is not filled with a hundred full moons, if
it were the wish of a hundred persons to shine as such a luminary on
future, and if the wishes of all are crowned with success in their next
state of being. (The souls of the pious are said to twinkle as stars in
heaven).
2. Those that aspired to become as bright as the full moon of heaven,
became actually so in their conception of themselves as such in the
sphere of their minds; and not by their situation in the vault of the
sky or in the orb of that luminary.
3. Say who has ever and anywhere, got into the imaginary city of
another; and who has ever got any fancied treasure, except the framer
of the fancy and the fabricator of the wished for wealth. (Every one is
the master of his own Utopia and delights in his hobby horse).
4. Every one has a heaven of his own, in the utopia of his creation;
wherein he is situated and shines as a full bright moon, and without
its phases of the wane and waste.
5. All those aspirants to luminosity, had thought of entering into the
moon of his own mind; and there he found himself to rest at last, with
full light of that luminary and delight of his conscious soul.
6. Each of them thought of entering into the disc of the moon shining
in their minds, and felt themselves glad in their situation, as if they
were seated in the orb of the celestial moon.
7. Whatever one seeks and searches after, the same becomes con-natural
with his consciousness; and in the case of his firm belief in the same
state, he thinks and feels himself to be the very same.
8. As every aspirer to the state of the full moon, came to be such in
his respective conception of that luminary; so the suitors of the same
bride in marriage, became wedded to her according to his own conception
of hers. (Every one imagines his doxy, as a fairy paragon of beauty).
9. The one pure maiden that is thought of being taken to wife, by
many men in their minds; is never defiled by any one of them in her
character, by their simple enjoyment of her ideal only. (The ideal is
not tangible possession).
10. As the sovereign ruler of the seven continents, holds his sway over
them, without ever going out of his city; so the soul passes to them
all, by remaining in the precincts of its body: and so does every man
see his imaginary castle, in the sphere of his own house.
11. When the whole universe owes its origin to the imagination of its
omniscient originator--the self born Brahma; what can it be otherwise,
than an intangible vacuum and quite calm and quiet in itself. (The
moving bodies are the fixed figures of the divine mind, and appear to
be turning round like the pictures in a panorama or the objects in a
scenograph).
12. Now hear me tell you of the unknown and invisible results of the
acts piety, such as charity, obsequeous rites, religious austerities
and the mutterings of holy mantras, which accrue to the departed ghosts
of bodily beings in the next world.
13. The souls marked with traces of pious acts in them, come to view
them vividly as their actual works, and painted in as lively colours as
their dreams, by fabrications of their lively intellects.
14. The carnal mind distrusting the reality of these impressions of
consciousness, and disregarding the internal operation of the inward
intellect; becomes restless for its sensuous enjoyment and exercise of
the outward organs of action, until by abatement of this fervour, it is
restored to its inward peace and tranquility.
15. It is the theme of early poets which tells us, that the impressions
of the acts of piety and charity which are imprinted in the intellect,
are reflected over the passive soul in the next world, when the
conscious soul continues to keep the gratification of those acts.
16. Thus the rewards of charity and uncharitableness, are equally felt
in the gratification and dissatisfaction of the soul in this world
also, where everything is by our feeling of it.
17. Thus have answered fully to whatever you have asked of me; and now
know from all this, that the sensible world is an intangible dream, and
an air drawn spectacle of the mind.
18. The prince rejoined:--But please to tell me sir, how could the
intellect alone and itself before the production of the body; and how
can a light subsist without its receptacle of a lamp or lantern.
19. Vasishtha replied:--The sense in which you use the world body, is
quite unknown to the spiritualist, who discard the material meaning of
the term, as they reject the idea of the dancing of stones in air. (The
learned know the spiritual body only).
20. The meaning of the word body, is the same as that of Brahma (who is
all in all); and there is no difference in the meaning of the two, as
there is none between the words fluid and liquid.
21. The body is a visionary appearance, and the great body of Brahma,
is likened unto the figure of a phantom in vision, which represents
the forms of all things as in dream in the stupendous fabric of the
universe. [Brahma is more likely the phantasmagoria that shows all
forms in it. Gloss].
22. But the difference between thy dream or vision and spectrum of
Brahma, consist in the former representing the figures of thy previous
thoughts alone, which disperse and vanish upon thy waking; but the
universe which is exhibited in spectrum of Brahma, is not so evanescent
as that of other.
23. What is thing then we call the body, and how does it appear into
us in the shape of something in our dream; and why doth anything
appearing as a reality in dream, appear as nothing and vanish as an
error upon our waking.
24. There is no waking, sleeping or dreaming, nor any other condition
of being, in the _Turíya_ or transcendent state of Brahma [as in those
of the divine hypostases of Brahmá, Virát and others]. It is something
as the pure and primeval light and as the transparent air, all quiet
and still, [as the infinite eternity].
25. It is the same as the unknown and inscrutable light, which shows
and glows before us to this day; It is the same primeval and primordial
light, that showed first the sight of the world to view, as if it were
a dream in the gloom of night. (Light was nature’s first born, and
brought forth all nature from it).
26. As in passing from one district to another, the body though
proceeding onward, is ever in the midst of its circuit, and yet never
fixed at any spot; so are all things in their endless rotation in this
world, whether singly or collectively.
27. The sight of the world, like that of a dream, presents favourable
aspect to some minds, but it presents a clear and serene prospect to
men of unclouded intellects.
28. The vacuum as well as the plenum of objects, and the reflexion
as likewise the eclipse or adumbration of things; the existence and
inexistence of the world and matter, and the unity and duality of the
divine entity, are all but the extraneous phases or aspects of the same
vacuous intellect.
29. The world is entirely or completely evolution from the fulness of
the deity; and stands as a complete counterpart of the original; it is
neither a shining or unshining body by itself, but is as bright as the
contents of a crystal within its bowels.
30. Wherever there is the evolution of the world in the intellect,
there is the presence of the subtile soul also at that place, and
whenever there is a jot of thought anywhere, it is attended with the
thought of the world also. (The mind and soul are one with creation,
and the same thing).
31. The vacuum of intellect is present everywhere (pervading and
comprehending the whole). And this omnipresence is the divine presence
(which engrosses and envelopes this all) which is termed the world.
[The word world-jagat passing [in our right], is spiritually _sánta_ or
quiet].
32. The divine soul is as quiet and unchangeable, as this universe is
stable and stationary; and it is the fluctuation of the supreme mind,
which causes these variations in the face of the city of the divine
will [or the world].
33. The impossibility of any other inference [of the world’s duality
or its being aught otherwise than the divine entity]; proves it
necessarily to be of the very same essence. Any unreasonable hypothesis
of sophists is inconsistent with this subject [of the absolute unity].
34. The joint assent of the common belief of mankind, the testimony
of the sástras, and the dicta of the Vedas, are established and
incontrovertible truths. Hence nobody can have any doubt in regard to
the real entity of the Divine spirit.
35. This being confessed it becomes evident, that the world is the
deity itself; and when the world appears as one with the deity, it
is seen in our clairvoyance to be extinct in the Divine essence.
(Clairvoyance is _charama-sákshat kára_ or the last sight of creation
at one’s dying moment; when the world disappears, and eternity appears
full open to view. Gloss).
36. From this analogy of the ultimate evanescent sight of the world, it
will be evident to the living soul, that the sight of the phenomenal
is wholly lost before it in the noumenal. This is the doctrine of
cosmotheism, wherein whole nature is seen in nature’s God.
37. He who is acquainted with the sphere of his intellect, is not
unacquainted with the fact of the dependency of the arbour of the world
to it, he sees the three worlds in himself, in either of his two states
of bondage and liberation. (The fettered soul is fastened to the sight
of the material and temporal world; but the liberated soul views it in
its spiritual light).
38. The visible world though so manifest to view, is entirely lost to
sight upon its right knowledge; and the knower thereof in its light,
becomes like the setting sun, wholly invisible to public sight, and
remains as mute as a clod of silent stone.
39. The way that is established by the Vedas, and received by the
general assent of wisemen; is to be acknowledged, as the right path
leading to sure success (vox populi vox dei).
40. He who adheres steadily to his own purpose, by utter disregard of
all other objects in his view; is said to be firmly fixed to his point,
and is sure to reap his success at the end.
41. Everything appears to one in the same light, as he is accustomed to
view and take it for; and whether this object of his faith is a true
or false one, it appears just the same to any body as he is wont to
believe it.
42. This is the conclusion of your question, as I have determined and
delivered to you; now be quick and walk your way with perfect ease of
your mind, health of your body and agility of your limbs.
CHAPTER CCXI.
LECTURE ON TRANSCENDENT TRUTH.
Argument:--Relation of Brahma as the all-pervading spirit, and of
the means of the presentation of spiritual being before one.
Vasishtha resumed:--As I was sitting relating these things to the
prince, he honoured me with his obeisance; and then thinking I had
dispensed my task to him, rose up to proceed on my aerial journey (from
the Ilávrita-Varsha of Kushadwípa).
2. Thus I have related unto you this day, O most intelligent Ráma,
regarding the omnipresence of the Divine spirit; keep this vacuous view
of Brahma before your sight, and proceed everywhere with the peace of
your mind (as you are ever living and moving in the Lord).
3. Know all this to be Brahma itself, and a nameless and unsubstantial
void only; it is something unborn and increate, all calm and quiet, and
with out its beginning, middle and end. (It is infinity in space and
eternity in duration).
4. It is said to be the reflexion of the intellect, and named as Brahma
from its immensity, it is termed the most transcendent, and something
without any designation at all.
5. Ráma rejoined:--Tell me sir, how can we have the sights of the
celestial, and of the Siddha and Sádhya spirits, of Yama, Brahmá and of
the heavenly Vidyádharas and choristers; and tell me also sir, how the
people of the other spheres can be visible to us.
6. Vasishtha replied:--The celestial siddhas, Sádhyas, the gods Yama
and Brahmá, and the Vidyádhara demigods; these together with all other
beings of great souls and wondrous might;--
7. Are all visible to you both by day and night, and above, below,
behind and ever before you, if you will but look at them with the eyes
of your mind; but if you shut your mental eye against spirituality, you
can never have the sight of spirit presented before your view. (This
passage is illustrated in the story of Chudaloka. Gloss).
8. These beings being habituated to be viewed in our minds, are never
afar from us, and as they are represented to be volitive or self willed
beings, they are said to be ever roving everywhere. (The spirits are of
two kinds; some stationary in their particular lokas or spheres; and
others to be wandering about. Gloss).
9. These volitional beings are as fickle as the living creatures of
this earth of ours; and as the volatile winds, which are blowing at
random in every direction.
10. These resemble the airy creatures of your imagination and dream,
which hover and gather about you by day and night; while the others
are devoid of their volition and motion, and are settled stationary in
their respective spheres.
11. If you can in the calm quietness of your mind and soul, secure
the reflexion of any of these spirits in your silent and steadfast
meditation; you can without fail, have the visitation of the same in
the inmost recess of your soul (and hold your secret communion with it
also. Gloss).
12. In this manner do men see the gods as they see the siddhas, arrayed
with all their majesty and glory, as they are feigned to be in their
intense meditations. (Dhyánenaivapara-devah).
13. Now as men of steady minds, find themselves to be soaring to
heaven, in the company of the siddhas and clad in all their glory;
those of fickle and unsubdued minds, have to take great pains, in order
to confine the fleeting object of their contemplation under their
control. (It is often dangerous to the unadept novice in meditation, to
let slip the object of his contemplation from his grasp).
14. The world is altogether an unsubstantial and imperceptible thing;
and is ever as silent and a serene void, as the vacuum of the intellect
(or the Divine mind). It appears however as a solid and compact mass,
according as the notion we have of it in our consciousness. (_i.e._
This nothing is thought of something, according to our mistaken
notion or conception of it).
15. It does not exist in our unconsciousness, nor does it appear to be
in existence or otherwise it is not dull, insensible and unthinking
beings; it is a vacuity and nullity, and utterly an intangible and
imperceptible thing in our sensibility and unconsciousness of it.
16. It is the nature of the intellect to reflect in itself, and all
that is seen about us, is the shadow of that reflexion; the knowledge
of substantiality in this shadowy reflection, proceeds from the vanity
of the intellect, and not from its nature which free from mistake.
17. There can be no talk of causation, production or vegetation, in
the nature of the universe; which being an absolute void, is entirely
devoid of the elements of cause and effect. (Ex nihilo nihil fit &c.).
18. That which appears to be produced, is only a void in the midst of
primeval vacuum (teo et beo); nor can there be the attribution of unity
or duality to the infinite vacuity.
19. Yet the world appears as something existent in your mind; and as
visible before your eyes; and this happens in the same manner as you
have the consciousness and sight of your dreams; in the unruffled calm
of your hollow sleep.
20. As imagination causes the mountains and mountainous regions, to
rise in the hollow sphere of our minds; but neither is the one nor
the other found to be really existent therein; such is this creation
an airy working of the divine mind (and leaving no trace of it left
behind).
21. Hence it is the nature of the wise and sapient, to remain as quiet
and mute as motionless blocks of wood or stone; and the character of
great minds, to manage themselves as wooden puppets, moving wholly as
they are moved by the prime mobile power of God alone (Without being
actuated by their own desire, or deeming themselves as free agents).
22. As the waves are seen to roll about on the surface waters, and as
the eddies are whirling round and hurling headlong into the deep; so
the whole creation and all created things, turn about the pivot of the
great Brahma alone. (Not an atom herein, has an excentric course of its
own).
23. As vacuity is inborn in the firmament, and undulations are immanent
in the air; so are these creations inherent and inseparably connected
with the divine spirit, in their amorphous or formless and ideal
shapes. (This passage maintains the idealistic theory of the ancients).
24. As an air drawn castle of our will or imagination, presents
a substantial shape before us with all its unsubstantialness; so
does this world appear as a compact frame exhibited before us,
notwithstanding its situation in the formless mind of Brahma.
25. All these three worlds, that we are accustomed to believe as real
ones, and as seats of our temporal as well as spiritual concerns; are
all void and formless, and as unreal ones as the airy castles of our
imagination.
26. As it is the thought of our minds, that creates full populous
cities in them; so it is the thought of the mind of God, that creates
these numerous worlds, and presents them to our minds and eyes.
27. Though ever and all along thought as a reality, this visible world
bears no meaning at all; and resembles the sight of a man’s own death
in his dream.
28. As a man sees the funeral of his dead body, conducted by his son in
his dream; so the unreal world is seen as a reality, in as much as it
is reflected as such by its supreme contriver.
29. Both the entity and non-entity of the cosmos or world, constitute
the corpus of the immaculate deity; just as a fictitious name applied
to a person, makes no difference in his personage.
30. Whether what I have said is true or not (that the siddhas and
others are mere imaginary or spiritual beings), you have nothing to
lose or gain therefrom (because we have no concern whatever with them);
and as it is useless for wise men to expect any reward by casting
fruits into the Phálgu river, so it is of no good to the intelligent
who have known the true God, to take the pains of invoking the aid of
the minor gods instead of Him.
CHAPTER CCXII.
ON ASCERTAINMENT OF TRUTH.
Argument:--Thinking God as the Ego, Brahmá and the creation, and
the description of God.
Vasishtha resumed:--The man that considers himself as the Ego, from his
possession of the intellect and intellectual powers in him; elevates
him to the rank of Brahmá and contains the whole world in himself.
2. As the Lord Brahmá or Hiranyagarbha remained in this state (of the
totality of souls) he was not then the creator of the world; but was
alike the increate Brahma--the everlasting God, as he continued from
all eternity. (Brahmá assimilating himself to the impersonal God, had
no personality of himself, so the holy trinity was all One, before
the Lord caused his coeternal son to create the world; as nothing was
created but by the son).
3. It is in our consciousness, that the world appears in this manner,
and is like the mirage in a desert, where its very unreality shows
itself as a reality. (Hence our consciousness, is not always the test
of truth).
4. It is since the creation, that the primeval vacuum began to present,
the blunder or falsity of the world in itself; but how and whence
arose this blunder, unless it were the presentation of Brahma himself.
(Delusion is God also).
5. The world is a whirlpool (a revolving sphere), in the vast ocean
of Brahma (_i.e._ in the great expanse of vacuum). Where then is the
question of unity or duality in this, or the talk of the dualism of
the eddy from the waters of the deep, or how can there be the topic of
unity in want of a duality. (The world is therefore Brahma-dharma or an
hypostasis of God. Gloss).
6. The great Brahma is profoundly quiet, and having his intellect
inherent in himself, he is conscious of his being the great or sole
Ego (or the totality of beings) in his mind, and sees himself as the
midst of the vast expanse of vacuity.
7. As fluctuation is inherent in air, and heat is inbred in fire; and
as the moon contains its coolness in itself, so does the Great Brahma
brood over the eternal ideas of things, contained in the cavity of his
fathomless mind.
8. Ráma rejoined:--Tell me sir, how does the divine mind come to think
of and brood upon his creation; when the eternal intellect is ever
employed in its process of intellection. The course of Divine thought
being unobstructed from eternity to eternity, its even tenor cannot
be supposed to be now and then turned to the act of creation, or even
said to be brought in its action and motion, since the time that this
creation first began to exist (There can be no talk of the beginning or
end of the world before eternity).
9. Vasishtha replied:--It is even so, O Ráma! the great Ego of God
always thinks of everything in itself; and the increate and ever
existent spirit of God, has never anything unknown to his knowledge.
(The evolution and involution of the world, are known by the terms of
its creation and annihilation).
10. The vacuous is ever and every where present both in creation and
non-creation (_i.e._ both before as well as after it); and there
is nothing that is known to him as existent or nonexistent at any
time (since the ignorant know the world as existent, and the learned
consider it a nihility; but the Lord knows them all in himself).
11. As the mind is conscious of its fluctuation, and the moon of her
coldness; and as the air knows its voidness, so doth Brahma know
himself as the Ego, and never thinks himself without the other. (They
are Misra or combined together).
12. Such is the entity of God, and never unlike to or otherwise than
this; and whereas the world is without its beginning and end, it must
be as imperishable as Brahma himself. (The world is without end).
13. It is only from your want of sufficient intelligence, and hearing
of or prejudice in the word _non-ego_; that you are led to the belief
of a duality, in the undualistic unity of the Deity.
14. Never does any body nor anything here, think of itself of anything
whatever; there is none and naught whatsoever, that can think unless it
is the same with the Divine Ego.
15. The apparent threefold world, ever appears in this manner; as one
with and inseparable from God that dwells alike and evenly in all,
which composes one uniform whole, without admixture of any diversity or
duality (all which blend together in harmony in one universal unity).
16. Know O Ráma, that is nothing like a rock or tree, is produced in
empty vacuity; so these seeming solid worlds, can never be produced in
the vacuous spirit of Brahma (but are all mere phantoms of what they
appear to be) know this, and go on freely in your own way.
17. Precepts to men of little intelligence and doubtful minds, fail to
persuade them to the knowledge of truth; and so long as they can not
comprehend the unity, they are ever apt to believe in the multiplicity
of objects.
18. Neither precepts nor sástras, can lead the ignorant to the
knowledge of truth, unless they can get rid of their prejudice of
diversity, which the creator Brahmá, has spread over the minds of men.
19. Ráma rejoined:--I understand sir, what you say (regarding the ego
as the agent); but I beseech you to explain it by some illustration,
for my clear knowledge of it.
20. What does the supreme Brahma do, by his assuming the title of
ego or thinking agent to himself; you know all this (by your vast
knowledge), though it is not quite satisfactory to your audience.
21. Vasishtha replied:--The supreme One that was quite indistinct
before (as the undistinguishable chaos); becomes after his assumption
of the title ego to himself, divided and distinguished into the
distinct essences of vacuum, space and its directions and time with all
its divisions. (The ego itself is diversified into these various forms).
22. The ego then assuming its personality, finds many such distinctions
appearing before itself; which are quite imperceptible in its state of
impersonality. (The personal soul only, is conscious of these).
23. The knowledge of these vacuous principles, their qualities and
attributes, which is preserved in the soul in the forms of their
abstract ideas; is expressed afterwards by certain symbolical sounds
or words, which are also as void as air. (A word is a breath, and the
breath is air).
24. It is thus the formless and vacuous principle of the ego,
entertains in itself or its soul, the notions or knowledge of times and
space in their ideal forms.
25. This universe which appears as the _réchauffé_ or reflex of the
ideal of the ego, and seems as the visible and substantial world, is in
reality but the intangible Brahma, and appearing as the tangible non
Brahma to view.
26. The world is verily the quiet spirit of Brahma, it is one with Him,
and without its beginning, middle or end; it is verily the void of
Brahma, who assumes to himself the titles of Ego and the living soul,
vacuous himself in his own vacuous self, as this vast and extensive
phenomenon, and as something otherwise than what He is. (The world is
the mirror of the divine Mind and its thoughts).
CHAPTER CCXIII.
NARRATION OF RÁMA’S PRIOR PUPILAGE UNDER VASISHTHA.
Argument:--Vasishtha’s relation of a lecture delivered to Ráma in
a former birth.
Vasishtha continued:--O Ráma, the destroyer of thy enemies, this very
question that you have asked me today, was put to me once before, when
you had been a pupil under my discipline.
2. In a former age, there was once this spiritual discourse betwixt
ourselves, when you had been a pupil of mine in a certain forest
(according to Metempsychosis), the present is but a repetition of a
past life. The wheel of life rolls and revolves incessantly from age to
age.
3. As I sat there as your preceptor, and your sitting in my presence as
my pupil; you then had put this very question to me, with the gravity
of your understanding.
4. The Pupil said:--You sir that know all things, now deign to remove
this doubt and difficulty of mine, regarding what things die and perish
at the great deluge, and what things are not liable to destruction.
5. The Preceptor replied saying:--Know my son, that the relics of all
things are utterly destroyed at the last deluge; as your thickening
dreams disappear in your sound sleep.
6. The hills and rocks on all the ten sides of the earth, are all
destroyed without any distinction, and of the actions of men and
routine of their business, there remains nothing behind.
7. All beings are destroyed at the end, and the great void (that is the
receptacle of all bodies), becomes a perfect void.
8. The gods Brahmá, Vishnu, Indra, Rudra and others, that are the prime
causes of the causal agencies of this world, do all become extinct at
the end of the world, and there remains no vestige of them at last.
9. There remains only the great vacuity of the divine intellect, which
is ever existent and undecaying; and this appears from the divine
spirits remaining as the witness both of annihilations as also of the
regeneration of the past and future worlds.
10. The entity never becomes a non-entity, nor the non-entity never
comes to be an entity; tell me therefore where the past world
disappears, and from whence the future world comes to existence.
11. The Preceptor replied:--This world, my boy, is not wholly destroyed
nor does it become altogether extinct; and it is quite true that
nothing ever goes to nothing, nor does anything, nor does anything
ever proceed from a nihility.
12. That which is an entity in reality, never becomes a non-entity in
anywise, and how can that which is inexistent of itself, ever become a
nil and null afterwards (Ex nihilo nihil fit &c.).
13. Where is water to be had in the mirage, and when are the two
seeming moons to be seen in the sky; where are the delusive hairs found
to be floating in the air, and when does a false conception prove to be
true. (So the seeming world is a nullity, although it appears awhile as
something to our deluded sight).
14. Know my son, all these phenomenals to be mere delusions, and
without any reality in them; they appear as cities and towns in our
dreams, and are ever obtrusive on us.
15. They are however liable to vanish away quite out of our sight at
last, as our dreams disappear upon our waking, and as our waking scenes
are lost and hid under the veil of our sleep.
16. As we know nothing where the city of our dreaming, vanishes away at
last upon our waking; so we are quite ignorant about that chaotic void,
wherein the universe submerges upon its exit.
17. The Pupil rejoined:--If the world is a nullity as you say, then
sir, be pleased to tell what is it that thus appears to and disappears
from us by turns; and what is that vacuous intellect which presents
this extensive view before us; as also how does the void present its
reflexion of the plenum and to what purpose.
18. The Preceptor replied:--It is the vacuous sphere of the intellect,
my boy, that thus shines with its transparency; and it is this
reflexion of it which is called the world, which is no other than this.
19. It is the reflexion of the widely extended substance of the great
void of the intellect; and this apparently solid figure of it, is no
other than the same transpicuous form of that intellect. (So says the
sruti, Brahmá reflects his twofold forms to us, the one opaque and seen
with our naked eye, and the other translucent and viewed by our mental
sight).
20. The incorporeal Brahmá like all corporeal bodies, presents both
a fair as well as a dark complexion (the one being his clear or
intellectual form seen by the clear sighted, and the other his hazy
figure viewed by gross understandings). He also discloses himself some
times and closes at another, which cause the creation and annihilation
of the world. (Manu calls it the waking and sleeping of God, and others
the evolution and involution of the divine spirit).
21. The clearness of the divine spirit, ever remains the same and
unaltered, both before and after the creation and its dissolution;
as a fountain of limpid waters is always clear, whether it reflects
the shadows of its bordering arbours or not. (No change in nature can
affect the spirit of God).
22. As a man remains unchanged in his sleep, whether he be dreaming
or enjoying his sound rest; so the spirit continues alike in its
intellect, whether it is in the act of creation or annihilation.
23. As the ideal world appears to be calm and quiet, both in the dream
of the dreamer, as well as in the sound sleep of the sleeper; so this
visible world of ours is ever viewed in its calmness, in the tranquil
spirit of the Lord and of the contemplative saint.
24. Hence I do not recognize the existence of a vacuum or sky, anywhere
and independent of our soul; nor can we expect the same sphere
appearing in the souls of others, as it does in ours according to our
view of it.
25. If we can perceive the light of our intellect, even at the point
of our death, and disappearance of the world from us; why should we
not conceive the same to be the case with others, and that they do not
perceive the same intellectual light also in their consciousness. (This
is an evidence of the immortality in our souls).
26. The Pupil rejoined:--If such is the case, that others who are
awake, have the same view of the world, as the dreamer has in his
dream; then I believe that all those that are living, have the same
view of the world as those that are dying, (_i.e._ A mere faint idea of
it and not a substantial one).
27. The preceptor replied:--So it is, O my intelligent lad, the world
then does not appear in its real form (of a solid body to the dreamer
and the dying), as it appears as a reality to the intellects of others
(that are waking and living). Idealism presents the true picture of the
world.
28. The world does not appear and is not anything, and nothing that is
real or has any reality in it; it is a mere reflexion of the intellect,
and there can be no reality in our false sight of it.
29. It is apparent everywhere, and seems to be in every way at all
times; but it does not exist in anyway, anywhere or at
anytime.
30. And because it is both the real and unreal form of Brahma, it
is both a reality as well as unreality likewise; and being of the
intellectual void, is never destructible nor ever destroyed.
31. The vacuous entity of the supreme intellect, which exhibits the
phenomena of creation and its destruction (in repeated rotation),
abounds with our misery only, if we attend to its occurrences with any
degree of concern; but it does not affect us at all, if we can but
remain altogether unconcerned with its casualties.
32. All these appearances exist every where at all times, in the same
manner as they appear to the ignorant; but in truth, they appear in no
where, in any manner or at any time to the wise and learned (who know
the nature of worldly delusions).
33. It is the one self-same Being that appears as a god in one place,
and as a pot or clod in another. Here he is seen as a hill and there as
a rill or dale; He is an arbour here, of furze or bush there, and the
spreading grass in another. He is the moving and movable some where and
the unmoving and unmovably else where; and He is the fire and all other
elements also everywhere.
34. He is entity and nonentity, and both vacuity and solidity also; He
is action and duration, and the earth and sky likewise. He is the being
and not being, and their growth and their destruction likewise, and He
is good as well as the evil, that attends on one and forefends another.
35. There is nothing that is not He, who though one is always all
things in all places; He is in and out of everything, and extends
along the beginning, middle and end of all things. He is eternity and
duration and the three divisions of time also; (_i.e._ the present,
past and future, called the triple time).
36. He is all, and existent in all things, in all places and times; and
yet He is not the All, and neither existing with anything at any time
or place (but is but dimly seen in these His lowest works. Milton).
37. Know now, Ráma, that Brahma being the universal soul, He is all
in all places and times; and because Brahma is the conscious soul, He
exhibits all things to our consciousness, as if they were images in our
dreams or the creatures of our imagination. (_i.e._ A corporeal God
only can form a formal and plastic world; but the intellectual soul of
God, can make only a formless and immaterial creation, as we see in our
dream and phantasies).
38. The maker of the terrene world, must have an earthly body; and the
framer of the woody arbours must have a wooden frame, but the Lord God
of all, has neither a corporeal body nor a material shape. (Thus they
frame a fire, air and water God, but the true God is none of these
elements).
39. Others make a mountain God as the Lord of all; and some even make
and worship a human figure as the supreme God (and so are all the
heathen gods represented in human figures).
40. Some make a picture the Lord and maker of all; and others make some
image as such, and worship it as the great God of all.
41. But there is only one supreme Being, who is the maker, supporter
and the Lord God of all others; He is without beginning and end, and
the Lord Brahma, whose spirit upholds and supports all others.
42. A straw made image or an earthen pot, is attributed with divine
powers, and represented as the Most high; and so the formless God is
shown in frail images, which are made and destroyed by human hands.
43. An outward object is made the actor and enjoyer of acts; but the
wise know intelligence only, as the active and passive agent of all
actions.
44. But the truly wise (_i.e._ the vacuist) acknowledges no active nor
passive agent of creation; although many among the wise (_i.e._ the
Páshupatas) recognize one God alone, as the only actor, and enjoyer of
all.
45. All these views may be probable, and well apply to the most high,
who is the sole object of all these theories; and as there is nothing,
which can be positively affirmed or denied of Him. (Here the vacuist
Vasishtha is a tolerator of all faiths, as suited to the capacities of
the different understanding of men).
46. All these believers look to their desired objects, as manifest to
their view in the vacuous space of their intellects, and by viewing the
whole world in themselves, they remain undecayed at all times.
47. All visibles and all laws and prohibitions, together with all
desires and designs of men; are confined with their knowledge of them
in themselves. Hence those that are true to their faiths, and firm
in the observance of their duties and performance of their acts, are
verily of the nature of the divine soul, by their viewing all nature in
themselves.
48. This very doctrine was inculcated to before, when you had been a
pupil under my preceptorship; but as you could not fully comprehend
it then, you are doomed to another birth, to learn it again from me.
(Vasishtha means to say that he is immortal, though Ráma may have his
transmigration in many incarnations).
49. The world representing the longsome dark and dreary winter night,
presents the pure light of knowledge, shining with the serene and
cooling beams of the autumnal lunar disk; now O Ráma! as you
edified by your pure intelligence, shake off the dross of dull
ignorance from you, and continue in the discharge of your duties, as
they have lineally descended to you and to your royal race.
50. Do you remain released from your attachment, to all things of this
temporal world; and relying solely in the One supreme and universal
soul, whose pure nature is perceptible throughout all nature; then be
as lucid as the pellucid sky, with the peace of your mind and transport
of your soul, and learn to rule your realm with justice and equity.
CHAPTER CCXIV.
DESCRIPTION OF THE GREAT JUBILEE OF THE ASSEMBLY.
Argument:--Demonstration of the exceeding exultation of the
audience at the close of the long winded lengthy lecture.
Válmíki related:--As the sage had finished saying these things, or so
far, the celestials sounded their trumpets from heaven, as the clouds
resounded in the rainy skies, with showers of nectarious rain drops (on
the earth below). The face of the sky was whitened on all sides, as by
drifts of snowfalls in hoary winter, and the surface of the earth was
covered by rain drops, dropping like showers of flowers. (The sound of
celestial trumpets, is ever accompanied with or followed by a shower
refreshing rain).
2. The earth appeared to be blessed with prosperity in the beauty of
the flowers, stretching their pistils and peduncles like beauties in
their evening decorations, and sending afar the fragrance of their
farinacious dust, like the perfumery on the persons of fairies, their
outer garniture and inner cool sweetness are verily the gifts of the
gods.
3. The falling flowers of heavenly arbors, dropped down from their
dried boughs, by the rampant and apish hurricane of heaven, are now
vying with the glittering stars, scattered all over the face of the
firmament, and deriding at their grim laughter with their bashful and
blushing smiles.
4. The lowering clouds accompanied with sounds of trumpets, and
drizzling rain drops and falling of flowers (which bore resemblance
to one another); next lighted upon the court hall, like the shadowy
snow fall on Himálaya’s head, and filled the assembly with wonder, and
gaping mouths and staring eyes.
5. The assembly seated in their order, took hold of handfuls of these
heavenly flowers; and poured them upon Vasishtha with their obeisance,
and cast away all their earthly cares and woes with those celestial
offerings to the sage. (Every offering confers and recurs, with an
equivalent blessing to the offerer).
6. The King Dasaratha said:--O wonder! that we are so lightly released
of our cares and woes, in this wide extended vale of miseries of the
world; and that our souls are now lightened of their throws by your
grace, like the heavy clouds lightened of their weight, and floating
lightly at last on Himálayas.
7. We have reached to the goal of our acts, and seen the end of our
miseries of this life; we have fully known the knowable One (that is
only to be known), and have found our entire rest in that supreme state
(by your good grace alone).
8. We have known to rest in the ultimate void in our meditation, and to
get rid of our erroneous thoughts of bodies, by means of our intense
application to the abstract (or Platonic abstraction).
9. It is by our riddance from the coinage and vagaries of our
imagination, and by our escape from the feverish fervour for the sights
of the dreaming world; as also by our ceasing to mistake the shells and
cockles for silver, and by our deliverance from misdeeming ourselves as
dead either in our sleep or dream, (that we may be enabled to the true
knowledge of ourselves &c.).
10. It is by our knowledge of the identity of the wind and its
oscillation, and of the sameness of the water with its fluidity; as
also by our distrust in this talismanic world, and in this fairy land
of our fancy (that we can attain to the knowledge of truth &c.).
11. It must be by our discredit in the magical scenes of this world,
and in the aerial castles of fairies; as also by our mistrust in the
limpid currents of the mirage, and in the aerial groves and double
moons of heaven (that we can come to know the truth).
12. It is no earthquake, if our tottering foot steps should shake and
slip in our drunkenness; nor can we view a ghost in a shadow as boys
do, nor see the braids of hair hanging down from the clouds in heaven.
13. From these and other instances, which you have given for our
instruction; you have sir, at once effaced our credit in the visible
sights of this world.
14. Ráma added:--My ignorance is dispelled, and I have come to the
knowledge of truth by your good grace; and O thou chief of sages,
I acknowledge thee to have brought me to light from my impervious
darkness.
15. I am freed from my doubts, and set to the light of the true
nature of God; and I will now act as thou sayst, in acknowledging the
transpicuous truth (or viewing God as manifest in nature, and not as
hidden under her veil).
16. Remembering and reconsidering thy words, that are so fraught with
ambrosial sweetness and full of delightsome taste; I am filled with
fresh delight, though already satisfied and refreshed by their sense
(_i.e._ the more I think of them, the happier I seem to feel my-self).
17. I have nothing to do for myself at present, nor is there any left
undone or remaining to be done by me. I am as I am and have ever been,
and always without any craving for me. (This state of self-satisfaction
and self-sufficiency, is the highest bliss for man).
18. What other way to our true felicity can there be, than this that
has been shown by thee? or else I find this wide-extended field of the
earth, to be so full of our woe and misery.
19. I have no foe to annoy me nor a friend to give any joy to me; I
have no field to work in, nor an enemy to fear nor a good soul to
rely in. It is our misunderstanding that makes this world appear so
troublesome to ourselves, while our good sense makes it all agreeable
to us. (If the world will not suit thee, suit thyself to it).
20. How could we know all this (for our happiness) without thy good
grace unto us; as it is never possible for a boy, to ford and cross
over a river, without the assistance of a boat or bridge.
21. Lakshmana said:--It is by reason of your removing the doubts, that
had been inherent in and inherited by me in my repeated births; and it
is by virtue of the merit, that I had acquired in my former births;
that I have come to know the truth this day, by the divine sermon of
the holy sage; and to feel the radiance of a holy light in me, shining
as brightly as the cooling beams of moonlight.
22. It is strange that in disregard of this heavenly bright and vivid
light, that men should be entangled in a thousand errors, and be
burnt at last as dried wood or fuel, by their foul mistake and great
misfortune.
23. Viswámitra said:--O! it is by our great merit, that we have come
this day, to hear this holy lecture from the mouth of the sage; and
which has at once expurgated our inner souls, as a thousand lavations
in the clear stream of Ganges.
24. Ráma rejoined:--We have seen the highest pitch of all prosperity,
and the best of all that is to be seen; we have known the end of all
learning, and the last extremity of adversity; we have seen many
countries and heard many speeches; but never have we heard, nor seen
nor known anything better than the discourse on the beauty of the soul,
which the sage has shown to us to-day.
25. Nárada added:--Our ears are purified to-day, by the hearing of what
we have never heard heretofore; to be preached by Brahmá or the gods
above or men below.
26. Lakshmana rejoined:--Sir, you have entirely dissipated all our
inner and outer darkness also; and have shewn us the transcendent
light, of the bright sun of the Divine soul.
27. Satrughna said:--I am satisfied and tranquilized, and uncomposed
in the supreme soul; I am for ever full and perfect in myself, and sit
quite content with my solity.
28. Dasaratha repeated:--It is by the merit of our deeds, done and
acquired in our repeated lives, that we have been, O thou chief of
sages, sanctified this day by thy sacred and sanctifying speech.
29. Válmíki related:--As the king and his courtiers, were speaking in
this manner, the sage oped his mouth again, and thus bespoke his words
fraught with pure and purifying knowledge.
30. Vasishtha said:--Hear me, O thou moon like king of Raghu’s race,
and do as I bid you to do; Rise now and honour the assembled Bráhmans,
who deserve their due honour at the close of a discourse.
31. Rise therefore, and satisfy their desires with thy ample gifts; and
thou will obtain thereby, the merit that attends on the learning of the
vedas, and doing thy duties according to their dictates.
32. It is incumbent on even a mean worm-like man, to honor the Bráhmans
to their utmost at the termination of a sermon on salvation; how much
more important must it then be on the part of a monarch to acquit
himself of this necessary duty.
33. Hearing this behest of the sage, the king held his reverential
silence; and beckoned to his heralds to proceed to all the ten sides of
his dominions, and invite thousands of Bráhmans, that are acquainted
with the vedas forthwith (to the royal court).
34. He bade them to go to Mathura, Suráshtra and Gauda, and to bring
with them with due respect all the Bráhmans, that are born of Vedic
families, and are abiding in those districts and lands.
35. There then assembled more than ten thousands of Bráhmans to the
royal palace, and the king fed them all alike and paying particular
regard to the more learned among them.
36. He treated them with the best sorts of food and rice, honoured them
with their honorariums, and gave them a good many gifts; and after
honouring them in this manner, he offered his oblations to the manes of
his ancestors, and gave his offerings to the tutelar gods of his house.
(A Bráhman has his precedence in a feast to the gods and _patres_; but
the merit of giving a feast is lost unless it is followed by other
gifts).
37. The king next treated his friends and relatives with proper repast,
and then fed his companions and servants and the citizens all on the
same day. His attention was at last directed to the feeding of the poor
and needy, and of the lame and blind and lunatics.
38. Having discharged to his utmost the duties of the festival, he
commanded a great festivity to be held in his hall, all over decorated
with silk and embroidery, and with gold, gems and pearls.
39. The city then being adorned and lighted, like the ever bright
mount of Meru, there went on a merry dance and ball of giddy girls and
players in every house (as a sign of general joy).
40. There was a ringing of bells and sounding of cymbols all about,
with the beating of drums and trimbrels at every door; flutes and
wind instruments were blowing on every side, and guitars and wired
instruments were playing with loud gingling, and vying with each other.
41. The markets were closed, and the marketers stopped in their course;
the air appeared as an arbour of plants, shaking with the uplifted and
quavering and waving arms of the merry dancers in the streets; and it
seemed as the starry heaven, by the glittering light of the teeth of
strolling players, displayed in their comic dance and loud laughter.
42. There was the heroic dance attended by the loud shouts of the
players, and melodramas accompanied with the soft and sweet strains of
the performers, there was also a staggering and strutting dance on one
foot and leg, and thumping the ground with the other.
43. Here they flung wreaths of flowers glittering like stars and
falling down in showers; and there the scattered flowers, which were
strewn over the ground as rain drops, were indiscriminately trodding
down under the feet of passersby.
44. Here the actresses dance about with their loose ornaments and
gestures of love; and there the bards chanted their hymns with
clearness, as the Bráhmans recited them and the songstresses sang.
45. Here the sots and topers drank their fill of wine; and the food
mongers fed upon their eatables of various kinds (_i.e._ some were seen
to be indulging their drink and others in their eating).
46. The insides of houses were daubed with wine, as the outer bodies of
the princes with ointment of moon light hue.
47. The attendent servants and waiting maids on the king, sauntered
about trimmed in gaudy attires of various colours; and graced the royal
festival with their decorations of necklaces and sweet perfumes on
their persons.
48. The sprightly ballet girls, being besmeared with a paste of all
perfumeries (called the yaksha dust), and decorated with glittering
ornaments, repaired to the ball at the royal hall with all alacrity.
49. Thus the king Dasaratha held his entertainment for a whole week,
and passed full seven nights in festive mirth and rejoicing; while he
distributed his gifts and food for as many days, which redounded to
exhaustless prosperity on earth.
CHAPTER CCXV.
EULOGY ON THIS WORK AND THE MODE OF ITS RECITAL.
Argument:--Válmíki speaks in praise of this work to this pupil
Bharadwája, and blesses him to be as blessed as the divine Ráma
with the hearing of it.
Válmíki said:--O most intelligent Bharadwája, and the chief of my
pupils, you have now heard how the great Ráma and others, came to the
knowledge of the knowable One (that is only to be known), and passed
across this vale of misery and sorrow, by their attention to these
lectures.
2. Do you thus fix your sight to the light of Brahma, and conduct
yourself gladly, by abandoning all your affections and cares of this
world, and by remaining dauntless with your living liberation and
tranquility of mind.
3. Know, O thou sinless one, that the learned and the meek, that do
not mix with the society of worldly men, but remain steady as Ráma
and others in their right principles, are never liable to be deluded
although they are beset by temptations on all sides.
4. Thus these men of great natures, as the king Dasaratha and the
prince Ráma and his brothers, together with companions, have attended
to the state of the living liberated (even in their life time).
5. Thou my son Bharadwája! that art naturally of a liberal mind, hast
now become more liberated at present, by thy hearing of these sermons
on the salvation of our souls.
6. It is possible even for boys to obtain their liberation, by their
attention to those holy lectures, as the most evident and surest means
to salvation; and cannot therefore fail to convince thee of the truth
thereof.
7. As the high minded and sinless and sorrowless sons of Raghu’s race,
have attained to their holy state of perfection and self-liberation;
so do thou also obtain that best and highest state, by your attending
to the lectures of the divine sage Vasishtha.
8. It is by advice of the good and service under the great, as also by
means of humble inquiries to and explications of the learned; that weak
men of good understandings, can know the knowable, as the Rághavas and
others did under Vasishtha.
9. The ties of avarice and affection that have fast bound the hearts of
the ignorant (to this world); do all tend to debar them like playful
boys from inquiring into the means of their liberation, until they
become too old to benefit by their knowledge.
10. Those that can discern the minds of high minded men, can only come
to their knowledge of truth; and such men only have no more to return
to this world of woe; and this is the substance of all that I can speak
to thee (_i.e._ know and have the minds of the great, in order to
become as great thyself, so says Gay in his Fables. (Hast thou fathomed
Tully’s mind, and the vast sense of Plato’s head)).
11. Having first received your instruction from the preceptor, you must
weigh well and digest its meaning in yourself; and then communicate its
sense, to the most sensible and intelligent student. This is said by
sages and saints, as the trivium of science; know this and you need no
more, to become wise when your boyhood is over.
12. Whoso will read this book, not without understanding its sense and
whoever will manuscript it without the expectation of getting its fee;
as also anybody who will recite or cause it to be recited (to a public
audience), either with or without any desire of reward, shall have his
ample recompense in the land of Áryas (both in his present and future
lives). (So it is with the public preaching of its doctrine).
13. These men receive the reward, awaiting on the performance of the
Rájasúya sacrifice, and are entitled to their heavenly seats in their
pure essence; as often as they ascend to it after their demise on
earth, and until they attain their final liberation, which attains
on them as prosperity does on the meritorious (after the third
transmigration of their expurged souls).
14. It was at first that the god Brahmá of unknowable form, had
composed this work in his excellent diction; and then considering it
as the only means to the liberation of mankind, had revealed it to
the assemblage of saints (of which Vasishtha or Válmíki has made this
version). Let nobody therefore take the truthfulness of this saying for
an untruth.
15. At the close of the recital of these lectures, on the means of
human salvation, it becomes every sensible man of good sense, to honour
the Bráhmans with diligence; and to serve them with their desirable
gifts of food and drink, and furnish them with goodly houses for their
lodging.
16. They should also be rewarded with their honorariums, and supplied
with monies to their hearts’ desire, and to the utmost capacity of the
donor; and then the giver or master of the ceremony should rest himself
assured, of having acquitted his duty to and reaped its merit to the
intent of the sástras.
17. I have thus rehearsed to you the great sástra, in elucidation of
divine knowledge and its pure truth; with addition of a great many
tales and stories, serving as example and illustrations of the abstruse
doctrines for your clear understanding of them. May your hearing of
these, serve to lead you to your utter indifference of this world, and
to the desire of your liberation in it, while you are alive herein. May
this tend also to your continued prosperity, in order to engage your
attention towards the perfection of your knowledge and devotion, and to
the discharge of the duties of your station without failing.
CHAPTER CCXVI.
CONCLUSION OF THE CELESTIAL MESSENGER’S MESSAGE OF LIBERATION.
Argument:--Acknowledgment of the obligation of _Arishtanemi_ and
others, to their preceptors and preachers.
Válmíki continued to say:--I have thus related to you, O prince,
whatever the pot born Vasishtha had taught and preached to the princes;
and it is certain that you will attain the same elevated state, as they
did by the hearing of these lectures on sacred knowledge.
2. The Prince Arishtanemi replied:--O Venerable sir, your kind look is
enough to extricate us from bondage in this world; and it is hence that
I am not only brought to light, but saved from the ocean of this world
by your favour.
3. The Heavenly Messenger said:--After saying so, the said prince
seemed to look amazed in his look; and then he began to speak these
words to me with a graceful voice.
4. The Prince said:--I bow down to thee, O Messenger divine, and wish
all safety to attend on thee; it is said that the friendship of the
good is attended with seven benefits, all which hast thou conferred
upon me.
5. Now return in safety to your seat in the heaven of Indra, and well
know that, I am both gladdened as well as grown _insouciant_ of worldly
concerns, by hearing this discourse of thine.
6. I shall continue to remain here for ever more, and without feeling
any anxiety, to think well and ponder deeply into the sense of all
that I have heard from thee. Now I tell thee, O Lady! that I was quite
surprised (to see so much civility on the part of a prince).
7. He said:--I have never heard before, such words and fraught with so
much knowledge, as I have come now to hear from thee; It has filled
my inward spirit with as much joy, as if I have drunk my fill of an
ambrosial draught just now.
8. I then repaired to thee, O thou sinless fairy, at the bidding of
Válmíki; in order to relate unto thee all that thou hast asked of me.
And now I shall bend my course, towards the celestial city of Sakra.
9. The fairy said:--I must thank thee now, O thou very fortunate
emissary of the gods! for all that thou hast related to me; and my
knowledge whereof, has entirely composed my spirit, by its benign
influence.
10. I am now quite satisfied in myself, and will ever remain from
sorrow and all the sickening cares of life; and you may now to your
destination at Indras, with all speed attending on your journey thither.
11. So saying Suruchi--the best of fairies, continued to keep her seat
on the slope of the Himálayas, and contiguous to the Gandhamádana mount
of fragrance, and reflect on the sense of what she had heard (of divine
knowledge).
12. Now as you have fully heard, my son, all the precepts of Vasishtha,
you are at liberty to do as you like, by your weighing well their
purport. (For the effecting of your liberation which is the main object
of man, both in this life as well as in the next).
13. Kárunya said:--The remembrance of the past, the sight of the
present, and the talk of future events, together with the existence of
the world; are all as false as the sights in our dreams or of water in
mirage, or as the birth of a boy of a barren woman.
14. I gain nothing from my deeds, nor lose aught by what is left
undone; I live to do as it happens, or at the impulse of the occasion
and without any assiduity on my part.
15. Agasti said:--Kárunya--The worthy son of Agnibesya, said in the
aforesaid manner, and continued to pass his time in the discharge of
his duties, as they occured to him from time to time.
16. And you O Sutikshana! should never entertain any doubts regarding
the acts, that you shall have to perform after your attainment
of divine knowledge (Lest they entail their retribution on you
afterwards). Because dubitation destroys the virtue of the deed, as
selfishness takes away its merit.
17. Upon hearing this speech of the sage, which reconciles the
duplicity of action and reflection, into the unity of their
combination; he bowed to his preceptor and uttered as follows with due
submission to him.
18. Sutíkshana said:--Any action done in ignorance of the actor, is
reckoned as no act of his, unless it is done in his full knowledge
to be taken into account. (So the brute activities of the giddy mob,
bear no value or blame in them before the wise). But actions done with
reason and reasonable men, are invaluable in their nature. All our
acts are best seen by the light of the intellect as the actions of
stage-players are seen only in the candle light. (So are all our mental
and corporeal acts, actuated by the essence of the great soul in us).
19. It is the presence of the supreme soul in us, that the action
of our hearts, directs the motions of our bodies; as it is the
malleability of gold, that moulds it to the many forms of jewelleries.
(Hence we should never reject the one for the other).
20. As it is the great body of waters, that gives rise to the
boisterous waves, as well as the little playful billows, that heave and
move in our sight; so it is the inbeing of the great soul, that fills
all the great and small alike.
21. I submit to and bear with all that befalls to me, because there is
no escape from destiny, nor slighting of the sound sayings of sages;
and I acknowledge O Venerable sir, to owe my knowledge of the knowable
One to thy good grace only.
22. I own myself to be quite felicitous to thy favour, and bow down
prostrate to thee on the ground, for thy lifting me up from the doleful
pit of the world; because there is no other way to repay my gratitude
to my venerable preceptor.
23. Nay there is no other act, whereby one may give expression to his
obligation to his tutor, for his salvation in this world, save by means
of offering himself to his services; with his whole body and mind and
the words of his mouth.
24. It is by thy good grace, O my good sir, that I have passed over the
Rubicon of this world; I am filled with infinite joy amidst all these
worlds, and am set free from all my doubts.
25. I bow down to that Brahma, who is sung in the Sáma-veda, as filling
all this universe, as the waters of the ocean fill the boundless deep;
and whose remembrance fills our soul with ecstasy.
26. I bow down also to the sage Vasishtha, who is of the form of
incarnate knowledge alone, and who is immerged in the joyous bliss of
divine felicity; who is beyond all duality and sees the only One in the
unity of infinite vacuity. Who is ever alike the pure and immaculate
One, and witnesseth the inmost of all minds; who is beyond all states
and conditions (of so and so or of such and such); and who is quite
devoid of the three qualities (which belong to all bodies) _i.e._ There
is no known quality or property that can be predicated to the Deity.
The qualities of the unknown One, as unknown, peculiar and unique as
own nature.
27. Here ends the Mahárámáyana of the sage Vasishtha, with its
continuation by his recorder Válmíki, and the speech of the celestial
messenger at the latter end of the Book on Nirvána or the ultimate
Extinction of the living soul.
FINIS.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The mind involved in ignorance, is said to be waking, and the
uncontrouled mind is styled as dreaming: the mind subdued by weariness
is said to be asleep, and when brought under subjection by any
effort, is called _samádhi_ or meditation, lastly its liberation from
ignorance, is known as its state of _mukti_ or emancipation.
[2] Note.--Each of the three states of waking, dreaming and sound sleep
admit of three conditions viz. waking wakefulness, waking dream and the
waking sound sleep; again dreaming watchfulness, dreaming dream and
dreaming sleep; and lastly the sleepy waking, the sleepy dream and the
sleepy sound sleep (see the scholium of Sureshvara for instances of
every Kind).
[3] The founder of Vedánta was Vyása, of Buddhism--Buddha, of
Sánkhya--Kapila, of Saugata--Patanjali. Tryaksha, Pashupati and
Bhairana were professors of Ágama tantras.
[4] Note. The sacred Sanskrit was at once a perfect language, without
any knowledge of us regarding its formative stage, though a _balabhásá_
or infant-language is said to have existed before, of which we have no
relic nor know anything.
[5] Note. If the world be a form of Divine knowledge, and subsistent
in and subjective to the eternal mind of God; it can then be neither
created nor destroyed at any time; but since it is subject to creation
and destruction, it can be a part of Divine knowledge. Nor is it an
object for want of any cause of its creation. Therefore it is a mere
nullity.
[6] Note.--If the thinkables are the produce of their first creation,
then it remains to be said, whence (_i.e._ from what materials) they
were formed.
[7] Note.--According to Vasishtha, Byam, Beom or vacuum, is possest
of all the attributes of Brahm Godhead, in its unity, infinity,
eternity, incorporeality and formlessness, as also in its omnipresence,
omnipotence in its supporting the worlds and in the omniscience of the
vacuous intellect.
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