The
Yoga Vasishtha
Maharamayana
of Valmiki
The only complete English translation is
by Vihari Lala Mitra (1891).
CHAPTER III.
CAUSES OF BONDAGE IN THE BODY.
1. Rāma said:—It is even so as you have said,
that the mind is a pure
essence, and has no connection with the earth
and other material
substances; and that it is verily Brahmā
itself.
2. Now tell me, O Brāhman! Why the
remembrance of his former states (in
the past and previous Kalpas), is not (to be
reckoned as) the cause of
his birth, as it is in the case of mine and
yours and of all other
beings.
3. Vasishtha replied:—Whoever had a former
body, accompanied with the
acts of his prior existence, retains of
course its reminiscence, which
is the cause of his being (reborn on earth).
4. But when Brahmā is known to have no prior
acts, how is it possible
for him to have his reminiscence of any
thing?
5. Therefore he exists without any other
cause except the causation of
his own mind. It is by his own causality that
the Divine spirit is
self-born, and is himself his own spirit.
6. He is everlasting, and his body is born of
itself from the
self-existent Brahma. This unborn or
self-born Brahmā has no material
body whatever, except his subtile ātivāhika or linga deha.
7. Rāma said:—The everlasting body is one
thing (called the Sūkshma
sarīra or subtile or immaterial body), and the mortal body is
another
(called the sthūladeha or the gross and material frame). Now tell me
sir, whether all created beings have a
subtile body also as that of
Brahmā?
8. Vasishtha replied:—All created beings that
are produced of a cause,
have two bodies (the sūkshma and the sthūla or the subtile and the
gross). But the unborn being which is without
a cause, has one body only
(which is called the ātivāhika or the everlasting spiritual body).
9. The increate Brahmā is the cause of all
created beings, but the
uncreated spirit having no cause for itself,
has one body for it.
10. The prime lord of creatures has no
material body; but manifests
himself in the vacuous form of his spiritual
body.
11. His body is composed of the mind alone,
and has no connection with
the earth or any other material substance. He
is the first lord of
creatures, that stretched the creation from
his vacuous body (or
spiritual essence).
12. All these are but forms of the images or
ideas in his vacuous mind,
and having no other patterns or originals in
their nature. And that
every thing is of the same nature with its
cause, is a truth well known
to all (from the identity of the effect and
its material cause).
13. He is an inexistent being and of the
manner of perfect intelligence.
He is purely of the form of the mind, and has
an intellectual and no
material entity.
14. He is prime (cause) of all material
productions in the physical
world, and is born of himself with his prime
mobile force in the form of
the mind.
15. It was by the first impulse given by the
prime moving power, that
this expanse of creation came to be spread in
the same ratio, as the
currents of air and water (or the velocity of
winds and tides), are in
proportion to the impetus given to them.
16. This creation shining so bright to our
sight, has caught its light
from the luminous mind of the formless
Brahmā, and appears as real to
our conceptions (as they are ideal in the
Divine mind).
17. Our vision in a dream is the best
illustration of this (unreality of
worldly things): as that of the enjoyment of
connubial bliss in
dreaming. It is then that an unreal object of
desire, presents itself as
an actual gain to our fond and false
imagination.
18. The vacuous, immaterial and formless
spirit, is now represented as
the self-born and corporeal lord of creatures
in the form of the first
male. (Protogonus or the only begotten son of
God).
19. He remains undiscerned in his state of
pure intelligence; but
becomes manifest to all by the evolution of
his volition. He is
indiscernible in his absolute state (of
inaction); but becomes
conspicuous to us in the display of his
nature (in creation).
20. Brahmā is the divine power of volition
(or the will of God). He is
personified as the first male agent of
creation, but devoid of a
corporeal body. He is only of the spiritual
form of the mind, and the
sole cause of the existence of the triple
world.
21. It is his volition that makes the
self-born (Brahmā) to exert his
energies, as human desires impel all mankind
to action: and the vacuous
mind manifests itself as a mountain of
desires.
22. It then forgets its everlasting and
incorporeal nature, and assumes
to itself the solid material body, and shows
itself in the shape of a
delusive apparition (in his creation).
23. But Brahmā, who is of an unsullied
understanding, is not involved in
oblivion of himself, by the transformation of
his unknowable nature to
the known state of volition (or change of the
nirguna to saguna).
24. Being unborn of material substance, he
sees no apparition like
others, who are exposed by their ignorance to
the misleading errors of
falsehood, appearing in the shape of a mirage
before them.
25. As Brahmā is merely of the form of the
mind, and not composed of any
material substance, so the world being the product
of the eternal mind,
is of the same nature with its original
archetype.
26. Again as the uncreated Brahmā is without
any accompanying causality
with himself, so his creation has no other
cause beside himself (i. e.
There is no secondary cause of the universe).
27. Hence there is no difference in the
product from its producer;
because it is certain, that the work must be
as perfect as its author
(so says the Sruti:—Pūrnat pūrnam &c.).
28. But there is nothing as a cause and
effect to be found in this
creation, because the three worlds are but
the prototypes of the
archetype of the divine mind.
29. The world is stretched out in the model
of the Divine mind, and not
formed by any other holy spirit. It is as
immanent in the mind of God,
as fluidity is inherent in water.
30. It is the mind which spreads out this
extended unreality of the
world like castles in the air, and builds
Utopian cities (by its
imagination only).
31. There is no such thing as materiality,
which is as false a
conception as that of a snake in a rope.
Hence it is no way possible for
Brahma and other beings to exist as
individual bodies.
32. Even spiritual bodies are inexistent to
enlightened understandings.
As for the material body, it has no room in
existence. (Matter or a
corporeal substance or an unseen substratum
is a non-entity. Berkeley).
33. Man (manu) who derives his name from his mind (mana) is a form
of the volitive soul called Verinchi (Lat. vir—inchoare the
inchoative spirit of Brahma); and has for his
dominion the mental or
intellectual world mano-rajyam (Lat. mentis regio vel regnum) where
all things are situated in the form of
realities.
34. The mind is the creative Brahma called Verinchitvas (Lat.
Virinchoativus), by the exercise of its
inherent sankalpa or the
volition of incipience or creation—sisriksha; and displays itself in
the form of the visible universe by
development of its own essence.
35. This Virinchi or the creative power is of the form of the mind
manas, as the mind itself is of the form of Virinchi also. It has no
connection with any material substance, which
is a mere creation of the
imagination. (That is to say, matter is an
imaginary substance or
substratum of qualities only).
36. All visible things are contained in the
bosom of the mind, as the
lotus-bud and blossom reside in the seed of
the lotus. Hence there is
no difference between the mental and visible
appearances of things, nor
has any one ever doubted of it any where.
37. Whatever things you see in a dream,
whatever desires you have at
heart and all the ideals of your fancy,
together with your ideas,
notions and impressions of the visibles, know
your mind to be the
receptacle of them all.
38. But the visible objects relating to the
option of the mind (i. e.
which are desirable, to every one), are as
baneful to their beholder, as
an apparition is to a child (i. e. they are equally tempting and
misleading to all).
39. The ideal of the phenomenal drisyadhi, developes itself as the
germ contained in the seed and becomes in its
proper time and place a
large tree (comparable with the great arbor
of the world known as
sansāramahī ruha or Vriksha).
40. If there is no rest with what is real,
there can be no peace with
the phenomenals which are full of troubles,
and give no solace to the
mind. It is impossible that the feeling of
the perception of visibles
will be ever lost to their perceiver
(observer), though its subsidence
only is said to constitute liberation.
CHAPTER IV.
SECTION I.
DESCRIPTION OF THE NIGHT-FALL.
Vālmīki related:—
While Vasistha—the leading sage, was thus
going on with his lecture
without interruption, the whole assembly was
intent upon listening to it
with a fixed tone and tenor of their minds.
2. The string of bells (tied to the waists of
warriors) ceased to
jingle, every one was motionless, and even
the parrots in the cages
ceased to warble and flutter.
3. The ladies forgot their dalliance and were
quietly attentive to the
sermon: and all in the royal hall, were fixed
in attention as they were
paintings and statues.
4. There remained but an hour to the closing
of the day, and the
sun-beams became agreeable to all. The busy
bustle of the world was
dwindling away with the glimmering light of
the setting sun.
5. The beds of full-blown lotuses exhaled
their fragrance all around,
and soft Zephyrs were playing about, as if to
attend the audience.
6. The sun glided away from his diurnal
course, and advanced to the top
of his solitary setting mountain, as if he
meant to reflect on all that
he had heard.
7. The shades of night began to cover the
landscape, and the frost to
overspread the forest-lands; as if they were
cooled by the cooling
lectures on philosophy.
8. Now failed the concourse of the people in
all directions, as if they
had availed themselves of the instructions of
the sage to abate the
fervour of their exertions.
9. All objects on earth cast their lengthened
shadows, as if they
stretched their necks to hear the preaching
of Vasishtha.
10. The chamberlain then advanced lowly to
the monarch of the earth, and
begged to inform, that the time for evening
ablution and service, was
about to expire.
11. Upon this the sage Vasishtha, curbed his
sweet speech and said:—Let
thus far, mighty king! be your hearing of
this day, and I will resume my
lecture, and speak of other things to-morrow.
12. Here the sage held his silence, when the
king responded "Be it so as
you will," and rose from his seat.
13. He honoured for his own good, that godly
sage and the other seers
and Brāhmans, with due respects and offerings
of flowers, water, worthy
honorariums, fees, gifts and homage.
14. Then rose the whole assembly with the
king and the assemblage of
sages; and the gems and jewels that decked
the persons of the princes
and people, shed their lustres on the faces
of all.
15. There was a commingled tinkling of the
bracelets and armlets of the
throng caused by the collision of their
bodies (in their egress), and
mixed flashing of the necklaces and brocades
that decorated their
persons.
16. The jewels attached to the tufts and
crests of hair on the tops of
their heads, emitted a jingling sound
resembling the humming of bees
amidst their flowery braids.
17. The face of the sky on all sides, that
shone with a purple hue
reflected by the golden ornaments on their
persons, seemed as it was
pleased with the wise sayings and sense of
the sage.
18. The aerial visitants vanished in the air,
and the earthly guests
repaired to their respective habitations on
earth where they all
performed their daily (evening) services in
their own residences.
19. In the meantime sable night made her
appearance on earth, and like a
bashful young lady, withdrew to the closet
apart from the rest of
mankind.
20. The lord of the day passed to other lands
to shine upon them, for
verily it is the avowed duty of every good
person to give the benefit of
equal light to all.
21. The shade of evening veiled all sides,
and uplifted the canopy of
the starry sphere on high, which like the
vernal atmosphere, was
emblazoned with the starlike flowers of kinsuka.
22. The birds of air took to their repose in
the hollows of mango trees,
or on the tops of Kādamba arbours, as honest
people of fair dealing,
find their rest in the purity of their minds,
and contriteness of their
inward hearts.
23. The skirts of the clouds tinged with red
by the slanting beams of
the setting sun, and with a shade of yellow
hue upon them, decorated the
western hills with vests of yellow garb while
the sky crowned their
heads with gemming wreaths of starry groups.
24. The Goddess of evening (Vespera), having
departed after receiving
her homage (by the vespers of mankind), was
followed by her train of
dark night shades, appearing as black-bodied
fiends—Vetālas, (night
roving nisācharas of deserts).
25. A gentle and cooling breeze was blowing
softened by the dew drops of
night, and opening the petals of the Kumuda
flowers (nylumbium), and
bearing their fragrance all around.
26. A thick gloom covered the face of nature,
and the stars were hid
under the mists of night, and all the
quarters of the skies, seemed with
their overhanging loose and hairy mists, as
the faces of widows shrouded
by the dark dishevelled hair of mourning (for
their departed lord the
sun).
27. Now appeared the moist orb of the moon in
her ambrosial form in the
milky ocean of the sky, to moisten the
mundane heat with her milk-white
beams (sudhā-subhra-dīdhiti).
28. On her rising, the thick mists of
darkness fled from the eastern
hemisphere, and became invisible in the air;
as the darkness of
ignorance is put to flight from the minds of
monarchs, by their
attendance to the sayings of wisdom.
29. Then the sages and seers, the rulers and
priests of the people,
took their rest in their respective beds, as
the words of Vasishtha
which were full of meaning, reposed in the
recesses of their hearts.
30. As the thick darkness of night,
resembling the dark complexion of
death, receded from the arena of the skies,
there followed close on its
foot-steps the dewy dawn of the day with her
slow moving pace.
31. The twinkling stars now disappeared from
the sky, as the flowers on
the trees were blown away by the breeze, and
strewn on the ground as the
fallen stars of heaven.
32. The sun became visible to the eyes, which
his rays had roused from
their sleep, as the new-rising faculty of
reason becomes conspicuous in
the minds of enlightened great souls.
33. Fragments of clouds shining with solar
gleams, spread a yellow
mantle over the eastern hills, which were
still decorated with strings
of stars, pendant on the crests of their
lofty heads (like strings of
pearls suspended to the crowns of kings).
34. All the terrestrial and celestial
congress assembled again at the
royal hall, in the order and manner (of their
meeting) of the day
before, after the performance of their
morning services. (originally
prātastanāh matins or matutinal ceremonies).
35. The whole assemblage took their seats as
on the previous day, and
sat unmoved in their places, as a lotus-lake
in its calmness after a
storm.
SECTION II.
NATURE OF THE MIND.
36. Then Rāma addressed the most eloquent of
sages Vasishtha, with his
mellifluent words regarding the subject under
investigation, (the nature
of the mind).
37. He said:—Tell me plainly, O venerable
sir! about the form of the
mind, which developed itself in all things of
the universe, as they were
offshoots of it (or manifestations of the
mind).
38. Vasishtha replied:—Rāma! there is no form
whatever of the mind,
that may be seen by any body. It has nothing
substantial besides its
name as that of the formless and irremovable
vacuity: (with which it is
compared in its all-comprehensiveness,
all-diffusiveness and
all-pervasiveness).
39. The mind as an ens or entity (sat), is not situated in the outer
body (or any part of it), nor is it confined
in the cavity of the inward
heart or brain. But know it O Rāma, to be
situated everywhere, as the
all encompassing vacuum. (Being all-pervading
and all-diffusive in its
nature as vacuity itself).
40. This world is produced from it, and
likens to the waters of the
mirage. It manifests itself in the forms of
its fleeting thoughts, which
are as false as the appearance of secondary
moons in the vapours.
41. The thinking principle is generally
believed as something
intermediate between the positive and
negative, or real and unreal, you
must know it as such and no other (i. e. neither material as the body,
nor immaterial as the soul, but a faculty
appertaining to the nature of
both).
42. That which is the representative of all
objects is called the mind:
there is nothing besides to which the term
mind is applicable.
43. Know volition to be the same as the mind,
which is nothing different
from the will, just as fluidity is the same
with water, and as there is
no difference between the air and its motion
in the wind. (The
inseparable property answering for its
substance).
44. For wherever there is any will, there is
that attribute of the mind
also and nobody has ever taken the will and
the mind for different
things.
45. The representation of any object whether
it is real or unreal is
mind, and that is to be known as Brahma the
great father of all.
46. The incorporeal soul in the body is
called the mind, as having the
sensuous knowledge or everlasting ideas of
the corporeal world in
itself. (i. e. the sentient and thinking soul is the same with mind).
47. The learned have given the several names
of ignorance, intellect,
mind, bondage, sin and darkness, to the
visible appearance of creation.
48. The mind has no other image than that (of
a receptacle and reflector
of the ideas) of the visible world, which, I
repeat to say, is no new
creation; (but a reflexion of the mind).
49. The visible world is situated in an atom
of the great mind, in the
same manner, as the germ of the lotus plant
is contained within its
seed.
50. The visible world is as innate in the
all-knowing mind, as the light
is inherent in the sun-beams, and velocity
and fluidity are inborn in
the winds and liquids.
51. But the visionary ideas of the visibles
are as false and fleeting in
the minds of their observers, as the form of
a jewel in gold, and water
in the mirage; and as wrong as the foundation
of a castle in the air,
and the view of a city in a dream.
SECTION III.
KAIVALYA OR MENTAL ABSTRACTION.
52. But as the phenomenals appear as no other
than real to their
observer, I will O Rāma! cleanse them now
from thy mind as they do the
soil from a mirror.
53. As the disappearance of an appearance
makes the observer no observer
of it, know such to be the state of the
abstraction of the mind from
whatever is real or unreal in the world. (This
is called Kevalībhāva
or non-chalance of all things).
54. This state being arrived, all the
passions of the soul, and the
desires of the mind, will be at rest, as
torrents of rivers at the calm
ensuing upon the stillness of the wind.
55. It is impossible that things having the
forms of space, earth and
air (i. e. material objects) will present the same features in the
clear light (of induction), as they do to our
open sight.
56. Thus when the observer comes to know the
unreality of the phenomena
of the three worlds, as well as of his own
entity, it is then that his
pure soul attains to the knowledge of kaivalya or solity of divine
existence.
57. It is such a mind that reflects the image
of God in itself as in a
mirror; while all others are as blocks of stone,
and incapable of
receiving any reflexion at all.
58. After suppression of the sense of ego and tu (or both the
subjective and objective knowledge), and the
error of the reality of the
outer world the beholder becomes abstracted
and remains without vision
of external things in his sitting posture.
59. Rāma rejoined:—If the perception of
entity is not to be put down,
nor an entity become a non-entity nor when I
cannot view the visibles
(which are the causes of our error), as
non-entities;
60. Then tell me O Brāhman! how to uproot
this disease of our eagerness
for the visibles from the mind, which
bewilders the understanding, and
afflicts us with a train of troubles.
61. Vasishtha replied:—Now hear my advice,
Rāma, for the suppression of
this phantom of phenomenon, whereby it will
surely die away and become
utterly extinct.
62. Know Rāma, that nothing that is, can ever
be destroyed or become
extinct; and though you remove it, yet it
will leave its seed or trace
in the mind.
63. This seed is the memory of such things,
which reopens the ideas of
the visibles in the mind, expanding
themselves in the fallacious notions
of the forms of big worlds and skies,
mountains and oceans.
64. These (wrong notions) called doshas or faults and defects of
understanding, are obstacles in the way to
liberation; but they do not
affect the sages who are found to be
liberated.
65. Again if the world and all other things
are real existences (as the
Sānkhyas maintain): yet they cannot confer
liberation on any one;
because the visibles, whether they are
situated within or without us are
perishable themselves.
66. Learn therefore this dreadful proposition
(solemn truth), which will
be fully explained to you in the subsequent
parts of this work.
(Note:—A dreadful dogma it is to physicists
and "ādivādis"
or
asserters of the encipientes mundi or beginning of the world).
67. That all things appearing in the forms of
vacuity, elementary
bodies, the world, and ego et tu, are non-entities, and have no
meanings in them.
68. Whatever is seen apparent before us, is
no other but the supreme
Brahma himself, and his undecaying and
imperishable essence.
69. The plenitude of creation is an expansion
of his plenum, and the
quiet of the universe rests in his quietude.
It is his beom which
is
the substance of vacuum, and it is his
immensity that is the substratum
of the immense cosmos.
70. Nothing visible is real, and there is
neither any spectator nor
spectacle here. There is nothing as vacuity
or solidity in nature, but
all this is but a piece of extended
Intelligence.
71. Rāma rejoined:—The adages relating the
grinding of stones by the
son of a barren woman, the horns of a hare,
and the dancing of a hill
with its extended arms;
72. And the oozing of oil from sand, the
reading (of books) by dolls of
marble, and the roaring of clouds in a
painting, and such others are
applicable to your words (of the reality of
an unreal essence of God).
73. I see this world to be full of diseases,
deaths and troubles,
mountains, vacuities and other things, and
how is it sir, that you tell
me of their non-existence?
74. Tell me Sir, how you call this world to
be unsubstantial, unproduced
and inexistent, that I may be certain of this
truth.
75. Vasishtha replied:—Know Rāma, that I am
no inconsistent speaker,
and hear me explain to you how the unreality
appears as real, as the son
of a barren woman has come to rumour.
76. All this was unproduced before, and did
not exist in the beginning
of creation. It comes to appearance from the
mind like that of a city in
a dream. (i. e. they are all but creations of the mind and fancy).
77. The mind also was not produced in the
beginning of creation and was
an unreality itself. Hear me tell you
therefore, how we come to a notion
of it.
78. This unreal mind spreads by itself the
false and changing scenes of
the visible world, just as we dream of
changeful unrealities as true in
a state of dreaming. (Here the dreaming
philosopher sees dreams in his
dream).
79. It then exerts its volition in the
fabrication of the body and
spreads far and wide the magic scene of the
phenomenal world.
80. The mind by its potentiality of
vacillation has many actions of its
own, as those of expansion, saltation, and
motion, of craving, roving,
diving and seizing, and many other voluntary
efforts (the causes of
physical operations).
CHAPTER V.
ON THE ORIGINAL CAUSE. (MﾚLA-KﾁRANA).
Rāma said:—Tell me, O chief of the sages!
what cause is it that leads
to our misconception of the mind, how it is
produced and what is the
source of its illusion.
2. Tell me sir, in brief of the first
production (of the mind), and
then, O best of the eloquent, you may tell
the rest, that is to be said
on the subject.
3. Vasishtha replied:—Incident to the
universal dissolution, when all
things were reduced to nothing, this infinity
of visible objects
remained in a state of calm and quiet before
their creation.
4. There was then the only great God in
existence, who is increate and
undecaying, who is the creator of all at all
times, who is all in all,
and supreme soul of all, and resembling the
sun that never sets.
5. He whom language fails to describe, and
who is known to the liberated
alone; who is termed the soul by fiction
only, and not by his real
nature (which is unknowable).
6. Who is the prime Male of Sānkhya
philosophers and the Brahma of
Vedānta followers; who is the Intelligence of
gnostics and who is wholly
pure and apart from all (personalities).
7. Who is known as vacuum by vacuists, who is
the enlightener of solar
light, who is truth itself, and the power of
speech and thought and
vision, and all action and passion for ever.
8. Who though ever existent everywhere
appears as inexistent to the
world, and though situated in all bodies,
seems to be far from them. He
is the enlightener of our understanding as
the solar light (of the
world).
9. From whom the gods Vishnu and others are
produced as solar rays from
the sun; and from whom infinite worlds have
come into existence like
bubbles of the sea.
10. Unto whom these multitudes of visible
creations return as the waters
of the earth to the sea, and who like a lamp
enlightens the souls and
bodies (of all immaterial and material
beings).
11. Who is present alike in heaven as in
earth and the nether worlds;
and who abides equally in all bodies whether
of the mineral, vegetable
or animal creation. He resides alike in each particle
of dust as in the
high and huge mountain ranges; and rides as
swift on the wings of winds,
as he sleeps in the depths of the main.
12. He who appoints the eight internal and
external organs
(Paryashtakas) of sense and action to their
several functions; and who
has made the dull and dumb creatures as inert
as stones, and as mute as
they are sitting in their meditative mood.
13. He who has filled the skies with vacuity
and the rocks with
solidity; who has dissolved the waters to
fluidity, and concentrated all
light and heat in the sun.
14. He who has spread these wonderful scenes
of the world, as the clouds
sprinkle the charming showers of rain; both
as endless and incessant, as
they are charming and dulcet to sight.
15. He who causes the appearance and
disappearance of worlds in the
sphere of his infinity like waves in the
ocean; and in whom these
phenomena rise and set like the running sands
in the desert.
16. His spirit the indestructible soul,
resides as the germ of decay and
destruction in the interior (vitals) of
animals. It is as minute as to
lie hid in the body, and as magnified as to
fill all existence.
17. His nature (Prakriti) spreads herself
like a magic creeper (māyā
latā) all over the space of vacuity, and produces the fair
fruit in the
form of the mundane egg (Brahmānda); while the outward organs of
bodies, resembling the branches of this
plant, keep dancing about the
stem (the intelligent soul), shaken by the
breeze of life which is
everfleeting.
18. It is He, that shines as the gem of intelligence
in the heart of the
human body; and it is he from whom, the
luminous orbs constituting the
universe, continually derive their lustre.
19. It is that colossus of intelligence,
which like a cloud sheds
ambrosial draughts of delight to soothe our souls,
and showers forth
innumerable beings as rain drops on all
sides. It bursts into incessant
flashes showing the prospects of repeated
creations which are as
(momentary as) flashes of lightenings.
20. It is his wondrous light which displays
the worlds to our wondering
sight; and it is from his entity that both
what is real and unreal, have
derived their reality and unreality.
21. It is the insensible and ungodly soul,
that turns to the attractions
of others against its purpose; while the
tranquil soul rests in itself
(as in the spirit of God).
22. He who transcends all existences, and by
whom all existent beings
are bound to their destined actions in their
proper times and places,
and also to their free actions and motions
and exertions of all kinds.
23. It is he who from his personality of pure
consciousness, became of
the form of vacuum (pervading all nature),
and then by means of his
vacuous mind and empty thoughts filled it
with substances, wherein his
soul was to reside, and whereon his spirit
had to preside.
24. Having thus made the infinite hosts of
worlds in the immense sphere
of the universe, he is yet neither the agent
of any action nor the
author of any act in it; but remains ever the
same as the sole one
alone, in his unchangeable and unimpairing
state of self-consciousness,
and without any fluctuation, evolution or
inhesion of himself, as he is
quite unconcerned with the world.
CHAPTER VI.
ADMONITION FOR ATTEMPT TO LIBERATION.
Mumukshu Praytnopadesa.
Vasishtha said:—It is by the knowledge of this
transcendent supreme
spirit and God of gods, that one may become
an adept (in divine
service), and not by the rigour of religious
austerities and practices.
(Proficiency by theoretic knowledge).
2. Here nothing else is needed than the
culture and practice of divine
knowledge, and thereby the truth being known,
one views the errors of
the world, as a satiate traveller looks at a
mirage in a clear light.
3. He (God) is not far from nor too near us,
nor is he obtainable by
what he is not (as the adoration of images
and ceremonial acts). He is
the image of light and felicity, and is
perceivable in ourselves.
4. Here austerities and charities, religious
vows and observances, are
of no good whatever. It is the calm quietude
of one's own nature only
that is serviceable to him in his services to
God.
5. Fondness for the society of the righteous
and devotedness to the
study of good books, are the best means of
divine knowledge; while
ritual services and practices, serve only to
strengthen the snare of our
in-born delusions, which true knowledge alone
can sever.
6. No sooner one has known this inward light
of his as the very God,
than he gets rid of his miseries, and becomes
liberated in this his
living state.
7. Rāma said:—Having known the Self in
himself, one is no more exposed
to the evils of life and even to death
itself.
8. But say how is this great God of gods to
be attained from such great
distance (as we are placed from him), and
what rigorous austerities and
amount of pains are necessary for it.
9. Vasishtha replied:—He is to be known by
means of your manly
exertions (in knowledge and faith), and by
the aid of a clear
understanding and right reasoning, and never
by the practice of
austerities and ablutions, nor by acts
attended with bodily pain of any
kind. (Hence the mistake of Hatha yoga).
10. For know, O Rāma! all your austerities
and charities, your
painstaking and mortification are of no
efficacy, unless you wholly
renounce your passions and enmity, your anger
and pride, your
selfishness and your envy and jealousy.
11. For whoever is liberal of any money which
he has earned by
defrauding others, and with a heart full of
vile passions, the merit of
such liberality accrues to the rightful owner
of the property and not to
its professed donor.
12. And whoever observes any vow or rite with
a mind actuated by
passions, he passes for a hypocrite and reaps
no benefit of his acts.
13. Therefore try your manly exertions in
securing the best remedies of
good precepts and good company, for putting
down the diseases and
disturbances of the world.
14. No other course of action except that of
the exertion of one's
manliness, is conducive to the allaying of
all the miseries and troubles
of this life.
15. Now learn the nature of this manliness
for your attainment to
wisdom, and annihilation of the maladies of
passions and affections and
animosity of your nature.
16. True manliness consists in your
continuance in an honest calling
conformable with the law and good usage of
your country; and in a
contented mind which shrinks from smelling
the enjoyments of life.
17. It consists in the exertion of one's
energies to the utmost of his
power, without bearing any murmur or grief in
his soul; and in one's
devotedness to the society of the good and
perusal of good works and
Sāstras.
18. He is styled the truly brave who is quite
content with what he gets,
and spurns at what is unlawful for him to
take; who is attached to good
company, and ready at the study of unblamable
works.
19. And they who are of great minds, and have
known their own natures
and those of all others by their right reasoning,
are honoured by the
gods Brahmā, Vishnu, Indra and Siva.
20. He who is called a righteous man by the
majority of the good people
of the place, is to be resorted to with all
diligence as the best and
most upright of men.
21. Those religious works are said to compose
the best Sāstra, which
treat chiefly of Spiritual knowledge; and one
who constantly meditates
on them, is surely liberated (from the bonds
of this world).
22. It is by means of right discrimination
derived from the keeping of
good company and study of holy works, that
our understanding is cleared
of its ignorance, as dirty water is purified
by Kata seeds, and as the
minds of men are expurgated by the Yoga
philosophy.
CHAPTER VII.
RECOGNITION OF THE NIHILITY OF THE PHENOMENAL
WORLD.
(Drisyāsattā Pratijnānam).
Rāma said:—
Tell me, O Brāhman! where is this God
situated and how can I know him,
of whom you spoke all this, and whose
knowledge you said, leads to our
liberation.
2. Vasishtha replied:—This God of whom I
spoke, is not at a distance
from us. He is situated in these our bodies,
and is known to be of the
form of mere Intellect (chinmātra) to us. So says Fichte: The Infinite
Reason (chit) alone exists in himself—the
finite in him. Lewis vol. II.
p. 563.
3. He is all in all, though all this world is
not the omnipresent
Himself. He is one alone and is not termed
the all that is visible (to
us). So Fichte: God is infinite and embraces
the finite, but the finite
can not encompass the Infinite. Lewis vol.
II. p. 573.
4. It is this Intellect which is in Siva,
that wears the cusp of the
moon in his crest; the same is in Vishnu that
rides on his eagle Garuda,
and in Brahmā that is born of the lotus. The
sun also is a particle of
this Intellect; (but they are not the
self-same Intellect themselves).
5. Rāma rejoined:—So it is; and even boys say
this also, that if the
whole world is mere Intelligence (chetana mātrakam); then why call it
by another name (as the world), and what is
the use of giving admonition
of it to anybody, (when every one is full of
intelligence).
6. Vasishtha replied:—If you have known the
mere Intellect
(Chinmātram), to be the same with the intelligent world (chetana
viswa), you have then known nothing for getting rid of this
world.
7. The world is verily intelligent, O Rāma,
(with the mundane soul); but
the animal soul (Jīva) is called pasu or brutish observer of things
pasyati, on account of its looking after
sensual gratifications only as
brutes, and giving rise only to the fears of
disease, decay and death
(from its love of itself, and care for
self-preservation).
8. The animal soul (Jīva), though an incorporeal substance, is an
ignorant thing and subject to pain and
sorrow. The mind manas also,
though it is capable of intelligence—chetanīyam, has become the root
of all evils. (i. e. With its power of intellection and nature of
intelligence (chetanam), it is yet ever inclined to the wrong side by
itself).
9. Intellectual liberation (chetya mukta) from thoughts of the world,
is one state (of the soul), and unintelligent
gazing (unmukhatā) at
it, is another. He who knows the better of
these two the states of the
soul, has no cause of sorrow, (i. e. the rational from the irrational
soul).
10. He who has seen the all surpassing
Supreme Being, has his
heartstrings all cut asunder, and the doubts
of his mind all driven
away. The sequences of his acts are washed
away, (and leave no fear of
his transmigration).
11. The longing after perceptibles (Chetyas) does not cease, unless
the perception of the visibles is effaced
from the mind.
12. How then is this perception to be
effaced? How is it possible to
have a longing after the unintelligible
Intelligence, without
suppression of our longing for the visibles?
It is only to be effected
by avoiding the external perceptions of the
mind.
13. Rāma said:—Tell me sir, where and how is
that vacuous soul called
pasu, by the knowledge of which no one can
get rid of his
transmigration. (i. e. the worshippers of the jīvātmā or animal soul
called jīvavādis, are not entitled to their final
liberation—mukti).
14. Tell me also, who is that man, who by his
company with the good and
study of good works, has gone over the ocean
of the world, and beholds
the Supreme soul in himself.
15. Vasishtha replied:—Whatever animal souls
being cast in the
wilderness of this life, long after this
intelligent soul
(chetanātman), they are truly wise, and know him (in themselves).
16. Whoso believes the animal soul as the
life of the world (or mundane
soul), and thinks (the knowledge of the)
Intelligence to be attended
with pain only, he can never know Him
anywhere (in this world).
17. If the Supreme soul be known to us, O
Rāma! the string of our woes
is put to an end, like the fatal cholera
after termination of its
choleraic pain or extraction of its poison.
18. Rāma said:—Tell me, O Brāhman! the true
form of the Supreme soul,
by light of which the mind may escape from
all its errors.
19. Vasishtha replied:—The Supreme soul is
seen in the same way in
ourselves and within our bodies, as we are
conscious of our minds to be
seated within us, after its flight to distant
countries.
20. Our notion of the Supreme spirit is often
lost in the depth of our
minds, in the same way, as the existence of
the outer world (objective
knowledge), becomes extinct in our
consciousness in yoga meditation.
21. It is He in whose knowledge we lose our
sense of the beholder and
visibles, and who is an invacuous vacuum or a
substantive vacuity
himself. (i. e. Who being known, we forget our knowledge both of the
subjective and objective, and view his unity
as the only to on or
substratum of all). So Fichte: In thee, the
Incomprehensible, does my
own existence, and that of the world become
comprehensible to me. Lewis.
Phil. vol. II. P. 563.
22. He whose substance appears as the vacuum,
and in whom subsists the
vacuous plenum of the universe; and who
appears as vacuity itself,
notwithstanding the plenitude of his creation
subsisting in him, is
verily the form of the Supreme soul (that you
want to know).
23. Who though full of intelligence, appears
to stand as an unconscious
huge rock before us; and who though quite
subtile in his nature, seems
as some gross body to our conception: such is
the form of the Supreme
soul (that you want to know).
24. That which encompasses the inside and
outside of every thing, and
assumes the name and nature of the very thing
to itself, is verily the
form of the Supreme (that you want to know).
25. As light is connected with sunshine and
vacuity with the firmament
and as Omnipresence is present with every
thing and every where: such is
the form of the Supreme spirit (that you want
to know).
26. Rāma asked:—But how are we to understand
that He who bears the name
and nature of absolute and infinite reality
should yet be compressed
within any thing visible in the world, which
is quite impossible to
believe?
27. Vasishtha replied:—The erroneous
conception of the creation of the
world, resembles the false impression of
colours in the clear sky;
wherefore it is wrong, O Rāma! to take a
thing as real, of which there
is an absolute privation in nature.
28. It is the knowledge of Brahma that
constitutes his form, or else
there is no act of his whereby he may be
known to us; (the universe
being but a development of himself). He is
entirely devoid of any
visible form, and therefore there is no
better course for any one than
to know him as truth.
29. After an absolute negation of the
visibles comes to be known, (i.
e. after disappearance of the traces of phenomenals from the
mind),
there remains a pre-eminent object of
conception, which is inborn and
manifest of itself.
30. This concept (of the Super-eminent) has
oftentimes no reflexion,
owing to its having no visible appearance;
and at others it is not
without its reflexion on the mirror of the
mind (which has received its
image).
31. No body has ever conceived this
transcendent verity in himself, who
has not at the same time been convinced of
the impossibility of the
existence of the visible world. (i. e. Conviction of the nullity of
the phenomenal alone, leads to the perception
of the Reality).
32. Rāma rejoined:—Tell me, O sage! how the
existence of so many
extensive worlds composing the visible
Universe, can be thought of as
unreal, or comprised in the chinmātram (or minutiae of the divine
mind), as the mount Meru in the sesamum seed.
33. Vasishtha replied:—If you will but stay a
few days in the company
of holy men, and study the sacred Sāstras
with a steady mind with me:
34. Then I will purge away this false view of
the visibles from your
understanding, like the delusive mirage from
one's sight. This absence
of the view will extinguish your sense of
being the viewer, and restore
you to your intelligence alone.
35. When the viewer is united with the view,
and the view with the
viewer, there then turns out an unity of the
duality, and the duality
blends into an inseparable unity.
36. Without union of the two there is no
success of either; and this
union of both the viewer and the view having
disappeared at last, there
remains an only one unity (which is
indissoluble).[2]
[2] Kant says:—'The pure Ego is the condition
of all consciousness, the
condition of the sum total of experience,
consequently the Ego is the
source from which the universe is to be
deduced.' Again: "The thing per
se underlying all phenomena, is one and the same substance
with Ego. We
know not wherein the Ego is different from
it. This identity of both is
only an affirmation of Monism, not of
Idealism. Lewis: Hist.-Phil. Vol.
II. pp. 356-7. Fichte says:—The Non-Ego is a
product of the Ego. It is
the Ego which thus creates the necessity for
a Non-Ego and the Non-Ego
wanted. Ibid. p. 358.
37. I will now cleanse away the dross of all
your sense of egoism and
tuism, with that of the world and all other
things from the mirror of
your mind, by bringing you to your
consciousness of self, and total
negation of every thing besides.
38. From nothing never comes a something, nor
from something ever
proceeds a nothing; and there is no
difficulty whatever in removing what
does not exist in nature, (i. e. That a nil is nil is self evident,
and no argument is required to prove it so).
39. This world which appears so very vast and
extensive, was not in
being at the beginning. It resided in the
pure spirit of Brahma, and was
evolved from the mind (Chitta) of Brahmā.
40. The thing called the world was never produced,
nor is it in being
nor in actual appearance. It is as the form
of a bracelet in gold, which
it is not difficult to alter and reduce to
its gross metallic state.
41. I will explain it fully by other reasons,
whereby this truth may
appear of itself, and impress irresistibly in
your mind.
42. How can that be said to have its being,
which was not brought into
being before, and how can there be a rivulet
in the mirage, or the ring
of an eclipse in the moon?
43. As a barren woman has no son nor a mirage
any water in it; and as
the firmament has no plant growing in it, so
there is no such thing
which we erroneously call the world.
44. Whatever you see, O Rāma! is the
indestructible Brahma himself: this
I have many times shown you with good
reasons, and not in mere words (as
my ipse dixit only).
45. It is unreasonable, O intelligent Rāma!
to disregard what a learned
man speaks to you with good reasons; because
the dull-headed fellow who
neglects to listen to the words of reason and
wisdom, is deemed as a
fool, and is subject to all sorts of
difficulties.
CHAPTER VIII.
NATURE OF GOOD SﾁSTRAS.
Rāma asked:—How can it be reasonably shewn
and established, that there
is nothing to be known and seen in this
world, although we have evident
notions of it supported by sense and right
reasoning?
2. Vasishtha answered:—It is from a long
time, that this endemic of the
fallacious knowledge (of the reality of the
world), is prevalent (among
mankind); and it is by means of true
knowledge only that this wrong
application of the word world, can be removed
from the mind.
3. I will tell you a story, Rāma! for your
success in (the attainment
of) this knowledge; if you will but attend to
it, you will become both
intelligent and emancipate.
4. But if from the impatience of your nature
like that of brute
creatures, you get up and go away after
hearing half of this
(narrative), you shall then reap no benefit
from it.
5. Whoever seeks some object and strives
after it, he of course succeeds
in getting the same; but if he become tired
of it he fails therein.
6. If you will betake yourself, Rāma! to the
company of the good and
study of good Sāstras, you will surely arrive
at your state of
perfection in course of a few days or mouths,
according to the degree of
your diligence.
7. Rāma said:—O you, that are best acquainted
with the Sāstras, tell me
which is the best Sāstra for the attainment
of spiritual knowledge, and
a conversancy with which may release us from
the sorrows of this life.
8. Vasishtha replied:—Know, O high minded
Rāma! this work (the
Vāsishtha Sanhitā) to be the best of all
others on spiritual knowledge.
It is the auspicious Great Rāmāyana and the
Sāstra of sāstras.
9. The Rāmāyana is the best of histories, and
serves to enlighten the
understanding. It is known as containing the
essence of all histories.
10. But by hearing these doctrines one easily
finds his liberation
coming of itself to him; wherefore it is
reckoned as the most holy
record.
11. All the existing scenes of the world will
vanish away upon their
mature consideration; as the thoughts
occurring in a dream, are
dispersed upon the knowledge of the dreaming
state after waking.
12. Whatever there is in this work, may be
found in others also, but
what is not found here, cannot be found
elsewhere (in other works); and
therefore the learned call it the thesaurus (sanhitā) or store-house
(of philosophy).
13. Whoever attends to these lectures every
day, shall have his
excellent understanding undoubtedly stored
with transcendent knowledge
of divinity day by day.
14. He who feels this Sāstra disagreeable to
his vitiated taste, may
take a fancy to the perusal of some other
sāstra that is more wordy and
eloquent.
15. One feels himself liberated in this life
by the hearing of these
lectures, just as one finds himself healed of
a disease by a potion of
some efficacious medicine.
16. The attentive hearer of these sermons,
perceives their efficacy in
himself, in the same way as one feels the
effects of the curses or
blessings pronounced upon him which never go
for nothing, (but have
their full effects in time).
17. All worldly miseries are at an end with
him, who considers well
these spiritual lectures within himself, and
which is hard to be
effected by charities and austerities, or
performance of the acts
ordained in the srautā or ceremonial vedas, or by hundreds of
practices in obedience to the ordinances
appointed by them.
Om Tat Sat
(Continued...)
( My
humble salutations to Brahmasri Sreemaan Vihari Lala Mitra ji for the collection)
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