The
Yoga Vasishtha
Maharamayana
of Valmiki
The only complete English translation is
by Vihari Lala Mitra (1891).
CHAPTER XXIII.
STORY OF A PIOUS BRAHMAN AND HIS NIRVÁNA EXTINCTION.
Argument:--Account of vasishtha's[**Vasishtha's] meeting
a hermit named monkey[**Manki]
in a desert land; and their mutual conversation with
regard to self-resignation
and liberation.
Vasishtha said:--(I have delivered to you my lectures)
on dispassionateness, inappetence and resignation of
worldly desires; rise therefore and go beyond the
material
world after the example of one Monkey[**Manki]: (as
related herein--below).
2. There lived once on a time before a Brahman named
monkey, who was applauded for his devotion and
steadfastness
to holy vows.
3. It happened at one time, that I was comming[**coming]
down from
the vault of heaven, upon an invitation from your
grandfather
Aja on some particular occasion.
4. As I then came to wander on the surface of the earth,
in
order to reach at the realm of your grandsire; I happened
to
meet before me a vast desert, with the burning sunshine
over
it.
5. It was a dreary waste without its boundary on any
side,
filled with burning sands and obscured by grey and fly
dust
over it; and marked by a few scattered hamlets here and
there.
6. The extended waste appeared as the boundless and
spotless immensity of Brahma, by its unrestricted
vacuity, howling
winds, burning heat and light, its seeming water in the
sand, and untroddening ground resting in peace.
7. It seemed as delusive as the appearance of avidyá or
illusion itself; by the deceptive waters of mirage upon
the
sand, by its dulness and empty space and the mist overhanging
on all sides of it.
8. As I was wandering along this hollow and sandy
wilder-*
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*ness, I saw a wayfarer sauntering before me and
muttering to
himself in the travail of his wearisome journey.
9. The Traveller said:--O the powerful sun! That afflicts
me with his blazing beams, as much as the company of
evil-*minded
men is for our annoyance.
10. The sunbeams seen to pour down fire on earth, and
melt down the pith and marrow of my body and bones; as
they
have been drying up the leaves and igniting the forest
trees
(for a conflagration).
11. Therefore it behoves me to repair to yonder hamlet,
to allay the weariness of my journey, and recover my
strength
and spirits for travelling onward. (So it is said:--the
shady
bower invites the dry, and drives out the cooled).
12. So saying, he was about to proceed towards the
village,
which was an habitation of the low caste Kirátas. (The
kerrhoids
of Ptolemy, and the present Kerántes of the Himalayas).
When I interrupted him by saying:--
13. Vasishtha said:--I had[**hail] thee, O thou passenger
of the
sandy desert, and may all be well with thee, that art my
fellow
traveller on the way, and art so good looking and
passionless:--
14. O traveller of the lower earth! who have long lived
in
the habitations of men, and have not found your rest, how
is
it now that you expect to have it, in this solitary abode
of this
mean people?
15. You can have no rest at the abode of the vile people
in yonder village, which is mostly peopled by the Pamara
villains; thirst is not appeased, but increased by a
beverage of
briny water. (So it is said:--The unquenchable appetite
of the
greedy, is never quenched by nourishment, but it
nourishes it
the more, as the fuel and butter serve to kindle and feed
the
fire).
16. These huts and hamlets shelter the cowardly
cow--herds[**cow-herds]
(Pallava Gopas) under them, and them that are afraid to
walk
in the paths of men, as the timid deer are averse to rove
beyond
their own track. (So these solitary swains are as the
savage beasts of the forests).
17. They have no stir or agitation of reason, nor any
flash
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of understanding or mental faculties in them; they are
not
afraid of or averse to base actions, but remain and move
on as
stone-mills and wheels:--
18. Their manliness consists in the emotions of their
passions
and affections, and in exhibitions of the signs of their
cupidity and aversion, and they delight mostly in
actions, that
appear pleasant at the time being or present moment.
(They
are occupied with the present only, being forgetful of
the past
and careless of the future).
19. As there is no appearance of a body of rainy clouds,
over the dry and parched lands of the desert, so there is
no
shadow of pure and cooling knowledge ever stretched out
on
the minds of these people. (i. e. They have never come
under
the benign influence of civilization).
20. Rather dwell in a dark cave as a snake, or remain as
a blind worm in the bosom of a stone; or limp about as a
lame
stag in the barren desert, than mix in company of these
village
people.
21. These rude rustics resemble the potions of poison,
that
are mixed with honey; they are sweet to taste for a
moment,
but prove deadly at last. (Such are the robbers of
deserts and
woods).
22. Again these villainous villagers are as rude as the
rough
winds, which are blowing with gusts of dust amidst the
shattered
huts, built with grassy turfs and tufts of the dried leaves
of trees. (The word trina means straw also or a straw
built
hut).
23. Being thus spoken unto by me, the traveller felt
himself
as glad, as if he was bathed in ambrosial showers.
24. The passenger said:--Who art thou sir, with thy
magnanimous
soul, that seemest to me to be full and perfect in
thyself,
and full of Divine spirit in thy soul. Thou lookest at
the
bustle[**no: possibly fr??tle] of the bustle of the
world, as a passer is unconcerned with
the commotion of the villages beside his way.
25. Hast thou sir, drunk the ambrosial draught of the
gods,
that gave thee thy Divine knowledge? and art infused with
the spirit of the sovran viráj, that is quite apart from
the
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plenum it fills, and is quite full with its entire
voidness: (stretches
through all, and unmixed with any).
26. I see thy soul to be as void and yet as full as his,
and
as still and yet as moving as the Divine spirit; it is
all and
not all what exists, and something yet nothing itself.
27. It is quiet and comely, shining and yet unseen; it is
inert and yet full of force and energy, it is inactive
with all its
activity and action; and such soul is thine. (These
antithetic
attributes of the Divine soul, are applied objectively to
that of
Vasishtha in the second person, as they are subjectively
put to
one's ownself[**2 words] in the first person in many
otherplaces[**2 words]. Thus in
the Bhagavad Gita where Krishna assumes to himself the
title
of Brahma and says "Resort to Me alone" so says
the safi[**sufi]
Mansur "I am the true one" so says Hastamulaka
in his celebrated
rhapsody. "I am that eternal that is conceived by
every one."[**)][** ) missing somewhere]
28. Though now journying[**journeying] on earth, you seem
to range far
above the skies; you are supportless, though supported on
a
sound basis (of the body or Brahma). (i. e. The spirit
and
mind range freely every where, though they appear to be
confined
within the limits of the body, or to proceed from and
rest
in the eternal essence of Brahma).
29. Thou art not stretched over the objects, and yet no
object subsists without thee; thy pure mind like the
beauteous
orb of the moon, is full of the nectarious beams of
immortality.
(The moon is called the lord of medicinal plants, having
the
virtues of conferring life and health to the body).
30. Thou shinest as the full-moon, without any of her
digits or blackish spots in thee; thou art cooling as the
moon-*beams,
and full of ambrosial juice as the disk of that watery
planet.
31. I see the existence and non-existence of the world,
depend upon thy will, and thy intellect contains in it
the revolving
world, as the germ of a tree contains within it the would
be fruit.
32. Know me sir, as a Brahman sprung from the sage
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sandilya's[**Sandilya's] race; my name is
Monkey[**Manki], and am bent on visiting
places of pilgrimage.
33. I have made very long journeys, and seen many holy
places in my peregrinations all about; and have now after
long
bent my course to revisit my native home. (The toils
being
over, the traveller returns home, and there to die.
Goldsmith).
34. But my mind is so sick of and averse to the world,
that
I hesitate to return to my home, after having seen the
lives of
men passing away as flashes of lightening from this
world.
35. Deign now sir, to give me a true account of yourself,
as the minds of holymen[**holy men] are as deep and clear
as limpid
lakes.
36. When great men like yourself show their kindness, to
one as mean as myself at the first sight of him, his
heart is
sure to glow with love and gratitude to them, as the
lotus buds
are blown (by the premature gleams of the rising sun),
and
are led to be hopeful of their favour towards him.
37. Hence I hope sir, that you will kindly remove the
error,
which is bred in me by my ignorance of the delusions of
this
tempting world. (Lit. I believe you are able to do so
&c[**.]).
38. Vasishtha replied:--Know me, O wise man, to be
vasishtha-[**Vasishtha--]the sage and saint, and an
inhabitant of the etherial
region; and am bound to this way, on some errand of the
sagely king (Aja by name).
39. I tell you sir, not to be disheartened at your
ignorance,
as you have already come to the path of wisdom, and very
nearly
got over the ocean of the world, and arrived at the coast
of
transcendental knowledge.
40. I see you have come to the possession of the
invaluable
treasure, of your indifference to worldly matters; for
this kind
of speech and sentiments, and the sedateness of
disposition
which you have displayed, can never proceed from a
worldling,
and bespeak your high-mindedness.
41. Know that as a precious stone is polished, by gentle
abrasion of its rubbish; so the mind comes to its
reasoning,
by the rubbing off of the dross of its prejudice.
42. Tell me what you desire to know, and how you want to
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abandon the world; it is in my opinion done by practice
of
what one is taught by his preceptor, or by
interrogatories of
what he does not know or understand.
43. It is said that whoso[**] has a mind, to go across
the doom of
future birth or transmigration of his soul, should be
possessed
of good and pure desires in his mind, and an understanding
inclined to reasoning under the direction of his
spiritual guide.
Such a person is verily entitled to attain to the state,
which is
free from future sorrow and misery.
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[** png 129-136 compared to print]
CHAPTER XXIV.
INDIFFERENCE OR INSOUCIANCE OF MONKI[**MANKI] TO
WORLDLINESS.
Argument:--Monkey's[**Manki's] relation of the miseries
of his life and of this
world, together with the evils attendant on Human body
and its senses
and understanding.
Vasishtha Said:--Being thus accosted by me, Manki
fell at my feet (in salutation); and then shedding the
tears of joy from both his eyes, spoke to me on our way,
with
due respect (to my rank).
2. Manki said:--O venerable sir, I have been long
travelling
in all the ten sides of the earth; but I have never met a
holy
man like yourself, who could remove the doubts arising in
my
mind.
3. Sir, I have gained today the knowledge which is the
chief good of the body of a Brahman, whose sacred person is
more venerable and far more superior in birth and
dignity,
than the bodies of all other beings in heaven and on
earth;
but sir am sorry at heart, at seeing the evils of this
nether
world.
4. Repeated births and deaths, and the continued
rotations
of pleasure and pain, are all to be accounted as painful,
on account
of their terminating in pain. (Pain is pain, and pleasure
too ends in pain).
5. And because pleasure leads to greater pain (at its
want),
it is better, O sage, to continue in one's pain (which becomes
a
pleasure by long habit). The sequence of fleeting
pleasure
being but lasting pain, it is to be accounted as such
even as
long as it lasts.
6. O friend! all pleasures are as painful to me, as my
pains
have become pleasurable at this advanced age of mine;
when
my teeth and the hairs of my body, are falling off with
the
decay and wearing out of my internal parts also.
7. My mind is continually aspiring to higher stations in
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life, and is not persevering in its holy course; and the
germ of
my salvation, is choked by the thorns and
thisles[**thistles] of my evil
and worldly desires.
8. My mind is situated amidst its passions and
affections,
within the covert of my body, as the banian tree stands
amidst
its falling leaves in the interior of a rustic village;
and the
desires are flying like hungry vultures all over its
body, in
search of their abominable sustenance.
9. My wicked and crooked thoughts are as the brambles of
creeping and thorny plants, and my life is a weary and
dreary
maze, as a dark and dismal night, (where and when we are
blind-folded to descry our right way).
10. The world with all its people, being parched and
dried
up like withered plants, without the moisture of true
knowledge,
and decaying day by day with incessant cares, is fast
advancing
towards its dissolution, without being destroyed all at
once.
11. All our present acts are drowned in those of our past
lives, and like withered trees bear no flower or fruit in
our
present life; and actions done with desire, terminate
with the
gain of their transitory objects. (Therefore no action
nor
meritorious deeds of religion, can ever tend to our
salvation.
(Which is had by our faith alone)[**))].
12. Our lives are wasted in our attachment to family and
dependants, and never employed to lead our souls across
the
ocean of the world; the desire of earthly enjoyments are
decaying
day by day, and a dreadful eternity awaits before us.
13. Our prosperity and possessions, whether they are more
or less, are as noxious to our souls, as the thorny and
poisonous
plants growing in the hollow caves of earth; again they
are
attended with thoughts and cares causing fever heat in
the
soul, and emaciating the body.
14. Fortune makes the brave and fortunate people, fail
sometimes in the hands of foes; as the man ardent with
the
desire of gems in his mind, is tempted to catch the
gemming
serpents, lying in dark caves; (and lose his life in
attempting
to seize the treasure).
15. I being entirely inclined or given up to the objects
of
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sense, am abandoned by the wise (who hate to touch the
vile);
and my mind which is polluted by worldly desires, and is
all
hollow within, is shunned by them as a dead sea with its
troubled
and turbid waters.
16. My mind is turning also about false vanities, as the
rheumatic pains all about the body;
17. And I am also even with my innumerable deaths
hunting after desired vacuity for sorrow, though my mind
is
purged from the dross of ignorance by reading sástra and
associating good men; as the moon and stars which with
its
power of removing darkness, stand good in vacuity.
18. There is no end of the dark night of my ignorance,
when the gloomy spectre of my egoism is playing its part;
and
I have not the knowledge, which like a lion may destroy
the
furious elephant of my ignorance, and burn down as fire
the
straws of my actions.
19. The dark night of my earthly desire or cupidity is
not
yet over, and the sun of my disgust of the world is not
risen
as yet; I still believe the unreal as real, and mind is
roving
about as an elephant.
20. My senses have been continually tempting me, and I
know not what will be the end of these temptations, which
prevent
even the wise people, from observing precepts of the
sástras.
21. This want of sight or disregard of the sástras, leads
to
our blindness by kindling our desires, and by blinding
our
understanding;--
22. Therefore tell me sir, what am I to do in this difficulty,
and what is that[**add: which?][**or "what is it
that"?--P2] may conduce to my chief good, that I
am
asking thee to relate.
23. It is said that, the mist of our ignorance flies like
the
clouds, at the sight of wise men and purification of our
desires;
now sir, verify the truth of this saying of wise men, by
your
enlightening my understanding, and giving peace to my
mind.
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CHAPTER XXV.
VASISHTHA'S ADMONITION TO MANKI.
Argument:--The avarana sakti or all-enfolding power of
God is called
ignorance, his vikshepa sakti or delusive power is the
cause of error, and
the combination of both cause the world.
Vasishtha said:--Consciousness (of the objects of
perception),
their reflection, the desire of having them and
their imagination, are the four roots of evil in this
world; and
though these words are meaningless, yet considerable
sense is
attached to them (as categories of some schools of false
philosophy);
as the four sources of knowledge.
2. Know that knowledge (of externals) is their reflexion
also, which is the seat (or root) of all evils; and all
our calamities
proceed therefrom, as thickly as vegetation springs out
of the vernal juice (or breath of spring).
3. Men garbed in the robes of their desires, walk in the
dreary paths of this world, with very many varieties of
their
actions (both temporal and ritual), as there are circles
drawn
under a circles (i. e. one circle of duty enclosing many
others
under it).
4. But these aberrations and wanderings over the earth,
are
at an end to the wise together with their desires; as the
moisture
of the ground, is dried up and diminishes at the end of
the vernal season.
5. Our various desires, are the growers of the very many
thorny plants and brambles in the world; as the vernal
moisture
is the cause of growing the thick clumps of kadalí or
plantain trees.
6. The world appears as a dark maze to the mind, that is
cloyed in the serum of its likerish[**lickerish]
appetites; as the ground is
shaded under the bushy trees, by the sap supplied by the
vernal
season.
7. There is nothing in existence except the clear and
vacu-*
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*ous intellect, as there is nothing in the boundless sky,
beside
the hollow vacuity of the air. (This is another passage
of the
vacuistic theory of Vasishtha).
8. There is no intelligent soul beside this one, and all
else
is the everlasting reflexion of this one alone; This it
is which
is styled ignorance and error, and the world also.
9. He is seen without being seen, and is lost upon being
seen, (that is, the Lord is seen in the spirit and not by
the visual
sight). On looking to it an unreal or evil spirit appears
to sight
instead of the true and holy spirit, like ghosts and
goblins
appearing before children. (Whoever wishes to the spirit
of
God, sees the spirit of the devil only).
10. It is by rejecting all visible sights, the
understanding
views the one essence of all, and all things dwindle into
it, as
all the rivers on earth, run and fall into one universal
ocean.
(The one invisible unity is the essence of multiplicity).
11. As an earthen ware cannot be without its earth; so
all
intelligent beings, are never devoid of their
intelligence or
the intellect. (This couplet corroborates the
eigth[**eighth] verse, where
it is said that, there is nothing except the intellect).
12. Whatever is known by the understanding, is said to be
our knowledge; but the understanding has no knowledge of
the unknowable, nor want of understanding can have any
knowledge, owing to their opposite natures. (Because
understanding
and knowledge are of the same nature, but understanding
and unknowable are contraries, and want of understanding
and the knowable are sub-contraries. (The plain meaning
is
that the understanding knows the knowable and not the
unknowable;
while want of understanding knows neither the one
nor the other).
13. As there is the same relation of knowledge between
the
the looker, his seeing and sight; (i. e. the subject,
act, and
object of seeing); so it is omniscience of Brahma which
is the
only essence. (Sáraikarasyam), all else is as null as an
aerial
flower (Kha-pushpa) which never exists.
14. Things of the same kind bear an affinity to one
another,
and readily unite in one (as water with water
&c[**.]); so the world
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[** missing portions supplied from printed copy
(Bharatiya ed.)]
being alike to its notion, and all notions being alike to
the
eternal ideas in the mind of God, the world and the
divine mind,
are certainly the same thing and no other.
15. If there be no knowledge or notion of wood and stone
in us, then they would be the same as the non-existent
things
of which we have no notion:--(such as the horns of a hare
or
a flower in the air).
16. When the outward and visible features of things, are
so exactly similar to the notions and knowledge of them
that
we have in our minds; therefore they appear to be no
other
than our notions or knowledge of them. (Because things
agreeing in all respects with one another, must be the
same
and very thing).
17. All visible appearances in the universe, are only the
outstreched[**outstretched] reflexions of our inner
ideas; their fluctuation is as
that of the winds, as their motion is as that of the
waters in
the ocean.
18. All things are mixed up with the omnipresent spirit,
as a log of wood is covered over by lac-dye; both of
which
appear to be mixed together to the unthinking, but both
are
taken for the one and same thing by the thinking part of
mankind;
(who believe the spirit to exhibit itself in all shapes
Ápna jathaika bhuvana).
19. The idea of reciprocity is unity, and the knowledge
of
mutuality is union also; such as the interchange of water
and
milk, and so the correlation of vision and visibles; and
not
as the union of the wood and lac-dye with one another.
(This
means unity to consist in the interchangeableness and
interdependence
of two things as of the spirit and matter, and not as
sticking the lac-dye upon wood, but as fire inhering in
every
practicle[**particle] of the wood, as it is expressed in
the afore cited
sruti):--
20. The knowledge of one's egoism is his bondage, and
that
of his unegoism is his emancipation from it; thus one's
imprisonment
in and enfranchisement from the confines of his body
and the world; being both under his subjection, why is it
that
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he should be slack to sit himself at freedom from his
perpetual
tharldom[**thraldom]?
21. Like our sight of two moons in the sky, and our
belief
of water in the mirage, we believe in the reality of our
egoism,
which is altogether an unreality. (Lit. We think it
present
without its presence).
22. The disbelief in one's self or his egoism, removes
his
meity (màmatá[**mámatá]) or selfishness also; and it
being possible to
everyone to get rid of them, how is it that he should be
ignorant
of it?
23. Why do you mantain[**maintain] your egoism only, to
be confined in
the cell of your body, like a plum drowned in a cup of
water, or
like the air confined in a pot? your relation to god is
to be no
other but like himself and to be one with him, is to have
the
reciprocal knowledge of yourself in the likeness of God
(i. e. to
be like the image of god in perfection).
24. It is said that the want of reciprocal knowledge,
makes
the union of two things into one (i. e. the entire
commingling
of two things together makes them one); but this is wrong
in
both ways, because neither doth any dull material thing
or any
spiritual substance, lose its own form (however mixed up
with
one or the other).
25. Neither is force converted into inertness (i. e. the
spirit
never becomes matter), from the indestructibility of
their nature,
and whenever the spiritual is seen or considered as the
material,
it becomes a duality, and there is no unity in this view
of
the two. (Hence there is no union or entire assimilation
either
of the spirituals or materials).
26. Thus men being under the influence of their desires,
and beset by their vanities of various kinds (altogether)
are
going on downward still, as a stone torn from the head of
a
cliff, falls from precipice to precipice headlong to the
ground.
27. Men are as straws carried here and there by the
current
of their desire, and whirled about in its eddy; they are
overtaken
by and overwhelmed in an endless series of difficulties
which [**add: are?] impossible for me to enumerate. (The
Sanskrit na párjate
is the Bengali párájáyaná[**)].
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28. Men being cast like a ball flung from the palm of
fate,
are hurried onward by their ardent desires till they are
hurled
headlong into the depth of hell; where being worried and
wornout[**worn out] with hell torments, they take other
forms and shapes
after lapses of long periods, (to undergo fresh toils and
troubles
on earth).
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CHAPTER XXVI.
MANKI'S ATTAINMENT OF FINAL EXTINCTION OR NIRVÁNA.
Argument:--The vanity of Human wishes, and the
Tranquility of
Rational and spiritual speculation.
Vasishtha said:--Thus the living soul, being let fall
in the mazy path of his world, is encompassed by
calamities
and accident[**accidents] as countless as the
animalcules, which are
generated in the rainy season.
2. All these accidents though unconnected with one
another,
follow yet so fast and closely upon each other, as the
detached
stone lying scattered and close together in the rocky
desert, and
linked in a lengthening chain of thought in the mind of
man.
3. The mind blinded of its reason, becomes a wilderness
overgrown with the arbour of its calamities, and yet
appearing
to be smiling as a vernal grove before men, by its
feigned merriment
and good humour. (Merth[**Mirth] and sorrow are both of
them
the effects of unreasonableness).
4. O how pitiable are all those beings! Who being bound
to
their subjection to hope, are subjected to divers states
of pain
and pleasure, in their repeated births in various forms
on earth.
5. Alas for those strange and abnormal desires, which
subjects[**subject] the minds of men, to the triple error
of taking the
non-existent to be actually present before them. (The
triple
error (Triputi bhrama) consists in the belief of the
visibles,
their vision and the viewer of them, that is, in the
subject, act
and objects of sight, which are all viewed as unreal in
the light
of vedanta).
6. Those who have known the truth, are delighted in
themselves,
they are immortal in their mortal life, and are diffusers
of pure light all about them. What then is the difference
between the sapient sage who is coldhearted in all
respects,
and the cooling moon (who cools and enlivens and
enlightens
the world with her ambrosial beams?).
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7. And what is the difference between a whimsical boy and
a covetous fool, who covets anything whatever at hand
without
any consideration of the past and future (good or evil
which
attends upon it).
8. What is the difference between the greedy fool and
voracious fish or whale, that devour the alluring bait of
pleasure
or pain; and will not give up[**space added] the line
until they are sure
to give up[**space added] their lives for the same. (All
seeming pleasure is
real pain, and pain of both the body and soul of men).
9. All our earthly possessions whether of our bodies or
lives,
our wives, friends and properties, are as frail as a
brittle plate
made of sand, which no sooner it is dried and tried than
it
spurts and breaks to pieces.
10. O my soul! Thou mayst forever wander, in hundred
of bodies of various forms in repeated births; and pass
from
the heaven of Brahmá to the empyrean of Brahma; yet thou
canst never have thy tranquility, unless thou attainest
the
even insouciance of thy mind. (The stoic impassivity is
the
highest felicity).
11. The ties and bondage of the world, are dispersed by
mature introspection into the nature of things; as the
uneven
ruggedness of the road, does not retard the course of the
wayfarer
walking with his open eyes.
12. The negligent soul becomes a prey to concupiscence
and unruly passions, as the heedless passenger in[**is]
caught in
the clutches of demons; but the well-guarded spirit is
free
from their fright.
13. As the opening of the eyes, presents the visibles to
sight;
so doth the waking consciousness introduce the ego and
phenomenal world into the mind. (i. e. Consciousness is
the
cause of both the subjective and objective).
14. And as the shutting of the eyelids, shuts out the
view
of the visible objects from sight; so, O destroyer of
enemies,
the closing of consciousness, puts out the appearance of
all
sights and thoughts from your eyes and mind; (and this
unmindfulness of everything besides, prepares the soul
for the
sight of the most high).
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15. The sense of the existence of the external world,
together
with that of one's ego or self-existence, is all unreal
and inane,
it is consciousness alone that shows everything in itself
and
by the fluctuation of its erroneous; as the motion of
winds
displays the variegated clouds in the empty air. (It is
the
imaginative faculty of the mind, that creates and
presents these
phantoms before it).
16. It is the divine consciousness only, which exhibits
the
unreal phenomenals as real in itself, without creating
anything
apart or separate from its own essence; in the same
manner
as earth or any metal produces a pot or a jar out of
itself, and
which is no wise distinct or separate from its substance.
17. As the sky is only a vacuity, and the wind is a mere
fluctuation of air; and as the waves are composed of
nothing
but water; so the world is no other than a phenomenon of
consciousness:
(because we have no knowledge of it without our
consciousness of it).
18. The world subsists undivided in the bas-relief of
consciousness,
and without a separate existence of its own apart or
disjoined in any part, from its substance or substratum
of the
conscious soul, which is as calm and clear as the empty
air,
and the world resembles the shadow of a mountain in the
bosom of water, or a surge or wave rising on the surface
of the
sea.
19. There rises a calm coolness in the souls of wise and
inexcitable sages, when the shining worlds appear as the
cooling
moon beams falling on the internal mirror of their minds.
20. How is it and by what means and in what manner, is
this invisible supreme light, produced in the calm and
quiet and
all pervading auspicious soul, amidst the empty expanse
of
the universe. (Here is a double question of the
production
of uncreated light in creation and of the manifestation
of divine
and spiritual light in the quiet soul).
21. That essence which is expressed by the term Brahma,
forms the essential nature and form of everything
besides; and
the same is permeated throughout all nature, except where
it is
obstructed by some preventive cause or other,--bádhá.
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22. Anything which presents a hindrance to this, and
whatever
is preventive of the pervasion of divine essence, is a
nullity
in nature like a sky flower--ákása pushpa, which is
nothing at
all in nubibus.
23. The wise man sits quietly like a stone, without the
action of even his inner and mental faculties; because
the
lord is without the reflection or sensation of anything,
and
without birth or decay at any time[**space added]. (Here
the mind and its
workings, are explained as vikalpana or changing
thoughts,
which are wanting in the eternal mind).
24. He who remains insensible and
unconsciousness[**unconscious] of every
thing, like the empty state of the open sky; arrives by
his constant
practice to his state of sound sleep or hypnotism without
the disturbance of dreams.
25. But how is it to be known that the world is the mere
thought or will of the Divine mind? where to it is
said).[** : instead of ').'] It
is the creative power of Brahma, (called Brahmá or
Hiranya-garbha--the
demiurgus), thought of forming the wondrous world
in his mind, (as it were he pictured it in himself),
without the
aid of any tool or instrument or means or ground for its
construction;
hence (it is plain), the world is merely ideal and
nothing real, nor is there any cause or creator of it
whatsoever.
26. As the lord stretches out the world in his thought,
he
or it instantly becomes the same; and as the lord is
without any
visible form, so this seeming world has no visible nor
material
form whatever; nor is there any framer of what is simply
ideal.
27. So all men are happy or unhappy, as they think
themselves
to be one or the other in their minds; they all abide in
the same universal soul, which is common to all; and yet
believe
themselves every one of his own kind in his mind.
28. Therefore it is as vain to view anything, or any
intellectual
being, in the light of an earthly substance, as it is
false to
take the visionary hills of one's dream, in the light of
their
being real rocks situated on earth.
29. By assigning egoism to one's self, he becomes subject
to error and change; but the want of egoism, places the
soul
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[** png 141-150 compared to print]
to its invariable identity and tranquility. (i. e. The
sense of
one's personality, subjects him to change and misery).
30. As the meaning of the word bracelet, is nothing
different
from the gold (of which it is made); so the sense of thy
false egoism, is no other than that of the tranquil soul.
(The
soul, self, and ego are all the one and samething[**2
words]).
31. The anaesthetic sage, that is cold-blooded and sober
minded as a silent muni, is no voluntary actor of any
act, although
he may be physically employed in his active duties; and
the quiet saint carries with him an empty and careless
mind,
although it may be full of learning and wisdom. (Lit. the
knower
of god[**God] is as quiet, as the calm vacuum of heaven).
32. The wise man manages himself as a mechanical figure
or
puppet, never moving of its own motion but moving as it
is
moved, and having no impulse of his desire within him, he
sits
as quiet as a doll without its mobility.
33. The wise man that knows the soul, is as quiet as a
babe
sleeping in a swinging cradle, and which is moved without
moving itself; or he moves the members of his body like a
baby, without having any cause for his doing so.
34. The soul that is intent on the thought of the one
(Supreme)
only, and is as calm and quiet as the infinite spirit of
god;
becomes unconscious of itself and all other things,
together with
all its objects of desire, and expectations of its good
and bliss.
35. He that is not the viewer himself, nor has the view
before
him, and is exempt from the triple condition (triputi
bhába)
of the subjective, objective and action; can have no
object in
his view; which is concentrated in the vision of the
invisible one.
36. Our view or regard of the world, is our strict
bondage,
and disregard of it, is our perfect freedom; he who rests
therefore
in his disregard of (or indifference to) whatever is
expressed
by words, has nothing to look after or desire.
37. Say, what is it that is ever worth our looking after,
or
worthy of our regard; when these material bodies of ours,
are as
evanescent as our dreams, and our self-existence is a
mere delusion.
(There is nothing therefore worthy of our inquiry beside
the divine intellect. gloss).
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38. Therefore the wise man rests only in his knowledge of
the true one, by subjection of all his efforts and
desires, and
quelling all his curiosity; and being devoid of all
knowledge,
save that of the knowable one.
39. Hearing all this, Manki was released from his great
error; as a Snake gets loose from its slough by which it
has
been fast bound.
40. He retired from there to a mountain, on which he
remained in his deep meditation for a century of years;
and
discharged the duties that occured[**occurred] to him of
their own accord,
without his retaining any desire of any; (or expectation
of
fruition).
41. He resides there still, unmoved and insensible as a
stone, quite callous in all his senses and feelings, and
wakeful
with his internal sensibility by the light of his yoga
contemplation.
42. Now Ráma, enjoy your peace of mind, by relying in
your habit of reasoning and discrimination; do not
deprave
your understanding, under the fits of your passion; nor
let
your mind turn to its levity like a fleeting cloud, in
the unrainy
season of autumn.
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CHAPTER XXVII.
SERMON ON THE SUPERIOR SORT OF YOGA MEDITATION.
Argument:--Mistake of the action of the Intellect in the
action of the
mind, as the cause of the phenomenal world; and the
removal of this
error of the mind, as the cause of the intellectual peace
and rest in its
real state.
Vasishtha Continued:--Be dead to your sensibility, and
retain the tranquility of your soul, by conforming with
whatsover[**whatsoever] thou gettest or is meted out to
thy lot; or else the
fair (order of nature and ordinance of God), will appear
as foul,
as a pure crystal shows itself as black in the shade.
2. All and every thing being contained in the only one
all
extended soul, we can not conceive how the conception of
variety or multiplicity can rise from the unity. (To Him
no
high, no low, no great, no small; He fills, he bounds,
connects,
and equals all. Pope).
3. The category of the intellect is entirely of a vacuous
nature, and having neither its beginning nor end; and is
neither produced nor destroyed, with the production and
destruction of the body. (And though it is diffused all
over
the body and its various powers and senses, yet there is
variation of its own essence. Gloss).
4. All insensible and material bodies, are moved by the
miraculous power of the intellect or mind; which being
unmoved
of itself gives motion to bodies, as the still waters of
the
sea gives rise to the waves. (Here the intellect is
explained
as the mind in the gloss).
5. As it is an error to suppose a sheet of cloth in a
cloud,
so the supposition of egoism in the body, is altogether
erroneous:
(since one's personality consists in the soul and not in
the person).
6. Do not rely in the unreal body, which is of this
world,
and grows to perish in it; but depend on the real essence
of
-----File: 144.png---------------------------------------------------------
the endless spirit, for thy everlasting happiness (in
both
worlds).
7. The vacuous intellect, is the essential property of
the
immortal soul; this is the transcendent reality in
nature, and
may this super-excellent entity be thy essence likewise.
8. If you are certain of this truth, you become as
glorious
as that essence also; because the deep meditator loses
himself
in the meditated object, in his intense meditation of the
same.
(This assimilation of the triputi or triple condition of
the thinker
and his act and object of thought in one, is the meaning
and
main end of the yoga meditation of union).
9. The triple condition of the viewer, view and act of
viewing,
are the three properties of the one and same intellect;
and
there is nothing which is any other than (or not the same
with)
the knowledge thereof, as there is no thought unlike the
act of
its thinking. (This shows the agreement of the cause, its
causation and effect).
10. The soul is ever calm and clear and uniform in its
nature, it does not rise and fall like the tides by the
lunar
influence, nor is it soiled like the sea waters by
tempestuous
winds. (The soul is ever unruffled at any event).
11. As a passenger in a boat beholds the rocks and trees
on
the bank to be in motion, and as one thinks a shell or
conch to
be composed of silver; so the mind mistakes the body for
reality,
(which in truth is an unreal appearance).
12. As the sight of the material dismisses the view of
the
intellectual, so doth entellectuality[**intellectuality]
discard the belief of the
material; and so the knowledge of the living soul being
resolved in the supreme soul, there remains nothing at
last,
except the unity of the all pervading spirit.
13. The knowledge that all this (world), is quite calm
and
quiet (in its nature); and the whole is an evolution of
the
divine spirit, takes away the belief in everything else,
which is
naught but the product of error and illusion.
14. As there is no forest in the sky, nor moisture in the
sands; and as there is no fire in the disk of the moon,
so there
-----File:
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is no material body in the sight of the mind. (Mentally
Considered[**considered],
there is no matter).
15. Ráma fear not for this world-[**--]the mere creation
of thy
error, and without its real existence what
soever[**whatsoever], know this
transcendent truth, O thou best amongst the inquirers of
truth,
that this world is a nullity and void.
16. Your mistake of the existence of the visible world,
and
the disbelief which you fostered with regard to the
entity of the
invisible soul, must have been removed this day by my
preaching,
say now what other cause there may be of your bondage in
this world.
17. As a plate, water-pot and any other earthenware, is
no
more than the earth (of which it is made); so the outer
world
is no other than the inner thought of the mind, and it
wears
away under the power of reasoning.
18. Whether expose[**exposed] to danger and difficulty,
or placed in
prosperity or adversity, or betided by affluence or
penury; you
must preserve, O Ráma, your even disposition amidst the
consciousness
(or knowledge) of your joy and grief; be gladly free from
the knowledge of your egoism, and remain as you are
sedate by
your nature, and without your subjection in any state.
19. Remain Ráma, as thou art, like the moon in the sphere
of thy race, with thy full knowledge of everything in
nature;
avoid thy joy and grief at every occurence[**occurrence],
and give up thy
desire and digust[**disgust] for anything in the world.
Do so or as you
may choose for yourself.
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CHAPTER XXVIII.
DEMONSTRATED CONCLUSION OF THE DOUBTFUL TRUTH.
Argument:--Act, actor and action are one the same, the
word Daiva
and its explanation; oscillation of intellect is the
cause of creation.
Ráma said:--Please sir, explain to me moreover regarding
the acts of men, which become the causes of their
repeated
births, as seeds are sources of the germs of future
trees; and
those to which the word daiva or divian is applied, imply
the
Divine dispensation, destiny or fate.
2. Vasishtha replied:--The meaning of daiva or destiny,
is as that of a potter in producing the pottery; it is
the act of
intelligence (samvid), and not of, blind chance, nor of
human
effort or manliness.
3. How is it possible for any action to be done by manly
exertion only, without some effort of the understanding
directing
human energy to action; it is this intelligent power that
makes the world and all what it contains.
4. The prosperity of the world depends on the
understanding,
exerting itself with a desire to bring about some certain
end; and it ceases with the course of the course of the
world,
upon the exertion of the understanding to no purpose.
5. The insouciance or want of desire in the mind, is
called
its negative act, and the mind that merely moves on
without
engaing[**engaging] in any pursuit, is as a current
stream without its undulation.
(So mere living is no life without its action).
6. There is no difference between a thinking and
unthinking
soul, unless the mind of one is actuated by its
imagination,
to the invention of some manly art or work.
7. As there is no essential duality or difference in the
water
and its waves, and between desire and its result; so
there is no
distinction betwixt the intellect and its function, nor
is there
any difference in the actions from the person of their
agent.
-----File: 147.png---------------------------------------------------------
8. Know Ráma, the action as the agent, and the actor the
same with his action; both these are quite alike as the
ice and
coldness. (i. e. Man is known by his act, and the actions
bespoke
the man).
9. As the frost is cold and coldness the same with frost,
so the deed is the same as its doer, and the doer is
alike the
deed done by him. (Every one is accountable for his deed,
and the deed recurs to the doer of it).
10. The vibration of the Intellect (i. e. the divine
will),
is the same as destiny which is also the agent of action;
these
are synonymous terms expressing the same thing, and
destiny,
deed and other words have no distinct meaning.
11. The oscillation of the intellect is the cause of
creation,
as the seed is the source of the germ of a tree; want of
this
vibration is productive of nothing, wherefore
intellectual activity
contains in it the germinating seed of the whole world.
(i. e. The action of the mind causes all things, and its
inaction
is the cause of total suspense).
12. The divine mind contains in its infinite expanse all
the
ample space of time and place; and is of its own nature
sometimes
in its fluctuation, and at others at a stand still like
the
vast ocean on earth.
13. The causeless and uncausing seed of the intellect,
being
moved by desire, becomes cause of the minutiae of
material
bones, as the seed becomes productive of its germs and
sprouts.
14. All vegetable productions as the grass and all sorts
of
plants and creepers, vegetate from within their
particular seeds
as their origin; and these seed[**seeds] originate from
the pulsation of
the divine mind, which is increate and without any
[**[cause]?] for it.
(The pulsation of the divine mind is its creative will,
which is
the seed or source of creation).
15. There is no difference between the seed and its
sprout,
as there is no distinction of the heat from fire; and as
you find
the indentity[**identity] of the seed and its sprout, so
must you know the
identity of man with his acts. (i. e. Actions make the
man,
and the man does his actions like himself).
16. The divine Intellect exerts its power in the bosom of
-----File:
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the earth, and grows the sprouts of the unmoving
vegetable
creation as from its seed; and these become great or
small,
straight or crooked as the waves of the sea as it would
have
them to be.
17. What other power is there beside that of the
intellect,
to grow the sturdy oaks and arbors from the soft clay and
humid moisture, which compose the bosom of the earth?
18. It is this Intellect that fills the seeds of living
beings
with the vital fluid, as the sappy juice abiding in the
inside of
plants, gives growth to the flowers and fruits on the
outside.
19. If this all inhering intellect, were not almighty
also at
the same time, say then what other power is there, that
could
produce the mighty gods and demigods in air, and the huge
mountains on earth.
20. The divine mind contains in it the seeds of all
moving
and unmoving beings, which have their being from the
movement
of this intellectual power, and form[**from] no other
source
whatever.
21. As there is no difference in the alternate production
of
the seed and the germ or fruit from one another, so there
is no
difference in the commutual causation of man and his acts
and
the vice varsa[**versa]. In this manner also there is no
shade of
difference, betwixt the swelling waves and the sinking
waters of
the sea. (Man is but a bubble of its own blowing in the
vast
ocean of Eternity).
22. Fie to that silly and beastly being, who does not
believe
in the reciprocality of man and his action or of the
agent and the
act, by the law of mutatis mutandis inculcated in the
vedas.
23. The prurience that is inherent in one's
consciousness, is
the embryonic seed of his resuscitation to life; in the
manner of
the germination of plants: it is therefore meet to render
this
seed abortive by frying it in the fire of inappetency.
24. The doing of a thing with listlessness, and the
performance
of an act whether good or bad without taking it to the
mind, is what is called lukewarmness by the learned.
25. Or it is exemption from desire, that is said to
loosen a
man from all connection; therefore try by all means in
your
-----File: 149.png---------------------------------------------------------
power, to create in your mind a total unconcern for every
one,
and indifference to all things whatsoever.
26. In whatever manner you think it possible for you to
rid of your lickerish desires, whether by means of your
theoretical
or practical yoga (the raja and hatha yogas), or by means
of your manly exertion; you must root every desire from
your
heart, in order to secure your best welfare and perfect
felicity.
27. But then you must endeavour to the utmost of your
manly power, to suppress some portion of your egoism, in
order
to prevent the rise of selfish passions and desires
within your
health.
28. There is no other course of fording the unfordable
expanse of the world, save by the exercise of our manly
virtues;
nor is there any other way of extinguishing our ardent
desires, except by the extinction of egoism.
29. It is the inherent consciousness of the ever existent
soul,
which is both the prime seed as well as the first germ of
the
world; the same is the source both of action as also of
its
cause and effect of the person of man. It is that which
is
designated as destiny and the weal and woe of all.
30. In the beginning there was no other seed nor its
sprout,
nor even any man nor his action; nor was there any such
thing
as destiny or doom or any other prime cause, but all that
existed was the Supreme intellect which is all in all.
31. There is neither any seed nor its germ in reality,
nor
is there any action or its active agent defacte[**de
facto]; but there [**add: is?] only
one Supreme intellect in absolute and positive existence,
and
it is under the auspices of this hollowed name, that you
see
O sage! all these gods and demigods, and all men and
women,
are performing their respective parts as actors on the
stage
of the world.
32. Knowing this certain truth, and thinking thyself as
the imperishable one, be freed from thy thoughts of the
agent
and action; give up all thy desires and false
imagination, and
live to reflect with thy body of self-consciousness
alone. (Consider
thyself as an intellectual being, and not the dull
corporeal
body).
-----File:
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33. Remain fearless, O Ráma, and be more graceful with
the
calm composure of thy mind. Allay all thy desires and lay
aside thy fears with them. Rely on thy clear intellect
and
continue to do thy endless acts (by guidance of the
same).
Be full in thyself with the Supreme soul, and thus thou
shalt
have the fulness of thy desires fulfilled in thee.
-----File: 151.png---------------------------------------------------------
[** png 151-160 compared to print]
CHAPTER XXIX.
SERMON ON HOLY MEDITATION.
Argument:--Necessity of discharging our social duties, as
they occur
unto us at any time: and that of conducting our
contemplation in solitude.
Vasishtha continued to say:--Remain always to look
inwardly in thyself, by being freed from the feelings of
passion and desire, continue in the performance of thy
actions
every where, but reflect always upon the quiet and
spotless
intellect within thyself.
2. The mind which is as clear as the open sky, and is
full
of knowledge and settled in the divine intellect; which
is ever
even and graceful and replete with joy, is said to be
highly
favoured of heaven and expanded by Brahma.
3. Whether be taken[**betaken] by pain and grief, or
exposed to dangers
and difficulties, or attended by pleasure or prosperity,
in
a greater or less degree.
4. In whatever place and in whatsoever state thou art
placed,
bear with thy afflictions with an unsorrowful heart; and
whether
thou weepest or criest, or becomest a play of opposite
circumstances,
be joyous in both for both are meant for thy good.
5. You are delighted in the company of your consorts, and
feel joyous at the approach of festivity and prosperity;
and it
is because you are tempted like ignorant people, by your
fond
desire of pleasure.
6. Fools that are allured by their greediness of gain,
meet
with their fate in hazardous exploits and warfare; and it
is
fit that they should burn with the fire of their desire,
like
straws consumed in a conflagration.
7. Earn money by honest means and with the circumspection
of a crane, in whatever chance presents itself before
thee;
and do not run in persuit[**pursuit] of gain, like the
ignorant rabble.
8. O thou destroyer of thy foes, drive away by force all
thy
-----File:
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desires as the greatest enemies, and as winds of heaven
drive
afar the rainless and empty clouds of the sky.
9. Be tolerant, O Ráma, towards the ignorant people, that
are led away by their desires and deserve thy pity; be
reverent
of highminded men, and delighted in thyself by observing
the
taciturnity of thy speech, and without being misled by
thy
desires likes the ignorant mob.
10. Congratulate with joy and sympathise with sorrow,
(whether of thyself or others); pity the sorrows of the
poor, and
be valiant among the brave.
11. Turn your eyes into your heart, and be always joyous
by communing with yourself (or soul); and then whatever
you
do with a liberal mind, you are not to answer for the
same as
its agent.
12. By remaining fixed in the meditatation[**meditation]
of your soul, and
by having your eyes always turned within yourself; you
shall
be invulnerable even at the stroke of a thunderbolt (darted
by
the hand of Indra). So saith the sruti:--The Gods have no
power to hurt the holy. Tasya hana deváscha ná bhutya
ishate.
13. He is said to be master of himself, who is freed from
the delusion of desire, and lives retired in the cave of
his
consciousness; who is attached to his own soul and acts
at his
own will, and has his delight in his very self. (Because
says
the sruti--Whoso goes out of himself, loses his very
self).
14. No weapon can wound the self-possest man, nor fire
can chafe his soul; no moisture can damp the spirit, nor
the
hot winds can dry it up. (No elemental influence can
prevail
on the spiritual soul).
15. Lay hold on the firm pillar of your soul, which is
unborn
or increate, undecaying and immortal; adhere steadfastly
to thy
soul, as one clings to the prop or column of his house.
16. The world is an arbor, and all things in it are as
the
flowers of this tree; our knowledge of all things, is as
the
fragrance of these flowers; but our self-consciousness is
the
essence of them all; therefore look internally to this
inward
essence before you mind the externals.
17. All outward affairs, are brought about by their
inward
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reflection in the mind; but it is as hard to bring about
a desire
into being, as to raise a stone to life.
18. Get rid of your bodily exertions and lull your mind
to
sleep; be doing all your duties, as a tortoise with its
contracted
limbs. (i. e. Act with indifference, and without being
moved).
19. Manage thine affairs with a half-sleeping and half
awakened mind, (like a waking sleeper); and do thy
outward
functions, [**missing (?]without the exertion of your
mental faculties).
20. As babes are possessed of their innate knowledge, and
dumb creatures are endowed with their instinct, without
the
feeling of any desire rising in them; so they live and
act
with their minds unattached to anything, and as vacant as
the empty air.
21. Remain untroubled and free from care, with entirely
sleepy and comatose mind within thyself; a mind devoid of
all
its functions and quite absorbed in itself, and slightly
acting on
the members of the body.
22. You may continue to discharge or dispense with your
duties altogether, by impairing your mind with knowledge,
and
resting quietly in your pure consciousness, after it is
purged
from the stain of appetance[**appetence].
23. Go on managing your outward affairs in your waking
state, as if your faculties were dormant in sleep; and
never
hanker to have anything, nor let go aught that presents
itself
to thee.
24. If you are dormant when waking, by your inattention
to
all about you; so are you awake when sleeping by your
trance
in the bosom of the Supreme soul; and when you are in the
condition of the union of the two, you attain to the
state of
perfect consummation.
25. Thus by your gradual practice of this habit of
insouciance,
you reach to that state of unity, which has neither its
beginning nor end, and which is beyond all other things.
26. The world is certainly neither a unity nor duality
(but is
composed of a plurality in its totality, or the one in
many
A luin[**unclear] Bahushaym), leaving therefore the
inquiry into its end-*
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less varieties, resort to your Supreme bliss, with a mind
as clear
as the translucent sphere of empty air.
27. Ráma rejoined:--If it be so, O great sage! (That
there
is no ego or tu as you say,[**missing ) ?] then tell me,
why are we conscious
of ourselves, and how are you sitting here under the name
of
the sage vasishtha[**Vasishtha].
28. Valmíki said:--Being thus interrogated by
Ràma[**Ráma], vasishtha[**Vasishtha]
the best of speakers, remained silent for a moment,
pondering
on the answer he should make.
29. This silence of his created some anxiety in the royal
audience, and Ráma too being perplexed in his mind,
repeated
his question to the sage and said:--
30. Why sir, are you silent like myself? I see there is
no
such argument in the world, which sages like yourself are
unable
to solve and expound:--
31. Vasishtha replied:--It is not owing to my inability
to
speak, nor want of argument on my part that made me hold
my
tongue; but it is the wide scope of your question that
withheld
me from giving its answer. (Or from answering to it).
32. Ráma! There are two kinds of querists, namely, the
ignorant inquisitor and the intelligent investigator; and
so
there are two modes of argumentation also for them
respectively:
the simple mode for simpletons, and the rational form for
intelligent and reasonable men.
33. You had been so long, Ráma, ignorant of superior
knowledge,
and fit to be taught in ordinary equivocal language.
34. But now you have become a connoisseur of superior
truth, and found your rest in the state of supreme
felicity; and
are no longer to benefit by the ambiguous language of
common
speech.
35. Whenever a good speaker wishes to deliver an eloquent
speech, whether it be a long or short one, or relate to
some
abstruse or spiritual subject; (he must satisfy himself
first).
36. The ego being the counterpart or privation of all
representation,
is inexpressible by representative sounds and
words; and being beyond the predicaments[**predicates?]
of number and
other categories, is not predicable by any of them or
other
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fiction of fancy. It is the totality of all, as light is
composed of
innumerable particles of ray.
37. It is not right, O Ráma, that one who has known the
truth (the gnostic), should give an imperfect or
defective answer
to a question (proposed to him). But what can he do, when
no language is perfect or free from defect, as you know
it well.
38. It is right, O Ráma, that I who know the truth,
should
declare it as it is to my pupils; and the knower of
abstract truth
is known to remain as mute as a block of wood, and the
soundess[**soundness? see next para]
of whose mind is hard to sound. (So says the
persian[**Persian]
mystic:--He who has known the unknowable, has become
unknown
to himself and others).
39. It is want of self-cogitation that causes one to
speak,
(i. e. unsoundness of thought sounds in high sounding
words);
but they hold their silence who know the Supreme
excellence;
and this is the best answer that is given thy inquiry
into this
truth.
40. Every man, O Ráma, speaks of himself as he is (or
thinks himself to be); but I am only my conscious self,
which is
unspeakable in its nature, and appertains to the
unbespeakable
one.
41. How can that thing admit the application of a
definite
term to give it expression, which is inexpressible by
words (and
beyond our conceptim[**conception]); I cannot therefore
express the inexpressible
by words. I have already said, all are but fictitious
signs:
(representative of our certain ideas).
42. Ráma rejoined:--You sir, that disregard every thing
that is expressed by words, and regard these as imperfect
and
defective symbols of ther[**their] originals; must tell
me now, what you
mean by your "privation of representation" and
what you are
your.[*]
* Note--The logical term pratiyogi vyach' heda is
explained as
pratiyogi nirupaka vyavrithi, which means that egoism
being an abstract
term, does not point out any particular person or thing,
and the ego being
a discreate[**discrete] word conveys no sense of a
concrete noun. Moreover it is
indeterminate and signifies no determinate number, nor is
it predicated by
any of the predicables which is not applicable to it.
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43. Vasishtha replied:--It being so, (that there no
determinate
person expressed by the word egoism); hear me to tell
you now, O Ráma, that art the best among the enquirers of
truth, what thou art and what am I in truth, and what is
world
in reality.
44. This Ego, my boy, is the empty intellect and
imperishable
in its nature; it is neither conceivable nor knowable,
and
is beyond all imagination.
45. I am the clear air of the intellect, and so art thou
the
empty sky also; the whole world is an entire vacuity, and
there
is nothing else except an everlasting and infinite vacuum
(beom)[**P2: no idea]
every where.
46. The soul is identic[**P2:identical] with pure
knowledge, it is free from
sensational knowledge, and beyond the conscious knowledge
of
others. I cannot call it anything otherwise than the self
or
soul.
47. Yet it is the fashion of disputants in order to
mantain[**maintain]
their own ground, or for the salvation of their pupils to
multiply
the egoism of the one soul, and to distribute it into a
thousand
branches.
48. When a living soul remains calm and quiet
notwithstanding
the management of its worldly affairs; and is as
motionless as a living carcass, it is said to have
attained its
perfect state.
49. This state of perfection consists in refraining from
external exercise and devotion, and persistence in
continual
meditation; feeling no sensation of pain or pleasure, and
being
unconscious of one's self-existence, and the co-existence
of all
others besides.
50. Freedom from egoism and the consciousness of all
other
existence, brings on the idea of a total inexistence and
emptiness,
which is altogether beyond thought and meditation. (For
none can think of a nothing). All attempt to grasp a
nullity,
is as vain as a blind man's desire to see a picture.
51. The posture of sitting unmoved as a stone, at the
shocks and turn backs (or drakes and ducks) of fortune;
is
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verily the state of nirvána or deathless coma of a
sensible
being. (The figures of saints are as unmoved as statues).
52. This state of saintly anaesthesia is not marked by
others, nor perceived by the saint himself; because the
knowing
sage shuns the society of men in disgust, and is
enlightened
with his spiritual knowledge within himself.
53. In this state of spiritual light, the sage loses
sight of his
egoism and tuism and all others and beholds the only one
unity, in which he is extinct and absorbed in pure and
unsullied
felicity.
54. It is the intellection of the intellect, that is said
to be
conversant with the intelligibles; (or the operation of
the subjective
soul on the objective); this is the cause of the creation
of the world, which is the cause of our bondage and
continual
woes (in our repeated births and deaths).
55. It is said to be the dormancy or insensibility of
intellection,
when it is not employed about the intelligible objects;
it is
then called the supremely calm and quiet state of
liberation
(both for thought and action); and is free from decay.
56. The soul being in its state of peaceful tranquility,
its
ideas of space and time fly from it like clouds in
autumn; and
then it has no thought of anything else for want of its
power
of thinking.
57. When the sight of the soul is turned inwards (antar
mukha) as in sleep, it sees the world of its desires
rising before
its consciousness in their aerial forms; but O ye
princes, the
sight of the soul being directed to the outside (bahir
mukha),
as in its waking state, it views the inward objects of
his desire,
presented before its sight in the gross forms of the
outer world.
(This passage shows the contrariety of the spiritual
philosophy
to the material; the former maintaining the material
world to
be a shadow of the ideal, and the latter asserting the
intellectual
as a representation of the visible world).
58. The mind, understanding and the other faculties,
depend
upon the consciousness of the soul, and are of the same
nature
at[**as] the intellect; but being considered in their
intimate relation
with external objects bahir-mukhatá, they are represented
as
-----File:
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grossly material. (In the doctrines of
materialist-[**--]the sánkhy[**sánkhya]
and others).
59. The self-same intellect being spread over our
consciousness,
of all internal and external feelings and perceptions; it
is
in vain to differentiate this one and undivided power, by
the
several names (of spiritual, mental, and bodily
faculties).
60. There is nothing which is set apart, from the
percipience
of the conscious intellect; which is as pure and
all-pervading
as the empty vacuum, and which is said by the learned to
be
undefinable by words. (So says the sruti:--No speech can
approach to it).
61. Being seen very acutely, the world appears as hazy in
the divine essence, as it were something between a
reality and
unreality; and so dost thou appear to sight, as something
real
and unreal at the sametime[**same time]. (All things
appear as evanescent
shadows in the clear mirror of the Divine Mind).
62. So am I the empty air, if can be free from desire;
and so also art thou the pure intellect, if thou canst
but restrain
thy desires.
63. He who is certain of this truth (that he is the
intellect),
knows himself in reality; but whoso thinks himself as
somebody
under a certain appellation, is far from knowing the
truth.
Again anyone remaining in his unreal body, but relying in
his
intellectuality, is sure to have his tranquility and
salvation.
(So the sruti:--Anyone awakened to truth is sure to be
saved,
whether he is a God, rishi or sages[**sage], or a vile
man).
64. Man's exercise of the intellectual faculty,
ameliorates
the love of union with the original intellect by removing
the
ignorance; as heat of the fire mixes with the primitive
heat,
when wind ceases to blow.
65. Living being [** beings] who are converted to the
state of patient
trees and stones, by insouciance or insensibility of
themselves,
are said to have attained their liberation which is free
from
disturbance, and to be situated in their state of
undecayableness.
66. A man having obtained his wisdom by means of his
knowledge, is said to have become a muní or sage, but
growing
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an ignoramus owing to his ignorance, he becomes a brute
creature,
or degraded even lower to some vegetable life.
67. The knowledge that "I am Brahma" (because I
am a man)
and this other is the world (because it is inanimate) is
a gross
error proceeding from gross ignorance; but all untruth
flies
away before investigation, as darkness vanishes before
the adadvance[**advance]
of light.
68. He is wise who with the perception and actions of his
outward organs, is simply devoid of his inward desires;
who does
not think or feel about anything in his mind, and remains
quite calm and composed in his outward appearance.
69. The samádhi-[**--]trance of a wise man, is as his
sound sleep
uninfested by a dream; and wherein the visibles are all
buried
within himself, and when he sees naught but his self or
soul.
70. As the blueness of the sky is a false conception of
the
brain, so the appearance of the world is a fallacy of the
silent
soul; they are no more than mists of error, that obscure
the
clear and vacuous sphere of the soul.
71. He is the true sage who though surrounded by the
objects of wish, is still undesirous of any; and knows
them all
as mere unrealities and false vanities.
72. Know, O intelligent Ráma, that all objects of desire
in
this world, are as marvellous as those seen in our
imagination,
dream and in the magic of jugglers; such also are all the
objects
of our vision, on which you can place no trust nor
reliance.
73. Know also, there is no pain or pleasure, nor any act
of
merit or demerit (i. e. any moral virtue and vice); nor
anything
which anybody, owing to the impossibility of there being
any agent or patient; (i. e. any active or passive
agent).
74. The whole (universe) is a vacuum and without any
support at all; it appears as a secondary moon in the sky
or a
city in one's dream or imagination, none of which has its
reality in nature.
75. Abide only by the rules of the community, or observe
strictly thy mute taciturnity; and by remaining as a
block of
wood or stone, be absolved in the Supreme.
76. The tranquility and intellectuality of the Supreme
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deity, do not admit of any diversity in his nature; and
his incorporeality
does not admit of the attribution, of a body or any
of its parts unto him.
77. There can be no nature whatever, whereof we have any
conception, that can be attributed to the pure spirit,
(which is
free from all stain and foulness); and this Divine spirit
being
inherent in all bodies, there can be no body for its
nature ever
imputed to him.
78. The existence of consciousness in the uncreated
spirit,
or in other words, the existence of a self-conscious
eternal
Intellect, cannot be denied of God; according to
sophistry of
Atheists; for though our knowledge of recipient and
received
(i. e. of the container and contained) is very imperfect,
yet
there is some one at the bottom that [**add: is?] ever
perfect.
79. O Ráma! do you rely in that increate and
indestructible
Supreme being, which is ever the same and pure,
irrefutable
and adored by the wise and good; it is the irrefutable
(i. e.
demonstrable) verity, on which you should quietly depend
for
you liberation. And though you may eat and drink and play
about like all others, yet you must know that all this is
nothing.
Om Tat Sat
(Continued...)
( My
humble salutations to Brahmasri Sreemaan Vihari Lala Mitra ji for the
collection)
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