The
Yoga Vasishtha
Maharamayana
of Valmiki
The only complete English translation is
by Vihari Lala Mitra (1891).
CHAPTER LIII.
REPRESENTATIONS OF REMINISCENCE.
Argument. Description of Līlā's passage in
the air, and her
union with her husband's spirit. Relation of
the depravity of
those that are unacquainted with and
unpractised in Yoga.
Vasishtha said:—Līlā having obtained the
blessing of the goddess,
proceeded with her fancied body to meet her
royal spouse in heaven
beyond the skies.
2. Having assumed her spiritual form which
was as light as air, she fled
merrily as a bird; and was wafted aloft by
the fond desire of joining
with her beloved lord.
3. She met before her a damsel sent by the
goddess of wisdom, and as
issuing out of the best model of her heart's
desire.
4. The damsel said:—I am the daughter of thy
friend Sarasvatī, and
welcome thee, O beauteous lady in this place.
I have been waiting here
on thy way through the sky in expectation of
thee.
5. Līlā said:—Lead me, O lotus-eyed maid to
the side of my husband, as
the visit of the good and great never goes
for nothing.
6. Vasishtha said:—The damsel replied, come
let us go there; and so
saying, she stood before her looking forward
on her way.
7. Then proceeding onward both together, they
came to the door-way of
heaven, which was as broad as the open palm
of the hand, and marked with
lines as those in palmistry. (?).
8. They passed the region of the clouds, and
overstepped the tracks of
the winds; then passing beyond the orbit of
the sun, they reached the
stations of the constellations.
9. Thence they passed through the regions of
air and water (Indraloka),
to the abodes of the gods and saints
(Siddhas); whence they went across
the seats of Brahmā, Vishnu and Siva to the
great belt—of the universe.
10. Their spiritual bodies pierced through
its orifice, as the humidity
of ice water passes out of the pores of a
tight water-jar.
11. The body of Līlā was of the form of her
mind, which was of the
nature of its own bent and tenor, and
conceived these wanderings within
itself (i. e., the peregrinations of Līlā were purely the workings of
her own mind and inclination).
12. Having traversed the spheres of Brahmā,
Vishnu and Siva, and crossed
the limit of the mundane sphere, and the
environs of atmospheric water
and air:—
13. They found an empty space as spacious as
the scope of the great
intellect, and impassable by the swift Garuda
(the eagle of Jupiter)
even in millions of Kalpa ages (i. e., the unlimited space of the mind
and vacuity).
14. There they beheld an infinity of
shapeless and nameless worlds,
scattered about as the countless fruits in a
great forest. (The Nebulae
of unformed worlds).
15. They pierced through the ambit of one of
these orbs before them, and
passed inside the same as a worm creeps in a
fruit which it has
perforated.
16. This brought them back by the same spheres
of Brahmā, Indra and
others, to the orb of the globe below the
starry frame.
17. Here they saw the same country, the same
city and the same tomb as
before; and after entering the same, they sat
themselves beside the
corpse of Padma covered under the heap of
flowers.
18. At this time Līlā lost the sight of the
heavenly damsel, who had
been her companion erewhile, and who had now
disappeared from her sight
like a phantom of her illusion.
19. She then looked at the face of her
husband, lying there as a dead
body in his bed; and recognized him as such
by her right discretion.
20. This must be my husband, said she, ay my
very husband, who fell
fighting with Sindhu; and has now attained
this seat of the departed
heroes, where he rests in peace.
21. I have by the grace of the goddess
arrived here in person, and
reckon myself truly blest to find my husband
also as such (i. e.,
resting here in his own figure).
22. She then took up a beautiful chowry flapper in her hand, and began
to wave it over his body as the moon moves in
the sky over the earth.
23. The waking Līlā asked:—Tell me, O
goddess! in what manner the did
king and his servants and hand-maids accost
this lady, and what they
thought her to be.
24. The goddess replied:—It was by our gift
of wisdom to them, that
this lady, that king and those servants,
found themselves to partake of
the one and same intellectual soul, in which
they all subsisted.
25. Every soul is a reflection of the divine
intellect, and is destined
by his fixed decree to represent the individual
souls to one another as
refractions of the same, or as shadows in a
magic show (bhojakādrishta).
26. Thus the king received his wife as his
companion and queen, and his
servants as cognate with himself (i. e. partaking of the same soul
with his own).
27. He beheld the unity of his soul with
her's and their's, and no
distinction subsisting between any one of
them. He was astonished to
find that there was nothing distinct in them
from what he had in
himself.
28. The waking Līlā said:—Why did not that
Līlā meet her husband in her
own person, according to her request and the
boon that was granted to
her?
29. The goddess replied:—It is not possible
for unenlightened souls (as
that of the young Līlā), to approach in
person to holy spirits (or their
persons or places), which are visible and
accessible only to the
meritorious, and unapproachable by gross
bodies as the sun light is
inaccessible by a shadow.
30. So it is the established law from the
beginning of creation, that
intelligent souls can never join with dull
beings and gross matter, as
truth can never be mixed up with falsehood.
31. And so is that as long as a boy is
prepossessed with his notion of a
ghost, it is in vain to convince him of the
falsehood of goblins as mere
chimeras of his imagination.
32. And as long as the feverish heat of
ignorance rages within the soul,
it is impossible for the coolness of the moon
of intelligence to spread
over it.
33. So long also as one believes himself to
be composed of a corporeal
body, and incapable to mount in the higher
atmosphere, it is no way
possible to make him believe otherwise (that
he has an incorporeal
nature in his soul and mind).
34. But it is by virtue of one's knowledge
and discrimination, and by
his own merit and divine blessing, that he
acquires a saintly form
(nature); wherewith he ascends to the higher
region, as you have done
with this body of yours.
35. As dry leaves of trees are burnt in no
time by the burning fire, so
this corporeal body is quickly lost by one's
assumption of his spiritual
frame.
36. The effect of a blessing or curse, on any
one is no other than his
obtaining the state he desired or feared to
have. (Hence the boon of
Līlā has secured to her what she wished to
get).
37. As the false appearance of a snake in a
rope, is attended with no
motion or action of the serpent in it; so the
unreal views of Līlā's
husband and others, were but the motionless
imageries of her own
imagination.
38. Whoever views the false apparitions of
the dead as present before
the vision of his mind, he must know them as
reflections of his past and
constant remembrance of them.
39. So our notions of all these worlds are
mere products of our
reminiscence, and no creation of Brahmā or
any other cause; but simple
productions of our desire (which presents
these figures to the
imagination).
40. So they who are ignorant of the knowable
spirit of God, have only
the notions of the outer world in them; as
they view the distant orb of
the moon within themselves (in their minds).
CHAPTER LIV.
REFLECTIONS ON DEATH.
Argument. The lot of living beings and the
cause of their
death. The duration of human life as
determined by their acts
and enjoyments, and the merit of their
conduct in life time.
The goddess continued:—Those therefore who
know the knowable God, and
rely in virtue, can go to the spiritual
worlds and not others. (Knowable
means what ought to be and not what is or can
be known).
2. All material bodies which are but false
and erroneous conceptions of
the mind, can have no place in Truth (the
true spirit); as no shadow can
have any room in sunshine. (So gross matter
has no room in the subtile
spirit).
3. Līlā being ignorant of the knowable (God),
and unacquainted with the
highest virtue (the practice of Yoga), could
go no further than the city
of her lord which she had at heart.
4. The waking Līlā said:—Let her be where she
is (I inquire no more
about her); but will ask you of other things.
You see here my husband is
about to die, so tell me what must I do at
present.
5. Tell me the law of the being and not being
of beings, and what is
that destiny which destines the living beings
to death.
6. What is it that determined the natures of
things and gave existence
to the categories of objects. What is it that
has caused the warmth of
the fire and sun, and gave stability to the
earth?
7. Why is coldness confined to the frost and
the like, and what forms
the essence of time and space; what are the
causes of the different
states of things and their various changes,
and the causes of the
solidity of some and tenuity of others?
8. What is that which causes the tallness of
trees and men above the
grass and brambles; and why is it that many
things dwindle and decay in
the course and capability of growth?
9. The goddess said:—At the universal
dissolution of the world, when
all things are dissolved in the formless
void; there remains the only
essence of Brahma, in the form of the
infinite sky stretching beyond the
limits of creation on all sides.
10. It then reflects in its intellect in the
form of a spark of fire, as
you are conscious of your aerial journey in a
dream.
11. This atomic spark then increased in its
size in the divine spirit,
and having no substance of itself, appeared
what is commonly styled the
ideal world.
12. The spirit of God residing in it, thought
itself as Brahmā—the soul
of the world, who reigned over it in his form
of the mind, as if it was
identic with the real world itself. (The
world is a display of the
Divine Mind).
13. The primary laws that he has appointed to
all things at their first
creation, the same continue invariably in
force with them to the present
time (i. e. the primordial law or nature).
14. The minds of all turn in the same way as
it was willed by the divine
mind, and there is nothing which of itself
can go beyond the law which
the divine will has assigned to it.
15. It is improper to say that all formal
existences, are nothing,
because they remain in their substance (of
the divine spirit), after
disappearance of their forms; as the
substance of gold remains the same
after alteration of its shape and form.
16. The elementary bodies of fire and frost
still continue in the same
state, as their elements were first formed in
the Divine mind in the
beginning of creation.
17. Nothing therefore has the power to
forsake its own nature, as long
as the divine intellect continues to direct
his eternal laws and decrees
which are appointed to all.
18. It is impossible for any thing to alter
its nature now from the
eternal stamp, which Divine will has set upon
all the substantial and
ideal forms of creation.
19. As the Divine Intellect knows no
opposition in its way, it never
turns from the tenor of its own wonted
intelligence which directs the
destinies of all. (This is the real or
subjective, intellectual or
nominal view of evolution of all things from
the divine mind).
20. But know in the first place the world to
be no created thing. All
this that appears to exist, is but a display
of the notions in our
consciousness, like the appearances in our
dreams.
21. The unreal appears as real, as the shadow
seems to be the substance.
Our notions of things are the properties of
our nature (i. e. they
are
natural to us, as they are engrafted in it by
the eternal mind).
22. The manner in which the intellect
exhibited itself, in its different
manifestations, at the beginning, the same
continues in its course to
this time, and is known as the samvid-kachana or manifestations of
consciousness, which constitute the niyati—course or system of the
universe.
23. The sky is the manifestation of the
intellectual idea of vacuity in
the divine mind; and the idea of duration in
the intellect, appeared in
the form of the parts of time.
24. The idea of liquidity evolved itself in
the form of water in the
divine mind; in the same manner as one dreams
of water and seas in his
own mind. (So the air and earth are
manifestations of the ideas of
fluidity and solidity).
25. We are conscious of our dreams in some
particular state of our
intellect, and it is the wonderfully cunning
nature of the intellect,
that makes us think the unreal as real.
26. The ideas of the reality of earth, air,
fire and water are all
false; and the intellect perceives them
within itself, as its false
dreams and desires and reveries.
27. Now hear me tell you about death, for
removing your doubts with
regard to the future state; that death is
destined for our good, in as
much as it leads us to the enjoyment of the
fruits of acts in this life.
28. Our lives are destined in the beginning
to extend to one, two, three
and four centuries in the different Kali, Dwāpara,
Tretā and Satya ages
of the world. (Corresponding with the golden,
silver, brazen and iron
ages of the ancients).
29. It is however by virtue of place and
time, of climate and food, and
our good or bad actions and habits, that
human life extends above or
descends below these limits.
30. Falling short of one's duties lessens his
life, as his excelling in
them lengthens its duration; but the
mediocrity of his conduct keeps it
within its proper bound.
31. Boys die by acts causing infant diseases
and untimely deaths; so do
the young and old die of acts that bring on
juvenile and senile
weakness, sickness and ultimate death.
32. He who goes on doing his duties as
prescribed by law of the Sāstras,
becomes both prosperous and partaker of the
long life allotted by the
rule of the Sāstra.
33. So likewise do men meet their last state
and future reward,
according to the nature of their acts in
life-time; or else their old
age is subjected to regret and remorse, and
all kinds of bodily and
mental maladies and anxieties.
34. Līlā said:—Tell me in short, O moon-faced
goddess! something more
with regard to death; as to whether it is a
pleasure or pain to die, and
what becomes of us after we are dead and gone
from here. (Death is said
to be release from misery by some, and the
most grievous of all torments
by others. So Pope:—O, the pain, the bliss of
dying).
35. The goddess replied:—Dying men are of
three kinds, and have
different ends upon their death. These are
those who are ignorant, and
such as are practiced in yoga, and those that are reasonable and
religious.
36. Those practicing the dhāranā yoga, may go wherever they like after
leaving their bodies, and so the reasonable yogi is at liberty to
range everywhere. (It consists in mental
retention and bodily patience
and endurance).
37. He who has not practiced the dhāranā yoga, nor applied himself to
reasoning, nor has certain hopes of the
future, is called the ignorant
sot, and meets with the pain and pangs of
death.
38. He whose mind is unsubdued, and full of
desires and temporal cares
and anxieties, becomes as distressed as a
lotus torn from its stalk (i.
e. it is the subjection of inordinary passions, and
suppression of
inordinate desires and cares; which ensure
our true felicity).
39. The mind that is not guided by the
precepts of the Sāstras, nor
purified by holiness; but is addicted to the
society of the wicked, is
subjected to the burning sensation of fire
within itself at the moment
of death.
40. At the moment when the last gurgling of
the throat chokes the
breath, the eye-sight is dimmed and the
countenance fades away; then the
rational soul also becomes hazy in its
intellect.
41. A deep darkness spreads over the dimming
sight, and the stars
twinkle before it in day-light; the firmament
appears to be obscured by
clouds, and the sky presents its gloomy
aspect on every side.
42. An acute pain seizes the whole frame, and
a Fata Morgana dances
before the vision; the earth is turned to air
and the mid-air seems to
be the moving place of the dying person.
43. The sphere of heaven revolves before him,
and the tide of the sea
seems to bear him away. He is now lifted up
in the air, and now hurled
down as in his state of dizziness or dream.
44. Now he thinks as falling in a dark pit,
and then as lying in the
cavern of a hill; he wants to tell aloud his
torments, but his speech
fails him to give utterance to his thoughts.
45. He now finds himself as falling down from
the sky, and now as
whirled in the air like a bundle of straws
blown aloft in the air by a
gust of wind. He is now riding swiftly as in
a car, and now finds
himself melting as snow.
46. He desires to acquaint his friends of the
evils of life and this
world; but he is carried away from them as
rapidly as by an air-engine,
(like a stone shot by a ballista or an
aeronaut in a balloon).
47. He whirls about as by a rotatory machine
or turning wheel, and is
dragged along like a beast by its halter. He
wallows about as in an
eddy, or turns around as the machine of some
engine.
48. He is borne in the air as a straw, and is
carried about as a cloud
by the winds. He rises high like a vapour,
and then falls down like a
heavy watery cloud pouring out in the sea.
49. He passes through the endless space and
revolves in all its
vortiginous vacuities, to find as it were, a
place free from the
vicissitudes to which the earth and ocean are
subject (i. e., a
place
of peace and rest).
50. Thus the rising and falling spirit roves
without cessation, and the
soul breathing hard and sighing without
intermission, sets the whole
body in sore pain and agony.
51. By degrees the objects of his senses
become as faint to his failing
organs, as the landscape fades to view at the
setting of the sun. (The
world recedes; it disappears: Pope).
52. He loses the remembrance of the past and
present, upon the failing
of his memory at this moment; as one is at a
loss to know the sides of
the compass after the evening twilight has
passed away.
53. In his fit of fainting, his mind loses
its power of thinking; and he
is lost in a state of ignorance, at the loss
of all his thoughts and
sensibility. (So the lines:—It absorbs me
quite, steals my senses,
shuts my sight. Pope).
54. In the state of faintishness, the vital
breath ceases to circulate
through the body; and at the utter stoppage
of its circulation, there
ensues a collapse murch'ha or swooning.
55. When this state of apoplexy joined with
delirium, has reached its
climax, the body becomes as stiff as stone by
the law of inertia,
ordained for living beings from the
beginning.
56. Līlā said:—But tell me, O goddess, why do
these pains and agonies,
this fainting and delirium, and disease and
insensibility, overtake the
body, when it is possessed of all its eight
organs entire.
57. The goddess replied:—It is the law
appointed by the author of life
from the first, that such and such pains are
to fall to the lot of
living beings at such and such times. (Man's
primeval sin brought pain
and disease and death into the world).
58. The primeval sin springs of itself as a
plant in the conscious heart
of man, and subjects him to his doomed
miseries, which have no other
intelligible cause. (There is no other
assignable cause of death and
disease except the original guilt).
59. When the disease and its pain overpower
the body, and prevent the
lungs and arteries to expand and contract, in
order to inhale and exhale
the air, it loses its equipoise (samāna) and
becomes restless.
60. When the inhaled air does not come out,
nor the exhaled breath
re-enter the lungs, all pulsation is at a
stop; and the organic
sensations are lost in their remembrance
only. (As in the memory of
sleeping and dreaming men).
61. When there is no ingress nor egress of
the vital air, the pulse
sinks and becomes motionless, and the body is
said to become senseless,
and the life to be extinct.
62. I shall also die away in my destined
time, but my consciousness of
former knowledge will all be awake at the
hour of death (which proves
the immortality of the soul).
63. Though I am dead and gone from here in
this manner, yet I must mind,
that the seed of my innate consciousness (the
soul), is never destroyed
with my life and body.
64. Consciousness is inward knowledge and
imperishable in its nature;
therefore the nature of consciousness is free
from birth and death. (The
body is subject to birth and death, but not
the soul).
65. This consciousness is as clear as a fresh
fountain in some persons,
and as foul as tide water in others; it is
bright in its form of the
pure intellect—chit in some, and polluted with the passions of animal
life, in its nature of the sentient or living
soul—chetana in many.
66. As a blade of grass is composed of joints
in the midst, so is the
even nature of the sentient or living soul;
which is combined with the
two states of birth and death amidst it.
67. The sentient soul is neither born nor
dead at any time; but
witnesses these two states as the passing
shadows and apparitions in a
dream and vision.
68. The soul is no other than the intellect,
which is never destroyed
anywhere by any. Say, what other thing is
this soul, which is called the
Purusha beside the intellect itself. Gloss. It is not the body,
nor
the vital breath, nor perceptions nor mind;
it is not the understanding
nor egoism, nor the heart nor illusion, all
of which are inactive of
themselves.
69. Say then whom and what you call to be
dead today, and whether the
intellect is liable to disease or demise at
any time and in any wise.
Millions of living bodies are verily dying
every day, but the intellect
ever remains imperishable.
70. The intellect never dies at the death of
any living being; because
all the living soul continues the same upon
the demise of every body
here.
71. The living soul therefore, is no more
than the principle which is
conscious of its various desires, affections
and passions. It is not
that principle to which the phases of life
and death are attributed by
men.
72. So there is none that dies, nor any one
that is born at any time; it
is this living principle only that
continually revolves in the deep eddy
of its desires.
73. Considering the unreality of the visible
phenomena, there can be no
desire for them in any body; but the inward
soul that is led by its
egoism to believe them as true, is subject to
death at the
dis-appearance of the phenomena.
74. The recluse ascetic flying from the fears
of the world as foreign to
his soul; and having none of its false
desires rising in his breast,
becomes liberated in his life and assimilated
with the true ONE.
CHAPTER LV.
THE STATES OF LIFE AND DEATH.
Līlā said:—Tell me, goddess! for edification
of my knowledge, the
manner in which a living being comes to die
and to be re-born in another
form.
2. The goddess replied:—As the action of the
heart ceases to act, and
the lungs blow and breathe no more, the current
of the vital airs is
utterly stopped, and the living being loses
its sensibility.
3. But the intellectual soul which has no
rise nor fall, remains ever
the same as it abides in all moving and
unmoving bodies, and in air,
water, fire and vacuum. Gloss. So saith the
Sruti:—The soul is
unlimited, permanent and imperishable.
4. When the hindrance of breathing, stops the
pulsation, and motion of
the body, it is said to be dead; and is then
called an inert corpse (but
not so the soul).
5. The body being a dead carcase, and the
breathing mixing with the air,
the soul is freed from the bonds of its
desires, and flies to and
remains in the mode of the discrete and
self-existent soul. Gloss. The
Sruti says:—"His elemental parts mix
with the elements, and his soul
with the Supreme." The unconditioned—nirupadhika spirit, joins with
the Holy spirit; but not so the conditioned
(upādhika) soul of the
unholy.
6. The soul having its desires and styled the
animal spirit—Jīva, is
otherwise than the ātman—soul. It remains in its sepulchral vault
under the same atmosphere as the soul of
Padma, which thou sawst
hovering about his tomb. Gloss. The desire
binds down the spirit to its
own sphere. (The Ghost hovering about the
charnel vault. Milton).
7. Hence such departed spirits are called pretas or ghosts of the
dead, which have their desires and earthly
propensities attached to
them; as the fragrance of the flower is
concentrated in its pollen, and
thence diffused through the air.
8. As the animal souls are removed to other
spheres, after their
departure from this visible world, they view
the very many scenes and
sights; that their desires present before
them like visions in a dream.
9. The soul continues to remember all its
past adventures, even in its
next state, and finds itself in a new body,
soon after the insensibility
of death is over. Gloss. This is the linga or sūkshma deha—the
spiritual or subtile body of spiritualism.
10. What appears an empty vacuum to others,
seems as a dusky cloud to
the departed soul, enveloping the earth, sky,
moon and all other orbs
within its bosom:—(the circumambient
atmosphere).
11. The departed spirits are classed in six
orders, as you shall now
hear from me; namely, the great, greater and
greatest sinners, and so
likewise the three degrees of the virtuous.
12. These are again subdivided into three
kinds, as some belonging to
one state, and others composed of two or
three states (i. e. of
virtue
and vice intermixed) in the same individual
soul.
13. Some of the most sinful souls, lose the
remembrance of their past
states for the period of a whole year; and
remain quite insensible
within themselves, like blocks of wood or
stone. (This is called the
pretārasthā continuing for a whole year after death). (It
is allied to
Abraham's bosom or Irack of Mahometans).
14. Rising after this time, they are doomed
to suffer the endless
torments of hell; which the hardness of their
earthly mindedness has
brought upon them. (This is the Purgatory of
Christians).
15. They then pass into hundreds of births,
leading from misery to
misery, or have a moment's respite; from the
pains in their short lived
prosperity, amidst their dreaming journey
through life. (These
transmigrations of the soul, are the
consequences of its evil
propensities).
16. There are others, that after their torpor
of death is over, come to
suffer the unutterable torments of torpidity,
in the state of unmoving
trees (which are fixed to undergo all the inclemencies
of weather).
17. And others again that having undergone
the torments of hell,
according to their inordinate desires in
life, are brought to be re-born
on earth, in a variety of births in different
forms.
18. Those of lesser crimes, are made to feel
the inertness of stones for
sometime, after the insensibility attending
upon their death. (This
means either the insensibility of dead
bodies, or that of mineral
substances.)
19. These being awakened to sensibility after
some period, either of
duration long or short (according to their
desert); are made to return
on earth, to feel the evils of brutish and
beastly lives.
20. But the souls of the least sinful, come
to assume soon after their
death, some perfect human form, in order to
enjoy the fruits of their
desire and desert on earth.
21. These desires appear before the soul as
dreams, and awaken its
reminiscence of the past, as present at that
moment.
22. Again the best and most virtuous souls,
come soon after their death,
to find themselves in heavenly abodes, by
reason of their continued
thoughts and speculations of them.
23. Some amongst them, are brought to enjoy
the rewards of their actions
in other spheres, from which they are sent
back to the mortal world, at
the residences of the auspicious and best
part of mankind.
24. Those of moderate virtues are blown away
by the atmospheric air,
upon the tops of trees and medicinal plants,
where they rove about as
the protozoa, after the insensibility of
death is over.
25. Being nourished here by the juice of
fruits, they descend in the
form of serum and enter into the hearts of
men, whence they fall into
the uterus in the form of semen virilis, which is the cause of the
body and life of other living beings.
The gloss says:—Having enjoyed in the next
world the good fruits of
their virtuous deeds, they are blown down on
earth by the winds and
rain. Here they enter in the form of sap and
marrow in the vegetable
productions of corn, grain and fruits; and
these entering the body of
animals in the form of food, produce the
semen, which becomes the cause
of the lives and bodies of all living beings.
26. Thus the dead, figure to themselves some
one of these states of
living bodies, according to their respective
proclivity, after they
recover from the collapse attending upon
their death.
27. Having thought themselves to be extinct
at first, they come to feel
their resuscitation afterwards, upon
receiving the offering of the mess,
made to their departed spirits (by their
surviving heirs).
28. Then they fancy they see the messengers
of death, with nooses in
their hands, come to fetch them to the realm
of Yama; where they
depart with them (with their provision for
one year offered in their
Srādh ceremony).
29. There the righteous are carried in
heavenly cars to the gardens of
Paradise, which they gain by their
meritorious acts in life.
30. But the sinful soul, meets with icebergs
and pitfalls, tangled with
thorns and iron pikes, and bushes and
brambles in its passage, as the
punishment of its sins.
31. Those of the middling class, have a clear
and paved passage, with
soft grassy path-ways shaded by cooling
arbours, and supplied with
spring waters on both sides of them.
32. On its arrival there, the soul reflects
within itself that: "here am
I, and yonder is Yama—the lord of the dead. The other is the judge of
our actions—Chitragupta, and this is his
judgement given on my behalf."
33. In this manner the great world also,
appears to every one as in a
dream; and so the nature and manner of all
things, present themselves
before every soul.
34. But all these appearances are as void as
air; the soul alone is the
sentient principle, and the spacious space
and time, and the modes and
motions of things, though they appear as
real, are nothing in reality.
35. Here (in Yama's court), the soul is pronounced to reap the reward
of its acts, whereby it ascends either to the
blissful heaven above, or
descends to the painful hell below.
36. After having enjoyed the bliss of heaven,
or suffered the torment of
hell, it is doomed to wander in this earth
again, to reap the reward of
its acts in repeated transmigrations.
37. The soul springs up as a paddy plant, and
brings forth the grains of
intelligence; and then being assembled by the
senses, it becomes an
animal, and lastly an intelligent being.
I. e. The insensible vegetable, entering into
the animal body in the
form of food, is converted to a sensible but
irrational soul; but
entering as food in the body of man, it turns
to a rational and human
soul. The one Universal soul is thus
diversified in different beings.
(It is the plant and food that sustains and
nourishes all souls. Gloss).
38. The soul contains in itself the germs of
all its senses, which lie
dormant in it for want of its bodily organs.
It is contained in the
semen virilis of man, which passing into the
uterus, produces the foetus
in the womb of the female.
39. The foetus then becomes either
well-formed or deformed, according to
the good or evil deeds of the person in its
past state; and brings forth
the infant of a goodly or ill shapen appearance.
40. It then perceives the moonlike beauty of
youthful bloom, and its
amorous disposition coming upon itself; and
feels afterwards the effects
of hoary old age, defacing its lotus-like
face, as the sleets of snow,
shatter and shrivel the lotus leaflets.
41. At last it undergoes the pains of disease
and death, and feels the
same insensibility of Euthanasia as before,
and finds again as in a
dream its taking of a new form.
42. It again believes itself to be carried to
the region of Pluto, and
subjected to the former kinds of revolution;
and thus it continues to
conceive its transmigration, in endless
births and various forms.
43. Thus the aerial spirit goes on thinking,
for ever in its own
etherial sphere, all its ceaseless
metempsychosis, until its final
liberation from this changeful state.
44. Līlā said:—Tell me kindly, O good
goddess! for the enlightenment of
my understanding, how this misconception of
its changeableness, first
came upon the soul in the beginning.
45. The goddess replied:—It is the gross view
of the abstract, that
causes us to assume the discrete spirit, in
the concrete forms of the
earth and sky and rocks and trees (all of
which subsist in the spirit,
and are unsubstantial in themselves).
46. As the divine intellect manifests itself,
as the soul and model of
all forms; so we see these manifestations, in
the transcendental sphere
of its pure intelligence.
47. In the beginning, God conceived himself
as the lord of creation
(Brahmā); and then as it were in a dream, he
saw in himself, all the
forms as they continue to this time.
48. These forms were manifested in the divine
spirit, at first as his
will; and then exhibited in the phenomenal
world, as reflexions of the
same, in all their present forms.
49. Among these some are called living
beings, which have the motions of
their bodies and limbs; and live by means of
the air which they breathe,
and which circulate in their bodies through
the lungs and arteries.
50. Such also is the state of the vegetable
creation from the first,
that they having their inward sensitiveness,
are notwithstanding devoid
of outward motion, and receive their
sustenance by the roots; wherefore
they are called Pādapas or pedobibers.
51. The hollow sphere of the divine
intellect, beaming with
intelligence, sends forth its particles of
percipience, which form the
consciousness of some beings, and
sensitiveness in others.
52. But man uses his eyes to view the outer and
the reflected world (in
disregard of his consciousness of the real);
although the eyes do not
form his living soul, nor did they exist at
his creation and before his
birth. (When his view was concentrated within
himself as in his sleeping
visions).
53. It is according to one's estimation of
himself, that he has his
proper and peculiar desires, and the
particular form of his body also.
Such is the case of the elementary bodies
likewise, from their inward
conception of their peculiar natures.
Gloss:—So the ideas of vacuity, fluidity and
solidity forming the
bodies of air, water and earth; and the form
of every thing agreeing
with its inherent nature.
54. Thus all moving and unmoving things, have
their movable and
immovable bodies, according to their intrinsic
disposition or
idiosyncrasy as such and such.
55. Hence all self-moving beings have their
movable bodies, conforming
with the conception of their natures as so
and so; and in this state of
their belief, they continue to this time,
with their same inborn or
congenital bodies.
56. The vegetable world still continues in
the same state of fixedness,
from its sense of immobility; and so the
rocks and minerals continue in
their inert state, from the inborn sense of
their inertness.
57. There is no distinction whatever between
inertness and intelligence,
nor any difference betwixt production,
continuance and extinction of
things; all which occur in one common essence
of the supreme.
58. The varying idiosyncrasy subsisting in
vegetables and minerals,
makes them feel themselves as such, and
causes their various natures and
forms, as they have to this time.
59. The inward constitution of all immovable
objects, makes them remain
in their stationary states; and so of all
other substances, according to
their different names and natures.
60. Thus the inward crasis or quality of
worms and insects, makes them
conceive themselves according to their
different kinds, and gives them
their particular natures for ever.
61. So the people under the north pole know
nothing, about those in the
south, except that they have the knowledge of
themselves only (as ever
subject to the intense cold of the frigid
zone).
62. So also all kinds of moving and unmoving
beings, are prepossessed
with their own notions of things, and regard
all others according to the
peculiar nature of themselves. (Atma vat
&c.).
63. Again as the inhabitants of caves, know
nothing of their outsiders;
and as the frogs of dirty pools are
unacquainted with pure water of
streams; so is one sort of being ignorant of
the nature of another.
64. But the inane intellect, residing in the
form of the all pervasive
mind, and all sustaining air; knows the
natures of all things in all
places.
65. The vital air, that enters all bodies
through the pores of their
bodies, is the moving principle, that gives
life and motion to all
living beings.
66. Verily the mind is situated in all
things, whether they are moving
or immovable; and so is the air, which causes
the motion in some, and
quiescence in others.
67. Thus are all things but rays of the
conscious soul, in this world of
illusion, and continue in the same state, as
they have been from the
beginning.
68. I have told you all, about the nature of
things in the world, and
how un-realities come to appear as real unto
us.
69. Lo here this king Vidūratha is about to
breathe his last, and the
garlands of flowers heaped on the corpse of
thy husband Padma, are now
being hung upon the breast of Vidūratha.
70. Līlā said:—Tell me goddess! by what way
he entered the tomb of
Padma, and how we may also go there to see
what he has been doing in
that place.
71. The goddess said:—Man goes to all places
by the way of his desires,
and thinks also he goes to the distant
future, in the spiritual form of
pure intellect.
72. We shall go by the same way (aerial or
spiritual), as you will like
to take; because the bond of our friendship
will make no difference in
our choice and desires.
73. Vasishtha said:—The princess Līlā being
relieved of her pain, by
the recital of this agreeable narration; and
her intellectual sight
being brightened, by the blazing sun of
spiritual light; beheld the
insensible and unmoving Vidūratha, breathe
out his last expiring breath.
Om Tat Sat
(Continued...)
( My
humble salutations to Brahmasri Sreemaan Vihari Lala Mitra ji for the
collection)
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