The
Yoga Vasishtha
Maharamayana
of Valmiki
The only complete English translation is
by Vihari Lala Mitra (1891).
CHAPTER CLXXXIX.
ON THE UNITY OF THE DIVINE SPIRIT.
Argument:--Unity of the impersonal and personal spirit
treated[**=print];
and the materiality of the living soul
refuted.[**Formatting: suggest that
'treated' is not italicized]
Vasishtha continued:--This spiritual body (or the
personal spirit),
as that of Brahma-[**--]the primeval creator of
all; being possessed of its volition, comes as by an act
of chance
and of its own motion, to think and brood on its
thoughts;
(which it had derived from the eternal spirit of Brahma).
2. It continues to remain in the same state, as it is
ever
conscious of in itself; and sees of its own nature, this
universe
exposed before it as it had in his mind, nor is there
and[** any] wonder
in this.
3. Now this viewer-[**--]Brahma, and his viewing and the
view
of the world, must either all be false (as there is no
duality in
nature); or they must all be true, having the spirit of
Brahma
at the bottom.
4. Ráma rejoined:--Now sir, please to tell me, how this
spiritual and shadowy sight of the primeval Lord of
creation,
could be realized in its solidified state, and [**[what]]
reality can there be
in the vision of a dream.
5. Vasishtha replied:--The spiritual view is ever
apparent
by itself within ourselves; and our continuous and
ceaseless
sight of it, gives it the appearance of a solid reality.
6. As the visionary sights of our dreams, come to be
realized
in times, by our continuous pouring upon them; so doth
the spiritual appear as real, by our constant habit of
thinking
them as such. (So it is recorded in the case of King
Harischandra
of old).
7. The constant thought of the reality of our spiritual
body,
makes [**[it]] appear as a real object to our sight; as
the constant
craving of deer after water, makes it appear in the
mirage of
the parched desert before them.
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8. So the vision of this world, has like every other
fallacy,
misled us like the poor and parching deer, to the
misconception
of water in the mirage; and [**[so]] does this and all
other unrealities
appear as real ones in our ignorance.
9. Many spiritual and intellectual objects, like a great
many
unreal things, are taken for the material and real, by
the avidity
of their desires and ignorant admirers.
10. The impression that I am this, and that one is
another,
and that this is mine and that is his; and that these are
the
hills and skies about us; are all as erroneous as the
conception
of reality in our dreams and false phantoms of the brain.
11. The spiritual body which was at first conceived, by
the
prime creator of all-[**--]Brahma, assumed a material
form as that
of a globe under his sight. (Meaning the Mundane egg).
12. The living soul of Brahma, being born of the mundane
egg in a corporeal body; forgot or rather forsook to
think of
its incorporeal intellectuality, and thought himself as
composed
of his present material body only. He looked into it and
thought, that this was his body and the recipient of his
soul: [**
incomplete?--P2: delete ':']
(instead of the souls being the fountain of the body).
13. Then it becomes confined in that body, by its belief
of
the unreality as a sober reality; and then it thinks of
many
things within itself, and goes on seeking and running
after
them all. (But the steady soul is sedate, and has all
within
itself, without seeking them elsewhere without).
14. This God then makes many symbolical sounds and
forms (invents) words for names and actions; and
atlast[**space added]
upon
his utterance of the mystic syllable Om (or on)[**moved
'('] the Vedas
rang
out and sang in currents of verbiage.
15. Then through the medium of those sacred words, the
god
ordained the ordinances for the conduct of all mankind;
and
everything[**=print] turned to be, as he wished and
thought it to be in
his own mind. (Hence Brahmá is said [**[to be]] the creative
mind of
god).[*]
* Note. The sacred sanskrit[**Sanskrit] was at once a
perfect language,
without
any knowledge of us regarding its formative stage, though
a balabhásá or
infant-language is said to have existed before, of which
we have no relic
nor know anything.
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16. Whatever exists in any manner, the same is the self
same
Brahmá itself; and yet no body perceives it as such,
owing
to the predominant error of all, of believing the unreal
world
as a real existence.
17[**.] All the things from the great Brahmá down to all,
are
but false appearances as those of dreams and magical
show;
and yet the spiritual reality is utterly lost to sight,
under the
garb of material unreality (i. e. The unreal matter is
taken for
real spirit).
18. There is nothing as materiality any where and at any
time; it is the spiritual only which by our habitual mode
of
thinking and naming, is said to be substantial, elemental
and
material.
19. This our fallacy of materiality, has come to us from
our very source in Brahmá-[**--]the creator; who
entertained the
false idea of the material world, and transmitted this
error
even into the minds of the wise and very great souls.
20. How is it possible, O Ráma, for the intelligent soul,
to
be thus confined in a clod of earth, all this must either
be an
illusory scence[**scene], or a representation of Brahma
himself.
21. There can be no other cause of this world, except
the eternal causality of Brahma; who is self-existent,
only
without any action or causation of himself; thus the
Supreme
soul being wholly devoid of the attributes of cause and
effect,
what can this world be, but an extension of the Divine
essence.
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[** png 470-482 compared to print]
CHAPTER CLXXXX.
ECSTASIS OR INERTNESS OF RÁMA.
Argument:--Description of liberation, as heedlessness of
the past and
future, ignorance of the knowables, and thoughtlessness
about the
thinkables.
Vasishtha continued:--Gaining the knowledge of knowables,
is called our bondage in this world; but it is our
release from the bonds of knowable objects, that is
termed
our liberation from it.
2. Ráma rejoined:--But how can it be possible, sir, to
get
our escape from the knowledge of the knowables, and how
can
our rooted knowledge of things, and our habitual sense of
bounden
to them, be removed from us.
3. Vasishtha replied:--It is the perfection of our
knowledge,
and feeling of it as such, that removes our misjudgment;
and
then we get our liberation from error, after
disappearance of
our inborn bias.
4. Ráma rejoined:--Tell me sir, what is that simply
uniform
feeling, and what is called that complete and perfect
knowledge
said to be, which releases the living soul entirely, from
its
fetters of error.
5. Vasishtha replied:--The soul is full with its
subjective
knowledge of intuition, and has no need of the objective
knowledge of the knowables from without; and perfect
knowledge
is our inward sense of the same, and not expressible in
words.
6. Ráma rejoined:--Tell me sir, whether the knowableness
of knowledge, that is whether the internal knowledge of
the
knowing soul, is the same or separate from itself; and
whether
the word jnána or knowledge, is taken in its instrumental
or
abstract sense. (i. e. whether it is used to mean the
power
by means of which we derive our knowledge, or the so
derived
knowledge itself).
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7. Vasishtha replied:--All perception is knowledge, and
this term is denotative of its causality also (as we say,
my
knowledge is my guide, i. e. the instrumentality of my
guidance).
Hence there is no difference between knowledge and the
known or the knowable, as there is none between the air
and
its ventilation.
8. Ráma rejoined:--If it be so (that there is no
difference
between them); then tell me, whence arises the error of
difference
in our conception of them; the conception of the
materiality
of the perceptible or objective world, must be as
erroneous
as that of the horns of a hare, which had never been in
esse,
nor are likely to be at any time in future.
9. Vasishtha replied:--The error of the reality of
external
objects, gives rise to the error of the reality to our
knowledge
of them also; but there is no inward object of thought,
nor
of the outward senses, has ever any reality in it.
10. Ráma rejoined:--Tell me, O sage, how can you deny
the existence of those objects, which are evident to the
senses
of mine, thine and all others alike; and which are ever
present
in their thoughts in the minds of sensible beings.
11. Vasishtha replied:--It was at the time of the first
creation
of the world, that the self manifested God Viráj,
exhibited
the outline of the cosmos in a corner of his all-comprehensive
mind; But[**but] as nothing was produced in reality,
there is no
possibility of our knowing any as a knowable or real
entity.
12. Ráma rejoined:--How can our common sight, of the
present, past and future prospects of this world; and our
daily
perception of things, which are felt by all in general,
be regarded
as nothing by your teaching. (Common sense can not be
controverted by abstruse philosphy[**philosophy]).
13. Vasishtha replied:--just[**Just] as the dreamer's
vision in sleep,
the deer's mistake of water in the mirage in sand, the
illusory
sight of a moon in the sky, and the prospects of our
delusive
fancies, do all disappear on right observation; so the
false perceptions
of worldly things, and the mistaken conceptions of our
own entities, are as erroneous as the sights of the false
lights in
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the empty air. (These dissolve as dreams upon waking, and
the
testimony of one waking man, is enough to disperse the
deceptive
sights of all dreamers and sleepers).
14. Ráma rejoined:--If our knowledge of I and thou and
of this and that, is as false as that of all other things
in the
womb of the world; why then were these brought into
existence,
not left to remain in their ideas in the mind of their
creator, as they had existed before his creation of them.
15. Vasishtha replied:--It is certain that everything
springs
from its cause, and not otherwise; what then could there
be
the (material) cause, for the creation of the world therefrom,
after the dissolution of everything at the universal
destruction?
16. Ráma replied:--Why sir, cannot that being be the
cause of recreation, which remains undestroyed and
indestructible,
after destruction of the prior creation?
17. Vasishtha replied:--Whatever substance there abides
in the cause, the same is evolved in effect also; hence
the
essence of Brahma being composed of his intellect only,
it could
not give rise to the material world from itself; as the
substance
of a pot, cannot produce that of a picture or cloth.
18. Ráma replied:--Why sir, the world existed in its
subtile
(or ideal) state, in the person (mind) of Brahma (god);
from which it issued forth anew and again, after
dissolution of
the former creation.
19. Vasishtha said:--Tell me, O
intelligence[**intelligent] Ráma, how
could the lord god[**Lord God] (whose nature is composed
of pure
intelligence),
could[**delete could] conceive the entity or quintessence
of the world
in himself, and which like the productive seed, sprang
out in
the form of the future creation. Say what sort of entity
was it.
20. Ráma replied:--It is an entity of Divine
intelligence,
and is situated in the subjective soul of god[**God] in
that form. It is
neither a vacuous nullity, nor an unreal entity.
21. Vasishtha said:--If it be so, O mighty armed Ráma,
that the three worlds are Divine intelligence only; then
tell
me why bodies formed of pure intelligence (as those of
the
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gods and angels), and those having the intelligent soul
in them
(as those of human beings), are subject to their birth
and death.[*]
22. Ráma said:--If then there has been no creation at all
at any time from the beginning; then tell me sir, whence
has
this fallacy of the existence of the world come to be in
vogue.
23. Vasishtha replied:--The inexistence of cause and
effect,
proves the nullity of being and not being; (i. e. its
annihilation
also); all this that is thought of to exist, is the
thought and
thinking of the divine soul, which is the triputi or
triple entity
of thinker, thinking and the thought together. (i. e. The
soul
is both the subjective and objective, as also their
connecting
predicate by itself).
24. Ráma rejoined:--The thinking soul thinks about the
implements and the acts, as the looker looks on the
objects of his
sight; but how can the divine looker be the dull
spectacle (and
the object the same with the subject); unless you
maintain that
the objective fuel burns the subjective fire (which is
impossible).
25. Vasishtha replied:--The viewer is not transformed to
the view, owing to impossibility of the existence of an
objective
view; it is the all seeing soul, that shows itself as one
solid
plenum in itself.
26. Ráma rejoined:--The soul is the pure intellect only,
and is without its beginning and end; it thinks only on
its
eternal and formless thoughts; how then can it present
the
form and appearance of the visible world.[*]
27. Vasishtha replied:--The thinkables being all
causeless
of themselves, have none of them any cause whatsoever;
and it
is the privation of the thinkables, that bespeaks the
liberation of
the intellect. (The production of the thinkables, is as
impossible
as the birth of the offspring of a Barren[**barren]
woman. gloss).
* Note. If the world be a form of Divine knowledge, and
subsistent in
and subjective to the eternal mind of god[**God]; it can
then be neither
created nor
destroyed at any time; but since it is subject to
creation and destruction,
it can be a part of Divine knowledge. Nor is it an object
for want of any
cause of its creation. Therefore it is a mere nullity.
* Note.--If the thinkables are the produce of their first
creation, then
it remains to be said, whence (i.e. from what materials
they were formed).
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28. Ráma rejoined:--If it is so, then say how and whence
have we the thought of our conception of ourselves; and
our
knowledge of the world, and our sense of motion and the
like;
(as they are suggested to us by our common sense, and the
universal testimony of all people).
29. Vasishtha replied--The impossibity[**impossibility]
of cause,
precludes
the possibility of any production; how and whence could
the
thinkables proceed, when all is quite calm and quiet
everywhere,
and the knowledge of creation is but an error and a
delusion.
30. Ráma rejoined:--Here tell we[**me] sir, how this
error comes
to overshadow the unknowable, unthinkable and the
immovable
being, that is selfmanifest and ever untainted and clear
by itself (Swaprakása or Swayamprokasa[**Swayamprakása]).
31. Vasishtha replied:--there is no error or mistake
herein,
owing to its want of any causation also; our knowledge of
egoism
and tuism, is drowned altogether in that of one
unevanescent
Unity.
32. Ráma replied:--Ovenerable[**O venerable] sir, I am so
bewildered in
the error of my consciousness, that I know not what other
question I am here to make; I am not so enlightened as
the
learned, to argue any more on this point.
33. Vasishtha replied:--Do not desist, O Ráma, from
making
your inquiries concerning the causality of Brahma; until
you
are satisfied with the proof of his causelessness, as
they test the
purity of gold on the stone; and then by knowing this,
you will
be able to repose yourself, in the blissful state of the
supremely
Blest.
34. Ráma rejoined:--I grant sir, as you say, that there
is
no creation for want of its cause, but tell me now whence
is
this my error of the thinkable and its thought, (so
rooted in me
that I can not get rid of it).
35. Vasishtha replied:--There is no error in the belief
of
the uncaused creation, and in its perfect calmness; but
it is for
want of your habit of thinking it so; (and your bias of
the reality
of the world), that really makes you so restless.
36. Ráma rejoined:--Tell me sir, whence rise this
haibt[**habit] as
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well as the desuetude of this mode of our thinking; and
how
does our rest proceed from the one, and our disquiet from
the
other mode of thought.
37. Vasishtha replied:--Belief in the eternal God, breed
no error in that of the eternity of the world; it is the
habit of
thinking it otherwise, that creates the error of
creation. Be
you therefore as sound in your mind, as the solid minded
sages
have been.
38. Ràma[**Ráma] refoined[**rejoined]:--Please to tell me
sir, in your
preaching
of these lectures to your audience, what other mode of
practice
their[**there] may be, in our attainment of a quietude
like that of
the living liberated sages.
39. Vasishtha replied:--The lesson that we preach, is to
know one's self as Brahma and resting in the spirit of
Brahma;
and this knowledge is sure to release the soul, both from
its
longing for liberation, as also from its dread of bondage
in this
world.
40. Ráma rejoined:--This doctrine of yours, by its all
negative
distinctions of our knowledge of time and space, and
of our actions and thing, serves to drive away our
consciousness
of all existence whatsoever from the mind.
41. Vasishtha replied:--Yes, because all our objective
knowledge,
of the distinctions of time and place and of actions and
things in our minds; is the effect of our ignorance of
the subjectivity
of the soul, beside which there is no other
substance-[**--]before
the liberated spirit.
42. Ráma rejoined:--The absence of our knowledge of an
intelligent agent, and also of an intelligible object;
deprives
us altogether of any intelligence at all; the
impossibility of the
union of the unity and duality together, must preserve
our
distinct knowledge of the knowing principle and the known
or
knowable object. (The transitive verb to know must have
an
object, and cannot like a neuter or intransitive verb, be
confined
to or reflect[**inverted t!] upon its agent. gloss).
43. Vasishtha replied:--It is by your act of knowing of
God, that you have or get your knowledge of Him;
therefore
the word is taken in its active sense by you and others
(Who
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have to know a thing before it is known to them). But
with
us (or sages like ourselves), who are possest of our
intuitive
knowledge of ourselves as the deity, it is but a
selfreflexive-verb.
(Gloss. Budhi[**Buddhi] with the ignorant, means knowing;
but
with the sapient, it means feeling).
44. Ráma rejoined:--But how do you feel your finite
selves
or egoism, and your limited knowledge, as same with the
infinite
soul and omniscience of the deity; unless it were to
ascribe
your imperfections to the transcendental divinity, who is
purer
than the purest water, and rarer than the
rarified[**rarefied] ether.
45. Vasishtha replied:--It is the feeling of the
perfections
of the divine soul in ourselves, that we call our egoism;
and not
the ascription of our imperfect personalities unto him.
And
here the duality of the living and divine souls, bears
resemblance
to the unity of the ventilating breeze with the universal
and unfluctuating air. [Sanskrit: jívabrakshaniraikaram]
46. As the waves of the ocean, have been continually
rising
and subsiding in it; so the objective thoughts of one's
egoism
and the world besides, must be always rising and falling
in the
subjective soul of the supreme being, as well as
self-liberated
persons; (Hence the subjective and objective cannot be
the one
and same thing).
47. Vasishtha replied:--If so it be, then say what is the
fault, that is so much reprehended in the popular belief
of a
duality; and in disregarding the creed of the Unity,
which is
eternal and infinite, full and perfect in itself, quite
calm and
quiet in its nature, and is termed the transcendent One.
48. Ráma rejoined:--If it be so, (that the living soul,
is as
the breeze or breath of the calm air of Brahma and same
with
it), then tell me sir, who and what power is it, which
conceives
the ego, tu and others, which feels and enjoys all as
their agent,
if the fundamental fallacy of the world be the root of
all.
(The whole being false, there is nothing as one or an
other or
as bondage or liberation).
49. Vasishtha replied:--The knowledge of the reality of
the objective or knowable things, is the cause of our
bondage
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(in this world); true knowledge does not recognise their
reality,
and full intelligence which assumes the forms of (and
shows)
all things in itself, sees no difference of bondage or
liberation
before it. (All things are alike in the full light of
intelligence).
50. Ráma rejoined:--Intelligence like light, does not
show
us all things in the same light; it shows us the difference
between
a pot and a picture, as light shows the white and black
to
view. Again as the light of our eye sight shows us the
different
forms of outward objects, so does our intelligence
confirm
and attest the reality of our visual perceptions.
51. Vasishtha replied:--All outward objects having no
cause of their creation, nor any source of their
production, are as
incredible as the offspring of a barren woman; and the
appearance
of their reality which is presented to our sight, is as
false as that of silver in a conchshell or in the
glittering sands,
and not otherwise. (The phenomenal is a mirage, and
deception[**=print]
of sight).
52. Ráma rejoined:--The sight of the miserable world,
whether
it be true or false, is like the startling apparition in
a
dream, and attainded[**attended] with pain only for the
time; tell me
therefore the best means, how to avoid and get rid of
this error.
53. Vasishtha replied:--The world being never the better
than a dream, it is the reflection of the idea of its
reality, that
is the best method of getting rid of the snare of its
tempting
joys and sorrows.
54. Ráma rejoined:--But how to effect this object, which
may redound to our bliss and rest; say how to put an end
to
the sight of the world, which shows the sights of falsities
as
realities, in the continuous train of its deluding
dreams.
55. Vasishtha replied:--It is the due consideration of
the
antecedent and subsequent states of things, which must
remove
the erroneous impression of their reality; just as the
conception
of the substantiality of sights seen in our dreams, is
eliminated
upon reflection of their subsequent disappearance; (and
bearing[**=print] no trace of former forms behind).
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56. Ráma rejoined:--But how do the rising apparitions of
the world, disappear in the depth of our minds, and what
do we
then come to perceive, after the vestiges of our gross
remembrances
have faded away. (The mind is never vacant of its
thoughts of visible objects).
57. Vasishtha responded:--After the false appearance of
the world, has vanished like the faded sight of a city
from view;
the unconcerned mind of the unconcerned soul, looks upon
it
as a painting, wholly washed out by the rain (i. e. as a
clear
blank or vacuity).
58. Ráma asked:--What then becomes of the man, after
subsidence of the worldly sights and desires from his
mind;
like the gross looking objects of a dream; and after the
mind
rests in its state of listless indifference.
59. Vasishtha replied:--Then the world recedes from his
sight, and then this predilection of it, and his desire
for its
enjoyment depart and die away along with it.
60. Ráma rejoined:--How can this blind and deep rooted
predilection, which has accompanied the soul from many
previous
births, and branched out into multifarious desires,
resign
its hold of the human heart all at once?
61. Vasishtha replied:--As the knowledge of truth, serves
to disperse the rooted error of the material world from
the
mind, so the sense of the vanity of human desires, and of
the
bitterness of their enjoyment, dissipate their seeds at
once from
the heart: (where they can take root no more).
62. Ráma rejoined:--After dissipation of the error of
materiality, of the visible spheres of worlds; say, O
sage, what
is that state of the mind which follows it, and how
[**add: is] its peace
and tranquility at last.
63. Vasishtha replied:--After dissipation of the error of
the
material world, the mind reverts to its seat in the
immaterial
soul; where it is released from all its earthly bonds,
and finds
its rests in the state of an indifferent
insouciance-[**--]Vairagya.
64. Ráma rejoined:--Tell me sir, if the error of the
world
is as little, as that of a child's idea of sorrow, then
what trouble
there is for a man to remedy it?
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65. Vasishtha replied:--All our desires, like the fond
wishes
of boys, being wholly extinct in the mind, there remains
no
more any cause of any sorrow in it; and this you may well
know from the association of desires in all minds.
66. Ráma rejoined:--Tell me sir, what is the mind, and
how are we to know its nature and workings; and what good
do
we derive, by our best investigation of the mental powers
and
properties.
67. Vasishtha replied:--The inclination of the intellect
towards
the intelligibles, is called the mind, for its mending
the
thinkables only; and the right knowledge of its workings,
leads
to the extinction of all our worldly desires, (i. e. The
thoughts
of things, are productive of our desires for them; banish
your
thoughts, and you get rid of your desires at once).
68. Ráma rejoined:--Tell me sir, how long continues this
tendency of the intellect towards the thinkables, and
when does
the mind come to have its unmindfulness, which causes our
coma
or anæsthesis[**anaesthesis] of Nirvána.
69. Vasishtha replied:--There being a total absence of
thinkable things, what is then left for the intellect to
be intent
upon; the mind dwells upon its thoughts only, but the want
of
thinkable objects, leaves nothing for it to think upon.
70. Ráma rejoined:--How can there be the absence of
thinkables, when we have the ideas in stores to think and
reflect
upon; nor is there any one who can deny the existence of
ideas,
which are ever imprinted in the mind: (i. e. the eternal
ideas).
71. Vasishth[**Vasishtha] replied:--Whatever is the ideal
world of the
ignorant, has no truth in it and is denied by the
learned; and
the conception which the sapient have of it, is that of a
nameless
and formless unity only.
72. Ráma rejoined;[**:]--What is that knowledge of this
triple
world of the ignorant, which has no truth or reality
therein;
and what is the true knowledge of the wise about it,
which is
inexpressible in words?
73. Vasishtha replied:--The knowledge of the ignorant,
regarding the duality of the world, is wholly untrue from
first
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to last; but the true knowledge of the wise, neither
recognizes
a duality herein; nor acknowledges the production hereof;
(but views it in the light of a nullity and void).
74. Ráma rejoined:--Whatever is not produced in the
beginning, can not of course exist at any time; but how
is it,
that this unreal and unapparent nothing, could come to
produce in us its conception of a something?
75. Vasishtha replied:--This causeless and uncaused
unreality
of the world, appears unto us as a real entity; like the
day
dream that presents the false sight of the cosmos as a
reality in
our waking.
76. Ráma rejoined:--The sights that we see in our dreams,
and the images that we conceive in our imagination; are
but
perceptions derived from our impressions of them in our
waking
state.
77. Vasishtha replied:--Tell me, O Ráma, whether the
things that you see in your dream, or conceive in your
imagination,
are exactly of the same forms, that you see in your
waking state.
78. Ráma replied:--The things that we see in our dream,
and conceive of in our fancy or imagination; do all of
them
appear unto us, in the same light, as they show
themselves to
us in our waking state.
79. Vasishtha questioned:--If the impressions of the
waking
state, come to represent themselves in our dreaming; (and
if
our dreams are alike our waking sights), then tell me
Ráma!
why do you find your house standing entire in the
morning,
which you beheld to have fallen down in you dream.
80. Ráma answered:--I see that the thing[**things] seen
in waking,
do not appear the same in dreaming; but tell me sir, why
they seem to resemble those that have been seen before.
81. Vasishtha replied:--It is neither the notion nor idea
of
anything, that appears as a reality in our minds; but the
inherent
impression of the world in the soul, that exhibits it to
us from first to last.
82. Ráma said:--I fiind[**find] it now, that this world
is no better
-----File:
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than a dream; but tell me sir, how to remedy our fallacy
of its
reality, which holds us fast as a goblin.
83. Vasishtha replied:--Now consider how this dream of
the world has come into vogue, and what may be the cause
thereof; and knowing that the cause is not different from
its
effect, view this visible creation in the light of its
invisible
origin.
84. Ráma said:--But as the mind is the cause of the
sights,
seen in our dreams in sleep, it must therefore be the
same
with its creation of this world, which is equally
unsubstantial
and undecaying as itself. (The world is the permeation of
the
Divine mind-[**--]its maker or pervader).
85. Vasishtha replied:--So it is, O most intelligent
Ráma,
the world is verily the manas-[**--]mens or the mind of
God, which
is no other than the consolidation of the Divine
Intellect or
intelligence. Thus the world being situated in the mind,
and this
in that, it is this mind only that exhibits these
dreamlike shows,
which originate from it, and have no other source
besides.
86. Ráma rejoined:--But why am I not to think the
identity of the world with Brahma himself, as there is
the
identity of the divine mind with him, and that of the
mind
with the creation. And likewise as the relation of
sameness
subsists between a component part and its ensemble or the
integral whole, as there is between the branch of a tree
and
the tree itself? (because these are but parts of one undivided
whole). But it would be absurd to identify the undivided
and
formless Brahma, with the divided and formal world.
87. Vasishtha replied:--It is impossible, O Ráma, to
identify
this frail world with the eternal Brahma, who is increate
to identify this perishable, quite calm and quiescent and
intact
in his nature.
88. Ráma added:--I come to find at last and by a
haphazard,
my erroneous conception of the world from first to last;
as also
the error of my attributing the qualities of activity and
passivity,
to the nature of the transcendent being.
89. Vasishtha concluded with saying:--Now I have fully
-----File:
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exposed the erroneous views of the world, (entertained
both by
the wise and ignorant), both by the elegance of my
poetical
diction, as also by the enlightening reasonings of the
learned;
both of which are calculated to remove the mistaken views
of
the vacuity and delusion of the world, by establishment
of the
truth of the whole, as being composed of essence of the
One
sole and Supreme entity.
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CHAPTER CLXXXXI.
SOLUTION OF THE GREAT QUESTION OF UNITY AND DUALITY.
Argument:--concerning the identity of the world and God,
or the total
absent[**absence] of the universe.
Ráma rejoined:--If it is so sir, as you say, the world
must
be a great riddle; as it can neither be said to be in
existence[**space added]
with all its contents, or it is[**'be' instead of 'it
is'] a perfect
nullity[**space added] with every
thing quite extinct in it.
2. This existence that shows itself as the world to
sight,
appears as a delusion or deception of vision in view;
though it
cannot properly be called an illusion, if it is composed
of divine
essence as you mean to say.
3. Vasishtha replied:--The fortuitous appearance in which
Brahma, manifests himself of his own accord; is known to
him
as the world and subsisting in himself.
4. Ráma rejoined:--How does Brahma manifest himself as
the world, before existence of space and after its
extinction (at
the ultimate dissolution of creation); and how does the
divine[**space
added]
spirit shine itself as the world in want of the light of
the
luminaries?[** replaced ; with ?]
5. Vasishtha replied:--The world shines in this manner in
the light of the Divine Intellect; and know this light to
proceed from the Divine spirit, which is thus diffused
all over
the universe.
6. As the light of the lamp or chandelier, enlightens the
house with its lustre; it was thus the holy light of the
Divine
spirit that shone itself, without presenting its outward
appearce[**
appearance],
or having any one to look upon it (before creation).
7. Thus it is an immaterial and imperishable entity,
without
any appearance of or looker on it; it shines with the
light of
the intellect, upon the basis or stand of the Divine
spirit.
8. It shines in its visible appearance, in the sight of
the
-----File:
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spirit only, that constantly looks upon it, as it sees
its dreams
in sleep.
9. It shines only in the light of the intellect, and
appears
as the created world before its creation; all its visible
and
shinning[**shining] sheen being derived from the Supreme.
10. The One supreme intellect alone, assumes the triple
forms of the sight, seer and seeing (i. e. the
subjective, objective
and the attribute), in the beginning of creation; and
shows
itself as the created world of its own nature and accord.
11. We have the resemblance of such like appearance,
presenting unto us in our dreams and creatures of our
fancy;
and it is in the same manner, that this creation shines
before
us with the light of the intellect.
12. This world (shining so bright and fair), is like a
vacuous
body appearing in the vacuity of the intellect; the
creation
has neither its beginning nor end, it is a development of
the
intellect, which is distributed through it.
13. It has become habitual to our nature, to suppose the
existence of the world, but the false impression of its
visibility,
is lost in the consciousness of high-minded men.
14. To them this creation presents no visible forms, nor
any
sensible appearance at all; it is to them a
representation of
fallacy only, as the mistake of a man in a statue, or
taking a
false apparition as real.
15. In this manner the blunder of a duality in the soul,
produces a dualism in the mind; but ere the existence of
creation, there existed no dualism of the creator and the
created, or of the manifester and the manifested.
16. The want of a cause causes the appearance of a
duality
(i. e. of the causal agency and its effect, in the
vacuity of the
intellect); but tell me how could there be a cause when
there is
no creation in existence. (The creation presupposes a
cause,
but not otherwise nor its absence).
17. It is the Divine intellect alone, that manifests
itself in
the manner of the world, in the total absence of all
visible
objects; and though this seems to be the waking state of
the
-----File: 485.png---------------------------------------------------------
Supreme soul, yet it is neither its waking, sleeping nor
dreaming
state.
18. The visible world is no production of dream, but a
manifestation
of Brahma himself; and there existed the Divine
intellect only, in the manner of the infinite void,
before the
birth of the atmospheric vacuum of the world.
19. The intellect which beholds this universe as its
body,
without being distributed or changed in the form of the
world; is purely of a spiritual or vacuous form, that
manifested
itself in this visible form before it came to existence.
20. And this visible world that is so manifest to view,
is as
void and vacuous as the empty air.
21. Now knowing this in your own understanding, you
must remain devoid of all dualism in your mind; be as mute
as a block of stone, nor give heed to the words of the
universe
in your heart, nor care for their sayings of earthly
enjoyments,
(for fear of losing your spiritual bliss).
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CHAPTER CLXXXXII.
ON THE ATTAINMENT OF SPIRITUAL ANAESTHESIA.
Argument:--Ráma's coma and trance, and his revival by the
spiritual
lecture of his preceptor.
Ráma rejoined and said:--Alas! that I have so long
strayed about, in the erroneous maze of the world; without
the knowledge of its being a mere void and vacuum.
2. I now come to know the fallacy of my conception of the
world, which is but a mere nullity; which never is nor
was,
nor shall ever prove to be a positive reality.
3. It is all still and supportless, and existing in our
false knowledge of it; it is an endless formation of the
solid
intellect, and a mere vacuous conception of ours, without
any
figure or form or colour or mark of its own.
4. It is the transcendental vacuum and of a wholly
inconceivable
nature; and yet how wonderous[**wondrous] it is, that we
call this our
world, our earth and the sphere of our action.
5. How it appears as a duality (apart from the unity of
God), and how these worlds and mountains seen as separate
and solid bodies of themselves; when they are in reality
but
the pellucid sky appearing as thick and opaque to our
misconception
of them.
6. These[**This] creation and the future world, are as
the dreams
that we see, but working of our imagination; while it is
the
intellect only that shows itself as these intelligible
objects,
which could not otherwise present their visible aspects
to our
conceptions of them.
7. The thought that I am situated in heaven or hell in
this
life, makes this world appear as such unto us; because
the visibles
are all objects or creatures of our consciousness of
them.
(It is the mind that makes a heaven of hell).
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8. There is nothing as visible or its vision, nor this
world or
its creation, unless it is caused as such, by the
intellect within
us; it is neither a scene in our waking or sleeping, nor
is this
anything as real in its nature.
9. If this be but an erroneous sight, how could the
negative
error produce this positive spectacle, should it [**[be]]
but a false
conception
of the mind, then tell me, O sage, how could this blank
fallacy bring forth the thought of this real existence.
10. It is not possible for error, to creep into the
infallible
mind of omniscience; nor is it probable that error should
reign
over this perfect creation at large; it is therefore the
Lord
himself, that exhibits his glory in this manner.
11. What can we think otherwise of the continuity of
space,
infinity of vacuum and infinity of time, than they are
the attributes
of omnipotence; and how are we to look on the
transparancy[**transparency]
of the air and crystal, without thinking them as
manifestation of his nature?
12. An erroneous notion is as false, as the sight of
one's own
death in a dream; but how can this world which is so
palpable to
sight, be lost to or expunged from our sight, without
losing
our sight of its great manifester also? (To ignore the
world
is to ignore its maker also, as the denial of God leads
to[**space added]
that
of the world).
13. The sights of the mirage, fairy cities and double
moons
in the sky, are of course deceptions of vision and
productions of
our error; but the same analogy does not apply to our
sight of
the world.
14. The boys' apparitions of ghosts, never lay hold on
adults
and the waking, nor on any one in the day light and open
air; this and similar errors arise in our ignorance only,
but
they vanish upon our second thought and true knowledge
of them.
15. It is improper in this place to raise the question,
regarding
whence this bug bear of error could rise among mankind;
since it is evident from our own reasoning, that there
is no such thing as avidyá or ignorance, (which is the
-----File:
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cause of error) ever in existence, nor an asat or not
being even
in being. (Because the Veda says [Sanskrit:
sadevaídamagra ásít] the
existence existed from before).
16. It is evident by rational reasoning, that whatever is
invisible and imperciptible[**imperceptible] to us, the
same is called as
asat or
not being, and the conception of idea or that is termed
an error.
17. That which is not clearly obtained by any proof or
reasoning, and is as impossible as the sky-flower or the
horn of
a hare, how can that be believed to be as anything in
existence.
18. And a thing however apparent to sight, but having no
cause or evidente[**evidence] of its reality, cannot be
believed as [**[a]]
thing
in existence, but it must be a nullity like the issue of
a barren
woman.
19. Therefore there can no error at any time, nor can an
error ever produce anything whatever; it is therefore the
manifest
omniscience of Providence, that is conspicuous in every
part of this wide and grand display.
20. Whatever then is seen now to shine before us, is the
manifestation of Supreme being itself; the same Supreme
spirit
fills this plenitude, and is full with it in itself. (So
the Veda
[Sanskrit: púrnamadah púrnamidam] &c[**.]).
21. There is nothing that is either shining or unshining
here at any time, unless it be the calm and quiet and
transparent
spirit of God, that inheres in its body of the mundane
world.
22. It is the one unborn, undying and unchanging
everlasting
Being, that is the most adorable and ever adored Lord of
all, that fills and pervades the whole with his essence.
He
only is the word ego, selfmanifest-[**--]pure and all
pervading, while
I and all others are without our egoism, and shine only
in that
unity; (literally, without our duality)[**.]
-----File: 489.png---------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER CLXXXXIII.
MENTAL TORPOR OR TRANQUILITY.
Argument:--Rámá's[**Ráma's] ecstatic
hybernation[**OK/SOED] and
union with the Supreme
unity[**.]
Ráma rejoined:--There is the only One alone whom neither
the gods nor the rishis know or comprehend; He
is without beginning, middle and end, and it is that
being that
thus shines himself, without this world and these
phenomena.
2. It is useless to us to mind the difference, between
the
unity and duality, and to be led to the doubts created by
the
misleading verbiology[**verbiage] of erroneous doctrines;
without relying
in
the state of one tranquil and unvarying Spirit.
3. The world is as clearly a vacuous body, appearing in
the
womb of vacuity; as the string of pearls and the aerial
castles,
that are seen in the open sky.
4. The world is attached in the same manner, to the
solidity
of the invisible intellect; as vacuity is inherent in
vacuum,
lapidity in the stone, and fluidity in water.
5. Though the world, appears to be spread on all sides of
space; yet it is no more than an empty vacuity, lying
calm and
quiet, in the hollow womb of the great intellect.
6. This world appearing so fair and perspicuous, to the
sight
of ignorant people; vanishes as a phantom into nothing,
at the
sight of the boundless glory of the transcendent god.
7. The impression of difference and duality, existing
between
the creator and creation, among worldly men; vanishes
upon reflection, like waves into the waters of the sea.
8. The existence of the world, together with all our
miseries
in it, [**[vanishes]] before the light of our liberation;
as the darkness of
night
flies away at sunrise, and the light of the day
disappears, before
the gloom of night.
9. Whether in plenty or poverty, or in birth, death or
desease[**disease]; or in the troubles and turmoils of
the world, the wise
-----File:
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man remains unshaken, though he may be overpowered by
them.
10. There is no knowing nor error in this world, nor any
pain or pleasure, or distress or delight in it; but they
are all
attributes of the deity, whose pure nature is unsullied
by them.
11. I have come to know, that this existence is the
immaculate
Brahma himself; and [**[it]] is the want of our
knowledge, which
says anything to be beside the spirit of the Great God.
12. I am awakened to, and enlightened in divine
knowledge;
and find external existence cease to exist in any
presence.
13. Perfect knowledge tells us, all these worlds to be
but
Brahma himself; but want of this knowledge says, I was no
Brahma before, but have now becomes[**become] so by my
knowledge.
14. The known and the unknown, the dark and the bright
are all but Brahma, as vacuity and unity, and brightness
and
blueness, do all appertain to the one and same sky.
15. I am extinct in the deity (in my divine knowledge),
and
sit dauntless of anything; I am devoid of all desire,
with my
leaning in perfect blessedness; I am as I am, ravished in
my
infinite bliss, without my sensibility of what or which.
16. I am wholly that one and sole entity, which is naught
but perfect tranquility; I see nothing but a calm and
quiet,
which utterly absorbs and enrapts me quite.
17. Knowing the knowable (the unknown One) is to unknow
one's self and ignore the visible; as this cognition
continues
to dawn in the soul, the whole cosmos sinks into oblivion
and seems a block of stone, without the name and sign of
anything being known.
-----File:
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CHAPTER CLXXXXIV.
RÁMÁ'S[**RÁMA'S] REST IN NIRVÁNA INSENSIBILITY.
Argument:--Rámá's[**Ráma's] feeling of his comatosity,
and his relation
of it
to his preceptor Vasishtha.
Ráma said:--In whatever manner and form, the living or
individual soul conceives the universal soul within
itself;
it has the same conception or idea presented before it,
agreeably
to its concept thereof. (i. e. The divine spirit appears
in
the same form in us, as we think it to be).
2. All these worlds lie in concert in their spiritual
state,
in the boundless spirit of the great Brahma; but they
appear
to us in various lights, like the different rays,
radiating from
the one and same gem.
3. The great and bright quarry of the Divine Mind,
contains
all these gemming worlds in its unbounded bosom; all of
which unite to shed and scatter their conjoined light
upon us,
like the commingled rays of the gems contained in the
womb
of a vast mine.
4. All these several worlds, shining together like so
many
lamps of a lustre; are clearly perceived by some and are
imperceptible
to others, as the blaze of day light is dazzling to
the clear-sighted, but quite dim to the blind.
5. As the rushing of the contrary currents, describe the
whirlpools in the waters of the deep; so do the contact
and
conflict of the elementary atoms, produce the
consolidation
and dissolution of worlds, which are no acts of creation.
6. The creation is everywhere but a coagulation, of the
drizzling drops of the gelid intellect; who can therefore
count
the countless watery particles, that are incessantly
oozing out
of it, and are condensed in the forms of worldly
spherules.
7. As the part is not different in its substance, from
that
of the whole; so the creation is not otherwise than its
creator,
-----File: 492.png---------------------------------------------------------
except in the difference of the two terms of devious
significations.
8. The causeless and uncausing unity, being the archetype
of infinite variety; these numberless multiplicities are
only
ectypes of that sole moiety, and neither a duality nor
pluralities
whatever; nor do these copies and counterparts, ever rise
or
fall apart from their original prototype; (but the both
is[**are] showing
the same).
9. It is that intelligence which shows the intelligibles
in
itself; it produces these unproduced productions to view,
as
the sun light exposes the visibles to light.
10. It is from my inappetency of all things in existence,
that I have accomplished that perfection, and acquired
that
prosperity for myself, which is termed insouciance or the
nirvána
extinction.
11. It is not by our understanding this bliss, nor can we
have
any knowledge of it by our percipience; neither is there
any
knowledge whereby we may know, the unknown one which is
alone to be known. (Here is a pun and play of the word
boodha[**bódha] or knowledge, which is explained in the
gloss to a great
length).
12. It is a knowledge that rises of itself, and a waking
of
the soul resembling its somnolence; it throws a light as
that
of the midday sun in the inmost soul, and is neither confined
in or absent from any place or time. (i. e. The full
blaze of
spiritual light, fills the soul at all times and places
or as Pope
says: It wraps my soul, and absorbs me quite).
13. It is after the subsidence of all desire within, and
desinence
of all actions without accompanied with one's desistence
from all wishes, that this stillness attends upon the
enlightened
soul.
14. The saint of awakened understanding, that is confined
in himself, and absorbed in his meditation; is neither
inclined
to the prurience of any thing, nor to the avoidance of
aught
whatever. (Have what I have, and dare not leave,
enamoured
of the present day. Young).
15. In this state of rapture, the mind of the saint,
though
-----File:
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in full possession of its mental faculties; remains yet
as fixed and
inactive, and unmindful of all worldly things and bodily
actions;
as a burning taper, that consumes itself while [**[it]]
illumes
others, without any shaking or motion of its own. (i. e.
Thoughtful
and inactive).
16. The soul becomes as Viswarupa or incorporated with
the
world, in its condition of thoughtfulness, when it is
called the
Viswátma or the mundane soul; or else it is said to be
situated
in the state of the immense void of Brahma, when it is
devoid of
and unoccupied with its thoughts. Hence creation and its
cessation,
both appertain to the Divine Intellect, in its states of
activity
or thoughtfulness and its wants [**[thereof]] or stupor.
17. He who is enrapt in divine ecstasy, and settled in
his
belief of the identity of the Deity with his excogitation
of him,
remains closely confined in himself with his rapture and
secure
from distraction of his mind, (and perturbation of
worldly
thoughts).
18. He who relies only in the cogitation of his self,
regardless
of all other things in the world; comes to find the
reality
of his self-cognition alone, and else beside, to be as
nil as empty
air[**.] (Literally: as empty air is not distinct from
vacuity).
19. The man of enlarged understanding, has an unbounded
store of knowledge in himself; but this ultimate ends in
the
knowledge of the unspeakable one. (The end of all
knowledge
is the knowledge of God).
20. It is therefore in our quetism[**quietism], that we
feel the very best
entity of our consciousness, to be either dormant or
extinct; and
this state of tranquility of the mind, is inutterable in
words.
21. That which is the acme of all knowledge, is the
abstract
and abstruce[**abstruse] knowledge of all as the true
One; hence the
world
is a real entity, in as much as it abides in the eternal
One (in
its abstract light).
22. The felicity of Nirvána-ecstasy, with the utter
extinction
of all desire, and the consciousness of a cool and calm
composure of one's self, is the summunbonum[**summum
bonum] or
highest state
of bliss and perfection, that is aimed at to be attained
even
by the Gods Brahma, Vishnu and Siva.
-----File:
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23. All things (Desirable[**d-] to the soul), are always
present
with it, in all places and at all times; they are ever
accompanied
with our concepts of them in the intellect, which is the
only pure entity that is ever in existence, and is never
dissolved.
(The thought survives the thing it represents).
24. Too hot is the busy bustle of the world, and very
cooling
is the bliss of Nirvána insensibility; it is therefore
far
better to have the cold heartedness of insouciance,
that[**than] the
heart burning heat of worldliness.
25. As an artist conceives in himself, the contrivance of
a
statue sculptured in relief, in the slab of his mind; so
the Great
Brahma sees this universe inscribed in him, in releivo
and not
carved out of him.
26. Just as the spacious ocean looks upon the waves,
heaving
upon the surface of its waters; so doth the great Brahma
see the myriads of worlds, rolling about in the midst of
its
intellect.
27. But ignorant people of dull understandings, behold
those fixed inseparable spectacles, in the light of
separate spectres,
appearing in various shapes and forms, in the spheres of
their intellect.
28. In whatever manner doth any body conceive anything
in his mind, he verily thinks and beholds it in the same
light,
by his habitual mode of thinking the same as such.
29. As a man waking from his sleep, finds no truth in
aught
he saw in his dream; whether it be the death or presence
or
absence of a friend or other; so the enlightened soul
sees no reality
in the Life or death, of any living being seen in this
visible
world because none lives by himself, nor dies or departs
away
of himself, but all are deputed alike in the tablet of
the eternal
mind.
30. The thought and conviction of this truth in the mind,
that whatever appears to pass under and away from our
sight,
is the fixed inert and quiescent rechauffe of its divine
original,
is sure and enough to forfend the mind, from its falling
into
the error of taking the copy for its mould.
-----File:
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31. This lesson will certainly tend to lessen the
enjoyments
of your body, that none of them will ever serve to
prevent
its fall to naught; as also to protect you from the error
of
accounting for the reality of these numberless, that are
at best
but passing sights in your dream.
32. Inappetency[**Ok/SOED] of earthly enjoyments
increases our
wisdom,
as wisdom serves to diminish our worldly desires, thus
they mutually serve to augment one another, as the open
air
and sunshine.
33. The knowledge which tends to create your aversion
to riches, and to your family and friends, is of course
averse to
your ignorance and dullness; and the one being acquired
and
accomplished by you, serves to put an and[**end] to your
ignorance
at once.
34. That is the true wisdom of wise man[**men], which is
unalloyed
by avarice, and that is the true learning of the learned,
which
is not vitiated by any yearning.
35. But neither wisdom and inappetency, singly and
simply, nor in their combined and augmented states, are
of no
good unless, they have attained their perfection, but
prove as
vain as the blaze of a sacrificial fire in a picture,
which has not
the power of consuming the oblation offered upon it.
36. The perfection of wisdom and inappetence, is a
treasure
which is termed liberation also; because any body who has
reached
to, and remains in that state of infinite bliss, is freed
from
all the bonds of care.
37. In this state of our emancipation, we see the past
and
present, and all our sights and doings in them as present
before
us; and find ourselves situated, in a state of even calm
and
tranquility, of which there is no end nor any breach
whatever.
38. The self-contented man who finds all his happiness in
himself, is ever cool and calm and tranquil in his soul,
and is
devoid of all desire and selfishness in his mind. He
relies in
his cool hearted indifference and apathy to all worldly
objects,
and sees only a clear void stretched before him.
39. We scarcely find one man, among a hundred thousand
human beings; who is strong enough and has the bravery,
to
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break down the trammels of his earthly desires, as the
lion
alone breaks of[**delete 'of'] the iron bars of his
prison house. (The
adamantine
chain of avarice, binds us all alike to this nether earth).
40. It is the inward light of the clear understanding,
that
dispels the mist of desires that overcasts the cupidinous
mind;
and melts down the incrassated avarice, as the broad
sunshine
dissolves the thickened ice in autumn.
41. It is the want of desire that is the knowledge of the
knowable,
(or what is best and most worthy of being known), and
stands above all things that are desirable or worth our
desiring;
it bears its resemblance to the breath of air, without
any external
action of it. (i. e. The man that is without any desire
of
his, lives to breathe his vital breath only, without
doing any external
action of his; but breathes as the current mind, to no
purpose whatsoever[**)].
42. He sits quiet and firm in himself, with his thoughts
fixed in ascertaining the truths and errors of the world;
and
looks all others in the light of himself, without having
to do
with or desire of them.
43. He sits reclined in the immensity of Brahma, with his
enlightened view of the visibles as subsisting in Him; he
remains indifferent to all things, and devoid of his
desire for
anything, and sits quiet in the quiescence of his
liberation;
which is styled as moksha by the wise.
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CHAPTER CLXXXXV.
LECTURED[**LECTURE] ON THE ENLIGHTENMENT OF
UNDERSTANDING.
Argument:--Vasishtha's commendation of Rámá's[**Ráma's]
knowledge,
and his
further questions for his trial and Rámá's[**Ráma's]
replies.
Vasishtha said:--Bravo Ráma! that you are awakened
to light and enlightened in your understanding; and the
words you have spoken, are calculated to
destory[**destroy] the darkness
of
ignorant minds, and rejoice the hearts of wise.
2. These phenomenals that ever appear so very bright to
our sight, lose their gloss at our want of desire and
disregard
of them; it is the knowledge of this truth, that is
attended with
our peace and tranquility, and our liberation and
inexcitability.
3. All these imaginary sights vanish from our view, at
the
suppression of our imagination of them; just as the want
of
ventilation in the winds, reduces them to the level of
the one
common, and calm still air.
4. The enlightened man remaining unmoved as a stone, or
moving quietly in his conduct in life; (i. e. who is ever
unruffled
in his disposition), is verily said to have his clear
liberation.
5. Look at yogis like ourselves, O Ráma, that having
attained
this state of liberation, have been cleansed from all our
iniquities; and are now set at quite[**quiet] rest, even
in the conduct
of our worldly affairs.
6. Know the great Gods Brahmá, Vishnu and others, to
have been situated in this state of quiet and freedom,
that they
are remaining as pure intelligences, even while
discharging the
offices of their godship.
7. Do you, O Ráma, attain the enlightenment of holy
sages,
and remain as still as a stone like ourselves.
8. Ráma replied:--I see this world as a formless void,
situated in the infinite vacuity of Brahma; it is an
uncreated
and unsubstantial nihility, and with all its visibility,
it is an
invisible nothing.
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9. It is as the appearance of water in the mirage, and as
a
whirlpool in the ocean; its glare is as glitter gold in
the dust,
and of sands in the sandy shores of seas in sunshine.
10. Vasishtha said:--Ráma! if you have become so
enlightened
and intelligent, then I will tell you more for the
edification
of your understanding; and put some questions for your
answer to them, in order to remove my doubts regarding
them.
11. Tell me, how can the world be a nullity, when it
shines
so very brightly all about and above our heads; and how
can
all these things [**[be inexistent]], which are so
resplendent to sight, and
always
perceptible to our senses.
12. Ráma replied:--The world was never created in the
beginning, nor was anything ever produced at any time, it
is
therefore as nil as the offspring of an unprolific woman
and a
creation of our imagination only.
13. It is true that there is no result without its cause,
or
that nothing comes from nothing, but can [**[it]] be the
cause of the
world when it is a nullity, and a production of our error
only.
14. The immutable and everlasting deity, cannot be the
creator, without changing itself to a finite form; how
can [**[it]] therefore
be there a cause of this frail and finite form.
15. It is the unknown and nameless Brahma, that shows
himself as the cause of the world, which having proceeded
from
him is his very self, nor does the word world bear any
other
sense at all, (nor it can be made to bear any other
sense).
16. The first intelligence named as the God Brahmá, rises
from and abides for a little while, that unknown and
nameless
category of the universal spirit, as the conscious soul
and having
a spiritual body. (This is called the jivátma[**jívátmá]
or the living soul
with a personal body of it).
17. It then comes to see on a sudden, the luminaries of
the
sun and moon and the heavenly hosts, rising in the
infinity of
the Divine Mind, and thinks a small moment as a long year
as
its reverie of a dream. (The Morning and evening of the
creation
of Brahmá, occupying many a year of mortals).
18. It then perceived the ideas of space and time,
together
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with those of their divisions and motions also; and the
whole
universe appearing to its sight, in the vast immensity of
vacuity:
(of the Divine Mind).
19. Upon the completion of the false world in this
manner,
its false contriver the soi-disant Brahma, was employed
in wandering
all over the world as his creation.
20. So the living soul of every body, being deluded by
its
mistaken conception of the world as a positive reality,
traverses
up and down and all about it, in its repeated wanderings
amidst
its false utopia.
21. And though the events of life, takes place according
to
the wishes of the soul; yet these are mere accidents of
chance;
and it is a mistake to think them as permanent result of
fixed
laws.
22. Because it is as wrong to suppose the substantiality
of
the world, and the permanency of the events; as to grant
the
birth of a child born of a barren woman, and the feeding
of it
with the powder of the pulvarized[**pulverized] air.
23. Nothing can be positively affirmed or denied,
regarding
the existence of the world; except that whatever it is,
it is no
other than the diffusion of the all pervasive spirit of
the Eternal
one.
24. The world is as clear as the transparent atmosphere,
and as solid as the density of a rock; it is as mute and
still as
a stone, and quite indestructible in its nature.
25. The world is originally ideal, from the ideas of the
eternal mind; and then it is spiritual, from the
pervasion of
the all pervading spirit of Viráj; it is thus a mere
void, appearing
as a solid body to us.
26. Thus Brahma being the great vacuum and its fulness,
where is any other thing as the world in it, the whole is
a dead
calm as quietus, and a void devoid of its beginning and
end: (i.
e. a round sphere).
27. As the waves have been ever heaving and diving, in
the
bosom of the waters of the deep; and as the waves are not
distinct from those waters, so the worlds rolling in the
breast of
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the vacuous Brahma, are no other than the selfsame
essence of
Brahma himself.
28. The few that are versed in their superior or
esoteric, as
well as in the inferior or exoteric knowledge; live as
long as
they live and then dive at last in this Supreme, as drops
of
water mix into the sea.
29. The exoteric (or phenomenal[**)] world, abides in the
esoteric
(or the noumenal) Brahma;[**moved ')'] and is of the same
transcendent
nature as the Divine Mind; for it is never possible for
the gross, changeful and transitional nature, to subsist
in the
pure, unchanged and quiet state of the deity.
30. For who that knows the nature of dream as false, and
that of mirage as a fallacy can ever believe them as
realities;
so any one that knows the visible Nature to be of the
nature
of Brahma, can ever take it for dull and gross material
substance.
(Nature being one with its God, is equally of a spiritual
nature).
31. The enlightened sage, that has the esoteric knowledge
of the world, and reflects it in its spiritual sense;
cannot be
misled to view it in its gross (material) light, as the
holy man
that tastes ambrosia, is never inclined to drink the
impure
liquor of wine.
32. He who remains in his Nirvána meditation, by
reverting
his view from the sight of the visibles, to the
excogitation
of his self; and represses his mind from the thoughts of
thinkables,
he is verily seated in the tranquility of Supreme spirit.
33. Vasishtha said:--If the visible creation is situated
in
Brahma-[**--]their cause and origin, as the germ or
sprout of a plant
is seated in its producing seed; how then can you ignore
the
substantiality or distinction of either of them from
their originating
source the seed or god, (who is said in the sruti, as
the seed of the arbor of the world,--sansáramahirupavíja
&c[**.]).
34. Ráma replied:--The germ does seem to be seated or
situated in the seed, (as a separate or different
substance);
but as it is produced from the essence of the seed, it
appears
to be the same substance with itself. (Were it not so,
the
germ would become another plant than that of the seed).
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35. If the world as it appears to us is inherent in
Brahma;
then it must be of the same essence and nature as
Brahma's;
and these being eternal and imperishable in Brahma, needs
have the world to be so also: (and not of the seed and
sprout,
or the begetter and begotten).
36. We have neither seen nor ever heard, that any finite,
formal or perishable, has ever proceeded from an
infinite, formless
and imperishable cause. (therefore this world is not as
it
appears to us).
37. It is impossible for a formless thing, to remain in
any
form or other whatsoever; as it is never possible for an
atom,
to contain a mountain in its bosom.
38. It is the voice of an idiot only who says, that the
stupendous
world with its gigantic form, abides in the formless
abyss
of Brahma; as bright gems are contained in the hollow of
a
box or basket. (The basket has a base to support any
thing,
whereas the vacuity of Brahma has no basis at all).
39. It does not befit any body to say that, the
transcendent
and tranquil of god, supports the material and moving
world upon it; nor that a corporeal body (the corpus
mundi), is
an imperishable things[**thing] (as the divine spirit).
40. Our perception of the worlds[**world] having a form,
is no proof
of its reality; because there is no truth whatever in the
many
curious forms, that present themselves before us in our
dreams.
(This is a refutation of the Buddhists[**'] reliableness
in perception).
41. It is an unprecedented dream, that presents us the
sight of the world, of which we had no innate or
preconceived
idea in us; while our usual dreams are commonly known, to
be
the reproduced representations, of our former impressions
and
perceptions, and the results of our past remembrances of
things &c.
42. It is not a day dream as some would have it to be,
because
the night dreams disappear in the day time; but how
does a dreamer of his own funeral at night, come to see
himself
alive upon his waking in the day? (This continuous sight
of the world day by day, is not camparable[**comparable]
to a transient
dream
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by day or night, but a permanent one in the person of the
Great God himself).
43. Others again maintain that, no bodiless things can
appear in our dream, since we dream of certain bodies
only; but
this tenet has no truth in it, since we often dream of,
as well as
see the apparitions of bodiless ghosts both by day and
night.
44. Therefore the world is not as false as a dream, but
an
impression settled like a dream in our very conscious
soul; it
is the formless deity, that manifests itself in the
various forms
of this world, to our understandings.
45. As our intellect remains alone and in itself, in the
forms
and other things, appearing as dreams unto us in our
sleep; so
doth Brahma remain solely in himself in the form of the
world
we see: for god being wholly free and apart from all, can
not
have any accompaniment with him?[**. instead of ?]
46. There is nothing that is either coexistent or
inexistent
in him (that is what can be either affirmed or denied of
him);
because we have no concept or conception of him
ourselves,
nor do we [**[have]] any notion or idea we are to form of
him.
47. What is this nameless thing, that we can not know in
our understanding; it is known in our consciousness (i.
e. we
are conscious of it), but it is in esse or non-esse, we
know
nothing of (this world).
48. It is an inexistence appearing as existent, as also
an
existence seeming to be unexistent; all things are quiet
manifest
in it at all times and in all forms, (but how and whence
they are is quite unknown).
49. It is the development of Brahma in Brahma, as the sky
is evolved in vacuity; for nothing can be found to fill
the
vacuum of Brahma, except Brahma himself (or his own
essence).
50. There I, my seeing and my sight of the world, is all
mere fallacy; it is the calm and quiet extension of the
Divine
intellect only, that fills the infinite vacuity of his
own spirit,
and naught beside,[**.]
51. As the ærial[**aerial] castle of our imagination, has
no building
nor reality in it; so is this world but a calm and quiet
vacuity,
and unfailing vacant ideality.
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52. It is a boundless space full with the essence of the
Supreme spirit, it is without its beginning and end,
wholly inscrutable
in its nature, and quite calm and quiet in its aspect.
53. I have known my own state also, to be without its
birth
and death, and as calm and quiet, as that of the unborn
and
immortal Brahma himself; and I have come to know myself
(i. e. my soul) also, to be as formless and
undefinable[**=print], as the
Supreme soul or spirit.
54. I have now given expression, to all that I find to be
impressed
in my consciousness; just as whatever is contained in
the seed, the same comes to sprout forth out of it.
55. I know only the knowledge that I bear in my
consciousness,
and nothing about the unity or duality (of the creation
and creator); because the question of unity and duality
rises
only from imagination (of the one or other).
56. All these knowing and living liberated men, that have
been liberated from the burthen of life by their
knowledge of
truth; are sitting silent here, and devoid of all their
earthly
cares, like the empty air in the infinite vacuity.
57. All there efforts of mixing with the busy bustle of
the
world, are here at an end; and they are sitting here as
quiet
and silent as yon mute and motionless picture on the
wall,
meddaling[**medalling] on the bright regions in
there[**their] minds.
58. They are as still as the statues engraven in a rock,
or as
people described in fancy tales, to dwell in the
ærial[**aerial] city built
by Sambara in air, (i. e. as the inhabitants dwelling in
the
Elysian of Plato, or in the utopia of sir Thomas Moore);
or as
the airy figures in our dream.
59. This world is verily a phantom appearing in our dream
of the creation; it is a structure without its base, and
a figure
intangible to our touch. Where then is its reality? (Its
tangibleness is a deception of our sense).
60. The world appears as a positive reality to the
blinded
ignorant, but it [**[is]] found to be a negative nullity
by the keensighted
sage; who sees it in the light of Brahma and a
manifestation
of himself, and as still as the calm air, reposing in the
quiet vacuity of that transcendent spirit.
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61. All these existences, with their moving and unmoving
beings, and ourselves also, are mere void and vacant
nullities,
in the knowledge of the discerning and philosophic mind.
62. I am void and so are you too, and the world beside
but
mere blanks; the intellect is a void also, and by doing
all
several voids in itself, it forms the immense
intellectual vacuum,
which is the sole object of our adoration: (being as
infinite
and eternal, as well as all pervading and containing all
as the
supreme spirit).
63. Being thus seated with my knowledge of the infinite
vacuity of Brahma, I take thee also, O thou best of biped
beings, as indistinct from the knowable One, who is one
and
same with the all comprehending vacuum, and so make my
obeisance to thee.
64. It is from the all comprehensiveness (i. e.
omniscience)
of the vacuous intellect, that this world rises and sets
in it by
turns; it is as clear as the transparent air, and has no
other
cause of it but the undulation of the same.
65. This hypostasis of Brahma is beyond all other
existences,
and above the reach of all sástras, it is by attaining to
this
state af[**of] transcendentalism, that one becomes as
pure and
superfine as empty air.
66. There is nothing as myself, my feet and hands, or
this
pot or aught else that I bear, as any material existence;
all is
air and impty[**empty] and inane as air, and knowing
this, let us turn
ourselves to our airy intellects only. (i. e. I think
ourselves as
intellectual and spiritual beings only, in utter
disregard of
our bodies and earthly things).
67. You have shewn me sir, the nullity of the world and the
vanity of all worldly things; and the truth of this
doctrine is
evident in the light of our spiritual knowledge, in
defiance of
the sophistry of our opponents.
68. The sophist that discomfits the silent sage with his
sophistry, can never expect to see the light of spiritual
knowledge
to gleam upon him; (spiritual is got by silent meditation
and not by wrangling).
69. The Being that is beyond our preception[**perception]
and concep-*
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*tion, and without any designation or indication; can be
only
known in our conciousness[**consciousness] of him, and
not by any kind
of
reasoning or argumentation.
70. The Being that is without any attibute[**attribute],
or sight or
symbol of his nature, is purely vacuous and entirely
inconceivable
by us, save by means of our spiritual light of him.
Om Tat Sat
(Continued...)
( My
humble salutations to Brahmasri Sreemaan Vihari Lala Mitra ji for the
collection)
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