The
Yoga Vasishtha
Maharamayana
of Valmiki
The only complete English translation is
by Vihari Lala Mitra (1891).
CHAPTER CLXXXV.
ADMONITION TO AND CLAIRVOYANCE OF KUNDA-DANTA.
Argument:--The return of the interlocutors to the abodes;
Demise
of the brothers and enlightenment of Kunda-danta.
Kunda-danta rejoined:--The old sage having said so far,
closed his eyes in meditation; and he became as
motionless
as a statue or picture, without any action of his breath
and mind.
2. And we prayed him with great fondness and endearment,
yet he uttered not a word unto us; because he seemed
to be so rapt in his abstraction, as to have become
utterly insensible
of the outer world.
3. We then departed, from that place, with our broken
hearts and dejected countenances; and were received after
a
few days journey, by our gladsome friends at home.
4. We live there in joyous festivity, as long as the
seven
brothers were living; and passed our time in narrations
of our
past adventures, and relations of the old accounts of by
gone
times.
5. In course of time the eight brothers disappeared
(perished)
one by one, like the seven oceans at the end of the
world, in the vast ocean of eternity; and were released
like
many of my friends also, from their worldly cares.
6. After sometime, the only friend that I had, sunk also
like the setting sun in darkness; and I was left alone to
bewail
their loss in sorrow and misery at their separation.
7. I then repaired in the sorrow of my heart, to the
devotee
under the Kadamba tree; in order to derive the benefit of
his
advice, to dissipate my dolor.
8. There I waited on him for three months, until he was
released from his meditation, when upon my humble request
of
him, he deigned to answer me as follows.
9. The devotee replied:--I can not pass a moment, without
-----File:
442.png---------------------------------------------------------
my employment in meditation; and must without any loss of
time, resort to my wonted devotion again.
10. As for you, you can not derive the benefit of my
transcendent
advice to you; unless you engage yourself to practice
my precepts with all diligence.
11. Now I tell you to repair to the city of
Ajodyá[**Ayodhyá] (Oudh),
where the king Dasaratha reigns, and remains with his son
Ráma, (and other children and members of his royal
family).
12. Do you now go to this Ráma, who has been attending
on the lectures of the sage Vasishtha, the preceptor and
priest
of the royal family, and [**[who]] delivered [**[the
lectures]] before the
princes assembled
in the imperial court.
13. You will there hear the holy sermon, on the means of
attaining our final emancipation; and will thereby obtain
your
best bliss in the divine state like that of mine.
14. Saying so, he was absorbed in the cooling ocean of
his
meditation; [**[after]] which I directed my course to
this way, and arrived
at last before Ráma and this princely assembly.
15. Here am I, and all these are the incidents of my
life,
as I have related herein, regarding all what I have heard
and
seen, as also all that has passed on me.
16. Ráma said:--The eloquent Kunda-danta that made
this speech to me, has been ever since sitting by my side
in
this assembly.
17. This very Brahmin bearing the name of Kunda-danta,
that has sat here all along by me; has heard the whole of
the
sermon, which has been delivered by the sage, on the
means of
obtaining our liberation.
18. Now ask this Kunda-danta, that is sitting here by me
at
present, whether he has well understood the context of
this
lecture, and whether his doubts are wholly dissipated or
not.
19. Vasishtha said;[**:]--Upon Ráma saying so to me, I
looked
upon Kunda-danta, and made him the following
interrogatory,
saying;[**:]--
20. Tell me, Oh you goodly Brahman Kunda-danta, what
you have learnt and understood, by your long attendance
upon
-----File:
443.png---------------------------------------------------------
and hearing of my lecture, calculated to confer
liberation on
men.
21. Kunda-danta replied:--Sir, your lecture has wholly
removed the doubts of my mind, and I find myself now as
perfect
master of myself, by my victory over all selfish
passions,
and by my knowledge of the knowable One.
22. I have known the immaculate One that is to be known,
and seen the undecaying One that is worth our seeing; I
have
obtained all that is worth our obtaining, and I have
found my
repose in the state of transcendent felicity.
23. I have known this plenum, to be the condensation of
that trancendental[**transcendental] essence; and that this
world is no
either,
than a manifestation of this self-same soul.
24. The universal soul being also the soul of every
individual,
is likewise the soul inherent in all forms of things; it
is
only the self-existent soul, that becomes apparent in all
existences
and all places.
25. It is possible for the human mind, which is minuter
than the molecule of a mustard seed, to contain the whole
world
in itself; though it is naught but a mere zero, before
the clear
sight of the intelligent.
26. It is possible also for a little room, to contain the
seven
continents of the earth (in its map or picture); though
the
room itself is no more than a mere empty space.
27. Whatever object is perceptible to us at any time or
place, is only the concrete form of the divine spirit;
which is
quite apart from every thing in the discrete.
-----File:
444.png---------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER CLXXXVI.
DEMONSTRATION OF ALL NATURE (AND THING) AS
BRAHMA HIMSELF.
Argument:--Elucidation of the sacred text that "all
is Brahma"; and
the equality of curse.
Válmíki said:--After kunda-danta[**Kunda-danta] had
finished his saying
in the said manner, the venerable Vasishtha delivered
his edifying speech on spiritual knowledge and said.[**:]
2. Whereas the elevated soul of this person, has found
his
rest in the paradise of spiritual philosophy; he will see
the
world like a globe in his hand, and glowing with the
glory of
the great God.
3. The phenomenal world is a false conception, it is
verily
the increate Brahma himself shining in this manner; this
erroneous conception is the very Brahma, that is one and
ever
calm and undecaying.
4. Whatever thing appears any where, in any state, form
or
dimension; it is the very Deity, showing himself in that
condition
of his being, form and mode of extension.
5. This unborn or self-existent Deity, is ever
auspicious,
calm and quiet; he is undecaying, unperishing and
immutable,
and extends through all extent, as the extensive and
endless
space.
6. Whatever state of things he proposes in his
all-knowing
intellect, the same is disposed by him in a thousand
ways, like
the branching out of a plant in the rains.
7. The great mundane egg, is situated as a particle in
the
bosom of the great intellect of God; and this world of
ours is a
particle also, being comprised in a grain of our brains.
8. Know therefore, my good friend, thy intellectual
sphere
to be boundless, and without its beginning or end; and
being
absorbed in the meditation of thy personal extinction, do
thou
-----File: 445.png---------------------------------------------------------
remain as quiet as thou art sitting, relying in thy
unperturbed
and imperishable soul.
9. Wherever there is anything in any state or condition
in
any part of the world, there you will find the presence
of the
divine spirit in its form of vacuity; and this without
changing
its nature of calm serenity, assumes to itself whatever
form or
figure it likes: (or rather evolves them from within
itself at its
free will).
10. The spirit is itself both the view and its viewer; it
is
equally the mind and the body, and the subjective and
objective
alike; It is something and yet nothing at all, being the
great
Brahma or universal soul, that includes and extends
throughout
the whole.
11. The phenomenal is not to be supposed as a duality of,
or any other than the self-same Brahma; but it is to be
known
as one and the same with the divine self, as the visible
sky and
its vacuity.
12. The visible is the invisible Brahma, and the
transcendent
One is manifest in this apparent whole; (because the
noumenon shows the phenomenon, as this exhibits the
other):
therefore it is neither quiescent nor in motion, and the
formal is
altogether formless.
13. Like dreams appearing to the understanding, do these
visions present themselves to the view; the forms are all
formless
conceptions of the mind, and more intangible ideas of the
brain.
14. As conscious beings come to be unconscious of
themselves,
in their dormant state of sleep; so have all these living
and intelligent beings, become unconscious and ignorant
of
themselves and their souls, and turned to torpid trees
that are
lost to their sensibility.
15. But the intellect is capable to return to its
sensibility,
from its state of vegetable torpidity in time; as the
dormant
soul turns to see its dreams in sleep, and then to behold
the
vivid outer world after its wakening.
16. Until the living soul is liberated from its charm of
self
delusion, it is subjected to view its guileful reveries
of elemental
-----File: 446.png---------------------------------------------------------
bodies, appearing as a chain of airy dreams, before the
mind's
eye in sleep.
17. The mind gathers the dross of dullness about it, as
the
soul draws the sheath of sleep upon itself; this dullness
or dimness
of apprehension is not intrinsic in the mind, but an
extraneous
schesis contracted by it from without.
18. The intellect moulds the form of one, who is
conversant
with material and insensible things, into a motionless
and torpid
body; and it is the same intellect, which shapes the
forms of
others, that are conscious of their intellectual natures,
into the
bodies of rational[**=print] and moving being[**beings].
(The dull soul is
degraded
to the state of immovable things and rooted trees, but
intelligent
souls, are elevated to the rank of moving men and
other locomotive animals).
19. But all these moving and unmoving beings, are but
different modifications and aspects of the same
intellect; as the
nails and other parts of the human body, are but the
multifarious
modalities of the same person.
20. The order and nature of things has invariably
continued
the same, as they have been ordained by the Divine will
ever
since its first formation of the world; and because the
creation is
a transcript of its original mould in the Divine mind; it
is as
ideal as any working of imagination or a vision in
dreaming,
both in its states of being and not being.
21. But the intangible and quiescent Brahma, is ever calm
and quiet in his nature; he is never permeated with the
nature
of things, nor is he assimilated with the order of
nature.
22. He appears as the beginning and end of creation, or
as
the cause of its production and dissolution; but these
are the
mere dreams of the Divine intellect, which is always in
its state
of profound sleep and rest.
23. The world is ever existent in his spiritual nature,
and
without any beginning or end of himself; the beginning
and end
of creation, bear no relation with his self-existent and
eternal
nature.
24. There is no reality in the nature of the visible creation,
or in its existence or dissolution; all these are no
other than
-----File:
447.png---------------------------------------------------------
representations shown in the spirit of god, like figures
described
in a picture.
25. As a legion drawn in painting, does not differ from
its
model in the mind of the painter; so these tangible
objects of
creation, with all other endless varieties, are not
different from
their prototype in the mind of god.
26. Notwithstanding the want of any difference, between
the noumenal and phenomenal worlds; yet the mind is prone
to view the variance of its subjectivity and objectivity,
as it is
apt to differentiate its own doings and dreams, in the
states of
its sleep and ignorance. It is the profound sleep and
insouciance
of the soul, that cause its liberation from the view, as
its sensibility serves to bind it the more to the bondage
of the
visibles.
27. It is the reflexion of the invisible soul, that
exhibits
the visible to view, just as the subtile sunbeam,
displays a
thousand solid bodies glaring in sight; and shows the
different
phases of creation and dissolution as in its visions in
dreaming.
28. The dreaming state of the sleeping intellect is
called its
ideality, and the waking state of the self-conscious soul
is
termed its vitality, as in the instances of men and gods
and
other intellectual beings.
29. After passing from these, and knowing the unreality
of
both these imaginative and speculative states, the soul
falls into
its state of profound sleep or trance, which is believed
as
the state of liberation by those that are desirous of
their
emancipation.
30. Ráma said:--Tell me, O venerable sir, in what
proportion
doth the intellect abide in men, gods and demons
respectively;
how the soul reflects itself during the dormancy of the
intellect in sleep, and in what manner does it contain
the world
within its bosom.
31. Vasishtha replied:--Know the intellect to abide alike
in gods and demons, as well as in all men and women; it
dwells
also in imps and goblins, and in all beasts and birds,
reptiles and
insects, including the vegetables and all immovable
things
(within its ample sphere).
-----File:
448.png---------------------------------------------------------
32. Its dimension is boundless and also as minute as a[**
an]
atom; and it streches[**stretches] to the highest heaven,
including
thousands
of worlds within itself.
33. The capacity that we have of knowing the regions
beyond
the solar sphere, and even of penetrating into the
darkness
of polar circles; is all the quality of our intellect,
which extends
all over the boundless space, and is perfectly pellucid
in its
form and nature.
34. So very great is the extent of the intellect, that it
comprehends
the whole universe in itself; and it is this act of his
comprehension of the whole, that is called the mundane
creation,
which originates from it.
35. The intellect spreads all around like the current of
a
river, which glides all along over the ground both high
and low,
leaving some parts of it quite dry, and filling others
with its
waters. So doth the intellect supply some bodies with
intelligence,
while it forsakes eithers[**others], and leaves them in
ignorance.
36. It is intelligence which constitutes the living soul
of
the body, which is otherwise said to be lifeless and insensible;
it resides in all bodies like the air in empty pots, and
becomes
vivid in some and imperceptible in others as it likes.
37. It is its knowledge of the soul (i. e. the
intellectual belief
in its spiritual), that removes the error of its
corporeity;
while the ignorance of its spiritual nature, tends the
more to
foster the sense of its corporeality, like one's
erroneous conception
of water in the mirage.
38. The mind is as minute as the minutest ray of
sunbeams;
and this is verily the living soul, which contains the
whole world within it.
39. All this phenomenal world is the phenomenon of the
mind, as it is displayed in its visionary dreams; and the
same
being the display of the living soul, there is no
difference at all
between the noumenal and the phenomenal.
40. The intellect alone is assimilated into all these
substances,
which have substantiality of their own; whatever is seen
without it, is like its visionary dream, or as the forms
of jewe-*
-----File: 449.png---------------------------------------------------------
*leries[**jewelleries] made of the substance of gold. (i.
e. The intellect is
the
intrinsic essence of all external substances).
41. As the same water of the one universal ocean, appears
different in different places; and in its multifarious
forms of
waves and billows; so doth the divine intellect exhibit
the
various forms of visibles in itself. (i. e. Nothing is
without or
different from the divine essence).
42. As the fluid body of waters, rolls on incessantly in
sundry
shapes within the basin of the great deep; so do these
multitudes of visible things, which are
inherant[**inherent] in and identic
with the divine intellect, glide on forever in its
fathomless
bosom.
43. All these worlds are situated as statues, or they are
engraved
as sculptures in the aerial column of the divine
intellect;
and are alike immovable and without any motion of theirs
through all eternity.
44. We see the situation of the world, in the vacuous
space
of our consciousness; as we see the appearances of things
in our
airy dreams. We find more over everything transfixed in
its
own sphere and place, and continuing in its own state,
without
any change of its position or any alteration in its
nature.
(The invariable course of nature, is not the fortuitous
production
of blind chance).
45. The exact conformity of everything in this world,
with
its conception in the mind of man, with respect to their
invariable
equality in form and property, proves their identity with
one another, or the relation of one being the container
of the
other. (i. e. The mind is either same with or container
of the
world).
46. There is no difference between the phenomenal and
noumenal worlds, as [**[is]] there none between those in
our dream and
imagination. They are in fact[**space added], the one and
same thing, as
the
identity of the waters, contained in tanks, rivers and
sees[** seas], and
between the curse and blessing of gods.
47. Ráma said:--Tell me sir, whether a curse or blessing,
is the effect of any prior cause or the causation of
subsequent
consequences; and whether it possible for any effect to
take
-----File:
450.png---------------------------------------------------------
place without its adequate causality. (Here is a long
legend of
the transformation of Nundi and Nahusha given in illustration
of this passage in the commentary).
48. Vasishtha replied:--It is the manifestation of the
clear
firmament of the divine intellect in itself, that is
styled as the
world; just as the appearance and motion of waters in the
great deep, is termed the ocean and its current.
49. The revolution of the eternal thoughts of the divine
mind, resembles the rolling waves of the deep; and these
are
termed by sages, as the will or volitions of the ever
wilfull[**wilful]
mind of God.
50. The clear minded soul comes in course of time, to
regard
this manifestation of the divine will, in its true
spiritual
light; by means of its habitual meditation and reasoning,
as
well as by cause of its natural good disposition and
evenness of
mind.
51. The wise man possest of consummate wisdom and
learning,
becomes acquainted with the true knowledge of things;
his understanding becomes wholly intellectual, and sees
all
things in their abstract and spiritual light; and is
freed from
the false view of duality (or materiality).
52. The philoshophic[**philosophic] intellect, which is
unclouded by
prejudice,
is the true form of the Great Brahma himself; who
shines perspicuous in our consciousness, and has no other
body
besides.
53. The enlightened soul sees this whole plenitude of creation,
as the display of the Divine Will alone; and as the
exhibition
of the tranquil and transparent soul of the Divinity, and
naught otherwise.
54. This manifestation of the Divine Will, in the
boundless
space of the universe; likens to the aerial castle of our
imagination,
or the city of palaces seen in our dream.
55. This all productive will, is selfsame with the Divine
Soul;
and produces whatever it likes to do any place or time.
(Lt.[**Lit.]
Whatever it wills, the same takes place even then and
there).
56. As a boy thinks of his flinging stones, at the aerial
castle of his imagination; so the Divine will is at
liberty to
-----File:
451.png---------------------------------------------------------
scatter, myriads of globular balls, in the open and empty
space of boundless vacuity.
57. Thus everything being the manifestation of the Divine
will, in all these three worlds; there is nothing as a
blessing
or curse (i. e. good or evil) herein, which is distinct
from the
Divine Soul.
58. As we can see in our fancy, the gushing out of oil
from
a sandy desert; so can we imagine the coming out of the
creation,
from the simple will of the Divine Soul.
59. The unenlightened understanding, being never freed
from its knowledge of particulars and their mutual
differences;[**,]
It[**it] is impossible for it to generalize good and
evil, under the
head of universal good. (All partial evil is but
universal good.
Pope).
[**Exact quotation:
"All partial evil, universal good"]
60. Whatever is willed in the beginning, by the omniscience
of God; the same remains unaltered at all times, unless
it is
altered by the same omniscient will.
61. The contraries of unity and duality, dwell together
in
the same manner in the formless person of Brahma; as the
different members of an embodied being, remain side by
side
in the same person. (The knowledge of all contrarieties,
blends
together in omniscience. Gloss).
62. Ráma said:--Why some ascetics of limited knowledge,
are so very apt to confer their blessings, as also to
pour their
imprecations on others; and whether they are attended
with
their good or bad results or not.
63. Vasishtha replied:--Whatever is disposed in the
beginning,
by the Divine will which subsists in Brahma; the very
same comes to pass afterwards, and nothing otherwise. (Lit.
there is no other principale[**principle] besides).
64. Brahmá the Lord of creation, knew the Supreme Soul
in himself, and thereby he became the agent of the Divine
will;
therefore there is no difference between them. (i. e.
betwixt [**between--
P2:betwixt OK/SOED]
Brahmá and Brahma); as there is none between the water
and
its fluidity.
65. Whatsoever the Lord of creatures-[**--]Brahmá,
proposes to
-----File:
452.png---------------------------------------------------------
do at first as inspired in him by the Divine will; the
same takes
place immediately, and the very same is styled this
world.
66. It has no support nor receptacle for itself, but
appears as
vacuous bubble in the great vacuity itself; and resembles
the
chain of pearls, fleeting before the eyes of purblind men
in the
open sky.
67. He willed the productions of creatures, and
institution
of the qualities of justice, charity and religious
austerities;
He stablished the Vedas and sástras, and the five
system[**systems]
of philoshophical[**philosophical] doctrines.
(Namely;[**,] the four
Vedas and the
Smrites[**Smritis], forming the five branches of sacred
knowledge, and
the five branches of profane learning-[**--]consisting of
the
sankaya[**sankhya, ]
yoga, Pátanjala[**Pátanjali], Pásupata, and Vaishnava
systems. gloss).
68. It is also ordained by the same Brahmá, that whatever
the devotees[**hyphen removed] learned in the Vedas,
pronounce in their
calmness
or dispute, the same takes place immediately; (from
their knowledge of the Divine will).
69. It is he that has formed the chasm of vacuum in the
inactive intellect of Brahma, and filled it with the
fleeting winds
and heating fire; together with the liquid water and
solid
earth.
70. It is the nature of this intellectual principle, to
think of
everything in itself; and to conceive the presence of the
same
within it, whether it be a thought of thee or me or of
anything
beside (either in general or particular).
71. Whatever the vacuous intellect thinks in itself, the
same it sees present before it; as our actual selves come
to see,
the unreal sights of things in our dreams.
72. As we see the unreal flight of stones, as realities
in our
imagination; so we see the false appearance of the world,
as
true by the will of god, and the contrivance of Brahma.
73. Whatever is thought of by the pure intellect, must be
likewise of a purely intellectual nature also; and there
is nothing
that can do it otherwise, (or convert it to grossness),
as
they defile the pure metal with some base alloy.
74. We are apt to have the same conceptions of things in
our consciousness, as we are accustomed to consider them,
and
-----File:
453.png---------------------------------------------------------
not of what we are little practiced to think upon; hence
we
conceive all that we see in our dreams to be true, from
our
like conceptions of them in our waking state. (It is thus
that
we conceive this purely ideal world as a gross body, from
our
habit of thinking so at all times).
75. It is by uniting one's intellectuality, with the universal
and divine intellect, and by the union of the subjective
and
objective and their perceptibility in one's self, by
means of the
tripúti yoga, that we can see the world in its true
light.
76. One universal and vacuous intellect, being all
pervading
and omnipresent, is the all seeing subject and all seen
objects
by itself; hence whatever is seen or known to be
anywhere,
is the very verity of the intellect and no other.
77. As oscillation is inherent in air, and fluidity is
immanent
in water; so is amplitude intrinsical in Brahma, and the
plentitude is innate in the Divine mind.
78. Even I am Brahma also in his self manifest form of
Viráj, which embodies the whole world as its body; hence
there is no difference of the world from Brahma, as there
is
none between air and vacuity.
79. As the drops of water as a cataract, assume many
forms
and run their several ways; so the endless works of
nature
take their various forms and courses, at different places
and
times.
80. All beings devoid of their senses and understanding,
issue as waters of the waterfall, from the cascade of the
divine mind; and remain forever in their uniform courses,
with
the consciousness of their existence in Brahma.
81. But such as come forth[**space added] from it, with
the possession of
their senses and intellects in their bodies;
diviate[**deviate] in different
ways like the liquid waters, in pursuit of their many
worldly
enjoyments.
82. They are then insensibly led, by their want of good
sense, to regard this world as theirs, (i. e. the sphere
of their
actions, [Sanskrit: karmbhaksetra[**typo for
karmaksetra]]); being
ignorant of its identity with the uncreated
spirit of god.
-----File:
454.png---------------------------------------------------------
83. As we see the existence and distribution of other
bodies
in us, and the inertness of stones in our bodies; so the
Lord
perceives the creation and annihilation of the world, and
its
inertia in himself.
84. As in our state of sleep we have both our sound sleep
and our dreams also; so doth the divine soul perceive the
creation
as well as its annihilation, in its state of perfect rest
and
tranquility.
85. The divine soul perceives in its state of
tranquility,
the two phases of creation and destruction, succeeding
one
another as its day and night; just as we see our sleep
and
dreams recurring unto us like darkness and light.
86. As a man sees in his mind, both the dream of moving
bodies as well as immovable rocks in his sleep; so does
the
Lord perceive the ideas, both of the stable and unstable
in
his intellectual tranquility. (i. e. It is possible for
the intellect,
to conceive the ideas of gross bodies also).
87. As a man of absent mind, has no heed of the dust
flying
on any part of his body; so the divine spirit is not
polluted,
by his entertaining the ideas of gross bodies within
itself.
88. As the air and water and stones, are possessed of the
consciousness of their airy, watery and solid bodies, so
are we
conscious of our material, intellectual and spiritual
bodies likewise.
89. As the mind that is freed from seeing the objects of
sight, and liberated from entertaining all their thoughts
and
desires also, flows along like a stream of limpid waters;
so doth
the current of the divine spirit glide on eternally, with
the
waves and eddies of creation and dissolution, perpetually
rolling
on and whirling therein.
-----File:
455.png---------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER CLXXXVII.
OF THE LIVING CREATION.
Argument:--Description of nature and destiny, and of
creation and
its teeming with vitality.
Ráma rejoined[**=print (blot)]:--Tell me sir, how can one
paramount
destiny,
guide the fates of these endless chains and varieties
of beings[**=print]; and how can one uniform nature, be
the predominant
feature of all these various kinds of beings.
2. Say why is the sun so very shining among the myriads
of gods, and [**[what]] cause is it that lengthens and
shortens, the
durations
of days and nights (in summer and winter).
3. Vasishtha replied:--Whatever the Lord has ordained at
first of himself, (i. e. of his own will and wisdom); the
same
appearing as the fortuitous formation of chance, is
called the
very system of the universe.
4. All that is manifested in any manner by omnipotence,
is
and continues as real in the same manner; because what is
made of the pith of divine will and intelligence, can
never be
unreal; nor is it possible for the manifest and obvious
to be
evanescent.
5. All that is situated or appears to us in any manner,
being composed of the divine intellect, must continue to
remain
for ever in the same manner; this appearance of creation
and its disappearance in its dissolution, are both
attributed to
the unseen power of its destiny.
6. To say this one is such and that is otherwise, is to
attribute
them to the manifestation of Brahma as so and so; and
these formations of theirs, together with their ultimate
dissolution,
are called the acts of their destiny.
7. The three states of waking, sleeping and dreaming,
appearing to the nature of the soul, are no way separated
from
it; as the fluidity and motion of water, are not
otherwise than
properties of the same limpid liquid.
-----File:
456.png---------------------------------------------------------
8. As vacuity is the property of air, and warmth of the
sunshine,
and as odour is the quality of camphor; so the states of
waking, sleeping and dreaming, appertain to the very
nature of
the soul, and are inseparable from it.
9. Creation and dissolution follow one another, in the
one
and same current of the Divine Intellect; which in its
vacuous
form, subsists in the vacuous spirit of Brahma.
10. What is believed as creation, is but a momentary
flash
of the Divine Intellect; and that which is thought to be
a kalpa
period, is a[**delete 'a'] but a transient glare of the
same. (A kalpa age is
but a fleeting moment in the eternal duration of Brahma).
11. The sky and space and the things and actions, that
come to our knowledge at any time; are as mere dreams
occuring[**occurring]
unto us, by a flash of the glaring nature of the Divine
Intellect.
12. The sights of things and the eternal thoughts, and
whatever occurs at any time or place; are all presented
unto
us by our minds, from their formless shapes or ideas in
the
vacuous intellect of God. (The mind derives the formal
iamges[**images], from their ideals subsisting in the
Divine Intellect).
13. Whatever is thus manifested by the mind or designed
by
it at any time, the same is termed its destiny, which is
devoid
of any form like the formless air.
14. The uniform state of things for a whole kalpa age,
measuring
but a moment of Brahma; is what is expressed by the
word nature, by natural philosophers that know all
nature.
15. The one soul-[**--]consciousness or universal
intelligence (of
God), is diversified into a hundred varieties of living beings;
and every portion of this general intelligence, retains
the same
intellection like its original, without forsaking its
nature (Note.
As the one element of fire, diversifies itself into many
forms of
sparks, without losing its properties of heat and burning).
16. The intelligences that appertain to and manifest
themselves,
in the supreme intelligence of God, do some of them
imagine to assume to themselves some embodied forms, in
utter
ignorance of their intellectual natures.
-----File: 457.png---------------------------------------------------------
17. The earth, air, water and fire and vacuum, are
severally
the receptacles of many properties; but it is the vacuous
intellect
which is the great repository of these, that appear as
dreams
hovering all about it.
18. This place contains the vast receptacle, for the
reception
of all tangible and solid bodies; and this spacious earth
with all
the population on its surface, is seated in the midst of
it.
19. It has a place for the vast body of waters, or the great
ocean in it; and affords a seat to the sun-[**--]the
source of light;
it has a space for the course of the winds, and a vacuum
containing
all the worlds in it.
20. It is the reservoir of the five elements, which are
the
quintuple principles of our knowledge; and it being thus
the
container of the quintessence of Brahma, what is seen or
anything
else before it.
21. The learned call this intelligence as the intellect
and
omniscience; it is omiform[**omniform] uniformed and
all-pervading, and
is
perceived by all owing to its greatness and its great
magnitude.
22. Brahmá the son or offspring of Brahma; is the
selfsame
Brahma himself; who by expanding his intelligence, has
expanded the vacuum under the name of firmament; and as
an
awning of silk in cloth. (In fact[**space added] nothing
was made by the
father but by the son).
23. When delusion rules over the intellect of Brahmá and
over the subtile[**OK/SOED] and gross matters; then how
is it possible
for
other things, what are but parts of them, to stand good
in law.
24. It is simply by his will (and without any external
appliance),
that this god Brahma stretched the network of the
universe, as a spider weaves its web out of itself; it
revolves
like a disc or wheel in the air, and whirls like a
whirlpool in the
hollow depth of the intellect, appearing as it were a
sensible
sphere in the heavens.
25. These[**This] sphere presents some bodies of great
brightness,
and others of a lesser light; which there are some
scarcely
visible to us, and all appearing as figures in a
painting.
26. All created objects appear in this manner and those
-----File:
458.png---------------------------------------------------------
that are not created never appear to view; but they all
appear
as visions in a dream, to the sight of the learned.
27. The intellect is the selfsame soul, and the Lord of
All,
and the seeming visibles are all really invisible; they
are all
evanescent for their want of lasting bodies; and neither
are
they visible by themselves, nor are they ever perceptible
to or
seen by us.
28. The vacuous intellect, sees these as its dreams in
the
great vacuity of the intellect, and this world being no
other
than a phenomenon of the vacuous intellect, can have no
other
form than that of mere vacuum.
29. Whatever is manifested by the intellect in any
manner,
the same is called its form and body; and the countenance
of
that manifested form for a certain period, is termed its
nature
or destiny.
30. The first manifestation of the divine intellect, in
the
form of vacuum and as the vihicle[** vehicle] of sound;
became
afterwards
the source of the world, which sprouted forth like a
seed, in the
great granary of vacuity. (The conveying of sound and the
containing
of worlds are the nature of vacuum).
31. But the account given of the genesis of the world,
and
of the creation of things one after the other, are mere
fabrication
of sages for instraction [** instruction] of the
ignorant, and has no basis on
truth. (Because no reason can be assigned for the Lord's
production
of the material world).
32. There is nothing that is ever produced of nothing,
nor
reduced to nothingness at any time; all this is as quiet
and
calm as the bosom of a rock, and ever as real as it is
unreal.
(The world is real in the ideal, but an utter unreality
in its
materiality).
33. As there existed no separate body before, so there
can
be no end of it also; all things exist as inseparable
infinitessimal[**infinitesimal]
with the spirit of God, and can therefore neither rise
nor set in it where they are always present.
34. The vacuous world existing in vacuum of the divine
spirit, is a pure vacuity or blank only; how is it
possible then to
rise or set in it, or go beyond it to rise or set
elsewhere.
-----File:
459.png---------------------------------------------------------
35. What is the world, but a ray of the ever shining gem
of
divine intellect; before whose omniscience, every thing
shines
for ever in its own light and nature.
36. The Divine spirit though unknown to all, makes itself
some what conceivable to us in our consciousness of it,
and in
our thinkableness of it, and by means of our reasoning
and
reflection.
37. We can get some knowledge of it by our reason, as we
can draw inferences of future events by means of our
reasoning;
this knowledge or[**is] rarer than that of the subtile
element
of air, and fainter than our prescience into the future
of all
thing.
38. Then this transcendental essence of the divine
spirit,
being about to reflect in itself, becomes the thinking
principle
called the intellect, which is somewhat intelligible to
us.
39. Having then the firm conviction of its consciousness
in
itself, it takes the name of the living soul, which is
known by
the title of Anima[**Anma--P2: No], meaning the supreme
spirit or soul.
40. This living soul embodied in itself the nameless
avidyá
or ignorance, which shrouded the atmosphere of its
intellect,
and superceded the title of the pure intelligence. (The
living
soul jivátmà[** jívátmá] is involved in ignorance máyá,
of its original
state of Chiddáta or the intelligent soul).
41. It is then employed in the thoughts, of its bodily
conduct
and wordly[** worldly] carrier only; and being forgetful
of its spiritual
nature, is engaged in the discharge of his temporal
functions.
42. Being thus forgetful of its nature of vacuum, which
possesses the property of conveying the sound;
and[**delete 'and'] it
becomes
prepossessed with the error of taking the future material
bodies
for real, in lieu of the reality of the intellect.
43. It gets next the motion of its egoism, with the idea
of
time, in its spiritual body; and then these two run
together, in
quest of the material elements, which are the seeds for
the
growth of the forth coming world.
44. Then the thinking power of the living soul, begets
the
sense of consciousness within itself; and produces
therein the
conviction of the unreal world, as a positive reality.
-----File:
460.png---------------------------------------------------------
45. After this the thinking principle or the mind,
burrts[** bursts]
out like a seed into a hundred sprouts of its wishes; and
then
by reflecting on its egoism, thinks as a living being at
the very
moment.
46. Thus the pure spirit passing under the name of living
soul, is entangled in the maze of its erroneous and
unreal reality,
has been rolling like a heaving wave in the depth of the
universal spirit. (All living souls of animate beings,
are as
bursting bubbles in the ocean of the eternal spirit).
47. The mind by constantly reflecting at first on the
vacuous
nature of the living soul; is stultified at last to think
it as
a[**delete 'a'] solidified into the nature of animal life
or the vital air or
breath of life.
48. This being became the source of articulate sounds or
words, which were expressive of certain meanings, and
significant
of things, that were to be created afterwards; and were
to be embodied in the wording of the Vedas. (The Lord
spake
and all things came out at his bidding, which were
afterwards
stated in the Book of Genesis).
49. From him was to issue forth the would-be[**hyphen
added] world, by
virtue of the words which he spake to denote the things
he
meant; the words that he invented were fraught with their
meanings, and productive of the things which they
expressed.
50. The intellect being employed in this manner (in the
thoughts of creation), takes upon it the title of a
living being;
which being garbed in significant words, was productive
of all
existent entities. (The volitive principle of the divine
intellect,
takes the name of the living soul or Brahmá the creative
agent).
51. It was this self-existent entity that produced the
fourteen
spheres, which fill the whole space of vacuity; and which
give rise to so many worlds that subsist therin[**
therein].
52. But before this being had the power of his speech,
and
of the use of his limbs and body, it remained to reflect
only on
the significations of words, having had his mind alone
the only
active part of himself. (So the mind alone of a living
body, is
-----File:
461.png---------------------------------------------------------
the only active part of it in its embryonic state, before
its attainment
of the functions of all its other parts and members[**)].
53. As the air devolopes[**developes--OK/SOED] a seed to
a plant, by
exhalling[**exhaling] on
its outer coat, so doth the intellect develope[OK/SOED]
the bodily
functions
of living beings, by working in its internal parts. (i.
e.
The mind actuates the action of the body).
54. And as the oscillating intellect or mind, happens to
come across the idea of light; it beholds the same appearing
to view; as it is conveyed before it by its significant
sound
(i. e. as meant by the word).
55. Light is only our intellection or notion of it, and
nothing without it; as feeling is our consciousness of
it, and
not the perception derived by means of the touch of
anything.
(This is theory of Berkeley).
56. So is sound but our consciousness of it, and a
subjective
conception of our mind; as vacuum is a conception of the
vacuous mind, and as the receptacle of sound caused by
itself.
57. As in this state of sound it is known to be the
product
of air in its own vacuity, so everything else is the
product of our
consciousness, and there [**[is]] nothing as a duality
beside it.
58. So the properties of odour and flavour, are as well
as
the substances of sound and air; and these unrealities
seem as
real ones, like the dreams that are seen and thought of
in our
minds.
59. Heat which is the seed or seat of the arbor of light,
and
evolves itself in the radiance and other luminous bodies;
are
the forms of the same intellect, that shows itself in all
things.
60. So is flavour a mere quality of empty air, is thought
of
as a reality in every article of our food and drink; and
is a
mere name without its substance.
61. All other things, which were hereafter to be designated
by different names as fragrance &c[**.], are but so
many forms of
the thoughts and desires existing in the mind of this
living
being or Brahmá.
62. This being had in his mind the seed of all forms and
dimensions, from which was to proceed this terrestial[**terrestrial]
globe,
that was to become afterwards the support of all
creatures.
-----File:
462.png---------------------------------------------------------
63. All things yet unborn, appeared as already born in
this divine mind, which was filled with the models of all
future
existences of every kind; and all these formless beings
had
their forms afterwards, as it thought and willed them to
be (i. e.
The ideal became the real at last).
64. These forms appeared to view as by an act of chance,
and the organs whereby they came to be seen, were
afterwards
called by name of eyes, or the visual organs of sight.
65. The organs which gave the perception of sounds, were
named the ears; and those which bore the filling of touch
to
the mind, were called the organs of feeling or [**
Sanskrit: tvak[**=print]]
[**.]
66. The organ of perceiving the flavours, was styled the
tongue or organ of taste; and that which received the
perception
of smell, were[**was] termed the nose or organ of scent.
67. The living soul being subjected to its corporeal
body, has
no perception of the distinctions of time and place by
means of
its bodily organs, which are so imperfect and soulless on
the
whole. (i. e. He[**It] is not throughly[** thoroughly]
diffused all over the
body, but has its seat in the mind also, which perceives
the
abstract ideas of time and space and all other abstract
natures
of things).
68. In this manner are all things but imageries of the
soul,
and ideals of the intellect, and wholly confined in the
soul;
they neither appear nor set on the outside[**space
removed] of it, but are
set
as silent engravings in the stony and stiff bosom of the
same.
-----File:
463.png---------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER CLXXXVIII.
DESCRIPTION OF THE LIVING SOUL.
Argument:--The Living soul is identified with Brahma or
the universal
soul; its birth is but a fiction of speech; and the
erroneous conception of
its animal soul and body, is fully exposed herein.
Vasishtha continued:--The fiction of the first rise of
the living soul; from the calm and quiet spirit of god
as said before, is merely fictitious and not a true one;
but was
meant to elucidate the nature of the animate soul, as the
same
with and not distinct from the Supreme soul.
2. In this manner the fiction (of the living soul) means
that, this being a part of the supreme soul is verily the
same with it. (As the air in the pot or cot, is the same
as
universal air or vacuum). It is when the subjective soul
is
employed with the thoughts of the objective, that it is
termed
the living god or spirit. (Hence the quiescent and
creative
souls, are but the states or hypostases of the same
soul).
3. The inclination of the self-intelligent or subjective
soul,
towards thinkable objects of thought, garbs it under a
great
many fictitious names or epithets, which you shall now
hear me,
O Ráma, relate to you in all their varieties.
4. It is called the living soul or jíva, from its power
of living
and thinking; and from its addictedness towards the
thinkables,
it is turmed[**termed] the thinking principle and the
intellect.
5. It is termed intelligence for its intellection of this
thing
as that, as well as for its knowledge of what is what;
and it is
called the mind from its mending[**minding, ] willing and
imagining of
many things. (The three powers of the mind are here
reckoned,
as retention, volition and imagination).
6. The reliance in self that,[**delete ','] "I
am" is what is called egoism;
and the principle of percipience called the mind by the
vulgar,
is when freed from everything, styled the intellect by
the wise
and those acquainted with the sástras.
-----File:
464.png---------------------------------------------------------
7. It is called the aggregate of the octuple principles
or
totality of existence, when it is combined with all its
wishes of
creation; and then named as subtile nature, before its
production
of the substantial world.
8. Being absent from or imperceptable[** imperceptible]
to our
perception, it
is called the hidden nature; and in this manner many
other
fictitious names are given to it by way of fiction or
fabrication
of our imagination. (The word avidyá here mean as absent,
is elsewhere explained as unknown and as ignorance and
illusion
also).
9. All these fictitious appellations that I have told
thee
here, are mere inventions of our fancy, for the one
formless and
changeless eternal being.
10. In this manner are all these three worlds, but the
fairy lands of our dream and the castles of our
imagination;
they appear as objects made for our enjoyment and bliss,
but
are in reality an intactible[**intactile?] vacuity.
[**intactile has been used
elsewhere]
11. So must you know, O best of embodied beings, that
this body of yours is of a spiritual or intangible
nature; it is the
intellectual body formed of the vacuous intellect, which
is rarer
than the rarified[**rarefied] air.
12. It never rises nor sets (i. e. it is neither born nor
dies)
in this world, but continue[**continues] with our
consciousness of
ourselves,
until our final liberation from the sense of our
personalities.
This mental body or mind of ours, is the recipient of the
fourteen
worlds and all created objects.
13. It is in the extensive regions of our minds, that
millions
of worlds continue to be treated and dissolved in the
course
of time; and an unnumbered train of created beings, are
growing and falling as fruits in it in the long run of
time. (The
mind and time, contain all things).
14. This intellectual body beholds the world, both inside
and outside of it; as the looking glass reflects and refracts,
the
outward and its inward images both in as well as out of
it;
and as the open air reflects and shows us the upper
skies.
15. The mind must bear these images in its mirror, until
its
final dissolution with all things at the end of the
world; when
-----File:
465.png---------------------------------------------------------
all minds and bodies and all the world and their
contents, are
to be incorporated in the great vacuum of the Divine
Mind.
16. The compactness of the Divine Mind, which comprehends
all images or ideas in itself, imparts them partly in all
individual minds, which are but parts of itself, and
which are
made to think likewise. (This passage maintains the
innate
ideas derived immediately from God).
17. This spiritual body that was employed in viewing the
inborn world in itself; is turned[**termed] as the form
of the Great
Brahmá by some, and as that of the God Viráj by others,
18. Some call him the sanátana or
sempeternal[**sempiternal], and others
give him the name of Náráyana or floating on the surface
of
the waters. Some style him as Isha and by his name as
Prajápati-[**--]the Lord of creatures (Patriach).
19. This being chanced to have,[**delete ','] his five
organs of sense on a
sudden, and these were seated in the several parts of his
body,
when they still retain there seats as before.
20. Then his delusion of the phenomenal, seemed to extend
too far and wide, without any appearance of reality
therein, all
being a vast waste and void. (The noumenal only is the
true
reality).
21. It was all the appearance of that eternal and
transcendental
Brahma, and not of the unreal phenomenal which is
never real; it is the very Brahma, which is without its
beginning
and end, and appearing in a light quite unintelligible to
us.
(Being imperceptible in his person, his reality is hid
under
the garb of unreality).
22. Our inquiry into the spiritual form of the deity,
leads
us to take the delusive world as such; just as the
longing of
the ardent lover after his loved one, leads him to the
view of
its bloated phantom in his dream. (i. e. in our search
after the
spiritual, we are misled to take the corporeal as such).
23. As we have the blank and formless notion of a pot,
presented in the real shape of the pot in our minds; so
have
we the notions of our bodies and the world also,
represented as
realities in dreams and imagination.
24. As the dreamed objects of our vacuous minds, seem to
-----File:
466.png---------------------------------------------------------
be real ones for the time in our sleep; so all these
aerial objects
in nature, appear as solid substances in the delusion of
our
dreams by daylight.
25. This spiritual and formless body (of the deity),
comes
to be gradually perceived in us and by itself also; as we
come
to see the aerial forms presenting themselves unto us in
our
dream.
26. It is then embodied in a gross body, composed of
flesh
and bones, and all its members, and its covering of the
skin
and hairs; and in this state it thinks (of its carnal
appetites and
enjoyments).
27. It then reflects on its birth and acts in that body,
and
upon the duration and end of that body also; and
entertains
the erroneous ideas of the enjoyments and incidents of
its life.
28. It comes to know its subjection to decay, decrepitude
and death, and of its wonderings[**wanderings] on all
sides of the wide
sphere
of this globe; it gets the knowledge of the knower and
known,
and also of the beginning;[**,] middle and [**[end]] of
all acts and things.
29. And thus the primordial spirit, being transformed to
the living soul, comes to know the elementary bodies of
earth,
air, and water &c[**.], and the varieties of created
beings and conduct
of men and finds itself as contained and confined within
the limits of its body and of this earth, after its
having been
the container of all bodies and space before. (The
difference
here spoken of, is that of the personal soul of the jíva
or
living being, and that of the impersonal soul of
Brahma-[**--]the
universal spirit).
Om Tat Sat
(Continued...)
( My
humble salutations to Brahmasri Sreemaan Vihari Lala Mitra ji for the
collection)
Post a Comment