The
Yoga Vasishtha
Maharamayana
of Valmiki
The only complete English translation is
by Vihari Lala Mitra (1891).
CHAPTER IX.
ASCERTAINMENT OF TRUE KNOWLEDGE.
Argument.--Division of the three gunas or qualities. Pure
essence
of the Gods Hara and others, nature of knowledge and
ignorance, and
other subjects.
Rama said, You said sir, that all formal bodies are
representations
of illusion or ignorance (Avidy・; but how do you
account for the pure bodies of Hari, Hara and other
divinities,
and god-heads who are of pure essence in their embodied
forms,
and which cannot be the creation of our error or
delusion. Please,
sir, explain these clearly to (spun) me and remove my
doubts and
difficulties on the subject (The exhibition of gross
bodies is the
deception of our sense, but the appearance of pure
spiritual forms,
can not be production of ignorance or sensible deception.
We may
ignore the forms of material substances, but not those
immaterial
essences which are given in the s疽tras. gloss).
2. Vasishtha replied,--The perceptible world represents
the
manifestation of the one quiescent and all inherent soul,
and exhibits
the glory (畸h疽ha) of the essential intellect (sach-chit),
which is beyond conception or thought divine.
3. This gives rise to the shape of a partial hypostasis,
or
there rises of itself hypostatics ([Sanskrit:
kal疚alar侊in偰), resembling the
rolling
fragment of a cloud appearing as a watery substance or
filled with water. (This original fiction of the (glory
of god
giving rise to the watery mist like a lighted lamp
emitting the
inky smoke, is represented in the common belief of dark
ignorance
([Sanskrit: avidy畩) proceeding from the bright light of
divine knowledge
([Sanskrit: vidy畩), and exhibited by the allegory of the
black goddess
of ignorance and illusion ([Sanskrit: avidy畩 and
[Sanskrit: m痒畩) gushing
out of the
white and fair god lying inactive and dormant under her;
she
is hence designated by the various epithets of
([Sanskrit: shy疥・ k疝・
jaladha]
and [Sanskrit: n叝adavaran畩) and so forth, and this is the
whole
mystry[**mystery] of the
S疚ta faith).
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4. This hypostatic fragment is also conceived in its
three
different lights or phases, of rarity, density and
rigidity or grossness,
[**(][Sanskrit: sukhsm・ madhy・ sth伃畩) resembling the
twilight.[**,]
Midday[**midday],[**delete ,]
light, and darkness of the solar light. The first of
these is
called the mind or creative will, the second styled the
Brahma
Hiranyagarbha or the creative power, and the third is
known
as Virat, the framer of the material frame, and as
identic with
creation itself.
5. These are again denominated the three qualities
(trigunas),
according to their different states, and these are the
qualities
of reality, brightness and darkness satya[**satva], rajas
and tamas,
which are designated also as the triple nature of things
or their
swabh疱as or prakriti.
6. Know all nature to be characterised by ignorance of
the
triple states of the positive and comparative and
superlative
degrees; these are inbred in all living beings, except
the Being
that is beyond them, and which is the supreme one.
7. Again the three qualities of satya[**satva], rajas,
and tamas or the
positive, comparative and superlative, which are
mentioned in
this piece, have each of them its subdivisions also into
three
kinds of the same name.
8. Thus the original Ignorance ([Sanskrit: avidy畩),
becomes of nine
kinds by difference of its several qualities; and
whatever is seen
or known here below, is included under one or of the
various
kinds. (Hence the saktas reckon ten different forms of
[Sanskrit:
mah疱idy畩,
comprising the primary ignorance and its nine fold
divisions).
9. Now R疥a, know the positive or satwika quality of
ignorance,
to comprise the several passes of living beings known as
the Rishis, Munis, the Siddhas and Nagas, the Vidyadhars
and
Suras. (All of these are marked by the positive quality
of goodness
inborn in their nature).
10. Again this quality of positive goodness comprises the
Suras or gods Hara and others of the first class that are
purely
and truly good. The sages and Siddhas forming the second
or intermediate class, are endued with a less share of
goodness
in them, while N疊as or Vidyadharas making the last class
posseses[**possesses] it in the least degree.
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11. The gods being born with the pure essence of
goodness,
and remaining unmixed with the properties of other
natures, have
attained the state of purity (Holiness) like the divine
Hari, Hara
and others. (i[**.] e. So long the divine nature of a god
is not
shrouded under the veil of ignorance (avidya 疱arana), he
is to
be held in the light of a divinity as a Christ or
Buddha); other
wise[**otherwise] rajasha or qualified states of Hari
Hara as they are
represented
by the vulgar, are neither to be regarded as such).
12. R疥a! whoever is fraught with the quality of goodness
in his nature, and acquainted with divine knowledge in
his mind,
such a one is said to be liberated in this life, and
freed from
further transmigration.
13. It is for this reason, O high minded R疥a! that the
gods
Rudra and others who possess the properties of goodness in
them, are said to continue in their liberated state to
the final
end of the world.
(Hence the immortals never die and being released from
their
earthly coil, their good spirits rove at large in open
air; lastand[**last and]
until the last doomsday rorqucamat[**?] or final
resurrection of the
dead).
14. Great souls remain liberated, as long as they
continue
to live in their mortal bodies; and after the shuffling
of their
frail bodies, they became[**become] free as their
disembodied spirits; and
them[**they] reside in the supreme spirit. (i. e. They
return to the
source from which they had proceeded).
15. It is the part of ignorance to lead men to the
performance
of acts, which after their death, become the roots of
producing
other acts also in all successive states of
transmigration.
(Ignorance leads one to interminable action in repeated
births, by making the acts of the prior life to become
the
source of others in the next, so the acts of ignorance,
become
the seeds and fruits of themselves by turns, and there is
no cessation
nor liberation from them).
16. Ignorance rises from knowledge, as the hollow bubble
bursts out of the level of liquid water; and it sets and
sinks in
knowledge likewise, as the bubble subsides to rest in the
same
water. (Ignorance and its action which are causes of
creation,
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have both their rise from the omniscience and in
action[**inaction] of God
into[**until], they are dissolved at the dissolution of
the world. Physical
force rises from and rests in the spiritual.
Ignorance--avidya
being but a negation of knowledge--vidya, is said to
proceed
from:--the negative being but privation of the positive).
17. And as there is no such thing as a wave; but a word
coined to denote the heaving of water; so there is
nothing as
ignorance but a word fabricated to express the want of
knowledge.
(Hence the believers in ignorance are mistaken in relying
their faith in a power which has no existence whatever).
18. As the water and waves are identic in their true
sense,
and there is no material difference between them; so both
knowledge
and ignorance relating to the same thing, and expressing
either its presence or absence, there can be no essential
difference
in their significance.
19. Leaving aside the sights of knowledge and ignorance,
there remains that which always exists of itself (that
is, the selfexistant[**
existent]
god exists, beyond both the knowledge and ignorance of
men, or wheather[**whether] they know him or not). It is
only the
contradiction
of adverse parties ([Sanskrit: pratiyogi byavaccheda])
that has introduced
these words. (i. e., calling the opponents as ignorant
and
themselves as the knowing, in their mutual altercation
with one
another).
20. The sights of knowledge and ignorance are nothing;
(i. e., they are both blind to the sight of truth):
therefore be
firm in what is beyond these, and which can neither be
known
nor ignored by imagination of it.
21. There is some thing which is not any thing, except
that
it exists in the manner of the intellect and
consciousness chit-samvit,
and this again has no representation of it, and therefore
that ens or sat is said to be inevident avidya the
unknownable[**unknowable].
22. That One Sat being known as this or such, is said to
be
the destroyer of ignorance; whereas it is want of this
knowledge,
that gives rise to the false conception of an
Avibya[**Avidya] or
ignorance.
(Avidya, mithya, kalpana signifies ignorance to be a
false
imagination and personification also, as it is seen in
the images
of the ten Avidyas here).
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23. When knowledge and ignorance are both lost in
oblivion within one in the intellect as when both the
sun-shine
and its shadow are lost in shade of night. (i. e., both
the
knowledge of the subjective ego and objective non-ego
which is
caused by ignorance being concentrated in the
consciousness of
the intellect only within one's self[**)].
24. Then there remains the one only that is to be gained
and known, and thus it is, that the loss of ignorance
tends to the
dissipation of selfknowledge likewise, (which is caused
by it);
just as the want of oil extinguishes the lamp. (Egoism
and
ignorance being akin to one another, both of them rise
and remain
and die together ([Sanskrit: ajn疣ah疥karayorek・satitayor偀
pattin疽hau
y彅avadeba]).
25. That what remains afterwards, is either nullity or
the
whole plenum, in which all these things appear to
subsist, or it is
nothing at all. (The one is the view of atheists who deny
all
existence, and the other of m痒ikas who maintain the
visible
nature as mere illusion. ([Sanskrit:
m痒疥ayamidamakhilam])[**)].
26. As the minute grain of the Indian fig-tree contains
within it the future arbor and its undeveloped state, so
the almighty
power of omnipotence is lodged in the minute
receptcle[**receptacle]
of the spirit before its expansion into immensity. (The
developed
and undeveloped states of the supreme power, are called
its
vyakrita and avy畸rita[**avy疚rita] forces).
27. The divine spirit is more rarified[**rarefied] than
the subtile air, and
yet is not a vacuity having the chit or intellect in
itself. It is as
the sun-stone with it[**its] inherent fire and the milk
with the latent
butter unborn in it. (Hence the spirit of god is said to
be embryonic
seed of the universe. [Sanskrit: brahm疣dav勀am])[**)].
28. All space and time reside in that spirit for their
development,
as the spark proceeds from the fire and light issues from
the sun in which they are contained. (The will, or word
of god
produces all things from his spiritual essence).
29. So all things are settled in the Supreme intellect,
and
show themselves unto us as the waves of the sea and as
the
radiance of gems: and so our understandings also are
reflexions
of the same.
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30. The Divine intellect is the store-house of all
things, and
the reservoir of all conciousness[**consciousness]. (i.
e., the fountain-head
of the
understandings of all living beings). It is the Divine essence
which pervades the inside and outside of every thing.
(All
things are dependant to the entity of god for their
existence,
and there is no independent particle whatever).
31. The Divine soul is as imperishable as the air within
a
pot which is not destroyed by breaking of the vessel, but
mixes
and continues forever with the common and its surrounding
air.
Know also the lives and actions of living beings to be
dependant
upon the will of the God, as the mobility of the iron
depends
upon the attraction of the load-stone. (This passage
negatives
the free agency of man, and allows him an activity in
common with that of all living beings, under the
direction of
the great magnet of the Divine spirit and will).
32. The action of the inactive or quiescent spirit of
god, is
to be understood in the same manner, as the motion of the
lead
is attributed to the causality of magnetic attraction,
which
moves the immovable iron. So the inert bodies of living
beings,
are moved by force of the intellectual soul.
33. The world is situated in that mundane seed of the
universe,
which is known under the name of intellect attributed to
it by the wise. It is as void and formless as empty air,
it is
nothing nor has any thing in it except itself, and
represents all
and everything by itself, like the playful waves of the
boundless
ocean.
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CHAPTER X.
REMOVAL OF IGNORANCE.
Argument. Ignorance and its bonds of Erroneous
conceptions, and
reliance on temporal objects, and the ways of getting
release from them,
by means of good understanding and
right--reasoning[**right reasoning].
Vasishtha continued:--Therefore this world with all its
moving and unmoving beings is nothing (or no being at
all).
There is nothing that has its real being or entity,
except the one
true Ens that thou must know. (all beings are not being
except
the one self-existing Being. So says Sadi All this is not
being
and thyself art the only being. Haman nestand anchi
hastitue,
so also the sruti Toam asi n疣yadasti. Tuest
nullumest[**Tu est, nullum
est]).
2. Seek him O R疥a! who is beyond our thought and
imagination,
and comprises all entity and non-entity in himself,
and cease to seek any living being or any thing in
existence. (In
Him is all life and every thing, that is or is not in
Being and
he is the source of life and light).
3. I would not have my heart to be enticed and deceived
by
the false attachments and affections of this world; all
which are
as delusive, as our misconception of a snake in a rope.
(All our
earthly relations with our relatives and properties, are
deception
that are soon detected by our good sense and reason, and
they
vanish as soon as our mistake of the snake in rope.
Therefore
let no worldly tie bind down thy heart to this earth).
4. Ignorance of the soul is the cause of our error of
conceiving
the distinctions of things; but the knowledge of the
selfsame
soul puts an end to all distinctions of knowledge of the
reality of things, distinctive knowledge of
existences--bheda
jn疣a is erroneous; but their generalization--abheda jn疣a
leads to right reasoning.
5. They call it ignorance avidya, when the intellect is
vitiated
by its intellection of the intelligibles or chetyas, but
the
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intelligibles being left out, it comes to know the soul
which is
free from all attributes.
6. The understanding only is the embodied soul purusha,
which is lost upon the loss of the understanding; but the
soul is
said to last as long as there is understanding in the
body, like
the ghatambare or air in the pot lasts with the lasting
of the pot,
and vanishes upon the loss or breaking of the vessel.
(The soul
lasts with the intellect in the body, but flies away upon
the
intellects[**intellect's] desertion of it. This is
maintained by sruti).
7. The wandering intellect sees the soul to be wandering,
and
the sedate understanding thinks, it to be stationary, as
one perceives
his breath of life to be slow or quick, according as he
sits
still or runs about. In this manner the bewildered
understanding
find[**finds] the soul to be distracted also. (The
temperament of the
mind is attributed to the soul, which is devoid of all
modality).
8. The mind wraps the inward soul with the coverlet of its
various desires, as the silkworm twines the thin thread
of its
desires round about itself; which its wants of reason
prevent it
from understanding. (The word in the text is b疝avat
boyishness,
which is explained in the gloss to mean nirvivekatwa or
want of
reason, and applied to the mind, means puerile
foolishness).
9. R疥a said I see sir, that when our ignorance becomes
too
gross and solid, it becomes as dull and solid as stone;
but tell me
O venerable sir, how it becomes as a fixed tree or any
other immovable
substance.
10. Vasishtha replied:--The human intellect not having
attained its perfect state of mindlessness, wherein it
may have
its supreme happiness and yet falling from its state of
mindfulness,
remains in the midmost position of a living and immoveable
plant or of an insensible material substance. (The middle
state is called tatastha bh疱a, which is neither one of
perfect
sensibility nor impassivity).
11. It is impossible for them to have their liberation,
whose
organs of the eight senses lie as dormant and dumb and
blind
and inert in them as in any dull and dirt matter: and if
they
have any perception, it is that pain only. (The
puryasktaka [**misprint for
puryastaka] are
the eight internal and external organs of sense instead
of the
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ten organs casandria. By dormancy is meant their want of
reason,
and muteness and blindness express respectively the want
of their
faculties of sensation and action, inertness means here
the want
of mental action[**)].
12. R疥a rejoined:--O sir, that best knowest the
knowables!
that the intellect which remains as unshaken as a fixed
tree, with its reliance in the unity and without its
knowledge
of duality, approximates its perfection and approaches
very
near to its liberation: (contrary to what thou sayest
now, regarding
impossibility of the dormant minds arriving to its
freedom).
13. Vasishtha replied: R疥a! we call that to be the
perpetual
liberation of the soul, which follows
persuation[**persuasion] of one
common entity, after its rational investigation into the
natures
of all other things and their false appearances. (or else
the blind
torpidity of the irrational yogi, amounts rather to his
bondage
to ignorance than the liberation of his soul from it).
14. A man is then only said to have reached to his state
of
soleity[**solity] kaivalya, when he understands the
community of all
existence
in the unity, and forsakes his desire for this thing and
that.
(But is said in sundry places of this work that the
abandonment
of the knowledge of the subjective and as well as of the
objective,
which constitutes the true liberation of the soul; which
means
the taking of the subject and object of thought and all
other
duties in nature in one self-existant[**self-existent]
unity and not to forget
them
all at once). (So says Sadi, when I turned out duality
from my
door I came to knowledge of one in all).
15. One is then said to recline in Brahma who is
incline[**inclined] to his
spiritual Contemplation, after his investigation of
divine knowledge
in the s疽tras, and his discussion on the subject in the
company of the learned doctors in divinity. (The
unlearned
religionist is either a zealot or an opineatra--abhakta
tatwa
jn疣i).
16. One who is dormant in his mind and has the seed of
his
desire lying latent in his heart, resembles an unmoving
tree,
bearing the vegitative[**vegetative] seed of future
regenerations
(transmigrations)
within its bosom.
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17. All those men are called blocks who liken the blocks
of
wood and stone, and to be lack brains who lack their
brain
work, and whose desires are gone to the rack. These men
possessing the property of dulness as of dull matter, are
subject
to the pains of repeated births, recurring like the
repetends of
their remaining desires. (The doctrine of transmigration
is, that
the wish being father to the thought, every one meets
with his
lot in his next birth, as it is thought of or fostered by
him in
his present life. [Sanskrit: v疽an・eva
praty疱rittik疵anam]).
18. All stationary and immovable things, which are
endowed
with the property of dull matter, are subject to repeated
reproductions.
(Owing to the reproductive seed which is inborn in
them, like the inbred desire of living beings), though
they may
long continue in their dormant state (like images of
saints in
their trance).
19. Know O pure hearted R疥a! the seed of desire is as
inbred in the breasts of plants, as the flowers are
inborn in the
seeds and the earthenwares are contained in the clay.
(The
statue says, Aristotle lies hid in the wood, and the gem
in the
stone, and require only the chisel of the carver and
statuary to
bring them out).
20. The heart that contains the fruitful seed of desire
in it,
can never have its rest or consummation even in its
dormant
state; but this seed being burnt and fried to its
unproductiveness
(by means of divine knowledge), it becomes productive of
sanctity, though it may be in its full activity.
21. The heart that preserves the slightest remnant of any
desire in it, it again filled with its full growth to
luxuriance;
as the little remainder of fire or the enemy, and of a
debt and
disease, and also of love and hatred, is enough to
involve one in
his ruin as a single drop of poison kills a man. (This stanza
occurs in Ch疣aky・s Excerpta in another form, meaning to
say
that, "No wise man should leave their relic, lest
they grow as
big as before [Sanskrit: punasva bhavati tasm疆yasm疸 sesam
na k疵ayet]).
22. He who has burnt away the seed of his desire from any
thing, and looks upon the world with an even eye of
indifference,
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is said to be perfectly liberated both in his embodied state
in
this earth, as also in his disembodied or spiritual form
of the
next world, and is no more subjected to any trouble:
(Subjection
to desire is deadly pain and freedom from it is perfect
bliss. Or as
it is said--Desire is a disease and its want is ease. is
ease. [Sanskrit: 疽h畸ai
param dukham
nair疽hyam paramamsukham]. Again our hopes and fears in
constant
strife, are
both the bane of pig man life [Sanskrit: bhay疽h・j咩ap疽h疉]
&c.
23. The intellectual power which enveloped by the seed of
mental desire, supplies it with moisture for its
germinating both
in the forms of animals and vegitables[**vegetables]
every where, (i.e.
The
divine power which inheres in the embryos of our desires,
causes them to develope in their various forms).
24. This inherent power resides in the manner of
productive
power in the seeds of living beings, and in that of
inertness
in dull material bodies. It is of the nature of hardness
in
all solid substances, and that of tenuity in soft and
liquid
things. (i. e. The divine power forms the particular
properties
of things, and causes them to grow and remain in their
own
ways).
25. It exhibits the ash colour in ashes, and shows the
particles
in the dust of the earth; it shows the sableness of all
swarthy
things, and flashes in the whiteness of the glittering
blade.
26. It is the spiritual power which assumes the communal
form and figure, in which it resides in the community of
material
things, as a picture, a pot (ghata-pata) and the like.
(The
vanity of the unity is expressed in the words of Veda
"the one
in many." [**Sanskrit])
27. It is in this manner that the divine spirit fills the
whole phenomenal world, in its universally common nature,
as
overspreading cloud, fills the whole firmament in the
rainy
season.
28. I have thus expounded to you the true nature
swarupa-[**--]of
the unknown Almighty power, according to my best
understanding, and as far as it had been ascertained by
the
reasoning of the wise: that it fills all and is not the
all itself,
and is the true entity appearing as no entity at all.
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29. It is our want of the sight of this invisible
spiritual
power, that leads us to erronous[**erroneous] conception
of the entity of
the
external world, but a slight sight of this almighty Ens,
removes
all our pains in this scene of vanity.
30. It is our dimsightedness of Almighty power, which is
styled our blindness or ignorance [Sanskrit: avidy畩 by
the wise. It is this
ignorance which give rise to the belief of the existence
of the
world, and thereby produces all our errors and misery.
31. Who is so freed from this ignorance and beholds the
glorious light of god full in his view; he finds his
darkness
disappear from his sight, as the icicles of night melt
away at the
appearance of solar light.
32. The ignorance of a man flies off like his dream,
after he
wakes from his sleep, and wishes to recall his past
vision of the
night.
33. Again when a man betakes himself to ponder well
the properties of the object before him, his ignorance
flies
away from before his face, as darkness flies at the
approach
of light.
34. As darkness recedes from a man, that advances to
explore
into it with a lamp in his hand, and as butter is melted
down
by application of heat, so is one's ignorance dispelled
and
dissolved by application of the light and the rise of
reason.
35. As one pursuing after darkness sees a lighted torch
in
his hand, sees but a blaze of light before, and no shadow
of darkness
about him; so the inquirer after truth perceives the
light of
truth, shining to his face and no vestige of untruth left
behind
him.
36. In this manner doth ignorance (Avidya) fly away and
disappear at the sight of the light of reason; and
although an
unreal nothing, she appears as something real,
whereever[**wherever]
there
is the want of reason. (Hence all unreasoning men are the
most
ignorant).
37. As the great mass of thick darkness, disappears into
nothing
at the advance of light; it is in the same manner that
the substantiality
of gross ignorance, is dissolved into unsubstantiality
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at the advancement of knowledge. (so the advancement of
inductive
science, has put flight the dogmatic doctrines of old).
38. Unless one condescends to examine in a thing, it is
impossible
for him to distinguish it from another; (as the shell
from
silver and rope for the snake); but upon his due
examination of
it, he comes to detect the fallacy of his prejudgment (as
those
of the silver and snake in the shell and the rope).
39. He who stoops to consider whether the flesh or blood
or bones of his bodily frame, constitutes his
personality, will at
once perceive that he is none of these, and all these are
distinct
from himself. (The personality of a man consisting in his
soul,
and not in any part or whole of his body).
40. And as nothing belonging to the person makes the
persons,
but something beyond it that forms one's personality; so
nothing in the world from its first to last is that
spirit, but some
thing which has neither its beginning nor end, is the
eternal and
infinite spirit. [** missing parenthesis?]The same is the
universal soul).
41. Thus ignorance being got over there remains nothing
whatever, except the one eternal soul which is the
adorable
Brahma and substantial whole.
42. The unreality of ignorance is evident from the
negative
term of negation and ignoring of its essentiality, and
requires
no other proof to disprove its essence; as the relish of
a thing is
best proved by the tongue and no other organ of sense.
(The
term Avidya signifying the want of vidya-[**--]knowledge
and existence
([Sanskrit: vidyam疣ata]).
43. There is no ignorance nor inexistence except the
intelligence
and existence of god, who pervade over all visible and
invisible
natures, which are attributed with the appellations of
existence and inexistence. (The whole being god (to
Pan-[**--]the
All) there is no existence or inexistence without Him).
44. So far about Avidya, which is not the knowledge but
ignorance of Brahma; and it is the dispersion of this
ignorance
which brings us to the knowledge of god.
45. The belief of this, that and all other things in the
world,
are distant and distinct from Brahma, is what is called
Avidya
or ignorance of him; but the belief that all things
visible in the
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world, is the manifestation of omnipresence, causes the
removal
of ignorance, by presenting us to the presence of god.
NOTE TO CHAPTER X.
The following lines of the English poet, will be found
fully to illustrate the
divine attribute of omnipresence in the pantheistic
doctrine of Vedanta and
Vasishtha, as shown in this chapter et passen.
All are but parts, of one stupendous whole,
Whose body nature is, and god the soul;
That, changed through all, and yet in all the same;
Great in the earth, as in the etherial frame;
Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze;
Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees;
Lives through all life, extends through all extent,
Spreads undivided, operates unspent;
Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part.
As full as perfect, in a pair as heart:
As full as perfect, in vile man that mourns,
As in the rapt seraph, that adores and burns;
To him no high, now, no great, no small;
He fills, he bounds, connects and equals all.
Pope's Mortal Essays I. IX.
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CHAPTER XI.
ASCERTAINMENT OF LIVING LIBERATION.
Argument. Instances of Living Liberation in Hari, Hara
and others,
and its consisting in the oecumenical knowledge of the
one Brahma in
all and every thing.
Vasishtha said:--I tell you again and repeatedly O pious
R疥a! for your understanding, that you can never know
the spirit without your constant habit, of contemplating
on it
in your self-cogitation. (So the Sruti. Atm・v疵a, mant
avyam, "the soul is to be constantly thought
upon" and so
also the Vadanta[**Vedanta] aphorism "asakrit
upadesat" the soul is
known
by repeated instructions on spiritual knowledge).
2. It is gross ignorance which is known as nescience, and
it
becomes compact by the accumulated erroneous knowledge of
previous births and past life: (namely; the errors of the
dualities
of matter and spirit and of the living and Supreme soul,
and
the plurality of material and sensible objects).
3. The perceptions of the external and internal senses of
body, both in the states of sensibility and
insensibility, are also
the causes of great errors or ignorance crasse of
embodied beings.
(i. e. The sesible[**sensible] perceptions are
preventives of spiritual
knowledge which trancends[**transcends] the senses and is
called
[Sanskrit: at匤driya]).
4. Spiritual knowledge is far beyond the cognizance of
the
senses, and is only to be arrived at after subjection of
the five
external organs of sense, as also of the mind which is
the sixth
organ of sensation.
5. How then is it possible to have a sensible knowledge
of the
spirit, whose essence is beyond the reach of our
faculties of
sense, and whose powers transcend those of all our
sensible
organs? (i. e. Neither is the spirit perceptible by our
senses, nor
does it perceive all things by senses like ours). So the
Srutis
He is not to be perceived by the faculties of our sense,
who
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does and perceives all with our organs. ([Sanskrit: na
tatra vaggacchati
namani
疳anip疆au yavanagtah咜畩).
6. You must cut off this creeper of ignorance, which has
grown up in the hollow of the tree of your heart, with
the
sharp sword of your knowledge, if you should have your
consummation
as an adept in divine wisdom.
7. Conduct yourself R疥a! in the same manner in the
practice
of your spiritual knowledge, as the king Janaka does with
his full knowledge of all that is knowable to man.
8. He is quite confident in his certain knowledge of the
main truth, both when he is employed in his active
duties, in his
waking state as well as when he remains quiet at his
liesure[**leisure].
(The end of knowledge is to know God, and to rely on him
both
in busy and in active life).
9. It was by his reliance on this certain truth, that
Hari
was led to the performance of his various acts in his
repeated
births or incarnations. (A god in human flesh does his
works
as a god).
10. May you, R疥a! [**add: be] certain of the main truth,
which
conducted
the three eyed god Siva in the company of his fair
consort;
and which led the dispassionate Brahm・to the act of
creation.
(I. e. The passionate and unimpassionate and those that
are active or inactive are equally assured of this
truth).
11. It was the assurance of this eternal verity, which
led
the preceptors of the gods and demons, even Vrihaspati
and
Bhargava, in their duties; and which guide the sun and
moon in
their courses, and even directs the elements of fire and
air in
the wonted ways.
12. This truth was well known to the host of Sages,
including
Narada and Pulastya, Angira and Pracheta, and Bhrigu
Krutu, Atri and Suka, as it is known to me also.
13. This is the certainty whcih[**which] has been arrived
at by all
other learned Brahmans and Sages, and this is the firm
belief
of every body, that has been liberated in his life time.
14. R疥a said:--Tell me truly, O venerable sir, the true
nature of the truth, on which the great gods and wisest
sages,
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have grounded their belief, and became freed from their
sorrow
and grief: (in this world of sorrow and tears).
15. Vasishtha replied:--Hear me tell you! O worthy prince
that art great in arms as in thy knowledge of all things,
the
plain truth in reply to your question, and the certitude
arrived at
by all of them (named above).
16. All these spacious worlds, that you behold to be
spread
all about you, they are all that One or on, and are
situated in the
immensity of Brahma; (In their real or spiritual nature,
and
after obliteration of the erroneous forms in which they
appear
to you. Their phenomenal appearances, being but the
misconceptions
of our errors).
17. Brahma is the intellect, and the same is this world
and
all its animate and inanimate creatures also; Myself and
Brahma and so art thou thyself, and such are all our
friends and
foes beside us.
18. Brahma is the tripletime[** typo for triple time?] of
the past present
and future,
all which are comprehended in his eternity; in the manner
of
the continiuty[** typo for continuity?] of waves, billows
and surges,
contained in the
immensity of the ocean.
19. It is thus the same Brahma that appears to us in all
the
various forms of our perception, and in the different
shapes of
the actor, action and its act, as those of the freeder[**
typo for feeder?],
feeding and
the food, and of the receiver, reception and the thing
received.
(There being but the only unity of god, the same is
changed to
all forms of action and passion and so says the poet
"that change
through all and yet in all the same" and also
unvaried in all
with a varied name. This the vedanta says to be the
vivarta
rupa or the one changed in many form vividha many, and
varta[** missing
punctuation?]
Let vertuus changed [Sanskrit: paribatta].
20. Brahma expands in himself by his power of evolution,
or unfolding himself by his vivarta sakti; Hence He would
be
our enemy if he would do any thing unfavourable into us.
(God
is good and never does any evil to any one: all he does
in and
to himself)?
21. Thus Brahma being situated and employed with himself,
does nothing aught of good or evil to any other. The
attribu-*
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*tion of passions to him, is as the planting of a tree in
empty air.
(God is not capable of any human attribute, as it is
usual with
anthropomorphists to load him with).
22. How very delighted are they that are dead to their
desires,
to reflect on this truth, that they are continually
living and
moving in the all pervading Brahma. (In Him we live and
move).
23. All things are full of Brahma, and there is naught of
pleasure or pain herein; Brahma resides in his self-same
all and
is pleased with all in himself. (The one is full of bliss
with all
in himslf[** typo for himself?]).
24. The Lord is manifest in his Lordship, and I am no
other
person beside himself; this pot and that painting and I
myself,
are full with the self-same Brahma.
25. Hence it is in vain to speak of our attachment or
aversion
to worldliness, since we bear our bodies and dare to die
in
Brahma only. (It is that something, for which we bear to
live,
and dare to die, Pope).
26. Our bodies being the abodes of Brahma, it is as false
to
think to our bodily pains, as also of our pleasure in
bodily enjoyments,
as to take a rope for a serpent. (Hence we can have no
sense of our pleasure or pain, as long we know ourselves
to be
situated in Brahma and He in us).
27. How say you, that this or that is your doing, when
you
have the power of doing nothing. The fluctuation of the
billows
on the surface of the sea, cannot agitate the waters of
the
deep below).
28. Myself, thyself and himself, and all others, are but
the
breaths of the universal spirit; and they heave and then
subside
to rest as waves of the sea; but the spirit of god, like
the
water of the deep, neither rises nor falls as ourselves
or the
fleeting waves at any time.
29. All persons returning to Brahma after their death,
have
their bodies also reduced into Him and retain their
personal
identity in Him in the same manner, as the moving and
unmoving waters rest alike in the sea.
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30. All moving and unmoving souls and bodies, rest alike
in the supreme Brahma; as the jiva and its form reside in
god,
and the whirling and still waters remain in the same sea.
31. The soul and the body, are the two states of the
likeness
and unlikeness of Brahma, the one is the living soul of
bodies,
and the other is the gross body itself.
32. Irrational souls, that are ignorant of this truth,
are
verily subject to delusion; but the rational souls are not
so, but
enjoy their full bliss on earth, while the other is ever
doomed
to misery.
33. The blind behold the world all dark, while the
eye-sighted
find it fully bright and shining; so the wise are blessed
with the knowledge of the one soul of the whole, while
the
ignorant are immerged in misery, by their want of such
knowledge.
34. As the darkness of the night, presents its goblins
and
spectres, to the sight of children only, and not those of
the
grown up and adult; so the world presents its delusions
to
ignorant and never to the wise, who behold one Brahma
only in
all things before them.
35. There is nothing here that lives of itself, nor dies
away
to nothing; all equally exist in God at all time, and
nothing is
doomed to be born or perish herein to happiness or
misery.
36. All beings are situated in the universal soul, as the
waves in the vast expanse of the ocean, therefore it is
erroneous
to say the one reside in the spirit, and another to be
beside it.
37. As their[** typo for there?] is an inborn light in
the crystal, which is
capable of reflecting a variety of rays, so the spirit of
god
dwells in his own spirit in the form of the universe,
showing
various shapes to view by the inner light of the spirit.
38. As the particles of water flying from the waves, fall
into the sea and mix with its body of water; so the
bodies of
dying people, fall into the body of Brahma, wherein they
subsisted in their life time. (So there is neither an
increase
or diminution of the essence of Brahma, by the birth or
death
or increase or decrease of beings in the world).
39. There is nobody nor being beside the being of Brahma,
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as there is no wave nor foam or froth of the sea beside
the water
of the deep.
40. As the billows and waves, the surges and eddies, and
their froths and foams, and bubbles and minute particles,
are all
formations of water in the great body of waters; so are
all
beings but productions of the spirit in the Infinite
spirit. (All
matter is reduced to the spirits, and the spirits are
consolidated
to material substances by chemical process).
41. All bodies with their various modes, and organs of
sense
and their several functions, and all visible objects and
their
growth and decay, together with every thing conducing to
our
happiness and misery, and all other energies and their
gains,
are the works of Brahma in himself. (i. e. they are the
self
reflective acts of gods and not done for the sake of
others).
42. The production of these various beings in esse, is
from
the essence of Brahma; as the formation of different
ornaments,
is from the substance of gold. There is no other formal
cause
or formation distinct from Brahma, and the destinction[**
typo for
distinction?] of the
cause and its creation, is the erronous[** typo for
erroneous?] conception
of the ignorant.
43. The mind, understanding, egoism, and the elemantal[**
typo for
elemental?]
atoms, and the organs of sense, are all the various forms
of
Brahma; wherefore there is cause of our joy or grief.
44. The words I, thou, he, and this and that, as also the
terms of the mind and matter, are all significant of the
self-same
Brahma 疸m疸mani, in the same manner as the roaring of
a cloud in the hills, resounds in a hundred echoes
through their
caverns. (All words applied to every thing, relate to the
one
self-same Brahma who is all in all to pan.[** missing
parenthesis?]
45. Brahma appears as an unknown stranger to us, through
our ignorance of him, as the visions seen in a dream by
our
mind itself, appear foreign to us. (i.e. Our belief in
the visibles
is the cause of our disbelief in the invisible god; as
our familiarity
with the objects of our waking state, makes us reject our
visionary dreams as false.[** missing parenthesis?]
46. Ignorance of Brahma as Brahma or what he is, makes
men to reject divine knowledge altogether; as our
ignorance of
-----File: 080.png---------------------------------------------------------
the quality of gold causes us to cast it off dross.
(Brahma
to the brute is, as the gem in the dung hill cast away by
the
silly cock).
47. Brahma is known as the Supreme spirit and sole Lord,
by those who are acquainted with divine knowledge; but he
is
said to be unknown and involved in ignorance by them that
[**P1: are ]ignorant of Him.
48. Brahma being known as Brahma, becomes manifested
such in a moment; just as gold when knows such, is taken
in
due esteem.
49. Those who are versed in divine knowledge, know Brahma
as without a cause and causing nothing by himself, and
that he is free from decay, and is the Supreme spirit and
sole
Lord of all.
50. He who can meditate in himself, on the omnipotence of
Supreme spirit of Brahma; comes to be hold[** typo for
behold?] him as
such in a
short time, even without a leader to guide him in his
spiritual
knowledge. (one's own faith in Divine Omnipotence, is the
surest means to the sight of his Maker).
51. The want of divine knowledge, that is called the
ignorance
of the ignorant; whereas it is the knowledge of god, that
constitutes the true knowledge which removes the
ignorance.
52. As an unknown friend is no friend at all, untill[**
typo for until?] he is
recognized as such, after removal of one's
forgetfullness[** typo for
forgetfulness?]; so
god is no god to one, as long he continues in ignorance
of
Him.
53. Wecan[** typo for We can?] then only know god, when
the mind
comes to
perceive the unconnection of the soul with the body; and
whereby it alienates its[** typo for itself?] from all
worldly connections in
disgust.
54. It is then that we come to know the one true god,
when
the mind is freed from its knowledge of duality; and by
its distaste
of dualism, it abandons its attachment to the world.
55. We then come to the knowledge of god, when we come
to know ourselves to be other than our persons; and when
by
getting rid of our personal igoism[** typo for egoism?],
we forsake our
affection
for this unkindered[** typo for unkindred?] world.
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56. It is then that the thought of god rises in our
minds,
when we come to the true knowledge of thinking ourselves
the
same with Brahma; and when the mind is absorbed in the
miditation[**meditation]
of the divine truth in one's self. (This is the
sublimation
of the Yogi to the divine state; or when the Yogi loses
himself, in his rapturous vision on the one god. This
kind of
meditation is indicated in the formula "Soham"
in vendanta[**Vedanta]
and an ald Huq in sufism).
57. God being known as the tout ensembte[**ensemble] or
comprising the
whole plenum, we come to believe the same as Brahma; and
losing our egoism and tuism in the same, we come to the
knowledge
of that entity only comprising the entire universe. (This
belief of the entirety of the Deity, is expressed in the
worlds[**words]
"Tat Sat" corresponding with to on, idest,
alast, that is, He in
the creeds of other people).
58. When I come to know this true and omniform Brahma,
as all in all, and forming the entire whole; I become
released
from all my sorrow and grief, and am set free from all my
delusion
and desire, and the responsibility of my duties: (from
the belief of gods[**god's or God's] agency in all
things).
59. I am quite calm and at ease and without any sorrow
or grief, by my knowledge of the truth, that I am no
other
than Brahma Himself; I am as cool as the moon, without
her
spots and phases in me, and I am the all entire, without
any
desease[**disease], decay or diminution in me. (This is
say[**said?] with
regard to
the universal soul, which engrosses all souls and things
in itself).
60. It is true that I am the all pervading Brahma, and
therefore I can neither wish to have or leave any thing
from me;
being of myself the blood, bones and flesh of my body.
(The
soul is the source of the body, and the spirit its life,
without
which it decays and dies away).
61. It is true that I am Brahma the universal soul, and
therefore the intellect[**,] mind and sensibility also; I
am the
heaven and sky with their luminaries and quarters and the
nether worlds also.
62. It is true that I am Brahma, composing this pot and
painting, these bushes and brambles, these forests and
their
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grass, as also the seas and their waves. (One god is
manifest in
many forms).
63. The unity of Brahma is a certain truth, and it is the
ego
which is manifest in the seas and mountains and all
living
beings; and in the qualities of reception and emission,
and of
extension and contraction in all material bodies. (It is
the
Divinity that actuates the physical powers in nature).
64. All things of extended forms situated in the
intellectual
spirit of Brahma, who is the cause of the growth of
creepers
and plants, and of the germination of
vegitative[**vegetative] seeds.
65. The supreme Brahma resides in his sheath of the
intellectual
soul, in the manner of flavour in the cup of the flower;
and thence diffuses itself on all sides in the form of
everything
everywhere.
66. He that is known as only soul of all, and who is
ascertained as the supreme spirit, and who is designated
by the
appellations of the intellectual soul, Brahma the great,
the only
entity and reality, the Truth and Intellegence[**Intelligence]
and apart
from all.
67. He is said to be the all-inherin[**inherent] element,
and
Intellegence[**Intelligence]
only without the intelligibles in it; He is the pure
light
that gives every being its consciousness of itself.
68. He appears to the spiritualist to be existent
everywhere,
as the tranquil and intelligent Brahma; and contains in
himself
the powers of all the faculties of the mind and body,
such as
the understanding and the organs of sense, so the sruti;
"He
is the, mind of the mind, the sight of the eye."
[Sanskrit: yascat?u sascat?
unman疽á
manoyadity疆i]
69. Give up the thought of thy difference from Brahma by
knowing thyself as the reflexion of the intelligent soul;
which
is the cause of the causes of the existence of the world.
Such as vacuum and others, which are causes of sound and
are caused by vacuous spirit of god: (and not as the
vacuists
and materialists belief them, to be increate essences
from
eternity).
70. The intellect of Brahma is the transparent receptacle
of
all essences, and my ego is of the same essence, which
exudes
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[** page compared to print]
continually as a shower of rain, from the transparent
spirit
of God.
71. I am that light which shines in the souls of yogis,
and
I am that silent spirit which is supported by the
ambrosal[**ambrosial]
drops of Divine Intellect; which continually distils its
nectarious
juice into our souls, as we may feel in ourselves.
72. I am as a wheel or circle without having the
beginning
or end of myself, and by having the pure intellect of
Brahma in
me. I am quiet in my deep sleep of samadhi meditation,
and I
perceive holy light shining within me. (The yogi in his
devotion is absorbed in the calmness of his soul and is
wrapt in
divine light).
73. The thought that I am Brahma, affords afar[**a far]
greater delight
to the soul, than the taste of any sweet meat, which
gives
but a momentary delight, so the sruti:--God is all
sweetnees[**sweetness]
[Sanskrit: rasobetat] (sweet is the memory of a friend,
and sweeter far
must
be the thought of god, who is best and greatest friend).
74. One knowing his soul and intellect, knows the
indestructible
Brahma and himself as identic with the same; as one
whose mind is possessed with the image of his beloved,
beholds
her bright countenance in the shining orb of the moon.
75. As the sights of earthly people are fixed in the
etherial
moon, so the sight of intellectual beings, is fixed in
the supreme
and indestructible soul, which he knows as self-same with
himself.
76. The intellectual power which is situated in the
vacuity
of the heart, is verily the verity of the immaculate
Brahma himself.
Its pleasure and pain, and mutability and divisibility,
are
attributed to by ignorance only.
77. The soul that has known the truth, knows himself as
the supreme Intellect, as the pilgrim on the way sees
only his
saint before him, and no intermediate object besides.
78. The belief that I am the pure and all pervading
intellect,
is attended with the purity and holiness of the soul, and
the
knowledge of the Divine power as the cause of the union
of earth,
air and water in the production of the germ of creation,
is the
main creed of all creeds.
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79. I am that intellect of Brahma which is inherent in
all
things as their productive power; and I am that soul
which
causes the sweetness of the beal and bitterness of nimba
fruits.
80. I am that divine intellect which inheres alike in all
flavours,
which is devoid of pain and pleasure and which I
perceived
in my mind by my consciousness.
81. I am the undecaying intellect of Brahma, and deem my
gain and loss in equal light of indifference; while I
view this
earth and sky, and the sun and moon displayed before my
eyes
in all their glory.
82. I am that pure and serenely bright Brahma, whose
glory
is displayed alike in all of these, and which I behold to
shine
vividly before me, whether when I am awake or asleep or
whenever
I am in the state of dreaming or profound sleep.
83. I am that Brahma who is without beginning and end,
who is known by his four fold hypostases, and is ever
indestructible
and undecaying. He resides in the souls of men in the
form of sweetness in the sugarcane through all their
transmigrations.
84. I am that intellect of Brahma, which like the
sunshine
pervades equally in the form of transparent light in and
above
all created beings.
85. I am that all pervasive intellect of Brahma, which
like
the charming moon light fills the whole universe: and
which we
feel and taste in our hearts, as the delicious draught of
ambrosia.
86. I am that intellect of Brahma, which extends
undivided
over the whole and all parts of the universe, and which
embraces
all existence as the moving clouds of heaven encompasses
the
firmament.
Om Tat Sat
(Continued...)
( My
humble salutations to Brahmasri Sreemaan Vihari Lala Mitra ji for the
collection)
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