The Yoga Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki ( Volume -4) -24






























The
Yoga Vasishtha
Maharamayana
of Valmiki

The only complete English translation is
by Vihari Lala  Mitra (1891).




CHAPTER CXXXXV.

DESCRIPTION OF THE WAKING, DREAMING AND
SLEEPING STATES.

Argument:--The three Humours of Human body Composing the three
states of its earthly existence.

The sage continued:--The living soul (or man) perceives
the dream of the outer world, by means of the external
organs of sense; and that of the inner world by the internal
senses; but the quickness of both the internal and external
senses, gives the sensations of both these worlds to the soul.
2. When the outer senses are busily employed with outward
objects, then the perceptions of mental objects and inner functions
become faint and fainter by degrees.
3. When the external senses are all directed to the inside,
and the inner senses are concentrated in the mind; then the
object of thought and the idea of the world however minute they
had been before, assume gradually a more expanded form, and
present their extended appearances to the soul. (Brooding upon
a thought, dilates it the more).
4. In this manner the world which is nothing in reality, being
once thought upon[**space added] as something however small in its idea,
dilates itself to an enormous size in the mind, which cast at last
its reflexion on the external organs of sense also, and make it
appear so big and vast to sight.
5. When the eyes and senses of a living person, are occupied
with outer objects, then the soul beholds the intellect, the form
of the exterior world only, (so the external senses carry their
impressions to the mind also).
6. The intellectual and airy-form[**aeriform] soul, is composed of the
congeries of all outward sensations; namely of the ears or hearing,
touch or feeling, seeing and smelling, and taste as also of the
four internal sensations of will or volition.
7. Therefore the living soul is always present at every place,
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accompanied with all the senses in its intellect, hence the airy
intellect is to be ever unsubstructed, because it always knows
and sees every where.
8. When the phlegmatic humour or fluid of the body, fills
the veins and arteries of the living person; the soul is then
lulled to sleep and to see false visions in its dream.
9. It seems to swim in a sea of milk, and to soar in the
moonlight sky; it thinks it sees a limpid lake about it, filled
with full blown lotuses and their blooming buds.
10. It sees in itself the flowery gardens of the vernal season,
and mantled in vest of flowers, vying with the bespangled
sky, and resounding with the warbling of birds, and the buzz of
humming humble bees.
11. It sees all mirth and festivity afoot in its mansion, and
the merry dance of sportive damsels afloat in its compound;
and views its court-yard filled with provisions of food and drink
(to its hearts[**heart's] content).
12. It beholds profluent streams like adolescent maidens,
running sportfully to join the distance[**distant] sea; girt with the
swimming
flowers and smiling with their flashy foams; and darting
about their fickle glances, in flitting motion of the shrimps,
fluttering on the surface of the water.
13. It views edifices, turrets, rising as high as the summits
of the Himálayan mountains, and the tops of ice bergs (in the
frigid climes); and having their white washed walls, appearing
as if they were varnished with moon-beams.
14. It sees the landscape covered by the dews of the dewy
season, or as hid under the mists of winter, and shrouded by the
showering clouds of the rainy weather, and views the ground
below overgrown with herbacious[**herbaceous] plants, and the muddy
marshes grown over with blue lotuses.
15. The woodlands were seen to be overspread with flowers,
and resorted to by droves of deer and the weary traveller;
that halted under the cooling umbrage of the thickening foliage
of the forest, and were soothed by soft breezes of the sylvan
spot.
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16. The flowery arbour had all its alley and arcades, bestrewn
over with the flaring farina of flowers; and the crimson
dusts of Kunda, Kadamba and Mandara blossoms, were blushing
and mantling the scenery all around.
17. The lakes were attired in azure with blue lotuses, and
the ground wore the flowing floral garment of flowers; the woodlands
were clear of clouds, and the firmament was clear and
cold under the autumnal sky.
18. The mountain range was crowned with rows of Kunda,
Kadamba and Kadalí or plantain trees, which waved their
leafy fans on their exalted heads, which appeared to nod at the
dancing of the leaflets.
19. The tender creepers were shaking with negligence, with
the unblown buds and blossoms upon them; appeared as
young damsels dancing gracefully, with strings of pearls on
their slender persons.
20. It sees the royal hall and the regal synod, shining as
brightly as the blooming lotus-bed in the lake; and he sees also
the fanning white chouries[**chowries] and waving over them, like the
feathered
tribe, flapping their wings over the floral lake (or lotus
beds).
21. It sees also the running rills softly gliding in playful
mood, with curling creepers and flowers wreathed with their
currents; and murmuring along with mixed music of birds on
the spray beside them.
22. The dhará-[**--]terra or earth was filled and flooded, by dhára
or torrents of water falling from the adharas or cataracts, of
dharádharas or mountains; and all the sides of heaven were
obscured by the showers of rain and snows, falling all about its
vault.
23. When the internal channels of the body are filled with
the fluid of bile (pitta), the soul remains with its internal vigor
as an atom in its cell, and then sees the dreams of the
following nature in itself.
24. It sees flames of fire about it, and red kinsuka flowers
upon its withered trees and blasted by the winds; it sees also
the forms of red lotus flowers, burning as flames of fire before it.
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[** png 234-247 compared to print]
25. The inner nerves and veins became as dry of the gastric
juice, as when the limpid streams turn to drysand[**dry sand] banks; and
there appear flames of wild fire, and dark smoke flying over the
darkened face of nature.
26. There appear fires to be blazing around, and the disk of
the sun seems to dart its burning rays; wild fires are seen in
forests[**add: ,] the withered and the dried ponds emit a poisonous gas,
instead of their limpid waters.
27. The seas are seen with their boiling waters, and turning
to beds of hot mire and mud; the horizon is filled with sultry
winds, and the forests with flying ashes, while the deserts appeared
quite desolate all about.
28. The moving sands spreading about, and flying like a
flight of storks in the air; the landscape appearing otherwise
than before, and the former verdure of the trees, are nomore[**no more]
coming to sight.
29. It sees the fearful wayfarer, covered over by the burning
sand of the parching desert; and looking wistfully on the distant
tree by the way side, spreading its cooling ambrosial shade
over the parched ground.
30. It sees the earth burning as a flaming furnace with all
its lands and places hid under the ashes, and a dark cloud of
dust covering the face of the sky on all sides.
31. The world appears in a flame on all sides, with all its
planetary bodies, cities and seas, together with the hills and
forests and the open air, all [**add: of] which [**add: are] seen to be
burning in a blaze.
32. It sees the empty clouds of autumn, spring and hot seasons,
that serve to favour the fires instead of quenching them;
and beholds the lands below covered with grass and leafy creepers,
which entrap them as vestures of clouds.
33. It sees the ground glittering as gold on all sides, and the
waters of the lakes and rivers, and the snowy mountains even all
tepid and hot.
34. When the channels of the body are dried up, for want of
the gastric juice, they are filled with wind and flatulence; and
the soul retaining its vigour, sees various dreams of the following
description.
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35. The understanding being disturbed by the wind, sees
the earth and the habitations of men and the forests, and sees in
dream, quite different from what they appeared before.
36. The soul beholds itself as flying in the air, with the
hills and hilly lands all about it; and hears a rumbling noise as
that of the whirling of the wheels of a chariot.
37. It seems to be riding about on horse back, or upon a
camel or eagle or on the back of a cloud, or riding in a chariot
drawn by ganders or swans.
38. It sees the earth, sky and cities and forests, all appearing
before it; and trembling as in fear like bubbles in the
water.
39. It finds itself as fallen in a blind ditch, or in some great
danger, or as mounting in the air, upon a tree or hill.
40. When the conduits of the body are filled, with a combination
of all the three humours of phlegm, bile and flatulence;
then the soul is led by the windy humour to see several dreams
of the following nature.
41. It sees rainfals[**rainfalls] flowing down the mountains, and
hailstones
hurling down its sides to its terror; it hears the bursting
of the hills and edificies[**edifices], and sees the trees to be moving
about.
42. Woods and forests, appear to gird the distant horizon;
which is over cast by huge clouds, and traversed by big elephants
and lions.
43. The palm and támala trees, appear to be burning
around; and the hollow caves and caverns, to resound with the
harsh noise of the flashing fire and falling trees.
44. The mountain craigs seeming to be clashing and crashing
against one another, and the caverns resounding to their
hoarse and harsh crackling.
45. The mountain tops also seem to clash against each other,
and emit a harsh and hedious[**hideous] noise about them; and the
streams running amidst them, appear as wearing necklaces with
the loosened creepers and bushes which they bore away.
46. Fragments of rocks are seen, to be borne away by the
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mountain streams to the ocean; and the torn bushes which
they carried down, seemed to spread as far as the utmost pole.
47. Craggy hills seemed to crash each other with their
denticulated edges, and crashed and split themselves with
their harsh and hedious[**hideous] sounds.
48. The forest leaves with creepers were scattered all around
by the strong wind, and the broken stones of the mountain
made their bed over the moss below.
49. The tall tála trees fell to the ground with marmara
sound, like the wars of the Gods and Titans of yore; and all
birds flew with a harsh scream, like the crying of men at the
last day of desolation of the world.
50. All woods, stones and earth mixed together as one
mass, like jaríkrita jíva in dream.
51. Silence reigned there like worm underneath the earth,
and frog underneath a stone, boy within the belly, and the seed
within the fruit.
52. Like boiled rice and solidified liquid in the bowel, and
the sapling within the wall of a pillar.
53. The vital air ceased to blow, and the all things are
blamed, as if they are encased within the hollow of the earth.
54. Deep darkness reigned there, and susupti appeared like
deep dark well within the cavern of a mountain.
55. As heavy food is digested by the digestive organ of the
body, and afterward by a separate juice a new energy comes
within, so the vital air which once disappeared, makes its
appearance again.
56. As after digestion certain kind of juice appears within
the body in the shape of vitality, so stone begins to fall
therin[**therein].
57. As fire increases more fire, a little adds little more; so
the combination of triple humours, composes the inward and
outward essence of the body.
58. Thus the living soul being confined within the bonds
of the body, and led by force of the triple humours (phlegm ect[**etc.]);
sees (by means of its enternal[**internal] senses), the dreams of the absent
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world, as it beholds the visions of the visible phenomena, with
its external organs of sense.
59. It is according to the more or less excitement of the
senses, by the greater or less irritation of the humours, that
the mind is liable to view its internal vision, in a greater or less
degree; but the action of the humours being equable, the tenor
of the mind runs in an even course.
60. The living soul being beset by irritated humours, (from
the effects of intoxication, mantras or poison and the like),
looks abroad over the wide world, and sees the earth and sky
and the mountains to be turning round; and flames of fire
issuing from burning piles.
61. It finds itself rising to and moving about the skies, the
rising moon and ranges of mountains; sees forests of trees
and hills, and floods of water washing the face of heaven.
62. It thinks itself to be diving on and floating on the waters,
or rambling in heavenly abodes, or in forests and hilly places,
and finds itself to be floating in the sky, upon the backs of
hoary clouds.
63. It sees rows of palms and other trees ranged in the sky,
and sees the false sights of hell punishments, as the sawing
and crushing of sinful bodies.
64. It fancies itself to be hurled down by a turning wheel,
and rising instantly to the sky again; it sees the air full of
people, and thinks itself as diving in the waters upon the
land.
65. It sees the business of the daytime, carried on everywhere
at night, the sun shining then as in the day time; and
a thick darkness overspreading the face of the day.
66. The mountainous regions are seen in the skies, and the
land is seen to be full of holes and ditches; rows of edificies[**edifices]
are seen in the air, and amity is found to be combined with
enmity, (friends turning to foes and vice versa).
67. Relatives are thought as strangers, and wicked people are
taken for friends; ditches and dells are viewed as level land,
and flats and planes appear as caves and caverns.
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68. There appear hoary mountains of milky whiteness and
crystal gems, and resonant with the melody of birds; and
limpid lakes are seen to glide below, with their water as
sweet as butter.
69. Forests of various trees appear to sight, and houses
adorned with females, appearing as lotuses fraught with
bees.
70. The living soul thought it lies hid within, and closed in
itself; yet perceives all these sights without, as if it were
awake to them. (Thus the derangement of the humours,
causes these errors of sensation of perceiving what is not present
to the senses).
71. In this manner it is the work of vitiated humours, to
represent many such sights of external objects, in the forms of
dream to the minds of people.
72. It is usual with men of disordered humours, to see many
extraordinary sights and fearful appearances, both within and
without them (i. e. in their dreaming and outward sight
also).
73. When the internal organs are equable in their action,
then the course of nature and the conduct of people, appear in
the usual state.
74. Then the situations of cities and countries, and the
positions of woods and hills, are seen in the same calm, clear
and unpurturbed[**unperturbed] state, as they are known to exist,
agreeably to
the natural order of things; such as cool and clear streams,
shady forests, and countries and paths traversed by passengers.
75. Days and nights decorated with the pleasant beams of
the sun and moon, and the rays of the starry array; and all
other appearances, however unreal in their nature, appear as
wonders to the sight and other senses.
76. The perception of phenomenals is as innate in the mind,
as vacillation is inherent in the wind; and viewing the unreal
as real, and the intrinsical or what is derived from within it, as
separate and extrinsic or derived from without, is the essential
property of its nature.
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77. It is the calm and quite[**quiet] spirit of Brahma, that gives rise
to all things which are equally calm and quite[**quiet] also; the world
is mere vacuum, without having any reality in it. It is the vacuous
mind that represents endless varieties of such forms in the
sphere of its own vacuity, as the endless reflexions of its vacuous
person.
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CHAPTER CXXXXVI.
DISQUISITION OF SOUND SLEEP.
Argument:--Relation of sleep after dream, and followed by dream
likewise, concluding with proof of the unity of god[**God].
The Huntsman said:--Tell me, O great sage, what did
you do[**did?] and saw[**see?] afterwards, from your seat in the
erroneous spirit of that person.
2. The sage replied:--Hear me tell you next, what I did
and saw afterwards, by my union with and my situation in the
spirit of that infatuated person.
3. As I resided in the dark cave of his heart, in the confusion
of the last doomsday; there arose methought a hurricane,
which blew away the mountains as straws, on the day of
the final desolation of the world.
4. It was soon followed by outpourings of rain water from
the mountain tops; which bore away the woods and hills in
the torrent.
5. As I dwelt in that cavity and in union with the vitality
of the individual, I perceived even in that state of my spiritual
minuteness, the falling rains and hailstones from the mountain
tops.
6. I was then folded in the chyle of that person, and fell into
a state of sound sleep, and felt a deep darkness enveloping me
all over.
7. Having laid down in my sleep for some time, I was
gradually raised from my sleepy state; as the closed lotus of
the night, unfolds its petals in the morning.
8. Then as a man lying in darkness, comes to see some
circular disks appearing to his sight; so I saw some flimsy
dreams flying about and hovering upon me.
9. Being released from the chain of sleep, I fell to a chain
of dreams; and saw a hundread[**hundred] shapes of things, arising in my
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spirit, as the shapes of unnumbered waves and billows, rise in
the bosom of the sea.
10. Very many forms of visible things, appeared in the cell
of my consciousness; as a great many flying things are seen to
be volitant in the still and motionless air.
11. As heat is inherent in fire, and coldness is innate in
water, and as fluidity is characteristic of liquids, and pungency
is immanent in pepper &c[**.]; so is the world inborn in Brahma.
12. The nature of the Intellect being uniform and selfsame
in itself; the phenomenal world is engrained in it, as the dream
of a new born child, presents itself to the sight of a sleeping
man. (Sight is here applied to the mind's eye).
13. The Hintsman[**Huntsman] rejoined:--Tell me sir, how is it possible
for the Intellect to have the sight of anything in its state
of sound sleep, since dreams never occur in the mind except in
the state of slight and light sleep.
14. Again in the state of sound sleep both of yourself, as
also of the person in whose heart you dwelt; how could the
sight of the creation appear to you, (or has the term sound sleep
any other sense than the state of utter nescience?) (Sound sleep
is the state of utter insensibility or anaesthesia-[**--]gloss).
15. The sage replied:--Know that creation is expressed by
the words, viz. jáyati is born, bháti appeareth, and kachati
shineth; and are applied indiscriminately to all material things,
as pots and pictures ([Sanskrit: ghata pata]) as well as to the world also; all
these words are used to express a duality (or something different
as proceeding from Unity), by men whose brains are heated
with dualism, or the notion of a duality: (as different from the
nature of the Unity or the only One).
16. Know that the word játa or born means only being
(sattwa), and its synonyms are prádurbháva-[**--]manifestation,
which is derived from the root bhu to be.
17. Now the meaning of Bhu is being, which expresses the
sense of being born also, and the sarga meaning production or
creation, it is same with being also.
18. With us learned men, there is nothing as jáyáti or what
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is made or may be said to be born or destroyed; but all is one
calm and quiet unborn being only. (An eternal ideal entity).
19. The whole and soul of this entity, is the one Brahma
alone (the only Ens to On or the Om); and the totality of
existence, is the Cosmos, macrocosm or the world. Say then
what hypostasis or unsubstantiality is there that can be positively
affirmed or denied of it, which is of them alike.
20. That which is called sakti or the active energy of god,
resides literally in the Divine spirit, but not as a free or separate
power of itself; because all power subsists in Omnipotence,
which is self same with Brahma, and not as an attribute or part
of him. (Vedanta ignores the predicates of potentiality as
predicable of Brahma, who is the very essence of Omnipotence).
21. The properties of waking, sleep and dreaming, do not belong
to the nature of god[**God], according to the cognition of men
learned in divine Knowledge; because God never sleeps nor
dreams, nor does he wake in the manner of His creature. (No
changing property appertaining to finite beings can ever be
attributable to the Infinite, who is as He is).
22. Neither sleep nor the airy visions of dreaming, nor also
anything that we either know or have any notion of, can have
any relation to the nature of the Inscruable[**Inscrutable] One; any more
than
the impossibility of our having any idea of the world before its
creation. So the Persian mystic Berun Zátash, aztohmate
chunan to chunin. His nature is beyond our comprehension
and presumption of it as so and such).
23. It is the living soul which sees the dream, and imagines
the creation in itself; or else the pure intellect is quite unintelligible
in its nature, and remains as clear as either in the
beginning of creation.
24. The Intellect is neither the observer nor enjoyer (i. e.
neither the active nor passive agent of creation); it is something
as nothing, perfectly quiet and utterly unspeakable in its
nature.
25. In the beginning there was no cause of creation, or
creative agent of the world; it is only an ideal of the Divine
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Mind, and exists for ever in the same state, as a vision in the
dream or an airy castle of imagination.
26. It is thus that the individual Intelligence, is apprehended
as a duality by the unwise, but never by the intelligent;
because ignorant men like silly infants are afraid of the tiger or
snake that is painted upon their own person; but the intelligent
knowing them too well to be marked upon their own bodies,
never suspect them as anything otherwise than their own
person.
27. The One invariable and translucent soul, which is without
its beginning, middle and end, appears as varying and
various to the unreflecting dualist and polytheist; but the
whole appearing so changeful and conspicuous to sight, is all
a perfect calm and quiet and serene prospect in itself.
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CHAPTER CXXXXVII.
THE PHENOMENON AND PERSPECTION OF DREAMS.
Argument:--The rise of dream from sound sleep; and the vision of
friends and relations in Dreaming.
The sage continued:--Hear me now, O strong armed
archer, how I awoke from my sound sleep, and saw the
sight of the world in my dream; just a man rising on the surface
from the depth of the sea, surveys the heavens above him.
2. I saw the heavens, as hewn out of the etherial vacuum;
and I beheld the terrestials[**terrestrials], as sculptured out of the earth;
but found them all, to be fashioned out of the Divine Mind; or
framed in that manner, by my visual organs or ocular deception
only.
3. The world appeared, as the early or long sprung blossom
of the arbour of the eternal mind; or as the ceaseless waves of
the vast ocean, or as phantoms of my deluded eye sight.
4. It seemed to appear from the bosom of the sky above, or
to have proceeded from all sides of heaven; it seemed moreover
as a masonery[**masonry] carved out of the mountains of all quarters
of the firmament, and also as a prodigy rising out of the earth or
Tartaries.[**Tartarus?]
5. It seemed also to have sprung out of the heart, as any of
its feelings or affections; and to have filled all the space of
vacuity, as the all pervading clouds of heaven; methought it
likewise as the produce of a large forest, or like seeds or grains
growing out of the earth.
6. As pictures of houses with apartments, are painted upon
the planes of level plates; so the figures of living beings, are
drawn upon the smooth flatness of the Intellect, together with
all the members and organs of their bodies.
7. These worlds appear to have sprung in some unknown part
of Infinity, and to have presented themselves to our view, like
flying herds of distant regions coming to our sight; or as presents
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are brought to the presence of prince from different parts of
lands, or as the retributions and rewards of one's [**add: good] or bad
deeds
in this life, meet him in the next and successive transmigration.
8. The world is but a blossom of the great arbour of
Brahma, or a little billow of vast ocean of Eternity; it is a
sculpture on the colossal pillar of the Intellect, without being
carved out or cast upon it. (It is the macrocosom[**macrocosm] moulded
in
the mind of God).
9. The firmament is the ample field, filled with an infinity
of worlds, appearing as our earthly abodes in the empty city of
air; the mind wanders at random all over it as an infuriate
elephant, with an airy empty life, as fickle and fleeting as a
breath of air.
10. The edifice of the world appears to be built without its
foundation, and is unsupported by walls; and the sky appearing
so bright and variegated, is without any colour or taint of its
own; it is the magical power of the great magician, that has
displayed these wonders and spread a curtain of delusion over
the ignorant and infatuated world. (Instead of knowledge, man
has rather eaten the fruit of the tree of ignorance).
11. Though the creation seems so exuberent[**exuberant], at all places
and in all times; yet it is quite quiescent, and unbounded by
any limitation of space and time; and though it appears as
multitudinous yet it is the single unity; and though seemingly
multifarious, yet is all but one invariable uniformity.
12. The instance of the fairy land is exactly alike to that of
this world, in respect of the unreality of both; and it is
the same error which occurs to us in our dream, [**add: that] possesses us
also even in our waking state of dreaming. (Equality of day
and night dreams).
13. It is the reflexion of the mind only, that represents the
absent past, as well as the future which is yet to be, as already
present before it; whether they relate to aught of time or place,
or substance or action or anything relating to its creation or
its destruction.
14. There are numberless beings contained under every
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species of animals, which contain others adinfinitum[**ad infinitum] in
their
ovaries, bearing animalcules like seeds of pomigranate[**pomegranate]
fruits.
15. The rivers, forests and mountains, are seen to be beset
by clouds of the sky, and studded with the gemming stars of
heaven; and the sea is heard to resound with the loud larum of
battle drums, raised by the warring winds with the conflicting
currents.
16. I then behold there a visible sphere before me, amidst
which I saw the village of my prior dream, and recognized the
spot of my former residence therein.
17. I saw there all my former friends and relations, at the
very spot and of the same age as I had seen then before; I saw
my wife and my very children seated in the very same house.
18. Seeing my fellow villagers and my former village scenes,
my heart wished to meet them as violently, as the sea-waves
swell to meet the shore.
19. I then began to embrace all my relatives, and felt happy
at my joining with them; and being enrapt by my desire of
seeing more and more, I utterly lost all my remembrance of the
past.
20. As a mirror receives the reflexion of whatever is present
before it, so the mirror of the mind is wholly occupied with the
objects of its future desires, and becomes unmindful of the
past.
21. It is the vacuity of the Intellect, that has the knowledge
of everything; nor is there any other principle of understanding
beside the intellect, which ever subsists by itself.
22. He who has not lost his pure understanding, and his remembrance
of himself; is never misled by the goblin of dualism
or doubt, to think of a duality.
23. He whose understanding is awakened by his constant
inquiry into truth and divine knowledge, and by his study of
good sástras and attendance on divine sages, does not forget his
enlightement[**enlightenment] any more: (nor relapses to his former
ignorance).
24. He who is imperfect in his divine knowledge, and whose
mind is bound downby[**down by] worldly desires; is liable to lose his
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good understanding, as it were by the influence of an unfavourable
planet or inauspecious[**inauspicious] star.
25. Know thou, O huntsman! that thy understanding also,
which is not yet cultivated by association with the wise, is
liable to fall into error of duality, and involve thee thereby to
repeated difficulties.
26. The Huntsman answered:--It is all very true, O sage,
that notwithstanding all thy lectures, my understanding does
not find its rest in the knowledge of only true One.
27. My understanding is still hanging in doubt, as to
whether it is so or not; and though I rely in my conception of
the truth as you have declared, yet my mind finds no rest in it.
28. Ah! that though I fix my faith on the doctrine you
have preached, yet I cannot rest secure in it, so long as my
ignorance reigns supreme in me.
29. Unless the understanding is enlightened in the company
of wise men, by attending the doctrine of the best sástras, and
due examination of their precepts, there can be no end of the
errors of the world, nor any rest for the weary soul, wandering
continually in the maze of errors.
-----File: 248.png---------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER CXXXXVIII.
INVESTIGATION INTO THE NATURE OF DREAMS.
Argument:--Truth and untruth of Dreams.
The Huntsman said:--If the sight of the world is no
more than a vision in dream, then tell me, O great sage,
where lies its truth or falsehood, which is a matter of great
doubt and difficulty to me.
2. The sage replied:--That dream is true and comes actually
to take place, which rises in our consciousness under
the conditions, of proper place and time, and right actions and
things. (These are the morning dreams relating to pious acts
and sacred things in some adjacent place).
3. A dream that is caused by use of some gem or drug or
by effect of some mantra or amulet, comes to pass in actu[**OK/Latin],
whether it is favourable or not to the dreamer.
4. When the earnest desire of a man, presents itself in the
shape of a dream before his mental sight, it comes to occur by
accident by law of chance.
5. Whatever we believe with certainty in our consciousness,
the same is sure as fate, we are sure to see and become the
same (by the natural tendency and constitution of our minds).
6. Certainly[**Certainty] removes the uncertainty, if any one reaches
there, the other falls down absolutely.
7. No object is ever situated, either in the inside or outside
of any body; it is the consciousness alone, that assumes to
itself the various forms of worldly things, and remains in the
same state as it knows itself to be.
8. The certainty arrived at by evidence of the sástras[**=print], that
the phenomenals are as appearances in a dream, makes it[**=print] to be
believed as so indeed; but a disbelief, in this belief makes one
a sceptic, who wanders about in his doubts for ever. (Without
coming to a settled belief).
-----File: 249.png---------------------------------------------------------
9. If one gains his object by any other means, notwithstanding
his belief in the visionariness of the world; that gain is to
be reckoned as a visionary one only.
10. Whatever is ascertained as true in the world, by the
strong consciousness of any body in his waking state; the same
comes to be known as otherwise or (untrue), in course of time
and change of place either sooner or later.
11. In the beginning the world existed in Divine Intellect,
and was represented in its subtile and incompressible form;
I[**It/it] had its essence in the mind of god, and then extended its
tenuous substance to any length ad libitum[**space added].
12. Know that beside the true and immutable entity of
the intellect of Brahma alone, all others are both real and unreal,
and lasting and transcient[**transient] also. (They are real as reflexion
of the Divine Mind, and unreal and transitory in their phenomenal
aspects.)
13. Whereas Brahma is the only ens[**OK/Latin] and soul of all, there
can be no other that may be styled as such; say[**=print] therefore what
else is there, that may be called a reality or non reality either.
14. Whether therefore a dream be true or false at any time[**space added],
it cannot be deemed as the one or the other, by either the ignorant
or enlightened part of mankind.
15. The phenomenal world appears before us, by delusion
of our senses and misconception of our consciousness; the visible
worlds commonly passed under the name of illusion (máyá),
hath naught of reality or certainty in it.
16. It is the Divine Intellect that flashes forth in the mind,
with the glare of the glaring world; just as fluidity is seen to be
thrilling and flowing still, in all bodies of waters and liquids.
17. As one sees a dream at first, and falls fast asleep afterwards;
so doth everybody behold the phenomenals in his waking
state, and then falls naturally into a deep and sound sleep.
(This refers to the alternate creation and annihilation of the
world).
18. Know then, O great sage, that the waking state is analogous
to that of dreaming; and know the dreaming state to be
-----File: 250.png---------------------------------------------------------
as that of waking, and that both these states are but the two
phases of the one and same Brahma; (as the liquid and condensed
states of ghee or butter are both the same).
19. The Divine Intellect is a vacuous and incomprehensible
entity, and the specious universe is its reflexion only; the
three states of waking, dreaming and sleeping, are the triple
hypostases of the same being (or Divine Existance[**typo, Existence]).
20. There is no law regarding the efficacy of dreams, say how
can you determine any rule for ascertaining the results of various
dreams.
[*]21. As long as the mind dwells on the appearance of dreams
(either in sleep or waking), so long it is troubled with its vagaries;
therefore the sage must wipe off their impressions from
his consciousness.
22. It is the humour of the mind that gives rise to dreams,
like pulsation in air causing the current wind; there is no
other cause of dreams nor any laws for governing them; except
the sound sleep (or insouciance), when these appearances entirely
subside or vanish away.
23. It is the manner of the learned, to impute the cause of
the impressions in our consciousness, to external appearances of
this thing or that (or ghata patadi &c[**.]); but relying on the doctrine
of the causelessness of external objects (or the objective),
they prove to be no other than mere imaginations of the subjective
mind (or noumenal only).
24. In this therefore there is [**[no]] other law with respect to
this, than the appearances of things whatever they be, are generally
granted as such by the common sense of mankind (vyávahárikam).
25. Thus there being no law in dreaming, there is some
times some truth in some dreams, and at others there[**=print] is no
* The mind involved in ignorance, is said to be waking, and the
uncontrouled[**OK/SOED]
mind is styled as dreaming: the mind snbdned[**subdued] by[**space
added] weariness is said
to be asleep, and when brought under subjection by any effort, is called
samádhi or meditation, lastly its liberation from ignorance, is known as
its state of mukti or emancipation.
-----File: 251.png---------------------------------------------------------
truth in any of them at all; and in want of any constancy, it is
only an fortuitous occurrence.
26. Whatever appears subjectively to one's self, either from
his own nature or by means of artificial appliances; and whatever
one is habituated to think of anything in himself, he sees
the same in the very form, both in his dreaming as well as
waking states.
27. The appearances of things, both in the sleeping and waking
states of men, are the mere reflexions of their minds; and
they remain the same whether when one is waking or lying in
the visionary city of his dreams.
28. It is not enough to call the waking alone as waking, because
the dream also appears as waking to the waking soul that
never sleeps. (The soul is ever wakeful).
29. So also there is nothing as dreaming, and may be called
by that name; it is only a mode of thinking in the Divine Mind,
which sees sleeping and waking in the same light.
30. Or it may be that there does not exist, either of the two
states of waking or dreaming, because the ever living soul of [**[a]]
dead person, continues to behold the visibles; even after its
separation from the body, and resurrection after death.
31. The soul remains the same, and never becomes otherwise
than what it is, in any state whatsoever; just as the endless
duration never changes with the course of time, and the
ocean continues alike under its rolling waves, and the airy space
remains unchanged above the changing clouds.
32. So the creation is inseparable from the supreme soul,
whether it exists or becomes extinct; and as the perforations
and marks in a stone are never distinct from it; so are the states
of waking and sleeping coincident with the soul Divine.
33. Waking, sleeping, dreaming and sound sleep, are the
four forms of bodies of the formless and bodiless Brahma; who
though devoid of all forms, is still of the form of whole creation,
cosmos and the mundane soul.
34. The supreme soul, that pervades and encompasses all
space is visible to us in only form of infinite space or sky;[**=print] the
-----File: 252.png---------------------------------------------------------
endless vacuity therefore being only the body of supreme Intellect,
it is no way different from it[**space added].
35. The air and wind, the fire and water, together with the
earth and clouds on high, are reckoned as the causes of all creation,
and subsist in their ideal shapes in the mind of Brahma
alone.
36. The Lord is devoid of all appellations and attributes,
and remains united with his body of the Intellect, containing
the knowledge of all things within itself; and the phenomenal
is never separate from the noumenal.
-----File: 253.png---------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER CIL.
INVESTIGATION INTO THE ORIGINAL CAUSE.
Argument:--Conversation of the two sages, and relation of Human
Miseries.
The Huntsman said:--Tell me, O sage! What then became
of the world that you saw in your dream; relate in
full all its accounts until its final extinction (or nirvána).
2. The sage replied:--Hear me then tell thee, O honest
fellow, what then passed in the heart of the person wherein I
had entered, and listen to the wondrous tale with proper attention.
3. As I remained there in that forgetful state of my transformation,
I saw the course of time gliding upon me, with its
train of months, seasons and years, passing imperceptibly by
me.
4. I passed there full fifteen years in my domestic life, and
happy with enjoyment of my congugal[**conjugal] bliss.
5. It happened there once upon a time, that a learned sage,
came as a guest to my house, and I received the venerable and
austere devotee with honour within my doors.
6. Being pleased with my honourable reception of him, he
took his meal and he rested himself at ease, when I made him
the following inquery[**inquiry] regarding the weal and woe of mankind.
7. Sir, said I, you are possest of vast understanding, and
know well the course of the world; and are therefore known
neither to fret at adversity, nor delight in prosperity.
8. All weal and woe proceed from the acts of men, engaged
in busy life in the world; so as the husbandman reaps good
or bad crops in autumn, according to the manner of his cultivation
of the field, (such is the common belief of men).
9. But then tell me, whether all the inhabitants of a place,
are equally faulty in their actions at the one and same time;
-----File: 254.png---------------------------------------------------------
that they are brought to suffer and fall under some severe
calamity or general doom all at once.
10. We see alternate famine and drought, protents[**portents] and
catastrophies[**catastrophes] repeatedly overtaking a large portion of
mankind
at the same time; say then is it owing to the wickedness of the
people at the one and very time.
11. Hearing the words of mine, he stared at me, and looked
as if he was taken by surprise, and seemed to be confounded in
his mind; and then he uttered these words of equal reverence
and ambrosial sweetness.
12. The sagely guest said:--O well spoken! these words of
yours bespeak thy highly enlightened mind; and that you have
well understood the cause of the phenomenal, be it a real or unreal
one, tell me; how you came to know it.
13. (Then seeing me sitting silent before him, he added);
Remember the universal soul only, and think naught what thou
art and where thou sittest; ponder well in thyself, what am I
and from whence, and what is the phenomenals, whether it is
anything substantial or ideal of the mind only.
14. All this is the display of dream and how is it that you
do not know it as yet? I am a visionary being to you, as you
are the phantom of a dream before me.
15. The world you see, is a formless and a nameless nothing,
and mere formation of your imagination; it glares with the glare
of the glassy Intellect, and is a glaring falsehood in itself.
16. The true and unfictitious forms of the Intellect is, as
you must know; that it is omnipresent, and therefore of any
form whatsover[**whatsoever], you think or take it to be any where.
17. Now in assigning[**space removed] a causality to things, you will find
that
the Intellect is the cause of all; and in ascribing on[**one] cause to
anything, you have the uncaused and uncausing Intellect for
everything.
18. It is the universal soul that spreads through all, and in
whom all living beings reside, that is known as virajátma or
common soul of all; and the same viewed as residing in us, is
known as sutratamá[**sútrátmá] or individual souls linked together in a
series (composed of all souls).
-----File: 255.png---------------------------------------------------------
19. There will be other living beings in future, with the
virajan soul pervading in all of them, and causing their weal
or woe according to their desires. (Lit. causing the affluence
and want of men according to their respective acts).
20. The soul is disturbed by derangement of the humours
of the body and then the limbs and members of the bodies of
men, become perturbed likewise.
21. Drought, famine and destruction, may come upon mankind
or subside of themselves; because:--
22. It is possible, O good soul! that there are many persons
living together, [**[who]] are equally guilty of some crime at the same
time; who wait on their simultaneous punishment, falling as
the fire of heaven on a forest at the same time.
23. The mind that relies on the efficacy of acts, comes to
feel the effects of its actions; but the soul that is free from
such expectation, is never involved in its acts, nor exposed to
its result.
24. Whatever one imagines to himself, in any form at any
place or time; the same occurs to him in the same proportion
as he expected it; whether that object be with or without its
cause (i,[**.] e. actual or not).
25. The visionary appearances in dreams, are in no way
accompanied with their immediate or accessory causes, as all
actual existences are; therefore this visionary world is the
appearance of the everlasting Intellect of Intelligence, which
is Brahma itself.
26. The world appearing as an erroneous dream, is a causeless
unreality only; but considering it as the appearance of
Brahma, it has both its cause and reality (Hence it is called
sadasadátmaka i. e. both a reality and unreality also).
27. The casual occurance[**occurrence] of dreams, deludes our
consciousness
of them; and so the fortuitous appearance of the world, is
equally delusive of our apprehension of it. Its extension is a
delusion, as the expansion of a dream.
28. Everything appears to be caused or uncaused, or as
casual or causal as we take it to be; (hence while we deem
-----File: 256.png---------------------------------------------------------
our dreams as causeless delusions, we are apt to believe the
equally visionary world, as a caused and sober reality).
29. It is a deception of the understanding to take the
visionary world, as the product of a real causality. It is natural
to the waking state to [**[take]] it for a reality, what appears as quite
calm and unreal in our sleep and dream.
30. Now hear me tell you,[**=print] O great minded sage, that the
one satya-[**--]Ens[**OK/Latin] or Brahma is the sole cause of
existences; or
else what other thing is it that is the cause of all nature and
this all pervading vacuum.
31. Say what can be the cause of the solidity of the earth,
and the rarity of air; what is the cause of our universal ignorance,
and what is the cause of the self born Brahma.
32. What may be the cause of creation, and what is the
origin of the winds, and fire and water; and what is the source
of our apprehensions of things than mere vacuum or the vacuous
intellect.
33. Tell me what can be the cause, of the regeneration of
departed souls, into the mass of material bodies? It is in
this manner that the course of creation is going on in this
manner from the beginning (without any assignable cause).
34. Thus are all things seem[**seeming] to be going on, and recurring
in this world, like the rotations of wheels and spheres in air;
from our constant habit of thinking and seeing them as such.
35. Thus it is the great Brahma himself, who in the form of
Brahmà[**Brahmá] or creator, spreads and moves throught
out[**throughout] the world;
and receives afterwards as many different names, as the different
phases and forms of that he displays in nature, such as the earth,
air &c.
36. All creations move about like the fluctuations of winds,
in the spacious firmament of the Divine Mind; which conceives
of itself various forms of things in its own imagination.
37. Whatever it imagines in any form or shape, the same
receives the very form as a decree of fate; and because these
forms are the very images or ideas of the Divine Mind, they are
deemed to form the very body of the Deity.
38. In whatever likeness was anything[**anything was] designed at first
by
-----File: 257.png---------------------------------------------------------
the Divine Intellect; it bears the same form and figure of it to
this day, (and so will it continue to bear for evermore).
39. But as the Divine Mind is all powerful and omniscient,
it is able to alter them and make others anew, by its great
efforts again (i. e. God can unmake what he has made, and make
others again).
40. Whenever anything is supposed to have a cause, it is
thought also to be subject to the will of that cause; and wherever
there is no supposition of a cause, there is no apprehension
nor capability of its alteration also. (i. e. The world is both as
changable[**changeable] as well as unchangable[**unchangeable],
according as it is believed to
be made by or selfsame with its Maker).
41. Like vibration in air, the world existed as first in the
ideal of the Divine Mind; and as it was an unsubstantiality before,
so it continues ever still.
42. They who amass for themselves, the merits or demerits
of their pious or impious deeds; reap accordingly the good or
bad rewards or results thereof in this life. There are others who
are crushed under a thousand calamities, falling upon them
like showers of hailstones or the thunderbolts of heaven.
-----File: 258.png---------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER CL.
TRANSCENDENTAL ADMONITIONS.
Argument:--Conversation of the impossibility of the departed seal, to
reenter into the former body.
The house keeping sage then said as follows:--It was by
this kind of reasoning, that my sagely guest expostulated
with me, and made [**[me]] acquainted with whatever was worth
knowing.
2. I then restrain[**restrained] my guest, to remain longer with me by
entreaties; and he consented to abide at mine, which resembled
the abode of a dead (ignorant) person. (Those that are dead to
reason, are called dead people).
3. The sage that spake to me those edifying words, which
were as bright and cooling as moonlight; behold him to be the
venerable personage, that is now sitting beside you.
4. He said without my request the following speech, for removal
of my ignorance; as if the sacrificial god rose out of
fire, being pleased with my sacrifice.
5. Hearing these words of the sage, the huntsman was confounded
with wonder; and could not know the sage that expounded
the theory of dreaming, now sitting confest[**confessed] before me.
6. The Huntsman said;[**:] O! it is a great wonder, and inconceivable
in my mind, that the sage that expounded the nature
of dreams, is now manifest before me.
7. I wonder at this, O sage! that the sagely guest whom you
saw in your dream, and who explained the cause of dreams to
you, should now be seen in this waking state.
8. Say how could this visionary sage seen in your airy
dream, could[**delete 'could'] come to appear in a solid body, and sit
sedate at
this place, like the fancied ghost of boys.
9. Please to explain to me this wonderful narration of yours,
in due order; as to who he is and whence and wherefore he
comes[**=print] in this questionable form.
-----File: 259.png---------------------------------------------------------
10. The sage replied:--Hear me patently[**patiently], O fortunate man,
to relate to you about this wonderful narrative. I will tell this
briefly to you, but you must not be hasty about it.
11. This sage that now sits by thee, had told me then for
my acquaintance of him; that he was a learned man, and has
come hither now with his tale too long to relate.
12. He said these wards[**words], saying, that he remembered his
former nature, which was as bright and fair as the clear sky, at
the end of the foggy season (of the month of mágh).
13. O! I remember also that I became a sage afterwards,
with an expanded mind; my heart was swollen with joy, and
remained bathed (amazed) at my wondrous change.
14. I was glad at that state of my life, from my desire of the
enjoyments of the world; but was deceived like a weary passenger,
pursuing a mirage with eager expectation of water.
15. Alack! that the phantoms of the phenomenal world,
should so allure even the wise; as the tempting fiends of hell,
deceive mankind only to deceive them.
16. Alas! and I wonder at it, that I was misled by my
ignorance, that I was misled by my erroneous knowledge of the
world, to this state of life, which is utterly devoid of every
good.
17. Or what ever I am, I find myself to be full of errors only,
and there is no truth whatever in me; and yet it is the error
of errors and the greatest blunder, that we should be so beguiled
and betrayed by unrealities.[** no error, though word check highlighted
this]
18. Neither am I nor this or that any entity at all; and
yet it is a wonder, that all these false appearances, should appear
as realities.
19. What then must I do at present to break my bondage to
these falsities; I see the germ of error lying inside myself, and
this tear off and cast away from me.
20. Be there the primeval ignorance, prevalent all over the
world; she can do us no harm, that is a mere negation herself;
It is now that I must try to get rid of my error, of deeming the
unreal as real.
21. That this sage is my preceptor and I am his pupil, is all
-----File: 260.png---------------------------------------------------------
a mistake; because I am in and the very Brahma, and the person
sitting here by me, is as the man in the moon or in the
cloud.
22. Then though I [**[thought]] of speaking to that great sage of
enlightened
understanding; and so thinking, I addressed him
saying:--
23. O great sage! I will now go to my own body (from out
of the body of this person), in order to see what I may be doing
there.
24. Hearing this, that great sage said smilingly to me, Ah!
where are those bodies of you two; that are blown away afar in
their ashes.
25. You may go there yourself if you please, and see the
matter yourself; and by seeing their present state, you will
know every thing relating to them.
26. Being thus advised by him, I thought on entering my
former body.
27. I told him, do you remain here, O sage, until I come
back to this place, after seeing my former body; so saying I became
a breath of air, and fled from my abode.
28. Then mounting on the car of wind, I wandered through
the air, and was wafted to a hundred ways like the odour of a
flower, carried rapidly all about by the odoriferous breezes for a
long time.
29. Roving long in this manner, I sought to enter that body,
by the passage of its lungs; but finding neither that or any
other passage, I kept floating in the air.
30. Then with deep felt sorrow, I returned to my place, and
became tied again to that stake of the world, by my returning
affections to it.
31. Here I saw that venerable sage sitting before me, and
asked him intensely in the following manner in my house in
this place.
32. Tell me sir, said I, for thou knowest all the past and future;
and knowest what all this is, by means of thy all seeing
sight.
33. How was it that the person in whose body I had entered,
-----File: 261.png---------------------------------------------------------
as also my own body likewise, could neither of them be found
anywhere.
34. I then wandered throughout the vast expanse of the
sphere of this earth, and searched amidst all fixed and living
bodies herein, but could not find that opening of the throat
from which I had come out.
35[**.] Being thus addressed by me, that high minded muni or
sage then said unto me; it is not possible for thee with thy
bright and brilliant eyes to find it out unaided by my advice.
36. If you should search after it with the light of thy yoga
meditation, it is then possible for thee to find it out as fully, as one
sees a lotus placed in his palm.
37. Now therefore if you wish to listen to my words, then
attend to my advice, and I will tell thee all about it.
38. Know then that as it is the sunlight that expands the
lotus blossoms in the lake, so it is the enlightening beams of
Brahmá only that develops the lotus of understanding, and
that you can know nothing of yourself.
39. Know then that as you sat once in your devotion, you
dreamt in your reverie, of entering into the heart of another person,
and were confirmed in your consciousness of that belief.
40. The heart wherein you thought to have entered, you
believed to have seen the three worlds therein; and the great
sphere of heaven and earth contained in its bosom.
41. In this manner as you absorbed in your reverie, and
thought yourself to reside in the body of another person; you
happened to fall asleep, and your hermitage in the forest suddenly
caught fire and was burnt down.
42. The burning hut sent forth clouds of smoke to the sky,
and the blazing cinders, flew to the orbs of the sun and moon.
43. The flying ashes covered the sky, as with a grey cloud
or ash coloured blanket; and the blue vault of heaven was
spread over as with a canopy.
44. Wild animals issuing out of their caves and caverns,
sent forth horrid yells and growling abroad; and the bursting
sparks filled the horizon.
45. The tall palm and other trees, caught the flame and
-----File: 262.png---------------------------------------------------------
appeared as trees of fire; and the flying and falling fires, cracked
as the clattering cloud.
46. The flames ascending far above in the air, appeared as
fixed lightenings in the sky; and the firmament assumed a face
as that of molted[**melted] gold.
47. The fiery sparks flying afar to the starry frame, doubled
the number of stars in heaven; and the flashing fires in the
bosom of the sky, delighted the eyes of damsels (as at the sight
of fire works).
48. The blowing and booming fires, rebellowing in the
hollow sky; startled the sleeping foresters in the woods, who
rushed out of their caves and caverns, and wandered about in
the forest.
49. The wild beasts and birds being half burnt in their caves
and nests, lay and fell dead on the ground; the lakes and river
waters boiled with heat, and the foresters were suffocated by
the fumes.
50. The young chauri bulls, were parched in the flames;
and the stink of the burning fat and flesh of wild beasts,
filled the air with a nasty stench.
51. This all devouring wild fire, raging as a conflagration or
diluvian fire, hath wholly consumed and swallowed up your
hermitage, as a serpent devours its prey.
52. The Huntsman asked:--Tell me sir, what was the real
cause of this fire; and why the Brahman lads that dwelt in their
pupilage there, were burnt down also.
53. The sage replied:--It is the vibration or effort of the
volitive or designing mind, that is the true cause or incentive
of the production or demolition of the desired object; and so
its quiescence is the cause of the absence of the three worlds.
54. As a sudden fear or passion is the cause of palpitation
of the heart, so an effort or desire of the mind is the mobile
force (or primum[**=print] mobile) for the causation[**=print] of the
three worlds.
55. It is the pulsation[**=print] of the Divine Mind, that is the cause
of the imaginary city of the world; as also of the increase of
population and of rains and draughts.
56. The will in the Divine Mind, is the source of the creative
[** P1: this line has been typed by me.--P2:compared to print]
-----File: 263.png---------------------------------------------------------
mind of Brahmá, which in its turn gives rise to the minds of
the first patriarchs, who transmit it to others in endless progression,
all of which proceed from the first quiet and calm
intellect, through the medium of vacuum.
57. The learned know well, that the effulgence of the pure
and vacuous Intellect, shines in the vacuum of their intellects;
but the ignorant think it as it appears to them, which is not
the reality (which it is not in reality).
 



Om Tat Sat
                                                        
(Continued...) 




( My humble salutations to Brahmasri Sreemaan Vihari Lala Mitra ji for the collection)



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