The
Yoga Vasishtha
Maharamayana
of Valmiki
The only complete English translation is
by Vihari Lala Mitra (1891).
CHAPTER XVIII.
EXPOSURE OF THE ERRORS OF THIS WORLD.
1.She said, "I have much consolation in
you, and now will I console my
sorrowing heart." So saying, she made a
sign for the assembly to break,
and rose from her royal seat.
2. She entered the inner apartment and sat by
the side of the dead body
of her lord, hidden under the heap of
flowers, and thus began to reflect
within herself.
3. She exclaimed:—"O the wondrous magic!
that presents these people of
my place situated in the same manner without
myself, as they were seen
to be seated within me.
4. "O how great is the extent of this
delusion, as to contain the same
high hills, and the same spacious forests of
palm and Hintāla trees,
both in the outside as well as they are
situated in the inside of
myself.
5. "As the mirror shows the reflexion of
the hills within itself as they
are without it, so the reflector of the intellect
presents the whole
creation inwardly as it has outwards of
itself.
6. "I must now invoke the goddess of
wisdom to ascertain which of these
is illusion, and which the sober and certain
reality."
7. So saying, she worshipped and invoked the
goddess, and beheld her
immediately present before herself, in the
form of a virgin.
8. She made the goddess sit on the elevated
seat, and having seated
herself low upon the ground before her, asked
that divine power to tell
her the truth.
9. Līlā said:—"Vouchsafe, O goddess, and
clear this doubt of thy
suppliant; for it is thy wisdom which has
framed this beautiful system
of the universe at first and knows the truth.
(Divine wisdom is the
prime cause of all).
10. "Tell me, O great goddess, about
what I am going to lay before thee
at present, for it is by thy favour alone
that I may be successful to
know it.
11. "I saw the pattern of this world in
the intellect, which is more
transparent than the etherial sphere, and as
extensive as to contain
millions and millions of miles in a small
space of it.
12. "It is what no definite words can
express, and what is known as the
calm, cool and ineffable light. This is
called the unintelligible
intelligence, and is without any cover or
support (nirāvarana
nirbhitti).
13. "It exhibits the reflexions of space
and the course of time, and
those of the sky and its light, and the
course of events concentrating
in itself.
14. "Thus the images of the worlds, are
to be seen both within and
without the intellect, and it is hard to
distinguish the real and unreal
ones between them."
15. The goddess asked:—"Tell me fair
lady, what is the nature of the
real world, and what you mean, by its
unreality."
16. Līlā replied:—"I know the nature of
the real to be such as I find
myself to be sitting here, and looking upon
you as seated in this place.
17. "And I mean that to be unreal, as
the state in which I beheld my
husband in the etherial region erewhile;
because vacuity has no limit of
time or place in it."
18. The goddess rejoined:—"The real
creation cannot produce an unreal
figure, nor a similar cause produce a
dissimilar effect".
19. Līlā replied:—"But we often see, O
goddess! dissimilar effects to
be produced from similar causes: thus, the
earth and earthen pot though
similar in their substance, yet the one is
seen to melt in water, and
the other to carry water in it."
20. The goddess said:—"Yes, when an act
is done by the aid of auxiliary
means, there the effect is found to be
somewhat different from the
primary cause. (Thus the earthen pot being
produced by the auxiliary
appliances of fire, the potter's wheel and
the like, differs in its
quality from the original clay).
21. Say O beauteous lady! what were the
causes of thy husband's being
born in this earth? The same led to his birth
in the other world also.
(i. e. The merit of the acts and desires of men, are the causes
of
their transmigrations in both worlds).
22. When the soul has fled from here, how can
the earth follow him there
any more, and what auxiliary causes can there
be in connection with this
cause?
23. Wherever there arises a coaction with its
apparent causality, it is
usually attributed by every one to some
unknown antecedent cause or
motive".
24. Līlā said:—Methinks goddess, that it was
the expansion of my
husband's memory that was the cause of his
regenerations; because it is
certain that reminiscence is the cause of the
reproduction of objects
before us.
25. The goddess replied that, memory is an aerial
substance, and its
productions are as unsubstantial as itself.
26. Līlā said:—Yes I find reminiscence to be
an airy thing, and its
reproduction of my husband and all other
things within me to be but
empty shadows in the mind.
27. The goddess replied:—So verily was this
reproduction of thy husband
and all those things which appeared to thy
sight in thy reverie; and so,
my daughter, is the appearance of all things
I see in this world.
28. Līlā said:—Tell me goddess for the
removal of my conception of the
reality of the world, how the false
appearance of my formless lord, was
produced before me by the unreal world,
(since nothing unsubstantial can
cast a shadow).
29. The goddess replied:—As this illusive
world appeared a reality to
thee before thy reminiscence of it, so must
thou know all this to be
unreal from what I am going to relate to
thee.
30. There is in some part of the sphere of
the Intellect the great
fabric of the world, with the glassy vault of
the firmament for its roof
on all sides.
31. The Meru (the polar axle or mountain) is
its pillar, beset around by
the regents of the ten sides, as statues
carved upon it. The fourteen
regions are as so many apartments of it, and
the hollow concavity
containing the three worlds, is lighted by
the lamp of the luminous sun.
32. Its corners are inhabited by living
creatures resembling ants and
emmets, which are surrounded by mountains
appearing as ant-hills in the
sight of Brahmā, the prime lord of creatures
and the primeval patriarch
of many races of men.
33. All animal beings are as worms confined
in the cocoons (prison
houses) of their own making. The azure skies
above and below are as the
soot of this house, beset by bodies of
Siddhas (or departed spirits),
resembling groups of gnats buzzing in the
air.
34. The fleeting clouds are the smoke of this
house or as webs of
spiders in its corners, and the hollow air is
full of aerial spirits,
like holes of bamboos filled with flies.
35. There are also the playful spirits of
gods and demigods, hovering
over human habitations, as swarms of busy and
buzzing bees about vessels
of honey.
36. Here there lay amidst the cavity of
heaven, earth and the infernal
regions, tracts of land well watered by
rivers, lakes and the sea on all
sides.
37. In a corner of this land, there was
situated a secluded piece of
ground (a vale or village), sheltered by
hills and crags about it.
38. In this secluded spot thus sheltered by
hills, rivers and forests,
there lived a Brāhman with his wife and
children, free from disease and
care of gain and fear of a ruler, and passed
his days in his
fire-worship and hospitality, with the
produce of his kine and lands.
CHAPTER XIX.
STORY OF A FORMER VASISHTHA AND HIS WIFE.
This Brāhman was equal to his namesake—the
sage Vasishtha, in his age
and attire, in his learning and wealth, and
in all his actions and
pursuits, except in his profession. (The one
being a secular man, and
the other the priest of the royal family).
2. His name was Vasishtha, and that of his
wife Arundhatī; who was as
fair as the moon, and as the star of the same
name on earth.
3. She resembled her namesake the priestess
of the solar race, in her
virtues and parts and in all things, except
in her soul and body.
4. She passed her time in true love and affection
in his company, and
was his all in the world, with her sweet
smiling face resembling the
Kumuda flower.
5. This Brāhman had been sitting once under
the shady sarala trees,
on
the table land of his native hill, when he
saw the ruler of the land,
passing with his gaudy train below.
6. He was accompanied by all the members of
the royal family and his
troops and soldiers, and was going to a
chase, with a clamour that
resounded in the hills and forests.
7. The white flappers shed a stream of moon
light, and the lifted
banners appeared as a moving forest, and the
white umbrellas made the
sky a canopy to them.
8. The air was filled with dust raised by the
hoofs of horses from the
ground, and lines of elephants with their
high haūdās, seemed as
moving towers, to protect them from the solar
heat and sultry winds.
9. The wild animals were running on all sides
at the loud uproar of the
party, resembling the roaring of a whirlpool,
and shining gems and
jewels were flashing all about on the persons
of the party.
10. The Brāhman saw the procession and said
to himself, "O how charming
is royalty, which is fraught with such
splendour and prosperity.
11. Ah! how shall I become the monarch of all
the ten sides, and have
such a retinue of horse and elephants and
foot soldiers, with a similar
train of flags and flappers and blazing
umbrellas.
12. When will the breeze waft the fragrance
of kunda flowers, and the
farina of lotuses to my bed-chamber, to lull
me and my consorts to
sleep.
13. When shall I adorn the countenances of my
chamber maids with camphor
and sandal paste, and enlighten the faces of
the four quarters with my
fair fame, as the moon-beams decorate the
night.
14. With these thoughts, the Brāhman was
thenceforth determined to apply
himself with vigilance, to the rigid
austerities of his religion for
life.
15. He was at last overtaken by infirmities
which shattered his frame,
as the sleets of snowfall, batter the
blooming lotuses in the lake.
16. Seeing his approaching death, his
faithful wife was fading away with
fear, as a creeper withers at the departure
of spring, for fear of the
summer heat.
17. This lady then began to worship me (the
personification of Wisdom)
like thyself, for obtaining the boon of
immortality which is hard to be
had.
18. She prayed saying:—Ordain, O goddess!
that the spirit of my lord
may not depart from this sepulchre after his
demise: and I granted her
request.
19. After some time the Brāhman died, and his
vacuous spirit remained in
the vacuity of that abode.
20. This aeriform spirit of the Brāhman,
assumed the shape of a mighty
man on earth, by virtue of the excessive
desire and merit of acts in his
former state of existence.
21. He became the victorious monarch of the
three realms, by subjugating
the surface of the earth by his might, by
laying hold on the high steeps
(of the gods) by his valour, and his kind
protection of the nether lands
(watery regions) under his sway.
22. He was as a conflagration to the forest
of his enemies, and as the
steadfast Meru amidst the rushing winds of
business on all sides. He was
as the sun expanding the lotus-like hearts of
the virtuous, and as the
god of the makara ensign (Kama or cupid) to the eyes of women.
23. He was the model of all learning, and the
all giving Kalpa tree
to
his suitors; he was the footstool of great
Pandits, and as the full-moon
shedding the ambrosial beams of polity all
around.
24. But after the Brāhman was dead, and his
dead body had disappeared in
the forms of elementary particles in air, and
his airy spirit had
reposed in the aerial intellectual soul
within the empty space of his
house.
25. His Brāhmanic widow (born of the priestly
class), was pining away in
her sorrow, and her heart was rent in twain
as the dried pod of Simbi.
26. She became a dead body like her husband,
and her spirit by shuffling
off its mortal coil, resumed its subtile and
immortal form, in which it
met the departed ghost of her husband.
27. She advanced to her lord, as rapidly as a
river runs to meet the sea
below its level; and became as cheerful to
join him, as a cluster of
flowers to inhale the vernal air.
28. The houses, lands and all the immovable
properties and movable
riches of this Brāhman, are still existent in
that rocky village, and it
is only eight days past, that the souls of
this loving pair, are
reunited in the hollow vault of their house.
CHAPTER XX.
THE MORAL OF THE TALE OF LﾍLﾁ.
The goddess said:—That Brāhman whom I said
before, had become a monarch
on earth, is the same with thy husband, and
his wife Arundhati, is no
other than thyself—the best of women.
2. You two are the same pair now reigning
over this realm, and
resembling a pair of doves in your nuptial
love, and the deities Siva
and Pārvati in your might.
3. I have thus related to you the state of
your past lives, that you may
know the living soul to be but air, and the
knowledge of its reality is
but an error.
4. The erroneous knowledge (derived from
sense), casts its reflection in
the intellect, and causes its error also;
(errors in the senses breed
errors in the mind); and this makes you
doubtful of the truth and
untruth of the two states; (of the sensible
and intellectual worlds).
5. Therefore the question, 'which is true and
which is untrue,' has no
better solution than that all creations,
(whether visible or invisible,
mental or ideal), are equally false and
unsubstantial.
6. Vasishtha said:—Hearing these words of the
goddess, Līlā was
confused in her mind, and with her eyes
staring with wonder, she
addressed her softly.
7. Līlā said:—How is it, O goddess! that your
words are so incoherent
with truth, you make us the same, with the
Brahmanic pair, who are in
their own house, and we are sitting here in
our palace.
8. And how is it possible that the small
space of the room in which my
husband's body is lying, could contain those
spacious lands and hills
and the ten sides of the sky: (as I already
saw in my
trance—Sāmādhi).
9. It is as impossible as to confine an
elephant in a mustard seed, and
as the fighting of a gnat with a body of
lions in a nut-shell.
10. It is as incredible as to believe a lotus
seed containing a hill in
it, and to be devoured by a little bee; or
that the peacocks are dancing
on hearing the roaring of clouds in a dream.
11. It is equally inconsistent to say, O
great goddess of gods! that
this earth with all its mountains and other
things, are contained within
the small space of a sleeping room.
12. Deign therefore, O goddess to explain
this mystery clearly unto me;
because it is by thy favour only that the
learned are cleared of their
doubts.
13. The goddess said:—Hear me fair lady! I do
not tell thee a lie;
because transgression of the law is a thing
unknown to us. (The law is
nānritam vadeta—never tell an untruth).
14. It is I that establish the law when
others are about to break it; if
then I should slight the same, who else is
there who would observe it.
15. The living soul of the village Brāhman,
saw within itself and in the
very house, the image of this great kingdom,
as his departed spirit now
views the same in its empty vacuity.
(Therefore both these states are
equally ideal).
16. But you have lost the remembrance of the
states of your former lives
after death, as they lose the recollection of
waking events in the
dreaming state.
17. As the appearance of the three worlds in
dream, and their formation
in the imagination; or as the description of
a warfare in an epic poem
and water in the mirage of a maru or sandy desert (are all false):
18. So were the hills and habitations which
were seen in the empty space
of the Brāhman's house, which was no other
than the capacity of his own
mind to form the images of its fancy, and
receive the external
impressions like a reflecting mirror (all
mere ideal).
19. All these though unreal, yet they appear
as real substances on
account of the reality of the intellect,
which is seated in the cavity
of the inmost sheath of the body and reflects
the images.
20. But these images, which are derived from
the remembrance of unreal
objects of the world, are as unreal as those
objects which cast their
reflexions in the intellect; just as the
waves rising in the river of a
mirage, are as unreal as the mirage itself.
21. Know this seat (sadana) of yours, which
is set in this closet
(kosha) of the house, as well as myself and thyself and all things
about us, to be but the reflections of our
intellect only, without which
nothing would be perceptible, as to one who
is devoid of his intellect.
22. Our dreams and fallacies, our desires and
fancies, as also our
notions and ideas, serve as the best
evidences, that afford us their
light for the understanding of this truth:
(that nothing is true beside
the subjective mind, which creates and forms,
produces and presents all
objects to our view).
23. The spirit of the Brāhman resided in the
vacuity of his house (the
body), with the seas and forests and the
earth (i. e. their
impressions) within itself, as the bee abides
in the lotus.
24. Thus the habitable globe with every thing
it contains, is situated
in a small cell in one corner of the
intellect, as a spot of flimsy
cloud in the firmament.
25. The House of the Brāhman was situated in
the same locality of the
intellect, which contains all the worlds in
one of its atomic particles.
26. The intelligent soul contains in every
atom of it, unnumbered worlds
within worlds, enough to remove your doubt;
of the Brāhman's viewing a
whole realm within the space of his
intellect.
27. Līlā asked:—How can the Brāhmanic pair be
ourselves, when they are
dead only eight days before, and we have been
reigning here for so many
years?
28. The goddess replied:—There is neither any
limit of space or
duration, nor any distance of place or length
of time in reality: hear
me now tell you the reason of it.
29. As the universe is the reflexion of the
divine mind, so are infinity
and eternity but representations of himself.
30. Attend to what I tell you about the
manner in which we form the idea
of time, and its distinct parts of a moment
and an age, in the same way
as we make the distinction of individualities
in me, thee and this or
that person, (which are essentially the same
undivided spirit and
duration).[14]
[14] Note. It is the mind that lengthens time
by the quick succession of
its thoughts, and shortens it by its
quiescence.
SECTION II.
State of the Human soul after death.
31. Hear now, that no sooner does any one
come to feel the insensibility
consequent to his death, than he forgets his
former nature and thinks
himself as another being.
32. He then assumes an empty form in the womb
of vacuity in the
twinkling of an eye, and being contained in
that container, he thinks
within himself in the same receptacle.
33. "This is my body with its hands and
feet." Thus the body he thinks
upon, he finds the same presented before him.
34. He then thinks in himself: "I am the
son of this father and am so
many years old; these are my dear friends and
this is my pleasant
abode."
35. "I was born and became a boy, and
then grew up to this age. There
are all my friends and in the same course of
their lives."
36. Thus the compact density of the sphere of
his soul, presents him
many other figures, which appear to rise in
it as in some part of the
world.
37. But they neither rise nor remain in the
soul itself, which is as
transparent as the empty air; they appear to
the intellect as a vision
seen in a dream.
38. As the view beheld in a dream, presents
the sights of all things in
one place, so does every thing appear to the
eye of the beholder of the
other world as in his dream.
39. Again whatever is seen in the other
world, the same occurs to men in
their present states also; wherefore the
reality of this and unreality
of the other world, are both alike to a state
of dreaming.
40. And as there is no difference in the waves
of the same seawater, so
the produced visible creation is no other
than the unproduced
intellectual world, both of which are equally
indestructible: (the one
being but a copy of the other).
41. But in reality the appearance is nothing
but a reflection of the
intellect; and which apart from the
intelligible spirit, is merely an
empty vacuity.
42. The creation though presided by the
intelligible spirit, is itself a
mere void, its intelligible soul being the
only substance of it as the
water of the waves.
43. The waves though formed of water, are
themselves as false as the
horns of hares; and their appearance as
natural objects: is altogether
false (because they are the effects of the
auxiliary cause of the winds
which have raised them).
44. Hence there being no visible object in
reality (except a false
appearance of such), how can the observer
have any idea of the visible,
which loses its delusion at the moment of his
death.
45. After disappearance of the visible outer
world from sight, the soul
reflects on its reminiscence of the creation
in its inner world of the
mind, according to the proper time and place
of every thing.
46. It remembers its birth, its parents, its
age and its residence, with
its learning and all other pursuits in their
exact manner and order.
47. It thinks of its friends and servants,
and of the success and
failure of its attempts. And thus the
increate and incorporeal soul,
ruminates on the events of its created and
corporeal state in its
intellectual form.
48. It does not however remain long in this
state, but enters a new body
soon after its death, to which the properties
of the mind and senses,
are added afterwards in their proper times.
49. It then becomes a baby, and finds a new
father and mother, and
begins to grow. Thus whether one may perceive
it or not, it is all the
product of his former reminiscence.
50. Then upon waking from this state of
trance, like a fruit from the
cell of a flower, it comes to find that a
single moment appeared to it
as the period of an age.
51. So King Harish Chandra of yore thought
one night as a period of
twelve years; and so one day seems as long as
a year to them that are
separated from their beloved objects.
52. Again as the birth or death of one in his
dream, or his getting a
begotten father in infancy, or a hungry man's
faring on dainty food in
thought, is all false:
53. So when a sated man says he is starving,
or one declares he is an
eye witness of a thing he has not seen, or an
empty space is full of
people, or that he has got a lost treasure in
his dream, who is there to
believe him?
54. But this visible world rests in the
invisible spirit of God, as the
property of pungency, resides in the
particles, of the pepper seed, and
as the painted pictures on a column. But
where are the open and clear
sighted eyes to perceive the same?
INTERPRETATION OF LﾍLﾁ'S VISION.
55. The vision of Līlā, called samādhi in
Yoga and clairvoyance of
spiritualism, was the abstract meditation of
her lord in her memory.
Which presented her with a full view of every
thing imprinted in it. The
memory is taken for the whole intellect chit, which is identified with
God, in whose essence the images of all
things, are said to be eternally
present.
Om Tat Sat
(Continued...)
( My
humble salutations to Brahmasri Sreemaan Vihari Lala Mitra ji for the
collection)
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