The
Yoga Vasishtha
Maharamayana
of Valmiki
The only complete English translation is
by Vihari Lala Mitra (1891).
CHAPTER LIII.
ADMONITION OF ARJUNA.
Argument--Abandonment of Egoism, knowledge of the
Adorable one
and its different stages.
The Lord said:--Arjuna, you are not the killer (of any
soul),
it is a false conceit of yours which you must shun; the
soul is ever lasting and free from death and decay.
2. He who has no egoism in him, and whose mind is not
moved (by joy or grief), is neither the killer of nor
killed by any
body, though he may kill every one in the world. (This is
an
attribute of the supreme soul).
3. Whatever is known in our consciousness, the same is
felt
within us; shun therefore your inward
conscious[**consciousness] of
egoism and
meity, as this is I and these are mine, and these are
others and
theirs.
4. The thought that you are connected with such and such
persons and things, and that of your being deprived of
them,
and the joy and grief to which you are subjected thereby,
must
affect your soul in a great measure.
5. He who does his works with the parts or members of his
body, and connects the least attention of his soul there
with;
becomes infatuated by his egoism and believes himself as
the
doer of his action. (here is a lesson of perfect
indifference
enjoined to any act or thought that a man does by or
entertains
in himself).
6. Let the eyes see, the ears hear, and your touch feel
their
objects, let your tongue also taste the relish of a
thing, but
why take them to your soul and where is your egoism
situated
these?
7. The minds of even the great, are verily employed in
the
works that they have undertaken to perform, but where is
your
egoism or soul in these, that you should be sorry for its
pains.
(The soul is aloof from pain).
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8. Your assuption[** typo for assumption] to yourself to
any action, which
has been
done by the combination of many, amounts only to a
conceit of
your vanity, and exposes you not only to ridicule, but to
frustrate
the merit of your act. (So is the assuming of a joint
action of
all the organs and members of the mind, and the
achivement[**achievement]
of a whole army to one's self. So also many masters
arrogate to
themselves the merit of the deeds of their servants).
9. The yogis and hermits do their ritual and ordinary
actions
with attention of their minds and senses, and often times
with
the application of the members and organs of their bodies
only,
inorder[**in order] to acquire and preserve the purity of
their souls.
10. Those who have not subdued their bodies with the
morphia of indifference, are employed in the repetition
of their
actions, without ever being healed of their
desease[**disease] (of anxiety).
11. No person is graceful whose mind is tinged with his
selfishness, as no man however learned and wise is held
in
honour, whose conduct is blemished with unpoliteness and
misbehaviours.
12. He who is devoid of his selfishness and egotism, and
is
alike patient both in prosperity and adversity, is
neither affected
nor dejected, whether he does his business or not.
13. Know this, O son of Pandu as the best field for your
martial action; which is worthy of your great good, glory
and
ultimate happiness. (War in a just cause is attended with
glory).
14. Though you reckon it as henious[**heinous] on the one
hand and
unrighteous on the other; yet you must acknowledge the
super excellence and imperiousness of the duties required
of your
martial race, so do your[** space added] duty and
immortalize yourself.
15. Seeing even the ignorant stick fast to the proper
duties
of their race, no intelligent person can neglect or set
them at
naught; and the mind that is devoid of vanity, cannot be
ashamed
or dejected, even if one fails or falls in the discharge
of his
duty.
16. Do you duty, O Arjuna, with your yoga or fixed
attention
to it, and avoid all company (inorder[**in order] to
Keep[**keep]
company
with the object of your pursuit only). If you do your
works
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as they come to you by yourself alone, you will never
fail
nor be foiled in any. i. e. thy object thou canst never
gain, unless
from all others you refrain.
17. Be as quiet as the person of Brahma, and do your[**
space added]
works
as quietly as Brahma does leave his result (whether good
or bad) to Brahma, (because you can have no command over
the consequence), and by doing so, assimilate thyself
into the
nature of Brahma, (who is all in all).
18. Commit yourself and all your actions and objects to
God,
remain as unaltered as God himself, and know him as the
soul
of all, and be thus the decoration of the world. (The
gloss says,
it is no blasphemy to think one's self as God, when there
is
no other personality besides that of Deity).
19. If you can lay down all your desires, and become as
even
and cool mind as a muni-[**--]monk; if you can join your
soul to
the yoga of sannyasa or contemplative coldness, you can
do all
your actions with a mind unattached to any.
20. Arjuna said:--Please lord, explain to me fully, what
is
meant by the renunciation of all connections, commitment
of
our actions to Brahma; dedication of ourselves to God and
abdication of all concerns.
21. Tell me also about the acquisition of true knowledge
and divisions of Yoga meditation, all which I require to
know
in their proper order, for the removal of my gross
ignorance on
those subjects.
22. The Lord replied.[**:]--The learned know that as the
true
form of Brahma, of which we can form no idea or
conception,
but which may be known after the restraining of our
imagination,
and the passification[**pacification] of our desires.
23. Promptitude after these things constitutes our wisdom
or knowledge, and perseverence[**perseverance] in these
practices is what
is
called Yoga. Self dedication to Brahma rests on the
belief that,
Brahma is all this world and myself also.
24. As a stone statue is all hollow both in its inside
and outside,
so is Brahma as empty, tranquil and transparent as the
sky,
which is neither to be seen by us nor is it beyond our
sight.
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25. It then bulges out a little from itself, and appears
as
something, other than what it is. It is this
reflextion[**reflexion] of the
universe, but all as empty as this inane vacuity.
26. What is again this idea of your egoism, when every
thing is evolved out of the Supreme Intellect, of what
account
is the personality of any body, which is but an
infinitesemal[**infinitesimal]
part of the universal soul.
27. The Egoism of the individual soul, is not apart from
the universal spirit, although it seems to be
seperate[**separate] from the
same; because there is [**no] possibility of exclusion or
separation of
anything from the Omnipresent and all comprehensive soul
of
God, and therefore a distinct egoism is a nullity.
28. As it is the case with our egoism, so is it with the
individuality of a pot and of a monkey also. (i. e. of
all insensible
and brute creatures too), none of which is separate from
the universal whole. All existences being as drops of
water in
the sea, it is absurd to presume an egoism to any body.
29. Things appearing as different to the conscious soul,
are
to be considered as the various imageries represented in
the
self-same soul, (like the sundry scenes shown in the soul
in a
dream).
30. So also is the knowledge of the particulars and
species,
lost in the idea of the general and the sum mum[**summum]
genus. Now
by
sannyasa or renunciation of the world is meant, the
resignation
of the fruition of the fruits of our actions. (The main
teaching
of Krishna to Arjuna in the Bhagavadgå’œ・ tends to the
renunciation of the fruits of our actions).
31. Unattachment signifies the renunciation of all our
wordly[**worldly] desires, and the intense application of
the mind to the
one sole God of the multifarious creation, and the
variety of
his imaginary representations.
32. The want of all dualism in the belief of his
self-existence
as distinct from that of God, constitutes his dedication
of
himself to God; it is ignorance that creates the
distinction, by
applying various names and attributes to the one
intellectual
soul.
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33. The meaning of the word intelligent soul, is
undoubtedly
that it [**add: is] one with the universe; and that the
Ego is the
same with all space, and its contents of the worlds and
their
motions.
34. The Ego is the unity of Eternity, and the Ego is
duality and plurality in the world, and the variety of
its multifarious
productions. Therefore be devoted to the sole Ego,
and drown your own egoism in the universal Ego. (Here the
purport is given instead of the literal version of the
too verbose
tetrastick[**tetrastich] verse).
35. Arjuna said:--There being two forms of the Deity,
the one transcendent of spiritual and the other
transpicuous or
material; tell me to which of these I shall resort for my
ultimate perfection.
36. The lord replied:--There are verily two forms of the
all
pervading Vishnu, the exoteric and the other esoteric;
that
having a body and hands holding the conch-shell, the
discus,
and the mace and lotus, is the common form for public
worship.
37. The other is the esoteric or spiritual form, which
[**is] undefined
and without its beginning and end; and is usually
expressed by the term Brahma-[**--]great.
38. As long as you are unacquainted with the nature of
the
supreme soul, and are not awakened to the light of the
spirit;
so long should you continue to adore the form of the God
with
its four arms. (or the form of the four armed God).
30[**39]. By this means you will be awakened to light, by
your
knowledge of the supreme; and when you come to comprehend
the Infinite in yourself, you shall have no more to be
born in
any mortal form.
40. When you are acquainted with the knowledge of the
knowable soul, then will your soul find its refuge in
eternal
soul of Hari, who absorbs all souls in him.
41. When I tell you that this is I and I am that, mind
that
I mean to say that, this and that is the Ego of the
supreme
soul, which I assume to myself for your instruction.
42. I understand you to be enlightened to truth, and to
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rest in the state of supreme felicity; and now that you
are
freed from[** space added] all your temporal desires, I
wish you to be one
with
the true and holy spirit.
43. View in yourself the soul of all beings and those
beings
themselves; think your ownself[**own self] or soul as the
microsm[**microcosm] of the
great universe, [**be] and tolerant and broad sighted in
your practice
of Yoga. (The word Sama darsi, here rendered broad
sighted,
means one who sees every in one and same light; whence it
is
synonymous with universal benevolence and fellow
feeling).
44. He who worships the universal soul that resides in
all
beings, as the one self-same and undivided spirit; is
released
from the doom of repeated births, wheather[**whether] he
leads a secular
or holy life in this world.
45. The meaning of the word "all" is unity (in
its collective
sense), and the meaning of the word "one" is
the unity of the
soul; as in the phrase "All is one" it is
ment[**typo for meant] to say that
the
whole universe is collectively but one soul. (The soul
also is
neither a positive entity, nor a negative non-entity, but
it is as
it is known in the spirit. (of the form of ineffable
light and
delight).
46. He who shines as light within the minds of all
persons,
and dwells in the inwards[**inward] consciousness or
percipience of
every being, is no other than the very soul that dwells
within
myself also.
47. That which is settled in shape of savour in the
waters
all over the three worlds. (ie.[**i.e.] in the earth,
heaven, and underneath
the ground); and what gives flavour to the milk, curd
and the butter of the bovine kind, and dwells as sapidity
in the
marine salt and other saline substances, and imparts its
sweetness
to saccharine articles, the same is this savoury soul,
which
gives a gust to our lives, and a good taste to all the
objects of
our enjoyment.
48. Know your soul to be that percipience, which is
situated
in the hearts of all corporeal beings, whose rarity
eludes our
perception of it, and which is quite removed from all
perceptibles;
and is therefore ubiquitous in every thing and
omnipresent
every where.
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49. As the butter is inbred in all kinds of milk, and the
sap
of all sappy substances is inborn in them, so the supreme
soul is
intrinsical and immanent in every thing.
50. As all the gems and pearls of the sea, have a lustre
inherent in them, and which shines forth both in their
inside
and outside; so the soul shines in and out of every body
without
being seated in any part of it, whether in or out or
[**missing word: any?--
P2: also missing in print] where
about it.
51. As the air pervades both in the inside and outside of
all
empty pots, so the spirit of God is diffused in and about
all
bodies in all the three worlds. (This is the meaning of
omnipresence).
52. As hundreds of pearls are strung together by a thread
in the neckless[**necklace], so the soul of God extends
through and
connects
these millions of beings, without its being known by any.
(This all connecting attribute of God, is known as
sutrç–¸m・in
the vedanta).
53. He who dwells in the hearts of every body in the
world,
commencing from Brahma to the object grass that grows on
the earth; the essence which is common in all of them, is
the
Brahma the unborn and undying.
54. Brahm・is a slightly developed form of Brahma, and
resides
in the spirit of the great Brahma, and the same dwelling
in us, makes us conceive of our egoism by mistake of the
true
Ego.
55. The divine soul being manifest in the form of the
world, say what can it be that destroys or is destroyed
in it;
and tell me, Arjuna, what can it be that is subject to or
involved
in pleasure or pain.
56. The divine soul is as a large mirror, showing the images
of things upon its surface, like reflections on the
glass; and
though these reflexions disappear and vanish in time, yet
the mirror of the soul is never destroyed, but looks as
it looked
before.
57. When I say I am this and not the other (of my many
reflexions in a prismatic glass, or of my many images in
many
pots of water), I am quite wrong and inconsistent with
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myself; so is it to say, that the human soul is the
spirit or image
of God, and not that of any other being, when the
self-same
Divine spirit is present and immanent in all. (The
catholic
spirit of the Hindu religion, views all beings to partake
of the
Divine spirit, which is in all as in a prismatic glass).
58. The revolutions of creation, sustentation and final
dessolution[**dissolution],
take place in an unvaried and unceasing course in the
spirit of God, and so the feelings on surface of the
waters of
the sea. (Egoistic feelings rising from the
boistrous[**boisterous] mind,
subside
in the calmness of the soul).
59. As the stone is the constituent essence of rocks, the
wood of trees and the water of waves; so is the soul the
constituent
element of all existence.
60[**.] He who sees the soul (as inherent[**space added])
in all
substances, and
every substance (to be contained) in the soul; and views
both as
the component of one another, sees the uncreating God as
the
reflector and reflexion of Himself.
61. Know Arjuna, the soul to be the integrant part of
every thing, and the constituent element of the different
forms
and changes of things; as the water is of the waves, and
the
gold is of jeweleries[**jewelleries/jewellery]. (The
spirit of God is
believed as the
material cause of all).
62. As the boisterous waves are let loose in the waters,
and
the jewels are made of gold; so are all things existent
in and
composed of the spirit of God.
63. All material beings of every species, are forms of
the
Great Brahma himself; know this one as all, and there is
nothing apart or distinct from him.
64. How can there be an independent existence, or
voluntary
change of anything in the world; where can they or the
world
be, except in the essence and omnipresence of God, and
wherefore
do you think of them invain[**in vain]?
65. By knowing all this as I have told you, the saints
live fearless in this world by reflecting on the supreme
Being
in themselves; they move about as liberated in their
lifetime,
with the equanimity of their souls.
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66. The enlightened saints attain to their imperishable
states, by being invincible to the errors of fiction, and
unsubdued
by the evils of worldly attachment; they remain always
in their spiritual and holy states, by being freed from
temporal
desires, and the conflicts of jarring passions, doubts
and dualities.
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CHAPTER LIV.
ADMONITION OF ARJUNA IN SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE.
Arguments--The causes of the feelings of Pleasure and
Pain, and
Happiness and Misery in this world, and the modes and
means of their
prevention and avoidance.
The lord continued--Listen moreover, O mighty armed
Arjuna, to the edifying speech, which I am about to
deliver unto you, for the sake of your lasting good and
welfare.
2. Know O progeny of Kunti, that the perception of the
senses,
or the feelings conveyed to our minds by the organic
sense,
such as those of cold and heat and the like, are the
causes of
our bodily pleasure and pain; but as these are
transitory, and
come to us and pass away by turns, you must remain
patient
under them.
3. Knowing neither the one nor the other to be uniform
and
monotonous, what is it thou callest as real pleasure or
pain?
A thing having no form or figure of its own, can have no
increase
or decrease in it.
4[**.] Those who have suppressed the feelings of their
senses,
by knowing the illusory nature of sensible perceptions;
are
content to remain quiet with an even tenor of their
minds, both
in their prosperity and adversity; are verily the men
that are
thought to taste the ambrosial drought[**draught] of
immortality in their
mortal state.
5. Knowing the soul to be the same in all states, and
alike in all places and times; they view all differences
and accidents
of life with indifference, and being sure of the
unreality
of unrealities, they retain their endurance under all the
varying circumstances of life.
6. Never can joy or grief take possession of the common
soul,
which being ecumenical in its nature, can never be
exceptional
or otherwise.
7. The unreal has no existence, nor is the positive a
nega-*
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*tive at any time; so there can be nothing as a positive
felicity
or infelicity either in any place, when God himself is
present in
his person every where. (They are all alike to God and
Godly
soul).
8. Abandon the thoughts of felicity or infelicity of the
world, (nor be like the laughing or crying philosopher
with
your one sided view of either the happiness or misery of
life),
and seeing there is no such difference in the mind of
God, stick
fast in this last state of indifference to both.
9. Though the intelligent soul, and the external
phenomena,
are closely situated in the inside and outside of the
body; Yet the internal soul is neither delighted nor
depressed,
by the pleasure or pain which environ the external body.
10. All pleasure and pain relating the material body,
touch
the mind which is situated in it; but no bodily hurt or
debility
affects the soul, which is seated beyond it.
11. Should the soul be supposed to participate, in the
pleasure or pain which affect the gross body, it is to be
understood
as caused by the error, rising from our ignorance only.
12. The gross is no reality, and its feelings of pain or
pleasure are never real ones, as to touch the intangible
soul; for
who is so senseless, as not to perceive the wide
separation of
the soul from the body?
13. What I tell you here, O progeny of Bharata, will
surely destroy the error arising from ignorance, by the
full
understanding of my lectures.
14. As knowledge removes the error and fear of the snake,
arising from one's ignorance in a rope; so our
misconception of
the reality of our bodies and their pleasures and pains,
is dispelled
by our knowledge of truth.
15. Know the whole universe to be identic with
increte[**increate]
Brahma, and is neither produced nor dissolved by itself,
knowing
this as a certain truth, believe in Brahma only, as the
most
supreme source of all tree knowledge.
16. You are but a little billow in the sea of Brahma's
essence; you rise and roll for a little while, and then
subside to
rest. You foam and froath[**froth] in the whirlpool of
Brahma's
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existence, and art no other than a drop of water in the
endless
ocean of Brahma.
17. As long as we are in action under the command of our
general, we act our parts like soldiers in the field; we
all
live and move in Brahma alone, and there is no mistake of
right or wrong in this. (Act well our part and there all
honour
lies).
18. Abandon your pride and haughtiness, your sorrow
and fear, and your desire of pain or pleasure; it is bad
to have
any duality or doubt in you, be good with your oneness or
integrity at all times.
19. Think this in yourself from the destruction of these
myriads of forces under your arms, that all these are
evolved
out of Brahma, and you do more[** space added] than
ivolve[**evolve] or
reduce them
to Brahma himself.
20. Do not care for your pleasure or pain, your gain or
loss,
and your victory or defeat; but resort only to the unity
of
Brahma, and know the world as the vast ocean of Brahma's
entity.
21. Being alike in or unchanged by your loss or gain, and
thinking yourself as nobody; and go on in your proper
course of
action, as a gust of wind takes its own course.
22. Whatever you do or take to your food, whatever
sacrifices you make or any gift that you give to any one,
commit them all to Brahma, and remain quiet in yourself.
(With a assurance of their happy termination by the help
of
God).
23. Whoever thinks in his mind, of becoming anything in
earnest; he undoubtedly becomes the same in process of
time;
if therefore you wish to become as Brahma himself, learn
betimes
to assimilate yourself to the nature of Brahma, in all
your thoughts and deeds. (It is imitation of perfection,
that
gives perfection to man).
24[**.] Let one who knows the great Brahma, be employed
in
doing his duties as occur unto him, without any
expectation
and any reward; and as God does his works without any
aim, so
should the Godly do their works without any object.
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25. He who sees the inactive God in all his active
duties,
and sees also all his works in the inactive Gods; that
man is
called the most intelligent among men, and he is said the
readiest
discharger of his deeds and duties,
26. Do not do thy works in expectation of their rewards,
nor engage thyself to do any thing that is not thy duty
or
improper for thee. Go on doing thy duties as in thy yoga
or
fixed meditation, and not in connection with other's or
their
rewards.
27. Neither be addicted to active duties, nor recline in
your
inactivity either; never remain ignorant or negligent of
thy
duties in life, but continue in thy work with an even
temper at
all times.
28. That man though employed in business, is said to be
doing nothing at all; who does not foster the hope of a
reward
of his acts, and is ever contented in himself, even
without a patron
or refuge.
29. It is the addictedness of one's mind to anything,
that
makes it his action, and not the action itself without
such addiction;
it is ignorance which is the cause of such tendency,
therefore
ignorance is to be avoided by all means.
30. The great soul that is settled in divine knowledge,
and
is freed from its wont or bent to any thing, may be
employed
in all sorts of works, without being reckoned as the doer
of
any. (One is named by the work of his profession, and not
by
his attendance to a thousand other callings in life).
31. He who does nothing, is indifferent about its result
(wheather[**whether] of good of evil), this indifference
amounts to his
equanimity, which leads to his endless felicity, which is
next to
the state of God-head. (The sentence is climacteric
rising from
inactivity to the felicity of the Diety[**Deity]).
32. By avoiding the dirt of duality and plurality (of
beliefs),
betake yourself to your belief in the unity of the
supreme
spirit, and then whether you do or not do your ceremonial
acts, you will not be accounted as the doer.
33. He is called a wiseman[**wise man] by the learned,
whose acts in
life are free from desire or some object of desire; and
whose
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ceremonial acts are burnt away by the fire of spiritual
knowledge.
(It is said that the merit of ceremonial observances,
leads a man
only to reward in repeated births; but divine knowledge
removes
the doom of transmigration, by leading the soul at once
to divine felicity, from which no one has to return to
revisit
the earth.)
34. He who remains with a peaceful, calm, quiet and
tranquil equanimity of the soul, and [**without] any
desire or avarice[**
space deleted] for
anything in this world, may be doing his duties here,
without
any disturbance or anxiety of his mind.
35. The man who has no dispute with any one, but is ever
settled with calm and quite[**quiet] rest of his soul;
which is united
with the supreme soul, without its Yoga or Ceremonial
observance,
and is satisfied with whatever is obtained of itself;
such a
man [**is] deemed as a decoration of this earth.
36. They are called ignorant hypocrites, who having
repressed
their organs of actions, still indulge themselves in
dwelling
upon sensible pleasures, by recalling their thoughts in
this
mind.
37. He who has governed his outward and inward senses,
by the power of his sapient mind; and employs his organs
of
action, in the performance of his bodily functions and
discharges
of his ceremonial observances without his addictedness
to them, is quite different from the one described
before.
38. As the overflowing waters of rivers, fall into the
profound
and motionless body of waters in the sea; so the souls of
holy men enter into the occean[**ocean] of eternal God,
where they
are attended with a peaceful bliss, which is never to be
obtained
by avaricious worldlings.
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CHAPTER LV.
LECTURE ON THE LIVING SOUL OR Jivatatwa.
Arguments.--The unity and reality is the causal
subjective, and the
duality and unreality is the objective worlds; and the
situation of God
between the two, means his witnessing both of these
without being either
of them, because the conditions of the cause and the
caused do not apply
to God who is beyond all attributes.
The Lord said--Neither relinquish or abstain from your
enjoyments, nor employ your minds about them or in the
acquisition of the object thereof. Remain with an even
tenor of your mind, and be content with what comes to
thee.
2. Never be so intimately related to thy body, that is
not
intimately related with thee; but remain intimately
connected
with thyself, which is thy increate and imperishable
soul.
3. We suffer no loss by the loss of our bodies, (which
are
but adscititious garments of our souls); but we lose
every
thing, by the loss of our souls which last forever and
never
perish.
4. The soul is not weaken[**weakened] like the sentient
mind, by the loss
of the sensible objects of enjoyment, and incessantly
employed
in action, yet it does nothing by itself.
5. It is one's addictedness to an action that makes it
his act,
and this even when one is no actor of the same; it is
ignorance only that incites the mind to action, and
therefore
this ignorance is required to be removed from it by all
means.
6. The great minded man that is acquainted with the
supperior[** typo for
superior]
knowledge of spirituality, forsakes his tendency to
action,
and does everything that comes to him without his being
the
actor thereof.
7. Know thy soul to be without its beginning and end, and
undecaying and imperishable in its nature; the ignorant
think
it perishable, and you must not fall into this sad error
like them.
8. The best of men that are blest with spiritual
knowledge,
-----File:
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do not look the soul in the same light as the ignorant
vulgar;
who either believe the souless[**soulless] matter as the
soul, or think
themselves as incorporate souls by their egoistic vanity.
9. Arjuna said--If it is so, O lord of worlds! then I
ween
that the loss of the body is attended with no loss or
gain to the
ignorant; (because they have nothing to care for an
immortal
soul like the learned).
10. The lord replied--so it is, O mighty armed Arjuna!
they
lose nothing by the loss of the perishable body, but they
know that the soul is imperishable, and its loss is the
greatest
of all losses.
11. How be it, I see no greater mistake of men in this
world; than when they say, that they have lost anything
or
gained something that never belongs to them. It appears
like the crying of a barren woman for her child, which
she
never had, nor is expected to have at any time.
12. That it is axiomatic truth established by the learned,
and
well known to all men of common sense, though the
ignorant
may not perceive it varily[**verily], that an unreality
can not come
to reality, nor a reality go to nothing at any time.
(This equivalent
to the definite propositions, "what is, is; and what
is not,
is naught; or that, positive can not be the negative, not
the
negative an affirmative").
13. Now know that to be imperishable, that has spread out
this perishable and frail world; and there is no one that
can
destroy the indestructible: (or the entity of the
immortal
soul).
14. The finite bodies are said to be the abode of the
infinite
soul, and yet the destruction of the finite and frail,
entails no
loss upon the infinite and imperishable soul. Know
therefore
the difference between the two.
15. The soul is an unity without a duality, and there is
no
possibility of its nihility. (because the unity is
certain reality,
and duality is a nullity). The eternal and infinite
reality of the
soul, can never be destroyed with the destruction of the
body.
16. Leaving aside the unity and duality, take that which
remains, and know that state of tranquility which is
situated
-----File:
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between the reality and unreality, to be the state of the
transcendental
Deity.
17. Arjuna rejoined--such being the nature of the soul,
then tell me, O lord, what is the cause of this certainty
in man
that he is dying, and what makes him think, that he is
either
going to heaven above or to the hell below. (What is the
cause of heavenly bliss and the torments of hell).
18. The lord replied--know Arjuna! There is a living soul
dwelling in the body, and composed of the elements of
earth,
air, water, fire and vacuum, as also of the mind and
understanding:
(all of which being destructible in their nature, cause
the destructibility of the living principle, and its
subjection to
pain and pleasure in this life and in the next. gloss).
19. The embodied and living soul is led by its desire, as
the young of a beast is carried about tied by a rope in
its neck;
and it dwells in the recess of the body, like a bird in
the cage.
(Both states of its living and moving about in the body,
are as
troublesome as they are compulsory to it).
20. Then as the body is wornout[**worn out] and becomes
infirm in
course of time, the living soul leaves it like the
moisture of a
dried leaf, and flies to where it is led by its inborn
desire.
(The difference of desire causes the difference of new
births and
bodies. gloss).
21. It carries with it the senses of hearing, seeing,
feeling,
taste, touch and smell from its body, as the breeze wafts
the
fragrance from the cells of flowers, (or as a way
farer[**wayfarer] carries
his
valuables with him).
22. The body is the production of one's desire, and has
no
other assignable cause to it; it weakens by the weakening
of its
desire, and being altogether weak and wasted, it becomes
extinct in its final adsorption[**absorption] in the
god-head: (because the
want of desire and dislike, makes a man to become like his
god;
(or as perfect as god, who has nothing to desire and
dislike)[**)].
23. The avaricious man, being stanch with his
concupiscence,
passes through many wombs into many births; like a
magician is skilled in leaping up and down in earth and
air.
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(The magacian[** typo for magician] mç—’・ purusha, means
also a juggler
or athlete
who shows his feats in air as an aeronaut).
24. The parting soul carries with her the properties of
the
senses from the sensible organs of the body; just as the
flying
breeze bears with him the fragrance of flowers, in his
flight
through the sky.
25. The body becomes motionless, after the soul has fled
from it; just as the leaves and branches of trees, remain
unruffled
after the winds are still. (i. e. As the breeze shakes
the tree,
so the vital breath moves the body, and this being
stopped, the
body becomes quiescient[**quiescent] which is called its
death).
26. When the body becomes inactive, and insensible to the
incision and wounds that are inflicted upon it, it is
then called
to be dead, or to have become lifeless.
27. As this soul resides in any part of the sky, in its
form
of the vital air, it beholds the very same form of things
manifested
before it, as it was wont to desire when living.
(The departed soul dwells either in spiritual or
elemental sphere
of the sky, and views itself and all other things in the
same state
as they are imprest in it, in their relation to time,
place and form.
gloss. This passage will clear locke's[**Locke's] and
parker's[**Parker's]
question, as to
the form which the soul is to have after its
resurrection).
28. The soul comes to find all these forms and bodies, to
be
as unreal as those it has left behind; and so must you
reckon all
bodies after they are destroyed, unless you be so
profoundly asleep
as to see and know nothing.
29. Brahm・-the lord of creation, has created all beings
according to the images, that were impressed in his mind
in
the beginning. He sees them still to continue and die in
the same
forms. (So the soul gets its body as it thinks upon, and
then
lives and dies in the same form).
30. Whatever form or body the soul finds on itself, on
its first
and instantaneous springing to life; the same is
invariably impressed
in its conciousness[**consciousness], untill[**until] its
last moment of
death. (This
fixed impression of the past, produces its reminiscence
in the
future, which forms and frames the being according to its
own
model).
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31. The pristine desire of a man, is the root of his
present
manliness, which becomes the cause of his future success.
So also
the present exertion of one, is able to correct and make
up not
only his past mistakes and defecits[**deficits]; but also
to edify upon his
rugged hut of old. (i. e. that is to improve his delapidate[**dilapidate]
state and built[**build] the fabric of his future fame
and fortune).
32. Whatever is pursued with ardent exersion[**exertion]
and
deligence[**diligence]
for a while, the same in particular is gained among all
other
objects of one's former and future pursuit (which are
reckoned
under the four predicaments.[**delete .] (Chaturvarga) of
wealth and
pleasure for this life, and virtue and salvation for the
next).
33. Wheather[**Whether] a man is exposed on the barren
rock of
Vindhya, or blown and borne away by the winds, he is yet
supported
by his manhood; therefore the wiseman[**wise man] should
never[**
space added] decline
to discharge the legal duties, that are required of him
at all
times.
34. Know the heaven and hell of which you ask, to be
creatures
of the old prejudices of men; they are the productions of
human wish, and exist in the customary bias of the
populace.
35. Arjuna said.[**:]--Tell me, O lord of the world! what
is
that cause, which gave rise to the prejudice of a heaven
and hell.
(A future state of reward and retribution, is a common
belief
of all mankind on earth).
36. The lord replied.[**:]--These prejudices are as false
as airy
dreams, and have their rise from our desire (of future
retribution);
which waxing strong by our constant habit of thinking
them as
true, make us believe them as such, as they mislead us to
rely on
the reality of the unreal world. Therefore we must shun
our
desires for our real good.
37. The Lord replied--Ignorance is the source of our
desires, as it is the main spring of our error of taking
the unself
for the true self; it is the knowledge of the self
therefore combined
with right understanding, that can dispel the error of
our desires. (i. e. Ignorance of the nature of a thing,
excites
our desire for it, as our knowledge of the same, serves
to
suppress it).
38. You are best acquainted with the self, O Arjuna! and
-----File:
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well know the truth also; therefore try to get off your
error of
yourself and not yourself, as this I and that another, as
also
of your desires for yourself and other.
36[**39]. Arjuna said--But I ween that the living soul
dies away,
with the death of its desires; because the desire is the
support
of the soul, which must languish and droop down for want
of
a desire. (so says sir Hamilton.[**:] Give me something
to do and
desire, and so I live or else I pine away and die).
40. Tell me more over, what thing is it that is subject
to
future births and deaths, after the living soul perishes
with its
body at anytime[**any time] or place; (or after it has
fled from it to some
other region).
41. The Lord replied--Know the wistful soul, O
intelligent
Arjuna! to be of the form of the desire of the heart, as
also of
the form that anyone has framed for himself in his
imagination.
(i. e. The form of individual soul, is according to the
figure that one has of himself in his mind and heart).
42. The soul that is self-same with itself, and unaltered
in
all circumstances; that is never subject to body or any
desire on
earth, but is freed from all desires by its own
discretion, is said
to be liberated in this life.
43. Living in this manner (or self-independence), you
must
always look to and be in search of truth; and being
released
from the snare of worldly cares, you are said to be
liberated in
this life.
44. The soul that is not freed from its desires, is said
to be
pent up as a bird in its cage; and though a man may be
very
learned, and observant of all his religious rites and
duties, yet
he is not said to be liberated, as long as [**he] labours
in the chains of
his desires.
45. The man who sees the train of desires, glimmering in
the recess of his heart and mind, is like a purblind man
who
sees the bespangled train of peacocks tail in the
spotless sky.
He is said to be liberated whose mind is not bound to the
chain
of desire, and it is one's release from this chain that
is called
his liberation in this life and in the next.
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CHAPTER LVI.
Description of the mind.
Argument.--On the liberation of the living soul, and
description of the
mind as the miniature of the world.
THE Lord continued:--Now Arjuna, forsake your sympathy
for your friends, by the coldheartedness that you have
acquired from the abandonment[** typo corrected] of your
desires and
cares, and
the liberation that you have attained to in this your
living
state.
2. Be dispassionate, O sinless[** space added] Arjuna! by
forsaking your
fear of death and decay of the body; and be as clear as
the
unclouded sky in your mind, by driving away the clouds of
your
cares from it, and dispelling all your aims and attempts
either of
good or evil for yourself or others.
3. Discharge your duties as they come to you in the
course
of your life, and do well whatever is proper to be done,
that no
action of yours may go for nothing: (i. e. Do well or do
nothing).
4. Whoso does any work that comes to him of itself in
the course of his life, that man is called to be
liberated in his
life time; and the discharge of such deeds, belongs to
the condition
of living liberation.
5. That I will do this and not that, or accept of this
one and
refuse the other, are the conceits of foolishness; but
they are
all alike to the wise, (who have no choice in what is fit
and
proper for them).
6. Those who do the works which occur to them, with the
cool calmness[** typo-calmess-corrected] of their minds,
are said to be the
living liberated;
and they continue in their living state, as if they are
in their
profound sleep.
7. He who has contracted the members of his body, and
curbed the organs of his senses in himself, from their
respective
-----File:
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outward objects, resembles a tortoise, that rests in
quiet by
contracting its limbs within itself.
8. The universe resides in the universal soul, and
continues
therein in all the three present, past and future times,
as
the painting-master of the mind, draws the picture of the
world in the aerial canvas.
9. The variegated picture of the world, which is drawn by
the painter of the mind in the empty air, is as void as
the vacant
air itself, and yet appearing as prominent as a figure in
relief,
and as plain as a pikestaff.
10. Though the formless world rests on the plane of
vacuity,
yet the wonderous error of our imagination shows it as
conspicuous
to view; as a magician shows his aerial cottage to our
deluded
sight.
11. As there is no difference in the plane surface of the
canvas, which shows the swelling and depression of the
figures
in the picture to our sight; so there is no convexity or
cancavity
in the dead flat of the spirit, which presents the uneven
world to view. (i. e. All things are even in the spirit
of God,
however uneven they may appear to us).
12. Know, O red eyed Arjuna! the picture of the world in
the empty vacuum is as void as the vacuity itself; it
rises and
sets in the mind, as the temporary scenes which appear in
imagination at the fit of a delirium.
13. So is this world all hollow both in the inside and
outside
of it, though it appears as real as an air drawn city of
our
imagination, by our prejudice or long habit of thinking
it so.
(A deep rooted prejudice cannot soon be removed).
14. Without cogitation the truth appears as false, and
the
false as true as in a delirium; but by excogitation of
it, the truth
comes to light, and the error or untruth vanishes in
nubila.
15. As the autumnal sky, though it appears bright and
clear to the naked eye, has yet the flimsy clouds flying
over it.[typo-","?]
So[**typo "so"?] the picture drawn over the
plane of the inane mind,
presents
the figures of our fancied objects in it. (Such is the
appearance
of our imaginary world and our fancied friends in the
perspective
of the mind).
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16. The baseless and unsubstantial world which appears
on the outside, is but a phantasy and has no reality in
it; and
when there is nothing as you or I or any one in real
existence,
say who can destroy one or be destroyed by another.
17. Drive away your false conception of the slayer and
slain
from your mind, and rest in the pure and bright sphere of
the
Divine spirit; because there is no stir or motion in the
intellectual
sphere of god, which is ever calm and quiet. All
commotions
appertain to the mental sphere, and the action of the
restless mind.
18. Know the mind to contain every thing in its clear
sphere, such as time and space, the clear sky, and all
actions
and motions and positions of things; as the area of a map
presents the sites of all places upon its surface.
19. Know the mind to be more inane and rarified than the
empty air, and it is upon that basis the painter of the
intellect,
has drawn the picture of this immense universe.
20. But the infinite vacuum being wholly inane, it has
not
that diversity and divisibility in it, as they exhibit
themselves
in the mind, in the rearing up and breaking down of its
aerial castle. (The imagination of the mind raises and
erases
its fabrics; but those of vacuum are fixed and firm for
ever).
21. So the earthly mortals seem to be born and die away
every moment, as the chargeful thoughts of the
all-engrossing
mind, are ever rising and subsiding in it.
22. Though the erroneous thoughts of the mind, are so
instantaneous and temporary; yet it has the power of
stretching
out the ideas of the length and duration of the world, as
it
has of producing a new ideas[** typo for
"idea"-grammar?] of all things
from nothing.
(So god created every thing out of nothing).
23. The mind has moreover the power of prolonging a
moment to a kalpa age; as of enlarging a minim to a
mountain,
and of increasing a little to a multitude.
24. It has the power also of producing a thing from
nothing, and of converting one to another in a trice; it
is this
capacity of it, which gives rise to the erroneous
conception of
-----File:
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the world, in the same manner, as it raises the airy
castle and
fairy lands of its own nature in a moment.
25. It has likewise brought this wonderous worlds[** typo
"world"-
grammar?] into
existence, which rose out in the twinkling of an eye, as
a
reflexion and not creation of it. (Because the
disembodied
mind can not create any material thing).
26. All these are but ideal forms and shadowy shapes of
imagination, though they appear as hard and solid as
adamant; they are the mistaken ideas of some unknown form
and substance.
27. Whether you desire or dislike your worldly interests,
show me where lies its solidity, both in your solicitude
as well
as indifference about it; the mind being itself situated
in the
intellect of the Divine contriver, the picture of the
world, can
not have its place any where else. (The world being in
the mind, and this again in the Divine intellect, the
world
must be situated also in the same, which is the main
receptacle
of the world also).
28. O how very wonderous bright is this prominent
picture,
which is drawn on no base or coating, and which is so
conspicuous
before us, in various pieces without any paint or color
whereof it is made.
29. O how pleasant is this perspicuous picture of the
world,
and how very attractive to our sight. It was drawn on the
inky coating of chaotic darkness, and exhibited to the
full
blaze of various lights: (of the sun, moon, stars and
primeval
light).
30. It is frought in diverse colors, and filled with
various
objects of our desire in all its different parts; it
exhibits many
shows which are pleasant to sight, and presents all
things to
view of which have the notions in our minds.
31. It presents many planets and stars before us, shining
in their different shapes and spheres all about. The blue
vault
of heaven resembling a cerulean lake, brightens with the
shining
sun, moon and stars liking its blooming and blossoming
lotuses.
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32. There are the bodies of variegated clouds, pendant as
the many coloured leaves of trees on the azure sky; and
appearing
as pictures of men, gods and demons, drawn over the domes
of the three regions (of earth, heaven and hell below, in
their
various appearances of white, bright and dark).
33. The fickle and playful painter of the mind, has
sketched
and stretched out the picture of the sky, as an arena for
the
exibition[** typo for "exhibition"?] of the
three worlds, as its three
different stages;
where all deluded peoples are portrayed as joyful
players, acting
their parts under the encircling light of the supreme
Intellect.
(The world is a stage, and all men and women its
players,[** typo for
"--"?]
Shakespeare).
34. Here is the actress with her sedate body of golden
hue,
and her thick braids of hair; her eyes glancing on the
people
with flashes of sunshine and moon-beams, the rising
ground
is her back and her feet reaching the infernal regions;
and being,
clothed with the robe of the sç–½tra, she acts the plays of
morality,
opulence and the farce of enjoyments.
35. The Gods Brahm・ Indra, Hari and Hara, form her
four arms of action, the property of goodness is her
bodice, and
the two virtues of descrition[** discretion?] and apathy,
are her prominent
breasts. The earth resting on the head of the infernal
Serpent,
is her lotus like foot-stool up held by its stalk; She is
decorated
on the face and fore head with the paints of mineral
mountains,
whose valleys and caves form belly and bowels.
36. The fleeting glances of her eyes dispelling the gloom
of
night, and the twinkling of stars are as the erection of
hairs on
her body; the two rows of her teeth emitted the rays of
flashing
lightnings, and all earthly beings are as the hairs on
her person,
and rising as piles about the bulb of a
Kadama[**Kadamba?] flower.
37. This earth is filled with living souls, subsisting in
the
spacious vacuum of the Universal soul, and appearing as
figures
in painting drawn in it. This the skilful artist of the
mind,
that has displayed this illusive actress of the Universe,
to show
her various features as in a puppet show.
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CHAPTER LVII.
On Abandonment of desire and its result of Tranquility.
Argument.--The final lecture to Arjuna on the Peace of
mind resulting
from its want of desire.
THE Lord said:--Look here, O Arjuna! The great wonder
which is manifest in this subject; it is the appearance
of
the picture, prior to that of the plane of the plan upon
which
it is drawn. (The appearance of the mind or painting,
before
that of virç–” or the spirit of God which exhibits the
painting.
Closs).
2. The prominence of the painting and the non-appearance
of its basis, must be as worderous[** spl. typo for
"wonderous"?] as the
buoyancy of a block of
stone, and the sinking down of gourd shell as is[** typo
"it" corrected]
shown in a
magic play.
3. The Universe resting in the vacuity of the Divine
spirit,
appears as a picture on the tablet of the mind; say then
how
does this egoism or self knowledge of your
substantiality, arise
from the bosom of the vacuous nullity. (i. e. How can
substantial
spring from the unsubstantial, or some thing come out
of nothing).
4. All these being the vacant production of vacuum, are
swallowed[** typo "swllowed" corrected] up
likewise in the vacuous
womb of an infinite vacuity;
they are no more than hallow shadows of emptiness, and
stretched
out in empty air.
5. This empty air is spread over with the snare of our
desires, stretching as wide as the sphere of these out
stretched
worlds; it is the band of our desire that encircles the
worlds
as their great belt.
6. The world is situated in Brahm・as a reflexion in the
mirror, and is not subject to partition or obliteration;
owing to
its inherence in its receptacle, and its identity with
the same.
7. The indissoluble vacuum being the nature of Brahma,
-----File: 347.png---------------------------------------------------------
is inseparable from his essence; for nobody is ever able
to
divide the empty air in twain or remove it from its
place.
8. It is owing to your ignorance of this, that your con
cupiscence[** must be one
word-"concupiscence"?] has become congenial
with your nature; which it
is hard for it to get rid of, notwithstanding its being
fraught
with every virtue.
9. He who has sown the smallest seed of desire in the
soul of his heart, is confined as a lion in the cage,
though he
may be very wise and learned in all things.
10. The desire which is habitual to one, grows as rank as
a thick wood in his breast; unless it is burnt away in
the seed
by the knowledge of truth, when it cannot vegitate any
more.
11. This aind [** I cannot determine what the previous
word is][** mind?]
is no more inclined to any thing, who has
burnt away the seed of his desire at once; he remains
untouched
by pleasure and pain, like the lotus-leaf amidst the
water.
12. Now therefore, O Arjuna! do you remain calm and
quiet in your spirit, be undaunted and devoid of all
desire in
your mind; melt down the mist of your mental delusion by
the heat of your nirvana devotion, and from all that you
have
learnt from myholy[** my holy?] lecture to you, remain in
perfect
tranquility
with your reliance in the Supreme spirit.
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CHAPTER LVIII.
Arjuna's satisfaction at the Sermon.
Argument.--The knowledge of truth dispels the doubts, and
leads to
display his valorous deeds in warfare.
ARJUNA said:--Lord! it is by thy kindness, that I am
freed from my delusion, and have come to the reminiscence
of myself. I am now placed above all doubts, and will
act as you have said.
2. The Lord replied: when you find the feelings and
faculties
of your heart and mind, to be fully pacified by means of
your knowledge; then understand your soul to have
attained
its tranquility, and the property of goodness or purity
of its
nature. (Sattwa Swabhç–±a).
3. In this state, the soul becomes insensible of all
mental
thoughts, and full of intelligence in itself; and being
freed
from all inward and outward perceptions, it
percieves[Typo for
"perceives"?] in itself
the one Brahma who is all and everywhere.
4. No wordly[** typo for "worldly"?] being can
observe this elevated state
of the
soul, as no body can see the bird that has fled from the
earth
into the upper sky.
5. The pure soul which is devoid of desire, becomes full
of
intelligence and spiritual light; and it is not to be
perceived
by even the foresighted observer. (It is the soul's
approximation
to the Divine state).
6. No body can perceive this transcendental and
transparent
state of the soul, without purifying his desires at first;
it is a
state as imperceptible to the impure, as the minutest
particle of
an atom, is unperceivable by the naked eye.
7. Attainment of this state, drives away the knowledge of
all sensible objects as of pots, plates, and others. What
thing
therefore is so desirable, as to be worth desiring before
the Divine
presence.
-----File:
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8. As the frost and ice melt away before a volcanic
mountain,
so doth our ignorance fly afar[** typo corrected], from
the knowledge of
the
intellectual soul. (i. e. Intellectual knowledge drives
away all
ignorance before it).
9. What are these mean desires of us, that blown away
like the dust of the earth, and what are our possessions
and
enjoyments but snares to entangle our souls.
10. So long doth our ignorance (avidy・ flaunt herself in
her various shapes, as we remain ignorant of the pure and
modest
nature of our inmost souls in ourselves. (Self-knowledge
is
shy and modest, while ignorance is full of vanity and
boast).
11. All outward appearances fade away and faint (before
the
naked eye), and appear in their pellucid forms in the
inmost
soul, which grasps the whole in itself, as the vacuum
contains
the plenum in it.
12. That which shows all forms in it, without having or
showing any form of itself; is that transcendent
substance
which is beyond description, and transcends our
comprehension
of it.
13. Now get rid of the poisonous and cholic pain of your
desire of gain, as also of the permanence of your own
existence;
mutter to yourself the mantra of your resignation of
desireables, and thus prosper in the world without fear
for
anything.
14. Vasishtha said:--After the Lord of the three worlds
had
spoken the words, Arjuna remained silent for a moment
before
him; and then like a bee sitting beside a blue lotus,
uttered
the following words to the sable bodied Krishna.
15. Arjuna said:--Lord! Thy words have dispelled all
grief
from my heart, and the light of truth is[** typo
corrected] rising in my
mind; as
when the sun rises to awaken the closed and sleeping
lotus.
16. Vasishtha said:--After saying so, Arjuna being
cleared
of all his doubts, laid hold on his Gç–£diva bow, and rose
with
Hari for his charioteer, inorder to proceed to his
warlike
exploits.
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17. He will transform the face of the earth to a sea of
blood,
gushing out of the bodies of combatants, their
charioteers and
horses and elephants that will be wounded by him; the
flights
of his arrows and thickining darts, will hide the disk of
the sun
in the
sky, and darken the face of the earth with flying dust
Om Tat Sat
(Continued...)
( My
humble salutations to Brahmasri Sreemaan Vihari Lala Mitra ji for the
collection)
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