The
Yoga Vasishtha
Maharamayana
of Valmiki
The only complete English translation is
by Vihari Lala Mitra (1891).
CHAPTER CXXVIII.
RESUSCITATION OF RAMA.
Argument.--Bharadw疔a's Enlightenment and the
duties of the
Enlightened.
VALMIKI continued:--The yogi should be
peaceful and
tranquil, and exempt from all forbidden acts
and those
proceeding from a desire of fruition; he must
avoid all sensual
gratifications, and have his belief in God
and his holy religion
of the vedas.
2. He must rest quiet in his seat, and have
his mind and
members of the body under his control; and
continue to repeat
the syllable Om,
until his mind is cleared (from all its doubts).
3. He must then restrain his respiration, for
the purification
of his inner organs (the heart and mind); and
then restrict his
senses by degrees, from their respective
outward objects.
4. He must think on the natures and causes of
its body and
its organs of sense, of his mind and its
understanding, as also of
his soul and its consciousness; and repeat
the srutis or the holy
texts which relate to these subjects.
5. Let him sit reclined in the meditation of
viraj[**illegible], the God
of visible nature at first, and then in the
internal soul of nature;
next to this he must meditate on the formless
spirit, as a part
and abstracted from all; and at last fix his
mind in the supreme
cause alone. (Rising from the concrete to the
discrete deity).
6. Let him cast off in his mind, the earthly
substance of his
flesh and bones to the earth; and commit the
liquid part of his
blood to the water, and the heat of his body
to fire.
7. He is then to consign the airy and vacuous
parts of his body
to air and vacuum, and after having thus made
over his elemental
parts to the five elements; he shall deliver
the organs of his
sense to the particular divinities from whom
they are derived.
8. The ears and other organs, which are for
the reception of
their respective from all sides, being cast
aside on all sides, he
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is to give the skin of his body to
electricity, (which imparts to it
the sensations of heat and cold by the
electic[**electric] shock).
9. Let him then resign his eye sight to the
solar disc, and
his tongue to water, he must next give up his
breath to air, his
voice to fire, and his palms to the god
Indra: (water and fire mean
Varuna and Agni--the regent gods of these
elements).
10. He must then offer his feet to the god
Vishnu, and his
anus to Mithra; and after giving up his penis
to Kasyapa, he
should dedicate his mind to the moon.
11. He must afterwards lay down his
understanding to
Brahma[**Brahm畩, and the other inward
faculties to special divinities,
and
at last abdicate his outer senses also to
their presiding duties.
12. Having thus resigned his whole body to
the gods, he
should think himself as the all comprehending
viraja; and this
he must do in pursuance to the dictates of
the veda, and not of
his own will or fabrication.
13. The lord that embodies the whole universe
in himself,
in his androgymous[**androgynous] form of
half-male and half-female, is
said
to be the source and support of all sorts of
beings.
14. He was born in the form of creation, and
it is he that
is settled in everything in the universe; and
caused this earth to
appear from the bipartite mundane egg, as
also the water which
is twice as much as the land.
15. He produced the heat twice as much as the
water, and
the air also which is double in its volume to
that of heat, and
lastly the vacuum which is twice more in its
extent than the air
which it contains. Each latter one lying next
above the former.
(So the sruti:--each succeeding one is above
its preciding[**presiding]
element).
16. These form the world whether they are
divided or undivided
from their succeeding and surrounding ones;
the earth
being girt by the sea, and the same by
submarine fire.
17. Thus the yogi by contracting his thought
of the former
one under the latter, will engross his
thought of heat under
that of air, and this again under his idea of
vacuum, which last
is swallowed up by his thought of the great
cause of all.
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18. In this manner must the yogi remain for a
moment in
his spiritual form only, by contraction of
his corporeal body (composed
of the elemental particles, his desires and
prior acts and his
primeval ignorance--avidy・, under the same,
(Because[**either because
with a small b or a period after same] the
material
part is contained under the spiritual, and
not the latter
under the former as it is erroneously
supposed by materialist).
19. The spiritual body is represented by the
wise, to be composed
of the ten senses of perception and
conception, the mind or
memory and the understanding faculties; which
is above and
out side[**outside?] the corporeal half of
the mundane egg. The yogi must
think himself to be this supermundane
spiritual being. (This
form it[**is?] styled Hiranya--garbha).
20. The former or intramundane half, which is
composed of
the qudruple[**quadruple] subtile[**subtle?]
elements, is represented by
the figure of
the four faced Brahm・ and differs from the
former by its being
an evolution of unevolved spirit.
21. That nameless and formless being in which
the world
subsists, is called Prakriti or matter by
some, and M痒a or delusion
by others, and also as atoms by atomic
philosophers.
22. The same is said to be ignorance--avidy・
by agnoists[**is this a word?
agnostics?],
whose mind are confused by false reasoning;
and it is after all
that hidden and unknowable something, in
which all things are
dissolved at the ultimate dissolution of the
world.
23. Again everything which is quite unrelated
with the
divine spirit and intellect (i. e. material
substance); comes to
existence at the recreation of the world; and
retains and remains
in its primary form to the end of the world.
24. Think of creation in the direct method,
and of its destruction
in the reversed order; and then betake
yourself to the
fourth stage of turiya, after you have passed
over the three preceding
steps. (The direct method of creation is the
procedure
from vacuity to air, and thence to heat,
water and earth; or the
meditation of the creative power under the
three hypostasis or
substantiality of Hiranygarbha, Brahm・and
Prakriti; and the
reversed order is the annihilation of these
in the quiet state of
the unpredicable[**unpredictable] Deity).
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25. And in order to that state of
blissfulness, you must enter
into the supreme spirit by removing from your
mind all its
impressions (lingas), of matter and sense,
mind and understanding
and all desires and acts; that lie unexpanded
and hidden
in it.
26. Bharadw疔a responded:--I am now quiet
released from
the fetters of my impressions, as my
intellectual part has found
its entrance into the sea of turiya or
transcendent blissfulness.
27. The indistinct nature of my soul from the
supreme spirit,
makes me identic to it; and I find myself to
be devoid of all attributes,
and only an intellectual power like the same:
(the human
soul being as intelligent a principle as the
divine).
28. As the vacuity contained in the hollow of
a pot, becomes
one with the universal and all pervading
vacuum after the pitcher
is broken; so the human soul vanishes into
the supreme
spirit, after it flies from the confines of
the body after its destruction.
29. As a fire brand being cast into the
burning furnace,
becomes the one and samefire[**spacing] with
it; so the kind mixing with
its kind, becomes indistinctly known under
common name one:
(Here we have the axiom, the even being added
to the even,
whole is even).
30. Again as straws swiming[**swimming] in
the salt sea, are transformed
to the sea salt; so all animal souls and the
inanimate even
mixing with the divine soul, become animated
also. Here is
opposite dogma of unequals being equal;
because the greater
includes the less under it).
31. As saltpetre being thrown into the sea,
looses its name
and nature and becomes the
seasalt[**spacing]; so everything is
swallowed
in the universal soul and assimilated to it.
32. As water mixing with water, salt with
salt, and butter
with butter; lose their distinctions and not
their substances;
so my self and all other substances mixing
with the divine spirit,
lose our distinct appellations without
loosing our substantialities.
33. All bodies being absorbed in the
all-knowing and ever
blissful intellect of great creator of all;
become equally all pervading
and tranquil and everlasting and blessed for
ever.
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34. So I think myself as that eminently
transcendent being,
which is without any part or partner, without
action or passion,
without the organs of sense, and neither
loving nor hating any
one.
35. I think myself as that sole entity, which
is of the form
of truth and immuable[**immutable?] in its
nature and desires, which is
devoid
of virtue and vice, perfectly pure and the
supreme cause
of all worlds.
36. I am that blissful Brahma[**Brahm畩, who
is without a second
and without decay, and of the form of pure
light; who is
expresst[**expressed?] by these negative
properties, and is beyond the
three
degrees of quality; as the satya, rajas and
tamos--the positive,
comparative, and superlative, which do not
relate to him as they
do to others.
37. Thus should one meditate himself as
Brahma[**Brahm畩, even
when he is employed in discharging the duties
destined to his
station in life: and his continued practice
of this kind of meditation,
will gradually wear out all other impressions
from his
mind.
38. The mind being thus set down, the soul
will then
appear of itself within the man; and the
appearance of the inward
spirit, serves to destroy all his internal
grief, and fill its place
with his heart felt joy.
39. He also perceives the height of the truth
shining in
himself, that their[**there] is no other
blissful god beside his own
intellect; and this is what he calls his ego
and the supreme
Brahma[**] likewise.
40. V疝m勛i said:--Friend, give up your
observance of
religious acts; and be devoted yourself to
the meditation of
Brahma[**], if you want to stop the
revolution of the wheel of
this world upon you.
41. Bharadw疔a replied:--I have well
understood the dritf[**drift]
of the knowledge, you have imparted to me; I
have acquired
clearness of my understanding, and I have no
more any
reliance in the world.
42. I am now desirous of knowing about the
duties of
those, who have gained the spiritual
knowledge of god; as to
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whether they are subject to or freed from the
performance of
meritorious acts.[**should be comma?] (i.e.
whether their knowledge is
sufficient to
to save them or requires their acts also).
43. V疝m勛i said:--The seekers of liberation
are not liberated
from the doing of those duties, whose
avoidance entails
the guilt of the ommission[**omission] of
duty upon them; but he must
refrain from doing the acts of his desire (of
fruition), and.those
which he is prohibited to do.
44. When the living soul comes to feel the
spiritaul[**spiritual] bliss
in itself, and to find his sensuous appetites
disappear from his
mind; as also when he perceives his organs of
sense lying quite
calm and quiet under him; he may then
consider himself as
one with the all pervaiding[**pervading or
prevailing?] spirit of the lord;
(and therefore
freed from the bonds of action and all
earthly duties.
45. When the sentient soul conceives in
itself, the sense of
its conversion to the essence of god, (as
conveyed by the formula
Soham[**Soham?] He ego I am He); and beyond
the bounds of his body
and its senses, and the reach of his mind and
understanding;
it is then freed from its obligation of
worldly duties.
46. When the soul is free from all its action
and passions,
and remains aloof from all titles and
attributes; when it gets
rid of the feelings of pain and pleasure, he
is then exonerated
from the burthen[**burden?] of his duties.
47. When one sees the supreme soul to pervade
over all
beings, and beholds all creation to exist in
the universal spirit;
and when he finds no difference between the
mundane soul and
the supreme spirit, he is then released from
the bonds of his
action.
48. When the living soul has passed over the
three states,
of waking, dreaming, and sound sleep; and
enters into the
fourth or turya state of perfect bliss, he is
then freed from the
binding of his earthly duties.
49. The fourth state of turiya[**inconsistent
spelling with 48], which
consists in the residence
of the living soul, in the lap of the
universal soul of God,
is the state of the soul's liberation from
its condition of sleep or
hypnotism, and is full of its spiritual
blissfulness.
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50. This turya state or the consciousness of
one's felicity,
derived from the fixedness of the soul in the
pupreme[**supreme?]; is the
great end of yoga meditation.
51. After the mental operations of a man have
ceased in
a man, he perceives nothing within himself
except the turya
state; which is a calm quiescence of the
soul, in the sea of
the ambrosial waters of one sole unity.
52. Why are you plunging yourself, under the
waves of
the briny waters of the sea of duality; fly
to the Lord of
worlds and adore the great god, who is
abundant of all
blessings.
53. I have thus related to you my son, all
the doctrines of
Vasishtha, as the best means to the way of
your knowledge
end practice of yoga meditation.
54. You will verily be able, O wise
Bharadw疔a, to learn
everything from these, by means of your
digesting the substance
of this s疽tra, and reconsidering the purport
of the precepts
of this great preceptor.
55. It is by continued practice, that we
attain to the perfection
of any thing, according to the dictum of the
vedas;
therefore must you avoid to attend to all
things besides, and
concentrate your mind to the object of your
practice.
56. Bharad烱ja rejoined--Tell me O sage, the
course of
conduct which R疥a followed, after he had
received his knowledge
of yoga or uniting his soul with the supreme
spirit.
57. By knowing this I will also try to
practice upon the
same model, that I may succeed to attain to
the same state of
spiritual elevation and rapture like him.
58. V疝m勛i said--When the virtuous and high
minded
R疥a, was absorbed and sat entranced in the
divine essence,
it was then that Viswamitra addressed the
venerable vasishtha
and said.
59. Viswamitra said--O highly endowed son of
Brahm・-wise
Vasishtha, you have even now shown the
efficacy of your
preceptorship, by hypnotising and laying
dormant the power
of R疥a.
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60. He is verily the best to yoga, who
mismerises[**mesmerizes or
mesmerises] the body
of his pupil, by his kind look, touch and
sound; and causes his
inspiration by the infusion of the holy
spirit of Siva in him.
61. So it was with R疥a, whose pure soul was
dispassionate
by its own nature; and whose earnest desire
of hebetude led
him to that happy state, by means of his
conversation with his
guru or spiritual guide.
62. It is the intelligence of the student
which is the cause
of his understanding, by means of the
guidance of his spiritual
preceptor; but when these three roots or principles
are imperfect,
how can the understanding arrive to its
perfection.
63. It is evident, that knowledge is in need
of both the pupil
and preceptor for its communication; where
both of them are
competent and worthy of one another; it is
certain that the
result will be so likewise (as in R疥a's
case). The commentary
adds the good s疽tras, as the third means of
gaining knowledge).
64. Now be pleased to rouse R疥a from his
torpor, which
you alone can do, by your beatification in
the apathy, whilst we
being employed in worldly affairs, are too
far from it.
65. Please sir, remember the cause that calls
us hither, and
the business to which we are invited at
earnest request of king
Dasaratha himself, (for the performance of a
certain sacrifice).
66. Therefore O sage, do not frustrate that
object of ours,
by the purity of thy mind; we have a service
to perform to the
Gods, and which is the cause of R疥a's
incarnation on earth.
67. R疥a is to be conducted by me to the abode
of the
siddhas, and then shall he be called to the
destruction of the
R疚shasas; after which he will be led to the
salvation of Ahalyá
and to his marriage with Sit・
68. He will break the great bow of Siva in a
chivalrous feat
at that marriage, and then he shall encounter
the furious
Parusha-R疥a, and restrain his way to heaven,
69. The fearless R疥a will then forsake his
uncared for
paternal and ancestral realms, and under
pretext of his banishment,
betake himself to the Dandaka woods of
foresters.
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70. He will restore the sanctity of many
places of pilgrimage,
and will thereby save the lives and souls of
beings from
sin and its wages of death. He will show to
the world the
sorrows of men at the loss of their wives,
from his own example
of the loss of accompanying Sit・by R疱ana.
71. He will set the lesson of the husband's
duty of recovering
the wives from the hands of their ravishers,
by his recovery
of Sit・by slaughter of R疱ana, and by his
assembling the apes-savages[**
ape-savages?]
of the forest in his favour.
72. He will prove the purity of Sit・to please
his plea, and
will be employed in the observance of all
religious acts, with his
entire liberation in this world, and want of
the desire of fruition
in the next.
73. But in order to secure the future welfare
of men, he will
encourage the practice both of spiritual
devotion and ritual
acts, according to the instruction of those
that best acquainted
with those subject.
74. He will liberally bestow his liberation
to every living
being of every kind. These and many others
are the duties of
R疥a to this world and to myself also.
(Viswamitra means a
friend to the world, and the good services of
R疥a done to it
were reckoned by the sage as done to the sage
himself).
75. Such are the acts that are to be
performed by R疥a,
wherefore he is to be thanked by every one
here for all his conquests
which no one else can make. So fare you well.
76. V疝m勛i resumed:--After these words of the
sage, were
listened to by the princes in the court and
by the assembled
siddhas and great yogis as Vasishtha and
others; they thanked
the hero, and remained to think of his
lotuslike feet with respect
and esteem.
77. But the sages Vasishtha and others; were
not to be satisfied
until they could hear further about the lord
of Sit・ whose
virtues they all eagerly expected to hear
those fully and recite
in their carols.
78. Vasishtha then said to Viswamitra:--Tell
me sir, who
was this lotus-eyed R疥a in his past life,
whether he had been
a god or sage or an ordinary man.
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79. Viswamitra replied:--Believe what I say,
that this R疥a
is that primary Male, who had churned the sea
for the good of
the world, and is known only by the deepest
learning of the
vedas.
80. He is full of spiritual joy, meek and
gentle, and has the
mark of the auspicious calf (lamb) upon his
person; he is bountiful
to all living beings, and is soon appeased by
all (that rely
in him).
81. He destroys every one in his rage, and
abandons all the
frail trifles of this world; he is the first
male and creator of all,
and is the supporter and nourisher and kind
friend of all.
82. He has passed over the unsubstantial and
illusory things
of this world; he is the sea of felicity, and
is divedin[**huh?] by the
dispassionate.
83. He is some times known as a liberated
soul, and relying
in himself; at others he is seen to be
settled in his turya state
of hypnotism, and sometimes as a male or
female agent of creation.
84. He is the God of the triple veda, and
beyond the reach
of the three qualities of things; he is the
soul of the veda and
the wondrous male (viraj), that is displayed
in the six branches
of veda.
85. He is the four armed and fourfaced
Brahm・-the creator
of the world, he is also the great Mahadeva
with his three
eyes, who is the destroyer of the world.
86. He is the uncreated creator, that is born
by his yoga or
union with the power of delusion (m痒a). He is
the ever wakeful
and the ever great spirit of God, which
though it is formless
doth yet form and support this frame of this
universe, by transforming
himself to the form of a man-lion.
87. As victory is borne upon the wings of
valours, and as
light is borne upon the flame of fire; and as
learning bears and
conveys the fruit of good understanding, so
is this god-like
R疥a borne upon the wings of the bird of
heaven: (i.e. as
Garuda bears Vishnu upon his back).
88. Blessed in this king Dasaratha, who has
the supreme
prime male for his son, and fortunate is the
ten headed R疱ana,
for his finding a place in the mind of R疥a (as
his enemy).
(The enimies[**enemies] of the gods are not
less fortunate than the godly;
because their fall under the blessed hands of
gods, secures to
them the blissful seats of heaven and not of
hell).
89. Oh! how lamentable is the state of heaven
by the
absence of R疥a from it, and how pitiable is
the infernal region
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from its loss of Lakshmana who is present
here. Happy is
this midland of Oudh at present, from the
presents[**presence?] of the two
gods from those two regions in this place.
90. This R疥a is an incarnation of the god
Vishnu, who
sleeps in the midst of the sea; he is the
incarnate and undecaying
supreme soul, and is a consolidation of the
divine
intellect and felicity in his person.
91. The yogis of subdued organs discern R疥a
in spirit,
but we of ordinary understanding can see him
only in his outward
figure.
92. We hear that he has come down to blot out
the iniquities
of the race of Raghu, and hope that the
venerable Vasishtha
will kindly guide him to the affairs of the
world.
93. V疝m勛i said:--Saying so far, the great
sage Viswamitra
held his silence, when the vehement Vasishtha
oped[**] his
mouth and addressed R疥a saying:--
94. Vasishtha said:--O great armed R疥a! O
highly intellectual
prince! it is not the time for you thus to
slumber in
yoga, rise and rejoice the hearts of your
people.
95. Until you satisfy the wants of men and
their expectations
of you, you are not filled to attain the acme
of your pure
sam疆hi meditation.
96. Therefore attend to the temporal affairs
of yours[**your] state
for some time, and discharge the onus of your
duties to the gods;
and then betake yourself to the state of your
enhancement, and
be happy forever.
97. Notwithstanding R疥a was addressed in this
manner,
yet as he remained transfixed in his trance
and uttered not a
word in reply; then the spirit of Vasishtha
entered into the
heart of R疥a, through dormitory passage of
susumn・
98. It infused its force to the respiratory
beings, mental
faculties, organs and to the vital spirit of
R疥a, it ran through
the veins and arteries and inflated the
organs of sense; then
R疥a slowly oped his eyelids, and saw before
him the sage
Vasishtha with the learned men about him. He
remained gazing
upon all without any wish or effort of his
own, and without
considering aught of his duties, or what he
was to avoid.
99. He heard the voice, which his preceptor
Vasishtha had
uttered to him; and in reply respectfully
answered him
saying:--
100. R疥a said:--By your kindness sir, I am
taught to
have no concern with aught of the injunctions
or prohibitions
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of the law: yet it is my duty to abide by
all, what my preceptor
bids me to do.
101. I ween, O great sage! that of all the
sayings of the
vedas, Agamas, Puranas, and smrits, it is the
word of the preceptor
is the highest law his bidding is commandment
and
its opposite a positive prohibition.
102. So saying, the virtuous R疥a bowed down
his head
at the feet of the venerable Vasishtha, and
then bespoke of his
indifference to the world, to all present in
the assembly.
103. R疥a said:--May ye all prosper, and know
the most
certain truth to which I have arrived; that
there is nothing
better than the knowledge of the self, and
none superior to the
preceptor from whom it is derived.
104. The siddhas and others responded
saying:--Such is
the impression of R疥a, in our minds also; and
it is by your
favour and conversions also, that this belief
is ratified in us.
105. We thank you, R疥a Chandra, and wish all
happiness
to attend on our great prince; and beg leave
of the sage
Vasishtha for our departure as we are called
here. (to attend
to his lecture).
106. V疝m勛i said--so saying they rose with
giving praises
to R疥a, and blessing him with showers of
flowers falling
upon his head from their hands.
107. Thus have I related to you the whole
narrative of
R疥a, do you now, O Bharadw疔a, follow the same
course of
yoga, and be happy forever.
108. Now this relation of mine of the
consummation to
which R疥a had arrived, together with my
rehearsal of the
varied sayings of the sage which are as
somany[**spacing] strings of
gems to be worn on the breasts of yogis and
poets, will serve
by the grace of the sage, to give you
liberation (from the
troubles of the world).
109. Whoever hears and attends to these
discourses of
R疥a and Vasishtha, is sure to be relieved in
every state of
life; to be united with Brahma[**Brahm畩 after
his release.
110. End of the Maha Ramayna of the sage
Vasishtha
and spoken by V疝miki, relating the boy
hood[**boyhood] of
Rama[**R疥a] and
consisting of thirty-two thousand sloka
stanzas.
END OF THE THIRD VOLUME.
Om Tat Sat
( My
humble salutations to Brahmasri Sreemaan Vihari Lala Mitra ji for the
collection)
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