The
Yoga Vasishtha
Maharamayana
of Valmiki
The only complete English translation is
by Vihari Lala Mitra (1891).
(Volume - Three)
Yoga Vasishtha
Maharamayana
Volume 3, part 1-2
Containing
Upasama Khanda and Nirvāna Khanda [First
Part]
Translated from the original Sanskrit
By
VIHARI-LALA MITRA
]
CHAPTER LIV.—Quiescence of Uddālaka.
Argument. Uddālaka meditates on the form of Vishnu, and
his
quietus in and coalescence with it.
Vasishtha continued:—Thinking himself to be raised to
this state of his
transcendence, the saint sat in his posture of padmāsana with his half
shut eye-lids, and began to meditate in his translucent
mind.
2. He then thought that the syllable Om, is the true emblem of Brahma;
and he rises to the highest state, who utters this
monosyllabic word.
3. Then he uttered the word with an elevated voice and
high note, which
rang with a resonance like the ringing of a bell.
4. The utterance of his Omkāra, shook the seat of his intellect in the
cranium; and reached to the seat of the pure soul, in the
topmost part
of his head.
5. The pranava or Omkāra, consisting of three and half matrās or
instants, fills the whole body with the breath of
inspiration; by having
its first part or the letter a, uttered with an acute accent (Udātta).
6. He let out the rechaka or the exhaling breath, whereby the internal
air was extracted from the whole body; and it became as
empty as the
sea, after it was sucked up by Agastya.
7. His vital breath was filled with the sap of the
intellect, and rested
in the outer air by leaving his body; as when a bird
leaves its snug
nest; and then mounts to and floats in the open air.
8. The burning fire of his heart, burnt away his whole body;
and left it
as dry as a forest, scorched by the hot wind of a
conflagration.
9. As he was in this state at the first step of his
practice of Yoga, by
the pranava or utterance of this
syllable Om; he did not attend to
the hatha Yoga at all, on account of
its arduousness at first.
10. He then attended to the other parts of the mystic
syllable, and
remained unshaken by suppression of his breath by the kumbhaka
breathing.
11. His vital breaths were not suffered to pass out of
his body, nor
were they allowed to circulate up and down in it; but
were shut up in
the nostrils, like the water pent up in the drain.
12. The fire burning before burnt body, was blown out in
a moment like
the flash of lightning; and he left his whole frame
consumed to ashes,
and lying cold and grey on the naked ground.
13. Here the white bones of his body, seemed to be
sleeping unmoved on
the naked shore; and lying in quiet rest on the bed of
greyish ashes,
appearing as the powder of camphor strewn on the ground.
14. These ashes and bones were borne aloft by the winds,
and were heaped
at last on his body; which looked like the person of Siva
besmeared with
ashes, and wearing the string of bones about it.
15. Afterwards the high winds of the air, flying to the
face of the
upper sky, bore aloft and scattered about those ashes and
bones,
resembling an autumnal mist all about the air.
16. The saint attained to this state, in the second or
middle stage of
his pranava Yoga; and it was by his kumbhaka breathing, and not by
hatha yoga (which is difficult to practise), that he effected it.
17. He then came to the third stage, of his pranava yoga, by means of
the pūraka or inhaling breathing,
which confers a quiet rest to the
Yogi, and is called pūraka for its fulfilment of his object.
18. In the process of this practice, the vital breath is
carried through
the intellect to the region of vacuum; where it is cooled
by the
coldness of its climate.
19. From the region of vacuum, the breathing ascended to
that of the
lunar sphere; and there it became as cold as when the
rising smoke,
turns to the watery cloud in the upper sky.
20. Then the breath rested in the orb of the full moon,
as in the ocean
of ambrosial waters, and there became as cool, as in the
meritorious
samādhi meditation.
21. The respiring breaths were then exhaled as cooling
showers of rain;
and were brightened by the moon-beams to the form of fine
wires of gold.
22. The same fell as a dew drop on the remaining ashes,
as the stream of
the heavenly Gangā fell on the crest of Siva; and this
resuscitated the
burnt body to its former form.
23. It then became as bright as the orb of the moon, and
the body was
bedecked with the four arms of Vishnu. It glistened like
the pārijata
tree on the sea shore, after it was churned out by the
Mandara mountain.
24. The body of Uddālaka, stood confessed as that of
Nārāyana to view;
and his bright eyes and lotus-like face, shone with a
celestial light.
25. The vital breaths filled his body with a humid juice,
as when the
lake is filled with sweet water, and the trees are
supplied with
moisture by the breath of spring.
26. The internal airs filled the lungs, and the cavity of
the heart; as
when the waters of the sea, run towards and roll into the
whirlpool.
27. His body was afterwards restored to and regained its
natural state;
as when the earth regains its prior and purer state,
after it is washed
by the waters of rain.
28. He then sat in his posture of padmāsana, and kept his body fixed
and firm in its straight and erect position. The five
organs of his
sense, were bound as fast, as the feet of an elephant
with strong
chains.
29. He strove to practise an unshaken hibernation (samādhi), and
wanted to make himself appear as translucent, as the
clear autumnal sky
and air.
30. He restrained his breath (by means of his prānāyāma or contraction
of breathing), and the fleet stag of his respiration from
its flight to
all sides; and he restricted his heart from its inclinations,
and fixed
it fast as by a rope to the post of his bosom.
31. He stopped his heart forcibly, from its running madly
to the pits of
its affection; as they stop the course of over-flowing
waters, by means
of embankments.
32. His eyes were half hid under his closing eye-lids,
and his pupils
remained as fixed and unmoved, as the contracted petal of
the lotus,
against the buzzing bees, fluttering about and seeking to
suck their
honey.
33. He employed himself to Rāja Yoga, at first, by remaining silent
with a graceful countenance.
34. He abstracted his senses from their objects, as they
separate the
oil from the sesamum seeds; and he contracted the organs
of sense within
himself, as the tortoise contracts his limbs under his
hard covering.
35. With his steady mind, he cast off the external
sensations afar from
him; as a rich and brilliant gem, casts off its outer
coating and
rubbish, and then scatters its rays to a distance.
36. He compressed his external sensations, without coming
in contact
with them within himself; as the trees contract their
juice in the cold
season within their rind.
37. He stopped the circulation of his respiration, to the
nine openings
of his body, and their passing through the mouth and
anus; and by means
of his kumbhaka inspiration, he compressed
the winds in the internal
cells of his body.
38. He held his neck erect like the peak of mount Meru,
in order to
receive the light of the soul; which irradiated in the
form of flowers,
before the vision of his mind.
39. He confined his subdued mind in the cavity of his
heart, as they
imprison the big elephant in a cavern of the Vindhya
mountain; when they
have brought him under their subjection by some artifice.
40. When his soul had gained its clearness, resembling
the serenity of
the autumnal sky; it forsook its unsteadiness like the
calm ocean, when
it is full and unagitated by the winds.
41. The mist of doubts, which sometimes gathered in his
breast, and
obscured the light of his reason and truth; now fled from
before him,
like a flight of gnats driven by the wind.
42. As yet the crowds of doubt, rose repeatedly in his
breast, and of
their own accord; he dispersed them boldly by the sword
of his reason,
as a hero drives the enemy before him.
43. Upon the dispersion of the thick mists of doubts, and
all worldly
desires from his mind; he beheld the bright sun of reason
rising in his
breast, from amidst the parting gloom of ignorance.
44. He dispelled this darkness, by the sun-beams of his
full
intelligence; which rose in his mind as a blast of wind,
and dispersed
the clouds of his doubts in the skies.
45. After dispersion of this darkness, he saw a beautiful
collection of
light, shining upon him like the morning twilight, and
alighting upon
his lotus bed, after dispersion of the shade of night.
(This was his
satvikabhāva or state of purity).
46. But this clear light of his soul, was soon after
removed by the
rajas or worldliness of his mind; which devoured it as the
young
elephant feeds upon the red lotuses of the land, (sthala padma), and
as Vetāla, goblins lick up the drops
of blood.
47. After the loss of this heavenly light, his mind
turned flighty from
the giddiness of his passions (or tamoguna); and he became as drowsy
as the sleeping lotuses at night, and as tipsy as a
drunken sot over his
cups.
48. But his reason soon returned to him, and made him
shake off his
sleepiness, as the winds disperse the clouds, and as the
snake inhales
the air; and as the elephant devours the lotus bush, and
the sunlight
dispels the darkness of night.
49. After removal of his drowsiness, his mind beheld the
broad expanse
of the blue firmament, filled with fancied forms of
animals, and flights
of peacocks and other birds.
50. When, as the rain water washes off the blackness of
tamāla leaves,
and as a gust of wind drives away the morning mist, and
as the light of
a lamp disperses the darkness; so returned to him, his
spiritual light,
and removed the blue vacuum, of his mind, by filling it
with its benign
radiance.
51. The idea of an empty vacuity (vacuum), being replaced
by that of his
self consciousness, his idea of the mind was also
absorbed in it; as the
drunken frenzy of a man is drowned in his sleep.
52. His great soul, then rubbed out the impressions of
error from his
vitiated mind; as the luminous sun drives from the world,
the shades of
darkness which had overspread it at night.
53. In this manner his misty mind, being freed from its
shades of light
and darkness, and from the dross of its drowsiness and
error; obtained
its rest in that state of samādhi or trance, which no language can
describe.
54. In this state of calm and quiet repose, his limbs
dropped down as in
the drowsiness of sleep; and their powers were absorbed
in the channel
of his self consciousness, as a flood recoils to its
basin, when it is
bound by an embankment.
55. It was then by means of his constant inquiry, that he
advanced to
the state of his intellectuality, from that of his
consciousness of
himself; as the gold that is moulded to the form of a jewel,
is reduced
afterwards to the pure metal only.
56. Then leaving his intellectuality, he thought himself
as the
intellect of his intellect; and then became of another
form and figure,
as when the clay is converted to a pot.
57. Then leaving his nature of a thinkable being (or
objectivity), he
became the subjective thinking intellect itself; and next
to that, as
identic with the pure universal intellect; just as the
waves of the sea,
resolve their globules into the common air. (It is by the
process of
generalization, that particulars are made to blend in one
ultimate
universal).
58. Losing the sight of particulars, he saw the Great One
as the
container of all; and then he became as one with the sole
vacuous
intellect.
59. He found his felicity in this extra phenomenal state
of the
noumenon; like the ocean, which is the reservoir of all
moistures.
60. He passed out of the confines of his body and then
went to a certain
spot, where leaving his ordinary form, he became as a sea
of joy (in the
transport of his ecstacy).
61. His intellect swam over that sea of joy like a
floating swan, and
remained there for many years with as serene a lustre, as
the moon
shines in her fulness in the clear firmament.
62. It remained as still as a lamp in the breathless air,
and as the
shadow of a picture in painting; it was as calm as the
clear lake
without its waves, and as the sea after a storm, and as
immovable as a
cloud after it has poured out its waters.
63. As Uddālaka had been sitting in this full blaze of
light, he beheld
the aerial Siddhas and a group of gods (advancing towards
him).
64. The groups of Siddhas, that were eager to confer the
ranks of the
Sun and Indra upon him, assembled around him with groups
of Gandharvas
and Apsaras, from all sides of heaven.
65. But the saint took no notice of them, nor gave them
their due
honour; but remained in deep thought, and in the
continuance of his
steady meditation.
66. Without paying any regard to the assemblage of the
Siddhas, he
remained still in that blissful abode of his bliss; as
the sun remains
in the solstices, or in the northern hemisphere for half
of the year.
67. While he continued in the enjoyment of his blessed
state of living
liberation, the gods Hari, Hara and Brahma waited at his
door, together
with bodies of Siddhas, Sādhyas and other deities beside
them.
68. He now remained in his state of indifference, which
lies between the
two opposites of sorrow and joy; and neither of which is
of long
continuance, except the middle state of insouciance which endureth for
ever.
69. When the mind is situated in its state of neutrality,
and whether it
is for a moment or a thousand years; it has no more any
relish for
pleasure, by seeing its future joys of the next world, as
already begun
in this.
70. When holy men have gained that blissful state in this
life, they
look no more on the outer world; but turn aside from it,
as men avoid a
thorny bush of brambles (Lit., catechu plants).
71. The saints that attained to this state of
transcendental bliss, do
not stoop to look upon the visible world; as one who is
seated in the
heavenly car of Chitraratha, never alights on the thorny
bush of the
Khadira (catechumemosa).
72. They take no account of the visible world, who enjoy
this felicity
of the invisible in them; as the self-sufficient rich man,
takes into no
account the condition of the miserable poor.
73. The wise heart that has found its rest in that
blissful state, does
either keep itself from the thoughts of this world, or
shrink from it
with disgust and hatred.
74. Uddālaka thus remained in his holy seat for six
months, after which
he awoke from his trance; and removed from there to
another place, as
the sun gets out of the mists of frost in the vernal
season.
75. He beheld before him, the assemblage of the bright
beings of
enlightened minds; and who with their countenances
shining as the
lightsome moon, hailed the hermit with high veneration.
76. They were fanned with chowries flapping about them, like swarms of
bees besmeared with white powders of mandāra flowers; and sitting on
their heavenly cars, decorated with flags waving in the
sky.
77. There were the great saints like ourselves sitting in
them,
decorated with ringlets of the sacred grass in their
fingers, and
accompanied by Vidyādharas and Gandharvas, with their damsels
ministering unto them.
78. They addressed the great-souled and saintly Uddālaka
with
saying:—"Deign, O venerable sir, to look upon us,
that have been
waiting here upon you with our greetings."
79. "Vouchsafe to mount on one of these heavenly
cars, and repair to our
celestial abode; because heaven is the last abode, where
you shall have
the full gratification of your desires after this
life."
80. "There remain to enjoy your desired pleasures,
until the end of this
kalpa age; because it is pure heavenly bliss which is the
inheritance of
saints, and the main aim and object of ascetic
austerities on earth."
81. "Behold here the damsels of Vidyādharas, are
waiting for you with
fans and wreaths of flowers in their hands; and they have
been hailing
and inviting you to them, as the young elephantess,
entices the big
elephant towards her."
82. "It is the desire of fruition only, which is the
main object of
riches and meritorious acts; and the greatest of our
enjoyments is the
company of fairy damsels; as the flowers and fruits are
the desired
products of the vernal season."
83. The hermit heard his heavenly guests, speaking in
this manner; and
then honoured them as he ought, without being moved by
aught they said
unto him.
84. He neither complemented them with his courtesy, nor
changed the
tenor of his even and inexcitable mind; but bidding them
depart in
peace, he betook himself to his wonted devotion.
85. The Siddhas honoured him for his devotedness to his
pursuit, and his
abjuring the desire of carnal gratifications. They then
departed to
their elysian abode from there, after tarrying there in
vain for some
days, to entice the hermit to their Parnassian fields.
86. Afterwards the saint continued to wander about at
pleasure, in his
character of a living liberated Yogi; and frequented the
hermitages of
the ascetics, at the skirts of the woods and forests.
87. He roved about freely over the mountains of Meru,
Mandara, and
Kaylāsa, and on the table lands of the Vindhyan and
Himalayan ranges;
and then travelled through woods and forests, groves and
deserts, to
distant islands on all sides.
88. At last the saintly Uddālaka chose his abode in a
cavern, lying at
the foot of a mountain; and there dedicated the remainder
of his life,
to devotion and meditation in his seclusion.
89. It was then in the course of a day, and then of a
month, and
sometimes after the lapse of a year or years, that he
rose once from his
meditation.
90. After his yoga was over, he came out and mixed with
the world; and
though he was sometimes engaged in the affairs of life,
yet he was quite
reserved in his conduct, and abstracted in his mind.
91. Being practiced to mental abstraction, he became one
with the divine
mind; and shone resplendent in all places, like the broad
day light in
view.
92. He was habituated to ponder on the community of the
mind, till he
became one with the universal Mind; which spreads alike
throughout the
universe, and neither rises nor sets any where like the
solar light.
93. He gained the state of perfect tranquillity, and his
even mindedness
in all places, which released him from the snare of
doubts, and of the
pain of repeated births and deaths. His mind became as
clear and quiet
as the autumnal sky, and his body shone as the sun at
every place.
FORMULAE OF THE PRANAVA YOGA.
1. ﾁ Acute or Rechaka } 2. U. Grave or Kumbhake { 3. M.
the Circumflex
yoga. } yoga. { or Puraka yoga.
CHAPTER LV.—Transcendentalism of Uddālaka.
Argument. Meditation on the Universality of the soul and
Intellect.
Rāma said:—Venerable Sir! you are the sun of the day of
spiritual
knowledge, and the burning fire of the night of my
doubts; and you who
are the cooling moon to the heat of my ignorance, will
deign to explain
to me, what is meant by—community of existence (that you
said just
now).
2. Vasishtha answered:—When the thinking principle or
mind is wasted
and weakened, and appears to be extinct and null; the
intellect which
remains in common in all beings, is called the common
intelligence (or
Nous) of all.
3. And this intellect when it is devoid of its
intellection and is
absorbed in itself, and becomes as transparent as it is
nothing of
itself; it is then called the common (or Samanga) intellect.
4. And likewise, when it ignores the knowledge of all its
internal and
external objects, it remains as the common intellect and
unconscious of
any personality.
5. When all visible objects are considered to have a
common existence,
and to be of the same nature with one's self, it is
designated the
common intellect. (Or compression of the whole in one,
like the
contraction of the limbs of a tortoise).
6. When the phenomenas are all ingulphed of themselves,
in the one
common spirit; and there remains nothing as different
from it, it is
then called the one common entity.
7. This common view of all things as one and the same, is
called
transcendentalism; and it becomes alike both to embodied
and disembodied
beings in both worlds. It places the liberated being
above the fourth
stage of consummation.
8. It is the enlightened soul which is exalted by ecstacy
(Samādhi),
that can have this common view of all as one; and not the
ignorant (who
can not make this highest generalization).
9. This common view of all existence, is entertained by
all great and
liberated beings; as it is the same moisture and air,
that is spread
through the whole earth and vacuum.
10. Sages like ourselves, as Nārada and others, and the
gods Brahmā,
Vishnu and Siva, have this common view of all things in
existence.
11. The saintly Uddālaka, entertained this view of the
community of all
beings and things; and having thereby attained to that
state of
perfection, which is free from fear or fall; he lived as
long as he
liked to live in this earthly sphere.
12. After lapse of a long time, he thought of enjoying
the bliss of
disembodied or spiritual liberation in the next world, by
quitting his
frail mortal frame on earth.
13. With this intention, he went into the cave of a
mountain, and there
made a seat for himself, with the dried leaves of trees;
and then sat
upon it in his posture of padmāsana, with his eyes half closed under
his eyelids.
14. He shut up the opening of the nine organs of sense,
and then having
compressed their properties of touch and the like, in the
one single
sense of perception, he confined them all within it in
his intellect.
15. He compressed the vital airs in his body, and kept
his head erect on
his neck; and then by fixing the tip of his tongue to the
roof of his
palate, he sat with his blooming countenance turned
upwards to heaven.
16. He did not allow his breath, to pass up or down or
out of or inside
his body, or fly into the air; nor let his mind and sight
to be fixed on
any object; but compressed them all in himself with his
teeth joined
together (in his struggle for compression).
17. There was a total stop of the breathing of his vital
airs, and his
countenance was composed and clear; his body was erect
with the
consciousness of his intellect, and his hairs stood on
their ends like
thorns.
18. His habitual consciousness of intellection, taught
him the community
of the intellect; and it was by his constant communion
with the
intellect, that he perceived a flood of internal bliss
stirring in
himself.
19. This feeling of his internal bliss, resulting from
his consciousness
of intellectual community; led him to think himself as
identic with the
entity of the infinite soul, and supporting the universal
whole.
20. He remained with an even composure, in his state of
transcendent
quietness; and enjoyed an even rapture in himself, with a
placid
countenance.
21. Being unruffled by the transport of his spiritual
bliss, and
attaining the state of divine holiness; he remained for a
long time in
his abstract meditation, by abstracting his mind, from
all thoughts and
errors of the world.—
22. His great body remained as fixed as an image in
painting, and shone
as bright as the autumnal sky, illumined by the beams of
the full moon.
23. In course of some days, his soul gradually forgot its
mortal state,
and it found its rest in his pure spiritual bliss; as the
moisture of
trees is deposited in the rays of the sun, at the end of
autumn (in the
cold season).
24. Being devoid of all desires, doubts and levity of his
mind; and
freed from all foul and of pleasurable inclinations of
his body; he
attained to that supreme bliss on the loss of his former
joys, before
which the prosperity of Indra appeared as a straw,
floating on the vast
expanse of the ocean.
25. The Brahman then attained to that state of his summum bonum which
in unmeasurable, and pervades through all space of the
measureless
vacuum; and which fills the universe and is felt by the
enraptured yogi
alone. It is what is called the supreme and infinite
bliss, having
neither its beginning nor end, and being a reality,
without any property
assignable to itself.
26. While the Brahman attained to this first state of his
consummation,
and had the clearness of his understanding, during the
first six months
of his devotion; his body became emaciated by the sun
beams, and the
winds of heaven whistled over his dry frame, with the
sound of lute
strings.
27. After a long time had elapsed in this manner, the
daughter of the
mountain king—Pārvatī, came to that spot, accompanied by
the Mātris,
and shining like flames of fire with the grey locks of
hair on their
heads, as if to confer the boon of his austere devotion.
28. Among them was the goddess Chāmundā, who is adored by
the gods. She
took up the living skeleton of the Brahman, and placed it
on her crown,
which added a new lustre to her frame at night.
29. Thus was the disgusting and dead like body of
Uddālaka, set and
placed over the many ornaments on the body of the
goddess; and it was
only for her valuing it as more precious than all other
jewels, on
account of its intrinsic merit of spiritual knowledge.
30. Whoever plants this plant of the life and conduct (i.e., the
biography) of Uddālaka in the garden of his heart, will
find it always
flourishing with the flowers of knowledge and the fruit
of divine bliss
within himself. And whoso walks under the shadow of this
growing arbor,
he is never to be subject to death, but will reap the
fruit of his
higher progress in the path of liberation.
CHAPTER LVI.—Investigation into Meditation and Contemplation.
Argument. That a man in secular life, is not barred from
spiritual contemplation. Nor is the spiritualist debarred
from
engaging in secular duties.
Vasistha continued:—Proceed in this manner to know the
universal soul
in your own soul, and thereby obtain your rest in that
holy state.
2. You must consider all things by the light of the
sāstras, and dive
into their true meaning; you will also benefit yourselves
by the
lectures of your preceptor, and by pondering on them in
your own mind;
as also by your constant practice of ignoring the
visibles, until you
come to know the invisible One.
3. It is by means of your habitual dispassionateness,
your acquaintance
with the sāstras and their meanings, and your hearing the
lectures of
the spiritual teachers; as well as your own conviction
that you can gain
the holy state (for it is your confidence only), whereby
you can come to
it.
4. It is also by your enlightened understanding too, when
it is acute
and unbiased, that you can attain to that everlasting
state of felicity,
without the medium of anything else.
5. Rāma said:—Tell me sir, that art acquainted with the
past and
future; whether one who is employed in the affairs of
life, and at the
same time is enlightened and situated in his quietude;—
6. And another who remains in his solitary devotion,
apart from worldly
connections; which of these two has greater merit: (i.e., whether the
social or solitary devotee).
7. Vasishtha replied:—-He who views the association of
properties and
qualities of things (which constitute all bodies in
general), as quite
distinct from the soul; enjoys a cool tranquillity within
himself, which
is designated by the name of Samādhi.
8. He who is certain that the visibles bear relation to
his mind only,
and have no connection with his soul; and remains calm
and cool in
himself, may be either engaged in business, or sit
quietly in his
meditation.
9. Both of these are happy souls, as long as they enjoy a
cool calmness
within themselves; because it is this internal coolness
of the soul
only, which is the result of great and austere devotion.
10. When a man in his habit of quietude, feels the
fickleness of his
mind, his habitude then, turns to the reeling of a giddy
or mad man.
11. When the sprawling mad man is devoid of desires in
his mind; his
foolish frolic is then said to resemble the rapturous
emotions, and
gesticulations of Buddhist mendicants.
12. The worldly man who is enlightened in his mind, and
the enlightened
sage who is sitting in his hermitage; are both of them
alike in their
spiritual coolness, and have undoubtedly reached the
state of their
blessedness.
13. The man who is unrelated with the actions which he
does, but bears a
mind which is free from desires, such as the mind of a
man engrossed
with other thoughts; he is sensible of what he hears and
sees, with his
organs only, without being affected by them.
14. A man becomes the agent of an act, even without his
doing it
actually, who is fully intent upon the action; as the
unmoving man
thinks himself to be moving about, and falling down in a
ditch (startles
even at the thought, as if it were in actuality).
15. Know the inaction of the mind, to be the best state
of
anaesthesia; and solity or singleness, as the best means to your
insouciance.
16. It is the activity and inactivity of the mind, which
are said to be
the sole causes, of the restlessness and quietness of
men, as also of
their fixed meditation and want of its fixity: therefore
destroy the
germs of thy rising desires.
17. Want of desire is called the neutrality of the mind,
and it is this
that constitutes its steadiness and meditation; this
gives solity to the
soul, and contributes to its everlasting tranquillity.
18. The diminishing of desires leads the man to the
highest station of
inappetency and innocence (i.e. from the fourth to the seventh
pithikā).
19. The thick gathering desires, serve to fill the mind
with the vanity
of its agency, which is the cause of all its woes;
(because it wakens
them, only to labour under their throes); therefore try
to weaken your
desires at all times.
20. When the mind is tranquil, after it is freed from its
fears, griefs
and desires; and the soul is set at its rest and quiet,
in want of its
passions; it is then called the state of its samādhi or nonchalance.
21. Relinquish the thoughts of all things from thy mind,
and live
wherever thou livest, whether on a mount or in a forest,
as calmly as
thou dost at thy home.
22. The houses of house-holders of well governed minds,
and of those who
are devoid of the sense of their egoism, are as solitary
forests to them
(without any stir or disturbance to annoy them).
23. Dwelling in one's own house or in a forest, is taken
in one and the
same light by cool-minded men, as they view all visible
objects, in the
light of an empty vacuum only.
24. Men of pacified minds, view the bright and beautiful
buildings of
cities, in the same indifferent light, as they behold the
woods in the
forest.
25. It is the nature of ungoverned minds, to view even
the solitary
woods, to be as full of people as large towns and cities.
(i.e., they
have no peace of mind anywhere).
26. The restless mind falls asleep, after it gets rid of
its labour; but
the quiet mind has its quietus afterwards (its nirvāna
extinction)
(i.e., the one sleeps and rises
again, but the other one is wholly
extinct). Therefore do as you like: (either sleep to rise
again, or
sleep to wake no more).
27. Whether one gets rid of worldly things or not, it is
his sight of
the infinite spirit, that makes him meek and quiet. (The
worldly and the
recluse are equally holy, with their divine knowledge
only).
28. He whose mind is expanded by his like indifference,
to both the
objects of his desire and disgust also; and to whom all
things are alike
insignificant everywhere, he is called the staid and
stoic, and the cool
and meek.
29. He who sees the world in God in his inmost soul, and
never as
without the Divine Spirit; and whose mind sees everything
in waking as
in his sleep, is verily the lord of mankind.
30. As the market people, whether coming in or going out,
are strangers
to and unrelated with one another; so the wise man looks
upon the
concourse of men with unconcern, and thinks his own town
a wilderness.
31. The mind which is fixed to its inward vision, and is
inattentive to
external objects; thinks the populous city as a
wilderness before it,
both when it is awake or asleep, and active or inactive.
32. One who is attentive to the inward mind, sees the
outer world as a
vacuous space to him; and the populous world appears as a
desert
desolate to him, owing to its unworthiness of his
attention.
33. The world is all cool and calm to the cold hearted,
as the system of
the body is quiet cool to one without his fit of
fever-heat.
34. Those that are parched with their internal thirst,
find the world as
a burning conflagration to them; because everybody sees
the same without
him, as he sees within himself.
35. The external world with all its earthly, watery and
airy bodies, and
with all its rocks, rivers and quarters, is the
counterpart of the inner
mind, and is situated without it, as it is contained
within itself.
36. The big banyan tree and the little barley plants, are
exact ectypes
of their antitypes in the eternal mind; and they are
exhibited out of
it, as they are within it, like the fragrance of flowers
diffused in the
air.
37. There is nothing situated in the inside or the
outside of this
world, but they are the casts and copies, as displayed by
their patterns
in the great mind of God.
38. The external world is a display of the essence,
contained in the
universal soul; and appears without it from within its
concealment, like
the smell of camphor coming out of its casket.
39. It is the divine soul, which manifests itself in the
form of the ego
and the world also (the subjective and the objective);
and all what we
see externally or think internally, either in and out of
us is unreal,
except the real images which are imprinted in the soul.
40. The soul which is conscious of its innate images, sees
the same in
their intellectual appearances within the mind, and in
their external
manifestations in the visible creation.
41. He who has his internal and external tranquillity,
and enjoys his
peace of mind, and views the world inseparable from the
soul, enjoys his
quiet samādhi everywhere; but he who
perceives their difference, and
differentiates his egoism from all others (that is, who
sees his
distinction from other beings), he is ever subject to be
tossed about,
as by the rolling waves of the sea.
42. The soul that is infested by the maladies of this
world, sees the
earth, sky, air and water, together with the hills and
all things in
them, burning before it as in the conflagration, of the
last day of
dissolution (pralaya).
43. He who performs his work with his organs of action,
and has his soul
fixed in its internal meditation; and is not moved by any
joy or grief,
is called the dispassionate yogi.
44. He who beholds the all pervading soul in his own
self, and by
remaining unruffled in his mind, doth never grieve at nor
thinks about
anything; is styled the unimpassioned yogi.
45. Who looks calmly into the course of the world, as it
has passed or
is present before him, and sits still smiling at its
vicissitudes, that
man is named the unpassionate yogi.
46. Because these changing phenomena do not appertain to
the unchanging
spirit of God, nor do they participate with my own egoism
(i.e. they
are no parts, of God or myself); they but resemble the
glittering atoms
of gold in the bright sun-shine which do not exist in the
sky.
47. He who has no sense of egoism or tuism in himself,
nor the
distinction of things in his mind, as of the sensible and
insensible
ones; is the one that truly exists, and not the other who
thinks
otherwise. (So says the Sruti:—The one alike in all is
the All, and not
the other, who is unlike every thing).
48. He who conducts all his affairs with ease, by his
remaining as the
intangible and translucent air about him, and who remains
as insensible
of his joy and sorrow, as a block of wood or stone, is
the man that is
called the sedate and quiet.
49. He who of his own nature and not through fear, looks
on all beings
as himself, and accounts the goods of others as worthless
stones; is the
man that sees them in their true light.
50. No object whether great or small, is slighted as a
trifle by the
polished or foolish; they value all things, but do not
perceive in their
hearts, the Reality that abides in them like the wise.
(Fools look into
the forms of things, but the wise look in their
in-being).
51. One possessed of such indifference and equality of
his mind, attains
to his highest perfection; and is quite unconcerned with
regard to his
rise and fall, and about his life and death.
52. He is quite unconcerned with any thing, whether he is
situated
amidst the luxuries at his home, and the superfluities of
the world, or
when he is bereft of all his possessions and enjoyments,
and is exposed
in a dreary and deep solitude:
53. Whether indulging in voluptuousness or bacchanal
revelry, or
remaining retired from society and observing his
taciturnity (it is all
equal to him, if he is but indifferent about them).
54. Whether he anoints his body with sandal paste or
agallochum, or
besmears it with powdered camphor; or whether he rubs his
person with
ashes, or casts himself into the flames (it is all the
same to him, with
his nonchalance of them).
55. Whether drowned in sinfulness, or marked by his
meritoriousness;
whether he dies this day or lives for a kalpa-age (it is
all the same to
the indifferent).
56. The man of indifference is nothing in himself, and
therefore his
doings are no acts of his own. He is not polluted by
impurity, as the
pure gold is not sullied by dirt or dust.
57. It is the wrong application of the words
consciousness—samvit,
and soul (purusha), to I and thou (or the subjective and
objective),
which has led the ignorant to the blunder (of duality),
as the silvery
shell of cockles, misleads men to the error of silver.
58. The knowledge of the extinction of all existence (in
the Supreme
Spirit), is the only cure for this blunder of one's
entity, and the only
means to the peace of his mind.
59. The error of egoism and tuism of the conscious soul,
which is the
source of its vain desires, causes the variety of the
weal and woe of
mankind in their repeated births. (Selfishness grows our
desires, and
these again produce our woes).
60. As the removal of the fallacy of the snake in the
rope, gives peace
to the mind of there being no snake therein; so the
subsidence of egoism
in the soul, brings peace and tranquillity to the mind.
61. He that is conscious of his inward soul, and
unconscious of all he
does, eats, drinks; and of his going to others, and
offering his
sacrifice; is free from the results of his acts: and it
is the same to
him, whether he does them or not.
62. He who slides from outward nature, and abides in his
inward soul; is
released from all external actions, and the good and evil
resulting
therefrom.
63. No wish stirs in such unruffled soul, in the same
manner as no germ
sprouts forth from the bosom of a stone; and such desires
as ever rise
in it, are as the waves of the sea, rising and falling in
the same
element.
64. All this is Himself, and He is the whole of this
universe, without
any partition or duality in Him. He is one with the holy
and Supreme
soul, and the only entity called the Id est tat sat. (He is no
unreality, but as real as the true Reality).
CHAPTER LVII.—Negation of Dualism.
Argument. One Supreme Intellect pervades the whole, and
is one
with itself.
Vasishtha continued:—The intellect residing in the soul,
is felt by all
like the poignancy inherent in pepper; and it is this,
whereby we have
the intellection of the ego and non-ego, and of the
distinctions of the
undivided dimension of infinite duration and space.
2. The soul is as the Universal ocean of salt, and the
intellect is the
saltishness inherent in it; it is this which gives us the
knowledge of
the ego and non-ego, and appears in the forms of infinite
space and time
(which are no other than its attributes).
3. The intellect of which we have the knowledge as
inherent in the soul
itself; is as the sweetness of the sugarcane of the soul,
and spreads
itself in the different forms of the ego and the non-ego
of worldly
objects.
4. The intellect which is known as the hardness inhering
in the
stonelike soul, diffuses itself in the shapes of the
compact ego and the
unsolid non-ego of the world.
5. The knowledge that we have of the solidity of our
rock-like soul, the
same solidifies itself in the forms of I and thou, and
the diversities
of the world all about us.
6. The soul which like the great body of water, presents
its fluidity in
the form of the intellect; the same assumes the forms of
the whirlpools
of the ego, and the varieties of non-ego in the world.
7. The great arbor of the soul, stretches itself in the
exuberant
branches of the intellect; producing the fruits of ego
and the various
forms of non-ego in the world.
8. The intellect which is but a gap in the great vacuum
of the soul,
produces the ideas of I and thou and of the universe
besides.
9. The intellect is as vain as vanity itself in the
vacuity of the soul;
and gives rise to the ideas of ego and tu, and of the world besides.
10. The intellect situated within the environs of the
soul, has its
egoism and non-egoism situated without it (i.e. the soul contains the
intellect, which deals with ideas lying beyond it).
11. When the intellect is known, to be of the same
essence with that of
the soul; then the difference of the ego and non-ego,
proves to be but
acts of intellection and no reality.
12. It is the reflexion of the inward soul [Sanskrit:
āntarātma] which
is understood to be the ego [Sanskrit: aham], the mind
[Sanskrit: citta]
and anima or animated soul [Sanskrit:
jīvatma]. (The two souls are
respectively called the nafs natigue and the nafs Jesmia in sufism,
the former is Meram and Shaffat—luminous
and transparent, and the
latter nafs amera Jesmani—or
bodily senses, and quate uhshi—or
outrageous passions).
13. When the luminous and moon like soul, entertains and
enjoys the
ambrosial beams of the intellect within itself; it then
forgets its
egoism, which rises no more in its bright sphere.
14. When the sweetness of the intellect, is felt within
the molasses of
the soul; it is relished by the mind with a zest, which
makes it forget
its egoism in itself.
15. When the bright gem of the soul, shines with the
radiance of the
intellect in itself; it finds its egoism to be lost
altogether, under
the brightness of its intellectual light.
16. The soul perceives nothing in itself, for the total
want of the
perceptibles in it; nor does it taste anything in itself,
for want of
anything gustable therein. (The objective is altogether
lost in it).
17. It thinks of nothing in itself, for want of the
thinkables therein;
nor does it know of aught in itself, for want of the
knowables there.
(The soul being absorbed in itself, is unconscious both
of the
subjective as well as objective).
18. The soul remains blank of all impressions of the
subjective and
objective, and also of the infinite plenum in itself; it remains in
the form of a firm and solid rock by itself.
19. It is by way of common speech or verbiage, we use the
words I and
thou, and of the objective world, though they are nothing
whatever in
reality.
20. There is no seat nor agent of thought, nor fallacy of
the world in
the soul (all which are acts of the mind only): while the
soul remains
as a mute and pellucid cloud, in one sphere of the
autumnal sky.
21. As the waters by cause of their fluidity, take the
forms of vortices
in the sea; so the intelligent soul assumes its errors of
I and thou in
its undivided self; owing to its delusion (māyā) of the knower and
known (or the subjective and objective).
22. As fluidity is inherent in water, and motion in air,
so is egoism
innate in the subjective knower, and objectively connate
with the known
world. (This is said of the intelligent or animated soul,
and not of the
supreme soul, which is both the subject and object in
itself).
23. The more doth the knowledge of a man, increase in its
verity, the
clearer does the knowing man come to find, that his very
knowledge of
the known objects, is the display of Divine Omniscience
itself. But
should he come to know his egoism or subjectivity, owing
to his vitality
and activity; and conceive the Idison or objectivity of all others
(beside himself); in this case the learned or knowing man
is no better
than an Egoist, and knowing the Living God or Jīva Brahma
only.[1]
[1] Perfection of knowledge, is the Omniscience of God,
and leads the
knower, to the belief of his Omnipresence. But imperfect
knowledge,
leads to the belief of the Ego and the Jīva or Living
God, as
distinct from the quiescent Brahma.
24. In as much as the intelligent soul (jīva), derives
its pleasure from
its knowledge of objects; in like manner is it identified
with the
knowledge, of its sameness with or difference from that
object (i.e.
it is according to the thought or belief of the thinker,
that he is
identified or differentiated from the object thought of).
25. Living, knowing and the knowledge of things, are
properties of the
animated or concrete soul—the jīva: but there is no
difference of these
in the discrete, or Universal and intellectual soul
(which is one in
all).
26. As there is no difference between the intelligent and
the living
soul (jīva), so there is no diversity between the
intelligent soul and
Siva (Ziv or Jove), the Lord of animated nature who is
the undivided
whole.
27. Know the all quiescent, and the unborn One, who is
without
beginning, middle and end; who is self manifest and
felicity itself; and
who is inconceivable and beyond all assignable property
or quality. He
is all quiescent, and all verbal and ocular indications
of him are
entirely false. Yet for the sake of our comprehension, he
is represented
as the Holy one, on or om.
CHAPTER LVIII.—Legend of Suraghu; and Admonition of Māndavya.
Argument. Self-dejectedness of Suraghu; and Māndavya's
Admonitions to him.
Vasishtha said:—Hear me relate to you Rāma, an old
legend, in
illustration of this subject; and it is the account of
the Kirāta Chief
Suraghu, which is marvelous in its nature.
2. There is a tract of land in the regions on the north,
which was hoary
as a heap of camphor with its snowfalls, and which seemed
to smile as
the clear night, under the moon-beams of the bright
fortnight.
3. It was situated on the summit of Himālaya, and called
the peak of
Kailāsa; it was free from mountainous elephants, and was
the chief of
all other peaks (owing to its being the seat of Siva).
4. It was as milk-white, as the bed of Vishnu in the
milky ocean, and as
bright as the empyrean of Indra in heaven; it was as fair
as the seat of
Brahmā, in the pericarp of the lotus; and as snow-white
as the snowy
peak of Kedāra, the favourite seat of Siva.
5. It was owing to the waving of the Rudrāksha trees over
it, and the
parade of the Apsara fairies about it, as also by the
pencils of rays of
its various gems, that it appeared as the undulating sea
(of milk or
curd).
6. The playful Pramathas, and other classes of demigods
(ganadevatās)
frolicked here as gaily as blossoms of Asoka plants, when
tossed about
by the feet of their wanton damsels. (It is said that the
Asoka jonesia
flowers blossom, better, when they are kicked by and
trodden under the
feet of females). See Sir W. Jones' Indian plants.
7. Here the god Siva wanders about, and sees the
waterfalls proceeding
from and receding into the caves of the mountain, by
dilution of the
moon-stones contained in them (the thick ice and snows
here, are taken
for moon-stones).
8. There was a spot of ground here enclosed by trees, and
by plants and
creepers and shrubs of various kinds; and which is
intersected by lakes,
hills and rivers, and interspersed by herds of deer and
does of various
species.
9. There dwelt a race of the Kirātas called Himajātas at
this spot, who
were as numerous as the ants living at the foot by a big
banyan tree.
10. They lived like owls in the shades and hollows of the
trees, and
subsisted upon the fruits and flowers and herbage of the
nearest
forests, and by felling and selling the Rudrāksha woods
of the Kailāsa
mountain.
11. They had a chief among them, who was as nobleminded,
as he was brave
to baffle his enemies; he was as the arm of the goddess
of victory, and
stretched it for the protection of his people.
12. He had the name of Suraghu, and was mighty in
quelling his brave and
dreadful enemies; he was powerful as the sun, and as
strong as the god
of wind in his figure.
13. He surpassed the lord of the Guhyakas—Kubera, in the
extent of his
kingdom, his dignity and riches; he was greater than the
guru of the
lord of gods in his wisdom, and excelled the preceptor of
the Asuras in
learning.
14. He discharged his kingly duties, by giving rewards
and punishments
of the deserts of his men as they appeared to him; and
was as firm in
the acquittal of this duties, as the sun in making the
day and his daily
course.
15. He considered in himself the pain and pleasure, that
his punishments
and rewards caused his people; and to which they were
like birds caught
in nets from their freedom of flight.
16. "Why do I perforce pierce the hearts of my
people," he said, as they
bruise the sesamum seeds for oil; it is plain that all
persons are
susceptible of pain and affliction like myself?
17. Yes, they are all capable of pain, and therefore I
will cease to
inflict them any more; but give them riches and please all
persons.
18. But if I refrain to punish the tormentors of the
good, they are sure
to be extirpated by the wicked, as the bed of the channel
is dried up
for want of rain.
19. Oh! the painful dilemma in which I am placed, wherein
my punishment
and mercy to men are both grievous to me, or pleasing and
unpleasing to
me by turns.
20. Being in this manner much troubled in his mind, his
thoughts
disturbed his spirit like the waters in the whirlpools.
21. It happened at one time the sage Māndavya met him at
his house, as
the divine sage Nārada (the Mercury or messenger of
gods), meets Indra
in his celestial abode, in his journey through the
regions of the sky.
22. The king honoured him with reverence, and then asked
that great sage
to remove his doubt, as they cut down a poisonous tree in
the garden,
with the stroke of the axe at its roots.
23. Suraghu said:—I am supremely blest, O sage, at this
call of thine
at mine, which has made me as joyous as the visit of the
spring on the
surface of the earth, and gives a fresh bloom to the
fading forest.
24. Thy visit, O sage! has really made me more blest than
the blessed,
and gives my heart to bloom, as the rising sun opens the
closed petals
of the lotus.
25. Thou oh lord! art acquainted with all truths and art
quite at rest
in thy spirit; deign, therefore to remove this doubt from
my mind, as
the sun displaces the darkness of night by his orient
beams.
26. A doubt festering in the heart is said to be the
greatest pain of
man, and this pain is healed only in the society of the
good and wise.
27. The thoughts of my rewards and punishments to my
dependents, have
been incessantly tormenting my heart, as the scratches
inflicted by the
nails of a lion, are always afflicting to the bruised
body of the
elephant.
28. Deign, therefore, O sage, to remove this pain of
mine, and cause the
sunshine of peace and equanimity to brighten the gloom of
my mind.
29. Māndavya replied:—It is O prince; by means of one's
self-exertion,
self-dependence and self-help that the doubts of the
mind, are melted
down like snows under the sunshine.
30. It is by self-discrimination also, that all mental
anguish is
quickly put to an end; as the thick mists and clouds are
dispersed in
autumn.
31. It must be in one's own mind, that he should consider
the nature and
powers of his internal and external organs, and the
faculties of his
body and mind.
32. Consider in thy mind (such things as these); as what
am I, what and
whence are all these things; and what means this our
life, and what is
this death that waits upon it? These inquiries will
surely set thee to
eminence.
33. As you come to know your true nature by your
introspection into the
state of your mind, you will remain unchanged by your
joys and griefs,
as a firm rock (stands against the force of winds and waves,
to shake or
move it).
34. And as the mind is freed from its habitual fickleness
and feverish
heat, it regains its former tranquillity; as the rolling
wave returns to
the state of the still water from which it rose.
35. And as the mind remains in the impassability of
living liberated men
(Jīvan-mukta), all its imageries are wiped off from it;
as its
impressions or reminiscences of past lives, are lost and
effaced upon
its regeneration (in each succeeding manvantara).
36. The unimpassioned are honoured as the most fortunate
among mankind
on earth; and the man knowing this truth and remaining
with his
self-contentment is regarded as venerable father by every
body.
37. When you come to see the greatness of your soul by
the light of
reason, you will find yourself to be of greater
magnitude, than the
extent of the sky and ocean put together; and the
rational
comprehensiveness of the mind, bears more meaning in it,
than the
irrational comprehension of the spheres.
38. When you attain to such greatness, your mind will no
more dive into
worldly affairs; as the big elephant will not be engulfed
in the hole
made by the bullock's hoof.
39. But the base and debased mind, will plunge itself in
mean and vile
matters of the world; as the contemptible gnat is drowned
in a drop of
water in a little hole.
40. Little minds are led by their greediness, to dive in
to dirty
affairs, like insects moving about in the dirt; and their
miserliness
makes them covet all out-ward things (without seeking
their inward
good).
41. But great minds avoid to take notice of outward
things, in order
that they may behold the pure light of supreme soul
shining in
themselves.
42. The ore is cleared and washed, until pure gold is
obtained from it;
and so long is spiritual knowledge to be cultivated by
men, until
spiritual light fills their souls.
43. See always all things of all sorts with an ecumenical
view in all
places; and with an utter indifference to the varieties
of their outward
forms and figures; behold all with the eye of thy soul
fixed to one
universal soul pervading the whole.
44. Until thou art freed from thy view of all particular
specialities,
thou canst have no sight of the universal spirit, it is
after the
disappearance of all particularities, that there remains
the catholicity
of the transcendental spirit.
45. Until thou gettest rid of all individualities, it is
impossible for
thee to come to the knowledge of universality; and much
more so, to
comprehend the all-comprehending soul of all.
46. When one endeavours to know the supreme soul, with
all his heart and
soul, and sacrifices all other objects to that end; it is
then only
possible for him, to know the Divine soul in its fulness,
and not
otherwise.
47. Therefore forsake to seek aught for thy own soul; and
it is only by
thy leaving all other things, that thou comest to the
sight of the best
of things.
48. All these visible objects which appear to be linked
together, by the
concatenation of causes and their effects, are the
creation of the mind;
which combines them together, as the string doth a
necklace of pearls.
That which remains after expunging the mind and its
created bodies, is
the sole soul, and this is that soul Divine;—the
paramātmā.
Om Tat Sat
(Continued...)
( My
humble salutations to Brahmasri Sreemaan Vihari Lala Mitra ji for the
collection)
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