The
Yoga Vasishtha
Maharamayana
of Valmiki
The only complete English translation is
by Vihari Lala Mitra (1891).
THE YOGA PHILOSOPHY.
The Yoga or contemplative philosophy of the Hindus, is
rich, exuberant,
grand and sublime, in as much as it comprehends within
its ample sphere
and deep recesses of meditation, all that is of the
greatest value, best
interest and highest importance to mankind, as physical,
moral,
intellectual and spiritual beings—a knowledge of the
cosmos—of the
physical and intellectual worlds.
It is rich in the almost exhaustless treasure of works
existing on the
subject in the sacred and vernacular languages of the
country both of
ancient and modern times. It is exuberant in the
profusion of erudition
and prolixity of ingenuity displayed in the Yoga
philosophy of
Patanjali, commensurate with the extraordinary calibre of
the author in
his commentary of the Mahábháshya on Pánini (Müller's A.
S. Lit. p.
235). Its grandeur is exhibited in the abstract and
abstruse reflections
and investigations of philosophers in the intellectual
and spiritual
worlds as far as human penetration has been able to
reach. And its
sublimity is manifested in its aspiring disquisition into
the nature of
the human and divine souls, which it aims to unite with
the one
self-same and all pervading spirit.
It has employed the minds of gods, sages, and saints, and
even those of
heroes and monarchs, to the exaltation of their natures
above the rest
of mankind, and elevation of their dignities to the rank
of gods, as
nothing less than a godly nature can approach and
approximate that of
the All-perfect Divinity. So says Plato in his Phaedras:
"To contemplate
these things is the privilege of the gods, and to do so
is also the
aspiration of the immortal soul of man generally; though
only in a few
cases is such aspiration realized."
The principal gods Brahmá and Siva are represented as
Yogis, the chief
sages Vyása, Válmiki, Vasishtha and Yájnavalkya were
propounders of
Yoga systems; the saints one and all were adepts in Yoga;
the heroes
Ráma and Krishna were initiated in it, and the kings
Dasaratha and
Janaka and their fellow prince Buddha were both
practitioners and
preceptors of Yoga. Mohammed held his nightly communions
with God and
his angels, and Jesus often went over the hills—there to
pray and
contemplate. Socrates had his demon to communicate with,
and in fact
every man has his genius with whom he communes on all
matters. All this
is Yoga, and so is all knowledge derived by intuition,
inspiration and
revelation, said to be the result of Yoga.
II. Sciences Connected with Yoga
The yoga philosophy, while it treats of a variety of
subjects, is
necessarily a congeries of many sciences in itself. It is
the Hindu form
of metaphysical argument for the existence of the 'One
Eternal'—the
Platonic "Reality." It is ontology in as much
as it teaches a priori
the being of God. It is psychology in its treatment of
the doctrine of
feelings and passions, and it is morality in teaching us
to keep them
under control as brutal propensities, for the sake of
securing our final
emancipation and ultimate restoration into the spirit of
spirits. Thus
it partakes of the nature of many sciences in treating of
the particular
subject of divinity.
The Yoga in its widest sense of the application of the
mind to any
subject is both practical, called kriyá Yoga, as also theoretical,
known as Jnána Yoga; and includes in itself
the two processes of
synthesis and analysis alike, in its combination (Yoga) of things
together, and discrimination (Viveka) of one from the other, in its
inquiry into the nature of things (Vastuvichára), and investigation of
their abstract essence called Satyánusandhánná. It uses both the a
priori (púrvavat) and a posteriori (paravat) arguments to prove
the existence of the world from its Maker and the vice versa, as
indicated in the two aphorisms of induction and deduction
Yatová imani
and Janmadyasya yatah &c. It
views both subjectively and objectively
the one self in many and the many in one unto which all
is to return,
by the two mysterious formulas of So ham and tat twam &c.
It is the reunion of detached souls with the Supreme that
is the chief
object of the Yoga philosophy to effect by the aforesaid
processes and
other means, which we propose fully to elucidate in the
following pages;
and there is no soul we think so very reprobate, that
will feel
disinclined to take a deep interest in them, in order to
effect its
reunion with the main source of its being and the only
fountain of all
blessings. On the contrary we are led to believe from the
revival of the
yoga-cult with the spiritualists and theosophists of the
present day
under the teachings of Madame Blavatsky and the lectures
of Col. Olcott,
that the Indian public are beginning to appreciate the
efficacy of Yoga
meditation, and its practice gaining ground among the
pious and educated
men in this country.
Notwithstanding the various significations of Yoga and
the different
lights in which it is viewed by several schools, as we
shall see
afterwards, it is most commonly understood in the sense
of the esoteric
faith of the Hindus, and the occult adoration of God by
spiritual
meditation. This is considered on all hands as the only means
of one's
ultimate liberation from the general doom of birth and
death and the
miseries of this world, and the surest way towards the
final absorption
of one's-self in the Supreme,—the highest state of
perfection and the
Summum bonum of the Hindu. The subject of Yoga Vasishtha is no other
than the effecting of that union of the human with the
Divine Soul,
amidst all the trials and tribulations of life.
III. The Yoga of English Writers.
The yoga considered merely as a mode or system of
meditation is
variously described by European authors, as we shall see
below.
Monier Williams says "According to Patanjali—the
founder of the system,
the word yoga is interpreted to mean the act of
"fixing or concentration
of the mind in abstract meditation. Its aim is to teach
the means by
which the human soul may attain complete union with the
Supreme Soul,
and of effecting the complete fusion of the individual
with the
universal spirit even in the body", Indian Wisdom p.
102.
Weber speaking of the yoga of the Atharvan Upanishads
says: "It is the
absorption in átman, the stages of this
absorption and the external
means of attaining it." Again says he: "The
yoga in the sense of union
with the Supreme Being, is absorption therein by means of
meditation. It
occurs first in the latter Upanishads, especially the
tenth book of the
Taittiríya and the Katha Upanishads, where the very
doctrine is itself
enunciated", Hist. Ind Lit p. 153-171.
Mullins in his prize essay on Vedanta says, the Sankhya
yoga is the
union of the body and mind, p. 183. In its Vedantic view,
it is the
joining of the individual with the Supreme Spirit by holy
communion of
the one with the other through intermediate grades,
whereby the limited
soul may be led to approach its unlimited fountain and
lose itself in
the same.
IV. Yoga-Characteristic of the Hindus.
Max Müller characterises the Hindu as naturally disposed
to Yoga or a
contemplative turn of his mind for his final beatitude in
the next life,
amidst all his cares, concerns and callings in this
world, which he
looks upon with indifference as the transient shadows of
passing clouds,
that serve but to dim for a moment but never shut out
from his view the
full blaze of his luminous futurity. This description is
so exactly
graphic of the Hindu mind, that we can not with-hold
giving it entire as
a mirror of the Hindu mind to our readers on account of
the scarcity of
the work in this country.
"The Hindu" says he "enters the world as a
stranger; all his thoughts
are directed to another world, he takes no part even where
he is driven
to act, and even when he sacrifices his life, it is but
to be delivered
from it." Again "They shut their eyes to this
world of outward seeming
activity, to open them full on the world of thought and
rest. Their life
was a yearning for eternity; their activity was a
struggle to return to
that divine essence from which this life seemed to have
severed them.
Believing as they did in a really existing and eternal
Being to
ontos-onton they could not believe in the existence of this passing
world."
"If the one existed, the other could only seem to
exist; if they lived
in the one they could not live in the other. Their
existence on earth
was to them a problem, their eternal life a certainty.
The highest
object of their religion was to restore that bond by
which their own
self (átman) was linked to the eternal
self (paramátman); to recover
that unity which had been clouded and obscured by the
magical illusions
of reality, by the so-called Máyá of creation."
"It scarcely entered their mind to doubt or to
affirm the immortality of
the soul (pretya-bháva). Not only their religion
and literature, but
their very language reminded them daily of that relation
between the
real and seeming world." (Hist A. S. Lit. p. 18). In
the view of Max
Müller as quoted above, the Hindu mind would seem to be
of that
realistic cast as the Platonic, whose theory of Ontology
viewed all
existence as mere phantoms and percepta of sense, and very short of
that perfection, which the mind realizes in its
meditation or Yoga
reveries.
The Hindu Yogi views the visible world exactly in the
same light as we
have said before, that Plato has represented it in the
simile commencing
the seventh book of his Republic. "He compares
mankind to prisoners in a
cave, chained in one particular attitude, so as to behold
only an
ever-varying multiplicity of shadows, projected through
the opening of
the cave upon the wall before them, by some unseen
realities behind. The
philosopher alone, who by training or inspiration, is
enabled to turn
his face from these visions, and contemplate with his
mind, that can at
once see the unchangeable reality amidst these transient
shadows", Baine
on Realism pp. 6 and 7.
V. Various Significations of Yoga.
The Váchaspati lexicon gives us about fifty different
meanings of the
word Yoga, according to the several
branches of art or science to
which it appertains, and the multifarious affairs of life
in which the
word is used either singly or in composition with others.
We shall give
some of them below, in order to prevent our mistaking any
one of these
senses for the special signification which the term is
made to bear in
our system of Yoga meditation.
The word Yoga from the root "jung" (Lat) Jungere means the joining
of any two things or numbers together. Amara Kosha gives
five different
meanings of it as, ; the other Koshas give five others,
viz.,
1. In Arithmetic it is [**] or addition, and [**] is
addition and
subtraction. 2. In Astronomy the conjunction of planets
and stars [**]
3. In Grammar it is the joining of letters and words
[**]—4. In Nyáya
it means the power of the parts taken together [**], [**]
5. In
Mímánsa it is defined to be the force conveyed by the
united members of
a sentence.
In contemplative philosophy it means; 1. According to
Pátanjali,—the
suppression of mental functions [**]—2. The Buddhists
mean by it—the
abstraction of the mind from all objects. [**] 3. The
Vedanta meaning
of it is— [**] the union of the human soul with the
Supreme spirit. 4.
Its meaning in the Yoga system is nearly the same, i. e., the
joining of the vital spirit with the soul; [**] 5. Every
process of
meditation is called also as Yoga. [**]
Others again use it in senses adapted to their own views
and subjects;
such as the Vaiseshika philosophy uses it to mean, the
fixing of the
attention to only one subject by abstracting it from all
others [**]
2. The Rámánuja sect define it as the seeking of one's
particular Deity
[**]
In this sense all sectarian cults are accounted as so
many kinds of
Yogas by their respective votaries. 3. According to some
Buddhists it is
the seeking of one's object of desire [**]-* [**] 4. And
with others,
it is a search after every desirable object. 5. In
Rhetoric it means the
union of lovers [**]
In Medicine it means the compounding of drugs under which
head there are
many works that are at first sight mistaken for Yoga
philosophy. Again
there are many compound words with Yoga which mean only "a treatise"
on those subjects, such as, works on wisdom, on Acts, on
Faith &c., are
called [**], [**], [**]
Moreover the words Yoga and Viyoga are used to express the two
processes of synthesis and analysis both in the abstract
and practical
sciences for the combination and disjoining of ideas and
things.
VI. The Different Stages of Yoga.
The constituent parts and progressive steps of Yoga, are
composed of a
series of bodily, mental and spiritual practices, the
proper exercise of
which conduces to the making of a perfect man, as a
moral, intellectual
and spiritual being, to be united to his Maker in the
present and future
worlds. These are called the eight stages of Yoga ( [**]), of which
some are external ( [**]) and others internal ( [**]).
The external
ones are:
1st. Yama ( [**]); Forbearance or restraint of passions, feelings
&c., including the best moral rules in all religions.
2nd. Niyama ( [**]); Particular rules and vows for the observance
of the Yogi.
3rd. Asana ( [**]); sedate position of the body to help deep
meditation.
4th. Pránáyáma ( [**]); Suppression and suspension of breath.
5th. Pratyáhára ( [**]), Restraint or control of senses and
organs.
Among the internal practices are reckoned the following; viz.;
6th. Dhyána ( [**]); Inward contemplation and meditation.
7th. Dháraná ( [**]); Steadiness of the mind in study.
8th. Samádhi ( [**]), Trance, the last stage of Yoga.
These again comprise some other acts under each of them,
such as:
I. Yama ( [**]) Restraint includes
five acts under it;
1st. Ahimsá ( [**]); Universal innocence or hurting no animal
creature.
2nd. Asteyam ( [**]); Avoidance of theft or stealth.
3rd. Satyam ( [**]); Observance of truth.
4th. Brahmacharyam ( [**]); consisting in purity and chastity.
5th. Aparigraha ( [**]); Disinterestedness.
II. Niyama ( [**]); Moral rules
consisting of five-fold acts. Viz.:
1st. Saucham ( [**]); Personal cleanliness.
2nd. Santosha ( [**]); contentment.
3rd. Tapas ( [**]); Devotion including self denial and self
mortification.
4th. Sádhyáya ( [**]); knowledge of all nature.
5th. Pranidhána ( [**]); Adoration of God.
III. Asana ( [**]); Different modes of
postures, tranquil posture
( [**]) &c.
IV. Pránáyáma ( [**]); Rules of
Respiration, three sorts, viz.:
1st. Rechaka ( [**]); Expiration or Exhalation.
2nd. Púraka ( [**]); Inspiration or Inhalation.
3rd. Kumbhaka ( [**]); Suppression of breathing, eight ways.
V. Pratyáhára ( [**]) Restraining the
senses from their
gratifications in many ways.
VI. Dhyána ( [**]); Abstract
contemplation, apart from the
testimonies of:—
1. Pratyaxa ( [**]); Perceptions.
2. Pramána ( [**]); Apprehensions.
3. Anumána ( [**]); Inference.
4. Sabda ( [**]); Verbal testimony.
VII. Dháraná ( [**]); Retentiveness.
VIII. Samádhi ( [**]); Absorption in
meditation, in two ways;
1. Savikalpa ( [**]); With retention of
self volition.
2. Nirvikalpa ( [**]); With loss of volition.
The Upáyas ( [**]); Or the means spoken of before are:
1. Uposhana ( [**]); Abstinence.
2. Mitásana ( [**]); Temperance.
3. Ásrama ( [**]); Sheltered abodes.
4. Visráma ( [**]) Rest and repose
from labor.
5. Avarodha ( [**]); Self confinement
in closets.
6. Asanam ( [**]); Subsistence on light food.
Beside these there are many vices called Apáyas or dóshas ( [**])
which are obstacles to meditation, and which we omit on
account of their
prolixity.
VII. Nature of the Soul.
Now as the end and aim of Yoga is the emancipation of the Soul, it is
necessary to give some account of the nature of the soul
(átmatatwa)
as far as it was known to the sages of India, and formed
the primary
subject of inquiry with the wise men of every country
according to the
sayings: "Gnothe seauton,"
=
"Nosce teipsum," "Know
thyself," "Khodra bedan," and Arabic
"Taalam Nafsaka,"
[**] &c.
"The word Atman," says Max Müller, "which
in the Veda occurs as often as
"twan," meant life,
particularly animal life (Vide Rig Veda I. 63, 8).
Atmá in the sense of self occurs also in the Rig Veda
(I. 162. 20),
in the passage [**] [**]. It is also found to be used in
the higher
sense of soul in the verse [**] "The sun is the soul
of all that moves
and rests (R. VI. 115. 1). The highest soul is called paramátman
( [**]) of which all other souls partake, from which all
reality in
this created world emanates, and into which every thing
will return."
Atman originally meant air as the Greek atmos, Gothic ahma, Zend
tmánam, Sanscrit [**] and [**], Cuniform adam, Persian dam,
whence we derive Sans [**] Hindi [**] Uria and Prakrit
[**] and
Bengali [**], [**] &c. The Greek and Latin ego and German ich
are all derived from the same source. The Romance je and Hindi ji
are corruptions of Sanskrit [**] meaning life and spirit.
Again the
Páli [**] and the Prakrit [**] is from the Sanscrit [**],
which is
[**] in Hindi, [**] in Bengali and [**] in Uria &c.
The Persian
"man" is evidently the Sátman by elision of the initial syllable.
These meanings of átman = the self and ego form the basis of the
knowledge of the Divine soul both of the Hindu as of any
other people,
who from the consciousness of their own selves rise to
that of the
Supreme. Thus says Max Müller on the subject, "A
Hindu speaking of
himself [**] spoke also, though unconsciously of the soul
of the
universe [**], and to know himself, was to him to know
both his own
self and the Universal soul, or to know himself in the
Divine self."
We give below the different lights in which the Divine
soul was viewed
by the different schools of Hindu philosophy, and adopted
accordingly in
their respective modes of Yoga meditation. The Upanishads
called it
Brahma of eternal and infinite wisdom [**]
The Vedantists;—A Being full of intelligence and
blissfulness [**]
The Sánkaras;—A continued consciousness of one self. [**]
[**] The
doctrine of Descartes and Malebranche.
The Materialists—convert the soul to all material forms
[**]
The Lokáyatas—take the body with intelligence to be the
soul; [**]
The Chárvákas—call the organs and sensations as soul; [**]
Do. Another sect—take the cognitive faculties as such;
[**]
Do. Others—Understand the mind as soul [**]
Do. Others—call the vital breath as soul [**]
Do. Others—understand the son as soul [**]
The Digambaras—say, the complete human body is the soul
[**]
The Mádhyamikas—take the vacuum for their soul [**]-*
[**]
The Yogácháris—understand the soul to be a transient
flash of knowledge
in the spirit in meditation. [**]
The Sautrántas—call it a short inferior knowledge. [**]-*
[**]
The Vaibháshikas—take it to be a momentary perception
[**] [**]
The Jainas—take their preceptor to be their soul [**]
[**]
The Logicians—A bodiless active and passive agency [**]-*
[**]
The Naiyáyikas—understand the spirit to be self manifest
[**]
The Sánkhyas,—call the spirit to be passive, not active
[**] [**** ]
The Yogis—call Him a separate omnipotent Being [**]-*
[**]
The Saivas,—designate the spirit as knowledge itself [**]
[**]
The Mayávádis,—style Brahma as the soul [**]-* [**]
The Vaiseshikas,—acknowledge two souls—the Vital and
Supreme [**]
The Nyayá says—because the soul is immortal there is a
future state
And thus there are many other theories about the nature of the soul.
The Atmávádis—spiritualists, consider the existence of
the body as
unnecessary to the existence of the soul.
VIII. Final Emancipation or Beatitude.
The object of Yoga, as already said, being
the emancipation of the
soul from the miseries of the world, and its attainment
to a state of
highest felicity, it is to be seen what this state of
felicity is, which
it is the concern of every man to know, and which the Yogi takes so
much pains to acquire. The Vedantic Yogi, as it is well
known, aims at
nothing less than in his absorption in the Supreme Spirit
and loosing
himself in infinite bliss. But it is not so with others,
who are averse
to loose the sense of their personal identity, and look
forward to a
state of self existence either in this life or next, in
which they shall
be perfectly happy. The Yogis of India have various
states of this bliss
which they aim at according to the faith to which they
belong, as we
shall show below.
The Vedantic Yogi has two states of bliss in view; viz., the one
inferior which is attained in this life by means of knowledge
[**],
and the other superior, obtainable after many births
of gradual
advancement to perfection [**]
The Chárvákas say, that it is either independence or
death that is
bliss. [**]
The Mádhyamikas say, it is extinction of self that is
called liberation
[**]
The Vijnáni philosophers—have it to be clear and elevated
understanding
[**]
The Arhatas have it in deliverance from all veil and
covering [**]
The Máyávádis say, that it is removal of the error of
one's separate
existence as a particle of the Supreme spirit [**]-* [**]
The Rámánujas called it to be the knowledge of Vásudeva
as cause of all,
[**]
The Mádhyamikas have it for the perfect bliss enjoyed by
Vishnu [**]
The Ballabhis expect it in sporting with Krishna in
heaven [**]
The Pásupatas and Máheswaras place it in the possession
of all dignity
[**]
The Kápálikas place it in the fond embraces of Hara and
Durga [**]
The Pratyabhijnánis call it to be the perfection of the
soul. [**]
The Raseswara Vádis have it in the health of body
produced by mercury
[**]
The Vaisesikas seek it in the extinction of all kinds of
pain [**]
The Mimánsakas view their happiness in heavenly bliss
[**] [**]
The Sarvajnas say that, it is the continued feeling of
highest felicity
[**]
The Pánini philologers find it in the powers of speech
[**] [**]
The Sánkhyas find it in the union of force with matter
[**] [**]
The Udásína Atheists have it as consisting in the
ignoring of self
identity [**]
The Pátanjalas view it in the unconnected unity of the
soul [**]
The Persian Sufis call it ázádigi or unattachment of the soul to any
worldly object.
IX. Origin of Yoga in the Vedas.
Not in the Vedic Period.
The origin of yoga meditation is placed at a period
comparatively less
ancient than the earliest Sanhita or hymnic period of
vedic history,
when the Rishis followed the elementary worship of the
physical forces,
or the Brahmanic age when they were employed in the
ceremonial
observances.
Some Traces of it.
There are however some traces of abstract contemplation
"dhyána yoga" to
be occasionally met with in the early Vedas, where the
Rishis are
mentioned to have indulged themselves in such reveries.
Thus in the Rig
Veda—129. 4. [**] [**]
"The poets discovered in their heart, through
meditation, the bond of
the existing in the non-existing." M. Müller. A. S.
Lit. (p. 19.)
The Gáyatrí Meditation .
We have it explicitly mentioned in the Gáyatrí hymn of
the Rig Veda,
which is daily recited by every Brahman, and wherein its
author
Viswámitra "meditated on the glory of the Lord for
the illumination of
his understanding" [**]. But this bespeaks a
development of
intellectual meditation "jnana yoga" only, and not spiritual as there
is no prayer for ( [**]) liberation.
Áranyaka Period.
It was in the third or Áranyaka period, that the yoga
came in vogue with
the second class of the Atharva Upanishads, presenting certain
phases in
its successive stages, as we find in the following
analysis of them
given by Professor Weber in his History of Ancient
Sanskrit Literature.
This class of works, he says, is chiefly made up of
subjects relating to
yoga, as consisting in divine meditation and giving up all earthly
connections. (Ibid p. 163).
Yoga Upanishads.
To this class belong the Jábála, Katha—sruti, Bhallavi,
Samvartasruti,
Sannyása, Hansa and Paramhansa Upanishads, Srimaddatta,
the Mándukya and
Tarkopanishads, and a few others, (Ibid. p. 164). It will
exceed our
bounds to give an account of the mode of yoga treated in these
treatises, which however may be easily gathered by the
reader from a
reference to the Fifty two Upanishads lately published in
this city.
Their different modes of yoga.
Beside the above, we find mention of yoga and the various
modes of
conducting it in some other Upanishads, as given below by
the same
author and analyst. The Kathopanishad or Kathavallí of
the Atharva Veda,
treats of the first principles of Deistic Yoga. Ibid. p.
158.
The Garbhopanishad speaks of the Sánkhya and Pátanjali
yoga systems as
the means of knowing Náráyana. (Ibid. p. 160). The
Brahmopanishad, says
Weber, belongs more properly to the yoga Upanishads
spoken of before.
(Ibid. p. 161).
The Nirálambopanishad exhibits essentially the yoga
standpoint according
to Dr. Rajendra Lala Mitra (Notices of S. Mss. II 95.
Weber's Id. p.
162). The yoga tatwa and yoga sikhá belong to yoga also,
and depict the
majesty of Átmá. (Ibid. p. 165).
Among the Sectarian Upanishads will be found the
Náráyanopanishad, which
is of special significance in relation to the Sánkhya and
Yoga doctrines
(Ibid. p. 166).
Sánkhya and Pátanjala Yogas.
It is plain from the recurrence of the word Sánkhya in
the later
Upanishads of the Taittiríya and Atharva vedas and in the
Nirukta and
Bhagavad Gítá, that the Sánkhya Yoga was long known to
the ancients, and
the Pátanjala was a further development of it. (Ibid. p.
137).
Yoga Yájnavalkya.
Along with or prior to Pátanjali comes the Yoga Sástra of
Yogi
Yájnavalkya, the leading authority of the Sátapatha
Bráhmana, who is
also regarded as a main originator of the yoga doctrine
in his later
writings. (Ibid. p. 237). Yájnavalkya speaks of his
obtaining the Yoga
Sástra from the sun, [**] [**]
"He who wishes to attain yoga must know the Áranyaka
which I have
received from the sun, and the Yoga sástra which I have
taught."
X. Rise of the Heretical Yogas.
The Buddhist and Jain Yogas.
Beside the Orthodox yoga systems of the Upanishads, we
have the
Heterodox Yoga Sastras of the Buddhists and Jains
completely concordant
with those of Yájnavalkya in the Brihad áranyaka and
Atharvan
Upanishads, (Weber's Id. p. 285).
The concordance with the Vedantic.
The points of coincidence of the vedánta yoga with those
of Buddhism and
Jainism, consist in as much as both of them inculcate the
doctrine of
the interminable metempsychosis of the human soul, as a
consequence of
bodily acts, previous to its state of final absorption or
utter
annihilation, according to the difference in their
respective views. Or
to explain it more clearly they say that, "The state
of humanity in its
present, past and future lives, is the necessary result
of its own acts
"Karma" in previous births."
The weal or woe of mankind.
That misery or happiness in this life is the unavoidable
sequence of
conduct in former states of existence, and that our
present actions will
determine our states to come; that is, their weal or woe
depending
solely on the merit or demerit of acts. It is, therefore,
one's
cessation from action by confining himself to holy
meditation, that
secures to him his final absorption in the supreme
according to the one;
and by his nescience of himself that ensures his utter
extinction
according to the other.
Om Tat Sat
(Continued...)
( My
humble salutations to Brahmasri Sreemaan Vihari Lala Mitra ji for the
collection)
