Book 6. II. NIRVĀNA PRAKARANA UTTARĀRDHA
I. On Unintentional Acts and Actions
The manner how the liberated should conduct themselves in life, with renunciation of their egoism and selfish desires.
Rāma rejoined: The renunciation of the notion of one's personality or egoism in his own person, being attended by its attendant evil of inertness and inactivity (lit. want of acts), it naturally bangs on a premature decay and decline, and the eventual falling off of the body in a short time: how then is it possible sir, for an indifferent person of this kind, to practice his actions and discharge the active duties of life, (as you preached in your last lecture?).
Vasistha replied: It is possible Rāma, for the living person to resign his false ideas and not for one that is dead and gone; (because the life of a man is independent of his notions; while the notions are dependent on his life). Hear me now to expound this truth, and it will greatly please your ears: (lit. it will be an ornament to your ears).
The idea of one's egoism (or his personality in own person), is said to be an idealism by idealists; but it is the conception of the signification of the word air or vacuity (which is the essence of the Deity), that is represented asthe repudiation of that erroneous notion.
The idealists represent the sense of all substances, as a creation of the imagination while it is the idea of a pure vacuum, which they say to be the resignation of this erroneous conception.
(The vacuistic Vasi%ha treats here in length of the nullity of all substances, and the eternity of all pervading vacuum, and establishes the doctrine of the nothingness of the world and its God).
The idea of anything in the world as something in reality, is said to be mere imaginary by the best and wisest of men; but the belief of all things as an empty nothing, displaces the error of thought from the mind. Since all things are reduced to and return to nothing, it is this alone which is the ever lasting something.
Know your remembrance of anything, is your imagination of it only, and its forgetfulness alone is good for you; therefore try to blot out all your former impressions from your mind, as if they were never impressed on it.
O intelligent one! efface from your mind the memory of all you have felt or unfelt (i.e. fancied), and remain silent and secluded like a block after your forgetfulness of all things whatsoever.
Continue in the practice of your continuous actions, with an utter oblivion of the past; (nor need the assistance of your memory of the past, in the discharge of your present duties); because your habit of activity is enough to conduct you through all the actions of your life, as it is the habit of a half sleeping baby to move its limbs (without its consciousness of the movements). (Such is the force of habit, says the maxim Abhyastopapatti-habit is second nature).
It requires no design or desire on the part of an actor to act his part, where to he is led by the tenor of his prior propensities (of past lives); as a potter's wheel is propelled by the pristine momentum, without requiring the application of continued force for its whirling motion. So O sinless Rāma! mind our actions to be under the direction of our previous impressions, and not under the exertion of our present efforts.
Hence inappetency has become the congenial tendency of your mind, without its inclination to the gratification of its appetites. The leanings of men to particular pursuits, are directed by the current of their previous propensities. The predisposition of the mind, is said to be the cause of the formation of the character and fortune of a man in his present state, (which is otherwise said to be the result of his predestination) which runs as a stream in wonted course, and carries all men as straws floating along with its tide.
I am proclaiming it with a loud voice and lifted arms, and yet no body will hearken to me when I say that, want of desire is our supreme bliss and summum bonum, and yet why is it that none would perceive it as such?
O the wondrous power of illusion! that it makes men to slight their reason, and throw away the richest jewel of their mind, from the chest of their breast wherein it is deposited.
The best way to inappetence, is the ignoring and abnegations of the phenomenal which I want you to do; and know that your disavowal of all is of the greatest boon to you, as you will be best able to perceive in yourself.
Sitting silent with calm content, will lead you to that blissful state, before which your possession of an empire will seem insignificant, and rather serving to increase your desire for more. (The adage says:- No one has got over the ocean of his ambition, neither an Alexander nor a Caesar).
As the feet of a traveller are in continued motion, until he reaches to his destination; so are the body and mind of the avaricious in continual agitation, unless his inappetence would give him respite from his incessant action.
Forget and forsake your expectation of fruition of the result of your actions, and allow yourself to be carried onward by the current of your fortune, and without taking anything to your mind; as a sleeping man is insensibly carried on by his dreams.
Stir yourself to action as it occurs to you, and without any purpose or desire of yours in it, and without your feeling any pain or pleasure therein; let the current of the business conduct you onward, as the current of a stream carries down a straw in its course.
Take to your heart no pleasure or pain, in the discharge of the work in which you are employed; but remain insensible of both like a wooden machine which works for others. (Because says the commentary, it is the dull head of people only, that are elated or dejected in the god or bad turns of the affairs of life).
Remain insensible of pleasure or pain, in your body and mind and all the organs of senses; like the sapless trees and plants in winter, when they bear their bare trunks without the sensitiveness of their parts.
Let the sun of your good understanding, suck up the sensibility of your six external senses, as the solar rays dry up the moisture of winter plants; and continue to work with the members of your body, as an engine is set to work. (Work as a brute with your bodily powers or as a machine with its mechanical forces; but keep your inner mind aloof from your outer drudgeries).
Restrain your intellectual pleasures from their inclination to sensual gratifications, and retain your spiritual joy in yourself, for the support of your life; as the ground retains the roots of trees in it very carefully in winter for their growth in the season of spring.
It is the same whether you continually gratify of not the cravings of your senses, they will continue insatiate notwithstanding all your supplies, and the vanities of the world will profit you nothing.
If you move about continually like a running stream, or as the continuous shaking of the water in an aerostatic or hydraulic engine, and be free from every desire and craving of your mind, you are then said to advance towards your endless felicity; (so the adage is;- All desire is pain some, and its want is perfect freedom).
Know this a transcendent truth, and capable of preventing all your future transmigrations in this world, that you become accustomed to the free agency of all your actions, without being dragged to them by your desires.
Pursue your business as it occurs to you, without any desire or purpose of your own towards its object; but continue to turn about your callings, as the potter's wheel revolves round its fulcrum.
Neither have in,view the object of your action, nor the reward of your action; but know it to be equally alike whether you refrain from action, or do it without your desire of fruition.
But what is the use of much verbiology, when it can be expressed in short and in a few words, that the desire of fruition is the bondage of your soul, and your relinquishment of it is fraught with your perfect freedom.
There is no business whatever for us in this world, that must be done or abandoned by us at any time or place; every thing is good that comes from the good God, therefore sit you quiet with your cold indifference as before the occurrence of any event.
Think your works as no works, and take your abstinence from action for your greatest work, but remain as quiet in your mind in both your action and inaction, as the Divine Intellect is in ecstasies amidst the thick of its action.
Know the unconsciousness of all things to be the true trance-yoga, and requiring the entire suppression of the mental operations. Remain wholly intent on the Supreme spirit, until you are one and the same with it.
Being identified with that tranquil and subtile spirit, and divested of the sense of dualism or existence of anything else; nobody can sorrow for ought, when he is himself absorbed in his thought, in the endless and pure essence of God.
Let no desire rise in your indifferent mind, like a tender germ sprouting in the sterile desert soil; nor allow a wish to grow in you, like a slender blade shooting in the bosom of a barren rock.
The unconscious and insensible saint, derives no good or evil by his doing or undoing of any deed or duty in his living state, nor in his next life. (Duties are not binding on the holy and devout sages and saints).
There is no sense of duty nor that of its dereliction neither, in the minds of the saintly Yogis, who always view the equality of all things and acts; and never consider their deeds as their own doings, nor think themselves as the agents of their own actions.
The consciousness of egoism and the sense of meiety of selfishness, will never release a man from the miseries of life; it is his unconsciousness of these, that can only save him from all sorrow, wherefore it lies in the option of every body, to choose for him either of these as he may best like.
There is no other ego or meiety excepting that of the one self existent and omniform Deity; and besides the essence of this transcendent being, it is hard to account anything of the multifarious things that appear to be otherwise than Himself.
The visible world that appears so vividly to our sight, is no more than the manifestation of the One Divine Essence in many, like the transformation of gold in the multiform shapes of jewels; but seeing the continual decay and disappearance of the phenomenal, we ignore their separate existence. We confess the sole existence of the One that lasts after all and for ever.
2. Burning of the Seeds of Action for Prevention of Their Vegetation
Concerning the seeds and fruits of action, and the mode of their extirpation by the root.
Vasistha continued:- Think not of unity of duality, but remain quite calm and quiet in your spirit and as cold hearted as the dank mud and mire, as the worlds are still with unstirry spirit of the divinity working in them. (This is a lesson of incessant work without any stir and bustle).
The mind with its understanding and egoism and all its thoughts, are full of the divine spirit in its diversified forms (vivarta-rūpa); and time and its motion and all sound, force and action, together with all modes of existence, are but manifestations of the Divine Essence.
The Divine Spirit, being of the form of gelatinous mud (or plastic nature), all things with their forms and colours, and the mind and all its functions also, upon its own mould of endless shapes and types beyond the comprehension of men.
It is the Divine Essence which forms its own substance as upon a mould of clay, the patterns and forms and the shapes of all things, together with the measurements of space and time and the position of all the quarters and regions of the earth and heavens; so all things existent or inexistent, are the produce and privation of the formative mud and mould of the Divine Spirit.
Do you remain indifferent about the essence of your egoism and selfishness, which is no other than that of the Supreme Spirit; and live unconcerned with everything, like a dumb insect in the bosom of stone.
(This is the Vajra-Krta, which perforates the śāgrāma stone in the river Gandak in Bihar. The dumbness of silent munis was occasioned by their inability to speak with certainty anything regarding the abstruse spiritual subjects).
Rāma asked: Sir, if the false knowledge of egoism and selfishness, be wanting in the wise and God knowing man, then how comes it, that the dereliction and renunciation of his duties, will entail any guilt or evil upon him, and his full observance of them, is attended with any degree of merit or reward?
(This is the main question of the necessity of the observance of dutious and pious acts by the wise, which is after so' long mooted by Rāma, in continuation of the last subject under discussion).
Vasistha said: I will ask you also one question, O sinless Rāma! and you should answer it soon, if you understand well what is rightly meant by the term duty and that of activity.
Tell me what is the root of action and how far it extends, and whether it is destructible at last or not, and how it is totally destroyed at the end.
Rāma replied: Why sir, whatever is destructible must come to be destroyed at last, by means of the act of rooting it out at once, and not by the process of lopping the branches or cutting off the tree.
The acts of merit and demerit are both to be destroyed, together with their results of good and evil; and this is done by irradicating and extirpating them altogether.
Hear me tell you, sir, about the roots of our deeds, by the rooting out of which the trees of our actions are wholly extirpated, and are never to vegetate or grow forth any more.
I ween sir, the body of ours to be the tree of our action, and has grown out in the great garden of this world, and is girt with twining creepers of various kinds. (i.e. The members of the body).
Our past acts are the seeds of this tree, and our weal and woe are the fruits with which it is fraught; it is verdant with the verdure of youth for a while, and it smiles with its white blossoms of the gray hairs and the pale complexion of old age.
Destructive death lurks about this tree of the body every moment, as the light-legged monkey lights upon trees to break them down; it is engulfed in the womb of sleep, as the tree is overwhelmed under the mists of winter, and the flitting dreams are as the falling leaves of trees.
Old age is the autumn of life, and the decaying wishes are as the withered leaves of trees, and the wife and members of the family, are as thick as grass in the wilderness of the world.
The ruddy palms and soles of the hands and feet, and the other reddish parts of the body, (as the tongue and lips), resemble the reddening leaves of this tree; which are continually moving in the air, with the marks of slender lines upon them.
The little reddish fingers with their flesh and bones, and covered by the thin skin and moving in the air, are as the tender shoots of the tree of the human body.
The soft and shining nails, which are set in rows with their rounded forms and sharpened ends, are like the moon-bright buds of flowers with their painted heads.
This tree of the body is the growth of the ripened seed of the past acts of men; and the organs of action are the knotty and crooked roots of this tree.
These organs of action are supported by the bony members of the body, and nourished by the sap of human food; they are fostered by our desires, resembling the pith and blood of the body.
Again the organs of sense supply those of action with their power of movement, or else the body with the lightness of all its members from head to foot, would not be actuated to action without the sensation of their motion. (Hence a dead or sleeping man having no sensation in him, has not the use or action of his limbs).
Though the five organs of sense, grow apart and at great distances from one another, like so many branches of this tree of the body; they are yet actuated by the desire of the heart, which supplies them with their sap.
The mind is the great trunk of this tree, which comprehends the three worlds in it, and is swollen with the sap which it derives from them through its five fold organs of sense; as the stem of a tree thrive with the juice it draws by the cellular fibres of its roots.
The living soul is the root of the mind, and having the intellect ingrained, it is always busy with its thoughts, which have the same intellect for their root; but the root of all these is the One Great Cause of all.
The intellect has the great Brahma, which has no cause of itself; and which having no designation or termination of it, is truth from the purity of its essence.
The consciousness of ourselves in our egoism, is the root of all our actions; and the internal thought of our personal entity is the root of our energy, and gives the impulse to all our actions. (Therefore as long as one has the knowledge of his personality, he is prone to action, and without it, every body is utterly inert).
It is our percipience, O Sage, which is said to be the source and root of our actions and whenever there is this principle in the mind, it causes the body to grow in the form of the big Siraspatra. (It is the intellect which is both the living soul as well as its percipience).
When this percipience otherwise called consciousness (of the soul), is accompanied with the thoughts (of egoism and personality in the mind), it becomes the seed of action; otherwise mere consciousness of the self is the state of the supreme soul.
So also when the intellect is accompanied with its power of intellection, it becomes the source and seed of action; or else it is as calm and quiet as it is the nature of the Supreme soul.
(The self-perception and pure intelligence, are attributes of the Divine soul, and not productive of
action; but these in company with the operations of the mind, become the causes of the activity of both).
Therefore the knowledge of one's personality in his own person, is the cause of his action, and this causality of action, as I have said herein, is quite in conformity with your teachings to me.
Vasistha said: Thus Rāma, action in the descrite being based on the knowledge of one's personality; it is no way possible to avoid our activity, as long as the mind is situated in the body, and has the knowledge of its personality.
Whoever thinks of anything, sees the same both within as well as without himself; and whether it is in reality or not, yet the mind is possessed with chimera of it.
Again whoever thinks of nothing, verily escapes from the error of mistaking a chimera for reality; but whether the reality is a falsity, or the falsity of anything is a sober reality, is what we are not going to discuss about at present.
It is this thinking principle, which presents the shadow of something within us, and passes under the various designations of will or desire, the mind and its purpose likewise.
The mind resides in the bodies of both rational as well as irrational beings, and in both their waking and sleeping states; it is impossible therefore, to get rid of it by anybody at any time.
It is neither the silence nor inactivity of a living body, that amounts to its refraining from action, so long as the mind is busy with its thoughts; but it is only the unmindfulness of the signification of the word action, that amounts to one's forbearance from acts.
It is the freedom of one's volition or choice either to do or not to do anything that is meant to make one's action or otherwise; therefore by avoiding you option in the doing of an act you avoid it altogether; otherwise there is no other means of avoiding the responsibility of the agent for his own acts; (except that they were done under the sense of compulsion and not of free choice. Gloss).
Nobody is deemed as the doer of an act, who does not do it by his deliberate choice; and the knowledge of the unreality of the world, leads to the ignoring of all action also. (If nothing is real, then our actions are unreal also).
The ignoring of the existence of the world, is what makes the renunciation of it; and the renunciation of all associations and connections, is tantamount to one's liberation from them. The knowledge of the knowable One, comprehends in it the knowledge of all that is to be known. (Because the One is all, and all existence is comprised in that only knowable One).
There being no such thing as production, there is no knowledge of anything whatever that is produced; abandon therefore your eagerness to know the knowable forms (of things), and have the knowledge of the only invisible One.
But there is no knowing whatever of the nature and actions of the quiescent spirit of Brahma, its action is its intellection only, which evolves itself in the form of an infinite vacuum; (showing the shapes of all things as in a mirror).
"That utter insensibility is liberation," is well known to the learned as the teaching of the Veda; hence no one is exempted from action, as long as he lives with his sensible body.
Those who regard action as their duty, are never released from their subjection to the root (principle) of action; and this root is the consciousness of the concupiscent mind of its own actions. (The desire is the motive of actions, and the consciousness of one's deeds the doings, is the bondage of the soul. Or else a working man is liberated, provided he is devoid of desire and unmindful of his actions).
It is impossible, O Rāma, to destroy this bodiless consciousness, without the weapon of a good understanding; it lies so very deep in the mind, that it continually nourishes the roots of action.
When by our great effort, we can nourish the seed of conscience, why then we should not be able to destroy the keen conscience by the same weapon that is effort.
In the same manner, we can destroy also the tree of the world with its roots and branches.
That One is only existent, which has no sensation and is no other than of the form of an endless vacuum; it is that unintelligible vacuous form and pure intelligence itself, which is the pith and substance of all existence.
3. DISAPPEARANCE OF THE PHENOMENAL
Admonition for ignoring the visible, and the means of attaining the insensibility and inactivity of the wise.
Rāma said: Tell me, O Sage, how it may be possible to convert our knowledge to ignorance, since it is impossible to make a nothing of something, as also to make anything out of a nothing.
Vasistha replied: Verily a nothing or unreality, cannot be something in reality; nor a real something can become an unreal nothing; but in any case where both of these (viz; reality as well as unreality of a thing) are possible, there the cognition and incognition of something, are both of them equally palpable of themselves. (This is termed a Cātuskotika Samśaya or quadruplicate apprehension of something, consisting of the reality or unreality of a thing, an the certainty or uncertainty of its knowledge).
The two senses of the word knowledge (i.e. its affirmative and negative senses) are apparent in the instance of "a rope appearing as a snake": here the knowledge of the rope is certain, but that of the snake is a mistake or error. And so in the case of a mirage presenting the appearance of water. (Here the things snake and water prove to be nothing, and their knowledge as such, is converted to error or want of knowledge).
It is better therefore to have no knowledge of these false appearances, whose knowledge tends to our misery only; wherefore know the true reality alone, and never think of the unreal appearance. (Do not think the visible either as real or unreal, but know the deathless spirit that lies hid under them).
The conception of the sense of sensible perceptions, is the cause of woe of all living beings; therefore it is better to root out the sense of the perceptible from the mind, and rely in the knowledge of the underlying universal soul only. (Taking the particulars in the sense of individual souls, is the cause of misery only).
Leaving aside the knowledge of parts, and the sense of your perception of all sensible objects, know the whole as one infinite soul, in which you have your rest and nirvāna extinction.
Destroy all your acts of merit and demerit, by the force of your discrimination; and your knowledge of the evanescence of your deeds, aided by your knowledge of truth, will cause the consummation of Yoga (Siddhi).
By rooting out the reminiscence of your acts, you put a stop to their results and your course in the world; and if you succeed to gain the object of your search (i.e. your spiritual knowledge), by means of your reason, you have no more any need of your action.
The divine intellect, like the Bela-fruit, forms within itself its pith and seeds (of future worlds), which lie hid in it, and never burst out of its bosom. (So all things are contained in divine mind).
As a thing contained in its container, is not separate from the containing receptacle, so all things that lie in the womb of space, are included in the infinite space of the universal soul (or the divine mind) which encompasses the endless vacuity in it.
And as the property of fluidity, is never distinct from the nature of liquids; so the thoughts (of all created things), are never apart from the thinking principle of the Divine mind.
(The words Cittam and Cittvam, and their meanings of the thought and mind, appertain to their common root the cit or intellect with which they are alike in sound and sense).
Again as fluidity is the inseparable property of water, and light is that of fire; so the thoughts and thinking, inhere intrinsically in the nature of the Divine Intellect, and not as its separable qualities.
Intellection is the action of the intellect, and its privation gives rise to the chimeras of error in the mind; there is no other cause of error, nor does it last unless it rises in absence of reason.
Intellection is the action of the intellect, as fluctuation is that of the wind; and it is by means of their respective actions, that we have our perceptions of them. But when the soul ceases from action, then both of these (viz: our Intellection and perceptions) are at a utter stop within and without us. (i.e. The soul is the prime mover of our inward and outward senses).
The body is the field and scope of our actions, and our egoism spreads itself over the world; but our insensibility and want of egoism, tend to put away the world from us as want of force puts down the breeze.
Insensibility of the body and mind, renders the intelligent soul, as dull as a stone; therefore root out the world from your mind, as a boar uproots a plant with its tusk; (by means of your insensibility of it, and the full sense of God alone in you).
In this way only, O Rāma, you can get rid of the seed vessel of action in your mind; and there is no other means of enjoying the lasting peace of your soul besides this.
After the germinating seed of action is removed from the mind, the wise man loses the sight of all temporal objects, in his full view of the holy light of God.
The holy saints never seek to have, nor dare to avoid or leave any employment of their own choice or will; (but they do whatever comes in their way, knowing it as the will or God and must be done). They are therefore said to be of truly saintly souls and minds, who are strangers to the preference or rejection of anything: (lit., to the acceptance or avoidance of a thing).
Wise men sit silent where they sit and live as they live, with their hearts and minds as vacant as the vacuous sky; they take what they get, and do what is destined to them as they are unconscious of doing them. (The vacant mind without any care or thought, is like a clear mirror the untainted seat of the Holy God).
As sediments are swept away by the current of the stream, so the saintly and meek minded men are moved to action by a power not their own; they act with their organs of action with as much unconcern, as babes have the movements of their bodies, in their half-sleeping state.
As the sweetest things appear unsavoury to those, that are satiate and sated with them; so do the delights of the world, seem disgusting to them, that are delighted with divine joy in themselves; and with which they are so enrapt in their rapture, as to become unconscious of what is passing in and about them like insane people.
The unconsciousness of one's acts, makes the abandonment of his action, and this is perfected when a person is in full possession of his understanding: (or else the unconsciousness of a dead man of his former acts, does not amount to his abandonment of action). It matters not whether a man does ought or naught, with his unsubstantial or insensible organs of action.
(It is external consciousness that makes the action, and not the external doing of it, with the insensible organs of the body; because the mental impressions make the action and not its forgetfulness in the mind).
An action done without a desire, is an act of unconsciousness; and they are not recognized as our actions, which have no traces of them in our minds. (Hence all involuntary acts and those of insanity, are reckoned as no doings of their doer).
An act which is not remembered, and which is forgotten as if it were buried in oblivion, is as no act of its doer; and this oblivion is equal to the abandonment of action.
He who pretends to have abandoned all action, without abandoning (or effacing) them from his mind, is said to be a hypocrite, and is devoured by the monster of his hypocrisy: (of this nature are the false fakirs, who pretend to have renounced the world).
They who have rooted out the prejudice of actions from their lives, and betaken themselves to the rest and refuge of inaction, are freed from the expectation of reward of whatever they do, as also from the fear of any evil for what they avoid to perform.
They who have extirpated the seeds of action, with their roots and germs, from the ground of their minds, have always an undisturbed tranquility to rest upon, and which is attended with a serene delight to those that have made habitude their habit.
The meek are slightly moved in their bodies and minds, by the current of business in which they have fallen; but the reckless are carried onward whirling in the torrent, like drunken sots reclining on the ground, or as anything moved by a machine, (or as the machines of an engine).
Those who are seated in any stage of yoga, and are graced with the calmness of liberation, appear as cheerful as men in a play house, who are half asleep and half awake over the act in this great theatre of the world.
That is said to be wholly extirpated, which is drawn out by its roots, or else it is like the destroying of a tree by lopping its branches which will grow again, unless it is uprooted from the ground.
So the tree of acts (the ceremonial code), though lopped off to its branches (of particular rites and ceremonies), will thrive again if it is left to remain, without uprooting it by the ritual (of acāras).
It is enough for your abandonment of acts, to remain unconscious of your performance of them; and the other recipes for the same (as given before) will come to you of themselves.
Whoever adopts any other method of getting rid of his actions, besides those prescribed herein; his attempts of their abandonment are as null and void, as his striking the air, (in order to divide it).
(Outward abandonment of anything is nothing, unless it is done so from the mind).
It is the rational abandonment of a thing, that makes its true relinquishment, and whatever is done unwilfully, is like a fried grain or seed, that never vegetates nor brings forth its fruit.
(The rational renouncement of a thing, is said in the Veda, to mean its resignation to God, to whom belongs every thing in the world, and is lent to man for his temporary use only. And fruitless actions are those that are done unwillingly, and are not productive of future births for our misery only).
But the act that is done with the will and bodily exertion, becomes productive with the moisture of desire; but all other efforts of the body without the will, are entirely fruitless to their actor.
After one has got rid of his action, and freed himself from further desire; he becomes liberated for life (Jīvan-mukta), whether he may dwell at home or in the woods, and live in poverty or affluence.
The contented soul is as solitary at home, as in the midst of the farthest forest; but the discontented mind find the solitary forest, to be as thickly thronged with vexations as the circle of a family house.
The quiet and calmly composed spirit, finds the lonely woodland, where a human being is never to be seen even in a dream, to be as lovely to it as the bosom of a family dwelling.
The wise man who has lost the sight of the visible, and of the endless particulars abounding in this forest of the world, beholds on every side the silent and motionless sphere of heaven spread all around him.
The thoughtless ignorant, whose insatiate ambition grasps the whole universe in his heart, rolls over the surface of the earth and all its boisterous seas with as much glee as upon a bed of flowers.
All these cities and towns, which are so tumultuous with the endless of men, appear to the ignorant and money-less man as a garden of flowers; where he picks up his worthless penny with as much delight as holy men cull the fragrant blossoms to make their offerings to holy shrines.
The wide earth with all her cities and towns, and distant districts and countries, which are so filll of mutual strife and broil, appear to the soiled soul of the gross-headed and greedy, as if they are reflected in their fair forms in the mirror of their minds; or painted in their bright colours upon the canvas of their hearts. (Worldly men are so infatuated with the world, that they take side of things for fair and bright).
4. ANNIHILATION OF EGOISM
Egoism is shown as the root of worldliness, and its extirpation by spiritual knowledge.
Vasistha continued: The abandonment of the world (which is otherwise termed as liberation-moksa), is effected only upon subsidence of one's egoism and knowledge of the visible in the conscious soul; in the manner of the extinction of a lamp for want of oil.
(The knowledge of the phenomenal is the root of illusion, and it is the removal of this that is called the abandonment of the world, and the cause of liberation).
It is not the giving up of actions, but the relinquishment of the knowledge of the objective world, that makes our abandonment of it; and the subjective soul, which is without the rėflexion of the visible world, and the objective-self, is immortal and indestructible.
After the knowledge of the self and this and that with that of mine and yours, becomes extinct like an extinguished lamp, there remains only the intelligent and subjective- soul by itself alone: (and it is this state of the soul that is called its extinction-nirvāna and its liberation or moksa).
But he whose knowledge of himself and others, and of mine and yours and his and theirs, has not yet subsided in his subjectivity, has neither the intelligence nor tranquility nor abandonment nor extinction of himself. (It is opposite of the preceding).
After extinction of one's egoism and meism; there remains the sole and tranquil and intelligent soul, beside which there is nothing else in existence.
The egoistic part of the soul being weakened by the power of true knowledge, every thing in the world wastes away and dwindles into insignificance; and though nothing is lost in reality, yet every thing is buried in and with the extinction of the self.
The knowledge of the ego is lost under that of the non-ego, with any delay or difficulty; and it being so easy to effect it, there is no need of resorting to the arduous methods for removal of the same. (It beings easy to ignore the silver in a shell, it is useless to test it in the fire).
The thoughts of ego and non-ego, are but false conceits of the mind; and the mind being as void as the clear sky, there is no solid foundation for this error.
No error has its vagary anywhere, unless it moves upon the basis of ignorance, it grows upon misjudgement, and vanishes at the light of reason and right judgement.
Know all existence to be the Intellect only; which is extended as an unreal vacuity; therefore sit silent in the empty space of the Intellect, wherein all things are extinct as nothing. (The reality of the Divine Mind, containing the ideal world which appears as a reality).
Whenever the idea of ego comes to occur in the mind, it should be put down immediately by its negative idea of the non-ego or that I am nothing.
Let the conviction of the non-ego supplant that of the ego, as a meaningless term, or as untrue as empty air, or a flower of the aerial arbour; and being fixed as an arrow in the bowstriŗig of holy meditation, strive to hit at the mark of the Divine Essence.
Know always your ideas of ego and tu-I and you, to be as unreal as empty air; and being freed from the false idea of every other thing, get over quickly across the delusive ocean of the world.
Say how is it possible for that senseless and beastly man, to attain to the highest state of divine perfection, who is unable to overcome his natural prejudice of egoism.
He who has been able by his good understanding, the sixfold beastly appetites of his nature; is capable of receiving the knowledge of great truths; and no other asinine man in human shape.
He who has weakened and overcome the inborn feelings of his mind, becomes the receptacle of all virtue and knowledge, and is called a man in its proper sense of the word.
Whatever dangers may threaten you on rocks and hills and upon the sea, you may escape from the same by thinking that they cannot injure your inward soul, though they may hurt the flesh.
Knowing that your egoism is nothing in reality, except your false conception of it, why then do you allow yourself to be deluded by it, like the ignorant who are misled by their phrenzy?
There is nothing (no ego) here, that is known to us in its reality; all our knowledge is erroneous as that of an ornament in gold, (and springs from the general custom of calling it so), is our knowledge of the ego which we know not what, and may be lost by our forgetfulness of it. (So the different names and shapes of golden ornaments being forgotten, we see the substance of gold only common in all of them).
Try to dislodge the thoughts that rise in your mind, in the manner of the incessant vibrations in the air, by thinking that you are not the ego, nor has your ego any foundation at all.
The man who has not overcome his egotism, and its concomitants of covetousness, pride and delusion, does in vain attend to these lectures which are useless to him.
The sense of egoism and tuism which abides in you, is no other than the stir of the Supreme Spirit, which stirs alike in all as motion impels the winds.
The uncreated world which appears as in act of creation, is inherent and apparent in the Supreme soul, and notwithstanding all its defects and frailty, it is fair by being situated therein. (Because a thing however bad, appears beautiful by its position with the good).
The Supreme soul neither rises nor sets at any time; nor is there anything else besides that One, whether existent or in-existent. (All real and potential entities are contained in the mind of God).
All this is transcendental in the transcendent spirit of God, and everything is perfect in his perfection. All things are quiet in his tranquility, and whatever is, good by the goodness of the Great God.
All things are extinct in the unextinguished spirit of God, they are quiet in his quiescence, and all good in his goodness; this extinction in the in-extinct or ever existent soul of God, is no annihilation of any; it is understood as the sky, but is not the sky itself.
Men may bear the strokes of weapons and suffer under the pain of diseases; and yet how is it that no body can tolerate the thought of his unegoism or extinction.
The word ego is the ever growing germ of tilt significance of everything in the world; (i.e. our selfishness gives growth to our need and want of all things for our use); and that (egoism or selfishness) being rooted out of the mind, this world also is uprooted from it.
(i.e. Think neither of yourself or anything in the world as yours but of the Lord, and be exempt from your cares of both).
The meaningless word ego, like empty vapour or smoke, has the property of soiling and mirror of the soul, which resumes its brightness after removal of the mist.
The significance of the word I or ego, is as force or fluctuation in the calm and quiet atmosphere; and this force being still, the soul resumes its serenity, as that of the unseen and imperceptible and one eternal and infinite air. (Here is Vasistha's vacuism again).
The significance of the word ego, produces the shadow of external objects in the mind; and that being lost, there ensues that serenity and tranquility of the soul, which are the attributes of the unknowable, infinite and eternal God.
After the cloudy shadow of the sense of the word ego, is removed from the atmosphere of mind; there appears the clear firmament of transcendent truth, shining with serene brightness throughout its infinite sphere.
After the essence of the soul is purged of its dross, and there appears no alloy or base metal in it; it shines with its bright lustre as that of pure gold, when it is purified from its mixture with copper or other.
As an insignificant term (nirabhidhārtha), bears no accepted sense (vypadesārtha); so the unintelligible word ego to the non-ego or impersonal entity of Brahma.
It is Brahma only that resides in the word ego, seeking to remove all the substances of world Brahma manifested them all together. (i.e. the word ego is applicable to God alone).
The meaning of the word ego, which contains the seed of world in it, is rendered abortive by our ceasing to think of it. Then what is the good of using the words I and you, that serve only to bind our souls to this world. (Forget yourselves, to be free from bondage).
The essence is the pure and felicitous spirit, which is afterwards soiled under the appellation of ego, which rises out of that pure essence, as a pot is produced from the clay; but the substance is forgot under the form, as the gold is forgotten under that of the ornament.
It is this seed of ego, from which the visible plant of creation takes its rise; and produces the countless worlds as its fruits, which grow to fade and fall away.
The meaning of the word ego, contains in it like the minute seed of a long pepper, the wonderful productions of nature, consisting of the earth and sea, the hills and rivers, and forms and colours of things, with their various natures and actions.
The heaven and earth, the air and space, the hills and rivers on all sides, are as the fragrance of the full blown flower of the Ego.
The Ego in its widest sense, stretches out to the verge of creation, and contains all the worlds under it, as the wide spread day light comprehends all objects and their action under it.
As the early day-light, brings to view, the forms and shapes and colours of things; so it is our egoism (which is but another name for ignorance), that presents the false appearance of the world to our visual sight.
When egoism like a particle of dirty oil, falls into the pellucid water of Brahma; it spreads over its surface in the form of globules, resembling the orbs of worlds floating in the air.
Egoism sees at a single glance, the myriads of worlds spread before its visual sight; as the blinking eye observes at a twinkling, thousands of specks scattered before its sight.
Egoism (selfishness) being extended too far, perceives the farthest worlds lyipg stretched before its sight; but the unegotist or unselfish soul, like sleeping man does not perceive the nearest object, as our eyes do not see the pupils lying within them.
It is only upon the total extinction of our egoistic feelings, by the force of unfailing reasoning; that we can get rid of the mirage of the world.
It is by our constant reflection upon our consciousness only, that it becomes possible for us the great object of our consummation-Siddhi; and the attainment of the perfection of our souls; we have nothing more to desire or grieve at nor any fear of falling into error.
It is possible by your own endeavour, and without the help of any person or thing, to attain to your perfection; and therefore I see no better means for you to this than the thought of your unegoism.
Now Rāma, this is the abstract of the whole doctrine, that you forget your ego and tu, and extend the sphere of our soul all over the universe, and behold them all in yourself. Remain quite calm and quiet and without any sorrow, and exempt from all acts and pursuits of the frail and false world, and think the soul as one whole and not a part of the universe. (Samas ti and not Vyasti).
5. NARRATIVE OF A VIDYĀDHARA AND HIS QUERIES
Vasistha relates the tale spoken to him by Bhuśunda, and efficacy of divine knowledge in dispassionate souls and not in ungoverned minds.
Vasistha continued: The sensible man who employs himself in his inquiry after truth, after controlling his nature, and restraining his organs of sense from their objects, becomes successful in them at last.
But the man of perverted understanding, that has no command over his own nature, finds it as impossible for him to gain any good or better state, as it is in vain to expect to obtain any oil from pressing the sands.
A little instruction even is as impressive in the pure mind, as a drop of oil sticks to the clean linen; but no education has any effect on the hard heart of fools, as the most brilliant pearl makes no impressing in the gritty glass mirror. (It casts but a shadow which never lasts).
I will here cite an instance to this purport, from an old anecdote related to me by the aged Bhuśunda in by gone days; when I was living with him on the top of Sumeru mountain. (This proves the longevity of the Aryans in the ancient homestead beyond the Altain chain).
I had once in times of old, mooted this question among other things to the time worn Bhuśunda, when he was dwelling in his solitary retreat in one of the caves of Meru, saying:
O long living seer, do you remember to have ever seen, any such person of infatuated understanding, who was unconscious of himself and ignorant of his own soul? (The mugdha or infatuated is explained as one of ungoverned mind and senses and employed in vain labour and toil).
Bhuśunda replied: Yes, there lived a Vidyādhara of old, on the top of the mountain on the horizon; who was greatly distressed with incessant toil, and yet anxious for his longevity: (by performance of his devotion for prolongation of life).
He betook himself to austerities of various kinds, and to the observance of abstinence, selfrestraint and vows of various forms; and obtained thereby an undecaying life, which lasted for many ages of four kalpas of four yugas each.
At the end of the fourth kalpa he came to his sense, and his percipience burst forth on a sudden in his mind, as the emeralds glare out of ground in the distant country (of Burmah); at the roaring of clouds. Emeralds are called Vaidūryas from their production in the vidura or distant land of Burmah; where there are many ruby mines also; but vaidūryas are the sky coloured sappier or lapis lazuli; an often called as emeralds).
He then reflected in himself saying: What stability can I have in this world, where all beings are seen to come repeatedly into existence, to decay with age, and at last to die and dwindle away into nothing? I am ashamed to live in this state of things and under such a course of nature.
With these reflections he came to me, quite disgusted in his spirit at the frailties of the world, and distasteful of baneful vanities; and then proposed to me his query regarding the city with its eighteen compartments.
(i.e. The body with its ten organs, five vital airs, the mind, soul and body).
He advanced before me, and bowed down profoundly; and after being honoured by me, he took the opportunity to propose his questions to me.
The Vidyādhara said: I see these organs of my body, which though so frail, are yet as hard and strong as any weapon of steel; they are capable of breaking and tearing every thing, and hurtful in their acts of injuring others.
I find my senses to be dim and dark, and always disturbed and leading to dangers (by their mistake of things). Again the passions in the heart, are setting fire to the forest of our good qualities, and boiling with the waves of sorrow and grief, while the dark ignorance of our minds, envelops every thing in the deepest gloom. Hence it is that the control, over our bodily organs, senses and the passions and feelings of the heart and mind, is only attended with our real happiness, which is not to be had from any object of sense.
6. DESCRIPTION OF DISAFFECTION AND DISGUST TO THE WORLD
Indifference and Apathy to the world, based on the Doctrines of the stoics and cynics, and the religious Recluses of all nations and Countries in every age.
The Vidyādhara continued: Tell me even now, what is that most noble state (or highest category), which is devoid of increase or decrease or any pain whatever; which is without beginning and end, and which is most sanctified and sanctifying.
I had been so long sleeping as an inert soul, and now I am awakened to sense by the grace of the Supreme Soul; (displayed in the present vairāgya or dispassionateness of the speaker).
My mind is heated with the fervour of the fever of my insatiate desire, and is full of regret at the state of my ignorance; now raise me from the depth of darkness in which I am grovelling under my delusion.
Many a tame does misfortune overtake the fortunate, and bitter sorrows betide the wise and learned; just as the hoarfrost falls on the tender leaves of lotuses, and discolours them at the end.
We see the frail living beings springing to birth, and dying away at all times to no purposes; they are neither for virtuous acts nor their liberation, but are born to die only, as the gnats and ephemera of dirt. (The Vidyadhara like the cynic, finds fault with every earthly things).
How have I passed through different stages of life, how with one state of things and then with another, and deceived by the gain of paltry trifles. We are always discontent with the present state, and cheated repeatedly by the succeeding one.
The unwearied mind, ever running after its frail pleasures, and floating as it were upon the breakers of its enjoyments, has no end of its rambling, nor rest after its toils; but wanders onward in the desert paths of this dreary world.
The objects of enjoyment, that are the causes of our bondage in this world, and appear as very charming and sweet at first; are all frail and ever changeful in their natures, and prove to be our bane at last.
Actuated by our consorting egoism, and led by the sense of honour to live in dishonour, I am degraded from the dignity of my high birth as a Vidyādhara, and am not pleased with myself.
I have seen the pleasure garden of Citra-ratha (the chief of the Gandharva tribe); and all the sweet and soft flowery beds on earth; I have slept under the bowers of Kalpa Creepers in paradise, and have given away all my wealth and property in charity.
I have sported in the groves of Meru, and about the cities of the Vidyādharas; I have wandered about in heavenly cars, and in the aerial regions on all sides; (in balloons or aerial cars).
I have halted amidst the heavenly forces, and reposed on the arms of my consorts; I have joined the bands of Haris in their jocund frolic and music, and have promenaded through the cities of the rulers of mankind.
I saw nothing of any worth among them, except the bitter sorrow of my heart in all; and I come now to find by my best reason, that every thing is burnt down to ashes before me.
My eyes which by their visual power, are ever inclined to dwell upon the sights of things, and do dote with fondness upon the face of my mistress, have been the cause of great affliction to my mind.
My eye-sight runs indiscriminately after all beautiful objects, without its power of considering, whether this or that is for our good or bad: (i.e. Without the power of penetrating into and distinguishing the properties and qualities of objects).
My mind also, which is ever prompt to meet all hazards, and to expose itself to all kinds of restraints, never finds its rest until it is overwhelmed under some danger, and brought under the peril of death.
My scent likewise is ever alert in seeking after fragrant and delicious things to its own peril, and it is difficult for me to repress it, as it is hard for one to restrain unruly horse.
I am restrained by the sense of my smelling to the two canals of my nostrils, bearing the putrid breath and cough and cold of the body; and am constrained like a prisoner or captive of war to the dungeon by my jailer or captor.
It is on account of this lickerish tongue of mine, that I am forced to seek for my food in these rugged and dreary rocks, which are the haunt of wild elephants, and where the wolves are prying for their forage.
(From this it appears that, the Vidyādharas were a tribe of mountaineers in the north of the Himālayas).
I am to restrain the sensitiveness of my body, and to make my skin (the tvak indriya or the organ of feeling), to endure the heat of the hot weather of the kindled fire and of the burning sun: (all which it is necessary to be undergone in the austere devotion known as Pañcatapa).
My ears, sir, which ought to take a delight in the hearing of good lectures, are always inclined to listen to talk that are no way profitable to me; but mislead me to wrong, as the grassy turf covering a well, tempts the silly stag to his ruin.
I have listened to the endearing speeches of my friends and servants, and attended to the music of songs and instruments, to no lasting good being derived therefrom. (Sensuous pleasures are transient, and are not attended with any permanent good).
I have beheld the beauty of beauties, and the natural beauty of objects on all sides; I have seen the sublimity of mountains and seas, and the grandeur of their sides and borders; I have witnessed the prosperity of princes and the brilliancy of gem and jewels.
I have long tasted the sweets of the most delicious dishes, and have relished the victuals of the six different savours, that were served to me by the handsomest damsels.
I have associated with the lovely damsels clad in their silken robes, and wearing their necklaces of pearls, reclined on bed of flowers and fanned by soft breezes; I have had all these pleasures of touch, and enjoyed them unrestrained in my pleasure gardens.
I have smelt the odours on the faces of fairy damsels, and have had the smell of fragrant balms, perfumeries and flowers; and I have inhaled the fragrance, borne to me by the breath of the soft, gentle and odoriferous breezes.
Thus have I seen and heard, felt and smelt, and repeatedly tasted whatever sweats this earth could effort. They have now become dry, distasteful, stale and unpleasurable to me; say what other sweet is there left for me yet to enjoy.
I have enjoyed all these enjoyments of my senses for a full thousand years, and still I find nothing either in this earth or in heaven, which is able to yield full satisfaction to my mind.
I have reigned for a long-time, over a realm, and enjoyed the company of the courtesans in my court. I have vanquished the forces of my enemies in battle, but I know not great gain I have gained thereby. (All is vanity of vanities only).
Those (demons) that were invulnerable in warfare, and usurped to the dominion of the three worlds, even those invincible giants, have been reduced to ashes in a short time.
I think that to be the best gain, which being once gained by us, their remains nothing else to be desired or gained herein; I must now therefore, remain in quest of that precious gain, however it may be attended with pain.
What difference is there between those, who have enjoyed the most delightful pleasures, and others that have never enjoyed them at all; nobody has ever seen the heads of the former kind crowned with kalpa lawrels, nor the latter with diminished heads.
I have been long led by my organs of sense, to the enjoyment of beautiful objects in the wilderness of the world, and have been quiet deceived by them like a child by cheat. (All enticements are deceitful at the end).
I have come to late and to-day only to know, that the objects of my senses are my greatest enemies; and this I have known after being repeatedly deceived by my organs of sense.
I see the deceitful organs of sense like so many sly hunts-men, have laid their snares about the wild forest of this world, only to entrap all unwary people in them, as they do the silly stags or beasts of prey by enticements.
There are but very few men in this world, who are not found to be envenomed by the deadly poison of their serpent-like organs of sense.
The forest of the world is full with the furious elephants of enjoyments, and surrounded by the snare of our desire, wherein our greediness is roving rampant with sword in hand, and our passions are stirring like keen spear-men, and rending our hearts and souls every moments.
Our bodies are become as a field of battle, where the commanding charioteer of our egoism has spread the net of duplicity, by employing our efforts as horsemen, and setting our desires as boisterous rioters.
The organs of sense are set as flag-bearers, at the extremities of the battle-field of our bodies; and they are reckoned as the best soldiers, who are able by their prowess to overtake these staff bearers in the field.
It may be possible for us, to pierce the frontal bone even of the furious Airāvata elephant of Indra in war; but it is too hard for anybody, to repress the aberrant senses within their proper bounds.
It is reckoned as the greatest victory, that may be won by the valour, magnanimity, and fortitude of great men, if they can but conquer the unconquerable organs of sense, which makes the utmost glory of the great: (or which redounds with the greatest to the great).
So long as a man is not flung and carried about as a light and trifling straw, by the irresistible force of his sensual appetites, he is said to have attained to the perfection and excellence of the deities of heaven.
I account men of well governed senses and those of great fortitude, to be truly men in their sense, or else all other men of ungoverned minds, are mere moving machines of the flesh and bones that compose their bodies.
O Sage! I think I can over come all things, if I can but reduce the force of the five external organs of sense, which form the battalion under the command of the mind, (and is led against the province of the soul).
Unless you can heal your sensual appetites, which forms the great malady of the mind, by the prescription of your reason you cannot get rid of them by any medicine or mantra, or by holy pilgrimage or any other remedy. (The subjection of the senses, is the first step to holiness).
I am led to great distress by the joint force of my senses, as a lonely traveller is waylaid in his journey by a gang of robbers. (It may be possible to withstand any particular appetite but not all at once).
The organs of sense are as dirty canals of the body, with theirs stagnate and foul watery matter, they are filled with noxious and hairy moss, and emit a malarious stink.
The senses seem to me as so many deep and dark forests, covered with impervious snows, and full of terrors that render them impassable to travellers.
The organs of the outward senses resemble the stalks of lotuses, growing upon the dirt of the body with holes in them, but without any visible thread therein. They are knotty on the outside, and without any sensibility of their own; (except what is supplied to them by the soul).
Our sensualities are as so many seas with their briny waters, and huge billows dashing on every side; they abound with various gems and pearls, but are full of horrible whales and sharks at the same time.
Sensual pleasure brings on the untimely death of the sensualist, and causes the grief and sadness of his friends therein; it makes others to take pity on his state, and mourn at his fate, which conducts him to repeated transmigrations only.
The senses are as vast and unlimited wilderness to men, which prove friendly to the wise, and inimical to the unwise.
The sphere of the senses is as dark as that of the clouded sky, where the black clouds of distress are continually growling, and the lightning of joy are incessantly flashing with their transient glare.
The organs of sense are as subterranean cells or mounds of mud upon earth; these are resorted to by inferior animals, but shunned by superior and intelligent beings.
They are like hidden caves on earth overspread with thorns and brambles, and inbred with venomous snakes, in which the unwary fall to be smitten and bitten to death.
All sensualities are as savage Rāksases or cannibals, that rove and revel about in their venturous excursions in the darkness of night; and glut themselves with human victims.
Our organs of sense are as dry sticks, all hollow and pithless in the inside; they are crooked and full of joints all along, and fit only as fuel for fire.
The bodily organs are the instruments of vice, and are as pits and thickets on our way; they are fitted with dirt within, like the notes of canes and reeds that are full of useless stuff.
The organic limbs and members are the implements of action, and the apparatus for producing an infinite variety of works. They are like the poster's wheels, turning and whirling with their mud, inorder to produce the fragile pottery of clay.
Thus Sir, I am plunged in the dangerous sea of my sensual appetites, and you alone are able to raise me out of it by your kindness to me; because they say, that holy saints only are victorious over their senses in this world, and it is their society only that removes the griefs of mankind, and saves them from the perilous sea of sensuality.
7. DESCRIPTION OF THE SEED OF THE ARBOR OF WORLD
[I]The arbor of the world as growing from the seed of Ignorance in the soul of Ignorance.
Bhuśunda replied: Having heard the aforesaid holy speech of the Vidyādhara, I answered to what he asked in plain words as follows.
Well said, O chief of the Vidyādharas, and it proves you to be awakened to your good fortune for your edification, that you do after so long desire to be raised, out of the dark pit and dungeon of the world.
Your holy intentions shine as bright as the blazing clouds in the midday light; and as pure liquid gold melted down by the fire of right reasoning.
Your clear mind will be able to grasp the meaning, of my admonition to you with ease; as the clean mirror is capable of receiving the reflexion of every object set before it. (The clear mind like a clear mirror reflects everything in it).
You must give your assent to what I say, by uttering the syllable Om-yes to the same; as you can have no doubt to take for certain truth, what I have come to know by my long research.
Know well and by giving up your ignorance, that what you feel within you (i. e. your egoism), is not your very self; and it is hard to have it (your soul or self), notwithstanding your long search after the same.
Know it for certain that there is no egoism or tuism (i.e. subjective or objective knowledge), nor even this phenomenal world, that may be called the real entity; but all this is the blissful God, who is no cause of either your happiness or misery (but reigns absolutely supreme in himself).
Whether this world is a creation of our ignorance, or whether it is ignorance itself, is what we cannot ascertain by our reasoning; because there being but one simple entity alone, there is no possibility of the co-existence of the duality (of subjective and objective).
The world appears as the water in the mirage; it is unsubstantial and though appearing as something real, it is in reality nothing at all. The phenomenon that appears to view, is himself and nothing otherwise.
The world being as the water in the mirage (a mere nullity); there is neither its existence nor its in-existence neither, there can be no reflexion of it either (because a void has no shadow); and therefore it must be but God himself.
The seed of the world is the Ego or the subjective self, and the Tu or the objective world, is to be known as derived from the subjective self or egoism. Such being the case, the visible world with all its lands and seas, its mountains and rivers and gods also, is the huge tree growing out of the same seminal source of egoism.
The great arbor of the worlds, grows out of the particle of egoism; the organs of sense are the succulent roots of this tree; and the far overspreading orbs of the sky, are the many divergent branches of the main arbor of the mundane world.
The starry frame in the sky, is the netted canopy over this arbor on high; and the groups of constellations, are bunches of blossoms of this tree; the desires of men are as the long fibres and lengthening filaments of the tree, and the lightsome moons are the ripe fruits thereof.
The many spheres of heaven, are the hollows of this large and great tree; and the Meru Mandara and other mountains, are its protuberant boughs and branches.
The seven oceans are the ditches of water, dug at the foot and root of this tree; and the infernal region is the deep pit underlying the root of this tree; the yugas and cycles of periods are its knots and joints, and the rotation of time over it, is as the circle of worms sucking up its juice for evermore.
Our ignorance is the ground of its growth, and all peoples are as flights of birds hovering upon it; its false apprehension forms its great trunk, which is burnt down by the conflagration of nirvāna or our knowledge of the utter extinction of all things.
The sights of things, the thoughts of the mind, and the various pleasures of the world, are all as false as a grove or forest in the sky; or as silver in the face of the hoary clouds, or in the coating of conch and pearl shells.
The seasons are its branches (in which they grow and wither away); and the ten sides of the air are its smaller boughs; because they spread themselves in all directions; self-consciousness is the pith and marrow of this tree (and of all sensible creatures), and the wind of the air is the breath of life, that fluctuates in every part of this tree of the world.
The sun-shine and moon-beams, are the two flowers of this tree; their rising and setting represent the opening and closing of blossoms; and the daylight and darkness of night, are as butterflies and humble bees fluttering over them.
Know at last, that one all pervading ignorance, extends all over this tree of the world; stretching from its root in the Tartarus, on all sides of the compass and its top in the heavens above. It is all an unreality appearing as real existence, and egoism which is the seed of this fallacy, being burnt up by the fire unegoism, it will no more vegetate in the form of this arbor of the world; nor put forth itself in future births and continuous transmigrations in this visionary world.
8. DESCRIPTION OF THE TEMPLE OF ILLUSION
Destruction of the arbor of the World by the fire of reason, and description of the fabric of the world as the mansion of Delusion Māyā-mandapa.
Bhuśunda continued and said: Now Vidyādhara! You have heard, how the mundane arbor comprises the earth with her mountains and cavern abodes, and stretches to all sides and touches the skies, bearing all living being continually moving and living upon it (i.e. its produce).
Such is the mundane tree, growing out of the seed of egoism; but this seed being roasted by the fire of reason, ceases to sprout forth anymore (i.e. into new life in future births).
The visible are not existent, nor is I or you (i.e. the subjective or objective) ever a positive reality, and this fallacy of their positivity is wholly burnt away by the knowledge of tajjñāna or their identity with God:
(i.e. in the extinction of all distinctive knowledge in the entity of the sole unity).
As it is the thought of I and you that begets the idea of egoism and tuism, which becomes the seed of the world; so it is the thought of non-ego et tu, that removes the idea of egoism and tuism, and this is the true and best knowledge of God.
Think of the in-existence of the world before its creations, and say where was then this knowledge of egoism and tuism, or this delusion of the unity or duality.
Those who strive diligently to get rid of their desires altogether, according to the instructions of their preceptors (as given before); verily they become successful in obtaining the supreme state (of the knowledge and presence of God).
As the confectioner becomes skilful in his profession, by his learning and practice of the art of confectionery; so the inquirer after truth becomes successful by constant application to it and by no other means. (So also does the yogi thrive in his yoga, by and under the direction of his spiritual guide).
Know the world to be the wonderful phenomenon of the intellect, and it does not exist in the outer space as it appears to the naked eye, but in the inner mind; (which bears the prototype of the world).
As a picture is the facsimile of the pattern, which is inscribed in the painters mind; so it is the twinkling of our thought only, that unfolds or obscures the world unto us by its opening and closing.
This thought or fancy of the mind, portrays to sigh a large edifice supported upon big and huge columns, and studded with gems and pearls; and gilt over with gildings of bright gold.
It is surrounded by a thousand pillars of precious stones, rising high like the pinnacles of Sumeru; and emitting the various of the rainbows, and glittering with the brightness of the evening sun on the clouds.
It is furnished with many a fountain (of the seas and rivers), for the sport of men, women and children living under it; and amidst the decorations of all kinds of animals in it.
It is full of elements, with its enemy of darkness that is light, darkness and light are its alternate result, hence it has derived its name-citra picture.
There were lakes of lotuses with kalpa trees, beside them for the sport of women, who plucked their flowers for their decorations of them, and which scattered about their fragrance as plentifully; as the clouds sprinkle their rain-waters all around.
Here the great kulācalas or boundary mountains, were as light as toys in the hands of boys; and they were tossed and whirled about as play things, by the breath of little lads. (i.e. Mountains are minute things with respect to the great fabric of the universe).
Here the bright evening clouds were as the glittering earrings of the ladies, and the light and fleet autumn clouds like flying fans and flappers; the heavy clouds of the rainy season, moved as slow as the waving fans of palm leaves; and the orb of the earth moved about as a dice on the chess-board, under the canopy of the starry heavens.
Here all living creatures and the sun and moon, are moving about as the dice and king and queen on the chess-board; and the appearance and disappearance of the world in the arena of vacuum, are as the gain or loss in the chess play of the gods (Brahma and others).
As a thought that is long dwelt upon the brooded over in the mind, comes to appear as really present before the sight of its entertainer;
(i.e. as the imagination assumes the shape of an apparition to sight).
So is this formal world a visible representation of the thoughts or workings of the mind; it is as an exquisite performance of the mind of the artist, from the prototype ingrafled in the soul.
It is the appartition of an unreality, and is present in appearance but absent in substance; it is verily the appearance of an unreality, by whatever cause it may have come to appear. (The Cause is said to be the original ignorance or delusion (ādi-avidyā or māyā).
It is as the sight of the forms of ornaments, in the same substance of gold; and the vault of the world, is as full of ever changing wonders, as the changeful and wondrous thoughts of the mind. Wherefore it is the cessation of thought, that causes the extinction of the world. (Nothing exists to us whereof we have no thought).
Hence it lies entirely in your power, to have or leave the world as you may like; either disregard your temporal enjoyments, if you have your final liberation; or continue in your acts and rites, in order to continue in your repeated transmigrations through endless births and deaths.
I understand you have attained your state of rationality; and have purified your soul in this your second or third stage of Yoga; I believe you will not fail back or come down to a lower order, therefore hold your silence and rely in the purity of the soul and shut out in visible from your sight.
9. ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF INTELLECT
Description of the Intellect, as cause of the appearance and disappearance of the World.
Bhuśunda said: The unintelligible objects of thought are phenomena of the intellect; they lie as calmly in the great mass or inert body of the intellect, as the sun-beams shine in the bosom of a clear basin of water: (where they retain their light without their heat).
The unintelligent world subsists in the intelligent intellect, by its power of intellection; and remains alike with the unlike (i.e. matter with the mind), as the submarine fire resides in the water, and the latent heat with cold.
The intelligent and the unintelligent (i.e. the subjective I and the objective-these) have both their source in the intellection of the intellect, which produces and reduces them from and into itself, as it is the same force of the wind, which kindles as well as extinguishes the fire.
Do you rest in the intellect, which remains after negation of your egoism, (which is the cause of both the subjective and the objective): and remain in that calm and quiet state of the soul, which results from your thinking in this manner. (i.e. By forgetting yourself, you forget everything else besides the wakeful intellect).
You are settled in your form of the intellect, both within and without everything; as the sweet water remains in and out of a raining cloud. (The gloss explains it saying that, after you are freed from all thoughts, you see the sole Brahma only).
There is nothing as I or you, but all are forms of one intellect, and connected with the same which is Brahma itself; there is none else besides which is endued with intelligence, but the whole is one stupendous intelligence, with which nothing can be compared.
It is itself the earth, heaven and nether world, with their inhabitants of men, gods and demigods; and exhibits in itself the various states of their being and actions (as upon its stage).
As the world is seen to remain quietly, in its representation map; so does the universe appear from its portraiture in the vacuum or ample space of the divine mind.
Hence we see the various appearance, as the divine mind unfolds from itself and exhibits to view; as it depends on your option, either to view them as animated or inanimated beings; (as you may choose to do the figures of animals, drawn in a picture).
These are the wondrous phenomena of the intellect, which appear as so many worlds in the open sky; they are as the mirage spread over by the sun-beams for delusion of the ignorant; while they appear as empty air to the learned, who view them in their true light.
As the blinded eye, beholds spectres and spectrums in the clear sky; so does the world appear as a phantom and phantasmagoria, before the purblind sight of the unspiritual and ignorant people in general.
Thus the knowledge of the objective world, and that of the subjective ego, are mere reflexions of the ideas in the mind, which appear and disappear by turns; just as a city is gilded or shaded by the falling and failing of the sunbeams thereon; but in this case city houses are realities, but the apparitions of the mind, are as baseless as garden in the empty sky.
10. DESCRIPTION OF CREATION AS AN EMANATION FROM BRAHMA
Brahma existing without attributes and functions, and the in-existence of the world at any time or any where beside him.
Bhuśunda continued: Know O Vidyādhara! the world as an evolution of Divine intelligence, and not as an inert mass and distinct from that intelligence as it appears to be. And as the reflexion of fire (or fury sub-beams) in water, is nothing different from the natures of the cold water; so the reflexion of the world in the Divine intelligence, is not at all distinct from the substance of that Intelligence itself.
Therefore remain at rest without making any distinction, between your knowledge of the world or its absence; (because the refutation of the existence of gross matter altogether, refutes the existence of the gross world also); and because a picture drawn only on the tablet of the painter's mind, and not painted on an outward plate, is as false as the knowledge of the fairy land in the empty air or vacuum.
The omnipotence of Brahma, contains also the insensible (or gross) matter in his intelligence; as the calm and clear water of the sea, contains the matter of the future froth and foams within itself.
As the froth is not produced in the water, without some cause or other; so the creation never proceeds from the essence of Brahma, without its particular cause also. (This cause is said to be Māyā).
But the uncaused and causeless Brahma, can have no cause whatever for his creation of the world; nor is any thing at this world or other, ever born or destroyed in himself. (No material substance is ever born or lost in the spiritual essence of God).
The entire want of a cause (either material or formal), makes the growth and formation of the world an utter impossibility, it is as impossible as the growth of a forest or the sight of a sea in the mirage of a desert as it appears to be.
The nature of Brahma is being the same as infinity, and eternity it is tranquil and immutable at all times; and is not therefore liable to entertain a thought or will of the creation at anytime. Thus there being no temporary cause for such, the world itself must be identic with Brahma himself.
Therefore, the nature of Brahma is both as empty as the hollow vacuity of air, as also as dense as the density of a rock; so it is the solidity of Brahma that represents the solid cosmos, as his tenuity displays the inane atmosphere.
Whether you can understand anything or nothing, regarding the mysterious nature of the Deity, remain quite unconcerned about it; and rest your soul in that Supreme spirit, wherein all intelligence and its absence are both alike. (To him no great or small but are all alike).
The everlasting bliss of the uncreated God, has no cause for his creation of the world, which cannot augment his bliss; therefore know all that is and exists to the increate God himself, from the improbability of his making a creation to no purpose whatsoever.
Of what use is it to reason with the ignorant, concerning the production and destruction of creation (i.e. about the existence or in-existence of the objective world); when they have not the Divine Intellect in their view (as all in all or as both the subjective and objective in itself).
Wherever there is the Supreme being, there is the same accompanied with the worlds also; (as it is impossible to have the idea of God, without the association of the world); because the meaning of the word world, conveys the sense of their variety.
The Supreme Brahma is present in everything in all places, such as in the woods and grass, in the habitable earth and in the waters likewise. So the creatures of God teem in every part of creation together with the all-creative power.
It is improper to ask, what is the nature and constitution of Brahma; because there is no possibility of ascertaining the essence and absence of the properties of that infinite and transcendental entity.
All want-abhāva being wanting in him, who is full-pūrna in himself; and any particular nature-bhāva being inapplicable to the infinite One, who comprehends all nature in him; all words significant of his nature are mere paralogism.
In-existence and non-entity being altogether impossible of the everlasting and self existent being; who is always existent in his own essence, any word descriptive of his nature, is but a misrepresentation of his true nature and quality.
He is neither I nor you (the subjective or the objective) who is unknowable to the understanding, and invisible to the people in all the worlds; and yet He is represented as such, as false phantoms of the brain which presents themselves as ghosts to boys.
That which is free from or beyond the sense of I and you-the subject and object, is known as the truly Supreme; but what is seen under the sense of I and you, proves to be null and void.
The distinction of the world from the essence of Brahma, is entirely lost in the sight of them, that have unity of Brahma only before their view. The subjective and objective are of equal import to them, who believe all sensible objects as mere productions of fancy from the very substance of Brahma, as the various ornaments are but transformations of the same material of gold etc.
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11. ON TRUTH AND RIGHT KNOWLEDGE
Subjection of the senses followed by the government of the Mind; and Indifference to visible objects.
Bhuśunda continued: He is said to be situated in the seat of the Supreme, who has his mind unmoved at the stroke of a weapon of his bare body, as also at the touch of a form with his naked person. (One must practice his self-control until he attains to this state of insensibility of both his body and mind).
One must strive by exercise of his manly powers and patience, to practice his rigid habitude or stoicity, as long as he attains to his somnolence or susupti over all visible appearances. (susupti is a deep sleep over the phenomenal, but wakeful to the spiritual).
The wise man who is acquainted with the truths of nature, is not to be thwarted back by the severest tribulation and persecution; as the heaving waves of the lake, cannot submerge the lotus that stands firm amidst its water.
He who is impassive as the empty air, to the strokes of weapons on his person, and unaffected by the embraces of beauties; is the only person who sees inwardly what is worth seeing: (though he is outwardly as insensible as a block of stone).
As poison breeds the rust in itself, which is not different from the nature of poison. So the infinity of souls which are produced in the Supreme spirit, retain the nature of their original; and which they are capable of knowing.
As the insect that is born in the poison, does not die by the same; so the human soul which is produced by the eternal soul, is not subject to death, nor does it forsake its own nature, though it takes a grosser form like the vile figure of the poisonous insects.
Things born in or produced by Brahma, are of the same nature with itself, though different from it in appearance; such is the rust and mustiness of meat, which adheres to the food and appears as otherwise. So the world subsisting in Brahma, sees as something without it. (The fruit is alike its tree, though unlike to it in its shape and size).
Now worm is born in poison, that does not retain the nature of poison; it never dies in it without being revivified in the same.
(All things that are seen to die in nature, have only to be regenerated in another form, or as it is said "we die but to be born again").
It is owing to the indestructible property of self-consciousness, that all beings pass over the great gulph of death, as they leap over a gap in the ground hide by the foot mark of a bull (goshpad).
Why is it, that men neglect to lay-hold on that blessed state, which is beyond and above all other states in life, and which when had, infuses a cool calmness in the soul?
What a great stain it is to the pure soul, to neglect the meditation of the glorious God, before which our mind, egoism and understanding do all vanish into nothing or insignificance.
As you look upon a pot and a piece of cloth as mere trifles, so should you consider your body as brittle as glass, and your mind, understanding and egoism also as empty nothing.
Therefore it is for the wise and learned, to divert their attention from all worldly things, as also from their internal powers of the mind and understanding; and to remain steadfast in their consciousness of the soul.
The wise man takes no notice of the faults or merits of others; nor does he take heed of the happiness or misery of himself or any body; knowing well that no one is the doer or sufferer of anything whatever.
12. ON THE IDENTITY OF THE WILL AND ITS WORK OF THE DESIRE AND ITS PRODUCTION
The falsity of egoism, and the futility of the expansion of the intellect in creation. Ignorance as the cause of this fallacy and the manner of its removal.
Bhuśunda continued: As the supposition of one vacuity (as that subsisting in a pot or any spot), to be a part or derived from the universal vacuum is false and wrong; so the conception of the visionary ego (as produced from the unknown vacuum Brahma), is altogether an error.
(i.e. The error of conceiving a subtile or gross spirit called the ego, proceeds from ignorance of the True Spirit).
The erroneous conception of limited vacuities, being produced from the unlimited vacuum, has given rise to the mistaken belief of unreal and individual souls, as proceeding from the one universal and undivided soul of God.
The divine intellect exists in the form of air in air, which it takes for its body; it is manifest throughout the aerial sphere and therefore I am neither the ego nor the non-ego either. (Man is the ego in his intellectual part, and the non-ego in his material frame).
The unity of the subtile intellect is of such a nature, that it contains the gravity of the immense world in it
i.e. in its thought); in the same manner as a ponderous mountain is contained in an atom (or as it is composed of atomic particles). The conscious intellect is of the form of air (empty and all pervading in its nature).
(This is another instance of the vacuous essence of God, according to the vacuistic theory of Vasistha).
The intellect which is rarer than subtile air, thinks in itself the gross nature of unintellectual matter; which exhibits itself in the form of the world. (The dull external world, is a counter part of the internal conception of the mind).
It is well known to the spiritualist, that the egoism of ourselves and the materialism of the world, are but dilations of the intellect; as the currents and curling of streams in eddies are but dilations of water. (This process of the Divine spirit is called its vivarta rūpa).
When this process of the intellect is at a stop, the whole course of nature is at a stand still, like the liquid water of the lake without its undulation; or like the quiet sphere of the sky, without the stir or agitation of winds in it. (It means to say that, as the motion of the spirit causes the action of the world, so its cessation nivarta-rūpa, put an end to the course of nature).
Thus there is no other cause of any physical action, in anything in any part or period of the world; except what is derived from the agitation of the Intellect, without which this whole is a shapeless void and nil.
It is the action of the intellect, that makes the world to appear to us at all times and places; whether in the sky, water or land, as also when we wake, sleep or dream: (and this action of the mind being put to a stop in death deep sleep, the world ceases to exist both in the mind and to our external senses also).
The action and inaction of the intellect, is imperceptible to our understanding, owing to the extreme tenuity of the mind, which is more transparent than the clear sky.
The knowing soul that is unified or settled as one with the Supreme spirit, is unconscious of its pleasure or pain and the sense of its egoism; and being melted down into the divine essence, it resides as the fluidity of the psychic fluid.
The sapient mind is regardless of all external intelligence, fortune, fame, or prosperity; and having no desire or hope to rise or fear or shame to fall, he sees none of these things before him, as one sees no object of broad daylight in the gloom of night. (The holy man has lost sight of all worldly things).
The moonlight of the intellect which issues forth from the moon like disk of the glory of God, fills the universe with its ambrosial flood; and there is no other created world, nor its receptacles of time and space, except the essence of Brahma, which fills the whole.
Thus the whole universe being full with the glorious essence of God, it is the mind which revolves with the spheres of the worlds on itself, like the curling circles on the surface of waters.
The revolving world, is evanescently rolling on like a running strettm to its decay, with its ever rising and sinking waves, and its gurgling and whirling eddies and whirlpools.
As the moving sands appear as water (in the mirage of the desert), and as the distant smoke seems as a gathering clouds to the deluded; so does this world appear to them as a gross object of creation, and a third thing beside the Divine spirit and Mind.
As the wood pared by the saw appear as separate blocks, and as the water divided by the winds has the appearance of detached waves; so does this creation in the Supreme spirit, seem to be something without and different from it.
The world is as unsolid and unsubstantial, as the stem of a plantain tree, and as false and frail as the leaves of the arbor of our desire; it is plastic in its nature, but as hard as stone in the substance. (Being like the shadow of something in the hard crystal of the Divine Mind).
It is personified in the form of Virāt, with his thousand heads and feet, and as many arms, faces and eyes; and his body filling all sides, with all the mountains, rivers and countries situated in it.
It is empty within and any pith in it, it is painted in many colours and having no colour of itself. It is studded all over with bodies of gods and demigods, gandharvas, vidyādharas and great serpents; it is inert (dull matter of itself), and is moved by the all moving air of sūtrātmā-the all connecting spirit of god; and is animated by the all enlivening anima of the Supreme soul.
As the scene of a great city appears brilliant to sight, in a painting which is well drawn on a canvas, so does the picture of the world, which is displayed by imagination in the retina of the mind, appear charming to them, who do not deign to consider (to examine) it in its true light.
The reflexion of the unreal and imaginary world, which falls on the mirror of the fickle and fluctuating mind; appears to swim upon its surface, as a drop of oil floats over the face of water.
This world is overspread with the network of the feelings imprinted in the heart, and interspersed with winding eddies of mistake and misery; it runs with the flood of our affections, and with silent murmurs of sorrow.
The understanding is apt to attribute optionally, the predicates I, you and so forth to the original and prime Intellect; but none of these is apart from the Supreme one, as the fluid is no other than the water itself. (Jīva-the living soul and Brahman, the universal being, synonymous terms there is no distinction whatever between them).
The luminous Intellect itself is styled the creation, (after it has assumed to itself the title of ego (or its personality); or else there is no other creation or any creator thereof
(beside the everlasting intellect, which is represented as the personal God-Ego and personified as the creation itself).
As the power of impulsion is inherent in every moving substance, like the blowing of winds and flowing of water; so the intellectual soul, being of a vacuous form, knows all things in their vacuous or ideal states only.
As seas and oceans are becoming the seeming cause of separate name of countries, by separating the connection from one land to another, though the vacuum remains ever the same; so delusion is the cause of different ideas and dreams of material objects, but spirit remains unchangeful forever.
Know the words mind, egoism, understanding and such other terms, which are siginificant of the idea of knowledge; to proceed from ignorance alone, and are soon removed by proper investigation into them.
It is by means of conversation with the wise, that it is possible for us to remove one half of this ignorance, and it is by investigation into the śāstras, that we are enabled to remove a quarter of it, while our belief of and reliance in the Supreme spirit, serves to put down the remaining fourth part of it altogether.
Having thus divided yourself into the said fourfold-duties, and destroyed by degree the four parts of ignorance by each of them; you will find at last a nameless something which is the true reality itself.
Rāma said:- I can understand sir, how a moiety of our ignorance is removed by conversation with the wise, as also how a fourth part of it driven by the study of šąstras, but tell me sir, how the remainder of it is removed by our belief and reliance in the spirit.
Tell me sir, what you mean by the simultaneous and gradual removal of ignorance, and what am I to understand by what you call the nameless one and the true reality, as distinguished from the unreal.
Vasistha replied: It is proper for all good and vertuous people who are dispassionate and dissatisfied with the world, to have recourse to wise and holy raen, and argue with them regarding the course of nature, inorder to get over the ocean of this miserable world.
It is proper also for intelligent persons, to be in diligent search after the passionless and unselfish men wherever they may be found; and particularly to find out and reverence such of them, as are possessed with the knowledge of the soul, and are kindly disposed to impart their spiritual knowledge to others.
The acquisition of such a holy sage, takes away one half of one's temporal and spiritual ignorance; by setting him on the first and best step of divine knowledge.
(The subsequent stages of yoga, are based upon the initiatory step or stage).
Thus half of one's spiritual gloom being dispelled by association with the holy; the remaining two fourths are removed, by religious learning and one's own faith and devotion.
Whenever any desire of any enjoyment whatever, is carefully suppressed in one's self by his own endeavour; it is called his self exertion, which destroys one fourth of spiritual ignorance.
So it is the society of the holy, the study of Śāstras and one's own exertion, which tend to take away one's sins, and it is done by each of these singly or all of these conjointly, either by degrees or at once and at same time.
Whatever there remains either as something or nothing at all, upon the total extinction of ignorance, the same is said to be the transcendent and nameless or unspeakable something or nothing (owing to its being beyond all conception).
This is verily the real Brahma, the undestroyed, infinite and eternal one; and which being but a manifestation of the unsubstantial will, is understood as an in-existent blank likewise. By knowing the measureless, immeasurable and unerring being, do you rely in your own nihility of nirvāna, and be free from all fear and sorrow. (He who thinks himself as nothing, has no care or fear for anything).
13. ANECDOTE OF INDRA, AND AN ACCOUNT OF THE ATOMIC WORLD
The acts of Delusion, and Deception of senses, and Indra's Vision of the World in an Atom.
Bhuśunda said: The universe which contains the totality of existence, and appears as a wide extended sphere; is not in need of any preexistent place or time as recipients of its substance just as the etherial light (of the twilight), requires no prop or pillar in the heavens for its support.
(The simultaniety of the seeming containers - time and space, and their apparent contents- the wide world and the broad light, disproves the priority of the receptacles with regard to their occupants, as it is commonly understood to be. So the verse - Here there is no container or contained, nothing first or last; But all is one that fills and contains this all. Gloss).
The fabrication of this triple world, (containing the celestial, terrestial and infernal regions), is the mere thought or working of the mind; and all this is more quiet and calm, more minute and light, and much more translucent than the odour residing in the air.
The world is a wondrous phenomenon of the intellect, which though it is as minute as a particle of fragrance borne by the wind; appears yet as big as a mountain to the sensation of the outward organs of sense. (This is the effect of the deception of the senses).
Every one (animal being) views and thinks the world, in the same form and light as it presents unto him; just as the operations of the mind and visions in a dream, appear as they occur to their recipients and to no other besides. (The deceptive senses and dreams, depict objects in different aspects to different persons).
Here I will instance an old legend, of what happened to Indra-the lord of Gods, when he was confined in a minute particles in times of yore.
It came to pass once upon a time, that this world grew up as a small fig fruit on a branch of the Yuga-tree, in the great arbor of a kalpa age. (The periods of a Yuga and kalpa are represented as a tree and forest by metaphor).
The mundane fruit was composed of the three compartments of the earth, sky and infernal regions, containing the gods and demigods of heaven, the hills and living creatures on earth, the marshy lands below, with troops of gnats and flies (fluttering about the fig tree of the world, and representing the diseases and dangers that hover over it).
It is a wondrous production of the intellect (which is its architect); and is as high as handsome full-blown buds with the juice of desire (i.e. it is full of all delights, that the heart can desire). It is odorous with all kinds of flavourous frangrances, that we can feel and tempting to the mind by the variety of its savours that are sweet to taste.
(Does it allude to the forbidden fruit which was enticing to sight and sweet to taste, and meant the world itself that was to be avoided)?
This tree grew upon the Brahma-tree (otherwise called the udumbara or fig tree), which was over hung by millions of creepers and orchids; egoism is the stalk of the fruit, which appeared beautiful to sight.
It is encompassed around with oceans, seas and arteries, and whose face-light is the principal door. It is salvating the starry heaven above and the moistearth below.
It is ripened at the end of the Kalpa age, when it becomes the food of black crows and cuckoos (messengers of dark-some death); or if it falls below there is an end of it, by its absorption in the indifferent Brahma.
There lived at one time the lord of Gods-the great Indra in that fruit, just as a big mosquito resides in an empty pot in company with the small gnats as their great leader.
But this great lord was weakened in his strength and valour by his study of and the lectures-of his preceptor on spiritualism; which made him a spiritualist, and seer in all past and future matters.
It happened once on a time, when the valiant god Nārāyana and his heavenly host, had been reposing in their rest; and their leader Indra was so debilated in his arms; that the demigods rose in open rebellion against God.
Then Indra rose with his flashing arms and fire, and fought with the fighting Asuras for a long time; but being at last defeated by the superior strength, he fled away in haste from the field.
He ran in all the ten directions, and was pursued by the enemy wherever he fled; he could get no place of rest, as a sinner has no resting place in the next world; (but continues to rove about in never ending transmigrations of his soul).
Then as the enemy lost sight of him for a moment, he availed to himself of that opportunity; he compressed the thought of his big body in his mind, and became of a minute form on the outside of himself. (It is the inner thought that moulds the outer body, according to the inner type).
He then entered into the womb of an atom, which was glittering amidst the expanse of solar rays; as a bee enters into the cup or seed vessel of a lotus bud, by means of the consciousness of his personal minuteness.
He had his instant rest in that state, and then his hope of final bliss in the next; by utter forgetfulness of the warfare, and attainment of the ultimate beatitude of the nirvāna turpitude in the end. (All action is warfare, and cessation from it gives peace and rest).
He instantly conceived in his imagination, his royal palace in that lotus, and he sat upon his lotiform seat (padmāsana) within it, as if he was resting on his own bed.
Then Indra otherwise called Hari, being seated in that mansion, saw an imaginary city in it, containing a grand edifice in the midst; with its walls studded with gems, pearls and corals.
Hari (the Indra) beheld from within the city, a large country extending about it, and containing many hills and villages, pasture grounds for kine, forests and human habitations.
Indra then felt the desire of enjoying that country, with all the lands and hills, the seas to their utmost boundaries, as he had formed in his imagination.
Śakra (Indra) afterwards conceived the desire, of possessing the three worlds to himself, together with all the earth and ocean, sky and the infernal regions, the heavens, planetary spheres above and the ranges of mountains below.
Thus did Indra remain there as the lord of gods, and in possession of all abundance for his enjoyments; and their was born to him afterwards, a son named Kunda of great strength and valour.
Then at the end of his life time, this Indra of unblemished reputation, forsook his mortal frame, and became extinct in his nirvāna dissolution, as when a lamp is extinguished for want of oil.
Kunda reigned over the three worlds (of and like his father), and then having given birth to a boy he departed to his ultimate state of bliss, after expiration of the term of his life.
That son also reigned in his time (like the sire), and then departed at the end of his life time, to the holy state of supreme felicity, by leaving a son after him.
In this manner a thousand generations of the grandsons of the first Indra, have reigned and passed away in their time; and there is still a prince by name of Anśaka, reigning over the state of the lord of gods.
Thus the generations of the lord of immortals, still hold their sovereignty over the imaginary world of Indra; in that sacred particle of sunbeam in empty air, although that atomic practical is continually going to decay and waste in this long course of time: (yet the imagination of its existence has laid a firm hold on the minds of their posterity forever).
14. STORY OF INDRĀNĪ; AND ESTABLISHMENT OF THE IDENTITY OF THE ACTS OF CREATION AND IMAGINATION
Origin of Śakra race and of the World like the fibres of Lotus-stalks and its spiritual sense.
Bhuśunda continued: There was one prince born of the race of that Indra; who had also become the lord of gods; He was endowed with prosperity and all good qualities, and devoted to divine knowledge.
This prince of Indra's race, received his divine knowledge from the oral instruction of Brhaspati (the preceptor of the gods).
He knowing the knowable-one, persisted in the course of knowledge as he was taught and being the sovereign lord of gods, he reigned over all the three worlds.
He fought against the demigods, and conquered all his foes; he made a hundred sacrifices, and got over the darkness of ignorance by his enlightened mind.
He remained long in meditation, having his mind fixed in his cerebral artery, resembling the thread of a tubular stalk of the lotus, and continued to reflect on hundreds of many others matters. (i.e. On the imaginary world and its kingdom and conquests together with many other things).
He had once the desire of knowing by the power of his understanding, how he could see the essence of Brahma in his meditation. (or how he could have a sight of the nature of god, manifest before him. Gloss).
He sat in his solitary retirement, and saw in this silent meditation of his tranquil mind, the disappearance of the concatenation of causes all about and inside himself.
He beheld the omnipotent Brahma, as extended in and about all things; and presenting all times and places and existing as all in all, and pervading all things in all places.
His hands stretch to all sides, and his feet reach to the ends of the worlds; his face and eyes are on all sides and his head pierces the spheres; his ears are set in all places, and he endures by encompassing all things every where.
He is devoid of all the organs of sense, and yet possest of the powers of all senses in himself; he is the support of all, and being destitute of qualities, is the source and receptacle of all quality. (The qualities of finite bodies are of a finite nature, but the infinite are infinite, eternal and immutable).
Unmoved and unmoving by himself, he is moving in and out of all things, as well as moves them all both internally and externally (that is to say, He is the moving force of dull matter). He is unknowable owing to his minuteness, and appears to be at a distance, though he is so near us.
He is as the one sun and moon in the whole universe, and the same land in all the earth; He is the one universal ocean on the globe, and one Meru Mountain (of the sun's path) all about.
He is the pith and gravity of all objects, and he is the one vacuum every where, he is the wide world and the great cosmos, that is common to all.
He is the liberated soul of all, and the primary intellect in every place; he is every object everywhere, and beside all things in all places.
He is in all pots and huts, in all trees and their coatings; he moves the carts and carriages, and enlivens alike all men and other animals likewise.
He is in all the various customs and manners of men, and in all the many modes of their thinking; he reside equally in the parts of an atom, as also in the stupendous frame of the triple world.
He resides as pungency in the heart of pepper, as vacuity in the sky, and in his intellectual soul the three worlds, whether they are real entities or mere unrealities.
Indra beheld the lord in this manner, and then being liberated from his animal state by the help of his pure understanding; he remained all along in the same state of his meditation as before.
The magnanimous god sees in his revery, all things united in his meditative mind; and beheld this creation in the same light as it appears to us (as a real entity).
He then wandered in his mind all over this creation, and believing himself as the lord of all he saw in it, became the very god Indra; and reigned over the three worlds and their manifold pageantries.
Know, O chief of the race of vidyādharas, that the same Indra who was descended of the family of Indras, has been still holding his reign as the lord of gods to this day.
He then perceived in his mind, by virtue of his former habit of thinking, the seed of his remembrance sprouting forth with the lotus stalk, wherein he thought to have lain before.
As I have related to you of the reign of the former Indra, in the bosom of an atom in the sun-beam; and of the residence of his last generation-the latter Indra, in the hollow fibre of the lotus stalk.
So have thousands of othėr Indras gone by, and are going on still in their fancied realm in the empty sky, in the same manner and mode as observed by their predecessors.
So runs the course of nature in ceaseless succession, like the current of a river running onward to the sea; and so do men whether acquainted or not with the divine knowledge, flow on as streams to the abyss of eternity: (which is tatpada or state of the Deity).
Such is lengthening delusion of the world appearing as true; but vanishing to nothing at the appearance of the light of truth (which is the sight of god in everything).
From whatever cause, and in whatever place or time, and in whatever manner this delusion is seen to have sprung, it is made to disappear by knowledge of the same.
It is egoism alone, which produces the wonderful appearance of delusion; as the cloud in the sky causes the rain; it spreads itself as a mist, but disappears immediately at the sight of light.
He who has got rid of his belief of the looking and sight of the world, (i.e. Of both the subjective and objective, as well as of his action and passion); and has attained the knowledge of self reflecting soul; and who has placed his belief in one vacuous form of empty air; which is devoid of all properties and beyond all categories, is freed from all option and settled in the only One.
15. THE FINAL EXTINCTION OF THE VIDYĀDHARA
Description of Egoism as the productive seed of the world, and its extinction as the cause of emancipation from it.
Bhuśunda resumed and said: Wherever there is the thought of egoism of any one, the idea of the will be found to be inherent in it; as it appeared to Indra within the bosom of the atomic particle.
The error of the world (the false conception of its reality), which covers the mind, as the green verdure of grass overspreads the face of the ground; has for its origin the idea of one's egoism, which takes its root in the human soul.
This minute seed of egoism, being moistened with the water of desire, produces the arbor of the three worlds, on the height of Brahma in the great forest of vacuum.
The stars are the flowers of this tree, hang on high on the branches of the mountain craigs; the rivers resemble its veins and fibers, flowing with the juicy pith of their waters, and the objects of desire are the fruits of this tree. (The objects of desire are the enjoyments and fruition of life).
The revolving worlds, are the fluctuating waves of the water of egoism; and the profluent current of desires, continually supplies with varieties of exquisite symposiums, sweet to the taste of the intellect. (i.e. The pleasures of desire are sweet to the mind, and afford intellectual delight).
The sky is the boundless ocean full of ethereal waters, and teeming with showering drops of star light in it; plenty and poverty are the two whirlpools in the ocean of the earth, and all our woes are the mountainous waves on its surface.
(i.e. The heaven and earth are the two oceans above and below; the one shining with starry light, and the other gliding with waves of woe. So says the Bible:- And God made the firmament to divide the waters above from the waters below. Genesis I).
The three worlds are presented as a picture of the ocean, with the upper lights as its froths and foams swimming upon it; the spheres are floating as bubbles upon it, and their belts are as the thick valves of their doors.
The surface of the earth is as a hard and solid rock, and the intellect moves as a black crow upon it; and the hurry and bustle of its people, are conformable with the incessant rotation of the globe.
The infirmities and errors, old age and death, are as billows gliding on the surface of the sea; and the rising and falling of bodies in it, are as the swelling and dissolving of bubbles in water.
Know the world to be a gust of the breath of your egoism, and know it also as a sweet scent proceeding from the lotus like flower of egoism.
Know the knowledge of your egoism and that of the objective world, are not two different things; but they are the one and same thing; as the wind and its breath, the water and its fluidity, and the fire and its heat.
The world is included under the sense of ego, and the ego is contained in the heart of the world; and these being productive of one another, are reciprocally the container and contained of each other.
He who effaces the seed of his egoism frog: his understanding, by means of his ignoring it altogether; has verily washed of the picture of the world from his mind, by the water of ignorance of it.
Know Vidyādhara, there is no such thing as is implied by ego; it is a causeless nothing as the horn of a hare.
There is no egoism in the pervading and infinite Brahma, who is devoid of all desire; and therefore there being no cause nor ground of it, it is never anything in reality.
Whatever is nothing in reality, couldn't possible have any cause in the beginning of creation; therefore egoism is a nihility, as the son of a barren woman is a nullity in nature.
The want of egoism on the one hand, proves the privation of the world also on the other; thus there remains the Intellect or the one mind alone, in which everything is extinct.
From the proof of the absence of ego and the world, the operations of the mind and the sight of visible, all come to an end, and there remains nothing for you to care for or fear.
Whatever is not is a naught altogether, and the rest are as calm and quiet as nil in existence; knowing this as certain be enlightened, and fall no more to the false error which has no root in nature.
Being purged from the stain of fancy, you become as purified and sanctified as the holy lord Śiva forever, and then the sky will seem to you as a huge mountain, and the vast world will dwindle to an atom. (This is done by two powers of adhyāropa and vyapadeśa or expansion or contraction in yoga).
16. EXTINCTION OF VIDYĀDHARA (CONTINUED)
Entrancement of the Vidyādhara at the end of the Discourse in favour of Non-egoism.
Bhuśunda continued: As I was lecturing in this manner, the chief of the vidyādharas became dull in the consciousness (i.e. unconscious of himself), and fell into the trance of samādhi-anesthesia).
And notwithstanding my repeated attempts, to awaken him from that state (of insensibility); he did not open his eyes to the sight lying before him, but was wholly absorbed in his nirvāva-extinction.
He attained the supreme and ultimate state, and became enlightened in his soul (by what I had instructed him); and made no other further attempt to know what he sought. (The attempts to know God, besides sravana or attending to the lectures of the guru, are reflection, meditation ect).
(Here Vasistha said to Rāma). It is therefore, Rāma, that I related this narrative to exemplify the effect of instruction in pure hearts, where it floats like a drop of oil on the surface of water: (i.e. where it does not sink down nor is lost).
This instruction consists in forgetting the existence of the ego in the Supreme spirit, this is the best advice and there is no other like this; and this is calculated to give peace and comfort to your soul.
But when this advice falls in the soil of evil minds, it is choked up and lost in the end; as the purest pearl falls from the surface of a smooth mirror (or piece of glass).
But good advice sticks fast in the calm minds of the virtuous, and it enters into their reasoning souls; as the sunlight enters and shines in the sun-stone.
Egoism is verily the seed of all worldly misery, as the seed of the thorny simul tree grows only prickles on earth; so is meity or the thought that this is mine, the out stretching branch of this tree.
First the seed ego, and then its branch of meity or mineness, produce the endless leaves of our desires; and their sense of selfishness, is proactive of the burthen some fruits of our woe and misery.
Then the Vidyādhara said- I understand, O chief of sages, that it is in this manner, that dull
people also become long living in this world; and it is this true knowledge, which is the cause of the great longevity of yours and other sages.
Those who are pure in their hearts and minds, soon attain to their highest state of fearlessness, after they are once admonished in with the knowledge of truth.
Vasistha said: The chief of the birds of air, spoke to me in this manner on the summit of the Sumeru Mountain; and then held his silence like the mute clouds on the top of Rsyamūka chain. (It is said that the clouds never roar when they rove over this hill).
Having taken leave of the sagely bird, I repaired to the abode of the Vidyādhara, (in order to learn the truth of the story); and then returned to my place, which was graced by the assemblage of sages.
I have thus related to you, O Rāma, the narration of the veteran bird, and the sedateness which was attained by the Vidyādhara with little pain and knowledge. It is now the lapse of the long period of eleven great Yugas, since my said interview with Bhusunda-the veteran chief of the feathered tribe.
17. LECTURE ON THE ANNIHILATION OF EGOISM
The Yoga or mode of consuming egoism by the fire of Non-egoism.
Vasistha said: It is by means of the knowledge of one's want of egoism, that the Arbor of his desire, which is productive of the fruit of worldliness, and which is fraught with the taste of all kinds of sweet and bitterness; may be checked in its growth.
It is by one's habit of thinking his unegoism, that he comes to view both gold and stone, as well as all sorts of rubbish in the same light; and by being calm and quiet at all events, has never any cause of sorrow at any thing whatsoever.
When the cannon-ball of egoism, is let to fly out from the gun of the mind by force of divine knowledge; we are at a loss to know, where the stone of egoism takes its flight.
The stone of egoism being flung from the balustrade of the body, by the gigantic force of spiritual knowledge; we know not where this ponderous egoism is driven and lost.
After the stone of egoism is flung away, by the great force of the knowledge of Brahma only; we cannot say where this engine of the body (with its boast of egoism in it), it lost forever.
(Here are there comparisons of egoism, viz; 1 of a gun-shot; 2 of a balustrade stone; 3 of a pebble in a fling).
The meaning of ego is frost in the heart of man, and melts away under the sun-shine of unegoism; it then flies off in vapour, and then disappears into nothing we know not where.
The ego is the juice of the inner part of the body, and the unego is the solar heat without; the former is sucked up by the latter, and forsakes the dried body like a withered leaf, and then flies off where we know not.
The moisture of egoism, being sucked up from the leafy body of the living, flies by the process of its suction by the solar heat, to the unknown region of endless vacuum.
Whether a man sleeps in his bed or sits on the ground, whether he remains at home or roves on rocks, whether he wanders over the land or water, wherever he sits or sleeps or is awake or not:-
This formless egoism abides in it, either as gross mater or the subtile spirit, or in some state or other; which though it is afar from it, seems to be united with it.
(The true ego of the far distant Divine spirit, seems to be incorporated with the material body).
Egoism is seated as the minute seed, in the heart of the fig tree of the body; where it sprouts forth and stretches its branches, composing the different parts of the world. (i.e. the seed of egoism develops itself in the form of the creation, which is a creature of its own).
Again the big tree of the body, is contained within the minute seed of egoism; which bursts out in the branches forming the several parts of the universe.
As the small seed is seen by every one, to contain within iv a large tree, which develops itself into a hundred branches, bearing all their leaves, flowers and abundance of fruits; so does the big body reside with the atomic seed of egoism, with all its endless parts of corporeal organs and mental faculties, which are discernible to the sight of the intelligent.
Egoism is not to be had in. the body by reasoning, which points out the mind of everybody, to seek it in the sphere of the vacuous Intellect; the seed of egoism does not spring from the bosom of unreality, and the blunder of the reality of the world, is destroyed by the fire proceeding from the spiritual of the wise.
18. DESCRIPTION OF THE UNIVERSAL SPHERE
How material world is framed by intellect, its formation and destruction, one by reminiscence and the other by forgetfulness.
Vasistha related: There is never and nowhere an absolute death or total dissolution of the body together with the mind, soul and egoism; but it is the cessation of the inward imagery of the mind, that is called its quietus.
Look at these sights of the Meru and Mandāra Mountains, which are born before your presence; they are not carried to and fro to every body but are reflected in the minds of all like the flying clouds of autumn in the water of a river.
These creations are placed over and above and below and under one another, like the coatings of a plantain tree; and they are either in contact with or detached from one another like clouds in the sky.
Rāma said: Sir, I do not fully comprehend the sound sense, of what you say by the words "Look at these flying sights" and therefore I beg to you explain this clearly unto me.
Vasistha replied: Know Rāma, that the life contains the mind, and the mind is the container of the worlds within it; as there are various kinds of trees and their several parts, contained in the bosom of a small berry. (And this is meant by one thing being contained within another).
After a man is dead, his vital airs fly to and unite with the ethereal air; as the liquid water of streams flows to and mixes with the main ocean. (This is by attraction of things of the same kind).
The winds of heaven then disperse on all sides, his vital airs together with the imaginary worlds of his life time, which subsisted in the particles of his vital breath.
I see the winds of heaven, bearing away the vital airs, together with their contents of the imaginary worlds; and filling the whole space of air with vital breath on all sides.
I see the Meru and Mandāra Mountains, wafted with the imaginary worlds before me; and you also will observe the same, before the sight of your understanding. (The whole vacuum teeming with life).
The ethereal airs are full with the vital airs of the dead, which contain the minute particles of mind in them; and these minds again contain the types of the worlds in them, just as the sesame seeds contain the oil in them.
As the ethereal airs bear the victual airs, which are of the same kind with them, (both being airy substances); so are the vital breaths accompanied with particles of the mind. (which is equally an airy substance also), these again bear the pictures of the worlds in them, as if they are in-grafted upon them.
The same vacuum contains the whole creation and the three worlds with the earth and ocean, all which are borne in it, as the different odors are borne by the winds.
All these are seen in the sight of the understanding, and not by the vision of the visual organs; they are the portraiture of our imagination, like the fairy lands we see in our dreams before us.
There are many other things, more subtile than the visible atmosphere, and which owing to their existence in our desire or fancy only, are not borne upon the wings of the winds as the former once:
(Though it is said in ordinary speech, that our desires and fancies are borne by our internal humour of vāya or wind).
But there are some certain truths, which are derived from the intellect, and are called intellectual principles, which have the power to cause our pleasure and pain, and lead us to heaven or hell: (Such as virtue and vice).
(These are the immutable principles of right and wrong, abiding in and proceeding from the intellect).
Again our desires are as the shadows of cities, floating on the stream of life; and though the current of life is continually gliding away, yet the shadowy desires whether successful or not, ever remain the same. (Lit; are never carried away by the current).
The vital breath carries its burden of the world, along with its course to the stillness of endless vacuity; as the breezes bear away the fragrance of flowers, to the dreary desert where they are lost forever.
Though the mind is ever fickle, changeable and forgetful in its nature; yet it never loses the false idea of the world which is inherent in it, as a pot removed to any place and placed in any state, never gets rid of its inner vacuity. (The idea of the world is carried by reminiscence, in every state and stage of the changeful mind).
So when the fallacy of the false world has taken possession of the deluded mind, it is alike impossible either to realize or set it at naught, like the form of the formless Brahma.
Or if this world is a revolving ,body, carried about by the force of the winds; yet we have no knowledge of its motion, as when sitting quiet in a boat, though carried afar to the distance of miles by the tide and winds.
As men sitting in a boat, have no knowledge of the force which carries the boat forward; so we earthly beings have no idea of the power, that is attached to it in its rotatory motion.
As a wide extending city, is represented in miniature in a painting at the foot of a column; so is this world contained in the bosom of the minute atom of the mind.
A thing however little or insignificant, is taken to be too much and of great importance, by the low and mean; as a handful of paddy is of great value of the little mouse than gems, and a particle of mud to the contemptible frog, than the pearls under the water. (So a particle of the mind is enough for the whole world).
Again a trifle is taken as too much, by those who are ignorant of its insignificance; as the learned in the error of their judgement, mistake this visionary world as preparatory to their future happiness or misery.
(The world being nothing in reality, cannot lead to anything to real good or evil).
The inward belief of something as real good, and of another as positive evil, is a mistake common to the majority of mankind, and to which the learned also are liable, in their conduct in this world. (The wise man is indifferent to everything, and neither likes nor takes the one, nor hates or rejects the other).
As the intelligent and embodied soul, is conscious of every part of the body iii which it is confined; so the enlightened living soul-jīva, beholds all the three worlds displayed within itself (as in the God Virāt).
The unborn and ever lasting God, who is of the form of conscious soul, extending over the infinity of space, has all these worlds, as parts of his all pervading vacuous body.
The intelligent and ever living soul (of God) sees the untreated worlds deeply impressed in itself; as a rod of iron (were it endowed with intelligence), would see the future knives and needles in itself.
As a clod of earth, whether endowed with intelligence or not knows the seed which is hidden in it, and which it grows to vegetation afterwards; so does the ever living soul know the world which are contained in it.
As the sensitive or insensitive seed, knows the germ, plant and tree, which it contains within its bosom; so does the spirit of God, perceive the great arbor of the world conceived in its profoundest womb.
As the man having his sight, sees the image of something reflected in a mirror, which the blind man does not; so the wise man sees the world in Brahma, which the ignorant do not perceive (but think the world as distinct from him).
The world is nothing except the union of the four categories of time, space, action and substance; and egoism being no way distinct from the predicates of the world, subsists in God who contains the whole in Himself. (God is not predicable by any particular predicate; but is the congeries of all the predicates taken collectively in his nature).
Whatever lesson is inculcated to any body by means of a parable, i.e. whatever thing is signified to some one by a comparison, know that the similar relates to some particular property of the compared object and not in all respects.
(So the similitude of iron rod given to god in the šruti and this book, regards only its'material causality, and not its insensibility with the sensible spirit of God).
Whatever is seen to be moving or unmoving here in this world; is the vivarta or expanded body of the living soul, without any alteration in its atomic minuteness. (Nature is the body, and God the soul. Pope).
Leaving the intelligence aside (which is wanting in created objects); and taking the force only, (which actuates all nature); we find no difference of this physical force from the giver of the force.
Again whatever alteration, is produced in the motion or option of anything or person, at any time or place or in any manner; is all the act of that Divine Intellect.
It is the intellect which infuses in the mind the power of its option, volition, imagination and the like; because none of these can spring as a sprout in the mind, which is without intelligence and without an intelligent cause of it.
Whatever desires and fancies, rise in the minds of the unenlightened; are not of the nature of the positive will or decree of the Divine Mind, owing to the endless variety and mutuality of human wishes.
The desires rising in the minds of the enlightened, are as they were no desires and never had their rise; because.-
All thoughts and desires being groundless, they are as false as the idle wishes of boys; for who has ever obtained the objects of his dream? (or that he has beheld in his dream)?
Sankalpa with its triple sense of thought, desire and imagination, is impressed by the intellect on the living soul (which is the image of God) from its past reminiscence; and though we have a notion of this ideal soul, yet it is as untrue and unsubstantial as a shadow; but not so the original Intellect, which both real and substantial.
He who is freed from the error of taking the unreal world for real, becomes as free as the god šiva himself; and hav1ng got rid of the corporeal body, becomes manifest in his spiritual form.
The imagination of the ignorant, whirls about the worlds, as the wind hurts the flying cotton in the air; but they appear to be as unmoved as stones to the wise, who are not led away by their imagination.
So there are multitudes of worlds, amidst many other things in the vast womb of vacuum which nobody can count; some of which are united with one another in groups, and others that have no connection with another.
The supreme intellect being all in all, manifests itself in endless forms and actions, filling the vast space of infinity, some of which are as transient as rain drops or bubbles in air and water, which quickly burst out and disappear; and others appearing as the great cities (of gods etc.), situated in the heart of the Infinite one.
Some of these, are as durable as rocks, and others are continually breaking and wearing out; some appearing as bright as with their open eyes, and others as dark as with their closed eye-lids; some of these are luminous to sight and others obscured under impenetrable darkness; thus the bosom of the intellect resembling the vast expanse of the ocean, is rolling on with the waves of creation to all eternity.
Some though set apart are continually tending towards another; as the waters of distant rivers are running to mix with those of seas and ocean; and as the luminous bodies of heaven, appearing together to brighten its sphere.
19. DESCRIPTION OF THE FORM OF VIRĀJ OR THE ALL COMPREHENDING DEITY
The Essence of the Living soul, and of the undivided and Individual bodies; and Distinction of things with regard to their distinct natures and actions.
Rāma said: Tell me sir, regarding the nature of the living soul, and the manner of its assuming its different forms; and tell me also its original form, and those which it takes at different times and places.
Vasistha replied: The infinite intelligence of God, which fills all space and vacuum; takes of its own will a subtile and minute form, which is intelligible under the name of Intellect; and it is this which is expressed by the term living soul-jīva or zoa.
Its original form is neither that of a minute atom, nor a bulky mass; not an empty vacuity, nor anything having its solidity. It is the pure intellect with consciousness of itself, it is omnipresent and is called the living soul. (It is neither the empty space, nor anything contained therein).
It is the minutest of the minute, and the hugest of the huge; it is nothing at all, and yet the all, which the learned designate as the living soul. (The proceeding one is a negative proposition, and this an affirmative one).
Know it as identic with the nature, property and quality, of any object whatever that exists any where; It is the light and soul of all existence, and self same with all, by its engrossing the knowledge of everything in itself. (Because nothing is existent in reality but in its idea, and the soul having all ideas in itself, is identic with all of them).
Whatever this soul thinks in any manner, of anything at any place or time, it immediately becomes the same by its motion thereof; (i.e. Being full with the idea of a thing, it is said to be identified with the same).
(The collective soul becomes all whatever it thinks or wills, as the soul of God; but the individual soul thinks as it becomes at any place or time-as the soul of man or any particular being. Gloss).
The soul possesses the power of thinking, as the air has its force in the winds; but its thoughts are directed by the knowledge of things, (that it derives by means of the senses); and not by the guidance of anyone, as the appearance of ghosts to boys.
As the existent air appears to be in-existent, without the motion of the wind; so the living soul desisting from its function of thinking, is said to be extinct in the Supreme Deity.
The living soul is misled to think of its individuality as the ego, by the density or dullness of its intellect; and supposes itself to be confined within a limited space of place and time, and with limited powers of action and understanding. (Thus the infinite soul mistakes itself for a finite being, by the dullness of its understanding).
Being thus circumscribed by time and space, and endowed with substance and properties of action etc., it assumes, to itself an unreal form or body, with the belief of its being or sober reality. (Thus the incorporeal soul, is incorporated in a corporeal frame).
It then thinks itself to be enclosed in an ideal atom; as one sees himself in his dream to be involved in his unreal death.
And as one finds in its mind his features and the members of his body, to another form in his dream; so the soul forgets her intellectual entity in her state of ignorance, and becomes of the same nature and form, as she constantly thinks upon. (It forgets its pure spiritual form, and becomes a dull material body of some kind).
Thinking itself to be thus transformed to a gross and material form, as that of Virāt the macrocosm, (who combines the whole material universe in himself); it views itself as bright and spotted, as the disk of the moon with the black spot upon it.
It then finds in its person resembling the lunar disk, the sudden union of the five senses of perception, appearing in him of themselves.
These five senses are then found to have the five organs of sensation for their inlets, by which the soul perceives the sensation of their respective objects.
Then the Purusa or first male power known as Virāt, manifests, himself in five other forms said to be the members of his person; and these are the sun, the sides, water, air and the land, which are the objects of five senses said before. He then becomes of endless forms according, to the infinity of objects of his knowledge: (i.e. the thoughts in this mind). He is thus manifested in his objective forms, but is quite unknown to us in his subjective or causal form, which is unchangeable and undecaying.
He sprang up at first from the supreme being, as its mental energy or the mind; and was manifest in the form of the calm and clear firmament, with the splendour of eternal delight.
He was not of the five elemental form, but was. the soul of the five element, he is called the Virāt Purusa-the macrocosm of the world, and the supreme lord of all. (He was the collective body of all individual ones).
He rises spontaneously of himself, and then subsides in himself; he expands his own essence all over the universe, and at last contracts the whole in himself.
He rose in a moment with his power of volition, and with all his desires in himself; he rises of his own will at first, and after lasting long in himself, dissolves again in himself.
He is the self-same one with the mind of God, and he is the great body of the material world; and his body is called the puryasataka or container of the eight elementary principles, as also the ativāhika or of the spiritual-form.
He is as the subtile and gross air, manifest as the sky, but invisible as he, subtile ether; he is both within and as well as without everything, and is yet nothing in himself.
His body consists of eight members, viz-the five senses, the mind, the living principle and egoism, together with the different states of their being and not being, i.e. of their visible and invisible form; (such as outward and inward organs of perception etc.).
He (in the from of Brhamā), sang at first the four Vedas with his four mouths; he determined the significations of words, and it was he who established the rules of conduct, which are in vogue to this time.
The high and boundless heaven, is the crown of his head; and the lower earth is the footstool of his feet; the unbounded sky is his capacious belly, and the whole universe is the temple over his body.
The multitudes of worlds all about, are the members of his body on all sides; the waters of seas are the blood of the scars upon his body; the mountains are his muscles, and the rivers and streams are the veins and arteries of his body.
The seas are his blood vessels, and the islands are the ligatures round his persons; his arms are the sides of the sky, and the stars are the hairs on his body.
The forty-nine winds are its vital airs, the orb of the sun is its eye-ball, while its heat is the fiery bile inside its belly.
The lunar orb is the sheath of his life, and its cooling beams are the humid humours of his body; his mind is the receptacle of his desires, and the pith of his soul is the ambrosia of his immortality.
He is the root of the tree of the body, and the seed of the forest of actions; he is the source of all existence, and he is as the cooling moon-light diffusing delight to all beings by the heating beams of that balmy planet osadhīsa.
The orb of the moon, is said in the śruti as the lord of life, the cause of the body and thoughts and actions of all living beings; (by growing the vegetable food for their subsistence and sustenance of their lives).
It is from this moon like Virāt, that contains all vitality that all other living beings in the universe take their rise; hence the moon is the container of life, mind, action and the sweet ambrosia of all living beings.
It is the will or desire of Virāt, that produced the gods Brahmā, Visņu and Śiva from himself; and all the celestial deities and demons, are the miraculous creation of his mind.
It is the wonderful nature of the intelligent Intellect, that whatever it thinks upon in its form of an infinitesimal atom, the same appears immediately before it in its gigantic form and size.
Know Rāma, the whole universe to be seat of the soul of Virāt; (i.e. the whole universe to be teeming with life), and the five elements to compose the five component parts of his body. (Whose body is all nature and whose soul is God).
Virāt that shines as the collective or universal soul of the world, in the bright orb of the moop, diffuses light and life to all individuals by spreading the moon-beams which produces the vegetable food for the supportance and sustenance of living beings.
The vegetable substances, which supply the animal bodies with their sustenance; and thereby produce the life of living beings; produce also the mind which becomes the cause of the actions and future births of persons by its efforts towards the same.
In this manner a thousand Virāts and hundreds of Mahā-kalpa periods have passed away; and there many such still existing and yet to appear, with varieties of customs and manners of peoples in different ages and climes.
The first and best and supremely blest virāt-the male Deity, resides in this manner of our conception of him, and indistinct in his essence from the state of transcendent divinity; with his huge body extending beyond the limits of space and time. (This Virāt or Brahma is the Demiurgus of platonic philosophy).
20. LECTURE ON THE EXTINCTION OF THE LIVING SOUL
Extinction of individual souls in the universal, by their abandonment of desires.
Vasistha continued: This primary Purusa or the Male agent-virāt, is a volitive principle; and whatever he wills to do at anytime, the same appears instantly before him in its material form of the five elements.
It is this will, O Rāma! that the sages say to have become the world; because by its being intent upon producing the same, it became expanded in the same form. (The will of the Deity is the deed itself).
Virāt is the cause of all things in the world, which came to be produced in the same form as their material cause. (Because the product is alike its producing cause, being a facsimile of the same).
As the great Virāt is collectively the aggregate of all souls, so is he distributed likewise into the individual soul of everybody. (Hence every soul knowing itself to be a particle of the Divine, cannot think itself as otherwise),
The same Virāt is manifest in the meanest insect as also in the highest Rudra, in a small atom as in the huge hill, and expands itself as the seed vessel to a very large tree: (all which are mistaken as parts of the illusive world).
The great Virāt is himself the soul of every individual, from the creeping insect to the mighty Rudra of air; and his infinite soul extends even to atoms, that are sensible and not insensible of themselves.
In proportion of Virāt expands and extends his soul to infinity, so he fills the bodies of even the atomic animalcules with particles of his own essence.
There is nothing as great or small in reality in the world, but everything appears to be in proportion as it is filled and expanded by the Divine spirit.
The mind is derived from the moon, again the moon has sprang from the mind; so does life spring from life and the fluid water flows from the congealed snow and ice and vice versa. (So there is nothing as greater or less or as the source and its outlet).
Life is but a drop of the seminal fluid, distilled as a particle by the amorous union of parents. (This life being transmitted from generation to generation, there is no one greater or less than another).
This life then reflects in itself, and derives the properties of the soul, and likens it in the fullness of its perfections. (Hence the soul and life are identified to one and the same principle by many).
The living soul has then the conscious of itself, and of its existence as one pure and independent soul; but there is no cause whatever, as to how it comes to think itself a material being composed of the five elements.
It is through opposition of nature that leads one into error, but in fact nature ever remains the same; as wrong interpretation of language imbrues bad ideas whereas character remains the same.
The living soul is conscious of its self-existence, by its knowledge of living by itself; it is the instinct of the perception of things by the mind, and not merely as the breath of life or external air, which is devoid of consciousness.
But being beset by the frost of ignorance, and confined to the objects of sense, the living soul is blinded of its consciousness and is converted to the breathing soul or vital life, and so loses the sight of its proper course.
Being thus deluded by the illusion of the world, the soul sees the duality instead of its unity, and being converted to the breathing of vital life, it is lost to the sight of the soul which is hidden under it.
We remain confined to this world of ignorance, as long we enjoy the idea of ego; but as soon we give up the idea of ego, we become a free man.
Therefore, O Rāma! When you will be able to know that there is no salvation and confinement in this world, as well as no sat and a sat, then and there you will be a true free man.
21. WHAT CONSTITUTES TRUE KNOWLEDGE
Amateurs of learning of two kinds, the real and the affected or Description of the two kinds of the lovers of knowledge, viz. the Real and the Fictitious.
Vasistha continued:- The wise man must always conduct himself wisely, and not with mere show or affectation of wisdom; because the ignorant even are preferable to the affected and pretended lovers of learning. (According to the maxim which says that, if the show of anything be good for anything, surely the Reality must be better).
Rāma rejoined:- Tell me sir, what is meant by true wisdom, and by the show or affectation of it; and what is the good or bad result of either. (i.e. What kind of men they are, their signs and their respective ends).
Vasistha replied: He who reads the śāstras, and practices his learning as a practitioner for earning his livelihood, without endeavouring to investigate into the principles of his knowledge, is called a friend to learning.
Whose learning is seen to be employed in busy life only, without showing its true effect in the improvement of the understanding; such learning being but an art or means of getting a livelihood, its possessor is called a fellow of learning; (and no doctor in it).
He who is satisfied with his food and dress only, as the best gain of his learning; is known as an amateur and novice in the art of explaining the śāstras: (or as mere teachers and pedagogues).
He who persists in the performance of his righteous and ceremonial acts, as ordained by law (Srouta śāstra) with an object of fruition, is termed a probationer in learning, and is near about to be crowned with knowledge.
The knowledge of the soul (spiritual knowledge), is reckoned as the true knowledge; all other knowledge is merely a semblance of it, being void of the essential knowledge (necessary for mankind).
Those who without receiving the spiritual knowledge, are content with bits of their secular learning; all their labour is in vain in this world, and they are styled as mere noviciates in learning.
Rāma, you must not rest here with your heart's content unless you can rest in the peace of your mind, with your full knowledge of the knowable one; you must not remain like a novice in learning, in order to enjoy the fruitions of this deleterious world. (Here all pleasure is palpable pain).
Let men work honestly on earth to earn their bread, and let them take their food for sustenance of their lives; let them live for the inquiry after truth, and let them learn that truth, which is calculated to prevent their return to this miserable world.
22. THE YOGA CONDUCIVE TO HAPPINESS OR THE WAY TO HAPPINESS
The signs and characters of wise men and of their wisdom; together with a disquisition into the nature of the world, soul and the Supreme spirit or Brahma.
Vasistha resumed: The men who by his knowledge of the knowable one, has placed his reliance in him; who has set his mind to its pristine purity, by purging it from its worldly propensities, and has no faith in the merit of acts; is one who is called the truly wise. (This chapter is in answer to Rāma's question about who is a wise man etc.).
The learned who knowing all kinds of learning, and being employed in acts, yet observe their indifference in every thing, are called to be truly wise. (It is wisdom to act, and not expect).
He whose heart is observed by the wise, to retain its coldness in all his acts and efforts; and whose mind is unaffectedly calm and quiet at all times; is said to be the truly wise man.
The sense of one's liberation from the doom of birth and death, is the true meaning of the world knowledge; or else the art of procuring simple food and raiment, is the practice of artificers only.
He is styled a wise man who having fallen in the current of his transactions, remains without any desire or expectation, and continues with as vacant a heart as the empty air.
The accidents of life come to pass, without any direct cause and to no purpose; and what was neither present nor expected, comes to take place of its own accord. (All accidents are caused by an unknown and unforeseen fate or chance).
The appearance or disappearance of an event or accident, proceeds from causes quite unknown to us, and these afterwards become causes of the effects produced by them.
Who can tell what is the cause of the absence of horn in hares, and the appearance of water in the mirage, which cannot be found out or seen at the sight of those objects.
Those who explore in the causality of the want of horns in hares, may well expect to embrace the necks of the sons and grandsons of a barren woman.
The cause of the appearance of the unreal phenomena of the world to our sight, is no other than our want of right sight (i.e. our ignorance), which presents these phantoms to our view; and which disappear at a glance of our acute vision (of reason).
The living (or human) soul appears as the Supreme spirit, when it is viewed upon by the sight of our blended intellect; but no sooner does the light of Divine intellect drawn in our minds, than the living or animal soul dwindles into nothing.
The insensible and unconscious Supreme soul, becomes awakened to the state of the living soul; just as the potential mango of winter, becomes the positive mango fruit in the genial spring.
The intellect being awakened, becomes the living soul; which in its long course of its living, becomes worn out with age and toil, and passes into many births in many kinds of beings: (animal, vegetable as well as insensible objects).
Wise men that are possessed of their intellectual sight, look internally within themselves in the recesses of their hearts and minds; without looking at the lookables without, or thinking of anything or many efforts whatever; but move on with the even course of their destiny, as the water flows on its course to the ocean of eternity.
They who have come to the light of their transcendent vision, fix their sight to brighter views beyond the sphere of visible; and discern the invisible exposed to their view.
They who have come to the vision of transcendent light (the glory of God), have their slow and silent motion like that of. a hidden water course; owing to their heedlessness of everything in this world.
They who are regardless of the visible and thoughtless of the affairs of the world, are like those that disentangled from their snares; and they are truly wise, who meddle with their business as freely, as the free airs of heaven gently play with and move the leaves of trees.
They who have come to sight of the transcendent light, athwart the dizzy scenes of mortal life; are not constrained to the course of this world, as seafarers are not to be pent up in shallow and narrow pools and streams. (Sailors are glad to be in the wise ocean, than to ply in the waters of inland creeks).
They that are slaves of their desire (of enjoyment in this and next life), are bound to the thraldom of works ordained by law and fruti; and thus pass their lives in utter ignorance of truth.
(Hence knowledge and practice are opposed to one another, the one being a state of bondage for some frail good and gain, and the other of freedom and lasting bliss).
The bodily senses fall upon carnal pleasures, as vultures pounce upon putrid carrion; curb and retract them therefore with diligence, and fix your mind to meditate on the state of Brahma and the soul.
Know the Brahma is not without the creation, as no gold is without its form and reflection; but keep yourself clear from thoughts of creation and reflection, and confine your mind to the meditation of Brahma, which is replete with perfect bliss.
Know the nature of Brahma to be as inscrutable, as the face of the universe is discernible, in the darkness of the chaotic state at the end of a Yuga age; when there was no appearance of anything, nor distinction of conduct and manners. (See Manu's institutes I. 2).
And the elements of production existing in the consciousness of divine nature, were in their quiescent agitation in the divine spirit; as the movements of flimsy vapours amidst the darkness of an immovable and wide spreading cloud. (So are the fickle thoughts of the firm mind, and the moving engines of the fixed machine).
And as the particles of water are in motion, in a still pond and in the standing pool; so are the changing thoughts of the changeless soul, and so the motions of the element bodies in unchanging essence and nature of God.
As the universal and undivided sky and space, take the names of the different sides of heaven (without having any name or side of its own); so the undivided and partless Brahma, being one and same with the creation, is understood as distinct and different from it.
The world contains the egoism, as the ego contains the world in it; they contain the one within the other, as the coats of the plantain tree contain and are contained under one another.
The living soul or jīva being possessed of its egoism, sees its internal world (which lies in its egoism), through the pores of the organs of sense, as lying without it; in the same manner, as the mountains look upon the lakes issuing out of its caverns, as if they outward things altogether. (So the mental and internal world appears as a visibly external phenomenon).
So when the living soul sees itself by mistake, to any thing in the world (i.e. in the light of an object); it is the same as one takes a ball or bar of gold, for an ornament which was or is to be made of it. (So the soul residing in any body at anytime, is not that body itself but the indwelling power thereof).
Hence they that are acquainted with the soul, and are liberated in their life time (or become jīvanmukta; never think themselves to be born or living or dying at any time; (though they are thought and looked upon as such by others. The soul being eternal and unchangeable).
Those that are awakened to the sight of the soul, are employed in the actions of life without looking at them; (without taking heed of them in their hearts); just as a house-holder discharges his domestic duties, while his mind is fixed at the milk pot in the cow-stall.
As the God Virāt is situated with his moon like appearance, in the heart of the universal frame, so does the living soul reside in the heart of every individual body like a little or large dew drop, according to the smallness or bigness of the corporeal body.
This false and frail body believed to be a solid reality, on account of its tripartite figure; and is mistaken for the ego and soul, owing to the intelligence that is displayed and dwells in it.
The living soul is confined like a silkworm, in the cell of its own making Karma-Kosa, by acts of its past life, and resides with its egoism in the seem of its parents, as the floral fragrance dwells in the honey cups of flowers.
The egoism residing in the seminal seed, spreads its intelligence throughout the body from head to foot; as the moon-beams are scattered throughout the circumference of the whole universe.
The soul stretches out the fluid of its intelligence, through the opening of its organs of sense; and this being carried to a sides through the medium of air, extends all over the three worlds, as the vapour and smoke fill and cover the face of the sky.
The body is full of sensibility, both in its inner as well as outer parts; but it is in the viscera of the heart, where our desires (vāsanā) and egoism (abhimāna) are deeply seated.
The living soul is composed of its desires only, and consists of and subsists under its hearty wishes alone, the same soon come out of themselves from within the heart, and appear on the outside in the outward conduct of the person. (Whatever is in the heart, the same appears also in action).
The error of egoism is never to be suppressed, by any other means whatsoever; save by one's unmindfulness (niścitta) of himself, and fullness of divine presence (Brahmaikarasya) in his calm and quiet soul.
Though dwelling on your present thoughts, yet you must rely in your reflection of the vacuous Brahma; by suppression of your egoism by degrees and your self-control betimes.
They who have known the soul, manage themselves here without fostering their earthly thoughts anymore; and remain as silent images of wood, without looking at or thinking of any thing at all.
He who has less of earthly thoughts in him, is said to be liberated in the world and though living in it, he is as clear and free in his mind as the open air; (no earthly affections, tie down his rising soul).
The egoism which is bred in the pith, grows into intelligence extending from head to foot; and circulates throughout the whole body, as the sun-beams pervade all over the sphere of heaven.
It becomes the sight of the eyes, the taste of the tongue and hearing in the ears; then the five senses being fastened to the desires in the heart, plunge the ego into the sea of sensuality.
Thus the omnipresent intellect, becomes the mind after losing its purity; and is employed with one or other of the senses, as the common moisture of the earth, grows the sprout to in the vernal season.
He who thinks on the various objects of the senses, without knowing their unreality and the reality of the only one; and does not endeavour for his liberation here, has no end of his troubles in life. (Because sensible objects, afford no intellectual or spiritual happiness).
That man reigns as an emperor, who is content with any kind of food and raiment; and with any sort of bedstead at any place. (And is not confined to any particular mode of life).
Who with all his desires of the heart, is indifferent to all the outward objects of desire; who with his vacant mind is full with his soul, and being as empty vacuum is filled with the breath of life.
Who whether he is sitting or sleeping, or going anywhere or remaining unmoved, continues as quiet as in his sleeping state; and though stirred by any one, he is not awakened from his slumber of nirvāna, in which his mind and its thoughts, are all drowned and have become extinct. (This is the state of the sixth stage of Yoga meditation).
Consciousness though common to all, resides yet in each breasts, like fragrance in flowers and flavour in fruits.
It is self-consciousness only, that makes an individual person, and its extinction is said to form the wide world all about; but being confined to the soul or one's self, it vanishes the sight of the world from view.
(i.e. The subjective consciousness is the soul or self, and its objectivity makes the world; and this is the abstract of this doctrine).
Be unconscious of the objects on earth; and remain insensible of all your prosperity and affluence: make your heart as hard as impenetrable as stone, if you will be happy forever.
O righteous Rāma! convert the feeling of your heart to unfeelingness, and make your body and mind as insensible as the hardest stone (upala or opal).
Of all the positive and negative acts, of the wise and unwise sets of men, there is nothing that makes such a marked difference between them, as those proceeding from the desire of the one, and those from want of the desire of the other.
The result of the desired actions of the unwise, is their stretching out of the world before them; while that of the acts done without desire by the wise, serves to put an end to the world before them.
(The acts of desire produce repeated births in the world, while the other puts and end to the future transmigrations of the soul).
All visible are destructible, and those that are destroyed come to be renewed to life; but that which is neither destroyed nor resuscitated, is yourself your very soul.
The knowledge of existence (of the world), is without its foundation; and though it is thought to be existent, it is not fond to be so in reality; it is as the water in the mirage, which does not grow the germ of the world.
The right knowledge of things, removes the thought of egoism from the mind; and though it may be thought if in the mind, yet it takes no deep root in the heart, as the burnt seed or grain does not sprout forth in the ground.
The man that does his duties or not, but remains passionless and thoughtless and free from frailty; has his rest in the soul, and his nirvāna is always attendant upon him.
Those who are saintly calm and quiet by the control of their mind, and by suppression of the bonds (appetites) for enjoyments; but not having weakened (governed) their natures, have in their hearts a mine of evils.
The wise soul is full of light like the cloudless sky, and is distinguished from others by its brightness; but the same soul which is alike in all, appears as dim as the evening twilight in the ignorant.
As a man seated in this place, sees the light of heaven (heavenly bodies), was coming to him m a -great distance, and filling the intermediate space; so the light of the Supreme soul fills and reaches to all.
The infinite and invisible intellect, which is as wondrous as the clear vacuum of the sky; conceives and displays this wonderful world, within the infinitude of its own vacuity.
The world appears to the learned and unerring, and those who have got rid of the error of the world, and rest in their everlasting tranquility, as a consumed and extinguished lamp; while it seems to all common people, to be placed in the air, by the will of God and for the enjoyment of all. (The two opposite views of the world with the learned and ignorant).
23. STORY OF A PIOUS BRĀHMANA AND HIS NIRVĀNA EXTINCTION
Account of Vasistha's meeting hermit named monkey in a desert land; and their mutual conversation with regard to self-resignation and liberation.
Vasistha said: (I have delivered to you my lectures) on dispassionateness, ihappetence and resignation of worldly desires; rise therefore and go beyond the material world after the example of one Manki: (as related herein- below).
There lived once on a time before a Brāhmanes named Manki, who was applauded for his devotion and steadfastness to holy vows.
It happened at one time, that I was coming down from the vault of heaven, upon an invitation from your grandfather Aja on some particular occasion.
As I then came to wander on the surface of the earth, in order to reach at the realm of your grand-sire; I happened to meet before me a vast desert, with the burning sun-shine over it.
It was a dreary waste without its boundary on any side, filled with burning sands and obscured by gray and fly dust over it; and marked by a few scattered hamlets here and there.
The extended waste appeared as the boundlėss and spotless immensity of Brahma, by its unrestricted vacuity, howling winds, burning heat and light, its seeming water in the sand, and untroddening ground resting in peace.
It seemed as delusive as the appearance of avidya or illusion itself; by the deceptive waters of mirage upon the sand, by its dullness and empty space and the mist overhanging on all sides of it.
As I was wandering along this hollow and sandy wilderness, I saw a wayfarer sauntering before me and muttering to himself in the travail of his wearisome journey.
The traveller said: O the powerful sun! That afflicts me with his blazing beams, as much as the company of evil-minded men is for our annoyance.
The sun-beams seen to pour down fire on earth, and melt down the pith and marrow of my body and bones; as they have been drying up the leaves and igniting the forest trees (for a conflagration).
Therefore it behoves me to repair to yonder hamlet, to allay the weariness of my journey, and recover my strength and spirits for travelling onward. (So it is said- the shady bower invites the dry, and drives out the cooled).
So saying, he was about to proceed towards the village, which was an habitation of the low caste Kirātas. (The kerrhoids of Ptolemy, and the present Kerāntes of the Himālayas). When I interrupted him by saying:-
Vasistha said: I had you, O you passenger of the sandy desert, and may all be well with you, that art my fellow traveller on the way, and art so good looking and passionless-
O traveller of the lower earth! who have long lived in the habitations of men, and have not found your rest, how is it now that you expect to have it, in this solitary abode of this mean people?
You can have no rest at the abode of the vile people in yonder village, which is mostly peopled by the Pāmarā villains; thirst is not appeased, but increased by a beverage of briny water.
(So it is said- The unquenchable appetite of the greedy, is never quenched by nourishment, but it nourishes it the more, as the fuel and butter serve to kindle and feed the fire).
These huts and hamlets shelter the cowardly cow-herds (Pallava Gopas) under them, and them that are afraid to walk in the paths of men, as the timid deer are averse to rove beyond their own track. (So these solitary swains are as the savage beasts of the forests).
They have no stir or agitation of reason, nor any flash of understanding or mental faculties in them; they are not afraid of or averse to base actions, but remain and move on as stone-mills and wheels:-
Their manliness consists in the emotions of their passions and affections, and in exhibitions of the signs of their cupidity and aversion, and they delight mostly in actions, that appear pleasant at the time being or present moment. (They are occupied with the present only, being forgetful of the past and careless of the future).
As there is no appearance of a body of rainy clouds, over the dry and parched lands of the desert, so there is no shadow of pure and cooling knowledge ever stretched out on the minds of these people. (i.e. They have never come under the benign influence of civilization).
Rather dwell in a dark cave as a snake, or remain as a blind worm in the bosom of a stone; or limp about as a lame stag in the barren desert, than mix in company of these village of people.
These rude rustics resemble the potions of poison, that are mixed with honey; they are sweet to taste for a moment, but prove deadly at last. (Such are the robbers of deserts and woods).
Again these villainous villagers are as rude as the rough winds, which are blowing with gusts of dust amidst the shattered huts, built with grassy turfs and tufts of the dried leaves of trees. (The word trna means straw also or a straw built hut).
Being thus spoken unto by me, the traveller felt himself as glad, as if he was bathed in ambrosial showers.
The passenger said: Who are you sir, with your magnanimous soul, that seems to me to be full and perfect in yourself, and full of Divine spirit in your soul. You look at the bustle of the bustle of the world, as a passer is unconcerned with the commotion of the villages beside his way.
Have you sir, drunk the ambrosial draught of the gods, that gave you your Divine knowledge? and art infused with the spirit of the Sovereign Virāt, that is quite apart from the plenum it fills, and is quite full with its entire voidness: (stretches through all, and unmixed with any).
I see your soul to be as void and yet as full as his, and as still and yet as moving as the Divine spirit; it is all and not all what exists, and something yet nothing itself.
It is quiet and comely, shining and yet unseen; it is inert and yet full of force and energy, it is inactive with all its activity and action; and such soul is yours.
(These antithetic attributes of the Divine soul, are applied objectively to that of Vasistha in the second person, as they are subjectively put to one's ownself in the first person in may other places. Thus in the Bhagavad Gīta where Krsna assumes to himself the title of Brhamā and says "Resort to Me alone" so says the safi Mansur "I am the true one" so says Hastamulaka in his celebrated rhapsody. "I am that eternal that is conceived by every one".)
Though now journeying on earth, you seem to range far above the skies; you are supportless, though supported on a sound basis (of the body or Brahma).
(i.e. The spirit and mind range freely every where, though they appear to be confined within the limits of the body, or to proceed from and rest in the eternal essence of Brahma).
You are not stretched over the objects, and yet no object subsists without you; your pure mind like the beauteous orb of the moon, is full of the nectarous beams of immortality. (The moon is called the lord of medicinal plants, having the virtues of conferring life and health to the body).
You shinest as the full-moon, without any of her digits or blackish spots in you; you are cooling as the moon-beams, and full of ambrosial juice as the disk of that watery planet.
I see the existence and non-existence of the world, depend upon your will, and your intellect contains in it the revolving world, as the germ of a tree contains within it the would be fruit.
Know me sir, as a Brahmana sprung from the sage Śāndilya's race; my name is Manki and am bent on visiting places of pilgrimage.
I have made very long journeys, and seen many holy places in my peregrinations all about; and have now after long bent my course to revisit my native home.
(The toils being over, the traveller returns home, and there to die. Goldsmith).
But my mind is so sick of and averse to the world, that I hesitate to return to my home, after having seen the lives of men passing away as flashes of lightening from this world.
Deign now sir, to give me a true account of yourself, as the minds of holy-men are as deep and clear as limpid lakes.
When great men like yourself show their kindness, to one as mean as myself at the first sight of him, his heart is sure to glow with love and gratitude to them, as the lotus buds are blown (by the premature gleams of the rising sun), and are led to be hopeful of their favour towards him.
Hence I hope sir, that you will kindly remove the error, which is bred in me my ignorance of the delusions of this tempting world. (Lit. I believe you are able to do so etc.).
Vasistha replied: Know me, O vise man, to be Vasistha-the sage and saint, and an inhabitant of the ethereal region; and am bound to this way, on some errand of the sagely king (Aja by name).
I tell you sir, not to be disheartened at your ignorance, as you have already come to the path of wisdom, and very nearly got over the ocean of the world, and arrived at the coast of transcendental knowledge.
I see you have come to the possession of the invaluable treasure, of your indifference to worldly matters; for this kind of speech and sentiments, and the sedateness of disposition which you have displayed, can never proceed from a worldling, and bespeak your high-mindedness.
Know that as a precious stone is polished, by gentle abrasion of its rubbish; so the mind comes to its reasoning, by the rubbing off of the dross of its prejudice.
Tell me what you desire to know, and how you want to abandon the world; it is in my opinion done by practice of what one is taught by his preceptor, or by interrogatories of what he does not know or understand.
It is said that whosoever has a mind, to go across the doom of future birth or transmigration of his soul, should be possessed of good and pure desires in his mind, and an understanding inclined to reasoning under the direction of his spiritual guide. Such a person is verily entitled to attain to the state, which is free from future sorrow and misery.
24. INDIFFERENCE OR INSOUCIANCE OF MANKI TO WORLDLINESS
Manki's relation of the miseries of his life and of this world, together with the evils attendant on Human body and its senses and understanding.
Vasistha said: Being thus accosted by me, Manki fell at my feet (in salutation); and then shedding the tears of joy from both his eyes, spoke to me on our way, with due respect (to my rank).
Manki said: O venerable sir, I have been long travelling in all the ten sides of the earth; but I have never met a holy man like yourself, who could remove the doubts arising in my mind.
Sir, I have gained today the knowledge which is the chief good of the body of a Brāhmana, whose sacred person is more venerable and far more superior in birth and dignity, than the bodies of all other beings in heaven and on earth; but sir am sorry at heart, at seeing the evils of this nether world.
Repeated births and deaths, and the continued rotations of pleasure and pain, are all to be accounted as painful, on account of their terminating in pain. (Pain is pain, and pleasure too ends in pain).
And because pleasure leads to greater pain (at its want), it is better, O sage, to continue in one's pain (which becomes a pleasure by long habit). The sequence of fleeting pleasure being but lasting pain, it is to be accounted as such even as long as it lasts.
O friend! all pleasures are as painful to me, as my pains have become pleasurable at this advanced age of mine; when my teeth and the hairs of my body, are falling off with the decay and wearing out of my internal parts also.
My mind is continually a spring to higher stations in life, and is not persevering in its holy course; and the germ of my salvation, is choked by the thorns and thistles of my evil and worldly desires.
My mind is situated amidst its passions and affections, within the covert of my body, as the banian tree stands amidst its falling leaves in the interior of a rustic village; and the desires are flying like hungry vultures all over its body, in search of their abominable sustenance.
My wicked and crooked thoughts are as the brambles of creeping and thorny plants, and my life is a weary and dreary maze, as a dark and dismal night, (where and when we are blind-folded to descry our right way).
The world with all its people, being parched and dried up like withered plants, without the moisture of true knowledge, and decaying day by day with incessant cares, is fast advancing towards its dissolution, without being destroyed all at once.
All our present acts are drowned in those of our past lives, and like withered trees bear no flower or fruit in our present life; and actions done with desire, terminate with the gain of their transitory objects. (Therefore no action nor meritorious deeds of religion, can ever tend to our salvation. (which is had by our faith alone).
Our lives are wasted in our attachment to family and dependents, and never employed to lead our souls across the ocean of the world; the desire of earthly enjoyments are decaying day by day, and a dreadful eternity awaits before us.
Our prosperity and possessions, whether they are more or less, are as noxious to our souls, as the thorny and poisonous plants growing in the hollow caves of earth; again they are attended with thoughts and cares causing fever heat in the soul, and emaciating the body.
Fortune makes the brave and fortunate people, fall sometimes in the hands of foes; as the man ardent with the desire of gems in his mind, is tempted to catch the gemming serpents, lying in dark caves; (and lose his life in attempting to seize the treasure).
I being entirely inclined or given up to the objects of sense, am abandoned by the wise (who hate to touch the vile); and my mind which is polluted by worldly desires, and is all hollow within, is shunned by them as a dead sea with its troubled and turbid waters.
As a tree of Arjuna of impure place and having thorns, my mind is turning also about false vanities, as the rheumatic pains all about the body.
And I am also even with my innumerable deaths hunting after desired vacuity for sorrow, though my mind is purged from the dross of ignorance by reading śāstra and associating good men; as the moon and stars which with its power of removing darkness, stand good in vacuity.
There is no end of the dark night of my ignorance, when the gloomy spectre of my egoism is playing its part; and I have not the knowledge, which like a lion may destroy the furious elephant of my ignorance and burn down as fire the straws of my actions.
The dark night of my earthly desire or cupidity is not yet over, and the sun of my disgust of the world is not risen as yet; I still believe the unreal as real, and mind is roving about as an elephant.
My senses have been continually tempting me, and I know not what will be the end of these temptations, which prevent even the wise people, from observing precepts of the śāstras.
This want of sight or disregard of the śāstras, leads to our blindness by kindling our desires, and by blinding our understanding-
Therefore tell me sir, what am I to do in this difficulty, and what is that my conduce to my chief good, that I am asking you to relate.
It is said that, the mist of our ignorance flies like the clouds, at the sight of wise men and purification of our desires; now sir, verify the truth of this saying of wise men, by your enlightening my understanding and giving peace to my mind.
25. VASISTHA'S ADMONITION TO MANKI
The avarana sakti or all-enfolding power of God is called ignorance, his viksepa śakti or delusive power is the cause of error, and the combination of both cause the world.
Vasistha said: Consciousness (of the objects of perception), their reflection, the desire of having them and their imagination, are the four roots of evil in this world; and though these words are meaningless, yet considerable sense is attached to them (as categories of some schools of false philosophy); as the four sources of knowledge.
Know that knowledge (of externals) is their reflexion also, which is the seat (or root) of all evils; and all our calamities proceed therefrom, as thickly as vegetation springs out of the vernal juice (or breath of spring).
Men garbed in the robes of their desires, walk in the dreary paths of this world, with very many varieties of their actions (both temporal and ritual), as there are circles drawn under a circles (i.e. one circle of duty enclosing many others under it).
But these aberrations and wanderings over the earth, are at an end to the wise together with their desires; as the moisture of the ground, is dried up and diminishes at the end of the vernal season.
Our various desires, are the growers of the very many thorny plants and brambles in the world; as he vernal moisture is the cause of growing the thick clumps of kadalī or plantain trees.
The world appears as a dark maze to the mind, that is cloyed in the serum of its likerish appetites; as the ground is shaded under the bushy trees, by the sap supplied by the vernal season.
There is nothing in existence except the clear and vacuous intellect, as there is nothing in the boundless sky, beside the hollow vacuity of the air. (This is another passage of the vacuistic theory of Vasistha).
There is no intelligent soul beside this one, and all else is the everlasting reflexion of this one alone; This it is which is styled ignorance and error, and the world also.
He is seen without being seen, and is lost upon being seen, (that is, the Lord is seen in the spirit and not by the visual sight). On looking, to it an unreal or evil spirit appears to sight instead of the true and holy spirit, like ghosts and goblins appearing before children. (Whoever wishes to the spirit of God, sees the spirit of the devil only).
It is by rejecting all visible sights, the understanding views the one essence of all, and all things dwindle into it, as all the rivers on earth, run and fall into one universal ocean. (The one invisible unity is the essence of multiplicity).
As an earthen were cannot be without its earth; so all intelligent beings, are never devoid of their intelligence or the intellect.
(This couplet corroborates the eight verse, where it is said that, there is nothing except the intellect).,
Whatever is known by the understanding, is said to be our knowledge; but the understanding has no knowledge of the unknowable, nor want of understanding can have any knowledge, owing to their opposite natures. (Because understanding and knowledge are of the same nature, but understanding and unknowable are contraries, and want of understanding and the knowable are sub-contraries.)
(The plain meaning is that the under- standing knows the knowable and not the unknowable; while want of understanding knows neither the one nor the other).
As there is the same relation of knowledge between the looker, his seeing and sight; (i.e. the subject, act, and object of seeing); so it is omniscience of Brahma which is the only essence. (Sāraikarasyam), all else is as null as an aerial flower (Kha puspa) which never exists.
Things of the same kind bear an affinity to one another, and readily unite in one (as water with water etc.); so the world being alike to its notion, and all notions being alike to the eternal ideas in the mind of God, the world and the divine mind, are certainly the same thing and no other.
If there be no knowledge or notion of wood and stone on us, then they would be the same as the non-existent things of which we have no notion;- (such as the horns of a hare or a flower in the air).
When the outward and visible features of things, are so exactly similar to the notions and knowledge of them that we have in our minds; therefore they appear to be no other than our notions or knowledge of them. (Because things agreeing in all respects with one another, must be the same and very thing).
All visible appearances in the universe, are only the outstretched reflexions of our inner ideas; their fluctuation is as that of the winds, as their motion is as that of the waters in the ocean.
All things are mixed up with the omnipresent spirit, as a log of wood is covered over by lacdye; both of which appear to the mixed together to the unthinking, but both are taken for the one and same thing by the thinking part of mankind; (who believe the spirit to exhibit itself in all shapes.).
The idea of reciprocity is unity, and the knowledge of mutuality is union also; such as the interchange of water and milk, and so the correlation of vision and visible; and not as the union of the wood and lac-dye with one another.
(This means unity to consist in the interchahgeableness and interdependence of two
things as of the spirit and matter, and not as sticking the lac-dye upon wood, but as fire inhering in every particle of the wood, as it is expressed in the aforesaid cited śruti)-
The knowledge of one's egoism is his bondage, and that of his unegoism is his emancipation from it; thus one's imprisonment in and enfranchisement from the confines of his body and the world; being both under his subjection, why is it that he should be slack to sit himself at freedom from his perceptual tharldom?
Like our sight of two moons in the sky, and our belief of water in the mirage, we believe in the reality of our egoism, which is altogether an unreality. (Lit. We think it present without its presence).
The disbelief in one's self or his egoism, removes his meity (māmatā) or selfishness also; and it being possible to everyone to get rid of them, how is it that he should be ignorant of it?
Why do you maintain your egoism only, to be confined in the cell of your body, like a plum drowned in a cup of water, or like the air confined in a pot? Your relation to god is to be no other but like himself and to be one with him, is to have the reciprocal knowledge of yourself in the likeness of God (i.e. to be like the image of god in perfection).
It is said that the want of reciprocal knowledge, makes the union of two things into one (i.e. the entire commingling of two things together makes them one); but this is wrong in both ways, because neither does any dull material thing or any spiritual substance, lose its own form (however mixed up with one or the other).
Neither is force converted into inertness (i.e. the spirit never becomes matter), from the indestructibility of their nature, and whenever the spiritual is seen or considered as the material, it becomes as duality, and there is no unity in this view of the two.
(Hence there is no union or entire assimilation either of the spirituals or materials).
Thus men being under the influence of their desires, and beset by their vanities of various kinds (altogether) are going on downward still, as a stone torn from the head of a cliff, falls from precipice to precipice headlong to the ground.
Men are as straws carried here and there by the current of their desire, and whirled about in its eddy; they are overtaken by and overwhelmed in an endless series of difficulties which impossible form to enumerate..
Men being cast like a ball flung from the palm of fate, are hurried onward by their ardent desires till they are hurled headlong into the depth of hell; where being worried and worn-out with hell torments, they take other forms and shapes after lapses of long periods, (to undergo fresh toils and troubles on earth).
26. MANKI' S ATTAINMENT OF FINAL EXTINCTION OR NIRVāNA
The vanity of Human wishes, and the Tranquility of Rational and spiritual speculation.
Vasistha said: Thus the living soul, being let all in the mazy path of his world, is encompassed by calamities and accident as countless as the animalcules, which are generated in the rainy season.
All these accidents though unconnected with one another, follow yet so fast and closely upon each other, as the detached stone lying scattered and close together in the rocky desert, and linked in a lengthening chain of thought in the mind of man.
The mind blinded of its reason, becomes a wilderness overgrown with the arbor of its calamities, and yet appearing to be smiling as a vernal grove before men, by its feigned merriment and good humour. (Merth and sorrow are both of them the effects of unreasonableness).
O how pitiable are all those beings ! Who being bound to their subjection to hope, are subjected to divers states of pain and pleasure, in their repeated births in various forms on earth.
Alas for those strange and abnormal desires, which subjects the minds of men, to the triple error of taking the non-existent to b actually present before them.
(The triple error (Triputi bhrama) consists in the belief of the visible, their vision and the viewer of them, that is, in the subject, act and objects of sight, which are all viewed as unreal in the light of Vedānta).
Those who have known the truth, are delighted in themselves, they are immortal in their mortal life, and are diffusers of pure light all about them. What then is the difference between the sapient sage who is cold-hearted in all respects, and the cooling moon (who cools and enlivens and enlightens the world with her ambrosial beams?)
And what is difference between a whimsical boy and a covetous fool, who covets anything whatever at hand without any consideration of the past and future (good or evil which attends upon it).
What is the difference between the greedy fool and voracious fish or whale, that devour the alluring bait of pleasure or pain; and will not give up the line until they are sure to give up their lives for the same. (All seeming pleasure is real pain, and bain of both the body and soul of men).
All our earthly possessions whether of our bodies or lives, our wives, friends and properties, are as frail as a brittle plate made of sand, which no sooner it is dried and tried than it spurts and breaks to pieces.
O my soul! You mayst forever wander, in hundred of bodies of various forms in repeated bites; and pass from the heaven of Brahma to the empyrean of Brahma; yet you canst never your tranquility, unless you attainest the even insouciance of your mind. (The stoic impassivity is the highest felicity).
The ties and bondage of the world, are dispersed by mature introspection into the nature of things; as the uneven ruggedness of the road, does not retard the course of the wayfarer walking with his open eyes.
The negligent soul becomes a prey to concupiscence and unruly passions, as the heedless passenger in caught in the clutches of demons; but the well-guarded spirit is free from their fright.
As the opening of the eyes, presents the visible to sight; so does the waking consciousness introduce the ego and phenomenal world into the mind. (i.e. Consciousness is the cause of both the subjective and objective).
And as the shutting of the eye-lids, shuts out the view of the visible objects from sight; so, O destroyer of enemies, the closing of consciousness, puts out the appearance of all sights and thoughts from your eyes and mind; (and this unmindfulness of everything besides, prepares the soul for the sight of the most high).
The sense of the existence of the external world, together with that of one's ego or self- existence, is all unreal and inane, it is consciousness alone that shows everything -in itself and by the fluctuationof its erroneous; as the motion of winds displays the variegated clouds in the empty air. (It is the imaginative faculty of the mind, that creates and presents thėse phantoms before it).
It is the divine consciousness only, which exhibits the unreal phenomenal as real in itself, without creating anything apart or separate from its own essence; in the same manner as earth or any metal produces a pot or a jar out of itself, and which is no wise distinct or separate from its substance.
As the sky is only a vacuity, and the wind is a mere fluctuation of air; and as the waves are composed of nothing but water; so the world is no other than a phenomenon of consciousness; (because we have no knowledge of it without our consciousness of it).
The world subsists undivided in the bas-relief of consciousness, and without a separate existence of its own apart or disjoined in any part, from its substance or substratum of the conscious soul, which is as calm and clear as the empty air, and the world resembles the shadow of a mountain in the bosom of water, or a surge or wave rising on the surface of the sea.
There rises a calm coolness in the souls of wise and in-excitable sages, when the shining worlds appear as the cooling moon-beams falling on the internal mirror of their minds.
How is it and by what means and in what manner, is this invisible supreme light, produced in the calm and quiet and all pervading auspicious soul, amidst the empty expanse of the universe.
(Here is a double question of the production of uncreated light in creation and of the manifestation of divine and spiritual light in the quiet soul).
That essence which is expressed by the term Brahma, forms the essential nature and form of everything besides; and the same is permeated throughout all nature, except where it is abstracted by some preventive cause or other- bādhā.
Anything which presents a hindrance to this, and whatever is preventive of the pervasion of divine essence, is a nullity in nature like a sky flower-ākāśa puspa, which is nothing at all in nubibus.
The wise man sits quietly like a stone, without the action of even his inner and mental faculties; because the lord is without the reflection or sensation of anything, and without birth or decay at anytime.
(Here the mind and its workings, are explained as vikalpana or changing thoughts, which are wanting in the eternal mind).
He who remains insensible and unconsciousness of every thing, like the empty state of the open sky; arrives by his constant practice to his state of sound sleep or hypnotism without the disturbance of dreams.
But how is it to be known that the world is the mere thought or will of the Divine mind? where to it is said). It is the creative power of Brahma, (called Brahma or Hiranyagarbha- the demiurgus), thought of forming the wondrous world in his mind, (as it were he pictured it in himself), without the aid of any tool, or instrument or means or ground for its construction; hence (it is plain), the world is merely ideal and nothing real, nor is there any cause or creator of it whatsoever.
As the lord stretches out the world in his thought, he or it instantly becomes the same; and as the lord is without any visible form, so this seeming world has no visible nor material form whatever; nor is there any framer of what is simply ideal.
So all men are happy or unhappy, as they think themselves to be one or the other in their minds; they all abide in the same universal soul, which is common to all; and yet believe themselves every one of his own kind in his mind.
Therefore it is as vain to view anything, or any intellectual being, in the light of an earthly substance, as it is false to take the visionary hills of one's dream, in the light of their being real rocks situated on earth.
By assigning egoism to one's self, he becomes subject to error and change; but the want of egoism, places the soul to its invariable identity an tranquility. (i.e. The sense of one's personality, subjects him to change and misery).
As the meaning of the word bracelet, is nothing different from the gold (of which it is made); so the sense of your false egoism, is no other than that of the tranquil soul. (The soul, self, and ego are all the one and same thing).
The anaesthetic sage, that is cold-blooded and sober minded as a silent muni, is no voluntary actor of any act, although he may be physically employed in his active duties; and the quiet saint carries with him an empty and careless mind, although it my be full of learning and wisdom.
(Lit. the knower of god is as quiet, as the calm vacuum of heaven).
The wise man manages himself as a mechanical figure or puppet, never moving of its own motion but moving as it is moved, and having no impulse of his desire within him, he sits as quiet as a doll without its mobility.
The wise man that knows the soul, is as quiet as a babe sleeping in a swinging cradle, and which is moved without moving itself; or he moves the members of his body,like a baby, without having any cause for his doing so.
The soul that is intent on the thought of the one (Supreme) only, and is as calm and quiet as the infinite spirit of god; becomes unconscious of itself and all other things, together with all its objects of desire, and expectations of its good and bliss.
He that is not the viewer himself, nor has the view before him, and is exempt from the triple condition (triputi bhāva) of the subjective, objective and action; can have no object in his view; which is concentrated in the vision of the invisible one.
Our view or regard of the world, is our strict bondage, and disregard of it, is our perfect freedom; he who rests therefore in his disregard of (or indifference to) whatever is expressed by words, has nothing to look after or desire.
Say, what is it that is worth our looking after, or worthy of our regard; when these material bodies of ours, are as evanescent as our dreams, and our self existence is a mere delusion. (There is nothing therefore worthy of our inquiry beside the divine intellect gloss).
Therefore the wise man rests only in his knowledge of the true one, by subjection of all his efforts and desires, and quelling all his curiosity; and being devoid of all knowledge, save that of the knowable one.
Hearing all this, Manki was released from his great error; as a Snake gets loose from its slough by which it had been fast bound.
He retired from there to a mountain, on which he remained in his deep meditation for a century of years; and discharged the duties that occurred to him of their own accord, without his retaining any desire of any; (or expectation of fruition).
He resides there still, unmoved and insensible as a stone, quite callous in all his senses and feelings, and wakeful with his internal sensibility by the light of his yoga contemplation.
Now Rāma, enjoy your peace of mind, by relying in your habit of reasoning and discrimination; do not deprave your understanding, under the fits of your passion; nor let your mind turn to its levity like a fleeting cloud, in the unrainy season of autumn.
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