| / Vedanta / Yoga Vāsistha / Yoga-Vāsistha (5): Upaśama-Khanda |
Válmiki
Yoga-Vāsistha, Book 5: Upaśama-Khanda (On Quietism). Chapter 49 - Gādhi's Gaining of True Knowledge
Vasistha continued- Visnu being gone, Gādhi began to wander again about the Bhot country, as a cloud continues to move about in the air.
Having collected many informations about himself in the life of the candāla, he betook himself again to the worship of Visnu in the cave of a mountain.
In course of a short time, Hari appeared to him again; as it is his nature to be pleased with a little devotion, made with sincerity of heart.
The god spoke to Gādhi with as much complaisance, as the watery cloud the addresses the peacock; and asked him what he wanted again by his repeated devotion.
Gādhi replied- Lord! I have again wandered about the countries of the Bhūtahs and Kīras for these past six months, and found no discrepancy in the accounts, they gave of me lately from the former ones.
You have told me, Lord! all this to be mere delusion, 1. I know the words of the great, serve to dissipate and not increase the delusion; 2.
The Lord said- It often happens that many things are of simultaneous occurrence at the one and same time; as the kākatālīya samyoga or the synchronous flying of the crow and the falling of the fruit upon him. Thus it was that the idea of the Candāla was of contemporaneous growth in the minds of all the Bhotas and Kīras as of yourself: as there are many men that are prepossessed with the same opinion with others, however wrong it may be.
It was by cause of this, that they corresponded with your thoughts, and related your story as you did reflect it yourself: because a cogitation or reflection of something cannot be otherwise at the same time; 3.
It is true that a Candāla had erected a house at the border of the village, which you did see to be now reduced to ruins; but it was an erroneous conception of yours, to think yourself the very man, and to have built the very house. 4
Sometimes the same mistake lays hold on many minds, as the multitude is seen to be led astray, by the simultaneous current of the same opinions in many ways.
In this manner many men see at once the same dream, as the giddy heads of drunken men, fall equally into the same kind of dizziness at the same time, of seeing the earth and skies turning and rolling round them.
Many boys are seen at once to join in the same sport, and a whole herd of stags is observed to meet together in the same verdant field.
Many men are seen simultaneously to pursue the same employment, for the purpose of gaining the like object of their pursuit; 5.
It is commonly said, that time is the giver (or producer) and obstructer of the objects of human pursuits as of all other events; but time is as quiescent as the supreme spirit, and it is the desire and exertion of people, that are the cause of their desired effects.
Time is a formless void, and is identic with the nature and form of the increate great Lord God himself. It is neither the giver nor taker of anything to or from any one at any time.
Time according to its common reckoning by years, kalpas and yuga ages, is classed among the categories of substance; but time far from begin a substance, is the source of all substances.
Men of deluded understanding are subject to the errors, arising from the like cause of their fallacy; and it was owing to this false conception, that the Bhota and Kīra people, fell into the very same error. 6
Therefore employ yourself to do your duty, and try to know your true-self; get rid of the error of your personality 7, and move about as freely as I do by myself: 8.
Saying this, the lord Visnu disappeared from his sight; and Gādhi remained in his cave, with great perplexity of his mind.
He passed some months on the same hill, and then resumed his devotion to Visnu with redoubled fervency.
He saw his god appearing again to his view, when he bowed down before him, and addressed him as follows:
Gādhi said- O Lord! I am quite bewildered with the thought of my Candālship, and my reflection on the delusions of this world.
Do you deign to extricate me from my errors, and employ me to the only act of adoring the Holy one.
The lord said- This world, O Brāhmana! is a delusion, like the enchantment of the conjurer Sambara; all things here, are the wondrous productions of imagination, and proceed from forgetfulness of the self.
It was your error that made you see many things, in your sleeping and waking dreams.
The Kīras were led also to see the same things like yourself, and to mistake those falsities as true, owing to the same error laying hold of all of you at the same time. 9
Now hear me tell you the truth as it was for your own good; and whereby your error will fade away, like a creeping plant in the chilling month of November.
The Candāla Kātanjaka, whom you think to be yourself, was a man really existent in the same locality before.
Who being bereaved of his family there, went out from that place to wander about in foreign parts; when he became king of the Kīras, and afterwards immersed himself in the fire.
This state of Kātanjaka entered into your mind, when you had been standing amidst the water in your devotion; and the thoughts of the whole career of the Candāla, had altogether engrossed your mind.
Things which are seen or thought of once, can hardly escape from the memory; and it sometimes happens that the mind comes to see many things in its imagination, which it has never seen before its eyes.
In the manner of a mans's vision of a kingdom in his dream, and like the delirium caused by the vitiated humours, of the body; the mind sees many day dreams and deliriums, in its waking and healthy states also.
The past conduct of Kātanja presented itself to your mind, as the past and future events of the world, are present before the mental vision of an oracle; 10.
That this is I, and these things and those friends are mind; is the mistake of those that are devoid of their self-knowledge; 11.
But that 'I am in all' is the belief of the truly wise, which prevents them from falling into such mistakes; and keeps them from the wrong notions of individualities and particularities, from their belief in the generality of all persons and things.
This general and ecumenical view of all things, preserves people from the mistaken notions of pleasure and pain; and makes the drowning wretch as buoyant, as the floating gourd or bottle tied to a sinking net.
But you are entangled in the snare of your desires, and are lost to your good sense; nor canst you be at your perfect case, as long as you do suffer under the symptoms of your sickness.
It is because of your imperfect knowledge, that you are incapable to ward off the errors of your mind; just as it is impossible for a man to protect himself from the rain, without his endeavours to raise a shed or shelter for himself.
You are easily susceptible of every impression of your untutored mind, as a small tree is easily over-reached by a tall person.
The heart is the nave or axis of the wheel of delusion; if you can stop the motion of this central power, there is nothing to disturb you any more. 12
Now rise and repair to the sacred bower on this mountain, and there perform your austerities for full ten years with a steady mind; so that you may attain to your perfect knowledge at the end of this period.
So saying, the lotus-eyed god disappeared from that place, as a flimsy cloud or candle-light or the billow of Jamunā, is put out by a slight gust of the wind.
Gādhi then gradually gained his dispassionateness, by means of his discrimination; as the trees fade away for want of moisture, at the end of autumn.
Now getting rid of the vagaries of his mind, Gādhi remained to reflect upon and blamed himself, for his fostering the false thoughts of the Candāla and the like.
He then with his heart melting in pity, and sorrow for himself, repaired to the Risya-mukha mount, for the purpose of making his penitence; and he sat there in the manner of a rainy cloud, stopping on the top of a mountain.
He relinquished all his desires, and performed his austere devotion 13; and at last he attained the knowledge of his self, after the expiration of the tenth year of his penitence.
Having obtained his knowledge of himself like the great-souled Brahmā, and getting rid of his fears and sorrows in this world of retribution; he wandered about with the joy of a living liberated being, and with perfect tranquility of his mind, resembling the serene lustre of the full-moon, revolving in the sphere of the sky.
Footnotes
1. which prove to be positive facts by the testimony of every body
2. as it is done by your words
3. but it must appear to every body alike
4. It was the mistake of your personality for another, as it often overtakes the minds of many men.
5. as it is seen in the flight and fighting of an army for their safety or victory
6. Like cause means, the same kind of bias or prejudice etc.
7. as so and so
8. as a free aerial spirit
9. As the tricks of a juggler are thought to be true by the observers
10. lit: - a seer of the three times
11. as you did think that Kātanja to be yourself, and his house, goods and relatives to be yours also
12. self regret, says the gloss, serves to stop the motion of the heart
13. as it was his duty
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
