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Title: The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, Vol. 2 (of 4), Part 1 (of 2)
Author: Valmiki
Language: English
As this book started as an ASCII text book there are no pictures available.
*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, Vol. 2 (of 4), Part 1 (of 2)" ***
MAHARAMAYANA OF VALMIKI, VOL. 2 (OF 4), PART 1 (OF 2) ***
Transcriber’s Notes
Inconsistent punctuation has been silently corrected.
Obvious misspellings have been silently corrected, and the following
corrections made to the text. Other spelling and hyphenation variations
have not been modified.
Page 12, section 23 - the did -> did the
Page 55, section 45 - can comesout -> can come out
Page 73, section 16 - various by styled -> variously styled
Page 77, section 9 - and our is beyond -> and is beyond our
Page 116, section 20 - pollen of -> pollen of flowers
Page 339, section 37 - objects our worldly -> objects our worldly
Page 357, section 60 - and do not grove -> and do not grovel
Angle brackets: <...> have been used by the transcriber to indicate light
editing of the text to insert missing words.
On pages 88-89, Section 53 is numbered twice. This has not been modified.
The spelling of Sanskrit words are normalized to some extent, including
correct/addition of accents where necessary. Note that the author uses
á, í, ú to indicate long vowels. This notation has not been changed.
The Sanskrit words in Devanagari script in footnote 3 are unclear in the
original text. They are rendered here as a best guess by the transcriber.
The LPP edition (1999) which has been scanned for this ebook, is of poor
quality, and in some cases text was missing. Where possible, the
missing/unclear text has been supplied from another edition, which has
the same typographical basis (both editions are photographical reprints
of the same source, or perhaps one is a copy of the other): Bharatiya
Publishing House, Delhi 1978.
A third edition, Parimal Publications, Delhi 1998, which is based on an
OCR scanning of the same typographical basis, has also been consulted.
The term “Gloss.” or “Glossary” probably refers to the extensive classical
commentary to Yoga Vásishtha by Ananda Bodhendra Saraswati. (Only
available in Sanskrit).
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THE
YOGA-VÁSISHTHA
MAHÁRÁMÁYANA
OF
VÁLMÍKI
in 4 vols. in 7 pts.
(Bound in 4.)
Vol. 2 (In 2 pts.)
Bound in one.
Containing
Utpatti Khanda, Sthiti Prakarana and
Upasama Khanda to Chapter LIII.
_Translated from the original Sanskrit
By_
VIHARI LALA MITRA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
OF
THE SECOND VOLUME.
UTPATTI KHANDA.
BOOK III.
PAGE
CHAPTER LI.
Description of Sindhu’s Dominions 1
CHAPTER LII.
State of Man after Death 4
CHAPTER LIII.
Representations of Reminiscence 10
CHAPTER LIV.
Reflections on Death 15
CHAPTER LV.
The States of Life and Death 23
CHAPTER LVI.
State of the Soul after Death 31
CHAPTER LVII.
Phenomena of Dreaming 37
CHAPTER LVIII.
Revival of Padma 43
CHAPTER LIX.
Extinction of Padma’s Life 48
CHAPTER LX.
On Duration and Time and Thoughts of the 50
Mind
CHAPTER LXI.
On the Nature of the World 59
CHAPTER LXII.
Interpretation of Destiny 64
CHAPTER LXIII.
Immutability of the Divine Mind 69
CHAPTER LXIV.
The Germinating Seed 71
CHAPTER LXV.
Nature of the Living Soul 76
CHAPTER LXVI.
Meditation of the Subjective and 78
Objective
CHAPTER LXVII.
Lecture on Truth 81
CHAPTER LXVIII.
Description of a Rákshasí (or female 94
fiend)
CHAPTER LXIX.
Story of Visúchiká 97
CHAPTER LXX.
Conduct of Visúchí, or the Adventures of 100
the Needle
CHAPTER LXXI.
Remorse of Súchí 110
CHAPTER LXXII.
Fervour of Súchí’s Devotion 115
CHAPTER LXXIII.
Nárada’s Relation of Súchí’s Devotion 119
CHAPTER LXXIV.
Consummation of Súchí’s Devotion 127
CHAPTER LXXV.
Súchí’s regaining her former frame 131
CHAPTER LXXVI.
Refraining from Unlawful Food 134
CHAPTER LXXVII.
Deliberation of Karkatí 137
CHAPTER LXXVIII.
Conference of the Rákshasí 141
CHAPTER LXXIX.
Interrogatories of the Rákshasí 147
CHAPTER LXXX.
Solution of the Questions 153
CHAPTER LXXXI.
Congeries of Spiritual Doctrines 162
CHAPTER LXXXII.
Friendship of the Rákshasí 176
CHAPTER LXXXIII.
Worship of Kandará Alias Mangala 182
CHAPTER LXXXIV.
Development of the germ of the mind 185
CHAPTER LXXXV.
Interview of Brahmá and the Sun 194
CHAPTER LXXXVI.
Story of Indu and his sons 200
CHAPTER LXXXVII.
Analecta of the Celestial Spheres 207
CHAPTER LXXXVIII.
Indifference of Brahmá 209
CHAPTER LXXXIX.
Story of Indra and Ahalyá 212
CHAPTER LXXXX.
Love of the Fictitious Indra and Ahalyá 218
CHAPTER LXXXXI.
Incarnation of the Living Soul or Jíva 220
CHAPTER LXXXXII.
On the Powers of Mind 228
CHAPTER LXXXXIII.
A view of the Genesis of the mind and 233
Body
CHAPTER LXXXXIV.
Brahma the Origin of All 237
CHAPTER LXXXXV.
Identity of the Actor and his Action 241
CHAPTER LXXXXVI.
Inquiry into the Nature of Mind 246
CHAPTER LXXXXVII.
The Magnitude of the Sphere of the 258
Intellect
CHAPTER LXXXXVIII.
History of the Human Heart 263
CHAPTER LXXXXIX.
History of the Heart 268
CHAPTER C.
Healing of the Heart 273
CHAPTER CI.
Story of the Boy and Three Princes 279
CHAPTER CII.
On the Indivisibility and Immortality of 286
the Soul
CHAPTER CIII.
On the Nature of the Mind 292
CHAPTER CIV.
Story of a Magic Scene 295
CHAPTER CV.
The Breaking of the Magic spell 301
CHAPTER CVI.
The Talisman of the King’s Marriage with 304
a Chandála Maid
CHAPTER CVII.
Description of a Train of Dangers 312
CHAPTER CVIII.
Description of a Drought and Dearth 318
CHAPTER CIX.
Migration of the Chandálas 322
CHAPTER CX.
Description of Mind 326
CHAPTER CXI.
Healing of the Heart and Mind 335
CHAPTER CXII.
The Restlessness of the Mind and its 341
Cure
CHAPTER CXIII.
Description of Ignorance and Delusion 344
(Avidyá)
CHAPTER CXIV.
Description of Errors 351
CHAPTER CXV.
Causes of Happiness and Misery 360
CHAPTER CXVI.
Birth and Incarnation of Adepts in Yoga 364
CHAPTER CXVII.
Different States of Knowledge and 368
Ignorance
CHAPTER CXVIII.
Directions to the Stages of Knowledge 373
CHAPTER CXIX.
Illustration of the Gold-ring 377
CHAPTER CXX.
Lamentation of the Chandála Woman 383
CHAPTER CXXI.
Proof of the futility of Mind 387
CHAPTER CXXII.
Ascertainment of the Self or Soul 396
YOGA VÁSISHTHA.
BOOK III.
UTPATTI KHANDA.
CHAPTER LI.
DESCRIPTION OF SINDHU’S DOMINIONS.
Vasishtha said:—The loud cry that the king was killed in battle by the
rival monarch, struck the people with awe, and filled the realm with
dismay.
2. Carts loaded with utensils and household articles, were driving
through the streets; and women with their loud wailings, were running
away amidst the impassable paths of the city.
3. The weeping damsels that were flying for fear, were ravished on the
way by their captors; and the inhabitants were in danger of being
plundered of their properties by one another.
4. The joyous shouts of the soldiers in the enemy’s camp, resounded with
the roarings of loose elephants and neighings of horses, trampling down
the men to death on their way.
5. The doors of the royal treasury were broken open by the brave
brigands, the valves flew off and the vaults re-echoed to the strokes.
The warders were overpowered by numbers, and countless treasures were
plundered and carried away.
6. Bandits ripped off the bellies of the royal dames in the palace, and
the chandála free-booters hunted about the royal apartments.
7. The hungry rabble robbed the provisions from the royal stores; and
the soldiers were snatching the jewels of the weeping children trodden
down under their feet.
8. Young and beautiful maidens were dragged by their hair from the
seraglio, and the rich gems that fell from the hands of the robbers,
glistened all along the way.
9. The chiefs assembled with ardour with their troops of horses,
elephants and war-chariots, and announced the installation of Sindhu by
his minister.
10. Chief engineers were employed in making the decorations of the city
and its halls, and the balconies were filled by the royal party
attending at the inauguration.
11. It was then that the coronation of Sindhu’s son, took place amidst
the loud acclamations of victory; and titles and dignities, were
conferred upon the noblemen on the victor’s side.
12. The royal party were flying for life into the villages, where they
were pursued by the victorious soldiers; and a general pillage spread in
every town and village throughout the realm.
13. Gangs of robbers thronged about, and blocked the passages for
pillage and plunder; and a thick mist darkened the light of the day for
want of the magnanimous Vidúratha.
14. The loud lamentations of the friends of the dead, and the bitter
cries of the dying, mixed with the clamour raised by the driving cars,
elephants and horses, thickened in the air as a solid body of sound
(pindagráhya).
15. Loud trumpets proclaimed the victory of Sindhu in every city, and
announced his sole sovereignty all over the earth.
16. The high-shouldered Sindhu entered the capital as a second Manu
(Noah), for re-peopling it after the all-devastating flood of war was
over.
17. Then the tribute of the country poured into the city of Sindhu from
all sides; and these loaded on horses and elephants, resembled the rich
cargoes borne by ships to the sea.
18. The new king issued forthwith his circulars and royal edicts to all
sides, struck coins in his own name, and placed his ministers as
commissioners in all provinces.
19. His iron-rod was felt in all districts and cities like the
inexorable rod of Yama, and it overawed the living with fear of instant
death.
20. All insurrections and tumults in the realm, soon subsided to rest
under his reign; as the flying dust of the earth and the falling leaves
of trees, fall to the ground upon subsidence of a tempest.
21. The whole country on all sides was pacified to rest, like the
perturbed sea of milk after it had been churned by the Mandara mountain.
22. Then there blew the gentle breeze of Malaya, unfurling the locks of
the lotus-faced damsels of Sindhu’s realm, and wafting the liquid
fragrance of their bodies around, and driving away the unwholesome air
(of the carnage).
CHAPTER LII.
STATE OF MAN AFTER DEATH.
Vasishtha said:—In the meanwhile, O Ráma! Lílá seeing her husband lying
insensible before her and about to breathe his last, thus spoke to
Sarasvatí:
2. Behold, O mother! my husband is about to shuffle his mortal coil in
this perilous war, which has laid waste his whole kingdom.
3. Sarasvatí replied:—This combat that you saw to be fought with such
fury, and lasting so long in the field, was neither fought in thy
kingdom nor in any part of this earth.
4. It occurred nowhere except in the vacant space of the shrine,
containing the dead body of the Bráhman; and where it appeared as the
phantom of a dream only (in your imagination).
5. This land which appeared as the realm of thy living lord Vidúratha,
was situated with all its territories in the inner apartment of Padma.
(The incidents of Vidúratha’s life, being but a vision appearing to the
departed spirit of Padma).
6. Again it was the sepulchral tomb of the Bráhman Vasishtha, situated
in the hilly village of Vindhyá, that exhibited these varying scenes of
the mortal world within itself. (_i.e._ As a panorama shows many sights
to the eye, and one man playing many parts in the stage).
7. As the departed soul views the vision of the past world within its
narrow tomb; so is the appearance of all worldly accidents unreal in
their nature. Gloss:—The apparitions appearing before the souls of the
dead lying in their tombs, are as false as the appearances presenting
themselves before the living souls in their tomb of this world. The
souls of the living and the dead are both alike in their nature, and
both susceptible of the like dreams and visions.
8. These objects that we see here as realities, including these bodies
of mine and thine and this Lílá’s, together with this earth and these
waters, are just the same as the phantoms rising in the tomb of the
deceased Bráhman of the hilly region.
9. It is the soul which presents the images of things, and nothing
external which is wholly unreal can cast its reflexion on the soul.
Therefore know thy soul as the true essence which is increate and
immortal, and the source of all its creations within itself. Note:—The
subjective is the cause of the objective and not this of that.
10. The soul reflects on its inborn images without changing itself in
any state, and thus it was the nature of the Bráhman’s soul, that
displayed these images in itself within the sphere of his tomb.
11. But the illusion of the world with all its commotion, was viewed in
the vacant space of the souls of the Bráhman and Padma, and not
displayed in the empty space of their tombs, where there was no such
erroneous reflexion of the world.
12. There is no error or illusion anywhere, except in the misconception
of the observer; therefore the removal of the fallacy from the mind of
the viewer, leads him to the perception of the light of truth.
13. Error consists in taking the unreal for the real, and in thinking
the viewer and the view or the subjective and objective as different
from each other. It is the removal of the distinction of the subjective
and objective, that leads us to the knowledge of unity (the _on_ or one
or _om_).
14. Know the Supreme soul to be free from the acts of production and
destruction, and it is his light that displays all things of which He is
the source; and learn the whole outer nature as having no existence nor
change in itself.
15. But the souls of other beings, exhibit their own natures in
themselves; as those in the sepulchral vault of the Bráhman, displayed
the various dispositions to which they were accustomed. (Thus the one
unvaried soul appears as many, according to its particular wont and
tendency in different persons).
16. The soul has no notion of the outer world or any created thing in
it; its consciousness of itself as an increate vacuity, comprehends its
knowledge of the world in itself. (_i.e._ The subjective consciousness of
the Ego, includes the knowledge of the objective world).
17. The knowledge of the mountain chains of Meru and others, is included
under the knowledge in the vacuity of the soul; there is no substance or
solidity in them as in a great city seen in a dream.
18. The soul views hundreds of mountainous ranges and thousands of solid
worlds, drawn in the small compass of the mind, as in its state of
dreaming.
19. Multitudes of worlds, are contained in a grain of the brain of the
mind; as the long leaves of the plantain tree, are contained in one of
its minute seeds.
20. All the three worlds are contained in an atom as the intellect, in
the same manner as great cities are seen in a dream; and all the
particles of intellect within the mind, have each the representation of
a world in it.
21. Now this Lílá thy step-dame, has already gone to the world which
contains the sepulchre of Padma, before the spirit of Vidúratha could
join the same.
22. The moment when Lílá fell in a swoon in thy presence, know her
spirit to be immediately conveyed to him and placed by his side.
23. Lílá asked:—Tell me, O goddess! how was this lady endowed here with
my form before, and how is she translated to and placed as my step-dame
beside my deceased husband?
24. Tell me in short, in what form she is now viewed by the people in
Padma’s house, and the manner in which they are talking to her at
present.
25. The goddess replied:—Hear Lílá, what I will relate to thee in brief
in answer to thy question, regarding the life and death of this Lílá as
an image of thyself.
26. It is thy husband Padma, that beholds these illusions of the world
spread before him in the same sepulchre in the person of Vidúratha.
27. He fought this battle as thou didst see in his reverie, and this
Lílá resembling thyself was likewise a delusion. These his men and
enemies were but illusions, and his ultimate death, was as illusory as a
phantom of the imagination, like all other things in this world.
28. It was his self delusion, that showed him this Lílá as his wife, and
it is the same deceit of a dream, which deludes thee to believe thyself
as his consort.
29. As it is a mere dream that makes you both to think yourselves as his
wives, so he deems himself as your husband, and so do I rely on my
existence (also in a like state of dream).
30. The world with all its beauty, is said to be the spectre of a
vision; wherefore knowing it a mere visionary scene, we must refrain
from relying any faith in this visible phantasmagoria.
31. Thus this Lílá, yourself and this king Vidúratha, are but phantoms
of your fancy: and so am I also, unless I believe to exist in the
self-existent spirit.
32. The belief of the existence of this king and his people, and of
ourselves as united in this place, proceeds from the fulness of that
intellect, which fills the whole plenitude.
33. So this queen Lílá also situated in this place with her youthful
beauty, and smiling so charmingly with her blooming face, is but an
image of divine beauty.
34. See how gentle and graceful are her manners, and how very sweet is
her speech; her voice is as dulcet as the notes of the Kokila, and her
motions as slow as those of a lovelorn maiden.
35. Behold her eyelids like the leaves of the blue lotus, and her
swollen breasts rounded as a pair of snow-balls; her form is as bright
as liquid gold, and her lips as red as a brace of ripe _Vimba_ fruits.
36. This is but a form of thee as thou didst desire to be to please thy
husband, and it is the very figure of thy ownself, that thou now
beholdest with wonder.
37. After the death of thy husband, his soul caught the same reflexion
of thy image, as thou didst desire to be hereafter; and which thou now
seest in the person of the young Lílá before thee.
38. Whenever the mind has a notion or sensation or fancy of some
material object, the abstract idea of its image is surely imprinted in
the intellect.
39. As the mind comes to perceive the unreality of material objects, it
thenceforth begins to entertain the ideas of their abstract entities
within itself. (Hence the abstract ideas of things are said to accompany
the intellectual spirit after its separation from the body).
40. It was the thought of his sure death, and the erroneous conception
of the transmigration of his soul in the body of Vidúratha, that
represented to Padma thy desired form of the youthful Lílá, which was
the idol of his soul. (This passage confutes the doctrine of
metempsychosis, and maintains the verity of eternal ideas).
41. It was thus that thou wast seen by him and he was beheld by thee
according to your desires; and thus both of you though possest of the
same unvaried soul which pervades all space, are made to behold one
another in your own ways (agreeably to your desires).
42. As the spirit of Brahma is all pervasive, and manifests itself in
various ways in all places; it is beheld in different lights, according
to the varying fancies (vikshepa sakti); or tendencies (vásaná sakti) of
men, like the ever-changeful scenes appearing to us in our visions and
dreams.
43. The omnipotent spirit displays its various powers in all places, and
these powers exert themselves everywhere, according to the strong force
and capability it has infused in them (in their material or immaterial
forms).
44. When this pair remained in their state of death-like insensibility,
they beheld all these phantoms in their inner souls, by virtue of their
reminiscence and desires (which are inherent in the soul).
45. That such and such person were their fathers and such their mothers
before, that they lived in such places, had such properties of theirs,
and did such acts erewhile (are reminiscences of the soul).
46. That they were joined together in marriage, and the multitude which
they saw in their minds, appeared to them as realities for the time in
their imagination (as it was in a magic show).
47. This is an instance that shows our sensible perceptions, to be no
better than our dreams; and it was in this deluded state of Lílá’s mind,
that I was worshipped and prayed by her:—
48. In order to confer upon her the boon that she might not become a
widow; and it was by virtue of this blessing of mine, that this girl had
died before her husband’s death (to escape the curse of widowhood).
49. I am the progeny of Brahmá, and the totality of that intelligence of
which all beings participate: it is for this reason that I was adored by
her as the _Kula Devi_ or tutelar divinity of all living beings.
50. It was at last that her soul left her body, and fled with her mind
in the form of her vital breath, through the orifice of her mouth.
51. Then after the insensibility attendant upon her death was over, she
understood in her intellect her living soul to be placed in the same
empty space with the departed spirit of Padma.
52. Her reminiscence pictured her in her youthful form, and she beheld
herself as in a dream, to be situated in the same tomb. She was as a
blooming lotus with her beautiful countenance, and her face was as
bright as the orb of the moon; her eyes were as large as those of an
antelope, and she was attended by her graceful blandishments for the
gratification of her husband.
CHAPTER LIII.
REPRESENTATIONS OF REMINISCENCE.
Argument. Description of Lílá’s passage in the air, and her union with
her husband’s spirit. Relation of the depravity of those that are
unacquainted with and unpractised in Yoga.
Vasishtha said:—Lílá having obtained the blessing of the goddess,
proceeded with her fancied body to meet her royal spouse in heaven
beyond the skies.
2. Having assumed her spiritual form which was as light as air, she fled
merrily as a bird; and was wafted aloft by the fond desire of joining
with her beloved lord.
3. She met before her a damsel sent by the goddess of wisdom, and as
issuing out of the best model of her heart’s desire.
4. The damsel said:—I am the daughter of thy friend Sarasvatí, and
welcome thee, O beauteous lady in this place. I have been waiting here
on thy way through the sky in expectation of thee.
5. Lílá said:—Lead me, O lotus-eyed maid to the side of my husband, as
the visit of the good and great never goes for nothing.
6. Vasishtha said:—The damsel replied, come let us go there; and so
saying, she stood before her looking forward on her way.
7. Then proceeding onward both together, they came to the door-way of
heaven, which was as broad as the open palm of the hand, and marked with
lines as those in palmistry. (?).
8. They passed the region of the clouds, and overstepped the tracks of
the winds; then passing beyond the orbit of the sun, they reached the
stations of the constellations.
9. Thence they passed through the regions of air and water (Indraloka),
to the abodes of the gods and saints (Siddhas); whence they went across
the seats of Brahmá, Vishnu and Siva to the great belt—of the universe.
10. Their spiritual bodies pierced through its orifice, as the humidity
of ice water passes out of the pores of a tight water-jar.
11. The body of Lílá was of the form of her mind, which was of the
nature of its own bent and tenor, and conceived these wanderings within
itself (_i.e._, the peregrinations of Lílá were purely the workings of
her own mind and inclination).
12. Having traversed the spheres of Brahmá, Vishnu and Siva, and crossed
the limit of the mundane sphere, and the environs of atmospheric water
and air:—
13. They found an empty space as spacious as the scope of the great
intellect, and impassable by the swift Garuda (the eagle of Jupiter)
even in millions of Kalpa ages. (_i.e._ The unlimited space of the mind
and vacuity).
14. There they beheld an infinity of shapeless and nameless worlds,
scattered about as the countless fruits in a great forest. (The Nebulae
of unformed worlds).
15. They pierced through the ambit of one of these orbs before them, and
passed inside the same as a worm creeps in a fruit which it has
perforated.
16. This brought them back by the same spheres of Brahmá, Indra and
others, to the orb of the globe below the starry frame.
17. Here they saw the same country, the same city and the same tomb as
before; and after entering the same, they sat themselves beside the
corpse of Padma covered under the heap of flowers.
18. At this time Lílá lost the sight of the heavenly damsel, who had
been her companion erewhile, and who had now disappeared from her sight
like a phantom of her illusion.
19. She then looked at the face of her husband, lying there as a dead
body in his bed; and recognized him as such by her right discretion.
20. This must be my husband, said she, ay my very husband, who fell
fighting with Sindhu, and has now attained this seat of the departed
heroes, where he rests in peace.
21. I have by the grace of the goddess arrived here in person, and
reckon myself truly blest to find my husband also as such (_i.e._,
resting here in his own figure).
22. She then took up a beautiful _chauri_ flapper in her hand, and began
to wave it over his body as the moon moves in the sky over the earth.
23. The waking Lílá asked:—Tell me, O goddess! in what manner did the
king and his servants and hand-maids accost this lady, and what they
thought her to be.
24. The goddess replied:—It was by our gift of wisdom to them, that this
lady, that king and those servants, found themselves to partake of the
one and same intellectual soul, in which they all subsisted.
25. Every soul is a reflection of the divine intellect, and is destined
by his fixed decree to represent the individual souls to one another as
refractions of the same, or as shadows in a magic show (bhojakádrishta).
26. Thus the king received his wife as his companion and queen, and his
servants as cognate with himself. (_i.e._ Partaking of the same soul with
his own).
27. He beheld the unity of his soul with her’s and their’s, and no
distinction subsisting between any one of them. He was astonished to
find that there was nothing distinct in them from what he had in
himself.
28. The waking Lílá said:—Why did not that Lílá meet her husband in her
own person, according to her request and the boon that was granted to
her?
29. The goddess replied:—It is not possible for unenlightened souls (as
that of the young Lílá), to approach in person to holy spirits (or their
persons or places), which are visible and accessible only to the
meritorious, and unapproachable by gross bodies as the sun light is
inaccessible by a shadow.
30. So it is the established law from the beginning of creation, that
intelligent souls can never join with dull beings and gross matter, as
truth can never be mixed up with falsehood.
31. And so is that as long as a boy is prepossessed with his notion of a
ghost, it is in vain to convince him of the falsehood of goblins as mere
chimeras of his imagination.
32. And as long as the feverish heat of ignorance rages within the soul,
it is impossible for the coolness of the moon of intelligence to spread
over it.
33. So long also as one believes himself to be composed of a corporeal
body, and incapable to mount in the higher atmosphere, it is no way
possible to make him believe otherwise (that he has an incorporeal
nature in his soul and mind).
34. But it is by virtue of one’s knowledge and discrimination, and by
his own merit and divine blessing, that he acquires a saintly form
(nature); wherewith he ascends to the higher region, as you have done
with this body of yours.
35. As dry leaves of trees are burnt in no time by the burning fire, so
this corporeal body is quickly lost by one’s assumption of his spiritual
frame.
36. The effect of a blessing or curse, on any one is no other than his
obtaining the state he desired or feared to have. (Hence the boon of
Lílá has secured to her what she wished to get).
37. As the false appearance of a snake in a rope, is attended with no
motion or action of the serpent in it; so the unreal views of Lílá’s
husband and others, were but the motionless imageries of her own
imagination.
38. Whoever views the false apparitions of the dead as present before
the vision of his mind, he must know them as reflections of his past and
constant remembrance of them.
39. So our notions of all these worlds are mere products of our
reminiscence, and no creation of Brahmá or any other cause; but simple
productions of our desire (which presents these figures to the
imagination).
40. So they who are ignorant of the knowable spirit of God, have only
the notions of the outer world in them; as they view the distant orb of
the moon within themselves (in their minds).
CHAPTER LIV.
REFLECTIONS ON DEATH.
Argument. The lot of living beings and the cause of their death. The
duration of human life as determined by their acts and enjoyments, and
the merit of their conduct in life time.
The goddess continued:—Those therefore who know the knowable God,
and rely in virtue, can go to the spiritual worlds and not others.
(Knowable means what ought to be and not what is or can be known).
2. All material bodies which are but false and erroneous conceptions of
the mind, can have no place in Truth (the true spirit); as no shadow can
have any room in sunshine. (So gross matter has no room in the subtile
spirit).
3. Lílá being ignorant of the knowable (God), and unacquainted with the
highest virtue (the practice of Yoga), could go no further than the city
of her lord which she had at heart.
4. The waking Lílá said:—Let her be where she is (I inquire no more
about her); but will ask you of other things. You see here my husband is
about to die, so tell me what must I do at present.
5. Tell me the law of the being and not being of beings, and what is
that destiny which destines the living beings to death.
6. What is it that determined the natures of things and gave existence
to the categories of objects? What is it that has caused the warmth of
the fire and sun, and gave stability to the earth?
7. Why is coldness confined to the frost and the like, and what forms
the essence of time and space; what are the causes of the different
states of things and their various changes, and the causes of the
solidity of some and tenuity of others?
8. What is that which causes the tallness of trees and men above the
grass and brambles; and why is it that many things dwindle and decay in
the course and capability of growth?
9. The goddess said:—At the universal dissolution of the world, when all
things are dissolved in the formless void; there remains the only
essence of Brahma, in the form of the infinite sky stretching beyond the
limits of creation on all sides.
10. It then reflects in its intellect in the form of a spark of fire, as
you are conscious of your aerial journey in a dream.
11. This atomic spark then increased in its size in the divine spirit,
and having no substance of itself, appeared what is commonly styled the
ideal world.
12. The spirit of God residing in it, thought itself as Brahmá—the soul
of the world, who reigned over it in his form of the mind, as if it was
identic with the real world itself. (The world is a display of the
Divine Mind).
13. The primary laws that he has appointed to all things at their first
creation, the same continue invariably in force with them to the present
time. (_i.e._ The primordial law or nature).
14. The minds of all turn in the same way as it was willed by the divine
mind, and there is nothing which of itself can go beyond the law which
the divine will has assigned to it.
15. It is improper to say that all formal existences are nothing,
because they remain in their substance (of the divine spirit), after
disappearance of their forms; as the substance of gold remains the same
after alteration of its shape and form.
16. The elementary bodies of fire and frost still continue in the same
state, as their elements were first formed in the Divine mind in the
beginning of creation.
17. Nothing therefore has the power to forsake its own nature, as long
as the divine intellect continues to direct his eternal laws and decrees
which are appointed to all.
18. It is impossible for any thing to alter its nature now from the
eternal stamp, which Divine will has set upon all the substantial and
ideal forms of creation.
19. As the Divine Intellect knows no opposition in its way, it never
turns from the tenor of its own wonted intelligence which directs the
destinies of all. (This is the real or subjective, intellectual or
nominal view of evolution of all things from the divine mind).
20. But know in the first place the world to be no created thing. All
this that appears to exist, is but a display of the notions in our
consciousness, like the appearances in our dreams.
21. The unreal appears as real, as the shadow seems to be the substance.
Our notions of things are the properties of our nature. (_i.e._ They are
natural to us, as they are engrafted in it by the eternal mind).
22. The manner in which the intellect exhibited itself, in its different
manifestations, at the beginning, the same continues in its course to
this time, and is known as the _samvid-kachana_ or manifestations of
consciousness, which constitute the _niyati_—course or system of the
universe.
23. The sky is the manifestation of the intellectual idea of vacuity in
the divine mind; and the idea of duration in the intellect, appeared in
the form of the parts of time.
24. The idea of liquidity evolved itself in the form of water in the
divine mind; in the same manner as one dreams of water and seas in his
own mind. (So the air and earth are manifestations of the ideas of
fluidity and solidity).
25. We are conscious of our dreams in some particular state of our
intellect, and it is the wonderfully cunning nature of the intellect,
that makes us think the unreal as real.
26. The ideas of the reality of earth, air, fire and water are all
false; and the intellect perceives them within itself, as its false
dreams and desires and reveries.
27. Now hear me tell you about death, for removing your doubts with
regard to the future state; that death is destined for our good, in as
much as it leads us to the enjoyment of the fruits of acts in this life.
28. Our lives are destined in the beginning to extend to one, two, three
and four centuries in the different Kali, Dwápara, Tretá and Satya ages
of the world. (Corresponding with the golden, silver, brazen and iron
ages of the ancients).
29. It is however by virtue of place and time, of climate and food, and
our good or bad actions and habits, that human life extends above or
descends below these limits.
30. Falling short of one’s duties lessens his life, as his excelling in
them lengthens its duration; but the mediocrity of his conduct keeps it
within its proper bound.
31. Boys die by acts causing infant diseases and untimely deaths; so do
the young and old die of acts that bring on juvenile and senile
weakness, sickness and ultimate death.
32. He who goes on doing his duties as prescribed by law of the Sástras,
becomes both prosperous and partaker of the long life allotted by the
rule of the Sástra.
33. So likewise do men meet their last state and future reward,
according to the nature of their acts in life-time; or else their old
age is subjected to regret and remorse, and all kinds of bodily and
mental maladies and anxieties.
34. Lílá said:—Tell me in short, O moon-faced goddess! something more
with regard to death; as to whether it is a pleasure or pain to die, and
what becomes of us after we are dead and gone from here. (Death is said
to be release from misery by some, and the most grievous of all torments
by others. So Pope:—O, the pain, the bliss of dying).
35. The goddess replied:—Dying men are of three kinds, and have
different ends upon their death. These are those who are ignorant, and
such as are practiced in _yoga_, and those that are reasonable and
religious.
36. Those practicing the _dháraná yoga_, may go wherever they like after
leaving their bodies, and so the reasonable _yogi_ is at liberty to
range everywhere. (It consists in mental retention and bodily patience
and endurance).
37. He who has not practiced the _dháraná yoga_, nor applied himself to
reasoning, nor has certain hopes of the future, is called the ignorant
sot, and meets with the pain and pangs of death.
38. He whose mind is unsubdued, and full of desires and temporal cares
and anxieties, becomes as distressed as a lotus torn from its stalk.
(_i.e._ It is the subjection of inordinary passions, and suppression of
inordinate desires and cares, which ensure our true felicity).
39. The mind that is not guided by the precepts of the Sástras, nor
purified by holiness; but is addicted to the society of the wicked, is
subjected to the burning sensation of fire within itself at the moment
of death.
40. At the moment when the last gurgling of the throat chokes the
breath, the eye-sight is dimmed and the countenance fades away; then the
rational soul also becomes hazy in its intellect.
41. A deep darkness spreads over the dimming sight, and the stars
twinkle before it in day-light; the firmament appears to be obscured by
clouds, and the sky presents its gloomy aspect on every side.
42. An acute pain seizes the whole frame, and a _fata Morgana_ dances
before the vision; the earth is turned to air and the mid-air seems to
be the moving place of the dying person.
43. The sphere of heaven revolves before him, and the tide of the sea
seems to bear him away. He is now lifted up in the air, and now hurled
down as in his state of dizziness or dream.
44. Now he thinks as falling in a dark pit, and then as lying in the
cavern of a hill; he wants to tell aloud his torments, but his speech
fails him to give utterance to his thoughts.
45. He now finds himself as falling down from the sky, and now as
whirled in the air like a bundle of straws blown aloft in the air by a
gust of wind. He is now riding swiftly as in a car, and now finds
himself melting as snow.
46. He desires to acquaint his friends of the evils of life and this
world; but he is carried away from them as rapidly as by an air-engine,
(like a stone shot by a ballista or an aeronaut in a balloon).
47. He whirls about as by a rotatory machine or turning wheel, and is
dragged along like a beast by its halter. He wallows about as in an
eddy, or turns around as the machine of some engine.
48. He is borne in the air as a straw, and is carried about as a cloud
by the winds. He rises high like a vapour, and then falls down like a
heavy watery cloud pouring out in the sea.
49. He passes through the endless space and revolves in all its
vortiginous vacuities, to find as it were, a place free from the
vicissitudes to which the earth and ocean are subject. (_i.e._ A place
of peace and rest).
50. Thus the rising and falling spirit roves without cessation, and the
soul breathing hard and sighing without intermission, sets the whole
body in sore pain and agony.
51. By degrees the objects of his senses become as faint to his failing
organs, as the landscape fades to view at the setting of the sun. (The
world recedes; it disappears: Pope).
52. He loses the remembrance of the past and present, upon the failing
of his memory at this moment; as one is at a loss to know the sides of
the compass after the evening twilight has passed away.
53. In his fit of fainting, his mind loses its power of thinking; and he
is lost in a state of ignorance, at the loss of all his thoughts and
sensibility. (So the lines:—It absorbs me quite, steals my senses, shuts
my sight. Pope).
54. In the state of faintishness, the vital breath ceases to circulate
through the body; and at the utter stoppage of its circulation, there
ensues a collapse _murch’ha_ or swooning.
55. When this state of apoplexy joined with delirium, has reached its
climax, the body becomes as stiff as stone by the law of inertia,
ordained for living beings from the beginning.
56. Lílá said:—But tell me, O goddess, why do these pains and agonies,
this fainting and delirium, and disease and insensibility, overtake the
body, when it is possessed of all its eight organs entire?
57. The goddess replied:—It is the law appointed by the author of life
from the first, that such and such pains are to fall to the lot of
living beings at such and such times. (Man’s primeval sin brought pain
and disease and death into the world).
58. The primeval sin springs of itself as a plant in the conscious heart
of man, and subjects him to his doomed miseries, which have no other
intelligible cause. (There is no other assignable cause of death and
disease except the original guilt).
59. When the disease and its pain overpower the body, and prevent the
lungs and arteries to expand and contract, in order to inhale and exhale
the air, it loses its equipoise (samána) and becomes restless.
60. When the inhaled air does not come out, nor the exhaled breath
re-enter the lungs, all pulsation is at a stop; and the organic
sensations are lost in their remembrance only. (As in the memory of
sleeping and dreaming men).
61. When there is no ingress nor egress of the vital air, the pulse
sinks and becomes motionless, and the body is said to become senseless,
and the life to be extinct.
62. I shall also die away in my destined time, but my consciousness of
former knowledge will all be awake at the hour of death (which proves
the immortality of the soul).
63. Though I am dead and gone from here in this manner, yet I must mind,
that the seed of my innate consciousness (the soul), is never destroyed
with my life and body.
64. Consciousness is inward knowledge and imperishable in its nature;
therefore the nature of consciousness is free from birth and death. (The
body is subject to birth and death, but not the soul).
65. This consciousness is as clear as a fresh fountain in some persons,
and as foul as tide water in others; it is bright in its form of the
pure intellect—_chit_ in some, and polluted with the passions of animal
life, in its nature of the sentient or living soul—_chetana_ in many.
66. As a blade of grass is composed of joints in the midst, so is the
even nature of the sentient or living soul; which is combined with the
two states of birth and death amidst it.
67. The sentient soul is neither born nor dead at any time; but
witnesses these two states as the passing shadows and apparitions in a
dream and vision.
68. The soul is no other than the intellect, which is never destroyed
anywhere by any. Say, what other thing is this soul, which is called the
_Purusha_ beside the intellect itself. Gloss. It is not the body, nor
the vital breath, nor perceptions nor mind; it is not the understanding
nor egoism, nor the heart nor illusion, all of which are inactive of
themselves.
69. Say then whom and what you call to be dead today, and whether the
intellect is liable to disease or demise at any time and in any wise.
Millions of living bodies are verily dying every day, but the intellect
ever remains imperishable.
70. The intellect never dies at the death of any living being; because
all the living soul continues the same upon the demise of every body
here.
71. The living soul therefore, is no more than the principle which is
conscious of its various desires, affections and passions. It is not
that principle to which the phases of life and death are attributed by
men.
72. So there is none that dies, nor any one that is born at any time; it
is this living principle only that continually revolves in the deep eddy
of its desires.
73. Considering the unreality of the visible phenomena, there can be no
desire for them in any body; but the inward soul that is led by its
egoism to believe them as true, is subject to death at the dis-appearance
of the phenomena.
74. The recluse ascetic flying from the fears of the world as foreign to
his soul; and having none of its false desires rising in his breast,
becomes liberated in his life and assimilated with the true ONE.
CHAPTER LV.
THE STATES OF LIFE AND DEATH.
Lílá said:—Tell me, goddess! for edification of my knowledge, the
manner in which a living being comes to die and to be re-born in another
form.
2. The goddess replied:—As the action of the heart ceases to act, and
the lungs blow and breathe no more, the current of the vital airs is
utterly stopped, and the living being loses its sensibility.
3. But the intellectual soul which has no rise nor fall, remains ever
the same as it abides in all moving and unmoving bodies, and in air,
water, fire and vacuum. Gloss. So saith the Sruti:—The soul is
unlimited, permanent and imperishable.
4. When the hindrance of breathing, stops the pulsation, and motion of
the body, it is said to be dead; and is then called an inert corpse (but
not so the soul).
5. The body being a dead carcase, and the breathing mixing with the air,
the soul is freed from the bonds of its desires, and flies to and
remains in the mode of the discrete and self-existent soul. Gloss. The
Sruti says:—“His elemental parts mix with the elements, and his soul
with the Supreme.” The unconditioned—_nirupadhika_ spirit, joins with
the Holy spirit; but not so the conditioned (upádhika) soul of the
unholy.
6. The soul having its desires and styled the animal spirit—Jíva, is
otherwise than the _átman_—soul. It remains in its sepulchral vault
under the same atmosphere as the soul of Padma, which thou sawst
hovering about his tomb. Gloss. The desire binds down the spirit to its
own sphere. (The Ghost hovering about the charnel vault. Milton).
7. Hence such departed spirits are called _pretas_ or ghosts of the
dead, which have their desires and earthly propensities attached to
them; as the fragrance of the flower is concentrated in its pollen, and
thence diffused through the air.
8. As the animal souls are removed to other spheres, after their
departure from this visible world, they view the very many scenes and
sights; that their desires present before them like visions in a dream.
9. The soul continues to remember all its past adventures, even in its
next state, and finds itself in a new body, soon after the insensibility
of death is over. Gloss. This is the _linga_ or _súkshma deha_—the
spiritual or subtile body of spiritualism.
10. What appears an empty vacuum to others, seems as a dusky cloud to
the departed soul, enveloping the earth, sky, moon and all other orbs
within its bosom (the circumambient atmosphere).
11. The departed spirits are classed in six orders, as you shall now
hear from me; namely, the great, greater and greatest sinners, and so
likewise the three degrees of the virtuous.
12. These are again subdivided into three kinds, as some belonging to
one state, and others composed of two or three states; (_i.e._ of virtue
and vice intermixed) in the same individual soul.
13. Some of the most sinful souls, lose the remembrance of their past
states for the period of a whole year; and remain quite insensible
within themselves, like blocks of wood or stone. (This is called the
_pretárasthá_ continuing for a whole year after death). (It is allied to
Abraham’s bosom or Irack of Mahomedans).
14. Rising after this time, they are doomed to suffer the endless
torments of hell; which the hardness of their earthly mindedness has
brought upon them. (This is the Purgatory of Christians).
15. They then pass into hundreds of births, leading from misery to
misery, or have a moment’s respite from the pains in their short lived
prosperity, amidst their dreaming journey through life. (These
transmigrations of the soul, are the consequences of its evil
propensities).
16. There are others, that after their torpor of death is over, come to
suffer the unutterable torments of torpidity, in the state of unmoving
trees (which are fixed to undergo all the inclemencies of weather).
17. And others again that having undergone the torments of hell,
according to their inordinate desires in life, are brought to be re-born
on earth, in a variety of births in different forms.
18. Those of lesser crimes, are made to feel the inertness of stones for
sometime, after the insensibility attending upon their death. (This
means either the insensibility of dead bodies, or that of mineral
substances.)
19. These being awakened to sensibility after some period, either of
duration long or short (according to their desert); are made to return
on earth, to feel the evils of brutish and beastly lives.
20. But the souls of the least sinful, come to assume soon after their
death, some perfect human form, in order to enjoy the fruits of their
desire and desert on earth.
21. These desires appear before the soul as dreams, and awaken its
reminiscence of the past, as present at that moment.
22. Again the best and most virtuous souls, come soon after their death,
to find themselves in heavenly abodes, by reason of their continued
thoughts and speculations of them.
23. Some amongst them, are brought to enjoy the rewards of their actions
in other spheres, from which they are sent back to the mortal world, at
the residences of the auspicious and best part of mankind.
24. Those of moderate virtues are blown away by the atmospheric air,
upon the tops of trees and medicinal plants, where they rove about as
the protozoa, after the insensibility of death is over.
25. Being nourished here by the juice of fruits, they descend in the
form of serum and enter into the hearts of men, whence they fall into
the uterus in the form of _semen virilis_, which is the cause of the
body and life of other living beings.
The gloss says:—Having enjoyed in the next world the good fruits of
their virtuous deeds, they are blown down on earth by the winds and
rain. Here they enter in the form of sap and marrow in the vegetable
productions of corn, grain and fruits; and these entering the body of
animals in the form of food, produce the semen, which becomes the cause
of the lives and bodies of all living beings.
26. Thus the dead, figure to themselves some one of these states of
living bodies, according to their respective proclivity, after they
recover from the collapse attending upon their death.
27. Having thought themselves to be extinct at first, they come to feel
their resuscitation afterwards, upon receiving the offering of the mess,
made to their departed spirits (by their surviving heirs).
28. Then they fancy they see the messengers of death, with nooses in
their hands, come to fetch them to the realm of _Yama_; where they
depart with them, (with their provision for one year offered in their
Srádh ceremony).
29. There the righteous are carried in heavenly cars to the gardens of
Paradise, which they gain by their meritorious acts in life.
30. But the sinful soul, meets with icebergs and pitfals, tangled with
thorns and iron pikes, and bushes and brambles in its passage, as the
punishment of its sins.
31. Those of the middling class, have a clear and paved passage, with
soft grassy path-ways shaded by cooling arbours, and supplied with spring
waters on both sides of them.
32. On its arrival there, the soul reflects within itself that: “here am
I, and yonder is _Yama_—the lord of the dead. The other is the judge of
our actions—Chitragupta, and this is his judgment given on my behalf”.
33. In this manner the great world also, appears to every one as in a
dream; and so the nature and manner of all things, present themselves
before every soul.
34. But all these appearances are as void as air; the soul alone is the
sentient principle, and the spacious space and time, and the modes and
motions of things, though they appear as real, are nothing in reality.
35. Here (in _Yama’s_ court), the soul is pronounced to reap the reward
of its acts, whereby it ascends either to the blissful heaven above, or
descends to the painful hell below.
36. After having enjoyed the bliss of heaven, or suffered the torment of
hell, it is doomed to wander in this earth again, to reap the reward of
its acts in repeated transmigrations.
37. The soul springs up as a paddy plant, and brings forth the grains of
intelligence; and then being assembled by the senses, it becomes an
animal, and lastly an intelligent being.
_i.e._ The insensible vegetable, entering into the animal body in the form
of food, is converted to a sensible but irrational soul; but entering as
food in the body of man, it turns to a rational and human soul. The one
Universal soul is thus diversified in different beings. (It is the plant
and food that sustains and nourishes all souls. Gloss).
38. The soul contains in itself the germs of all its senses, which lie
dormant in it for want of its bodily organs. It is contained in the
semen virilis of man, which passing into the uterus, produces the fœtus
in the womb of the female.
39. The fœtus then becomes either well-formed or deformed, according to
the good or evil deeds of the person in its past state; and brings forth
the infant of a goodly or ill shapen appearance.
40. It then perceives the moonlike beauty of youthful bloom, and its
amorous disposition coming upon itself; and feels afterwards the effects
of hoary old age, defacing its lotus-like face, as the sleets of snow,
shatter and shrivel the lotus leaflets.
41. At last it undergoes the pains of disease and death, and feels the
same insensibility of Euthanasia as before, and finds again as in a
dream its taking of a new form.
42. It again believes itself to be carried to the region of Pluto, and
subjected to the former kinds of revolution; and thus it continues to
conceive its transmigration, in endless births and various forms.
43. Thus the aerial spirit goes on thinking, for ever in its own
etherial sphere, all its ceaseless metempsychosis, until its final
liberation from this changeful state.
44. Lílá said:—Tell me kindly, O good goddess! for the enlightenment of
my understanding, how this misconception of its changeableness, first
came upon the soul in the beginning.
45. The goddess replied:—It is the gross view of the abstract, that
causes us to assume the discrete spirit, in the concrete forms of the
earth and sky and rocks and trees (all of which subsist in the spirit,
and are unsubstantial in themselves).
46. As the divine intellect manifests itself, as the soul and model of
all forms; so we see these manifestations, in the transcendental sphere
of its pure intelligence.
47. In the beginning, God conceived himself as the lord of creation
(Brahmá); and then as it were in a dream, he saw in himself, all the
forms as they continue to this time.
48. These forms were manifested in the divine spirit, at first as his
will; and then exhibited in the phenomenal world, as reflexions of the
same, in all their present forms.
49. Among these some are called living beings, which have the motions of
their bodies and limbs; and live by means of the air which they breathe,
and which circulate in their bodies through the lungs and arteries.
50. Such also is the state of the vegetable creation from the first,
that they having their inward sensitiveness, are notwithstanding devoid
of outward motion, and receive their sustenance by the roots; wherefore
they are called _Pádapas_ or pedobibers.
51. The hollow sphere of the divine intellect, beaming with
intelligence, sends forth its particles of percipience, which form the
consciousness of some beings, and sensitiveness in others.
52. But man uses his eyes to view the outer and the reflected world (in
disregard of his consciousness of the real); although the eyes do not
form his living soul, nor did they exist at his creation and before his
birth. (When his view was concentrated within himself as in his sleeping
visions).
53. It is according to one’s estimation of himself, that he has his
proper and peculiar desires, and the particular form of his body also.
Such is the case of the elementary bodies likewise, from their inward
conception of their peculiar natures.
Gloss:—So the ideas of vacuity, fluidity and solidity forming the bodies
of air, water and earth; and the form of every thing agreeing with its
inherent nature.
54. Thus all moving and unmoving things, have their movable and
immovable bodies, according to their intrinsic disposition or
idiosyncrasy as such and such.
55. Hence all self-moving beings have their movable bodies, conforming
with the conception of their natures as so and so; and in this state of
their belief, they continue to this time, with their same inborn or
congenital bodies.
56. The vegetable world still continues in the same state of fixedness,
from its sense of immobility; and so the rocks and minerals continue in
their inert state, from the inborn sense of their inertness.
57. There is no distinction whatever between inertness and intelligence,
nor any difference betwixt production, continuance and extinction of
things; all which occur in one common essence of the supreme.
58. The varying idiocrasy subsisting in vegetables and minerals,
makes them feel themselves as such, and causes their various natures and
forms, as they have to this time.
59. The inward constitution of all immovable objects, makes them remain
in their stationary states; and so of all other substances, according to
their different names and natures.
60. Thus the inward crasis or quality of worms and insects, makes them
conceive themselves according to their different kinds, and gives them
their particular natures for ever.
61. So the people under the north pole know nothing about those in the
south, except that they have the knowledge of themselves only (as ever
subject to the intense cold of the frigid zone).
62. So also all kinds of moving and unmoving beings, are prepossessed
with their own notions of things, and regard all others according to the
peculiar nature of themselves. (Átmá vat &c.).
63. Again as the inhabitants of caves, know nothing of their outsiders;
and as the frogs of dirty pools are unacquainted with pure water of
streams; so is one sort of being ignorant of the nature of another.
64. But the inane intellect, residing in the form of the all pervasive
mind, and all sustaining air; knows the natures of all things in all
places.
65. The vital air that enters all bodies through the pores of their
bodies, is the moving principle, that gives life and motion to all
living beings.
66. Verily the mind is situated in all things, whether they are moving
or immovable; and so is the air, which causes the motion in some, and
quiescence in others.
67. Thus are all things but rays of the conscious soul, in this world of
illusion, and continue in the same state as they have been from the
beginning.
68. I have told you all about the nature of things in the world, and how
un-realities come to appear as real unto us.
69. Lo here this king Vidúratha is about to breathe his last, and the
garlands of flowers heaped on the corpse of thy husband Padma, are now
being hung upon the breast of Vidúratha.
70. Lílá said:—Tell me goddess! by what way he entered the tomb of
Padma, and how we may also go there to see what he has been doing in
that place.
71. The goddess said:—Man goes to all places by the way of his desires,
and thinks also he goes to the distant future, in the spiritual form of
pure intellect.
72. We shall go by the same way (aerial or spiritual), as you will like
to take; because the bond of our friendship will make no difference in
our choice and desires.
73. Vasishtha said:—The princess Lílá being relieved of her pain, by the
recital of this agreeable narration; and her intellectual sight being
brightened, by the blazing sun of spiritual light; beheld the insensible
and unmoving Vidúratha, breathe out his last expiring breath.
CHAPTER LVI.
STATE OF THE SOUL AFTER DEATH.
Argument. The desire of the king, and his departure to the realm of
death, followed by Lílá and the goddess; and their arrival to his
former city.
Vasishtha continued:—In the meantime the eye-balls of the king became
convoluted, and his lips and cheeks grew pale and dry, with his whole
countenance; and there remained only the slender breath of life in him.
2. His body became as lean as a dry leaf, and his face turned as ghastly
as the figure of death; his throat gurgled as the hoarsest beetles, and
his lungs breathed with a bated breath.
3. His sight was darkened upon the insensibility of death, and his hopes
were buried in the pit of despair; and the sensations of his external
organs, were hid within the cavity of his heart.
4. His figure was as senseless as a picture in painting, and all his
limbs were as motionless, as those of a statue carved upon a block of
marble.
5. What need is there of a lengthy description, when it may be said in
short; that his life quitted his body, as a bird flies off afar from a
falling tree.
6. The two ladies with their divine eye-sight, beheld his animal spirit,
flying upwards in the sky in its aerial form; and his consciousness
disappearing, like the odour of a flower wafted by the wind.
7. His living soul being joined with its spiritual body, began to fly
higher and higher in the air; as it was led by its inward desire or
expectation of ascending to heaven.
8. The two ladies kept going after that conscious soul, like a couple of
female bees, pursuing a particle of perfume borne afar in the air on the
wings of the wind.
9. Then in a moment after the fainting fit of death was over; the
conscious soul was roused from its insensibility, like some fragrance
expanding itself with the breeze.
10. It saw the porters of death, carrying away the souls of the dead,
that have resumed their grosser forms, by means of the mess offerings of
their kinsmen to their manes.
11. After a long year’s journey on the way, it reached at the distant
abode of _Yama_, with the hope of reaping the reward of its acts; but
found the gate fast beset by beasts of prey. (Like the Cerberus at the
hellgate of Pluto).
12. Yama, on beholding the departed spirit of every body brought before
him, ordered to find out its foul acts all along its life time.
13. On finding the prince’s spirit spotless, and ever inclined to
virtuous acts and to have been nourished by the grace of the goddess of
wisdom:—
14. He ordered it to be released, and re-entered into its former dead
body, which lay buried under the flowers in the tomb.
15. It was then let to fly in the etherial path, with the swiftness of a
stone flung from a sling; and was followed by the living Lílá and the
goddess in the air.
16. The living soul of the king thus sailing through the sky, did not
observe the forms of the two ladies that followed it, though they saw it
all along its course. (Because heavenly forms are invisible to mortal
eyes and souls).
17. They traversed through many worlds, and soon passed the bounds of
the extra-mundane systems; till they arrived at the solar world, whence
they descended on this orb of the earth.
18. The two self-willed forms (of Lílá and the goddess), in company with
the living soul of the king; arrived at the royal city of Padma, and
entered the apartment of Lílá.
19. They entered in a trice and of their own free will, into the inside
of the palace; as the air passes in flowers, and the sunbeams penetrate
in the water, and the odors mix with the air.
20. Ráma asked:—How was it Sir, that they entered into the abode
adjoining to the tomb, and how could they find out the way to it, the
one having been dead a long time, and all three being but bodiless
vacuity?
21. Vasishtha replied:—The tomb of the dead body of the prince, being
impressed in his soul, and the object of its desire, led his spirit
insensibly to it, as if it were by its inborn instinct.
22. Who does not know, that the endless desires which are sown in the
human breast, like the countless seeds of a fig fruit, come of their own
nature, to grow up to big trees in their time?
23. Just as the living body bears its seed—the subtile or _linga deha_
in the heart, which germinates and grows to a tree at last; so every
particle of the intellect, bears the mundane seed in itself. (The cosmos
is contained in every individual soul).
24. As a man placed in one country, sees within himself his house, which
is situated in a far distant land, so the soul sees the objects of his
distant desires, ever present before it.
25. The living soul, ever longs after the best object of its desire;
though it may undergo a hundred births, and become subject to the errors
and delusions of his senses, and of this illusive world. (For whatever
is born in the root, must come out in the seed; and that which is bred
in the bones, must appear in the flesh).
26. Ráma rejoined:—There are many persons, that are free from their
desire of receiving the funeral cake: now tell me, sir, what becomes of
those souls, who get no cake offering at their Srádh.
27. Vasishtha replied:—The man having the desire of receiving the mess
settled in his heart, and thinking it to be offered to him; is surely
benefitted by its offering. (The funeral cake like every other food, is
said to nourish the spirit, and cause its resuscitation in a new life
and body).
28. Whatever is in the heart and mind, the same notions form the nature
of living beings; and whether these are in their corporeal or
incorporeal states, they think themselves as such beings and no other.
(The sense of personal identity accompanies the soul everywhere).
29. The thought of having received the _pinda_ cake, makes a man
_sapinda_, though it is not actually offered to him; so on the other
hand the thought of not being served with the cake, makes a _sapinda_
become a _nispinda_ (or one served with it becomes as one without it).
30. It is verily the desire of all living beings to be such and such as
they have in their hearts, and that is the cause of their becoming so in
reality. (Gloss. The ordinance of the necessity of cake offering,
fosters its desire in the hearts of men. Or, which is the same thing,
the desire of receiving the funeral cake, is fostered in the hearts of
men, by the ordinance of Srádh).
31. It is the thought of a man, that makes the poison savour as nectar
to his taste; and it is his very thought that makes an untruth seem as
truth to him. (Gloss. The thought of a snake-catcher that he is the
snake eating Garuda, makes him swallow the bitter poison as sweet honey;
and the thought of snake-bite from the pricking of a thorn, mortifies a
man by his false fear or imagination only).
32. Know this for certain, that no thought ever rises in any one without
some cause or other; hence the desire or thought which is inherent in
the spirit, is the sole cause of its regeneration on earth.
33. Nobody has ever seen or heard of any event, occurring without its
proper cause; except the being of the Supreme Being, which is the
causeless cause of all beings, from their state of not-being into being.
34. The desire is inherent in the intellect, like a dream in the soul;
and the same appears in the form of acts, as the Will of God is
manifested in his works of creation.
35. Ráma said:—How can the spirit that is conscious of its demerit,
foster any desire of its future good; and how can it profit by the pious
works of others for its salvation? (as the Srádh made by the relatives
of the deceased).
36. Tell me too whether the pious acts of others, which are offered to
the manes go for nothing; and whether the absence of future prospects of
the unmeritorious ghost, or the benevolent wishes of others (for its
future good) are to take effect.
37. Vasishtha said:—A desire is naturally raised in one at its proper
time and place, and by application of appropriate acts and means; and
the rising of the desire necessarily overcomes its absence. Gloss. So a
Srádh done in proper season and manner, serves to the benefit of the
desertless spirit.
38. The pious gifts made on behalf of the departed souls, accrue to them
as their own acts; and the sense which they thus acquire of their
worthiness, fills them with better hopes and desires of their future
state. (Hence rises the hope of redemption by means of the redeeming son
of man).
39. And as the stronger man gains the better of his adversary, so the
later acts of piety drive away the former impiety from the spirit.
Therefore the constant practice of pious acts is strictly enjoined in
the Sástras.
40. Ráma said:—If the desire is raised at its proper time and place, how
then could it rise in the beginning when there was no time nor place:
(_i.e._, when all was void and yet Brahma had his desire and will).
41. You say that there are accessory causes, which give rise to the
desires, but how could the will rise at first without any accessory
cause whatever?
42. Vasishtha replied:—It is true, O long-armed Ráma, that there was
neither time nor place in the beginning, when the Spirit of God was
without its will.
43. And there being no accessory cause, there was not even the idea of
the visible world, nor was it created or brought into existence; and it
is so even now.
44. The phenomenal world has no existence, and all that is visible, is
the manifestation of the Divine Intellect, which is ever lasting and
imperishable.
45. This will I explain to you afterwards in a hundred different ways,
and it is my main purpose to do so; but hear me now tell you what
appertains to the matter under consideration.
46. They having got in that house, saw its inside beautifully decorated
with chaplets of flowers as fresh as those of the spring season.
47. The inmates of the palace were quietly employed in their duties, and
the corpse of the king was placed upon a bed of _mandara_ and _kunda_
flowers.
48. The sheet over the dead body, was also strewn over with wreaths of
the same flowers; and there were the auspicious pots of water placed by
the bed side.
49. The doors of the room were closed, and the windows were shut fast
with their latchets; the lamps cast a dim light on the white washed
walls around, and the corpse was lying as a man in sleep, with the
suppressed breathing of his mouth and nostrils.
50. There was the full bright moon, shining with her delightsome lustre,
and the beauty of the palace, put to blush the paradise of Indra; it was
as charming as the pericarp of the lotus of Brahmá’s birthplace, and it
was as silent as dumbness or a dummy itself, and as beautiful as the
fair moon in her fulness.
CHAPTER LVII.
PHENOMENA OF DREAMING.
Argument. Unsubstantiality _of the aerial_ body of Lílá and the
Spiritual bodies of Yogis.
Vasishtha continued:—They beheld there the younger Lílá of Vidúratha,
who had arrived there after her demise, and before the death of that
king.
2. She was in her former habit and mode with the same body, and the same
tone and tenor of her mind; she was also as beautiful in all her
features, as in her former graceful form and figure when living.
3. She was the same in every part of her body, and wore the same apparel
as before. She had the very ornaments on her person, with the difference
that it was sitting quietly in the same place, and not moving about as
before.
4. She kept flapping her pretty fan (chouri), over the corpse of the
king; and was gracing the ground below, like the rising moon brightening
the skies above.
5. She sat quiet, reclining her moonlike face on the palm of her left
hand; and decorated with shining gems, she appeared as a bed of flowers,
with new-blown blossoms on it.
6. With the glances of her beautiful eyes, she shed showers of flowers
on all sides; and the brightness of her person, beamed with the beams of
the etherial moon.
7. She seemed to have approached to the lord of men, like the goddess
Lakshmí, appearing before the god Vishnu; and with the heaps of flowers
before her, she seemed as Flora or the vernal season in person.
8. Her eyes were fixed on the countenance of her husband, as if she was
pondering his future well-being; and there was a melancholy like that of
the waning moon, spread over her face, to think of his present woeful
state.
9. They beheld the damsel, who however had no sight of them; because
their trust was in truth, and saw everything clearly; while her views
being otherwise, she could not discern their spiritual forms.
10. Ráma said:—You have said Sir, that the former Lílá had repaired
there in her reverie and spiritual form, by the favour of the goddess of
wisdom.
11. How do you now describe her as having a body, which I want to know
how and whence it came to her.
12. Vasishtha replied:—What is this body of Lílá, Ráma! It is no more
true than a false imagination of her gross spirit, like that of water in
the mirage. (It is the conception of one’s self as so and so, that
impresses him with that belief also).
13. It is the spirit alone that fills the world, and all bodies are
creations of the fancy. This spirit is the Intellect of God, and full of
felicity in itself.
14. The same understanding which Lílá had of herself to her end,
accompanied her to her future state; and the same notion of her body
followed her there, though it was reduced to dust, as the ice is
dissolved into water.
15. The spiritual bodies also, are sometimes liable to fall into error,
and think themselves as corporeal bodies, as we mistake a rope for the
serpent.
16. The belief in the materiality of any body, as composed of the earth
and other elements, is as false as it is to believe the hares to have
horns on their heads.
17. Whoso thinks himself to have become a stag in his dream, has no
need of seeking another stag for comparing himself with it. (_i.e._ Men
are actuated by their own opinion of themselves).
18. An untruth appears as truth at one time, and disappears at another;
as the error of a snake in a rope, vanishes upon the knowledge of its
falsehood.
19. So the knowledge of the reality of all things, in the minds of the
un-enlightened; is dispersed upon conviction of their un-reality in the
minds of the enlightened.
20. But the ignorant, that have a belief in the reality of this world of
dreams, believe also in the transmigration of the animal soul, like the
revolution of the globe on its own axis.
21. Ráma asked:—If the bodies of Yogis be of a spiritual nature, how is
it that they are seen to walk about in the sights of men?
22. Vasishtha replied:—The Yogi may take upon himself various forms,
without the destruction of his former body; as the human soul may deem
itself transformed to a stag or any other being in a dream, without
undergoing any change in its spiritual essence. (The identity of the
self is not lost under any form of the body. Locke).
23. His spiritual body is invisible to all, though it may appear as
visible to their sight. It is like the particles of frost seen in
sun-beams, and as the appearance of a white spot in autumnal sky (when
there is no frost nor cloud in it).
24. No body can easily discern the features of a Yogi’s body, nor are
they discernible by other Yogis. They are as imperceptible as the
features of a bird flying in the air.
25. It is from the error of judgment, that men think some Yogis to be
dead and others to be living; but their spiritual bodies are never
subject to death or common sight.
26. The embodied soul is subject to errors, from which the souls of
Yogis are free; because their knowledge of truth has purged the mistake
of a snake in the rope, from their souls.
27. What is this body and whence it is, and what of its existence or
destruction? What is lasting remains forever and is freed from the
ignorance it had before (and it is the soul which is ever lasting and
free from error).
28. Ráma said:—Whether the embodied soul takes the spiritual form, or is
it something other than this. Tell me this and remove my doubt.
29. Vasishtha said:—I have told this repeatedly to you, my good Ráma!
and how is it that you do not understand it yet, that there exists only
the spiritual body, and the material form is nothing?
30. It is by habit of constant meditation, that you must know your
spiritual state, and subdue your sense of corporeality; and as you
abstain from the latter, so you attain to the former state.
31. Then there will be an end of your sense of the gravity and solidity
of objects, like the disappearance of the visions of a dreaming man,
when he comes to wake.
32. The body of a Yogi becomes as light and subtile, as the evanescent
appearances in a dream: (the fleeting objects of vision).
33. And as a dreaming man feels the lightness of his body, in his
dreaming rambles; so the Yogi finds his solid body, as volatile as air
in all places.
34. The expectation of the longlife of a master-head in his material
body, is realized in the spiritual one, after the corpse has been burnt
away. (Longevity consists in the longlife of the spirit and not of the
body).
35. Every body must have to assume his spiritual frame afterwards; but
the Yogi finds it in his life-time, by the enlightenment of his
intellect.
36. As a man upon his waking from sleep, remembers his having an
intellectual form in his dreaming state; so the Yogi is conscious of his
spiritual body in his own intellect.
37. The notion of the corporeal body is a mere fallacy, like that of the
snake in a rope; hence nothing is lost by the loss of this body, nor is
anything gained by its production and regeneration.
38. Ráma said:—Now tell me Sir, what the inmates of the house thought
this Lílá to be; whether they viewed her as an embodied being or a
bodiless apparition appearing before them.
39. Vasishtha answered:—They took the sorrowful queen to be some friend
of the king, and to have come from some place they knew not what and
where.
40. They did not like to examine the matter, because it is the nature of
the ignorant like that of brutes, to believe what they see, without
investigation or consideration of its nature.
41. As a stone flung at random flies off from its mark, so the brutish
and ignorant folks go astray, from hitting at the true mark of a thing
placed before them.
42. As we know not what becomes of the objects of our dream, and whither
they are fled upon our waking; such is the case with our material
bodies, which are as false and fleeting as our delusive dreams.
43. Ráma said:—Tell me Sir, where the hill we dream of, is hid upon our
waking; kindly remove my doubt, as the wind disperses the autumnal
clouds.
44. Vasishtha said:—All things appearing in our dream or residing in our
desire as the hill, &c., are absorbed in our consciousness whence they
sprang; just as the motion of bodies subsides in the air which gives the
vibration.
45. As the motion of the air mixes with the fixed ether, so the dreams
and desires which we are conscious of, set in the unchanging soul whence
they have their rise.
46. Our dreams like our knowledge of all other things, are made known to
us by our consciousness, the nature of which is unknown to us as that of
the inward soul. (Consciousness and the soul are represented as two
different predicaments, and the one is not predicated of the other, as
we say—the conscious soul).
47. We do not find our dreams and desires as distinct from our
consciousness of them; they appertain to it in the same manner, as
fluidity to water and motion to the air.
48. Whatever difference may appear to exist between them, is the effect
of sheer ignorance; and this gross ignorance is the feature of this
world, known as the phantom of fancy.
49. As it is impossible to conceive two co-eternal and co-existent
causes together (as an efficient and a material cause); so it is wrong
to suppose the dream as a distinct existence or otherwise, than an act
of our consciousness.
50. There is no difference whatever between the dreaming and waking
states; in dream we see a false city appearing to view, so in waking you
behold the unreal world, standing as a reality before you.
51. Nothing can be truly existent that appears as true in a dream; this
being always true of the visions in a dream, it is likewise so of the
external phenomena, appearing to the sight in our day dreams.
52. As the hill in a dream, immediately disappears into airy nothing, so
the material world sooner or later disappears into naught by thinking on
its nihility.
53. A Yogi is seen by some to mount in the air, and by others as a dead
body lying on the ground; and this is according to one’s belief in his
spiritual or material body, that every one sees him in his own way.
54. The view of the phenomenal world as distinct from the Unity, is as
false as a sight in delusion or magical show; or a dream or delirium of
the great Illusion—_máyá_.
55. Others who are blinded by similar errors, entertain as in a dream,
the notion of their reproduction after being awakened from the
insensibility of their death like sleep; but the spiritual body of the
Yogi shines and soars upward, after passing over the mirage of the false
appearances of the world.
CHAPTER LVIII.
REVIVAL OF PADMA.
Argument. Extinction of the Spiritual life of Lílá, and Restoration of
Padma’s Life.
Vasishtha continued:—It was in the meantime that the goddess of wisdom,
stopped the course of Vidúratha’s life, as we stop the flight of our
minds at will.
2. Lílá said:—Tell me, goddess, what length of time has expired, since
the corpse of the king was laid in this tomb, and I was absorbed in my
deep meditation.
3. The goddess replied:—A month has passed since these maid servants of
thine have been waiting here for watching thy body, which they thought
lay asleep in the room.
4. Hear excellent lady! what has become of thy body, after it was rotten
in a fortnight and evaporated in the air.
5. Seeing thy lifeless corpse lying as cold as frost on the ground, and
turning as dry as a log of wood, or rather as a withered leaf on the
floor;—
6. The royal ministers thought thee to be dead of thyself (a suicide),
and removed thy putrid carcase out of the room.
7. And what more shall I say, than they laid thy corpse on a heap of
sandal wood, and having set fire to the pile with the sprinkling of
ghee, they reduced it to ashes in a short while.
8. Then the family raised a loud cry that their queen was dead, and wept
bitterly for sometime, after which they performed thy funeral
ceremonies.
9. Now when they will behold thee coming here in thy same body, they
must be astonished to think thee as returned from the next world of the
dead.
10. Now my daughter, when thou shalt appear before them in this thy
purer and spiritual form, they must look upon thee with astonishment.
11. For thou hast not thy former form at present, but it is changed to a
purer one, agreeably to the tenor and temperament of thy mind. (Lit.
according to the desire in thy heart).
12. For every body beholds every thing without him, according to his
inward feelings; as for example the sight of shadowy ghosts is frequent
to children, that have a fear of devils at heart.
13. Now, O beauteous lady! Thou art an adept in spiritualism, and hast a
spiritual body on thee, and hast forgotten and forsaken thy former body,
with all the desires connate with it.
14. The view of material bodies, is lost to the sight of spiritualists;
and the intelligent view them in the light of autumnal clouds, which are
void of substance. (_i.e._ The flimsy clouds which are without
rain-water in them).
15. On attainment of the spiritual state, the material body becomes as
an empty cloud, and as a flower without its odor.
16. When a man of pure desire, is conscious of his attaining the
spiritual state; he loses the remembrance of his material body, as a
youth forgets his embryonic state.
17. It is now the thirty first day that we have arrived at this place;
and I have caused the maid servants here, to fall into a fast sleep this
morning.
18. Now Lílá! let us advance before the wilful Lílá, and then discover
to her at our will, the form of the truthful Lílá, and her manner and
conduct to thee.
19. Vasishtha said:—So saying, they wished themselves to be perceived by
the wilful Lílá, and stood manifest to her sight in their etherial forms
of the goddess and her inspired dame.
20. At this instant the Lílá of Vidúratha, looked upon them with her
staring eyes; and found the room lighted up by the full lustre of their
bodies.
21. The apartment seemed to be lighted by the bright orb of the moon,
and its wall washed over with liquid gold; the ground floor shone as
paved with ice, and all was full of splendour.
22. After seeing the brightness of the bed chamber, Lílá looked up at
the goddess and the other Lílá, and rising respectfully before them, she
fell at their feet.
23. Be victorious, O ye goddesses! she said, that have blessed me with
your visit, and know that know all, that I have come here first as a
preparer of your way. (Lit. as the sweeper of your path).
24. As she was speaking in this manner, they received her with good
grace, and then all the three sat together on a bedding in their
youthful bloom, like luxuriant creepers on the snow capt top of Meru.
25. The goddess said:—Tell us daughter, how you came here before
ourselves, how you have been, and what you have seen on your way hither.
26. The younger Lílá answered:—As I lay insensible on that spot (upon
the shock of my death), I was enveloped in darkness like the new moon,
and felt myself burnt away by the flame of a conflagration (_i.e._,
funeral fire).
27. I had no sense nor thought of anything good or bad, but remained
with my eyes closed under my eye-lids.
28. Then I found myself, O great goddess! after I had recovered from my
anaesthesia of death, to assume (by mistake a new body agreeably to my
former impression), and to be translated at once into the midst of the
sky.
29. I mounted on the vehicle of winds, and was borne like fragrance to
this mansion through the etherial space.
30. I found this house guarded by its warders, and lighted with lamps,
and having a costly bedstead placed in the midst of it.
31. I am looking here upon this corpse, as my husband Vidúratha, who has
been sleeping here with his body covered under the flowers, like the
vernal god in a flower garden.
32. I thought he was taking his rest, after the fatigue of the warfare,
and did not like to disturb his repose in this place.
33. I have now related to you, my gracious goddesses! all that I have
seen and thought of, since I have been restored to my new life.
34. The goddess spake:—Now I tell thee Lílá, that hast such beautiful
eyes, and movest like a swan, that I will raise the corpse of the king
to life from his bed in this bier.
35. Saying so, she breathed the breath of life as the lotus lets off its
fragrance; and it fled into the nostrils of the carcase, like a creeping
plant crawls into a hole.
36. It entered into the heart through the vital sheath, as the wind
penetrates into the hole of a bamboo; and the breath of life was fraught
with desires, as the waves of the sea sparkle with pearls.
37. The infusion of life, added to the colour of the face and body of
king Padma; as the rain-water refreshes the fading lotus in a drought.
38. By degrees the members of the body became renovated, like a garden
with its returning flowering season; and as the sides of a hill become
virescent, with fresh grown bushes and creepers.
39. The person of the king shone as the queen of the stars, with all her
digits of the full moon, when she enlightens the whole world, with the
beams of her radiant face.
40. All his limbs became as tender and roscid, as the branches of trees
in spring; and they regained their bright and golden hue, like the
flowers of the vernal season.
41. He oped his eyes which were as clear as the sky, with their two
pupils rolling as the two orbs of light; and enlightening the world,
with their charming and auspicious beams.
42. He raised his body, as the Vindhyá mountain uplifts its head, and
cried, “who waits there” with a grave and hoarse voice.
43. The two Lílás responded to him saying:—“your commands;” when he
beheld the two Lílás in attendance upon him, and lowly bending
themselves at his feet.
44. Both of them were of the same form and features, and of the like
demeanour and deportment towards him. They were alike to one another in
their voice and action, as in their joy and gladness at his rising.
45. Then looking upon them he asked, “what art thou and who is she”? At
this the elder Lílá responded to him saying—“deign to hear what I have
to say”.
46. I am Lílá thy former consort, and was joined as twain in one with
thee, as sounds and their senses are combined together.
47. The other Lílá is but a reflexion of myself, and cast by my free
will for your service.
48. The lady sitting here beside the bed, is the goddess of wisdom—the
blessed Sarasvatí, and mother of the three worlds; set her on the golden
seat before you.
49. It is by virtue of our great merit, that she has presented herself
to our sight, and brought us back from other worlds to your presence in
this place.
50. Hearing this, the lotus-eyed king, rose from his seat, and with
pendant wreaths of flowers and a strap of cloth hung about his neck,
prostrated himself at her feet.
51. He exclaimed:—I hail thee, O divine Sarasvatí! that dost confer all
blessings on mankind. Deign to confer on me the blessings of
understanding and riches with a long life.
52. As he was saying so, the goddess touched him with her hand and said,
“be thou my son, possessed of thy desired blessings, and gain thy
blessed abode in future.
53. “Let all evils and evil thoughts be far from thee, and all thy
discomforts be dispersed from this place; let an everlasting joy alight
in thine hearts, and a thick population fill thy happy realm. May all
prosperity attend on thee for ever.”
CHAPTER LIX.
EXTINCTION OF PADMA’S LIFE.
Argument. Great joy on the King’s return to Life. His Government of the
kingdom and his final Liberation.
Vasishtha said:—“Be it so,” said Sarasvatí and disappeared in the air;
and the people rose in the morning with their revivified king.
2. He embraced the renascent Lílá, who embraced him in her turn, and
they were exceeding glad in their coming to life again.
3. The palace was filled with loud acclamations of joy as those of giddy
revelry: and the citizens were full of mirth and merry, song and music.
4. The shouts of victory, and sounds of huzzas and heydays, resounded in
the air, and the people elated with joy, thronged at the royal courtyard
to see their king.
5. The genii of the Siddhas and Vidyádharas, dropped down handfuls of
flowers from above; and the sound of drums and kettles, and trumpets and
conches, resounded on all sides.
6. The elephants roared aloud on the outside, with their uplifted
trunks; and crowds of females filled the inner court-yard, with their
loud rejoicings.
7. Men bearing presents to the king, fell upon one another at their
mutual clashing; and others wearing the flowery chaplets on their heads
and hairs, moved gracefully all about.
8. The red turbans of joy on the heads of the chiefs and host of
citizens, and the waving of the reddish palms of dancing girls, filled
the sky with a bed of red lotuses.
9. The ground also was strewn over with rosy flowers, by foot-falls of
dancers with their reddish soles; and the pendant earrings of ballet
girls, which flourished with the oscillation of their heads and
shoulders, waved in the air like flowers of gold.
10. The silken veils which like autumnal clouds, covered the faces of
fairy damsels in their dancing, glittered as so many moons shining in
the court-yard.
11. The people then retired to their respective abodes, with loud
applause of the queen’s return with her husband from the other world.
12. The king Padma heard of his adventures from the hearsay of his
subjects, and made his purificatory ablution, with the waters of the
four seas of the earth.
13. Then the royal ministers and ministerial Bráhmans, joined together
in the act of his installation, like the synod of immortals, meeting at
the inauguration of Indra.
14. The two Lílás continued in company with the king, to relate with
delight their respective adventures, and the wisdom they had gathered
thereby.
15. It was thus by grace of the genius of wisdom and their own
experience, that this king Padma and his two queens, obtained their
prosperity equal to that of the three worlds.
16. The king, who was fraught with the wisdom imparted to him by the
goddess; continued to rule over his kingdom for thousands of years, in
company with his consorts.
17. They reigned on earth, in their state of living liberation for
myriads of years; and then receiving the perfect knowledge of the holy
Siddhas, they became wholly liberated after their deaths.
18. The happy pair having reigned jointly, over their delightful realm
of ever increasing population, and which was graced by learned men and
righteous people, knowing their own rights and duties of doing good to
all mankind, became freed from the burden of their state affairs for
ever.
CHAPTER LX.
ON DURATION AND TIME AND THOUGHTS OF THE MIND.
Argument. The reason of introducing the two Lílás in the tale. The one
as the counterpart of the other.
Vasishtha said:—I have related to you this tale, prince! for removing
your error of the phenomenal world. Mind this tale of Lílá, and
renounce your misconception of the gross material world.
2. The substantiality of phenomena is a _nil_ by itself, and requires no
pains to invalidate it. It is hard to disprove a reality; but there is
no difficulty in effacing a falsehood from the mind.
3. True knowledge consists in viewing the visibles as void, and knowing
the one vacuum as the sole unity and real entity; one loses himself at
last in this infinite vacuity. (Vasishtha was a _súnya vádi_ or vacuist,
which Sankaráchárya was at the pains to refute in his Dig-vijaya).
4. When the self-born Brahmá created the world from nothing, and without
the aid of any material or elementary body; it is plain that there was
an eternal void, and all these are but manifestations of the vacuous
soul. (The _Teom_ and _Beom_ of Genesis, corresponding with _Tama_ and
_Vyom_ of the Veda, were the origin of creation).
5. The same creative soul, has spread the seeds of its consciousness in
the stream of creation, and these produce the images as they incessantly
appear to us, unless we take the pains to repress them.
6. The appearance of the world, is but a perspective of the sphere of
divine intellect; and contained in the small space of human intellect
within the soul; as in a transparent particle of sand.
7. Such being the case, say what is the essence of this erroneous
conception, and what may be our desires of reliance in it, and what can
be the meaning either of destiny or necessity? (The predestination and
chance, to which the Fatalists ascribe the origination of the universe).
8. This entire whole which is visible to the eye, is but a false
appearance as that of magic; and there is no truth nor substance in a
magic show.
9. Ráma said:—Oh! the wondrous exposition of the world, that you have
now explained to me. It refreshes my soul, as the moon-beams revive the
blades of grass, that have been burnt down by a conflagration.
10. It is after so long, that I have come to know the truly knowable;
such as what and how it is, and the manner whereby, whence and when it
is to be known.
11. I have my peace and rest in pondering on this wonderful theory, and
your elucidation of the doctrines of the Sruti Sástras.
12. But tell me this one thing to remove my doubt, as my ears are never
satiate, with drinking the nectarious juice of your sweet speech.
13. Tell me the time, which transpired during the three births of Lílá’s
husband. Was it the duration of a day and night in one case, and of a
month in another, and the period of a whole year in the case of
Vidúratha?
14. Or did any one of them live for many years, and whether they were of
short or longer durations, according to the measure of men, gods or
Brahmá. (Because a human year is a day and night of the polar gods, and
a moment of the cycle of Brahmá. And revolution of the whole planetary
system to the same point makes a day of Brahmá).
15. Please sir, kindly tell me this, because little hearing is not
sufficient to me, as a drop of water is not enough to moisten the dry
soil or the parched ground of summer heat.
16. Vasishtha said:—Know sinless Ráma! that whosoever thinks of anything
in any manner at any place or time, he comes to feel the same in the
same manner, and in the same place and time.
17. Take for instance the destructive poison, which becomes as ambrosia
to venomous insects, that take it for their dainty nourishment; and so
is an enemy turning to a friend by your friendly behaviour unto him. (In
both cases the evil turns to good by our taking it as such).
18. And the manner in which all beings consider themselves, and all
others for a length of time; the same they seem to be by their mode and
habit of thinking, as if it were by an act of destiny. (_i.e._ They
consider their thoughts of things as their destined nature, which is not
so in reality; for fair is foul and foul is fair; according as our
judgments declare).
19. The manner in which the active intellect represents a thing in the
soul, the same is imprinted in the consciousness of its own nature.
(Here the _Chit_ is said to be the _intellectus agens_ and
consciousness—_Samvid_—the _intellectus patiens_. The motion of the mind
gives us the impressions of the swiftness and slowness of time).
20. When our consciousness represents a twinkling of the eye as a
_Kalpa_, we are led to believe a single moment an age of long duration.
(As a short nap appears an age in dreaming), and (a long age as a moment
as in the case of the seven sleepers of Kehef).
21. And when we are conscious of or think a _Kalpa_ age as a twinkling,
the _Kalpa_ age is thought to pass as a moment; and so a long night in
our unconscious sleep, appears as a moment upon waking.
22. The night appears a longsome age, to the long suffering sick, while
it seems as a moment, in the nightly revels of the merry; so a moment
appears as an age in the dream, and an age passes off as a moment in the
state of insensibility. (The length and shortness of duration, depending
on our consciousness and insensibility of the succession of our ideas.
(See Locke and Kant on our idea of time)).
23. The notions of the resurrection of the dead, and of one’s
metempsychosis, and being re-born in a new body; of his being a boy,
youth or old man; and of his migrations to different places at the
distance of hundreds of leagues, are all but the phenomena of sleep, and
retrospective views in a dream.
24. King Haris Chandra is said, to have thought a single night as a
dozen of years; and the prince Lavana to have passed his long life of a
hundred years as the space of a single night. (So the seven sleepers of
_Kehef_ passed a long period as one night, and so of others).[1]
25. What was a moment to Brahmá, was the whole age of the life-time of
Manu (Noah); and what is a day to Vishnu, constitutes the long period of
the life-time of Brahmá. (This alluded to the comparative differences in
the cycles of planetary bodies presided by the different deities; such
as Jupiter’s cycle of 60 years round the sun, is but one year to the
presiding god of that planet).
26. The whole life-time of Vishnu, is but one day of the sedate Siva;
for one whose mind is motionless in his fixed meditation, is unconscious
of the change of days and nights and of seasons and years. (Since the
meditative mind is insensible of the fluctuation of its ideas, or that
there is an utter quietus of them in the quietism of the Yogi’s mind).
27. There is no substance nor the substantive world, in the mind of the
meditative Yogi (who views them in their abstract light); and to whom
the sweet pleasures of the world, appear as bitter, as they are thought
to be the bane of his true felicity.
28. The bitter seems to be sweet, by being thought to be so; and what is
unfavorable, becomes favorable as that which is friendly comes to be
unfriendly by being taken in their contrary senses. (The mind can make a
heaven of hell and a hell of a heaven. Milton).
29. Thus Ráma! it is by habitual meditation, that we gain the abstract
knowledge of things; as on the other hand we forget what we learnt, by
want of their recapitulation. (Habit is second nature, and practice is
the parent of productions).
30. These by their habitude of thinking, find every thing in a state of
positive rest; while the unthinking fall into the errors of the
revolutionary world, as a boat-passenger thinks the land and objects on
the shore, to be receding from and revolving around him.
31. Thus the unthinking part of mankind, and those wandering in their
error, think the world to be moving about them; but the thinking mind,
sees the whole as an empty void, and full of phantoms, as one sees in
his dream.
32. It is the thought (erroneous conception), that shows the white as
black and blue; and it is the mistake of judgment, that makes one
rejoice or sorrow at the events of life.
33. The unthinking are led to imagine a house where there is none; and
the ignorant are infatuated to the belief of ghosts, as they are the
killers of their lives.
34. It is reminiscence or memory, which raises the dream as her consort;
and which represents things as they are presented to it, by the thoughts
of the waking state.
35. The dream is as unreal as the empty vacuity, abiding in the hollow
receptacle of the intellectual soul; it overspreads the mind like the
shadow of a cloud, and fills it with images like those of a puppet-show
under the magic lantern.
36. Know the phenomena of the revolving worlds, to be no more in
reality, than mere resultants of the vibrations of the mind, in the
empty space of the soul; and as the motions and gestures of the fancied
hobgoblins, to the sight of children.
37. All this is but a magical illusion, without any substance or basis
of itself; and all these imposing scenes of vision, are but the empty
and aerial sights of dreams.
38. Just as the waking man, beholds the wondrous world before him, so
also does sleeping man see the same; and both of them resemble the
insensible pillar, which finds the images of statues engraved upon it
(because the soul is ever awake in every state of all living bodies).
39. The great monument of the Divine Spirit, has the figure of the
created world, carved in itself in the same manner, as I see a troop of
soldiers passing before me in my dream. (All these appear to be in
action, in their true state of nullity and inaction).
40. So is this waking world asleep in the soul of Brahma, and rises in
his mind as the vegetable world springs from the sap lying hid in the
earth, which gives it its growth and vernal bloom.
41. So likewise does the creation lie hid in, and spring from the
Supreme Spirit; as the brightness of gold ornaments is contained in, and
comes out of the material metal. (The Divine Spirit is both the material
and efficient cause of creation—_ex quo & a quo_.)
42. Every atom of creation, is settled in the plenum of Divine spirit;
as all the members of the body, are set in the person of their
possessor.
43. The visible world has the same relation, to the bodiless and
undivided spirit of God; as one fighting in a dream bears to his
antagonist (both believing in their reality, while both of them are
unreal in their bodies).
44. Thus the real and unreal, the spirit and the world, all dwindled
into vacuum, at the great _Kalpánta_ annihilation of creation, except
the intellect of God which comprises the world in itself.
45. The causality of the one (_i.e._ the spirit of God), and the
unreality of the world cannot be true (since nothing unreal can come out
of the real). Except Brahm—the all (_to pan_), there is no other cause,
as a Brahmá or any other; the Divine Intelligence is the only cause and
constituent of its productions.
46. Ráma asked:—But what cause was it that represented the citizens,
counsellors and ministers of Vidúratha’s royal house also to Lílá’s
vision, in the same manner as her lord the king, (who was alone the
object of her thought)?
47. Vasishtha said:—All other thoughts are associated with the principal
one in the intellect, in the same manner as the high winds are
accompaniments of the storm.
48. The association of thoughts, follows one another in a long and
perpetual train; and caused the succession of the sights of the
ministers, citizens and subjects of the king, in Lílá’s vision one after
the other.
49. In this way the thought that the king was born of such and such a
family, naturally introduced the thoughts of his palace and city, and of
those that dwelt in them.
50. It is in vain to enquire into the cause and manner, of the
intellect’s being combined with its thoughts at all times; since it is
called the gem of thoughts (Chintámani), and must be always accompanied
with its radiating thoughts, like a brilliant gem with its rays. (_i.e._
Thinking is the inseparable attribute of the mind).
51. Padma thought to become a king like Vidúratha, in the proper
discharge of the duties of his royal family; and this constant thought
of himself as such, cast the mould of the mind and manner of Vidúratha
upon him (_i.e._ he looked himself in the light of that king).
52. All animate beings of every kind, are but models of their own
thoughts, like looking-glasses showing their inward reflexions to the
sight. (The innate man appearing in his outward figure, is a verity in
physiognomy).
53. The mind which is fixed in the meditation of God, and remains
unshaken amidst the turmoils of the world; is fraught with perfect rest,
and preserves the composure of the soul, until its final liberation from
the bondage of the body.
54. But the thoughts of the fluctuating enjoyments of this world,
alternately represented in the mirror of the mind, like the shadows of
passing scenes upon a looking glass.
55. It requires therefore a great force of the mind, to overcome its
worldly thoughts, and turn them to the channel of truth; as the greater
force of the main current of a river, leads its tributaries to the
ocean.
56. But the mind is greatly disturbed, when the worldly and spiritual
thoughts, press it with equal force to both ways; and it is then, that
the greater force leads it onward in either way. (There is no midway
like that of the _Mádhyamikas_ between this world and the next).
Gloss. The worldly and spiritual thoughts being equally forcible, they
naturally struggle in the mind, and that which is of greater force
overcomes the other.
57. Such is the case with all the myriads of beings, whether are
living, dead or to come to life; and the same accidents take place in
the particles of all human minds (like the concussions of atomic
forces).
58. All this is the empty sphere of the Intellect, all quiet and without
any basis or substratum. It is neither peopled nor filled by any thing
except its own native thoughts.
59. All these appear as dreams, even in our unsleeping states, and have
no form or figure in the sight of the wise. The perception of their
positive existence, is but a misconception of their negative
inexistence.
60. There really exists but one omnipotent and all pervasive Spirit,
which shows itself in diverse forms like the flowers, fruits and leaves
of trees, all appearing from the self-same woody trunk (which like the
great Brahma is the origin of all its off-shoots.)
61. He who knows the increate Brahma to be the measurer, measure and the
thing measured, (_i.e._ the creator, created and the creation), to be all
one and himself, can never forget this certain truth of unity, nor ever
fall into the error of dualism of the cause and effect.
62. There is but one Being (SAT), who is Holy and without beginning; and
who, though he appears to be of the forms of light and darkness, and of
space and time, doth never rise nor set anywhere. He is without
beginning, middle or end; and remains as a vast expanse of water,
exhibiting itself in its waves and currents.
63. The notion of myself, thyself and the objective world, are but
effusions of our perverted understandings; and it is ignorance only that
shows the One as many within the Sheath of the mind, according as it
imagines it to be.
CHAPTER LXI.
ON THE NATURE OF THE WORLD.
Argument. Proofs of the unreality of the world, leading to the Quietism
of the Spirit.
Ráma said:—Please sir, explain to me whence arises this error of our
knowledge of the objective world, without a cause of this error. (The
True God cannot lead us to the knowledge of untruth).
2. Vasishtha said:—Because we have the knowledge of all things (_i.e._
the objective), to be contained alike in our consciousness (as of the
subjective self); it is plain that this eternal and increate self (or
soul), is the cause and container of them all at all times.
3. That which has an insight or intuitive knowledge of all things, which
are expressed by words and their meanings, is Brahma—the soul and no
other; and nothing that is meant by any significant term, has a
different form of its own. (It is the doctrine of nominalism that the
notions conveyed by words have no realities corresponding with them in
the mind, and have no existence but as mere names).
4. As the quality of a bracelet is not different from its substance of
gold, nor that of a wave from the water; so the expansion of the world,
is not distinct from the spirit of God. (The spirit inflated and
produced the world out of itself. Sruti).
5. It is Brahma that is manifest in the form of the world, and not the
world that appears as God; and so doth gold display itself in the form
of a bracelet, and not the bracelet that takes the nature of gold.
6. As the whole is displayed in all its various parts, so the entire
intellect shows itself in all the various operations of the mind
composing the world. (The intellect displaying the mind, and this the
world).
7. It is ignorance of the infinite and eternal Spirit of God, that
exhibits itself as myself, thyself and the world itself in the mind.
(_i.e._ The knowledge both of the subjective and objective results from
ignorance of the only One—tanmátram).
8. As the shades of different colours in gems, are not apart from the
gems; so the notions of one’s self and the world are the shades inherent
in the self-same intellect.
9. Like waves appearing on the surface of the undulated waters of the
deep; this so-called and meaningless creation, is but a _phasis_ in the
Divine Intellect.
10. Neither does the Spirit of God reside in the creation, nor does the
creation subsist in the Divine Spirit (like waves in the waters); nor is
there such relation as of a part with the whole between them. (These are
_not_ parts of one undivided whole).
11. One should meditate on his intellect as the form of the Divine
Intellect, in his own consciousness of it; and he will feel the Divinity
stirring within himself, as it were stirred by the breath of a breeze.
(There is a divinity stirring within us, Addition).
12. The minute particle of the vacuous intellect, will then appear in
its wondrous form of a void, within the empty space of his conscious
mind. (The primary hypostasis of the vacuous soul being but a void, its
attributes of the intellect and mind, are of the same form).
13. He then finds this vacuous form stirring in himself as the airy
spirit, with its property of feeling, as it is felt in the _flatus
venti_ or breath of air. (This is the Spirit of God).
14. The God then assumes a luminous form as the state of his own
substantiality; and this is posited in the sheath of the intellect as a
spark of fire. (This is the holy light of the God of glory or glorious
God).
15. The light then melts into water as the self-same substance of
itself; and this fluid substance contains in it the property of taste.
(This is the liquid state of the floating spirit before creation).
16. The same is condensed in the form of a solid substance, which is the
same with the Divine Mind. This becomes the earth bearing in its bosom
the property of smell. (The earth being produced from the scum of water,
is dissolved again into its watery form).
17. Again God represents himself to our intellect, as one infinite and
uniform duration; and its measures in twinklings and other divisions,
are but manifestations of the succession of our thoughts.
(Prakachanamvidah parampará—is the very doctrine of Locke and others).
18. The other states in which God presents himself to our intellects are
that, He is Holy, infinitely glorious, seen within us,[2] and without
beginning, middle and end; that, He has no rising nor setting, and
subsists of Himself without a substratum and as the substratum of all.
19. This knowledge of God is bliss itself, and his creation is identic
with himself. Ignorance of God leads to the knowledge of the objective
world, and its extinction is the way to know the eternity of His
existence.
20. Brahma is conceived in the same manner in our souls, as He is
represented to us by our intellects; just as we know all other things
according to our ideas of them, in our all comprehensive minds.
21. Of these, those things only are true, the notions of which we derive
from the dictates of our well-directed understandings; as all those are
untrue, which the mind paints to us from the impressions of the senses
and the meanings of words; which are incapable of expressing the nature
of the undefinable and indescribable God (whom no words can
express—_Yato vácho nivastante_. (Sruti))
22. Know the unreal world which appears as real, and the reality of God
which appears as unreality, to be of the manner of the air in motion and
at rest. The visible world like the current air, appears true to them,
that have no knowledge of the invisible God, who is as calm as the still
air underlying the etherial air and its fluctuations.
23. A thing may appear different from another, and yet be the same with
it; as the light in the fire is the selfsame fire. So the visible world
arising from the invisible Brahma, appears as another reality; though it
is same with the reality of God.
24. All things whether in being or not being, subsist in God as their
invisible and unknown source and cause; as the unscooped earth is the
cause of the would-be doll, the unhewn tree of a future statue, and the
soot of the ink not _in esse_. (So all future statues are contained in
the unhewn marbles, according to Aristotle).
25. One thing is exhibited as another in the great desert of the Divine
Mind, which shows the phenomena of the world as figures in the mirage.
26. The wise soul thinks this world as one with its source—the Divine
Intellect, as he considers the tree no way different from its parent
seed.
27. As the sweetness of milk, the pungency of pepper, the fluidity of
water, and the motion of winds, are the inseparable properties of their
substances:—
28. So this creation is inseparable from the spirit of Brahma, and is a
mere form of the one Supreme soul, beside which there is nothing in
reality. (Whose body nature is, and God the soul).
29. This world is the manifestation of the lustre of the gem of Divine
mind, and has no other cause except the essence of Brahma, which is no
other than its material cause—the Supreme soul itself.
30. The will, the mind, the living soul, and its consciousness, are all
the offspring of Divine intellection; because there is nothing that can
be produced by exertion of any power without direction of the Intellect.
31. There is nothing that rises or sets anywhere, nor appears or
disappears at any time; but everything is unborn at all times, and lies
quiet in the Divine Intellect, which is as solid as a massive rock.
32. To attribute the formation of these multitudes of the combination of
atoms, and to suppose every particle to be composed of minutest
infinitesimals; are but vagaries of imagination, as none of them could
combine of themselves except by direction of the eternal mind. (Matter
having no force nor design in itself).
33. All force resides in some living principle, as the waking, sleeping
and dreaming states appertain to the living soul; and as the undulation
of waves subsists in the water; (or) as the current of the stream lies
hidden in it.
34. When the living soul feels its inappetency towards worldly
enjoyments, it is then said to have reached to his highest perfection by
the Sruti (such as:—_nishkáma_ or abandonment of the desire of fruition,
is the highest state of human felicity).
35. As the mind is freed from its choice and dislike of things, so is
the soul liberated by avoiding its egoism and personality, and then it
has no more to be conscious of the pain, attending upon a future birth
and transmigration.
36. Whoso comes to know in his understanding, this state of supreme and
inexpressible felicity; he is sure to overcome all his worldly
appetites, that bind him fast to this earth.
37. But whoso labours in his mind under his affections to this world, he
has to rove continually in it as in the whirlpool of a stream, and
destroys the supreme felicity of his soul in his continuous turmoil.
38. It was the lotus-born Brahmá, that was conscious of his egoism at
first, and who has by the will of his mind, spread out this universe.
(He is eternally acting, and has not retired after his act of creation).
CHAPTER LXII.
INTERPRETATION OF DESTINY.
Argument. The erroneous conception of creation and of Destiny both as
active and inactive.
Vasishtha continued:—These myriads of worlds and the millenniums of
_kalpa_ ages, are no more real in themselves than our false computation
of the millionth part of an atom or the twinkling of an eye.
2. It is our error that represents them as true to us, though they are
as false as our calculation of those infinitesimals.
3. These creations whether past or future, follow one another in endless
succession, like the overflowing currents of water, with all the waves,
eddies and whirlpools in them.
4. The prospect of these created worlds is as false, as the delusive
mirage, which presents a stream of water, flowing with strings of
flowers, fallen from the plants on the shore.
5. The conceptional creation is as baseless as a city in a dream or
magic show; or as mountain in fiction, or an imaginary castle in air.
(It is a _flatus venti_, and not based on any thing real; but has a mere
psychological existence, depending on fancy and imagination).
6. Ráma said:—Sir, the drift of your reasoning, leads to the
establishment of the identity of the conceptional creation with the
creator; and that this unity of both is the belief of the learned and
wise. (So says Hegel: “creation is the reality of God; it is God passing
into activity” Lewe’s Hist. Ph. II p. 626).
7. Now tell me, what you have to say with regard to the material bodies,
which these existence bear on earth; and what is the cause that the body
is subject to the casualties unknown to the inward spirits. (_i.e._ The
body is subject to material laws, but not so the immaterial spirit which
has no change).
8. Vasishtha replied:—There is a supernatural and active energy of the
Divine Intellect, called the predominant Decree, Fate or Destiny, which
must come to pass, and bear its command over all our actions and
desires. (Destiny is irresistible, being the decree of Providence,
governing all events and our free wills also. Fate is the
personification of the female agency of god. Here Vasishtha is a
fatalist also; but his fate is the Divine decree).
9. She is invested from the beginning with irresistible and multifarious
powers; and destines the manner in which every thing is to take place
and continue for ever. (The philosophical destiny is the sum of the laws
of universe, of matter and mind).
10. She is the essential cause of all essence, and the chief mover of
the intellect; she is styled as the great power of powers, and remains
as the great viewer of all things.
11. She is called the great agency and the great producer of all events;
She is known as the chief mover of occurrences, and she is the soul and
source of all accidents. (The mythological Destiny is superior to gods
and men, and rules over the great Jove himself).
12. She whirls the worlds as straws, and bears her sway over the deities
and demons; she commands the Nága dragons and the mountain monsters to
the end of time.
13. She is sometimes thought to be an attribute of Divine essence, and
to remain pictured in her ever varying colours in the hollow vacuity of
the Divine Mind. (The theological destiny is the Almighty Will of God
and his foreknowledge also; before which the fates float about, as if
they are drawn up in variegated pictures).
14. The learned have explained Brahmá the Demiurge, to be identic with
the Spirit of Brahma, for the understanding of those that are ignorant
in spiritual knowledge; and by destiny they mean his creation. (_i.e._
Creation is destination of the preordaining and irrevocable will of
God).
15. The immovable spirit of Brahmá, appears to be full of moving
creatures and the infinity of Divine existence, seems to teem with the
finite creation in the midst of it, like a grove of trees growing under
the concavity of the hollow sky.
16. The unwaking spirit of God reflected various images in itself (as in
a dream), likening to the reflection of a dense forest in the lens of a
crystal stone: and these were understood by the demiurgus Brahmá, as the
prototype of the destined creation, in the hollow sphere of the Divine
mind.
17. The Intellect naturally exhibits a variety of forms in itself, as
the body of an embodied person, shows its various members to view; and
these were taken by the lotus-born Brahmá, as the several parts in the
great body of the cosmos. (The Intellect is the phantasmagoria of the
world, and the Demiurge is the formal framer of it).
18. This foreknowledge of events imprinted in the Intellect of God, is
called Destiny, which extends over all things at all times. (This is
_Fatum christianum_, that every thing is regulated by foreknowledge and
Providence).
19. The meaning of Destiny, comprises the knowledge of the causes, which
move, support and sustain all things in their proper order; and that
such and such causes, must produce such and such effects for ever. (This
is the Stoic Fate of Jewish Essences; or a concatenation of causes
whence all things necessarily result).
20. This destiny is the force or mobile power, that moves all men and
animals, and vegetable and inanimate creations; it is the beginning (or
primary source) of the time and motion of all beings. (It is _fatum_
from _fari_—the word or decree of Providence, that was the beginning of
all existence.)
21. It is combined with Divine power, as the power divine is combined
with it; and this combination of them into one, is the cause of the
production and existence of the world.
22. It is the union or conformity of human exertion, with the course of
destiny or decree of God, that is productive of certain ends, which are
respectively called their destiny and destined effects. (Here Destiny is
defined as the combination of human and superhuman powers; and that the
co-operation of natural and supernatural agencies, are necessary to the
production of effects).
23. What more have you to ask me, Ráma! with regard to destiny and
self-exertion; when I tell you that it is destined to all beings to
betake themselves to their proper actions, in the destined or prescribed
manner, in order to bring about the desired result? (Their destiny is
equal to _Vidhi_ or fixed laws, which were combined in Brahmá).
24. When a predestinarian sits idle and quiet, under the belief of being
fed by his fixed lot; he is then said to depend on his destiny alone (as
a fatalist).
25. By sitting idle in the manner of a waiter on Providence, for the
whole of his lifetime, he gains nothing; but comes to lose his good
sense and energy in a short time, and finally dies away in famine by his
sole reliance on destiny. (Hence fate = fat and faut (in Arabic), is
synonymous with death).
26. It is quite certain that whatever is destined, must surely come to
pass of its own accord; and that it is impossible to prevent it by the
foresight of gods and men.
27. Yet the intelligent ought not cease to exert their activity, by
relying in their fates only; for they must know that it is our exertion
that brings destiny into action. (Because it is, destined, that destiny
requires to be enforced by human exertion, in order to bring on its
effect. It is operation which enforces the law, which is otherwise
dormant and a dead letter).
28. Destiny is inactive and abortive, without an active power to enforce
it to action; it is human activity, that is productive of any effect or
production in nature by the help of destiny.
29. Depend on destiny, and remain both deaf and dumb as a doll; be
inactive, and become dull and torpid as a block. Say, what is the good
of this vital breath, unless it has its vitality and activity? (Destiny
has destined man to exertion in order to produce the destined end; and
has so ordained all animated nature, in order to be productive).
30. It is good to sit quiet; by restraining even the vital breath in
Yoga meditation; whereby one can obtain his liberation: otherwise the
inactive man is not to be called a Yogi, but an idler and a lazzarone.
31. Both activity and inactivity are good for our liberation from pain;
but the high minded esteem that as better, which saves them from the
greater pain of regeneration, (_i.e._ the hybernation of Yoga
meditation).[3]
32. This inactive destiny is a type of the latent Brahmá; and who so
leans to it by laying aside his busy course, is verily installed in the
supremely holy state of highest felicity (as in _ecstasis_ and
hypnotism).
33. The inert destiny resides every where in the manner of Brahma—the
latent soul in all bodies, and evolves itself in various shapes, by
means of activity in all its productions.
CHAPTER LXIII.
IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE MIND.
Argument. Expansion of the Divine Spirit, and its apparent variations
in Nature.
Vasishtha continued:—The essence of Brahma is all in all, and
ever remains in every manner in every thing in all places. It is
omnipotence, omniform and the lord God of all.
(This is the _to pan_ of Pantheism, that, God is All and All is God;
that God and nature are one substance, and all its various
modifications. (This is the doctrine of Vedánta, Plato and Plotinus, and
lately of Sufism and German philosophy)).
2. This Essence is the Spirit or Soul, whose omnipotence developes itself
sometimes in the form of intellectual activity, and sometimes in the
tranquility of soul. Sometimes it shows itself in the _momentum_ of
bodies, and at others in the force of the passions and emotions of the
soul. Sometimes as something in the form of creation, and at another as
nothing in the annihilation of the world. (This is the _to on onton_—the
All of all; the eternal source of all existence; the Subjective as well
as Objective both together).
3. Whenever it realises itself any where in any form or state, it is
then viewed in the same manner at the same place and time. (The spirit
realises itself in one form or other of its own free Will).
4. The absolute Omnipotence manifests itself as it likes and appears to
us; and all its powers are exhibited in one form or other to our view
and understandings.
5. These powers are of many kinds, and are primarily concentrated in the
Divine Soul or Spirit. The potentialities (or _potes esse_) are the
Active and Passive powers, also the Rational and Irrational and all
others.
6. These varieties of powers are the inventions of the learned for their
own purpose and understanding; but there is no distinction of them in
the Divine Spirit. (All diversities are one and the same to the unity of
God (_omne ens—to en—est unum._ And again, _Qua ens est indivisum in se,
divisum ab omnialio_)).
7. There is no duality in reality, the difference consists in shape and
not in substantiality. Thus the waves in the waters of the sea, the
bracelets and wristlets formed of gold, are no more than modifications
of the same substances.
(All formal differences terminate in the material, and this again in the
immaterial Spirit of God).
8. The form of a thing is said to be so and so, from its appearance only
and not in its reality. The snake is affirmed of a rope, but we have
neither the outward perception nor inward thought of a snake in it.
Hence all appearances are delusions of sense.
9. It is the universal soul that shows itself in some form or other, to
our deluded senses and understandings, and this also according to our
different apprehensions of the same thing (as what appears as gold to
one, seems as brass to another).
10. It is the ignorant only that understand the Omniform God, to be all
forms of things; while the learned know the forms to be modifications of
the various powers of the Almighty, and not the figures themselves.
11. Now whether the forms (of material things) be real or unreal, it is
to be known that they appear to men according to their different
apprehensions of those beings, which Brahma is pleased to exhibit in any
particular form to their minds and senses. (_i.e._ Some taking an
abstract and others a concrete view of them, agreeably to their internal
conceptions or external perceptions, of their various properties and
qualities).
CHAPTER LXIV.
THE GERMINATING SEED.
Vasishtha resumed:—The supreme Deity is the all-pervading spirit and
the great God and Lord of all. He is without beginning and end, and is
self-same with the infinite bliss of his translucent self-cogitation.
2. It is this supreme felicity and purely intellectual substance, whence
the living soul and mind have their rise, prior to their production of
the Universe. (_i.e._ The eternal and inert bliss called Brahma, became
the living soul—anima, of and the active mind—mens, which created the
world).
3. Ráma asked:—How could the self-cogitation of Brahma, as the infinite
spirit and one without a second, conceive in it a finite living soul
other than itself, and which was not in Being.
(The inactive and active souls, are not the one and the same thing, nor
can the immutable and infinite be changed to one of a finite and
changeful nature; nor was there a secondary being co-existent with the
unity of the self-existent God).
4. Vasishtha replied:—The immense and transparent Spirit of Brahma,
remained in a state of _asat_—non-existence, a state of ineffable bliss
as seen by the adept Yogi; but of formidable vastness as conceived by
the uninitiated novice. (_i.e._ The meditation of the Infinite is a
delight to the spiritualist, but it is a horror to the gross idolator,
whose mind knows nothing beyond matter and material forms).
5. This state of supreme bliss, which is ever tranquil, and full
with the pure essence of God, is altogether undefinable, and
incomprehensible, even by the most proficient in divine knowledge. (God
is unknowable, is the motto of the wise Athenians and modern Agnostics).
6. Thence sprang a power (an hypostasis) like the germ of a seed, and
possessed of consciousness and energy, that is called the living and
conscious soul, and which must last until its final liberation. (This is
the Demiurge, an emanation from God, and the source and soul of the
world).
7. The clear mirror of the mind of this being, reflected in its vast
vacuous sphere, the images of innumerable worlds set above one another,
like statues engraved upon it.
8. Know Ráma! the living soul to be an inflation of Divine Spirit, like
the swelling of the sea and the burning of a candle, when its flame is
unshaken by the wind.
(The _psyche_ or _anima_ is the energy of the universal soul, or the
finite rising from the Infinite).
9. The living soul is possessed of a finite cognoscence as distinguished
from the clear and calm consciousness of the Divine Spirit. Its vitality
is a flash of the vacuous intellect of Brahma and appertaining to the
nature of the living God. _Divina particula aurae._ The Lord says:
‘_Aham asmi_—I am that I am’; but the living soul knows itself to be
‘_Soham asmi_’—I am He or of Him.
10. Vitality is the essential property of the soul, resembling the
inseparable properties of motion in the wind, warmth in the fire and
coldness in the ice. (Animation is the natural faculty and necessary
property of the soul).
11. Our ignorance of the nature of the Divine Intellect and Spirit,
throws us to the knowledge of ourselves by our self-consciousness, and
this it is, which is called the living soul.
(Beyond our conscious or subjective knowledge of ourselves, we know
nothing of the subjectivity of God, nor are we certain of any objective
reality).
12. It is by means of this positive consciousness, that we know our
egoism or self-existence; it strikes us more glaringly than a spark of
fire, and enlightens us to the knowledge of ourselves more than any
other light.
(Our self-consciousness is the clearest of all knowledge, and the basis
of all truth according to Descartes).
13. As in looking up to heaven, its blue vault is presented to the
sight, beyond which our eyes have not the power to pierce; so in our
inquiry into the nature of soul, we see no more than the consciousness
of ourselves, and nothing besides. (_i.e._ The subjective soul only is
knowable, and naught beyond it).
14. Our knowledge of the soul presents to us in the form of _Ego_ known
by its thoughts, like the vacuous sky appearing as a blue sphere by
cause of the clouds. (The Ego is the subject of thoughts and
self-cogitation).
15. Egoism differentiates the soul from our ideas of space and time, and
stirs within it like the breath of winds, by reason of its subjectivity
of thoughts. (Differentiation of the subjective Ego from the Objective
space and time, is as the difference of Ego and Non-Ego, I and Not I, Le
moi et non moi, Das Ich und nicht ich, Aham and twam &c.).
16. That which is the subject of thoughts, is known as the Ego, and is
variously styled as the intellect, the soul, the mind, the máyá or
delusion and Prakriti or nature. (The Ego personified is Rudra, the
personification of _chitta_-cogitation is Vishnu, of Jíva or the soul is
Brahmá, and of the _manas_ or mind is the máyá or Illusion).
17. The mind (chetas) which is the subject of thoughts, contemplates on
the nature of elementary matter, and thus becomes of itself the
quintessence of the five elements.
(The mind is opposed to matter, but being the principle of volition
produces matter at its will).
18. The quintessential mind next becomes as a spark of fire (of itself),
and remains as a dim star—a nebula, in the midst of the vacuity of the
yet unborn universe.
(The nebulae are the primary formations of heavenly bodies, called
Brahmándas or mundane eggs).
19. The mind takes the form of a spark of fire by thinking on its
essence, which gradually developes itself like the germ of a seed, in
the form of the mundane egg by its internal force.
(The doctrine of evolution from fire, the _arche_ of all things
according to Heraclitus. Lewe’s Hist. Ph. I 72).
20. The same fiery spark figuratively called the Brahmánda or mundane
egg, became as a snowball amidst the water, and conceived the great
Brahmá within its hollow womb.
(The Spirit of God, dove-like, sat brooding over the hollow deep.
Milton).
21. Then as sensuous spirits assume some bodily forms at pleasure,
although they dissolve as a magic city in empty air; so this Brahmá
appeared in an embodied form to view. (Spirits are at liberty to take
upon them any form they like).
22. Some of them appear in the form of immovable, and others in those of
moving beings; while others assume the shapes of aerials, as they are
fond of choosing for themselves. (Hence the transmigration of souls in
different bodies, depends on their own choice; and not on necessity or
result of prior acts).
23. Thus the first born living being had a form, for himself as he liked
in the beginning of creation, and afterwards created the world in his
form of Brahma or Virinchi (Vir-incipiens). (The Demiurge, maker,
creator or architect of the visible world, had necessarily a personality
of his own).
24. Whatever the self-born and self-willed soul, wishes to produce, the
same appears immediately to view as produced of its own accord.
(Everything appeared of itself at the Fiat of God).
25. Brahmá, originating in the Divine Intellect, was by his nature the
primary cause of all, without any cause of his own; though he appointed
the acts of men; to be the cause of their transition from one state to
another, in the course of the world.
(All the future states of beings depend on their acts of past and
present lives, except that of the Great creator who is uncreated and
unchangeable).
26. The thoughts naturally rise in the mind, like the foaming water, to
subside in itself; but the acts done thereby, bind us, as the passing
froth and flying birds are caught by ropes and snares.
(The thoughts are spontaneous in their growth as grass, and they entail
no guilt on us. Shakespeare).
27. Thoughts are the seeds of action, and action is the soul of life.
Past acts are productive of future consequence, but inaction is attended
with no result. (Our lives are reckoned by our acts, and there is no
vitality without activity).
28. The living soul bears its vitality as the seed bears the germ in its
bosom; and this sprouts forth in future acts, in the manner of the
various forms of leaves, fruits and flowers of trees.
(Thus the living soul of Brahmá was the seed of all animate and
inanimate beings).
29. All other living souls that appeared in the various forms of their
bodies, had such forms given to them by Brahmá, according to their acts
and desires in premundane creations in former Kalpas. (Hence the belief
in the endless succession of creations).
30. So the personal acts of people are the causes of their repeated
births and deaths in this or other worlds; and they ascend higher or
sink lower by virtue of their good or bad deeds, which proceed from
their hearts and the nature of their souls.
31. Our actions are the efforts of our minds, and shape our good or bad
destinies according to the merit or demerit of the acts. The fates and
chances of all in the existing world, are the fruits and flowers of
their past acts, and even of those done in prior Kalpas; and this is
called their destiny. (Sástra: No act goes for naught even in a thousand
_Kalpas_. Má bhuktan kshiyate Karma, kalpa koti satai rapi).
CHAPTER LXV.
NATURE OF THE LIVING SOUL.
Argument. The mind and its operations, the subjective and objective,
and lastly the Divine Intellect.
Vasishtha continued:—The Mind sprang at first from the supreme cause
of all; this mind is the active soul which resides in the supreme soul
(the Ens entium).
2. The mind hangs in doubt between what is and what is not, and what is
right and what is wrong. It forgets the past like the scent of a
fleeting odor by its wilful negligence. (Unmindfulness is the cause of
forgetfulness).
3. Yet there is no difference between these seeming contraries; because
the dualities of Brahma and the soul, the mind and máyá, the agent and
act, and the phenomenal and noumenal worlds, all blend together in the
unity of God. (All seeming differences converge in unvarying Mind).
4. There is but one Universal soul displaying its Intellect as a vast
ocean, and extending its consciousness as a sea of unlimited extent.
(These extend to all beings in the universe).
5. What is true and real shines forth amidst all that is untrue and
unreal; so does the subjective essence of the mind subsist amidst all
its airy and fleeting dreams in sleep. And thus the world is both true
and untrue as regards its subsistence in God and its external phenomena.
(The substance is real but the appearance is false).
6. The erroneous conception either of the reality or unreality of the
outer world, does not spring in the mind, which is conscious of its
operations only, and of no outward phenomena. This conception is like
the deception of a magic show, and is concomitant with all sensuous
minds.
7. It is the long habit of thinking the unreal world as real, that makes
it appear as such, to the unthinking, as a protracted sleep makes its
visionary scenes appear as true to the dreaming soul. It is the want of
reflection, that causes us to mistake a man in a block of wood.
8. Want of spiritual light misleads the mind from its rationality, and
makes it take its false imaginations for true; as children are impressed
with a belief of ghosts in shadows, through their fear and want of true
knowledge.
9. The mind is inclined of its own tendency, to assign a living soul
(and also a body) to the Divine Spirit; which is devoid of appellation,
form or figure, and is beyond our comprehension; (and is styled the
Incomprehensible).
10. Knowledge of the living state (personality), leads to that of Egoism
which is the cause of intellection. This again introduces the sensations
and finally the sensible body. (Ego is the subject of thoughts).
11. This bondage of the soul in body, necessitates a heaven and hell for
want of its liberation and then the acts of the body, become the seeds
of our endless transmigrations in this world.
12. As there is no difference between the soul, intellect and life, so
there is no duality in the living soul and intellect, nor in the body
and its acts, which are inseparable from each other.
13. Acts are the causes of bodies, and the body is not the mind; the
mind is one with egoism, and the ego is the living soul. The living soul
is one with the Divine Intellect and this soul is all and the lord God
of all.
CHAPTER LXVI.
MEDITATION OF THE SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE.
Argument. Origin and Nature of Duality and the Manner of its Extinction.
Thus Ráma! there is one true essence, which appears many by our
mistake; and this variety is caused by the production of one from the
other, as one lamp is lighted from another.
2. By knowing one’s self as nothing as it was before its coming to
being, and by considering the falsity of his notions (of his reality),
no one can have any cause of grief (at its loss). (The Sruti:—The knower
of the true-self, is above all grief and sorrow).
3. Man is but a being of his own conception, and by getting rid of this
concept, he is freed from his idea of the duality of the world (as a
distinct existence); just as one with his shoes on, perceives the whole
earth he treads upon, to be covered over with skin.
4. As the plantain tree has no pith except its manifold coats, so there
is no substantiality of the world beside our false conceptions of it.
5. Our births are followed by childhood, youth, old age and death one
after the other, and then opens the prospect of a heaven or hell to our
view, like passing phantoms before the flighty mind.
6. As the clear eye sees bubbles of light in the empty sky, so the
thoughtless mind views the firmament full of luminous bodies (which are
but phantoms of the brain).
7. As the one moon appears as two to the dimsighted eye, so the
intellect, vitiated by influence of the senses, sees a duality in the
unity of the supreme spirit.
8. As the giddiness of wine presents the pictures of trees before the
drunken eye, so does the inebriation of sensation, present the phantoms
of the world before the excited intellect.
9. Know the revolution of the visible world, to resemble the revolving
wheel of a potter’s mill; which they turn about in play as the rotatory
ball of a terrestrial globe.
10. When the intellect thinks of another thing (as matter) beside
itself, it then falls into the error of dualism; but when it
concentrates its thoughts in itself, it then loses the sense of the
objective duality.
11. There is nothing beside the Intellect except the thoughts on which
it dwells; and its sensations are all at rest, as it comes to know the
nihility of objects.
12. When the weak intellect is quiet by its union with the Supreme, and
by suppression of its functions, it is then called _sansánta_—or
quiescent or insouciant.
13. It is the weak intellect that thinks of the thinkables, but the
sound understanding ceases from all thoughts; as it is a slight
intoxication that makes one rave and revel about, while deep drinking is
dead to all excitements.
14. When the sound and consummate understanding, runs in one course
towards its main reservoir of the supreme; it becomes divested of its
knowledge of the knowables, and of its self-consciousness also in the
presence of the one and no other.
15. The perfected understanding finds the errors, to which it is exposed
by its sensation of the sensibles; and comes to know, that birth and
life and all the acts and sights of the living state, are as false as
dreams.
16. The mind being repressed from its natural flight, can have no
thought of any thing; and is lost in itself; as the natural heat of fire
and motion of the wind being extinct, they are annihilated of
themselves.
17. Without the suppression of mental operations, the mind must continue
in its misconceptions, as that of mistaking a rope for a snake through
ignorance.
18. It is not difficult to repress the action of the mind and rouse our
consciousness; in order to heal our souls of the malady of their
mistaken notion of the world.
19. If you can succeed to suppress the desires of your restless mind at
any time, you are sure to obtain your liberation even at the very moment
and without fail.
20. If you will but turn to the side of your subjective consciousness
only, you will get rid of the objective world, in the same manner as one
is freed from his fear of snake in a rope, by his examination of the
thing.
21. If it is possible to get rid of the restless mind, which is the
source of all our desires; it is no way impossible to attain to the
chief end of liberation to any.
22. When highminded men are seen to give up their lives as straws (in an
honorable cause), there is no reason why they should be reluctant to
abandon their desires for the sake of their chief good of liberation.
23. Remain unfettered by forsaking the desires of your greedy mind; for
what is the good of getting sensible objects, which we are sure to lose
(some time or other).
24. The liberated are already in the sight of the immortality of their
souls and of God, as one who has got a fruit in his hand, or sees a
mountain palpable before him.
25. It is the Spirit of God alone, that abides in everything in these
phenomenal worlds, which rise to view like the waves of the waters of
the great deluge. It is his knowledge that is attended with the _summum
bonum_ of liberation, and it is ignorance of that supreme Being, that
binds the mind to the interminable bondage of the world.
CHAPTER LXVII.
LECTURE ON TRUTH.
Argument. Nature of the Active and _Living_ Soul (Jíva) and its
Sensations.
Ráma said:—Leaving the mind please tell me more about the nature of the
living soul; what relation it bears to the Supreme soul, how it sprang
from the same and what is its essence.
2. Vasishtha replied:—Know Brahma is omnipresent, and the Lord of all at
all times; He manifests himself in whatever attribute he assumes to
himself at his free will. Ex arbitrio suo.
3. The attribute which the universal soul assumes to itself in the form
of perception (chétana), is known by the term living soul, which
possesses the power of volition in itself.
4. There are two causal principles combined with the living soul,
namely: its predestination resulting from its prior acts and volitions;
and its later free will which branch forth severally into the various
causes of birth, death and subsistence of beings.
5. Ráma said:—Such being the case, tell me, O thou greatest of sages,
what this predestination means and what are these acts, and how they
become the causal agents of subsequent events.
6. Vasishtha replied:—The intellect (chit) is possest of its own nature
of the properties of oscillation and rest, like the vacillation and
stillness of the winds in the air. Its agitation is the cause of its
action, otherwise it is calm and quiet as a dead lock—_quietus_ itself.
7. Its oscillation appears in the fluctuation of the mind, and its
calmness in the want of mental activity and exertions; as in the
nonchalance of Yoga quietism.
8. The vibrations of the intellect lead to its continual
transmigrations; and its quietness settles it in the state of the
immovable Brahma. The oscillation of the intellect is known to be the
cause of the living state and all its actions.
(The moving force of the mind is the animism of Stahl, and its rest is
the _quietus_ of Plato).
9. This vibrative intellect is the thinking Soul, and is known as the
living agent of actions; and the primary seed of the universe. (This is
the _anima mundi_ or moving force of the world,—the doctrine of Stahl).
10. This secondary soul then assumes a luminous form according to the
light of its intellect, and afterwards becomes multifarious at its will,
and by means of the pulsations of the primary intellect all over the
creation. (This luminous form is represented by the red body of Brahma
and the red clay of which Adam was formed. (It was the All—_to pan_ of
Pantheism, and the _Principium hylarchicum_ or first principle of Henry
Moore)).
11. The pulsative intellect or soul, having passed through many
transformations (or transmigrations), is at last freed from its motion
and migration. And there are some souls which pass into a thousand
births and forms, while there are others which obtain their liberation
in a single birth (by means of their Yoga meditation or unification with
God, which is the final aim of Platonism and of the Chinese Laosin).
12. So also the human soul being of its own nature prone to assume its
dualism of the motive intellect, becomes by itself the cause of its
transmigration and sufferings, as also of its transient bliss or misery
in heaven or hell. (There is no rest for the restless soul, until it
rests in the bosom of the all-tranquil and Universal soul).
13. As the same gold is changed to the forms of bracelets and other
things, and as the same gross matter appears in the different forms of
wood and stone; so the uniform soul of God appears as multiform
according to his various modes and attributes. (The soul modifies itself
into many forms of activity and passivity).
14. It is the fallacy of the human mind, that views the forms as
realities, and causes one to think his soul which is freed from birth
and form, to be born, living and dead, as a man sees a city to rise and
fall in his delirium. (The appearances and forms of things are objective
and false fabrications of the intellect).
15. The varying intellect erroneously conceives its unreal egoism and
_meitatem_ as realities, from its ignorance of its unity with the
unchangeable reality of God, and also from its felicity of enjoyments
peculiar to its varied state. (The भोगाशा or desire of fruition is the
cause of the revolution of the soul in endless states of beings).
16. As Lavana the King of Mathura, falsely deemed himself as a Chandála,
so the intellect thinks on its own different states of existence and
that of the world (from its desire of enjoying its pleasures which are
deeply rooted in itself).
17. All this world is the phantom of an erroneous imagination, O Ráma!
it is no more than the swelling of the waters of the deep. (The world is
the expansion of the self-same soul and its evolution is the volition of
Brahma).
18. The intellect is ever busied with the intellection of its own
intelligences, and the innate principles of its action; in the same
manner as the sea is seen to swell with its waters moving in waves of
themselves. (The continuation of the intellect in the association of its
preconceived ideas, is carried on by law of continuity).
19. The intellect is as the water in the wide expanse of Brahma; its
inflation raises the waving thoughts in the mind, resembling the bubbles
of water, and produces the revolutions of living souls like eddies in
the sea of this world.
20. Know thy soul, O gentle Ráma! as a phenomenon of the all pervading
Brahma, who is both the subject and object of his consciousness, and who
has posited in thee a particle of himself, like the breath of a mighty
lion.
21. The intellect with its consciousness, constitutes the living soul,
and that with the will forms the mind; its knowing power is the
understanding, and its retentiveness is called its memory: its
subjectivity of selfishness is styled egoism, and its error is called
_máyá_ or delusion. (Consciousness is perception _qua mens de presenti
suo statu admonitur_. The living soul is psyche or animus. The intellect
is the mover of the will. The _intellectus_ est prior voluntate, non
enimést voluntas &c. The understanding has the power to acquire
knowledge, and memory has the power of retention &c.).
22. The mind by its imagination stretches out this world, which is as
false as the phantom of Utopia—Gandharva-nagaram or an air drawn city.
23. The objective knowledge of the world in the mind, is as false as the
appearance of chains of pearls in the sky, and as the visionary scenes
in a dream. (The objective is the feigned fabrication of the mind, and
therefore unreal).
24. The soul which is ever pure and self sufficient in its nature, and
remains in its own state of tranquility; is not perceived by the
perverted mind dwelling on its delusive dreams.
25. The objective world is referred to waking—Jágrat, because it
is perceived in the waking state of the soul; and the subjective
mind is allied to sleep—_swapna_, because the mind is active during
the sleeping and dreaming states. The ego is related to deep
sleep—_sushupta_, when we are unconscious of ourselves, and the fourth
or pure Intellect—_turíya_ or _turya_, is the trance or hybernation of
the soul.
26. That which is above these four conditions, is the state of ultimate
bliss, _ecstasis_; and it is by reliance on that supremely pure essence
of God, that one is exempted from all his causes of grief and sorrow (in
his ecstatic delight).
27. Everything is displayed in Him and all things are absorbed in Him
also; this world is neither a reality here or there; it presents only
the false appearance of strings of pearls in the sky. (Sensible forms
are empty appearances, and are only believed as real by materialists).
28. And yet God is said to be the cause and substratum, of all these
unobstructed phantoms rising to the view, as the empty air is said to be
the receptacle of the rising trees. Thus the uncausal God is said to be
the cause of this uncaused world, which only exists in our illusive
conceptions, and presents itself to our delusive sensations of it.
29. As a polished piece of iron gets the reflexion of a grosser piece,
so do our finer or inner sensations take the representations of the
gross forms of their particular objects (though the senses and sensible
objects are both untrue, as mere delusive and delusions).
30. These sensations are conveyed to the mind, and thence again to the
living soul and intellect, in the same manner as the roots supply the
sap to the stem, and thence to the branches, and lastly to the fruits of
trees. (_i.e._ The Divine Intellect is the last receptacle of the
impressions of the senses).
31. As the seed produces the fruit, and the same contains the seed in
itself; so the intellect producing the mind and its thoughts can not get
rid of them; but is contained in, and reproduced by them in successive
transmigrations.
32. There is some difference however in the simile of the insensible
seed and tree; with the sensible intellect and mind (which are freed
from reproduction by their attainment of liberation); but the thoughts
of the creator and creation like the seed and tree, are reproductive of
one another without end. (Because the thought of the creator accompanies
that of the creation, and so the _viceversa_; owing to the unbroken
chain and interminable concatenation of the ideas of causality and its
effect).
33. But there is this difference between the insensible seed and
sensible intellect, that the former is continually productive of one
another, while the latter ceases in its process upon its attainment of
liberation; yet the ideas of the creator and creation are reproductive
of each other _adinfinitum_.
34. Yet our understanding shows it as clearly—as the sun light sets
forth the forms and colours of objects to view; that there is one
eternal God of truth, who is of the form of intellectual light, which
shows the forms of all things, that proceed from Him (as the colours of
objects originate from the solar light, and are shown again by the same
to our optical vision).
35. As the ground which is dug presents a hollow, so the reasoning of
every system of sound philosophy establishes the existence of the
transcendental void as the cause of all. (An unknown first cause without
any attribute, is the unanimous conclusion, arrived at every rational
system of Philosophy. See Kusumánjali. Here Vasishtha establishes his
vacuous rather than a personal cause).
36. As a prismatic crystal represents various colours in its prisms,
without being tinged by the same; so the transparent essence of Brahma
shows the groups of worlds in its hollow bosom without its connection
with them. (This variety of vision is caused by our optical deception).
37. The universal soul is the source, and not the substance of all these
vast masses of worlds; just as the seed is the embryo, and not the
matter of the trees and plants and their fruits and flowers that grow
from the same. (The _to on_ is the only principle called God, all other
objects are but phenomenal modifications of his essence).
38. Ráma said:—Oh how wonderful is this world, which presents its
unreality as a reality in all its endless forms unto us; and though
situated in the Divine self, appears to be quite apart from it. O how it
makes its minuteness seem so very immense to us. (What are these worlds
but as particles subsisting in the divine essence, when they are
compared with the immensity of the Divine spirit and mind—the finite
with the Infinite).
39. I see how this shadowy scene of the world appearing in the Divine
soul, and becoming as an orb, by virtue of the ideal _tanmátras_ or
particles of the divine essence in it. I find it as a snow ball or
icicle made of frozen frost.
40. Now tell me Sir, how the spiritual particles increase in bulk, and
in what manner the body of the self born Brahmá was produced from
Brahma. Say also in what manner do these objects in nature come to
existence in their material forms.
(Brahmá the Demiurgus was an emanation of God according to Gnostics; and
Vaishwánara was the same as the soul of the world according to
Plotinus).
41. Vasishtha replied:—Too incredible is this form and without a
parallel, which sprang of itself from its own essence. It is altogether
inconceivable how some thing is produced of its own conception.
42. Just fancy, O Ráma! how the unexpanded phantom of a Vetála or ghost,
swells in bigness to the sight of fearful children; and conceive in the
same manner the appearance of the living spirit from the entity of
Brahma. (Evolution of the Living God from the inert Brahma, is as the
springing of the moving spirit from the dormant soul).
43. This living spirit was a development of Brahma—the universal soul;
it was holy and a commensurable and finite being, and having a
personality of its own; it remained as an impersonal unreality in the
essence of the selfexistent God. Being separated afterwards from its
source, it had a different appellation given to it. (This is the Holy
spirit or ghost in one sense, as also the Divine _Logos_ in another, and
in whom there was life).
44. As Brahma the all extended and infinite soul, became the definite
living soul at will; so the living spirit, became the mind by its
volition afterwards. (There is a trinity or triple division of the soul
into _soma_ or the universal soul, the _pneuma_ or anima or the living
spirit, and the _nous_ or mens or mind).
45. The mind which was the principle of intellection, took a form of its
own; and so likewise the life assumed an airy form in the midst of
vacuity. (The mind is the state of the impersonal soul with a sense of
its personality, and life is animation or the vital principle in the
form of the vital breath).
46. The wakeful living god (who had no twinkling of his eyes), whereby
we measure time was yet conscious of its course by means of his
thoughts; and had the notion of a brilliant icicle of the form of the
future mundane egg in his mind. See Manu’s Genesis of the World. I.
47. Then the living soul felt in itself the sense of its consciousness,
and by thinking ‘what am I,’ was conscious of its egoism. (Why is the
non-ego of the objective world put before the ego? The objective orb of
the world should follow the subjective consciousness).
48. This god next found in his understanding the knowledge of the word
taste, and got the notion of its becoming the object of a particular
organ of sense, to be hereafter called “the tongue.” (_Rasaná_ or the
instrument of the perception of _rasa_ or flavour. _Rasa_ abiding in
water is reckoned first of the elements on account the Spirit of God
resting on it before creation, wherefore God is himself called _rasa_ in
the Sruti—_rasa vaitat_).
49. The living soul then found out in his mind the meaning of the word
‘light,’ which was afterwards to sparkle in the eye—the particular organ
of sight.
(The Bible says, _lux fiat et lux fit_—Light to be the first work of
creation; though the Vedas give Priority to water as in the passages
“_apa eva sasarjádau_”, Manu. _Yasrishtih Srasturádyá._ Sakuntala).
50. Next the god came to know in his mind the property of smell, and the
organ of smelling; as also the substance of earth to which it appertains
as its inseparable property. (The Nyaya says: _prithví gandhavatí_—the
earth is smelling. It followed the creation of light).
51. In this manner the living soul, came to be acquainted at once with
the other sensations, and the organs to which they appertain as their
inseparable properties and objects. (The word _bhavitá_ means the
spontaneous growth of these faculties in the soul or mind, and
_kákatálíya_ signifies the simultaneous occurrence of the senses, and
sensible objects, and their sensations in the mind).
52. The unsubstantial living spirit which derives its being from the
essence of the substantial Brahma, comes next to acquire the knowledge
of sound, the object of the organ of hearing, and the property
of air. (So Nyáya:—“_ákásh sabdádharah_”; and “_yá Sruti visaya
gunáh_”—Sakuntala).
53. It then comes to understand the meaning of the word touch (twak) as
the medium of feeling, as also to know the tongue as the only organ of
taste. (According to schoolmen, taste is the object of the palate and
not of the tongue).
53. It finds the property of colour to be the peculiar object of the
eye—the organ of sight; and that of smell to be an object peculiar to
the nose—the organ of the sense of smelling (ghránendriya).
54. The living soul is thus the common receptacle of the sensations, and
source of the senses, which it developes afterwards in the organs of
sense in the body. It perceives the sensation of sensible objects
through the perceptive holes, that convey their perceptions into the
sensorium of the mind. (The common sensory is variously placed in
Western philosophy, such as the heart, brain, pineal gland, the
ventrialis &c.).
55. Such, O Ráma! as it was with the first animated being, is still so
with all living animals; and all these sensations are represented in the
Soul of the world—_anima mundi_, in its spiritual form—_átiváhika_,
known as the _súkshma_ or _lingadeha_—the subtle body. (The spiritual
body has 17 organs of sense viz, 5 Internal, 5 External, the mind and
Intellect and others (called _the saptadasha lingátmaka linga saríra_)).
56. The nature of this abstruse essence, is as undefinable as that of
the spirit; it appears to be in motion, when it is really at rest, as in
our idea of the soul. (Spiritual bodies are said to move and fly about,
because the spirit is the motive, and life the animating principle as
the soul is that of consciousness).
57. As measure and dimensions are foreign, to our notion of Brahma—the
all conscious soul, so are they quite apart from that of the spirit
also, which is no more than the motive power of the soul. (Magnitude,
figure, motion, rest, number, place, distance, position, &c. are all
objects of the senses).
58. As the notion of the spiritual, is distinct from that of all others
which are material and corporeal; so the notion of Brahma is quite apart
from every thing, except that of his self-consciousness.
(God says in the Scripture, “I am that I am,” which proves his
consciousness of himself to constitute his essence).
59. Ráma said:—If consciousness is self-same with Brahma, and our
consciousness of ourselves as Brahma, make us identic with Brahma
Himself; then what is the use of devising a duality of the soul (as the
divine and human souls), or of talking of the liberation and final
absorption of the one in the other? (If what the Sruti says, Brahmásmi—I
am Brahma; as the scripture declares—“In Him we live and move,” then
what means our redemption or return to Him?).
60. Vasishtha replied:—Ráma, your question is irrelevant at this time,
when I was going to prove another thing. Nothing can be appropriate out
of its proper time and place, as the untimely offering of flowers to
gods is not acceptable to them. (A question beside the mark is _apropos
de bottes_, and brought in by the head and shoulders).
61. A word full of meaning, becomes meaningless out of its proper place;
like the offering of flowers to gods and guests, out of their proper
season. (So all intempestivous acts, go _mal a propos_, unless they are
done in proper time).
62. There is a time for the introducing of a subject, and another to
hold silence over it; so every thing becomes fruitful in its proper
season. (Tempus coronat opus).
63. But to resume our subject; the living soul afterwards appeared from
Him, as the human soul appears in dreaming; and thought in himself that
he was the great father of created beings in time to come. (_i.e._ He
would become the Maker of the world).
64. He uttered the syllable Om (on or ens), and was conscious of the
verification of its meaning in his mind, which soon displayed all forms
of beings to his mental vision. (_i.e._ The All One became many, which
displayed themselves in the mind of the living God as visions in a
dream).
65. All these were unrealities, that were displayed in the empty sphere
of the divine mind; and the shadowy world seemed as a huge mountain,
floating before him in the air.
66. It was neither born of itself, nor was made by Brahmá; nor is it
destroyed at any time by any other power. It was Brahma himself,
appearing as the phantom of an aerial city.
67. As the living Brahmá and other spiritual beings, are unreal in their
nature; so also are the essences of other beings, from the big giant to
the little emmet, but mere unrealities in their substance.
68. It is our erroneous understanding, that represents these unrealities
as real ones unto us; but the clear understanding will find all things,
from the great Brahmá down to the minutest insect, to vanish entirely
from its sight. (Errors of the mind breed errors in the brain; and these
lead to errors of vision again).
69. The same cause that produces Brahmá, produces the insects also; and
it is the greater depravity of the mind, that causes its transmigration,
into the contemptible forms of worms.
70. The living being that is possest of a rational soul, and is devoted
to the cultivation of the mind, attains to the state of man; and then
acts righteously for attaining a better state in after life. (These are
the states of gods and angels in heaven).
71. It is wrong to suppose one’s elevation, to be owing to the merit of
his acts, and his degradation to the condition of worms, to result from
his former acts of demerit; because there is the same particle of
intellect in both of them, and this being known, will destroy the
mistaken difference between the great and small.
72. The notions of the measurer, measure and measurable, are not
separate from the intellect (or mind); therefore the controversy of
unity and duality, is as futile as the horns of a hare or a lake of
lotuses in the air. (This means the ideas of the producer, production
and product, are always one in the Absolute subjective. Schelling).
73. It is our misconception of the blissful Brahma, that produces the
wrong notion of solid substances in us; and this imagination of our own
making, binds us as fast as the silk-worms are fast bound in the
cocoons; formed by their own serum (or ichor or serosity).
74. It is the case of the knower, to perceive everything in his mind, as
it is revealed in it by Brahma; and also to meet with every thing as it
is allotted by God to his share. (God is the revealer and giver of all
things. Or—Man meets his fate, as it is meted to him by his Maker).
75. It is the immutable law of nature, that nothing can be otherwise
than what it is ordained to be; and there is nothing in nature, which
can change its nature for a minute in a whole kalpa-age. (Nature derives
her power from the will of her Maker, and her course is, according to
the immutable order, fixed by the ordainer of all).
76. And yet this creation is a false phantom, and so is the growth and
dissolution of all created beings, as also our enjoyment of them. (All
visible Nature is the working of the invisible Spirit).
77. Brahma is pure, all pervading, infinite and absolute. It is for our
misery only, that we take him for the impure matter and unreal
substance; and as the definite and limited pluralities.
78. It is the vitiated imagination of boys, that fancies the water and
its waves as different things; and makes a false distinction between
them which are really the same things. (Hence whatever differences there
appear in objects, they are all as the fallacy of a snake in the rope
with the unknowing. There is no difference of antagonistic powers felt
in the spirit of Brahma, who is equal in all, and to whom all things are
equal; though there seems a constant opposition in the natures of
things).
79. It is His undivided self which expanded itself in visible nature,
and which appears as a duality, like that of the waves and the sea, and
the bracelets and gold. Thus He of himself appears as other than himself.
(_i.e._ The difference appearing in the visibles, disappears in the
indifference of the Divine Mind).
80. We are led to imagine the visible and mutable world, to have sprung
from the invisible and immutable spirit, which manifested itself in the
form of the mind that produced the Ego. Thus we have the visible from
the invisible, and the mind and the ego from the same source. (The
absolute Brahma manifesting itself in two forms, the mind or ego and
nature or non-ego. The Ego of the mind is infinite, which produced the
finite ego or human soul, personified as the first male (Adimapurusha or
Adam)).
81. The mind joined with the ego, produced the notions of elementary
principles or elemental particles; which the living soul combined with
its intellect, derived from the main source of Brahma, and of which it
formed the phenomenal world. (These notions were the intentive concepts
of the formal and reflexive world, existing primordially in the essence
of Brahma, as its material cause or (_upádánam_). So says the
Vedánta:—_Yato viswamvá imámi bhutani &c._).
82. Thus the mind being realised from Brahma, sees before it whatever it
imagines; and whatever the intellect thinks upon, whether it is a
reality or unreality, the same comes to take place. The reflexion verily
passes into reality. (The imagination is the faculty representative of
the phenomena of internal and external worlds. It is both productive and
reproductive. _Sir Wm. Hamilton._ Here intellect means the Supreme
Intellect, the wisdom of God and his design in the works of creation.
All beings and things are manifestations of one Eternal and original
mind God).
CHAPTER LXVIII.
DESCRIPTION OF A RÁKSHASÍ (OR FEMALE FIEND).[4]
Argument. Story of Karkatí the female fiend, and her austerities for
extirpation of Human Kind.
Vasishtha said:—Hear me relate to you, Ráma! an old anecdote bearing
upon this subject, and relating to a difficult proposition adduced by
the Rákshashí for solution.
2. There lived on the north of Himálaya a heinous Rákshashí, by name of
Karkatí—a crooked crab; who was as dark as ink and stalwart as a rock,
with limbs as strong as could split the sturdy oak.
3. She was also known by the title of Visúchí or cholic pain, by which
she was ever afflicted, and which had reduced her frame like that of the
Vindhyá hill, which was cowered down (by the curse of Agastya).
4. Her eye-balls were as blazing as fires; and her stature reaching half
way to the sky, was girt by a blue garment, like the shade of night
wrapping the atmosphere.
5. A white mantle formed the covering of her head, like the fragment of
a cloud; and the long erect hairs of her head, stood like a sable cloud
on her crest.
6. Her eyes flashed as lightnings, and her sharp hooked nails glistened
as sapphires; her legs were as long as _tamála_ trees, and her loud
laughter was as a burst of frost.
7. A string of dried bones decorated her body, like a wreath of flowers;
and the relics of dead bodies, adorned every part of her body.
8. She frolicked in the company of Vetálas, with human skulls hanging
down her ears as ear-rings; and stretched out her arms aloft, as if she
was going to pluck the sun from his sphere.
9. Her huge body being in want of its necessary aliment, caused her
culinary fire to blaze like the submarine flame, which the waters of the
deep are unable to quench. (The latent heat in water).
10. Nothing could ever satiate the insatiable hunger, of this big
bellied monster; nor satisfy her lickerish tongue, which was always
stretched out like a flame of fire.
11. She thought in herself saying:—Oh! if I could but once go to the
Jambudwípa—the land of Asia, I would devour all its men in one swoop,
and feast on them continually, like the submarine fire upon the waters.
12. As the clouds cool the burning sands by their rain, so will I allay
the burning fire of my hunger there. It is settled as the best plan to
support my life, at this critical moment.
13. All men are well guarded by means of their _mantras_, medicines,
austerities, devotions and charities, from all evils of the world;
whence it is impossible for any body to destroy the indestructible
devotee. (My all destructive devotion will destroy all; but render me
indestructible).
14. I will perform the most rigorous austerities, with an unflinching
heart and mind; because it is by intensity of painstaking, that we may
gain what is otherwise hard to be had. (_Industria vincit omnia._—Labour
conquers all).
15. Having thought so, she repaired to an inaccessible mountain, for the
purpose of destroying all animal beings. (The Rákshasa cannibals are
devourers of all flesh; and are of the omnivorous kind).
16. She climbed to the top of the mountain, by scrambling over it with
her hands and feet; and stood on it with her body resembling a cloud,
and her eye-balls flashing as lightnings. (_i.e._ Her body and eyesight,
were similar to the cloud and lightning on the mountain top).
17. Having got to the summit, she made her ablution and then sat at her
devotion; with her steadfast eyeballs resembling the two orbs of the sun
and moon, and fixed on one object.
18. She passed there many a day and month, and saw the course of many a
season and year. She exposed her huge body to the rigor of heat and
cold, like the hill itself (on which she sat).
19. She with her huge black body, remained unmoved as a thick sable
cloud, on the mountain top; and her jet black hairs stood up as if to
touch the sky.
20. Seeing her body beaten by the blasts, and covered with nothing but
her ragged skin; and her hairs standing up to their end, to be tossed to
and fro by the raging winds; while the twinklings of her eyelids, shed a
whitish glare on her sable frame, the god Brahmá made his appearance
before her.
CHAPTER LXIX.
STORY OF VISÚCHIKÁ—(_continued_).[5]
Argument. Brahmá’s boon to Visúchí, and the _mantra_ against her Power.
Vasishtha resumed:—After the lapse of a thousand years, Brahmá appeared
to her, in order to put an end to the ardour of her austerities, and
crown her with success or the reward of her devotion. (Ardent devotion
has the power of displacing even the gods from their heavenly seats).
2. She saluted him internally in her mind, and remained fixed in her
position; thinking about the boon she should beg of him, for allaying
her keen appetite.
3. She soon recollected a certain request, which she should prefer to
her complying god; and it was to transform her soft and flexible form to
the shape of an inflexible iron-nail, wherewith she could torment all
living beings. (_i.e._ To make her fleshy form as stiff as a poker, so as
to be able to pierce all others without being pierced herself).
4. At Brahmá’s bidding, she bethought in herself: “I will become as thin
as a minute pin, in order to enter imperceptibly into the hearts of
animals, as the odor of flowers enters the nostrils.”
5. “By this means will I suck the heart-blood of beings, to my heart’s
satisfaction; in this way will my hunger be satiated, and the
gratification of my appetite, will give the greatest delight to my
soul.”
6. As she was thinking in this manner, the God discovered her sinister
motives, contrary to the character of a yogi; and accosted her in a
voice resembling the roaring of clouds.
7. Brahmá said:—Daughter Karkatí, of the Rákshasa race, that sittest
here like a cloud on the inaccessible top of this mountain; know that I
am pleased with thy devotion, and bid thee now to raise thyself, and
receive the boon that thou desirest of me.
8. Karkatí answered:—“O Lord of the past and future! If thou art
inclined to grant my request, then please to confer on me the boon, of
transforming my unironlike body to the form of an iron needle.”
9. Vasishtha said:—The God pronounced “Be it so,” and joined, “thou wilt
be as a pin, and shalt be called the cholic pain, for thy giving pain
to all bodies.”
10. “Thou shalt be the cruel cause of acute pain and pang to all living
being; and particularly to the intemperate and hard-working fools, and
loose libertines, who are destined to be thy devoted victims.”
11. “Moreover shalt thou molest the dwellers of unhealthy districts, and
the practicers of malpractices; by entering their hearts with thy
infectious breath, and by disturbing their sleep, and deranging the
liver and other intestinal parts of the body.”
12. “Thou shalt be of the form of wind (in the bowels), and cause bile
and flatulence under the different names of colic diseases, and
attack the intemperate both among the wise and unwise.”
13. “The wise when attacked by thee, will be healed by repeating this
runic _mantra_, which I will here propound for their benefit.”
14. The mantra runs thus:—“There lives Karkatí, the Rákshasí, in the
north of the snowy mountain; her name is Visúchiká, and it is for
repelling her power that I repeat this mantra; “Om, I bow to _hring,
hrang_ and _ring, rang_—the powers of Vishnu, and invoke the Vaishnavi
powers to remove, destroy, root out, drive away this colic pain, far
beyond the Himálayas, and afar to the orb of the moon. Om, (amen) and
_swáhá_ (soho), be it so.” Let these lines be held on the left arm as an
amulet.
15. “Then rub the painful part with the palm of that hand, and think the
colic Karkatí to be crushed under the mallet of this amulet, and
driven back beyond the hills with loud wailing.”
16. “Let the patient think the medicinal moon to be seated in his heart,
and believe himself to be freed from death and disease; and his faith
will save his life and heal his pain.”
17. “The attentive adept, who having purified himself with sprinkling
the water in his mouth, repeats this formula, he succeeds in a short
time to remove the colic pain altogether.”
18. The lord of the three worlds then disappeared in the air, after
delivering this efficacious amulet to the _Siddhas_ attending upon him.
He went to his splendid seat in heaven, where he was received by the god
Indra, who advanced to hail him with his hosannas.
CHAPTER LXX.
CONDUCT OF VISÚCHÍ, OR THE ADVENTURES OF THE NEEDLE.
Argument. The gradual leanness of _Súchí_, and her entrance in Human
bodies.
Vasishtha continued:—Now this Súchí who had been as tall as a
mountain-peak, and a Rákshasí of the blackest kind, resembling a thick
and dark cloud of the rainy season; began gradually to fade away, and
grow leaner and leaner day by day.
2. Her gigantic cloud-like form, was soon reduced to the shape of the
branch of a tree, which afterwards became of the figure of a man, and
then of the measure of a cubit only.
3. It next became of the length of a span in its heighth, and then of a
finger’s length in all. Growing by degrees thinner and thinner like a
corn or grain, it became at last as lean as a needle or pin.
4. She was thus reduced to the thinness of a needle, fit only to sew a
silken robe; and became as lean as the filament of the lotus flower by
her own desire; which can change a hill to a grain of sand. (This
passage bears reference to the microcosm of human soul).
5. The unmetallic _Súchí_, was thus transformed to the form of a black
and slender iron needle; which containing all her limbs and organs of
her body in it, conducted her in the air and everywhere as she liked.
(Thus the gross human body being reduced to its subtle _átiváhika_ or
spiritual form, it is possible for the Yogi to traverse through the air,
as we perceive in the course of our minds).
6. She viewed her person as an iron pin, and having neither any
substance nor length or breadth of her body. (The false idea of length
and breadth of the soul is a fallacy of our understanding; because the
soul like a geometrical line, has no dimension nor substance whatever in
it).
7. Her mind with its power of thought, appeared as bright as a golden
needle (pointing to the point); and as a streak of the sapphire
impregnated by solar ray.
8. Her rolling eye-balls, were as dark as the spots of black clouds,
moved to and fro by the winds; and her sparkling pupils were gazing at
the bright glory (of God); piercing through their tenuous pores. (It is
explained also as fixing the eye-sight to some chink (as that of a wall
or other), through which the light of God enters the sensory of sight,
and then penetrates into the soul as in Yoga meditation).
9. She had observed the vow of her taciturnity (mauna-vrata), for
reducing the plumpness of her person, and was gladdened in her face, to
become as lean as the filament of a feather. (The vow of keeping silence
is said to be of great good, by increasing the power of thought; for he
who speaks little thinks much, and who so talks much, must talk in vain.
It is the practice of _munis_ or saints to remain silent, whence the vow
has its name).
10. She beheld a light alighting on her, from the air at a distance; and
she was glad in her face to find her inward spirit, to be sublimated as
air. (The internal light and lightness of the body are results of _yoga_
practice).
11. With her contracted eye brows, she beheld the rays of light
extending to her from afar; which caused the hairs on her body, to stand
up like those of babies at bathing.
12. Her grand artery called Brahmanádí or _susumna_, was raised about
its cavity in the head called the _Brahma-randhra_; in order to greet
the holy light, as the filaments of the lotus, rise to receive the solar
light and heat.
13. Having subdued the organs of her senses and their powers, she
remained as one without her organic frame, and identified with her
living soul; and resembled the intelligent principle of the Bauddhas and
Tárkikas, which is unseen by others. (_i.e._ In her spiritual form only).
14. Her minuteness seemed to have produced the _minutiae_ of minute
philosophers, called the siddhárthas; and her silence was like that of
the wind confined in a cave. Her slender form of the puny pin, resembled
the breath of animal life, which is imperceptible to the eye.
15. The little that remained of her person, was as thin as the last hope
of man (which sustains his life). It was as the pencil of the
extinguished flame of a lamp; that has its heat without the light.
16. But alas! how pitiable was her folly, that she could not understand
at first, that she was wrong to choose for herself the form of a slender
pin, in order to gratify her insatiable appetite.
(This is a ridicule to Yogis and students, that emaciate themselves with
intense study and Yoga, only with a desire to pamper their bodies
afterwards, with luxuries and carnal enjoyments).
17. Her object was to have her food, and not the contemptible form of
the pin; her heart desired one thing, and she found herself in another
form, that was of no use to her purpose.
18. It was her silliness, that led her make the injudicious choice of
needleship for herself; and so it is with the short witted, that they
lack the sense of judging beforehand, about their future good.
19. An arduous attempt to accomplish the desired object, is often
attended by a different result; and even success on one hand, becomes a
failure on another; just as the mirror is soiled by the breath, while it
shows the face to the looker. (Disappointment lurks in many a shape, and
often stings us with success).
20. How be it, the Rákshasí soon learnt to be content with her
needleship, after she had relinquished her gigantic form; although she
viewed her transformation as worse, than her dissolution itself. (Utter
annihilation is more desirable to the Yogi than his metamorphosis to
meaner forms).
21. Lo! the contrariety in the desires of the infatuated, who distaste
in a trice, what they fondly wished at one time; as this fiend was
disgusted at her pinship in lieu of her monstrous figure. (And so they
wilfully shun the object of their former fondness, as the suicides and
dying people quit their fond bodies without remorse).
22. As one dish of food is easily replaced by another, suiting the taste
of the voluptuary; so this fiend did not hesitate to shun her gigantic
body, which she took to taste the heart blood of animals in her pinnate
form.
23. Even death is delectable to the giddy headed, when they are overfond
of some thing else; as the minim of a meagre needle was desirable to the
monstrous fiend for the gratification of her fiendish desire.
24. Now this needle took the rarefied form of air, and moved about as
the colic wind (colica flatulenta), after all living beings, in
quest of her suction of animal gore.
25. Its body was that of fiery heat, and its life the vital breath of
animals; its seat was in the sensitive heart, and it was as swift as the
particles of solar and lunar beams.
26. It was as destructive as the blade of the deadly sword, and as fleet
as the effluvia flying in air. It penetrated into the body in the form
of the _minutiae_ of odor.
27. It was ever bent to do evil, like an evil spirit, as she was now
known by that name; and her sole object was to kill the lives of others
at her pleasure.
28. Her body was afterwards divided into two halves; one of which was as
fine as a silken thread, and the other as soft as a thread of cotton.
29. Súchí ranged all about the ten sides of the world, in these two
forms of hers; and pierced and penetrated into the hearts of living
beings, with all her excruciating pains.
30. It was for the accomplishment of all these purposes of hers, whether
they be great or little; that Karkatí forsook her former big body, and
took the form of the acute and small needle. (Because humbleness and
acuteness are the means of success in every project).
31. To men of little understanding, a slight business becomes an arduous
task; as the foolish fiend had recourse to her austerities, in order to
do the mean work of the needle.
32. Again men however good and great, can hardly get rid of their
natural disposition; and it was for this reason that the great Rákshasí,
performed her austere devotion, in order to become a vile pin for
molesting mankind.
33. Now as Súchí was roving about in the sky, her aerial form which was
big with her heinous ambition, disappeared in air like vapour, or as a
thick cloud in autumn.
34. Then entering in the body of some sensualist or weak or too fat a
person, this inward colic flatulence of Súchí, assumed the shape of
Visúchiká or cholera.
35. Sometimes she enters in the body of some lean person, as also in
those of healthy and wise people; and appearing at first as a colic
pain, becomes a real cholera at last.
36. She is often delighted, to take her seat in the hearts of the
ignorant; but is driven back afterwards by the good acts and prayers,
and _mantras_ and medicines of the wise.
37. In this manner she continued many years in her rambles; her
bipartite body kept sometimes flying up in the air, and oftentimes
creeping low on the ground.
38. She lies concealed in the dust of the ground, and under the fisted
fingers of hands; she hides herself in the sun-beams, in air and in the
threads of cloths. (All this refers to the pestilential air).
39. She is hid in the intestines, entrails and genitals, and resides in
the bodies of pale and ash coloured persons; she abides in the pores,
lines and lineaments of the body; as also in dry grass and in the dried
beds of rivers (All these are abodes of malaria).
40. She has her seat among the indigent, and in the naked and uncovered
bodies of men; as also in those which are subject to hard breathings.
She dwells in places infested by flies and of obstructed ventilation, as
also in green verdures excepting only of the mango and woodapple (bel)
trees.
41. She lurks in places scattered with bones and joints of animal
bodies, and such as are disturbed by violent winds, and gusts of air,
she lies in dirty places, and in cold and icy grounds and likewise in
polluted cloths and places polluted by them.
42. She sits in holes and hollow places, withered trees, and spots
infested by crows, flies and peacocks. Also in places of dry, humid and
high winds, and in benumbed fingers and toes.
43. As also in cloudy regions, in cavernous districts of the form of
rotten bodies; in regions of melting and driving snows, and in marshy
grounds abounding in ant hills and hills of málúra trees. (_Málúra_ is
_Kapitha_ or _kath-bel_, which is deemed unwholesome).
44. She exhibits herself in the mirage of desert sand, and in
wildernesses abounding with ravenous beasts and snakes. Sometimes she is
seen in lands infested by venomous reptiles, and disgusting leeches and
worms.
45. She frequents the stagnate pools, soiled by dry leaves and those
chewed by the Pisáchas; and haunts the hovels beside the cross ways,
where passengers halt and take shelter from cold.
46. She rambles in all places, ever where the leeches suck the blood of
men, and vile people tear them with their nails and hold them in their
fists for feeding upon them. (Here is a relation between the blood
sucking Súchí or Needle and the leeches).
47. In this manner she passes in all places, that we view in the
landscape of cities in drawings; until she is tired with her long
journey through them.
48. She then stops in her course like a tired bullock, whose body is
heated by travelling through towns, with loads of cotton and utensils on
their backs.
49. She afterwards lays her down to rest in some hidden place, like a
needle tired with continued sewing; and there drops down like it, from
its bridling thread in the hand of the sewer.
50. The hard needle held in the hand of the sewer, never hurts his
finger; because a servant however sharp he may be, is never faithless or
is injurious to his master.
51. The iron needle growing old in its business of stitching, was at
last lost by itself; like the rotten plank of a boat, bearing the
burthensome ballast of stones in it.
52. It wandered about on all sides of its own accord, and was driven to
and fro like chaff by the driving winds, according to the course of
nature (with all things).
53. Being taken up by some one, it is fed with the fag end of a thread
put into its mouth, as the malady of cholera is caught by those human
parasites, who glut themselves with food supplied by the sap of another.
54. The malady of colic, like the needle, is ever fond of feeding on
the pith of others with its open mouth; and continually finds the
thread-like heartstring of some body put into its hole.
55. Thus the strong bodies of greedy and heinous beings, are nourished
by the sap of the weak and innocent, as the colic disease preys on
the lean bodies of the poor; and the sharp needle is supported by the
thin thread of the needy (who cannot afford to buy new suits).
56. Though the heart of Súchí like the hole of the needle, was to
receive the thread-like sap of the patient’s heart; yet her power to
pierce it, was like that of the sewing needle, which is as potent as the
piercing sun-beams, to penetrate into the toughest substances.
57. At last Súchí came to find on a sudden, the fault of her wrong
choice of the puny body (of the needle); which was to be filled with her
scanty fare of a bit of thread, and then she began to repent for her
folly.
58. She continued however with all her might, to trudge on in her wonted
course, of pricking and piercing the bodies of others; and
notwithstanding her great regret, she could not avoid the cruelty of her
nature.
59. The sewing man cuts and sews the cloth; agreeably to his own liking;
but the weaver of destiny weaves the long loom of lengthened desires in
all bodies, and hides their reason under the garb of her own making.
60. The colic Súchí went on like the sewing needle, in her business
of piercing the hearts of people by hiding her head; as it is the
practice of robbers to carry on their rogueries, by covering their
faces. (All the three are sly boots, and carry on their trades under the
seal of secrecy).
61. She like the needle with the sewing thread behind it, raises her
head to make and look at the loop-hole, that she should penetrate in the
manner of burglars, making and marking the holes in the wall for their
entry.
62. She entered alike in the bodies of the weak and strong, like the
needle stitching cloths of all textures (whether silken, linen or
fibrous); as it is the custom of the wicked to spare neither the just
nor unjust (from their calumny and villainy).
63. The colic pain like the piercing needle, being pressed under the
fingers, lets off its griping, like the thread of the needle in its act
of sewing. (So the wicked when caught in the act, let out and give up
their wickedness).
64. The acute and unfeeling colic, being as ignorant as the stiff and
heartless needle, of the softness or dryness of the object; pierces the
hardiest breast, without deriving any sweetness from it. (So the
unfeeling ruffians molest the moneyless, to no benefit to themselves).
65. The needle is compared with a rich widow, being both equally stern
and full of remorse; both equally veiled and speechless, and with their
eye of the needle, are empty in their joyless hearts.
66. The needle hurts no body (but rather does good in clothing mankind,
by mending their tattered habits); and yet she is dragged by the thread,
which is no other than the thread of her fate (woven by the fatal
sisters for her drudgery).
67. Slipt from the finger of her master, the needle sleeps in peace
after her trudging, in company with her fellows of dirt and dregs; for
who is there that does not deem himself blest, in the company of his
equals, when he is out of employ?
68. The herd of common people, is ever fond of mixing with the ignorant
rabble in their modes of life; because there is no body that can avoid
the company of his equals. (Kind flies with its own kind; or, Birds of
one feather fly together).
69. The lost needle when found by a blacksmith and heated in the hearth,
flies to heaven by the breath of the bellows, after which it disappears
in the air. (So the society of the good elevates one to heaven, which
leads at last to his final liberation).
70. In this manner the current of vital airs, conducts the breath of
life in to the heart; which becomes the living spirit, by force of the
acts of its prior states of existence.
71. The vital airs being vitiated, in the body, cause the colic pains
known by different names; such as flatulence, bile and the like.
72. The colic caused by vitiation of the Vyána air, produces many
diseases, and affects all the members of the body with a watery fluid.
When it comes by breathing of the lungs, it causes the _Váya súla_ or
pulmonary colic of lungs, and is attended by disfigurement of the
body, and insanity or hysteria known as the hysteric colic.
73. Sometimes it comes from the hands of sheepkeepers, and by the smell
of the sheep’s wool in blankets; and at others it seizes the fingers of
children, and causes them to tear their bed cloths therewith.
74. When it enters the body by the foot, it continues in sucking the
blood; and with all its voracity, becomes satisfied with very little
food.
75. It lies in the glandular vessel of the faeces, with its mouth placed
downward; and takes at pleasure any form, it likes to assume as its
prerogative.
76. It is the nature of the malicious, to show the pervertedness of
their hearts by doing injury to others; as it is characteristic of the
base people to raise a row for their pleasure, and not for any gain or
good to themselves.
77. The miserly think much of their gain of even a single cowry: so
deeprooted is the avaricious selfishness of human nature. (All little
gain is no gain, compared with the wants of men).
78. It was but for a particle of blood, or as much as could be picked
out by the point of a pin, that the colic Súchí was bent on the
destruction of men: so the wise are fools in their own interests (and so
do cut-throats kill others for a single groat).
79. How great is my master-stroke, says the needle, that from stitching
the shreds of cloth, have come to the pitch of piercing the hearts of
men; so be it and I am happy at my success.
80. As the rust of the lazy needle passes off in sewing, without being
rubbed with dust; so must it take the rust, unless it is put in the
action of piercing the patient and passive shreds. (The rolling stone
gathers no moss).
81. The unseen and airy darts of fate, are as fatal as the acts of the
cruel Vísúchi; though both of them have their respite at short intervals
of their massacres.
82. The needle is at rest after its act of sewing is done; but the
wicked are not satisfied, even after their acts of slaughter are over.
83. It dives in the dirt and rises in the air, it flies with the wind
and lies down wherever it falls; it sleeps in the dust and hides itself
at home and in the inside, and under the cloths and leaves. It dwells in
the hand and ear-holes, in lotuses and heaps of woolen stuffs. It is
lost in the holes of houses, in clefts of wood and underneath the
ground. (Compare the adventures of a pin in Gay’s Fables).
84. Válmíki added:—As the sage was speaking in this manner, the sun went
down in the west, and the day departed to its evening service. The
assembly broke after mutual salutations, to perform their sacred
ablution; and joined again on the next morning, with the rising beams of
the sun to the royal palace.
CHAPTER LXXI.
REMORSE OF SÚCHÍ.
Argument. Remorse of Karkatí at her transformation to a Needle from her
former gigantic form.
Vasishtha continued:—After the carnivorous fiend—Karkatí, had feasted
for a long period on the flesh and blood of human kind; she found her
insatiable voracity to know no bounds, and never to be satisfied with
anything.
2. She used to be satisfied erewhile, with a drop of blood in her form
of the needle; and she now became sorry, at the loss of the insatiable
thirst and appetite of her former state.
3. She thought in herself, O pity it is! that I came to be a vile
needle; with so weak and slender a body, that I can take nothing for my
food.
4. How foolish I have been to forego my former gigantic form, and change
my dark cloudy figure for something as the dry leaf of a forest tree.
5. O wretch that I am, to have foregone my dainty food of flesh
flavoured with fat. (The Ráskshasa cannibals are raw flesh-eaters and
feeders on the fat of animals).
6. I am doomed to dive in dirt, and drop down on the ground; to be
trodden and trampled over under the feet of people, and soiled and
sullied in the filth.
7. O me miserable, helpless and hopeless thing, and without any support
or status of mine; from one woe I fall to another, and one danger is
succeeded by another unto me!
8. I have no mistress nor maidservant, nor my father nor mother; I have
got no son nor brother, nor any one to serve or befriend me.
9. I have no body nor abode, nor any refuge nor asylum anywhere; nor
have I a fixed dwelling in any spot, but am driven about, like the
fallen leaves of forest trees by the driving winds.
10. I am subject to all accidents, and exposed to every kind of
calamity; I wish for my extinction, but it wishes not to approach unto
me. (Death flies from the destitute).
11. What else have I done to have given away my own big body, in the
foolishness of my heart; than parted like a madman, with a precious
jewel for a paltry piece of glass.
12. One calamity is enough to turn the brain out of order; but what will
be my case when it is followed by other calamities in endless
succession.
13. I am hung up (with the cloth) to be suffocated by the smoke, and
dropped down in the streets to be trodden under foot; I am cast away
with the dirt, and hid under the grass to my great distress.
14. I serve at another’s will, and am guided by my guide; I am stark
naked while I sew for others, and am ever a dependant on another’s
guidance.
15. Long do I drudge and trudge for a paltry gain, and stitching alone
is all the work that I have to perform for life. O unlucky that I am,
that my ill luck even is so very luckless.
16. I see the demon of despair rising before me, upon my penitence of
this day; and threatening to make an end of this body, of which I have
made an offering to him.
17. What better fate can await on me, after my loss of so big and bulky
a body by my foolishness; than to be annihilated into nothing, rather
than be a thing which is good for nothing.
18. What man will pick me up, who am as lean as a mollusk (or thread
worm); from the heap of ashes, under which I lie buried by the wayside.
19. No keensighted man will take into his consideration a wretched and a
forlorn being; as nobody living on a high hill, ever stoops to take
notice of the grass growing on the ground below.
20. I cannot expect to raise myself higher, while I am lying in the sea
of ignorance; what blind man can perceive the glorious sun-light, who is
guided by the flash of fireflies?
21. I know not therefore how long I shall have to labour under my
difficulties, when I find myself already drowned in a sea of misery.
22. When shall I be restored again to the form of the daughter of
Anjanágiri mountain; and will stand as a pillar over the ruins of the
nether and upper worlds?
23. When shall I have my arms reaching to the clouds, and my eyes
flashing as lightning; my garb becoming as white as snow, and my hairs
touching the sky.
24. My big belly resembling a huge cloud, and my long breasts hanging
below as pillows; shaking with the motion of my body, in its dancing
like the pinions of a peacock.
25. The ash-white light emitted by my laughter, cast the light of the
sun into the shade; and my former high stature, threatened to devour the
terrible god of death.
26. My hollow sockets deep as the holes of mortars, flashed erewhile
with living fire; like the rays of the sun; and my large legs moved as
two monumental pillars in my rambling.
27. When shall I have my big belly, with its large cavity like a
pot-belly; and when shall I have again my soft black nails, resembling
the dark and humid clouds of autumn.
28. When will those tender smiles return to me, whereby I moved the
great Rákshasas to my favour; and when shall I dance in my giddy
circles, at the music of the tabor amidst the forests.
29. When will that big belly of mine, be filled with potfuls of fattened
liquor; and be fed with heaps of the flesh and bones of dead bodies.
30. When shall I get me drunk, with drinking the blood of human gores;
and become merry and giddy, until I fall fast asleep.
31. It was I who destroyed my former brilliant body, by my bad choice of
austerities, and accepted this petty needlish form, like one taking the
sulphate of gold, instead of that precious metal.
32. Ah! where is that huge body which filled all sides, and shone as the
sable hill of Anjanágiri; and what is this puny and pinny form of the
shape of a spider’s leg, and as thin and lean as a tender blade of
grass.
33. The ignorant are found to throw away a golden jewel, as useless on
the ground as a piece of glass; and so have I cast aside my shining
body, for a bit of this blackest needle.
34. O great Vindhyá with thy hollow and snow covered caves! why dost
thou not destroy thy dull elephants by thy native lions? It is I that am
as silly as an elephant—_gaja múrkha_.
35. O my arms! which used to break down mountain peaks, why do ye fail
to pluck the butter-like moon with thy moony nails?
36. O my breast! which was as fair as the side of the snowy mountain,
even without my glassy ornaments; why dost thou not show thy hairs,
which were as large as leeches that feed on lion’s flesh?
37. O my eyes! that used to dispel the darkness of the darkest night,
and kindle the dry fuel with your glaring fire; why do ye cease to
lighten the air with your effulgence?
38. O my shoulder blades! are ye broken down and levelled with the
earth? or are ye crushed and smashed or mouldered and worn out by age?
39. O my moonbright face! why dost thou not shine over me with thy
bright beams; resembling the everlasting light of the orb of the moon,
now at an end for ever?
40. O my hands! where is your strength fled today? See ye not, how I am
transformed to an ignoble needle, that is moved about by the touch of
the foot of a fly?
41. Alas! the cavity of my navel, which was as deep as a well, and beset
by hairs resembling rows of beautiful plants about it; and my
protuberant posteriors, which likened to the bottom of the Vindhyá
hills.
42. Where is that towering stature reaching to the sky, and what is this
new earned contemptible form of the needle; where is that mouth, hollow
as the vault of the sky, and what is this hole of the needle? Where is
that heap of my flesh meat, and what is this drop of watery food? Ah!
how lean have I grown, but who is to be blamed for an act of my own
doing?
CHAPTER LXXII.
FERVOUR OF SÚCHÍ’S DEVOTION.
Argument. Ardour of Súchí’s austerities and Indra’s Inquiry of it.
Vasishtha continued:—Afterwards Súchí became silent and motionless, and
thought of resuming her austerities for the sake of regaining her long
lost body.
2. With this intention she returned to the Himálayas; and there
abstaining from her desire of human gore, she sat reiterating her
castigations.
3. She saw in her mind her form of the needle, entering into her heart
with her breathings.
4. Thus meditating on her mental form of the needle, she was wafted by
her vital breath to the top of the hill, and alighted on it like a
vulture from high.
5. There she remained alone and apart from all living beings, and sat
amidst burning fires, with her form of an ash-coloured stone (_i.e._
besmeared by ashes like a _yogi_).
6. She sat there as a sprout of grass, springing in that dry and
grassless spot; but soon faded away, to a blade of withered hay in the
sandy desert.
7. She remained standing on tip-toe of her only one foot, and continued
in the castigation of her own self. (Standing of the one legged needle,
represented the posture of devotees standing on one leg).
8. She lightly touched the ground with her tiptoe stature, and avoiding
all sidelong looks, gazed on the upper sky with her upraised face and
uplifted eyes.
9. The acute point of the black iron needle, firmly preserved its
standing posture by penetrating the ground; while it fed itself upon the
air, which it inhaled by its uplifted mouth.
10. The scarcity of food in the forest, made it look up as in quest of
some prey coming from a distance; while its lower part shaking with the
wind, enticed the unwary to approach towards it.
11. The ray of light issuing as a pencil from the needle hole, became
like its attendant guard on the hinder part.
12. As men are kindly disposed towards the mean, that are favourites to
them; so was the needle attached to the pencil of ray, that became its
constant attendant.
13. The needle had another constant companion, of its devotion in its
own shadow; but the blackness of its person, made it always to remain
behind the back. (The shadow of a thing ever remains behind it).
14. Thus the shadowy needle and pencil of ray, having firmly adhered
themselves to the iron needle; these three have always become intimate
friends, like all good people mutually assisting one another.
15. The trees and plants of the mountain forest, felt compassion for
Súchí on seeing her in this plight; for who is there, that bears no
sympathy for the pious devotee, or her penances and austerities?
16. The needle that was thus stuck fast to the ground by its foot, and
had sprung up like some faculty of the mind; was fed with the fragrance
of the fruitage, blown and borne by the breeze to its uplifted mouth.
17. The woodland gods and demigods, continued to fill its mouth with the
dust; of blown and unblown flowers in the woods.
18. But it did not swallow the powdered dust of meat; which the god
Indra had caused to be thrown into its mouth, for the purpose of
frustrating the efficacy of its devotion.
19. Its fixity of purpose, did not permit it to swallow the delicious
powder; because a person however mean he may be, is sure of success by
his firmness of mind.
20. The god of winds, with his power of uprooting the mountains; was
astonished to find the needle, averse to swallow the food, ministered to
it in the form of the pollen of .
21. The resolute devotee is never to be shaken from his purpose, though
he is plunged in the mud or drowned in water, or scattered by the winds
and thrown into the burning fire.
22. Or when he is shattered by showers of hailstones, or struck by the
lightning or battered by rain drops, and intimidated by thunder claps.
23. The resolute mind is not changed in a thousand years, and the feet
of the firm, like those of the drowsy and dead drunk, never move from
their place.
24. The holy hermit who is devoted to his purpose, loses in time the
motion of his external organs; but obtains by the exercise of his
reason, the light of true knowledge in his soul.
25. Thus did Súchí gain the light of knowledge, and become a seer of the
past and future. She became cleansed of the dross of her sins, and her
Visúchí or impurity was turned to Súchí or purity.
26. She came to know the truly knowable, in her own understanding; and
she felt true bliss in her soul, after the removal of her sins by
devotion.
27. She continued for many thousand years in her austere devotion, to
the great astonishment of seven times seven worlds, that got affrighted
at her austerities. (The cause of their fright was, lest she should take
possession of their happy states, by the merit of her devotion).
28. The great mountain was set in a blaze, by the fervour of her
devotion; and that flame spread to all the worlds, like the blaze of a
portentous meteor.
29. This made Indra the god of heaven, to ask Nárada respecting the
cause of this intense devotion; saying “Who is it that engrosses to her
the fruition of worlds, by her austere devotion”? To whom Nárada thus
replied:
30. “It is Súchí, who by her continued devotion of thousands of years,
has attained her highest state of enlightenment; and it is that light
that now enflames all the worlds.”
31. It is Súchí’s devotion, O lord of gods, that makes the Nágás to sigh
and the hills to tremble. It causes the celestials to fall down, and the
sea to overflow on earth. It dries up all things, and casts to shade the
bright orb of the sun itself.
CHAPTER LXXIII.
NÁRADA’S RELATION OF SÚCHÍ’S DEVOTION.
Argument. Description of Súchí’s _austerities_, and Indra’s Inquiry
about them.
Vasishtha related:—Indra having learnt about the austere devotion of
Karkatí, had the curiosity to know more of her through Nárada, whom he
asked about the matter.
2. Indra said:—I know Súchí to have acquired her fiendish practice (of
blood sucking), by means of her devotion; but who is this apish Karkatí
that is so greedy of her gain (of flesh and bones).
3. Nárada replied:—It is Karkatí the malevolent fiend, that became _Jíva
Súchí_ or colic pain of the living, and assumed the shape of an iron
needle as its support or fulcrum.
4. Having afterwards forsaken that prop, it entered into the human body
as its landing place; and then it flew up to the heart on the vehicle of
vital breath, and is seated in the car of the current air in atmosphere.
(The resting place _locus standi, point d’appui or powsto_ of the
diseases of life).
5. This colic of life—_Jíva Súchí_, having entered into the bodies of
vicious lives, passes through the canals of their entrails and the pores
of their flesh, fat and blood, and then nestles as a bird in the
interior part.
6. It enters the intestines with the breath of the air, and there
settles in the form of flatulent colic; afterwards being seated at
the end of the _nyagrodha_ artery, it forms the plethoric colic with
fulness of blood and inflammation.
7. It also enters the body through other parts and organs, and receives
different names according to its situation; and then feeds itself upon
their flesh and marrow (as the best food for living beings).
8. Fastened to the knots of wreathed flowers and stuck to the leafy
garlands, decorating the breasts and cheeks of fond damsels, she steeps
enraptured with them, on the bosoms of their loving spouses. (_i.e._ The
menial needle is blessed in the company of her mistress).
9. She flies to the bodies of birds in wood-land retreats, which are
free from worldly sorrow and strife; and flutters on the tops of flowers
of the Kalpa arbours of Paradise, or rolls on beds of lotuses in the
lakes.
10. She flies over the high hills of the gods, in the forms of
fluttering bees; and sips the honey drops, perfumed with the fragrance
of the pollen of _mandara_ flowers.
11. She devours in the form of vultures, the entrails of the dead bodies
of warriors, through the notches made in them, by blades of swords in
warfare.
12. She flies up and down in the pellucid and glassy paths of the
firmament, and pierces through all the pores and arteries or inlets into
the human body; as the inflated winds pass in every creek and corner on
all sides.
13. As the universal vital air (prána-váyu), runs in the heart of every
living being, in the form of the pulsation of air; so does Súchí
oscillate in every body, as it were her own habitation.
14. As the intellectual powers are lodged in every person, in the manner
of blazing lamps in them; so does she reside and blaze as the mistress
of every body; answering her dwelling house.
15. She sparkles as the vital spark in the particles of blood, and flows
as fluidity in liquid bodies; she rolls and trolls in the bowels of
living beings, as whirl pools whirl about in the bosom of the sea.
16. She rests in the milk white mass of flesh, as Vishnu reclines on his
bed of the serpent Vásuki; she tastes the flavour of the blood of all
hearts, as the goddess (Kálí) drinks the liquor of her goblet of wine.
17. She sucks the circulating red hot blood of hearts, as the winds
absorb the internal and vivifying juice, from the hearts of plants and
trees.
18. Now this living Súchí, intending to become a devotee, remains as
motionless as an immovable substance, and as fixed and steady in her
mind.
19. The iron-hearted needle, being now rarefied as the invisible air, is
traversing to all sides, on the swift wings of winds resembling its
riding horses.
20. It goes on feeding on the flesh and drinking the blood of all living
beings; and carrying on its various acts of giving and receiving, and
dancing and singing all along.
21. Though the incorporeal _Súchí_ has become aeriform and invisible as
vacuum, yet there is nothing which she is unable to accomplish by the
powers of her mind, outstripping the swiftness of the winds.
22. But though she runs mad with her meat, and turns about giddy with
her drink; yet she is curbed by fate, like an elephant in chains from
running at random.
23. The living body like a running stream, moves apace with billows in
its course; and the painful and destructive diseases under which it
labours, are as greedy sharks lying hid underneath.
24. This frail body like the formless Súchí, being disabled by infirmity
to gorge its fleshy food, begins to lament its fate, like old and sickly
rich folks, for their want of hunger and appetite.
25. The body with its members, moves about like the beasts of the forest
(for their prey); and it plays its parts like an actress on the stage,
with goodly apparel and ornaments on her person.
26. The body is moved to and fro by its internal and external winds, and
its natural weakness (immobility), is always in need of being moved by
the vital airs, as the immovable fragrance requires to be wafted by the
breeze.
27. Men in vain rely in mantras and medicines, in austerities and
charities, and in the adoration of idols for relief; while their bodies
are subject to diseases like the sea to its surges.
28. The unseen force of mobility, is soon lost in the solid body, as the
light of the lamp is lost in darkness. So the living Súchí came to be
lost in the iron needle, in which she had her rest. (_i.e._ The living
body is lost and transformed to a spirit, wherein it finds its rest
after death).
29. Every one aspires to a state according to his natural propensity; as
the inclination of the Rákshasi led her to choose the needleship upon
herself.
30. A man being tired by travelling far and wide, returns at last to
take his rest at home; so the big and living Súchí turned to the form of
the _thin_ iron Súchí to execute her repose; but like ignorant people,
who prefer the grosser pleasure of the body to the nicer delights of the
soul; she still panted for her grosser enjoyments, that were now lost to
her.
31. With the intention of satisfying her thirst, she travelled to all
parts and quarters (in her form of the poor needle); but derived more of
the mental pleasure of experience, than the satisfaction of her
corporeal appetites.
32. When the container is in existence, it is possible to fill it with
its contents and not otherwise; so one having his body, can seek and get
every pleasurable object to give it delight.
33. Remembering now the past enjoyments of her former body, she became
sorrowful in her mind, that was so highly pleased and satisfied with
filling its belly before.
34. She was then resolved to betake herself to austere devotion, for the
purpose of recovering her former body; and with this object in view, she
chose for herself the proper situation for her castigations.
35. The living soul of Súchí, thought of entering into the heart of a
young vulture flying in the air; and thus soared to it and rested
herself in the air like that bird, by the help of her vital breath.
(_i.e._ The greedy spirit was turned to the form of a hungry vulture to
shriek and seek for carrion).
36. The vulture being thus filled with the malevolent spirit of the
colic Súchí in itself, began to think of executing the purposes that
Súchí had in her mind.
37. Thus the vulture bearing the insatiate Súchí within its body, flew
to its intended spot on the mountain. It was driven there like a cloud
by the wind, and it was in this place that Súchí was to be released from
her needleship.
38. It sat there on a spot of the solitary forest in its state of
asceticism, seeming to be freed from all desires of the world.
39. It stood there on one of its legs, supported on the tip of its toe
and appeared as the statue of some deity, consecrated on the top of the
mountain by some one in the form of Garuda.
40. There standing on one leg, supported on an atom of dust; she
remained as the mountain peacock, that stands on one leg with the head
raised to the sky.
41. The bird seeing the living Súchí coming out of his body, and
standing on the mountain as a statue, fled away and disappeared from
that place.
42. Súchí issued from the body of the bird, in the manner of the spirit
coming out of it, and the intellect aspiring to higher regions; and as
the particles of fragrance fly upon the wings of winds, in order to meet
the breath of the nostrils to be borne into the nose.
43. The vulture fled to his own place after leaving Súchí at that place,
like a porter disburthening himself of his load; and found himself
relieved of his lickerish diseases on his return.
44. Now the iron Súchí, being seated in her devotion, in the form of the
living Súchí; appeared as graceful as a right man engaged in the
performance of his proper duty.
45. And as the formless spirit is unable to do anything, without a
formal support or instrument; so the living Súchí supported herself on
the tip of her toe, for performance of her devotion.
46. The living Súchí has sheathed the iron needle (in her heart), as an
evil spirit (Písáchí) enwraps a Sinsapá tree; and as the winds enfold
the particles of odor, which they bear away in their bosom.
47. Thenceforwards, O Indra! has she betaken herself to her protracted
devotion, and passed many years in the solitary wilderness in her steady
position and posture of body.
48. It now behoves you, O Indra! that art skilled in stratagems, to
devise some plan, in order to delude her from her object, or else her
devotion will destroy the people, you have so long preserved.
49. Vasishtha said:—Indra having heard these words of Nárada, sent
Maruta (Eolus) the god of winds to her search, in all quarters of the
globe.
50. The god Maruta then proceeded in quest of her, in his spiritual form
of intelligence; and having traversed the etherial regions, alighted
upon the nether world. The winds and all other elemental and physical
powers, are believed to be endued with intelligence also; and not as
mere brute forces, on account of the regular discharge of their proper
functions, which they could never do without intelligence.
(Hence the imagination and adoration of the Marutgana in the elemental
worship of the Veda).
51. He beheld everything instantly at a glance of his intelligence;
which perceived all things at one view; as the sight of the Supreme
Spirit sees through all bodies without exception or hindrance. (_i.e._
The sight of the spirit like its breath, sees through and supports all
things).
52. His sight stretched to the Lokáloka mountain in the polar circle,
far beyond the seven seas of the earth, where there is a large tract of
land abounding with gems. (It is doubtful whether the polar mountain or
sea abounds with gems).
53. He viewed the circle of the Pushkara continent, surrounded by a sea
of sweet water; and containing mountains with their dales and valleys.
54. He next saw the Gomeda islands, surrounded by the sea of liquor with
its marine animals; and the land abounding with cities and towns.
55. He beheld also the fertile and peaceful continent of Kraunchadwípa,
bounded by the sweet Saccharine sea, and beset by a range of mountains.
56. Further on was the Swetadvípa (Albion island), with its subsidiary
isles surrounded by the Milky (Atlantic) ocean, and having the temple of
Vishnu in the midst of it (meaning perhaps the ancient Kelts to be
colony of the Hindus).
57. After that appeared the sea of butter, surrounding the Kushadwípa
island; and having chains of mountains and cities with buildings in
them. (Butter milk &c., are fictitious names and not this really).
58. Then came the Sákadwípa in view amidst the ocean of curds,
containing many countries and many large and populous cities in them.
(The _sákadwípa_ is said to be Scythia or the land of the saccae or
sakas).
59. Last appeared the Jambudwípa girt by the sea of salt, having the
Meru and other boundary mountains, and many countries in it. (This is
Asia stretching to the polar mountains on the north and south).
60. Thus the intelligence of air (Marut), having alighted on earth upon
the wings of winds, spread himself afterwards to its utmost ends with
rapidity (or spread himself rapidly to its utmost limits afterwards).
61. The god of air then directed his course to Jambudwípa (Asia), and
having arrived there, he made his way to the summit of the snowy
mountain. (Himálaya, where Súchí was performing her devotion).
62. He saw a great desert on the highest top of the summit, which was as
extensive as the expanse of the sky, and devoid both of living creatures
and the vestiges of animal bodies. (_i.e._ There were neither any living
being not fossil remains to be found on the mountain peak).
63. It was unproductive of greens or grass owing to its nighness to the
sun; and was covered over with dust, like that composing this earth.
64. There spread a wide ocean of the mirage to excite the thirst, like
the lucid waters of a river; and allure the longings of men by its
various hues, resembling the variegated colours of rain-bow.
65. Its wide expanse reaching almost to infinity, was unmeasurable even
by the regents of the quarters of heaven, and the gusts of wind, blowing
upon it, served only to cover it with a canopy of dust.
66. It resembled a wanton woman, besmeared with red powder as the
sunbeams, and sandal paste like the moonbeams; and attentive to the
whistlings of the breeze. (Thinking them to be hissings of men).
67. The god of the winds having travelled all over the seven continents
and their seas, and being tired with his long journey on the surface of
the earth; rested his gigantic body which fills the infinite space in
all directions, on the top of that mountain; like a butterfly resting on
the twig of a tree, after its wearied flight in the air.
CHAPTER LXXIV.
CONSUMMATION OF SÚCHÍ’S DEVOTION.
Argument. Return of the god of winds to the Indra, and his narration of
the Devotion of Súchí and her desired Boon.
The god of the winds beheld Súchí standing erect, like a crest on the
summit of the mountain, amidst that vast tract of the desert all around.
2. She stood upon one leg fixed in her meditation and roasted by the
burning sun over her head; she was dried up to a skeleton by her
continued fasting, and her belly was contracted to the shrunken skin.
(_i.e._ She was threadbare as skin in all her body and belly).
3. Now and then, she inhaled the hot air with her open mouth, and then
breathed it out, as her heart could not contain the repeated influx of
air. (Respiration of air is practised by Yogis, to sustain their lives
therewith for want of solid food).
4. She was withered under the scorching sunbeams, and battered in her
frame by the hotter winds of the desert; yet she moved not from her
stand-point, as she was relieved every night by the cold bath of
moonbeams.
5. She was content with covering her head under the particles of dust,
and did not like to change her state for a better fortune. (_i.e._ She
preferred her poverty to high dignity).
6. She gave up the possession of her forest to other living beings, and
lived apart from all in the form of a crest of hair. Her breathings
being withdrawn to the cranium, appeared out of it as a tuft of hairs or
bushes clapped on her head. (Air confined in the cranium, is said to
keep the body alive for ages).
7. The god of air was astonished to see Súchí in this state; he bowed
down to her and was struck with terror as he beheld her more earnestly.
(The countenance of the holy is awful to the sight of the unholy).
8. He was so overawed by the blaze of her person, that he durst not ask
her anything, such as:—“O saintly Súchí! why dost thou undertake thyself
to these austerities”?
9. He only exclaimed, O holy Súchí, how wondrous is this sight of thy
devotion! Impressed with veneration for her holiness, the god made his
departure to heaven whence he came.
10. He passed the region of the clouds, and reached the sphere of the
still air (sthíra váyu); and then leaving the realm of the Siddhas
behind him, he arrived to the path of the sun—the ecliptic.
11. Then rising higher in his airy car, he got into the city of Indra,
where he was cordially embraced by the lord of gods, for the merit of
his sight of Súchí. (Visit to sacred persons and holy shrines, is
believed to impart a share of holiness to the visitant).
12. Being asked what he saw, he related all that he had seen, before the
assembled gods in the synod of Sakra or Indra.
13. Pavana said:—There is the King of mountains the high Himalaya,
situate in the midst of Jambudwípa (in Asia); who has the lord Siva,
that bears the crescent of the moon on his forehead, for his son-in-law.
14. On the north of it, is a great peak with a plain land above it,
where the holy Súchí holds her hermitage, and performs her rigorous
devotion.
15. What more shall I relate of her, than that she has abstained herself
even of her sustenance of air, and has made a mess of her entrails
coiled up together.
16. She has contracted the opening of her mouth to a needle hole, and
stopped even that with a particle of dust, in order to restrain it even
from the reception of a cold dewdrop for its food.
17. The fervour of her devotion, has made the snowy mountain to forsake
its coldness; and assume an igneous form which it is difficult to
approach. (The blaze of holiness is said to set mountains on fire, as
the presence of the Holy spirit set the sacred mount of Sinai on flame).
18. Therefore let all of us rise and repair soon to the great father of
creatures for redress; or know this fervent devotion of hers must prove
to our disadvantage in its result.
19. Hearing these words pronounced by Pavana, the lord Indra in company
with the other gods, proceeded to the abode of Brahmá, and prayed unto
him for their safety.
20. Brahmá answered:—“I am going even now to the summit of the snowy
Himalaya, to confer to Súchí her desired boon.” Upon this assurance of
Brahmá, the gods all returned to their celestial abodes.
21. During this time Súchí became perfect in her holiness, and began to
glow with the fervour of her devotion on the mountain of the immortals.
22. Súchí perceived very clearly the revolution of the time (of her
castigation), by fixing her open eyes on the sun, and by counting the
days by the rays of solar light penetrating the opening of her
mouth:—the needle hole.
23. Súchí though flexible as a bit of thread, had yet attained the
firmness of the mountain Meru, by her erect posture.
24. She beheld by the ray of sun light, which penetrated the eye of the
needle, that the shadowy attendant upon her erect posture, was the only
witness of her upright devotion.
25. The shadow of Súchí which was the only attendant on her devotion,
hid herself under her feet for fear of the midday heat, so do people in
difficulty find their best friends forsake their company in times of
adversity.
26. The union of the three persons of the iron, the ascetic and shadowy
Súchí, like the meeting of the three rivers (Asi, Varaná and Gangá from
three sides), described a triangle in the form of the sacred city of
Benares (or a delta of Gangá or the triune divinity).
27. This union of the three, like the confluence of three rivers of a
Trivení (as Ganga, Yamuna and Sarasvatí), purifies the sins of men by
the three different hues of their waters, _viz._ the blue, black and
white.
28. A person becomes acquainted with the unknown cause of all, only by
_suchana_ or reasoning in his own mind; and by means of his
selfconsciousness (of the truth or untruth of a thing). It is the
cogitation of one’s own mind that is best guide in all things or else, O
Ráma! there is no other better preceptor for men.
CHAPTER LXXV.
SÚCHÍ’S REGAINING HER FORMER FRAME.
Argument. Brahmá’s appearance, admonition and blessing to Súchí and her
resuscitation to life.
Vasishtha continued:—After the lapse of a thousand years of long and
painful devotion, the great father of creation (Brahmá), appeared to
her under his pavilion of the sky, and bade her accept the preferred
boon.
2. Súchí who was absorbed in her devotion, and her vital principle of
life, remaining dormant in her, wanted the external organs of sense (to
give utterance to her prayer), and remained only to cogitate upon the
choice she should make.
3. She said to herself: “I am now a perfect being, and am delivered from
my doubts; what blessing therefore is it, that I have need of asking
(either for myself or others), beyond this state of beatitude; which I
already possess in my peace and tranquility, and the bliss of
contentment and self-resignation.”
4. I have got the knowledge of all that is to be known, and am set free
from the web of errors; my rationality is developed, and what more is
requisite to a perfect and rational being?
5. Let me remain seated as I am in my present state, I am in the light
of truth; and quite removed from the darkness of untruth; what else is
there for me to ask or accept?
6. I have passed a long period in my unreasonableness, and was carried
away like a child, by the demon of the evil genius of earthly desires.
(As a child wants to have everything he sees, not knowing whether it is
good or bad for him to have it).
7. This desire is now brought under subjection by my power of
ratiocination, and of what avail are all the objects of my desire to my
soul? (There is nothing of any good to the soul, for nothing temporal is
of any spiritual good).
8. The lord of creatures kept looking on Súchí sitting with her mind
fixed in her silent meditation, and resigned to her destiny; and quite
abstracted from all external sensations, and the use of her bodily
organs.
9. Brahmá with the kindness of his heart, again accosted the apathetic
dame, and said unto her: “Receive thy desired blessing, and live to
enjoy for sometime longer on earth”.
10. Then having enjoyed the joys of life, thou shalt attain the blissful
state from which thou shalt have no more to return here, and this is the
fixed decree destined for all living beings on earth.
11. Be thy desire crowned with success, by merit of this devotion of
thine, O best of the womankind! Resume thy former corpulence, and remain
as a Rákshasí in this mountain forest.
12. Regain thy cloud-like shape whereof thou art deprived at present,
and revive as a sprout from thy pinnate root, to become like a big tree
growing out of its small root and little seed.
13. Thou shalt get an inward supply of serum from thy pinnate tendon, as
a plant gets its sap from the seeded grain; and the circulation of that
juice will cause thy growth like that of a germ from the ingrained seed.
14. Thy knowledge of truth has no fear of following into the
difficulties of the world; while on the contrary, the righteousness of
thy soul will lead thee like a huge cloud, that is heavy, with its pure
water high in the heaven, notwithstanding the blasting gusts of wind.
(_i.e._ The pure and contrite spirit goes on its wonted course, in spite
of the tribulations of the world).
15. If by thy constant practice of Yoga meditation, thou hast accustomed
thyself to a state of habitation (death like Samádhi), for thy
intellectual delight, and hast there by become assimilated to the
_anaesthesia of_ thy meditation (to the _state of a stock_ and stone).
16. But thy meditativeness must be compatible with thy worldly affairs,
and the body like the breeze, is nourished best by its constant
agitation. (_i.e._ Meditation must be joined with utility, and the body
with its activity).
17. Therefore my daughter! thou dost act contrary to nature, by
withstanding the action which thy nature requires; nor can there be any
objection to thy slaughter of animal life under proper bounds. (Because
the carnivorous are made to live upon flesh, as the omnivorous man upon
all kinds of food).
18. Act therefore within the bounds of justice, and refrain from all
acts of injustice in the world; and stick steadfastly to reason, if thou
shouldst like to live liberated in this life. (Justice is the source of
liberty, but injustice leads to bondage).
19. Saying so far, the god disappeared from below to his heavenly
sphere, when Súchí said to him “be it so and I have nothing to oppose to
this”. Then thinking in her mind, that she had no cause to be
dissatisfied with the decree of the lotus-born Brahmá, found herself
immediately in possession of her former body.
20. She came to be of the measure of a span at first, and then of a
cubit; and next a full fathom in length; and increasing fastly in her
height, she grew up as a tree; till at last she was of the form of a
cloud. She had all the members of the body added to her instantly, in
the manner of the growth of the arbour of human desire. (Our growing
desires and their increase, are compared with the growth and
ramifications and fructification of trees).
21. From the fibrous form of Súchí (the needle), which was without form
or feature, body, blood, bones, flesh or strength, there grew up all the
parts and limbs at once. Just so the fancied garden of our desire,
springs up on a sudden with all its verdant foliage and fruits and
flowers from their hidden state.
CHAPTER LXXVI.
REFRAINING FROM UNLAWFUL FOOD.
Argument. Advice of the god of winds to Karkatí; and her resort to the
Abode of Kiráta—flesh eaters.
Vasishtha continued:—Súchí the needle now became the fiend Karkatí
again; and her leanness turned to bulkiness, in the manner of a flimsy
cloud; assuming a gigantic form in the rainy season.
2. Now returning to her natal air and element, she felt some joy in
herself; but renounced her fiendish nature by the knowledge she had
gained; as a snake throws off its old slough. (She was regenerated to a
new life in the very same body).
3. There seated in her _lotiform_ posture, she continued to reflect on
her future course; and relying on the purity of her new life and faith,
she remained fixed as a mountain peak. (Unmoved by the stormy
temptations of the world).
4. After six months of her continued meditation, she got the knowledge
of what she sought; as the roaring of clouds rouses the peacock, to the
sense of an approaching rain.
5. Being roused to her sense, she felt the pains of her thirst and
hunger; because the nature of the body never forsakes its appetites as
long as it lasts in the same state. (There cannot be a thorough change
of innate nature in the same person).
6. She was sorrowful at last, not to find out what food she should take
to herself; because she thought the killing of animal life for food, was
unlawful and repugnant to her nature.
7. The food forbidden by the respectable and got by unjust means, must
be rejected even at the expense of one’s valuable life. (Respectable men
abhor the flesh of unclean animals and forbidden meat).
8. If my body, said she, should perish for want of lawful food, I do not
transgress the law in that; but the guilt lies in my taking of unlawful
food; for the sustenance of my life. (Hence no man is guilty of his
legal gain and lawful food).
9. Whatever is not obtained according to the customary rules of society,
is not worth taking; and if I should die without my proper food, or live
upon improper fare, it amounts to the same thing whether I live or die
(because unrighteous living is moral death).
10. I was only the mind before, to which the body is added as a base
appendage. It vanishes upon the knowledge of self; hence its care and
neglect are both alike. (The soul forming our true essence, must be
preserved pure in expense of the impure body).
11. Vasishtha resumed:—As she was uttering these words, in silence to
herself, she heard a voice in the air, coming from the god of winds, who
was pleased at the renunciation of her fiendish disposition.
12. “Arise Karkatí”, it said, “and go to the ignorant and enlighten them
with the knowledge thou hast gained; for it is the nature of the good
and great, to deliver the ignorant from their error.
13. “Whosoever will not receive this knowledge (of lawful food), when it
is imparted to him by thee, make him verily the object of thy derision,
and take him as being a right meat and proper food for thee.”
14. On hearing these words she responded, “I am much favoured by thee,
kind god!”; and so saying, she got up and descended slowly from the
height of the craggy mountain.
15. Having passed the heights, she came to the valley at the foot of the
mountain; and thence proceeded to the habitation of the Kiráta people,
who inhabit the skirts at the bottom of the hills.
16. She saw those places abounding in provisions of all sorts; such as
human kind and their cattle with their fodder and grass. There were
vegetable as well as animal food, with various kinds of roots and
plants. There were eatables and drinkables also, with the flesh of deer
and fowls, and even of reptiles and insects.
17. The nocturnal fiend then walked her way, under the shade of the deep
darkness of night, towards the habitation at the foot of Himálaya, in
her form of the sable mount of Anjanágiri (unperceived by the
inhabitants).
CHAPTER LXXVII.
DELIBERATION OF KARKATÍ.
Argument. Description of the dark night. The Rákshasi’s meeting a rája
and his minister. Her trial of and argumentation with them.
Vasishtha resumed:—It was a deep dark night, black as ink and as thick
as tangible pitch; hiding the habitation of the Kirátas under its
nigrescent umbrage. (Kirátas are the present Kirántis of the Himalayas,
and the ancient Kerrhoides of Ptolemy).
2. The sky was moonless, and overcast by a veil of sable clouds; the
woodlands were obscured by tamála trees, and thick masses of black
clouds were flying about in the air.
3. The thick furze and bushes besetting the hilly villages, obstructed
the passages by their impervious darkness, and the flitting light of
fireflies gave the homesteads an appearance of the bridal night.
4. The thick darkness spreading over the compounds of houses, shut out
the passage of the light of lamps, which made their way of or from the
chinks of the dwelling in which they were burning.
5. Karkatí beheld a band of Pisáchis, dancing about her as her
companions; but she became motionless as a block of wood, on seeing the
giddy Vetálas, moving about with human skeletons in their hands.
6. She saw the sleeping antelopes by her, and the ground matted over by
the thick snow falls; while the drizzling drops of dew and frost, were
gently shaken by the breeze on the leaves of trees.
7. She heard the frogs croaking in the bogs, and the night ravens cawing
from the hollows of trees; while the mingled noise of jocund men and
women, were issuing from the inside of the houses.
8. She saw the _ignis fatuus_ burning in the swamps, with the lustre of
portentous meteors; and found the banks and bournes, thick with thorns
and thistles, growing by their sides, and washed by the waters gliding
below them.
9. She looked above and saw the groups of stars shining in the
firmament, and beheld the forest about her shaking their fruit and
flowers by the breeze.
10. She heard the alternate and incessant cries of owls and crows in the
hollows of trees; and listened also the shouts of robbers in the skirts,
and the wailings of the villagers at a distance.
11. The foresters were silent in their native woods, and the citizens
were fast asleep in the cities; the winds were howling in the forests,
and the birds were at rest in their sylvan nests.
12. Furious lions lay in their dens; and the deer were lying in their
caves also. The sky was full of hoarfrost, and the woodlands were all
still and quiet.
13. The lightnings flashing from amidst the dark inky clouds, resembled
the reflexions of ray from the bosom of a crystal mountain. The clouds
were as thick as solid clay, and the darkness was as stiff as it
required to be severed by a sword.
14. Blown by the storm, the dark cloud fled like the sable Anjaná
mountain in the air, and it deluged a flood of pitchy rain, like a
water-fall from the bosom of a mountain.
15. The night was as dark as the pit of a coal-mine, and as jet black as
the wing of the black bee—_bhramara_; and the whole landscape lulled to
sleep, appeared as the world lying submerged under ignorance. (Sleep and
ignorance are twin brothers, and a reversion of the comparison of
ignorance with sleep. Such reversed similes are not uncommon in oriental
poetry, as that of the moon with the beauteous face &c.).
16. In this dreadful dead of night, she saw in the district inhabited by
Kirátas, a prince and his minister, wandering together in the forest.
17. The prince was named Vikrama, and was as brave and valorous as his
name and conduct implied him to be. He came out undaunted from within
the city, after the citizens had fallen fast-asleep.
18. Karkatí beheld them roving in the forest with the weapons of their
valour and fortitude, and searching the Vetálas infesting the
neighbourhood.
19. Seeing them, she was glad to think that she had at last got her
proper food; but wanted to know beforehand, whether they were ignorant
folks or had any knowledge of their souls, or whether their weariness
under the burthen of their bodies, had exposed them to the dangers of
the darksome night.
20. The lives of the unlearned (said she), are verily for their
perdition in this world and the next; it is therefore meet to put an end
to these, rather than leave them to live to their peril in both worlds.
(The earlier the ignorant die, the sooner do they rid themselves of
their miseries and responsibilities).
21. The life of the untutored is death, without spiritual knowledge, and
physical death is preferable; in as much as it saves the dying soul from
its accumulation of sin. (Living in the sinful world is sin, unless it
is averted by spiritual knowledge).
22. It is the primeval law ordained by our prime father—the lotus-born
Brahmá, that ignorant souls and those without knowledge of their selves,
should become the food of the heinous. (_i.e._ Of voracious and envious
animals, which devour the body and not the soul).
23. Therefore there is no harm in my feeding upon these two persons, who
have offered themselves for my food; because it is silliness to let
slip, a ready prize or proffered gift from the hand. (A bird in the hand
is worth two in the bush. Or a self-given gift is not to be lost).
24. But lest they should prove to be men of parts and good and great
souls, I cannot in that case feel disposed of my own nature, to put an
end to their valuable lives.
25. I must therefore make a trial of them, and see if they are possessed
of such parts; that I may decline from making my mess of them, because I
feel averse to molest the intelligent.
26. For those that expect to have true glory and real happiness, with
the length of their lives on earth; must always honour the learned with
honorariums, adequate to their parts and desires.
27. I should rather suffer my body to perish with hunger, than destroy
the intelligent for its supportance; because the soul derives more
satisfaction from the counsels of the wise, than bare life without
knowledge, can possibly afford.
28. The learned are to be supported even at the expense of one’s own
life; because the society of the wise affords a physic to the soul
(_psyches iatrion_), though death should deprive us of our bodies (for
it ameliorates even the pangs of death).
29. Seeing me a man-eater Rákshasí, so favorably disposed to the
preservation of the wise; what reasonable man is there, that must not
make a breast-plate of the wise for himself. (_i.e._ The wise are
ornaments to human beings however inhumane they may be to others of
their fellow creatures. Hence the most cruel tyrants were the greatest
supporters of learning).
30. Of all embodied beings, that move about on the surface of the earth,
it is the man of profound understanding only, who sheds his benign
influence like cooling moon-beams all around him. (The light of knowledge
is compared with the gentle moonbeams).
31. To be despised by the wise is death, and to be honoured by the
learned is true life; because it is the society of the sapient only,
that makes the life bring forth its fruits of heavenly bliss and final
beatitude.
32. I will now put a few questions for their examination, and know
whether they are men of parts, or gilded on the surface with sapient
looks, like copper by a chemical process.
33. Upon examination and ascertainment of the qualifications if they
prove to be wiser than the examiner; in that case one should avail of
their instruction, or otherwise there is no harm to make an end of them
as they best deserve.
CHAPTER LXXVIII.
Argument. The undaunted valour of the Prince, the Rákshasi’s Questions
and the Minister’s solution of them.
Vasishtha continued:—Afterwards the Rákshasi, who was an offshoot of
the great garden of Rákshasa race, made a loud and tremendous yell like
the deep roarings of a cloud.
2. After her deep roar she muttered in a clattering voice, like the
rattling of a thunder clap following the rumbling of clouds.
3. She said:—Ho, ho? what are ye, that venture abroad in this dread and
dreary desert, dark as the great delusion of Máyá, and which without the
light of the sun and moon, is as gloomy as the gloom of ignorance. What
are ye crawling here for like insects bred in stones?
4. What men of great minds are ye, to have come here as the weak minded
aberrants that have lost their way? You have become an easy prey to me,
and must meet your fate in my hands in a moment.
5. The Prince replied:—O thou demon, what art thou and where is thy
stand: If thou beest an embodied being, show thyself unto us, or who is
to be terrified by thy bodiless form buzzing like a bee?
6. It is the business of the brave to pounce at once like a lion upon
his prey (and not to bark as a dog at a distance). Therefore leave off
thy bragging and show us thy prowess at once.
7. Tell me what thou dost want of us, and whether thou dost terrify us
by thy vain vauntings, or utterest these words from thy own fear of us.
8. Now measure thy body according to thy speech, (_i.e._ let them conform
with one another), and confront thyself to us without delay; because the
dilatory gain no good, save the loss of their time.
9. On hearing the prince’s speech she thought it was well said, and
immediately showed herself to them, uttering her loud shout with a
grinning laughter.
10. The prince heard her voice to fill the air, and resound in the
woods, and saw her huge and hideous person, by the light of her open
mouth and ivory teeth, in the act of her loud laughter.
11. Her body was as a huge cliff, hurled down by the thunder bolt of the
last doomsday (when high mountains were rent and thrown into the sea to
form their hidden rocks). The flashes of her eyeballs blazed in the sky
like a pair of bangles or conch shells.
12. The darkness of her appearance, cast into shade, the deep dark
waters of the deep at the universal deluge; which hid the flame of the
submarine fire under them; and her voice was as hoarse as the growling
of clouds on the high heads of hills.
13. Her statue was like that of a monumental pillar standing between the
heaven and earth; while the gnashing of her teeth struck the
night-rovers with the terror of being grinded under them to death.
14. Her figure inspired like those of the nocturnal goblins, yakshas,
Rákshas and Pisáchas, with the dread of dire disaster, by its erect
hairs, muscular limbs, dingy eyes and coal black colour of the body.
15. The air she breathed in the lungs, snored as the horrible snorting
of the nostrils of horses; while the tip of her nose was as big as a
mallet, and its sides as flat as a pair of bellows or winnowing fans.
16. She stood with her jet black body like a rock of dark agate, and
that joined with her loud laugh, gave her the appearance of the all
subduing night of dissolution. (Kálarátri—the night of universal doom,
is an attribute of Kálí—the goddess of destruction).
17. Her bulky body resembling a thick cloudy night, approached to them
like an autumnal cloud, moving in the forest of the sky.
18. The huge body appeared as a demon rising from underneath the ground,
and approaching to devour them as the eclipse ingulfs the orbs of the
sun and moon.
19. Her ebon breasts were hanging down, like two pendant clouds of
sombre sapphires, or more like the two mortars or water pots, with her
necklaces hanging on them.
20. Her two arms were suspended to her bulky body, like a couple of
stout branches to the sturdy oak, or like two logs of burnt wood to her
coal like body.
21. Seeing her thus, the two valiant men remained as steadfast, as those
standing on the firm ground of certainty, are never led away by doubts.
22. The Minister said:—O great friend! what causes this rage and fury in
thy great soul? It is the mean and base only, that are ever violent even
in trifling matters.
23. Lay aside this great ado for nothing, which does not become thee;
because the wise pursue their business with coolness to crown it with
success.
24. Know the soft and slow breath of our moderation, has driven away in
the air, swarms of such flies like thyself; as the slight breath of the
wind scatters about the dry leaves and straws.
25. Setting aside all hauteur and ardour of spirit, the wiseman
conducts his business with the calm coolness of the mind, assisted by
reason and practical wisdom.
26. One must manage his affairs with slowness, whether it prove
effectual or not; because the overruling destiny has the disposal of all
events, which human ardour has no power to prevent.
27. Now let us know thy desire and what is thy object with us; because
no suitor of ours, has been refused of his prayer, nor let to return in
disappointment.
28. Hearing these words, the Rákshasí pondered in her mind and said:—O
the serene composure of these lion-like men and the affability of their
conduct with others?
29. I do not think them to be men of the ordinary kind, and the more
wonderful it is, that their inward soul is exprest in the outward
gestures of their faces and eyes, and in the tone and tenor of their
speech. (This is a truth of the Samudrika science of physiognomy).
30. The words, the face and eyes, are expressive of the inward thoughts
of the wise, and these go together like the salt and water of the sea
(which are inseparable from one another. So Chanakya).—मनस्येकं वचस्येकं
कर्म्मस्येकं महात्मनां । मनस्यन्यत् वचस्यन्यत् कर्म्मस्यन्यत् दुरात्मनां ॥
The mind, the word and act of the wise all agree. But those of fools
disagree in all the three.
31. My intention is already known to them, as is theirs also to me: they
cannot be destroyed by me when they are indestructible themselves by
their moral excellence. (So the Sástra:—The virtuous may endure or live
for ever—_chiranjívati dharmátmá_.)
32. I understand them to be acquainted with spiritual knowledge also,
without which there cannot be a good understanding. Because it is the
knowledge of the indestructibility of the spirit, that takes away the
fear of death which is wanting in these men.
33. I shall therefore ask them, about something wherein I am doubtful;
because they that fail to ask the wise what they know not, must remain
dunces throughout their lives.
34. Having thought so, she opened her mouth to make her queries, by
suppressing her roaring voice and her loud laughter for a while.
35. Tell me, O ye sinless men, that are so brave and valiant, who you
are and whence ye come: because your very sight has raised my regard for
you, as the good hearted become friends with one another, even at their
first sight.
36. The minister said:—This is the king of the Kirátas, and I his
counsellor; we have come out tonight in our nightly round, for
apprehending malicious beings like thyself.
37. It is the duty of princes to punish the wicked, both by day and
night; for such as trespass the bounds of their duty, must be made as
fuel to the fire of destruction.
38. The Rákshasí said:—Prince! thou hast a good minister, but a bad one
unbecomes a prince; all good princes have wise counsellors, and they
make the good prince.
39. The wise minister is the prince’s guide to justice, and it is he who
elevates both the prince and his people. Justice is the first of the
four cardinal virtues (justice, temperance, prudence and frugality), and
it is the only virtue of a ruler; who is thence called the _Dharma
avatára_ or personification of justice.
40. But kings must have spiritual knowledge also, because it is the
highest of human knowledge. The king having this knowledge, becomes the
best of kings; and the minister who knows the soul, can give the best
counsel for the guidance of other souls. (For it is said:—Nándhenaiva
níyamána yathándhah; the blind cannot lead the blind. So the Gospel: one
blind man cannot lead another).
41. It is the fellow feeling for others that makes a ruler, whoever is
unacquainted with this rule, is not fit to be either a ruler or his
minister. (The rule is: Rule others as ye rule yourselves. _Sadhi swátmá
vadanyán_).
42. If ye know this polity, it is good and ye shall prosper, or else ye
wrong yourselves and your subjects; in which case ye must be made a prey
to me. (Because if you have no regard for your own souls and those of
others, why should I have any regard for yours?)
43. There is but one expedient for you two lads, to escape from my
clutches; and it is by your solution of my intricate questions;
according to your best wits and judgment. (The queries are said to be
_prasna pinjara_ or the cage or prison-house of dilemmas; in which sense
the text should read _vidárayasi_ for _vichárayasi_, to mean that, if
you cannot break the knots, I will not stop to break your necks).
44. Now do you, O prince and you his counsellor, give me the solution of
the questions that I require of you. If you fail to give the proper
answers as you have agreed to do, you must then fall under my hands, as
any body that fails to keep his words. (The breach of a promise was
punishable with death by the old Hindu law. Hence the first question;
“Why am I obliged in keeping my word” in Paley’s Moral philosophy).
CHAPTER LXXIX.
INTERROGATORIES OF THE ‘RÁKSHASÍ’.
Argument. Seventy questions of Karkatí, which are hard for the
unlearned but too plain to the wise. They are intricate for their
riddling nature to boys, but plain by their double sense to the learned.
Vasishtha continued:—After saying so, the fiend began to put forth her
queries; and you should be attentive to them Ráma, like the prince who
told her to go on.
2. The Rákshasí resumed:—What is that atomic minim which is one yet
many, and as vast as the ocean, and which contains innumerable worlds
like the bubbles of the sea? (It is a minim for its minuteness, an
atom—owing to its imperceptibility, one—as regards its unity, many—on
account of its attributes (upádhis), and vast in respect to its
infinity, containing the passing worlds as the evanescent bubbles of
water).
3. What is that thing which is a void yet no-void, which is something
yet nothing? What is it that makes myself, and thyself, and wherein do I
or thou dost abide and subside? (It is nothing in appearance, but
something in our consciousness, and is both the subjective and
objective).
4. What is it that moveth unmoved and unmoving, and standeth without
stopping; what is it that is intelligent yet as dull as a stone; and
what is it that presents its variety in the vacuity of the
understanding? (Another text reads _vyomni chitra krit_, which means:
who paints the sky with variegated hues).
5. What is it that has the nature of fire without its burning quality;
and what is that unigneous substance which produces the fire and its
flame. (This passage refers to the glory and light of God which shines
without burning).
6. Who is he that is not of the nature of the ever-changing solar, lunar
and stellar lights, but is the neverchanging enlightener of the sun,
moon and stars; and who is that being who having no eyes, gives the eye
its sight?
7. Who is he that gives eyesight to the eyeless vegetables, and the
blind mineral creation? (Whereby they perceive the light of the
luminaries of heaven as the sunflower moonflower—_helioselini_ and
others).
8. Who is the maker of heavens, and who is the author of the natures of
things; who is the source of this gemming world, and whose treasure are
all the gems contained in it? (Man foolishly owns them for a time, but
leaves at last to their true possessor and maker).
9. What is that monad which shines in darkness, and is that point which
is and is not; what is that iota which is imperceptible to all, and what
is that jot which becomes an enormous mountain? (A geometrical monad is
a point without dimension. In the Monadology of Leibnitz, it is the
elementary particle of vital force acting not mechanically, but from
internal principle. It is the entelechy of Aristotle, whose essence
consists in force).
10. To whom is a twinkling of the eye, as long as a _Kalpa_ millennium;
and a whole age but a moment? Who is he whose omnipresence is equal to
his absence, and whose omniscience is alike his total ignorance? (_i.e._
To whom eternity is a moment, and whose omnipresence and omniscience are
unknown to us).
11. Who is called the spirit, but is no air in itself; and who is said
to be the sound or word, but is none of them himself? He is called the
All, but is none at all of all that exists; and he is known as Ego,
but no ego is he himself. (_Spiritus_ or the breathing of
_ventus_-wind-_prána_ and the _sabda-sonus_ or Sruti are not God; nor
is he one and all in his person, nor the ego and non-ego, I not I, and
_le moi et non le moi_, _das Ich und nicht Ich_, the subjective and
objective, and having no personality of his own).
12. What is it that is gained by the greatest application, of a great
many births (lives), and when gained at last, is hard to be retained
(owing to the spiritual carelessness of mankind)? (Liberation by final
extinction—_nirvána_, is hard to be had owing to the interminable
metempsychosis of the soul, according to the doctrine of the
pre-existence and immortality of souls).
13. Who being in easy circumstances in life, has not lost his soul in
it; and who being but an atom in creation, does not reckon the great
mountain of Meru as a particle? _i.e._ the egotist. (It is harder for
the easy rich to enter the kingdom of heaven, than for a camel to enter
the eye of a needle. Gospel. The pride of egotism levels mountains to
dust, and its ambition soars above them).
14. What is that which being no more than an atom, fills a space of many
leagues; and who is an atomic particle; that is not contained (measured)
in many miles? (It is the atomic theism of Kanáda’s Vaiseshika system
and of Ecphantus and Archelaus. The mind is included in the atomism of
Empedocles and Anaxagoras. Epicurus added morality to it, and Lucretius
added to it the beauty of poetry also. See also the Ateistic Atomic
systems of Leucippus and Democritus).
15. At whose glance and nod is it, that all beings act their parts as
players; and what is that ace which contains in its bosom many a
mountain chain? (The mountain was produced from and is contained in the
atom of the divine mind; and so every grain of the human brain, contains
in it the form of a prodigious mountain).
16. Who is it, that is bigger than the mount Meru in his minuteness; and
who is it that being, lesser than the point of a hair, is yet higher
than the highest rock? (So the sruti: _Anor-aniyán mahato mahiyán: i.e._
Minuter than the minutest and bigger than the biggest).
17. Whose light was it, that brought out the lamp of light from the
bosom of darkness; and what minute particle is it, that contains the
minutiae of ideas _ad infinitum_ in it? (God said “_Lux fiat et lux
fit._” Genesis. Hail holy light Heaven’s first born. Milton. Eternal
ideas of immaterial forms of possible existences in the Divine Mind, the
archetype of the ectypal world. These are the Types of things, Plato;
Forms of ditto. Cicero. Eternal exemplars of things. Seneca &c.).
18. Which having no flavour in it, gives savour to all things; and whose
presence being withdrawn from all substances, reduces them to
infinitesimal atoms, (_i.e._ by destruction of cohesion. So the
Sruti.—_Raso vai tat._—He is flavour etc. Attraction of all kinds, is a
manifestation of Divine power—_ákrishti_, personified in the form of
Krishna—the regent of the sun, whose gravity supports the solar world).
19. Who is it that by his self-pervasion, connects the particles
composing the world (as by their power of attraction); and what
imperceptible power is it, that rejoins the detached particles, after
their separation and dissolution for recreation of the new world? (The
atomic powers of attraction and repulsion of particles and bodies).
20. Who being formless, has a thousand hands and eyes; and a twinkling
of whose eye, comprehends the period of many cycles together? (The
divine hypostases of Viráj, is endowed with a thousand hands and eyes,
as in the Purusha Súkta: Sahasra sirsha, sahasra váhu sahasráxa &c.).
21. In what microscopic mite does the world subsist as an arbor in its
seed, and by what power do the unproductive seeds of atoms, become
productive of worlds?
22. Whose glance is it, that causes the production of the world, as from
its seed; and who is it that creates the world without any motive or
material? (The motives are the subjective or internal cause and the
objective or external objects of creation. And material means the matter
of unisubstantism of materialists).
23. What is that being, who without his visual organs, enjoys the
pleasure of seeing—_Drishti_; and is the viewer—_drashtá_ of Himself,
which he makes the object of his view (drishya). _i. e._ God sees all
things in himself as the receptacle of all in the eternal ideas of them
in his mind. Or. The Ego meditates on itself both subjectively as the
viewer, and objectively as the view. (So Milton, “And God saw his works
were good” answering his fair idea).
24. Who is he that having no object of vision before him, sees nothing
without him, but looks upon himself as an infinity void of all visibles
within it. (This is the subjective reflection of the Yogi, like that of
God on his ownself, as abstracted from the thought of all other things.
The Mind is the subjective reality and matter has no objective reality).
25. Who is it, that shows the subjective sight of the soul by itself, as
an objective view; and represents the world as the figure of a bracelet,
in his own metal? (_i.e._ The subjective soul and the metal are the true
realities, and the objective view of the jewel and the world, is but
error and delusion. The Vedantist like Berkeley, held all objective
reality to be subjective).
26. Who is it that has nothing existent beside himself, and in whom all
things exist, like the waves existing in the waters; and who is it whose
will makes them appear as different things? (The one being no more than
fluctuations of the other, and substantially the same).
27. Both time and space are equally infinite and indivisible, as the
essence of God wherein they subsist, why then do we try to differentiate
and separate them like the water from its fluidity?
28. What is the inward cause in us, which makes the believer in the
soul, to view the unreal world as real, and why does this fallacy
continue at all times?
29. The knowledge of the worlds whether as present, past or _in futuro_,
is all a great error; and yet what is that immutable being, which
contains in it the seed of this phenomenal wilderness?
30. What being is that, which shows these phenomena without changing
itself, such as in the shape of the seed of the world, before it
developes itself in creation; and sometimes in the form of a developed
forest of created beings?
31. Tell me, O prince! on what solid basis does the great Meru, stand
like a tender filament of the lotus; and what gigantic form is that,
which contains thousands of Merus and Mandaras within its capacious
womb?
32. Tell me, what is that immeasurable Intellect, which has spread these
myriads of intelligences in all these worlds; what is that which
supplies thee with thy strength for ruling and protecting thy people,
and in conducting thyself through life; and what is it in whose sight,
thou dost either lose thyself or thinkest to exist? Tell me all these, O
clear sighted and fair faced prince, for the satisfaction of my heart.
33. Let thy answer melt down the doubt, that has covered the face of my
heart as with snows. If it fail to efface this dirt of doubt altogether
from the surface of my heart, I will never account it as the saying of
the wise.
34. But if thou fail to lighten my heart of its doubts, and set it at
ease; then know for certain, that thou shalt immediately be made a fuel
to the fire of my bowels at this very moment.
35. I shall then fill this big belly of mine with all the people of thy
realm; but shouldst thou answer rightly, thou shalt reign in peace; or
else thou shalt meet thy end like the ignorant, who are surfeited with
the enjoyments of life.
36. Saying so, the nocturnal fiend made the loud shout of a roaring
cloud, expressive of her joy; and then sat silent with her fearful
features, like a light hearted cloud in autumn (which is of gigantic
shape, but empty of rain waters within).
CHAPTER LXXX.
SOLUTION OF THE QUESTIONS.
Argument. First the Counsellor’s reply to the Questions.
Vasishtha continued:—After the giant-like progeny of the Rákshasa had
proposed her occult questions, in the deep gloom of night in that thick
forest, the good and great counsellor began to give his replies. (The
repetition of the word great in the original, expresses the solemnity
of the occasion; as the disquisitions concerning the Great God in the
Áranyakas or forest lectures of the vedic Rishis, were conducted with
great solemnity in their holy hermitage in forests. So was the Sermon
on the Mount of Jesus).
2. The Counsellor said:—Hear, me! thou dark and cloud like form! to
unravel thy riddling questions, with as great ease as the lion foils the
fury of gigantic elephants.
3. All thy questions relate to the Supreme Spirit, and are framed in thy
enigmatical language, to try the force of our penetration into their
hidden meanings.
4. The soul which is Selfsame with the intellect which is minuter than a
particle of air, is that atomic principle that thou dost inquire into,
because it is a nameless minim imperceptible by the six organs of sense,
and unintelligible to the mind. (Answer to the first question about the
atom. अणु).
5. Underlying the atomic intellect, is the minute seed which contains
this universe; but whether it is a substantial or unsubstantial reality,
nobody can say. (This is the answer to the second question with regard
to the mundane seed).
6. It is called a reality from our notion of its being the soul of all
by itself, and it is from that soul that all other existences have come
in to being. (Answer about the nature of God).
7. It is a void from its outward inanity, but it is no void as regards
its intellect (which is a reality); it is said to be nothing from its
imperceptibility, but it is a subtile something from its
imperishableness. (All finite bodies are unreal, the immortal soul is
real, and identic with the Supreme soul).
8. It is not a nothing from its being permeated in all things, (_i.e._
though all pervading yet it is an absolute entity); for all things are
but reflexions of the minute Intellect, and its unity shines forth in
the plurality, all which is as unreal, as the formal bracelet formed of
the substantial gold.
9. This minutial is the transcendental vacuum, and is imperceptible
owing to its minuteness; and though it is situated in all things, yet it
is unperceived by the mind and external senses.
10. Its universal pervasion cannot make it void and null, because all
that is (existent) is not that (Intellect), which alone is known as the
thinking principle, that makes us speak, see and act.
11. No kind of reasoning can establish the non-entity of the real Ens
(sat), because of it is not being seen by anybody. Yet the universal
soul is known in its hidden form, like the unseen camphor by its smell.
12. The unlimited soul resides in all limited bodies, and the atomic
intellect pervades the vast universe; and it is in the same manner as
the mind fills all bodies, in its purely subtile state unknown to the
senses.
13. It is one and all, the unity as well as plurality, by its being the
soul of each and all, both singly as well as collectively, and its
supporting and containing each and all by and within itself.
14. All these worlds are as little billows in the vast ocean of the
divine Intellect; whose intelligence, like a liquid body, shows itself
in the form of eddies in the water. (Hence nothing is different from the
Supreme).
15. This minutiae of the intellect being imperceptible to the senses and
the mind, is said to be of the form of vacuity; but being perceived by
our consciousness, it is not a nothing, although of the nature of a void
in itself.
16. I am That and so art thou, by our conviction of the unity (of the
spirit); but neither am I That nor thou art He, by believing ourselves
as composed of our bodies only. (It is in answer of what art thou &c.
Spiritually considered all souls are the same with the supreme; but
being viewed in the body, all bodies are different from one another, and
quite apart from their unity with the Divine spirit).
17. Our egoism and tuism being got rid of by our knowledge of truth, we
cease to be the _ego_ and _tu_; and so all other persons lose all their
properties (_svayam_ or _suum_) in the sole Unity. (This is an
enlargement of the preceding answer to the question—What art thou &c.).
18. This particle of the intellect is immovable, though it moves
thousand of miles over; and we find in our consciousness many a mile to
be composed in this particle. (The mind notwithstanding its wide range,
never stirs from its seat in the soul).
19. The mind is firmly seated in the vacuous intellect, from which it
never stirs, though it goes to all places where it is never located.
(This is the answer of what moveth not).
20. That which hath its seat in the body can never go out of it; as a
baby hanging on the breast of its mother, cannot look to another place
for its rest.
21. One though free to range over large tracts at will, will never start
from his own abode, where he has the liberty and power to do all he
likes.
22. Wherever the mind may rove, it is never affected by the climate of
that place; as a jar taken to a distant country with its mouth shut,
does not yield any passage to the light and air of that region into it.
(In answer to what remains in a place so as it does not remain there).
23. The cogitation and incogitancy of the intellect, being both
perceived in our minds, it is said to be both intellection as well as
dullness of the intellect. (This is the answer “of what is ever active,
yet as dull as a block of stone”).
24. When our intellection is assimilated into the solid substance of
Divine Intellect, then is our intellect said to become solidified as a
stone. (By forgetting one’s self to a stone. Pope).
25. The worlds which the intellect of the Supreme Being has spread in
the infinite space, are the most wonderful as they are his increate
creations. (These being but manifestations of his inborn essence).
26. The Divine Soul is of the essence of fire, and never forsakes its
igneous form. It inheres in all bodies without burning them, and is the
enlightener and purifier of all substances. (This answers the question,
“what is fiery without its inflammability”).
27. The blazing intelligence of the divine soul, which is purer than the
etherial sphere, produces the elemental fire by its presence. (As the
burning of mount Sinai in the Bible and Taurus in the Koran, and the
fiery form of Brahmá the creator and regent of vulgar fire).
(This is in answer of “what unigneous entity produces the substance of
fire?”).
28. The intellect which is the light of the soul, and enlightener of the
lights of the luminous sun, moon and stars, is indestructible and never
fades; although the light of the luminaries, is lost on the last day of
universal doom. (In answer to “what unextinguishable fire is the kindler
of planetary lights”).
29. There is an inextinguishable light (glory), known as ineffably
transcendental, which the eye cannot behold, but is perceptible to the
mind as its inward illumination, and presenting all things to its view.
(Answer to “what light imperceptible to the eye, brings all things to
view?” This is spiritual light).
30. Thence proceeds the intellectual light, which transcends the
sensible and mental lights; and presents before it wonderful pictures of
things invisible to visual light. (It is luminous by itself and shows
things lying hid in darkness, as one walking in the dark, makes himself
known to another by telling him “it is I”).
31. The eyeless vegetable creation, is sensible of an inward light
within them, causing their growth and giving them the capability of
bearing their fruits and flowers. (In answer to the question regarding
the light and life of vegetable creation, which are also classed under
animated nature).
32. With regard to time, space and action and existence of the world,
all which are but the _percepta_ or perceptions of sense, and have no
master or maker, father or supporter except the Supreme Soul in whom
they subsist, as mere modifications of himself and are nothing of
themselves. (It is in answer to the question, “who is the maker of the
skies &c.”).
33. The atomic spirit is the casket of the bright gem of the world,
without changing its minuteness. The divine spirit is its measure and
measurer, beside which there is no separate world of itself. (Answer to
the question “who is the holder and measurer of the world”).
34. It is that Spirit which manifests itself in every thing in all these
worlds; but it shines as the brightest gem, when all the worlds are
compressed in it (at the universal dissolution).
35. From the unintelligibleness of his nature, he is said to be a speck
of obscurity, as he is called to be a ray of light, from the brightness
of his intellect. He is known as existent by our consciousness of him,
as he is said to be non-existent from his being removed from our visual
sight.
36. He is said to be afar from his invisibleness to our eyes, and to be
near us from his being of the nature of our intellect. He is represented
as a mountain for his being the totality of our consciousness, although
he is minuter than any perceptible particle. (In answer to “what is
minute yet vast”).
37. It is his consciousness that manifests itself in the form of the
universe; the mountains are not real existences, but subsist like the
Meru in his atomic substratum. (In answer to the question “how an atom
contains and expands itself as a hill &c.”).
38. A twinkling is what appears as a short instant, and a Kalpa is the
long duration of an age. (It is definitive proposition of identity, that
a _nimesha_ is a _nimesha_ and a _Kalpa_ is a _Kalpa_).
39. Sometimes a twinkling—instant represents a Kalpa, when it is fraught
with the acts and thoughts of an age; as an extensive country of many
leagues, is pictured in miniature or in a grain of the brain.
40. The course of a long _Kalpa_, is sometimes represented in the womb
of a _nimesha_ instant; as the period of the building of a great city,
is present in the small space of the mind’s remembrance, as it is in the
bosom of a mirror.
41. As little moments and Kalpa ages, high mountains and extensive
_yojanas_, may abide in a single grain of the intellect; so do all
dualities and pluralities unite and meet in the unity of God.
42. That ‘I have done this and that before’, is an impression derived
from the thought of our actual actions and activity at all times; but
the truth thereof becomes as untrue as our doings in the dream. (This to
prove that all _vyávahárika_ or customary events, are real untruths;
being but _prátibhásika_ or phenomenal appearances only).
43. It is calamity that prolongs the course of time, as our prosperity
on the otherhand diminishes its duration; as the short space of a
single night, appeared as a period of twelve long years to king Haris
Chandra in his misery. (The fallacy of human conception of the length or
shortness of time).
44. Anything appearing as a certain truth to the mind, stamps the same
impression in the soul, as the sense of some golden jewellery, becomes
more impressive in the soul than the idea of its gold. (The fallacy of
our perceptions, creating errors in the judgement of the understanding).
45. There is nothing as a moment or an age or as near or afar to the
soul; it is the conception in the minute intellect (or the working of
the mind), that creates their length or brevity and their nearness and
remoteness. (As a year of men is a day of Gods, and such a year of these
makes a day of Brahmá; while there is no measure of time or space in the
infinity of the Divine mind).
46. The contraries as light and darkness, nearness and distance, and a
moment and an age, being but varied impressions on the unvaried
percipient mind, have no real difference in them. (They are as unreal as
the various evanescent hues of the recipient and reflexive clouds. So no
colour is real chromatics or Science of colours).
47. All things or objects which are perceptible to the senses, are
called to be evident or apparent; and those which lie beyond them, are
said to be imperceptible or unapparent. But visual sensation is not
selfevident, except the vision of the intellect, which is the real
essence. (In answer to the question “What is perceptible and unreal?”
Answer—All what is apparent, is untrue).
48. As long as there is the knowledge of the jewel, there is the
knowledge of the gem also; that of the real gem, being lost under the
apparent form. (So reliance on ocular evidence, presents an obstruction
to the vision of the intellect).
49. It is by reversion of the attention from the visible form of the
jewel to the real essence of the gem, that one is led to the sight of
the pure light of the only One Brahma. (So says a poet:—Forsake the
visible to see the invisible).
50. Brahma is viewed as Sat or reality, when He is considered as
pervading all things; and He is said to be Asat or unreal, because He is
not the object of vision. So is the Intellect said to be a reality from
its faculty of intellection, otherwise it is a stolid or dull matter.
(Answers to “what reality appears as unreal, and what intellect as the
absence of intellect”).
51. The intellect is the wonderful property of the Divine Spirit, in
which it is present as its object (chetya); but how can a man have a
view of it, whose mind fixed to the sight of the world, which is a
shadow of the Intellect, and moves as a tree which is shaken by the
wind?
52. As a mirage is the reflexion of the dense light of the sun, so is
the world a shadow of the solid light of the Divine intellect.
53. That which is rarer than the rays of the sun and never decays, is
ever as uniform as it was before creation and disjoined from it. Hence
its existence is tantamount to its nonexistence.
54. As the accumulation of sunbeams, exhibits the formation of a gold
mine in the sky; so the golden appearance of the world, prevents the
deluded to look to the knowable object of the intellect.
55. Like the appearance of a visionary city in dream, the sight of this
world is neither a reality nor altogether unreal; because it is a
reflexion of the intellect, as the dream is that of images in the
memory. It is but a continued medley of error.
56. Knowing it as such, men should consider everything by the light of
reason; and proceed to the knowledge of truth by their intellectual
culture.
57. There is no difference between a house and a void, than that the one
is the object of vision, and the other of consciousness. Again all
nature teeming with life, is said to live in God, who is light and life
of all for evermore.
58. But all these living beings have no room in the empty sphere of
Divine Intellect. They live and shine like the solar rays, proceeding
imperceptibly from that luminous orb.
59. There appears a difference in these rays both from the original
light, and also from one another (in different beings), by a curious
design of Providence; but it is yet the same in all, like the forms of
the trees growing out of the same kind of seed.
60. As the tree contained in the seed, is of the same kind with the
parent seed; so the innumerable worlds contained in the vacuous seed of
Brahma, are also void and vacuum as Brahma himself.
61. As the tree which is yet undeveloped in the seed, is not _in esse_
without development of its parts; (so the world in the womb of Brahma,
was discernible only to the Divine Intellect; in the form of the ideal
or spiritual world to be _in futuro_).
62. There is but one God, who is one and increate, calm and quiet,
without beginning, middle or end, and without a body and its parts. He
has no duality and is one in many. He is of the form of pure light, and
shines for ever with everlasting and undiminished lustre.
CHAPTER LXXXI.
CONGERIES OF SPIRITUAL DOCTRINES.
Argument. The Prince’s Answers to the Remaining Questions of the
Rákshasí.
The Rákshasí said:—Well said, O counsellor! Thy sayings are sanctifying
and fraught with spiritual doctrines; now let the prince with his eyes
like lotus-leaves answer to the other queries.
2. The Prince answered:—He whose belief consists in the relinquishment
of all reliance in this world, and whose attainment depends upon
forsaking all the desires of the heart:—
3. He whose expansion and contraction causes the creation and extinction
of the world, who is the object of the doctrines of Vedánta, and who is
inexpressible by words or speech of humankind:—
4. Who is betwixt the two extremities of doubt (whether he is or is
not), and is the midst of both extremities (that both he is and is not);
and the pleasure (Will) of whose mind, displays the world with all its
movables and immovables to view:—
5. He whose Universal pervasion does not destroy his unity; who being
the soul of all is still but one; it is he alone, O lady! who is truly
said to be the eternal Brahma (so far the Exordium).
6. This minute particle is erroneously conceived as spirit (air), from
its invisibleness to the naked eye; but it is in truth neither air nor
any other thing except the only pure Intellect. (Answer to the question,
“what is it of the form of air and not air?”).
7. This minim is said to be sound (or the words), but it is error to say
it so: because it is far beyond the reach of sound or the sense of
words. (So the Sruti ‘_natatravákgacchati_’, no word (vox or voice) can
reach unto him—express his nature. (In answer to the query “what is
sound and no sound?”)).
8. That particle is all yet nothing, it is neither I, thou or he. It is
the Almighty soul and its power is the cause of all. (The gloss explains
_pratibha_ as _sakti_ or power, in preference to the other meanings of
the word, as—knowledge, design, light, reflexion and influence. (This is
in answer to “who is all yet no one _omnium et nullum_, and what are I,
thou and he, which are viewed as the _ego_, _tu_ and _ille_, the
subjective and objective realities”)).
9. It is the soul that is attainable with great pains (_i.e._ the
knowledge of which is gained with pains of Yoga), and which being gained
adds nothing to our stock (as we are already in possession of our
souls); but its attainment is attended with the gain of the supreme
soul, than which there is no better gain. (So the Sruti _yalalábhat
naparamlabha_. In answer to ‘what gain is no gain’).
10. But ignorance of the soul, stretches the bonds of our worldliness
and repeated transmigrations, with their evils growing like the rankest
weeds in spring; until they are rooted out by spiritual knowledge.
11. And those who are in easy circumstances in life, lose their souls by
viewing themselves only as solid bodies, which rise fastly to view like
the dense mirage by light of the sun. (It is easier for a camel to enter
the hole of a needle, than for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.
Gospel).
12. It is the particle of self-consciousness, which contains the Meru
and the three worlds, like bits of straw in itself. They are as
disgorged from it in order to present their delusive appearances unto
us. (This answers the question: “what particle hides in it the world as
a straw,” and means the mind to be the container of the universe).
13. Whatever is imprinted in the intellect, the same appears exprest
without it. The fond embrace of passionate lovers in dream and
imagination, serves to exemplify this truth.
14. As the intellect rose of itself with its omnipotent Will at the
first creation of the world, so it exercises the same volition in its
subsequent formations also, like the sprigs rising from the joints of
reeds and grass. (i.e. The eternal Will (Fiat) is productive of all
things for ever).
15. The hobby that has entered in the heart, shows itself on the outside
also, as in the instance of the whims of children. (The phrases, “the
wish being father to the thought,” and “every one delights in his hobby
horse,” correspond with the purport of the passage).
16. The iota of the intellect, which is as minute as an atom, and as
subtile as air; fills the whole universe on all sides. (The three words
_paramánu_, _anu_ and _súkshma_, respectively signify the minuteness of
the intellect with regard to its unity, dimension and rarity. Gloss).
17. Though but a particle, yet it is not contained in hundreds of
leagues; and being all-pervasive it is infinite. Having no beginning it
is measureless, and having no form of itself it is formless. (In answer
to ‘what minutiae is immeasurable &c.’).
18. As a cunning coxcomb deludes young girls by their becks and calls
and winks and glances. (Quips and cranks and wanton wiles; Nods and
becks and wreathed smiles. Pope):—
19. So the holy look of the divine intellect, serves as a prelude to the
rotatory dance of worlds, with all their hills and contents for ever
(_i.e._ a nod and look of the Almighty, moves the worlds).
20. It is that atom of the intellect, which envelops all things within
its consciousness, and represents also their forms without it; as a
picture canvas shows the figures of the hills and trees drawn in it, to
stand out as in bas-relief. (The external world being but a prominent
representation of the internal, the phenomenal of the noumenal. So
Persian: _Suvaribatini_ and _Zahiri_).
21. The divine spirit though as minute as the hundredth part of the
point of a hair, is yet larger than the hills it hides in itself, and as
vast as infinity, being unlimited by any measure of space or time. (In
answer to “what is it that retains its minuteness and yet comprehends
the great Meru”).
22. The comparison of the vast vacuity of divine understanding with a
particle of air (as it is made by the minister), is not an exact simile.
It is as a comparison of a mountain with a mustard seed, which is
absurd.
23. The minuteness which is attributed to it (in the veda), is as false
as the attribution of different colours to the plumage of the peacock,
and of jewellery to gold, which can not be applicable to the spirit.
(The Veda says, _anoraníyan_. He is minuter than the minute &c.; because
the spirit admits no attribute).
24. It is that bright lamp which has brought forth light from its
thought, and without any loss of its own essential effulgence. (Answer
to “What lamp gave light in darkness?” “He was the light of the world,
and the light shine forth in darkness,” Gospel).
25. If the sun and other luminous bodies in the world, were dull and
dark in the beginning; then what was the nature of the primeval light
and where did it abide? (This question is raised and answered by the
prince himself in the next).
26. The pure essence of the mind which was situated in the soul, saw the
light displayed on the outside of it, by its internal particle of the
intellect. Gloss:—That light existed inside the intellectual atom before
creation, and its preceding darkness; it was afterwards set forth by
itself without it, when it shone amidst the darkness. (So the passage,
_lux fiat et lux fit_, and then the mind beheld it, and said it was
good).
27. There is no difference in the lights of the sun, moon and fire from
the darkness, out of which these lights were produced: the difference is
only that of the two colours black and white. (Gloss:—Both of them are
equally insensible things).
28. As the difference of the cloud and snows, consists in the blackness
of the one and whiteness of the other; such is the difference of light
and darkness in their colours only, and not in their substance (as they
have no real substantiality in them).
29. Both of these being insensible in their natures, there is no
difference between them: and they both disappear or join with one
another before the light of intellect. They disappear before the
intellectual light of the Yogi, who perceives no physical light or
darkness in his abstract meditation under the blaze of his intellect.
They join together as light and shade,—the shadow inseparably following
the light. The adage goes, _Zer cheragh tariki_:—there is darkness
beneath the lighted lamp.
30. The sun of the intellect, shines by day and night without setting or
sleeping; It shines in the bosom even of hard stones, without being
clouded or having its rise or fall.
31. The light of this blazing soul, has lighted the sun, which diffuses
its light all over the three worlds; it has filled the capacious womb of
earth with a variety of provisions, as they lay up large panniers of
food in a store-house. (_i.e._ It is the sun-light that grows and ripens
all things for our food).
32. It enlightens darkness without destroying itself, and the darkness
that receives the light, and becomes as enlightened as light itself.
(This passage is explained both in a physical as well as spiritual
sense. The light dispelling ignorance and the gloom of nature).
33. As the shining sun brings the lotus-buds to light, so the light of
the Divine Spirit, enlightens our intellects, amidst the gloom of
ignorance which envelopes them.
34. And as the sun displays himself by making the day and night by his
rise and fall, so does the intellect show itself by its development and
reticence by turns.
35. All our notions and ideas are contained in the particle of the
intellect, as a healthy seed contains the leaves and fruits and flowers
of the future tree in its breast.
36. These and all the powers of the mind, develope themselves in their
proper times, as the fruits and flowers make their appearance in spring
and proper seasons—_khandas_. (The Hindu festivals of Khanda pálás, are
celebrated in honour of the returning seasons, and continue as a relic
of the primitive agricultural state of society).
37. The particle of divine spirit is altogether tasteless, being so very
vapid and void of qualities; yet it is always delectable as the giver of
flavour to all things. (The gloss explains the spirit as spiritual
knowledge, which is unpalatable to all, owing to its abstruse and
subtile nature; but which becomes tasty when blended with all other
knowledge, which mainly depends on spiritual science. This is in answer
to “What particle is that which is entirely tasteless, yet always tasted
with zest?”).
38. All savours abide in the waters (water being the receptacle of
taste), as a mirror is the recipient of a shadow; but the savour like
the shadow is not the substance; it is the essence of the spirit that
gives it the flavour. (The Nyáya says “_jaleparamánurasah_” the atom of
the spirit is the savour of the water).
39. All bodies existing in the world, are forsaken by the atomic spirit
of the supreme, by their unconsciousness of Him; but they are dependant
upon him, by the consciousness of the divine particle, shining in their
souls. (_i.e._ Consciousness is the connecting link between the human and
Divine souls). In answer to “who are forsaken by and supported by the
Divine Spirit.”
40. It is He who being unable to wrap up himself, enwraps the world in
him, by spreading out the vesture of his atomic intellect over all
existence. (In answer to “who being uncovered himself covers the
whole?”).
41. The supreme Spirit which is of the form of infinite space, cannot
hide itself in any thing within its sphere, which would be like the
hiding of an elephant in the grass.
42. Yet this all knowing spirit encompasses the world, knowing it to be
a trifle, just as a child holds a particle of rice in his hand. This is
an act of _máyá_ or delusion. (Here delusion like destiny is represented
to exercise its influence on omniscience itself).
43. The spirit of God exists even after the dissolution of the world, by
relying in his _chit_ or intellect; just as plants survive the spring by
the sap they have derived from it.
44. It is the essence of the Intellect which gives rise to the world,
just as the garden continues to flourish by the nourishment of the
vernal season.
45. Know the world is verily a transformation of the intellect, and all
its productions to be as plants in the great garden of the world,
nourished by the vernal juice of the intellect.
46. It is the sap supplied by the intellectual particle, that makes all
things grow up with myriads of arms and eyes; in the same manner as the
atom of a seed, produces plants with thousand branches and fruits. (In
answer to “What formless things take a thousand forms”).
47. Myriads of kalpas amount to an infinitesimal part of a twinkling of
the atomic intellect, as a momentary dream presents a man all the
periods of his life from youth to age. In answer to “What twinkling of
the eye appears as many thousand Kalpas &c.”
48. This infinitesimal of a twinkling even, is too long for thousands of
kalpas, the whole duration of existence is as short as a flash of his
eye.
49. It is the idea only that makes a twinkling, appear a kalpa or many,
just as the idea of satiety in starvation, is a mere delusion to the
deluded soul.
50. It is concupiscence only, that makes the famishing to feed upon his
thoughts of food; as it is the despair of one’s life, that presents his
death before him in his dream.
51. All the worlds reside in the intellectual soul within the atom of
its intellect; and the outward worlds are only reflexions (_réchauffé_) of
the inner prototype. (The phenomenal is an ectype of the original
noumenal).
52. Whatever object appears to be situated anywhere, it is but a
representation of its like model in some place or other, and resembles
the appearance of figures in bas-relief on any part of a pillar; but the
changes occurring in the external phenomena, are no results of the
internal, which as the serene vacuum is subject to no change.
53. All existences, which are present in the intellect at this moment,
are the same as they have existed, and will ever exist inwardly like
trees in their seeds.
54. The atom of the intellect, contains the moments and ages of time,
like grains within the husk; it contains these (as its contents) in the
seed within the infinite soul of god. (The soul is the unconscious
container of the intellect, which is conscious of the ideas contained in
it).
55. The soul remains quite aloof as if retired from the world (udásína),
notwithstanding the subsistence and dependence of the latter upon the
former. The Divine soul is unconcerned with its creation and its
sustentation at all times. (In answer to “who is the cause of the world
without any motive or causality in him?” This is the doctrine of perfect
bliss of the soul without being ruffled or disturbed by any motivity or
activity. So the man imitating divine perfection, is required to be
apathetic and callous to all worldly affairs).
56. The essence of the world springs from the atom of the pure
Intellect, which however remains apart from both the states of action
and passion itself (the intellect being the thinking principle, has only
its perceptivity, without sensitivity of passion, or the Will or
volition for action).
57. There is nothing created or dissolved in the world by any body at
any time; all apparent changes are caused by the delusion of our vision
(and it is the province of Vedánta to remove the error of conceiving the
unreal worlds as a reality).
58. (Viewed in its spiritual light), this world with all its contents,
is as void as the vault of the vacuous atmosphere; the word world
applied to the phenomena, is but an insignificant term signifying a
nothing.
59. It is the particle of intellect that is led by the delusion of
_máyá_, to view the scenes situated in the Divine soul, in the outward
appearance of the phenomenal world. (Answer to what thing that has eyes;
views on its outside what is contained in the soul?).
60. The words external and internal as applied to the world, are
meaningless and not positive terms; there is no inside or outside of the
divine soul, they are contrived to explain its different views by the
intellect for the instruction of pupils. (Brahma has no inside nor
outside. Sruti).
61. The viewer looking into the invisible being within himself, comes to
see the soul; but he who looks on the outside with his open eyes, comes
to view the unreal as real.
62. Therefore whoever looks into the soul (as the true reality), can
never view the false phenomena as realities as others do.
63. It is the internal sight of the intellect that looks into the inward
soul, which is without all desires; while the external eyes are mere
organs to look upon the false appearance of outward objects. (_i.e._ The
eye of the mind, is the true eye to see the real nature of the soul; but
the outer eyes are no eyes, that feed only upon the falsities of
nature).
64. There can be no object of sight, unless there is a looker also, as
there can be no child without its parent. This duality (of their mutual
dependence upon one another), proceeds from the want of knowledge of
their unity. (_i.e._ The viewer, the view and the vision (_drashtá_,
_drishya_ and _darsana_), being one and the same thing, as the parent
and the offspring, and the seed and its sprout, are the same substance.
The doctrine of the Vedantic unity, thus attempts to reduce and unite
all varieties to their primitive simplicity).
65. The viewer himself becomes the view as there can be no view without
its viewer. No body prepares any food, unless there be some body to feed
upon it. (It is the agent that makes the act, as there can be no act
without its agent).
66. It is in the power of the intellect (imagination), to create the
views of its vision; as it lies in the capacity of gold, to produce all
the various forms of jewellery. (_i.e._ Fancy paints and moulds itself in
many colours and shapes. The creations of phantasy are mere
phantoms—_phantasia et phantasmos_).
67. The inanimate view never has nor can have the ability of producing
its viewer; as the golden bracelet has no power of bringing the gold
into being.
68. The intellect having the faculty of intellection (chetana), forms
the thoughts of intelligibles (chetyas) within itself, which however
unreal are erroneously viewed as real entities by its intellectual
vision to its own deception, as it is caused by the appearance of
jewellery in gold.
69. That the viewer (the divine intellect), being transformed to the
view (of the visible world), is no more perceptible in it, than as the
jewelery of gold and not gold itself. (_i.e._ The formal part of the
world and jewel, hides the material part of the intellect and gold which
formed them).
70. Thus the viewer becoming the view (_i.e._ the subject being turned
to the object), still views himself as the viewer; as gold transformed
to a jewel, is always looked upon as gold.
71. One unity alone being apparent in all nature, it is useless to talk
of the duality of the viewer and view. A word with a masculine affix
cannot give the sense of a neuter noun (so the masculine noun
_Intellectus_, cannot apply to the neuter _phenomenon_).
72. The viewer who feasts his eyes with a view of the outer visible
world, cannot have the sight of the inner soul with the internal eyes of
his intellect; but when the viewer shuts out the outer view, all its
realities appear as unreal.
73. When the viewer perceives the unreality of the visibles by the light
of his understanding, he then comes to see the true reality. So by
retracting the mind from viewing the figure of the jewel, one comes to
see the nature of its gold only.
74. The visibles being present, there must be their viewers also to
whose view they are apparent. It is the absence of both (the viewer and
the view), and the knowledge of their unreality, that produce the belief
of unity. (The disappearance of the visible, causes the withdrawal of
the viewer; like the removal of the umbrella, drives away its shade).
75. The man who considers all things in the contriteness of his
conscious soul, comes at last to perceive something in him, which is
serenely clear, and which no words can express.
76. The minute particle of the intellect, shows us the sight of the soul
as clearly as a lamp enlightens everything in the dark. (Answer to “who
shows the soul as clearly as a visible thing”?)
77. The intelligent soul is absolved of its perceptions of the measure,
measurer and measurables, (_i.e._ of the forms and properties of things),
as liquid gold when dissolved of its form of an ornament. (Answer to
“what thing is absolved of its properties like gold of its jewellery”).
78. As there is nothing which is not composed of the elementary bodies
of earth, water &c.; so there is nothing in nature which is apart from
the nature of the atomic intellect. (Answer to “what is that from which
nothing is apart?”).
79. The thinking soul penetrates into all things in the form of their
notions; and because all thoughts concentrate in the intellect, there is
nothing apart from it.
80. Our desires being the parents of our wished for objects, they are
the same with our prospects in our view: therefore there is no
difference between our desires and desired objects; as there is none
between the sea and its waves. (In refutation of the question, “what is
that which is distinct from the wish?”).
81. The Supreme Soul exists alone unbounded by time and space. Being the
universal soul, it is the soul of all; and being omniscient, it is no
dull matter at all. (Answer to “what is the undivided duality and
plurality?”).
82. The _Ens_ being but intelligence, is not perceptible to sight; there
is unity and no duality in it; but all forms unite into one in the great
self of the Supreme.
83. If there be a duality, it is the one and its unity. The unity and
duality of the universal soul, are both as true as the light and its
shade joined together.
84. Where there is no duality or any number above it, there unity also
can have no application to any; and where there is no unit, there cannot
be any two or more over it, which are but repetitions of the unit
(except an indeterminate all or whole).
85. Anything which is so situated, is in itself such as it is; it cannot
be more or less than itself; but is identic with itself like water and
its fluidity. (Its plurality is but a repeated unity).
86. The multiplicity of forms which it exhibits, blends into a harmonic
whole without conflicting with one another. The multifarious creation is
contained in Brahma, like a tree with all its several parts in the
embryonic seed.
87. Its dualism is as inseparable from it as the bracelet from its gold;
and although multiformity of nature, is evident to the comprehensive
understanding; yet it is not true of the true entity (of God).
88. Like fluidity of water, fluctuation of air, vacuity of the sky, is
this multiformity an inseparable property of the Godhead.
89. Disquisition of unity and duality is the cause of misery to the
restless spirit, it is the want of this distinction that consummates the
highest knowledge.
90. The measure, measurement and measurer of all things, and the viewer,
view and vision of the visible world, are all dependent on the atom of
the intellect which contains them all. (_i.e._ The divine mind is the
maker and pattern of the great fabric of the universe, which it contains
and views in itself).
91. The atom of the divine intellect, spreads out and contracts in
itself, like its limbs, these mountainous orbs of the world, by an
inflation of its spirit as it were by a breath of air.
92. O the wonder, and the great wonder of wonders! that this atom of the
intellect, should contain in its embryo, all the three regions of the
worlds, above and below one another.
93. O! it is an incredible delusion that must ever remain an
inexplicable riddle, how the monstrous universe is contained in the
minute atom of the Intellect.
94. As a pot contains in it, the seed, with a huge tree within its cell,
so does the divine soul contain the atom of the intellect, containing
the chains of worlds (outstretched within itself).
95. The all-seeing eye sees at once all the worlds, situated within the
bosom of the intellect, as the microscopic sight discovers the parts of
the future tree concealed in the seed.
96. The expansion of the world in the atom of the Intellect, is
analogous to the enlargement of the hidden parts of the seed, into
leaves and branches, fruits and flowers.
97. As the multiformity of the future tree, is contained in the uniform
substance within the seed; it is in like manner that the multiplicity of
worlds, is situated in the unity of the atomic Intellect, and as such it
is seen by any one who will but look into it.
98. It is neither an unity nor a duality, not the seed or its sprout,
neither is it thin or thick, nor is born nor unborn (but ever the same
as it is).
99. He is neither an entity nor nonentity, nor graceful nor ungraceful
(but a vacuity); and though it contains the three worlds with the ether
and air, yet is nothing and no substance at all.
100. There is no world nor a not-world beside the intellect, which is
all of itself, and is said to be such and such in any place or time, as
it appears so and so to us there and then.
101. It rises as if unrisen, and expands in its own knowledge; it is
selfsame with the supreme soul, and as the totality of all selves, it
spreads through the whole vacuum as air.
102. As a tree springs from the ground according to its seed, so the
world appears to sight in the form, as it is contained in the seed of
the intellect.
103. The plant does not quickly quit its seed, lest it would be dried up
and die away for want of its sap; so the man that sticks to the soul and
seed of his being, is free from disease and death.
104. The mount Meru is like the filament of a flower, in respect to the
vastness of that atom; all visibles have their place in that invisible
atom. (In answer to the question, in respect to whom is the great Meru
but a filament?)
105. The Meru is verily a filament of the atomic flower of the divine
soul; and myriads of Merus resemble the cloudy spots, rising in the
sphere of the intellect.
106. It is that one great atom that fills the world, after having made
it out of itself; and given it a visible, extended and material form in
its own hollow sphere. (Answer to “By whom is the world created,
extended &c.”).
107. As long as the knowledge of duality is not driven out of the mind,
so long does it find the charming form of the world, as in its dream
upon waking. But the knowledge of unity, liberates the soul from its
stay in and return to the world, which it beholds as a mass of the
divine essence.
CHAPTER LXXXII.
FRIENDSHIP OF THE RÁKSHASÍ.
Argument. The Rákshasí’s account of herself, and her reconciliation
with the Prince.
Vasishtha continued:—The apish Karkatí of the forest, having heard the
speech of the prince, pondered well in herself the sense of the words,
and forsook her levity and malice.
2. She found the coolness and tranquility of her heart after its
fervour was over; in the manner of the peacock at the setting in of the
rains, and the lotus bed at the rising of moonbeams.
3. The words of the prince delighted her heart in the same manner, as
the cries of cranes flying in the sky, gladden the passing clouds in the
air.
4. The Rákshasí said:—O how brightly shines the pure light of your
understanding, it glows as serenely by its inward effulgence, as it is
illuminated by the sun of intelligence.
5. Hearing the grains (words) of your reasoning, my heart is as
gladdened, as when the earth is cooled by the serene beams of the humid
moon-light.
6. Reasonable men like yourself are honoured and venerated in the world,
and I am as delighted in your company, as a lake of lotuses with her
full blown buds under the moon-beams.
7. The society of the virtuous, scatters its blessings, as a flower
garden spreads its fragrance all around; and as the brightness of
sun-beams, brings the lotus buds to bloom.
8. Society with the good and great, dispels all our woes; as a lamp in
the hand, disperses the surrounding darkness.
9. I have fortunately obtained you as two great lights in this forest;
you both are entitled to my reverence here, and deign now to acquaint
me, with the good intent which has brought you hither.
10. The prince answered:—O thou sprout of the savage race of Rákshas!
the people of this province are always afflicted in their hearts by a
certain evil.
11. It is the obdurate disease of Vishuchi or cholic pain, which
troubles the people of this part, I have therefore come out with my
guards to find her out in my nightly rounds.
12. This cholic pain is not removed from the hearts of men by any
medicine, so I have come out in search of the mantra revealed to her for
its cure.
13. It is my business and professed duty, to persecute such wicked
beings as thyself, that infest our ignorant subjects in this manner, and
this is all that I have to tell thee and do in this place.
14. Therefore, O good lady! do thou promise to me in thy own words, that
thou shalt never injure any living being in future.
15. The Rákshasí replied:—Well! I tell thee in truth, my lord! that I
shall hence forward never kill any body.
16. The prince replied:—If it be so O thou liver on animal flesh! tell
me how shalt thou support thy body by thy abstaining from animal food?
17. The Rákshasí replied:—It is now passed six months, O prince! that I
have risen from my entranced meditation, and fostered my desire for
food, which I wholly renounce today.
18. I will again repair to the mountain top, and betake myself to my
steadfast meditation, and sit there contented as long as I like, in the
posture of an unmoving statue.
19. I will restrain myself by unshaken meditation until my death, and
then I shall quit this body in its time with gladness. This is my
resolution.
20. I tell you now, O prince! that until the end of this life and body
of mine, I shall no more take away the life of any living being, and you
may rely assured upon my word.
21. There is the mount Himalaya by name, standing in the heart of the
northern region, and stretching in one sweep, from the eastern to
western main.
22. There had I dwelt at first in a cave of its golden peak, in the
shape of an iron statue, and also as the fragment of a cloud, and borne
the appellation of Karkatí the Rákshasí:—(the crablike crooked Sycorax).
23. There I obtained the sight of Brahmá by the austerity of my
devotion; and expressed my desire of killing mankind, in the shape of a
destructive needle.
24. I obtained the boon accordingly, and passed a great many years in
the act of afflicting living brings, and feeding upon their entrails in
the form of the cholic pain.
25. I was then prohibited by Brahmá to kill the learned, and was
instructed in the great mantra for my observance.
26. He then gave me the power of piercing the hearts of men, with some
other diseases which infest all mankind.
27. I spread myself far and wide in my malice, and sucked the heart
blood of men, which dried up their veins and arteries; and emaciated
their bodies.
28. Those whom I left alive after devouring their flesh and blood, they
begat a race as lean and veinless as they had become themselves.
29. You will be successful O happy prince in getting the _mantra_ or
charm for driving the Visúchiká pain; because there is nothing
impossible of attainment by the wise and strong.
30. Receive of me immediately, O raja! the _mantra_ which has been
uttered by Brahmá for removal of the cholic pain, from the cells of
arteries vitiated by _Visúchiká_.
31. Now advance towards me, and let us go to the neighbouring river; and
there initiate you with the mantra, after you both are prepared to
receive it by your ablution and purification.
32. Vasishtha said:—Then the Rákshasí proceeded to the river side that
very night, accompanied by the prince and his minister, and all joining
together as friends.
33. These being sure of the amity of the Rákshasí both by affirmative
and negative proofs, made their ablutions and stood on the bank on the
river.
34. The Rákshasí then communicated to them with tenderness, the
effective _mantra_ which was revealed to her by Brahmá, for the removal
of Visúchiká pain, and which was always successful.
35. Afterwards as the nocturnal fiend was about to depart by leaving her
friendly companions behind, the prince stopped her course with his
speech.
36. The prince said:—O thou of gigantic stature! thou hast become our
preceptor by thy teaching us the _mantra_, we invite thee with
affection, to take thy repast with us at ours tonight.
37. It does not become thee to break off our friendship, which has grown
like the acquaintance of good people, at our very first meeting.
38. Give thy illfavoured feature a little more graceful figure, and
walk along with us to our abode, and there reside at thy own pleasure.
39. The Rákshasí replied:—You can well provide a female of your own kind
with her proper food; but what entertainment can you give to my
satisfaction, who am a cannibal by my nature!
40. It is the food of a giant (Rákshasa) alone, that can yield me
satisfaction, and not the little morsel of petty mortals; this is the
innate nature of our being, and can not be done away with as long as we
carry with us our present bodies.
41. The prince answered:—Ornamented with necklaces of gold, you shall be
at liberty to remain with the ladies in my house, for as many days as
you may like to abide.
42. I will then manage to produce for your food, the robbers and felons
that I will seize in my territories; and you will have them supplied to
you by hundreds and thousands at all times.
43. You can then forsake your comely form, and assume thy hideous figure
of the Rákshasí, and kill and take to your food hundreds of those
lawless men.
44. Take them to the top of the snowy mountain and devour them at thy
pleasure; as great men always like to take their meals in privacy.
45. After your recreation by that food and a short nap, you can join
your meditation; and when you are tired with your devotion, you can come
back to this place.
46. You can then take the other offenders for your slaughter; because
the killing of culprits is not only justifiable by law, but it amounts
to an act of mercy, to rid them (of their punishment in the next world).
47. You must return to me when you are tired of your devotion; because
the friendship which is formed even with the wicked, is not easily done
away.
48. The Rákshasí replied:—You have well said prince! and we will do as
you say; for who is there that will slight the words of the wise that
are spoken to him in the way of friendship?
49. Vasishtha said:—Saying so, the Rákshasí assumed a graceful form, and
wore on her person necklaces and bracelets, and silken robes and laces.
50. She said, “Well raja, let us go together” and then followed the
footsteps of the prince and his counsellor, who walked before her and
led the way.
51. Then having arrived at the royal abode, they passed that night in
their agreeable repast and discourse together.
52. As it became morning, the Rákshasí went inside the house, and there
remained with the women; while the prince and the minister attended to
their business.
53. Then in the course of six days, the prince collected together all
the offenders whom he had seized in his territory, and brought from
other parts.
54. These amounted to three thousand heads which he gave up to her; when
she resumed her fiercely dark form of the black fiend of night.
55. She laid hold of thousands of men in her extended grasp, in the
manner of a fragment of cloud retaining the drops of rain water in its
wide spread bosom.
56. She took leave of the prince and went to the top of the mountain
with her prey, as a poor man takes the gold, that he happens to get in
some hidden place.
57. There she refreshed herself with her food and rest for three days
and nights; and then regaining the firmness of her under-standing, she
was employed in her devotion.
58. She used to rise from her devotion once after the lapse of four or
five and sometimes seven years, when she repaired to the habitation of
men and to the court of the prince.
59. There passing sometime in their confidential conversation, she
returned to her retired seat in the mountain, with her prey of the
offenders.
60. Thus freed from cares even in her lifetime, she continued to remain
as a liberated being in that mountain &c. &c.
CHAPTER LXXXIII.
WORSHIP OF KANDARÁ ALIAS MANGALA.
Argument. Deification and Adoration of the Rákshasí for her good
Services to Mankind.
Vasishtha continued:—The Rákshasí thus continued in her devotion, and
remained on friendly terms with the successive rulers of the Kiráta
country, who kept supplying her with her rations. (The Rákshasí
maneater was turned to Rákshiní or preserver of men).
2. She continued by the power of her perfection in the practice of yoga
meditation, to prevent all portents, to ward off all dread and danger of
demons, and remove the diseases of the people. (All these were done by
the Rákshasí vidyá now lost, and by supernatural powers gained by yoga).
3. In the course of many years of her meditation, she used to come out
of her cell at certain intervals, and call at the head quarters, for her
capture of the collection of living creatures kept for her victims. (Man
slaughter was not blamable on the part of the cannibal Rákshasí, though
practising the yoga; nor was the eating of animal flesh reprehensible in
Vasishtha himself, who had been a flesh eating yogi. (See Uttara Ráma
Charita)).
4. The practice continues still to be observed by the princes of the
place, who conduct the animals to be sacrificed to her departed ghost on
the hill; as none can be negligent to repay the good services of his
benefactor. (Hence the prevalence of the practice of offering sacrifices
to the names of ancestors and deified heroes and heroines, and even of
demons for their past good services).
5. At last she became defunct in her meditation, and ceased since long
to appear to the habitations of men, and lend her aid in removing their
diseases, dangers and difficulties. (The good genius of the place left
it at last).
6. The people then dedicated a high temple to her memory, and placed in
it a statue of hers, under the title of Kandará—caverner _alias_ Mangalá
deví—the auspicious goddess. (The whole legend of the Kandará of
Kirátas, alludes to the account of Mangalá Chandí _alias_ Kalika
deví—the black and voracious goddess of the Hindus).
7. Since then it is the custom of the chiefs of the tribe, to consecrate
a newly made statue in honor of the Kandará deví—the goddess of the
valley, after the former one is disfigured and dilapidated. (The
Kirántis are said to continue in their idolatry to this day,
notwithstanding the conversion of their fellow hill tribes to
Mahomedanism, except the Kafers—another hill tribe of the Himalayas who
are idolators still).
8. Any prince of the place, who out of his vileness, fails to consecrate
the statue of the Kandará goddess, brings out of his own perverseness,
great calamities to visit his people. (This sort of retributive justice
is expressed in the adage “rájadoshat rájya nashta”:—“And for the king’s
offence the people died.” Pope’s Homer’s Iliad I).
9. By worshipping her, man obtains the fruits of all his desires; and by
neglecting it, he exposes himself to all sorts of evils and calamities;
as effects of the pleasure and displeasure of the goddess to her
votaries or otherwise. (The two clauses are instances of affirmative and
negative enthymemes coupled together as _anvaya vyatirekí_. The first
enthymeme of the antecedent and consequent is affirmative _anvayí_, and
the other a _vyatirekí_ or negative one). Gloss.
10. The goddess is still worshipped by dying and ailing people with
offerings, for remedy of their illness and securing her blessings; and
she in her turn distributes her rewards among them, that worship her
either in her statue or picture. (Raxá Kálí is worshipped in statue, but
Mongla Chandí is worshipped in a _ghata_ or potful of water).
11. She is the bestower of all blessings to young babes, and weak calves
and cows; while she kills the hardy and proud that deserve their death.
She is the goddess of intelligence and favours the intelligent, and
presides for ever in the realm of the Kiráta people. (Vasishtha being a
theist, reviles like a Vaishnava, the black goddess as a Rákshasí, which
a Kaula cannot countenance).
CHAPTER LXXXIV.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE GERM OF THE MIND.
Argument. Reason of the application of the name Karkatí, and its simile
to a crooked crab.
Vasishtha said:—I have thus related to you Ráma, the unblamable legend
of Karkatí, the Rákshasí of Imaus, from its beginning to end _in ipso
facto_. (Imaus and Imodus are ranges of the Himálayas. The Gloss
interprets Imaus as a synonym of Himálayas, by apocope of the latter
member of the compound word, and by a grammatical rule, that the
curtailing of a part of a proper name, does not affect the full meaning
of the name. So for the omissions of agnomens and cognomens).
2. Ráma rejoined:—But how could one born in a cave of Himavatas
(Imodus), become a black Rákshasí, and why was she called Karkatí? These
I want to be clearly explained to me. (Ráma’s demand was reasonable, as
the people of the Himálayas, are always of fair complexions, and the
Rákshasas were the Negroes of Southern India).
3. Vasishtha replied:—The Rakshas (cannibals), are originally of many
races, some of whom are of dark and others of fair complexions, while
many have a yellowish appearance and some of a greenish shade. (We know
the red Rákshasas of America, but it is impossible for us to account for
the green or blue Rákshasas in the text).
4. As for Karkatí, you must know that there was a Rákshasa by name of
Karkata, from his exact resemblance to a cancer. (Here is a reversion of
Sycorax the Negro parent, and her crooked son caliban Kálibán—the black
Negro, having long arms and legs, with feet and hands furnished with
claws and long nails like those of beasts).
5. The reason of my relating to you the narrative of Karkatí, was only
for her queries which I recollected and thought, would serve well to
explain the omniform God, in our disquisition into spiritual knowledge.
(Gloss. Vasishtha adduces a contradiction in the spiritual knowledge of
God, by calling him a spirit and yet as all forms of things. But this
seeming contrariety will disappear upon reflecting that, the phenomenal
is contained in the noumenal, and the forms are viewed only in the
spirit as visions in dreams).
6. It is evident that the pure and perfect unity, is the source of the
impure and imperfect duality of the phenomena, and this finite world has
sprung from its Supreme cause, who is without beginning and end. (The
One is the cause of many, and the Infinite is the source of the finite.
Ahamsarvasyám. Anádirádi sarvasya).
7. These float (before our eyes) like the waves upon waters, which are
apparently of different forms, and yet essentially the same with the
element, on which they seem to move. So the creations whether present,
past or future, are all situated in the Supreme Spirit. (The immaterial
spirit is the basis and substratum of material bodies).
8. As wet wood when ignited, serves for the purpose of infusing heat,
and inviting the apes of the forest to warm themselves in cold weather;
so the externally shining appearance of the world, invites the ignorant
to resort to it.
9. Such is the temporary glow of the ever cool spirit of God, in the
works of creation; which shows itself in many forms without changing its
essence.
10. The absent world appeared in presence, and its unreality appears as
a reality to consciousness, like the potential figures carved in wood.
(The would-be world existed in the eternal ideas in the mind of God,
like the possible figures in the wood, which were carved out afterwards.
And so too Aristotle).
11. As the products, of the seed from its sprout to the fruit, are all
of the same species; so the thoughts (chetyas) of the mind—Chitta, are
of the same nature as those originally implanted in it. (The homogeneity
of the cause with all its effects).
12. By the law of the continuity of the same essence, there is no
difference in the nature of the seed and its fruit; so the intellect
(chit) and the thoughts (chetyas), differ in nothing except in their
forms; like the waves and water differing in external appearance, and
not in the intrinsicality of their substance (Vastu).
13. No demonstration can show the difference between thoughts and the
mind; and whatever distinction our judgment may make betwixt them, it
is easily refuted by right reasoning. (Such as the incapability of an
effect being produced without its cause, or disagreement between the
effects of the same or similar causes).
14. Let this error therefore vanish, as it has come from nothing to
nothing; and as all causeless falsities fail of themselves. You will
know more of this, Ráma! when you are awakened to divine knowledge. In
the meantime, do away with error of viewing a duality, which is
different from the only existent Unity. (Duality being driven out, all
will appear one and the same. So Sádi the sophist: _duirácho badar
kardam ekebinam ekedámam_).
15. After the knot of your error is cut asunder, by your attending to my
lectures, you will come to know by yourself, the signification and
substance (object) of what is called the true knowledge, which is taken
in different senses by the various schools; but that which comes of
itself in the mind, is the intuitive knowledge of divine truth.
16. You have a mind like that of the common people (itara), which is
full of mistakes and blunders (anarthas); all which will doubtlessly
subside in your mind, by your attending to my lectures (because the
words of the wise remove all errors).
17. You will be awakened by my sermons to know this certain truth, that
all things proceed from Brahma into whom they ultimately return. (Brahma
is the producer, sustainer, and recipient or the first and last of all.
He is alpha and omega).
18. Ráma rejoined:—Sir, your affirmation of the first cause in the
ablative case, “that all things proceed from Brahma,” is opposed to the
negative passage in the Sruti in the same case, that “nothing is
distinct from Him”; and is inconsistent in itself (in as much as, there
cannot be all things, and again nothing but Brahma; and to say “the same
thing comes from the same,” would be a palpable absurdity).
19. Vasishtha answered:—Words or significant terms are used in the
Sástras for instruction of others; and where there appears any ambiguity
in them, they are explained in their definitions. (Hence the ablative
form “from Brahma” is not faulty, for what is in the receptacle, the
same comes out of it; or as they say, “what is in the bottom, the same
comes upon the surface”; and the one is not distinct from the other, as
the wave differs not from the water whence it rises. This is downright
pantheism).
20. Hence it is the use though not in honest truth, to make a difference
of the visibles from the invisible Brahma (for the purpose of
instruction); as it is usual to speak of ghosts appearing to children,
though there be no such things in reality. (It is imagination that gives
a name to airy nothing, and it is the devise of language to use words
for negative ideas, as the word world to denote a duality and darkness
for want of light, and not anything in itself).
21. In reality there is no duality connected with the unity of Brahma,
as there is no dualism of a city and the dream that shows its apparition
in sleep. Again God being immutable in his nature and eternal decree, it
is wrong to apply the mutations of nature and the mutability of Will to
Him. (Volition is accompanied by nolition (_Volo and nolo_) in mutable
minds, but there is no option _Vikalpa_ in the _sankalpa—suo arbitrio_
of the unchangeable Mind).
22. The Lord is free from the states of causality and the caused, of
instrumentality and instruments, of a whole and its part, and those of
proprietorship and property. (The attribution of cause and effect or any
other predicate or predicable, is wholly inapplicable to him, who is
devoid of all attributes).
23. He is beyond all affirmative and negative propositions, and their
legitimate conclusions or false deductions and elenches. (_i.e._ Nothing
can be truly affirmed or denied or ascertained or negated of Him, by any
mode of reasoning. _Naisatarkenánaneyah_).
24. So the attribution, of the primary volition to the Deity, is a false
imputation also. Yet it is usual to say so for the instruction of the
ignorant; though there is no change in his nature from its nolliety to
velleity. (So it is usual to attribute sensible properties of speech and
sight, to the immaterial spirit of God, by a figure of speech; and for
the instruction of the vulgar, who cannot comprehend the
incomprehensible).
25. These sensible terms and figurative expressions, are used for the
guidance of the ignorant; but the knowing few, are far from falling into
the fallacy of dualism. All sensible conceptions ceasing upon the
spiritual perception of God, there ensues an utter and dumb silence. (We
become tongue-tied, and our lips are closed and sealed in silence, to
speak anything with certainty of the unspeakable).
26. When in time you come to know these things better, you shall arrive
at the conclusion, that all this is but one thing, and an undivided
whole without its parts, and having no beginning nor end. (The world is
therefore self-same and co-eternal and co-existent, with the eternal and
self-existent God).
27. The unlearned dispute among themselves from their uncertainty of
truth; but their differences and dualisms are all at an end, upon their
arriving to the knowledge of the true unity by instructions of the wise.
(The reality is precisely in the indifference of the subject and object.
Schelling).
28. Without knowledge of the agreement of significant words with their
significates, it is impossible to know the Unity, for so long as a word
is taken in different senses, there will be no end of disputes and
difference of opinions. Dualisms being done away, all disputes are
hushed up in the belief of unity. (_i.e._ All words expressive of the
Deity, refer to his unity and signify the one and the same Lord of all,
which ends all controversy on the point).
29. O support of Raghu’s race! place your reliance on the sense of the
great sayings of the vedas; and without paying any regard to discordant
passages, attend to what I will tell you at present. (Such as: Brahma is
used in one place in the ablative and in another in the locative case,
and also in the nominative and as the same with the world).
30. From whatever cause it may have sprung, the world resembles a city
rising to view in a vision; just as the thoughts and ideas appearing
before the mirror of the mind, from some source of which we know
nothing. (They are as puppet shows of the player, behind the screen).
31. Hear Ráma! and I will relate to you an instance for your
ocular evidence, how the mind (chitta), spins out the magical
world (máyika) from itself. (This ocular instance called the
_drishtánta-drishtávedana_, is that of the spider’s thread
(urnanábha-tantu) woven of itself, and given in the Sruti).
32. Having known this, O Ráma! you will be able to cast away all your
erroneous conceptions; and being certain of the certitude, you will
resign your attachment to, and your desires in this enchanted and
bewitching world. (Hence the certainty, of God’s being aloof from the
false world, as it is said _Deus ex machina_).
33. All these prospective worlds are machinations or the working of the
mind. Having forsaken these false fabrications of fancy, you will have
the tranquility of your soul, and abide in peace with yourself for
ever. (Exemption from all worldly cares and anxieties of the past,
present and future lives, leads to the peace of mind).
34. By paying your attention to the drift of my preachings, you will be
able to find out of your own reasoning, a mite of the medicine, for
curing all the maladies of your deluded mind. (Right reason by the art
of reasoning, furnishes the true medicine (psyches iatrion) to remove
the errors of the understanding).
35. If you sit in this manner (in your silent meditation), you will see
the whole world in your mind; and all outward bodies will disappear (in
your abstract contemplation), like drops of oil in the sand. (All things
are presented to the mind by intuition, and are present in the
memory—the great keeper or master of Rolls of the soul).
36. The mind is the seat of the universe as long as it is not vitiated
by passions and affections and afflictions of life; and it is set beyond
the world (in heavenly bliss), no sooner it gets rid of the turmoils of
its present state. (The mind, says Milton, can make a heaven of hell and
a hell of heaven).
37. The mind is the means to accomplish anything; it is the store-keeper
to preserve all things in the store-house of its memory; it is the
faculty of reasoning; and the power to act like a respectable person. It
is therefore to be treated with respect, in recalling, restraining and
guiding us to our pursuits and duties. (_Facultates sunt quibus facilius
fit, sine quibus omnino confici non potest._ Cicero).
NOTE.—The mind is what moves and acts by its active and cognitive
faculties, and is more to be regarded than the body, which move entirely
as it is moved by the mind. Hence God is called the Mind of the
world—_Anima mundi_?
38. The mind contains the three worlds with all their contents, and the
surrounding air in itself; and exhibits itself as the plenum of egoism,
and plenitude of all in its microcosm. (The mind is the synthesis of all
its attributes, and man is living synthesis of the world with regard to
his mind. Paracelsus. Its memory is both a capacity and a power by its
retention and ready reproduction of every thing).
39. The intellectual part of the mind, contains the subjective
self-consciousness of _ego_, which is the seed of all its powers; while
its other or objective part, bears the erroneous forms of the dull
material world in itself. (The former is called the _drashtá_ or viewer
_ego_, and the latter the _drishta_ or the view _non ego_. The
subjective is the thinking subject _ego_, and the objective is the
object of thought the _non ego_).
40. The self-born Brahmá saw the yet increate and formless world, as
already present before his mind in its ideal state, like a dream at its
first creation. He saw it (mentally) without seeing it (actually).
(_i.e._ The eternal ideas of immaterial forms of possible things in the
Divine Mind. The eternal exemplars of things and Archetypes of the
Ectypal world. Thus the passage in the Bible “And God saw his works were
good.” _i.e._ answer those in his fair idea. Milton).
41. He beheld the whole creation in the self-consciousness (samvitti) of
his vast mind, and he saw the material objects, the hills &c., in the
_samvid_ of his gross personal consciousness. At last he perceived by
his _súkshma vid_ subtile sightedness (clairvoyance), that all gross
bodies were as empty as air and not solid substantialities.
(Consciousness being the joint knowledge of the subjective and
objective, _i.e._ of ourselves in connection with others; the one is
called superior or subjective self-consciousness, and the other or
objective personal-consciousness).[6]
42. The mind with its embodying thoughts, is pervaded by the omnipresent
soul, which is spread out as transpicuously as sun-beams upon the limpid
water. (The soul is the _chit_ or intellectual part of the mind
(chitbhága of chitta), and the root of all mental activities. The
_chidbhága_ has the power of giving knowledge which moves the other
faculties of the mind. Gloss).
43. The mind is otherwise like an infant, which views the apparition
of the world in its insensible sleep of ignorance; but being awakened
by the intellect chit, it sees the transcendent form of the self or
soul without the mist of delusion, which is caused by the sensitive
part of the mind, and removed by the reasoning faculties of the
intellect—Chidbhága.
44. Hear now Ráma! what I am going to tell of the manner, in which the
soul is to be seen in this phenomenal world, which is the cause of
misleading the mind from its knowledge of the unity to the erroneous
notion of the duality. (The sensitivity of the mind of objective
phenomenals, misleads it from its intellection of the subjective
noumenal part which is a positive unity. Gloss).
45. What I will say, can not fail to come to your heart, by the opposite
similes, right reasoning, and graceful style, and good sense of the
words, in which they shall be conveyed to you; and by hearing of these,
your heart will be filled with delight, which will pervade your senses,
like the pervasive oil upon the water.
46. The speech which is without suitable comparisons and graceful
phraseology, which is inaudible or clamorous, and has inappropriate
words and harsh sounding letters, cannot take possession of the heart,
but is thrown away for nothing, like butter poured upon the burnt ashes
of an oblation, and has no power to kindle the flame.
The blemishes of speech are all comprised in the following
couplet in the Mahábháshya of Patánjala:—ग्रस्तं निरस्तं प्रबिलम्वितं द्रुतमीम्वु कूतं ध्मानमथबिकम्पितं ।
बिस्रस्तमेणी कृतमङ्गकं हतं बिकीर्ण मेताष्ठस्वरदोषभाबनाः ॥
47. Whatever narrative and tales there are in any language on earth, and
whatever compositions are adorned with measured sentences and graceful
diction; all these are rendered perspicacious by conspicuous
comparisons, as the world is enlightened by the cooling beams of the
moon. Hence every sloka almost in this work, is embellished with a
suitable comparison.
CHAPTER LXXXV.
INTERVIEW OF BRAHMÁ AND THE SUN.
Argument.—Brahmá intending to create the world, sees the orbs of light,
and invokes the luminous Sun.
Vasishtha continued:—I will relate to you Ráma, agreeably to your
request, the story that was narrated to me of old by Brahmá himself
(the personified mind of God and the lord of creatures). The _manas_ or
mind produced _Manu_—the progeny of the mind; who begat the _Manujas_
otherwise called _mánavas or manushyas_, or men—the offspring of the
mind.
2. I had asked the lotus-born god once before, to tell me how these
hosts of creation had come to being. (Vasishtha the offspring of Brahmá,
had his communion with his father—the first great patriarch of mankind).
3. Then Brahmá the great progenitor of men, granted my request,
and related to me the apologue of Aindava in his sonorous
voice. (The oracles of God were delivered in the loud noise of
thunders—_brihad-vachas_).
4. Brahmá said:—All this visible world is the manifestation of the
divine mind, like the circling whirl-pools and rippling curls of water
on the surface of the sea. (Referring to the revolutions of heavenly
bodies in the air).
5. Hear me tell you, said he, how I (the personified mind), awoke at
first on the day of creation in a former kalpa, with my volition to
create (expand) myself. (The volitive mind rose out of the sleeping
intelligence on the dawning day of creation).
6. Erewhile I remained alone, and quietly intent upon the One at the end
of the prior day (or Kalpa), by having compressed the whole creation in
the focus of my mind, and hid it under the gloom of the primeval night.
(Old chaos or darkness that reigned over the surface of the deep before
the dawn of light. _Tama ásit, tamaságúdhamagra._ There was darkness
enveloping all things. Sruti).
7. At the end of the chaotic night I awoke as from a deep sleep; and
performed my matins as it is the general law (of all living beings). I
oped my eyes with a view to create, and fixed my look on the vacuum all
about me.
(When that spirit sleeps it is night, and when it awakes, it is a day of
recreation (resurrection). Manu).
8. As far as I viewed, it was empty space and covered by darkness, and
there was no light of heaven. It was unlimitedly extensive, all void and
without any boundary. (Infinite space existed ere creation came into
existence. Sruti. All was _teom_ and _beom_ or _tama_ and _vyoma_).
9. Being then determined to bring forth the creation, I began to discern
the world in its simple (ideal) form within me, with the acuteness of my
understanding. (_i.e._ I looked into the prototypes or models of things
contained in the Mind).
10. I then beheld in my mind the great cosmos of creation, set
unobstructed and apart from me in the wide extended field of vacuity.
(The archetypes of our ideas, are the things existing out of us. Locke.
Our ideas though seen within us, form no part of ourselves or our
being).
11. Then the rays of my reflexion stretched out over them, from amidst
the lotus-cell of my abode, and sat in the form of ten lotus-born
Brahmás over the ten orbs (planets) of this world; like so many swans
brooding upon their eggs. (The spirit of God that dove-like sat,
brooding over the deep. Milton).
12. Then these separate orbs (mundane eggs), brought forth, to light
multitudes of beings, amidst their transparent aqueous atmospheres. (All
worlds girt by their covereles of watery ether or nebulous clouds,
teemed with productions of every kind).
13. Thence sprang the great rivers and the roaring seas and oceans; and
thence again rose the burning lights and blowing winds of the firmament.
(The atmospheric water is the source of all things).
14. The gods began to sport in the etherial air, and men moved about on
the earth, and demons and serpents were confined in their abodes
underneath the ground. (The gods are called _devas_ from their sporting
in the regions of light—_divideváh divyanti_. Men are _párthivas_ from
_prithví_ the earth, and demons are called infernal from their abode in
the _infrapátála_ or antipodes).
15. The wheel of time turns with the revolution of seasons and their
produce, and it adorns the earth with her various productions by change
of the seasons.
16. Laws were fixed for all things on all sides, and human actions were
regulated in the _smritis_ as right or wrong, and producing as their
fruits, the reward of heaven or the torments of hell. (And Brahmá
appointed to all beings their several laws. Manu. And there is no single
atom that goes beyond its appointed law—nature or _dharma_, which is an
attribute of the Great God).
17. All beings are in pursuit of their enjoyments and liberty, and the
more they strive for their desired objects, the better they thrive in
them. (The gloss makes the pursuit of earthly enjoyments to be the cause
of pain and hell, and that of liberation from them to be productive of
heavenly bliss).
18. In this way were the sevenfold worlds and continents, the septuple
oceans and the seven boundary mountains, brought to existence, and they
continue to exist until their final dissolution at the end of a _Kalpa_
period (which is determined by the _Kalpa_ or will of God).
19. The primeval darkness fled before light from the face of open lands,
and took its refuge in mountain caverns and hollow caves; it abides in
some places allied with light, as in the shady and sunny forest lands
and lawns.
20. The azure sky like a lake of blue lotuses, is haunted by fragments
of dark clouds, resembling swarms of black-bees on high; and the stars
twinkling in it, liken the yellow filaments of flowers shaken by the
winds.
21. The huge heaps of snow setting in the valleys of high hills,
resemble the lofty _simula_ trees beset by their pods of cotton.
22. The earth is encircled by the polar mountains serving as her
girdles, and the circles of the polar seas serving as her sounding
anklets and trinkets. She is girt by the polar darkness as by a blue
garment, and studded all about with gems, growing and glowing in the
bosoms of her rich and ample mines and seas.
(The lokáloka or polar mountain, is so called from its having eternal
light and night on either side, turned towards or beyond the solar
light).
23. The earth covered over by the garniture of her verdure, resembles a
lady sitting begirt by her robes; and having the produce of paddy for
her victuals; and the busy buzz of the world for her music.
24. The sky appears as a bride veiled under the sable mantle of night,
with the glittering chains of stars for her jewels. The season fruits
and flowers hanging in the air, resemble wreaths of lotuses about her
person.
25. The orbs of worlds appear as the beautiful fruits of pomegranates,
containing all their peoples in them, like the shining grains of
granites in the cells of those fruits.
26. The bright moon-beams stretching both above and below and all around
the three sides, appear as the white sacred thread, girding the world
above and below and all about; or as the stream of Gangá running in
three directions in the upper, lower and nether worlds.
27. The clouds dispersing on all sides with their glittering lightnings,
appear as the leaves and flowers of aerial forests, blown away by the
breezes on all sides.
28. But all these worlds with their lands and seas, their skies and all
their contents, are in reality as unreal as the visionary dreams; and as
delusive as the enchanted city of the Fairy land.
29. The gods and demons, men and serpents, that are seen in multitudes
in all worlds, are as bodies of buzzing gnats, fluttering about the
_dumbura_—fig trees. (Udumbara is the ficus religiosus—yajnadumbura or
sacred fig tree. It is by the orthographical figure aphaeresis or
elision of the initial, that _udumbara_ is made _dumbura, vulgo_).
30. Here time is moving on with his train of moments and minutes, his
ages, _yugas_ and _kalpas_, in expectation of the unforeseen destruction
of all things. (Time devours and destroys all things).
31. Having seen all these things in my pure and enlightened
understanding, I was quite confounded to think, whence could all these
have come into being. (The first inquiry into the cause and origin of
beings).
32. Why is it that I do not see with my visual organs, all that I
perceive, as a magic scene spread out in the sphere of my Mind?
33. Having looked into these for a long time with my steadfast
attention, I called to me the brightest sun of these luminous spheres
and addressed him saying:—(The first address of Brahmá to the sun,
corresponds with Adam’s address to that luminary. “Thou glorious sun
nature’s first born and the light and life &c.” Milton).
34. Approach to me, O god of gods, luminous sun! I welcome thee to me!
Having accosted him thus, I said:—
35. Tell me what thou art and how this world with all its bright orbs
came to being; if thou knowest aught of these, then please reveal it to
me.
36. Being thus addressed, he looked upon me, and then having recognized
me, he made his salutation, and uttered in graceful words and speech.
37. The sun replied:—Thou lord! art the eternal cause of these false
phenomena, how is it then that thou knowest it not, but askest me about
the cause thereof?
38. But shouldst thou, all knowing as thou art, take a delight in
hearing my speech, I will tell thee of my unasked and unthought of
production, which I beg thee to attend to.
39. O great Spirit! this world being composed of reality and unreality
in its twofold view, beguiles the understanding to take it sometimes for
a real and at others for an unreal thing. It is the great mind of the
Divine Soul, that is thus employed in these incessant and unceasingly
endless creations for its diversion. (The soul is the animating power,
and the mind is the principle of action. Metaphysically, the soul is an
individual name; the mind is a generic term or genus. The soul is
opposed to body, the mind to matter. The soul is the principle of
animation, the mind of volition. The soul is the mind of a certain
being, the mind is the soul without its personality).
CHAPTER LXXXVI.
STORY OF INDU AND HIS SONS.
Argument. The Sun’s Narrative of Indu and his Devotion.
The Sun continued:—It was, my lord! only the other day of one of thy by
gone kalpas, and at the foot of a mount, beside the table-land of mount
Kailasa standing in a corner of the continent of Jambudvípa:—(A kalpa
is one day of Brahmá, and occupies the whole duration of a creation
from its beginning to the end, which is called the Kalpánta or night
of the god. This agrees with the seven days of creation in the book of
Genesis, which are supposed to embrace so many long ages of creation).
2. That there lived a man by name of Suvarnajatá together with all his
sons and their progeny, who had rendered that spot a beautiful and
pleasant habitation. (The gloss says they were the patriarchs of
mankind, settled first on the table-land and at the foot of the
Himalayas).
3. There lived among them a Bráhman by name of Indu, a descendant of the
patriarch Kasyapa, who was of a saintly soul, virtuous and acquainted
with divine knowledge.
4. He resided in his residence with all his relatives, and passed his
time agreeably in company with his wife, who was dear to his heart as
his second self. (That, woman is _ardhánga_ or half of the body of man,
is established in Hindu law; and represented in mythology in the
androgyne figures of Hara-Gaurí and Umá-Maheswara).
5. But there was no issue born of this virtuous pair, as there grows no
grass in a sterile soil; and the wife remained discontented at the
unfruitfulness of her efflorescence or seed.
6. With all the purity and simplicity of their hearts, and the beauty
and gracefulness of their persons and manners; they were as useless to
the earth, as the fair and straight stem of the pure paddy plant,
without its stalk of corn. The discontented pair then repaired to the
mountain, in order to make their devotion for the blessing of progeny.
7. They ascended the Kailása mountain, which was unshaded by shady
trees, and unpeopled by living beings; and there they stood fixed on one
side, like a couple of trees in the barren desert.
8. They remained in their austere devotion, subsisting upon liquid food
which supported the trees also. They drank but a draught of water, which
they held in the hollow of their palms, from a neighbouring cascade at
the close of the day. (There is no single word for a _gandusha_ or
_chuluka_ of water in English; the word handful being equivalent to
_mushthi_ and _prastha_).
9. They remained standing and unmoved as immovable trees, and continued
long in that posture, in the manner of an erect wood in heat and cold.
(_Várkshivritti_ means intense meditation conducted by forgetting one’s
self to wood or stone).
10. They passed in this manner the period of two ages, before their
devotion met with the approbation of the god, who bears the crescent of
the moon on his forehead. (This crescent was no doubt the missile disk,
which the war-like god Siva held on his head in the manner of the
Seiks).
11. The god advanced towards the parching pair, with the cooling
moon-beams on his forehead; as when that luminary casts her dewy light on
the dried trees and scorched lotuses, under the burning sun beams of a
summer day.
12. The god, mounted on his milk-white bull, and clasping the fair Umá
on his left, and holding the beaming moon on his head, appeared to them,
as the vernal season was approaching to a green wood (or furze), with
strewing flowers upon them. (There is an alliteration of _soma_ and
_soma_ in the double sense of Uma and the moon. This kind of play upon
words is very characteristic of metaphysical writers in all ages, as
_Alethes melethon_. Lewis Hist. Phil. I. 69).
13. They with brightening eyes and faces beheld the god, as the lotuses
hail the appearance of the comely moon; and then bowed down to the god
of the silvery bow and snow white countenance. (Kálidása in his
Mahápadya, has heaped all these and many more ensigns of whiteness on
the hoary Hara of Himálaya).
14. Then the god rising to their view like the full moon, and appearing
in the midst of the heaven and earth, spoke smilingly unto them in a
gentle and audible voice; the breath of which refreshed them, like the
breath of spring reviving the faded plants of the forest.
15. The god said:—I am pleased with thy devotion, O Bráhman! prefer thy
prayer to me, and have thy desired boon granted to thee immediately.
16. The Bráhman replied:—O Lord of gods, deign to favour me with ten
intelligent male children. Let these be born of me to dispel all my
sorrows (for want of a male issue).
17. The sun rejoined:—The god said, be it so, and then disappeared in
the air; and his great body passed through the etherial path, like the
surge of the sea with the tremendous roar of thunders.
18. The Bráhmanic couple then returned to their home with gladness of
their hearts, and appeared as the reflexions of the two divinities Siva
and Umá in their persons. (The god Siva otherwise called Hara, bears
every resemblance to Hercules (Harakula) the son of Jove (Siva); and his
consort Umá to Omphale the wife of Hercules. Todd’s Rajasthan).
19. Returning there, the Bráhmani became big with child, by the blessing
she had got of her god Siva.
20. She appeared as a thick cloud heavy with rain water, in the state of
her full pregnancy; and brought forth in proper time (of child-birth), a
boy as beautiful as the digit of the new moon.
21. Thus there were born of her ten sons in succession, all as handsome
as the tender sprouts of plants; and these grew up in strength and
stature, after they had received their sacramental investitures.
22. In course of a short time, they attained their boyhood, and became
conversant in the language of the gods (Sanskrit); as the mute clouds
become sonorous in the rainy season. (The Sanskrita, says Sir W. Jones,
is more sonorous than Latin. It is the voice of gods, which is as high
sounding as the roaring of clouds).
23. They shone in their circle with the lustre of their persons, as the
resplendent orbs of the sky burn and turn about in their spheres.
24. In process of time these youths lost both their parents, who
shuffled off their mortal coil to go to their last abode. (_i.e._ To be
amalgamated with the person of Brahmá, with which they were acquainted
by their proficiency in yoga divinity).
25. Being thus bereft of both their parents, the ten Bráhman lads left
their home in grief, and repaired to the top of the Kailása mountain, to
pass there their helpless lives in mourning.
26. Here they conversed together about their best welfare, and the right
course that they should take to avoid the troubles and miseries of life.
27. They parleyed with one another on the topics, of what was the best
good (_Summum bonum_) of humanity in this world of mortality, and many
other subjects (which form the common places in ethics), such as:—
28. What is true greatness, best riches and affluence, and the highest
good of humankind? What is the good of great power, possessions,
chiefship and even the gain of a kingdom? What forms the true dignity of
kings, and the high majesty of emperors?
29. What avails the autocracy of the great Indra, which is lost in one
moment (a moment’s time of Brahmá). What is that thing which endures a
whole kalpa, and must be the best good as the most lasting?
30. As they were talking in this manner, they were interrupted by the
eldest brother, with a voice as grave, as that of the leader of a herd
of deer to the attentive flock.
31. Of all kinds of riches and dignities, there is one thing that
endureth for a whole kalpa, and is never destroyed; and this is the
state of Brahmá, which I prize above all others.
32. Hearing this, the good sons of Indu exclaimed all in one voice
saying:—Ah! well said; and then they honoured him with their mild
speeches.
33. They said: How—O brother, can it be possible for us to attain to the
state of Brahmá, who is seated on his seat of lotuses, and is adored by
all in this world?
34. The eldest brother then replied to his younger brothers saying:—O
you my worthy brothers, do you do as I tell you, and you will be
successful in that.
35. Do you but sit in your posture of _padmásana_, and think yourselves
as the bright Brahmá and full of his effulgence; and possessing the
powers of creation and annihilation in yourselves. (Padmásana is a
certain posture with crossed legs for conducting the yoga).
36. Being thus bid by the eldest brother, the younger brothers responded
to him by saying “_Amen_”; and sat in their meditation together with the
eldest brother, with gladness of their hearts.
37. They remained in their meditative mood, like the still pictures in a
painting; and their minds were concentrated in the inmost Brahmá, whom
they adored and thought upon, saying:—
38. Here I sit on the pericarp of a full blown lotus, and find myself as
Brahmá—the great god, the creator and sustainer of the universe.
39. I find in me the whole ritual of sacrificial rites, the Vedas with
their branches and supplements and the Rishis; I view in me the
Sarasvatí and Gáyatrí mantras of the Veda, and all the gods and men
situated in me.
40. I see in me the spheres of the regents, of the world, and the
circles of the Siddhas revolving about me; with the spacious heaven
bespangled with the stars.
41. I see this terraqueous orb ornamented with all its oceans and
continents, its mountains and islands, hanging as an ear-ring in the
mundane system.
42. I have the hollow of the infernal world, with its demons, and
Titans, and serpents and dragons within myself; and I have the cavity of
the sky in myself, containing the habitations and damsels of the
immortals.
43. There is the strong armed Indra, the tormentor of the lords of
peoples; the sole lord of the three worlds, and the receiver of the
sacrifices of men.
44. I see all the sides of heaven spread over by the bright net of the
firmament; and the twelve suns of the twelve months dispensing their
ceaseless beams amidst it.
45. I see the righteous regents of the sky and the rulers of men,
protecting their respective regions and peoples with the same care, as
the cowherds take for protection of their cattle.
46. I find every day among all sorts of beings, some rising and falling,
and others diving and floating, like the incessant waves of the sea.
(Everything is changing in the changeful world).
47. It is I (the Ego) that create, preserve and destroy the worlds, I
remain in myself and pervade over all existence, as the lord of all.
48. I observe in myself the revolution of years and ages, and of all
seasons and times, and I find the very _time_, to be both the creator
and destroyer of things.
49. I see a _Kalpa_ passing away before me, and the night of Brahmá
(dissolution) stretched out in my presence; while I reside for ever in
the Supreme soul, and as full and perfect as the Divine Spirit itself.
(Immortality of the human soul and its unity with the Divine).
50. Thus these Bráhmans—the sons of Indu, remained in this sort of
meditation, in their motionless postures like fixed rocks, and as images
hewn out of stones in a hill.
51. In this manner these Bráhmans continued for a long period in their
devotion, being fully acquainted with the nature of Brahmá, and possest
of the spirit of that deity in themselves. They sat in their posture of
the _padmásana_ on seats of kusa grass, being freed from the snare of
the fickle and frivolous desires of this false and frail world.
It is evident from this instance of the Bráhmans’ devotion, that it
consisted of the contemplation of every thing in the world in the mind
of man; like that of the whole universe in the mind of God. It is the
subjective view of the objective that forms what is truely meant by yoga
meditation and nothing beside.
CHAPTER LXXXVII.
ANALECTA OF THE CELESTIAL SPHERES.
Argument:—The Spiritual body or soul, is not destroyed by destruction
of the material Body.
The Sol said:—O great father of creation! thus did these venerable
Bráhmans, remain at that spot, occupied with these various thoughts (of
existence) and their several actions in their minds for a long time.
(This sort of yoga meditation is called Sárúpya, or approximation of
one to the divine attribute, of thinking on the States and functions of
all things in the world in one’s self).
2. They remained in this state (of abstraction), until their bodies were
dried up by exposure to the sun and air, and dropped down in time like
the withered leaves of trees. (This is called the Samádhi yoga or
absorption in meditation, until one’s final extinction or Euthanasia in
the Spirit).
3. Their dead bodies were devoured by the voracious beasts of the
forest, or tossed about as some ripe fruits by the monkeys on the hills
(to be food for greedy vultures and hungry dogs).
4. These Bráhmans, having their thoughts distracted from outward
objects, and concentrated in Brahmáhood, continued in the enjoyment of
divine felicity in their Spirits, until the close of the kalpa age at
the end of the four yugas.
(The duration of a day of Brahmá extends over a kalpa age composed of
four yugas, followed by his night of _kalpánta_, when he becomes extinct
in his death-like sleep, the twin brother of death. _Ho hupnos esti
didumos adelphos thanatow_).
5. At the end of the kalpa, there is an utter extinction of the solar
light, by the incessant rains poured down by the heavy Pushkara and
Avartaka clouds at the great deluge (when the doors of heaven were laid
open to rain in floods on earth. Genesis).
6. When the hurricane of desolation blew on all sides, and buried all
beings under the Universal ocean (which covered the face of the earth).
7. It was then thy dark night, and the previous creation slept as in
their yoga-_nidrá_ or hypnotic trance in thy sleeping self. Thus thou
continuing in thy spirit, didst contain all things in thee in their
spiritual forms. (Darkness reigned on the deep, and the spirit of God
viewed everything in itself).
8. Upon thy waking this day with thy desire of creation, all these
things are exhibited to thy view, as a copy of all that was in thy
inmost mind or Spirit already. (So it is upon our waking from sleep, we
come to see a _fac-simile_ of all that lay dormant in the sleeping mind).
9. I have thus related to you O Brahmá! how these ten Bráhmans were
personified as so many Brahmás; these have become the ten bright orbs
situated in the vacuous sphere of thy mind. (An English poet has
expressed the holy soul to appear as a luminary in heaven).
10. I am the one eldest among them, consecrated in this temple of the
sky, and appointed by thee, O lord of all! to regulate the portions of
time on earthly beings.
11. Now I have given you a full account of the ten orbs of heaven, which
are no other than the ten persons united in the mind of Brahmá, and now
appearing as detached from him. (Mentally viewed, everything is found
situated in the mind, but when seen with open eyes, it seems to be set
apart from us. Have therefore your thoughts or your sights as you may
choose).
12. This beautiful world that you behold, appearing to your view, with
all its wonderful structures, spread out in the skies, serves at best as
a snare to entrap your senses, and delude your understanding, by taking
the unrealities as realities in your mind. (Brahmá the Demiurgus, being
but architect of the world, and a person next to or an emanation of the
mind of God, had not the intelligence of the soul, to discern the innate
ideas, which represented themselves in the outer creation).
CHAPTER LXXXVIII.
INDIFFERENCE OF BRAHMÁ.
Argument.—That God expects nothing from his creation.
Brahmá said:—O Bráhman! that art the best of Bráhmists (Bráhmos), the
God Sol having thus spoken of the ten Bráhmanas to Bráhma (me), held
his silence. (Here is a tautology of the word Bráhman in the fashion
of metaphysicians in its several homonymous significations. This is an
address of Brahmá to Vasishtha—the Bráhman and Brahmist, relating the
Bráhmanas).
2. I then thought upon this for sometime in my mind, and said
afterwards, O Sol, Sol! do thou tell me at present what I am next to
create. (Brahmá’s asking the sun about what he was next to create, bears
allusion to his works of creation during the six days of genesis, which
was directed by the course of the sun—his morning and evening),
3. Tell me thou sun, what need is there of my making any more worlds,
after these ten orbs have come into existence. (These ten orbs are the
ten planetary bodies belonging to the solar system).
4. Now O great sage! the sun having long considered in his mind about
what I wanted him to tell, replied to me in the following manner in
appropriate words.
5. The sun said:—What need hast thou of the act of creating, my lord!
that art devoid of effort or desire? This work of creation is only for
thy pleasure (and not for any use to thee).
6. Thou lord that art free from desires, givest rise to worlds, as the
sunbeams raise the waters, and the sunshine is accompanied by the shadow
(as its inseparable companion).
7. Thou that art indifferent to the fostering or forsaking of thy body
(_i.e._ either to live or die), needst have nothing to desire nor
renounce for thy pleasure or pain. (No gain or loss can add to the joy
or grief of the apathetic philosophic mind).
8. Thou, O Lord of creatures! dost create all these for the sake of thy
pleasure only, and so dost thou retract them all in thyself, as the sun
gives and withdraws his light by turns. (Creation and annihilation are
the acts of expansion and subtraction of all things, from and in the
supreme spirit).
9. Thou that art unattached to the world, makest thy creation out of the
work of love to thee, and not of any effort or endeavour on thy part.
10. If thou desist from stretching the creation out of the Supreme
Spirit, what good canst thou derive from thy inactivity? (Wherefore it
is better to do and produce something than nothing).
11. Do thy duty as it may present itself to thee, rather than remain
inactive with doing nothing. The dull person who like the dirty mirror,
does not reflect the image, comes to no use at all.
12. As the wise have no desire of doing anything which is beyond their
reach, so they never like to leave out anything which is useful, and
presents itself before them. (Nor long for more, nor leave out your own.
Or, Act well thy part &c.).
13. Therefore do thy work as it comes to thee, with a cheerful heart,
and calmness of mind; with a tranquil soul, as if it were in thy sleep,
and devoid of desires which thou canst never reap.
14. As thou dost derive pleasure, O Lord of worlds! in forming the orbs
of the sons of Indu, so the lord of gods will give thee thy reward for
thy works of creation.
15. The manner in which, O lord, thou seest the worlds with the eyes of
thy mind, nobody can see them so conspicuously with their external
organs of vision; for who can say by seeing them with his eyes, whether
thy are created or increate.
16. He who has created these worlds from his mind, it is he alone that
can behold me face to face, and no other person with his open eyes.
17. The ten worlds are not the work of so many Brahmás as it appeared to
thee before; and no body has the power to destroy them, when they are
seated so firmly in the mind. (It may be easy to destroy all visible
objects, but not to efface the impressions of the mind (memory)).
18. It is easy to destroy what is made by the hand, and to shut out the
sensible objects from our perception; but who can annul or disregard
what is ascertained by the mind.
19. Whatever belief is deep-rooted in the minds of living beings, it is
impossible to remove it by any body, except by its owner (by change of
his mind or its forgetfulness).
20. Whatever is habituated to confirmed belief in the mind, no curse can
remove it from the mind, though it can kill the body.
21. The principle that is deeply rooted in the mind, the same forms the
man according to its stamp; it is impossible to make him otherwise by
any means, as it is no way possible to fructify a rock by watering at
its root like a tree.
CHAPTER LXXXIX.
STORY OF INDRA AND AHALYA.
Argument. A Rooted Belief is not to be shaken by others as in the case
of Lovers.
The Sol said:—The mind is the maker and master of the world; the
mind is the first supreme Male: Whatever is done by the Mind
(intentionally), is said to be done; the actions of the body are held
as no acts.
2. Look at the capacity of the mind in the instance of the sons of Indu;
who being but ordinary Bráhmans, became assimilated to Brahmá, by their
meditation of him in their minds.
3. One thinking himself as composed of the body (_i.e._ a corporeal
being), becomes subject to all the accidents of corporeality: But he who
knows himself as bodiless (an incorporeal being), is freed from all
evils which are accidental to the body.
4. By looking on the outside, we are subjected to the feelings of pain
and pleasure; but the inward-sighted yogi, is unconscious of the pain or
pleasure of his body. (Lit. of what is pleasant or unpleasant to the
body).
5. It is thus the mind that causes all our errors in this world, as it
is evidenced in the instance of Indra and his consort Ahalyá (related in
the ancient legends).
6. Brahmá said:—Tell me, my Lord Sol, who was this Indra, and who that
Ahalyá, by the hearing of which my understanding may have its
clear-sightedness.
7. The sun said:—It is related my lord! that there reigned in former
times a king at Magadha (Behar), Indra-dyumna by name, and alike his
namesake (in prowess and fame).
8. He had a wife fair as the orb of moon, with her eyes as beautiful as
lotuses. Her name was Ahalyá and she resembled Rohiní—the favourite of
moon.
9. In that city there lived a palliard at the head of all the rakes; he
was the intriguant son of a Bráhman, and was known by the same name of
Indra.
10. Now this queen Ahalyá came to hear the tale of the former Ahalyá
wife of Gotama, and her concupiscence related to her at a certain time.
11. Hearing of that, this Ahalyá felt a passion for the other Indra, and
became impatient in the absence of his company; thinking only how he
should come to her.
12. She was fading as a tender creeper thrown adrift in the burning
desert, and was burning with her inward flame, on beds of cooling leaves
of the watery lotus and plantain trees.
13. She was pining amidst all the enjoyments of her royal state, as the
poor fish lying exposed on the dry bed of a pool in summer heat.
14. She lost her modesty with her self possession, and repeated in her
phrensy, “here is Indra, and there he comes to me.”
15. Finding her in this pitiable plight, a lady of her palace took
compassion on her, and said, I will safely conduct Indra before your
ladyship in a short time.
16. No sooner she heard her companion say “I will bring your desired
object to you,” than she oped her eyes with joy, and fell prostrate at
her feet, as one lotus flower falls before another.
17. Then as the day passed on, and the shade of night covered the face
of nature, the lady made her haste to the house of Indra—the Bráhman’s
boy.
18. The clever lady used her persuasions as far as she could, and then
succeeded to bring with her this Indra, and present him before her royal
mistress forthwith.
19. She then adorned herself with pastes and paints, and wreaths of
fragrant flowers, and conducted her lover to a private apartment, where
they enjoyed their fill.
20. The youth decorated also in his jewels and necklaces delighted her
with his dulcet caresses, as the vernal season renovates the arbour with
his luscious juice.
21. Henceforward this ravished queen, saw the world full with the figure
of her beloved Indra, and did not think much of all the excellences of
her royal lord—her husband.
22. It was after sometime, that the great king came to be acquainted of
the queen’s amour for the Bráhman Indra, by certain indications of her
countenance.
23. For as long as she thought of her lover Indra, her face glowed as
the full blown lotus, blooming with the beams of her moon like lover.
24. Indra also was enamoured of her with all his enraptured senses, and
could not remain for a moment in any place without her company.
25. The king heard the painful tiding of their mutual affection, and of
their unconcealed meetings and conferences with each other at all times.
26. He observed also many instances of their mutual attachment, and gave
them his reprimands and punishments, as they deserved at different
times.
27. They were both cast in the cold water of a tank in the cold weather,
where instead of betraying any sign of pain, they kept smiling together
as in their merriment.
28. The king then ordered them to be taken out of the tank, and told
them to repent for their crimes; but the infatuated pair, was far from
doing so, and replied to the king in the following manner.
29. Great King! As long we continue to reflect on the unblemished beauty
of each other’s face, so long are we lost in the meditation of one
another, and forget our own persons.
30. We are delighted in our persecutions, as no torment can separate us
from each other, nor are we afraid of separation, though O King, you can
separate our souls from our bodies.
31. Then they were thrown in a frying pan upon fire, where they remained
unhurt and exclaimed, we rejoice, O King! at the delight of our souls in
thinking of one another.
32. They were tied to the feet of elephants, to be trampled down by
them; but they remained uninjured and said, King we feel our hearty joy
at the remembrance of each other.
33. They were lashed with rods and straps, and many other sorts of
scourges, which the king devised from time to time.
34. But being brought back from the scourging ground, and asked about
their suffering, they returned the same answer as before; and moreover,
said Indra to the King, this world is full with the form of my beloved
one.
35. All your punishments inflict no pain on her also, who views the
whole world as full of myself. (We see our beloved in every shape.
Hafiz. A thousands forms of my love, I see around me. Urfi.
“_berundaruna man sad surate O paidast_” _id_).
36. Therefore all your punishments to torment the body, can give no pain
to the mind (soul); which is my true self, and constitutes my
personality (_purusha_), which resides in my person (purau sete).
37. This body is but an ideal form, and presents a shadowy appearance to
view; you can pour out your punishments upon it for a while; but it
amounts to no more than striking a shadow with a stick. (The body is a
thing that my senses inform me, and not an occult something beyond the
senses. Berkeley. Man can inflict the (unsubstantial) body, and not the
(substantial) spirit within. Gospel).
38. No body can break down the brave (firm) mind; then tell me great
king! what the powers of the mighty amount to? (The mind is
invulnerable, and no human power can break its tenor).
39. The causes that conspire to ruffle the tenor of the resolute mind,
are the erroneous conceptions of external appearances. It is better
therefore to chastise such bodies which mislead the mind to error. (The
certainty of the uncertainty of our bodies, is the only certain means
for the certitude of our minds and safety of our souls; and better is it
for us that our bodies be destroyed, in order to preserve our minds and
souls intact).
40. The mind is firm for ever that is steadfast to its fixed purpose.
Nay it is identified with the object which it has constantly in its
thoughts. (This is called mental metamorphosis or assimilation to the
object of thought, as there is a physical transformation of one thing to
another form by its constant contact with the same; such as by the law
of chemical affinities, which is termed yoga also in Indian medical
works).
41. Being and not being are words applicable to bodies (and are
convertible to one another); but they do not apply to the mind; since
what is positive in thought, cannot be negatived of it in any wise.
42. The mind is immovable and cannot be moved by any effort like mobile
bodies. It is impregnable to all external actions, and neither your
anger or favour (barasápa), can make any effect on it.
43. It is possible for men of strong resolutions to change the coarse of
their actions; but where is such a strong minded man to be found, who is
able to withstand or change the current of his thought?
44. It is impossible to move the mind from its fixed fulcrum, as it is
impracticable for tender stags to remove a mountain from its base. This
black-eyed beauty is the fixed prop of my mind. (The black eyed beauty
of India and Asia, is very naturally opposed to the blue eyed maid of
Homer and Europe).
45. She is seated in the lofty temple of my mind, as the goddess
_bhavání_ (Juno) on the mount Kailása (Olympus); and I fear nothing as
long I view this beloved preserver of my life and soul before me. (The
Persian poet Urfi uses the same simile of the temple and mind in the
hemistich or distich. “I see her image in my inward shrine, as an idol
in the temple of an idolatrous land).”
46. I sit amidst the conflagration of a burning mountain in summer’s
heat, but am cooled under the umbrage of her showering cloud, wherever I
stand or fall.
47. I think of nothing except of that sole object of my thought and
wish, and I cannot persuade myself, to believe me as any other than
Indra the lover of Ahalyá.
48. It is by constant association, that I have come to this belief of
myself; nor can I think of me otherwise than what is in my nature; for
know, O King! The wise have but one and the same object in their thought
and view. (So says Hafiz:—If thou wilt have her, think not of another).
49. The mind like the Meru, is not moved by threat or pity; it is the
body that you can tame by the one or other expedient. The wise, O King!
are masters of their minds, and there is none and nothing to deter them
from their purpose.
50. Know it for certain, O King, that neither these bodies about us, nor
these bodies and sensations of ours are realities. They are but shows of
truth, and not the movers of the mind: but on the contrary, it is the
mind which supplies the bodies, and senses with their powers of action;
as the water supplies the trees and branches with their vegetative
juice.
51. The mind is generally believed as a sensuous and passive principle,
wholly actuated by the outward impressions of senses; but in truth it is
the mind, which is the active and moving principle of the organs of
action. Because all the senses become dormant in absence of the action
of the mind; and so the functions of the whole creation are at a stop,
without the activity of the Universal Mind—_anima mundi_. (See
Psychology and Mental Philosophy).
CHAPTER LXXXX.
LOVE OF THE FICTITIOUS INDRA AND AHALYA.
Argument. Curses have power on the body, and not upon the mind.
The Sol said:—The lotus-eyed king thus defied by this perverse Indra,
addressed the sage Bharata, who was sitting by him (in the court-hall).
2. The king spoke:—Lord, you are acquainted with all morality, and seest
this ravisher of my wife, and hearest the arrogant speech, that he
utters before our face.
3. Deign, O great sage! pronounce thy fulmination upon him without
delay; because it is a breach of justice to spare the wicked, as it is
to hurt the innocent.
4. Being thus besought by the great king, Bharata the best of the wise
_munis_; considered well in his mind, the crime of this wicked soul
Indra.
5. And then pronounced his imprecation by saying:—“Do you, O reprobate
sinner, soon meet with thy perdition, together with this sinful woman,
that is so faithless to her husband.”
6. Then they both replied to the king and his venerable sage,
saying,—“what fools must ye be, to have thus wasted your imprecation,
the great gain of your devotion, on our devoted heads” (knowing that our
souls are invincible).
7. The curse you have pronounced, can do us very little harm; for though
our bodies should fall, yet it cannot affect our inward minds and
spirits (which are unchangeable).
8. The inner principle of the soul, can never be destroyed by any body
and anywhere; owing to its inscrutable, subtile and intellectual nature.
9. The Sol added:—This fascinated pair, that were over head and ears in
love, then fell down by effect of the denunciation, as when the lopped
branches fall upon the ground from the parent tree.
10. Being subjected to the torment of transmigration, they were both
born as a pair of deer in mutual attachment, and then as a couple of
turtle doves in their inseparable alliance.
11. Afterwards, O lord of our creation, this loving pair came to be born
as man and woman, who by their practice of austerities, came to be
reborn as a Brahman and Brahmaní at last.
12. Thus the curse of Bharata, was capable only of transforming their
bodies; and never to touch their minds or souls which continued in their
unshaken attachment in every state of their transfiguration (or
metamorphosis of the body only, and no metempsychosis of the soul).
13. Therefore wherever they come to be reborn in any shape they always
assume by virtue of their delusion and reminiscence, the form of a male
and female pair.
14. Seeing the true love which subsisted between this loving pair in the
forest, the trees also become enamoured of the other sex of their own
kinds. (This refers to the attachment of the male and female flowers,
long before its discovery by Linnaeus).
CHAPTER LXXXXI.
INCARNATION OF THE LIVING SOUL OR JÍVA.
Argument. The Mind is the cause of all its creations.
The Sol continued:—Therefore I say, my lord! that the mind like time,
is indestructible of its nature, and the inavertible imprecation of the
sage, could not alter its tenor.
2. Therefore it is not right for thee, O great Brahmá! to destroy the
ideal fabric of the air-drawn world of the sons of Indu, because it is
improper for great souls, to put a check to the fancies of others (but
rather to let every one to delight in his own hobby horse and romantic
visions).
3. What thing is there, O lord of lords! that is wanting in thee in this
universe of so many worlds, that should make thy great soul, to pine for
the air built worlds of Indu’s sons? (It is not for noble minds to pine
for the greatness of others, nor repine at the loss which they may
sustain).
4. The mind is verily the maker of worlds, and is known as the prime
Male—Purusha (the Demiurgus or Protogonus). Hence the mind that is fixed
to its purpose, is not to be shaken from it by the power of any
imprecation or by virtue of any drug or medicine, or even by any kind of
chastisement.
5. The mind which is the image of every body, is not destructible as the
body, but remains forever fixed to its purpose. Let therefore the
Aindavas continue in their ideal act of creation, (as so many Brahmás
themselves).
6. Thou lord that hast made these creatures, remain firm in thy place,
and behold the infinite space which is spread out before thee, and
commensurate with the ample scope of thy understanding, in the triple
spheres of thy intellect and mind, and the vast vacuity of the firmament.
(_i.e._ The infinitude of the etherial vacuum is co-extensive with the
amplitude of Brahmá’s mind, and the plenitude of creations).
7. These three fold infinities of etherial, mental and intellectual
spaces, are but reflexions of the infinite vacuity of divine intellect,
and supply thee, O Brahmá, with ample space for thy creation of as many
worlds at thy will.
8. Therefore thou art at liberty to create _ad libitum_, whatever thou
likest and think not that the sons of Indu, have robbed thee of
anything; when thou hast the power to create everything.
9. Brahmá said:—After the sun had spoken to me in this manner,
concerning the Aindava and other worlds, I reflected awhile on what he
said, and then answered him saying:—
10. Well hast thou said, O sun, for I see the ample space of air lying
open before me; I see also my spacious mind and the vast comprehension
of my intellect, I will therefore go on with my work of creation
forever.
11. I will immediately think about multitudes of material productions,
whereof O sun! I ordain thee as my first Manu or progeny, to produce all
these for me. (The sun light was the first work of creation, and the
measure of all created beings, by his days and nights or mornings and
evenings).
12. Now produce all things as thou wilt, and according to my behest, at
which the refulgent sun readily complied to my request.
13. Then this great luminary stood confest with his bipartite body of
light and heat; with the first of which he shone as the sun in the midst
of heaven.
14. With the other property of the heat of his body, he became my Manu
or agent in the nether worlds. (The solar heat or calor, is the cause of
growth upon earth).
15. And here he produced all things as I bade him do, in the course of
the revolutions of his seasons.
16. Thus have I related to you, O sagely Vasishtha! all about the nature
and acts of the mind, and omnipotence of the great soul; which infuses
its might in the mind in its acts of creation and production.
17. Whatever reflexion is represented in the mind, the same is
manifested in a visible form, and becomes compact and stands confest
before it. (The ideal becomes visible or the noumenal is exprest in the
phenomenal).
18. Look at the extraordinary power of the mind, which raised the
ordinary Aindava Brahmans to the rank of Brahmá, by means of their
conception of the same in themselves.
19. As the living souls of the Aindavas, were incorporated with Brahmá,
by their intense thought of him in them (or by their mental absorption
of themselves in him); so also have we attained to Brahmáhood, by
means of our mental conception of that spiritual light and supreme
intellect in ourselves. (So in our daily ritual,अहं ब्रह्म नचान्यस्मि, ब्रह्मैवास्मिन शौकभाक् ।
सच्चिदानन्दरूपोऽहं, नित्यमुक्त स्वभाववन् ॥
20. The mind is full of its innate ideas, and the figure that lays a
firm hold of it, the same appears exprest without it in a visible shape;
or else there is no material substance beside one’s own mind. (This is
the doctrine of conceptionalists, that all outward objects are but
representations of our inborn ideas, in opposition to the belief of
sensationalists, that the internal notions are reflections of our
external sensations).
21. The mind is the wonderful attribute of the soul, and bears in itself
many other properties like the inborn pungency of the pepper. (These
inborn properties are the memory, imagination and other faculties of the
mind).
22. These properties appear also as the mind, and are called its
hyperphysical or mental faculties; while it is downright mistake on the
part of some to understand them as belonging to the body. (The sánkhya
materialists understand the internal faculties as products of the body
and matter).
23. The self same mind is termed also the living principle—Jíva (Zoa),
when it is combined with its purer desires; and is to be known after all
to be bodiless and unknown in its nature. (The life being combined with
gross desires, assumes the body for its enjoyment of them, but loosened
from its fetters, it resumes its purer nature. Hence the future
spiritual life, is free from grosser wishes).
24. There is no body as myself or any other person in this world, except
this wondrous and self-existent mind; which like the sons of Indu,
assumes the false conception of being real Brahmás themselves.
25. As the Aindavas were Brahmás in their minds, so my mind makes me a
Brahmá also; it is the mind that makes one such and such, according to
the conception that he entertains of himself. (We are in reality
nothing, but what our minds inform us to be).
26. It is only by a conceit of my mind, that I think myself situated as
a Brahmá in this place; otherwise all these material bodies, are known
to be as unreal, as the vacuity of the soul wherein they abide.
27. The unsullied mind approximates the Divine, by its constant
meditation of the same; but being vitiated by the variety of its
desires, it becomes the living being, which at last turns to animal life
and the living body. (This is called the incarnation of the living soul
or the materialization of the spirit).
28. The intelligent body shines as any of the luminous orbs in the world
of the Aindavas, it is brilliant with the intelligent soul, like the
appearance of a visionary creation of the mind. (The body is a creature
of the mind like a figure in its dream).
29. All things are the productions of the mind and reflexions of itself,
like the two moons in the sky, the one being but a reflexion of the
other; and as the concepts of the Aindava worlds.
30. There is nothing as real or unreal, nor a personality as I or thou
or any other; the real and unreal are both alike, unless it be the
conception which makes something appear as a reality which has otherwise
no reality of itself.
31. Know the mind to both active and inert (_i.e._ both as spirit and
matter). It is vast owing to the vastness of its desires, and is lively
on account of its spiritual nature of the great God; but becomes inert
by its incorporation with material objects.
32. The conception of phenomenals as real, cannot make them real, any
more than the appearance of a golden bracelet, can make it gold, or the
phenomenals appearing in Brahmá, can identify themselves with Brahmá
himself.
33. Brahma being all in all, the inert also are said to be intelligent,
or else all beings from ourselves down to blocks, are neither inert nor
intelligent. (Because nothing exists besides Brahma, wherefore what
exists not, can be neither one nor the other).
34. It is said that the lifeless blocks, are without intelligence and
perception; but every thing that bears a like relation to another, has
its perception also like the other. (Hence all things being equally
related to Brahma, are equally sentient also in their natures).[7]
35. Know everything to be sentient that has its perception or
sensitivity; wherefore all things are possest of their perceptivity, by
the like relation (sádrisya-sambandha) of themselves with the supreme
soul.
36. The terms inert and sensitive are therefore meaningless, in their
application to things subsisting in the same divine spirit; and it is
like attributing fruits and flowers to the arbors of a barren land. The
barren waste refers to the vacuum of the divine mind, and its arbours to
its unsubstantial ideas, which are neither inert nor sentient like the
fruits or flowers of those trees.
37. The notion or thought, which is formed by and is an act of the
intellect, is called the mind; of these the portion of the intellect or
intellectual part, is the active principle, but the thought or mental
part is quite inert.
38. The intellectual part consists of the operation of intellection, but
the thoughts or thinkables (chetyas), which are the acts of the chit or
intellect are known to be inert; and these are viewed by the living soul
in the erroneous light of the world, (rising and sitting before it like
the sceneries of a phantasmagoria).
39. The nature of the intellect—chit is a pure unity, but the
mind—_chitta_ which is situated in the same, and thence called
_chit—stha_ or posited in the intellect, is a _réchauffé_ or dualism of
itself, and this appears in the form of a duality of the world.
40. Thus it is by intellection of itself as the other form, that the
noumenal assumes the shape of the phenomenal world; and being
indivisible in itself, it wanders through the labyrinth of errors with
its other part of the mind.
41. There is no error in the unity of the intellect, nor is the soul
liable to error, unless it is deluded by its belief of pluralities. The
intellect is as full as the ocean, with all its thoughts rising and
sitting in it as its endless waves.[8]
42. That which you call the mental part of the intellect, is full of
error and ignorance; and it is the ignorance of the intellectual part,
that produces the errors of egoism and personality.
43. There is no error of egoism or personality in the transcendental
category of the divine soul; because it is the integrity of all
consciousness, as the sea is the aggregate of all its waves and waters.
44. The belief of egoism rises as any other thought of the mind, and is
as inborn in it as the water in the mirage, which does not exist really
in it.
45. The term ego is inapplicable to the pure and simple internal soul;
which being vitiated by the gross idea of its concupiscence, takes the
name of ego, as the thickened coldness is called by the name of frost.
46. It is the pure substance of the intellect which forms the ideas of
gross bodies, as one dreams of his death in his sleep. The all-pervading
intelligence which is the all inherent and omnipotent soul, produces all
forms in itself, and of which there is no end until they are reduced to
unity.
47. The mind manifests various appearances in the forms of things, and
being of a pure etherial form, it assumes various shapes by its
intellectual or spiritual body.
48. Let the learned abstain from the thoughts of the threefold forms of
the pure intellectual, spiritual and corporeal bodies, and reflect on
them as the reflexions of the divine intellect in his own mind.
49. The mind being cleansed of its darkness like the mirror of its dirt,
shows the golden hue of spiritual light, which is replete with real
felicity, and by far more blissful than what this earthly clod of body
can ever yield.
50. We should cleanse the mind which exists for ever, rather than the
body which is transient and non-existent; and as unreal as the trees in
the air, of which no one takes any notice.
51. Those who are employed in the purification of their bodies, under
the impression that the body also is called the _átmá_ or soul (in some
sástra); are the atheistic _chárvakas_, who are as silly goats among
men.
52. Whatever one thinks inwardly in himself, he is verily transformed to
its likeness, as in the instance of the Aindava Bráhmans, and of Indra
and Ahalya cited before.
53. Whatever is represented in the mirror of the mind, the same appears
in the figure of the body also. But as neither this body nor the egoism
of any one, is lasting for ever, it is right to forsake our desires.
54. It is natural for every body to think himself as an embodied being,
and to be subject to death (while in reality it is the soul that makes
the man, who is immortal owing to the immortality of the soul). It is as
a boy thinks himself to be possessed of a demon of his own imagination,
until he gets rid of his false apprehension by the aid of reasoning.
CHAPTER LXXXXII.
ON THE POWERS OF MIND.
Argument. Force of the Faculties of the Mind and Energy of Men.
Vasishtha added:—Now hear, O support of Raghu’s race! what I next
proposed to the lotus-born lord Brahmá, after we had finished the
preceding conversation.
2. I asked him saying:—Lord! you have spoken before of the irrevocable
power of curses and imprecations, how is it then that their power is
said to be frustrated again by men.
3. We have witnessed the efficacy of imprecations, pronounced with
potent _Mantra_—anathemas, to overpower the understanding and senses of
living animals, and paralyze every member of the body. (This speaks of
the incantations and charms of the Atharva Veda).
4. Hence we see the mind and body are as intimately connected with each
other, as motion with the air and fluidity with the sesamum seed
(because the derangement of the one is attended by the disorganization
of the other: _i.e._ of the body and mind).
5. Or that there is no body except it but be a creation of the mind,
like the fancied chimeras of visions and dreams, and as the false sight
of water in the mirage, or the appearance of two moons in the sky.
6. Or else why is it that the dissolution of the one, brings on the
extinction of the other, such as the quietus of the mind is followed by
the loss of bodily sensations?
7. Tell me, my lord! how the mind is unaffected by the power of
imprecations and menace, which subdue the senses and say whether they
are both overpowered by these, being the one and same thing.
8. Brahmá replied:—Know then, there is nothing in the treasure-house of
this world, which is unattainable by man by means of his exertions in
the right way.
9. And that all species of animal being, from the state of the highest
Brahmá, down to minute insects, are _bicorpori_ or endowed with two
bodies the mental and corporeal. (_i.e._ The mind and the body).
10. The one, that is the mental body, is ever active and always fickle;
and the other is the worthless body of flesh, which is dull and
inactive.
11. Now the fleshy part of the body which accompanies all animal beings,
is overpowered by the influence of curses and charms, practised by the
art of incantation—_abhichára Vidyá_. (Exorcism, the Mumbo Jumbo of the
Tantras).
12. The influence of certain supernatural powers stupifies a man, and
makes him dull and dumb. Sometimes one is about to droop down
insensible, as spell bound persons are deprived of their external
senses, and fall down like a drop of water from a lotus-leaf.
13. The mind which is the other part of the body of embodied beings, is
ever free and unsubdued; though it is always under the subjection of all
living beings in the three worlds.
14. He who can control his mind by continued patience on one hand, and
by incessant vigilance on the other, is the man of an unimpeachable
character, and unapproachable by calamity.
15. The more a man employs the mental part of his body to its proper
employment, the more successful he is in obtaining the object he has in
view. (Omnium vincit vigilentia _vel_ diligentia).
16. Mere bodily energy is never successful in any undertaking (any more
than brute force); it is intellectual activity only, that is sure of
success in all attempts. (The head must guide the body).
17. The attention of the mind being directed to objects unconnected with
matter, it is as vain an effort to hurt it (an immaterial object); as it
is to pierce a stone with an arrow (or to beat the air).
18. Drown the body under the water or dip it in the mud, burn it in the
fire or fling it aloft in air, yet the mind turneth not from its pole;
and he who is true to his purpose, is sure of success. (The word
_tatkshanát phalitah_ or gaining immediate success, is an incredible
expression in the text).
19. Intensity of bodily efforts overcomes all impediments, but it is
mental exertion alone which leads to ultimate success in every
undertaking (for without the right application of bodily efforts under
guidance of reason, there can be no expectation of prospering in any
attempt).
20. Mark here in the instance of the fictitious Indra, who employed all
his thoughts to the assimilation of himself into the very image of his
beloved, by drowning all his bodily pains in the pleasure of her
remembrance.
21. Think of the manly fortitude of Mándavya, who made his mind as
callous as marble, when he was put to the punishment of the guillotine,
and was insensible of his suffering. (So it is recorded of the Sophist
Mansur, who was guillotined for his faith in the _anal Haq_ “I am the
True One,” and of the martyrs who fell victims to their faith in truth).
22. Think of the sage who fell in the dark pit, while his mind was
employed in some sacrificial rite, and was taken up to heaven in reward
of the merit of his mental sacrifice. (Redemption is to be had by
sacrifice of the soul, and not of the body).
23. Remember also how the sons of Indu obtained their Brahmáhood, by
virtue of their persevering devotion, and which even I have not the
power to withhold. (_i.e._ Even Brahmá is unable to prevent one’s rising
by his inflexible devotedness).
24. There have been also many such sages and master-minds among men and
gods, who never laid aside their mental energies, whereby they were
crowned with success in their proper pursuits.
25. No pain or sickness, no fulmination nor threat, no malicious beast
or evil spirit, can break down the resolute mind, any more than the
striking of a lean lotus-leaf, can split the breast of a hard stone.
26. Those that you say to have been discomfited by tribulations and
persecutions, I understand them as too infirm in their faiths, and very
weak both in their minds and manliness.
27. Men with heedful minds, have never been entrapped in the snare of
errors in this perilous world; and they have never been visited by the
demon of despair, in their sleeping or waking states.
28. Therefore let a man employ himself to the exercise of his own manly
powers, and engage his mind and his mental energy to noble pursuits, in
the paths of truth and holiness.
29. The enlightened mind forgets its former darkness, and sees its
objects in their true light; and the thought that grows big in the mind,
swallows it up at last, as the fancy of a ghost lays hold of the mind of
a child.
30. The new reflexion effaces the prior impression from the tablet of
the mind, as an earthen pot turning on the potter’s wheel, no more
thinks of its nature of dirty clay.
(One risen to a high rank or converted to a new creed, entirely forsakes
and forgets his former state).
31. The mind, _O muni!_ is transmuted in a moment to its new model; as
the inflated or aerated water rises high into waves and ebullitions,
glaring with reflexions of sun-light. (Common minds are wholly occupied
with thoughts of the present, forgetful of the past and careless of the
future).
32. The mind that is averse to right investigation, sees like the
purblind, every thing in darkness even in broad day light; and observes
by deception two moons for one in the moonshine. (The uninquisitive are
blind to the light of truth).
33. Whatever the mind has in view, it succeeds soon in the
accomplishment of the same. And as it does aught of good or evil, it
reaps the reward of the same, in the gladness or bitterness of his soul.
34. A wrong reflector reflects a thing in a wrong light, as a distracted
lover sees a flame in the moonbeams, which makes him burn and consume in
his state of distraction. (This is said of distracted lovers, who
imagine cooling moon-beams and sandal-paste as hot as fire, and inflaming
their flame of love).
35. It is the conception of the mind, that makes the salt seem sweet to
taste, by its giving a flavour to the salted food for our zest and
delight.
36. It is our conception, that makes us see a forest in the fog, or a
tower in the clouds; appearing to the sight of the observer to be rising
and falling by turns.
37. In this manner whatever shape the imagination gives to a thing, it
appears in the same visionary form before the sight of the mind;
therefore knowing this world of your imagination, as neither a reality
nor unreality, forbear to view it and its various shapes and colours, as
they appear to view.
CHAPTER LXXXXIII.
A VIEW OF THE GENESIS OF THE MIND AND BODY.
Argument. First Birth of the Mind, and then that of Light. Next grew
the Ego, and thence came out the World.
Vasishtha said:—I will now tell you Ráma! What I was instructed of yore
by lord Brahmá himself. (The prime progenitor of mankind and propounder
of the Vedas).
2. From the unspeakable Brahmá, there sprang all things in their
undefinable ideal state, and then the Spirit of God being condensed by
His Will, it came to be produced of itself in the form of the Mind. (The
volitive and creative agency of God).
3. The Mind formed the notions of the subtile elementary principles in
itself, and became a personal agent (with its power of volition or
creative will). The same became a luminous body and was known as Brahmá
the first Male. (Purusha or Protogonus—Pratha-janya or Prathamajanita).
4. Therefore know Ráma, this same Brahmá to be the _Parameshthi_ or
situated in the Supreme, and being a personification of the Will of God,
is called the Mind.
5. The Mind therefore known as the Lord Brahmá, is a form of the Divine
essence, and being full of desires in itself, sees all its wills (in
their ideal forms), present before it.
6. The mind then framed or fell of itself, into the delusion (avidyá),
of viewing its ideal images as substantial (as one does in his
delirium); and thence the phenomenal world (with whatever it contains),
is said to be the work of Brahmá.
7. Thus the world proceeding in this order from the Supreme essence, is
supposed by some to have come into being from another source, of dull
material particles. (Doctrine of Hylotheism or the Materialistic system
of Sánkhya Philosophy),
8. It is from that Brahmá, O Ráma! that, all things situated in this
concave world, have come to being, in the manner of waves rising on the
surface of the deep.
9. The self-existent Brahmá that existed in the form of intellect (chit)
before creation, the same assumed the attribute of egoism (ahankára)
afterwards, and became manifest in the person of Brahmá. (Thence called
Swayambhu or self-born).
10. All the other powers of the Intellect, which were concentrated in
the personality of the Ego, were tantamount to those of Omnipotence.
(The impersonal Intellect and the personal Ego or Brahmá, are both of
them equally powerful).[9]
11. The world being evolved from the eternal ideas in the Divine
Intellect, manifested itself in the mind of the great father of
all—Brahmá. (_Intellectus noster nihil intelligit sine phantasmata_); it
is the mind which moves and modifies them, and is the Intelligence
(logos-Word) of the One, and the manifestation of its power.
12. The Mind thus moving and modeling all things is called the _Jíva_
living soul or Nous. (The Scholiast says:—The Mind is the
genus—_Samashti_, the soul is an individual name (Vyashti) of every
individual living being. The Mind is soul without personality; the soul
is the mind of a certain being. The Mind is the principle of volition,
and the soul is that of animation).
13. These living souls rise and move about in the vacuous sphere of the
infinite Intellect (chidákása). These are unfolded by the elementary
particles of matter, and pass in the open space surrounded by air. They
then reside in the fourteen kinds of animated nature, according to the
merit and demerit of their prior acts. They enter the bodies through the
passage of their vital breath, and become the seeds of moving and
immoving beings.
14. They are then born of the generative organ (foetus), and are met on
a sudden by the desires of their previous births (which lay waiting on
them). Thus led on by the current of their wishes, they live to reap the
reward or retribution of their good or bad acts in the world.
15. Thus bound fast to action and fettered in the meshes of desire, the
living souls enchained in their bodies, continue to rove about or rise
and fall in this changeful world by turns.
16. Their wish is the cause of their weal or woe, says the Sruti; and
which is inseparable from the soul as volition from the mind. (The wish
is the inactive desire of the soul, and volition the active will of the
mind).
17. Thousands of living souls, are falling off as fast as the leaves of
forest trees; and being borne away by the force of their pursuits, they
are rolling about as the fallen leaves wafted by the breeze in the
valleys. (The aberration of living souls from the Supreme).
18. Many are brought down and bound to innumerable births in this earth,
by their ignorance of the Chit or Divine Intellect, and are subjected to
interminable transmigrations in various births.
19. There are some who having passed many mean births in this earth,
have now risen high in the scale of beings, by their devotedness to
better acts (and are likely to have their liberation in the course of
their progression to the best).
20. Same persons acquainted with spirituality, have reached their state
of perfection; and have gone to heaven, like particles of sea-water,
carried into the air above by the blowing winds.
21. The production of all beings is from the Supreme Brahmá; but their
appearance and disappearance in this frail world, are caused by their
own actions. Hence the actionless yogi, is free from both these states.
(God made everything perfect; Man’s sin brought his death and woe).
22. Our desires are poisonous plants, bearing the fruits of pain and
disappointment; and lead us to actions which are fraught with dangers
and difficulties. (Cursed was the ground for man’s unrestricted desires,
which sowed it with thorns and thistles).
23. These desires drive us to different countries, to distant hills and
dales in search of gain. (Else man could live content with little and on
his native plain).
24. This world O Ráma! is a jungle of withered trees and brambles; and
requires the axe of reason to clear away these drugs and bushes. So are
our minds and bodies but plants and trees of our woe, which being rooted
out by the axe of reason, will no more come to grow by their
transmigration in this earth. (The mind and body are rooted out by
Suppression of their desires and passions).
CHAPTER LXXXXIV.
BRAHMA THE ORIGIN OF ALL.
Argument. Description of the twelve species of Human beings and the
ways of their liberation.
Vasishtha said:—Hear me now relate to you, Ráma! the several classes of
higher, lower and middling species of beings, and the various grades of
their existence here and elsewhere in the scale of creation. (_i.e._ The
spontaneous production of beings _suo motu_, when they were not bound
by _karma-vipáka_ or acts of a prior life, to be born in any particular
form or state on earth).
2. They were the first in their production, and are known as the
_idam-prathama_—or the first class in their birth, whose long practice
in a course of virtuous actions in prior states, has secured to them the
property of goodness—_satva-guna_ only. (These are the holy saints and
sages, who are entitled to their liberation in life time, and upon
separation from their bodies).
3. The second grade is called the _guna pívari_ or state of sound
qualities, which is attained by the prosperous, and leads them to
meritorious deeds, to the acquisition of their desired objects, and
their right dealing in the affairs of the world.
(This meritorious state becomes entitled to liberation after some births
in this earth).
4. The third grade is termed the _sasatwá_, or the state of
substantiality of men of substance. It is attended with like results,
proportioned to the righteous and unrighteous acts of men, who may
obtain their liberation after a hundred transmigrations of their souls
on earth.
5 & 6. The fourth grade comprises infatuated people called _atyanta
támasi_, who are addicted to their varying desires in this changeful
world, and come to the knowledge of truth, after passing a thousand
lives in ignorance and sin, and suffering the effects proportionate to
their good or evil deeds.
7. The fifth grade is composed of men of a baser nature, called
_adhama-satwá_ by the wise, and who may possibly have their liberation,
after a course of numberless births in different shapes and forms.
8. The sixth grade is composed of those extremely benighted men (atyanta
támasi), who are doubtful of their liberation (_Sandigdha-moksha_), and
continue in the vicious course of their past lives.
9. Those who after passing two or three previous births in other states,
are born afterwards with the quality of gentleness, these are reckoned
as the seventh grade, and are denominated the Rájashi—gentry or
gentility.
10. Those who remain mindful of their duties, and are employed in
discharge of them in this state of life; are said by the wise to be
entitled to their liberation, soon after their demise.
11. Those among the Rájashi—gentility, whose acts are commensurate with
those of gentlemen and the nobility, are included in the eighth class,
and are called _Rája Sátwiki_—or noble gentlemen; and are entitled to
their liberation after a few births on earth.
12. The ninth class comprises the _rája-rájashi_ or right gentlemen,
whose actions conform with their title, and who obtain their long
longed-for liberation, after a course of hundred births in the same
state.
13. The next or tenth class is composed of the _rájatámasí_ or blinded
gentry, who act foolishly under their infatuation; and who are uncertain
of their liberation, even after a thousand births.
14. The most giddy of this class is called _atyanta-rája-tamashi_, or
the excessively infatuated gentry, whose conduct in life correspond with
their name, and whose transmigration does not cease at any time.
15. Then the lower classes comprise the children of darkness or
ignorance—_tamas_; of whom the _támasas_ form the eleventh grade, and
are said to be deprived of their liberation forever more. (These are the
Rákshasas and demons of various orders).
16. There have been a few however among them, who have obtained their
salvation by means of their divine knowledge, and their good acts during
their life time (such as Prahláda, the son of a demon, and Karkotaka—the
son of a Nága).
17. Next follows the twelfth order of _támasa-rájasa_, who combine in
them the qualities of darkness and enlightenment, and who are liberated
after a thousand births in their former demoniac state, and one hundred
births in their progressive improvements.
18. Then comes the thirteenth order of _támas-támasi_ or those in
darkest darkness, who have to transmigrate for millions of years both in
their prior and later births, before they can have their liberation from
the bondage of body.
19. Last comes the fourteenth order of beings, who continue in their
state of gross ignorance (_atyanta—támasí_) forever, and it is doubted
whether they can have their liberation at all.
(All these classes of human beings have proceeded from Brahmá, whose
life and spirit circulate in all of them; else they could neither live
nor breathe).
20. All other masses of living beings also, have proceeded from the body
of the great Brahmá, as the moving waves rise from the great body of
waters.
21. And as the lamp flickering by its own heat, scatters its light on
all sides; so does Brahmá glowing in himself, irradiate his beams in the
shape of scintilla, to spread all over the universe: (which is the
vacuity of Brahmá’s mind, and comprises the cosmos within it).
22. And as the sparks of fire are flung about by force of the burning
flame; so do these multitudes of produced beings rise from the substance
of Brahmá himself.
23. As the dust and filaments of mandara flowers, fly to and fill the
air on all sides; and as the beams of the moon shoot out of its orb, to
fill the four quarters of heaven and earth; so the minutiæ of Divine
essence emanate from the Deity, and spread throughout the universe.
24. As the variegated arbor, produces its leaves and flowers of various
hues from itself; so the varieties of created beings, spring from one
Brahmá—the source of all.
25. As the gold ornaments are in relation to the metal gold of which
they are made, and wherein they subsist, so Ráma! are all things and
persons in relation to Brahmá, out of whom they have sprung and in whom
they abide.
26. As the drops of water, are related to the pure water of the cascade,
so Ráma, are all things related to the increate Brahmá, whence they
issue as drizzling drops.
27. As the air in a pot and about a basin, is the same with the
surrounding air of heaven; so are all individual objects the same, with
the undivided spirit of the all-pervading Brahmá.
28. As the drops of rain-water, and those of water spouts, whirlpools
and waves, are identic with their parent waters; so are all these
phenomenal sights, the same with the great Brahmá, whence they spring,
and wherein they exist and subside.
29. As the mirage presents the appearance of a billowy sea, by the
fluctuation of sunbeams on sand; so do all visible objects show
themselves to the sight of the spectator, beside which they have no
figure or form of themselves.
30. Like the cooling beams of the moon, and the burning light of the
sun, do all things shine with their different lustres derived from
Brahmá.
31. It is He, from whom all things have risen, unto him they return in
their time; some after their transmigrations in a thousand births, and
others after longer periods of their revolutions in various bodies.
32. All these various forms of beings in the multiform world are moving
in their respective spheres by the will of the Lord. They come and go,
rise and fall, and shine in their transitory forms, like the sparks of
fire, fluttering and sparkling for a moment, and then falling and
becoming extinct for ever.
CHAPTER LXXXXV.
IDENTITY OF THE ACTOR AND HIS ACTION.
Argument. It is for persuasion of men addicted to Acts that the Actor
is identified with his Acts.
Vasishtha said:—There is no difference of acts, from the agent, as
they have sprung together from the same source of their creator: they
are the simultaneous growth of nature like flowers and their odour.
(The Gitá says:—The actor, act and its effect, are naturally united
together).
2. When human souls are freed from their desires, they are united with
the supreme soul of Brahma, as the blueness of the sky which appears
distinct to the eyes of the ignorant, is found to be joined with the
clear firmament. (The human soul is a shadow of the supreme, as blueness
is a shade of vacuity).
3. Know, O Ráma! that it is for the understanding of the ignorant, that
the living souls are said to have sprung from Brahma: when they are in
reality but shadows of the same.
4. Wherefore it is not right on the part of the enlightened to say that
such and such things are produced from Brahma, when there is nothing
that exists apart or separate from him: (on account of the unity of all
existences and identity of the actor and the act).
5. It is a mere fiction of speech to speak of the world as creation or
production, because it is difficult to explain the subject and object of
the lecture, without the use of such fictitious language (as the actor
and act, the creator and the created &c.).
6. Hence the language of dualists and pluralists is adopted in
monotheistic doctrines, as the expressions, this one is Brahma, or
divine soul, and these others are the living souls, as they are in use
in the popular language.
7. It has been seen (explained), that the concrete world has sprung from
the discrete Brahma; because the production of something is the same
with its material cause, though it seems different from it to common
understandings.
8. Multitudes of living beings rising like the rocks of Meru and Mandara
mountains, are joined with the main range from which they jut out. (All
are but parts of one undivided whole. Pope.)
9. Thousands and thousands of living beings, are incessantly produced
from their common source, like the innumerable sprigs of forest trees,
filling the woodland sky with their variegated foliage. (So are all
creatures but off shoots of the parent tree of the Supreme Soul).
10. An infinity of living beings will continue to spring from the same,
like blades of grass sprouting from the earth below; and they will
likewise be reduced to the same, like the season plants of spring, dying
away in the hot weather of Summer.
11. There is no counting of the living creatures that exist at any time,
and what numbers of them, are being born and dying away at any moment
(and like waves of water are rising and falling at each instant).
12. Men with their duties proceed from the same divine source, like
flowers growing with their fragrance from the same stem; and all these
subside in the same receptacle whence they had their rise.
13. We see the different tribes of demons and brutes, and of men and
gods in this world, coming into existence from non-existence, and this
is repeated without end.
14. We see no other cause of their continuous revolution in this manner,
except the forgetfulness of their reminiscence, which makes them
oblivious of their original state, and conform with every mode of their
metempsychosis into new forms. (Otherwise the retention of the knowledge
of its original state and former impressions, would keep it alive in the
same state of primeval purity, and exempt it from all transmigrations).
15. Ráma said:—For want of such reminiscence, I think that, obedience to
the dictates of the infallible Sástras, which have been promulgated by
the sages, and based on the authority of the Vedas, is the surest way
for the salvation of mankind.
16. And I reckon those men as holy and perfect, who are possest of the
virtues of the great, and have magnanimity and equanimity of their
souls, and have received the light of the unknowable Brahma in them.
(Such men are exempt from the pain of transmigration).
17. I reckon two things as the two eyes of the ignorant, for their
discernment of the path of salvation. The one is their good conduct, and
the other their knowledge of the Sástras, which follows the former.
18. Because one who is righteous in his conduct only, without joining
his righteousness with his knowledge also, is never taken into account;
and is slighted by all to be plunged into insignificance and misery.
(The unlearned virtuous, is as despicable as the learned vicious).
19. Again Sir;—it is the joint assent of men and the Veda, that acts and
their actors come one after the other; and not as you said of their
rising simultaneously from their divine origin. (That is to say; that
the morals established by the wise, and the virtues inculcated by the
holy scriptures, are the guides of good acts and their observers, which
are not the spontaneous growth of our nature or intention).
20. It is the act which makes the actor, and the actor who does the
work. Thus they follow one another on the analogy of the seed and the
tree which produce one another. This mutuality of both is seen in the
practice of men and ordinances of the Veda.
21. Acts are the causes of animal births, as the seed gives birth to the
sprouts of plants; and again works proceed from living beings as the
sprouts produce the seeds. (Thus both are causes and effects of one
another by turns, and never grown together).
22. The desire that prompts a person to his particular pursuit in his
prison house of this world, the same yields him the like fruits and no
other. (Men get what they have in their hearts and nothing besides).
23. Such being the case, how was it sir, that you said of the production
of animals from the seed of Brahma, without the causality of their prior
acts, which you say to be simultaneous with the birth of animal beings.
24. On one hand you have set at naught the law of antecedence and
sequence of birth and action to one another, by your position of their
simultaneity.
25. And again to say, that Brahma is not the origin of actions, and that
Brahmá and other living beings are subjected to their several actions,
are self contradictory propositions and opposed to common sense. (For
the acts do not originate from Brahmá, they cannot be binding on others;
and if the actions do not proceed from that source, whence do they come
to take place). This question upsets the doctrine of Free Will.
26. And also to say that living beings are born together with their
actions (by predestination), and are bound to them to no purpose, would
be to apply to them the analogy of fishes which are caught by the baits
they cannot devour, but cause their death. (So men must be bound in vain
to the baits of their actions, if they are to go without reaping their
fruition).
27. Therefore please to tell me sir, about the nature of acts, for you
are best acquainted with the secrets of things, and can well remove my
doubts on the subject.
28. Vasishtha replied:—You have well asked, my good Ráma! about this
intricate subject, which I will now explain to you in a manner that will
enlighten your understanding.
29. It is the activity of the mind which forms its thoughts and
intentions, which are the roots or seed of actions; and it is its
passivity, which is the recipient of their results. (So says the
Sruti:—whatever is thought in the mind, the same is expressed in words
and done in action).
30. Therefore no sooner did the principle of the mind spring from the
essence of Brahmá, than it was accompanied by its thoughts and actions
in the bodies, which the living beings assumed, according to their prior
deserts and in-born desires.
31. As there is no difference between the self-same flower and its
fragrance; in the same manner there is no distinction of the mind, from
its actions which are one and the same thing.
32. It is the exertion of bodily activity, which we call an action here;
but it is well known to the wise to be preceded by a mental action,
which is called its thought in the mind: (_chitta_ of the _chit_ or the
thought of the thinking principle).
33. It is possible to deny the existence of material objects, of the air
and water, the hill and others; but it is impossible to deny the
operations of our mental faculties, of which we have subjective evidence
in ourselves.
34. No deliberate action of the present or past life goes for nothing;
all human actions and efforts are attended with their just results, to
which they are properly directed. (Sávadhánam anushthitán).
35. As the ink ceases to be ink, without its inky blackness, so the mind
ceases to exist, without the action of its mental operations.
36. Cessation of mental operation, is attended with desinence of
thought, and quiescence of the mind, is accompanied with discontinuance
of actions. The liberated are free from both of these; but the
unemancipate from neither. (_i.e._ The liberated are devoid of the
thoughts and actions, which are concomitants with one another).
37. The mind is ever united with its activity as the fire with its heat,
and the want of either of these, is attended to worldlings with the
extinction of both.
38. The mind being ever restless in itself, becomes identified with the
actions proceeding from its activity. The actions also whether good or
bad, become identified with the mind, which feels their just rewards and
punishments. Hence you see Ráma! The inseparable connection of the mind
and acts, in reciprocating their actions and reactions upon each other.
CHAPTER LXXXXVI.
INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE OF MIND.
_As the Ego, the subjective and really existent entity._
Argument. The Faculties of the Mind, and their Various Functions and
appellations.
Vasishtha said:—The mind is mere thought, and thought is the mind in
motion (literally, having the property of fluctuation). Its actions are
directed by the nature of the thoughts (lit. according to the nature of
the objects of thought); and the result of the acts is felt by every
body in his mind.
2. Ráma said:—Sir, I pray you will explain in length, regarding the
immaterial mind as opposed to the material body, and its inseparable
property of will or volition (contrary to the inertness of dull matter).
3. Vasishtha replied:—The nature of the mind is known to be composed of
the property of Volition, which is an attribute of the infinite and
almighty power of the Supreme soul. (_i.e._ The mind is the volitive
principle of the soul).
4. The mind is known to be of the form of that self-moving principle,
which determines the dubitation of men between the affirmative and
negative sides (as whether it is so or not _dwikotika_). _i.e._ The
principle of rationality or the Reasoning faculty, consisting of the two
great alternatives; _viz._ 1. The principle of contradiction: or of two
contradictory propositions of which one is true, and the other untrue,
_i.e._ Is, or, is not. _2._ _Raison determinantic_ or determining by _a
priori_ reasoning, as, why so and not otherwise.
5. The mind is known to be of the form of _Ego_, which is ignorant of
the self manifesting soul of God; and believes itself as the subject of
its thoughts and actions.
6. The mind is of the nature of imagination (Kalpaná), which is ever
busy in its operations: hence the inactivity of the mind is as
impossible in this world, as the insapience of the sapient man.
(Imagination is an active faculty, representing the phenomena of the
internal and external worlds, Sir W. Hamilton. It is an operation of the
mind consisting of manifold functions, such as;—1. of receiving by the
faculty of conception. 2. of retaining by the faculty of memory. 3. of
recalling by the power of reproductive fancy; 4. of combining by
productive fancy. In modern philosophy, it is the _power of
apprehending_ ideas, and combining them into new forms).
7. As there is no difference in the essence of fire and heat; so there
is no difference whatever between mind and its activity, and so betwixt
the mind and soul (_i.e._ the living soul).
8. The mind is known by many names in the same person and body,
according to its various faculties and functions, its various thoughts
and desires, and their manifold operations and consequences. (The mind,
soul and intellect taken together as the same thing, comprise all the
powers of intellect and intelligence).
9. The Divine Mind is said to be distributed into all souls by mistake
and without any reason; since the All—_to pan_ is without any substance
or substratum, and indivisible in its nature. It is a mere fabrication
of our desires and fancies to diversify it in different persons. (The
Divine mind being the _Anima mundi_, contains all within itself, and
having no container of it).
10. Whoever has set his desire in any thing as if it were a reality,
finds the same to be attended with the like fruit as he had expected of
it. (It means either that Association of ideas in the mind, introducing
as by a chord; a train of kindred consecutive ideas, which are realised
by their constant repetition, or that the primary desires of our nature,
which are not factitious, but rising from our constitutions, are soon
satisfied).
11. It is the movement of the mind, which is said and perceived by us to
be the source of our actions; and the actions of the mind are as various
as the branches, leaves and fruits of trees. (So it is said, the tree of
desire has the mind for its seed, which gives force to the action of
bodily organs, resembling its branches; and the activities of the body,
are the causes which fructify the tree of desire).
12. Whatever is determined by the mind, is readily brought into
performance by the external organs of action (Karmendriya); thus because
the mind is the cause of action, it is identified with the effect. (By
the law of the similarity of the cause and effect, in the growth of one
seed from another. Or that the efficient cause _a quo_, is the same with
the final-_propte quod_ by inversion of the causa cognoscendi—in the
effect being taken for the cause).
13. The mind, understanding, egoism, intellect, action and imagination,
together with memory, or retentiveness, desire, ignorance, exertion and
memory, are all synonyms of the mind. (The powers of the mind,
constitute the mind itself).
14. So also sensation, nature, delusion and actions, are words applied
to the mind for bewilderment of the understanding. (Many words for the
same thing, are misleading from its true meaning).
15. The simultaneous collision of many sensations (like the Kákátáli
sanyoga), diverts the mind from its clear sight of the object of its
thought, and causes it to turn about in many ways.
16. Ráma asked:—How is it Sir, that so many words with their different
significations, were invented to express the transcendent cause of our
consciousness (the mind), and heap them on the same thing for our
confusion only?
17. Vasishtha replied:—As man began to lose sight of his consciousness,
and laboured under suppositions about his-self, it was then that he
found the mind to be the waking principle within him. (_i.e._ It is after
one has lost the knowledge of his conscious soul, that he thinks himself
to be composed of the mind. Or it was after man’s degradation from his
spiritual nature, that he came to consider himself as an intellectual
being with no higher power than his mental faculties the _manas_;
(whence he derives his name as _man_, _mánava_ or _manusha_)).
18. When man after considering himself and other things comes to
understand them in their true light; he is then said to have his
understanding—_buddhi_. (We understand with or by means of reason, as we
say—a proposition is right by its reasons _hetuváda_; but not reason on
any thing without understanding it; as we cannot judge of a thing
without knowing what it is).
19. When man by false conception of himself, assumes a personality to
him by his pride, he is called an egoist, with the principle of ego or
egoism in him, causing his bondage on earth. Absolute egoism is the
doubting of every thing beside self-existence. _Persona est rationalis
naturae individua substantia._ Boethius.
20. It is called thought which passes from one object to another in
quick succession, and like the whims of boys, shifts from one thing to
another without forming a right judgement of any. (Thoughts are fickle
and fleeting, and flying from one subject to another, without dwelling
long upon any).
21. The mind is identified with acts, done by the exercise of a power
immanent in itself as the agent; and the result of the actions, whether
physical or moral, good or bad, recurs to the mind in their effects.
(The mind is the agent and recipient of the effects of all its various
internal and external actions, such as right or wrong, virtuous or
vicious, praiseworthy or blamable, perfect or imperfect and the like).
22. The mind is termed fancy for its holding fast on fleeting phantasies
by letting loose its solid and certain truths. It is also the
imagination, for giving various images or to the objects of its
desire—_ihita Kalpaná_. It is called _Kákatálíya Sanyoga_ or accidental
assemblage of fancied objects. It is defined as the agglutinative and
associative power to collect materials for imagination which builds up
on them. (_Imaginari est quan rei corporae figuram contemplari._
Descartes).
23. The Memory or retention is that power of the mind, which retains an
image whether known or unknown before, as if it were a certainty known
already; and when it is attended with the effort of recalling it to the
mind, it is termed as remembrance or recollection. (Memory is the
storehouse of ideas preconceived or thought to be known before in the
mind. Retention is the keeping of the ideas got from sensation and
reflection. Remembrance is the spontaneous act of the mind; and
recollection and reminiscence, are intentional acts of the will. All
these powers and acts of the mind, are singly and collectively called
the mind itself; as when I say, I have got it in mind, I may mean, I
have it in memory, remembrance &c. &c.)
24. The appetence which resides in the region of the mind, for
possession of the objects of past enjoyment; as also the efforts of the
mind for attainment of other things, are called its desires. (Appetites
or desires are—common to all, and are sensitive and rational, irascible
&c. Vide Reed and Stewart. The mind is the same as desire; as when I
say, I have a mind to do a thing, I mean, I have a desire to do it).
25. When the mind’s clear sight of the light of the soul or self, is
obscured by the shadow of other gross things, which appear to be real
instead of the true spiritual, it is called ignorance; and is another
name of the deluded understanding. (It is called _avidyá_ or absence of
_Vidyá_ or knowledge of spiritual truth. It becomes _Mahávidyá_ or
incorrigible or invincible ignorance, when the manners and the mind are
both vitiated by falsehood and error).
26. The next is doubt, which entraps the dubious mind in the snare of
scepticism, and tends to be the destruction of the soul, by causing it
to disbelieve and forget the supreme spirit. (To the sceptic doubts for
knowledge rise; but they give way before the advance of spiritual
light).
27. The mind is called sensation, because all its actions of hearing and
feeling, of seeing and smelling, thinking and enjoying, serve to delight
the senses, which convey the impressions back to the mind. (The doctrine
that all knowledge is derived originally from senses, holds the single
fact of sensation as sufficient for all mental phenomena. It is the
philosophy of Condillac, called Dirt philosophy by Fichte).
28. The mind that views all the phenomena of nature in the Supreme
Spirit, and takes outward nature as a copy of the eternal mind of God,
is designated by the name of _nature_ itself. (Because God is the
_Natura naturans_ or the Author of Nature; and the works of
nature—matter and mind, are the _Natura naturata_. Hence the mind
knowing its own nature and that of its cause, is said to be an union of
both natures, and is the personality of Brahmá the Demiurge, who is
combined of nature and mind).
29. The mind is called máyá or magic, because it converts the real into
unreal, and the unreal into real. Thus showing the realities as
unrealities, and the _vice-versa_ by turns. It is termed error or
mistake of our judgement, giving ascent to what is untrue and the
contrary. The causes of error are said to be ignorance (avidyá) and
passions (tamas).
30. The sensible actions are seeing and hearing, feeling, tasting and
smelling, of the outward organs of sense; but the mind is the cause both
of these actions and their acts. (The mind moves the organs to their
actions, as also feels and perceives their acts in itself).
31. The intellect (chit) being bewildered in its view of the
intellectual world (chetyas), manifests itself in the form of the mind,
and becomes the subject of the various functions which are attributed to
it. (The intellect having lost its universality, and the faculty of
intellection or discernment of universal propositions, falls into the
faults of sensitivity and volition, by employing itself to particular
objects of sense and sensible desires).
32. Being changed into the category of the mind, the intellect loses its
original state of purity, and becomes subject to a hundred desires of
its own making (by its volitive faculty).
33. Its abstract knowledge of general truths being shadowed by its
percipience of concrete and particular gross bodies, it comes to the
knowledge of numbers and parts, and is overwhelmed by the multiplicity
of its thoughts and the objects of its desires. (_i.e._ Having lost the
knowledge of the universal whole and discrete numbers, the mind comes to
know the concrete particulars only).
34. It is variously styled as the living principle and the mind by most
people on earth; but it is known as intellection and understanding
(chitta and buddhi) by the wise.
35. The intellect being depraved by its falling off from the sole
supreme soul, is variously named by the learned according to its
successive phases and functions, owing to its being vitiated by its
various desires, and the variety of their objects.
36. Ráma said:—O Sir! that art acquainted with all truths, please tell
me, whether the mind is a material or immaterial thing, which I have not
been able to ascertain as yet. (It is said to be matter by materialists
and as spirit by spiritualists).
37. Vasishtha replied:—The mind, O Ráma! is neither a gross substance
nor an intelligent principle altogether: it is originally as intelligent
as the intellect; but being sullied by the evils of the world and the
passions and desires of the body, it takes the name of the mind. (From
its minding of many things).
38. The intellect (chit) which is the cause of the world, is called the
_chitta_ or heart, when it is situated in the bosom of sentient bodies,
with all its affections and feelings (ávilám). It then has a nature
between goodness and badness (by reason of its moral feelings and bad
passions).
39. When the heart remains without a certain and uniform fixity to its
purpose, and steadiness in its own nature, it feels all the inner
changes with the vicissitudes of the outer world, and is as a reflector
of the same. (The text says, the fluctuations of the heart, cause the
vicissitudes of the world. But how can the heart be subjective, and the
world the objective? Is the heart author of its feelings without
receiving them from without? Yes).
40. The intellect hanging between its intelligence and gross objects,
takes the name of the mind, when it is vitiated by its contact with
outward objects.
41. When the action of the Intellect or the faculty of intellection, is
vitiated by sensitivity, and becomes dull by reason of its inward dross;
it is then styled the mind, which is neither a gross material thing, nor
an intelligent spiritual principle.
42. The intellectual principle is variously designated by many such
names, as the mind, the understanding, the _ego_, and the living soul or
principle of animation.
43. The mind bears its different appellations according to the variety
of its functions; just as an actor in the theatre, appears under
different names and garbs of the dramatic personages on the stage. (The
world is a stage, where one man acts many parts. Shakespeare).
44. As a man passes under many titles, according to his various
occupations and professions; so the mind takes different appellations
according to the various operations of its nature. (Thus one man is a
scholar, a householder, an officer, a subject and many others at once).
45. Besides the names that I have mentioned regarding the mind, the
disputants in mental philosophy, have invented many others agreeably to
their diverse theories.
46. They have attributed to the mind many designations, according to the
views in which they designed to exhibit its nature; such as some calling
it the intellect, another the understanding, the sensation and so forth.
47. One takes it as dull matter, and another as the living principle;
some one calls it the ego, while others apply the term understanding to
it. (As Manas or Manu is the father of and of the same nature with all
mankind; so is the mind _manas_ or _mens_, similar in its nature and
names with every one and all its operations).
48. I have told you, Ráma that egoism, mind and the light of
understanding, together with the volition of creation, are but different
properties of the one and same internal principle. (Ego—the subjective,
mind—the motive, understanding—the thinking, and the volitive powers,
all relate to the same soul. All these are different faculties having
the one and same common root—the one universal soul).
49. The Nyáyá philosophy has taken the mind &c., in different lights
according to its own view of them; and so the Sánkhya system explains
the perception and senses in a way peculiar to itself. (Namely: the
Nyáyá says, the Ego to be a _dravya_ or substance; the living soul as
God; the mind a sensitive particle and internal organ; and understanding
as a transitory property of the mind. The Sánkhya has the understanding
as a product of matter, and egoism a resultant of the same, and the mind
as the eleventh organ of sense).
50. In this manner are all these terms taken in very different
acceptations, by the different systems of Mímámsá, Vaiseshika, Arhata
and Buddhist philosophy. The Pancharátra and some other systems, have
given them particular senses disagreeing with one another. (See
Rákháldása Nyayaratna’s tract on the identity of the mind and the soul
_átmá_; and Hirálal’s reply to and refutation of the same).
51. All these various doctrines, arising at different times and in
distant countries, lead at last to the same supreme Being, like the very
many different ways, leading their passengers to the same imperial city.
(All systems of philosophy, like every scheme of religion and its
different sects and schisms, lead their followers to the same truth of
one Superintending power or Deity).
52. It is ignorance of this supreme truth or misunderstanding of the
discordant doctrines, that causes the votaries of different systems and
sects, to carry on an endless dispute among themselves with bitter
acrimony. (All party contentions, are but effects of ignorance of the
various terminology bearing the same sense).
53. The disputants maintain their particular positions by their
respective dogmatism; just as passengers persist in their accustomed
paths as the best suited to them. (Bias has a stronger basis in the mind
and has a faster hold of the human heart, than the best reason and the
surest truth).
54. They have spoken falsely, whose words point out every thing as the
fruit of our acts, and direct mankind only to the performance of their
actions. It is according to the various prospects that men have in view,
that they have given their reasons in their own ways. (Ask of the
learned, the learned are blind, this bids you shun, and that to love
mankind. Pope).
55. The mind receives its various names from its different functions as
a man is called a _Snataka_ or early bather, and a _dátá_—donor, from
his acts of sacred ablutions and religious gifts.
56. As the actor gets his many titles, according to the several parts
which he performs; so the mind takes the name of a Jíva or living being,
from its animation of the body and its desires. (The mind is repeatedly
said to be the animating and volitive principle).
57. The mind is said to be the heart also, which is perceived by every
body to reside within himself. A man without the heart, has no feeling
nor sensation.
58. It is the heart which feels the inward pleasure or pain, derived
from the sight or touch, hearing or smelling, and eating and drinking of
pleasurable and painful things.
59. As the light shows the colours of things to the sight, so the mind
is the organ, that reflects and shows the sensations of all sensible
objects in the cranium and sensory.
60. Know him as the dullest of beings, who thinks the mind to be a dull
material substance; and whose gross understanding cannot understand the
nature of the Intellect.
61. The mind is neither intelligence (chetana) nor inert matter (jada);
it is the _ego_ that has sprung amidst the various joys and griefs in
this world. (The pure intelligence knows no pleasure nor pain; but the
mind which is the same with the conscious _ego_, is subjected to both in
this world).
62. The mind which is one with the divine Intellect (_i.e._ sedately
fixed in the one Brahmá), perceives the world to be absorbed into
itself; but being polluted with matter (like fresh water with soil), it
falls into the error of taking the world for real. (The clear mind like
clear water is unsullied with the soil of the material world; but the
vitiated mind, like foul water, is full of the filth of worldliness).
63. Know Ráma, that neither the pure immaterial intellect, nor gross
matter as the inert stone, can be the cause of the material world. (The
spirit cannot produce matter, nor can dull matter be productive of
itself).
64. Know then, O Rághava, that neither intelligence nor inertia, is the
cause of the world; it is the mind that is the cause of visible objects,
as it is the light which unfolds them to the view. (Intelligence is the
knowledge of the self-evident, and not their cause).
65. For where there is no mind, there is no perception of the outer
world, nor does dull matter know of the existence of anything; but
everything is extinct with the extinction of the mind. (A dead body like
a dull block, is insensible of every thing).
66. The mind has a multiplicity of synonyms, varied by its multifarious
avocations; as the one continuous duration undergoes a hundred homonyms,
by the variations of its times and seasons.
67. If egoism is not granted to be a mental action, and the sensations
be reckoned as actions of the body; yet its name of the living
principle, answers for all the acts of the body and mind. (Egoism or
knowledge of the self, is attributed to the soul by some schools of
philosophy, and sensations are said to be corporeal and nervous actions;
yet the moving and animating power of the mind, must account for all
bodily and mental actions.)
68. Whatever varieties are mentioned of the mind, by the reasonings of
different systems of philosophy, and sometimes by the advocates of an
opinion, and at others by their adversaries:—
69. They are neither intelligible nor distinguishable from one another,
except that they are all powers of the self-same mind; which like the
profluent sea, pours its waters into innumerable outlets.
70. As soon as men began to attribute materialistic powers and force to
the nature of the pure (immaterial) consciousness, they fell into the
error of these varieties of their own making.
71. As the spider lets out its thread from itself, it is in the same
manner that the inert has sprung from the intellect, and matter has come
into existence from the ever active spirit of Brahmá.
(The Sruti says:—Every thing comes out of the spirit as the thread from
the spider, the hairs and nails from the animal body, and as rocks and
vegetables springing from the earth).
72. It is ignorance (of the said Sruti), that has introduced the various
opinions concerning the essence of the mind; and hence arose the various
synonymous expressions, significant of the Intellect among the
opponents.
73. The same pure Intellect, is brought to bear the different
designations of the mind, as understanding, living principle and egoism;
and the same is expressed in the world by the terms intelligence, heart,
animation and many other synonyms, which being taken as expressive of
the same thing, must put an end to all dispute. (So all metaphysical
disputes owe their origin to the difference of terminology. Such as,
Kant regarded the mind under its true faculties of cognition, desire and
moral feeling, called as Erkenntnißvermögen or Denkvermögen,
Begehrungsvermögen, and Gefühlsvermögen. Instead of multiplying the
synonyms of Mind here, I refer the reader to Roget’s Thesaurus for
them).
CHAPTER LXXXXVII.
THE MAGNITUDE OF THE SPHERE OF THE INTELLECT.
Argument. The Intellectual, Mental and Material Spheres, and their
representations in the Mind.
Ráma said:—I come to understand, O venerable sage! from all you have
propounded, that this grandeur of the universe being the work of the
Divine Mind, is all derived from the same. (Here the creation of
the world by the Divine mind, is viewed in the pantheistic light of
Emanation).
2. Vasishtha answered:—The Mind as already said, having assumed a
substantial form, manifested itself in the form of water in the mirage,
raised by the shining blaze of its own light. (This passage embodies
both theories, that light was the first work of God, and the Spirit of
God moved on the surface of the waters. _O ruh Eloim marhapeth-fi pene
al maim._ Genesis. _Apa eva Sasarjádan._ Manu).
3. The mind became amalgamated (identic), with the contents of the
world, in the Spirit of Brahmá, now showing itself in the form of man,
and now appearing as a God. (_i.e._ the mind reflected on these images
which were evolution of itself in itself; because the thought or product
of the mind, was of the same substance with itself). (This accords with
the pantheistic doctrine, that God and Nature are one substance, and the
one is a modification of the other).
4. Somewhere he showed himself as a demon and at another place like a
_yaksha_ (yakka); here he was as a _Gandharvá_, and there in the form of
a _Kinnará_. (All these were the ideal manifestations of the Divine
Mind).
5. The vast expanse of the Mind, was found to comprise in it the various
tracts of land; and the pictures of many cities and habitable places.
(Because the mind is the reservoir of all their images).
6. Such being the capacity of the mind, there is no reckoning of the
millions of bodies, which are contained in it, like the woods and plants
in a forest. All those are not worth our consideration in our inquiry
about the mind. (They are as useless to the psychologist as botany is to
the geologist).
7. It was this mind which spread out the world with all its contents,
beside which there exists naught but the Supreme Spirit. (The mind is
the container of the archetypes of the ectypal world, or the recording
power of knowledge; but the Supreme Soul is the disembodied
self-consciousness, having the principle of volition or Will; while the
Spirit is the animating faculty of the soul).
8. The soul is beyond every category, it is omnipresent and the
substratum of all existence, and it is by the power of this soul, that
the mind doth move and manifest itself. (The mind is the soul
incorporated with bodies; but the soul is quite apart from these).
9. The Mind is known as the cause of the body, which is work of the
mind; it is born and becomes extinct with the body, which the soul does
not, nor has it any such quality which belongs to the mind.
10. The mind is found by right reasoning to be a perishable object, and
no sooner doth it perish, than the living soul succeeds to obtain its
final liberation. For the desires of the mind are the bondage of its
transmigration, but the dissolution of the mind with its desires,
secures its liberation. (Volition and velleity, are the active and
inactive acts of the mind for its eternal bondage).
11. After decadence of the mental desires there is no more any exertion
for acts. This state is called the liberation of living souls, from
their release from trouble and care; and the mind thus released, never
comes to be born and die again. (Free from desire, is freedom from
deadly sin).
12. Ráma said:—Sir! You have said before, that human nature is
principally of three kinds viz:—the good, the gentle and the base
(_Satva_, _rajas_ and _tamas_); and it is owing to the good or bad
nature of their minds, that men differ from one another.
13. Now please tell me, how could the wondrous mind originate from the
pure intellect with its good or bad propensities, which are wanting in
the Divine Intellect.
14. Vasishtha replied:—Know Ráma, that there are three spheres of the
infinite vacuity, at immense distances from one another: and these are
the intellectual, mental, and the physical spheres.
15. These spheres are common to all mankind, and are spread out
everywhere; and they have all sprung and come to being from the essence
of the _Chit_ or Divine Intellect. (The first is the space of Divine
Infinity, the second is the _spatium dunamia_ or potential space and may
be filled by bodies; and the third is the place _energeia_ or actually
occupied by bodies).
16. That space which is both in the inside and outside of everything,
and denotes its occupation or otherwise by some substance or its
absence, and pervades through all nature, is called the inane sphere of
the Intellect.
17. That is called the sphere of the Intellect, which embraces all space
and time which has spread out the other spheres, and which is the
highest and best of all.
18. The physical sphere contains all created beings, and extends to the
circuit of the ten sides, all about and above and below us. It is a
continued space filled with air, which supports the clouds and waters
above the firmament.
19. Then the vacuity of the mental sphere, which has also sprung from
the intellectual sphere, has likewise the intellect for its cause like
the others, as the day is the source of all works and animal activities.
(Here the word works has the double sense of the works of creation,
which were made in the week days, and the daily works of men and their
religious duties, all which are done in the day time. The night being
the time to sleep).
20. The vitiated Intellect which views itself as a dull thing, amidst
the gross material objects of the physical sphere, the same is termed
the mind, which thinks of both spheres, whence it is born and where it
is placed.
21. It is for the understanding of the unenlightened, that I have made
use of the metaphor of the spheres; because figures are used for the
instruction of the unenlightened and not to lighten the enlightened.
(These serve for ocular demonstrations in mathematical and not in
metaphysical sciences).
22. In the intellectual sphere, you will see one Supreme Brahma, filling
its whole space, and being without parts or attributes, and intelligible
only to the enlightened.
23. The ignorant require to be instructed in appropriate words and
precise language, showing the demarkation between monotheism and
ditheism, which is unnecessary for the instruction of the enlightened.
24. I have contrived to explain to you the nature of divine knowledge,
by the parable of the three spheres, which will enlighten you as long as
you are in dark on the subject.
25. The intellectual sphere being obscured by ignorance, we are led to
look into the mental and physical spheres; not knowing that they are as
delusive as the sunbeams in a mirage, and as destructive as the flames
of a conflagration.
26. The pure intellect being changed to the state of the changeful mind,
takes a debased figure; and then being confounded in itself, weaves the
magic web of the world to entangle itself in the same.
[10]27. The ignorant that are guided by the dictates of their perverted
minds, know nothing concerning the nature of the Intellect, which is
identic with the Supreme. So the witless that unwittingly take the white
shells for bright silver, are seen to labour under their delusion, until
they are freed from it, by the clear light of their understanding.
CHAPTER LXXXXVIII.
HISTORY OF THE HUMAN HEART.
Argument. The wide extent of the Heart and its ultimate Dissolution.
Whatever may be the origin and nature of the human heart (which some
take for the mind), it should be always inquired into in seeking
out one’s own liberation. (The heart called _antahkarana_—an inner
organ, is often supposed as the same with the mind; its cravings after
worldliness, are to be suppressed under its longing for liberation from
worldly cares).
2. The heart being fixed in the Supreme, becomes purified of its worldly
desires and attachments; and then O Ráma! it perceives that soul in
itself, which transcends all imaginations of the mind. (Kalpanás are
imaginary attributes of God in the mind; who can only be seen in the
heart).
3. It is the province of the heart, to secure the sedateness of the
world in itself; and it lies in the power of the heart, either to make
its bondage or get its freedom, from the desires and troubles of the
world.
4. On this subject there hangs a curious tale relating the legend of the
heart, which was revealed to me of yore by Brahmá himself; and which I
will now relate to you Ráma, if you will listen to it with attention.
5. There is a long, open and dreary desert, Rámátaví by name; which was
quite still and solitary and without an inhabitant, in it; and so vast
in its extent, as to make a pace of a league of it. (Or rather to make a
league of a pace of it).
6. There stood a man of a terrific and gigantic figure in it, with a
sorrowful visage and troubled mind, and having a thousand arms and a
thousand eyes.
7. He held many clubs and maces in all his manifold arms, with which he
was striking his own back and breast, and then running away in this
direction and that (as if for fear of being caught by some one).
8. Then having struck himself fast and hard with his own hands, he fled
afar a hundred leagues for fear of being laid hold by some body.
9. Thus striking and crying and flying afar on all sides, he became
tired and spent, and lank in his legs and arms.
10. He fell flat with his languid limbs in a large blind pit, amidst the
deep gloom of a dark night, and in the depth of a dire dark cave (from
which he could not rise).
11. After the lapse of a long time, he scrambled out of the pit with
difficulty; and again continued to run away, and strike himself with his
own hands as before.
12. He ran again a great way, till at last he fell upon a thorny thicket
of _Karanja_ plants, which caught him as fast in its brambles, as a moth
or grasshopper is caught in a flame.
13. He with much difficulty extricated himself from the prickles of the
_Karanja_ furze; and began again to beat himself as before, and run in
his wonted course as usual.
14. Having then gone a great way off from that place, he got to a grove
of plantain arbour under the cooling moonbeams, where he sat for a while
with a smiling countenance.
15. Having then come out of the plantain grove, he went on running and
beating himself in his usual way.
16. Going again a great way in his hurriedness, he fell down again in a
great and darksome ditch, by being exhausted in all his limbs and his
whole body.
17. Rising from the ditch, he entered a plantain forest, and coming out
from that spot, he fell into another ditch and then in another _Karanja_
thicket.
18. Thus he was falling into one ditch after rising from a thorny furze,
and repeatedly beating himself and crying in secret.
19. I beheld him going on in this way for a long time, and then I with
all my force, rushed forward and stopped him in his way.
20. I asked him saying:—Who are you Sir, and why do you act in this
manner? What business have you in this place, and why do you wail and
trouble yourself for nothing?
21. Being thus asked by me, O Ráma! he answered me saying:—I am no body,
O sage! nor do I do any such thing as you are telling me about.
22. I am here stricken by you, and you are my greatest enemy; I am here
beheld and persecuted by you, both to my great sorrow and delight.
23. Saying so, he looked sorrowfully into his bruised body and limbs,
and then cried aloud and wept a flood of tears, which fell like a shower
of rain on the forest ground.
24. After a short while he ceased from his weeping, and then looking at
his limbs, he laughed and cried aloud in his mirth.
25. After his laughter and loud shouts were over, hear, O Ráma! what the
man next did before me. He began to tear off and separate the members of
his big body, and cast them away on all sides.
26. He first let fall his big head, and then his arms, and afterwards
his breast and then his belly also.
27. Thus the man having severed the parts of his body one after another,
was now ready to remove himself elsewhere with his legs only, by the
decree of his destiny.
28. After he had gone, there appeared another man to my sight, of the
same form and figure with the former one, and striking his body himself
as the other.
29. He kept running with his big legs and outstretched stout arms, until
he fell into the pit, whence he rose again, and betook to his flight as
before.
30. He fell into a pond again, and then rose and ran with his body
wringing with pain; falling again in hidden caves, and then resorting to
the cooling shade of forest trees.
31. Now ailing and now regaling, and now torturing himself with his own
hands; and in this way I saw him for sometime with horror and surprise
in myself.
32. I stopped him in his course, and asked about what he was doing; to
which he returned his crying and laughter for his answers by turns.
33. Finding at last his body and limbs decaying in their strength, he
thought upon the power of destiny, and the state of human lot, and was
prepared to depart.
34. I came again to see another succeeding him in the same desert path,
who had been flying and torturing himself in the same way as the others
gone before him.
35. He fell in the same dark pit in his flight, where I stood long to
witness his sad and fearful plight.
36. Finding this wretched man not rising above the pit for a long time,
I advanced to raise him up, when I saw another man following his
footsteps.
37. Seeing him of the same form, and hastening to his impending fall in
the doleful pit, I ran to stop his fate, by the same query I made to the
others before.
38. But O lotus-eyed Ráma! the man paid no heed to my question and only
said, you must be a fool to know nothing of me.
39. You wicked Bráhman! he said to me, and went on in his course; while
I kept wandering in that dreadful desert in my own way.
40. I saw many such men coming one after the other to their unavoidable
ruin, and though I addressed to all and every one of them, yet they
softly glided away by me, like phantoms in a dream.
41. Some of them gave no heed to my saying, as a man pays no attention
to a dead body; and some among the pit-fallen had the good fortune of
rising again.
42. Some among these had no egress from the plantain grove for a long
while, and some were lost forever, amidst the thorns and thistles of
_Karanja_ thickets.
43. There were some pious persons among them, that had no place for
their abode; though that great desert was so very extensive as I have
told you already (and capable of affording habitations for all and many
more of them).
44. This vast desert is still in existence, together with these sorts of
men therein; and that place is well known to you, Ráma, as the common
range of mankind. Don’t you remember it now, with all the culture of
your mind from your early youth?
45. O that dreadful desert is this world, filled with thorns and dangers
on all sides. It is a dark desert amidst a thick spread darkness, and no
body that comes herein, finds the peace and quiet of his heart, except
such as have acquired the divine knowledge, which makes it a rose garden
to them. (See the pit-falls in the bridge of Addison’s Vision of
Mirza).
CHAPTER LXXXXIX.
HISTORY OF THE HEART CONTINUED.
Argument. Explanation of the preceding Allegory.
Ráma said:—What is that great desert, Sir, and when was it seen by me,
and how came it to be known to me? What were those men there, and what
were they about?
2. Vasishtha replied:—Attend O great-armed Ráma! and I will tell you
all:—
That great desert is not distant nor different from this wilderness of
the world.
3. That which bears the name of the world, is a deep and dark abyss in
itself. Its hollowness is unfathomable and unfordable; and its un-reality
appearing as reality to the ignorant, is to be known as the great desert
spoken of before.
4. The true reality is obtainable by the light of reason only, and by
the knowledge of one object alone. This one is full without its union
with any other, it is one and only by itself.
5. The big bodied men, that you beheld wandering therein, know them to
be the minds of men, and bound to the miseries of the world.
6. Their observer was Reason personified in myself, and it was I only
and no other person, that could discern the folly of their minds by my
guiding reason.
7. It is my business to awaken those drowsy minds to the light of
reason, as it is the work of the sun to open the lotus-buds to bloom, by
his enlivening rays.
8. My counsels have prevailed on some minds and hearts, which have
received them with attention; and have turned them away from earthly
broils, to the way of true contentment and tranquility.
9. But there were others that paid no attention to my lectures through
their great ignorance; but fell down into the pit, upon being chid by
me with reproofs and rebukes.
10. Those deep and dark pits were no other than the pits of hell and the
plantain groves of which I have told you, were the gardens of Paradise.
11. Know these to be the seats of those minds which long for heavenly
joys, and the dark pits to be the abode of hellish hearts, which can
never get their release from those darksome dungeons.
12. Those who having once entered the plantain grove, do not come out
any more from it; know them to be the minds of the virtuous, and fraught
with all their virtues.
13. Those which having fallen into the _Karanja_ thickets, were unable
to extricate themselves from the thorns; know them to be the minds of
men, that are entangled in the snares of the world.
14. Some minds which were enlightened with the knowledge of truth, got
released from the snares; but the unenlightened are bound to repeated
transmigrations in different births.
15. The souls which are subjected to metempsychosis, have their rise and
fall in repetition, from higher to lower births, and the _vice-versa_
likewise.
16. The thick thicket of _Karanja_ brambles, represents the bonds of
conjugal and family relations; they are the source of various human
desires, which are springs of all other woe, difficulty and dangers.
17. The minds that have been confined in the _Karanja_ bushes are those,
that are repeatedly born in human bodies, and are repeatedly entangled
into domestic attachments from which all other animals are quite at
large.
18. O support of Raghu’s race! the plantain grove which I told you was
cooling with moonbeams; know the same to be the refreshing arbour of
heaven, which gives delight to the soul.
19. Those persons are placed here, who have their bodies fraught with
virtuous deeds and edified by persevering devotion and austerities, and
whose souls are elevated above others.
20. Those ignorant, thoughtless and unmindful men, that slighted my
advice, were themselves slighted by their own minds, which were deprived
of the knowledge of their own souls and of their reason.
21. Those who told me, “we are undone at your sight, and you are our
greatest enemy”; were demented fools, and melting away with their
lamentations (for having disregarded my counsels).
22. Those who were loudly wailing, and let fall a flood of tears in
their weeping; were men who bitterly deplored in their minds for being
snatched from the snare of pleasures, to which they had been so fondly
attached.
23. Those having a little sense and reason, but not arriving to the pure
knowledge of God; were bitterly complaining in their hearts, for being
obliged to forsake their fond enjoyments of life.
24. Those who came to their understanding, now wept over the pains which
they had inflicted on their bodies, for the supportance of their
families; and were grieved in their minds to leave behind the objects of
their care, for whom they had taken such pains.
25. The minds that had some light of reason, and had not yet arrived to
divine knowledge, were still sorrowing for having to leave behind their
own bodies, wherein they had their late abode.
26. Those who smiled in the cheerfulness of their hearts, were men who
had come to the light of reason; and it was their reason which gave
consolation to their hearts.
27. The reasonable soul that is removed from its bondage of the world,
exults with joy in its mind, to find itself liberated from the cares of
life.
28. Those men who laughed to scorn their battered and shattered bodies,
were glad to think in their minds, how they got rid of the confines of
their bodies and limbs, the accomplices of their actions.
29. Those who laughed with scorn to see the falling members of their
bodies, were glad to think in their minds, that they were no better than
instruments to their various labours in the world.
30. Those who had come to the light of reason, and had found their rest
in the supreme state of felicity, looked down with scorn upon the former
abodes of their meanness from a distance.
31. The man who was stopped by me on his way and asked with concern
(about what he was going to do); was made to understand how the power of
wisdom could outbrave the desperate.
32. The weakened limbs, that gradually disappeared from sight, meant the
subjection of the members of the body, under the control of the mind,
that is freed from its venality of riches.
33. The man that is represented with a thousand arms and eyes, is a
symbol of the covetous mind, which looks to and longs after everything,
and wants to grasp all things, as with so many hands. (The ambition of
Alexander is described to count the spheres, and grasp the earth and
heaven in his arms).
34. The man that was striking himself with his blows, meant the torments
which a man inflicts on his own mind, by the strokes of his anxieties
and cares.
35. The man who had been running away with striking hard blows upon his
body, signified how the mind runs all about, being lashed at every
moment by the strokes of his insatiate desires.
36. The man that afflicts himself by his own desires, and then flies to
this way and that, signifies his fool-heartedness to hunt after
everything, and be a runaway from himself.
37. Thus every man being harassed by his ceaseless desires, pants in his
mind to fly to his Maker, and set his heart to _yoga_ meditation.
38. All these ceaseless woes are the making of one’s own mind, which
being worried at last by its incessant anxieties, strives to retire from
them, to find its final repose in _yoga_.
39. The mind is entrapped in the net of its own wishes, as the silk worm
is entwined in the cocoon by the thread of its own making.
40. The more is the mind of man afflicted by troubles, the more busily
is it employed in its foibles; just as a boy indulges himself in his
playfulness, unmindful of the evils waiting upon it.
41. The mind of man is in the same plight as that of the foolish ape,
which in striving to pull out the peg of a half split timber, lost its
life by the smashing of its testes in the crevice. (See the story of the
ape and its pulling the peg in the Hitopadesa and its Persian version of
the Anvarsoheli).
42. No flight can release the mind, unless it is practised to
resignation, restrained from its other pursuits, and constrained to the
continued practice of pious meditation, which can only relieve its
sorrows.
43. It is the misjudgment of the mind, that is the cause of accumulated
woes, which increase in height as the peak of a mount; so it is the
government of the mind which melts our woes, like the hoarfrost under
sunbeams.
44. Accustom your mind to the righteous ways pointed out by the sástras
in all your life time. Restrain your appetites, and govern your
passions, and observe the taciturnity of holy saints and sages. You will
at last arrive to the holy state of holies, and rest under the cooling
umbrage of holiness, and shall no more have to grieve under the
calamities which betide all mankind.
CHAPTER C.
HEALING OF THE HEART.
Argument. Arguing the Omnipotence of the Deity from the powers of the
mind; and showing ignorance and knowledge to be the different causes of
Human bondage and liberation in life.
Vasishtha continued:—I have told you of the origination of the mind
from the essence of the Supreme being; it is of the same kind, and yet
not the same with its source, but like the waves and waters of the sea.
(The mind being but an attribute of the Divine soul).
2. The minds of the enlightened are not different from the Divine Mind;
as those that have the knowledge of the community of waters, do not
regard the waves to differ from the waters of the sea.
3. The minds of the unenlightened are the causes of their error, as
those not knowing the common property of water, find a difference in the
waters of the waves and the sea.
4. It is requisite for the instruction of the unlearned, to acquaint
them of the relation between the significant words and their
significations (as the relation of water between the waves and the sea).
5. The Supreme Brahma is omnipotent, and is full and perfect and
undecaying for ever. The mind has not the properties that belong to the
omnipresent soul.
6. The Lord is almighty and omnipresent, and distributes his all
diffusive power, in proportion as he pleases to every one he likes.
7. Observe Ráma, how the intellectual powers are distributed in all
animated bodies (in their due proportion); and how his moving force is
spread in the air, and his immobility rests in the rocks and stones.
8. His power of fluidity is deposited in the water, and his power of
inflammation is exhibited in fire; his vacuity is manifested in vacuum,
and his substantiality in all solid substances.
9. The omnipotence of Brahma, is seen to stretch itself to all the ten
sides of the universe; his power of annihilation is seen in the
extinction of beings; and his punishment is evident, in the sorrows of
the miserable.
10. His felicity is felt in the hearts of the holy, and his prowess is
seen in the persons of giants; his creative power is known in the works
of his creation, and his power of destruction in the desolation of the
world, at the end of the great Kalpa age.
11. Everything is situated in Brahma, as the tree is contained in the
seed of the same kind, and afterwards developes in its roots and sprouts,
its leaves and branches, and finally in its flowers and fruits.
12. The power called the living principle, is a reflexion of God, and is
of a nature between the thinking mind and dull matter, and is derived
from Brahma.
13. The nature of God is unchangeable, although it is usual to attribute
many varieties to him; as we call the same vegetable by the different
names of a germ, a sprout, a shrub, a plant and a tree at its different
stages of growth.
14. Know Ráma, the whole world to be Brahma, who is otherwise termed the
Ego. He is the all pervading soul, and the everlasting stupendous fabric
of the cosmos.
15. That property in him which has the power of thinking, is termed the
mind; which appears to be something other than the Soul, thus we
erroneously see peacock’s feathers in the sky, and froths in the eddies
of water (and suppose them as different things from the sky and water).
16. The principles of thought and animation—the mind and life, are but
partial reflexions of the Divine Soul; and the form of mind is the
faculty of thought, as that of life is the power of animation. (The one
is called the rational and the other animating soul).
17. Thus the mind being but the thinking power of Brahma, receives the
appellation of Brahmá; and this power appearing as a part of the
impersonal Brahma, is identified with Ego (the personal Brahma).
18. It is our error which makes a difference between the soul and mind,
and Brahma and Brahmá; because the properties which belong to the mind,
are the same with those of the self-existent soul.
19. That which is variously named as the principle of mind or thought,
is the same power of omnipotence which is settled in the mind (which is
the repository of the thinking powers).
20. So are all the properties of the living soul, contained in and
derived from the universal soul of Brahma; as all the properties of
vegetation, blossoming and fructification of trees, are contained in the
season of spring, and are dispensed among the plants, agreeably to their
respective soil and climate, and other circumstances (of their culture
&c.).
21. As the earth yields its various fruits and flowers in their season,
so the hearts and minds of men, entertain their thoughts and passions in
their proper times: some appearing at one time and others at another
(like the paddies and other grains of particular seasons).
22. And as the earth produces its harvests, according to their
particular soil and season; so the heart and mind exhibit their thoughts
and feelings of their own accord, and not caused by another.
23. The numbers and forms which convey determinate ideas, as
distinguished from others of the same kind (as the figures in arithmetic
and geometry), are all expressed in words coined by the mind from the
mint of the mind of Brahma, the original source of ideas.
24. The mind adopts the same image as the reflexions which it receives
from without, or the thoughts and imaginations it forms of itself, and
as the instance of the Aindava brothers, serves to support this truth
(of the double power of intuition and perception of the mind, to see
into its own inner operations, and receive the impressions from
without).
25. The animating principle (jíva-zoa), which is the cause of this
creation, resides in the Supreme Spirit, like the fluctuation which is
seen in the unagitated waters of the oceans.
26. The intelligent soul sees these hosts of creation to be moving in
the essence of Brahma, as he beholds the innumerable waves, billows and
surges of the sea, rolling on the surface of the waters.
27. There is no other reality that bears a name or form or figure or any
action or motion except the supreme spirit; in which all things move
about as the waves of the sea water (and which is the real source of the
unreals).
28. As the rising and falling and continuation and disappearance of
waves, occur on the surface of the sea by the fluctuation of its waters;
so the creation, sustentation and annihilation of the universe, take
place in Brahma, by the agency of Brahma himself.
29. It is by the inward heat of his spirit, that Brahma causes this
world to appear as a mirage in himself; and whatever varieties it
presents in its various scenes, they are all expansions and
manifestations of the Divine Spirit.
30. All causality and instrumentality, and their resultants as well as
the production, continuance and destruction of all things; take place in
Brahma himself; beside which there is no other cause whatever.
31. There is no appetence nor pleasure, nor any desire or error in him,
who relies his dependence in the Supreme; for how can one have any
desire or error in himself who lives in the Supreme self, who is devoid
of them?
32. The whole is a form of the Supreme soul, and all things are but
forms of the same; and the mind also is a form of it, as a golden
ornament is but a form of the gold.
33. The mind which is ignorant of its Supreme origin, is called the
living soul; which from its ignorance of the Supreme soul, resembles a
friend who has alienated himself from his true friend.
34. The mind which is misled by its ignorance of the all-intelligent
God, to imagine its own personality as a reality; is as one who believes
his living soul to be the production of vacuum; (or as something
produced from nothing).
35. The living soul although it is a particle of the Supreme soul, shows
itself in this world as no soul at all (but a form of mere physical
vitality). So the purblind see two moons in the sky, and are unable to
distinguish the true moon from the false one.
36. So the soul being the only real entity, it is improper to speak of
its bondage and liberation; and the imputation of error to it, is quite
absurd in the sight of lexicographers, who define it as infallible.
37. It is a wrong impression to speak of the bondage of the soul, which
is ever free from bonds; and so it is untrue to seek the emancipation of
the soul, which is always emancipate.
38. Ráma asked:—The mind is known sometimes to arrive at a certainty,
which is changed to uncertainty at another; how then do you say that the
mind is not under the bondage of error?
39. Vasishtha answered:—It is a false conceit of the ignorant to imagine
its bondage; and their imagination of its emancipation, is equally a
false conception of theirs.
40. It is ignorance of the _smriti sástra_, that causes one to believe
in his bondage and emancipation; while in reality there are no such
things as bondage and liberation.
41. Imagination represents an unreality as reality, even to men of
enlightened understandings; as a rope presents the appearance of a snake
even to the wise.
42. The wise man knows no bondage or liberation, nor any error of any
kind: all these three are only in the conceptions of the ignorant.
43. At first the mind and then its bondage and liberation, and
afterwards its creation of the unsubstantial material world, are all but
fabulous inventions that have come into vogue among men, as the story of
the boy of old (or as the old grand-mother’s tale).
Note—The conclusion of this chapter concerning the negation of bondage
and liberation of the soul, and its error and enlightenment &c., rests
on the text of a Sruti; which negates everything in the sight of one who
has come to the light of the universal soul. The passage is:—
न निरोधो नचोत्पत्तिः ननवद्धो नच साधकः । ममुक्षर्णबै मुक्त इत्येषा परमार्थताः
CHAPTER CI.
STORY OF THE BOY AND THREE PRINCES.
(_An Allegory of the Hindu Triads_).
Argument. The old Nurse’s tale of the three Princes or Powers of the
Soul, in elucidation of the Fabrications of Imagination.
Ráma said:—Relate to me, O chief of sages! the tale of the boy, in
illustration of the Mind (and the other principles of our intellectual
nature).
2. Vasishtha replied:—Hear me Ráma, tell you the tale of a silly and
jolt-headed boy, who once asked his nurse, to recite to him some pretty
story for his amusement.
3. The Nurse then began to relate her fine wrought story for the
pleasure of the boy, with a gladsome countenance, and in accents sweet
as honey.
4. There were once on a time, some three highminded and fortunate young
princes; in a desolate country, who were noted for their virtues and
valour. (The three princes were the three hypostases of the holy
trinity, dwelling in the land of inexistence or vacuity, _asat-pure_.
_i.e._ These triple powers were in being in empty space, which is
co-eternal with them).
5. They shone in that vast desolate land resembling the spacious sky,
like stars in the expanse of the waters below. Two of them were
unbegotten and increate, and third was not born of the mother’s womb.
(These three uncreated princes, were the principles of the soul and the
mind, and the living soul—jíva, which is not procreated in the womb with
the body).
6. It happened once on a time, that these three, started together from
their dreary abode (of vacuum), for the purpose of finding a better
habitation somewhere else. They had no other companion with them, and
were sorrowful in their minds, and melancholy in their countenances; as
if they were transported from their native country. (This means the
emigration of these principles, from the eternal and inane sphere of
Brahma, to the mundane world of mortality, which was very painful to
them).
7. Having come out of that desert land, they set forth with their faces
looking forward; and proceeded onward like the three planets Mercury,
Venus and Jupiter in their conjunction.
8. Their bodies which were as delicate as _Sirísha_ flowers, were
scorched by the powerful sun shining on their backs; and they were dried
like leaves of trees by the heat of the summer day on their way. (_i.e._
Their tender spiritual bodies melted under the heat of the solar world).
9. Their lotus like feet were singed by the burning sands of their
desert path, and they cried aloud like some tender fawns, going astray
from their herd saying:—“O Father save us”. (The alienated soul and
mind, which are doomed to rove about in this world are subjected to
endless pains, causing them to cry out like the tormented spirit of our
Lord:—Eli Eli Lama Sabachthani;—Lord, Lord, hast thou forsaken me?).
10. The soles of their feet were bruised by the blades of grass, and the
joints of their bodies, were weakened by the heat of the sun; while
their fair forms were covered with dust flying from the ground on their
lonesome journey. (Their pilgrimage in the thorny and sunny paths of the
world of woes).
11. They saw the clump of a leash of trees by the way side, which were
braided with tufts of spikes upon them, and loaded with fruits and
flowers hanging downward; while they formed a resort for flights of the
fowls of air, and flocks of the fauna; of the desert, resting both above
and around them. (The copse of the three trees, means the triple states
of _dharma_, _artha_ and _Káma_, or virtue, wealth and their fruition,
which are sought after by all).
12. The two first of these trees did not grow of themselves, (but were
reared by men); and the third which was easy of ascent, bore no seeds to
produce other plants in future. (_i.e._ Virtue and wealth require to
thrive by cultivation, and enjoyment which is delectable to taste, is
not productive of any future good or reward).
13. They were refreshed from the fatigue of their journey, under the
shade of these trees; and they halted there like the three Deities
Indra, Váya and Yama, under the umbrage of the Párijáta arbour of
Paradise. (The three gods—Jupiter, Eolus and Pluto, were the regents of
the three regions of heaven, sky and the infernal world:—_swar_,
_bhuvar_ and _bhur_, composing the three spheres of their circuit).
14. They eat the ambrosial fruits of these trees; and drank their
nectarious juice to their fill; and after decorating themselves with
_guluncha_ chaplets, they retook themselves to their journey. (_i.e._ The
intellectual powers are supported by the fruits of their acts in their
journey through life).
15. Having gone a long way, they met at the mid-day a confluence of
three rivers, running with its rapid currents and swelling waves. (The
three streams are the three qualities of _satva_, _rajas_ and _tamas_ or
of goodness, mediocrity and excess, which are commingled in all the acts
of mankind).
16. One of these was a dry channel and the other two were shallow and
with little water in them; and they looked like the eyes of blind men
with their blinded eye-balls. (_i.e._ The channel of _satva_ or temperance
was almost dried up, and that of _rajas_ or mediocrity had become
shallow for want of righteous deeds; but the stream of _tamas_ or excess
was in full force, owing to the unrighteous conduct of men).
17. The princes who were wet with perspiration, bathed joyfully in the
almost dried up channel; as when the three gods Brahmá, Vishnu and Siva
lave their sweating limbs, in the limpid stream of Ganges. (The three
powers of the soul, like the three persons of the Puránic trinity, were
respectively possessed of the three qualities of action; and yet their
pure natures preferred to bathe in the pure stream of goodness—_satva_,
as in the holy waters of heavenly Ganga—the hallowed Mandákiní).
18. They sported a long while in the water, and drank some draughts of
the same, which was as sweet as milk, and cheered their spirits with
full satisfaction of their hearts (meaning that _satwika_ or good
conduct is sweeter far to the soul, than any other done as unjust or
showy—_rajas_ or _tamas_).
19. They resumed their journey, and arrived at the end of the day and
about sunset, to their future abode of a new-built city, standing afar
as on the height of a hill. (This new-built city was the new-made earth;
to which the spirits descended from their Empyrean).
20. There were rows of flags fluttering like lotuses, in the limpid lake
of the azure sky; and the loud noise of the songs of the citizens was
heard at a distance.
21. Here they saw three beautiful and goodly looking houses, with
turrets of gold and gems shining afar, like peaks of mount Meru under
the blazing sun. (These were the human bodies, standing and walking
upright upon the earth, and decorated with crowns and coronets on their
heads).
22. Two of these were not the works of art, and the third was without
its foundation; and the three princes entered at last into the last of
these. (The two first were the bodies of men in their states of sleep
and deep sleep, called _swápa sopor_ or _swapnas-somnus_ and
_sushupti-hupnos_ or _hypnotes_, which are inborn in the soul; but it is
the _jágrata_ or waking body which is the unstable work of art).
23. They entered this house, and sat and walked about in it with joyous
countenances; and chanced to get three pots as bright as gold therein.
(These pots were the three sheaths of the soul, mind and of the vital
principle, called the _ pránamáyá-kosha_). 24. The two first broke into
pieces upon their lifting, and the third was reduced to dust at its
touch. The far sighted princes however, took up the dust and made a new
pot therewith? It means, that though these sheaths are as volatile as
air, yet it is possible to employ the vital principle to action.
25. Then these gluttonous princes cooked in it a large quantity of corn
for their food; amounting to a hundred _dronas_ minus one, for
subsistence of their whole life-time. (It means that the whole life-time
of a hundred years, allotted to man in the present age of the world, is
employed in consuming so many measures of food, except perhaps one
_Drona_, which is saved by his occasional fasts during his long life).
26. The princes then invited three Bráhmans (childhood, youth and age)
to the fare prepared by them, two of whom (childhood and youth) were
bodiless; and the third (_i.e._ old age) had no mouth wherewith to eat.
27. The mouthless Bráhman took a hundred dronas of the rice and eat it
up, because he devoured the child and youth, and the princes took the
remainder of the Bráhman’s food for their diet (which was nothing).
28. The three princes having refreshed themselves with the relics of the
Bráhman’s food; took their rest in the same house of their next abode,
and then went out in their journey of hunting after new abodes (or
repeated transmigrations).
29. Thus I have related to you, O Ráma! the whole of the story of the
boy and princes; now consider well its purport in your mind, and you
will become wise thereby.
30. After the nurse had finished her relation of the pretty parable, the
boy seemed glad at what he had heard (though it is plain without
understanding its import).
31. I have told you this story, O Ráma! in connection with my lecture on
the subject of the mind; and it will serve to explain to you, the
fabrication of the mind of this imaginary being of the world.
32. This air-built castle of the world, which has come to be taken for a
reality, is like the story of the body, but a false fabrication of the
old nurse’s imagination. (Or old grand-mother’s tale, and giving a name
and form to an airy nothing).
33. It is the representation of the various thoughts and ideas of our
minds, which exhibit themselves to view, according to the notions we
have of them in our states of bondage and liberation. (_i.e._ Our bondage
to gross bodies, exhibits them in their grosser form, and our liberation
from the materialistic, shows them in their subtile and immaterial
shapes).
34. Nothing is really existent except the creations of our imagination,
and it is our fancy which fashions all the objects in their peculiar
fantastic forms. (Everything appears to us as we fancy it to be; whereby
the same thing is viewed in a different light, not only by different
persons; but by the same person in a different state of mind).
35. The heavens, earth, sky and air, as also the rivers, mountains and
the sides and quarters of the sky, are all creations of our fancy, like
the visions in our dreams; which join and disjoin and fashion the views
in their phantastic forms. (Imagination or phantasy, is a faculty
representative of the phenomena of internal or external worlds. Sir
William Hamilton).
36. As the princes, the rivers and the future city, were mere creations
of the nurse’s imagination, so the existence of the visible world, is
but a production of the imaginative power of man. (The nurse’s
representations of the princes &c., were rather the prosopopœia or
personifications of her abstract thoughts; as the material world is a
manifestation of the ideal, and called by the sufis _suwari manavi_ and
_suwari zahiri_).
37. The imaginative power manifests all things all around, as the moving
waters, show the rise and fall of the waves in the sea. “It gives a
shape of airy nothing”. “It is the power of apprehending ideas and
combining them into new forms and assemblages”.
38. It was this imaginative power of God, which raised the ideas of
things in his omniscient and all comprehensive soul; and these ideals
were afterwards manifested as real by his omnipotence; just as things
lying in the dark are brought to view by the light of the day.
(Imaginatio est rei corporae figuram contemplari. Descartes and Addison.
It is a lively conception of the objects of sight. Reid. It recalls the
ideas by its reproductive fancy, and combines them by its productive
power).
39. Know hence, O Ráma! the whole universe to be the net-work of
imagination, and your fancy to be the most active power of the mind.
Therefore repress the thickening phantoms of your fleeting fancy, and
obtain your tranquility by your sole reliance on the certainty of the
immutable soul of souls.
“Retire the world, shut out, imagination’s airy wings repress; call thy
thoughts home &c.” Young’s Night thoughts.
THE CO-ORDINATE TRIADS.
-----------------------------|-----------------|---------------------
/ I. |II. |III.
/ | |
/ The Three Princes or |The Three Stages |The Three Planets.
/ Intellectual Powers. | or Vyahritis.|
/ | |
/ 1. The Soul. |1. Swar—Heaven. |1. Jupiter.
/ 2. The Mind. |2. Bhuvar—Sky. |2. Mercury.
/ 3. The Living Spirit. |3. Bhúr—Earth. |3. Venus.
/ | |
/ ------------------|-----------------|-----------------|---------------------
| | |
IV. |V. |VI. |VII.
| | |
The Three Deities. |The Three Trees |The Three Rivers.|The Three Gods.
| of Act. | | of Rest.
| | |
1. Indra of heaven.|1. Dharma—Acts. |1. Satya—Goodness|1. Brahma of creation.
2. Váyu—Air ether. |2. Artha—Gains. |2. Rajas— |2. Vishnu sustentation.
3. Yama—Death or |3. Káma—Fruition.| Righteousness.|3. Siva dissolution.
mortal state. | |3. Tamas—Vice. |
| | |
\-------------------|-----------------|-----------------|----------------------
\ | |
\ VIII. |IX. |X.
\ | |
\ The Three Houses |The Three Pots |The Three Bráhman
\ | or Sheaths. | Guests.
\ | |
\ 1. Sushupti—Sleep. |1. Of the Soul |1. Childhood Neutral.
\ | Neutral. |
\ 2. Swapna—Dream. |2. Of the Mind |2. Youth Active.
\ | Action. |
\ 3. Jágrata—Waking. |3. Of Life to |3. Old age
\ | operation. | co-operation.
\ | |
------------------------------------------------------------------
* * * * *
CHAPTER CII.
ON THE INDIVISIBILITY AND IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.
Argument:—Fallacy of Egoism, and Rational Investigation into the nature
of the Soul. The Means of curbing Egotism, and the flight of Fancy.
Vasishtha continued:—The ignorant are subject to errors caused by
their false fancies, from which the wise are entirely free; and they
by imagining and attributing perishable properties to the imperishable
soul, beguile themselves like children, by taking their dolls for men.
(It is the attributing of sensible properties to the conscious soul).
2. Ráma rejoined:—What is this perishable property, which is imagined of
and imputed to the imperishable soul? Tell me, also O greatest of
theologians! what is that misrepresentation, which misleads the mind to
the erroneous conception, of the unreal world for a reality.
3. Vasishtha replied:—The soul by its continued association with unreal
and perishable things, thinks itself as one of them, and takes upon it
the title of an unreal and perishable egoism, as a boy by association of
his thoughts imagines a false apparition to be a real ghost. (Egoism and
tuism and suism, means the personality or personal reality of the three
persons I, thou and this—aham, twam and sah, which in all systems of
mystic philosophy, is denied of all finite beings. The absolute Ego is
the supreme soul, and all other souls are but reflections of it).
4. All things being situated in one absolute reality, it is hard to
account for one’s personal egoism; and to say how and whence this
conception came to be in vogue. (The impersonal and universal soul is
the true Ego, and has no personal existence what ever).
5. In fact there is no egoism beside that of the supreme soul; and yet
is the nature of the injudicious to make a difference of a finite and
infinite Ego, and of a mortal and immortal soul; as we see two streams
of water in the sun-beams in a sandy desert. (The human soul is no
other, than a particle of the supreme).
6. The mind is a spacious mind (of richest gems) in this extensive
creation, and depends for its support on the supreme soul; as the waves
are dependent on the waters of the sea, for their rise and subsistence.
(The mind is the individual soul, but the soul is the universal and
undivided spirit and opposed to the European doctrine of the minds being
a generic and the soul an individual name).
7. Therefore give up, O Ráma! your erroneous view of the reality of the
world and your reliance on the baseless fabric of the universe, and rely
with delight on your judicious view of the true substratum and support
of all.
8. Inquire now into the nature of Truth, with a rational understanding;
and being freed from all error and bias, discard all that is false and
untrue.
The idea of Tritheism and faith in the mystic number three, is as deeply
rooted in the Hindu mind, as we find it in the Alexandrine triad of old,
and the Trinity of modern Christians. We have already given an ample
exposition of the various triads in Hindu theology and other sciences in
our introduction to this work (Vol. I. Sect XI. p. 61). Besides those we
meet herewith some other triads which are conveyed in the allegorical
story of the old nurse to her infant care for his early instruction,
though it is doubtful that the boy could either understand or derive any
benefit thereby. It will be worth while to mention here the Alexandrian
Triad of the three hypostases of the one Being in the _psyche_—eternal
soul, _nous_—the mind, and _Zoa_—Jíva—life or activity. This last is the
same with the _logos_—Word, the manifestation of Divine power in whom
there was life also. Others formed their Triad of matter, soul and
force, as the three _principia_ in nature. The Christian Trinity, which
some maintain as an imitation of the Alexandrians, presents many
differences respecting some portion of this doctrine, which resulted in
the heresies of Arianism, Sabellianism, Nestorianism &c. see further
particulars on this head in Lewe’s History of Philosophy, Vol. 1, p.
391.
9. Why do you think the unconfined soul to be confined in the body? It
is vain to suppose the nature of the infinite soul, to be confined in
any place.
10. To suppose the one as many, is to make a division of and create a
variety in the nature of the Supreme Spirit. Again the Divine essence
being diffused alike in all, it cannot be said to be confined in one
thing and absent in another.
11. The body being hurt, the soul is supposed to be hurt likewise; but
no pain or hurt or sickness of any kind, can appertain to the unchanging
soul.
12. The body being hurt or weakened or destroyed, there is no injury
done to the soul, as the bellows (of the blacksmith) being burnt, the
wind with which it was filled, escapes unconsumed.
13. Whether the body lasts or falls, it is of no matter to us, (since
the soul survives its loss); as the flower being destroyed, deposits its
fragrance in the air.
14. Let any pain or pleasure befall on the body, as dew-drops falling on
lotus-leaves: it can affect us no more than it is for the fading lotus,
to affect or afflict in any manner the flying and aerial bee.
15. Let the body rise or fall, or fly in smoke and mix with the air;
these changing forms of it, can have no effect whatever on the soul.
16. The connection of the body with the soul, is like that between the
cloud and the wind; and as that of the lotus with the bee. (The former
is moved and alighted upon by the latter, and not that the latter is
preserved by the former).
17. If the mind which forms a part of all living bodies, is not affected
by bodily pain; how is it possible that the primary power of intellect
which resides in the soul, shall ever be subject to death?
18. If you know, O wise Ráma, the soul to be indestructible and
inseparable (from any place or person), what cause then can you have to
sorrow for the supposed separation or disappearance of the all-pervading
spirit?
19. After destruction of the body, the soul flies from it, to abide in
the infinite space of empty air; like the wind mixing with the air after
dispersion of the clouds, and the bee flying to it after the lotus has
faded away.
20. The mind also is not relaxed with all its enjoyments of life, unless
it is burnt down by the knowledge of truth; why then speak of the
annihilation of the soul.
21. The connection of the perishable body and imperishable soul, is
analogous to that of a vessel and the fruit it holds, and of a pot and
the air in it. (_i.e._ Of the container and the contained; the frame-work
is fragile, but its component is infrangible).
22. As a plum is held in the hand or it falls into a pit, so the vacuous
soul is reposed in or deposed from the body.
23. As a pot being broken, its vacuous part mixes, with the air; so the
body being dissolved, the soul remains unhurt in the empty space.
24. The mind and body of living beings, are apt to disappear at times
from their habitations, and hide themselves under the shroud of death;
why then should we sorrow for such renegades?
25. Seeing the death and disappearance of others at all times, no fool
learns to think for himself, but fears to die like all ignorant fools.
26. Therefore renounce, O Ráma! Your selfish desires, and know the
falsity of egoism. Forsake the bond of the body for flying upward, as a
new fledged bird flies above, and leaves its nest behind.
27. It is an act of the mind, to lead us to good or evil; as it is
another function of it, to fabricate the false fabric of the world like
appearances in a dream.
28. It is our incorrigible ignorance, that stretches out these imageries
for our misery only; and it is our imperfect knowledge, which shows
these false-hoods as realities unto us.
29. It gives us a dim sight of things, as we view the sky obscured by a
mist; and it is the nature of the mind, to have an erroneous view of
objects.
30. The dull and unreal world, appears as a reality to us; and the
imaginary duration of the universe, is as a protracted dream in our
sleep.
31. It is the thought or idea of the world, that is the cause of its
formal existence, as it is the blinking of the eye, that shows a
thousand disks of the sun and moon in the clear sky.
32. Now Ráma, employ your reason to annihilate the formal world from
your mind, as the sun dissolves the snows by the heat of his beams.
33. As one wishing to overcome his cold, gets his object at sunrise; so
he who wishes to demolish his mind (its errors), succeeds in it at the
rise of his reason.
34. As ignorance increases, so it introduces a train of impervious
errors and evils. It spreads a magic spell around it, as Samvara the
sorcerer showered a flux of gold dust about him.
35. The mind makes the way to its own destruction by its worldliness,
and acts the part of its own catastrophe or self destruction by all its
acts.
36. The mind cares only for keeping itself from destruction; but it is a
fool not to know beforehand its imminent death.
37. The mind by its restless desires, hastens itself to a painful death;
which reasonable are trying to avoid; by their government of the mind.
(It is not right to trouble the mind with worldly cares).
38. The mind that is purified by reason, is purged from its volitions
and nolitions; and resigns itself to the will of the Divine soul, which
is ever present before it.
39. The curbing of the mind, is the magnanimity of soul, and gives rise
to liberation from pain, therefore try to restrain your mind, and not to
give a loose rein to it.
40. The world is a vast wilderness, full of the forests of our weal and
woe, and beset by the dragons of disease and death on all sides: the
irrational mind is as the rampant lord of the desert land, and drives us
anon to all sorts of dangers and difficulties.
41. As the sage ended his sermon, the day departed to its end; and the
sun declined to the west to his evening service. The assembly broke
after mutual salutations, and met again and greeted each other with the
parting night and rising sun. (This is the _Brahma muhúrta_ or dawning
day break at 4 A.M.)
CHAPTER CIII.
ON THE NATURE OF THE MIND.
Argument. The sufferings of men of ungovernable minds, serving as a
lesson towards the liberation of the wise.
Some minds are seen to break-forth in passions like the torrents of
oceans, and to heave and overflow on earth on every side. (By the
unrestrained rage of their appetites).
2. They reduce the great to lowness, and exalt the low also to
greatness; they make strangers of their friends, as also friends to
strangers. (Such is the changeful state of the human mind).
3. The mind makes a mountain of a mote by its thought, and thinks itself
a lord with its little of a trifle. (These are those that are puffed up
with vanity. Falsus honor juvat, non sed mendosum and mendacem. Horace).
4. The mind being elated by the prosperity, which attends upon it by the
will of God, spreads a large establishment for a while, and is then
reduced to poverty in a moment at its loss. (Fortuna nunquam perpetuo
est bona:—Good luck lasts not for ever. The highest spoke in fortune’s
wheel, may soon turn lowest. Fortuna transmutat incertos honores.
Fortune is ever shifting her uncertain favours).
5. Whatever things are seen in this world to be stationary or changeful,
are all but accidents according to the state of viewing them in that
light: Just as a passing vessel is thought stationary by its passenger
on board, but as moving by the spectators on the shore.
6. The mind is so changeful by the influence of time, place, power and
nature of acts and things, that it continually shuffles from one feeling
to another, like an actor personating his many parts on the stage.
7. It takes the truth for untruth and its reverse for certainty: so it
takes one thing for another, and its joy and grief are all of its own
making. (_i.e._ The creations of its imagination).
8. The fickle mind gets every thing according to its own doing, and all
the actions of our hands, feet and other members of the body, are
regulated by the same. (The mind is the mover of bodily organs).
9. Hence it is the mind that reaps the rewards of good or evil according
to its past acts; just as the tree bears its fruits, according as it is
pruned and watered in time. (Reap as you sow).
10. As the child makes a variety of his toy dolls at home from clay, so
the mind is the maker of all its good and bad chances, according to the
merit or demerit of its past actions.
11. Therefore the mind which is situated in the earthen dolls of human
bodies, can do nothing of its own will, unless it is destined so by
virtue of its former acts. (The mind that moves the body, is itself
moved by the destiny derived from its prior acts).
12. As the seasons cause the changes in trees, so the mind makes
differences in the dispositions of living beings. (As many men so many
minds, and hard to have two men of one mind).
13. The mind indulges in its sport of deeming a span as a league, and
_vice-versa_ of thinking a long as short, as in the case of the
operations of our dreams and fancy.
14. A Kalpa age is shortened to a moment, and so is a moment prolonged
to a Kalpa, by the different modes of the mind; which is the regulator
both of the duration and distance of time and place.
15. The perceptions of the quickness and slowness of motion, and of much
or little in quantity, as also of swiftness or tardiness of time, belong
to the mind and not to the dull material body (though these sensations
are derived by means of the bodily organs).
16. So the feelings of sickness and error and of dolor and danger, and
the passing of time and distance of place, all rise in the mind like the
leaves and branches of trees. (From its inborn perceptions of them).
17. The mind is the cause of all its feelings, as water is the cause of
the sea, and the heat of fire. Hence the mind is the source of all
things, and intimately connected with whatever is existent in the world.
18. The thoughts that we have of the agent, effect and instrument of
things, as also of the viewer, view and the instrumentality of sight,
all belong to the mind.
19. The mind alone is perceived to be in existence in the world; and its
representations of the forests and all other things are but variations
of itself! So the thinking man sees the substance of gold only, in all
its various formations of bangles and bracelets, which are taken for
naught. (All objectivity is dependant on the subjective mind, as there
is no perception of an object independent of the mind. See identity of
the subjective and objective in the Pantheistic Idealism of Spinoza).
CHAPTER CIV.
STORY OF A MAGIC SCENE.
Argument. Story of king Lavana and his court, and the Advent of a
Sorcerer there.
Vasishtha said:—Hear me relate to you Ráma a very pretty narrative,
representing the world as an enchanted city, stretched out by magic of
the magician Mind.
2. There lies on the surface of this earth a large and populous tract of
land by name of Northern Pándava, a country full of forests of various
kinds. (We know the Northern Kuru the Uttara Kuru or Otterokoros of
Ptolemy, to be the Trans-Himalayan Tartary, which is here termed the
North-Pándava, from the King Pandu’s rambles and the wanderings of the
Pándava princes in it in their exile).
3. The forests were deep and dense, and there dwell in the fastness of
these woods a number of holy hermits; while the Vidyádhara damsels had
wrought there many a bower of swinging creepers (for their amusement).
4. Heaps of rubicund farina, wafted by the breeze from full blown
lotuses, rose as high as crimson hills on the ground; which was
decorated with wreaths and garlands by the loads of flowers, which had
fallen thereon from the surrounding trees.
5. Groves of Karanja plants were decorated with bundles of blossoms, to
the utmost boundaries of the jungle; and the firmament resounded with
the rustling noise, emitted by the leafy date trees in the villages
around.
6. There was a range of tawny rocks on one side, and fields brown with
ripened corn on another; while the warbling of cerulean doves re-echoed
in the resonant groves about.
7. The shrill cry of the stork resounded in the forest, and the branches
of tamala and pátali flowers, hang down like ear-rings of the hills.
8. Flocks of various birds, were making a chorus with their vocal music;
and the blooming crimson blossoms of páribhadra arbors, were hanging
over the banks, all along the length of the running streams.
9. Damsels in the cornfields, were exciting the passion of love with
their vocal music; and the breezes blowing amidst forests of fruits and
flowers, dropped down the blossoms in copious showers.
10. The birds, Siddhas and seers were sitting and singing outside their
homes of mountain caverns; and made the valley symphonious with their
celestial strains of holy hymns.
11. The Kinnara and Gandharva concerts, were singing under their bowers
of plantain trees; and the greyish and gaysome groves of flowers, were
filled with the hum of the whistling breeze.
12. The lord of this romantic country, was the virtuous Lavana, a
descendant of king Harish Chandra; and as glorious as his sire the sun
upon earth. (This prince had descended of the solar race).
13. His fair fame formed a white diadem to crown his head, and adorn his
shoulders with its brightness; it whitened the hills in the form of so
many Sivas, besmeared with the hoary ashes upon his tufted head and
person.
14. His sword had made an end of all his enemies; who trembled as in a
fit of fever on the hearing of his august name.
15. His greatest exertion was devoted to the supportance to respectable
men; and his name was uttered like that of Hari by all his people.
16. The Apsara fairies sang with glee the songs of his praise, sitting
in the celestial seats of the gods on the tops of the Himalayan
mountains.
17. The regent of the skies heard with attention, the songs of the
heavenly maids, and the aerial swans and cranes of Brahmá, were
responsive to their eulogies with their gabbling cries. (_Dhani_ is the
enharmonic diapason of Indian music).
18. His uncommonly magnanimous and wonderous acts, which were free from
the fault of niggardliness; were unlike to any thing that was ever heard
or seen by any body.
19. His nature knew no wiliness, and it was a perfect stranger to pride
and arrogance; he kept himself steadfast to his magnanimity, as Brahmá
held himself fast to his rudráksha beads.
20. He used to take his seat in the royal throne amidst his courtiers,
as the lord of the day occupies his seat in the sky for the eight parts
(watches) of the day. (The Ritual day is divided into eight _yamárdha_
parts for particular rites and duties).
21. After he was seated there as gladly as the moon in the firmament,
his chieftains and legions appeared before the throne with their
salutations (and presenting of arms).
22. Then as the royal party was seated in the court-hall, beautiful
songstresses (that were in attendance), began to sing, and ravish the
hearts of the hearers, with the music of lutes.
23. Then a set of handsome maids, waved the beautiful chouries which
they held in their hands, over the person of the king: and the ministers
and counsellors, as wise as the preceptors of the gods and demons
(Vrihaspati and Sukra), took their seats beside him.
24. The ministers were then employed in the public affairs pending
before them; and the dextrous officers were engaged in relating the
reports of the country to the king.
25. There were the learned pandits reciting the holy legends from their
books, and the courteous panegyrists chaunting their sacred eulogies on
one side.
26. There appeared at this time a magician in his fantastic attire, and
with his blustering vauntings before the Court; in the manner of a
roaring cloud, threatening to deluge the earth with his showers of rain.
27. He bowed down to the ruler of the earth, and lowly bent his capped
head and neck before the court; as a tree hangs down its loads of
fruits, at the foot of a mountain.
28. He approached before the king, as a monkey advances to a shady and
lofty tree, loaded with fruits and flowers. (The artful sorcerer is
compared with the cunning monkey prying into a fruitful arbour).
29. The flippant brat then conveyed the fragrance of his sense, with the
breath of his mouth; and addressed the lofty headed king with his sweet
voice, as the humble bee hums to the lotus.
30. Reign O lord! that sittest on the earthly throne like the moon
enthroned on high, to mark one wonderful feat of my art, known as the
trick of Kharolikiká.
31. Saying so, he began to twirl about his magic staff set with
peacocks’ feathers, which began to display many wonders like the
wonderful works of creation.
32. The king beheld it describing a bright circlet, emitting the
particles of its rays around; and viewed in the manner, that the god
Indra views his variegated rainbow sparkling afar in the sky.
33. As this time a chieftain of Sinde (who was the master of horse,)
entered the court, as a cloud appears in the starry heaven.
34. He was followed by his swift and beautiful courser, as the _Uchcha
Sravá_ horse of Indra follows his master in the celestial regions. (This
is the Pegasus of the Hindus).
35. The chieftain brought the horse before the king and said this horse
my lord! is a match for the _Uchcha Sravá_, who was produced from the
milky ocean, and flies with the swiftness of the mind.
36. This horse of mine, O king of the earth! is the best of his kind,
and a compeer of Uchcha Sravás; he is a personification of the wind in
the swiftness of his flight.
37. My master has made a present of this horse to you, my lord; because
the best of things is a suitable present to the best of men. (Great
gifts are for the great; or, a donum worthy of the donor and donee).
38. After he had ended his speech the magician spoke in a voice, as
sweet as that of the swallow, after the roaring of the cloud is hushed
to silence.
39. Do you my lord ride upon this horse, and wander at your pleasure
with full lustre on earth; as the sun shines forth in splendour by his
revolving round the heavens.
40. Hearing this the king looked at the horse, and ordered him to be
brought before him, in a voice like that of the peacock answering the
roaring cloud.
41. The king saw the horse brought before him as a figure drawn in
painting, and gazed upon him with his fixed eyes and without closing his
eye-lids, as he was himself turned to a painting. (A gift horse is
looked in his gait, and not in his mouth).
42. Having looked upon him for a long time, he mounted on his back, and
sat still with his closed eye-lids, as the sage Agastya was confounded
at the sight of the sea and its rocks.
43. He continued for a couple of hours as if he was drowned in his
meditation, and as insensible saints remain in the enjoyment of their
internal and spiritual stupor.
44. He remained as spell-bound and overpowered by his own might, and
could not be roused from his stupefaction by any body, but was absorbed
in some thoughts of his own mind.
45. The flapping chouries ceased to wave about his person, and the
holders of the flappers remained as still as the moon beams at night.
46. The Courtiers remained motionless at seeing his quiescence, as when
the filaments of the lotus, remain unmoved, by their being besmeared in
the mud.
47. The noise of the people in the Courtyard, was all hushed and quiet;
as the roaring of the clouds is stopped at the end of the rains.
48. The ministers were drowned in their thoughtfulness and doubts at the
state of their king, as the host of the gods were filled with anxiety on
seeing the club bearing Vishnu fighting with the demons.
49. The people were struck with terror and dismay, at seeing this
apoplexy of their prince who remained with his closed eyes, like closed
lotuses shorn of their beauty.
CHAPTER CV.
THE BREAKING OF THE MAGIC SPELL.
Argument. Inquiry of the courtiers into the cause of the king’s
apoplexy, and his answer thereto.
Vasishtha continued:—After a couple of hours the king returned to his
senses, like the lotus flower resuming its beauty, after the mists of
the rainy weather are over.
2. He shook his body decorated with ornaments upon his seat; as a
mountain shakes with its peaks and woods at an earthquake.
3. His seat also shook under him as he came to his sense and moved his
body, just as the seat of Siva on the Kailása mountain, is shaken by the
movement of the infernal elephant.
4. As he was about to fall down from the horseback, he was held up by
and supported upon the arms of his attendants; as the mount Meru is kept
from falling, by the hills at its feet and sides.
5. The attendants bore the prince, in the deranged state of his mind
upon their arms; as the still waters of the sea bear the figure of the
moon that is disturbed by the waves.
6. The king asked them softly saying, what place was it and whose court
it was; as the bee shut up in the flower cup of the lotus, asked it when
it is about to sink in the water saying:—Ah! where am I, and where am I
going?
7. The Courtiers then respectfully asked the king, what was the matter
with him; with a voice as sweet as the lotus utters to the sun when he
is eclipsed by Ráhu.
8. The attendants also with all the ministerial officers, asked him
about his case; as the gods terrified at the great deluge, asked the
sage Márkandeya concerning the occurrence.
9. Lord! we were greatly dismayed, said they, upon seeing you in that
plight; because the stoutest hearts are broken by accidents proceeding
from unknown causes.
10. What were those pleasant objects of your desire, that had so much
bewitched your mind? Since you know that all the objects which appear
pleasant for the present, prove to be bitter at the end. _Gaudia
principium nostri sunt saepe doloris._ Ovid. Pleasure is often the
introduction to pain, and amid the roses fierce Repentence rears her
snaky crest. Thomson. So: Pleasure is pain, when drunk without a rein.
11. How could your clear understanding, which has been pacified by the
grand doctrines and precepts of the wise, fall in to the false
fascinations of the foolish? (_Falsum gaudium juvat, quem nisi
mendosum._ False pleasure pleases, none but the base).
12. The minds of fools are fascinated by the trivial and tawdry trifles
of common people; but they are of no value to the high minded as one
like yourself. (The good and great are above the reach of the
allurements of pleasure).
13. Those who are elated by the pride of their bodies, have their minds
always excited by ungovernable passions, which take their lead through
life. (Pride is innate in beauty).
14. Your mind is elevated above common things, it is calm and quiet and
enlightened by truth; and fraught with excellent qualities; yet it is
strange to find it out of its wits.
15. The mind unpracticed to reasoning, is led away by the currents of
time and place, but the nobleminded are not subject to the influence of
incantations and enchanting spells.
16. It is impossible for the reasoning mind to be weakened or deranged,
the high mind like the mount towering of Meru, is not to be shaken by
the boisterous winds.
17. Thus consoled by his companions, the countenance of the king resumed
its colour; as the face of the full moon collects its brightness, in the
bright fortnight of the month.
18. The moon-like face of the king was brightened by his full open eyes,
as the vernal season is beautified by the blooming blossoms, after the
winter frost has passed away.
19. The king’s face shone forth with astonishment, and it was mixed with
fear, at the remembrance of the charm of the magician; as the moon
shines pale in the sky, after her deliverance from the shadow of an
eclipse.
20. He saw the magician and said to him with a smile, as the serpent
_takshaka_ addresses his enemy—the weasel.
21. You trickster, said he, what was this snare which thou didst entrap
me in, and how was it that thou didst perturb my tranquil soul by thy
wily trick, as a gale disturbs the calm of the sea.
22. How wonderful are the captivating powers of spells, which they have
derived from the Lord, and whose influence had overpowered on the
strongest sense of my mind.
23. What are these bodies of men, that are subject to death and disease
and what are our minds that are so susceptible of errors, and lead us to
continued dangers.
24. The mind residing in the body, may be fraught with the highest
knowledge, and yet the minds of the wisest of men, are liable to errors
and illusion. (_Hominis est errare._ To err is human).
25. Hear ye courtiers! the wonderful tale of the adventures, which I
passed through under this sorcery, from the moment that I had met this
magician at first.
26. I have seen so many passing scenes in one single moment under this
wizard, as had been shown of old by Brahma in his destruction of the
theurgy of Indra. (The mighty Sakra spread his Indrajála or the web of
his sorcery, in order to frustrate the attempts of the valiant Bali
against him, and was at last foiled himself by the Brahma vidyá of
Brahmá).
27. Having said so, the king began to relate smilingly to his courtiers,
the strange wonders which he had beheld in his state of hallucination.
28. The king said:—I beheld a region full with objects of various kinds,
such as rivers and lakes, cities and mountains, with many boundary
hills, and the ocean girding the earth around.
CHAPTER CVI.
THE TALISMAN OF THE KING’S MARRIAGE WITH A
CHANDÁLA MAIDEN.
(_An Allegory of Human Depravity_).
Argument. The king borne on horse-back to the habitation of a huntsman
and was there married to his maiden daughter. (This adventure resembles
that of Tajul Maluk in Gule Bákavli.)
The king related:—This land of mine abounding in forests and rivulets,
and appearing as the miniature of this orb of the earth. Literally:—as
the younger twin sister of the earth:—
2. This land appearing as the paradise of Indra, of which I am the king,
and where I am now sitting in my court-hall, amidst my courtiers and all
these citizens.
3. There appeared here yonder sorcerer from a distant country, like a
demon rising from the infernal region on the surface of the ground.
4. He turned round his magic-wand emitting its radiance around, as the
tempest rends and scatters the rainbow of Indra in fragments in the air.
5. I was looking intently at the whirling wand, and the horse standing
before me, and then mounted on the back of the steed in the dizziness of
my mind.
6. I sat on the back of this unmoving horse and seemed to ride on a
fleet steed, with the swiftness of the Pushkara and Ávartaka clouds,
riding over the tops of immovable rocks.
7. I then went to a chase in full speed, a pass over an ownerless
desert, howling as the surges of the boundless ocean.
8. I was borne afterwards with the horse in the air, as if we were
wafted by the winds; and dashed onward like common people, who are
carried afar by the current of the insatiable desires of their minds.
9. Being then fatigued with my journey, and moving slowly with my
wearied horse, I reached to the skirt of the desert which was as vacant
as the mind of a pauper, and as empty as the heart of a woman. (Cares
hover over roofs of wealth, and secrets from female hearts fly by
stealth. _Curae laqueata circum Tecta volantes._ Hor. Cares that flutter
bat-like round fretted roofs. A woman is never so weak as in keeping her
secrets).
10. It was as the wilderness of the world burnt down by a conflagration,
and without even a bird flying over it. It was as a waste of sandy
frost, and without a tree or any water in it. (A vast desert displayed
its barren waste).
11. It appeared as another sky in its extent, and as the eighth ocean of
the world. It was as a sea on earth with its bed entirely dried up.
(There are in all only seven oceans in Indian Geography, the eighth is a
myth).
12. It was as expanded as the mind of a wise man, and as furious as the
rage of the ignorant. There was no trace of human feet, nor track with
any grass or herb in it. (Immeasurable and fathomless as the sapient
mind.)
13. My mind was bewildered in this boundless desert, like that of a
woman fallen into adversity, and having no friend or food or fruit for
her supportance. (Adversity is the canker of the woman’s breast:
_asaubhagyan jvarástrínám_).
14. The face of the sky was washed by the waters, appearing in the
mirage of the sandy desert; and I passed panting in that dreary spot
until it was sunset.
15. It was with great pain and sorrow, that I passed across that vast
desert; like the wise man who goes across this world, which is all
hollow and void within.
16. After passing this desert, I met a thick forest beyond it, when the
sun was setting in his setting mountain with his horse, and tired with
traversing through the hollow sphere of heaven.
17. Here the birds were warbling amidst the _jámb_ and _kadamba_ trees,
and were the only friends that the weary travellers could meet with, in
their weary and lonesome journey.
18. Here detached plots of long grass, were seen waving their tops; like
covetous men nodding their heads, on finding some riches to their
heart’s content. (The poor are pleased with a little, and bow down their
heads at petty pittances).
19. This shady forest afforded me a little joy, after my pains in the
dry and dreary desert; as a lingering disease seems more desirable to
men, than the pains attending on death.
20. I then got under the shade of _Jambíra_ tree, and felt myself as
pleased, as when the sage Markandeya got upon the top of the mountain at
the great deluge. (The Ararat of Noah?).
21. Then I took shelter under the creepers, descending from its
branches, as the scorching top of a mount, finds a temporary shadow
under the umbrage of a dark cloud.
22. As I was hanging down with holding the pendant roots in my hand, the
horse slided away from underneath me, as the sins of a man glide under
him, that puts his trust in the sacred Ganges streams. (The purificatory
power of Ganges water, resides even in the belief of its holiness, and
does not consist only in bathing in it).
23. Fatigued with my travel of the live-long day in the dreary waste, I
took my refuge under this tree; as a traveller rests under the shelter
of a kalpa tree at the setting of the sun.
24. All this business of the world was stopped, as the sun went down to
rest in the western hills. (The Hindu ritual prescribing no duty for the
night consisting of three watches—_triyama rajaní_).
25. As the shade of night overspread the bosom of the universe, the
whole forest below betook itself to its nightly rest and silence. (The
vegetable creation was known to sleep at night by the Hindu sages).
26. I reposed myself in the grassy hollow of a branch of that tree, and
rested my head on the mossy bed like a bird in its nest. (Primeval men
slept in the hollow of trees like birds, for fear of rapacious animals
in the caves of the earth below, as also in the caverns of upland hills
and mountains).
27. I remained there as insensible as one bitten by a snake, and as a
dead body that has lost its past remembrance. (Sleep and death are akin
to each other—_hypnos kai thanatos didumo adelpho_). I was as impotent
as a sold slave; and as helpless as one fallen in a dark ditch or blind
pit. Bought slaves _krita-dásas_ and their loss of liberty, were in
vogue from the earliest times in India. (अन्ध कुप-अन्ध-कुया = a blind pit).
28. I passed that one night as a long Kalpa in my senselessness; and I
thought I was buffeting in the waves like the seer—Markandeya at the
great deluge. (_i.e._ The body was insensible in the state of sleep; but
the mind was active as in a dream, which makes an age of a moment).
29. I passed the night under a train of dangers and difficulties, that
invaded me as in the state of dreaming; and I had no thought about my
bathing or eating or worshipping my Maker (the mind being wholly
occupied by the objects of the dream).
30. I passed the night in restlessness and disquiet, shaking like the
branch of a tree; and this single night of trouble was as long as it was
tedious to me (like the time of a lingering disease).
31. A melancholy overspread my countenance, as darkness had veiled the
face of the night, and my waking eyes kept watching for the day, like
blue-lotuses expecting with their watchful eyes the rising moon.
32. The demoniac noise of wild beasts being hushed in the forest at the
end of the night, there fell a shivering fit on me with the clattering
of my teeth through excessive cold.
33. I then beheld the east, red with the flush of intoxication; as if it
was laughing at seeing me drowned in my difficulties.
34. I saw the sun advancing afterwards towards the earth, and to mount
on his Airávata the regent elephant of that quarter. He seemed to be so
full of glee, as the ignorant man has in his folly, and the poor man in
obtaining a treasure.
35. Having got up from my mossy bed, I shook off my bed cloth, like the
god Siva tossing about his elephantine hide at his giddy dance in the
evening. (See Magh. Book I).
36. I then began to wander in the wide forestland, as the god Rudra
roves about the wide world, after its desolation by his demons at the
end of kalpas.
37. There was no animal of any kind to be seen in the desolate desert,
as the good qualities of good breeding, are never to be found in the
persons of the illiterate.
38. I saw only the lively birds, perching and chirping all about the
woods without intermission.
39. It was then at mid-day, when the sun had run his eighth hour, and the
plants had dried up the dews of their morning baths.
40. That I beheld a damsel carrying some food and a goblet of water, on
the way as Hari bore the poisonous liquor to the demons in his disguise
in the shape of Mádhaví.
41. She was of a swarthy complexion, and dressed in sable black attire;
and looked askance at me; when I advanced towards her as the bright moon
appears towards the dark and sable night.
42. I asked her to give me some of her food in my great distress,
because, I told her, one is enriched by relieving the distress of the
needy.
43. O good maid; said I, increasing hunger is consuming my bowels and I
would take any food, even as the female serpent devours her own brood
and young, in the excess of her hunger. (Hunger beats down the stony
wall, and impure food is pure to the hungry).
44. I begged of thee and yet thou gavest me nothing, but dost remain as
inexorable as the goddess of fortune, who declines to favour the
wretched, however they implore her aid. (Fortune turns a deaf ear to the
supplications of the poor).
45. Then I kept a long time, following her closely from one wood to
another, and clinging to her as her shadow, moving behind her in the
afternoon.
46. She then turned to me and said:—Know me, to be a Chandála girl and
bearing the name of Harakeyuri; we are as cruel as Rákshasas, and
feeders on human flesh as on those of horses and elephants.
47. You cannot, O King! get your food by merely your craving it of me;
as it is hard to have the favour of men, without first meeting with
their desires.
48. Saying so, she went on trippingly at every step, and then entered
into an arbour on the wayside and spoke merrily unto me saying:—
49. Well, I will give you of this food, if you will consent to be my
husband; for it is not the business of base and common people to do good
to others, before securing their own good.
50. My Chandála father is here ploughing in the field, with his sturdy
yoke of bulls, and has the figure of a demon, standing in the cemetery
with his haggardly hungry and dusky stature.
51. This food is for him, and may be given to you, if you will agree to
espouse me; because the husband deserves to be served even at the peril
of one’s life.
52. To this I replied, I agree to take thee to my wife, for what fool is
there that will abide by the usage of his family, when his life is in
danger?
53. She then gave me half of the food she had with her, as Mádhaví
parted with half of her ambrosia to the hungry Indra of old.
54. I ate the Chandál’s food, and drank the beverage of _Jambu_ fruits
which she gave me; and then rested at that place, and fell to a sleep
caused by my fatigue and long walking.
55. Then she approached to me, as a black cloud advances before the sun;
she held me in her arms, and led me onward with her guiding hand, and as
fondly as her second self.
56. She took me to her father, a fat and ugly fellow of a repulsive
appearance; as the tormenting agony of death, leads a person to the
hideous cell of the devil.
57. My companion whispered to his ears the tidings of our case, as the
black bee hums her tale softly to the ear of an elephant (in order to
sip his frontal juice or ichor of _mada-bárí_).
58. This man, said she, is to be my husband, if you, my father, will
give your consent. To this he expressed his approval by saying—“Vádham
be it so” by the end of this day (when marriage rites usually take place
and is called godhuli, or the dusty dusk of returning herds from their
pasture grounds).
59. He loosened the bulls from their yoke, as the regent of death
releases his hell hounds. And it was in the dusk of the day, when the
sky was obscured by the evening mist, and rising dust of _godhuli_, that
we were dismissed from the demons’ presence, to take our own way.
60. We passed the great jungle in a short time, and reached the
Chandála’s abode in the evening; as the demons pass amidst the funeral
ground, to rest in their charnel vaults at night.
61. The dwelling had on one side, the slaughtered monkeys, cocks and
crows; and swarms of flies flying over them, and sucking the blood
sprinkled over the ground.
62. The moist entrails and arteries of the slaughtered beasts, that were
hung up to be dried in the sun; were chased by the ravenous birds of the
air, that kept hovering over them; while flocks of birds fluttered over
the _Jambira_ trees (to pick up the fruits for their food).
63. There were heaps of fat laid up to be dried in the portico, and
ravenous birds flying over them; and the skins of the slain animals,
which were besmeared with blood, lay in piles before their sight.
64. Little children had bits of flesh in their hands, beset by buzzing
flies; and there were the veteran Chandálas, sitting by and rebuking the
boys.
65. We then entered the house scattered with disgusting entrails and
intestines about, and I thought myself as the ghost of a dead man
standing beside the regent of death.
66. I had then a seat of a big plantain leaf, given to me with due
respect, in order to be seated as a welcome guest, in the abominable
abode of my new-earned father-in-law.
67. My squint eyed mother-in-law then eyed at me, with her blood-red
eyeballs; and muttered with gladness in her look, “is this our would-be
son-in-law?”
68. Afterwards we sat on some seats of skin, and I partook of the repast
which was served before me, as the reward of my sins. (_i.e._ This fare
was as unpalatable, as the requital of one’s crimes).
69. I heard there many of those endearing words, which were the seeds of
endless misery; as also many such speeches that were unpleasant to my
mind, for their being of no benefit to me.
70. Afterwards, it came to pass on one day, when the sky was cloudless
and the stars were shining; that they presented a dowry of cloths and
other articles before me (as dánadravya).
71. With these they made over that frightful maiden to me, and we were
joined together as black and white, and as sin and its torment together
(_i.e._ she was given to torment me for my past sins).
72. The flesh-eating Chandálas, festivated the marriage ceremony with
profusion of wine and loud shouts of joy; they beat their sounding
tomtoms with merriment, as wicked men delight in carrying on the acts of
their vileness. (The giddy mirth of the rabble, is compared with the
revelry of the riotous).
CHAPTER CVII.
DESCRIPTION OF A TRAIN OF DANGERS.
Argument. The King’s residence at the Chandála’s abode and his
adventures during sixty years at that place.
The king continued:—What more shall I say of that festivity, which had
quite subdued my soul? I was thenceforward named as Pushta-Pukkusha
or cherished Chandála by my fellows. (Beng-ghar-jámái or home-bred
bridegroom).
2. After the festivity had lasted for a week, and I had passed full
eight months at that place; my wife had her pubertal efflorescence, and
afterwards her conception also (garbhádhána and garbha).
3. She was delivered of a daughter which is the cause of woe, as a
danger is the spring of calamities. (The parallel passage is well known
_dáriká dukhkha dáyika_, a daughter is the source of grief). This
daughter grew up as soon as the growth of the cares and sorrows of the
ignorant. (The wise neither care nor sorrow for any earthly matter).
4. She brought forth again a black boy in course of three years; as the
fruit of folly raises the false expectation of fruition. (_i.e._ We are
often frustrated in our hopes in our boys).
5. She again gave birth to a daughter and then to another boy; and thus
I became an old Chandála, with a large family in that forest land.
6. In this manner passed many years with these shoots of my woe in that
place; as a Brahmicide has to pass long years of torment in hell-fire.
(Here is a piece of priestcraft in the augmented torment for killing a
Brahman as any other man).
7. I had to undergo all the pains of heat and cold, of chill-winds and
frost, without any help to be had in that dreary forest; and as an old
tortoise is constrained to move about in the mud of a pool for ever.
8. Being burthen with the cares of my family, and troubled by anxieties
of my mind; I saw my increasing afflictions like a conflagration rising
all about me.
9. Clad in bark and wrapt in old and ragged cloths, with a covering of
grass and a straw hat on my head, I bore loads of logs from the woods;
as we bear the burden of sins on our backs and heads. (See Bunyan’s
Pilgrim’s Progress).
10. I had to pass full many a live-long year, under the shade of
_dhavalí_ trees; with no other cloth or covering on me than an old
tattered, dirty and stinking _Kaupina_, which was beset by fleas and
leeches. (Kaupina a piece of rag covering the lower secret parts of the
body as that of Fakirs and Yogis).
11. I was exposed to the chill cold winds, in all my toils to support my
family; and lay like a frog in some cave in the woods, under the keen
blasts of winter.
12. The many quarrels and bickerings, and the sorrows and wailings, to
which I was often exposed at home and abroad, made my blood to gush out
in tears from my weeping eyes.
13. We passed the nights on marshy grounds in the jungle, and being
deluged by the raining clouds, we took our shelter in the caverns of
mountains, with no other food than the roasted flesh of bears.
14. Afterwards the rainy season of sowing being over, and the dark
drizzling clouds having dispersed in air, I was driven from my abode, by
the unkindness of my relations and continued contention with others.
15. Being thus in dread of every body in the neighbourhood, I removed
myself to the house of another man, where I dwelt with my wife and
prattling children for some years.
16. Then vexed by the scolding of the termagant Chandálí, and the
threats of the villainous Chandálas; my face became as pale as the
waning moon under the shadow of Ráhu (the ascending node).
17. I was bit and scratched by the teeth and nails of my wife, as if my
flesh and muscles were torn and gnawed down under the grinders of a
tigress; and I was as one caught by or sold to a hellish fiend, and
thought myself as changed to an infernal being also.
18. I suffered under the torrents of snow thrown out of the caverns of
the Himálaya, and was exposed to the showers of frost, that fell
continually in the dewy season.
19. I felt on my naked body the iron shafts of rain, as darts let fly
from the bow of death; and in my sickly and decrepit old age, I had to
live upon the roots of withered vegetables.
20. I dug them out plentifully from the woodland grounds and eat them
with a zest, as a fortunate man has in tasting his dainty dishes of well
cooked meat.
21. I took my food apart and untouched by any body, for fear of being
polluted by the touch of a vile and base born family; and because the
pungency of my unsavoury diet, made my mouth wry at every morsel.
22. While I was famishing in this manner, I saw others had their venison
and sheep’s flesh bought from other places for their food; and who
pampered their bodies also with the flesh they cut out from other living
animals and devoured raw with great zest.
23. They bought animal flesh sold in iron pots and stuck in spits, for
undergoing migrations into as many thousand bodies as they have killed
and fed upon. (This is the Pythagorean doctrine of metempsychosis of the
soul, as described in Goldsmith’s Citizen of the World).
24. I often repaired to the garden grounds of the Chandálas, with my
spade and basket in the cool of the evening, in order to collect the raw
flesh, which had been cast about in the dirt, for making any food of
them.
25. But the time seemed to turn favourable to me, when I was about to be
cast into hell, by leading me to take refuge of the mountain caverns,
and seek my supportance there by the roots and plants growing therein.
26. In this state, I was met by my good chance, on some Chandálas
appearing in person before me, and driving away the village dogs with
their clubs from before them (to the woods).
27. They gave my wife and children some bad rice as the villagers used
to take, and we passed the night under the shade of a palm tree, whose
withered leaves were rattling with the rain drops, that fell in showers
upon them.
28. We passed the night in company with the sylvan apes, with our teeth
clattering with cold; and the hairs of our bodies standing on their
ends, like a thousand thorns through coldness.
29. The rain drops decorated our bodies with granules of vivid pearls,
and our bellies were as lean and lank like an empty cloud through hunger
and for want of food.
30. Then there rose a quarrel in this diresome forest, between me and my
wife; and we kept answering one another, with our clattering teeth and
ruddy eyes by effect of the cold.
31. My foul and dirty person resembled that of a dark black demon, and
we roved about the borders of rivers and brooks, to fish with a rod and
hook in my hand.
32. I wandered also with a trap in my hand, like Yama with his noose at
the desolation of the earth; and caught and killed and drank the heart
blood of the deer in my hunger and thirst.
33. I sucked the warm heart blood, as the milk of my mother’s breast, at
the time of famishing; and being besmeared in blood, I stood as a blood
sucking demon in the cemetery.
34. The Vetálas of the woods fled before me, as they do from the furies
of the forests; and I set my snares and nets in the woods, for catching
the deer and birds of the air.
35. As people spread the nets of their wives and children, only to be
entangled in them in the false hope of happiness; so did I spread my net
of thread, to beguile the birds to their destruction.
36. Though worried and worn out in the nets of worldly cares, and
surrounded on every side by the miseries of our vicious lives; yet do
our minds take their delight, in the perpetration of cruel and foul acts
(to the injury of others).
37. Our wishes are stretched as far and wide, as a running river
overflows its banks in the rainy season; but the objects of our desires
fly afar from us, as snakes hide themselves from the snake eating
_Karabhas_ by their own sagacity. (The Karabha is a quadruped of the
weasel kind, and is called _gohadgel_—in Bengali).
38. We have cast off kindness from our hearts, as the snake leaves off
his slough; and take a delight to let fly the hissing arrows of our
malice, as the thunder storm betides all animals.
39. Men are delighted at the sight of cooling clouds, at the end of the
hot season; but they avoid at a distance the rough briny shore spreading
wide before them. (So men hail their happiness, and avoid their
troubles).
40. But I underwent many a difficulty, which multiplied as thickly upon
me, as the weeds growing in dales; and I moved about all the corners of
that hellish spot, during my destined time. (What is decreed, cannot be
avoided).
41. I have sown the seeds of sin under the rain-water of my ignorance,
to grow speedily as thorns on my way. I have laid hidden snares for the
unwary innocent, to secure myself in the mountain caves.
42. I have caught and killed the innocent deer in the trap; to feed upon
its flesh; and have killed the _chouri_ kine, to lay my head on the hair
hanging down their necks.
43. I slept unconscious of myself in my ignorance, as Vishnu lay on his
huge hydra; I lay with my out-stretched legs and limbs in the brown
cell, resounding to the yell of wild beasts abroad.
44. I lay my body also, on the frost of a cave in the marshy ground of
Vindhyá; and wrapped my swarthy form in a tattered quilt, hanging down
my neck and full of fleas.
45. I bore it on my back, as a bear bears the long bristles upon him
even in the hot season; and suffered the heat of the wild fire, which
burnt away many wild animals which perished in groups as in the last
conflagration of the world.
46. My wife bore her young ones, both for our pleasure as well as pain:
as the food of the glutton, is both for his satiety and sickness; and
the influence of planets, is for our good and evil also.
47. Thus I the only son of a king, had to pass sixty painful years of my
life, as so many kalpa ages of long duration.
48. I raved sometimes in my rage, and wept at others in my bitter grief;
I fared on coarse meals, and dwelt, alas! in the abodes of vulgar
Chandálas. Thus I passed so many years of my misery at that place, as
one fastened to the fetters of his insatiable desires, is doomed to toil
and moil for naught until his death. (Bound to our desires, we are
dragged to the grave).
CHAPTER CVIII.
DESCRIPTION OF A DROUGHT AND DEARTH.
Argument. The distress of Chandálas caused by famine and want of Rain.
The king continued to say:—Time passed away, and old age overtook me,
and turned my beard to blades of grass covered with hoar frost.
2. My days glided away in alternate joy and grief, brought on by my fate
and acts; just as a river flows on with the green and dried leaves,
which the winds scatter over it.
3. Quarrels and broils, misfortunes and mischances, befell on me every
moment; and beset me as thickly and as fastly as the arrows of woe
flying in a warfare.
4. My foolish mind kept fluttering like a bird, in the maze of my wishes
and fancies; and my heart was perturbed by passions, like the sea by its
raging waves.
5. My soul was revolving on the vehicle of my wandering thoughts; and I
was borne away by them like a floating straw, to the whirlpool of the
eventful ocean of time.
6. I that moved about like a worm amidst the woodlands of Vindhyá, for
my simple supportance, felt myself in the process of years, to be
weakened and pulled down in my frame, like a biped beast of burthen.
7. I forgot my royalty like a dead man, in that state of my
wretchedness, and was confirmed in my belief of a Chandála, and bound to
that hilly spot like a wingless bird.
8. The world appeared to me, as desolate as at its final desolation; and
as a forest consumed by a conflagration; it seemed as the sea-shore
lashed by huge surges; and as a withered tree struck by a lightning.
9. The marshy ground at the foot of Vindhyá was all dried up, and left
no corn nor vegetable, nor any water for food or drink; and the whole
group of Chandálas, was about to die in dearth and dryness.
10. The clouds ceased to rain, and disappeared from sight; and the winds
blew with sparks of fire in them. (The hot winds of the monsoon called
agni-vrishti).
11. The forest trees were bare and leafless, and the withered leaves
were strewn over the ground; wild fires were raging here and there, and
the wood-lands became as desolate, as the abodes of austere ascetics
(dwelling in the deserts).
12. There ensued a formidable famine, and a furious flame of wildfire
spread all around; it burnt down the whole forest, and reduced the grass
and gravels all to ashes.
13. The people were daubed with ashes all over their bodies, and were
famishing for want of food and drink; because the land was without any
article of food or even grass or water in it, and had turned to a dreary
desert.
14. The mirage of the desert glistened as water, and deluded the dry
buffaloes to roll in it (as in a pool); and there was no current of
breeze to cool the desert air.
15. The call and cry for water, came only to the ears of men; who were
parching under the burning rays of the torrid sun (in the Deccan).
16. The hungry mob, hurrying to browse the branches and herbs, yielded
their lives in those acts; while others sharpened their teeth, in their
acts of tearing and devouring one another.
17. Some ran to bite the gum of catechu, thinking it to be a bit of
flesh; while others were swallowing the stones, as if they were cakes
lying on the ground before them.
18. The ground was sprinkled with blood, by the mutual biting and
tearing of men; as when blood is spilt in profusion, by the lion’s
killing a big and starving elephant.
19. Every one was as ferocious as a lion, in his attempt to devour
another as his prey; and men mutually fought with one another, as
wrestlers do in their contest.
20. The trees were leafless, and the hot winds were blowing as
fire-brands on all sides; and wild cats were licking the human blood,
that was spilt on the rocky ground.
21. The flame of the wild fire rose high in the air, with clouds of
smoke whirling with the howling winds of the forest; it growled aloud in
every place, and filled the forest-land with heaps of brown cinders and
burning fire brands.
22. Huge serpents were burnt in their caves, and the fumes rising from
these burning bodies, served to grow the poisonous plants on the spot;
while the flame stretching aloft with the winds, gave the sky an
appearance of the glory of the setting sun.
23. Heaps of ashes were lifted like dust, by the high howling winds, and
stood as domes unsupported by pillars in the open sky; and the little
children stood crying for fear of them, beside their weeping parents.
24. There were some men who tore a dead body with their teeth, and in
their great haste to devour the flesh, bit their own hands and fingers,
which were besmeared in their own blood.
25. The vultures flying in the air, darted upon the smoke, thinking it a
turret of trees, and pounced upon the fire brands, taking them for bits
of raw flesh.
26. Men biting and tearing one another, were flying in all directions;
when the splitting of the burning wood hit upon their breasts and
bellies, and made them gory with blood gushing out of them.
27. The winds were howling in the hollow caves, and the flames of the
wild fire flashing with fury; the snakes were hissing for fear of these,
and the burnt woods were falling down with hideous noise.
28. Thus beset by dangers and horrors, with no other shelter than the
rugged hollows of rocks, this place presented a picture of this world,
with its circumambient flames, burning as the twelve zodiacal suns on
high.
29. The winds were blowing hot amidst the burning woods and rocks, and
drying up all things; and the heat of the fire below and the sunbeams
above, together with the domestic calamities caused by influence of the
planet Saturn, made this place a counterpart of this woeful world.
CHAPTER CIX.
MIGRATION OF THE CHANDÁLAS.
Argument. The perilous journey through the Delusive World.
The king continued:—As these calamities continued to rage in this
place, by the displeasure of destiny; and the disasters of the last
dissolution prematurely overtook the forest and mountaineers here:—
2. Some of these men went out from that place, with their wives and
children, in search of some new abodes in foreign lands; as the clouds
disperse and disappear from the sky, after the rainy season is over.
3. They were accompanied by their wives and children and close
relatives, who clung to them as the members of their bodies; but the
lean and infirm were left behind them, like the separated branches of
trees.
4. Some of these emigrants were devoured by tigers, as they went out of
their houses; as unfledged birds are caught by falcons, as they come out
of their nests.
5. Some entered into the fire like moths, to put an end to their
miserable lives; others fell into the pits, like fragments of rocks
falling from the hills.
6. I separated myself from the connections of my father-in-law and
others; and depending upon myself, I escaped narrowly from that
distressed country, with my wife and children about me.
7. We passed the pit-falls and storms, and the wild beasts and snakes,
without any harm; and came out of that forest safe from all the deadly
perils of the way.
8. Having then arrived at the border of that forest, we got to the shade
of some palm trees, where I lay down my children from my shoulders as
burdens of my sin and woes.[11]
9. I halted here after my tiresome journey and lengthened troubles, as
one who had fled from the confines of hell; and took my rest like the
withering lotus, from the scorching sun-beams and heat of summer.
10. My Chandála wife also slept under the same tree, and my two boys lay
fast asleep in each other’s embrace, under the cooling shade.
11. Afterwards my younger son Prach’chhaka, who was as dear to us as he
was the less intelligent, rose up and stood before me.
12. He said with a depressed spirit, and tears gushing out of his eyes,
“Papa give me soon some meat-food and drink or else I die”.
13. The little boy repeatedly made the same request, and said with tears
in his eyes, that he was dying of hunger.
14. I told him I had no meat, and the more I said so, the more he
repeated his foolish craving, which could neither be supplied with nor
put down to silence.
15. I was then moved by paternal affection, and affliction of my heart,
to tell him, “child, cut off a slice of my flesh, and roast and eat it.”
16. He agreed to it, and said ‘give it then’; because his hunger was so
pressing and his vitality was so much exhausted, that he could not
decline to crave my flesh for his food.
17. Being then overpowered by affection and compassion I thought of
putting an end to all my grief with my life, which became so intolerable
to me at his excessive distress.
18. Being unable to endure the pain of my affection, I despaired of my
own life; and resolved to resort to death, as my only friend at this
last extremity.
19. I collected some wood, and heaped them together for my funeral pile,
and having put it on fire, I saw it blaze as I wished.
20. As I was hastening to throw myself on this pile, I was immediately
roused from my reverie by the sound of music proceeding from this
palace, hailing me as king, and shouting my victory _jaya_.
21. I understood this conjurer had wrought this enchantment on me, and
put me to all these imaginable troubles for so long a period.
22. Like the ignorant, I was subject to a hundred changes of fortune
(which can never approach the wise). As the great and mighty
King—Lavana, had been recapitulating and expostulating on the
vicissitudes of fortune:—
23. The sorcerer suddenly disappeared from his sight, at which the
courtiers looked around them with their staring eyes; and then addressed
the king, saying:—
24. This man was no sorcerer, our liege lord! who had no mercenary views
of his own in this; but it was a divine magic (theurgy), that was
displayed to our lord, to represent the lot of humanity and the state of
the world.
25. This world is evidently a creation of the mind, and the imaginary
world is only a display of the infinite power of the Almighty. (It was a
coinage of the brain, a stretch of the imagination which gives images to
ideals).
26. These hundreds of worldly systems, display the multifarious powers
of Omnipotence; which delude even the minds of the most wise, to believe
in the reality of unrealities, as it were by the spell of magic.
27. This delusion being so potent on the minds of wise, it is no wonder,
that our king would be overpowered by it, when all common minds are
labouring under the same error.
28. This delusive magic was not spread over the mind, by any trick or
art of the conjurer; who aimed at nothing more than his own gain, by the
act of his sorcery. (It is the divine will, which spreads the illusion
alike on all minds).
29. They that love money, never go away of themselves without getting
something: therefore we are tossed on the waves of doubt (_i.e._
doubtful) to take him for a sorcerer.
30. Vasishtha said:—Ráma! though I am sitting here at this moment,
before you and others of this assembly; yet I am quite sensible of the
truth of this story, which is no fiction like the tale of the boy I have
told you before, nor is it any coining or hearsay of mine.
31. Thus the mind is enlarged by the various inventions of its
imagination, as a tree is extended by the expansion of its boughs and
branches. The extended mind encompasses all things, as an outstretched
arbor overspreads on the ground. It is the mind’s comprehension of
every thing, and its conversancy with the natures of all things, that
serve to lead it to its state of perfection. (The amplitude of the mind,
consists in the extent of its knowledge).
CHAPTER CX.
DESCRIPTION OF MIND.
Argument. The great Magnitude of mental powers, and government of the
Mind.
Vasishtha said:—Since the subjective Intellect _chit_, has derived
the power of knowing the objective Intelligibles _chetyas_, from the
supreme cause in the beginning; it went on to multiply and diversify
the objects of its intelligence, and thus fell from the knowledge of
the one intelligent Universal _Ego_, to the delusion of the particular
_non egos ad infinitum_. (The knowledge of the subjective universal
soul being lost, the mind is left to be bewildered in the objective
particulars to no end).
2. Thus Ráma, the faculties of the mind, being deluded by the
unrealities of particulars, they continue to attribute specialities and
differences to the general ones to their utter error. (Multiplication
and differentiation of objects, mislead the mind from the universal
unity of the only one).
3. The mental powers are ever busy to multiply the unrealities to
infinity, as ignorant children are prone to create the false goblins of
their fancy, only for their terror and trouble.
4. But the reality soon disperses the troublesome unrealities, and the
unsullied understanding drives off the errors of imagination, as the
sun-shine dispels the darkness.
5. The mind brings distant objects near it, and throws the nearer ones
at a distance; it trots and flutters in living beings, as boys leap and
jump in bushes after little birds.
6. The wistful mind is fearful, where there is nothing to fear; as the
affrighted traveller takes the stump of a tree for demon, standing on
his way.
7. The suspicious mind suspects a friend for a foe, as a drunken sot
thinks himself lying on the ground, while he is walking along.
8. The distracted mind, sees the fiery Saturn in the cooling moon; and
the nectar being swallowed as poison, acts as poison itself.
9. The building of an aerial castle however untrue, is taken for truth
for the time being; and the mind dwelling on hopes, is a dreamer in its
waking state.
10. The disease of desire is the delusion of the mind; therefore it is
to be rooted out at once with all diligence from the mind.
11. The minds of men being entangled in the net of avarice like poor
stags, are rendered as helpless as these beasts of prey, in the forest
of the world.
12. He who has removed by his reasoning, the vain anxieties of his mind,
has displayed the light of his soul, like that of the unclouded sun to
sight.
13. Know therefore that it is mind that make the man and not his body
that is called as such: the body is dull matter, but the mind is neither
a material nor immaterial substance (as the spirit).
14. Whatever is done with the mind or voluntarily by any man, know Ráma,
that act to be actually done by him (since an involuntary action is
indifferent by itself); and whatsoever is shunned by it, know that to be
kept out _in actu_.
15. The mind alone makes the whole world, to the utmost end of the
spheres; the mind is the vacuum, and it is the air and earth in its
greatness. (Since it comprehends them all in itself; and none of these
is perceptible without the mind).
16. If the mind do not join a thing with its known properties and
qualities; then the sun and the luminaries would appear to be without
their light (as it is with the day-blind bats and owls, that take the
day light for darkness, and the dark night for their bright day light).
17. The mind assumes the properties of knowledge and ignorance, whence
it is called a knowing or unknowing thing; but these properties are not
to be attributed to the body, for a living body is never known to be
wise, nor a dead carcase an ignorant person.
18. The mind becomes the sight in its act of seeing, and it is hearing
also when it hears any thing; it is the feeling of touch in connection
with the skin, and it is smelling when connected with the nose.
19. So it becomes taste being connected with the tongue and palate, and
takes many other names besides, according to its other faculties. Thus
the mind is the chief actor on the stage of the living animal body.
20. It magnifies the minute and makes the true appear as untrue; it
sweetens the bitter and sours the sweet, and turns a foe to a friend and
_vice-versa_.
21. In whatever manner the mind represents itself in its various
aspects, the same becomes evident to us both in our perceptions and
conceptions of them. (_i.e._ Every body takes things in the same light,
as his mind represents them unto him).
22. It was by virtue of such a representation, that the dreaming mind of
king Haris chandra, took the course of one night for the long period of
a dozen of years.
23. It was owing to a similar idea of the mind, that the whole city of
Brahmá appeared to be situated within himself.
24. The presentation of a fair prospect before the imagination, turns
the present pain to pleasure; as a man bound in chains forgets his
painful state, in the hopes of his release or installation on the next
morning.
25. The mind being well fortified and brought under the subjection of
reason, brings all the members of the body and internal passions of the
heart under our control; but the loose and ungoverned mind, gives a
loose rein to them for their going astray; as the loosened thread of a
string of pearls, scatters the precious grains at random over the
ground.
26. The mind that preserves its clear sightedness, and its equanimity
and unalterableness in all places, and under all conditions; retains its
even temper and nice discernment at all times, under the testimony of
its consciousness, and approbation of its good conscience.
27. With your mind acquainted with the states of all things, but
undisturbed by the fluctuations of the objects that come under your
cognizance, you must retain, O Ráma! your self-possession at all times,
and remain like a dumb and dull body, (without being moved by any
thing).
28. The mind is restless of its own nature, with all its vain thoughts
and desires within itself; but the man is carried abroad as by its
current; over hills and deserts and across rivers and seas, to far and
remote cities and countries (in search of gain).
29. The waking mind deems the objects of its desire, to be as sweet as
honey, and whatever it does not like, to be as bitter as gall; although
they may be sweet to taste; (_i.e._ the blindness of sensuous minds in
their choice of evil for good, and slighting of good as evil).
30. Some minds with too much self reliance in themselves, and without
considering the true nature of things; give them different forms and
colours, according to their own conceptions and opinions, though they
are far from truth. (Every man delights in his own hobby horse).
31. The mind is a pulsation of the power of the Divine Intellect, that
ventilates in the breeze and glares in luminous bodies, melts in the
liquids and hardens in solid substances. (Compare the lines of Pope:
“Glows in the sun &c.” The mind is dependent on the intellect, and the
mental operations, are subordinate to the intellectual).
32. It vanishes in vacuity and extends in the space; it dwells in
everything at its pleasure, and flies from everywhere at its will.
33. It whitens the black and blackens the white, and is confined to no
place or time but extends through all. (The mind can make a heaven of
hell, and a hell of heaven).
34. The mind being absent or settled elsewhere, we do not taste the
sweet, which we suck or swallow or grind under the teeth or lick with
the tongue.
35. What is seen by the mind, is seen with the eyes, and what is unseen
by it, is never seen by the visual organs; as things lying in the dark
are not perceptible to the sight.
36. The mind is embodied in the organic body, accompanied by the
sensible organs; but it is the mind that actuates the senses and
receives the sensations; the senses are the products of the mind, but
the mind is not a production of sensations.
37. Those great souls (philosophers), who have investigated into the
manner of the connection between the two quite different substances of
the body and mind, and those learned men who show us their mutual
relations (the psychologists), are truly worthy of our veneration.
38. A handsome woman decked with flowers in the braids of her hair, and
looking loosely with her amorous glances, is like a log of wood, in
contact with the body of one, whose mind is absent from himself. (The
dalliance of a woman is dead and lost, to the unfeeling heart and
unmindful man).
39. The dispassionate _Yogi_ that sits reclined in his abstract
meditation in the forest, has no sense of his hands being bitten off by
a voracious beast from his body; owing to the absence of his mind.
40. The mind of the sage, which is practised in mental abstraction, may
with ease be inclined to convert his pleasures to pain, and his pains to
pleasure.
41. The mind employed in some other thought and inattentive to the
present discourse, finds it as a detached piece of wood dissevered by an
axe. (The presence of the mind joins the parts of a lecture, as its
inadvertence disjoins them from their consecutive order).
42. A man sitting at home, and thinking of his standing on the precipice
of a mountain, or falling into the hollow cave below, shudders at the
idea of his imminent danger: so also one is startled at the prospect of
a dreary desert even in his dream, and is bewildered to imagine the vast
deep under the clouds. (See Hume on the Association of Ideas).
43. The mind feels a delight at the sight of a lovely spot in its dream,
and at seeing the hills, cities and houses stretching on, the clusters of
stars shining in the extended plain of the sky. (Objects which are
pleasurable or painful to the sight, give pleasure and pain to the mind,
when it is connected with that sense).
44. The restless mind is busy to stretch many a hill and dale and cities
and houses in our dreams, as these are the billows in the vast ocean of
the soul.
45. As the waters of the sea display themselves in huge surges, billows
and waves, so the mind which is in the body, displays itself in the
various sights exhibited in our dreams. (Meaning, the dreams to be
transformations (_Vikáras_) of the mind, like the waves of the water).
46. As the leaves and branches, flowers and fruits are the products of
the shooting seed; so every thing that is seen in our waking dreams, is
the creations of our minds.
47. As a golden image is no other than the very gold, so the creatures
of our living dreams, are not otherwise than the creations of our
fanciful mind.
48. As a drop or shower of rain, and a foam or froth of the wave, are
but different forms of water; so the varieties (_manatá_), of sensible
objects are but formations of the same mind. (Lit. formations or
transformations of the mind).
49. These are but the thoughts of our minds, that are seen in our waking
dreams; like the various garbs which an actor puts on him, to represent
different characters in a play.
50. As the king Lavana believed himself to be a chandála for some time,
so do we believe ourselves to be so and so, by the thoughts of our
minds.
51. Whatever we think ourselves to be in our consciousness, the same
soon comes to pass upon us; therefore mould the thoughts of your mind in
any way you like. (_i.e._ As one thinks himself to be, so will he find
himself to become in his own conceit).
52. The embodied being beholds many cities and towns, hills and rivers
before him; all which are but visions of waking dreams, and stretched
out by the inward mind.
53. One sees a demon in a deity, and a snake where there is no snake; it
is the idea that fosters the thought, as the king Lavana fostered the
thoughts of his ideal forms.
54. As the idea of man includes that of a woman also, and the idea of
father comprises that of the son likewise; so the mind includes the
wish, and the wish is accompanied by its action with every person. (As
when I say I have a mind to do so, I mean I have a wish to do it; and
the same wish leads me to its execution. Or that the action is
concomitant with the will so the phrase: “take will for the deed”).
55. It is by its wish that the mind is subject to death, and to be born
again in other bodies; and though it is a formless thing of its nature,
yet it is by its constant habit of thinking, that it contracts the
notion of its being a living substance (jíva).
56. The mind is busy with its thoughts of long drawn wishes, which cause
its repeated births and deaths, and their concomitants of hopes and
fears, and pleasure and pain. (The wish is father of thoughts, and these
mould our acts and lives).
57. Pleasure and pain are situated in the mind like the oil in the
sesamum seed, and these are thickened or thinned like the oil under
particular circumstances of life. Prosperity thickens our pleasure, and
adversity our pain; and these are thinned by their reverses again.
58. As it is the greater or lighter pressure of the oil-mill, that
thickens or thins the oil, so it is the deeper or lighter attention of
the mind, that aggravates or lightens its sense of pleasure or pain.
(Loss or gain unfelt, is nothing lost or gained. The pleasure or pain of
which we are ignorant, is no pleasure or pain).
59. As our wishes are directed by the particular circumstances of time
and place, so the measurements of time and place, are made according to
the intensity or laxity of our thoughts. (_i.e._ The intense application
or inattention of the mind, prolongs and shortens the measure of time
and place to us).
60. It is the mind that is satisfied and delighted at the fulfilment of
our wishes, and not the body which is insensible of its enjoyments. (The
commentary explains the participation of the enjoyment both by the body
and mind, and not by one independently of the other).
61. The mind is delighted with its imaginary desires within the body, as
a secluded woman takes her delight in the seraglio. (The pleasure of
imagination pleases the inmost soul, when we have no external and bodily
pleasure to enjoy).
62. He who does not give indulgence to levities and fickleness in his
heart, is sure to subdue his mind; as one binds an elephant by its chain
to the post.
63. He whose mind does not wave to and fro like a brandished sword, but
remains fixed as a post or pillar to its best intent and object, is the
best of men on earth; all others (with fickle minds), are as insects
continually moving in the mind.
64. He whose mind is freed from fickleness, and is sedate in itself, is
united with his best object in his meditation of the same. (The
unflinching mind, is sure of success).
65. Steadiness of the mind is attended with the stillness of worldly
commotions, as the suspension of the churning Mandara, was attended with
the calmness of the ocean of milk.
66. The thoughts of the mind being embroiled in worldly cares (of
gaining the objects of desire and enjoyments), become the sources of
those turbulent passions in the breast, which like poisonous plants fill
this baneful world (with their deadly breath).
67. Foolish men that are infatuated by their giddiness and ignorance,
revolve round the centre of their hearts, as the giddy bees flutter
about the lotus-flower of the lake; till at last grown weary in their
giddy circles, they fall down in the encompassing whirlpools, which hurl
them in irreparable ruin.
CHAPTER CXI.
HEALING OF THE HEART AND MIND.
Arguments. Prompt relinquishment of desires, and abandonment of Egoism,
as the means of the subjection of the mind and intense application of
the Intellect.
Vasishtha continued:—Now attend to the best remedy, that I will tell
you to heal the disease of the heart; which is within one’s own power
and harmless, and a sweet potion to taste.
2. It is by the exertion of your own consciousness by yourself, and by
diligent relinquishment of the best objects of your desire, that you can
bring back your refractory mind under your subjection.
3. He who remains at rest by giving up the objects of his desire, is
verily the conqueror of his mind; which is reduced under his subjection
as an elephant wanting its tusks.
4. The mind is to be carefully treated as a patient by the prescriptions
of reason, and by discriminating the truth from untruth, as we do good
diet from what is injurious.
5. Mould your heated imagination by cool reasoning, by precepts of the
Sástras, and by association with the dispassionate, as they do the
heated iron by a cold hammer.
6. As a boy has no pain to turn himself this way and that in his play;
so it is not difficult to turn the mind, from one thing to another at
pleasure.
7. Employ your mind to the acts of goodness by the light of your
understanding; as you join your soul to the meditation of God by light
of your spirit.
8. The renunciation of a highly desirable object, is in the power of
one, who resigns himself to the divine will; it is a shame therefore to
that worm of human being, who finds this precept difficult for his
practice.
9. He who can take the unpleasant for the pleasurable in his
understanding; may with ease subdue his mind, as a giant overcomes a boy
by his might.
10. It is possible to govern the mind like a horse, by one’s attention
and exertion; and the mind being brought to its quietness, it is easy to
enter into divine knowledge.
11. Shame to that jackass (lit.: jackalish man), who has not the power
to subdue his restless mind, which is entirely under his own subjection,
and which he can easily govern.
12. No one can reach the best course of his life, without the
tranquility of his mind; which is to be acquired by means of his own
exertion, in getting rid of the fond objects of his desire. (The best
course of life, is to live free from care, which is unattainable without
subjection of our desires).
13. It is by means of destroying the appetites of the mind, by means of
reason and knowledge of truth; that one can have his absolute dominion
over it, without any change or rival in it. (The rival powers in the
kingdom of the mind (_manorájya_), are the passions and the train of
ignorance—_moha_).
14. The precepts of a preceptor, the instructions of the sástras, the
efficacy of mantras, and the force of arguments, are all as trifles as
straws, without that calmness of the mind, which can be gained by
renunciation of our desires and by the knowledge of truth.
15. The One All and all-pervading quiescent Brahma can be known then
only, when the desires of the mind are all cut off by the weapon of
indifference to all worldly things.
16. All bodily pains of men are quite at an end, no sooner the mind is
at rest, after the removal of mental anxieties by means of true
knowledge.
17. Many persons turn their minds to unmindfulness, by too much trust in
their exertions and imaginary expectations; and disregarding the power
of destiny, which overrules all human efforts.
18. The mind being long practised in its highest duty, of the
cultivation of divine knowledge, becomes extinct in the intellect, and
is elevated to its higher state of intellectual form.
19. Join yourself to your intellectual or abstract thoughts at first,
and then to your spiritual speculations. Being then master of your mind,
contemplate on the nature of the Supreme soul.
20. Thus relying on your own exertion, and converting the sensible mind
to its state of stoic insensibility, you can attain to that highest
state of fixedness, which knows no decay nor destruction. (Spiritual
bliss).
21. It is by your exertion and fixed attention, O Ráma! that you can
correct the errors of your mind; as one gets over his wrong apprehension
of taking one thing for another (such as his mistaking of the east for
the west).
22. Calmness of mind, produces the want of anxiety; and the man that has
been able to subdue his mind, cares a fig for his subjection of the
world under him. (For, what is this world, without its perception in the
mind?).
23. Worldly possessions are attended with strife and warfare, and the
enjoyments of heaven also, have their rise and fall; but in the
improvement of one’s own mind and nature, there is no contention with
anybody, nor any obstruction of any kind.
24. It is hard for them to manage their affairs well, who cannot manage
to keep their minds under proper control. (Govern yourself ere you can
govern others. Or:—Govern your mind, lest it govern you).
25. The thought of one’s being dead, and being born again as a man,
continually employ the minds of the ignorant with the idea of their
egoism (which is a false one, since the soul has no birth or death, nor
any personality of its own).
26. So no body is born here nor dies at any time; it is the mind that
conceives its birth and death and migration in other bodies and worlds.
(_i.e._ Its transmigration and apprehension of its rise or fall to
heaven or hell).
27. It goes hence to another world, and there appears in another form
(of the body and mind); or it is relieved from the encumbrance of flesh,
which is called its liberation. Where then is this death and why fear to
die (which is no more than progress to a new life?).
28. Whether the mind roves here; or goes to another world with its
earthly thoughts, it continues in the same state as before unless it is
changed to another form (of purity), by its attainment of liberation
(from humanity).
29. It is in vain that we are overwhelmed in sorrow, upon the demise of
our brethren and dependants; since we know it is the nature of the mind,
to be thus deluded from its state of pure intelligence to that of error.
(It is the deluded mind, and not the intelligent soul that is subject to
sorrow).
30. It has been repeatedly mentioned both before and afterwards, and in
many other places (of this work); that there is no other means of
obtaining the pure diet of true knowledge, without subduing the mind
(and bringing it under the control of reason).
31. I repeat the same lesson, that there is no other way, save by the
government of the unruly mind, to come to the light of the truly real,
clear and catholic knowledge of the Supreme. (By catholic knowledge is
meant the universally received doctrines of divinity).
32. The mind being destroyed (_i.e._ all its function, being suspended),
the soul attains its tranquility, and the light of the intellect shines
forth in the cavity of the heart.
33. Hold fast the discus of reason, and cut off the bias of your mind;
be sure that no disease will have the power to molest you, if you can
have the good sense to despise the objects of pleasure, which are
attended by pain. (All pleasure is followed by pain. Or: Pleasure leads
to pain, and pain succeeds pleasure).
34. By lopping the members of the mind, you cut it off altogether; and
these being egoism and selfishness which compose the essence of the
mind. Shun your sense that ‘it is I’ and ‘these are mine.’
35. Want of these feelings, casts down the mind like a tree felled by
the axe; and disperses it like a scattered cloud from the autumnal sky.
36. The mind is blown away by its destitution of egoism (_Ahantá_) and
meitatism (mamatá), like a cloud by the winds. (Unconsciousness of one’s
egoism and personality, is the tantamount to his utter extinction, and
unification with the one universal Soul).
37. It is dangerous to wage a war, against winds and weapons, and fire
and water, in order to obtain the objects our worldly desire; but there
is no danger whatever in destroying the growing soft and tender desires
of the mind. (It is easier to govern one’s self than to suppress his
enemies).
38. What is good, and what is not so, is well known for certain even to
boys; (_i.e._ the immutability of good and evil is plain to common and
simple understandings); therefore employ your mind to what is good, as
they train up children in the paths of goodness. (Sow good betimes, to
reap its reward in time. If good we plant not, vice will fill the place;
and rankest weeds, the richest soils deface).
39. Our minds are as inveterate and indomitable, as ferocious lions of
the forest; and they are true victors, who have conquered these, and are
thereby entitled to salvation. (Govern your restless mind, and you
govern the rest of your kind).
40. Our desires are as fierce lions, with their insatiable thirst after
lucre: and they are as delusive as the mirage of the desert, by leading
us to dangers.
41. The man that is devoid of desires, cares for nothing, whether the
winds may howl with the fury of storms; or the seas break their bounds,
or the twelve suns (of the Zodiac) rise at once to burn the universe.
42. The mind is the root, that grows the plants of our good and evil and
all our weal and woe. The mind is the tree of the world, and all peoples
are as its branches and leaves, (which live by its sap and juice).
43. One prospers every where, who has freed his mind from its desires;
and he that lives in the dominion of indifference, rests in his heavenly
felicity.
44. The more we curb the desires of our minds, the greater we feel our
inward happiness; as the fire being extinguished, we find ourselves
cooled from its heat.
45. Should the mind long for millions of worldly mansions in its highest
ambition; it is sure to have them spread out to view within the minute
particle of its own essence. (The ambitious mind grasps the whole world
within its small compass).
46. Opulence in expectancy, is full of anxiety to the mind, and the
expected wealth when gained is no less troublesome to it; but the
treasure of contentment is fraught with lasting peace of mind, therefore
be victorious over your greedy mind by abandonment of all your desires.
47. With the highly holy virtue of your unmindfulness, and with the
even-mindedness of those that have known the Divine spirit; as also with
the subdued, moderated and defeated yearnings of your heart, make the
state of the increate One as your own. (Sedateness of the mind,
resembles the state of God).
CHAPTER CXII.
THE RESTLESSNESS OF THE MIND AND ITS CURE.
Argument. Means of weakening the mind and mental Desires.
Vasishtha continued:—Whatever be the nature of the object of any man’s
desire, his mind does not fail to run after it with great avidity in
every place.
2. This eagerness of the mind rises and sets by turns, with the view of
the desired object, like the clear bubbles of water foaming and bursting
of themselves with the breath of winds.
3. As coldness is the nature of frost, and blackness is that of ink; so
is swiftness or momentum the nature of the mind, as stillness is that of
the soul.
4. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, why the mind is identified with momentum, and
what is the cause of its velocity; tell me also; if there is any other
force to impede the motion of the mind.
5. Vasishtha replied:—We have never seen the motionless quiet of the
mind; fleetness is the nature of the mind, as heat is that of fire.
6. This vacillating power of motion, which is implanted in the mind, is
known to be of the same nature as that of the self-motive force of the
Divine mind; which is the cause of the momentum and motion of those
worlds.
7. As the essence of air is imperceptible without its vibration, so we
can have no notion of the momentum of our minds, apart from the idea of
their oscillation.
8. The mind which has no motion is said to be dead and defunct; and the
suspension of mental agitation, is the condition of Yoga quietism and
leading to our ultimate liberation.
9. The mortification of the mind, is attended with the subsidence of our
woes; but the agitated thoughts in the mind, are causes of all our woes.
10. The monster of the mind, being roused from its rest, raises all our
dangers and disasters; but its falling into rest and inaction, causes
our happiness and perfect felicity.
11. The restlessness of the mind is the effect of its ignorance;
therefore Ráma! exert your reason to destroy all its desires (for
temporal possessions).
12. Destroy the internal desires of your mind, which are raised by
ignorance alone; and attain your supreme felicity by your resignation to
the divine will.
13. The mind is a thing that stands between the real and unreal and
between intelligence and dull matter, and is moved to and fro by the
contending powers on either side.
14. Impelled by dull material force, the mind is lost in the
investigation of material objects; till at last by its habitual thought
of materiality, it is converted to a material object, resembling dull
matter itself. (Such is the materialistic mind).
15. But the mind being guided by its intellectual powers, to the
investigation of abstract truths, becomes an intelligent and
intellectual principle, by its continued practice of thinking itself as
such. (This is immaterial mind).
16. It is by virtue of the exertion of your manly powers and activities,
and by force of constant habit and continued practice; that you can
succeed to attain any thing, to which, you employ your mind with
diligence. (Diligence overcomes all difficulties).
17. You can also be free from fears, and find your rest in your reliance
in the sorrowless Being; provided you exercise your manly activities
therein, and curb the proclivities of your mind by your intelligence.
18. It must be by the force of your intelligent mind, that you must lift
up your deluded mind, which is drowned in the cares of this world. There
is no other means that will help you to do so.
19. The mind only is capable of subduing the mind; for who can subdue a
king unless he is a king himself?
20. Our minds are the boats, to lift us from the ocean of this world;
where we are carried too far by its beating waves, and thrown into the
eddies of despair, and where we are caught by the sharks of our
greediness.
21. Let your own mind cut the net of the mind, which is ensnared in this
world; and extricate your soul, by this wise policy, which is the only
means of your liberation. (_i.e._ Set your mind to correct your mind).
22. Let the wise destroy the desires of their minds, and this will set
them free from the bonds of ignorance.
23. Shun your desire for earthly enjoyments and forsake your knowledge
of dualism; then get rid of your impressions of entity and non-entity,
and be happy with the knowledge of one unity.
24. The thought of the unknowable, will remove the thoughts of
knowables; this is equivalent to the destruction of desires, of the mind
and ignorance also.
25. The unknown one of which we are unconscious by our knowledge,
transcends all whatever is known to us by our consciousness. Our
unconsciousness is our _nirvána_ or final extinction, while our
consciousness is the cause of our woe.
26. It is by their own attention that men soon come to the knowledge of
the knowables; but it is the unknowing or unconsciousness of these that
is our _nirvána_, while our consciousness is the cause of our woe. (Want
of self-consciousness, is want of pain. And perfect apathy is the
perfection of solipsism).
27. Destroy O Ráma, whatever is desirable to your mind, and is the
object of your affection; then knowing them as reduced to nothing,
forsake your desires as seedless sprouts (which can never grow); and
live content without the feelings of joy and grief.
CHAPTER CXIII.
DESCRIPTION OF IGNORANCE AND DELUSION (AVIDYÁ).
Argument. Extirpation of Evil Desires and duality by the true knowledge
of unity called the Vidyá.
Vasishtha continued:—The false desires which continually rise in the
breast; are as the appearances of false moons in the sky, and should be
shunned by the wise.
2. They rise in the minds of the unwise amidst their ignorance; but
every thing which is known only by its name and not in actuality, can
not have its residence in the minds of wise people. (Nominalism as
opposed to Realistic Platonism).
3. Be wise, O Ráma; and do not think like the ignorant; but consider
well all that I tell you;—there is no second moon in the sky, but it
appears so only by deception of our optical visions.
4. There exists nothing real or unreal any where, except the only true
essence of God; as there is no substantiality in the continuity of the
waves, besides the body of waters.
5. There is no reality in any thing, whether existent or non-existent,
all which are mere creations of your shadowy ideality; do not therefore
impute any shape or figure to the eternal, boundless and pure spirit of
God.
6. You are no maker nor master of anything, then why deem any act or
thing as your own (_mamatá—meity_?) You know not what these existences
are, and by whom and wherefore they are made.
7. Neither think yourself as actor, because no actor can attempt to do
anything. Discharge whatever is your duty, and remain at your ease with
having done your part.
8. Though you are the actor of an action, yet think not yourself as
such, minding your inability to do or undo any thing: for how can you
boast yourself as the actor, when you know your inability for action.
9. If truth is delectable and untruth is odious, then remain firm to
what is good; and be employed in your duties (in the path of truth and
goodness).
10. But as the whole world is a gallery, a magic and an unreality; then
say what reliance is there in it, and what signifies pleasurableness or
unpleasurableness to any body.
11. Know Ráma, this ovum of the world to be a delusion, and being
inexistent in itself, appears as a real existence to others.
12. Know this busy sphere of the world, which is so full with its
inessence; to be an ideal phantasm presented for the delusion of our
minds.
13. It is like the beautiful bamboo plant, all hollow within, and
without pith and marrow in the inside; and like the curling waves of the
sea, both of which are born to perish without being uprooted from the
bottom. (It is impossible to root out the bamboo as well as the rising
wave of the water).
14. This world is as volatile as the air and water flying in the air,
and hardly to be tangible or held fast in the hand; and as precipitous
as the water-fall in its course (hurling down and sweeping away
everything before it).
15. It appears as a flowery garden, but never comes to any good use at
all; so the billowy sea in the mirage, presents the form of water,
without allaying our thirst.
16. Sometimes it seems to be straight, and at others a curve; now it is
long and now short, and now it is moving and quiet again; and everything
in it, though originally for our good, conspires to our evil only.
17. Though hollow in the inside, the world appears to be full with its
apparent contents; and though all the worlds are continually in motion,
yet they seem to be standing still.
18. Whether they be dull matter or intelligences, their existence
depends upon their motion; and these without stopping any where for a
moment, present the sight of their being quite at rest.
19. Though they are as bright as light to sight, they are as opaque as
the dark coal in their bowels; and though they are moved by a superior
power, they appear to be moving of themselves.
20. They fade away before the brighter light of the sun, but brighten in
the darkness of the night; their light is like that of the mirage, by
reflection of sunbeams.
21. Human avarice is as a sable serpent, crooked and venomous, thin and
soft in its form; but rough and dangerous in its nature, and ever
unsteady as a woman.
22. Our love of the world, ceases soon without the objects of our
affection; as the lamp is extinguished without its oil, and as the
vermilion mark, which is soon effaced. (Here is a pun upon the world
_sneha_ meaning a fluid substance as well as affection; and that the
world is a dreary waste, without the objects dear to us).
23. Our false hopes are as transient, as the evanescent flash of
lightnings; they glare and flare for a moment, but they disappear in the
air as these transitory flashes of light.
24. The objects of our desire are often had without our seeking; but
they are as frail as the fire of heaven; they appear to vanish like the
twinkling lightnings, and being held carefully in the hand, they burn it
like the electric fire. (This passage shows the science of electricity
and the catching of electric fire, to have been known to the ancients).
25. Many things come to us unasked, and though appearing delightsome at
first, they prove troublesome to us at last. Hopes delayed, are as
flowers growing out of season, which, neither bear their fruits, nor
answer our purposes. (Unseasonal flowers are held as ominous and
useless).
26. Every accident tends to our misery, as unpleasant dreams infest our
sleep and disturb our rest.
27. It is our delusion (avidyá), that presents these many and big worlds
before us; as our dreams produce, sustain and destroy all the
appearances of vision in one minute.
28. It was delusion which made one minute, appear as many years to king
Lavana; and the space of one night, seem as the long period of a dozen
of years to Haris chandra.
29. Such also is the case with separated lovers among rich people, that
a single night seems as a live long year to them, in the absence of
their beloved.
30. It is this delusive _avidyá_, that shortens the flight of time to
the rich and happy; and prolongs its course, with the poor and
miserable: all of whom are subject to the power of delusion
_vipary’ása_.
31. The power of this delusion is essentially spread over all the works
of creation, as the light of a lamp, is spread over things in its
effulgence and not in substance.
32. As a female form represented in a picture is no woman, and has not
the power of doing any thing; so this _avidyá_ which presents us the
shapes of our desired objects in the picture of the mind, can produce
nothing in reality.
33. The delusion consists in the building of aerial castles in the mind,
without their substance; and though these appear in hundreds and
thousands of shapes, they have no substantiality in them.
34. It deludes the ignorant, as a mirage misleads the deer in a desert;
but it can not deceive the knowing man by its false appearances.
35. These appearances like the foaming waters, are as continuous as they
are evanescent, they are as fleeting as the driving frost, which can not
be held in the hand.
36. This delusion holds the world in its grasp, and flies aloft with it
in the air; it blinds us by the flying dust, which is raised by its
furious blasts. (This is delusion of ambitions).
37. Covered with dust and with heat and sweat of its body, it grasps the
earth and flies all about the world. The deluded man ever toils and
moils, and runs every where after his greed.
38. As the drops of rain water, falling from the clouds, form the great
rivers and seas; and as the scattered straws being tied together, make
the strong rope for the bondage of beasts; so the combination of all the
delusive objects in the world, makes the great delusion of Máyá and
Moha. (‘_Gutta cum gutta facit lacum_’. Drop by drop, makes a lake. Or
by drops the lake is drained. And many a little, makes a mickle).
39. The poets describe the fluctuations of the world as a series of
waves and the world itself, as a bed of lotuses: pleasant to sight, but
floating on the unstable element. But I compare it with the porous stalk
of the lotus, which is full of perforations and foramens inside; and as
a pool of mud and mire, with the filth of our sins. (The world is full
of hidden traps and trapdoors and is a pit of sinfulness).
40. Men think much of their improvement, and of many other things on
earth; but there is no improving in this decaying world; which is as a
tempting cake with a coating of sweets, but full of deadly gall within.
41. It is as an extinguishing lamp, whose flame is lost and fled we know
not where. It is visible as a mist, but try to lay hold on it, and it
proves to be nothing.
42. This earth is a handful of ashes, which being flung aloft flies in
particles of dust; and the upper sky which appears to be blue, has no
blueness in it.
43. There is the same delusion here on earth, as in the appearance of
couple of moons in the sky; and in the vision of things in a dream, as
also in the motion of immovable things on the land, to the passenger in
a boat. (Things taken to be true, prove to be false).
44. Men being long deluded by this error, which has fastly laid hold of
their minds, imagine a long duration of the world, as they do of the
scenes in their dreams.
45. The mind being thus deluded by this error, sees the wonderful
productions of world, to rise and fall within itself like the waves of
the sea.
46. Things which are real and good, appear as otherwise in our error;
while those that are unreal and noxious, appear as real and good to our
deluded understandings.
47. Our strong avarice riding on the vehicle of the desired object,
chases the fleeting mind as bird-catchers do the flying birds in nets.
48. Delusion like a mother and wife often offers us fresh delights, with
her tender looks and breasts distilling sweet milk.
49. But these delights serve only to poison us, while they seem to cool
the worlds with their distillation; just as the crescent orb of the
moon, injures us with too much of her moistening influence, while it
appears to refresh us with her full bright beams.
50. Blind delusion turns the meek, mild and mute men, to giddy and
vociferous fools; as the silent Vetálas become in their revelrous
dancings, amidst the silent woods at night.
51. It is under the influence of delusion, that we see the shapes of
snakes and serpents, in our brick-built and stone made houses at night
falls: (_i.e._ apprehensions of these in darkness).
52. It makes a single thing appear as double, as in the sight of two
moons in the sky; and brings near to us whatever is at a distance, as in
our dreams; and even causes us to dream ourselves as dead in sleep.
53. It causes the long to appear as short, as our nightly sleep shortens
the duration of time; and makes a moment appear as a year, as in the
case of separated lovers.
54. Look at the power of this unsubstantial ignorance, a negative thing,
and still there is nothing which it can not alter to some thing else.
55. Therefore be diligent to stop the course of this delusion, by your
right knowledge: as they dry up a channel by stopping the current of the
stream.
56. Ráma said:—It is wonderful that a false conception, which has no
real existence, and is so delicate as almost a nothing (but a name)
should thus blind the understanding.
57. It is strange that something without form or figure, without sense
or understanding, and which is unreal and vanishing, should so blindfold
the world.
58. It is strange that a thing sparkling in darkness, and vanishing in
day light, and mope-eyed as the moping owl, should thus keep the world
in darkness.
59. It is strange that something prone to the doing of evil (deception),
and unable to come to light and flying from sight, and having no bodily
form whatever, should thus darken the world.
60. It is a wonder that one acting so miserly, and consorting with the
mean and vile, and ever hiding herself in darkness, should thus domineer
over the world.
61. It is wonderful that fallacy which is attended with incessant woe
and peril, and which is devoid of sense and knowledge, should keep the
world in darkness.
62. It is to be wondered that error arising from anger and avarice,
creeping crookedly in darkness, and liable to instant death (by its
detection), should yet keep the world in blindness.
63. It is surprising that error which is a blind, dull and stupid thing
itself, and which is falsely talkative at all times, should yet mislead
others in the world.
64. It is astonishing, that falsehood should betray a man, after
attaching so close to him as his consort, and showing all her
endearments to him; but flying at the approach of his reason.
65. It is strange that man should be blinded by the womanish attire of
error, which beguiles the man but dares not to look at him face to face.
66. It is strange that man is blinded by his faithless consort of error,
which has no sense nor intelligence, and which dies away without being
killed.
67. Tell me Sir, how this error is to be dispelled, which has its seat
in the desires, and is deeply rooted in the recesses of the heart and
mind, and lead us to the channels of endless misery, by subjecting us to
repeated births and deaths, and to the pains and pleasures of life.
CHAPTER CXIV.
DESCRIPTION OF ERROR.
Argument. Spiritual knowledge, the only means of dispelling worldly
errors, temporal desires and cares.
Ráma repeated:—Tell me sir, how this stony blindness of man, is to be
removed, which is caused by the train of ignorance or delusion called
_avidyá_.
2. Vasishtha replied:—As the particles of snow, melt away at the sight
of the sun, so is this ignorance dispelled in a moment, by a glance of
the holy spirit.
3. Till then doth ignorance continue to hurl down the soul and spirit,
as from a precipice to the depths of the world, and expose them to woes,
as thick as thorny brambles.
4. As long as the desire of seeing the spirit, does not rise of itself
in the human soul, so long there is no end of this ignorance (_avidyá_)
and insensibility (_Moha_).
5. The sight of the supreme Spirit, destroys the knowledge of our
self-existence, which is caused by our ignorance; as the light of the
sun, destroys the shadows of things.
6. The sight of the all-pervading God, dispels our ignorance in the same
manner, as the light of the twelve zodiacal suns (all shining at once),
puts the shadows of night to flight from all sides of the horizon.
7. Our desires are the offspring of our ignorance, and the annihilation
of these constitutes what we call our liberation; because the man that
is devoid of desires, is reckoned the perfect and consummate Siddha.
8. As the night-shade of desires, is dissipated from the region of the
mind; the darkness of ignorance is put to flight, by the rise of the
intellectual sun (_Vivekodaya_).
9. As the dark night flies away before the advance of solar light, so
does ignorance disappear, before the advancement of true
knowledge—_Viveka._
10. The stiffness of our desires, tends to bind the mind fast in its
worldly chains; as the advance of night serves to increase the fear of
goblins in children.
11. Ráma asked:—The knowledge of the phenomenals as true, makes what we
call _avidyá_ or ignorance, and it is said to be dispersed by spiritual
knowledge. Now tell me sir, what is the nature of the Spirit.
12. Vasishtha replied:—That which is not the subject of thought, which
is all-pervasive, and the thought of which is beyond expression and
comprehension is the universal spirit (which we call our Lord and God).
13. That which reaches, to the highest empyrean of God, and stretches
over the lowest plots of grass on earth, is the all-pervading spirit at
all times, and unknown to the ignorant soul.
14. All this is verily Brahma, eternal and imperishable intelligence. To
him no imagination of the mind can reach at any time.
15. That which is never born or dead, and which is ever-existent in all
worlds, and in which the conditions of being and change are altogether
wanting.
16. Which is one and one alone, all and all pervading, and imperishable
Unity; which is incomprehensible in thought, and is only of the form of
Intellect, is the universal Spirit.
17. It is accompanied with the ever-existent, all-extending, pure and
undisturbed Intellect, and is that calm, quiet, even and unchanging
state of the soul, which is called the Divine Spirit.
18. There resides also the impure mind, which is in its nature beyond
all physical objects, and runs after its own desire; it is conceivable
by the Intellect as sullied by its own activity.
19. This ubiquious, all-potent, great and godlike mind, separates itself
in its imagination from the Supreme spirit, and rises from it as a wave
on the surface of the sea. (So the Sruti:—_Etasmat Jayate pranahmanah_
&c. The life and mind have their rise from Him).
20. There is no fluctuation (_Sansriti_) nor projection (_Vikshepa_) in
the all-extending tranquil soul of God; but these take place in the mind
owing to its desires, which cause its production of all things in the
world. (Hence the world and all things in it, are creations of the
divine and active mind, and not of the inactive Supreme Soul).
21. Therefore the world being the production of desire or will, has its
extinction with the privation of desires; for that which comes the
growth of a thing, causes its extinction also; as the wind which kindles
the fire, extinguishes it likewise. (Here is a coincidence with the
Homœpathic maxim _Similes per similibus_).
22. The exertion of human efforts, gives rise to the expectation of
fruition, but want of desire, causes the cessation of exertions; and
consequently puts a stop to the desire of employment, together with our
ignorance causing the desire.
23. The thought that ‘I am distinct from Brahma’, binds the mind to the
world; but the belief that ‘Brahma is all’ releases the mind from its
bondage.
24. Every thought about one’s self, fastens his bondage in this world;
but release from selfish thoughts, leads him to his liberation. Cease
from thy selfish cares, and thou shalt cease to toil and moil for
naught.
25. There is no lake of lotuses in the sky, nor is there a lotus growing
in the gold mine, whose fragrance fills the air, and attracts the blue
bees to suck its honey.
26. The goddess of ignorance—Avidyá, with her uplifted arms resembling
the long stalks of lotus plants, laughs in exultation over her
conquests, with the glaring light of shining moonbeams.
27. Such is the net of our wishes spread before us by our minds, which
represent unrealities as real, and take a delight to dwell upon them,
like children in their toys.
28. So also is the snare spread out by our own ignorance, all over this
world, that it ensnares the busy people to their misery in all places,
as it binds fast the ignorant men and boys in its chains.
29. Men are busied in worldly affairs with such thoughts, as these that,
‘I am poor and bound in this earth for my life; but I have my hands and
feet wherewith I must work for myself’.
30. But they are freed from all affairs of this life, who know
themselves as spiritual beings, and their spiritual part is neither
subject to bondage nor labour. (They know themselves to be bodiless, in
their embodied forms).
31. The thought that ‘I am neither flesh nor bones, but some thing else
than my body,’ releases one from his bondage; and one having such
assurance in him, is said to have weakened his _avidyá_ or ignorance.
32. Ignorance (_avidyá_) is painted in the imagination of earthly men,
to be as dark as the darkness which surrounds the highest pinnacle of
Meru, blazing with the blue light of sapphire, or at the primeval
darkness impenetrable by the solar light. (Hence ignorance and darkness
are used as synonymous terms).
33. It is also represented by earth-born mortals, as the blackness which
naturally covers the face of heaven by its own nature like the blue
vault of the sky. (Thus Avidya is represented as the black and the blue
goddess Kali).
34. Thus ignorance is pictured with a visible form, in the imagination
of the unenlightened; but the enlightened never attribute sensible
qualities to inanimate and imaginary objects.
35. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, what is the cause of the blueness of the
sky, if it is not the reflexion of the blue gems on the Meru’s peak, nor
is it a collection of darkness by itself.
36. Vasishtha replied:—Ráma! the sky being but empty vacuum, cannot have
the quality of blueness which is commonly attributed to it; nor is it
the bluish lustre of the blue gems which are supposed to abound on the
top of Meru.
37. There is neither the possibility of a body of darkness to abide in
the sky, when the mundane egg is full of light (which has displaced the
primeval darkness); and when the nature of light is the brightness which
stretches over the extramundane regions. (This is the zodiacal light
reaching to extramundane worlds).
38. O fortunate Ráma! the firmament (súnya) which is a vast vacuum, is
open to a sister of ignorance (avidyá) with regard to its inward
hollowness. (The sky and ignorance are twin sisters, both equally blank
and hollow within, and of unlimited extent, enveloping the worlds within
their unconscious wombs).
39. As one after losing his eyesight, beholds but darkness only all
about him; so the want of the objects of sight in the womb of vacuity,
gives the sky the appearance of a darksome scene.
40. By understanding this, as you come to the knowledge, that the
apparent blackness of the sky, is no black colour of its own; so you
come to learn the seeming darkness of ignorance to be no darkness in
reality (but a figurative expression derived from its similitude to the
other).
41. Want of desire or its indifference, is the destroyer of ignorance;
and it is as easy to effect it, as to annihilate the lotus-lake in the
sky (an Utopia or a castle built in the air, being but an airy nothing).
42. It is better, O good Ráma! to distrust the delusions of this world,
and disbelieve the blueness of the sky, than to labour under the error
of their reality.
43. The thought that ‘I am dead,’ makes one as sorrowful, as when he
dreams of his death in sleep; so also the thought that ‘I am living’
makes one as cheerful, as when he wakes from the deadly dream of his
death-like sleep.
44. Foolish imaginations make the mind as stolid as that of a fool; but
reasonable reflexions lead it to wisdom and clearsightedness.
45. A moment’s reflexion of the reality of the world and of his own
essence, casts a man into the gloom of everlasting ignorance, while his
forgetfulness of these, removes all mortal thoughts from his mind.
46. Ignorance is the producer of passions and tempter to all transient
objects; it is busy in destroying the knowledge of the soul, and is
destroyed by knowledge of the soul only. (Ignorance leads to
materialism, but it is lost under spiritual knowledge).
47. Whatever is sought by the mind, is instantly supplied by the organs
of action; which serve as ministers subservient to the orders of their
king. (The body serves the mind).
48. Hence who so does not attend to the dictates of his mind, in the
pursuit of sensible objects, entertains the tranquility of his inmost
soul, by his diligent application to spirituality.
49. What did not exist at first, has no existence even now (i.e.
material objects); and these that appear as existent, are no other than
the quiescent and immaculate essence—Brahma himself. (The eternal is
ever existent, and the instantaneous are but the phases and fluctuations
of the everlasting).
50. Let no other thought of any person or thing, or of any place or
object employ your mind at any time, except that of the immutable,
everlasting and unlimited spirit of Brahma. (For what faith or reliance
is there in things that are false and fleeting).
51. Rely in the superior powers of your understanding, and exert your
sovran intellect (to know the truth); and root out at once all worldly
desire by enjoyment of the pleasures of your mind.
52. The great ignorance that rises in the mind and raises the desires of
thy heart, has spread the net of thy false hopes for thy ruin, causing
thy death and decrepitude under them.
53. Thy wishes burst out in expressions as these that, “these are my
sons and these my treasures; I am such a one, and these things are
mine.” All this is the effect of a magic spell of ignorance, that binds
thee fast in it.
54. Thy body is a void, wherein thy desires have produced all thy
selfish thoughts; as the empty winds raise the gliding waves on the
surface of the sea (resembling the fleeting moments in the infinity of
the Deity).
55. Learn ye that are seekers of truth, that the words: I, mine and this
and that, are all meaningless in their true sense; and that there is
nothing that may be called real at any time, except the knowledge of the
true self and essence of Brahma.
56. The heavens above and the earth below, with all the ranges of hills
and mountains on earth, and all the lines of its rivers and lakes, are
but the dissolving views of our sight, and are seen in the same or
different lights as they are represented by our ignorance. (This is a
tenet of the _drishtisrishti_ system of philosophy, which maintains
Visual creations or existence of phenomenals, to be dependant upon sight
or visual organs and are _deceptio visus_ or fallacies of vision only).
57. The phenomenals rise to view from our ignorance, and disappear
before the light of knowledge (as the dreams and spectres of the dark,
are put to flight before the rising sun-light). They appear in various
forms in the substratum of the soul, as the fallacy of a snake appearing
in the substance of a rope.
58. Know Ráma, that the ignorant only are liable to the error, of taking
the earth and sun and the stars, for realities; but not so the learned,
to whom the Great Brahma is present in all his majesty and full glory,
in all places and things.
59. While the ignorant labour under the doubt of the two ideas, of a
rope and a snake in the rope; the learned are firm in their belief, and
sight of one true God in all things.
60. Do not therefore think as the ignorant do, but consider all things
well like the wise and the learned. Forsake your earthly wishes, and do
not grovel like the vulgar by believing the unself as the self. (The
second clause has the double sense of mistaking an alien as your own,
and of taking an unreality for the true God).
61. Of what good is this dull and dumb body to you, Ráma? (in your
future state), that you are so overcome by your alternate joy and grief
at its pleasure and pain?
62. As the wood of a tree and its gum resin, and its fruit and seed, are
not one and the same thing, though they are so closely akin to one
another; so is this body and the embodied being, quite separate from one
another, though they are so closely united with each other.
63. As the burning of a pair of bellows, does not blow out the fire, nor
stop the air blown by another pair, so the vital air is not destroyed by
destruction of the body, but finds its way into another form and frame
elsewhere. (This is the doctrine of the transmigration of the soul and
life in other bodies).
64. The thought that ‘I am happy or miserable,’ is as false as the
conception of water in the mirage:—and knowing it as such, give up your
misconceptions of pleasure and pain, and place your reliance in the sole
truth.
65. O how wonderful is it, that men have so utterly forgotten the true
Brahmá, and have placed their reliance in false ignorance (_avidyá_),
the sole cause of errors.
66. Do not, O Ráma! give way to ignorance in your mind, which being
overspread by its darkness, will render it difficult for you to pass
over the errors of the world.
67. Know ignorance to be a false fiend and deluder of the strongest
minds; it is the baneful cause of endless woes, and producer of the
poisonous fruits of illusion.
68. It imagines hell fire, in the cooling beams of the watery orb of the
moon; and conceives the torments of the infernal fires, proceeding from
the refreshing beams of that celestial light. (This passage alludes to
the poetical description of moon light as a flame of fire, in respect to
a lover, who is impatient at the separation of his beloved, and is
burning under the inextinguishable flame of ardent desire).
69. It views a dry desert in the wide waters, beating with billows and
undulating with the fragrance of the aqueous _kalpa_ flowers; and
imagines a dry mirage in the empty clouds of autumn. (This alludes also
to the wild imageries of poets, proceeding from their false imagination
and ignorance).
70. Ignorance builds the imaginary castles in empty air, and causes the
error of rising and falling towers in the clouds; it is the delusion of
our fancy, that makes us feel the emotions of pleasure and pain in our
dreams.
71. If the mind is not filled and led away by worldly desires, there is
no fear then of our falling into the dangers, which the day-dreams of
our earthly affairs incessantly present before us.
72. The more does our false knowledge (error) lay hold of our minds, the
more we feel the torments of hell and its punishments in us, as one
dreams of night-mares in his sleep.
73. The mind being pierced by error as by the thorny stalk of a lotus,
sees the whole world revolving before it like the sea rolling with its
waves.
74. Ignorance taking possession of the mind, converts the enthroned
princes to peasants; and reduces them to a condition worse than that of
beastly huntsmen. (All tyrants are the creatures of ignorance).
75. Therefore, Ráma! give up the earthly desires, that serve at best to
bind down the (celestial) soul to this mortal earth and its mortifying
cares; and remain as the pure and white crystal, with reflecting the
hues of all things around in your stainless mind.
76. Employ thy mind to thy duties, without being tarnished by thy
attachment to any; but remain as the unsullied crystal, receiving the
reflections of outward objects, without being stained by any.
77. Knowing everything with avidity in thy watchful mind, and performing
all thy duties with due submission, and keeping from the common track
with thy exalted mind, thou wilt raise thyself above comparison with any
other person.
CHAPTER CXV.
CAUSES OF HAPPINESS AND MISERY.
Argument. The Nature and Powers of the Mind elucidated in the moral of
Prince Lavana’s story.
Válmíki relates:—Being thus admonished by the high minded Vasishtha,
the lotus eyes of Ráma became unfolded as new-blown flowers.
2. He with his expanded heart and blooming face, shone forth with a pure
grace, like the fresh lotus reviving at the end of night, under the
vivifying beams of the rising sun.
3. His smiling countenance shone forth as the shining moon, with his
inward enlightenment and wonder; and then with the nectarious beams of
his bright and white pearly teeth, he spoke out these words.
4. Ráma said:—O wonder! that the want of ignorance should subdue all
things, as if it were to bind the huge hills with the thin threads of
lotus stalks. (Wondrous achievements of science).
5. O! that this straw of the earth, which shows itself to be so compact
a body in the world; is no more than the production of our ignorance,
which shows the unreal as a reality.
6. Tell me further for my enlightenment regarding the true nature of
this magical earth, which rolls as a ceaseless stream, running amidst
the etherial worlds.
7. There is another great doubt that infests my breast, and it is with
regard to the state which attended on the fortunate Lavana at last.
8. Tell me moreover regarding the embodied soul and the animated body,
whether they are in concord or discord with one another, and which of
them is the active agent and recipient of the rewards of acts in this
earth.
9. Tell me also who was that sorcerer and where he fled, after putting
the good prince Lavana to all his tribulation, and then restoring him to
his former exalted position.
10. Vasishtha said:—The body is as a frame of wood work, and contains
nothing (spiritual) in it; it receives the reflexion of an intelligence
in it as in a dream, and this is called the mind.
11. This mind becomes the living principal (life), and is endued with
the power of thinking also. It is as unstable as a boat on the current
of world of affairs, and plays the part of a fickle monkey, amidst the
busy castle of the world.
12. The active principle in the body, is known under the several
appellations of the mind, life and egoism (or consciousness); and having
a body for its abode, is employed in a variety of actions.
13. This principle is subject to endless pains and pleasures in its
unenlightened or unawakened state, and the body bears no relation with
them. (The mind is the perceptive and sensitive principle and not the
body).
14. The unenlightened understanding again has received many fictitious
names, according to the various faculties which it exhibits in its acts.
15. As long as the unawakened mind is in its sleeping state, it
perceives the busy bustle of the world as it were in his dream, and
which is unknown to the waking or enlightened mind.
16. As long as the living being is not awakened from its dormancy, so
long it has to labour under the inseparable mist of worldly errors.
17. But the darkness over-hanging on the minds of the enlightened, is as
soon put to flight as the shade of night overspreading the bed of
lotuses, is dispersed at sun rise.
18. That which is called the heart, the mind, the living soul, ignorance
and desire by the learned, and what is also styled the principle of
action, is the same embodied being that is subject both to the feelings
of pleasure and pain.
19. The body is dull matter and is insensible of pain and pleasure; it
is the embodied being, which is said to be subject to these by men of
right reason: and this by reason of its impervious ignorance and
irrationality, is the cause of its own misery.
20. The living soul is the subject of its good and bad actions; but it
becomes confined in its body by reason of its irrationality, and remains
pent up there like the silkworm in its cocoon.
21. The mind being fast bound to its ignorance, exerts its faculties in
various ways, and turns round like a wheel in its various pursuits and
employments.
22. It is the mind dwelling in the body, that makes it to rise and set,
to eat and drink, to walk and go, and to hurt and kill, all which are
acts of the mind, and not of the body.
23. As the master of the house does his many acts in it, and not the
house itself; so the mind acts its several parts in the body, and not
the body by itself.
24. The mind is the active and passive agent of all the actions and
passions, and of the pains and pleasures of the body; and it is the mind
only that makes the man.
25. Hear me now tell you the useful moral of the story of Lavana; and
how he was transformed to a Chandála, by derangement of his mind.
26. The mind has to feel the effects of its actions whether good or
evil; and in order that you may understand it well, hear attentively
what I will now relate unto you.
27. Lavana who was born of the line of king Harischandra, thought within
himself one day, as he was sitting apart from all others of his court.
28. My grand-father was a great king and performed the Rájasúya
sacrifice in act; and I, being born of his line, must perform the same
in my mind (_i.e._ mentally).
29. Having determined so, and getting the things ready for the
sacrifice, he entered the sacrificial hall for his initiation in the
sacred rites.
30. He called the sacrificial priests, and honoured the holy saints; he
invited the gods to it, and kindled the sacrificial fire.
31. Having performed the sacrifice to his heart’s content, and honoured
the gods, sages and Bráhmans; he went to a forest to reside there for a
year.
32. Having then made presents of all his wealth to Bráhmans and other
men, he awoke from his slumber in the same forest by the evening of that
day.
33. Thus the king Lavana attained the merit of the sacrifice, in his
internal satisfaction of having attained the meritoriousness of the
sacrifice.
34. Hence learn to know the mind to be the recipient of pleasure and
pain; therefore employ your attention, Ráma! to the purification of your
mind.
35. Every man becomes perfect in his mind in its full time and proper
place; but he is utterly lost who believes himself to be composed of his
body only.
36. The mind being roused to transcendental reason, all miseries are
removed from the rational understanding; just as the beams of the rising
sun falling upon the lotus-bud, dispel the darkness that had closely
contracted its folded petals.
CHAPTER CXVI.
BIRTH AND INCARNATION OF ADEPTS IN YOGA.
Argument. Production of the Body from the Mind.
Ráma asked:—What evidence is there sir, in proof of Lavana’s obtaining
the reward of his mental sacrifice of Rájasúya, in his transformation
to the state of the Chandála, as it was wrought upon him by the
enchantment of the magician?
2. Vasishtha answered:—I was myself present in the court-house of king
Lavana, at the time when the magician made his appearance there, and I
saw all that took place there with my own eyes.
3. After the magician had gone and done his work, I with the other
courtiers, was respectfully requested by the king Lavana, to explain to
him the cause (of the dream and its circumstances).
4. After I had pondered the matter and clearly seen its cause, I
expounded the meaning of the magician’s spell, in the way as I shall now
relate to you, my Ráma!
5. I remembered that all the performers of Rájasúya sacrifice, were
subjected to various painful difficulties and dangers, under which they
had to suffer for a full dozen of years.
6. It was then that Indra, the lord of heaven had compassion for Lavana,
and sent his heavenly messenger in the form of the magician to avert his
calamity.
7. He taxed the Rájasúya sacrificer with the inflictment of the very
many hardships in his dream, and departed in his aerial journey to the
abode of the gods and Siddhas.
8. (Prose) Thus Ráma! it is quite evident and there is no doubt in it.
The mind is the active and passive agent of all kinds of actions and
their sequences.
(_a_). Therefore rub out the dirt of your heart, and polish the gem of
your mind; and having melted it down like the particle of an icicle, by
the fire of your reason, attain to your chief good _summum bonum_ at
last.
(_b_). Know the mind as self-same with ignorance (avidyá), which
presents these multitudes of beings before you, and produces the endless
varieties of things by its magical power.
(_c_). There is no difference in the meanings of the words ignorance,
mind, understanding and living soul, as in the word tree and all its
synonyms.
(_d_). Knowing this truth, keep a steady mind freed from all its
desires; and as the orb of the clear sun of your intellect has its rise,
so the darkness of your _nolens_ and _volens_ flies away from you.
(_e_). Know also this truth, that there is nothing in the world which is
not to be seen by you, and which can not be made your own, or alienated
from you. Nothing is there that does not die or what is not yours or
others. All things become all at all times. (This dogma is based on a
dictum of the Vedánta given in the Madhu Bráhmana. That nothing is
confined in any place or person at all times, but passes from one to
another in its turn and time).
9. The multitudes of existent bodies and their known properties, meet
together in the substantiality (of the self-same Brahma); as the various
kinds of unburnt clay vessels, are melted down in the same watery
substance.
10. Ráma said:—You said sir, that it is by weakening the desires of our
mind, that we can put an end to our pleasures and pains; but tell me
now, how is it possible to stop the course of our naturally fickle
minds.
11. Vasishtha replied:—Hear, O thou bright moon of Raghu’s race! the
proper course that I will tell thee for quieting the restless mind; by
knowing this thou shalt obtain the peace of thy mind, and be freed from
the actions of thy organs of sense.
12. I have told you before of the triple nature of the production of
beings here below, which I believe, you well remember.
13. Of these the first is that power (Brahmá), who assumed to himself
the shape of the Divine Will (Sankalpa), and saw in his presence
whatever he wished to produce, and which brought the mundane system into
existence.
14. He thought of many changes in his mind, as those of birth and death,
of pleasure and pain, of the course of nature and effect of ignorance
and the like; and then having ordained them as he willed, he disappeared
of himself as snow before the solar light.
15. Thus this god, the personification of Will, rises and sets
repeatedly, as he is prompted from time to time by his inward wish. (So
does every living being come out of the mould of its internal desire. Or
that:—it is the wish, that frames and fashions every body, or the will
that moulds the mind).
16. So there are millions of Brahmás born in this mundane egg, and many
that have gone by and are yet to come, whose number is innumerable (and
who are incarnations of their desires only).
17. So are all living beings in the same predicament with Brahmá,
proceeding continually from the entity of God. Now I will tell you the
manner in which they live, and are liberated from the bond of life.
18. The mental power of Brahmá issuing from him, rests on the wide
expanse of vacuum which is spread before it; then being joined with the
essence of ether, becomes solidified in the shape of desire.
19. Then finding the miniature of matter spread out before it, it
becomes the quintessence of the quintuple elements. Having assumed
afterwards the inward senses, it becomes a suitable elementary body
composed of the finest particles of the five elements. It enters into
grains and vegetables, which re-enter into the bowels of animals in the
form of food.
20. The essence of this food in the form of semen, gives birth to living
beings to infinity.
21. The male child betakes himself in his boy-hood, to his tutor for the
acquisition of knowledge.
22. The boy next assumes his wondrous form of youth, which next arrives
to the state of manhood.
23. The man afterwards learns to choose something for himself, and
reject others by the clearsightedness of his internal faculties.
24. The man that is possessed of such right discrimination of good and
evil, and of right and wrong, and who is confident of the purity of his
own nature, and of his belonging to the best caste (of a Brahmán);
attains by degrees the supernatural powers for his own good, as also for
the enlightenment of his mind, by means of his knowledge of the seven
essential grounds of Yoga meditation.
CHAPTER CXVII.
DIFFERENT STATES OF KNOWLEDGE AND IGNORANCE.[12]
Argument. The septuple grounds of true and false Knowledge and their
mixed modes. And firstly, of self-abstraction or abstract knowledge of
one or _swarúpa_; and then of the different grounds of Ignorance.
Ráma said:—Please sir, tell me in brief, what are the grounds of yoga
meditation, which produce the seven kinds of consummation, which are
aimed at by the yogi adepts. You sir, who are best acquainted with all
recondite truths, must know it better than all others.
2. Vasishtha replied:—They consist of the seven states of ignorance
(ajnána-bhúmi), and as many of knowledge also; and these again diverge
into many others, by their mutual intermixture. (Participating the
natures of one another, and forming the mixed modes of states of truth
and error).
3. All these states (both of right and wrong cognitions), being deep
rooted in the nature of man (mahá-satta), either by his habit or of
training, made produce their respective fruits or results (tending to
his elevation or degradation in this world and the next).
Note. Habit or natural disposition (pravritti) is the cause of leading
to ignorance and its resulting error; but good training—_sádhana_ and
better endeavours—_prayatna_, are the causes of right knowledge and
elevation.
4. Attend now to the nature of the sevenfold states or grounds of
ignorance; and you will come to know thereby, the nature of the septuple
grounds of knowledge also.
5. Know this as the shortest lesson, that I will give thee of the
definitions of true knowledge and ignorance; that, it is the remaining
in one’s own true nature (_swarúpa_ or suiform state), that constitutes
his highest knowledge and liberation; and his divergence from it to the
knowledge of his ego (egoism—ahanta), is the cause of his ignorance, and
leads him to the error and bondage of this world.
6. Of these, they that do not deviate from their consciousness—samvitti
of themselves—swarúpa, as composed of the pure _ens_ or essence only
(suddha-san-mátra), are not liable to ignorance; because of their want
of passions and affections, and of the feelings of envy and enmity in
them. (The highest intelligence of one’s self, is the consciousness of
his self-existence, or that “I am that I am” as a spiritual being;
because the spirit or soul is the true self).
7. But falling off from the consciousness of self-entity—swarúpa, and
diving into the intellect—Chit, in search of the thoughts of cognizable
objects (chetyárthas), is the greatest ignorance and error of mankind.
(No error is greater than to fall off from the subjective and run after
the objective).
8. The truce that takes place in the mind, in the interim of a past and
future thought of one object to another (arthadar thántara); know that
respite of the mind in thinking, to be the resting of the soul, in the
consciousness of its self-entity swarúpa.
9. That state of the soul which is at calm after the setting of the
thoughts and desires of the mind; and which is as cold and quiet as the
bosom of a stone, and yet without the torpitude of slumber or dull
drowsiness; is called the supineness of the soul in its recognition of
itself.
10. That state of the soul, which is devoid of its sense of egoism and
destitute of its knowledge of dualism, and its distinction from the
state of the one universal soul, and shines forth with its unsleeping
intelligence, is said to be at rest in itself or _swarúpa_.
11. But this state of the pure and self-intelligent soul, is obscured by
the various states of ignorance, whose grounds you will now hear me
relate unto you. These are the three states of wakefulness or _jágrat_,
known as the embryonic waking (or _vijajágrat_), the ordinary waking,
and the intense waking called the _mahajágrat_. (_i.e._ the hypnotism or
hybernation of the soul, being reckoned its intelligent state, its
waking is deemed as the ground of its ignorance, and the more is it
awake to the concerns of life, the more it is said to be liable to
error).
12. Again the different states of its dreaming (swapnam or somnum), are
also said to be the grounds of its ignorance and these are the waking
dream, the sleeping dream, the sleepy waking and sound sleep or
_sushupti_. These are the seven grounds of ignorance. (Meaning hereby,
all the three states of waking, dreaming and sound sleep (_jágrat_,
_swapna_ and _sushupta_), to be the grounds fertile with our ignorance
and error).
13. These are the seven-fold grounds, productive of sheer ignorance, and
which when joined with one another, become many more and mixed ones,
known under different denominations as you will hear by and by.
14. At first there was the intelligent Intellect (Chaitanya Chit), which
gave rise to the nameless and pure intelligence Suddha-Chit; which
became the source of the would-be mind and living soul.
15. This intellect remained as the ever waking embryonic seed of all,
wherefore it is called the waking seed (Vijajágrat); and as it is the
first condition of cognition, it is said to be the primal waking state.
16. Now know the waking state to be next to the primal waking
intelligence of God, and it consists of the belief of the individual
personality, of the _ego_ and _meity_,—aham and mama; _i.e._ this am I and
these are mine by chance—prág-abháva. (The first is the knowledge of the
impersonal soul, and the second the knowledge of personal or individual
souls).
17. The glaring or great waking—mahajágrat, consists in the firm belief
that I am such a one, and this thing is mine, by virtue of my merits in
this or by-gone times or _Karman_. (This positive knowledge of one’s
self and his properties, is the greatest error of the waking man).
18. The cognition of the reality of any thing either by bias—rudhádhyása
or mistake—arudha, is called the waking dream; as the sight of two moons
in the halo, of silver in shells, and water in the mirage; as also the
imaginary castle building of day dreamers.
19. Dreaming in sleep is of many kinds, as known to one on his waking,
who doubts their truth owing to their short-lived duration (as it was in
the dreaming of Lavana).
20. The reliance which is placed in things seen in a dream, after one
wakes from his sleep, is called his waking dream, and lasting in its
remembrance only in his mind. (Such is the reliance in divine
inspirations and prophetic dreams which come to be fulfilled).
21. A thing long unseen and appearing dimly with a stalwart figure in
the dream, if taken for a real thing of the waking state, is called also
a waking dream. (As that of Brutus on his seeing the stalwart figure of
Cæsar).
22. A dream dreamt either in the whole body or dead body of the dreamer,
appears as a phantom of the waking state: (as a living old man remembers
his past youthful person, and a departed soul viewing the body it has
left behind).
23. Besides these six states, there is a torpid—jada state of the living
soul, which is called his _sushupta_—hypnotism or sound sleep, and is
capable of feeling its future pleasures and pains. (The soul retains
even in this torpid state, the self-consciousness of its merit and
demerit (as impressions—_sanskáras_ in itself, and the sense of the
consequent bliss or misery, which is to attend upon it)).
24. In this last state of the soul or mind, all outward objects from a
straw up to a mountain, appear as mere atoms of dust in its presence; as
the mind views the miniature of the world in profound meditation.
25. I have thus told you Ráma, the features of true knowledge and error
in brief, but each of these states branches out into a hundred forms,
with various traits of their own.
26. A long continued waking dream is accounted as the waking
state—_jágrat_, and it becomes diversified according to the diversity of
its objects. (_i.e._ Waking is but a continued dreaming).
27. The waking state contains under it the conditions of the wakeful
soul of God; also there are many things under these conditions which
mislead men from one error to another; as a storm casts the boats into
whirlpools and eddies.
28. Some of the lengthened dreams in sleep, appear as the waking sight
of day light; while others though seen in the broad day-light of the
waking state, are no better than night-dreams seen in the day time, and
are thence called our day dreams.
29. I have thus far related to you the seven grades of the grounds of
ignorance, which with all their varieties, are to be carefully avoided
by the right use of our reason, and by the sight of the Supreme soul in
our-selves.
CHAPTER CXVIII.
DIRECTIONS TO THE STAGES OF KNOWLEDGE.
Argument. Definitions of the seven Grounds of Knowledge, together with
that of Adepts—_árúdhasin_ in Yoga, and also of Liberation.
Vasishtha continued:—O sinless Ráma, attend now to the sevenfold stages
of cognoscence, by the knowledge of which you will no more plunge into
the mire of ignorance.
2. Disputants are apt to hold out many more stages of Yoga
meditation; but in my opinion these (septuple stages) are sufficient
for the attainment of the chief good on ultimate liberation. (The
disputants are the Patánjala Yoga philosophers, who maintain various
modes of discipline, for attaining to particular perfections of
consummation—Siddhi; but the main object of this Sástra is the
_summum bonum_ (parama-purushártha) which is obtainable by means of
the seven stages—Bhúmikas which are expounded herein below).
3. Knowledge is understanding, which consists in knowing these seven
stages only; but liberation—mukti, which is the object of knowledge
(jnána), transcends the acquaintance of these septuple stages.
4. Knowledge of truth is liberation (moksha), and all these three are
used as synonymous terms; because the living being that has known the
truth, is freed from transmigration as by his liberation also. (The
three words _mukti_, _moksha_ and _jnána_ imply the same thing).
5. The grounds of knowledge comprise the desire of becoming
good—subhechhá, and this good will is the first step. Then comes
discretion or reasoning (vicháraná) the second, followed by purity of
mind (tanu-manasa), which is the third grade to the gaining of
knowledge.
6. The fourth is self-reliance as the true refuge—Sattá-patti, then
_asansakti_ or worldly apathy as the fifth. The sixth is _padárthabháva_
or the power of abstraction, and the seventh or the last stage of
knowledge is _turya-gati_ or generalization of all in one.
7. Liberation is placed at the end of these, and is attained without
difficulty after them. Attend now to the definitions of these steps as I
shall explain them unto you.
8. First of all is the desire of goodness, springing from
dispassionateness to worldly matters, and consisting in the thought,
“why do I sit idle, I must know the Sástras in the company of good men.”
9. The second is discretion, which arises from association with wise and
good men, study of the Sástras, habitual aversion to worldliness, and
consists in an inclination to good conduct, and the doing of all sorts
of good acts.
10. The third is the subduing of the mind, and restraining it from
sensual enjoyments; and these are produced by the two former qualities
of good will and discretion.
11. The fourth is self-reliance, and dependence upon the Divine spirit
as the true refuge of this soul. This is attainable by means of the
three qualities described above.
12. The fifth is worldly apathy, as it is shown by one’s detachment from
all earthly concerns and society of men, by means of the former
quadruple internal delight (which comes from above).
13. By practice of the said fivefold virtues, as also by the feeling of
self-satisfaction and inward delight (spiritual joy); man is freed from
his thoughts and cares, about all internal and external objects.
14. Then comes the powers of cogitation into the abstract meanings of
things, as the sixth step to the attainment of true knowledge. It is
fostered either by one’s own exertion, or guidance of others in search
of truth.
15. Continued habitude of these six qualifications and incognition of
differences in religion, and the reducing of them all to the knowledge
of one true God of nature, is called generalization. (Because all things
in general, proceed from the one and are finally reduced in to the
same).
16. This universal generalization appertains to the nature of the living
liberation of the man, who beholds all things in one and in the same
light. Above this is the state of that glorious light, which is arrived
by the disembodied soul.
17. Those fortunate men, O Ráma, who have arrived to the seventh stage
of their knowledge, are those great minds that delight in the light of
their souls, and have reached to their highest state of humanity.
18. The living liberated are not plunged in the waters of pleasure and
sorrow, but remain sedate and unmoved in both states; they are at
liberty either to do or slight to discharge the duties of their
conditions and positions in society.
19. These men being roused from their deep meditation by intruders,
betake themselves to their secular duties, like men awakened from their
slumber (at their own option).
20. Being ravished by the inward delight of their souls, they feel no
pleasure in the delights of the world; just as men immerged in sound
sleep, can feel no delight at the dalliance of beauties about them.
21. These seven stages of knowledge are known only to the wise and
thinking men, and not to beasts and brutes and immoveable things all
around us. They are unknown to the barbarians and those that are
barbarous in their minds and dispositions.
22. But any one that has attained to these states of knowledge, whether
it be a beast or barbarian, an embodied being or disembodied spirit, has
undoubtedly obtained its liberation.
23. Knowledge severs the bonds of ignorance, and by loosening them,
produces the liberation of our souls: it is the sole cause of removing
the fallacy of the appearance of water in the mirage, and the like
errors.
24. Those who being freed from ignorance, have not arrived at their
ultimate perfection of disembodied liberation; have yet secured the
salvation of their souls, by being placed in these stages of knowledge
in their embodied state during their life time.
25. Some have passed all these stages, and others over two or three of
them; some have passed the six grades, while a few have attained to
their seventh state all at once (as the sages Sanaka, Nárada and other
holy saints have done from their very birth).
26. Some have gone over three stages, and others have attained the last;
some have passed four stages, and some no more than one or two of them.
27. There are some that have advanced only a quarter or half or three
fourths of a stage. Some have passed over four quarters and a half, and
some six and a half.
28. Common people walking upon this earth, know nothing regarding these
passengers in the paths of knowledge; but remain as blind as their eyes
were dazzled by some planetary light or eclipsed by its shadow.
29. Those wise men are compared to victorious kings, who stand
victorious on these seven grounds of knowledge. The celestial elephants
are nothing before them; and mighty warriors must bend their heads
before them.
30. Those great minds that are victors on these grounds of knowledge,
are worthy of veneration, as they are conquerors of their enemies of
their hearts and senses; and they are entitled to a station above that
of an emperor and an autocrat, samrat and virat, both in this world and
in the next in their embodied and disembodied liberations—_sadeha_ and
_videha muktis_.
NOTES:—These terms called the grades of knowledge may be better
understood in their appropriate English expressions, as:—
1. Desire of improvement.
2. Habit of reasoning.
3. Fixity of attention.
4. Self-dependence—Intuition
5. Freedom from bias or onesidedness.
6. Abstraction or abstract knowledge.
7. Generalization of all in the universal unity.
8. Liberation is anaesthesia or cessation of action, sensation and
thoughts.
CHAPTER CXIX.
ILLUSTRATION OF THE GOLD-RING.
Argument. Ascertaining the True Unity by rejecting the illusory forms
and on the said Grounds of Knowledge.
Vasishtha said:—The human soul reflecting on its _egoism_, forgets its
essence of the Supreme soul; as the gold-ring thinking on its formal
rotundity, loses its thought of the substantial gold whereof it is made.
2. Ráma said:—Please tell me sir, how the gold can have its
consciousness of its form of the ring, as the soul is conscious of its
transformation to egoism.
3. Vasishtha said:—The questions of sensible men, relate only to the
substances of things, and not to the production and dissolution of the
existent formal parts of things, and neither to those of the
non-existent; so you should ask of the substances of the soul and gold,
and not of the ego and the ring, which are unsubstantial nullities in
nature. (So men appraise the value of the gold of which the ring is
made, and not by the form of the ring).
4. When the jeweller sells his gold-ring for the price of gold, he
undoubtedly delivers the gold which is the substance of the ring and not
the ring without its substance. (So the shapes of things are nothing at
all, but the essential substance—Brahma underlying all things, is all in
all).
5. Ráma asked:—If such is the case that you take the gold for the ring,
then what becomes of the ring as we commonly take it to be? Explain this
to me, that I may thereby know the substance of Brahma (underlying all
appearances).
6. Vasishtha said:—All form, O Ráma, is formless and accidental quality,
and no essential property of things. So if you would ascertain the
nature of a nullity, then tell me the shape and qualities of a barren
woman’s son (which are null and nothing).
7. Do not fall into the error of taking the circularity of the ring, as
an essential property of it; the form of a thing is only apparent and
not prominent to the sight. (In European philosophy, form is defined as
the essence of a thing, for without it nothing is conceivable. But
matter being the recipient of form, it does form any part of its
essence. Vasishtha speaking of matter as void of form, means the
_materia prima_ of Aristotle, or the elementary sorts of it).
8. The water in the mirage, the two moons in the sky, the egoism of men
and the forms of things, though appearing as real ones to sight and
thought, cannot be proved as separate existences apart from their
subjects. (All these therefore are fallacies vanishing before
_vichárana_ or reasoning, the second ground of true knowledge).
9. Again the likeness of silver that appears in pearl-shells, can not be
realized in the substance of the pearl-mother, or even a particle of
it at any time or any place. (The Sanskrit alliterations of _kanam_,
_kshanam_, _kvanu_, cannot be preserved in translation).
10. It is the incircumspect view of a thing that makes a nullity appear
as a reality, as the appearance of silver in the shell and the water in
the mirage (all which are but deceptions of sight and other senses, and
are therefore never trustworthy).
11. The nullity of a _nil_ appears as an _ens_ to sight, as also the
fallacy of a thing as something where there is nothing of the kind (as
of silver in the pearl-mother and water in the mirage).
12. Sometimes an unreal shadow acts the part of a real substance, as the
false apprehension of a ghost kills a lad with the fear of being killed
by it. (Fright of goblins and bogies of mormos and ogres, have killed
many men in the dark).
13. There remains nothing in the gold-jewel except gold, after its form
of jewellery is destroyed; therefore the forms of the ring and bracelet
are no more, than drops of oil or water on a heap of sand. The forms are
absorbed in the substance, as the fluids in dust or sand.
14. There is nothing real or unreal on earth, except the false creations
of our brain (as appearances in our dreams); and these whether known as
real or unreal, are equally productive of their consequences, as the
sights and fears of spectres in children. (We are equally encouraged by
actual rewards and flattering hopes, as we are depressed at real
degradation and its threatening fear).
15. A thing whether it is so or not, proves yet as such as it is
believed to be, by different kinds and minds of men; as poison becomes
as effective as elixir to the sick, and ambrosia proves as heinous as
hemlock with the intemperate. (So is false faith thought to be as
efficacious by the vulgar as the true belief of the wise).
16. Belief in the only essence of the soul, constitutes true knowledge,
and not in its likeness of the ego and mind, as it is generally believed
in this world. Therefore abandon the thought of your false and unfounded
egoism or individual existence. (This is said to be self-reliance or
dependance on the universal soul of God).
17. As there is no rotundity of the ring inherent in gold; so there is
no individuality of _egoism_ in the all-pervading universal soul.
18. There is nothing everlasting beside Brahma, and no personality of
Him as a Brahmá, Vishnu or any other. There is no substantive existence
as the world, but off spring of Brahmá called the patriarchs. (All these
are said to be negative terms in many passages of the srutis as the
following:—
There is no substantiality except that of Brahma. There is no
personality (ádesa) of him. He is Brahma the supreme soul and no other.
He is neither the outward nor inward nor he is nothing.)
19. There are no other worlds beside Brahma, nor is the heaven without
Him. The hills, the demons, the mind and body all rest in that spirit
which is no one of these.
20. He is no elementary principle, nor is he any cause as the material
or efficient. He is none of the three times of past, present and future
but all; nor is he anything in being or not-being (_in esse_ or _posse_
or in _nubibus_).
21. He is beyond your _egoism_ or _tuism_, _ipseism_ and _suism_, and
all your entities and non-entities. There is no attribution nor
particularity in Him, who is above all your ideas, and is none of the
ideal personifications of your notions (_i.e._ He is none of the mythic
persons of abstract ideas as Love and the like).
22. He is the _plenum_ of the world, supporting and moving all, being
unmoved and unsupported by any. He is everlasting and undecaying bliss;
having no name or symbol or cause of his own. (He is the being that
pervades through and presides over all—_sanmátram_).
23. He is no _sat_ or _est_ or a being that is born and existent, nor an
_asat—nonest_ (_i.e._ extinct); he is neither the beginning, middle or
end of anything, but is all in all. He is unthinkable in the mind, and
unutterable by speech. He is vacuum about the vacuity, and a bliss above
all felicity.
24. Ráma said:—I understand now Brahma to be self-same in all things,
yet I want to know what is this creation, that we see all about us.
(_i.e._ Are they the same with Brahma or distinct from him?)
25. Vasishtha replied: The supreme spirit being perfectly tranquil, and
all things being situated in Him, it is wrong to speak of this creation
or that, when there is no such thing as a creation at any time.
26. All things exist in the all containing spirit of God, as the whole
body of water is contained in the universal ocean; but there is
fluctuation in the waters owing to their fluidity, whereas there is no
motion in the quiet and motionless spirit of God.
27. The light of the luminaries shines of itself, but not so the Divine
light; it is the nature of all lights to shine of themselves, but the
light of Brahma is not visible to sight.
28. As the waves of the ocean rise and fall in the body of its waters,
so do these phenomena appear as the noumena in the mind of God (as his
ever-varying thoughts).
29. To men of little understandings, these thoughts of the Divine mind
appear as realities; and they think this sort of ideal creation, will be
lasting for ages.
30. Creation is ascertained to be a cognition (a thought) of the Divine
Mind; it is not a thing different from the mind of God, as the visible
sky is no other than a part of Infinity.
31. The production and extinction of the world, are mere thoughts of the
Divine mind; as the formation and dissolution of ornaments take place in
the self-same substance of gold.
32. The mind that has obtained its calm composure, views the creation as
full with the presence of God; but those that are led by their own
convictions, take the inexistent for reality, as children believe the
ghosts as real existences.
33. The consciousness of ego (or the subjective self-existence), is the
cause of the error of the objective knowledge of creation; but the
tranquil unconsciousness of ourselves, brings us to the knowledge of the
supreme, who is above the objective and inert creation.
34. These different created things appear in a different light to the
sapient, who views them all in the unity of God, as the toy puppets of a
militia, are well known to the intelligent to be made and composed of
mud and clay.
35. This plenitude of the world is without its beginning and end, and
appears as a faultless or perfect peace of workmanship. It is full with
the fullness of the supreme Being, and remains full in the fullness of
God.
36. This plenum which appears as the created world, is essentially the
Great Brahma, and situated in his greatness; just as the sky is situated
in the sky, tranquility in tranquility, and felicity in felicity.
(These are absolute and identic terms, as the whole is the whole &c.).
37. Look at the reflexion of a longsome landscape in a mirror, and the
picture of a far stretching city in the miniature; and you will find the
distances of the objects lost in their closeness. So the distances of
worlds are lost in their propinquity to one another in the spirit of
God.
38. The world is thought as a nonentity by some, and as an entity by
others; by their taking it in the different lights of its being a thing
beside God, and its being but a reflection of Brahma. (In the former
case it is a nonentity as there can be nothing without God; in the
latter sense it is real entity being identic with God).
39. After all, it can have no real entity, being like the picture of a
city and not as the city itself. It is as false as the appearance of
limpid water in the desert mirage, and that of the double moon in the
sky.
40. As it is the practice of magicians, to show magic cities in the air,
by sprinkling handfuls of dust before our eyes; so doth our erroneous
consciousness represent the unreal world, as a reality unto us.
41. Unless our inborn ignorance (error) like an arbour of noxious
plants, is burnt down to the very root by the flame of right reasoning,
it will not cease to spread out its branches, and grow the rankest weeds
of our imaginary pleasures and sorrows.
CHAPTER CXX.
LAMENTATION OF THE CHANDÁLA WOMAN.
Argument. Lavana goes to the Vindhyan region, and sees his consort and
relatives of the dreaming state.
Vasishtha continued:—Now Ráma, attend to the wonderful power of the
said Avidyá or error, in displaying the changeful phenomenals, like the
changing forms of ornaments in the substance of the self-same gold.
2. The king Lavana, having at the end of his dream, perceived the
falsehood of his vision, resolved on the following day to visit that
great forest himself.
3. He said to himself: Ah! when shall I revisit the Vindhyan region,
which is inscribed in my mind; and where I remember to have undergone a
great many hardships in my forester’s life.
4. So saying, he took to his southward journey, accompanied by his
ministers and attendants, as if he was going to make a conquest of that
quarter, where he arrived at the foot of the mount in a few days.
5. There he wandered about the southern, and eastern and western shores
of the sea (_i.e._ all round the Eastern and Western Ghats). He was as
delighted with his curvilinear course, as the luminary of the day, in
his diurnal journey from east to west.
6. He saw there in a certain region, a deep and doleful forest
stretching wide along his path, and likening the dark and dismal realms
of death (Yama or Pluto).
7. Roving in this region he beheld everything, he had seen before in his
dream; he then inquired into the former circumstances, and wondered to
learn their conformity with the occurrences of his vision.
8. He recognised there the Chandála hunters of his dream, and being
curious to know the rest of the events, he continued in his
peregrination about the forest.
9. He then beheld a hamlet at the skirt of the wilderness, foggy with
smoke, and appearing as the spot where he bore the name of Pushta
Pukkasa or fostered Chandála.
10. He beheld there the same huts and hovels, and the various kinds of
human habitations, fields and plains, with the same men and women that
dwelt their before.
11. He beheld the same landscapes and leafless branches of trees, shorn
of their foliage by the all devouring famine; he saw the same hunters
pursuing their chase, and the same helpless orphans lying thereabouts.
12. He saw the old lady (his mother-in-law), wailing at the misfortunes
of other matrons; who were lamenting like herself with their eyes
suffused in tears, at the untimely deaths and innumerable miseries of
their fellow brethren.
13. The old matrons with their eyes flowing with brilliant drops of
tears, and with their bodies and bosoms emaciated under the pressure of
their afflictions; were mourning with loud acclamations of woe in that
dreary district, stricken by drought and dearth.
14. They cried, O ye sons and daughters, that lie dead with your
emaciated bodies for want of food for these three days; say where fled
your dear lives, stricken as they were by the steel of famine from the
armour of your bodies.
15. We remember your sweet smiles, showing your coral teeth resembling
the red gunjaphalas to our lords, as they descended from the towering
_tála_ (palm trees), with their red-ripe fruits held by their teeth, and
growing on the cloud-capt mountains.
16. When shall we see again the fierce leap of our boys, springing on
the wolves crouching amidst the groves of Kadamba and Jamb and Lavanga
and Gunja trees.
17. We do not see those graces even in the face of Káma the god of love,
that we were wont to observe in the blue and black countenances of our
children, resembling the dark hue of Tamála leaves, when feasting on
their dainty food of fish and flesh.
Lamentation of the mother-in-law.
18. My nigrescent daughter, says one, has been snatched away from me
with my dear husband like the dark Yamuná by the fierce Yama. O they
have been carried away from me like the _Tamála_ branch with its
clustering flowers, by a tremendous gale from this sylvan scene.
19. O my daughter, with thy necklace of the strings of red _gunja_
seeds, gracing the protuberant breast of thy youthful person; and with
thy swarthy complexion, seeming as the sea of ink was gently shaken by
the breeze. Ah! whither hast thou fled with thy raiment of woven
withered leaves, and thy teeth as black as the jet-jambu fruits (when
fully ripe).
20. O young prince! that wast as fair as the full moon, and that didst
forsake the fairies of thy harem, and didst take so much delight in my
daughter, where hast thou fled from us? Ah my daughter! she too is dead
in thy absence, and fled from my presence.
21. Being cast on the waves of this earthly ocean, and joined to the
daughter of a Chandála, thou wast, O prince! subjected to mean and vile
employments, that disgraced thy princely character. (This is a taunt to
all human beings that disgrace their heavenly nature, and grovel as
beasts while living on earth).
22. Ah! that daughter of mine with her tremulous eyes, like those of the
timorous fawn, and Oh! that husband valiant as the royal tiger; you are
both gone together, as the high hopes and great efforts of men are fled
with the loss of their wealth.
23. Now grown husbandless, and having of late lost my daughter also, and
being thrown in a distant and barren land, I am become the most
miserable and wretched of beings. Born of a low caste, I am cast out of
all prospect in life, and have become a personification of terror to
myself, and a sight of horror to others.
24. O! that the Lord has made me a widowed woman, and subjected me to
the insult of the vulgar, and the hauteur of the affluent. Prostrated by
hunger and mourning at the loss of a husband and child, I rove
incessantly from door to door to beg alms for my supportance (as it is
the case of most female beggars).
25. It is better that one who is unfortunate and friendless, or subject
to passion and diseases, should rather die sooner than live in misery.
The dead and inanimate beings are far better than the living miserable.
26. Those that are friendless, and have to toil and moil in unfriendly
places, are like the grass of the earth, trampled under the feet, and
overwhelmed under a flood of calamities.
27. The king seeing his aged mother-in-law mourning in this manner,
offered her some consolation through the medium of her female
companions, and then asked that lady to tell him, “who she was, what she
did there, who was her daughter and who is his son.”
28. She answered him with tears in her eyes:—This village is called
Pukkasa-Ghosha, here I had a Pukkasa for my husband, who had a daughter
as gentle as the moon.
29. She happened to have here a husband as beautiful as the moon, who
was a king and chanced to pass by this way. By this accident they were
matched together, in the manner that an ass finds by chance a pot of
honey lying on her way in the forest.
30. She lived long with him in connubial bliss, and produced to him both
sons and daughters, who grew up in the covert of this forest, as the
gourd plant grows on a tree serving as its support.
CHAPTER CXXI.
PROOF OF THE FUTILITY OF MIND.
Argument. Lavana’s return to his Palace and the interpretation of his
dream by Vasishtha.
The Chandála continued:—O lord of men! After lapse of sometime, there
occurred a dearth in this place owing to the drought of rain, which
broke down all men under its diresome pressure.
2. Pressed by extreme scarcity, all our village people were scattered
far abroad, and they perished in famine and never returned.
3. Thence forward O lord! we are exposed to utmost misery, and sit
lamenting here in our helpless poverty. Behold us lord, all bathed in
tears falling profusely from our undrying eyelids.
4. The King was lost in wonder, at hearing these words from the mouth of
the elderly lady; and looking at the face of his follower the faithful
minister, remained in dumb amazement as the figure in a picture.
5. He reflected repeatedly on this strange occurrence, and its curious
concurrence with his adventures in the dream. He made repeated queries
relating to other circumstances, and the more he heard and learned of
them, the more he found their coincidence with the occurrences of his
vision.
6. He sympathised with their woes, and saw them in the same state, as he
had seen them before in his dream. And then he gave suitable gifts and
presents to relieve their wants and woes.
7. He tarried there a long while, and pondered on the decrees of
destiny; when the wheel of fortune brought him back to his house,
wherein he entered amidst the loud cheers and low salutations of the
citizens.
8. In the morning the King appeared in his court hall, and sitting there
amidst his courtiers, asked me saying:—“How is it, O sage, that my dream
has come to be verified in my presence to each item and to my great
surprise”?
9. “They answered me exactly and to the very point all what I asked of
them, and have removed my doubt of their truth from the mind, as the
winds disperse the clouds of heaven.”
10. Know thus, O Ráma! it is the illusion of Avidya, that is the cause
of a great many errors, by making the untruth appear as truth, and
representing the sober reality as unreality.
11. Ráma said: Tell me sir, how the dream came to be verified; it is a
mysterious account that cannot find a place in my heart.
12. Vasishtha replied:—All this is possible, O Ráma! to the illusion of
ignorance (Avidya); which shows the fallacy of a picture (pata) in a pot
(ghata); and represents the actual occurrences of life as dreams, and
dreams as realities.
13. Distance appears to be nigh, as a distant mountain seen in the
mirror; and a long time seems a short interval, as a night of
undisturbed repose.
14. What is untrue seems to be a truth as in dreaming one’s own death in
sleep; and that which is impossible appears possible, as in one’s aerial
journey in a dream.
15. The stable seems unsteady, as in the erroneous notion of the motion
of fixed objects to one passing in a vehicle; and the unmoving seem to
be moving to one, as under the influence of his inebriation.
16. The mind infatuated by one’s hobby, sees exposed to its view, all
what it thinks upon within itself. It sees things in the same light, as
they are painted in his fancy, whether they be in existence or not, or
real or unreal.
17. No sooner does the mind contract its ignorance, by its false notions
of egoism and tuism, than it is subjected to endless errors, which have
no beginning, middle or end and are of incessant occurrence in their
course.
18. It is the notion that gives a shape to all things; it makes a kalpa
age appear as a moment, and also prolongs a moment of time to a whole
Kalpa.
19. A man deprived of understanding, believes himself as he is said, to
have become a sheep; so a fighting ram thinks himself to be a lion in
his ideal bravery. (The word sheep is a term of derision, as the lion is
that of applause).
20. Ignorance causes the blunder of taking things for what they are not,
and falling into the errors of egoism and tuism: so all errors in the
mind produce errors in actions also.
21. It is by mere accident, that men come in possession of the objects
of their desire; and it is custom that determines the mode of mutual
dealings. (The gain is accidental and the dealing is conventional).
22. Lavana’s remembrance of the dream of his having lived in the
habitation of the Pukkasa, was the internal cause, that represented to
him the external picture of that abode, as it was a reality. (The mind
shows what we think upon, whether they are real or unreal ones).
23. As the human mind is liable to forget many things which are actually
done by some, so it is susceptible to remember those acts as true which
were never done, but had been merely thought upon in the mind. (The
forgetfulness of actualities as well as the thoughts of inactualities,
belong both to the province of the mind. Here Lavana did not remember
what he had not done, but recollected the thoughts that passed in his
mind).
24. In this manner is the thought of my having eaten something while I
am really fasting; and that of my having sojourned in a distant country
in a dream, appears true to me while I think of them.
25. It was thence that the king came to find the same conduct in the
habitation of the Chandálas at the side of Vindhyá, as he had been
impressed with its notion in his dream as said before.
26. Again the false dream that Lavana had dreamt of the Vindhyan people,
the same took possession of their minds also. (The same thought striking
in the minds of different persons at the same time (as we see in men of
the same mind)).
27. The notion of Lavana as settled in the minds of the Vindhyans, as
the thoughts of these people rose in the mind of the king. (If it is
possible for us to transfer our thoughts to one another, how much easier
must it be for the superior instrumentality of dreams and revelations to
do the same also. This is the yoga, whereby one man reads the mind of
another). Again the same error taking possession of many minds all at
once, proves the futility of common sense and universal belief being
taken for certainty, hence the common belief of the reality of things,
is the effect of universal delusion and error.
28. As the same sentiments and figures of speech, occur in different
poets of distant ages and countries, so it is not striking that the same
thoughts and ideas should rise simultaneously in the minds of different
men also. (We have a striking instance of the coincidence of the same
thought in the titles of Venisanhára and Rape of the Lock, in the minds
of Vhattanarayn and Pope).
29. In common experience, we find the notions and ideas to stand for the
things themselves, otherwise nothing is known to exist at all without
our notion or idea of it in the mind. (All that we know of, are our
ideas and nothing besides. Locke and Berkeley).
30. One idea embraces many others also under it, as those of the waves
and current, are contained under that of water. And so one thought is
associated by others relating its past, present and future conditions of
being; as the thought of a seed accompanies the thoughts of its past and
future states and its fruits and flowers of the tree. (So the word man,
comprises almost every idea relating to humanity).
31. Nothing has its entity or non-entity, nor can anything be said to
exist or not to be, unless we have a positive idea of the existent, and
a negative notion of the in-existent.
32. All that we see in our error, is as inexistent as oiliness in sands;
and so the bracelet is nothing in reality, but a formal appearance of
the substance of gold.
33. A fallacy can have no connection with the reality, as the fallacy of
the world with the reality of God, and so the fallacy of the ring with
the substance of gold and of the serpent with the rope. The connection
or mutual relation of things of the same kind, is quite evident in our
minds.
34. The relation of gum resin and the tree, is one of dissimilar union,
and affords no distinct ideas of them except that of the tree which
contains the other. (So the idea of the false world, is lost in that of
its main _substratum_ of the Divine Spirit).
35. As all things are full of the Spirit, so we have distinct ideas of
them in our minds, which are also spiritual substances; and are not as
dull material stones which have no feelings.[13]
36. Because all things in the world are intellectually true and real, we
have therefore their ideas impressed in our minds also.
37. There can not be a relation or connection of two dissimilar things,
which may be lasting, but are never united together. For without such
mutual relation of things, no idea of both can be formed together.
38. Similar things being joined with similar form together their wholes
of the same kind, presenting one form and differing in nothing.
39. The intellect being joined with an abstract idea, produces an
invisible, inward and uniform thought: so dull matter joined to another
dull object, forms a denser material object to view. But the
intellectual and material can never unite together owing to their
different natures.
40. The intellectual and material parts of a person, can never be drawn
together in any picture; because the intellectual part having the
intellect, has the power of knowledge, which is wanting in the material
picture.
41. Intellectual beings do not take into account the difference of
material things as wood and stone; which combine together for some
useful purpose (as the building of a house and the like).
42. The relation between the tongue and taste is also homogeneous;
because _rasa_ taste and _rasand_ the instrument of tasting, are both
watery substances, and there is no heterogeneous relation between them.
(And so of the other organs of sense and their respective objects).
43. But there is no relation between intellect and matter; as there is
between the stone and the wood; the intellect cannot combine with wood
and stone to form anything. (The mind and matter have no relation with
one another, nor can they unite together in any way).
44. Spiritually considered, all things are alike, because they are full
with the same spirit; otherwise the error of distinction between the
viewer and the view, creates endless differences as betwixt wood and
stones and other things.
45. The relation of combination though unseen in spirits, yet it is
easily conceived that spirits can assume any form _ad libitum_ and _ad
infinitum_ (but they must be spiritual and never material. So also a
material thing can be converted to another material object, but never to
a spiritual form).
46. Know ye seekers of truth, all things to be identic with the entity
of God. Renounce your knowledge of nonentities and the various kinds of
errors and fallacies and know the One as All _to pan_. (The omnipotent
spirit of God, is joined with all material things, in its spiritual form
only; and it is knowable to the mind and spirit of man, and never by
their material organs of sense).
47. The Intellect being full with its knowledge, there is nothing
wanting to us; it presents us everything in its circumference, as the
imagination having its wide range, shews us the sights of its air-built
castles and every thing beside. (The difference consists in the
intellect’s shewing us the natures of things in their true light, and
the imagination’s portraying them in false shapes and colours to our
minds).
48. To Him there is no limit of time or place, but his presence extends
over all his creation. It is ignorance that separates the creator from
creation, and raises the errors of egoism and tuism (_i.e._ of the
subjective and objective. The union of these into One is the ground-work
of pantheism).
49. Leaving the knowledge of the substantive gold, man contracts the
error of taking it for the formal ornament. The mistake of the jewel for
gold, is as taking one thing for another, and the production for the
producer.
50. The error of the phenomenon vanishes upon loss of the eyesight, and
the difference of the jewel (or visible shape), is lost in the substance
of gold.
51. The knowledge of unity removes that of a distinct creation, as the
knowledge of the clay takes off the sense of puppet soldiers made of it.
(So the detection of Æsop’s ass in the lion’s skin, and that of the daw
with the peacock’s feathers, removed the false appearance of their
exteriors).
52. The same Brahma causes the error of the reality of the exterior
worlds, as the underlying sea causes the error of the waves on its
surface. The same wood is mistaken for the carved figure, and the common
clay is taken for the pot which is made of it. (The truth is that, which
underlies the appearance).
53. Between the sight and its object, there lieth the eye of the
beholder, which is beyond the sight of its viewer, and is neither the
view nor the viewer. (Such is the supreme Being hidden alike from the
view and the viewer).
54. The mind traversing from one place to another, leaves the body in
the interim, which is neither moving nor quite unmoved; since its mental
part only is in its moving state. (So should you remain sedate with your
body, but be ever active in your mind).
55. Remain always in that quiet state, which is neither one of waking,
dreaming nor of sleeping; and which is neither the state of sensibility
or insensibility; but one of everlasting tranquility and rest.
56. Drive your dullness, and remain always in the company of your sound
intellect as a solid rock; and whether in joy or grief, commit your soul
to your Maker.
57. There is nothing which one has to lose or earn in this world;
therefore remain in uniform joy and bliss, whether you think yourself to
be blest or unblest in life. (“Naked came I, and naked must I return;
blessed be the name of the Lord”).
58. The soul residing in thy body, neither loves nor hates aught at any
time; therefore rest in quiet, and fear naught for what betides thy
body, and engage not thy mind to the actions of thy body.
59. Remain free from anxiety about the present, as you are unconcerned
about the future. Never be impelled by the impulses of your mind; but
remain steadfast in your trust in the true God.
60. Be unconcerned with all, and remain as an absent man. Let thy heart
remain callous to everything like a block of stone or toy of wood; and
look upon your mind as an inanimate thing, by the spiritual light of
your soul.
61. As there is no water in the stone nor fire in water, so the
spiritual man has no mental action, nor the Divine spirit hath any.
(There is no mutability of mental actions in the immutable mind of God).
62. If that which is unseen, should ever come to do anything or any
action; that action is not attributed to the unseen agent, but to
something else in the mind. (But the mind being ignored, its actions are
ignored also).
63. The unselfpossessed (unspiritual) man, that follows the dictates of
his fickle and wilful mind, resembles a man of the border land,
following the customs of the out-cast Mlechchás or barbarians.
64. Having disregarded the dictates of your vile mind, you may remain at
ease and as fearless, as an insensible statue made of clay.
65. He who understands that there is no such thing as the mind, or that
he had one before but it is dead in him to-day; becomes as immovable as
a marble statue with this assurance in himself.
66. There being no appearance of the mind in any wise, and you having no
such thing in you in reality except your soul; say, why do you in vain
infer its existence for your own error and harm?
67. Those who vainly subject themselves to the false apparition of the
mind, are mostly men of unsound understandings, and bring fulminations
on themselves from the full-moon of the pure soul.
68. Remain firm as thou art with thyself (soul), by casting afar thy
fancied and fanciful mind from thee; and be freed from the thoughts of
the world, by being settled in the thought of the Supreme Soul.
69. They who follow a nullity as the unreal mind, are like those fools
who shoot at the inane air, and are cast into the shade.
70. He that has purged off his mind, is indeed a man of great
understanding; he has gone across the error of the existence of the
world, and become purified in his soul. We have considered long, and
never found anything as the impure mind in the pure soul.
CHAPTER CXXII.
ASCERTAINMENT OF THE SELF OR SOUL.
Argument. Description of the grounds of knowledge, vanity of fears and
sorrows, and the natures of the intellect and soul.
Vasishtha said (Prose). After the birth of a man and a slight
development of his understanding, he should associate the company of
good and wise men.
2. There is no other way except by the light of Sástras and association
with the good and wise, to ford over the river of ignorance, which runs
in its incessant course flowing in a thousand streams.
3. It is by means of reasoning that man is enabled to discern what is
good for him, and what he must avoid to do.
4. He then arrives to that ground of reason which is known as good will,
or a desire to do what is good and keep from what is bad and evil.
5. Then he is led by his reason to the power of reasoning, and
discerning the truth from untruth, and the right from wrong.
6. As he improves in knowledge, he gets rid of his improper desires, and
purifies his mind from all worldly cares.
7. Then he is said to have gained that stage of knowledge, which is
called the purity of his soul and mind and of his heart and conduct.
8. When the _yogi_ or adept attains to his full knowledge, he is said to
have arrived at his state of goodness—satva.
9. By this means and the curtailing of his desires, he arrives to the
state called unattachment or indifference to all worldly matters
(anásakta), and is no more subjected to the consequence of his actions.
10. From the curtailment of desires, the _yogi_ learns to abstract his
mind from the unrealities of the world.
11. And whether sitting inactive in his posture of _Samádhi_ meditation,
or doing anything for himself or others, he must fix his mind to
whatever is productive of real good to the world. His soul being cool by
the tenuity of his desires, is habituated to do its duties, without the
knowledge of what it is doing. (He neither fondly pursues anything nor
thinks with ardour of any. His want of desire makes him indifferent to
all, and like a man waking from his sleep, he takes himself to the
discharge of his duties).
12. Verily, he who has subdued his mind, has reached to the
contemplative stage of _yoga_ meditation.
13. Thus one having his mind dead in himself, learns by practice of
years, to perform his duties, by refraining from his thoughts of
external objects. Such a one is said to have attained the _turya_ or
fourth stage of his spiritual elevation, and to have become liberated in
his life-time.
14. He is not glad to get anything, nor sorry to miss it. He lives
without fear of accidents, and is content with whatever he gets.
15. Thou hast O Ráma! known whatever is to be known by man; and thou
hast certainly extirpated thy desire in all thy actions through life.
16. Thy thoughts are all spiritual, and transcend the actions of the
corporeal body, though thou art in thy embodied state. Do not give up
thy self to joy or grief, but know thyself to be free from decay and
defect.
17. Spiritually thou art a pure and bright substance, which is ubiquious
and ever in its ascendancy. It is devoid of pleasure and pain, and of
death and disease.
18. Why dost thou lament at the grief or loss of a friend, when thou art
so friendless in thyself. Being thrown alone in this world, whom dost
thou claim as a friend of thy soul?
19. We see only the particles of matter of which this body is composed;
it exists and passes away in its time from its place; but there is no
rising or falling of the soul.
20. Being imperishable in thyself, why dost thou fear to fall into
naught? And why think of the destruction of thy soul, which is never
subject to death?
21. When a jar is broken in twain from its upper part, its vacuity is
not lost, but mixes with the air; so the body being destroyed, the
indestructible soul is not lost with it (but unites with its original
source).
22. As the sunlight causing the appearance of a river in the mirage, is
not lost at the disappearance of the phenomenal river; so the immortal
soul does not perish upon dissolution of the frail body.
23. There is a certain illusion, which raises the false appetites within
us; otherwise the unity of the soul requires the help of no duality or
secondary substance, in order to be united with the sole unity.
24. There is no sensible object, whether visible, tangible, audible or
of taste or smelling (which relate to the particular senses and brain),
that can affect the unconnected soul.
25. All things and their powers, are contained in the all-powerful and
all-comprehensive soul; these powers are displayed throughout the world,
but the soul is as void as the empty air.
26. It is the mental deception, O Rághava, that presents before it the
phenomena of the triple world, representing diverse forms according to
the triplicate nature of man (the _satva_, _rajas_ and _tamas_).
27. There are threefold methods of dispelling this delusion of the mind,
namely: by the tranquility of the mind, by destroying its desires, and
by abandonment of acts (which lead only to errors in our repeated
regenerations).
28. The world is a crushing mill, with its lower and upper stones of the
earth and heaven; our desires are the cords that incessantly drag us
under it: therefore Ráma, break off these ropes (and you will escape the
danger of being crushed by it).
29. Our unacquaintance with spiritual knowledge, is the cause of all our
errors; but our acquaintance of it, leads us to endless joy and
ultimately to Brahma himself.
30. The living being having proceeded from Brahma, and travelled over
the earth at pleasure, turns at last to Brahma by means of his knowledge
of Him.
31. Ráma! all things have sprung from one Being, who is perfect felicity
itself, inconceivable and undecaying in its nature; and all these are as
the rays of that light, or as the light of that everlasting fire.
32. These are as lines on the leaves of trees, and as the curls and
waves on the surface of waters. They are as ornaments made of that gold,
and as the heat and cold of that fire and water.
33. Thus the triple world subsists in the thought of the Divine mind. It
has thus sprung from the mind of God, and rests in its self-same state
with the all-comprehending mind.
34. This Mind is called Brahma, who is the soul of all existence. He
being known the world is known also (_i.e._, the world is known through
him); and as he is the knower of all, he gives us the knowledge of all
things. (Thus the Sruti:—There is no knowing of anything but by the
knowledge that He imparts to us).
35. This all-pervasive Being is explained to us by the learned, by the
coined epithets of the soul, intellect and Brahma, used both in the
sástras as in the popular language.
36. The pure notion that we have of an everlasting Being, apart from all
sensible ideas and impressions, is called the Intellect and soul.
37. This Intellect or Intelligent soul, is much more transparent than
the etherial sky; and it is the plenum, that contains the plenitude of
the world, as a disjoined and distinct reflexion of itself.
38. The knowledge of the separate existence of the unreal reflexion of
the world, apart from that real reflector, is the cause of all our
ignorance and error; but the view of their subsistence in the mirror of
the supreme soul, blends them all to myself also (who are the same
soul).
39. Now Ráma, that hast a bodiless soul of the form of pure intellect,
thou canst have no cause to fall into the error, of being sorry for or
afraid of the vanities of the world.
40. How can the unembodied soul be affected by the passions and feelings
of the body? It is the ignorant and unintelligent only, that are subject
to vain suspicions about unrealities.
41. The indestructible intellect of the unintelligent even, is not
destroyed by the destruction of their bodies, how then should the
intelligent be afraid of their dissolution?
42. The intellect is irresistible in its course, and roves about the
solar path (ecliptic); it is the intellectual part that makes the man,
and not the outward body. (Puri sete purushah; it is the inner soul that
is called man).
43. The soul called the _purusha_ or inner person, whether it abideth in
the body or not, and whether it is intelligent or otherwise (rational or
irrational), never dies upon the death of the body.
44. Whatever miseries you meet with, Ráma! in this transient world, all
appertain to the body, and not to the intangible soul or intellect.
45. The intellectual soul being removed from the region of the mind
(which is but an inward sense, and of the nature of vacuity, and not the
grains of the brain composing the mind), is not to be approached by the
pleasures and pains affecting the body and mind.
46. The soul that has curbed its earthly desires, flies to its seat in
the spirit of Brahma, after the dissolution of its prison house of the
body; in the same manner as the bee lying hid under the coverlet of the
lotus petals in the darkness of the night, takes to its heavenward
flight by the dawning light of the day.
47. If life is known to be frail, and the living state to be a transient
scene, then say, O Ráma! what it is that is lost by loss of this
prison-house of the body, and what is it that you mourn for?
48. Think therefore, O Ráma! on the nature of truth; and mind not about
the errors of ignorance. Be freed from your earthly desires, and know
the sinless soul to be void of all desires.
49. The intellectual soul being tranquil and transparent, and a mere
witness of our doings, without any doing or desire of its own, receives
the reflexion of the undesirous God, as a mirror reflects the images of
things.
50. The soul being, as said before, a translucent particle, reflects the
images of all worlds in itself; as a polished gem reflects the rays of
light in its bosom.
51. The relation of the indifferent soul with the world, is like that of
the mirror and its reflexions; the difference and identity of the soul
and the world, are of the same kind.
52. As the activities of living beings, have a free play with the rising
sun; so the duties of the world, are fully discharged by the rising of
the intellect.
53. No sooner you get rid of your error of the substantiality of the
world, than you shall come to the consciousness of its being a vacuum,
resting in the spirit of God (which is the receptacle of infinite space,
and whatever there appears in it).
54. As it is the nature of a lighted lamp to spread its lustre all
around, so it is the nature of mental philosophy, to enlighten us with
the real state of the soul.
55. The essence of the supreme soul gave rise to the mind (will) at
first, which spread out the universe with its net work of endless
varieties. It was as the sky issuing out of the infinite vacuity, and
assuming the shape of the blue atmosphere which is also a nullity.
56. Privation of desires melts down the mind, and dissolves the mist of
ignorance from the face of the intellect. Then appears the bright light
of the one infinite and increate God, like the clear firmament of autumn
after the dispersion of clouds.
57. The mind sprouts out at first from the supreme soul with all its
activities, and takes upon it the nature of the lotus-born Brahmá by its
desire of creation. It stretches out a variety of worlds by its creative
will, which are also as the fancied apparitions, appearing before the
imaginations of deluded boys.
58. Non-entity appears as an entity before us, it dies away at death,
and reappears with our new birth. The mind itself takes its rise from
the divine intellect, and displays itself in the substance of the Divine
Soul, as the waves play about on the surface of the waters of the deep.
FOOTNOTES:
Footnote 1:
The reader is referred to the following passage in the story of Rip
Van Winkle in Irving’s Sketch-Book. “To him the whole twenty years,
had been but as one night”. The strange events that had taken place
during his torpor were, that there had been a revolutionary war, when
his country had thrown off the yoke of old England, and that instead
of being a subject of George the third, he was now a free citizen of
the United States, pp. 32-33.
Footnote 2:
The intuition of his existence, is the best proof of the same. Sruti.
So says the mystic sufi:—I sought him everywhere but found him
nowhere; I then looked within myself, and saw him there—as his seat
was there.
Footnote 3:
Activity is attended with the pleasure of enjoyment, with the pain of
bondage; and inactivity with the pleasure of freedom, and the pain of
poverty. The insensible are fond of fruition at the expense of their
freedom; but the wise prefer their liberty with poverty, as it is said
in the _Upanishad_:—
श्रयोहि पुंसामाधकं बृणोते । प्रयोमन्दीयोग क्षेमादधिकं बृणोते ।
Footnote 4:
The black Rákshasas were believed to have been a colony of African
Negroes in southern India and Ceylon. The Rakhs is Rax, as Sycorax of
Shakespeare.
_Note_:—The whole story of the fiendish Súchí is an allegory of the
human mind, and its rapacity. The transformation of the huge to the
thin pinnate body, and again its assumption of the big form, are
allegorical of the change of the corporeal and spiritual bodies—the
_Sthúla_ and _Súkshma_ saríras, in the course of the repeated
transmigrations of the soul from its gross to subtle forms by the
desire of the mind. Tired of the world the mind forsakes the gross
body upon death, and assumes the finer spiritual form, but being soon
dissatisfied with it reverts to its former gross form again. It is
also explained to be the two states of _animá_ and _garimá_, the
minuteness and bulkiness, which the _Yogi_ attains by his _yoga_.
Footnote 5:
It is a curious fact in the theological works of Vedánta, that princes
and ladies, employed themselves much more to the cultivation of their
minds, and to the investigation of mental and spiritual Philosophy,
than other persons and tribes. So we see Surúchi, Lílá, Visúchí and
Sarasvatí were all female interlocutors in this work and some
Upanishads also, though female education was subsequently abrogated by
law.
Footnote 6:
_Samvitti_ is the superior or subjective consciousness personified as
Viráj, and _samvid_ or inferior consciousness of the objective as
received in the personification of Viswa. Here Schelling says:—The
absolute infinite cannot be known in personal or objective
consciousness; but requires a superior faculty called the intuition.
The joint knowledge of the subjective and objective is had by Ecstasy,
which discerns the identity of the subject and object in a series of
souls which are as the innumerable individual eyes, which the infinite
World-spirit behold, in it-self, Lewis Hist. Phil. II. 580.
Footnote 7:
So says a spiritualistic philosopher. Think you this earth of ours is
a lifeless and unsentient bulk, while the worm on her surface is in
the enjoyment of life? No, the universe is not dead. This life—jíva,
what is it but the pervading afflux of deific love and life, vivifying
all nature, and sustaining the animal and vegetable world as well as
the world of mind? These suns, systems, planets and satellites, are
not mere mechanisms. The pulsations of a divine life throb in them
all, and make them rich in the sense that they too are parts of the
divine cosmos. Should it be objected that it proves too much; that it
involves the identity of the vital principle of animals and
vegetables, let us not shrink from the conclusion. The essential unity
of all spirit and all life with this exuberant life from God, is a
truth from which we need not recoil, even though it bring all animal
and vegetable forms within the sweep of immortality. Epes Sargent.
Footnote 8:
The unity of all phenomena was the dream of ancient philosophy. To
reduce all this multiplicity to a single principle, has been and
continues to be the ever recurring problem. To the question of a unity
of substance the Greek science, repeatedly applied itself; and so did
the sophists of Persia and India. It was the craving for unity, which
led the white men of Asia, the ancient Aryan race, to the conception
of God as the one substance immanent in the universe. At first they
were polytheists, but with the progress of thought their number of
gods diminished, and became the authors of Veda. At last arrived to
the conception of a unity of forces, of a divine power as the ultimate
substratum of things. They regarded the beings of the world, as in
effect, composed of two elements; the one real and of a nature
permanent and absolute, and the other relative, flowing and variable
and phenomenal; the one spirit and the other matter, and both
proceeding from an inseparable unity, a single substance. Ibid.
According to Vásishtha this single substance is the _chit_ or divine
intelligence, which produces the Mind, which is conversant with
matter.
Footnote 9:
Note. The powers of the Intellect are, perception, memory, imagination
and judgment. Ego is the subject of thoughts, or the subjective and
really existent being. The personal God Brahmá is an emanation of God
according to the Gnostics, and is like the Demiurgus of Plato next to
God and soul of the world. Plotinus.
Footnote 10:
The allegory of the three spheres, means no more than the triple state
of man, as a spiritual, an intellectual and a physical or corporeal
being. The intellectual state in the text, is properly the spiritual
and highest state of a human being. The mental is next to the
intellectual or midmost state of man, and the physical or corporeal
state, is the lowest condition, in which the elevated nature of
humanity is subjected like an inferior animal, to grovel upon the
earth.
Footnote 11:
Compare the adventure of the prince Tájul Malur in Guli Bakáwalí, and
his bearing the burthen of his children by the Negro wife on his
shoulders.
Footnote 12:
The Text uses the terms _jnána_ and _ajnána_, which literally signify
knowledge and ignorance, and mean to say that, we know the subjective
ourselves only (as-ego-sum) and are ignorant of the true nature of the
objective, as whether they are or not and what they are. Though it
would be more appropriate to use the words nischaya and anischaya or
certainty and uncertainty, because we are certain of our own
existence, and are quite uncertain of every thing besides, which we
perceive in our triple states of waking, dreaming and sound sleep,
which incessantly produce and present before us a vast variety of
objects, all of which lead us to error by their false appearances.
Footnote 13:
All things existent in the Divine mind in their eternally ideal state,
present the same ideas to our minds also, which are of the similar
nature and substance with the Divine.
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