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Title: The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, Vol. 3 (of 4), Part 1 (of 2)
Author: Valmiki
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, Vol. 3 (of 4), Part 1 (of 2)" ***
MAHARAMAYANA OF VALMIKI, VOL. 3 (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 985, section 21: exhalted -> exhaled
Page 1018, section 36: before blazing -> blazing before
Page 1065, section 11: you that -> that you
Page 1081, section 37: guána -> jnána
Page 1110, section 23: breathing intends -> breathing in, tends
Page 1145, section 30: cannot the living -> cannot be the living
Page 1154, section 12: to found -> to be found
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 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).
These shortcomings of the LPP ed. were corrected:
Page i: page reference for Quiescence of Uddálaka was corrected from 992 to 983.
Pages 1035 and 1037 in the printed book were exchanged and have been transcribed
in their correct places.
Page 1125: verse 19 missing (the printed book has a blank page here).
THE
YOGA-VÁSISHTHA-MAHÁRÁMÁYANA.
VOL. III (part 1)
THE
YOGA-VÁSISHTHA
MAHÁRÁMÁYANA
OF
VÁLMÍKI
in 4 vols. in 7 pts.
(Bound in 4.)
Vol. 3 (In 2 pts.)
Bound in one.
Containing
Upasama Khanda and Nirvána Khanda
_Translated from the original Sanskrit_
_By_
VIHARI LALA MITRA
CONTENTS OF THE THIRD VOLUME.
UPASAMA KHANDA.
BOOK V.
CHAPTER LIV. PAGE.
Quiescence of Uddálaka 983
CHAPTER LV.
Transcendentalism of Uddálaka 993
CHAPTER LVI.
Investigation into Meditation and Contemplation 997
CHAPTER LVII.
Negation of Dualism 1004
CHAPTER LVIII.
Legend of Suraghu; and Admonition of Mándavya 1008
CHAPTER LIX.
Tranquility of Suraghu 1014
CHAPTER LX.
Extinction of Suraghu 1019
CHAPTER LXI.
Meeting of Suraghu and Parigha 1021
CHAPTER LXII.
On the nature of Quietism and Quietus 1026
CHAPTER LXIII.
The Conclusion of the Above 1029
CHAPTER LXIV.
Sermon on Self-Knowledge 1031
CHAPTER LXV.
Story of Bhása and Vilása 1037
CHAPTER LXVI.
The Transitoriness of Life and Evanescence of worldly things 1041
CHAPTER LXVII.
Abandonment of Intrinsic Relations 1046
CHAPTER LXVIII.
Inquiry into the Nature of Internal and External Relations 1052
CHAPTER LXIX.
Freedom from attachment—The Road to Tranquility 1058
CHAPTER LXX.
Perfect Bliss of Living Liberation 1060
CHAPTER LXXI.
A discourse on the body, Mind and soul 1064
CHAPTER LXXII.
A Lecture on the Nature of Liberation 1072
CHAPTER LXXIII.
Inquiry into the Nature of the Soul 1078
CHAPTER LXXIV.
Lecture on Apathy or Stoicism 1083
CHAPTER LXXV.
On Mancipation and Emancipation 1093
CHAPTER LXXVI.
The World compared with the Ocean 1100
CHAPTER LXXVII.
On Living Liberation 1103
CHAPTER LXXVIII.
Manner of conducting the Yoga-Hypnotism 1108
CHAPTER LXXIX.
Description of Spiritual Knowledge 1114
CHAPTER LXXX.
Investigation of Phenomenals 1117
CHAPTER LXXXI.
Unsubstantiality of the mind 1123
CHAPTER LXXXII.
Investigation into the nature of the Sensuous mind 1126
CHAPTER LXXXIII.
On the necessity of avoiding all bodily and worldly cares,
and abiding in Intellectual Delights 1136
CHAPTER LXXXIV.
The mental or Imaginary world of the sage 1142
CHAPTER LXXXV.
The sage's Samádhi or absorption in the divine spirit 1148
CHAPTER LXXXVI.
Government of bodily organs 1152
CHAPTER LXXXVII.
Terms. The One in various Term 1159
CHAPTER LXXXVIII.
A discourse on yoga meditation 1165
CHAPTER LXXXIX.
A Lecture on Rationalistic meditation 1165
CHAPTER LXXXX.
Admonition on the mind and its yoga meditation 1173
CHAPTER LXXXXI.
On the origin of the Human body and consciousness 1177
CHAPTER LXXXXII.
Means of obtaining the divine presence 1191
CHAPTER LXXXXIII.
Universal Indifference or Insouciance 1198
CHAPTER LIV.
QUIESCENCE OF UDDÁLAKA.
Argument. Uddálaka meditates on the form of Vishnu, and his
quietus in and coalescence with it.
Vasishtha continued:—Thinking himself to be raised to this state of
his transcendency, the saint sat in his posture of _padmásana_ with his
half shut eye-lids, and began to meditate in his translucent mind.
2. He then thought that the syllable _Om_, is the true emblem of
Brahma; and he rises to the highest state, who utters this monosyllabic
word.
3. Then he uttered the word with an elevated voice and high note, which
rang with a resonance like the ringing of a bell.
4. The utterance of his _Omkára_, shook the seat of his intellect in
the cranium; and reached to the seat of the pure soul, in the topmost
part of his head.
5. The _pranava_ or _Omkára_, consisting of three and half _matrás_
or instants, fills the whole body with the breath of inspiration; by
having its first part or the letter _a_, uttered with an acute accent
(Udátta).
6. He let out the _rechaka_ or the exhaling breath, whereby the
internal air was extracted from the whole body; and it became as empty
as the sea, after it was sucked up by Agastya.
7. His vital breath was filled with the sap of the intellect, and
rested in the outer air by leaving his body; as when a bird leaves its
snug nest; and then mounts to and floats in the open air.
8. The burning fire of his heart, burnt away his whole body; and left
it as dry as a forest, scorched by the hot wind of a conflagration.
9. As he was in this state at the first step of his practice of Yoga,
by the _pranava_ or utterance of this syllable _Om_; he did not attend
to the _hatha_ Yoga at all, on account of its arduousness at first.
10. He then attended to the other parts of the mystic syllable, and
remained unshaken by suppression of his breath by the _kumbhaka_
breathing.
11. His vital breaths were not suffered to pass out of his body, nor
were they allowed to circulate up and down in it; but were shut up in
the nostrils, like the water pent up in the drain.
12. The fire burning before burnt body, was blown out in a moment like
the flash of lightning; and he left his whole frame consumed to ashes,
and lying cold and grey on the naked ground.
13. Here the white bones of his body, seemed to be sleeping unmoved on
the naked shore; and lying in quiet rest on the bed of greyish ashes,
appearing as the powder of camphor strewn on the ground.
14. These ashes and bones were borne aloft by the winds, and were
heaped at last on his body; which looked like the person of Siva
besmeared with ashes, and wearing the string of bones about it.
15. Afterwards the high winds of the air, flying to the face of the
upper sky, bore aloft and scattered about those ashes and bones,
resembling an autumnal mist all about the air.
16. The saint attained to this state, in the second or middle stage of
his _pranava_ Yoga; and it was by his _kumbhaka_ breathing, and not by
_hatha yoga_ (which is difficult to practise), that he effected it.
17. He then came to the third stage, of his _pranava yoga_, by means of
the _púraka_ or inhaling breathing, which confers a quiet rest to the
Yogi, and is called _púraka_ for its fulfilment of his object.
18. In the process of this practice, the vital breath is carried
through the intellect to the region of vacuum; where it is cooled by
the coldness of its climate.
19. From the region of vacuum, the breathing ascended to that of the
lunar sphere; and there it became as cold as when the rising smoke,
turns to the watery cloud in the upper sky.
20. Then the breath rested in the orb of the full moon, as in the ocean
of ambrosial waters, and there became as cool, as in the meritorious
samádhi meditation.
21. The respiring breaths were then exhaled as cooling showers of rain;
and were brightened by the moon-beams to the form of fine wires of gold.
22. The same fell as a dew drop on the remaining ashes, as the stream
of the heavenly Gangá fell on the crest of Siva; and this resuscitated
the burnt body to its former form.
23. It then became as bright as the orb of the moon, and the body was
bedecked with the four arms of Vishnu. It glistened like the párijáta
tree on the sea shore, after it was churned out by the Mandara mountain.
24. The body of Uddálaka, stood confest as that of Náráyana to view;
and his bright eyes and lotus-like face, shone with a celestial light.
25. The vital breaths filled his body with a humid juice, as when
the lake is filled with sweet water, and the trees are supplied with
moisture by the breath of spring.
26. The internal airs filled the lungs, and the cavity of the heart; as
when the waters of the sea, run towards and roll into the whirlpool.
27. His body was afterwards restored to and regained its natural state;
as when the earth regains its prior and purer state, after it is washed
by the waters of rain.
28. He then sat in his posture of _padmásana_, and kept his body fixed
and firm in its straight and erect position. The five organs of his
sense, were bound as fast, as the feet of an elephant with strong
chains.
29. He strove to practise an unshaken hybernation (_samádhi_), and
wanted to make himself appear as translucent, as the clear autumnal sky
and air.
30. He restrained his breath (by means of his _pránáyáma_ or
contraction of breathing), and the fleet stag of his respiration
from its flight to all sides; and he restricted his heart from its
inclinations, and fixed it fast as by a rope to the post of his bosom.
31. He stopped his heart forcibly, from its running madly to the pits
of its affection; as they stop the course of over-flowing waters, by
means of embankments.
32. His eyes were half hid under his closing eye-lids, and his pupils
remained as fixed and unmoved, as the contracted petal of the lotus,
against the buzzing bees, fluttering about and seeking to suck their
honey.
33. He employed himself to _Rája Yoga_, at first, by remaining silent
with a graceful countenance.
34. He abstracted his senses from their objects, as they separate the
oil from the sesamum seeds; and he contracted the organs of sense
within himself, as the tortoise contracts his limbs under his hard
covering.
35. With his steady mind, he cast off the external sensations afar
from him; as a rich and brilliant gem, casts off its outer coating and
rubbish, and then scatters its rays to a distance.
36. He compressed his external sensations, without coming in contact
with them within himself; as the trees contract their juice in the cold
season within their rind.
37. He stopped the circulation of his respiration, to the nine openings
of his body, and their passing through the mouth and anus; and by means
of his _kumbhaka_ inspiration, he compressed the winds in the internal
cells of his body.
38. He held his neck erect like the peak of mount Meru, in order to
receive the light of the soul; which irradiated in the form of flowers,
before the vision of his mind.
39. He confined his subdued mind in the cavity of his heart, as they
imprison the big elephant in a cavern of the Vindhya mountain; when
they have brought him under their subjection by some artifice.
40. When his soul had gained its clearness, resembling the serenity of
the autumnal sky; it forsook its unsteadiness like the calm ocean, when
it is full and unagitated by the winds.
41. The mist of doubts, which sometimes gathered in his breast, and
obscured the light of his reason and truth; now fled from before him,
like a flight of gnats driven by the wind.
42. As yet the crowds of doubt, rose repeatedly in his breast, and of
their own accord; he dispersed them boldly by the sword of his reason,
as a hero drives the enemy before him.
43. Upon the dispersion of the thick mists of doubts, and all worldly
desires from his mind; he beheld the bright sun of reason rising in his
breast, from amidst the parting gloom of ignorance.
44. He dispelled this darkness, by the sun-beams of his full
intelligence; which rose in his mind as a blast of wind, and dispersed
the clouds of his doubts in the skies.
45. After dispersion of this darkness, he saw a beautiful collection of
light, shining upon him like the morning twilight, and alighting upon
his lotus bed, after dispersion of the shade of night. (This was his
_sáttwikabháva_ or state of purity).
46. But this clear light of his soul, was soon after removed by the
_raja_ or worldliness of his mind; which devoured it as the young
elephant feeds upon the red lotuses of the land (_sthala padma_), and
as _Vetála_ goblins lick up the drops of blood.
47. After the loss of this heavenly light, his mind turned flighty from
the giddiness of his passions (or _tama guna_); and he became as drowsy
as the sleeping lotuses at night, and as tipsy as a drunken sot over
his cups.
48. But his reason soon returned to him, and made him shake off his
sleepiness, as the winds disperse the clouds, and as the snake inhales
the air; and as the elephant devours the lotus bush, and the sunlight
dispels the darkness of night.
49. After removal of his drowsiness, his mind beheld the broad expanse
of the blue firmament, filled with fancied forms of animals, and
flights of peacocks and other birds.
50. When, as the rain water washes off the blackness of tamála leaves,
and as a gust of wind drives away the morning mist, and as the light of
a lamp disperses the darkness; so returned to him, his spiritual light,
and removed the blue vacuum, of his mind, by filling it with its benign
radiance.
51. The idea of an empty vacuity (vacuum), being replaced by that of
his self consciousness, his idea of the mind was also absorbed in it;
as the drunken frenzy of a man is drowned in his sleep.
52. His great soul, then rubbed out the impressions of error from his
vitiated mind; as the luminous sun drives from the world, the shades of
darkness which had overspread it at night.
53. In this manner his misty mind, being freed from its shades of light
and darkness, and from the dross of its drowziness and error; obtained
its rest in that state of _samádhi_ or trance, which no language can
describe.
54. In this state of calm and quiet repose, his limbs dropped down
as in the drowziness of sleep; and their powers were absorbed in the
channel of his self consciousness, as a flood recoils to its basin,
when it is bound by an embankment.
55. It was then by means of his constant inquiry, that he advanced to
the state of his intellectuality, from that of his consciousness of
himself; as the gold that is moulded to the form of a jewel, is reduced
afterwards to the pure metal only.
56. Then leaving his intellectuality, he thought himself as the
intellect of his intellect; and then became of another form and figure,
as when the clay is converted to a pot.
57. Then leaving his nature of a thinkable being (or objectivity), he
became the subjective thinking intellect itself; and next to that, as
identic with the pure universal intellect; just as the waves of the
sea, resolve their globules into the common air. (It is by the process
of generalization, that particulars are made to blend in one ultimate
universal).
58. Losing the sight of particulars, he saw the Great One as the
container of all; and then he became as one with the sole vacuous
intellect.
59. He found his felicity in this extra phenomenal state of the
noumenon; which like the ocean, is the reservoir of all moistures.
60. He passed out of the confines of his body and then went to a
certain spot, where leaving his ordinary form, he became as a sea of
joy (in the transport of his ecstacy).
61. His intellect swam over that sea of joy like a floating swan, and
remained there for many years with as serene a lustre, as the moon
shines in her fulness in the clear firmament.
62. It remained as still as a lamp in the breathless air, and as the
shadow of a picture in painting; it was as calm as the clear lake
without its waves, and as the sea after a storm, and as immovable as a
cloud after it has poured out its waters.
63. As Uddálaka had been sitting in this full blaze of light, he beheld
the aerial Siddhas and a group of gods (advancing towards him).
64. The groups of Siddhas, that were eager to confer the ranks of the
Sun and Indra upon him, assembled around him with groups of Gandharvas
and Apsaras, from all sides of heaven.
65. But the saint took no notice of them, nor gave them their due
honour; but remained in deep thought, and in the continuance of his
steady meditation.
66. Without paying any regard to the assemblage of the Siddhas, he
remained still in that blissful abode of his bliss; as the sun remains
in the solstices, or in the northern hemisphere for half of the year.
67. While he continued in the enjoyment of his blessed state of living
liberation, the gods Hari, Hara and Brahmá waited at his door, together
with bodies of Siddhas, Sádhyas and other deities beside them.
68. He now remained in his state of indifference, which lies between
the two opposites of sorrow and joy; and neither of which is of long
continuance, except the middle state of _insouciance_ which endureth
for ever.
69. When the mind is situated in its state of neutrality, and whether
it is for a moment or a thousand years; it has no more any relish for
pleasure, by seeing its future joys of the next world, as already begun
in this.
70. When holy men have gained that blissful state in this life, they
look no more on the outer world; but turn aside from it, as men avoid a
thorny bush of brambles (Lit., catechu plants).
71. The saints that attained to this state of transcendental bliss, do
not stoop to look upon the visible world; and as one who is seated in the
heavenly car of Chitraratha, never alights on the thorny bush of the
Khadira (catechumemosa).
72. They take no account of the visible world, who enjoy this felicity
of the invisible in them; as the self-sufficient rich man, takes into
no account the condition of the miserable poor.
73. The wise heart that has found its rest in that blissful state, does
either keep itself from the thoughts of this world, or shrink from it
with disgust and hatred.
74. Uddálaka thus remained in his holy seat for six months, after which
he awoke from his trance; and removed from there to another place, as
the sun gets out of the mists of frost in the vernal season.
75. He beheld before him, the assemblage of the bright beings of
enlightened minds; and who with their countenances shining as the
lightsome moon, hailed the hermit with high veneration.
76. They were fanned with _chouries_ flapping about them, like swarms
of bees besmeared with white powders of _mandára_ flowers; and sitting
on their heavenly cars, decorated with flags waving in the sky.
77. There were the great saints like ourselves sitting in them,
decorated with ringlets of the sacred grass in their fingers, and
accompanied by Vidyádharas and Gandharvas, with their damsels
ministering unto them.
78. They addressed the great-souled and saintly Uddálaka with
saying:—“Deign, O venerable sir, to look upon us, that have been
waiting here upon you with our greetings.”
79. “Vouchsafe to mount on one of these heavenly cars, and repair to
our celestial abode; because heaven is the last abode, where you shall
have the full gratification of your desires after this life.”
80. “There remain to enjoy your desired pleasures, until the end
of this kalpa age; because it is pure heavenly bliss which is the
inheritance of saints, and the main aim and object of ascetic
austerities on earth.”
81. “Behold here the damsels of Vidyádharas, are waiting for you with
fans and wreaths of flowers in their hands; and they have been hailing
and inviting you to them, as the young elephantess, entices the big
elephant towards her.”
82. “It is the desire of fruition only, which is the main object of
riches and meritorious acts; and the greatest of our enjoyments is the
company of fairy damsels; as the flowers and fruits are the desired
products of the vernal season.”
83. The hermit heard his heavenly guests, speaking in this manner; and
then honoured them as he ought, without being moved by aught they said
unto him.
84. He neither complemented them with his courtesy, nor changed the
tenor of his even and inexcitable mind; but bidding them depart in
peace, he betook himself to his wonted devotion.
85. The Siddhas honoured him for his devotedness to his pursuit, and
his abjuring the desire of carnal gratifications. They then departed to
their elysian abode from there, after tarrying there in vain for some
days, to entice the hermit to their Parnassian fields.
86. Afterwards the saint continued to wander about at pleasure, in his
character of a living liberated Yogi; and frequented the hermitages of
the ascetics, at the skirts of the woods and forests.
87. He roved about freely over the mountains of Meru, Mandara, and
Kaylása, and on the table lands of the Vindhyan and Himalayan ranges;
and then travelled through woods and forests, groves and deserts, to
distant islands on all sides.
88. At last the saintly Uddálaka chose his abode in a cavern, lying at
the foot of a mountain; and there dedicated the remainder of his life,
to devotion and meditation in his seclusion.
89. It was then in the course of a day, and then of a month, and
sometimes after the lapse of a year or years, that he rose once from
his meditation.
90. After his yoga was over, he came out and mixed with the world; and
though he was sometimes engaged in the affairs of life, yet he was
quite reserved in his conduct, and abstracted in his mind.
91. Being practiced to mental abstraction, he became one with the
divine mind; and shone resplendent in all places, like the broad day
light in view.
92. He was habituated to ponder on the community of the mind, till he
became one with the universal Mind; which spreads alike throughout the
universe, and neither rises nor sets any where like the solar light.
93. He gained the state of perfect tranquility, and his even
mindedness in all places, which released him from the snare of doubts,
and of the pain of repeated births and deaths. His mind became as clear
and quiet as the autumnal sky, and his body shone as the sun at every
place.
FORMULÆ OF THE PRANAVA YOGA.
1. Á Acute or Rechaka } 2. U. Grave or Kumbhake { 3. M. the Circumflex
yoga. } yoga. { or Puraka yoga.
CHAPTER LV.
TRANSCENDENTALISM OF UDDÁLAKA.
Argument. Meditation on the Universality of the soul and
Intellect.
Ráma said:—Venerable Sir! you are the sun of the day of spiritual
knowledge, and the burning fire of the night of my doubts; and you who
are the cooling moon to the heat of my ignorance, will deign to explain
to me, what is meant by—community of existence, (that you said just
now).
2. Vasishtha answered:—When the thinking principle or mind is wasted
and weakened, and appears to be extinct and null; the intellect which
remains in common in all beings, is called the common intelligence (or
Nous) of all.
3. And this intellect when it is devoid of its intellection and is
absorbed in itself, and becomes as transparent as it is nothing of
itself; it is then called the common (or Samanga) intellect.
4. And likewise, when it ignores the knowledge of all its internal and
external objects, it remains as the common intellect and unconscious of
any personality.
5. When all visible objects are considered to have a common existence,
and to be of the same nature with one’s self, it is designated the
common intellect. (Or compression of the whole in one, like the
contraction of the limbs of a tortoise).
6. When the phenomenas are all ingulphed of themselves, in the one
common spirit; and there remains nothing as different from it, it is
then called the one common entity.
7. This common view of all things as one and the same, is called
transcendentalism; and it becomes alike both to embodied and
disembodied beings in both worlds. It places the liberated being above
the fourth stage of consummation.
8. It is the enlightened soul which is exalted by ecstacy (Samádhi),
that can have this common view of all as one; and not the ignorant (who
can not make this highest generalization).
9. This common view of all existence, is entertained by all great and
liberated beings; as it is the same moisture and air, that is spread
through the whole earth and vacuum.
10. Sages like ourselves, as Nárada and others, and the gods Brahmá,
Vishnu and Siva, have this common view of all things in existence.
11. The saintly Uddálaka, entertained this view of the community of
all beings and things; and having thereby attained to that state of
perfection, which is free from fear or fall; he lived as long as he
liked to live in this earthly sphere.
12. After lapse of a long time, he thought of enjoying the bliss of
disembodied or spiritual liberation in the next world, by quitting his
frail mortal frame on earth.
13. With this intention, he went into the cave of a mountain, and there
made a seat for himself, with the dried leaves of trees; and then sat
upon it in his posture of _padmásana_, with his eyes half closed under
his eyelids.
14. He shut up the opening of the nine organs of sense, and then having
compressed their properties of touch and the like, in the one single
sense of perception, he confined them all within it in his intellect.
15. He compressed the vital airs in his body, and kept his head erect
on his neck; and then by fixing the tip of his tongue to the roof of
his palate, he sat with his blooming countenance turned upwards to
heaven.
16. He did not allow his breath, to pass up or down or out of or inside
his body, or fly into the air; nor let his mind and sight to be fixed
on any object; but compressed them all in himself with his teeth joined
together (in his struggle for compression).
17. There was a total stop of the breathing of his vital airs, and
his countenance was composed and clear; his body was erect with the
consciousness of his intellect, and his hairs stood on their ends like
thorns.
18. His habitual consciousness of intellection, taught him the
community of the intellect; and it was by his constant communion with
the intellect, that he perceived a flood of internal bliss stirring in
himself.
19. This feeling of his internal bliss, resulting from his
consciousness of intellectual community; led him to think himself
as identic with the entity of the infinite soul, and supporting the
universal whole.
20. He remained with an even composure, in his state of transcendent
quietness; and enjoyed an even rapture in himself, with a placid
countenance.
21. Being unruffled by the transport of his spiritual bliss, and
attaining the state of divine holiness; he remained for a long time in
his abstract meditation, by abstracting his mind, from all thoughts and
errors of the world.—
22. His great body remained as fixed as an image in painting, and shone
as bright as the autumnal sky, illumined by the beams of the full moon.
23. In course of some days, his soul gradually forgot its mortal state,
and it found its rest in his pure spiritual bliss; as the moisture of
trees is deposited in the rays of the sun, at the end of autumn (in the
cold season).
24. Being devoid of all desires, doubts and levity of his mind; and
freed from all foul and of pleasurable inclinations of his body; he
attained to that supreme bliss on the loss of his former joys, before
which the prosperity of Indra appeared as a straw, floating on the vast
expanse of the ocean.
25. The Bráhman then attained to that state of his _summum bonum_ which
is unmeasurable, and pervades through all space of the measureless
vacuum; and which fills the universe and is felt by the enraptured
yogi alone. It is what is called the supreme and infinite bliss,
having neither its beginning nor end, and being a reality, without any
property assignable to itself.
26. While the Bráhman attained to this first state of his consummation,
and had the clearness of his understanding, during the first six months
of his devotion; his body became emaciated by the sun beams, and the
winds of heaven whistled over his dry frame, with the sound of lute
strings.
27. After a long time had elapsed in this manner, the daughter of the
mountain king—Párvatí, came to that spot, accompanied by the Mátris,
and shining like flames of fire with the grey locks of hair on their
heads, as if to confer the boon of his austere devotion.
28. Among them was the goddess Chámundá, who is adored by the gods. She
took up the living skeleton of the Bráhman, and placed it on her crown,
which added a new lustre to her frame at night.
29. Thus was the disgusting and dead like body of Uddálaka, set and
placed over the many ornaments on the body of the goddess; and it was
only for her valuing it as more precious than all other jewels, on
account of its intrinsic merit of spiritual knowledge.
30. Whoever plants this plant of the life and conduct (_i.e._, the
biography) of Uddálaka in the garden of his heart, will find it always
flourishing with the flowers of knowledge and the fruit of divine bliss
within himself. And whoso walks under the shadow of this growing arbor,
he is never to be subject to death, but will reap the fruit of his
higher progress in the path of liberation.
CHAPTER LVI.
INVESTIGATION INTO MEDITATION AND CONTEMPLATION.
Argument. That a man in secular life, is not barred from
spiritual contemplation. Nor is the spiritualist debarred from
engaging in secular duties.
Vasishtha continued:—Proceed in this manner to know the universal soul
in your own soul, and thereby obtain your rest in that holy state.
2. You must consider all things by the light of the sástras, and dive
into their true meaning; you will also benefit yourselves by the
lectures of your preceptor, and by pondering on them in your own mind;
as also by your constant practice of ignoring the visibles, until you
come to know the invisible One.
3. It is by means of your habitual dispassionateness, your acquaintance
with the sástras and their meanings, and your hearing the lectures of
the spiritual teachers; as well as your own conviction that you can
gain the holy state (for it is your confidence only), whereby you can
come to it.
4. It is also by your enlightened understanding too, when it is
acute and unbiased, that you can attain to that everlasting state of
felicity, without the medium of anything else.
5. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, that art acquainted with the past and
future; whether one who is employed in the affairs of life, and at the
same time is enlightened and situated in his quietude;—
6. And another who remains in his solitary devotion, apart from worldly
connections; which of these two has greater merit (_i.e._, whether the
social or solitary devotee).
7. Vasishtha replied:—-He who views the association of properties and
qualities of things (which constitute all bodies in general), as quite
distinct from the soul; enjoys a cool tranquility within himself,
which is designated by the name of Samádhi.
8. He who is certain that the visibles bear relation to his mind
only, and have no connection with his soul; and remains calm and cool
in himself, may be either engaged in business, or sit quietly in his
meditation.
9. Both of these are happy souls, as long as they enjoy a cool calmness
within themselves; because it is this internal coolness of the soul
only, which is the result of great and austere devotion.
10. When a man in his habit of quietude, feels the fickleness of his
mind, his habitude then, turns to the reeling of a giddy or mad man.
11. When the sprawling mad man is devoid of desires in his mind; his
foolish frolic is then said to resemble the rapturous emotions, and
gesticulations of Buddhist mendicants.
12. The worldly man who is enlightened in his mind, and the enlightened
sage who is sitting in his hermitage; are both of them alike in their
spiritual coolness, and have undoubtedly reached the state of their
blessedness.
13. The man who is unrelated with the actions which he does, but bears
a mind which is free from desires, such as the mind of a man engrossed
with other thoughts; he is sensible of what he hears and sees, with his
organs only, without being affected by them.
14. A man becomes the agent of an act, even without his doing it
actually, who is fully intent upon the action; as the unmoving man
thinks himself to be moving about, and falling down in a ditch
(startles even at the thought, as if it were in actuality).
15. Know the inaction of the mind, to be the best state of
_anaesthesia_; and solity or singleness, as the best means to your
_insouciance_.
16. It is the activity and inactivity of the mind, which are said to be
the sole causes, of the restlessness and quietness of men, as also of
their fixed meditation and want of its fixity: therefore destroy the
germs of thy rising desires.
17. Want of desire is called the neutrality of the mind, and it is this
that constitutes its steadiness and meditation; this gives solity to
the soul, and contributes to its everlasting tranquility.
18. The diminishing of desires leads the man to the highest station
of inappetency and innocence (_i.e._ from the fourth to the seventh
píthiká).
19. The thick gathering desires, serve to fill the mind with the vanity
of its agency, which is the cause of all its woes; (because it wakens
them, only to labour under their throes); therefore try to weaken your
desires at all times.
20. When the mind is tranquil, after it is freed from its fears, griefs
and desires; and the soul is set at its rest and quiet, in want of its
passions; it is then called the state of its _samádhi_ or _non-chalance_.
21. Relinquish the thoughts of all things from thy mind, and live
wherever thou livest, whether on a mount or in a forest, as calmly as
thou dost at thy home.
22. The houses of house-holders of well governed minds, and of those
who are devoid of the sense of their egoism, are as solitary forests to
them (without any stir or disturbance to annoy them).
23. Dwelling in one’s own house or in a forest, is taken in one and the
same light by cool-minded men, as they view all visible objects, in the
light of an empty vacuum only.
24. Men of pacified minds, view the bright and beautiful buildings of
cities, in the same indifferent light, as they behold the woods in the
forest.
25. It is the nature of ungoverned minds, to view even the solitary
woods, to be as full of people as large towns and cities (_i.e._, they
have no peace of mind anywhere).
26. The restless mind falls asleep, after it gets rid of its labour;
but the quiet mind has its quietus afterwards (its nirvána extinction)
(_i.e._, the one sleeps and rises again, but the other one is wholly
extinct). Therefore do as you like: (either sleep to rise again, or
sleep to wake no more).
27. Whether one gets rid of worldly things or not, it is his sight of
the infinite spirit, that makes him meek and quiet. (The worldly and
the recluse are equally holy, with their divine knowledge only).
28. He whose mind is expanded by his like indifference, to both the
objects of his desire and disgust also; and to whom all things are
alike insignificant everywhere, he is called the staid and stoic, and
the cool and meek.
29. He who sees the world in God in his inmost soul, and never as
without the Divine Spirit; and whose mind sees everything in waking as
in his sleep, is verily the lord of mankind.
30. As the market people, whether coming in or going out, are strangers
to and unrelated with one another; so the wise man looks upon the
concourse of men with unconcern, and thinks his own town a wilderness.
31. The mind which is fixed to its inward vision, and is inattentive to
external objects; thinks the populous city as a wilderness before it,
both when it is awake or asleep, and active or inactive.
32. Those who are attentive to the inward mind, sees the outer world as
a vacuous space to him; and the populous world appears as a desert
desolate to him, owing to its unworthiness of his attention.
33. The world is all cool and calm to the cold hearted, as the system
of the body is quiet cool to one without his fit of fever-heat.
34. Those that are parched with their internal thirst, find the world
as a burning conflagration to them; because everybody sees the same
without him, as he sees within himself.
35. The external world with all its earthly, watery and airy bodies,
and with all its rocks, rivers and quarters, is the counterpart of
the inner mind, and is situated without it, as it is contained within
itself.
36. The big banian tree and the little barley plants, are exact ectypes
of their antitypes in the eternal mind; and they are exhibited out of
it, as they are within it, like the fragrance of flowers diffused in
the air.
37. There is nothing situated in the inside or the outside of this
world, but they are the casts and copies, as displayed by their
patterns in the great mind of God.
38. The external world is a display of the essence, contained in the
universal soul; and appears without it from within its concealment,
like the smell of camphor coming out of its casket.
39. It is the divine soul, which manifests itself in the form of the
ego and the world also (the subjective and the objective); and all
what we see externally or think internally, either in and out of us is
unreal, except the real images which are imprinted in the soul.
40. The soul which is conscious of its innate images, sees the same in
their intellectual appearances within the mind, and in their external
manifestations in the visible creation.
41. He who has his internal and external tranquility, and enjoys his
peace of mind, and views the world inseparable from the soul, enjoys
his quiet _samádhi_ everywhere; but he who perceives their difference,
and differentiates his egoism from all others (that is, who sees his
distinction from other beings), he is ever subject to be tossed about,
as by the rolling waves of the sea.
42. The soul that is infested by the maladies of this world, sees the
earth, sky, air and water, together with the hills and all things in
them, burning before it as in the conflagration, of the last day of
dissolution (_pralaya_).
43. He who performs his work with his organs of action, and has his
soul fixed in its internal meditation; and is not moved by any joy or
grief, is called the dispassionate yogi.
44. He who beholds the all pervading soul in his own self, and by
remaining unruffled in his mind, doth never grieve at nor thinks about
any thing; is styled the unimpassioned yogi.
45. Who looks calmly into the course of the world, as it has passed or
is present before him, and sits still smiling at its vicissitudes, that
man is named the unpassionate yogi.
46. Because these changing phenomena do not appertain to unchanging
spirit of God, nor do they participate with my own egoism (_i.e._ they
are no parts, of God or myself); they but resemble the glittering atoms
of gold in the bright sun-shine which do not exist in the sky.
47. He who has no sense of egoism or tuism in himself, nor the
distinction of things in his mind, as of the sensible and insensible
ones; is the one that truly exists, and not the other who thinks
otherwise. (So says the Sruti:—The one alike in all is the All, and
not the other, who is unlike every thing).
48. He who conducts all his affairs with ease, by his remaining as the
intangible and translucent air about him, and who remains as insensible
of his joy and sorrow, as a block of wood or stone, is the man that is
called the sedate and quiet.
49. He who of his own nature and not through fear, looks on all beings
as himself, and accounts the goods of others as worthless stones; is
the man that sees them in their true light.
50. No object whether great or small, is slighted as a trifle by the
polished or foolish; they value all things, but do not perceive in
their hearts, the Reality that abides in them like the wise. (Fools
look into the forms of things, but the wise look in their in being).
51. One possessed of such indifference and equality of his mind,
attains to his highest perfection; and is quite unconcerned with regard
to his rise and fall, and about his life and death.
52. He is quite unconcerned with any thing, whether he is situated
amidst the luxuries at his home, and the superfluities of the world, or
when he is bereft of all his possessions and enjoyments, and is exposed
in a dreary and deep solitude:
53. Whether indulging in voluptuousness or bacchanal revelry, or
remaining retired from society and observing his taciturnity (it is all
equal to him, if he is but indifferent about them).
54. Whether he anoints his body with sandal paste or agalo chum, or
besmears it with powdered camphor; or whether he rubs his person with
ashes, or casts himself into the flames (it is all the same to him,
with his _non-chalance_ of them).
55. Whether drowned in sinfulness, or marked by his meritoriousness;
whether he dies this day or lives for a kalpa-age (it is all the same
to the indifferent).
56. The man of indifference is nothing in himself, and therefore his
doings are no acts of his own. He is not polluted by impurity, as the
pure gold is not sullied by dirt or dust.
57. It is the wrong application of the words consciousness—_samvit_,
and soul (purusha), to I and thou (or the subjective and objective),
which has led the ignorant to the blunder (of duality), as the silvery
shell of cockles, misleads men to the error of silver.
58. The knowledge of the extinction of all existence (in the Supreme
Spirit), is the only cure for this blunder of one’s entity, and the
only means to the peace of his mind.
59. The error of egoism and tuism of the conscious soul, which is the
source of its vain desires, causes the variety of the weal and woe of
mankind in their repeated births. (Selfishness grows our desires, and
these again produce our woes).
60. As the removal of the fallacy of the snake in the rope, gives peace
to the mind of there being no snake therein; so the subsidence of
egoism in the soul, brings peace and tranquility to the mind.
61. He that is conscious of his inward soul, and unconscious of all
he does, eats, drinks; and of his going to others, and offering his
sacrifice; is free from the results of his acts: and it is the same to
him, whether he does them or not.
62. He who slides from outward nature, and abides in his inward soul;
is released from all external actions, and the good and evil resulting
therefrom.
63. No wish stirs in such unruffled soul, in the same manner as no germ
sprouts forth from the bosom of a stone; and such desires as ever rise
in it, are as the waves of the sea, rising and falling in the same
element.
64. All this is Himself, and He is the whole of this universe, without
any partition or duality in Him. He is one with the holy and Supreme
soul, and the only entity called the Idest, _tatsat_. (He is no
unreality, but as real as the true Reality).
CHAPTER LVII.
NEGATION OF DUALISM.
Argument. One Supreme Intellect pervades the whole, and is one
with itself.
Vasishtha continued:—The intellect residing in the soul, is felt by
all like the poignancy inherent in pepper; and it is this, whereby we
have the intellection of the ego and non-ego, and of the distinctions
of the undivided dimension of infinite duration and space.
2. The soul is as the Universal ocean of salt, and the intellect is the
saltishness inherent in it; it is this which gives us the knowledge of
the ego and non-ego, and appears in the forms of infinite space and
time (which are no other than its attributes).
3. The intellect of which we have the knowledge as inherent in the soul
itself; is as the sweetness of the sugarcane of the soul, and spreads
itself in the different forms of the ego and the non-ego of worldly
objects.
4. The intellect which is known as the hardness inhering in the
stonelike soul, diffuses itself in the shapes of the compact ego and
the unsolid non-ego of the world.
5. The knowledge that we have of the solidity of our rock-like soul,
the same solidifies itself in the forms of I and thou, and the
diversities of the world all about us.
6. The soul which like the great body of water, presents its fluidity
in the form of the intellect; the same assumes the forms of the
whirlpools of the ego, and the varieties of non-ego in the world.
7. The great arbor of the soul, stretches itself in the exuberant
branches of the intellect; producing the fruits of ego and the various
forms of non-ego in the world.
8. The intellect which is but a gap in the great vacuum of the soul,
produces the ideas of I and thou and of the universe besides.
9. The intellect is as vain as vanity itself in the vacuity of the
soul; and gives rise to the ideas of ego and _tu_, and of the world
besides.
10. The intellect situated within the environs of the soul, has its
egoism and non-egoism situated without it. (_i.e._ The soul contains the
intellect, which deals with ideas lying beyond it).
11. When the intellect is known, to be of the same essence with that of
the soul; then the difference of the ego and non-ego, proves to be but
acts of intellection and no reality.
12. It is the reflexion of the inward soul अन्तरात्मा which is
understood to be the ego अहं, the mind चित्त and _anima_ or animated
soul जीव. (The two souls are respectively called the _nafs natigue_ and
the _nafs Jesmia_ in sufism, the former is _Meram and Shaffat_—luminous
and transparent, and the latter _nafs amera Jesmani_—or bodily senses,
and _quate uhshi_—or outrageous passions).
13. When the luminous and moon like soul, entertains and enjoys the
ambrosial beams of the intellect within itself; it then forgets its
egoism, which rises no more in its bright sphere.
14. When the sweetness of the intellect, is felt within the molasses of
the soul; it is relished by the mind with a zest, which makes it forget
its egoism in itself.
15. When the bright gem of the soul, shines with the radiance of the
intellect in itself; it finds its egoism to be lost altogether, under
the brightness of its intellectual light.
16. The soul perceives nothing in itself, for the total want of the
perceptibles in it; nor does it taste anything in itself, for want of
anything gustable therein. (The objective is altogether lost in it).
17. It thinks of nothing in itself, for want of the thinkables therein;
nor does it know of aught in itself, for want of the knowables there.
(The soul being absorbed in itself, is unconscious both of the
subjective as well as objective).
18. The soul remains blank of all impressions of the subjective and
objective, and also of the infinite _plenum_ in itself; it remains in
the form of a firm and solid rock by itself.
19. It is by way of common speech or verbiage, we use the words I and
thou, and of the objective world, though they are nothing whatever in
reality.
20. There is no seat nor agent of thought, nor fallacy of the world in
the soul (all which are acts of the mind only): while the soul remains
as a mute and pellucid cloud, in one sphere of the autumnal sky.
21. As the waters by cause of their fluidity, take the forms of
vortices in the sea; so the intelligent soul assumes its errors of I
and thou in its undivided self; owing to its delusion (_máyá_) of the
knower and known (or the subjective and objective).
22. As fluidity is inherent in water, and motion in air, so is egoism
innate in the subjective knower, and objectively connate with the known
world. (This is said of the intelligent or animated soul, and not of
the supreme soul, which is both the subject and object in itself).
23. The more doth the knowledge of a man, increase in its verity, the
clearer does the knowing man come to find, that his very knowledge
of the known objects, is the display of Divine Omniscience itself.
But should he come to know his egoism or subjectivity, owing to his
vitality and activity; and conceive the _Idison_ or objectivity of all
others (beside himself); in this case the learned or knowing man is
no better than an Egoist, and knowing the Living God or Jíva Brahmá
only.[1]
24. In as much as the intelligent soul (jíva), derives its pleasure
from its knowledge of objects; in like manner is it identified with the
knowledge, of its sameness with or difference from that object. (_i.e._
It is according to the thought or belief of the thinker, that he is
identified or differentiated from the object thought of).
25. Living, knowing and the knowledge of things, are properties of the
animated or concrete soul—the jíva: but there is no difference of
these in the discrete, or Universal and intellectual soul (which is one
in all).
26. As there is no difference between the intelligent and the living
soul (jíva), so there is no diversity between the intelligent soul and
Siva (Ziv or Jove), the Lord of animated nature who is the undivided
whole.
27. Know the all quiescent, and the unborn One, who is without
beginning, middle and end; who is self manifest and felicity itself;
and who is inconceivable and beyond all assignable property or quality.
He is all quiescent, and all verbal and ocular indications of him
are entirely false. Yet for the sake of our comprehension, he is
represented as the Holy one, _on_ or om.
CHAPTER LVIII.
LEGEND OF SURAGHU; AND ADMONITION OF MÁNDAVYA.
Argument. Self-dejectedness of Suraghu; and Mándavya’s
Admonitions to him.
Vasishtha said:—Hear me relate to you Ráma, an old legend, in
illustration of this subject; and it is the account of the Kiráta Chief
Suraghu, which is marvelous in its nature.
2. There is a tract of land in the regions on the north, which was
hoary as a heap of camphor with its snowfalls, and which seemed to
smile as the clear night, under the moon-beams of the bright fortnight.
3. It was situated on the summit of Himálaya, and called the peak of
Kailása; it was free from mountainous elephants, and was the chief of
all other peaks (owing to its being the seat of Siva).
4. It was as milk-white, as the bed of Vishnu in the milky ocean, and
as bright as the empyrean of Indra in heaven; it was as fair as the
seat of Brahmá, in the pericarp of the lotus; and as snow-white as the
snowy peak of Kedára, the favourite seat of Siva.
5. It was owing to the waving of the Rudráksha trees over it, and the
parade of the Apsara fairies about it, as also by the pencils of rays
of its various gems, that it appeared as the undulating sea (of milk or
curd).
6. The playful Pramathas, and other classes of demigods (ganadevatás)
frolicked here as gaily as blossoms of Asoka plants, when tossed about
by the feet of their wanton damsels. (It is said that the Asoka jonesia
flowers blossom, better, when they are kicked by and trodden under the
feet of females). See Sir W. Jones’ Indian plants.
7. Here the god Siva wanders about, and sees the water falls proceeding
from and receding into the caves of the mountain, by dilution of the
moon-stones contained in them (the thick ice and snows here, are taken
for moon-stones).
8. There was a spot of ground here enclosed by trees, and by plants
and creepers and shrubs of various kinds; and which is intersected by
lakes, hills and rivers, and interspersed by herds of deer and does of
various species.
9. There dwelt a race of the Kirátas called Himajátas at this spot, who
were as numerous as the ants living at the foot by a big banian tree.
10. They lived like owls in the shades and hollows of the trees, and
subsisted upon the fruits and flowers and herbage of the nearest
forests, and by felling and selling the Rudráksha woods of the Kailása
mountain.
11. They had a chief among them, who was as nobleminded, as he was
brave to baffle his enemies; he was as the arm of the goddess of
victory, and stretched it for the protection of his people.
12. He had the name of Suraghu, and was mighty in quelling his brave
and dreadful enemies; he was powerful as the sun, and as strong as the
god of wind in his figure.
13. He surpassed the lord of the Guhyakas—Kuvera, in the extent of his
kingdom, his dignity and riches; he was greater than the guru of the
lord of gods in his wisdom, and excelled the preceptor of the Asuras in
learning.
14. He discharged his kingly duties, by giving rewards and punishments
of the deserts of his men as they appeared to him; and was as firm in
the acquittal of these duties, as the sun in making the day and his
daily course.
15. He considered in himself the pain and pleasure, that his
punishments and rewards caused his people; and to which they were like
birds caught in nets from their freedom of flight.
16. “Why do I perforce pierce the hearts of my people,” he said, as
they bruise the sesamum seeds for oil; it is plain that all persons are
susceptible of pain and affliction like myself?
17. Yes, they are all capable of pain, and therefore I will cease to
inflict them any more; but give them riches and please all persons.
18. But if I refrain to punish the tormentors of the good, they are
sure to be extirpated by the wicked, as the bed of the channel is dried
up for want of rain.
19. Oh! the painful dilemma in which I am placed, wherein my punishment
and mercy to men are both grievous to me, or pleasing and unpleasing to
me by turns.
20. Being in this manner much troubled in his mind, his thoughts
disturbed his spirit like the waters in the whirlpools.
21. It happened at one time the sage Mándavya met him at his house, as
the divine sage Nárada (the Mercury or messenger of gods), meets Indra
in his celestial abode, in his journey through the regions of the sky.
22. The king honoured him with reverence, and then asked that great
sage to remove his doubt, as they cut down a poisonous tree in the
garden, with the stroke of the axe at its roots.
23. Suraghu said:—I am supremely blest, O sage, at this call of thine
at mine, which has made me as joyous as the visit of the spring on the
surface of the earth, and gives a fresh bloom to the fading forest.
24. Thy visit, O sage! has really made me more blest than the blessed,
and gives my heart to bloom, as the rising sun opens the closed petals
of the lotus.
25. Thou oh lord! art acquainted with all truths and art quite at rest
in thy spirit; deign, therefore to remove this doubt from my mind, as
the sun displaces the darkness of night by his orient beams.
26. A doubt festering in the heart is said to be the greatest pain of
man, and this pain is healed only in the society of the good and wise.
27. The thoughts of my rewards and punishments to my dependents, have
been incessantly tormenting my heart, as the scratches inflicted by
the nails of a lion, are always afflicting to the bruised body of the
elephant.
28. Deign, therefore, O sage, to remove this pain of mine, and cause
the sunshine of peace and equanimity to brighten the gloom of my mind.
29. Mándavya replied:—It is O prince; by means of one’s self-exertion,
self-dependence and self-help that the doubts of the mind, are melted
down like snows under the sunshine.
30. It is by self-discrimination also, that all mental anguish is
quickly put to an end; as the thick mists and clouds are dispersed in
autumn.
31. It must be in one’s own mind, that he should consider the nature
and powers of his internal and external organs, and the faculties of
his body and mind.
32. Consider in thy mind (such things as these); as what am I, what and
whence are all these things; and what means this our life, and what is
this death that waits upon it? These inquiries will surely set thee to
eminence.
33. As you come to know your true nature by your introspection into the
state of your mind, you will remain unchanged by your joys and griefs,
as a firm rock (stands against the force of winds and waves, to shake
or move it).
34. And as the mind is freed from its habitual fickleness and feverish
heat, it regains its former tranquility; as the rolling wave returns
to the state of the still water from which it rose.
35. And as the mind remains in the impassability of living liberated
men (Jívan-mukta), all its imageries are wiped off from it; as its
impressions or reminiscences of past lives, are lost and effaced upon
its regeneration (in each succeeding _manwantara_).
36. The unimpassioned are honoured as the most fortunate among mankind
on earth; and the man knowing this truth and remaining with his
self-contentment is regarded as venerable father by every body.
37. When you come to see the greatness of your soul by the light
of reason, you will find yourself to be of greater magnitude, than
the extent of the sky and ocean put together; and the rational
comprehensiveness of the mind, bears more meaning in it, than the
irrational comprehension of the spheres.
38. When you attain to such greatness, your mind will no more dive into
worldly affairs; as the big elephant will not be engulfed in the hole
made by the bullock’s hoof.
39. But the base and debased mind, will plunge itself in mean and vile
matters of the world; as the contemptible gnat is drowned in a drop of
water in a little hole.
40. Little minds are led by their greediness, to dive in to dirty
affairs, like insects moving about in the dirt; and their miserliness
makes them covet all out-ward things (without seeking their inward good).
41. But great minds avoid to take notice of outward things, in order
that they may behold the pure light of supreme soul shining in
themselves.
42. The ore is cleared and washed, until pure gold is obtained from
it; and so long is spiritual knowledge to be cultivated by men, until
spiritual light fills their souls.
43. See always all things of all sorts with an ecumenical view in
all places; and with an utter indifference to the varieties of their
outward forms and figures; behold all with the eye of thy soul fixed to
one universal soul pervading the whole.
44. Until thou art freed from thy view of all particular specialities,
thou canst have no sight of the universal spirit, it is after
the disappearance of all particularities, that there remains the
catholicity of the transcendental spirit.
45. Until thou gettest rid of all individualities, it is impossible for
thee to come to the knowledge of universality; and much more so, to
comprehend the all-comprehending soul of all.
46. When one endeavours to know the supreme soul, with all his heart
and soul, and sacrifices all other objects to that end; it is then only
possible for him, to know the Divine soul in its fulness, and not
otherwise.
47. Therefore forsake to seek aught for thy own soul; and it is only by
thy leaving all other things, that thou comest to the sight of the best
of things.
48. All these visible objects which appear to be linked together, by
the concatenation of causes and their effects, are the creation of the
mind; which combines them together, as the string doth a necklace of
pearls. That which remains after expunging the mind and its created
bodies, is the sole soul, and this is that soul Divine;—the paramátmá.
CHAPTER LIX.
TRANQUILITY OF SURAGHU.
Argument. The loss and oblivion of all things and thoughts,
leading to the security and Tranquility of spirit.
Vasishtha continued:—O progeny of Raghu! after the sage Mándavya had
advised the Kiráta king in the said manner, he retired to his solitary
abode, suited for holy saints and sages.
2. After the sage had gone, the prince also retired to a lonely place;
and there began to reflect on the nature of his soul, and the manner of
his existence (in this world and the next).
3. He said:—I am not in this mountain (nor in any visible thing), nor
are they mine (or any part of myself); I am not the cosmos, nor is this
world myself. (I am no hill, nor do the hills appertain to my soul;
I am not of this earth, nor is the earth any part of mine unearthly
spirit, Gloss). So says the Sufi poets: ná azarsham &c.
4. This habitation of the Kirátas, does not belong to me nor do I
belong to it; it is the consent of the people that has made me the
ruler of the place.
5. Without this election I am no body here, nor is this place any thing
to me; though this city and this place are to last for ever.
6. The city so magnificent with its highflying flags, its groves
and gardens and groups of my servants, and the long train of horse,
elephants and soldiers, is, alas! nothing to myself.
7. All this was nothing to me before my election, and will not be mine
after my disposal; and all these possessions, enjoyments and consorts,
do neither appertain to me nor I to them.
8. Thus this Government with all its force and officers in the city, is
naught to me, nor am I aught to it in reality, except mere adscititious
compliments to one another.
9. I think myself to be this body of mine, composed of my legs, hands,
and feet, and believe myself to be placed in the midst of these
(_i.e._, in the heart.)
10. But I perceive my body to be composed of flesh and bones; and not
constituting my rational self; which like the lotus flower rises amidst
the waters, without bearing any relation with that element.
11. I find the flesh of my body, to be dull and gross matter which
do not make my soul; and I find too my rational part to be not this
gross flesh at all. So do I find my bones likewise to be insensible
substances, and consequently forming no part of my sentient soul.
12. I am none of the organs of action, nor do these organs compose
myself. All organic bodies are composed of gross matter, and do not
consequently constitute the animated soul.
13. I am not the nourishment, which nourishes the body and not the soul
which makes myself; nor am I any organs of sense, which perceives the
material impressions, and have no sensibility without the intellect.
14. I am not the mind which is a passive agent, and minds whatever is
felt by it. It is called the understanding (_buddhi_) from its standing
under all its external and internal perceptions and conceptions
(_bodha_), and is the root of all worldly evils caused by its egoistic
feelings.
15. Thus I am neither the mind nor understanding, nor the internal
senses nor the external organs of action. I am not the inward subtile
body, nor its outward material and self locomotive form, but am
something besides all of these which I want to know.
16. I see at last my intelligent living soul, reflecting on the
intelligibles, thence called its intelligence. But this intelligent
principle being roused (to its action of thinking) by others (the
intelligibles), does not come under the category (_padártha_) of the
soul—_átmá_ (which is independent, and self-consciousness only).
17. Thus I renounce the knowable (living soul), and do not acknowledge
the intelligible intelligence as myself. It is at the end of all the
immutable and pure Intellect, which remains to be owned as myself.
18. Ah! it is wonderful at last, that I have come to know the soul
after so long a time, and find it to be myself the infinite soul, and
the Supreme Spirit which has no end.
19. As Indra and the gods reside and are resolved in Brahma, so the
spirit of God pervades through all material bodies, as the string of
the necklace, passes through the poles of all the pearls of which it is
composed. (This all pervasive soul is known as _sútrátmá_, one of the
ten hypostases of the Divinity).
20. The power of the soul known as intellect, is pure and unsullied
in its nature; it is devoid of the dirt of thinkable objects, and
fills the infinite space with its immense and stupendous figure. (The
omniscience of God comprehends the whole universe in itself, and
pervades all through it as the subtile air).
21. The intellect is devoid of all attributes, and pervades all
existences in its subtile form; stretches itself from the highest
empyrean of heaven to the lowest deep, and is the reservoir of all
power.
22. It is replete with all beauty, and is the light that enlightens all
objects unto us; it is the connecting chain to which all the worlds are
linked together like pearls in the necklace.
23. It is formless but capable of all forms and mutations; being
connected with all matters, and conversant with all subjects at
all times. (The intellect embraces all subjects and its subjective
knowledge comprehends all objects). It has no particular name nor
form, but is taken as varied into different forms, according to the
operations of the intellect.
24. It assumes fourteen forms in its cognition of so many sorts of
beings contained in the two wombs of the world; it is varied in all
these forms, in order to take cognizance of all things composing the
whole body of the natural world. (The intellect comprises the fourteen
sciences of Sanskrit literature over which it bears its command.
Another gloss means by it the fourteen worlds, which are under the
cognizance and dominion of the intellect).
25. The course of human happiness and misery, is a false representation
of the understanding; and the varieties of representations in the
mind, are mere operations of the soul and its attribute of the
Intellect. (Here the mental sciences are meant to be subordinate to the
intellectual, and that again under the psychological).
26. Thus this soul of mine is the same with the All pervading spirit;
and this understanding in me, is no other than that All knowing
intellect. It is the same mind, that represents these imaginary images
in the sensory of my mind, and causes the error of my kingship in me.
27. It is by good grace of the Intellect, that the mind is seated in
the vehicle of the body; and ranges with joy amidst the sports and
diversions of the diversified scenes of this world.
28. But this mind and this body and all diversities are nothing in
reality; they are all destroyed by the cruel hand of death, and not a
vestige of them remains behind. (But the soul and its intellect are
indestructible).
29. This world is a stage, stretched out by the mind its chief actor,
and the soul sits silent as a spectator of this scene, under the light
of the intellect.
30. Alas, I find these painful thoughts of mine for the punishment,
retribution and well being of my people, to be all for nothing; since
whatever is done for the body, perishes with the body also.
31. O, that I am awakened to truth at present, and released from the
mirage of my false views long before; I have come to see what is worth
seeing, and have found all that is worthy to be had.
32. All these visibles which are seen to be wide spread throughout this
universe, are no more than false phantoms, presented or produced by the
vibrations of the intellect; and do not last for long.
33. What is the good then of these my punishments and rewards to my
people, which produce their pain and pleasure for a short time, and do
not lead to the lasting welfare of their souls.
34. What mean these pains and pleasures to us, when they both proceed
from ourselves, and are alike in the sight of God? I had been all along
ignorant of this truth, which has fortunately now dawned upon me.
35. What shall I now do under the influence of this light; shall I now
be sorry or joyous for it; what have I now to look at and do, as to
whether I shall now remain in this place or go away from here?
36. I behold this wondrous sphere of the intellect, now shining upon
me in its full splendour; and I hail thee, O holy light! which I see
blazing before me, but of which I can predicate nothing.
37. Ah! that I am now so awakened and enlightened and come to know the
whole truth in me; I hail, therefore, myself now instinct with infinity
and Omniscience.
38. Being freed from the paintings of my mind, and cleared from the
dross of the sensible objects, and also released from the errors of
this world; I rest myself, in the lap of my tranquil soul, as in a
state of sound sleep, and in utter oblivion of all my internal and
external impressions.
CHAPTER LX.
EXTINCTION OF SURAGHU.
Argument. Seclusion of Suraghu until his last moment, and his
liberation in his lifetime.
Vasishtha continued:—Thus the lord of Hemajata, attained the state of
his perfect felicity; and it was by means of his ratiocination, that he
found his liberation in Brahma like the Son of Gádhi.
2. He was no longer employed in the discharge of his painful daily
rituals, which are attended with repeated misery to their practicers;
but remained like the unchanging sun, amidst the rotation of ever
changing days and nights.
3. He remained thence forward without any care or anxiety; and
continued as firm and unmoved, amidst the righteous and wrongful acts
of his subjects, as a rock stands in the midst of the boisterous waves,
playing about and dashing against it.
4. He was not susceptible of gladness or anger, at the conduct of
others in the discharge of their daily duties; but remained as grave as
the deep ocean, under the heaving waves of his clamourous people.
5. He subdued his mental actions and passions as a man does in his
sound sleep; and shone with an unshaken lustre, as the flame of a lamp
in the still air.
6. He was neither unkind nor ever kind to any body, nor of was he
envious or inimical to any one. He was neither too wise or unwise, nor
was he a seeker nor despiser of fortune.
7. He looked upon all with an even eye and in an equal light. He
conducted himself with unwaving steadiness, and was as cool and gentle
in his mind, as the calm ocean and the gentle moonlight.
8. Knowing all things in the world to be but workings of the mind, he
remained quiet in every state of pleasure and pain, with the soundness
of his understanding.
9. His mind was enlightened, and his entranced soul enjoyed its
anaesthesia in every state of his life; and was full in itself both
when he sat and slept, as also when he moved about or did any thing.
10. He continued for a full century to reign over his realm with his
mind unattached to state affairs; and with his unimpaired body and
intellect.
11. He at last quitted his habitation of the frail body of his own
accord; as the dew drops itself down, by being impregnated with the sun
beams.
12. His soul then fled on the wings of his intelligence, to the primary
and final cause of causes; as the current of the stream runs to the
main ocean, by breaking down its bounds of the banks on its way.
13. The intelligent soul being freed from its remorse (of leaving the
body), and released from the conditions of its transmigration, became
one with the immaculate spirit; and was then absorbed in the Supreme
One; as the air contained in a pot, mixes with the all-encompassing
firmament after the pot is broken.
CHAPTER LXI.
MEETING OF SURAGHU AND PARIGHA.
Argument. The praiseworthy deeds of good Princes.
Vasishtha said:—O lotus-eyed Rághava! do you likewise act in the
manner as Suraghu, and rely yourself in the sole existence of the
Supreme one, for cleansing your iniquities, and for your getting rid of
all sorrow in this world.
2. The mind will no longer pant or sorrow, when it comes to have this
ecumenical sight in itself; as a child is no more afraid of dark, when
it gets the light of a lamp in the room.
3. The discriminating mind of Suraghu found its rest in perfect
tranquility; as a fool finds his security by laying hold of a big
bundle of straws.
4. Having this holy sight in your view, and by your preaching this
light to others, do you continue to enjoy this uniform _insouciance_
(Samádhi) in yourself, and shine forth as a bright gem before the world.
5. Ráma said:—Tell me O chief of sages, what is this uniform
_insouciance_, and set my mind at rest, which is now fluttering like
the plumes of a peacock discomposed by the winds.
6. Vasishtha replied:—Attend therefore, O Ráma! to the marvelous story
of that enlightened and sagely prince Suraghu, and how he conducted
himself by subsisting on the leaves of trees.
7. I will relate to you also the communication which went on between
two princes, both of whom were equally enlightened in their souls, and
situated in the same sort of uniform quietism.
8. There was a mighty king of the Plahvas (Persians) known by the name
of Parigha; who was a victor of his enemies, and also the support of
his realm, as the axle is the support of a carriage.
9. He was joined in true friendship with Suraghu, and was as closely
allied to him as the god of love with the vernal spring.
10. It happened at one time, that a great drought occurred in the land
of Suraghu, and it was attended by a famine, resembling the final
desolation of the earth, brought on by the sins of men.
11. It destroyed a great number of his people, who were exhausted by
hunger and debility; as a conflagration destroys the unnumbered living
animals of the forest.
12. Seeing this great disaster of his people, Parigha was overwhelmed
in grief; and he left his capital in despair, as a traveller leaves a
city burnt down to the ground.
13. He was so sorely soul-sick at his inability to remove this
unavertible calamity of his subjects, that he went to a forest to
devote himself to devotion like Jíva the chief of devote. (Jíva is
another name of Buddha, who betook himself to the forest on seeing the
woes of human kind).
14. He entered a deep wood unseen by and unknown to his people, and
there passed his time in his disgust with the world, and afar and away
from mankind.
15. He employed himself in his austere devotion in the cavern of a
mountain, and remained sober-minded, with his subsistence upon dry and
withered leaves of trees.
16. It was by his subsisting on dry leaves for a long time, as fire
devours them always, that he obtained the surname of the leaf-eater
among the assembled devotees on that spot.
17. It was thenceforward that the good and royal sage passed under his
title of the leaf-eater among the holy sages in all parts of Jambúdvípa
(Asia).
18. Having thus conducted himself with his most rigid austerities for
many years, he attained the divine knowledge by his long practice of
self-purification, and by grace of the supreme soul.
19. He obtained his self-liberation by his avoidance of enmity and
the passions and affections of anger, pity and other feelings and
desires; and by his attainment of mental calmness and an enlightened
understanding.
20. He wandered _ad libitum_ all about the temple of the triple world
(composed of earth, heaven and the nether regions); and mixed in the
company of the siddhas and sádhyas, as the bees mix with the company of
swans about the lotus beds.
21. His peregrination led him at one time, to visit the city of
Hema-jata, which was built with gemming stones, and shone as brightly as
a peak of the mount Meru (which is represented to be composed of gold
and resplendent stones).
22. Here he met with his old friend the king of that city, and saluted
each other with mutual fondness. They were both delivered from the
darkness of ignorance, and were perfect in their knowledge of the
knowable.
23. They accosted mutually with saying, “O! It is by virtue of our good
fortune that we come to meet one another”.
24. They embraced each other in their arms and with joyous
countenances, and then sat on the one and same seat, as when the sun
and moon are in conjunction.
25. Parigha said:—My heart rejoices to see you with full satisfaction;
and my mind receives a coolness as if it immerged in the cooling orb of
the moon.
26. Unfeigned friendship like true love, shoots forth in a hundred
branches in our separation from each other; as a tree growing by the
side of a pool, stretches its boughs all around, until it is washed
away with its roots by the current.
27. The remembrance of the confidential talks, merry sports and idle
plays of our early days awakes in me, O my good friend! those innocent
joys afresh in me.
28. I know well, O sinless friend, that the divine knowledge which I
have gained by my long and painful devotion and by the grace of God, is
already known to you from the preachings of the sapient sage Mándavya
to you.
29. But let me ask, are you not placed beyond the reach of sorrow, and
set in your rest and tranquility; and are you situated in the supreme
cause of all, and as firmly as if you were seated upon the unshaken
rock of Meru?
30. Do you ever feel that auspicious self gratifying grace in your
soul, which purifies the fountain of your mind, as the autumnal sky
clears the springs of water on earth?
31. Do you, O ruler of your people, perform all your acts, with a
complacent air and steady mind, as you were discharging your duties for
the good of mankind?
32. Do the people in your realm live in safety, to enjoy their
prosperity and competence, and are they all free from disease, danger
and anxieties of life?
33. Is this land plentiful in its harvests, and are the trees here
bending down with their fruitage; and do the people here enjoy the
fruit of their labour and the objects of their desire?
34. Is your good fame spread about in all quarters, like the clear and
cooling beams of the full moon; and does it cover the face of this
land, like a sheet of snowfall on the ground?
35. Is the space of all quarters of the sky, filled with the renown of
your virtues, as to leave no gap in it; and as the roots and stalks of
lotus bushes overspread the tank, and choke and check the course of its
waters?
36. Do the young minds and virgins of your villages, street and walk
about pleasantly over the plains and fields here abouts; and do they
loudly laud forth your heart cheering applause (or their merry songs)?
37. Does all welfare attend on you, with respect to your prosperity,
wealth and possessions and the produce of your fields; and do your
family, children and dependents fare well in this city?
38. Do you enjoy your health free from all disease and complaint; and
reap the reward of your meritorious acts done for this life and the
next (such as sacrifices made for future rewards).
39. Are you indifferent in your mind with regard to temporary
enjoyments, which appear pleasant for a moment, but prove to be our
deadly enemies at last.
40. O! it is after a very long separation, that we come to meet again;
it is my good fortune that rejoins me to you, as the spring revisits
the dales with verdure.
41. There are no such joys here, nor such woes even in this world:
which do not happen to the lot of the living in their union with, and
separation from one another.
42. We are quite altered in our circumstances, during our long
separation; and yet how we happened to meet each other in the same
unchanged state of our minds, by a wonderful accident of destiny.
43. Suraghu replied:—Yes, sir, the course of destiny is as crooked as
that of a serpent; nor is there any man that can penetrate into the
depth of the mysterious nature of destiny.
44. There is nothing impossible to destiny, which has after the lapse
of so long a time, has reunited us in one place, from the vast distance
of the two countries asunder.
45. O great sir! we are all in good health and prosperity in this
place, and have been supremely blest by your graciousness unto us.
46. Behold us purified and cleansed of our sins, by your holy presence
among us; and the arbor of our merits has borne the fruit of our peace
and satisfaction at your sight.
47. O royal sage! we enjoy all prosperity in this our native city; and
your presence here this day, has made it shoot forth, in a hundred
off-shoots of joy and happiness.
48. O noble minded sir! your appearance and speech, have sprinkled this
place with sweet nectarine drops, joy and holiness; because the company
of the virtuous, is reckoned to equal the supreme felicity of man.
CHAPTER LXII.
ON THE NATURE OF QUIETISM AND QUIETUS.
Argument. A discussion about Active and Inactive Devotion and
Godliness.
Vasishtha related:—The prince Parigha then resumed his confidential
speech, expressive of the affection he formerly bore to Suraghu and
added:—
2. Parigha said:—Whatever acts of goodness are done by men of well
governed minds, in this earth of strife, they all redound to their
happiness; but the evil deeds of ungoverned minds are not so, but lead
to their misery.
3. Do you rely, sir, in that state of perfect rest which is free from
desire; and do you rest in that state of supineness—_samádhi_, which
is styled transcendental Coma or trance (paramopsama)?
4. Suraghu replied:—Tell me sir, what you mean by the abandonment of
all desires; and what is meant by that perfect lethargy, which they
call as transcendental coma or trance.
5. Tell me, O high minded Sir, how can that man be called unentranced,
who is enrapt in his supreme intelligence (or knowledge of the
supreme), and at the same time is attendant to his worldly concerns.
6. Men of enlightened understandings, however, they are employed in
the observance of their usual worldly affairs, are yet said to be
enraptured with their knowledge of the solity of the supreme soul.
7. But how can one be said to be beatified, whose mind is unsubdued and
whose nature is indomitable; although he may keep his position in the
posture of _padmásana_ with his folded palms.
8. The knowledge of truth which burns away all worldly desires as
straws, is termed the true catalepsy (_samádhi_) of the soul; rather
than the sedentariness and taciturnity observed by secluded devotees.
9. The knowledge which is attended with continued rest and
self-content, and gives an insight into the nature of things, is called
the paragoge (paraprajná), and repose (_samádhi_) of the soul by the
wise. (Paragogies or palpable knowledge, is opposed to anagogies or
hidden knowledge).
10. Immobility of the mind by pride and enmity, is known by the term
_samádhi_ or quietness to the wise; when the mind is as unmoved as the
fixed rock against the howling winds of the passions. (_i.e._ The mind
which is unshaken and unmoved by passions and desires).
11. The mind is also said to have its stillness _samádhi_, when it is
_devoid_ of anxious thoughts and cares, and is acquainted with the
natures of its wished for objects; and yet freed from its choice of and
aversion to the objects of its liking or dislike. This is also said to
be the fulness or perfection of the mind.
12. Again the mind of the magnanimous, is said to stand in its
stillness of _samádhi_ or quietism, ever since it is joined with its
understanding, and acts conjointly with the same.
13. But this pause of _samádhi_ being stretched too far to a dead
lock, is liable to break down by itself; as the fibre of a lotus-stalk
upon its being drawn too long by the hand of a boy. _Dead_ and dormant
quiescence is the opposite extreme of sensible quietism.
14. As the sun does not cease from giving his light to the other
hemisphere, after he sets from dispensing the day over this part, so
doth our intelligence continue to glow, even after it has run its
course in this life. (So there is no dead stop called the entire
pause—púrna _samádhi_, or utter extinction of the soul at any time).
15. As the course of a stream is never at a stop, notwithstanding
the incessant gliding of its currents; so the course of our thoughts
hath no suspension from its knowing of further truths. (The mind is
ever progressive in its acquisition of knowledge, which proves the
impossibility of its cessation).
16. As the ever continuous duration, never loses the sight of the
fleeting moments of time; so the sempiternal soul is never in abeyance,
to mark the flitting thoughts of its mind.
17. As the ever current time, never forgets to run its wonted course;
so the intelligent understanding is never remiss, to scan the nature of
the mysterious Intellect, which guides its course.
18. The thoughts of an intelligent being, run in as quick a succession;
as the continued rotation of the parts of time; and this is when the
mind wanders at random, and is not settled in the sole object of its
meditation.
19. As the lifeless soul has no perception of any external object; so
the soul unconscious of itself, has no knowledge of the course of time;
as in the state of sleep, delirium and insensibility.
20. As there is no skilful man, without some skill or other in the
world; so there is no intelligent being, without the knowledge of his
soul and self-consciousness here.
21. I find myself to be enlightened and wakeful, and pure and holy at
all times; and that my mind is tranquil, and my soul at its rest on all
occasions.
22. I find nothing to intercept the sweet repose of my soul, which has
found its anchorage in my uninterrupted communion with the holy spirit.
23. Hence my mind is never without its quiescence at any time, nor
is it unquiet at any moment, its being solely resigned to spiritual
meditation.
24. I see the all pervading and everlasting soul, in every thing and
in every manner; and know not whether it be the rest or unrest on my
soul, which has found both its quiet and employment, in its perpetual
meditation of the Divine Spirit.
25. Great men of quiescent spirits, continue always in an even and
uniform tone and tenor of their minds with themselves; therefore the
difference betwixt the rest and restlessness of the soul, is a mere
verbal distinction, and bear no shade of difference and in their
signification.
CHAPTER LXIII.
THE CONCLUSION OF THE ABOVE.
Argument. The Best means of self-contented happiness.
Parigha said:—Prince, I find you to be truly wise and enlightened
in your beatitude; and dost shine as the fullmoon with your inward
coolness.
2. I see in you the fulness of sweet delight, and the shadow of
prosperity resting upon you; and you appear as graceful as the water
lily, with your pleasing and cooling countenance.
3. The clearness, extent, the fullness and depth of your understanding,
give you the appearance of the deep, clear and extensive ocean, when it
ceases to be perturbed by the loud winds and waves.
4. The pure and full delight of your inward soul, which is free from
the cloud of egotism, gives it the grace of the clear expanse of the
autumnal sky.
5. I see you composed in your mind in all places, and find you
contented at all times; you are moreover devoid of passions, and all
these combine to add to you an unutterable grace.
6. You have got over the bounds, of knowing whatever is good and evil
in this world; and your great understanding, has made you acquainted
with every thing in its entirety.
7. Your mind is cheered with the knowledge of all existence and
non-existence, and your body is freed from the evil of repeated birth
and death—the common lot of all beings.
8. You have gleaned the truth from whatever is untrue, and are as
satiate with your true knowledge, as the gods were satisfied with
drinking the water of immortality which they churned out of the
brackish water of the ocean.
9. Suraghu replied: There is nothing in this world, O royal sage! which
we may choose as inestimable to us; for all that shines and glitters
here, are nothing in reality and have no intrinsic value.
10. In this manner there being nothing desirable here to us, there is
nothing disgusting to us neither; because the want of a thing intimates
the want of its contrary also.
11. The idea of the meanness of the most part of worldly things, and
that of the greatness of others on particular occasions, are both
weakened and obliterated from my mind. (_i.e._ The best thing that is
of service at some time, and the very best thing that is useless at
others, are all indifferent to the wise).
12. It is time and place that give importance to the object, and lower
the best ones in our estimation; therefore it behooves the intelligent,
neither to be lavish in the praise or dispraise of one or the other.
13. It is according to our estimation of another, that we praise or
dispraise the same; and we esteem whatever is desirable to us; but they
are the most intelligent, that give their preference to what is the
best, and of the greatest good is to us.
14. But the world abounding in its woods and seas, and mountains and
living animals, presents us nothing that is to be desired for our
lasting and substantial good.
15. What is there that we should desire, when there is nothing worth
desiring in this world; save bodies composed of flesh and bones, and
wood and stones, all of which are worthless and frail.
16. As we cease to desire, so we get rid of our fawning and hatred
also; as the setting of the sun is attended with the loss of both light
and heat.
17. It is useless verbiage to expatiate on the subject; it is enough
to know this truth for our happiness here, _i.e._ to have our desires
under subjection, and an evenness of our minds under all conditions,
attended with inward placidity and universal regard for all.
CHAPTER LXIV.
SERMON ON SELF-KNOWLEDGE.
Argument. The way to guard the mind from faults, and deliver the
soul from misery.
Vasishtha resumed:—After Suraghu and Parigha had ended their
discussion on the errors of this world, they honoured one another with
due respect, and retired gladly to their respective duties of the day.
2. Now Ráma, as you have heard the whole of this instructive dialogue
between them, do you try to profit thereby by a mature consideration of
the same.
3. It is by reasoning with the learned, that the wits are sharpened
with intelligence; and the egotism of men melts down in their minds,
like the raining of a thick black cloud in the sky.
4. It spreads a clear and calm composure over the mind, as the revisit
of cloudless Autumn does, over the spacious firmament to the delight of
mankind, and by its diffusion of bounteous plenty on earth.
5. After the region of the intellect, is cleared of its darkness, the
light of the supreme soul which is the object of meditation and our
sole refuge, becomes visible in it.
6. The man that is always spiritual and insighted within himself, who
is always delighted with his intellectual investigations, has his mind
always free from sorrow and regret.
7. Though the spiritual man is engaged in worldly affairs, and is
subject to passions and affections; yet he is unstained by them in his
heart, as the lotus bud is unsullied by the water under which it is
sub-merged.
8. The silent sage that is all-knowing, holy, and calm and quiet in
himself, is never disturbed by his ungoverned mind; but remains as firm
as the dauntless lion, against the rage of the unruly elephant.
9. The heart of the wise man is never affected by the mean pleasures
of the world; but it stands as the lofty arbor of paradise, above the
encircling bushes of thorny brambles and poisonous plants.
10. As the religious recluse who is disgusted with the world, has no
care for his life, nor fear of death; so the man whose mind is fraught
with full knowledge, is never elated nor depressed by his good or bad
fortune.
11. The man that knows the erroneousness of the mind and the panorama
of the world in the soul, is never soiled by the stain of sin, as the
clear sky is nowhere daubed by any dirt or dust.
12. It is the knowledge of one’s ignorance, that is the best safe guard
against his falling into greater ignorance, and it is the only remedy
for his malady of ignorance, as the light of the lamp is the only
remedial of nocturnal gloom.
13. The knowledge of our ignorance is the best healer of ignorance, as
the knowledge of one’s dreaming removes his trust in the objects of his
dream. (A dream known as a dream to the dreamer, can not lead him to
delusion).
14. A wise man engaged in business, with his mind disengaged from
it, and fixed on one object, is not obstructed by it in his view of
spiritual light; as the eye-sight of fishes, is not hindered by the
surrounding water.
15. As the light of intellectual day, appears over the horizon of the
mind, the darkness of the night of ignorance is put to flight; and then
the mind enjoys its supreme bliss of knowledge, as in the full blaze of
day.
16. After the sleep of ignorance is over, the mind is awakened by its
intelligence, to the bright beams of the rising sun of knowledge; and
then the mind is ever awake to reason, which no dulness can overpower.
17. A man is said to live so long, as he sees the moon of his soul, and
the moon beams of his intellect, shining in the sphere of his mind;
and he is said to have lived only for those few days, that he has
discharged his duties with joy.
18. A man passing over the pool of his ignorance, and betaking himself
to the contemplation of his soul; enjoys a coolness within him, as the
cooling moon enjoys by the cold nectarious juice contained in her orb.
19. There are our true friends, and those are the best sástras; and
those days are well spent, which have passed with them (the sástras),
in discourse on dispassionateness, and when we felt the rise of the
intellect within us.
20. How lamentable is their case, who are born to perish like ferns
in their native forests; and who are immerged in their sinfulness, by
their neglect to look into their souls.
21. Our lives are interwoven with a hundred threads of hopes and fears,
and we are as greedy as bulls of their fodder of straws. We are at last
over taken by old age and decrepitude, and are carried away with sorrow
and sighs.
22. The dullheaded are made to bear, like heavy laden bullocks, great
loads of distress on their backs in their native soil.
23. They are bitten and disturbed by the gnats of their passions, and
are made to plough the ground under the halter of their avarice; they
are shut in the cribs of their masters, and are bound by the bonds of
their kindred.
24. Thus we are harassed in the supportance of our wives and children,
and weakened by age and infirmity, and like beasts of burden we have
to wade in dirt and mire, and to be dragged to long journeys, and be
broken under heavy loads, without halting a while under the toil and
fatigue.
25. Bending under our heavy loads, we are tired with our long journeys
across the deserts, where we are burnt under the burning sunbeams,
without having a cool shade, to shelter our heads for a while.
26. We are big bodied like bulls with poor souls in us; we are
oppressed at every limb, and labour under our destiny by being tied as
the ringing bell, about the necks of bullocks; and the scourge of our
sins lashing us on both sides.
27. We toil like bulls labouring under the poles of the carts which
they draw along; and traverse through dreary deserts, without laying
down our bodies to rest for a moment.
28. We are always prone to and plunged in our own evils, and move on
like heavy laden bullocks with trolling and groaning all the way long.
29. Ráma! try your best to redeem by all means, this bullock of your
living soul, from the pool of this world; and take the best measures,
to restore it to its form of pristine purity.
30. The animal soul that is released from the ocean of this world, and
becomes purified in its mind by the light of truth, is no more liable
to roll in the mud, like some beasts after they are cleansed.
31. It is in the society of highminded men, that the living soul
receives the instruction, for its salvation in this ocean of the world;
just as a passenger easily gets a boat from the ferry-man to go across
a river.
32. That country is a desert where there are not learned and good
people, resembling the verdant trees of the land. The wise must not
dwell in the land, where the trees yield neither fruits nor afford
cooling shades.
33. Good men are as the flowering _Champa_ trees of the land; their
cooling words resemble the shady leaves of the tree, and their gentle
smiles its blooming flowers. Let men therefore resort to the umbrage of
such _champaka_ bowers.
34. For want of such men, the world is a desert, burning under the
darkening heat of ignorance, where no wise man should allow himself to
rest in peace and quiet.
35. It is the self that is the true friend to one’s self, therefore
support thyself upon thy self only; nor obscure the brightness of thy
soul, under thy darkness of the bodily pride, to bury thy life in the
slough of ignorance.
36. Let the learned ponder in themselves, “what is this body and how
came it to existence, what is its origin and to what is it reduced?”
Thus let the wise consider with diligence, the miseries to which this
body is subject.
37. Neither riches nor friends, nor learning nor relatives, serve to
redeem the drowning soul. It must be one’s own mind to buy its own
redemption, by resigning itself to its source and cause.
38. The mind is the constant companion and true friend to the soul; and
therefore it is by consultation with the mind, that one should seek to
redeem himself.
39. It is by a constant habit of dispassionateness and self
deliberation, that one can ford the ocean of this world, riding on the
raft of true knowledge (or the knowledge of truth).
40. It is pitiable to see the inward torments of the evil minded, that
neglect to release their souls from all worldly vexations.
41. Release the elephant of your living soul—_jíva_, from the fetters
of its egoism, its bonds of avarice and the ebriety of its mind; and
deliver it from the muddy pit of its birth place, and retire to your
solitude.
42. It is by these means, O Ráma, that the soul has its salvation;
therefore cast away your ignorance, and wipe off your egoism.
43. This is the best way that leaves the soul to its purity, that makes
you disentangle your self from the snare of your mind, and disengage
your soul from the trap of egoism.
44. It is by this means, that the lord of gods, the supreme soul is
beheld by us; and the corporeal body is regarded as a clod of earth, or
a block of wood, and not better than these.
45. The sunlight of the intellect comes to view, after dispersion of
the cloud of egoism by which it is obscured; and it is after this that
you attain the state of supreme felicity.
46. As the light of the day is seen, after withdrawal of the dark veil
of night; so you come to see the light of the soul, after removal of
the curtain of your egoism.
47. That felicitous state of the soul, which remains after dispersion
of the darkness of egoism; the same is the state of divine fullness,
and is to be adored with all diligence.
48. This state of the vast oceanlike and perfect fulness of soul,
which no words can express nor any eye can behold, is beyond all
comparison, and every colour of human attribution.
49. It is but a particle of the pure intellectual light, which gains
its stability in the devout spirit, and is then comparable with naught
beside the light of the Divinity, which shines before the internal
sight of the holy.
50. Though it is beyond all comparison, yet it is beheld by us to be in
the state of our sound sleep—_susupta_ (hypnotism), it is the state of
immensity, and is as extended as the vast extent of the firmament.
51. After extinction of egoism and the mental powers, and subsidence
of all the feelings in oneself; there arises a transcendent ecstasy in
the soul, which is styled the form of the divine or perfect joy and
blissness (paripúrnamánandam).
52. This blissful is attainable only by yoga meditation, and in the
hypnotism of sound sleep. It is not utterable by speech, O Ráma, but to
be perceived only in the heart.
53. The totality of the Divinity is perceived only by the percipience
of the mind, and by no categorial distinction of the divine essence;
without this intuitive percipience, we can have no conception of the
soul.
54. The knowledge of the soul, comprehends in itself the whole totality
and infinity together; and resides in the invariable steadiness of the
mind. It is by the shutting out the internal and external from the
senses and the mind, that the lord of lords, the divine soul appears to
our intelligence.
55. Hence follows the extinction of our desire of sensible objects,
and hence we derive the light of our supreme felicity; that we have an
even minded composure in all circumstances; which leads the souls of
the magnanimous, to revert to that inscrutable identity (which has no
convertibility in it).
CHAPTER LXV.
STORY OF BHÁSA AND VILÁSA.
Argument. Account the Lives and Actions of Bhása and Vilása or
the Sahya pupils.
Vasishtha continued:—As long as one does not come to perceive his
soul, by breaking down his mind of his own accord; and so long,
lotuseyed Ráma, one does not get rid of his egoism and meism (_i.e._,
selfishness).
2. There is no end of his worldly misery, as there is no setting of the
painted sun; and his adversity becomes as extended, as the vast ocean
itself.
3. His misfortunes are as interminable, as the succession of the waves
in the sea; and the appearance of the world is as gloomy to him, as the
face of the sky, covered by the dark clouds of the rainy season.
4. Here will I recite an old story, containing a discourse between two
friends Bhása and Vilása, in some region of the Sahya mountain.
5. Now this is a mountain mightier than the three worlds in his
superior strength. In his height he surmounted the sky, and in his
extent he got the better of the ground, and with his foot he reached
the infernal region.
6. It was fraught with various flowers, and furnished with innumberable
water falls; its precious stones were watched over by the Guhya
mountaineers, and named as Sahya or moderate being situated in the
temperate zone; yet it was intolerable as a tropic mountain (by the
intense heat on its top).
7. Its girdle of sun-stones, seemed to studded with pearls, by the
sloping beams of the sun falling upon them; and its base with its
pavement of gold, looked as the gold island (of Lanká).
8. Here a hill was full of flowers, and there another filled with
minerals; there were lakes with flowering water plants on one side, and
gemming stones lying on another.
9. Here the cascades were hurling and gurgling in foaming froths, and
there the old bamboos were blowing through their hollow pipes; on one
side the winds were howling in the mountain caves, and on another the
bees were buzzing on the clustering flowers.
10. The Apsaras were singing in concert on the mountain tops, and the
wild beasts were growling in the forests; there the birds were chirping
in the groves, and the clouds were roaring on the peaks of mountains,
while the birds of the air crying and flying about the sky.
11. The vidyádharas rested in the mountain grottos, and the black bees
were humming on the lotus beds; the border lands resounded with the
chorus of Keratás, and the woodlands were resonant with the melodies of
singing birds.
12. It appeared as the abode of the triple world, having the seats of
the gods on its top, the residence of men at its foot, and the holes of
snakes under its bottom.
13. There were the siddhas dwelling in its caverns, and precious metals
lying hid in its bosom; its sandal woods were the resort of snakes, and
its peaks were the haunts of lions.
14. It was crowned with wreaths of flowers hanging on high over its
head; and its body was besmeared with the dust and pollen of flowers;
it was fanned by the fragrant breeze of flowers, and was all flowery
with the fallen flowers.
15. It was daubed with the grey dust of its metallic ores, and stood on
its footstool of precious stones; it was often resorted to by heavenly
damsels, frequenting its bowers to cull the Mandára flowers.
16. Its peaks were veiled by the blue mantle of clouds, and decorated
with the gems hidden under them; they appeared as beauties beaming with
the golden beams of the sun, and rising to meet their loving gods in
heaven.
17. There was a table land on the northern edge of that mountain, which
was overhung by trees loaded with bunches of fruits, and also a gemming
lake, formed by the waters of cataracts falling from high.
18. The ground was strewn over with florets scattered by the waving
stalks of _amra_ trees; and its borders were decorated with the
blossoming _kolkara_ and _punnaga_ plants, shining as cerulean lotuses
about a lake.
19. The sun beams were shut out by the embowering alcoves of creepers,
and the ground sparkled with its gems like the floor of heaven; the
_Jambu_ fruits distilled their juice like the cooling moon beams, and
all these made this spot as delightful as the moon light sky.
20. It was as delightful as the heaven of Brahmá and the celestial seat
of Siva; and here the sage Atri held his hermitage which blotted away
the austerities of Siddhas.
21. In this hermitage there dwelt two hermits, both of whom were as
wise and knowing as Vrihaspati and Sukra—the preceptors of gods and
demigods.
22. They were both as of one flesh and soul, and brought forth in time
two boys, like two buds of lotuses growing in the same bed, and having
their bodies as pure as the limpid lake from which they sprang.
23. They were named Bhása and Vilása, who grew up in time like two
orchids, upon the branching arms of their parents.
24. They had one soul and mind in two bodies, which were united to one
another as those of two loving brothers, and intimate friends. They
remained in mutual union like the oil and seeds of sesamum, and as the
flower and its fragrance.
25. The fond parents were much more mutually attached in their hearts
and minds, owing to their joint care and affection for their lads, and
seemed as they were the one and same person in two different bodies.
26. The two boys of graceful forms, remained also pleased with one
another in the same hermitage; and moved about as two bees, over the
same bed of lotuses in the same lake.
27. They attained their youth after passing their boyhood and shone
forth in a short time, as the two luminaries of the sun and moon rising
together.
28. The aged parents then left their infirm bodies, and went to heaven
like a pair of birds quitting their broken nest. (Nest is in sanskrit
_nidas_, Lat. _nidus_. Plato compares the departing soul, to the flight
of a bird from its nest.)
29. The demise of the parents made the youths as dejected as the
drooping lotus in a dried-up channel; and the vigour of their bodies
now gave way to their want of energy.
30. They discharged the funeral rites, and remained long in their
mourning; under the sad accidents of life, which are unavertible even
by the good and great.
31. After performance of the obsequies, they were so overpowered by
their grief and sorrow, that they continued to wail over their memory
with piteous cries and tears. They sat silent and inactive as pictures
in a painting, with their melancholy countenances and hearts heavy with
sobs and sighs.
CHAPTER LXVI.
THE TRANSITORINESS OF LIFE AND EVANESCENCE OF WORLD BY THINGS.
Argument. Speech of Bhása, on the vain sorrows and griefs of
unenlightened Minds.
Vasishtha continued:—The two sorrowful hermits continued in the
observance of their rigorous austerities, until their bodies where
emaciated as two withered trees in the forest.
2. They passed their time with cool apathy in their minds in the
solitary forest; and were as helpless as stray stags separated from
each other, and wandering afar from their home and possessions.
3. They passed their days and nights, and months and years in this
manner; until both of them were worn out by age, like two withered
trees in a valley (having nobody to take notice of them).
4. Not attaining to true knowledge, their austerities served only to
shatter their frames, and reduce their strength; till at last they
happened to meet one another, and betook to their conversation in the
following manner.
5. Vilása said:—O Bhása, that art the best fruit of the tree of my
life, that hast thy seat in the recess of my heart, and art a sea of
ambrosia to me, I welcome thee, O my best friend in this world.
6. Tell me my good friend, how and where you passed so long a time,
after your separation from me; and whether your austerities have been
successful to be rewarded with their fruit.
7. Tell me whether thy mind is freed from anxieties, and whether thou
art in possession of thy self (_i.e._ self-possessed by knowledge of
thy soul). Say, hast thou obtained the reward of thy learning, and hast
thou after all, got thy peace and quiet.
8. Being thus addressed and asked by Vilása, whose mind was troubled
amidst the vexations of this world; Bhása who had attained to
consummate knowledge, replied to him as respectfully as a friend doth
to his dearest friend.
9. Bhása replied:—O good friend! you are fortunately and happily met
here this day; but how can we expect to have our peace and rest so long
as we have to remain in this world of strife and vale of misery.
10. How can I have my rest so long, as the turbulent passions are not
subdued in my breast; and until I can know the knowable (the unknown
one that is only worth knowing); and till I can get across this sea of
the world.
11. How can we have our quiet, as long as our desires and hopes and
fears continue to infest in our minds; and until we can weed them out,
like thorns and brambles of bushes, with the spade of our reason.
12. Until we can gain true knowledge, and have the evenness of our
minds; and until we can have a full knowledge of things, we can have no
rest in us.
13. Without the knowledge of the soul and acquisition of true
knowledge, which is the greatest remedy against all diseases of the
mind, it is impossible to escape from the pestilence of the world.
14. The poisonous plant of worldliness, sprouts forth in our childhood;
it shoots out in its leaves in our youth, it flowers in our old age,
and never fructifies before our death. (We live to long after the fruit
best never to earn it).
15. The body decays as a withered tree, and our relatives flutter as
bees over it; old age overtakes us with its blossoming grey hairs, and
produces the fruit of death.
16. We have to reap the bitter fruits of our actions of bygone times,
which are laid up in store, and fructify in their seasons; and thus
years upon years glide upon us, in the same monotonous rotation of
business, and the sad tenor of our minds.
17. This tall body of ours, rising as a thief on the ground, has all
its inner cells and caves, filled with the thorns of our cravings; it
is the abode of the serpentine train of our actions, emitting the
poison of continuous woe in our repeated transmigrations in new bodies.
18. See how our days and nights are rolling on, in their circuit of
continued misery and misfortune, which are misconstrued by men for
transient joy and good fortune.
19. See how our lives are spent, in useless pursuits after objects of
our vain wishes; and how we misspend our time with trifles, that are of
no good to us.
20. The furious elephant of the ungoverned mind, breaks loose from its
fetters of good sense; and then joining with the elephants of wild
desire, ranges at large without rest or sleep.
21. The bawling tongue sets on screaming, as a vulture in the hollow of
the tree of human body; and fosters itself by feeding on the gems of
thought (_chintámani_), lying hidden in it. (The talkative fool is no
thoughtful man).
22. The slackened limbs of the old and withered body, drop down like
the dry leaves of trees; and there is nothing to prop up the drooping
spirit, from its decay and decline day by day.
23. The brightness of the body flies away in old age, and the mind
dejected at the disregard of every body, becomes as pale and withered,
as the lotus flower fades away under the frost.
24. As the channel of the body dries up in old age, and the water of
youth is drained out of it; so the swan of life flies away far from it,
and there is nothing to retard its flight.
25. The old and time worn tree of the aged body, is overpowered by the
force of the blasts of time; which blast its leaves and flowers (like
human hopes) below, and then buries them all underneath the ground. (So
says the Persian poet: Ai basá haus ke báz mandá, oai basá arzu ke khák
shuda).
26. As the serpent of desire lies dormant in the heart, (for want of
overtaking its prey in old age); it is content like the croaking frog,
to hold its complaints in the mouth; and the mind like a monster, hides
itself in the pool of dark despondence.
27. Our desires with their various wishes, are as the variegated flags
of temples, furling and fluttering in all directions, till they are
hurled down by the hurricane old age.
28. The world is a long linked chain, lying in the depth of eternity;
wherein the rat of death is always busy in gnawing down the knot of
life at the root.
29. The stream of life glides muddily on, with the foam and froth
of cares and anxieties; there are the whirlpools of repeated
transmigrations, and the waves of youthful levities, which are as
boisterous as they are dangerous.
30. The stream of our actions on earth, flows on interminably, with
the billows of our worldly duties, and the various arts of life, all
leading to the abyss of perdition.
31. The current of our friends and relations, and the concourse of
people, glide on incessantly to the deep and boundless ocean of
eternity; from whose bourne no body ever returns to life.
32. The body is a valuable instrument, for the discharge of our worldly
duties; but it is soon lost under the mud of this ocean of the world,
and no body knows where it is buried in its repeated births.
33. The mind is bound to the wheel of its anxieties, and put to the
rack for its misleads; it revolves all along as a straw, in the eddy of
this ocean of the world.
34. The mind dances and floats, over the waves of the endless duties of
life; it has not a moment’s respite from its thoughts, but continues to
oscillate with the action of the body, and rise and fall according to
the course of events.
35. The mind like a bewildered bird, flutters between its various
thoughts, of what it has done, what it is doing and what it is about to
do; and is thus caught in the trap of its own fancies for evermore.
36. The thoughts that this one is my friend, and the other one is my
foe, are our greatest enemies in this world; and these tear my heart
strings like the rough wind, that tears the tender lotus leaves and
fibres. (It is wrong to take one for a friend or foe whom we do not
know, and with whom we have no concern).
37. The mind is overwhelmed in the whirlpool of its cares; it is
sometimes hurled down to the bottom, and at others floating upon and
loosened from it like a living fish caught by angling hook.
38. The belief of the external body for the internal self, is the
cause of all our woe herein; and so the taking of others as our own is
equally for our misery.
39. All mankind placed between their weal and woe in life, are swept
away to age and death; as the leaves of trees growing on high hills,
are scattered by the high winds of heaven.
CHAPTER LXVII.
ABANDONMENT OF INTRINSIC RELATIONS.
Argument. Refutation of the Intimate Relation of the Body and
Soul. This relation is the Bondage and its abandonment the
Release of the soul.
Vasishtha continued:—Having thus accosted and welcomed each other, the
two brothers applied themselves to the acquisition of divine knowledge;
and gained thereby their liberation in the living state (of Jívan
mukta).
2. I will now tell, O strong armed Ráma! that there is no salvation for
the enslaved mind, without true knowledge of Divinity.
3. Know, O Ráma of polished understanding! that this world of endless
woes, is as easily traversed by the intelligent, as the wide ocean is
crossed over by the bird of Jove, though it is impossible for any other
bird to do so.
4. The great soul is without and lies beyond the body: it is situated
in its own intellect, and looks on the body from a distance, as a
beholder beholds a concourse of people (without him).
5. The body being pulled down by decay and disease, does not affect us
any more, than the coach being broken, there is no injury done to the
rider.
6. The mind also when it is depressed and dejected, does not affect the
understanding, as the moving waves which ruffle the surface of the sea,
do not perturb the waters of the deep.
7. What relation do the swans bear to the waters of the lake, and what
relativity is there between the pebbles and stones of the sea and its
waters; so the blocks of wood borne by the current are no way related
to the waters of the stream; and in the like manner no object of sense
has any relation with the supreme soul.
8. Tell me, O fortunate Ráma! what correlation is there between a rock
and the sea? The rock verily puts no obstruction to the internal
current of the sea; so none of these worlds can stop the course of
the Divine Mind (as there is nothing which can bind the subtle and
immeasurable sky).
9. What relation do the lotuses bear upon the waters of a stream, than
that of their being contained in the bosom of their containing waters:
so are all solid bodies related as contents with the all containing
Divine soul.
10. As the concussion of a log with a body of waters, is attended with
the effusion of watery particles around; so the contact of the body and
soul, is productive of the various affections of the mind.
11. As the contiguity of a bordering tree, produces its shadow in the
waters below; so the proximity of all objects to the soul, reflects
their images in the mind.
12. As the reflexions of things in a mirror or watery glass, and in
the swelling waves of the sea, are neither real nor unreal; so the
reflexions in the soul, are neither substantial nor unsubstantial, (but
adscititious and extrinsic only).
13. As the breaking of a tree or rock by the howling winds, does not
affect the wind at all; so the union or separation of the elemental
substance, and component parts of a body, makes no alteration in the
soul.
14. As the falling of a tree in the water, produces a vibratory sound
in it; so the contact of the body and soul, produces a vibration in the
intellectual organs (the recipients of all impressions).
15. But these impressions have no relation either with the pure and
simple soul, nor with the gross body (neither of which is concerned
with them). All these are but the delusions of our erroneous knowledge,
at the absence of which we have the transparent intellect only.
16. As one has no notion of the manner of connection, between the wood
and the water (which nourishes it); so no body has any knowledge, how
the body is united with the soul.
17. As the world appears a reality to the non-intelligent, so it
appears a substantial entity, to those who are ignorant of truth.
18. They that are devoid of their internal percipience of moisture in
wood and stone, resemble the worldly minded materialist, having the
knowledge of external objects only.
19. As those devoid of their intuitive knowledge, find no difference
in the wood and water; so they believe the body and the soul to be the
same thing, and do not know their irrelation and unconnection with one
another.
20. As the relation of wood and water, is imperceptible to them that
have no intellection; so are they unacquainted with the irrelation
between the soul and body, owing to their want of intuition.
21. The soul is purely conscious of itself in all places, and without
any objective knowledge of anything at all; nor is it liable to the
erroneous knowledge of a duality also.
22. The bliss of the soul is converted to misery, by its false
apprehension of unrealities; as when one comes in sight of an
apparition, by his false imagination of a ghost.
23. Things quite irrelevant become relevant, by our internal conviction
of their relevancy; as our sight and apprehension of thieves in our
dreams, and the appearance of a demoniac spectre in a block of wood.
24. As the relation between the wood and water is altogether unreal;
so the correlation between the soul and body, is wholly false and
unsubstantial.
25. As the water is not troubled, without the falling of the tree into
it; so the soul is not disturbed, without its thoughts of the body: and
the soul freed from its connection with the body, is free from all the
maladies and miseries, which the flesh is heir to.
26. The misconception of the body as the soul, makes the soul subject
to all the imperfections and infirmities of the body; as the limpid
water of the lake is soiled, by the leaves and twigs, that are seen to
float upon it.
27. Absence of the intrinsic relation of external things with the
internal soul, liberates it from all the casualties in the course of
things; but the presence of extraneous associations, makes the internal
soul as turbid water, by reason of the mess of the leaves and foul
things and fruit and flowers, continually falling upon it.
28. The soul freed from its innate knowledge of the objective, is
wholly absolved from misery; while the knowledge of its connection with
the body, senses and the mind, is the mainspring of all its woes.
29. The internal connection of the externals, is the seed of all the
evils of men in this world, and brings forth all the pain and sorrow
and errors of mankind.
30. The man that is internally connected with the externals, sinks deep
under the load of his connexions in the depth of this earth, but he who
is aloof from his internal relations, floats above the surface of this
sea, and rises aloft in air as an aerial being.
31. The mind with its internal bearings, is as an arbor with the
hundred ramifications; but the mind with its wants of internal
relations, is said to have faded and grown extinct.
32. The mind unattached to the world is as a pure crystal, without any
shade of colour in it; but the mind that is attached to the world, is
as a prismatic glass with all the colours of the rainbow.
33. The unattached and untinged mind is said to be set at liberty,
though it is set at work in the world; but the mind which though it is
attached to the world, is said to be unattached, if it is thoughtless
of it, though it is practiced to austerities.
34. The mind attached to the world, is said to be bound to it; but that
which is detached from it, is said to be set free from it. It is the
internal attachment and detachment of the mind, that are the causes of
its bondage and liberation.
35. The unworldly minded persons, are not tied down to the earth by
their worldly actions; it remains aloof from all its actions, as a
floating vessel remains aloft of the sweet and salt waters of the lake
beneath it. (The spiritual man is above his bodily actions).
36. It is the tendency of the mind, that makes a man master of an
action, which he has not actually done; as the delusion of the mind
in dreaming, makes one feel the pleasure and pain of his pleasing
and unpleasing dreams. (It is the mind and mental action, that
differentiate the rational man from the body and bodily actions of an
irrational beast, brute or bird).
37. The activity of the mind gives activity to the body also, as the
action of the mind in dreaming, gives motion to the inert body of the
sleeping man (as in somnambulism and the somniloquy).
38. Inactivity of the mind, causes the inaction of the body; and
though it should act by its physical force, yet the insane mind is not
sensible of the action (nor is an idiot or madman responsible for his
deeds).
39. Man gets the retribution of his actions done with his mind; and not
of those that pass beyond his knowledge. The inert body is never the
cause of an action, nor the mind is ever joined with the living body,
as an automaton or self-moving machine, or like a clock or watch, the
spring of whose action lies in itself. But the body requires the action
of the mind, to put that animal force into motion.
40. The mind unattending to an action of the body, is never considered
as its agent (as it is never said to be the agent of breathing, which
is a spontaneous action of the living body). No reward of any action
ever accrues to one, that is not engaged in the doing of that action.
41. The man not intentionally employed in the sacrifice of a horse or
slaughter of a Bráhman, neither reaps the good of the one, nor incurs
the guilt of the other; and so the minds of distracted lovers are never
aware of the results of their own deeds. (The killing of a Bráhman with
the idea of his being an aggressor, does not amount to Bráhmicide; and
so the acts of the lovelorn Indráhalyá and Vikramorvasi, are taken into
no account).
42. One free from his intrinsic relation (or interest) with anything,
is most agreeable to all by his elevated demeanour; and whether he acts
and neglects his part, he remains indifferent and neutral to both. (It
is the deliberate choice, and not the unheeded action that constitutes
the deed).
43. No agency is attached to the man whose action is involuntary, and
whose mind is released from its internal attachment to anything.
It is the unconcerned indifference of the mind, that is attended with
its composure; while its careful concern for anything whatsoever, is
fraught with its vexation only.
44. Therefore, avoid your internal concern for anything, that thou
knowest to be but externally related to thee; and release thyself from
the mortification of the loss to all external relations.
45. The mind being cleared of the foulness of its internal relation
with the externals, acquires the pellucidness of the cloudless
firmament; and after clearance of all dirt and dross from within, the
mind becomes one with the soul; like a bright gem shining with double
effulgence with the lustre of a luminary, or like a blue streamlet,
receiving the cerulean hue of the azure sky.
CHAPTER LXVIII.
INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE OF INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL RELATIONS.
Argument. The Relativity of the body or mind, either externally
or internally with any object, is the cause of its woe and misery.
Ráma said:—Tell me, sir, what are those connexions which become the
bondages of men, and how are they to be avoided; as also what is that
congeniality that leads to their emancipation here.
2. Vasishtha answered:—The division of Unity into the duality of
the body and soul (whose body nature is, and God the Soul); and the
rejection of the latter part—the soul (under the idea of its being
assimilated to body); produce the misbelief in the body only, and is
called the association of bondage (_i.e._, binding the soul to the
body, and subjecting it thereby to repeated transmigrations in various
embodied forms, from which it can never fly away to its etherial
element).
3. Again the consideration of the infinite soul as a finite being, and
confined in the limited confines of the body (under the impression of
its being seated in the heart, and becoming extinct with it) leads to
the bondage of the soul (to sensual gratifications).
4. But the conviction “that this whole cosmos is the self-same soul, and
therefore we have nothing to choose or reject in it beside the very
soul”, is termed the unrelated condition of the mind, which is settled
in the supreme-self only, and this state is known under the title of
living liberation _jívanmukti_ (which has its connexion with naught,
but with one’s self only, which is the universal soul of all).
5. The unattached and self-liberated man thus speaks in himself
that:—“Neither do I exist nor are these others in existence: let aught
of good or evil, pleasure or pain befal unto me, but I am not to be
changed in any condition of life.”
6. He is said to be the unattracted or undistracted and self-devoted
(stoic); who neither fosters his desires, nor hankers after things, nor
continues in his actions at all times of his life.
7. The self-devoted man, whose mind is not subject to the feelings of
joy and sorrow, and is indifferent to worldly matters (whether good or
bad), is verily said to be liberated in his lifetime.
8. He whose mind is not solicitous about the results of his actions,
but takes them lightly as they come to pass upon him; such a man is
said to be listless and lukewarm in his mind (that sets no worth on any
worldly thing).
9. All our efforts impelled by various motives, are avoided by our
indifference to those pursuits; and this unconcernedness about worldly
matters, is productive of our greatest good (in this world and in the
next).
10. It is by reason of our concern with many things, that we load
innumerable distresses upon ourselves; and all worldly cares serve only
to multiply the growing ills of life, like the branching thorny bushes
in the caves.
11. It is the effect of worldly attachment, which drives silly men to
labour under their heavy burdens; as the dastardly donkeys are dragged
by their nose-strings, to trudge and drudge under their loads, in their
long and lonesome journeys. (It is on the part of the earthly minded,
to toil and moil in the earth, from whence they rose, and whither they
must return).
12. It is one’s attachment to his home and country, that makes him
stand like an immovable tree on the spot; and endure all the rigours
of heat and cold, of winds and rains without shrinking (or thinking to
change his place for a happier region).
13. See the reptiles confined in the caves of earth, with their
weak bodies and tortuous movements; to be the instances of earthly
attachment, and passing their time in pain and agony, and in a state of
continual helplessness.
14. See the poor birds resting on the tops of trees, and whining
their while with cries of their empty stomachs, and constant fear (of
hunters), as instances of worldly attachment (which prevents them from
flying away).
15. Observe the timorous fawn of the lawn, grazing on the tender blades
of grass, and dreading the darts of the huntsman, to serve as another
instance of earthly leaning.
16. The transformation of men to worms and insects in their repeated
transmigrations; and the congregation of all these animals of all kinds
in all places, are but instances of their earthly fondness (ever to
abide in it, and bide all its miseries).
17. The multitudes of animal beings, that you see to rise and fall like
the waves of the sea, are all the effects of their worldly attachment.
18. The selfmoving man becomes immovable, and turns to the state
of fixed trees and plants; and thus grows and dies by turns, in
consequence of his worldly propensities.
19. The grass, the shrubs and the creepers, which grow on earth from
the moisture of the earth; are all products of the cause of their
addictedness to the world.
20. These endless trains of beings, that are borne away in this running
stream of the world, and are buffeting in their ever-increasing
difficulties, are all the sports of their earthly inclinations.
21. Worldly affections are of two kinds—the praiseworthy and the
fruitless ones; those of the wise and learned men, belong to the
former kind; but the tendencies of the ignorant, are of the latter or
unfruitful kind.
22. Any tendency to this world, which springs from the base bodily and
mental affections, and does not proceed from or bears its relation with
spiritual motives and purposes, are said to be quite fruitless (of any
good result).
23. But that tendency, which has its origin in spiritual knowledge, and
in true and right discrimination, and bears no relation to anything
that is of this world, but leads to one’s future and spiritual welfare,
is the truely laudable one (because the desire to rise higher tends to
make one a higher being).
24. The god holding the emblems of the conch-shell, his discus and the
club, had various inclinations of this better kind, whereby he became
the support of the three worlds (the god Vishnu).
25. It is by means of this good tendency, that the glorious sun makes
his daily course, in the unsupported path of heaven for ever more.
26. The god Brahmá, that now shines in his fiery form, had for a whole
_kalpa_ age, to foster his project of creation; and it was owing to
this laudable purpose of his, that he became the creator of the world.
(The world was not made in a day, but took many ages for its formation).
27. It was because of this kind of praiseworthy purpose, that the god
Siva acquired his bipartite body of the androgyne, graced by the female
form of Umá, linked with his as its other half. (In Siva-Isha; we have
the androgynous form of Adam-Ish or man, and in Umá that of Eve or
_woman_, linked together before their separation. God made woman out of
man and from a rib of his on the left side).
28. The Siddhas and other heavenly and aerial beings, and the regents
of the skies, that move in their spiritual spheres of intelligence,
have all attained their high positions by means of their laudable
tendencies.
29. They bear their bodies of heavenly growth (_i.e._ of a celestial
nature); and have set themselves beyond the reach of disease, decay and
death, by means of their praiseworthy inclinations.
30. The fruitless desire, expects to derive pleasure from unworthy
objects, and causes the mind to pounce like a vulture on a bit of flesh
(that will not fill its gizzard).
31. It is the force of habit, that makes the winds to blow in their
wonted course, and causes the five elements to continue in their usual
states, in support of the order of nature.
32. This Sansakti constitutes the constitution of the system of nature;
which is composed of the heavens, earth and infernal regions; peopled
by gods, men, demons &c., who are like gnats fluttering about the fruit
of the mundane fig tree.
33. Here are seen numberless orders of beings; to be born and rise and
fall and die away; like the ceaseless waves of the sea; rising for
falling.
34. The results of worldly leanings rise and fall by turns, until they
disappear all at once. They are as bitter as the drops of waterfalls
are to taste.
35. It is mere worldliness, which makes these crowds of men devour one
another like sharks and fishes; and they are so infatuated by their
ignorance, that they have been flying about like stray leaves of trees
in the air.
36. It is this which makes men rove about, like revolving stars in
their courses in the sky; and flutter about as flights of gnats upon
fig trees; or to lie low like the whirling waters of eddies underneath
the ground.
37. Men are tossed as the play balls of boys, by the hands of fate and
death; and are worn out like these toys, by their incessant rise and
fall and rolling upon the ground; yet these worrying wanderings, do not
abate the force of their habitual motion, as the repeated waste and
wane of the ever-changing moon, makes no change in the blackish spot
marked upon her disk.
38. The mind is hardened by seeing the miseries of the repeated
revolutions of ages, resembling the rotations of fragments of wood in
whirlpools; and yet the gods will not deign to heal the stiff boil of
the mind, by any operation in their power.
39. Behold, O Ráma! this wonderful frame of the universe, to be the
production of the desire of the divine Mind only. (_i.e._ The divine
will of creation, is the cause of this world, as the human wish of
seeing it, presents its view to his sight).
40. It is the pleasure of association, that presents this view of the
triple world, in the empty sphere of the mind; for know the wondrous
world to be a creation of the mind only, and nothing in reality. (The
pleasure of association, means the pleasure of memory or reminiscence).
41. The avarice of worldly men eats up their bodies, as the flame of
fire feeds upon dry fuel. (_i.e._ In order to feed the body, we become
the food of our toils).
42. Yet the bodies of worldly minded men, are as countless as the sands
of the sea; and these again are as unnumbered as the atoms of earth
which nobody can count.
43. It may be possible to count the hoary foams of Gangá, and the
pearly froths of sea waves; it is likewise possible to measure the
height of mount Meru, from its foot to the top and its peaks; but not
so to number the desires in the minds of worldly minded men.
44. These rows of inner apartments, which are built for the abode of
the worldly minded, are as the lines of Kála Sutra and the spires of
hell-fire.
45. Know these worldly men to be as dry fuel, heaped up to light the
piles of hell-fire.
46. Know all things in this world, to be full of pain and misery; and
are stored up not for enjoyment but torments of the worldly minded.
47. The minds of all worldly men are the receptacles of all woe and
misery; as the great sea is the recess of the outpourings of all rivers.
48. The mind which is attached to the world, and the body which is bent
down under its toilsome loads; are both of them the fields for the
exercise of Ignorance, which elevates and depresses them by turns.
49. Want of attachment to worldly enjoyments, is productive of ease
and prosperity; and it expands the capacity of the mind, as the rains
increase the extent of rivers.
50. Inward attachment of the mind to worldly objects, is the burning
flame of the outer body; but want of this internal attachment, is the
healing balm of the whole frame.
51. Inward attachment burns the outward body, as the hidden poisonous
plant infects the creepers, which recline on it for their support.
52. The mind which is unattached to everything in all places, is like
the lofty sky aloof from all things; and by having no desire in it, it
is always clear and bright, and enjoys its felicity for ever.
53. As the light of knowledge rises before the sight of the mind,
the darkness of ignorance which veiled all objects, wastes away of
itself and is put to flight. The man who is devoid of all sorts of
worldly attachments, and lives in communion with his own mind, is truly
liberated in his life.
CHAPTER LXIX.
FREEDOM FROM ATTACHMENT—THE ROAD TO TRANQUILLITY.
Argument. Abstraction of the mind from the external, and its
Application to Intellectual objects.
Vasishtha continued:—Though remaining in all company, and doing all
the duties of life; and although employed in all the acts; yet the wise
man watches the movements of his mind.
2. It is not to be engaged in cares of this world, nor employed in
thoughts or things relating to this life; It is not to be fixed in the
sky above or the earth below; nor let to wander about over the objects
on all sides.
3. It must not roam over the extensive field of outward enjoyments,
nor dwell on the objects and actions of the senses. It must not look
internally, nor be fixed to the breathing, the palate and crown of the
head. (Which are certain modes of Yoga practice).
4. It must not be attached to the eye brows, the tip of the nose, the
mouth or the pupil of the eye; nor should it look into the light or
darkness, or into the cavity of the heart.
5. It must not think of its waking or dreaming states, nor those of
its sound sleep or internal clearness of sight; nor should it take any
colour as white, red, black or yellow for the object of its thought or
sight.
6. It must not be fixed on any moving or unmoving substance, nor set in
the beginning, middle or end of any object. It must not take a distant
or adjacent object either before or inside itself.
7. It must not reflect on any tangible or audible object, nor on
the states of felicity and insensibility. It must not think of the
fleetness or fastness nor the measurement of time, by the measure and
number of its thoughts.
8. Let it rest on the intellect only, with a slight intelligence of
itself; and taste of no joy except that of its self-delight.
9. Being in this state of mind, and devoid of all attachment to any
thing, the living man becomes as a dead body; when he is at liberty to
pursue his worldly callings or not.
10. The living being that is attached to the thought of itself, is said
to be doing and acting though it refrains from doing anything; and it
is then as free from the consequence of acts, as the sky is free from
the shade of the clouds that hang below it.
11. Or it may forsake its intelligential part (_i.e._ forget its
intelligence), and become one with the mass of the Intellect itself.
The living soul thus becomes calm and quiet in itself and shines with
as serene a light, as a bright gem in the mine or quarry.
12. The soul being thus extinct in itself, is said to rise in the
sphere of the Intellect; and the animal soul continuing in its acts
with an unwilling mind, is not subjected to the results of the actions
in its embodied state.
CHAPTER LXX.
PERFECT BLISS OF LIVING LIBERATION.
Argument. Living Liberation and its constituents or _Jívan mukti_.
Vasishtha continued:—Men whose souls are expanded and contented with
the delight of their habitual unattachment to worldliness; have set
themselves above the reach of internal sorrow and fear, notwithstanding
their engagement in worldly affairs.
2. And though overtaken by inward sorrow (owing to some temporal
loss); yet their countenances are unchanged owing to the uninterrupted
train of their meditation; and the fulness of their hearts with holy
delight, is manifest in the moonlike lustre of their faces.
3. He whose mind is freed from the feverishness of the world, by his
reliance in the intellect, and remaining apart from the objects of
intellection; throws a lustre over his associates, as the clearing
_kata_ fruit, purifies the water wherein it is put.
4. The wiseman, though he may be moving about in busy affairs, is yet
ever quiet in the abstraction of his soul from them. He may be assailed
by outward sorrow, yet his inward soul shines as an image of the sun.
5. Men of great souls, who are awakened and enlightened by knowledge,
and raised high above the rest of mankind, are wavering on their
outside as a peacock’s feather (_i.e._, as a weather cock); but
inwardly they are as firm as mountainous rocks.
6. The mind being subjected to the soul, is no more susceptible of the
feelings of pain and pleasure, than as a piece of painted glass, to
receive the shadow of any other colour, (or an opaque stone to reflect
any colour).
7. The man of elevated mind, who has known the nature of superior and
inferior souls (_i.e._, the divine and human spirits); is not affected
by the sight of the visibles, any more than the lotus leaf, by the hue
of its encompassing waters.
8. It is impossible to evade the impressions of the outer world, until
and unless the mind is strengthened in itself. It becomes strong by its
knowledge of the Supreme Spirit, removing the foulness of its fancied
objects, and by meditation and enjoyment of the light of the soul, even
when the mind is not in its meditative mood.
9. It is by means of Spiritual communion and internal rapture, that the
mind loses its attachments; and it is only by knowledge of the soul and
in no other way, that our worldly associations wear out of themselves.
10. The waking soul may deem itself to be in sound sleep, by its
sleeping over (or insensibility of) the outer world; as it may likewise
deem itself to be ever awake and never asleep, by its sight of the
unfading light of the soul; and by preservation of its equanimity
and equality in all circumstances, and its want of duality and
differentiation of the objects of its love and hatred.
11. Being ripe in its practice of yoga meditation, it sees in itself
the pure light of the sun; until at last it finds its own and the
supreme soul, shining as the sun and moon in conjunction.
12. The mind losing its mental powers, and remaining vacant as in
the case of distraction or dementedness; is said to be in its waking
sleepiness, when its faculty in imagination is at an utter stop.
13. The man having attained to this state _susupta_ hypnotism, may live
to discharge the duties of his life; but he will not be liable to be
dragged about by the rope of his weal or woe, to one side or the other.
14. Whatever actions are done by the waking man, in his hypnotic
state in this world, they do not recur to him with their good or evil
results, anymore than a dancing puppet, to have the sense of any
pleasure or pain in it. (The want of egoism in a man as in a doll, is
the cause of his impassivity in either state) (of waking or sleep).
15. The mind possesses the pains-giving power, of giving us the
perception of our pain and pleasure, and the sense of our want and
bitter sorrow; but when the mind is assimilated with the soul, how can
it have the power of annoying us anymore?
16. The man in the hypnotic state of his mind, does his works as
insensibly as he did them in his sleep; and by reason of no exertion on
his part, for his doing them from his former and habitual practice. The
living soul that is insensible of its actions, is said to rest in his
state of living liberation.
17. Do you rely in this state of hypnotism, and either perform or
refrain from your actions as you may like: for our actions are no more
than what arise of our nature, and pass for the results of the deeds of
our past lives, and are enacted by ordinances of eternal laws.
18. The wise man is neither pleased with the acts of charity or penury;
he is delighted with his knowledge of the soul, and lives content with
whatever may fall to his lot.
19. All that you do with your mind, by remaining as still as in your
sleep, is reckoned as no doing of yours; and though doing nothing with
your body, you are the doer thereof if you do it with your mind. Do
therefore your acts with your body or mind as you may like.
20. As the baby lying in the cradle, moves its limbs to no other
purpose than its mere pleasure; so Ráma, do your duties for pleasure’s
sake (as a labour of love), and not for reward.
21. Whoever has his mind fixed in his intellect, and not in any object
of intellection, and remains dormant in his waking state; is said to be
master of his soul, and all he does is reckoned as no deed of his doing.
22. The wiseman (Gno or Gnostic), who obtains the state of
hypnotism—_Susupta_, and has his mind free from desires; gets a calm
coolness within himself, which is equal to the cooling moisture of the
humid moon.
23. The man of great valour, remains coolly dormant in himself, and is
as full as the orb of the moon in the fulness of her digits; and has
the evenness of his mind, like the steadiness of a hill at all times
and seasons.
24. The man of the sedate soul, is pliable in his outer conduct, though
he is inflexible in his mind. He resembles a mountain, which waves its
trees with the breeze, without shaking or being shook by it.
25. The hypnotism of the mind purifies the body of all its impurity;
and it is the same whether such a person perishes sooner or later, or
lasts forever as a rock. (Because its purity is its strong shield,
against the power and torments of life and death).
26. This state of hypnotism, being acquired by constant practice of
Yoga, gets its maturity and perfections in process of time; when it is
called the _turíya_ or fourth stage of the adept, by the learned in
divine knowledge.
27. He becomes the most exalted gnostic, whose mind is cleared of all
its impurity; and whose inward soul is full of joy, with its mental
powers all quiet and at rest.
28. In this state, the gnostic is in full rapture, and quite giddy with
inward delight. He looks upon the whole creation as an exhibition of
play and pageantry.
29. After the man who has attained his fourth stage, when he is freed
from sorrow and fear, and has passed beyond the errors and troubles of
this world; he has no fear of falling from this state.
30. The man of sedate understanding, who has attained this holy state,
laughs to scorn and spurn at the whirling orb of the earth; as one
sitting on a high hill, derides at the objects lying below it.
31. After one has obtained his everlasting position, in this firmly
fixed fourth state of blissfulness; he becomes joyless for want of a
higher state of felicity to desire.
32. The yogi having past his fourth stage, reaches to a state of
ineffable joy, which has no part nor degree in it, and is absolute
liberation in itself.
33. The man of great soul, is released from the snare of the
metempsychoses of his soul, and of his repeated birth and death, and is
freed from the darkness of his pride and egoism; he is transformed to
an essence of supreme ecstasy and pure flavour, and becomes as a mass
of sea salt, amidst the waters of the deep.
CHAPTER LXXI.
A DISCOURSE ON THE BODY, MIND AND SOUL.
Argument. Consideration of the Soul in its Various lights, and
its Irrelation with the body.
Vasishtha continued:—The consideration of the fourth stage, is
attended with the knowledge of monoity or oneness of all; and this is
the province of the living liberated man according to the dicta of the
veda. (Consideration or _parámarsha_ is defined as a logical antecedent
or knowledge of a general principle, combined with the knowledge that
the case in question is one to which it is applicable; as the smoke of
the hill is attended by fire, is a logical antecedent. In plain words
it means, that the _Turíya_ yoga, presupposes the knowledge of unity or
onliness of the one self-existent _Kaivalya_ or monism).
2. Rising above this to the turyality or hyperquartan state, in
which one sees nothing but an inane vacuity. This is the state of
disembodied spirits, that are lost in infinity, and of whom the sástras
can say nothing. (_i.e._ The embodied or living soul has knowledge of
its personality, up to the fourth stage of its elevation; but the
disembodied or departed soul, that is liberated after death, and
becomes (Videha mukta), grows as impersonal as the undistinguishable
vacuum).
3. This state of quiet rest, lies afar from the farthest object; and
is attained by those who are liberated of their bodies; just as the
aerial path is found only by aerial beings. (The spheres of spirits are
unknown to embodied beings).
4. After a man has forgotten the existence of the world, for sometime
in his state of sound sleep; he gains the fourth state of _turíya_,
which is full of felicity and rapture.
5. The manner in which the spiritualists have come to know the
superquartan state, should also be followed by you, O Ráma, in order to
understand that unparalleled state of felicity which attends upon it.
6. Remain, O Ráma, in your state of hypnotism—_Susupta_, and continue
in your course of worldly duties even in that state; so as your mind
like the moon in painting may not be subject to its waning phases, nor
be seized by any alarm (like the threatening eclipses of the moon).
7. Do not think that the waste or stability of your body, can affect
the state of your intellect; because the body bears no relation with
the mind, and is but an erroneous conception of the brain.
8. Although the body is nothing, yet it must not be destroyed by any
means; because you gain nothing by destroying it, nor lose anything by
its firmness; but remain in the continuance of your duties, and leave
the body to go on in its own wonted course.
9. You have known the truth—that God presides over the world; you
have understood the Divine nature in all its three-fold states; you
have attained your true state of spirituality, and are freed from your
worldly sorrows.
10. You have got rid of your liking and disliking what you desire or
despise, and are graced with the cooling light of your reason; you have
got out of the dark cloud of prejudice, and have become as graceful as
the autumnal sky with the lustre of the full moon (of your intellect)
shining over it.
11. Your mind has got its self-possession, and does not lower itself
to meaner things; it has become as perfect as those, that are
accomplished in their devotion (namely in the observance of yoga and
its austerities), so that you would not deign to stoop to earth from
that higher sphere.
12. This is the region of the pure and uniform intellect, having no
bounds to it, nor are there the false landmarks of “I, and thou, this
and that, mine and thine” and such like errors.
13. This Divine Intellect is attributed with the imaginary title of
_Átmá_ (atmos or self) for general use; or else there is no occasion
of the distinction of names and forms, with that being who is quite
distinct from all.
14. As the sea is a vast body of water, with its waves of the same
element, and no way different from it; so is all this plenum composed
of the pure soul, and this earth and water are no other than itself.
15. As you see nothing in the ocean, except the vast body of water;
so you find nothing in the sphere of the universe, except the one
universal soul.
16. Say O ye intelligent man, what is it to which you apply the terms
yourself, itself and the like; what is it that you call yourself and
to belong to you, and what is that other which is not yourself, nor
belongs to you.
17. There being no duality beside the only soul, there can be no
material body at all; nor is there any relation between this and that,
than there is between the light of the sun and the gloom of night.
18. Supposing the existence of a duality, yet I will tell you, O Ráma,
that the existence of material bodies, bears no relation with the
spiritual soul.
19. As light and shade and darkness and sunshine, bear no relation to
one another; so the embodied soul has no connection with the body (in
which it is thought to reside).
20. As the two contraries—cold and hot can never combine together, so
the body and soul can never join with one another.
21. As the two opposites can have no relation between them, so is it
with the body and soul, the one being dull matter, and the other an
intelligent principle.
22. The dictum of the connection of the body with the pure intellect
of the soul is as improbable as the subsistence of a sea in a
conflagration (_i.e._, the impossibility of the meeting of water and
wild fire).
23. The sight of truth, removes every false appearance; as the
knowledge of light in the sandy desert, displaces the mirage of the
ocean in the sun-beams.
24. The intellectual soul is immortal and undecaying, and perfectly
pure and shining by itself; while the body is perishable and impure,
and cannot therefore be related with the spirit.
25. The body is moved by the vital breath, and is fattened by solid
aliments; and cannot therefore be related with the self-moving soul,
which is without its increase or decrease.
26. The duality of the body (or matter) being acknowledged, does not
prove its relation with the soul; and the dualism of material bodies
being disproved, the theory of its relativity, falls at once to the
ground.
27. Knowing thus the essence of the soul, you must rely on its
subjective in-being within yourself; and then you will be free both
from your bondage and liberation, in all places and at all times.
28. Believe all nature to be quiet and full of its quiescent soul; and
let this be your firm belief, in whatever you see within and without
yourself.
29. The thoughts that I am happy or miserable, or wise or ignorant,
proceed from our false (or comparative view of things); and you will
always remain miserable, as long as you continue to believe in the
substantiality of outward things.
30. As there lies the wide difference, between a rock and a heap of
hay; and between a silk-pod and a stone; the same applies in the
comparison of the pure soul and the gross body.
31. As light and darkness bear no relation nor comparison between
themselves, such is the case also, O Ráma! between the body and soul,
which are quite different from one another.
32. As we never hear of the union of cold and hot even in story, nor of
the junction of light and darkness in any place; such is the want of
union between the soul and body, which are never joined together.
33. All bodies are moved by the air, and the human body moves to
and fro by its breath; it is sonant by means of its breath, and the
machinery of its wind pipes.
34. The human body utters its articulate sounds, combined with the
letters of the alphabet; and by means of its internal breathings. Its
mechanism is the same as that of sounding bambu pipe.
35. So it is the internal air, which moves the pupils, the eyelids;
it is the same air that gives motion to the limbs of the body; but
it is the intellect which moves the soul, and gives movement to its
consciousness.
36. The soul is present in all places, whether in heaven above or in
the worlds beneath; and its image is seen in the mind as its mirror.
37. You will have some notion of the soul in your mind by thinking that
it flies like a bird from the cage of its body, and wanders about at
random, being led by its desires and fancies.
38. As the knowledge of the flower, is accompanied with that of its
odour; so the knowledge of the soul is inseparable from that of the
mind (which is as it were, the odour of the soul).
39. As the all pervading sky, is partly seen in a mirror; so the
omnipresent soul, is partially seen in the mirror of the mind.
40. As water seeks the lowest level for its reservoir; so it is the
mind, which the soul makes the receptacle of its knowledge. (_i.e._ The
soul receives and deposits all its knowledge from and in the mind).
41. The knowledge of the reality or unreality of the world, which is
reflected upon the internal organ of the mind; is all the working of
the conscious soul, as light is the production of solar rays.
42. This internal organ (of the mind), is regarded as the actual cause
of all (under the title of Hiranyagarbha); while the soul which is the
prime cause of causes, is regarded as no cause at all, owing to its
transcendent nature (and this called the supreme Brahma; (or the
soul), that remains intact from all causality).
43. Men of great minds, have given the appellation of fallacy,
misjudgement and ignorance to this internal or causal mind; which is
the source of the creation of worlds. (But all of these, are mere
fabrications of the imaginative mind).
44. It is error and want of full investigation; that make us mistake
the mind for a distinct entity; it is the seed of all our ignorance,
which casts us in darkness from the sunlight of reason.
45. It is by means of the true knowledge of the soul, Ráma! that the
mind becomes a nihility, as the darkness becomes a zero before the
light of the lamp.
46. It is ignorance (of true knowledge), that mistakes the mind for the
cause of creation, and recognizes it under its various denominations;
such as of jíva (zeus) or the living soul, the internal organ, the
mind, the thinking principle and the thought (as they are stated in the
Utpatti prakarana of this work).
47. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, why are so many different appellations,
heaped upon the only one thing of the mind, and deliver me from the
confusion, which is caused by them in my mind.
48. Vasishtha answered:—All these are but the various modes of
the single substance of the soul, whose intellect displays these
modalities; as the same substance of water, displays itself into the
variety of its waves.
49. The soul is a fluctuating principle, which inheres in all its
modifications; as the fluidity of water, is inherent in the undulatory
waves of the sea.
50. The supreme soul is sometimes without its vibration, and remains
stationary in all immovable things; as the water which presents its
fluidity in the loose billows, shows also its inelasticity in the
liquids which are at rest (as in water pots and bottles).
51. Hence the stones and other immovable substances, remain at rest
with their inherent spirit; but men and all animated nature, are as the
foaming froths of the distilled liquor of the universal soul.
52. The almighty power resides in all bodies, with the inertia of his
spirit; which is known as the insensibility, dullness or ignorance of
inert bodies.
53. The infinite soul being involved in that ignorance, takes the name
of the living or animal soul; which is confined as an elephant, in the
prison house of the delusion of this world.
54. It is called _jíva_ or living from its animation, and also as the
_ego_ from its egoism; it is termed the understanding from its power
of discernment, and as the mind from its will or volition.
55. It is called dull nature from its natural dullness, and also as
body from its being embodied with many elementary principles; it is
inert in its natural state, and sensible also from the essence of the
soul imbrued in it.
56. The spiritual substance which lies between the inert and
active principles, is called the mind; and it passes under various
designations, according to its different faculties and functions.
57. This is the quiddity of the animating soul _jíva_, as given in
the Brihadáranyaka and other upanishads; and there are many other
definitions of it to be found, in the other works of Vedánta.
58. But the unvedántic paralogists, have invented many other words over
and above these, to designate the animal soul; and have thereby misled
the ignorant to false beliefs, tending to their bewilderment only.
59. Know thus, O long armed Ráma! this animating soul to be the cause
of creation, and not the dull and dumb body, which has not the power of
moving itself, without being moved by some spiritual force.
60. It happens many times, that the destruction (or ablation) of either
the container or contained, causes the annihilation of both; so it is
the case with the receptacle of the body and its content the soul, that
the removal of the one leads to the dissolution of both. (But this
means their decomposition and not their destruction, as neither of
these is destroyed at once).
61. The moisture of a leaf when dried, is neither wasted nor lost in
air; but subducted from it to reside in the rays of the all sucking sun.
62. So the body being wasted, there is no waste of the embodied soul;
which is borne to live in banishment from its former abode, and reside
in the region of empty air or in the reservoir of the universal spirit.
63. He who falls into the error of thinking himself as lost at the loss
of his body, is like a baby, which is snatched away by a fairy from the
breast of its mother.
64. He who is thought to have his utter extinction, is said to rise
again (by the resurrection of his soul); it is the abeyance of the mind
which is called utter extinction and liberation of the soul.
65. A person being dead, is said to be lost—_nashta_; but this is
entirely false and untrue; as one who being long absent from his
country returns to it again; so the dead man revisits the earth, in his
repeated transmigrations.
66. Here men are borne away like straws and sticks by the current of
death, to the vast ocean of eternity; and having disappeared as fruits
from their nature, soil and season, appear in others and in other
scenes.
67. Living beings bounden to their desires, are led from one body to
another in endless succession; as monkeys quit the decayed trees of the
forest, in search of others elsewhere.
68. They leave them again when they are worn out, and repair to others
at distant times and climes.
69. Living beings are hourly seen to be moving about, and led away by
their insatiate desires from place to place; as restless infants are
rocked and carried by their cunning nurses.
70. Bound by the rope of desire, to the decayed trees of their infirm
bodies, men are seen to drag their lives of labour, in search of their
livings in this valley of misery.
71. Men though grown old and decrepit and loaded with misery, and
though they are shattered in their bodies at the last stage of their
life; are still dragged about by the inborn desires of their hearts, to
be cast into hell pits (both while alive and after their death).
72. Válmíki said:—As the sage had said thus far, the sun sank down
and bade the day to observe its evening rites. The assembly broke
with mutual salutations, and all of them proceeded to their evening
ablutions, until they met again after dispersion of the gloom of night,
by the rising rays of the orient sun.
CHAPTER LXXII.
A LECTURE ON THE NATURE OF LIBERATION.
Argument. The subjection of the material body to sorrow and
misery.
Vasishtha continued:—You are not born with the birth of your body,
nor are you dead with its death. You are the immaculate spirit in your
soul, and your body is nobody to you.
2. The analogy of the plum on a plate, and of vacuum in the pot, which
is adduced to prove the loss of the one upon loss of the other, is
a false paralogy; since neither the plum nor the vacuum is lost, by
the breaking of the plate or pot. (So the soul is not lost at the
dissolution of its containing body).
3. Whoever having a body, thinks that he will perish with his
perishable frame, and is sorry for it; is verily blinded in his mind,
and is to be pitied for his mental blindness. (So said the Grecian
philosopher, “it is no wonder that the mortal should die, and the
fragile would be broken”).
4. As there is no sympathy between the reins of a horse, and the riding
chariot; so there is no relation between the organs of the body and
the intellect. (This is in refutation of the argument, that the motion
of a part affects the whole, as the shaking of the leaves and branches
of a tree shaketh the trunk also; whereas the motion of body, makes no
effect on the intellect).
5. As there is no mutual relationship, between the mud and clear water
of a tank; so O Rághava! there is no correlation between the members of
the body and the soul.
6. As the traveller retains no love nor sorrow for the path he has
passed over, and the journey he has made already; so the soul bears no
affection nor disaffection, towards the body with which it sojourned
and which it has left behind. (Though some departed ghosts, are said to
hover over their dead bodies).
7. As the imaginary ghost and fairy, strike fear and love in some
persons; so the ideal world inspires pleasure and pain, in the mind of
the idealist.
8. It is the assemblage of the five elementary bodies, that has framed
all these different forms of beings in the world; as it is the same
wood, whereof various images are carved and made.
9. As you see nothing but the woody substance in all timbers, so you
find nothing except the assemblage of the five elements in all tangible
bodies (all of which are subject to change and dissolution.)
10. Why therefore, O Ráma! should you rejoice or regret at anything,
seeing that the quintuple elements are wont to have their own course,
in joining and disjoining themselves, in the formation and dissolution
of bodies?
11. Why should one be so fond of female forms, and the forms of all
other beautiful things on earth? seeing that men run after them like
flies, and then falling in fire only to consume themselves. (_i.e._ All
goodly forms in the world, being for the delusion of men, we should
avoid to look upon them).
12. Good features and goodly shapes and figures, are delightsome to
the ignorant; but to the wise they present their real figures of the
combination of the five elements and no more.
13. Two statues hewn from the same stone, and two figures carved of the
self-same wood, bear no affection to one another, however they may be
placed near to each other; so it is the case with the body and mind.
(This sloka is also applied to the want of fraternal affection, between
brothers born of the same parents).
14. As dolls made of clay and placed together in a basket, form
no friendship by their long association with one another; so the
understanding, the organs of sense, the soul and mind, though so
closely united in the same body, bear no relation with one another.
15. The marble statues though so fair and closely kept in a mansion
house, contract no acquaintance nor friendship with one another; so
the organs of sense, the life, the soul and mind, though they are so
sensible ones, and reside in the same body, have yet no alliance with
one another.
16. As things growing apart from one another, come to be joined
together for an instant by some accident, like the reeds and rushes
borne by the waves of the sea; so are all beings, as men and their
bodily senses and mind and the soul, brought to meet together for a
time only, in order to be separated for ever.
17. As reeds and rushes are joined in heaps, and again separated from
one another by the current of the river; so the course of time joins
the elements, the mind and soul in gross bodies, for their separation
only.
18. The soul in the form of the mind, unites the component parts of the
body together; as the sea in the form of its eddies, rolls the reeds
and rushes with its whirling waters up and down.
19. The soul being awakened to its knowledge of itself, relinquishes
its knowledge of objects, and becomes purely subjective in itself; as
the water by its own motion, throws away its dirt and becomes as pure
as crystal.
20. The soul being released of its objective knowledge of the world,
looks upon its own body, as celestial deities look upon this speck of
earth below the region of air (_i.e._ without concern).
21. Seeing the elemental particles quite unconnected with the soul, it
becomes disembodied as a pure spirit, and then shines forth in full
brightness, like the blazing sun at mid-day.
22. It then comes to itself by itself, as it were without any check or
bounds set to it; and being then set free from the giddiness of the
objective, it sees itself subjectively in its own consciousness (as an
immeasurable and boundless space).
23. It is the soul which agitates the world, rising of its own essence;
as the agitation of the particles of water, raises the waves raging all
over the wide extent of the sea. (The soul is the source and spring of
the motion of all bodies).
24. Thus the dispassionate and sinless men of great understanding,
who have obtained their self-liberation in this life, move about as
freely, as the waves in the great ocean of the all-comprehending soul.
25. As the waves move freely in the sea, and pour the gems and pearls
which they bear over distant shores; so the best of men rove everywhere
free of all desire, but enriching mankind with the treasure of their
knowledge.
26. As the sea is not soiled by the floating woods it carries from the
shore, nor the face of the sky by the flying dust of the earth; so men
of great minds and souls, are not perverted by their conduct with the
world. (Or, worldly conduct).
27. Those that are masters of themselves, are not moved to love or
hatred, in their behaviour with their comers or goers; or with those
that are steady or fickle in their friendship, and with such as are
vicious and ignorant.
28. Because they know, that whatever passes in the mind relating to
worldly matters; are all its vagaries and reveries of thought, which
are but airy nothing.
29. The knowledge of one’s self and of other things, belonging to the
past, present and future times; and the relation of the visibles with
the sense of vision, are all the workings of the mind.
30. The visibles depending upon sight only, may be false from the
fallacy or deception of our vision; and our vision of them likening
an apparition in darkness, it is in vain that we are glad or sorry at
their sight or disappearance.
31. What is unreal is always unreal (and can never be a reality); and
what is real is ever the same (and can never be an unreality); but that
which is real and unreal at the same or different times, must be a
false appearance, and not deserving our rejoicing or sorrowing at their
presence or absence.
32. Refrain from a partial (_i.e._ superficial or onesided) view of
things, and employ yourself to the full (or comprehensive) knowledge of
objects; and know that the learned man of vast knowledge, never falls
into the erroneous conceptions of things.
33. I have fully expounded the relation of the visibles and their
vision, and shown the spiritual pleasure which is derivable from the
contemplation, of the abstract relation subsisting between them.
34. The abstract meditation of things is said to be a divine attribute
(or Platonism of the mind); and our consciousness of the relations of
vision and visibles, afford the highest delight to the soul.
35. The consideration of the relation of the visibles and vision,
affords the physical delight of knowing the material world to the
ignorant; and it gives also the spiritual joy of liberation to the wise
(by their contemplation of the vanity of all worldly things).
36. Hence the attachment of our mind to the visibles, is called its
bondage; and its detachment from them, is said to be its freedom; the
former is pleasant to the sensuous body, and the latter is delightsome
to the conscious soul.
37. The mind having the notions of the relations of things before it,
and freed from the thoughts of its loss and gain in this world, is said
to enjoy its freedom.
38. Abstaining from the sight of the visibles, constitutes the hypnotic
vision of the soul, which is enlarged and illumined by its inward
vision within itself.
39. Release from the bondage of the visibles, and restraining the mind
to its inward workings, constitute its _turíya_ or fourth stage of
perfection, which is also termed its liberation.
40. The knowledge of the relations of the visibles in the conscious
soul, neither makes it stout or lean, nor more manifest nor obscure in
its nature.
41. It is neither intelligent nor inert, nor a being nor not being; it
is neither the ego nor nonego, nor an unit nor many in one.
42. It is not near nor even far from us, nor is it an entity nor
non-entity either; it is neither within nor without our reach; it is
in all yet not the all and nothing at all. न त्द्दूरे न तदन्तिके ।
43. It is none of the categories nor no category, nor is it the
quintuple elements nor composed of any one of them; it is not the well
known mind, which is reckoned as the sixth organ of sense.
44. That which is beyond all things, is nothing at all of this world;
but it is something as it is known and seen in the hearts of the wise.
45. All the world is full of the soul, and there is nothing which is
without and beyond it. It is in all that is solid or soft or liquid,
and in all motions which proceed from it.
46. The soul is all in all things, which are composed of the five
elements of earth, water, air, fire and vacuum; and there is nothing, O
Ráma! that has its existence without the essence of the soul.
47. This single soul is diffused in all the worlds and throughout all
the parts of space and time, there is no fragment of anything without
the soul; therefore keep thy mind fixed in the universal soul, if thou
wilt have a great soul in thee.
CHAPTER LXXIII.
INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE OF THE SOUL.
Argument. Two kinds of Ego, the one commendable and another
Reprehensible Egoism; the abandonment of which is tantamount to
Liberation.
Vasishtha continued:—It is by reasoning in this manner, and renouncing
the knowledge of duality, that the gnostic comes to know the nature of
his soul; as the gods know the Divine nature which is the gem of their
meditation—_Chintámani_.
2. Now hear about this surpassing sight, which is the soul or in-being
of all visible beings; and by sight of which you will have the keen
sightedness of the gods, to get into the sight of the Divinity.
3. Think yourself as the light of sun, and vacuum with all its ten
sides and the upper and lower regions of space; and that your soul is
the soul of gods and demigods, and the light of all luminous bodies.
4. Know yourself as darkness and the clouds, the earth and seas; and
the air and fire and dust of the earth, and as the whole world, to be
combined in thee.
5. That you are everywhere in all the three worlds together with the
soul abiding in them; and that you are no other than the unity itself;
nor is there any duality of any body, apart from the unity which
pervades the whole.
6. Being certain of this truth, you will see the innumerable worlds
situated in thy internal soul; and by this means you will escape from
being subjected to, or overcome by the joys and sorrows of life.
7. Say, O lotus-eyed Ráma! how can you call one as connected with
or separate from you, when you know the whole world together with
yourself, to be contained in the all-containing universal soul.
8. Say, do the wise live beside that being, that they should give way
to joy or grief, which are the two phases of the universal soul? (The
unwise who think themselves other than the one, may be affected by such
changes).
9. There are two kinds of egoisms growing out of the knowledge of
truth, and both of these are good and pure in their natures, and
productive of spirituality and liberation of men.
10. The one is the _ego_ of the form of a minute particle, transcending
all things in its minuteness; and the other is the _ego_ of one’s
self. The first is that the one _ego_ is all, and the second is the
knowledge, that my or thy _ego_ is the same one.
11. There is a third sort of egoism amounting to the _non-ego_, which
takes the body for the ego, and thus becomes subject to misery, and
finds no rest in this life nor in the next.
12. Now leaving all these three kinds of subjective, objective and non
egoisms; he who holds fast the fourth sort—_non-ego_, sees the sole
intellect beyond these three.
13. This essence being above all and beyond the reach of all existence,
is still the manifesting soul of the unreal world.
14. Look into it in thy notion of it, and thou shall find thyself
assimilated to it; and then get rid of all thy desires and ties of thy
heart herein, and become full of divine knowledge.
15. The soul is neither known by any logical inference, nor from the
light the revelations of the vedas; it is always best and most fully
known to be present with us by our notion of it.
16. All the sensations and vibrations that we have in our bodies, and
all the thoughts we are conscious of in our minds, are all affections
of the sovereign soul, which is beyond our vision and the visibles.
(Invisible yet best seen in all its works and workings in us).
17. This Lord is no real substance, nor an unreal non-entity; He is not
a minutiae nor a vast massiveness neither; He is not in the midst of
these dimensions, nor is he this or that, but is always as he is. (I am
that I am; says the Revelation).
18. It is improper to tell him such and such, or that he is otherwise
than this or that; know him therefore as the inexpressible and
undefinable one.
19. To say this is the soul and not the soul, is only a verbal
difference of what no words can express or differentiate; it is the
omnipresent power to which the soul is attributed.
20. It is present in all places, and comprehends the three times of
the past, present and future in itself; and is yet invisible and
incomprehensible to us, owing to its extreme rarity and immensity.
21. The soul residing in the infinity of substances, reflects itself as
the living soul in animated bodies, as the sun-light reflects its rays
in a prismatic glass.
22. It is owing to the animating power of the soul, that we have some
notion of the soul (which no inanimate being can ever have). The soul
though pervading all things, is most manifest in living bodies, as the
air which surrounds all bodies everywhere, circulates only in the open
etherial space.
23. The intellectual soul is all pervading and ubiquious, and never
stationary in any place (as in the ideal heaven or empyrian of some
sects); the spirit of the Lord is co-extensive with the vast range of
his creation.
24. But the animating soul of living beings does not breathe in
minerals but in animals only; as the light enlightens the eye only, and
the dust flies with the winds.
25. When the animating principle resides in the soul, it bursts forth
with all its desires; as people pursue their callings when the sun has
risen above the horizon. (_i.e._ All desires are concomitant with the
living soul and not with lifeless beings, as all actions are attendant
upon the waking world, and not upon the sleeping).
26. But as it is nothing to the sun, if people should cease from their
activities, when he is shining above their heads; so it is nothing to
the intellect, whether men be without their desires and actions, while
it resides in the soul.
27. If the soul is existent by the inherence of the Lord (Intellect)
in it, it suffers no loss by the absence of the frail body from it.
(There is a Divinity that acts within us, and is deathless at the death
of the body).
28. The soul is not born nor does it die, it neither receiveth nor
desireth anything; it is not restrained nor liberated; but it is the
soul of all at all times.
29. The soul is awakened by its enlightenment, or else the soul is
supposed in what is no soul for our misery only; as the supposition of
a snake in a rope, leads to our error and fear.
30. Being without its beginning, it is never born, and being unborn it
is never destroyed; it seeks nothing save itself for lack of anything
besides.
31. The soul being unbounded by time and space, is never confined in
any place; and being always unconfined, it requires no liberation.
32. Such, O Ráma! are the qualities of the souls of all persons; and
yet the ignorant deplore for its loss from their want of reason.
33. Look thoroughly, O Ráma! into the course of all things in the
world; and do not lament for anything like senseless men.
34. Abandon the thoughts of both your imaginary confinement and
liberation; and behave yourself as wise men like a dumb selfmoving
machine.
35. Liberation is a thing neither confined in this earth or in heaven
above or _pátála_ below; but resides in the hearts of the wise, in
their pure souls and enlightened understandings.
36. The tenuity of the mind, by its expurgation from gross desires, is
said to be its liberation by them that know the truth, and look into
the workings of their souls.
37. As long as the pure light of the intellect does not shine forth
in the sphere of the mind, so long does it long for liberation as
its chief good. Liberation or freedom from all feelings, is less
meritorious than the knowledge of all things. Here the sage gives
preference to knowledge (jnána) above liberation (moksha).
38. After the mind has got the fulness of its intellectual powers, and
the intellect has been fully enlightened; it would not care for all the
tenfold blessings of liberation, and far less desire its salvation also.
39. Cease O Ráma, to think about the distinctions of the bondage and
liberation of the soul; and believe its essence to be exempted from
both.
40. So be freed from your thoughts of the duality (of worldly bondage
and liberty), and remain steadfast to your duty of ruling the earth
to its utmost limit of the sea, dug by the sons of Sagara (now called
Sagara or the Bay of Bengal).
CHAPTER LXXIV.
LECTURE ON APATHY OR STOICISM.
Argument. Error is the cause of the misconception of the World,
and Right Reason is the means of deliverance from it.
Vasishtha continued:—It is a pleasure to look at the outer world, and
painful to turn the sight to the inner soul; as it is pleasant to see
the delightful prospects abroad, and bitterness of the heart to be
without them. (All men court pleasure, but fly from pain).
2. It is by the fascination of these delightsome objects, that we are
subjected to all our errors and blunders; as the taste of spirituous
liquors, fills the brain with giddiness.
3. It is this intoxication, that drives the knowledge of sober truth
from our minds, and introduces the delirium of the phenomenal world
in its stead; as the heat of the sun (like the heat of the brain),
produces the false mirage in the desert.
4. It is then that the deep ocean of the soul boils in its various
aspects of the mind, understanding, egoism, sensation and volition; as
the sea when moved by the hot winds, bursts in the forms of foaming
froths, waves and surges.
5. The duality of the mind and its egoism, is only a verbal distinction
and not distinct in reality; for egoism is but a thought _chitta_, and
the thought is no other than the mind or _manas_.
6. As it is in vain to conceive the snow apart from its whiteness, so
it is false to suppose the mind as distinct from egoism (because the
ego is a conception of the mind only).
7. There is no difference of the ego from the mind, as the destruction
of the one is attended with the loss of the other also; just as the
removal of the cloth, is accompanied with the absence of its colour
also. (Egoism is said to be the son of the mind, and the one dies
without the other).
8. Avoid both your desire of liberation, as also your eagerness for
worldly bondage; but strive to enfeeble your mind by lessening its
egoism, by the two means of your indifference to and discrimination of
worldly objects. (_i.e._ Neither seek the world nor hate it, but remain
as an indifferent spectator of everything).
9. The thought of getting liberation, growing big in the mind, disturbs
its peace and rest, and injures the body also (by a rigid observance of
the austerities necessary for liberation).
10. The soul being either apart from all things, or intimately
connected with all, can neither have its liberation nor bondage also
(when it is already so separate from, as well as united with everything
in the world).
11. When the air circulates in the body, by its natural property of
motion, it gives movement to the members of the body, and moves the
voluble tongue, like the flitting leaf of a tree.
12. As the restless wind, gives motion to the leaves and twigs of
trees; so the vital airs add their force to the movement of the members
of the body.
13. But the soul which pervades the whole, never moveth like the wind,
nor is it moved as any part of the body; it does not move of itself,
but remains unshaken as a rock at the motion of the winds, and like the
Lord of all, it is unmoved by the breeze.
14. The soul shows by its reflexion, all things that are hid in it; as
the lamp discovers by its light, whatever lay concealed in the darkness
of the room.
15. It being so (but a counterfeit copy), why should you fall into the
painful error, of conceiving like the ignorant and senseless men, that
these members of your body and these things belong to you?
16. Thus infatuated by ignorance, men think the frail body as lasting,
and attribute knowledge and agency of action to it (which in reality
belong to the soul).
17. It is gross error only, that makes us believe the body as an
_automaton_, or selfacting machine of its motions, actions and
passions; and it is our sanguine wishes only, that present so many
false views before us, as the solar heat, raises the mirage of water in
the sandy desert.
18. It is this ignorance of truth, which makes the mind to pant after
the pleasures of sense; and drags it along like a thirsty doe, to
perish in the aqueous mirage of the parching shore.
19. But untruth being detected from truth, it flies from the mind, as a
chandála woman when once known she comes to be as such, flies afar from
the society of Bráhmans.
20. So when error comes to be found out, it can no more beguile the
mind than the mirage (when it is discovered as such) fails to attract the
thirsty to it.
21. Ráma! as truth is known and rooted in the mind, the seeds of
earthly desires are uprooted from it, as thick darkness is dispelled by
the light of a lamp.
22. As the mind arrives to certain truths, by the light of the sástras
and reason; so its errors fastly fade away like icicles, melting under
the heat of the solar rays.
23. The certainty of the moral truth, that ‘it is useless to foster and
fatten this frail frame of the body,’ is as powerful to break down the
trammels of worldly desires, as the robust lion is capable to break
down the iron grate of his prison.
24. The mind of man being freed from the bonds of its desires,
becomes as brilliant as the moonlight night, with the pure beams of
disinterested delight.
25. The contented mind gets a coolness like that of a heated rock,
after it is washed by a shower of rain; and it finds a satisfaction
equal to that of a pauper, by his getting the riches of a king and his
whole kingdom.
26. The countenance of the contented man, shines as clear as the face
of the autumnal sky; and his soul overflows with delight, like the
deluvial waters of the deep.
27. The contented man is as silent, as the mute cloud after the rain;
and his soul remains as composed with its consciousness, as the
profound sea is tranquil with its fulness.
28. He has his patience and steadiness like those of a rock, and he
glistens as quietly in himself, as the glowing fire glitters after its
fuel is burnt out.
29. He is extinct in himself as the extinguished lamp; and has his
inward satisfaction as one who has feasted on ambrosia.
30. He shines with his inward light like a lantern with its lighted
lamp; and as fire with its internal lustre, which can never be put out.
31. He sees his soul, as identic with the universal and all pervading
soul; which is the lord and master of all, and which abides in all
forms in its formless state.
32. He smiles at every thing, by his setting himself above and beyond
all mortal and frail things; his days glide away sweetly and softly
with him; and he laughs at those men, whose fickle minds are made the
marks of cupid’s arrows.
33. His holy mind is isolated from the society of men, and from all
their amusements; and rests secluded from all company and concern, with
the fulness of its spiritual bliss within itself.
34. It gets clear of the turbid and turbulent ocean of this world, and
is quite cleared of the dirt of worldly desires; it is loosened from
the fetters of its error, and set free from the fear of dualism.
35. The man being thus released, attains the highest state of humanity,
and rests in that supreme felicity, which is desired by all and found
by few, and from which nobody returns to revisit the earth.
36. This height of human ambition being arrived at, there is nothing
else to wish for; and this great gratification being once gained, there
is no other joy which can delight us more.
37. The self contented man, neither gives to nor receives anything from
anybody; he neither praises nor dispraises any one, nor does he rejoice
or grieve at anything, nor is he ever elated nor depressed at any
occurrence.
38. He is said to be liberated in his life time, for his taking no
title on himself, and withholding from all business; as also for his
being free from desires (which bind a man fast to this earth).
39. Abstain from wishing any thing in your heart, and hold your tongue
in tacit silence; and remain as dumb as a cloud after it has poured
down all its waters.
40. Even the embrace of a fairy fails to afford such delight to the
body, as the cooling beams of contentment gladdens the mind.
41. Though decked with the disk of the moon, dangling as a breast
plate from the neck, one does not derive such coolness, as he feels in
himself from the frigidity of contentment—_sang froid_.
42. The florid arboret decorated with the blooming florets of
the vernal season, is not so refreshing to sight; as the smiling
countenance of one, fraught with the magnanimity of his soul, and want
of cupidity in his mind.
43. Neither the frost of the snowy mountain, nor the coldness of a
string of pearls; not even the gelidness of the plantain or sandal
paste, or the refreshing beams of the lightsome moon, can afford that
internal coolness, as the want of appetency produces in the mind.
44. Contentedness or inappetency of everything, is more charming than
the pleasurableness of royal dignity and heavenly felicity, and the
pleasantness of moonlight and vernal delights. It is more charming than
the enchanting graces of a beauty, (which ravish the senses and not the
soul).
45. Inappetence is the source of that complete self-sufficiency, to
which the riches of the three worlds can make no addition. (Lit. It
cares not a straw (or a fig) for all the prosperity of the world).
46. Self-complacency strikes the axe at the root of the thorny
difficulties of the world; and decorates its possessor with blessings
like the blossoms of a flowery tree.
47. The man decorated with inappetency (or self-sufficiency), has all
in himself though possest of nothing. He spurns the deep earth as a
cave, and the big mountain as the trifling trunk of a tree. He looks on
all the sides of air as mere caskets, and regards the worlds as straws.
48. The best of men that are devoid of desire, laughs to scorn at the
busy affairs of the world, and at men taking from one and giving to
another, or storing or squandering their riches.
49. That man is beyond all comparison, who allows no desire to take
root in his heart, and does not care a fig or a straw for the world.
50. Wherewith is that man to be compared, whose mind is never employed
in the thoughts of craving something and avoiding another, and who is
ever master of himself?
51. O ye wise and intelligent men! rely on the want of cravings of
your heart, which is your greatest good fortune, by setting you to the
bliss of safety and security, and beyond the reach of the dangers and
difficulties of the world.
52. Ráma! you have nothing to desire in this world, nor are you led
away by worldly desires, like one who is borne in a car, and thinks
that his side-views are receding back from him.
53. O intelligent Ráma! why do you fall into the error of ignorant men,
by taking this thing to be yours and that as another’s by the delusion
of your mind? (For all things are the Lord God’s for ever more, and
mortal men are but the poor pensioners of a day).
54. The whole world is the self-same spirit, and all its variety is in
perfect uniformity with the supreme soul; the learned know that the
world is eternally the same and unvaried in itself, and do not grieve
at the apparent changes of things and vicissitudes of times.
55. Seeing all things in their true light, to be a manifestation of the
divine essence; all intelligent men place their dependance in Him (as
the support and substance of all), and do not desire for any thing else.
56. Rely therefore on that invariable state of things, which is free
from the conditions of existence and inexistence and of beginning and
end (and this is the everlasting essence of God which fills the whole).
57. This illusive enchantment of the world flies afar before the
indifference of strongminded men; as the timid fawn flies off at the
sight of the ferocious lion.
58. Men of subdued passions and sedate minds, regard the graces of
fairy forms, to be no more than the loveliness of wild creepers, or the
fading beauty of dilapidated statues of stone.
59. No pleasures gladden their hearts nor dangers depress their
spirits; no outward good or bad can make any effect on their minds,
which are as inflexible as the firm rocks against the violence of winds.
60. The mind of the magnanimous sage, is as impregnable as a rock,
which baffles the blandishments of youthful damsels, and breaks the
darts of love to pieces, and falling down as pulverised atoms of dust
and ashes.
61. One knowing his self, is not carried away by his fondness or
aversion of any person or thing; because the heart which has no
vibration in it, is insensible of all feelings.
62. The dispassionate man who looks on all things with an equal eye,
is as insensible as a stone of the charms of blooming maids; and is as
averse to pernicious pleasures as a traveller is to the sandy desert.
63. All things necessary for life, are obtained with little labour of
those, who are indifferently minded about their gain; and the wise
get the free gifts of nature, with as much ease as the eye sight gets
the solar light. (Nature’s bounties of air and light and of water and
vegetable food, which are essential to life, are denied to nobody).
64. The gifts of nature, which are alloted by fortune to the share of
every one, are relished by the wise without their rejoicing or murmur.
65. Neither rejoicing nor bewilderment, can overtake the mind of
the way-farer, who well knows his way (and is aware of the states of
its stages); but he stands firm as the Mandára mountain, amidst the
turbulent waves of the sea.
66. He looks indifferently on the pains and pleasures of the world,
with his usual patience, taciturnity and want of anxiety; and relies
his trust in that spirit, which resides in the interior of every body.
67. Though beset by anxious cares, he remains without the anxiety of
his mind; and stands steadfast with his confidence in the supreme
soul, like Brahmá in his hurry of the creation of the world.
68. Though overtaken by the accidents of the times, places and
circumstances of life, yet he is not overpowered by the influence of
their pain or pleasure; but stands erect as the sturdy oak against the
influence of the seasons.
69. The wise may fail in the action of their bodily organs, and falter
in their speech also; but their strong and unconcerned minds never
fail in their operations, nor despond under the pressure of outward
circumstances.
70. The gold becomes impure by its inward alloy, and not by its outward
soil; so a man becomes unholy by the impurity of heart and foulness of
his mind, and not on account of the dust or dirt on his body.
71. The learned understand the wise man apart from his body; because
the maimed body does not take away anything from the wisdom of a man.
72. The pure and luminous soul being once known, is never to be lost
sight of, as a friend being once known, is never thought to be a foe.
73. The fallacy of the snake in the rope, being once-removed, it is
no more looked upon as a snake; as the river receiving its torrents
from the water-fall of a hill in the rainy season, retains no more its
current after the rains have passed.
74. Gold though purified by fire, does not retain its purity for ever;
for it becomes dirty by being thrown into the mud and mire.
75. After the heart string has been broken, it can never be joined any
more; as the first that has fallen down from its stalk, can be stuck to
it no more.
76. As no analysis can distinguish the gem from the ore, when they are
both broken to pieces; so there is no reasoning to show the soul which
is lost with body.
77. Who that knows what error is, will be so great a fool as to fall
to it again? As none that has known a body of men to be the pariah
chandálas, will ever like to mix in their company.
78. As the mistake of milk in water, passes away upon examination of
the liquid; so the error of worldly desires, vanishes upon knowledge of
their vanity.
79. Even learned Bráhmans may fall into the error, of drinking some
liquor for pure water; until they come to detect their mistake of the
same. (So the wise are deluded to error, by their mistake of the same).
80. Those who are acquainted with truth, took upon fairy forms and
features in no better light than as paintings and pictures with respect
to their outward bodies.
81. The sable locks and crimson lips of the fairy, are portrayed as in
black and red in a picture; so there is no difference of the figure in
its living form or in painting.
82. The idea of sweetness which is accompanied with that of molasses,
is not to be separated in the mind even by its separation from the
body; in the same manner the idea of bliss is inseparably accompanied
with that of the soul, which is indestructible by the destruction of
the body.
83. Spiritual felicity may be enjoyed in this corporeal body, in the
same manner, as one enjoys the pleasure of imagination, while he is
occupied with his bodily functions.
84. Thus a man who is steadfast in his spiritual meditation, and intent
upon the supreme soul, is not to be turned away from it by the power
of the gods, or by the jealousy of Indra (for the preservation of his
dignity, from its being superceded by an austere devotee).
85. As there is no lover of a licentious woman, that can turn her heart
from the dearest object of her love; so there is nothing in the world
that can alienate the fickle mind, from its love of spiritual joy.
86. There is no such joy in the whole world, which is able to divert
the mind of the magnanimous philosopher, from its reliance on the
delight of intellectual light.
87. As a domiciled woman who is subject to all domestic toils and
privations, and is constantly employed in her household drudgeries,
and subjected to maltreatment under the subjection of her husband and
father-in-law:—
88. Has still the comfort of thinking on her sweet heart, and dissipate
her sorrows with the thought of her favourite lover; such is the mystic
love of spiritualists (as that of Persean Mystic poets).
89. So the man who is bound to the cares of worldly affairs, has
the consolation of his soul and spiritual bliss, by freeing his
mind from ignorance, and conducting himself in the right way, by
his comprehensive view of all things. (The worldly man may have the
blessing of spiritualism).
90. He does not break under his bodily torture, nor does he wail with
his bleeding heart and weeping eyes; he is not burnt by the flame of
his martyrdom, nor does he die when perishing under the scourge of
the stake and stock of persecution. (As the crucifixion of Mandavy
did not alter the tenor of his mind. _Gloss._ Nor the unity of Mansur
belief was changed by the cruciating pains of the cross. So says Hafiz.
_Kashad maqshe Ana-al Haq bar Zamin Khun; cho Mansur ar Kuni bar daram
imshab_).
91. The mind is free from the pain and pleasure which befal to the
lot of humanity, and is unmoved amidst all the mishaps of fortune.
The devotee rejoices in the region of his spiritual bliss, whether he
remains in his hermitage in the forest, or wanders about in deserts, or
ranges wide over mountains.
CHAPTER LXXV
ON MANCIPATION AND EMANCIPATION.
Argument. Instances of the Enfranchisement of many great
Examplars in Active Life among gods and men.
Vasishtha continued:—See, Janaka the king employed in the government
of his realm, and yet liberated in his lifetime from his bondage in the
world; by means of his mental release from all its cares and anxieties.
2. Remember your grand sire Dilípa, who though deeply engaged in his
state affairs, had yet enjoyed his long and peaceful reign, owing to
the dispassionateness of his disposition; (which is tantamount to
self-liberation).
3. Think of Buddha who ruled over his people, freed from all his
passions and affections; and bring to your mind, how Manu ruled over
in peace, his realm and who was as an exemplar of liberation in his
lifetime.
4. Remember how the monarch Mándhátá, had obtained the blessed state
of his affranchisement; though he was incessantly engaged in various
warfares and state affairs.
5. Think of Bali, who while he was confined in the infernal region,
conducted himself in his virtuous course, and became liberated in his
lifetime, by his unbounded bounty and want of attachment to the world.
6. Namuchi the lord of Dánavas, who carried continued wars and
contentions against the gods; was notwithstanding cool and quiet in his
mind (which bespoke his freedom from earthly broils and bondage).
7. Vritra the Asura who fell in his battle with the god Indra, was
however, of a great and calmly quiet mind, as long as he fought with
him. (Vritra the Assyrian, called Vihithru in Zend, was killed by Indra
the Aryan).
8. Prahláda the prince of the Daityas, dwelling in the demoniac world
underneath the ground, dispensed his dispensations to them, with
an unruffled and gladsome mind (and this want of perturbation, is
tantamount to the deliverance of the mind, from the fetters of earthly
broils).
9. Sambara the demon, who was a sorcerer in warfare, was as cool
blooded as water in his heart; whereby he was delivered from the
sorcery of the world, as a fleet deer flying from the dart. (Here is a
play upon the word Sambara, which is repeated four times without their
different meanings being given in the gloss).
10. The demon Kusala also, whose mind was not fettered to the world,
waged an unprofitable war against Vishnu; from whom he obtained his
spiritual knowledge, and his deliverance from this temporary scene.
11. Look at fire how free and uncompressed it is, while it answers
for the mouth of gods, and serves to intromit for them the oblations
that are offered to it, and perform the endless works of fusion for
them. (The evanescent fire is said to be the mouth of the gods,
because the primeval Aryans represented as gods, had long learnt to
take boiled food cooked on fire, before the raw flesh eaters of the
Turanian tribes. The _yajniya_ oblations stand for all sorts of daily
consecrated food of the _panchayajnas_. The endless works of fire
allude to the vulcanian arts first, discovered by the Aryans).
12. See the gods drinking the juice of Soma plants, and presiding over
the endless functions of the world; are ever as free as air (neither to
be seen nor touched by anybody).
13. Jupiter the leader of the gods, and Moon the pursuer of his wife
Rohini, have been continually performing their revolutions, without
changing their places in heaven; and so the other planets also.
14. Sukra-(Venus) the learned preceptor of the Asura demons, shines
in the same manner in the heavenly sphere, and runs in his unvaried
course, of protecting the interests of the Asuras.
15. See also the winds to be flying freely at all times, and through
all the worlds, with their charge of enlivening and giving motion to
all bodies.
16. See Brahmá continuing in the same unchangeable state of his mind,
and giving life and velocity to all beings, which have been thereby
continually moving about in the world.
17. The lord Hari, though ever liberated from every bond, has been
continually employed in his contests and combats with the Asuras as if
in sport.
18. The three-eyed god Siva, though ever freed from all concerns, is
joined in one body with his dearer half the beauteous Gaurí, in the
manner of a lover enamoured of his beloved one.
19. The fair Hara thou ever free, is bound to the embrace of his fairy
Gaurí, and was as a crescent of the fair moon, or as a lace of pure
pearls about her neck.
20. The heroic Skanda who was of vast understanding, and like a sea of
the gems of his learning, and perfectly free (as the sole lord of the
world), made war with Taraka (Darius?) of his free will. (This passage
plainly shows them to be Alexander and Darius of history).
21. Mark how Bhringí the attendant of Siva, was absorbed in his
meditation, and thinking himself to be freed from the burden of his
body, made a free offering of his blood and flesh to his goddess Gaurí.
22. The sage Nárada, who was of a liberated nature from his very birth,
and resigned the world and all its concerns altogether, was still
engaged in many affairs with his cool understanding.
23. The honourable Viswámitra who is now present here, is liberated in
his life time, and yet he does not slight to preside at sacrifices,
solemnized according to the ritual of the sacred veda.
24. The infernal snake bears the earth on its head, and the sun makes
the day by turns; the god of death is ever employed in his act of
destruction, and still they are all free agents of their acts.
25. There are many others among the Yaksas, Suras and Asuras of the
world, who are all liberated in their life time, and still employed in
their respective employments.
26. What numbers of them are employed in worldly affairs, and how many
more are engaged in different courses of life; and still they are cold
blooded and cool headed within themselves, and as still and quiet as
cold stones without.
27. Some attaining the acme of their understanding, have retired to
solitude, to pass their lives in abstract meditation; and among these
are the venerable Bhrigu and Bharadvája, Sukra and Viswámitra (who were
not less serviceable to mankind by many of their acts and works).
28. Many among mankind were rulers of their realms, and held the
exalted canopy and chouri and other ensigns of royalty on their heads,
and were not less distinguished for the piety and spirituality at the
same time. Among these, the conduct of the royal personages Janaka,
Saryali and Mándhatrí, stand preeminent above the rest.
29. Some among the living-liberated, are situated in the planetary
spheres, and are thence adored by their devotees for their blessings
on the world. Of these Jupiter and Venus, the Sun and Moon, are the
deities of gods, demons and human kind.
30. Some among the deities, are seated in their heavenly vehicles, and
continually ministering to the wants of all created beings, as the
regents of fire, air, water and death and Tumbura and Nárada.
31. Some situated in the secluded regions of Pátála, are equally
distinguished both for their holiness and piety; such as Vali, Subotra,
Andha, Prahláda and others.
32. Among beasts of the field and fowls of the air, and inferior
animals, you will find many intelligent beings, as the bird Garuda
(Jove’s eagle), and the monkey Hanumána (the god Pan), Jambubána &c;
and among the demigods there are some that are sapient, and others as
muddle headed as beasts.
33. Thus it is possible for the universal soul that resides everywhere,
and is at all times the same, to show itself in any form in any being
according to its will (since it is all in all).
34. It is the multifarious law of His eternal decree, and the manifold
display of His infinite power, that invests all things with multiform
shapes and diverse capacities, as they appear to us.
35. This law of divine decree is the lord of all, and embodies in
itself the creative, preservative and destructive powers under the
titles of Brahmá, Vishnu and Siva. These names are indicative of the
intelligent faculties of the universal soul.
36. It is not impossible for the supreme soul, to reside in all bodies
in any manners it likes; it presides sometimes in the manner of the
grains of pure gold, amidst worthless sands and dust; and at others as
the mixture of some base metal in pure gold.
37. Seeing some good connected with or resulting from evil, our
inclinations would lead us even to the evil (in expectation of reaping
the good); were it not for fear of the sinfulness of the act and its
consequent punishment, that we are deterred from doing it. (_i.e._
Human nature is addicted to vice, but fear of sin and its punishment,
leads us to virtue. Had there been no such thing, we would all become
vicious).
38. We see sometimes something substantial arising from the
unsubstantial, as we arrive to the substantial good of divine presence,
by means of the unsubstantial meditation of his negative attributes:
that he is neither this nor that nor such and such (_neti-neti-iti
sruti_).
39. What never existed before, comes to existence at sometime or place
unknown to us; as the horns of a hare which are never to be seen in
nature, are shown to us in magic play, and by the black art of sorcery.
40. Those which are seen to exist firm and solid as adamant, become
null and void and disperse in air; as the sun and moon, the earth and
mountains, and the godlike people of the antedeluvian world.
41. Seeing these changes in the state of things, you must give up, O
mighty armed Ráma! your joy and grief on any occasion, and preserve the
equanimity of your mind at all times.
42. The unreal (material existence) seems as real, and the sober
reality (of spiritual essence), appears as a non-entity in nature;
resign therefore your reliance in this deceitful world, and preserve
the equanimity of your mind under all circumstances.
43. It is true that you gain nothing by your resignation of the world;
and it is equally true on the other hand, that you lose nothing by your
getting rid of its unrealities by yourself.
44. But it is true, O Ráma! that you gain a certain good by your
getting rid of this world; and it is your riddance from the manifold
evils and mischances, which are unavoidable concommittants with this
life.
45. Again you obtain the certain gain of your salvation, by your
resignation of the world, which you can never earn by your attachment
to it. Therefore strive for your liberation by purging your mind from
its attachments to the world.
46. He who wishes for his prosperity, must take the pains to have an
insight of his soul; because a single glimpse of the soul, is sure to
cut off all the pains and pangs of the world from their root.
47. There are many dispassionate and disconnected men, even in the
present age; who are liberated in their lifetime, like the sacrificial
king Janaka and others.
48. So you too are liberated for life, for your having an unpassionate
and unprejudiced mind, and may manage to conduct yourself with your
tolerant spirit, like the patient earth, stone and moveless metals.
49. There are two kinds of liberation for living beings, viz.: one in
their present life and body, and the other after separation of life
from the body, both of which admit of some varieties as you will bear
afterwards.
50. First of all the peace of mind, from its unconcernedness with
everything is termed its liberation; and it is possible to be had by
the sinless man either in this life or in the next.
51. Lessening of affections is fraught with the bliss of solity
(Kaivalya), and it is possible to become impassible both in the
embodied as will as disembodied states of life.
52. He who lives in perfect apathy and without his affection for any
body, is called the living liberated man; but the life which is bound
by its affections is said to be in bondage, or else it is free as air.
53. It is possible to obtain liberation, by means of diligent inquiry
and reasoning; or else it is as difficult to come to it, as it is hard
for a lame man to leap over a hole, though as small as the footmark of
a cow-_goshpada_.
54. For know, O Ráma of great soul, that the soul should not be
cast into misery by your neglect of it, or by subjecting it through
ignorance to its affection for others. (_i.e._ Be master of yourself and
not bound to others).
55. He who relies on his patience, and employs his mind, and cogitates
upon the supreme soul in his own soul, for the attainment of his
consummation; finds the deep abyss of the world, as a small chink in
his vast comprehension.
56. The high station to which Buddha had attained by his patience, and
from which the Arhata prince fell to scepticism by his impatience; and
that _summum bonum_ which is reached at by great minds, is the fruit of
the tree of diligent inquiry, which like the Kalpa arbor, yields all
what is desired of it.
CHAPTER LXXVI.
THE WORLD COMPARED WITH THE OCEAN.
Argument. The world likened to the ocean, and the women to its
waves. The means of passing over it, and the delight when it is
got over.
Vasishtha continued:—These worlds which have sprung from Brahmá the
creator, are upheld by ignorance, and become extinct before right
reason. (_i.e._ Their materiality melts away before the light of true
philosophy).
2. The worlds are vortices of water, and whirlpools in the ocean
of Brahmá. They are as numerous as the particles of light, and as
innumerable as the motes that fly in the sunbeams.
3. It is the imperfect knowledge of the world that is the cause of its
existence (or makes it appear as an entity); but full knowledge of it
makes it vanish into nothing. (These are the two opposite systems of
materialism and immaterialism).
4. The world is a dreadful ocean unbounded and unfordable; and there is
no means of getting over it, save by the raft of right investigation
and diligent scrutiny.
5. This ocean is full with the water of ignorance, and its vast basin
is filled with fatal whirlpools and overwhelming waves of discord and
dangers.
6. Here goodness and good actions float on the surface, as its
froth and foams; but they hide the deadly latent heat of hellfire
underneath. Here roll the incessant billows of avarice, and there
snores the huge whale, and the great leviathan of the mind.
7. It is the reservoir of the endless channels and rivulets of life,
running as its streams and currents; and it is the depository of
innumerable treasures of brilliant gems hidden under its depth. It is
infested by the serpents of diseases, and the horrid sharks of the
senses.
8. See Ráma, the playful women, resembling the tremulous billows of
this ocean; and are able to attract and pierce the hearts of the wise,
with the hooks and horns of their looks.
9. Their lips are as red as rubies, and their eyes are as black as blue
lotuses; their teeth are as the unblown blossoms of fruits and flowers,
and their sweet smiles are as the hoary froth of the sea.
10. The curled locks of their hairs are as the crisped creepers of
blue lotuses, and their twisted eyebrows are as the slanting of little
billows; their backsides are as protruded islets, and their throats and
necks are lined over like conchshells.
11. Their foreheads are as plates of gold, and their graces as the
sharks of the sea; their loose glances are as the splashing waves, and
their complexions are gold coloured like the sands on the sea shore.
12. Such is this ocean-like world, with its tremendous surges and
rolling waves; and it is the part of manhood to buffet it over by manly
exertions, in order to save one’s self from sinking under them.
13. Fie for that man! who having good sense for his vessel, and reason
for his helmsman, does not conduct himself across the wide expanse of
this worldly ocean.
14. He is reckoned the most valiant man, who measures the immeasurable
expanse of this ocean (by his knowledge of the Infinite soul, which
comprehends the whole within itself).
15. Considering well about this world with the learned, and looking
into all its hazards with the eye of the mind, he who relies his trust
in the Lord, becomes blest forever.
16. You are truly blest, O Ráma! that are employed from your early
youth to scrutinize about this world.
17. Men who consider the world, and take it in the same light of a
dangerous ocean as you do, are not likely to be drowned in it, when
they steer their bark in it after due consideration.
18. The enjoyments of the world are to be duly considered, ere one
dares to come to the enjoyment of them; and like the ambrosia, before
they feed on any other fare (like Garuda—the head of the fowls of the
air).
19. He who considers beforehand the employment he should engage in,
and the enjoyments he ought to share in this world, fares well in
his present and future life; or else he falls to danger like the
inconsiderate man.
20. The judicious and preadmonished man, prospers in his fame and
fortune, and rises in his power and understanding in his life; as the
trees come to flower and fructify in spring.
21. Ráma! you will shine with the elegance of the bright and cooling
moonbeams, and with the beauty of perpetual prosperity, if you will but
begin your worldly career with full knowledge, of all that is to be
known respecting the world before hand.
CHAPTER LXXVII.
ON LIVING LIBERATION.
Argument. On Liberation from Earthly Bondage, and Salvation of
the Soul during one’s Lifetime.
Ráma rejoined:—O sage! nobody is satiate with all thou sayest, but
must learn more and more from you; therefore say in short the substance
of the present subject, which is as grand as it is wondrous to hear.
2. Vasishtha replied:—I have already given you many interpretations
of living liberation, and here are some more for your satisfaction and
close attention.
3. With their visual organs they view this world, as a hazy maze in
their state of sound sleep; and they consider it as an unreality in
their spiritual light, when their minds are fixed in the Supreme soul
only.
4. He who has got his disengagement, has his mind as still as in sleep;
and he that sees the soul, is ravished with joy at the sight.
5. He takes nothing that is within his reach, nor retains what is
within his grasp; but keeps his mind looking within himself as having
everything there. (The liberated and self-contented man having nothing
in his hand, has all in his inward soul).
6. He sees the bustle of the tumultuous with the eye of his mind,
and smiles in himself at the hurry and flurry of the world (like the
laughing philosopher of old).
7. He does not live in future expectation, nor does he rely in his
present possession; he does not live on the pleasure of his past
memory, but lives listless of all (in perfect _insouciance_).
8. Sleeping he is awake, in his vision of heavenly light, and waking he
is plunged in the deep sleep of his mental reveries; he does all his
works with his external body; but he does nothing with his inward mind
(which is fixed in his God).
9. In his mind he has relinquished the thoughts of all things, and
renounced his care also for anything; he does his outward actions, and
remains as even as if he has done nothing. (The spiritualist is neither
concerned with nor affected by his external acts).
10. He pursues the course of duties of his caste and family, as they
have descended to him from the custom of his forefathers.
11. He does all that is required and expected of him with a willing
mind, and without the error of believing himself as their actor. (He
does them as a machine, and without the false persuasion of his agency
of them).
12. He remains _insouciant_, of all that he does by rote and habit, and
neither longs for, nor loathes nor rejoices nor grieves at anything.
13. He takes no notice of the amity or enmity of others to him, and is
devoted to them that are devoted to him; but cunning with such as deal
in craftiness with him.
14. He deals as a boy with boys, and as a veteran with old people; he
is youthful in the society of young men, and is grave in the company of
the aged and wise. He is not without sympathy with the woes of others
(but rejoices at their happiness).
15. He opens his mouth in edifying speeches, and never betrays his
penury in any way; he is always sedate in his mind, and ever of a
cheerful complexion.
16. He is wise and deep, yet open and sweet (in his conversation; and
is full with the fulness of his knowledge, as the full moon with all
her digits); he is ever free from pain and misery.
17. He is magnanimous in his disposition, and as sweet as a sea of
delight; he is cool and cooling the pains of others, and as refreshing
as the full moonbeams to mankind.
18. He has meritorious deeds for his object, nor is any action or
worldly good of any purpose to him; neither does he gain anything
by his abandonment of pleasures or riches or friends, nor by their
disappearance from him.
19. Neither action nor inaction, nor labour nor ease; neither bondage
or release, or heaven or hell, can add to or take away anything from
his inner contentment.
20. He sees everything and everywhere in the same uniform light, nor is
his mind afraid of bondage or eager for its release. (Such inflexible
passivity was the highest virtue of the stoics).
21. He whose doubts are wholly removed by the light of his knowledge,
has his mind towering upwards as the fearless phœnix of the sky.
22. He whose mind is freed from error, and is settled in its
equanimity, doth neither rise nor fall like any heavenly body, but
remains unaltered as the high heaven itself.
23. He does his outward actions, by the mere movement of the outer
members of his body, and without the application of his mind to them;
as a baby sleeping in a cradle, has the spontaneous play of his limbs,
without any purpose of his mind. (This shows the possibility of bodily
actions independently of the mind).
24. So the drunken and delirious man, doth many acts in his state
of dementedness; and as he never does them with the application or
attention of his mind, he retains no trace of them in his remembrance.
25. And as children lay hold of or reject everything, without knowing
whether it is good or bad for them; so do men do their actions or
refrain from them, without their deliberate choice or aversion of them.
(This proves the causality of the mind).
26. So a man doing his duty by habit or compulsion, is not sensible
of any pain or pleasure that he derives from it (because his mind was
quite unconcerned with the act).
27. An act done by the outer body without its intention in the inner
mind, is reckoned as no act of the actor, nor does it entail upon him
its good or bad result. (An involuntary act is not taken into account).
28. He neither shrinks from misery, nor does he hail his good fortune;
he is neither elated at his success, nor depressed by his failure.
29. He is not dismayed at seeing the sun growing cool, and the moon
shining warmly over his head; he is not disconcerted by the flame of
fire bending downwards, nor at the course of waters rising upwards. (He
is not terrified by the prodigies of nature).
30. He is not affrighted nor astonished, at any wonderful occurrence
in nature; because he knows all the phenomena of nature, to be the
wondrous appearances of the omnipotent and all-intelligent soul.
31. He expresses no need nor want of his, nor is in need of other’s
favour or kindness; nor has he recourse to wiliness or cunning; he
undertakes no shameful act as begging and the like, nor betrays his
shamelessness by doing an unworthy action.
32. He is never mean-spirited nor haughty in his spirit, he is neither
elated nor depressed in his mind, nor is he sad or sorry or joyous at
anytime. (The word _dínátmá_ is used for the meek in spirit in Dr.
Mill’s version of the “Sermon on the mount”).
33. No passions rise in his pure heart, which is as clear as the
autumnal sky; and as the clear firmament which gives no growth to
thorns or thistles.
34. Seeing the incessant births and deaths of living beings in the
course of this world, who is it whom you may call to be ever happy or
unhappy? (Since happiness and sorrow succeed one another by turns).
35. Froth as the foaming bubble bursts in the water, so our lives
flash to fly out into eternity; whom therefore do you call to be happy
anywhere, and what is that state of continued pleasure or pain?
36. In this world of endless entrances and exits, what being is there
that lasts or is lost for ever; it is our sight that produces the view,
as our failing sight takes it out of view (as every spectre of optical
delusion). (The text _drishti srishti kara narah_ is very expressive;
and means, “man is the maker of the world by his sight of it”).
37. The sights of these worlds are no more than the transitory view of
spectacles in our nightly dreams; which are unforeseen appearances of
momentary duration, and sudden disappearance.
38. What cause can there be of joy or sorrow in this wretched world,
which is a scene of incessant advents and departures?
39. It is the loss of some good, that is attended with sorrow to the
sufferer; but what sorrow can assail the self-liberated man, who sees
nothing as positive good in the ever-changing state of things herein?
40. Of what avail is prosperity or the enjoyment of any pleasure to
one, when it is succeeded by adversity and pain the next moment, which
embitters life by its baneful effects.
41. It is riddance from the states of pleasure and pain, of choice
and dislike, of the desirable and displeasing, and of prosperity and
adversity, that contributes to the true felicity of man.
42. After your abandonment of pleasing and unpleasing objects,
and relinquishment of your desire for enjoyments, you get a cold
inappetence, which will melt your mind like frost.
43. The mind being weakened, its desires will be wasted also; as the
sesamum seeds being burnt, will leave no oil behind. (The mind being
repressed, will put a check to all its passions and feelings).
44. By thinking existence as non-existent, the great souled man gets
rid of all his desires, and sets himself aloof as in the air; and with
his joyous spirits that know no change, the wise man sits and sleeps
and lives always content with himself.
CHAPTER LXXVIII.
MANNER OF CONDUCTING THE YOGA HYPNOTISM.
Argument. The Action of the Mind is creative of the Error of the
World, and Yoga is the suppression of that Action.
Vasishtha continued:—As the rotation of a firebrand, describes a
circle of sparkling fires; so the revolving of the mind, depicts the
apparent circumference to the sky, as the real circle of the universe.
2. In like manner the rolling of waters makes curves in the sea,
appearing something other than water; so the revolution of the mind
forms many ideal worlds, seeming to be bodies beside itself.
3. And as you come to see strings of pearls in the sky, by the
twinklings of your eyes fixed in it; so these false worlds present
themselves to your view, by the pulsation of your mind.
4. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, whereby the mind has its vibration and how
it is repressed, that I may thence learn how to govern the same.
5. Vasishtha answered:—Know Ráma, as whiteness is concomitant with
snow, and oil is associated with sesamum seeds; and fragrance is
attendant upon flowers and the flame is coexistent with fire.
6. So Ráma, the mind is accompanied by its fluctuations hand in hand,
and they are virtually the one and the everything, though passing under
different names by fiction.
7. Of the two categories of the mind and its pulsation, if either of
these comes to be extinct, the other also has its extinction, as the
properties of a thing being lost, their subject likewise ceases to
exist; and there is no doubt of this.
8. There are two ways of extinguishing the mind, the yoga or hypnotism
and spiritual knowledge; of these the yoga is the suppression of mental
powers, and knowledge is the thorough investigation of all things.
9. Ráma asked:—How is it possible sir, to suppress the vital airs, and
to attain thereby to that state of tranquility, which is fraught with
endless felicity?
10. Vasishtha replied:—There is a circulating air breathing through
the lungs and arteries of the body, as the water flows through the
veins and pores of the earth, and which is called the vital breath or
life.
11. It is the fluctuation of this air, that impels and gives force to
the internal organs of the body, and which is designated by the various
names of _prána_, _apána_ &c., according to their positions and motions
(all of which are but varieties of the vital breath).
12. As fragrance resides in flowers and whiteness in the frost, so
is motion the flavour of the mind, and is one and the same with its
receptacle—the mind.
13. Now the vibration of this vital breath, excites the perception of
certain desires and feelings in the heart; and the cognitive principle
of these perceptions is called the mind.
14. The vibration of vital air gives pulsation to the heart strings,
causing their cognition in the mind; in the same manner as the motion
of the waters, gives rise to the waves rolling and beating on the shore.
15. The heart is said to be the afflation of the vital breath by the
learned in the Vedas, and this being suppressed quiets the mind also.
(The mind, says the Sruti, is moved by the vital air &c.).
16. The action of the mind being stopped, the perception of the
existence of the world becomes extinct (as we have no perception of
it in our sound sleep, when the mind is inactive). It is like the
extinction of worldly affairs at sunset.
17. Ráma asked:—How is it possible to stop the course of the winds,
perpetually circulating through the cells of the body, like the
unnumbered birds flying in the air to their nests. (The passage of the
nostrils is the open air, and the cells in the body are as their nests).
18. Vasishtha replied:—It is possible by study of the sástras and
association with the good and wise, by habitual dispassionateness, by
the practice of Yoga, and by removal of reliance in every transaction
of the world.
19. Meditation of the desired object, and keeping in view that single
object, and firm reliance on one particular object, are the best means
of suppressing the vital breath.
20. Next, it is by suppression of breath in the acts of inspiration
and respiration _puraka_ and _rechaka_, in such manner as it may be
unattended with pain, together with fixed meditation, it is possible to
suppress the vital air (which gives longevity to the practitioner).
21. The utterance of the syllable om, and pondering upon the
significations of that word, and dormancy of the perceptive senses, are
means of the suppression of breath.
22. The practice of _rechaka_ or respiring out, serves to purge out the
crudities of the body, and by leaving the nostrils untouched, the vital
breath is suppressed altogether.
23. The practice of _puraka_ or breathing in, tends to fill the inside
as the clouds fill the sky; and then the breathing being stopped, its
vibrations are stopped also.
24. Then the practice of _kumbhaka_ or sufflation of the breath, the
air is shut up in a closed vessel and this serves to stop the course of
breathing. (Long explanations of these practices are given in the gloss
forming subjects of anemography).
25. Afterwards the tongue being carried to the orifice of the palate,
and the tip being attached to the guttural bulb or nodule, will prevent
the vibration of the breathing.
26. Again the mind getting rid of the flights of fancy, and becoming
as vacant as empty air, prevents the course of breathing by its fixed
meditation of itself (as in the state of Samádhi or trance).
27. Again as the vital breath ranges within the space of twelve inches
about the tip of the nose, this region should be closely watched by the
eyesight in order to prevent the egress and ingress of breath.
28. Moreover the practice of stretching the tongue to the distance
of twelve inches above the palate, and sticking the tip of it to the
cavity called _Brahmarandhra_, serves to make one unconscious of
himself, and stop his breathing. (These processes are explained in
great length in the gloss for the practice of Yoga cult, resembling the
mesmerism of modern spiritualists, for causing the comatosity of the
practitioner).
29. The eyesight being lifted upwards and fixed in the cavity between
the eyebrows, exhibits the light of the intellect, and stops the
vibrations of breath. (This is called the _Khechari mudra_ and
practised by all intelligent men).
30. No soon does the spiritual light dawn over the soul, and the mind
is steadfastly fixed to it, without any intermixture of dualism (_i.e._
worldly thoughts), there is an utter stop of breathing.
31. The livelong practice of seeing a simple vacuity within one’s self,
and freeing the mind from all its thoughts and desired objects, serves
to stop the fluctuation of breath. (This is supported by the Patanjali
yoga sástra).
32. Ráma rejoined:—Sir, what is this thing which they call the human
heart, which receives the reflexions of all things as a large reflector
or mirror?
33. Vasishtha replied:—Hear my good Ráma; the hearts of all animals in
this world, are of two kinds, namely: the superior and inferior, and
learn their difference.
34. That which has a certain dimension, and is placed as a piece of
flesh inside the breast, is called an inferior heart, and forms a part
of the body.
35. The other is of the nature of consciousness, and is called the
superior mind; because it is both in the inside and outside of the
body, and yet it is situated in no part of it.
36. That is the superior part, wherein all this world is situated,
which is the great reflector of all things, and receptacle of all goods
(so says the Sruti: “the earth and sky and all things reside in it”).
37. The consciousness of all living creatures, is also called their
heart; though it is no part of the animal body, nor is a dull inert
substance as a pebble or stone.
38. Now this conscious or sensitive heart, being purified of its
internal desires, and joined _perforce_ with the _chitta_ or thinking
mind, the vibrations of vital breath are put to a stand.
39. These as well as many other methods, which have been adopted
by others, and dictated by the mouths of many sages, equally serve
to suppress the breathing (both for the fixity of attention and
prolongation of life).
40. These methods which are adapted to the process of yoga meditation
(or concentration of the mind); are to be slowly adopted by continued
practice, for the redemption of the good from this world; or else their
hasty adoption of it may prove detrimental to life.
41. As it is long practice, that perfects a man to the rank of a
cenobite and anchorite, so the gradual suppression of respiration, is
attended with equal success; as repression of desires, is accompanied
by many happy results.
42. It is by continued practice, that the breath is compressed within
the confines of twelve inches about the cavities of the brows, nostrils
and palate, as the cataract is confined within the limit of the pit.
43. It is repeated practice also, that the tip of the tongue should be
brought to a contact with the gullet of the throat, through which the
breath doth pass both in and out.
44. These are the various modes which by their constant practice, lead
to _Samádhi_ or hypnotism, when the mind has its fullest tranquility,
and its union with the Supreme soul.
45. It is by practice of these methods, that a man is freed from
sorrow, and is filled with internal rapture, and becomes enrapt in the
supreme soul.
46. The vibrations of the vital air, being suppressed by continued
practice, the mind gets a tranquility, which is akin to its extinction.
47. Human life is wrapt in desires, and liberation (moksha) is the
release of the mind from these; and breathing is the operation of life,
and its suppression is the path to its extinction or _nirvána_.
48. The vibration of breath is the action of the mind, producing the
error of the existence of the world; and this being brought under
subjection, dispels this error.
49. The knowledge of duality being removed, shows the existence of the
unity only; which no words can express, except by attributes that are
ascribed to it.
50. In whom and from whom is all, and who is all in every place; yet
who is not this world, nor there abides such a world as this in him,
nor has the world come out from him (_i.e._ the world abides in its
ideal and not material form in the spirit).
51. Owing to its perishableness and its situation in time and space,
and limitation by them, this material world cannot be a part of identic
with that immaterial spirit, which has no attribute nor its likeness.
52. It is the moisture of all vegetables and the flavour of all
eatables; it is the light of lights and the source of all desires
rising in the heart, like moonbeams proceeding from the lunar disk.
53. It is the kalpa tree yielding all earthly fruitions as its fruits,
which are incessantly borne aloft only to fall down with their juicy
flavour of various tastes.
54. The high minded man that depends on that boundless spirit, and
rests secure in its bosom, is verily called the wise and liberated in
his life time.
55. He is the best of men, whose mind is freed from all desires and
cravings; and who has found his rest from the thoughts of his fancied
good and evil. He remains listless amidst all the cares and concerns of
this life.
CHAPTER LXXIX.
DESCRIPTION OF SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE.
Argument. The second method of suppressing the Mind by spiritual
knowledge, being the Theory of self liberation.
Ráma said:—Sir, as you have related to me the methods of suspending
the mind to a dead lock, by means of yoga practices; I hope you will
kindly tell me now, the manner in which it is brought to stand still,
by means of perfect knowledge.
2. Vasishtha replied:—By perfect knowledge is meant the firm belief of
a man, in the existence of one self manifest or Supreme Soul, that is
without its beginning and end. This is what the wise mean by the term
“full or perfect knowledge.”
3. Its fulness consists in viewing all these visible forms as these
pots and these pictures _ghatapata_, and all these hundreds cries of
beings, to be manifest in the fullness of that spirit and not distinct
from it.
4. It is imperfect knowledge that causes our birth and pain, and
perfect knowledge that liberates us from these; as it is our defective
sight, which shows us the snake in the rope, while our complete view of
it removes the error.
5. The knowledge which is free from imagination, and its belief of the
objective, and relies only on its conscious subjectivity, leads only to
the liberation of men, which nothing else can do.
6. The knowledge of the purely subjective, is identic with that of the
supreme spirit; but this pureness being intermingled with the impure
objective matter, is termed _avidyá_ or ignorance.
7. Consciousness itself is the thing it is conscious of (or in other
words, knowledge is identic with the known; _i.e._ the subjective
is the same with the objective), and there is no difference between
them. The soul knows only itself as there is no other beside itself.
(Its _parichinote_ is its subjective knowledge, and _sanchinote_ the
objective and effect of _avidyá_ or ignorance).
8. “Seeing the soul alone in its true light in all the three worlds,”
is equivalent to the expression “all this world is the soul itself” in
the Sruti, and the knowledge of this truth constitutes the perfection
of man.
9. The whole being the soul, why talk of an entity or a nullity; and
what meaning can there be in bondage or liberation (which appertain to
the same soul?)
10. The mind is no other than its perceptions, which are manifested
by God himself; and the whole being an infinite vacuum, there is no
bondage nor liberation of any.
11. All this is the immense Brahma, extending in the form of this vast
immensity; so you may enlarge your invisible soul by yourself, and by
means of the knowledge of yourself.
12. By this comprehensive view of Brahma as all in all you can find no
difference between a piece of wood or stone and your cloth; why then
are you so fond of making these distinctions?
13. Know the soul as the only indestructible substance, which remains
quiescent from first to the last; and know this to be the nature of
your soul also.
14. Know this boundless universe with all the fixed and moving bodies
it contains, to be a transcendent void; where there is no room for your
joy or sorrow whatever.
15. The shapes of death and disease and of unity and duality, rise
constantly in the soul, in the form of interminable waves in the sea.
16. He that remains in the close embrace of his soul, with his inward
understanding, is never tempted to fall a prey to the trap of worldly
enjoyments.
17. He that has a clear head for right judgment, is never moved by the
force of earthly delights; but remains as unshaken as a rock against
the gentle winds of the air.
18. The ignorant, unreasonable and stupid men, that are guided by their
desires only; are preyed upon by continued misery, as the fishes of a
dried tank are devoured mercilessly by cranes.
19. Knowing the world to be full of the spirit, and without the matter
of ignorance _avidyá_, close your eyes against its visible phenomena,
and remain firm with your spiritual essence.
20. Plurality of things is the creation of imagination, without their
existence in reality. It is like the multifarious forms of the waves in
the sea, which are in reality its water only. The man therefore, that
relies on his firm faith in the unity, is said to be truly liberated
and perfect in his knowledge.
CHAPTER LXXX.
INVESTIGATION OF THE PHENOMENALS.
Argument. Description of Divine Meditation, which keeps the mind
from its attention to temporary enjoyments.
Vasishtha continued:—I will now describe to you that pensive
excogitation, which keeps the reasoning mind, from attending to objects
placed in its presence.
2. The eyes are for seeing only, and the living soul is for bearing the
burthen of pain and pleasure alone; they are like the eyes and bodies
of a beast, or like bull of burden, which sees and carries a load of
food, without being able to taste it.
3. The eyes being confined to the visible phenomena, can do no harm to
the soul residing in the body; as an ass fallen into a pit, is but a
slight loss to its owner.
4. Do not O base man, regale thy eyes, with the dirty stuff of the
sight of visibles; which perish of themselves in the twinkling of an
eye, and put thee to peril also (by the diseases and difficulties which
they load upon thee).
5. The acts which are deemed as one’s own deeds and beings, and whereby
the acutely intelligent man thinks himself to be living, and by which
he counts the duration of his lifetime, (according to the saying, that
our lives are computed by our acts, and not by the number of our days);
these very acts, turn at last, against him, for his accountableness of
them.
6. Do not rely thy eyes on visible objects, which are unreal in their
nature, and are produced to perish soon after, and to please thy
sight for a moment only. Know them as destroyers of thy otherwise
indestructible soul.
7. O my eyes! that are but witnesses of the forms, which are situated
in the soul; it is in vain that ye flash only to consume yourselves,
like the burning lamps after a short while.
8. The vision of our eyes is as the fluctuation of waters, and its
objects are as the motes that people the sun-beams in the sky. Whether
these sights be good or bad, they are of no matter to our minds.
9. Again there is that little bit of egoism beating in our minds, like
a small shrimp stirring amidst the waters; let it throb as it may, but
why should we attribute it with the titles of “I, thou or he or this or
that”?
10. All inert bodies and their light appear together to the eye, the
one as the container of the other; but they do not affect the mind, and
therefore do not deserve our notice.
11. The sight of objects and the thoughts of the mind, have no
connection with one another (because the sight is related to the eye,
and the thoughts bear relation with the mind); And yet they seem to be
related to each other, as our faces and their reflexions in the mirror.
(The retina of the eye receive the reflexions, and convey them to the
sensory of the cranium, in the form of reflections or thoughts, and
hence their mutual relations).
12. Such is their inseparably reciprocal relation in the minds of the
ignorant; but the wise who are freed from their ignorance, remain aloof
from the visibles with their mental meditations alone.
13. But the minds of the vulgar are as closely connected with the
visibles, as the sacrificial wood with the lac dye.
14. It is by diligent study, that the chain of mental thoughts are
severed from the visibles; in the like manner, as our wrong notions are
removed by means of right reasoning.
15. After dispersion of ignorance, and the connexion of the visibles
from the mind, there will be no more a blending of forms and figures
and their reflexions and thoughts in it.
16. The sensible impressions which have taken possession of the inner
mind, are to be rooted out from it as they drive out a demon from the
house.
17. O my mind! says the intelligent man, it is in vain that thou
deludest me, who have known thy first and last as nothing; and if thou
art so mean in thy nature (as the progeny of barren woman) thou must be
so as nothing even at present.
18. Why dost thou display thyself in thy five fold form of the five
senses unto me? Go make thy display before him who acknowledges and
owns thee as his. (As for me I own the intellect and not the mind).
19. Thy grand display of the universe yields me no satisfaction, since
I am convinced, O vile mind, all this to be no better than a magic play.
20. Whether thou abidest in me or not it is of no matter to me; because
I reckon thee as dead to me as thou art dead to reason. (As the mind
is perverse to reason, so are reasonable men averse to it. The mind
is all along used in the sense of the sentient mind, and not the
superior intellectual faculty—_chit_, which is distinct from _chitta_,
synonymous with _manas_ the mind.)
21. Thou art a dull unessential thing, erroneous and deceitful and
always reckoned as dead, the ignorant alone are misled by thee and
not the reasonable. (It is hard to determine what the attributes
of the mind may mean. It is said to be dead, because it is kept in
mortification and subjection).
22. It was so long through our ignorance, that we had been ignorant
of thee; it is now by the light of reason, that we find thee as dead
as darkness, under the light of a lamp. There is always an impervious
darkness under the lighted lamp (_zer cheragh tarikist_).
23. Thou hast long taken possession of this mansion of my body, and
prevented me, O wily mind, from associating with the good and wise.
24. Thou liest as dull as dead body at the door of this bodily mansion,
against the entrance of my worshipped guests (of good virtues) to it.
25. O the gigantic monster of the world! which has its existence in
no time. Art thou not ashamed, O my mind, to assume to thyself this
deceitful form the world, and appear before me in this hideous shape?
26. Go out of this abode of my body, thou demoniac mind, with the train
of thy female fiends of avarice and her companions, and the whole host
of thy devilish comrades of rage, wrath and the like.
27. Seeing the advance of reason to the temple of the body, the demon
of the mind flies from it, as the savage wolf leaves its den at the
approach of the hunter.
28. O pity for these foolish folks! that are so subdued by this dull
and deceitful mind, as the unwary people are spellbound by the magic
wand.
29. What is thy boast and might in subduing the ignorant rabble,
exercise thy power upon me, that defy thy power to prevail over the
unity of my belief.
30. I need not try to defeat the power of my foolish mind, after I have
already baffled its attempts against me, and laid it to dust.
31. I had ere long taken thee for a living thing, and passed many a
livelong life, and day and night, with thy company in this dreary world.
32. I have now come to know the nullity of the mind, and that it is put
to death by my power; I have hence given up my concern with it, and
betaken to my reliance in the ever existent soul only.
33. It is by good luck, that the living liberated men come to know
the demise of their minds; and cease to spend their lives under the
illusion of its existence.
34. Having driven away the deceitful demon of the mind, from the
mansion of my body; I am situated at rest without any troublesome
thought or turbulent passion in me.
35. I smile to think in myself the many follies, to which I was led for
a long time under the influence of my demoniac mind.
36. It is by my good fortune, that the gigantic demon of my mind, is
at last vanquished by the sword of my reason, and driven out of the
mansion of my body.
37. It is by my good fortune also, that my heart is after all purified
from its evil inclination, by the suppression of my demoniac mind; and
that my soul now rests alone in peace, in the abode of my body.
38. With the death of the mind, there is an end of my egoism and all my
troublesome thoughts and cares; and the expulsion of the ogres of evil
passions from my breast, by the breath or _mantra_ of reason, has made
it a place of rest for my soul.
39. What is this mind with its egoism and eager expectations to me,
than a family of intractable inmates, of whom I have fortunately got
rid by their wholesale deaths.
40. I hail that pure and ever prosperous soul which is self-same with my
inward soul, and identic with the immutable intellect; (and not with
the changeful mind).
41. I hail that ego in me, which is yet not myself nor I nor any other
person, nor is it subject to sorrow or error.
42. I hail that ego in me, which has no action nor agency, nor any
desire nor worldly affair of its own. It has no body nor does it eat or
sleep (but it is as itself).
43. This ego is not myself nor any other, and there is nothing as I
or anybody else. The ego is all in all, and I bow down to that being.
(There is no direct evidence as what the ego is, but is pointed by mere
indirect and negative evidences as what it is not).
44. The ego is the first cause and support of all, it is the intellect
and the soul of all worlds. It is the whole without parts; I therefore
bow down to that ego.
45. I prostrate to the self-same Ego of all, which is eternal and
immutable, which is the sole immense soul and without its parts. It is
all, in all and abides at all times.
46. It is without any form or designation, and is manifest as the
immense spirit. It abides in itself, and I bow down to that ego.
47. It is the same in all things in its too minute form, and is the
manifester of the universe. It is the essence of my existence and
abiding in me, in which state I bow down to it.
48. It is the earth and ocean with all their hills and rivers, which
are not the ego, nor they are the ego itself. I bow to the selfsame ego
which comprises the world with all its contents.
49. I bow to that undecaying and indestructible Lord which is beyond
thought, and is ever charming and ever the same. Who manifests the
endless universe with all its worlds and many more yet invisible and
unformed bodies. He is unborn and undecaying, and his body is beyond
all attributes and dimensions.
CHAPTER LXXXI.
UNSUBSTANTIALITY OF THE MIND.
Argument. The unsubstantiality of the Mind is established by
Reasoning and Intuition.
Vasishtha resumed:—Having thus considered and known the mind in
themselves; and in the aforesaid manner; it is the business of great
minded philosophers, O mighty Rama, to enquire into the nature of the
soul, as far as it is knowable (by the help of psychology).
2. And knowing the world to be purely the soul, it is to be enquired,
whence arose the phantom of mind which is nothing in reality.
3. It is ignorance, error and illusion, which exhibit the vacant and
visionary mind to view, as it is our false imagination, which forms an
arbour of trees in the vacant air.
4. As the objects standing on the shore, seem to be moving to ignorant
boys passing in a boat; so the sedate soul appears to be in motion
(like the mind) to the unintelligent.
5. After removal of our ignorance and error, we have no perception of
the fluctuation of our minds; as we no more think the mountains to be
in motion, after the velocity of air car is put to a stop.
6. I have given up the thoughts of all internal and external things,
knowing them as the creation of my airy mind only. Thus the mind and
its actions being null and void, I see all things to exist in the
spirit of Brahma alone.
7. I am freed from my doubts, and sit quiet devoid of all care; I sit
as Siva without a desire stirring in me.
8. The mind being wanting, there is an end of its youthful desires and
other properties also; and my soul being in the light of the supreme
spirit, has lost its sight of all other colours and forms presented to
the eyes.
9. The mind being dead, its desires also die with it, and its cage of
the body is broken down without it. The enlightened man being no more
under the subjection of his mind, is liberated from the bondage of his
egoism also. Such is the state of the soul, after its separation from
the body and mind, when it remains in its spiritual state in this and
the next world.
10. The world is one calm and quiescent Unity of Brahma, and its
plurality or multifariousness is as false as a dream. What then shall
we think or talk of it, which is nothing in reality.
11. My soul by advancing to the state of divine holiness, becomes as
rarefied and all-pervasive as the eternal spirit of God, in which it is
situated for ever.
12. That which is, and what is not, as the soul and the mind the
substantial and the unsubstantial, is the counterpart of the something,
which is rarer than air, calm and quiet, eternal and intangible; and
yet all pervading and extended through all.
13. Let there be a mind in us, or let it remain or perish for ever;
yet I have nothing to discuss about it, when I see everything to be
situated in the soul.
14. I considered myself as a limited and embodied being, as long as I
was unable to reason about these abstruse subjects; and now I have come
to know my unlimited form of the spirit; but what is this that I call
“myself” is what I have not yet been able to know, since the whole is
full with the one supreme spirit.
15. But the mind being granted as dead, it is useless to dubitate about
it; and we gain nothing by bringing the demon of the mind to life again.
16. I at once repudiate the mind, the source of false desires and
fancies; and betake myself to the meditation of the mystic syllable
“Om” with the quietness of my soul, resting quiescent in the Divine
spirit.
17. With my best intelligence, I continue always to inquire of my God,
both when I am eating or sleeping or sitting or walking about.
18. So do the saints conduct their temporal affairs, with a calm
and careless mind, meditating all along on the Divine soul in their
becalmed spirits.
19. So do all great minded men gladly pass their lives, in the
discharge of their respective duties, without being elated by pride
or the giddiness of vanity; but manage themselves with a cheerfulness
resembling the gentle beams of the autumnal moon.
CHAPTER LXXXII.
INVESTIGATION INTO THE NATURE OF THE SENSUOUS MIND.
Argument. Story of Vítahavya, materialist becomes a spiritualist.
Vasishtha continued:—It was in this manner that the learned Samvarta,
who had the knowledge of the soul reasoned with himself, and which he
communicated to me on the Vindhyan mountain. (Samvarta is said to have
been the brother of Vrihaspati, both of whom have transmitted to us two
distinct treatises on law, which are still extant).
2. Shut out the world, said he, from your sight, and employ your
understanding to abstract reasoning, in order to get over the vast
ocean of this world.
3. Hear me tell you Ráma of another view of things, whereby the great
sage Vítahavya gave up the practice of making his offerings to fire,
and remained dauntless in his spiritualistic faith.
4. The illustrious Vítahavya wandered about the forests in former
times, and then resided in a cave of the Vindhya mount, which was as
spacious as a cave of Meru under the sun’s passage. (The cave of mount
Meru is the Polar circle about which the sun is said to turn; but
Sumeru is the meridian circle on which the sun passes).
5. He grew in course of time dissatisfied with the ritual acts, which
serve only to bewilder men, and are causes of diseases and difficulties
to man (rather than those of their removal).
6. He fixed his aim to the highest object of unalterable
ecstasis—_samádhi_, and abandoned his cares for the rotten world, in
the course of his conduct in life.
7. He built a hut of leaves with the branches of plantain trees;
strewed it with black stones, and perfumed it with fragrant earth.
8. He spread in it his seat of deer’s skin, serving as a pure
_paillasse_ for holy saints; and sat still upon it as a rainless cloud
in the clear firmament.
9. He sat there in the posture of _padmásana_ with his legs crossed
upon one another, and held his heels with the fingers of both his
hands, and remained with his uplifted head, like the fast and fixed
peak of a mountain summit.
10. He closed his eyesight from looking upon the surrounding objects,
and pent up his mind in his bosom, as the descending sun confines his
beams in the hollow caves of Meru.
11. Then having stopped the course of his internal and external senses,
he thus revolved in his mind, which was free from sin and guile.
12. How is it that though I have restrained my outer organs, I cannot
with all my force stop the course of my mind, which is ever as fickle
as a leaflet, floating on and dancing over the waves.
13. It impels the external organs (as a charioteer drives his horses),
and is propelled by them in turn to their different objects, as a
juggler tosses about and flings up and down his play balls.
14. Though I refrain from the exercise of my external faculties, yet it
pursues them with eagerness, and runs towards the objects from which I
try to stop its course.
15. It turns from this object to that, as they say from the pot to the
picture and from that to the chariot (ghata, pata and sakata): and in
this manner the mind roves about the objects of sense, as a monkey
leaps from branch to branch of a tree.
16. Let me now consider the courses of the five external senses and
their organs, which serve as so many passages for the mind.
17. O my wicked and wretched senses, how shall I counsel to call you
to your good sense, when you are so senseless as to roll on restlessly
like the billows of waters in the sea.
18. Do not now disturb me any more with your fickleness, for I well
remember to what trains of difficulties I have been all along exposed
by your inconstancy.
19. What are ye O my organs, but passages (to conduct the outer
sensations) to the inner mind, and are dull and base of yourselves, and
no better than the billows of the sea and the water in the mirage.
20. Ye senses that are unsubstantial in your forms, and without any
spiritual light in you; your efforts are as those of blind men only to
fall into the pit.
21. It is the intellectual soul only, that witnesseth the objects of
sense, it is in vain that ye are busy without the soul.
22. It is in vain for the organs of sense, to display themselves to
view, like the twirling of a firebrand and the appearance of a snake in
the rope; since they have no essence of their own, and are of no use
without the soul.
23. The all knowing soul knows well the eyes and ears, though none of
these organs knows the internal soul, and is as far from it, as the
heaven and hell asunder.
24. As the wayfarer is afraid of snakes, and the twice born Bráhmans
are in dread of demoniac savages; so the intellect fears and avoids the
company of the senses for its safety, and remains retired from them for
its security.
25. Yet the unseen intellect directs the organs of sense, to their
various duties from a distance; as the distant sun directs the
discharge, of the diurnal duties of men on earth, from his situation in
heaven.
26. O my mind! that art wandering all about like a mendicant, in order
to fill the belly with food; and actest as a chárváka materialist, to
make a god of thy body, and to enslave thyself to its service; do not
thus rove about the world in the vain search of your bane only.
27. It is a false pretension of thine, to think thyself to be as
intelligent as an intelligence or as the intellect itself; you two are
too different in your natures, and cannot agree together.
28. It is thy vain boast also, to think thyself to be living, and to be
the life and the ego likewise; because these things belong to the soul,
and thou art entirely devoid of the same.
29. Egoism produces the knowledge of “I am the Ego” which thou art not;
and neither art thou anything except a creature of false imagination,
which it is good for thee to give up at once (because the mind’s eye
sees the fumes of fancy only.)
30. It is the conscious intellect, which exists without its beginning
and end, and nothing else is existent beside this: what art thou then
in this body, that takest the name of the mind.
31. The impression of the activity and passivity of the mind is as
wrong, as the belief of poison and nectar to be the one and same thing;
since the two opposites can never meet together.
32. Do not, therefore thou fool, expose thyself to ridicule, (that art
dependant on the organs of the body); by thinking thyself as both the
active and passive agent, which thou art not; but a mere dull thing as
it is known to all.
33. What is thy relation with enjoyments or theirs with thee, that thou
wishest to have them come to thee? Thou art a dull thing and without
thy soul, canst have no friend or foe to thee.
34. The unreal has no existence, and the existence of the mind, is an
unreality as the redness of a crystal. Knowledge, action and passion
belong to the soul only, and are not attributable to the mind.
35. If thou beest the eternal Mind, then thou art selfsame with the
eternal soul; but the painful mutability of thy nature, bespeaks thee
to be not the same (immutable, everlasting and imperishable soul).
36. Now as thou hast come to be acquainted, with the falsity of thine
action and passion; hear now how I am purged of these impressions, by
my own reasoning as follows.
37. That thou art an inert unreality, said I, is a truth beyond all
doubt; and that the activity of an inactive nullity is as false, as the
dancing of the ideal demon or of inert stones.
38. Therefore art thou dependant on the Supreme Spirit for thy
movement; and it is in vain for thee to fain thyself as living or doing
anything by thyself (being but a puppet player by the power of the
Almighty).
39. Whatever is done by the power of another, is ascribed to that
other and not to actor; as the harvest which is reaped by the sickle
of the husband man, is said to be the act of the reaper and not of the
instrument.
40. He who kills one by the instrumentality of another, is considered
the slayer, and not the intermediate means of slaughter; for nobody
upbraids the passive sword with guilt, by exculpation of the
perpetrator.
41. He who eats and drinks, is said to be the eater and drinker; and
not the plate or cup, which hold the eatables or the drinkables.
42. Thou art entirely inactive in thy nature, and art actuated by
the All wise Intellect; therefore it is the soul only that perceives
everything by itself, and not thou ignorant mind (that assumest the
title of the percipient to thee).
43. It is the Supreme Soul, that awakens and informs the mind without
intermission; as the ignorant people require to be constantly guided by
their superiors by repeated admonitions.
44. The essence of the soul is manifest to all in its form of
intelligence, from which the mind derives its power and name for its
existence.
45. Thus the ignorant mind is produced by some power of the soul, and
remains all along with its ignorance; until it comes to melt away like
snow, under the sunshine of its spiritual knowledge.
46. Therefore, O my ignorant mind! that art now dead under the
influence of my knowledge of the soul; do not boast any more of thy
being a particle of thy spiritual origin for thy sorrow only.
47. The conception of the entity of the unreal mind, is as false as the
production of a plant by the light of a magic lantern; there is only
that true knowledge which proceeds directly from the Great God. (All
else is error and misconception).
48. Know Ráma, these worlds to be no manifestations of Divine power,
but as illusive representation of His intellect (_chit and máyá_), like
the glittering waves of waters in the sea.
49. O thou ignorant mind, if thou art full of intelligence as the
Intellect, then there would be no difference of thee from the Supreme
one, nor wouldst thou have any cause of sorrow. (Hence the human mind
is not Divine).
50. The Divine mind is all-knowing and omnipresent and omniform at all
times; and by the attainment of which one obtains everything.
51. There is no such thing as thou or he, except the Great Brahma,
who is always manifest every where; we have conceptions of ourselves
without any exertion on our parts (which proves a Divinity stirring of
itself in us).
52. If thou art the soul, then it is the soul that is everywhere here
and naught besides; but if thou art anything other than the soul, then
thou art nothing, because all nature is the body of the universal soul.
53. The triple world is composed of the Divine soul, beside which there
is no existence; therefore if thou art anything thou must be the soul,
or otherwise thou art nothing.
54. I am now this (as a boy), and then another (as an old man), and
that these things are mine and those another’s, are thoughts that
vainly chase upon the mind; for thou art nothing positive here, and
positivism is as false a theory as the horns of a hare (_or rara avis_)
on earth.
55. We have no notion of a third thing between the intellect and
the body, to which we can refer the mind, as we have no idea of an
intermediate state betwixt sunlight and shade (where we may betake us
to rest).
56. It is that something then, which we get by our sight of (_i.e._ by
the light of) truth, after the veil of darkness has been removed from
our eyes. It is our consciousness (the product of the light of truth),
that we term the mind.
57. Hence, O foolish mind! thou art no active nor passive agent of
action, but art the sedate self-consciousness of Brahma (knowing only
“I am what I am”, “_Sohamasmi_”). Now therefore cast off thy ignorance,
and know thyself as a condition of the very soul.
58. Truly the mind is represented as an organ of the sense of
perception and action, and the internal instrument of knowing the soul,
and not the soul itself; but this is only by way of explaining the
knowable by something familiar and better known to us, and serving as
its Synonym. (As to see one’s unlookable face, by the reflexion of the
very face in the looking glass; so it is to perceive the invisible
soul by its shadow cast upon the mind. This explains the mention of
the mind in the Srutis such as in the texts:—“It is by means of the
mind alone, that the knowledge of the soul is to be gained.” “It is
through the mind only, that the soul is to be seen.” And so many other
passages).
59. The mind being an unreal instrumentality (as the sight &c.), can
have no existence without its support (as the eyes of the sight); nor
can it have any action of its own, without the agency of an actor (as
the sword of the swordsman). Hence it is false to attribute activity or
sensibility to it.
60. Without the agency of an actor, the instrument of the mind has no
power nor activity of its own; as the passive sickle has no power of
cutting the harvest, without the agency of the reaper.
61. The sword has the power of slaying men, but by means of the agency
of the swordsman; otherwise the dull instrument has no power in any
part of its body, to inflict a wound on another.
62. So my friend, thou hast no power nor agency of thine own, to do
thine actions to trouble thyself in vain. It is unworthy of thee to
toil for thy worldliness like the base worldling (_i.e._ worldly
goods), unless it were for thy spiritual welfare.
63. The Lord (who works of his free will), is not to be pitied like
thee that art subjected to labour, because his works are all as
unaccountable as those he has not yet done (but thy acts are brought to
account for themselves).
64. Thy boast of serving the soul, proceeds from thy ignorance only and
thy fellowship with the insensible organs of sense, is quite unworthy
of thee.
65. Thou art wrong to pursue the objects of sense, for the sake of thy
maker and master; because the Lord is independent of all desire (of the
service of others,) being full and satisfied in himself forever.
66. It is by his self-manifestation, and not by act of his exertion of
creation, that the omnipresent and omniscient God, fills the whole with
his unity, which admits of no duality even in imagination.
67. The one God that manifests himself as many, and that is all by
himself, and that comprises the whole within himself, has nothing to
want or seek, beside and apart from himself.
68. All this is the magnificence of God, and yet the foolish mind
craves after them in vain; as a miserable man longs to have the
princely pomp of another, which is displayed before him.
69. Thou mayst try to derive the divine blessings, by being intimate
with the Divine soul; but there will be no more intimacy between the
soul and the mind, than there is between the flower and its fruit.
(_i.e._ The fruit which here represents the mind, does not inherit the
quality of the flower which is here put for the soul). Gloss.
70. That is called the intimate relation of two things, when the one
agrees in all its properties with the other; which is here wanting
in the case of the soul and mind; the first being immortal, calm and
quiet, and the second a mortal and restless thing.
71. O my mind! thou art not of the same kind with the soul, owing to
thy changing appearances and ever changeful occupations, and promptness
for multifarious inventions. Thy states of happiness and misery,
moreover bespeak thee plainly to be of a different nature (from thy
source of the soul thou art derived from).
72. The relationship of the homogeneous (as of the liquid and curdled
milk), as well as of the heterogeneous (as between the milk and
water), are quite apparent to sight; but there is no relation betwixt
the contraries (as it is observed in the antagonism of the soul and
mind). Note. The spiritual man represses the sensuous mind, and the
sensualistic mind buries the conscious and conscientious soul.
73. It is true that there are many things, having the qualities of
other things, or an assemblage of properties common to others; yet
everything has a special identity of its own; and therefore I do
beseech thee, not to lose the consciousness of thy identity with that
of the soul, whereby thou exposest thyself to misery (_i.e._ keep in
mind thy divine nature).
74. Therefore employ thyself with intense application to the
meditation of the soul; or else thou art doomed to misery, for thy
ruminating on the objects of the visible world, in thy internal
recesses.
75. Sliding from consciousness of thyself, and running after the
imaginary objects of thy desire, are calculated for thy misery
only; therefore forget thyself O man!, to associate with thy mind
and the bodily organs, in order to find thy rest in the soul or
Samádhi—ecstasy.
76. Whence is this activity (_i.e._ what is this active principle),
since the mind is proved to be a nullity as a skyflower, and to be
utterly extinct, with the extinction of its thoughts and desires.
77. The soul also is as void of activity, as the Sky is devoid of its
parts. It is only the Divine spirit that exhibits itself in various
shapes within itself.
78. It bursts forth in the form of oceans with its own waters, and
foams in froths by the billows of its own breathing. It shines in the
lustre at all things, by its own light in itself. (So says the Urdu
poet: Oleken chamakta hai har rang meh).
79. There is no other active principal anywhere else, as there is no
burning fire brand to be found in the sea; and the inert body, mind and
soul (as said and seen before), have no active force in any one of them.
80. There is nothing essential or more perspicuous, than what we are
conscious of in our consciousness; and there is no such thing as
this is another or this no other, or this is good or bad, beside the
self-evident One.
81. It is no unreal ideal, as that of the Elysian gardens in the sky;
it is the subjective consciousness _samvid_, and no objective object of
consciousness _samvedya_, that extends all around us.
82. Why then entertain the suppositions of “this is I and that is
another,” in this unsuppositious existence? There can be no distinction
whatever of this or that in one unlimited, all extending and
undefinable expanse of the soul; and the ascription of any attribute to
it, is as the supposition of water in the mirage, or of a writing in
the Sky.
83. O my honest mind! if thou canst by the purity of thy nature, get
thyself freed from the unrealities of the world; and become enlightened
with the light of the soul, that fills the whole with its essence, and
is the inbeing of all beings, thou shalt verily set me at rest from
the uneasiness of my ignorance, and the miseries of this world and this
miserable life.
CHAPTER LXXXIII.
ON THE NECESSITY OF AVOIDING ALL BODILY AND WORLDLY CARES, AND ABIDING
IN INTELLECTUAL DELIGHTS.
Argument:—The sensuous Mind and the senses as roots of Evil, and
their Extinction as the source of God.
Vasishtha continued:—Hear now Ráma, how that great sage of enlightened
understanding, remonstrated in silence with his refractory senses.
2. I will tell you the same openly what he admonished in secret to his
senses; and by hearing these expostulations of him, you will be set
above the reach of misery.
3. O my senses, said he, I know your special essences to be for our
misery only; and therefore I pray you, to give up your intrinsic
natures for the sake of my happiness.
4. My admonitions will serve to annihilate your actualities, which are
no more than the creatures of ignorance.
5. The amusement of the mind with the exilition of its sensitivity, is
the cause of its fury and fever heat, as the kindlings of fire is for
burning one’s self or others in its flame. (_i.e._ The excitement of
passions and sensations is painful to the peaceful mind of man).
6. The mind being disturbed and bewildered, makes the restless feelings
and sensations, flow and fall to it, with the fierceness of boisterous
rivers falling into the sea, which it breaks out and runs in the form
of many a frith and firth into the land. (_i.e._ The sensational man is
subject to the excess of sensitive excitability and intolerance).
7. The sensitive minds burst forth in the passions of their pride and
egoism, clashing against one another like the conflicting clouds; and
fall in showers of hailstorms on the heads of others. (Sensational men
are bent on mutual mischief and injury).
8. The cares of prosperity and adversity, are the tormenting cankers
in their breasts, and they pierce and perforate the hearts to such a
degree, as they are intent upon uprooting them from their innermost
recesses. (Heart burning anxieties attending both on fortune and
misfortune).
9. They are attended with hiccoughs and hard breathings in the chest,
with groaning and sobbing in the lungs, like hooting owls in the hollow
of withered trees; whether covered with tufts of moss on their tops,
or resembling the hoary haired heads on the dried trunks of old and
decayed bodies. (Men growing old, yet pant and pine for riches the
more.) धनाशा जीविताशाच जीर्यतेऽपि न जीर्य्यति ।
10. The cavities of the heart inside the body, are perplexed with
crooked cares resembling the folds of snakes, hoary hairs likening hoar
frost over hanging the head, and the apish wishes lurk about in the
caves within the bosom.
11. Avarice is as a dancing stork, clattering her pair of sharp
bills (to entice men towards her); and then pull off their eyes from
their decayed frames, as also the intestinal cords of the body. (The
avaricious man is deprived of his good sense, sight and heartstrings).
12. Impure lust and lawless concupiscence, symbolized as the filthy
cock, scratches the heart as his dunghill, and sounds as shrill on
this side and that (Hence the cockish rakes are called coxcombs,
and cockneys, from their hoarse whistling as the horse neighs, and
strutting on stilts as the cock-a-hoop).
13. During the long and gloomy nights of our ignorance we are disturbed
by the fits of phrenzy, bursting as the hooting owl from the hollow of
our hearts; and infested by the passions barking in our bosoms like the
Vetála demons in the charnel vaults and funeral grounds.
14. These and many other anxieties, and sensual appetites disturb our
rest at nights, like the horrible Pisácha ogres appearing in the dark.
15. But the virtuous man who has got rid of his gloom of ignorance,
beholds every thing in its clear light, and exults like the blooming
lotus in the dawning light of the day.
16. His heart being cleared of the cloud of ignorance, glows as the
clear sky unclogged by fogs and mists; and a pure light envelopes it,
after the flying dust of doubts has been driven from it.
17. When the doubts have ceased to disturb the mind with the gusts of
dubiety and uncertainty; it becomes as calm and still as the vault
of the sky, and the face of a city after the conflicting winds have
stopped to blow.
18. Mutual amity or brotherly love, purifies and cheers the heart of
every body; and grows the graceful trees of concord and cordiality, as
the plants bring forth their beautiful blossoms and anthers in spring.
19. The minds of ignorant and unskilful men, are as empty as a barren
waste; and are shriveled with cares and anxieties, as the lotusbed is
withered under the shivering cold and ice. (Here is a pun on the word
_jádya_, used in its double sense of dulness and frost, both of which
are cold and inert _jada_).
20. After the fog and frost of ignorance, is dissipated from the
atmosphere of the mind; it gains its glaring lustre, as the sky gets
the sunshine, after the dispersion of clouds in autumn. (Learning is
the light of the lamp of the mind, as sunshine is that of the clear
sky).
21. The soul having its equanimity, is as clear and cheerful and as
deep and undisturbed, as the deep and wide ocean, which regains its
calm and serenity, after the fury of a storm has passed over it.
22. The mind is full within it with the ambrosial draughts of
everlasting happiness, as the Vault of heaven is filled with the
nectarous moonbeams at night. (Happiness is the moonlight of the mind).
23. The mind becomes conscious of the soul, after the dispersion of its
ignorance; and then it views the whole world in its consciousness, as
if it were situated in itself.
24. The contented mind finds its body to be full of heavenly delight,
which is never perceived by those living souls which are ensnared by
their desires of worldly enjoyments. (The bliss of content is unknown
to the prurient).
25. As trees burnt by a wildfire, regain their verdure with the return
of spring; so do people tormented by the troubles of the world,
and wasted by age and burden of life, find their freshness in holy
asceticism.
26. The anchorites resorting to the woods, are freed from their fear
of transmigration; and are attended by many joys which are beyond all
description. (No words can describe the spiritual joys of the soul).
27. Think, O insatiate man! either thy soul to be dead to thy carnal
desires or thy desires to be dead in thy soul; in both cases, thou art
happy, whether in possession or extinction of thy mind (_i.e._ having a
mind without desires, or desires without the mind).
28. Delay not to choose whatever thou thinkest more felicitous for
thyself; but better it is to be in possession of thy mind and kill thy
cares and desires, than kill thy mind with thy troublesome desires and
anxieties.
29. Mind the nullity of that which is painful to thee, because it is
foolishness to part with what is pleasant to thyself; and if thou hast
thy inward understanding at all, remain true to thyself by avoiding the
false cares of the world.
30. Life is a precious treasure, and its loss is liked by no body; but
I tell thee, in truth this life is a dream, and thou art naught in
reality. (And this is the Verdict of the Sruti and no dictum of mine).
Gloss.
31. Yet be not sorry that thou livest in vain, because thou hast lived
such a nullity from before, and thy existence is but a delusion. (Think
they living in the only living God, and not apart from Him).
32. It is unreasonable to think thyself as so and so, because the
delusion of self-existence of one’s self, is now exploded by right
reason.
33. Reason points the uniform entity of the selfsame Being at all
times; it is sheer irrationality that tells thee of thy existence, as
it is the want of true light that exhibits this darkness unto thee.
34. Reason will disprove thy entity as light removes the darkness; and
it was in thy irrationality, my friend, that thou hast passed all this
time in vain idea of thy separate existence.
35. It is because of this irrationality of thine, that thy gross
ignorance has grown so great, as to be sad because of thy calamities
only; and thy delusive desires have subjected thee to the devil, as
boys are caught by their fancied demons and ghosts.
36. After one has got rid of his former states of pain and pleasure,
and his transitory desires in this temporary world; he comes to feel
the delight of his soul, under the province of his right reason.
37. It is thy reason that has wakened thee from thy dulness, and
enlightened thy soul and mind with the light of truth; therefore should
we bow down to reason above all others, as the only enlightener of our
hearts and souls.
38. After the desires are cleared from thy heart, thou shalt find
thyself as the great lord of all; and thou shalt rejoice in thyself,
under the pure and pristine light of thy soul. (Swarúpa).
39. Being freed from thy desires, thou art set on the footing of the
sovran lord of all; and the unreasonableness of desires growing in thy
ignorance, will do away under the domain of reason.
40. And whether thou likest it or not, thy desires will fly from thy
mind under the dominion of thy reason; as the deep darkness of night,
flies at the advance of day light.
41. The thorough extinction of thy desires, is attended with thy
perfect bliss; therefore rely on the conclusion of thy nullity by every
mode of reasoning. (_i.e._ Be persuaded of thy impersonality, and the
desires will be extinct of themselves).
42. When thou hast lorded over thy mind and thy organs, and thinkest
thyself extinct at all times, thou hast secured to thy spirit every
felicity for ever.
43. If thy mind is freed from its disquiet, and is set at rest, and
becomes extinct in thy present state, it will not be revivified in
future; when thou shalt have thy _anaesthesia_ for ever. (The mind
being killed in this life, will never be reborn any more.—Mindlessness
is believed to be the _Summum bonum_ or supreme bliss and beatitude).
44. When I remain in my spiritual state, I seem to be in the fourth or
highest heaven in myself; hence I discard my mind with its creation of
the mental world from me for ever. (The third heaven is the Empyrean,
and the fourth is full with the presence of God alone).
45. The soul only is the self-existent being, beside which there is
nothing else in existence; I feel myself to be this very soul, and that
there is nothing else beside myself.
46. I find myself to be ever present everywhere with my intelligent
soul, and beaming forth with its intellectual light. This we regard as
the Supreme soul, which is so situated in the translucent sphere of our
inward hearts. (The heart is regarded as the seat of the soul, and the
mind as nothing).
47. This soul which is without its counter-part, is beyond our
imagination and description; therefore I think myself as this soul,
not in the form of an image of it, but as a wave of the water of that
profound and unlimited ocean of the Divine soul.
48. When I rest in silence in that soul within myself, which is
beyond the knowables, and is self-same with my consciousness itself; I
find also all my desires and passions, together with my vitality and
sensibility, to be quite defunct in me.
CHAPTER LXXXIV.
THE MENTAL OR IMAGINARY WORLD OF THE SAGE.
Argument. Hybernation of the Sage in a subterraneous cell, and
the revery of his dominion over aerial spirits.
Vasishtha continued:—The Sage Vítahavya having thus reflected in his
mind, renounced all his worldly desires, and sat in his hypnotic trance
in a cave of the Vindhyan mountains.
2. His body became motionless and devoid of its pulsations, and his
soul shot forth with its intellectual delight; then with his calm and
quiet mind, he sat in his devotion, as the still ocean in its calmness.
3. His heart was cold and his breathings were stopped; and he remained
as an extinguished fire, after its burning flame had consumed the fuel.
4. His mind being withdrawn from all sensible objects, and intensely
fixed in the object of his meditation; his eye-sight was closed under
the slight pulsations of his eyelids.
5. His slight and acute eye-sight was fixed on the top of his nose, and
had the appearance of the half opening bud of the lotus. (The lotus is
the usual simile of the eye, and the opening bud of the half opened
eye).
6. The erect structure of the head and neck and body of the meditative
sage, gave him the appearance of a statue hewn upon a rock (in bas
relief).
7. Sitting in this posture with his close attention to the supreme
soul in the Vindhyan Cave; he passed there the period of thrice three
hundred years as half a moment (close attention shortens the course of
time, for want of the succession of thoughts by which time is reckoned).
8. The sage did not perceive the flight of this length of time, owing
to the fixedness of his mind in his soul; and having obtained his
liberation in his listless state, he did not lose his life in his
obstipated devotion.
9. Nothing could rouse him all this time from his profound hypnotism,
nay not even the loud roar of the rainy clouds, could break his
entranced meditation _yoga-nidra_.
10. The loud shouts and shots of the soldiers and huntsmen on the
borders, and the cries and shrieks of beasts and birds, and the
growling and snarling of the tigers and elephants on the hills (could
break his sound repose).
11. The loud roaring of lions, and the tremendous dashing of the water
falls; the dreadful noise of thunder-claps, and the swelling clamour of
the people about him (could shake his firmness).
12. The deep howling of furious _Sarabhas_, and the violent crackling
of earthquakes; the harsh cracking of the woods in conflagration, and
the dashing of waves and splashing of torrents upon the shore (could
move him from his seat).
13. The rush of terraqueous waters falling on rocky-shores, and the
clashing off the torrents dashing on each other; and the noise and heat
of wild fires, did not disturb his repose:—_samádhi—sang froid_.
(Such was the firmness of dying martyrs and living yogis, as it was
witnessed in the case of the yogi, brought to this town from the
jungles).
14. He continued only to breathe at his will to no purpose, as the
course of time flows for ever to no good to itself; and was washed over
on all sides of his cave by currents of rain water, resembling the
waves of the Ocean. (The recent yogi was drowned under the flood of the
river, and came out alive afterward).
15. In the course of a short time he was submerged under the mud; which
was carried upon him by the floods of rain water in the mountain cave
of his devotion. (Yogis are said to live both under water and earth, as
it was witnessed in the case of the Hatha yogi of Lahore).
16. Yet he continued to keep his seat amidst that dreary cell, buried
as he was by the mud up to his shoulders. (The fact of the Fakir of
Lahore who lay buried underneath the ground is well known to many,
and his head was raised like a stone on the cold and stiff rock of his
body).
17. The long period of three centuries passed over him in this way,
when his soul was awakened to light under the pain of the rains of his
mountain cell.
18. The oppressed body then assumed its intellectual or spiritual
form _lingadeha_; which was a living subtile body as air or light but
without its acts of breathing the vital air. (The aerial spirit has
vitality, without inhaling or exhaling the vital air).
19. This body growing by degrees to its rarefied form by its
imagination, became of the form of the inner mind, which was felt to
reside within the heart. (But the mind is seated in the brain, and not
in the heart).
20. It thought in itself of having become a pure and living liberated
seer or sage, in which state it seemed to pass a hundred years under
the shade of a _Kadamba_ tree, in the romantic grove of the Kailása
mountain (a peak of the Himalayas).
21. It seemed of taking the form of a Vidyádhara for a century of
years, in which state it was quite free from the diseases of humanity.
It next thought of becoming the great Indra who is served by the
celestials, and passing full five Yuga ages in that form.
22. Ráma said:—Let me ask you, Sir, how could the mind of the sage
conceive itself as the Indra and Vidyádhara, whom it had never seen,
and how could it have the ideas of the extensive Kailása and of the
many ages in its small space of the cell, which is impossible in nature.
23. Vasishtha replied.—The Intellect is all comprehending and
all pervading, and wherever it exerts its power in any form, it
immediately assumes the same by its own nature. Thus the undivided
intellect exhibits itself in various forms throughout the whole
creation.
24. It is the nature of the intellect to exhibit itself in any form,
as it represents itself in the understanding; and it is its nature
to become whatever it pleases to be at any place or time. (It is the
nature of the finite heart to be confined in the finite cell of the
body, but the nature of the infinite intellect grasps all and every
thing at once in itself, as it ranges through and comprehends the whole
and every part of the universe within it).
25. So the impersonal sage saw himself in various forms and
personalities in all the worlds, in the ample sphere of his
consciousness within the narrow space of his heart. (The heart is said
to be the seat of the soul. And so says Pope. “As full and perfect in a
hair as heart”).
26. The man of perfect understanding, has transformed his desires to
indifference; and the desires of men like seeds of trees, being singed
by the fire of intelligence; are productive of no germ of acts.
27. He thought to be an attendant on the god (Siva), bearing the
crescent of the moon on his forehead, and became acquainted with all
sciences, and the knowledge of all things past, present and future.
28. Every one sees every thing in the same manner on his outside as it
is firmly imprest in his inward mind; but this sage being freed from
the impression of his personality in his life time, was at liberty
to take upon him whatever personality he chose for himself. (It is
possible for every person and thing to become another, by forgetting
and forsaking their own identity and individuality).
29. Ráma said:—I believe, O chief of sages! that the living liberated
man who sits in this manner, obtains the emancipation of his soul, even
though he is confined in the prison house of his body; and such was the
case of the self-liberated sage Vítahavya. (The body may be confined in
a single spot, but the soul has its free range everywhere).
30. Vasishtha answered:—How can Ram! the living liberated souls, have
the confinement of the body, when they remain in the form of Brahm
in the outward temple of his creation, which is pure and tranquil as
air. (The gloss says: the ideal body like the ideal world cannot be
the living or divine soul, any more than it is for a burnt vesture to
invest the body. Hence Nature which is said to be the body of God, has
no power over the spirit whose reflexion it is).
31. Wherever the empty and airy consciousness represents itself in any
form, it finds itself to be spread out there in that form. (Hence it is
that the conscious spirit assumes any form it likes, and rejects it at
will without being confined within or by the same).
32. So there appears many ideal worlds to be present before us, which
are full with the presence of the all pervading spirit of God. (Because
all these worlds are ideas or images or reflexions of God).
33. Thus Vítahavya, who was confined in the cave and submerged under
the mire; saw in the intellect of his great soul, multitudes of worlds
and countless unformed and ideal creations.
34. And he having thought himself at first as the celestial Indra,
conceived himself afterwards as an earthly potentate, and preparing to
go on a hunting excursion to some forest.
35. This sage who supposed himself as the swan of Brahmá at one time,
now became a chief among the Dása huntsmen in the forests of Kailása.
36. He who thought himself once as a prince in the land of Surástra
(Surat in Bombay), had now became as a forester in a village of the
Andhras in Madras.
37. Ráma said:—If the sage enjoyed heavenly bliss in his mind, what
need had he of assuming these ideal forms to himself? (since no body
would even in thought, like to exchange his spiritual delight for
corporeal enjoyment).
38. Vasishtha replied:—Why do you ask this question, Ráma, when you
have been repeatedly told that this world is a false creation of the
divine mind, and so were the creations of the sage’s mind also (neither
of them being anything in reality).
39. The universe which is the creation of the divine intellect, is as
unsubstantial as empty air; and so the ideal world of the human mind,
being but a delusion, they are both alike.
40. In truth, O Ráma! neither is that world nor is this other any thing
in reality; nor have I or thou any essentiality in this nonessential
world, which is filled only with the essence of God.
41. The one is as the other at all times, whether past, present or
future; all this visible world is the fabric of the mind which is again
but an ectype of the Intellect.
42. Such is the whole creation, though appearing as otherwise; it is no
other than the transcendental vacuum, although it seems to be as firm
as adamant. (Vasishtha resolves every thing to his prime essence and
unity of vacuity).
43. It is its ignorance that the mind exhibits itself in the forms of
the production, growth and extinction of things; all which are like the
rise and swinging and sinking of waves, in the ocean of eternal vacuity.
44. All things are situated in the vacuous sphere of the intellect, and
are perceived by its representative of the mind, in the form of the
firm and extended cosmos, though it has no extension in reality.
CHAPTER LXXXV.
THE SAGE’S SAMÁDHI OR ABSORPTION IN THE DIVINE SPIRIT.
Argument. Lecture on Samádhi Yoga or complete concentration of
the Mind in God.[2]
Ráma said:—Now tell me Sir, what became of this sage in his mansion of
the cavern; how he lifted his body from it, and what did he accomplish
by his austere and intense devotion?
2. Vasishtha said:—At last the mind of the sage was as extended as the
divine mind, and he beheld the Divine soul in its full glory in his own
soul.
3. He saw the primeval or dawning light of the intellect in his
meditation, which exhibited to his remembrance the scenes of his former
states of existence.
4. He then beheld the various forms of the bodies, through which he had
passed in his former lives; as also those things which had passed and
gone and those living with his present body in the cell.
5. He found his living body lying in the cave as an insect, and had a
mind to raise it above the surrounding mud and mire.
6. This body of Vítahavya which was confined in the cave, was covered
over with the dirt, carried by the rain waters and collected over its
back.
7. He saw his body pent up in the prison house of the cave, with loads
of clay on its back, and fettered in its limbs by the shrubs, carried
into it by the torrents of rain.
8. He thought in his clear understanding, of raising his incarcerated
body out of the cave; and made repeated efforts by force of his
breathings, to extricate it from its confinement.
9. With all his efforts, he found it impossible for his bodily powers,
to eliminate himself and walk upon the ground; whereupon he exerted his
spiritual power (which he had obtained by his devotion), to raise his
spirit to the orb of the sun.
10. He thought either of being raised upward by the golden rays of the
sun, or of obtaining his disembodied liberation, by the disengagement
of his soul from the bondage of his body.
11. He thought in his elevated mind; “I lose nothing by the loss of
my bodily exertions and exercise; but rather loosened myself from my
bonds, and repairing to my state of blessedness.”
12. Then remaining for some time in his thoughtful mood on earth, he
said; “neither is the leaving or having of this body, of any good or
loss to me”.
13. For as we forsake one body, so we betake to another: the difference
consisting on the size and bulk of the one, and the minuteness and
lightness of the other. (These are the _garimá_ of the corporeal, and
_laghimá_ or _animá_ of the spiritual body).
14. Let me then mount on this golden ray—_pingala_, of the sun and fly
in the open air; and borne by the vehicle of light, I will enter into
the body of the sun. (“Lo! I mount, I fly.” Pope’s Dying Christian to
his soul).
15. I will enter in the form of my shadow in the etherial mirror
of the sun, and this my aerial breath will conduct me to that orb.
(The spiritual body resembles the shadow of the material frame, and
is reflected in the luminaries of heaven as in their mirrors. The
departing breath of the dying person, is the conductor of his soul to
upper worlds).
16. He ascended with his _puryashtaka_ or subtile and spiritual body
upon the air, as the heat of fire passes out through the hollow of a
pair of bellows; and the mindful sun saw a great sage in this state
within his breast. (The sun is said to be a _muni_ or mindful; _i.e._
having a mind as any animated being).
17. On seeing the sage in this state, the high minded sun, called to
his mind the former acts of his devotion, and remembered his body lying
in the cell of the Vindyan region.
18. The sun traversing amidst the etherial regions, came to know the
actions of the sage; and beheld his body lying insensible in the cave,
covered under the grass and stones.
19. He ordered his chief attendant to lift up the body of the sage,
whose soul had now assumed its spiritual form.
20. The aerial form of the sage, now saluted the adorable sun with his
reverential mind; and was then recognized and received by him with due
honour.
21. He entered into the body of the solar attendant—Pingala, who was
now proceeding from heaven to the cell amidst the delightful groves of
the Vindhyan range.
22. Pingala entered the Vindhyan grove in the form of a cloud, which
assuming the shape of a big elephant, removed the earth from the
surface of the cave, with the long nails of his toes.
23. He then brought out the body of the sage with his trunk, as a stork
pulls up a lotus stalk from amidst the mud; and then the spiritual body
of the _muni_, fled from the form of Pingala to his own.
24. [3]The sage after his long wanderings in the regions of ether, like a
bird in the sky; found at last his own body, into which it entered as
its nest, and took his leave of Pingala with mutual salutations.
25. They then hurried to their respective callings with their refulgent
forms; the one fled into the air, and the other repaired to a lake to
cleanse his body.
26. It shone as a star in the limpid lake, and as sun beams under the
water; and then it appeared above it, as a full blown lotus on the
surface of waters. (The effect of devotion is said to brighten the body
also).
27. He rose out of the water as a young elephant, after its sport in
some dirty pool; and then offered his adoration to the sun, who had
restored his body and mind to their luminous states.
28. Afterwards the sage passed sometime on the bank of the Vindhyan
lake, fraught with the virtues of universal benevolence, fellow
feeling and kindness, and joined with the qualities of his peace
and tranquility, his wisdom and internal bliss, and above all his
seclusion and retirement from society, and unconcernedness with the
concerns of the world.
CHAPTER LXXXVI.
GOVERNMENT OF BODILY ORGANS.
Argument. Necessity of controul over senses for concentration of
the Mind.
Vasishtha resumed:—The _muni_ thought again to resume his accustomed
meditation, and entered a spacious cave in the Vindhya at the end of
the day.
2. He continued in the investigation of the soul, with his command over
the sensible organs, and he reflected on the reality and unreality of
things in his mind.
3. I find, said he, these organs of sense which were under my
subjection before, are now set at liberty in the exercise of their
various functions (tending to the destruction of the mind from its
fixed attention).
4. I will now cease to think concerning the existence and inexistence
of substances, and will recline solely (with my steady posture on that
Being to whom the being and not being of things is truly known like
that of a mountain peak).
5. I will remain wakeful inwardly, appearing as I were dead and asleep
outwardly; and yet sensible in my insensibility, as the quiet and
living soul, and thus continue both with the vigilance and supineness
of my spirit in the state of my quietism (_i.e._ appearing as a dead
block before the ignorant, but as thinking and vivacious in the eye
of the intelligent. Or the wise appear as fanatics before the foolish
worldlings).
6. Waking as if asleep and sleeping as awake, I will remain in my
torpor of _turíya_, which is neither dead nor quick (and neither the
corporeal nor spiritual state. Gloss).
7. I will remain retired as a rock from all things, and even apart from
my mind, and dwell in the bosom of the all pervading soul; I will abide
with the universal spirit in my tranquility, and having ease from all
disease.
8. Having mused in this manner, he sat at his meditation for six days
and nights; after which he was roused as a passenger wakes after his
short nap on the way.
9. Then this great devotee having obtained the consummation of his
devotion, passed his long life in the state of his living liberation.
(Or living apart from all cares and concerns of the world).
10. He took delight in nothing nor hated anything; he felt no sorrow
for aught nor any pleasure in naught (_i.e._ he had his stoic
indifference to every thing, whether good or bad).
11. Whether walking or sitting, he was thoughtless of every thing;
his heart was void of cares, and he conversed with his mind alone at
pleasure.
12. Behold! he said to his mind, O lord of my senses! the unsullied
and undecaying joy that thou dost enjoy in the tranquility; and
say if there is a greater felicity than this to be found on earth.
(For true felicity, according to the Vedántist, consisted not in the
possession, but renunciation of earthly cares and concerns, so Hafiz:
“Dáadduniáoáhilhá.” Abandon the world and all its people).
13. Therefore O my mind! that art the fleetest of all things, repress
thy flight and excitability; and rely on thy cool composure for thy
lasting happiness.
14. O my roguish senses, and O ye my perverted organs, ye have nothing
to do with me. (The senses are related with the mind, and bear no
relation to the soul).
15. The stiffness of the outer organs, is the cause of their failure;
and the volition of the mind, is the cause of its disappointment; and
neither of these have the power to protect me from evil.
16. Those that believe the senses, as same with the soul, are as
deluded as they, that mistake the rope for a snake.
17. To take what is not the self for self, is equal to the taking of an
unreality for reality; want of reason produces this mistake, but right
reason removes the fallacy.
18. You my senses and thou my mind, and my living soul, are different
things, and quite separate from the unity of Brahma. The mind is the
active principle, and the intellect is passive, and so no one related
to the other. (All these have their different functions to perform).
19. But it is their union, that serves to produce the same effect, as
the wood that grows in the forest, the rope that is made of flax or
hide, the axe made of iron, and the carpenter that works for wages, do
all combine in the building of a house.
20. Such is the accidental conjunction of different things, that
becomes the efficient cause of producing certain effects, which could
never result alone, as in the case of house building just mentioned.
21. So also in the causation of the various acts of the body, as
speech and all other works; which are effected by the accidental and
simultaneous union of the different organs of the body and mind,
without the waste or impairing of any of them.
22. Thus when the forgetfulness of death and sleep, are buried in
oblivion, and reminiscence is awakened upon revivification and waking,
the inactualities are again brought to the position of actuality
(_i.e._ the inaction is changed to action, by combination of mental
and bodily activities, which are again productive of their purposed
results).
23. In this manner that great devotee, went on with his cogitations for
many years, in that solitary cell of Vindhya mountain.
24. Freed from ignorance and afar from temptation, he remained there in
perfect felicity, and ever contemplating on the means of preventing the
metempsychosis of his soul.
25. Seeing the natures of things in their true light, he avoided all
that presented a false appearance; and for fear of being misled by
appearances, he resorted to the shelter of meditation (of the intrinsic
natures and properties of things).
26. Having his option of choosing what he liked from whatever he
disliked, he was indifferent to both of them, and his apathetic mind
was elevated from all that is desirable or detestable in life.
27. And having renounced the world, and all its connections and the
society of mankind; and setting himself beyond the bonds of repeated
births and actions of life, he became one with the incorporeal unity,
and drank the ambrosial draughts of spiritual delight.
28. He seemed to sit in his lonely abstraction, in the golden grotto
of the Sahya mountain; and looked on the entangled paths of the world
below, without any desire of walking in it, or mixing in its perfidious
society.
29. Then sitting in his erect posture, he said to himself; “Be
passionless, O my impassioned heart, and rest at peace my intolerant
spirit.”
30. I bid you farewell, O ye enjoyments of the world, that have
tempted me to taste your bitter pleasures in innumerable births and
transmigrations.
31. Ye pleasures that have deluded me so long like the indulgences of
boys; behold me now placed above your reach, by the absence of desire
in my state of holy and heaven-born _nirvána anaesthesia_.
32. I hail thee, O spiritual delight, that madest me forget my past
pleasures; and I thank you ye pains! that have led me to the inquiry of
the soul with so much ardour.
33. It is by thee, O sour misery! that this blissful state is revealed
to me; and thou art to be thanked for bringing me under the cooling
umbrage of heavenly delight.
34. I thank thee Adversity! that hast revealed to me the felicity of my
soul; and I bless thee, my friend! for thy making the vanity of worldly
life known unto me.
35. O my body! that art so intimately united with myself, I see thy
union to be but a temporary one; and like the short lived amity of
interested men, who forsake their beneficient friends in a moment.
36. Thus am I forsaken by all my bodies, in my various by gone births;
and so hath my soul, forsaken them all, in its repeated transmigrations
in different forms of living bodies.
37. Even in my present state, my body brings its own ruin on itself;
by its being slighted by the soul, upon its advancement in spiritual
knowledge. (Spiritualism is deteriorative of physical powers).
38. It is no fault of mine, that the body is discontented at my
contentment; or that it should be impaired by my abstinence, and
broken down by my indigence. (_i.e._ The practice of austerities is a
preventive of bodily growth).
39. Grieve not my churlish avarice, that I have grown averse to gain;
and you must pardon me, O my fond desires, that I have become so
devoid of my wishes, and betaken myself to the virtue of _Vairágya_ or
_insouciance_.
40. I have now betaken myself to my indifference, and want to thrive
therein; and pray of thee, O thou restless concupiscence! to have no
more any concern with me.
41. And I bid my last farewell to thee, O thou deity of piety and pious
deeds! that I may no more engage myself to the performance of acts
(because acts are attended with temporary and no lasting resultants).
42. I am lifted from the pit of hell and placed in heaven, and bid
adieu to the arbour of pleasures, growing in the soil of wicked acts,
and bearing as its fruits the torments of hell.
43. I bid farewell to the tree of sin, bearing the flowers of our
punishment, whereby I was doomed to repeated transmigrations in lower
births. (Does the passage allude to the forbidden tree, which brought
death on earth, and its sequence of repeated births in endless misery?)
44. I bow down to that unseen form of delusion, which uttered the
sweet voice of a sounding bamboo, and covered itself with a garment
of leaves. (Does it mean the deluded Adam hiding his nudity under the
leaves of trees?)
45. I bow to thee my holy cell, that art my associate in this devout
devotion; and art the only refuge of this weak body of mine, after its
weary journey in the rugged paths of the world.
46. Thou wast my kind companion, and remover of all my desires; and
hast been my only shelter, after I fled from all the dangers and
difficulties of the world.
47. And thou my pilgrim’s staff, that wast the support of my aged
body and arm; I have found my best friend in thee, for thy relieving
my fatigue, and guiding my footsteps in this dangerous and cavernous
retreat.
48. I thank thee also, O my aged body! that art the prop of my life,
even in this old age of thine; when thou art reduced to thy ribs,
covering thy bloodless entrails, and thy shrivelled veins and arteries.
49. Depart now my dilapilated body, with the pith and marrow that there
yet remain in thee; and away ye excrements that were in need of my
repeated ablutions and purifications.
50. I bid adieu to all my acts and dealings in the world, which
had been the destined causes and my connate companions, in all my
transmigrations in this world. (Human actions being causes of their
repeated births, for the sake of reaping their proper retributions).
51. I next bid you farewell, O my vital airs! who kept company with me
through all my various births, and from whom I (_i.e._ my soul) will
soon fly away.
52. How oft have I passed with you to foreign parts, and reposed in the
dales and groves of mountainous tracts; how long have we sported about
the cities, and how often have we dwelt in mountain retreats. (_i.e._
The soul with its subtile body, is sempiternal and ubiquious).
53. How many times have we run to different directions, and were
engaged in various avocations of life. In fact there was no time and
place in the space of the universe, when and where we did not live
together.
54. In truth I have never done nor seen, nor given nor taken anything
apart from you; and now I bid you adieu my friend, as I must soon part
from you.
55. All things in the world have their growth and decay, and are
destined to rise and fall by turns; and so also are the union and
separation of things, the unavoidable course of nature.
56. Let this light which is visible to sight, reenter in the sun whence
it proceeds, and let these sweet scents which come to my smelling, mix
with the flowers from which they are breathed and blown.
57. Let my vital breath and oscillation, join with the etherial air;
and let all the sounds I hear, return from my ears to the vacuous
sphere. (Lit. Let me lose my audibility in vacuity which is receptacle
of sounds).
58. Let my taste or sapidity, revert to the orb of the moon whence it
has sprung; and let me be as quiet as the sea after its churning by
the Mandara mount; and as the cool hour of the evening after the sun
has set. (Gustation or flavour—_rasa_ comes from the moon. Sruti.
_Dinánta-ramya_ the cooling evening. Kalidása).
59. Let me be as silent as the dumb cloud in autumn, and as still as
the creation, after the great deluge at the end of a _Kalpa_; let me
remain thoughtless, as when the mind is concentrated in the dot of _om_
or _on_, and when my soul rests in supreme soul. Let me be as cold as
when the fire is reduced to ashes, and as extinct as the extinguished
and oilless lamp.
60. Here I sit devoid of all actions, and removed from the sight of all
living beings; I am freed from the thoughts of worldly things, and am
resting in the peace of my soul, which is seated in my cranium.
CHAPTER LXXXVII.
TERM. THE _one_ IN VARIOUS TERM.
Argument. The manner in which the sage obtained his Bodiless
Liberation after his Death.
Vasishtha continued:—Then repeating aloud the sacred syllable _Om_,
and reflecting on the Universe contained in it; the sage obtained his
internal peace, after he had got rid of his thoughts and was freed from
his desires. (The meditation of _Om_ or _on_ presented all existence
to his mind, and it is shown in the definition of that word in the
Introduction of this book).
2. He cogitated on the several _mátrás_ or moments, which compose
the utterance of that mystic syllable; but leaving aside all its
attributes, he meditated only on the reality of the pure and
imperishable One.
3. He abstracted his mind from his internal and external organs, as
also from his grosser and finer feelings and the sensibilities of his
heart and body. He dismissed of whatever there is in the three worlds
and converted all his desires to indifference.
4. He remained unmoved in his body, and as the thoughtful Platonic
(chintámani), rapt in his abstraction; He was full in himself as the
full moon, and as still as the mount Mandara after its churning was
over.
5. He was as the motionless wheel of the potter’s mill, and as the calm
ocean undisturbed by waves and winds.
6. His mind was as the clear firmament, without its sun shine and
darkness; and his heart was bright, without the light of the sun, moon
and stars. His intellect was unclouded by the fumes, dust and cloud of
ignorance, and his soul was as clear as the autumnal sky. (The gloss
points out the combination of many figures in this tetrastich sloka).
7. Then raising his voice from the ventricle, to the topmost _pranava_
in the cranium of his head; his mind transcended the region of the
sensations, as the wind oversteps the area of fragrance (which remains
below.)
8. His mental darkness then fled from his mind, as the gloom of night
is dispelled by the dawning light of morn, and as the percipience of
sapience, puts down and extinguishes the sparks of anger in the bosom.
9. He then beheld the reflexion of a flood of light within himself,
which he found to be ceaseless in its brightness; and unlike the light
of the luminaries, which is repeatedly succeeded by darkness.
10. Having attained to that state of ineffable light, and
inextinguishable effulgence; he found his mental powers to be quickly
burnt down by its glare as the straws are consumed by the touch of fire.
11. In a short time he lost his consciousness of that light, as a new
born child loses in no time, its knowledge of whatever it perceives by
any of its sensible organs.
12. It was in a twinkling or half of that time, that this sedate sage
stopped the course of his thought, as the current wind stops its motion
in a moment.
13. He then remained as fixed as a rock, with his inattentive and
mute gaze on what passed before him; and retained his vitality like a
motionless dreamer in his sleep. (Pasyanti in the text means a patient
spectator).
14. He was next lost in his _Susupta_-hypnotism, as in the
insensibility of his profound sleep; and thereby attained his ultimate
felicity of _turíya_, in the retention of his absolute felicity only.
15. He was joyous in his joylessness, and was alive without his
liveliness; he remained as something in his nothingness, and was
blazing amidst obscurity. (His soul shone forth amidst the gloom of his
mind).
16. He was intelligent in his spirit, without the intelligence of the
senses; and was as the Sruti says, neither this nor that nor the one or
the other. He therefore became that which no words can express.
17. He became that transparent substance, which is transcendentally
pure and purifying; and was that all pervasive something, which is
corporate with nothing.
18. He was the vacuum of Vacuists, and the Brahma of the Brahmists; he
was the Knowledge of gnostics, and omniscience of scientists.
19. He became like the Purusha or spirit of the Sánkhya materialists,
and the Íswara of Yoga philosophers; he was alike the Siva of the
Sivites, bearing the mark of the crescent moon on their foreheads, and
as the Time of Timeists.
20. He was the same with the soul of souls of the Psychologists, and as
no soul of Physicists; he was similar to the Midst or Midmost of the
Mádhyamikas (_i.e._ having no beginning nor end), and the All of the
even-minded Pantheists.
21. He was identified with the main Truth of every religion, and the
essence of all creeds; and was self-same with the All essential and
Universal Reality.
22. He was identic with the pre-eminent and unimpaired light, which is
seen in all lightsome bodies; and was one with the inward light, which
he perceived to be glowing within himself.
23. He became the very thing which is one and many, and which is all
yet nothing. Which is simple and combined with all, and which is that
which is _Tat Sat—Al Ast_. (Or I am that which I am).
24. In short he remained as the one undecaying and without its
beginning, which is one and many, and simple without its parts. Which
is purer than the pure ether, and which is the Lord God of all.
CHAPTER LXXXVIII.
A DISCOURSE ON YOGA MEDITATION.
Argument. The Liberated Sage’s suspension of breathing in his
breast, the emaciation of his body and absorption of his senses.
Vasishtha Continued:—After Vítahavya had passed beyond the bounds of
nature, and crossed over this ocean of misery; he pacified also the
fluctuations of his mind (after he had restrained the actions of his
bodily actions).
2. Being thus becalmed, and brought to the state of perfect inertness;
he was absorbed in his ultimate supineness, as a drop of rain water and
the particles of waves, mix in the main ocean.
3. Sitting continually in his torpid state; his body became thin and
lean, without its food and functions, and it decayed fastly like the
fading lotus in winter, without the supply of its proper moisture of
water.
4. His vital breaths fled from the tree of his body (_i.e._ from his
lungs and arteries), and entered into the cavity of the heart, like
birds let loose from the net, and flying to their nests (concentration
of vital airs into the heart).
5. His corporeal body which was composed of flesh and bones and the
organs of sense, remained of course beneath the shady branches of
the woodland retreat; but his spirit roved beyond the bounds of the
elemental worlds above.
6. His individual intellect was absorbed in the ocean of the Universal
Intellect; as the particles of metallic substances are fused together
in the same metal. So the soul of the sage found its rest in its
intrinsic nature of the supreme soul.
7. Thus have I related to you, O Ráma! regarding the rest of the sage
in his torpid quietism; all this is full of instruction, and you must
consider well the hidden meaning which is contained therein. (The Gloss
speaks a good deal about the mysticisms of yoga and the mysterious
meanings of the words tanmaya and kaivalya, which are too long to be
given in this place).
8. And know, O Ráma, that by your good gifts of these things, and
perfections, you will be able to attain to that state of beatitude.
9. Consider well, O Ráma! all that I have told you already, and what I
will at present and in future expound to you.
10. As I have myself known and well considered all these things in
my long life, and by my experience of the past, and my knowledge of
present and future events, so will you be also. (_i.e._ As he was a sage
by his long experience, and a seer by his prescience).
11. Therefore have the clear sight or _clair-voyance_ of the sage, as I
have shown to you, and know that it is by means of your transcendental
knowledge alone, that you can have your emancipation in both worlds.
(_i.e._ Perfect liberation in the present life, ensures the freedom
of the next; and bondage in this state, leads to perpetual bondage in
future).
12. The light of knowledge dispels the darkness of ignorance, and
destroys the mist of false fears and woes; and knowledge alone is the
cause of that consummation, which nothing else can bring about.
13. See how the sage Vítahavya destroyed all his desires, by means of
his knowledge; and how he cleared the mountain of his mind, from all
its poisonous plants of worldliness.
14. Again his conscious knowledge or _clair-voyance_ of other spheres,
led the seer to penetrate into the solar orb of his desire on the
wings of his rays; and thence return (by his reminiscence) to redeem
his buried body from cave of earth. (So the soul of Jesus ascended
to heaven after his crucifixion, and returned to redeem his dead and
buried body from the grave after three days. It is also recorded
of many Yogis to revivify their bodies, as it is predicted in the
holy writ, of the resurrection of all dead bodies on the last day of
judgment or _Quiámat_, when the rotten bones will stand up (quama), at
the sound of the last trumpet of the Angel. This sort of resurrection
is analogous to the daily resuscitation (jágara or waking) of animal
bodies, after their _susupta_ and _swapna_ or sleeping and waking
states of every body. But the relinquishment and reanimation of the
body, was a voluntary act of the Yogi and entirely dependant on his
free will and option. Hence the modern Yogis and Jugis, are known to
bury their dead bodies, and not to burn them like Hindus. And all this
depends on the knowledge of yoga philosophy as it is said here in the
text).
15. This sage was the personification of the mind, and it is the mind
which is personified in the sensible or visible forms of I, thou, he
and this other. (Because the mind being the essential part of man makes
his personality, and not the body which is but an appendage to the
mind). The mind is also this world which consists in it, and without
which it is not known to subsist. (The mind makes the world and is
identified with it, wherefore Brahmá the mind of God, is represented as
the maker and identic with the world).
16. By knowing this transcendent truth, and being freed from the
faults of passions and feelings, and far removed from the foibles and
frailties of the world; the silent sage followed the dictates of his
mind, and attained thereby the endless blissfulness of his soul:—the
_summum bonum_ of human life.
CHAPTER LXXXIX.
A LECTURE ON RATIONALISTIC MEDITATION.
Argument. On Freedom from Desires and Delusions, and _Aerial
flights_ of yogis, and the Indestructibleness of their bodies.
Vasishtha said:—Ráma! you must have to imitate this sage, in order
to know the nature of the soul, and all that is knowable and worth
knowing. And in order to know these things, you must be passionless,
and without the emotions of fear and perturbation of your spirit at all
times.
2. As this sage seemed to pass the course of many millions of years,
in his cheerful meditation; so you shall have to habituate yourself to
your silent contemplation, without the discontentedness of your mind.
3. There have been many more sages of great minds in their times and
places, who have had their perfection in the same way; and who are
worthy of your imitation for the consummation of your object.
4. Knowing the soul to be inaccessible by pain and pleasure at all
times, and as everlasting and ubiquitous in all places; no one, O
mighty prince! has any cause to be sorry for it (or mourn for the loss
of what is immortal in its nature).
5. There are many persons living in this world, who are well acquainted
about the nature of the soul; but no body is so sorry for the misery of
human souls like yourself (as it is related in the beginning of this
work).
6. Remain quiet and in good cheer, with the magnanimity and equanimity
of thy mind; and know thyself to be imperishable, and without any
change or regeneration.
7. No living liberated man like yourself, is ever subject to sorrow or
mirth at the vicissitudes of life; as the brave lion is never moved
from his sedateness like the changeful peacock (at the change of
seasons like the weather-cock).
8. Ráma said:—Sir, this discourse of yours, gives rise to a doubt in
me, which I want you to disperse like an autumnal cloud. (The doubt is
resembled to a thick rainy cloud, and its form is likened to that of a
flimsy mist in autumn).
9. Tell me Sir, that art best acquainted with spiritual knowledge, why
the bodies of living liberated persons, are not to be seen to mount to
the skies.
10. Vasishtha replied:—Know Ráma, the powers of mounting to the sky
and flying in the air, belong naturally to volant bodies (as the fowls
and flies of the air). (And the mounting to the sky is the property of
igneous and etherial beings, as those of the flame of fire and aerial
spirits).
11. All the various motions that are seen to act in different
directions, are according to the natural tendencies of bodies, and are
never desired by the spiritualist (who would derive no good or benefit
whatever by his bodily movements).
12. Volitation is no way desirable to the living liberated soul, when
the volant power is easily acquired by the unspiritual and unliberated
ignorant people, by many physical and artificial powers, derived by
application of proper means, mantras and other practices. (Such as, the
flight of winged ants before the rains, the aerostatics of balloons and
pyrotechnics, the aerostation of magical mantras, and the volant power
acquired by some practical Yogis, who practise the swinging of their
bodies in air, by means of the suppression of their breath).
13. Volitation or flying is no business of the spiritualist, who is
concerned with his knowledge of the soul only; he is content with his
spiritual knowledge and union with the Supreme soul, and does not
meddle with the practices of the ignorant practitioners of false _yoga_.
14. Know all earthly contrivances to be the offspring of worldliness,
and the progeny of spiritual ignorance. Say then what spiritualist
is there, that will be so foolish as to plunge himself in this gross
ignorance.
15. He who pursues the path of spiritual ignorance, by his meditations
and contrivances for his temporal welfare; must be blind to the future
welfare of his soul, against the course of the holy sage and saint.
16. It is possible for the wise as well as the unwise, to acquire the
power of his flying in the air, by the continued practice of _yoga_, or
some other of the aforesaid arts and expedients of mantras and the like.
17. But the spiritual man remains quite aloof and afar from these, and
has no desire for any such thing; he is content with himself, and finds
his rest in the supreme soul, beside which he has nothing in view.
18. He has neither the aerial journey, nor any supernatural power or
worldly enjoyment for his object; and neither is earthly glory or
honour in his view, nor does he desire to live nor fear to die.
19. He is ever content and quiet in his soul, and is devoid of desires
and affections in his mind; he is of the form of empty air, and remains
with his spiritual knowledge as the idol of his soul.
20. He is unapprehensive of adversity or calamity, and unaffected by
feelings of pleasure and pain; he has full satiety in his privation of
everything, and is unconcerned about his life and death, by remaining
himself as the living dead.
21. He remains unmoved at all evens and odds, as the Ocean is at a
stand still with all the outpourings of the rivers; and he continues to
meditate on, and adore the divine spirit in his own spirit.
22. He has no need of acquiring or amassing any wealth for himself, nor
is he in need of asking anything of any body for his supportance.
23. The unspiritual man who aims at the acquisition of supernatural
powers, must sacrifice the means of his consummation to the acquirement
of such powers. (_i.e._ He must give up the seeking of his perfection in
pursuit of those powers. Or, he who wants to wax rich and great, may
become so at the loss of his peace and content and honesty).
24. All things are accomplished by application of their proper means,
and what is thus ordained to take place, can not be undone even by the
three-eyed God Siva himself. (It is believed that some mantras and
gems are possessed of the power, of lifting living bodies in the air).
25. Thus volitation depends on the application of proper means, and not
on one’s volition only; and nothing can alter the nature of things, as
that of the coolness of moon-beams.
26. Whether one is all-knowing or much-knowing, and all-powerful
or much powerful as a Hari or Hara; yet there is no body that has
the power of setting aside the destined law of nature (as for the
terrestrials to fly in air, and the celestials to walk on the earth).
27. Thus it depends on the nature of things, Ráma! and the combination
of times and circumstances, as also the application of proper means and
mantras, that causes a mortal to fly in the air, and an immortal to
descend on earth.
28. So it is the property of some drugs, gems and mantras, to destroy
the destructive power of poison; and of wine to intoxicate the
wine-bibber; and so of emetics to cause vomiting.
29. Thus all things have naturally the power of producing some effect,
according to its proper application and the mode and manner of it.
30. Hence no one that is unacquainted with these things, is able to
effect his flight in the air; and he that is fraught with his spiritual
knowledge, has no need of these practices.
31. All knowledge relating to the properties of things, and their
application in proper mode and manner for the bringing on of certain
ends, is of no good to the spiritualist for his attaining to
spirituality.
32. He who wishes to have supernatural powers, may gain them by his
long practice; but what need has the theosophist of these practices or
powers for himself?
33. It is after his freedom from the net of his desires, that the
spiritualist attains to his spiritual state; how then can he entertain
any desire which is opposed to it?
34. Every one endeavours to present in the course, to which he is led
by the desires rising in his heart; and whether he is learned or not,
he reaps the reward of his endeavours in due time.
35. Vítahavya never endeavoured to acquire any supernatural power; all
his endeavours aspired to the gaining of spiritual perfection, which he
obtained by his devotion in the forest.
36. It is not impossible or hard, to effect the acquisition of
supernatural powers; should one persist in the course of practicing and
applying the proper means to those ends.
37. The success which attends on any body in the consummation of his
object, is entirely owing to his personal exertion, and may be called
the fruit of the tree of his own labour.
38. But these successes and consummations, are of no use to those great
minded men, who have known the Knowable One in himself: and who have
made an end of their worldly desires.
39. Ráma said: Sir I have yet another question for your explanation and
it is this, why did not the ravenous beasts of the desert, devour the
deadlike body of the devoted sage, and why did it not moulder under the
earth, by which it was covered?
40. And again how the bodiless and liberated soul of the sage, which
was absorbed in the sunlight, return to resume its dilapidated body,
which was buried in the mountain cave.
41. Vasishtha replied:—The conscious soul that believes itself to be
embodied with its mortal body, and beset by the coils of its desires
and the bonds of its affections, is here subjected both to the feeling
of pleasure and the pangs of pain.
42. But the intelligent soul which relies on its pure consciousness,
and is freed from the net of its desires, remains only with its subtile
spiritual body (which no beast or bird can devour, nor any dust or rust
can destroy). So says the Gítá:—It is indivisible and unconsumable,
and neither does it moulder nor dry up at any time.
43. Hear now, Ráma, the reason why the body of the Yogi, is not subject
to the accidents of disjunction or corruption for many hundreds of
years (under the influence of heat and cold and other casualties).
44. Whenever the mind is occupied with the thought of any thing, it is
immediately assimilated into the nature of that object, and assumes the
same form on itself.
45. Thus upon seeing or thinking of an enemy, the mind turns to enmity,
at the very sight or thought of its foe; as it assumes the nature of
friendliness, on the visit and remembrance of a friend.
46. So on seeing a hill or tree or passenger, that bears no enmity or
friendship to it, the mind remains equally indifferent towards the
same, and without any change in its disposition as it is perceived by
us.
47. Again the mind is sweetened (pleased) on relishing the sweets, and
embittered by tasting the bitter. It becomes fond of the sweet, and
averse to whatever is sour and bitter and unpalatable.
48. So when a ravenous beast comes in the sight of a dispassionate
Yogi, its envious nature is changed to dispassionateness, and it
desists from doing him any injury. (So says Patanjali, “Good company
turns the wicked to goodness”).
49. The malicious being freed from his malice, in the company of the
even minded stoic, desists from the doing of any harm, to any one;
as the indifferent wayfarer has no business to break the straggling
branches and trees growing on the way side, which the rude rustics are
apt to lop off and cut down (for the making of their fuel).
50. But the savage beast being removed from the side of the Yogi,
resumes its ravenous nature again, in the company of the rapacious and
wild beasts of the forest.
51. Hence it was that the envious beasts of the forest, the tigers,
lions and bears; as also the reptiles and creeping insects of earth,
did not molest the sedate body of the sage, so long as they lurked and
crept about it.
52. The reason why the body was not reduced to the dust of the earth
is, because the silent conscience that there dwells in common, in all
existent bodies of animals, vegetables and minerals, and abides in them
as in the person of a dumb creature; would not allow them to injure the
innocent body of the sage lying flat on the ground.
53. The spiritualised body of the Yogi, is seen to move about on
earth, like the shadow of something floating on the water.
54. Therefore the spiritual body of the sage, which was rarefied above
the elemental bodies by virtue of his spiritual knowledge, became quite
incorruptible in its nature.
55. Hear me tell you another reason, Ráma! that it is the want of
oscillation which is the cause of destruction, as it is the vibration
or breathing of the heart which is the cause of life.
56. It is the breathing of vital breaths, which causes the vibration of
the arteries, and this being stopped, the body becomes as still as a
stone.
57. He who has lost the pulsations of his heart and vital breaths, has
lost also both his vitality and mortality, and become as stones (which
are neither dead nor alive).
58. When the internal and external pulsations of the body are at a
stop, know, O well-informed Ráma! the intestinal parts are not liable
to any change.
59. The motion of the body being stopped, and the action of the heart
having ceased; the humours of the body become as stiff and inert, as
the solid mountain of Meru.
60. So the want of fluctuation, is seen to cause the steadiness of all
things in the world; and hence the bodies of sages are known to be as
quiet, as the blocks of wood and stone.
61. The bodies of Yogis therefore, remain entire for thousands of
years; and like clouds in the sky and stones underneath the water, are
neither soiled nor rotten at any time.
62. It was in this manner that this sage, who knew the truth, and was
best acquainted with the knowledge of the knowable, left his earthy
body, in order to find the rest of his soul in the Supreme Spirit.
63. Those men of great minds who are dispassionate, and know what is
chiefly to be known above all others; pass beyond the bounds of this
earth and even of their bodies, to assume an independent form of their
own.
64. They are then perfect masters of themselves, whose minds are well
governed by their right understanding; and are not affected by the
influence of their destiny or the acts of their past lives, nor moved
by their desires of any kind.
65. The minds of consummate Yogis, are of the nature of destiny;
because they can easily effect whatever they think upon, as if they
were the acts of chance as in _Kákatálíya Sanyoga_.
66. So it was with this sage, who no sooner thought of the renovation
of his body, than he found it presented before his sight, as if it were
an act of chance (or the _kákatálic_ accident).
67. When the soul forsakes its earthly frame, after the fruition of
the fruits of its passed actions is over; it assumes a spiritual form,
which is the state of its disembodied liberation, and when it enjoys
its perfect liberty in its independent state.
68. The mind being freed from its desires, is released from all its
bonds, and assumes the spiritual form of the pure soul; it then effects
instantly all that it wishes to do, and becomes all-powerful as the
great Lord of all.
CHAPTER LXXXX.
ADMONITION ON THE MIND AND ITS YOGA MEDITATION.
Argument. The Two ways of subduing selfishness; by Universal
Benevolence and want of Personality.
Vasishtha said:—After the sage Vítahavya, had subdued his heart and
mind by his rationality, there arose in him the qualities of universal
benevolence and philanthropy (for want of his selfishness).
2. Ráma asked:—How do you say, Sir, that the quality of benevolence
sprang in the mind of the sage, after it had been wholly absorbed in
itself by its rationality? (since the total insensibility of one if
himself, cannot have any regard for others).
3. Tell me Sir, that art the best of speakers, how can the feelings of
universal love and friendliness, arise in the heart which is wholly
cold and quiet, or in the mind which is entranced in the divine spirit?
4. Vasishtha replied:—There are two kinds of mental numbness, the one
being its coma in the living body; and the other its deadliness after
the material body is dead and gone. (The one is _swarúpa_ and the other
_arúpa_; the first having its formal existence, and the other being a
formless one).
5. The possession of the mind is the cause of woe, and its extinction
is the spring of happiness; therefore one should practise the abrasion
of the essence of his mind (or personality), in order to arrive to its
utter extinction.
6. The mind that is beset by the net of the vain desires of the world,
is subject to repeated births, which are the sources of endless woes.
(The world is a vale of tears, and worldlimindedness is the spring of
misery).
7. He is reckoned as a miserable being, who thinks much of his person,
and esteems his body, as the product of the good deserts of his past
lives; and who accounts his foolish and blinded mind as a great gift to
him. (Human life is usually esteemed as the best of all living beings;
and the Sástra says “the human body is the best gain after millions of
transmigrations in other forms”).
8. How can we expect the decrease of our distress, as long as the mind
is the mistress of the body? It is upon the setting down of the mind,
that the world appears to disappear before us. (As the setting sun
hides the world from our sight).
9. Know the mind to be the root of all the miseries of life, and its
desires as the sprouts of the forest of our calamities.
10. Ráma asked:—Who is it, Sir, whose mind is extinct, and what is the
manner of this extinction; say also how its extinction is brought on,
and what is the nature of its annihilation?
11. Vasishtha replied:—O support of Raghu’s race! I have told you
before of the nature of the mind; and you will hear now, O best of
inquirers! the manner of extinguishing its impulses.
12. Know that mind to be paralysed and dead, which is unmoved from
its steadiness by pleasure and pain; and remains unshaken as a rock
at the gentle breath of our breathing. (_i.e._ the man that lives and
breathes, but moves not from his purposes).
13. Know also that mind, to be as dull as dead, which is devoid of the
sense of its individuality from others; and which is not degraded from
the loftiness of its universality, to the meanness of its personality.
14. Know that mind also, to be dead and cold, which is not moved by
difficulties and dangers; nor excited by pride and giddiness, nor
elated by festivity nor depressed by poverty and penury; and in short
which does not lose its serene temperament at any reverse of fortune.
15. Know, gentle Ráma! this is what is meant by the death of the mind,
and the numbness of the heart; and this is the inseparable property of
living liberation (of those that are liberated in their lifetime).
16. Know mindfulness to be foolishness, and unmindedness is true
wisdom; and it is upon the extinction of mental affections, that the
pure essence of the mind appears to light.
17. This display of the intrinsic quality of the mind, after the
extinction of its emotions; and this temperament of the mind of the
living liberated persons, is said by some to be the true nature of the
mind.
18. The mind that is fraught with the benevolent qualities, has its
best wishes for all living beings in nature; it is freed from the pains
of repeated births in this world of woe, and is called the living
liberated mind (_Jívan-mukta manas_).
19. The nature of the living liberated mind is said to be its intrinsic
essence, which is replete with its holy wishes, and exempted from the
doom of transmigration.
20. The _Swarúpa_ or personal mind, is what has the notion of its
personality as distinct from its body; and this is the nature of the
mind of those, that are liberated in their lifetime. (This is the
nature of the individual and unembodied mind).
21. But when the living liberated person loses the individuality of his
mind; and becomes as gladsome as moonbeams within himself, by virtue of
his universal benevolence; it then becomes as expanded and extended, as
it appears to be present everywhere at all times.
22. The living liberated person being mindless of himself, becomes as
cold hearted as a plant growing in a frigid climate, where it blooms
with its mild virtues, likening the blossoms of the winter plant.
23. The _Arúpa_ or impersonal mind of what I have told you before, is
the coolness of the disembodied soul, that is altogether liberated from
the consciousness of its personality.
24. All the excellent virtues and qualities, which reside in the
embodied soul, are utterly lost and drowned in the disembodied soul,
upon its liberation from the knowledge of its personality.
25. In the case of disembodied liberation, the consciousness of self
personality being lost, the mind also loses its formal existence in
_Virúpa_ or formlessness, when there remains nothing of it.
26. There remains no more any merit or demerit of it, nor its beauty
or deformity; it neither shines nor sets any more, nor is there any
consciousness of pain or pleasure in it.
27. It has no sense of light or darkness, nor the perception of day and
night; it has no knowledge of space and sky, nor of the sides, altitude
or depth of the firmament.
28. Its desires and efforts are lost with its essence, and there
remains no trace of its entity or nullity whatever.
29. It is neither dark nor lightsome, nor transparent as the sky;
it does not twinkle as a star, nor shines forth as the solar and
lunar lights. And there is nothing to which it may resemble in its
transparency.
30. Those minds that have freed themselves from all worldly cares, and
got rid from the province of their thoughts also; are the minds that
rove in this state of freedom, as the winds wander freely in the region
of vacuum.
31. The intelligent souls that are numb and sleepy, and are set in
perfect bliss beyond the trouble of _rajas_ and _tamas_; and which have
assumed the forms of vacuous bodies, find their rest in the supreme
felicity, in which they are dissolved in the unity of the Deity.
CHAPTER LXXXXI.
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE HUMAN BODY AND CONSCIOUSNESS.
Argument. Of Desire and Breathing as the two seeds, producing the
Plant of Human Body, bearing the fruits of Worldliness.
Ráma said:—I see the stupendous rock (Brahma) filling the infinite
vault of vacuum, and bearing the countless worlds as its vast forests,
with the starry frame for its flowers and the gods and demigods for its
birds and fowls.
2. The flashing of lightnings are its blooming blossoms, and the azure
clouds are the leaves of the forest trees; the seasons and the sun and
moon fructify these arbors with good looking fruits.
3. The seven seas are the aqueducts at the foot of this forest, and the
flowing rivers are its channels; and the fourteen worlds are so many
regions of it, peopled with various kinds of beings.
4. This wilderness of the world, is beset by the wide spreading net of
cupidity; which has overspread on the minds of people, as the creeping
vine fills the vineyard ground.
5. Disease and death form the two branches of the arbor of the world
(_Sansára Mahíruha_), yielding plentifully the fruits of our weal and
woe; while our ignorance serves to water and nourish this tree to its
full growth.
6. Now tell me, sir, what is seed that produced this tree, and what is
the seed of that seed also. Thus tell me what is the original seed of
the production of the mundane tree.
7. Explain to me all this in short, for the edification of my
understanding; and also for my acquirement of the true knowledge with
which you are best acquainted.
8. Vasishtha answered:—Know Ráma! the corporeal body to be the seed
or cause of this arbour of the world. This seed is the desire which is
concealed in the heart of the body, and shoots forth luxuriantly, in
the sprouts of good and bad acts and deeds.
9. It is full of boughs and branches, and luxuriant in the growth of
its fruits and flowers; and it thrives as thickly and fastly, as the
paddy fields flourish in autumn.
10. The mind which is the seed of the body, is subject to and slave of
all its desires. Its treasure house consists of alternate plenty and
poverty, and its casket contains the gems of pleasure and pain.
11. It is the mind which spreads this net-work of reality and unreality;
as it stretches the fretwork of truth and falsehood in dreams and
visions.
12. As the dying man sees in his imagination, the messengers of death
appearing before him; so doth the mind, present the figure of the
unreal body as a reality.
13. All these forms and figures, which appear to our view in these
worlds, are the formations of the mind, as the pots and toys are the
works of clay. (The mind being the same with Brahmá; is the formal
cause of all existences).
14. There are two kinds of seeds again which give rise to the arbor
of the mind, which is entwined by the creepers of its faculties; one
kind of these is the breathing of the vital breath, and the other
is thinking or the train of its thoughts. (The text has the words
_dridha-bhávana_ or the certainty of the knowledge of its reality).
15. When the vital air vibrates through the lungs and arteries, the
mind then has the consciousness of its existence.
16. When the vital breath ceases to circulate through the lungs
and wind pipes, there ensues the insensibility of the mind and the
circulation of the heart-blood is put to a stop.
17. It is by means of the vibrations of breath and the action of the
heart, that the mind perceives the existence of the world which is as
false as the appearance of the blue sky, in the empty space of vacuum.
18. But when these vibrations and actions fail to rouse the sleeping
mind, it is then said to enjoy its peace and quiet; otherwise they
merely move the body and mind, as the wires move the dolls in the
puppet show.
19. When the body has its sensibility, caused by the breathing of the
vital air, it begins to move about like a doll dancing in its giddy
circle in the Court yard, by artifice of the puppet player.
20. The vibrations of breath awaken also our self-consciousness, which
is minuter than the minutest atom; and yet all pervasive in its nature,
as the fragrance of flowers, which is blown afar in the air by the
breath of the wind.
21. It is of great good, O Ráma! to confine one’s consciousness in
one’s self (as it is to shut the fragrance of the flower in its seed
vessel; and it is effected by stopping the breathing by means of the
practice of _pránáyáma_ or suppression of breath; as the diffusion of
odours is prevented by shutting out the current air).
22. By restraining our self-consciousness we in ourselves succeed
to refrain from our consciousness of all other things because the
knowledge of endless objects (particulars), is attended with infinite
trouble to the mind. (All knowledge is the vexation of the spirit.
Solomon’s Proverbs).
23. When the mind comes to understand itself, after it is roused from
its dormancy of self-forgetfulness (by being addicted to the thoughts
of external objects); it gains what is known to be the best of gains,
and the purest and the holiest state of life.
24. If with the vacillation of your vital breaths, and the
fluctuation of your wishes, you do not disturb the even tenor of your
consciousness, like the giddy part of mankind, then you are likened to
the great Brahmá himself (who lives and does what he likes, without any
disturbance of his inward intuition).
25. The mind without its self-consciousness or conscience, is a barren
waste; and the life of man with its knowledge of truth, is as a mazy
path, beset with traps and snares of errors and dangers.
26. The meditative Yogi is practised to the suppression of his breath
for the peace of his mind, and conducts his _pránáyáma_ or restraint of
respiration, and his _dhyána_ or intense meditation, according to the
directions of his spiritual guide and the precepts of the sástras.
27. Restraint of breath is accompanied by the peace of mind, causing
the evenness of its temperament; and it is attended with health and
prosperity and capacity of cogitation to its practiser.
28. Learn Ráma, another cause of the activity of the mind, which is
considered by the wise as the source of its perpetual restlessness; and
this is its restless and insatiable concupiscence.
29. Now this concupiscence is defined as the fixed desire of the mind,
for the possession of something, without consideration of its prior
and ultimate conditions. (_i.e._ Whether it is worth having or not, and
whether its gain will be productive of the desired object in view).
30. It is the intensity of one’s thought of getting something that
produces it before him; in utter disregard of the other objects of
its remembrance. (The gloss gives a mystic sense of this passage;
that reminiscence which is the cause of the reproduction of prior
impressions, is upset by the intensity of the present thought in the
mind).
31. The man being infatuated by his present desire, believes himself
as it depicts him to be; and takes his present form for real, by his
forgetfulness of the past and absent reality. (The present unreal
appears as real, and the past reality passes away as an unreality, as
in the case of prince Lava’s believing himself a chandála during his
dream, and so it is with us to take ourselves as we think us to be).
32. It is the current of our desire, that carries us away from the
reality; as the drunkard sees everything whirling about him in his
intoxication.
33. Men of imperfect knowledge, are led to like errors by their
desires, as a man is driven to madness by the impulse of passions.
34. Such is the nature of the mind, that it leads to the imperfect
knowledge of things, so as to view the unreal as real, and the
unspiritual as spiritual.
35. It is the eager expectation of getting a thing, which is fixed and
rooted in the heart, that impels the restless mind to seek its desired
object, in repeated births and transmigrations.
36. When the mind has nothing desirable or disgusting to seek or shun,
and remains apart from both, it is no more bound to regeneration in any
form of existence.
37. When the mind is thoughtless about anything, owing to its want
of desire of the same; it enjoys its perfect composure, owing to its
unmindfulness of it and all other things.
38. When there is no shadow of anything, covering the clear face of
consciousness, like a cloud obscuring the face of the sky; it is then
that the mind is said to be extinct in a person, and is lost like a
lotus-flower, which is never seen to grow in the expanse of the sky.
39. The mind can have no field for its action, when the sphere of the
intellect is drained and devoided of all its notions of worldly objects.
40. Thus far have I related to you, Ráma, about the form and features
of the mind; that it is only the entertaining of the thought of
something with fond desire of the heart. (Here the mind is identified
with the fond thought or wish of a man).
41. There can be no action of the mind, when the sphere of the
intellect is as clear as the empty sky, and without the thought of any
imaginary or visible object moving before it as the speck of a cloud.
42. It is called unmindedness also, when the mind is practised to
its Yoga, or thoughtlessness of all external objects, and remains
transfixed in its vision of the sole essence of God.
43. When the mind has renounced the thought of everything within
itself, and remains in its perfect coolness of cold-heartedness (_sang
froid_) of Yogis; such a mind, though exercising its powers and
faculties, it is said to be nil and extinct.
44. He whose want of desires, has chilled his ardour for anything, and
made him impassionate, is said to have become extinct, and reduced like
a rag to ashes (leaving the form without its substance).
45. He who has no desire of gain to cause his repeated birth and death,
is called the living liberated; though he should move about in his busy
career like a potter’s wheel (which is insensible of its motion).
46. They are also styled the living liberated, who do not taste the
pleasure of desire; but remain like fried seeds, without regerminating
into the sprouts of new and repeated births.
47. Men attaining to spiritual knowledge in their earthly lives, are
said to have become mindless in this world, and to be reduced to
vacuity (the _summum bonum_ of vacuists) in the next.
48. There are, O Ráma! two other seeds or sources of the mind, namely,
the vital breath and desire; and though they are of different natures,
yet the death of either occasions the extinction of both.
49. Both of these are causes of the regeneration of the mind, as the
pond and the pot (or pipes), are the joint causes of water supply.
(Wherein the want of the one, is tantamount to the loss of the other
also).
50. The gross desires of men are the causes of their repeated births,
as the seeds are causes of the repeated growth of trees; and the germ
of regeneration is contained in the desire, as the future plant is
contained in the seed, and the oily juice is inbred in the sesamum seed.
51. The conscious mind is the cause of all things in the course of
time, and the source of all its pleasure and pain, which rise and fall
in itself, and never grow without it. (Avindbhavin).
52. As the union of the breath of life with the organs, produces the
sensations; so these being united with desire, are productive of the
mind. (Hence the living and sensitive plants which are devoid of
desire, are devoid of mind also).
53. As the flower and its fragrance, and the sesamum seed and its oil
are united together; so is animal life inseparably connected with its
desire. (Hence extinction of desire is tantamount to living death).
54. The desire being the active principle of man, and subversive of
his passive consciousness; it tends to unfold the seed of the mind, as
moisture serves to expand the sprouts of vegetable seeds.
55. The pulsation of the vital breath, awakens the senses to their
action, and the vibrations of sensation touching the heart strings,
move the mind to its perception of them.
56. The infant mind being thus produced by the fluctuating desires,
and the fluctuations of vital breaths, becomes conscious of itself, as
separate and independent of its causes.
57. But the extinction of either of these two sources of the mind, is
attended with the dissolution of the mind; and also of its pains and
pleasures, which resemble the two fruits of the tree of the mind.
58. The body resembles a branching tree, beset by the creepers of
its acts; our avarice is as a huge serpent coiling about it, and our
passions and diseases are as birds nestling in it.
59. It is beset by our erroneous senses, resembling the ignorant birds
setting upon it; and our desires are the cankers, that are continually
corroding our breasts and minds.
60. The shafts of death are felling down the trees of our minds and
bodies; as the blasts of wind toss the fruits of trees upon the ground;
and the flying dusts of our desires have filled all sides, and obscured
the sights of things from our view.
61. The loose and thick clouds of ignorance overhang on our heads, and
the pillars of our bodies, are wrapped around by the flying straws of
our loose desires.
62. The small bark of our body, gliding slowly along in quest of
pleasure, falls into the eddy of despair; and so every body falls into
utter gloom, without looking to the bright light that shines within
himself.
63. As the flying dust is allayed by the setting down of the winds, so
doth the dust of the mind subside, by subsidence of the force of our
vital airs and desires. (The two moving forces of the mind).
64. Again it is intelligence or _Samvedya_, which is the seed or root
of both of these; and there being this intelligence within us, we have
both our vitality and our desires also. (The word _Samvedya_ in the
text is explained as _Chaitanya_, which is the same with intelligence).
65. This intelligence springs from _Samvid_ or consciousness; by
forsaking its universality, and retaining its individuality; and then
it becomes the seed both of vitality and velleity. (_Samvid_ the
consciousness of the impersonal self, being vitiated to the knowledge
of one’s personality, produces the mind and its selfish desires).
66. Know then your intelligence as the same with your consciousness,
and resembles the seed of the mind and its desires, both of which
quickly die away with their root, like a rootless or uprooted plant and
tree.
67. The intelligence never exists without consciousness, and is ever
accompanied with it, as the mustard seed and its oil. (Or rather, as
the oil is contained in the mustard seed).
68. The wakeful conscience gets its intelligence from its desire, as
the waking consciousness of men, views their death and departure to
distant lands in dream, from their thoughts of the same.
69. It is owing to our curiosity only, that our consciousness has its
intelligence of the intelligible (God); as it is the desire of knowing
any thing, that leads the conscious soul to the knowledge of it. (It
means simply that, understanding combined with the desire of knowing a
thing, becomes the knowledge itself. Here is a play of the paronyms,
_Samvid_, _Samitti_, _Samvedya_, _Samvedana_ and the like).
70. This world is no more than a net work of our imagination, as the
boys imagine a goblin to be hidden in the dark. (So Bacon: Men fear
death, as children fear to go in the dark (for fear of demons)).
71. It is as the stump of a tree, appearing as a man in the dark; and
like the streaks and particles of sunbeams and moonlight, issuing
through the chink of a window or wall, appear as fire: and so are all
the cognizables of our cognition (but deceptions of our senses).
72. The objects of our knowledge are as deceptive, as the appearance of
a moving mountain, to a passenger in a boat. All appearances are the
presentations of our error or ignorance, and disappear at the sight of
right knowledge.
73. As the fallacy of the snake in the rope, and the appearance of two
moons in the sky, vanish before the keen sightedness of the observer;
so the representation of the triple world, disappears in like manner,
from before the penetrating understanding.
74. The inward certitude of the illusion of the world, is what is
called the perfection of knowledge by the wise; and the knowledge of
all things whether seen before or not, is equally a delusion of the
mind.
75. It is therefore right, to rub out the impressions of consciousness
with diligence; because the preservation of those vestiges, is the
cause of our bondage in the world.
76. The erasure of these marks from the mind, is tantamount to our
liberation; because the consciousness of these impressions, is the sore
cause of repeated transmigrations in this world of woe.
77. The uninert consciousness, which is unconscious of the outward
world, but preserves the consciousness of the self, is attended both
with present felicity, and want of future regeneration also. Be
therefore unconscious of the externals, and conscious of the internal
bliss of your soul; because the wakeful soul that is insensible of the
externals, is blessed with the sensibility of its inward blissfulness.
78. Ráma asked:—How is it possible sir, to be both unconscious and yet
uninert; and how can unconsciousness be freed from and get rid of its
unavoidable supineness?
79. Vasishtha replied:—That is called the unsluggish or sensible
unconsciousness, which having its existence, dwells on nothing beside
itself; and which though it is living, is insensible of everything else
(and yet quite sensible of its own existence).
80. He is called both the unconscious and yet uninert, who has no
visible object in his consciousness; and who discharges his duties and
all the affairs of his life, without attaching his mind to them.
81. He is said to be unslumbering and yet unconscious, whose mind
is insensible of the sensible objects of perception; but yet clear
with the impressions of the knowable objects of intellectuality: and
such a person is said to be the living liberated also (who is removed
from the material to the spiritual world, has his _ajadá asamvid_ or
unslumbering unconsciousness).
82. When the indifferent soul thinks of nothing in itself, but remains
with its calm and quiet composure, like a young child or a deaf and
dumb person, in possession of his internal consciousness:—
83. It becomes then possest of its wisdom, and rests in full knowledge
of itself without its dullness; and is no more liable to the turmoils
of this life, nor to the doom of future births.
84. When the adept rests in his state of sedate hybernation, by
forsaking all his desires; he perceives a calm delight to pervade his
inmost soul, as the blueness overspreading the sky.
85. The unconscious Yogi remains with the consciousness of his unity
with that Spirit; which has no beginning nor end; and in which he finds
himself to be utterly absorbed and lost.
86. Whether moving or sitting, or feeling or smelling, he seems
to abide always, and do everything in the Holy spirit; and with
his self-consciousness and unconsciousness of aught besides, he is
dissolved in his internal delight.
87. Shut out these worldly sights from your mind, with your utmost
endeavours and painstaking; and go across this world of woes,
resembling a perilous ocean, on the firm bark of your virtues.
88. As a minute seed produces a large tree, stretching wide in the sky;
so doth the minute mind produce these ideal worlds, which fill the
empty space of the universe, and appear as real ones to sight.
(The word _sankalpa_ in the text, is used in the triple sense of
imagination, reminiscence and hope, all of which are causes of the
production of things appearing both as real and unreal).
89. When the conscious soul entertains the idea of some figure in
itself, by its imagination, reminiscence or hope; the same becomes the
seed of its reproduction, or its being born in the very form which the
soul has in its view.
90. So the soul brings forth itself, and falls into its deception by
its own choice; and thus loses the consciousness of its freedom, by the
subjection to the bondage of life.
91. Whatever form it dotes upon with fondness, the same form it assumes
to itself; and cannot get rid of it, as long it cherishes its affection
for the same; nor return to its original purity, until it is freed from
its impure passions.
92. The soul is no god or demigod, nor either a Yaksha nor Raksha, nor
even a Nara—man or Kinnara—manikin; it is by reason of its original
delusion—_máyá_, that it plays the part of a player on the stage of
the world.
93. As the player represents himself in various shapes, and then
resumes and returns to his original form; and as the silkworm binds
itself in the cocoon of its own making, and then breaks out of it by
itself; so doth the soul resume its primal purity, by virtue of its
self-consciousness.
94. Our consciousness is as the water in the great deep of the
universe, encompassing all the four quarters of the world, and the huge
mountains within it. (As the sea hides the rocks under it).
95. The universal ocean of consciousness, teems with the heaven and
earth, the air and the sky, the hills and mountains and the seas and
rivers, and all things encompassed by the sides of the compass; as its
surges, waves and billows and eddies.
96. It is our consciousness that comprises the world, which is no other
beside itself; because the all comprehensive consciousness comprehends
all things in itself (in its conscious ideas of them).
97. When our consciousness has its slight pulsation and not its quick
vibration, it is then said to rest in itself; and is not moved by the
action of outward objects upon it.
98. The seed or source of our consciousness, is the Divine Spirit,
which is the inbeing of all beings; and which produces our
consciousness, as the solar heat produces the light, and as the fire
emits its sparks.
99. This Inbeing in us exhibits itself in two forms within ourselves;
the one is our self-consciousness, and the other is our consciousness
of many things lying without us: the former is uniform and the latter
is of mutable form.
100. This two fold division of the one and same soul, is as the
difference of _ghata_ and _pata_ or of the pot and painting, and like
that of I and thou, which are essentially the same thing, and have no
difference in their in-being.
101. Now do away with this difference, and know the true entity to be
a pure unity, which is the positive reality remaining in common with
all objects.
102. Forsake the particulars only, and seek the universal one which
is the same and in common with all existence. Know this Unity as the
totality of beings, and the only adorable One.
103. The variety of external forms, does not indicate any variation
in the internal substance; change of outward form, makes a thing
unknowable to us as to its former state; but outward and formal
differences, make no difference in the real essence.
104. Whatever preserves its uniform and invariable appearance at all
times, know that to be the true and everlasting inner essence of the
thing (and not its changeful external appearance).
105. Ráma! Renounce the doctrines which maintain the eternal
subsistence of time and space, of atoms and generalities and the like
categories; and rely in the universal category of the one Being in
which all others are reducible. (All varieties blend into the Unity of
Brahma).
106. Though the endless duration of time, approximates to the nature of
the Infinite Existence; yet its divisions into the present, past and
future, makes it an ununiform and unreal entity.
107. That which admits of divisibility, and presents its various
divisions; and what is seen to diverge to many, cannot be the uniform
cause of all (hence time being ever changeful and fleeting, cannot be
the unchanging cause of all).
108. Think all bodies as appertaining to one common essence, and enjoy
thy full bliss by thinking thyself as the same, and filling all space.
109. He who is the ultimate pause or end of all existence in common,
know, O wise Ráma! that Being to be the source and seed of the whole
universe, which has sprung from Him.
110. He who is the utmost limit of all things in common, and is beyond
description and imagination; He is the first and beginning of all,
without any beginning of his own, and having no source or seed of
himself.
111. He in whom all finite existences are dissolved, and who remains
without any change in himself; knowing Him in one’s self, no man is
subjected to trouble, but enjoys his full bliss in Him.
112. He is the cause of all, without any cause of his own; He is the
optimum or best of all, without having anything better than himself.
113. All things are seen in the mirror of his intellect, as the shadow
of the trees on the border of a river, is reflected in the limpid
stream below.
114. All beings relish their delight in him, as in a reservoir of sweet
water; and anything delicious which the tongue doth taste, is supplied
from that pure fountain.
115. The intellectual sphere of the mind, which is clearer than the
mundane sphere, has its existence from his essence; which abounds with
the purest delight, than all dulcet things in the world can afford.
116. All these creatures in the world, rise and live in him; they are
nourished and supported by him, and they die and are dissolved in him.
117. He is the heaviest of the heavy and the lightest of all light
bodies. He is the most ponderous of all bulky things, and the minutest
of the most minute.
118. He is the remotest of the most remote, and the nearest of whatever
is most propinqueous to us; He is the eldest of the oldest and the
youngest of the most young.
119. He is brighter far than the brightest, and obscurer than the
darkest things; He is the _substratum_ of all substances, and farthest
from all the sides of the compass.
120. That being is some thing as nothing, and exists as if he were
non-existent. He is manifest in all, yet invisible to view; and that is
what I am, and yet as I am not the same.
121. Ráma! Try your best to get your rest, in that supreme state of
felicity; than which there is no higher state for man to desire.
122. It is the knowledge of that holy and unchangeable Spirit, which
brings rest and peace to the mind; know then that all-pervasive soul,
and be identified with the pure Intellect, for your liberation from all
restraint.
(And the way to this state of perfect liberation, is to destroy by
degrees the seeds of our restraints to the same. Namely:—To be
regardless of the body, which is the seed of worldliness; and then
to subdue the mind, which is the seed of the body; and at last to
restrain the breathings and desires, which are the roots of sensations
and earthly possessions; and thus to destroy the other seeds also,
until one can arrive to his intellectual, and finally to his spiritual
state).
CHAPTER LXXXXII.
MEANS OF OBTAINING THE DIVINE PRESENCE.
Argument. Divine knowledge and want of desires and feelings,
forming the Trivium of salvation.
Ráma said:—Of all, the seeds which you have spoken, say sir, which of
these is the most essential one to lead us to the attainment of the
supreme Brahma.
2. Vasishtha replied:—It is by the gradual demolition of the seeds and
sources of woe, which I have mentioned one after the other, that one is
enabled to attain his consummation in a short time.
3. You can relinquish by your manly fortitude, your desire for temporal
objects; and endeavour to seek that which is the first and best of
beings:—
4. And if you remain in your exclusive and intense meditation on the
Supreme Being, you are sure to see that very moment the Divine light,
shining in full blaze in and before you.
5. If it is possible for you to think of all things in general, in your
well developed understanding; you can have no difficulty to elevate
your mind a little higher, to think of the universal Soul of all.
6. O sinless Ráma! If you can remain quietly with meditating on your
conscious soul, you can find no difficulty in the contemplation of the
Supreme soul, by a little more exertion of your intellect.
7. It is not possible, O Ráma! to know the knowable Spirit at once
in your understanding, unless you think of it continually in your
consciousness. (The Divine Spirit is knowable in our spirits and
consciousness and by own intuition only).
8. Whatever thou thinkest and wherever thou goest and dost remain, is
all known to thee in thy consciousness; and so it is the conscious soul
which is the seat of God, and wherein He is to be sought and seen. (So
says Maulana Rumi:—I sought him everywhere and found him nowhere; I
looked within myself and found him there).
9. If you will but strive, Ráma, to renounce your earthly appetites;
you will get yourself loosened from all its bonds and diseases and
dangers.
10. Of all others which have been said before, it is the most difficult
task to get rid of one’s earthly desires; and it is impossible to root
them out of the mind, as it is to uproot the mount Meru from its basis.
11. As long as you do not subdue the mind, you cannot get rid of your
desires; and unless you suppress your desires, you can not control your
restless mind. (They are so interwoven together).
12. Until you know the truth, you cannot have the peace of your mind;
and so long as you are a stranger to your mental tranquility, you are
barred from knowing the truth.
13. As long you do not shun your desires, you cannot come to the light
of truth; nor can you come to know the truth, unless you disown your
earthly desires.
14. Hence the knowledge of truth, subjection of the mind, and
abandonment of desires, are the joint causes of spiritual bliss; which
is otherwise unattainable by the practice of any one of them singly.
15. Therefore, O Ráma! the wise man should betake himself, to the
practice of all these triple virtues at once; and abandon his desire
of worldly enjoyments, with the utmost of his manly efforts. (Because
it is weakness to be a dupe to pleasure, and true bravery consists in
contemning them).
16. Unless you become a complete adept, in the practice of this
triplicate morality; it is impossible for you to attain to the state
of divine perfection, by your mere devotion during a whole century.
(Because the mendicant Yogis, that are devoid both of their divine
knowledge and disinterestedness, are never blessed with their spiritual
rapture).
17. Know ye, O highminded _Muni_! that it is the simultaneous
attainment of divine knowledge, in combination with the subjection of
the mind and its desires, that is attended with the efficacy of Divine
presence.
18. The practice of any one of these, in disjunction from the others,
is as fruitless as imprecations of one’s death or derangement of
understanding (_i.e._ no one’s curse, can effect any evil on another).
19. Though the adept may be long inured in the practice of these
virtues; yet none of them will help him singly to approach to the
Supreme; as no single soldier or regiment can dare advance before the
adverse host. (Here is pun of the word, _param_ signifying both the
Supreme and the enemy).
20. These virtues being brought under the practice of the wiseman, by
his undivided attention and vigilance; will break down every obstacle
on his way, like the current of a confluence of three streams, carrying
away a rock from the coast.
21. Accustom yourself with diligence, to destroy the force of your
mind and its desires and feelings; and habituate your intellect to the
acquisition of knowledge with equal ardour, and you will escape from
every evil and error of the world.
22. Having mastered these triple virtues; you will cut asunder your
heart strings of worldly affections; as the breaking of the lotus-stalk
severs its interior fibres.
23. The reminiscence of worldliness, which is inherited and
strengthened in the long course of a hundred lives (or transmigrations
of the soul), is hard to be removed with the assiduous practice of
these triple virtues.
24. Continue to practice these at all times of your life; whether when
you sit quiet or move about; or talk or listen to another or when you
are awake or asleep; and it will redound to your greatest good.
25. The restraining of respirations also, is tantamount to the
restraint put upon your desires; then you must practise this likewise,
according to the directions of the wise.
26. By renunciation of desire, the mind is reduced to an insensible and
dead block; but by restraining your breathing, you can do whatever you
like. By the practice of the _pránáyáma_, the yogi identifies himself
with the Supreme, and can do all things as the Deity.
27. By the protracted practice of restraining the breathing, according
to the directions given by the _guru_; and by keeping the erect
posture, and observing the rules of diet &c. one must restrain his
respiration.
28. By right observation of the nature of things, we can have no
desires for any thing (which is so frail and false); and there is
nothing which is the same or remains unchanged from first to last,
except the unchangeable nature of the Deity, which must be the only
desirable object.
29. It is the sight and knowledge of God, that serve to weaken our
worldly desires; and so will our avoidance of society and worldly
thoughts (will put an end to our earthly desires).
30. Seeing the dissolution of human bodies, we cease to desire our
worldly goods; and so also the loss of desired objects, puts a check to
our desiring them any more.
31. As the flying dust is set on the ground, after the gust of the
wind is over; so the flying thoughts of the mind are stopped, when our
breathings are put to a stop: they being the one and the same thing.
(Swedenborg saw the intimate connection between thought and vital life.
He says “thought commences and corresponds with vital respiration. A
long thought draws a long breath, and a quick one is attended with
rapid vibrations of breath”).
32. From this correspondence of the motion of thoughts with the
vibrations of breath, there is heaved a large mass of worldly thoughts
resembling heaps of dust on earth. Let therefore the intelligent
men try their utmost to suppress their breath (in order to stop the
assemblage of their thoughts also).
33. Or do away with this process of the Hatha Yogis (if it be hard for
you to suppress your breath), and sit quietly to suppress your fleeting
thoughts only at all times.
34. If you want to keep your control over the mind, you will be able
to do so in the course of a long time; because it is not possible to
subdue the mind without the discipline of strict reason.
35. As it is impossible to restrain the infuriate elephant without its
goading; so it is not possible for you to curb your indomitable mind,
without the help of spiritual knowledge, and association with the wise
and good.
36. The abandonment of desires and suppression of breathing, in the
manner as hereinafter inculcated, are the most efficient means of
subduing the mind.
(The mind dwells in the brain which shares the various fortunes of
breathing; therefore the suppression of breath tends also to the
subjection of the mind. Swedenborg).
37. There are milder means of pacifying the mind, as the cooling
showers of rain set down the dust of the earth; and yet the Hatha-Yoga,
attempts to restrain it by stopping the breath, as it were to prevent
the rising of dust, by means of a breathless calm.
38. Ignorant men who want to subdue the mind, by prescriptions of the
Hatha-Yoga or bodily restraints; are like those silly folks, who want
to dispel the darkness by black ink instead of a lighted lamp. (Painful
bodily practice, is no part of Rája or spiritual Yoga).
39. Those who attempt to subdue the mind by bodily contortions, strive
as vainly as they, who wish to bind the mad elephant with a rope of
grass or straws.
40. Those rules which prescribe bodily practices, instead of mental
reasoning and precepts, are known as the patterns of Hatha-Yoga, and
misleading men to dangers and difficulties. (Because the mind alone
governs the mind, and bodily austerities have ruined many bodies and
killed many men also; and the correspondence between the states of the
mind and lungs, has not been admitted in science).
41. Wretched men like beasts have no rest from their labour, but wander
in dales and woods, in quest of herbs and fruits for their food.
42. Ignorant men who are infatuated in their understandings, are timid
cowards like timorous stags; and are both dull-headed and weak-bodied,
and languid in their limbs (by incessant toil).
43. They have no place of confidence anywhere, but stagger as the
distrustful deer in the village; their minds are ever wavering between
hopes and fears, as the sea water rising and falling in waves.
44. They are borne away like leaves fallen from a tree, by the current
of the cascade gliding below a water-fall; and pass their time in the
errors of sacrificial rites and religious gifts and austerities, and in
pilgrimages and adoration of idols.
45. They are subject to continued fears, like the timid deer in the
forest, and there are few among them, who happen by chance to come to
the knowledge of the soul. (Most men are betaken by the exoteric faith).
46. Being broiled by outward misery and internal passions, they are
rarely sensible of their real state; and are subjected to repeated
births and deaths, and their temporary habitation in heaven or hell.
(There is no everlasting reward or punishment, adjudged to the temporal
merit and demerit of human actions).
47. They are tossed up and down like play balls in this world, some
rising up to heaven, and others falling to hell-torments while they are
even here. (The gloss represents higher births as heaven, and the lower
ones as hell-torments; and since the Hindu idea of bliss is idleness,
he deems the idle life of the great his heaven. _Otia cumdignitate_).
48. These men roll on like the incessant waves of the sea; therefore
leave off the exterior view of the exoteric, and sink deep into
the spiritual knowledge for your everlasting rest. (The Hatha-Yoga
is deemed like the other modes of public worship, to belong to the
exoteric faith).
49. Remain quiet and sedate, with your firm faith in your inward
consciousness; and know that knowledge is power, and the knowing man is
the strongest being on earth; therefore be wise in all respects.
50. Ráma! renounce the cognizance of the knowable objects, and
depend on the abstract knowledge of all things in thy subjective
consciousness; remain firm in full possession of thy inner soul, and
think thyself as no actor of thy acts. Then forsaking all inventions of
men as falsehoods (_kalaná_ and _kalpaná_), shine with the effulgence
of thy spiritual light.
CHAPTER LXXXXIII.
UNIVERSAL INDIFFERENCE OR INSOUCIANCE.
Argument. Cultivation of understanding and Reason.
Vasishtha continued:—Ráma! He who is possessed of little reason, and
tries to subdue his mind as well as he can; succeeds to reap the fruit
(object) of his life (salvation).
(Neither is much learning required for divine knowledge, nor is much
purity necessary for salvation; nor is the entire want of either,
attended by its main object).
2. The small particle of reason that is implanted in the mind, becomes
by culture a big tree in time, projecting into a hundred branches in
all departments of knowledge.
3. A little development of reason, serves to destroy the unruly
passions of the human breast, and then fill it with the good and pure
virtues; as the roes of a fish fill the tank with fishes. (The seed of
reason germinates in all good qualities).
4. The rational man who becomes wise, by his vast observation of the
past and present, is never tempted by the influence of the ignorant,
who value their wealth above their knowledge.
5. Of what good are great possessions and worldly honours to him, and
of what evil are the diseases and difficulties unto the man, who looks
upon them with an indifferent eye.
6. As it is impossible to stop the impetuous hurricane, or to grasp the
flashing lightning, or hold the rolling clouds in the hand:—
7. As it is impossible to put the moon like a brilliant moonstone, in
a box of jewels; and as it is not possible for a _belle_ to wear the
crescent of the moon like a moon flower on her forehead.
8. As it is impossible also for the buzzing gnats, to put to flight the
infuriate elephant, with the swarm of bees sucking his frontal ichor,
and the lotus bushes gracing his fore-head:—
9. As it is impossible too for a herd of timid stags, to withstand in
fighting the brave lion, gory with the frontal pearls of slaughtered
elephants in his bloody chase:—
10. As it is impossible likewise for a young frog, to devour a huge and
hungry snake, which like the poisonous tree, attracts other animals to
it by its poison, and then swallows them entire:—
11. So it is impossible for the robbers of outward senses, to overpower
upon the man of reason, who is acquainted with the grounds of
Knowledge, and knows the knowable Brahma.
12. But the sensible objects and the organs of sense, destroy the
imperfect reason; as the violence of the wind, breaks off the stalks of
tender plants.
13. Yet the wicked passions and desires, have no power to destroy
the perfected understanding; as the lesser gales of minor deluges,
are not strong enough to remove the mountain. (The great deluge is
the _mahákalpánta_, and the partial ones are called the _Khanda_ or
_yuga-pralayas_).
14. Unless the flowery arbor of reason, takes its deep root in the
ground of the human mind, it is liable to be shaken at every blast
of the conflicting thoughts; because the unstable soul can have no
stability; nor the uncertain mind can have any certainty.
15. He whose mind does not stick to strict reasoning, either when he is
sitting or walking, or waking or sleeping; is said to be dead to reason.
16. Therefore think always within yourself, and in the society of good
people, about what is all this, what is this world, and what is this
body in a spiritual light. (_i.e._ Spiritually considered, the material
universe will disappear from view).
17. Reason displays the darkness of ignorance, and shows the state of
the Supreme as clearly, as when the light of the lamp shows everything
clearly in the room. (Hence reason is said to be the light of the soul).
18. The light of knowledge dispels the gloom of sorrow, as the solar
light puts to flight the shadow of night. (Knowledge is the sunlight of
the soul).
19. Upon appearance of the light of knowledge, the knowable comes to
appear of itself; as the appearance of sunlight in the sky, shows every
object on earth below.
20. That science which brings to the knowledge of Divine Truth, the
same knowledge is known as self-same with the knowable Truth itself.
21. Spiritual knowledge is the result of reason, and is reckoned as
the only true knowledge by the wise; it includes the knowledge of the
knowable soul, as the water contains its sweetness within itself.
22. The man knowing all knowledge, becomes full of knowledge; as the
strong dramdrinker turns a tippler himself. (Fullness of spiritual
knowledge is compared with hard drinking, in the mystic poetry of
orientals, to denote the inward rapture which is caused by both).
23. They then come to know the knowable, supreme spirit as immaculate
as their own souls; and it is only through the knowledge of the supreme
spirit, that this rapture imparts its grace to the soul.
24. The man fraught with perfect knowledge, is full of his unfailing
rapture within himself, and is liberated in his life; and being freed
from all connections, reigns supreme in the empire of his mind. (This
refers equally to a savant in all knowledge, to a deep philosopher, as
also to a holy man; a yogi and the like).
25. The sapient man remains indifferent to the sweet sound of songs,
and to the music of the lute and flute; he is not humored by the
songstresses, and by the allurement of their persons and the enticement
of their foul association.
26. He sits unaffected amidst the hum of buzzing bees, fluttering
joyfully over the vernal flowers; and amidst the blooming blossoms of
the rainy weather, and under the growling noise of the roaring clouds.
27. He remains unexcited by the loud screams of the peacock, and the
joyous shrill of storks at the sight of fragments of dark clouds; and
by the rolling and rumbling of the gloomy clouds in humid sky.
28. He is not elated by the sound of musical instruments, as that of
the jarring cymbal or ringing bell held in the hands; and the deep
rebellowing drum beaten by the rod; nor the wind, wired or skinned
instruments can act upon his mind.
29. He turns his mind to nothing that is sweet or bitter to taste, but
delights in his own thoughts; as the moon sheds her light upon the
spreading lotus-bud in the lake.
30. The wise man is indifferent to the attractions of beauties and
celestial nymphs; who are as graceful in their stature and attire, like
the young shoot of the plantain tree with its spreading foliage.
31. His mind is attached to nothing that is even his own, but remains
indifferent to everything; as a swan exposed to a barren spot. (The
world to the wise is a barren desert).
32. The wise have no taste in delicious fruits, nor do they hunger
after dainty food of any kind. (Here follows the names of some sweet
fruits and meats which are left out).
33. He does not thirst after delicious drinks, as milk, curd, butter,
ghee and honey; nor does he like to taste the sweet liquors at all.
He is not fond of wines and liquors of any kind, nor of beverages and
drinks of any sort, such as milk, curds, butter &c., for his sensual
delight. (But he hungers and thirsts for eternal life &c., see the
Sermon on the Mount).
34. He is not fond of the four kinds of food, which are either chewed
or licked or sucked or drunk; nor of the six flavours as sweet, sour,
bitter, pungent &c., to sharpen his appetite. He longs for no sort of
vegetable or meat food; (because none of these can give him satiety).
35. Quite content in his countenance, and unattached to every thing
in his mind, the wise Vipra does not bind his heart either to the
pleasures of taste, or tending to the gracefulness of his person.
36. The sapient is not observant of the adoration paid to Yama, sun,
moon, Indra, and Rudras and Marutas (in the Vedas); nor does he observe
the sanctity of the Meru, Mandara and Kailása Mountains, and of the
table lands of the Sahya and Dardura hills (the early habitations of
Indian Áryans).
37. He takes no delight in the bright moon-beams, which mantles the
earth as with a silken vesture; nor does he like to rove about the
groves of the Kalpa arbours, for refreshment of his body and mind.
38. He does not resort to houses rich with jewels and gold, and with
the splendour of gems and pearls; nor does he dote upon beauties with
their fairy forms of celestials nymphs, as an Urvasí, Menaka, Rambhá
and a Tilottamá.
39. His graceful person and unenticed mind, does not pine or pant for
whatever is pleasant to sight; but remain about everything with his
indifference, and the sense of his satisfaction and the fulness of his
mind, and with his stern taciturnity and inflexibility even among his
enemies.
40. His cold mind is not attracted by the beauty and fragrance of the
fine flowers of lotuses, and lilies and the rose and jasmine (the
favourite themes of lyric poets).
41. He is not tempted by the relish of the luscious fruits, as apples
and mango, jamb &c., nor by the sight of the _asoka_ and _Kinsuka_
flowers.
42. He is not drawn over by the fragrance of the sweet scenting
sandal-wood, agulochum, camphor, and of the clove and cardamom trees.
43. Preserving an even tenor of his mind, he does not incline his heart
to any thing; he holds the perfumes in hatred, as a Bráhman holds
the wine in abhorrence; and his even mindedness is neither moved by
pleasure nor shaken by any fear or pain.
44. His mind is not agitated by fear, at hearing the hoarse sound of
the sounding main, or the tremendous thunder-clap in the sky, or the
uproaring clouds on mountain tops; and the roaring lions below, do not
intimidate his dauntless soul.
45. He is not terrified at the loud trumpet of warfare, nor the deep
drum of the battle-field; the clattering arms of the warriors and the
cracking cudgels of the combatants, bear no terror to his mind; and the
most terrific of all that is terrible, _i.e._ God, is familiar to his
soul. So the Sruti:—“bhayánám bhayam, bhishanam bhishanánám”, &c.
46. He does not tremble at the stride of the infuriate elephant, nor
at the clamour of Vetála goblins; his heart does not thrill at the hue
and cry of Pisácha cannibals, nor at the alarm of Yakshas and Rakshas.
47. The meditative mind is not moved by the loud thunder clap or the
cracking of rocks and mountains; and the clangor of Indra and Airávana,
can not stir the Yogi from his intense reverie.
48. The rigid sage does not slide from his self-possession, at the
harsh noise of the crashing saw and the clanking of the burnished sword
striking upon one another. He is not shaken by the twanging of the bow,
or the flying and falling of deadly arrows around.
49. He does not rejoice in pleasant groves, nor pines in parched
deserts; because the fleeting joys and sorrows of life, find no place
in his inevitable mind.
50. He is neither intolerant of the burning sands of the sandy desert,
resembling the cinders of living fire; nor is he charmed in shady
woodlands, fraught with flowery and cooling arbours.
51. His mind is unchanged, whether when he is exposed on a bed of
thorns, or reposing in a bed of flowers; and whether he is lifted on
the pinnacle of a mount, or flung into the bottom of a fount; his mind
is always meek (as those of persecuted saints and martyrs).
52. It is all the same with himself, whether he roves on rough and
rugged rocks, or moves under the hot sunbeams of the south, or walks in
a temperate or mild atmosphere. He remains unchanged in prosperity and
adversity, and alike both under the favour and frown of fortune.
53. He is neither sad nor sorrow in his wanderings over the world, nor
joyous and of good cheer in his rest and quiet. He joys on doing his
duty with the lightness of his heart, like a porter bearing his light
burthen with an unberthened mind.
54. Whether his body is grated upon the guillotine or broken under the
wheel; whether impaled in the charnel ground, or exiled in a desert
land; or whether pierced by a spear or battered by a cudgel, the
believer in the true God remain inflexible (as the Moslem Shahids and
Christian martyrs, under the bitterest persecution).
55. He is neither afraid at any fright nor humiliates himself nor loses
his usual composure in any wise; but remains with his even temper and
well composed mind as firm as a fixed rock.
56. He has no aversion to impure food, but takes the unpalatable and
dirty and rotten food with zest; and digests the poisonous substances
as it were his pure and clean diet. (It is the beast of Aghori to gulp
unwholesome and nasty articles, as their dainty food, and thus their
stoicism degrades them to beastliness).
57. The deadly henbane and hellebore, is tasted with as good a zest by
the impassive Yogi, as any milky and saccharine food, and the juice of
hemlock is as harmless to him as the juice of the sugarcane.
58. Whether you give him the sparkling goblet of liquor or the red hot
bowl of blood; or whether you serve him with a dish of flesh or dry
bones; he is neither pleased with the one nor annoyed at the other.
59. He is equally complacent at the sight of his deadly enemy, as also
of his benevolent benefactor. (The foe and friend are alike to him).
60. He is neither gladdened nor saddened at the sight of any lasting or
perishable thing; nor is he pleased or displeased at any pleasant or
unpleasant thing, that is offered to his apathetic nature.
61. By his knowledge of the knowable, and by the dispassionateness of
his mind, as also by the unconcerned nature of his soul, and by his
knowledge of the unreliableness of mortal things, he does not confide
on the stability of the world.
62. The wise man never fixes his eye on any object of his sight, seeing
them to be momentary sights and perishable in their nature. (The
passing scene of the world, is not relied upon by the wise).
63. But the restless people, who are blind to truth and ignorant of
their souls, are incessantly pressed upon by their sensual appetites,
as the leaves of trees are devoured by the deer.
64. They are tossed about in the ocean of the world, by the dashing
waves of their desires; and are swallowed by the sharks of their sense,
with the loss of their lives and souls.
65. The growing desires and fleeting fancies of the mind, can not
overpower upon the reasonable soul, and the orderly and mannerly man;
that have found their security in peace and tranquility, as the great
body of torrents has no power to overflow upon the mountain.
66. Those who have passed the circuit of their longings, and found
their rest in the supreme Being; have really come to the knowledge of
their true selves, and look upon the mountain as it were a mite.
67. The vast world seems as a bit of straw to the wise; and the deadly
poison is taken for ambrosia, and a millennium is passed as a moment,
by the man of an even and expanded mind. (The fixed thought of a sedate
mind, perceives no variation of things and times).
68. Knowing the world to consist in consciousness, the mind of the
wise is enrapt with the thought of his universality; and the wise man
roves freely everywhere with his consciousness, of the great cosmos in
himself. (The cosmologist is in reality a cosmopolitan also).
69. Thus the whole world appearing in its full light in the cosmical
consciousness within one’s self, there is nothing which a man may
choose for or reject from his all including mind.
70. Know thy consciousness to be all in all, and reject everything as
false which appears to be otherwise. Again as everything is embodied in
thy consciousness, there is nothing for thee to own or disown as thine
and not thine.
71. Just as the ground grows the shoots of plants and their leaves and
branches, so it is in the same manner, that our consciousness brings
forth the shoots of all predicables (tatwas) which are inherent in it.
(This means the eternal ideas which are innate in the mind, and become
manifest before it by its reminiscence).
72. That which is a nonentity at first and last, is so also even at
present; and it is by an error of our consciousness that we become
conscious of its existence at any time. (This means the erroneous
conception of all things, which are really _nil_ at all times).
73. Knowing this for certain, abandon your knowledge of reality and
unreality; transcend over the knowledge of existence, and transform
thyself to the nature of thy consciousness (to know thyself only); and
then remain unconcerned with everything besides. (The transcendentalism
of the subjective over objective knowledge).
74. The man who is employed in his business with his body and mind, or
sits idle with himself and his limbs, he is not stained by anything, if
this soul is unattached to any object.
75. He is not stained by the action which he does with an unconcerned
mind; nor he also who is neither elated nor dejected at the
vicissitudes of his fortune, and the success or failure of his
undertakings.
76. He whose mind is heedless of the actions of his body, is never
stained with the taint of joy or grief, at the changes of his fortune,
or the speed or defeat of his attempts.
77. The heedless mind takes no notice of a thing that is set before
the eyes of the beholder; but being intent on some other object within
itself, is absent from the object present before its sight. This case
of the absence of mind is known even to boys (and all man).
78. The absent minded man does not see the objects he actually sees,
nor hears what he hears, nor feels what he touches. (So the sruti. “Who
thinks of that, sees naught before him, nor hears aught that he hears”).
79. So is he who watches over a thing as if he winks at it; and smells
a thing as if he has no smell of the same; and while his senses are
engaged with their respective objects, his soul and mind are quite
aloof from them.
80. This absence of mind is well known to persons sitting at their
homes, and thinking of their lodging in another land; and this case of
the wandering attention, is known even to boys and to ignorant people
also.
81. It is attention which is the cause of the perception of sensible
objects, and it is the attachment of the mind which is the cause of
human society; it is mental concern that causes our desires, and it is
this concernedness of ours about other things, that is the cause of all
our woe.
82. It is the abandonment of connections, which is called liberation,
and it is the forsaking of earthly attachments, which releases us from
being reborn in it; but it is freedom from worldly thoughts, that makes
us emancipate in this life. (Freedom in this state, makes us free in
the next).
83. Ráma said:—Tell me briefly my lord, that dost like a gale blow
away the mist of my doubts; what are these connections that we are to
get rid of, in order to be freed both in this life and in the next.
84. Vasishtha answered:—that impure desire of the pure soul, for
the presence or absence of something which tends to our pleasure or
pain, is called our attachment to the same. (The desire of having the
desirable and avoiding the contrary, is the cause of our attachment to
the one, and our unconnection with the other).
85. Those who are liberated in their lifetime, foster the pure desire
which is unattended by joy or grief; and is not followed by future
regeneration (or metempsychosis of the soul).
86. Thus the pure desire being unconnected with any worldly object,
is styled unworldly and is apart from the world; it continues through
life, and whatever actions are done by it, they do not tend to the
bondage of the soul, nor lead it to future transmigrations.
87. The ignorant men that are not liberated, in their present state
of existence in this world, entertain impure desires causing their
pleasure and pain in this life, and conducing to their bondage to
repeated transmigrations in future.
88. This impure desire is expressed also by the term attachment, which
leads its captive soul to repeated births; and whatsoever actions are
done by it, they tend to the faster bondage of the miserable soul.
89. Abandon therefore thy desire for, and thy attachment to anything
of this kind, which is at best but to the trouble of the soul; and thy
freedom from them will keep thy mind pure, although thou mayst continue
to discharge thy duties of life, with a willing mind and unenslaved
soul.
90. If thou canst remain unaffected by joy or grief, or pleasure or
pain, and unsubjected by passions, and unsubdued by fear and anger;
thou becomest impassible and indifferent.
91. If you do not pine in your pain, or exult in your joy, and if
you are not elated by hope, nor depressed by despair; you are truly
unconcerned about them.
92. If you conduct your affairs with equanimity, both in your
prosperity and adversity; and do not lose your temper in any
circumstance of life, you are truly insensible and regardless of them.
93. When you can know the soul, and by knowing it you can see the same
in yourself; and manage yourself with evenness, under any circumstance
as it may happen to thee; you are then unconscious of them.
94. Rely Ráma, in your easily obtainable _insouciance_ and stick firmly
to your liberation in this life; be passionless and even tempered, and
rest in your peace for ever.
95. That man is honourable, who is free from the feverish passions of
pride, giddiness and envy in his mind; and possessing his liberation,
taciturnity and full mastery over his organs of sense.
96. So is he who retains his equanimity and meekness of mind, in all
things which are presented before him; and never deviates from the
connate duties of his caste, to do others which bear no relation with
him.
97. One who attends to his hereditary duties, which are co-natural
with him, and discharges them with a mind freed from all concern and
expectation, is truly happy in himself.
98. Whether under the trial of troubles and tribulations, or under the
temptations of rank and prosperity; the great minded man, does not
transgress his intrinsic nature, as the Milky ocean does not tarnish
its whiteness, though perturbed under the charming Mandara mountain.
99. Whether gaining the sovereignty of the earth, or elevated to the
dignity of the lord of gods; or degraded to grovel upon the earth, or
lowered to a creeping worm underneath the ground; the great minded man
remains unchanged at his rise and fall, as the bright sun remains the
same, both in his elevation and culmination.
100. Freed from tumults and differences of faith, and exempted from
pursuits for different results, employ your great mind, O Ráma! to the
highest duty of investigation into the nature of the soul, and securing
your ultimate liberation by it.
101. Live by the clear and purpling stream of your investigation, and
you will come to rely in the undecaying and unsullied state of the pure
soul; and then by coming to the knowledge and sight of the Supreme
Spirit, by the light of your understanding; you will no more be bound
to the bonds of future births upon this earth.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Perfection of knowledge, is the Omniscience of God, and leads the
knower, to the belief of his Omnipresence. But imperfect knowledge,
leads to the belief of the Ego and the Jíva or Living God, as distinct
from the quiescent Brahma.
[2] Samádhi is described as the continual concentration of thought, by
means of which all external objects, and even one’s own individuality
is forgotten, and the mind is fixed completely and immovably on the one
Being.
[3] Note to 24. This is an allegory of the revivification of the torpid
body, by means of the solar gleams and heat.
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