Dream of Jíváta.
Arguments:—All living souls are occupied with the thought of their present state, forgetful of the past, and altogether heedless of the future.
VASISHTHA continued:—This bird that sported beside the stalk of the lotus seat of Brahmá, once went to the city of Rudra with his god on his back, and there beheld the God Rudra face to face. (The inferior Gods waited upon the superior deities).
2. Seeing the God Rudra he thought himself to be so, and the figure of the God was immediately imprest upon his mind, like the reflexion of an outward object in the mirror.
3. Being full of Rudra in himself, he quitted his body of the bird, as the fragrance of a flower forsakes the calyx, as it mixes with the breeze and flies in the open air.
4. He passed his time happily at that place, in the company with the attendants and different classes of the dependant divinities of Rudra.
5. This Rudra being then full of the best knowledge of divinity and spirituality; looked back in his understanding into the passed accounts of his prior lives, that were almost incalculable.
6. Being then gifted with clear sightedness and clairvoyance, he was astonished at the view of naked truths, that appeared to him as sights in a dream, which he recounted to him as follows.
7. O! how wonderful is this over spreading illusion, which is stretched all about us, and fascinates the world by its magic wand; it exhibits the palpable untruth as positive truth, as the dreary desert presents the appearance of limpid waters, in the sun beams spreading over its sterile sands.
8. I well remember my primary state of the pure intellect, and its conversion to the state of the mind; and how it was changed from its supremacy and omniscience, to the bondage of the limited body.
9. It was by its own desire that the living soul assumed to itself a material body, formed and fashioned agreeably to its fancy, like a picture drawn in a painting; and became a mendicant in my person in one of its prior births, when it was unattached to the objects exposed to view all around.
10. The same mendicant sat in his devotion, by controlling the actions of the members of his body, and began to reflect on outward objects, with great pleasure in his mind.
11. He buried all his former thoughts in oblivion, and thought only of the object that he was employed to reflect upon; and this thought so engrossed and worked upon his mind, that it prevented the rise of any other thought in it.
12. The phenomenon which appears in the mind, offers itself solely to the view also (by supplanting the traces of the past); as the brownness of fading autumn, supercedes the vernal verdure of leaves and plants, so the man coming to his maturity, forgets the helpless state of his boyhood, and is thoughtless of his approaching decay and decline.
13. Thus the mendicant became the Brahman Jivátá by his fallible and fickle desire, which laid him to wander from one body to another, as little ants enter into the holes of houses and things.
14. Being fond of Brahmahood and reverential to Bráhmans in his mind, he became the wished for person in his own body; because the reality and unreality have the power of mutually displacing one another, according to the greater influence of either. (The weaker yields and makes room to the stronger, like the survival of the fittest).
15. The Bráhman next obtained the chieftainship, from his strong predilection for the same; just as the tree becomes fruitful by its continuous suction of the moisture of earth. (The common mother of all).
16. Being desirous of dispensing justice, and discharging all legal affairs, the general wished for royalty, and had his wishes fulfilled by this becoming a prince; but as the prince was over fond of his courtesans, he was transformed to a heavenly nymph that he prized above all in his heart.
17. But as the celestial dame prized the tremulous eye sight of the timorous deer, above her heavenly form and station; she was soon metamorphosed to an antelope in the woods, and destined to graze as a miserable beast for her foolish choice.
18. The fawn that was very fond of browzing the tender blades and leaves, became at last the very creeping plant, that had crept into the crevice of her lickerish mind.
19. The creeper being long accustomed to dote on the bee, that used to be in its company; found in its consciousness to be that insect, after the destruction of its vegetable form.
20. Though well aware of its being crushed under the elephant, together with the lotus flower in which it dwelt, yet it was foolish to take the form of the bee, for its pleasure of roving about the world. (So the living soul enters into various births and bodies only to perish with them).
21. Being thus led into a hundred different forms, said he, I am at last become the self-same Rudra; and it is because of the capriciousness of my erratic mind in this changeful world.
22. Thus have I wandered through the variegated paths of life, in this wilderness of the world; and I have roamed in many aerial regions, as if I trod on solid and substantial ground.
23. In some one of my several births under the name of Jiváta, and in another I became a great and respectable Bráhman, I became quite another person again, and then found myself as a ruler and lord of the earth. (So every man thinks and acts himself, now as one person and in the stage of his life. Shakespeare).
24. I had been a drake in the lotus-bush; and an elephant in the vales of Vindhya; I then became a stag in the form of my body, and fleetness of my limbs (and in the formation of mind also).
25. After I had deviated at first from my state of godliness, I was still settled in the state of a devotee with devotedness to divine knowledge; and practicing the rites befitting my position (such as listening to holy lectures, meditating on the mysteries of nature and so forth).
26. In this state I passed very many years and ages, and many a day and night and season and century, glided on imperceptibly in their courses over me. (It is said that the sedate and meditative are generally long living men, as we learn in the accounts of the ancient patriarchs, and in those of the yogis and lamas in our own times).
27. But I deviated again and again from my wonted course, and was as often subjected to new births and forms; until at last I was changed to Brahmá's vehicles of the hansa—or anser, and this was by virtue of my former good conduct and company.
28. The firm or wonted habit of a living being, must come out unobstructed by any hindrance whatsoever; and though it may be retarded in many intermediate births for even a millennium; yet it must come and lay hold on the person some time or other. (Habit is second nature, and is inbred in every being; and what is bred in the bone, must run in the blood).
29. It is by accident only, that one has the blessing of some good company in his life; and then his inborn want may be restrained for a time, but it is sure to break out with violence in the end, in utter defiance of every check and rule.
30. But he who betakes himself to good society only, and strives always for his edification in what is good and great, is able to destroy the evil propensities which are inbred in him; because the desire to be good, is what actually makes one so. (Discipline conquers nature).
31. Whatever a man is accustomed to do or think upon constantly, in this life or in the next state of his being; the same appears as a reality to him in his waking state of day dream, as unreality appears as real in the sleeping or night dream of a man. (It is the imagination that figures unrealities in divers forms both in the day as also in the night dreams of men).
32. Now the thoughts that employ our minds, appoint our bodies also to do their wished for works; and as these works are attended with some temporary good as well as evil also; it is better therefore to restrain and repress the rise of those tumultuous thoughts, than cherish them for our pleasure or pain.
33. It is only the thought in our minds, that makes us to take our bodies for ourselves or souls; and that stretches wide this world of unrealities, as the incased seed sprouts forth and spreads itself into a bush. (The thought bears the world in it, as the will brings it to view).
34. The world is but the thought in sight or a visible form of their visible thought, and nothing more in reality besides this phantasm of it, and an illusion of our sight.
35. The illusive appearance of the world, presents itself to our sight, like the variegated hues of the sky, it is therefore by our ignoring of it, that we may be enabled to wipe off those tinges from our minds.
36. It is an unreal appearance, displayed by the supreme Essence (of God or His intelligence); as a real existence at his pleasure only, and can not therefore do any harm to any body.
37. I rise now and then to look into all these varieties in nature, for the sake of my pleasure and curiosity; but I have the true light of reason in me, whereby I discern the one unity quite apart from all varieties.
38. After all these recapitulations, the incarnate Rudra returned to his former state, and reflected on this condition of the mendicant, whose body was now lying as a dead corpse on the barren ground.
39. He awakened the mendicant and raised his prostrate body, by infusing his intelligence into it; when the resuscitated Bhikshu came to understand, that all his wanderings were but hallucinations of his mind.
40. The mendicant finding himself the same with Rudra standing in his presence, as also with the bygone ones that he recollected in his remembrance; was astonished to think how he could be one and so many, though it is no wonder to the intelligent, who well know that one man acts many parts in life.
41. Afterwards both Rudra and the mendicant got up from their seats, and proceeded to the abode of the Jivátá, situated in corner of the intellectual sphere (i.e. the mundane world which lies in the divine intellect).
42. They then passed over many Continents, Islands, provinces and districts, until they arrived at the abode of Jívata, where they found him lying down with a sword in hand.
43. They saw Jivátá lying asleep and insensible as a dead body, when Rudra laid aside his bright celestial form, in order to enter into the earthly abode of the deceased. (The Gods are said to assume human shapes in order to mix with mankind).
44. They brought him back to life and intelligence, by imparting to him portion of their spirit and intellect; and thus was this one soul exhibited in the triple forms of Rudra, Jivátá and the mendicant.
45. They with all their intelligence, remained ignorant of one another, and they marvelled to look on each other in mute astonishment, as if they were the figures in painting.
46. Then the three went together in their aerial course, to the air built abode of the Brahman; who had erected his baseless fabric in empty air, and which resounded with empty sounds all around. (The open air being the receptacle of sounds, the aerial abodes of celestials are incessantly infested by the sounds and cries of peoples rising upwards from the nether world).
47. They passed through many aerial regions, and barren and populous tracts of air; until they found out at last the heavenly residence of the Brahman.
48. They saw him sleeping in his house; beset by the members of his family about him; while his Brahmaní folded her arms about his neck, as if unwilling to part with her deceased husband. (The Brahman in heaven, was seen in the state of his parting life).
49. They awakened his drowsy intelligence, by means of their own intelligence, as a waking man raises a sleeping soul, by means of his own sensibility.
50. Thence they went on in their pleasant journey to the realms of the chief and the prince mentioned before; and these were situated in the bright regions of their intellectual sphere, and illumined by their effulgence of the intellect. (It means to say, that all these journeys, places and persons, were but reveries of the mind, and creations of fancy).
51. Having arrived at that region and that very spot, they observed the haughty chief lying on his lotus like bed.
52. He lay with his gold coloured body, in company with the partner of his bed of golden hue; as the honey sucking bee lies in the lotus cell, enfolded in the embrace of his mate.
53. He was beset by his mistresses, hanging about him, like the tender stalks and tufts of flowers pendent upon a tree; and was encircled by a belt of lighted lamps, as when a golden plate is studded about by brilliant gems.
54. They awakened him shortly by infusing their own spirit and intelligence in his body and mind, and then they sat together marvelling at each other, as the self-same man in so many forms (or the self-same person in so many bodies).
55. They next repaired to the palace of the prince, and after awakening him with their intelligence, they all roamed about the different parts of the world.
56. They came at last to the hansa of Brahmá, and being all transformed to that form in their minds (i.e. having come to know the ahamsa I am he or their self-identity); They all became the one Rudra Personality in a hundred persons.
57. Thus the one intellect is represented in different forms and shapes, according to the various inclinations of their minds, like so many figures in a painting. Such is the unity of the deity represented as different personalities, according to the various tendencies of individual minds. (There is the same intellect and soul in all living beings, that differ from one another in their minds only).
58. There a hundred Rudras, who are the forms of the uncovered intellect (i.e. unclouded by mists of error); and they are acquainted with the truths of all things in the world, and the secrets of all hearts (antaryámin).
59. There are a hundred and some hundreds of Rudras, who are known as very great beings in the world; among whom there are eleven only (Ekádasa Rudras), that are situated in so many worlds (Ekádasa Bhubanas). (The Vedas have thousands and thousands of Rudras in their hymns as to them, as, [Sanskrit: sahashrena sahashrasah ye rudrá adhibhúmyá]).
60. All living beings that are not awakened to reason, are ignorant of the identity of one another; and view them in different and not in the same light; they are not farsighted to see any other world. That which is the most proximate to them.
61. Wise men see the minds of others and all things to rise in their minds, like the wave rising in the sea; but unenlightened minds remain dormant in themselves, like the inert stones and blocks. (Another explanation of it is, that all wise men are of the same mind as Birbal said to Akbar:—Sao Siyane ekmatá).
62. As the waves mix with themselves, by the fluidity of their waters; so the minds of wise unite with one another, by the solubility of their understandings, like elastic fluids and liquids. (So says Mrityunjaya:—the oily or serous understanding ([Sanskrit: tailavat vunvih]) readily penetrates into the minds of others).
63. Now in all these multitudes of living beings, that are presented to our sight in this world; We find the one invariable element of the intellect to be diffused in all of them, and making unreal appear as real ones to view.
64. This real but invisible entity of the Divine intellect remains for ever, after all the unreal but visible appearances disappear into nothing; as there remains an empty space or hollow vacuity, after the removal of a thing from its place, and the excavation of the ground by digging it. (This empty vacuum with the chit or Intellect in it, is the universal God of the vacuist Vasishtha).
65. As you can well conceive the idea of existence, of the quintuple elemental principles in nature; so you can comprehend also the notion of the Omnipresence of the Divine intellect, which is the substratum of the elemental principles.
66. As you see various statues and images, carved in stone and woods, and set in the hollows of rocks and trees; so should you see all these figures in the hollow space of the universe, to be situated in the self-same intellect of the Omnipresent Deity.
67. The knowledge of the known and the visible world, in the pure intellect of the unknown and invisible deity, resembles the view of the variegated skies, with their uncaused and insensible figures, in the causeless substratum of ever lasting and all pervading vacuity.
68. The knowledge of the phenomenal is the bondage of the soul, and the ignoring of this conduces to its liberation; do therefore as you like, either towards this or that (i.e. for your liberation and bondage).
69. The cognition and nescience of the world, are the causes of the bondage and liberation of the soul, and these again are productive of the transmigration and final emancipation of the animal spirit. It is by your indifference to them that you can avoid them both, do therefore as you may best choose for yourself. (Here are three things offered to view, namely, the desire of heaven and liberation, and the absence of all desires. [Sanskrit: svargakáma mokshakámau nishkámashchatra yah]).
70. What is lost at its disappearance (as our friends and properties), is neither worth seeking or searching after, nor sorrowing for when it is lost and gone from us. That which is gained of itself in our calm and quiet without any anxiety or assiduity on our part, is truly reckoned to be our best gain. (so says the Moha-Mudgura:—Be content with what offers of itself to thee. [Sanskrit: yatvabhase nijakarnmípáttam| bittam tena vinodaya chittam|]).
71. That which is no more than our knowledge of it (as the object of our senses and the objective world), is no right knowledge but mere fallacy; the true knowledge is that of the subjective consciousness, which is always to be attended to.
72. As the wave is the agitation of the water, so is this creation but an oscillation of the divine intellect; and this is the only difference between them, that the one is the production of the elements in nature, and the other is that of the divine will.
73. Again the undulation of waves occurs, in conjunction with the existing elements at certain spots and times; but the production of the world is wholly without the junction of the elemental bodies, which were not in existence at its creation. (It means to say, that the world is only an ideal formation of the divine mind).
74. The shining worlds shine with the light of the divine intellect, in which they are situated as the thoughts in its consciousness. It transcends the power of speech to define what it is, and yet it is expressed in the veda in the words that, "It is the supreme soul and perfect felicity" (Siva Parátmá).
75. Thus the world is the form of its consciousness in the divine intellect, and they are not different from one another, as words are never separable from their senses. It is said that the world is the undulation of the Divine spirit, and none but the ignorant inveigh against, by saying that the wave and water are two different things. (Kálidása in the commencement of Raghuvansa, uses the same simile of words and their meanings, to denote the intimate union of Párvatí and Siva, which is done to express the inseparability of the world with its maker; corresponding with the well known line of Pope: "whose body nature is, and God the soul").
On the Attainment of Attendantship on the God Rudra.
Argument:—The remainder of the former story; and the manner of becoming the attendant Rudras on Siva.
RÁMA said:—Tell me sir, what became of the many forms, which the mendicant saw in his dream; and whether the several forms of Jívata, the Brahman, the gander and others return to themselves, or remained as Rudras for ever more.
2. Vasishtha replied:—They all remained with Rudra, as parts and compositions of himself; and being enlightened by him, they wandered all about the world, and rested contented with themselves.
3. They all beheld with Rudra, the magic scenes which were displayed before them; till at last they were dismissed from his company, to return to their own states and places.
4. Rudra said:—Go you now to your own places, and there enjoy your fill with your family; and return to me after some time, having completed the course of your enjoyments and sufferings in the world.
5. You will then become as parts of myself, and remain as my attendants to grace my residence; till at last we return to the supreme at the end of time, and be absorbed in last Omega of all.
6. Vasishtha said:—So saying, the Lord Rudra vanished from their sight, and mixed in the midst of the Rudras, who viewed all the worlds in their enlightened intellects. (These are celestial and angelic beings).
7. Then did Jívata and others return to their respective residences, where they have to share their shares of domestic felicity in the company of their families, during their allotted times.
8. Having then wasted and shuffled off their mortal coil, at the end of their limited periods, they will be promoted to the rank of Rudras in heaven, and will appear as luminous stars in the firmament.
9. Ráma rejoined:—All those forms of Jiváta and others, being but creations of the empty imagination of the mendicant; I cannot understand, how they could be beings, as there is no substantiality in imaginary things.
10. Vasishtha replied:—The truth of the imagination lies partly in our consciousness, and partly in our representation of the image; though the imagery or giving a false shape to anything, is as untrue as any nihility in nature. But what we are conscious of must be true, because our consciousness comprehends everything in it.
11. Thus what is seen in the dream, and represented to us by imagination, are all impressed in our consciousness at all times and for ever. (Therefore neither is our consciousness nor the images we are conscious of are untrue, though the imagery and the work of imagination are utterly false).
12. As a man when going or carried from one country to another, and there again to some other place, has no knowledge of the distance of his journey, unless he is conscious of its length and duration in space and time; so we are ignorant of the duration of our dream, and our passing from one dream to another, without our consciousness of it in our sleeping state.
13. Therefore it is our consciousness that contains all things, that are represented to it by the intellect; and it is from our intellection that we have the knowledge of everything, because the intellect is full of knowledge and pervades everywhere.
14. Imagination, desire and dream, are the one and same thing, the one producing the other and all lodged in the cell of the intellect. Their objects are obtained by our intense application to them. Desire produces imagination which is the cause of dream; they are the phenomena of mind, and their objects are the results of deep meditation.
15. Nothing is to be had without its practice and meditation of it, and men of enlightened minds gain the objects by their Yoga or meditation of them alone. (These are the Yoga siddhas or adepts in Yoga as Siva &c).
16. These adepts view the objects of their pursuit in all places, such as the god Siva and others of the Siddha Yogis, such was my aim and attempt also, but it was not attended with success.
17. I was unsuccessful in want of my fixed resolvedness, but failed in both for my attending to both sides. It is only the firm resolution of one in one point, that gives him success in any undertaking.
18. As one going in southerly direction, cannot arrive at his house in the north, so it is the case with the pursuers after their aims; which they well know to be unattainable without their firm determination in it.
19. Whoever is resolved to gain his desired objects, must fix his view on the object before him; the mind being fixed on the object in view, brings the desire into effect. (So says Hafiz: If thou want the presence of the object, never be absent from it).
20. So the mendicant having the demi God Rudra, for the sole object in his view, became assimilated to the very form of his wish; because whoso is intent on one object, must remove all duality from before him. (So says the mystic Sadi: I drove the duality from my door, in order to have the unity alone before my view).
21. The other imaginary forms of the mendicant, were all different persons in their different spheres; and had obtained their several forms, according to their respective desires from one state to another (as said before).
22. They did not know or look on one another, but had all their thoughts and sights fixed on Rudra alone; because those that are awakened to their spiritual knowledge, have their sight fixed on their final liberation, while the unenlightened mortals are Subjected to repeated births, by the repetition of their wishes (to be born in some form or other).
23. It was accordingly to the will of Rudra, that he took this one form and many others upon him, such as he wills to become a Vidhyadhara in one place and a pandit in another.
24. This instance of Rudra serves for an example, of the efficacy of intense thought and practice of all men; who may become one or another or many more, as also learned or ignorant, agreeably to their thought and conduct. (One to be many, means the versatility of parts, to act as many).
25. So one has his manhood and Godhead also (i.e. acts as a man and a God likewise), by his manly and Godlike actions at different times and places; and to be both at the one and same time, requires much greater ability and energy both of the mind and body (as it is seen in the persons of deified heroes).
26. The living soul being one with the Divine, has all the powers of the same implanted in it; the infinite being ingrafted in the finite, It is of the same nature by innate nature.
27. The living soul has its expansion and contraction in its life and death, as the Divine soul has its evolution and involution; in the acts of creation and dissolution; but the Divine soul destroys no soul, because it is the soul of souls and the aggregate of all souls; therefore any one that would be godly, must refrain from slaughter.
28. So the yogis and yoginís continue in the discharge of their sacred rites, as enjoined by law and usage, and either remain in this or rove about in other worlds at large at the free will and liberty.
29. A yogi is seen in several forms at once, both in this world and in the next, according to his desert and the merit of his actions; as the great yogi and warrior Karta Vírya Arjuna, became the terror of the world as if he were ubiquitous, while he remained quite at home. (i.e. though confined in one place, yet he seemed to be present every where).
30. So also doth the god Vishnu appear in human forms on earth, while he sleeps at ease in the milky ocean; and the yoginis of heaven hover over animal sacrifices on earth, while they reside in their groups in the etherial sphere.
31. Indra also appears on earth, to receive the oblations of men, when he is sitting in his heavenly seat on high, and Náráyana takes the forms of a thousand Rámas upon him, in his conflict with the myriads of Rakhasa legions.
32. So did one Krishna become a hundred, to receive the obeisance of his reverential princes; and he appears as a thousand in the company of many thousand monarchs in the Kuru assembly.
33. So the god became incarnate in many forms, with parts and particles of his own spirit for the preservation of the world; and the one lord became many in the company of his mistresses in a moment. (This was the company of milk maids in the rásalílá sport of Krishna).
34. In this manner did the forms of Jívata and others, which were the creatures of the mendicant's imagination, retire at the behest of Rudra, to the particular abodes of their own and respective desires.
35. There they enjoyed all their delights for a long time, until they entered the abode of Rudra; where they became the attendants of the demigod, and remained in his train for a great length of time.
36. They remained in the company of Rudra, dwelling in the groves of the evergreen and ever blossoming Kalpa creepers of paradise, blooming with clusters of their gemming florets; and roving at pleasure to different worlds, and to the celestial city of Siva on the Kailása mountain, and sporting in the company of heavenly nymphs, and bearing the crowns of immortality on their heads. (This is the description of the heaven of Hindus).
Ráma's Wonder at the Error of Men.
Argument.—Application of the mendicant's case to all men, who are equally mistaken in their choice.
VASISHTHA Continued:—As the mendicant saw this transient scene of error in his mind; so it is the case with all living beings, to look on their past lives and actions apart from themselves, and in the persons of other men.
2. The past lives, actions and demise of all reflective souls, are as fast imprinted in them, as any thought is preserved in the retentive mind and vacuous intellect.
3. Distant and separate things are mingled together, in the present sphere of one's soul; and all persons appear as distinct figures in the dream.
4. And the human soul, though it is a form of the divine, yet being enclosed in its frail and mortal body, is doomed to misery until its final liberation from birth and body. Thus I have related to you the fate of all living souls, in the state and tale of the mendicant Bhikshu.
5. Now know, O Ráma! that the souls of all of us like that of the mendicant, are vibrated and moved by the impulse of the supreme spirit; and are yet fallible in their nature, and falling from error to error every moment (as we find in our dreams).
6. As a stone falling from a rock, falls lower and lower to the nether ground; so the living soul once fallen from its height of supreme spirit, descends lower and lower to the lowest pit.
7. Now it sees one dream, and then passes from it to another; and thus rolling for ever in its dreaming sleep, it never finds any substantiality whatsoever.
8. The soul thus obscured under the illusion of errors, happens some times to come to the light of truth, either by the guidance of some good instructor, or by the light of its own intuition; and then it is released from the wrong notion of its personality in the body, and comes to the true knowledge of itself.
9. Ráma said:—O! the impervious gloom of error that ever spreads on the human soul, causes it to rely in the mist of its errors, as a sleeping man enjoys the scenery of his dreams.
10. It is shrouded by the thick darkness of the night of erroneous knowledge, and falls into the pit of illusion which over spreads the world (máyá or error is the fruit of the forbidden tree whose mortal taste brought death into the world, while knowledge is the fruit of the tree of immortality, which liberates the soul from the bonds of birth and death).
11. O the egregious error of taking a thing for our own, which in reality belongs to no body but the lord and master of all.
12. It behoves you, sir, to explain to me, whence this error takes its rise, and how the mendicant with his share of good and right understanding, could fall into the error (of wishing himself to become another, that was as frail and mortal as himself). Tell me also that knowest all, whether he is still living or not.
13. Vasishtha replied:—I will explore into the regions of the three worlds in my samádhi meditation this night, and tell you tomorrow morning, whether the mendicant is living or not, and where he may be at present.
14. Válmíki said:—As the sage was saying in this manner, the royal garrison tolled the trumpet of the departing day with beat of drum; which filled the sky with the loud roar of diluvian clouds.
15. The princes and the citizens assembled in the court, threw handfuls of flowers at his feet, as the trees drop down their flowers in the ground, wafted by the odoriferous breeze.
16. They honoured the great sages also, and rose from their respective seats; and the assembly broke afterwards, with mutual salutations to one another.
17. Then all the residents of the earth and air, went to their respective residences with the setting sun; and discharged their duties of the departing day, in obedience to the ordinance of the sástras.
18. They all performed their services as prescribed in their liturgies, in which they placed their strong faith and veneration. (This shows the division of caste and creed even in the heroic age of Ráma; which being more marked in later ages, prevented the people from participating in a common cause).
19. All the mortals and celestials, that formed the audience of "Vasishtha", began now to reflect on the lecture of the sage, and the night passed as short as a moment with some, and as long as an age with others. (Gloss. They that took the subject for study, found time too short for their deep meditation of it, while those that were light minded and eager to hear more, felt time to roll on heavily on them. A very good lesson for lightening time by the practice of patient enquiry, and avoiding the troublesomeness of impatience).
20. As the morning rose with the returning duties of men, and employed all beings of heaven and earth to discharge their matin in services; the court reopened for the reception of the audience, who assembled there with mutual greetings and salutations to their superiors.
The wanderings of the mendicant.
Arguments:—The wanderings of men agreeably to their pursuits, described in the character of the mendicant.
VÁLMIKI related:—After the sages Vasishtha and Viswámitra had taken their seats in the court hall, there met the groups of celestials and siddhas of air, and the monarch of earth and chiefs of men.
2. Then came Ráma and Lakshmana with their companions in the court; which shone as a clear lake of lotus-beds unshaken by the gentle breeze, and brightened by the moonbeams glistening amidst it.
3. The sire of sages opened his mouth unasked by any body, and not waiting for the request of any one; because wise men are always kind hearted, and ready to communicate their knowledge to others of their own accord. (Here the sage spoke impromptu, to keep his promise of answering to Ráma's query in the preceding chapter, on a future occasion. Gloss).
4. Vasishtha said:—O. Ráma! that art the moon in the sphere of Raghu's family, I have yesternight came to see the mendicant, with the all seeing eye of my intellectual vision after a long time.
5. I revolved over in my mind, and wandered wide and afar to find out where that man was, and so I traversed through all the continents and islands, and passed over all the hills and mountains on earth.
6. I had my head running upon the search, but could not meet anywhere a mendicant of that description; because it is impossible to find in the outer world, the fictions of our air built castle.
7. I then ran in my mind at the last watch of the night, and passed over the regions on the north, as the fleet winds fly over the waves of the ocean.
8. There I saw the extensive and populous country of Jina (China) lying beyond the utmost boundaries of Valmika (Bhalika or Bulkh); where there is a beautiful city, called as Vihara by the inhabitants.
9. There lives a mendicant, named Dírgha drik or foresighted whose head was silvered over with age, and who continues in his close meditation confined in his homely and lovely cottage.
10. He is used to sit there in his meditative mood, for three weeks together at a time, and keep the door of his cell quite fast, for fear of being disturbed in his silent devotion, by the intrusion of outsiders.
11. His dependants are thus kept out of doors for the time, that he is absorbed in meditation.
12. He thus passed his three weeks of deep meditation in seclusion, and it is now a thousand years, that he has been sitting in this manner, in communion with his own mind only.
13. It was in olden times, that there had been a mendicant of his kind, as I have already related unto you; this is the living instance of that sort, and we know not where and when a third or another like this may be found to exist.
14. I was long in quest like a bee in search of flowers, to find such another, in the womb of this lotus like earth, with all possible inquiry on my part.
15. I passed beyond the limit of the present world, and pierced through the mist of future creations, and there I met with what I sought of the resemblance of the present one.
16. As I looked into the world lying in the womb of futurity, and deposited in the intellectual sphere of Brahma; I met with a third one resembling to Brahmá in his conduct.
17. So passing through many worlds one after another, I saw many things in futures, which are not in esse in the present world.
18. There I beheld the sages that are now sitting in this assembly, and many more Brahmans also, that are of the nature of these present, as also different from them.
19. There will be this Nárada with his present course of life, as also differing from the same; so likewise there will be many others also, with their various modes of life.
20. So likewise there will appear this Vyása and this Suka; and these Saunaka, Pulaha and Krutu, will reappear in future creations, with their very same natures and characters. (This doctrine of reappearance in a future world, is disbelieved in the sense of the transmigration of souls, but it is taken as strict article of faith by all Christians and Moslems, in the name of regeneration and resurrection which imply the same thing).
21. The same Agastya and Pulastya and the self-same Bhrigu and Angirasa, all of them and all others, will come to re-existence, with their very forms and traits of character. (The dead will rise again in their very bodies &c. Gospel).
22. They will be born and reborn sooner and later, so long as they are under the subjection of this delusion of regeneration and resuscitation; and will retain their similar births and modes of life, like all others to be reborn in this or the future world. (As a Brahman who is twice born on earth, retains his habits as before).
23. So the souls of men revolve repeatedly in the world, like waves rolling for ever in the waters of the sea; some of which retain their very same forms, while others are very nearly so in their reappearance.
24. Some are slightly altered in their figures, and others varying entirely in their forms, never regain their original likeness; so doth this prevailing error of regeneration, delude even the wise to repeated births (from which can never get their liberations). (The desire of revivification or regeneration, is so deeply implanted in all living souls, that no body wants to die but with desire to live again in some future state. "Ye shall not die." Gospel).
25. But what means the long meditation, of twenty days and nights of the mendicant, when a moment's thought of ours, and the results of our bodily actions, are productive of endless births and transformations.
26. Again where is the reality of these forms, which are mere conceptions of the mind; and these ideas and reflexions, growing ripe with their recapitulation, appear as full blown flowers to sight; and resemble the water lily at morn, beset by the busy murmur of humming bees.
27. The gross form is produced from pure thought (i.e. the material from the immaterial mind); as a pile of flaming fire is kindled by a minute spark or a ray of sun beam. Such is the formation of the whole fabric of the world.
28. All things are manifest as particles of divine reflexion, and each particle exhibiting in it a variety of parts (in its atoms and animalcules); nor are these nor those together are nothing at all, but they all exist in the universal, which is the cause of all cause, and the source of all sources.
Unity of God.
Argument.—The liberation of the mendicant's soul and destruction of his body, and the application of this instance in the cases of the confinement and liberation of all souls in and from the bondage of their bodies.
DASARATHA said:—O great sage, let these attendants of mine, repair immediately to the cells of the mendicant, and having roused him from his hypnotism, bring him hither in my presence.
2. Vasishtha replied:—Great king! the body of that mendicant, is now lying lifeless on the ground; it is now pale and cold and daubed with dirt, and has no jot of its vitality left in it.
3. His life has fled from his body, like odour from the lotus of the lake; he is now liberated from the bond of this life, and is no more subject to the cares of this world.
4. It is now a whole month that his servants have opened the latch of his door, and standing at a distance looking at his emaciated frame.
5. They will afterwards take out the body and immerge it in water, and then having anointed it, they will place it for their adoration, as they do a deified idol. (The bodies of saints are sanctified by their votaries among all nations, and their tombs are visited with religious veneration).
6. The mendicant being in this manner freed from his body, cannot be brought back to his senses, which have entirely quitted their functions in his mortal frame.
7. It is hard to evade the enchanting delusion of the world, so long as one labours under the darkness of his ignorance; but it is easily avoided by one's knowledge of truth at all times.
8. The fabrication of the world is untrue, as the making of ornaments from gold; it is the error of taking the form for the substance, that appears as the cause of creation.
9. This delusion of the world, appears to be so situated in the supreme soul, as the rows of waves are seen to roll upon the surface of the calm waters of the sea. So it is said in the very words of the Vedas, that the moving worlds are as the fluctuation of the Divine Soul.
10. The intelligent soul, taking the form of the living or human soul, sees the phenomenal world, as one sees one dream after another, but all these vanish away upon his waking to sense and right reason.
11. As every man of understanding sees the original in its image, so the man of reason views the archetype of the soul in its representation of the creation; while the ignorant man that sees the world as a thorny bush or confused jungle, can have no idea of the all designing framer of his frame work of the universe. (Right reason points out to spiritual source of the world).
12. The world is represented to the view of every living being, as it was seen in the vision of the dreaming mendicant, in the form of the undulations of the supreme spirit, like the fluctuation of waves on the surface of the sea.
13. As the world appeared to be presented at first in its visionary form, before the view of the universal or collective mind of the creative Brahmá; so does it rise in its shadowy form in the opacous minds of all individual persons. (The world appears in its unspiritual form, to the minds of the great Brahmá and all other living beings).
14. But to the clear mind this world appears as an evanescent dream, as it appeared to Brahmá at first; and the multitudes of worlds that are discovered one after the other, are no more than the successive scenes of passing dreams in the continuous sleep of ignorance.
15. So do all living beings in their various forms, are subject to the error of believing the unreal world as a reality, though they well know it in their minds, to be no better than a continuous dream or delusion. (The varieties of living souls are included under the unintelligible terms of universal and individual:—general and particular &c.).
16. The animal soul, though possessed of intellego (or the property of the intellect); is yet liable to transgress from its original nature (of holiness and purity); and thereby becomes subject to decay, disease and death and all kinds of awe. (It is the chyuty of the fall of man from his primary purity, that brought on him all his miseries on earth).
17. The godly intellect frames the celestial and infernal regions in our dreams, by the slight vibration of the mind at its pleasure; and then takes a delight in rambling over and dwelling in them.
18. It is this divine intellect, which by its own motion, takes the form of living soul upon itself; and wanders from itself to rummage over the false objects of the deceptive senses.
19. The mind also is the supreme soul, and if it is not so it is nothing; the living and embodied is likewise a designation of the same, likening to the shadow of the substance.
20. So the supreme Brahma is said to reside in the universal Brahmá, according to the distinct view of men, with regard to the one Brahma, in whom all these attributes unite, like the water with water and the sky with air. (All these attributive words apply to and unite in the unity of Brahma).
21. Men residing in this mundane form of Brahma, and yet think it otherwise than a reflexion of the deity; just as a child looking at its own shadow in a glass, startles to think it as an apparition standing before it.
22. It is the wavering understanding that causes these differences, which disappear of themselves, after the mind resumes its steadiness in the unity of the Deity, wherein it is lost at last, as the oblation of butter is consumed in the sacred fire.
23. There is no more any vacillation or dogmatism, nor the unity or duality, after the true knowledge of the deity is gained; when all distinctions are dissolved in an indistinct intellect, which is as it is and all in all.
24. When it is known from the sum and substance of all reasoning, that it is the one Intellect, which is the subject of all appellations which are applied to it; there remains no more any difference of religious faith in the world. (That is one and all, is the catholic religion of all).
25. Difference of faith, creates difference in men; but want of distinction in creed, destroys all difference, and brings on the union of all to one common faith in the supreme being.
26. Ráma, you see the variety from your want of understanding, and you will get rid of the same (and recognise their identity), as you come to your right understanding; ask this of any body and you will find the truth of what I say and be fearless at any party feeling and enmity. (Confession of faith in one Divinity, that is acknowledged and adored by all alike, is the root of catholicity, and brings on unity in philosophy of religion).
27. In that state of fearlessness, the Brahmavádí finds no difference in the states of waking, dreaming, sound sleep or the fourth stage of devotion; nor in his earthly bondage or liberation from it, all which are equal to him. (So says the sruti:—The Brahmavádí is ever blest and is afraid of nothing in any state of life, in all of which he sees the presence of his God).
28. Tranquillity is another name of the universe, and God has given his peace to everything in the world; therefore all schisms are the false creations of ignorance, as none of them has ever seen the invisible God.
29. The action of the heart and the motion of the vital air, cannot move the contented mind to action; because the mind which is devoid of its desire, is indifferent about the vibrations of his breath and heart strings.
30. The intellect which is freed from the dubitation of unity and duality, and got rid of its anxious cares and desires; has approached to a state, which is next to that of the deity.
31. But the pure desire which subsists in the intellect, like the stain which sticks to the disk of the moon; is no speck upon it, but the coagulation of the condensed intellect. (As the fluid water is congealed in the forms of snow and ice).
32. Do you, Ráma! ever remain in the state of your collected intellect, because it concentrates (the knowledge of) everything (that is sat) in itself, and leaves nothing (that is not asat) beyond it. (This is the most faultless undefective form of faith, that I have abstracted from all religions).
33. The moon like disk of the intellect, having the mark of inappetency in it, is a vessel of ambrosia, a draught of which drowns the thoughts of all that is and is not (in esse—et non-esse) into oblivion. (Contentment is the ambrosial draught for oblivion of all cares).
34. Refer thy thoughts of whatever thou hast or wantest, to the province of thy intellect (i.e. think of thy intellectual parts and wants only); and taste thy inward delight as much as thou dost like. (Pleasure of intellectual culture, is better than physical enjoyments).
35. Know Ráma, that the words vibration and inaction, desire and inappetency and such others of the theological glossary, serve only to burden and mislead the mind to error; do you therefore keep yourself from thinking on these, and betake yourself to your peace and quiet, whether you attain to your perfection or otherwise.
On the virtues of Taciturnity.
Argument:—Four kinds of Reticence, and their respective qualities.
VASISHTHA said:—Ráma! remain as taciturn as in your silent sleep, and shun at a distance the musings of your mind; get rid of the vagaries of your imagination, and remain firm in the state Brahma.
2. Ráma said:—I know what is meant by the reticence of speech, and the quietness of the organs, and the muteness of a block of wood; but tell me what is sleep like silence, which you well know by practice.
3. Vasishtha replied:—It is said to be of two kinds, by the mute like munis and the reserved sages of old; the practiced by the wood like statues of saints, and the other observed by those that are liberated in their life time (jívan mukta).
4. The wood like devotee is that austere ascetic, who is not meditative in his mind, and is firmly employed in the discharge of the rigorous rites of religion; he practises the painful restraints of his bodily organs, and remains speechless as a wooden statue.
5. The other kind of living liberated Yogi is one, who looks at the world ever as before (with his usual unconcern); who delights in his meditation of the soul, and passes as any ordinary man without any distinctive mark of his religious order or secular rank.
6. The condition of these two orders of saintly and holy men, which is the fixedness of their minds and sedateness of their souls, is what passes under the title of taciturnity and saintliness (mauna and muni) (who hold their tongue and their peace, and walk sub silentio and incognito on earth).
7. Thus the taciturn sages reckon four kinds of latitancy, which they style severally by the names of reservedness in speech, restriction of the organs, woodlike speechlessness and dead like silence as in one's sleep.
8. Oral silence consists in keeping one's mouth and lips close, and the closeness of the senses implies the keeping of the members of the body under strict control; the rigorous muteness means the abandonment of all efforts, and the sleepy silence is as silent as the grave.
9. There is a fifth kind of dead-like silence, which occurs in the austere ascetic in his state of insensibility; in the profound meditation of the dormant Yogi, and in the mental abstraction of the living liberated.
10. All the three prior states of reticence, occur in the austere devotee, and the sleepy or dead silence is what betakes the living liberated only.
11. Though speechlessness is called silence, yet it does not constitute pure reticence, in as much as the mute tongue may brood evil thoughts in the mind, which lead to the bondage of men.
12. The austere devotee continues in his reticence, without minding his own egoism, or seeing the visibles or listening to the speech of others; and seeing nothing beside him, he sees all in himself, like living fire covered under ashes.
13. The mind being busy in these three states of silence, and indulging its fancies and reveries at liberty; makes munis of course in outward appearance, but there is no one, who understands the nature of God.
14. There is nothing of that blessed divine knowledge in any of these, which is so very desirable to all mankind; I vouch it freely that they are not knowers of God, be they angry at it or not as they may. (Vasishtha being a theoretic philosopher, finds fault with every kind of practical Yoga or pseudo hypnotism).
15. But this dormant or meditative silent sage, who is liberated from all bonds and cares in his life time, is never to be born in any shape in this world, and it is interesting to know much of them as I will recite to you.
16. He does not require to restrain his respiration, nor needs the triple restraint of his speech; he does not rejoice at his prosperity, nor is he depressed in adversity, but preserves his equanimity and the evenness of his sensibility at all times. (He sticks to what is natural, and does not resort to anything artificial).
17. His mind is under the guidance of his reason, and is neither excited by nor restrained from its fancies, it is neither restless nor dormant, and exists as it is not in existence. (owing to its even mindedness).
18. His attention is neither divided nor pent up, but fixed in the infinite and eternal one, and his mind cogitates unconfined the nature of things. Such a one is said to be the sleeping silent sage.
19. He who knows the world as it is, and is not led to error by its deluding varieties, and whoso scans everything as it is without being led to scepticism, is the man that is styled the sleeping silent sage.
20. He who relies his faith and trust, on the one endless and ever felicitous Siva, as the aggregate of all knowledge, and the displayer of this universe, is the one who is known as the sleeping silent sage.
21. He who sees the vacuum as the plenum, and views this all omnium as the null and nullum; and whose mind is even and tranquil, is the man who is called the sleeping silent sage.
22. Again he who views the universe as neither reality nor unreality either, but all an empty vacuum and without a substratum, but full of peace and divine wisdom, is said to be in the best state of his taciturnity.
23. The mind that is unconscious of the effects, of the different states of its prosperity and adversity and of its plenty and wants, is said to rest in its highest state of rest and quiet.
24. That perfect equanimity of the mind and evenness of temper, which is not liable to change or fluctuation; with a clear conscience and unflinching self-consciousness, are the source of an unimpairing reticence.
25. The consciousness that I am nothing, nor is there anything besides; and that the mind and its thoughts, are no other in reality (than fictions of the intellect); is the real source of taciturnity.
26. The knowledge that the ego pervades this universe, which is the representation of the "one that is"; and whose essence is displayed equally in all things, is what is meant by the state of sleepy silence. (i.e. the man that has known this grand truth, remains dumb and mute and has nothing to say).
27. Now as it is the consciousness which constitutes all and everything, how can you conceive your distinction from others, who are actuated by the same power, dwelling alike in all? It is this knowledge which is called the ever lasting sleep, and forms the ground work of every kind of silence.
28. This is the silence of profound sleep, and because it is an endless sleep in the ever wakeful God, this sleep is alike to waking. Know this as the fourth stage of Yoga, or rather a stage above the same.
29. This profound trance is called hypnotism or the fourth state of entranced meditation; and the tranquillity which is above this state, is to be had in one's waking state.
30. He that is situated in his fourth stage of yoga, has a clear conscience and quiet peace attending on him. This is practicable by the adept even in his waking state, and is obtainable by the righteous soul, both in its embodied as well as disembodied states.
31. Yes, O Ráma! Be you desirous to be settled in this state, and know that neither I or you nor any other person is any real being in this world, which exists only as a reflexion of our mind, and therefore the wise man should rely only in the bosom of the vacuous intellect, which comprehends all things in it.