47. The site of the polar circle of Meru and the course of the planets being changed in different creations, there ensues an alteration of the points of the compass, and a difference in the sides of the quarters; therefore there is nothing as a positive truth, except our conception of it such and such.
48. It is the vibration of the soul, that displays these wonderful conceptions in the mind; and excites the various phenomena in nature. It converts a son to a father and makes a son of the father, and represents a friend as a foe and again shows a foe in the light of a friend. (Hence there is no such thing as a positive certainty, but becomes transmutable to one in opposite nature, as the father supports the child in its youth, and is supported by the boy in his dotage).
49. I remember many men to become effeminate, and many women also to grow quite masculine; and I have seen the good manners of the golden age to prevail in Kali [yuga], and those of Iron-age gaining ground in its preceding ages.
50. I have seen also many men in the Tretá and Dwápara Yugas or the silver and brazen ages of the world, that were ignorant of the Vedas and unacquainted with their precepts; and followed the fictions of their own invention which led them to heterodoxy.
51. I remember also O Brahman! the laxity of manners and morals among the gods, demi gods and men since the beginning of the world.
52. I remember after the lapse of a thousand cycles of the four Yuga ages, that Brahmá created from his mind some aerial beings of unearthly forms; and these spiritual beings occupied a space extending over ten cycles of creations.
53. I remember likewise the varying positions and boundaries of countries, and also the very changing and diversified actions and occupations of their people. I remember too the various costumes and fashions and amusements of men, during the ceaseless course of days and nights in the endless duration of time.
Desire of Tranquillity and Quiescence of the Mind.
Argument.—Relation of the vices and virtues which hasten and prevent death, and the peace and rest of the mind which is sought after by mankind.
VASISHTHA rejoined:—I then besought the chief of the crows, that was stationed on one end of a branch of the kalpa tree, to tell me how he was not liable to fall into the hands of death, when all other animals moving about the expanse of the world, are doomed to be crushed under its all devouring jaws.
2. Bhusunda replied, You sir, that know all things and would yet ask me to tell that you know full well. Such bidding of my master emboldens your servant to speak out where he should otherwise hold his tongue.
3. Yet when you desire me to tell, I must do it as well as I can, because it is deemed to be the duty of a dependant, to carry out the commands of their kind masters.
4. Death will not demolish the man, who does not wear on his bosom the pearl-necklace of his vicious desires; as a robber does not kill a traveller that has not the pernicious chain of gold hanging on his breast.
5. Death will not destroy the man whose heart is not broken down by sorrows, whose breast is not sawed as a timber by the friction of his sighs, and whose body is not worsted by toil like a tree by canker worms.
6. Death will not overtake the man, whose body is not beset by cares like a tree by poisonous snakes, lifting their hoods above its head; and whose heart is not burnt by its anxieties, like a wood by its enraging fire.
7. Death will not prey upon the person, which is not vitiated by the poison of anger and enmity, and cavity of whose heart does not foster the dragon of avarice in its darkness, and whose heart is not corroded by the canker of cares.
8. He is not carried away by the cruel hand of death, whose body is not already fried by the fire of his resentment, which like hidden heat of the submarine fire, sucks up the waters of reason in the reservoir of the mind.
9. Death will not kill the person whose body is not inflamed by the fiery passion of love; which like the wild fire consumes the hoarded corn of good sense, and as a pair of sharp scissors rives the heart strings of reason.
10. Death doth not approach the man, that puts his trust in the one pure and purifying spirit of God, and hath the rest of his soul in the lap of the supreme soul.
11. Death does not lay hold on the person that is firm and sedate in the same posture and position, and does not ramble like an ape from one tree to another, and whose mind is a foreigner to fickleness.
12. Thus then the mind being settled in unalterable state of calm repose in its Maker, it is no more possible for the evils and diseases of this world, to overtake it at any time.
13. The fixed and tranquil mind, is never overtaken by the sorrows and diseases of the world; nor it is liable to fall into the errors and dangers, which betide the restless mob here below.
14. The well composed mind, hath neither its rising nor setting, nor its recollection nor forgetfulness at any time or other. It has not its sleeping or waking state, but has its heavenly revery which is quite distinct from dreaming.
15. The vexatious thought which take their rise from vitiated desire and feelings of resentment and other passions, and darken the region of the heart and mind, can never disturb the serenity of those souls, which have their repose in the Supreme Spirit.
16. He whose mind is enrapt in holy meditation, neither gives away to nor receives anything from others, nor does he seek or forsake whatever he has or has not at any time. He does his duties always by rote as he ought without expectation of their reward or merit.
17. He whose mind has found its repose in holy meditation, has no cause of his repentance, for doing any misdeed for his gain or pleasure at any time.
18. He has enough of his gain and an excess of his delight and a good deal of every good, whose mind has met with the grace of his God. (He that has the grace of God, has every thing given and added to him).
19. Therefore employ your mind, to what is attended with your ultimate good and lasting welfare; and wherein there is nothing of doubt or difficulty, and which is exempt from false expectation.
20. Exalt your mind above the multiplicities of worldly possessions, which the impure and unseen demon of evil presents for the allurement of your heart, and settle it in the unity of the Divinity. (So did Satan attempt in vain to tempt our Lord to worldly vanities and all its possessions).
21. Set your heart to that supreme felicity which is pleasant both in the beginning and end, and even delectable to taste; that is pleasant to sight, sweet to relish, and is wholesome in its effect.
22. Fix your mind to what is sought by all the good and godly people, which is the eternal truth and the best diet of the soul, from its beginning and during its course in the middle and end and throughout its immortality.
23. Apply your mind to what is beyond your comprehension, which is the holy light, which is the root and source of all, and wherein consists all our best fortune and the ambrosial food for our souls.
24. There is no other thing so very permanent or auspicious among immortals or mortals, and among the gods and demigods, Asuras and Gandharvas, and Kinnaras and Vidyádharas, nor among the heavenly nymphs, as the spiritual bliss of the soul.
25. There is nothing so very graceful or lasting, to be found in cities and mountains and in the vegetable creation, nor among mankind and their king, nor any where in earth or heaven as this spiritual felicity.
26. There is nothing steady or graceful, among the Nága-snake or Asura races and their females, and in the whole circles of infernal region.
27. There is nothing so lovely and lasting in the regions above and below and all around us, and in the spheres of all other worlds, so very graceful and durable as the lasting peace of mind.
28. There is nothing that is felicitous or persistent in this world, amidst all its sorrows and sicknesses and troubles which encompass all about. All our actions are for trivial matters and all our gains are but trifles at best.
29. There is nothing of any lasting good, in all those thoughts which employ the minds of men and gladden their hearts, and which serve at best to delude the sapient to the fickleness of their spirits.
30. No permanent good is derived from the ever busy thoughts and volitions and nolitions of mankind, which tend at best to trouble their minds, as the Mandara mountain disturbed the waters of the deep, at the time of its churning by the gods and demons.
31. No lasting good results to any body from his continuous exertions, and various efforts about his gain and loss even at the edge of the sword (i.e., even at the peril of one's life).
32. Neither is the sovereignty of the whole earth so great a boon, nor is one's elevation to the rank of a deity in heaven so great a blessing; nor even is the exaltation of one to the position of the world supporting serpent so great a gain, as the sweet peace of mind of the good.
33. It is of no good to trouble the mind, with its attention to all the branches of learning, nor is it of any advantage to one to employ his wits and enslave his mind to the service of another, nor of any use to any body, to learn the histories of other people, when he is ignorant of himself and his own welfare.
34. It is of no good to live long, under the trouble of disease and the sorrow of life. Neither is life or death, nor learning nor ignorance, nor heaven or hell any advantage or disadvantage to any body, until there is an end of his desires within himself.
35. Thus these various states of the world and all worldly things, may appear gratis to the ignorant vulgar, but they afford no pleasure to the learned who knows their instability. (Hence longevity and stability depend on one's reliance in the eternal God, and not on the transient world).
Investigation of the Living Principle.
Argument.—Disquisition of the Arteries and organs of the body. The seat of life and its actions.
BHUSUNDA continued:—All things being thus unstable, unprofitable and unpleasant to man, there is one reality only in the view of the wise, which is beyond all error and imperishable, and which though present in all things and all places, transcends the knowledge of all.
2. This essence is the soul or self, and its meditation is the remover of all sorrow and affliction. It is also the destroyer of the erroneous vision of the world, which has passed every man, and biased his understanding by his long habit of thinking this phantom of his dream as a sober reality.
3. Spiritual contemplation dawns in the clear atmosphere of the unpolluted mind, and traverses amidst its whole area like the solar light, and it destroys the darkness of all sorrows and erroneous thought which over spreads it.
4. Divine meditation being unaccompanied by any desire or selfish view, penetrates like the moon-beams through the darkness of the night of ignorance.
5. This spiritual light is easily obtainable by Sages like you, and too difficult to be retained (dháraná) by brutes like ourselves. Because it is beyond all imaginable resemblance, and is known by the ravished Sages as the transcendent light.
6. How can a man of common understanding come to the knowledge of that thing, which is an associate to the clear understanding of the meditative Sage only.
7. There is a little resemblance of this spiritual light, with the intellectual light of philosophers, whose minds are enlightened by the cooling moon-beams of philosophy, as those of the inspired saints are illumed with spiritual light.
8. Among the associates of spiritual knowledge, there is one particularly friendly to me, which alleviates all my sorrows, and advances my prosperity, and this relates to the investigation of the vital breath which is the cause of life.
9. Vasishtha said: After speaking in this manner the Sagely bird Bhusunda held his silence, when I calmly joined my rejoinder, and adduced my question to him by way of amusement, though I was full well acquainted with the subject.
10. I addressed him saying, O thou long living bird, and remover of all my doubts, tell me truly, my good friend, what you mean by meditation of the vital breath (which you say to be the cause of vitality).
11. Bhusunda replied: You sir, who are learned in the knowledge of Vedánta, and sure remover of all doubts in spiritual science, are now by way of joke only, putting this question to me who am but a brute bird and an ignorant crow.
12. Or it may be to sound my shallow knowledge of the subject, and to instruct me the rest in which I am imperfect, that you like to have my answer to the question, wherein I can lay no objection (as no body is unprepared to know more and better of a subject).
13. Hear me, tell you some thing relating to cogitation of vital breath, which has the cause of Bhusunda's longevity and the giver of Bhusunda's spiritual knowledge.
14. You see sir, this beautiful fabric of the body, supported upon the three strong pillars or posts of the three humours; and having nine doorways about it. (The three humours are the bile, phlegm and wind, and the nine openings are the earholes, nostrils, the sockets of the eyes, the mouth).
15. This abode is occupied by its owner or the haughty house holder—Ahankára or egoism, who dwells in it with his favourite consort Puryashtaká, and his dependants of the Tanmátras at all times. (These terms have been explained before).
16. You well know the inside of this house which I need not describe, its two ears are as its two upper storied rooms, the two eyes are as its two windows, and the hairs on the head are as its thatched covering on the top of the house.
17. The opening of the mouth is the great door way to the house, the two arms are as its two wings; and the two sets of teeth answer the strings of flowers, which are hung on the gate way for its decoration.
18. The organs of sense are the porters to this house, and convey the sights and sounds, flavours and feelings of things in to it. These are enclosed by the great wall of the body, and the two pupils keep watch on tower of this edifice.
19. The blood, fat and flesh form the plaster of this wall, and the veins and arteries answer the strings to bind the bamboos of the bones together, and the thick bones are the big posts that uphold this fabric.
20. There are two tender nerves called Idá and Pingalá, which lie and stretch along the two sides of this building.
21. There are three pairs of lotus like organs formed of soft flesh and bones, and these stretch up and down perpendicularly in the body, and are attached to one stalk like artery connecting them with one another.
22. Then the etherial air which is inhaled through the nostrils, supplies these lotiform organs with moisture, as if it poured water at their roots, and makes them shoot out in soft leaflets, shaking gently at the breath of air, passing incessantly through the lungs and nostrils.
23. The shaking leaves agitate the vital air, as the moving leaves of the trees in the forest, increase the force of the current air in the firmament.
24. The inflated vital air then passes in many ways, through the holes of the entrails inside the body, and extends to and fills all the pores and canals of the frame from top to bottom.
25. These then receive different appellations, according to their course through the several, and are denominated as the five fold vital airs of prána, apána, samána, udána, and vyána; by them that are skilled in science of pneumatic. (The prána-váyu is the breathing of the nostrils, the apána is the wind in ano, samána is the air circulating through the whole body, udána is the air of speech, and the vyána is the air let out through the pores of the whole body).
26. All the vital powers reside in the triple lotiform organ of the heart, and thence extend up and down and on all sides like beams from the lunar disk.
27. These vital powers are employed in passing in and out, in taking in and letting out, in rising and falling, and also in moving throughout the body.
28. The prána or air of life is said by the learned to be situated in the lotus formed organ of the heart, which has also the power of moving the eyelids in their twinklings. (Hence one's life time is measured both by the numbers of his breathings, as also by that of the twinklings of his eye).
29. This power some times assumes the form of touch or the feeling of perception, and at others it takes the shape of breath by blowing through the nostrils. Some times it is seated in the stomach for culinary action, and oft-times it gives utterance to speech.
30. What more shall I say, than that it is our lord—the air, that moves the whole machine of the body, as a mechanic models everything by means of his machinery.
31. Among these there are two principal airs, by name of prána and apána, which take their two different courses upward and downward, the one is the breath of life and the other is the vitiated which is let out.
32. It is by watching the course of these airs that I remain quiet at this place, and undergo the vicissitudes of heat and cold, as it is destined to the lot of the feathered tribe.
33. The body is a great machine, and the two airs are its indefatigable mover. It has the sun and moon or the fire and moonlight, shining in the midst of its heart.
34. The body is a city and the mind is its ruler, the two airs are as the car and wheel of the body; while Egoism is the monarch of this city, and the eight members are as so many horses attached to the car of the body.
35. Thus by watching the motion of those airs (i.e. of the prána and apána—inspiration and expiration for the whole of my lifetime); I find the course of my life to be as interminable, as that of the continuity of my breathings. (The thought of continuity prolongs the course of life).
36. The airs serve the body alike in all its states of waking, dreaming, and sound sleep, and his days glide on imperceptibly who remains in his state of profound sleep. (so the yogi remaining in his trance is utterly insensible of the course of time).
37. These breaths being divided into a thousand threads, according as they pass through the many canals of the body, are as imperceptible as the white fibres passing inside the stalks of lotus plants.
38. By watching the incessant course of vital airs, as also by attending to the continued course of time, and thinking in one self of the interminable course of his respirations, and the moments of time and train of his thoughts, as also by attempting to restrain their course by the habit and practice of pránáyáma, that he is sure to lengthen the duration of his life in this world; and attain to his eternal life in the next.
On Samádhi.
Argument.—On the Breathings of Inspiration, Respiration and Expiration, and their rise and fall from and in the spirit of Brahma the origin and end of all.
VASISHTHA said:—Hear Ráma, when the bird had said so far, I interrupted him and said, tell me, O ancient seer, how and what is the nature of the course of vital airs.
2. Bhusunda replied:—How is it, O sage! that you who know everything, should propose this question to me as if it were in jest, but as you ask this of me, I must tell you all I know about it.
3. The vital breath, O Brahman! is a moving force by its nature, and is always suo motu in its own motion, and pervades both in the inside and outside of bodies which its animates.
4. The apána or the emitting air also is a self motive power, and in its incessant motion; and is both within and without the living body, in its downward or receding direction.
5. It is good for livings being to restrain these vitals breaths both in their waking and sleeping states, and now hear me tell you, O learned sage, how it is to be effected for their best gain.
6. The internal vital air (prána), extends from the lotus-like heart to the crevice in the cranium, its effort to come out (by the mouth and nostrils), is termed by the wise as rechaka or exhaled air. (The expiration coming out of the heart, and reaching the cerebrum is called the rechaka breath).
7. The meeting of breaths at the distance of twelve inches from and below the nostrils, is called the puraka or inhaling-breath. (This is termed the [Sanskrit: váhyapúraka] or external inspiration).
8. It is also called Puraka, when the breath passes from without, and enters within the inner apána without any effort, and fills the inside from the heart to the cerebrum.
9. When the apána air has subsided in the heart, and prána breath does not circulate in the breast, it is called the Kumbhaka state, and is known to the yogis only.
10. All these three sorts of breaths, are perceived at the place from where the apána takes its rise, and this is at the distance of twelve inches below on the outside of the tip of the nose.
11. Hear now, O great minded sage! what the clear minded adepts have said, respecting the natures of the ever continuative and effortless. (i.e. self respiring) breathings.
12. Know sir, that the air which is inhaled from the distance of twelve inches on the out side of the tip of the nose, the same receives of its own nature the name of puraka or that of another.
13. As the outer part of a pot planted in the earth appears to sight, so the apána breath stretching to the distance of twelve inches just opposite to the tip of the nose in the air on the out side, is perceptible to the yogi, and is called Kumbhaka by the learned.
14. The exhaling air which rises from the heart, and extends to the tip of the nose, is styled the primary and external puraka breath ([Sanskrit: ádyah váhyapúrakam]) by the adepts in Yoga practice.
15. There is another (or secondary) external puraka air known to the wise, which takes its rise from the tip of the nose, and extends to the distance of twelve inches out-side of it.
16. After the prána breath sets out-side the nostrils, and before the apána breath has yet its rise, this interval of the entire abeyance of both, is known as the state of perfect equalization, and termed the external Kumbhaka.
17. The air which breathes out in the heart or pulsates within it, and without the rising of the apána breath; is styled the external rechaka in the Yoga system; and its reflection confers perfect liberation to man.
18. And this rising at the distance of twelve inches, in another kind of it and called the strong rechaka.
19. There is another kind of puraka, which is on the outside of the apána; and when it stretches to the inside of the navel within, it is known under the names of Kumbhaka &c.
20. The intelligent man who meditates by day and night on the octuple nature, and course of the prána and apána or the inhaling and exhaling airs, is not doomed to be reborn any more in this miserable earth.
21. I have thus related to you the various courses of the bodily airs, a restraint of which in the waking and sleeping states of man, as also in his states of sitting and waking, is productive of his liberation.
22. Though these are very fleeting in their natures, yet they are restrained by the good understanding of man, even when he is employed in his work or is in his act of eating.
23. The man that practises the Kumbhaka or suppression of his breathing within himself, cannot be employed in any action; but must remain calmly in this act of suppression, by giving all external thoughts and actions. (i.e., as in a state of torpidity).
24. A few days practice of this Yoga, by abnegation of all outward objects from the mind, enables a man to attain to the state of his solity, or his unity with the sole entity of the Deity.
25. Intelligent men have no fondness for worldly things, but bear an aversion to them as a holy Brahmán has against the sweet milk contained in a flask of skin. They remain regardless of visible objects, with his eyes closed against them, as a blind man takes no heed of out-ward appearances.
26. They are in possession of all, which is the sum total (tout ensemble) of what is to be had as the best gain; and whether when they are awake or asleep or walking or sitting, they never lose sight of that true light which leads them to the other world.
27. Those who have obtained the knowledge of the course of his breathings, have got rid of all delusion and rest in quiet within themselves (i.e. In watching their inspirations and over-looking the external phenomena).
28. And whether the intelligent people are employed in busy life, or sit inactive at home; they are always quiet and at rest by following the course of their respiration (neither breathing hard or being out breath).
29. I know, O Brahman! the exhaling breath, to rise from its source of the lotus like heart, and stretch to the distance of twelve inches out of it, where it sets or stops. (As is mixed up with the current air).
30. The apána or inhaling breath is taking in from the same distance of twelve inches, and is deposited in the cup of the lotus situated in the human heart.
31. As the prána respiration is exhaled out in the air, to the distance of twelve inches from the heart, so the inhaled air of apána is taken into the breast, from the same distance of the open sky.
32. The prána or exhaling breath runs towards the open air, in the form of a flame of fire, and the inhaled breath turns inward to the region of the heart, and goes downward like a current of water.
33. The apána or inhaled breath is like the cooling moon light, and refreshes the body from without; while prána respiration resembling the sunshine or a flame of fire, warms the inside of the body.
34. The prána breath warms every moment the region of the heart, as the sunshine inflames the region of the sky; and then it torrifies the atmosphere before it, by the exhalation of breath through the mouth.
35. The apána air is as the moonlight before the moon, and being inhaled inward, it washes the sphere of the heart as by a deluge; then it refreshes the whole inside in a moment.
36. When the last digit of the moon-like apána or inhaling breath, is swallowed by the sun of the prána or exhaling breath; it meets with the sight of supreme spirit, and has no more any cause of affliction.
37. So also when the last portion of the sunlike prána or exhaling breath, is swallowed by the moon-like apána or inhaling breath; then there ensues the same visitation of Brahmá in the inside, and the soul is emancipated from further transmigration in this world. (The meeting of the two is a yoga or junction of the human and Divine spirits).
38. The prána or exhaling breath assumes the nature of the solar heat, both in the inside and outside of the body; and afterwards it becomes and remains as the cooling moonlight. (It is the one and same breath of air, that takes the two names, according to its two different natures of inspiration and expiration. gloss).
39. The prána expiration forsakes its nature of the cooling moon, and turns in a moment to assume the nature of the hot sun, that dries and sucks up everything before it.
40. As long as the prána exhalation is not converted to the nature of the moon, after forsaking its solarity, it is so long considered as unconditioned by time and place, and freed from pain and grief. (The prána being peculiarised by time, place and number, is long or short and subject to misery; but its extinction in the interval, is instinct with the supreme spirit. Patanjali Yoga sutra II 50).
41. He who sees the seat of his soul in the mind situated within his heart, and at the confluence of the sol-luni prána and apána breathings in the Kumbhaka or retained breath, is no more subjected to be reborn and die.
41a. He who feels the sun and moon of his prána and apána breaths, ever rising and setting in the kumbhaka or retained breath with his heart, verily sees the seat of his mind and soul placed at their confluence, and is freed from further birth and death. (The plain meaning is that, the mind and soul consist in the air deposited in the heart by the two inhaling and exhaling breaths of prána and apána).
42. He verily sees the soul in its full light, who beholds this bright sun [Sanskrit: prána] shining in the sphere of his heart, in conjunction with the rising and setting moon beams apána in his mind.
43. This light never fades nor grows faint at any time, but dispels the darkness of the heart, and produces the consummation—Siddhi of the meditative mind.
44. As the dispersion of outward darkness presents the world to view, so the disappearance of inward obscurity gives out the light of the spirit before the mental sight.
45. The removal of intellectual darkness, produces the liberation of the soul, and shows the rising and setting sun of the vital breath vividly to view.
46. When the moon of the apána or inspired breath, sets in the cavity of the heart, the sun of the prána or expiratory breathing, rises immediately to gush out of the same.
47. The apána or inhaling breath having set in the cell of the lotus like heart, the exhaling breath of prána rises at the very moment to come out of it, as the shadow of the night being dispersed from sight, the bright sun of the day ushers his light.
48. As the prána expiration expires in the open air, the inhaling breath rises and rushes in a moment; just as the light having fled from the horizon, is succeeded immediately by deep darkness.
49. Know ye intelligent men, that the apána breath becomes extinct, where the prána comes to be born; and the prána respiration is lost, where the apána takes its rise.
50. When the prána breathing has ceased and the apána has its rise, it is then that one supports himself upon the Kumbhaka retained air, and does not depend on two other passing breaths.
51. On the extinction of apána, and the rise of the prána breath, one relying on the Kumbhaka air which is deposited within himself, is exempted from his pain and sorrow.
52. By depending on the rechaka breath, and practicing the suppression of Kumbhaka breath, at the great distance of sixteen inches from the apána; a man has no more to be sorry for any thing.
53. By making the apána a receptacle of rechaka, and filling the prána in the inside, and finding himself filled with the puraka all within his body, a man has no more to be born on earth.
54. When a man finds the perfect tranquillity of his soul, by subsidence of both the prána and apána within himself; he has no longer to sorrow for any thing whatever.
55. When a man reflects his prána breath to be devoured by the apána air both within as well as without himself, and loses his thoughts of time and space, he has no more any cause for sorrow.
56. He who sees his prána breath devouring the apána air, both within and without himself, together with his sense of space and time, has no more his mind to be reborn on earth.
57. When the prána is swallowed up by the apána, or the apána by the prána, both in the in-side and out-side of the adept; together with his thoughts of time and place;
58. At this moment the Yogi finds his prána to set down, and his apána to rise no more, and the interval between the two, is common to all animals though it is known to Yogis alone.
59. The Kumbhaka taking place of itself on the out-side, is known as the divine state, but when it happens to occur in the in-side, and without any efforts on the part of the adept, it is said to be the state of the most supreme. (Because God does not breathe).
60. This is the nature of the divine soul, and this is the state of the supreme intellect, this is the representation of the eternal spirit, and one attaining to this state, is never subject to sorrow.
61. Like fragrance in the flower, there is an essence indwelling within the vital breath also, and this is neither the prána nor apána, but the intellectual soul which I adore. (As the true God).
62. As taste indwells in the water, so is there an essence immanent in the apána; and this is neither the apána nor the not apána, but the intelligent soul which I adore.
63. There is at the end of the extinction of prána, and beyond the limit of the exhaustion of apána, and situated in the interval between the extremities of both of these, which I ever adore.
64. That which forms the breathing of breath, and is the life of life, what is the support and bearer of the body, is the intellectual spirit which I ever adore.
65. That which causes the thinking (power) of the mind, and the cogitation of the understanding; as also the egotism of egoism, is the intellectual soul, which I have learnt to adore.
66. That which contains and produces all things, which is all (or permeated in all things, as every thing is (evolved from) itself; and what is changed to all at all times, is that mind which I adore for ever.)
67. What is the light of lights, what is holiness and the holy of holies, and what is unchangeable in its nature, is the intellect which I adore.
68. I adore that pencil of pure intellectual light, which rises at the juncture of the setting of the apána and springing up of the prána breath. (This sloka occurs in the Kashmere Mss).
68a. I adore that intellect which trolls on the tip of the nose, at the point where the prána sets in, and the apána has not yet taken its rise.
69. I adore the intellect which rises at the time when both the prána and apána breaths have stopped, and when neither of them has taken its rise.
70. I adore that intellect which appears before the Yogi, and supports him at the point which he has reached unto upon the setting of the prána and apána breaths, both within and without himself.
71. I adore that intellect which is force of all forces, and rides in the car of prána and apána breaths, and when both of them are compressed in the heart of the yogi.
72. I adore the lord intellect, which is the Kumbhaka breath in the heart, and the apána Kumbhaka on the outside; and a part of the puraka left behind.
73. I adore the essence of that intellect, which is attainable by reflection of the breathings, and which is the formless cause of our intelligence of the natures of the prána and apána breaths, as also the motive principle of their actions.
74. I adore the essence of that intellect, which is the cause of the causes, and the main spring of the oscillations of vital airs, and giver of the felicity derived from the vibrations of breath.
75. I adore that prime and supreme Being Brahma, who is worshipped by the gods bowing down before him, who makes himself known to us by his own power, and who is, by the particles of vital breaths, under the name of Spirit.
Relation of the Cause of Longevity.
Argument.—Reflection and Restraint of Respiration leading to the tranquillity of the soul, and the steadiness of the spirit, conducing to long life and felicity on earth.
BHUSUNDA continued. This is the tranquillity of the mind, which I have attained by degrees, by means of my meditation of the nature and course of the vital breath in myself.
2. I sit quiet at all times, with view fixed at the movement of my breath; and never stir a moment from my meditative mood, though the mount Meru may shake under me.
3. Whether I am awake or asleep, or move about or remain unmoved in my seat, I am never at a loss of this meditation even in dream, nor does it slide a moment from my steadfast mind. (For who can ever live without breathing, or be unconscious of its ceaseless course, or that the breath is both the cause and measure of life).
4. I am always calm and quiet and ever steady and sedate, in this ever varying and unsteady world; I remain always with my face turned inward in myself, and fixed firmly in the object I have at heart. (This is the soul—the life of the life situated in the heart).
5. The breeze may cease to blow, and the waters may stop to flow but nothing can prevent my breathing and meditation of them, nor do I remember ever to live without them. (The gloss explains by metonymy the air to mean the planetary sphere, which rests and moves in it, the waters as the ever flowing [Sanskrit: váyu] currents of rivers, and the samádhi [Sanskrit: jyotichakraha] meditation as composed of breath and thought, to be in continuous motion and resistless in their course).
6. By attending to the course of my inhaling and exhaling breaths of life, I have come to the sight of the soul (which is their life), and have thereby become freed from sorrow by seeing the prime soul of all souls. (i.e. The highest soul of God).
7. The earth has been sinking and rising repeatedly, since the great deluge, and I have been witnessing the submersion and immersion of things, and the perdition and reproduction of beings, without any change of the sedateness of my soul and mind.
8. I never think of the past and future, my sight is fixed only on the present, and my mind sees the remote past and future as ever present before it. (Meditation makes a man a seer of all time).
9. I am employed in the business that presents itself to me, and never care for their toil nor care for their reward. I live as one in sleep and solely with myself. (This is the state of Kaivalya or solity).
10. I examine all what is and is not, and what we have or have not, and consider likewise all our desires and their objects; and finding them to be but frailties and vanities, I refrain from their pursuit and remain unvexed by their cares for ever.
11. I watch the course of my inspiration and expiration, and behold the presence of the super excellent (Brahma) at their confluence; whereby I rest satisfied in myself, and enjoy my long life without any sorrow or sickness.
12. This boon have I gained this day, and that better one shall I have on another, are the ruinous thoughts of mortal men, and unknown to me whereby I have so long living and unailing.
13. I never praise or dispraise any act of myself or others, and this indifference of mine to all concerns; hath brought me to this happy state of careless longevity. (Platonic imperturbability).
14. My mind is neither elated by success, nor it is depressed by adversity, but preserves its equanimity at all times, and is what has brought this happy state on me. (A sane and sound old age).
15. I have resorted to my religious relinquishment of the world, and to my apathy to all things at all times; I have also abandoned the desire of sensuous life and sensible objects, and these have set me free from death and disease.
16. I have freed my mind, O great muni! from its faults of fickleness and curiosity, and have set it above sorrow and anxiety, it has become deliberate calm and quiet, and this has made me longlived and unsickly.
17. I see all things in an equal light, whether it be a beauty or a spectre, a piece of wood or stone, a straw or a rock, or whether it is the air, water or fire, and it is this equanimity of mine that has made me sane and sound in every state of life.
18. I do not think about what I have done today, and what I shall have to do tomorrow, nor do I ail under the fever of vain thoughts regarding the past and future, and this has kept me forever sound and sane.
19. I am neither afraid of death, disease or old age, nor am I elated with the idea of getting a kingdom in my possession; and this indifference of mine to aught of good or evil, is the cause of my length of my life and the soundness of my body and mind.
20. I do not regard, O Brahman! any one either in the light of a friend or foe to me; and this equality of my knowledge of all persons, is the cause of my long life and want of my complaint.
21. I regard all existence as the reflexion of the self-existent one, who is all in all and without his beginning and end; I know myself as the very intellect, and this is the cause of my diuturnity and want of disease and decay.
22. Whether when I get or give away any thing, or when I walk or sit, or rise and breathe, or am asleep or awake; I never think myself as the gross body but its pure intelligence, and this made me diuturnal and durable for ever. (The intelligent soul never dies).
23. I think myself as quite asleep, and believe this world with all its bustle to be nothing in reality (but the false appearance of a dream); and this has made me long-lived and undecaying.
24. I take the good and bad accidents of life, occurring at their stated times, to be all alike to me, like my two arms both of which are serviceable to me; and has made me longeval and imperishable.
25. With my fixed attention, and the cool clearness of my mental vision, I see all things in their favourable light (that they are all good, and adapted to their various uses); I see all things as even and equal, and this view of them in the same light, has made me lasting and wasteless. (So says the Bharata: "All crookedness leads to death, and evenness to the one even Brahma").
26. This material body of mine to which I bear my moiety, is never viewed by me in the light of my ego; and this has made me undying and undecaying. (The deathless soul is the ego, and the dying body the non-ego).
27. Whatever I do and take to my food, I never take them to my heart; my mind is freed from the acts of my body, and this freedom of myself from action, has caused my undecaying longevity. (Because action being the measure of life, its want must make it measureless and imperishable).
28. Whenever, O Sage, I come to know the truth, I never feel proud of my knowledge, but desire to learn more about it; and this increasing desire of knowledge, has increased my life without its concomitant infirmity. (Knowledge is unlimited, and one needs be immortal in order to know all).
29. Though possessed of power, I never use it to do wrong or injure to another; and though wronged by any one, I am never sorry for the same; and though ever so poor, I never crave any thing of any body; this hath prolonged my life and kept me safe and sound. (It is the Christian charity not to retaliate an injury, but rather to turn to him the right cheek who has slapped on the left).
30. I see in these visible forms the intellect that abides all bodies, and as I behold all these existent bodies in an equal light, I enjoy an undecaying longevity.
31. I am so composed in my mind, that I never allow its faculties, to be entangled in the snare of worldly desires and expectations; nor do I allow these to touch even my heart, and this conferred on me the bliss of my unfading longevity.
32. I examine both worlds as two globes placed in my hands, and I find the non-existence of the visible world as it appears to a sleeping man; while the spiritual and invisible world appear full open to my view, as it does to a waking person, and this sight of mine has made me as immortal as the world of immortality.
33. I behold the past, present and future as set before me; and I see all that is dead and decayed, and all that is gone and forgotten, as presented anew in my presence. This prospect of all keeps me alive and afresh to them alike.
34. I feel myself happy at the happiness of others, and am sorry to see the misery of other people; and this universal fellow feeling of mine with the weal and woe of my fellow creatures, has kept me alive and afresh at all times.
35. I remain unmoved as a rock in my adversity, and am friendly to every one in my prosperity; I am never moved by want or affluence, and this steadiness of mine is the cause of my undecayed longevity.
36. That I am neither related to nor belong to any body, nor that any one is either related or belongeth to me; is the firm conviction that has laid hold of my mind, and made me live long without feeling sick or sorry for another.
37. It is my belief that I am the one Ego with the world, and with all its space and time also, and that I am the same with the living soul and all its actions; and this faith of mine has made me longeval and undecaying.
38. It is my belief that I am the same Intelligence, which shows itself in the pot and picture; and which dwells in the sky above and in the woods below. That all this is full of intelligence is my firm reliance, and this has made me long abiding and free from decay.
39. It is thus, O great sage! that I reside amidst the receptacle of the three worlds, as a bee abides in the cell of a lotus flower, and am renowned in the world as the perennial crow Bhusunda by name.
40. I am destined to dwell here forever in order to behold the visible world, rising and falling in tumultuous confusion, in the infinite ocean of the immense Brahma, and assuming their various forms like the waves of the sea at their alternate rise and fall for all eternity.
Conclusion of the Narrative of Bhusunda.
Argument.—Vasishtha's praise of Bhusunda, and his homage to the sage, Whose return to Heaven through the midway-sky is described at length.
BHUSUNDA added:—I have thus far related to you, O sage! what I am and how I am situated at this place. It was by your behest only, that I was lead to the arrogance of speaking so far to one of superior intelligence.
2. Vasishtha replied:—O sir, it is a wondrous relation that you have given of yourself; O excellent! it is a jewel to my ears and fills me with admiration. (It beggars description, and is mirabile dictu).
3. Blessed are those eminent souls (great men), that have the good fortune to behold your most venerable person, which in respect of antiquity is next to none, expect the great grandfather of the gods the lotus born Brahmá himself.
4. Blest are my eyes, that are blessed this day with the sight of your holy person, and thrice blest are my ears that are filled with the full recital of your sacred knowledge and all purifying sermon.
5. I have in my peregrinations all about the world, witnessed the dignity and grandeur of the great knowledge of gods and learned men; but have never come to see any where, so holy a seer as yourself.
6. It may be possible by long travel and search, to meet with a great soul some where or other; but it is hard to find a holy soul like yourself any where. (Man may be very learned and wise as a sapient (savant), but never so holy and godly as a saint).
7. We rarely come to find the grain of a precious pearl in the hollow of a lonely bamboo tree, but it is rarer still to come across a holy personage, like yourself in any part of this world.
8. I have verily achieved an act of great piety, and of sanctity also at the same time; that I have paid a visit to your holy shrine, and seen your sacred person and liberated soul this very day.
9. Now please to enter your cell, and fare you well in this place; it is now the time of midday devotion, and the duties of my noontide service, call my presence to my heavenly seat.
10. Hearing this Bhusunda rose from his arborescent seat, and held out a golden twig of the tree with his two fictitious hands. (Holy persons have the power to add to the members of their bodies).
11. The accomplished (lit. full knowing) crow made a vessel with his beak and hands, and filled it with the snow-white leaves, and flowers and pistils of the Kalpa plant, and put a brilliant pearl in it to be offered as an honorarium—arghya worthy of the divine sage.
12. The prime-born (ancient) bird, then took the arghya with some water and flowers; and sprinkled and scattered them over me even from my head to foot, in as great a veneration, as when they adore the three eyed god Siva.
13. Then said I, it is enough, and you need not take the pains to walk after me (in token of your respect). So saying I rose from my seat and made a lift, as when a bird puts to its wings for its aerial flight. (Bishtára—a seat, means also a bedding like the Persian bistar and Urdu bistara derived from the root strí to spread).
14. Yet the bird followed me a few miles (yojana) in the air, when I hindered his proceeding farther by compelling him to return after shaking our hands. (The custom of shaking hands both on meeting and parting; is mentioned to have been in fashion with the ancients).
15. The chief of birds looked up for some time, as I soared upward in my ethereal journey, and then he returned with reluctance, because it is difficult to part from the company of the good (or of good people).
16. Then both of us lost the sight of one another in the intermediate air, as the sight of the waves is lost after they sink down in the sea; and I full with the thoughts of the bird and his sayings, proceeded upward to meet the munis there. I arrived at last at the sphere of the Pleiades, where I was honorably received by Arundhatí my wife.
17. It was in the beginning of the golden age (satya yuga) before, and after two hundred years of it had passed away that I had been at Bhusunda's, and sat with him upon the tree on the summit of Sumeru.
18. Now, O Ráma! that golden age has gone by, and the Tretá or silver age has taken its place; and it is now the middle of this age, that thou art born to subdue thy enemies.
19. It is now only eight years past that (or the eight years since) I met with him again on the same mountain, and found him as sound and same as I had seen him long before.
20. Now I have related unto you the whole of the exemplary character of Bhusunda; and as you have heard it with patience, so should you consider it with diligence, and act according to his sayings. (In order to be as longlived as he).
21. Válmíki says:—The man of pure heart, that considers well the narrative of the virtuous Bhusunda, will undoubtedly pass over the unstable gulf of this world, which is full of formidable dangers on all sides.
Lecture on Theopathy or Spiritual Meditation.
Argument.—Learning from examples and parables. Falsity of phenomenal and reliance in the noumenal.
VASISHTHA said:—I have thus far related to you, O sinless Ráma! the narrative of Bhusunda; who had passed over the perilous sea of delusion, by means of his intelligence and wisdom.
2. Keeping this instance in view, and following his practice of pránáyáma or regulation of breath; you will also, O mighty armed Ráma! pass over the wide ocean of this hazardous ocean.
3. As Bhusunda has obtained the obtainable one, by means of his knowledge and by virtue of his continued practice of yoga; so do you strive to gain the same by imitation of his example.
4. Men of uninfatuated understanding may attain the stability of Bhusunda, and their reliance in the transcendental truth like him by their attending to the practice of pránáyáma or restraining of their breath.
5. Thus you have heard me relate to you many things, relating to true knowledge; it now depends on your own understanding to do as you may like to choose for yourself. (Either to betake yourself to spiritual knowledge or the practice of pránáyáma or either as the gloss explains it, either to esoteric contemplation yoga or exoteric adoration upasana).
6. Ráma replied:—you sir, that are the luminous sun of spiritual light on earth, have dispelled the thick gloom of unspiritual knowledge from my mind at once (by transcendental light of your holy lectures).
7. I am fully awake to and joyous in my divine knowledge, and have entered into my state of spirituality; I have known the knowable, and am seated in my divine state like yourself.
8. O the wondrous memoir of Bhusunda that you have narrated! It fills me with admiration, and is fraught with the best instruction. (Lit. it is instructive of the highest wisdom).
9. In the account that you have given of Bhusunda, you have said that the body is the abode of the soul, and is composed of flesh and blood, and of the inner bones and outer skin (as its materials and plaster).
10. Please tell me sir, who made this fabric and how it came to be formed; how it is made to last, and who abides therein.
11. Vasishtha answered: Listen now Ráma, to what I will relate to you for the instruction of the supreme knowledge, as also for removal of the evils which have taken root instead of true knowledge.
12. This dwelling of the body, Ráma! which has the bones for its posts, and the blood and flesh for its mortar, and the nine holes for so many windows, is built by no one: (but is formed of itself).
13. It is a mere reflection, and reflects itself so to our vision; as the appearance of two moons in the sky by illusion, is both real as well as unreal. (This vedantic doctrine is opposed to the popular faith of the creatorship of God).
14. It may be right to speak of two moons from their double appearance to our sight, but in reality there is but one moon and the other its reflection. (So are all phenomenal bodies but reflections of the noumenal).
15. The belief of the existence of body makes it a reality, the unreal seems as real, and therefore it is said to be both real and unreal at the same time. (The perception is real but the object of perception an unreality. Just so the perception of a snake in the rope may be true, though the snake in the rope is quite untrue).
16. Any thing seen in a dream is true as a dream, and appears to be so in the state of dreaming, but afterwards it proves to be untrue, so a bubble of water is true as a bubble, which comes to be known afterwards to be false in reality. (So all things appearing to be true to sight, vanish into nothing when they are judged aright, and even a judge may deem a thing as just, which upon further and right investigation is known as unjust).
17. The body seems to be substantiality in the doing of bodily actions, but it proves otherwise when we view the essentiality of the spirit only; so the reflection of the sun on the sandy desert, makes the mirage appear as water, whose reality proves to be unreal the next moment: (so it is of the body).
18. The body existing as a reflexion disappears the next moment. It is no more than a reflexion, and so it reflects itself.
19. It is your error to think that you are the material body which is made of flesh and bones. It is the inward thought of your mind that is situated in the body, and makes you to think yourself as so and so and such a one. (The reminiscence of the mind of its former body, causes to think itself as an embodied being, in all its repeated transmigrations. Gloss).
20. Forsake therefore the body that you build for yourself at your own will, and be not like them, who while they are asleep on their pleasant beds, deport themselves to various countries with their dreaming bodies: (which are all false and unreal).
21. See, O Ráma! how you deport yourself to the kingdom of heaven even in your waking state, in the fanciful reverie of your mind; say then where is your body situated. (It neither accompanies the mind to heaven, nor is it on earth being unperceived and unaccompanied by the mind).
22. Say Ráma, where is your body situated, when your mind wanders on the Meru in your dream, and when you dream to ramble with your body about the skirts of this earth.
23. Think Ráma, how you seem to saunter about the rich domains (of the gods) in the fancied kingdom of your mind, and tell me whether you are then and there accompanied with your body, or is it left behind.
24. Tell me, where is that body of yours situated; when you think of doing many of your bodily and worldly acts without your body, in the fancied realm of your mind.
25. Tell me, O strong armed Ráma! where are those members of your body situated; with which you think to coquette and caress your loving courtezans in the court of your painful mind.
26. Where is that body of yours, with which you seem to enjoy anything; the enjoyment belongs to the mind and not to the body, and both of them are real as well as unreal, owing to their presence at one time and absence at another.
27. The body and the mind are known to be present with coeval with their actions, and they participate with one another in their mutual acts (without which they are said to be inexistent). Therefore it is erroneous to say that, I am this body and am situated here, and these things are mine, all which are illusory and caused by illusion. (Egoism and meity are illusive ideas).
28. All this is the manifestation of the will or energy of the mind, and you must know it either as a long dream or lengthened fallacy of the mind.
29. Know this world, O son of Raghu's race, to be a display of the vast kingdom of your imagination, and will vanish into nothing, when you will come to your good understanding by the grace of your God.
30. You will then see the whole as clearly as in the light of the rising sun, and know this world to be like a creation of your dream or volition. (i.e. as you wish to have a thing for yourself).
31. So is this world a display of the will of the lotus-born Brahmá, as I have said before in length in the book of creation.
32. There rises of itself a willful creation within the mind, and out of its own accord as if it were so ordained by destiny; and the mind being fully possest of the great variety of forms, is lost at last into the error of taking them for true.
33. It is a creation of the will only and a display of it in the same manner, as the fancied chimera of Brahmanship had possessed the minds of the sons of Indu. (See the narrative of Indu's sons in the upasama Prakarana).
34. After the soul has passed from its former frame, it receives the same form which it has in view before it after the fancy of the mind, which is either of the kind, to which it has been long used and accustomed, or what it fondly longs in the mind.
35. The body shows itself in the form as it is shaped by the prior acts of a person, and is also convertible to the intellect by the manly exertions of some: (whose corporeal bodies may become intellectual beings, as some persons have mere brutal, while others are highly intellectual).
36. He that thinks himself as another, is transformed to the nature of that air (as it is the pattern that moulds a thing after its own model): and the thought that you are this or that, and have this thing or others for yourself, is what actually makes you so in this world. (The metamorphose of the natures and forms of things and persons to other kinds in Ovid, were all owing to their tendencies and inclinations towards them).
37. Whatever is thought upon keenly and firmly, the same comes to take place accordingly; and whatever is thought of with intense and great force of thought, the same must occur in a short time: (so are all things done to which we set our minds).
38. We see every day the objects of our desire, presenting their fair forms to our view, like the comely faces of our beloved ones present before our sight, in the same manner as the sights in a dream and distant objects, are recalled to the mind of men; with their closed and half-shut eyes. (This is the doctrine of reminiscence which reproduces our long remembered bodies to us).
39. This world is said to be a creation of the thoughts of men, and appears to sight from habitual reflection of it, in the same manner as the sights in a dream, appear to the mind of a man in the day time.
40. The temporary world appears to be as lasting, as the river which appears in the sky under the burning sunshine. (Though in fact both of them are equally evanescent).
41. This inexistent earth also appears as existent in our cogitation, as there appears bundles of peacock's feathers in the sky to the vitiated or purblind eye.
42. It is only the vitiated understanding that dwells upon the beauties of creation, as the vitiated eye sight looks upon the various tinges in the sky. But to the clear sighted understanding the one is as evanescent, as the other is to the clear sighted eye.
43. The sharp sighted man is never led away by the display of worldly grandeur, as even the most timid man is never afraid of a tiger in his imagination.
43a. This great show of worldly grandeur can never mislead the penetrating sight of the wise, as a monstrous creature of imagination cannot terrify even the most timid. (Because the one knows the falsity of the show as well as the other does that of imaginary monster).
44. The wise man is never afraid of his imaginary world, which he knows to be the production of his own mind, from its nature of self-evolution bahir mukhata. (The mind is naturally possessed of both its power of self involution in the interior soul, as also that of its evolving itself in the form of the exterior world).
45. He that has stood in the path of this world, needs not fear for any thing in it, and he that is afraid of it for fear of falling into its errors, should learn to purify his understanding from all its dross and impurity. (Stretch your mind, and the world will appear to light, curb it in yourself and every thing will disappear from view).
46. Know Ráma, that the soul is free from the erroneous conception of the world, and from the errors which pervade all over it. Look well into these things, and you will have a nature as pure as your inward soul.
47. The soul is not soiled by impurity, as a pure gold is not spoiled by dirt; and though it may sometimes appear to be tarnished as copper, yet it soon resumes its colour after its dirt is cleansed or burnt away. Thus the world being a reflexion of the omnipresent Brahma, is neither an entity nor a nonentity of its own nature.
48. Thus the abandonment of all other thoughts, besides that of the universal soul or Brahma, is called the true discernment of the mind; which derives the thoughts of life and death, heaven and hell into nothing, and proves all knowledge to be ignorance alone.
49. The knowledge of the nullity of everything, except its being a reflexion of the Intellect, is called the individuality and right discernment of the mind, which removes the thought of the separate and independent existence of the ego and tu, and also of this world and its ten sides: (i.e. of the subjective as well as the objective).
50. That all things are but reflexions of the soul, is what is known as the true and right discernment of the mind; and is derived from its observation of true nature of things in this real and unreal world. (The real is the spiritualistic view of the world, and the unreal is illusory phenomenal appearance).
51. That nothing rises or sets or appears or disappears in this world, is what the mind perceives by its right discernment of things; and by its investigation into the true and apparent natures of all. (In their true light all things are in a state of continued revolution, and nothing rises anew to view or disappears into nothing).