On Rest and Tranquillity.
Argument.—Ráma admits before Vasishtha the removal of his doubt in dualistic doctrine.
VASISHTHA said:—I well understand what the god said, and you too, O Ráma! know very well the course of the world.
2. When the false world appears in a false light to the fallacious understanding of man, and all proves to be but vanity of vanities, say what thing is there that may be called true and good and what as untrue and bad. (There is nothing what ever which is really good).
3. As the alternative of something is not that thing itself, so the optional form of the soul, though not the soul itself, yet it serves to convey some idea of the soul. (As the explanation of the gloss is;—The similitude of a thing though not the thing itself, yet it gives some idea of the original).
4. As fluidity is the nature of liquids, and fluctuation is that of the winds, and as vacuity is the state of the sky, so is creation the condition of the spirit or divine soul.
5. I have ever since (hearing the lecture of Sivá), betaken myself to the worship of the spirit in spirit; and have since then, given up my eagerness for the outward adoration of gods.
6. It is by this rule that I have passed these days of my life, though I am tamely employed in the observance of the prescribed and popular ritual.
7. I have worshipped the Divine spirit, in all modes and forms and offering of flowers, as they presented of themselves to me; and notwithstanding the interruptions, I have uninterruptedly adored my god at all times, both by day and night.
8. All people in general, are concerned in making their offerings acceptable to their receiver (god), but it is the meditation of the yogi, which is the true adoration of the spirit.
9. Having known this, O lord of Raghu's race, do you abandon the society of men in your heart, and walk in your lonely path amidst the wilderness of the world, and thereby remain without sorrow and remorse.
10. And when exposed or reduced to distress, or aggrieved at the loss or separation of friends, rely on this truth, and think on the vanity of the world.
11. We should neither rejoice nor regret, at the acquisition or loss of friends and relations; because all things almost are so frail and unstable, in this transitory world.
12. You well know, Ráma! the precarious state of worldly possessions and their pernicious effects also; they come and go away of their own accord, but overpower on the man in both states (of prosperity and adversity).
13. So uncertain are the favours of friends and fortune, and so unforeseen is their loss also, that it is no way possible for any body to account for them. (i.e. to assign any plausible cause to either).
14. O sinless Ráma! such is the course of the world, that you have no command over it nor is it ever subject to you; if the world is so insubordinate to you, why is it then that you should be sorry for so unmanageable a thing?
15. Ráma! mind your spiritual nature, and know yourself as an expanded form of your intellect. See how you are pent up in your earthly frame, and forsake your joy and grief at the repeated reiterations and exits of your corporeal body.
16. Know my boy, that you are of the form of your intellect only, and inherent throughout all nature; therefore there is nothing that you can resume to or reject from you in the world.
17. What cause of joy or grief is there in the vicissitudes of things in the world, which are occasioned by the revolutions of the mind on the pivot of the intellect; and resemble the whirling waters of the sea, caused by an eddy or vortex in it.
18. Do you, O Ráma! betake yourself to the fourth stage of susupta or hypnotism hence forth, as the even tenor of the intellect, is attended by its trance at the end.
19. Be you as cold and composed with your placid countenance and expanded mind, as the quiet spirit of God is diffused and displayed through out all nature; and remains as full as the vast ocean, in the contemplation of that soul, whose fulness fills the whole.
20. You have heard all this already, Ráma! and are fraught with the fulness of your understanding, now if you have any thing else to ask with regard to your former question, you can propose the same. (This was a question regarding the observance of ceremonial rites).
21. Ráma said:—Sir, my former doubts are all dispersed at present, and I have nothing more to ask you regarding the same (i.e. the dualistic doctrine that raised the doubts).
22. I have known all that is to be known, and felt a heartfelt satisfaction at this, and now I am free from the foulness of the objective, and of dualism and fictions. (Knowledge of the objective being unspiritual, the dualism of matter and mind as unscriptual, and the fictions of the gods etc., as mere vagaries of imagination).
23. The foulness of the soul, proceeds from ignorance of the soul; and this ignorance (of the subjective self), which had darkened my soul, is now removed by the light of spirituality.
24. I was under the error (of the mortality and materiality of the soul), which I have now come to understand, is neither foul matter, nor is it born or dies at any time. (i.e. It is immaterial, unproduced and immortal).
25. I am now confirmed in my belief, that all this is Brahmá diffused through out nature (in his all pervasive form vivartarúpá); and I have ceased from all doubts and questions on the subject, nor have I the desire of knowing any thing more about it. (He desires to know nothing, who beholds the lord in every thing).
26. My mind is now as pure, as the purified water of filtering machine; and am no more in need of learning any thing, from the preachings and moral lessons of the wise.
27. I am unconcerned with all worldly affairs, as the mount Sumeru is insensible of the golden ores in its bosom and having all things about me, I am quite indifferent to them; because I have not what I expect to have, nor do I possess the object of my fond desire.
28. I expect nothing that is desirable, nor reject any thing which is exceptionable; nor is there a mean in the interim of the two in this world, because there is nothing that is really acceptable or avoidable in it, nor anything which is truly good or bad herein.
29. Thus, O sage, the erroneous thought of these contraries, is entirely dissipated from me; wherefore I neither care for a seat in heaven, nor fear the terrors of the infernal regions.
30. I am as fixed in the selfsame spirit, as the mount Mandárá is firmly seated amidst the sea, and which scatters its particles throughout the three worlds, as that mountain splashed the particles of water in its state of churning the ocean.
31. I am as firm as the fixed Mandárá, while others are wandering in their errors of discriminating the positive and negative and the true and false, in their wrong estimation.
32. The heart of that man must be entangled with the weeds of doubts, who thinks in his mind the world to be one thing, and the Divine spirit as another. (This duality is the root of doubts in the one ultimate unity).
33. He that seeks for his real good in any thing in this world, never finds the same in the unsubstantial material world, which is full of the confused waves of the eternity.
34. It is by your favour, O venerable sir, that I have got over the boisterous ocean of this world; and having the limits of its perilous coasts, have come to the shore of safety and found the path of my future prosperity.
35. I am no more wanting in that supreme felicity, which is the summum bonum of all things; and am full in myself as the lord of all. And I am quite indomitable by any body, since I have defeated the wild elephant of my covetousness.
36. Being loosened from the chain of desire, and freed from the fetters of option, I am rich and blest with the best of all things, and this is the internal satisfaction of my soul and mind, which gives me a cheerful appearance in all the triple world.
Inquiry into the Essence of the Mind.
Argument.—On the means of forsaking all connections and desires, and the subjection of the mind by spiritual knowledge.
VASISHTHA said:—Ráma! whatever acts you do with your organs of action and without application of the mind to the work in hand, know such work to be no doing of yours. (An involuntary action is not accounted as the act of one, in absence of his will in it).
2. Who does not feel a pleasure at the time of his achieving an action, which he did not feel a moment before, nor is likely to perceive the next moment after he has done the work. (Therefore it is the attention of the mind which gives pleasure to an action, and which is not to be felt in absence of that attention, both before and after completion of the act).
3. The pleasure of a thing is accompanied only with the desire of its passion, and not either prior or posterior to the same; therefore it is boyish and not manliness to take any delight in a momentary pleasure. (All pleasure and pain are concomitant with their thoughts only; and these being fleeting there is no lasting pleasure or pain in anything).
4. Whatever is pleasant during its desire, has that desire only for the cause of its pleasantness: hence the pleasurableness of a thing lasting till its unpleasurableness is no real pleasure; wherefore this frail pleasure must be forsaken together with its temporary cause of desire by the wise.
5. If you have arrived to that high state (of knowing the universality of the soul); then be careful for the future, and merge yourself no more in the narrow pit of your personality.
6. You who have now found your rest and repose, in being seated in the highest pinnacle of spiritual knowledge (by cognoscence of yourself); must not allow your soul any more, to plunge in the deep and dark cave of your egoistic individuality.
7. Thus seated on the pitch of your knowledge, as on the top of the Meru mountain; and remembering the glorious prospect all around you; you cannot choose to fall down into the hellpit of this earth, and to be reborn in the darksome cave of a mother's womb. (Because the living soul is doomed to transmigration and regeneration until its final liberation).
8. It appears to me, O Ráma! that you are of an even temperament, and have the quality of truth (satyaguna) full in your nature; I understand you have weakened your desires, and have entirely got over your ignorance.
9. You appear to be settled in your nature of purity, and the temperament of your mind appears to me to be as calm and quiet as the sea, when it is full and untroubled by the rude and rough winds of heaven.
10. May your expectations set at ease, and your wants terminate in contentment, let your dementation turn to rightmindedness, and live unconnected with and aloof from all.
11. Whatever objects you come to see placed before you, know the same as full of the Divine intellect, which is consolidated and extended through all, as their common essence. (The solid intellect forming the body, and its rarity the mind. "That extended through all yet in all the same; great in the earth as in the etherial frame", Pope).
12. One ignorant of the soul, is fast bound to his ignorance; and one acquainted with the soul, is liberated from his bondage. Hence, O Ráma! learn to meditate constantly and intensely, the supreme soul in your own soul.
13. It is indifference which wants to enjoy nothing, nor yet refuses the enjoyment of whatever presents of itself to any body; and know inappetency to consist in the cool calmness of the mind, resembling the serenity of the sky. (Insouciance is the want of desire and renunciation of prurience and not the abdication of enjoyment).
14. Preserve the cold listlessness of your mind, and discharge your duties with the cool application of your organs of action; and this unconcernedness of your mind, will render you as steady as the sky at all accidents of life.
15. If you can combine the knower, knowable and the knowledge (i.e. all the three states of the subjective, objective and the intermediate percipience) in your soul alone; you will then feel the tranquillity of your spirit and shall have no more to feel the troubles of sublunary life.
16. It is the expansion and contraction of the mind, that causes the display and dissolution of the world; try therefore to stop the action of thy mind, by restraining the breaths of thy desire in thyself.
17. So it is the breath of life, which conducts and stops the business of the world, by its respiration and rest; restrain therefore the breathing of the vital air, by thy practice of the regulation of thy breathing (as dictated before).
18. So also it is the act of ignorance to give rise to ceremonious works, as it is that of knowledge to repress them; Do you therefore boldly put them down by your own forbearance, and the instructions you derive from the sástras and your preceptors.
19. As the winds flying with dust, darken the fair face of the sky; so the intellect being daubed with the intelligibles (the subjective soiled with the objective), obscure the clear visage of the soul.
20. The action of the relation between the vision and visibles (i.e. the mutual of the eyesight and outward objects on one another), causes the appearance of the world and its course; as the relation that there exists between the solar rays and formations of things, makes them appear in various colours to the eye. (Neither the course of the world, nor the appearance of colour is in real being, but is owing to the relative combination of things).
21. But the want of this relativity removes the phenomenals from sight, as the want of light takes away the colours of things. (The former is an instance of the affirmative kind (anvayi); and the latter a vyatireki or negative one).
22. The oscillation of the mind causes the illusions, as the palpitation of the heart raises the affections, and they are all at a stop at the suspension of the actions of these organs. So the waves raised by motion of waters and action of the winds, subside in the deep, by cessation of the actions of these elements. (The question is whether the affections are not causes of the palpitation of the heart?).
23. The abandonment of every jot of desire, the suspension of respiration, and the exercise of intellection, will contract the actions of the heart and mind, and thereby prevent the rise of the passions and affections and of illusions also. (Entire dispassionateness is the perfection of yoga asceticism).
24. The unconsciousness which follows the inaction of the heart and mind, in consequence of the suspension of the vital breath is the highest perfection (of yoga philosophy).
25. There is a pleasure in respect to the vision of visibles, which is common to all living being; but this being felt spiritually, amounts to holy pleasure paramánanda. But the sight of God in one's consciousness, which is beyond the province of the mind; transcends the mental pleasure, and affords a divine ecstacy, called the Brahmánanda.
26. The mind being dormant and insensible, affords the true rapture of the soul; and such as it is not to be had even in heaven, as it is not possible to have a refrigeratory or cooling bath in the sandy desert.
27. The inertness of the heart and mind is attended with a delight, which is felt in the inmost soul and cannot be uttered in words; it is an everlasting joy that has neither its rise nor fall, nor its increase or decrease. (It is the lasting sunshine and unchanging moonlight of the soul).
28. Right understanding weakens the sensuous mind (by the blaze of rationality), but wrong understanding serves to increase its irrational sensuousness only. It then sees the thickening mists of error, rising as spectres and apparitions before the sight of boys.
29. Though the sensational mind is existent in us, yet it seems as quite inexistent and extinct before the light of our rationality, as the substance of copper appears to disappear by being melted with gold. (The carnal mind is converted to the rational understanding by its association with it).
30. The mind of the wise is not the sensuous mind, because the wise mind is an essence of purity by itself; thus the sensible mind is changed in its name and nature to that of the understanding, as the copper is converted to the name and nature of gold.
31. But it is not possible for the mind to be absorbed at once in the intellect, its errors only are moved by right understanding, but its essence is never annihilated. (As the alloy of copper in gold).
32. Things taken as symbols of the soul, are all unsubstantial as the mind and vital principle; all which are as unreal as the horns of a hare (which are never known to grow). They are but reflexions of the soul, and vanish from view after the soul is known. (The mind is said to be an expansion of the soul [Sanskrit: átmanívivartta rúpam|]).
33. The mind has its being for a short time only, during its continuance in the world; but after it has passed its fourth stage of insensibility, it arrives to the state of comatosity which is beyond the fourth stage.
34. Brahmá is all even and one, though appearing as many amidst the errors that reign over the world; He is the soul of all and has no partial or particular form of any kind. He is not the mind or any thing else, nor is He situated in the heart (as a finite being). (Gloss:—The Divine Soul like the human mind has conceptions of endless things, which are neither situated in it nor parts of itself, but are as empty phantoms in the air).
Story of the vilva or Belfruit.
Argument.—God represented as the Belfruit or Wood apple; containing the Worlds as its seeds.
VASISHTHA said:—Attend now, O Ráma! to a pleasant story, which was never told before, and which I will briefly narrate to you for your instruction and wondrous amusement.
2. There is a big and beautiful vilva or bel fruit, as large as the distance of many myriads of miles, and as solid as not to ripen or rot in the course of as many many ages.
3. It bears a lasting flavour as that of sweet honey or celestial ambrosia; and though grown old yet it increases day by day like the crescent new moon, with its fresh and beautiful foliage.
4. This tree is situated in the midst of the universe, as the great Meru is placed in the middle of the earth; it is as firm and fixed as the Mandara mountain, and is immovable even by the force of the diluvian winds.
5. Its root is the basis of the world, and it stretches to the distance of immeasurable extent on all sides.
6. There were millions of worlds all within this fruit as its un-countable seeds; and they were as minute in respect to the great bulk of the fruit, that they appeared as particles of dust at foot of a mountain.
7. It is filled and fraught with all kinds of delicacies, that are tasteful and delicious to the six organs of sense; and there is not one even of the six kinds of savoury articles, that is wanting in this fruit.
8. The fruit is never found in its green or unripe state, nor is it ever known to fall down ever over-ripened on the ground; it is ever ripe of itself, and is never rotten or dried or decayed at any time by age or accident.
9. The gods Brahmá, Vishnu and Rudra, are not sempiternal with this tree in their age, nor do they know aught of the origin and root of this tree, nor anything about its extent and dimensions.
10. None knows the germ and sprout of this tree, and its buds and flowers are invisible to all. There is no stem or trunk or bough or branch, of the tree that bears this great fruit.
11. This fruit is a solid mass of great bulk, and there is no body that has seen its growth, change or fall. (It is ever ripe without ripening or rotting at any time).
12. This is the best and largest of all fruits, and having no pith nor seed, is always sound and unsoiled.
13. It is as dense as the inside of a stone in its fullness, and as effluent of bliss as the disk of the moon, drizzling with its cooling beams; it is full of flavour and distils its ambrosial draughts to the conscious souls of men.
14. It is source of delight in all beings, and it is the cause of the cooling moon-beams by its own brightness; It is the solid rock of all security, the stupendous body of felicity, and contains the pith and marrow that support and sustain all living souls, which are the fruits of the prior acts of people. (i.e. The souls of all beings are as fruits formed according to the nature and merit of their previous acts—karma, and all these souls are filled with delight by the great soul of God).
15. Therefore that transcendent pith which is the wonder of souls, is contained in the Infinite spirit of God, and deposited and preserved in that auspicious fruit—sriphala—the bel or wood apple.
16. It is deposited with its wondrous power in that small bel fruit, which represents the human as well as the divine soul, without losing its properties of thinness and thickness and freshness for ever. (i.e. All the divine powers—of evolution are lodged in the soul).
17. The thought that 'I am this', clothes the unreality with a gross form (as the thought of a devil gives the unreal phantom a foul figure); and though it is absurd to attribute differences to nullities, yet the mind makes them of itself and then believes its fictitious creatures as real ones.
18. The Divine ego contains in itself the essential parts of all things set in their proper order, as the vacuity of the sky is filled with the minute atoms, out of which the three worlds did burst forth with all their varieties. (So the substance of the bel fruit, contains the seeds of the future trees and all their several parts in it).
19. In this manner there grew the power of consciousness in its proper form, and yet the essence of the soul retains its former state without exhausting itself. (It means that notwithstanding the endless evolutions of the Divine soul, its substance ever continues the same and is never exhausted).
20. The power of consciousness being thus stretched about (from its concentration in itself), makes it perceive the fabric of the world and its great bustle in its tranquil self. (It means how the subjective consciousness is changed to the objective).
21. It views the great vacuum on all sides, and counts the parts of time as they pass away; it conceives a destiny which directs all things, and comes to know what is action by its operation.
22. It finds the world stretching as the wish of one, and the sides of heaven extending as far as the desires of men; it comes to know the feelings of love and hatred, and the objects of its liking and dislike.
23. It understands its egoism and non-egoism or tuism, or the subjective and objective and views itself in an objective light, by forgetting its subjectivity. It views the worlds above and being itself as high as any one of them, finds itself far below them. (The human soul though as elevated as the stars of heaven, becomes as low as a sublunary being by its baseness).
24. It perceives one thing to be placed before, and another to be situated beside it; it finds some thing to be behind, and others to be near or afar from it; and then it comes to know some things as present and others as past or yet to come before it. (The soul losing its omniscience has a partial view of things).
25. Thus the whole world is seen to be situated as a play house in it, with various imaginary figures brightening as lotuses in a lake.
26. Our consciousness is seated in the pericarp of the lotus of our hearts, with the knowledge of our endless desires budding about it, and viewing the countless worlds turning round like a rosary of lotus seeds.
27. Its hollow cell like the firmaments is filled with the great Rudras, who rove about in the distant paths of the midway sky, like comets falling from above with their flaming tails. (The vedas describe the Rudras as blue necked &c. (nílagríváh). These worshipful gods of the vedas are found to be no other than wondrous phenomena of the vacuity which are deified in the Elementary religion of the ancients).
28. It has the great mount of Meru situated in its midst, like the bright pericarp amidst the cell of the lotus flower. The moon capt summit of this mount is frequented by the immortals, who wander about it like wanton bees in quest of the ambrosial honey distilled by the moon beams on high. (The gloss places the Meru in the northern region of the distant pole, while the Puránas place it in the midst of the earth). It was the resort of the gods as also the early cradle of the pristine Aryans, who are represented as gods.
29. Here is the tree of the garden of Paradise with its clusters of beautiful flowers, diffusing their fragrance all around; and there is the deadly tree of the old world, scattering its pernicious farina for culling us to death and hell. (The gloss explains rajas or flower dust as our worldly acts, which lead us to the hell torments of repeated transmigrations).
30. Here the stars are shining, like the bright filaments of flowery arbors, growing on the banks of the wide ocean of Brahma; and there is the pleasant lake of the milky path, in the boundless space of vacuity.
31. Here roll the uncontrolled waves of the ceremonial acts, fraught with frightful sharks in their midst, and there are the dreadful whirlpools of worldly acts, that whirl mankind in endless births for ever more.
32. Here runs the lake of time in its meandering course for ever, with the broad expanse of heaven for its blooming blossom; and having the moments and ages for its leaves and petals, and the luminaries of sun, moon and stars for its bright pistils and filaments.
33. Here it sees the bodies of living beings fraught with health and disease, and teeming with old age, decay and the torments of death; and there it beholds the jarring expositions of the sástras, some delighting in their knowledge of spiritual Vidyá, and others rambling in the gloom of Ignorance—Avidyá (which leads them from error to error).
34. In this manner doth our inner consciousness, represent the wonders contained in the pulp of the vilva fruit; which is full of the unsubstantial substance of our desires and wishes, and the pithless marrow of our false imagination.
35. It sees many that are tranquil, calm, cool and dispassionate, and who are free from their restraints and desires; they are heedless of both their activity and inactivity, and do not care for works whether done or left undone by them.
36. Thus this single consciousness presents her various aspects, though she is neither alone nor many of herself, except that she is what she is. She has in reality but one form of peaceful tranquillity; though she is possest of the vast capacity of conceiving in herself all the manifold forms of things at liberty.
Parable of the Stony sheath of the Soul.
Argument.—The divine mind is the substratum of the totality of existence.
RÁMA said:—Venerable sir, that knowest the substance of all truths; I understand the parable of bel fruit which you have just related to me to bear relation to the essence of the compact intellect, which is the only unit and identic with itself.
2. The whole plenitude of existence together with the personalities of I, thou, this and that form the plenum (or substance), of the intellect; and there is not the least difference between them, as this is one thing and that another. (All this is but one undivided whole, whose body nature is and God the soul. Pope).
3. Vasishtha answered—As this mundane egg or universe is likened to a gourd fruit, containing the mountains and all other things as its inner substance; so doth the intellect resemble the bel fruit or the grand substratum, that contains even the universe as the kernel inside it.
4. But though the world has no other receptacle beside the Divine intellect, yet it is not literally the kernel inside that crust (i.e. the substance of that substratum in its literal sense). Because the world has its decay, decline and dissolution also in time, but none of these belong to the nature of the everlasting mind of God.
5. The intellect resembles the hard coating of the pepper seed, containing the soft substance of its pith inside it, and is likened also to block of stone, bearing the sculptured figures peacefully sleeping in it. (All things are engraven in the divine mind).
6. Here me relate to you, O moon faced Ráma! another pleasant story in this place which will appear equally charming as well as wondrous to you. (It is the story of stone like Brahma).
7. There is a huge block of stone somewhere, which is as big as it is thick and solid; it is bright and glossy, and cold and smooth to touch; it never wastes or wears out, nor becomes dark and dim.
8. There are many full blown lotuses, and unnumbered buds of water lilies, growing amidst the limpid lake of water, contained within the bosom of this wondrous stone. (It means that the mind of God has all these images of things engraved in it as in a stone).
9. There are many other plants growing also in that lake, some with their long and broad caves and others with their alternate and joint foliums likewise.
10. There are many flowers with their up lifted and down cast heads, and others with their petals hanging before them; some having a combined or common footstalk, and others growing separate and apart from one another; some are concealed and others manifest to view.
11. Some have their roots formed of the fibres of the pericarp, and some have their pericarps growing upon the roots (as orchids), some have their roots on the tops and others at the foot of trees, while there are many without their roots at all: (as the parasite plants).
12. There are a great many conch shells about these, and unnumbered diseases also strewn all about.
13. Ráma said:—All this is true, and I have seen this large stone of sálgráma in my travels; and I remember it to be placed in the shrine of Vishnu, amidst a bed of lotus flowers. (The sálgráma stone is perforated by the vajra-kíta, and contains many marks inside it, resembled to the map of the world in the mundane egg of the divine mind. See vajra-kíta in the works of Sir William Jones).
14. Vasishtha replied:—You say truly, that you have seen that great stone and know its inside also; but do you know the unperforated and hollowless stone of the divine mind, that contains the universe in its concavity, and is the life of all living beings (and not the dull, lifeless and hollow sálagráma stone which they worship as an emblem of the divine mind).
15. The stone of which I have been speaking to you, is of a marvelous and supernatural kind; and contains in its voidless bosom all things as nothing. (i.e. the ideas and not substances of things).
16. It is the stone like intellect of which I have spoken to you, and which contains all these massive worlds within its spacious sphere. It is figuratively called a stone from its solidity, cohesive impenetrability and indivisibility like those of a block.
17. This solid substance of the intellect, notwithstanding its density and unporousness, contains all the worlds in itself, as the infinite space of heaven is filled with the subtile and atmospheric air. (The divine mind like external nature, is devoid of a vacuity in it, according to the common adage: "Nature abhors a vacuum").
18. The mind is occupied with all its various thoughts, as the world is filled by the earth and sky, the air and atmosphere, and the mountains and rivers on all sides, there is not hole or hollow, which is not occupied by some thing or other in it.
19. The solid soul of God which resembles this massive stone, contains in it all these worlds which are displayed (to our deluded sight), as so many beds of lotuses in their blooming beauty; and yet there is nothing so very pure and unsullied as this solid crystalline soul. (The soul like a crystal, reflects its light in various forms).
20. As it is the practice of men to paint blocks of stones, with the figures of lotuses, conch shells and the like images; so it is the tendency of the fanciful mind, to picture many fantastic of all times in the solid rock of the soul. (The soul like a crystal stone is wholly blank in itself, it is only the imaginative mind, that tinges it in different shades and colours).
21. All things in the world appear to be situated exactly in the same state, as the various figures carved on the breast of a stone, seem to be separate though they are bellied in the same relief. (All distinctions blend in the same receptacle).
22. As the carved lotus is not distinct from the body of the stone, so no part of existence is set apart from the substantiality of the divine intellect; which represents its subtile ideas in their condensed forms.
23. This formal creation is as inseparable from the formless intellect of God, as the circular forms of lotus flowers which are carved in a stone, are not separate from the great body of the shapeless stone.
24. These endless chains of worlds, are all linked up in the boundless intellect of the Deity; in the same manner as the clusters of lotus flowers are carved together in a stone; and as a great many seeds, are set together in the inside of a long pepper.
25. These revolving worlds have neither their rise nor fall in the sphere of the infinite intellect, but they remain as firm as the kernel of a bel fruit, and as fixed as the fidelity of a faithful wife.
26. The revolution of worlds and their changing scenes, that are seen to take place in their situation in the Divine Intellect, do not prove the changeableness of the all containing Infinite Mind, because its contents of finite things are so changeable in their nature. (The container is not necessarily of the nature of its contents).
27. All these changes and varieties subside at last in the divine intellect, as the waves and drops of water sink down in the Sea; and the only change which is observable in the Supreme Intellect, is its absorption of all finite changes into its infinity. (All finite forms and their temporary transformations, terminate finally into infinity).
28. The word (Fiat) that has produced this all, causes their changes and dissolutions also in itself. Know then that Brahma from whom this fiat and these changes have sprung, and all these being accompanied with Brahma and the original fiat, the word change is altogether meaningless. (There is no new change from what is ordained from the beginning).
29. Brahma being both the mainspring as well as the main stay of all changes in nature; He is neither excluded from or included under any change, which occur in the sphere of his immensity (i.e. the spirit of God being the unchanging source of all phenomenal changes, is not exempted from the mutations that occur in his infinity. So says the poet: "These as they change are but the varied God &c." Thompson).
30. And know this in one or other of the two senses, that the change of the divine spirit in the works of creation, resembles the change or development of the seed into its stem, fruits and flowers and other parts; or that it is a display of delusion máyá like the appearance of water in the mirage. (Here the changing scenes of nature, are viewed in both lights of evolution and illusion).
31. As the substance of seed goes on gradually transforming itself into the various states of its development, so the density of the divine intellect (or spirit) condenses itself the more and more in its production of solid and compact world, and this is the course of the formation of the cosmos by slow degrees.
32. The union of the seed with the process of its development forms the duality, that is destroyed by the loss of either of these. It is imagination only that paints the world as a dull material thing, when there is no such grossness in the pure intellect. (The gloss explains this passage to mean that, It is the doctrine of dualists to maintain the union of the productive seed or spirit of God, with the act of producing the material world to be coeternal, and the one becomes null without the other, but this tenet is refuted on the ground of the impossibility of the Combination of the immaterial with the material, whence the material world is proved to be a nullity and mere illusion).
33. The intellect and dull matter cannot both combine together, nor can the one be included under the other, therefore the ideal world resembles the marks inscribed in the stone and no way different in their natures.
34. As the pith and marrow of a fruit, is no other than the fruit itself; so the cosmos forms the gist of the solid intellect, and no way separable from the same; which is like a thick stone containing marks, undermarks, underlined under one another.
35. So we see the three worlds lying under one another, in the womb of the unity of God; as we behold the sleeping and silent marks of lotuses and conch shells, inscribed in the hollow of a stone.
36. There is no rising nor setting (i.e. the beginning or end), of the course of the world (in the mind of God); but every thing is as fixed and immovable in it, as the inscription carved in a stone.
37. It is the pith and marrow of the divine intellect, that causes the creative power and the act of creation; as it is the substance of the stone, that produces and reduces the figures in the stone.
38. As the figures in the stone, have no action or motion of their own; so the agents of the world have no action of theirs, nor is this world ever created or destroyed at any time (but it continues for ever as carved in the mind of God).
39. Every thing stands as fixed in the mind of God, as if they were the firm and immovable rocks; and all have their forms and positions in the same manner as they are ordained and situated in the Divine Mind.
40. All things are filled with the essence of God, and remain as somnolent in the Divine mind; the various changes and conditions of things that appear to us in this world, are the mere vagaries of our erroneous fancy; for every thing is as fixed and unchanged in the mind of God, as the dormant images on a stone.
41. All actions and motions of things are as motionless in mind of God, as the carved lie asleep in the hollow of a stone. It is the wrong superfluous view of things, that presents to us all these varieties and changes; but considered in the true and spiritual light, there is neither body nor any change that presents itself to our sight.
Lecture on the Density of the Intellect.
Argument.—Interpretation of the Intellect compared with the Belfruit and carved stone and its further comparison with the Egg of a Peahen.
VASISHTHA continued:—The great category of the Intellect which is compared with the bel fruit or wood apple, contains the universe as its own matter and marrow within itself; and it broods upon the same: as in its dream (by forgetfulness of its own nature of omniscience before which everything is present).
2. All space and time and action and motion being but forms of itself, there can be no distinction of them in the intellect. (Hence every part of creation and all created things, are but composite parts of the intellect).
3. All words and their senses, and all acts of volition, imagination and perception, being actions of the intellect, they can not be unrealities in any respect. (Nothing proceeding from the real one is ever unreal).
4. As the substance contained in a fruit, passes under the several names of the kernel, pith and marrow and seeds; so the pith and marrow of the solid intellect being but one and the same thing, takes many names according to their multifarious forms.
5. A thing though the same, has yet different names according to its different states and changes of form; and as it is with the contents of a fruit, so it is with the subjects included under the intellect.
6. The intellect reflects its image in the mirror of the world, as these sculptured images are exprest in a slab of stone.
7. The brilliant gem of the supreme intellects produces myriads of worlds in itself; as the gem of your minds casts the reflection of every object of our desire and imagination.
8. The casket of the intellect contains the spacious world, which is set in it as a big pearl of vast size; it is but a part of the other, though appearing as distinct and different from the other.
9. The intellect is situated as the shining sun, to illumine all things in the world; it brings on the days and nights by turns, to show and hide them to and from our view.
10. As the waters of an eddy whirl and hurl down into the vortex of the sea, so do these worlds roll and revolve in the cavity of the intellect; and though its contents are of the same kind, yet they appear as different from one another as the pulps and seeds of fruits.
11. The body of the stone like intellect contains the marks of whatever is existent in present creation; as also of all that is inexistent at present (i.e. the marks of all past and future creation. The omniscience of the divine intellect has all thing present before it, whether they are past and gone or to come to being hereafter).
12. All real essence is the substance of the apple-like Intellect, whether it is in being or not being and all objects whether in esse or non esse, obtain their form and figure according to the pith and marrow of that intellectual fruit. (All outward forms are the types of the intellectual archetype).
13. As the lotus loses its own and separate entity by its being embodied in the stone, so do all these varieties of existence lose their difference by their being engrossed into the unity of the intellectual substance.
14. As the diversity of the lotus changes to the identity of the stone, by its union with and entrance into its cavity; so the varieties of creation, become all one in the solid mass of the Divine Intellect.
15. As the mirage appears to be a sheet of water to the thirsty deer, while it is known to the intelligence to be the reflexion of the solar rays on the sandy desert; so does the reality appear as unreal and the unreal as real to the ignorant; while in truth there is neither the one nor the other here, except the images of the Divine Mind.
16. As the body of waters fluctuates itself (owing to the fluidity of the element); so is there oscillation in the solidity of the Divine Intellect (owing to its spiritual nature).
17. The lotuses and conch-shells are of the same substance, as the stone in which they are carved and engraved; but the world and all its contents that contained in the intellect, are neither of the same substance nor of the same nature (because of their perishableness).
18. Again the big block of stone which serves for the comparison of the divine Intellect, is itself contained in the same; and while the figures of the former are carved out of its body, those of the latter are eternally inherent in it.
19. This creation of God is as bright as the autumnal sky, and it is as fair as the liquid beams of the moon. (It means to say, says the gloss, that God shines in his form of the world jagat-Brahmá or God identified with the world which is the doctrine of cosmotheism).
20. The world is eternally situated in God, as the figures in the stone which are never effaced; the world is as inseparably connected with the Deity, as the god head of god with himself.
21. There is no difference of these, as there is none between the tree and its plant; all the worlds that are seen all abouts, are not disjoined from Divine Intellect.
22. These as well as the Intellect have neither their production nor destruction at any time, because of their subsistence in the spirit of God, which shows them in their various forms, as the heat of the sun exhibits a sheet of water in the sandy desert.
23. The world with all its solid rocks, trees and plants, dissolves into the Divine Intellect at the sight of the intelligent, as the hard hail stones are seen to melt into the liquid and pure water. (All solids vanish into subtle air).
24. As the water vanishes into the air, and that again into vacuum, so do all things pass away to the supreme spirit; and again it is the consolidation of the Intellect, that forms the solid substances of hills, plants and all tangible things. (Condensation as well as rarefaction, are both of them but acts of the great mind of God).
25. The pith that is hidden in the minute substance, becomes the marrow in its enlarged state; so the flavor of things which is concealed in the atoms, becomes perceptible in their density with their growth.
26. The power of God resides in the same manner in all corporeal things, as the properties of flavours and moisture are inherent in the vegetable creation. (Hence Brahmá is said to be the pith or moisture of all—rasovaitata).
27. The same power of God manifests itself in many forms in things, as the self same light of the sun shows itself in variegated colours of things, according to the constitution of their component particles.
28. The supreme soul shows itself in various ways in the substance and properties of things, as the Divine Intellect represents the forms of mountains and all other things in the changeful mind.
29. As the soft and liquid yolk of the egg of a peahen, contains in it the toughness and various colours of the future quills and feathers; so there are varieties of all kinds inhering in the Divine Intellect, and requiring to be developed in time.
30. As the versicolour feathers of a peacock's train, are contained in the moisture within the egg; so the diversity of creation is ingrained in the Divine mind (as it is said in the parable of the Peahen's egg).
31. The judicious observer will find the one self same Brahmá, to be present every where before his sight; and will perceive his unity amidst all diversity, as in the yolk of the peahen.
32. The knowledge of the unity and duality of God, and that of his containing the world in himself; is also as erroneous as the belief in the entity and nonentity of things. Therefore all these are to be considered as the one and same thing and identic with one another. (This is cosmotheism).
33. Know him as the supreme, who is the source of all entity and non-entity, and on whose entity they depend; whose unity comprises all varieties, which appear as virtual and are no real existences. (Hence the gloss deduces the corollary, that the unreal or negative is subordinate to the positive, and the variety to the unity).
34. Know the world to be compressed under the category of the Intellect, as the Intellect also is assimilated with the works of creation; in the same manner as is the relation of the feather and moisture, the one being the production and the other the producer of one another.
35. The mundane egg resembles the peahen's egg, and the spirit of God is as the yolk of that egg; it abounds with many things like the variegated feathers of the peacocks, all which serve but to mislead us to error. Know therefore there is no difference in outward form and internal spirit of the world, as there is none in the outer peacock and the inner-yolk.
On the Unity and Identity of Brahmá and the World.
Argument.—He whose essence is the source of all our enjoyments; is ascertained as the Sachchidánanda or Entity of the Felicitous Intellect or the blissful spirit of God.
VASISHTHA continued:—That which contains this wide extended universe within itself, and without manifesting its form unto us, is very like the egg of the peahen and contains all space and individual bodies in its yolk. (The mind of God contains the mundane egg).
2. That which has nothing in reality in it, appears yet to contain everything in itself; as the spotless mirror reflects the image of the moon, and the hollow egg bears the figure of the future peacock.
3. It is in this manner that the gods and sages, saints and holy-men, the siddhas and great Rishis, meditate on the true and self subsistent form of God, as find themselves seated in their fourth state of bliss above the third heaven.
4. These devout personages sit with their half shut eyes, and without the twinkling of their eyelids; and continue to view in their inward souls, the visible glory of God shining in its full light.
5. Thus enrapt in their conscious presence of God, they are unconscious of any other thought in their minds; though when employed in the acts of life, remain without the respiration of their vital breath.
6. They sit quiet as figures in a painting, without respiration of their breath, and remain as silent as sculptured statues, without the action of their minds. (They forget themselves to stones in their excess of devotion).
7. They remain in their state of holy rapture, without the employment of their minds in their fleeting thoughts, and whenever they have any agitation they can effect anything, as the Lord God works all things at the slightest nod.
8. Even when their minds are employed in meditative thoughts, they are usually attended with a charming gladness, like that of the charming moonbeams falling on and gladding the leafy branches of trees.
9. The soul is as enraptured with the view of the holy light of God, as the mind is delighted at the sight of the cooling moonbeams, emitted afar from the lunar disc. (The gloss explains the distant moonlight to be less dazzling than the bright disc of that luminary).
10. The aspect of pure conscience is as clear, as the fair face of the bright moon; it is neither visible nor in need of admonition, nor is it too near nor far from us. (The gloss is silent on the inappropriateness of the simile).
11. It is by one's self cogitation alone that the pure intellect can be known, and not by the bodily organs, or living spirit or mind, or by our desire of knowing it.
12. It is not the living soul nor its consciousness, nor the vibrations of the body, mind, or breath. It is not the world nor its reality or unreality, or its vacuity or solidity, or the centre of any thing.
13. It is not time or space or any substance at all, nor is it a god or any other being, whatever is quite free from all these and unconfined in the heart or any of the sheaths inside the body.
14. That is called the soul in which all things are moving, and which is neither the beginning nor end of any thing, but exists from eternity to eternity, and is not characterised by any of the elementary bodies of air and the rest.
15. The soul is an entity that is never annihilated in this or the next world, though the sentient bodies may be born and die away a thousand times like earthen pots here below.
16. There is no removal of this vacuous spirit from its seat, both in the inside and outside of every body; for know, O thou best of spiritualists, all bodies to be equally situated in the all pervading spirit.
17. It is the imperfection of our understanding, that creates the difference between the spirit and the body; but it shows the perfection of our judgement, when we believe the universal soul, to be diffused throughout the universe.
18. Though warmly engaged in business, yet remain unaddicted to worldliness by your indifference to the world, and to all moving and unmoving things that there exists on earth.
19. Know all those as the great Brahma—the immaculate soul, that is without the properties and attributes of mortal beings; it is without change and beginning and end, and is always tranquil and in the same state.
20. Now Ráma! as you have known by your spiritual vision (clairvoyance), all things including time and action, and all causality, causation and its effect, together with the production, sustentation and dissolution of all, to be composed of the spirit of God, you are freed from your wanderings in the world in your bodily form.
Contemplation of the course of the World.
Argument.—Consideration of the changes in the state of things; and their origination from Ignorance and extinction in the true knowledge of their nature.
RÁMA said:—Sir, if there is no change in the immutable spirit of God; say how do these various changes constantly appear to occur in the state of things in this world. (Because it is the change of cause that produces a change in the effect, as also a change in the state of any thing, argues a change in its cause likewise).
2. Vasishtha replied:—Hear Ráma! that it is the alteration of a thing that does not revert to its former state, that is called its change, as it occurs in the instance of milk, and its conversion to curd and butter, which never become the pure milk again.
3. The milk is converted to curd, but the curd never reverts to its former state of milk, such is the nature of change in the state of things; but it can never affect the great God, who remains alike all along the first, intermediate and last states of things.
4. There is no such change as that of milk or any other things in the immutable Brahma, who having no beginning nor end, can neither have any age or stage of life assigned to him. (i.e. The Infinite God is neither young nor old as any finite being).
5. The states of beginning and end which are attributed to eternal God, are the false imputations of ignorance and error, as there can be no change of changeless one. (To say therefore that God is the first and last, the alpha and omega of all, means that the beginning and end of all things, are comprised in his everlasting existence).
6. Brahma is not our consciousness, nor the object of our consciousness. He is as unconnected with us as our soul and intellect, and is only known to us by the word.
7. A thing is said to be the same, with what it is in the beginning and end; the difference that takes place in the form is only a mist of error, and is taken into no account by the wise. (The identity of a thing consists in its unalterable part).
8. It is the soul only that remains self same with itself, both in the beginning, middle and end of it, and in all places and times, and never changes with the change of the body or mind and therefore forms the identity of the person.
9. The soul which is formless and self-same with itself, forms the personality and individuality of a being, and because it is not subject to any modality or mutation at any time, it constitutes the essential identity of every body.
10. Ráma rejoined:—If the divine soul is always the same and perfectly pure in itself, when proceeds our error of its changeableness, and what is the cause of the avidyá or ignorance that shows these changes unto us?
11. Vasishtha replied:—The category of Brahma implies that, He is all what is, what was, and what will be in future; that He is without change and without beginning and end, and there is no avidyá ignorance in him.
12. The signification that is meant to be expressed by the significant term Brahma, does not include any other thing as what is inexistent, or the negative idea of ignorance under it (i.e. God is what is and not what is not).
13. Thyself and myself, this earth and sky, the world and all its sides, together with the elementary of fire and others, are all the everlasting and infinite Brahma, and there is not the least misunderstanding in it.
14. Avidyá or Ignorance is a mere name and Error, and is but another word for unreality; nor can you Ráma, ever call that a reality, which is never existent of itself. (The words ignorance and error are both of them but negative terms).
15. Ráma said:—Why sir, you have said yourself of Ignorance in the chapter on Upasama or Tranquillity, and told me to know all these as products of error.
16. Vasishtha answered:—Ráma! you had been all this time immerged in your ignorance, and have at last come to your right understanding by your own reasoning.
17. It is the practice of glossologists and men of letters, to adopt the use of the word ignorance, living soul and the like, for awakening the unenlightened to their enlightenment only.
18. So long as the mind is not awakened to the knowledge of truth, it remains in the darkness of error for ever; and is not to its right understanding; even by its traversing a hundred miles.
19. When the living soul is awakened to its right sense by the force of reason, it learns to unite itself to the supreme soul, but being led without the guidance of reason, it is successful in nothing with all its endeavours.
20. He who tells the unenlightened vile man, that all this world is the great Brahma himself, does no more than communicate his sorrows to the headless trunk of a tree. (A lecture to the listless man, is not listened to).
21. The fool is brought to sense by reasoning, and the wise man knows the truth from the nature of the subject; but the ignorant never learn wisdom, without the persuasion of reason. (The wise learn by intuition, but the unwise by no instruction).
22. You had been unwise so long as you depended on your own reasoning (judgment); but being guided by me, you are now awakened to truth. (No body is wise of his own conceit without the guidance of his preceptor).
23. That I am Brahma, thou art Brahma, and so the visible world is Brahma himself; know this truth and naught otherwise, and do as you please. (All inventions and imaginations of Him are false).
24. Inconceivable is the conception of God, and the visible world is all that is known of him; know him as one, and the infinite, and you will not be misled into error.
25. Ráma, think in yourself whether when you are sitting or walking, or waking or sleeping, that you are this supreme spirit, which is of the form of light and intelligence, and pervades all things.
26. Ráma! if you are without your egoism and meity or selfishness, and if you are intelligent and honest, then be as oecumenical and tranquil as Brahma himself, who is equally situated in all things.
27. Know your self as the pure consciousness, which is situated as one in all; which is without beginning and end, and is the essence of light and the most transcendent of all being.
28. What you call, Brahma the universal soul and the fourth or transcendent state; know the same to be materia or matter and natura or nature also. It is the inseparable one in all, as the mud is the essential substance of a thousand water pots.
29. Nature is not different from the nature of the soul, as the clay is no other than the pot itself; the Divine essence is as the intrinsic clay, and the divine spirit extends as the inward matter of all things.
30. The soul has its pulsation like the whirling of the whirlpool, and this is termed Prakriti force or matter, which is no other than an effort of the spirit.
31. As pulsation and ventilation, mean the same thing under different names; so the soul and nature express the same substance, which are not different in their essence.
32. It is mere ignorance which makes their difference, and which is removed by their knowledge; as it is sheer ignorance which represents a snake in the rope, and which is soon removed by knowledge of their nature.
33. As the seed of imagination falls in the field of the intellect, it shoots forth in the sprout of the mind, which becomes the germ of the wide spreading arbor of the universe.
34. The seed of false imagination (of avidyá or personified Ignorance), being scorched by the flames of spiritual knowledge; will be able to vegetate no more, though it is sprinkled with the water of fond desire. (i.e. Fancy is fed by desire, but fly away at the appearance of reason).
35. If you do not sow the seed of imagination in the soil of your intellect, you will stop the germination of the plants of pain and pleasure in the field of your mind. (Pain and pleasure are imaginary ideas and not really so in their nature).
36. Ráma! as you have come to know the truth, you must forsake your false conception of such a thing as ignorance or error existing in the world; and know that there is no duality in the unity of God. Being thus full with the knowledge of one supreme soul, you must repudiate your ideas of pain and pleasure in anything here below. Pain turns to pleasure, and pleasure to pain, know them both as unreal, as they are vain.