Transcriber’s Notes
Inconsistent punctuation has been silently corrected.
Obvious misspellings have been silently corrected, and the following corrections made to the text. Other spelling and hyphenation variations have not been modified.
Page 15, section 20 - clear mirror the untainted seat -> clear mirror of the untainted seat Page 25, section 47 - us to -> us to attain Page 62, section 25 - tatpada orstate -> tatpada or state Page 64, section 1 - the idea of the will be found -> the idea of the world will be found Page 68, section 9 - proctive -> productive Page 197, section 23 - with ever rising -> without ever rising Page 200, section 18 - of duality -> of neither duality Page 268, section 14 - without its -> without its cause Page 502, section 73 - makes -> makes not Page 511, section 23 - remains -> remains immune Page 512, section 28 - cares -> cares not Page 525, section 21 - externally conscious -> internally conscious
Angle brackets: <...> have been used by the transcriber to indicate light editing of the text to insert missing words.
The spelling of Sanskrit words are normalized to some extent, including correct/addition of accents where necessary. Note that the author uses á, í, ú to indicate long vowels. This notation has not been changed.
The LPP edition (1999) which has been scanned for this ebook, is of poor quality, and in some cases text was missing. Where possible, the missing/unclear text has been supplied from another edition, which has the same typographical basis (both editions are photographical reprints of the same source, or perhaps one is a copy of the other): Bharatiya Publishing House, Delhi 1978.
A third edition, Parimal Publications, Delhi 1998, which is based on an OCR scanning of the same typographical basis, has also been consulted in a few cases.
The term “Gloss.” or “Glossary” probably refers to the extensive classical commentary to Yoga Vásishtha by Ananda Bodhendra Saraswati (only available in Sanskrit). ------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE
YOGA-VÁSISHTHA
MAHÁRÁMÁYANA.
OF
VÁLMÍKI
VOL. IV (part 1)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE
YOGA-VÁSISHTHA
MAHÁRÁMÁYANA
OF
VÁLMÍKI
in 4 vols. in 7 pts.
(Bound in 4.)
Vol. 4 (In 2 pts.)
Bound in one.
Containing
The Nirvana-Prakarana, Uttarárdha
Translated from the original Sanskrit
By
VIHARI-LALA MITRA
CONTENTS
OF
THE FOURTH VOLUME.
NIRVÁNA PRAKARANA.
BOOK VI.
CHAPTER I.
On Unintentional Acts and Actions 1
CHAPTER II.
Burning of the seeds of action for 7 Prevention of their Vegetation
CHAPTER III.
Disappearance of the Phenomenals 13
CHAPTER IV.
Annihilation of Egoism 20
CHAPTER V.
Narrative of a Vidyádhara and his 26 queries
CHAPTER VI.
Description of Disaffection and Disgust 29 to the world
CHAPTER VII.
Description of the seed of the Arbour of 36 world
CHAPTER VIII.
Description of the Temple of Illusion 39
CHAPTER IX.
Of the Development of Intellect 43
CHAPTER X.
Description of Creation as an Emanation 45 from Brahmá
CHAPTER XI.
On Truth and Right knowledge 48
CHAPTER XII.
On the identity of the Will and its work 50 of the Desire and its Production
CHAPTER XIII.
Anecdote of Indra and an account of the 56 Atomic World
CHAPTER XIV.
Story of Indrání; and Establishment of 60
the identity of the acts of Creation and
imagination
CHAPTER XV.
The Final Extinction of the Vidyádhara 64
CHAPTER XVI.
Extinction of Vidyádhara (continued) 67
CHAPTER XVII.
Lecture on the Annihilation of Egoism 69
CHAPTER XVIII.
Description of the Universal sphere 71
CHAPTER XIX.
Description of the Form of Virát or the 77 all comprehending Deity
CHAPTER XX.
Lecture on the Extinction of the Living 82 soul
CHAPTER XXI.
What constitutes True knowledge 85
CHAPTER XXII.
The yoga conducive to Happiness or the 87 way to Happiness
CHAPTER XXIII.
Story of a Pious Bráhmana and his 95 Nirvána-Extinction
CHAPTER XXIV.
Indifference or Insouciance of Manki to 101 Worldliness
CHAPTER XXV.
Vasishtha’s Admonition to Manki 104
CHAPTER XXVI.
Manki’s attainment of Final Extinction 109 or Nirvána
CHAPTER XXVII.
Sermon on the superior sort of yoga 115 meditation
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Demonstrated conclusion of the Doubtful 118 Truth
CHAPTER XXIX.
Sermon on Holy Meditation 123
CHAPTER XXX.
Sermon on spirituality 133
CHAPTER XXXI.
Sermon on the Means of Attaining the 137 Nirvána Extinction
CHAPTER XXXII.
Sermon inculcating the knowledge of 143 truth
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Sermon on the True sense of Truth 147
CHAPTER XXXIV.
Sermon on the Practice of spiritual yoga 153 or intellectual meditation
CHAPTER XXXV.
Description of the Supreme Brahma 159
CHAPTER XXXVI.
Sermon on the seed or source of the 164 world
CHAPTER XXXVII.
A Lecture on the visibles and Visible 170 world
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
Disquisition of Nirvána-quietism 181
CHAPTER XXXIX.
Vasishtha’s Gítá or sermon on the sweet 187 peace of mind
CHAPTER XL.
On the Quiescence of the soul 192
CHAPTER XLI.
Repose in one’s essential Nature 194
CHAPTER XLII.
A Lecture on Nirvána-Extinction 198
CHAPTER XLIII.
On the infinite Extension of Brahma 205
CHAPTER XLIV.
Dangers to which the wandering 213 (staglike) Mind is exposed
CHAPTER XLV.
Continuation of the story of the Deer 219 like mind
CHAPTER XLVI.
On abstract meditation and Hypnotism 227
CHAPTER XLVII.
The first step towards Liberation 230
CHAPTER XLVIII.
On the Dignity of Right Discrimination 236
CHAPTER XLIX.
Total stoicism and insouciance 241
CHAPTER L.
Description of the seven kinds of Living 248 beings
CHAPTER LI.
Admonition to Arrive at the yoga of 252 Ultimate Rest
CHAPTER LII.
Description of the Form and Attributes 258 of Brahma
CHAPTER LIII.
Explanation of Nirvána-Anaesthesia 264
CHAPTER LIV.
Establishment of the undivided 267 individuality of God
CHAPTER LV.
The spiritual sense of the world 272
CHAPTER LVI.
Story of the Great stone and Vasishtha’s 276 Meditation
CHAPTER LVII.
On the knowledge of the known and 281 unknown
CHAPTER LVIII.
Proving the creation as Divine Attribute 285
CHAPTER LIX.
Description of the Net work of the world 288
CHAPTER LX.
The Net works of World (continued) 295
CHAPTER LXI.
On the identity of the world with 302 infinite vacuity
CHAPTER LXII.
The unity of the intellect with the 307 intellectual World
CHAPTER LXIII.
Unity of the universe with the universal 313 soul
CHAPTER LXIV.
Sport of the heavenly Nymphs 318
CHAPTER LXV.
Life and conduct of the Etherial Nymph 326
CHAPTER LXVI.
Description of the inside of the stony 329 mansion of the World
CHAPTER LXVII.
Praise of continued practice or the 333 Force of Habit
CHAPTER LXVIII.
The Fallacy of the Existence of the 339 World
CHAPTER LXIX.
Entrance into the Cosmical stone of 345 Mundane Egg
CHAPTER LXX.
The words of the creator of Worlds in 349 the Mundane stone
CHAPTER LXXI.
Description of final Dissolution 353
CHAPTER LXXII.
Description of Nirvána or Final 360 extinction
CHAPTER LXXIII.
Description of the person of Virát—the 364 God of Nature
CHAPTER LXXIV.
Description of the cosmical Body of 371 Virát (continued)
CHAPTER LXXV.
Description of the Final conflagration 376 of the world
CHAPTER LXXVI.
The stridor of Pushkarávarta clouds 383
CHAPTER LXXVII.
Description of the world overflooded by 388 the rains
CHAPTER LXXVIII.
Description of the universal Ocean 394
CHAPTER LXXIX.
Maintenance of inappetency or want of 398 Desire
CHAPTER LXXX.
The world Proved to be a Delusion 404
CHAPTER LXXXI.
Description of the last night of death 411 or general doom
CHAPTER LXXXII.
Description of the person of the God 423 Siva
CHAPTER LXXXIII.
Sight of the Mundane God 427
CHAPTER LXXXIV.
Relation of Siva and Sakti or of the 431 holy spirit and its power
CHAPTER LXXXV.
Relation of Nature and soul or the Prime 438 Male and Female Powers
CHAPTER LXXXVI.
The Convertibility of the World to the 442 Supreme Spirit
CHAPTER LXXXVII.
The infinity of the World shown in the 449 Material body
CHAPTER LXXXVIII.
Further Description of earth 458
CHAPTER LXXXIX.
The Phenomenal as the Reproduction of 461 Reminiscence
CHAPTER LXXXX.
Description of the Watery creation 465
CHAPTER LXXXXI.
Description of Igneous, Luminous and 469 Brilliant Objects in nature
CHAPTER LXXXXII.
Description of the current air, as the 477 universal spirit
CHAPTER LXXXXIII.
The Advent and Psalmody of a siddha in 484 the Aerial Abode of Vasishtha
CHAPTER LXXXXIV.
Description of a Pisácha, and the unity 495 of the world with Brahma
CHAPTER LXXXXV.
Description of the person of Vasishtha 505
CHAPTER LXXXXVI.
Establishment of immortality 509
CHAPTER LXXXXVII.
On the Rarity and Retiredness of 514 Religious Recluses
CHAPTER LXXXXVIII.
Praise of good society, or association 520 with the good and wise
CHAPTER LXXXXIX.
A Discourse on Esoteric or Spiritual 523 knowledge
CHAPTER C.
Refutation of Atheism 530
CHAPTER CI.
A Sermon on spirituality 537
CHAPTER CII.
Exposition of Buddhism and disproving of 542 Deaths
CHAPTER CIII.
Proof of the unity of the Deity amidst 549 the variety of creation
CHAPTER CIV.
Establishment of the Non-entity of the 561 world
CHAPTER CV.
Likeness of Waking and sleeping Dreams 563
YOGA VASISHTHA.
UTTARÁDHA
OR THE LATTER HALF OR SUPPLEMENT
TO THE
NIRVÁNA PRAKARANA.
CHAPTER I.
ON UNINTENTIONAL ACTS AND ACTIONS.
Argument:—The manner how the liberated should conduct themselves in life, with renunciation of their egoism and selfish desires.
Ráma rejoined:—The renunciation of the notion of one’s personality or egoism in his own person, being attended by its attendant evil of inertness and inactivity (lit. want of acts), it naturally brings on a premature decay and decline, and the eventual falling off of the body in a short time: how then is it possible sir, for an indifferent person of this kind, to practice his actions and discharge the active duties of life (as you preached in your last lecture)?
2. Vasishtha replied:—It is possible Ráma, for the living person to resign his false ideas and not for one that is dead and gone (because the life of a man is independent of his notions; while the notions are dependant on his life). Hear me now to expound this truth, and it will greatly please your ears: (lit. it will be an ornament to your ears).
3. The idea of one’s egoism (or his personality in own person), is said to be an idealism by idealists; but it is the conception of the signification of the word air or vacuity (which is the essence of the Deity), that is represented as the repudiation of that erroneous notion.
4. The idealists represent the sense of all substances, as a creation of the imagination, while it is the idea of a pure vacuum, which they say to be the resignation of this erroneous conception. (The vacuistic Vasishtha treats here in length of the nullity of all substances, and the eternity of all pervading vacuum, and establishes the doctrine of the nothingness of the world and its God).
5. The idea of any thing in the world as something in reality, is said to be mere imaginary by the best and wisest of men; but the belief of all things as an empty nothing, displaces the error of thought from the mind. Since all things are reduced to and return to nothing, it is this alone which is the ever lasting something. (Ullum est nullum, et nullum est ullum).
6. Know thy remembrance of anything, is thy imagination of it only, and its forgetfulness alone is good for thee; therefore try to blot out all thy former impressions from thy mind, as if they were never impressed on it.
7. Efface from thy mind the memory of all thou hast felt or unfelt (i.e. fancied), and remain silent and secluded like a block after thy forgetfulness of all things whatsoever.
8. Continue in the practice of thy continuous actions, with an utter oblivion of the past (nor need the assistance of thy memory of the past, in the discharge of thy present duties); because thy habit of activity is enough to conduct thee through all the actions of thy life, as it is the habit of a half-sleeping baby to move its limbs (without its consciousness of the movements). (Such is the force of habit, says the maxim Abhyastopapatti—habit is second nature).
9. It requires no design or desire on the part of an actor to act his part, whereto he is led by the tenor of his prior propensities (of past lives); as a potter’s wheel is propelled by the pristine momentum, without requiring the application of continued force for its whirling motion. So O sinless Ráma! mind our actions to be under the direction of our previous impressions, and not under the exertion of our present efforts.
10. Hence inappetency has become the congenial tendency of your mind, without its inclination to the gratification of its appetites. The leanings of men to particular pursuits, are directed by the current of their previous propensities. The predisposition of the mind, is said to be the cause of the formation of the character and fortune of a man in his present state, (which is otherwise said to be the result of his predestination) which runs as a stream in wonted course, and carries all men as straws floating along with its tide.
11. I am proclaiming it with a loud voice and lifted arms, and yet no body will hearken unto me when I say that, want of desire is our supreme bliss and summum bonum, and yet why is it that none would perceive it as such?
12. O the wondrous power of illusion! that it makes men to slight their reason, and throw away the richest jewel of their mind, from the chest of their breast wherein it is deposited.
13. The best way to inappetence, is the ignoring and abnegation of the phenomenals which I want you to do; and know that your disavowal of all is of the greatest boon to you, as you will be best able to perceive in yourself.
14. Sitting silent with calm content, will lead you to that blissful state, before which your possession of an empire will seem insignificant, and rather serving to increase your desire for more. (The adage says:—No one has got over the ocean of his ambition, neither an Alexander nor a Cæsar).
15. As the feet of a traveller are in continued motion, until he reaches to his destination; so are the body and mind of the avaricious in continual agitation, unless his inappetence would give him respite from his incessant action.
16. Forget and forsake your expectation of fruition of the result of your actions, and allow yourself to be carried onward by the current of your fortune, and without taking anything to thy mind; as a sleeping man is insensibly carried on by his dreams.
17. Stir yourself to action as it occurs to you, and without any purpose or desire of yours in it, and without your feeling any pain or pleasure therein; let the current of the business conduct you onward, as the current of a stream carries down a straw in its course.
18. Take to thy heart no pleasure or pain, in the discharge of the work in which thou art employed; but remain insensible of both like a wooden machine which works for others. (Because, says the commentary, it is the dull head of people only, that are elated or dejected in the good or bad turns of the affairs of life).
19. Remain insensible of pleasure or pain, in thy body and mind and all the organs of senses; like the sapless trees and plants in winter, when they bear their bare trunks without the sensitiveness of their parts.
20. Let the sun of thy good understanding, suck up the sensibility of thy six external senses, as the solar rays dry up the moisture of winter plants; and continue to work with the members of thy body, as an engine is set to work. (Work as a brute with thy bodily powers or as a machine with its mechanical forces; but keep thy inner mind aloof from thy outer drudgeries).
21. Restrain thy intellectual pleasures from their inclination to sensual gratifications, and retain thy spiritual joy in thyself, for the support of thy life; as the ground retains the roots of trees in it very carefully in winter for their growth in the season of spring.
22. It is the same whether you continually gratify or not the cravings of your senses, they will continue insatiate notwithstanding all your supplies, and the vanities of the world will profit you nothing.
23. If you move about continually like a running stream, or as the continuous shaking of the water in an aerostatic or hydraulic engine, and be free from every desire and craving of your mind, you are then said to advance towards your endless felicity (so the adage is:—All desire is painsome, and its want is perfect freedom).
24. Know this as a transcendent truth, and capable of preventing all your future transmigrations in this world, that you become accustomed to the free agency of all your actions, without being dragged to them by your desires.
25. Pursue your business as it occurs to you, without any desire or purpose of your own towards its object; but continue to turn about your callings, as the potter’s wheel revolves round its fulcrum.
26. Neither have in view the object of your action, nor the reward of your action; but know it to be equally alike whether you refrain from action, or do it without your desire of fruition.
27. But what is the use of much verbiology, when it can be expressed in short and in a few words, that the desire of fruition is the bondage of your soul, and your relinquishment of it is fraught with your perfect freedom.
28. There is no business whatever for us in this world, that must be done or abandoned by us at any time or place; every thing is good that comes from the good God, therefore sit you quiet with your cold indifference as before the occurrence of any event.
29. Think thy works as no works, and take thy abstinence from action for thy greatest work, but remain as quiet in your mind in both your action and inaction, as the Divine Intellect is in ecstasies amidst the thick of its action.
30. Know the unconsciousness of all things to be the true trance-yoga, and requiring the entire suppression of the mental operations. Remain wholly intent on the Supreme spirit, until thou art one and the same with it.
31. Being identified with that tranquil and subtile spirit, and divested of the sense of dualism or existence of anything else; nobody can sorrow for ought, when he is himself absorbed in his thought, in the endless and pure essence of God.
32. Let no desire rise in thy indifferent mind, like a tender germ sprouting in the sterile desert soil; nor allow a wish to grow in thee, like a slender blade shooting in the bosom of a barren rock.
33. The unconscious and insensible saint, derives no good or evil by his doing or undoing of any deed or duty in his living state, nor in his next life. (Duties are not binding on the holy and devout sages and saints).
34. There is no sense of duty nor that of its dereliction neither, in the minds of the saintly Yogis, who always view the equality of all things and acts; and never consider their deeds as their own doings, nor think themselves as the agents of their own actions.
35. The consciousness of egoism and the sense of meiety of selfishness, will never release a man from the miseries of life; it is his unconsciousness of these, that can only save him from all sorrow, wherefore it lies in the option of every body, to choose for him either of these as he may best like.
36. There is no other ego or meiety excepting that of the one self-existent and omniform Deity; and besides the essence of this transcendent being, it is hard to account anything of the multifarious things that appear to be otherwise than Himself.
37. The visible world that appears so vividly to our sight, is no more than the manifestation of the One Divine Essence in many, like the transformation of gold in the multiform shapes of jewels; but seeing the continual decay and disappearance of the phenomenals, we ignore their separate existence. We confess the sole existence of the One that lasts after all and for ever.
CHAPTER II.
BURNING OF THE Seeds of Action FOR PREVENTION OF THEIR VEGETATION.
Argument:—Concerning the seeds and fruits of action, and the mode of their extirpation by the root.
Vasishtha continued:—Think not of unity or duality, but remain quite calm and quiet in thy spirit and as cold hearted as the dank mud and mire, as the worlds are still with unstirry spirit of the divinity working in them. (This is a lesson of incessant work without any stir and bustle).
2. The mind with its understanding and egoism and all its thoughts, are full of the divine spirit in its diversified forms (vivarta-rúpa); and time and its motion and all sound, force and action, together with all modes of existence, are but manifestations of the Divine Essence.
3. The Divine Spirit, being of the form of gelatinous mud (or plastic nature), all things with their forms and colours, and the mind and all its functions also, upon its own mould of endless shapes and types beyond the comprehension of men.
4. It is the Divine Essence which forms its own substance as upon a mould of clay, the patterns and forms and the shapes of all things, together with the measurements of space and time and the position of all the quarters and regions of the earth and heavens; so all things existent or inexistent, are the produce and privation of the formative mud and mould of the Divine Spirit.
5. Do you remain indifferent about the essence of your egoism and selfishness, which is no other than that of the Supreme Spirit; and live unconcerned with everything, like a dumb insect in the bosom of stone. (This is the Vajra-Kita, which perforates the sálagram stone in the river Gandak in Bihar). (The dumbness of silent munis was occasioned by their inability to speak with certainty anything regarding the abstruse spiritual subjects).
6. Ráma asked:—Sir, if the false knowledge of egoism and selfishness, be wanting in the wise and God knowing man, then how comes it, that the dereliction and renunciation of his duties, will entail any guilt or evil upon him, and his full observance of them, is attended with any degree of merit or reward? (This is the main question of the necessity of the observance of duteous and pious acts by the wise, which is after so long mooted by Ráma, in continuation of the last subject under discussion).
7. Vasishtha replied:—I will ask you also one question, O sinless Ráma! and you should answer it soon, if you understand well what is rightly meant by the term duty and that of activity.
8. Tell me what is the root of action and how far it extends, and whether it is destructible at last or not, and how it is totally destroyed at the end.
9. Ráma replied:—Why sir, whatever is destructible must come to be destroyed at last, by means of the act of rooting it out at once, and not by the process of lopping the branches or cutting off the tree.
10. The acts of merit and demerit are both to be destroyed, together with their results of good and evil; and this is done by eradicating and extirpating them altogether.
11. Hear me tell you, sir, about the roots of our deeds, by the rooting out of which the trees of our actions are wholly extirpated, and are never to vegetate or grow forth any more.
12. I ween sir, the body of ours to be the tree of our action, and has grown out in the great garden of this world, and is girt with twining creepers of various kinds. (i.e. The members of the body).
13. Our past acts are the seeds of this tree, and our weal and woe are the fruits with which it is fraught; it is verdant with the verdure of youth for a while, and it smiles with its white blossoms of the grey hairs and the pale complexion of old age.
14. Destructive death lurks about this tree of the body every moment, as the light-legged monkey lights upon trees to break them down; it is engulphed in the womb of sleep, as the tree is overwhelmed under the mists of winter, and the flitting dreams are as the falling leaves of trees.
15. Old age is the autumn of life, and the decaying wishes are as the withered leaves of trees, and the wife and members of the family, are as thick as grass in the wilderness of the world.
16. The ruddy palms and soles of the hands and feet, and the other reddish parts of the body (as the tongue and lips), resemble the reddening leaves of this tree; which are continually moving in the air, with the marks of slender lines upon them.
17. The little reddish fingers with their flesh and bones, and covered by the thin skin and moving in the air, are as the tender shoots of the tree of the human body.
18. The soft and shining nails, which are set in rows with their rounded forms and sharpened ends, are like the moon-bright buds of flowers with their painted heads.
19. This tree of the body is the growth of the ripened seed of the past acts of men; and the organs of action are the knotty and crooked roots of this tree.
20. These organs of action are supported by the bony members of the body, and nourished by the sap of human food; they are fostered by our desires, resembling the pith and blood of the body.
21. Again the organs of sense supply those of action with their power of movement, or else the body with the lightness of all its members from head to foot, would not be actuated to action without the sensation of their motion. (Hence a dead or sleeping man having no sensation in him, has not the use or action of his limbs).
22. Though the five organs of sense, grow apart and at great distances from one another, like so many branches of this tree of the body; they are yet actuated by the desire of the heart, which supplies them with their sap.
23. The mind is the great trunk of this tree, which comprehends the three worlds in it, and is swollen with the sap which it derives from them through its five fold organs of sense; as the stem of a tree thrive with the juice it draws by the cellular fibres of its roots.
24. The living soul is the root of the mind, and having the intellect ingrained, it is always busy with its thoughts, which have the same intellect for their root; but the root of all these is the One Great Cause of all.
25. The intellect has the great Brahma, which has no cause of itself; and which having no designation or termination of it, is truth from the purity of its essence.
26. The consciousness of ourselves in our egoism, is the root of all our actions; and the internal thought of our personal entity is the root of our energy, and gives the impulse to all our actions. (Therefore as long as one has the knowledge of his personality, he is prone to action, and without it, every body is utterly inert).
27. It is our percipience, O Sage, which is said to be the source and root of our actions and whenever there is this principle in the mind, it causes the body to grow in the form of the big Sirsapatra. (It is the intellect which is both the living soul as well as its percipience).
28. When this percipience otherwise called consciousness (of the soul), is accompanied with the thoughts (of egoism and personality in the mind), it becomes the seed of action; otherwise mere consciousness of the self is the state of the supreme soul.
29. So also when the intellect is accompanied with its power of intellection, it becomes the source and seed of action; or else it is as calm and quiet as it is the nature of the Supreme soul. (The self-perception and pure intelligence, are attributes of the Divine soul, and not productive of action; but these in company with the operations of the mind, become the causes of the activity of both).
30. Therefore the knowledge of one’s personality in his own person, is the cause of his action, and this causality of action, as I have said herein, is quite in conformity with your teachings to me.
31. Vasishtha said:—Thus Ráma, action in the discreet being based on the knowledge of one’s personality; it is no way possible to avoid our activity, as long as the mind is situated in the body, and has the knowledge of its personality.
32. Whoever thinks of anything, sees the same both within as well as without himself; and whether it is in reality or not, yet the mind is possessed with chimera of it.
33. Again whoever thinks of nothing, verily escapes from the error of mistaking a chimera for reality; but whether the reality is a falsity, or the falsity of anything is a sober reality, is what we are not going to discuss about at present.
34. It is this thinking principle, which presents the shadow of something within us, and passes under the various designations of will or desire, the mind and its purpose likewise.
35. The mind resides in the bodies of both rational as well as irrational beings, and in both their waking and sleeping states; it is impossible therefore, to get rid of it by any body at any time.
36. It is neither the silence nor inactivity of a living body, that amounts to its refraining from action, so long as the mind is busy with its thoughts; but it is only the unmindfulness of the signification of the word action, that amounts to one’s forbearance from acts.
37. It is the freedom of one’s volition or choice either to do or not to do anything that is meant to make one’s action or otherwise; therefore by avoiding your option in the doing of an act you avoid it altogether; otherwise there is no other means of avoiding the responsibility of the agent for his own acts; (except that they were done under the sense of compulsion and not of free choice. Gloss).
38. Nobody is deemed as the doer of an act, who does not do it by his deliberate choice; and the knowledge of the unreality of the world, leads to the ignoring of all action also. (If nothing is real, then our actions are unreal also).
39. The ignoring of the existence of the world, is what makes the renunciation of it; and the renunciation of all associations and connections, is tantamount to one’s liberation from them. The knowledge of the knowable One, comprehends in it the knowledge of all that is to be known. (Because the One is all, and all existence is comprised in that only knowable One).
40. There being no such thing as production, there is no knowledge of anything whatever that is produced; abandon therefore your eagerness to know the knowable forms (of things), and have the knowledge of the only invisible One.
41. But there is no knowing whatever of the nature and actions of the quiescent spirit of Brahma, its action is its intellection only, which evolves itself in the form of an infinite vacuum (showing the shapes of all things as in a mirror).
42. “That utter insensibility is liberation,” is well known to the learned as the teaching of the Veda; hence no one is exempted from action, as long as he lives with his sensible body.
43. Those who regard action as their duty, are never released from their subjection to the root (principle) of action; and this root is the consciousness of the concupiscent mind of its own actions. (The desire is the motive of actions, and the consciousness of one’s deeds and doings, is the bondage of the soul. Or else a workingman is liberated, provided he is devoid of desire and unmindful of his actions).
44. It is impossible, O Ráma, to destroy this bodiless consciousness, without the weapon of a good understanding; it lies so very deep in the mind, that it continually nourishes the roots of action.
45. When by our great effort, we can nourish the seed of conscience, why then we should not be able to destroy the keen conscience by the same weapon that is effort.
46. In the same manner, we can destroy also the tree of the world with its roots and branches.
47. That One is only existent, which has no sensation and is no other than of the form of an endless vacuum; it is that unintelligible vacuous form and pure intelligence itself, which is the pith and substance of all existence.
CHAPTER III.
DISAPPEARANCE OF THE PHENOMENALS.
Argument:—Admonition for ignoring the visibles, and the means of attaining the insensibility and inactivity of the wise.
Ráma said:—Tell me, O Sage, how it may be possible to convert our knowledge to ignorance, since it is impossible to make a nothing of something, as also to make anything out of a nothing.
2. Vasishtha replied:—Verily a nothing or unreality, cannot be something in reality; nor a real something can become an unreal nothing; but in any case where both of these (viz.; reality as well as unreality of a thing) are possible, there the cognition and incognition of something, are both of them equally palpable of themselves. (This is termed a Chátushkotika Sunsaya or quadruplicate apprehension of something, consisting, of the reality or unreality of a thing, and the certainty or uncertainty of its knowledge).
3. The two senses of the word knowledge (i.e. its affirmative and negative senses) are apparent in the instance of “a rope appearing as a snake”: here the knowledge of the rope is certain, but that of the snake is a mistake or error. And so in the case of a mirage presenting the appearance of water. (Here the things snake and water prove to be nothing, and their knowledge as such, is converted to error or want of knowledge).
4. It is better therefore to have no knowledge of these false appearances, whose knowledge tends to our misery only; wherefore know the true reality alone, and never think of the unreal appearance. (Do not think the visibles either as real or unreal, but know the deathless spirit that lies hid under them).
5. The conception of the sense of sensible perceptions, is the cause of woe of all living beings; therefore it is better to root out the sense of the perceptibles from the mind, and rely in the knowledge of the underlying universal soul only. (Taking the particulars in the sense of individual souls, is the cause of misery only).
6. Leaving aside the knowledge of parts, and the sense of your perception of all sensible objects, know the whole as one infinite soul, in which you have your rest and nirvána extinction.
7. Destroy all your acts of merit and demerit, by the force of your discrimination; and your knowledge of the evanescence of your deeds, aided by your knowledge of truth, will cause the consummation of Yoga (Siddhi).
8. By rooting out the reminiscence of your acts, you put a stop to their results and your course in the world; and if you succeed to gain the object of your search (i.e. your spiritual knowledge), by means of your reason, you have no more any need of your action.
9. The divine intellect, like the Bel fruit, forms within itself its pith and seeds (of future worlds), which lie hid in it, and never burst out of its bosom. (So all things are contained in divine mind).
10. As a thing contained in its container, is not separate from the containing receptacle, so all things that lie in the womb of space, are included in the infinite space of the universal soul (or the divine mind) which encompasses the endless vacuity in it.
11. And as the property of fluidity, is never distinct from the nature of liquids; so the thoughts (of all created things), are never apart from the thinking principle of the Divine mind. (The words Chittam and Chittwam, and their meanings of the thought and mind, appertain to their common root the chit or intellect with which they are alike in sound and sense).
12. Again as fluidity is the inseparable property of water, and light is that of fire; so the thoughts and thinking, inhere intrinsically in the nature of the Divine Intellect, and not as its separable qualities.
13. Intellection is the action of the intellect, and its privation gives rise to the chimeras of error in the mind; there is no other cause of error, nor does it last unless it rises in absence of reason.
14. Intellection is the action of the intellect, as fluctuation is that of the wind; and it is by means of their respective actions, that we have our perceptions of them. But when the soul ceases from action, then both of these (viz: our intellection and perceptions) are at an utter stop within and without us. (i.e. The soul is the prime mover of our inward and outward senses).
15. The body is the field and scope of our actions, and our egoism spreads itself over the world; but our insensibility and want of egoism, tend to put away the world from us as want of force puts down the breeze.
16. Insensibility of the body and mind, renders the intelligent soul, as dull as a stone; therefore root out the world from thy mind, as a boar uproots a plant with its tusk; (by means of your insensibility of it, and the full sense of God alone in thee).
17. In this way only, O Ráma, you can get rid of the seed vessel of action in your mind; and there is no other means of enjoying the lasting peace of your soul besides this.
18. After the germinating seed of action is removed from the mind, the wise man loses the sight of all temporal objects, in his full view of the holy light of God.
19. The holy saints never seek to have, nor dare to avoid or leave any employment of their own choice or will; (but they do whatever comes in their way, knowing it as the will of God and must be done). They are therefore said to be of truly saintly souls and minds, who are strangers to the preference or rejection of anything (lit., to the acceptance or avoidance of a thing).
20. Wise men sit silent where they sit and live as they live, with their hearts and minds as vacant as the vacuous sky; they take what they get, and do what is destined to them as they are unconscious of doing them. (The vacant mind without any care or thought, is like a clear mirror <of> the untainted seat of the Holy God).
21. As sediments are swept away by the current of the stream, so the saintly and meek minded men are moved to action by a power not their own; they act with their organs of action with as much unconcern, as babes have the movements of their bodies, in their half-sleeping state.
22. As the sweetest things appear unsavoury to those that are satiate and sated with them; so do the delights of the world, seem disgusting to them, that are delighted with divine joy in themselves; and with which they are so enrapt in their rapture, as to become unconscious of what is passing in and about them like insane people.
23. The unconsciousness of one’s acts, makes the abandonment of his action, and this is perfected when a person is in full possession of his understanding (or else the unconsciousness of a dead man of his former acts, does not amount to his abandonment of action). It matters not whether a man does ought or naught, with his unsubstantial or insensible organs of action. (It is external consciousness that makes the action, and not the external doing of it, with the insensible organs of the body; because the mental impressions make the action and not its forgetfulness in the mind).
24. An action done without a desire, is an act of unconsciousness; and they are not recognized as our actions, which have no traces of them in our minds. (Hence all involuntary acts and those of insanity, are reckoned as no doings of their doer).
25. An act which is not remembered, and which is forgotten as if it were buried in oblivion, is as no act of its doer; and this oblivion is equal to the abandonment of action.
26. He who pretends to have abandoned all action, without abandoning (or effacing) them from his mind, is said to be a hypocrite, and is devoured by the monster of his hypocrisy: (of this nature are the false fakirs, who pretend to have renounced the world).
27. They who have rooted out the prejudice of actions from their lives, and betaken themselves to the rest and refuge of inaction, are freed from the expectation of reward of whatever they do, as also from the fear of any evil for what they avoid to perform.
28. They who have extirpated the seeds of action, with their roots and germs, from the ground of their minds, have always an undisturbed tranquility to rest upon, and which is attended with a serene delight to those that have made hebetude their habit.
29. The meek are slightly moved in their bodies and minds, by the current of business in which they have fallen; but the reckless are carried onward whirling in the torrent, like drunken sots reclining on the ground, or as anything moved by a machine, (or as the machines of an engine).
30. Those who are seated in any stage of yoga, and are graced with the calmness of liberation, appear as cheerful as men in a play house, who are half asleep and half-awake over the act in this great theatre of the world.
31. That is said to be wholly extirpated, which is drawn out by its roots, or else it is like the destroying of a tree by lopping its branches which will grow again, unless it is uprooted from the ground.
32. So the tree of acts (the ceremonial code), though lopped off of its branches (of particular rites and ceremonies), will thrive again if it is left to remain, without uprooting it by the ritual (of acháras).
33. It is enough for your abandonment of acts, to remain unconscious of your performance of them; and the other recipes for the same (as given before) will come to you of themselves.
34. Whoever adopts any other method of getting rid of his actions, besides those prescribed herein; his attempts of their abandonment are as null and void, as his striking the air, (in order to divide it). (Out ward abandonment of anything is nothing, unless it is done so from the mind).
35. It is the rational abandonment of a thing, that makes its true relinquishment, and whatever is done unwilfully, is like a fried grain or seed, that never vegetates nor brings forth its fruit. (The rational renouncement of a thing, is said in the Veda, to mean its resignation to God, to whom belongs every thing in the world, and is lent to man for his temporary use only. And fruitless actions are those that are done unwillingly, and are not productive of future births for our misery only).
36. But the act that is done with the will and bodily exertion, becomes productive with the moisture of desire; but all other efforts of the body without the will, are entirely fruitless to their actor.
37. After one has got rid of his action, and freed himself from further desire; he becomes liberated for life (Jívan-mukta), whether he may dwell at home or in the woods, and live in poverty or affluence.
38. The contented soul is as solitary at home, as in the midst of the farthest forest; but the discontented mind find the solitary forest, to be as thickly thronged with vexations as the circle of a familyhouse.
39. The quiet and calmly composed spirit, finds the lonely woodland, where a human being is never to be seen even in a dream, to be as lovely to it as the bosom of a family dwelling.
40. The wise man who has lost the sight of the visibles, and of the endless particulars abounding in this forest of the world, beholds on every side the silent and motionless sphere of heaven spread all around him.
41. The thoughtless ignorant, whose insatiate ambition grasps the whole universe in his heart, rolls over the surface of the earth and all its boisterous seas with as much glee as upon a bed of flowers.
42. All these cities and towns, which are so tumultuous with the endless of men, appear to the ignorant and moneyless man as a garden of flowers; where he picks up his worthless penny with as much delight as holy men cull the fragrant blossoms to make their offerings to holy shrines.
43. The wide earth with all her cities and towns, and distant districts and countries, which are so full of mutual strife and broil, appear to the soiled soul of the gross-headed and greedy, as if they are reflected in their fair forms in the mirror of their minds; or painted in their bright colours upon the canvas of their hearts. (Worldly men are so infatuated with the world, that they take side of things for fair and bright).
CHAPTER IV.
ANNIHILATION OF EGOISM.
Argument:—Egoism is shown as the root of worldliness and its extirpation by spiritual knowledge.
Vasishtha continued:—The abandonment of the world (which is otherwise termed as liberation—moksha), is effected only upon subsidence of one’s egoism and knowledge of the visibles in the conscious soul; in the manner of the extinction of a lamp for want of oil. (The knowledge of the phenomenal is the root of illusion, and it is the removal of this that is called the abandonment of the world, and the cause of liberation).
2. It is not the giving up of actions, but the relinquishment of the knowledge of the objective world, that makes our abandonment of it; and the subjective soul, which is without the reflexion of the visible world, and the objective-self, is immortal and indestructible.
3. After the knowledge of the self and this and that with that of mine and thine, becomes extinct like an extinguished lamp, there remains only the intelligent and subjective-soul by itself alone (and it is this state of the soul that is called its extinction—nirvána and its liberation or moksha).
4. But he whose knowledge of himself and others, and of mine and thine and his and theirs, has not yet subsided in his subjectivity, has neither the intelligence nor tranquility nor abandonment nor extinction of himself. (It is opposite of the preceding).
5. After extinction of one’s egoism and meism, there remains the sole and tranquil and intelligent soul, beside which there is nothing else in existence.
6. The egoistic part of the soul being weakened by the power of true knowledge, every thing in the world wastes away and dwindles into insignificance; and though nothing is lost in reality, yet every thing is buried in and with the extinction of the self. (So the Hindi adage:—Ápduba to jagduba—the self being lost, all things are lost with it).
7. The knowledge of the ego is lost under that of the non-ego, with any delay or difficulty; and it being so easy to effect it, there is no need of resorting to the arduous methods for removal of the same. (It being easy to ignore the silver in a shell, it is useless to test it in the fire).
8. The thoughts of ego and non-ego, are but false conceits of the mind; and the mind being as void as the clear sky, there is no solid foundation for this error.
9. No error has its vagary anywhere, unless it moves upon the basis of ignorance, it grows upon misjudgment, and vanishes at the light of reason and right judgment.
10. Know all existence to be the Intellect only; which is extended as an unreal vacuity; therefore sit silent in the empty space of the Intellect, wherein all things are extinct as nothing. (The reality of the Divine Mind, containing the ideal world which appears as a reality).
11. Whenever the idea of ego comes to occur in the mind, it should be put down immediately by its negative idea of the non-ego or that I am nothing.
12. Let the conviction of the non-ego supplant that of the ego, as a meaningless term, or as untrue as empty air, or a flower of the aerial arbour; and being fixed as an arrow in the bow-string of holy meditation, strive to hit at the mark of the Divine Essence.
13. Know always your ideas of ego & tu—I and thou, to be as unreal as empty air; and being freed from the false idea of every other thing, get over quickly across the delusive ocean of the world.
14. Say how is it possible for that senseless and beastly man, to attain to the highest state of divine perfection, who is unable to overcome his natural prejudice of egoism.
15. He who has been able by his good understanding, the sixfold beastly appetites of his nature; is capable of receiving the knowledge of great truths; and no other asinine man in human shape.
16. He who has weakened and overcome the inborn feelings of his mind, becomes the receptacle of all virtue and knowledge, and is called a man in its proper sense of the word.
17. Whatever dangers may threaten you on rocks and hills and upon the sea, you may escape from the same by thinking that they cannot injure your inward soul, though they may hurt the flesh.
18. Knowing that your egoism is nothing in reality, except your false conception of it, why then do you allow yourself to be deluded by it, like the ignorant who are misled by their phrenzy?
19. There is nothing (no ego) here, that is known to us in its reality; all our knowledge is erroneous as that of an ornament in gold (and springs from the general custom of calling it so), so is our knowledge of the ego which we know not what, and may be lost by our forgetfulness of it. (So the different names and shapes of golden ornaments being forgotten, we see the substance of gold only common in all of them).
20. Try to dislodge the thoughts that rise in your mind, in the manner of the incessant vibrations in the air, by thinking that you are not the ego, nor has your ego any foundation at all.
21. The man who has not overcome his egotism, and its concomitants of covetousness, pride and delusion, doth in vain attend to these lectures which are useless to him.
22. The sense of egoism and tuism which abides in thee, is no other than the stir of the Supreme spirit, which stirs alike in all as motion impels the winds.
23. The uncreated world which appears as in act of creation, is inherent and apparent in the Supreme soul, and notwithstanding all its defects and frailty, it is fair by being situated therein. (Because a thing however bad, appears beautiful by its position with the good).
24. The Supreme soul neither rises nor sets at any time; nor is there anything else besides that One, whether existent or inexistent. (All real and potential entities are contained in the mind of God).
25. All this is transcendental in the transcendent spirit of God, and everything is perfect in his perfection. All things are quiet in his tranquility, and whatever is, is good by the goodness of the Great God.
26. All things are extinct in the unextinguished spirit of God, they are quiet in his quiescence, and all good in his goodness; this extinction in the inextinct or ever existent soul of God, is no annihilation of any; it is understood as the sky, but is not the sky itself.
27. Men may bear the strokes of weapons and suffer under the pain of diseases; and yet how is it that no body can tolerate the thought of his unegoism or extinction.
28. The word ego is the ever growing germ of the significance of everything in the world (i.e. our selfishness gives growth to our need and want of all things for our use); and that (egoism or selfishness) being rooted out of the mind, this world also is uprooted from it. (i.e. Think neither of thyself or anything in the world as thine but of the Lord, and be exempt from thy cares of both).
29. The meaningless word ego, like empty vapour or smoke, has the property of soiling the mirror of the soul, which resumes its brightness after removal of the mist.
30. The significance of the word, I or ego, is as force or fluctuation in the calm and quiet atmosphere; and this force being still, the soul resumes its serenity, as that of the unseen and imperceptible and one eternal and infinite air. (Here is Vasishtha’s vacuism again).
31. The significance of the word ego, produces the shadow of external objects in the mind; and that being lost, there ensues that serenity and tranquility of the soul, which are the attributes of the unknowable, infinite and eternal God.
32. After the cloudy shadow of the sense of the word ego, is removed from the atmosphere of mind; there appears the clear firmament of transcendent truth, shining with serene brightness throughout its infinite sphere.
33. After the essence of the soul is purged of its dross, and there appears no alloy or base metal in it; it shines with its bright lustre as that of pure gold, when it is purified from its mixture with copper or other.
34. As an insignificant term (nirabhidhártha), bears no accepted sense (vypadesártha); so the unintelligible word ego bearing no definite sense of any particular person, is equal to the non-ego or impersonal entity of Brahma.
35. It is Brahma only that resides in the word ego (i.e. the word ego is applicable to God alone).
36. The meaning of the word ego, which contains the seed of world in it, is rendered abortive by our ceasing to think of it. Then what is the good of using the words I and thou, that serve only to bind our souls to this world. (Forget yourselves, to be free from bondage).
37. The essence is the pure and felicitous spirit, which is afterwards soiled under the appellation of ego, which rises out of that pure essence, as a pot is produced from the clay; but the substance is forgot under the form, as the gold is forgotten under that of the ornament.
38. It is this seed of ego, from which the visible plant of creation takes its rise; and produces the countless worlds as its fruits, which grow to fade and fall away.
39. The meaning of the word ego, contains in it like the minute seed of a long pepper, the wonderful productions of nature, consisting of the earth and sea, the hills and rivers, and forms and colours of things, with their various natures and actions.
40. The heaven and earth, the air and space, the hills and rivers on all sides, are as the fragrance of the full blown flower of the Ego.
41. The Ego in its widest sense, stretches out to the verge of creation, and contains all the worlds under it, as the wide spread day light comprehends all objects and their action under it.
42. As the early daylight brings to view the forms and shapes and colours of things; so it is our egoism (which is but another name for ignorance) that presents the false appearance of the world to our visual sight.
43. When egoism like a particle of dirty oil falls into the pellucid water of Brahma; it spreads over its surface in the form of globules, resembling the orbs of worlds floating in the air.
44. Egoism sees at a single glance the myriads of worlds spread before its visual sight; as the blinking eye observes at a twinkling thousands of specks scattered before its sight.