The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, Vol 4 (of 4), Part 1 (of 2) (2024)

CHAPTER I.

On Unintentional Acts and Actions.

Argument:—The manner how the liberated should conduct themselvesin life, with renunciation of their egoism and selfish desires.

Ráma rejoined:—The renunciation of the notion of one’spersonality or egoism in his own person, being attendedby its attendant evil of inertness and inactivity (lit. want ofacts), it naturally brings on a premature decay and decline,and the eventual falling off of the body in a short time: howthen is it possible sir, for an indifferent person of this kind, topractice his actions and discharge the active duties of life (asyou preached in your last lecture)?

2. Vasishtha replied:—It is possible Ráma, for the livingperson to resign his false ideas and not for one that is deadand gone (because the life of a man is independent of hisnotions; while the notions are dependant on his life). Hear menow 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 conceptionof the signification of the word air or vacuity (which isthe essence of the Deity), that is represented as the repudiationof that erroneous notion.

24. The idealists represent the sense of all substances, as acreation of the imagination, while it is the idea of a purevacuum, which they say to be the resignation of this erroneousconception. (The vacuistic Vasishtha treats here in lengthof the nullity of all substances, and the eternity of all pervadingvacuum, and establishes the doctrine of the nothingnessof 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 theerror of thought from the mind. Since all things are reducedto and return to nothing, it is this alone which is the everlasting something. (Ullum est nullum, et nullum est ullum).

6. Know thy remembrance of anything, is thy imaginationof it only, and its forgetfulness alone is good for thee; thereforetry 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 feltor unfelt (i.e. fancied), and remain silent and secluded like ablock after thy forgetfulness of all things whatsoever.

8. Continue in the practice of thy continuous actions, withan utter oblivion of the past (nor need the assistance of thymemory of the past, in the discharge of thy present duties);because thy habit of activity is enough to conduct thee throughall the actions of thy life, as it is the habit of a half-sleepingbaby to move its limbs (without its consciousness of the movements).(Such is the force of habit, says the maxim Abhyastopapatti—habitis second nature).

9. It requires no design or desire on the part of an actorto act his part, whereto he is led by the tenor of his priorpropensities (of past lives); as a potter’s wheel is propelled bythe pristine momentum, without requiring the application ofcontinued force for its whirling motion. So O sinless Ráma! mindour 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 tendencyof your mind, without its inclination to the gratification of its3appetites. The leanings of men to particular pursuits, aredirected by the current of their previous propensities. Thepredisposition of the mind, is said to be the cause of the formationof 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 menas 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, wantof desire is our supreme bliss and summum bonum, and yet whyis it that none would perceive it as such?

12. O the wondrous power of illusion! that it makes mento slight their reason, and throw away the richest jewel of theirmind, from the chest of their breast wherein it is deposited.

13. The best way to inappetence, is the ignoring and abnegationof the phenomenals which I want you to do; and knowthat your disavowal of all is of the greatest boon to you, asyou will be best able to perceive in yourself.

14. Sitting silent with calm content, will lead you to thatblissful state, before which your possession of an empire willseem insignificant, and rather serving to increase your desirefor more. (The adage says:—No one has got over the oceanof his ambition, neither an Alexander nor a Cæsar).

15. As the feet of a traveller are in continued motion, untilhe reaches to his destination; so are the body and mind of theavaricious in continual agitation, unless his inappetence wouldgive him respite from his incessant action.

16. Forget and forsake your expectation of fruition of theresult of your actions, and allow yourself to be carried onwardby the current of your fortune, and without taking anythingto thy mind; as a sleeping man is insensibly carried on by hisdreams.

17. Stir yourself to action as it occurs to you, and withoutany purpose or desire of yours in it, and without your feeling anypain or pleasure therein; let the current of the business conductyou onward, as the current of a stream carries down a straw inits course.

418. Take to thy heart no pleasure or pain, in the dischargeof the work in which thou art employed; but remain insensibleof both like a wooden machine which works for others. (Because,says the commentary, it is the dull head of people only, thatare elated or dejected in the good or bad turns of the affairs oflife).

19. Remain insensible of pleasure or pain, in thy body andmind and all the organs of senses; like the sapless trees and plantsin winter, when they bear their bare trunks without the sensitivenessof their parts.

20. Let the sun of thy good understanding, suck up thesensibility of thy six external senses, as the solar rays dry upthe moisture of winter plants; and continue to work with themembers of thy body, as an engine is set to work. (Work as abrute with thy bodily powers or as a machine with its mechanicalforces; but keep thy inner mind aloof from thy outerdrudgeries).

21. Restrain thy intellectual pleasures from their inclinationto sensual gratifications, and retain thy spiritual joy in thyself,for the support of thy life; as the ground retains the roots oftrees in it very carefully in winter for their growth in theseason of spring.

22. It is the same whether you continually gratify or notthe cravings of your senses, they will continue insatiatenotwithstanding all your supplies, and the vanities of the worldwill profit you nothing.

23. If you move about continually like a running stream,or as the continuous shaking of the water in an aerostatic orhydraulic engine, and be free from every desire and craving ofyour mind, you are then said to advance towards your endlessfelicity (so the adage is:—All desire is painsome, and its wantis perfect freedom).

24. Know this as a transcendent truth, and capable ofpreventing all your future transmigrations in this world, thatyou 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 any5desire or purpose of your own towards its object; but continueto turn about your callings, as the potter’s wheel revolves roundits fulcrum.

26. Neither have in view the object of your action, nor thereward of your action; but know it to be equally alike whetheryou refrain from action, or do it without your desire of fruition.

27. But what is the use of much verbiology, when it can beexpressed in short and in a few words, that the desire of fruitionis the bondage of your soul, and your relinquishment of it isfraught with your perfect freedom.

28. There is no business whatever for us in this world, thatmust be done or abandoned by us at any time or place; everything is good that comes from the good God, therefore sit youquiet with your cold indifference as before the occurrence ofany event.

29. Think thy works as no works, and take thy abstinencefrom action for thy greatest work, but remain as quietin your mind in both your action and inaction, as the DivineIntellect is in ecstasies amidst the thick of its action.

30. Know the unconsciousness of all things to be thetrue trance-yoga, and requiring the entire suppression of themental operations. Remain wholly intent on the Supremespirit, 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 anythingelse; nobody can sorrow for ought, when he is himself absorbedin his thought, in the endless and pure essence of God.

32. Let no desire rise in thy indifferent mind, like a tendergerm sprouting in the sterile desert soil; nor allow a wish togrow in thee, like a slender blade shooting in the bosom of abarren rock.

33. The unconscious and insensible saint, derives no goodor evil by his doing or undoing of any deed or duty in his livingstate, nor in his next life. (Duties are not binding on the holyand devout sages and saints).

34. There is no sense of duty nor that of its derelictionneither, in the minds of the saintly Yogis, who always view the6equality of all things and acts; and never consider their deedsas their own doings, nor think themselves as the agents of theirown actions.

35. The consciousness of egoism and the sense of meietyof selfishness, will never release a man from the miseries oflife; it is his unconsciousness of these, that can only save himfrom all sorrow, wherefore it lies in the option of every body, tochoose for him either of these as he may best like.

36. There is no other ego or meiety excepting that of the oneself-existent and omniform Deity; and besides the essence ofthis transcendent being, it is hard to account anything of themultifarious things that appear to be otherwise than Himself.

37. The visible world that appears so vividly to our sight, isno more than the manifestation of the One Divine Essence inmany, like the transformation of gold in the multiform shapesof jewels; but seeing the continual decay and disappearance ofthe phenomenals, we ignore their separate existence. We confessthe sole existence of the One that lasts after all and for ever.

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 ascold hearted as the dank mud and mire, as the worlds are stillwith unstirry spirit of the divinity working in them. (Thisis a lesson of incessant work without any stir and bustle).

2. The mind with its understanding and egoism and all itsthoughts, are full of the divine spirit in its diversified forms(vivarta-rúpa); and time and its motion and all sound, forceand action, together with all modes of existence, are but manifestationsof the Divine Essence.

3. The Divine Spirit, being of the form of gelatinous mud(or plastic nature), all things with their forms and colours, andthe mind and all its functions also, upon its own mould of endlessshapes and types beyond the comprehension of men.

4. It is the Divine Essence which forms its own substanceas upon a mould of clay, the patterns and forms and the shapesof all things, together with the measurements of space andtime and the position of all the quarters and regions of theearth and heavens; so all things existent or inexistent, arethe produce and privation of the formative mud and mould ofthe Divine Spirit.

5. Do you remain indifferent about the essence of youregoism and selfishness, which is no other than that of theSupreme Spirit; and live unconcerned with everything, likea dumb insect in the bosom of stone. (This is the Vajra-Kita,which perforates the sálagram stone in the river Gandak inBihar). (The dumbness of silent munis was occasioned by their8inability to speak with certainty anything regarding the abstrusespiritual subjects).

6. Ráma asked:—Sir, if the false knowledge of egoism andselfishness, be wanting in the wise and God knowing man,then how comes it, that the dereliction and renunciation of hisduties, will entail any guilt or evil upon him, and his fullobservance of them, is attended with any degree of merit orreward? (This is the main question of the necessity of theobservance of duteous and pious acts by the wise, which isafter so long mooted by Ráma, in continuation of the lastsubject under discussion).

7. Vasishtha replied:—I will ask you also one question,O sinless Ráma! and you should answer it soon, if you understandwell what is rightly meant by the term duty and that ofactivity.

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 totallydestroyed at the end.

9. Ráma replied:—Why sir, whatever is destructible mustcome to be destroyed at last, by means of the act of rootingit out at once, and not by the process of lopping the branchesor 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 doneby eradicating and extirpating them altogether.

11. Hear me tell you, sir, about the roots of our deeds, bythe rooting out of which the trees of our actions are whollyextirpated, 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 isgirt with twining creepers of various kinds. (i.e. The membersof the body).

13. Our past acts are the seeds of this tree, and our wealand woe are the fruits with which it is fraught; it is verdantwith the verdure of youth for a while, and it smiles with itswhite blossoms of the grey hairs and the pale complexion ofold age.

914. Destructive death lurks about this tree of the bodyevery moment, as the light-legged monkey lights upon treesto break them down; it is engulphed in the womb of sleep,as the tree is overwhelmed under the mists of winter, andthe flitting dreams are as the falling leaves of trees.

15. Old age is the autumn of life, and the decaying wishesare as the withered leaves of trees, and the wife and membersof the family, are as thick as grass in the wilderness of theworld.

16. The ruddy palms and soles of the hands and feet, andthe other reddish parts of the body (as the tongue and lips),resemble the reddening leaves of this tree; which are continuallymoving in the air, with the marks of slender lines uponthem.

17. The little reddish fingers with their flesh and bones,and covered by the thin skin and moving in the air, are as thetender shoots of the tree of the human body.

18. The soft and shining nails, which are set in rows withtheir rounded forms and sharpened ends, are like the moon-brightbuds of flowers with their painted heads.

19. This tree of the body is the growth of the ripened seedof the past acts of men; and the organs of action are theknotty and crooked roots of this tree.

20. These organs of action are supported by the bony membersof the body, and nourished by the sap of human food;they are fostered by our desires, resembling the pith and bloodof the body.

21. Again the organs of sense supply those of action withtheir power of movement, or else the body with the lightnessof all its members from head to foot, would not be actuatedto action without the sensation of their motion. (Hence adead or sleeping man having no sensation in him, has notthe use or action of his limbs).

22. Though the five organs of sense, grow apart and atgreat distances from one another, like so many branches ofthis tree of the body; they are yet actuated by the desire ofthe heart, which supplies them with their sap.

1023. The mind is the great trunk of this tree, which comprehendsthe three worlds in it, and is swollen with the sapwhich it derives from them through its five fold organs of sense;as the stem of a tree thrive with the juice it draws by thecellular fibres of its roots.

24. The living soul is the root of the mind, and havingthe intellect ingrained, it is always busy with its thoughts,which have the same intellect for their root; but the root ofall these is the One Great Cause of all.

25. The intellect has the great Brahma, which has no causeof itself; and which having no designation or termination ofit, is truth from the purity of its essence.

26. The consciousness of ourselves in our egoism, is theroot of all our actions; and the internal thought of our personalentity is the root of our energy, and gives the impulse toall our actions. (Therefore as long as one has the knowledgeof his personality, he is prone to action, and without it, everybody is utterly inert).

27. It is our percipience, O Sage, which is said to be thesource and root of our actions and whenever there is thisprinciple in the mind, it causes the body to grow in the formof the big Sirsapatra. (It is the intellect which is both theliving soul as well as its percipience).

28. When this percipience otherwise called consciousness(of the soul), is accompanied with the thoughts (of egoism andpersonality in the mind), it becomes the seed of action; otherwisemere consciousness of the self is the state of the supremesoul.

29. So also when the intellect is accompanied with its powerof intellection, it becomes the source and seed of action; orelse it is as calm and quiet as it is the nature of the Supremesoul. (The self-perception and pure intelligence, are attributesof the Divine soul, and not productive of action; but thesein company with the operations of the mind, become the causesof the activity of both).

30. Therefore the knowledge of one’s personality in his ownperson, is the cause of his action, and this causality of action, as11I have said herein, is quite in conformity with your teachingsto me.

31. Vasishtha said:—Thus Ráma, action in the discreetbeing based on the knowledge of one’s personality; it is no waypossible to avoid our activity, as long as the mind is situatedin the body, and has the knowledge of its personality.

32. Whoever thinks of anything, sees the same both withinas 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 fromthe error of mistaking a chimera for reality; but whether thereality 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 shadowof something within us, and passes under the various designationsof will or desire, the mind and its purpose likewise.

35. The mind resides in the bodies of both rational as wellas irrational beings, and in both their waking and sleepingstates; it is impossible therefore, to get rid of it by any bodyat 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 isbusy with its thoughts; but it is only the unmindfulness of thesignification of the word action, that amounts to one’s forbearancefrom acts.

37. It is the freedom of one’s volition or choice either to door not to do anything that is meant to make one’s action orotherwise; therefore by avoiding your option in the doing of anact you avoid it altogether; otherwise there is no other meansof avoiding the responsibility of the agent for his own acts;(except that they were done under the sense of compulsionand not of free choice. Gloss).

38. Nobody is deemed as the doer of an act, who does notdo it by his deliberate choice; and the knowledge of the unrealityof the world, leads to the ignoring of all action also. (Ifnothing is real, then our actions are unreal also).

39. The ignoring of the existence of the world, is what12makes the renunciation of it; and the renunciation of allassociations and connections, is tantamount to one’s liberationfrom them. The knowledge of the knowable One, comprehendsin it the knowledge of all that is to be known. (Because the Oneis all, and all existence is comprised in that only knowable One).

40. There being no such thing as production, there is noknowledge of anything whatever that is produced; abandontherefore 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 andactions of the quiescent spirit of Brahma, its action is itsintellection only, which evolves itself in the form of an infinitevacuum (showing the shapes of all things as in a mirror).

42. “That utter insensibility is liberation,” is well knownto the learned as the teaching of the Veda; hence no one isexempted from action, as long as he lives with his sensible body.

43. Those who regard action as their duty, are never releasedfrom their subjection to the root (principle) of action; andthis root is the consciousness of the concupiscent mind of itsown actions. (The desire is the motive of actions, and theconsciousness of one’s deeds and doings, is the bondage of thesoul. Or else a workingman is liberated, provided he is devoidof 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 sovery deep in the mind, that it continually nourishes the rootsof action.

45. When by our great effort, we can nourish the seed ofconscience, why then we should not be able to destroy thekeen conscience by the same weapon that is effort.

46. In the same manner, we can destroy also the tree of theworld with its roots and branches.

47. That One is only existent, which has no sensation andis no other than of the form of an endless vacuum; it is thatunintelligible vacuous form and pure intelligence itself, whichis the pith and substance of all existence.

Argument:—Admonition for ignoring the visibles, and the meansof attaining the insensibility and inactivity of the wise.

Ráma said:—Tell me, O Sage, how it may be possible toconvert our knowledge to ignorance, since it is impossibleto make a nothing of something, as also to make anythingout of a nothing.

2. Vasishtha replied:—Verily a nothing or unreality, cannotbe something in reality; nor a real something can become anunreal nothing; but in any case where both of these (viz.; realityas well as unreality of a thing) are possible, there the cognitionand incognition of something, are both of them equally palpableof themselves. (This is termed a Chátushkotika Sunsaya orquadruplicate apprehension of something, consisting, of thereality or unreality of a thing, and the certainty or uncertaintyof its knowledge).

3. The two senses of the word knowledge (i.e. its affirmativeand negative senses) are apparent in the instance of “a ropeappearing as a snake”: here the knowledge of the rope iscertain, but that of the snake is a mistake or error. And soin the case of a mirage presenting the appearance of water.(Here the things snake and water prove to be nothing, andtheir knowledge as such, is converted to error or want ofknowledge).

4. It is better therefore to have no knowledge of these falseappearances, whose knowledge tends to our misery only; whereforeknow the true reality alone, and never think of the unrealappearance. (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, isthe cause of woe of all living beings; therefore it is better toroot out the sense of the perceptibles from the mind, and rely14in the knowledge of the underlying universal soul only. (Takingthe particulars in the sense of individual souls, is the causeof misery only).

6. Leaving aside the knowledge of parts, and the sense ofyour perception of all sensible objects, know the whole as oneinfinite soul, in which you have your rest and nirvána extinction.

7. Destroy all your acts of merit and demerit, by the forceof your discrimination; and your knowledge of the evanescenceof your deeds, aided by your knowledge of truth, will cause theconsummation of Yoga (Siddhi).

8. By rooting out the reminiscence of your acts, you puta stop to their results and your course in the world; and if yousucceed to gain the object of your search (i.e. your spiritualknowledge), by means of your reason, you have no more anyneed of your action.

9. The divine intellect, like the Bel fruit, forms withinitself its pith and seeds (of future worlds), which lie hid in it,and never burst out of its bosom. (So all things are containedin divine mind).

10. As a thing contained in its container, is not separatefrom the containing receptacle, so all things that lie in thewomb of space, are included in the infinite space of the universalsoul (or the divine mind) which encompasses the endlessvacuity in it.

11. And as the property of fluidity, is never distinct fromthe 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 ofthe thought and mind, appertain to their common root thechit 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, inhereintrinsically in the nature of the Divine Intellect,and not as its separable qualities.

13. Intellection is the action of the intellect, and itsprivation gives rise to the chimeras of error in the mind;15there is no other cause of error, nor does it last unless it risesin absence of reason.

14. Intellection is the action of the intellect, as fluctuationis that of the wind; and it is by means of their respectiveactions, that we have our perceptions of them. But when thesoul ceases from action, then both of these (viz: our intellectionand perceptions) are at an utter stop within and withoutus. (i.e. The soul is the prime mover of our inward and outwardsenses).

15. The body is the field and scope of our actions, andour egoism spreads itself over the world; but our insensibilityand want of egoism, tend to put away the world from us aswant of force puts down the breeze.

16. Insensibility of the body and mind, renders theintelligent soul, as dull as a stone; therefore root out the worldfrom thy mind, as a boar uproots a plant with its tusk; (bymeans of your insensibility of it, and the full sense of Godalone in thee).

17. In this way only, O Ráma, you can get rid of theseed vessel of action in your mind; and there is no othermeans of enjoying the lasting peace of your soul besides this.

18. After the germinating seed of action is removed fromthe 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 toavoid or leave any employment of their own choice or will;(but they do whatever comes in their way, knowing it as thewill of God and must be done). They are therefore said to beof truly saintly souls and minds, who are strangers to thepreference or rejection of anything (lit., to the acceptance oravoidance of a thing).

20. Wise men sit silent where they sit and live as theylive, with their hearts and minds as vacant as the vacuous sky;they take what they get, and do what is destined to them asthey are unconscious of doing them. (The vacant mind withoutany care or thought, is like a clear mirror <of> the untaintedseat of the Holy God).

1621. As sediments are swept away by the current of thestream, so the saintly and meek minded men are moved toaction by a power not their own; they act with their organsof action with as much unconcern, as babes have the movementsof their bodies, in their half-sleeping state.

22. As the sweetest things appear unsavoury to those thatare satiate and sated with them; so do the delights of theworld, seem disgusting to them, that are delighted with divinejoy in themselves; and with which they are so enrapt in theirrapture, as to become unconscious of what is passing in andabout them like insane people.

23. The unconsciousness of one’s acts, makes the abandonmentof his action, and this is perfected when a person is infull possession of his understanding (or else the unconsciousnessof a dead man of his former acts, does not amount to hisabandonment of action). It matters not whether a man doesought or naught, with his unsubstantial or insensible organsof action. (It is external consciousness that makes the action,and not the external doing of it, with the insensible organsof the body; because the mental impressions make the actionand 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, whichhave no traces of them in our minds. (Hence all involuntaryacts and those of insanity, are reckoned as no doings of theirdoer).

25. An act which is not remembered, and which is forgottenas 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, withoutabandoning (or effacing) them from his mind, is said to be ahypocrite, and is devoured by the monster of his hypocrisy:(of this nature are the false fakirs, who pretend to have renouncedthe world).

27. They who have rooted out the prejudice of actionsfrom their lives, and betaken themselves to the rest and refuge17of inaction, are freed from the expectation of reward of whateverthey do, as also from the fear of any evil for what theyavoid to perform.

28. They who have extirpated the seeds of action, withtheir roots and germs, from the ground of their minds, havealways an undisturbed tranquility to rest upon, and which isattended with a serene delight to those that have made hebetudetheir habit.

29. The meek are slightly moved in their bodies andminds, 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 anythingmoved by a machine, (or as the machines of an engine).

30. Those who are seated in any stage of yoga, and aregraced with the calmness of liberation, appear as cheerful asmen in a play house, who are half asleep and half-awake overthe act in this great theatre of the world.

31. That is said to be wholly extirpated, which is drawnout by its roots, or else it is like the destroying of a tree bylopping its branches which will grow again, unless it is uprootedfrom the ground.

32. So the tree of acts (the ceremonial code), though loppedoff of its branches (of particular rites and ceremonies), will thriveagain if it is left to remain, without uprooting it by the ritual(of acháras).

33. It is enough for your abandonment of acts, to remainunconscious of your performance of them; and the other recipesfor the same (as given before) will come to you of themselves.

34. Whoever adopts any other method of getting rid ofhis actions, besides those prescribed herein; his attempts oftheir abandonment are as null and void, as his striking the air,(in order to divide it). (Out ward abandonment of anything isnothing, unless it is done so from the mind).

35. It is the rational abandonment of a thing, that makesits true relinquishment, and whatever is done unwilfully, is like18a fried grain or seed, that never vegetates nor brings forth itsfruit. (The rational renouncement of a thing, is said in theVeda, to mean its resignation to God, to whom belongs everything in the world, and is lent to man for his temporary useonly. And fruitless actions are those that are done unwillingly,and are not productive of future births for our miseryonly).

36. But the act that is done with the will and bodily exertion,becomes productive with the moisture of desire; but allother efforts of the body without the will, are entirely fruitlessto their actor.

37. After one has got rid of his action, and freed himselffrom further desire; he becomes liberated for life (Jívan-mukta),whether he may dwell at home or in the woods, andlive in poverty or affluence.

38. The contented soul is as solitary at home, as in themidst of the farthest forest; but the discontented mind findthe solitary forest, to be as thickly thronged with vexations asthe circle of a familyhouse.

39. The quiet and calmly composed spirit, finds the lonelywoodland, where a human being is never to be seen even in adream, to be as lovely to it as the bosom of a familydwelling.

40. The wise man who has lost the sight of the visibles,and of the endless particulars abounding in this forest of theworld, beholds on every side the silent and motionless sphereof heaven spread all around him.

41. The thoughtless ignorant, whose insatiate ambitiongrasps the whole universe in his heart, rolls over the surfaceof the earth and all its boisterous seas with as much glee asupon a bed of flowers.

42. All these cities and towns, which are so tumultuouswith the endless of men, appear to the ignorant and moneylessman as a garden of flowers; where he picks up his worthlesspenny with as much delight as holy men cull the fragrantblossoms to make their offerings to holy shrines.

1943. The wide earth with all her cities and towns, anddistant districts and countries, which are so full of mutualstrife and broil, appear to the soiled soul of the gross-headedand greedy, as if they are reflected in their fair forms in themirror of their minds; or painted in their bright colours uponthe canvas of their hearts. (Worldly men are so infatuatedwith the world, that they take side of things for fair andbright).

Argument:—Egoism is shown as the root of worldlinessand its extirpation by spiritual knowledge.

Vasishtha continued:—The abandonment of the world(which is otherwise termed as liberation—moksha), iseffected only upon subsidence of one’s egoism and knowledgeof the visibles in the conscious soul; in the manner of theextinction of a lamp for want of oil. (The knowledge of thephenomenal is the root of illusion, and it is the removal of thisthat is called the abandonment of the world, and the cause ofliberation).

2. It is not the giving up of actions, but the relinquishmentof the knowledge of the objective world, that makes ourabandonment of it; and the subjective soul, which is withoutthe reflexion of the visible world, and the objective-self, isimmortal and indestructible.

3. After the knowledge of the self and this and that withthat of mine and thine, becomes extinct like an extinguishedlamp, there remains only the intelligent and subjective-soulby itself alone (and it is this state of the soul that is calledits extinction—nirvána and its liberation or moksha).

4. But he whose knowledge of himself and others, andof mine and thine and his and theirs, has not yet subsided inhis subjectivity, has neither the intelligence nor tranquilitynor abandonment nor extinction of himself. (It is opposite ofthe preceding).

5. After extinction of one’s egoism and meism, there remainsthe sole and tranquil and intelligent soul, beside which thereis nothing else in existence.

6. The egoistic part of the soul being weakened by thepower of true knowledge, every thing in the world wastesaway and dwindles into insignificance; and though nothing21is lost in reality, yet every thing is buried in and with theextinction of the self. (So the Hindi adage:—Ápduba tojagduba—the self being lost, all things are lost with it).

7. The knowledge of the ego is lost under that of thenon-ego, with any delay or difficulty; and it being so easy toeffect it, there is no need of resorting to the arduous methodsfor removal of the same. (It being easy to ignore the silver ina shell, it is useless to test it in the fire).

8. The thoughts of ego and non-ego, are but false conceitsof 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 uponthe basis of ignorance, it grows upon misjudgment, and vanishesat the light of reason and right judgment.

10. Know all existence to be the Intellect only; which is extendedas an unreal vacuity; therefore sit silent in the emptyspace of the Intellect, wherein all things are extinct as nothing.(The reality of the Divine Mind, containing the ideal worldwhich 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 thenon-ego or that I am nothing.

12. Let the conviction of the non-ego supplant that of theego, as a meaningless term, or as untrue as empty air, or aflower of the aerial arbour; and being fixed as an arrow in thebow-string of holy meditation, strive to hit at the mark of theDivine Essence.

13. Know always your ideas of ego & tu—I and thou, tobe as unreal as empty air; and being freed from the false ideaof every other thing, get over quickly across the delusiveocean of the world.

14. Say how is it possible for that senseless and beastlyman, to attain to the highest state of divine perfection, who isunable to overcome his natural prejudice of egoism.

15. He who has been able by his good understanding, thesixfold beastly appetites of his nature; is capable of receiving22the knowledge of great truths; and no other asinine man inhuman shape.

16. He who has weakened and overcome the inbornfeelings of his mind, becomes the receptacle of all virtue andknowledge, and is called a man in its proper sense of theword.

17. Whatever dangers may threaten you on rocks and hillsand upon the sea, you may escape from the same by thinkingthat they cannot injure your inward soul, though they mayhurt the flesh.

18. Knowing that your egoism is nothing in reality, exceptyour false conception of it, why then do you allow yourself tobe deluded by it, like the ignorant who are misled by theirphrenzy?

19. There is nothing (no ego) here, that is known to us inits reality; all our knowledge is erroneous as that of an ornamentin gold (and springs from the general custom of calling it so),so is our knowledge of the ego which we know not what, andmay be lost by our forgetfulness of it. (So the differentnames and shapes of golden ornaments being forgotten, we seethe substance of gold only common in all of them).

20. Try to dislodge the thoughts that rise in your mind, inthe manner of the incessant vibrations in the air, by thinkingthat you are not the ego, nor has your ego any foundation at all.

21. The man who has not overcome his egotism, and itsconcomitants of covetousness, pride and delusion, doth in vainattend to these lectures which are useless to him.

22. The sense of egoism and tuism which abides in thee, isno other than the stir of the Supreme spirit, which stirs alikein 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 notwithstandingall its defects and frailty, it is fair by being situatedtherein. (Because a thing however bad, appears beautiful byits position with the good).

24. The Supreme soul neither rises nor sets at any time;23nor is there anything else besides that One, whether existent orinexistent. (All real and potential entities are contained inthe mind of God).

25. All this is transcendental in the transcendent spirit ofGod, and everything is perfect in his perfection. All things arequiet in his tranquility, and whatever is, is good by the goodnessof the Great God.

26. All things are extinct in the unextinguished spirit ofGod, they are quiet in his quiescence, and all good in his goodness;this extinction in the inextinct or ever existent soul ofGod, is no annihilation of any; it is understood as the sky, butis not the sky itself.

27. Men may bear the strokes of weapons and suffer underthe pain of diseases; and yet how is it that no body can toleratethe thought of his unegoism or extinction.

28. The word ego is the ever growing germ of the significanceof everything in the world (i.e. our selfishness givesgrowth to our need and want of all things for our use); andthat (egoism or selfishness) being rooted out of the mind, thisworld also is uprooted from it. (i.e. Think neither of thyselfor anything in the world as thine but of the Lord, and beexempt 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, whichresumes its brightness after removal of the mist.

30. The significance of the word, I or ego, is as force orfluctuation in the calm and quiet atmosphere; and this forcebeing still, the soul resumes its serenity, as that of the unseenand imperceptible and one eternal and infinite air. (Here isVasishtha’s vacuism again).

31. The significance of the word ego, produces the shadowof external objects in the mind; and that being lost, there ensuesthat serenity and tranquility of the soul, which are the attributesof 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 the24clear firmament of transcendent truth, shining with serenebrightness throughout its infinite sphere.

33. After the essence of the soul is purged of its dross, andthere appears no alloy or base metal in it; it shines with itsbright lustre as that of pure gold, when it is purified from itsmixture with copper or other.

34. As an insignificant term (nirabhidhártha), bears noaccepted sense (vypadesártha); so the unintelligible word egobearing no definite sense of any particular person, is equalto the non-ego or impersonal entity of Brahma.

35. It is Brahma only that resides in the word ego (i.e. theword ego is applicable to God alone).

36. The meaning of the word ego, which contains the seedof 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 serveonly to bind our souls to this world. (Forget yourselves, to befree from bondage).

37. The essence is the pure and felicitous spirit, which isafterwards soiled under the appellation of ego, which rises outof that pure essence, as a pot is produced from the clay; but thesubstance is forgot under the form, as the gold is forgottenunder that of the ornament.

38. It is this seed of ego, from which the visible plant ofcreation takes its rise; and produces the countless worlds as itsfruits, which grow to fade and fall away.

39. The meaning of the word ego, contains in it like theminute seed of a long pepper, the wonderful productions ofnature, consisting of the earth and sea, the hills and rivers, andforms and colours of things, with their various natures andactions.

40. The heaven and earth, the air and space, the hills andrivers on all sides, are as the fragrance of the full blown flowerof the Ego.

41. The Ego in its widest sense, stretches out to the vergeof creation, and contains all the worlds under it, as the widespread day light comprehends all objects and their actionunder it.

2542. As the early daylight brings to view the forms andshapes and colours of things; so it is our egoism (which is butanother name for ignorance) that presents the false appearanceof the world to our visual sight.

43. When egoism like a particle of dirty oil falls into thepellucid water of Brahma; it spreads over its surface in the formof globules, resembling the orbs of worlds floating in the air.

44. Egoism sees at a single glance the myriads of worldsspread before its visual sight; as the blinking eye observesat a twinkling thousands of specks scattered before its sight.

45. Egoism (selfishness) being extended too far, perceivesthe furthest worlds lying stretched before its sight; but theunegotist or unselfish soul, like a sleeping man doth not perceivethe nearest object, as our eyes do not see the pupils lyingwithin them.

46. It is only upon the total extinction of our egoisticfeelings, by the force of unfailing reasoning; that we can get ridof the mirage of the world.

47. It is by our constant reflection upon our consciousnessonly, that it becomes possible for us to <attain> the great object ofour consummation—Siddhi; and the attainment of the perfectionof our souls; we have nothing more to desire or grieve atnor any fear of falling into error.

48. It is possible by your own endeavour, and without thehelp of any person or thing, to attain to thy perfection; andtherefore I see no better means for you to this than the thoughtof your unegoism.

49. Now Ráma, this is the abstract of the whole doctrine, thatyou forget your ego and tu, and extend the sphere of oursoul all over the universe, and behold them all in yourself.Remain quite calm and quiet and without any sorrow, andexempt from all acts and pursuits of the frail and false world,and think the soul as one whole and not a part of the universe.(Samashti and not Vyashta).

Argument.—Vasishtha relates the tale spoken to him by Bhusunda, andefficacy of divine knowledge in dispassionate souls and not in ungoverned minds.

Vasishtha continued:—The sensible man who employshimself in his inquiry after truth, after controlling hisnature, and restraining his organs of sense from their objects,becomes successful in them at last.

2. But the man of perverted understanding, that has nocommand over his own nature, finds it as impossible for him togain any good or better state, as it is in vain to expect to obtainany oil from pressing the sands.

3. A little instruction even is as impressive in the puremind, as a drop of oil sticks to the clean linen; but no educationhas any effect on the hard heart of fools, as the mostbrilliant pearl makes no impression in the gritty glass mirror.(It casts but a shadow which never lasts).

4. I will here cite an instance to this purport, from an oldanecdote related to me by the aged Bhusunda in by gone days;when I was living with him on the top of Sumeru mountain.(This proves the longevity of the Aryans in the ancient homesteadbeyond the Altain chain).

5. I had once in times of old, mooted this question amongother things to the time worn Bhusunda, when he was dwellingin his solitary retreat in one of the caves of Meru, saying:—

6. O long living seer, do you remember to have ever seen,any such person of infatuated understanding, who was unconsciousof himself and ignorant of his own soul? (The mugdhaor infatuated is explained as one of ungoverned mind and sensesand employed in vain labour and toil).

7. Bhusunda replied:—Yes, there lived a Vidyádhara of27old, on the top of the mountain on the horizon; who was greatlydistressed with incessant toil, and yet anxious for hislongevity (by performance of his devotion for prolongation oflife).

8. He betook himself to austerities of various kinds, andto the observance of abstinence, self-restraint and vows ofvarious forms; and obtained thereby an undecaying life, whichlasted for many ages of four kalpas of four yugas each.

9. At the end of the fourth kalpa he came to his sense, andhis percipience burst forth on a sudden in his mind, as theemeralds glare out of ground in the distant country (of Burmah);at the roaring of clouds. (Emeralds are called vaidúryas below fromtheir production in the vidura or distant land of Burmah;where there are many ruby mines also; but vaidúryas are thesky coloured sapphire or lapis lazuli; and often called as emeralds).

10. He then reflected in himself saying:—What stabilitycan I have in this world, where all beings are seen to comerepeatedly into existence, to decay with age, and at last to dieand dwindle away into nothing? I am ashamed to live in thisstate of things and under such a course of nature.

11. With these reflections he came to me, quite disgustedin his spirit at the frailties of the world, and distasteful ofbanefull vanities; and then proposed to me his query regardingthe city with its eighteen compartments. (i.e. The body with itsten organs, five vital airs, the mind, soul, and body).

12. He advanced before me, and bowed down profoundly;and after being honoured by me, he took the opportunity topropose his questions to me.

13. The Vidyádhara said:—I see these organs of my body,which though so frail, are yet as hard and strong as any weaponof steel; they are capable of breaking and tearing every thing,and hurtful in their acts of injuring others.

14. I find my senses to be dim and dark, and always disturbedand leading to dangers (by their mistake of things). Againthe passions in the heart, are setting fire to the forest of our28good qualities, and boiling with the waves of sorrow and grief;while the dark ignorance of our minds, envelops every thing inthe deepest gloom. Hence it is that the control, over our bodilyorgans, senses and the passions and feelings of the heartand mind, is only attended with our real happiness, which is notto be had from any object of sense.

Argument:—Indifference and Apathy to the world, based on the Doctrinesof the stoics and cynics, and the religious Recluses of all nations and Countries in every age.

The Vidyádhara continued:—Tell me even now, what isthat most noble state (or highest category), which is devoidof increase or decrease or any pain whatever; which iswithout beginning and end, and which is most sanctified andsanctifying.

2. I had been so long sleeping as an inert soul, and now I amawakened to sense by the grace of the Supreme Soul: (displayedin the present vairágya or dispassionateness of the speaker).

3. My mind is heated with the fervour of the fever of myinsatiate desire, and is full of regret at the state of my ignorance;now raise me from the depth of darkness in which I amgrovelling under my delusion.

4. Many a time doth misfortune overtake the fortunate, andbitter sorrows betide the wise and learned; just as the hoar-frostfalls on the tender leaves of lotuses, and discolours them at theend.

5. We see the frail living beings springing to birth, and dyingaway at all times to no purposes, they are neither for virtuousacts nor their liberation, but are born to die only, as the gnatsand ephemera of dirt. (The Vidyádhara like the cynic, findsfault with every earthly thing).

6. How have I passed through different stages of life, howwith one state of things and then with another, and deceived bythe gain of paltry trifles. We are always discontent with thepresent state, and cheated repeatedly by the succeeding one.

7. The unwearied mind, ever running after its frail pleasures,and floating as it were upon the breakers of its enjoyments,30has no end of its rambling, nor rest after its toils;but wanders onward in the desert paths of this dreary world.

8. The objects of enjoyment, that are the causes of ourbondage in this world, and appear as very charming and sweetat first; are all frail and ever changeful in their natures, andprove to be our bane at last.

9. Actuated by our consorting egoism, and led by the senseof honour to live in dishonour, I am degraded from the dignitymy high birth as a vidyádhara, and am not pleased withmyself.

10. I have seen the pleasure garden of Chitra-ratha (thechief of the Gandharva tribe); and all the sweet and soft flowerybeds on earth; I have slept under the bowers of Kalpa Creepersin paradise, and have given away all my wealth and propertyin charity.

11. I have sported in the groves of Meru, and about thecities of the Vidyádharas; I have wandered about in heavenlycars, and in the aerial regions on all sides (in balloons oraerial cars).

12. I have halted amidst the heavenly forces, and reposedon the arms of my consorts; I have joined the bands of Harisin their jocund frolic and music, and have promenaded throughthe cities of the rulers of mankind.

13. I saw nothing of any worth among them, except thebitter sorrow of my heart in all; and I come now to find bymy best reason, that every thing is burnt down to ashes beforeme.

14. My eyes which by their visual power, are ever inclinedto dwell upon the sights of things, and to dote with fondnessupon the face of my mistress, have been the cause of greataffliction to my mind.

15. My eye-sight runs indiscriminately after all beautifulobjects, without its power of considering, whether this or thatis for our good or bad: (i.e. Without the power of penetratinginto and distinguishing the properties and qualities of objects).

16. My mind also, which is ever prompt to meet all hazards,31and to expose itself to all kinds of restraints, never finds itsrest until it is overwhelmed under some danger, and broughtunder the peril of death.

17. My scent likewise is ever alert in seeking after fragrantand delicious things to its own peril, and it is difficult for meto repress it, as it is hard for one to restrain an unruly horse.

18. I am restrained by the sense of my smelling to the twocanals of my nostrils, bearing the putrid breath and coughand cold of the body; and am constrained like a prisoner orcaptive of war to the dungeon by my jailer or captor.

19. It is on account of this lickerish tongue of mine, thatI am forced to seek for my food in these rugged and drearyrocks, which are the haunt of wild elephants, and where thewolves are prying for their forage. (From this it appears that,the Vidyádharas were a tribe of mountaineers in the northof the Himalayas).

20. I am to restrain the sensitiveness of my body, and tomake my skin (the twak indreya or the organ of feeling), toendure the heat of the hot weather of the kindled fire and ofthe burning sun (all which it is necessary to be undergone inthe austere devotion known as Panchatapa).

21. My ears, sir, which ought to take a delight in the hearingof good lectures, are always inclined to listen to talk thatare no way profitable to me; but mislead me to wrong; as thegrassy turf covering a well, tempts the silly stag to his ruin.

22. I have listened to the endearing speeches of my friendsand servants, and attended to the music of songs and instruments,to no lasting good being derived therefrom. (Sensuouspleasures are transient, and are not attended with any permanentgood).

23. I have beheld the beauty of beauties, and the naturalbeauty of objects on all sides; I have seen the sublimity ofmountains and seas, and the grandeur of their sides and borders;I have witnessed the prosperity of princes and the brilliancyof gem and jewels.

24. I have long tasted the sweets of the most delicious32dishes, and have relished the victuals of the six differentsavours, that were served to me by the handsomest damsels.

25. I have associated with the lovely damsels clad in theirsilken robes, and wearing their necklaces of pearls, reclined onbeds of flowers and fanned by soft breezes; I have had allthese pleasures of touch, and enjoyed them unrestrained in mypleasure gardens.

26. I have smelt the odours on the faces of fairy damsels,and have had the smell of fragrant balms, perfumeries andflowers; and I have inhaled the fragrance, borne to me by thebreath of the soft, gentle and odoriferous breezes.

27. Thus have I seen and heard, felt and smelt, and repeatedlytasted whatever sweets this earth could afford. Theyhave now become dry, distasteful, stale and unpleasurable tome; say what other sweet is there left for me yet to enjoy.

28. I have enjoyed all these enjoyments of my senses for afull thousand years, and still I find nothing either in this earthor in heaven, which is able to yield full satisfaction to mymind.

29. I have reigned for a longtime over a realm, and enjoyedthe company of the courtezans in my court, I have vanquishedthe forces of my enemies in battle, but I know not great gainI have gained thereby. (All is vanity of vanities only).

30. Those (demons) that were invulnerable in warfare, andusurped to the dominion of the three worlds, even those invinciblegiants, have been reduced to ashes in a short time.

31. I think that to be the best gain, which being oncegained by us, there remains nothing else to be desired or gainedherein; I must now therefore, remain in quest of that preciousgain, however it may be attended with pain.

32. What difference is there between those, who haveenjoyed the most delightful pleasures, and others that havenever enjoyed them at all; nobody has ever seen the heads ofthe former kind crowned with kalpa laurels, nor the latter withdiminished heads.

33. I have been long led by my organs of sense, to the33enjoyment of beautiful objects in the wilderness of the world,and have been quite deceived by them like a child by cheat.(All enticements are deceitful at the end).

34. I have come too late and to-day only to know, that theobjects of my senses are my greatest enemies; and this I haveknown after being repeatedly deceived by my organs of sense.

35. I see the deceitful organs of sense like so many slyhuntsmen, have laid their snares about the wild forest of thisworld, only to entrap all unwary people in them, as they dothe silly stags or beasts of prey by enticements.

36. There are but very few men in this world, who are notfound to be envenomed by the deadly poison of their serpent-likeorgans of sense.

37. The forest of the world is full with the furious elephantsof enjoyments, and surrounded by the snare of our desire, whereinour greediness is roving rampant with sword in hand, and ourpassions are stirring like keen spearmen, and rending ourhearts and souls every moments.

38. Our bodies are become as a field of battle, where thecommanding charioteer of our egoism hath spread the net ofduplicity, by employing our efforts as horsem*n, and setting ourdesires as boisterous rioters.

39. The organs of sense are set as flag-bearers, at theextremities of the battle-field of our bodies; and they arereckoned as the best soldiers, who are able by their prowess toovertake these staff-bearers in the field.

40. It may be possible for us, to pierce the frontal bone evenof the furious Airávata elephant of Indra in war; but it is toohard for any body, to repress the aberrant senses within theirproper bounds.

41. It is reckoned as the greatest victory, that may be wonby the valour, magnanimity, and fortitude of great men, if theycan but conquer the unconquerable organs of sense, which makesthe utmost glory of the great (or which redounds with thegreatest to the great).

42. So long as a man is not flung and carried about as alight and trifling straw, by the irresistible force of his sensual34appetites, he is said to have attained to the perfection and excellenceof the deities of heaven.

43. I account men of well governed senses and those ofgreat fortitude, to be truly men in their sense, or else all othermen of ungoverned minds, are mere moving machines of theflesh and bones that compose their bodies.

44. O Sage! I think I can overcome all things, if I canbut reduce the force of the five external organs of sense, whichform the battalion under the command of the mind (and isled against the province of the soul).

45. Unless you can heal your sensual appetites, which formsthe great malady of the mind, by the prescriptions of your reason,you cannot get rid of them by any medicine or mantra, orby holy pilgrimage or any other remedy. (The subjection ofthe senses, is the first step to holiness).

46. I am led to great distress by the joint force of my senses,as a lonely traveller is waylaid in his journey by a gang ofrobbers. (It may be possible to withstand any particular appetitebut not all at once).

47. The organs of sense are as dirty canals of the body, withtheir stagnate and foul watery matter, they are filled with noxiousand hairy moss, and emit a malarious stink.

48. The senses seem to me as so many deep and dark forests,covered with impervious snows, and full of terrors that renderthem impassable to travellers.

49. The organs of the outward senses resemble the stalksof lotuses, growing upon the dirt of the body with holes inthem, but without any visible thread therein. They are knottyon the outside, and without any sensibility of their own;(except what is supplied to them by the soul).

50. Our sensualities are as so many seas with their brinywaters, and huge billows dashing on every side; they aboundwith various gems and pearls, but are full of horrible whalesand sharks at the same time.

51. Sensual pleasure brings on the untimely death of thesensualist, and causes the grief and sadness of his friends there-in;35it makes others to take pity on his state, and mourn at hisfate, which conducts him to repeated transmigrations only.

52. The senses are as vast and unlimited wilderness to men,which prove friendly to the wise, and inimical to the unwise.

53. The sphere of the senses is as dark as that of the cloudedsky, where the black clouds of distress are continually growling,and the lightnings of joy are incessantly flashing withtheir transient glare.

54. The organs of sense are as subterranean cells or moundsof mud upon earth; these are resorted to by inferior animals,but shunned by superior and intelligent beings.

55. They are like hidden caves on earth overspread withthorns and brambles, and inbred with venomous snakes, inwhich the unwary fall to be smitten and bitten to death.

56. All sensualities are as savage Rákshasas or cannibals,that rove and revel about in their venturous excursions inthe darkness of night; and glut themselves with human victims.

57. Our organs of sense are as dry sticks, all hollow andpithless in the inside; they are crooked and full of joints allalong, and fit only as fuel for fire.

58. The bodily organs are the instruments of vice, and areas pits and thickets on our way; they are fitted with dirtwithin, like the notes of canes and reeds that are full of uselessstuff.

59. The organic limbs and members are the implements ofaction, and the apparatus for producing an infinite variety ofworks. They are like the potter’s wheels, turning and whirlingwith their mud, in order to produce the fragile pottery of clay.

60. Thus Sir, I am plunged in the dangerous sea of mysensual appetites, and you alone are able to raise me out of itby your kindness to me; because they say, that holy saints onlyare victorious over their senses in this world, and it is theirsociety only that removes the griefs of mankind, and saves themfrom the perilous sea of sensuality.

Argument:—The arbor of the world as growing fromthe seed of Ignorance in the soil of Ignorance.

Bhusunda replied:—Having heard the aforesaid holyspeech of the Vidyádhara, I answered to what he askedin plain words as follows.

2. Well said, O chief of the Vidyádharas, and it proves theeto be awakened to thy good sense by thy good fortune for thyedification, that thou dost after so long desire to be raised, outof the dark pit and dungeon of the world.

3. Thy holy intentions shine as bright as the blazing cloudsin the midday light; and as pure liquid gold melted down bythe fire of right reasoning.

4. Thy clear mind will be able to grasp the meaning, of myadmonition to you with ease; as the clean mirror is capableof receiving the reflexion of every object set before it. (Theclear mind like a clear mirror reflects every thing in it).

5. You must give your assent to what I say, by utteringthe syllable Om—yes to the same; as you can have no doubt totake for certain truth, what I have come to know by mylong research.

6. Know well and by giving up your ignorance, that whatthou feelest within thee (i.e. thy egoism), is not thy very self;and it is hard to have it (your soul or self), notwithstandingyour long search after the same.

7. Know it for certain that there is no egoism or tuism (i.e.subjective or objective knowledge), nor even this phenomenalworld, that may be called the real entity; but all this is theblissful God, who is no cause of either thy happiness or misery(but reigns absolutely supreme in himself).

8. Whether this world is a creation of our ignorance, or37whether it is ignorance itself, is what we cannot ascertain byour reasoning; because there being but one simple entity alone,there is no possibility of the co-existence of the duality (ofsubjective and objective).

9. The world appears as the water in the mirage; it isunsubstantial and though appearing as something real, it is inreality nothing at all. The phenomenon that appears to view,is himself and nothing otherwise.

10. The world being as the water in the mirage (a mere nullity);there is neither its existence nor its inexistence neither,there can be no reflexion of it either (because a void has noshadow); and therefore it must be but God himself.

11. The seed of the world is the Ego or the subjective self,and the Tu or the objective world, is to be known as derived fromthe subjective self or egoism. Such being the case, the visibleworld with all its lands and seas, its mountains and rivers andgods also, is the huge tree growing out of the same seminalsource of egoism.

12. The great arbour of the worlds, grows out of the particleof egoism; the organs of sense are the succulent roots of thistree; and the far overspreading orbs of the sky, are the manydivergent branches of the main arbor of the mundane world.

13. The starry frame in the sky, is the netted canopy overthis arbour on high; and the groups of constellations, are bunchesof blossoms of this tree; the desires of men are as the longfibres and lengthening filaments of the tree, and the lightsomemoons are the ripe fruits thereof.

14. The many spheres of heaven, are the hollows of thislarge and great tree; and the Meru, Mandara and other mountains,are its protuberant boughs and branches.

15. The seven oceans are the ditches of water, dug at thefoot and root of this tree; and the infernal region is the deeppit underlying the root of this tree; the yugas and cycles ofperiods are its knots and joints, and the rotation of timeover it, is as the circle of worms sucking up its juice for evermore.

3816. Our ignorance is the ground of its growth, and all peoplesare as flights of birds hovering upon it; its false apprehensionforms its great trunk, which is burnt down by the conflagrationof nirvána or our knowledge of the utter extinctionof all things.

17. The sights of things, the thoughts of the mind, and thevarious pleasures of the world, are all as false as a grove orforest in the sky; or as silver in the face of the hoary clouds,or in the coating of conch and pearl shells.

18. The seasons are its branches (in which they grow andwither away); and the ten sides of the air are its smaller boughs;because they spread themselves in all directions; self-consciousnessis the pith and marrow of this tree (and of all sensiblecreatures), and the wind of the air is the breath of life, thatfluctuates in every part of this tree of the world.

19. The sun-shine and moon-beams, are the two flowers ofthis tree; their rising and setting represent the opening andclosing of blossoms; and the daylight and darkness of night,are as butterflies and bumble bees fluttering over them.

20. Know at last, that one all pervading ignorance, extendsall over this tree of the world; stretching from its root in theTartarus, on all sides of the compass and its top in the heavensabove. It is all an unreality appearing as real existence, andegoism which is the seed of this fallacy, being burnt up by thefire un-egoism, it will no more vegetate in the form of this arbourof the world; nor put forth itself in future births and continuoustransmigrations in this visionary world.

Argument:—Destruction of the arbor of the World by the fire ofreason, and description of the fabric of the world as the mansionof Delusion—Máyá-mandapa.

Bhusunda continued and said:—Now Vidyádhara! Youhave heard, how the mundane arbor comprises the earthwith her mountains and cavern abodes, and stretches to all sidesand touches the skies, bearing all living being continuallymoving and living upon it (i.e. its produce).

2. Such is the mundane tree, growing out of the seed ofegoism; but this seed being roasted by the fire of reason, ceasesto sprout forth anymore (i.e. into new life in future births).

3. The visibles are not existent, nor is I or thou (i.e. thesubjective or objective) ever a positive reality, and this fallacyof their positivity is wholly burnt away by the knowledge oftajjnána or their identity with God (i.e. in the extinction ofall distinctive knowledge in the entity of the sole unity).

4. As it is the thought of I and thou that begets the ideaof egoism and tuism, which becomes the seed of the world; soit is the thought of non-ego et tu, that removes the idea ofegoism and tuism, and this is the true and best knowledge ofGod.

5. Think of the inexistence of the world before its creations,and say where was then this knowledge of egoism and tuism, orthis delusion of the unity or duality.

6. Those who strive diligently to get rid of their desiresaltogether, according to the instructions of their preceptors (asgiven before); verily they become successful in obtaining thesupreme state (of the knowledge and presence of God).

7. As the confectioner becomes skilful in his profession, byhis learning and practice of the art of confectionary; so the40inquirer after truth becomes successful by constant applicationto it and by no other means. (So also doth the yogi thrivein his yoga, by and under the direction of his spiritualguide).

8. Know the world to be the wonderful phenomenon of theintellect, and it does not exist in the outer space as it appearsto the naked eye, but in the inner mind (which bears the prototypeof the world).

9. As a picture is the fac-simile of the pattern, which isinscribed in the painter’s mind; so it is the twinkling of ourthought only, that unfolds or obscures the world unto us by itsopening and closing.

10. This thought or fancy of the mind, portrays to sight alarge edifice supported upon big and huge columns, and studdedwith gems and pearls; and gilt over with gildings of brightgold.

11. It is surrounded by a thousand pillars of precious stones,rising high like the pinnacles of Sumeru; and emitting the variousof the rainbows, and glittering with the brightness of theevening sun on the clouds.

12. It is furnished with many a fountain (of the seas andrivers), for the sport of men, women, and children living under it;and amidst the decorations of all kinds of animals in it.

13. It is full of elements, with its enemy of darkness thatis light, darkness and light are its alternate result, hence ithas derived its name—chitra picture.

14. There were lakes of lotuses with kalpa trees, besidethem for the sport of women, who plucked their flowers for theirdecorations of them, and which scattered about their fragranceas plentifully; as the clouds sprinkle their rain-waters allaround.

15. Here the great kuláchalas or boundary mountains, wereas light as toys in the hands of boys; and they were tossed andwhirled about as play things, by the breath of little lads. (i.e.Mountains are minute things with respect to the great fabricof the universe).

4116. Here the bright evening clouds were as the glitteringearrings of the ladies, and the light and fleet autumn cloudslike flying fans and flappers; the heavy clouds of the rainy season,moved as slow as the waving fans of palm leaves; and theorb of the earth moved about as a dice on the chess-board,under the canopy of the starry heavens.

17. Here all living creatures and the sun and moon, aremoving about as the dice and king and queen on the chess-board;and the appearance and disappearance of the world inthe arena of vacuum, are as the gain or loss in the chess playof the gods (Brahmá and others).

18. As a thought that is long dwelt upon and brooded overin the mind, comes to appear as really present before the sightof its entertainer (i.e. as the imagination assumes the shapeof an apparition to sight).

19. So is this formal world a visible representation of thethoughts or workings of the mind, it is as an exquisite performanceof the mind of the artist, from the prototype ingraftedin the soul.

20. It is the apparition of an unreality, and is present inappearance but absent in substance; it is verily the appearanceof an unreality, by whatever cause it may have come to appear.(The Cause is said to be the original ignorance or delusion(ádi-avidyá or máyá)).

21. It is as the sight of the forms of ornaments, in thesame substance of gold; and the vault of the world, is as fullof ever changing wonders, as the changeful and wondrousthoughts of the mind. Wherefore it is the cessation of thought,that causes the extinction of the world. (Nothing exists to uswhereof we have no thought).

22. Hence it lies entirely in your power, to have or leavethe world as you may like; either disregard your temporalenjoyments, if you have your final liberation; or continue inyour acts and rites, in order to continue in your repeatedtransmigrations through endless births and deaths.

4223. I understand you have attained your state of rationality;and have purified your soul in this your second or thirdstage of Yoga; I believe you will not fall back or come down toa lower order, therefore hold your silence and rely in thepurity of the soul and shut out invisibles from your sight.

Argument:—Description of the Intellect, as causeof the appearance and disappearance of the World.

Bhusunda said:—The unintelligible objects of thoughtare phenomena of the intellect; they lie as calmly inthe great mass or inert body of the intellect, as the sunbeamsshine in the bosom of a clear basin of water (where they retaintheir light without their heat).

2. The unintelligent world subsists in the intelligent intellect,by its power of intellection; and remains alike with theunlike (i.e. matter with the mind), as the submarine fire residesin the water, and the latent heat with cold.

3. The intelligent and the unintelligent (i.e. the subjectiveI and the objective—these) have both their source in the intellectionof the intellect, which produces and reduces them fromand into itself, as it is the same force of the wind, which kindlesas well as extinguishes the fire.

4. Do you rest in the intellect, which remains after negationof your egoism (which is the cause of both the subjective andthe objective): and remain in that calm and quiet state of thesoul, which results from your thinking in this manner. (i.e.By forgetting yourself, you forget everything else besides thewakeful intellect).

5. Thou art settled in thy form of the intellect, both withinand without every thing; as the sweet water remains in and outof a raining cloud. (The gloss explains it saying that, after youare freed from all thoughts, you see the sole Brahma only).

6. There is nothing as I or thou, but all are forms of oneintellect, and connected with the same which is Brahma itself;there is none else besides which is endued with intelligence,but the whole is one stupendous intelligence, with which nothingcan be compared.

447. It is itself the earth, heaven and nether world, withtheir inhabitants of men, gods and demigods; and exhibits initself the various states of their being and actions (as upon itsstage).

8. As the world is seen to remain quietly, in its representationmap; so doth the universe appear from its portraiturein the vacuum or ample space of the divine mind.

9. Hence we see the various appearances, as the divine mindunfolds from itself and exhibits to view; as it depends on youroption, either to view them as animated or inanimated beings;(as you may choose to do the figures of animals, drawn in apicture).

10. These are the wondrous phenomena of the intellect,which appear as so many worlds in the open sky; they are asthe mirage spread over by the sun-beams for delusion of theignorant; while they appear as empty air to the learned, whoview them in their true light.

11. As the blinded eye, beholds spectres and spectrums inthe clear sky; so doth the world appear as a phantom andphantasmagoria, before the purblind sight of the unspiritualand ignorant people in general.

12. Thus the knowledge of the objective world, and that ofthe subjective ego, are mere reflexions of the ideas in themind, which appear and disappear by turns; just as a cityis gilded or shaded by the falling and failing of the sunbeamsthereon; but in this case city houses are realities, but theapparitions of the mind, are as baseless as garden in the emptysky.

Argument:—Brahma existing without attributes and functions, andthe inexistence of the world at anytime or any where beside him.

Bhusunda continued:—Know O Vidyádhara! the worldas an evolution of Divine intelligence, and not as aninert mass and distinct from that intelligence as it appears tobe. And as the reflexion of fire (or fiery sunbeams) in water,is nothing different from the nature of the cold water; so thereflexion of the world in the Divine intelligence, is not at alldistinct from the substance of that Intelligence itself.

2. Therefore remain at rest without making any distinction,between your knowledge of the world or its absence; (becausethe refutation of the existence of gross matter altogether,refutes the existence of the gross world also); and because apicture drawn only on the tablet of the painter’s mind, and notpainted on an outward plate, is as false as the knowledge ofthe fairy land in the empty air or vacuum.

3. The omnipotence of Brahma contains also the insensible(or gross) matter in his intelligence; as the calm and clearwater of the sea contains the matter of the future froth andfoam within itself.

4. As the froth is not produced in the water, without somecause or other; so the creation never proceeds from the essenceof Brahma, without its particular cause also. (This cause issaid to be Máyá).

5. But the uncaused and causeless Brahma, can have nocause whatever for his creation of the world; nor is any thingat this world or other, ever born or destroyed in himself. (Nomaterial substance is ever born or lost in the spiritual essenceof God).

6. The entire want of a cause (either material or formal),makes the growth and formation of the world an utter impossibility,46it is as impossible as the growth of a forest or thesight of a sea in the mirage of a desert as it appears to be.

7. The nature of Brahma is being the same as infinityand eternity, it is tranquil and immutable at all times; and isnot therefore liable to entertain a thought or will of the creationat anytime. Thus there being no temporary cause for such, theworld itself must be identic with Brahma himself.

8. Therefore the nature of Brahma is both as empty asthe hollow vacuity of air, as also as dense as the density of arock; so it is the solidity of Brahma that represents the solidcosmos, as his tenuity displays the inane atmosphere.

9. Whether you can understand anything or nothing,regarding the mysterious nature of the Deity, remain quiteunconcerned about it; and rest your soul in that Supreme spirit,wherein all intelligence and its absence are both alike. (To himno great or small but are all alike).

10. The everlasting bliss of the uncreated God, has no causefor his creation of the world, which cannot augment his bliss;therefore know all that is and exists to the increate God himself,from the improbability of his making a creation to no purposewhatsoever.

11. Of what use is it to reason with the ignorant, concerningthe production and destruction of creation (i.e. about theexistence or inexistence of the objective world); when they havenot the Divine Intellect in their view (as all in all or as boththe subjective and objective in itself).

12. Wherever there is the Supreme being, there is thesame accompanied with the worlds also (as it is impossible tohave the idea of God, without the association of the world);because the meaning of the word world, conveys the sense oftheir variety.

13. The supreme Brahma is present in everything in allplaces, such as in the woods and grass, in the habitable earthand in the waters likewise. So the creatures of God teem inevery part of creation together with the all-creative power.

14. It is improper to ask, what is the nature and constitutionof Brahma; because there is no possibility of ascertaining47the essence and absence of the properties of that infiniteand transcendental entity.

15. All want—abháva being wanting in him, who is full—púrnain himself; and any particular nature—bháva being inapplicableto the infinite One, who comprehends all nature inhim; all words significant of his nature are mere paralogism.

16. Inexistence and non-entity being altogether impossible,of the everlasting and self-existent being; who is always existentin his own essence, any word descriptive of his nature, isbut a misrepresentation of his true nature and quality.

17. He is neither I nor thou (the subjective or the objective);who is unknowable to the understanding, and invisible to thepeople in all the worlds; and yet He is represented as such andsuch, as false phantoms of the brain which presents themselvesas ghosts to boys.

18. That which is free from or beyond the sense of I andthou—the subject and object, is known as the truly Supreme; butwhat is seen under the sense of I and thou, proves to be nulland void.

19. The distinction of the world from the essence ofBrahma, is entirely lost in the sight of them, that have unityof Brahma only before their view. The subjective and objectiveare of equal import to them, who believe all sensibleobjects as mere productions of fancy from the very substance ofBrahma, as the various ornaments are but transformations ofthe same material of gold &c.

Argument:—Subjection of the senses followed by the governmentof the Mind; and Indifference to visible objects.

Bhusunda continued:—He is said to be situated in theseat of the Supreme, who has his mind unmoved at thestroke of a weapon of his bare body, as also at the touch of aform with his naked person. (One must practice his self-controuluntil he attains to this state of insensibility of both hisbody and mind).

2. One must strive by exercise of his manly powers andpatience, to practice his rigid hebetude or stoicity, as long ashe attains to his somnolence or hypnotism over all visibleappearances. (Hypnotism is asleep over the phenomenal, butwakeful to the spiritual).

3. The wise man who is acquainted with the truths ofnature, is not to be thwarted back by the severest tribulationand persecution; as the heaving waves of the lake, cannotsubmerge the lotus that stands firm amidst its water.

4. He who is impassive as the empty air, to the strokes ofweapons on his person, and unaffected by the embraces of beauties;is the only person who sees inwardly what is worth seeing:(though he is outwardly as insensible as a block of stone).

5. As poison breeds the rust in itself, which is not differentfrom the nature of poison.

6. So the infinity of souls which are produced in the Supremespirit, retain the nature of their original; and whichthey are capable of knowing.

7. As the insect that is born in the poison, does not die bythe same; so the human soul which is produced by the eternalsoul, is not subject to death, nor does it forsake its own nature,though it takes a grosser form like the vile figure of the poisonousinsects.

498. Things born in or produced by Brahma, are of the samenature with itself, though different from it in appearance;such is the rust and mustiness of meat, which adheres to thefood and appears as otherwise. So the world subsisting inBrahma, seems as something without it. (The fruit is alikeits tree, though unlike to it in its shape and size).

9. No worm is born in poison, that does not retain thenature of poison; it never dies in it without being revivified inthe same. (All things that are seen to die in nature, haveonly to be regenerated in another form, or as it is said “we diebut to be born again”).

10. It is owing to the indestructible property of self-consciousness,that all beings pass over the great gulph of death, asthey leap over a gap in the ground hide by the foot mark ofa bull (goshpad).

11. Why is it, that men neglect to lay hold on that blessedstate, which is beyond and above all other states in life, andwhich when had, infuses a cool calmness in the soul?

12. What a great stain it is to the pure soul, to neglectthe meditation of the glorious God, before which our mind,egoism and understanding, do all vanish into nothing or insignificance.

13. As you look upon a pot and a piece of cloth as meretrifles, so should you consider your body as brittle as glass, andyour mind, understanding and egoism also as empty nothing.

14. Therefore it is for the wise and learned, to divert theirattention from all worldly things, as also from their internalpowers of the mind and understanding; and to remain steadfastin their consciousness of the soul.

15. The wise man takes no notice of the faults or merits ofothers; nor does he take heed of the happiness or misery ofhimself or any body; knowing well that no one is the doer orsufferer of anything whatever.

Argument:—The falsity of egoism, and the futility of theexpansion of the intellect in creation. Ignorance as thecause of this fallacy and the manner of its removal.

Bhusunda continued:—As the supposition of one vacuity(as that subsisting in a pot or any spot), to be a part orderived from the universal vacuum is false and wrong; so theconception of the visionary ego (as produced from the unknownvacuum Brahma), is altogether an error. (i.e. The error of conceivinga subtile or gross spirit called the ego, proceeds fromignorance of the True Spirit).

2. The erroneous conception of limited vacuities, being producedfrom the unlimited vacuum, has given rise to the mistakenbelief of unreal and individual souls, as proceeding fromthe one universal and undivided soul of God.

3. The divine intellect exists in the form of air in air,which it takes for its body; it is manifest throughout theaerial sphere and therefore I am neither the ego nor thenon-ego either. (Man is the ego in his intellectual part, andthe non-ego in his material frame).

4. The unity of the subtile intellect is of such a nature, thatit contains the gravity of the immense world in it (i.e. in itsthought); in the same manner as a ponderous mountain iscontained in an atom (or as it is composed of atomic particles).The conscious intellect is of the form of air (empty and allpervading in its nature). (This is another instance of thevacuous essence of God, according to the vacuistic theoryof Vasishtha).

5. The intellect which is rarer than subtile air, thinks initself the gross nature of unintellectual matter; which exhibits51itself in the form of the world. (The dull external world, isa counter part of the internal conception of the mind).

6. It is well known to the spiritualist, that the egoism of ourselvesand the materialism of the world, are but dilations ofthe intellect; as the currents and curlings of streams in eddiesare but dilations of water. (This process of the Divine spiritis called its vivarta rúpa).

7. When this process of the intellect is at a stop, thewhole course of nature is at a stand still, like the liquid waterof the lake without its undulation; or like the quiet sphereof the sky, without the stir or agitation of winds in it. (Itmeans to say that, as the motion of the spirit causes theaction of the world, so its cessation nivarta-rúpa, put an endto the course of nature).

8. Thus there is no other cause of any physical action, inanything in any part or period of the world; except what isderived from the agitation of the Intellect, without which thiswhole is a shapeless void and nil.

9. It is the action of the intellect, that makes the worldto appear to us at all times and places; whether in the sky, wateror land, as also when we wake, sleep or dream (and this actionof the mind being put to a stop in death deep sleep, the worldceases to exist both in the mind and to our external senses also).

10. The action and inaction of the intellect, is imperceptibleto our understanding, owing to the extreme tenuity of themind, which is more transparent than the clear sky.

11. The knowing soul that is unified or settled as one withthe Supreme spirit, is unconscious of its pleasure or pain andthe sense of its egoism; and being melted down into the divineessence, it resides as the fluidity of the psychic fluid.

12. The sapient mind is regardless of all external intelligence,fortune, fame, or prosperity; and having no desire or hopeto rise or fear or shame to fall, he sees none of these thingsbefore him, as one sees no object of broad daylight in the gloomof night. (The holy man has lost sight of all worldly things).

13. The moonlight of the intellect which issues forth fromthe moon like disk of the glory of God, fills the universe with52its ambrosial flood; and there is no other created world, norits receptacles of time and space, except the essence of Brahma,which fills the whole.

14. Thus the whole universe being full with the gloriousessence of God, it is the mind which revolves with the spheresof the worlds on itself, like the curling circles on the surface ofwaters.

15. The revolving world, is evanescently rolling on like arunning stream to its decay, with its ever rising and sinkingwaves, and its gurgling and whirling eddies and whirlpools.

16. As the moving sands appear as water (in the mirageof the desert), and as the distant smoke seems as a gatheringclouds to the deluded; so doth this world appear to them as agross object of creation, and a third thing beside the Divinespirit and Mind.

17. As the wood pared by the saw appear as separateblocks, and as the water divided by the winds has the appearanceof detached waves; so doth this creation in the Supremespirit, seem to be something without and different from it.

18. The world is as unsolid and unsubstantial, as the stemof a plantain tree, and as false and frail as the leaves of thearbour of our desire; it is plastic in its nature, but as hardas stone in the substance. (Being like the shadow of somethingin the hard crystal of the Divine Mind).

19. It is personified in the form of Virát, with his thousandheads and feet, and as many arms, faces and eyes; and his bodyfilling all sides, with all the mountains, rivers and countriessituated in it.

20. It is empty within and any pith in it, it is painted inmany colours and having no colour of itself.

21. It is studded all over with bodies of gods and demigods,gandharvas, vidyádharas and great serpents; it is inert (dullmatter of itself), and is moved by the all moving air of sutrátma—theall connecting spirit of God; and is animated by the allenlivening anima of the Supreme soul.

22. As the scene of a great city appears brilliant to sight, ina painting which is well drawn on a canvas, so does the picture53of the world, which is displayed by imagination in the retina ofthe mind, appear charming to them, who do not deign to consider(to examine) it in its true light.

23. The reflexion of the unreal and imaginary world, whichfalls on the mirror of the fickle and fluctuating mind; appearsto swim upon its surface, as a drop of oil floats over the face ofwater.

24. This world is overspread with the network of the feelingsimprinted in the heart, and interspersed with winding eddiesof mistake and misery; it runs with the flood of our affections,and with silent murmurs of sorrow.

25. The understanding is apt to attribute optionally, thepredicates I, thou and so forth to the original and prime Intellect;but none of these is apart from the Supreme one, as thefluid is no other than the water itself. (Jíva—the living souland Brahma—the universal being synonymous terms there is nodistinction whatever between them).

26. The luminous Intellect itself is styled the creation,(after it has assumed to itself the title of ego or its personality);or else there is no other creation or any creator thereof(beside the everlasting intellect, which is represented asthe personal God-Ego and personified as the creation itself).

27. As the power of impulsion is inherent in every movingsubstance, like the blowing of winds and flowing of water; sothe intellectual soul, being of a vacuous form, knows all thingsin their vacuous or ideal states only.

28. As seas and oceans are becoming the seeming causeof separate name of countries, by separating the connectionfrom one land to another, though the vacuum remains everthe same; so delusion is the cause of different ideas anddreams of material objects, but spirit remains unchangefulforever.

29. Know the words mind, egoism, understanding and suchother terms, which are significant of the idea of knowledge; toproceed from ignorance alone, and are soon removed by properinvestigation into them.

5430. It is by means of conversation with the wise, that it ispossible for us to remove one half of this ignorance, and it is byinvestigation into the sástras, that we are enabled to remove aquarter of it, while our belief of and reliance in the Supremespirit, serves to put down the remaining fourth part of it altogether.

31. Having thus divided yourself into the said four-fold duties,and destroyed by degree the four parts of ignorance byeach of them; you will find at last a nameless something whichis the true reality itself.

32. Ráma said:—I can understand sir, how a moiety of ourignorance is removed by conversation with the wise, as also howa fourth part of it driven by the study of sástras, but tell mesir, how the remainder of it is removed by our belief and reliancein the spirit.

33. Tell me sir, what you mean by the simultaneous andgradual removal of ignorance, and what am I to understand bywhat you call the nameless one and the true reality, as distinguishedfrom the unreal.

34. Vasishtha replied:—It is proper for all good and virtuouspeople who are dispassionate and dissatisfied with theworld, to have recourse to wise and holy men, and argue withthem regarding the course of nature, in order to get over theocean of this miserable world.

35. It is proper also for intelligent persons, to be in diligentsearch after the passionless and unselfish men wherever theymay be found; and particularly to find out and reverence suchof them, as are possessed with the knowledge of the soul, and arekindly disposed to impart their spiritual knowledge to others.

36. The acquisition of such a holy sage, takes away one halfof one’s temporal and spiritual ignorance; by setting him onthe first and best step of divine knowledge. (The subsequentstages of yoga, are based upon the initiatory step or stage).

37. Thus half of one’s spiritual gloom being dispelled byassociation with the holy; the remaining two fourths are removed,by religious learning and one’s own faith and devotion.

38. Whenever any desire of any enjoyment whatever, is55carefully suppressed in one’s self by his own endeavour; it iscalled his self-exertion, which destroys one fourth of spiritualignorance.

39. So it is the society of the holy, the study of Sástras andone’s own exertion, which tend to take away one’s sins, and itis done by each of these singly or all of these conjointly, eitherby degrees or at once and at the same time.

40. Whatever there remains either as something or nothingat all, upon the total extinction of ignorance, the same is said tobe the transcendent and nameless or unspeakable something ornothing (owing to its being beyond all conception).

41. This is verily the real Brahma, the undestroyed, infiniteand eternal one; and which being but a manifestation of theunsubstantial will, is understood as an inexistent blank likewise.By knowing the measureless, immeasurable and unerring being,do you rely in your own nihility of nirvána, and be free from allfear and sorrow. (He who thinks himself as nothing, has nocare or fear for anything).

Argument:—The acts of Delusion, and Deception ofsenses, and Indra’s Vision of the World in an Atom.

Bhusunda Said:—The universe which contains the totalityof existence, and appears as a wide extended sphere;is not in need of any pre-existent place or time as recipientsof its substance just as the etherial light (of the twilight), requiresno prop or pillar in the heavens for its support. (Thesimultaneity of the seeming containers—time and space, andtheir apparent contents—the wide world and the broad light,disproves the priority of the receptacles with regard to theiroccupants, as it is commonly understood to be. So the verse:—Herethere is no container or contained, nothing first or last;But all is one that fills and contains this all. Gloss).

2. The fabrication of this triple world (containing thecelestial, terrestrial and infernal regions), is the mere thoughtor working of the mind; and all this is more quiet and calm,more minute and light, and much more translucent than theodor residing in the air.

3. The world is a wondrous phenomenon of the intellect,which though it is as minute as a particle of fragrance borneby the wind; appears yet as big as a mountain to the sensationof the outward organs of sense. (This is the effect of the deceptionof the senses).

4. Every one (animal being) views and thinks the world,in the same form and light as it presents unto him; just as theoperations of the mind and visions in a dream, appear as theyoccur to their recipients and to no other besides. (The deceptivesenses and dreams, depict objects in different aspects todifferent persons).

5. Here I will instance an old legend, of what happened to57Indra—the lord of Gods, when he was confined in a minute particlein times of yore.

6. It came to pass once upon a time, that this world grew upas a small fig fruit on a branch of the Yuga tree, in the greatarbour of a kalpa age. (The periods of a Yuga and kalpaare represented as a tree and forest by metaphor).

7. The mundane fruit was composed of the three compartmentsof the earth, sky and infernal regions, containing thegods and demigods of heaven, the hills and living creatures onearth, the marshy lands below, with troops of gnats and flies(fluttering about the fig tree of the world, and representing thediseases and dangers that hover over it).

8. It is a wondrous production of the intellect (which is itsarchitect); and is as high as handsome full-blown buds with thejuice of desire (i.e. it is full of all delights, that the heart candesire). It is odorous with all kinds of flavourous fragrances,that we can feel and tempting to the mind by the variety ofits savours that are sweet to taste. (Does it allude to theforbidden fruit which was enticing to sight and sweet to taste,and meant the world itself that was to be avoided)?

9. This tree grew upon the Brahma tree (otherwise calledthe udumvara or fig tree), which was over hung by millions ofcreepers and orchids; egoism is the stalk of the fruit, whichappeared beautiful to sight.

10. It is encompassed around with oceans, seas and arteries,and whose face-light is the principal door. It is salvating thestarry heaven above and the moist earth below.

11. It is ripened at the end of the Kalpa age, when itbecomes the food of black crows and cuckoos (messengers ofdarksome death); or if it falls below there is an end of it, byits absorption in the indifferent Brahma.

12. There lived at one time the lord of Gods—the great Indrain that fruit, just as a big mosquito resides in an empty potin company with the small gnats as their great leader.

13. But this great lord was weakened in his strength andvalour by his study of and the lectures of his preceptor on spiritualism;58which made him a spiritualist, and seer in all past andfuture matters.

14. It happened once on a time, when the valiant godNáráyana and his heavenly host, had been reposing in theirrest; and their leader Indra was so debilitated in his arms;that the demigods rose in open rebellion against God.

15. Then Indra rose with his flashing arms and fire, andfought with the fighting Asuras for a long time; but being atlast defeated by the superior strength, he fled away in hastefrom the field.

16. He ran in all the ten directions, and was pursued bythe enemy wherever he fled; he could get no place of rest, asa sinner has no resting place in the next world (but continuesto rove about in never ending transmigrations of his soul).

17. Then as the enemy lost sight of him for a moment, heavailed to himself of that opportunity; he compressed thethought of his big body in his mind, and became of a minuteform on the out-side of himself. (It is the inner thought thatmoulds the outer body, according to the inner type).

18. He then entered into the womb of an atom, which wasglittering amidst the expanse of solar rays; as a bee enters intothe cup or seed vessel of a lotus bud, by means of the consciousnessof his personal minuteness.

19. He had his instant rest in that state, and then his hopeof final bliss in the next; by utter forgetfulness of the warfare,and attainment of the ultimate beatitude of the nirvánatorpitude in the end. (All action is warfare, and cessationfrom it gives peace and rest).

20. He instantly conceived in his imagination, his royalpalace in that lotus, and he sat upon his lotiform seat (padmásana)within it, as if he was resting on his own bed.

21. Then Indra otherwise called Hari, being seated in thatmansion, saw an imaginary city in it, containing a grandedifice in the midst; with its walls studded with gems, pearlsand corals.

22. Hari (the Indra) beheld from within the city, a largecountry extending about it, and containing many hills and59villages, pasture grounds for kine, forests and human habitations.

23. Indra then felt the desire of enjoying that country, withall the lands and hills, the seas to their utmost boundaries, ashe had formed in his imagination.

24. Shakra (Indra) afterwards conceived the desire, ofpossessing the three worlds to himself, together with all theearth and ocean, sky and the infernal regions, the heavens,planetary spheres above and the ranges of mountains below.

25. Thus did Indra remain there as the lord of gods, and inpossession of all abundance for his enjoyments; and there wasborn to him afterwards, a son named Kunda of great strengthand valour.

26. Then at the end of his life time, this Indra of unblemishedreputation, forsook his mortal frame, and became extinctin his nirvána dissolution, as when a lamp is extinguished forwant of oil.

27. Kunda reigned over the three worlds (of and like hisfather), and then having given birth to a boy he departed tohis ultimate state of bliss, after expiration of the term of hislife.

28. That son also reigned in his time (like the sire), andthen departed at the end of his life time, to the holy state ofsupreme felicity, by leaving a son after him.

29. In this manner a thousand generations of the grandsonsof the first Indra, have reigned and passed away in theirtime; and there is still a prince by name of Ansaka, reigningover the state of the lord of gods.

30. Thus the generations of the lord of immortals, still holdtheir sovereignty over the imaginary world of Indra; in thatsacred particle of sunbeam in empty air, although that atomicparticle is continually going to decay and waste in this longcourse of time (yet the imagination of its existence has laida firm hold on the minds of their posterity for ever).

Argument:—Origin of Sakra race and of the World likethe fibres of Lotus-stalks and its spiritual sense.

Bhusunda continued:—There was one prince born of therace of that Indra; who had also become the lord ofgods; He was endowed with prosperity and all good qualities,and devoted to divine knowledge.

2. This prince of Indra’s race, received his divine knowledgefrom the oral instruction of Vrihaspati (the preceptor of thegods).

3. He knowing the knowable-one, persisted in the courseof knowledge as he was taught and being the sovereign lord ofgods, he reigned over all the three worlds.

4. He fought against the demigods, and conquered all hisfoes; he made a hundred sacrifices, and got over the darknessof ignorance by his enlightened mind.

5. He remained long in meditation, having his mind fixedin his cerebral artery, resembling the thread of a tubular stalkof the lotus, and continued to reflect on hundreds of manyothers matters. (i.e. On the imaginary world and its kingdomand conquests together with many other things).

6. He had once the desire of knowing by the power of hisunderstanding, how he could see the essence of Brahma in hismeditation (or how he could have a sight of the nature of God,manifest before him. Gloss).

7. He sat in his solitary retirement, and saw in this silentmeditation of his tranquil mind, the disappearance of theconcatenation of causes all about and inside himself.

8. He beheld the omnipotent Brahma, as extended in andabout all things; and presenting all times and places and existingas all in all, and pervading all things in all places.

619. His hands stretch to all sides, and his feet reach to theends of the worlds; his face and eyes are on all sides, and hishead pierces the spheres; his ears are set in all places, andhe endures by encompassing all things every where.

10. He is devoid of all the organs of sense, and yet possestof the powers of all senses in himself; he is the support of all,and being destitute of qualities, is the source and receptacleof all quality. (The qualities of finite bodies are of a finitenature, but the infinite are infinite, eternal and immutable).

11. Unmoved and unmoving by himself, he is moving inand out of all things, as well as moveth them all both internallyand externally (that is to say, He is the moving force of dullmatter). He is unknowable owing to his minuteness, andappears to be at a distance, though he is so near us.

12. He is as the one sun and moon in the whole universe,and the same land in all the earth; He is the one universal oceanon the globe, and one Meru Mountain (of the sun’s path) allabout.

13. He is the pith and gravity of all objects, and he is theone vacuum every where; he is the wide world and the greatcosmos, that is common to all.

14. He is the liberated soul of all, and the primary intellectin every place; he is every object everywhere, and beside allthings in all places.

15. He is in all pots and huts, in all trees and their coatings;he moves the carts and carriages, and enlivens alike all menand other animals likewise.

16. He is in all the various customs and manners of men,and in all the many modes of their thinking; he resides equallyin the parts of an atom, as also in the stupendous frame of thetriple world.

17. He resides as pungency in the heart of pepper, asvacuity in the sky; and in his intellectual soul the three worlds,whether they are real entities or mere unrealities.

18. Indra beheld the lord in this manner, and then beingliberated from his animal state by the help of his pure understanding;62he remained all along in the same state of hismeditation as before.

19. The magnanimous god sees in his revery, all thingsunited in his meditative mind; and beheld this creation in thesame light as it appears to us (as a real entity).

20. He then wandered in his mind all over this creation,and believing himself as the lord of all he saw in it, became thevery god Indra; and reigned over the three worlds and theirmanifold pageantries.

21. Know, O chief of the race of vidyádharas, that the sameIndra who was descended of the family of Indras, has been stillholding his reign as the lord of gods to this day.

22. He then perceived in his mind, by virtue of his formerhabit of thinking, the seed of his remembrance sprouting forthwith the lotus stalk, wherein he thought to have lain before.

23. As I have related to you of the reign of the formerIndra, in the bosom of an atom in the sunbeam; and of theresidence of his last generation—the latter Indra, in the hollowfibre of the lotus stalk.

24. So have thousands of other Indras gone by, and aregoing on still in their fancied realm in the empty sky, in thesame manner and mode as observed by their predecessors.

25. So runs the course of nature in ceaseless succession, likethe current of a river running onward to the sea; and so domen whether acquainted or not with the divine knowledge,flow on as streams to the abyss of eternity (which is tatpada or stateof the Deity).

26. Such is lengthening delusion of the world appearingas true; but vanishing to nothing at the appearance of thelight of truth (which is the sight of God in everything).

27. From whatever cause, and in whatever place or time,and in whatever manner this delusion is seen to have sprung,it is made to disappear by knowledge of the same.

28. It is egoism alone, which produces the wonderful appearanceof delusion; as the cloud in the sky causes the rain;it spreads itself as a mist, but disappears immediately at thesight of light.

6329. He who has got rid of his belief of the looking andsight of the world (i.e. Of both the subjective and objective,as well as of his action and passion); and has attained theknowledge of self-reflecting soul; and who has placed his beliefin one vacuous form of empty air; which is devoid of all propertiesand beyond all categories, is freed from all option andsettled in the only One.

Argument.—Description of Egoism as the productive seed of theworld, and its extinction as the cause of emancipation from it.

Bhusunda resumed and said:—Wherever there is thethought of egoism of any one, the idea of the world will befound to be inherent in it; as it appeared to Indra within thebosom of the atomic particle.

2. The error of the world (the false conception of its reality),which covers the mind, as the green verdure of grass overspreadsthe face of the ground; has for its origin the idea ofone’s egoism, which takes its root in the human soul.

3. This minute seed of egoism, being moistened with thewater of desire, produces the arbor of the three worlds, on theheight of Brahma in the great forest of vacuum.

4. The stars are the flowers of this tree, hang on high on thebranches of the mountain craigs; the rivers resemble its veinsand fibres, flowing with the juicy pith of their waters, and theobjects of desire are the fruits of this tree. (The objects ofdesire are the enjoyments and fruition of life).

5. The revolving worlds, are the fluctuating waves of thewater of egoism; and the profluent current of desire, continuallysupplies with varieties of exquisite symposiums, sweet to thetaste of the intellect. (i.e. The pleasures of desire are sweetto the mind, and afford intellectual delight).

6. The sky is the boundless ocean full of etherial waters,and teeming with showering drops of star light in it; plentyand poverty are the two whirlpools in the ocean of the earth,and all our woes are the mountainous waves on its surface.(i.e. The heaven and earth are the two oceans above and below;the one shining with starry light, and the other glidingwith waves of woe. So says the Bible:—And God made the65firmament, to divide the waters above from the waters below.Genesis I).

7. The three worlds are presented as a picture of the ocean,with the upper lights as its froths and foams swimming upon it;the spheres are floating as bubbles upon it, and their belts areas the thick valves of their doors.

8. The surface of the earth is as a hard and solid rock,and the intellect moves as a black crow upon it; and the hurryand bustle of its people, are conformable with the incessant rotationof the globe.

9. The infirmities and errors, old age and death, are asbillows gliding on the surface of the sea; and the rising andfalling of bodies in it, are as the swelling and dissolving ofbubbles in water.

10. Know the world to be a gust of the breath of youregoism, and know it also as a sweet scent proceeding from thelotus like flower of egoism.

11. Know the knowledge of your egoism and that of theobjective world, are not two different things; but they are theone and same thing; as the wind and its breath, the water andits fluidity, and the fire and its heat.

12. The world is included under the sense of ego, and theego is contained in the heart of the world; and these beingproductive of one another, are reciprocally the container andcontained of each other.

13. He who effaces the seed of his egoism from his understanding,by means of his ignoring it altogether; has verilywashed off the picture of the world from his mind, by the waterof ignorance of it.

14. Know Vidyádhara, there is no such thing as is impliedby ego; it is a causeless nothing as the horn of a hare.

15. There is no egoism in the all pervading and infiniteBrahma, who is devoid of all desire; and therefore there beingno cause nor ground of it, it is never anything in reality.

16. Whatever is nothing in reality, could not possibly haveany cause in the beginning of creation; therefore egoism is anihility, as the son of a barren woman is a nullity in nature.

6617. The want of egoism on the one hand, proves the privationof the world also on the other; thus there remains theIntellect or the one mind alone, in which everything is extinct.

18. From the proof of the absence of ego and the world, theoperations of the mind and the sight of visibles, all come to anend, and there remains nothing for thee to care for or fear.

19. Whatever is not is a naught altogether, and the rest areas calm and quiet as nil in existence; knowing this as certainbe enlightened, and fall no more to the false error which has noroot in nature.

20. Being purged from the stain of fancy, you become aspurified and sanctified as the holy lord Siva for ever, and thenthe sky will seem to thee as a huge mountain, and the vastworld will dwindle to an atom. (This is done by two powers ofadhyáropa and vyapadesa or expansion or contraction in yoga).

Argument:—Entrancement of the Vidyádhara at theend of the Discourse in favour of Non-egoism.

Bhusunda continued:—As I was lecturing in this manner,the chief of the vidyádharas became dull in theconsciousness (i.e. unconscious of himself), and fell into thetrance of samádhi—anaesthesia.

2. And notwithstanding my repeated attempts, to awakenhim from that state (of insensibility); he did not open his eyesto the sight lying before him, but was wholly absorbed in hisnirvána-extinction.

3. He attained the supreme and ultimate state, and becameenlightened in his soul (by what I had instructed him); andmade no other further attempt to know what he sought. (Theattempts to know God, besides sravana or attending to thelectures of the guru, are reflection, meditation etc.).

4. (Here Vasishtha said to Ráma:) It is therefore, Ráma,that I related this narrative to exemplify the effect of instructionin pure hearts, where it floats like a drop of oil on the surfaceof water (i.e. where it does not sink down nor is lost).

5. This instruction consists in forgetting the existence ofthe ego in the Supreme spirit, this is the best advice and thereis no other like this; and this is calculated to give peace andcomfort to your soul.

6. But when this advice falls in the soil of evil minds, it ischoked up and lost in the end; as the purest pearl falls from thesurface of a smooth mirror (or piece of glass).

7. But good advice sticks fast in the calm minds of thevirtuous, and it enters into their reasoning souls; as thesunlight enters and shines in the sunstone.

8. Egoism is verily the seed of all worldly misery, as the68seed of the thorny simul tree grows only prickles on earth; sois meity or the thought that this is mine, the out stretchingbranch of this tree.

9. First the seed ego, and then its branch of meity or mineness,produce the endless leaves of our desires; and their senseof selfishness, is productive of the burthensome fruits of our woeand misery.

10. Then the vidyádhara said; I understand, O chief ofsages, that it is in this manner, that dull people also becomelong living in this world; and it is this true knowledge, which isthe cause of the great longevity of yours and other sages.

11. Those who are pure in their hearts and minds, soonattain to their highest state of fearlessness, after they are onceadmonished with the knowledge of truth.

12. Vasishtha said:—The chief of the birds of air, spoke tome in this manner on the summit of the Sumeru Mountain; andthen held his silence like the mute clouds on the top of Rishyasringachain. (It is said that the clouds never roar when theyrove over this hill).

13. Having taken leave of the sagely bird, I repaired to theabode of the Vidyádhara (in order to learn the truth of thestory); and then returned to my place, which was graced bythe assemblage of sages.

14. I have thus related to you, O Ráma, the narration ofthe veteran bird, and the sedateness which was attained bythe Vidyádhara with little pain and knowledge. It is nowthe lapse of the long period of eleven great Yugas, since my saidinterview with Bhusunda—the veteran chief of the feathered tribe.

Argument:—The Yoga or mode of consumingegoism by the fire of Non-egoism.

Vasishtha said:—It is by means of the knowledge ofone’s want of egoism, that the arbor of his desire, whichis productive of the fruit of worldliness, and which is fraughtwith the taste of all kinds of sweet and bitterness; may bechecked in its growth.

2. It is by one’s habit of thinking his unegoism, that hecomes to view both gold and stone, as well as all sorts ofrubbish in the same light; and by being calm and quietat all events, has never any cause of sorrow at any thingwhatsoever.

3. When the cannon-ball of egoism, is let to fly out from thegun of the mind by force of divine knowledge; we are at aloss to know, where the stone of egoism takes its flight.

4. The stone of egoism being flung from the balustradeof the body, by the gigantic force of spiritual knowledge; weknow not where this ponderous egoism is driven and lost.

5. After the stone of egoism is flung away, by the great forceof the knowledge of Brahma only; we cannot say where thisengine of the body (with its boast of egoism in it), is lost forever.(Here are three comparisons of egoism, viz, 1 of a gunshot;2 of a balustrade stone; 3 of a pebble in a sling).

6. The meaning of ego is frost in the heart of man, andmelts away under the sunshine of unegoism; it then flies off invapour, and then disappears into nothing we know not where.

7. The ego is the juice of the inner part of the body, andthe unego is the solar heat without; the former is sucked upby the latter, and forsakes the dried body like a withered leaf,and then flies off where we know not.

8. The moisture of egoism, being sucked up from the leafy70body of the living, flies by the process of its suction by thesolar heat, to the unknown region of endless vacuum.

9. Whether a man sleeps in his bed or sits on the ground,whether he remains at home or roves on rocks, whether hewanders over the land or water, wherever he sits or sleeps or isawake or not:—

10. This formless egoism abides in it, either as gross matteror the subtile spirit, or in some state or other; which though itis afar from it, seems to be united with it. (The true ego of thefar distant Divine spirit, seems to be incorporated with thematerial body).

11. Egoism is seated as the minute seed, in the heart of thefig tree of the body; where it sprouts forth and stretches itsbranches, composing the different parts of the world. (i.e. Theseed of egoism develops itself in the form of the creation, whichis a creature of its own).

12. Again the big tree of the body, is contained within theminute seed of egoism; which bursts out in the branches formingthe several parts of the universe.

13. As the small seed is seen by every one, to contain withinit a large tree, which develops itself into a hundred branches,bearing all their leaves, flowers and abundance of fruits; so doththe big body reside with the atomic seed of egoism, with all itsendless parts of corporeal organs and mental faculties, which arediscernible to the sight of the intelligent.

14. Egoism is not to be had in the body by reasoning, whichpoints out the mind of everybody, to seek it in the sphere ofthe vacuous Intellect; the seed of egoism does not spring fromthe bosom of unreality, and the blunder of the reality of theworld, is destroyed by the fire proceeding from the spirituality ofthe wise.

Argument:—How material world is framed by intellect, itsformation and destruction, one by reminiscence and theother by forgetfulness.

Vasishtha related:—There is never and nowhere anabsolute death or total dissolution of the body togetherwith the mind, soul and egoism; but it is the cessationof the inward imagery of the mind, that is called its quietus.

2. Look at these sights of the Meru and Mandara Mountains,which are born before thy presence; they are not carriedto and fro to every body, but are reflected in the minds of alllike the flying clouds of autumn in the water of a river.

3. These creations are placed over and above and belowand under one another, like the coatings of a plantain tree; andthey are either in contact with or detached from one anotherlike clouds in the sky.

4. Ráma said:—Sir, I do not fully comprehend the soundsense of what you say by the words “Look at these flyingsights” and therefore I beg to you to explain this clearlyunto me.

5. Vasishtha replied:—Know Ráma, that the life containsthe mind, and the mind is the container of the worlds withinit; as there are various kinds of trees and their several parts,contained in the bosom of a small berry. (And this is meant byone thing being contained within another).

6. After a man is dead, his vital airs fly to and unite withthe etherial air; as the liquid water of streams flows to andmixes with the main ocean. (This is by attraction of things ofthe same kind).

7. The winds of heaven then disperse on all sides, his vitalairs together with the imaginary worlds of his life time, whichsubsisted in the particles of his vital breath.

728. I see the winds of heaven, bearing away the vital airs,together with their contents of the imaginary worlds; andfilling the whole space of air with vital breath on all sides.

9. I see the Meru and Mandara Mountains, wafted withthe imaginary worlds before me; and you also will observe thesame, before the sight of your understanding. (The wholevacuum teeming with life).

10. The etherial airs are full with the vital airs of the dead,which contain the minute particles of mind in them; and theseminds again contain the types of the worlds in them, just asthe sesame seeds contain the oil in them.

11. As the etherial airs bear the vital airs, which are ofthe same kind with them (both being airy substances); so arethe vital breaths accompanied with particles of the mind(which is equally an airy substance also), these again bear thepictures of the worlds in them, as if they are ingrafted uponthem.

12. The same vacuum contains the whole creation and thethree worlds with the earth and ocean, all which are bornein it, as the different odors are borne by the winds.

13. All these are seen in the sight of the understanding,and not by the vision of the visual organs; they are the portraitureof our imagination, like the fairy lands we see in ourdreams before us.

14. There are many other things, more subtile than thevisible atmosphere, and which owing to their existence in ourdesire or fancy only, are not borne upon the wings of the windsas the former ones. (Though it is said in ordinary speech,that our desires and fancies are borne by our internal humourof váyu or wind).

15. But there are some certain truths, which are derivedfrom the intellect, and are called intellectual principles, whichhave the power to cause our pleasure and pain, and lead us toheaven or hell: (Such as virtue and vice). (These are theimmutable principles of right and wrong, abiding in andproceeding from the intellect).

16. Again our desires are as the shadows of cities, floating73on the stream of life; and though the current of life is continuallygliding away, yet the shadowy desires whether successfulor not, ever remain the same. (Lit. are never carried away bythe current).

17. The vital breath carries its burden of the world, alongwith its course to the stillness of endless vacuity; as the breezesbear away the fragrance of flowers, to the dreary desert wherethey are lost for ever.

18. Though the mind is ever fickle, changeable andforgetful in its nature; yet it never loses the false idea ofthe world which is inherent in it, as a pot removed to anyplace and placed in any state, never gets rid of its inner vacuity.(The idea of the world is carried by reminiscence, in everystate and stage of the changeful mind).

19. So when the fallacy of the false world has taken possessionof the deluded mind, it is alike impossible either to realizeor set it at naught, like the form of the formless Brahma.

20. Or if this world is a revolving body, carried about bythe force of the winds; yet we have no knowledge of its motion,as when sitting quiet in a boat, though carried afar to thedistance of miles by the tide and winds.

21. As men sitting in a boat, have no knowledge of theforce which carries the boat forward; so we earthly beingshave no idea of the power that is attached to it in its rotatorymotion.

22. As a wide extending city, is represented in miniaturein a painting at the foot of a column; so is this world containedin the bosom of the minute atom of the mind.

23. A thing however little or insignificant, is taken to be toomuch and of great importance, by the low and mean; as ahandful of paddy is of great value to the little mouse than gems,and a particle of mud to the contemptible frog, than the pearlsunder the water. (So a particle of the mind is enough for thewhole world).

24. Again a trifle is taken as too much, by those who areignorant of its insignificance; as the learned in the error oftheir judgement, mistake this visionary world as preparatory74to their future happiness or misery. (The world being nothingin reality, cannot lead to anything, to real good or evil).

25. The inward belief of something as real good, and ofanother as positive evil, is a mistake common to the majority ofmankind, and to which the learned also are liable, in theirconduct in this world. (The wise man is indifferent to everything, and neither likes nor takes the one, nor hates or rejectsthe other).

26. As the intelligent and embodied soul, is conscious ofevery part of the body in which it is confined; so the enlightenedliving soul—jíva, beholds all the three worlds displayedwithin itself (as in the God Virát).

27. The unborn and ever lasting God, who is of the form ofconscious soul, extending over the infinity of space, has all theseworlds, as parts of his all pervading vacuous body.

28. The intelligent and ever living soul (of God) sees theuncreated worlds deeply impressed in itself; as a rod of iron(were it endowed with intelligence), would see the future knivesand needles in itself.

29. As a clod of earth, whether endowed with intelligenceor not knows the seed which is hidden in it, and which it growsto vegetation afterwards; so doth the ever living soul know theworld which is contained in it.

30. As the sensitive or insensitive seed, knows the germ,plant and tree, which it contains within its bosom; so doth thespirit of God, perceive the great arbor of the world conceivedin its profoundest womb.

31. As the man having his sight, sees the image of somethingreflected in a mirror, which the blind man does not; sothe wise man sees the world in Brahma, which the ignorantdoes not perceive (but think the world as distinct from him).

32. The world is nothing except the union of the four categoriesof time, space, action and substance; and egoism being noway distinct from the predicates of the world, subsists in Godwho contains the whole in Himself. (God is not predicable byany particular predicate; but is the congeries of all the predicatestaken collectively in his nature).

7533. Whatever lesson is inculcated to any body by meansof a parable, i.e. whatever thing is signified to some one bya comparison, know that the simile relates to some particularproperty of the compared object and not in all respects. (Sothe similitude of iron rod given to god in the sruti and thisbook, regards only its material causality, and not its insensibilitywith the sensible spirit of God).

34. Whatever is seen to be moving or unmoving here inthis world; is the vivarta or expanded body of the living soul,without any alteration in its atomic minuteness. (Nature is thebody, and God the soul. Pope).

35. Leaving the intelligence aside (which is wanting increated objects); and taking the force only (which actuatesall nature); we find no difference of this physical force fromthe giver of the force.

36. Again whatever alteration, is produced in the motionor option of anything or person, at any time or place or in anymanner; is all the act of that Divine Intellect.

37. It is the intellect which infuses in the mind the powerof its option, volition, imagination and the like; because noneof these can spring as a sprout in the mind, which is withoutintelligence and without an intelligent cause of it.

38. Whatever desires and fancies, rise in the minds of theunenlightened; are not of the nature of the positive will ordecree of the Divine Mind, owing to the endless variety andmutuality of human wishes.

39. The desires rising in the minds of the enlightened, areas they were no desires and never had their rise; because—

40. All thoughts and desires being groundless, they are asfalse as the idle wishes of boys; for who has ever obtained theobjects of his dream? (or that he has beheld in his dream)?

41. Sankalpa with its triple sense of thought, desire andimagination, is impressed by the intellect on the living soul(which is the image of God) from its past reminiscence; andthough we have a notion of this ideal soul, yet it is as untrueand unsubstantial as a shadow; but not so the original Intellect,which is both real and substantial.

7642. He who is freed from the error of taking the unrealworld for real, becomes as free as the god Siva himself; andhaving got rid of the corporeal body, becomes manifest in hisspiritual form.

43. The imagination of the ignorant, whirls about the worlds,as the wind hurls the flying cotton in the air; but they appearto be as unmoved as stones to the wise, who are not led awayby their imagination.

44. So there are multitudes of worlds, amidst many otherthings in the vast womb of vacuum which nobody can count;some of which are united with one another in groups, andothers that have no connection with another.

45. The supreme intellect being all in all, manifests itself inendless forms and actions, filling the vast space of infinity, someof which are as transient as rain drops or bubbles in air andwater, which quickly burst out and disappear; and othersappearing as the great cities (of gods &c.), situated in the heartof the Infinite one.

46. Some of these are as durable as rocks, and others arecontinually breaking and wearing out; some appearing as brightas with their open eyes, and others as dark as with their closedeyelids; some of these are luminous to sight and others obscuredunder impenetrable darkness; thus the bosom of the intellectresembling the vast expanse of the ocean, is rolling on with thewaves of creation to all eternity.

47. Some though set apart are continually tending towardsanother; as the waters of distant rivers are running to mixwith those of seas and ocean; and as the luminous bodies ofheaven, appearing together to brighten its sphere.

Argument:—The Essence of the Living soul, and of the undivided andIndividual bodies; and Distinction of things with regard to theirdistinct natures and actions.

Ráma said:—Tell me sir, regarding the nature of theliving soul, and the manner of its assuming its differentforms; and tell me also its original form, and those which ittakes at different times and places.

2. Vasishtha replied:—The infinite intelligence of God,which fills all space and vacuum; takes of its own will a subtileand minute form, which is intelligible under the name ofIntellect; and it is this which is expressed by the term livingsoul—jíva or zoa.

3. Its original form is neither that of a minute atom, nor abulky mass; not an empty vacuity, nor anything having itssolidity. It is the pure intellect with consciousness of itself,it is omnipresent and is called the living soul. (It is neitherthe empty space, nor anything contained therein).

4. It is the minutest of the minute, and the hugest of thehuge; it is nothing at all, and yet the all, which the learneddesignate as the living soul. (The preceding one is a negativeproposition, and this an affirmative one).

5. Know it as identic with the nature, property and quality,of any object whatever that exists any where; It is the lightand soul of all existence, and selfsame with all, by its engrossingthe knowledge of everything in itself. (Because nothing isexistent in reality but in its idea, and the soul having all ideasin itself, is identic with all of them).

6. Whatever this soul thinks in any manner, of anything atany place or time, it immediately becomes the same by itsnotion thereof. (i.e. Being full with the idea of a thing, it is78said to be identified with the same). (The collective soulbecomes all whatever it thinks or wills, as the soul of God; butthe individual soul thinks as it becomes at any place or time—asthe soul of man or any particular being. Gloss).

7. The soul possesses the power of thinking, as the air hasits force in the winds; but its thoughts are directed by theknowledge of things (that it derives by means of the senses);and not by the guidance of anyone, as the appearance of ghoststo boys.

8. As the existent air appears to be inexistent, withoutthe motion of the wind; so the living soul desisting from itsfunction of thinking, is said to be extinct in the Supreme Deity.

9. The living soul is misled to think of its individuality asthe ego, by the density or dullness of its intellect; and supposesitself to be confined within a limited space of place and time,and with limited powers of action and understanding. (Thusthe infinite soul mistakes itself for a finite being, by the dulnessof its understanding).

10. Being thus circ*mscribed by time and space, andendowed with substance and properties of action &c., it assumesto itself an unreal form or body, with the belief of its being orsober reality. (Thus the incorporeal soul, is incorporated ina corporeal frame).

11. It then thinks itself to be enclosed in an ideal atom;as one sees himself in his dream to be involved in his unrealdeath.

12. And as one finds in its mind his features and themembers of his body, to another form in his dream; so the soulforgets her intellectual entity in her state of ignorance, andbecomes of the same nature and form, as she constantly thinksupon. (It forgets its pure spiritual form, and becomes a dullmaterial body of some kind).

13. Thinking itself to be thus transformed to a gross andmaterial form, as that of Virát the macrocosm (who combinesthe whole material universe in himself); it views itself as brightand spotted, as the disk of the moon with the black spotupon it.

7914. It then finds in its person resembling the lunar disk,the sudden union of the five senses of perception, appearing inhim of themselves.

15. These five senses are then found to have the fiveorgans of sensation for their inlets, by which the soul perceivesthe sensation of their respective objects.

16. Then the Purusha or first male power known as Virát,manifests himself in five other forms said to be the members ofhis person; and these are the sun, the sides, water, air, and theland, which are the objects of five senses said before. He thenbecomes of endless forms according to the infinity of objectsof his knowledge: (i.e. the thoughts in this mind). He is thusmanifested in his objective forms, but is quite unknown to usin his subjective or causal form, which is unchangeable andundecaying.

17. He sprang up at first from the supreme being, as itsmental energy or the mind; and was manifest in the form ofthe calm and clear firmament, with the splendour of eternaldelight.

18. He was not of the five elemental forms, but was thesoul of the five elements, he is called the Virát Purusha—themacrocosm of the world, and the supreme lord of all. (He wasthe collective body of all individual ones).

19. He rises spontaneously of himself, and then subsidesin himself; he expands his own essence all over the universe,and at last contracts the whole in himself.

20. He rose in a moment with his power of volition, andwith all his desires in himself; he rises of his own will at first,and after lasting long in himself, dissolves again in himself.

21. He is the selfsame one with the mind of God, and heis the great body of the material world; and his body is calledthe puryashtaka or container of the eight elementary principles,as also the átiváhika or of the spiritual form.

22. He is as the subtile and gross air, manifest as the sky,but invisible as the subtile ether; he is both within andas well as without everything, and is yet nothing in himself.

8023. His body consists of eight members, viz—the five senses,the mind, the living principle and egoism, together with thedifferent states of their being and not being, i.e., of theirvisible and invisible form (such as outward and inwardorgans of perception &c.).

24. He (in the form of Brahmá), sang at first the fourvedas with his four mouths; he determined the significationsof words, and it was he who established the rules of conduct,which are in vogue to this time.

25. The high and boundless heaven, is the crown of hishead; and the lower earth is the footstool of his feet; the unboundedsky is his capacious belly, and the whole universe isthe temple over his body.

26. The multitudes of worlds all about, are the members ofhis body on all sides; the waters of seas are the blood of thescars upon his body; the mountains are his muscles, and therivers and streams are the veins and arteries of his body.

27. The seas are his blood vessels, and the islands are theligatures round his persons; his arms are the sides of the sky,and the stars are the hairs on his body.

28. The forty-nine winds are its vital airs, the orb of thesun is its eye-ball, while its heat is the fiery bile inside itsbelly.

29. The lunar orb is the sheath of his life, and its coolingbeams are the humid humours of his body; his mind is thereceptacle of his desires, and the pith of his soul is the ambrosiaof his immortality.

30. He is the root of the tree of the body, and the seed ofthe forest of actions; he is the source of all existence, and heis as the cooling moonlight diffusing delight to all beings bythe heating beams of that balmy planet oshadhísa.

31. The orb of the moon, is said in the sruti as the lord oflife, the cause of the body and thoughts and actions of allliving beings (by growing the vegetable food for their subsistanceand sustenance of their lives).

32. It is from this moon like Virát, that contains all vitalityin himself, that all other living beings in the universe take81their rise; hence the moon is the container of life, mind, actionand the sweet ambrosia of all living beings.

33. It is the will or desire of Virát, that produced the godsBrahmá, Vishnu and Siva from himself; and all the celestialdeities and demons, are the miraculous creation of his mind.

34. It is the wonderful nature of the intelligent Intellect,that whatever it thinks upon in its form of an infinitesimalatom, the same appears immediately before it in its giganticform and size.

35. Know Ráma, the whole universe to be seat of the soulof Virát (i.e. the whole universe to be teeming with life), andthe five elements to compose the five component parts of hisbody. (Whose body is all nature and whose soul is God).

36. Virát that shines as the collective or universal soul ofthe world, in the bright orb of the moon, diffuses light and lifeto all individuals by spreading the moonbeams which producesthe vegetable food for the supportance and sustenance of livingbeings.

37. The vegetable substances, which supply the animal bodieswith their sustenance; and thereby produce the life of livingbeings; produce also the mind which becomes the cause of theactions and future births of persons by its efforts towards thesame.

38. In this manner a thousand viráts and hundreds of Mahákalpaperiods have passed away; and, there many such stillexisting and yet to appear, with varieties of customs andmanners of peoples in different ages and climes.

39. The first and best and supremely blest Virát—the maleDeity, resides in this manner of our conception of him, andindistinct in his essence from the state of transcendent divinity;with his huge body extending beyond the limits of space andtime. (This Virát or Brahmá is the Demiurgus of platonicphilosophy).

Argument:—Extinction of individual souls inthe universal, by their abandonment of desires.

Vasishtha continued:—This primary Purusha or theMale agent—Virát, is a volitive principle; and whateverhe wills to do at anytime, the same appears instantly beforehim in its material form of the five elements.

2. It is this will, O Ráma! that the sages say to havebecome the world; because by its being intent upon producingthe same, it became expanded in the same form. (The willof the Deity is the deed itself).

3. Virát is the cause of all things in the world, which cameto be produced in the same form as their material cause. (Becausethe product is alike its producing cause, being a fac-simileof the same).

4 As the great Virát is collectively the aggregate of allsouls, so is he distributed likewise into the individual soul ofevery body. (Hence every soul knowing itself to be a particleof the Divine, cannot think itself as otherwise).

5. The same Virát is manifest in the meanest insect as alsoin the highest Rudra, in a small atom as in the huge hill, andexpands itself as the seed vessel to a very large tree (allwhich are mistaken as parts of the illusive world).

6. The great Virát is himself the soul of every individual,from the creeping insect to the mighty Rudra of air; and hisinfinite soul extends even to atoms, that are sensible and notinsensible of themselves.

7. In proportion as Virát expands and extends his soul toinfinity, so he fills the bodies of even the atomic animalculeswith particles of his own essence.

8. There is nothing as great or small in reality in the83world, but everything appears to be in proportion as it is filledand expanded by the Divine spirit.

9. The mind is derived from the moon, again the moon hassprung from the mind; so doth life spring from life and thefluid water flows from the congealed snow and ice and viceversa. (So there is nothing as greater or less or as the sourceand its outlet).

10. Life is but a drop of the seminal fluid, distilled as a particleby the amorous union of parents. (This life being transmittedfrom generation to generation, there is no one greateror less than another).

11. This life then reflects in itself, and derives the propertiesof the soul, and likens it in the fulness of its perfections.(Hence the soul and life are identified to one and the sameprinciple by many).

12. The living soul has then the consciousness of itself, and ofits existence as one pure and independent soul; but there is nocause whatever, as to how it comes to think itself a materialbeing composed of the five elements.

13. It is through opposition of nature that leads one intoerror, but in fact nature ever remains the same; as wrong interpretationof language imbues bad ideas whereas characterremains the same.

14. The living soul is conscious of its selfexistence, by itsknowledge of living by itself; it is the instinct of the perceptionof things by the mind, and not merely as the breath of life orexternal air, which is devoid of consciousness.

15. But being beset by the frost of ignorance, and confinedto the objects of sense, the living soul is blinded of its consciousnessand is converted to the breathing soul or vital life, and soloses the sight of its proper course.

16. Being thus deluded by the illusion of the world, thesoul sees the duality instead of its unity, and being convertedto the breathing of vital life, it is lost to the sight of the soulwhich is hidden under it.

17. We remain confined to this world of ignorance, as long84we enjoy the idea of ego; but as soon as we give up the idea ofego, we become a free man.

18. Therefore O Ráma! When you will be able to knowthat there is no salvation and confinement in this world, aswell as no sat and asat, then and there you will be a true freeman.

Argument:—Amateurs of learning of two kinds, the real andthe affected or Description of the two kinds of the loversof knowledge, viz, the real and the Fictitious.

Vasishtha continued:—The wise man must alwaysconduct himself wisely, and not with mere show or affectationof wisdom; because the ignorant even are preferable tothe affected and pretended lovers of learning. (According tothe maxim which says that, if the show of anything be goodfor anything, surely the Reality must be better).

2. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, what is meant by truewisdom, and by the show or affectation of it; and what is thegood or bad result of either. (i.e. What kind of men they are,their signs and their respective ends).

3. Vasishtha replied:—He who reads the sástras, and practiceshis learning as a practitioner for earning his livelihood,without endeavouring to investigate into the principles of hisknowledge, is called a friend to learning.

4. Whose learning is seen to be employed in busy life only,without showing its true effect in the improvement of theunderstanding; such learning being but an art or means ofgetting a livelihood, its possessor is called a fellow of learning;(and no doctor in it).

5. He who is satisfied with his food and dress only, as thebest gain of his learning; is known as an amateur and novicein the art of explaining the sástra (or as mere teachers andpedagogues).

6. He who persists in the performance of his righteous andceremonial acts, as ordained by law (Srouta sástra) with anobject of fruition, is termed a probationer in learning, and isnear about to be crowned with knowledge.

7. The knowledge of the soul (spiritual knowledge), is reckoned86as the true knowledge; all other knowledge is merelya semblance of it, being void of the essential knowledge (necessaryfor mankind).

8. Those who without receiving the spiritual knowledge,are content with bits of their secular learning; all their labouris in vain in this world, and they are styled as mere noviciatesin learning.

9. Ráma, you must not rest here with your heart’s content,unless you can rest in the peace of your mind, with your fullknowledge of the knowable one; you must not remain like anovice in learning, in order to enjoy the fruitions of this deleteriousworld. (Here all pleasure is palpable pain).

10. Let men work honestly on earth to earn their bread,and let them take their food for sustenance of their lives; letthem live for the inquiry after truth, and let them learn thattruth, which is calculated to prevent their return to this miserableworld.

Argument:—The signs and characters of wise men and of their wisdom;together with a disquisition into the nature of the world, souland the Supreme spirit or Brahma.

Vasishtha resumed:—The man who by his knowledgeof the knowable one, hath placed his reliance in him;who hath set his mind to its pristine purity, by purging it fromits worldly propensities, and has no faith in the merit of acts;is one who is called the truly wise. (This chapter is in answerto Ráma’s question about who is a wise man &c.).

2. The learned who knowing all kinds of learning, and beingemployed in acts, yet observe their indifference in every thing,are called to be truly wise. (It is wisdom to act, and not expect).

3. He whose heart is observed by the wise, to retain itscoldness in all his acts and efforts; and whose mind is unaffectedlycalm and quiet at all times; is said to be the truly wiseman.

4. The sense of one’s liberation from the doom of birth anddeath, is the true meaning of the word knowledge; or else theart of procuring simple food and raiment, is the practice ofartificers only.

5. He is styled a wise man, who having fallen in thecurrent of his transactions, remains without any desire or expectation,and continues with as vacant a heart as theempty air.

6. The accidents of life come to pass, without any directcause and to no purpose; and what was neither present norexpected, comes to take place of its own accord. (All accidentsare caused by an unknown and unforeseen fate or chance).

7. The appearance or disappearance of an event or accident88proceeds from causes quite unknown to us, and these afterwardsbecome causes of the effects produced by them.

8. Who can tell what is the cause of the absence of horn inhares, and the appearance of water in the mirage, which cannotbe found out or seen at the sight of those objects.

9. Those who explore in the causality of the want of hornsin hares, may well expect to embrace the necks of the sonsand grandsons of a barren woman.

10. The cause of the appearance of the unreal phenomenaof the world to our sight, is no other than our want of rightsight (i.e. our ignorance), which presents these phantoms toour view; and which disappear at a glance of our acute vision(of reason).

11. The living (or human) soul appears as the Supremespirit, when it is viewed upon by the sight of our blendedintellect; but no sooner does the light of Divine intellectdawn in our minds, than the living or animal soul dwindlesinto nothing.

12. The insensible and unconscious Supreme soul, becomesawakened to the state of the living soul; just as the potentialmango of winter, becomes the positive mango fruit in thegenial spring.

13. The intellect being awakened, becomes the living soul;which in its long course of its living, becomes worn out withage and toil, and passes into many births in many kinds ofbeings (animal, vegetable as well as insensible objects).

14. Wise men that are possessed of their intellectual sight,look internally within themselves in the recesses of theirhearts and minds; without looking at the lookables without, orthinking of anything or many efforts whatever; but move onwith the even course of their destiny, as the water flows on itscourse to the ocean of eternity.

15. They who have come to the light of their transcendentvision, fix their sight to brighter views beyond the sphere ofvisibles; and discern the invisible exposed to their view.

16. They who have come to the vision of transcendent light(the glory of God), have their slow and silent motion like that89of a hidden water course; owing to their heedlessness of everythingin this world.

17. They who are regardless of the visibles and thoughtlessof the affairs of the world, are like those that disentangled fromtheir snares; and they are truly wise, who meddle with theirbusiness as freely, as the free airs of heaven gently play withand move the leaves of trees.

18. They who have come to sight of the transcendent light,athwart the dizzy scenes of mortal life; are not constrained tothe course of this world, as seafarers are not to be pent up inshallow and narrow pools and streams. (Sailors are glad to bein the wide ocean, than to ply in the waters of inland creeks).

19. They that are slaves of their desire (of enjoyment inthis and next life), are bound to the thraldom of works ordainedby law and sruti; and thus pass their lives in utterignorance of truth. (Hence knowledge and practice are opposedto one another, the one being a state of bondage forsome frail good and gain, and the other of freedom and lastingbliss).

20. The bodily senses fall upon carnal pleasures, as vulturespounce upon putrid carrion; curb and retract them thereforewith diligence, and fix thy mind to meditate on the state ofBrahma and the soul.

21. Know that Brahma is not without the creation, as nogold is without its form and reflection; but keep yourselfclear from thoughts of creation and reflexion, and confine yourmind to the meditation of Brahma, which is replete withperfect bliss.

22. Know the nature of Brahma to be as inscrutable, as theface of the universe is indiscernible, in the darkness of the chaoticstate at the end of a Yuga age; when there was no appearanceof anything, nor distinction of conduct and manners. (SeeManu’s institutes I. 2).

23. And the elements of production existing in the consciousnessof divine nature, were in their quiescent agitationin the divine spirit; as the movements of flimsy vapours amidstthe darkness of an immovable and wide spreading cloud. (So90are the fickle thoughts of the firm mind, and the moving enginesof the fixed machine).

24. And as the particles of water are in motion, in a stillpond and in the standing pool; so are the changing thoughtsof the changeless soul, and so the motions of the element bodiesin unchanging essence and nature of God.

25. As the universal and undivided sky and space, takethe names of the different sides of heaven (without havingany name or side of its own); so the undivided and partlessBrahma, being one and same with the creation, is understoodas distinct and different from it.

26. The world contains the egoism, as the ego contains theworld in it; they contain the one within the other, as the coatsof the plantain tree contain and are contained under oneanother.

27. The living soul or jíva being possessed of its egoism,sees its internal world (which lies in its egoism), through thepores of the organs of sense, as lying without it; in the samemanner, as the mountains look upon the lakes issuing out ofits caverns, as if they outward things altogether. (So themental and internal world appears as a visibly externalphenomenon).

28. So when the living soul sees itself by mistake, to anything in the world (i.e. in the light of an object); it is thesame as one takes a ball or bar of gold, for an ornament whichwas or is to be made of it. (So the soul residing in any bodyat anytime, is not that body itself but the indwelling powerthereof).

29. Hence they that are acquainted with the soul, and areliberated in their life time (or become jívanmukta); never thinkthemselves to be born or living or dying at any time (thoughthey are thought and looked upon as such by others. Thesoul being eternal and unchangeable).

30. Those that are awakened to the sight of the soul, areemployed in the actions of life without looking at them;(without taking heed of them in their hearts); just as a house-holder91discharges his domestic duties, while his mind is fixedat the milk pot in the cowstall.

31. As the God Virát is situated with his moon like appearance,in the heart of the universal frame, so does the living soulreside in the heart of every individual body like a little orlarge dew drop, according to the smallness or bigness of thecorporeal body.

32. This false and frail body believed to be a solid reality,on account of its tripartite figure; and is mistaken for theego and soul, owing to the intelligence that is displayed anddwells in it.

33. The living soul is confined like a silkworm, in the cellof its own making Karma-Kosha, by acts of its past life, andresides with its egoism in the seed of its parents, as the floralfragrance dwells in the honey cups of flowers.

34. The egoism residing in the seminal seed, spreads itsintelligence throughout the body from head to foot; as themoon-beams are scattered throughout the circumference of thewhole universe.

35. The soul stretches out the fluid of its intelligence,through the openings of its organs of sense; and this beingcarried to a sides through the medium of air, extends all overthe three worlds, as the vapour and smoke fill and cover theface of the sky.

36. The body is full of sensibility, both in its inner as wellas outer parts; but it is in the viscera of the heart, where ourdesires (vásaná) and egoism (abhimána) are deeply seated.

37. The living soul is composed of its desires only, andconsists of and subsists under its hearty wishes alone, the samesoon come out of themselves from within the heart, and appearon the outside in the outward conduct of the person. (Whateveris in the heart, the same appears also in action).

38. The error of egoism is never to be suppressed, by anyother means whatsoever; save by one’s unmindfulness (nis-chitta)of himself, and fulness of divine presence (Brahmaikarasya) in his calm and quiet soul.

9239. Though dwelling on your present thoughts, yet youmust rely in your reflection of the vacuous Brahma; by suppressionof your egoism by degrees and your self-controulbetimes.

40. They who have known the soul, manage themselves herewithout fostering their earthly thoughts anymore; and remainas silent images of wood, without looking at or thinking ofany thing at all.

41. He who has less of earthly thoughts in him, is said tobe liberated in the world; and though living in it, he is as clearand free in his mind as the open air (no earthly affections,tie down his rising soul).

42. The egoism which is bred in the pith, grows intointelligence extending from head to foot; and circulates throughoutthe whole body, as the sun beams pervade all over thesphere of heaven.

43. It becomes the sight of the eyes, the taste of thetongue and hearing in the ears; then the five senses beingfastened to the desires in the heart, plunge the ego into thesea of sensuality.

44. Thus the omnipresent intellect, becomes the mind afterlosing its purity; and is employed with one or other of thesenses, as the common moisture of the earth, grows the sproutin the vernal season.

45. He who thinks on the various objects of the senses,without knowing their unreality and the reality of the onlyone; and does not endeavour for his liberation here, has noend of his troubles in life. (Because sensible objects, affordno intellectual or spiritual happiness).

46. That man reigns as an emperor, who is content withany kind of food and raiment; and with any sort of bedsteadat any place. (And is not confined to any particular modeof life).

47. Who with all his desires of the heart, is indifferent toall the outward objects of desire; who with his vacant mind isfull with his soul, and being as empty vacuum is filled with thebreath of life.

9348. Who whether he is sitting or sleeping, or going anywhereor remaining unmoved, continues as quiet as in his sleepingstate; and though stirred by any one, he is not awakenedfrom his slumber of nirvána, in which his mind and itsthoughts, are all drowned and have become extinct. (This isthe state of the sixth stage of Yoga meditation).

49. Consciousness though common to all, resides yet ineach breast, like fragrance in flowers and flavour in fruits.

50. It is self-consciousness only, that makes an individualperson, and its extinction is said to form the wide world allabout; but being confined to the soul or one’s self, it vanishesthe sight of the world from view. (i.e. The subjective consciousnessis the soul or self, and its objectivity makes the world;and this is the abstract of this doctrine).

51. Be unconscious of the objects on earth; and remaininsensible of all your prosperity and affluence: make your heartas hard as impenetrable as stone, if you will be happy forever.

52. O righteous Ráma! convert the feeling of your heartto unfeelingness, and make your body and mind as insensibleas the hardest stone (upala or opal).

53. Of all the positive and negative acts, of the wise andunwise sets of men, there is nothing that makes such a markeddifference between them, as those proceeding from the desire ofthe one, and those from want of the desire of the other.

54. The result of the desired actions of the unwise, is theirstretching out of the world before them; while that of the actsdone without desire by the wise, serves to put an end to theworld before them. (The acts of desire produce repeated birthsin the world, while the other puts an end to the future transmigrationsof the soul).

55. All visibles are destructible, and those that are destroyedcome to be renewed to life; but that which is neither destroyednor resuscitated, is thyself—thy very soul.

56. The knowledge of existence (of the world), is withoutit* foundation; and though it is thought to be existent, it is not94found to be so in reality; it is as the water in the mirage, whichdoes not grow the germ of the world.

57. The right knowledge of things, removes the thought ofegoism from the mind; and though it may be thought of in themind, yet it takes no deep root in the heart, as the burnt seedor grain does not sprout forth in the ground.

58. The man that does his duties or not, but remains passionlessand thoughtless and free from frailty; has his rest inthe soul, and his nirvána is always attendant upon him.

59. Those who are saintly calm and quiet by the controulof their mind, and by suppression of the bonds (appetites) forenjoyments; but not having weakened (governed) their natures,have in their hearts a mine of evils.

60. The wise soul is full of light like the cloudless sky, andis distinguished from others by its brightness; but the samesoul which is alike in all, appears as dim as the evening twilightin the ignorant.

61. As a man seated in this place, sees the light of heaven(heavenly bodies), as coming to him from a great distance, andfilling the intermediate space; so the light of the Supremesoul fills and reaches to all.

62. The infinite and invisible intellect, which is as wondrousas the clear vacuum of the sky; conceives and displays thiswonderful world, within the infinitude of its own vacuity.

63. The world appears to the learned and unerring, andthose who have got rid of the error of the world, and rest intheir everlasting tranquility, as a consumed and extinguishedlamp; while it seems to all common people, to be placed in theair, by the will of God and for the enjoyment of all. (The twoopposite views of the world with the learned and ignorant).

Argument:—Account of Vasishtha’s meeting a hermit named Mankiin a desert land; and their mutual conversation with regardto self-resignation and liberation.

Vasishtha said:—(I have delivered to you my lectures)on dispassionateness, inappetence and resignation ofworldly desires; rise therefore and go beyond the materialworld after the example of one Manki (as related herein—below).

2. There lived once on a time before a Bráhmana namedManki, who was applauded for his devotion and steadfastnessto holy vows.

3. It happened at one time, that I was coming down fromthe vault of heaven, upon an invitation from your grandfatherAja on some particular occasion.

4. As I then came to wander on the surface of the earth, inorder to reach at the realm of your grandsire; I happened tomeet before me a vast desert, with the burning sunshine overit.

5. It was a dreary waste without its boundary on any side,filled with burning sands and obscured by grey and flying dustover it; and marked by a few scattered hamlets here and there.

6. The extended waste appeared as the boundless andspotless immensity of Brahma, by its unrestricted vacuity, howlingwinds, burning heat and light, its seeming water in thesand, and untrodden ground resting in peace.

7. It seemed as delusive as the appearance of avidyá orillusion itself; by the deceptive waters of mirage upon thesand, by its dulness and empty space and the mist overhangingon all sides of it.

8. As I was wandering along this hollow and sandy wilderness,96I saw a wayfarer sauntering before me and muttering tohimself in the travail of his wearisome journey.

9. The Traveller said:—O the powerful sun! That afflictsme with his blazing beams, as much as the company of evil-mindedmen is for our annoyance.

10. The sunbeams seem to pour down fire on earth, andmelt down the pith and marrow of my body and bones; as theyhave been drying up the leaves and igniting the forest trees(for a conflagration).

11. Therefore it behoves me to repair to yonder hamlet,to allay the weariness of my journey, and recover my strengthand spirits for travelling onward. (So it is said:—the shadybower invites the dry, and drives out the cooled).

12. So saying, he was about to proceed towards the village,which was an habitation of the low caste Kirátas. (The kerrhoidsof Ptolemy, and the present Kerántes of the Himalayas).When I interrupted him by saying:—

13. Vasishtha said:—I hail thee, O thou passenger of thesandy desert, and may all be well with thee, that art my fellowtraveller on the way, and art so good looking and passionless:—

14. O traveller of the lower earth! who have long lived inthe habitations of men, and have not found your rest, how isit now that you expect to have it, in this solitary abode of thismean people?

15. You can have no rest at the abode of the vile peoplein yonder village, which is mostly peopled by the Pamaravillains; thirst is not appeased, but increased by a beverage ofbriny water. (So it is said:—The unquenchable appetite of thegreedy, is never quenched by nourishment, but it nourishes itthe more, as the fuel and butter serve to kindle and feed thefire).

16. These huts and hamlets shelter the cowardly cow-herds(Pallava Gopas) under them, and them that are afraid to walkin the paths of men, as the timid deer are averse to rove beyondtheir own track. (So these solitary swains are as thesavage beasts of the forests).

17. They have no stir or agitation of reason, nor any flash97of understanding or mental faculties in them; they are notafraid of or averse to base actions, but remain and move on asstone-mills and wheels:—

18. Their manliness consists in the emotions of their passionsand affections, and in exhibitions of the signs of theircupidity and aversion, and they delight mostly in actions, thatappear pleasant at the time being or present moment. (Theyare occupied with the present only, being forgetful of the pastand careless of the future).

19. As there is no appearance of a body of rainy clouds,over the dry and parched lands of the desert, so there is noshadow of pure and cooling knowledge ever stretched out onthe minds of these people. (i.e. They have never come underthe benign influence of civilization).

20. Rather dwell in a dark cave as a snake, or remain asa blind worm in the bosom of a stone; or limp about as a lamestag in the barren desert, than mix in company of these villagepeople.

21. These rude rustics resemble the potions of poison, thatare mixed with honey; they are sweet to taste for a moment,but prove deadly at last. (Such are the robbers of deserts andwoods).

22. Again these villainous villagers are as rude as the roughwinds, which are blowing with gusts of dust amidst the shatteredhuts, built with grassy turfs and tufts of the dried leavesof trees. (The word trina means straw also or a straw builthut).

23. Being thus spoken unto by me, the traveller felt himselfas glad, as if he was bathed in ambrosial showers.

24. The passenger said:—Who art thou sir, with thy magnanimoussoul, that seemest to me to be full and perfect in thyself,and full of Divine spirit in thy soul. Thou lookest at thehustle of the bustle of the world, as a passer is unconcerned withthe commotion of the villages beside his way.

25. Hast thou sir, drunk the ambrosial draught of the gods,that gave thee thy Divine knowledge? and art infused withthe spirit of the sovran Virát, that is quite apart from the98plenum it fills, and is quite full with its entire voidness (stretchesthrough all, and unmixed with any).

26. I see thy soul to be as void and yet as full as his, andas still and yet as moving as the Divine spirit; it is all andnot all what exists, and something yet nothing itself.

27. It is quiet and comely, shining and yet unseen; it isinert and yet full of force and energy, it is inactive with all itsactivity and action; and such soul is thine. (These antitheticattributes of the Divine soul, are applied objectively to that ofVasishtha in the second person, as they are subjectively put toone’s ownself in the first person in many other places. Thus inthe Bhagavad Gítá where Krishna assumes to himself the titleof Brahma and says “Resort to Me alone” so says the SufiMansur “I am the true one” so says Hastamulaka in his celebratedrhapsody. “I am that eternal that is conceived byevery one.”)

28. Though now journeying on earth, you seem to range farabove the skies; you are supportless, though supported on asound basis (of the body or Brahma). (i.e. The spirit andmind range freely every where, though they appear to be confinedwithin the limits of the body, or to proceed from and restin the eternal essence of Brahma).

29. Thou art not stretched over the objects, and yet noobject subsists without thee; thy pure mind like the beauteousorb of the moon, is full of the nectarous beams of immortality.(The moon is called the lord of medicinal plants, having thevirtues of conferring life and health to the body).

30. Thou shinest as the full-moon, without any of herdigits or blackish spots in thee; thou art cooling as the moon-beams,and full of ambrosial juice as the disk of that wateryplanet.

31. I see the existence and non-existence of the world,depend upon thy will, and thy intellect contains in it the revolvingworld, as the germ of a tree contains within it the wouldbe fruit.

32. Know me sir, as a Bráhmana sprung from the sage99Sandilya’s race; my name is Manki, and am bent on visitingplaces of pilgrimage.

33. I have made very long journeys, and seen many holyplaces in my peregrinations all about; and have now after longbent my course to revisit my native home. (The toils beingover, the traveller returns home, and there to die. Goldsmith).

34. But my mind is so sick of and averse to the world, thatI hesitate to return to my home, after having seen the lives ofmen passing away as flashes of lightening from this world.

35. Deign now sir, to give me a true account of yourself,as the minds of holymen are as deep and clear as limpidlakes.

36. When great men like yourself show their kindness, toone as mean as myself at the first sight of him, his heart issure to glow with love and gratitude to them, as the lotus budsare blown (by the premature gleams of the rising sun), andare led to be hopeful of their favour towards him.

37. Hence I hope sir, that you will kindly remove the error,which is bred in me by my ignorance of the delusions of thistempting world. (Lit. I believe you are able to do so &c.).

38. Vasishtha replied:—Know me, O wise man, to beVasishtha—the sage and saint, and an inhabitant of the etherialregion; and am bound to this way, on some errand of thesagely king (Aja by name).

39. I tell you sir, not to be disheartened at your ignorance,as you have already come to the path of wisdom, and very nearlygot over the ocean of the world, and arrived at the coast oftranscendental knowledge.

40. I see you have come to the possession of the invaluabletreasure, of your indifference to worldly matters; for this kindof speech and sentiments, and the sedateness of dispositionwhich you have displayed, can never proceed from a worldling,and bespeak your high-mindedness.

41. Know that as a precious stone is polished, by gentleabrasion of its rubbish; so the mind comes to its reasoning,by the rubbing off of the dross of its prejudice.

42. Tell me what you desire to know, and how you want to100abandon the world; it is in my opinion done by practice ofwhat one is taught by his preceptor, or by interrogatories ofwhat he does not know or understand.

43. It is said that whoso has a mind, to go across the doom offuture birth or transmigration of his soul, should be possessedof good and pure desires in his mind, and an understandinginclined to reasoning under the direction of his spiritual guide.Such a person is verily entitled to attain to the state, which isfree from future sorrow and misery.

Argument:—Manki’s relation of the miseries of his life and of thisworld, together with the evils attendant on Human body and its sensesand understanding.

Vasishtha said:—Being thus accosted by me, Mankifell at my feet (in salutation); and then shedding thetears of joy from both his eyes, spoke to me on our way, withdue respect (to my rank).

2. Manki said:—O venerable sir, I have been long travellingin all the ten sides of the earth; but I have never met a holyman like yourself, who could remove the doubts arising in mymind.

3. Sir, I have gained today the knowledge which is thechief good of the body of a Bráhmana, whose sacred person ismore venerable and far more superior in birth and dignity,than the bodies of all other beings in heaven and on earth;but sir am sorry at heart, at seeing the evils of this netherworld.

4. Repeated births and deaths, and the continued rotationsof pleasure and pain, are all to be accounted as painful, on accountof their terminating in pain. (Pain is pain, and pleasuretoo ends in pain).

5. And because pleasure leads to greater pain (at its want),it is better, O sage, to continue in one’s pain (which becomes apleasure by long habit). The sequence of fleeting pleasurebeing but lasting pain, it is to be accounted as such even aslong as it lasts.

6. O friend! all pleasures are as painful to me, as my painshave become pleasurable at this advanced age of mine; whenmy teeth and the hairs of my body, are falling off with thedecay and wearing out of my internal parts also.

7. My mind is continually aspiring to higher stations in102life, and is not persevering in its holy course; and the germ ofmy salvation, is choked by the thorns and thistles of my eviland worldly desires.

8. My mind is situated amidst its passions and affections,within the covert of my body, as the banian tree stands amidstit* falling leaves in the interior of a rustic village; and thedesires are flying like hungry vultures all over its body, insearch of their abominable sustenance.

9. My wicked and crooked thoughts are as the brambles ofcreeping and thorny plants, and my life is a weary and drearymaze, as a dark and dismal night (where and when we areblind-folded to descry our right way).

10. The world with all its people, being parched and driedup like withered plants, without the moisture of true knowledge,and decaying day by day with incessant cares, is fast advancingtowards its dissolution, without being destroyed all at once.

11. All our present acts are drowned in those of our pastlives, and like withered trees bear no flower or fruit in ourpresent life; and actions done with desire, terminate with thegain of their transitory objects. (Therefore no action normeritorious deeds of religion, can ever tend to our salvation.(Which is had by our faith alone)).

12. Our lives are wasted in our attachment to family anddependants, and never employed to lead our souls across theocean of the world; the desire of earthly enjoyments are decayingday by day, and a dreadful eternity awaits before us.

13. Our prosperity and possessions, whether they are moreor less, are as noxious to our souls, as the thorny and poisonousplants growing in the hollow caves of earth; again they areattended with thoughts and cares causing fever heat in thesoul, and emaciating the body.

14. Fortune makes the brave and fortunate people, fallsometimes in the hands of foes; as the man ardent with thedesire of gems in his mind, is tempted to catch the gemmingserpents, lying in dark caves (and lose his life in attemptingto seize the treasure).

15. I being entirely inclined or given up to the objects of103sense, am abandoned by the wise (who hate to touch the vile);and my mind which is polluted by worldly desires, and is allhollow within, is shunned by them as a dead sea with its troubledand turbid waters.

16. My mind is turning also about false vanities, as therheumatic pains all about the body.

17. And I am also even with my innumerable deathshunting after desired vacuity for sorrow, though my mind ispurged from the dross of ignorance by reading sástra andassociating good men; as the moon and stars which with itspower of removing darkness, stand good in vacuity.

18. There is no end of the dark night of my ignorance,when the gloomy spectre of my egoism is playing its part; andI have not the knowledge, which like a lion may destroy thefurious elephant of my ignorance, and burn down as fire thestraws of my actions.

19. The dark night of my earthly desire or cupidity is notyet over, and the sun of my disgust of the world is not risenas yet; I still believe the unreal as real, and mind is rovingabout as an elephant.

20. My senses have been continually tempting me, and Iknow not what will be the end of these temptations, which preventeven the wise people, from observing precepts of the sástras.

21. This want of sight or disregard of the sástras, leads toour blindness by kindling our desires, and by blinding ourunderstanding;—

22. Therefore tell me sir, what am I to do in this difficulty,and what is that may conduce to my chief good, that I amasking thee to relate.

23. It is said that, the mist of our ignorance flies like theclouds, at the sight of wise men and purification of our desires;now sir, verify the truth of this saying of wise men, by yourenlightening my understanding, and giving peace to my mind.

Argument:—The avarana sakti or all-enfolding power ofGod is called ignorance, his vikshepa sakti or delusivepower is the cause of error, and the combination of bothcause the world.

Vasishtha said:—Consciousness (of the objects of perception),their reflection, the desire of having them andtheir imagination, are the four roots of evil in this world; andthough these words are meaningless, yet considerable sense isattached to them (as categories of some schools of false philosophy);as the four sources of knowledge.

2. Know that knowledge (of externals) is their reflexionalso, which is the seat (or root) of all evils; and all our calamitiesproceed therefrom, as thickly as vegetation springs outof the vernal juice (or breath of spring).

3. Men garbed in the robes of their desires, walk in thedreary paths of this world, with very many varieties of theiractions (both temporal and ritual), as there are circles drawnunder a circle (i.e. one circle of duty enclosing many othersunder it).

4. But these aberrations and wanderings over the earth, areat an end to the wise together with their desires; as the moistureof the ground, is dried up and diminishes at the end ofthe vernal season.

5. Our various desires, are the growers of the very manythorny plants and brambles in the world; as the vernal moistureis the cause of growing the thick clumps of kadalí orplantain trees.

6. The world appears as a dark maze to the mind, that iscloyed in the serum of its lickerish appetites; as the ground isshaded under the bushy trees, by the sap supplied by the vernalseason.

7. There is nothing in existence except the clear and vacuous105intellect, as there is nothing in the boundless sky, besidethe hollow vacuity of the air. (This is another passage of thevacuistic theory of Vasishtha).

8. There is no intelligent soul beside this one, and all elseis the everlasting reflexion of this one alone; This it is whichis styled ignorance and error, and the world also.

9. He is seen without being seen, and is lost upon beingseen (that is, the Lord is seen in the spirit and not by the visualsight). On looking to it an unreal or evil spirit appears to sightinstead of the true and holy spirit, like ghosts and goblinsappearing before children. (Whoever wishes to the spirit ofGod, sees the spirit of the devil only).

10. It is by rejecting all visible sights, the understandingviews the one essence of all, and all things dwindle into it, asall the rivers on earth, run and fall into one universal ocean.(The one invisible unity is the essence of multiplicity).

11. As an earthen ware cannot be without its earth; so allintelligent beings, are never devoid of their intelligence orthe intellect. (This couplet corroborates the eighth verse, whereit is said that, there is nothing except the intellect).

12. Whatever is known by the understanding, is said to beour knowledge; but the understanding has no knowledge ofthe unknowable, nor want of understanding can have anyknowledge, owing to their opposite natures. (Because understandingand knowledge are of the same nature, but understandingand unknowable are contraries, and want of understandingand the knowable are sub-contraries). (The plain meaning isthat the understanding knows the knowable and not the unknowable;while want of understanding knows neither the onenor the other).

13. As there is the same relation of knowledge between thelooker, his seeing and sight (i.e. the subject, act, andobject of seeing); so it is omniscience of Brahma which is theonly essence. (Sáraikarasyam), all else is as null as an aerialflower (Kha-pushpa) which never exists.

14. Things of the same kind bear an affinity to one another,and readily unite in one (as water with water &c.); so the world106being alike to its notion, and all notions being alike to theeternal ideas in the mind of God, the world and the divine mind,are certainly the same thing and no other.

15. If there be no knowledge or notion of wood and stonein us, then they would be the same as the non-existent thingsof which we have no notion:—(such as the horns of a hare ora flower in the air).

16. When the outward and visible features of things, areso exactly similar to the notions and knowledge of them thatwe have in our minds; therefore they appear to be no otherthan our notions or knowledge of them. (Because thingsagreeing in all respects with one another, must be the sameand very thing).

17. All visible appearances in the universe, are only theoutstretched reflexions of our inner ideas; their fluctuation is asthat of the winds, as their motion is as that of the waters inthe ocean.

18. All things are mixed up with the omnipresent spirit,as a log of wood is covered over by lac-dye; both of whichappear to be mixed together to the unthinking, but both aretaken for the one and same thing by the thinking part of mankind;(who believe the spirit to exhibit itself in all shapesÁpna jathaika bhuvana).

19. The idea of reciprocity is unity, and the knowledge ofmutuality is union also; such as the interchange of water andmilk, and so the correlation of vision and visibles; and notas the union of the wood and lac-dye with one another. (Thismeans unity to consist in the interchangeableness and interdependenceof two things as of the spirit and matter, and not assticking the lac-dye upon wood, but as fire inhering in everyparticle of the wood, as it is expressed in the afore citedsruti):—

20. The knowledge of one’s egoism is his bondage, and thatof his unegoism is his emancipation from it; thus one’s imprisonmentin and enfranchisem*nt from the confines of his bodyand the world; being both under his subjection, why is it that107he should be slack to sit himself at freedom from his perpetualthraldom?

21. Like our sight of two moons in the sky, and our beliefof water in the mirage, we believe in the reality of our egoism,which is altogether an unreality. (Lit. We think it presentwithout its presence).

22. The disbelief in one’s self or his egoism, removes hismeity (mámatá) or selfishness also; and it being possible toeveryone to get rid of them, how is it that he should be ignorantof it?

23. Why do you maintain your egoism only, to be confined inthe cell of your body, like a plum drowned in a cup of water, orlike the air confined in a pot? your relation to God is to be noother but like himself and to be one with him, is to have thereciprocal knowledge of yourself in the likeness of God (i.e. tobe like the image of God in perfection).

24. It is said that the want of reciprocal knowledge, makesthe union of two things into one (i.e. the entire comminglingof two things together makes them one); but this is wrong inboth ways, because neither doth any dull material thing or anyspiritual substance, lose its own form (however mixed up withone or the other).

25. Neither is force converted into inertness (i.e. the spiritnever becomes matter), from the indestructibility of their nature,and whenever the spiritual is seen or considered as the material,it becomes a duality, and there is no unity in this view ofthe two. (Hence there is no union or entire assimilation eitherof the spirituals or materials).

26. Thus men being under the influence of their desires,and beset by their vanities of various kinds (altogether) aregoing on downward still, as a stone torn from the head of acliff, falls from precipice to precipice headlong to the ground.

27. Men are as straws carried here and there by the currentof their desire, and whirled about in its eddy; they are overtakenby and overwhelmed in an endless series of difficultieswhich <are> impossible for me to enumerate. (The Sanskrit na párjateis the Bengali párájáyaná).

10828. Men being cast like a ball flung from the palm of fate,are hurried onward by their ardent desires till they are hurledheadlong into the depth of hell; where being worried andworn out with hell torments, they take other forms and shapesafter lapses of long periods (to undergo fresh toils and troubleson earth).

Argument:—The vanity of Human wishes, and the Tranquilityof Rational and spiritual speculation.

Vasishtha said:—Thus the living soul, being let fallin the mazy path of his world, is encompassed by calamitiesand accidents as countless as the animalcules, which aregenerated in the rainy season.

2. All these accidents though unconnected with one another,follow yet so fast and closely upon each other, as the detachedstone lying scattered and close together in the rocky desert, andlinked in a lengthening chain of thought in the mind of man.

3. The mind blinded of its reason, becomes a wildernessovergrown with the arbour of its calamities, and yet appearingto be smiling as a vernal grove before men, by its feigned merrimentand good humour. (Mirth and sorrow are both of themthe effects of unreasonableness).

4. O how pitiable are all those beings! Who being bound totheir subjection to hope, are subjected to divers states of painand pleasure, in their repeated births in various forms on earth.

5. Alas for those strange and abnormal desires, whichsubject the minds of men, to the triple error of taking thenon-existent to be actually present before them. (The tripleerror (Triputi bhrama) consists in the belief of the visibles,their vision and the viewer of them, that is, in the subject, actand objects of sight, which are all viewed as unreal in the lightof vedánta).

6. Those who have known the truth, are delighted in themselves,they are immortal in their mortal life, and are diffusersof pure light all about them. What then is the differencebetween the sapient sage who is coldhearted in all respects,and the cooling moon (who cools and enlivens and enlightensthe world with her ambrosial beams?).

1107. And what is the difference between a whimsical boy anda covetous fool, who covets anything whatever at hand withoutany consideration of the past and future (good or evil whichattends upon it).

8. What is the difference between the greedy fool andvoracious fish or whale, that devour the alluring bait of pleasureor pain; and will not give up the line until they are sureto give up their lives for the same. (All seeming pleasure isreal pain, and bane of both the body and soul of men).

9. All our earthly possessions whether of our bodies or lives,our wives, friends and properties, are as frail as a brittle platemade of sand, which no sooner it is dried and tried than itspurts and breaks to pieces.

10. O my soul! Thou mayst forever wander, in hundredof bodies of various forms in repeated births; and pass fromthe heaven of Brahmá to the empyrean of Brahma; yet thoucanst never have thy tranquility, unless thou attainest theeven insouciance of thy mind. (The stoic impassivity is thehighest felicity).

11. The ties and bondage of the world, are dispersed bymature introspection into the nature of things; as the unevenruggedness of the road, does not retard the course of the wayfarerwalking with his open eyes.

12. The negligent soul becomes a prey to concupiscenceand unruly passions, as the heedless passenger is caught inthe clutches of demons; but the well-guarded spirit is freefrom their fright.

13. As the opening of the eyes, presents the visibles to sight;so doth the waking consciousness introduce the ego andphenomenal world into the mind. (i.e. Consciousness is thecause of both the subjective and objective).

14. And as the shutting of the eyelids, shuts out the viewof the visible objects from sight; so, O destroyer of enemies,the closing of consciousness, puts out the appearance of allsights and thoughts from your eyes and mind (and thisunmindfulness of everything besides, prepares the soul for thesight of the most high).

11115. The sense of the existence of the external world, togetherwith that of one’s ego or self-existence, is all unreal and inane,it is consciousness alone that shows everything in itself andby the fluctuation of its erroneous; as the motion of windsdisplays the variegated clouds in the empty air. (It is theimaginative faculty of the mind, that creates and presents thesephantoms before it).

16. It is the divine consciousness only, which exhibits theunreal phenomenals as real in itself, without creating anythingapart or separate from its own essence; in the same manneras earth or any metal produces a pot or a jar out of itself, andwhich is no wise distinct or separate from its substance.

17. As the sky is only a vacuity, and the wind is a merefluctuation of air; and as the waves are composed of nothingbut water; so the world is no other than a phenomenon of consciousness:(because we have no knowledge of it without ourconsciousness of it).

18. The world subsists undivided in the bas-relief of consciousness,and without a separate existence of its own apart ordisjoined in any part, from its substance or substratum of theconscious soul, which is as calm and clear as the empty air,and the world resembles the shadow of a mountain in thebosom of water, or a surge or wave rising on the surface of thesea.

19. There rises a calm coolness in the souls of wise andinexcitable sages, when the shining worlds appear as the coolingmoon beams falling on the internal mirror of their minds.

20. How is it and by what means and in what manner, isthis invisible supreme light, produced in the calm and quiet andall pervading auspicious soul, amidst the empty expanse ofthe universe. (Here is a double question of the productionof uncreated light in creation and of the manifestation of divineand spiritual light in the quiet soul).

21. That essence which is expressed by the term Brahma,forms the essential nature and form of everything besides; andthe same is permeated throughout all nature, except where it isobstructed by some preventive cause or other,—bádhá.

11222. Anything which presents a hindrance to this, and whateveris preventive of the pervasion of divine essence, is a nullityin nature like a sky flower—ákása pushpa, which is nothing atall in nubibus.

23. The wise man sits quietly like a stone, without theaction of even his inner and mental faculties; because thelord is without the reflection or sensation of anything, andwithout birth or decay at anytime. (Here the mind and itsworkings, are explained as vikalpaná or changing thoughts,which are wanting in the eternal mind).

24. He who remains insensible and unconscious of everything, like the empty state of the open sky; arrives by his constantpractice to his state of sound sleep or hypnotism withoutthe disturbance of dreams.

25. But how is it to be known that the world is the merethought or will of the Divine mind? Whereto it is said: Itis the creative power of Brahma (called Brahmá or Hiranyagarbha—thedemiurgus), thought of forming the wondrous worldin his mind (as it were he pictured it in himself), without theaid of any tool or instrument or means or ground for its construction;hence (it is plain), the world is merely ideal andnothing real, nor is there any cause or creator of it whatsoever.

26. As the lord stretches out the world in his thought, heor it instantly becomes the same; and as the lord is without anyvisible form, so this seeming world has no visible nor materialform whatever; nor is there any framer of what is simply ideal.

27. So all men are happy or unhappy, as they think themselvesto be one or the other in their minds; they all abide inthe same universal soul, which is common to all; and yet believethemselves every one of his own kind in his mind.

28. Therefore it is as vain to view anything, or any intellectualbeing, in the light of an earthly substance, as it is false totake the visionary hills of one’s dream, in the light of theirbeing real rocks situated on earth.

29. By assigning egoism to one’s self, he becomes subjectto error and change; but the want of egoism, places the soul113to its invariable identity and tranquility. (i.e. The sense ofone’s personality, subjects him to change and misery).

30. As the meaning of the word bracelet, is nothing differentfrom the gold (of which it is made); so the sense of thyfalse egoism, is no other than that of the tranquil soul. (Thesoul, self, and ego are all the one and same thing).

31. The anaesthetic sage, that is cold-blooded and soberminded as a silent muni, is no voluntary actor of any act, althoughhe may be physically employed in his active duties; andthe quiet saint carries with him an empty and careless mind,although it may be full of learning and wisdom. (Lit. the knowerof God is as quiet, as the calm vacuum of heaven).

32. The wise man manages himself as a mechanical figure orpuppet, never moving of its own motion but moving as it ismoved, and having no impulse of his desire within him, he sitsas quiet as a doll without its mobility.

33. The wise man that knows the soul, is as quiet as a babesleeping in a swinging cradle, and which is moved withoutmoving itself; or he moves the members of his body like ababy, without having any cause for his doing so.

34. The soul that is intent on the thought of the one (Supreme)only, and is as calm and quiet as the infinite spirit of God;becomes unconscious of itself and all other things, together withall its objects of desire, and expectations of its good and bliss.

35. He that is not the viewer himself, nor has the view beforehim, and is exempt from the triple condition (triputi bhába)of the subjective, objective and action; can have no object inhis view; which is concentrated in the vision of the invisible one.

36. Our view or regard of the world, is our strict bondage,and disregard of it, is our perfect freedom; he who rests thereforein his disregard of (or indifference to) whatever is expressedby words, has nothing to look after or desire.

37. Say, what is it that is ever worth our looking after, orworthy of our regard; when these material bodies of ours, are asevanescent as our dreams, and our self-existence is a mere delusion.(There is nothing therefore worthy of our inquiry besidethe divine intellect. Gloss).

11438. Therefore the wise man rests only in his knowledge ofthe true one, by subjection of all his efforts and desires, andquelling all his curiosity; and being devoid of all knowledge,save that of the knowable one.

39. Hearing all this, Manki was released from his greaterror; as a Snake gets loose from its slough by which it hasbeen fast bound.

40. He retired from there to a mountain, on which heremained in his deep meditation for a century of years; anddischarged the duties that occurred to him of their own accord,without his retaining any desire of any (or expectation offruition).

41. He resides there still, unmoved and insensible as astone, quite callous in all his senses and feelings, and wakefulwith his internal sensibility by the light of his yogacontemplation.

42. Now Ráma, enjoy your peace of mind, by relying inyour habit of reasoning and discrimination; do not depraveyour understanding, under the fits of your passion; nor letyour mind turn to its levity like a fleeting cloud, in the unrainyseason of autumn.

Argument:—Mistake of the action of the Intellect in the action of themind, as the cause of the phenomenal world; and the removal of thiserror of the mind, as the cause of the intellectual peace and rest inits real state.

Vasishtha continued:—Be dead to your sensibility, andretain the tranquility of your soul, by conforming withwhatsoever thou gettest or is meted out to thy lot; or else thefair (order of nature and ordinance of God), will appear as foul,as a pure crystal shows itself as black in the shade.

2. All and every thing being contained in the only one, allextended soul, we can not conceive how the conception ofvariety or multiplicity can rise from the unity. (To Him nohigh, no low, no great, no small; He fills, he bounds, connects,and equals all. Pope).

3. The category of the intellect is entirely of a vacuousnature, and having neither its beginning nor end; and isneither produced nor destroyed, with the production anddestruction of the body. (And though it is diffused all overthe body and its various powers and senses, yet there isvariation of its own essence. Gloss).

4. All insensible and material bodies, are moved by themiraculous power of the intellect or mind; which being unmovedof itself gives motion to bodies, as the still waters of thesea gives rise to the waves. (Here the intellect is explainedas the mind in the gloss).

5. As it is an error to suppose a sheet of cloth in a cloud,so the supposition of egoism in the body, is altogether erroneous:(since one’s personality consists in the soul and not inthe person).

6. Do not rely in the unreal body, which is of this world,and grows to perish in it; but depend on the real essence of116the endless spirit, for thy everlasting happiness (in bothworlds).

7. The vacuous intellect, is the essential property of theimmortal soul; this is the transcendent reality in nature, andmay this super-excellent entity be thy essence likewise.

8. If you are certain of this truth, you become as gloriousas that essence also; because the deep meditator loses himselfin the meditated object, in his intense meditation of the same.(This assimilation of the triputi or triple condition of the thinkerand his act and object of thought in one, is the meaning andmain end of the yoga meditation of union).

9. The triple condition of the viewer, view and act of viewing,are the three properties of the one and same intellect; andthere is nothing which is any other than (or not the same with)the knowledge thereof, as there is no thought unlike the act ofits thinking. (This shows the agreement of the cause, itscausation and effect).

10. The soul is ever calm and clear and uniform in itsnature, it does not rise and fall like the tides by the lunarinfluence, nor is it soiled like the sea waters by tempestuouswinds. (The soul is ever unruffled at any event).

11. As a passenger in a boat beholds the rocks and trees onthe bank to be in motion, and as one thinks a shell or conch tobe composed of silver; so the mind mistakes the body for reality,(which in truth is an unreal appearance).

12. As the sight of the material dismisses the view of theintellectual, so doth intellectuality discard the belief of thematerial; and so the knowledge of the living soul beingresolved in the supreme soul, there remains nothing at last,except the unity of the all pervading spirit.

13. The knowledge that all this (world), is quite calm andquiet (in its nature); and the whole is an evolution of thedivine spirit, takes away the belief in everything else, which isnaught but the product of error and illusion.

14. As there is no forest in the sky, nor moisture in thesands; and as there is no fire in the disk of the moon, so there117is no material body in the sight of the mind. (Mentally considered,there is no matter).

15. Ráma fear not for this world—the mere creation of thyerror, and without its real existence whatsoever, know thistranscendent truth, O thou best amongst the inquirers of truth,that this world is a nullity and void.

16. Your mistake of the existence of the visible world, andthe disbelief which you fostered with regard to the entity of theinvisible soul, must have been removed this day by my preaching,say now what other cause there may be of your bondage inthis world.

17. As a plate, water-pot and any other earthenware, is nomore than the earth (of which it is made); so the outer worldis no other than the inner thought of the mind, and it wearsaway under the power of reasoning.

18. Whether exposed to danger and difficulty, or placed inprosperity or adversity, or betided by affluence or penury; youmust preserve, O Ráma, your even disposition amidst the consciousness(or knowledge) of your joy and grief; be gladly free fromthe knowledge of your egoism, and remain as you are sedate byyour nature, and without your subjection in any state.

19. Remain Ráma, as thou art, like the moon in the sphereof thy race, with thy full knowledge of everything in nature;avoid thy joy and grief at every occurrence, and give up thydesire and disgust for anything in the world. Do so or as youmay choose for yourself.

Argument:—Act, actor and action are one the same, the word Daiva andits explanation; oscillation of intellect is the cause of creation.

Ráma said:—Please sir, explain to me moreover regardingthe acts of men, which become the causes of their repeatedbirths, as seeds are sources of the germs of future trees; andthose to which the word daiva or divian is applied, imply theDivine dispensation, destiny or fate.

2. Vasishtha replied:—The meaning of daiva or destiny,is as that of a potter in producing the pottery; it is the act ofintelligence (samvid), and not of blind chance, nor of humaneffort or manliness.

3. How is it possible for any action to be done by manlyexertion only, without some effort of the understanding directinghuman energy to action; it is this intelligent power thatmakes the world and all what it contains.

4. The prosperity of the world depends on the understanding,exerting itself with a desire to bring about some certainend; and it ceases with the course of the course of the world,upon the exertion of the understanding to no purpose.

5. The insouciance or want of desire in the mind, is calledits negative act, and the mind that merely moves on withoutengaging in any pursuit, is as a current stream without its undulation.(So mere living is no life without its action).

6. There is no difference between a thinking and unthinkingsoul, unless the mind of one is actuated by its imagination,to the invention of some manly art or work.

7. As there is no essential duality or difference in the waterand its waves, and between desire and its result; so there is nodistinction betwixt the intellect and its function, nor is thereany difference in the actions from the person of their agent.

1198. Know Ráma, the action as the agent, and the actor thesame with his action; both these are quite alike as the ice andcoldness. (i.e. Man is known by his act, and the actions bespokethe man).

9. As the frost is cold and coldness the same with frost,so the deed is the same as its doer, and the doer is alike thedeed done by him. (Every one is accountable for his deed,and the deed recurs to the doer of it).

10. The vibration of the Intellect (i.e. the divine will),is the same as destiny which is also the agent of action; theseare synonymous terms expressing the same thing, and destiny,deed and other words have no distinct meaning.

11. The oscillation of the intellect is the cause of creation,as the seed is the source of the germ of a tree; want of thisvibration is productive of nothing, wherefore intellectual activitycontains in it the germinating seed of the whole world.(i.e. The action of the mind causes all things, and its inactionis the cause of total suspense).

12. The divine mind contains in its infinite expanse all theample space of time and place; and is of its own nature sometimesin its fluctuation, and at others at a stand still like thevast ocean on earth.

13. The causeless and uncausing seed of the intellect, beingmoved by desire, becomes cause of the minutiae of materialbones, as the seed becomes productive of its germs and sprouts.

14. All vegetable productions as the grass and all sorts ofplants and creepers, vegetate from within their particular seedsas their origin; and these seed originate from the pulsation ofthe divine mind, which is increate and without any for it.(The pulsation of the divine mind is its creative will, which isthe seed or source of creation).

15. There is no difference between the seed and its sprout,as there is no distinction of the heat from fire; and as you findthe identity of the seed and its sprout, so must you know theidentity of man with his acts. (i.e. Actions make the man,and the man does his actions like himself).

16. The divine Intellect exerts its power in the bosom of120the earth, and grows the sprouts of the unmoving vegetablecreation as from its seed; and these become great or small,straight or crooked as the waves of the sea as it would havethem to be.

17. What other power is there beside that of the intellect,to grow the sturdy oaks and arbors from the soft clay andhumid moisture, which compose the bosom of the earth?

18. It is this Intellect that fills the seeds of living beingswith the vital fluid, as the sappy juice abiding in the inside ofplants, gives growth to the flowers and fruits on the outside.

19. If this all inhering intellect, were not almighty also atthe same time, say then what other power is there, that couldproduce the mighty gods and demigods in air, and the hugemountains on earth.

20. The divine mind contains in it the seeds of all movingand unmoving beings, which have their being from the movementof this intellectual power, and from no other sourcewhatever.

21. As there is no difference in the alternate production ofthe seed and the germ or fruit from one another, so there is nodifference in the commutual causation of man and his acts andthe vice versa. In this manner also there is no shade ofdifference, betwixt the swelling waves and the sinking waters ofthe sea. (Man is but a bubble of its own blowing in the vastocean of Eternity).

22. Fie to that silly and beastly being, who does not believein the reciprocality of man and his action or of the agent and theact, by the law of mutatis mutandis inculcated in the vedas.

23. The prurience that is inherent in one’s consciousness, isthe embryonic seed of his resuscitation to life; in the manner ofthe germination of plants: it is therefore meet to render thisseed abortive by frying it in the fire of inappetency.

24. The doing of a thing with listlessness, and the performanceof an act whether good or bad without taking it to themind, is what is called lukewarmness by the learned.

25. Or it is exemption from desire, that is said to loosen aman from all connection; therefore try by all means in your121power, to create in your mind a total unconcern for every one,and indifference to all things whatsoever.

26. In whatever manner you think it possible for you torid of your lickerish desires, whether by means of your theoreticalor practical yoga (the rája and hatha yogas), or by meansof your manly exertion; you must root every desire from yourheart, in order to secure your best welfare and perfect felicity.

27. But then you must endeavour to the utmost of yourmanly power, to suppress some portion of your egoism, in orderto prevent the rise of selfish passions and desires within yourhealth.

28. There is no other course of fording the unfordableexpanse of the world, save by the exercise of our manly virtues;nor is there any other way of extinguishing our ardentdesires, except by the extinction of egoism.

29. It is the inherent consciousness of the ever existent soul,which is both the prime seed as well as the first germ of theworld; the same is the source both of action as also of itscause and effect of the person of man. It is that which isdesignated as destiny and the weal and woe of all.

30. In the beginning there was no other seed nor its sprout,nor even any man nor his action; nor was there any such thingas destiny or doom or any other prime cause, but all thatexisted was the Supreme intellect which is all in all.

31. There is neither any seed nor its germ in reality, nor isthere any action or its active agent de facto; but thereonly one Supreme intellect in absolute and positive existence,and it is under the auspices of this hallowed name, that you seeO sage! all these gods and demigods, and all men and women,are performing their respective parts as actors on the stageof the world.

32. Knowing this certain truth, and thinking thyself asthe imperishable one, be freed from thy thoughts of the agentand action; give up all thy desires and false imagination, andlive to reflect with thy body of self-consciousness alone. (Considerthyself as an intellectual being, and not the dull corporealbody).

12233. Remain fearless, O Ráma, and be more graceful with thecalm composure of thy mind. Allay all thy desires and layaside thy fears with them. Rely on thy clear intellect andcontinue to do thy endless acts (by guidance of the same).Be full in thyself with the Supreme soul, and thus thou shalthave the fulness of thy desires fulfilled in thee.

Argument:—Necessity of discharging our social duties, as they occurunto us at any time: and that of conducting our contemplationin solitude.

Vasishtha continued to say:—Remain always to lookinwardly in thyself, by being freed from the feelings ofpassion and desire, continue in the performance of thy actionsevery where, but reflect always upon the quiet and spotlessintellect within thyself.

2. The mind which is as clear as the open sky, and is fullof knowledge and settled in the divine intellect; which is evereven and graceful and replete with joy, is said to be highlyfavoured of heaven and expanded by Brahma.

3. Whether be taken by pain and grief, or exposed to dangersand difficulties, or attended by pleasure or prosperity, ina greater or less degree.

4. In whatever place and in whatsoever state thou art placed,bear with thy afflictions with an unsorrowful heart; and whetherthou weepest or criest, or becomest a play of opposite circ*mstances,be joyous in both for both are meant for thy good.

5. You are delighted in the company of your consorts, andfeel joyous at the approach of festivity and prosperity; and itis because you are tempted like ignorant people, by your fonddesire of pleasure.

6. Fools that are allured by their greediness of gain, meetwith their fate in hazardous exploits and warfare; and it isfit that they should burn with the fire of their desire, likestraws consumed in a conflagration.

7. Earn money by honest means and with the circ*mspectionof a crane, in whatever chance presents itself before thee;and do not run in pursuit of gain, like the ignorant rabble.

8. O thou destroyer of thy foes, drive away by force all thy124desires as the greatest enemies, and as winds of heaven driveafar the rainless and empty clouds of the sky.

9. Be tolerant, O Ráma, towards the ignorant people, thatare led away by their desires and deserve thy pity; be reverentof highminded men, and delighted in thyself by observing thetaciturnity of thy speech, and without being misled by thydesires like the ignorant mob.

10. Congratulate with joy and sympathise with sorrow,(whether of thyself or others); pity the sorrows of the poor, andbe valiant among the brave.

11. Turn your eyes into your heart, and be always joyousby communing with yourself (or soul); and then whatever youdo with a liberal mind, you are not to answer for the same asits agent.

12. By remaining fixed in the meditation of your soul, andby having your eyes always turned within yourself; you shallbe invulnerable even at the stroke of a thunderbolt (darted bythe hand of Indra). So saith the sruti:—The Gods have nopower to hurt the holy. Tasya hana deváscha ná bhútya ishate.

13. He is said to be master of himself, who is freed fromthe delusion of desire, and lives retired in the cave of hisconsciousness; who is attached to his own soul and acts at hisown will, and has his delight in his very self. (Because saysthe sruti—Whoso goes out of himself, loses his very self).

14. No weapon can wound the self-possest man, nor firecan chafe his soul; no moisture can damp the spirit, nor thehot winds can dry it up. (No elemental influence can prevailon the spiritual soul).

15. Lay hold on the firm pillar of your soul, which is unbornor increate, undecaying and immortal; adhere steadfastly to thysoul, as one clings to the prop or column of his house.

16. The world is an arbor, and all things in it are as theflowers of this tree; our knowledge of all things, is as thefragrance of these flowers; but our self-consciousness is theessence of them all; therefore look internally to this inwardessence before you mind the externals.

17. All outward affairs, are brought about by their inward125reflection in the mind; but it is as hard to bring about a desireinto being, as to raise a stone to life.

18. Get rid of your bodily exertions and lull your mind tosleep; be doing all your duties, as a tortoise with its contractedlimbs. (i.e. Act with indifference, and without being moved).

19. Manage thine affairs with a half-sleeping and halfawakened mind (like a waking sleeper); and do thy outwardfunctions (without the exertion of your mental faculties).

20. As babes are possessed of their innate knowledge, anddumb creatures are endowed with their instinct, without thefeeling of any desire rising in them; so they live and actwith their minds unattached to anything, and as vacant asthe empty air.

21. Remain untroubled and free from care, with entirelysleepy and comatose mind within thyself; a mind devoid of allits functions and quite absorbed in itself, and slightly acting onthe members of the body.

22. You may continue to discharge or dispense with yourduties altogether, by impairing your mind with knowledge, andresting quietly in your pure consciousness, after it is purgedfrom the stain of appetence.

23. Go on managing your outward affairs in your wakingstate, as if your faculties were dormant in sleep; and neverhanker to have anything, nor let go aught that presents itselfto thee.

24. If you are dormant when waking, by your inattention toall about you; so are you awake when sleeping by your trancein the bosom of the Supreme soul; and when you are in thecondition of the union of the two, you attain to the state ofperfect consummation.

25. Thus by your gradual practice of this habit of insouciance,you reach to that state of unity, which has neither itsbeginning nor end, and which is beyond all other things.

26. The world is certainly neither a unity nor duality (but iscomposed of a plurality in its totality, or the one in manyA han Bahushaym), leaving therefore the inquiry into its endless126varieties, resort to your Supreme bliss, with a mind as clearas the translucent sphere of empty air.

27. Ráma rejoined:—If it be so, O great sage! (That thereis no ego or tu as you say), then tell me, why are we consciousof ourselves, and how are you sitting here under the name ofthe sage Vasishtha.

28. Valmíki said:—Being thus interrogated by Ráma, Vasishthathe best of speakers, remained silent for a moment, ponderingon the answer he should make.

29. This silence of his created some anxiety in the royalaudience, and Ráma too being perplexed in his mind, repeatedhis question to the sage and said:—

30. Why sir, are you silent like myself? I see there is nosuch argument in the world, which sages like yourself are unableto solve and expound:—

31. Vasishtha replied:—It is not owing to my inability tospeak, nor want of argument on my part that made me hold mytongue; but it is the wide scope of your question that withheldme from giving its answer. (Or from answering to it).

32. Ráma! There are two kinds of querists, namely, theignorant inquisitor and the intelligent investigator; and sothere are two modes of argumentation also for them respectively:the simple mode for simpletons, and the rational form forintelligent and reasonable men.

33. You had been so long, Ráma, ignorant of superior knowledge,and fit to be taught in ordinary equivocal language.

34. But now you have become a connoisseur of superiortruth, and found your rest in the state of supreme felicity; andare no longer to benefit by the ambiguous language of commonspeech.

35. Whenever a good speaker wishes to deliver an eloquentspeech, whether it be a long or short one, or relate to someabstruse or spiritual subject (he must satisfy himself first).

36. The ego being the counterpart or privation of all representation,is inexpressible by representative sounds andwords; and being beyond the predicaments of number andother categories, is not predicable by any of them or other127fiction of fancy. It is the totality of all, as light is composed ofinnumerable particles of ray.

37. It is not right, O Ráma, that one who has known thetruth (the gnostic), should give an imperfect or defective answerto a question (proposed to him). But what can he do, whenno language is perfect or free from defect, as you know it well.

38. It is right, O Ráma, that I who know the truth, shoulddeclare it as it is to my pupils; and the knower of abstract truthis known to remain as mute as a block of wood, and the soundnessof whose mind is hard to sound. (So says the Persianmystic:—He who has known the unknowable, has become unknownto himself and others).

39. It is want of self-cogitation that causes one to speak,(i.e. unsoundness of thought sounds in high sounding words);but they hold their silence who know the Supreme excellence;and this is the best answer that is given thy inquiry into thistruth.

40. Every man, O Ráma, speaks of himself as he is (orthinks himself to be); but I am only my conscious self, which isunspeakable in its nature, and appertains to the unbespeakableone.

41. How can that thing admit the application of a definiteterm to give it expression, which is inexpressible by words (andbeyond our conception); I cannot therefore express the inexpressibleby words. I have already said, all are but fictitious signs:(representative of our certain ideas).

42. Ráma rejoined:—You sir, that disregard every thingthat is expressed by words, and regard these as imperfect anddefective symbols of their originals; must tell me now, what youmean by your “privation of representation” and what you areyourself.[1]

12843. Vasishtha replied:—It being so (that there no determinateperson expressed by the word egoism); hear me to tellyou now, O Ráma, that art the best among the enquirers oftruth, what thou art and what am I in truth, and what is worldin reality.

44. This Ego, my boy, is the empty intellect and imperishablein its nature; it is neither conceivable nor knowable, andis beyond all imagination.

45. I am the clear air of the intellect, and so art thou theempty sky also; the whole world is an entire vacuity, and thereis nothing else except an everlasting and infinite vacuum (beom)every where.

46. The soul is identic with pure knowledge, it is free fromsensational knowledge, and beyond the conscious knowledge ofothers. I cannot call it anything otherwise than the self orsoul.

47. Yet it is the fashion of disputants in order to maintaintheir own ground, or for the salvation of their pupils to multiplythe egoism of the one soul, and to distribute it into a thousandbranches.

48. When a living soul remains calm and quiet notwithstandingthe management of its worldly affairs; and is asmotionless as a living carcass, it is said to have attained itsperfect state.

49. This state of perfection consists in refraining fromexternal exercise and devotion, and persistence in continualmeditation; feeling no sensation of pain or pleasure, and beingunconscious of one’s self-existence, and the co-existence of allothers besides.

50. Freedom from egoism and the consciousness of all otherexistence, brings on the idea of a total inexistence and emptiness,which is altogether beyond thought and meditation. (Fornone can think of a nothing). All attempt to grasp a nullity,is as vain as a blind man’s desire to see a picture.

51. The posture of sitting unmoved as a stone, at theshocks and turn backs (or drakes and ducks) of fortune; is129verily the state of nirvána or deathless coma of a sensiblebeing. (The figures of saints are as unmoved as statues).

52. This state of saintly anaesthesia is not marked byothers, nor perceived by the saint himself; because the knowingsage shuns the society of men in disgust, and is enlightenedwith his spiritual knowledge within himself.

53. In this state of spiritual light, the sage loses sight of hisegoism and tuism and all others and beholds the only oneunity, in which he is extinct and absorbed in pure and unsulliedfelicity.

54. It is the intellection of the intellect, that is said to beconversant with the intelligibles (or the operation of the subjectivesoul on the objective); this is the cause of the creationof the world, which is the cause of our bondage and continualwoes (in our repeated births and deaths).

55. It is said to be the dormancy or insensibility of intellection,when it is not employed about the intelligible objects; it isthen called the supremely calm and quiet state of liberation(both for thought and action); and is free from decay.

56. The soul being in its state of peaceful tranquility, itsideas of space and time fly from it like clouds in autumn; andthen it has no thought of anything else for want of its powerof thinking.

57. When the sight of the soul is turned inwards (antarmukha) as in sleep, it sees the world of its desires rising beforeits consciousness in their aerial forms; but O ye princes, thesight of the soul being directed to the outside (bahir mukha),as in its waking state, it views the inward objects of his desire,presented before its sight in the gross forms of the outer world.(This passage shows the contrariety of the spiritual philosophyto the material; the former maintaining the material world tobe a shadow of the ideal, and the latter asserting the intellectualas a representation of the visible world).

58. The mind, understanding and the other faculties, dependupon the consciousness of the soul, and are of the same natureas the intellect; but being considered in their intimate relationwith external objects bahir-mukhatá, they are represented as130grossly material. (In the doctrines of materialist—the sánkhyaand others).

59. The self-same intellect being spread over our consciousness,of all internal and external feelings and perceptions; it isin vain to differentiate this one and undivided power, by theseveral names (of spiritual, mental, and bodily faculties).

60. There is nothing which is set apart, from the percipienceof the conscious intellect; which is as pure and all-pervadingas the empty vacuum, and which is said by the learned to beundefinable by words. (So says the sruti:—No speech canapproach to it).

61. Being seen very acutely, the world appears as hazy inthe divine essence, as it were something between a reality andunreality; and so dost thou appear to sight, as something realand unreal at the sametime. (All things appear as evanescentshadows in the clear mirror of the Divine Mind).

62. So am I the empty air, if can be free from desire;and so also art thou the pure intellect, if thou canst but restrainthy desires.

63. He who is certain of this truth (that he is the intellect),knows himself in reality; but whoso thinks himself as somebodyunder a certain appellation, is far from knowing the truth.Again anyone remaining in his unreal body, but relying in hisintellectuality, is sure to have his tranquility and salvation.(So the sruti:—Anyone awakened to truth is sure to be saved,whether he is a God, rishi or sage, or a vile man).

64. Man’s exercise of the intellectual faculty, amelioratesthe love of union with the original intellect by removing theignorance; as heat of the fire mixes with the primitive heat,when wind ceases to blow.

65. Living beings who are converted to the state of patienttrees and stones, by insouciance or insensibility of themselves,are said to have attained their liberation which is free fromdisturbance, and to be situated in their state of undecayableness.

66. A man having obtained his wisdom by means of hisknowledge, is said to have become a muní or sage, but growing131an ignoramus owing to his ignorance, he becomes a brute creature,or degraded even lower to some vegetable life.

67. The knowledge that “I am Brahma” (because I am a man)and this other is the world (because it is inanimate) is a grosserror proceeding from gross ignorance; but all untruth fliesaway before investigation, as darkness vanishes before the advanceof light.

68. He is wise who with the perception and actions of hisoutward organs, is simply devoid of his inward desires; who doesnot think or feel about anything in his mind, and remainsquite calm and composed in his outward appearance.

69. The samádhi-trance of a wise man, is as his sound sleepuninfested by a dream; and wherein the visibles are all buriedwithin himself, and when he sees naught but his self or soul.

70. As the blueness of the sky is a false conception of thebrain, so the appearance of the world is a fallacy of the silentsoul; they are no more than mists of error, that obscure theclear and vacuous sphere of the soul.

71. He is the true sage who though surrounded by theobjects of wish, is still undesirous of any; and knows them allas mere unrealities and false vanities.

72. Know, O intelligent Ráma, that all objects of desire inthis world, are as marvellous as those seen in our imagination,dream and in the magic of jugglers; such also are all the objectsof our vision, on which you can place no trust nor reliance.

73. Know also, there is no pain or pleasure, nor any act ofmerit or demerit (i.e. any moral virtue and vice); nor anythingwhich anybody, owing to the impossibility of there beingany agent or patient (i.e. any active or passive agent).

74. The whole (universe) is a vacuum and without anysupport at all; it appears as a secondary moon in the sky or acity in one’s dream or imagination, none of which has itsreality in nature.

75. Abide only by the rules of the community, or observestrictly thy mute taciturnity; and by remaining as a block ofwood or stone, be absolved in the Supreme.

76. The tranquility and intellectuality of the Supreme132deity, do not admit of any diversity in his nature; and his incorporealitydoes not admit of the attribution, of a body or anyof its parts unto him.

77. There can be no nature whatever, whereof we have anyconception, that can be attributed to the pure spirit (which isfree from all stain and foulness); and this Divine spirit beinginherent in all bodies, there can be no body for its nature everimputed to him.

78. The existence of consciousness in the uncreated spirit,or in other words, the existence of a self-conscious eternalIntellect, cannot be denied of God; according to sophistry ofAtheists; for though our knowledge of recipient and received(i.e. of the container and contained) is very imperfect, yetthere is some one at the bottom that is ever perfect.

79. O Ráma! do you rely in that increate and indestructibleSupreme being, which is ever the same and pure, irrefutableand adored by the wise and good; it is the irrefutable (i.e.demonstrable) verity, on which you should quietly depend foryour liberation. And though you may eat and drink and playabout like all others, yet you must know that all this is nothing.

Argument:—Removal of the Error of plurality arising from theconviction of Egoism, and inoculation of spiritual knowledgefor Reunion of the soul with the Divine Spirit.

Vasishtha continued:—Egoism is the greatest ignorance,and an insuperable barrier in the way of our ultimateextinction; and yet are foolish people seen to pursuefondly after their final felicity with their egoistic efforts, which isno better than the attempt of madman.

2. Egoism is the sure indicator of the ignorance of unwisepeople, and no cool-headed and knowing man is ever known inhis egoship or the persuasion of his self-agency. (But this anarticle of the Christian creed).

3. The wise and knowing man, whether he is embodied orliberated state, renounces the dross of his egotism, and relies inthe utter extinction or nullity of himself, which is as pure andclear as the empty vacuity of heaven, and free from trouble andanxiety (which await on self-knowledge and selfish activities ingeneral).

4. The autumnal sky is serene and clear, and so are thewaters of the calm and unperturbed sea; the disk of the full-moonis fair and bright, but none of these is so cool andcalm and full of light, as the face of the wise and knowing sage,(shining with the radiance of truth and holy light).

5. The features of the sage and wise, are ever as sedate andsteady, even in the midst of business and trifles; as the figures ofwarriors in battle array in a painting, even when engagedin the bustle of warfare and fury of fight.

6. All worldly thoughts and desires are nothing to theanaesthetic spirit of the self-extinct sage (in his nirvána); theyare as imperceptible as the slender lines in a painting, and134as lean as the rippling curls on the surface of the sea, whichare not distinct and disjoined from its waters.

7. As the rolling waves of the sea, are no other than itsheaving water, so the visible phenomena in the world, are noother than the spirit of Brahma disporting in itself.

8. Hence the soul that is undisturbed by the wave likeperturbations, and is calm and quiet both in the inside and outsideof it as the still ocean, and which is raised above temporalmatters in its holy devotion, is said to be freed from all worldliness.

9. The ego rises of itself as an uncreated thing, and in theform of consciousness in the all comprehensive intellect of God,just as the waves rise and fall in the waters of the deep, andhave no difference in their nature.

10. As the rising smoke exhibits in the sky, the variousforms of forts, warcars and elephants; and as none of them, isany other than the self-same smoke; so are all these phenomenaand notions, noway different from the nature of theirDivine origin (but mere evolutions or vivartarúpas of thesame).

11. By considering the fallacy of your consciousness (of theego), you will, O ye my royal hearers, get rid of your error; andthen you will exult in your knowledge of truth, and be victorious(over yourself). Do not despair, for ye are wise enough toknow the truth.

12. As the growing sprout conceives in it, the would betree with all its future flowers and fruits; so the ignorant manconceives in his vacant mind, the false ideas of himself—hissoul, his ego and of everything else according to its fancy.

13. The conceptions of the mind are as false as thesight of things, such as the sight of a rod in a rising flame, (andthat of a circle in the twirling of a lighted torch). And thoughthe presiding soul is always true, yet these thoughts of themind are as untrue as its fancy of fairies in the orb of themoon.

14. Now my royal hearers, do you continue to enjoy yourpeace, by considering at your pleasure, about the rise, end and135continuance of the world; and remain from disease in allplaces and times.

15. Conduct yourselves with calmness, in whatever turns tobe favourable or unfavourable to you; for unless you deportyourselves as dead bodies, you cannot perceive the felicity ofyour final extinction—nirvána or hebetude. (Be as a dead man,in order to taste the bliss of your spiritual deadness).

16. He who lives long in this world, by giving up his egoismand egoistic desires from his mind; and renounces the animalityof his life to live and lead an intellectual life, attains verily thestate of Supreme felicity.

17. Living the animal life (for the gratification of carnalappetites), leads only to the bearing of woes and misery; andmen thus bound by the chain of their animal desires, are asbig boats, burdened with loads of their ballast and cargo.

18. They are never blest with liberation, who are strangersto reasoning and addicted to the gross thoughts of ignorance;for how is it possible to obtain in this life, what is attainableonly by the deceased in the next world. (This means the disembodiedliberation—Videha mukti, which is to be had afterone’s death).

19. Whatever a man fancies in this life, and desires to havein the next, (as his hopes of heavenly rewards); he dies withthe same and finds them in his future life; but where there isno such fancy, desire or hope, that is truly the state of everlastingbliss.

20. Therefore be fearless with the thought of there beingno such thing, as yourself or any one else (that you may believeas a real entity); by knowing this truth, you will findthis poisonous world, turn to a paradise to you. (Think of nothing,and you will have no fear for anything).

21. Examine your whole material body, as composed ofyour outer frame and the inner mind; and say in what partyou find your egoism to be situated; if no where, then own thetruth of your having no ego any where.

22. Seeing all and every part of it up to the seat of youregoism, and finding it to be seated no where; you see only an136open space (which is identic with the soul), and whereof no partis ever lost or destroyed.

23. In this (attainment of liberation) you are required todo no more, than to exert your manliness in relinquishingyour enjoyments, cultivating your reasoning powers, and governingyourself by subduing the members of your body and mind.Therefore, ye ignorant men, that are desirous of your liberation,delay no longer to practice the government of yourselves (byshunning everything that relates not to yourselves).

24. The learned explain liberation to consist in the meditationof God, without any desire of the heart or duplicity inthe mind; and this they say is not possible to do, without theassistance of spiritual knowledge. But the world being full oferror, it is requisite to derive this knowledge from spiritualworks moksha sástras, or else it is very likely to be entrappedin the very many snares, which are for ever set all about thisearth.

25. Knowing full well the unreality of the world, and theuncertainty of one’s self and body, and of his friends, familyand wealth and possessions; whoso is distrustful of them andidentifies himself with his intelligence and pure vacuity, verilyfinds his liberation in this, and in no other state whatsoever.

Argument:—Refutation on the falsity of imagination, and the idealcreation of the world; establishing the true God, who is all inall, and who remains ever the same.

Vasishtha said:—He who has devoted his whole soulto the contemplation of the Intellect, and feels the samestirring within himself, and knows in his mind the vanity andunreality of all worldly things, (is the person whose soul is saidto be extinct in the deity).

2. By habituating himself to this sort of meditation, andseeing the outward objects in his perceptive soul, he views theexternal world, as an appearance presenting before him in hisdream.

3. All this is verily the form of the Intellect, represented ina different garb. The intellect is rarer than the pure air, butcollects and condenses itself as the solid world, and recognizesitself as such; wherefore the world is no other than the consolidatedintellect, and there is nothing beside this anywhere.

4. It has no dissolution or decay, nor it has its birth ordeath; it is neither vacuity nor solidity, it is neither extensionnor tenuity, but it is all and the Supreme one and nothing inparticular.

5. Nothing is lost by the loss of egoism, and of this worldalso; the loss of an unreality is no loss at all, as the loss of anythingin our dream, is attended with loss of nothing.

6. Nothing is lost at the loss of an imaginary city, which isaltogether a falsity; so nothing is destroyed by the destructionof our egoism and this unreal world.

7. Whence is our perception of the world, but from a nullity;and if it is granted as such, then there is nothing that can be138predicated of it, any more than that of a flower growing in theair (which is a nullity).

8. The conclusion arrived at last after mature thought inrespect to this is, that you must remain as you are and as firmas a rock in the state in which you are placed, and in theconduct appertaining to your own station in life.

9. The world is the creation of thy fancy as thou wishestit to be, and there are the peculiar duties attached to thystation in all thy wonderings through life; but all these ceaseat once at the moment (of your divine meditation), and thisis the conclusion arrived at (by the joint verdict of the sástras).(Every one cuts his own course in life, which ceases no soonerhe thinks of its nihility. So it is said:—do thy duties till thydeath but the thought of thy living in death, puts a stop tothy course all at once. Sanchintya mrituyncha tamugra dantang,sarvey projutná sh*thilá vabanti).

10. All this is inevitable and unavoidable in life, and isavoided only by divine meditation; in which case the wholecreation vanishes into nothing, and there is no more any traceof it left behind. (i.e. In a future life or transmigration).

11. The unholy souls that view the creation, appearingbefore them like the dreams of sleeping men; are called sleepingsouls, which behold the world rising before them, like thewaving waters in a mirage.

12. Those who consider the unreality (of the world) as areality, we know not what to speak of them, than with regardto the offspring of barren women. (i.e. the impossibility of theexistence of either of them).

13. The souls of those that have known the true God, are asfull as the ocean with heavenly delight; because they do notlook upon the visible objects, nor do the visible ever fall undersight or notice.

14. They remain as calm as the still air, and as sedate asthe unshaking flame of a lamp; and they continue to be quiteat ease both <as> they are employed or unemployed in action.

15. As a minute atom makes a mountain, so the atomic139heart becomes full when it is employed in business; and yet thecold-heartedness of the wise seer, continues the same as everbefore. (i.e. The mind of the wise man, is not ruffled by thebustle of business).

16. The wish makes the man, though it is not seen by anyone;it is the cause of the world (worldly affairs), though it isnot perceived by any body. (The wish being master to thethought—the master of action).

17. What is done by oversight or in ignorance, is undoneor foiled by sight or knowledge of it; as for instance the theftsand other wicked acts, which are carried on in the darkness,disappear from sight before the blaze of daylight.

18. All beings composed of the fleshy body and the fiveelemental substances, are altogether unreal as the gross productionsof error only; and so are the understanding, mind, egoismand other mental faculties, of the same nature and not otherwise.

19. Leaving aside both the elemental and mental parts andproperties of your body, you attain to the purely intellectualstate of your soul, which is called to be your liberation.

20. Attachment to the intellect and adherence to the intellectualthoughts, being once secured there will be end to theview of visibles, and there will be no more any appearance offancy in the mind, nor any desire or craving rising in theheart.

21. But who has fallen into the error of taking the visiblesfor true, his sight of the unreal prevents his coming tothe view of the true reality; and he finds at the end, that thevisible world is but a mirage, and is never faithful to any bodyat any place.

22. So he finds the falsity of the world, whose soul hasrisen to its enlightenment within himself; but who ever happensto have the remembrance of the world in him, he comes to fallto the error of its reality again.

23. Therefore avoid your reliance in all worldly objects, andrely only on one who is simply as mere vacuum; and mind that140is good you not to remember the world any more, and that your forgetfulness of it altogether is best for you.

24. In your forgetfulness of the world you will find nothingto be seen or enjoyed in it, and nothing of its entity or nullitywhatsoever; it is as well as it is all quiet and still as the calmand unruffled ocean for ever.

25. The whole visible world is Brahma himself, and as such,the ocean of it is to be understood as a positive reality; it is abubble in His eternity, which is all quiet and calm afterimmersion of bubbles and waves.

26. Meek and tolerant men, are seen to be sedate and dispassionatein their worldly transaction; and to be resigned tothe Supreme spirit in their souls. (Blessed are the meek, forthey shall inherit the kingdom of heaven).

27. Or the saint whose soul is extinct in his god, has onlyhis meekness remaining in him; and being devoid of all desire,he is unfit for all worldly concerns. (It is hard to attend equallyto one’s secular and spiritual concerns).

28. As long as one is not perfect in the extinction of hissoul in the deity, he may be employed in the practice of hissecular duties, by being devoid of passions, animosity and fearof any one. (This is enjoined for a devotee, till he reaches theseventh stage of his devotion).

29. The saint being freed from his passions and feelings ofanger and fear and other affections, and getting the tranquilityof nirvána extinction in his mind, becomes as frigid as snowand remains as a block of stone forever.

30. As the pericarp contains the seed of the future flower init, so the saint has all his thoughts and desires quite concealedin his inmost soul, and never gives any vent to them on theoutside.

31. The mind wanders on the outside by thinking aboutthe outer world, and so is it confined within itself by its meditationon the inner soul; such is the contemplation of theSupreme being, either as he is thought of or seen in spirit in theinner soul, or viewed himself to be displayed in his works of141creation in the outer world. (The spiritual and naturaladoration of God).

32. The outer world is no other than an external representationof the delusive dream, which is in the inside of ourselves;there is not the slightest difference between them, asthere is none in the same milk, contained in two different potsonly.

33. The motion or inertness and the fickleness or steadinessof the one or other of them, are no more than the effects of ourlengthened delusion; and the state of one being the containerof the other, makes no difference in them, as there is none betweenthe containing ocean and the waves it contains.

34. The dreams that we see in sleep, are no other than operationsof the mind, though they are supposed in our ignorance tobe quite apart from ourselves.

35. He that remains in the manner of the Supreme soul,quite calm and tranquil and free from all fancy and desires, becomes(extinct in) the very soul, by thinking himself as such;but he never becomes so unless he thinks himself to be as so;(Hence the formula of daily meditation soham, “I am he”,Átman bramatvena sambhavan).

36. The divine state is that of the perfect stillness of thesoul (as in sound sleep), when there is not even a dream stirringin the mind; but what that state is or is not, is incomprehensiblein the mind, and inexpressible in words. (It is, becausewe know it in our consciousness and it is not, because we knowit not by the predicaments of space and time, and those of thecontainer, contained, or any other category whatsoever).

37. Yet is this state made intelligible to us by instructions ofour preceptors, and by means of the entire removal of our erroras well as by our intense meditation of it; else there is nobody to tell us what it really is. (The sástras tell us, what itis not; by their dogmas neti neti and tanna tanna; but neversay a word about its real nature as idamasti).

38. It is therefore proper for you to remain entirely extinctin the external one and tranquil as the Divine spirit by giving142up all your fear and pride, your griefs and sorrows, and yourcovetousness and all errors besides. You must forsake withthese the dullness of your heart and mind, as also of your bodyand all its members, together with the sense of your egoism andthe distinctions of things from the one perfect unity. (Knowingthat “all are but parts of the one undivided whole”).

Argument:—Liberation depends on self-exertion; and upon goodcompany, study of good books, and the habit of reasoning.

Vasishtha continued:—Soon as intellection commencesto act, it is immediately attended by egoism—the causeof the erroneous conception of the world; and this introducesa train of unrealities, as the stirring of air causes the blowingof winds. (It means to say that being misguided by avidyáor ignorance, we are liable to fall into all sorts of error).

2. But when intellection is directed by vidyá or reason, itsfallacy of the reality of the world, does not affect us in anymanner, if we but reflect it as a display of Brahma himself,(that he is all in all); but we are liable to great error, bythinking the phenomenal world as distinct from Him.

3. As the opening of the eyes receives the sight of externalappearance, the opening of intellection doth in like mannerreceive the erroneous notion of the reality of the phenomenalworld.

4. What appears on the outside, being quite distinct fromthe nature of the inner intellect, cannot be a reality as theother; and therefore this unreal show is no more, than thedancing of a barren woman’s boy before one’s eyes. (Which isnothing).

5. The intellect is perceived by its conception of the notionsof things, but when we consider the fallacy of its conceptions,and its notion of the unreal as real, it appears to us as a delusionlike the appearance of a ghost to boys.

6. Our egoism also is for our misery, from the knowledgethat “I am such a one;” but by ignoring (or the want of) thisknowledge of myself, that I am not this or that, loosens me frommy bondage to it. Therefore I say, that our bondage andliberation, are both dependant on our own option. (But as the144innate consciousness of the self or ego is impossible to ignore,yet it is possible to every body, to ignore his being any particularperson whatsoever).

7. Therefore the meditation which is accompanied with self-extinctionand forgetfulness of one’s self, and the remaining of themoving and quick in the manner of the quiet and dead, is thecalm tranquility of holy saints, which ever the same, unalteredand without decay.

8. Therefore, ye wise men, do not trouble yourself as theunwise with the discrimination of unity and duality, and thepropriety or impropriety of speech, all which is wholly uselessand painful frivolity.

9. The covetous man with his thickening desires, meetswith a train of ideal troubles, gathering as thickly about him,as the thronging dreams assailing his head at night. Theseproceeding from his fondness of outward and visible objects,and from the fond desires inwardly cherished within his heart,grow as thickly upon him as the creation of his wild fancy.

10. But the meek man of moderate desire, remains dormantin his waking state (as a waking sleeper); and does not feelthe pain or fear the pangs of his real evils, by being freed fromhis hankering after temporary objects.

11. Hence the desire being moderated and brought underproper bounds, bears resemblance even to our freedom from itsbonds; as we get rid of our once intense thought of something,by our neglect of it in course of time and changing events.

12. The entire curtailment of desires, is sure to be attendedwith liberation; as the total disappearance of frost and cloudsfrom the sky, leaves the empty vacuum to view.

13. The means of abating our desires, is the knowledge ofego as Brahma himself (and particular person or soul); and thisknowledge leads to one’s liberation, as study of science and associationwith the wise, serve to convert ignorant men to sapienceand knowledge.

14. In my belief there is no other ego but the one Supremeego, and this belief is enough to bring men to the right understandingof themselves, and make their living souls quite calm145and tranquil, and dead to the sense of their personality andself-existence.

15. The world appears as a duality or something distinctfrom the unity of God, just as the motion of the wind seems tobe something else beside the wind itself, or the breathing asanother thing than the breath; but this fallacy of dualism willdisappear upon reflection of “how I or any thing else could besomething of itself” (and unless it proceeded from the One everlastingunity).

16. That I am nothing is what is meant by extinction, andwhy then remain ignorant (of this simple truth); go, associatewith the wise and argue with them, and you will so come tolearn it (i.e. this truth).

17. It is in the company of those who are acquainted withtruth, that you loosen the bonds of your worldly errors; just asdarkness is dispelled by light, and the night recedes from beforethe advancing of the day.

18. Make it the duty of your whole life, to argue with thelearned, concerning such like topics, as “what am I,” and whatare these visible objects; what is life and what this living soul,and how and whence they come into existence.

19. The world is seen to be full of animal life, and I findmy egoism is lost in it; the truth of all this is learnt in a momentin the society of the learned, therefore betake thyself tothe company of those luminaries of truth.

20. Resort one by one to all those that are wiser than theein the knowledge of truth, and by investigation into their differentdoctrines, the spectre of your controversy (i.e. error), willdisappear for ever. (Because the maxim says, “as many headsso many minds, and as many mouths so many verdicts”, thereforeexamine them all and glean the truth).

21. As the spectre of controversy rises before the learned,in the manner of an apparition appearing before boys; so theerror of egoism rises before them, in their attempt to maintaintheir respective arguments.

22. Let therefore the diligent inquirer after truth, attendseparately to the teaching of every professor of particular doctrines;146and then taking them together, let him consider in hisown mind, the purport of their several preachings.

23. Let him weigh well in his own mind, the meanings oftheir several sayings, for the sharpening of his own reasoning,and accept the doctrine which is free from the flights of imaginationand all earthly views.

24. Having sharpened your understanding by associatingwith the wise, do you cut short the growth of the plant of yourignorance by degrees, and by little and little (lit.—bit by bit).

25. I tell you to do so, because I know it is possible to youto do so; we tell you boys, accordingly as we have well knownanything, and never speak what is improper or impracticableto you.

26. As the gathering or dispersion of the clouds in the sky,and the rising and sinking of the breakers in the sea, is no gainor loss to either, so the attainment or bereavement of any goodwhatever, is of no concern to the unconcerned sage or saint.

27. All this is as false as the appearance of water in themirage, while our reliance in the everlasting and all pervadingOne, is as firm, secure and certain (as our supportance on asolid rock). By reasoning rightly in yourself, you will discoveryour egoism to be nowhere; how and whence then do you begetthis false phantom of your imagination.

Argument:—Causes of erroneous conceptions and false Imagination,our hankering for the future world and its remedy.

Vasishtha continued:—Ráma, if a man will not gainhis wisdom by his own exertion, by his own reasoningand by the development of his understanding in the companyof good men, then there is no other way to it.

2. If one will try to remove his mis-apprehensions and thefalse creations of his imagination, by the prescribed remediesof the sástras, he will succeed to change and rectify them himself,as they remove or remedy one poison by means of a counterpoison.

3. All fancies and desires are checked by unfancying them,and this unfancifulness or undesirousness is the cause of liberation,by relinquishment of worldly enjoyment, which is the firststep to it. (So says the sruti:—Renunciation of enjoyments, isthe leader to liberation).

4. First consider well the meanings of words, both in yourmind and utterance of them; and all the habitual andgrowing misconceptions will slowly cease and subside of themselves.

5. There is no greater error or ignorance in one’s self, exceptthe sense of his egoism; and this error having subsided byone’s disregard of its accepted sense, it is not far from him toarrive at his liberation.

6. If you have the least reliance in your body and egoism,you surely lose the infinite joy of your unbounded soul; but byforsaking the feeling of your egoism or personality, you arefreed from the bondage of your fondness for anything of thisworld, and become perfected in divine knowledge and blissfulness.

1487. It is from want of understanding, that all these unrealitiesappear as real to the ignorant; but we venerate and bowdown to the sage, who remains unmoved as a stone at all this.

8. Who from want of his sense of external objects, remainsas cold as a stone, and being reclined in the Supreme spirit bythe meditation of the Divine Mind in his own mind; sees butan empty void both within and all around himself. (This iscalled perfect liberation of the soul).

9. Whether there be or not be all these visibles, they tendalike to our misery; it is our thoughtlessness of them alone thatconduces to our happiness, wherefore it is better to remain insensibleof them, by shutting our senses against them. (Ourhappiness or misery does not depend on the presence or absenceof things, but upon our disregard of or concern for them).

10. There are two very serious diseases waiting on mankind,in their cares for this as well as those of the next world; andboth of these are attended with intolerable pains to the patientsof both their temporal as well as spiritual maladies.

11. In this world the intelligent are seen to try all theirbest medicines in vain, to remove their inveterate diseases ofhunger and thirst, by means of their remedies of food anddrink, during the whole period of their lives; but there is noremedy whatever for to heal their spiritual maladies of sin andvile, and avert their inevitable fate of death and rebirths inendless succession.

12. The best sort of men are trying to heal their spiritualmaladies, and avert their future fate, by means of the ambrosialmedicines of dispassionateness, keeping good company and improvementof their understanding.

13. Those who are careful to cure their spiritual complaint,become successful to get their riddance, by means of their desireof getting better, and by virtue of the best medicine of abstinenceand refraining from evil. (Gloss. apathya tyága &c.).

14. Whoever does not heal even now his deadly disease ofsin, which is his leader to hell fire on future; let him say whatremedy is left for him to try, after he has gone to the next world,where there is no balsam to heal the sickly soul.

14915. Try all earthly medicines to preserve your life, frombeing wasted away by earthly diseases; and keep your soulsentire for the next world, by the healing balm of spiritualknowledge in this life.

16. This life is but a breath, alikens a tremulous dewdrop, hanging at the end of a shaking leaf, and ready to falldown; but your future life is long, and enduring under all itsvariations, therefore heal it for the everlasting futurity.

17. By carefully attending to the treatment of spiritualdiseases at present, you will not only be hale and holy in yoursoul in the next world, but evade all the diseases of this life,which will fly off afar from you.

18. Know thy conscious soul as an animalcule, which evolvesitself into the form of this vast world; just as an atom containsa huge mountain in it, which evolves from its bosom intime.

19. As the evolution of your consciousness, presents to yourview the forms that you have in your mind (i.e. ideals); so doththe phenomenon of the world appear in the womb of vacuum,and is no more real than a false phantasy.

20. Notwithstanding the repeated deluge and destruction ofthe visible earth, there is no change nor end of the false phantomof our mind, where its figure is neither destroyed norresuscitated, owing to its being a phantasy only and no realitywhatever. (It is possible to destroy the form of a, but not itsidea in the mind).

21. Should you like to lift up your soul, from the muddy pitof earthly pleasures and desires, wherein it drowned forever;you must put forth your manly virtues, as the only means tothis end, and without which there is no other.

22. The man of ungoverned mind and soul, is a dull-headedfool, and fallen in the miry pit of carnal desires; he becomes thereceptacle of all kinds of danger and difficulty, as the bed of thesea is the reservoir of all the waters falling to it.

23. As boyhood is the first stage of the life of a man, andintroduces the other ages for perfection of human nature; so150the first step to one’s self-extinction, is the renunciation of hiscarnal enjoyments, conducing to the subjection of passions.

24. The stream of the life of a wise man, is ever flowing onwardwith the undulations of events, without overflowing its banks orbreaking its bounds; and resembles a river drawn in a picture,which is flowing without the current of its waters.

25. The course of the lives of ignorant people, runs withtremendous noise, like the precipitate current of rivers; itrolls onward with dangerous whirlpools, and flows on with itsrising and setting billows (till it mixes with the sea of eternity).

26. Continuous creations and course of events, are transpiringwith the succession of our thoughts; and appearing before uslike the illusive train of our dreams, and the false appearance oftwo moons in the sky, and the delusion of mirage and apparitionsrising to the sight of children.

27. So the incessant waves raised by the undulating watersof our consciousness, appears as the endless chain of createdobjects, rising in reality to our view; but being taken intomature consideration, they will appear to be as false and unreal,as they seem true and real to our erroneous apprehension ofthem.

28. It is said that are worlds and the cities of Gandharvasand Siddhas, contained in the concavity of the firmament, andit is supposed also that, the cavity of the sky is a reservoir ofwaters; but all these are but creations of the mind, andthere no such things in reality.

29. The worlds are as bubbles of water, in the ocean of theconscious mind; they are only the productions of the fancifulmind, and no such things, as they are thought to be; and theidea of ego, is but forms of our varying thoughts.

30. The expansion of consciousness is the course of unfoldingthe world, and the closing of it conceals the phenomenals fromview; therefore these appearances are neither in the insidenor outside of us; and they are neither realities, nor altogetherunreal also (but effects of the opening and shutting of ourminds only).

15131. There is one thing alone of the form of the intellect,which is unborn and unknown (in its true nature), and is theundecaying (i.e. everlasting) lord of all; it is devoid of substanceand property, and is called Brahma or immensity, andtranquil spirit, which is as quiet and calm as the infinite void,are rarer than even the empty atmosphere.

32. There is no cause whatever, which can be reasonablyassigned to the agitation, consciousness and creations of thespirit of Brahma; which being above nature is said to have nonature at all. Its agitation is as that of the air; whose cause isbeyond all conception.

33. Brahma has his thoughts rising in him, as waves in theocean of himself, and as our consciousness of the dreams rising inour soul; and the nature of this creation is in reality, neitheras that of his dream, or the wave produced from his essence.(It is hard to say, whether this is a thought of himself as adream, or a part of him like a wave).

34. This much therefore can only be said of him that, thereis only an unknowable unity, which is ever the same and neveras quick as thought, nor even as dull as matter; it is not areality or unreality, nor any thing this positive or negative.(In a word, it is nothing that conceivable by the human mind).

35. The Yogi that remains in this insouciant state ofBrahma, and insensible of his own consciousness (i.e. who isinexcitable both in his body and mind), such a person is saidto be the best of sages and saints.

36. Who becomes inactive and inert as a clod of earth,even while he is alive; who becomes unconscious of himselfand the outer world, and thinks of nothing (except the Supremesoul); he is said as the best of sages and saints.

37. As we lose sight of wished for objects, by ceasing towish for them (such as the sights of fairy lands &c.); so we getrid of our knowledge of ourselves and the world, by ourceasing to think about them (by confining our thoughts in Godalone).

38. All things expressed, in words have certain causesassigned to them; but the cause of their nature remains inexplicable,152(whence nature—swabháva is said to be avidyá orhidden ignorance). It is the cause of this prime nature (i.e.God), whose knowledge alone conduces to our liberations (fromignorance).

39. Nothing whatever has its particular nature of itself,unless it were implanted in it by the intelligence of God, as itwere by infusion of the moisture of divine intelligence.

40. All our thoughts, are agitated by inspiration of thebreath of the great intellect; know them therefore as proceedingfrom the vacuum of the entity of the supreme Brahma.

41. There is no difference whatever, in the different natureof the creator and creation; except it be as that of the air andits agitation, which are the one and same thing and of thesame nature. The thought of their difference is as erroneous,as the sight of one’s death in his dream.

42. An error continues so long, as the blunder does not becomeevident by the light of reasoning; when the error beingcleared of its falsity, flies to and vanishes into the light andtruth of Brahma.

43. Error being the false representation of something, fliesaway before a critical insight into it; and all things being butproductions of our error, like our conception of the horns of hare,they all vanish before the light of true knowledge, which leavesthe entity of Brahma only at the end.

44. Therefore give up all your errors and delusions, andthereby get rid of the burden of your diseases and decay; andmeditate only on the One, that has no beginning, middle, orend, is always clear and the same, and full of bliss and felicity,and assimilate yourself to the nature of the clear firmament:(which according to Vasishtha is the nature and form of God).

Argument:—Elucidation of the doctrine that, the best way ofavoiding worldly affairs, is to refrain from mixing with them.

Vasishtha continued:—The man who is lost in thepleasure or under the pains, which fall to his share inthis life, is lost for ever for the future; but he who is not thuslost (by keeping his soul aloof from the vicissitudes of life), ispronounced to be imperishable by the verdict of the sástras.

2. He who has his desires always rising in his mind, is eversubject to the changes of his fortune; therefore it is proper togive up desire at first, in order to prevent the alternation ofpain and pleasure.

3. The error that this is I and that the world, does notattach to immortal soul; which is tranquil and unsupported,quite dispassionate and undecaying in itself.

4. That this is I, that is Brahma, and the other is the world,are verbal distinctions that breed error in the mind; by attributingdifferent appellations, to one uniform and invariable voidthat is ever calm and quiet (This is the eternal vacuum ofVasishtha, beside which there is nothing else in existence).

5. Here there is no ego nor world, nor the fictitious namesof Brahma and others; the all pervading One being quite calmand all in all, there is no active or passive agent at all in thisplace (or vacuity).

6. The multiplicity of doctrines and the plurality of epithets,which are used to explain the true spirit and inexplicable One,are null and refutable, and among them the word ego in particular,is altogether false and futile.

7. The man absorbed in meditation does not see the visibles,as the thoughtless person has no perception of the ghost standingin his presence; and as one sleeping man does not perceive154the dreams, occurring to another sleeping by his side, nor hearthe loud roar of clouds, in the insensible state of his soundsleep.

8. In this manner the courses of the spirits are imperceptibleto us, though they be continually moving all about us; becauseit is our nature to perceive what you know of, and never knowanything, which is without or beyond our knowledge.

9. Knowledge also being as our soul, shows all things likeitself (i.e. as we have their ideas or representations of them inour mind); therefore our knowledge of the ego and the worldbeside, is not separate from the soul and the Supreme soul also.

10. So our knowledge (idea or notion), manifests itself inthe form of the world before us; in like manner as our dreamsand desires (or imaginations), represent the same as true to us.These various manifestations of the inward soul, are no waydifferent from it, as the waves and bubbles are no other thanthe water, whence they take their rise.

11. Notwithstanding the identity of the soul, and its manifestationsof knowledge, notion, idea and others; they are consideredas distinct things by ignorant thinkers, but the learnedmake no distinction whatever, between the manifestation andits manifesting principle.

12. As the integral soul becomes a component body, by itsassuming to itself all its members and limbs; so the eternallyundivided spirit of God, appears to be multiplied in all partsof the world, and various works of creation.

13. So the intellect contains numberless thoughts in itself,as a tray holds a great many golden cups in it; and wheneverthis intellect is awake, it sees innumerable worlds appearingbefore it.

14. It is Brahma himself that shines in his brightness, inthe form of this fair creation; by being dissolved throughoutthe whole, in his liquified form of the Intellect, as the seashows itself in the changing forms of its waves.

15. Whatever is thought of in the mind, the same (thoughtor idea) appears in the form of the world &c., and the formless155thought takes a definite form; but what is not in the mind,never appears to view.

16. The word intellection and want of thought, are bothapplied to the Supreme Intellect, from its almighty power toassume either of them to itself; this sort of expression is for theinstruction of others, or else there are no such states, appertainingto the ever intelligent soul in reality.

17. The world is neither a reality nor unreality, but exhibitsitself as such by intellection of the intellect; but as it does notappear in absence of intellection, the same is inculcated in thislecture. (i.e. Never think of the world or anything at all, andit will vanish of itself withal).

18. Intellection and its absence, are as the agitation andstillness of the soul; and both of these being under your subjection,it is quite easy and never difficult for you to restrainyourself, by remaining as still as a piece of stone.

19. An appearance which has neither its essence or substance,and any assignable cause for its existence, is the very natureof this egoism of ours, which we know not whence it hasappeared as an apparition before us.

20. It is very strange that this apparition of your ego, whichhas no entity in reality; should take such possession of yourmind, as to make you insensible of yourself.

21. It is by accident that one happens to observe (or resolve)the ego, in the person of the impersonal Brahma; just as a manby deception of his eye sight, comes to descry an arbour in thesky.

22. If my ego and the world are really the same withBrahma, then how and whence is it that come to have theirproduction and dissolution, and what is the cause of our joy orsorrow in either of these cases.

23. It is by the almighty power of God, that this world ofthought (or the ideal world), comes to be visible to sight; butas the absence of thought of it, prevents its appearance into us;there be thoughtless of it in order to avoid its (repeated) sight(in repeated births).

24. It is by mere accident that the vacuous (empty) mind156of Brahma, exhibits the ideal world in itself; just as any mandreams a fairy city, or sees the objects of his desire and fancyin his mind. How then is it possible to separate the containedfrom the containing mind?

25. The creation abides in the divine mind, in the samemanner, as the waves appertain to the sea and statue inheresin the wood; and as the relation of pots and other things is withthe earth, so do all things pertain to the nature of Brahma.

26. As all things appear in their formless (immaterial)state, in the unsubstantial and transparent vacuity of the mind;so doth the ego and this world also appear in the divine mind:(in the same manner as the shapeless clouds appear in the clearand empty sky, and exhibit afterwards their various shapes).

27. As the air by its natural inflation, breathes out in varioussorts of breezes, so One whose nature is unknown, evolveshimself in every form of the ego of each individual and of theworld. (The breezes are said to be forty-nine in number. Thenature of God is called avidyá—ignorance or what we know not).The meaning is that, as the formless and vacuous air producesall sorts of winds. So doth God who is nihsabháva withoutand beyond sabháva nature produce all natures.

28. As the formless smoke or vapour, presents the forms ofelephants, horses, &c., in the empty clouds; so doth the unsubstantialspirit of God, represent the formless ego, tu and allthings beside in itself.

29. The creation is a component part, of the unknown bodyof Brahma, as the leaves and branches are those of the tree; andit contains both its cause and effect of the other.

30. Knowing the impossibility of the existence of theworld, beside the self ever existent soul; remain at peace andwithout trouble within thyself. Be free from attributes anderrors, and remain as free and detached as the free, open andvoid space.

31. Know that neither you nor ourselves, nor the worldsnor the open air and space, are ever in existence; and thatBrahma alone is ever existent, in his eternal tranquility, calmnessand fulness.

15732. Seeing the endless particulars in the universe, do thouremain free from all particularities as I, myself, thou, thyself&c., and think thyself in the sole and Supreme One, if thou shalthave thy liberation.

33. Know the knowledge of the particulars, is for thy bondagealone to them, and thy ignorance of them lends only tothy liberation (from all these trammels). Sit as thou art anddoing thy business, in thy state of tranquility and total nescienceof everything.

34. Let not the visibles attract thy sight, nor allow theirthoughts engross thy mind; thus the world disappearing withthy thoughtlessness of it, say what else have you to think about.

35. The absence of the states of the visible and its lookeri.e. of the subjective and objective, resembling the state of thewaking sleeper, will make remain as void of thoughts, as thevault of the autumnal sky is devoid of clouds.

36. The Knowledge of the action of the divine Intellect, asdistinct from the invariable of Brahma, is the cause of ourmaking a distinction of the creation from its creator; just as ourknowledge of the difference of the wind from air, causes us tothink of their duality. It is therefore our want of this distinction,and the knowledge of the unity of Brahma, that leads us toour liberation.

37. The knowledge of the inflation of the divine spirit, isverily the cause of our knowledge of the world; whereas theabsence of this knowledge, and want of our own intellection, iswhat is called our nirvána or utter extinction in God.

38. As the seed is conscious of the sprout growing outof it to be of its own kind, so the divine Intellect knows theworld that is produced from it, to be self-same with itself.

39. As the seed becomes the plant from its conception ofthe same in itself, so the divine Intellect becomes the creationitself from its concept of the same.

40. As the thoughts are but the various modifications of themind, so the creation is a modality of the divine Intellect; andin this case all kinds of seeds serve as instances, of having theirproducts of the same nature.

15841. The world is the changeless form of the unchangingessence of One, and know to be as unchangeable andundecaying as One, himself, who is without beginning andend.

42. The divine soul is replete with its innate will, wherebyit produces and destroys the world out of and into itself; thisform of unity and duality, is as the appearance and disappearanceof an imaginary city.

43. As you have no distinct idea of the things, expressedby the words sky and vacuum; so must you know the wordsBrahma and creation to bear no distinction in the divine spirit.(Creation being but the breathing or inflation of the spiritand inseparable from it).

44. The great Intellect or omniscience, which is the sempiternalform of divine essence, has the knowledge of the egocoeternal with itself, which men by ignorance assume to themselves.

45. There is nothing that ever grows or perishes in themundane form of Brahma, but everything rises and falls in itlike the undulation of the sea, to rise and fall in all way andnever to be lost in any way.

46. All things being of the form of Brahma, remain inthe selfsame Brahma; as all spaces remain in the infinite spaceand all waves and billows rise and fall in the same sea.

47. Wherever you are placed and whenever you have time,attend but for a moment to the (subjective) nature of the soulin your consciousness (without minding any of the objects), andyou will perceive the true ego.

48. The sages, O Ráma, have said of two states of our consciousness,namely its sensible and insensible states; now thereforebe inclined to that which thou thinkest to be attendedwith thy best good, and never be forgetful of it. (i.e. Attachthyself to the subjective side of it, in disregard of the objective).

Argument:—The One undivided Brahma with and without hisattributes and his real and unreal forms.

Vasishtha continued:—The state of the soul is asplacid, as that of the untroubled mind in the intervalof one’s journey from one place to another, when it is free fromthe cares of both places (of trouble).

2. Be therefore quite unconcerned in your mind in all statesof your life, whether when you sit or walk or hear or seeanything, for the purpose of securing your unalterable composure.

3. Being thus devoid of your desires, and undistinguishedin society, continue as steadfast as a rock, in the particular conductof your station in life.

4. Being placed in this manner beyond the reach of ignorance,one is blest with the light of knowledge in his mind.

5. After disappearance of ignorance from the mind, therecan be no trace of any thought left in it; nor can the mindthink of anything, when tranquility has got her ascendencyin it.

6. Brahma is verily one with the world, and the selfsameone appearing as many to our ignorance; which represents theplenitude of Brahma as a multitude, and his pure spirit as extendedmatter.

7. The plenum (of creation) appears as vacuum (of annihilation),and vacuity appearing as substantiality; brightnessdeemed by darkness, and what is obscure is brought to light.

8. The unchangeable is seen as changing and the steadyappearing as moving; the real appears as unreal, and the unrealityas reality; so that seeming as otherwise, and so the viceversa also.

1609. The indivisible appears as divided, and energy appearingas inertia; the unthinkable seems as the object of thought, andthe unparted whole seeming to shine in innumerable parts.

10. The unego appears as the very ego, and the imperishableOne appearing as perishable; the unstained seem as tainted, andthe unknowable known as the knowable all of the known world.

11. The luminous One appearing as deep darkness of chaos,and the oldest in time manifested as the new born creation;and the One minuter than an atom, bearing the boundless universein its bosom.

12. He the soul of all, is yet unseen or dimly seen in allthese his works; and though boundless and endless in Himself,he appears as bounded in the multitudinous works of hiscreation.

13. Being beyond illusion, He binds the world in delusion;and being ineffable light, he centres his brightness in thedazzling sun. Know then, O best of inquirers, that Brahmaresembles the endless expanse of the vast ocean.

14. This immense treasure of the universe, so enormousin its bulk, appears yet as light as a feather, when put into balancewith the immensity of Brahma; and the rays of hisillusion, eluding the moon-beams in their transparency, are asinvisible as the glare of the mirage.

15. Brahma is boundless and unfordable (as the ocean), andis situated in no time nor place nor in the sky, where he hasset the forests of the clusters of the stars, and the huge mountainsof the orbs of planets.

16. He is minutest of the minute (by his inhering in thebodies of the smallest minutiae); and the bulkiest of the bulky.He is the greatest among the great, and the chiefest of thechief.

17. He is neither the doer, deed nor instrument of doinganything; and neither is the cause of another, nor has he anycause for himself. (In Vedánta, all causality is denied of theall pervading Brahma). And being all empty within, Brahmais full in Himself.

16118. The world which is the great casket of its contents, is asvoid as a vast desert; and notwithstanding its containing thecountless massy and stony mountains in it, it is as ductile asthe plastic ether and as subtile as the rarefied air.

19. All things however time worn appear anew every day;the light becomes dark by night, and darkness is changed tolight again.

20. Things present become invisible to sight, and objects ata distance present themselves to view, the intellectual changesto the material, and the material vanishes to the superphysical(thought or spirit).

21. The ego becomes the non-ego, and the non-ego changesto the ego; one becomes the ego of another, and that other andthe ego, become as something other and different than theego.

22. The full ocean of the bosom of Brahma, gives rise to theinnumerable waves of world; and these waves like worlds evolvefrom and dissolve into the ocean of Brahma’s breast, by theirliquid like and plastic nature.

23. The vacuous body of Brahma bears a snow white brightnessover all its parts, whence the whole creations is full of alight as fair as snow and frost. (Light is the first appearance orwork of God, and envelopes the whole universe that was formedin and after it).

24. This God being beyond the space of all time and place,and without all forms, figures, and shapes whatever; stretchesout in space and all times of day and night, the unreal figuresin the world like the unstable waves of the sea.

25. In this light there shines the bright filament of theworlds, in the ample space of the sky; appearing as so manyancient arbours standing in a long and large forest, and bearingthe five elements as their pentapetalous leaves.

26. The great God has spread out this light, as a clear mirrorbefore his sight; in order as he wished to see the shadow of hisown face, represented in the pellucid twilight (which proceededat first from him).

27. The unbounded intellect of God, produced of its own162free will the spacious firmament, wherein the lord planted thetree of his creation, which brought forth the luminous orbsas its fruits in different parts of it.

28. The lord created a great many varieties of things, bothin the inside as well as outside of himself; which appear asinternal thoughts in his intellect, and as all entities and non-entitiesin his outer or physical world.

29. In this manner, the divine mind exhibits the differentforms of things, in itself and of its own will, as the tongue displaysthe varieties of speech within the cavity of the mouth.

30. It is the flowing of the fluid of divine will, which formsthe worlds; and it is the conception of pleasant sensations inthe mind, that causes these torrents and whirlpools in the oceanof the world. (i.e. The will is the cause of creation, and thefeelings and passions are as whirlwinds and whirlpools in themind).

31. It is from the divine mind that all things proceed, asthe light issues from fire; as it is the lulling of the creativemind to rest, that the glow of all visible objects are extinguishedand put out of sight.

32. All the worlds appertain to the divine intellect, as theproperty of whiteness adheres to the substance of snow; andall things proceeded from it, as the cooling moon-beams issueout of the lunar orb.

33. It is from flush of the hue of this bodiless intellect,that the picture of the world derives its variegated colouring;and it is this intellect alone which is to be known, as an infiniteextension without its privation or variation at any time.

34. This stupendous Intellect, like the gigantic fig-tree(ficus religiosa) of the forest, stretches out its huge brancheson the empty air of heaven, bearing the enormous bodies oforbs of worlds, like clusters of its fruits and flowers.

35. Again this colossal intellect appears as a huge mountain,firmly fixed in the air, and letting down many a gushing andrunning stream, flowing with numberless flowers, falling fromthe mountain trees.

36. In this spacious theatre of vacuum, the old actress of163destiny, acts her part of the representation of worlds in theirrepeated rotations and succession.

37. In this stage the player boy—time is also seen to playhis part, of producing and destroying by turns an infinity ofworlds, in the continued course of Kalpa and Mahákalpa ages,and in the rotation of the parts of time.

38. This playful time remains firm in his post, notwithstandingthe repeated entrances and exits of worlds in thetheatre of the universe; just as a fixed mirror ever remainsthe same, though shadows and appearance in it, are continuallyshifting and gliding through it.

39. The Lord God is the causal seed of the worlds, whetherexisting at present or to come into existence in future; just inthe same manner as the five elemental principles are causesof the present creation. (Here Brahma is represented, as inall other passages, as the material cause of the world).

40. The twinklings of his eye cause the appearance anddisappearance of the world, with all its beauty and brightness;but the Supreme soul having no outward eye or its twinkling,is confined in his spirit only. (The physical actions whichare attributed to God, are always taken in their figurativesense).

41. The very many great, and very great creations anddissolutions of worlds, and the incessant births and deaths oflivings, which are continually going on in the course of thenature; are all the various forms of the One unvaried spirit,whose breath, like the inflation of air, produces and reduces allfrom and into itself. Know this and be quiet and still.

Argument:—Description of Avarice as the great Bondage of life andharmlessness of the common blessing of life obtained without avarice.i.e. Prohibition of avariciousness and not of ordinary enjoyments.

Vasishtha continued:—The false varieties of the worldtake us by surprise, as the eddies attract to them thepassing vessels; but they are all found to be of the same nature,as the various waves of the sea. (As all the waves are butwater, so all worldly appearances are mere enticing delusions).

2. The nature of the whole world, is as unknowably knownto us; as that of the universal vacuum which rests in God alone,is imperceptibly perceptible to our eyes. (All we see of thesky, is but a blank which is nothing).

3. As I find nothing in the fancied cities of boys in the air,(which they think to abound with ghosts etc.); so doth this reallyideal world, appear to be in real existence to boys alone. (Butthe wise know it as unreal).

4. The sight and thought of visible appearances, are as thevisions and remembrances of objects in dream; and so is thisworld but an appearance to the sight, and a phantom and phantasyin the mind.

5. The phenomenal and the fancy, have no pith nor placeexcept in the intellect; beside which there is nothing to behad save an unbounded vacuity only. Where then is the substantialityof the world?

6. The error of the world consists in the knower’s knowledgeof it, and it is the ignorance (of the existence) of theworld, that is free from this error; and the knowing or ignoringof it is dependant to thee, as the thinking or unthinking of athing, is entirely in thy power. (Every one is master of histhoughts).

7. The vacuous intellect being of the form of the transcendent165sky, is of the state of an extended space, to which it isimpossible to impute any particular nature or quality whatsoever.(The gloss explains it by saying that, the intellect isneither any extended matter, nor entirely an empty vacuity,since it is the source of all intellectual powers and mentalfaculties).

8. The world also being of the form of the intellect (i.e. aformal representation of it); has no particular character orvariable property assignable to it. It is seen to be existent,but having no particular feature of its own, it is not subjectto any variation in its nature (i.e. Being a formless thing, itcan have no vikára or change of form at all).

9. All this being a representation of the vacuous intellect,has no substantiality whatever in it; it is the substance and notthe knowledge of a thing, that is subject to any change in itsform, because knowledge appertains to the intellect, which isalways unchangeable.

10. I see all quiet and calm, and the pure spirit of God; Iam without the error of ego, tu &c., and see nothing about me,in the same manner as we can never see a forest growing inthe air.

11. Know this my voice to be the empty air as my consciousthought, and know also these words of mine to proceedfrom my empty consciousness, which resides in the empty spiritlikewise. (i.e. Sound proceeds from the empty spirit and notfrom the material body) (as some would have it).

12. That which they designate the transcendent essence,is the eternal and involuntary state of rest of the Divine soul,and not what it assumes to itself of its own volition (as thatof the creative energy of Brahmá—the Demiurge). That stateresembles that of a slab of stone, with the figures naturallymarked upon, or as the pictures drawn in a plate or chart.

13. The silent man (muni or mouni) whose mind is calmand quiet in the management of his ordinary business, remainsunmoved as a wooden statue, and without the disturbance ofany desire or anxiety.

14. The living wise and listless man sees all along his life time,166the world resembling a hollow reed, all empty within andwithout it, and having no pith or juice in the inside of it.(The wise well know the vanity of the world).

15. He who is not delighted with the outer world, reapsthe pleasure of his inner meditations; but he who is indifferentto both in his mind, is said to have gone over the ocean ofthe world (and set free from all his cares).

16. Give out the words from your lungs, like a soundingreed from its hollow pipe; and clear your mind from its thoughts,by keeping your body intact from busy affairs, and employingno other member of it after them (except your tongue).

17. Touch the tangibles as they come to thee without thydesiring them; and remain in thy solitary cell without thywishing for or minding about them, or grieving at their want.

18. You may relish the various flavours, which are offeredto you; and take them to your mouth in the manner of a spoonwithout wishing for or taking a delight in their sweet taste.

19. You may see all sights, that appear before you; withoutyour desiring for or delighting in them.

20. You can smell the sweet perfumes and flowers, thatfall in your way without your seeking them, take the scentsonly to breathe them out, as the odoriferous winds scatter theflowers all around.

21. In this manner if you go on to enjoy the objects of sensewith utter indifference to them, and neither longing after orindulging yourself in any; you shall in that case have nothingto disturb your peace and content at any time.

22. But whoso finds a zest for the poisonous pleasures oflife, increasing in himself day by day; casts his body and mindto be consumed in their burning flame, and loses his endlessfelicity.

23. Want of desire in the heart, is said to constitute theobtuse insensibility of the soul, called samadhána by dispassionatesages; and there is no other better lesson to secure thepeace of mind, than the precept of contentment (lit. absenceof desire).

24. The increasing desire is as painful, as one’s habitation167in hell fire; while the subsidence of desires in the mind, is asdelightsome as his residence in heaven.

25. It is desire alone, which constitutes the feelings of theheart and mind; and it is this, which actuates mankind to thepractice of their austerities and penances, according to thesástras.

26. Whenever a man allows his desire, to rise in any mannerin his heart; even then he scatters a handful of the seeds ofaffliction, to sprout forth in the fair ground of his mind. (Themore desire the more pain).

27. As much as the craving of one is lessened by the dictatesof this reason, so much do the pain of his avaricious thoughtscease to molest them. (Nothing to desire nothing to fear).

28. The more doth a man cherish his fond desire in hismind, the more does it boil and rage and wave in his breast.

29. If you do not heal the malady of your desire, by themedicine of your own efforts; then I think you will never finda more powerful balsam to remedy this your inveterate disease.

30. Should you be unable to put a check to your desirealtogether, you must still try to do it by degrees, as a passengernever fails to get his goal even by slow paces in time.

31. He who does not try to diminish his desires day by day,is reckoned as the meanest of men, and is destined to live inmisery every day.

32. Our cupidity is the causal seed of the crop of our miseryin this world; and this seed being fried in the fire of our bestreason, will no more vegetate in the ground of our breast.

33. The world is the field of our desires and the banefulsources of misery only, it is the extinction of them which iscalled nirvána; therefore never be tempted by the delusion ofdesire for your utter destruction.

34. Of what avail are the dictates of the sástras, and theprecepts of our preceptors; if we fail to understand that, oursamádhi or final rest consists in the extinction of our temporarydesires.

35. He who finds the difficulty of checking his desires inhis mind, it is hopeless for him to derive any good from the168instructions of his preceptors, or the teachings of the sástraswhatever.

36. It is the poison of avarice which proves the bane ofhuman life, as the native forests of stags prove destructiveto them, by being infested by huntsmen. (Hearts infested byavarice, are as detrimental to men; as forests infested by huntersare baneful to stags).

37. If one would not deal frivolously, with the acquisitionof his self-knowledge (spirituality); he may but learn to extenuatehis cravings, and he will thereby be led insensibly, to theacquirement of his spiritual knowledge.

38. Extinction of wish is the extirpation of anguish, andthis is the sense of the nirvána bliss; therefore try to curtailyour desires, and thereby to cut off your bondage, which will notbe difficult for you to do, if you will but try to do so.

39. The evils of death and decrepitude, and the weeds ofcontinued woes, are the produce of secret seed of desire, whichto be burnt betimes by the fires of equanimity and insouciance.

40. Wherever there is inappetency, the liberation from bondageis found to be even there also; therefore suppress alwaysyour rising desires, as you repress your fleeting breath (in thepractice of ajapá or suppression of breathings).

41. Wherever there is appetence, even there is our bondagein this world; and all our acts of merit or demerit and all ourdistresses and diseases, are the invariable companions of ourworldly wishes.

42. The dominant desire being deprived of its province, andthe indifferent saint being freed from its bondage; it is madeto weep and wail, as when a man is robbed by a robber.

43. As much as a man’s desire is decreased in his breast, somuch so does his prosperity increase, leading him onward towardshis liberation.

44. A foolish man that is ignorant of himself (i.e. of hissoul and spirit), and fosters his fond desire for anything; is asif he were watering at the root of the poisonous arbour of thisworld, only to bring his death by its baneful fruits.

16945. There is the tree of desire growing in the human heartand yielding the two seeds (fruits) of happiness and misery(i.e. of good and evil); but the latter being fanned by thebreeze of sin, bursts out in a flame which burns down the other,and together with it its possessor also. (The evil desire supercedesthe good one).

Arguments:—Arguments to show that the world is no production ofDivine will or volition, but a reproduction of Brahma himself.

Vasishtha continued:—Hear me explain to you morefully, O Ráma! what I have already told you in brief,regarding the treatment of the malady of desire, which formsalso an article of the practice of yoga asceticism.

2. Tell me if the will is anything, beside the soul in whichit subsists; and if it is nothing apart from the soul, how do youwish to attribute an agency to it, other than that of the soul?

3. The divine intellect being a thing; more subtile in itsnature than the rarity of open air, is consequently without anypart, and indivisible into parts. It is of itself an integrantwhole, and one with myself, thyself and the whole world itself.

4. This intellect is of the nature of vacuum, and the infinitevacuum itself; it is the knower and the known or the subjectiveand objective world likewise. What then is that other youcall the will?

5. There is no relation of the container and contained, or ofthe subject or object between it and ourselves; nor do weknow those saintly men, who know it as any object of theirknowledge.

6. We are at a loss to determine the relation, of the subjectivityand objectivity of our (as when I say, I am conscious ofmyself, here “I am” is the subject of myself—the object). Itis just as impossible to find out my egoism and meity, as itis to expect to see a potential black moon in the sky. (Here is along note on the subjective and objective of my knowledgeof myself).

7. Such is the case with all the triple conditions of thesubject, object and predicate (as the beholder, beholden andbeholding); which having no existence of their own in the171nature of things, I know not how they may subsist elsewhereexcept in the essence of the very soul.

8. In the nature of things, all unrealities are referred tothe reality of the soul, as our egoism and tuism, the subjective,objective &c.; and so all things liable to destruction are said tobecome extinct in the self-existent and everlasting soul.

9. In extinction there is no presence of anything, nor anythingpresent is said to become extinct; the idea of the simultaneouspresence and absence of a thing, is as absurd as thesight of light and darkness together in the same place at thesame time.

10. Neither can these abide together, on account of therepugnance of their nature; nor can they both be extinct at thesame, as we see the presence of the one and the absence ofthe other before our eyes. So there is no nirvána in the living,because the one is a state of rest, and the other of pain andmisery.

11. The phenomenals are fallacies, and afford no real happiness;think them as unreal, and rely solely in the increate lord,by thy nirvána or extinction in him (through the medium ofthy devout meditation).

12. The pearl-shell looks like a silver, which is not likely tobe realized from it; it is of no use or value, why then do youdeceive yourself, with such like baubles of the world?

13. Therefore their presence or possession is full of misery, astheir want or absence is fraught with felicity; want being hadwith the knowledge of the term, proves a substantive good inthy thought nididhyásana of it. (Want importing the absenceboth of good and evil, is a certain blessing. It may meanalso want (of riches) with the gain of knowledge, is a certaingood in the province of thought).

14. Why then the vile do not come to perceive their bondagein riches? and why is it that they slight to layhold onthe treasure of their eternal welfare, which is even now offeredbefore them?

15. Knowing the causes, effects, and states of things, to befull of the presence of the One only; why do they fail to feel172his immediate presence in their consciousness, which spreadsalike through all?

16. Mistaken men like the stray deer, are seeking Brahmain the causes and states of things; not knowing that the allpervading spirit, spreads undivided and unspent throughoutthe whole vacuum of space (or throughout the infinite vacuityof space).

17. But what is end of the doctrine of causation, unless itto establish the cause as the primary source of all; but howcan force which is the cause of ventilation, and fluidity thecausal principle of liquid bodies, be accounted as the creatorof wind and water? (In this case every cause becomes a separateDeity which is absurd).

18. It is absurdity to say that, vacuity is the cause ofvacuum, and the creative power is the cause of creation, whenOne alone, is the cause, effect, state and all of every thinghimself. (One-God is the primary, formal and final causeof all).

19. It is therefore absurd to attribute the terms, importingcausality and creativeness of creations to Brahma, who is identicwith all nature, is unchangeable in his nature, and derivesneither pleasure nor pain from his act of the creation of worlds.(What changed through all yet in all the same &c., and withoutthe feelings of pleasure or pain).

20. Brahma being no other than the intellect (or omniscience),can have no will or volition stirring in his nature; as adoll soldier or painted army, are no other than the mud orplate and without any motion or movement of them.

21. Ráma said:—If there is no reality of the world, andour ego and tu are all unreal, and the phenomenal is no otherthan the noumenal Brahma; then it is the samething, whetherthere be any will stirring in the Divine mind or not, since Godis always all in all.

22. Again if the rising will (to create) be identic with thenature of God, as the rising wave is the same as the sea water;then what mean the precepts of controlling the will (such asthe enforcing a good and restraining a bad desire)?

17323. Vasishtha replied:—It is true, O Ráma, as you haveunderstood it, that the divine will is no other than the divinityitself, in the knowledge of those, who are awakened to the lightof truth. But hear me tell you further on this subject.

24. Whenever a wish rises in the breast of the ignorant,it subsides of itself from their knowledge of the nature of thewished for object; just as the gloom of night, departs beforethe advance of sun-light.

25. But the rising wish sets of itself in the heart of thewise man, as the doubt of duality vanishes from the mindsof learned, upon the rise of the light of their understanding.

26. No one can wish for any thing, whose desires of allthings are already dead within himself; and who is freed fromhis ignorance, and is set in the pure light of his liberation.

27. The wise man is neither fond of, nor averse to the sightof the phenomenals; he views the beauties of nature (lit. ofthe visibles), as they appear before him, without relishing (ordelighting) in them of his own nature.

28. If any thing offer itself to him, by some or by meansor causality of others; and if he find it right for him to takethe same, he may then have the option, either to accept orrefuse it, as he may like.

29. Verily the will or desire and the unwillingness of thewise, are actuated by and proceed from Brahma himself; theyhave no uncontrollable or inordinate desire, but pursue their owncourse, and have nothing new or inordinary to wish for. (Pleasedwith their simple living, they have nothing anew to wish foror accept).

30. As wisdom rises on one side, so the wish sets down onthe other (side); nor can they combine to dwell together, asthere is no chance of their uniting in the mind of any body,as there is no possibility of light and darkness meeting at thesame place.

31. The wise man, is not in need of any exhortation or prohibitionin any act; because his heart being quite cool in itselfin all his desires, there is no body to tell him anything to anypurpose.

17432. This is the character of the wise man, that his desiresare imperceptible in his heart, and while he is full of joy inhimself, he is complacent to all others about him.

33. There is also a shade of heavenly melancholy settledin the outward countenance, and a distaste or indifference toevery thing in his mind; it is then that the current of desiresceases to flow in his heart, and his mind is elevated with thesense of his liberation.

34. Whose soul is serene, and his intellect unclouded by thedoubts of unity and duality; his desires turned to indifferenceand all his thoughts concentrated in the Lord.

35. Whose knowledge of duality, has entirely subsided inhis intellect; and whose belief of unity is without the alloy ofthe union of any other thing (in the sole and perfectly pureOne); who is quite at ease and without any uneasiness, andresides calmly in the tranquility of the Supreme soul.

36. He has no object to gain by his acts, nor anything tolose by their omission; he has no concern whatever with anyperson or thing either for aught of his good or otherwise.

37. He is indifferent both to his desire as well as to hiscoolness, nor has he any care for the reality or unreality ofthings; he is not concerned about himself or others, nor is hein love with his life nor fear of death.

38. The self-extinguished soul of the enlightened, never feelsany desire stirring in itself; and if ever any wish is felt to risein his breast, it is only an agitation of Brahma in it.

39. To him there is no pleasure or pain, nor grief or joy;but he views the world as the quiet and increate soul of theDivinity manifest by itself; the man that goes on in this manner,like the course of a subterranean stream, is truly called theenlightened and awakened.

40. He who makes a pleasure of his pain in his thought,is as one who takes the bitter poison for his sweet nectar; theman who thus converts the evil to good, and thinks himselfhappy in his mind is said by the wise, to be awakened to hisright sense (to wit that all partial evil is universal good).

41. Thinking one’s self as vacuity, with the vacuum of175Brahma; and as quiet as the tranquility of the Divine spirit;and the thought of every thing resting in the spacious mindof God, is tantamount to the belief of the world as one withBrahma himself. (This is the doctrine of pantheism of vedántaand all mysticism).

42. In this manner all consciousness is lost in unconsciousness,and the knowledge of the world, is lost in the infinity ofempty air. The error of our egoism is likewise drowned in thedepth of the even and vast expanse of the Divine unity.

43. All that is seen here in the forms of the moving andfixed bodies of the world (the roving and fixed stars &c.); areall as quiet as quiescent empty sky which contains them, or asa visionary utopia of imagination.

44. As there is a free intercourse of the thoughts, of oneperson with those of another, and there is no interposition intheir passage from one mind to another; in the same mannerthere is the same reflection of this shadowy world in the mindsof all at once.

45. The earth, heaven and sea, with the hills and all otherthings, appear before our empty minds, exactly as the falsesights of water &c., appear in a mirage to our eyes.

46. The phantasmagoria of the world, appearing visiblybefore us, is as false as a vision in our dream, and as delusive asa spectre appearing in the imaginations of little boys.

47. Our egoism or consciousness of ourselves, which seems as areality unto us, is no other than a delirium of our brain, andan erroneous conception of the mind.

48. The world is neither an entity nor non-entity either,nor a substantiality and unsubstantiality both together; itis not to be ascertained by the sense nor explained by speech,and yet it exhibits itself as the fairy land or air drawn castlein empty air. (Its nihility is the doctrine of vacuists andits substantiality is supported by materialists; that it isneither is tenet of sceptics, and therefore it is but an emptydream).

49. Here our wish and effort as well as our want of both, areall alike in the opinion of the learned (who maintain the doctrine176of irrevocable fate); but in my opinion it is better to remainin cool indifference (owing to the vanity of humanwishes).

50. The knowledge of “I and the world” (i.e. of the subjectiveand objective), is as that of air in the endless vacuity;it is the vibration of the intelligent soul, like the breath of air invacuum, that causes this knowledge in us, beside which thereis no other cause (of the subjective self or the objective world).

51. The aptitude of the intellect or the intelligent soul, toits thoughts or longing after external objects, makes it what wecall the mind, which is the seat of same with what is called theworld; but the soul getting released from this leaning, is saidto have its liberation. Follow this precept and keep yourselfquiet.

52. You may have your desire or not, and see the world orits dissolution; and come to learn that neither of these is eitherany gain or loss to thee, since there is nothing here inreality, and every thing is at best but the shadowy and fleetingform of a dream. (So likewise the production and annihilationof the world, which are the products of divine will, is of anyconsequence to the unconnected deity).

53. The nolens & volens or the will and no will, the ens& non ens or the entity and non-entity, the presence or absenceof any thing, and the feeling of pain and pleasure at the loss orgain of something, are all but ideal and mere aerial phantasiesof the mind.

54. He whose desires are decreased day by day, becomes ashappy as the enlightened wise man, and has like him his sharein the liberation of his soul.

55. When the sharp knife of keen desire pierces the heart,it produces the sorely painful sores of sorrow and grief, whichdefy the remedies of mantras, minerals and all sorts of medicament.

56. Whenever I look back into the vast multitude of mypast actions, I find them all to be full of mistakes, and not onewhich was not done in error, and appears to be without a faultor blunder.

17757. When we meet only with the erroneousness of our pastconduct, and find them all to have been done for nothing; howthen is it possible for us to discern the hearts of others, whichare as inaccessible hills unto us. (How can we discern another’smind, when we to our own are so grossly blind).

58. Our dealing with the unreal world (as with untruthfulmen), is lost in the glancing or twinkling of an eye; for whocan expect to hold the horns of a hare in his fingers.

59. The belief of our egoism or personality consisting inour gross bodies, serves to convert the aerial intellect to a grosssubstance in a moment; and make our mind as a part of thesolid body, just as the rain drop is congealed to the hailstone.

60. It is owing to our intellect, that we have the conceptionof the reality of our unreal bodies; just as the undying principleof the intellect, happens to see its own death in our sleep.

61. As the unreal and unsubstantial vacuum, is said to bethe blue or azure sky by its appearance; so is this creationattributed to Brahma by supposition, which is neither real norquite unreal.

62. As vacuity is the inseparable property of vacuum, andfluctuation is that of air; so is creation an inseparable attributeof God, and is one and same with the essence of Brahmahimself.

63. There is nothing produced here as the world &c., nor isanything lost or annihilated in it; all this is as a dream to asleeping man, which is a mere appearance and nothing in reality.

64. So the inexistent earth and others, are apparent in theirappearance only; then why need you care or fear about the beingor not being of this world, which is no more than a productionand subversion of it in the region of the Intellect.

65. The apparent body, is no reality by the causality of theelements as the earth &c.; it is only a formation of the Divineintellect, and situated in the divine spirit. (The body is neitherformed out of the dust of the earth, nor by a combination of thefive elements; but is a shadow of its form in the Divine mind).

66. The instrumentality of the mind &c. in the causation ofthe world, is also untrue and absurd, owing to the union of two178causes in one (i.e. the combination of the primary and instrumentalcauses together). (The unity of God consists in his beingthe original and material cause, and not as a formal orinstrumental one).

67. All things are uncaused and unconsecutive in the divinemind, where they are eternally present at one and the sametime;as the whole series of the actions of a man from his birthto death, appear in an instant of his dreaming states. (All isever present before the omnipresent and omniscient).

68. All things are contained in and as inane as the vacantIntellect, where this spacious earth with her high hills of solidbases, and all her peoples with their actions and motions, areever existent in their aerial forms in the knowledge of the aeriformintellect of God.

69. The world is a picture painted on the airy surface ofthe divine mind, with the various colours derived from the intellectof God; it never rises nor sets, nor does it ever becomefaint, nor does it fade nor vanishes away.

70. The world is a huge wave of fluidity in the water ofthe Intellect, why is it so and how produced, and how and whenit is subside, is what nobody can say. (The world is once comparedto breath of air and here to a liquid, to mean its havingno solidity in it).

71. When the great vacuity of the intellect is calm andquiet, then the world remains in its form of an empty void also;just as the soul being quite thoughtless in itself; there can be norise or fall of any object before it. (Hence the alternate actionand rest of the divine spirit, is said to cause the appearance anddisappearance of the world by turns. Manu I).

72. As we imagine the mountains to touch the skies, andthe sky to present the figures of mountains in it; it is in thelike manner that we suppose the presence of Brahma in allthings of creation. (But all this supposititious knowledgeproceeds from error).

73. It is by the application of a jot of their intelligence,that yogis convert the world to empty air, as also fill thehollow air with the three worlds up and down. (i.e. They179are practised to produce everything as also to reduce it to nothingin their thought).

74. As we imagine thousands of the elysian cities (or seats)of the siddha deities, to be situated in the different regionsof heaven; so are the numberless worlds scattered apart fromone another in the infinite space of divine intellect.

75. As the eddies in the ocean whirl apart from one another,and seem to make so many seas of themselves; though theyare composed of the same water.

76. So the numerous worlds, revolving separately in thevacuity of the Divine Intellect, are all of the same nature (withtheir intellectual reservoir), and not otherwise.

77. The awakened (or enlightened) yogi, views worlds aboveworlds in his clairvoyance; and to pass to the ethereal regionsof the perfected siddhas, as it is related by sages (in the storyof Lílá narrated before).

78. There are numberless imperishable beings and immortalspirits, which are contained in the Supreme spirit; as theendless worlds are situated in the hollow sphere of heaven.

79. It is the intrinsic pleasure of the divine soul, to scatterthe wandering worlds about it, as the odorous flower diffuses itsimmanent fragrance, and spreads its flying farina all around;they are not extrinsic or adventitious, but are born within itselflike the lines and marks in a diamond or crystal.

80. The fragrance of flowers though mixed up together inthe air, are yet separate from one another; so are all the createdbodies existing together in the air, all distinct in their natures:(such is the union of the different elements in one body, and asevery flower has a vassal breeze to bear its own perfume).

81. Our fancies though of the form of air, assume differentshapes in the minds of men; such as those of gross natureshave them in their gross material forms, while the holy saintsview them in their pure forms in the mind. (This means thetwo views of things in their concrete and abstract forms).

82. Neither are the gross materialists nor pure spiritualists,right in their conceptions of things; but every one has tofeel according to his particular view and belief of a thing. (i.e.180The materialist is subject to material pain and pleasure, fromwhich the idealist is entirely free).

83. By thinking the world to be contained in the thoughtof the Intellect, it will be found to be no way different from it,than the water is from its liquidity. (The mind and itsthought, being the one and same thing).

84. Know chronos—the time, and cosmos—the universe, withall the worlds contained in it together with the ego and tu ormyself and thyself and all others, to be the One and very unity;which is the calm and quiet vacuum of the great Intellect,which is same with the very self of the unborn and undecayingsoul of God. Be not therefore subject to passions and affections,which do not appertain to the nature of the self-sameDeity.

Argument:—Exposition of the Error of the Duality of the Intellectand Intelligibles, and establishment of the unity of the worldwith the Intellect by legitimate Reasoning.

Vasishtha continued:—The Intellect perceives the worldraised before it, by the fallacy of its understanding;as a man beholds mountains in the sky, by the delusionof his eye sight.

2. The doctrines that the world is the creation of Brahmaor of the mind, are both alike in substance; in as much asthey regard it in an immaterial and not physical sense.

3. The world subsisting in our knowledge or consciousnessof it, is same with its internal knowledge, and not as existingexternally or out of our consciousness; and although itappears to be situated out of it, like the features of a pictureappearing as prominent above their base, it is on a level withits plane. The original figure being contained in the substratumof our inner knowledge, the outward appearance is to belikewise known as the same also.

4. In our opinion there is no difference, between the twosystems of the interior and exterior knowledge of the world;because both of them being of the form of our knowledge ofthem, the exterior shape is no reality at all.

5. Hence all things being the same with our intellectualknowledge of them, and this knowledge being indistinct andinvariable in its nature, the distinctions of the changing scenesof the world can have no place in it (and must therefore befalse and unreal).

6. Therefore I adore that omniscience which is the soulof all, in which all things exist and whence they all come toexistence; which is all and displays all things in itself andpervades all infinity forever.

1827. When the subjective intellectual power chinmaya, becomesunited with the objective Chitya or intelligible world,by means of the intrinsic Chit or intellect; it is then thatthe visible or objective organs of sense drishyangas, get thesensation chaitanya of their objects and not otherwise.

8. As it is the intellect alone which is both the subjectiveas well as the objective, that is both the viewer and the view,the seeing and the sight also; it comes to the same effect,that the knowledge of all these, is derived from and dependentupon the main intellect.

9. If the subjective and objective be not alike in theintellectual soul, then the subjective and intellectual soul, canhave no perception of the objective and material world.(Because matter cannot enter into the intellect, but by the ideasof things which are of an intellectual nature).

10. It is from their intellectual nature, that the objectiveworld is perceived in the subjective soul; just as a drop ofwater mixes with the body of waters, owing to the similarityof the natures. (Things of the same kind easily combine withone another, by their natural affinity), otherwise there is nocombination of them as of two pieces of wood.

11. When there is no hom*ogeneous affinity between twothings as between the intellect and a log of wood, there can beno union between them; nor can two pieces of wood know oneanother, owing to their want of intellect.

12. As the two pieces of wood have <no> knowledge of one another,owing to their dull insensibility; so nothing insensiblecan be sensible of any thing, save the intellect which is conversantwith intellectuals only.

13. The great intellectual soul, beholds the world as onewith itself in its intellectual light; and sees the material bodiessettled as a rock in it, without their properties of life or motion.

14. Life, understanding and other faculties, are the productsof intellection, which the wonderful property of the intellect,rises spontaneously in itself.

15. The essence of Brahma exists and exhibits itself in theform of the quiescent universe, and is personified as the male183agent of creation, by his seminal seed resembling the minuteseed of a fig fruit.

16. There is first of all a small seed, which developes itselfto a tree; but that first seed had another smaller seed before,from which it was produced. Thus the primary or initial seedbeing the minutest of the latter ones, is contained in and letout as an effluvium of the Supreme soul.

17. Brahma is the first and minutest soul of all, which givesto innumerable souls as its seeds; the inner ones abiding in thespirit of God, are known as spirit; and the grosser sorts knownas things, are wrongly considered as otherwise, though they areof the same nature with their original.

18. As a thing is the same thing and not different from itself,whether it is placed above or below; so everything is the selfsameBrahma, in whatever state or form it may appear unto us.

19. As gold is no other than gold, in the various (lit. ahundred different) forms of golden trinkets; so the invariablenessof the unchangeable spirit of God, continues the samein all the changing scenes and varieties in nature.

20. As the clouds of the shadowy dreams that hang overyour mind, are in no way related to you; so the great bustle ofcreation and its dissolution, bear no relation to my vacuoussoul, nor disturb the even tenor of my mind.

21. As the blueness and moistness, which are attributed tothe vacuous atmosphere of heaven, are nothing in reality; andas the legions of siddha spirits, which are supposed to traversethe regions of air, are but deceptions of our eye sight; such isthe pageant of the world but an empty air and fallacy of ourvision.

22. It is the desire of the heart and the false fancy of themind, that leads out within us and brings forth the fruit of theworld; just as the dirty water at the bottom of the earth,moistens the seed that produces a big tree in time.

23. The wise man that forgets his egoism, becomes onewith the Supreme spirit; and by reducing himself like a bit ofrotten straw, becomes an anima or a minimum particle of thedivine soul.

18424. I find no one among the gods, demigods and mankindin the three worlds, who wishes to approach to that GreatSpirit, who has the whole world as a hair upon his body.

25. He who knows the unity of the soul of the universe, isfree from the thought of a duality, in every state of his life, andwherever he may be situated. (The monotheist sees the Onesoul in all places and all kinds of beings).

26. Who has a great soul, and views the world and all asa mere vacuity and nothing in reality; how can he have anydesire for unspiritual and sensible objects.

27. He who is indifferent to, and unconcerned with the endlessparticulars of the world; and who views the existent andinexistent in the same light, is truly a great soul and beyondall praise.

28. There is no living being that lives, or has any propertyfor ever, it is only the inner consciousness that shows thevarious appearances in the empty space of the mind. (Note.Our friends and properties are no lasting realities, except thatour minds paint them as such unto us).

29. In vain do men think of their life and death, in thisworld of nullity; neither of them is anything in reality, but asfalse as the flowing and ebbing of waters in the mirage of life.

30. Upon due examination, this error vanishes from viewwith its cause also; and then it appears that there is nothingas life or death, beside the existence of the imperishable one.(Note. Our life is no life, since we live in death; and our deathis no death, since we die to live again).

31. That man is said to have gone across the ocean of theworld, who has withdrawn himself from the sight of visibles;who is quiet and content with himself, and who while he isliving, reckons himself with the dead and as nothing.

32. Our nirvána extinction is said to be the cessation ofour mental actions, like the extinguishing of a burning flameor lamp; it is assimilation into the quiescent spirit of God, andcontinuance in the hebetude of a holy saint.

33. Again he is called the mukta or liberated, who finds nodelight either in the noumenal or phenomenal (i.e. either in185his mental functions or visual operations); but remains as quietand quite aloof from all as the intangible vacuum.

34. I speak of my ego from my want of reason, but reasonpoints out no egoism in me; hence the want of any sense inthe word ego, makes the existence of the world quite null andvoid to me (who am a mere nullity myself). (So says thePersian mystic Ke man Khodra namedánam; I know not myvery self).

35. The intellect is a mere vacuum, and our consciousness(which is also a vacuous substance), gives us the knowledge ofthe nature of our inner understanding; the mind (which isa void likewise), views the external appearances agreeably to itsinternal ideas (Hence all things are but airy nothing withouttheir substantiality).

36. Now the real entity of your soul, will become trulyblessed in itself, by your getting the mind, freed from all itsobjects at all places and times. (The mind being the mirrorof soul), and by thy doing everything in the name of God. (Inevery work begin and end with God).

37. Whatsoever thou doest or eatest, anything thou givestor offerest in sacrifice; and whatever thou seest, killest ordesirest know them all to proceed from God. (Here man’s freewill is denied, and all human actions are believed as ordainedby God).

38. All that we call as ourselves or yourselves and all others,what we name as space, time and the sky, mountains &c.; allthese together with the actions of all, are supported by and fullof the power and spirit of God.

39. The vision of our eyes and the thoughts of the mind,the world and its three times; and all our diseases, death anddecay, are all the phenomena appearing in the vacuity of theDivine Intellect.

40. Remain if you can as a silent sage, unseen and unknownby men, and without any desire, thought or effort on your part;remain as a lifeless thing, and this is the extinction of a livingbeing. (The torpidity of the body combined with mental inactivityconstitutes the coolness of the soul).

18641. Be freed from your thoughts and desires, and remainfixed in the eternal One without any care for anything; you maybe busy or sit easy, like the air when it breathes or is calm andstill.

42. Let your manliness be above the feelings of desire andaffections, and let your thoughts be directed by rules of thesástras, and your action by the motion of a clock or watch,which act their outward movement.

43. Look on all beings, without the show of fondness ordisfavour (or love or hatred) to any one; be you an inconspicuouslight of the world, resembling a lighted lamp in a picture(which never burns). (Here the hidden light is opposed to thesacred text. No one lights a lamp to put it under a bushel).

44. The man that has no desire nor any object in view, andhas no relish in carnal and sensual enjoyments; can haveno other delight except in his inquiries after truth by the lightof the sástras. He who has his mind purified by the teachingsof the sástras and the precepts of holy men, finds the inscrutabletruth shining vividly in his consciousness of it.

Argument:—The inward composure of the enlightened souland its view of the outer World.

Vasishtha continued:—The man whose reliance in thisworld is really lessened, who is free from desire andunobservant of his religious vows (for the sake of future reward),knowing them to be all in vain (i.e. the vanity of humanwishes).

2. Our egoism is as the vapour of our breath, falling andsticking on the surface of glass; which when taken under consideration,proves to be a causeless sight, and vanishes to nothingat all in a moment.

3. He who is unloosed from the veil of delusion, who hasnumbed his rising wishes and efforts; whose soul is filled withheavenly ambrosia (i.e. full of holy delight), it is he who is saidto be happy in his very nature and essence. (Blest is theenlightened and contented soul).

4. The enlightened mind, that is unshrouded from the mistof doubts or scepticism; bears resemblance with the full-moon,by illuming the sphere of its circle, with the splendour of itsintelligence.

5. The intelligent man who is freed from his worldliness anddoubts, who has come out of the curtain of ignorance and receivedthe light of truth; is known as the knowing soul, shiningin the sphere of the autumnal sky. (So the sruti: the knowerof the soul, is as luminous as the very soul).

6. The holy man likens the pure breeze of heaven, thatblows freely from the region of Brahma, without any aim andwithout its support; it is cool in itself and cooling and purifyingevery thing by its touch.

7. The desire to have an unreality, is to expect something188that is a nullity in nature; such as the dreaming of heaven,and seeking for the son of a barren woman. (The belief in afuture heaven, which is countenanced in every scheme ofreligion, is negatived by Vasishtha).

8. So also is the belief of this imaginary world, which appearsas something in existence; such is the nature of our desire also,which attributes a substantiality to an aerial nothing.

9. Thus the world being an unreality even at present, therecan be no reality in a heaven or hell in future; and yet the useof these words is as false, as the negative expression of a barrenwoman’s son, or a flower of the etherial arbour.

10. The world is truly the form of Brahma himself, and isneither an actual or ideal existence, nor does it rest on anysupport; so we are at a loss to understand what is in reality.

11. By relying in the tranquil nature of the soul, you loseyour reliance in the natures of things, and your confidence inyourself; whereby you come to avoid the troubles concomitantwith the whole creation and created beings. (Reliance in thesoul, relieves the miseries of the world).

12. The sight of the intellect like the eye-sight of men, andthe light of the luminaries of heaven, passes in a moment tothe distance of millions of miles; just so does the sight of thedivine intellect, stretch all over the unlimited space of creationin an instant.

13. The divine intellect is as unconceivable as the wombof vacuum, and as imperceptible as the calm and breathlessair of the sky; and yet it is as joyous as a plant in full-bloomand blossom.

14. The learned know all living beings, to appertain thenature of that intellect; wherefore men of good intellect andjudgment, place no faith in the creation of the world.

15. As we have no knowledge of the dreaming state in oursound sleep, nor that of sound sleep in our state of dreaming;just so is our error of creation and annihilation of the world.(That is to say: creation is as false as a dream, and extinctiona quietus as sound sleep, neither of which relates to the ever-wakefulintellect of God).

18916. Error is incidental to the nature of things, and sleepingand dreaming are properties accidental to the material body;hence neither do these nor the acts of creation and annihilation,(which are likened to them), relate to the omniscient and self-sufficientintellect.

17. Error is the unreal appearance of something, which fliesbefore examination, and vanishes ere it may be laid hold upon.The shell appearing as silver is an unreality, because you cannotget your expected silver from it. (All is not gold that glitters).

18. Whatever is not obtained and unattainable is a nullity,and whatsoever is wrongly supposed (as obtainable), is impossibleto be had; the thing that is unobtainable by its verynature, is never to be expected, as anything which is otherwisethan and contrary to nature.

19. It is the nature of a thing, that agrees well with it atall times; and the invariability of any thing, can never admitof variety under any circ*mstance.

20. All that is natural, is attended with ease and delight;but the unnatural, is full of pain and misery; know and considerit well, and do what you think best (i.e. prefer the one or theother).

21. A minute seed containing a large tree, is an instanceapplying to the formless spirit of God, containing the form ofthe universe in itself. This is a dictum of the Veda.

22. Hence visual sight and sensations, mental thought andunderstanding, consciousness of ego or self, and all other propertiesbelonging to intellectual man, are the original types of thetranscendent spirit, as fluidity is immanent in water. All theseintellectual and spiritual properties are of an airy or vacuousnature. (The properties of the adhyatmá or intellectual soul,are but reflexions of the pratyangatmá or the spiritual soulof God).

23. As an embodied being discharges his bodily functions,by means of his material members and limbs, so doth spiritand spiritual beings conduct their spiritual functions like theair, without actually doing them? (Here hangs a long noteon the mode of the spiritual actions).

19024. It is by force and power of the spirit, that we mutecreatures are enabled to utter the words I, thou &c.; whichare mere meaningless sounds, as those emitted by a drumand bear no sense. (Sound is the gift of God, but its sense isconventional, and determined by consent of a people).

25. An appearance which vanishes on our insight into it,must be held as no appearance at all; so the formal and phenomenalworld, which vanishes into the formless and invisiblespirit of God, is nothing real or substantial of itself.

26. Those who are possessed of the dream of the world, aredreaming men, who being joined together with their dreams, arenever united with the spirit of God, nor do they join the societyof holy divines like ourselves.

27. All these men are identic with myself in spiritual light,being one with Brahma in the tranquil and vacuous nature ofthe selfsame spirit (pervading alike in all). But physicallyconsidered they are different from me, in as much as they arefluctuating in their busy course, like the vacillating winds inair (while the spirit of yogis is calm and quiet).

28. I who am full of the True One, appear as a dream ordreaming man to these day dreamers; while they are in realityas nil and naught to me, as the dream of a man drownedin the depth of his sleep. (A deep or sound sleeper, sees nodream at all).

29. Whatever be their conduct in life, my business is butwith Brahma, and my living and reliance in Brahma only. Letothers think and see whatsoever they like and do, they are allnil and nothing to me. (Care not about what others may thinkof or do to you).

30. I am nothing myself, but belong to the all pervadingessence of Brahma, it is by means of the divine spirit, that thebody appears as something and utters the word I etc.

31. The soul that is of the nature of pure consciousness, andnot subject to the contrary sense (of its materiality), hathneither its desire for enjoyments or liberation; and so alsothey that know the Lord, have nothing else to desire.

32. The bondage and liberation of men, being dependent191to their own dispositions; it is folly to foster a great ambitionhere, as it is foolishness to look for a sea in a cow’s hoof-hole onthe ground.

33. It is by restraining our natures, and mitigation of ourwants, that it is possible for us to obtain our liberation here; orelse no riches nor friends nor any of our endeavours, can serveto bring about the emancipation that is so eagerly soughtby us.

34. The Intellect is stretched over all our thoughts aboutthis imaginary world, as a drop of oil spreads over and diffusesitself in circles upon the surface of water.

35. As the scenes seen in a dream, seem pleasant in theirrecollection in the waking state; so the wise sage sees theworldly sights and his egoism also in the same light of adream.

36. By practice of the conditions of yoga meditationsalone, that the impressions of the world are so effaced from themind, as not to leave behind any trace of them, save that of aninfinite and still vacuity.

37. Whenever the true nature of the soul, appears with itssolar blaze within us; it then dispels the mists of our irrationalappetites, and displays an empty nihility of all entity.

38. After the desires are dead and gone and the understandingis cleared from its ignorance, the soul shines forth withthe light of a burning lamp within us.

Argument:—God is not manifest in the world, nor is the worldmanifested in God; but both these appear by turns in thesoul of the living-liberated person.

Vasishtha continued:—The sight of things, actions ofthe mind, the internal faculties and perceptions of thesenses, being all of a superphysical nature, the true states ofthese categories are far removed from our knowledge, and presentbut a faint appearance of theirs unto us.

2. The minuteness of the superphysical or in totals, is outstretchedin the forms of external or physical objects; but thisextended appearance of the outer world, is a mere error (andcreation of our false imagination).

3. But when this external nature disappears and subsides inthe inner soul, it is then that this phenomenal world is absorbedlike a dream in the sound sleeping state of the soul.

4. Our enjoyments and our greatest ailments on earth, andour kindred and relations are our strongest bondages here; ourwealth is for our bale and woe, therefore hold yourself to yourselfalone (and mind not about all others).

5. Know your felicity to consist, in your communion withyourself; and that you lose yourself, by your familiarity withthe world. Participate with the supreme vacuum, be calmand quiet like it, and do not disturb yourself like the turbulentair or wind. (So Hafiz and the Persian mystics: If thouseekest thyself, then seek not <but> forsake all others).

6. I know not myself, nor do I understand what this visibleand mistaken world may mean; I am absorbed in the calm andquiet Brahma, and feel myself as the sound Brahma himself.

7. You behold me as another person, and address me withwords thou &c. in the second person; but I find myself as calmand quiet as the transcendent vacuum itself.

1938. It is in the vacuous sphere of the divine soul, that youview the false appearances (of things), as are produced thereinby the misconceptions of your mind; and these errors are continuallyrising in your mind, in the manner of the erratictrepidations in the mind.

9. The tranquil soul of Brahma, knows (has) no effort ofcreation in it; nor doth the nature of creation, know the quiescentnature of Brahma. It is as the soundly sleeping soulknows no dream, nor does the dreaming man know the stateof sound sleep. (The nature of Brahma is one of profoundsleep, and that of creation is no other than a dream).

10. Brahma is ever wakeful, and the world is no other thana waking dream, and the living liberated man knows, thephenomenon as a reflexion of the noumenon in his tranquilunderstanding.

11. The intelligent man well knows the true state of thingsin the world, and holy men are as quiet in their souls as theautumnal sky with a moving cloud.

12. The erroneous conception of one’s egoism or personality,and that of the existence of the world; is like the impression ofthe relation of a battle, preserved in one’s memory or as picturedin his imaginations; in both cases truth and falsehood arefound to be blended together.

13. The phenomena of the world, which is neither exhibitedin the divine spirit, as an intrinsic or subjective part ofitself nor has it a viewer (or subjective framer) for itself; whichis neither a vacuity nor even a solidity of its nature; cannot beotherwise than an erroneous conception of the mind.

Argument:—The enlightenment of the understanding, accompanied byindifference and distaste of the world, is the cause of removingthe ego, when looker, looking or view of it, is one the same.

Vasishtha continued:—It is absurd to find the senseof egoism or self personality, so deeply rooted in humannature (when the real ego of the divine soul, is known to pervadeall over the universe). It is therefore right that you shouldextinguish this unnatural egoism of yours by correcting yourown nature.

2. This is done by enlightenment of the understanding,accompanied by indifference and distaste of the world; whichare associated with one another as the orb of the sun with itslight.

3. There is no making or maker or act of this world, norany looker, looking or view of it; this stupendous world isaltogether inadmissible, it being but a picture on the plane ofvacuum.

4. There is nothing prominent in it (as it appears to thenaked eye); but all is situated on a perfect level, which is thecalm intellect of one unvarying Brahma.

5. The divine soul exhibits the wonders of its Intellect, inthe variegated colours of its imaginations; and there is no bodywho can count the pictures of worlds, which are painted on theplane of the infinite space of vacuity.

6. All these aerial bodies which are countless as the flyingatoms, are continually in the act of dancing and playing theirparts in the open arena of Brahma; as the players exhibittheir various passions and emotions and gestures and gesticulationsin a theatre.

7. The seasons are dancing in circles with their toweringheads, and the points of compass are turning rotund with their195encircling arms; the lower region is the platform of this stage,and the upper sky is the awning stretched on high. (Thegreat vacuum is the stage, and all the worlds are as playersin it).

8. The sun and moon are the two playful and rolling eyes,and the twinkling stars are glistening hair on their bodies;the seven regions of air are the members of the body,and the clear and all investing firmament, is the clean apparelon it.

9. The encircling seas about the islands, are as braceletsand wristlets round their arms; and the girding mountains oflands, are as girdles around their loins; the fleeting airs are asthe winds of their breath, which are constantly breathing tosustain lives of living beings, and support their bodies thereby(i.e. by the vital breath).

10. The flowers, groves and forests form the wreatheddecorations on their persons; the sayings of the sástras—vedasand puránas, are their recitations, the ceremonial acts aretheir action, and the results of their actions (viz. happiness andmisery), are the parts that all have to play (in the theatre ofthe world).

11. Thus is all this but a dance of puppet show presentedbefore us, with the sport of the waters gliding with the fluidityof Brahma, and the oscillation of the playful breezes.

12. The cause of causes, is the cause of unnatural (unquiet)movements of bodies; and it is the ever wakeful intellect, thatremains sleepless in the sleeping state of nature, and is wakingawakener of dreams in the swapnavastha or hypnotic stateof man.

13. Do you remain, O Ráma! thus sleepless in your sleepingstate, and reflect on the nature of things as you see themin your dream. Be steady when you are awake, and never bedrowned in your sleep nor deceived by your beguiling dreams(swap—Persian khwáb means sleep as well as dream).

14. The waking which has the semblance of sound sleep andhas no liking nor cringing for anything; is said to be the196idiosyncrasy of man by the wise and the harbinger of humanliberation.

15. The living liberated man, sees his God as diffusedthroughout the universe; and not as the cause or instrumentof its causation; and neither as witness of its sight. He does notleave to look on the outward phenomena, nor think of theinward noumenon that has displayed the whole.

16. He sees the world shining in and with the glory ofGod, and beholds it fair and perfect with the beauty and perfectionof the Deity. (These so wondrous fair, thyself how wondrous then! Milton).

17. Viewed in the reality of Brahma, the unreal worldbecomes a reality; it seems then to be as tranquil as the natureof God, and the creation is seen in himself till at last all islost in the womb of a void—vacuum, as it were hid in the hollowcavern of a rock.

18. The universe seems as womb of a luminous gem, andthough it is thickly peopled everywhere, yet it is as void asempty air; it is a nil and ens at the same time, and as somethingand nothing of itself. (Here is a play of antitheticalwords and attributes applied to the world).

19. It is in esse and in posse to the minds of many, but toone who bears no duplicity in his mind, it appears as an extendedreflexion of the infinite mind of One.

20. As an imaginary city, never disappears from the imagination;so the reflexion never vanishes from the mind of God;wherein all things are present at all times.

21. As the glistening gold glitters with and scatters its raysall around, without changing or wasting itself; so Brahmaappearing to shine in his creation, is yet quiet and undecayingin himself.

22. The phenomenal world ever continues the same, thoughit is subject to incessant productions and destructions of allbeings; it appears as unproduced and indestructible, and asvarious and variegated as the very many beings in it.

19723. Brahmá is seated in his impenetrable tranquility and inthe form of the rising world, without ever rising or settinghimself; He is as free and void as vacuity and without anynature or property of his own, and is known to the enlightenedunderstanding.

Argument:—A full exposition of the identity of God and theworld, and the adorableness of our soul as one with God.

Vasishtha continued:—The mind being as calm andquiet as the Intellect, there can be no difference betweenthem; and it is impossible to assign the creation to the divinemind, in its undeveloped and tranquil state. (The differenceof the mind and intellect, consists in their activity and inactivity).

2. The lighted lamp of the understanding being extinguished,the erroneous conceptions of the world vanishes into theair; and the ocular vision and mental operations, are as undulationsof consciousness. (i.e. The conscious acts through all thesensible organs, mental faculties and bodily members).

3. The world bears the same relation to the supreme soul,as the fluctuation of the winds bear to air, and as the radiationof rays bears to light, which have no other causality except inthemselves.

4. The world is inherent in the Supreme, as fluidity is connatewith water, and vacuity is connatural with air. But whyand how they are so intimately connected with one another, isquite inconceivable to us.

5. The world which is thus immanent in the vast vacuity ofthe great intellect, is manifest to our minds as brilliancy ina gem. (The appearance of light or lustre in a gem is no otherthan a property of them itself).

6. The world therefore appertains to the supreme intellect,in the same manner, as liquidity is related with water and fluctuationpertains to air, and as vacuity belongs to the infinitevoid.

7. As ventilation has its relation with air, so doth the worldbear upon the supreme intellect; so there is no reason ofsupposing a duality to subsist in the unity of any two of these.

1998. The world is manifest to the sight of the ignorant, butit is frail and nebulous in the estimation of the intelligent.It is however neither manifest nor mysterious to the sapient,who believe it as an existence subsisting in the entity of theself-existent unity.

9. It is well ascertained (in every system of philosophy), thatthere is nothing else in existence, beside the sole intellect,which is pure intelligence, and having no beginning, middle orend of it.

10. This is the great intellect of some, and the holy spiritof others; it is the eternally omniscient Brahma according tosome, and the infinite void or vacuum of vacuists. It is alsocalled jnapti—knowledge or science by scientists.

11. Now people understand this infinite and intellectualspirit, in the sense of an intelligible being; while otherssuppose him as knowable in themselves, and thus trying toknow, become quite ignorant of him.

12. Without the intellect there is no knowledge of theintelligibles, neither is there the faculty of intellection unlessthere be the intellect; as there is no air without vacuum, noris there any air without its ventilation.

13. So it is the shadow of the great intellect, that makesour consciousness to perceive the existence of the world; andwhether the world is an entity or non-entity, there is no othercause of its knowledge than the intellect.

14. It is owing to the unity of this duality (viz of the worldand the spirit), that this sense of their identity is verified; noris there any one who can make unity or duality the all pervadingvacuity.

15. There is but one universal concavity, of the whole sphereof the vacuous sky, and the dualism of the air and its fluctuations,is only in words and nominal and not in reality.

16. The duality of the universe and its universal Lord, is amere verbal and no real distinction of the one positive unityof God. It is impossible for the self-existent soul to have acounterpart of itself, except its own intellect.

20017. That which has the appearances of the world, is noworld in reality, but a shadow of it; and that which is limitedby space and time, cannot be the infinite and external sphere.

18. As the different forms of jewels, are related to the substanceof gold (out of which they are made), so doth the worldbear its relation to Brahma; whose unity admits of <neither> duality, northe attribute of cause and effect (i.e. of the creator andcreation).

19. If it be only a creation of the imagination, it is thenno other than a nothing and no such thing; it is just as wellas the vacuity of the firmament, and the fluidity of water andliquids.

20. As the sky bears the appearance of the sky, so dothBrahma present the sight of the world; and both of them beingof the same kind (of vacuum), there can be no duality nor unityof the two in one.

21. All these are of the like kind, as the vast vacuum ofitself; they are selfsame in their nature with the one allextended and transparent essence of the interminable intellectof God.

22. As all pebbles and dolls and marble statues, have thestony substance in them; and there is no relation of cause oreffect in anyone of them, so these varieties of beings have nodifference in them from the nature of divine essence.

23. As it is impossible for vacuity to be another thing thanvacuum, and the reflexion of light is no other than the verylight; so this creation resides in and radiates from the greatintellect.

24. As the images carved in a stone, are of the same sortbeing hewn of the same substance; so O wise Ráma, all thesevarious forms of things in the world, are lost upon their insight,into the substantiality of the all engrossing intellect of the greatDeity.

25. It is the delusion of your mind, that presents to yoursight all this bustle and commotion of the world, which uponyour right inspection of them, must remain as mute and201motionless as a block of wood or stone, and as imperceptibleas the prospect of things to a man with his closed eyes.

26. As things absent from sight, appear to be present beforeone in his thought of them, both in his waking and sleepingstates; so it is the misconception of the mind, that presentsthe phenomenals to the sight of the open-eyed man.

27. As it is by the hallucination of your mind, that you seethe absent objects as present before you, both when you areawake as well as asleep; but suppress your thoughts, and youwill be as inert as a stone, as in the abstracted and sound sleepingstates of your mind.

28. You must not however allow your mind, become as insensibleas a stone; but remain in your natural state andemploy it in the service of your adorable object, with the bestofferings of your reason on all things about you.

29. Adore the Supreme God of nature; for the enlargementof your understanding; and He being worshipped with your rightreason and good sense, will soon reward you with the best boonof your transcendent felicity—neratisayánanda.

30. The adoration of Indra, Upendro and the other gods, isas the worshipping rotten straws with respect to that of the Godin spirit; and the offering of flowers and sacrifices, are nothingin comparison to your cultivation of reason, and association withwise and learned men.

31. The Supreme God who is the giver of all blessings,being worshipped in the true light of the spirit in one’s ownsoul, confers his best blessing of liberation in an instant.

32. Why does the ignorant man resort to another, when hissoul is the sole lord; Do you associate with the good and haveyour equanimity and content, and adore the Supreme soul withyour best reason.

33. The worship of idols, pilgrimages and all sorts of devotion,together with all your charities, are as useless as the offeringof scentless Sirisha flowers, and injurious as fire, poison andthe wounds of weapons are to the body.

34. The actions of mean minded men, are as useless as ashes202on account of their unreasonableness; let them therefore actwith reason in order to render their deeds fruitful.

35. Why therefore don’t you foster your reasoning powersin your mind, by means of your knowledge of the true naturesof things, and the concentration of your desires in the Supremespirit.

36. It is by divine grace only, that the reasoning faculty hasits exercise in the mind, therefore the power of reasoning is tobe fostered in the mind, by sprinkling the ambrosial water ofequanimity over it.

37. Until the fountain of error in the mind, is dried up bythe blaze of right knowledge, so long the tendency towards thecorporeal, continues to run over it in all directions.

38. Equanimity overcomes the sense of shame, sorrow, fearand envy; as the conviction of the nihility of the world andall corporeal things, removes the possibility of their existence atany time. (According to the dictum—nyáya,—násato vidyatevába. Ex nihilo nihil fit nothing comes from nothing).

39. And if it be the work of a cause, it must be the selfexistentBrahma that both at once; as the reflexion is alike thereflector, and the reflected knowledge of a pot or picture is nothingin reality. (The effect is akin to the cause agreeably tothe maxim “similes similibus”).

40. Know this world to be the shadow of the intellect, asone’s feature is seen within a mirror; but the idea of the shadowof both, vanishes when one acquainted with the original.

41. For want of the knowables or objects of objective knowledge,there remains the only unknowable One, who is of theform of everlasting felicity; and this soul of the incorporealspirit, is extended all over the infinite space in its form of perfecttranquility.

42. All knowledge, knowable and knowing, are said to bequite mute and silent in their nature (being confined in themind); therefore it behoves you to remain as quiet and calm,as stones and pebbles and the caverns of rocks.

20343. Remain as knowing and wise man, both when you aresitting or doing anything; because wise men are persons whoknow the unknown, and personifications of true knowledge.

44. Remain as clear as the sphere of the sky, and be contentwith whatever may happen to you; when you are sitting quiet,or moving about or doing anything, and in every state of yourlife.

45. It is for wise men to be doing what they have to do, andwhatever comes in their way; or to give up and renounce alland everything, and remain with their quiet and peaceful mindsat every place.

46. Whether sitting in solitude or in silent meditation, letthe wise man remain as quiet as a statue or a picture; andhaving repressed his imagination, let him view the world as animaginary city or an airy nothing.

47. The waking wise man sees the rising world, as sittingdown in his state of sleep; and let him view the spectaclesbefore his eyes, as the born-blind man has no sight of anythingbefore him.

48. The ignorant man resorting to his nirvána, has morecause of regret than the peace of his mind, at his renunciationof the world; and the preaching of bon-ideals serves ratherto increase their ignorance, than enlighten in the path of truth.

49. The ignorant man who thinks himself wise in his ownconceit, is deluded to greater ignorance, by thinking himselfsuccessful with his ill success.

50. The man comes to meet with his ill success, who strivesto thrive by improper means; because the learned reckon allfanciful steps, as no steps at all to successfulness.

51. It is wrong to resort to nirvána-resignation, on accountof some transitory mishap which ever happens to humanity.But that is known as true resignation by the wise, which a manhas recourse to after his full knowledge of the errors of the world,and the indifference which he lays hold upon, at his entiredisgust with and distaste of all worldly affairs.

52. Ráma, as you are delighted at the recital of tales, soshould you take a pleasure in your spiritual instructions, with204a melted heart and mind; unless you know the transparentintellect, and view it as diffused in the form of the infiniteworld, you cannot attain to your nirvána-extinction into it.

53. The knowledge of God, that you have gained from thevedas, is sheer ignorance, and resembles the false notion of theworld, that is born blind on earth. Trample over that knowledge,and do not fall into its errors; but know God in spirit,and by your nirvána-extinction into it, be exempt fromfuture births and transmigrations.

Argument:—The mind likened to the fairy land, full with the worldof its ignorance; and these being rubbed out from it, thereremains but an infinite expanse of the essence of one Brahma only.

Vasishtha continued:—The internal sense of egoismand the outward perception of the world, vanishes intounreality upon right inspection of them; and then truth of self-consciousnessappears even to the dull headed after removal oftheir dulness.

2. He who is freed from the fever of ignorance, and whosesoul is cooled by the draught of good understanding, is knownby the indication, that they bear no further thirst for worldlyenjoyments.

3. It is useless to use many words by way of logomachy,when the knowledge of one’s unegoism only, is enough to leadhim to the nirvána-extinction of himself.

4. As waking men do not relish the pleasure of things seenin their dream, so wise people feel no zest either for themselvesor the world, which they know to be as erroneous as the sightin their sleep.

5. As one sees the chimera of a magic city in a forest, andfilled with the families of Yakshas all about; so doth the livingsoul, look upon this world and all its contents.

6. As the deluded soul sees the Yakshas and their placeof abode, as realities and stable in their nature; so it believesits egoism or personality as a reality, and the unreal world asa substantiality.

7. As the phantoms of Yakshas are seen with their falseshapes in the open desert, so we see all these creatures in thefourteen worlds around us.

8. He who knows himself as nothing, and the knowledgeof his ego a mere error; finds his phantasm of Yaksha to be206no such thing in reality; and that of his mind melts into thepredicament of his intellect (i.e. both of them to be theone and same thing).

9. Be you as quiet in your mind, as you are sitting stillbefore us; by relinquishing all your fears and fancies, and renouncingall your givings and takings (to and from all persons),together with the suppression of all your desires.

10. The visible phenomenon is neither in esse nor in posse,and the whole extent of the objective world, is identic with thesubjective spirit of God; or if it be impossible for the subjectivereality to become the objective unreality, say then how theobjective could come to being or exist.

11. As it is the humidity of the vernal season, that producesand diffuses itself in the verdure of the ground; so it is thepith and marrow of the intellect, which fills and exhibits itselfin the form of creation.

12. If this appearance of the world, is no other than reflectionof the intellect; why then speak of its unity or duality thanknowing its identity with the sole entity, and holding yourpeace and tranquility.

13. Be full with the vacuous intellect, and drink the sweetbeverage of spirituality (i.e. be an intellectual and spiritualbeing); and sit without any fear and full of joy in the blissfulparadise of nirvána-extinction.

14. Why do ye men of erroneous understandings, rove aboutin the desert ground of this earth like the vagrant stags, thatwander about the sandy deserts (appearing as sheets of sweetwater).

15. O ye men of blinded understandings! Why do ye runso hurriedly with your insatiable thirst after the mirage ofthe world; only to be disappointed in your most sanguineexpectations.

16. Why do ye, O foolish men! thirst after the mirage of theappearances and the fancies of your minds; do not wasteyour lives in vain toils, nor fall victims to your desires like thedeluded deer.

17. Demolish the magic castle of worldly enticements, by207the stronger power of your reason; and see how you can destroythe train of evils, which appear as pleasure at the first sight.(All apparent good is latent evil).

18. Do not look at the blue vault of heaven as a realityby thy error, it is a mere show amidst the great void ofBrahma, wherefore thou shouldst fix the sight on its true aspectof vacuity (which is the real form of Brahma).

19. O ye men that are as frail and fickle and liable tofall down, as the tremulous dewdrop hanging on the edge ofa leaf on high; do not sleep regardless of your fates, in thewomb of this frail and mortal world (or in this world of mortality).

20. Remain always from first to last, in your true natureof calmness, without ever being unmindful of thyself; andremove the faults of the subjective and objective from thynature.

21. The world known as a reality to the ignorant, is anutter nihility to the wise; the other one which is the truereality bears no name for itself (being called a nullity andvoid).

22. Break the iron fetters of appetency, which bind youfast in this world; and rise high above the heaven of heavens,as the lion mounts on the towering tops of mountains, bybreaking loose from his imprisoning cage by force.

23. The knowledge of self and meity (or selfishness) is anerror, and it is the peace of mind only which makes liberation;it is the essence of the yogi, wherever and however he may besituated.

24. The weary pilgrim of the world, has the following fivestages for his rest; namely his nirvána or self resignation, hisnirvásana want of any desire, and the absence of his triplesorrow-tritápa; occasioned by his own fault and those ofothers, and the course of nature.

25. The wise man is unknown to the ignorant, and theignorant are not known to the wise; and the world is viewedin two opposite lights by them respectively, which are quiteunknown to one another. (Namely, that it is a vale of tears to208one, and a pleasure garden to the other. The one of theschool of Heracl*tus or the crying philosopher, and of that ofDemocritus the laughing philosopher).

26. The fallacy of the world having once fallen off from themind, there is no more the appearance of any worldly thingbefore it; as a seafarer seeing one vast expanse of water abouthim, does not see the inland arms which gush out of it as itsoffspring.

27. After disappearance of the error of the world, from theawakened mind of the anaesthetic yogi; he sits quite insensibleof it, as if it were melt into eternity.

28. As the grass and straws being burnt to ashes, we knownot whether they fly and vanish away with the winds of theair; so the nature of the sage being numbed to callousness, hisknowledge of the world goes to nothing.

29. It is good to know the world, as the ectype of theessence of Brahma; but the meaning of the word Brahma, beingthe universal soul, it does not apply in that sense to the changingworld, and as the work of God.

30. As the world appears to be everlasting and unchangingto the ignorant lad, so doth it seem to the listless sage tobe co-existent with its eternal cause (to whom everything iseternally present).

31. The wakeful sage keeps his vigils at that time, when itis the night of all beings to lie down in sleep; and the daytimewhen all creation is awake, is the night of retired saints. (Thewise and ignorant are opposed to one another in their knowledgeof things).

32. The wise man is active in his mind, while he seemsto be sitting still and inactive in his body; and when he iswaking, his organs of sense are as dormant as those of figuresin a painting.

33. The wise man is as blind as one who is born blind, inhis knowledge of the outer world, and has merely a faintnotion of it in his mind; where it appears or not at times, likea dream in his slight and sound sleep (swapna and susupti).

20934. All the worlds and worldly things, conduce to the woeof the ignorant, who are unacquainted with and delight in untruth,and are busy with the visibles and their thoughts aboutthem, as one with the visions in his dream.

35. As the wise man tastes no pleasure in his waking state,so must he remain insensible of them in his sleep also; butcontinue with undivided attention, in the meditation of theSupreme being.

36. The wise man who has curbed his desire of worldly enjoyments,and is liberated from its bonds; remains with hiscool and composed mind, and enjoys the tranquility of nirvána,without his efforts of yoga meditation.

37. As the course of water is always to run downward, andnever to rise upward; so the course of the mind is ever towardthe objects of sense, and sensible objects are the only delightof the mind.

38. The nature of the mind, with all its thoughts of internaland external objects, is of the same kind as that of thegreat ocean, which is full with the waters of its tributary riversas well as those of the internal waters.

39. As a river flows in one united course, of the waters ofall its confluent streams; so doth the mind run in an unvariedcourse, with all its internal and external, and righteous andunrighteous thoughts.

40. Thus the mind appears as a vast and wide extendedsea, and rolling on with all its indistinct thoughts and feelings,as the inseparable waters and waves of the sea.

41. In this manner, the absence of one thing causes theextinction of both, as in the case of the air and its fluctuation;either of which being wanting, there is neither the wind norits ventilation. (Such is the intimate connection between themind and its thought).

42. The mind and its working being one and the samething,they are both controuled at once by bringing the other undersubjection; know this well, nobody should cherish any earthlydesire in order to foster his mind.

21043. The mind may get its peace by true knowledge, andthe mind of the wise man is destroyed of itself with all itsdesires, without the aid of austerities to destroy them.

44. As a man gets freed from the fear of the enmity of anenemy, by destroying his effigy made of mud by himself, so isone enabled to kill his mind, by committing himself to the Divinespirit.

45. The wise man sees the cosmos and chaos as concomitantwith each other, though appear as separate. The birth anddeath as well as prosperity and adversity are mere error, thereis nothing else beside one infinity.

46. As one has no knowledge of the dream of another sleepingby his side, and as the adult man has no fear of yaksha liketimid boy; and as a giant knows no Pisacha or demon, so thewise sees no insensible world before him (but all full of theIntellect of God).

47. The ignorant think the wise as fools, and the old barrenwoman thinks of her conception; so one unacquainted withthe meaning of a word, attempts to explain its sense (all whichis absurd).

48. The understanding is ever existent, and without havingits beginning and end; and nature is known to exist ever sincecreation has began. The word mind is meaningless and is undividedand unbounded in its nature. (The mind or understandingis everlasting but nature is not so).

49. The understanding resembles the water of the sea, andthe mind and intelligence are likened to its limpid waves; howcan this fluid have an end, and what is the meaning of mind,but a shape of this psychic fluid. (Here is a similarity ofVasishtha’s intellectual liquid to Stahl’s psychic fluid).

50. For all error is useless, and live to your nature for yourgood; and being of the nature of pure understanding, you willbecome as perspicacious as the clear autumnal sky. (Here isVasishtha’s vacuism again as the ultimate perfection of men).

51. After passing the three states of waking, dreaming anddeep sleep (to the fourth state of turíya or nirvána insensibility),211there is nomore any perception of the mind or mental operationto the abstracted yogi; and then the knowledge of the endlessvarieties of unrealities of creation, is blown away and lostin the sight of the everlasting One.

52. Forsake the endless chain of knowables, and be attachedto thy nature of the solid intellect; because all things whetherinternal or external, are comprehended under its knowledge.

53. Say how can you separate the objects from the mind,as you do the seed, branches and fruits from one another; theknowables are unknowable without their knowledge, andknowledge is no known category (apart from the mind).

54. The endless varieties and particulars are still and quietin the Divine soul, which is the only entity and manifest ofitself as all. The objects being but ideas in the mind andthis being a negative also, they are all but errors of the brain.(The mind and its objective ideas being dependent to andidentic with one another, the conception of them is altogethererroneous).

55. The mind which is the framer of objective thoughts, isa nihility of itself and an error also. The eternal spirit beingthe sole soul of all, it is useless to imagine the entity of themind.

56. The objective being an erroneous notion, is but a falseapparition appearing to sight, the objects also having no causefor their creation, prove the subjective mind to be a falsitylikewise.

57. The mind is as fickle as the flickering lightning, anddeludes us by the flashes of things of its own making.

58. The mind is nothing before knowledges of the self-existenceOne, nor does it then deceive us with its false shows; andthis world which is the creation of the mind, disappears beforethe knowledge of the soul.

59. Men in vain wish to take the shell for silver, and believethe negative world as a positive one, and is found to be nothingbefore the light of reason.

60. The error of egoism is opposed to the verity of nirvána,212and is the cause of misery only to mankind; the ego is verilya falsity as mirage, and a non-entity as vacuity itself.

61. The knowledge of the self or soul, removes the error ofegoism; and by knowing and being full with the knowledgeof the soul, one is incorporated with it, both internally as wellas externally.

62. One who is unified with the universal soul, resemblesa wave that mixes altogether with the main water; becausethe Divine soul sends its essence to all, as a tree supplies itsmarrow to all parts of it from top to foot.

63. There is one unchanging soul, that shines afar abovethe reach of our knowledge; in the same manner as the clearvault of heaven, appears at the distance of millions of milesfrom us.

64. There is only one unknowable and infinite Being, thatis far beyond our knowledge of the knowables, and is purerand more rarefied than the all pervading vacuum.

65. Therefore knowing that pure and holy One, as both thestates of knowledge and knowables (i.e. the subjective andobjective); just as the clarified butter is consolidated to thecompactness of stone. (The soul is solidified to matter).

66. The Divine intellect makes itself the object of itsthought as a thinkable being; and the soul thinks in itself asthe mind, from eternity to eternity, throughout the infinity ofspace. (The soul reflects in itself, as the congeries of all thingsof its omniscience).

67. The unintelligent Nyáya School maintains the unityand positive rest of God; and although there may be no mistakeof theirs in this position, yet it is wrong to separate omnisciencefrom the entity of Divine unity.

68. All great minded souls that are free from pride, meltaway into the inscrutable quiescence of God; and those thatunerring in divine knowledge, find their eternal rest in thesamádhi or resignation of themselves to the Supreme spirit.

Argument:—The tree of samádhi; its roots and filaments, itsleaves and branches, its blossoms and flowers, its barks andfruits, its piths and marrows, its heights and moistures.

Ráma said:—Relate to me at length, O holy sage, theform of the arbour of samádhi, together with all its creepers,flowers and fruits, which supply holy men with good andrefreshment, all along their lives.

2. Vasishtha replied:—Hear me relate to you about thetree of samádhi, which always grows in the forest of holy people,and is ever fraught with its luxuriant foliage and flowers andits luscious fruits.

3. The learned say, that it is some how or other, either byculture or its own spontaneity, that there grows a dissatisfactionwith the wilderness of this world, in the heart of thereasonable man.

4. Its field is the heart of the wise man, furrowed by theplough of prosperity (i.e. which has had better fortune);which is watered with delight by day and night, and whoseconduit is now flowing with sighs.

5. It is the heart’s regret at the world, which is the seedof samádhi or self-resignation; and it grows of itself in theground of the contrite heart of the wise, in the forest land ofreasonable men.

6. When the seed of contrite reflection, falls in the mindsof magnanimous men; it must be watered with diligence andindefatigableness with the following articles. viz:—

7. The society of pure, holy and complacent men, whospeak sweetly and kindly for the good of others; and whosespeech serves as the sprinkling of fresh water or milk or dewdropson the seeding grounds.

2148. And by shedding the sacred waters of the sayings of theholy sástras, all about the aqueduct, which may serve to growthe seed, by their cool and ambrosial moisture.

9. When the magnanimous soul, perceives the seed of contritereflection fallen in the mind; he must try to preserve andfoster the same with all diligence.

10. This seed is to be grown by the manure of austerities,and by the power of using other means; by resorting to andresting in places <of> pilgrimage and holy shrines, and by stretchinghis perseverance as his defence (or a fence about the seed-ground).

11. It is the duty of the well taught man, after the sproutingforth of the seed, to preserve it always with the assistanceof his two consorts—contentment and cheerfulness.

12. He should then keep off the aerial birds of his expectationsand the fowls of his affection for others, and the vulturesof his desire and cupidity, from darting upon and picking upthe seed.

13. Then the rajas or dust of vanity, is to swept away(from this field), by gentle acts of piety, serving as sweepers ofvice and unrighteousness; and then the tamas or shades ofignorance are to be dispelled from this ground, by the ineffablelight of the sun of reason—viveka.

14. Wealth and women, and all sorts of frail and fleetingenjoyments; overtake this rising germ (of godliness), as dartsof lightning issuing from the cloud of unrighteousness.

15. It is by the iron rod of patience and gravity, by themuttering of mantras, and by holy ablutions and austerities, asalso by the trident of the triliteral Om, that these thunderboltsare averted.

16. In this manner the seed of meditation also, being carefullypreserved from neglect, sprouts forth in the germ of discrimination(viveka) with its handsome and thriving appearance.

17. The ground of the mind shines brightly, with thisbrilliant germ; and it gladdens the hearts of men in venerationto it, as the smiling moon-beams illume the sky.

21518. This germ shoots forth in a couple of leaves, which growout of themselves upon it; one of them is the knowledge ofsástras, and the other is the society of the good and wise. (i.e.Divine knowledge is to be gained from the study of scriptures,and attendance to the lectures of learned men).

19. Let your fixedness support the stem and height of thistree, and make your patience its covering bark; and cause yourunconcernedness with the world, supply it with the moisture ofindifference.

20. The tree of godliness being nourished with the moistureof unworldliness, and watered by the rain water of sástras,attains its full height in course of a short time.

21. Being thickened by the pith of divine knowledge, andmarrow of good society, and the moisture of indifference, thistree attains a fixity, which is not to be shaken by the apes ofpassions and affections.

22. And then this tree shoots forth in luxuriant branchesof wisdom, which stretches far and wide with their fresh verdureand virescent leaves, distilling their juicy sweets all around.

23. These are the branches of frankness and truth, of constancyand firmness, of equanimity and unchangeableness, ofcalmness and amicableness, and of kindness, self-respect andrenown.

24. These branches are again adorned with the leaves ofpeace and tranquility, and studded with flowers of good reputeand fame; wherewith this tree of godliness becomes the párijáta(or the arbour of paradise or Parnassus) to the hermits ofthe forests.

25. In this manner the tree of divine knowledge, beingfraught with its branches, leaves and flowers; brings for thebest and richest fruits of knowledge, day by day (during thelife time of its possessor).

26. It blossoms in clusters of the flowers of fame, and iscovered with leaves of bright qualities all over; it is profluentwith the sweets of dispassionateness; and its filaments are fullof the dust of intelligence.

27. It cools all sides like clouds in the rainy weather, and216always the heat of worldly anxieties, as the moon-beams assuagethe warmth of sun-shine.

28. It spreads the awning shade of harmony, as the cloudscast a cooling shadow below; it stretches a quiet composureover the mind (chitta-vritti nirodha), as an extensive cloudoverspreads a still calm in the air.

29. It builds a sound and sure basis for itself, as the rocksstand on their solid bases; it lays the foundation of futurerewards on high, and causes all blessings to attend upon it.

30. As the arbour of discrimination, grows higher and higherday by day; so it stretches a continuity of cooling shade, overthe forest of the hearts of men.

31. It diffuses a coldness, that pacifies the heat below; andmakes the plant of the understanding to shoot forth (develop),as a tender creeper juts out of the snows.

32. The deerlike mind being tired with its wanderings,about the deserts of this world; takes its rest and refuge underthis cool shade; as a weary traveller, worried out from his verybirth, in his journey among men, comes to take his rest at last.

33. This deer of the mind, that is galled in its mouth bybrowsing the thorny brambles of the forest for food, is againhunted by its enemies of the passions, which lay waiting likehuntsmen, to kill the soul, as these slay the body of the stag forits skin.

34. The deerlike mind being ever impelled by its vaindesires, wanders all about the desert land of this world,and pursues after the poisonous water of mirage of its egoism.

35. It sees the extended and verdant valley at distance, andis battered and shattered in its body with running after itsverdure; and being harassed in search of the food and foragefor its offspring, it falls headlong into the pit for its destruction.

36. Being robbed of his fortune, and put to bodily troubles,and led by thirst of gain to the ever running stream of desires,the man is at last swallowed up and carried away by the currentwaves.

21737. The man flies afar for fear of being overtaken by adisease, as the stag does for fear of a huntsman, but he is notafraid of the hunter of fate, that falls upon him unawares atevery place.

38. The timid mind is afraid of the shafts of adverse fortune,flying from every known quarter; and of being pelt by stonesflung from the hands of its enemies on every side.

39. The mind is ever hurled up and down, with the upsand downs of fortune; and is continually crushed under themillstone of his rising and setting passions (of anger and hatred&c.).

40. One who follows after thirst, without putting relianceon the laws inculcated by the great, falls headlong into thedelusion of the world; as one suffers a scratch is well as woundover his body, by penetrating within the beautiful thornycreepers.

41. Having entered in the organic body of man, the mindis eager to fly away from it; but there is the ungovernableelephant of earthy desire, that stuns it with its loud shrieks(on its way).

42. There is again the huge snake of worldly affairs, whichbenumbs it with its poisonous breath; and so do the fairieson the face of the earth, serve to enslave the mind in love tothem.

43. There is also the wild fire of anger, which boils like asmart bile with its burning flame in the human breast; and inflamesthe mind with endless pain, by its repeated recurrence inthe bosom.

44. The desires clinging to the mind, are as gnats and fleas,biting and stinging it constantly; and its carnal enjoyments,appetites and revelries, are as shakals shrieking loudly about it.

45. It is led by virtue of its actions, to wander all aboutwithout any rest or profit to its self, and driven from placeto place by the tiger like poverty, staring grimly at its face,again it is blinded amidst the mist of its affections to childrenand others, and lost at last in the hidden pitfall of death.

46. Again it trembles with the sense of and fear for its218honor, which like a lion strikes tremor in its heart; while it isstruck with terror at the glaring of the wolf of death at itsface.

47. It is afraid of pride, as a forester in dread of dragoncoming to devour him; and it fears the appetites, which withtheir open mouths and bloody teeth, threaten to ingulph it inruin.

48. It is no less in fear of its female companions in youth,whose amorous embraces like gusts of wind threaten to hurlit headlong to repeated hell-pits.

49. It seldom happens, O prince! that the deerlike mindfinds its rests in the arbour of godliness; as the living beingsdo, when they come from darkness to day light. (It ought tobe, when they come from day light to repose at night).

50. O ye hearers, let your deerlike minds find that delightin the arbour of peace, whose name even is not known to theignorant, who are deluded by their fickle and smiling fortunes,resembling the oscillating smiles of flowers.

Argument:—Description of the happiness, attending uponthe access of the mind to the arbour of Godliness.

Vasishtha continued:—O destroyer of enemies! thedeerlike mind having found its rest in that sacred bower,remains quite pleased with the same, and never thinks of goingto any other arbour.

2. In course of time, the tree of discriminate knowledge,brings forth its fruits; which ripen gradually with the sweetsubstance of spiritual knowledge in the inside.

3. The deerlike mind sitting under the goodly tree of itsmeditation, beholds its outstretching branches hanging downward,with loads of the fruits of merit and virtue (meaning itsmeritoriousness).

4. It sees people climbing in this tree, with great persistenceand pains; in order to taste these sweet fruits in preferenceto all others (because merit is preferable to reward).

5. Worldly peoples decline to ascend the foot of the tree ofknowledge, but those who have mounted high upon it, neverthink of ever coming down from the high position which theyhave attained.

6. For he who has ascended on the tree of reason or knowledge,in order to taste its delicious fruits, forgets the relish of hishabitual food, and forsakes the bondage of his former deserts,as a snake casts aside his slough or skin.

7. The man who has risen to a high station, looks at himselfand smiles to think, how miserly he has passed so long aperiod of his past life.

8. Having then mounted on the branch of fellow feeling, andputting down the snake of selfishness under his feet, he seemsto reign in himself, as if he were the sole monarch over all.

9. As the digits of the moon decrease and disappear in the220dark fortnight, so the lotuses of his distress are lost in oblivion;and the iron fetters of his thirst after greed are rubbed out dayby day (as he advances in his yoga).

10. He heeds not what is unattainable, nor cares aboutwhat is not obtained; his mind is as bright as the clear moonlight night, and his heart is quite cold, in all its passions andaffections.

11. He sits poring upon the sages of the scriptures, andmeditates in silence in their profound sense; he observes withextensive view the course of nature, from the highest and greatestobjects to the mean and minute.

12. Looking at the aforesaid septuple ground of his pastfollies, full with thick forests of poisonous fruits and flowers; hesits smiling looking upon them in derision (for having fled fromtheir infection).

13. Having fled from the tree of death, and alighted onthat of life, his aspiring mind like a flitting bird, rises bydegrees to its higher branches, and there sits delighted as aprince in his elevated station.

14. Thence he looks down upon the family and friends, andupon the wealth and property (he has left behind); as if theywere the adjuncts of former life, or as visions in his dream.

15. He views with coldness his passions and feelings, hisfears, hopes, his errors and honors, as actors (dramatis personae),acting their several parts in the drama of his life. (The worldis a stage, life a play, and the passions are players in it).

16. The course of the world is as that of a rapid river, runningonward with its furious and mischievous current; andlaughing with its frothy breakers, now swelling highland thensinking at once.

17. He does not feel any craving for wealth, wife or friendsin his breast, who lives dead to his feelings as an insensiblecorpse (or forgets himself to a stone).

18. His sight is fixed only on that single fruit on high, whichis the holy and conscious soul or intellect; and with his soleobject in his view, he mounts high on the higher branches ofthis tree of life.

22119. He bears in his remembrance, the blessings of the precedingstep of his yoga meditation, which is one fraught withthe ambrosia of contentment; he remains as content at the lossof his riches, as he felt himself glad at their gain before.

20. In the callings of his life, as also to the calls of hisprivate and public interest; he is as displeased and annoyed,as one who is untimely roused from his wholesome sleep.

21. As a weary traveller fatigued with his long and tiresomejourney, longs for his rest from cessation of his labour; so aman tired with his repeated journey through life by cause ofhis ignorance, requires his respite in nirvána (or extinction ofthe trouble and transmigration in this troublesome world).

22. As a flame of fire is kindled by the wind of breath andwithout the help of fuel, so let him kindle the flame of his soulwithin by the breath of respiration; and be united with theSupreme spirit.

23. Let him check per-force his yearning after anything,which falls of itself before his sight; although he is unable toprevent his wistful eye, from falling upon it. (Look on allthings, but long after nothing).

24. Having attained this great dignity, which confers thefruits of best blessings on man, the devotee arrives to thesixth stage of his devotion, whose glory no language candescribe.

25. Whenever he happens to meet with some unexpectedgood, which fortune presents unto him he feels a repugnanceto it, as the traveller is loathe to trust the mirage in a barrendesert.

26. The silent sage who is full with divine grace withinhimself, attains to such a state of ineffable felicity; as the wearyand exhausted traveller finds in his sweet sleep, over the bustleof the busy world.

27. He—sage having arrived at this stage of his devotion,advances towards this attainment of the fruit of spiritual bliss,as an aerial siddha spirit has on its alighting on the MountMeru, or a bird of air on its dropping down on the top of atree.

22228. Here he forsakes all his thoughts and desires, and becomesas free as the open air and sky; and then he takes andtastes and eats and satiates himself, with his feeding freelyupon this fruit.

29. It is the leaving off of every object of desire day by day,and living the live long day with perfect composure with one’sself; that is termed the attainment of godliness or full perfectionin life.

30. The means of attaining to this state of perfection, isthe doing away with all distinctions and differentiations, andremaining in perfect union and harmony with all and everything; this state of the mind is said by the learned, to be theassimilation and approximation to the nature of God, who is everpure and the one and same in all from eternity to eternity.

31. One disgusted at his desire of the world and its people,and abandoning his desire of wife and family; and forsakinghis desire of acquiring riches, can only find his rest in this blissfulstate.

32. The ultimate union of both the intellect and its trueknowledge (i.e. of both the subjective and objective) in theSupreme spirit; serves to melt away all sense of distinction,as the solar heat melts down the frozen snow.

33. The nature of one who has known the truth, is not comparablewith the state of a bent bow, which becomes straightafter it is loosened; but to that of a curvilinear necklace, whichretains its curvature, even after it is let loose on the ground.(i.e. The true convert does not slide back, like the back slidinghypocrite).

34. As a statue is carved in wood or stone, and stands expectto view in bas-relief therein; so is the world manifest in thegreat pillar of the Supreme spirit, and is neither an entity nornullity of itself.

35. We cannot form any idea of it in the mind, as to howthe material subsists in the immaterial spirit; nor is it proper toentertain the notion, of what is unknowable by our ignorance ofthe nature of the selfexistent One.

22336. Whoso is known to have his utmost indifference to thevisibles, is capable of knowing the invisible spirit; but theunenlightened soul, is incapable to forsake and forget the visibles(in order to see the spirit).

37. The knowledge of the phenomenal is utter ignorance,but that which is never lost to our consciousness is what ismeant by samádhána, and our reliance in the same, constituteswhat is called samádhi. (This passage has a long explanatorynote which is here omitted).

38. When the viewer and view (or the subjective and objective),are viewed in the same light of identity, and so reliedupon by the mind; it is then called samádhána or the unionof both into one, and it is this belief whereupon the yogi placeshis rest and reliance.

39. He who has known truth, finds a distaste in the visiblesof his own natures (i.e. is naturally averse to them); and wisem*n make use of the word phenomenalism for ignorance oftruth.

40. Fools only feed upon the objects of sense, from theirignorance of truth, but the wise men have a natural distastefor them; for they that have the relish of sweet nectar in them,cannot be disposed to taste the sour gruel or the acrid ale.

41. The uncovetous man being content in himself, is quitedevoid of the triple desire mentioned before; but the wiseman who is not inclined to meditation, is addicted to the increaseof his wealth.

42. Self-knowledge results from absence of cupidity, andwhoso loses his self by his venality, hath neither his self-possession,nor any fixed position to stand upon (but is led oneverywhere by his covetousness to the service of others).

43. The learned man does not prosper in his meditation,though he may employ all his knowledge to it; because he isdivided in himself by his various desires, though he was madeas the whole and undivided image of himself (i.e. his maker).

44. But the soul which is freed from its desires, comes ofitself in the possession of endless bliss, by being dissolved inthe source of it in its meditation, as the flying mountains were224fixed upon the earth (by having their wings chopped off by thethunder of Indra). (So the fickle mind is fixed, by lopping offits desires).

45. As the soul becomes conscious of holy light in itself, itloses the sense of its meditation and is wholly lost in thatlight; as a drop of clarified butter offered in sacred oblation, isburnt away in the sacrificial fire.

46. It is the entire inappetency of sensible objects, whichconstitutes the peace and quietude of the mind; and he whohas accustomed himself to this habit, is entitled to our regardas a venerable and holy divine.

47. Verily the man that has gained his proficiency, in thesuppression of his appetite for worldly objects; becomes as firmand sedate in his holy meditation, that he is not to be shakenfrom it, by the joint power of Indra and those of the Gods anddemigods. (The greedy are as sacrificial beasts, for the food ofGods and others).

48. Resort therefore to the strong and adamantine refugeof meditation, and know that all other meditations besidethat of knowledge, is as frail and fragile as straws.

49. The word world is used in reference to ignorant people,and the wise are not the subject of its meaning; the differenceof the words ignorant and wise, consists in the one’s formingthe majority of mankind and the other their lords (i.e. Wisem*n rule over the ignorant mob, who compose the world).

50. Let wise men resort to and rest at that place, where allmeet in union in one self-shining unity; whether it be on theground of the understanding of the saintly siddhas, or those ofviveki sages. (This is an admonition to every one, for hisreliance in one catholic religion of unity, of any nation orcountry).

51. No one has yet been able to ascertain the unity orduality of the real or unreal (i.e. of the spirit and matter) andthe way to learn it, is firstly by means of the sástras, and next byassociation with wise and holy men.

52. The third and best means to nirvána is meditation,which is arrived at one after the other; and then it will appear225that the immense body of Brahma (i.e. the infinite spirit),takes upon it the name and nature of the living soul.

53. The world appears in various forms by the concourse ofthe like and unlike principles, and becomes divided into eighteenregions, by the omniscience of God that knows the past, andfuture.

54. Both the two things namely knowledge and dislike ofthe world, are attained by attainment of either of them; andthe thoughts of our mind, which fly with the winds in open air,are burnt away by the fire of knowledge.

55. The worlds like flying cottons, having fled into thesupreme soul, nothing is known where they are flown at last;and the gross ignorance of man is not removed by knowledge,as the dense snow is not to be melted by the fire in a painting.

56. Though the world is known to be an unfounded fallacy,yet it is hard to remove this error from the mind; but on theother hand it increases like the knowledge of ignorant men ofit, by their ignorance.

57. As the knowledge of the ignorant, tends the more to increasetheir ignorance; so the wiseman comes to find the meaninglessnessof the knowledge of ignorant people with regard tothe world.

58. The existence of the three worlds, is known to us onlyas they are represented in our knowledge of them; they arebuilt in vacuity as aerial cities, and stretched out before us asempty dreams in our sleep.

59. The knowledge of the world appears as false, as the conceptionof fanciful desires in the minds of the wise; for neitherthe entity of the world nor that of his self-existence, is perceptiblein the understanding of the wise man.

60. There is only the existence of one supremely brightessence, which shines in our minds; which bears resemblance topieces of wet or dry wood, in as much as they are moistened orexsiccated by the presence or absence of the divine knowledge.

61. To the right understanding the whole world with allits living beings, appears as one with one’s self; but men ofdull understandings, bear no mutual sympathy to one another.226The knowledge of twain, tends to difference and disunion betwixtman and man; but that of oneness unity leads men tofellow-feeling and union.

62. The wise man possessing a greater share of wisdom, becomesas one with the Supreme One; and does not take intoconsideration, the question of the entity or nullity of the world.

63. As the man who has arrived at the forth stage of yoga,takes no notice of the waking, dreaming and sleeping states ofman; so the reasonable man takes into no account the vainwishes of his heart, and false fancies of his mind.

64. Hence the deerlike mind does not choose its annihilation,(or the loss of its entity); for the sake of its liberation,(which is an ideal and negative felicity), and has no reality in it.

65. Thus the tree of meditation produces of itself the fruitof knowledge, which is ripened by degrees and in course of timeto its lusciousness; and then the deer like mind drinks itssweet juice of divine knowledge to its satiety, and becomesfreed from its fetters of earthly desire.

Argument:—The state of the mind, after its tasting thefruit of the tree of Meditation; and the nausea producedthereby in all worldly objects and enjoyments.

Vasishtha continued:—After the Supreme being whichis the object and fruit of meditation, is known as presentin the mind, and the bliss of release from flesh is felt within,all sensations are lost altogether, and the deerlike mind becomesspiritualized into the Supreme essence.

2. It then loses its deership of browsing the thorns, as theextinguished lamp loses its flame; it assumes a spiritual formand shines with exhaustless blaze.

3. The mind in order to attain the fruit of its meditation,assumes a firmness resembling that of the mountains, after theirwings were mutilated by the thunder bolts of Indra.

4. Its mental faculties fly away from it, and there remainsonly its pure consciousness in it; which <is> irrepressibleand indivisible and full with the supreme soul in itself.

5. The mind being roused to its reasonableness (from itsformer state of material dulness); now rises as the sentientsoul, and dispensing its clear spiritual light, from its identitywith the increate and endless One.

6. It then remains in that state, in perfect freedom and fromall wishes and attempts; it is assimilated with the everlastingspirit of God, in its form of eternal contemplation.

7. Until the great Brahma may be known, and our rest maybe found in that Blessed state; so long the mind remains astranger to meditation, by reason of its dwelling on otherthoughts.

8. After the mind has obtained its union with the supremeOne, we know not whither the mind is fled; and where our228wishes and actions, our joys and griefs, and all our knowledgefly away.

9. The yogi is seen to be solely absorbed in his meditation,and sitting steadfast in his contemplation, like a wingless andunmoving mountain.

10. Loathe to his sensual enjoyments, and blunt to all sensibilities;averse to the various sights and objects of senses, theyogi is pleased only with himself.

11. With his sensations numbed by degrees, and his soulresting in tranquility; and his mind dead to the enticementsof wealth and sensible objects; the yogi is pleased with himself.

12. All men of right understanding, are fully aware of thetastelessness of the objects of sense; and remain like humanfigures in painting, without doting or looking upon them.

13. The man that is master of himself, and has masteryover his soul and mind; disdains to look upon earthly treasures,for his want of desire for them; he is firmly fixed in his abstraction,as if he were compelled to it by force of another.

14. The soul immerged in meditation, becomes as full asa river in the rainy season; and there is no power that canrestrain the mind, which is fixed in its meditation.

15. When the mind is immerged in deep meditation, by itscool apathy to all sensible objects, and feels an utter indifferenceto all worldly affairs, it is then said to be in its samádhiand no other.

16. It is a settled distaste to the objects of sense, that constitutesthe pith and marrow of meditativeness; and thematurity of this habit, makes a man as compact as adamant.

17. It is therefore the distaste to worldly enjoyments, thatis the germ of meditation, while it is the taste for such pleasures,which binds a man fastly to it.

18. Full knowledge of truth, and the renunciation of everydesire at all times; lead men to the nirvána meditation, andto the infinite joy of the divine state.

19. If there is inappetency of enjoyments, why think of anythingelse? and if there be no such inappetency, what availsany other thought or meditation?

22920. The well intelligent sage who is freed from his relishingthe visibles, is situated in his position of unflinching meditation,and in the enjoyment of his continuous reveries.

21. He whom the visibles do not delight, is known as themost enlightened man; and he who takes no delight in theenjoyables, is deemed as the full wise man.

22. He who is disposed to repose by nature, can have noinclination to enjoyments; it is unnatural to indulge in carnalenjoyments, but the subdued nature needs nothing to enjoy.

23. Let men resort to their reflection, after their hearing ofa lecture, reciting the scripture, and muttering the mantrasand uttering their prayers; and when tired with meditation, letthem return to their lectures and recitals.

24. Sitting in meditation in an indefatigable mood, andresting at agreeable ease with freedom from fear and care; remainingin rapturous hypnotism, with a quiet and composed mind,likens the fair autumnal sky with its unclouded and sereneaspect.

Argument:—Of the different steps leading to Liberation,and firstly of Indifference to the world and lastly ofputting reliance in the holy precepts.

Vasishtha continued:—Hear now the manner and themeasures which the yogi adopts to himself, in order toobtain his release from his cumbrous burthen and troubles ofthe world.

2. As the germ of discrimination springs in the mind atfirst, by reason of the disparagement of the world (for themultiplicity of its faults, or from some cause or other).

3. All good people, resort under the wide stretching shadeof this (fullgrown) tree; as the weary and sunburnt travellerhalts under the cooling shade of trees on their way.

4. The wise man shuns the ignorant at a distance, as thewayfarer casts aside the sacrificial wood; because the worshippersof the gods only observe the ceremonious rites of holyablutions and almsgivings, austerities and offering of sacredoblations.

5. In his fair, just, polite and undissembling behaviour, andin his placid and pleasing countenance, he resembles the fairmoon with her ambrosial beams.

6. He acts with sound wisdom and prudence, is polite andcivil in his manners, is prompt in serving and obliging others,is holy in his conduct and humorous in his discourse.

7. He is as clear and cold, soft and pleasing as fresh butter,and his company is delightsome to people even at his veryfirst appearance.

8. The deeds of wise men are as pure and grateful to mankind,as the dews of moon-beams, are refreshing and refrigeratingof whole nature.

9. No one sleeps so delighted on a bed of flowers, and in231a flower garden devoid of fears; as he rests secure in the societyof reasonable and pious men.

10. The society of holy and wisem*n, like the pure watersof the heavenly river, serve to cleanse the sins and purify theminds of the sinful.

11. The society of the holy recluse and liberated men, is ascooling as a refrigeratory or ice house.

12. The great and high delight, which the holy sage feelsin his heart, is not to be enjoyed in the company of fairiesamong the gods, gandharvas and human kind.

13. It is by continued performance of proper acts, that thepious devotee attains his knowledge and clearness of understanding;when the significance of the sástras, is reflected asclearly in the tablet of his mind, as the reflections of objectsare seen in a reflector.

14. A good understanding moistened by instruction of thesástras, thrives in the mind of a holy man, as a plantain treegrows in the forest.

15. The mind which is cleared by good judgment, retainsthe clear impression of everything in it, as a mirror reflectsthe images of objects on its surface.

16. The wise man whose soul is purified by the associationwith holymen, and whose mind is cleansed with the lavationof scriptural instruction, is as a sheet of linen cloth flamingwith fire.

17. The holy saint shines with the effulgence of his person,as the sun does with his golden beams, diffusing a pure light allaround the world.

18. The wise man follows the conduct of holy sages, andthe precepts of the sástras in such a manner; as to imitate andpractice them himself.

19. Thus the tyro becomes by degrees, as good as the goodand great objects of his imitation, and as full of knowledge asthe sástras themselves; and having then put down all theenjoyments of life under him, he appears to come out of aprison, by breaking down his chains and fetters.

23220. He who is practiced in reducing his appetites and enjoymentsday by day, resembles the crescent moon daily increasingin brightness, and enlightening his family, as the moonthrows her lustre over the stars about her.

21. The penurious miser (who amass their wealth withoutenjoying it), is always as sulky as the face of eclipsed moon,and never as smiling as the countenance of the liberal, whichis as bright as the face of the moon when freed from eclipse.

22. The liberal man spurns the world as mere straw, andbecomes renowned among the great for his munificence; heresembles the kalpa plant of paradise, which yields the desiredfruit to every body.

23. Though one may feel some compunction in his mind, atthe wilful abdication of his possessions; yet the wise man isglad at his having no property at all. (It is better to have noproperty, than to regret at its loss or resignation).

24. Any one may laugh at his prior acts, if he will come toknow what he was and he is; as a low chandal by beingjátismara, laughs in disgust in making comparison of his pastbirth with that of the present.

25. Even the siddhas or holy saints, repair with wonder tosee the yogi for their esteem of him; and look upon him as themoon risen on earth, with their delighted eyes.

26. The yogi who is ever accustomed to despise all enjoyment,and has attained his right judgement, does not hold inestimation any of the enjoyables in life, though it presentsitself to him in the proper manner.

27. The holy man whose soul is raised and enlightened(in time), feels his former enjoyments to become as dull andinsipid to him, as a luxuriant tree becomes dry and witheredin autumn.

28. He then resorts to the company of holymen, for hisgreatest and lasting good; and becomes as sane and sound, asthe sickman becomes hale by his abstinence and recourse tophysicians.

29. Being then exulted in his mind, he dives into the deep233sense of the sástras; as a big elephant plunges into a large lakeof clear water.

30. It is the nature of virtuous men, to deliver their neighboursfrom danger and calamity; and to lead them to their wellbeing and prosperity, as the sun leads people to light.

31. The reasonableman becomes from before, averse toreceive anything from another, and lives content with what ishis own.

32. He hates to taste the delicacies of others, from hissatiety with the ambrosial draughts of contentment; and prepareshimself for his abandonment of what he is already possessedof himself.

33. He is accustomed to give away his gold and money tobeggars, and beg his vegetable food from others; and by habitualpractice of giving away whatever he has, he is even readyto part with the flesh of his body.

34. Verily the man of subdued mind and holy soul, gets overthe hidden traps of ignorance with as much ease, as a runningman leaps over a pitfall (goshpada).

35. The holyman being accustomed to despise the acceptanceof wealth from others, learns betimes to slight the possessionof any wealth for himself also.

36. Thus the aversion to the wealth and possessions of others,leads the wise and holy man by degrees to be averse to theretaining of anything for himself.

37. There is no such trouble in this earth, nor any greatpain in the torment of hell, as there is in the punishment ofearning and accumulation of wealth.

38. Ah! how little are the money making fools aware, ofthe cares and troubles which they have to undergo in theirrestless days and nights, in their servitude for money.

39. All wealth is but lengthening woe, and prosperity isthe harbinger of adversity; all enjoyments and aliments arebut ailments, and thus every earthly good turns to its reverse.

40. One cannot have a distaste to sensual enjoyments, aslong he thinks on the objects of sense; and so long as he has a234craving for riches, which are the spring of all evils and bane ofhuman life.

41. He who has got a relish for his highest heavenly bliss,looks upon the world as a heap of straw, and riches as the firethat kindles them to a flame. Avoid this fire and be cool andquiet.

42. The meaning of wealth is known to be the source of allevils in the world, and as the cause of all wants and disordersand even of diseases and death. It is also the cause ofoppression and plunder, of incendiarism and the like, and theirconsequent poverty and famine.

43. In this mortal world of the death and diseases of livingbeings, there is one elixir which confers perpetual health andlife to man, and this is his contentment only. (Hence called theambrosia of life, santoshámritang).

44. The vernal season is charming, and so are the gardenof paradise, the moon-beams and fairies, but all combine incontentment only, which is alone capable of yielding all thedelights.

45. The contented soul likens a lake in the rains, when it isfull as it is deep, and as clear and cooling as the nectariousbeverage of the gods.

46. The honest man is strengthened by his contentmentand flourishes with full glee, as a flower tree is decked withblooming blossoms in the flowering season.

47. As the poor emmet is likely to be crushed under thefoot of every passer, in its ceaseless search and hoarding offood; so the greedy and needy man is liable to be spurned, forhis incessant wanderings after paltry gains and lucre.

48. The deformed and disfigured beggar, is as a man plungedin a sea of troubles, and buffeting in its waves withoutfinding a support for rest, or any prospect of ever reaching tothe shore.

49. Prosperity like a beauty, is as frail and fickle as theunstable waves of the ocean; what wiseman is there that canexpect to find his reliance in them, or have his rest under theshade of the hood of hideous serpent? (This simile is borrowed235in the Nyáya wherein world is said kupita phani phanáchháyeva).

50. He who knowing the pains attending on the gaining,keeping and losing of money, still persists to pursue in its search,is no better than a brute, and deserves to be shunned by thewise as unsociable.

51. He who mows down at once the growing grass of hisinternal and external appetites, from the field of his heart, bythe means of the scythe of insouciance, gets it prepared for receptionof the seeds of Divine knowledge.

52. Ignorant people take the world for a reality, and wisem*n also conduct themselves under this supposition thoughthey are well aware of its unreality; and this owing to theirneglect of practicing what they are taught to believe. (Thewise and foolish are in the same footing, by equally unwiseconduct in life).

53. The sum of the whole is that, it is the resignation ofthe world which leads men to the society of sages and studyof the scriptures; and then by reliance in the holy precepts,one abandons his worldliness, and at last his firm dislike of thetemporal, leads him to seek his spiritual bliss.

Argument:—The state of holy Resignation.

Vasishtha continued:—After a man has come to hisresignation of the world, and to his association withholy men; and after he has well digested the precepts of thesástras, and abandoned his carnal appetites and enjoyments:—

2. And then having a distaste to worldly objects, and gainedthe reputation of being a man of probity; and being outwardlyan inquirer after truth, and inwardly full of enlightenment.

3. He does not long for wealth, but shuns it as one fliesfrom darkness; he gives away whatever he has in hand, as aman casts aside the dry and rotten leaves from his house.

4. Every one is seen to be worn out with toil and care, for thesupportance of his family and friends throughout his life; andyet like a weary traveller labouring under his load, he is rarelyfound to cast off his burthen, as long he has strength to bear it.

5. A man in full possession of his senses, and the sensibleobjects all about him, is yet quite insensible of them, if he isbut possessed of the calm, quiet of his mind.

6. Wherever he remains, whether in his retired solitude orremote from his country; or in a forest or sea or distant desertsor gardens; he is perfectly at home in every place.

7. But he is not in love with any place, nor dwells securein any state whether it be the company of friends in a pleasuregarden, or in learned discussions in the assembly of scholars.

8. Wherever he goes or stays, he is always calm and self-governed,silent and self communing; and though well informedhimself, yet he is ever in quest of knowledge by reason of hisinquiry after truth.

9. Thus by his constant practice, the holy sage sits on thelow ground or in water, and reclines himself in the supremeOne in the state of transcendent bliss.

23710. This is the state of perfect quietude, both of inner soulas also of the outward senses; and the yogi remains quite insensibleof himself, with his consciousness of indubitable truth:(of the unity of his soul with the Supreme spirit).

11. This transcendent state, consists in the unconsciousnessof sensible objects; and the consciousness of a vacuum full withthe presence of omniscience spirit (or soul).

12. Firstly one’s concern with the knowledge of unity, andlastly his unconsciousness of himself and everything besides,whether of a void or substance, constitutes what is called thestate of highest felicity.

13. The saint who is mindless of everything, and rests in hisconsciousness; has no taste of (or desire for anything), but remainsas a block of stone amidst the encircling water (withouttasting it).

14. The self-conscious person who has attained to thatexclusive state of perfection (nirodha-padam), which shuts outall objective thoughts from it, remains silent and slow, and quiteunmindful of everything beside itself; and he reposes in hisown being (i.e. rests in himself), as a human figure does inits picture.

15. He who has known the One that is to be known, seesin his heart all things as nothing; all magnitudes dwindle intominuteness (before his sight of the boundless majesty ofGod), and the whole plenum appears as vacuum to him.

16. The knower of God, has no more the knowledge of himselfor others (the ego, tu, and the world besides); and all spaceand time and existence appear as non-existent before him.

17. The seer who has seen the glory of God, is situated inthe region of light; and like a lighted lamp, he dispels hisinner darkness, together with all his outward fears, animositiesand affections.

18. I bow down before that sun like sage, who is set beyonddarkness on every side, and is raised above all created things;and whose great glory is never liable to be darkened.

19. I cannot describe in words the most eminent state of238divine seer, whose soul is fraught with divine knowledge, whosemind is quite at rest, and whose knowledge of duality is whollyextinct.

20. Know, O most intelligent Ráma, that the Great LordGod is pleased to bless him with the bliss of his final extinctionin him; in reward of his serving him by day and nightwith sincere devotion.

21. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me, O chief of sages, who is thisLord God, and how He is propitiated by our prayers and faithin him; explain this mystery to me, for you are acquainted withall truth.

22. Vasishtha replied:—Know, O highly intelligent Ráma,that the Lord God is neither at a distance nor unattainable byus; the Lord is the all knowing soul, and the soul is the greatGod.

23. In Him are all things, and from him have come allthese; He is all, and everywhere with all; He is immanent inand self same with all, he is everlasting and I bow down tohim.

24. From him comes out this creation, as well as all itschange and dissolution; He is the uncaused cause of all, whichrise as winds in the hollow vault of heaven.

25. Him do all these creatures—the moving as well as unmoving,worship always (in their hearts), as well as they can;and present them the best offerings that they can find.

26. So men by adoring him in their repeated births, withall their hearts and minds and in the best manner that theycan; propitiate at last the supreme object of their adoration.

27. The great Lord God and Supreme soul, being thus propitiatedby their firm faith; sends to them at last his messenger(or angel), with his good will for their enlightenment.

28. Ráma asked:—Tell me, great sage, how does the lordGod and supreme soul, send his messenger to man; and who isthis messenger, and in what manner he throws the light in themind.

29. Vasishtha replied:—The messenger sent by the divinespirit, is known by the name of wise discrimination, which239shines as coolly in the cell of the human heart, as the moonlightdoes in the clear firmament.

30. It is this which awakens and instructs, the brutish andcupidinous soul to wisdom, and by this means saves the unwisesoul, from the turbulent ocean of this world.

31. This enlightening and intellectual spirit, residing in thehuman heart; is denominated as the pranava or adorable, inthe Veda and Vedic sástras.

32. This holy spirit is propitiated daily, by men and theserpent tribe, and by gods and demigods also; by their prayersand oblations, by their austerities and almsgivings, as also bytheir sacrificial rites and recitals of the scriptures.

33. This Lord has the highest heaven for his crown, and theearth and infernal regions for his footstools; the stars glistenas hairs on his person; his heart is the open space of the sky,and all material bodies, are as the bones of his body.

34. He being the intellectual soul of all, spreads undividedevery where; He is ever wakeful, and sees and moves everything, as it were with his hands and feet, and his eyes and earsand the other organs of his body.

35. The living or sentient soul, being awakened to wisdom,by destroying the demon of the sensualistic mind; takes upon ita bright spiritual form and becomes a spiritual being.

36. Now shun the various wishes of your heart, which areever changeful and full of evils; and exert your manliness toexult your soul to the state of meeting with divine grace.

37. The rambling mind resembles a demon, buffeting withthe waves of furious ocean of the world; it is the enlightenedsoul only that shines like a luminary, over the dark dreary anddismal waste of the earth.

38. See thy mind is wafted away by the gale of its greediness,to the vast billowy ocean of the world; and hurled to thedeep cavity of its whirlpools, from whose depth no man can riseagain.

39. You have the strong ship of your divine wisdom alone,that can get you across the sea of your ignorance; and bearyou up above the billows of your carnal appetites and passions.

24040. In this manner the lord being propitiated by hisworship, sends his holy spirit as his messenger, for sanctificationof the human soul; and thus leads the living being to his bestand most blest state, by the gradual steps of holy society, religiouslearning, and the right understanding of their esoteric andspiritual sense.

Argument:—The tranquility arrived at by theHoly Sage, and his relation with the world.

Vasishtha continued:—Those that are stanch in theirdiscernment of truth, and firm in the abandonment oftheir desires, are truly men of very great souls, and conscious oftheir greatness in themselves.

2. The vast extent of magnanimity of noble minded men,and the fathomless depth of their understanding, is even greaterthan the space occupied by the fourteen worlds. (The unboundedmind of the divine Newton, comprehended the boundlesswith all the hosts of heaven in its fathomless depth).

3. Wise men having a firm belief in the erroneous conceptionof the reality of the universe, are quite at rest from allinternal and external accidents, which overtake the unwaryignorant as sharks and alligators. (The sea of ignorance aboundingwith sharks of casualties).

4. What reliance is there in our hope or desire for anythingin this world, which is as tempting and deceitful, as theappearance of two moons in the sky, of water in the mirage, andthe prospect of a fairy city in the air. (Here the falsity appliesboth to worldly things as well as our desire for them, andmeans the unrealizeableness of unrealities).

5. Desires are as vain as the empty void, owing to thenullity of the mind in which they arise; the sapient thereforeare not led away by their desires, which they know, have theirorigin in the unreal and vacant mind. (The yogi who hasarrived at the state of his inappetency in the seventh stage ofyoga, never falls back to his desires any more).

6. The three states of waking, dreaming and sound sleep,are common to all living beings at large; but that state which242is beyond those triple functions, and is all seeing and all knowing,without its being seen or known in the state or nature ofthe Supreme being (whose omniscience neither wakes, nordreams nor sleeps at any time).

7. The soul in its enraptured state sees the world as acollection of light, issuing from gems of various kinds; and thehuman soul as a reflexion of that light, and not as a solid orearthly (material) substance.

8. The phenomenal world presenting its various appearancesto the eye sight, is no more than an empty vacuity; and thevarieties of light and lightsome bodies which appear in it, areno other than reflexions of the rays of the vast mine of brilliantgems, which is hid under it, and shoots forth its glare in theopen air.

9. Here there is no other substance in reality, neither thevast cosmos nor the boundless vacuity itself; all this is theglare of that greatest of gems, whom we call the great Brahma,and whose glory shines all around us.

10. The created and uncreated all is one Brahma alone, andneither is there any variety or destructibility in these or inhim. All these are formless beings, and appear as substantialones in imagination only, as the sun beams paint the variousfigures in empty clouds in the air. (Note. Whereas there is novariation in God, there is neither the creation nor destructionof any thing at all; these are but creations of imagination, andevolutions of the infinite mind of the eternal God).

11. Thus when the imaginary world appears to blend withthe etherial void, this solid mass of the material world, will thenvanish into nothing.

12. So the whole proving to be a perfect unsubstantiality,it is quite impossible for it to admit any property or predicatewhatever (whether material or immaterial), which is usuallyattributed to it; because there is no probability of any qualitybelonging to an absolute nothing, as it is impossible for abird of air to alight upon, or find a resting place in an air-growntree.

24313. There is no solidity of anything, nor is there a vacuityat all; the mind also is itself a nullity but that which remainsafter all these, is the only being in reality, and which is neverinexistent at any time.

14. The soul is one alone and without its variation, and hasthe consciousness of all varieties in itself, and these are inherentin its nature, as all the various forms of jewelleries are ingrainedin a lump of gold.

15. The sapient sage who remains in his own essentialnature, finds his egoism or personality, together with theconsciousness of his mind and the world besides, all dwindleinto himself; it is difficult to describe the mind of wise man,which remains identified with the nature of the self-existentbeing.

16. The understanding is perplexed and confounded in itself,by observation of the sward nature of things on all sides; andrequires to be slowly and gradually brought to the knowledgeof truth, by means of right reason and argument.

17. It is by abstracting the mind, from its dwelling or visiblenature—the production of Virát; and leading it to the contemplationof the spiritual cause of these works (i.e. the sutrátma),that the true knowledge of the author of the present, past andfuture worlds can be arrived at.

18. He is known as a wise sage, whose well discerning soulhas perceived the truth in itself; and that has found his restin the One unity, has no perception of the visible world, and allits endless varieties (which are attributed to Virát).

19. All the aforesaid sayings which are given here by wayof advice, are perceived by the intuition of the wise man, as thewise sayings of good people, are self-evident of themselves.

20. The substance of all this is that, there is no bulk ormagnitude of beings in general, nor its absence either as anentire vacuum; therefore there is neither a gross or airy mindalso, but the One that exists after all, is the true and everexistent entity.

21. This entity is Intelligence, which is conversant with all244the intelligibles in itself; its manifestation in the form of oursenses is fraught with all our woe, while its disappearance leadsto our felicity.

22. Being developed, it evolves itself in the shape of outwardorgans, and takes upon it the form of the gross body; asthe liquid water, consolidates by degrees to the bulky forms ofislands, and huge mountainous bodies.

23. This intelligence being engrossed by ignorance, assumesgross form of mind to itself; and with form it binds itself fastlywith the corporeal body, as a man views his aerial dreams intheir material substance. (So the intelligent mind is transformedto a material substance).

24. In these states of the conversion of intelligence intosensation, perception and other faculties, the Intellect remainsthe same and unchangeable though it is expressed by differentwords of human invention (and which are but synonyms ofthe same).

25. The soul remains the same both in its conception ofmental thoughts and ideas, as well as in its perception of outwardobjects; and it is not changed in either case like themind, in its vision of the dreams within it, and its sight ofobject, without itself.

26. The Intellect or understanding, resembling a vacuoussubstance, is as unchangeable in its nature as that of vacuityand eternity; and the objects which present their ideas in thesoul, are as dreams which appear in the mind, and are nothingin reality.

27. The gross nature of external objects, bear no relationwith the pure internal intellect; nor can their impurity touchor pollute the purity of the soul; therefore the intellect is notsubject to the mutability of external nature.

28. The understanding never acquires the mutable state, ofthe objects it dwells upon (as the mind does); it remains alwaysin its immutable nature, and is never otherwise in any stateor condition.

29. The yogi having attained to his extreme purity of hisunderstanding, in the seventh or the highest degree of his perfection;245becomes identified with intelligence, and of the meaningof its presence or absence.

30. The minds of the passing or ordinary people, are impressedwith idea of their materiality by reason of their understandingthemselves as material bodies.

31. They falsely take their fleeting minds, which are aspure as the clear firmament for a material object; in thesame manner as the players in a drama, take upon themselvesthe false guise of Pisáchas demons. (Misrepresenting the fairas foul).

32. All error is corrected by the habit of an unerring wisdom,as the madness of a man is cured by his thinking himselfas no mad man. (That is, the constant habit of your thinkingyourself as so and so, is what will make you really appear assuch).

33. The knowledge of one’s erroneousness makes him getout of his error, as the error of dreaming is lost, upon one’scoming to the knowledge, that all he beheld was but a meredream.

34. It is the extenuation of our desires, that lessens ourattachment to the world (and the vice versa); the desire is agreat demon, which must be destroyed by the wise man.

35. As the madness of men, is increased by their habitualravings; so it is by their constant practice of sobriety, thatthe giddy insanity of man comes to be abated.

36. As the passing human body, is taken in its corporealsense in thought; so it is taken in a spiritual sense also by thelearned, by virtue of its understanding or intellectual powers orfaculties.

37. The passing or subtile body, having taken the form ofthe living soul; is capable of being converted into the state ofBrahma; by the intense culture of its understanding. (But itis argued and objected that).

38. If anything is produced according to its substance, andif any body thinks himself according his own understanding;how is it then possible for a material being, to take itself in aspiritual sense.

24639. Logomachy rather increases the doubts, but followingone’s advice, the error is removed off; as devil is removed offby chaunting the mantras only, rather than knowing the meaningof them.

40. The world being thought as identic with its thought (orconception in the mind), it is believed to be an immaterial andbodiless substance; until at last its substantivity is lost in thevacuity of the Intellect. (So says the sruti:—The world isthe bodiless and unsullied spirit).

41. The mind being quite at rest from all its internal andexternal thoughts, the real spiritual nature of the soul thenappears to light; and manifest itself in the form of the cool andclear firmament, which must be laid hold upon for one’s restand refuge.

42. The wise man will perform his sacrifice with knowledge,and plant the stakes of his meditation in it; and at the conclusionof his all-conquering sacrifice (Vishajit) offer his relinquishmentof the world (sarva tyága) as his oblation to it.(Because whoso wishes to overcome the world, needs first tomake an offering of it in his holy sacrifice).

43. The wise man is always the same and equally firm inhimself, whether he stands under a shower of rain or fallingrain or fire stones from above, or walks in a diluvian storm; orwhen he is travelling all over the earth or mounting or flyingin the air.

44. No one can attain the station of the apathetic sage,whose mind is tranquil by its want of desire, and which hasobtained its enclosure within itself; unless he is practiced tosit in his steadfast meditation.

45. The mind can never derive that perfect peace andtranquility, either from the study of the sástras, or attending onholy lectures and sermons, or by the practice of austerities andself-controul; as it does by its distaste of all external objectsand enjoyments.

46. The mind like a bundle of hay is burnt away by thefire of inappetency of all worldly objects; this fire is kindled247by the breath of abandonment of all things, and fanned by thepersuasion, that all prosperity is followed by adversity.

47. The perception of sensible objects, casts a mist of ignorancein and all about the mind; it is one’s knowledge alone,which shines as a brilliant gem within himself.

48. It is the Intellect alone which shines amidst this gloom,like a luminary in the sky; and looks over all mankind, Nágasand Asuras, and over mountains and in their caves.

49. It is by the infusion of this Intellect, that all things aremoving in the dull womb of the universe; they are whirling inthe whirlpool of the Intellect, and are deriving their freshnessfrom the enlivening power of that source.

50. All living beings whirling in the great whirlpool of theIntellect (chit Vivarte), are as weak little fishes encircled bythe net of ignorance; they are swimming and skimming in thewater of the vast vacuum, and are quite forgetful of their spiritualorigin.

51. It is the Divine Intellect, that shows itself in variousforms within the sphere of itself; as the air presents thevariegated forms of thickening clouds, in the wide arena ofthe sky.

52. All living beings are of the same nature, with theirspiritual source, when they are devoid of their desires; it is thedifference of desire that makes their different states, and causesthem to fly about like the dry leaves of trees, and rustling inthe air as hollow reeds.

53. Therefore you must not remain as the ignorant, but riseabove them by raising your mind to wisdom; and this is tobe done, by calling the manly powers to your aid; and then byovercoming your dullness to suppress the whole band of yourrising desires, and next by breaking the strong fetters andprison-house of this world, to devote your attention to your improvementin spiritual knowledge. (These steps are describedvery diffusely in the gloss for the practice of the devotee).

Argument:—The septuple orders of living creatures, accordingto the degrees of the tenacity and laxity of their desires.(As mentioned in the preceding Chapter).

Vasishtha added:—These bodies of living beings, thatare seen to fill the ten sides of this world; and consistingof the different tribes of men, Nágas, Suras, Gandharvas,mountaineers and others.

2. Of these some are sleeping wakers (waking sleepers), andothers are waking in their imaginations only, and hence calledimaginative wakers; some are only wakeful, while there beothers who have been waking all along.

3. Many are found to be strictly wakeful, and many also aswaking sleepers both by day and night; there be some animalsthat are slightly wakeful, and these constitute the seven classesof living beings (inhabiting this world).

4. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, the difference of the sevenspecies of living beings for my satisfaction; which appear to meto be as different as the waters of the seven seas.

5. Vasishtha replied:—There have been some men in someformer age and parts of the world, who are known to have beenlong sleepers with their living bodies. (Such were the sevensleepers of kehef mentioned in Sádi’s Gulistan).

6. The dream that they see, is the dream of the existenceof the world; and those who dream this dream are living men,and denominated as waking sleepers or day dreamers.

7. Sometimes a sleeping man, sees a dream rising of itselfbefore him, by reason of some prior action or desire of thesame kind arising in the mind; such is the uncalled forappearance of anything or property unto us; and it is thereforethat we are denominated as dreaming men. (The storyof Lílá related before, will serve as an elucidation of this kind).

2498. They who come to wake after their prolonged sleep anddream, are called as awakened from their sleep and dream,and to have got rid of them (such are the enlightened menthat have come out of their ignorance).

9. I say we are also sleepers and dreamers, among thosesleeping men; because we do not perceive the omniscient One,who by his omnipresence is present every where, as the Allin all.

10. Ráma rejoined;—Tell me now where are those awakenedand enlightened men now situated, when those kalpa ageswherein they lived and were born, are now past and gonealong with their false imagination.

11. Vasishtha replied:—Those who have got rid of theirerroneous dreams in this world, and are awakened from theirsleep; resort to some other bodies which they meet with, agreeableto the fancies which they form in their imaginations.(Every one having a peculiar fancy of himself for anything,assumes that form in his next birth).

12. Thus they meet with other forms in other ages of theworld, according to their own peculiar fancies; because there isno end of the concatenation and fumes of fancy, in the emptyair of the mind.

13. Now know them that are said to be awakened from theirsleep, to be those who have got out of this imaginary world;as the inborn insects, come out of an old and rotten figtree.

14. Hear now of those that are said to be waking in theirfancies and desires, and they are those who are born in someformer age, and in some part of the world; and were entirelyrestless and sleepless in their minds owing to some fancifuldesire springing in them, and to which they were whollydevoted (so are they that live upon hope).

15. And they also who are lost in their meditation, and aresubjected in the realm of their greedy minds; who are stronglybound to their desires, by losing or the sacrifice of all theirformer virtues.

25016. So also are they whose desires have been partly awakefrom before, and have gradually engrossed all the other betterendeavours of their possessors, are likewise said to be wakefulto their desires.

17. They who after cessation of their former desires,resort to some fresh wishes again; are not only greedypeople themselves, but think ourselves also to be of the samesort.

18. I have told you already regarding the vigils of theirdesires, and now know them to be dormant over their desires,who bear their lives as they are life beings, and dead to theirwishes like ourselves. But hear further of them that are everawake.

19. The first patriarchs that were produced from the self-evolvingBrahma, are said to have been ever wakeful, as theyhad been immerged in profound sleep before their production.

20. But being subjected to repeated births, these ever wakefulbeings, became subject to alternate sleep and waking, owingto their subjection to reiterated work and repose.

21. These again became degraded to the state of trees, onaccount of their unworthy deeds; and these are said to beduly waking, because of their want of sensibility even in wakingstate. (The nocturnal sleep of the vegetable creation wasunknown to the ancients).

22. Those who are enlightened by the light of the sástras,and the company of wise men; look upon the world as a dreamin their waking state, and are therefore called as wakingdreamers by day.

23. Those enlightened men, who have found their rest inthe divine state; and are neither wholly awake nor asleep, aresaid to have arrived at the fourth stage of their yoga.

24. Thus have I related to you the difference, of the sevenkinds of beings, as that of the waters of the seven seas fromone another. Now be of that kind which you think to be thebest.

25125. After all, O Ráma, give up your error of reckoning theworlds as real entities of themselves; and as you have come toyour firm belief in one absolute unity, get rid of the dualityof vacuity and solidity, and be one with that primeval body,which is free from monism and dualism.

Argument:—The world disappearing at the sight of God, itsfalsity at the sight of the self, and its voidness beforetrue knowledge.

Ráma said:—Tell me sir, what is the cause of mere wakingfor nothing, and how does a living being proceedfrom the formless Brahma, which is tantamount to the growthof a tree in empty air.

2. Vasishtha replied:—O highly intelligent Ráma, there isno work to be found any where which is without its cause,therefore it is altogether impossible for any body to exist here,that is merely awake for nothing.

3. Like this, it is equally impossible also for all other kindsof living beings, to exist without a cause.

4. There is nothing that is produced here, nor anythingwhich is destroyed also; it is only for the instruction and comprehensionof pupils, that such words are coined and made use of.

5. Ráma asked:—Who then is it that forms these bodies,together with their minds, understandings and senses; and whois it that deludes all beings into the snares of passions andaffections, and into the net of ignorance.

6. Vasishtha replied:—There is no body that forms thesebodies at any time, nor is there any one who deludes the livingbeings in a manner at all.

7. There is alone the self-shining soul, residing in his consciousself; which evolves in various shapes, as the water glideson in the shapes of billows and waves. (Here water is expressedby the monosyllabic word ka—aqua, as it is done else whereby udac undan and udra—hydra as also by ap—ab Persian).

8. There is nothing as an external phenomenon, it is theintellect which shows itself as the phenomenal; it rises fromthe mind (as perception does from the heart), like a large treegrowing out of its seed.

2539. It is in this faculty of the understanding, O thou supportof Raghu’s race, that this universe is situated, just as theimages are carved in a stone.

10. There is but one spiritual soul, which spreads both internallyas well as externally, throughout the whole extent oftime and space; and know this world as the effluvia of thedivine intellect scattered on all sides.

11. Know this as the next world, by suppressing your desirefor a future one; rest calmly in your celestial soul even here,nor let your desires range from here to there.

12. All space and time, all the worlds and their motionswith all our actions, being included under the province of theintellectual soul; the meanings of all these terms are neverinsignificant and nil.

13. O Rághava! It is they only who are well acquaintedwith the meanings of words (the vedas), and those keenobservers who have ceased to look upon the visibles, that cancomprehend the Supreme soul, and not others (who have nounderstanding).

14. Those who are of light minds, and are buried in thedepth of egoism; it is impossible for them ever to come to thesight of that light (which is seen only by the holy).

15. The wise look upon the fourteen regions of this world,together with multitudes of their inhabitants, as the membersof this embodied spirit.

16. There can be no creation or dissolution without itscause; and the work must be conformable with the skill of itsmaker.

17. If the work be accompanied with its cause, and the workalone be perceptible without its accompanying cause, it must bean unreality, owing to our imperception of its constituting cause.

18. And whereas the product must resemble its producer,as the whiteness of the sea water produces the white wavesand froths, so the productions of the most perfect God, mustbear resemblance to his nature in their perfection. But theimperfect world and the mind not being so, they cannot be saidto have proceeded from the all perfect One.

25419. (Therefore imperfect nature is no creation of the fatherof perfection). Wherefore all this is the pure spirit of God,and the whole is the great body of Brahma; in the samemanner, as one clod of earth, is the cause of many a pot; andone bar of gold, becomes the cause of many a jewel.

20. As the waking state appears as a dream in dreaming(i.e. when one dreams), on account of the oblivion of the wakingstate; so the waking state seems as dreaming, even in the wakingstate of the wise. (So the pot appears as the clod in itsunformed state, and the clod appears as the pot after it is formed.So the spirit appears as the world to the ignorant, while theworld appears as soul to the wise).

21. If it is viewed in the light of the mind or a creation ofthe mind, it proves to be as false as water in the mirage (becausethe phantasies of the mind present only false appearancesto view). It proves at last to be a waking dream by the rightunderstanding of it.

22. By right knowledge all material objects, together withthe bodies of wise men, dissolve like the bodies of clouds, intheir proper season.

23. As the clouds disappear in the air, after pouring theirwaters in the rains; so doth the world disappear from the sightof men, who have come to the light of truth and knowledge ofthe soul.

24. Like the empty clouds of autumn and the water of themirage, the phenomenal world loses its appearance, no soonerit is viewed by the light of right reason.

25. As solid gold is melted down to fluidity by hot fire, sothe phenomenals all melt away to an aerial nothing, when theyare observed by the keen eye of philosophy.

26. All solid substances in the three worlds, become rarefiedair when they <are> put to the test of a rational analysis; justas the stalwart spectre of a demon, vanishes from the sight ofthe awakened child into nothing.

27. Conceptions of endless images, rise and fall of themselvesin the mind; so the image of the world being but a concept ofthe mind, there is no reality in it, nor is there anything which255has any density or massiveness in it (a mass being but the conceptionof an aggregate of minute particles and no more).

28. The knowledge and ignorance of the world, consist onlyin its conception and nescience in the mind; when the knowledgeof its existence disappears from the understanding, whereis there the idea of its massiveness any more in the mind. (Soas in the insensibility of our sound sleep and swooning, we haveno consciousness of it).

29. The world loses its bulk and solidity, in our knowledgeof the state of our waking dream; when its ponderousness turnsto rarity, as the gold melts to liquidity when it is put upon fire.

30. The understanding as it is (i.e. being left uncultivated),becomes dull and dense by degrees; as the liquid gold when leftto itself, is solidified in a short time.

31. Thus one who in his waking state considers himself tobe dreaming, and sees the world in its rarified state; comesto extenuate himself with all his desires and appetites, as aponderous cloud is sublimated in autumn.

32. The wise man seeing all the visible beauties of naturewhich are set before his face, as extremely rare and of theappearance of dreams, takes no notice of nor relish in them.

33. Where is this rest of the soul, and where this turmoilof the spirit for wealth; their abiding in the one and sameman, is as the meeting of sleep and wakefulness together, andthe union of error and truth in the same person, and at thesame time (which is impossible).

34. He who remains asleep to (or insensible of) the erroneousimaginations of his mind, acts freed from his false persuasionof the reality of the world.

35. Who is it, O high minded Ráma, that takes a pleasurein an unreality, or satisfies himself with drinking the false waterof the mirage appearing before him.

36. The saintly sage, who rests in his knowledge of truth;looks upon the world <as> an infinite vacuum, beset with luminaries,which shines forth like the light of lamps set behind thewindows.

37. The waking man who knows everything as void and256blank, and as the vagary of his vagrant mind ceases to long forthe enjoyment of it. (For nobody craves for anything, whichhe knows to be nothing).

38. There is nothing desirable in that, which is known to benothing at all; for who runs after the gold, which he has seenin his dream at night?

39. Every body desists from desiring that, which he knowsto be seen in his dream only; and he is released from the bondage,which binds the beholder to the object of this sight. (Lit.the knot of the viewer and view is broken).

40. He is the most accomplished man, who is not addictedto pleasure, and is of a composed mind and with pride; and heis a man of understanding, who is dispassionate and remainsquiet without any care or toil. (Perfect composure is thecharacter of the Stoic and Platonic philosophers).

41. Distaste to pleasure, produces the want of desire; just asthe flame of fire being gone, there is an end of its light. (Thefire gives heat but the flame produces the light).

42. The light of knowledge, shows sky as a cloudless andlighted sphere; but the darkness of error, gives the world anappearance of the hazy fairy land.

43. The wise man neither sees himself, nor the heavens noranything besides; but his ultimate view is at last fixed uponthe glory of God (which shines all about him).

44. The holy seer (being seated in the seventh stage of hisyoga), sees neither himself nor the sky nor the imaginary worldsabout him; he does not see the phantasms of his fancy, but sitsquite insensible of all.

45. The earth and other existences, which are dwelt andgazed upon by the ignorant, are lost in the sight of the sage,who sees the whole as a void, and is insensible of himself.(The earth recedes, and heaven opens to his sight. Pope).

46. Then there comes on a calm composure and grace inthe soul, resembling the brightness of the clear firmament; andthe yogi sits detached from all, as a nullity in himself.

47. Unmindful of all, the yogi sits silent in his state of self-seclusionand exclusion from all: he is set beyond the ocean257of the world, and the bounds of all its duties and action. (Theyogi gets exempt from all social and religious obligation).

48. That great ignorance (or delusion), which is the cause ofthe mind’s apprehension of the earth and sky, and the hills andseas and their contents, is utterly dissolved by true knowledge,though these things appear to exist before the ignorant eye.

49. The sapient sage stands unveiled before his light ofnaked truth, with his tranquil mind freed from all scepticaldoubts; and being nourished with the ambrosia of truth, he isas firm and fixed in himself, as the pithy and sturdy oak.

Argument:—Refutation of the Theories of Logicians,and Explanation of Brahma as Immanent in all nature.

Ráma said:—Tell me, O sage, whence comes our knowledgeof the world (as a distinct entity from God); and thentell me, how this difference is removed and refuted.

2. Vasishtha replied:—The ignorant man takes to his mindall that he sees with his eyes, and not at all what he does notsee. Thus he sees a tree in its outward branches and leaves,but knows not the root, which lies hid from his sight.

3. The wise man sees a thing by the light of the sástra, anduses it accordingly; but the ignorant fool, takes and graspsanything as he sees it; without considering its hidden quality.

4. Be attentive to the dictates of the sástras, and intentupon acting according to their purport; and by remaining asa silent sage, attend to my sermon, which will be an ornamentto your ears.

5. All this visible phenomenon is erroneous, it hath no realexistence, and appears as the flash of light in the water and isknown by the name of ignoramus.

6. Attend for a moment and for my sake, to the purport ofthe instruction which I am now going to give you; and knowingthis as certain truth, rely upon it (and you will gain yourobject hereby).

7. Whence are all these and what are they, is a doubt(inquiry) which naturally rises of itself in the mind; and youwill come to know by your own cogitation, that all this isnothing and is not in existence.

8. Whatever appears before you in the form of this world,and all its fixed and moveable objects; as also all things of259every shape and kind, is altogether evanescent and vanishesin time into nothing.

9. The continual wasting and partition of the particles ofthings, bespeak their unavoidable extinction at last, as the waterexuding by drops from a pot, make it entirely empty in ashort time.

10. Thus all things being perishable, and all of them being,but parts of Brahma, it is agreed (by Logicians), that Brahmais neither endless nor imperishable, nor even existent at thistime (since by loss of parts by infinitesimal, the whole islost in toto at last).

11. This conceit (of a theist) likening the intoxication ofwine, cannot over power our theistical belief; because ourknowledge of bodies, is as that of things in a dream, and not atall of their real substantiality.

12. The phenomenals are of course all perishable, but notthe other (the spirit), which is neither matter nor destructible,and this is conformable with the doctrines of the sástras, whichmean no other.

13. Whether what is destroyed come to revive again or not,is utterly unknowable to us; all that we can say by our inferences,is that the renovations are very like the former ones.

14. That matter existed in the form of vacuum upon itsdissolution, is not possible to believe (from the impossibility ofplastic nature to be converted to a formless void). Again ifthere was the vacuum as before, then there could not be a totaldissolution (if this was left undestroyed).

15. If the theory of the identity of creation and dissolutionbe maintained (owing to the existence of the world in the spiritof God); then the absence of causality and effect, supports ourtenet of their being the one and the same thing.

16. Vacuity being conceivable by us, we say everything tobe annihilated, that is transformed to or hid in the womb ofvacuum; if then there is anything else which is meant by dissolution,let us know what may it be otherwise.

17. Whoever believes that, the things which are destroyed,comes to restore again (as the Pratyabhijna vadis do); is260either wrong to call them annihilated, or must own, thatothers are produced to supply their place.

18. Where is there any causality or consequence in a tree,which is but a transformation of the seed; notwithstanding thedifference of its parts, as the trunk and branches, and leavesand fruits.

19. The seed is not inactive as a pot or picture, but exhibitsits actions in the production of its flower and fruits in theirproper seasons. (So doth the divine spirit show its evolution andinvolution, as the proper times of creation and dissolution ofthe world).

20. That there is no difference in the substance of things(of different form and natures), is a truth maintained by everysystem of philosophy; and this truth is upheld in spiritualityalso; therefore there is no dispute about it.

21. And this substance being considered to be of an eternallyinert form, and of a plastic nature; it is understood to beof the essence of vacuum, both by right inference and evidenceof sástras.

22. Why the essential principle is unknown to us, and whywe have still some notion of it, and how we realize that idea,is what I am now going to relate to you step by step.

23. All these visible spheres, being annihilated at the finaldissolution of the world; and the great gods also being extinct,together with our minds and understandings, and all the activitiesof nature.

24. The sky also being undefined and time dwindling into adivisible duration; the winds also disappearing and fire blindinginto the chaotic confusion.

25. Darkness also disappearing and water vanishing intonothing; and all things which are expressed by words quitegrowing nil and null in the end.

26. There remains the pure entity of a conscious soul, whichis altogether unbounded by time and space, and is somethingwithout its beginning or end; is decrease or waste, and entirelypure and perfect in its nature.

27. This one is unspeakable and undiscernible, imperceptible261and inconceivable and without any appellation or attributewhatever; This is an utter void itself and yet the principleand receptacle of all beings and the source of all entity andnon-entity.

28. It is not the air nor the wind, nor is it the understandingnor any of its faculties nor a void or nullity also; it isnothing and yet the source of everything, and what can it bebut the transcendent vacuum (vyom-beom Hebrew, and thebom-bom of sivaites when Siva is called vyom-Kesa).

29. It is only a notion in the conception of wise and besidewhich no one can conceive or know anything of it, whateverdefinition or description of it is given by others, is only a repetitionof the words of the vedas.

30. It is neither the time or space, nor the mind nor soulnor any being or nothing that it may said to be; it is not inthe midst or end of any space or side, nor is it that we know orknow altogether. (The Lord is unspeakable yet faintly seen inthese his meanest works. Milton).

31. This <is>something too translucent for common apprehension,and is conceivable only by the greatest understandings;and such as have retired from the world and attained to thehighest stage of their yoga.

32. I have left out the popular doctrines, which are avoidedby the Srutis; and the expressions of the latter are displayedherein, like the playful waves in the limpid ocean.

33. It is said there, that all beings are situated in theircommon receptacle of the great Brahma; as the unprojectedfigures are exhibited in relief, upon a massive stony pillar.

34. Thus all beings are situated and yet unsituated inBrahma, who is the soul of and not the same with all; and whois in and without all existence (These contraries are according tothe texts of different Srutis, giving the discordant ideas of Godin the spiritualistic and materialistic points of view).

35. Whatever be the nature of the universal soul, it is devoidof all attributes; and in whatever manner it is viewed,it comes at last to mean the self-same unity. (The differentpaths leading to the one and same goal).

26236. It is all and the soul of all, and being devoid of attributes,it is full of all attributes; and in this manner it is viewed byall.

37. So long, O intelligent Ráma, as you do not feel the entiresuspension of all your objects (in the torpid state of your samádhi);you cannot be said to have reached to the fullness of yourknowledge, as it is indicated by your doubts till then.

38. The enlightened man who has come to (know) the unapparentgreat glory of God, has the clear sightedness of hismind, and remains quiet with viewing the inbeing of his being.

39. His fallacies of I, thou and he, and his error of the worldand the three times (viz. the present, past, and future); are lostin his sight of that great glory, as many a silver coin is mergedin a lump of gold.

40. But as a gold coin, produces (yields) various kinds ofcoins (different from itself); it is not in that manner that theseworlds and their contents, are produced as things of a differentkind from the nature of God.

41. The detached soul looks always upon the different bodies,as contained within itself; and remains in relation to this dualismof the world, as the gold is related to the various kinds ofjewels, which are produced from it.

42. It is inexpressible by the words, implying space andtime or any other thing; though it is the source and seat ofthem all; it comprehends everything, though it is nothing ofitself.

43. All things are situated in Brahma, as the waves are containedin the sea; and they are exhibited by him, like picturesdrawn by the painter; he is the substratum and substance ofall, as the clay of the pots which are made of it.

44. All things are contained in it, as they are and are notthere at the sametime, and as neither distinct nor indistinctfrom the same; they are ever of the same nature, and equallypure and quiet as their origin.

45. The three worlds are contained in it, as the uncarvedimages are concealed in a stone or wood; and as they are seenwith gladness even there, by the future sculptor or carver.

26346. The images come to be seen, when they are carved andappear manifest on the stone pillar; otherwise the worlds remainin that soul, as the unperturbed waves lie calmly in thebosom of the sea.

47. The sight of the worlds appears to the Divine intellect,as divided and distinct when they are yet undivided and indistinctbefore their creation; they appear to be shining and movingthere; when they are dark and motionless on the outside.

48. It is the combination of atoms, that composes theseworlds; and makes them shine so bright, when no particle hasany light in it. (Dull matter is dark, and it is the light of Godthat makes it shine).

49. The sky, air, time and all other objects, which are saidto be produced from the formless God; are likewise formlessof themselves; the Lord God is the soul of all, devoid of allqualities and change, undecaying and everlasting, and termedthe most transcendent truth.

Argument:—Ascertainment of the source ofcause of the visible world.

Ráma said:—How there is sensibility in sensible beings,and there is durability in time; how vacuum is a perfectvoid, and how inertness abides in dull material substances:—

2. How does fluctuation reside in air, and what is the stateof things in futuro, and those that absent at present; how dothmotion reside in moving things, and how doth plasmic bodiesreceive their forms.

3. Whence is the difference of different things, and theinfinity of infinite natures; how there is visibility in the visibles,(i.e. how the visibles appear to view), and how does the creationof created things come to take place:—

4. Tell me, O most eloquent Brahman, all these things oneby one, and explain them from the first to last, in such manner,that they may be intelligible to the lowest understanding.

5. Vasishtha replied:—That endless great vacuum, isknown as the great and solid intellect itself; but this isnot to be known any more, than as a tranquil and self-existentunity.

6. The Gods Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva and others, are reducedto their origin at the last dissolution of the world; andthere remains only that pure source whence they have sprung.

7. There is however no cause to be assigned in this primecause of all, who is also the seed of matter and form, as wellas of delusion, ignorance and error. (These being but counterpartsof spirit and knowledge, are all mingled in Him).

8. The original cause is quite transparent and tranquil, andhaving neither its beginning nor end, and the subtile etheritself is dense and solid, in comparison with the rarity of theother.

2659. It is not proper to call it a nullity, when it is possessedof an intellectual body; nor can it with propriety styled as anexistent being, when it is altogether calm and quiet (andnothing imaginable).

10. The form of that being is as inconceivable, as the ideaof that little space of time which lies in midst of our thoughtof the length of a thousand miles, which the mind’s eye sees ina moment. (Its flash is quicker than that of a lightning andthe flight of imagination).

11. The yogi who is insensible of the false and delusivedesires and sights of objects, that intrude upon internal mindand external vision, sees the transient flash of that light in hismeditation, as he wakes amidst the gloom of midnight.

12. The man that sits with the quiet calmness of his mind,and without any of joy or grief; comes to feel the pulsation ofthat spirit in himself, as he perceives the fluctuation of hismind within him.

13. That which is the spring of creation, as the sprout isthe source of all vegetable productions; the very same is theform of the Lord (That he is the vegetative seed or germ ofthe arbour of the world. Sansára Briksa Brijánkura).

14. He is the cause of the world, which is seen to exist inHim; and which is a manifestation of himself, in all its varietiesof fearful forms and shapes (All which is the act of hisillusion).

15. These therefore having no actual or real cause, are noreal productions nor actual existences; because there is no formalworld (in its natural form), nor a duality co-existent withthe spiritual unity.

16. That which has no cause, can have no possible existence;the eternal ideas of God cannot be otherwise than mere idealshapes.

17. The vacuum which has no beginning nor end, is yet nocause of the world; because Brahma is formless, but thevacuous sky, which presents a visible appearance, cannot be theform of the formless and invisible Brahma.

18. Therefore he is that, in which the form of the world266appears to exist; hence the lord himself appears as that whichis situated in the vacuity of his intellect.

19. The world being of the nature of the intellectualBrahma, is of the same intellectual kind with him; though ourerror shows it otherwise (i.e. in a material and visible form.All is one with the unborn and ever tranquil One, in whom alldualities blend in unity).

20. This whole world springs from that whole intellect,and subsists in its entirety in that entire One; the completenessof that is displayed in the totality of this, and the completenessof creation, depends upon the perfection of its cause.(Nothing imperfect proceeds from the perfect one).

21. Knowing that One as ever even and quiet, havingneither its rise or fall; nor any form of likeness, but everremaining in its translucent unity as the ample sky, and is theeverlasting all; and combining the reality and unrealitytogether in its unity, makes the nirvána of sages.

Argument:—Ascertainment of the unity of God.

Vasishtha continued:—The world is a clear vacuum,subsisting in the entity of the vacuous Brahma; it isas the visible sky in the empty sky, and means the manifestationof Brahma.

2. The words I and thou are expressive of the same Brahma,seated in his undivided individuality; so are all things seatedas calmly and quietly in him, as if they are not seated there,though they are shining in and by the same light.

3. The earth with its hills and protuberant bodies uponit, resembles the tumour on the body of Brahma; and thewhole world, remains as dumb as a block in the person ofBrahma.

4. He views the visibles, as he is no viewer of them; andhe is the maker of all, without making anything; becausethey naturally subsist with their several natures in the Supremespirit.

5. This knowledge of the subsistence of all nature in theessence of God, precludes our knowledge of the positive existenceof everything besides; and our ideas of all entity andvacuity and of action and passion, vanish into nothing. (Sincethe One is all in all).

6. The one solid essence of the everlasting One, is diffusedthrough all every where, as the solidity of a stone stretchesthroughout its parts; and all varieties blending into unity, areever alike to him.

7. Life and death, truth and untruth, and all good andevil, are equally indifferent in that vacuous spirit, as the endlessbillows continually rising and falling in the waters of thedeep.

2688. The selfsame Brahma becomes divided, into the viewerand the view (i.e. into the subjective and the objective); theone being the intellect or the supreme, and the other the livingsoul (the former being the viewer of the latter). This divisionis known in the dreaming and waking states of the living oranimal soul; when the same is both the subject as well theobject in either state. (i.e. The sleeping soul dreams theliving state as its object, and the living soul believes the otheras object of its dream).

9. In this manner the form of the world, being exhibitedas a vision in a dream, in the sphere of the divine intellect;is manifest therein as the counterpart or representation ofBrahma himself, from the beginning. (This is the doctrine ofthe eternal ideas, being co-existent with the essence of theeternal One).

10. Therefore know this world and all things in it, to beexactly of that spiritual form, in which they are exhibited inthe divine spirit; nor is there any variation in their spirituality(to materiality) owing to their appearance in various forms,as there is no change in the substance of the moon, owing toher several phases.

11. All these worlds reside and rove amidst the quiet spiritof God, in the same manner, as the waters remain and roll inwaves in the midst of the calm bosom of the ocean.

12. Whatever is manifest, is manifested as the work, andthat which is not apparent is the hidden cause of them; andthere is no difference in them, in as much as they are bothsituated in that spirit, as their common centre; just as a travellerever going forward, yet never moving from the centre of theearth. (The cause and effect both concentrate in the Lord, andthere is no particle that goes out of that centre).

13. Hence the prime cause of creation is as nil, as the hornof a hare (which is a nullity in nature); search for it as much asyou can, and you will find nothing (save an ectype of the eternalOne).

14. Whatever appears anywhere without its <cause>, must be a269fallacy of vision and mind; and who can account for the truthof an error which is untrue itself. (Falsehood is no truth).

15. How and what effect can come to existence without itscause, and what is it but an error of the brain, for a childlessman to say he sees his son.

16. Whatever comes to appearance without its cause, isall owing to the nature of our imagination of the same; whichshows the objects of our desire in all their various forms to ourview, as our fancy paints the fairy lands in our minds.

17. As a traveller passing from one country to another,finds his body (himself) to stand at the midspot (from hisknowledge of the rotundity of the earth); so nothing departsfrom its nature, but turns about that centre like.

18. The understanding also shows many false and biggestobjects, in its airy and minute receptacle; as for instance themany objects of desire, and the notion of mountains, which itpresents to us in our waking and dreaming states.

19. Ráma rejoined:—We know well that the future baniantree, resides within the minute receptacle of its seed; why thendon’t you say, that the creation was hidden in the same mannerin the unevolved spirit of God?

20. Vasishtha replied:—The seed in its material form, containsthe formless big tree in its undeveloped bosom; whichdevelopes afterwards to a gigantic size, by aid of the auxiliarycausalities (of heat, rain &c.). (But God is formless spirit andcannot contain the material world in it, nor has it the need ofother helping causes to produce the world).

21. The whole creation being dissolved in the end, tell mewhat remains there of it in the form of its seed; and whatancillary causes are there to be found, which cause the productionof the world. (Nothing exists in nothing).

22. The pure and transparent spirit of God, has nothing ofany possible shape or figure in it; and if it is impossible foreven an atom to find a place therein, what possibility is therefor a formal seed to exist or subsist in it.

23. So the reality of a causal (productive) seed, beingaltogether untrue; there is no possibility of the existence of270a real (substantial) world, nor can you say how, whence, bywhom and when it came into being.

24. It is improper to say that the world consisted in aminute particle in the divine spirit, and quite absurd to maintainthat it remained in an eternal atom (according to theatomic theory); for how is it possible that a body as big as amountain could be contained in a minim as small as a mustardseed? It is therefore a false theory of the ignorant.

25. Had there been a real seed from eternity, it is possiblefor the world to be produced from it, by causes inherent in thesame; but how could a real and formal seed, be contained inthe formless spirit of God; and by what process could the materialproceed from the immaterial?

26. It is therefore that prime and transcendent principle(of the divine spirit), which exhibits itself in the form ofthe world; and there is nothing which is ever produced from,nor reduced into it.

27. The world is situated in its intellectual form, in thevacuity of the Intellect; it is the human heart which portraysit, in its material shape. The pure soul views it in its purespiritual light, but the perverted heart perceives it in a grossand concrete state.

28. It appears in the mind as empty air, and fluctuatesthere with the oscillation of the wind; there is nothing of itssubstantiality in the mind, nor even an idea of its creation (orbeing a created thing), as the word sarga is meant to express.

29. As there is vacuity in the sky, and fluidity in the waterof its own nature; so is there spirituality alone in the soul,which views the world in a spiritual light only.

30. The world is a reflexion of Brahma, and as such, it isBrahma himself, and not a solid and extended thing; it is withoutit* beginning or end and quiet in its nature, and never risesnor sets of itself. (i.e. It is inherent in the divinity, and is neitherinvolved in nor evolved from it).

31. As a wise man going from one country to another, findshis body to be ever situated in the midst of this globe; so the271universe with all its remotest worlds, is situated in the vacuityof the divine spirit.

32. As fluctuation is innate in the air, and fluidity is inherentin water, and vacuity is essential to vacuum; so is thisworld intrinsic in the divine soul, without anything concomitantwith it.

33. The vacuous phantom of the world, is in the vacuum ofdivine consciousness or intellect; and being thus situated inthe Supreme soul, it has no rising nor setting as that of thesun. Therefore knowing all these to be included in that vacuum,and there is nothing visible beside the same, cease from viewingthe phantoms of imagination, and be as the very vacuityyourself.

Argument:—The ignorance of self shows the world,but the knowledge of self disperses it to nothing.

Vasishtha continued:—It is the thought and itsabsence, that produce the gross and subtile ideas of theworld; which in reality was never created in the beginning forwant of a creator of it (i.e. The identity of the world withBrahma himself, precludes the supposition of its creation).

2. The essence of the intellect being of an incorporealnature, cannot be the cause of a corporeal thing. The soulcannot produce an embodied being, as the seed brings forth theplants on earth.

3. It is the nature of man to think of things, by his ownnature, and hence the intelligent of mankind view the worldin an intellectual light, while the ignorant take in a grossmaterial sense. The intellect being capable of conceivingeverything in itself (whether the concrete or discrete).

4. The etherial soul relishes things according to its taste,and the intellect entertains the idea of whatever it thinks upon;the ignorant soul begets the idea of creation, as a giddy mansees many shapes in his intoxication.

5. Whenever the shape of a thing, which is neither producednor existent, presents itself to our sight; it is to be known as apicture of the ideal figure, which lies quietly in the divinemind.

6. The vacuous Intellect dwelling in the vacuity of theintellect, as fluidity resides in water; shows itself in the formof the world, as the fluid water displays itself in the form ofwaves upon its surface. So the world is the self-same Brahma,as the wave is the very water. (But the world is intellectualdisplay and not material as the wave).

2737. The worlds shining in the empty air, are as the clearvisions of things in a dream, or like the false appearancesappearing to a dim-sighted man in the open sky.

8. The mirror of the intellect perceives the pageant of theworld, in the same manner, as the mind sees the sights of thingsin dream. Hence what is termed the world, is but void andvacuity. (A something of nothing).

9. The dormant Intellect (or the sleeping soul of God), issaid to be awakened in its first acts of creation; and thenfollows the inaction of the intellect, which is the sleep andnight of the soul. (And so it is with all beings, the time oftheir action being their waking, and that of rest theirsleep).

10. As a river continues to run in the same course, in whichits current first began to flow; so the whole creation moves inthe same unvaried course as at first, like the continuous currentand rippling waves of rivers.

11. As the waves of river are concomitant with the courseof its waters, so the source of creation lying in the vacuous seedof the airy Intellect, gives rise to its incessant course, alongwith its ceaseless train of thoughts.

12. The destruction of a man in his death, is no more thanthe felicity of his repose in sleep; so the resurrection of hissoul (in a renovated body) in this world, is likewise a renewalof his felicity. (Hence there is neither pain nor fear, either inliving or dying but both is bliss).

13. If there is any fear for or pain in sin, it is equally soboth in this life as well as in the next; therefore the life anddeath of the righteous are equally as blissful (as they are painfulto the unrighteous).

14. Those who look on and hail their life and death, withequal indifference; are men that have an unbroken tranquilityof their minds, and are known as the cold-hearted (or meekstoical and platonic).

15. As the conscience becomes clear and bright, after thedross of its consciousness (of the subjective and objective), is274cleansed and wiped from it; so shines the pure soul which theyterm the liberated and free (mukta).

16. It is upon the utter absence of our consciousness, thatthere ensues a total disappearance of our knowledge of thephenomenals also; and then our intellect rises without a vestigeof the intelligibles in it, as also without its intelligence ofthe existence of the world. (This state of the mind constituteslikewise its liberation or mukti).

17. He that knows God, becomes unified with the divinenature, which is neither thinkable nor of the nature of the thinkingprinciple or intellect, or any which is thought of by theintellect; and being so absorbed in meditation, remains quiteindifferent to all worldly pursuits.

18. The world is a reflexion of the mirror of the intellect,and as it is exhibited in the transparent vacuity of the divinespirit, it is in vain to talk of its bondage or liberty.

19. It is the oscillation of the airy intellect, and an act ofits imagination, which produces this imaginary world; it isentirely of the nature of the airy spirit whence it has its rise,and never of the form of the earth or anything else as it appearsto be.

20. There is no space or time, nor any action or substancehere, except an only entity, which is neither a nothing nor anything that we know of.

21. It is only a spiritual substance, appearing as a thickmist to our sight; it is neither a void nor a substantialityeither: but something purer and more pellucid, than the transparentvacuum about us.

22. It is formless with its apparent form, and an unrealitywith its seeming reality; it is entirely a pure intellectualentity, and appearing as manifest to sight, as an aerial castle ina dream.

23. It is termed the nirvána-extinction of a man, when hisview of this outstretched gross and impure world, becomes extinctin its pure spiritual form in the vacuity of his mind. Thevast and extensive world presenting all its endless varieties to275view, has no diversity in it in reality; but forms an infiniteunity, like the vacuous space of the sky, and the fluidity ofwaters of the one universal ocean on the globe.

Argument:—Here the story of the stone is given, inelucidation of the truth that Intellect is all in all.

Vasishtha added:—It being proved before, that theIntellect is always and every where, and in every mannerthe all in all; it becomes evident, that it remains like the vacuousand translucent air in everything in the whole universe.

2. Wherever there is the Intellect, there is also the creation(inseparable from it); the Intellect residing alike both in thevoid as well as in the plenum, all things are full of the Intellect,and there is nothing whatsoever in existence beside this universalIntellect.

3. As all created things (whether the moving or unmoving),appear in their visionary forms in our dream; so it is the vacuousIntellect alone, which appears in the various forms of existencein our waking dreams also.

4. Attend now, Ráma, to my narration of the stone, whichbe as pleasant to taste, as a remedial of ignorance. In this I willrelate what I have seen and actually done myself.

5. Being anxious to know the knowable One, I was fullyresolved in my mind, to leave this world and all its erroneoususages.

6. I remained a long while in a state of calm and quietmeditation, after having forsaken all the eagerness and restlessnessof my body and mind, for the sake of solitary peace andrest.

7. I then pondered in my mind, of betaking myself to someseat or shrine of the Gods; and there sitting in quiet, continueto survey the changing and transitory states of worldly things.

8. I find all things, said I, to be quite insipid to my taste,though they seem to be pleasant for a while; I never see any277one in any place, who is ever happy or content with his ownstate.

9. All things breed but care and sorrow, with the acutestpangs of remorse and regret; and all these phenomenals producebut evil, from their appearance of good to the beholder ofthem. (Thus the goodly bright aspects of the sun and moon,are attended with sunstroke and lunacy to their observer).

10. What is all this that comes to our view, who is theirviewer and what am I that look upon these visibles (i.e. whatis this objective sight, and what is this subjective self). Allthis is the quiet and unborn spirit, which flashes forth in thevacuous sky with the light of its own intellect.

11. With thoughts as these, I sought to retire from here toa proper place, where I might confine myself, in myself andwhich might be inaccessible to the gods and demi-gods, and tothe siddhas and other beings.

12. Where I might remain unseen by any being, and sit quietin my unalterable meditation; by placing my sole reliance inone even and transparent soul, and getting rid of all my caresand pains.

13. Ah! where could I find such a spot, which may be entirelyvoid of all creatures; and where I may not be distracted inmy mind by interruptions of the objects of my five externalorgans of sense.

14. I cannot choose the mountains for my seat, where thewhistling breeze of the forests, the dashing noise of waterfalls,and the concourse of wild animals, serve to disquiet the mind,without the capability of their being quieted by human power.

15. The hills are crowded with hosts of elephants, and thedales are filled with hordes of savage peoples, the countries arefull of heinous men, more baneful than the poison of venomousserpents.

16. The seas are full of men (on board the vessels), and arefilled with horrible beasts in their depth; and the cities aredisturbed with the din of business, and the broil of the citizens.

17. The foot of the mountains and the shores and coasts ofseas and rivers, are as thickly peopled as the realms of the rulers278of men; and even the summits of mountains and the caverns ofinfernal regions, are not devoid of animal beings.

18. The mountains are singing in the whistling of thebreezes, and the trees are dancing with the motion of their leafypalms; and the blooming flowers are smiling gently, in thecaves of mountains and forest grounds and low lands.

19. I cannot resort to the banks of rivers, where the mutefinny tribe dwell like the silent munis in their grottos, andgently shake the water lilies by their giddy flirtation; becausethis place is disturbed also by the loud noise of the soundingwhirlpools, and the hoarse uproar or roaring whirlwind.

20. I can find no rest in the barren deserts, where the howlingwinds are raising clouds of all engulfing dust, nor can Iresort to the mountain cataracts, where the air resounds withthe stunning noise of incessant waterfalls.

21. Then I thought of setting myself in some sequesteredcorner, of the remote region of the sky; where I might remainabsorbed in my holy meditation without any disturbance.

22. In this corner, I thought of making a cell in my imagination,and keeping myself quite pent up in its close cavity, by anentire relinquishment of all my worldly desires.

23. With these reflexions, I mounted high in the blue vaultof the sky; and found the ample space in its womb to know nobounds (and was identic with Infinity itself).

24. Here I saw the siddhas (perfected spirits) roving in oneplace, and the roaring clouds rolling in another; in one side Ibeheld the vidyádhara or accomplished spirits, and the excelledyakskas on another. (Heaven is the abode of perfected souls ofall people at large).

25. In one spot I saw an aerial city, and the region of thejarring winds in another; I beheld the raining clouds on oneside, and raging yoginis or furies in another.

26. There was the city of the Daityas or demons, hangingin the air on one side; and the place of the Gandarvas appearingin another. The planetary sphere was rolling about in oneway, and the starry frame revolving at a distance.

27. Some where the sky was brushed over by flights of279birds, and great gales were raging in another part; somewherethere appeared portents in the sky, and elsewhere there werecanopies of clouds formed in the heavens.

28. One part of heaven was studded with cities, peopled bystrange kinds of beings; the car of the sun was gliding on oneside, and the wheel of the lunar disk was sliding in another.

29. One region of the sky was burning under the torridsun, and another part was cooled by the cooling moon-beams;one part was intolerable to little animals and another was inaccessibleowing to its intense heat.

30. One place was full of dancing demons, and another withflocks of flying garuda eagles; one region was deluged bydiluvian rains, and another was infested by tempestuous winds.

31. Leaving these plenary parts behind, I passed onwardfar and further; when I reached to a region entirely desolate,and devoid of everything (i.e. the increate vacuity).

32. Here the air was mild, and no being was to be seen evenin a dream; there was no omen of good, nor anything portentousof evils, nor any sight or sign of world.

33. I figured to myself in this place, a solitary cell with somespace in it; and it was without any passage for egress, andwas as goodly as the unblown bed of a lotus.

34. It was not perforated by worms, but was as handsomeas the bright disk of the full-moon; and as lovely as the comelyfeatures of the lily and lotus, jasmine and mandara flowers.

35. This abode of my imagination, was inaccessible to allother beings but to myself; and I sat there alone with only mythoughts and creations of my imagination by myself.

36. I remained quite silent and calm in my mind, in myposture of Padmásana (or yoga meditation); and then rosefrom my seat at the expiration of a hundred years, after myacquirement of spiritual knowledge.

37. I sat in unwavering meditation, and was absorbed in afit of hypnotism; I remained as quiet as the calm stillness ofthe air, and as immovable as a statue carved in relief upon theface of the sky.

38. At last I found out in my mind, what it had been long280searching after in earnest; and at last the breath of my expectationreturned into my nostrils. (Parting breath of longing returnswith the longed for object).

39. The seed of knowledge which I had sown in the field ofmy mind, came to sprout forth of itself from the midst of it,after the lapse of a whole century.

40. My life or living soul, is now awakened to its intuitiveknowledge (of truth); as a tree left withered by the dewy season,becomes revivified by the moisture of the renovating spring.

41. The hundred years which I passed in my meditationhere, glided away as quickly as a single moment before me; becausea long period of time appears a very short space, to onewho is intensively intent upon a single object. (Whereas thesuccession of thoughts be an unchanging duration of thesame moment to him who is fixed in his mind).

42. Now my outward senses had their expansion, from theircontracted state (in my meditative mind); just as the witheredarbors expand themselves into flowers and foliage, by theenlivening influence of the vernal season.

43. Then the vital airs filled the organs of my body, andrestored my consciousness of their sensations; soon after I wasseized upon by the demon of my egoism, accompanied by itsconsort of desire; and these began to move to and fro, just asthe strong winds shake the sturdy oaks.

Argument:—Difference of Egoism in wise and in commonpeople, and Disappearance of visibles.

Ráma rejoined:—Tell me, O most sapient sage, how it ispossible for the demon of ego to take hold of you, thatare extinct in the deity, and dissipate my doubts there.

2. Vasishtha replied:—It is impossible, O Ráma, for anybeing whether knowing or unknown to live here without thesense of his egoism; as it is not possible for the contained tosubsist without its container.

3. But there is a difference of this which you must know,that the demoniac egoism of the quiet minded man, is capableof control by means of his knowledge of and attention to thesrutis.

4. It is the infantine ignorance which raises up this idol ofegoism, though it is found to exist no where; just as littlechildren make dolls and images of gods and men, that have noexistence at all.

5. This ignorance also (which is the cause of egoism), is nothingpositive of itself; since it is dispelled by knowledge andreason, as darkness is driven away by the light of a lamp.(Ignorance and darkness are but negative terms).

6. Ignorance is a demon that dances about in the dark, anda fiend that flies afar before the light of reason. (Hence thedisappearance of ignorance causes our egoism to disappear also).

7. Granting the existence of ignorance, in absence of theadvance of knowledge and reason; yet it is at best but a fiendof delusion, and is as shapeless as the darkest night (Whennothing is to be seen).

8. Granting the existence of creation, we have no trace ofignorance any where in it (since creation is the production of282omniscience, there is no nescience in any part of) the existenceof two moons in the sky.

9. Creation having no other cause (but God himself), we knownot how could ignorance find a place in it; just so it is impossiblefor a tree to grow in the air (which God hath made void,barren, and bare). (God hath planted the tree of knowledgein the garden of Eden, but no tree of ignorance did He set anywhere).

10. When creation began and was begotten in the beginning,in its pure and subtile form in the womb of absolute vacuum(or the mind of God); how is it possible for the material bodiesof earth and water to proceed (from the immaterial spirit)without a material cause?

11. The Lord is beyond (the conception of) the mind, and(the perception of) the six senses, and is yet the source of themind and senses; but how could that formless and incorporealbeing, be the cause of material and corporeal things?

12. The germ is the effect (or product), germinating fromits causal source—the seed; but how and where can you expectto see the sprout springing without the productive seed?

13. No effect can ever result, without its formal cause ormain-spring; say who has ever seen or found a tree tospring from and grow in empty air. (Nihil ex nihilo fit, et nihilin nihilum reverte posse).

14. It is imagination alone that paints these prospects inthe mind, just as the fume of fancy shows you the sight oftrees in the empty air; so it is the phrensy of the mind, thatexhibits these phenomena before your eyes, but which in realityhave no essentiality in them.

15. So, the universe as it appeared at its first creation, inthe vacuity of the divine intellect; was all a congeries of worldsswimming in empty air (in their hollow ideal shapes).

16. (But the universe is not altogether a void and nihility).It is the same as it shines itself in the spacious intellect of thesupreme soul (or spirit); it is the divine nature itself which istermed as creation, and which is an intellectual system havingproceeded from the intellect, and the self-same divinity.

28317. The vision of the world which is presented in our dream,and which is of daily occurrence to us, furnishes us with thebest instance of this; when we are conscious of the sights ofcities, and of the appearance of hills, all before our mental eyesin the dreaming state. (So this world is but a dream).

18. It is the nature of the Intellect as that of a dream, tosee the vision of creation, as we view the appearance of theuncreated creation before our eyes, in the same manner as itappeared at first in the vast void (of divine mind).

19. There is but one unintelligible intelligence, a purelyunborn and imperishable being, that appears now before us inthe shape of this creation, as it existed with its everlastingideas of infinite worlds, before this creation began.

20. There is no creation here, nor these orbs of earth andothers; it is all calm and quiet with but One Brahma seated inhis immensity.

21. This Brahma is omnipotent and as He manifests himselfin any manner, He instantly becomes as such without forsakinghis purely transparent form.

22. As our intellect shows itself, in the form of visionarycities in our dream; so doth the divine intellect exhibit itself,in the forms of all these worlds, at the commencement of theircreation.

23. It is in the transparent and transcendent vacuum ofthe Intellect, that the vacuous intellect is situated; and thecreation is the display of its own nature, by an act of itsthought in itself. (There is a large note explanatory of thispassage).

24. The whole creation consists in the clear vacuity of theintellect, and is of the nature of the spirit situated in the spiritof God. (The world exists in its spiritual form in the amplespace of the divine spirit).

25. The whole creation being but the diffusion of the selfsamespiritual essence of God, there is no possibility of theexistence of a material world or ignorance or egoism, in thecreation and pervasivefulness of the Supreme spirit.

26. Everything have I told you all about the desinence of284your egoism, and one knowing the unreality of his egoisticism,gets rid of his false belief, as a boy is freed from his fear of aghost.

27. In this manner, no sooner was I fully convinced of thefutility of egoism, than I lost the sense of my personality;and though I retained fully the consciousness of myself, yet Igot freed from my selfishness, as a light autumnal cloud bydisloading its watery burden.

28. As our knowledge of the inefficacy of a flaming firein painting, removes the fear of our being burnt by it; so ourconnection of our fallacies of egoism and creation, serves toefface the impressions of the subjective and objective from ourminds.

29. Thus when I was delivered from my egoism, and set tothe tranquility of my passions; I then found myself seated inan unatmospheric firmament (which was free from cloud andrain); and in an uncreated creation (i.e. in the everlastingvacuity or eternal sunshine of heaven).

30. I am none of egoism, nor is it anything to me; havinggot rid of it, I have become one with clear intellectual vacuum.

31. In this respect, all intelligent men are of the sameopinion with myself; as it is well known to them that ournotion of egoism is as false, as the fallacy of fire represented ina painting.

32. Being certain of the unreality of yourself and of others,and of the nihility of everything beside; conduct yourselfin all your dealings with indifference, and remain as mute as astone.

33. Let your mind shine with the clearness of the vault ofheaven, and be as impregnable to the excess of all thoughtsand feelings as solid stone. Know that there is but One Intellectualessence from beginning to end, and that there nothingto be seen except the One-deity, who composes the wholeplenum.

Argument:—The Eternity and infinity of creation,elucidated in the story of the block of stone.

Ráma said:—O venerable sir, what an extensive, noble,grand and clear prospect have you exposed to my sight;(by showing the infinite of time and place to be composedof the essence of the supreme deity).

2. I find also by my percipience, that the entity of theOne and sole Ens, fills the whole space at all times and places;and that it is the essence which shows itself alike in everymanner and form always and every where forever and evermore.

3. I have yet some scruples sir, rankling in my breast, andhope you will please to remove them, by explaining unto methe meaning of your story of the stone (you mentioned before).

4. Vasishtha replied:—Ráma, I will relate to you the storyof the stone, in order to stablish that this whole or the plenum,is existent in all times and in all places (with the Divineessence).

5. I will elucidate to you by means of this story, how thousandsof worlds are contained within the compact and solid bodyof a stone (as the thoughts of all things, are comprised in thedensity of the Divine Intellect).

6. I will also show to you in this story, how the grandmaterial world (which is as compact as a stone, is contained inits immaterial or airy ideal state, in the vast vacuity of thedivine mind).

7. You will also find from this story, that there is in themidst of all plants and their seeds, and in the hearts of allliving animals, as also in the bosom of the elementary bodies ofwater and air as of earth and fire, sufficient space containingthousands of productions of their own kinds.

2868. Ráma rejoined:—If you say, O sage, that all vegetablesand living beings are full with the productions of their respectivekinds, then why is it that we do not perceive the numerousproductions, which abound in the empty air?

9. Vasishtha replied:—I have already told you Ráma,much about this first and essential truth; that the whole of thiscreation which appears to our sight, is empty air and subsistingin the inane vacuum only.

10. In the first place there is nothing that was ever producedin the beginning, nor is there anything which is in existenceat present; all this that appears as visible to us is noother than Brahma Himself, and subsisting in his Brahmic orplenary immensity or fullness. (So the sruti: The Lord is fullin the fulness of his creation &c.).

11. There is no room for an atom of earth, to find its placein the fulness of the divine Intellect, which is filled with itsideal worlds; nor do the material worlds exist in Brahma, whois of the form of pure vacuum.

12. There is no room even for a spark of fire, to have itsplace in the intellectual creation of God which admits of nogap or pore in it; nor do these worlds exist in any part ofBrahma, who is entirely a pure vacuity.

13. There is no possibility also for a breath of air, to subsistin the imporous fulness of the intellectual creation of God;nor doth any of these (earthly, luminous or aerial) worlds,exist in the purely vacuous Intellect of Brahma.

14. There is not even a jot of the visible vacuity, thatfinds a place in the intensity of the ideal creation in the divinemind; nor is it possible for any of these visible worlds, to subsistin the compact vacuum of the deity.

15. The five great elementary bodies, have no room in theconsolidated creation of God, which subsists in its vacuous formin the vacuity of the Divine Intellect.

16. There is nothing created any where, but it is thevacuum and in the vacuity of the great spirit of God.

17. There is no atom of the great spirit of God, which isnot full of creations or created things; nor is there any creation287or created thing, but is the void and in the vacancy of theDivine spirit.

18. There is no particle of Brahma, distributed in the creation:because the Lord is spirit, and always full in Himself.(The Divine soul, admits no materiality nor divisibility in itsnature).

19. The creation is the supreme Brahma, and the Lord isthe creation itself; there is not the slightest tint of dualismin them, as there is no duality of fire and its heat.

20. It is improper to say that this is creation and the otheris Brahma, and to think them as different from one another;just as it is wrong to consider a dáru and dárya (a tree andtearable) as two things, from the difference in the sounds ofthe words (of the same meaning). (So Brahma immensity andsrishti—creation are synonymous terms differing in sound).

21. There exists no difference of them, when their dualitydisappears into unity; and when we can not have any idea oftheir difference, unless we support the gross dualistic theory(which is absurd).

22. We know all this as one clear and transparent space,which is without its beginning and end, and quite indestructibleand tranquil in its nature; and knowing this all wise menremain as mute as a piece of solid stone, even when they areemployed in business.

23. Look at this whole creation as whether extinct in theDeity, and view the visible world as a vast void only; lookupon your egoism and tuism as mere fallacies, and behold theGods and demigods and the hills and everything else as thevisionary appearances in our dream, which spread their nil ofdelusion over the minds of men (even in their waking state).

Argument:—Vasishtha’s hearing a faint sound after hishybernation and his coming to the sight of endlessworlds afterwards.

Ráma rejoined:—Relate to me, O sage, of your acts of awhole century, after you had risen from your trance, inthe cell of your aerial abode.

2. Vasishtha replied:—After I had awakened from my trance,I heard a soft and sweet sound, which <was> slow but distinctlyaudible, and was clearly intelligible both in sound and sense.

3. It was as soft and sweet, as if it proceeded from femalevoice; and musical to the ear; and as it was neither loud norharsh owing to its effeminacy, I kept to watch whence thewords were heard.

4. It was as sweet as the humming of the bees, and as pleasingas the tune of wired instruments; it was neither the chimeof crying nor the rumble of reading, but as the buzzing of blackbees, known to men as the visa-koshi strain in vocal music.

5. Hearing this strain for a long time, and seeking in vainwhence it came, I thought within myself: “It is a wonder thatI hear the sound, without knowing its author, and from whichof the ten sides of heaven it proceeds.”

6. This part of the heavens, said I, is the path of the siddhas(or spirits of sanctified saints), and on the other side I see anendless vacuity; I passed over millions of miles that way, andthen I sat there awhile and pondered in my mind.

7. How could such feminine voice, proceed from such a remoteand solitary quarter; where I see no vocalist with all mydiligent search.

8. I see the infinite space of the clear and inane sky lyingbefore me, where I find no visible being appearing to my sightnotwithstanding all my diligent search.

2899. As I was thinking in this manner, and looking repeatedlyon all sides, without seeing the maker of the sonant sound;I thought on a plan in the following manner.

10. That I must transform myself to air, and be one withthe inane vacuum; and then make some sound in the emptyair, which is the receptacle of sound. (The air is said to bethe vehicle and medium of sound, which is called the propertyof air).

11. I thought on leaving my body in its posture of meditation,as I was sitting before; and with the vacuous body ofmy intellect, mix with the inane vacuum, as a drop of watermixes with water.

12. Thinking so, I was about to forsake my material frame,by sitting in my posture of Padmásana, and betaking myselfto my samádhi or intense meditation, and shut my eyes closelyagainst all external sights.

13. Having then given up my sensations of all externalobjects of sense, I became as void as my intellectual vacuum,preserving only the feeling of my consciousness in myself.

14. By degrees I lost my consciousness also, I became athinking principle only; and then I remained in my intellectualsphere as a mirror of the world (i.e. to reflect the reflexionsof all worldly things in their abstracted light).

15. Then with that vacuous nature of mine, I became onewith the universal vacuum; and melted away as a drop ofwater with the common water, and mixed as an odour in theuniversal receptacle of empty air.

16. Being assimilated to the great vacuum, which is omnipresentand pervades over the infinite space; I became likethe endless void, the reservoir and support of all, although Iwas formless and supportless myself.

17. In my formless (of endless space), I began to look into myriadsof worlds and mundane eggs, that lay countless in my infiniteand unconscious bosom.

18. These worlds were apart from, and unseen by and unknownto one another; and appeared with all their motions290and manners, as mere spaces to each other (i.e. they are atsuch great distance that they could not be seen all at once).

19. As visions in a dream appearing thickly to a dreamingman, and as nothing to the sleeping person; so the emptyspace abounds with worlds to their observers, and as quite vacantto the unobservant spiritualist.

20. Here many things are born, to grow and decay and dieaway at last; and what is present is reckoned with the past,and what was in the womb of futurity, comes to existence innumbers.

21. Many magic scenes and many aerial castles and buildings,together with many a kingdom and palace, are built inthis empty air, by the imaginations of men.

22. Here there were to be seen many edifices with severalapartments counting from unit to the digit (and these are thevarious systems of philosophy, with one and many more number,of their respective categories).

23. There were some structures, constructed with ten orsixteen apartments; and others which had dozens and threedozens of doors, attached to them. (The predicaments of theNyáya and Jaina systems of philosophy. But Buddhism or JainAtheism is called Nirávarana, having no category but vacuity).

24. The whole ethereal space is full of the five primaryelements, which compose elementary bodies of single or doubleand triple natures.

25. Some of these bodies are composed of quadruple, quintupleand hextuple elements, and others of seven different elementaryprinciples called seven fold great elements—Sapta-mahá-bhutas.(They are the five subtile elements of earth,water, fire, air and vacuum, and the two principles of time andspace, all which subsist in vacuity).

26. So there are many super-natural natures, which are beyondthe power of your conception (as the Gods, demons andother etherial beings), and so there are spaces of everlastingdarkness, without the light of the sun and moon.

27. Some parts of the void were devoid of creation, andothers were occupied by Brahmá the creator—their master, some291parts were under the dominion of the patriarchs or lords ofcreatures, and under influence of various customs.

28. Some parts were under the control of the vedas, andothers were ungoverned by regulations of sástras; some partswere full of insects and worms, and others were peopled bygods and other living beings.

29. In some parts the burning fires of daily oblations wereseen to rise, and at others the people were observant of thetraditional usages of their respective tribes only (withoutknowing their reasons).

30. Some parts were filled with water, and others were theregions of storms; some bodies were fixed in the remote sky,and others were roving and revolving in it continually.

31. The growing trees were blossoming in some parts, andothers were fructifying and ripening at others. There werethe grazing animals moving pronely in some place, and otherswere teeming with living beings.

32. The Lord alone is the whole creation, and He only is thetotality of mankind; He is the whole multitude of demons, andHe too is the whole shoal of worms every where.

33. He is not afar from anything, but is present in everyatom that is contained in his bosom. All things are growingand grown up in the cell of vacuity, like the coatings of theplantain tree.

34. Many things are growing unseen and unknown to eachother, and never thought of together, such are the dreams ofsoldiers which are unseen by others.

35. There are endless varieties of creations, in the unboundedwomb of vacuum, all of different natures and manners; andthere are no two things of the same character and feature.

36. All men are of different sástras, faiths and persuasionsfrom one another, and these are of endless varieties; they areas different in their habits and customs, as they are separatedfrom each other in their habitations and localities.

37. So there are worlds above worlds, and the spheres of thespirits over one another; so there are a great many big elemental292bodies, like the hills and mountains that come to oursight.

38. It will be impossible for understandings like yours, tocomprehend the incoherent (unusual) things, which are spokenby men like ourselves (i.e. inspired sages, who talk of wondersbeyond the common comprehension).

39. We must derive the atoms of spiritual light, whichproceeds from the sphere of vacuum; as we feel the particles ofmental light which issues from the orb of sun of our intellect.(Here the author speaks of the lights of the sun, intellect andspirit).

40. Some are born to remain just as they are, and becomeof no use to any one at all; and others become some what likethemselves as the leaves of forest trees.

41. Some are equal to others, and many that are unlike tothem; for sometime as alike to one another, and at othersthey differ in their shapes and nature (it is difficult to makeout the meaning of these passages, not given in the gloss).

42. Hence there are various results of the great tree ofspirituality, among which some are of the same kinds and others,of different sorts.

43. Some of these are of short duration, and others endurefor longer periods; there are some of temporary existence, andothers endure for ever.

44. Some have no determinate time (for want of the sunand moon), to regulate its course; and others are spontaneousin their growth and continuance.

45. The different regions of the sky, which lie in the concavityof boundless vacuum, are in existence from unknownperiods of time, and in a state beyond the reach of our knowledge.

46. These regions of the sky, this sun and these seas andmountains, which are seen to rise by hundreds to our sights, arethe wonderful display of our Intellect in the sky, like the chainof dreams in our sleep.

47. It is from our erroneous notions, and the false idea of293a creative cause, that we take the unreal earth and all otherappearances as they are really existent ones.

48. Like the appearance of water in the mirage, and thesight of two moons in the sky; do these unreal phenomena presentthemselves to our view, although they are altogether false.

49. It is the imaginative power of the Intellect, whichcreate these images as clouds in the empty air; they are raisedhigh by the wind of our desire, and roll about with our exertionsand pursuits.

50. We see the gods, demigods and men, flying about likeflies and gnats about a fig tree; and its luscious fruits are seento hang about it, and shake with the winds of heaven.

51. It is only from the naturally creative imagination ofthe Intellect, likening the sportive disposition of boys, that thetoys of fairy shapes are shown in the empty air.

52. The false impressions of I, thou, he and this, are as firmlyaffixed in the mind, as the clay dolls of boys are hardened inthe sunlight and heat.

53. It is the playful and ever active destiny, that works allthese changes in nature; as the genial vernal season, fructifiesthe forest with its moisture.

54. Those that are called the great causes of creation, areno causes of it; nor are those that are said to be created, createdall, but all is a perfect void. They have sprung of themselvesin the vacuity of the Intellect.

55. They all exist in their intellectual form, though theyappear to be manifest as otherwise; the perceptibles are allimperceptible, and the existent is altogether inexistent.

56. The fourteen worlds, and the eleven kinds of createdbeings; are all the same in the inner intellect, as they appearto the outward sight.

57. The heaven and earth, and the infernal regions, and thewhole host of our friends and foes, are all nullities in theirtrue sense though they seem to be very busy in appearance.

58. All things are as inelastic fluid, as the fluidity of thesea waters; they are as fragile as the waves of the sea in theirinside, though they appear as solid substances on the outside.

29459. They are the reflexions of the supreme soul, as the daylight is that of the sun; they all proceed from and melt awayinto the vacuous air as the gusts of winds.

60. The egoistic understanding, is the tree bearing thefoliage of our thoughts.

61. The rituals and their rewards, which are prescribed inthe vedas and puránas, are as the fanciful dreams occurring inlight sleep; but they are buried into oblivion by them and areled up in the sound sleep like the dead.

62. The Intellect like a Gandharva architect, is in the actof building many fairy cities in the forest of intellectuality,and lighted with the light of its reason, blazing as the brightsun-beams.

63. In this manner, O Ráma, I beheld in my meditativerevelry, many worlds to be created and scattered without anycause, as a blind man sees many false sights in the open air.

Argument:—Vasishtha sees the siren songstresses inhis Reveries and then turns to his meditationof the world.

Vasishtha continued:—Then I went on forward to findout the spot of the etherial sounds, and continued journeyingonward in the vacuous region of my excogitation, withoutany interruption from any side.

2. I heard far beyond me the sound that came to my ears,resembling the jingling thrill of the Indian lute; it becamemore distinct as I appeared nearer to it, till I heard the metricalcadence of Arya measure in it.

3. As I glanced in my meditation at the site of the sound,I beheld a damsel on one side as fair as liquid gold, and brighteningthat part of the sky (by the blaze of her beauteous body).

4. She had necklaces pendant on her loose garments, andher eyelashes were tinged with lac-dye, and with loosened tracesand fluttering locks of her hair, she appeared as the goddess ofprosperity (sitting in the air).

5. Her limbs were as calm and handsome, as they weremade of pure gold; and sitting on the way side with the near-blownbloom of her youth, she was as odorous as the goddessFlora, and handsome in every part of her body.

6. Her face was like the full moon, and was smiling as acluster of flowers; her countenance was flushed with her youth,and her eyelids betokened her good fortune.

7. She was seated under the vault of heaven, with thebrightness of her beauty blooming as the beams of the fullmoon; and decorated with ornaments of pearls, she walked gracefullytowards me.

8. She recited with her sweet voice, the verses in the Aryametre by my side; and smiled as she recited them in a hightone of her voice, saying:—

2969. I salute thee, O sage, she said, whose mind is freed fromthe evil propensities of those, that are deluded to fall into thecurrents of this world; and to whom you are a support, as atree standing on its border.

10. Hearing this I looked upon that sonant charming face,and seeing the maiden with whom I had nothing to do, I disregardedher and went on forward.

11. I was then struck with wonder, on viewing the magicdisplay of the mundane system, and was inclined to wanderthrough the air, by slighting the company of the damsel.

12. With this intention in my mind, I left the etherial damein the air; and assumed an aerial form in order to traverse theetherial regions, and scan the phantasmagoria of the world.

13. As I went on viewing the wondrous worlds, scatteredabout in the empty sky; I found them no better than emptydreams, or the fictions in works of imagination.

14. I neither saw nor ever heard of anything at any place,about those creations and creatures, that existed in those formerkalpas and great kalpa ages of the world (nor the world destroyingdeluges of yore).

15. I did not see the furious pushkara and ávarta clouds (ofthe great deluge), nor the portentous and raging whirlwinds ofold; I heard no thunder claps, that split the mighty mountains,and broke the worlds asunder.

16. The conflagration of diluvian fire, which cracked theedifices of Cuvera, and the burning rays of a dozen of solar orbswere to be seen no more.

17. The lofty abodes of the gods, which were hurled headlongon the ground, and the crackling noise of the falling mountains,were no more to be seen or heard.

18. The flame of the diluvian fire, which raged with tremendousroar all about, and boiled and burnt away the waters ofthe etherial oceans, were now no more.

19. There was no more that hideous rushing of waters, whichover flooded the abodes of the gods, demigods and men; northat swelling of the seven oceans, which filled the whole world,up to the face of the solar orb.

29720. The peoples all lay dead and insensible of the universaldeluge, like men laid up in dead sleep, and sung the battleaffray in their sleep.

21. I beheld thousands of Brahmás, Rudras and Vishnus,disappearing in the different kalpa or diluvian ages of theworld.

22. I then dived in my excogitation, into those dark anddreary depths of time, when there were no kalpa nor yuga ages,nor years and days and nights, nor the sun and moon, nor thecreation and destruction of the world.

23. All these I beheld in my intellect, which is all in all, towhich all things belong, and which is in every place; it is theintellect which engrosses every thing in itself, and shows itselfin all forms.

24. Whatever, O Ráma, you say to be anything, know thatthing to be the intellect only; and this thing being rarer thanthe subtile air, know it next to nothing.

25. Therefore it is this empty air, which exhibits everything in it under the name of the world; and as the soundproceeding from the empty air, melts again into the air, so allthings are aerial and the transcendent air only.

26. All these phenomena and their sight are simply erroneous,and appertain to the vacuous intellect alone; and are exhibitedas foliage of the aerial tree (which I know is false andnothing).

27. The intellect and vacuum are identic and of the samenature with themselves, and this I came to understand fromthe entire absence of all my desires.

28. These worlds that are linked together in the chain of theuniverse, and lie within the limits of the ten sides of it, are butOne Brahma only; and the infinite vacuity, with all its parts ofspace and time, and all forms of things and actions, are thesubstance and essence of Brahma only.

29. In this manner, I saw in manifold worlds that weremanifested before me, many a great muni like myself; all sonsof the great Brahmá, and named as Vasishthas, and men of greatholiness and piety.

29830. I saw many revolutions of the tretá age, with as manyRámas in them; I marked the rotation of many Satya andDwápara periods (the golden and brazen ages) of the world,which I counted by hundreds and thousands.

31. From my common sense of concrete particulars, I sawthis changing state of created things; but by the powers of myreflexion and generalization, I found them all to be but oneBrahma, extended as the infinite vacuity from all eternity.

32. It is not to be supposed, that the world subsists inBrahma or He in this (as either the container or contained ofthe whole); but Brahma is the uncreated and endless all himself,and whatever bears a name or is thought of in our understanding.

33. He is like a block of silent stone, that bears no name orepithet; but is of the form of pure light, which is termed theworld also.

34. This light shines within the sphere of the infinite intellect,which is beyond the limit of our finite intelligence; it manifestsitself in the form of the world, which is as formless as theother, and is as unknown to us, as anything in our dreamlesssleep.

35. Brahma is no other than himself, and all else is only hisreflexion; His light is the light of the world, and shows us allthings like the solar light.

36. It is by that light, that these thousands of worlds appearto view; and that we have the notion of heat in the lunar disk,and of cold in the solar orb(?)

37. We see some creatures that see in the dark, and do notsee in the day light; such are the owls and bats (asses?), andso there are men of the same kind.

38. There are many here, that are lost by their goodness,while there are others, who thrive and ascend to heaven bytheir wickedness; some <that> come <to> life by drinking ofpoison, and many that die by the taste of nectar.

39. Whatever a thing appears to be by itself, or whatsoeveris thought of it in the understanding of another, the same299comes to occur and is presented to the lot of every one, be itgood or evil.

40. The world is a hanging garden in the air, with all its orbsfixed as trees with their firm roots in it and yet rolling andrevolving about, like the shaking leaves and tossing fruits ofthis arbour.

41. The sand like mustard seeds being crushed understony oil mills, yield the fluid substance of oil; and the tenderflower of lotus, grows out of the clefts of rocks. (So things ofone nature produce another of a different kind).

42. The moving images that are carved out of stone orwood, are seen to be set in the company of goddesses; and toconverse with them. (The gloss gives no explanation of thisunintelligible passage).

43. The clouds of heaven are seen to shroud many thingsas their vests, and many trees are found to produce fruits ofdifferent kinds every year.

44. All terrestrial animals are seen to move upon the earth,in different and changing forms with different kinds of themembers of their bodies and heads.

45. The lower worlds (regions) are filled with human beings,that are without the pale of the vedas and sástras; and livewithout any faith, religion, and lead their lives in the state ofbeasts.

46. Some places are peopled by heartless peoples, who arewithout the feelings of love and desire; and others who are notborn of women, but appear to be strewn as stones on theground.

47. There are some places, which are full of serpents thatfeed upon air only; and others where gems and stones are takenin an indifferent light; some again where the indigent arewithout avarice and pride.

48. There were some beings, who look on their individualsouls, and not on those of others; and others who regard theuniversal soul, that resides alike in all. (i.e. In all the fourkinds of living creatures).

49. As the hairs and nails and other members of a person,300are parts of his same body, though they grow in different partsof it; so do all beings appertain to the One universal soul, whichis to be looked upon in all.

50. The one infinite and boundless vacuum, seems as manyskies about the different worlds which it encompasseth; and itis by the exertion of Divine energy, that these empty spacesare filled with worlds.

51. There are some who are entirely ignorant of the meaningof the word liberation (which is freedom from the knowledgeof everything beside Brahma); and move about as woodenmachines without any sense in them.

52. Some creatures have no knowledge of astronomical calculation,and are ignorant of the course of time; while thereare others quite deaf and dumb, and conduct themselves bysigns and motions of their bodies.

53. Some are devoid of the sense of sight of their eyes, andthe light of the sun and moon, are all in vain to them.

54. Some have no life in them, and others have no senseof smelling the sweet odours; some are quite mute and cannotutter any sound, while others are deprived of the sense of theirhearing.

55. There are some who are entirely dumb, and without thepower of speech; and some again that having no power of touchor feeling, are as insensible blocks or stones.

56. Some have their sense (of conception) only, withoutpossessing the organs of sense; and others that manage themselvesas foul Pisáchas or goblins, and are therefore inadmissiblein human society.

57. There are some made of one material only (as solid earth),and others have no solidity in them (as air &c.); some are composedof the watery substance, and others are full of fiery matterin them.

58. Some are full of air, and some there are of all forms (i.e.capable to do anything). All these are of vacuous forms, andare shown in the vacuity of the understanding. (This is an effectof a yoga called prakámya siddhi or the power of seeing everything in the mind or imagination).

30159. So the surface of the earth, and air and water, teemwith living beings, and the frogs live in the cell of stones, andthe insects dwell in the womb of the earth.

60. There are living beings living in vast bodies of water,as in lands, forests and mountains; and so there are livingcreatures skimming in the other elements and air, as the finnytribes move about and swim in the air.

61. There are living things also, peopling the element offire, and moving in fiery places, where there is no water to behad; and there they are flying and flitting about as sparksand particles of fire.

62. The regions of air are also filled with other kinds ofliving beings; and these have airy bodies like the bilious flatulencywhich runs all over the body.

63. Even the region of vacuum is full of animal life; andthese have vacuous bodies, moving in their particular forms.

64. Whatever animals are shut up in the infernal caves, orskip aloft in the upper skies; and those that remain, and roveabout all sides of the air; these and all those which inhabitand move about the many worlds in the womb of the greatvacuum, were seen by me in the vacuity of my Intellect.

Argument:—Want of Divine knowledge, produces the knowledge ofthe reality of the unreal world; but the knowledge of God,proves the nothingness of the World at all times.

Vasishtha continued:—It is from the face of the firmamentof Divine Intellect, that the atmosphere of ourunderstandings, catch the reflexion of this universe; just as thewaters of the deep, receive the images of the clouds in theupper sky. It is this Intellect which gives us life, and guidesour minds.

2. These living souls and minds of ours, are of the form ofthe clear sky; and these countless worlds, are productions ofempty vacuity.

3. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, that after all kinds of beingswere entirely liberated, from the bonds of their bodies andtheir souls also, at the universal annihilation of things; whatis it that comes to be created again, and whence it gets it undonealso.

4. Vasishtha replied:—Hear me tell you, how at the greatdestruction or deluge, all things together with the earth, water,air, fire and the sky, and the spheres of heaven vanish away,and are liberated from their respective forms; and how thisuniverse comes to appear again to our imagination.

5. There remains alone the undefinable spirit of God afterthis, which is styled the great Brahma and Supreme Intellectby the sages; and this world remains in the heart of thatbeing, from which it altogether inseparable and indifferent.

6. He is the Lord, and all this is contained in the nature ofthis heart, which passeth under the name of the world, it is byhis pleasure that he exhibits to us the notion that we haveof the world, which is not his real form.

3037. Considering this well, we find nothing either as createdor destroyed by him; but as we know the supreme cause of allto be imperishable by his nature, so do we know his heart tobe indestructible also; and the great kalpa ages are only partsof Himself (as the divisions of time are only parts of eternity).

8. It is only our circ*mscribed knowledge, that shows us thedifferences and dualities of things; but these upon examinationare not to be found and vanish into nothing.

9. Therefore there is nothing of anything, that is ever destroyedto nothing, nor is there anything which is ever producedfrom Brahma; who is unborn and invisible, and restsalways in his tranquility.

10. He remains as the pure essence of intellect, in atoms ofa thousand part of the particles of simple vacuity.

11. This world is verily the body of that great Intellect,how then can this mundane body (corpus mundi) come to bedestroyed, without destruction of the other also (which is indestructibleof its nature)?

12. As the intellect awakes in our hearts, even in our sleepand dream; so the world is present in our minds at all times,and presents unto us its airy or ideal form ever since its firstcreation.

13. The creation is a component part of the vacuous intellectand its rising and setting being but the airy and ideal operationsof the intellect, there is no part of it that is ever createdor destroyed of it at any time.

14. This spiritual substance of the intellect, is never susceptibleof being burnt or broken or torn at anytime; it is notsoiled or dried or weakened at all nor is it knowable or capableto be seen by them that are ignorant of it.

15. It becomes, whatever it has in its heart; and as itnever perishes, so the notion of the world and all things whichinhere in its heart (mind), is neither begotten nor destroyed inany wise.

16. It subsides and revives only, by cause of its forgetfulnessand remembrance only at different times, and rising and304setting of the notion, gives rise to the ideas of the creation anddestruction of the world.

17. Whatever notion you have of the world, you becomethe same yourself; think it perishable, and you perish also withit; but know it as imperishable, and you become unperishingalso.

18. Know then the creation and great destruction of theworld, to be but recurrences of its notion and oblivion, and thetwo phases of the intellect only.

19. How can the production or destruction of anything, takeplace in the vacuity of the airy intellect; and how can any conditionor change be attributed to the formless intellect at all?

20. The great kalpa ages and all periods of time, and partsof creation, are mere attributes of the intellect and the intellectbut a predicate of Brahma, they all merge into the greatBrahma alone.

21. The intellect is a formless and purely transparent substance,and the phenomenals are subject to its will alone; andit is according to the will or wish that one has in his heart (ormind), that he sees the object appear before him, like the fairylands of imagination.

22. As the body of a tree is composed of its several parts,of the roots, trunk, branches, leaves, flowers, fruits and otherthings.

23. So the solid substance of the divine spirit, which is moretranslucent than the clear firmament, and which nothing can bepredicated in reality, has the creation and great destructions &c.as the several conditions of its own essence.

24. So the various states of pleasure and pain, of happinessand misery, of birth, life and death, and of form and want ofform, are but the different states of the same spirit.

25. And as the whole body of this spirit, is imperishable andunchangeable in its nature, so are all the states and conditions ofits being also.

26. There is no difference in the nature and essence of thewhole and its part, except that the one is more palpable to sightby its greater bulk than the other.

30527. As our consciousness, is the root of existence of a tree;so is our consciousness the root of our belief in the existence ofGod.

28. This consciousness shows us the varieties of things, assomething in one place and another else where; it shows usthe creation as a great trunk, and all the worlds as so manytrees.

29. It shows some where the great continents, as the branchesof these trees and their contents of hills &c., as theirtwigs and leaves; some where it shows the sunshine as itsflowers, and darkness as the black bark of these trees.

30. Some where it shows the concavity of the sky as thehollow of the tree, and elsewhere the dissolution of creation asa vast desolation; it shows in one place the synod of gods ascluster of flowers, and other beings in another as bushes andbrambles and cuticles of trees.

31. So are all these situated in the formless and vacuousconsciousness, which is the great Brahma itself, and no otherthan the same nature with Brahma (in its clearness andtransparency).

32. There was a past world, here is the present one, and inanother a would be creation in futuro; are all but notions ofour minds, and known to us by our consciousness of them, whichis as unchangeable in its nature as Brahma himself.

33. Thus the supreme and self conscious soul of Brahma,being as transparent as clear firmament, there is no colour orcloud (or the changeful shadows of creation and destruction),which are attributed to it (by way of simile), with the shades oflight and darkness in the orb of the moon.

34. How can there be the taint of anything in the transcendent,and transparent firmament, and can the imputation ofthe first, midst and last, and of far and near attach to infinityand eternity.

35. Want of a comprehensive and abstract knowledge, isthe cause of attributing such and other qualities to the divinenature; and it is removed by right knowledge of the most perfect306One. (These two are distinguished by the terms, the knowledgeof the parágatmá and pralayátma?).

36. Ignorance known as such, by cognoscence of truth, isremoved by itself; as a lamp is extinguished by the air whichkindles the light (i.e. The knowledge of ignorance drives awayignorance).

37. As it is certain that the knowledge of one’s ignorance, isthe cause of its removal; so the knowledge of the unlimitedBrahma, makes him to be known as all in all.

38. Thus Ráma, have I expounded to you the meaning ofliberation, consult it attentively with your conscience, and youwill undoubtedly attain to it (in a short time).

39. This net work of worlds, is uncreated and without itsbeginning; yet it is apparent to sight by means of the spirit ofBrahma, manifest in that form. Whoso contemplates with theeye of his reason, the eight qualities of the lord, becomes fullwith the divine spirit, although he is as mean as a straw inhis living soul.

Argument:—Establishment of the theory of vacuum, as Composingthe Intellect and all existence contained in its vacuity.

Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, whether you were sitting inone place, or wandering about in the skies, when yousaid all these with your vacuous and intellectual body.

2. Vasishtha replied:—I was then fraught with the infinitesoul, which fills and encompasses the whole space of vacuum;and being in this state of ubiquity, say how could I have mytransition from or fixed.

3. I was neither seated in any one place, nor was I movingabout any where; I therefore was present every where, in theempty air with my airy spirit, and beheld everything in my selfor soul. (This is said of the omnipresent soul).

4. As I see with my eyes, all the members of my body, ascomposing one body of mine from my head to foot, so I saw thewhole universe in myself with my intellectual eyes.

5. Though my purely vacuous and intellectual soul, is formlessand without any part or member as my body; yet theworlds formed its parts (by their being contained in it), andneither by the soul’s diffusion in them, nor by their being of thesame nature and essence in their substance.

6. As an instance of this is your false vision of the world inyour dream, of which you retain a real conception, though it isno other than an airy nothing or empty vacuity.

7. As a tree perceives in itself the growth of the leaves,fruits and flowers from its body; so I beheld all these rising inmyself.

8. I saw all these in me, as the profound sea views thevarious marine animals in its bosom, as also the endless waves308and whirlpools, and foam and froth, continually floating over itsbreast.

9. In short as all embodied beings, are conscious of theconstituent members of their own bodies; I had the consciousnessof all existence in my all knowing soul.

10. Ráma, I still retain the concepts of whatever I saw onland and water, and in the hills and dales, as they are embodiedwith my body; and I yet behold the whole creation, as if itwere imprest in my mind.

11. I see the worlds exposed before me, to be lying withinand without myself, as they lay in the inside and outside of thehouse; and my soul is full with all these worlds, which areunified with my understanding.

12. As the water knows (retains) its fluidity, and the frostpossesses its coldness; and as the air has its ventilation, so theenlightened mind knows and scans the whole world within itself.

13. Whoever has a reasoning soul in him, and has attaineda clear understanding; is possessed of the same soul as mine,which I know to be of the same kind.

14. After the understanding is perfected, by absence ofknowledge of the subject and object, there is nothing thatappears otherwise unto him, than the self same intelligent soul,which abides alike in all.

15. And as a man seated on a high hill, sees with his clear-sightedness,all objects to the distance of many furlongs; so frommy elevation of yoga meditation, saw with my clair-voyance,all things situated far and near and within and without me.

16. As the earth perceives the minerals, metals and allthings lying in its bowels; so I saw everything as identicalwith and no other than myself. (Anányat—non alter).

17. Ráma rejoined:—Be this as it may, but tell me, OBrahman, what became of that bright eyed (lit. aureate-eyed)dame, that had been reciting the árya verses.

18. Vasishtha replied:—That aerial damsel of aeriformbody, that recited in the árya metre; advanced courteously towardsme, and sat herself beside me in the air.

30919. But she being as aeriform as myself, could not be seenby me in her form of the spirit. (Do not the spirits see eachother?).

20. I was of the aeriform spirit, and she also had an airlikebody; and worlds appeared as empty air, in my airy meditationin aerial seat (of the sky where I was seated).

21. Ráma rejoined:—The body is the seat of the organs ofsense and action of breathing, how then could the bodiless spiritutter the sounds of the articulate words which composed theverse?

22. How is it possible for a bodiless spirit, either to see asight or think of anything (without the eye & mind). Explainto me these inexplicable truths, of the facts you have related.

23. Vasishtha replied:—The seeing of sights, the thinking ofthoughts, and the uttering of sounds; are all productions ofempty air, as they occur in our airy dreams (i.e. they are allcaused by air). (The air being the receptacle of the light ofthings, the vehicle of sound, and framer of fancy).

24. The sight of a thing and the thought of any thing,depend on the aerial intellect, as they do in our aerial dream;and these are impressed in the hollowness of the intellect,both in the waking as well as dreaming states.

25. Not only is that sight, but whatever is the object of anyof our senses, and the whole world itself, is the clear and opensky (and the idea of their substantiality, is altogethererroneous).

26. The transcendent first principle, is of the form of theunknowable intellect; which exhibits itself in the constitutionof the universe, which is verily its very nature. (Hence calledthe mundane God or the god of nature; or as the poet says:Whose body nature is, and God the soul).

27. What proof have you of the existence of the body andits senses? Matter is mere illusion, and as it is with other body,so it is with ours also. (The sruti says: see the formless oneunder all forms &c.).

28. This is as that One, and that is as this. (i.e. The worldappears to be as the intellect shows it &c.). But the unreal310(matter) is taken for the real (spirit); and the real is understoodas an unreality.

29. As the uses that are made of the earth, its paths andhouses in a dream, prove to be false and made in empty air uponwaking; so the applications made of the words my, thy, his &c.,made in our waking, are all buried in oblivion in the state ofour sound sleep (when we have lost the consciousness of ourpersonality).

30. All our struggles, efforts and actions in life time, are asfalse and void as empty air; and resemble the bustle, commotionand fighting of men in dream, which vanish into nothing intheir waking.

31. If you ask whence comes this phenomenon of dreaming,and whence proceed all its different shapes and varieties? Tothis nothing further can be said regarding its origin, than thatit is the reproduction or remembrance of the impressions (preservedin the mind).

32. In answer to the question, why and how does a dreamappear to us it may only be said that, there is no other causeof its appearance to you, than that of the appearance of thisworld unto you (i.e. as you see this before you, so you see theother also).

33. We have the dreaming man, presented to us in the personof Virát from the very beginning of creation; and this beingis situated in open air with its aeriform body, in the shape ofthe dreamer and dream mixed up together.

34. The word dream that I have used and adduced to you,as an instance to explain the nature of the phenomenal world;is to be understood as it is neither a reality nor an unrealityeither, but the only Brahma himself.

35. Now Ráma, that lovely lady who became my lovingcompanion, was accosted by me in the form in which I beheldher in my consciousness.

36. I conversed with her ideal figure, and in my clairvoyantstate, just as men seen in a dream, talked with oneanother (or as spirits commune and communicate with themselves).

31137. Our conference together, was of that spiritual kind, asit was held between men in a dream; so was our conversationas airy, as our persons and spirits; and so Ráma, must you knowthe whole worldly affair, is but an airy and fairy play.

38. So the world is a dream, and the dream a phantasm of air;they are the same void with but different names; the phantomof the waking day time, being called the world, and of sleepingnight time a dream.

39. This scene of the world, is the dream of the soul; or itis the empty air or nothing; it is the clear understanding ofGod or his own essence that is so displayed.

40. The nightly dream needs a dreamer, and a living personalso in order to see the same, such as I, thou, he or any bodyelse; but not so the day dream of the world, which is displayedin the vacuity of the clear intellect itself.

41. As the viewer of the world is the clear vacuum of theintellect, so its view also is as clear as its viewer; the world beingof the manner of a dream, it is as subtile as the rare atmosphere.

42. When the empty dream of the world appears of itself,in the vacuous and formless intellect within the hollow of themind (or heart) and has no substantiality in it; how then is itsaid to be a material substance, when it is perceived in thesame manner by the immaterial intellect?

43. When the visionary world, appearing in a dream ofcorporeal beings as ourselves, proves to be but empty void andvacuity; how do you take it for a material substance, when itis contained in its immaterial form, in the incorporeal spirit andintellect of God, and why not call it an empty air, when it residesin the manner of a dream in the Divine Intellect?

44. The Lord sees this uncreated world, appearing beforehim as in a dream.

45. The Lord Brahmá (in the form of the Hiranya-Garbha),has framed this creation in air, with the soft clay of his vacuousintellect; and all these bodies with numerous cavities in them,appear as created and uncreated in the same time.

31246. There is no causality, nor the created worlds nor theiroccupants; know there is nothing and nothing at all, and knowingthis likewise and as mute as stone; and go on doing yourduties to the last, and care not whether your body may last longor be lost to you.

Argument:—The multifarious worlds of ignorant people,are viewed as one with the Supreme Spirit by the Wise.

Ráma rejoined:—O sage, how could you hold your conferencewith the incorporeal maid, and how could sheutter the letters of the alphabet, without her organs ofspeech?

2. Vasishtha replied:—The incorporeal or vacuous bodies,have of course no power or capability of pronouncing the articulateletters of the alphabet; just as dead bodies incapable ofspeech.

3. And should there even be an articulate sound, yet there canbe no intelligible sense in it; and must <be> unintelligibleto others; just as a dream though perceived by the dreamer, isunknown to the sleepers in the same bed and side by side.

4. Therefore, there is nothing real in a dream; it is really anunreality and the ideal imagery of the Intellect in empty air,and concomitant with sleep of its own nature. (i.e. Sleep anddream are twins by their nature).

5. The clear sky of the intellect, is darkened by its imageries(ideas), like the disk of the moon by its blackness, andas the body (face) of the sky by its clouds; but these are asfalse as the song of a stone, and the sound of a dead body.

6. The dreams and images (ideas), which appear in thesphere of the intellect, are no other than appearances of itself;as the visible sky is nothing else, than the invisible vacuumitself.

7. Like the appearance of dreams in a sleep, doth this worldappear before us in our waking state; so the invisible vacuumappears as the visible (sky to our eye). So the form of the314dame was a shape of the intellect (i.e. that is a creature ofimagination only. Gloss).

8. It is the very clever intellect in us, which exhibits allthese varieties of exquisite shapes in itself; and shows this worldto be as real and permanent as itself (though in truth, theyare as unreal and fleeting dreams).

9. Ráma rejoined:—Sir, if these be but dreams, how is itthey appear to us in our waking state; and if they are unreal,why is it that they seem as solid realities unto us?

10. Vasishtha replied:—Hear how the visionary dreams,appear as substantial worlds; though they are no other thandreams, and never real, and in no way solid or substantial.

11. The seeds of our notions are playing at random asdust, in the spacious sky of the intellect; some of them are ofthe same kind and others dissimilar to one another, and productiveof like and unlike results.

12. Some of these are contained one under the other, likethe cuticles of plantain trees; and there are many othersthat have no connection with another, and are quite insensibleand unknown to others.

13. They do not see each other, nor know anything of oneanother; but as inert seeds they moulder and moisten in thesame heap. (It means the ideas that haunt us in our sleep andwaking).

14. These notions being as void and blank as vacuum, are notas shadows in the visible sky; nor are they known to oneanother, and though they are of sensible shapes, yet they are asignorant of themselves, as it were under the influence ofsleep.

15. Those that sleep in their ignorance, find the worldappearing to them in the shape of a dream, by the daytime andact according as they think themselves to be. So the Asurademigods being situated in their dreaming (or visionary world),think themselves to be fighting with and worsted by theGods.

16. They could not be liberated owing to their ignorance315nor were they reduced to the insensibility of stones; butremained dull and inactive in the visionary world of theirdream.

17. Men laid up in the sleep of their ignorance, and seeingthe dream of the world before them; act according to theircustom, and observe how one man is killed by another (i.e.the mutual enmity of mankind).

18. There are other intelligent spirits, which being fastbound to their desires, are never awakened nor liberated fromtheir ignorance; but continue to dwell on the visionary world,which they see in their day dream.

19. The Rákshasas also, that lie asleep in the visionary worldof their dream, are placed in the same state as they were usedto be by the gods (i.e. the unemancipated souls of all beings,dream of their former state).

20. Say then, O Ráma, what became of those Rákshasas,who were thus slain by Gods; they could neither obtain theirliberation owing to their ignorance, nor could they be transformedto stones with their intelligent souls.

21. Thus this earth with its seas and mountains and peoples,that are seen to be situated in it; are thought to be as substantialas we think of ourselves by our prior notions of them.(This is the doctrine of Plato’s reminiscence, that the sight ofthe present existence, is but a representation of our remembranceof the past).

22. Our imagination of the existence of the world, is asthat of other beings regarding it; and they think of ourexistence in this world in the same light, as we think oftheirs.

23. To them our waking state appears as a dream, and theythink us to be dreaming men, as we also think them to be; andas those worlds are viewed as visionary by us, so is this ofours but one of them also.

24. As other people have the notion of their existence fromtheir reminiscence alone, so have we of ourselves and theirs also,316from the ubiquious nature or omnipresence of the intellectualsoul.

25. As those dreaming men think of their reality, so doothers think of themselves likewise; and so art thou as real asany one of them.

26. As thou beholdest the cities and citizens to be situatedin thy dream, so do they continue to remain there in the samemanner to this day; because God is omnipresent everywhereand at all times.

27. It is by your waking from the sleep of ignorance, andcoming to the light of reason; that these objects of your dreamwill be shorn of their substantiality, and appear in their spirituallight as manifestation of God himself.

28. He is all and in all, and every where at all times; so asHe is nothing and nowhere, nor is He the sky nor is ever anythingthat destroyed. (Or produced).

29. He abides in the endless sky, and is eternal withoutbeginning and end; He abides in the endless worlds, and in theinfinity of souls and minds.

30. He lives throughout the air and in every part of it,and in all orbs and systems of worlds; He resides in the bosomof every body, in every island and mountain and hill.

31. He extends all over the extent of districts, cities andvillages; He dwells in every house, and in every living body.He extends over years and ages and all parts of time.

32. In him live all living beings, and those that are deadand gone, and have not obtained their liberation; and all thedetached worlds are attached to him to no end and for ever.

33. Each world has its people, and all peoples have theirminds. Again each mind has a world in it, and every world hasits people also.

34. Thus the visibles having neither beginning nor end, areall but erroneous conceptions of the mind; they are no otherthan Brahma to the knower of God, who sees no reality in aughtbesides.

31735. There is but one only intellect, which pervades thisearth below and the heaven above; which extends over theland and water, and lies in woods and stones, and fills the wholeand endless universe. Thus wherever there is anything, inany part of this boundless world; they all inspire the idea ofthe divinity in the divine, while they are looked upon as sensibleobjects by the ungodly.

Argument:—Full account of the nymph,since her birth to her Beatification.

Vasishtha continued:—The graceful nymph with lotuslike eyes, and her side long glances darting as a stringof málati flowers, was then gently looked upon by me,and accosted with tenderness.

2. Who art thou sweet nymph, I said, that art as fair as thefarina of the lotus floret, and comest to my company; say,whose and what thou art, where is thy abode and wither thougoest, and what thou desirest of me.

3. The nymph replied:—It is meet, O muni, that you greetme thus; that repair to you with a grieving heart, and will laymy case confidently before you for your kind advice to me.

4. There is in a corner of the cell of the great vault ofvacuity, that this worldly dwelling of yours is situated.

5. This dwelling house of the world has three apartmentsin it, namely the earth, heaven, and the infernal regions; whereinthe great architect (Brahmá) hath placed a dame by name offancy, as a mistress of this dwelling.

6. Here is the sombre surface of the earth, appearing as thestore-house of the world; and beset with numerous islandssurrounded by oceans and seas. (The earth is said to bethe mother and supporter of all worlds).

7. The earth stretches on all sides, with many islands inthe midst of its seas and with many a mine of gold underneath,and extending to ten thousand yojans in its length.

8. It is bright and visible itself, and is as fair as the vaultof heaven; it supplies us with all the objects of our desire,and vies with the starry heaven by the lustre of its gems.

9. It is the pleasure and promenading ground of gods,319siddha spirits and apsara nymphs; it abounds with all objects ofdesire, and fraught with all things of our enjoyment.

10. It has at its two ends the two polar mountains, calledthe lokáloka ranges (for having one side of them always brightenedby the sunlight, and the other ever darkened by thesunly night). The two polar circles resembling the two beltsat both extremities of the earth.

11. One side of the polar mountains, is ever covered bydarkness, like the minds of ignorant people; and the other sideshines with eternal light, like the enlightened souls of thewise.

12. One side of these is as delightsome, as society with thegood and wise; while the opposite side is as dark and dolesome,as company with the ignorant and vile.

13. On one side all things were as clear as the minds ofintelligent men, and on the other, there was as impervious agloom as it hangs over the minds of unlettered Bráhmanas.

14. On one part there was neither the sunshine nor themoon light to be had; and as one side presented the habitableworld before it, so the other showed the vast void and wastebeyond the limits of nature.

15. One side of these teemed with the cities of gods, andthe other with those of demons; and as the one side lifted itslofty summits on high, so the other bent below towards the infernalregions.

16. Some where the vultures were hovering over the cratersand at others the lands appeared charming to sight; whilethe mountain peaks appeared to touch the celestial city ofBrahmá on high. (The city of Brahma loka, is situated in thehighest heaven).

17. Some where there appears a dismal and dreary desertforest, with loud blasts of death hovering over them; and atothers there are flower gardens and groves, with the nymphsof heaven, sitting and singing in them.

18. In one part of it there is the deep infernal cave, containingthe horrible Kumbhanda demons in it; and in another320are the beautiful nandana gardens with the hermitages of holysaints in them.

19. On one part there overhang the eternal clouds, roaringloudly like furious elephants, while raining clouds are showeringon the other. There are deep and dark caverns <on> one part,and thick forest arbours on another.

20. The labouring woodmen are felling the trees of wood-lands,inhabited by evil spirits on one side or the hardy woodmenare driving away the devils on one side, by felling thewoods of their haunts in the wood-lands; while the other isfull of inhabited tracts, and men more polished in their manners,than the celestials of heaven.

21. Some places are laid desolate by their inhabitants, bythe driving and whirling winds; and others secure from everyharm, are flourishing in their productions (of animals and vegetables).

22. Some where are great and desolate deserts, dreary wastesdreadful with their howling winds; and in some placesthere are purling lakes of lotuses with rows of sounding cranesgracing their borders.

23. In some places, is heard the gurgling of waters, and thegrowlings of clouds in others; and in others are the gay andmerry Apsaras, turned giddy with their swinging.

24. On one side the landscape is beset by horrible demons,and is shunned by all other beings; and on the other, the happyspirits of Siddhas, Vidyádharas and others, are seen to be sittingand singing by the side of cooling streams.

25. Somewhere the pouring clouds, caused the ever flowingrivers to encroach upon the lands; and there were the lightand flimsy clouds also, flying as sheets of cloths, and driven bygusts of winds here and there.

26. There are the lotus bushes on one side, with swarms ofhumming bees, fluttering about their leafy faces; and there areseen the rubicund teeth of celestial damsels, blushing with thetincture of betel leaves on the other.

27. In one place is seen the pleasant concourse of people,pursuing their several callings under the shining sun; and in321another the assemblage of hideous demons, dancing in theirdemoniac revelry in the darkness of night.

28. Somewhere the land is laid waste of its people, byhavocs and portents befalling on them; and else where thecountry is smiling with its rising cities, under blessing of a goodgovernment.

29. Sometimes a dreary waste distracts, and at others abeautiful population attracts the sight; sometimes deep anddark caverns occur to view, and at others the dreadful abyssappears to sight.

30. Some spot is full of fruitful trees and luxuriant verdure,and another a dreary desert devoid of waters and living beings;some where you see bodies of big elephants, and at othersgroups of great and greedy lions.

31. Some places are devoid of animals, and others peopledby ferocious Rákshasas; some places are filled with the thornykaranja thickets, and others are full of lofty palma forests.

32. Somewhere are lakes as large and clear as the expanseof heaven, and at others there are vast barren deserts as void asthe empty air. Somewhere there are tracts of continuallydriving sands, and there are goodly groves of trees at others,flourishing in all the seasons of the year.

33. This mountain has many a peak on its top, as high asordinary hills and mounts elsewhere; and the kalpa clouds areperpetually settled upon them, blazing with the radiance ofgems by the hues of heaven.

34. There are forests growing on the milk white and sunnystones of this mountain, and serving as abodes of foresters;and always resorted to by the breed of lions and monkeys.

35. There is a peak on the north of this mountain, with agrotto towards the east of it; and this cavern affords me asequestered habitation, in its hard and stony bosom.

36. There I am confined, O sage, in that stony prison-house;and there methinks I have passed a series of yuga ages (ofwhich there is no reckoning).

37. Not I alone, but my husband also is confined in thesame cave with myself; and we are doomed to remain imprisoned322therein, like bees closed up at night fall, within the cupof a closing lotus-flower.

38. Thus have I with my husband, continued to abide inthe stony dungeon, for the very long period of very many years.

39. It is owing to our own fault, that we do not obtain ourrelease even at the present time; but continue to remainthere in the state of prisoners as ever and for ever.

40. But sir, it is not only ourselves that are confined in thisstony prison-house; but all our family, friends and dependants,are enthralled in the same stronghold and to no end.

41. The ancient personage (purusha) of my twice-born husband,is there confined in his dungeon (of the body); andthough he has remained there for many an age, yet he hasnever removed from his single seat.

42. He is employed in his studentship and studies (Brahmacharya),since his boyhood, attends to the hearing and recitingof the vedas; and is steadfast in his observances without swervingor deviation.

43. But I am not so, O sage, but doomed to perpetual distress;because I am unable, O sage, to pass a moment withouthis company.

44. Hear now, O sage, how I became his wife, and how theregrew an unfeigned affection between us.

45. When that husband of mine had been still a boy, andacquired a little knowledge by remaining in his own house.

46. He thought in himself, saying, “Ah, I am a srotriya orvedic Bráhmana, and can it be possible for me to have a suitablepartner for myself.”

47. He then produced me out of himself, in this beauteousfigure of mine; in the manner that the lightsome moon causesthe moonlight to issue out of his body. (In Sanskrit the moonis masculine, and the moonlight feminine; whence they arecalled nishápati and jyotsna). (So in Arabic qmar the moonis masculine, and shams the sun is feminine).

48. Being thus produced from the mind (of my husband), Iremained as a mental consort of his; and grew up in time as the323blossoms in spring, and as beautiful as the mandara plant inbloom.

49. My body became as bright, as the face of the sky by itsnature; and all my features glittered like the stars in heaven.My countenance was as fair as the face of the full moon, andbecame attractive of all heart towards it.

50. My breasts were swollen as the buds of flower, and asluscious as a juicy fruit; and my arms and the palms of myhands, resembled two tender creepers with their rubicundleaflets.

51. I became the delight and captor of the hearts of livingbeings, and the side long glances of my all stretched antelopeeyes, infatuated all minds with the maddening passion of love.

52. I was prone to the blandishments and dalliance of love,and prompt in quips and cranks and wreathed smiles, and glancings;I was fond of singing and music, and was insatiate in myjoviality.

53. I was addicted to the enjoyment of all felicity, both inprosperity and adversity, both of which are alike friendly to me.I was never tempted by the delusive temptations of the one, norever frightened by the threatening persecution of the other.

54. I do not sustain the household of my Brahmanical lordalone, but I support, O sir, the mansions of the inhabitants ofall the three worlds; because by my being a mental being, Ihave my access to all places far and near.

55. I am the legal wife of the Bráhmanas, and fit for the propagationand supportance of his offspring; as also for bearingthe burden of this house of the triple. (Does it mean that thisis capable of comprehending all what is contained in the threeworlds?).

56. I am now grown a young woman, with my swollen up bigbreasts; and am as giddy paced with my youthful gaiety, as acluster of flowers flouncing in the air.

57. My husband from his natural disposition of procrastinationand studiousness, is employed in his austerities; and beingin expectation of getting his liberation, is deferring to engagein his marriage with me to this day.

32458. But I being advanced in my youth, and fond of youthfuldalliance (have given him my mind); and do now burn in theflame of my passion for him, like the lotus flower in a fieryfurnace.

59. Though I am always cooling myself, with the coolingbreeze of brooks and lotus lakes; yet I burn incessantly in allmy body, as the sacrificial embers are reduced to ashes in thesacred fire place.

60. I see the garden grounds covered (smiling), with theflowers falling in showers from the shady trees; but I burn asthe land under the burning sands, of the unshaded and burningdesert.

61. The soft gurgling of waters, and the gentle breeze oflakes, full with blooming lotuses and lilies; and the sweetsounds of cranes and water fowls, are all rough and harsh to me.

62. Though decked with flowery wreaths and garlands, andswinging upon my cradle of flowers; yet methinks I am lyingdown upon a bed of thorns.

63. Sleeping on beds, formed of the soft leaves of lotusesand plantain-leaves; I find them dried under the heat of mybody, and powdered to ashes by the pressure of my person.

64. Whatever fair, lovely, charming and sweet and pleasantthings, I come to see and feel, I am filled with sorrow at theirsight, and my eyes are suffused in tears.

65. My eyes steam with tears, from the heat of my inwardbosom; and they trickle upon and fall down my eyelids, likedew drops on lotus leaves.

66. Swinging with my playmates, on the pendant boughs ofplantain trees, in our pleasure gardens; I think of the burninggrief in my heart, and burst out in tears, by covering my facewith my hands (for fear of being detected in my love).

67. I look at our bowers of cooling plantain leaves, andstrewn over with snows all over the ground; but fearing themas bushes of thorny brambles, I fly from them far away.

68. I see the blooming lotus of the lake, and the fond cranefondling with its stalk like arm, and then begin to contemn myyouthful bloom.

32569. I weep at seeing whatever is handsome, and keep quietat what is moderate; I delight in whatsoever beseems to beugly, and I am happy in my utter insensibility of every thing.

70. I have seen the fair flowers of spring, and the hoary-frostof winter; and thought them all to be but heaps of theashes of lovelorn dames, burnt down by the flame of love, andscattered by the relentless winds on all sides.

71. I have made me beds of the blue leaves of lotuses andother plants, and covered me with chaplets of snow whiteflowers; but found them to turn pale and dry by their contactwith my body. So pity me, that my youthful days have all gonein vain.

Argument:—How nymph has come to approach beforeVasishtha, her statement of facts of her life.

After the lapse of a long time, I found my passions subsiding,and I grew as callous to my susceptibilites, asthe tender greens become juiceless and dry after the autumn isover.

2. Seeing my husband grown old, and shorn of all his susceptivityand vivaciousness; and sitting quietly in his steadfastdevotion with an unwavering mind, I thought my life tobe useless to me.

3. And methought that early widowhood, and even prematuredeath, or rather a lingering disease or lasting misery, arepreferable to a female’s living without a loving husband.

4. It is the boon of life, and the greatest good fortune of awoman, to have a young and loving husband, who is of goodand pleasant humour, and pliant in his manners.

5. A woman is given for lost, who has not a sweet and lovelyspouse; as the understanding is lost which is not fraught withlearning. In vain is prosperity when she favours the wicked,and in vain is a woman that is lost to shame. (Because modestyis the best quality of women).

6. She is the best of women, who is obedient to her husband;and that is the best fortune, which falls in the hands ofthe virtuous and good. That understanding is praised which isclear and capacious; and that goodness is good, which has afellow feeling and equal regard for all mankind.

7. Neither disease nor calamity, nor dangers nor difficulties,can disturb the minds, or afflict the hearts of a loving pair,(bound together by mutual affection).

8. The prospect of the blossoming garden of Eden, and theflowery paths of paradise, appear as desert lands to women,327that have no husbands, or such as wicked and unmannerly intheir behaviour.

9. A woman may forsake all her worldly possessions, as oflittle value to her; but she can never forsake her husband, evenfor any fault on his part.

10. You see, O chief of sages, all these miseries to which Iam subjected these very many years of my puberty.

11. But all this fondness of mine, is gradually turning toindifference; and I am pining and fading away as fast, as thefrost beaten lotus flower, is shrunken and shrivelled for wantof its sap and juice.

12. Being now indifferent to the pleasure of my enjoymentof all things, I come to seek the felicity of my nirvána-extinction;and stand in need of your advice for my salvation.

13. Otherwise it is better for them to die away than live inthis world, who are unsuccessful in desires and ever restless andperplexed in their minds; and such as are buffeting and borneby the waves of deadly troubles.

14. He my husband being desirous of obtaining his nirvánaliberation, is now intent both by day and night upon the subduingof his mind by the light of his reason, as a prince isroused to conquer his foe in company with his princess.

15. Now sir, please to dispel both his as well as mine ignorance,by your reasonable advice, which may revive our remembranceof the soul (which may destroy our faith in the body).

16. Because my lord sitting solely upon the meditation ofthe soul, without the company or any thought about me; hascreated in me an indifference and distaste to all worldly thingsin toto.

17. I am now set free from the influence of worldly desires,and have girt myself fast with the amulet of aeronautic expedition,for journeying through the regions of air. (This amulet iscalled the khechari mudra).

18. I have acquired the power of locomotion amidst the air,by means of this amulet of mine; and it is by virtue of thispower, that I am enabled to associate with the siddha spirits,and to converse with you.

32819. Having girt myself with this charm, I have acquiredsuch potency, that though remaining in my dwelling house onearth, which is the basis and centre of all the worlds, I can seeall its past and future events (by means of my intuition andyoga meditation).

20. Having then beheld within my mind, all and everythingrelating to this world; I have come out to survey the outwardworld, and seen as far as the gigantic polar mountain (whichhas perpetual light and darkness on either side of it).

21. Before this, O sage, neither I nor my husband, had everany desire of seeing anything beyond our own habitation. (i.e.Or the internal world contained within the world).

22. My husband being solely employed in meditating onthe meanings (doctrines) of the vedas; has no desire whatever,to know anything relating the past or unpassed (i.e. the presentand future) time.

23. It is for this reason (of unacquaintance with the world),that my lord has not been able to succeed to any station inlife; and it is today only, that both of us are desirous to beblest with the best state of humanity (the knowledge of theDeity).

24. We therefore beseech you, O venerable sir, to grant ourrequest, as it is never in the nature of noble persons to refusethe prayer of their suppliants.

25. I who have been wandering in the etherial regions,among hosts of the perfected spirits of siddhas; do not find anyone except yourself, O honourable sir, who may put fire to thethick gloom of ignorance as a conflagration.

26. And as it is the nature of good people to do good toothers, even without the knowledge of any cause of pity in theirsuppliants; so should you, O venerable sir, do to your suppliantone without refusing her suit.

Argument:—The nymph’s Relation of the manner ofher habitation in the womb of the solid stone.

Vasishtha said:—I then seated as I was, in my imaginaryseat in the sky, asked the lady who was also sittinglike myself in the visionary air: saying:—

2. Tell me, O gentle lady, how could an embodied being asyourself, abide in the inside of a block of stone; how couldyou move about within that imporous substance, and what wasthe cause of your abode therein.

3. The Nymph replied:—Wonder not, O sage, at this kindof our habitation, which is as habitable to us, and inhabitedby other creatures, as the open and spacious world which youinhabit.

4. There are the snakes and reptiles, living in and movingabout the bowels of the earth; and there are huge rocks deeplyrooted in the subterranean cell; the waters are running withinthe bosom of the ground, with as much freedom as the windsare flying all about the open air.

5. The oceans are flowing with the fulness of their waters,and the finny tribe moving slowly beneath and above theirsurface; and there are infinite numbers of living creatures,that are incessantly born and dying away in them.

6. It is in the cavity of the mundane stone, that the watersare gliding below, as the winds are flying above; here the celestialsare moving and roving in the air, and the earth and theplanetary bodies, revolving with their unmoving mountains andother immovables.

7. There are also the gods, demigods and human beings,moving in their respective circles, within the womb of this330stone; and it is from the beginning of creation, that the watersof rivers are running as those of the oceans.

8. Again it is from the beginning of creation, that the sunhas been darting his beams from above; and strewing themlike lotuses on the lake like land, while the dark clouds ofheaven are hovering over them like a swarm of black bees, flutteringupon those blooming blossoms.

9. The moon spreads her light like sandal paste on all sides,and effaces thereby the darkness, which overspreads the bosomof night, and covers the face of the evening star.

10. The sun light is the lamp of his light in heavenly mansion,and scatters its rays on all the ten sides of the skies, by meansof their conductor of air. (It is believed that the circumambientair is the medium, through which the pencils of solar light passin all directions).

11. The wheel of the starry frame, is continually revolvingin the air by the will of God, like a threshing mill turning aboutit* central axle by means of a string.

12. This rotatory circle of celestial bodies, about its axis ofthe pole, kills all things under its two valves of heaven andearth, as the wheel of fate grinds them to dust. (So says Kabirthe saint of Julpa caste: “Every one is ground to dust, underthe two disks of earth and sky, as under the jaws of death”).

13. The surface of the earth is full of hills and mountains,and the bosom of the sea is filled by rocks and islands; theupper sky contains the celestial abodes, and the demons occupythe lower regions below the ground.

14. The orbit of this earth, resembles the ear-ring of thegoddess of the three worlds; and the verdant orb of this planet,is as the pendant gem of the ringlet, continuallywith the fluctuations of its people.

15. Here all creatures are impelled by their desires to theirmental and bodily activities, as if moved to and fro by the flyingwinds, and are thus led to repeated births and deaths (fromwhich they have no respite).

16. The silent sage sits in his sedate meditation, as the skyis unmoved with its capacity of containing all things within331itself; but the earth is shaken and wasted by the dashingwaves, and the fire is put down by its blazing flame, and everything is moved about as monkey by the wind of its desires.

17. All the living beings abounding in the earth and water,and those flying in the air, as well as such as live in the hillsand on trees; together with the gods and giants, are alikedoomed to death and regeneration, as the ephemeral insects,worms and flies.

18. Time—the greatest slaughterer, destroys the gods, giants,gandharvas and all, with its many arms of ages and yugas, andof years, months, days and nights, as a herdsman kills hiscattle, which he has reared up himself. (Time feeds upon whatit has fed himself).

19. All these rise and fall in the eventful ocean of time, andhaving leapt and jumped and danced awhile, sink in the abyssof the fathomless whirl of death, from which none can riseagain.

20. All sorts of beings living in the fourteen spheres of theworld, are carried away as dust and ashes by the gust of death,to the hollow womb of air, where they disappear as emptyclouds in the autumnal sky.

21. The high heaven which is ever clad in the clean andclear attire of the atmosphere, and wears the frame work ofthe stars as a cap or crown on its head, holds the two lights ofthe sun and moon in its either hand, and shows us the works ofgods in the skies. (Heaven is the book of God, before thee set&c. Milton).

22. It remains unmoved for ever, and never changes itssides composed of the four quarters of heaven, notwithstandingvicissitudes of the sky, the rushing of the winds, the tremor ofthe earth, the roaring of the clouds and the intense heat of thesun (All which it bears as patiently as the fixed trees andstones on earth).

23. And all things continue in their destined course, whetherthey that are conscious or those which are unconscious of thesechanges in nature; such are the appearance of meteors and332portents in the sky, the roaring of clouds, the eclipses of theplanets, and the trembling of the earth below.

24. The submarine fire sucks up the over flowing waters, ofthe seven great basins or oceans on earth; in the same manneras the all-destroying time, devours the creatures in all thedifferent worlds.

25. All things are continually going on in their course, inthe manner of the continued motion of the (sadágati) of thecurrent air: Namely; all earth born worms moving on andreturning into the bowels of the earth; the birds of the air aremoving in and flying on all sides of the sky; the fishes areswimming and skimming all about the waters, the beasts returningto their caverns in earth and the hills, and such is the casewith the inhabitants of all the continents and islands lying inthe womb of this world.

Argument:—The sage’s visit to the stony-mansionand the nymph’s relations of the force of habit.

The Nymph continued:—If you, O sage, have any doubt inany part of my narration; then please to walk with meand see that mansion, and you will observe there many morewonders than what I have related.

2. Vasishtha said:—Upon this I said “well” and went ontravelling with her in our aerial journey; as the fragrance offlowers flies with the winds, to aerial nothing in which they areboth lost for ever.

3. As I passed far and afar, in the regions of air; I metwith multitudes of etherial beings, and came to the sight oftheir celestial abodes.

4. Passing over the regions traversed by the celestials, in theupper and higher sphere of heaven; I arrived at blank andblanched sky, beyond the height and above the summit of thepolar mountain.

5. I then passed amidst this etiolated vault and came out atlast of it, as the fair moon appears under the white canopy ofheaven; and beheld above me the bright belt of zodiac,containing the seven-fold golden spheres of the seven planets.Note. The Hindu astronomy does not reckon the earth asone of the moving planets.

6. As I was looking at that belt of the zodiac, I found it as acrystaline marble, and burning with fire. I could not discernany of the worlds that it encompassed (they being all put toshade by the zodiacal light).

7. I then asked my lovely companion, to tell me where werethe created worlds, together with the gods and planetary bodiesand stars, and the seven spheres of heaven.

8. Where were the oceans and the sky, with all its different334sides (of the compass); where were the high and heavy bodiesof clouds, the starry heaven, and the ascension and descensionof the rolling planets.

9. Where are now, said I, the rows of the lofty mountainpeaks, and the marks of the seas upon the earth; where are thecircles and clusters of the islands, and where are the sunnyshores and dry and parched grounds of deserts.

10. There is no reckoning of time here, nor any account ofactions of men; nor is there any delusive appearance of acreated world or anything whatever, in this endless and emptyvacuum.

11. There is no name of the different races of beings, as theGods, demigods, Vidyádharas, Gandharvas and other races ofmankind; there is no mention of a sage or prince, or of aughtthat is good or evil, or of a heaven or hell, or day and night andtheir divisions into watches, hours &c.

12. There is no calculation of the divisions of time (in thisextramundane space), nor any knowing of merit or demerit (inthis uninhabited place); it is free from the hostility of the godsand demigods and the feelings of love and enmity (betweenman and man).

13. Whilst I had been prating in this manner in my amazement,that excellent lady who was my cicerone in this maze,spake to me and said, with her eyeballs rolling as a couple offluttering black bees.

14. The Nymph said:—I neither see any thing here, in itsformer state; but find everything presenting a picturesqueform in this crystal stone, as it does in its image appearing in amirror.

15. I see the figures of all things in this, by reason of mypreconceived ideas eternally engraven herein, while the wantof your preconceptions of them, is the cause of your over sightor blindness of the same.

16. Moreover it is your habitual conversation, regardingthe unity or duality of the sole entity; and forgetfulness of ourpure spiritual and intellectual bodies, that you were blind tothe sight of the reality, and I had a dim glimpse of it.

33517. I have by my long habit of thinking, learnt to look uponthis world in the light of an etherial plant (which is nothing);I never view it as you do to be a reality, but as a dim reflectionof the ideal reality.

18. The world that appeared before so conspicuous to mysight, I find it now appearing as indistinct to me as a shadowof the same cast upon a glass.

19. It is owing to our prejudice in favour of the false doctrineof old, regarding the personality of the body; that wehave missed the ease of our reliance in the spiritual body, andthus fallen in the deep darkness of delusion.

20. Whatever we are habituated to think in our internalminds, the same grows forth and takes a deep root in the heart,under the moistening influence of the intellectual soul; andmind becomes of the nature, as the force of early habit formsthe youth.

21. There is nothing which is likely to be effected, eitherby the precepts of the best sástras, or the dictates of rightreason, unless they are made effectual by constant applicationand practice of them. (Theoretical knowledge is useless withoutpractice).

22. Your erroneous speech regarding the nihility of theworld in this empty space, proceeded only from your constanthabit of thinking the reality of the false world, which wasabout to mislead me also. Be now wise that you have overcomeyour previous prejudice, and known the present truth.

23. Know, O sage, that it is your habitual thinking of athing as such, that makes it appear so to you; just as a mechanicmaster’s art is by his constant practice of the sameunder the direction of its professor.

24. The erroneous conceptions of this thing and that, andof the existence of the material world, and the reality of one’segoism and personality; are all obviated by culture of spiritualknowledge, and by force of the constant habit of viewing allthings in their spiritual light.

25. I am but a weak and young disciple to thee, and yet336see the stony world too well, which thou with thy all knowingnessdost not perceive; and this is because of my habit ofthinking it otherwise than thou art practiced to do.

26. See the effect of practice, which makes a learned manof a dunce (by his habitude to study); and reduces a stone todust (by continued pounding). Look at the force of the inertarrow, to hit at the distant mark (by impulsion of the practicedarcher).

27. In this manner the gloom of our ignorance, and themalady of false knowledge, are both of them dispelled by rightreasoning and deep thinking, both of which are the effect ofhabit.

28. It is habit that produces a zest, in the tests of particulararticles of food, as some have a relish for what is sour andpungent, while there are others that luxuriate in what is sweetand savoury. (Tastes differ).

29. A stranger becomes friendly, by his continuance in one’scompany; and so is a friend alienated, by his living in analien and distant land.

30. Our spiritual body, which is perfectly pure, aerial andfull of intelligence, is converted to and mistaken for the grossmaterial body as soul, by our constantly thinking of our corporeality.

31. The impression of your being a material body, will flyaway as a bird flies off in the air, no sooner you come to knowyourself to be a spiritual and intellectual soul. But it is thehabit of thinking yourself as such, that makes you really so.

32. All our meritorious acts are destroyed, by a slight actof demerit; and our prosperity flies away at the approach ofadversity; but there is nothing which can remove our habitfrom us. (Habit being our second nature).

33. All difficult matters are facilitated by practice, and enemiesare conciliated into friendship, and even poison is madeas delectable as honey by virtue of habit.

34. He is reckoned as too mean and vile a person, who doesnot accustom himself to practice, whatever is good and proper337for him; he never acquires his object, but becomes as useless asa barren woman in the family.

35. Whatever is desirable and good for one, is to be gainedwith assiduity all along one’s life time, just as one’s life, whichis his greatest good in the world, is to be preserved with care,until the approach of death.

36. Whoso neglects to practice any act or art, which isconducive to his welfare, is prone to his ruin and to the tormentsof hell.

37. They who are inclined to the meditation of the spiritualsoul, cross over easily over the billowy rivulet of this world,although they may be attached to it in their outward andbodily practices. (The knowledge of the immortal soul, is thehealing balm of the turmoils of mortal life).

38. Practice is the light, that leads one in the path of hisdesired object; just as the light of the lamp shows the place,where the lost pot or cloth lies in the room. (So application tothe esoteric, enlightens the mysterious truths of nature).

39. The arbour of assuetude fructifies in its time, as thekalpa tree yields all the fruits of our desire; and as the hoardedcapital of the rich, is attended with great profit and interest.

40. Habitual inquiry into spiritual truth, serves as the sunlightto enlighten the nature of the soul (unto us); or it lies hidin our very body as any part of it in the darkness of the sunlessnight. (The inward soul is invisible to exoteric view).

41. All animal beings are in need of certain provisions, forthe supportance of their lives; and all these they have to obtainby their continued search, and never without it. Thereforethe force of habit prevails in all places as the powerfulsunshine.

42. All the fourteen kinds of living beings, have to live bythe habit of their respective activities; and it is impossible forany one to get its desired object, without its unfeigned activity.

43. It is the repetition of same action, which takes the nameof habit, and which is called one’s personal effort or exertion;and it is not possible for any body to do anything without anyeffort.

33844. Constant habit of action, joined with bodily and mentalenergy, is the only means of accomplishing anything and nototherwise.

45. There is nothing which is impossible to the power ofhabit, which is as powerful as the strong sun-beams which givegrowth to everything on earth. It is habitual energy only thatgives prosperity and undauntedness to the brave, on earth andwater and mountains, and in forests and deserts.

Argument:—Exposition of the Erroneousconception of the Material World.

The Nymph continued:—Now as it is the habit of longpractice, combined with the understanding and cogitationof a subject, that makes one proficient in it; so these beingapplied to the meditation of the spiritual and pure soul, willcause the material world to vanish in the stone (we have beentalking of).

2. Vasishtha said:—After the celestial nymph had spokenin this manner, I retired to the cavern of a rock, where I sat inmy posture of Padmásana (or legs folded upon one another);and became engaged in my samádhi-devotion (or abstract andabstruse meditation).

3. Having given up all thoughts of corporeal bodies, andcontinued to think only of the intellectual soul, according tothe holy dictate of the nymph as said before.

4. I then had the sight of an intellectual void in me, whichpresent a clear and fair prospect before me, resembling theclearness of the vacuous vault of heaven in autumnal season.

5. It was at last by my intense application, to the meditationof the true One (or the God in spirit), that my erroneousview of the phenomenals, entirely subsided within me (ordisappeared from my mind).

6. The intellectual sphere of my mind, was filled by atranscendent light; which knew no rising or setting, but wasalways shining with an uniform radiance.

7. As I was looking into and through the light, that shone inme, I could find neither the sky nor that great stone, which Isought to find.

8. I then found the clear and thick blaze of my spiritual340light, to ravish my outward sight; as it had enrapt my inwardvision.

9. As a man sees in his dream a huge stone in his house, soI beheld the vast vacuum as a crystaline globe, situate in theclear atmosphere of the intellect. (The stone is the mundaneegg or sphere of the universe).

10. A dreaming man, may think himself as another person;but after he is awakened from his sleep, he comes to know himself.(So we dream ourselves as this and that, but upon wakingto reason, we find ourselves as none of these, but the purespirit).

11. Those who dream themselves headless beings in theirsleep, and remain so in this world; they can be of no good oruse to themselves, though they have a little knowledge afterwards.

12. The man that is drowned in utter ignorance, comes to hisright understanding in course of time; and comes to know atthe end, that there is no real entity, except the essence ofGod.

13. This when I beheld the solid and transparent light,which appeared as crystal stone lying in the vacuity of Brahma;I could observe no material thing as the earth and water, oraught whatever in connection with it.

14. The pure and spiritual form, in which all things werepresented at their first creation; they bear the same forms still,in our ideas of them.

15. All these bodies of created beings, are but forms ofBrahma; being considered in their primordial and spiritual andnatural natures; and it is the mind which gives them the imaginaryshapes of materiality, in its fabricated dominion of thevisible world.

16. It is the spiritual form, which is the true essence ofall things; and all that is visible to us or perceptible to thesenses, is mere fabrication of the originally inventive mind.

17. The prime creation was in the abstract, or an abstractidea of it, and imperceptible to the senses (because the original341prototype of the world, was co-eternal with the divine mind, andexistent with it from before the formation of the perceptivesenses of beings; but it was perceptible to the mind in theform of the noumenal, which was converted to the concrete andphenomenal by the ignorant).

18. The yogi like the knowing minds, sees all things in theabstract and in a general view; but the ignorant that are deprivedof the power of abstraction and generalization, fall intothe errors of concrete particulars and deceptive sensibles.

19. All sensation is but a temporary perception, and presentsa wrong impression in the mind; know all sensible perceptionsto be false and deluding, but their concepts in the mind of yogiare the true realities. (Falsity of perception and reality ofnoumena according to Berkeley).

20. O, the wonder of taking the sensibles for the invisibleverities! when it is ascertained that the concepts, which arebeyond the senses, are the true realities that come under ourcognizance.

21. It is the subtile form (or idea) of a thing, that appearsat first before the mind; which is afterwards represented invarious false shapes before us; and this is true of all materialthings in the world. (As the general and abstract idea of heat,which is at first imprinted in the mind, is manifested unto usat last in the concrete and particular forms of the sun and fireand all other hot bodies). (This passage supports the doctrineof the eternity of general ideas innate in us, against Locke’sdenial of inborn ideas).

22. Whatever there has not been before, has never been inbeing afterwards; as the variety of the jewelery of gold, isnaught but gold itself; so the pristine subtile ideas, cannothave any gross material form. (All which is but shadow andfallacy).

23. O, the great ignorance of men! that takes the error fortruth, and considers the falsehood as true; and there is noway for the living soul to discern the true and false, except byright reasoning.

24. The material body cannot be maintained by correct reason,342but the immaterial essence of it is indestructible, both inthis world as also in the next.

25. The error of materiality in the incorporeal or spiritualbody, which is presided over by the intellect—chit; is asthe fallacy of a vast sea, in the shining sands of a sandydesert.

26. The consciousness of materiality, which one has in hisspiritual and intellectual form; is as his supposition of a humanbody in the peak of a mountain, when it is viewed by his nakedeye sight.

27. The erroneous supposition of materiality, in the spiritualentity of our being; is as the error of our taking the shells onthe sea shore for silver, the sunshines on sands for water, andanother moon in the mist.

28. O the wondrous efficacy or error! that represents theunreal as real and the vice-versa; and O the great power ofdelusion! which springs from the unreasonableness of livingbeings.

29. The yogi finds the spiritual force and mental activity,to be the two immaterial causes of all action and motion, thatactuate everything in both the physical and intellectualworlds.

30. Therefore the yogi relies in his internal perceptiononly, by rejecting those of his external senses; while the commonsort are seen to run giddy, with drinking the vapours ofthe mirage of senses.

31. That which is commonly called pleasure or pain, is buta fleeting feeling in the mind of men, and is of a short duration;it is that unfeigned and lasting peace of mind, which has neitherits rise or fall, that is called true happiness (and is felt byyogis only).

32. Infer the hyper-sensible from the sensibles, and see thetrue source of thy sensations manifest in thy presence. (Knowthe Lord as the pattern of thy perceptions).

33. Reject the sight of this triple world (composed of theupper, lower and midway spheres), which thy perception presents343to thy imagination; because there can be nothing morefoolish than taking a delusion for truth.

34. All these bodies and beings bear only, their immaterialforms of mere ideas; and it is the goblin of delusion alone,that causes us to suppose their materiality.

35. Whatever is not produced or thought of in the mind,can not present its figure to our sight also; and that which isno reality of itself, cannot be the cause of any else. (Nothingcomes from a nullity).

36. When the sensibles are null and unreal, what other thingis there that may be real; and how can anything be said as real,whose reality is by the unreal and delusive senses.

37. The sensibles being proved as unreal, there can be noreality in their perceptions and thoughts also; it is impossiblefor a spider to maintain its web before a storm, which blowsaway an elephant.

38. So likewise the ocular evidence being proved as false,there is no proof of there being any object of vision any where.There is but One invariable entity in all nature, whose soliditydepends upon the consolidation of the divine intellect, as of thesea salt on the solidified sea water.

39. As a dreamer dreams of a high hill in his house, and inits ideal form, which is unknown to and unseen to others sleepingwith him in the same house; so we thought two of thatstone we have been talking of erewhile, and which is no otherthan the intellect.

40. It is this intellectual soul, which exhibits a great manyideal phenomena within itself, and all of which are as unsubstantialas empty air; such as:—this is a hill, and this is thesky; this is the world, and these are myself and thyself.

41. Men of enlightened souls only, can perceive thesephenomena of the intellect in themselves and not the unenlightenedsoul; just as the hearer of a lecture understandsits purport, and not one who dozes upon the reading of asermon.

42. All these erroneous sights of the world, appear to be344true to the unenlightened person; just as the unmoving treesand mountains, seem to be dancing to inebriated man.

43. The yogi beholds one irrepressible form of God (Siva)in all places, and manifest before him in the form of his intellect;but the ignorant are beguiled by their false guides, toplace their reliance in the objects of senses, notwithstandingtheir frail nature.

Argument:—Creative energy of God is the cause of reminiscence,and reminiscence is the cause of reproduction.

Vasishtha added:—The world is without any figure orsubstance, though it presents the appearance of such;it is seen in the light of the pure and imperishable essence ofGod, by the keen sight of transcendental philosophy.

2. It is that quintessence which exhibits in itself the rareshow of the cosmorama, and the figures of hills and rivers areseen in it as pictures in a panoroma, or as spectres appearing inthe empty air.

3. The nymph then entered that cosmical block by theresistless efforts, and I also penetrated in it after her, with mycuriosity (to know the contents thereof).

4. After that indefatiguable lady had made her way into thecosmos of Brahmá, she took her seat before a Bráhmana, andshone supremely bright in his presence.

5. She introduced me to him and said: This is my husbandand supporter and with whom I have made my betrothal a longtime in my mind.

6. He is now an old man, and I too have attained my oldage; and as he has differed his marriage with me till now,I have become utterly indifferent about it at present.

7. He also has grown averse to his marriage at present, andis desirous of attaining to that supreme state, of which thereis no view nor viewer, and which is yet no airy vacuity also.

8. The world is now approaching to its dissolution, and hehas been sitting in his meditation, in as silent a mood as astone and as immovable as a rock (in his yoga hypnotism).

9. Therefore do thou please, O lord of saints, to awakenboth himself and me also, and enlighten and confirm us in346the way of supreme felicity, until the end of this creation andthe re-creation of a new one.

10. Having said so to me, she waked her husband andspoke to him saying; Here my lord, is the chief of saints, thathas come today to our abode.

11. This sage is the progeny of Brahmá in another apartmentof this worldly dome, and deserves to be honoured withthe honors worthy of a guest, according to the proper rite ofhospitality.

12. Arise and receive the great sage with offering of hishonorarium, and the water (for washing his feet); because greatpersons are deserving of the greatest regards and respects, thatone can offer unto them.

13. Being thus addressed by her, the holy devotee awokefrom his hypnotism, and his consciousness rose in himself, as awhirlpool rises above the sea.

14. The courteous sage opened his eyes slowly, as flowersopen their petals in the vernal season after the autumn is over.

15. His returning senses slowly displayed the power of hislimbs, as the returning moisture of plants in spring, puts theirnew sprouts and branches to shoot forth anew.

16. Immediately there assembled about him the gods, anddemigods, siddhas and Gandharvas also from all sides; just asthe assemblage of swans and cranes, flock to the limpid lake,blooming with the full-blown lotuses in it.

17. He looked upon all that were standing before him, togetherwith myself and the fair lady (that had brought methither); and then in the sweet tone of the parnava hymn, headdressed me as the second Brahmá himself.

18. The Bráhmana said:—I welcome thee, O sage, to thisplace, that dost view the world as in a globe placed in thepalm of thy hand; and resemblest the great ocean in the vastextents of thy knowledge. (Lit:—the ambrosial waters ofknowledge).

19. You have come a great way, to this far distant place;and as you must have been tired with your long journey, pleaseto sit yourself in this seat.

34720. As he said these words, I saluted him saying, I hailthee my lord; and then sat on the jewelled seat, he pointedout to me.

21. And then he was lauded by the assembled gods, andholy spirits standing before him, and received their pújá presentsand adorations, according to the rules and rites of courtesy.

22. Then as the praises and prayers of the assembled host,was all at an end in a moment; the venerable bráhmana wasaccosted and bespoken unto me in the following manner.

23. How is it, O venerable sir, that this nymph has recourseto me, and tells me to enlighten you both with true knowledge,when you are acquainted whatever is past, and all that is totake place in future.

24. You sir, are lord of all, and fully acquainted with allknowledge; what is it then that this silly woman wants tolearn from me, and this is what I want to learn from you.

25. Why was she produced by you to become your spouse,and was never taken to spousal by your indifference towardsher.

26. The Bráhmana replied:—Hear me saint to tell you, howit came to be so with us; because it is right and fit to acquainteverything in full to the wise and good.

27. There is an unborn and imperishable entity from alleternity, and I am but a spark of that ever sparkling and effulgentintellect.

28. I am of the form of empty air or vacuum, and situatedfor ever in the supreme spirit; and am called the self-born inall the worlds, that were to be created afterwards.

29. But in reality I am never born, nor do I ever see or doanything in reality; but remain as the vacuous intellect inthe intellectual vacuity of the selfsame entity.

30. These our addresses to one another in the first andsecond persons (lit. as I, thou, mine, thine &c.), are no otherthan as the sounds of the waves of the same sea dashingagainst each other.

31. I who was of this nature (of a clear wave in the sea of348eternity), became disturbed in time by feeling some desire risingin me, and seeing that maid amidst the blaze of my intellect.

32. I thought her as myself, though she appears as anotherperson to you and others; and though she is manifest beforeyou, yet lies as hidden in me as my veryself.

33. And I find myself as that imperishable entity, whichabides in me as I abide in the supreme soul; I find my soulto be imperishable in its nature, and to be delighted in itselfas if it were the lord of all.

34. Though I was thus absorbed in meditation, yet thereminiscence of my former state (as the creative energy of Godor Brahmá); produced in me the desire of reproduction, andyonder is the incarnate divinity presiding over my will.

35. She is the presiding divinity over my will, that is standinghere manifest before you; she is neither my wife nor haveI betrothed her as such.

36. It is from the desire of her heart, that she deems herselfthe spouse of Brahmá; and it is for that reason that shehas undergone troubles, before she got rid of her desires.

Argument:—Relation of the desire of the Divineof Divinity as the cause of her sorrow.

The Bráhmana related:—Now as the world is approachingto its end, and I am going to take my rest in the formlessvoid of the intellect (after dissolution of the materialworld); it is for this reason that this divinity of worldly desires,is drowned in deep sorrow.

2. And as I am about to forsake her forever, it is for thisvery reason, O sage, that she is so very sorry and sick at herheart.

3. Being myself of an aerial form, when I become one withthe supreme spirit (after my leaving the mental sphere); thenthere takes place the great dissolution of the world with theend of all my desire.

4. Hence she with deep sorrow pursues my way, for who isthere so senseless, that does not follow after the giver of herbeing.

5. Now the time is come for the termination of the Kaliyuga,and of the rotation of the four ages; and the dissolution of allliving beings, Manus, Indras, and the Gods, is near at hand.

6. Today is the end of the kalpa and great kalpa age, andthis day puts an end to my energy and will, and makes memix with the eternal and infinite vacuity.

7. It is now that this personification of my desire, is aboutto breathe her last; just as the lake of lotuses being dried, thebreath of lotus flowers also is lost in the air.

8. The quiet soul like the calm ocean, is always at a stateof rest; unless it is agitated by its fickle desires, as the sea istroubled by its fluctuating waves.

9. The embodied being (which is confined in the prisonhouse350of the human body), has naturally a desire to know thesoul, and to <be> freed from its dungeon.

10. Thus this lady being fraught with spiritual knowledge,and long practiced in yoga meditation; has seen the world youinhabit, and the four different states of its inhabitants. (Thegloss explains the four states to mean the four different pursuitsof men expressed by Dharma, Artha, Káma, Moksha).

11. She traversing through the regions of air, has come tothe sight of the aforesaid etherial stone above the polar mountain,which is our celestial abode and the pattern of your world.

12. Both that world of yours and this abode of ours, rest ona great mountain, which bears upon it many other worlds(invisible to the naked eye).

13. We also do not see them with our discriminating eyesight, of discerning them separately from one another; but webehold them all commingled in one, in our abstract view ofyoga meditation (i.e. The sight of particulars is lost in theirabstract meditation).

14. There are numberless worlds of creations, in earth, waterand air and in everything under the sky, as if they are compressedor carved in the body of a huge block of stone.

15. What you call the world is a mere fallacy, and resemblesyour vision of a fairy city in dream; it is a false nameapplied to an object, existing nowhere beyond the intellect (andin the imagination of the mind).

16. They who have come to know the world, as no otherthan an airy vision of the mind, are verily called as wise men,and not liable to fall into error.

17. There others who by their application to and practiceof yoga contemplation, come to attain their desired object, asthis lady has succeeded to gain your company (for her edification).

18. Thus doth the illusory power of the intellect, displaythese material worlds before us; and thus doth the everlastingDivine omnipotence manifest itself (in all these various forms).

19. There is no action nor any creation, that is ever producedfrom anything or ever reduced to nothing; but all things351and actions are the spontaneous growth of the intellect only;together with our ideas of space and time.

20. Know the ideas of time and space, of substance andaction, as well as of the minds and its faculties, are the lastingfigures and marks on the stone of the intellect, and are eversalient in it, without their setting or being shaded at anytime.

21. This intellect is the very stone (we have been talkingof), and is either at rest or rolling on as roller or wheel; theworlds appertain to it as its appurtenances, and accompany it asmotion doth the wind.

22. The soul being replete with its full knowledge of allthings, is considered as the solid world itself; and though it isinfinite in time and space, yet it is thought as limited, owing toits appearance in the form of the bounded and embodiedmind.

23. The unbounded intellect appears as bounded, by itslimited knowledge; and although it is formless, yet it appearsin the form of the mind, representing the worlds in it.

24. As the mind views itself in the form of aerial city in itsdream, so doth it find itself in the form of this stone, with theworlds marked upon it in the daytime. (The world like thedream, is a transformation or representation of the mind itself).

25. There is no rolling of the orbs in this world, nor therunning of streams herein, there is no object subsisting inreality any where; but they are all mere representations of themind in empty air.

26. As there are no kolpa and great kalpa ages in eternity,nor the substantiality of anything in the vacuity of our consciousness;and as there is no difference of the waves and bubblesfrom the waters of the sea (So there is no difference of theempty thoughts from the vacuous mind; whence they taketheir rise).

27. The worlds appearing to be in esse, or existent in themind and before the eyes; are in reality utterly inexistent inthe intellect, which spreads alike as the all pervading andempty vacuum every where. And as all empty space in everyplace is alike and same with the infinite vacuity; so the forms352of things appearing to the limited understanding, are all lost inthe unlimited intellect.

28. Now Vasishtha, go to your place in your own world;and have your peace and bliss in your own seat of samádhi-devotion.Consign your aerial worlds to empty air, while I myselfto the supreme Brahma do repair.

Argument:—Conduct of Kali age, and Terminationof Brahmá’s Creation at the End.

Vasishtha added:—So saying, Brahmá—the personifiedBrahman, sat in his posture of devotion—padmásana, andresumed his intense meditation of the samádhi meditation;and so did his celestial companions also.

2. He fixed his mind on the pause santa, which is placedat the end of half syllable m—the final letter of the holymantra of omkara; and sat sedate with his steady attention(on the Divine), as an unmoved picture in painting.

3. His concupiscent consort-vásaná or desire, followed hisexample also; and sat reclined at the end of all her endlesswishes, as an empty and formless vacuity. (The devotee mustbecome a nullity, for his union with the unity).

4. When I saw them growing thin for want of their desires,I also reduced myself by means of my meditation, until I foundmyself as one with all pervading Intellect; in the form of endlessvacuity (and perceived every thing that was going oneverywhere).

5. I saw that as the desires of Brahmá were drying up inhimself, so I found all nature to be fading away, with the contractionof the earth and ocean, together with the diminution oftheir hills and islands.

6. I saw the trees and plants and all sorts of vegetables,were fading away with the decay of their growth; and allcreation seemed to come to its end in a short time.

7. It seemed that the stupendous body of Virát, whichcontained the whole universe, was sick in every part; and thegreat earth which was borne in his body, was now falling insensiblyinto decline and decay.

3548. She is now stricken with years, and grown dull and drywithout her genial moisture, and is wasting away as a witheredtree in the cold season (lit.—in the cold month of Christmas,when the icy breath of winter withers every green).

9. As the insensibility of our hearts, stupifies the membersof our bodies; so did the anesthesia of One produce theobtuseness of all things in the world. (The creative powerfailing, all creation dwindles away).

10. The world was threatened by many a portent and ill omenon all sides, and men were hastening to hell-fire; and burningin the flame of their sins. (The end of Kali or sinful age, is theprecursor to its final doom of the dooms-day).

11. The earth was a scene of oppression and famine,troubles, calamities and poverty, waited on mankind everywhere; and as women trespassed the bounds of decorum, so didmen transgress the bounds of order and conduct.

12. The sun was obscured by mist and frost, resemblinggusts of ashes and dust; and the people were greatly and equallyafflicted by the excess of heat and cold, the two oppositeswhich they knew not how to prevent. (i.e. All beings weretormented by the inclemencies of weather).

13. The Pamaras or Pariahs, were tormented by burningfires on one side, and floods and draughts of rain water on theother; while waging wars were devastating whole provincesaltogether.

14. Tremendous portents were accompanied, with the fallingmountains and cities all around; and loud uproars of thepeople rose around, for the destruction of their children andmany good and great men under them. (i.e. under the fallingrocks and edifices).

15. The land burst into deep ditches, where there was nowater course before; and the peoples and rulers of men, indulgedthemselves in promiscuous marriages.

16. All men living as way-farers or peddlers, and all pathsfull of tailor shops; all women dealing in their hairs and head-dressess,and all rulers imposing head taxes on their people.

35517. All men living by hard labour, and the reyets livingupon litigation only; women living in impiety and impurity,and the rulers of men addicted to drinking.

18. The earth was full of unrighteousness, and its peoplewere misled by heretical doctrines and vicious sástras; allwicked men were wealthy and fortunate, and good people all indistress and misery.

19. The vile non-áryans, were the rulers of earth, and therespectables and learned men had fallen into disrepute anddisregard; and the people all were guided by their evil passionsof anger, avarice and animosity, envy, malice and thelike.

20. All men were apostates from their religion, and inclinedto the faith of others; the Bráhmanas were furious in theirdehortation, and the vile borderers were persecutors of others.(i.e. they robbed themselves).

21. Robbers infested the cities and villages, and robbed thetemples of gods and the houses of good people; and there wereparasites, pampered with the dainties of others, but short livedand sickly with their gluttony.

22. All men indulging themselves in their idleness andluxury, and neglecting their rituals and duties; and all thequarters of the globe, presented a scene of dangers and difficulties,woe and grief.

23. Cities and villages were reduced to ashes, and the districtswere laid waste on all sides; the sky appeared to beweeping with its vaporous clouds, and the air disturbed by itswhirling tornadoes.

24. The land resounded with the loud crying and wailing ofwidows and unfortunate women, and they who remained at last,compelled to live by beggary.

25. The country was dry and anhydrous, and lying bare andbarren in all parts; the seasons were unproductive of season-fruitsand flowers; so every part of this earthly body ofBrahmá, was out of order and painful to him.

26. There was a great dearth on earth, upon her approachingdissolution, and the body of Brahmá grew senseless, owing356to the loss of the watery element, in all its canals of rivers andseas.

27. The spirit of Brahmá being disturbed, there occurred adisorder in the course of nature; and it brought on a transgressionof good manners, as when the waters of rivers andseas overflowed their boundaries.

28. Then the furious and sounding surges begin to breakdown their bounds, and run mad upon the ground; and thefloods overflow the land, and lay waste the woodlands.

29. There were whirlpools, whirling with hoarse noise,and turning about on every side, with tremendous violence;and huge surges rose as high, as to wash the face of the heavyclouds in the sky.

30. The mountain caverns, were resounding to the loud roarsof huge clouds on high, and heavy showers of rain fell in torrentsfrom the sky, and overflooded the mountain tops afar andnigh.

31. Gigantic whales, were rolling along with the whirlingwaves of the ocean; and the bosom of the deep appeared as adeep forest, with the huge bodies of the whales floating uponthe upheaving waves.

32. The mountain caves were strewn over with the bodies ofmarine animals, which were killed there by rapacious lions andtigers; and the sky glittered with marine gems, which wereborne on high by the rising waters.

33. The dashing of the rising waves of the sea, against thefalling showers of the sky; and the dashing of the upliftedwhales with elephantine clouds on high, raised a loud uproar inthe air.

34. The elephants floating on the diluvian waters, washedthe faces of the luminaries, with the waters spouted out of theirnozzles; and their justling against one another, hurled thehills aground. (Or they clashed on one another, as two hillsdashed over against the other).

35. The sounding surges of the sea, dashed against therocks on the shore, emitted a noise like the loud roar of elephants,contending in the caverns of mountains.

35736. The nether sea invaded the upper sky, and its turbulentwaves drove the celestials from their abode; as an earthlypotentate attacks another, and his triumphant host, dispossessesthe inhabitants with loud outcry.

37. The overflowing waters covered the woods, both in theearth and air; and the overspreading waves filled the skieslike the winged mountains of yore.

38. High sounding winds were breaking the breakers of thesea, and driving them ashore as fragments of mountains; whiletheir splashing waters, dashed against the rocks on the shore,and washed the fossil shells on the coast.

39. Whirling whirlpools, were hurling the huge whales intothem; and ingulphing the falling rocks in their fathomlessdepth.

40. Big water elephants or whales were carried with thetorrents, and drowned in the depths of the caverns on the mountaintops; and these they attempted to break, with theirhideous teeth or tusks.

41. The tortoise and crocodile hang suspended on the trees,and extended their full length and breadth thereon; and thevehicles of Yama and Indra (i.e. the buffalo and elephant),stood aghast with their erect ears.

42. They listened <to> the fragments of rocks, falling with hideousnoise on the sea-shore; and beheld fishes with their brokenfins, tossed up and down by the falling stones.

43. The forests shook no more in their dancing mood, andthe waters on earth were all still and cold; but the marinewaters were flaming with the submarine fire, emitting a dismalglare.

44. The sea elephants or whales being afraid of the extinctionof marine fire, by the primeval waters (which were the seatof Náráyana); fell upon the waters on the mountain tops, andcontended with the earthly and mountainous elephants.

45. The rocks carried away by the rapid current, appearedas dancing on the tops of the waves; and there was a loudconcussion of the swimming and drowned rocks (mainákas), asthey dashed against the mountains on land.

35846. Large mountains and woods, were now resorted to bymen and wild animals; and the driving droves of wild elephant,were roaring as loud, as the high sounding trumpets at a distance.

47. The infernal regions were disturbed by the torrents ofwater, as by the infernal demons; and the elephants of theeight quarters, raised loud cries with their uplifted trunksand nozzles.

48. The nether world emitted a growling noise, from theirmouths of infernal caverns; and the earth which is fastenedto its polar axis, turned as a wheel upon its axle.

49. The over flowing waters of the ocean, broke their boundswith as much ease, as they tear asunder the marine plants;and the breathless skies resounded to the roaring of the cloudsall around.

50. The sky was split into pieces, and fell down in fragments;and the regents of the skies fled afar with loud cries.And comets and meteors were hurled from heaven, in the formsof whirlpools.

51. There were fires and firebrands, seen to be burning onall sides of the skies, earth and heaven; and flaming and flashingas liquid gold and luminous gems, and as snakes with colourof vermilion.

52. My flaming and flying portents, with their burningcrests and tails, were seen to be flashing all about, and flung bythe hands of Brahmá, both in the heaven above and earthbelow.

53. All the great elementary bodies, were disturbed andput out of order; and the sun and moon and the regents ofair and fire, with the gods of heaven and hell (name byPavana and Agni, and Indra and Yama), were all in greatconfusion.

54. The gods seated even in the abode of Brahmá, wereafraid of their impending fall; when they heard the gigantictrees of the forests falling headlong, with the tremendous crashof pata-pata noise.

35955. The mountains standing on the surface of the earth,were shaking and tottering on all sides; and a great earthquakeshook the mountains of Kailása and Meru, to their verybottom and caverns and forests.

56. The ominous tornadoes at the end of the kalpa period,overthrew the mountains and cities and forests, and overwhelmedthe earth and all in a general ruin and confusion.

Argument:—Brahmá’s suppression of his Respiration; hissettling on the wings of air and his form of Virát.

Vasishtha continued:—Now the self-born Brahmá,having compressed his breath in his form of Virát (orthe heart); the aerial or atmospheric air, which is borne onthe wings of wind, lost its existence.

2. The atmospheric air, which is the very breath of Brahmábeing thus compressed in his breast; what other air could thereremain, to uphold the starry frame and the system of the universe.

3. The atmospheric air, being compressed with the vitalbreath of Brahmá; the perturbed creation (as described before),was about to come to its ultimate quietus.

4. The firmament being no more upheld by its support ofthe air, gave way to the fiery bodies of meteors, to fall down onearth, as starry flowers from the arbour of heaven.

5. The orbs of heaven, being unsupported by the intermediateair, were now falling on the ground; like the unfailingand impending fruits of our deserts, or the flying fates fallingfrom above.

6. The gross desire or the crude will of Brahmá, being nowat its end at the approach of dissolution; there was an utterstop, of the actions and motions of the siddhas, as that of theflame of fire before its extinction.

7. The world-destroying winds were winding in the air, likethe thin and flying scraps of cotton; and then the siddhas felldown mute from heaven, after the loss of their strength andpower of speech.

8. The great fabrics of human wishes, fell down with thecities of the Gods; and the peaks of mountain were hurledheadlong, by shocks of tremendous earthquakes.

3619. Ráma rejoined:—Now sir, if the world is but a representationof the ideal in the mind of the great God Brahmá orVirát; then what is the difference of earth, heaven and hell tohim (who encompasses the whole in his body or mind).

10. How can these worlds be said, to be the members of hisbody; or can it be thought, that the God resides in them withhis stupendous form.

11. I well know that Brahmá is wilful spirit of God, andhas no form of himself; and so do I take this world, for a formlessrepresentation of the will or idea in the Divine Mind.Please sir, explain this clearly unto me.

12. Vasishtha replied:—In the beginning this world wasnot in existence, nor inexistence either; because there was theeternal Intellect, which engrossed all infinity in itself, and thewhole vacuity of space with its essence.

13. This vacuity of it (the subjective chit), is known as theobjective chetya or thought; and the intellect without forsakingits form, becomes chetana or the power of intellection (orthe mind) itself.

14. Know this intellection as the jíva or living soul, whichbeing condensed (with feelings &c.) becomes the gross mind;but none of these essences or forms of existence, have any formwhatever.

15. The vacuity of the intellect, remains as the pure vacuumin itself forever; and all this which appears as otherwise, is noother and nothing without the self-same soul.

16. The very soul assumes to it its egoism (or personality),and thinking itself as the mind, becomes sullied with its endlessdesires, in its vacuous form. (The pure soul is changed tothe impure spirit or volitive mind).

17. Then this intellectual principle, thinks itself as the air,by its own volition; and by this false supposition of itself, itbecomes of an aerial form in the open air.

18. Then it thinks of its future gross form, and immediatelyfinds itself transformed to an aerial body, by its volition orsankalpa. (The will being master to the thought).

19. Though the soul, spirit and mind, are vacuous in their362natures; yet they can assume aerial forms to themselves bytheir will, as the mind sees its imaginary cities; and so doththe Lord take upon Him any form it pleases.

20. And as the knowledge of our minds, is purely of anaerial nature, so the intelligence of the all-intelligent Lord islikewise of an intellectual kind; and he takes and forsakes anyform as he supposes and pleases for himself.

21. As we advance to the knowledge of recondite truth, sowe come to lose the perception of size and extension; and toknow this extended world as a mere nullity, though it appearsas a positive entity.

22. By knowledge of the real truth, we get rid of our desires,as it is by our knowledge of the unity and the absence ofour egoism or personality, that we obtain our liberation. (i.e.The knowledge of our nothingness).

23. Such is He—the supreme One, and is Brahma the entityof the world. And know Virát, O Ráma, to be the body ofBrahma, and the form of the visible world. (Brahma, Brahmáand Virát, are the triple hypostasis of the One and same God).

24. The desires or will, is of the form of empty vacuum, andthe erroneous conceptions which rise in it; the same givebirth to the world, which is thence called the mundane egg.

25. Know all this is non esse, and the forms you see, are butformation of your fancy; in reality there is nothing in esse;and tuism and egoism are no entities at any time.

26. How can the gross world be ever attached to the simpleIntellect, which is of the nature of a void; how can a cause orsecondary causality, be ever produced in or come out from amere void?

27. Therefore all this production is false, and all that isseen a mere falsity; all this is a mere void and nothing, whicherroneously taken for something.

28. It is the Intellect only which exhibits itself, in theforms of the world and its productions, in the same manner asthe air begets its pulsations (in the form of winds), in the verycalm air itself.

36329. The world is either as something or as nothing at all, anddevoid of unity and duality; know the whole to lie in theempty vacuity of the Intellect, and is as void and transparentas the same.

30. I am extinct to all these endless particulars and distinctions,and whether you take them as real or unreal, andbe with or without your egoism, it is nothing to me.

31. Be without any desire and quiet in your mind, remainsilent and without fickleness in your conduct; do whateveryou have to do, or avoid to do it without anxiety.

32. The eternal One, that is ever existent in our notion ofHim, is manifest also in the phenomenal, which is no other thanHimself. But our imperfect notion of God, has many thingsin it which are unknown to us and beyond our comprehension;and such are the phenomenals also, that are so palpable unto us.(We have the innate idea of God, but no knowledge of hisinner or outer nature and attributes, which are displayed in allexistence).

Argument:—If there is no truth or untruth in thecreation, how can both be true or false at once.

Ráma said:—Sir, you have said at length regarding ourbondage and liberation, and our knowledge of the worldas neither a reality nor an unreality also; and that it neitherrises nor sets, but is always existent as at first and everbefore.

2. I have well understood Sir, all your lectures on the subjects,and yet wish to know more of these, for my full satisfactionwith the ambrosial drops of your speech.

3. Tell me sir, how there is no truth nor any untruth, eitheran erroneous view of the creation as a reality, or its view as amere vacuum:

4. In such a case, I well understand what is the real truth;yet I want you to tell more of this, for my comprehension ofthe subject of creation.

5. Vasishtha replied:—All this world that is visible to us,with all its moving and unmoving creatures; and all thingswith all their varieties, occasioned by difference of country andclimate.

6. All these are subject to destruction, at the great dissolutionof the world; together with Brahmá, Indra, Upendra,Mahendra and the Rudras at the end.

7. Then there remains something alone, which is unbornand increate and without its beginning; and which is ever calmand quiet in its nature. To this no words can reach, and ofwhich nothing can be known.

8. As the mountain is larger and more extended than a365mustard seed, so is the sky much more than that; but theentity of vacuity is the greatest of all.

9. Again as the dusts of the earth, are smaller than thegreat mountain; so the stupendous universe, is a minute particlein comparison with the infinite entity of the vacuity ofGod.

10. After the long lapse of unmeasured time, in the unlimitedspace of eternity (i.e. at the end of a Kalpa age); andafter the dissolution of all existence in the transcendent vacuumof the Divine Mind (lit., thinking soul).

11. At this time the great vacuous intellect, which is unlimitedby space and time, and is quite tranquil by being devoidof all its desire and will; looks in itself by its reminiscence, theatomic world in aeriform state (as the soul ruminates over thepast in its dream).

12. The intellect reconnoitres over this unreality withinitself, as it were in its dream; and then it thinks on the senseof the word Brahma or enlargement, and beholds the dilationof these minutiae in their intellectual forms (i.e. the developedideas).

13. It is the nature of the intellect to know the minuteideas, which are contained in its sensory; and because it continuesto look upon them, it is called their looker. (i.e. Thesubjective principle of the objective thoughts).

14. (In order to clear how the intellect can be both thesubjective and objective at once, it is said that:) As a man seeshimself as dead in his dream, and the dead man sees his owndeath; so doth the intellect see the minute ideas in itself.(Hence it is not impossible for the contraries to subsist together).

15. Hence it is the nature of the intellect, to see its unityas a duality within itself; and to remain of its own nature, asboth the subjective and objective by itself.

16. The intellect is of the nature of vacuum, and thereforeformless in itself; and yet it beholds the minute ideas to riseas visibles before it, and thereby the subjective viewer becomesthe duality of the objective view also.

36617. It then finds its minute self, springing out distinctly inits own conception; just as a seed is found to sprout forth inits germ. (This is the first step of the conception of personalityof the universal spirit).

18. It has then the distinct view of space and time, and ofsubstance and its attributes and actions before its sight; but asthese are yet in their state of internal conceptions, they haveas yet received no names for themselves.

19. Wherever the particle of the intellect shines (or thatwhich is perceptible to it); is called the place (or object), andwhenever it is perceived the same is termed as time, and theact of perception is styled the action.

20. Whatever is perceived (by the intellect), the same issaid as the object; and the sight or seeing thereof by it, isthe cause of its perception, just as the light of a luminary, isthe cause of ocular vision.

21. Thus endless products of the intellect appear before it,as distinct from one another by their time, place, and action;and all these appearing as true, like the various colours of theskies in the sky.

22. The light of the intellect shines through different partsof the body, as the eye is the organ whereby it sees; and sothe other organs of sense for its perception of other objects. (Allthese are called axas answering the sight of the eyes).

23. The intellectual particle, shining at first within itself,bears no distinct name except that of tanmátra or its inwardperception; which is as insignificant a term as empty air.

24. But the shadow of the atomic intellect falling upon theempty air, becomes the solid body; which shoots forth into thefive organs of sense, owing to its inquest into their five objectsof form and the rest.

25. The intellectual principle, being then in need of retainingits sensations in the sensorium, becomes the mind andunderstanding (which is called the sixth or internal organ ofsense).

26. Then the mind being actuated by its vanity, takes367upon it the denomination of egoism, and is inclined to makeimaginary divisions of space and time.

27. Thus the minute intellect comes to make distinctionsof time, by giving them the different denomination of thepresent, past and future.

28. Again with regard to space, it denominates one placeas upper and another as lower; and goes on giving differentappellations of sides (or the points of compass), to one invariablespace in nature.

29. It then comes to understand the meanings of words,and invent the terms signifying time and space, action and substance.

30. Thus the intellect bearing a vacuous form in the primordialvacuum, became the spiritual or lingadéha of its ownaccord, until it was diffused all over the world (which is thencecalled the mundane God).

31. Having long remained in that state as it thought, ittook upon it the compleately concrete material form throughwhich it was transfused.

32. Though formed originally of air in the original air,and was perfectly pure in its nature; yet being incorporated inthe false corporeal form, it forgot its real nature; as the solar heatin conjunction with sand, is mistaken for water.

33. It then takes upon itself and of its own will, a formreaching to the skies; to which it applied to the sense of theword head to some part, and that of the word feet to another.(The highest heaven is the head and the earth the foot-stoolsof God).

34. It applied to itself the sense of the words breast, sidesand to other parts, by adopting their figurative sense and rejectingthe literal ones. (Virát is the human figure for the macrocosmof the universe).

35. By thinking constantly on the forms of things, as this isa cow and that is a horse &c., as also of their being boundedby space and time; it became conversant with the objects ofdifferent senses.

36836. The same intellectual particle, saw likewise the differentparts of its body; which it termed its hands, feet &c., as its outwardmembers; and the heart &c., as the inner members ofthe body.

37. In this manner is formed the body of Brahmá, as alsothose of Vishnu and the Rudras and other Gods; and so alsothe forms of men and worms are produced from their conceptionof the same.

38. But in fact there is nothing, that is really made orformed; for all things are now, as they have been ever before.All this is the original vacuum, and primeval intelligence; andall forms are the false formations of fancy.

39. Virát is the seed producing the plants of the threeworlds, which are productive of many more, as one root producesmany bulbs under it. Belief in the creation, puts a bolt to thedoor of salvation; and the appearance of the world, is as that ofa light and fleeting cloud without any rain.

40. This Virát is the first male, rising unseen of his own will.He is the cause of all actions and acts.

41. He has no material body, no bone or flesh, nor is hecapable of being grasped under the fist of anybody.

42. He is as quiet and silent, as the roaring sea and cloud,and the loud roar of lions and elephants, and the din of battle,is unheard by the sleeping man.

43. He remains neither as a reality, nor entirely as an unreality;but like the notion of a waking man, of a warrior seen tobe fighting in his dream. (i.e. As the faint idea of an objectseen in dream).

44. Although his huge body stretches to millions of miles,yet it is contained in an atom with all the worlds that lie hidin every pore of his body. (Meaning—the cosmos contained in agrain of the brain).

45. Though thousands of worlds and millions of mountainscompose the great body of the unborn Virát, yet they are notenough to fill it altogether, as a large quantity of grain, is notsufficient to fill a winnowing basket.

36946. Though myriads of worlds are stretched in his body, yetthey are but an atom in comparison with its infinity; and theVirát is represented to contain all in his body, yet it occupies nospace or place, but resembles a baseless mountain in a dream.

47. He is called the self-born and Virát also, and thoughhe is said to be the body and soul of the world, yet he is quitea void himself.

48. He is also named as Rudra and Sanatana, and Indraand Upendro also; he is likewise the wind, the cloud and themountain in his person.

49. The minute particle of the Intellect, like a small sparkof fire, inflates and spreads itself at first; and then by thinkingits greatness, it takes the form of chitta or the thinking mind,which with its self-consciousness becomes the vast universe.

50. Then being conscious of its afflation, it becomes thewind in motion; and this is the aeriform body of Virát.

51. Then it becomes the vital breath, from the consciousnessof its inspiration and expiration in the open air.

52. It then imagines of an igneous particle in its mind, aschildren fancy a ghost where there is none; and this assumesthe forms of luminous bodies (of the sun, moon, and stars) inthe sky.

53. The vital breath of respiration, are carried by turnsthrough the respiratory organs into the heart; whence it isborne on the wings of air to sustain the world, which is thevery heart of Virát.

54. This Virát is the first rudiment of all individual bodiesin the world, and in their various capacities forever.

55. It is from this universal soul, that all individual bodieshave their rise, and according to their sundry desires; and asthese differ from one another in their outward shapes, so theyare different also in their inward natures and inclinations.

56. As the seed of Virát sprang forth at first, in thenature and constitution of every individual being; it continuesto do so in the same manner in the heart of every living,agreeably to the will of the same causal principle.

37057. The sun, moon and the winds, are as the bile, phlegmin the body of Brahmá; and the planets and stars, are as thecirculating breath and drops of the spittle of phlegm of thatdeity.

58. The mountains are his bones, and the clouds his flesh;but we can never see his head and feet, nor his body and skin.

59. Know, O Ráma, this world to be the body of Virát, andan imaginary form by his imagination only. Hence the earthand heaven and all the contents, are but the shadow of hisIntellectual vacuity.

Argument:—Description of the several partsand Members of the body of Virát.

Vasishtha continued:—Hear now more about thebody of Virát, which he assumed to himself of his ownwill in that Kalpa epoch, together with the variety of its orderand division, and its various customs and usages.

2. It is the transcendent vacuous sphere of the intellect,which makes the very body of Virát; it has no beginning, middleor end, and is as light as an aerial or imaginary form.

3. Brahmá who is without desire, beheld the imaginarymundane-egg appearing about him, in its aerial form (of achimera).

4. Then Brahmá divided this imaginary world of his intwain. It was of a luminous form, from which he came out as aluminary, like a bird matured in its egg. (This is hence calledBrahmánda or egg of Brahmá).

5. He beheld one half (or the upper hemisphere) of this egg,rising high in the upper sky; and saw the other half to constitutethe lower world, and both of which he considered as partsof himself.

6. The upper part of Brahmá’s egg, is termed as the headof Virát; the lower part is styled his footstool, and the midwayregion is called his waist.

7. The midmost part of the two far separated portions, isof immense extent, and appearing as a blue and hollow vault allaround us.

8. The heaven is the upper roof of this hollow, likening tothe palate of the open mouth, and the stars which are studdedin it, resemble the spots of blood in it. The breath of themouth is as vital air, which supports all mortals and the immortalGods.

3729. The ghosts, demons and ogres, are as worms in his body;and the cavities of spheres of the different worlds, are as theveins and arteries in his body.

10. The nether worlds below us, are the footstools of Virát;and the cavities under his knees, are as the pits of infernalregions.

11. The great basin of water in the midst of the earth,and surrounding the islands in the midst of them; is as thenavel and its pit in the centre of the body of Virát.

12. The rivers with the purling waters in them, resemblethe arteries of Virát with the purple blood running in them;and the Jam-bu-dvípa is as his lotiform heart, with the mountMeru as its pericarp.

13. The sides of his body, are as the sides of the sky; andthe hills and rocks on earth, resemble the spleen and liver inthe body of Virát; and the collection of cooling clouds in thesky, is like the thickening mass of fat in his body.

14. The sun and the moon are the two eyes of Virát, and thehigh heaven is his head and mouth; the moon is his marrow,and the mountains are the filth of his person.

15. The fire is the burning heat, and bile in his bowels;and the air is the breath of his nostrils (and so the otherelements are humours of his body).

16. The forests of Kalpa trees and other woods, and the serpentineraces of the infernal regions, are the hairs and tufts ofhairs on his head and body. (All these are parts of the oneundivided whole of Virát’s body).

17. The upper region of the solar world, forms the capt headof Virát’s body; and the zodiacal light in the concavity beyondthe mundane system, is the crest on top of Virát’s head.

18. He is the universal Mind itself, has no individual mindof his own; and he being the sole enjoyer of all things, there isnothing in particular that forms the object of his enjoyment.

19. He is the sum of all the senses, therefore there is no sensebeside himself; and the soul of Virát being fully sensible ofevery thing, it is a mere fiction to attribute to him the propertyof any organ of sense. (It is a mere figure of speech to say373God hears and sees, when the omniscient soul knows all withoutthe aid of the organs of seeing and hearing).

20. There is no difference of the property of an organ (asthe hearing of the ear); and its possessor—the mind, in theperson of Virát, who perceives by his mind all organic sensations,without the medium of their organs.

21. There is no difference in doings of Virát and those ofthe world; it is his will or thought alone which acts withmany (or active) force (on the passive world), both in theirtransitive as well as in their causal forms.

22. All actions and events of the world, being said to besame with his, our lives and deaths in this world, are all conformableto his will. (This passage is explained in four differentways in the gloss).

23. It is by his living that the world lives, and so it diesaway with his death; and just as it is the case, with the airand its motion, so it is with the world and Virát to act or subsidetogether. (But Virát being the god of nature in general, heacts by general and not by partial laws, and is therefore neitheraffected by particular events nor ever directs any particularaccident at any place or time). (Both of which are the oneand the samething).

24. The world and Virát are both of the same essence, asthat of air and its motion in the wind; that which is the world,the same is Virát; and what Virát is, the very same is theworld also. (The same thing personified as another).

25. The world is both Brahmá as well as Virát, and both ofwhich are its synonyms according to its successive stages; andare but forms of the will of the pure and vacuous intellect ofGod. (The will was at the beginning, Aham bahu syam; i.e.I will become many).

26. Ráma asked:—Be it so that Virát is the personified willof God, and of the form of vacuum; but how is it that he isconsidered as Brahma himself in his inner person?

27. Vasishtha replied:—As you consider yourself as Rámaand so situated in your person also; so Brahmá—the greatfather of all, is the wilful soul only in his person.

37428. The souls of holy men also, are full with Brahma inthemselves; and their material bodies, are as mere images ofthem.

29. And as your living soul is capable, of fixing its residencein your body; so the self-willed soul of Brahma, is by farmore able to reside in his body of the Brahmánda-Universe.

30. If it is possible for the plant, to reside in its seed, andfor animal life to dwell in the body; it must likewise be muchmore possible for the spirit of Brahma, to dwell in a body ofits own imagination.

31. Whether the Lord be in his consolidated form of theworld, or in his subtile form of the mind, He is the same in hisessence, though the one lies inside and the other outside of us,in his inward and outward appearance.

32. The holy hermit who is delighted in himself, and continuesas mute as a log of wood and as quiet as a block ofstone; remains with his knowledge of I and thou (i.e. of thesubjective and objective as well as of the general and particular)fixed in the universal soul of Virát.

33. The holy and God knowing man, is passionless under allpersecution, as an idol which they make with ligatures of strawand string; he remains as calm as the sea, after its howlingwaves are hushed; and though he may be engaged in a greatmany affairs in the world, yet he remains as calm and quiet inhis mind, as a stone is unperturbed in its heart.

Argument:—Destruction of the world by the great fire,produced by a dozen of suns at the behest of Brahmá.

Vasishtha continued:—Then sitting in my meditationof Brahmá, I cast my eyes around, I came to the sightof the region before me.

2. It being then midday, I beheld a secondary sun behindme, appearing as a conflagration over a mountain (or a burningmountain), at the furthest border of that side.

3. I saw the sun in the sky as a ball of fire, and another inthe water burning as the submarine fire; I beheld a burningsun in the south east corner, and another in the southernquarter.

4. Thus I saw four fiery suns on the four sides of heaven,and as many in the four corners of the sky also.

5. I was astonished to find so many suns all at once in allthe sides of heaven; and their flame-fire which seemed to burndown their presiding divinities—the Agni, Váyu, Yama, Indra&c. (The twelve suns of Hindu Astronomy, are the so manysolar mansions in the twelve signs of the zodiac, which encircleall the sides of the compass, together with the personifiedclimates under the same).

6. As I was looking astonished at these unnatural appearances,in the heavens above; there appeared on a sudden aterrestrial sun before me, bursting out of the submarine regionsbelow.

7. Eleven of these suns were as reflexions of the one sun,seen in a prismatic mirror; and they rose out of the three sunsof Brahmá, Vishnu and Siva, in the vacuity of the differentsides of heaven. (The gloss explains the eleven suns, as theeleven Rudra forms of Siva—the god of destruction amidst theHindu Trinity).

3768. The same form of Rudra with its three eyes, shone forthin the forms of the twelve burning suns of heaven. (As Sivawith the eleven Rudras, makes the number twelve, so doth thesun with the other eleven signs of the zodiac, make the samenumber).

9. In this manner the sun burnt down the world, as theflame of fire burns away dry wood of the forest; and theworld was dried up of its moisture, as in the parching days ofsummer season.

10. The solar fire burnt away the woods, without anyliteral fire or flame; and the whole earth was as dry as dust bythis fireless incendiarism.

11. My body became heated and my blood boiled as by theheat of a wild fire; and I left that place of torrid heat, andascended to the remoter and higher regions of air.

12. I beheld the heavenly bodies hurling as tops, flung fromthe string held by a mighty hand; and I saw from my aerialseat, the rising of the blazing suns in heaven.

13. I beheld the twelve suns burning in the ten sides ofit, and I saw also the extensive spheres of the stars, whirlingwith incredible velocity.

14. The waters of the seven oceans were boiling, with agurgling noise; and burning meteors were falling over thecities in farthest worlds.

15. The flame flashed upon distant mountains, makingthem flare with vermeil hue, and splitting noise; and continuedlightnings flashed upon the great edifices on every side, andput the canopy of heaven in a flame.

16. The falling buildings emitted a cracking and cracklingnoise all around, and the earth was covered with columns ofdark smoke, as by the thickening clouds and mists.

17. The fumes rising as crystal columns, appeared as turretsand spires upon the towers on earth; and the loud noise ofwailing beasts and men, raised a gurgling (gharghara) clangorall over the ground.

18. The falling of cities upon men and beasts, made a hideousnoise and huge heaps of omnium gatherum on earth;377and the falling stars from heaven, strewed the earth with fragmentsof gems and jewels.

19. All human habitations were in flames, with the bodiesof men and beasts, burning in their respective homes andhouses; and the noiseless skirts of villages and towns, werefilled with the stink of dead and burning bodies.

20. The aquatic animals were stewed, under the tepid watersof the seas: and the cry of people within the city, was hushedby the howling of the ambient flames on all sides.

21. The elephants of the four quarters of heaven, fell downand rolled upon the burning ground, and uplifted the hills withtheir tusks (to shelter themselves from the falling fires); whilethe caverns of the mountains, were emitting gusts of smoke,from the subterranean fire.

22. The burning hamlets and habitations, were crushed andsmashed under the falling stones and hills; while the mountainelephants yelled aloud, with their deadly groans andagonies.

23. Heated by sunheat, all living beings rushed to andsplashed the hot waters of seas, and the mountainous vidyádharasfell down into the hollow bosom of mountains, burstingby their volcanic heat.

24. Some being tired with crying, and others resorting totheir yoga meditation, remained quiet in some places; and theserpent races were left to roll on the burning cinders, bothbelow as well as upon the earth.

25. The voracious marine beasts as sharks and whales; beingbaked in the drying channels, were driven to the whirlpools ofthe deep; and the poor fishes attempting to evade the smartfire, flew into the airs by thousands and thousands.

26. The burning flames, then clad as it were, in crimsonapparel, rose high in the air; and there leaping as it were indancing, caught the garments of the Apsaras in heaven.

27. The desolating Kalpa fire, being then wreathed with itsflashing flames, began to dance about all around; with the loud378sound of bursting bamboos and cracking trees, as it were withthe beating of drums and timbrels.

28. The sportive fire danced about like a playful actor, inthe ruinous stage of the world.

29. The fire ravaged through all lands and islands, and desolatedall forests and forts; it filled all caves and caverns andthe hollow vault of sky, till at last it over reached the tops ofthe ten sides of heaven.

30. It blazed in caverns and over cities and in all sides ofdales, and the lands; it blazed over hills and mountain tops,and the sites of the siddhas and on the seas and oceans.

31. The flames flashing from the eyes of Siva, and theRudras, boiled the waters of the lakes and rivers; and burnedthe bodies of devas and demons, and those of men and serpentraces; and there arose a hoarse whispering sound from everywhere.

32. With column of flaming fire over their head, they beganto play by throwing ashes upon one another; like the playfuldemon’s flirtation with dust and water.

33. Flames flashed forth from subterranean cells and caves onearth, and all things situated amidst them, were reddened bytheir light.

34. All the sides of heaven lost their azure hue, under thevermilion colour of the clouds which hung over them; and allthings and the rubicund sky, lost their respective hues, andassumed the rosy tint of the red lotus (sthala padma—growingon land).

35. The world appeared to be covered under a crimsoncanopy, by the burning flames which overspread it all around,and resembled the evening sky under the parting glories of thesetting sun.

36. Overspread with the flaming fires, the sky appeared as anoverhanging garden of blooming Asoka flowers, or as a bed ofthe red kinsuka blossoms hanging aloft in the sky.

37. The earth appeared to be strewn over with red lotuses379and the seas seemed to be sprinkled with red dye; in thismanner the fire blazed in many forms, with its tails and crestsof smoke.

38. The fire of conflagration, raged with its youthful vigourin the forest, where it glared in variegated colours, as a burningscenery is shown in a painting.

39. The vicissitudes of sunrise and sunset (i.e. the successionof day and night), now disappeared from the vindhyanmountain, owing to the continual burning of the woods upon itssummit.

40. The flying fumes had the appearance of the blue sahyamountain in the south (Deccan), from their emitting theflashes of fire in the midst, like the lustre of the gems in thatmountain.

41. The blue vault of the sky seemed as a cerulean lake,decorated with lotus like fire brands all over it, and the flamesof fire flashed over the tops of the cloudy mountains in air (likethe brisk dancing of actresses in a play).

42. Flames of fire with their smoky tails, resembling thetrain of a comet, danced about on the stage of the world, in themanner of dancing actresses, with the loosened and flouncinghair.

43. The burning fire burst the parched ground, and flungits sparkling particles all around, like the fried rice flying allabout the frying pan in various colours.

44. Then the burning rocks and woods exhibited a goldenhue on the breast of the earth, with their bursting and splittingnoise (as if the earth was beating her breast at her impendingdestruction).

45. All lands were crushed together with the cry of theirinhabitants, and all the seas dashed against one another, withfoaming froths in their mouths.

46. The waves shone in their faces, with the reflexion of theshining sun upon them; they clashed against each other, as ifthey were clapping their hands; and dashed with such force380against the land, that they beat and broke down the rocks onthe sea shore.

47. The raging sea with his billowy arms, grasped the earthand stone, as foolish men do in their anger; and devoured themin his hollow cell with a gurgling noise, as fools swallow theirfalse hopes with vain bawling.

48. The all destroying fire with a hoarse sound, melteddown the rivers with their banks, and the regents of thesphere fell before the geysers.

49. The ten sides of the compass, were out of order andconfounded together; and all the mountains were reduced tothe form of liquid gold (fire), with their woods and abodes andcaves and caverns.

50. By degrees the prodigious mountain Meru, was dissolvedto snow by the heat of fire; and soon after the greatmount of Himálaya, was melted down as lac-dye by the samefire.

51. All things were cold and pinched in themselves, as goodpeople are thawed by the awe of the wicked; except the Malayamountain, which yielded its fragrance even in that state (of itstribulation).

52. The noble minded man never forsakes his nobleness,though he is exposed to troubles; because the great neverafflict another, though they are deprived of their own joy andhappiness.

53. Burn the sandal wood, yet it will diffuse its fragrance toall living beings; because the intrinsic nature of a thing, isnever lost or changed into another state.

54. Gold is never consumed nor disfigured, though it isburnt in the fire of a conflagration; thus there are two things,namely, aura and vacuum, that cannot be consumed by theall destroying fire.

55. Those bodies are above all praise, which do not perish atthe perdition of all others; such as the vacuum is indestructibleon account of its omnipresence, and gold is not subject toany loss owing to its purity.

38156. The property of goodness (sattwa) alone is true happiness,and neither rajas nor ostentation or passion. Then thefiery clouds moved aloft as a moving forest, ashed showers ofvivid flame.

57. Mountainous clouds of fire, accompanied with flame andfume, poured liquid fire around; and burnt away all bodies,already dried up by heat and for want of water.

58. The dried leaves of trees ascending high in the air, wereburnt away by the flame instead of the rain of heavy clouds.(Now the clouds were heavy with fire, and not with rainwater).

59. The ambient and gorgeous flame passed by the Kailásamountain without touching it, knowing it to be the seat of thedread God Siva; in the manner of wise men, flying from themud and mire of sin (knowing it to be attended with theirperdition).

60. Then the God Rudra growing furious, at the final destructionof the world, darted the direful flame of his igneouseyes, and burnt down the sturdy arbours and robust rocks toashes, with their stunning cracklings.

61. The hills at the foot of mountains, being crowned withflames of fire, moved forward as it were, to fight against thefire, with their stones and clubs of the clumps of trees.

62. The sky became as a bed of full blown lotuses, andcreation became a mere name as that of Agastya, that departedand disappeared for ever from sight.

63. The suffering idiot on remembering into his mind theKalpánta, took the world to be at an end; as the fire consumesall objects like the unreality of the world.

64. The falling thunderbolts pierced all bodies, and theglittering flames inflamed all the trees and plants; the windstoo blew with fiery heat, and scorched the bodies of even thegods, and singed all things on every side.

65. Here the wild fire was raging loose among the arboursin the forest, and there were clouds of hot ashes flying in theair; and smoky mists emitting red hot embers and fiery sparks.382Again darknesses were rising upward with fa*ggots of fire fallingfrom amidst them, and gusts of wind blew with speed andforce, to befriend the destructive fire. (The air enkindled andspread the wild fire all about).

Argument:—Description of the Devouring firebelow, and the Deluging clouds above.

Vasishtha added:—Now blew the destroying winds,shaking the mountains by their force: and filling theseas with tremendous waves, and rending the skies with cyclonicstorms.

2. The bounded seas broke their bounds, and ran to theboundless oceans by impulse of the wind, as poor people run tothe rich, by compulsion of their driving poverty.

3. The earth being fried by the fire, went under the overflowingwaters; and joined with the infernal regions, lyingbelow the waters of the deep.

4. The heaven disappeared into nothing, and the wholecreation vanished into the air. The worlds were reduced tovacuum, and the solar light dwindled to that of a star in thestarry sphere.

5. There appeared from some cavity of the sky somehideous clouds, called Pushkara Avartaka and others in theforms of dreadful demons, and roaring with tremendousnoise.

6. The noise was as loud as the bursting of the mundane-egg,and the hurling down of a large edifice; and as thedashing of the waves against one another, in a furiouslyraging sea.

7. The loud peal resounding through the air and water,and reechoing amidst the city towers, was deafening andstunning to the ear; and the swelling at the tops of mountains,filled the world with uproar.

8. The sound swelling as it were, in the conch-shell of themundane-egg, was returned with triple clangor, from the vaultsof heaven and sky and the infernal world.

3849. The supports of all the distant sides, were tottering attheir base; and the waters of all the seas were mixed uptogether, as if to quench the thirst of the all devouring doomsday.

10. The doomsday advanced as the God Indra, mountedon the back of his elephantine clouds; which roared aloudamidst the waters, contained in the etherial ocean from thebeginning.

11. The great doomsday was attended with a hubbub, asloud as that of the churning of the ocean before; or as thatemitted by the revolving world or a hydrostatic engine of immenseforce.

12. Hearing this roaring of the clouds, amidst the surroundingfires, I became quite astonished at the stridor, and cast myeyes on all sides to see the clouds.

13. I saw no vestige of a cloud in any part of the heavens,except that of hearing their roar and finding flashes of firebrandsflaming in the sky, with showers of thunderbolts fallingfrom above. (i.e. It was a thunderstorm preceding therain).

14. The flaming fire spread over millions of miles, on allthe sides of earth and heaven; and burnt away every thing inthem, to a horrid devastation.

15. After a little while I descried a spot at a great distancein the sky; and felt a cool air blowing to my bodyfrom it.

16. At this time I observed the Kalpa clouds, appearingand gathering at a great distance in the sky, where there wasno relic of the living fire perceptible to the naked eye.

17. Then there breathed the Kalpa airs, from the waterycorner or western side of the sky; which burnt at last in blasts,capable of blowing and bearing away the great mountains ofMeru, Malaya and Himálaya.

18. These winds blew away the mountainous flames, andput to flight the burning cinders as birds to a distance; theybore down the spreading sparks, and drove away the fire fromall sides.

38519. The clouds of fire disappeared from the air, as eveningclouds; then clouds of ashes rose to the sky, and the atmospherewas cleared of every particle of fire.

20. The air was blowing with fire, and passing every whereas the fire of incendiarism; and melted down the golden citadelson the flying mountain of Meru.

21. The mountains on earth being put on fire, their flamesspread all about as the rays of the twelve suns.

22. The waters of oceans were boiling with rage, and thetrees and leaves of the forest were burning with blaze.

23. The cities and celestials sitting on their happy seats,in the highest heaven of Brahmá, fell down below with all theirinhabitants of women and young and old people, being burntby the flames.

24. The Kalpánta or chaotic fire was mixed with the water,in the lake of Brahmá.

25. The strong winds uprooted the deep rooted mountainsand rocks, and plunged them headlong into the fiery mire ofthe infernal regions.

26. The chaotic clouds advanced as a troop of sable camels,moving slowly in the azure sky with a grumbling noise.

27. They appeared from a corner of the sky, like a hugemountain flashing with lightnings of gorgeous flame; andfraught with the waters of the seven oceans.

28. These clouds were capable of rending the great vaultof the world (heaven), with their loud uproar; and splitting allthe sides of heaven, standing upon their solid snow white andimpregnable walls.

29. The doomsday was as the raging ocean, and the planetswere the rolling islands in the whirlpools of their orbits; theflitting lightnings likened its shifting aquatic animals, and theroaring of the clouds was as the howling of its waters.

30. The moon being devoured by Ráhu, and burnt away bythe fiery comet, rose to heaven again and assumed the colderform of the cloud, to pour down more moisture than her nightlybeams and dews.

38631. Lightning like golden sphere in the shape of frigidityof the sort of Himalaya, held all stupefied waters, woods andhills.

32. After the clouds had split the vault of heaven, by theirharsh crackling and thunders; they dropped down the solidsnows at first, which were then melted down in the form ofliquid rain.

33. There was a jarring of dissonant sounds, that gratedupon the ear, and proceeded from the bursting of woods by wildfire, and the stridor of thunder-claps in the rebellowing air;and the cracking and crackling and dashing and crashing ofevery thing in the shattering world.

34. There was a sharp and shrill noise, arising from thewarring winds blowing in a hundred ways, and the drift ofbleak cold showers of driving snows, covering the face ofheaven.

35. The vault of heaven which is supported by the blue andsapphire-like pillars of the azure skies on all sides, shattered theearth and its props of the mountains, with big and heavy showersof diluvian rain.

36. The earth was bursting and splitting sound, by theblazing furnaces of fire on all sides; and the hearts of all livingbeings, were rent by the loud rattling of thunderbolts fromheaven.

37. The rain that reigned long over the realm of the fieryearth, was now going upward in the form of smoke, which theburning earth heaved from her bosom, as her sighs towardsheaven.

38. Now the vault of heaven, appeared to be overspreadwith a network, studded with red lotuses of the flying fireson high; while the dark showers had the appearance of swarmsof black bees, and the rain drops likened their flutteringwings.

39. All the sides of heaven resounded to the mingledclatter of hailstone and fire brands, falling down simultaneously387from the comingled clouds of dire and dreadful appearance;and the scene all around was as diresome to behold, as themingled warfare of two dreadful forces, with dire arms andcommingled bloodshed.

Argument:—The world presenting the scene of one universalsheet of water caused by the deluging clouds.

Vasishtha continued:—Hear now of the chaotic stateof the world, which was brought on by conflict of theearth, air, water, and fire with one another; and how the threeworlds were covered under the great diluvian waters.

2. The dark clouds flying in the air as pitchy ashes, overspreadthe world as a great ocean, with whirlpools of rollingsmoke.

3. The dark blaze of the fire glimmered amidst the combustibles,and converted all of them to heaps of ashes, which flewand spread over all the world.

4. The swelling sound of the hissing showers rose as high,as they were blowing aloud the whistle of their victory.

5. There was the assemblage of all the five kinds of cloudsand all of them pouring their waters in profusion upon theground; these were the ashy clouds, the grey clouds, the kalpaclouds, and the misty and the showering clouds.

6. The howling breezes, tottered the foundations of theworld; the high wind rose high to heaven, and filled all space;and bore the flames to burn down the regencies of the gods onevery side.

7. The winds dived deep into the depths of water, and boreand dispersed their frigidity to all sides of the airs, which numbedthe senses, and deafened the ears of all (by their coldness).

8. A loud hubbub filled the world, raised by the incessantfall of rain in columns from the vault of heaven; and by theroaring and growling of the kalpa fire.

9. The whole earth was filled with water as one ocean, bywaterfalls from the clouds of heaven, resembling the torrentsof Ganges and the currents of all rivers.

38910. The canopy of the kalpa or diluvian clouds, pierced bythe shining sun-beams above them, appeared as the leafy tuftat the top of the nigrescent tamála tree, with clusters of luridflowers, peeping through the sable leaves.

11. The all destroying tornado bore away the broken fragments,of trees and rocks, and the top of towers and castles aloftin the air; dashed them against the skycapt mountains, andbroke them asunder to pieces.

12. The swift stars and planets, clashing with the rapidcomets and meteors, struck sparks of fire and flame by theirmutual concussion, which burned about as igneous whirlpoolsin the air.

13. The raging and rapid winds, raised the waves of seas, ashigh as mountains; which striking against the rocks on thesea-shore, broke and hurled them down with tremendous noise.

14. The deep dusty and showering clouds, joined withthe wet kalpa clouds, cast into shade the bright light of thesun; and darkened the air under their sable shadows.

15. The seas over flowed their beds and banks, and boredown the broken fragments of the rocks under their bowels;and they became dreadful and dangerous by the falling androlling down of the stones with their current.

16. The huge surges of the sea, bearing the fragments ofthe rocks in their bosom, were raised aloft by the cloud rendingwinds; and they dashed against and broke down the shoreswith deep and tremendous noise.

17. The diluvian cloud then broke asunder the vault ofheaven, and split the bosom of the sky with its loud rattling;and then clapped together its oaklike hands, to see theuniversal ocean which it had made.

18. The earth, heaven and infernal regions, were rent topieces, and tossed and loosed in the all devouring waters; andthe whole nature was reduced to its original vacuity, as ifthe world was an unpeopled and vast desert.

19. Now the dead and half dead, the burnt and half burntbodies, of gods and demigods, of Gandharvas and men beheld one390another in the general ruin, and fled and fell upon each otherwith their lifted arms and weapons, with the velocity of thewinds. (It is a dogma of spiritualism, that tribal and personalanimosities &c., continue to the death bed and in after life, ifthere is no reconciliation made in the present state).

20. The diluvian winds, were flying as the funeral ashesfrom the piles; or as the arjuna humour of choler, drives aperson up and down in the air like a column of ashes.

21. The heaps of stones that were collected in the air, fellforcibly on the ground, and broke down whatever they struckupon; just as the falling hailstones from heaven, clatter out ofseason, and shatter every thing wherever they fall.

22. The rustling breezes howling in the caverns of mountains,resounded with a rumbling noise from the fall of themansions of the regents of every side.

23. The winds growled with harsh sounds, resembling thejarring noise of demons; and these blowing amidst the woods,appeared to be passing through the windows.

24. The cities and towns burning with the demoniac fire,and the mountains and abodes of the gods, flaming with solargleams, and their sparks in the air, flying like swarms of gnats.

25. The sea was roaring with its whirling rain waters onthe surface, and boiling with the submarine fire below; anddestroying alike both the big mountains below, as also theabodes of the gods above.

26. The conflict of the waters and rocks, demolished thecities of the rulers of earth on all sides; and hurled down theabodes of the deities and demons, and of the siddhas andgandharvas also.

27. The stones and all solid substances were pounded topowder, and the fire-brands were reduced to ashes: when theflying winds blew them as dust all about.

28. The hurling down of the abodes of gods and demons,and the dashing together of their walls emitted a noise as thatof the crashing of clouds, or gingling of metallic things in mutualcontact.

39129. The sky was filled with peoples and edifices, falling fromthe seven regions of heaven; and the gods themselves werewhirling in air, as anything fallen in a whirlpool in the sea.

30. All things whether burnt or unburnt, were swimmingup and down in the etherial ocean, as the winds toss aboutthe dry leaves of trees in the air.

31. The air was filled with the jarring and gingling sounds,rising from the fallen edifices of various metals and minerals inall worlds.

32. Then the smoky and ashy clouds all flew upward, whilethe heavy watery clouds lowered upon the earth; again theswelling billows were rising high upon the water, and the hillsand all other substances were sinking below.

33. The whirlpools were wheeling against one another,with gurgling noise, and the old ocean was rolling on withgigantic mountains, floating upon it like groups of leaves andshrubs.

34. The good deities were wailing aloud, and the wearyanimals were moving on slowly; the comets and other portentswere flying in the air, and the aspect of the universe, was dreadfuland diresome to behold.

35. The sky was full of dead and half dead bodies, borneby the breezes into its bosom; and it presented a grey anddingy appearance, as that of the dry and discoloured foliage oftrees (in the fading autumn).

36. The world was full of water, falling in profuse showersfrom the mountain peaks; and hundreds of streams floweddown by the sides of mountains, and were borne all about bythe breeze.

37. The fire now ceased to rage with its hundred flames,and the swelling sea now run over its boundary hills; andover flowed its banks.

38. Mass of gramineous plant mixed with mud and mire,appeared as large island; and intellect in the far distantvacuity, appeared as lighting over a forest.

39. The rains closing extinguished the fire, but the rising392fume and smoke filled the air and hid the heaven, so that theexistence of the prior world and the former creation was altogetherforgotten from remembrance.

40. Then there rose the loud cry of the extinction of creation,and there remained only the One being, who is exemptfrom creation and destruction (i.e. who is increate andimperishable).

41. Now the winds abated also, that had been incessantlystruggling to upset the world; and continually filling the universewith their particles, as with an unceasing supply ofgrains.

42. The bodies of comets clashing against one another, werereduced to sparks of fire resembling the dust of gold; and theseextinguishing at last to ashes, filled the vault of heaven withpowdered dust.

43. The orb of the earth being shattered to pieces, with allits contents of islands &c., was rolling in large masses togetherwith the fragments of the infernal worlds.

44. Now the seven regions of heaven and those of the infernalworlds, being mixed up in one mass with the shatteredmass of the earth and its mountains, filled up the universalspace with the chaotic waters and diluvian winds.

45. Then the universal ocean, was swollen with the watersof all its tributary seas and rivers; and there was a louduproar of the rolling waters, resembling the clamour of theenraged madman.

46. The rain fell at first in the form of fountains and cascades,and then it assumed the shape of falling columns or waterspouts; at last it took the figure of a palm tree, and then itpoured down its showers in torrents.

47. Then it ran as the current of a river, and flooded andoverflowed on all sides; and the raining clouds made the surfaceof the earth one extended sheet of water.

48. The flamefire was seen to subside at last, just as somevery great danger in human life, is averted by observance of theprecautions given in the sástras, and advice of the wise.

39349. At last the vast vault of the mundane world, became asdesolate of all its contents and submerged in water; as a goodlybel fruit loses its substance by being tossed about in playfulmood from the hands of boys.

Argument:—Rain waters running as rivers, and thesemeeting together and making an universal ocean.

Vasishtha continued:—The rain storm and fallinghails and snows, shattered the surface of the earth toparts and parcels; and the violence of the waters was increasing,like the oppression of kings in Kali or last days of theworld.

2. The rain water falling upon the stream of the etherialGanges, make it run in a thousand streamlets, flowing withhuge torrents, higher than the mountains of Meru and Mandara.

3. Here the waves rose to the path of the sun, and therethe waters sank down and lay dull in the mountain caves; andthen the dull element made the universal ocean, as when afool is made the soveran lord of earth.

4. The great mountains were hurled down as straws, in thedeep and broad whirlpools of water; and the tops of the hugesurges, reached to the far distant sphere of the sun.

5. The great mountains of Meru and Mandara of Vindhya,Sahya and Kailása, dived and moved in as fishes and sea monsters;the melted earth set as its soil, and large snakes floatedthereon like stalks of plant with their lotus like hoods.

6. The half burnt woods and floating plants, were as itsmoss and bushes, and the wet ashes of the burnt world, wereas the dirty mud underneath the waters.

7. The twelve suns shone forth, as so many fullblown lotuses,in the large lake of the sky; and the huge and heavy cloudof Puskara, with its dark showers of rain, seemed as the bluelotus bed, filled with the sable leaves.

8. The raging clouds roared aloud from the sides of mountains,like the foaming waves of the ocean; and the sun and395moon rolled like two pieces of sapphires over cities and towns(being darkened by the clouds).

9. The gods and giants and people at large, were blown upand borne into the air; till at last they flew up from theirlightness and fell into the disc of the sun. (i.e. From their wantof gravity on earth, they were attracted to the sun—the centre ofgravity of the solar system).

10. The clouds rained in torrents with loud clatteringnoise, and their currents carried down the floating rocks, as ifthey were mere bubbles of water, into the distant sea.

11. The deluging clouds were rolling in the air, after pouringtheir water in floods on earth; as if they were in search afterother clouds, with their open mouths and eyes (as if to seewhether there remained any raining cloud still).

12. The rushing tornado filled the air with uproar, and withone gust of wind, blasted the boundary mountain from itsbottom into the air. (So were the mountainous clouds, flung bythe hands of Titans to the skies).

13. The furious winds collected the waters of the deep tothe height of mountains; which ran with a great gurgling noiseall about, in order to deluge the earth under them.

14. The world was torn to pieces by the clashing of bodies,driven together by the tempestuous winds; which scatteredand drove millions of beings pell-mell, and over against oneanother.

15. The hills floated on the waves as straws, and dashingagainst the disc of the sun, broke it into pieces as by the peltingof stones.

16. The great void of the universe, spread as it were, thegreat net of waters in its ample space, and caught in themthe great hills, resembling the big eels caught in fishing nets.

17. The big animal bodies that were rising or plunging inthe deep, either as living or dead described the eddies madeby whirlpools and whales on the surface of the waters (i.e. theone sinking downwards, and the other rising upward).

18. Those that have been yet alive, were floating about thetops of the sinking mountains, which resembled the floating396froths of the sea; while the gods were fluttering as gnats andflies over them.

19. The spacious firmament on high, filled with innumerablerain drops, shining as bubbles of water in the air; appearedas the thousand eyes of Indra, looking on the rainsbelow.

20. Indra the god of heaven, with his body of the autumnalsky, and his eyes of the bubbling raindrops; was looking on thefloating clouds in the midway skies, flowing as the currents ofrivers on high.

21. The Pushkara and Avartaka clouds with their worldoverflowing floods; met and joined together in mutual embrace,as two winged mountains flying in air, and clashing against oneanother.

22. These clouds being at last satisfied with their devouringthe world, under their all swallowing waters; were now roaringloudly and flying lightly in the air, as if they were dancing withtheir uplifted hilly arms.

23. The clouds were pouring forth their floods of waterabove, and the mountain tops were flaming in the midway sky;and the huge snakes that had supported the earth, were nowdiving deep into the mud of the infernal regions (owing to thedestruction of the earth).

24. The incessant showers filled the three regions, likethe triple stream of Ganges running in three directions; theydrowned the highest mountains, whose tops floated as froths inthe universal ocean.

25. The floating mountains struck against the sphere ofheaven, and broke it into fragments; when the fairies of heaven,floated as pretty lotuses on the surface of waters.

26. The universe was reduced to an universal ocean, whichroared with a tremendous noise; and the three worlds beingsplit to pieces, were borne away into the waters of the endlessdeep.

27. There remained no one to save another, nor any onethat was not swept away by the flood; for who is there that397can save us, when the all devouring time grasps us in hisclutches.

28. There remained neither the sky nor the horizon, therewas no upside nor downward in the infinite space; there was nocreation nor a creature any where, but all were submergedunder one infinite sheet of water.

Argument:—Nirvána-Extinction Compared withWaking from the Dream of Existence.

Vasishtha resumed:—Seeing the end of all I still retainedmy seat in infinite vacuity; and my eyes weredetained by the sight of a glorious light, shining as the morningrays of the rising luminary of the day.

2. While I was looking at that light, I beheld the greatBrahmá sitting as a statue carved in stone, intent upon hismeditation of supreme One, and beset by his transcendent gloryall about him.

3. I saw there a multitude of gods, sages and holy personages,with Vrihaspati and Sukra—the preceptors of gods anddemigods, together with the regent deities of wealth anddeath.

4. There were likewise the regent divinities of water, fireand the other deities also; so were there companies of rishisand siddhas and sádhyas, gandharvas and others.

5. All these were as figures in painting, and all sitting intheir meditative mood; they all sat in their lotiform posture,and appeared as lifeless and immovable bodies.

6. Then the twelve ádityas or suns (of the twelve signs),met at the same centre (with the same object in their view);and they sat in the same lotiform posture (of devotion, as theother deities).

7. Then awhile after, I beheld the lotus born Brahmá; asif I came to see the object of my dream before me after mywaking.

8. I then lost the sight of the deities, assembled in theBrahma-loka or in the world of Brahmá, as when great mindedmen, lose the sight of the most prominent objects of their desire399from their minds. Nor did I perceive the aerial city of mydream before me, upon my waking (from the trance of myillusion).

9. Then the whole creation, which is but the ectype of themind of Brahmá; appeared as void as an empty desert to me;and as the earth turning to a barrenwaste upon the ruin of itscities.

10. The gods and sages, the angels and all other beings,were no where to be seen any more; but were all blended inand with the same void every where.

11. I then seated in my etherial seat, came to know by mypercipience, that all of them have become extinct (lit. obtainedtheir nirvána extinction, like Brahmá in Brahma himself).

12. It is with the extinction of their desires, that they havebecome extinct also; as the sleeping dreamers come to themselvesafter they are awakened from their illusive vision. (Coming toone’s self Swasiarúpa one’s own nature or essence, means invedánta, the holy and pure nature of the human soul, as anemanation or image of the divine).

13. The body is an aerial nothing, appearing as a substantialsomething, from our desire (or imagination of it only), anddisappearing with the privation of our fancy for it, like a dreamvanishing from the sight of a waking man.

14. The aerial body appears as real as any other image inour dream; and there remains nothing of it, upon our comingto their knowledge of its unreal nature, and the vanity of ourdesires.

15. We have no consciousness also, of either our spiritual orcorporeal bodies, when we are fixed in our samádhi or intensemeditation in the state of our waking (from sleep).

16. The notion of a thing seen in our dream, is given hereas an instance (to prove the unreality of our idea of the body);because it is well known to boys and every body, and adduced tous both in the srutis and smritis tradition (that the objects ofsight, are as false as those of dreams).

17. Whoever denies the falsity of the notions he has in his400dream, and goes on to support the reality of these as well asother visible sights; must be a great impostor; and such aone deserves to be shunned, for who can wake the wakingsleeper.

18. What is the cause of the corporeal body? Not thedream; since the bodies seen in a dream, are invisible (to thenaked eye); and this being true it follows, that there is nosolid body in the next world (as it is expected by means ofsacrifices and pious acts).

19. Should there be other bodies after the loss of the presentones (by death); then there would be no need of repeatedcreation (of corporeal bodies by Brahmá); if the pristine bodieswere to continue for ever.

20. Anything having a form and figure and its parts andmembers, is of course perishable in its nature; and the position(of Jaimini), that there was another kind of world before, islikewise untenable (since there could be nothing at any time,without its definite form and parts).

21. If you say (in the manner of the chárvákas), that theworld was never destroyed; and that the understanding isproduced of itself in the body, in the same manner as the spiritis generated in the fermented liquor.

22. This position of yours is inconsistent with the doctrines,of the puránas and histories as well as those of the vedas,smritis and other sástras, which invariably maintain destructibilityof material things.

23. Should you, O intelligent Ráma, deny with the chárvákasthe indefeasibility of these sástras; say what faith can berelied on those heretical teachings, which are as false as theoffspring of a barren woman.

24. These heretical doctrines are not favoured by the wise,owing to their pernicious tendencies; there are many discrepanciesin them, as you shall have it, from the few that I am goingto point out to you.

25. If you say the human spirit to liken the spirit of liquors,(which is generated in and destroyed with the liquor); then tell401me what makes the destroyed or departed spirit of a deceasedperson, who is dead in a foreign country, revisit his friends athome in the shape and form of a fiend (pisácha).

26. To this it is answered, that the apparition whichthus appears to view is a false appearance only; granting itas such, why not own our appearances to be equally falsealso?

27. It being so, how can you believe the bodies, that thedeparted souls of men are said in the sástras, to assume in thenext world, to be true also? (Any more than their being mereapparitions only).

28. There is no truth in the proof of a ghost (pisácha), asthere is in that of the spirit in liquor; hence if the suppositionof the former is untrue, what faith is there in future body inthe next world?

29. If the existence of spirits be granted, from the commonbelief of mankind in them; then why should not the doctrineof a future state of the dead, be received as true upon thetestimony of the sástras?

30. If the prepossession of a person’s being possessed on asudden by an evil spirit, be any ground of his reliance in it,why then should he not rest his belief in his future state,wherein he is confirmed by the dogmas of the sástras?

31. Whatever a man thinks or knows in himself, he supposesthe same as true at all times; and whether his persuasionbe right or wrong, he knows it correct to the bestof his belief.

32. A man knowing well, that the dead are to live again inanother world, relies himself fully upon that hope; and doesnot care to know, whether he shall have a real body thereor not.

33. Therefore it is the nature of men, to be prepossessedwith the idea of their future existence; and next theirgrowing desire for having certain forms of bodies for themselves,leads them to the error of seeing several shapes before them.

40234. It is then the abstaining from this desire, that removesthe maladies of our errors of the looker, looking and the look(i.e. of the subjective and the objective); while the retaining ofthis desire leads us, to the viewing of this apparition of theworld ever before us.

35. So it was the feeling of desire at first, which led thesupreme spirit of Brahmá to the creation of the world; but itsabandonment causes our nirvána-release, while its retentionleads us to the error of the world.

36. This desire sprang at first in the Divine mind ofBrahmá, and not in the immutable spirit of Brahma; and Ifeel this desire rising now in me, for seeing the true andsupreme Brahma in all and every where.

37. All these knowledge that you derive here from, is saidto form what is called the nirvána-extinction by the wise; andthat which is not learnt herein, is said to constitute the bondageof the world.

38. This is the true knowledge to see God every where, it isself-evident in our inmost soul, and does not shine without it;(for all without is error and ignorance—avidyá).

39. The self-consciousness of our liberation—muktásmi, iswhat really makes us so; but the knowledge that we are boundto this earth—baddhásmi, is the source of all our woe, whichrequire great pains to be removed.

40. The awakening of our consciousness of the world, is thecause of our being enslaved to it; and its hybernation in thetrance of samádhi, is our highest felicity. By being awake tothe concerns of the world, you only find the unreal appearingas real to you (for every thing here, is but deception anddelusion).

41. Lying dormant in holy trance, without the torpidity ofinsensibility, is termed our moksha or spiritual liberation;while our wakefulness to the outer world, is said to be the stateof our bondage to it.

42. Now let your nirvána be devoid of all desire, and fromtrouble, care and fear; let it be a clear and continuous revery403without any gap or cessation, without the scruples of unity andduality; and be of the form of spacious firmament, ever calmand clear and undisturbed in itself.

Argument:—Description of ultimate Dissolutionaccording to Rational and Materialistic Philosophy.

Vasishtha continued:—Afterwards the celestials thatwere present in the heaven of Brahmá, vanished awayand became invisible, as a lamp with its weakened (i.e. burntout), wick or thread.

2. Now the twelve suns, having disappeared in the body ofBrahmá; their burning beams burnt away the heaven ofBrahmá, as they had burnt down the earth and other bodies.

3. Having consumed the seat and abode of Brahmá, theyfell into the meditation of the supreme Brahma, and becameextinct in him like Brahmá, as when a lamp is extinguishedfor the want of its oil.

4. Then the waters of the universal ocean, invaded thecelestial city of Brahmá, and over flooded its surface, as theshade of night fills the face of the earth darkness.

5. Now the whole world was filled by water, from the highestseat of Brahmá, to the lowest pit of hell; and became as fullwith that liquid, as a grape is swollen with its juice, when it isperfectly ripe (i.e. cold and darkness filled the place, wherethere was no heat or light).

6. The waving waters rising as mountain tops, plied withthe flying birds of air; and washed the seats and feet of thegods hovering over them. They touched the kalpa or diluvianclouds, which deluged over them.

7. In the meantime I beheld from my aerial seat, somethingof a dreadful appearance in the midst of the skies, whichhorrified me altogether.

8. It was of the form of deep and dark chaos, and embracedthe whole space of the sky in its grasp and appeared as the405accumulation of the gloom of night, from the beginning to theend of creation.

9. This dark form radiated the bright beams; of millions ofmorning suns, and was as resplendent as three suns together;and as the flashing of many steady lightnings at once.

10. Its eyes were dazzling and its countenance flashed withthe blaze of a burning furnace, it had five faces and three eyes;its hands were ten in number, and each of them held a tridentof immense size.

11. It appeared manifest before me, with its outstretchedbody in the air; and stood transfixed in the sky, as a hugeblack cloud extending all over the atmosphere.

12. It remained in the visible horizon, below and out of theuniversal ocean of waters; and yet the position and features ofthe hands and feet and other members of its body, were butindistinctly marked in the sky.

13. The breath of its nostrils, agitated the waters of theuniversal ocean; as the arms of Govinda or Hari churned ofyore the milky ocean (after the great deluge).

14. Then there arose from the diluvian waters, a male beingcalled afterwards the first male (Ádipurusha). He was thepersonification of the collective ego, and the causeless causeof all.

15. He rose out of the ocean, as a huge mountainous rock;and then flew into the air with his big flapping wings, extendingover and enclosing the whole space of infinite vacuity.

16. I knew him from a distance, and by the indications ofhis triple eyes and trident, to be the Lord Rudra himself; andthen bowed down to him, as the great God of all.

17. Ráma asked:—Why sir, was the Lord Rudra of thatform, why was he of such gigantic form and of so dark a complexion?Why had He ten arms and hands, and why had Hethe five faces and mouths upon his body?

18. Why had he his three eyes, and so fierce a form; washe absolute in himself or delegated by any other? What washis errand and his act; and was it a mere shadow or having ashadow (helpmate) of its substance (i.e. máya or Illusion)?

40619. Vasishtha replied:—This being is named Rudra or fierce,for his being the aggregate of Egoism. He is full of his self-pride,and the form in which I beheld him, was that of a clearvacuity.

20. This lord was of the form of vacuum, and of the hueand resplendence of vacuity; and it is on account of his beingthe essence of the vacuous intellect, that he is represented asthe cerulean sky.

21. Being the soul of all beings, and being present in allplaces, he is represented in his gigantic form; as his five faces,serve as representations of his five internal organs of sense.

22. The external organs of sense (together with their objectsand faculties), and the five members of his body, arerepresented by his ten arms on both sides of his body.

23. This Lord of creation together with all living bodiesand mankind, are resorbed in the supreme One at the finaldissolution of the world; and when he is let out to pass fromthe unity, he then appears in this form.

24. He is but a part of the eternal soul, and has no visiblebody or form of his own; but is thought of in the said form bythe erroneous conception of men.

25. Having proceeded from the vacuum of the Intellect,the lord Rudra is posited in the material vacuum or firmament;and has his residence also in the bodies of living beings in theform of air (or vital breath).

26. The aeriform Rudra comes to be exhausted in courseof time, and then by forsaking the animated bodies, he returnsto resort to the reservoir of eternal rest and peace.

27. The three qualities, the three times, the three intellectualfaculties of the mind, understanding and egoism; thethree vedas, and the three letters of the sacred syllable of om,are the three eyes of Rudra.

28. The trident of Rudra is the symbol of his sceptre, andit is held in his hand, to imply his having the dominion of thethree worlds under his hold.

29. He is represented as having a living body and soul, to407indicate his being the personality and personification of theegoism of all living beings, and that there is no living bodyapart from himself.

30. It is his nature and business, to provide to all livingcreatures, according to their wants and desert; and is thereforemanifested in the form of Siva, which is the divine Intellect inthe form of air.

31. This Lord having at last destroyed and devoured thewhole creation, rests himself in perfect peace, and becomes ofthe form of pure air and of the blue firmament.

32. After affecting the destruction of the world, he drinksdown and drenches up the universal ocean; and then beingquite satiate, he rests himself in perfect peace and inaction.

33. Afterwards as I beheld him drawing the waters of theocean into his nostrils, by the force of his breath.

34. I saw a flame of fire flashing out from his mouth, andthought it to be the flash of the latent fire of the water, whichwas drawn in him, by the breath of his nostrils.

35. Rudra the personified Ego, remains in the form of latentheat in the submarine fire; and continues to suck up the watersof the ocean, until the end of a kalpa epoch.

36. The waters then enter into the infernal regions, assnakes enter in the holes beneath the ground; and the diluvianwinds entered into his mouth, in the form of the five vital airs;just as the winds of heaven have their recess in hollow sky.

37. The lord Rudra then goes on to swallow and suck upthe marine waters, as the bright sunlight swallows the gloomof the dark fortnight.

38. There appears at last a calm and quiet vacuity as theazure sky, and resembling the wide ocean filled with flying dustand smoke; and devoid of any being or created thing, andstretching from the Empyrean of God to the lowest abyss orinfernum.

39. I described amidst it four different spheres of emptyvoid, bearing no vestige of anything moving or stirring in them.Listen to me, O son of Raghu, and you will hear what theywere.

40840. One of these lay in the midst of the air, and was sustainedin it without any prop or support like the particles offragrance floating in the air. This was Rudra of the form ofthe azure sky.

41. The second was lying afar, and appeared as the concavityof the sky over this earth; it was a part of the mundane systemand below the seven spheres of the infernal regions.

42. The third was a region above the mundane sphere, andwas invisible to the naked eye, owing to its great distancebeyond the azure sky.

43. Then there was the surface of the earth, with its lowerhemisphere of the watery regions; it was traversed by thegreat mountain which was the seat of gods—the Himálayas; andbeset by islands, and sea-girt sands and shores.

44. There is another sphere, lying at the furthest distancefrom the other circles of the world; and comprises the infinitespace of vacuum, which extends unlimited like the unboundedand transparent spirit of God.

45. This was the remotest sphere of heavens, that could beobserved by me; and there was nothing else observable onany side, beside and beyond the limits of these four spheresor circles.

46. Ráma interrogated, saying:—I ask you to tell me, Ovenerable sir; whether there is any sphere or space, beyondwhat is contained in the mind of Brahmá; then tell me whatand how many of them are there, what are their boundaries, andhow are they situated, and to what end and purpose.

47. Vasishtha replied:—Know Ráma, that there are tenother spheres beyond this world (and each of them ten timesgreater that the preceding one). Of these the first is the sphereof water, lying beyond the two parts (or continents) of theearth. It is ten times greater than the land which it covers,as the shadow of evening overspreads the sky.

48. Beyond that is the sphere of heat, which is ten timesgreater in its extent than that of water; and afar from this isthe region of the winds, whose circle is ten times larger thanthat of solar heat and light.

40949. Next to these is the sphere of air, which is ten timesas wide as the circuits of the winds; It is the highest sphereof transparent air, and is said to comprise the infinite vacuityof the divine spirit.

50. Afar and aloft from these, there are some other spheresalso, whose circles extend to the distance of ten times above oneanother in the vast infinity of space.[2]

51. Ráma said:—Tell me, O chief of sages, who is it thatupholds the water of the deep below, and supports the air ofthe firmament above the world; and in what manner they areheld aloof.

52. Vasishtha replied:—All earthly things are upheld bythe earth, as the waters support the leaves of lotuses upon it;and every part depends upon the whole, as a babe dependsupon its mother (or as the young of an ape, clings to thebreast of its dam, and never falls off from it).

53. Hence everything runs to, and is attracted by whateveris larger than it, and situated nearer to it than others; just asthe thirsty man runs to, and is attracted by the adjacent water.(Here we find the discovery of the theory of attraction, somethousands of years before it was discovered by Newton, andknown to moderns).

54. So all metallic and other bodies, depend upon the closeunion of their parts, which being joined together, are as inseparablefrom one another, as the limbs and members of a personare attached to the main body.

55. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, how do the parts of theworld subsist together; in what manner they are joined withone another, and how are they disjoined from one another, anddestroyed at last.

56. Vasishtha replied:—Whether the world is supported bysome one or not, and whether it remains fixed (by attraction) or410falls off (by its gravity); it is in reality an unsubstantial form,like that of a city in a dream.

57. What is it falls away or remains fixed on some support,it is viewed in the same manner, as our consciousness representsit unto us.

58. The world is contained in and represented by the intellect,in the same manner, as the wind is contained in and letout of air; and as the sky presents the blueness of the firmament,and other airy appearances.

59. These habitable worlds forming the universe, are butimaginary cities and creations of the Intellect; they are butairy representations of the airy mind, as the formless sky isrepresented in empty vacuity, and appearing in various formsunto us.

60. As it is the nature of our Intellect, to give many thingsto our consciousness, so it is its nature also, to make us unconsciousof their disappearance by day and night.

61. An innumerable train of thoughts, are incessantly employingour minds when we are sitting and at rest; and so theyare flying off and returning to us by day and night.

62. All things appear to approach to their dissolution, toone who knows their destructibility and their ultimate extinctionat the end of a kalpa period or millennium; and they seemas ever growing to one, who is conversant with their growthonly in the vacuity of the mind.

63. All our thoughts appear in the vacuum of our minds,as the vaporous chains of pearls are seen in the autumn sky;they are both as erroneous and fleeting as the other, and yetthey press so very thick and quick on our sight and minds, thatthere is no reckoning of them.

Argument:—Rudra dancing as Bhairava on the last day,in company with his shadow the last night.

Vasishtha related:—I beheld afterwards, O Ráma!the same Rudra standing in the same firmament,and dancing with a hideous form in the same part of thesky.

2. This body then became as big as to fill the whole atmosphere,and as deep and dark black as to cover the ten sides ofthe sky, under the shadow of its sable appearance.

3. Its three eye-balls flashed with the flaming lights of thesun, moon and fire; and the body which was as black as thefumes of a dark flame, was as mute as the ten sides of thenaked sky.

4. The eyes were blazing with the flame of the submarinefire, and the arms were as ponderous as the huge surges of thesea; and the blue body, seemed as the consolidated form ofwaters rising from the blue universal ocean.

5. As I was looking upon this enormous body, I saw a formlike that of its shadow rising from it; and jumping about inthe manner of dancing.

6. I was thinking in my mind, as to how could this appearin this dark and dreary night; when the heavens were hidunder darkness, and there was no luminary shining in the sky(to cause the shadow).

7. As I was reflecting in this manner, I beheld on the foregroundof that etherial stage, the stalwart phantom of a darkdingy female with three eyes, prancing and dancing and glancingall about.

8. She was of a large and lean stature, and of a dark black412complexion; with her flaming eye-balls burning as fire, andgirt with wild flowers all over her body.

9. She was as inky black as pasted pitch, and as dark as thedarkest night or Erebus; and with her body of darkness visible,she appeared as the image of primeval night.

10. With her horrid and wide open jaws, she seemed toview the spacious vacuum of air; and with her long legs andoutstretched arms, she appeared to measure the depth andbreadth of open space on all sides.

11. Her frame was as faint as it was reduced by longenduring fast, and it stooped lower and lower as if presseddown by hunger; it was wavering to and fro, as a body ofsable clouds is driven backward and forward by the drivingwinds.

12. Her stature was so lean and long, that it could notstand by itself; and was supported like a skeleton, by the ligamentsof the ribs, and ligatures of arteries, which uphold itfast from falling.

13. In a word her stature was so tall and towering, thatit was by my diurnal journey in the upper and lower skies,that I came to see the top of her head, and the base of herfeet.

14. After this I beheld her body, as a bush of tangling thicketsand thistles, by the complicate ligatures of the tendons andarteries, which fastened all its members together.

15. She was wrapped in vests of various hues, and her headwas decked by the luminaries belike her head-dress of lotusflowers. She was beset by the pure light of heaven, and herrobe flashed as fire, enflamed by the breath of winds.

16. The lobes of her long ears, were adorned with rings ofsnakes, and pendents of human skulls; her kneebones wereas prominent as two dried gourd shells, and her two dark dugshung down loosely upon her breast.

17. The braid of hair on the top of her head, was adornedwith feathers of male and young peaco*cks; and defied the crowned413head of the lord of Gods (i.e. Indra), and the circlet of hisdiscus (Khattánga).

18. Her moon like teeth, cast their lustre like moon beams;and it glistened amidst the dark ocean of chaotic night, as themoon beams play upon the surface, and rising waves of thedark blue deep.

19. Her long stature rose as a large tree in the sky, andher two kneepans resembled two dry gourds growing upon it;and these clattered like the rustling of a tree by the breeze, asshe turned about in the air.

20. And as she danced about in the air, with her sombrearms lifted on high; they resembled the rising of the waves ofdark ocean of eternity. (The words Kála and Kálí—implyingboth the black goddess and dark eternity).

21. Now she lifts one arm and then many more, and at lastshe displays her countless hands; to play her part in the playhouseof the universe.

22. Now she shows but one face and then another, andafterwards many more ad infinitum; in order to representher various and infinite parts, in the vast theatre of theworld.

23. Now she dances on one foot, and instantly on both herfeet; she stands on a hundred legs in one moment, and on hernumberless feet at another.

24. I understood this person to be the figure of chaotic, andthe same which the wise have ascertained as the goddessknown under the designation of Kálior eternal night. Or Ipresently recognized her as the figure of kála-rátri or darknight; which the wise have ascertained to be the image ofdark eternity, as designated as the goddess Kálí—Hecate orchaotic night. (But Kálias in Greek, means Sundarí or fairand beautiful also).

25. The sockets of her triple eyes flashed with a flame, likethat of the furnace of a fire engine; and her forest was as glaringand flaring, as the burning Indra-níla mountain.

26. Her cheek-bones were as frightful as two high hills,414projecting over her hideous open mouth; appearing as a mountaincavern, and capable of ingulfing the whole world in it. (HenceKáli the type of time, is said to be the devourer of all things,and restorer of them in unconscious womb).

27. Her shoulder-blades were as high as two mountainpeaks, piercing the starry frame; where they were decorated bythe clusters of stars, as with strings of pearls.

28. She danced with her outstretched arms, resembling thewaving branches of trees; and displayed the brightness of hernails, like that of blooming blossoms upon them; or as so manyfull moons shining under the azure sky.

29. As she turned and tossed her sable hands on every side,she seemed as a dark cloud moving about in the sky; and thelustre of her nails, appeared to shed the splendour of stars allaround.

30. The face of the sky resembled a forest ground, occupiedby the black arbours of her two sable arms; and her outstretchedfingers resembling the twigs of the trees, were coveredover by the blossoms of their pearly nails, which waved asflowers in azure sky.

31. With her legs taller than the tallest tála and tamálatrees, she stalked over the burning earth, and put to shame thelargest trees that grew upon it (and kept burning withoutbeing able to move).

32. The long and flowing hairs on her head, reached to andspread over the skies; and seemed about to form black vesturesfor the dark elephantine clouds, moving about in theempty air.

33. She breathed from her nostrils a rapid gale of wind,which bore the mountains aloft in the air; and blew great galesin the sky; resounding with loud repeals from all sides of itsboundless spheres.

34. The breath of her nostrils and mouth, blew in unisonall about the circle of the universe; and kept the great spherein its constant rotation, as it were in its enharmonic progression.

35. I then came to perceive, as I looked on her with attention,415that her stature was enlarging with her dancing, till atlast I found it to fill the whole space of the air and sky.

36. And as long I continued to behold her in her dancingstate, I saw the great mountains pendant all about her body,as if they were a string of jewels around her person.

37. The dark diluvian clouds formed a sablegarb about herbody, and the phenomena of the three worlds appeared as thevarious decorations, that adorned her person.

38. The Himálaya and Sumeru mountains, were as her twosilver and golden ear-rings, and the rolling worlds, resembledthe ringing trinkets and belts about her waist.

39. The ranges of boundary mountains, were as chains andwreaths of flower upon her person; and the cities and townsand villages and islands, were as the leaves of trees scatteredabout her.

40. All the cities and towns of the earth, appeared asadornments on her person; and all the three worlds and theirseasons and divisions of time, were as ornaments and garmentsupon her body.

41. She had the streams of holy rivers of Gangá andYamuná, hanging down as strings of pearls from the ears of herother heads. So the virtues and vices (recorded in the srutis),formed decorations of her ears also.

42. The four vedas were her four breasts, which exudedwith the sweet milk (of religion) in the manner of her sweat;and the doctrines of other sástras, flowed as milk from theirnipples.

43. The armour and arms, and the various weapons as thesword and the shield, the spear and the mallet, which shebore on her body; decorated her person as with wreaths offlowers.

44. The Gods and all the fourteen kinds of animal beings,were all situated as lines of hair on her person, in her form ofanimated nature itself.

45. The cities and villages and hills, which were situatedin her person; all joined in their merry dance with herself,in the expectation of their resurrection, in the same forms again.

41646. The unstable moving creation also, which rested in her,appeared to me as if they were situated in the next world, anddancing with joy in the hope of their revivification. (The livingthat are dead and buried in the chaotic Kálí, are to be revivifiedto life again).

47. The chaotic Kálí, having devoured and assimilated theworld in herself; dances with joy like the peaco*ck, after gorginga snake in its belly, and at the appearance of a dark cloud.

48. The world continues to remain and exhibit its realform, in her wide extended figure; as the shadow of a thing isseen in a mirror, and the situations of countries are shown ina map.

49. I saw her sometimes to stand still, with the wholeworld and all its forests and mountains; to be moving anddancing in her person; and all forms to be repeatedly reducedin and produced from her.

50. I beheld the harmonious oscillation of the whole, inthe mirror of that person; and I saw the repeated rising andsetting of the world in that circle, without its utter extinction.

51. I marked the revolution of the stars, and the rising ofmountains within its circumference, and I observed the throngsof gods and demigods, to assemble and disperse on her in time,as flights of gnats and flies, are driven to and fro by the windsin open air.

52. All these heavenly bodies and these islands in the ocean,are moving around her, like the flying wheels of a broken warcar;and they whirl up and down about her, like the rocks andwoods in a whirlpool.

53. She is clad in the robes of the blue clouds, which arefurled and folded by the breezes of air; and the cracking of woodand bones under feet, answer the sound of her foot-steps andanklets below.

54. The world is filled with the noise of the concussion andseparation of its objects, and the tumult of worldly people;appearing as passing shadows in a mirror, or as the entranceand exits of actors in a play on the stage.

41755. The high-headed Meru and the long armed (ranged)boundary mountains, seem to be dancing about her in theirrepresentations in the moving clouds; and the forest treesseen in the clouds, seem to perform their circuitous dance allaround.

56. The high-swelling seas were heaving their waves toheaven, bearing with them the uprooted woods of the coastson high, and again hurling them down, and sinking them in thewaters below.

57. The cities were seen to be rolling with a tremendousnoise in the waters below, and no relics of houses and towersand the habitations of human kind, were found to be leftbeneath.

58. As the chaotic night (kála-rátri) was thus roving atrandom, the sun and moon with their light and shade, foundshelter in the tops of her nails, where they sparkled as threadsof gold. (i.e. The flash of her nails, afforded the only lightamidst the universe of gloom).

59. She was clad in the blue mantle of the clouds, andadorned with necklaces of frost and icicles; and the worlds hungabout her, like the trickling dewdrops of her perspiration.

60. The blue sky formed her covering veil about her head,the infernal region her footstool, the earth her bowels, and theseveral sides (or points of the compass) were so many armson her.

61. The seas and their islands, formed the cavities andpimples in her person; the hills and rocks made her rib bones,and the winds of heaven were her vital airs.

62. As she continues in her dancing, the huge mountainsand rocks swing and reel about her gigantic body, as her attendantsatellites.

63. The mountain trees turning around her, appear to weavechaplets and dance about, in congratulation of her commencinga new cycle or kalpa.

64. The gods and demigods, the hairless serpents andworms, and all hairy bodies; are all but component parts of418her body; and being unable to remain quiescent while she isin motion, are all turning round with her.

65. She weaves the three fold cord of the sacred thread—trivrit,consisting of acts, sacrifices and knowledge, which sheproclaims aloud in the thundering voice of the triple vedas.

66. Before her (i.e. in the infinite space), there is no heavenor earth (i.e. up or down); but the one becomes the other, byits constant rotation like the wheel of a vehicle.

67. Her wide open nostrils constantly breathe out hoarsecurrents of her breath, which give rise to the winds of air, andtheir loud sufflations and whistlings.

68. Her hundred fold arms revolving in all the four directions,give the sky the appearance of a forest; filled with thetall heads of trees and their branches, shaken by a furioustornado in the air.

69. At last my steady eye-sight grew tired, with viewingthe varieties of productions from her body; and their motionsand movements, resembling the manners of an army inwarfare.

70. Mountains were seen to be rolling as by an engine, andthe cities of the celestials falling downward; and all theseappearances were observed to take place in the mirror of herperson.

71. The Meru mountains were torn and borne away asbranches of trees, and the Malayas were tossed about as flyingleaves; the Himálayas fell down as dewdrops, and all earthlythings are scattered as straws.

72. The hills and rocks fled away, and the Vindhyas flew asaerials in the air; the woods rolled in the whirlpools, and thestars floated in the sea of heaven, as swans and geese in thelakes below.

73. Islands floated as straws in the ocean of her body, andthe seas were worn as circlet on it; the abodes of the godswere like lotus-flowers, blooming in the large lake of her person.

74. As we see the images of cities in our dream, and in the419darkness of night, as clearly we behold them in the fair skylight; so I beheld all things in her dark body, as vividly as theyshone in broad sunlight.

75. All things though immovable, as the mountains andseas and arbours; appear to be moving in and dancing aboutin her person.

76. So the wandering worlds are dancing about in the greatcircle of her spacious body, as if they were mere straws in thevast ocean of creation. Thus the sea rolls on the mountain,and the high hills pierces the hollow of the heaven above.This heaven also with its sun and moon, are turning below theearth; and the earth with all its islands and mountains, cities,forests and flowery gardens; is dancing in heaven round aboutthe sun. (Describing the harmonious dance of the planetaryspheres in empty air).

77. The mountains are wandering (with the earth), amidstthe surrounding sky; and the sea passes beyond the horizon(with the rotation of the earth); and so the cities and all humanhabitations, traverse through other skies; and so also therivers and lakes pass through other regions, as objects reflectingthemselves in different mirrors, and as swiftly as the leaf ofa tree torn by a tempest, is hurled on and borne afar to distantparts.

78. Fishes skim in the desert air (or etherial desert), asthey swim in the watery plain; and cities are situated inempty air, as firmly as they are fixed on solid earth. Thewaters are raised to heaven by the clouds, which are againdriven back by the winds, to pour their waters on mountain tops.

79. The groups of stars are wandering about, like lustres ofa thousand lamps lighted in the sky; they seem to shed gemswith their rays as they roll, or scatter flowers from all sides onthe heads of gods and aerial beings.

80. Creations and destructions accompany her, as fleetingdays and nights, or as jewels of brilliant and black gems on herperson. They are as the two fortnights resembling her whiteand black wings on either side.

42081. The sun and moon are the two bright gems on her person,and the clusters of stars form her necklaces of lesser gems;the clear firmament is her white apparel, and the flashes oflightnings form the brocaded fringes of her garment.

82. As she dances in her giddy dance of destruction, shehuddles the worlds under her feet as her anklets, raising therebya jingling sound as that of her trinkets.

83. In her warfare with the jarring elements, rolling onlike waves of the ocean, and darkening the daylight as by thewaving swords of warriors, she listens to the tumult of all theworlds and their peoples.

84. The gods Brahmá, Vishnu and Siva, together with theregents of sun and moon and fire, and all other gods and demigods,that shine in their respective offices; are all made to flybefore like a flight of gnats, and with the velocity of lightning.

85. Her body is a congeries of conflicting elements andcontrary principles, and creation and destruction, existence andnon-existence, happiness and misery, life and death, and all injunctionsand prohibitions (i.e. the mandatory and prohibitorylaws, do all abide conjointly and yet separately in her person).

86. The various states of production and existence, andcontinuance of action and motion, and their cessation whichappear to take place in her body, as in those of all corporealbeings, together with the revolution of the earth and all otherworlds in empty air; are all but false delusions of our minds,as there is nothing in reality except a boundless vacuity.

87. Life and death, peace and trouble, joy and sorrow, warand truce, anger and fear, envy and enmity, faith and distrustand all other opposite feelings; are concomitants with thisworldly life, and they dwell together in the same person, asthe various gems stored in a chest.

88. The intellectual sphere of her body, teems with notionsof multifarious worlds; which appear as phantoms in the openair, or as fallacies of vision to the dim sighted man.

89. Whether the world is quiescent in the intellect, or a passingphenomenon of outward vision; it appears both as stable421as well as moving, like the reflexion of objects in a standing orshaking mirror.

90. All worldly objects are as fluctuating, as the changingshows in a magic play; they forsake their forms and assumeothers as quickly, as the fickle desires of whimsical boys areever shifting from one object to another.

91. It is the combination of causal powers, which cause theproduction of bodies; and it is their separation which effectstheir dissolution; as it is the accumulation of grains, whichmakes a granary, and their abstraction which tends to its disappearance.

92. The Goddess now appears in one form, and then inanother; she becomes now as small as the thumb finger, and ina moment fills the sky (with the bigness of her body).

93. That goddess is all in all, she is changed through everything in world, and is the cosmos itself and the power of theintellect also; she fills the whole concavity of the sky with herform of pure vacuity.

94. She is the intellect, which embraces all, whatever iscontained in the three worlds and in all the three times (ofthe past, present, and future). It is she that expands the worldswhich are contained in her, as a painter draws out the figureswhich are pictured in the receptacle of his mind.

95. She is the all comprehensive and plastic nature or formof all things; and being one with the intellectual spirit, she isequally as calm and quiet as the other. Being thus uniformin her nature, she is varied to endless forms in the twinklingof her eye.

96. All these visibles appear in her, as marks of lotuses andcarved figures are seen in a hollow stone (or in the perforatedsáligram stones of gunduk). Her body is the hollow sphere ofheaven, and her mind is full of all forms, appearing as waves inthe depth of sea, or as the sights of things in the bosom of acrystal stone (as reflected in it by the Divine Intellect).

97. The very furious goddess Bhairaví—the consort of thedread god Bhairava—the lord of destruction, was thus dancingabout with her fierce forms filling the whole firmament.

42298. On one side the earth was burning with the fire, issuingfrom the eye on the fore-head of all destroying Rudra; and onthe other was his consort Rudraní, dancing like a forest blownaway by a hurricane.

99. She was armed more over with many other weapons,(beside those that are mentioned before); such as a spade, amortar and pestle, a mallet, a mace &c.; which adorned her bodyas a garland of flowers.

100. In this manner, she danced and scattered the flowersof her garlands on all sides; in her acts of destructions andrecreation (as preliminaries on one another).

101. She hailed the god Bhairava—the regent of the skies,who joined her in dancing with his form as big and high ashers.

102. May the god Bhairava, with his associate Goddess ofKálarátri or chaotic night, preserve you all in their act of heroicdance, with the beating of high sounding drums, and the blowingof their buffalo horn, as they drink their bowls of bloodand are adorned with wreaths of flowers, hanging down fromtheir heads to the breasts.

Argument:—Description of the perfection andpersonality of Siva as an undivided whole.

Ráma rejoined:—Who is this goddess, sir, that is dancingthus in her act of destruction, and why is it that shebears on her body the pots and fruits as her wreaths of flowers?

2. Say, whether the worlds are wholly destroyed at the end,or they become extinct in the goddess Káli, and reside in herperson, and when doth her dance come to an end.

3. Vasishtha replied:—Neither is he a male, nor is she afemale; nor was there a dancing of the one, or a duality of thetwo (in their spirit); such being the case (of their unity), andsuch the nature of their action (of destruction); neither ofthem any form, or figure of their own (except that they arepersonified as such).

4. That which is without its beginning or end, is the divineIntellect alone; which in the manner of infinite vacuity, is thecause of all causes. (In the beginning all was void, whichcaused all things).

5. It is the increate and endless light, that exists from eternity,and extends over all space. This calm and quiet state ofthe etherial space is known as Siva or tranquil, and its changeto confusion at the end, is denominated Bhairava or the dreadful.(i.e. the Lord acting his dreadful part in the theatre of the universe).

6. It is impossible for the pure and formless intellect, toremain alone and aloof from its association with plastic nature;as it is not likely to find any gold to exist without some formor other. (So the sruti:—The creation and absorption of theworld, require a formal agent and recipient also).

7. Say ye who know, how the intellect may subsist without424its intelligence, and where a pepper may be had without itspungency? (There is nothing without its necessary property,nor the formal world without a formal cause).

8. Consider how can there be any gold, without its form ofa bracelet or any other; and how doth a substance exist withoutit* substantial property or nature?

9. Say what is the extract of the sugar-cane, unless it ispossessed of its sweetness; you can not call it the juice of sugar-cane,unless you find the saccharine flavour in the same.

10. When the intellect is devoid of its intellection, you cannot call it as the intellect any more; nor is the vacuous form ofthe intellect, ever liable to any change or annihilation. (A voidis devoid of all accidents).

11. Vacuity admits of no variety, besides its retaining theidentity of its inanity; and in order to assume a diversity, thevoid must remain a void as ever. (Or else it becomes a solid,which is no more itself).

12. Therefore the unchanged and unagitated essence, whichis essential to it, must be without beginning and unlimited,and full of all potency in itself (since vacuum is the mediumboth of creation as well as of annihilation also).

13. And therefore the creation of the three worlds and theirdestruction, the earth, firmament and the sides of the compass;together with all the acts of creation and destruction, are theindiscriminate phenomena of vacuum.

14. All births, deaths, delusions and ignorance, being andnot being, together with knowledge and dullness, restraint andliberty, and all events whether good or evil.

15. Knowledge and its want, the body and its loss, temporarinessand diuturnity; together with mobility and inertia, andegoism and tuism and illism.

16. All good and evil, goodness and badness, ignorance andintelligence; together with durations of time and space, substanceand action, and all our thoughts, fancies and imagination.

42517. The sight of the forms of things and the thoughts ofthe mind, the action of the body, understanding and senses;with those of the elements of earth and water, fire, air, andvacuum extending all about us.

18. These and all others, proceed from the pure intellectualvacuity of the Divine spirit; which resides in its vacuous formin everything and is always without decay and decrease.

19. All things subsist in pure vacuum, and are as pure asthe void itself; there is nothing beside this empty air, thoughthey appear as real as doth a mountain in our hollow dream.

20. The intellectual spirit, which I have said to be transcendentvoid; is the same which we call as jíva—the sempiternaland Rudra—the august.

21. He is adored as Hari or Vishnu by some, and as Brahmáthe great progenitor of men by others; he is called the sunand moon, and as Indra, Varuna, Yama, the Viráta and the Godof fire also.

22. He is the marut or wind, the cloud and sea, the sky, andeverything that there is or is not; all whatever manifests itselfin the empty sphere of the Intellect.

23. In this manner all things appearing under differentnames, and taken to be true by the ignorant eye; vanish intonothing in their spiritual light, which shows them in their pureintellectual natures.

24. In the understanding of the ignorant, the world appearsas apart from the spirit; but to the intellectual soul, thevacuity of the intellect is known to be situated in the Divinespirit; therefore there is no distinction of unity and dualityto the knowing mind (in which all multiplicities blend intounity).

25. So long is the living soul tossed about as a wave in theocean of the world, and running the course of its repeated birthsand deaths in it; until it comes to know the nature of thesupreme spirit, when it becomes as immortal and perfect as theeternal soul and self-same with it.

26. By this knowledge of the universal soul, the human426soul attains its perfect tranquility; as to find itself no more, asthe fluctuating wave in the ocean of the world, but views itselfand everything beside, to be as calm and quiet, as the eternaland infinite spirit of God.

Argument:—Siva is the Representation of the Pure Intellect;but Bhairava & Káli are not so. Explanation of the causesof such representations and Personifications.

Vasishtha added:—I have already related to you, thatSiva is the representation of the vacuous intellect; butnot so is Rudra, whom I have described as dancing all about.

2. The form that is attributed to him (or to the goddess kálí);is not their real figure; but a representation of the grosseraspect of intellectual vacuity (which is of a dark complexion).

3. I saw with my intellectual and clear vision (clair-voyance),that sphere of the intellect in its clear, bright and clearlight (as that of Siva’s body); but it did not appear so to others,who beheld it in their ignorance, to be as dark as the blackcomplexion of the associate goddess. (There is shadow underthe lamp).

4. I saw at the end of the kalpa cycle, the two spectres ofdelusion, appearing before me; the one was the furious Rudra,and the other—the ferocious Bhairava; and knew them both tobe but delusion, and creatures of my mistaken fancy.

5. The great chasm which is seen to exist in the vacuoussphere of the Intellect, the same is supposed to be conceivedunder the idea of a vast void, represented as the dreadfulBhairava.

6. We can have no conception of anything, without knowingthe relation, the significant term and its signification; it is forthat reason that I related this to you, as I found it to be.

7. Whatever idea is conveyed to the mind by the significantterm, know Ráma, the very same to be presently presented beforethe outward sight by the power of delusion and as a magicalappearance.

4288. In reality there is no destruction, nor the destructivepower of Bhairava or Bhairaví (in the masculine or femininegender); all these are but erroneous conceptions fleeting inthe empty space of the intellect. (It is the bias of the mind,which presents these hobgoblins to sight).

9. These appearances are as those of the cities seen in ourdream, or as a warfare shewn in our fancy; they are as theutopian realms of one’s imagination, or as the fits of our feelingson some pathetic and heart stirring description.

10. As the fairy castle is seen in the field of fancy, andstrings of pearls hanging in the empty air; and as mists andvapours darken the clear atmosphere, so are there the troops offallacies flying all about the firmament of the intellect.

11. But the clear sky of the pure intellect, shines of itselfin itself; and when it shines in that state, it shows the worldin itself.

12. The soul exhibits itself in its intellectual sphere, in thesame manner as a figure is seen in picture; and the soul manifestsalso in the raging fire of final destruction. (The samesoul is equally manifest in the subjective, as well as in theobjective, i.e. both in itself as in all other things whatsoever).

13. I have thus far related to you, regarding the formlessnessof the forms of Siva and his consort Sivání; hear me nowto tell you concerning their dance, which was literally nodancing.

14. Sensation cannot exist any where (in any person), withoutthe action of the power (lit, element) of intellection; as itis not possible for anything to be a nothing or appear otherwisethan what it is. (Gloss. There can be no sensation withoutaction of the power of intellection, as there can be no pearl-shellwithout the appearance of silver in it).

15. Therefore the powers of sensations and perception, arenaturally united with all thing, as Rudra and his consort, whoare blended together as gold and silver appearing as one andthe same metal.

16. Whatever is sensation and wherever it exists, the same429must be a sensible object, and have action or motion for itsnatural property.

17. Whatever is the action of the Intellect, whose consolidatedform is called by the name Siva, the same is the causeof our motions also; and as these are actuated by our will anddesires, they are called the dance or vacillations (of the intellectualpower).

18. Therefore the furious form of Rudra, which is assumedby the god Siva at the end of a kalpa; which is said to danceabout at that time, is to be known as vibration of the divineintellect.

19. Ráma rejoined:—This world being nothing in reality,in the sight of the right observer; and anything that there remainsof it in any sense whatever, the same is also destroyed atthe end of the kalpa.

20. How then does it happen at the end of the kalpa, wheneverything is lost in the formless void of vacuity, that this consolidatedform of intellect, known as Siva remains and thinks initself.

21. Vasishtha replied:—O Ráma! if you entertain suchdoubt, then hear me tell you, how you can get over the greatocean of your doubts, respecting the unity and duality of thedeity:—that all things being extinct at the end, there remainsthe thinking and subjective intellect alone, without anythingobjective to think upon.

22. The subjective soul then thinks of nothing, but remainsquite tranquil in itself; as the unmoving and mute stone,and resting in the solid vacuity of its omniscience.

23. If it reflects at all on anything, it is only on itself; becauseit is the nature of the intellect to dwell calmly in itself.

24. As the intellect appears itself, like the inward city itsees within itself in a dream; so there is nothing in real existenceany where, except the knowledge thereof, which is inherentin the intellect. (So it is with the divine intellect, whose omnisciencecomprehends the knowledge of every thing in itself).

25. The divine soul knowing everything in itself, and in its430vacuous intellect, sees the manifestation of the universe at thetime of creation, by simple development of itself.

26. The intellect developes itself of its own nature, withinits vacuous cell at first; and then in a moment envelopes thiserroneous universe in itself, and at his will at the time of itsdestruction.

27. The intellect expands itself, in itself in its natural stateof vacuum; and devolves itself likewise into its conceptions ofI and thou and all others (which are but false ideas and creaturesof its imagination).

28. Therefore there exists no duality nor unity, nor anempty vacuity either; there is neither an intelligence or itswant or the both together; so is there neither my meism nor thytuism either.

29. There is nothing that ever thinks of anything, nor aughtwhatever which is thought of or object thereof of its own nature;therefore there is nothing that thinks or reflects, but all is quiterest and silence.

30. It is the unalterable steadiness of the mind, which isthe ultimate samádhi or perfection of all sástras; therefore theliving yogi aught to remain, as the mute and immovable stonein his meditation.

31. Now Ráma, remain to discharge your ordinary duties,as they are incumbent on you by the rules of your race; butcontinue to be quiet and steady in your spiritual part, byrenouncing all worldly pride and vanity; and enjoy a peacefulcomposure in your mind and soul, as that of the serene and calmand clear concavity of the sky.

Argument:—The definition of the term Sakti and her elucidation.

Ráma said:—Tell me sir, why the goddess Káli is said tobe dancing about, and why is she armed with axe andother weapons, and arrayed with her wreaths of flowers.

2. Vasishtha replied:—It is the vacuum of the intellect,which is called both as Siva and Bhairava; and it is thisintellectual power or force, which is identic with itself,that is called Káli and its consorting mind.

3. As the wind is one with its vacillation, and the fire isidentic with its heat; so is the intellect identical with itsoscillation. (The mind is ever fleeting and active as dullmatter is inert and inactive).

4. As the wind is invisible even in its act of vacillations,and the heat is unseen even in its act of burning; so the intellectis imperceptible notwithstanding its acting, and is thereforecalled Siva—the calm and quiet.

5. It is because of the wondrous power of his vibration, thathe is known to us, and without which we could have no knowledgeof his existence; know therefore this Siva to be the allpowerful Brahma, who is otherwise a quiescent being, and unknowableeven by the learned and wise.

6. His oscillation is the power of his will, which has spread-outthis visible appearance; as it is the will of an embodiedand living man, that builds a city according to his thought (orjust as it depends on the option of a living person, to erect a cityaccording to the model in his thought or mind).

7. It is the will of Siva or Jove that creates all this worldfrom its formless state, and it is this creative power which isthe Intelligence of God, and the intellection of living being.

4328. This power takes also the form of nature in her formationof the creation, and is called the creation itself, on accountof her assuming on herself the representation of the phenomenalworld.

9. She is represented with a crest of submarine fire on herhead, and to be dry and withered in her body; she is said to bea fury on account of her furiousness, and called the lotiformfrom the blue-lotus-like complexion of her person.

10. She is called by the names jayá and siddha (victoryand fortune), owing to her being accompanied by victory andprosperity at all times.

11. She is also designated as Aparájitá or invincible, viryáthe mighty and Durgá—the inaccessible, and is like wise renownedas umá, for her being composed of the powers of the three lettersof the mystic syllable Om. (In the birth of umá, the subject ofthe first canto of Kumára Sambhaba, Kálidása says, “Tapasanibrita je umeti námná prakírtitá,” she was termed umáfor prevention of austerities. The glossarists have all explainedthe passage in the sense of the mythic personificationof umá, and nobody has ever known its mystic interpretation ofsacred syllable Om itself, whose utterance precludes the necessityof all formal devotions: i.e. to say, umá-is-om the divine mantraitself).

12. She is called the gáyatrí (hymn) from its being chantedby every body, and Sávitrí also from her being the progenitrixof all beings; she is named Sarasvatí likewise, for her givingus an insight into whatever appears before our sight.

13. She bears the appelation of Gaurí from her gaura or faircomplexion, and of Bhavání from her being the source of allbeings, as also from her association with the body of Bhava—orSiva. She is also termed the letter अ (a) to signify her beingthe vital breath of all waking and sleeping bodies.

14. Umá means moreover the digit of the moon, which enlightensthe worlds from the forehead of Siva; and the bodiesof the God and Goddess are both painted as black and blue,from their representing the two hemispheres of heaven.

43315. The sky appears as dark and bright from the two complexionsof these divinities, who are situated in the vacuousforms in the bosom of the great vacuum itself.

16. Though they are formless as empty airs, yet they areconceived as the first-born of the void; and are figurativelyattributed with more or less hands and feet, and holding asmany weapons in them.

17. Now know the reason of attributing the Goddess withmany weapons and instruments, to be no more, than of representingher, as the patron of all arts and their employments.

18. She was self-same with the supreme soul, as its powerof self-meditation from all eternity; and assumed the shapesof the acts of sacred ablutions, religions, sacrifices, and holy gifts,as her primal forms in vedas. (i.e. The intellectual power(chit-sakti) evolves itself to meditation and action—dhyána andKarma).

19. She is of the form of the azure sky, comely in appearanceand is the beauty of the visibles; she is the motion of allobjects, and the varieties of their movements are the variousmodes of the dancing of the goddess. (the divine power or force—sakti,is always personified as his female agent, as it is evidentin the words potentia, energia, exergasia, qudrat, taquat &c.).

20. She is the agent of Brahmá in his laws of the birth,decay, and deaths of beings; and all cities and countries, mountainsand islands, hang on her agency as a string of gems abouther neck.

21. She holds together all parts of the world, as by herpower of attraction; and infuses her force as momentum inthem all, as it were into the different limbs and members of herbody, she bears the various appellations of Kálí, Kálika &c.,according to her several functions denoted by those terms (inthe glossary).

22. She as the one great body of the cosmos, links togetherall its parts like her limbs unto her heart; and moves them allabout her; though this formless body of force, has never beenseen or known by any body. (We always see the moving434bodies about us, but never the moving force which moves themall about).

23. Know this ever oscillant power to be never different orunconnected, from the quiescent spirit of Siva the changelessgod; nor think the fluctuating winds to be ever apart from thecalm vacuum, in which they abide and vibrate for ever.

24. The world is a display of the glory of God, as the moonlightis a manifestation of the brightness of that luminary;which is otherwise dark and obscure; so the lord God is evertranquil and quiet and without any change or decay withouthis works.

25. There is not the least shadow, of fluctuation in thesupreme soul; it is the action of this agency, that appears to bemoving us. (Gloss. The inactive spirit of God is the true reality,and the passing phenomena are all but vanity).

26. That is said to be the tranquil spirit of Siva—the god,which reverts itself from action, and reposes in its understanding;and apart from the active energy which possesses theintellect as its goddess. (Hence the state of the soul in perfectrest and repose is called Siva—salvus or felicity).

27. The intellect reposing in its natural state of the understanding,is styled Siva—salvus or felix; but the active energy ofthe intellectual power, is what passes under the name of thegreat goddess of action.

28. That bodiless power, assumes the imaginary forms ofthese worlds, with all the peoples that are visible in them inthe day light.

29. It is this power which supports the earth, with all itsseas and islands, and its forests, deserts and mountains, it maintainsthe vedas with its angas, upangas, the sástras, sciences andthe psalms. (The vedas are four in number, its angas or branchescalled the six vedángas namely, the siksha, kalpa, nirukta,vyákarana, chhanda and jyotisha. The upangas or subsidiarybranches are the four arts, viz., áyurveda or medicine, dhanurveda—archery,gandharva—music &c. The vidyas are the sciencesand philosophy, and the gítás are sámagiti or the psalmof sámaveda).

43530. It ordains the injunctions and prohibitions (of law),and gives the rules of auspicious and inauspicious acts andrites; it directs the sacrifices and sacrificial fires, and the modesof offering cakes and oblations.

31. This goddess is adorned with the sacrificial implements,as the mortar and pestle, the post and ladle &c.; and is arrayedwith the weapons of warfare also, as the spear, arrows and thelance.

32. She is arrayed with the mace and many missile weaponsalso; and accompanied by horse and elephants and valiant godswith her. In short she fills the fourteen worlds, and occupiesthe earth with all its seas and islands.

33. Ráma said:—I will ask you sir, to tell me now, whetherthe thoughts of creation in the divine mind, subsisted (intheir ideal forms) in the Divine soul; or they were incorporatedin the forms of Rudra and which are false and fictitious.

34. Vasishtha replied:—Ráma, she is verily the power ofthe Intellect (Divine mind), as you have rightly said; and allthese that there are being thought of by her, they are all trueas her thoughts (and not in their visible appearances).

35. The thoughts that are subjective and imprinted inthe inner intellect (from preconceived desire or reminiscence),are never untrue; just as the reflection of our face castin a mirror from without, cannot be a false shadow.

36. But those thoughts are false, which enter into themind from without, as the whole body (lit. city of our desiresand false imaginations); and the fallacies of these are removedupon our right reflection and by means of our sound judgment.

37. But in my opinion, the firm belief and persuasion of thehuman soul in anything whatever, is reckoned as true by everyone; such as the picture of a thing in a mirror, and the representationsof things seen in a dream or the forms of thingsseen in a picture or in dream, and the creatures of our imaginationare all taken for true and real by every one for the time,and for their serviceableness to him.

38. But you may object and say that, things that are absentand at a distance from you, are no way serviceable to you, and436yet they cannot be said to be inexistent or unreal; because theycome to use when they are present before us.

39. As the productions of a distant country, become of usewhen they are presented before us; so the objects of our dreamsand thoughts, are equally true and useful when they are presentin view; so also every idea of a definite shape and signification,is a certain reality (as that of the goddess Kálí).

40. As an object or its action passing under the sight of anyone, is believed to be true by its observer; so whatever thoughtpasses in his mind, is thought to be true by him. But nothingthat is seen or thought of by another, is ever known to or takeninto belief by any one else, or accounted as true to him.

41. It is therefore in the power of the Divine Intellect, thatthe embryo of the creation is contained for ever; and the wholeuniverse is ever existent in the divine soul, it is wholly unknownto others.

42. All that is past, present, and ever to be in future,together with all the desires and thoughts of others; are forever really existent in the divine spirit, else it would not be theuniversal soul. (The meaning of the universal soul is the containedof all and not that it is contained in them).

43. There are the adepts only in yoga practice, who acquirethe power of prying into the hearts and minds of others; justas others come to see different countries, by passing over thebarriers of hills and dales. (As the divine soul is the knower ofthe hearts of others, so is the pure soul of the holy divine also).

44. As the dream of a man fallen into fast sleep, is not disturbedby the shaking of his bedstead or sleeping couch; sothe fixed thought of any body, are never lost by his removingfrom place to place (or by his departure from this life to thenext, or by his transmigration from one into another).

45. So the movements of the dancing body of Káli (thecreative energy of God) cause no fluctuation in the world whichis contained within it; just as the shaking of a mirror, makesno alternation in the reflection which is cast upon it.

46. The great bustle and commotion of the world thoughseeming as real to all appearance, yet it being but a mere delusion437in sober reality, it were as well whether it moveth all or notall (as it were the same whether we are hurried or keptsedate in a dream).

47. When is the dreaming scene or the city seen in ourdream, said to be a true one, and when is it pronounced as afalseone; and when is it said to be existent and when dilapidated?(supply how for when to give it some sense).

48. Know the phenomenal world that is exposed before you,to be but mere illusion; and it is your sheer fallacy, to view theunreal visibles as sure realities.

49. Know your conception of the reality of the three worldsto be equally false, as the aerial castle of your imagination orthe air drawn city of your fond desire; it is as the vision inyour dream, or any conception of your error.

50. That this is I the subjective, and the other is the objectiveworld, is the interminable error that binds fast the mindfor ever; it is a gross mistake as that of the ignorant, who believethe endless sky to be bounded, and take it for black orblue; but the learned are released from this blunder (and restin the only existent One).

Argument:—The dancing goddess embraces thesteady god, and is joined with him in one body.

Vasishtha continued:—Thus the goddess was dancingwith her outstretched arms, which with their movementsappeared to make a shaking forest of tall pines in the emptysky. (The Briarean arms of Kálí).

2. This power of the intellect, which is ignorant of herselfand ever prone to action, continued thus to dance about withher decorations of various tools and instruments. (The mentalpower acts by means of the mechanical powers).

3. She was arrayed with all kinds of weapons in all herthousand arms, such as the bow and arrows, the spear and lance,the mallet and club, and the sword and all sort of missiles. Shewas conversant with all things whether in being or not being,and was busy at every moment of passing time. (i.e. Everactive in body and mind).

4. She contained the world in the vibration of her mind,as airy cities and castles consist in the power of imagination;it is she herself that is the world, as the imagination itself is theimaginary city—the utopia.

5. She is the volition of Siva, as fluctuation is innate in theair; and as the air is still without its vibration, so Siva is quitequiet without his will or volition (represented as his femaleenergy in the form of Kálí).

6. The formless volition becomes the formal creation in thesame manner, as the formless sky produces the wind whichvibrates into sound; so doth the will of Siva bring forth theworld out of itself.

7. When this volitive energy of Kálí, dances and sports inthe void of the Divine mind; then the world comes out of a439sudden, as if it were by union of the active will with the greatvoid of the supreme Mind.

8. Being touched by the dark volitive power (or volentia),the supreme soul of Siva is dissolved into water; just as thesub-marine fire is extinguished by its contact with the waterof the sea. (Water the first form of God: “and the spirit ofGod moved upon the surface of water”).

9. No sooner did this power come in contact with Siva—theprime cause of all, the same power of volentia, inclined andturned to assume the shape of nature, and to be converted tosome physical form.

10. Then forsaking her boundless and elemental form, shetook upon herself the gross and limited forms of land and hills;and then became of the form of beautiful arbours and trees.(i.e. Of the forms of minerals and vegetables).

11. (After taking various other forms), she became as theformless void, and became one with the infinite vacuity of Siva;just as a river with all its impetuous velocity, enters into theimmensity of the sea.

12. She then became as one with Siva, by giving up hertitle of sivaship; and this Siva—the female form became the samewith Siva—the prime male, who is of the form of formless voidand perfect tranquility (called samana—quietus which meansboth death and the quiet, which follows the other. Samana likesomnum is both extinction of life, and cessation of care andlabour).

13. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, how that sovran GoddessSiva, could obtain her quiet by her coming in contact with thesupreme God Siva (and forget her former activity altogether).

14. Vasishtha replied:—Know Ráma, the Goddess Siva tobe the will of the God Siva; she is styled as nature, and famedas the great Illusion of the word.

15. And this great God is said the lord of nature, and theprime male also; he is of the form of air and is representedin the form of Siva, which is as calm and quiet as the autumnalsky.

16. The great Goddess is the energy of the Intellect and440its will also, and is ever active as force put in motion; she abidesin the world in the manner of its nature, and roves all aboutin the manner of the great delusion (of holding out externalnature as the true reality, instead of her lord the spirit).

17. She ranges through out the world, as long as she isignorant of her lord Siva; who is ever satisfied with himself,without decay or disease, and has no beginning or end, nor asecond to himself.

18. But no sooner is this Goddess conscious of herself, as oneand same with the god of self-consciousness; than she is joinedwith her lord Siva, and becomes one with him. (Force has itsrest in inertia).

19. Nature coming in contact with the spirit, forsakes hercharacter of gross nature; and becomes one with the sole unity,as a river is incorporated in the ocean.

20. The river falling into the sea, is no more the river butthe sea; and its water joining with sea water, becomes the samebriny water.

21. So the mind that is inclined to Siva, is united with himand finds its rest therein; as the iron becomes sharpened byreturning to its quarry (as the knife or razor is sharpened onthe white stone).

22. As the shadow of a man entering into a forest, is lostamidst the shade of the wilderness; so the shades of nature (ornatural propensities), are all absorbed in the umbrage of theDivine spirit. (It also means as the nature of a woman, ischanged to that of her man).

23. But the mind that remembers its own nature, and forgetsthat of the eternal spirit; has to return again to this world,and never attains its spiritual felicity.

24. An honest man dwells with thieves, so long as he knowsthem not as such; but no sooner he comes to know them as so,then he sure to shun their company and fly from the spot.

25. So the mind dwells with unreal dualities, as long as it isignorant to the transcendent reality; but as it becomes acquaintedwith the true unity, he is sure to be united with it (by forsakinghis dualistic creed).

44126. When the ignorant mind, comes to know the supremefelicity, which attends on the state of its self-extinction or nirvána;it is ready to resort to it, as the inland stream runs tojoin the boundless sea.

27. So long doth the mind roam bewildered, in its repeatedbirths in the tumultuous world; as it does not find its ultimatebliss in the Supreme; unto whom it may fly like a bee to itshoneycomb.

28. Who is there that would forget his spiritual knowledge,having once known its bliss; and who is there that forsakes thesweet, having had once tasted its flavour. Say Ráma, whowould not run to relish the delicious draughts, which pacifiesall our woes and pains, and prevents our repeated births anddeaths, and puts an end to all our delusions in this darksomeworld.

Argument:—The huge body of Rudra, that absorbs the worldin it, is at last dissolved in empty air and vacuity.

Vasishtha added:—Hear now Ráma, how this wholeworld resides in the infinite void; and how the airyRudra which rises from it, is freed from his deluded body, andfinds his final rest in it.

2. As I stood looking on upon that block of stone, I beheldthe aerial Rudra and the two upper and nether worlds, markedover it (as in a map), and remaining quite at rest.

3. Then in a moment that airy Rudra, beheld the two partitionsof the earth and sky within the hollow of vacuum, withhis eye balls blazing as the orb of the sun.

4. Then in the twinkling of an eye, and with the breath ofhis nostrils, he drew the two partitions unto him, and threwthem in the horrid abyss of his mouth.

5. Having then devoured both the divisions of the world,as if they were a morsel of bread or paste food to him; he remainedalone as air, and one with the universal air or voidabout him.

6. He then appeared as a piece of cloud, and then as a smallstick, and afterwards as little as digit. (A stick is themeasure of cubit, and a digit is that of a span).

7. I beheld him afterwards to become transparent as a pieceof glass, which at last became as minute as to melt into the air,and vanish altogether from my microscopic sight.

8. Being reduced to an atom, it disappeared at once fromview; and like the autumnal cloud became invisible altogether.

9. In this manner did the two valves of heaven (the earthand sky), wholly disappear from my sight; the wonders of whichI had erelong been viewing with so much concern and delight.

44310. The cosmos being thus devoured as grass by the voraciousdeer; the firmament was quite cleared of everything, itbecame as pellucid, calm and quiet as the serene vacuum ofBrahma himself.

11. I saw there but one vast expanse of intellectual sky,without any beginning, midst or end of it; and bearing itsresemblance to the dreary waste of ultimate dissolution, and avast desert and desolation.

12. I saw also the images of things drawn upon that stone,as if they were the reflexion of the things in a mirror; and thenremembering the heavenly nymph and seeing all these scenes,I was lost in amazement.

13. I was amazed as a clown upon his coming to a royal city,to see that stone again clearer far than ever before.

14. This I found to be the body of goddess Kálí, in whichall the worlds seemed to be inscribed as in a slab of stone; I sawthese with my intellectual eyes, far better than they appear tothe supernatural sight of deities.

15. I beheld therein every thing that there ever existedin any place, and though it seemed to be situated at a distancefrom me, yet I recognized it as the very stone (which was representedas the Divine Intellect).

16. This stone alone is conspicuous to view, and there wasnothing of the worlds it contained so perspicuous in it. The stoneremained for ever in the same unvaried state, with all theworlds lying concealed in it.

17. It was taintless and clean, and as fair and clear as theevening cloud; I was struck with wonder at the sight, and thenfell to my meditation again.

18. I looked to the other side of the stone with my contemplativeeye, and found the bustle of the world lying dormantat that place.

19. I beheld fully the great variety of things, as describedbefore; and then I turned my sight to look into another sideof it.

20. I saw it abounding with the very many creations andcreated worlds, accompanied with their tumults and commotions444as I observed before; and whatever place I thought of and soughtfor, I found them all in the same stone.

21. I saw the fair creation, as if it were an ectype cast upona reflector; and felt a great pleasure to explore into the mountainoussource of this stone.

22. I searched in every part of the earth, and traversedthrough woods and forests; until I passed through every partof the world, as it was exhibited therein.

23. I saw them in my understanding, and not with myvisual organs (which are both delusive and incapable of reachingso far); and beheld somewhere the first born Brahmá—the lordof creatures.

24. I then beheld his arrangement of the starry frame, andthe spheres of the sun and moon; as also the rotations of daysand nights, and of the seasons and years; and I saw likewisethe surface of the earth, with its population here and there.

25. I saw some where the level land, and the great basinsof the four oceans elsewhere; I saw some places quite unpeopledand unproductive, and others teeming with Sura and Asuraraces.

26. Somewhere I saw the assemblage of righteous men, withtheir manners and conduct as those of the pure golden age; andelsewhere I beheld the company of unrighteous people, followingthe practices and usages of the corrupt iron age.

27. I saw the forts and cities of the demons in certainplaces, with fierce and continuous warfares going on all alongamong them.

28. I saw vast mountainous tracts, without a pit or pool in themany where; and I beheld elsewhere the unfinished creationof the lotus-born Brahmá.

29. I saw some lands where men were free from death anddecay; and others with moonless nights and bare headed Sivasin them. (The moon being the coronet of Siva’s head, it mustbe bare for want of the moon on it).

30. I saw the milky ocean unchurned, and filled with the deadbodies of gods; and the marine horse and elephant, the Kámadhenucow, the physician Dhanvantari and the goddess Laxmí;445together with the submarine poison and ambrosia, all lyinghidden and buried therein.

31. I saw in one place the body of gods, assembled to bafflethe attempts of the giants and the devices of their leader Sukra;and the great god Indra in another, entering into the womb ofDeity—the mother of demons, and destroying the unborn broodtherein.

32. It was on account of the unfading virtue (or unalterablecourse) of nature, that the world was brilliant as everbefore; unless that somethings were placed out of theirformer order.

33. The ever lasting vedas ever retain their same forceand sense, and never did they feel the shock of change, by therevolution of ages or even at the kalpánta dissolution of theworld.

34. Sometimes the demons have despoiled, some parts of theheavenly abodes of gods; and sometimes the paradise of Eden(udyána), resounded with the songs of Gandharvas and Kinnaras.(Hence some part of the Himálayas, is said to have been thesite of the garden of paradise).

35. Sometimes an amity was formed between the gods andgiants, and I saw in this manner, the past, present, and futurecommotions of the world.

36. I then beheld in the person of the great soul of worlds,(i.e. in the face of nature which is the body of God); the meetingof the Pushkara and Avarta clouds together.

37. There was an assemblage of all created things, in peacefulunion with one another in one place; and there was a jointconcussion, of the gods, and demigods and sovereigns of men, inthe one and same person.

38. There was the union of the sunlight and deep darknessin the same place, without their destroying one another;and there were the dark clouds, and their flashing lightningsalso in the very place.

39. There were the demons Madhu and Kaitabha, residingtogether in the same navel-string of Brahmá; and there were446the infant Brahmá and the lotus bud in the same navel ofVishnu.

40. In the ocean of the universal deluge, where Mádhava(the divine spirit), floated on the leaf of the bata tree (ficusreligiosus); there reigned the chaotic night along with him,and spread its darkness over the face of the deep.

41. There was then but one vast void, wherein all thingsremained unknown and undefined, as if they lay buried andasleep, in the unconscious womb of a stony grave.

42. Nothing could be known or inferred of anything in existence,but everything seemed to be submerged in deep sleepevery where; and the sky was filled by darkness, resemblingthe wingless crows and unwinged mountains of old.

43. On one side the loud peals of thunder, were breakingdown the mountains, and melting them by the fire of the flashinglightnings; and in another, the overflowing waters weresweeping away the earth into the deep.

44. In certain places there were the warfares of the giants,as those of Tripura, Vritra, Andha, and Valí, and in othersthere were terrible earthquakes, owing to the trepidation ofthe furious elephant in the regions below. (This elephant issaid so be one of the supports of the earth).

45. On one hand the earth was tottering on the thousandhoods on the infernal serpent Vásuki, which trembled with fearat the kalpánta deluge of the world; and on the other theyoung Ráma killing the Rákshas, with their leader Rávana (anevent which was yet to occur).

46. On one side was Ráma foiled by his adversary Rávana;and I saw these wonders, now standing upon my legs on earth,and then lifting my head above the mountain tops.

47. I saw kála-nemi invading the sky one side, where hestationed the demons, by ousting the gods from their heavenlyseats.

48. In one place I found the Asuras foiled by the gods, whopreserved the people from their terror; and in another thevictorious son of Pandu—Arjuna, protecting the world from the447oppression of Kauravas, with the aid of lord Vishnu. I sawalso the slaughter of millions of men in the Bharatic war.

49. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, how I had been before inanother age, and who had been these Pandavas and Kauravastoo, that existed before me. (Wheeler in his India dates thePandavas prior to Ráma).

50. Vasishtha replied:—Ráma! all things are destined torevolve and return, over and over again as they had been before.(In the same manner as the impressions in the mind,recur repeatedly to it every where; and the present state ofthe world, is no more than a reminiscence of the past ones).

51. As a basket is filled repeatedly with grains of the samekind, or mixed sometimes, with some other sorts in it; so thevery same thoughts and ideas, with their self-same or otherassociations, recur repeatedly in our minds.

52. Our ideas occur to us in the shape of their objects, asoften as the waters of the sea run in their course, in the form ofwaves beating upon the banks; and thus our thoughts of ourselves,yourselves and others, frequently revert to our minds.

53. There never comes any thought of anything, whereofwe had no previous idea in the mind; and though some ofthem seem to appear in a different shape, it is simply owing toour misapprehension of them, as the same sea water seemsto show the various shapes of its waves.

54. Again there is a delusion, that presents us many appearanceswhich never come to existence; and it is this whichshows us an infinite train of things, coming in and passing anddisappearing like magic shows (or máyá) in this illusive world.

55. The same things and others also of different kinds,appear and reappear unto us in this way (either by our reminiscenceof them, or by illusion of our minds).

56. Know all creatures, as drops of water in the ocean of theworld; and are composed of the period of their existence, theirrespective occupations, understanding and knowledge; and accompaniedby their friends and properties and other surroundings.

57. All beings are born, with every one of these properties448at their very birth; but some possess them in equal or more orless shares, in comparison with others. (That some are andmust be greater (or less) than the rest. Pope).

58. But all beings differ in these respects, according to thedifferent bodies in which they are born; and though some areequal to others, in many of these respects, yet they come tovary in them in course of time.

59. Being at last harassed in their different pursuits, allbeings attain either to higher or lower states in their destinedtimes; and then being shackled to the prison houses of theirbodies, they have to pass through endless varieties of births invarious forms. Thus the drops of living beings, have to rollabout in the whirlpool of the vast ocean of worldly life, for anindefinite period of time, which no body can gainsay or count.

Argument:—In the preceding chapter the world was shewn to consistin thought or a grain of the brain; in this it is demonstratedto be contained in the body or an atom of dust.

Vasishtha continued:—Afterwards as I directed myattention to my own body for a while; I saw the undecayingand infinite spirit of God (lit.—the vacuous Intellect,surrounding every part of my material frame).

2. Pondering deeply, I saw the world was seated within myheart, and shooting forth therein; as the grains put out theirsprouts in a granary, by help of the rain water dropping into it.

3. I beheld the formal world, with all its sentient as well asinsensitive beings, rising out of the formless heart, resemblingthe shapeless embryo of the seed (i.e. the plastic nature fromthe amorphous spirit), by moisture of the ground.

4. As the beauty of the visibles appears to view, on one’scoming to sense after his sleep; so it is the intellect only whichgives sensation to one, who is waking or just risen from his sleep:(and so it was the intellectual wakefulness of Vasishtha andother inspired men, which made them sensible of outwardobjects, even in the trance of their meditation). (Samádhi).

5. So there is conception of creation in the self-same soul,ere its formation or bringing into action; and the forms ofcreations are contained in the vacuum of the heart, and in noother separate vacuity whatever.

6. Ráma rejoined:—Sir, your assertion of the vacuum of theheart, made me take it in the sense of infinite space of vacuity,which contains the whole creation; but please to explain to memore clearly, what you mean by your intellectual vacuum, whichyou say, is the source of the world. (i.e. whether the heart ormind or infinite space, is the cause and container of the cosmos).

4507. Vasishtha replied:—Hear Ráma, how I thought myselfonce in my meditation, as the self-born Swayambhu or the godwho is born of himself, in whom subsisted the whole, and therewas nothing born but by and from him; and how I believedthe unreal as real in my revelry, or as an air-built-castle inmy dreaming.

8. As I had been looking before, at that sight of the greatkalpa-dissolution, with my aeriform spiritual body; I found andfelt the other part of my person (i.e. my material frame), waslikewise infused with the same sensibility and consciousness.(The body being the counter part or réchauffé of the mind).

9. As I looked at it for a while, with my spiritual part; Ifound it as purely aerial, and imbued with a slight consciousnessof itself. (So says the Sruti:—In the beginning the spiritbecame or produced the air with its oscillation).

10. The vacuous Intellect found this elastic substance,to be of such a subtile and rarefied nature, as when yousee the external objects in your dream, or remember the objectsof your dream upon your waking.

11. This etherial air, having its primary powers of chit andsamvid—intellect and conscience, becomes the intellection andconsciousness also; then from its power of reflecting (on its existencein space and time), it takes the name of reflection(chittam). Next from its knowledge of itself as air, it becomesthe airy egoism, and then it takes the name of buddhi orunderstanding, for its knowledge of itself as plastic nature, andforgetfulness of its former spirituality. At last it becomes themind, from its minding many things that it wills or nils.

12. Then from its powers of perception and sensation it becomesthe five senses, to which are added their fivefold organs;upon the perversion of the nice mental perceptions to grossness.

13. As a man roused from his sound sleep, is subject toflimsy dreams; so the pure soul losing its purity upon its entrancein the gross body, is subjected to the miseries that areconcomitant with it.

14. Then the infinite world; appearing at once and at the451same time (before the view of the mind and outer sight, bothin state of dream and on waking); it is said to be an act ofspontaneity by some, and that of consecution by others. (Sometexts say: God willed,) and it was (so aikshata, fiatet fit, kunfakáná &c.); while others represent the world to be not the workof a day, but of many consecutive days. (Such as so atapshata—Godlaboured and rested from his labour).

15. I conceived the whole (space and time), in the minutiaeof my mind; and being myself as empty air, thought thematerial world, to be contained in me in the form of intelligence.

16. As it is the nature of vacuum, to give rise to the currentair; so it is natural to the mind, to assign a form and figure toall its ideas, by the power of its imagination (whence it is calledthe creative mind, or inventive imagination, that gives a shapeto airy nothing).

17. Whatever imaginary form, our imagination gives to athing at first, there is no power in the mind to remove it anymore from it.

18. Hence I believed myself as a minute atom, although Iknew my soul to be beyond all bounds; and because I had thepower of thinking, I thought myself as the thinking mind, andno more. (So one knowing himself as the body, at once knowshim to be a corporeal being only; as the lion thinking himselfas a sheep, bleated and grazed as one of them. So we forgetour higher nature).

19. Then with my subtile body of pure intelligence, Ithought myself as a spark of fire; and by thinking so for a longtime, I became at length of the form of a gross body. (Theangels are to be of a bright and fiery body (muri and atashi),and the human body to be of a gross and earthy substance(khaki and martya)).

20. I then felt a desire of seeing all what existed aboutme, and had the power of sight immediately supplied to mygross body. (Just as a child coming out as blind, deaf and dumbfrom the embryo, has the powers of seeing and hearing andcrying, immediately furnished to it afterwards) (so says Adam452in Milton, “As I came to life, I looked at this light and beautifulframe”).

21. In this manner I felt other desires, and had their correspondingsenses and organs given to me; and I will tell younow, O race of Raghu, their names and functions and objects, asthey are known amongst you.

22. The two holes of my face through which I began to see,are termed the two eyes with their function of sight; andhaving for their objects the visible phenomena of nature.

23. When I see that I call time, and as I see that is calledits manner; the place where I see an object is simple vacuity,and the duration of the sight is governed by destiny.

24. The place where I am situated, is said to be my location;and when I think or affirm any thing, that I say thepresent time; and as long I feel the twinkling of my intellect,so long do I know myself as the intellectual cause of my action.

25. When I see anything, I have its perception in me; andI have my conviction also, that what I behold with my twoeyes, are not empty vacuity, but of a substantial nature.

26. The organs wherewith I saw and felt the world in me,are these two eyes—the keys to the visible world; then I feltthe desire of hearing, what was going about me, and it was myown soul, which prompted this desire in me. (Sensible perceptionsare the natural appetites of the soul, and finding theirway through the external organs of sense).

27. I then heard a swelling sound, as that of a sonorousconch; and reaching to me through the air, where it is naturallyborn and through which it passes.

28. The organs by which I heard the sound, are these twoears of mine; it is born by the air to ear, and then enters theearholes with a continuous hissing.

29. I then felt in me the desire of feeling, and the organwhereby I came to it, is called the touch or skin.

30. Next I came to know the medium, whereby I had thesensation of touch in my body; and found it was the air whichconveyed that sense to me (i.e. from the object to the skin).

45331. As I remained sensible of the property of feeling ortouch in me, I felt the desire of taste within myself, and hadthere upon the organ of tasting given to me.

32. Then my vacuous self, contracted the property of smelling,by the air of its breath, I had thereby the sense of smellinggiven to me, through the organs of my nostrils. Beingthus furnished with all the organs of sense, I found myself tobe imperfect still (because none of them could lead me to theknowledge of the truth).

33. Being thus confined in the net of my senses, I found mysensual appetite increasing fast in me (and the possession ofsensuous perceptions (vidah), tending to no conscientious veritysamvidah).

34. The bodily sensations of sound, form, taste, touch andsmell, are all formless and untrue, and though appear to be actualand true; yet they are really false and untrue.

35. As I remained ensnared in the net of my senses, and consideredmyself a sensible being; I felt my egoism in me, asthat with which I am now addressing to you.

36. The sense of egoism growing strong and compact, takesthe name of the understanding; and this being considered andmature, comes to be designated as the mind.

37. Being possessed of my eternal senses, I pass for a sentientbeing; and having my spiritual body and soul, I pass as anintellectual being in a vacuous form.

38. I am more rare and vacuous than the air itself, and amas the empty void itself; I am devoid of all shapes and figures,and am irrepressible in my nature.

39. As I remained at that spot, with this conviction of myself;I found myself endowed with a body, and it was as I tookme to be.

40. With this belief (of my being an embodied being), Ibegan to utter sounds; and these sounds were as void, as thoseof man, dreaming himself as flying in the air in his sleep.

41. This was the sound of a new born babe, uttering thesacred syllable om at first; and thence it has become the customto pronounce this word, in the beginning of sacred hymn.

45442. Then I uttered some words as those of a sleeping person,and these words are called the vyahrites, which are now usedin the Gáyatrí hymn.

43. Methought I now became as Brahmá, the author andlord of creation; and then with my mental part or mind, Ithought of the creation in my imagination.

44. Finding myself so as containing the mundane systemwithin me, I thought I was not a created being at all; becauseI saw the worlds in my own body, and naught besides withoutit.

45. Thus the world being produced, within this mind ofmine; I turned to look minutely into it, and found there wasnothing in reality, except an empty void.

46. So it is with all these worlds that you see, which aremere void, and no other than your imagination of them; andthere is no reality whatever, in the existence of this earth andall other things that you see.

47. The worlds appear as the waters of the mirage, beforethe sight and to the knowledge of our consciousness; there isnothing outside the mind, and the mind sees every thing, inthe pure vacuity of the divine mind.

48. There is no water in the sandy desert, and yet themind thinks it sees it there; so the deluded sight of ourunderstanding, sees the baseless objects of delusion, in theburning and barren waste of infinite void.

49. Thus there is no world in reality in the divine spirit,and yet the erring mind of man, sees it erroneously to be situatedtherein; it is all owing to the delusion of human understanding,which naturally leads us to groundless errors and fallacies.(Errors in the mind breed errors in thoughts).

50. The unreal appears, as the real extended world to themind; in the same manner as the imaginary utopia appearsbefore it, and as a city is seen in the dream of a sleeping man.

51. As one knows nothing of the dream of another sleepingby his side, without being able to penetrate into his mind;while the yogi sees it clearly, by his power of prying into thehearts of others.

45552. So doth one know this world, who can penetrate intothe mundane stone; where it represented as the reflexion ofsome thing in a mirror, which in reality is nothing at all.

53. And although the world appears, as an elemental substanceto the naked eye; yet when it is observed in its truelight, it disappears like the Otaria of the polar region, whichis hidden under ever lasting darkness.

54. He who views the creation with his spiritual body, andwith his eyes of discernment, finds it full of the immaculatespirit of God, which comprehends and pervades throughout thewhole.

55. The percipient or judicious eye, sees the extinction orabsence of the world every where; because they have thepresence of the Divine Spirit alone before their view, andnaught that is not the spirit and therefore nothing.

56. Whatever is perceived by the clear-sighted (yogi), by hisconclusive reasoning; that transcendent truth is hard to beseen by the triple-eyed Siva, or even by the god Indra with histhousand eyes.

57. But as I looked into the vacuity of the sky, replete withits myriads of luminous bodies; so I beheld the earth full withthe variety of its productions; and then I began to reflect inmyself, that I was the lord of all below (and even as Brahmáhimself).

58. Then thinking myself as the master of the earth, I becameamalgamated with the earth as if it were one with myself;and having forsaken my vacuous intellectual body, I thoughtmyself as the sovereign of the whole.

59. Believing myself as the support and container of thisearth, I penetrated deep into its bowels; and thought all itshidden mines were parts of myself, so I took whatever it containedboth below and above it to be self same with me.

60. Being thus warped in the form of the earth, I becamechanged to all its forests and woods, which grew as hairs on itsbody. My bowels were full of jewels and gems, and my backwas decorated by many a city and town.

61. I was full of villages and valleys, of hills and dales, and456of infernal regions and caverns; I thought I was the greatmountain chain, and connected the seas and their islands oneither side.

62. The grassy verdure was the hairy cover of my body, andthe scattered hills as pimples on it; and the great mountaintops, were as the crests of my coronet, or as the hundred headsof the infernal snake (Vásuki).

63. This earth which was freely enjoined by all livingbeings, came to be parcelled by men and at last oppressed bybelligerent kings, and worsted by their lines of fighting elephants.

64. The great mountains of Imaus, Vindhya and Sumeru,had all their tops decorated with the falling streams of Gangesand others, sparkling as their pearly necklaces.

65. The caves and forests, the seas and their shores, furnishedit with beautiful scenes; and the desert and marsh lands,supplied it with clean linen garments.

66. The ancient waters of the deluge, have receded to theirbasins, and left the pure inland reservoirs, decorated by flowerybanks, and perfumed by the odorous dust of falling flowers.

67. The earth is ploughed daily by bullocks, and sown inthe dewy and cold season; it is heated by the solar heat, andmoistened by rain water.

68. The wide level land or plain, is its broad breast; thelotus-lakes its eyes, the white and black clouds are its turbans,and the canopy of heaven is its dwelling.

69. The great hollow under the polar mountain, forms itswide open mouth; and the breathing of animated nature,makes the breath of its life.

70. It is surrounded all about, and filled in its inside, bybeings of various kinds; it is peopled by the devas, demons andmen on the outside, and inhabited by worms and insects in itsinner parts.

71. It is infested in the organic poles and cells of its body,by snakes, Asuras and reptiles; and peopled in all its oceansand seas, with aquatic animals of various kinds.

45772. It is filled in all its various parts with animal, vegetableand mineral substances of infinite varieties; and it isplenteous with provisions for the sustenance of all sorts ofbeings.

Argument:—Relation of other wonders, whichVasishtha in his earthly body.

Vasishtha related:—Hear ye men, what I conceivedafterwards in my consciousness, as I had been lookingin my form of the earth, and considered the rivers running inmy body.

2. I beheld in one place a number of women, lamentingloudly on the death of some body; and saw also the greatrejoicing of certain females, on the occasion of their festivemirth.

3. I saw a direful dearth and famine in one place, with therapine and plunder of the people; and I beheld the profusion ofplenty in another, and the joy and friendliness of its people.

4. In one place I saw a great fire, burning down everything before me; and in another a great flood deluging overthe land, and drowning its cities and towns, in one common ruin.

5. I beheld a busy body of soldiers somewhere, plunderinga city and carrying away their booty; and I observed the fierceraxas and goblins, bent on afflicting and oppressing the people.

6. I saw the beds of waters brimful with water, and runningout to water and fertilize the land all around; I saw alsomasses of clouds issuing from mountain caverns, and tossedand borne by the winds afar and aloft in the sky (to pourtheir rains in other quarters).

7. I saw the out pourings of rain-water, the uprising of verdure,and the land smiling with plenty; and I felt within myselfa delight, which made the hairs on my body stand upright;(as if they were the rising shoots of plants growing out of mybody).

8. I saw also many places, having hills, forests and habitationsof men; and also deep and dreadful dens, with wild459beasts, bees in them. Here there were no foot prints of humanbeings, who avoid those places, for fear of falling in those diresomecaves.

9. Some places I saw, where warfares were waged betweenhostile hosts, and some others also, where the armies were sittingat ease, and gladsome conversation with one another.

10. I saw some places full of forests, and others of barrendeserts with tornadoes howling in them; and I saw marshygrounds, with repeated cultivations and crops in them.

11. I saw clear and purling lakes, frequented by cranes andherons, and smiling with blooming lotuses in them; and I sawlikewise barren deserts, with heaps and piles of grey dust,collected together by the blowing breezes.

12. I saw some places where the rivers were running, and rollingand gurgling in their sport; and at others, the grounds weremoistened and sown, and shooting forth in germs and sprouts.

13. I saw also in many places, little insects and wormsmoving slowly in the ground; and appeared to me to be cryingout, O sage, save us from this miserable state.

14. I saw the big banian tree, rooting its surroundingbranches in the ground; and I saw many parasite plants growingon and about these rooted branches.

15. Huge trees were growing in some places, upon rocksand mountain tops; and these embracing one another withtheir branching arms, were shaking like the billows of the sea.

16. I saw the raging sun darting his drying rays, and drawingthe moisture of the shady trees; and leaving them to standwith their dried trunks, and their withered and leafless branches.

17. I saw the big elephants dwelling on the summits ofmountains, piercing the sturdy oaks with the strokes of theirtusks, which like the bolts of Indra, broke down and felled andhurted them with hideous noise below.

18. There grew in some places, many a tender sprout, ofplants, shooting forth with joy as the green blades of grass; oras the erect hairs of horripilation rising on the bodies of saints,enrapt in their reveries and sitting with their closed eyelids.

46019. I saw the resorts of flies and leeches and gnats in thedirt, and of bees and black bees on the petals of lotus flowers;and I saw big elephants destroying the lotus bushes, as theplough-share overturns the furrows of earth.

20. I saw the excess of cold, when all living beings wereshrivelled and withered in their bodies; when the waters werecongealed to stone, and the keen and cold blasts chilled theblood of men.

21. I have seen swarms of weak insects, to be crushed todeath under the feet of men; and many diving and swimmingand skimming in the waters below, and others to be born andgrowing therein.

22. I have seen how the water enters in the seeds, andmoistens them in the rainy season; and these put forth theirhairy shoots on the out side, which grow to plants in the openair.

23. I smile with the smiling lotuses, when they are slightlyshaken in their beds by the gentle winds of heaven; and Iparade with the gliding of rivers, to the ocean of eternity forfinal extinction. (i.e. As the river bearing all things is lost inthe ocean; so doth the human body become extinct in theDeity, with the world that it contains within itself).

Argument:—The situation of the World in the womb of theVacuous Intellect; and its outward appearance as theImagination of the Mind.

Ráma said:—Tell me sir, whether in your curiosity toobserve the mutations of earthly things and affairs, youbeheld them in their earthly shapes with your corporeal body;or saw them in their ideal forms, in the imagination of yourmind.

2. Vasishtha replied:—It was in my mind, that I thoughtmyself to have become the great earth; and all what I saw asvisible, being but simple conceptions of the mind, could notpossibly have a material form.

3. It is impossible for the surface of the earth to exist,without its conception in the mind; whatever thou knowesteither as real or unreal, know them all as the work of yourmind.

4. I am the pure vacuous Intellect, and it is that which isthe essence of my soul; it is the expansion of this intellectualsoul, which is called its will also. (This will is the eternalpredicate of the Divine Spirit).

5. It is this which becomes the mind and the creative powerBrahmá, and takes the form of the world and this earth also;and this vacuous mind being composed of its desires, assumesto itself whatever form it likes to take.

6. It was thus that my mind stretched itself at that time,and put forth its desires in all those forms as it liked: andfrom its habitual capacity of containing every thing, it evolveditself in the shape of the wide-stretched earth.

7. Hence the sphere of the earth, is no other than theevolution of the selfsame mind; it is but an unintelligent counterpartof the intelligent intellect.

4628. Being thus a void in itself, it continues to remain foreveras such in the infinite void; but by being considered as a solidsubstance by the ignorant, they have altogether forgotten itsintellectual nature.

9. The knowledge that this globe of earth is stable, solidand extended, is as false as the general impression of bluenessin the clear and vacuous firmament, and this is the effect of adeeprooted bias in the minds of men.

10. It is clear from this argument, that there is no suchthing as the stable earth; it is of the same ideal form as it wasconceived in the mind, at the first creation of the world. (Theprimary idea of creation is of its subtile and not gross form.“And the earth was without form and void”).

11. As the city is situated in a dream, and the intellectresides in vacuity; so the Divine Intellect dwelt in the form ofthe creation in the very vacuum.

12. Know the three worlds in their intellectual light, likeningthe aerial palace of puerile fancy and hobby; and know thisearth and all visible appearances, to be the creatures of imagination.

13. The world is the ectype city or reproduction of the intellectualSpirit of God, and not a different kind of production ofthe Divine Will; it is in fact no real or positive existence atall, although it may appear as solid and substantial to theignorant.

14. The unreal visible world is known only to the ignorant,who are unacquainted with its real intellectual nature, and it ishe only that is acquainted with its true nature, who knows wellwhat I have been preaching to you ere long.

15. All this is the intellection of the Divine Intellect, andmanifestation of the supreme self in itself; the visible worldwhich appears as some thing other than the supreme soul, isinherent in the very soul. (All this being selfsame with theDivine spirit, it is exempt from the imputation of its duality orunity with it).

16. As a gemming stone exhibits of itself, the various hues463of white, yellow and others, without their being infused therein;so the Divine Intellect shows this creation in all its variousaspects within its vacuous sphere.

17. Whereas the spirit neither does anything, nor changesits nature (on account of its immutability); therefore this earthis neither a mental nor material production of it (but a phantasmagoriaonly).

18. The vacuous Intellect appears as the surface of theearth, but it is of itself without any depth or breadth,and transparent in its surface (wherefore it is not thefathomable or opaque body of the earth).

19. It is of its own nature, that it shows itself as anythingwherever it is situated; and though it is as clear as the openair, yet it appears as the earth, by its universal inherence intoand pervasion over all things.

20. This terraqueous orb, appearing as something other thanthe Great Intellect; appears in the very form as it picturedin the mind, like the shapes of things appearing in ourdream (agreeably to their forms preserved in our memory).

21. The world subsists in the vacuous spirit, and the DivineSpirit being vacuous also, there is no difference in them,it is the ignorant soul which makes the difference, but itvanishes at once before the intelligent soul.

22. All material beings, that have been or are to be in thethree past, present and future times; are mere errors of vision,like the false appearances in our dreams, and the air built citiesof imagination.

23. The beings that are existent at present, and such as areto come into existence in future; and the earth itself, are of thesame nature of an universal fallacy, in lieu of the Divine spiritpervading the whole.

24. I myself and all others that are included in this world,have the visible perceptions of all things as they are preservedin our reminiscence.

25. Know Ráma the Divine Intellect only, as the supremesoul and undecaying essence of all existence; and this it is that464sustains the whole in its person, without forsaking its spirituality.Knowing therefore the whole world as contained in thyself,which is not different from the supreme soul, thou shaltbe exempt and liberated from all.

Argument:—Description of the Waters and Islands on thesurface of the Earth, and Watery things in all nature.

Ráma Said:—Tell me Sir, what other things (lit.—worlds),you saw on the surface of the earth.

2. Vasishtha replied:—With my waking soul, I thought asit were in my sleep that I was assimilated to land, and sawmany groups of lands scattered this earth: I saw them in mymysterious vision, and then reflected them in my mind.

3. As I beheld those groups of lands, lying every wherebefore my intellectual vision; the outer world receded from mysight, all dualities were quite lost and hushed in my tranquilsoul.

4. I saw those groups as so many spots, lying in the expandedspirit of Brahma; which was a perfect void, quite calm, andinert to all agitations.

5. I saw every where large tracts, as great and solid as theearth itself: but found them in reality to be nothing more, thanthe empty dreams appearing in the vacant mind.

6. Here there was no diversity nor uniformity neither, norwas there any entity or nihility either; there was no sense ofmy egoism also, but all blinded in an indefinite void.

7. And though I conceived myself to be something in existence;yet I perceived it had no personality of its own, and itsentity depended on that of one sole Brahma, who is increateand ever undecaying (or never decays).

8. Thus these sights being as appearances of dream, in theempty space of the intellect; it is not known how and in whatform they were situated in the divine mind, before they wereexhibited in creation.

9. Now as I saw those tracts of land in the form of so many466worlds, so I beheld large basins of water also (surroundingthem on all sides).

10. Then my active spirit, became as the inert element ofwater in many a great (or reservoirs of water); and these arecalled as seas and oceans, in which lay and played with agurgling noise.

11. These waters are incessantly gliding on, bearing uponthem loads of grass and straw, and bushes of plants and shrubsand trunks of trees; which float upon them, as the bugs andleeches crawl and creep on your body.

12. These are borne by the circling waters, like small insectsand worms into the crevices of waves; and thence hurled intothe womb of the whirlpools, whose depth is beyond all comparison.

13. The currents of the waters were gliding, with the leavesand fruits of trees in their mouths; while the floating creepersand branches, described the encircling necklaces about them.

14. Again the drinkable water being taken by the mouth,goes into the hearts of living beings; and produces differenteffects on the humours of animal bodies, according to theirproperties at different seasons.

15. Again it is this water which descends in the form ofdews, sleeps on leafy beds in the shape of icicles, and shinesunder the (moon-beams on all sides), all the time and withoutinterruption.

16. It runs with irresistible course to many a lake andbrook as its home, it flows in the currents of rivers, unless it isstopped by some bridge or embankment.

17. The waters of the sea like ignorant men on earth, ranup and down in search of the proper course; but failing to findthe same, they tumbled and turned about in eddies and whirlpools(of doubts).

18. I saw the water on the mountain-top, which thought itrested on high, yet it fell owing to its restlessness in the formof a water-fall in the cataract, where it was dashed to a thousandsplashes. (So I found myself to be hurled down by my sins, from467my high position in heaven, to a thousand devious paths onearth).

19. I saw the water rising from the earth in the form ofvapour on high, and then mixing with the blue ocean of theazure sky, or appearing as blue sapphires among the twinklingstars of heaven.

20. I saw the waters ascending and riding on the backof the clouds, and there joining with the lightnings as theirhidden consorts, shining as the cerulean god Vishnu, mountedon the back of the hoary serpent—Vásuki.

21. I found this water both in the atomic and elementarycreations, as well as in all gross bodies on earth, and I found itlying unperceived in the very grain of all things, as the omnipresentBrahma inheres in all substances.

22. This element resides in the tongue; which perceives theflavour of things from their particles, and conveys the sense tothe mind. Hence I ween the feeling of taste relates to the souland its perception, and not to the sensibility of the body. (TheDivine Spirit is said to be flavour—rasovaitat, and it is thehuman soul only that perceives it).

23. I did not taste this spiritual savour, by means of thebody or any of its organs; it is felt in the inner soul only, andnot by the perceptions of the mind, which are misleading andtherefore false and unreal.

24. There is this flavour scattered on all sides, in the sapidityof the season’s fruits and flowers; I have tasted them alland left the flowers to be sucked by the bees and butterflies.

25. Again the sentient soul abides in the form of thisliquid, in the bodies and limbs of all the fourteen kinds of livingbodies (in some of which it appears in the form of red hotblood).

26. It assumes the form of the showers of rain, and mountson the back of the driving winds; and then it fills the wholeatmosphere, with a sweet aromatic fragrance. (This sweetscent is called in Bengali সেঁদোগন্ধ, which is a corruption ofস্বাডু swádu or sweet).

27. Ráma! remaining in that state of my sublimated abstraction,468I perceived the particulars of the world in each individualand particular particle.

28. Remaining unknown to and unseen by any body, Iperceived the properties of all things, as I marked those ofwater, with this my sensible body, appearing as gross matter.

29. Thus I saw thousands of worlds, and the repeated risingand fallings, like the leaves of plantain trees (or rather thebarks of those trees, which grow upon and envelop one another).

30. Thus did this material world, appear to me in its immaterialform; as a creation of the Intellect, and presenting apure and vacuous aspect.

31. The phenomenal is nothing, and it is its mental perceptiononly that we have all of this world; and this alsovanishes into nothing, when we know this all to be a merevoid.

Argument:—Vasishtha’s Identity of his soul with light,and his observation of it in all lightsome substances.

Vasishtha related:—I then believed myself as identicalwith light, and beheld its various aspects in the luminousbodies of the sun and moon, in the planets and stars, andin fire and all shining objects.

2. This light has by its own excellence, and it becomes thelight of the universe; it is as brilliant as the mighty monarch,before whose all surveying sight, the thievish darkness of nightflies at a distance.

3. This light like a good prince, takes upon it the likenessof lamps, and reigns in the hearts of families and houses in athousand shapes (of chandeliers &c.), to drive off the thievishnight, and restore the properties of all before their sight.

4. Being glad to lighten all peoples (worlds), it enkindlesthe orbs of the sun, moon and stars; who with their rays andbeams, dispel afar the shade of night from the face of the skies.

5. It impoverishes the darkness, that bereaves all beingsfrom their view of the beauties of nature, and dispenses theuseful light, which brings all to the sight of the visibles.

6. It employs the axe at the root of the nigrescent arbour ofnight, and adds a purity and price to all things; it is this thatgives value to all metals minerals, and makes them so dear tomankind.

7. It shows to view all sorts of colours, as white, red, blackand others. It is light that is the cause of colours as theparent is the cause of the progeny.

8. This light is in great favour, with every one upon thisearth; wherefore it is protected with great fondness in all houses,470as they foster their children in them, by means of earthen walls(in order to preserve them from inclement winds).

9. I beheld a slight light, even in the darkness of the infernalregion (i.e. the dismal hell fire); and I saw it partly in theparticles of dust, which compose all bodies on the surface of theearth.

10. I saw light, which is the first and best of the works ofGod, to be eternally present in the abodes of the celestial; andobserved it as the lamp of the mansion of this world, which wasthe great deep of waters and darkness before. (“And darknessreigned over the face of the deep”).

11. Light is the mirror of the celestial nymphs of all thequarters of heaven (i.e. it shows and points out the face of theheavens to us); it scatters like the winds the dust of frostfrom before the face of night, it is the essence of the luminousbodies of the sun, moon and fire, and the cause of the red andbright hue of the face of heaven.

12. It discloses the cornfields to day-light, and ripens theircorn, by dispelling darkness from the face of the earth. Itwashes also the glassy bowl of heaven, and glitters in the dewywaters upon its face.

13. It is by reason of its giving existence to, and bringing toview all things in the world, it is said to be the younger brother,of the transcendent light of divine Intellect. (The gross lightis the reflexion of holy light).

14. It is the light of the sun, which is the reviver of the lotusbed of the actions of mortals; and which is the life of livingbeings on earth; it is the source of our sight of the forms ofall things, as the intellect is that of all our thoughts and perceptions.

15. Light decorates the face of the sky, with numberlessgems of shining stars; and it is the solar light that makes thedivisions of days, months, years and seasons in the course oftime, and makes them appear as the passing waves in the oceanof eternity.

16. This immense universe bears the appearance of the471boundless ocean, wherein the sun and moon are revolving asthe rolling waves, over the scum of this muddy earth.

17. Light is the brilliancy of gold, and the colour of allmetals; it is the glitter of glass and gems, the flash of lightnings,and the vigour of men in general.

18. It is moon shine in the nocturnal orb, and the glitteringof glancing eye lids; it is the brightness of a smiling countenance,and the sweetness of tender and affectionate looks.

19. It gives significancy to the gestures, of the face, arms,eyes and frownings of the eye-brows; and it adds a blush tomaiden faces, from the sense of their invincibleness. (Laughterspring from pride).

20. The heat of this light, makes the mighty to spurn theworld as a straw, and break the head of the enemy with a slap;and strike the heart of the lion with awe.

21. It is this heat which makes the hardy and bold combatants,engage in mutual fighting with drawn and janglingswords; and clad in armours clanking on their bodies.

22. It gives the gods their antagonism against the demons,and makes the demoniac races also antagonistic to the gods; itgives vigour to all beings, and causes the growth of the vegetablekingdom.

23. All these appeared to me as the mirage in a desert, andI beheld them as phantasms in my mind; and this scene of theworld was situated in the womb of vacuum, and I beheld thesesceneries, O bright eyed Ráma, all these sceneries seem to resemblethe appearances of a phantasmagoria to me.

24. I then beheld the glorious sun above, stretching hisgolden rays to all the ten sides of the universe, and himselfflying as the phoenix in the sky; and I saw also this speckof the earth, resembling a villa beset by the walls of itsmountains.

25. The sun turned about and lent his beams to the moon,and to the submarine fire beneath the dark blue ocean; andstood himself as the great lamp of the world on the stand of themeridian, to give the light of the day.

47226. I saw the moon rising as the face of the sky, with a lakeof cooling and sweet nectar in it; the moonlight appearing asthe soft and sweet smile of the sable goddess of night, and asthe glow of the nightly stars.

27. The moon is the comparison of all beautiful objects inthe world, and is the most beloved object at night, of females,and of the blue lotus, and companion of the vesper or eveningstar.

28. I beheld the twinkling stars likening to the clusters offlowers in the arbour of the skies, and delighting the eyes andfaces (of their spectator); and they appeared to me as flocks ofbutterflies, flying in the fair field of the firmament.

29. I saw many shining gems washed away by the waters,and tossed about by the waving arms of the ocean;[3]and I sawmany jewels also in the hands of jewellers, and balanced bythem in their scales.

30. I looked into the submarine fire lying latent in the sea,and the eddies whirling the silvery shrimps in the whirlpools,I saw the golden rays of the sun, shining as filaments of flowersupon the waters, and I saw also the lightnings flashing in themidst of clouds. (There is a play upon the words abdhi andabda which mean the sea, the eddy, the marine fire, the cloud&c.).

31. I witnessed the auspicious sacrificial fire, blazing withineffable light; and marked its burning flame, splitting andcracking the sacred wood, with a crackling and clattering noise.

32. I saw the lustre of gold and other metals and minerals,and I found also how they are reduced to ashes by the act ofcalcination, like learned men overpowered by the clownishignorant.

33. I observed the brightness of pearls, which gave thema place on the breasts of women in the form of necklaces;473as also on the necks and chests of men and giants, and ofGandharvas and chiefs of men.

34. I beheld the firefly, with which the beauties adorn theirfore heads with bright spots; but which are trod upon on theway by ignorant passers as worthless; hence the value of thingsdepends on their situation and not real worth.

35. I saw the flickering lightning in the unmoving cloud,and the fickle shrimps skimming upon the waters of the calmocean; I heard also the hoarse noise of whirlpools in the quietand unsounding main, and marked how restlessness consortedwith restive and sedate.

36. Some times I saw the soft petals of flowers, were usedas lamps to light the bridal beds in the inner apartments.

37. Being then exhausted as the extinguished lamp, I becameas dark as collyrium; and slept silently in my own cell,like a tortoise with its contracted limbs.

38. Being tired with my travel throughout the universe, atthe kalpánta end of the world; I remained fixed amidst thedark clouds of heaven, as the elephant of Rudra abides there incompany with (his lightning).

39. At the end when the worlds were dissolved, and thewaters were absorbed by the submarine fires; I kept myselfdancing in the etherial space, which devoid of its waters.

40. Sometimes I was borne on high by the burning fire,with its teeth of the sparks and its flaming arms, and its flyingfumes resembling the dishevelled hairs on its head.

41. The conflagration burnt down the straw-built housesbefore it, and fed upon the animal bodies on its way; and consumedthe eight kinds of wood, that are ordained in sacrificialrites.

42. I saw the sparks of fire, emitted by the strokes ofhammer, from the red hot iron of blacksmiths, were rising andflying about like golden brickbats, to hit the hammerer.

43. In another place I saw the whole universe, lying invisiblefor ages in the womb of stony mundane egg.

44. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, how you felt yourself in that474state of confinement in the stone; and whether it was a state ofpleasure or pain, to you and the rest of beings.

45. Vasishtha replied:—As when a man falls into sleepwith the dulness of his senses, and has yet his airy intellectfully awake in him; so was that outward insensibility filled withintellectual sensibility. (So a man assimilating himself toBrahma, is full of his internal light and felicity).

46. The great Brahma awakens the soul, when the bodylies as insensible as the dull earth; so the sleeping man remainingin his torpid state, has his internal soul full with the divinespirit (which fills it with true intellectual delight sachchidánanda).

47. Because the earthly or corporeal body of man, is verilya falsity and has no reality in it; it appears as visual phantom tothe sight of the spectator, but in reality it is one with unchangedspirit of God.

48. Knowing this certain truth, whoso views these all as anundivided whole; sees the quintessence as one essence, andthe subjective and the objective as the same (Lit.:—He doesnot fall into the blunder of the viewer and the view).

49. I then having assimilated myself to the pure spirit ofBrahma, viewed all things in and as Brahma, because there isnone beside Brahma, that is or can be or do anything fromnaught.

50. When I viewed all these visibles as manifestation of theself-same Brahma, then I left myself also situated in the stateof divinity of Brahma himself.

51. When on the other hand, I reflected myself as combinedwith the pentuple material elements; I found myself reducedto my dull nature, and was incapable of my intellectual operationof excogitation, and the conception of my higher nature.

52. I thought myself as asleep, notwithstanding my powerof intellection (which lay dormant in me); and being thus overtakenby the conception of my sleepy insensibility, how could Icogitate of anything otherwise; which is of a transcendentalnature.

53. He whose soul is awakened by knowledge, loses the475sense of his corporeal body, and raises himself to his átiváhikaor spiritual form, by means of his purer understanding.

54. A man having his sentient and spiritual body, either inthe form of a minute particle or larger size as one may wish,remains perfectly liberated from the fetters of his body and hisbondage in this world.

55. With his intelligent and spiritual body, a man is enabledto enter into the impenetrable heart of a hard stone, or torise to heaven above or descend to the regions below.

56. Hence, O Ráma, I having then that intelligent andsubtile body of mine, did all that I told you, with my essence ofinfinite understanding.

57. In my entrance into the hard stone, and my passagesup and down the high heaven and the nether world, I experiencedno difficulty from any side.

58. With my subtile and intelligent body, I passed everywhere, and felt everything, as I used to do with material body.

59. One going of his own accord in one direction, and wishingto go in another, immediately finds himself even then andthere, by means of his spiritual body.

60. Know this spiritual and subtile body, to be no otherthan your understanding only; and now you can well perceiveyourself to be of that imperishable form, by means of your intelligencealso.

61. Thinking one’s self as the vacuous Intellect, abiding inthe sun and all visible objects; the spiritualist comes to knowthe existence of his self only, and all else that is beside himselfas nothing.

62. But how is it possible to view the visible world as inexistent,to which it is answered that it appears as real as theunreal dream to the sleeping person, but vanishes into nothingupon his waking (scholium). Reliance in the inexistent world,is as the belief of the ignorant man in falsehoods; and thisreliance is confirmed by habit, although it is not relied upon byothers that know the truth.

63. But this reliance is as vain as the vanity of our desires,and the falsity of our aerial castle building; all which are as476false as the marks of waves, left on the sea sands; or as themarking of anything with a charcoal, which is neither lastingnor perceptible to any body.

64. We see the woodlands, blooming with full blownflowers and blossoms; but these sights are as deluding, as thesparks of fire, presenting the appearance of a flower garden infire works.

65. These pyrotechnical works, which are prepared with somuch labour; burst on a sudden at the slight touch of fire,and then they are blown away as soon, as the prosperity ofsharpers (which is transient).

66. Ráma, I beheld the flourish of the world, to be as falseand fleeting, as the appearance of light in the particles of dust;all these appearing as so many things of themselves, are in factno other than the appearances of hills and cities, in the vacuityof the mind in our dreams at sleep.

Argument:—Vasishtha’s assuming the form of Air, and hisfinding its pervasion all over the world as its vital spirit.

Vasishtha continued:—Now in my curiosity to knowthe world, I thought myself as transformed to the formof the current air; and by degrees extended my essence, allover the infinite extent of the universe.

2. I became a breeze with a desire, to view the beauty ofthe lovely plants all about me; and to smell the sweetness ofthe fragrant blossoms of kunda, jessamine as lotuses.

3. I bore about the coolness of the falling rains and snowsand dew drops, with a view to restore freshness to the languidlimbs of the tired and weary labourer.

4. My spirit in the form of the current winds, bore aboutthe essences of medicinal plants and the fragrance of flowers;and carried away the loads of grass, herbs, creepers and theleaves of plants all around.

5. My spirit travelled as the gentle zephyr, in the auspicioushours of morn and eve; to awaken and lull to sleep the lovelymaids; again it takes the tremendous shape of a tornado intempest, to break down and bear away the rocks.

6. In paradise it is florid, with the reddish dust of mandáraflowers; in the mountains it is hoary with hoar frost and snows;and in hell it burns in the infernal fires.

7. In the sea it has a curvilinear motion, with the curlingwaves and revolving whirlpools; and in heaven it bears aloftand moves the clouds, both to cover and uncover the mirror ofmoon hid under them.

8. In heaven it has the name of the prabáha air, to holdaloft the starry frame; and guide the course of the starry478legions and the cars of their commanding generals—the post ofGods.

9. It is accounted as the younger brother of thought, owingto its great velocity; it is formless but moveth over all forms;and though intangible, yet its touch is as delightsome, as thecooling paste of sandal wood.

10. It is hoary old with the hoar frost, it bears on its head;it is youthful with wafting the fragrance of vernal flowers, andit is young when it is quiet and still.

11. Here it roves at large, loaded with the fragrance of thegarden of Eden; and there it moves freely bearing the perfumesof the grove of the Gandharva Chitra-ratha, to tired personsand worn out lovers.

12. Though fatigued with its toil, of raising and moving theincessant waves, of the cooling and purifying stream of Ganges;yet it is ever alert to lull the toil of others, being quite forgetfulof its own weariness.

13. It gently touches its brides of vernal plants, bendingdown under the load of their full blown flowers; which areever shaking their leafy hands, and flitting eyes of flutteringbees, to resist its touch.

14. The fleeting air buried its weariness in its soft bed ofclouds; after drinking dew drops exuding from the disc of themoon; and being fanned by the cooling breath of lotuses (growingin lakes of heaven).

15. Like the swiftest steed of Indra, he bears the farina ofall flowers to him in heaven; and becomes a compeer withIndra’s elephant, who is giddy with the fragrance of hisichor.

16. Then blew the winds, with the soft breath of the shepherd’shorns; and drove away the clouds like cattle, and blastedthe showering rain drops; that served to set down the dustof the earth.

17. It is perfumed with the fragrance of flowers flying inthe air, and is the uterine brother of all sounds which proceedfrom the womb of vacuum (which is the common source of wind479and sound). It runs in the blood and humours, within the veinsand arteries of bodies; and is the mover of the limbs of persons.

18. It dwells within the hearts of human bodies as theirlife, and is the soul and sole cause of all their vital functions. Itis ever on its wing, and being ubiquitous throughout the world,it is acquainted with the secrets of all the works of Brahmá.

19. It is the plunderer of the rich treasure of odours, andthe supporter of etherial cities; it is the destroyer of heat anddarkness as the moon, and this air is the milky ocean, thatproduces the fair and cooling moon.

20. It forms the islands (by undulation of waves and collectionof sands); and is the preserver of the machine of animalbodies, by means of its conducting the vital airs.

21. It is ever present before us, and yet invisible in itself,like an imaginary palace; or as oil in the pods of palm trees,or fetters on the legs of infuriate elephants.

22. It blows away in a moment, all the mountains at theend of the world; it marks the waves with their curls, and collectsthe sands of rivers (to large beaches and coasts).

23. It is false in appearance, as water in a cloud of smoke,or a whirlpool in it; it is as invisible as the streams above thefirmament, and the lotuses growing in the lakes of the blueetherial sky.

24. It is covered with bits of rotten grass, in its form of thegusts of wind; it opens the lotus blossoms by its gentle breeze,and showers down the rains in its form of sounding blasts.

25. Its body is as a wind instrument at home, and as anelephant in the forest of the sky; it is a friend to the dust ofthe earth, and a wooer of flowers in woods and gardens.

26. It is ever busy in its several acts, of congealing anddrying, of upholding and moving, and of cooling the body andcarrying the perfumes; and is incessantly employed in thesesix fold functions to the end of the world.

27. It is as fleet as light, and adroit in extracting juices asthe absorbent heat; and is ever employed in the acts of contractionand distension of the limbs of bodies, at the will ofevery body.

48028. It passes unobstructed through the avenues, of everypart of the city of the body; and by its circulation in the heart,and distribution of the bile and chyle through blood vessels, itpreserves the functions of life.

29. It is expert in repairing the losses, of the great citadelof the living body; by removing its excrements and replacingits gastric juices (i.e. the six humours of the body), and theformation of its blood and fat, and the flesh, bones, and skin.

30. I looked through every particle of the body, by meansof the circulating air; as I viewed every part of the universeby means of the circumambient air; and it is by means of myvital airs, that I conduct this body of mine.

31. The winds bear innumerable particles on their back,as if they were so many worlds in the air, while in fact thereis nothing borne by them, when there is naught but an utternegative vacuity every where.

32. I viewed all bodies including those of the gods, as thoseof Hari and Brahmá, and the Gandharvas and Vidyádharas;and I saw the bright sun and moon, of fire and Indra andothers.

33. I saw the seas and oceans, the islands and mountains,stretching as far as the visible horizon; I beheld also theother worlds, and the natures and actions of their inhabitants.

34. I saw the heaven and earth and the infernal regionsalso, and marked their peoples and their lives and deaths likewise.

35. So I beheld various kinds of beings, composed of thefive elements; and traversed in the form of air, throughout allparts of the universe, as a bee enters the foliage of a lotusflower.

36. In my aerial form, I passed through the bodies of allcorporeal beings, which are composed of earth, water, air andfire; I sucked the juice of all animal bodies, and drank themoisture of trees drawn by their roots.

37. I passed over all cold and solid bodies, and the liquidpaste of sandal wood; I rested in the cool lunar disk, andlulled myself on beds of snows and ice.

48138. I have tasted the sweets of all season fruits and flowersin the arbours of every part of this earth; I have drunk myfill in the flower-cups of spring; and left the lees and leavingsfor the beverage of bees.

39. Then I rolled on the high and soft beds of clouds, whichare spread out in the wide fields of the firmament; and I slepton soft and downy wings of clouds, as in a place bedded byheaps of butter.

40. I reposed on the petals of flowers, and on the greenleaves of trees; and rested on the soft bodies of heavenlynymphs, without any concupiscence on my part.

41. I played with the blossoms of lilies and lotuses, in theirbeds and bushes; and I joined with the cackling geese andswans in their pleasure lakes.

42. I moved with the course of streams, and with the ripplingwaters of lakes and rills; and I bore the orb of the earth onmy back, and carried about me all her mountains, as hairs uponmy body.

43. The wide extending hills and mountains, the lengtheningrills falling from them, together with all the seas and oceans,are all as pictures represented in the mirror of my body.

44. All the terrestrials and celestials, that live and move atlarge upon my body; appear to be moving and flying about meas lice and flies.

45. It is by my favor, that the sun receives the various colourswith which he shines; and which he diffuses to the leaves oftrees, in the sundry hues of red and black, of white, yellow andgreen.

46. The earth is situated with the seven seas, surroundingthe seven great islands (continents); as so many wristlets areencircled about the wrists of men.

47. I was delighted at the sight of the celestial nymphs, also,as I see with gladness myself within.

48. The earth with its rivers of pure water and its solidhills and rocks, were as the veins and blood, and flesh and bonesof my body.

49. I beheld innumerable elephantine clouds, and countless482suns and moons in the starry frame on the sky; as I see theflights of gnats and flies in the vacuum of my mind.

50. In my minute form of the intellect, I held, O Ráma,the earth with its footstools of the nether regions upon myhead (because the vacuous intellect is capable of containingand upholding all things).

51. I remained in my sole vacuous and spiritual state, in allplaces and things at all times, and as the free agent of myself;and yet without my connection with any thing whatsoever.

52. In this state of my spirituality, I had the knowledge ofboth the intellectual and material worlds; and of all finite andinfinite, visible and invisible and formal as well as formlessthings.

53. I beheld in my own spirit, a thousand worlds andmountains and seas; and they appeared as carved statues andengravings in the vacuous tablet of my mind.

54. I bore in my spiritual body, many occult and visibleworlds; and they showed themselves as clearly to my inmostsoul, as if they were the reflexions of real objects in a mirror.

55. So I perceived the four elemental bodies of earth andair, and of fire and water, in my vacuous soul; in same manneras we see the delusive objects of our dream in the vacuity ofour intellect.

56. I saw also in that state of my hypnotism, innumerableworlds rising before me in each particle of matter; as itappeared to fly before me in the hollow space of vacuum.

57. I beheld a world in every atom, which was flying inempty air; just as we see the many creations of our dreams,and the many creatures in those dreams.

58. I myself have become the orb of the earth, and theclusters of islands (as their pervading spirit (adhyásikátma);though my spirit never comes in contact with anything at all).

59. With my earthly body, I suck the rain water and thewaters of the seas; in order to supply the moisture of themoisture of trees, on account of their producing the juicyfruits, for the food of living beings.

60. At the time of my coming to pure understanding, and483the clair-voyance of my intellectual sight; I find the millions ofworlds and all worldly things, disappearing from my view andall uniting in One sole unity.

61. This is a miracle of the intellect, and it strikes withwonder in ourselves; that the miracles of the inner mind,manifest themselves as external sights before our eyes. (i.e.The subjective appearing as the objective).

62. I felt it painful to think of the existence of nothingany where; but I found out the truth, that there is nothing inreality except one spiritual substance, which displays all thesewonders in itself.

63. There is but One universal soul, which is the everundecaying cause of all; and produces and lives through outthe whole. (This is called the visva rúpa hypostasis of God,as it is expressed by the poet “These as they change, are butthe varied God,” and the world is full of Him). And as my soulwas awakened to knowledge, I saw this whole in the soul ofBrahma.

64. Being awakened to the knowledge of the universalsoul, as the all and every where, ubiquitous and all supporting;I became insensible of all objects, and was myself lost in theall subjective unity.

65. It is in the vacuous convexity of the pure divine spirit,that the continuous creations appear to rise in the intellect;but it is the extinction of these, which extinguishes the burningflame (of worldliness) in the mind, and exterminates theknowledge of all these ideal particulars, into that of One infiniteand ever existent entity.

Argument:—The appearance of the spirit of a siddha inthe aerial cell of Vasishtha, and his heavenly canticle.

Vasishtha continued:—As my mind was turned from thesight of phenomenals, and employed in the meditationof the only One; I found myself to be suddenly transported tomy holy cell in the air.

2. There I lost the sight of my own body, and knew notwhere I was seated; when all of a sudden the sacred person ofa siddha or aerial saint, appeared in view, and to be seatedbefore me.

3. He sat in his mood of deep meditation, and wasentranced in his thought of the supreme spirit; his appearancewas as bright as the sun, and his person was as shining as theflaming fire.

4. He sat quiet and steadily in his posture of padmásanabetween his two knees and heels; and remained absorbed inmeditation, having no motion of his body, nor any thought ofanything in his mind.

5. His body was besmeared with ashes, and his head wasborne erect upon his shoulders; he sat quiet and quite at ease,with his bright countenance and in sedate posture.

6. The palms of both his hands were lifted up, and were setopen below his navel; and their brightness caused his lotiformheart to be as full-blown, as the sun-beam expands the lotusesin lakes.

7. His eyelids were closed, and his eyesight was as weak,as to view all the visibles in one light of whiteness, and theyseemed to be as sleepy, as the closing petals of the lotus of theclose of the day.

4858. His mind was as calm in all its closets (i.e. thoughts),as the sides of the horizon in their stillness; and his soul wasas unperturbed, as the serene sky freed from a tempest (calmafter storm).

9. I who did not see my own person, could yet plainly perceivethat of the saint thus placed before me; and then Ireflected in my mind, with the perspicacity of my discernment.

10. I find this great and perfect siddha or saint in thissolitary part of the firmament; and I believe him to be as absorbedin his meditation, as I am at my ease in this lonely spot.

11. It is very likely that this saint, being earnest in hisdesire of deep meditation, and finding this retired cell of minemost favourable to it, has called here of his own accord.

12. He thought I had cast off my mortal coil, and could notperceive by his deep attention that I had returned to it; so hethrew away my dead body as he thought it, and made hisresidence in that cell of mine.

13. Seeing thus the loss of my body here, I thought of repairingto my own abode (in the constellation of Pleiades सप्तर्षि मण्डलं) and as I was attempting to proceed thereto, I resignedmy attachment to my lone cell (which was now held byanother).

14. This cell was dilapidated also in time, and there remainedan empty void only in lieu of it; and the saint thathad taken my place therein, lost his stay also for want of thecell, and fell downward in his meditative mood.

15. Thus that lonely cell was lost to me, together with theloss of my fond desire for it, just as a visionary and imaginarycity vanishes with the dream and desire, which presented it toour view.

16. The meditative saint then fell down from it, as the rainfalls down from the cloud; and as a spot of cloud is blown awayto the winds in empty air, like the disc of the moon traversingin the sky.

17. He felt as a heavenly spirit falls to earth, after fruitionof the reward of his meritorious acts; and as a tree falls headlong486being uprooted from the ground, so he fell down upon theearth.

18. So when wish for stability of our dwelling, with thecontinuance of our lives; we see on a sudden the terminationof both, as it happened to the falling Siddha.

19. Seeing the falling Siddha, I felt a kind concern for him;and in the flight of my mind, came down from heaven in myspiritual form, to that spot on earth where he had fallen.

20. He fell on the wings of the current air, which conveyedhim whirling as in a whirlwind, beyond the limits of the sevencontinents and their seven fold oceans, to a place known as theland of gold and the paradise of the gods.

21. He fell from the sky in his very posture of padmásanaas he had been sitting there before; and sat with his headand upper part of the body erect, owing to the ascension orupward motion of the prána and apána breaths that wereinhaled by him. (The rising breath like the rope of a pitcher,keeps the body from sinking downward).

22. Though hurled from such height, and carried to suchdistance; yet he did not wake from the torpor of his samádhi—meditation,(to which he sat fixed and intent); but fell downinsensible as a stone, and as lightly as a bale of cotton.

23. I was then much concerned for his sake, and from mygreat anxiety to waken him; I roared aloud like a cloud frommy place in the sky, and showered a flood of rain-water also uponhim.

24. I went on darting hail stones, and flashing as lightningsin order to waken him; and I succeeded to bring him to sense,as the clouds rouse the peaco*ck in the rainy season.

25. His body flushed and his eyes opened, as a bloomingblossom and full blown flowers; and the drizzling rains enlivenedhis soul, as the driving rain, gives the lotuses of lakes tobloom.

26. Finding him awake, and seated in my presence, I castmy complacent look upon him; and asked him very politely,about the prosperity of his spiritual concerns.

27. I said, tell me, O great sage, who you are, and where is487your abode, and what to do; and how is it that you are soinsensible of your state, notwithstanding your fall from sogreat a distance. (It is a pity that men are so insensible of thefall of their heavenly souls to this miserable earth).

28. Being addressed by me in this manner, he looked steadfastlyupon me, and then remembering his visit at mine, hereplied to me in a voice, as sweet as that of the chátaka—swallowto the sonorous clouds.

29. The sagely siddha said:—You sir, shall have to wait awhileuntil I can recollect myself and my former state; andthen I will relate to you the latter incidents of my life.

30. So saying he fell to the recollection of his past incidents,and then having got them in his remembrance, he related theparticulars to me without any reserve, and as if they were theoccurrence of his present day.

31. He then spoke to me in a voice, as soft and cooling asthe sandal paste and moonbeams; and the words were asblameless and well spoken, as they were pleased to my ears andravishing of my soul.

32. The siddha said:—I now come to know you sir, andgreet you with reverence; and beg you to pardon my intrusionupon you, as it is the nature of the good to forgive thefaults of others. (Because to err is human, to forgive divine).

33. Know me, O sage, to have long enjoyed (in one of myformer births), the sweets of the garden of paradise in the formof butterfly; as a bee sucks the honey of lotus-flowers in thelake.

34. I fluttered over a running stream, and found it swellingwith sounding waves at pleasure; and then seeing it whirlingwith its horrid whirlpools, I began to reflect with sorrow in mymind (in the following manner).

35. Such is the sight of the troubles in this ocean of theworld, which overwhelms me quite in sorrow and grief; andI have become like a parching and plaintive swallow, thatwails aloud at a draught of rain water.

36. I find my chief delight to consist in intelligence, andperceive no pleasure in worldly enjoyments, therefore I must488rely only in my intellectual speculations, and abide without anyanxiety, in the unclouded sphere of my spiritual felicity.

37. I see there is no real pleasure here, but what is derivedfrom our sensations of the sensible objects (of figure, sound,taste, touch and smell); I find no lasting delight in these, thatI should depend on them.

38. All this is either the vacuity of the intellect, or representationsof the intellect itself; when then should I be deludedwith these false appearances, as a madman or one of a deludedmind is apt to do.

39. The sensibles are causes of our insensibility as poison,and women are deluders of men and provokers of their passions;all sweets are but gall, and all pleasures are only a sort ofpleasing pain.

40. And this body which is subject to sickness and decay,with its mind as fickle as a shrimp fish, is hourly watched uponby inexorable death, as the old crane lurks after the skimmingfish for his prey.

41. The frail body being subject to instant extinction, likensa bubble of water in the ocean of eternity; it resembles alsothe flame of lamp, which is put out in a moment, while itburns vividly before us.

42. What is the life any more than a stream of water, runningbetween its two shores of birth and death; flowing onwith the currents of passing joys and griefs, swelling with thewaves of incidents, and whirling with the whirlpools of dangersand difficulties?

43. It is muddied with the pleasures of youth, and blanchedwith the hoary froths of old age; and emits but casually afew bursting bubbles of glee and gladness, which are afloatfor and flitting in a moment.

44. It runs with the rapid torrent of custom, sounding withthe hoarse noise of current opinions; it is overcast by theroaring clouds of envy and anger, and overflows the earth in itsliquid form (of evanescent bodies).

45. The word stream of life, is as pleasing to hear andpleasant to the ear, as the term stream of water is soothing to489the soul; but its waters are ever boiling with heat of tritápa,and abounding with whirlpools of illusion and avarice, thatcarry us up and down for ever more.

46. The course of the world is as that of the waters of ariver, which bears away the present things on its back, andbrings with its current, what was unforeseen and unexpectedbefore. It is thus full with these events.

47. All that was present before us, is lost to and borne awayfrom us, and it is in vain to repine at their loss; and whateverwas never thought of before, come to pass upon us, but whatreliance can there be in any one of them.

48. All the rivers on earth, have their waters continuallypassing away, and filling them by turns from their sources; butlife which the water of the river of the body, being once gone,is never supplied to it from any source.

49. The vicissitudes of fortune, are incessantly turninglike a potter’s wheel, over the destinies of people, and areentailing some person or other every moment, in this ocean ofthe world.

50. A thousand thieves and enemies of our estate, areconstantly wandering about to rob us of our properties, andnothing avails whether we sleep or wake to ward them off.

51. The particles of our lives, are wasting and falling offevery moment; and yet it is a wonder that, nobody is awareof the loss of the days of his life, as long as he has but alittle while to live.

52. The present day is reckoned as ours, but it is as soonpassed as the past ones; and thus ignorant of the flight of days,nobody knows the loss of the duration of his life, until hecomes to meet with his death.

53. We have lived long to eat and drink, and to move aboutfrom place to place, and to rove in foreign lands and woods; wehave felt and seen all sorts of weal and woe; say what more isthere that we can expect to have for our share.

54. Having wellknown the pain and pleasure of grief andjoy, and experienced their changes and the reverses of fortune,490I am fully imprest with the idea of the transitoriness of allthings, and therefore kept afar from seeking any thing.

55. I have enjoyed all enjoyments, and seen their transitorinessevery where; and yet I found no satisfaction with or distasteto anything, nor felt my cool inappetency for them anywhere.

56. I wandered on the tops of high hills, and roved in theairy regions on the summits of the Meru mountains; I travelledto the cities of many a ruler of men, but met with nothing ofany real good to me any where.

57. I saw the same woody trees, the same kind of earthlycities, and the same sort of fleshy animal bodies every where;I found them all frail and transitory, and full of pain andmisery as never to be liked.

58. I saw no riches nor friends, no relatives nor enjoymentsof life, were able to preserve any one from the clutches ofdeath.

59. Man passes away as soon, as the rain-water glides downthe mountain glades; and is carried away by the hand of deathas quickly, as a heap of hollow ashes is blown away by the wind.

60. No enjoyment is desirable to me, nor has the gaudinessof prosperity any charm for me; when I find my life tobe as transient, as the transitory glance from the side long lookof an amorous woman.

61. How and where and whose help shall we seek, when Osage; we see a hundred evils and imminent death hanging everyday over our heads. (i.e. Naught can save us from death anddistress).

62. Our lives are as frail as falling leaves, upon thewithered woods of our bodies; and the moisture which they usedto derive from them, is soon dried up and exhausted at the end.

63. I passed my life in vain desires and expectations, andderived nothing therefrom, that is of any intrinsic good orprofit to me.

64. My delusion is at last removed from me, and I see it uselessto bear the burthen of my body here any longer; I find it491better to place no reliance in it, than bemean ourselves by ourdependence to it.

65. All prosperity is but adversity, owing to its transitoryand illusive nature; therefore the wise accounting it as such,place no reliance on the vanities of this world.

66. Men are sometimes led by the directions of the sástras,and at other by their prohibitions also; as the movables arecarried up and by the rising and falling waters (i.e. runningin right or wrong directions).

67. The poisonous air of worldliness, contaminates the sweetodour of reason in the mind of man; and makes it noxious tothe person, as the canker in the bosom of the bud, corrodes thefuture flowers.

68. The vanities of the world, are as usually taken for realities,as all other unrealities in nature are commonly taken foractualities. (The world is unreal, and all seeming realities areunreal also).

69. Men are moving about with their bodies upon earth,with as much haste as the rivers are running to the seas; thusthe great mass of mankind here, are seen to be in pursuit ofthe sensible objects of their desire.

70. The desires of our hearts run to their objects, with asmuch speed as the arrow’s fly from the archer’s bow; but theynever return to their seat in the heart or bow string, as ourungrateful friends that forsake us in our adversity.

71. Our friends are our enemies, as the blasts of wind thatblow us away with their breath; all our relations are our bondsand fetters, and our riches are but causes of our poverty.

72. Our pleasures are (causes of) our pains, and prosperitythe source of adversity; all enjoyments are sufferings (as leadingto maladies), and all fondness tends at last to distaste anddislike.

73. All prosperity and adversity, tend only to our temporaryjoy and misery; and our life is but a prologue or prelude toour extinction or quietus (nirvána). All these are the displayof our unavoidable delusion.

74. As time glides along on any man, shewing him the492various sights of joy and misery; the poor creature lives onlyto see the loss of his friends, and to repine at his hapless andhelpless longevity.

75. The enjoyment of pleasures, is as playing with thefangs of a deadly serpent; they kill you no sooner you touchthem, and they disappear from your sight, whenever you lookafter them.

76. The life is spent without any attempt, to attain thatperfect state, which is obtained without any pain or toil; whileit is employed every day in hardships of acquiring the perishabletrifling pleasures.

77. Men who are bound to their desire of carnal enjoyment,are exposed to shame and the contumely of the rich everymoment; and are as wild elephants, tied with strong fetters attheir feet.

78. Our fortunes and favourites, are not only as frail andfickle, as the transitory waves and bubbles; but they are aspernicious as the fangs of a snake; and who is there so sillyenough, as to take his rest under the shadow of the hood ofenraged serpent.

79. Granting the objects of desire to be pleasing, and thegifts of prosperity to be very charming; still what are theyand this life also any more, than the fickle glances of a mistress’eyes.

80. Those who enjoy the pleasures of the present time withso much zest; must come to feel them quite insipid at the end,and fall into the hell-pit at last.

81. I take no delight in riches, which are worshipped bythe vulgar only; which are ever subject to disputes, earnedwith labour, kept with great care, and are yet as unstable asthe winged winds in air.

82. Fortune which is so favorable for a while, turns to misfortunein a trice; she is very charming to her possessor, butis as fickle in her nature, as the fleeting flash of lightning.

83. Riches like flatterers, are very flattering at first and aslong as they last; but they are as fleeting as those deceitfulcheats, who mock at us upon their loss.

49384. The blessings of health, wealth and youth, are asevanescent as the fleeting shadow of autumnal clouds; and theenjoyments of sensual pleasures, are pernicious at the end.

85. Say who has remained the same even among the great,to the end of his journey in this world, the lives of men areas fleeting, as the trickling dew drops at the end of the leavesof trees.

86. Our bodies are decaying in time, and our hairs are turninggrey with age, and the teeth are falling off; thus all thingsare worn out in the world, except our desires, which know nodecrease or decay.

87. The carnal enjoyments like wild beasts, come to decayin the forest of the body; but the poison plant of our desirewhich grows in it, is ever on its increase.

88. Our boyhood passes as quickly as our infancy, and ouryouth passes as soon as our boyish days; and here there is anequal transience, to be seen in both the comparison and theobject compared with.

89. Life melts away as quickly, as the water oozes out ofthe hold of our palms; and like the current of a river, it neverreturns to its receptacle.

90. The body also passes away as hurriedly, as a hurricanesweeps in the air; and it vanishes even before our sight of it,like a wave or cloud, or as fast as the flame of a lamp.

91. I have found unpleasantness in what I thought to bevery pleasant, and found the unsteadiness of what I believed tobe steady; I have known the unreality of what I took to bereal, and hence have I become distrustful and disgustful of theworld.

92. The ease and rest that attend on the soul, upon the coolindifference of the mind; are never to be obtained in anyenjoyment, that the upper or nether worlds, can ever afford toany body.

93. I find the pleasurable objects of my senses, are stillalluring me to their trap, as a fruit and flower entices the foolishbee to fall upon them.

94. Now after the lapse of a long time, I am quite released494from my selfish egoism; and my mind has become indifferentto the desire of future rewards and heavenly felicity.

95. I have long found my rest in my solitary bliss of vacuity,and have come here as thyself, and met with this etherialcell. (The aerial cell is a creation of the saint’s imagination).

96. I came to learn afterwards that this cell belonged tothee; but I never thought that thou shalt ever return to it.

97. I saw there a lifeless body, and thought it to be theframe of a siddha or holy saint, who having quitted his mortalcoil, has become extinct in his nirvána.

98. This sir, is my narrative as I have related to you; andam seated here as I am, and you can do unto me as you maylike.

99. Until a siddha sees all things in his mind, and considersthem well in his clear judgment, he is incapable of seeingthe past, present and future in his clairvoyance, even thoughhe be as perfect as the nature of the lotus-born Brahmá himself.

Argument:—Advent of Vasishtha and the saint to theregion of Siddha and description of the people thereof.

Vasishtha continued:—Now as we were at a spot ofgreat extent (beyond the limit of the terraqueous); andas bright as the golden sphere of heaven, I spoke to the Siddhaby way of friendship.

2. I said, it is true sir, what you said, that it is the want ofdue attention, which prevents our comprehensive knowledgeof the present, past and future; but it is a defect not only ofyours and mine, but of the minds of all mankind in general.

3. I say so from my right knowledge of the defects andfallibility of human nature, or else sir, you would not have tofall from your aerial seat. But pardon me, I am equally falliblealso.

4. Rise therefore from this place, and let us repair to aerialabode of the Siddhas, where we were seated before; becauseone’s own seat is the most genial to man, and self-perfectionis the best of all perfections.

5. So saying they both got up, and rose as high as the starsof heaven; and both directed their course in the same way, asan aeronaut, or a stone flung into the air.

6. We then took leave of each other with mutual salutations;and each went to the respective place which was desirableto either of us.

7. I have now related to you fully the whole of this story,whereby you may know, O Ráma, the wonderful occurrencesthat betide us in this everchangeful world.

8. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, how and with what form ofbody, thou didst rove about the regions of the Siddhas, whenthy mortal frame was reduced to dust.

4969. Vasishtha replied:—Ah! I remember it, and will tell youthe particulars, how I wandered throughout these worldlyabodes, until I arrived at the city of the Loka-pála deities, andjoined with the hosts of Siddhas, traversing in the regions ofmidway sky.

10. I travelled in the regions of Indra or open firmament,without being seen by any body there; because I was then passingin my spiritual body, eversince I had lost my materialframe-work.

11. I had then become, O Ráma, of an aerial form, in whichthere was neither a receptacle nor recipient, beside the natureof vacuous and intellectual soul.

12. I was then neither the subject or object of perceptionof persons like yourself, who dwell on sensible objects alone;nor did I make any reckoning of the distance of space or successionof time. (The spiritual yogi has no cognizance of grossmaterial things, nor of the divisions of space and time, whichare objects of sensation only).

13. The soul is busy with the thinking principle of themind, apart from all material objects composed of earth &c.;and is as the meditative mind or ideal man, that meddles withno material substance.

14. It is not pressed nor confined by material things, butis always busy with its cognitions; and it deals with beingsin the same manner, as men in sleep do with the objects oftheir dream (and others with their air-built cities).

15. Know Ráma, this doctrine of intellection by the simileof dreaming, to be quite irrefutable, although it is confutedby others (i.e. the Nyáya philosophers who deny the mentalconceptions without previous perceptions); but they are not tobe regarded as right. (Since the Veda says, the spirit of Godcreated all from his mind, and not from its past perceptions).

16. As the sleeping man thinks himself to be walking andacting in his dream, without such actions of his being perceivedby others (in the same room); so methought I walkedbefore and beheld the aerials without their seeing me.

49717. I beheld all other terrestrial bodies lying manifest beforeme, but nobody could observe me that was hid from theirsight in my spiritual form.

18. Ráma asked:—Sir, if you were invisible to the Gods,owing to your bodiless or vacuous form; how then could you beseen by the Siddha in the Kanaka land, or see others withouthaving eyes of your own?

19. Vasishtha replied:—We spiritual beings view all thingsby means of our inner knowledge of them; as other people beholdthe things they are desirous to see, and naught what theyhad not any desire for. (This desire is said to be satya-sankalpa,or a firm prepossession of any idea in the mind).

20. All men though possest of pure souls, do yet forgettheir spiritual nature, by their being too deeply engaged inworldly affairs and unspiritual matters.

21. As I had then wished that this person the Siddha,could have a sight of me; so it was according to the wish ofmine, that I was observed by him; because every man obtainswhat he earnestly desires.

22. Men being slack in their purposes, become unsuccessfulin their desires; but this person being staunch to his purpose,and never swerving from his pursuit, succeeded in gaining hisdesired object.

23. But when two persons are engaged in the same pursuit,or one of them is opposed to the views of the other; the attemptof the more arduous is crowned with success, and thatof the weaker meets with its failure.

24. Then I travelled through aerial regions of the Lokapálaregents of the sky, and passing by the celestial city of theSiddhas in my spiritual body; I beheld these people withmanners quite different from my former habits.

25. I then began to observe their strange manners in theetherial space, and being unseen myself by any one there, Isaw distinctly every body there, and their mode of life and dealingswith amazement.

26. I called them aloud, but they neither heard nor gave498heed to my voice; and they appeared to me as empty phantomsas the images of our dreams and visions.

27. I tried to lay hold on some of them, but noone couldbe grasped by my hands; and they evaded my touch, as theideal images of the human mind.

28. Thus Ráma, I remained as a demoniac pisácha, in theabode of the holy Gods; and thought myself to be transformedto a pisácha spirit in the open air.

29. Ráma said:—Tell me sir, what kind of beings are pisáchasin this world, and what are their natures and forms, andwhat are their states and occupations also.

30. Vasishtha replied:—I will tell you, Ráma, what sort ofbeings the pisáchas are in this world; because it is unmannerlyon the part of a preacher, not to answer to the interlocutoryqueries of the audience (though it be a digress from subject).

31. The Pisáchas are a sort of aerial beings, with subtilebodies of theirs (as we see the empty forms of persons in ourdreams); they have their hands and feet and other members ofthe body as thine, and see all things as thou dost.

32. They sometimes assume the form of a shadow to terrifypeople, and at others enter into their minds in an aerial form,in order to mislead them to error and wicked purposes. (Theylike devils waylay unwary men, and tempt them to evil).

33. They kill persons, eat their marrow, and suck up theblood of weak bodied people; they lay a siege about the mind,and destroy the vitals and viscera and the strength and livesof men.

34. Some of them are of aerial forms, and some of the formof frost, others as visionary men, as seen in our dreams withairy forms of their bodies. (And they are at liberty to takeupon themselves whatever forms they please).

35. Some of them are of the forms of clouds, and others ofthe nature of winds, some bear illusory bodies, but all of themare possessed of the mind and understanding.

36. They are not of tangible forms to be laid hold by us,or to lay hold on any one else; they are mere empty airybodies, yet conscious of their own existence.

49937. They are susceptible of feeling the pain and pleasure,occasioned by heat and cold; but they are incapable of theactions of eating, drinking, holding and supporting anythingwith their spiritual bodies.

38. They are possessed of desire, envy, fear, anger andavarice, and are liable to delusion and illusion also; and arecapable of subjection by means of the spell of mantras, charmof drugs and of other rites and practices.

39. It is likewise possible for one at some time or other, tosee and secure some one of them by means of incantations,captivating exorcisms and amulets and spirit in chanting invocations.

40. They are all the progeny of the fallen gods, and thereforesome of them bear the forms of gods also; while some areof human forms, and others are as serpents and snakes in theirappearance.

41. Some are likened to the forms of dogs and jackals, andsome are found to inhabit in villages and woods; and thereare many that reside in rivers, mud and mire and hell pits.

42. I have thus told you, all about the forms and residencesand doings of pisáchas; hear me now relate to you concerningthe origin and birth of these beings.

43. Know that there exists forever, an omnipotent powerof its own nature; which is the unintelligible Intelligenceitself, and known as Brahma the great.

44. Know this as the living soul, which being condensedbecomes ego, and it is the condensation of egoism whichmakes the mind.

45. This divine Mind is styled Brahmá, which the vacuousform of the divine will; which is unsubstantial origin of thisunreal world, which is as formless as the hollow mind.

46. So the mind exists as Brahma, whose form is that ofthe formless vacuum; it is the form of a person seen in ourdream, which is an entity without its reality or formal body.

47. It was devoid of any earthly material or elementalform, and existed in an immaterial and spiritual form only;500for how is it possible for the volitive principle, to have amaterial body subsisting in empty air?

48. Ráma, as you see the aerial city of your imaginationin your mind, so doth the mind of Brahmá imagine itself as theVirinchi (vir incipience) or creator of the world.

49. Whatever one sees in his imagination, he considers itas true for the time; and whatever is the nature and capacityof any being, he knows all others to be of the same sortwith himself?

50. Whatever the vacuous soul sees in its empty sphere, thesame it knows as true, as the spirit of Brahma and the mind ofBrahmá, exhibit this ideal world for reality.

51. Thus the contemplation of the present pageant of theworld, as ever existent of itself at all times; strengthens thebelief of its reality, as that protracted and romantic dream.

52. So the long meditation of Brahma, in his spiritual formof the creative power; presented to him the notions ofmultitudes of worlds, and varieties of creations, of which hebecame the creator. (So the original thought occurring in themind of any one, confers on him the title of the originator ofthe same. So says Manu: “Brahmá after long meditation,produced the world from his intellect”).

53. The ideal then being perfected grew compact, and tooka tangible form; which was afterwards called the world, withall the many varieties of which it is composed.

54. This Brahmá—the creative mind, was self-same withBrahma the supreme soul; and these two are ever identic withthe uncreated soul and body of the universe.

55. These two (i.e. the great Brahma and Brahmá or theDivine spirit and mind), are always one and the same being,as the sky and its vacuity; and they ever abide together inunity, as the wind and its vacillation.

56. The Divine spirit views the phenomenal world, as aphantom and nothing real; just as you see the unreality ofa figure of your imagination as real and substantial.

57. This Brahma then displayed himself (under the name501of Virát), in the form of a material body, consisting of the quintupleelements of earth, water &c., as the five solid and liquidparts of his person. (This is the Hindu Trinity, composed of thesoul, mind and material frame, as Pope the poet has expressedit in the words: “Whose body nature is, and God the souls”).

58. As this triple nature of the Deity, is no more than thevariation of his will, so it represented itself as the one or other,in its thought only, and not in reality (the substance beingbut a conception of the mind).

59. Brahmá himself is vacuous intellect, and his will consistsin the vacuity of the same; therefore the production anddestruction of the world, resemble the rise and fall of figures inthe dreaming state of the human mind.

60. As the divine mind of Brahmá is a reality, so its partsor contents are real also; and its acts or productions of the sun,moon and stars, as well as their rays—the Marichis are real also.

61. Thus the existence of the world and all its contents, iscalled the dominion of the mind; which is only an unsupportedvacuum, like the vacuity of the supportless sky on high.

62. As a city seen in dream is inane, and a hill formed inimagination a mere void; so both Brahma and his world are asthe transparent firmament, and having no shape or substanceof them.

63. So the world is, but a reflexion of the divine intellect;it is ever existent and undecaying, and the belief of the beginning,middle and end of creation, is as false, as the sight of theends and midspot of skies.

64. Say Ráma, whether you find any gross substance, togrow in the inane space of the mind of yours or mine or anyother person; and if you find no such thing there, how can yousuppose it to exist in the inanity of the Divine Intellect, andin the vacuity of the universe?

65. Then tell me why and whence the feelings and passions,such as anger and affection, hate and fear, take their rise; allwhich are of no good to any body, but rather pernicious tomany.

50266. In truth I tell thee that these are not created things,and yet they seem to rise and fall of themselves, like our wrongnotions of the production and destruction of the world. Theseare but eternal ideas, and coeternal with the eternal mind ofGod.

67. The vast extent of infinite void, is full with the translucentwater of Divine Intellect; but this being soiled by ourimaginary conceits, produces the dirt of false realities.

68. The boundless space of the Divine Intellect, is repletewith the vacuous spirit of God; which being the primary productiveseed of all, hath produced these multitudes of worlds,scattered about and rolling as stones in the air.

69. There is really no field nor any seed, which is sown therein reality; nor is there any thing which is ever grown or producedtherein, but whatever there is, is existent for ever the same;(and the rest is but fiction).

70. Now among the scattered seeds of souls, there weresome that grew mature, and put forth in the forms of gods; andthose that were of a bright appearance, became as intelligencesand saints.

71. Those that were half mature, became as human beingsand Nága races; and such as were put forth themselves in theforms of insects, worms and vegetables.

72. Those seeds which are bloated and choked, and becomefruitless at the end; these produce the wicked Pisáchas, whichare bodiless bodies of empty and aerial forms.

73. It is not that Virinchi (vir incipiens) or Brahmá, madethem so of his own accord or will; but they became so accordingto the desire which they fostered in themselves in theirprior existence (which caused their transformations or metamorphosesin the latter ones). (Because the lord is impartial,and makes <not> one more or less than another).

74. All existent beings are as inane, as the inanity of theIntellect in which they exist; and they have all their spiritualbodies, which are quite apart from the material forms in whichyou behold them.

75. It is by your long habit, that you have contracted the503knowledge of their materiality; as it has become habitual withus to think ourselves as waking in our dreaming state.

76. It is in the same manner that all living bodies, areaccustomed to think of their corporeality; and to live contentwith their frail and base earthly forms, as the Pisáchas are habituatedto pass gladly in their ugly forms.

77. Some men look upon others and know them, as thevillage people know and deal with their fellow villagers as withthemselves; but they resemble the people abiding together asseen in a dream.

78. Again some meet with many men, as in a city constructedin dream (or imagination); but are quite unacquaintedwith one another, owing to their distant abodes and differentnationalities. (So are we unacquainted with the Pisácha race, inthis crowded city of the world).

79. In this manner, there are many races of object beingsof whom we are utterly ignorant; and such are the Pisáchas,Kumbhandas, Pretas, Yakshas and others.

80. As the waters upon earth, are collected in lowlandsonly; so do the Pisáchas and goblins dwell in dark placesalone.

81. Should a dark Pisácha dwell at bright midday light,upon a sunny shore or open space; it darkens that spot withthe gloominess of its appearance.

82. The sun even is not able, to dispel that darkness, norcan any one find out the place, where the dark demon makeshis abode; on account of its delusiveness to evade humansight.

83. As the orbs of the sun and moon, and the furnace ofburning fire, appear bright before our eyes; so on the contrarythe abode of the Pisáchas, is ever obscured by impenetrabledarkness, which no light can pierce.

84. The Pisáchas are naturally of a wonderful nature, thatvanish like sparks of fire in daylight; and become enkindled inthe dark. (The Pisáchas bear analogy to the sons of darknessor fallen angels in the black Tartarian regions).

50485. Now Ráma, I have fully related to you about the originand nature of the Pisácha race in the course of this dis-course;and then as I had become as one of them, in the regions ofthe regents of the celestials.

Argument:—The conduct of men that are firm in the resolutionand the behaviour of Vasishtha in the etherial regions.

Vasishtha continued:—I then having my inane intellectualbody, which was quite free from the composition of thefive elements; roved about in the air in the manner ofa pisácha ghost (seeing all and seen by none).

2. I was not perceived by the sun and moon, nor by the godsHari, Hara, Indra and others; and was quite invisible tothe siddhas, gandharvas, Kinnaras and Apsaras of heaven.

3. I was astonished to think as any honest person, who is astranger at the house of another; why the residents of theplace did not perceive me, though I advanced towards them andcalled them to me.

4. I then thought in myself that, as these etherial beingsare seekers of truth like ourselves; it is right they shouldobserve me among them in their etherial abode.

5. They then began to look upon me standing before them,and felt astonished at my unthought appearance, as the spectatorsare startled at the sudden sight of a juggler’s trick orsome magic show.

6. Then I managed myself as I ought in the house of thegods, I sat quiet in their presence, and addressed and accostedthem without any fear.

7. Those who beheld me standing at the compound at first,and were unacquainted with the particulars (of my sagelycharacter), thought me a mere earthly being, and known asVasishtha by name.

8. When I was in sun light by the celestials in heaven, theytook me for the enlightened Vasishtha, who is well known inthe world.

5069. As I was seen afloat in the air by the aerial siddhas,they called me by the name of the aerial Vasishtha.

10. And as I was observed by the holy sages to rise fromamidst the waters of the deep; they called me the wateryVasishtha, from my birth in the water.

11. Hence forth I came to be renowned under differentappellations, by all these sets of beings; some calling me theearthly Vasishtha, and others naming me the luminous, theaerial and so forth according to their own kind.

12. Then in course of time, my spiritual body assumeda material form, which sprang from within me and of my ownwill.

13. That spiritual body and this material form of mine,were equally aerial and invisible; because it was in my intellectualmind only, that I perceived the one as well as the other.

14. Thus is my soul the pure intellect, appearing sometimesas vacuum, and at others shining as the clear sky; it is transcendentspirit and without any form, and takes this form foryour admonition. (The incorporeal soul enters into the corporealbody for its dealing with others).

15. The liberated living soul is as free as vacuous spirit ofBrahma, although it may deal with others in its corporeal body;so also the liberated bodiless soul, remains as free as the greatBrahma himself.

16. As for myself I could not attain to Brahmahood, thoughI practiced the rules for obtaining my liberation; and beingunable to attain a better state, I have become the sage Vasishthaas you see before you.

17. Yet I look upon this world in the same light of immateriality,as the sage sees the figure of person in his dream,when it appears to him to have a material form, though it isa formless non-entity in reality.

18. In this manner do the self born god Brahmá and others,and the whole creation at large, present themselves as visionsto my view, without their having any entity in reality.

19. Here I am the self same vacuous and aerial Vasishtha,and appearing as a visionary shape before you, I am though507habituated to believe myself over grown, as you are accustomedto think of the density of the world.

20. All these are but vacuous essences of the self-bornBrahmá, and as that deity is no other than the Divine Mind,so is this world no more than a production of that Mind.

21. The appearance of myself, thyself and others, togetherwith that of the whole world, proceeding from our ignorance;is like the apparitions of empty ghosts before deluded boys,and appearing as solid realities to your sight.

22. Being aware of this truth, it is possible for you to growwise in course of time; and then this delusion of yours issure to disappear, as our worldly bonds are cut off with therelinquishment of our desires and affections.

23. Our knowledge of the density and intensity of theworld, is dissipated by true wisdom; in the same manner asour desire of a dream of gem, is dispelled upon our waking.

24. The sight of the phenomenals vanishes at once from ourview, as we arrive to the knowledge of noumenal in time; asour desire of deriving water from a river in the mirage, subsidesin our knowledge of the falsity of the view.

25. The perusal of this work of the great Rámáyana, is sureto produce the knowledge of self-liberation in its reader, evenduring his life time in this world.

26. The man whose mind is addicted to worldly desires, andwho thinks its vanities as his real good, leads a life to miseryonly like those of insects and worms, and is unfit to be bornas a human being, notwithstanding all his knowledge of thisworld and all his holy devotion.

27. The liberated man while he lives, deems the enjoymentsof his life, to be no enjoyment at all; but the ignorantperson values his temporary enjoyments only, in lieu of hiseverlasting felicity.

28. By perusal of this Mahárámáyana, there arises in themind a coldness, resembling a frost falling on spiritual knowledge.

29. Liberation is the cold indifference of the mind, and ourconfinement consists in the passionateness of our minds and508hearts; yet the human race is quite averse to the former, andsedulously employed in the acquisition of their temporal welfareonly in their foolishness, and to the astonishment of the wise.

30. Here all men are subject to their sense, and addicted tothe increase of wealth and family (lit.—wives), to the injury ofone another; yet it is possible for them to be happy and wise, ifthey will but ponder well into the true sense of spiritualsástras.

31. Válmíki says:—After the sage had said these words, theassembly broke with the setting sun and mutual salutations, toperform their evening devotion. They made their ablutions asthe sun sank down into the deep, and again repaired to thecourt with the rising sun at the end of the night.

Argument:—Proof of the Erroneous conception of the World,and the Truth of the Intellectual and Immortal soul.

Vasishtha resumed:—O intelligent Ráma! I have nowrelated to you at length the narrative of the stone, whichshows you plainly how all these created things, are situated inthe vacuity of the Divine Intellect.

2. And that there exists nothing whatever, at any time orplace or in the air; except the One undivided intellect of God,which is situated in itself, as the salt and water are mixed uptogether (or as One is self same with the other).

3. Know Brahma as the Intellect itself, which presents manysight shows of itself in the dream, which are inseparable fromitself. (The manifestation of the unchangeable nature of theDivine Mind as the creation, is no more than its vivarta-rúpaor expansion of itself, as that of our minds in the variousimageries seen in the state of our dreaming).

4. God being the universal spirit, and the creation full ofparticularities, it is not incongruous to the nature of the universaland immutable soul, to contain the endless varieties of particularsin the infinite vacuity of the Divine Intellect, withoutany variation in itself. (The universal and infinite God, containsthe particular and finite world in itself).

5. There is no self born creative power (as Brahmá), nor itscreation of the world; which is but a production of the dreamingintellect, and is situated in our consciousness, as the sights ofdreams are imprinted in the memory.

6. As the city seen in your dream, is situated intellectuallyin yourself; so the entire universe is situated in the DivineIntellect, ever since its creation to its annihilation (or as theworld without its end).

5107. As there is no difference between gold and the goldmountain of Meru, and between the dreamed city and themind; so there is no difference whatever, between the intellectand its creation. (Both being of the same kind).

8. There is the intellect only which exists, and not theworld of its creations; as the mind is existent without thegold mountain of its dream.

9. As the mind shows itself, in the form of the formlessmountain in its dream; so the formless Brahma, manifests itselfas the formal world, which is nothing in reality.

10. The Intellect is all this vacuum, which is increate, unboundedand endless; and which is neither produced nor destroyedin thousands of the great makákalpa ages. (i.e. It isboth eternal as well as infinite).

11. This intellectual vacuum is the living soul and lord ofall, it is the undecaying ego and embraces all the three worlds initself (as the air comprises all existence in it).

12. The living body becomes a lifeless carcass, without thisaeriform intellect; it is neither broken nor burnt with thefragile and burning body, nor is there any place to intercept thevacuous intellect there from.

13. Therefore there is nothing that dies, and naught thatever comes to being; the intellect being the only being in existence,the world is but a manifestation or disclosure of itself tothe mind.

14. The intellect alone is the embodied and living soul, andshould it ever be supposed to die; then the son would bethought to die also by the death of the father, because theone is but a reproduction of the other. (The text says, thesoul of the father is reborn in the son, and if the former shoulddie, the latter must die also).

15. Again the death of one living soul, would entail thewholesale death of all living creatures; and then the earth(nay even the whole world), would be void of all its population.(Because the one universal soul is the soul of all and everyindividual being).

51116. Therefore, O Ráma, the sole intellectual soul of nobody,has ever died any where upto this time; nor was there everany country devoid of a living soul in it. (The world is full oflife proceeding from the eternal life of God).

17. Knowing hence that I am one with the eternal soul, andthe body and its senses are nothing mine own; I know not howI or any one else, can ever die away at any time.

18. He who knows himself to be the purely intellectual soul,and yet ignores it and thinks in himself to be dying as a mortalbeing; is verily the destroyer of his soul, and casts himselfinto a sea of troubles and misery.

19. If I am the intellectual soul, undecaying and everlasting,and as transparent as the open air; say then what is lifeor death to me, and what means my happiness or misery in anystate.

20. Being the vacuous and intelligent soul, I have no concernwith my body; and any one who being conscious of it, forgetsto believe himself as such, is verily a destroyer of his soul.

21. The foolish man who has lost his consciousness, of beingthe purely vacuous soul; is deemed a living dead body by thewise (who know the One universal soul to constitute the whole).

22. The knowledge that I am the intelligent soul, and thebodily senses are not essential to me; is what leads me toattain to the state of pure spirituality, which neitherdeath nor misery can deprive me of.

23. He who remains firm, with his reliance in the pureintellectual soul; is never assailed by calamities, butremains <immune> to woes, as a block of stone to a flightof arrows.

24. Those who forget their spiritual nature, and rely theirtrust in the body; resemble those foolish people, who forsakethe gold to lay hold on ashes.

25. The belief that I am the body, its strength and itsperceptions, falsifies my faith in these and destroys myreliance in the spirit; but my trust in the spirit, confirmsmy faith in that by removing my belief in these.

26. The belief that I am the pure vacuous intellect, and512quite free from birth and death; is sure to dispel all theillusions of feelings and passions and affections afar from me.

27. Those who slight the sight of the vacuous intellect, andview their bodies in the light of the spirit, deserve the name ofcorporeal beasts, and are receptacles of bodily appetites andpassions only.

28. He who knows himself to be infrangible and uninflammable,and as the solid and impregnable stone in his intellect,and not in his unreal body; cares <not> a fig for his death (whichdestroys the unsubstantial body, but has no power over hisindestructible soul).

29. O the delusion! that over spreads the sight of clear-sightedsages; who fear for their total annihilation at the loss oftheir bodies (which are but component and superficial parts ofthemselves).

30. When we are firmly settled in our belief, of the indestructiblenature of our vacuous intellect; we are led to regardthe fire and thunder of the last day of destruction, in the lightof a shower of flowers over our heads.

31. That I am the imperishable intellect itself, and naughtthat is of a perishable nature; therefore the wailing of a manand his friends at the point of death, appears as a ridiculousfarce to the wise.

32. That I am my inner intelligence, and not the outerbody or its sensation, is a belief which serves as an antidote,against the poison of all griefs and sorrows.

33. That I am the vacuous intelligence, and can never havemy quietus or annihilation; and that the world is full of intelligence,is a sober truth which can never admit any doubt orcontroversy (Lit.—which you can never doubt).

34. Should you suppose yourselves, as any other thingbeside the intelligence; then tell me, ye fools, why do you talkof the soul in vain, and what do you mean by the same.

35. Should the intelligent soul be liable to death, then itis dead with the dying people every day; tell me then how yelive and not already dead, with the departed souls of others?

51336. Therefore the intelligent soul, doth neither die nor cometo life at any time; it is a false notion of the mind only to thinkitself to be living and dying, though it never dies (beingimmortal in its nature).

37. As the intellect thinks in itself, it beholds the samewithin itself; so it goes on thinking in its habitual mode, andis never destroyed of itself (or) without being ever destroyedin its essence.

38. It sees the world in itself, and is likewise conscious ofits freedom; it knows all what is pleasurable or painful, withoutchanging itself from its unalterable nature at any time orplace.

39. By the knowledge of its embodiment, it is liable todelusions; but by knowledge of its true nature, it becomesacquainted with its own freedom.

40. There is nothing whatever, that rises or sets (i.e. isproduced or destroyed) at any time or place; but every thing iscontained in the sole and self-existent intellect, and is displayedin its clear and vacuous sphere.

41. There is nothing, that is either real or unreal in theworld; but every thing is taken in the same light, as it is displayedunto one by the intellect.

42. Whatever the intelligent soul thinks in itself in thisworld, it retains the ideas of the same in the mind. Everything is judged by one’s consciousness of it, as the same thingis thought as poison by one, what is believed to be nectar byanother.

Argument:—The truth of catholicity, carnality of Worldlypeople, and the retirement and Resignation of the godly.

Vasishtha continued:—The world which is but a visionof the supreme soul, and situated in the vacuity of theDivine mind, appears in our consciousness, as the ectype ofBrahma himself.

2. The delusion of the visionary world, being too palpableto our view, has kept the supreme spirit quite out of our sight;as the spirit of the wine is kept hid in the liquor, though itcan never be lost.

3. The unreal phenomenal being discarded as delusion, andthe real noumenal being incomprehensible; and the absenceof any positive subsistence of existence, has necessitated ourbelief in the endless void and vacuity.

4. That the embodied Intellect, called the purusha or soul,is the supreme cause (in the Sánkhya system); and the worldproceeds from the unknown principle, known as the pradhána orits principal source. The truth of this view of the creation,rests wholly on the opinion of the philosopher (Kapila).

5. That the visible world is the form of the all pervasivespirit of God, is the thesis of the Vedántists; and this opinionof theirs regarding the formal world and its plasmic principle,depends solely on the conception of these philosophers.

6. That the world is a conglomeration of particles, is theposition of the positive and atomic philosophers of the Nyáyasystem; and all these doctrines are relied upon and maintained,by the best belief of every party.

7. Both the present and future worlds are as they are seenand thought to be, is the tenet of some; while the spiritualistlooks upon it neither in the light of an entity nor non entityeither.

5158. Others acknowledge the outer world only, and nothingbesides which is beyond their eye sight; and these Chárvákaatheists, do not avouch even for the intelligent soul, which iswithin their bodies.

9. There are others, who seeing the incessant changesand fluctuations of things with the flight of time, attributeomnipotence to it, and have become timists, with a persuasionof the evanescence of the world.

10. The belief of the barbarians, regarding the resurrectionof the soul from the grave, which is built on the analogy ofthe sparrow flying away from under its covering lid; hasgained a firm ground in the minds of men in these countries, andis never doubted by any.

11. The tolerant sage looks alike and takes in equal lightall apparent differences; since they know that all these varietiesin the world, are but manifestations of the One all pervadingand invariable soul.

12. As it is the nature of the world, to go on in its course;so it is natural with the wise, to entertain these various opinionsregarding the same. The truth however is quite mysterious,and hard to be found by inquiry; but it is certain thatthere is an all creative power, that is guided by intelligence anddesign in all its works.

13. That there is one creator of all, is the truth arrived atby all godly men and truthful minds; whoso is certain of thistruth, is sure to arrive at it without any obstruction.

14. That this world exists and the future one also, is thefirm belief of the faithful; and that their sacred ablutions andoblations to that end and never go for nothing; such assuranceon their part, is sure to lead them to the success of their object.

15. An infinite vacuity is reality, is the conclusion arrivedat by the Buddhist; but there is nothing to be gained by thisinquiry, nor any good to be derived from a void nullity.

16. It is the Divine Intelligence which is sought by all, asthey seek an inestimable gem or the Kalpa tree of life; andthis fills our inward soul, with the fulness of the Divine spirit.

17. The Lord is neither vacuity nor non-vacuity, nor a516nonentity either as it is maintained by others; He is omnipotent,and this omnipotence does not abide in Him, nor is it withoutHim, but is the selfsame Himself.

18. Therefore let every one rely in his own belief, until hearrives to the true and spiritual knowledge of God. By doingso he will obtain the reward of his faith, and therefore he mustrefrain from his fickleness (of forsaking his own faith).

19. Therefore consult with the learned, and judge withthem about the right course; and then accept and follow whatis best and correct, and reject all what proves to be otherwise.

20. A man becomes wise by knowledge of sástras, as alsoby practicing the conduct of the good; as also by associatingwith the wise and good, wherever such persons may be foundupon inquiry.

21. He who serves and attends upon the preachers of sacredsástras, and on practicers of good and moral conduct; is alsodeemed a wise man, and his company also is to be resorted toby the wise.

22. All living beings, are naturally impelled towards whatevertends to their real good; as it is the nature of water toseek its own level. Therefore men should choose the companyof the good for their best good.

23. Men are carried away as straws, by the waves in theeventful ocean of the world; and their days are passing awayas insensibly (rapidly), as the dew drops are falling off fromthe blades of grass.

24. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me Sir, who are those far seeingpersons, who sensing at first this world to be full of weeds andthorns, come at last by their right judgment, to rest in the stateof ineffable felicity. (i.e. Who are they that are resignedto God after their troublesome journey in the thorny paths of theworld).

25. Vasishtha replied:—It is the wording of the sruti, thatthere some such persons among all classes of beings, whosepresence sheds a lustre, as bright as that of the broad andshining day light. (These are gods, men).

26. Beside them there are others, who are quite ignorant of517truth, and are tossed about and whirled up and down likestraws, by the whirling waters of the dangerous eddies ofignorance, in the dark and dismal ocean of this world.

27. These are drowned in their enjoyments, and lost to thebliss of their souls; and are ever burning in the flames ofworldly cares; such are some among the gods, who are burningon high, like as the mountain trees are inflamed by the wildfire.

28. The proud demigods were vanquished by their inimicalgods, and were cast down into the abyss by Náráyana; as bigelephants into the pit, with the ichor of their giddiness.

29. The Gandharva songsters (that are skilled in musiconly), show no sign of right reason in them; but being giddy withthe wine of melody, they fall into the hands of death, as thesilly stags are caught in the snare (by their fondness for thesweet sound of the hunter’s horn).

30. The Vidyádharas are mad with their knowledge (of arts,of sciences); and do not hold in esteem the esoteric and grandscience of divinity for their salvation.

31. The yakshas who are impregnable themselves, are everapt to injure all others on earth; and they exercise theirnoxious powers, chiefly upon the helpless infants, old men andweak and infirm persons.

32. There are again the gigantic and elephant like Rákshasas,who have been repeatedly destroyed by Hari, and will beutterly extirpated by you, as a herd of sheep by a powerfullion.

33. The Pisácha cannibals are always in quest of humanprey, and devour their bodies as the burning fire consumes theoblations. They are therefore in utter darkness of spiritualknowledge.

34. The Nága race that dwell underneath the ground, resemblethe stalks of lotuses drowned under the water, or as theroots of trees buried under the earth (and therefore they arequite insensible of truth).

35. The Asura race dwelling in subterranean cells, are as518worms and insects, grovelling in dark under the ground, andare utterly ignorant of any knowledge or discrimination.

36. And what must we say of foolish mankind, who likethe poor ants, are moving busily by night and day, in search ofa morsel (lit.—particle) of bread (and have not a whit of understandingin them).

37. All living bodies are running up and down for ever, intheir vain expectations; and the days and nights are insensiblygliding over them, as upon drunken men (unconscious ofthemselves).

38. The knowledge of pure truth, never enters into themind of men; as the dust flying over the surface of waternever sink in its depth.

39. The holy vows of men are blown away, by the blasts oftheir pride and vanity; as the husks of rice are blown off, bythe wind of the threshing mill.

40. Other people that are without true knowledge, are likethe yoginís and Pamaras—pariahs, are addicted to the carnalitiesof their eating and drinking; and to roll in stink and stenchand mud and mire.

41. Among the gods, only Yama, the sun and moon, Indraand Rudras, and Varuna and Váyu, are said to live liberatedfor ever; and so are Brahmá, Hari and Vrihaspati and Sukra,(the preceptors of the gods and demigods).

42. Among the patriarchs Daxa, Kasyapa and others, aresaid to be living liberated; and among the seven sages, Nárada,Sanaka and goddess born Kumara are liberated for ever.

43. Among the Danava demons, there were some that hadtheir emancipation also; and these were Hiranyaksha, Vali,Prahlada and Sambara, together with Maya, Vritra, Andha,Namuchi, Kesi, Mura and others. (Some of whom were foesand others as friends of the god).

44. Among Rákshasas Vibhisana, Prahasta and Indrajit areheld as liberated; and so are Sesha, Taxaka, Karkota and someothers among the Nágas or serpent race.

45. The liberated are entitled to dwell in the abodes ofBrahma and Vishnu, and in the heaven of Indra; and there are519some the manes of the Pitris, siddhas and Sáddhyas, that arereckoned as liberated also.

46. Among the human race also, there are some that areliberated in their life time; as the few princes, saints andBráhmanas, whose names are preserved to us in the sacredrecords.

47. There are living beings in multitudes, on all sides of usin this earth, but there are very few among them that areenlightened with true knowledge in them; there are unnumberedtrees and forests growing all around us, and bearingtheir fruits and flowers and foliage to no end; but there isscarcely a kalpatree to be found among them (which mayyield to us the fruit that we ardently desire).

Argument:—Character of the truly Wise man, his best test, and company.

Vasishtha continued:—Those among the judicious andwise, that are indifferent to and unconcerned with theworld, and resigned to the divinity, and resting in his stateof supreme felicity; have all their desires and delusionsabated, and their enemies lessened in this world.

2. He is neither gladdened nor irritated at any thing, norengages in any matter, nor employs himself in the accumulationof earthly effects. He does not annoy any body, nor ishe annoyed by any one.

3. He does not bother his head about theism or atheism,nor torment his body with religious austerities; he is agreeableand sweet in his demeanour, and is pleasing and genteel in hisconversation.

4. His company gladdens the hearts of all, as the moonlightdelights the minds of men; he is circ*mspect in allaffairs, and the best judge in all matters.

5. He is without any anxiety in his conduct, and is politeand friendly to all; he manages patiently all his outwardbusiness, but is quite cool in his inward mind.

6. He is learned in the sástras, and takes a delight in theirexposition; he knows all people and both past and present;and knows also what is good and bad for any, and is contentwith whatever comes to pass on him.

7. The wise act according to the established usage of goodpeople, and refrain from what is opposed to it; they gladdenall men with their free admonitions, as the zephyr regalesthem with the gratuitous odours of flowers; and they afford aready reception and board to the needy.

5218. They treat with respect the needy that repair to theirdoors; just as the blooming lotus entertains the bee, thatresorts to the same; and they attract the heart of people, bytheir endeavours, to save them from their sins.

9. They are as cold as any cooling thing, or like the cloudsin the rainy season; and as sedate as rocks, and capable ofremoving the calamities of people, by their meritorious acts.

10. They have the power to prevent the impending dangersof men, as the mountains keep the earth from falling at theearth-quake; they support the failing spirit of men in theircalamitous circ*mstances, and congratulate with them in theirprosperity.

11. Their countenances are as comely as the fair face of themoon, and they are as well wishers of men, as their loving consorts;their fame fills the world as flowers of spring in orderto produce the fruits of general good.

12. Holy men are as the vernal season, and their voice asthe notes of kokilas, delighting all mankind; and their mindsare as profound oceans, undisturbed by the turbulent waves andeddies of passions and thoughts of other people.

13. They pacify the troubled minds of others, by their wisecounsels, as the cold weather calms the turbulent waters andseas, and puts to rest their boisterous waves.

14. They resemble the robust rocks on the sea-shore, withstandingthe force of the dashing surges of worldly troublesand afflictions; which overwhelm and bewilder the minds ofmankind.

15. These saintly men are resorted to by good people only,at the times of their utmost danger and distress; and theseand the like are the signs, whereby these good hearted people,are distinguished from others.

16. Let the weary traveller rely for his rest in his Makeralone, in his tiresome journey through this world; which resemblesthe rough sea, filled with huge whales and dragons.

17. There is no other means for getting over this hazardousocean, without the company of the good, which like a stout522vessel safely bears him across. There is no reasoning requiredto prove it so, but it must be so.

18. Therefore do not remain as a dull sloth in the den, tobrood over your sorrows in vain; but repair to the wise manwho possesses any one of these virtues for your redress, by leavingall other concerns.

19. Mind not his fault but respect his merit, and learn toscan the good and bad qualities of men from thy youth with alldiligence.

20. First of all and by all means improve your understanding,by the company of the good and careful study of the sástras;and serve all good people without minding their faults.

21. Shun the society of men (whether friends or relatives),who are conspicuous for some great and incorrigible crime;otherwise it will change the sweet composure of your mind, tobitterness and disquiet. (So in Raghuvansa:—The society ofwicked friend, is to be cut off as an ulcerous limb).

22. This I know from my observation, of the righteous turningto unrighteousness; this is the greatest of all evils (and mustbe feared), when the honest turn to be dishonest.

23. This change and falling off of good men, from theirmoral rectitude, have been seen in many places and at differenttimes; wherefore it is necessary to choose the company of thegood only, for one’s safety in this and salvation in the nextworld.

24. Therefore no one should live afar from the society ofthe good and great; who are ever to be regarded with respectand esteem; because the company of the good though slightlycourted, is sure to purify the newcomer with the flying fragranceof their virtues.

Argument:—The share of the Brute creation in the enjoymentsof life, and its varieties in various grades of Beings.

Ráma rejoined:—Verily we (rational beings), have a greatmany means, for relieving our pains. Such as ourreason, the precepts of the sástras, the advices of our friends andthe society of the wise and good; beside the applications ofmantras and medicines, the giving of charities, performances ofreligious austerities, going to pilgrimages and resorting to holyplaces (all which have the efficacy of removing our calamitiesand rendering us happy).

2. But tell me what is the state of the brute creation suchas of the worms and insects, birds and flies, and the other creeping,crawling and bending animals; whether they are notalike susceptible with ourselves of pain and pleasure, and whatmeans they have to remedy their pains and evils.

3. Vasishtha replied:—All creatures whether animals orvegetables, are destined to partake of the particular enjoyments,which are allotted to their respective shares; and are evertending towards that end.

4. All living beings from the noble and great to the meanand minute, have their appetites and desires like ourselves;but the difference consists in their lesser or greater proportionin us and themselves. (i.e. Mankind is actuated in a lesserdegree by their passions and appetites than their violence in thebrute tribes).

5. As the great Virát-like big bodies, are actuated by theirpassions and feelings, so also the little vályakhilyas or punytribes of insects, are fed by their self love to pursue their ownends.

6. Behold the supportless fowls of the firmament, flying and524falling in the air, are quite content with roving in emptyvacuity, without seeking a place for their rest.

7. Look at the incessant endeavours of the little emmet, insearch of its food and hoarding its store like ourselves, for thefuture provision of our families, and never resting content for amoment.

8. There the little mollusks, as minute as atoms of dust, andyet as quick in quest of its food, as when the swift eagle is inpursuit of its prey, in the etherial sphere.

9. As the world passes with us in the thoughts of ourselves,our egoism and meity of this and that; so it goes on with everycreature, in its selfish thoughts and cares for its own kind.(Self-love is the prime mover of all living bodies, towards theirown good).

10. The lives of filthy worms are spent like ours, in theirtoil and anxious care for food and provisions, at all places andtimes of their duration in the world.

11. The vegetable creation is some what more awakened,in their state of existence, than mineral productions, whichcontinue as dead and dormant for ever. But the worms andinsects, are as awakened from their dormancy as men, in orderto remain restless for ever.

12. Their lives are as miserable as ours, upon this earth ofsin and pain, and their death is as desirable as ours, in orderto set us free from misery after a short-lived pain.

13. As a man sold and transported to a foreign country, seesall things with wonder that are not his own; so it is with thebrute animals, to see all strange things in this earth.

14. All animals find every thing on earth, to be either aspainful or pleasant to them, as they are to us also; but theyhave not the ability like us, to distinguish what is good for themfrom whatever is noxious to them.

15. Brute animals are dragged by their bridles and nose-strings,as men who are sold as slaves to labour in distant lands,have to bear with all sorts of pains and privation, without beingable to communicate or complain of them to any body.

16. The trees and plants and their germs, are liable to similar525pains and troubles like us, when our thin-skinned bodiesare annoyed by inclement weather, or assailed by gnats andbugs, during the time of our sleep (i.e. The vegetable tribeis equally sensible of pain as the animal in their sleeping state).

17. And as we mortals on earth, have our knowledge ofthings—padártha-vedana, and the sagacity of forsaking a faminestricken place for our welfare else where; so it is with the bendingbrutes and birds, to emigrate from lands of scarcity to thoseof plenty. (i.e. Brutes are alike discerning as men).

18. The delightsome is equally delectable to all, and theGod Indra as well as a worm, are alike inclined towards whatis pleasurable to them; and this tendency to pleasure proceedsfrom their own option of choice. This freedom of choice is notdenied to any but is irresistible in all, and he who knows his freewill (or self agency), is altogether free and liberated. (The textuses two words viz., Vikshepa or projection of the soul (or inclination),as actuated by Vikalpa or one’s free choice of anything.This passage establishes the doctrine of free choice andself agency of all living beings, against the common belief inan imperious fatality).

19. The pleasure and pain, arising from the passions andfeelings, and from enjoyments in life; and torments of diseasesand death, are alike to all living beings.

20. Except the knowledge of things, and that of past andfuture events, as also of the arts of life; all the various kindsof animals, are possest of all other animal faculties and propensitieslike those of mankind.

21. The drowsy vegetable kingdom, and the dormant mountainand other insensible natures; are fully sensible in themselves,of a vacuous intellectual power whereon they subsist.(They are as the inactive but meditative yogis, who with theirexternal insensibility, are internally conscious of the Divinespirit).

22. But there are some that deny the sensibility of an intellectualspirit, in the dormant and fixed bodies of arbours andmountains; and allow the consciousness of the vacuous intellect,526but in a very slight degree, in moving animals and in the majorityof living and ignorant part of mankind.

23. The solid state of mountains and the sleepy nature ofthe vegetable creation, being devoid of the knowledge of adualism (other than their own natures) have no sense of theexistence of the world, except that of a non-entity or merevacuity.

24. The knowledge of the entity of the world, is accompaniedwith utter ignorance of its nature or agnosticism; for when weknow not ourselves or the subjective, how is it possible for usto know the objective world.

25. The world is situated as ever, in its state of dumb torpidity,like a dull block of wood or stone; it is without its beginningand end, and without an aperture in it, and is as thedreaming wakefulness of a sleeping man.

26. The world exists in the same state, as it did before itscreation; and it will continue to go on for ever even as now;because eternity is always the same both before and after.

27. It is neither the subjective nor objective, nor the plenumnor vacuum; nor is it a mute substance nor any thing whatever.

28. Remain thou as thou art, and let me remain as I am;and being exempt from pleasure or pain in our state of vacuity,we find nothing existent nor non-existent herein.

29. Say why you forsake your state of absolute nothingness,and what you get in your visionary city of this world; it is allcalm and quiet without, as your vacuous Intellect is serene andclear within you.

30. It is the want of right knowledge, that causes our errorof the world; but no sooner do we come to detect this falseknowledge of ours, than this error flies away from us.

31. The world being known as a dream, and having noreality in it, it is as vain to place any reliance therein, as toplace one’s affections <on> the son of a barren woman, or confide insuch a one.

32. When the dream of the world is known to be a meredream or false, even at the time of dreaming it in sleep; what527faith or confidence can be relied on it, on one’s coming to knowits nothingness upon his waking.

33. What is known in the waking state, could not be otherwisein that of sleep; whatever is known in the later hour ofcoming to its knowledge, the same must have been its previousstate also. (i.e. The world is nothing, both in the states of itsknowledge as well as ignorance).

34. There are the three times of present, past and future,and our knowledge of these, proceeds from our ignorance of endlessduration; which is the only real tranquil and universal substratumof all (and this is the attribute of the ever unchangingOne).

35. As the breaking of breakers, by the dashing of wavesagainst one another, does no harm to the waters of the sea; sothe molestation or destruction of one body by another, does noinjury to the inward soul, which is ever impregnable and alsoindestructible.

36. It is the vacuous Intellect within us, that gives rise tothe erroneous conception of our bodies; wherefore the loss of thebody or its false conception, does not affect our intellect andourselves neither.

37. The waking soul sees the world, situated in the vacuityof Intellect, as it were in its sleep; and this of creation inthe mind being devoid of materiality, is very like a dream;(which proceeds from reminiscence only).

38. The ideas (dhi) of material things, are produced in thebeginning of creation, from their previous impressions left inthe intellect; and the world being but a dream or work ofimagination; it is an error of the brain to take it for a reality.

39. The traces of prior dreams and reminiscences (of previousbirth), being preserved in the memory or mind; the samethings appear and reappear in it (in later births), and representtheir aerial shapes as substantial figures (as some picturesappear true to life).

40. This error has taken possession of the mind, in thesame manner as the untrue is taken for truth: while the528transcendent and clear truth of the omniform soul is rejectedas untrue.

41. In reality there is the Divine Intellect only, that hasexisted for ever; and this being the most certain truth thatBrahma is all in all, the doctrine of reminiscence and obliviongoes to nothing.

42. It is sheer ignorance, which is devoid of this spiritualknowledge, and views things in their physical light only; andin this lies the true knowledge, which breaks open the door ofignorance. (i.e. Spiritualism alone, dispels the gloom ofmaterialism).

43. There remains nothing at last, after expulsion of theerror of materiality; except the pure spirit of God, who isboth the viewer and the view, or the subjective and objectivein himself.

44. As the reflexion of anything falling on a mirror, showsthe figure of that thing within itself; so the world shines ofitself in the vacuity of the Divine Intellect, and with the reflectionof anything else, being ever cast upon it.

45. As the reflexion of a thing, exhibits itself in its bosom,though nobody was to look at it; so the world is shown in theDivine Intellect, though the same is invisible to every one.

46. Whatever is found as true, both by reason and proof,the same must be the certain truth; all else is mere semblanceof it; and not being actual can never be true.

47. And though the knowledge of the material world, isproved to be false and untrue, yet it is found to mislead us, asthe act of somnambulation does in our sleep and dreamingstate.

48. It is the lustre of the Divine Luminary, that casts itsreflexion into the Intellect, and emblazons the intellectualsphere supremely bright. Tell me therefore what are we andthis pageant of the world, any more than a réchauffé or a printof that archetype.

49. If there is a resuscitation of ourselves after our demise,then what is it that is lost to us; and should there be no regenerationof us after death, then there is a perfect tranquility of529our souls, by our utter extinction, and emancipation from thepains of life and death. Or if we have our liberation by the lightof philosophy, then there nothing here, that lends to our woe inany state whatsoever.

50. The ignorant man alone knows the state of the ignorant,wherein the wise are quite ignorant; as the fishes aloneknow the perilous state of the stag, that is fallen amidst thewaves and eddies of the sea.

51. It is the open sphere of the Divine Intellect only, thatrepresents the divers images of I, thou, he and this and that inits hollow space; as a tree shows the sundry forms of its leaves,fruits, flowers &c., in its all producing body or stem.

Argument:—Refutation of the Atheistical doctrineof the materiality of the soul.

Ráma rejoined:—Please to tell me, sir, what are yourarguments, for allaying the miseries of this world,against the position (paksha) of others who maintain in that:—

2. A living being is happy so long, as the dread of death(either of himself or others) is out of his view; and that thereis no reappearance (revivification) of the dead, that is alreadyreduced to ashes. (Hence there is no happiness either for theliving or dead (according to them)).

3. Vasishtha replied:—Whatever is the certain belief of anybody, he finds the same in his consciousness; and that he feelsand conceives accordingly, is a truth that is well known to allmankind (that every one thinks according to his belief).

4. As the firmament is firm, quiet and ubiquitous, so also isthe ubiquity of the Intellect (i.e. the vacuous intellect is alsoallpervading), and are considered to form a duality by the ignorantdualist, while the sapient take them as the one and samething, from the impossibility of conceiving the co-existenceof two things from eternity.

5. It is wrong to suppose the existence of a chaos beforecreation began, for that would be assigning another (chaotic)cause to the creation when has proceeded from Brahma, who iswithout a cause and is diffused in his creation.

6. He who does not acknowledge the purport of the Vedas,(that all things are produced from Brahma), and the final greatdissolution (when all things are dissolved in and return tohim); are known as men without a revelation and religion, andare considered as dead by us (i.e. spiritually dead).

7. Those whose minds are settled in the undisputed beliefof the sástras, that all these is Brahmá or the varied god himself;531are persons with whom we have to hold no discussion orargument.

8. As our consciousness is ever awake in our minds, andwithout any intermission; so Brahma that constitutes ourconsciousness, is ever wakeful in us, whether the bodylasts or not.

9. If our perceptions are to produce our consciousness, thenmust man be very miserable indeed; because the sense of afeeling, other <than> that of the ever felicitous state of thesoul, is what actually makes us so.

10. Knowing the universe as the splendours of the intellectualvacuum (i.e. in the sphere of the vacuous intellect); youcannot suppose the knowledge of anything, or the feeling ofany pleasure or pain, ever to attach or stick to an emptynothing. (i.e. to the vacuous spirit).

11. Hence men who are quite certain and conscious, ofthe entirety and pure unity of the soul, can never find thefeelings of sorrow or grief, to rise in or overwhelm it in anyway than the dust of earth rising to the sky, and filling itssphere with foulness. (This passage rests on text of the srutiwhich says: there is no sorrow or pain to any body who seesthe pure unity only).

12. Whether the consciousness of unity, be true or not inall men; yet the common notion of it even in the minds ofboys, cannot be discarded as untrue. (i.e. All men may differin their conceptions respecting the nature of the Divine soul,but they all agree in the notion of one prime cause of all. Seekusumanjali).

13. The body is not the soul nor the living spirit, nor anyother thing of which we have any conception; It is the consciousnesswhich is every thing, and the world is as it conceivesit to be. (There is nothing beyond our consciousness of it).

14. Whether it is true or not, yet we have the conceptionof our bodies by means of this; and it gives us conceptions ofall things in earth, water and heaven, independent of theirmaterial forms, as we see the aerial forms of things in our532dreams. (i.e. We are conscious only of the abstract notions ofthings, and of their substantial properties).

15. Whether our consciousness is a real entity or not, yetit is this power which is called the conscious soul; and whateveris the conviction of this power, the same is received aspositive truth by all.

16. The authority of all the sástras, rests upon the proofof consciousness; and the truth which is generally arrived atby all, must be acknowledged as quite certain in my opinionalso.

17. Therefore the consciousness of atheists, which is vitiatedby their misunderstanding, being purified afterwards byright reasoning, becomes productive of good results likewise(i.e. of producing the fruit of their liberation also).

18. But a perverted conscience or vitiated understanding, isnever reproved by any means; either by performance of piousacts at any time or place, or by study of vedas, or by pursuit ofother things.

19. Errors of the understanding (avidyá) recur to the reprobateas often as they corrected from time to time; say thereforewhat other means can there be, to preserve our consciousnessfrom fallacy.

20. Self-consciousness is the soul of man, and in proportionto its firmness or weakness, the happiness or misery of man,increases or decreases accordingly. (i.e. The strong mindedare always prosperous).

21. If there is a consciousness in men, and such men alsowho are conscious of the Divine essence in them, and those whoare resorted to by the pious, for their liberation from the bondsof the world; then this world would appear as a dead and dumbblock of stone, and a dark and dreary desert.

22. The knowledge of nature or gross materialism, whichrises in the mind of man, for want of his knowledge of the consciousnessof himself, is like the dark ignorance in which oneis involved in his sleep.

23. Ráma rejoined:—Tell me Sir, how is that atheist whodenies the end of the ten sides of heaven, and disbelieves the533destruction of the world; who believe only in what is existent,and have no thought of inexistence (either prior to the creationor after its dissolution).

24. Who does not perceive the perfect wisdom, which isdisplayed throughout the universe; but sees only whatever isvisible, without knowing their destruction (frailty). (Theatheists consider the world as eternal).

25. Tell me Sir, what are their arguments, about allayingthe evils of the world; and remove my doubts about it, forincrease of my knowledge in this important truth.

26. Vasishtha replied:—I have already given my reply toyour query regarding the infidels (that they are not to bespoken to); hear me now to give the reply with regard to yoursecond question touching the salvation of the soul.

27. O best of men Ráma! you have spoken in this sense,that the human soul (purusha) is constituted of the intelligencealone (as you think it to be and which is but a flash of the DivineIntellect, and the measure of the objects of consciousness).

28. This intelligence (or intelligent soul) is indestructible,and is not destroyed with the destruction of the body, but isjoined with the Divine Intelligence without fail. Or if thebody be indestructible (owing to its resurrection after death),then there is no cause of sorrow at its temporary loss.

29. The intelligence is said to be divided into various parts,in the souls of men and different members of their bodies; ifso it be, then the intelligence is destroyed with the destructionof individual souls and bodily members also. (Therefore thesupremely intelligent soul is beyond these).

30. The self-conscious soul that is liberated in the livingstate, has no more to return to earth after death; but theconsciousness which is not purified by divine knowledge, cannotbe exempted from its transmigration to this world.

31. Those again that deny the existence of consciousness,such souls are doomed to the gross ignorance of stones (i.e. tobecome stony block heads) for this disbelief of theirs.

32. As the knowledge of sensible objects, keeps the mind inutter darkness; so the death of such persons is calculated534as their final bliss, because they have <no> more to feel thesensibles nor view the visible world any more (although theyare deprived of their spiritual bliss).

33. Men of pure understandings; who have lost the sense oftheir corporeality, are never to be reborn on earth any more;but those of dull understandings, become as gross corporealbodies and are involved in impenetrable darkness (i.e. thegloom of ignorance according to the dictum of the sruti).

34. Those intellectual philosophers (vijnána-vádis), whoview the world as an aerial city in his dream; to them theworld presents its aspect as a phantom and no other. (Theworld is a day dream, and its sight a delusion. In haman kedidam khab bud).

35. There are some that maintain the stability, and othersasserting the frailty of the world and every thing; but what dothey gain by these opinions, since the knowledge of either,neither augments the amount of human happiness, nor lessensany quantity of mortal misery (i.e. the misery of mortals).

36. The stability or unstability, of the greatest or least ofthings, makes no difference in any of them whatever; theyare all alike the radiating rays of the intellect, though theyappear as extended bodies to the ignorant.

37. Those who assign unlimitedness to the essence of consciousness,and of limitation to that of insensibility; and maintainthe permanence of the one and the transience of the other,talk mere nonsense like the babbling of boys.

38. They are the best and most venerable of men, whoknow the body to be the product of and encompassed by theintellect. And they are the meanest among mankind, whobelieve the intellect as the produce and offspring of the body;(and these are Kanada and Nyáya philosophers of grossmaterialism, who believe intelligence as a resultant of thematerial body).

39. The intellect (personified as Hiranyagarbha or Brahmáthe Divine spirit), is distributed into the souls of all livingbeings; and the infinite space of vacuity, is as a net work orcurtain, which all animal lives, flying within its ample expanse535like bodies of gnats and flies, and rising up and sinking belowor moving all about, as the shoals of fishes in the interminableocean. (The Divine Intellect or spirit, is the collection of allspecialities).

40. As this universal soul, thinks of creating the variousspecies; so it conceives them within itself, as the seeds conceivethe future plants in themselves, and the same are developedafterward.

41. Whatever lives or living beings, it thinks of or conceivesin itself; the same spring forth quickly from it, and this truthis known even to boys (from the repeated texts importing theLord as the fountain of all).

42. As the vapours fly in the air, and as the waters roll inthe ocean; and as they form curls and waves of various kinds,so the lives of living beings, are continually floating in thevacuum of the Divine Intellect.

43. As the vacuity of the Intellect, presents the sight ofa city to a man in his dream; so the world presents itsvariegated aspects since its first creation, to the sight of theday dreaming man.

44. There were no co-ordinate causes of material bodies (asearth, water &c.), at the first formation of the world; but itrose spontaneously of itself as the empty sights appearing inour dream.

45. As in a city seen in dream, its houses and their apartments,come to appear gradually to sight; so the dream becomesenlarged and expanded and divided by degrees to our vision.

46. All this creation is but the empty void of the intellect,(or as pictures drawn in empty air); there is no dualityor variety in it, but is one even plane of the intellect, like theopen sky, without any spot or place attached to it.

47. The moon-light of the Intellect, diffuses its coolness onall sides, and gladdens the souls of all beings; it scatters thebeams of intellection all around, and casts its reflexions in theimage of the world.

48. The world as it is now visible to us, lies for ever in themind of God in the same vacuous state, as it was before its536creation; and as it is to be reduced to nothing upon its finaldestruction. It is the twinkling, or the opening and closingof the intellectual eye, that this empty shadow of the world,appears and disappears amidst the universal vacuum of theDivine Mind.

49. Whoever views this world in any light, it appears tohim in the same manner (as some thinking it a solid plenum,and others as an empty vacuum). And as it depends upon theIntellect alone, it is exhibited in various forms according to thecaprice of its observers.

50. The minds of the intelligent, are as pure as the clearsphere of the summer sky; and the pure hearted and holypeople, think themselves as nothing else, beside their intellectsor as intellectual beings only.

51. These pious and holy people, are free from ignoranceand the faults of society; they share the gifts of fortune, asit falls to them by the common lot of mankind; and theycontinue in the conduct of their worldly affairs, like someworking machine (acting externally and without taking anything to mind).

Argument:—That self-consciousness is same with thepure soul, whose presence is preventive of the causesof all human woes and fears. (Here consciousness issynonymous with conscientiousness).

Vasishtha continued:—Thus it is the Intellect onlywhich is the soul of the body also, and which is situatedevery where in the manner as said before; and there isnothing which is so self-evident as the Intellect (or self-consciousness).

2. This is the clear expanse of the sky and, it is the mediumof the vision of the viewer and visibles; it composes and encompassesthe whole world, and therefore there is nothing tobe had or lost without it.

3. The doctrinaires of the atheistic school of Brihaspati,that disbelieve the future state because of their ignorance ofit; are believers of the present from their knowledge hereof.Thus knowledge or consciousness being the basis of their belief,we bear no favour nor disfavour to their doctrine. (We neitherfavor nor hate).

4. The world being but a name for the dream, which isproduced in the vacuum of our hidden knowledge; say whatcause is there for the debate of disputants, in their one sidedview of the question.

5. Our consciousness knows well in itself, what is good orbad, and therefore acceptable or not. The pure soul is manifestin the clear vacuity of air, where there is neither this nor thatview of it, exhibited to anyone.

6. The conscious soul is immortal, O Ráma, and is not ofthe form of a rock or tree or any animal; consciousness is amere vacuum, and all being and not being (i.e. our birth anddeaths are as the waves and curling waters, in its ocean ofeternity).

5387. We are all floating in the vacuum of consciousness, bothI and thou and he as well as any other; and none of us is everliable to die, because consciousness is never susceptible ofdeath.

8. Consciousness has nothing to be conscious but of itselfonly; and therefore, O big eyed Ráma, where can you get aduality, except the single subjectivity of the Intellect? (ToMake the Intellect both as subjective as well as objective, issomething like the supposition of its riding on itself).

9. Tell me, O Ráma! what is the product or offspring of thevacuous Intellect, and tell me also if that Intellect would dieaway, whence could we and all others proceed any more. (Thisproves the immortality of the Intellect, whence as all thingsare incessantly proceeding from).

10. Tell me what sort of beings are these atheistic disputants,the saugatas, Lokáyatikas and others; if they are devoidof their consciousness, which they so strenuously deny anddisallow.

11. It is this vacuous consciousness which some name asBrahma, and which some style as knowledge and others as theempty vacuum.

12. Some call it the spirit (of bodies), like that of spirituousliquors; and others (as the sankhyas), use the term purushaor embodied spirit for it. Others (as the yogis), call <it> thevacuous Intellect, while others as the saivas, give it the namesof Siva and the soul (and so it is called by various other namesby others).

13. It is sometimes styled the Intellect only, which makesno difference of it from the other attributes. The supreme soulis ever the same in itself, by whatever name it is expressed bythe ignorance of men.

14. Be my body as big as a hill, or crushed to atoms asdust; it is no gain or loss to me in any wise either, since I amthe same intellectual body or being for ever and ever.

15. Our sires and grand sires, are all dead and gone; buttheir intellects and intellectual parts, are not dead and lost withtheir bodies; for in the case of their demise, we would not have539their regeneration in us. (Because the sruti says, “atmá vaijáyate putra,” the soul is regenerated in the son).

16. The vacuous Intellect is neither generated nor destroyedat any time, but is increate and imperishable at all times;say how and when could the eternal void come to or disappearfrom existence.

17. The infinite and indestructible sphere of the Intellect,displays the scene of the universe in its ample space of vacuity,it is without its vicissitudes of rising or setting, and is everexistent in the supreme soul.

18. The Intellect represents the reflexion of the world in itsclear sphere, as a crystal mountain reflects a wild fire in itstranslucent bosom; and rests for ever in the vacuum of thesupreme soul, which is devoid of its beginning, middle andend.

19. As the shades of night obscure the visibles from sight,so the clouds of ignorance darken the bright aspect of theuniverse, as it is represented in the soul divine.

20. As the waters of the ocean, roll of themselves in theforms of waves and eddies; so doth the Intellect exhibitthe pageant of the universe, of itself and in itself from alleternity.

21. The Intellect itself is the soul of the body, and like airis never extinct or wanting any where; therefore it is all invain, to be in fear of one’s death at any time. (Life and deathare indifferent to the yogi).

22. It is a great joy to pass from one into another body (asthere is in quitting a decayed house for a new one); thereforesay ye fools, why do ye fear and grieve to die, when thereevery cause to rejoice at it.

23. If after death there be no regeneration of the dead, thenit is a consummation devoutly to be wished; because it easesand releases at once, from the heart burning disease and dread,of being and not being, and their repeated woes and miseries byturns. (To be and not be; that is the question &c.).

24. Therefore life and death, are neither for our weal or woe;540because they are neither of them any thing in reality, exceptthe representations of the intellect. (The mind paints themin different colours).

25. If the dead are to be reborn in new bodies, it is a causeof rejoicing and sorrowing; and the death or destruction of thedecayed body for a sound one, is accounted as a change forbetter.

26. If death convey the meaning of the ultimate dissolutionof a person, it is desirable even in that sense, for the cessationof our pains altogether; or it is used to mean one’s resuscitationin a new body and life, it must be a cause of great rejoicing.

27. If death be dreaded for fear of the punishment, awaitingon the vicious deeds of the dead; it is even so in this life alsofor the penalties waiting on our quilt even here: refrain thereforefrom doing evil, for your safety and happiness in bothworlds.

28. You all are ever crying lest ye die; but none of you isever heard to say, that you are going to live again.

29. What is the meaning of life and death, and where arethe lands where these are seen to take place? Do they notoccur in our consciousness alone, and turn about in the vacuumof the mind?

30. Remain firm with your conscious souls, and eat anddrink and act your part with indifference; for being situated inthe midst of vacuity, you can have nothing to ask or wishfor.

31. Being carried away in the reverie of your dream, andenjoying the gifts of time and changing circ*mstances; livecontent with what is got without fear, and know this as theholiest state.

32. Regardless of the intervening evils, which over take usin every place and time; the holy sage conducts himself withequanimity, as a sleeping man over the tumults of life.

33. The holy sage is neither sorry at his death, nor glad ofhis life and longevity; he neither likes nor hates any thing, nordoes he desire aught whatever.

54134. The wise man that knows all what is knowable, managesto live in this world as an ignorant simpleton; he is as firmand fearless as a rock, and reckons his life and death as rottenand worthless straws.

Argument:—Showing the utility of Buddhistic doctrinesin strengthening the Mind to cool apathy.

Ráma rejoined:—Tell me sir, the perfection which a holyman attains to, after he is acquainted with the supremeessence, which is without its beginning and end.

2. Vasishtha replied:—Hear the high state to which theholy man arrives, after he has known the knowable; and themode of his life and conduct, throughout the whole course ofhis existence.

3. He lives apart from human society, in his solitary retreatin the woods, and there has the stones of the dales, the treesof the forest, and the young antelopes, for his friends, kindredand associates.

4. The most populous city, is deemed as a lonely desert byhim; his calamities are his blessings, and all his dangers arefestivities to him.

5. His pains are his pleasure, and his meditations are asmusings to him; he is silent in all his dealings, and quiet inall his conduct through life.

6. He is somnolent in his waking hours, and remains asdead to himself while he is living; he manages all his affairswith a coolness, as if he was engaged in nothing.

7. He is pleasant without tasting any pleasure, and is friendlyto his fellow beings without any selfish interest of his own;he is strict to himself but ever kind to others, and is undesirousof everything, with his full desire for common weal.

8. He is pleased with the conduct of others, without havingany course of action for himself; and devoid of sorrow, fearand care, yet he is seen always to wear a melancholy appearance.(A heavily pensive melancholy).

5439. He afflicts nobody, nor is afflicted by any body; andthough full with his private afflictions and privations, he isever pleasant in company. (Pleased with himself, he pleasesall).

10. He is neither delighted with his gain, nor depressed athis loss, nor desirous to get any thing; and though there maybe causes, for his feeling joy as well as sorrow, yet they arenever visible in his face.

11. He sympathises with the unhappy, and congratulateswith happy people; but his collected mind is always invincible,in every circ*mstance of life.

12. His mind is not inclined to acts, beside those of righteousness;as it is the wont of noble-minded men by theirnature, and not any effort on their part.

13. He is not fond of pleasantry, nor is he addicted to dulnesseither; he does not hanker after wealth, but is inappetentand impossible with all his appetites and sensibleness.

14. He abides by law and acts accordingly, whether he ispinched by poverty, or rolling in riches; nor is he ever dejectedor elated, at the unforeseen good or bad events of life.

15. They are seen to be joyous and sorrowful also at times,without changing the sedateness and serenity of their natureat any time. They act the part of players on the stage of theearth (that display many figures in their outward mein).

16. Those that know the truth, bear no more affection fortheir mercenary relatives and false friends, than they look uponthe bubbles of water (that swell and swim, only to burst in amoment).

17. Without the affection of the soul, they bear full affectionfor others in their hearts; and the wise man remains quitepossessed of himself, with showing his paternal affection to all.(Universal benevolence).

18. The ignorant are as the winds passing over runningstreams; they slightly touch the poisonous pleasures of theirbodies, as the winds touch the rising waves, and are at lastdrowned in the depth of their sensuality.

19. But the wise man deals outwardly alike with all, with544perfect coolness and stillness of his soul within himself; heseems outwardly to be engaged in business, but his inwardmind is wholly disengaged from all worldly concerns whatsoever.

20. Ráma rejoined:—But how can a true sage of suchnature, be distinguished from the many pretended onesand the ignorant also, who assume such a character falsely onlyto beguile others.

21. Many hypocrites rove about as horses, in the falsegarb of devotees, for the assurance of mankind in their devoutdevotedness to religion.

22. Vasishtha replied:—I say Ráma, that such a nature(or disposition), whether it is real or feigned, is the best andhighest perfection of man; and know that, the learned inVedic lore, have always this state as the model of perfection intheir view.

23. Those who are dispassionate and unconcerned with acts,manage still to conduct their secular affairs and actions, likethose that are actuated by their passions; and though theyare averse to derision, yet they cannot help to deride at theignorant from their kind heartedness towards them.

24. The visibles are all imprest in the mirror of theirminds, as the shades of edifices are reflected in a reflector; theylook upon them with full knowledge of their shadowiness, asthey perceive the fallacy of their laying hold on a lump ofgold in dream.

25. There is a coolness pervading their minds, which isaltogether unknown to others; just as the sweet fragrance ofthe sandal wood, is unperceived by brutes at a distance.

26. They that know the knowable, and are equally purein their minds, can only distinguish them from other people, asa snake only can trace the course of another snake.

27. They are the best of men, that hide their good qualitiesfrom others; for what man is there that will expose his mostprecious treasure in the market, along with the raw produce ofhis land? (i.e. The hidden virtues of a man, unlike the aromaof flowers, aught not to be laid open before the public).

54528. The reason of concealing the rare virtues, is to keepthem unnoticed by the public; because the wise who are undesirousof reward or reputation, have nothing to reap or expectfrom the public.

29. Know Ráma, that solitude, poverty and disrespect anddisregard of men, are more pleasing to the peaceful sage; thanthe most valuable gifts and honors from mankind.

30. The ineffable delight which attends on the wise man,from his conscious knowledge of the knowable; inexpressiblein words, and invisible to others as to its knower also. (Thesecret joy of divine knowledge and grace, is felt unseen by theholy sage).

31. Let men know this qualification of mine, and honour mefor it, is the wish of the egotist, and not of that are from theiregoistic feelings.

32. It is possible even to the ignorant, to succeed to reap theresults of their practices, such as their rising and moving aboutin the air (and upon the surface of water); by means of mantras,and the power of certain drugs, that are adapted to those ends.

33. He who can afford to take the pains to any particularend; succeeds to accomplish the same, whether he is a cleveror ignorant man. (Success depends on action, and not onknowledge alone).

34. Tendencies to good or evil, are implanted in the bosomof man, as results of the acts of their past lives; and these cometo display themselves into action at their proper time, as thesandal wood emits its latent fragrance in its season all around.

35. He who is prepossessed with the knowledge of hisegoism, coupled with his desire for enjoyment of the visibles;he betakes himself to the practice of khechariyoga, whereby heascends in the air, and reaps the reward of his action.

36. The wise man that has nothing to desire, knows suchpractices to be as false as empty air; and refrains from displayinghis actions, which he knows at best but cast to the winds.

37. He derives no good from his observance of practical yoga,nor does he lose aught of his holiness by his non-observance of546them; and neither has he any thing to gain from any body, norlose a mite at the loss of any thing.

38. There is nothing in earth or heaven, nor among the godsnor any where else: which may be desirable to the magnanimous,and to one who has known the supreme soul.

39. What is this world to him, who knows it to be but aheap of dust, and deems it no better than a straw; What thenis that thing in it, which may be desirable to him?

40. The silent sage whose soul is full of knowledge, andwhose mind is quite at rest from its fondness for human society;remains content in the state as he is, and quite satisfied withwhatever occurs to him.

41. He is always cool within himself and taciturn in hisspeech, and eternal truths form the ground work of his mind;which is as full and deep as the ocean, and whose thoughts areas bright as day light.

42. He is as full of cool composure in himself, as a gladsomelake reposing with its limpid waters; and he gladdens also allothers about him, as the fair face of the fullmoon, cheers thespirits of all around.

43. The Mandara groves of Paradise, with their woodlandsstrewn over with the dust of their blossoms, do not delight thesoul so much, as the wise sayings of pandits cheer the spirit.

44. The disc of the moon diffuses its cooling beams, and thevernal season scatters its fragrance around; but the pithy sayingsof the wise and great, scatter their sound wisdom all about,which serve to ennoble and enrich all mankind.

45. The substance of their sayings, proves the erroneousconception of the world to be as false as a magic show; andinculcates the prudence of wearing out the worldly cares dayby day.

46. The wise saint is as indifferent, to the suffering of heatand cold in his own person; as if they are disturbances in thebodies of other men. (Or that he feels the pain of others ashis own).

47. In his virtues of compassion and charity, he resemblesthe fruitful tree, which yields its fruits, flowers, shed and all to547common use, and subsists itself only upon the water, it sucksfrom the ground or receives from heaven.

48. It deals out to every body, whatever it is possest of inits own body; and it is by virtue of its unsparing munificence toall creatures, that it lifts its lofty head above them all (orstretches its roots in air).

49. One seated in the edifice of knowledge, has thaught ofsorrow for himself; but pities the sorrows of others, as a manseated on a rock, takes pity for the miserable men, grovellingin the earth below.

50. The wise man is tossed about like a flower, by the rollingwaves in the eventful ocean of this world; and is set atrest, no sooner he gets over it, and reaches the beach on theother side (i.e. his way to bliss).

51. He laughs with the calmness of his soul, at the sameunvaried course of the world and its people; and smiles tothink on the persistence of men, in their habitual error andfolly. (The laughing philosopher).

52. I am amazed to see these aberrant men, wandering inthe mazes of error; and fascinated by the false appearances ofthe phenomenal world, as if they are spell-bound to the visibles.

53. Seeing the eight kinds of prosperity to be of no realgood, but rather as causes of evil to mankind, I have learntto spurn them as straws; and though I am inclined to laugh atthem, yet I forbear to do so from my habitual disposition of toleranceand forbearance.

54. I see some men abiding in mountain caves, and othersresorting to holy places; some living at home amidst theirfamilies, and others travelling as pilgrims to distant shrinesand countries.

55. Some roving about as vagrants and mendicants, andothers remaining in their solitary hermitage; some continuingas silent sages, and observant of their vow of taciturnity; andothers sitting absorbed in their meditation.

56. Some are famed for their learning, and others as studentsof law and divinity; some are as princes and others theirpriests, while there are some as ignorant as blocks and stones.

54857. Some are adepts in their exorcism of amulets and collyrium,and others skilled in their sorcery with the sword, rod andmagic wand; some are practiced in their aerial journey, andothers in other arts and some in nothing as the ignorantpariahs.

58. There are many that are employed in their ceremonialobservances, and others that have abandoned their rituals altogether;some are as fanatics in their conduct, and others thatindulge themselves in their peregrinations and vagrancy.

59. The soul (that you wanted to know), is not the bodynor its senses or powers; it is neither the mind nor the mentalfaculties, nor the feelings and passions of the heart. The soulis the Intellect which is ever awake, and never sleeps nor dies.

60. It is never broken nor consumed, nor soiled nor driedup (by the death or burning of the body); it is immortal andomnipresent, ever steady and immovable, infinite and eternal.

61. The man who has his soul, thus awakened and enlightenedin himself; is never contaminated by anything (pureor impure), in whatever state or wherever he may happen toremain.

62. Whether a man goes down to hell or ascends to heaven,or traverses through all the regions of air, or is crushed to deathor pounded to dust; the immortal and undecaying Intellectwhich abides in him, never dies with his body, nor suffers anychange with its change; but remains quite as quiet as the stillair, which is the increate Deity itself.

Argument:—The Unity, Eternity and tranquility of theIntellect, and the preference of this sástra to others.

Vasishtha continued:—The Intellect which is without itsbeginning and end, and is the ineffable light and itsreflection, and shines for ever serenely bright, isnever destroyed or extinguished in any wise.

2. Such is the Intellect and so too the soul, which is indestructiblealso; for it were destroyed at all at any time; therecould neither be the recreation of the world (without a cause),nor any regeneration of human souls (if they were dead uponthe death of the former generations of men).

3. All things are subject to change, and have many varietiesunder them; but not so the Intellect, which is ever immutable,and always perceived to be the same in all individuals.

4. We all feel the coldness of frost, the heat of fire, andsweetness of water; but we have no feeling of any kind regardingthe Intellect, except that we know it to be quite clear andpellucid as open air. (The gloss explains it to mean, theunchangeableness of the soul in heat and cold, which affectthe bodies and minds of all).

5. If the intellectual soul is destroyed at the destruction ofthe body, say then why should you lament at its loss, and notrejoice at its annihilation, which releases you from the painsof life?

6. The loss of the body entails no loss on the vacuous intellect;because the departed souls of mlechchha savages, are seento hover over the cemetery by their living friends.

7. Should the soul be synchronous with the duration of thebody, then say, why a death body does not move about, whileit is yet unrotten and entire.

5508. If the seeing of apparitions, be an affection con-naturalwith the mind; then tell me why a man does not often seethe sight of ghosts, except on the occasion of the demise of hisfriends.

9. Should it be a misconception connate with the mind, tosee the apparitions of departed friends; tell me then, why don’tyou see the ghosts of friends that are dead in a distant country,but of such only as die before your eyes.

10. Hence the Intellect, being the soul of all and everywhere,it is not confined in any place; but it is known to be ofthe same nature, as every one thinks it to be.

11. It is unconfined and unrestrained any where, and is ofthe nature of one compact consciousness that is felt by all, andis the cause of our knowledge of all things. (It is of what wehave a notion only).

12. There can be no other, which may be supposed as theprime cause of all, at the beginning of creation. Should therebe any other that is supposed to be as such, let the doctrinairesnow declare it before me.

13. There was nothing uncreated before creation, nor wasthere anything created in the beginning; the duality that atpresent, presents itself in the form of the universe, is but aréchauffé or reflexion of the unity.

14. The phenomenal is no more than a reflexion or copy ofthe noumenal, and our impression of its being a visible something,is as erroneous as all other false sights, which are mistakenfor the true reality. (These errors are the sights of silver insands, of water in the sandy desert, and of airy castle in thenorthern skies).

15. It is a wonder of the almighty power, exhibited in thesphere of the Divine Intellect; it is the wakeful understandingthat sees these visibles, as one sees the sights in his dream, butnever in his ignorance of sound sleep.

16. The wakefulness and insensibility of the understanding,both amount to the same thing; because the difference of thevisible world is only verbal and not real; since nothing thatis visible to the eye, is substantial in its essential nature.551(Hence the perception of the visibles, is alike to their non-perceptionof them).

17. Whatever was thought and said to be visibles by others,the same was the effect of their error and want of reason;and now if they are disproved by right season, where can youfind the visibles any more.

18. Therefore employ your reasoning now, in the investigationof spiritual knowledge; because by your diligent andpersevering inquiry in this respect, you will secure to yourselfthe success in both worlds. (So says the sruti: “By thyconstant study of the subject, thou shalt see thy god”).

19. Inquiry into spiritual knowledge, will dispel thy ignorance;but thou wilt never be successful in it, without thy constantapplication to it.

20. Leaving aside all anxieties and their causes, and of everyjot and moment of time in the observance of one’s sacred vowsday by day, and the study of this sacred sástra with dueattention, leads him to his welfare in both worlds.

21. Whether one is proficient or not in his spiritual knowledge,he may still improve in it, by his constant communicationof it and discussion on the subject with his superiors.

22. Whoso requires this precious treasure (of his knowledge),he must exert for its attainment at the same ratio to besuccessful in it; or else he must leave off altogether, if he tiresin his pursuit.

23. He must also keep himself from the perusal of hereticalworks, and betake himself to the study of orthodox sástras;and he will then gain his peace of mind by these, as one obtainsvictory in warfare (so should one fight for the salvationof his soul).

24. The course of the mind, like that of a stream of water,runs both in the channels of wisdom as well as folly; andforms a lake wherever it runs more rapidly, and settles as inits bed.

25. There was never a better sástra than this, nor is anysuch extant at present, nor is likely to be in vogue in future;552there let the student cogitate well its doctrines, for the edificationof his understanding.

26. Whoso heeds it well in himself, will find his mindinstantly elevated with superior knowledge; and like theeffect of a curse or blessing, which comes too late upon itsrecipient. (The efficacy of wisdom is instantaneous).

27. The knowledge of his sástra, is calculated to do youmore good, than you can derive from the tender care of afather or mother; or the efficacy of your pious actions.

28. Know O holy man, this world is the prison-house of thysoul, and its cares as the cholic pain of thy mind; and thereis no release nor redress from these, beside the knowledge ofthy soul (which is a spark of the supreme).

29. It is the dark illusion of gross ignorance, that hathmisled thee to the sense of thy egoism; and it is now by yourreflection on the purport of the sástras only, that you can befreed from your deplorable state.

30. The world is a hollow cave, where the horrid hydra ofillusion lies in ambush; and feeds on the empty air of vainenjoyments, that appear at first pleasant to taste, but prove tobe as fleeting as empty air at last.

31. Pity it is that thy days are flying as fleet as the wind,and thou art insensible of their advents and exits; and whilethou art employed in thy dealings, thou art fostering thydeath in thy negligence.

32. We all live in death, and our lives are sustained byalternate hopes and fears; until the few days of our life-timeterminate in death.

33. The approach of death, is attained with extreme painand remorse; when the inner parts of the body are separatedfrom the outer, which must be besmeared with dust as with thepaste of sandal wood.

34. They are grossly ignorant and erroneous, who purchasetheir wealth and honour at the expense of their lives;and avoid to gain their permanent bliss by the precepts ofthe sástras.

55335. Why should he bear the feet of his vile enemies on hishead (i.e. bow down his head before the meanly great); whenhe can attain his highest station of divine bliss in the sphereof his intellect, and with little or no pain.

36. Shun ye men, your vanity and ignorance; and to persistin the course of your baseness; and then you will gain bythe knowledge of the great soul, your redemption from thetribulations of the world (which is a sea of troubles).

37. Seeing me in this manner, preach to you incessantly byday and night, for the sake of your good only; do you take myadvice to turn your souls to the eternal soul, by forsaking theknowledge of your persons for that of your souls.

38. If you neglect to make a remedy to day, against the evilof your impending death; say O silly man, what amends canyou make for the hour of death, when you are laid in yoursickbed.

39. There is no other work except this, for the true knowledgeof the soul; and this therefore must be acceptable to youin the same manner, as the sesame seeds are collected, for thesake of getting their oil.

40. This book will enlighten your spiritual knowledge, as alamp lightens a dark room; drink it deep and it will enlivenyour soul, keep it by your side, and it will please you as a consort.

41. A man having his knowledge, but untaught in thesástras, has many things unintelligible and doubtful to him;which he will find to be clearly expounded to him in the sweetestlanguage.

42. This is the best narrative among the principle works,which are taken in the light of sástras; it is easily intelligibleand delightful, and has nothing new in it, except what is wellknown in spiritual philosophy.

43. Let a man peruse with delight, the many narrationsthat are contained herein; and he will undoubtedly find thisbook, the best of its kind (on account of elaborate disquisitionin this abstruse subject).

44. Whatever has not yet appeared in full light, even to554Pandits—learned in all the sástras; the same will be found toappear in this book, as they find gold to appear amidst the sand.

45. The authors of sástras are not to be despised at any timeor in any country; but the reader should employ his reason andjudgement, to dive into the true meaning of the writing.

46. Those who are led by their ignorance or envy, or actuatedby their pride and delusion to disregard and slight thissástra out of their want of judgement; are to be regarded askillers of their souls, and unworthy of the company of the wiseand good.

47. I know you well Ráma and this audience of mine, aswell as your capacities to learn, and mine to instruct you;hence it is of my compassion to you that I like to teach youthese things, as I am naturally communicative and kindly disposedto my hearers.

48. I find the development of your understandings, andtherefore take interest to communicate my knowledge to you;and as I am a man and not a Gandharva or Rákshasa, I bear afellow feeling towards you all.

49. I see you all as intelligent beings, and pure in your soulsalso; it is by virtue of these merits in you that I have becomeso friendly to you.

50. Now my friends, learn betimes to glean the truth ofyour unfondness for or indifference to every thing you see inthis world (because there is nothing which is truly desirableherein).

51. Whoso neglects to remedy his diseases, of death andhell fire in this life; say what will he do to avert them whenthey are irremediable, and when he goes to a place, where noremedy is to be sought.

52. Until you feel a distaste for everything in this world,so long you cannot find any abatement of your desires in you.(It is better your desires to suppress, than toil and moil along toseek their redress).

53. There is no other means to elevate your soul, thandepressing your desires to the lowest ebb (but the more you555allow your wishes to grow and flow, the more you bind the souland sink below).

54. If there be anything here, you think to be good for you;they serve at best but to bind your soul, and then disappear asthe horn of a hare. (All tempting good, is as fleeting as adream).

55. All earthly goods seem to be good, when they are untriedand least understood; but the seeming something provesno such thing, or tends to your ruin at last. (All seeming goodis positive evil).

56. All worldly existences prove to be nil, by the right reasoning(of Vedanta philosophy; though they are declared as realby Kapila, Kanada and others): but how they are real and whatthey are, whether self-existent or made, or permanent or temporary,(cannot rightly be known).

57. To say all worldly existences are self-existent, for havingno prior cause assigned to them, nor being created in the beginning,would prove all that is existent, to be the increate andever lasting supreme being itself.

58. There is no causality of sensible bodies, in the Beingthat is without and beyond the senses (the lord having noorgan of sense, nor being perceptible by the senses as all materialobjects); nor is the mind the cause of sensible objects,(that have the six organs and are perceptible by them); themind being but the sixth organ only.

59. How can the one unspeakable Lord, be the varied causeof these varieties of things, passing under various denominations.How can the reality have these unrealities in itself,and how can the Infinite Void, contain these finite solid bodiesin it?

60. It is the nature of a plastic body to produce a thing ofa plasmic from it, as the seeds of fruits bring forth their ownkinds only; but how is it possible for an amorphous void, toproduce solid forms from its vacuity, or the solid body to issueforth formless mind.

61. How can you expect to derive a solid seed from a voidnothing, and therefore it is a deception to think the material556world to be produced, from the immaterial and formless void ofthe vacuous intellect.

62. There are no conditions, of the creator and creation inthe supreme being; these states are the fabrications of verbiage,and bespeak the ignorance of their inventors (in the trueknowledge of the deity).

63. The want of co-ordinate causes (such as the materialand formal causes), as co-existent with the prime and efficientcause; disproves the existence of an active agent and his act ofcreation; and this truth is evident even to boys.

64. The knowledge of God alone as the sole cause, and yetacknowledging the causality of the earth and other elements;is as absurd as to say that, the sun shines and yet it is dark.(i.e. As light and darkness cannot reign together, so the spiritand matter cannot abide simultaneously from all eternity, whichwould amount to the belief of a duality).

65. To say that the world is the aggregate of atoms, oran atomic formation, is as absurd as to call a bow made of thehorn of a hare. (This is a refutation of the Buddhistic doctrineof the formation of the visible world, from the aggregation ofeternal invisible atoms).

66. If the concourse and collocation of the dull, inert andinsensible material atoms would form the world; it would ofits own accord make a mountainous heap here, and a bottomlessdeep there in the air (and not a work of such design whichmust be the product of infinite Intelligence).

67. Again the particles of this earth, and the atoms of airand water, are flying every day in the forms of dust and humidityfrom house to house and from place to place, and why dothey not yet form a new hill or lake any where again? (Whyno new world again).

68. The invisible atoms are never to be seen, nor is it knownwhence, or where and how they are; nor is it possible to forman idea of the formless atoms, to unite together and form asolid mass. (Shapeless simples are indivisible and incohesive.Aphorism). And again it is impossible for the dull and insensibleatoms to form any thing.

55769. The creation of the world, is never the work of an unintelligentcause; nor is this frail and unreal world ever thework of an intelligent maker also; because none but a foolmakes any for nothing.

70. The insensible air which is composed of atoms, and hasa motion of its own, is never actuated by reason or sense; noris it possible to expect the particles of air to act wisely (as theyprayed in their hymns to the maruta winds).

71. (What then are these if not composed of atoms?)We are all composed of intellectual soul, and all individuals aremade of the vacuous selves; and they all appear to us, as thefigures of persons appearing in our dream.

72. Therefore there is nothing that is created, nor is thisworld in existence; the whole is the clear void of the intellect,and shines with the glare of the Supreme soul in itself.

73. The vacuous universe rests completely in the vacuumof the Intellect, as force (or vibration), fluidity and vacuity, restrespectively in the wind, water and in the open air.

74. The form of the intellectual vacuum, is as that of theairy mind, which passes to distant climes in a moment (andyet holds its seat in the hollowness of the brain); or as that ofconsciousness which is seated in the hollow of the heart, and isyet conscious of every thing in itself.

75. Such is the vacuous nature of all things, as they areperceived in their intellectual forms only in intellect (whichretains their vacuous ideas only on the hollow understanding);and so the world also is an empty idea only imprinted in theintellect.

76. It is the rotatory nature of the Intellect, which exhibitsthe picture of the universe on its surface; wherefore the worldis identic and not otherwise than the vacuous nature of theintellect.

77. Therefore the world is the counter part of the intellectualsphere, and there is no difference in the vacuous nature,of either of them. They are both the same thing presentingbut two aspects, as the wind and its undulations are one andthe same thing.

55878. As a wise man going from one country to another, findshimself to be the same person wherever he goes; and thoughhe sees all the varieties around him, yet he knows himself asthe selfsame quiet and unvaried soul every where.

79. The wise man remains in the true nature of the elements,hence the elements never go off from the mind of thewise man.

80. The world is a vacuous sphere of reflections only,resembling a concave reflector; it is a formless void in itsnature, and is unimpaired and indestructible in its essence.

81. There is nothing that is born or dies in it, nor anything which having once come to being, is annihilated everafterwards any where; it is not apart from the vacuum ofthe Intellect, and is as void as the inane world itself.

82. The world never is, nor was, nor shall ever be in existence;it is but a silent semblance of the representation passingin the intellectual vacuity of the supreme spirit.

83. The Divine Intellect alone shines forth in its glory, asthe mind exhibits its images of cities &c. in dream; in thelike manner our minds represent to us the image of world, asday dreams in our waking state.

84. There being no being in the beginning, how could therebe the body of anything in existence; there was therefore nocorporeality whatever except in the dream of the Divine mind.

85. The supreme Intellect dreams of its self-born (or uncreated)body at first; and we that have sprang from thatbody, have ever afterwards continued to see dream after dreamto no end. (The world is a dream both in the mind of God andmen).

86. It is impossible for us with all our efforts, to turn ourminds to the great God; because they are not of the natureof the divine intellect, but born in us like carbuncles on thegoitre, for our destruction only.

87. The god Brahmá is no real personage, but a fictitiousname for Hiranyagarbha or totality of souls (समष्टि), butever since he is regarded as a personal being, the world isconsidered as body and He the soul of all.

55988. But in truth all is unreal, from the highest empyreanto the lowest pit; and the world is as false and frail as adream, which rises in vain before the mind, and vanishes in aminute.

89. The world rises in the vacuity of the Intellect, and setstherein as a dream; and when it does not rise in the enlightenedintellect, it is as a disappearing from the waking mind,and flying before day light.

90. Although the world is known as false, yet it is perceivedand appears as true to us; in the same manner as the falseappearances in our dream, appear true to our consciousness atthe time of dreaming.

91. As the formless dream presents many forms before themind; so the formless world assumes many shapes before oursight: and all these are perceived in our consciousness, which isas minute in respect of the infinite space and sky, as an atomof dust is too small in regard to the Meru mountain. (i.e.the minim of our consciousness, contained in the breast, is animperceptible particle only of sand in it).

92. But how can this consciousness, which is but anothername of Brahma, be any what smaller than the sky (when itcontains the skies in itself); and how can the vacuous world haveany solid form, when it has no formal cause to form it so. (Godbeing a formless being, could not give a form and figure to any thing,and which is therefore ideal only).

93. Where was there any matter or mould, where from thismaterial world was moulded and formed (as we make ourhouses from the pre-existing mud and clay of the earth); whateverwe see in the sphere of waking minds in the day light, issimilar to the baseless dreams, which we see in the empty spaceof our sleeping minds, in the darkness of the night.

94. There is no difference between the waking and sleepingdreams, as there is none between the empty air and the sky;whatever is pictured in the sphere of the intellect, the same isrepresented as the aerial castle in the dream.

95. As the wind is the same with its undulation, so the rest560and vibration of the spirit is both alike, as the air and vacuumis the one and same thing.

96. Hence it is the intellectual sphere only, which representsthe picture of the world; the whole is a void and withoutany support, and splendour of the luminary of the intellect.

97. The whole universe is in a state of perfect rest and tranquility,and without its rising or setting; it is as a quiet andunwasting block of stone, and ever shining serenely bright.

98. Say therefore whence and what are these existentbeings, and how comes this understanding of their existence;where is there a duality or unity, and how came these notionsof egoism and distinct personalities.

99. Be ever prompt in your actions and dealings, with anutter indifference to everything, and unconcern about unity orduality; and preserve an even and cool disposition of your inwardmind. Remain in the state of nirvána, with your extinguishedpassions and feelings, and free from disease andanxiety. Be aloof from the visibles, and remain in the mannerof a pure Intelligence only.

100. This chapter is a lecture on entity and non-entity;and establishment of the spirituality of the universe.

Argument:—The Notion of the Intellect,analogous to that of the wind and Air.

Vasishtha continued:—The sky is the receptacle ofsound, and the air is perceptible to the feeling; theirfriction produces the heat, and the subsidence or removal ofheat, causes the cold and its medium of water.[4]

2. The earth is the union of these, and in this way do theycombine to form the world, appearing as a dream unto us, orelse how is it possible for a solid body, to issue forth from theformless vacuum.

3. If this progression of productions, would lead us too farbeyond our comprehension; but it being so in the beginning,it brings no blemish in the pure nature of the vacuous spirit,(for its gradual productions of air, heat, water &c.).

4. Divine Intelligence also is a pure entity, which is manifestin the selfsame spirit; the same is said to be the world,and this most certain truth of truths. (Because Omniscienceincludes in it the knowledge of all things; which is the truemeaning of the text [Sanskrit: sarvam khalvidam brahma] allthis verily Brahma or full of the intelligence of God).

5. There are no material things, nor the five elements ofmatter any where; all these are mere unrealities, and yet theyare perceived by us, like the false appearance in our dream.

6. As a city and its various sights, appear very clear to themind in our sleeping dreams; so it is very pleasant to see thedream like world, shining so brightly before our sight in ourwaking hours.

5627. I am of the nature of my vacuous intellect, and so isthis world of the same nature also; and thus I find myselfand this world, to be of the same nature, as a dull and insensiblestone.

8. Hence the world appears as a shining jewel, both at itsfirst creation, as well as in all its kalpánta or subsequentformations (because it shines always with the effulgence ofthe Divine Intellect).

9. Whether the body be something or nothing in its essence,its want of pain and happiness of the mind, is the form of its stateof moksha or liberation; and its rest with a peaceful mind andpure nature, is reckoned its highest state of bliss.

Argument:—The Identity of the Intellect by day andnight, proves the sameness of its day and night dreams.

Vasishtha continued:—The Intellect conceives the formof the world, of its own intrinsic nature; and fanciesitself in that very form, as it were in a dream. (The subjectiveIntellect, sees itself in the form of the objective world).

2. It feigns itself as asleep while it is waking, and viewsthe world either as a solid stone, or as a void as the empty air.

3. The world is compared to a dream, exhibiting a countryembellished with a great many cities; and as is no reality inthe objects of dream, so there is no actuality in any thingappearing in this world.

4. All the three worlds are as unreal, as the various sightsin a dream; and they are but day dreams to us even when weare awake. (The Intelligent dream by day light, as the ignorantdo in the shade of night).

5. Whether in waking or sleeping, there is nothing namedas the world (or the turning sphere); it is but the empty void,and at best but an air-drawn picture in the hollow of the Intellects.

6. It is a wondrous display of the Intellect in its own hollowness,like the array of hills and mountains in the midwayfirmament; the sense of the world is as a waking dream in theminds of the wise.

7. This world is nothing in its substance, nor is it any thingof the form of Intellect; it is but a reflexion of the Intellect,and the vacuity of the intellectual world, is but an emptynothing.

8. The triple world is only a reflexion, and like the sightof something in dream, it is but an airy nothing; it is the564empty air which becomes thus (diversified), and is entirelybodiless, though seeming to be embodied in our waking state.

9. It is inventive imagination of men, that is ever busyeven in the hours of sleep and dreaming; and presents to uswith many creations that were never created, and many unrealitiesappearing as real ones.

10. The universe appears as an extensive substantiality, implantedin the bosom of endless vacuity; but this huge body,with all its mountains and cities, is in reality no other thanthe original vacuum.

11. The howling of the sea, and clattering of clouds onmountains, though they are so very tremendous to the waking;are yet unheard by the sound sleeper by his side. (So thepomp of the world, is unseen by the blind).

12. As a widow dreams her bringing forth a son in her sleep,and as a man thinks to be ever living, by forgetfulness of hispast death, and being reborn again; so are men unmindful oftheir real state.

13. The real is taken for the unreal and unreal for the real;as the sleeping man forgets his bed room, and thinks himselfelse where; so every thing turns to be otherwise, as the dayturns to night and the night changes to day.

14. The unreal soon succeeds the real, as night—the wantof light succeeds the light of the day; and the impossible alsobecomes possible, as when a living person sees his death, orthinks himself as dead in his sleep.

15. The impossible becomes possible, as the supposition ofthe world in the empty void; and the darkness appears aslight, as the night time seems to be daylight to the sleepingand dreaming man at night.

16. The daylight becomes the darkness of night, to one whosleeps and dreams in the daytime (as it is to owls and batsand so to cats and rats); the solid ground seems to be hollow,to one who dreams of his being cast into a pit.

17. As the world appears to be a nullity in our sleep atnight, and so it is reality even in our waking state, and there565is no doubt of it. (It is doubtful that the world exists, but nodoubt in its inexistence).

18. As the two suns (of yesterday and today), are the oneand same with one another, and as two men are of the samekind; so it is doubtless that the waking and sleeping states arealike to another.

19. Ráma rejoined:—That of course cannot be admissibleand reliable as true, which is liable to objection and exception;the sight of a dream is but momentary and falsified upon ourwaking; wherefore it cannot be alike to the waking state.

20. Vasishtha replied:—The disappearance of the dreamedobjects upon waking, does not prove their falsity, nor make anydifference between the two states of dreaming and waking;because the objects which one sees in his dream, are like thosethat a traveller sees in foreign country, which are lost upon hisreturn to his own country, and the sights of this are soon lostupon his death. Hence both are true for the time being, andboth proved equally false and fleeting at last.

21. A man being dead, he is separated from his friends, asfrom those he sees in his dream; and then the living is said tobe awakened, as when a sleeper awakes from his slumber.

22. After seeing the delusions of the states of happiness andmisery, and witnessing the rotations of days and nights, andfeeling many changes, the living soul at last departs from thisworld of dreams.

23. After the long sleep of life, there comes at last an endof it at last; when the human soul becomes assured of the untruthof this world, and that the past was a mere dream.

24. As the dreamer perceives his death in the land of hisdream, so the waking man sees his waking dream of this world,where he meets with his death, in order to be reborn in it andto dream again.

25. The waking beholder of the world, finds himself to diein the same manner in his living world; where he is doomed tobe reborn, in order to see the same scenes and to die again.

26. He who finds himself to die in the living world in his566waking state, comes to revisit this earth, in order to see thesame dreams, which he believed to be true in his former births.(Hence the sleeping and waking dreams, that view the samethings over again, are both alike).

27. It is the ignorant only, that believe their waking sightsas true; while it is the firm conviction of the intelligent, thatall these appearances are but day dreams at best.

28. Taking the dreaming state for waking, and the wakingone for dreaming, are but verbal distinctions implying the samething; as life and death are meaningless words for the twostates of the soul, which never born nor died.

29. He who views his life and death in the light of a dream,is said to be truly waking; but the living soul that considersitself as waking and dying, is quite the contrary of it.

30. Whoso dwells upon one dream after another, or wakesto see a waking dream; is as one who wakes after his death,and finds his waking also to be a dream. (All states of sleepingand waking, and of living and dying are mere dreams).

31. Our waking and sleeping, are both as events of historyto us; and are comparable to the past and present historiesof nations. (Both being equally fleeting and fluctuating).

32. The dream-sleep seems as waking, and the wakingdream is no other than sleeping; they are both in fact but unrealities,and the mere réchauffé or reflexions of the intellectualsky.

33. We find the moving and unmoving beings on earth, andcreatures unnumbered all around us; but what do they allprove to be at last, than the representations of the eternal ideasin the Divine Intellect.

34. As we can have no idea of a pot, without that of theclay which it is made of; so we can have no conception of theblocks of mould and stone, unless they were represented to ourminds, from their prints in Divine Intellect.

35. All these various things, which appear unto us both inour waking as well as dreaming states; are no other than theideas of blocks, which are represented in our dreams from theirarchetypes in the Intellect.

56736. Now say O Intelligent Ráma, what else must this Intellectbe, than that infinite and vacuous essence which acts inus, both in our dreaming and waking states.

37. Know this Intellect to be the great Brahmá, who iseverything in the world, as if it were in the divided forms ofhis essence; and who is yet of the figure of the whole world,as if he were the undivided whole himself. (i.e. He is all andeverything collectively and individually).

38. As the earthen pot is not conceivable, without its formalsubstance of the earth; so the intellectual Brahmá is inconceivable,without his essence of the Intellect.

39. Again as a stone-made jar is beyond our conception,save by the idea of its stony substance; so the spiritual God isbeyond our comprehension, besides our idea of the spirit.

40. As the water is a liquid substance, which cannot beconceived without its fluidity; so is Brahmá conceived as composedof his chit or Intellect only, without which we can haveno conception of him.

41. So also we have the conception of fire by means of itsheat, without which we have no concept of it; such too is ouridea of God that he is the Intellect, and beside this we canform no idea of him.

42. We know the wind by its oscillation only, and by noother means whatsoever; so is God thought as the Intellector Intelligence itself; beside which we can have no notion ofhim.

43. There is nothing, that can be conceived without its property;as we can never conceive vacuum to be without itsvacuity, nor have any conception of the earth without its solidity.

44. All things are composed of the vacuous Intellect, as thepot or painting appearing in the mind, is composed of the essenceof the intellect only; and so the hills &c., appearing indream, are representation of the Intellect alone. (All thematerial world is composed of matter, so is the intellectualworld made of intellect only).

56845. As we are conscious of the aerial sights of the hills andtowns, presented to our minds in the dream; so we know allthings in our conscious in our waking state also; so there is aquiet calm vacuity only both in our sleep and waking, whereinour intellect alone is ever busy to show itself in endless shapesbefore us.