{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_46531/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_46531","id":"gutenberg_46531","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/46531","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Hinduism -- Doctrines -- Early works to 1800","Religious life -- Hinduism -- Early works to 1800"],"text":"THE\n YOGA-VASISHTHA\n MAHARAMAYANA\n\n OF\n\n VALMIKI\n\n in 4 vols. in 7 pts.\n (Bound in 4.)\n\n Vol. 3 (In 2 pts.)\n Bound in one.\n\n Containing\n Upasama Khanda and Nirv\u00e1na Khanda\n\n _Translated from the original Sanskrit_\n\n _By_\n VIHARI-LALA MITRA\n\n\n\n\n CONTENTS\n OF\n NIRV\u00c1NA-PRAKARANA.\n\n BOOK VI.\n\n (ON ULTIMATE EXTINCTION.)\n\n\n CHAPTER I. PAGE.\n\n Description of the Evening and Breaking of the assembly 1\n\n\n CHAPTER II.\n\n On the perfect calm and composure of the mind 7\n\n\n CHAPTER III.\n\n On the unity and Universality of Brahma 15\n\n\n CHAPTER IV.\n\n Want of anxiety in the way of Salvation 18\n\n CHAPTER V.\n\n The narration of R\u00e1ma's perfect rest 20\n\n\n CHAPTER VI.\n\n The narration of Delirium (moha) 22\n\n\n CHAPTER VII\n\n Magnitude or preponderance of ignorance 29\n\n\n CHAPTER VIII.\n\n Allegory of the spreading arbour of Ignorance 39\n\n\n CHAPTER IX.\n\n Ascertainment of True knowledge 44\n\n\n CHAPTER X.\n\n Removal of Ignorance 50\n\n\n CHAPTER XI.\n\n Ascertainment of Living Liberation 58\n\n\n CHAPTER XII.\n\n Reasoning on the doubts of the living liberation 69\n\n\n CHAPTER XIII.\n\n The Two Yogas of Knowledge and Reasoning 73\n\n\n CHAPTER XIV.\n\n Narration of Bhusunda and description of Mount Meru 75\n\n\n CHAPTER XV.\n\n Vasishtha's visit to Bhusunda 79\n\n\n CHAPTER XVI.\n\n Conversation of Vasishtha and Bhusunda 84\n\n\n CHAPTER XVII.\n\n Description of Bhusunda's Person 87\n\n\n CHAPTER XVIII.\n\n Manners of the M\u00e1trika Goddesses 88\n\n\n CHAPTER XIX.\n\n Bhusunda's nativity and habitation 93\n\n\n CHAPTER XX.\n\n Explication of the mysterious character of Bhusunda 99\n\n\n CHAPTER XXI.\n\n Explanation of the cause of the crow's longevity 105\n\n\n CHAPTER XXII.\n\n Account of past ages 112\n\n\n CHAPTER XXIII.\n\n Desire of Tranquillity and Quiescence of the Mind 119\n\n\n CHAPTER XXIV.\n\n Investigation of the Living Principle 124\n\n\n CHAPTER XXV.\n\n On Sam\u00e1dhi 129\n\n\n CHAPTER XXVI.\n\n Relation of the cause of Longevity 137\n\n\n CHAPTER XXVII.\n\n Conclusion of the narrative of Bhusunda 143\n\n\n CHAPTER XXVIII.\n\n Lecture on Theopathy or spiritual meditation 146\n\n\n CHAPTER XXIX.\n\n Pantheism or Description of the world as full with\n the Supreme Soul 158\n\n\n CHAPTER XXX.\n\n Inquiry into the nature of the Intellect 176\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXI.\n\n Identity of the mind and living soul 189\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXII.\n\n On the sustentation and dissolution of the body 197\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXIII.\n\n Resolution of duality into unity 204\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXIV.\n\n Sermon of Siva on the same subject 211\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXV.\n\n Adoration of the great god Mah\u00e1deva 216\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXVI.\n\n Description of the supreme Deity Parameswara 220\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXVII.\n\n The stage play and dance of destiny 223\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXVIII.\n\n On the external worship of the Deity 227\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXIX.\n\n Mode of the Internal worship of the Deity 231\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXX.\n\n Inquiry into the nature of the Deity 238\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXXI.\n\n Vanity of world and worldly things 240\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXXII.\n\n The supreme soul and its phases and names 247\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXXIII.\n\n On rest and Tranquillity 251\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXXIV.\n\n Inquiry into the essence of the mind 256\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXXV.\n\n Story of the vilva or Belfruit 261\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXXVI.\n\n Parable of the stony sheath of the soul 266\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXXVII.\n\n Lecture on the density of the Intellect 272\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXXVIII.\n\n On the Unity and Identity of Brahm\u00e1 and the world 277\n\n\n CHAPTER XXXXIX.\n\n Contemplation of the course of the world 280\n\n\n CHAPTER L.\n\n On sensation and the objects of senses 285\n\n\n CHAPTER LI.\n\n On the perception of the sensible objects 291\n\n\n CHAPTER LII.\n\n Story of Arjuna, as the Incarnation of Nara-Nar\u00e1yana 299\n\n\n CHAPTER LIII.\n\n Admonition of Arjuna 304\n\n\n CHAPTER LIV.\n\n Admonition of Arjuna in the spiritual knowledge 313\n\n\n CHAPTER LV.\n\n Lecture on the Living soul or J\u00edvatatwa 316\n\n\n CHAPTER LVI.\n\n Description of the mind 324\n\n\n CHAPTER LVII.\n\n On Abandonment of desire and its result of Tranquillity 329\n\n\n CHAPTER LVIII.\n\n Arjuna's satisfaction at the sermon 331\n\n\n CHAPTER LIX.\n\n Knowledge of the latent and inscrutable soul 334\n\n\n CHAPTER LX.\n\n Knowledge of the majesty and grandeur of God 340\n\n\n CHAPTER LXI.\n\n Description of the world as a passing dream 343\n\n\n CHAPTER LXII.\n\n In the narration of J\u00edvata an example of domestic and\n mendicant life 344\n\n\n CHAPTER LXIII.\n\n Dream of J\u00edvata 349\n\n\n CHAPTER LXIV.\n\n On the attainment of attendantship on the God Rudra 359\n\n\n CHAPTER LXV.\n\n R\u00e1ma's wonder at the error of men 364\n\n\n CHAPTER LXVI.\n\n The wonderings of the mendicant 367\n\n\n CHAPTER LXVII.\n\n Unity of God 371\n\n\n CHAPTER LXVIII.\n\n On the virtue of Taciturnity 376\n\n\n CHAPTER LXIX.\n\n Union of the mind with the breath of life 380\n\n\n CHAPTER LXX.\n\n Interrogatories of Vit\u00e1la 388\n\n\n CHAPTER LXXI.\n\n The prince's reply to the first question of the Vit\u00e1la 391\n\n\n CHAPTER LXXII.\n\n Answers to the remaining questions 394\n\n\n CHAPTER LXXIII.\n\n End of the story of the Vit\u00e1la Demon 396\n\n\n CHAPTER LXXIV.\n\n Account and admonition of Bhag\u00edratha 398\n\n\n CHAPTER LXXV.\n\n Supineness of Bhag\u00edratha 403\n\n\n CHAPTER LXXVI.\n\n The Descent of Gang\u00e1 on earth 406\n\n\n CHAPTER LXXVII.\n\n Narrative of Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 and Sikhidhwaja 409\n\n\n CHAPTER LXXVIII.\n\n Beautification of Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 416\n\n\n CHAPTER LXXIX.\n\n Princess coming to the sight of the supreme soul 423\n\n\n CHAPTER LXXX.\n\n Display of the quintuple Elements 427\n\n\n CHAPTER LXXXI.\n\n Inquiry into Agni, Soma or fire and moon 438\n\n\n CHAPTER LXXXII.\n\n Yoga instructions for acquirement of the supernatural\n powers of Anim\u00e1-minuteness &c. 454\n\n\n CHAPTER LXXXIII.\n\n Story of the miserly Kir\u00e1ta 455\n\n\n CHAPTER LXXXIV.\n\n Pilgrimage of prince Sikhidhwaja 463\n\n\n CHAPTER LXXXV.\n\n Investigation into true happiness 471\n\n\n CHAPTER LXXXVI.\n\n The production of the Pot (or the embryonic cell) 488\n\n\n CHAPTER LXXXVII.\n\n Continuation of the same and enlightenment of 492\n Sikhidhwaja\n\n CHAPTER LXXXVIII.\n\n The tale of the Crystal gem 498\n\n\n CHAPTER LXXXIX.\n\n The Parable of an Elephant 502\n\n\n CHAPTER LXXXX.\n\n Way to obtain the Philosopher's stone 506\n\n\n CHAPTER LXXXXI.\n\n Interpretation of the parable of the Elephant 510\n\n\n CHAPTER LXXXXII.\n\n The Prince's Abjuration of his Asceticism 513\n\n\n CHAPTER LXXXXIII.\n\n Admonition of Sikhidhwaja 518\n\n\n CHAPTER LXXXXIV.\n\n Enlightenment of Sikhidhwaja 526\n\n\n CHAPTER LXXXXV.\n\n The anaesthetic Platonism of Sikhidhwaja 534\n\n\n CHAPTER LXXXXVI.\n\n Enlightenment of Sikhidhwaja 537\n\n\n CHAPTER LXXXXVII.\n\n Enlightenment of the prince in Theosophy 544\n\n\n CHAPTER LXXXXVIII.\n\n Admonition of Sikhidhwaja continued 547\n\n\n CHAPTER LXXXXIX.\n\n Remonstration of Sikhidhwaja 551\n\n\n CHAPTER C.\n\n Continuation of the same subject 555\n\n\n CHAPTER CI.\n\n Admonition of Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 559\n\n\n CHAPTER CII.\n\n Repose of Sikhidhwaja in the divine spirit 566\n\n\n CHAPTER CIII.\n\n Return of Kumbha to the Hermitage of Sikhidhwaja 568\n\n\n CHAPTER CIV.\n\n On the conduct of living-liberated men 575\n\n\n CHAPTER CV.\n\n Metamorphoses of Kumbha to a female form 580\n\n\n CHAPTER CVI.\n\n Marriage of Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 with Sikhidhwaja 586\n\n\n CHAPTER CVII.\n\n The advent of false Indra in the cottage of the happy\n pair 593\n\n\n CHAPTER CVIII.\n\n Manifestation of Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 in her own form 597\n\n\n CHAPTER CIX.\n\n Appearance of Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 in her presence of her Lord 601\n\n\n CHAPTER CX.\n\n Final extinction of Sikhidhwaja 610\n\n\n CHAPTER CXI.\n\n Story of Kacha and his enlightment by the Brihaspati 614\n\n\n CHAPTER CXII.\n\n A fanciful Being and his occupation of air drawn and\n air-built abodes 619\n\n\n CHAPTER CXIII.\n\n The parable of the vain man continued 623\n\n\n CHAPTER CXIV.\n\n Sermon on Divine and Holy knowledge 626\n\n\n CHAPTER CXV.\n\n Description of the triple conduct of men 630\n\n\n CHAPTER CXVI.\n\n Melting down of the mind 636\n\n\n CHAPTER CXVII.\n\n Dialogue between Manu and Ikshaku 638\n\n\n CHAPTER CXVIII.\n\n Continuation of the same 640\n\n\n CHAPTER CXIX.\n\n The same subject continued 643\n\n\n CHAPTER CXX.\n\n Continuation of the same. On the seven stages of\n Edification 645\n\n\n CHAPTER CXXI.\n\n Continuation of the same 649\n\n\n CHAPTER CXXII.\n\n The same. Manu's admonition to Ikshaku 652\n\n\n CHAPTER CXXIII.\n\n On the difference between the knowing and unknowing 655\n\n\n CHAPTER CXXIV.\n\n The story of the stag and the huntsman 656\n\n\n CHAPTER CXXV.\n\n The means of attaining the steadiness of the Turya\n state 661\n\n\n CHAPTER CXXVI.\n\n Description of the spiritual state 663\n\n\n CHAPTER CXXVII.\n\n Admonition to Bharadw\u00e1ja 675\n\n\n CHAPTER CXXVIII.\n\n Resuscitation of R\u00e1ma 683\n\n\n YOGA VASISHTHA\n\n BOOK VI.\n\n NIRV\u00c1NA-PRAKARANA.\n\n ON ULTIMATE EXTINCTION.\n\n P\u00daRV\u00c1RDHA.\n\n OR THE FORMER OR FIRST HALF.\n\n\n PART I.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER I.\n\nDESCRIPTION OF THE EVENING AND BREAKING\nOF THE ASSEMBLY.\n\n Argument.--The close of the day, its announcement, the court\n breaks for Evening service, and the effect of the Sage's sermon on\n the Audience.\n\n\nV\u00e1lm\u00edki says:--You have heard the relation of the subject of Stoicism\nor composure of the soul; attend now to that of Nirv\u00e1na, which will\nteach you how to attain the final liberation of yourselves[A].\n\n[A] Note. Nirv\u00e1na or ultimate annihilation of the living or animal\nsoul, being the aim and end of Buddhism, it is doubtful whether\nVasishtha had derived his doctrine from the Buddhists or they from him.\n\n2. As the chief of Sages was saying his magniloquent speech in this\nmanner, and the princes remained mute with their intense attention to\nthe ravishing oration of the Sage:\n\n3. The assembled chiefs remained there as silent and motionless\nportraits, and forgot their devotions and duties, by being impressed in\ntheir minds with the sense and words of the Sage's speech.\n\n4. The assemblage of Saints, was reverently pondering upon the deep\nsense of the words of the Sage, with their curled brows and signs of\ntheir index fingers (indicating their wonder).\n\n5. The ladies in the Seraglio were lost in wonder, and turned upward\ntheir wondering eyes, resembling a cluster of black bees, sucking\nintently the nectarious honey of the new blown flowers (of the Sage's\nspeech).\n\n6. The glorious sun sank down in the sky, at the fourth or last watch\nof the day; and was shorn of his radiant beams as he was setting in the\nwest (as a man becomes mild with his knowledge, of truth at the end of\nhis journey through life).\n\n7. The winds blew softly at the eve of the day, as if to listen to the\nsermon of the Sage, and wafted about the sweets of his moving speech,\nlike the fragrance of the gently shaking mandara flowers.\n\n8. All other sounds were drowned in the deep meditation of the\naudience, as when the humming of the bumble bees, is pushed in their\nrepose, amidst the cell of blooming flowers at night.\n\n9. The bubbling waters of the pearly lakes, sparkled unmoved amidst\ntheir embordered beds; as if they were intently attentive to listen\nto the words of the Sage, which dropped as strings of pearls from his\nflippant lips. (So the verse of Hafiz affixed to the title page of Sir\nWilliam Jones' Persian grammar: \"Thou hast spoken thy verse, and strung\na string of pearls\").\n\n10. The pencil of the declining ray penetrating the windows of the\npalace, bespoke the halting of the departing sun, under the cooling\nshade of the royal canopy, after his weary journey all along the\nlivelong day.\n\n11. The pearly rays (or bright beams) of the parting day, being covered\nby the dust and mist of the dusk, it seemed to be besmeared as the body\nof a dervish with dust and ashes; and had gained its coolness after its\njourney under the burning sun (The cool and dusky eve of the day is\ncompared with the dust-sprinkled body of the ascetic approaching to his\ncell).\n\n12. The chiefs of men with their heads and hands decorated with\nflowers, were so regaled with the sweet speech of the Sage, that they\naltogether remained enrapt in their senses and minds.\n\n13. The ladies listening to the sage, were now roused by the cries of\ntheir infants and the birds in their cages, to get up from the place\nand to give them their suck and food. (It means that the birds and\nboys, were alone insensible of the Sage's discourse).\n\n14. Now the dust flung by the pinions of fluttering bees, covered\nthe petals of the night blooming kumuda flowers; and the flapping\n_chouries_ were now at rest, with the tremulous eyelids of the princes.\n\n15. The rays of the sun, fearing to be waylaid by the dark night shade,\nwhich had now got loose from the dark mountain caves, fled through the\nwindows to the inner apartment of the palace (which was already lighted\nwith lamps).\n\n16. The time watches of the royal palace, knowing it to be passed\nthe fourth watch of the day, sounded aloud their drums and trumpets,\nmingled with the sound of conch-shells, loudly resounding on all sides.\n\n17. The high-sounding speech of the sage, was drowned under the loud\npeal of the jarring instruments; as the sonorous sound of the peacock,\nis hushed under the uproar of roaring clouds.\n\n18. The birds in the cages, began to quake and shake their wings with\nfear; and the leaves and branches of the lofty palm trees, shook in the\ngardens, as by a tremendous earthquake.\n\n19. The babes sleeping on the breasts of their nurses, trembled with\nfear at the loud uproar; and they cried as the smoking clouds of the\nrainy season, resounding between the two mountain craigs resembling the\nbreasts. (It is common in Indian poetry to compare the swelling breasts\nto rising hills, and say _Kucha giri_).\n\n20. This noise made the helmets of the chieftains, shed the dust of\ntheir decorating flowers all about the hall; as the moving waves of the\nlake, sprinkle the drops of water upon the land.[A]\n\n[A] In this verse there is the continuation of the world shaking\nunderstood through the intermediate steps. Thus the noise startled\nthe chiefs, which shook their bodies, and these shook their heads,\nwhich caused their helmets to shake: these again shook the garlands of\nflowers upon them, and at last shed their dust on the ground. This kind\nof figure is called Krama m\u00e1la corresponding with Metalepsis gradation;\nas we have in the following instance of Dido's exclamation in Virgil.\n\"Happy, Oh truly happy had I been; if Trojan ships these coasts had\nnever seen.\" Here the first seeing is that of the ships and then of the\nTrojans in them, and afterwards of \u00c6neas as one among them, and then of\nher seeing him, and his seeing her, and lastly of her passion at his\nsight.\n\n21. Thus the palace of Dasharatha being full of trepidation at the\nclose of the day, regained its quiet at the gradual fall of the fanfare\nof sounding conch shells, and the hubbub of drum beatings at the\nadvance of night.\n\n22. The Sage put a stop to his present discourse, and addressed R\u00e1ma\nthen sitting in the midst of the assembly, in a sweet voice and\ngraceful language. (Mudhura-Vritti is the middle or graceful style\nbetween the high and low).\n\n23. Vasishtha said:--O R\u00e1ghava! I have already spread before you the\nlong net of my verbosity; do you entrap your flying mind in the same\nway, and bring it to your bosom and under your subjection.\n\n24. Take the purport of my discourse in such manner, as to leave out\nwhat is unintelligible, and lay hold on its substance; as the swan\nseparates and sucks the milk which is mixed with water.\n\n25. Ponder upon it repeatedly, and consider it well in thy mind, and\ngo on in this way to conduct yourself in life (_viz_ by suppression\nof your desires, weakening the mind, restraining the breathing, and\nacquiring of knowledge).\n\n26. By going on in this manner, you are sure to evade all dangers; or\nelse you must fall ere long like the heavy elephant, in some pitfall\nof the Vindhya mountain. (Pitfalls are the only means of catching\nelephants).\n\n27. If you do not receive my words with attention, and act accordingly,\nyou are sure to fall into the pit like a blind man left to go alone in\nthe dark; and to be blown away like a lighted lamp, exposed in the open\nair.\n\n28. In order to derive the benefit of my lectures, you must continue\nin the discharge of your usual duties with indifference, and knowing\n_insouciance_ to be the right dictum of the _s\u00e1stras_, be you\nregardless of everything besides.\n\n29. Now I bid you, O mighty monarch, and ye, princes and chiefs, and\nall ye present in this place, to get up and attend to the evening\nservices of your daily ritual. (Abnika).\n\n30. Let all attend to this much at present, as the day is drawing to\nits close; and we shall consider the rest, on our meeting in the next\nmorning.\n\n31. V\u00e1lm\u00edki related:--After the Sage had said so far, the assembly\nbroke, off; and the assembled chiefs and princes rose up, with their\nfaces blooming as the full blown lotuses at the end of the day.\n\n32. The Chiefs having paid their obeisance to the monarch, and made\ntheir salutation to R\u00e1ma, they did their reverence to the sage, and\ndeparted to their respective abodes.\n\n33. Vasishtha rose up from his seat with the royal sage Visw\u00e1mitra, and\nthey were saluted on their departure by the aerial spirits, who had\nattended the audience all along.\n\n34. The Sages were followed closely, by the king and chieftains a long\nway, and they parted after accosting them, according to their rank and\ndignity on the way;\n\n35. The celestials took their leave of the sage, and betook to their\nheavenward journey; and the _munis_ repaired to their hermitages in\nthe woods, when some of the saints turned about the palace, like bees\nflying in about the lotus bush (different directions).\n\n36. The king having offered handfuls of fresh flowers at the feet of\nVasishtha, entered the royal seraglio with his royal consorts.\n\n37. But R\u00e1ma and his brother princes, kept company with the sage to his\nhermitage; and having prostrated themselves at his feet, they returned\nto their princely mansions.\n\n38. The hearers of the sage having arrived at their houses made their\nablutions; then worshipped the gods, and offered their offerings to the\nmanes of their ancestors. They then treated their guests and gave alms\nto beggars.\n\n39. Then they took their meals with their Brahman guests, and members\nof the family; and their dependants and servants were fed one after the\nother, according to the rules and customs of their order and caste.\n\n40. After the sun had set down, with the diurnal duties of men, there\nrose the bright moon on high, with impositions of many nocturnal duties\non mankind.\n\n41. At last the great king and the princes, and chiefs of men and the\n_munis_, together with the sages and saints, and all other terrestrial\nbeings, betook themselves to their several beds, with silken coverlets\nand bed cloths of various kinds.\n\n42. They lay thinking intensely in themselves, on the admonitions of\nthe sage Vasishtha; on the mode of their passing over the boisterous\ngulf of this world, by means of this spiritual knowledge.\n\n43. Then they slept and lay with their closed eyelids, for one watch of\nthe night only; and then opened their eyes, like the opening buds of\nlotuses, to see the light of the day.\n\n44. R\u00e1ma and his brother princes, passed full three watches of the\nnight in waking; and pondering over the deep sense of the lectures,\nof their spiritual guide--Vasishtha. (The present ritual allots three\nwatches of the night to sleep, while formerly they gave but one watch\nto it).\n\n45. They slept only one and a half watch of the night, with their\nclosed eye lids; and then they shook off the dullness of their sleep,\nafter driving the lassitude of their bodies by a short nap.\n\n46. Now the minds of these, being full of good will, raised by the\nrising reason in their souls, and knowledge of truth; they felt the\ncrescent of spiritual light lightening their dark bosoms, as the\nsextant of the moon, illumes the gloom of night; which afterwards\ndisappeared at the approach of daylight, and the gathering broils of\ndaytime.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nON THE PERFECT CALM AND COMPOSURE OF THE MIND.\n\nArgument.--The sages joining the assembly the next morning, and\npreaching of Divine knowledge to it.\n\n\nV\u00e1lm\u00edki related: Then the shade of night, with her face as dark as that\nof the darkened moon, began to waste and wane away; as the darkness of\nignorance and the mists of human wishes, vanish before the light of\nreason.\n\n2. Now the rising sun showed his crown of golden rays, on the top\nof the eastern mountain, by leaving his rival darkness to take its\nrest, beyond the western or his setting mount of _ast\u00e1chala_ (the two\nmountains mean the eastern and western horizons).\n\n3. Now the morning breeze began to blow, being moistened by the\nmoon-beams, and bearing the particles of ice, as if to wash the face\nand eyes of the rising sun.\n\n4. Now rose R\u00e1ma and Lakshmana, with their attendants also, from their\nbeds and couches; and after discharging their morning services, they\nrepaired to the holy hermitage of Vasishtha.\n\n5. There they saw the Sage coming out of his closet, after discharge\nof his morning devotion; and worshipped his feet with offerings of\n_arghya_ (or flowers and presents worthy of him).\n\n6. In a moment afterwards, the hermitage of the Sage was thronged by\n_munis_ and Br\u00e1hmans, and the other princes and chiefs, whose vehicles\nand cars and horses and elephants, blocked the pathways altogether.\n\n7. Then the Sage being accompanied by these, and attended by their\nsuite and armies; and followed by R\u00e1ma and his brothers, was escorted\nto the palace of the Sovereign King Dasaratha.\n\n8. The king who had discharged his morning service, hastened to\nreceive the Sage before hand; and walked a great way to welcome him,\nand do him honour and pay his homage.\n\n9. They entered the court hall, which was adorned with flowers and\nstrings of gems and pearls; and there they seated themselves on the\nrich sofas and seats, which were set in rows for their reception.\n\n10. In a short time the whole audience of the last day, composed both\nof the terrestrial men and celestial spirits, were all assembled at the\nspot, and seated in their respective seats of honor.\n\n11. All these entered that graceful hall, and saluted one another\nwith respect; and then the royal court shone as brilliant as a bed of\nblooming lotuses, gently moved by the fanning breeze.\n\n12. The mixed assemblage of the _munis_ and _rishis_ or the saints and\nSages, and the _Vipras_ and _R\u00e1jas_ or the Br\u00e1hmans and Kshatriyas, sat\nin proper order, on seats appropriated for all of them.\n\n13. The soft sounds of their mutual greetings and welcomes, gradually\nfaded away; and the sweet voice of the panegyrists and encomiasts,\nsitting in a corner of the hall, was all hushed and lulled to silence.\n\n14. The sun-beams appearing through the chinks in the windows, seemed\nto be waiting in order to join the audience, and to listen to the\nlectures of the Sage. (Another translation has it thus:--The audience\ncrept in the hall, no sooner the sun-beams peeped through the windows).\n\n15. The jingling sound of bracelets, caused by the shaking of hands of\nthe visitors in the hall; was likely to lull to sleep the hearers of\nthe sage. (It was a custom in olden times, to make a tinkling sound to\near, in order to lull one to sleep, as by a kind of mesmerism).\n\n16. Then as Kum\u00e1ra looked reverently on the countenance of his sire\nSiva, and as Kacha looked with veneration upon the face of the\npreceptor of the God or Brihaspati; and as Prahlada gazed upon the face\nof Shukra--the preceptor of demons, and as Suparna viewed the visage of\nKrishna.\n\n17. So did R\u00e1ma gloat upon the countenance of Vasishtha, and his\neye-balls rolled upon it, like the black bees fluttering about a full\nblown lotus.\n\n18. The sage resumed the link of his last lecture, and delivered his\neloquent speech to R\u00e1ma, who was well versed in eloquence also.\n\n19. Vasishtha said:--Do you remember R\u00e1ma! the lecture that I gave\nyesterday, which was fraught with deep sense and knowledge of\ntranscendental truth?\n\n20. I will now tell you of some other things for your instruction, and\nyou shall have to hear it with attention, for consummation of your\nspiritual wisdom.\n\n21. Whereas it is the habit of dispassionateness, and the knowledge of\ntruth; whereby we are enabled to ford over the boisterous ocean of the\nworld, you must learn therefore, O R\u00e1ma! to practice and gain these\nbetimes.\n\n22. Your full knowledge of all truth, will drive away your bias in\nuntruth; and your riddance from all desire, will save you from all\nsorrow. (Desire is a burning fire, but want of yearning is want of pain\nand sorrowing).\n\n23. There exists but one Brahma, unbounded by space and time; He is\nnever limited by either of them; and is the world himself, though it\nappears to be a distinct duality beside Him.\n\n24. Brahma abides in all infinity and eternity, and is not limited\nin any thing; He is tranquil and shines with equal effulgence on\nall bodies; He cannot be any particular thing, beside his nature of\nuniversality.\n\n25. Knowing the nature of Brahma as such, be you freed from the\nknowledge of your egoism (personality); and knowing yourself as the\nsame with him, think yourself as bodiless and as great as he; and thus\nenjoy the tranquillity and felicity of your soul.\n\n26. There is neither the mind nor the _avidy\u00e1_ (or ignorance), nor\nthe living principle, as distinct things in reality; they are all\nfictitious terms (for the one and same nameless Brahma himself).\n\n27. It is the self-same Brahma, that exhibits himself in the forms of\nour enjoyments, in the faculties of enjoying them, in our desires and\nappetites for the same, and in the mind also for their perception. The\ngreat Brahma that is without beginning and end, underlies them all, as\nthe great ocean surrounds the earth (and supplies its moisture to every\nthing upon it).\n\n28. The same Brahma is seen in the form of his intellect (or wisdom) in\nheavens, on earth and in the infernal regions, as also in the vegetable\nand animal creations; and there is nothing else beside him.\n\n29. The same Brahma, who has no beginning nor end, spreads himself like\nthe boundless and unfathomable ocean, under all bodies and things;\nand in whatever we deem as favourable and unfavourable to us, as our\nfriends and our enemies.\n\n30. The fiction of the mind, like that of a dragon, continues so long,\nas we are subject to the error and ignorance of taking these words for\nreal things; and are unacquainted with the knowledge of Brahma (as\npervading all existence).\n\n31. The error of the mind and its perceptibles, continues as long as\none believes his personality to consist in his body; and understands\nthe phenomenal world as a reality; and has the selfishness to think\nsuch and such things to be his (since there is nothing which actually\nbelongs to any body, besides its temporary use).\n\n32. So long as you do not raise yourself, by the counsel and in the\nsociety of the wise and good; and as long as you do not get rid of your\nignorance; you cannot escape from the meanness of your belief in the\nmind.\n\n33. So long as you do not get loose of your worldly thoughts, and have\nthe light of the universal spirit before your view; you cannot get rid\nof the contracted thoughts of your mind, yourself and the world.\n\n34. As long as there is the blindness of ignorance, and one's\nsubjection to worldly desires; so long there is the delusion of\nfalsehood also, and the fictions of the fallacious mind.\n\n35. As long as the exhalation of yearnings infest the forest of the\nheart, the _chakora_ or parrot of reason will never resort to it; but\nfly far away from the infected air.\n\n36. The errors of thought disappear from that mind, which is unattached\nto sensual enjoyments; which is cool with its pure inappetency, and\nwhich has broken loose from its net of avarice.\n\n37. He who has got rid of his thirst and delusion of wealth, and who\nis conscious of the inward coolness of his soul, and who possesses the\ntranquillity of his mind; such a person is said to have fled from the\nprovince of his anxious thought.\n\n38. He who looks upon unsubstantial things, as unworthy of his regard\nand _reliance_; and who looks upon his body as extraneous to himself;\nis never misled by the thoughts of his mind.\n\n39. He who meditates on the infinite mind, and sees all forms of things\nas ectypes of the universal soul; and who views the world absorbed in\nhimself; is never misled by the erroneous conception of the living\nprinciple.\n\n40. The partial view of a distinct mind and a living principle, serves\nbut to mislead a man (to the knowledge of erroneous particulars); all\nwhich vanish away, at the sight of the rising sun of the one universal\nsoul.\n\n41. Want of the partial view of the mind, gives the full view of one\nundivided soul; which consumes the particulars, as the vivid fire burns\naway the dry leaves of trees, and as the sacrificial fire consumes the\noblations of ghee or clarified butter.\n\n42. Those men of great souls, who have known the supreme one, and\nare self-liberated in their lifetime; have their minds without their\nessences, and which are therefore called _asatwas_ or nonentities.\n(These minds, says the gloss, are as the watermarks on the sand, after\na channel is dried up (or its waters have receded); meaning that the\nmind remains in its print but not in its substance).\n\n43. The body of the living liberated man, has a mind employed in its\nduties, but freed from its desires; such minds are not _chittas_ or\nactive agents, but mere _sattwas_ or passive objects. They are no\nmore self-volitive free agents, but are acted upon by their paramount\nduties. (Free will is responsible for its acts, but compulsion has no\nresponsibility).\n\n44. They that know the truth, are mindless and unmindful of everything\nsave their duty; they rove about at pleasure and discharge their duties\nby rote and practice, in order any object to gain.\n\n45. They are calm and cold with all their actions and in all their\ndealings; they have the members of their bodies and their senses under\nfull control, and know no desire nor duality.\n\n46. The saint having his sight fixed upon his inner soul, sees the\nworld burnt down as straws by the fire of his intellect; and finds\nhis erroneous conceptions of the mind, to fly far away from it, like\nflitting flies from a conflagration.\n\n47. The mind which is purified by reason, is called the _sattwa_ as\nsaid above, and does not give rise to error; as the fried paddy seed,\nis not productive of the plant (The sattwa mind is spiritless and dead\nin itself).\n\n48. The word Sattwa means the contrary of Chitta, which latter is\nused in lexicons to mean the mind, that has the quality of being\nreborn on account of its actions and desires. (The chitta is defined\nas the living seed of the mind, and productive of acts and future\nregenerations, which the Sattwa or deadened mind cannot do).\n\n49. You have to attain the attainable _Sattwa_ or torpid state of your\nmind, and to have the seed of your active mind or _chitta_, singed by\nthe blaze of your spiritual mind or sattwa.\n\n50. The minds of the learned, which are lighted by reason, are melted\ndown at once to liquidity; but those of the ignorant which are hardened\nby their worldly desires, will not yield to the force of fire and\nsteel; but continue still to sprout up as the grass, the more they are\nmowed and put on fire. (The over-growing grass in the fields, though\nset on fire, will grow again from their unburnt roots, and became as\nrank as before).\n\n51. Brahma is vast expanse, and such being the vastness of the universe\ntoo there is no difference between them; and the intellect of Brahma is\nas full as the fulness of his essence.\n\n52. The Divine Intellect contains the three worlds, as the pepper\nhas its pungency within itself. Therefore the triple world is not a\ndistinct thing from Brahma, and its existence and inexistence (_i.e._,\nits creation and dissolution), are mere fictions of human mind. (It is\never existent in the eternal mind).\n\n53. It is the use of popular language, to speak of existence and\nnon-existence as different things; but they are never so in reality to\nthe right understanding. Since whatever is or is not in being, is ever\npresent in the Divine Mind.\n\n53a. This being a vacuity, contains all things in their vacuous\nstate (which is neither the state of sensible existence, nor that of\nintellectual inexistence either). God as the Absolute, Eternal, and\nSpiritual substance, is as void as Thought. (The universe is a thought\nin the mind of God, and existence is thought and activity in the Divine\nMind. Aristotle).\n\n54. If you disbelieve in the intellectual, you can have no belief\nin your spirituality also; then why fear to die for fear of future\nretribution, when you leave your body behind to turn to dust. Tell me\nR\u00e1ma! how can you imagine the existence of the world in absence of the\nintellectual principle. (There can be no material world, without the\nimmaterial mind; nor can you think of it, if you have no mind in you).\n\n55. But if you find by the reasoning of your mind, all things to be\nmere intellections of the intellect at all times; then say why do you\nrely on the substantiality of your body.\n\n56. Remember R\u00e1ma, your pellucid intellectual and spiritual form, which\nhas no limit nor part of it, but is an unlimited and undivided whole;\nand mistake not yourself for a limited being by forgetting your true\nnature.\n\n57. Thinking yourself as such, take all the discreet parts of the\nuniverse as forming one concrete whole; and this is the substantial\nintellect of Brahma.\n\n58. Thou abidest in the womb of thy intellect, and art neither this nor\nthat nor any of the many discrete things interspersed in the universe.\nThou art as thou art and last as the _End_ and _Nil_ in thy obvious and\nyet thy hidden appearances.\n\n59. Thou art contained under no particular category, nor is there any\npredicable which may be predicated of thee. Yet thou art the substance\nof every predicament in thy form of the solid, ponderous and calm\nintellect; and I salute thee in that form of thine.\n\n60. Thou art without beginning and end, and abidest with thy body of\nsolid intellect, amidst the crystal sphere of thy creation, and shining\nas the pure and transparent sky. Thou art calm and quiet, and yet\ndisplayest the wondrous world, as the seed vessel shows the wooden of\nvegetation.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nON THE UNITY AND UNIVERSALITY OF BRAHMA.\n\nArgument.--Showing the identity of Brahma with the Mind, Living Soul,\nthe body and the world and all things and extirpation of all dualisms,\nby the establishment of one universality.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--As the countless waves, which are continually\nrising and falling in the Sea, are no other than its water assuming\ntemporary forms to view; so the intellect exhibits the forms of endless\nworlds heaving in itself; and know, O sinless R\u00e1ma! this intellect\nto be thy very self or soul. (All personal souls are selfsame with\nthe impersonal Self; because it is in the power of both the finite\nand infinite souls to produce and reduce the appearance of the worlds\nin them, which proves them beyond any doubt as the Chid\u00e1tm\u00e1 or the\nIntellectual soul).\n\n2. Say thou that hast the intellectual soul, what relation doth thy\nimmaterial soul bear to the material world, and being freed from thy\nearthly cares, how canst thou entertain any earthly desire or affection\nin it. (The spiritual soul has no concern with the material world).\n\n3. It is the Intellect which manifests itself in the forms of living\nsoul or j\u00edva, mind and its desires, and the world and all things; say\nthen what else can it be, to which all these properties are to be\nattributed (if not to the eternal intellect).\n\n4. The intellect of the Supreme Spirit, is as a profound sea with its\nhuge surges; and yet, O R\u00e1ma! it is as calm and cool as thy soul, and\nas bright and clear, as the transparent firmament.\n\n5. As the heat is not separate from fire, and the fragrance not apart\nfrom the flower; and as blackness is inseparable from collyrium, and\nwhiteness from the ice; and as sweet is inborn in the sugarcane, so is\nintellection inherent in, and unseparated from the intellect.\n\n6. As the light is nothing distinct from the sun-beams, so is\nintellection no other than the intellect itself; and as the waves are\nno way distinct from the water; so the universe is in no ways different\nor disjoined from the nature of the intellect, which contains the\nuniverse. (The noumenon contains the phenomenon, and become manifest as\nthe world).\n\n7. The ideas are not apart from the intellect, nor is the ego distinct\nfrom the idea of it; the mind is not different from the ego, nor is the\nliving soul any other than the mind.\n\n8. The senses are not separate from the mind, and the body is not\nunconnected with the senses; the world is the same as the body, and\nthere is nothing apart from the world. (The body is the microcosm of\nthe cosmos [Sanskrit: shuddhabrahm\u00e1nanda]).\n\n9. Thus the great sphere of universe, is no other than the unbounded\nsphere of intellect; and they are nothing now done or made, or ever\ncreated before (for whatever there is or comes to pass, continues\nforever in the presence of the intellect).\n\n10. Our knowledge of every thing, is but our reminiscence of the same;\nand this is to continue for evermore, in the manner of all partial\nspaces, being contained in infinity, without distinction of their\nparticular localities. (All spaces of place occupied by bodies, are\ncontained in the infinite and unoccupied vacuity of Mind).\n\n11. As all spaces are contained in the endless vacuity, so the vastness\nof Brahma is contained in the immensity of Brahma; and as truth resides\nin verity, so in this plenum contained, is the plenitude of Divine\nmind. (Here Brahma the great means by figure of metonymy, the Brahm\u00e1nda\nor vastness of his creation).\n\n12. Seeing the forms of outward things, the intelligent man never takes\nthem to his mind; it is the ignorant only, that set their minds to the\nworthless things of this world.\n\n13. They are glad to long after what they approve of, for their trouble\nonly in this world; but he who takes these things as nothing, remains\nfree from the pleasure and pain of having or not having them. (So said\nthe wise Socrates:--How many things are here, which I do not want).\n\n14. The apparent difference of the world and the soul of the world, is\nas false in reality, as the meaning of the words sky and skies, which\nthough taken in their singular and plural senses, still denote the same\nuniform vacuity. (So the one soul is viewed as many in appearance only).\n\n15. He who remains with the internal purity of his vacant mind,\nalthough he observes the customary differences of external things,\nremains yet as unaffected by the feelings of pain and pleasure, as the\ninsensible block of wood and stone (with his stoical indifference in\njoy and grief).\n\n16. He who sees his blood-thirsty enemy in the light of a true friend,\nis the person that sees rightly into the nature of things. (Because the\nkillers of our lives, are the givers of our immortality).\n\n17. As the river uproots the big trees on both its sides, by its\nrapid currents and deluge; so doth the dispassionate man destroys the\nfeelings of his joy and grief to their very roots.\n\n18. The sage that knows not the nature of the passions and affections,\nand does not guard himself from their impulse and emotions, is unworthy\nof the veneration, which awaits upon the character of saints and sages.\n\n19. He who has not the sense of his egoism, and whose mind is not\nattached to this world; saves his soul from death and confinement,\nafter his departure from this world. (There is a similar text in the\nBhagavadg\u00edt\u00e1, and it is hard to say which is the original one and which\nis the copy).\n\n20. The belief in one's personality, is as false as one's faith in\nan unreality, which does not exist; and this wrong notion of its\nexistence, is removed only by one's knowledge of the error, and his\nriddance from it.\n\n21. He who has extinguished the ardent desire of his mind, like\nthe flame of an oilless lamp; and who remains unshaken under all\ncircumstances, stands as the image of a mighty conqueror of his enemies\nin painting or statue.\n\n22. O R\u00e1ma! that man is said to be truly liberated, who is unmoved\nunder all circumstances, and has nothing to gain or lose in his\nprosperity or adversity, nor any thing to elate or depress him in\neither state.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nArgument.--Vasishtha exposes the evils of selfish views\n_par\u00e1g-drishti_, and exalts the merit of elevated views\n_pratyag-drishti_.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--R\u00e1ma! knowing your mind, understanding, egoism\nand all your senses, to be insensible of themselves, and deriving their\nsensibility from the intellect; say how can your living soul and the\nvital breaths, have any sensation of their own.\n\n2. It is the one great soul, that infuses its power to those different\norgans; as the one bright sun dispenses his light, to all the various\nobjects in their diverse colours.\n\n3. As the pangs of the poisonous thirst after worldly enjoyments, come\nto an end; so the insensibility of ignorance, flies away like darkness\nat the end of the night.\n\n4. It is the incantation of spiritual knowledge only, that is able to\nheal the pain of baneful avarice; as it is in the power of autumn only,\nto dispel the clouds of the rainy-season.\n\n5. It is the dissipation of ignorance, which washes the mind of its\nattendant desires; as it is the disappearance of the rainy weather,\nwhich scatters the clouds in the sky.\n\n6. The mind being weakened to unmindfulness, loses the chain of its\ndesires from it; as a necklace of pearls being loosened from its broken\nstring, tosses the precious gems all about the ground.\n\n7. R\u00e1ma! they that are unmindful of the s\u00e1stras, and mind to undermine\nthem; resemble the worms and insects, that mine the ground wherein they\nremain.\n\n8. The fickle eye-sight of the idle and curious gazer on all things,\nbecomes motionless after their ignorant curiosity is over and has\nceased to stir; as the shaking lotus of the lake becomes steady, after\nthe gusts of wind have passed away and stopped.\n\n9. You have got rid, O R\u00e1ma! of your thought of all entities and\nnon-entities, and found your steadiness in the ever-steady unity of\nGod; as the restless winds mix at last with the calm vacuum (after\ntheir blowing and breathing over the solid earth, and in the hollow\nsky).\n\n10. I ween you have been awakened to sense, by these series of my\nsermons to you; as kings are awakened from their nightly sleep, by the\nsound of their eulogists and the music of timbrels.\n\n11. Seeing that common people of low understandings, are impressed by\nthe preachings of their parish parsons; I have every reason to believe\nthat my sermons must make their impression, upon the good understanding\nof R\u00e1ma.\n\n12. As you are in the habit of considering well, the good counsel of\nothers in your mind; so I doubt not, that my counsel will penetrate\nyour mind, as the cool rain-water enters into the parched ground of the\nearth.\n\n13. Knowing me as your family priest, and my family as the spiritual\nguides of Raghus race for ever; you must receive with regard my good\nadvices to you, and set my words as a neck-chain to your heart.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nArgument.--R\u00e1ma's relation to Vasishtha, of his perfect rest in\ngodliness.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma said:--O my venerable guide! My retrospection of your sermons, has\nset my mind to perfect rest, and I see the traps and turmoils of this\nworld before me, with a quite indifferent and phlegmatic mind.\n\n2. My soul has found its perfect tranquillity in the Supreme Spirit, is\nas the parched ground is cooled by a snow or of rainfall after a long\nand painful drought.\n\n3. I am as cool as coldness itself, and feel the felicity of an entire\nunity in myself; and my mind has become as tranquil and transparent, as\nthe limpid lake that is undisturbed by elephants.\n\n4. I see the whole plenum of the universe, O sage! in its pristine pure\nlight; and as clear as the face of the wide extended firmament, without\nthe dimness of frost or mist.\n\n5. I am now freed from my doubts, and exempted from the mirage of the\nworld; I am equally aloof from affections, and have become as pure and\nserene, as the lake and sky in autumn.\n\n6. I have found that transport in my inmost soul, which knows no bound\nnor decay; and have the enjoyment of that _gusto_, which defies the\ntaste of the ambrosial draught of gods.\n\n7. I am now set in the truth of actual existence, and my repose in the\njoyous rest of my soul. I have become the delight of mankind and my own\njoy in myself, which makes me thank my felicitous self, and you also\nfor giving me this blessing. (The Sruti says, Heavenly bliss is the\ndelight of men, and the heartfelt joy of every body).\n\n8. My heart has become as expanded and pure, as the expanse of limpid\nlakes in autumn; and my mind hath become as cold and serene, as the\nclear and humid sky in the season of autumn.\n\n9. Those doubts and coinings of imagination, which mislead the blind,\nhave now fled afar from me; as the fear of ghosts appearing in the\ndark, disappear at the light of day-break.\n\n10. How can there be the speck or spot of impurity, in the pure and\nenlightened soul; and how can the doubts of the objective nature,\narise in the subjective mind? All these errors vanish to naught, like\ndarkness before moon light.\n\n11. All these appearances appearing in various forms, are but the\ndiverse manifestations of the self-same soul; it is therefore a fallacy\nto suppose, this is one thing and that another, by our misjudgment of\nthem.\n\n12. I smile to think in myself, the miserable slave of my desires that\nI had been before; that am now so well satisfied without them. (The\nprivation of desire gives greater satisfaction than its fulfilment).\n\n13. I remember now how my single and solitary self, is one and all with\nthe universal soul of the world; since I received my baptism with the\nambrosial fluid of thy words.\n\n14. O the highest and holiest station, which I have now attained to;\nand from where I behold the sphere of the sun, to be situated as low as\nthe infernal region.\n\n15. I have arrived at the world of sober reality and existence, from\nthat of unreality and seeming existence. I therefore thank my soul,\nthat has became so elevated and adorable with its fulness of the Deity.\n\n16. O venerable Sage:--I am now situated in everlasting joy, and far\nremoved from the region of sorrow; by the sweet sound of the honeyed\nwords, which have crept like humming bees, into the pericarp of my\nlotus-like heart.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nArgument:--Prevalence and influence of delirium (moha).\n\n\nVasishtha Continued--Hear me moreover to tell you, my dear R\u00e1ma, some\nexcellent sayings for your good, and also for the benefit of every one\nof my audience here.\n\n2. Though you are unlike others, in the greater enlightenment of your\nunderstanding; yet my lecture will equally edify your knowledge, as\nthat of the less enlightened men than yourself.\n\n3. He who is so senseless as to take his body for the soul, is soon\nfound to be upset by his unruly senses; as a charioteer is thrown down\nby his head-strong and restive horses. (So says the Sruti also. \"The\nsoul is the charioteer of the vehicle of the body, and the senses are\nas its horses\").\n\n4. But the Sapient man who knows the bodiless soul and relies therein,\nhas all his senses under the subjection of his soul; and they do not\noverthrow him, as obstinate horses do their riders.\n\n5. He who praises no object of enjoyment, but rather finds fault with\nall of them, and discerns well their evils; enjoys the health of his\nbody without any complaint. (The voluptuary is subject to diseases, but\nthe abstinent is free from them; for in the midst of pleasure there is\npain).\n\n6. The soul has no relation with the body, nor is the body related with\nthe soul; they are as unrelated to each other as the light and shade.\n(And are opposed to one another as sun-light and darkness).\n\n7. The discrete soul is distinct from concrete matter, and free from\nmaterial properties and accidents; the soul is ever shining and does\nnot rise or set as the material sun and moon (and it never changes as\nthe everchanging objects of changeful nature and mind).\n\n8. The body is a dull mass of vile matter, it is ignorant of itself\nand its own welfare; it is quite ungrateful to the soul, that makes\nit sensible; therefore it well deserves its fate of diseases and final\ndissolution. (The body is frail, and is at best but a fading flower).\n\n9. How can the body be deemed an intelligent thing, when the\nknowledge of the one (_i.e._, the soul) as intelligence, proves the\nother (_i.e._, the body) to be but a dull mass. They cannot both be\nintelligent, when the nature of the one is opposite to that of the\nother; and if there is no difference between them, they would become\none and the same thing (_i.e._ the soul equal with the body, which is\nimpossible).\n\n10. But how is it then, that they mutually reciprocate their feelings\nof pain and pleasure to one another, unless they are the one and\nthe same thing, and participating of the same properties? (This is\na presumptive objection of the antagonistic doctrine, touching the\nco-relation of the mind and body).\n\n11. It is impossible, R\u00e1ma, for the reciprocation of their feelings,\nthat never agree in their natures; the gross body has no connection\nwith the subtile soul, nor has the rarefied soul any relation with the\nsolid body. (It is the gross mind that sympathises with the body, and\nnot the unconnected spirit or soul).\n\n12. The presence of the one, nullifies the existence of the opposite\nother; as in the cases of day and night, of darkness and light, and of\nknowledge and ignorance (which are destructive of their opposites).\n\n13. The unbodied soul presides over all bodies, without its adherence\nto any; as the omnipresent spirit of Brahma, pervades throughout all\nnature, without coalescing with any visible object. (The spirit of God\nresides in all, and is yet quite detached from everything).\n\n14. The embodied soul is as unattached to the body, as the dew drop on\nthe lotus leaf is disjoined with the leaf; and as the divine spirit is\nquite unconnected with everything, which it fills and supports.\n\n15. The Soul residing in the body, is as unaffected by its affections,\nas the sky remains unmoved, by the motion of the winds raging in its\nbosom. It is figuratively said, that tempests rend the skies, and the\npassions rend their recipient bosom; but nothing can disturb the empty\nvacuity of the sky or soul.\n\n16. Knowing your soul to be no part of your body, rest quietly in it to\neternity; but believing yourself as the body, be subject to repeated\ntransmigrations of it in endless forms.\n\n17. The visibles are viewed as the rising and falling waves, in the\nboundless ocean of the Divine soul; but reliance in the supreme soul,\nwill show the light of the soul only.\n\n18. This bodily frame is the product of the Divine soul, as the wave\nis produced of the water of the sea; and though the bodies are seen to\nmove about as waves, yet their receptacle the soul is ever as steady as\nthe sea;--the reservoir of the moving waves.\n\n19. The body is the image of the soul, as the sun seen in the waves is\nthe reflection of that luminary; and though the body like the reflected\nsun, is seen to be moving and waving, yet its archetype--the soul, is\never as steady as the fixed and unfluctuating sun in the sky.\n\n20. The error of the substantiality and stability of the body is put to\nflight, no sooner the light of the permanent and spiritual Substratum\nof the soul, comes to shine over our inward sight. (Knowledge of the\nimmaterial and immortal soul, removes the blunder of the material and\nmortal body).\n\n21. The body appears to be in the act of constant motion and rotation\nlike a wheel, to the partial and unspiritual observers of materialism;\nand it is believed by them to be perpetually subject to birth and\ndeath, like the succession of light and darkness. (Lit.:--As candle\nlight and darkness follow each other, so is the body produced and\ndissolved by turns).\n\n22. These unspiritual men, that are unconscious of their souls; are as\nshallow and empty minded, as _arjuna_ trees; which grow without any\npith and marrow within them.\n\n23. Dull headed men that are devoid of intelligence, are as\ncontemptible as the grass on the ground; and they move their limbs like\nthe blades of grass, which are moved by force of the passing wind (and\nby direction of the Judging mind). Those that are unacquainted with the\nintelligent soul, resemble the senseless and hollow bamboos, which\nshake and whistle by breath of the winds alone. (The internal air moves\nthe body and the limbs, as the external breeze shakes the trees).\n\n24. The unintelligent body and limbs, are actuated to perform and\ndisplay their several acts, by action of the vital breath; as the\nvacillation of the insensible trees and leaves, is caused by the motion\nof the breeze; and both of them cease to move, no sooner the current\nairs cease to agitate them.\n\n25. These dull bodies are as the boisterous waves of the sea, heaving\nwith huge shapes with tremendous noise; and appearing to sight as the\nfigures of drunken men, staggering with draughts of the luscious juice\nof Vine.\n\n26. These witless men resemble the rapid currents of rivers, which\nwithout a jot of sense in them, keep up on their continual motion, to\nno good to themselves or others.\n\n27. It is from their want of wit, that they are reduced to utmost\nmeanness and misery; which make them groan and sigh like the blowing\nbellows of the blacksmith.\n\n28. Their continued motion is of no real good to themselves, but brings\non their quietus like the calm after the storm; they clash and clang\nlike the twang of the bowstring, without the dart to hit at the mark.\n\n29. The life of the unintelligent man, is only for its extinction or\ndeath; and its desire of fruition is as false, as the fruit of an\nunfruitful tree in the woody forest.\n\n30. Seeking friendliness in unintelligent men, is as wishing to rest or\nsleep on a burning mountain; and the society of the unintellectual, is\nas associating with the headless trunks of trees in a forest (The weak\nheaded man like the headless tree, can neither afford any sheltering\nshade, nor nourishing fruit to the passenger. So the verse: It is vain\nto expect any good or gain, from men of witless and shallow brain).\n\n31. Doing any service to the ignorant and lack witted men goes for\nnothing; and is as vain as beating the bush or empty air with a stick:\nand any thing given to the senseless, is as something thrown into the\nmud. (Or as casting pearls before the swine, or scattering grains in\nthe bushes).\n\n32. Talking with the ignorant, is as calling the dogs from a distance\n(which is neither heard nor heeded by them). Ignorance is the seat\nof evils, which never betide the sensible and the wise. (So the\nHitopadesa--A hundred evils and thousand fears, daily befall to the\nfool, and not to the heedful wise).\n\n33. The wise pass over all errors in their course amidst the world;\nbut the ignorant are exposed to incessant troubles, in their ceaseless\nardour to thrive in the pleasures of life.\n\n34. As the carriage wheel revolves incessantly, about the axle to which\nit is fixed; so the body of man turns continually about the wealthy\nfamily, to which the foolish mind is fixed for gain.\n\n35. The ignorant fool can never get rid of his misery, so long as he is\nfast bound to the belief of taking his body as his soul, and knowing no\nspiritual soul besides.\n\n36. How is it possible for the infatuated, to be freed from their\ndelusion; when their minds are darkened by illusion, and their eyes are\nblind-folded, by the hood-wink of unreal appearance.\n\n37. The seeing man or looker on sights, that regales his eyes with\nthe sight of unrealities; is at last deluded by them, as a man is\nmoonstruck by fixing his eyes on the moon, and becomes giddy with the\nprofuse fragrance of flowers.\n\n38. As the watering of the ground, tends to the growth of grass and\nthorns and thistles; so the fostering of the body, breeds the desires\nin the heart, as thick as reptiles grow in the hollow of trees; and\nthey invigorate the mind in the form of a rampant lion or elephant.\n\n39. The ignorant foster their hopes of heaven on the death of their\nbodies; as the farmer expects a plenteous harvest, from his well\ncultivated fields (_i.e._ expectation of future heaven is vain, by\nmeans of ceremonial acts in life).\n\n40. The greedy hell-hounds are glad to look upon the ignorant, that are\nfast-bound in the coils of their serpentine desires; as the thirsty\npeacocks are pleased to gaze on the black clouds, that rise before\ntheir eyes in the rainy season.\n\n41. These beauties with their glancing eyes, resembling the fluttering\nbees of summer, and with lips blooming as the new blown leaves of\nflowers; are flaunting to catch hold of ignorant men; as poisonous\nplants are displayed, to lay hold on ignorant flies.\n\n42. The plant of desire, which shoots out of the goodly soil of\nignorant minds, shelters the flying passions under its shady foliage;\nas the coral plants foster the coral insects in them. (The corallines\nare known to be the formation of coral insects).\n\n43. Enmity is like a wild fire, it consumes the arbour of the body, and\nlets out the smoke through the orifice of the mouth in the desert land\nof the heart, and exhibits the rose of the heath as the burning cinders.\n\n44. The mind of the ignorant is as a lake of envy, covered with the\nleaves of spite and calumny: jealousy is its lotus-bed, and the anxious\nthoughts are as the bees continually fluttering thereupon.\n\n45. The ignorant man that is subjected to repeated births, and is\nrising and falling as waves in the tumultuous ocean of this world, is\nexposed also to repeated deaths: and the burning fire which engulphs\nhis dead body, is as in the submarine fire of this sea.\n\n46. The ignorant are exposed to repeated births, attended by the\nvicissitudes of childhood, youth, manhood and old age, and followed\nat last by a painful death and cremation of the beloved body on the\nfuneral pile.\n\n47. The ignorant body is like a diving bucket, tied by the rope of\ntransmigration to the Hydraulic machine of acts; to be plunged and\nlifted over again, in and over the dirty pool of this world.\n\n48. This world which is a plane pavement and but narrow hole (lit., a\ncow foot-cave) to the wise, by their unconsciousness of it; appears as\na boundless and unfathomable sea to the ignorant, owing to their great\nconcern about it. (The wise think lightly of the world; but the worldly\ntake it heavily upon themselves).\n\n49. The ignorant are devoid of their eye-sight, to look out beyond\ntheir limited circle; as the birds long confined in their cages, have\nno mind to fly out of them.\n\n50. The revolution of repeated births, is like the constant rotation\nof the wheel of a chariot; and there is no body that is able to stop\ntheir motion, by restraining his earthly desires; which are ever\nturning as the spokes affixed to nave of the heart.\n\n51. The ignorant wander at large, about the wide extended earth; as\nhuntsmen rove amidst the forest, in search of their prey; until they\nbecome a prey at the hand of death, and make the members of their\nbodies as morsels, to the vultures of their sensual appetites.\n\n52. The sights of these mountainous bodies, and of these material forms\nmade of earthly flesh, are mistaken by the ignorant for realities; as\nthey mistake the figures in painting for real persons.\n\n53. How flourishing is the arbour of this delusion, which is fraught\nwith the endless objects of our erroneous imagination; and hath\nstretched out these innumerable worlds from our ignorance of them.\n\n54. How flourishing is the _kalpa_ tree or all fruitful arbour of\ndelusion; which is ever fraught with endless objects of our imaginary\ndesire, and stretches out the infinite worlds to our erroneous\nconception as its leaves.\n\n55. Here our prurient minds like birds of variegated colours, rest and\nremain and sit and sport, in and all about this arbour.\n\n56. Our acts are the roots of our repeated births as the stem of the\ntree is of its shoots; our prosperity and properties are the flowers\nof this arbor, and our virtues and vices are as its fruits of good and\nevil.\n\n57. Our wives are as the tender plants, that thrive best under the\nmoon-light of delusion; and are the most beautiful things to behold in\nthis desert land of the earth.\n\n58. As the darkness of ignorance prevails over the mind, soon after the\nsetting of the sun light of reason; there rises the full moon of errors\nin the empty mind, with all her changing phases of repeated births.\n(This refers to the dark ages of Pur\u00e1nic or mythological fictions, and\nalso to the D\u00e1rshanic or philosophical systems which succeeded the\nage of Ved\u00e1ntic light, and were full of changeable doctrines, like\nthe phases of the moon; whence she is styled _dwija_ or _mistress_ of\ndigits. There is another figure of equivocation in the word _doshah_,\nmeaning the night as well as the defect of ignorance).\n\n59. It is under the influence of the cooling moon-light of ignorance;\nthat our minds foster the fond desire of worldly enjoyments; and like\nthe _chakora_ birds of night, drink their fill of delight as ambrosial\nmoon-beams. (The ignorant are fond of pleasures, and where ignorance is\nbliss, it is foolish to be wise).\n\n60. It is under this delusion, that men view their beloved ones as\nbuds of roses and lotuses, and their loose glancing eyes, as the black\nbees fluttering at random; they see the sable clouds in the braids and\nlocks of their hair, and a glistening fire in their glowing bosoms and\nbreasts.\n\n61. It is delusion, O R\u00e1ma! that depicts the fairies with the beams of\nfair moon-light nights; though they are viewed by the wise, in their\ntrue light of being as foul as the darkest midnight.\n\n62. Know R\u00e1ma, the pleasures of the world, to be as the pernicious\nfruits of ignorance; which are pleasant to taste at first, but prove\nto be full of bitter gall at last. It is therefore better to destroy\nthis baneful arbour, than to lose the life and soul by the mortal taste\nof its fruits. (It is the fruit of the tree of ignorance rather than\nthat of knowledge, which brought death into the world and all our woe.\nMilton).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nArgument:--The effects of ignorance, shown in the evils brought on by\nour vain desires and fallacies or erroneous judgments.\n\n\nVasishtha continued. These beauties that are so decorated with precious\ngems and jewels, and embellished with the strings of brilliant pearls,\nare as the playful billows in the milky ocean of the moon-beams of our\nfond desires.\n\n2. The sidelong looks of the beautiful eyes in their faces, look like a\ncluster of black bees, sitting on the pericarp of a full blown lotus.\n\n3. These beauties appear as charming, to the enslaved minds of deluded\nmen; and as the vernal flowers which are strewn upon the ground in\nforest lands.\n\n4. Their comely persons which are compared with the moon, the lotus\nflower, and sandal paste for their coolness by fascinated minds; are\nviewed as indifferently by the wise, as by the insensible beasts\nwhich make a prey of them. (Lit. by the rapacious wolves and dogs and\nvultures which devour them).\n\n5. Their swollen breasts which are compared with lotus-buds, ripe\npomegranates and cups of gold, are viewed by the wise as a lump of\nflesh and blood and nauseous liquor.\n\n6. Their fleshy lips, distilling the impure saliva and spittle, are\nsaid to exude with ambrosial honey, and to bear resemblance with the\nruby and coral and vimba fruits.\n\n7. Their arms with the crooked joints of the wrists and loins, and\ncomposed of hard bones in the inside, are compared with creeping\nplants, by their infatuated admirers and erotic poets.\n\n8. Their thick thighs are likened to the stems of lumpish plantain\ntrees, and the decorations of their protuberant breasts, are resembled\nto the strings of flowers, hung upon the turrets of temples.\n\n9. Women are pleasant at first, but become quarrelsome afterwards;\nand then fly away in haste, like the goddess of fortune; and yet they\nare desired by the ignorant. (But when the old woman frets, let her go\nalone).\n\n10. The minds of the ignorant, are subject to many pains and pleasures\nin this life; and the forest of their misdeeds, shoots forth in a\nthousand branches, bearing the woeful fruits of misery only. (The tree\nof sin brought death into the world and all our woe. Milton).\n\n11. The ignorant are fast bound in the net of their folly, and their\nritual functions are the ropes, that lead them to the prison-house of\nthe world. The words of their lips, like the _mantras_ and musical\nwords of their mouths, are the more for their bewilderment. (The\nignorant are enslaved by their ritualistic rites; but the Sages are\nenfranchised by their spiritual knowledge).\n\n12. The overspreading mist of ignorance, stretches out a maze of\nceremonial rites, and envelopes the minds of common people in utter\ndarkness; as the river Yamun\u00e1 overflows its banks with its dark waters.\n\n13. The lives of the ignorant, which are so pleasant with their\ntender affections, turn out as bitter as the juice of hemlock, when\nthe affections are cut off by the strong hand of death (_i.e._, the\npleasures of life are embittered by the loss of relatives).\n\n14. The senseless rabble are driven and carried away, like the withered\nand shattered leaves of trees, by the ever blowing winds of their\npursuits; which scatter them all about as the dregs of earth, and\nbespatter them with the dirt and dust of their sins.\n\n15. All the world is as a ripe fruit in the mouth of death, whose\nvoracious belly is never filled with all its ravages, for millions and\nmillions of kalpa ages. (The womb of death is never full).\n\n16. Men are as the cold bodies and creeping reptiles of the earth, and\nthey crawl and creep continually in their crooked course, by breathing\nthe vital air, as the snakes live upon the current air. (Serpents are\nsaid to live a long time without food, simply by inhaling the open air).\n\n17. The time of youth passes as a dark night, without the moon-light\nof reason; and is infested by the ghosts of wicked thoughts and evil\ndesires.\n\n18. The flippant tongue within the mouth, becomes faint with cringing\nflattery; as the pistil rising from the seed vessel, becomes languid\nunder the freezing frost.\n\n19. Poverty branches out like the thorny S\u00e1lmali tree, in a thousand\nbranches of misery, distress, sorrow, sickness, and all kinds of woe to\nhuman beings. (Poverty is the root of all evils in life).\n\n20. Concealed covetousness like the unseen bird of night, is hidden\nwithin the hollow cavity of the human heart, resembling the stunted\n_chaitya_ trees of mendicants; and then it shrieks and hoots out from\nthere, during the dark night of delusion which has overspread the\nsphere of the mind.\n\n21. Old age lays hold on youth by the ears, as the old cat seizes on\nthe mouse, and devours its prey after sporting with it for a long while.\n\n22. The accumulation of unsubstantial materials, which causes the\nformation of the stupendous world, is taken for real substantiality by\nthe unwise; as the foaming froths and ice-bergs in the sea, are thought\nto be solid rocks by the ignorant sailor. (So all potential existences\nof the Vedantist, are sober realities of the positive philosophy).\n\n23. The world appears as a beautiful arbour, glowing with the blooming\nblossoms of Divine light; which is displayed over it; and the belief of\nits reality, is the plant which is fraught with the fruitage of all our\nactions and duties. (The world is believed as the garden of the actions\nof worldly men, but the wise are averse to actions and their results).\n\n24. The great edifice of the world, is supported by the pillars of its\nmountains, under its root of the great vault of heaven; and the sun and\nmoon are the great gateways to this pavilion. (The sun and moon are\nbelieved by some as the doors leading the pious souls to heaven).\n\n25. The world resembles a large lake, over which the vital breaths are\nflying as swarms of bees on the lotus-beds of the living body; and\nexhaling the sweets which are stored in the cell of the heart (_i.e._,\nthe breath of life wafts away the sweets of the immortal soul).\n\n26. The blue vault of heaven appears as a spacious and elevated dome\nto the ignorant who think it to contain all the worlds, which are\nenlightened by the light of the sun situated in the midst. But it is an\nempty sphere, and so the other worlds beyond the solar system, to which\nthe solar light doth never reach.\n\n27. All worldly minded men, are as old birds tied down on earth by\nthe strong strings of their desires; and their heart moves about the\nconfines of their bodies, and their heart strings throb with hopes in\nthe confines of their bodies, as birds in cages in the hope of getting\ntheir release.\n\n28. The lives of living beings are continually dropping down, like the\nwithered leaves of trees, from the fading arbours of their decayed\nbodies, by the incessant breathing of their breath of life. (The\nrespiration of breath called _ajap\u00e1_, is said to be the measure of\nlife).\n\n29. The respectable men, that are joyous of their worldly grandeur for\na short time, are entirely forgetful of the severe torments of hell,\nawaiting on them afterwards.\n\n30. But the godly people enjoy their heavenly delights as gods, in the\ncooling orb of the moon; or range freely under the azure sky, like\nheavenly cranes about the limpid lakes.\n\n31. There they taste the sweet fruits of their virtuous deeds on earth;\nand inhale the fragrance of their various desires, as the bees sip the\nsweetness of the opening lotus.\n\n32. All worldly men are as little fishes (shrimps), swimming on the\nsurface of this pool of the earth; while the sly and senile death\npounces upon them as a kite, and bears them away as his prey without\nany respite or remorse.\n\n33. The changeful events of the world, are passing on every day, like\nthe gliding waves and the foaming froths of the sea, and the ever\nchanging digits of the moon.\n\n34. Time like a potter, continually turns his wheel, and makes an\nimmense number of living beings as his pots; and breaks them every\nmoment, as the fragile play-things of his own whim.\n\n35. Innumerable _kalpa_ ages have been incessantly rolling on, over the\nshady quiescence of eternity; and multitudes of created worlds have\nbeen burnt down, like thick woods and forests, by the all desolating\nconflagrations of desolation. (According to the Hindus the universal\ndestruction, takes place by the Violent concussion of all the elements,\nand by the diluvian floods also).\n\n36. All worldly things are undergoing incessant changes, by their\nappearance and disappearance by turns; and the vicissitudes of our\nstates and circumstances, from these of pleasure and prosperity to the\nstate of pain and misery and _vice versa_, in endless succession. (Pain\nand pleasure succeed one another).\n\n37. Notwithstanding the instability of nature, the ignorant are fast\nbound by the chain of their desire, which is not to be broken even by\nthe thunder bolt of heaven. (Man dies, but his desires never die, they\nkeep their company wherever he may fly).\n\n38. Human desire bears the invulnerable body of the Jove and Indra,\nwhich being wounded on all sides by the Titans of disappointment,\nresumed fresh vigour at every stroke. (So our desires grow stronger by\ntheir failure, than when they are allayed by their satisfaction).\n\n39. All created beings are as particles of dust in the air, and are\nflying with the currents of wind into the mouth of the dragon-like\ndeath, who draws all things to his bowels by the breath of his mouth.\n(Huge snakes are said to live upon air, and whatever is borne with it\ninto his belly).\n\n40. As all the crudities of the earth, and its raw fruits and\nvegetables, together with the froth of the sea and other marine\nproductions, are carried by the currents to be consumed by the\nsubmarine heat, so all existence is borne to the intestinal fire of\ndeath to be dissolved into nothing.\n\n41. It is by a fortuitous combination of qualities, that all things\npresent themselves unto us with their various properties; and it is the\nnature of these which exhibits them with those forms as they present to\nus; as she gives the property of vibration to the elementary bodies,\nwhich show themselves in the forms of water and air unto us.\n\n42. Death like a ferocious lion, devours the mighty and opulent men; as\nthe lion kills the big elephant with his frontal pearls.\n\n43. Ambitious men are as greedy birds of air upon earth, who like the\nvoracious vultures on the tops of high hills, are born to live and die\nin their aerial exploits, as on the wings of clouds in search of their\nprey.\n\n44. Their minds liken painter's paintings on the canvas of their\nintellects, showing all the variegated scenes of the world, with the\nvarious pictures of things perceptible by the five senses (_i.e._, the\nimages of all sensible objects are portrayed in the intellect).\n\n45. But all these moving and changeful scenes, are breaking up and\nfalling to pieces at every moment; and producing our vain sorrow and\ngriefs upon their loss, in this passing and aerial city of the world.\n\n46. The animal creations and the vegetable world, are standing as\npassive spectators, to witness and meditate in themselves the marvelous\nacts of time, in sparing them from among his destruction of others.\n\n47. How these moving creatures are subject every moment, to the\nrecurrent emotions of passions and affections, and to the alterations\nof affluence and want; and how they are incessantly decaying under age\nand infirmity, disease and death from which their souls are entirely\nfree. (Hence the state of torpid immobility is reckoned as a state of\nbliss, by the Hindu and Buddhistic Yogis and ascetics).\n\n48. So the reptiles and insects on the surface of the earth, are\ncontinually subjected to their tortuous motions by their fate, owing\nto their want of quiet inaction, of which they are capable in their\nsubterranean cells. (The Yogis are wont to confine themselves in their\nunder-ground retreats, in order to conduct their abstract meditations\nwithout disturbance. So Demosthenes perfected himself in his art of\neloquence in his subterrene cave).\n\n49. But all these living bodies are devoured every moment, by the\nall destructive time in the form of death; which like the deadly\nand voracious dragon lies hidden in his dark-some den (Here the word\n_k\u00e1la_ is used in its triple sense of time, death, and snake all which\nbeing equally destructive and hidden in darkness, it is difficult\nto distinguish the subject from its comparison. Hence we may say,\ntime like death and snake or death like time and snake or the snake\nlike time and death, devours all living creatures, insects and other\nreptiles also).\n\n50. The trees however are not affected by any of these accidents,\nbecause they stand firm on their roots, and though suffering under heat\nand cold and the blasts of heaven, yet they yield their sweet fruits\nand flowers for the supportance and delight of all living creatures.\n(So the Yogis stand firm on their legs, and while they suffer the food\nand rest privations of life and the inclemencies of weather, they\nimpart the fruits of divine knowledge to the rest of mankind, who would\notherwise perish like the insects of the earth, without their knowledge\nof truth and hope of future bliss).\n\n51. The meek Yogis that dwell in their secluded and humble cells, are\nseen also to move about the earth, and imparting the fruits of their\nknowledge to others; as the bees residing in the cells of lotuses,\ndistribute their stores of honey after the rains are over. (The Yogis\nand the bees remain in their cells during the four months of the\nrainy season (varsh\u00e1-ch\u00e1tur m\u00e1sya), after which they be-take to their\nperegrinations abroad).\n\n52. They preach about the lectures as the bees chaunt their rhyme all\nabout, saying; that the earth which is as a big port; it supplies\nthe wants of the needy, for making them a morsel in the mouth of the\ngoddess of death (_i.e._, the earth supports all beings for their\nfalling into the bowels of death).\n\n53. The dreaded goddess K\u00e1li wearing the veil of darkness over her\nface, and eying all with her eyeballs, as bright as the orbs of the sun\nand moon, gives to all beings all their wants, in order to grasp and\ngorge them in herself. (The black goddess K\u00e1li or Hecate, nourishes\nall as _m\u00e1trik\u00e1_ or _matres_, and then devours them as death, like the\ncarnivorous glutton, that fattens the cattle to feed and feast upon\nthem).\n\n54. Her protuberant and exuberant breasts are as bountiful as the\nbounty of God, to suckle the gods and men and all beings on earth and\nhills and in the waters below. (But how can death be the sustainer of\nall).\n\n55. It is the energy of the Divine intellect, which is the\n_m\u00e1trik\u00e1-mater_ or mother (mater or materia of all, and assumes the\nforms of density and tenuity and also of motion and mobility; the\nclusters of stars are the rows of her teeth, and the morning and\nevening twilights, are the redness of her two lips).\n\n(She is called Ush\u00e1 and sandhy\u00e1 or the dawning and evening lights,\nbecause of her existence in the form of the twilights, before the\nbirth of the solar and lunar lights. The Vedas abound with hymns to\n_ush\u00e1_ and _sandhy\u00e1_ and these form the daily ritual of the Brahmans to\nthis day under the title of their _Tri-sandy\u00e1_--the triple litany at\nsun-rise, sun-set and vertical sun).\n\n56. Her palms are as red as the petals of lotuses, and her countenance\nis as bright as the paradise of Indra; she is decorated with the pearls\nof all the seas, and clad with an azure mantle all over her body (Hence\nthe goddess K\u00e1l\u00ed is represented as all black from her blue vest).\n\n57. The Jambudw\u00edpa or Asia forms her naval or midmost spot, and the\nwoods and forests form the hairs of her body. She appears in many\nshapes and again disappears from view, and plays her part as the most\nveteran sorceress in all the three worlds. (The text calls her an old\nhag, that often changes her paints and garments to entice and delude\nall men to her).\n\n58. She dies repeatedly and is reborn again, and then passes into\nendless transformations, she is now immerged in the great ocean or\nbosom of K\u00e1la or Death her consort, and rises up to assume other shapes\nand forms again. (Hence the mother-goddess is said to be the producer\nand destroyer of all by their repeated births and deaths in their\neverchanging shapes and forms).\n\n59. The great Kalpa ages are as transitory moments in the infinite\nduration of Eternity, and the mundane eggs (or planetary bodies in\nthe universe); are as passing bubbles upon the unfathomable ocean of\ninfinity; they rise and last and are lost by turns.\n\n60. It is at the will of God, that the creative powers rise and fly\nabout as birds in the air; and it is by his will also, that the uprisen\ncreation becomes extinct like the burning flash of the lightning. (The\nflaming worlds shoot forth, and are blown out as sparks of fire).\n\n61. It is in the sunshine of the divine Intellect, and under the canopy\nof everlasting time, that the creations are continually rising and\nfalling like the fowls of forestlands, flying up and down under the\nmist of an all encompassing cloud of ignorance.\n\n62. As the tall palm tree lets to fall its ripened fruits incessantly\nupon the ground; so the over topping arbor of time, drops down the\ncreated worlds and the lords of Gods perpetually into the abyss of\nperdition. (There is an alliteration and homonym of the words, t\u00e1la and\np\u00e1tt\u00e1la meaning both tall and the t\u00e1la or palm tree).\n\n63. The gods also are dying away like the twinklings of their eyes, and\nold time is wearing away with all its ages, by its perpetual tickings.\n(The ever wakeful eyes of gods are said to have no twinkling; but time\nis said to be continually twinkling in its ticking moments).\n\n64. There are many Rudras existing in the essence of Brahma, and\nthey depend on the twinkling of that Deity for their existence. (The\nimmortal gods are mortal, before the Eternal God).\n\n65. Such is Brahm\u00e1 the lord of gods, under whom these endless acts of\nevolutions and involutions are for ever taking place, in the infinite\nspace of his eternal Intellect and omnipotent will.\n\n66. What wonderous powers are there that cannot possibly reside in the\nSupreme spirit, whose undecaying will gives rise to all positive and\npossible existences. It is ignorance therefore to imagine the world as\na reality of itself.\n\n67. All these therefore is the display of the deep darkness of\nignorance, that appears to you as the vicissitudes of prosperity and\nadversity, and as the changes of childhood, youth, old-age and death;\nas also the occurrences of pain and pleasure and of sorrow and grief.\n(All of which are unrealities in their nature).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nALLEGORY OF THE SPREADING ARBOUR OF IGNORANCE.\n\nArgument:--Description of ignorance as a wide spreading tree.\n\n\nVasishtha continued. Hear me now relate to you R\u00e1ma, how this poisonous\ntree of ignorance has come to grow in this forest of the world, and to\nbe situated by the side of the intellect, and how and when it came to\nblossom and bloom. (The Divine intellect is the stupendous rock, and\nthe creation is the forest about it, in which there grew the plant of\nerror also).\n\n2. This plant encompasses all the three worlds, and has the whole\ncreation for its rind, and the mountains for its joints (Here is a\nplay of the word _parva_ and _parvata_ which are paronymous terms,\nsignifying a joint and mountain; Hence every mountain is reckoned as\nthe joint or land-mark of a country dividing it from another tract of\nland).\n\n3. It is fraught with its leaves and roots, and its flowers and fruits,\nby the continuous births and lives and pleasures and pains and the\nknowledge and error of mankind. (All these are the productions of human\nignorance).\n\n4. Prosperity gives rise to our ignorance of desiring to be more\nprosperous in this or in our next lives (by means of our performance\nof ceremonial rites), which are productive of future welfare also. So\ndoth adversity lead us to greater error of practising many malpractices\nto get rid of it; but which on the contrary expose us to greater\nmisfortunes. (Hence it is folly to make choice of either, which is\nequally pernicious).\n\n5. One birth gives rise to another and that leads to others without\nend; hence it is foolishness in us to wish to be reborn again. (All\nbirths are subject to misery; it is ignorance therefore to desire a\nhigher or lower one, by performance of _p\u00e1ratrika_ acts for future\nlives).\n\n6. Ignorance produces greater ignorance, and brings on unconsciousness\nas its effect: so knowledge leads on to higher knowledge, and produces\nself-consciousness as its result. (Good tends to best, and bad to the\nworst. Better tends to best, and worse to the worst).\n\n7. The creeping plant of ignorance, has the passion for its leaves, and\nthe desires for its odours; and it is continually shaking and shuffling\nwith the leafy garment on its body.\n\n8. This plant falls sometimes in its course, on the way of the elephant\nof Reason; it then shakes with fear, and the dust which covers its\nbody, is all blown away by the breath of the elephant's trunk; but yet\nthe creeper continues to creep on by the byways according to its wont.\n\n9. The days are its blossoms, and the nights are the swarms of black\nbees, that overshadow its flowers; and the continued shaking of its\nboughs, darts down the dust of living bodies from it, both by day and\nnight. (_i.e._, Men that live upon their desires and hopes, are daily\ndying away).\n\n10. It is overgrown with its leaves of relatives, and overloaded with\nthe shooting buds of its offspring; it bears the blossoms of all\nseasons, and yields the fruits of all kinds of flowers.\n\n11. All its joints are full of the reptiles of diseases, and its stem\nis perforated by the cormorants of destruction; yet it yields the\nluscious juice of delight to those that are bereft of their reason and\ngood sense.\n\n12. Its flowers are the radiant planets, that shine with the sun and\nmoon every day in the sky; the vacuum is the medium of their light, and\nthe rapid winds are vehicles, that bear their rays as odours unto us.\n(Vacuity is the receptacle of light, but the vibrations of air transmit\nit to our sight).\n\n12a. Ignorance blossoms every day in the clusters of the bright\nplanetary bodies, that shine with the sun and moon by day and night;\nand the winds playing in the air, bear their light like perfumes to us.\n(_i.e._ It is the spirit that glows in the stars, and breathes in the\nair, but ignorance attributes these to the planets and breezes, and\nworships them as the _navagrahas_ and _marut ganas_, both in the vedas\nand the popular Puranic creeds).\n\n12b. Ignorance blossoms in the clusters of stars and planets, shining\nabout the sun and moon every day; and breathes in the breezes blowing\nat random amidst the vacuous firmament. (Hence the ignorant alone adore\nthe stars and winds in the vedas, but the sapient know the light of God\nto glow in the stars, and his spirit to breathe in the air).\n\n13. These innumerable stars that you see scattered in the vault of\nheaven, O son of Raghu's race, are the blooming blossoms of this arbor\nof ignorance (_i.e._ ignorance shows them as twinkling stars to us,\nwhile they are numberless shining worlds in reality).\n\n14. The beams of the sun and moon, and the flames of fire, which are\nscattered about us like the crimson dust of flowers; resemble the red\npaint on the fair body of ignorance, with which this delusive lady\nattracts our minds to her.\n\n15. The wild elephant of the mind, ranges at large under the arbour of\nIgnorance; and the birds of our desires, are continually hovering and\nwarbling upon it; while the vipers of sensual appetites, are infesting\nits stem, and avarice settles as a huge snake at the root. (The text\nhas the words \"and greediness decorates its bark\" which bear no\nmeaning).\n\n16. It stretches with its head to the blue vault of the sky, forming\nas a canopy of black arbour of black Tam\u00e1la trees over it. The earth\nsupports its trunk, and sky overtops its top; and it makes a garden of\nthe universe (with its out stretched arms).\n\n17. It is deeply rooted underneath the ground, and is watered with milk\nand curds, in the canals of the milky and other oceans, which are dug\naround its trunk.\n\n18. The rituals of the three vedas, are fluttering like the bees over\nthe tree, blooming with the blossoms of beauteous women, and shaking\nwith the oscillations of the mind; while it is corroded in the inside\nby the cankering worms of cares and actions. (It means to say, that the\nvedic rites, the love of women, the thoughts of the mind and the bodily\nactions, are all attendants of ignorance; and he is wise who refrains\nfrom them in toto).\n\n19. The tree of ignorance, blossoming like the flowers of the garden\nof paradise, exhales the sweet odours of pleasure around; and the\nserpent of vice twining round it, leads the living souls perpetually to\nevil deeds, for the supportance of their lives.\n\n20. It blooms with various flowers, to attract the hearts of wise; and\nit is fraught with various fruits, distilling their sweets all around.\n(These fruits and flowers are the sensual pleasures, which allure the\nignorant to them).\n\n21. With the aqueducts about, it invites the birds of the air to drink\nof them; and being besmeared with the dust of its flowers, it appears\nto stand as a rock of red earth or granite to sight. (The water beds\nbelow it, are mistaken for the _salsabil_ or streams of Paradise, and\nits rock-like appearance, shows the grossness of _ignorance crasse_ or\n_tabula rasa_).\n\n22. It shoots out with buds of mistakes, and is beset by the briars of\nerror; it grows luxuriant in hilly districts, with exuberance of its\nleafy branches. (Meaning that the hill people are most ignorant).\n\n23. It grows and dies and grows again, and being cut down it springs\nout anon; so there is no end of it. (It is hard to extirpate ignorance\nat once).\n\n24. Though past and gone, yet it is present before us, and though it\nis all hollow within, it appears as thick and sound to sight. It is an\never fading and ever green tree, and the more it is lopped and cropt,\nthe more it grows and expands itself.\n\n25. It is a poisonous tree, whose very touch benumbs the senses in a\nmoment; but being pressed down by reasoning, it dies away in a trice.\n\n26. All distinctions of different objects, are dissolved in the\ncrucible of the reasoning mind; but they remain undissolved in\ntheir crude forms in the minds of the ignorant, who are employed in\ndifferentiating the various natures of men and brutes, and of terrene\nand aquatic animals.\n\n27. They distinguish the one as the nether world, and the other as the\nupper sky; and make distinctions between the solar and lunar planets,\nand the fixed starry bodies. (But there are no ups and downs, nor any\nthing as fixed in infinite vacuity).\n\n28. Here there is light, and there is darkness on the other side, and\nthis is empty space and that is the solid ground; these are the s\u00e1stras\nand these are the Vedas, are distinctions unknown to the wise.\n\n29. It is the same spirit that flies upward in the bodies of birds, or\nremains above in the form of gods; the same spirit remains fixed in the\nforms of fixed rocks or moves in continued motion with the flying winds.\n\n30. Sometimes it resides in the infernal regions, and at others it\ndwells in the heavens above; sometimes it is exalted to the dignity of\ngods, and some where it remains in the state of mean insects and worms.\n\n31. In one place it appears as glorious as the god Vishnu, and in\nanother it shows itself in the forms of Brahm\u00e1 and Siva. Now it shines\nin the sun, and then it brightens in the moon; here it blows in the\nblowing winds, and there it sways in the all-subduing _yama_. (Some\nEuropeans have conjectured and not without good reason, the relentless\ngod of death the _yama_ of Hindus, to be same with as the ruthless king\n_Jamshed_ of prehistoric Persia. So says Hafiz Ayineye, Sekendar Jame\njamast bingars).\n\n32. Whatever appears as great and glorious, and all that is seen as\nmean and ignoble in their form, from the biggest and bright sun down\nto the most contemptible grass and straw; are all pervaded by the\nuniversal spirit: it is ignorance that dwells upon the external forms;\nbut knowledge that looks into the inner soul, obtains its sight up the\npresent state.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nASCERTAINMENT OF TRUE KNOWLEDGE.\n\nArgument.--Division of the three _gunas_ or qualities. Pure essence of\nthe Gods Hara and others, nature of knowledge and ignorance, and other\nsubjects.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma said, You said sir, that all formal bodies are representations of\nillusion or ignorance (Avidy\u00e1); but how do you account for the pure\nbodies of Hari, Hara and other divinities, and god-heads who are of\npure essence in their embodied forms, and which cannot be the creation\nof our error or delusion. Please, sir, explain these clearly to (spun)\nme and remove my doubts and difficulties on the subject (The exhibition\nof gross bodies is the deception of our sense, but the appearance of\npure spiritual forms, can not be production of ignorance or sensible\ndeception. We may ignore the forms of material substances, but not\nthose immaterial essences which are given in the s\u00e1stras. gloss).\n\n2. Vasishtha replied,--The perceptible world represents the\nmanifestation of the one quiescent and all inherent soul, and exhibits\nthe glory (_\u00e1bh\u00e1sha_) of the essential intellect (_sach-chit_), which\nis beyond conception or thought divine.\n\n3. This gives rise to the shape of a partial hypostasis, or there\nrises of itself hypostatics ([Sanskrit: kal\u00e1kalar\u00fapin\u00ed]), resembling\nthe rolling fragment of a cloud appearing as a watery substance or\nfilled with water. (This original fiction of the glory of God giving\nrise to the watery mist like a lighted lamp emitting the inky smoke,\nis represented in the common belief of dark ignorance ([Sanskrit:\navidy\u00e1]) proceeding from the bright light of divine knowledge\n([Sanskrit: vidy\u00e1]), and exhibited by the allegory of the black goddess\nof ignorance and illusion ([Sanskrit: avidy\u00e1] and [Sanskrit: m\u00e1y\u00e1])\ngushing out of the white and fair god lying inactive and dormant under\nher; she is hence designated by the various epithets of ([Sanskrit:\nshy\u00e1m\u00e1, k\u00e1l\u00ed, jaladha] and [Sanskrit: n\u00edradavaran\u00e1]) and so forth, and\nthis is the whole mystery of the S\u00e1kta faith).\n\n4. This hypostatic fragment is also conceived in its three different\nlights or phases, of rarity, density and rigidity or grossness,\n([Sanskrit: sukhsm\u00e1; madhy\u00e1, sth\u00fal\u00e1]) resembling the twilight, midday\nlight, and darkness of the solar light. The first of these is called\nthe mind or creative will, the second styled the Brahm\u00e1 Hiranyagarbha\nor the creative power, and the third is known as Vir\u00e1t, the framer of\nthe material frame, and as identic with creation itself.\n\n5. These are again denominated the three qualities (trigunas),\naccording to their different states, and these are the qualities of\nreality, brightness and darkness _satva_, _rajas_ and _tamas_, which\nare designated also as the triple nature of things or their _swabh\u00e1vas_\nor _prakriti_.\n\n6. Know all nature to be characterised by ignorance of the triple\nstates of the _positive and comparative and superlative degrees_; these\n_are inbred in all living_ beings, except the Being that is beyond\nthem, and which is the supreme one.\n\n7. Again the three qualities of _satva_, _rajas_, and _tamas_ or the\npositive, comparative and superlative, which are mentioned in this\nplace, have each of them its subdivisions also into three kinds of the\nsame name.\n\n8. Thus the original Ignorance ([Sanskrit: avidy\u00e1]), becomes of nine\nkinds by difference of its several qualities; and whatever is seen\nor known here below, is included under one or of the various kinds.\n(Hence the saktas reckon ten different forms of [Sanskrit: mah\u00e1vidy\u00e1],\ncomprising the primary ignorance and its nine fold divisions).\n\n9. Now R\u00e1ma, know the positive or satwika quality of ignorance, to\ncomprise the several classes of living beings known as the Rishis,\nMunis, the Siddhas and N\u00e1gas, the Vidy\u00e1dharas and Suras. (All of these\nare marked by the positive quality of goodness inborn in their nature).\n\n10. Again this quality of positive goodness comprises the Suras or gods\nHara and others of the first class that are purely and truly good. The\nsages and Siddhas forming the second or intermediate class, are endued\nwith a less share of goodness in them, while N\u00e1gas or Vidy\u00e1dharas\nmaking the last class possess it in the least degree.\n\n11. The gods being born with the pure essence of goodness, and\nremaining unmixed with the properties of other natures, have attained\nthe state of purity (Holiness) like the divine Hari Hara and others.\n(_i.e._ So long the divine nature of a god is not shrouded under the\nveil of ignorance (avidy\u00e1 _\u00e1varana_), he is to be held in the light\nof a divinity as a Christ or Buddha); otherwise rajasha or qualified\nstates of Hari Hara as they are represented by the vulgar, are neither\nto be regarded as such.\n\n12. R\u00e1ma! whoever is fraught with the quality of goodness in his\nnature, and acquainted with divine knowledge in his mind, such a\none is said to be liberated in this life, and freed from further\ntransmigration.\n\n13. It is for this reason, O high minded R\u00e1ma! that the gods Rudra and\nothers who possess the properties of goodness in them, are said to\ncontinue in their liberated state to the final end of the world.\n\n(Hence the immortals never die and being released from their earthly\ncoil, their good spirits rove at large in open air; last and until the\nlast doomsday rorqucamat or final resurrection of the dead).\n\n14. Great souls remain liberated, as long as they continue to live in\ntheir mortal bodies; and after the shuffling of their frail bodies,\nthey become free as their disembodied spirits; and then reside in the\nsupreme spirit. (_i.e._ They return to the source from which they had\nproceeded).\n\n15. It is the part of ignorance to lead men to the performance of\nacts, which after their death, become the roots of producing other\nacts also in all successive states of transmigration. (Ignorance leads\none to interminable action in repeated births, by making the acts of\nthe prior life to become the source of others in the next, so the acts\nof ignorance, become the seeds and fruits of themselves by turns, and\nthere is no cessation nor liberation from them).\n\n16. Ignorance rises from knowledge, as the hollow bubble bursts out\nof the level of liquid water; and it sets and sinks in knowledge\nlikewise, as the bubble subsides to rest in the same water. (Ignorance\nand its action which are causes of creation, have both their rise\nfrom the omniscience and inaction of God until they are dissolved\nat the dissolution of the world. Physical force rises from and\nrests in the spiritual. Ignorance--_avidy\u00e1_ being but a negation of\nknowledge--vidy\u00e1, is said to proceed from:--the negative being but\nprivation of the positive).\n\n17. And as there is no such thing as a wave; but a word coined to\ndenote the heaving of water; so there is nothing as ignorance but a\nword fabricated to express the want of knowledge. (Hence the believers\nin ignorance are mistaken in relying their faith in a power which has\nno existence whatever).\n\n18. As the water and waves are identic in their true sense, and there\nis no material difference between them; so both knowledge and ignorance\nrelating to the same thing, and expressing either its presence or\nabsence, there can be no essential difference in their significance.\n\n19. Leaving aside the sights of knowledge and ignorance, there remains\nthat which always exists of itself (that is, the self-existent God\nexists, beyond both the knowledge and ignorance of men, or whether\nthey know him or not). It is only the contradiction of adverse parties\n([Sanskrit: pratiyogi byavaccheda]) that has introduced these words.\n(_i.e._, calling the opponents as ignorant and themselves as the\nknowing, in their mutual altercation with one another).\n\n20. The sights of knowledge and ignorance are nothing; (_i.e._, they\nare both blind to the sight of truth): therefore be firm in what is\nbeyond these, and which can neither be known nor ignored by imagination\nof it.\n\n21. There is some thing which is not any thing, except that it exists\nin the manner of the intellect and consciousness _chit-samvit_, and\nthis again has no representation of it, and therefore that ens or sat\nis said to be inevident avidy\u00e1 the unknowable.\n\n22. That One Sat being known as this or such, is said to be the\ndestroyer of ignorance; whereas it is want of this knowledge, that\ngives rise to the false conception of an _Avidy\u00e1_ or ignorance.\n(Avidy\u00e1, mithy\u00e1, kalpan\u00e1 signifies ignorance to be a false imagination\nand personification also, as it is seen in the images of the ten\nAvidy\u00e1s here).\n\n23. When knowledge and ignorance are both lost in oblivion within one\nin the intellect as when both the sun-shine and its shadow are lost in\nshade of night. (_i.e._, both the knowledge of the subjective _ego_ and\nobjective _non-ego_ which is caused by ignorance being concentrated in\nthe consciousness of the intellect only within one's self).\n\n24. Then there remains the one only that is to be gained and known,\nand thus it is, that the loss of ignorance tends to the dissipation\nof self-knowledge likewise (which is caused by it); just as the want\nof oil extinguishes the lamp. (Egoism and ignorance being akin to one\nanother, both of them rise and remain and die together [Sanskrit:\najn\u00e1nah\u00e1mkarayoreko satitayor\u00fat pattin\u00e1shau y\u00fagavadeba]).\n\n25. That what remains afterwards, is either nullity or the whole\nplenum, in which all these things appear to subsist, or it is nothing\nat all. (The one is the view of atheists who deny all existence, and\nthe other of m\u00e1yikas who maintain the visible nature as mere illusion.\n([Sanskrit: m\u00e1y\u00e1mayamidamakhilam])).\n\n26. As the minute grain of the Indian fig-tree contains within it\nthe future arbor and its undeveloped state, so the almighty power of\nomnipotence is lodged in the minute receptacle of the spirit before its\nexpansion into immensity. (The developed and undeveloped states of the\nsupreme power, are called its vy\u00e1krita and avy\u00e1krita forces).\n\n27. The divine spirit is more rarefied than the subtile air, and yet\nis not a vacuity having the chit or intellect in itself. It is as the\nsun-stone with its inherent fire and the milk with the latent butter\nunborn in it. (Hence the spirit of God is said to be embryonic seed of\nthe universe. [Sanskrit: brahm\u00e1ndav\u00edjam]).\n\n28. All space and time reside in that spirit for their development, as\nthe spark proceeds from the fire and light issues from the sun in which\nthey are contained. (The will or word of God produces all things from\nhis spiritual essence).\n\n29. So all things are settled in the Supreme intellect, and show\nthemselves unto us as the waves of the sea and as the radiance of gems:\nand so our understandings also are reflexions of the same.\n\n30. The Divine intellect is the store-house of all things, and the\nreservoir of all consciousness (_i.e._, the fountain-head of the\nunderstandings of all living beings). It is the Divine essence which\npervades the inside and outside of every thing. (All things are\ndependent to the entity of God for their existence, and there is no\nindependent particle whatever).\n\n31. The Divine soul is as imperishable as the air within a pot which\nis not destroyed by breaking of the vessel, but mixes and continues\nforever with the common and its surrounding air. Know also the lives\nand actions of living beings to be dependent upon the will of the\nGod, as the mobility of the iron depends upon the attraction of the\nloadstone. (This passage negatives the free agency of man, and allows\nhim an activity in common with that of all living beings, under the\ndirection of the great magnet of the Divine spirit and will).\n\n32. The action of the inactive or quiescent spirit of God, is to be\nunderstood in the same manner, as the motion of the lead is attributed\nto the causality of magnetic attraction, which moves the immovable\niron. So the inert bodies of living beings, are moved by force of the\nintellectual soul.\n\n33. The world is situated in that mundane seed of the universe, which\nis known under the name of intellect attributed to it by the wise. It\nis as void and formless as empty air, it is nothing nor has any thing\nin it except itself, and represents all and everything by itself, like\nthe playful waves of the boundless ocean.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nREMOVAL OF IGNORANCE.\n\nArgument.--Ignorance and its bonds of Erroneous conceptions, and\nreliance on temporal objects, and the ways of getting release from\nthem, by means of good understanding and right reasoning.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--Therefore this world with all its moving and\nunmoving beings is nothing (or no being at all). There is nothing that\nhas its real being or entity, except the one true _Ens_ that thou must\nknow. (all beings are not being except the one self-existing Being. So\nsays Sadi. All this is not being and thyself art the only being. _Haman\nnestand anchi hastitue_, so also the sruti _Toam asi n\u00e1nyadasti_. _Tu\nest nullum est_).\n\n2. Seek him O R\u00e1ma! who is beyond our thought and imagination, and\ncomprises all entity and non-entity in himself, and cease to seek any\nliving being or any thing in existence. (In Him is all life and every\nthing, that is or is not in Being and he is the source of life and\nlight).\n\n3. I would not have my heart to be enticed and deceived by the false\nattachments and affections of this world; all which are as delusive, as\nour misconception of a snake in a rope. (All our earthly relations with\nour relatives and properties, are deception that are soon detected by\nour good sense and reason, and they vanish as soon as our mistake of\nthe snake in rope. Therefore let no worldly tie bind down thy heart to\nthis earth).\n\n4. Ignorance of the soul is the cause of our error of conceiving the\ndistinctions of things; but the knowledge of the selfsame soul puts\nan end to all distinctions of knowledge of the reality of things,\ndistinctive knowledge of existences--bheda jn\u00e1na is erroneous; but\ntheir generalization--abheda jn\u00e1na leads to right reasoning.\n\n5. They call it ignorance _avidy\u00e1_, when the intellect is vitiated\nby its intellection of the intelligibles or chetyas, but the\nintelligibles being left out, it comes to know the soul which is free\nfrom all attributes.\n\n6. The understanding only is the embodied soul _purusha_, which is lost\nupon the loss of the understanding; but the soul is said to last as\nlong as there is understanding in the body, like the _ghatambare_ or\nair in the pot lasts with the lasting of the pot, and vanishes upon the\nloss or breaking of the vessel. (The soul lasts with the intellect in\nthe body, but flies away upon the intellect's desertion of it. This is\nmaintained by sruti).\n\n7. The wandering intellect sees the soul to be wandering, and the\nsedate understanding thinks, it to be stationary, as one perceives his\nbreath of life to be slow or quick, according as he sits still or runs\nabout. In this manner the bewildered understanding finds the soul to\nbe distracted also. (The temperament of the mind is attributed to the\nsoul, which is devoid of all modality).\n\n8. The mind wraps the inward soul with the coverlet of its various\ndesires, as the silkworm twines the thin thread of its desires round\nabout itself; which its wants of reason prevent it from understanding.\n(The word in the text is _b\u00e1lavat_ boyishness, which is explained in\nthe gloss to mean _nirvivekatwa_ or want of reason, and applied to the\nmind, means puerile foolishness).\n\n9. R\u00e1ma said:--I see sir, that when our ignorance becomes too gross and\nsolid, it becomes as dull and solid as stone; but tell me O venerable\nsir, how it becomes as a fixed tree or any other immovable substance.\n\n10. Vasishtha replied:--The human intellect not having attained\nits perfect state of mindlessness, wherein it may have its supreme\nhappiness and yet falling from its state of mindfulness, remains in the\nmidmost position of a living and immovable plant or of an insensible\nmaterial substance. (The middle state is called tatastha bh\u00e1va, which\nis neither one of perfect sensibility nor impassivity).\n\n11. It is impossible for them to have their liberation, whose organs of\nthe eight senses lie as dormant and dumb and blind and inert in them\nas in any dull and dirt matter: and if they have any perception, it is\nthat pain only. (The _puryastaka_ are the eight internal and external\norgans of sense instead of the ten organs _casandria_. By dormancy\nis meant their want of reason, and muteness and blindness express\nrespectively the want of their faculties of sensation and action,\ninertness means here the want of mental action).\n\n12. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--O sir, that best knowest the knowables! that the\nintellect which remains as unshaken as a fixed tree, with its reliance\nin the unity and without its knowledge of duality, approximates its\nperfection and approaches very near to its liberation (contrary to what\nthou sayest now, regarding impossibility of the dormant minds arriving\nto its freedom).\n\n13. Vasishtha replied: R\u00e1ma! we call that to be the perpetual\nliberation of the soul, which follows persuasion of one common entity,\nafter its rational investigation into the natures of all other things\nand their false appearances. (or else the blind torpidity of the\nirrational yogi, amounts rather to his bondage to ignorance than the\nliberation of his soul from it).\n\n14. A man is then only said to have reached to his state of solity\n_kaivalya_, when he understands the community of all existence in the\nunity, and forsakes his desire for this thing and that. (But is said\nin sundry places of this work that the abandonment of the knowledge of\nthe subjective and as well as of the objective, which constitutes the\ntrue liberation of the soul; which means the taking of the subject and\nobject of thought and all other duties in nature in one self-existent\nunity and not to forget them all at once). (So says Sadi, when I turned\nout duality from my door I came to knowledge of one in all).\n\n15. One is then said to recline in Brahma who is inclined to his\nspiritual Contemplation, after his investigation of divine knowledge in\nthe s\u00e1stras, and his discussion on the subject in the company of the\nlearned doctors in divinity. (The unlearned religionist is either a\nzealot or an _opiniatre--abhakta tatwa jn\u00e1ni_).\n\n16. One who is dormant in his mind and has the seed of his desire lying\nlatent in his heart, resembles an unmoving tree, bearing the vegetative\nseed of future regenerations (transmigrations) within its bosom.\n\n17. All those men are called blocks who liken the blocks of wood and\nstone, and to be like brains who lack their brain work, and whose\ndesires are gone to the rack. These men possessing the property of\ndulness as of dull matter, are subject to the pains of repeated births,\nrecurring like the repetends of their remaining desires. (The doctrine\nof transmigration is, that the wish being father to the thought,\nevery one meets with his lot in his next birth, as it is thought\nof or fostered by him in his present life. [Sanskrit: v\u00e1san\u00e1 eva\npraty\u00e1vrittik\u00e1ranam]).\n\n18. All stationary and immovable things, which are endowed with the\nproperty of dull matter, are subject to repeated reproductions. (Owing\nto the reproductive seed which is inborn in them, like the inbred\ndesire of living beings), though they may long continue in their\ndormant state (like images of saints in their trance).\n\n19. Know O pure hearted R\u00e1ma! the seed of desire is as inbred in the\nbreasts of plants, as the flowers are inborn in the seeds and the\nearthenwares are contained in the clay. (The statue says, Aristotle\nlies hid in the wood, and the gem in the stone, and require only the\nchisel of the carver and statuary to bring them out).\n\n20. The heart that contains the fruitful seed of desire in it, can\nnever have its rest or consummation even in its dormant state; but this\nseed being burnt and fried to its unproductiveness (by means of divine\nknowledge), it becomes productive of sanctity, though it may be in its\nfull activity.\n\n21. The heart that preserves the slightest remnant of any desire in\nit, it again filled with its full growth to luxuriance; as the little\nremainder of fire or the enemy, and of a debt and disease, and also\nof love and hatred, is enough to involve one in his ruin as a single\ndrop of poison kills a man. (This stanza occurs in Ch\u00e1naky\u00e1's Excerpta\nin another form, meaning to say that, \"No wise man should leave their\nrelic, lest they grow as big as before\" [Sanskrit: punasva bhavati\ntasm\u00e1dyasm\u00e1t sesam na k\u00e1rayet]).\n\n22. He who has burnt away the seed of his desire from any thing,\nand looks upon the world with an even eye of indifference, is said\nto be perfectly liberated both in his embodied state in this earth,\nas also in his disembodied or spiritual form of the next world, and\nis no more subjected to any trouble: (Subjection to desire is deadly\npain and freedom from it is perfect bliss. Or as it is said:--Desire\nis a disease and its want is ease. [Sanskrit: \u00e1shabhai param dukham\nnair\u00e1shyam paramamsukham]. Again our hopes and fears in constant\nstrife, are both the bane of pig man life [Sanskrit: bhay\u00e1sh\u00e1\nj\u00edvap\u00e1sh\u00e1h] &c.)\n\n23. The intellectual power which enveloped by the seed of mental\ndesire, supplies it with moisture for its germinating both in the forms\nof animals and vegetables every where (_i.e._ The divine power which\ninheres in the embryos of our desires, causes them to develope in their\nvarious forms).\n\n24. This inherent power resides in the manner of productive power in\nthe seeds of living beings, and in that of inertness in dull material\nbodies. It is of the nature of hardness in all solid substances, and\nthat of tenuity in soft and liquid things. (_i.e._ The divine power\nforms the particular properties of things, and causes them to grow and\nremain in their own ways).\n\n25. It exhibits the ash colour in ashes, and shows the particles in the\ndust of the earth; it shows the sableness of all swarthy things, and\nflashes in the whiteness of the glittering blade.\n\n26. It is the spiritual power which assumes the communal form and\nfigure, in which it resides in the community of material things, as a\npicture, a pot (ghata-pata) and the like. (The vanity of the unity is\nexpressed in the words of Veda \"the one in many.\" [illegible Sanskrit])\n\n27. It is in this manner that the divine spirit fills the whole\nphenomenal world, in its universally common nature, as overspreading\ncloud, fills the whole firmament in the rainy season.\n\n28. I have thus expounded to you the true nature swar\u00fapa--of the\nunknown Almighty power, according to my best understanding, and as far\nas it had been ascertained by the reasoning of the wise: that it fills\nall and is not the all itself, and is the true entity appearing as no\nentity at all.\n\n29. It is our want of the sight of this invisible spiritual power, that\nleads us to erroneous conception of the entity of the external world,\nbut a slight sight of this almighty Ens, removes all our pains in this\nscene of vanity.\n\n30. It is our dimsightedness of Almighty power, which is styled our\nblindness or ignorance [Sanskrit: avidy\u00e1] by the wise. It is this\nignorance which give rise to the belief of the existence of the world,\nand thereby produces all our errors and misery.\n\n31. Who is so freed from this ignorance and beholds the glorious light\nof God full in his view; he finds his darkness disappear from his\nsight, as the icicles of night melt away at the appearance of solar\nlight.\n\n32. The ignorance of a man flies off like his dream, after he wakes\nfrom his sleep, and wishes to recall his past vision of the night.\n\n33. Again when a man betakes himself to ponder well the properties of\nthe object before him, his ignorance flies away from before his face,\nas darkness flies at the approach of light.\n\n34. As darkness recedes from a man, that advances to explore into it\nwith a lamp in his hand, and as butter is melted down by application of\nheat, so is one's ignorance dispelled and dissolved by application of\nthe light and the rise of reason.\n\n35. As one pursuing after darkness sees a lighted torch in his hand,\nsees but a blaze of light before, and no shadow of darkness about him;\nso the inquirer after truth perceives the light of truth, shining to\nhis face and no vestige of untruth left behind him.\n\n36. In this manner doth ignorance (Avidy\u00e1) fly away and disappear at\nthe sight of the light of reason; and although an unreal nothing, she\nappears as something real, wherever there is the want of reason. (Hence\nall unreasoning men are the most ignorant).\n\n37. As the great mass of thick darkness, disappears into nothing at the\nadvance of light; it is in the same manner that the substantiality of\ngross ignorance, is dissolved into unsubstantiality at the advancement\nof knowledge. (so the advancement of inductive science, has put flight\nthe dogmatic doctrines of old).\n\n38. Unless one condescends to examine in a thing, it is impossible for\nhim to distinguish it from another (as the shell from silver and rope\nfor the snake); but upon his due examination of it, he comes to detect\nthe fallacy of his prejudgment (as those of the silver and snake in the\nshell and the rope).\n\n39. He who stoops to consider whether the flesh or blood or bones of\nhis bodily frame, constitutes his personality, will at once perceive\nthat he is none of these, and all these are distinct from himself. (The\npersonality of a man consisting in his soul, and not in any part or\nwhole of his body).\n\n40. And as nothing belonging to the person makes the persons, but\nsomething beyond it that forms one's personality; so nothing in the\nworld from its first to last is that spirit, but some thing which has\nneither its beginning nor end, is the eternal and infinite spirit. (The\nsame is the universal soul).\n\n41. Thus ignorance being got over there remains nothing whatever,\nexcept the one eternal soul which is the adorable Brahma and\nsubstantial whole.\n\n42. The unreality of ignorance is evident from the negative term of\nnegation and ignoring of its essentiality, and requires no other proof\nto disprove its essence; as the relish of a thing is best proved by the\ntongue and no other organ of sense. (The term Avidy\u00e1 signifying the\nwant of _vidy\u00e1_--knowledge and existence [Sanskrit: vidy\u00e1m\u00e1nat\u00e1]).\n\n43. There is no ignorance nor inexistence except the intelligence\nand existence of God, who pervade over all visible and invisible\nnatures, which are attributed with the appellations of existence\nand inexistence. (The whole being God (to Pan--the All) there is no\nexistence or inexistence without Him).\n\n44. So far about Avidy\u00e1, which is not the knowledge but ignorance of\nBrahma; and it is the dispersion of this ignorance which brings us to\nthe knowledge of God.\n\n45. The belief of this, that and all other things in the world, are\ndistant and distinct from Brahma, is what is called _Avidy\u00e1_ or\nignorance of him; but the belief that all things visible in the world,\nis the manifestation of omnipresence, causes the removal of ignorance,\nby presenting us to the presence of God.\n\n\nNOTE TO CHAPTER X.\n\nThe following lines of the English poet, will be found fully to\nillustrate the divine attribute of omnipresence in the pantheistic\n_doctrine_ of Ved\u00e1nta and Vasishtha, as shown in this chapter _et\npassen_.\n\nAll are but parts, of one stupendous whole, Whose body nature is, and\nGod the soul; That, changed through all, and yet in all the same; Great\nin the earth, as in the etherial frame; Warms in the sun, refreshes\nin the breeze; Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees; Lives\nthrough all life, extends through all extent, Spreads undivided,\noperates unspent; Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part. As\nfull as perfect, in a pair as heart: As full as perfect, in vile man\nthat mourns, As in the rapt seraph, that adores and burns; To him no\nhigh, now, no great, no small; He fills, he bounds, connects and equals\nall.\n\nPope's Mortal Essays I. IX.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\nASCERTAINMENT OF LIVING LIBERATION.\n\nArgument.--Instances of Living Liberation in Hari, Hara and others, and\nits consisting in the oecumenical knowledge of the one Brahma in all\nand every thing.\n\n\nVasishtha said:--I tell you again and repeatedly O pious R\u00e1ma! for your\nunderstanding, that you can never know the spirit without your constant\nhabit, of contemplating on it in your self-cogitation. (So the Sruti.\n_Atm\u00e1 v\u00e1ra, mant avyam_, \"the soul is to be constantly thought upon\"\nand so also the Ved\u00e1nta aphorism \"asakrit upadesat\" the soul is known\nby repeated instructions on spiritual knowledge).\n\n2. It is gross ignorance which is known as nescience, and it becomes\ncompact by the accumulated erroneous knowledge of previous births and\npast life (namely; the errors of the dualities of matter and spirit\nand of the living and Supreme soul, and the plurality of material and\nsensible objects).\n\n3. The perceptions of the external and internal senses of body, both\nin the states of sensibility and insensibility, are also the causes\nof great errors or ignorance _crasse_ of embodied beings. (_i.e._ The\nsensible perceptions are preventives of spiritual knowledge which\ntranscends the senses and is called [Sanskrit: at\u00edndriya]).\n\n4. Spiritual knowledge is far beyond the cognizance of the senses, and\nis only to be arrived at after subjection of the five external organs\nof sense, as also of the mind which is the sixth organ of sensation.\n\n5. How then is it possible to have a sensible knowledge of the spirit,\nwhose essence is beyond the reach of our faculties of sense, and whose\npowers transcend those of all our sensible organs? (_i.e._ Neither is\nthe spirit perceptible by our senses, nor does it perceive all things\nby senses like ours). So the Srutis He is not to be perceived by the\nfaculties of our sense, who does and perceives all with our organs.\n([Sanskrit: na tatra vaggacchati namani \u00e1panip\u00e1dau yavanagtah\u00edt\u00e1]).\n\n6. You must cut off this creeper of ignorance, which has grown up in\nthe hollow of the tree of your heart, with the sharp sword of your\nknowledge, if you should have your consummation as an adept in divine\nwisdom.\n\n7. Conduct yourself R\u00e1ma! in the same manner in the practice of your\nspiritual knowledge, as the king Janaka does with his full knowledge of\nall that is knowable to man.\n\n8. He is quite confident in his certain knowledge of the main truth,\nboth when he is employed in his active duties, in his waking state as\nwell as when he remains quiet at his leisure. (The end of knowledge is\nto know God, and to rely on him both in busy and in active life).\n\n9. It was by his reliance on this certain truth, that Hari was led\nto the performance of his various acts in his repeated births or\nincarnations. (A god in human flesh does his works as a god).\n\n10. May you, R\u00e1ma! be certain of the main truth, which conducted the\nthree-eyed god Siva in the company of his fair consort; and which led\nthe dispassionate Brahm\u00e1 to the act of creation. (_i.e._ the passionate\nand unimpassioned and those that are active or inactive are equally\nassured of this truth).\n\n11. It was the assurance of this eternal verity, which led the\npreceptors of the gods and demons, even Brihaspati and Bhargava, in\ntheir duties; and which guide the sun and moon in their courses, and\neven directs the elements of fire and air in the wonted ways.\n\n12. This truth was well known to the host of Sages, including Narada\nand Pulastya, Angira and Pracheta, and Bhrigu Krutu, Atri and Suka, as\nit is known to me also.\n\n13. This is the certainty which has been arrived at by all other\nlearned Brahmans and Sages, and this is the firm belief of every body,\nthat has been liberated in his life time.\n\n14. R\u00e1ma said:--Tell me truly, O venerable sir, the true nature of the\ntruth, on which the great gods and wisest sages, have grounded their\nbelief, and became freed from their sorrow and grief (in this world of\nsorrow and tears).\n\n15. Vasishtha replied:--Hear me tell you! O worthy prince that art\ngreat in arms as in thy knowledge of all things, the plain truth in\nreply to your question, and the certitude arrived at by all of them\n(named above).\n\n16. All these spacious worlds, that you behold to be spread all about\nyou, they are all that One or _on_, and are situated in the immensity\nof Brahma. (In their real or spiritual nature, and after obliteration\nof the erroneous forms in which they appear to you. Their phenomenal\nappearances, being but the misconceptions of our errors).\n\n17. Brahma is the intellect, and the same is this world and all its\nanimate and inanimate creatures also; Myself and Brahma and so art thou\nthyself, and such are all our friends and foes beside us.\n\n18. Brahma is the tripletime of the past, present and future, all which\nare comprehended in his eternity; in the manner of the continuity of\nwaves, billows and surges, contained in the immensity of the ocean.\n\n19. It is thus the same Brahma that appears to us in all the various\nforms of our perception, and in the different shapes of the actor,\naction and its act, as those of the feeder, feeding and the food, and\nof the receiver, reception and the thing received. (There being but\nthe only unity of God, the same is changed to all forms of action and\npassion and so says the poet \"that change through all and yet in all\nthe same\" and also unvaried in all with a varied name. This the ved\u00e1nta\nsays to be the _vivarta r\u00fapa_ or the one changed in many form _vividha_\nmany, and varta let vertuus changed [Sanskrit: paribatta].)\n\n20. Brahma expands in himself by his power of evolution, or unfolding\nhimself by his vivarta sakti; Hence He would be our enemy if he would\ndo any thing unfavourable into us. (God is good and never does any evil\nto any one: all he does in and to himself)?\n\n21. Thus Brahma being situated and employed with himself, does nothing\naught of good or evil to any other. The attribution of passions to\nhim, is as the planting of a tree in empty air. (God is not capable of\nany human attribute, as it is usual with anthropomorphists to load him\nwith).\n\n22. How very delighted are they that are dead to their desires, to\nreflect on this truth, that they are continually living and moving in\nthe all pervading Brahma. (In Him we live and move).\n\n23. All things are full of Brahma, and there is naught of pleasure or\npain herein; Brahma resides in his self-same all and is pleased with\nall in himself. (The one is full of bliss with all in himself).\n\n24. The Lord is manifest in his Lordship, and I am no other person\nbeside himself; this pot and that painting and I myself, are full with\nthe self-same Brahma.\n\n25. Hence it is in vain to speak of our attachment or aversion to\nworldliness, since we bear our bodies and dare to die in Brahma only.\n(It is that something, for which we bear to live, and dare to die,\nPope).\n\n26. Our bodies being the abodes of Brahma, it is as false to think to\nour bodily pains, as also of our pleasure in bodily enjoyments, as to\ntake a rope for a serpent. (Hence we can have no sense of our pleasure\nor pain, as long we know ourselves to be situated in Brahma and He in\nus).\n\n27. How say you, that this or that is your doing, when you have the\npower of doing nothing. (The fluctuation of the billows on the surface\nof the sea, cannot agitate the waters of the deep below.)\n\n28. Myself, thyself and himself, and all others, are but the breaths of\nthe universal spirit; and they heave and then subside to rest as waves\nof the sea; but the spirit of God, like the water of the deep, neither\nrises nor falls as ourselves or the fleeting waves at any time.\n\n29. All persons returning to Brahma after their death, have their\nbodies also reduced into Him and retain their personal identity in Him\nin the same manner, as the moving and unmoving waters rest alike in the\nsea.\n\n30. All moving and unmoving souls and bodies, rest alike in the supreme\nBrahma; as the _J\u00edva_ and its form reside in God, and the whirling and\nstill waters remain in the same sea.\n\n31. The soul and the body, are the two states of the likeness and\nunlikeness of Brahma, the one is the living soul of bodies, and the\nother is the gross body itself.\n\n32. Irrational souls, that are ignorant of this truth, are verily\nsubject to delusion; but the rational souls are not so, but enjoy their\nfull bliss on earth, while the other is ever doomed to misery.\n\n33. The blind behold the world all dark, while the eye-sighted find it\nfully bright and shining; so the wise are blessed with the knowledge of\nthe one soul of the whole, while the ignorant are immerged in misery,\nby their want of such knowledge.\n\n34. As the darkness of the night, presents its goblins and spectres, to\nthe sight of children only, and not those of the grown up and adult; so\nthe world presents its delusions to ignorant and never to the wise, who\nbehold one Brahma only in all things before them.\n\n35. There is nothing here that lives of itself, nor dies away to\nnothing; all equally exist in God at all time, and nothing is doomed to\nbe born or perish herein to happiness or misery.\n\n36. All beings are situated in the universal soul, as the waves in the\nvast expanse of the ocean, therefore it is erroneous to say the one\nreside in the spirit, and another to be beside it.\n\n37. As there is an inborn light in the crystal, which is capable of\nreflecting a variety of rays, so the spirit of God dwells in his own\nspirit in the form of the universe, showing various shapes to view by\nthe inner light of the spirit.\n\n38. As the particles of water flying from the waves, fall into the sea\nand mix with its body of water; so the bodies of dying people, fall\ninto the body of Brahma, wherein they subsisted in their life time. (So\nthere is neither an increase or diminution of the essence of Brahma, by\nthe birth or death or increase or decrease of beings in the world).\n\n39. There is nobody nor being beside the being of Brahma, as there is\nno wave nor foam or froth of the sea beside the water of the deep.\n\n40. As the billows and waves, the surges and eddies, and their froths\nand foams, and bubbles and minute particles, are all formations of\nwater in the great body of waters; so are all beings but productions\nof the spirit in the Infinite spirit. (All matter is reduced to the\nspirits, and the spirits are consolidated to material substances by\nchemical process).\n\n41. All bodies with their various modes, and organs of sense and their\nseveral functions, and all visible objects and their growth and decay,\ntogether with every thing conducing to our happiness and misery, and\nall other energies and their gains, are the works of Brahma in himself.\n(_i.e._ they are the self reflective acts of gods and not done for the\nsake of others).\n\n42. The production of these various beings in _esse_, is from the\nessence of Brahma; as the formation of different ornaments, is from the\nsubstance of gold. There is no other formal cause or formation distinct\nfrom Brahma, and the distinction of the cause and its creation, is the\nerroneous conception of the ignorant.\n\n43. The mind, understanding, egoism, and the elemental atoms, and the\norgans of sense, are all the various forms of Brahma; wherefore there\nis cause of our joy or grief.\n\n44. The words I, thou, he, and this and that, as also the terms of\nthe mind and matter, are all significant of the self-same Brahma\n_\u00e1tm\u00e1tmani_, in the same manner as the roaring of a cloud in the hills,\nresounds in a hundred echoes through their caverns. (All words applied\nto every thing, relate to the one self-same Brahma who is all in all\n_to pan_).\n\n45. Brahma appears as an unknown stranger to us, through our ignorance\nof him, as the visions seen in a dream by our mind itself, appear\nforeign to us. (_i.e._ Our belief in the visibles is the cause of our\ndisbelief in the invisible God; as our familiarity with the objects of\nour waking state, makes us reject our visionary dreams as false).\n\n46. Ignorance of Brahm\u00e1 as Brahma or what he is, makes men to reject\ndivine knowledge altogether; as our ignorance of the quality of gold\ncauses us to cast it off dross. (Brahma to the brute is, as the gem in\nthe dung hill cast away by the silly cock).\n\n47. Brahma is known as the Supreme spirit and sole Lord, by those who\nare acquainted with divine knowledge; but he is said to be unknown and\ninvolved in ignorance by them that are ignorant of Him.\n\n48. Brahma being known as Brahma, becomes manifested such in a moment;\njust as gold when known as such, is taken in due esteem.\n\n49. Those who are versed in divine knowledge, know Brahma as without a\ncause and causing nothing by himself, and that he is free from decay,\nand is the Supreme spirit and sole Lord of all.\n\n50. He who can meditate in himself, on the omnipotence of Supreme\nspirit of Brahma; comes to behold him as such in a short time, even\nwithout a leader to guide him in his spiritual knowledge (one's own\nfaith in Divine Omnipotence, is the surest means to the sight of his\nMaker).\n\n51. The want of divine knowledge, that is called the ignorance of the\nignorant; whereas it is the knowledge of God, that constitutes the true\nknowledge which removes the ignorance.\n\n52. As an unknown friend is no friend at all, until he is recognized as\nsuch, after removal of one's forgetfulness; so God is no God to one, as\nlong he continues in ignorance of Him.\n\n53. We can then only know God, when the mind comes to perceive the\nunconnection of the soul with the body; and whereby it alienates itself\nfrom all worldly connections in disgust.\n\n54. It is then that we come to know the one true God, when the mind is\nfreed from its knowledge of duality; and by its distaste of dualism, it\nabandons its attachment to the world.\n\n55. We then come to the knowledge of God, when we come to know\nourselves to be other than our persons; and when by getting rid of our\npersonal egoism, we forsake our affection for this unkindred world.\n\n56. It is then that the thought of God rises in our minds, when we\ncome to the true knowledge of thinking ourselves the same with Brahma;\nand when the mind is absorbed in the meditation of the divine truth in\none's self. (This is the sublimation of the Yogi to the divine state;\nor when the Yogi loses himself, in his rapturous vision on the one God.\nThis kind of meditation is indicated in the formula \"Soham\" in Ved\u00e1nta\nand _an ald Huq_ in sufism).\n\n57. God being known as the _tout ensemble_ or comprising the whole\n_plenum_, we come to believe the same as Brahma; and losing our egoism\nand tuism in the same, we come to the knowledge of that entity only\ncomprising the entire universe. (This belief of the entirety of the\nDeity, is expressed in the words \"_Tat Sat_\" corresponding with _to\non_, _idest_, _alast_, that is, He in the creeds of other people).\n\n58. When I come to know this true and omniform Brahma, as all in all,\nand forming the entire whole; I become released from all my sorrow\nand grief, and am set free from all my delusion and desire, and the\nresponsibility of my duties (from the belief of God's agency in all\nthings).\n\n59. I am quite calm and at ease and without any sorrow or grief, by my\nknowledge of the truth, that I am no other than Brahma Himself; I am as\ncool as the moon, without her spots and phases in me, and I am the all\nentire, without any disease, decay or diminution in me. (This is said\nwith regard to the universal soul, which engrosses all souls and things\nin itself).\n\n60. It is true that I am the all pervading Brahma, and therefore I can\nneither wish to have or leave any thing from me; being of myself the\nblood, bones and flesh of my body. (The soul is the source of the body,\nand the spirit its life, without which it decays and dies away).\n\n61. It is true that I am Brahma the universal soul, and therefore the\nintellect, mind and sensibility also; I am the heaven and sky with\ntheir luminaries and quarters and the nether worlds also.\n\n62. It is true that I am Brahma, composing this pot and painting, these\nbushes and brambles, these forests and their grass, as also the seas\nand their waves. (One God is manifest in many forms).\n\n63. The unity of Brahma is a certain truth, and it is the ego which is\nmanifest in the seas and mountains and all living beings; and in the\nqualities of reception and emission, and of extension and contraction\nin all material bodies. (It is the Divinity that actuates the physical\npowers in nature).\n\n64. All things of extended forms situated in the intellectual spirit of\nBrahma, who is the cause of the growth of creepers and plants, and of\nthe germination of vegetative seeds.\n\n65. The supreme Brahma resides in his sheath of the intellectual soul,\nin the manner of flavour in the cup of the flower; and thence diffuses\nitself on all sides in the form of everything everywhere.\n\n66. He that is known as only soul of all, and who is ascertained as\nthe supreme spirit, and who is designated by the appellations of the\nintellectual soul, Brahma the great, the only entity and reality, the\nTruth and Intelligence and apart from all.\n\n67. He is said to be the all-inhering element, and Intelligence only\nwithout the intelligibles in it; He is the pure light that gives every\nbeing its consciousness of itself.\n\n68. He appears to the spiritualist to be existent everywhere, as the\ntranquil and intelligent Brahma; and contains in himself the powers of\nall the faculties of the mind and body, such as the understanding and\nthe organs of sense, so the sruti; \"He is the mind of the mind, the\nsight of the eye.\" [Sanskrit: yascat?u sascat?unman\u00e1s\u00e1 manoyadity\u00e1di].\n\n69. Give up the thought of thy difference from Brahma by knowing\nthyself as the reflexion of the intelligent soul; which is the cause of\nthe causes of the existence of the world. Such as vacuum and others,\nwhich are causes of sound and are caused by vacuous spirit of God\n(and not as the vacuists and materialists belief them, to be increate\nessences from eternity).\n\n70. The intellect of Brahma is the transparent receptacle of all\nessences, and my ego is of the same essence, which exudes continually\nas a shower of rain, from the transparent spirit of God.\n\n71. I am that light which shines in the souls of yogis, and I am that\nsilent spirit which is supported by the ambrosial drops of Divine\nIntellect; which continually distils its nectarious juice into our\nsouls, as we may feel in ourselves.\n\n72. I am as a wheel or circle without having the beginning or end of\nmyself, and by having the pure intellect of Brahma in me. I am quiet in\nmy deep sleep of sam\u00e1dhi meditation, and I perceive holy light shining\nwithin me. (The yogi in his devotion is absorbed in the calmness of his\nsoul and is wrapt in divine light).\n\n73. The thought that I am Brahma, affords afar greater delight to the\nsoul, than the taste of any sweet meat, which gives but a momentary\ndelight, so the sruti:--God is all sweetness [Sanskrit: rasobetat]\n(sweet is the memory of a friend, and sweeter far must be the thought\nof God, who is best and greatest friend).\n\n74. One knowing his soul and intellect, knows the indestructible Brahma\nand himself as identic with the same; as one whose mind is possessed\nwith the image of his beloved, beholds her bright countenance in the\nshining orb of the moon.\n\n75. As the sights of earthly people are fixed in the etherial moon,\nso the sight of intellectual beings, is fixed in the supreme and\nindestructible soul, which he knows as self-same with himself.\n\n76. The intellectual power which is situated in the vacuity of the\nheart, is verily the verity of the immaculate Brahma himself. Its\npleasure and pain, and mutability and divisibility, are attributed to\nby ignorance only.\n\n77. The soul that has known the truth, knows himself as the supreme\nIntellect, as the pilgrim on the way sees only his saint before him,\nand no intermediate object besides.\n\n78. The belief that I am the pure and all pervading intellect, is\nattended with the purity and holiness of the soul, and the knowledge\nof the Divine power as the cause of the union of earth, air and water\nin the production of the germ of creation, is the main creed of all\ncreeds.\n\n79. I am that intellect of Brahma which is inherent in all things as\ntheir productive power; and I am that soul which causes the sweetness\nof the _beal_ and bitterness of _nimba_ fruits.\n\n80. I am that divine intellect which inheres alike in all flavours,\nwhich is devoid of pain and pleasure and which I perceived in my mind\nby my consciousness.\n\n81. I am the undecaying intellect of Brahma, and deem my gain and loss\nin equal light of indifference; while I view this earth and sky, and\nthe sun and moon displayed before my eyes in all their glory.\n\n82. I am that pure and serenely bright Brahma, whose glory is displayed\nalike in all of these, and which I behold to shine vividly before me,\nwhether when I am awake or asleep or whenever I am in the state of\ndreaming or profound sleep.\n\n83. I am that Brahma who is without beginning and end, who is known by\nhis four fold hypostases, and is ever indestructible and undecaying. He\nresides in the souls of men in the form of sweetness in the sugarcane\nthrough all their transmigrations.\n\n84. I am that intellect of Brahma, which like the sunshine pervades\nequally in the form of transparent light in and above all created\nbeings.\n\n85. I am that all pervasive intellect of Brahma, which like the\ncharming moon light fills the whole universe; and which we feel and\ntaste in our hearts, as the delicious draught of ambrosia.\n\n86. I am that intellect of Brahma, which extends undivided over the\nwhole and all parts of the universe, and which embraces all existence\nas the moving clouds of heaven encompasses the firmament.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\nArgument.--Investigation in the doubts respecting living liberation.\n\n\nVasishtha said:--Great minded men that are certain of these truths,\nare purified from their sins, and finding their tranquillity in the\nreliance on truth, enjoy the delight of the even equanimity of their\nsouls, both in their prosperity and adversity. (Truthfulness and\nequanimity are god-like attributes).\n\n2. So the wise men of perfect understandings, being evenly\ndispassionate in their minds; feel themselves neither glad nor sad,\neither in the enjoyment or deprivation of their lives (which are alike\nto them, because death is but the beginning or continuance of life in\nanother state or world).\n\n3. They remain as unseen and marvelously mighty, as the arms of\nN\u00e1r\u00e1yana (god); and as straight and firm and yet as low and fragile as\nthe body and broken rocks of mount Meru on earth.\n\n4. They roam about at pleasure in woodlands and over islands and amidst\ncities also, and like the gods of paradise they wander about the\nbeautiful groves and sceneries of nature.\n\n5. They roved in flowery gardens shaken by the playful breezes, and\nalso in the romantic forests on the skirts and tops of mountains.\n\n6. They conquer also their enemies, and reign in their realms with the\nchouri and umbrella ensigns of their royalty; they enjoy the various\nproduce and wealth of their kingdom, and observe the various customs\nand usages of their country. (The wise man freely enjoy all things\nwithout being bound into them).\n\n7. They follow all the rules and rites, established by the laws of\ntheir countries; and inculcated as duties for the observance of all.\n\n8. They do not disdain to taste the pleasures, that would make the\nbeauties smile at; nor are they averse to the enjoyment of luxuries,\nthat they can rightly use and enjoy.\n\n9. They smell the fragrance of mandara-flowers, and taste the sweet\njuice of mango-fruits; they regale themselves with the sweet songs of\nApsaras, and revel in the arbours of Nandara or pleasure garden.\n\n10. They never disregard the duties that bind all mankind to them, nor\nneglect to perform the sacrifices and observe the ordinances that are\nimperious on domestic life.\n\n11. But they are saved from falling into dangers and evils of all\nkinds, and escape the danger of falling under the feet of murderous\nelephants, and avoid the uproar of trumpets and the imminent death in\nbattle-fields (_i.e._ Wise men avoid the dangers to which the ignorant\nare liable).\n\n12. They abide with those that are afflicted in their hearts, as among\nthe marauding plunderers of the country; they dwell among the oppressed\ncowardly people, as also amongst their oppressors. Thus they are\nconversant with the practices of all opposing parties, without mixing\nwith any one of them.\n\n13. But their minds are clear of doubts and free from errors unaffected\nby passions and affections, and unattached to any person or thing. They\nare quite discrete and disengaged, free and liberated, tranquil and\nserene, inclined to goodness reclining and resting in Supreme spirit.\n\n14. They are never immerged in great dangers, nor are they ever\ninvolved in very great difficulties. But remain as the boundary\nmountains, remaining unimmersed amidst the water of a circumjacent lake.\n\n15. They are never elated with joy, at the fluctuating favours of fond\nand fascinating fortune; nor are they swollen, like the sea at the\nincreasing digits of the moon.\n\n16. They do not fade away under sorrow or sickness, like plants under\nthe scorching sun beams, nor are they refreshed by refreshments, like\nmedicinal plants under the refreshing dews of night.\n\n17. They are employed calmly and without anxiety in the discharge of\ntheir duties and in the acts of fruition karma, and neither long for\nnor relinquish the fruition, which is attendant upon them (_i.e._ They\ndo what is to be done, not for reward but as a matter of course).\n\n18. They are neither elated with the success of their undertakings,\nnor are they depressed by the mishap of their efforts, they are not\njoyous at their joy and hey-day, nor do they sink under in danger and\ndifficulty.\n\n19. They do not droop down under despondence, nor are they dejected in\ndespair, they are not merry in their prosperity, nor do they wail and\nweep in their adversity.\n\n20. They discharge their customary duties as prescribed by law and\nusage, but their minds remain as firm and unmoved, as a mountain at all\nthe efforts of the body.\n\n21. Now R\u00e1ma! Remove your sight for thy own egoism, and keep it fixed\non the true ego which is a destroyer of all sins; and then go on with\nyour ordinary course of conduct as thou mayest like.\n\n22. Look at these creations and their various creatures, as they have\nexisted in their successive stages and phases; but do you remain as\nfirm as rock and as deep as the sea, and get rid of your errors.\n(_i.e._ Your observation of nature can only remove your errors).\n\n23. Know this grand whole as the reflexion of one sole Intellect,\nbeside which there is nothing as a reality or unreality, or as some\nthing or nothing. (_Jo kuch hai ohi hai, nehinaur kuch'he_. Whatever\nthere is, is he himself, and there is _nil_ beside his _ens_ or self).\n\n24. R\u00e1ma! have thy greatness as the great Brahma, and preserve the\ndignity of human nature about thee; reject all whatever as unworthy of\nthee, and with an unattached heart to every thing, manage thyself with\ngentleness every where, and thus pass the days here. (As an heir of\neternity).\n\n25. Why dost thou weep with thy heart full of sorrow and grief, and\nwhy dost thou lament like the deluded, and why rovest thou with thy\nwandering mind, like a swimming straw to the whistling eddy.\n\n26. R\u00e1ma replied--Verily sir, the dart of my doubts is now rubbed\nout of my mind, and my heart is awakened to its good senses by thy\nkindness, as the lotus is enlivened by thy rising sun-light.\n\n27. My errors are dispersed as the morning fog in autumn; and my doubts\nare set down by your lectures; which I will always adhere to.\n\n28. I am now set free from the follies of pride, vanity, envy and\ninsensibility; and I feel lasting spiritual joy rising within me after\nthe subsidence of all my sorrows. And now if you are not tired, please\ndeliver your lectures with your clear understanding, and I will follow\nand practice them without fear or hesitation.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII.\n\nTHE TWO YOGAS OF KNOWLEDGE AND REASONING.\n\nArgument.--The two yogas or Habits of restraining the Desires and\nRespiration herein before described, are followed by two others: viz.\nthe Acquisition of knowledge and the Training to reasoning which are\nyogas also.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma said:--I am verily becalmed and set at ease, O Brahman! by\nrelinquishing all my desires, from my full knowledge of their\nimpropriety; and by my being staid in the state of the liberated, even\nin this my present life. (The heaven of the holy, commences in their\nearthly life).\n\n2. But tell me, sir, how a man can have his liberation, by restraining\nhis respirations for a time; and how the restraint of one's breathings,\ncan put a restriction to his desires, which reside and rise from the\nmind; while it belongs to the body and comes in and out of the heart\nand lungs. (Nostrils).\n\n3. Vasishtha said:--The means of fording over the ocean of this earth\nis known, O R\u00e1ma! by the word Yoga or union, which is composed of the\nquality of pacifying the mind in either of the two ways or processes\n(as shown below).\n\n4. The one is the acquisition of religious instruction, leading to the\nknowledge of the soul and of the Supreme soul, and the other is the\nrestraining of respiration, which you will learn from the lecture that\nI am about to deliver.\n\n5. Here R\u00e1ma interrupted and said:--Tell me, sir, which of the two\nis more delectable, owing to its facility and unpainfulness; and the\nknowledge or practice whereof, releases us from all fear and trouble\nwhatsoever.\n\n6. Vasishtha replied:--R\u00e1ma! although I have mentioned here of two\nkinds of Yoga, yet the common acceptation of the term, restricts it\nto the restriction of breathing. (The vulgar have no idea of esoteric\noccultism or _jnana Yoga_, but call him a Yogi, who is employed in his\nexoteric practices, of asceticism and austerities, suppression of\nbreath; and all kinds of wilful pains).\n\n7. The true Yoga is the concentration of the mind in God, which is the\nonly means of our salvation in this world; and this is achieved in\neither way of the regulation of breathing, or perfection in learning,\nboth of which tend to the one and same effect, of fixing the attention\nin divine meditation.\n\n8. The practical yoga by the regulation of respiration, appears as too\narduous a task to some persons, while proficiency in knowledge seems to\nbe too difficult of attainment to others. But to my understanding the\nascertainment of truth by theoretical knowledge seems to be far better\nthan practice. (The theoretical meditation is known as the _r\u00e1ja yoga_,\nand the forced contraction of the breath is called the _hatha yoga_ or\nforced devotion, and is the device of Datt\u00e1treya who was an ancient\nRishi also).\n\n9. Ignorance is ever ignorant of truth, which does not lend its light\nto us in either our walking or sleeping states. So the ignorant\npractiser is always in ignorance both when he is in his meditative\ntrance [Sanskrit: yogavidy\u00e1] or otherwise; but knowledge is always\nknowing, both when the knower is awake or asleep.\n\n10. The practical yoga which stands in need of fixed attention, painful\npostures, and proper times and places, is impossible to be practiced,\nowing to the difficulty of getting all these advantages at all times.\n\n11. I have thus described to you, O R\u00e1ma! both the two kinds of yoga\npropounded in the s\u00e1stras, and the superiority of the pure knowledge,\nwhich fills the intellect with its unfading light.\n\n12. The regulation of the breathings, the firmness of the body\nand dwelling in sequestered cells, are all I ween as pregnant of\nconsummation--_siddhi_; but say, which of these is capable of giving\nknowledge [Sanskrit: vritti] to the understanding, which is the\ngreatest perfection in human nature.\n\n13. Now R\u00e1ma! if you think it possible for you, to sit quiet with utter\nsuppression of your breaths and thoughts; then can you attempt to sit\nin your sedate posture of meditation without uttering a single word.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV.\n\nNARRATIVE OF BHUSUNDA AND DESCRIPTION OF MOUNT MERU.\n\nArgument.--Vasishtha's visit to Meru in expectation of seeing Bhusunda\nand his description of the Mountain.\n\n\nVasishtha related:--The vast universe, O R\u00e1ma! is but an evolution of\nthe will of the Infinite Brahm\u00e1, just as the various representations\nin the mirage, are but eversions of solar rays. (Or these are the\nreflexions of the self-same Deity, as the Fata Morgana are the reflex\nof solar light).\n\n2. Here the divine Brahm\u00e1 that is born of the lotiform navel of Brahm\u00e1,\ntakes the title of the creator and preserver of all, that has been\nproduced by the supreme spirit; and is called also the great father of\nall, for his producing the prime progenitors of mankind. (Here Brahm\u00e1\nresembles Adam of the scriptures).\n\n3. This divine being brought me forth from his mind, where fore I am\ncalled the _m\u00e1nasaputra_ or progeny of the mind, of the mind of this\nholy personage. He made me settle first in the fixed polar circle of\nthe starry frame, I viewed the revolutions of the planetary spheres,\nand the successive Manvantaras before me. (The Manus were all the\nprogeny of the divine mind, whence they bear their name of Manu or\nmind-born).\n\n4. Residing once in the imperial court of the lord of gods--Indra, I\nheard the accounts of many long living persons and people, from the\nmouths of N\u00e1rada and other messengers of the gods. (N\u00e1rada is the\nMercury of Hindu mythology, and answers an angel of the scriptures).\n\n5. There was once on a time the sage S\u00e1latap\u00e1 among them; who was a\nperson of great understanding, a man of honor and taciturn in his\nspeech; and said by way of conversation:--\n\n6. That there was in the north east summit of Mount Meru, a spot full\nof sparkling gems, where there was a _kalpa_ tree of the _chuta_ or\n_mango_ kind, which yielded its fruits in all seasons of the year.\n\n7. The tree was covered all over with fresh and beautiful creepers, and\na branch of it extending towards the south, had a large hollow in its\ntop, containing the nest of birds of various kinds.\n\n8. Among them there was a crow's nest, belonging to one old raven by\nname of Bhusunda, who lived quite happy with himself; as the god Brahm\u00e1\ndwells content in his lotus-bed.\n\n9. There is no one in the womb of this world so long lived as he, nor\neven the gods in heaven, can boast a greater longevity than he among\nthe feathered tribe; and it is doubtful whether there may be another as\nold as he in times to come. (Old as Adam and as old as Methuselah).\n\n10. This crony crow was beauteous even in old age, and had become\npassionless and great-minded by his long experience. He remained quiet\nwith the tranquillity of his mind, and was as graceful as he was full\nof knowledge of all times. (Achromatic as old Nestor of the present,\npast and future--_trik\u00e1lajna_).\n\n11. If any one may have the long life of this crow, his life becomes\nmeritorious, and his old age is crowned with sapience. (The vigour of\nlife is productive of meritorious works, and its decay is fraught with\nwisdom).\n\n12. In this manner, he related the virtues of the bird in full, at the\nrequest of the gods in heaven; and did not utter any thing more or\nless, before the assembly of the deities who knew all things.\n\n13. After the gods had been satisfied with the narration of the veteran\ncrow, I felt a great curiosity in me, to see and know more of this\nsuperannuated bird (for who is it that has not an eager desire to learn\nthe art of longevity).\n\n14. With this desire, I hastened to the spot, where the crow was said\nto rest in his happy nest; and I reached in a short time, to the summit\nof Meru, which was shining with its precious stones. (The descent\nfrom heaven to the lofty top of Meru could not be long, since the\ngods are said to be all situated on this high mountain. ([Sanskrit:\ntasminnadrau trayasvimsat vasatihiga nadevatah]), and again ([Sanskrit:\ny\u00e1vatmerausyitadev\u00e1h]).)\n\n15. The peak of the mountain was flaming as fire, with the glare of its\ngems and red earth--_gairika_, and these painted the upper sky, with\nthe bright hue of florid honey and sparkling wine.\n\n16. The mountain shone as brightly as it were burning with the blaze\nof the last conflagration, and the sky was reddened by their reflexion\nwith shades of clouds; appearing as the smoke of fire or the blue\nlustre of sapphire.\n\n17. The mountain appeared to be formed by a collection of all kinds of\ncolours on earth, which gave it the appearance of the variegated sky in\nwest at the time of the setting sun.\n\n18. The flame of fire proceeding from its crater, and emitted through\nthe crevice on its top, seemed as the culinary fire of the Yogi,\ncarried up from his bowels to the cranium in Yoga. (This is styled the\nUtkranti Yoga or lifting the physical powers, and concentrating them\nall in the head--the seat of intellect).\n\n19. The ruddy peaks and pinnacles of Sumeru, resembled his arms and\nfingers painted with lac-dye; in order to lay hold on his consort the\nfair moon by way of sport. (It means the mountain tops reaching to and\ntouching the orb of the moon. So K\u00e1lid\u00e1sa makes his Himalaya transcend\nthe sphere of the sun).\n\n20. The lurid flame of wild fire on this mountain, seemed as the\nburning blaze of sacrificial fires, which are fed with clarified\nbutter were rising to heaven. (Hence fire is styled the bearer of our\nofferings to the gods above--_havya-v\u00e1hana_, because there is nothing\non the earth except the flames of fire--that has the power of rising\nupwards, whence they are termed _Urdha--jwalana--havir--bhujas_.\n([Sanskrit: urdha jvalana havirbhujam]).)\n\n21. The mount with its elevated summit seemed to kiss the face of the\nsky, and to raise its fingers in the form of its peaks and pinnacles,\nwith their blazing gems resembling the nails of the fingers, in order\nto count the scattered stars.\n\n22. The clouds were roaring on one side of it with the loud noise of\nthe drums, and the young plants and creepers were dancing in the\nhappy arbours on another, clusters of flowers were smiling as blooming\nbeauties on this side, and the swarms of humming bees were hovering on\nthem on that.\n\n23. Here the lofty palm trees seemed to be smiling with shewing\ntheir teeth in their denticulated leaves, on seeing the giddy groups\nof Apsaras, swinging and strolling about loosely in their amorous\ndalliances under their shade.\n\n24. There the celestials were resorting in pairs to their grottos\nin the mountain, in order to relieve themselves of their trouble of\ntrudging over the rugged paths of the craggy mountain; and they were\nclothed in the white vest of the open sky (nudity), and having the\nstream of Ganges falling from high for their sacred thread. (Here Meru\nmeans any mountain and Ganga is put for any stream descending from it).\n\n25. The hoary mountain stood as a grey headed hermit, holding the\nreeds (with which it abounded) as canes in his hand; and the celestial\ninhabitants of the mount, rested in the coverts of the creepers, being\nlulled to sleep by gurgling sound of the waters falling from precipice\nto precipice.\n\n26. The mountain king was crowned by the full blown lotuses that\ngrow on its top, and was regaled by the sweet fragrance; which the\nodoriferous breezes bore from them. It was decorated with the gems of\nthe starry frame on its crown, and charmed with the sweet songs of the\n_gandharvas_ playing their strains on it.\n\n27. His hoary head pierced the silvery region of heaven, and was one\nwith it in being the abode of the gods.\n\n28. The many coloured tops of Meru, emitting the various colours of the\nred, white, black, blue, yellow, and gray stones that are embodied in\nits body, lent the sky its variegated hues in the morning and evening,\nwhile the versicolor blossoms on its tops, invited the Heavenly nymphs\nto their rambles and sports over them.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV.\n\nVASISHTHA'S VISIT TO BHUSANDA.\n\nArgument.--Description of the scenery on the top of Mount Meru.\nAllegory of the arbour of desire, the resort of all living beings.\nDescription of Birds of the mountainous region, and lastly the\ncharacter of _k\u00e1ka bhusanda_.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--I saw the _kalpa_ tree on the top of one of these\npeaks, which was girt by its branches on all sides; and covered with\nflowers appearing as tufts of hairs on its head.\n\n2. This tree was covered with the dust of its flowers, which shrouded\nit as a thick mist or cloud; and its flowers shown as bright as\nbrilliant gems upon it; its great height reaching to the sky, made it\nappear as a steeple or pinnacle standing upon the peak. (Allegorically\nthe Kalpatree is the tree of Desire, which branches out into the\nvarious objects of our wish. Its flowers are all our sanguine hopes\nand expectations, which are hidden under the dark mist of futurity.\nThe crown dwelling in its dark hollow, is the undwelling obscure soul,\nwhich is hid under the impervious gloom of our ignorant minds and false\negoism. Its nest is in the highest divinity, and it is immortal because\nit is a particle of Eternal spirit).\n\n3. Its flowers were twice as much as the number of stars in heaven,\nand its leaves redoubled the clouds in their bulk and thickness. Its\nfilaments were more shining than the flash of lightnings, and the\npollen of the flowers were brighter far than the circumambient beams of\nthe radiant sun. (The flowers of the tree of Desire being our hopes and\nexpectations, they are of course more numerous than the countless stars\nin the sky, but it is to say, what things are meant under the allegory\nof their leaflets farina and pistils).\n\n4. The songs of the sylphs dwelling on the branches of this tree,\nresounded to the buzz of the humming bees, and the nimble feet and\nwaving palms of the Apsaras in their sportive dance on every leaflet,\nreduplicated the number of the leaves as much again. (The feet and\npalms are always compared with the leaves of trees, so these meeting\non every leaf is the lightsome leaping and skipping of the airy sylphs\nover them, increased the number of leaves to more than ever so many).\n\n5. The spirits of the aerial siddhas and gandharvas hovering on this\ntree, far out-numbered the number of birds that flocked and fluttered\nabout it; and the greyish frost which wrapped it as a gemming mantle,\nout-shone the glossy rind which served for its raiment of fine linen.\n\n6. The top of this tree touches the lunar sphere, and by deriving its\nmoisture from that humid planet, yields its fruits of larger size than\nthe orb of the moon itself. And the clouds gathering about its trunk,\nhave doubled the size of its joints. (i.e. The fruits of high desire\nare fairer and larger and more cooling than even the orb of the moon,\nand its sections are as bright as the bodies of clouds).\n\n7. The gods rested on the trunk of this tree, and the Kinnaras reposed\nthemselves on its leaves, the clouds covered its arbours, and the\nAsuras slept on its banks.\n\n8. The Fairies repelled their mates by the sound of their bracelets, as\nthe bees put the beetles to flight by their busy buzzing, and sucked\nthe honey from the flowercup to their fill. (It means that females very\noften taste the sweets of their desire, while men are driven to labour).\n\n9. The arbour of desire extends on all sides of the sky, and fills the\nspace of the whole world, by embodying the gods and demigods and men\nand all kinds of living beings in it. (It is some desire or other that\ntends both the mortals and immortals in the course of their lives.\nDesire is the in-being of active life, and its want is either dulness\nor death).\n\n10. It was full of its blooming buds and blossoms, and was covered with\nits tender leaves and leaflets, it was fraught with its flourishing\nflowers, and had graced the forest all around.\n\n11. It flushed with its filaments, and abounded with its gemming\nflorets; it was replete with its radiant vestures and ornamented\ntrappings, to afford to the wants of its votaries, and it was ever in a\nflurry with sportive dance of the tender plants and creepers all around\nit.\n\n12. It was full laden with flowers on all aides, and was abundant with\nits fruits on all its branches, and being fraught with the copious\nfarina of its flowers, which it lavished and scattered on all its\nsides, it became charming and attractive of all hearts towards it.\n\n13. I saw flock of the feathered tribe fluttering about the happy\nbowers, or resting about the broad boughs and branches of the tree;\nsome of these were reposing in the coverts of the leafy arbour, and\nothers pecking the flowers and fruits with their bills.\n\n14. I saw the storks and geese which are the vehicles of Brahm\u00e1,\nfeeding on fragments of lotus-stalks, resembling the digits of the\nbright moon in whiteness; and picking the bulbous roots of the _arjuna_\nand lotus plants in the lakes.\n\n15. The goslings of the geese of Brahm\u00e1, muttered the _omk\u00e1ra_, the\ninitial syllable of the Veda, as they were addicted in it by their\npreceptor the god--Brahm\u00e1 himself.\n\n16. I saw the parrots with their blue pinions resembling the blue\nclouds of heaven, and beheld their red dusk beaks shining as the flash\nof lightnings, and uttering their shrill sound in the manner of the\n_sw\u00e1h\u00e1_ of the veda. (The parrot is the vehicle of the god of fire,\nwherefore it is fit for him to utter the syllable _sw\u00e1h\u00e1_; which is\nused in the invocation of fire: as _sw\u00e1h\u00e1 agnaye_).\n\n17. I saw also the green parrots of the god of fire, scattered all\nabout like the green _kusa_ grass lying scattered on the sacrificial\nalter of the gods; and I beheld the young peacocks with their crests\nglowing as the glistening flames of fire.\n\n18. I saw there the groups of peacocks fostered by the goddess Gaur\u00ed\n(The peacocks of Juno), as also the big peacocks belonging to the god\nKum\u00e1ra; I beheld likewise the vehicle of skanda, which are versed in\nknowledge. (One of these is said to be the expounder of a grammar,\nknown by the name of Kaum\u00e1ri Kal\u00e1pa Vyakarana).\n\n19. I saw there many bulky and big bodied birds, that are born to live\nand breed and die away in their natal air, and never alight on the\nnether ground. These were as white as the clouds of autumn and nestles\nwith their mates in air, and are commonly known under the name of\nAerial Birds.\n\n20. I saw the goslings of the breed of Brahma's geese, and the\nyounglings of the brood of Agni's parrots. I beheld the big breed of\nthe peacocks forming the vehicles of war god; (Skanda, Alexander)?\n\n21. I saw the _Bharadw\u00e1ja_ and I saw there many other kinds of big\nbirds. (Charui, birds with two mouths and gold finches with their\ngolden crests). I saw also kalavinca sparrows, the little cranes and\npelicans and cuckoos and vultures likewise and cranes and cocks.\n\n22. I saw likewise a great variety of other birds as the Bhushus,\nChushus and partridges of many kinds, whose numbers are no less than\nall the living animals of this earth taken together. (That is to\nsay, the air and water abound with fowls and fishes of as great a\nvariety and number as the animals on earth, and all of them dwell in\ntree of Desire as mankind and other terrestrial animals. _Nemo sine\ndesiderium_).\n\n23. I then began to pray from my etherial seat, and through the\nthickening leaves of the tree to the nest of the bird; amidst the\nhollows of far distant boughs towards the south.\n\n24. After some time I came to descry at a distance a body of ravens,\nsitting in rows like leaves of the branches, and resembling the\nstreaks of sable clouds on either sides of the _Lok\u00e1loka_--horizon.\n(The _Lok\u00e1loka_ mountain is a fictitious name for the horizon, which\nhas light and darkness ever attendant on its either side. The term\n_lok\u00e1loka_ or light and shade, is also used to represent vicissitudes\nof life).\n\n25. Here I beheld awhile afterwards, a lonely branch with a spacious\nhollow in it. It was strewn over with various flowers and redolent with\na variety of perfumes. (The houses of great men are always scented with\nodours. ([Sanskrit: sub\u00e1sit harmmatalam manoramam]).)\n\n26. It was as the happy abode of virtuous women in heaven, which are\nperfumed with sweet scenting clusters of flowers, and there the crows\nwere sitting in rows, as they were perfectly freed from all cares and\nsorrows.\n\n27. Their great group appeared as the big body of a cloud, separated\nfrom the tumultuous air of the lower atmosphere and resting on the calm\nfirmament of the upper sky; and the venerable Bhusunda was seen sitting\nquietly with his exalted body.\n\n28. He sat there as an entire sapphire shining prominent amongst\nfragments of glass, and seemed to be of a stout heart and mind, and of\na dignified mien and graceful appearance.\n\n29. Being heedful of the rule of the restriction of his respiration and\nsuppression of his voice, he was quite happy with his long longevity,\nand was renowned every where as a long lived passe (seer).\n\n30. He witnessed the course of ages and periods, and marked their\nadvent and exodus in repeated succession; and was thereby known as the\ntime worn Bhusunda in this world, and a being of stout and unflinching\nmind.\n\n31. He was weary with counting the revolutions of the Kalpa cycles, and\nwith recounting the returns of the preserving divinities of the world;\nsuch as the Sivas, Indras, the gods of the winds and other.\n\n32. He was the chronicler of all antiquity, and the recorder of the\nwars of the gods and demons, and the hurling of the high hills in\nheaven; and yet he was of a clear countenance and profound mind; he was\ncomplacent to all, and his words are as sweet as honey.\n\n33. This old seer related distinctly all that was unknown and\nindistinct to others, he was wanting in his egotism and selfishness,\nand was the lord over all his friends and children, and his servants\nand their seniors and he was the true narrator of all things at all\ntimes.\n\n34. His speech was clear and graceful, sweet and pleasing, and\nhis heart was as tender as the cooling lake, and as soft as the\nlotus-flower; he was acquainted with all usages and customs and the\ndepth and profoundness of his knowledge, ever the serenity of his\nappearance.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI.\n\nCONVERSATION OF VASISHTHA AND BHUSUNDA.\n\nArgument.--Reception of Vasishtha by Bhusunda, and the Inquiries of the\nsage regarding the life and acts of the crow.\n\n\nVasishtha Continued:--I then alighted before the veteran crow with my\nbrilliant etherial body, as a bright meteor falling from the sky on the\ntop of a mountain; and this my sudden appearance startled the assembly,\nas if they were disturbed by my intrusion.\n\n2. The assembly of the black birds trembled like the lotuses of the\nlake, at the shaking of the gentle breeze; and the agitation of the air\nat my slow descent, troubles them as much as an earthquake troubles the\nwaters of the deep.\n\n3. But Bhusunda who was a seer of the three times, was not at all\ndisturbed at my arrival; but know me as Vasishtha, now in attendance\nupon him. (Like a flimsy cloud from the mount).\n\n4. He then rose from his leafy seat, and advancing slowly before me, he\nsaid with sweet sounds distilling as honey. I welcome thee great sage\nto my humble cell.\n\n5. Then he stretched both hands to me, holding clusters of flowers\nthat he had at his will and then strewed them in hand-fulls upon me,\nas a cloud scatters the dewdrops over the ground. (The comparison of\nraindrops with the shedding of flowers is common in India and well\nknown by the compound term _pushpa-vrishti_).\n\n6. Take this seat said he, and stretched with his hand a newly shorn\nrind of the Kalpa tree; this he had plucked with his own hand, nor\nneeded the help of his attendant crows in this gladsome task.\n\n7. On the rising of Bhusunda, the menials also arose from their seats,\nand then on seeing the sage seated on his seat, they looked to and\nbetook themselves to their respective seats and posts.\n\n8. Then having refreshed myself with the sweet scent of the Kalpa\ncreepers all about me, I was surrounded by all the birds that gathered\nround me, and had their chief sitting face to face in front of me.\n(This time worn etiquette of old India is still in vogue in the\npolitest courts of the world).\n\n9. Having offered me the water and honey for my refreshment, together\nwith the honorarium worthy of me, the high minded Bhusunda felt the\ncheer of his mind, and then accosted me with complaisance and in words\nsweet as honey. (The serving of honey and water to guests of yore\nserved the offering of brandy and water of modern fashion).\n\n10. Bhusunda said:--O lord! thou hast after long favoured us with your\nkind visit, which has by its ambrosial influence resuscitated our arbor\nand ourselves. (Such is the visit of a superior to an inferior).\n\n11. I ween, O great Muni! that art honoured of the honourable, that it\nis by virtue of my long earned virtues that you are now brought to this\nplace, and want to be informed from where your course is bent to my\nhumble abode.\n\n12. You sir, that have long wandered amidst the great gloom of this\nworld, and know its errors by your infallible experience, must have at\nlast in the peace of your mind. (Peace after broils and strife. _Pax\npost turba_).\n\n13. What is it that makes you take this trouble on yourself today, is\nwhat we wished to be informed at present; and your answer to those that\nare expectant of it, will be deemed as a great favour by them.\n\n14. It is by the sight of your holy feet, O venerable sage! that we\nare put to the knowledge of every thing; and yet our obligation at\nthis uncalled for call of yours here, emboldens us to ask this farther\nfavour of yours. (Nobody asks nobody, that has nothing to do with him).\n\n15. We know that it is your remembrance of us among the long living,\nthat has directed your attention towards us, and made your holiness to\nsanctify this place by your gratuitous visit to us.\n\n16. Though thus we know this as the cause of your calling into us; yet\nit is our desire of satisfying ourselves with the sweetness of your\nnectarious words, that has prompted to propose this query to you at\npresent.\n\n17. In this manner did the longival crow, that was clear sighted\nwith his knowledge of the three times, deliver his inquiry by way of\nformality.\n\n18. Vasishtha answered--Yes, O king of birds! it is true as thou sayst,\nthat I have come here thus to see thy diuturnal self; (because the\naged are honoured as sages, and their shrines are visited as those of\nsaints).\n\n19. You are verily very fortunate with your cold heartedness, and your\nsagacity has haply saved you from falling into the dangerous snares of\nthis world.\n\n20. Now sir, deign to remove my doubt regarding to your anility, and\ntell me truly of what family you are born, and how you come to know\nwhat is worth knowing (respecting the origin and end of beings, and\ntheir good or bad lot afterwards).\n\n21. Tell me sir, if you remember the length of life that you have\npassed, and if you recollect by your long sightedness how you came to\nbe settled in this lodging. (Lit. who appointed this place for your\nhabitation).\n\n22. Bhusunda replied, I will relate to you all, O great sage! that\nyou ask of me, and your great soul shall have to hear it attentively\nwithout any inadvertence of your mind.\n\n23. It is certain, O venerable sir! that the topics, which deserve the\nattention of great minded souls like yourselves; will prove effective\nof destroying the evils of the world, as the influence of the clouds\nand their propitious rains remove the heat of the sun.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII.\n\nDESCRIPTION OF BHUSUNDA'S PERSON.\n\nArgument.--Vasishtha relates to R\u00e1ma of the perfections of Bhusunda's\nBody and Mind, which entitled him to the enjoyment of his liberation in\nhis living time.\n\n\nVasishtha said:--Now R\u00e1ma, know this Bhusunda, who was of a complexion\nas black as that of a cloud heavy with water in the rainy season; to\nhave a countenance which neither merry nor sorry, and a mind free from\nguile and cunning.\n\n2. His voice was grave and mild, and his words were accompanied by a\ngentle smile, and he spoke of the three worlds, as if he balanced three\n_beal_ fruits in his hands. (His knowledge of the worlds, was as that\nof the globe in his hands).\n\n3. He looked on all things as they were mere straws before him, and\nweighted the lives of men in proportion to their enjoyments, and by\nthe ratio of their rations on earth, he had the knowledge of the\nknowables and the unknowable one (called the common and transcendental\nknowledge-_par\u00e1nara_).\n\n4. He was big bodied grave and quiet, and sedate as the mount Mandara;\nand his mind was as full and clear as the calm ocean after a storm.\n\n5. His mind was perfectly tranquil and quite at ease; and full of joy\nwithin itself; and acquainted with the appearance and dis-appearance of\nall beings born in this world.\n\n6. His countenance was delightsome with his inward delight, and his\nvoice was as sweet as the melody of a sweet song; he seemed to have\ntaken a new born form on himself, and his joyfulness dispelled the\nfears of men.\n\n7. After he had respectfully received and accosted me, with his pure\nand dulciate words; he began to recite to me his own narration, as the\nrumbling of a rainy cloud, delights the hearts of the thirsty world.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVIII.\n\nMANNERS OF THE M\u00c1TRIKA GODDESSES.\n\nArgument.--Bhusunda traces his origin from the M\u00e1tres, whose manners\nand revelries he describes in length.\n\n\nBhusunda related:--There is in this world, the god of gods Hara\n(Horus?) by name; who is the chief among the celestials, and honoured\nby all the divinities of heaven.\n\n2. He had his consort Gaur\u00ed constituting the better half of his body,\nand by whom he is embraced in the manner of an ivy clasping the young\nAmra tree. Her bosom likened a cluster of blooming blossom, and her\neyes resembled the lines of black bees fluttering in the summer sky.\n\n3. The hoary locks of hair on the braided head of Hara, were entwined\nas with a white lace, by the snow white stream of Ganges, whose billows\nand waves as clusters of flowers on the hair-band.\n\n4. The crown of his head was decorated with the gemming milk-white\ndisk of the moon, which sprung from the bosom of the milky ocean; and\nspread her bright radiance and ambrosial dews about his person. (The\nstreams of ganguari are represented as consorts of Hara, and the moon\nas forming the discus on the braces of the hairs on his head).\n\n5. The incessant effusion of ambrosial draughts, from the disk of the\nmoon on his crest, has made him immortal by assuaging the heat of the\ndeadly poison which he swallowed, and has marked his throat with the\nbluish hue of the sapphire or _lapis lazuli_, whence he named the blue\ngulletted N\u00edla Kantha. (Hara is said to have swallowed the k\u00e1la-kuta\npoison, as Hercules drank his full bowl of henbane).\n\n6. The god is besmeared with powdered ashes on his body, as\nemblematical of the particles of dust, to which the world was reduced\nby the flame of his all destructive conflagration; while the stream\nof water flowing from the Ganges on his head, is typical of the\ncurrent of his clear knowledge of all things. (Others make the burning\nfire of his frontal eye _bh\u00e1la netra_ to represent the flash of his\ncognoscence--jn\u00e1n\u00e1gni).\n\n7. His body is decorated with strings of blanched bones, which are\nbrighter far than the silvery beams of fair moon, and these serve as\nnecklaces of argent and pearly gems about his person. (Hence he is\nnamed as Jala-padda-m\u00e1lika).\n\n8. His vest is the open sky with its plates of folded clouds, which\nare washed by the milk white beam of the moon, and studded with the\nvariegated spots of the stars. (This means the nudity of the god, hence\ncalled Digamvara or sky attired).\n\n9. He is beset by the prowling shakals, devouring the burnt carcasses\non funeral grounds, and holds his abode beyond the habitations of men,\nin cemeteries and mortuaries in the outer skirts of cities. (Whence his\nname of Smash\u00e1na s\u00e1y\u00ed).\n\n10. The god is accompanied by the M\u00e1tres, who are decorated with\nstrings of human skulls about their necks, and girt with the threads of\ntheir entrails on their bodies; while the fat and flesh of dead bodies,\nand the blood and moisture of putrid carcasses, form their delectable\nfood and drink.\n\n11. Their bodies are soft and shining as gold, and moving about with\nsparkling gem on their heads and bracelets of snakes curled round their\nwrists.\n\n12. The acts of this god are dreadful to relate, and strike terror in\nhearts of the gods and demons, and all beings beside. One glance of his\neye (coup d'oeil) is enough to set the mountains in a blaze, and his\nhunger grasps the whole world in one morsel.\n\n13. The perpetual rest of his meditative mind in holy trance sam\u00e1dhi,\nhath restored the world to rest; and the movement of his arms at\nintervals, is attended with the destruction of demons.\n\n14. His forms of the elements are intently lent on their fixed\npurposes, without being deterred from them by the impulses of his\nanger, enmity or affection; and the wind of his breath makes the\nmountains to tremble, and turn the humid earth to arid ground.\n\n15. His playmates are the devils with their heads and faces, resembling\nthose of bears and camels, goats and serpents; and such as have their\nheads for hoofs, and their hoofs as their hands, and whose hands serve\nas their teeth, and who have their faces and mouths set upon their\nbellies and breasts.\n\n16. His face shone brightly with the rays of his three eyes (whereby he\nis denominated the triple eyed god _trinetra_); and the _m\u00e1tres_ were\ndependant on him as his dependant demoniac bands--_gana-devat\u00e1s_.\n\n17. The M\u00e1tres joined with the bands of demons, dance about him lowly\nat his bidding, and feed upon the living bodies, that are born and dead\nin all the fourteen regions of creation.\n\n18 The M\u00e1tres having their faces as those of asses and camels, rove at\ngreat distances from him; and are fond of feeding on the flesh and fat,\nand drinking the red hot blood of bodies as their wine. They have the\nfragments and members of dead bodies, hanging about their persons as\nstrings of pearls.\n\n19. They reside in the hollows of hills, in the open sky and in other\nregions also; they dwell also in the holes underneath the grounds, and\nlike to abide in cemeteries and in the holes and pores of human and\nbrute bodies.\n\n20. There are the goddesses known under the names of Jay\u00e1 and Vijay\u00e1,\njayant\u00ed and Aparajit\u00e1; and again siddha Rakt\u00e1 and Alambush\u00e1, and also\nanother bearing the name of utpat\u00e1.\n\n21. These eight are denominated the Nayikai of leaders, of the whole\nbody of M\u00e1trikas; the others are subordinate to these, and there are\nothers again subordinate to them.\n\n22. Among all these venerable M\u00e1tres, there one by name of Alambush\u00e1,\nthat is the source of my birth; and this I have revealed to you on\naccount of your great favour to me, by your kind call to my cell.\n\n23. She had the crow by name of Chanda for her vehicle, which had its\nbones and bills as strong as the bolts of Indra's thunder; it was as\ndark as a mountain of jetblack or blue agate, and served her goddess as\nGaruda served the consort of Vishnu.\n\n24. This octad of M\u00e1tri goddess were once assembled together, and bent\ntheir course in the ethereal firmament on some of their malevolent\npurposes.\n\n25. They made their merry makings and religious revels in the air, and\nthen turned their course to the left side where they halted at the\nshrine of Tumburu, which was sacred to Siva.\n\n26. They there worshipped the forms of Tumburu and Bhairava, which are\nadored in all the worlds; and then regaled themselves with a variety of\ndiscourses, seasoned with drinking and to ping.\n\n27. Then they look up the topic among other subjects of their\nconversation, as to whether they were slighted and disliked by their\nparamour--the spouse of Um\u00e1, who is taken to share one half of his\nbody. (In the shape of androgyne--Um\u00e1--Maheswara or Hara--Gaur\u00ed; having\nthe male and female bodies joined in two halves in one bisex forms).\n\n28. We shall now show him our prowess, that he may never think of\ndespising our great powers even by a contemptuous look, for though the\ngod feigns to be single and naked, yet we know he is bipartite with his\nconsorts Um\u00e1 forming his better half.\n\n29. Thus determined the goddesses overpowered on Um\u00e1 by some potent\ncharm of theirs, and by sprinkling a little water upon her, as they\ndo to captivate a beast, which they are going to sacrifice before\nthe altar, and by this spell they succeeded both to change the fine\nfeatures of Durga, as also to enervate her frame.\n\n30. They succeeded also by their power of enchantment, to detach Um\u00e1\nfrom the body of Hara, and set her before them, with an imprecation of\nconverting her fair form to their meat food.\n\n31. They made great rejoicings on the day of their execration of\nP\u00e1rvati; when they all joined in dancing and singing, and making their\ngiddy revelries before her.\n\n32. The shouts of their great joy and loud laughter resounded in the\nsky, and the jumping and hopping of their big bodies, laid open their\nbacks and bellies to sight.\n\n33. Some laughed as loudly with the deafening clappings of their palms,\nthat they rebounded in the sky as the roarings of lions and clouds.\nThey showed the gestures of their bodies in their warlike dance, and\nthe sound of their singing rang through the forests and reached in the\nmountains.\n\n34. Others sang as loud as it rang through the mountain caves, and ran\nto the depth of the ocean; which rebillowed with its surges as at the\ntime of the full-moon tide.\n\n35. Others drank their bowls, and daubed their bodies from head to foot\nwith liquor; and muttered their drunken chatters, that chattered in the\nsky.\n\n36. They drank over and sang louder and louder, they turned about as\ntops, and uttered and muttered as sots. They laughed and sipped and\nchopped and fell down and rolled and prattled aloud. Thus they reeled\nin fits, and bit the bits of their flesh meats, till these Bacchanal\ngoddesses did all their orgies in their giddy revels.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIX.\n\nBHUSUNDA'S NATIVITY AND HABITATION.\n\nArgument.--Account of the birth of Bhusunda.\n\n\nBhusunda continued. Thus while the goddesses were in the acts of their\nmerriment, their bonny vehicles or carrier birds also caught the\ninfection, and indulged themselves in their giddy jigs and giggles, and\nin tippling the red blood of their victims for their liquor.\n\n2. Then giddy with their drink the gabbling geese, that were fit\nvehicles for Brahm\u00e1's consorts, danced and frolicked in the air, in\ncompany with the crow Chanda the carrying bird of Alambush\u00e1.\n\n3. Then as the geese darted down, and kept dancing and drinking and\ntittling on the banks of streams, they felt impassioned and inflamed by\nlust: because the borders of waters are excitants of concupiscence.\n\n4. Thus the geese being each and all excited by their carnal desire,\ndallied with that crow in their state of giddiness, which is often the\ncause of unnatural appetites.\n\n5. Thus that single crow--Chanda by name, became spoused to seven geese\nat once on that bank; and cohabited one by one with every one of them,\naccording to their desire.\n\n6. Thus the geese became pregnant after gratification of their lust,\nand the goddesses being satisfied by their merry dance, held their\nquiet and took to their rest.\n\n7. Then these goddesses of great delusion (mah\u00e1 m\u00e1y\u00e1), advanced towards\ntheir consort Siva, and presented unto him his favorite Um\u00e1 for his\nfood.\n\n8. The god bearing the crescent moon on his fore-head, and holding the\ntrident spike in his hand; coming to know that they had offered his\nbeloved one for his meat, became highly incensed on the M\u00e1tres.\n\n9. Then they brought out the parts of the body of Um\u00e1, which they had\ntaken in as their food from their bodies; and presented her entire for\nher remarriage with the moon-headed deity.\n\n10. At last the god Hara and his consorts being all reconciled to one\nanother together with their dependants and vehicles, retired to their\nrespective quarters with gladness of their minds.\n\n11. The geese of Brahm\u00e1 perceiving their pregnancy, repaired to the\npresence of their goddess, and represented to bear their case, as I\nhave, O chief of sages! already related unto you.\n\n12. The Devi on hearing their words, spake kindly unto them and\nsaid:--you my menials, cannot now be capable of bearing my car in the\nair as before; but must have the indulgence of moving about at your\npleasure, until you have delivered of your burthens.\n\n13. After the kind goddess had said these words to her geese, that\nwere ailing under the load foetuses, she betook herself to her wonted\nmeditation, and remained in her irreversible rest with the gladness of\nher mind.\n\n14. The geese that were now big with the burden of their embryos,\ngrazed in the lotus bed of Vishnu's navel, which had been the birth\nplace of the great Brahm\u00e1 before. (Brahm\u00e1 the creative power, owed his\nbirth to the lotiform navel of Vishnu, and the same place was all owed\nfor the pasture of the geese and the nativity of the goslings).\n\n15. The geese then being matured in their pregnancy, by feeding upon\nthe lotus-like navel of Vishnu, brought forth their tender eggs in\ntime, as the calmly creepers shoot out in sprouts in the spring.\n\n16. They laid thrice seven eggs in their proper time, which afterwards\nsplit in twain, like so many mundane eggs in their upper and lower\nvalves or canals.\n\n17. It was these eggs, O great sage! that gave birth to thrice seven\nbrethren of ours, all of whom are known under the appellation of the\nfraternity of chanda crows.\n\n18. These being born in the lotus bed of Vishnu navel, were fostered\nand bred up in the same place, till they were fledged and enabled to\nfly and flutter in the air.\n\n19. We then joined with our mother geese in the service of our\nM\u00e1tri-goddess, who after our long services unto her, was roused from\nher intense meditation at last.\n\n20. Now sir, it was in course of time, that the goddess inclined of her\nown complaisance, to receive us into her good grace, and favour us with\nthe gift (of foresight), whereby we are quite liberated in this life.\n(It is over one's blindness of the future, that is the cause of the\nerror and mischief of life).\n\n21. Thought in ourselves of remaining in peace, and in the tranquillity\nof our minds; and being determined to betake ourselves to solitary\ncontemplation, we went to our sire the old crow Chanda for his advice.\n(In the Vindhyan mountain).\n\n22. We were received into the embrace of our father, and favoured with\nthe presence of his goddess Alumbusha; they looked on us with kindness,\nand allowed us to remain near them with our self restricted conduct.\n\n23. Chanda said:--O my darlings! Have ye obtained your release from\nweaving the web of your desires? You are then set free from the snare\nof this world, which binds fast all beings in it.\n\n24. If not so, then I will pray unto this goddess of mine, who is\nalways propitious to her devotees, to confer on you the blessing of\nconsummate knowledge (which alone can save you from all worldly evils).\n\n25. The crows replied--O sir! we have known whatever is knowable, by\nthe good grace of the Goddess Brahm\u00e1, it is only a good solitary place,\nwhich we now seek for the sake of undisturbed meditation.\n\n26. Chanda returned--I will point it out to you, in the high mountain\nof Meru in the polar region; which is the seat of all the celestials,\nand the great receptacle of all the treasures and gems on earth.\n\n27. This mountain stands as the lofty pillar of gold, in the midst of\nthe great dome of the universe; it is lightet by the luminous orbs of\nthe sun and moon as its two lamps, and is the residence of all kinds of\nanimals.\n\n28. This lofty mountain stands as the lifted arm of this orb of the\nearth, with its gemming peaks and pinnacles resembling its fingers and\ntheir jewels, and having the moonbeam, as a golden canopy raised over\nits head, and the sounding main girding the islands for its bracelets.\n\n29. The mount Meru is situated in the midst of the Jambudw\u00edpa (Asia)\nas its sole monarch, and is beset by the boundary mountains as its\nchieftains on all sides. With its two eye balls of the rolling sun and\nmoon, it glances over the surrounding hillocks, as the king seated in\nthe centre, looks on the courtiers sitting all about him.\n\n30. The clusters of stars in the sky, hangs as wreaths of m\u00e1lati\nflowers around his neck, and the bright moon that leads the train of\nstars, forms the crowning jewels over his head, the firmament on the\nten sides girds him as his vest, and the n\u00e1gas of both kinds (_i.e._\nthe elephants and serpents) are warders at his gates.\n\n31. The nymphs of heaven are employed in fanning him with the breeze\nfrom all quarters, and flapping over him their _chouries_ of the\npassing clouds, with their hands decorated with the variegated hues of\nheaven as their ornaments.\n\n32. His huge body stretched over many leagues, and his feet are rooted\nfast many fathoms underneath the earth; where they are worshipped by\nthe n\u00e1gas, Asuras and large serpents. (That dwell at the foot of the\nmount, while the races of gods are situated on its top).\n\n33. It has thousands of ridges and steeps, craigs and cliffs, below its\ntwo eyes of sun and moon; and these are lauded as celestial regions by\nthe Gods, gandharvas and kinnaras that inhabit in them.\n\n34. There are fourteen kinds of superior beings, inhabiting the\nsupernal sphere of this mountain; and these dwell there with their\nhouseholds and relatives, in their respective circles, without ever\nseeing the city or citadel of another. (This means the great extent\nand distance of the several separate ridges from one another. Its\nfourteen ridges or regions are known as the chaturdasa--vhuvanas, and\nfourteen peoples are included under the title of thirteen classes\nof celestials--_troadasa-gana-devat\u00e1s_. These are the brahmarshis,\nRajarshis, Devarshis, Devas, Pitris, Gandharvas, Kinnaras, Apsaras,\nVidy\u00e1dharas, Yakshas, Rakshas, Pramathas, Guhyakas and N\u00e1gas (the last\nof whom are not recognized among celestial beings).)\n\n35. There is a large ridge on the north east corner of this mount, with\nits gemming summit rising as high and bright as the shining sun.\n\n36. There stands a large _kalpa_ tree on the out side of that ridge,\nwhich is peopled with living beings of various kinds; and appears to\npresent a picture of the whole world in miniature.\n\n37. The southern stem of this tree has a protruding branch with its\naureate leaves, and its blossoms blooming as clusters of brilliant\ngems; and presenting its fruit as lucid and luscious to view, as the\nbright and cooling orb of the moon.\n\n38. I had formerly built my nest on that branch, and decorated it with\nall sorts of shining gems; and there it was, oh my offspring! that I\nsported and enjoyed myself, as long as my goddess sat in her meditative\nmood.\n\n39. My nest was hid under the gemming flowers, and stored with luscious\nfruits, and its door was fastened with bolts of precious gems.\n\n40. It was full of young crows, who knew how to behave properly with\none another; Its inside was strewn over with flowers, and was cooling\nat all times and seasons.\n\n41. Repair therefore, my children! to that nest, which is inaccessible\neven to the gods; because by remaining there, you will obtain both your\nlivelihood and liberation without any molestation. (Livelihood with\nliberty, is the best blessing on earth).\n\n42. Saying so, our father kissed and embraced everyone of us; and\npresented to us the meat food, which he had got from his goddess.\n\n43. After taking our repast, we prostrated ourselves at the feet of our\nfather and his goddess, and then flew in the air, from the Vindhyan\nrange which is sacred to the divinity of Alumbusha.\n\n44. We passed over the nether sky, entered into the region of the\nclouds; then coming out of their hollow caves, we flew aloft on the\nwings of the winds to the vacuous void of the etherial gods to whom we\npaid our homage.\n\n45. Having then passed the solar world, we arrived at another sphere\nof the fixed stars above, where we saw the heaven of the immortals and\nthence reached the empyrean of Brahm\u00e1.\n\n46. There we bowed down to the goddess Br\u00e1hm\u00ed, and our mother (the\ngoose) which was her vehicle; and related in length to them the behest\nof our father unto us.\n\n47. They endeared and embraced us with kind affection, and then bade us\nto do as we were bid by our sire. At this we bowed down to them, and\ntook our departure from the seat of Brahm\u00e1.\n\n48. We then directed our flight to Meru where we found out this _kalpa\ntree_ and our appointed nest in it. Here we line apart and remote from\nall, and hold our silence in all matters.\n\n49. We passed the region of the regents of the skies, which shone to a\ngreat distance with the blaze of solar rays; we fled through the empty\nair with the velocity of winds.\n\n50. I have thus related to you in length in answer to your query,\nregarding the manner of our birth and how we are settled in this place;\nI have told you also how we came to the knowledge of truth, whereby we\nhave come to this state of undisturbed peace and tranquillity, now bid\nus, O great Sage! what more can we relate to satisfy your curiosity\nabout us.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XX.\n\nEXPLICATION OF THE MYSTERIOUS CHARACTER OF BHUSUNDA.\n\nArgument.--The stability of the world even at the change and\ndissolution of the worldly objects; and the immortality of Bhusunda\neven after the Demise of his Brethren.\n\n\nBhusunda continued. This world has existed by the prior and bygone\nkalpa, in the very same state as it does at present, and there is no\nvariation in the formation or location of any thing in any wise. (The\nante-diluvean world alike the post-diluvean).\n\n2. Therefore O great Sage! I am accustomed to look to the past and\npresent with an equal eye, and will relate the events of my passed life\nand by gone ages for your information, as if they are existent with me\neven at present. (It is the fashion of the old chroniclers, to describe\nthe long past as if it is actually present before them).\n\n3. I find to-day, O great Sage! the fruit of my pious acts of my passed\nlife, that have rewarded me with your blessed presence in this my\nhumble cell.\n\n4. This nest of mine, this branch of the tree, this _kalpa_ arbour and\nthis myself, are all blessed by your propitious presence in this place.\n(The sight of a superior is a great favour).\n\n5. Deign Sir, to accept of this seat and this honorarium, which are\nhere offered to you by a suppliant bird; and having purified us by\nyour kind acceptance of our poor offerings, please command what other\nservice can we render unto you. (_i.e._, what more can I relate to you).\n\n6. Vasishtha said:--R\u00e1ma! after Bhusunda had again presented the\nseat and honorarium to me, I proffered to him another request in the\nfollowing words.\n\n7. I said, tell me, O thou senior among birds, why don't I see here\nthose brethren of yours, who must be equally senile and strong in their\nbodies and intellects, as thou showest thyself to be.\n\n8. Bhusunda answered and said:--I am here destined to remain alone,\nO Muni! to witness the continuous course of time, and to count and\nrecount the revolutions of ages, as they reckon the succession of days\nand nights.\n\n9. During this length of time, I had the misfortune to witness all\nmy juniors and younger brothers, to their mortal frames as trifling\nstraws, and find their rest in the blessed state (Of eternity).\n\n10. I saw, O great Sage! the very long lived, and the very great\nindignity, the very strong and very wise, to be all gorged in the\nunconscious bowels of bodiless death. (The great and small equally\nfall; and time at last devours them all. Non semper erit \u00e6stas).\n\n11. Vasishtha said:--Say, O venerable father! how you remained\nunmolested by the deluvian tempest, which outstripped the winds in its\nvelocity, and bore the great bodies of the sun and moon and stars as\njewels hanging about its neck.\n\n12. (The deluvian tempest is called _tufani nuh_ or hurricane of Noah\nin the Koran. The Khandapralaya is a partial deluge of the earth, but\nthe mah\u00e1pralaya is the aggregate of all the cosmic revolutions of the\nwhole world).\n\n12a. Say, O primeval seer! how you escaped unscorched by the burning\nflame of solar rays, which melted down the uprising mountains, and\nconsumed there the woods in one all devouring conflagration. (The\nburning sun on the day of the last dissolution, is said in the Koran,\nto come down and stand at a lance's distance above the heads of men).\n\n13. Say, O senile sire, how you remained unfrozen under the cold moon\nbeams, that froze the limpid waters to hard stone; and how you fled\nunhurt from the showers of hail, which were poured in profusion by the\ndeluvian clouds.\n\n14. Say, O ancient bird! why you were not crushed under the snows,\nwhich fell from the deluvian clouds as thickly as huge trees, when they\nare felled by axes from the tops of high hills.\n\n15. Say, why this _kalpa tree_ which rises higher than all other\nforests, was not broken down, when all other arbors on earth, were\nlevelled to the ground by the universal tornado.\n\n16. Bhusunda replied:--Our station, O Br\u00e1hman! in the open and empty\nair, is quite supportless and without any solid or fixed support. It\nis either unnoticed or looked upon with disregard and contempt by all,\nand our living and livelihood is the most despicable among all living\nbeings. (All this is meant of the soul, which is here personified as a\nbird--a dark crow, and named as the _amara_ Bhusunda, a contemptuous\nword often applied to senile people).\n\n17. Thus has the Lord of beings appointed these aerial beings, to\nremain free from disease and death in these forests, or fly about in\nthe empty air in their aerial course. (The forests mean the living\nbodies, and the empty air is the field for the rambles of disembodied\nspirits).\n\n18. How then, O venerable sir, can any sorrow or sickness betide us\nhere, where we are born to be immortal, and rove freely in open air;\nand are free from those pains and sorrows, which betake those birds\nthat are bound in snares of their desires, and are subject to their\nhopes and fears.\n\n19. We sir, have always placed our reliance on the peace and\ncontentment of our souls, and never allow ourselves to fall into error,\nof taking the insubstantials for substantial.\n\n20. We are quite content with what simple nature requires and affords,\nand are entirely free from those cares and endeavours which are\nattended with pain. We live only to pass our time in this our own and\nlonely lodging (which is allotted to us by providence).\n\n21. We neither wish to live long to wallow in our bodily enjoyments nor\ndesire death to avoid the retribution of our acts; but live as long\nas we have to live, and die when death comes upon us. (Neither love\nthy life nor hate, but live well how long or short permit to heaven.\nMilton).\n\n22. We have seen the changeful states of mankind, and witnessed many\ninstances of the vicissitudes of human affairs, and have thereby\nbanished all sorts of levity from our bodies and minds. (Lit. the\nrestlessness of body and mind).\n\n23. By the constant light of our internal spirit, we are kept from the\nsight of all sorrow and grief; and from our seat on the height of the\nkalpa tree, we clearly see the course of the world and the changes\nof time. (The kalpa tree of desire is at once the tree of life and\nknowledge of the garden of paradise, because both of them are equally\ndesirable to man; and any one who is seated above this tree, must\nknow all things by his all knowingness and immortality as the soul of\nBhusunda).\n\n24. Though we are wholly unacquainted with the changes of days and\nnights, on this high pinnacle of our heavenly mountain (where there is\nthe eternal sunshine of Divine presence); yet we are not ignorant of\nthe vicissitudes of the times and events, in the solar and sublunary\nworlds which roll incessantly below us.\n\n25. Though our habitation in the cell of this Kalpatree, is ever\nillumined by the light of gems which are inlaid in it; yet we can\nknow the course of time by the respirations of our breath, which as a\nchronometer informs us with the regular course of time. (The ajap\u00e1 or\nbreathings indicate the succession of time, as any time piece or the\ncourse of days and nights).\n\n26. Knowing what is real from all that is unreal, I have desisted from\nmy pursuit after unrealities, and settled in my knowledge of the true\nreality; and by forsaking its natural fickleness, my mind is practised\nto rest at all times in its perfect peace and tranquillity. (The mind\nis no more troubled with the tempting trifles of the world, after it\nhas come to know their falsity and vanity).\n\n27. We are not led to the snare of false worldly affairs, nor\nfrightened like earthly crows in our hankering after food by the\nhissings of men.\n\n28. It is by the serene light of the supreme felicity of our souls, and\nby the virtue of the unalterable patience of our minds, that we look\ninto the errors and delusions of the world, with out falling in them\nourselves.\n\n29. Know great sage, that our minds remain unruffled, even under\nthe shock of those dangers and perils, which ruffle the tempers and\nunderstandings of ordinary people; just as the pure crystal remains\nunstained by the blackest hues that environ it all around.\n\n30. The course of the world, appears very smooth and pleasant in its\nfirst beginning; but upon mature consideration, it proves to be frail,\nfickle and false, as one goes on in it.\n\n31. Thus all living beings are seen to pass away, and whether to return\nhere again or not, no body can tell; what then is it that we must fear\n(knowing death and demise to be the unavoidable doom of nature).\n\n32. As the course of streams runs continually to the ocean, so the\nprogress of life tends incessantly to the depth of eternity; but we\nthat stand on the border of the great ocean of eternity, have escaped\nfrom being carried away by the current of time.\n\n33. We neither cling to our life nor fling it away, but bear it as well\nas we may, and remain as airy orchids, lightly touching and unattached\nto their supporting arbour.\n\n34. It is more over by the good of the best sort of men, who are beyond\nthe reach of fear, sorrow and pain like yourself; that we have been set\nfree from all sorts of malady.\n\n35. From the examples of such persons, our minds have become cold, and\nunconcerned about the affairs of busy life; and are employed only in\nscanning truth and the true nature of things. (Blessed are they that\nmeditate on the laws of God both day and night).\n\n36. Our souls finding their rest in their unchangeable and unperturbed\nstate, have the fullness of their light and delight, as the sea has\nits flux of floodtide at the rising of the full and new moon upon its\nbosom. (The flood of spiritual light in the soul, resembling the flood\nof hightide in the sea).\n\n37. Sir, we were as highly pleased at your presence here at this\ntime, as the milky ocean was overflown at its churning by the Mandara\nmountain. (The Mandara mountain is said to have been the resort of the\nremnants of men at the great deluge, and was used by them as their\nchurning stick, to recover their lost properties from the depth of the\nwaters. The recovery was rather joyous to the men than it could be to\nthe sea).\n\n38. Sir, We do not account any thing as more precious and more\nfavourable unto us, than that the holy saints that have nothing to\ndesire, should take pains to pay their kind visit to our humble cell.\n\n39. What do we gain from our enjoyments, which are pleasant for the\ntime being, and lose their zest the next moment; it is the company\nof the great and good only, that gives the best gifts like the\nphilosopher's stone.\n\n40. You sir, who are cool and grave in your nature, and soft and sweet\nand slow in your speech, are like the beneficent bee, that sits and\nsips the juice from the flowers in the three worlds, and converts it to\nthe sweet balm of honey.\n\n41. I ween, O spiritual Sage! all my sins to be removed at your blessed\nsight, and the tree of my life to be blest with its best fruit of\nspiritual bliss, which results from the society of the virtuous, and\nwhose taste removes all diseases and dangers.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXI.\n\nEXPLANATION OF THE CAUSE OF THE CROW'S LONGEVITY.\n\nArgument.--The eminence of the kalpa tree, and its durability in all\nages. The doings of destiny, and the results of past reminiscence.\n\n\nVhusunda continued. This kalpa tree whereon we dwell remains firm\nand unshaken amidst the revolutions of ages and the blasts of all\ndestroying cyclones and hurricanes. (Figuratively said of human\ndesires, which continue with the soul through all the vicissitudes of\nlife, and all its endless transmigrations, so says ([Sanskrit: k\u00e1lah\nkr\u00ednati gacchaty\u00e1yustadapi namunchaty\u00e1s\u00e1rbayuh]).)\n\n2. This arbor of desire is inaccessible to other people dwelling in\nall worlds; it is therefore that we reside here in perfect peace and\ndelight, and without disturbance of any kind. (_i.e._ We dwell on the\nfirm rock of our secret hopes and expectations, where no body can\nobtrude upon us, and of which no external accident has the power to\ndespoil us).\n\n3. When Herany\u00e1kha the gigantic demon of antediluvian race, strove to\nhurl this earth with all its septuple continents into the lowest abyss,\neven then did this tree remain firm on its roots, and on the summit of\nthis mountains.\n\n4. And then as this mountainous abode of the gods, stood trembling with\nall other mountains of this earth (on the tusk of the divine Var\u00e1ha or\nboar), even then did this tree remain unshaken on its firm basis.\n\n5. When N\u00e1r\u00e1yana supported this seat of the gods on his two arms\n(_i.e._ the Meru), and uplifted the mandara mount on the other two,\neven then did this tree remain unshaken.\n\n6. When the orbs of the sun and moon, shook with fear, at the\ntremendous warfare of the gods and demons, and the whole earth was in a\nstate of commotion and confusion, even then did this tree stand firm on\nits root.\n\n7. When the mountains were up-rooted by the hail-storms blowing with\ntremendous violence, and sweeping away the huge forest trees of this\nmount of Meru, even then was this tree unshaken by the blast.\n\n8. When the mount Mandara rolled into the milky ocean, and gusts of\nwind filling its caverns (like canvases of a vessel), bore it afloat\non the surface of the water; and the great masses of diluvian clouds\nrolled about in the vault of heaven, even then did this tree remain\nsteadfast as a rock.\n\n9. When this mount of Meru was under the grasp of K\u00e1lanemi and was\ngoing to crush by his gigantic might (with its inhabitants of the\ngods), even then this tree remained steady on its roots.\n\n10. When the siddhas were blown away by the flapping wings of\nGaruda--the king of birds, in their mutual warfare for this ambrosial\nfare, even then this remained unmoved by the wind.\n\n11. When the snake which upholds the earth, was assailed by Rudra in\nthe form of Garuda, who shook the world by the blast of his wings, even\nthen was this tree unshaken by the wind.\n\n12. When the flame of the last conflagration, threatened to consume the\nworld with the seas and mountains; and made the snake which supported\nthe earth on his hoods, throw out living fire from all his many mouths,\neven then this tree was neither shaken nor burnt down by the gorgeous\nand all devouring fire.\n\n13. Such being the stability of this tree, there is no danger O Sage!\nthat can betake us here, as there is no evil than can ever betide the\ninhabitants of heaven. How can we, O great Sage! be ever exposed to any\ndanger, who are thus situated in this tree which defies all casualties.\nWe are out of all fear and danger as those that are situated in heaven.\n(The object of one's desire is in a manner his highest heaven).\n\n14. Vasishtha rejoined: But tell me, O Sagely bird! that has borne with\nthe blasts of dissolution, how could you remain unhurt and unimpaired,\nwhen many a sun and moon and stars have fallen and faded away.\n\n15. Bhusunda said: When at the end of a kalpa period, the order of\nthe world and laws of nature are broken and dissolved; we are then\ncompelled to forsake our nest as an ungrateful man alienates his best\nfriend.\n\n16. We then remain in the air freed from our fancies, the members of\nthe body become defunct of their natural functions, and the mind is\nreleased from its volitions.\n\n17. When the zodiacal suns shine in their full vigour, and melt\ndown the mountains by there intense heat, I then remain with my\nunderstanding; under the influence of Varuna's mantra or power. (Varuna\nthe god of water is said to be allied with the human soul, which is a\nwatery substance).\n\n18. When the diluvian winds blow with full force, and shatter and\nscatter the huge mountains all around, it is then by minding the\np\u00e1rvat\u00ed mantra, that I remain as fixed as a rock. (Vasishtha has\nexplained the meaning of this mantra in the latter part of the _Nirv\u00e1na\nprakarana_).\n\n19. When the earth with its mountains is dissolved into water, and\npresents the face of an universal ocean over its surface; it is then by\nvirtue of the _v\u00e1yu mantra_ or my volatile power, that I keep myself\naloft in the air.\n\n20. I then convey myself across this visible world, and rest in the\nholy state of the spotless spirit; and remain in a state of profound\nsleep, without any agitation of the body and mind.\n\n21. I remain in this torpid state, until the lotus-born Brahm\u00e0 is\nagain employed in his work of creation, and then I re-enter into the\nlimits of the re-created world, where I settled again on this arbour of\ndesire. (The departed soul is free from desire, which it re-assumes to\nitself upon its re-entrance into life).\n\n22. Vasishtha said: Tell me, O lord of birds, why the other Yogis do\nnot remain as steady as you do by your dh\u00e1ran\u00e1 or fixed attention.\n\n23. Bhusunda replied, O venerable sir! It is because of the inseparable\nand overruling power of destiny, which no body can prevent or set\naside; that I am doomed to live in this wise and others in their\nparticular modes of life.\n\n24. None can oppose or remodel what must come to pass on him; it is\nnature's law that all things must be as they are ordained to be. (There\nis no helping for what is destined to happen, what is allotted, can not\nbe averted).\n\n25. It is because of my firm desire that things are so fixed and\nallotted to my share, that they must so come to pass to my lot at each\nkalpa and over again, and that this tree must grow on the summit of\nthis mountain, and I must have my nest in its hollow. (The heart is\nthe hollow of the tree of the body, and the soul is the bird that is\nconfined there of its own desire).\n\n26. Vasishtha said: You sir, are as longeval as our salvation is\ndiuturnal, and are able to guide us in the paths of truth; because you\nare sapient in true wisdom, and sedate in your purpose of Yoga or deep\nmeditation.\n\n27. Sir, you have seen the many changes of the world, and have been\nexperienced in all things in the repeated course of creations; must be\nbest able to tell me the wonders that you have witnessed during the\nrevolution of ages.\n\n28. Bhusunda replied--I remember, O great sage! the earth beneath this\nmount of Meru to have been once a desolate land, and having no hill or\nrock, nor trees, plants or even grass upon it. (This was the primeval\nstate of the earth, when nothing grew upon it, and agrees with what the\nPersian sophist thinks with regard to the priority of the soul to all\nother created things, as \"_manan wakt budam ke nechak nabud_\" I existed\nwhen there is nothing in existence).\n\n29. I remember also the earth under me, to have been full of ashes for\na period of myriads and centuries of years. (This was the age after the\nall devouring conflagration on earth).\n\n30. I remember a time when the lord of day--the sun was unproduced, and\nwhen the orb of the moon was not yet known, and when the earth under me\nwas not divided by day and light, but was lighted by the light of this\nmount of Meru.\n\n31. I remember this mountain throwing the light of its gems on one side\nof the valley below it, and leaving the other in utter darkness; and\nresembling the lok\u00e1loka mount presenting its light and dark side to the\npeople on either side of the horizon. (The sun is said to turn round\nthe Meru, and the day and night as he is on one or the other side of\nthis mountain).\n\n32. I remember to have seen the war rising high between the gods and\ndemons, and the flight and slaughter of people on all sides of the\nearth.\n\n33. I remember to have witnessed the revolution of the four yuga-ages\nof the world, and the revolt of the haughty and giddy assyrians--asuras\nall along; I have also seen the Daitya--demons driven back to the wall.\n\n34. I remember the spot of the earth, which was borne away beyond the\nboundaries of the universal flood; and recollect the cottage of the\nworld, to have only the increate three (the Holy triad) left in it.\n\n35. I remember to have seen no other creature on earth, except the\nvegetable creation for the long duration of one half of the four\nyuga-ages. (The earth was covered with jungle for a long period after\nthe great flood).\n\n36. I also remember this earth to be full of mountains and mountainous\ntracts, for the space of full four yugas; when there were no men\npeopled on earth, nor their customs and usages got their ground in it.\n\n37. I remember to have seen this earth filled with the bones of dead\nDaityas and other fossil remains, rising in heaps like mountains, and\ncontinuing in their dilapidated and crumbling state for myriads of\nyears. (These are the fossil remains of the monsters of the former\nworld).\n\n38. I remember that formless state of the world, when darkness\nprevailed over the face of the deep, when the serpentine support of the\nearth fled for fear, and the celestials left their etherial courses;\nand the sky presented neither a bird or the top of a tree in it.\n\n39. I remember the time when the northern and southern divisions\n(of India), were both included under the one boundary mountain (of\nHimalaya); and I remember also when the proud vindhyan vied to equal\nthe great Meru.\n\n40. I remember these and many other events, which will be too long to\nrelate; but what is the use of long narrations, if you will but attend\nto my telling you the main substance in brief.\n\n41. I have beheld innumerable Munis and manwantaras pass away before\nme, and I have known hundreds of the quadruple yugas glide away one\nafter the other, all of which were full of great deeds and events; but\nwhich are now buried in oblivion.\n\n42. I remember the creation of one sole body named Vir\u00e1t in this world,\nwhen it was entirely devoid of men and asuras in it.\n\n43. I remember that age of the world, when the Brahmans were addicted\nto wine and drunkenness, when the Sudras were out casted by the Suras\n(Aryans); and when women had the privilege of polyandry (which is still\npractised among the Pariahs of Deccan).\n\n44. When the surface of the earth presented the sight of one great\nsheet of water (after the deluge), and entirely devoid of any vegetable\nproduce upon it; and when men were produced without cohabitation of man\nand woman, I remember that time also (when Bhrigu and the patriarchs\nwere born in this manner).\n\n45. I remember that age of the world, when the world was a void, and\nthere was no earth or sky nor any of their inhabitants in it, neither\nmen nor mountains were in existence, nor were there the sun and moon to\ndivide the days and nights.\n\n46. I remember the sphere of heaven shrouded under a sheet of darkness,\nand when there was no Indra nor king to rule in heaven or earth, which\nhad not yet its high and low and middle classes of men.\n\n47. It was after that, the Brahm\u00e1 thought of creating the worlds,\nand divided them into the three spheres of the upper, lower and the\nintermediate regions. He then settled the boundary mountains, and\ndistinguished the Jambudv\u00edpa or the continent of Asia from the rest.\n\n48. Then the earth was not divided into different countries and\nprovinces, nor was there, the distinctions of cast and creed, nor\ninstitutions for the various orders of its people. There was then no\nname for the starry frame, nor any denomination for the polar star or\nits circle.\n\n49. It was then that the sun and moon had their birth, and the gods\nIndra and Upendra had their dominions. After this occurred the\nslaughter of Hiranya-Kasipu, and the restoration of the earth by the\ngreat Varaha or boar like incarnation of Vishnu.\n\n50. Then there was the establishment of kings over the peoples on\nearth, and the revelation of the Vedas given to mankind; after this the\nMandara mountain was uprooted from the earth, and the ocean was churned\nby the gods and giant races of men.\n\n51. I have seen the unfledged Garuda or bird of heaven, that bore\nVishnu on his back; and I have seen the seas breaking in bays and\ngulfs. All these events are remembered by me as the latest occurrences\nin the course of the world, and must be in the memory of my youngsters\nand yourself likewise.\n\n52. I have known in former ages the god Vishnu with his vehicle of\nGaruda, to have become Brahm\u00e1 with his vehicle of swan, and the\nsame transformed to Siva having the bull for his bearer and so the\nvice-versa. (This passage shows the unity of the Hindu trinity, and the\ninterchangeableness of their persons, forms and attributes).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXII.\n\nACCOUNT OF PAST AGES.\n\nArgument.--The various Events of bygone days, and the changes in the\norder of things in the world.\n\n\nBhusunda continued:--Moreover I will tell you sir, many other things\nthat I remember to have occurred in the course of the world, and\nunder the flight of by gone times. I remember the births of the seers\nBharadw\u00e1ja, Pulasta, Atri, N\u00e1rada, Indra, the Mar\u00edchis and yourselves\nalso.\n\n2. I bear in my mind the venerable Pulaha, Udd\u00e1laka, kratu, Bhrigu,\nAngiras and Sanatkum\u00e1ra, Bhringi and Ganesa, and Skanda and others in\ntheir train, who were known as Siddharshis or consummate sages of yore.\n\n3. I retain the memory of Guar\u00ed, Sarasvat\u00ed, Laxm\u00ed, Gayatr\u00ed and many\nmore famous females, who are reckoned as female personifications of\ndivine attributes. I have seen the mountains Meru, Mandara, Kail\u00e1sa,\nthe Himalayas and the Dardura hills.\n\n4. I carry in my memory the exploits of the demons Hirany\u00e1ksha,\nK\u00e1lanim\u00ed, Hayagr\u00edva, Hiranya Kasipu, Vati and Prahl\u00e1da and many others\nof the D\u00e1nava or Demoniac race.\n\n5. I keep in my mind the remembrance of the renowned Sibi, Nyanku,\nPrithu, Vainya, Nala, N\u00e1bh\u00e1ga, Mandh\u00e1ta, Sagara, Dilipa and Nahusa\nkings of men and rulers of earth.\n\n6. I know by heart the names of Atriya, Vyasa, V\u00e1lm\u00edki, Sukadeva,\nV\u00e1tsyayana and other sages, and know by rote the names of Upamanyu,\nManimanki, Bhag\u00edratha and other pious princes of old.\n\n7. So there are many things of remote past times, and others of later\nages and some relating to the present age; all of which are imprinted\nin the memory, wherefore it is needless to recount them over again.\n\n8. O thou Sagely son of Brahm\u00e1! I remember thy eight births, in the\neight different epochs of the world, and this is verily thy eight\nbirths in which thou hast become a guest to my nest.\n\n9. You are at one time born of air, and at another of heavenly fire;\nyou are some time produced from water, and at others from empty\nvacuity or of the solid rock. (_i.e._, formed of one or other of these\nelementary bodies at different periods of the world).\n\n10. The constitution of created bodies, conforms us with the nature of\nthe principle elements of which they are formed; and the positions of\nheavenly bodies, have a great influence on their production. I have\nwitnessed three such formations of the world composed of igneous,\naqueous and terrene substances at different times.\n\n11. I remember ten repeated creations, in which the usages of people\nwere uniform and alike; and the gods were settled in their abodes\n(_i.e._, the Aryans led nomadic life). They were coeval with the Asuras\nwhom they braved in battle, and were located in their homestead.\n\n12. I saw the earth sinking five times under, and lifted up as many\ntimes by the divine _Kurmamanantara_, or incarnation of Vishnu in the\nform of the tortoise, from below the overflowing ocean.\n\n13. I witnessed the great tumult of Suras and Asuras or the Gods\nand demi-gods, in uprooting and uplifting the Mandara mountain, for\nchurning out the last ambrosia from underneath the ocean for twelve\ntimes over. (The meaning of _Samudara manthana_ or churning of the sea,\nseems to be the refining of the salt water of the deluging sea).\n\n14. Thrice have seen the imposing Hirany\u00e1ksha, that levied his tax upon\nthe gods in heaven, hurling the fruitful earth with all her balmy and\nmedicinal plants underneath the ocean.\n\n15. I beheld Hari to have come down six times in the shape of Renuka's\nson or Parashur\u00e1ma, and extirpate the Kshetriya race at the intervals\nof very long periods.\n\n16. I remember, O Sage! the return of a hundred _kaliyuga_ ages, and a\nhundred incarnations of Hari in the form of Buddha, and as the son of\nroyal Suka or Suddhadana in the land of Kirata.\n\n17. I bear in my remembrance the overthrow of _tripura_ thrice ten\ntimes by Siva, and the discomfiture of Dakhas' ceremony for more than\nonce by the irritated Hara; and I recall to my mind the downfall of\nten Indras by the offending God, who bears the crescent moon on his\nforehead (and the confinement of their thunder-bolts within the caverns\nof volcanoes glass).\n\n18. I recollect the battle that has been fought eight times between\nHari and Hara, and the first appearance of Vishnu and Siva, jvaras or\nthe cold typhoid fevers in these conflicts. (This means the rising of\nthe malarious fevers of Dinajpur, which raged among the belligerent\nforces on both sides).\n\n19. I remember, O silent Sage! the difference in the intellects of\nmen at every succeeding age, and the various readings of vedas at the\nceremonial observances of mankind. (This means the varieties of reading\nof the vedas as pointed in the prati s\u00e1kha, and the difference of\nphonetic intonation as shown in the sikshas, have greatly tended to the\ndepravity of vedic recitation, and consequently to their inefficacy in\nproducing their desired consequence also).\n\n20. O sinless saint! The Pur\u00e1nas also though they agree in the main\nsubstance, are so full of interpolations, that they have been greatly\nmultiplied in successive ages. (It is quite true of works in manuscript\nand without their gloss).\n\n21. I remember also many historical works, which have been composed by\nauthors learned in the vedas in the succeeding ages. (These works are\ncalled Itih\u00e1sas or legendary accounts, as the epics of R\u00e1m\u00e1yana and\nMah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata by V\u00e1lm\u00edki and Vy\u00e1sa respectively).\n\n22. I have the recollection of the other wondrous composition of\nlegendary accounts, under the title of the Mah\u00e1r\u00e1m\u00e1yana a work\ncomprising one hundred thousand slokas or tetrastichs, and replete with\nsound wisdom. (This was revealed by Brahm\u00e1 to Vasishtha and Visw\u00e1mitra).\n\n23. This work presents the conduct of R\u00e1ma for the imitation of the\nmen, and sets the misbehaviour of R\u00e1vana to the opprobrium of mankind.\nThis precept contains the essence of all wisdom, and serves as the\nluscious fruit of the tree of knowledge, placed in the palm of all\npeople. (The substance of these instances is, that virtue is true\nhappiness below and vice is bane of life).\n\n24. This work is composed by V\u00e1lm\u00edki, who will compose some others also\nin time; and these you will come to know, when they will be presented\nto world in time (as I have known them before hand by my foreknowledge\nof things, gloss) (This work is called Vasishtha R\u00e1ma samv\u00e1da in the\nform of a dialogue as those of Socrates and Plato).\n\n25. This work whether it is a composition of V\u00e1lm\u00edki, or the\ncomposition of some other person, is published for the twelve times,\nand is now going to be almost forgotten by men.\n\n26. The other work of like importance, is known under the name of\nBh\u00e1rata; I remember it to have been written by Vy\u00e1sa at first, but is\nbecoming obsolete at present.\n\n27. Whether it is the composition of person known by the name of Vy\u00e1sa,\nor a compilation of some other person, it has up to this time undergone\nits seventh edition, and is now going fastly to be forgotten.\n\n28. I remember also, O chief of Sages! many tales and novels and other\ns\u00e1stras, composed in every age and Yuga; which have been written in a\nvariety of styles and diction.\n\n29. O good sage! I remember to have seen also many new productions\nand inventions, following one another in succeeding age; and it is\nimpossible to enumerate this innumerable series of things.\n\n30. I remember the Lord Vishnu descending many times on earth, for\nthe destruction of ferocious R\u00e1ksasas, and is now to appear here the\neleventh time under the appellation of R\u00e1ma.\n\n31. I know the lord Hari to have thrice come down in his form of\nNrisinha or leonine man, and thrashed the demon Hiranyakasipu as many\ntimes, as a lion kills a gigantic elephant. (_i.e._ Although the gods\nare of smaller forms and figures, yet they got the better of the\ngiants, by means of their better arms and knowledge of warfare).\n\n32. Vishnu is yet to be born in his sixteenth incarnation at Vasudeva's\nabode, for the purpose of rescuing the earth from the burthen of the\noppression of its tyrannic lords and despots.\n\n33. This cosmic phenomenon is no reality, nor it is even in existence;\nit is but a temporary illusion, and appears as bubble of water to\ndisappear in next moment.\n\n34. This temporary illusion of the phenomenals, rises and sets in the\nconscious soul of its own accord; as the boisterous billows heave and\nsubside themselves in the bosom of the waters.\n\n35. I have known the world to be sometimes uniform in its course and in\nthe state of things, at others there is a partial difference in their\nnature and order, and again total change has also been observed to take\nplace in the constitution of things. (Nature is never uniform, but all\nare subject to change more or less from its original state).\n\n36. I remember the former nature and state of things, and the manner\nand actions of bygone people and the usages of those times; I saw them\ngive room to others in their turn and those again to be displaced by\nothers. (He that wants an even uniformity to see, expects what never\nhad been, nor ever will be).\n\n37. Every Manwantara or revolution of time; is attended O Brahman! with\na reversion in the course of the world; and a new generation is born to\nsupplant the old men of renown.\n\n38. I have then a new set of friends and a new train of relatives; I\nget a new batch of servants, and a new habitation for my dwelling.\n\n39. I had to remain some times in my solitary retreat by the side of\nthe Vindhyan range, and some times on the ridge of the Sahya Mountain.\nI had at other times my residence on the Dardura Hills, and so my\nlodging is ever shifting from one place to another and never fixed in\nany spot forever. (The Dardura is the Dardue Hill in Afghanistan).\n\n40. I have often been a resident of the Himalayas, and of the Malaya\nMountain in the South of India, and then led by destiny as described\nbefore, I have found my last abode on this mount of Meru.\n\n41. By getting to it, I built my nest on the branch of an Amra or mango\ntree, and continued to live there, O chief of the Munis! for ages and\ntime without end.\n\n42. It is by my pristine destiny that this tree has grown here for my\nresidence, therefore, O sage! I can have no release from this body\nof mine to come to my desirable end. (_i.e._ the soul like a bird is\ndestined by its prior acts, to endless transmigrations in material\nbodies, which are compared to its habitable trees, and from which it\ncan have no release, although it pines for its dis-embodied liberation,\nas a decrepit old man wishes to get loose of his loathsome body).\n\n43. It is by appointment of the predestination, that the same tree\nhas grown here in the form of the _kalpa_ arbour, which preserves the\nbeauty even now, as it did at the time when my father Chanda had been\nliving.\n\n44. Being thus pre-ordained by destiny I was settled in this place,\nwhen there had been no distinction of the quarters of heaven as the\nnorth or east, nor of the sky or mountain.\n\n45. Then the north was on another side, and this Meru was in another\nplace; I was then one and alone, and devoid of any form or body, and\nwas as bright as the essence, which is never shrouded by the darkness\nof night.\n\n46. After awaking from the insensibility of my trance (at the beginning\nof another _kalpa_ creation or of my generation), I saw and recognized\nall the objects of creation (as one comes to see and know the things\nabout him after waking from the forgetfulness of his sleep); and knew\nthe situations of the Meru and other hills and dales from the positions\nof the stars, and the motions of heavenly bodies.\n\n47. The site of the polar circle of Meru and the course of the planets\nbeing changed in different creations, there ensues an alteration of the\npoints of the compass, and a difference in the sides of the quarters;\ntherefore there is nothing as a positive truth, except our conception\nof it such and such.\n\n48. It is the vibration of the soul, that displays these wonderful\nconceptions in the mind; and excites the various phenomena in nature.\nIt converts a son to a father and makes a son of the father, and\nrepresents a friend as a foe and again shows a foe in the light of a\nfriend. (Hence there is no such thing as a positive certainty, but\nbecomes transmutable to one in opposite nature, as the father supports\nthe child in its youth, and is supported by the boy in his dotage).\n\n49. I remember many men to become effeminate, and many women also to\ngrow quite masculine; and I have seen the good manners of the golden\nage to prevail in Kali [yuga], and those of Iron-age gaining ground in\nits preceding ages.\n\n50. I have seen also many men in the Tret\u00e1 and Dw\u00e1para Yugas or the\nsilver and brazen ages of the world, that were ignorant of the Vedas\nand unacquainted with their precepts; and followed the fictions of\ntheir own invention which led them to heterodoxy.\n\n51. I remember also O Brahman! the laxity of manners and morals among\nthe gods, demi gods and men since the beginning of the world.\n\n52. I remember after the lapse of a thousand cycles of the four Yuga\nages, that Brahm\u00e1 created from his mind some aerial beings of unearthly\nforms; and these spiritual beings occupied a space extending over ten\ncycles of creations.\n\n53. I remember likewise the varying positions and boundaries of\ncountries, and also the very changing and diversified actions and\noccupations of their people. I remember too the various costumes and\nfashions and amusements of men, during the ceaseless course of days and\nnights in the endless duration of time.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIII.\n\nDESIRE OF TRANQUILLITY AND QUIESCENCE OF THE MIND.\n\nArgument.--Relation of the vices and virtues which hasten and prevent\ndeath, and the peace and rest of the mind which is sought after by\nmankind.\n\n\nVasishtha rejoined:--I then besought the chief of the crows, that was\nstationed on one end of a branch of the _kalpa_ tree, to tell me how he\nwas not liable to fall into the hands of death, when all other animals\nmoving about the expanse of the world, are doomed to be crushed under\nits all devouring jaws.\n\n2. Bhusunda replied, You sir, that know all things and would yet ask me\nto tell that you know full well. Such bidding of my master emboldens\nyour servant to speak out where he should otherwise hold his tongue.\n\n3. Yet when you desire me to tell, I must do it as well as I can,\nbecause it is deemed to be the duty of a dependant, to carry out the\ncommands of their kind masters.\n\n4. Death will not demolish the man, who does not wear on his bosom\nthe pearl-necklace of his vicious desires; as a robber does not kill\na traveller that has not the pernicious chain of gold hanging on his\nbreast.\n\n5. Death will not destroy the man whose heart is not broken down by\nsorrows, whose breast is not sawed as a timber by the friction of his\nsighs, and whose body is not worsted by toil like a tree by canker\nworms.\n\n6. Death will not overtake the man, whose body is not beset by cares\nlike a tree by poisonous snakes, lifting their hoods above its head;\nand whose heart is not burnt by its anxieties, like a wood by its\nenraging fire.\n\n7. Death will not prey upon the person, which is not vitiated by the\npoison of anger and enmity, and cavity of whose heart does not foster\nthe dragon of avarice in its darkness, and whose heart is not corroded\nby the canker of cares.\n\n8. He is not carried away by the cruel hand of death, whose body is not\nalready fried by the fire of his resentment, which like hidden heat of\nthe submarine fire, sucks up the waters of reason in the reservoir of\nthe mind.\n\n9. Death will not kill the person whose body is not inflamed by the\nfiery passion of love; which like the wild fire consumes the hoarded\ncorn of good sense, and as a pair of sharp scissors rives the heart\nstrings of reason.\n\n10. Death doth not approach the man, that puts his trust in the one\npure and purifying spirit of God, and hath the rest of his soul in the\nlap of the supreme soul.\n\n11. Death does not lay hold on the person that is firm and sedate in\nthe same posture and position, and does not ramble like an ape from one\ntree to another, and whose mind is a foreigner to fickleness.\n\n12. Thus then the mind being settled in unalterable state of calm\nrepose in its Maker, it is no more possible for the evils and diseases\nof this world, to overtake it at any time.\n\n13. The fixed and tranquil mind, is never overtaken by the sorrows and\ndiseases of the world; nor it is liable to fall into the errors and\ndangers, which betide the restless mob here below.\n\n14. The well composed mind, hath neither its rising nor setting, nor\nits recollection nor forgetfulness at any time or other. It has not its\nsleeping or waking state, but has its heavenly revery which is quite\ndistinct from dreaming.\n\n15. The vexatious thought which take their rise from vitiated desire\nand feelings of resentment and other passions, and darken the region\nof the heart and mind, can never disturb the serenity of those souls,\nwhich have their repose in the Supreme Spirit.\n\n16. He whose mind is enrapt in holy meditation, neither gives away to\nnor receives anything from others, nor does he seek or forsake whatever\nhe has or has not at any time. He does his duties always by rote as he\nought without expectation of their reward or merit.\n\n17. He whose mind has found its repose in holy meditation, has no cause\nof his repentance, for doing any misdeed for his gain or pleasure at\nany time.\n\n18. He has enough of his gain and an excess of his delight and a good\ndeal of every good, whose mind has met with the grace of his God. (He\nthat has the grace of God, has every thing given and added to him).\n\n19. Therefore employ your mind, to what is attended with your ultimate\ngood and lasting welfare; and wherein there is nothing of doubt or\ndifficulty, and which is exempt from false expectation.\n\n20. Exalt your mind above the multiplicities of worldly possessions,\nwhich the impure and unseen demon of evil presents for the allurement\nof your heart, and settle it in the unity of the Divinity. (So did\nSatan attempt in vain to tempt our Lord to worldly vanities and all its\npossessions).\n\n21. Set your heart to that supreme felicity which is pleasant both in\nthe beginning and end, and even delectable to taste; that is pleasant\nto sight, sweet to relish, and is wholesome in its effect.\n\n22. Fix your mind to what is sought by all the good and godly people,\nwhich is the eternal truth and the best diet of the soul, from its\nbeginning and during its course in the middle and end and throughout\nits immortality.\n\n23. Apply your mind to what is beyond your comprehension, which is the\nholy light, which is the root and source of all, and wherein consists\nall our best fortune and the ambrosial food for our souls.\n\n24. There is no other thing so very permanent or auspicious among\nimmortals or mortals, and among the gods and demigods, Asuras and\nGandharvas, and Kinnaras and Vidy\u00e1dharas, nor among the heavenly\nnymphs, as the spiritual bliss of the soul.\n\n25. There is nothing so very graceful or lasting, to be found in cities\nand mountains and in the vegetable creation, nor among mankind and\ntheir king, nor any where in earth or heaven as this spiritual felicity.\n\n26. There is nothing steady or graceful, among the N\u00e1ga-snake or Asura\nraces and their females, and in the whole circles of infernal region.\n\n27. There is nothing so lovely and lasting in the regions above and\nbelow and all around us, and in the spheres of all other worlds, so\nvery graceful and durable as the lasting peace of mind.\n\n28. There is nothing that is felicitous or persistent in this world,\namidst all its sorrows and sicknesses and troubles which encompass all\nabout. All our actions are for trivial matters and all our gains are\nbut trifles at best.\n\n29. There is nothing of any lasting good, in all those thoughts which\nemploy the minds of men and gladden their hearts, and which serve at\nbest to delude the sapient to the fickleness of their spirits.\n\n30. No permanent good is derived from the ever busy thoughts and\nvolitions and nolitions of mankind, which tend at best to trouble their\nminds, as the Mandara mountain disturbed the waters of the deep, at the\ntime of its churning by the gods and demons.\n\n31. No lasting good results to any body from his continuous exertions,\nand various efforts about his gain and loss even at the edge of the\nsword (_i.e._, even at the peril of one's life).\n\n32. Neither is the sovereignty of the whole earth so great a boon,\nnor is one's elevation to the rank of a deity in heaven so great a\nblessing; nor even is the exaltation of one to the position of the\nworld supporting serpent so great a gain, as the sweet peace of mind of\nthe good.\n\n33. It is of no good to trouble the mind, with its attention to all the\nbranches of learning, nor is it of any advantage to one to employ his\nwits and enslave his mind to the service of another, nor of any use to\nany body, to learn the histories of other people, when he is ignorant\nof himself and his own welfare.\n\n34. It is of no good to live long, under the trouble of disease and the\nsorrow of life. Neither is life or death, nor learning nor ignorance,\nnor heaven or hell any advantage or disadvantage to any body, until\nthere is an end of his desires within himself.\n\n35. Thus these various states of the world and all worldly things, may\nappear gratis to the ignorant vulgar, but they afford no pleasure to\nthe learned who knows their instability. (Hence longevity and stability\ndepend on one's reliance in the eternal God, and not on the transient\nworld).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIV.\n\nINVESTIGATION OF THE LIVING PRINCIPLE.\n\nArgument.--Disquisition of the Arteries and organs of the body. The\nseat of life and its actions.\n\n\nBhusunda continued:--All things being thus unstable, unprofitable and\nunpleasant to man, there is one reality only in the view of the wise,\nwhich is beyond all error and imperishable, and which though present in\nall things and all places, transcends the knowledge of all.\n\n2. This essence is the soul or self, and its meditation is the remover\nof all sorrow and affliction. It is also the destroyer of the erroneous\nvision of the world, which has passed every man, and biased his\nunderstanding by his long habit of thinking this phantom of his dream\nas a sober reality.\n\n3. Spiritual contemplation dawns in the clear atmosphere of the\nunpolluted mind, and traverses amidst its whole area like the solar\nlight, and it destroys the darkness of all sorrows and erroneous\nthought which over spreads it.\n\n4. Divine meditation being unaccompanied by any desire or selfish view,\npenetrates like the moon-beams through the darkness of the night of\nignorance.\n\n5. This spiritual light is easily obtainable by Sages like you, and too\ndifficult to be retained (dh\u00e1ran\u00e1) by brutes like ourselves. Because\nit is beyond all imaginable resemblance, and is known by the ravished\nSages as the transcendent light.\n\n6. How can a man of common understanding come to the knowledge of\nthat thing, which is an associate to the clear understanding of the\nmeditative Sage only.\n\n7. There is a little resemblance of this spiritual light, with the\nintellectual light of philosophers, whose minds are enlightened by the\ncooling moon-beams of philosophy, as those of the inspired saints are\nillumed with spiritual light.\n\n8. Among the associates of spiritual knowledge, there is one\nparticularly friendly to me, which alleviates all my sorrows, and\nadvances my prosperity, and this relates to the investigation of the\nvital breath which is the cause of life.\n\n9. Vasishtha said: After speaking in this manner the Sagely bird\nBhusunda held his silence, when I calmly joined my rejoinder, and\nadduced my question to him by way of amusement, though I was full well\nacquainted with the subject.\n\n10. I addressed him saying, O thou long living bird, and remover of all\nmy doubts, tell me truly, my good friend, what you mean by meditation\nof the vital breath (which you say to be the cause of vitality).\n\n11. Bhusunda replied: You sir, who are learned in the knowledge of\nVed\u00e1nta, and sure remover of all doubts in spiritual science, are now\nby way of joke only, putting this question to me who am but a brute\nbird and an ignorant crow.\n\n12. Or it may be to sound my shallow knowledge of the subject, and to\ninstruct me the rest in which I am imperfect, that you like to have my\nanswer to the question, wherein I can lay no objection (as no body is\nunprepared to know more and better of a subject).\n\n13. Hear me, tell you some thing relating to cogitation of vital\nbreath, which has the cause of Bhusunda's longevity and the giver of\nBhusunda's spiritual knowledge.\n\n14. You see sir, this beautiful fabric of the body, supported upon the\nthree strong pillars or posts of the three humours; and having nine\ndoorways about it. (The three humours are the bile, phlegm and wind,\nand the nine openings are the earholes, nostrils, the sockets of the\neyes, the mouth).\n\n15. This abode is occupied by its owner or the haughty house\nholder--Ahank\u00e1ra or egoism, who dwells in it with his favourite consort\n_Puryashtak\u00e1_, and his dependants of the Tanm\u00e1tras at all times. (These\nterms have been explained before).\n\n16. You well know the inside of this house which I need not describe,\nits two ears are as its two upper storied rooms, the two eyes are as\nits two windows, and the hairs on the head are as its thatched covering\non the top of the house.\n\n17. The opening of the mouth is the great door way to the house, the\ntwo arms are as its two wings; and the two sets of teeth answer the\nstrings of flowers, which are hung on the gate way for its decoration.\n\n18. The organs of sense are the porters to this house, and convey the\nsights and sounds, flavours and feelings of things in to it. These are\nenclosed by the great wall of the body, and the two pupils keep watch\non tower of this edifice.\n\n19. The blood, fat and flesh form the plaster of this wall, and the\nveins and arteries answer the strings to bind the bamboos of the bones\ntogether, and the thick bones are the big posts that uphold this fabric.\n\n20. There are two tender nerves called _Id\u00e1_ and _Pingal\u00e1_, which lie\nand stretch along the two sides of this building.\n\n21. There are three pairs of lotus like organs formed of soft flesh and\nbones, and these stretch up and down perpendicularly in the body, and\nare attached to one stalk like artery connecting them with one another.\n\n22. Then the etherial air which is inhaled through the nostrils,\nsupplies these lotiform organs with moisture, as if it poured water\nat their roots, and makes them shoot out in soft leaflets, shaking\ngently at the breath of air, passing incessantly through the lungs and\nnostrils.\n\n23. The shaking leaves agitate the vital air, as the moving leaves of\nthe trees in the forest, increase the force of the current air in the\nfirmament.\n\n24. The inflated vital air then passes in many ways, through the holes\nof the entrails inside the body, and extends to and fills all the pores\nand canals of the frame from top to bottom.\n\n25. These then receive different appellations, according to their\ncourse through the several, and are denominated as the five fold vital\nairs of _pr\u00e1na_, _ap\u00e1na_, _sam\u00e1na_, _ud\u00e1na_, and _vy\u00e1na_; by them that\nare skilled in science of pneumatic. (The _pr\u00e1na-v\u00e1yu_ is the breathing\nof the nostrils, the _ap\u00e1na_ is the wind in _ano_, _sam\u00e1na_ is the air\ncirculating through the whole body, _ud\u00e1na_ is the air of speech, and\nthe _vy\u00e1na_ is the air let out through the pores of the whole body).\n\n26. All the vital powers reside in the triple lotiform organ of the\nheart, and thence extend up and down and on all sides like beams from\nthe lunar disk.\n\n27. These vital powers are employed in passing in and out, in taking in\nand letting out, in rising and falling, and also in moving throughout\nthe body.\n\n28. The pr\u00e1na or air of life is said by the learned to be situated\nin the lotus formed organ of the heart, which has also the power of\nmoving the eyelids in their twinklings. (Hence one's life time is\nmeasured both by the numbers of his breathings, as also by that of the\ntwinklings of his eye).\n\n29. This power some times assumes the form of touch or the feeling\nof perception, and at others it takes the shape of breath by blowing\nthrough the nostrils. Some times it is seated in the stomach for\nculinary action, and oft-times it gives utterance to speech.\n\n30. What more shall I say, than that it is our lord--the air, that\nmoves the whole machine of the body, as a mechanic models everything by\nmeans of his machinery.\n\n31. Among these there are two principal airs, by name of _pr\u00e1na_ and\n_ap\u00e1na_, which take their two different courses upward and downward,\nthe one is the breath of life and the other is the vitiated which is\nlet out.\n\n32. It is by watching the course of these airs that I remain quiet at\nthis place, and undergo the vicissitudes of heat and cold, as it is\ndestined to the lot of the feathered tribe.\n\n33. The body is a great machine, and the two airs are its indefatigable\nmover. It has the sun and moon or the fire and moonlight, shining in\nthe midst of its heart.\n\n34. The body is a city and the mind is its ruler, the two airs are as\nthe car and wheel of the body; while Egoism is the monarch of this\ncity, and the eight members are as so many horses attached to the car\nof the body.\n\n35. Thus by watching the motion of those airs (_i.e._ of the _pr\u00e1na_\nand _ap\u00e1na_--inspiration and expiration for the whole of my lifetime);\nI find the course of my life to be as interminable, as that of the\ncontinuity of my breathings. (The thought of continuity prolongs the\ncourse of life).\n\n36. The airs serve the body alike in all its states of waking,\ndreaming, and sound sleep, and his days glide on imperceptibly who\nremains in his state of profound sleep. (so the yogi remaining in his\ntrance is utterly insensible of the course of time).\n\n37. These breaths being divided into a thousand threads, according as\nthey pass through the many canals of the body, are as imperceptible as\nthe white fibres passing inside the stalks of lotus plants.\n\n38. By watching the incessant course of vital airs, as also by\nattending to the continued course of time, and thinking in one self of\nthe interminable course of his respirations, and the moments of time\nand train of his thoughts, as also by attempting to restrain their\ncourse by the habit and practice of _pr\u00e1n\u00e1y\u00e1ma_, that he is sure to\nlengthen the duration of his life in this world; and attain to his\neternal life in the next.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXV.\n\nON SAM\u00c1DHI.\n\nArgument.--On the Breathings of Inspiration, Respiration and\nExpiration, and their rise and fall from and in the spirit of Brahma\nthe origin and end of all.\n\n\nVasishtha said:--Hear R\u00e1ma, when the bird had said so far, I\ninterrupted him and said, tell me, O ancient seer, how and what is the\nnature of the course of vital airs.\n\n2. Bhusunda replied:--How is it, O sage! that you who know everything,\nshould propose this question to me as if it were in jest, but as you\nask this of me, I must tell you all I know about it.\n\n3. The vital breath, O Brahman! is a moving force by its nature, and is\nalways suo motu in its own motion, and pervades both in the inside and\noutside of bodies which its animates.\n\n4. The _ap\u00e1na_ or the emitting air also is a self motive power, and in\nits incessant motion; and is both within and without the living body,\nin its downward or receding direction.\n\n5. It is good for livings being to restrain these vitals breaths both\nin their waking and sleeping states, and now hear me tell you, O\nlearned sage, how it is to be effected for their best gain.\n\n6. The internal vital air (pr\u00e1na), extends from the lotus-like heart\nto the crevice in the cranium, its effort to come out (by the mouth\nand nostrils), is termed by the wise as rechaka or exhaled air. (The\nexpiration coming out of the heart, and reaching the cerebrum is called\nthe rechaka breath).\n\n7. The meeting of breaths at the distance of twelve inches from and\nbelow the nostrils, is called the _puraka_ or inhaling-breath. (This is\ntermed the [Sanskrit: v\u00e1hyap\u00faraka] or external inspiration).\n\n8. It is also called _Puraka_, when the breath passes from without,\nand enters within the inner _ap\u00e1na_ without any effort, and fills the\ninside from the heart to the cerebrum.\n\n9. When the ap\u00e1na air has subsided in the heart, and _pr\u00e1na_ breath\ndoes not circulate in the breast, it is called the _Kumbhaka_ state,\nand is known to the yogis only.\n\n10. All these three sorts of breaths, are perceived at the place from\nwhere the _ap\u00e1na_ takes its rise, and this is at the distance of twelve\ninches below on the outside of the tip of the nose.\n\n11. Hear now, O great minded sage! what the clear minded adepts have\nsaid, respecting the natures of the ever continuative and effortless.\n(_i.e._ self respiring) breathings.\n\n12. Know sir, that the air which is inhaled from the distance of twelve\ninches on the out side of the tip of the nose, the same receives of its\nown nature the name of puraka or that of another.\n\n13. As the outer part of a pot planted in the earth appears to sight,\nso the ap\u00e1na breath stretching to the distance of twelve inches\njust opposite to the tip of the nose in the air on the out side, is\nperceptible to the yogi, and is called Kumbhaka by the learned.\n\n14. The exhaling air which rises from the heart, and extends to the\ntip of the nose, is styled the primary and external _puraka_ breath\n([Sanskrit: \u00e1dyah v\u00e1hyap\u00farakam]) by the adepts in Yoga practice.\n\n15. There is another (or secondary) external _puraka_ air known to the\nwise, which takes its rise from the tip of the nose, and extends to the\ndistance of twelve inches out-side of it.\n\n16. After the pr\u00e1na breath sets out-side the nostrils, and before the\nap\u00e1na breath has yet its rise, this interval of the entire abeyance of\nboth, is known as the state of perfect equalization, and termed the\nexternal Kumbhaka.\n\n17. The air which breathes out in the heart or pulsates within it,\nand without the rising of the _ap\u00e1na_ breath; is styled the external\n_rechaka_ in the Yoga system; and its reflection confers perfect\nliberation to man.\n\n18. And this rising at the distance of twelve inches, in another kind\nof it and called the strong _rechaka_.\n\n19. There is another kind of _puraka_, which is on the outside of the\n_ap\u00e1na_; and when it stretches to the inside of the navel within, it is\nknown under the names of Kumbhaka &c.\n\n20. The intelligent man who meditates by day and night on the octuple\nnature, and course of the _pr\u00e1na_ and _ap\u00e1na_ or the inhaling and\nexhaling airs, is not doomed to be reborn any more in this miserable\nearth.\n\n21. I have thus related to you the various courses of the bodily airs,\na restraint of which in the waking and sleeping states of man, as also\nin his states of sitting and waking, is productive of his liberation.\n\n22. Though these are very fleeting in their natures, yet they are\nrestrained by the good understanding of man, even when he is employed\nin his work or is in his act of eating.\n\n23. The man that practises the _Kumbhaka_ or suppression of his\nbreathing within himself, cannot be employed in any action; but must\nremain calmly in this act of suppression, by giving all external\nthoughts and actions. (_i.e._, as in a state of torpidity).\n\n24. A few days practice of this Yoga, by abnegation of all outward\nobjects from the mind, enables a man to attain to the state of his\nsolity, or his unity with the sole entity of the Deity.\n\n25. Intelligent men have no fondness for worldly things, but bear an\naversion to them as a holy Brahm\u00e1n has against the sweet milk contained\nin a flask of skin. They remain regardless of visible objects, with\nhis eyes closed against them, as a blind man takes no heed of out-ward\nappearances.\n\n26. They are in possession of all, which is the sum total (tout\nensemble) of what is to be had as the best gain; and whether when they\nare awake or asleep or walking or sitting, they never lose sight of\nthat true light which leads them to the other world.\n\n27. Those who have obtained the knowledge of the course of his\nbreathings, have got rid of all delusion and rest in quiet within\nthemselves (_i.e._ In watching their inspirations and over-looking the\nexternal phenomena).\n\n28. And whether the intelligent people are employed in busy life, or\nsit inactive at home; they are always quiet and at rest by following\nthe course of their respiration (neither breathing hard or being out\nbreath).\n\n29. I know, O Brahman! the exhaling breath, to rise from its source of\nthe lotus like heart, and stretch to the distance of twelve inches out\nof it, where it sets or stops. (As is mixed up with the current air).\n\n30. The _ap\u00e1na_ or inhaling breath is taking in from the same distance\nof twelve inches, and is deposited in the cup of the lotus situated in\nthe human heart.\n\n31. As the _pr\u00e1na_ respiration is exhaled out in the air, to the\ndistance of twelve inches from the heart, so the inhaled air of _ap\u00e1na_\nis taken into the breast, from the same distance of the open sky.\n\n32. The _pr\u00e1na_ or exhaling breath runs towards the open air, in the\nform of a flame of fire, and the inhaled breath turns inward to the\nregion of the heart, and goes downward like a current of water.\n\n33. The ap\u00e1na or inhaled breath is like the cooling moon light, and\nrefreshes the body from without; while pr\u00e1na respiration resembling the\nsunshine or a flame of fire, warms the inside of the body.\n\n34. The _pr\u00e1na_ breath warms every moment the region of the heart, as\nthe sunshine inflames the region of the sky; and then it torrifies the\natmosphere before it, by the exhalation of breath through the mouth.\n\n35. The _ap\u00e1na_ air is as the moonlight before the moon, and being\ninhaled inward, it washes the sphere of the heart as by a deluge; then\nit refreshes the whole inside in a moment.\n\n36. When the last digit of the moon-like _ap\u00e1na_ or inhaling breath, is\nswallowed by the sun of the _pr\u00e1na_ or exhaling breath; it meets with\nthe sight of supreme spirit, and has no more any cause of affliction.\n\n37. So also when the last portion of the sunlike _pr\u00e1na_ or exhaling\nbreath, is swallowed by the moon-like _ap\u00e1na_ or inhaling breath; then\nthere ensues the same visitation of Brahm\u00e1 in the inside, and the soul\nis emancipated from further transmigration in this world. (The meeting\nof the two is a _yoga_ or junction of the human and Divine spirits).\n\n38. The _pr\u00e1na_ or exhaling breath assumes the nature of the solar\nheat, both in the inside and outside of the body; and afterwards it\nbecomes and remains as the cooling moonlight. (It is the one and same\nbreath of air, that takes the two names, according to its two different\nnatures of inspiration and expiration. gloss).\n\n39. The _pr\u00e1na_ expiration forsakes its nature of the cooling moon, and\nturns in a moment to assume the nature of the hot sun, that dries and\nsucks up everything before it.\n\n40. As long as the _pr\u00e1na_ exhalation is not converted to the nature\nof the moon, after forsaking its solarity, it is so long considered as\nunconditioned by time and place, and freed from pain and grief. (The\n_pr\u00e1na_ being peculiarised by time, place and number, is long or short\nand subject to misery; but its extinction in the interval, is instinct\nwith the supreme spirit. Patanjali Yoga sutra II 50).\n\n41. He who sees the seat of his soul in the mind situated within his\nheart, and at the confluence of the sol-luni _pr\u00e1na_ and _ap\u00e1na_\nbreathings in the Kumbhaka or retained breath, is no more subjected to\nbe reborn and die.\n\n41_a_. He who feels the sun and moon of his _pr\u00e1na_ and _ap\u00e1na_\nbreaths, ever rising and setting in the _kumbhaka_ or retained breath\nwith his heart, verily sees the seat of his mind and soul placed at\ntheir confluence, and is freed from further birth and death. (The plain\nmeaning is that, the mind and soul consist in the air deposited in the\nheart by the two inhaling and exhaling breaths of _pr\u00e1na_ and _ap\u00e1na_).\n\n42. He verily sees the soul in its full light, who beholds this\nbright sun [Sanskrit: pr\u00e1na] shining in the sphere of his heart, in\nconjunction with the rising and setting moon beams _ap\u00e1na_ in his mind.\n\n43. This light never fades nor grows faint at any time, but dispels the\ndarkness of the heart, and produces the consummation--_Siddhi_ of the\nmeditative mind.\n\n44. As the dispersion of outward darkness presents the world to view,\nso the disappearance of inward obscurity gives out the light of the\nspirit before the mental sight.\n\n45. The removal of intellectual darkness, produces the liberation of\nthe soul, and shows the rising and setting sun of the vital breath\nvividly to view.\n\n46. When the moon of the _ap\u00e1na_ or inspired breath, sets in the cavity\nof the heart, the sun of the _pr\u00e1na_ or expiratory breathing, rises\nimmediately to gush out of the same.\n\n47. The _ap\u00e1na_ or inhaling breath having set in the cell of the lotus\nlike heart, the exhaling breath of _pr\u00e1na_ rises at the very moment to\ncome out of it, as the shadow of the night being dispersed from sight,\nthe bright sun of the day ushers his light.\n\n48. As the _pr\u00e1na_ expiration expires in the open air, the inhaling\nbreath rises and rushes in a moment; just as the light having fled from\nthe horizon, is succeeded immediately by deep darkness.\n\n49. Know ye intelligent men, that the _ap\u00e1na_ breath becomes extinct,\nwhere the _pr\u00e1na_ comes to be born; and the _pr\u00e1na_ respiration is\nlost, where the _ap\u00e1na_ takes its rise.\n\n50. When the _pr\u00e1na_ breathing has ceased and the _ap\u00e1na_ has its rise,\nit is then that one supports himself upon the Kumbhaka retained air,\nand does not depend on two other passing breaths.\n\n51. On the extinction of _ap\u00e1na_, and the rise of the _pr\u00e1na_ breath,\none relying on the Kumbhaka air which is deposited within himself, is\nexempted from his pain and sorrow.\n\n52. By depending on the _rechaka_ breath, and practicing the\nsuppression of Kumbhaka breath, at the great distance of sixteen inches\nfrom the _ap\u00e1na_; a man has no more to be sorry for any thing.\n\n53. By making the _ap\u00e1na_ a receptacle of _rechaka_, and filling the\n_pr\u00e1na_ in the inside, and finding himself filled with the _puraka_ all\nwithin his body, a man has no more to be born on earth.\n\n54. When a man finds the perfect tranquillity of his soul, by\nsubsidence of both the _pr\u00e1na_ and _ap\u00e1na_ within himself; he has no\nlonger to sorrow for any thing whatever.\n\n55. When a man reflects his _pr\u00e1na_ breath to be devoured by the\n_ap\u00e1na_ air both within as well as without himself, and loses his\nthoughts of time and space, he has no more any cause for sorrow.\n\n56. He who sees his _pr\u00e1na_ breath devouring the _ap\u00e1na_ air, both\nwithin and without himself, together with his sense of space and time,\nhas no more his mind to be reborn on earth.\n\n57. When the _pr\u00e1na_ is swallowed up by the _ap\u00e1na_, or the _ap\u00e1na_ by\nthe _pr\u00e1na_, both in the in-side and out-side of the adept; together\nwith his thoughts of time and place;\n\n58. At this moment the Yogi finds his _pr\u00e1na_ to set down, and his\n_ap\u00e1na_ to rise no more, and the interval between the two, is common to\nall animals though it is known to Yogis alone.\n\n59. The Kumbhaka taking place of itself on the out-side, is known as\nthe divine state, but when it happens to occur in the in-side, and\nwithout any efforts on the part of the adept, it is said to be the\nstate of the most supreme. (Because God does not breathe).\n\n60. This is the nature of the divine soul, and this is the state of the\nsupreme intellect, this is the representation of the eternal spirit,\nand one attaining to this state, is never subject to sorrow.\n\n61. Like fragrance in the flower, there is an essence indwelling within\nthe vital breath also, and this is neither the _pr\u00e1na_ nor _ap\u00e1na_, but\nthe intellectual soul which I adore. (As the true God).\n\n62. As taste indwells in the water, so is there an essence immanent in\nthe _ap\u00e1na_; and this is neither the _ap\u00e1na_ nor the not _ap\u00e1na_, but\nthe intelligent soul which I adore.\n\n63. There is at the end of the extinction of _pr\u00e1na_, and beyond the\nlimit of the exhaustion of _ap\u00e1na_, and situated in the interval\nbetween the extremities of both of these, which I ever adore.\n\n64. That which forms the breathing of breath, and is the life of life,\nwhat is the support and bearer of the body, is the intellectual spirit\nwhich I ever adore.\n\n65. That which causes the thinking (_power_) of the mind, and the\ncogitation of the understanding; as also the egotism of egoism, is the\nintellectual soul, which I have learnt to adore.\n\n66. That which contains and produces all things, which is all (or\npermeated in all things, as every thing is (evolved from) itself; and\nwhat is changed to all at all times, is that mind which I adore for\never.)\n\n67. What is the light of lights, what is holiness and the holy of\nholies, and what is unchangeable in its nature, is the intellect which\nI adore.\n\n68. I adore that pencil of pure intellectual light, which rises at the\njuncture of the setting of the _ap\u00e1na_ and springing up of the _pr\u00e1na_\nbreath. (This sloka occurs in the Kashmere Mss).\n\n68_a_. I adore that intellect which trolls on the tip of the nose, at\nthe point where the _pr\u00e1na_ sets in, and the _ap\u00e1na_ has not yet taken\nits rise.\n\n69. I adore the intellect which rises at the time when both the _pr\u00e1na_\nand _ap\u00e1na_ breaths have stopped, and when neither of them has taken\nits rise.\n\n70. I adore that intellect which appears before the Yogi, and supports\nhim at the point which he has reached unto upon the setting of the\n_pr\u00e1na_ and _ap\u00e1na_ breaths, both within and without himself.\n\n71. I adore that intellect which is force of all forces, and rides\nin the car of _pr\u00e1na_ and _ap\u00e1na_ breaths, and when both of them are\ncompressed in the heart of the yogi.\n\n72. I adore the lord intellect, which is the Kumbhaka breath in the\nheart, and the _ap\u00e1na_ Kumbhaka on the outside; and a part of the\n_puraka_ left behind.\n\n73. I adore the essence of that intellect, which is attainable by\nreflection of the breathings, and which is the formless cause of our\nintelligence of the natures of the _pr\u00e1na_ and _ap\u00e1na_ breaths, as also\nthe motive principle of their actions.\n\n74. I adore the essence of that intellect, which is the cause of the\ncauses, and the main spring of the oscillations of vital airs, and\ngiver of the felicity derived from the vibrations of breath.\n\n75. I adore that prime and supreme Being Brahma, who is worshipped by\nthe gods bowing down before him, who makes himself known to us by his\nown power, and who is, by the particles of vital breaths, under the\nname of Spirit.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXVI.\n\nRELATION OF THE CAUSE OF LONGEVITY.\n\nArgument.--Reflection and Restraint of Respiration leading to the\ntranquillity of the soul, and the steadiness of the _spirit_, conducing\nto long life and felicity on earth.\n\n\nBhusunda continued. This is the tranquillity of the mind, which I have\nattained by degrees, by means of my meditation of the nature and course\nof the vital breath in myself.\n\n2. I sit quiet at all times, with view fixed at the movement of my\nbreath; and never stir a moment from my meditative mood, though the\nmount Meru may shake under me.\n\n3. Whether I am awake or asleep, or move about or remain unmoved in\nmy seat, I am never at a loss of this meditation even in dream, nor\ndoes it slide a moment from my steadfast mind. (For who can ever live\nwithout breathing, or be unconscious of its ceaseless course, or that\nthe breath is both the cause and measure of life).\n\n4. I am always calm and quiet and ever steady and sedate, in this ever\nvarying and unsteady world; I remain always with my face turned inward\nin myself, and fixed firmly in the object I have at heart. (This is the\nsoul--the life of the life situated in the heart).\n\n5. The breeze may cease to blow, and the waters may stop to flow but\nnothing can prevent my breathing and meditation of them, nor do I\nremember ever to live without them. (The gloss explains by metonymy\nthe air to mean the planetary sphere, which rests and moves in it,\nthe _waters_ as the ever flowing [Sanskrit: v\u00e1yu] currents of rivers,\nand the _sam\u00e1dhi_ [Sanskrit: jyotichakraha] meditation as composed of\nbreath and thought, to be in continuous motion and resistless in their\ncourse).\n\n6. By attending to the course of my inhaling and exhaling breaths of\nlife, I have come to the sight of the soul (which is their life), and\nhave thereby become freed from sorrow by seeing the prime soul of all\nsouls. (_i.e._ The highest soul of God).\n\n7. The earth has been sinking and rising repeatedly, since the great\ndeluge, and I have been witnessing the submersion and immersion of\nthings, and the perdition and reproduction of beings, without any\nchange of the sedateness of my soul and mind.\n\n8. I never think of the past and future, my sight is fixed only on the\npresent, and my mind sees the remote past and future as ever present\nbefore it. (Meditation makes a man a seer of all time).\n\n9. I am employed in the business that presents itself to me, and never\ncare for their toil nor care for their reward. I live as one in sleep\nand solely with myself. (This is the state of Kaivalya or solity).\n\n10. I examine all what is and is not, and what we have or have not,\nand consider likewise all our desires and their objects; and finding\nthem to be but frailties and vanities, I refrain from their pursuit and\nremain unvexed by their cares for ever.\n\n11. I watch the course of my inspiration and expiration, and behold the\npresence of the super excellent (Brahma) at their confluence; whereby I\nrest satisfied in myself, and enjoy my long life without any sorrow or\nsickness.\n\n12. This boon have I gained this day, and that better one shall I have\non another, are the ruinous thoughts of mortal men, and unknown to me\nwhereby I have so long living and unailing.\n\n13. I never praise or dispraise any act of myself or others, and this\nindifference of mine to all concerns; hath brought me to this happy\nstate of careless longevity. (Platonic imperturbability).\n\n14. My mind is neither elated by success, nor it is depressed by\nadversity, but preserves its equanimity at all times, and is what has\nbrought this happy state on me. (A sane and sound old age).\n\n15. I have resorted to my religious relinquishment of the world, and to\nmy apathy to all things at all times; I have also abandoned the desire\nof sensuous life and sensible objects, and these have set me free from\ndeath and disease.\n\n16. I have freed my mind, O great muni! from its faults of fickleness\nand curiosity, and have set it above sorrow and anxiety, it has become\ndeliberate calm and quiet, and this has made me longlived and unsickly.\n\n17. I see all things in an equal light, whether it be a beauty or a\nspectre, a piece of wood or stone, a straw or a rock, or whether it is\nthe air, water or fire, and it is this equanimity of mine that has made\nme sane and sound in every state of life.\n\n18. I do not think about what I have done today, and what I shall have\nto do tomorrow, nor do I ail under the fever of vain thoughts regarding\nthe past and future, and this has kept me forever sound and sane.\n\n19. I am neither afraid of death, disease or old age, nor am I\nelated with the idea of getting a kingdom in my possession; and this\nindifference of mine to aught of good or evil, is the cause of my\nlength of my life and the soundness of my body and mind.\n\n20. I do not regard, O Brahman! any one either in the light of a friend\nor foe to me; and this equality of my knowledge of all persons, is the\ncause of my long life and want of my complaint.\n\n21. I regard all existence as the reflexion of the self-existent one,\nwho is all in all and without his beginning and end; I know myself as\nthe very intellect, and this is the cause of my diuturnity and want of\ndisease and decay.\n\n22. Whether when I get or give away any thing, or when I walk or sit,\nor rise and breathe, or am asleep or awake; I never think myself as the\ngross body but its pure intelligence, and this made me diuturnal and\ndurable for ever. (The intelligent soul never dies).\n\n23. I think myself as quite asleep, and believe this world with all its\nbustle to be nothing in reality (but the false appearance of a dream);\nand this has made me long-lived and undecaying.\n\n24. I take the good and bad accidents of life, occurring at their\nstated times, to be all alike to me, like my two arms both of which are\nserviceable to me; and has made me longeval and imperishable.\n\n25. With my fixed attention, and the cool clearness of my mental\nvision, I see all things in their favourable light (that they are all\ngood, and adapted to their various uses); I see all things as even and\nequal, and this view of them in the same light, has made me lasting and\nwasteless. (So says the Bharata: \"All crookedness leads to death, and\nevenness to the one even Brahma\").\n\n26. This material body of mine to which I bear my moiety, is never\nviewed by me in the light of my ego; and this has made me undying and\nundecaying. (The deathless soul is the ego, and the dying body the\nnon-ego).\n\n27. Whatever I do and take to my food, I never take them to my heart;\nmy mind is freed from the acts of my body, and this freedom of myself\nfrom action, has caused my undecaying longevity. (Because action\nbeing the measure of life, its want must make it measureless and\nimperishable).\n\n28. Whenever, O Sage, I come to know the truth, I never feel proud of\nmy knowledge, but desire to learn more about it; and this increasing\ndesire of knowledge, has increased my life without its concomitant\ninfirmity. (Knowledge is unlimited, and one needs be immortal in order\nto know all).\n\n29. Though possessed of power, I never use it to do wrong or injure to\nanother; and though wronged by any one, I am never sorry for the same;\nand though ever so poor, I never crave any thing of any body; this hath\nprolonged my life and kept me safe and sound. (It is the Christian\ncharity not to retaliate an injury, but rather to turn to him the right\ncheek who has slapped on the left).\n\n30. I see in these visible forms the intellect that abides all bodies,\nand as I behold all these existent bodies in an equal light, I enjoy an\nundecaying longevity.\n\n31. I am so composed in my mind, that I never allow its faculties, to\nbe entangled in the snare of worldly desires and expectations; nor\ndo I allow these to touch even my heart, and this conferred on me the\nbliss of my unfading longevity.\n\n32. I examine both worlds as two globes placed in my hands, and I find\nthe non-existence of the visible world as it appears to a sleeping man;\nwhile the spiritual and invisible world appear full open to my view,\nas it does to a waking person, and this sight of mine has made me as\nimmortal as the world of immortality.\n\n33. I behold the past, present and future as set before me; and I see\nall that is dead and decayed, and all that is gone and forgotten, as\npresented anew in my presence. This prospect of all keeps me alive and\nafresh to them alike.\n\n34. I feel myself happy at the happiness of others, and am sorry to see\nthe misery of other people; and this universal fellow feeling of mine\nwith the weal and woe of my fellow creatures, has kept me alive and\nafresh at all times.\n\n35. I remain unmoved as a rock in my adversity, and am friendly to\nevery one in my prosperity; I am never moved by want or affluence, and\nthis steadiness of mine is the cause of my undecayed longevity.\n\n36. That I am neither related to nor belong to any body, nor that any\none is either related or belongeth to me; is the firm conviction that\nhas laid hold of my mind, and made me live long without feeling sick or\nsorry for another.\n\n37. It is my belief that I am the one Ego with the world, and with all\nits space and time also, and that I am the same with the living soul\nand all its actions; and this faith of mine has made me longeval and\nundecaying.\n\n38. It is my belief that I am the same Intelligence, which shows itself\nin the pot and picture; and which dwells in the sky above and in the\nwoods below. That all this is full of intelligence is my firm reliance,\nand this has made me long abiding and free from decay.\n\n39. It is thus, O great sage! that I reside amidst the receptacle of\nthe three worlds, as a bee abides in the cell of a lotus flower, and am\nrenowned in the world as the perennial crow Bhusunda by name.\n\n40. I am destined to dwell here forever in order to behold the visible\nworld, rising and falling in tumultuous confusion, in the infinite\nocean of the immense Brahma, and assuming their various forms like the\nwaves of the sea at their alternate rise and fall for all eternity.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXVII.\n\nCONCLUSION OF THE NARRATIVE OF BHUSUNDA.\n\nArgument.--Vasishtha's praise of Bhusunda, and his homage to the sage,\nWhose return to Heaven through the midway-sky is described at length.\n\n\nBhusunda added:--I have thus far related to you, O sage! what I am\nand how I am situated at this place. It was by your behest only, that\nI was lead to the arrogance of speaking so far to one of superior\nintelligence.\n\n2. Vasishtha replied:--O sir, it is a wondrous relation that you have\ngiven of yourself; O excellent! it is a jewel to my ears and fills me\nwith admiration. (It beggars description, and is _mirabile dictu_).\n\n3. Blessed are those eminent souls (great men), that have the good\nfortune to behold your most venerable person, which in respect of\nantiquity is next to none, expect the great grandfather of the gods the\nlotus born Brahm\u00e1 himself.\n\n4. Blest are my eyes, that are blessed this day with the sight of your\nholy person, and thrice blest are my ears that are filled with the full\nrecital of your sacred knowledge and all purifying sermon.\n\n5. I have in my peregrinations all about the world, witnessed the\ndignity and grandeur of the great knowledge of gods and learned men;\nbut have never come to see any where, so holy a seer as yourself.\n\n6. It may be possible by long travel and search, to meet with a great\nsoul some where or other; but it is hard to find a holy soul like\nyourself any where. (Man may be very learned and wise as a sapient\n(savant), but never so holy and godly as a saint).\n\n7. We rarely come to find the grain of a precious pearl in the hollow\nof a lonely bamboo tree, but it is rarer still to come across a holy\npersonage, like yourself in any part of this world.\n\n8. I have verily achieved an act of great piety, and of sanctity also\nat the same time; that I have paid a visit to your holy shrine, and\nseen your sacred person and liberated soul this very day.\n\n9. Now please to enter your cell, and fare you well in this place;\nit is now the time of midday devotion, and the duties of my noontide\nservice, call my presence to my heavenly seat.\n\n10. Hearing this Bhusunda rose from his arborescent seat, and held out\na golden twig of the tree with his two fictitious hands. (Holy persons\nhave the power to add to the members of their bodies).\n\n11. The accomplished (lit. full knowing) crow made a vessel with his\nbeak and hands, and filled it with the snow-white leaves, and flowers\nand pistils of the Kalpa plant, and put a brilliant pearl in it to be\noffered as an honorarium--_arghya_ worthy of the divine sage.\n\n12. The prime-born (ancient) bird, then took the arghya with some water\nand flowers; and sprinkled and scattered them over me even from my head\nto foot, in as great a veneration, as when they adore the three eyed\ngod Siva.\n\n13. Then said I, it is enough, and you need not take the pains to walk\nafter me (in token of your respect). So saying I rose from my seat and\nmade a lift, as when a bird puts to its wings for its aerial flight.\n(_Bisht\u00e1ra_--a seat, means also a bedding like the Persian _bistar_ and\nUrdu _bistara_ derived from the root _str\u00ed_ to spread).\n\n14. Yet the bird followed me a few miles (yojana) in the air, when\nI hindered his proceeding farther by compelling him to return after\nshaking our hands. (The custom of shaking hands both on meeting and\nparting; is mentioned to have been in fashion with the ancients).\n\n15. The chief of birds looked up for some time, as I soared upward in\nmy ethereal journey, and then he returned with reluctance, because it\nis difficult to part from the company of the good (or of good people).\n\n16. Then both of us lost the sight of one another in the intermediate\nair, as the sight of the waves is lost after they sink down in the sea;\nand I full with the thoughts of the bird and his sayings, proceeded\nupward to meet the munis there. I arrived at last at the sphere of the\nPleiades, where I was honorably received by Arundhat\u00ed my wife.\n\n17. It was in the beginning of the golden age (satya yuga) before,\nand after two hundred years of it had passed away that I had been at\nBhusunda's, and sat with him upon the tree on the summit of Sumeru.\n\n18. Now, O R\u00e1ma! that golden age has gone by, and the Tret\u00e1 or silver\nage has taken its place; and it is now the middle of this age, that\nthou art born to subdue thy enemies.\n\n19. It is now only eight years past that (or the eight years since) I\nmet with him again on the same mountain, and found him as sound and\nsame as I had seen him long before.\n\n20. Now I have related unto you the whole of the exemplary character\nof Bhusunda; and as you have heard it with patience, so should you\nconsider it with diligence, and act according to his sayings. (In order\nto be as longlived as he).\n\n21. V\u00e1lm\u00edki says:--The man of pure heart, that considers well the\nnarrative of the virtuous Bhusunda, will undoubtedly pass over the\nunstable gulf of this world, which is full of formidable dangers on all\nsides.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXVIII.\n\nLECTURE ON THEOPATHY OR SPIRITUAL MEDITATION.\n\nArgument.--Learning from examples and parables. Falsity of phenomenal\nand reliance in the noumenal.\n\n\nVasishtha said:--I have thus far related to you, O sinless R\u00e1ma!\nthe narrative of Bhusunda; who had passed over the perilous sea of\ndelusion, by means of his intelligence and wisdom.\n\n2. Keeping this instance in view, and following his practice of\npr\u00e1n\u00e1y\u00e1ma or regulation of breath; you will also, O mighty armed R\u00e1ma!\npass over the wide ocean of this hazardous ocean.\n\n3. As Bhusunda has obtained the obtainable one, by means of his\nknowledge and by virtue of his continued practice of yoga; so do you\nstrive to gain the same by imitation of his example.\n\n4. Men of uninfatuated understanding may attain the stability of\nBhusunda, and their reliance in the transcendental truth like him by\ntheir attending to the practice of _pr\u00e1n\u00e1y\u00e1ma_ or restraining of their\nbreath.\n\n5. Thus you have heard me relate to you many things, relating to\ntrue knowledge; it now depends on your own understanding to do as\nyou may like to choose for yourself. (Either to betake yourself to\nspiritual knowledge or the practice of _pr\u00e1n\u00e1y\u00e1ma_ or either as the\ngloss explains it, either to esoteric contemplation yoga or exoteric\nadoration _upasana_).\n\n6. R\u00e1ma replied:--you sir, that are the luminous sun of spiritual light\non earth, have dispelled the thick gloom of unspiritual knowledge from\nmy mind at once (by transcendental light of your holy lectures).\n\n7. I am fully awake to and joyous in my divine knowledge, and have\nentered into my state of spirituality; I have known the knowable, and\nam seated in my divine state like yourself.\n\n8. O the wondrous memoir of Bhusunda that you have narrated! It fills\nme with admiration, and is fraught with the best instruction. (Lit. it\nis instructive of the highest wisdom).\n\n9. In the account that you have given of Bhusunda, you have said that\nthe body is the abode of the soul, and is composed of flesh and blood,\nand of the inner bones and outer skin (as its materials and plaster).\n\n10. Please tell me sir, who made this fabric and how it came to be\nformed; how it is made to last, and who abides therein.\n\n11. Vasishtha answered: Listen now R\u00e1ma, to what I will relate to you\nfor the instruction of the supreme knowledge, as also for removal of\nthe evils which have taken root instead of true knowledge.\n\n12. This dwelling of the body, R\u00e1ma! which has the bones for its posts,\nand the blood and flesh for its mortar, and the nine holes for so many\nwindows, is built by no one: (but is formed of itself).\n\n13. It is a mere reflection, and reflects itself so to our vision; as\nthe appearance of two moons in the sky by illusion, is both real as\nwell as unreal. (This vedantic doctrine is opposed to the popular faith\nof the creatorship of God).\n\n14. It may be right to speak of two moons from their double appearance\nto our sight, but in reality there is but one moon and the other its\nreflection. (So are all phenomenal bodies but reflections of the\nnoumenal).\n\n15. The belief of the existence of body makes it a reality, the unreal\nseems as real, and therefore it is said to be both real and unreal at\nthe same time. (The perception is real but the object of perception an\nunreality. Just so the perception of a snake in the rope may be true,\nthough the snake in the rope is quite untrue).\n\n16. Any thing seen in a dream is true as a dream, and appears to be so\nin the state of dreaming, but afterwards it proves to be untrue, so a\nbubble of water is true as a bubble, which comes to be known afterwards\nto be false in reality. (So all things appearing to be true to sight,\nvanish into nothing when they are judged aright, and even a judge may\ndeem a thing as just, which upon further and right investigation is\nknown as unjust).\n\n17. The body seems to be substantiality in the doing of bodily actions,\nbut it proves otherwise when we view the essentiality of the spirit\nonly; so the reflection of the sun on the sandy desert, makes the\nmirage appear as water, whose reality proves to be unreal the next\nmoment: (so it is of the body).\n\n18. The body existing as a reflexion disappears the next moment. It is\nno more than a reflexion, and so it reflects itself.\n\n19. It is your error to think that you are the material body which is\nmade of flesh and bones. It is the inward thought of your mind that is\nsituated in the body, and makes you to think yourself as so and so and\nsuch a one. (The reminiscence of the mind of its former body, causes to\nthink itself as an embodied being, in all its repeated transmigrations.\nGloss).\n\n20. Forsake therefore the body that you build for yourself at your own\nwill, and be not like them, who while they are asleep on their pleasant\nbeds, deport themselves to various countries with their dreaming\nbodies: (which are all false and unreal).\n\n21. See, O R\u00e1ma! how you deport yourself to the kingdom of heaven\neven in your waking state, in the fanciful reverie of your mind; say\nthen where is your body situated. (It neither accompanies the mind to\nheaven, nor is it on earth being unperceived and unaccompanied by the\nmind).\n\n22. Say R\u00e1ma, where is your body situated, when your mind wanders on\nthe Meru in your dream, and when you dream to ramble with your body\nabout the skirts of this earth.\n\n23. Think R\u00e1ma, how you seem to saunter about the rich domains (of the\ngods) in the fancied kingdom of your mind, and tell me whether you are\nthen and there accompanied with your body, or is it left behind.\n\n24. Tell me, where is that body of yours situated; when you think of\ndoing many of your bodily and worldly acts without your body, in the\nfancied realm of your mind.\n\n25. Tell me, O strong armed R\u00e1ma! where are those members of your body\nsituated; with which you think to coquette and caress your loving\ncourtezans in the court of your painful mind.\n\n26. Where is that body of yours, with which you seem to enjoy anything;\nthe enjoyment belongs to the mind and not to the body, and both of them\nare real as well as unreal, owing to their presence at one time and\nabsence at another.\n\n27. The body and the mind are known to be present with coeval with\ntheir actions, and they participate with one another in their mutual\nacts (without which they are said to be inexistent). Therefore it is\nerroneous to say that, I am this body and am situated here, and these\nthings are mine, all which are illusory and caused by illusion. (Egoism\nand meity are illusive ideas).\n\n28. All this is the manifestation of the will or energy of the mind,\nand you must know it either as a long dream or lengthened fallacy of\nthe mind.\n\n29. Know this world, O son of Raghu's race, to be a display of the vast\nkingdom of your imagination, and will vanish into nothing, when you\nwill come to your good understanding by the grace of your God.\n\n30. You will then see the whole as clearly as in the light of the\nrising sun, and know this world to be like a creation of your dream or\nvolition. (_i.e._ as you wish to have a thing for yourself).\n\n31. So is this world a display of the will of the lotus-born Brahm\u00e1, as\nI have said before in length in the book of creation.\n\n32. There rises of itself a willful creation within the mind, and out\nof its own accord as if it were so ordained by destiny; and the mind\nbeing fully possest of the great variety of forms, is lost at last into\nthe error of taking them for true.\n\n33. It is a creation of the will only and a display of it in the same\nmanner, as the fancied chimera of Brahmanship had possessed the minds\nof the sons of Indu. (See the narrative of Indu's sons in the upasama\nPrakarana).\n\n34. After the soul has passed from its former frame, it receives the\nsame form which it has in view before it after the fancy of the mind,\nwhich is either of the kind, to which it has been long used and\naccustomed, or what it fondly longs in the mind.\n\n35. The body shows itself in the form as it is shaped by the prior acts\nof a person, and is also convertible to the intellect by the manly\nexertions of some: (whose corporeal bodies may become intellectual\nbeings, as some persons have mere brutal, while others are highly\nintellectual).\n\n36. He that thinks himself as another, is transformed to the nature\nof that air (as it is the pattern that moulds a thing after its own\nmodel): and the thought that you are this or that, and have this\nthing or others for yourself, is what actually makes you so in this\nworld. (The metamorphose of the natures and forms of things and\npersons to other kinds in Ovid, were all owing to their tendencies and\ninclinations towards them).\n\n37. Whatever is thought upon keenly and firmly, the same comes to take\nplace accordingly; and whatever is thought of with intense and great\nforce of thought, the same must occur in a short time: (so are all\nthings done to which we set our minds).\n\n38. We see every day the objects of our desire, presenting their fair\nforms to our view, like the comely faces of our beloved ones present\nbefore our sight, in the same manner as the sights in a dream and\ndistant objects, are recalled to the mind of men; with their closed and\nhalf-shut eyes. (This is the doctrine of reminiscence which reproduces\nour long remembered bodies to us).\n\n39. This world is said to be a creation of the thoughts of men, and\nappears to sight from habitual reflection of it, in the same manner as\nthe sights in a dream, appear to the mind of a man in the day time.\n\n40. The temporary world appears to be as lasting, as the river which\nappears in the sky under the burning sunshine. (Though in fact both of\nthem are equally evanescent).\n\n41. This inexistent earth also appears as existent in our cogitation,\nas there appears bundles of peacock's feathers in the sky to the\nvitiated or purblind eye.\n\n42. It is only the vitiated understanding that dwells upon the\nbeauties of creation, as the vitiated eye sight looks upon the various\ntinges in the sky. But to the clear sighted understanding the one is as\nevanescent, as the other is to the clear sighted eye.\n\n43. The sharp sighted man is never led away by the display of worldly\ngrandeur, as even the most timid man is never afraid of a tiger in his\nimagination.\n\n43a. This great show of worldly grandeur can never mislead the\npenetrating sight of the wise, as a monstrous creature of imagination\ncannot terrify even the most timid. (Because the one knows the falsity\nof the show as well as the other does that of imaginary monster).\n\n44. The wise man is never afraid of his imaginary world, which he knows\nto be the production of his own mind, from its nature of self-evolution\n_bahir mukhata_. (The mind is naturally possessed of both its power\nof self involution in the interior soul, as also that of its evolving\nitself in the form of the exterior world).\n\n45. He that has stood in the path of this world, needs not fear for any\nthing in it, and he that is afraid of it for fear of falling into its\nerrors, should learn to purify his understanding from all its dross and\nimpurity. (Stretch your mind, and the world will appear to light, curb\nit in yourself and every thing will disappear from view).\n\n46. Know R\u00e1ma, that the soul is free from the erroneous conception of\nthe world, and from the errors which pervade all over it. Look well\ninto these things, and you will have a nature as pure as your inward\nsoul.\n\n47. The soul is not soiled by impurity, as a pure gold is not spoiled\nby dirt; and though it may sometimes appear to be tarnished as copper,\nyet it soon resumes its colour after its dirt is cleansed or burnt\naway. Thus the world being a reflexion of the omnipresent Brahma, is\nneither an entity nor a nonentity of its own nature.\n\n48. Thus the abandonment of all other thoughts, besides that of the\nuniversal soul or Brahma, is called the true discernment of the mind;\nwhich derives the thoughts of life and death, heaven and hell into\nnothing, and proves all knowledge to be ignorance alone.\n\n49. The knowledge of the nullity of everything, except its being a\nreflexion of the Intellect, is called the individuality and right\ndiscernment of the mind, which removes the thought of the separate and\nindependent existence of the ego and tu, and also of this world and its\nten sides: (_i.e._ of the subjective as well as the objective).\n\n50. That all things are but reflexions of the soul, is what is known\nas the true and right discernment of the mind; and is derived from its\nobservation of true nature of things in this real and unreal world.\n(The real is the spiritualistic view of the world, and the unreal is\nillusory phenomenal appearance).\n\n51. That nothing rises or sets or appears or disappears in this world,\nis what the mind perceives by its right discernment of things; and by\nits investigation into the true and apparent natures of all. (In their\ntrue light all things are in a state of continued revolution, and\nnothing rises anew to view or disappears into nothing).\n\n52. Right discernment gives the mind its peace and tranquillity, and\nits freedom from all desires; and makes it indifferent to joy and\ngrief, and callous to all praise and censure.\n\n53. The mind comes to find this truth as the cooling balsam of the\nheart, that we are all doomed to die one day or other, with all our\nfriends and relations in this world of mortality.\n\n54. Why therefore should we lament at the demise of our friends, when\nit is certain that we must die one day sooner or later (and without the\ncertainty of when or where).\n\n55. Thus when we are destined to die ourselves also, without having any\npower in us to prevent the same; why then should we be sorry for others\nwhen we can never prevent also.\n\n56. It is certain that any one who has come to be born herein, must\nhave some state and property for his supportance here; but what is the\ncause of rejoicing in it (when neither our lives nor their means are\nlasting for ever).\n\n57. All men dealing in worldly affairs, gain wealth with toil and pain\nfor their trouble and danger only; what is the reason therefore for\npining at its want, or repining at its loss.\n\n58. These spheres of worlds enlarge, expand and rise to our view, like\nbubbles of water in the sea which swell and float and shine for a time,\nand then burst and subside in the water of eternity.\n\n59. The nature of reality (the entity of Brahma), is real at all times,\nand the condition of the unreal world is unsubstantial for ever, and\ncan never be otherwise or real, though it may? appear as such for a\ntime. Why then sorrow for what is nil and unreal.\n\n60. I am not of this body nor was I in it, nor shall I remain in\nit; nor is it any thing, even at present, except a picture of the\nimagination. Why then lament at its loss.\n\n61. If I am something else beside this body, that is a reflexion of the\npure intellect; then tell me of what avail are these states of reality\nand unreality to me, and wherefore shall I rejoice or regret.\n\n62. The Sage who is fully conscious of the certainty of this truth in\nhimself, does not feel any rise or fall of his spirits at his life or\ndeath, nor doth he rejoice or wail at either in having or losing his\nlife.\n\n63. Because he gains after the loss of his gross body, his residence\nin the transcendental state of Brahma or spiritual existence; as the\nlittle bird _tittera_ builds its nest of tender blades, after its\ngrassy habitation is broken down or blown away.\n\n64. Therefore we should never rely in our frail and fragile bodies, but\nbind our souls to the firm rock of Brahma by the strong rope of our\nfaith, as they bind a bull to the post with a strong cord.\n\n65. Having thus ascertained the certitude of this truth, rely thy faith\non the reality of thy spiritual essence, and by giving up thy reliance\non thy frail body, manage thyself with indifference in this unreal\nworld.\n\n66. Adhere to what is thy duty here, and avoid whatever is prohibited\nto thee; and thus proceed in thy course with an even tenor of thy\nmind, without minding at all about thy reliance on the one and\nmiscreance of the other.\n\n67. He gets a cool composure of his mind; like the coolness at the\nclose of a hot summer-day, who shuts out from his view the reflexions\nof all worldly objects.\n\n68. Look on this universe, O sinless R\u00e1ma, as one common display of\nDivine light, like the appearance of day light which is common to all;\nit is the mind which taints it with various forms, as the sun-beams are\nreflected in sundry piece by objects.\n\n69. Therefore forsake all reflexions, and be without any impression\nin thy mind, be of the form of pure intellectual light, which passes\nthrough all without being contaminated by any.\n\n70. You will be quite stainless by your dismissal of all taints and\nappearances from your mind, and by your thinking yourself as nothing\nand having no true enjoyment in this world.\n\n71. That these phenomena are nothing in reality, but they show\nthemselves unto us for our delusion only; and that yourself also are\nnothing will appear to you, by your thinking the whole as a display of\nthe Divine Intellect.\n\n72. Again the thought that these phenomena are not false, nor do they\nlead to our illusion since they are the manifestation of the supreme\nIntellect, is also very true and leads to your consummation.\n\n73. It is well R\u00e1ma, and for your good also if you know either of\nthese; because both of these views will tend equally to your felicity.\n\n74. Conduct yourself in this manner, O blessed R\u00e1ma! and lessen\ngradually all your affection and dislike to this world and all worldly\nthings. (_i.e._ Neither love nor hate aught at any time).\n\n75. Whatever there exists in this earth, sky and heaven, is all\nobtainable by you, by means of the relinquishment of your eager desire\nand hatred.\n\n76. Whatever a man endeavours to do, with his mind freed from his\nfondness for or hatred to it, the same comes shortly, to take place,\ncontrary to the attempts of the ignorant: (whose excessive desire and\ndislike turn to their disadvantage).\n\n77. No good quality can have its abode in the heart that is troubled by\nthe waves of faults; as no stag will set its foot on the ground, heated\nby burning sands and wild fires.\n\n78. What acquisitions does he not make, in whose heart there grows the\nkalpa tree of desire, and which is not infested by the snakes of ardent\ndesire or dislike (the two cankers of human breast).\n\n79. Those men who are wise and discreet, learned and attentive to their\nduties, and at the same time influenced by the feelings of love and\nhatred, are no better than jackals (or jack asses) in human shape, and\nare accursed with all their qualifications.\n\n80. Look at the effects of these passions in men, who repine both at\nthe use of their wealth by others, as also in leaving their hard earned\nmoney behind them. (This proceeds from excessive love of wealth on\nthe one hand, and hatred of family and heirs on the other as is said\n[Sanskrit: putr\u00e1dapi ghanabhajam bh\u00e1ti], the monied miser, dislikes\neven his son).\n\n81. All our riches, relatives and friends, are as transitory as the\npassing winds: why then should a wise man rejoice or repine at their\ngain or loss.\n\n82. All our gains and wants and enjoyments in life, are mere illusion\nor m\u00e1y\u00e1, which is spread as a net by Divine power, all over the works\nof creation, and entraps all the worldlings in it.\n\n83. There is no wealth, nor any person, that is real or lasting to\nany one in this temporary world; it is all frail and fleeting, and\nstretched out as a false magic show to sight.\n\n84. What wise man is there that will place his attachment on anything,\nwhich is an unreality both in its beginning and end, and is quite\nunsteady in the midst. No one has any faith in the arbour of his\nimagination or aerial castle.\n\n85. As one fancies he sees a fairy in a passing cloud, and is pleased\nwith the sight of what he can never enjoy, but passes from his view to\nthe sight of distant peoples; so is this passing world, which passes\nfrom the sight of some to that of others, without its being fully\nenjoyed or long retained in the possession of any one. (The passing\nworld passes from hand to hand, without its standing still at any one's\ncommand).\n\n86. The bustle of these fleeting bodies in the world, resembles the\ncommotion of an aerial castle, and the appearance of a city in an\nevanescent dream and fancy.\n\n87. I see the world as a city in my protracted dream, with all its\nmovables and immovable things, lying as quiet and still as in profound\nsleep.\n\n88. R\u00e1ma, you are wandering in this world, as one rolling in his bed\nof indolence, and lulled to the long sleep of ignorance; which lends\nyou from one error to another, as if dragged by a chain of continuous\ndreaming.\n\n89. Now R\u00e1ma, break off your long chain of indolent ignorance, forsake\nthe idol of your errors, and lay hold on the inestimable gem of your\nspiritual and divine knowledge.\n\n90. Return to your right understanding, and behold your soul in its\nclear light as a manifestation of the unchangeable luminary of the\nIntellect; in the same manner as the unfolding lotus beholds the rising\nsun.\n\n91. I exhort you repeatedly, O R\u00e1ma! to wake from your drowsiness,\nand by remaining ever wakeful to your spiritual concerns; see the\nundecaying and undeclining sun of your soul at all times.\n\n92. I have roused you from your indolent repose, and awakened you to\nthe light of your understanding, by the cooling breeze of spiritual\nknowledge, and the refreshing showers of my elegant diction.\n\n93. Delay not R\u00e1ma, to enlighten your understanding even now, and\nattain your highest wisdom in the knowledge of the supreme being, to\ncome to the light of truth and shun the errors of the delusive world.\n\n94. You will not be subject to any more birth or pain, nor will you be\nexposed to any error or evil, if you will but remain steady in your\nsoul, by forsaking all your worldly desires.\n\n95. Remain steadfast, O high minded R\u00e1ma, in your trust in the tranquil\nand all soul of Brahma, for attainment of the purity and holiness of\nyour own soul, and you will thereby be freed from the snare of your\nearthly desires, and get a clear sight of that true reality, wherein\nyou will rest in perfect security, as were in profound sleep.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIX.\n\nPANTHEISM.\n\nor\n\nDESCRIPTION OF THE WORLD AS FULL WITH THE SUPREME SOUL.\n\nArgument.--Elucidation of the same subject, and further Instruction to\nR\u00e1ma.\n\n\nV\u00e1lm\u00edki relates:--Hearing this discourse of the sage, R\u00e1ma remained\nsedate with the coma (sama) of his mind, his spirits were tranquil, and\nhis soul was full of rapture.\n\n2. The whole audience also that was present at the place, being all\nquiet, calm and silent (comatose-upas\u00e1nta), the sage withheld his\nspeech for fear of disturbing their spiritual repose: (which converted\nthem to stock and stone).\n\n3. The sage stopped from distilling the drops of his ambrosial speech\nany more, after the hearts of the audience were lulled to rest by their\ndraughts, as the clouds cease to rain drops, having penetrated into the\nhearts of ripened grains.\n\n4. As R\u00e1ma (with the rest of the assembly) came to be rose from their\ntorpor after a while; the eloquent Vasishtha resumed his discourse in\nelucidation of his former lecture. (On spirituality).\n\n5. Vasishtha said:--R\u00e1ma! you are now fully awakened to light, and have\ncome to and obtained the knowledge of thyself; remain hence forward\nfixed to the only true object, wherein you must rely your faith, and\nnever set your feet on the field of the false phenomenal world.\n\n6. The wheel of the world is continually revolving round the centre of\ndesire, put a peg to its axis, and it will stop from turning about its\npole.\n\n7. If you be slack to fasten the nave (n\u00e1bhi) of your mind, by your\nmanly efforts (purush\u00e1rtha; it will be hard for you to stop the wheel\nof the world, which runs faster as you slacken your mind.)\n\n8. Exert your manly strength (courage), with the aid of your mental\npowers and wisdom, stop the motion of your heart, which is the centre\nof the wheeling course of the world.\n\n9. Know, that everything is obtainable by means of manly exertion,\njoined with good sense and good nature, and assisted by a knowledge\nof the s\u00e1stras; and whatever is not obtained by these, is to be had\nnowhere by any other.\n\n10. Relinquish your reliance on destiny which is a coinage of puerile\nimagination; and by relying on your own exertions, govern your heart\nand mind for your lasting good.\n\n11. The unsubstantial mind which appears as a substantiality, has had\nits rise since the creation of Brahm\u00e1; and taken a wrong and erroneous\ncourse of its own. (The human understanding is frail from first to\nbeginning, it is a power, and no positive reality).\n\n12. The unreal and erroneous mind, weaves and stretches out a\nlengthening web of its equally unreal and false conceptions, which it\nis led afterwards to mistake for the substantial world.\n\n13. All these bodies that are seen to move about us, are the products\nof the fancies and fond desires of the mind; and though these frail\nand false bodies cease to exist forever, yet the mind and its wishes\nare imperishable; and either show themselves in their reproduction\nin various forms, or they become altogether extinct in their total\nabsorption in the supreme spirit. (The doctrine of eternal ideas, is\nthe source of their perpetual appearance in various forms about bodies).\n\n14. The wise man must not understand the pain or pleasure of the soul\nfrom the physiognomy of man, that a sorrowful and weeping countenance\nis the indication of pain; and a clear (cheerful) and tearless face is\nthe sign of pleasure. (Because it is the mind which moulds the face in\nany form it likes).\n\n15. You see a man in two ways, the one with his body and the other in\nhis representation in a picture or statues, of these the former kind\nis more frail than the latter; because the embodied man is beset\nby troubles and diseases in his fading and mouldering, decaying and\ndying body, whereby the other is not. (The frame of the living man, is\nfrailer than his dead resemblance).\n\n16. The fleshy body is assuredly doomed to die, notwithstanding all our\nefforts for its preservation; but a body in the portrait being taken\ngood care of, lasts for ages with its undiminished beauty.\n\n17. As the living body is sure to die in despite of all your care for\nit, the pictured body must be deemed far better, than the false and\nfancied fleshy body, produced by will of the mind (sankalpa deha).\n\n18. The quality and stability which abide in a pictured body, are not\nto be found in the body of the mind; wherefore the living body of\nflesh, is more insignificant than its semblance in a picture or statue.\n\n19. Think now, O sinless R\u00e1ma, what reliance is there in this body\nof flesh; which is a production of your long fostered desire, and a\ncreature of your brain (Your mind makes it seem as such).\n\n20. This body of flesh is more contemptible than those ideal forms,\nwhich our dreams and desires produce in our sleeping and waking\nstates; because the creature of a momentary desire, is never attended\nwith a long or lasting happiness or misery. (Because the products of\nthe variable will, are of short duration, and so are their pains and\npleasures also).\n\n21. The bodies that are produced by our long desire, continue for\na longer time, and are subjected to a longer series of miseries in\nthis world. (So it is said, a \"long life is a long term of woes and\ncalamities\").\n\n22. The body is a creature of our fancy, and is neither a reality or\nunreality in itself; and yet are the ignorant people fondly attached to\nit, for the prolongation of their misery only.\n\n23. As the destruction of the portrait of a man, does no harm to his\nperson; and as the loss of a fancied city is no loss to the city,\nso the loss of the much desired body of any one, is no loss to his\npersonality in any wise.\n\n24. Again as the dis-appearance of the secondary moon (halo), is no\ndeprivation of the primary satellite (moon), and as the evanescence\nof the visionary world, is no annihilation of the external world. (So\nthere is no loss of the soul, as the loss of the shadow, is no loss of\nthe substance).\n\n25. As the dis-appearance of water in the sunny banks of rivers, is\nno deprivation of the river's water; so the creations of fancy which\nare not negative in their nature, cannot be destructive of what is\npositive, nor any damage done to the machine of the body, can ever\ninjure the dis-embodied soul.\n\n26. The body is a piece of work wrought by the architect of the mind,\nin its dreaming somnambulation over the sleeping world; wherefore\nits decoration or disfigurement, is of no essential advantage or\ndis-advantage to inward soul.\n\n27. There is no end of the Intellect in its extent, nor any motion of\nthe soul from its place; there is no change in the Divine spirit of\nBrahma, nor do any of these decay with the decline of the body.\n\n28. As the inner and smaller wheel, makes the outer and larger wheel to\nturn about it, so the inner _annulus_ of the mind, sees in its delirium\nspheres over spheres revolving in empty air.\n\n29. The mind views by its primitive and causeless error, the constant\nrotation of bodies both in the inside and out side of it; and some as\nmoving forward and others as falling down, and many as dropped below.\n\n30. Seeing the rise and fall of these rotatory bodies, the wise man\nmust rely on the firmness of his mind, and not himself to be led away\nby these rotations in repeated succession.\n\n31. Fancy forms the body and it is error that makes the unreal appear\nas real; but the formation of fancy, and the fabrications of untruth,\ncannot have any truth or reality in them.\n\n32. The unreal body appearing as real, is like the appearance of a\nsnake in a rope; and so are all the affairs of the world quite untrue\nand false, and appearing as true for the time being.\n\n33. Whatever is done by an insensible being, is never accounted as its\naction (or doing); hence all what is done by the senseless bodies\n(of man), is not recounted as done by it. (But by the impulse of the\nactuating mind).\n\n34. It is the will which is the active agent of its actions, and this\nbeing so, neither the inactive body nor the unchanging soul is the\nactor of any action. (The soul being the witness of the bodily actions\ndone by the impelling mind. gloss).\n\n35. The inert body being without any effort, is never the doer of any\nact, which is desired by its presiding soul; it is only a viewer of\nthe soul, which witnesses it also. (The body is attendant or dependant\nto the soul, as the other is a resident in it, they are both devoid of\naction, and unstained by those done by the will of the mind).\n\n36. As the lamp burns unshaken and with its unflickering flame, in the\nbreathless air and in itself only; so doth the silent and steady soul\ndwell as a witness, in all things and of all acts existing and going on\nin the world. (So doth the human soul abide and inflame itself in the\nbody, unless it is shaken and moved by the airy mind).\n\n37. As the celestial and luminous orb of the day, regulates the daily\nworks of the living world from his seat on high, so do you, O R\u00e1ma,\nadminister the affairs of thy state from thy elevated seat on the royal\nthrone.\n\n38. The knowledge of one's entity or egoism, in the unsubstantial abode\nof his body, is like the sight of a spirit by boys in the empty space\nof a house or in empty air. (The substantiality of the unsubstantial\nbody, is as false as the corporeality of an incorporeal spirit).\n\n39. Whence comes this unsubstantial egoism in the manner of an inane\nghost, and takes possession of the inner body under the name of the\nmind, is what the learned are at a loss to explain.\n\n40. Never enslave yourself, O wise R\u00e1ma! to this spectre of your\negoism, which like the _ignis fatuus_ leads you with limbo lake or\nbog of hell. (The sense of one's personality is the cause of his\nresponsibility).\n\n41. The mad and giddy mind, accompanied with its capricious desires\nand whims, plays its foolish pranks in its abode of the body, like a\nhideous demon dancing in a dreary desert.\n\n42. The demoniac mind having made its way, into the hollow heart of\nthe human body; plays its fantastic parts in so odd a manner, that\nwise men shut their eyes against the sight, and sit in their silent\ncontemplation of the secluded soul. (It is good to fly from the fields,\nwhere fools make a prominent figure).\n\n43. After the demon of the mind, is driven out of the abode of the\nbody, there is no more any fear for any one to dwell in it in peace; as\nno body is afraid of living in a deserted and desolate city.\n\n44. It is astonishing that men should place any reliance in their\nbodies, and consider them as their own, when they had had thousands\nof such bodies in their repeated births before, and when they were\ninvariably infested by the demon of the mind.\n\n45. They that die in the grasp and under the clutches of the cannibal\nof the mind, have their minds like those of the pis\u00e1cha cannibals in\ntheir future births, and never of any other kind of being. (The will\never accompanies a man, in all his future states).\n\n46. The body which is taken possession of by the demon of egoism,\nis being consumed by the burning fires of the triple afflictions;\noccurring from local, natural and accidental evils, and is not to be\nrelied upon as a safe and lasting abode of any body.\n\n47. Do you therefore desist to dance your attendance on, and follow\nthe dictates of your egoism (or selfishness). Be of an extended and\nelevated mind, and by forgetting your egotism in your magnanimity, rely\nonly on the supreme spirit.\n\n48. Those hellish people that are seized and possessed by the devils\nof Egotism, are blinded in their self-delusion and giddiness; and are\nunbefriended by their fellows and friends, as they are unfriendly to\nothers in this world. (Egotism is explained in its double sense of\nselfishness and pride, both of which are hated and shunned by men as\nthey hate and shun others).\n\n49. Whatever action is done by one bewitched by egoism in his mind,\nthe same grows up as a poisonous plant, and produces the fatal fruit of\ndeath. (The fruits are mutual quarrels, enmity and the like).\n\n50. The ignorant man that is elated by his egoistic pride, is lost both\nto his reason and patience; and one who is attached to the former by\nhis neglect of the latter, is to be known as approaching fast to his\nperdition. (Pride goes before destruction).\n\n51. The simpleton that is seized by the devil of Egoism, is made as\nfuel to the fire of hell (where he is doomed to burn with ceaseless\ntorment).\n\n52. When the snake of Egoism hisses hard in the hollow heart of the\ntree of the body, it is sure to be cut down by the inexorable hand of\ndeath, who fells the noxious tree like a wood cutter to the ground.\n\n53. O R\u00e1ma! that are the greatest among the great, never look at the\ndemon of egoism, whether it may reside in your body or not; because the\nvery look of it, is sure to delude any one.\n\n54. If you disregard deride or drive away the demon of egoism, from the\nrecess of your mind, there is no damage or danger, that it can ever\nbring upon you in any wise.\n\n55. R\u00e1ma! what though the demon of Egoism, may play all its freaks in\nits abode of the body, it can in no way affect the soul which is quite\naloof of it. (Egoism contaminates the mind, and cannot touch the soul\nthat contemns it).\n\n56. Egoism brings a great many evils, upon them that have their minds\nvitiated by its influence, and it requires hundreds of years, to count\nand recount their baneful effects.\n\n57. Know R\u00e1ma, that it is the despotic power of egoism, that makes\nmen to groan under its thraldom, and incessantly uttering the piteous\nexclamations, \"Oh! we are dying and burning and such other bitter\ncries.\"\n\n58. The soul is ubiquitous and free to rove every where, without its\nhaving any connection with the ego of any body; just as the ubiquity of\nthe all pervading sky, is unconnected with every thing in the world.\n\n59. Whatever is done or taken in by the body, in its connection with\nthe airy thread of life; know R\u00e1ma, all this to be the doing of\negoism, which empties and impels the body to all its various actions.\n\n60. Know thus quiescent soul impels also, to be the cause of all the\nexertions of the mind or mental operations, as the inactive vacuum is\nthe material cause of the growth of trees. (_i.e._ the circumambient\nair affords room for the expansion of the plant).\n\n61. It is owing to the presence of the soul, that the mind developes\nitself in the form of the body and all its members; as it is the\npresence of the light, that makes the room display its contained\nobjects to sight. (The soul is the light of the mind--nous the\ncontainer of infinite ideas).\n\n62. Think now R\u00e1ma, on the relation between the ever unconnected\nsoul and mind, to resemble the irrelation subsisting between the\ndis-connected earth and sky, and betwixt light and darkness and betwixt\nthe intellect and gross bodies.\n\n63. Those that are ignorant of the soul, view the quiet mind as\nsuch, after its motion and fluctuation are stopped by the restraint\nof respiration--Pr\u00e1n\u00e1y\u00e1ma. (This is the doctrine of the S\u00e1nkhya and\nBuddhist, that view the becalmed and quiescent mind as the soul).\n\n64. But the soul is self-luminous and ever lasting, omnipresent and\nsuper-eminent, while the mind is deceptive and egoism. It is situated\nin the heart with too much of its pride and vanity.\n\n65. You are in reality the all-knowing soul, and not the ignorant and\ndeluded mind; therefore drive afar your delusive mind from the seat of\nthe soul, as they can never meet nor agree together.\n\n66. R\u00e1ma! the mind has also like a demon, taken possession of the\nempty house of the body, and has like an evil spirit, silenced and\noverpowered upon the intangible soul in it.\n\n67. Whatever thou art, remain but quiet in thyself, by driving away the\ndemon of thy mind from thee; because it robs thee of thy best treasure\nof patience, and loads all kinds of evils upon thee. (_i.e._ the\nimpatient mind is the source of all evil).\n\n68. The man that is seized by the voracious yaksha of his own mind,\nhas no change of his release from his grasp, either by the lessons of\nthe s\u00e1stras or by the advice of his friends, relatives and preceptors.\n(Greediness devours the greedy that desire to glut all things).\n\n69. The man who has appeased the demon of his mind, is capable of being\nreleased from its clutches, by means of the dictates of s\u00e1stras, and\nthe admonitions of his friends, as it is possible to liberate a deer\nfrom a shallow quagmire.\n\n70. All things that are seen to be stored in this vacant city, of the\nvacuous world, are all of them polluted by the lickerishness of the\nmind, licking at them from inside the house of its body.\n\n71. Say who is not afraid in this dreary wilderness of the world, which\nis infested in every corner of it by the demoniac mind. (The rapacity\nof the ambitious, converts the fair creation to a scene of horror).\n\n72. There are some wise men in this city of the world, who enjoy the\nabodes of their bodies in peace, having tranquilized the demon of their\nminds in them. (A peaceful mind makes a peaceful abode).\n\n73. R\u00e1ma! All the countries that we hear of in any part of the world,\nare found to be full of senseless bodies, in which the giddy demon\nof delusion are Raving (and Ranging) as the sepulchral grounds. (The\nbodies of ignorant people, are as sepulchres of dead bodies. gloss).\n\n74. Let people rely on their patience, and redeem their souls by their\nown exertions; which are otherwise seen to be wandering about in the\nforest of this world, like lost and stray boys: (that know not how to\nreturn to their homes).\n\n75. Men are wandering in this world, as herds of stags are roving in\nburning deserts; but take care R\u00e1ma, never to live contented with a\ngrazing on the sapless grass, like a young and helpless deer.\n\n76. Foolish men are seen to graze as young stags, in their pastures\namidst the wilderness of this world; but you R\u00e1ma must stir yourself to\nkill the great Elephant of Ignorance, and pursue the leonine course of\nsubduing every thing in your way.\n\n77. Do not allow yourself, O R\u00e1ma, to ramble about like other men, who\nwander like senseless beasts in their native forests of the Jambudw\u00edpa.\n\n78. Do not plunge yourself like the foolish buffets, in the bog of\nyour relatives and friends; it appears to you as a cold bath for a\nwhile, but daubs you with its mud and mire afterwards. (The circle of\nrelatives may appear as a limpid lake at first; but dive in it, and you\nwill be daubed with its dirt afterwards).\n\n79. Drive afar your desire of bodily enjoyments from you, and follow\nthe steps of respectable men; and having well considered thy sole\nobject of the soul (from the great sayings of the s\u00e1stras), attend to\nthyself or soul only. (Consider the objective soul in thy subjective\nself).\n\n80. It is not proper that you should plunge yourself, into a sea of\nintolerable cares and troubles, for the sake of your impure and frail\nbody, which is but a trifle in comparison with the inestimable soul.\n\n81. The body which is the production of one thing (_i.e._ the product\nof past deeds), and is possessed by another (_i.e._ the demon of\negoism); which puts another one (_i.e._ the mind) to the pain of its\nsupportance, and affords its enjoyment to a fourth one (_i.e._ the\nliving soul), as a complicate machinery of many powers to the ignorant.\n(The human frame is a mechanism of the body and mind, its egoism and\nliving principle).\n\n82. As solidity is the only property of the stone, so the soul has the\nsingle property of its entity alone; and its existence being common in\nall objects, it is impossible for any thing else to subsist beside it.\n(The soul being the only _ens_, it is of its nature the all in all; the\nminds etc. being but its attributes).\n\n83. As thickness is the property of stone, so are the mind and others\nbut properties of the soul; and there being nothing which is distinct\nfrom the common entity of the soul, it is impossible for any thing to\nhave a separate existence.\n\n84. As density relates to the stone, and dimension bears its relation\nto the pot; so the mind and other are not distinct from one common\nexistence of the soul: (which pervades and constitutes the whole).\n\n85. Hear now of another view of spiritual light, for dispelling the\ndarkness of delusion; as it was revealed to me of yore, in a cavern of\nmount Kail\u00e1sa. (The former seat of my devotion).\n\n86. There is a mountain peak, bright as the collected mass of\nmoon-beams, and penetrating the vault of heaven, where the god with the\nsemi-circular moon on his fore-head, delivered this doctrine to me for\nappeasing the miseries of the world.\n\n87. This mountain peak is famed by the name of Kail\u00e1sa, on which the\ngod Hara--the consort of Gouri, wearing the crescent moon on his head,\nholds his residence.\n\n88. It was to worship this great god, that I had once dwelt on that\nmountain long ago; and constructed my hermit-cell on the bank of the\nholy stream of Ganges. (Which ran down by its side).\n\n89. I remained there in the practice of ascetic austereties, for the\nperformance of my holy devotion; and was beset by bodies of adepts,\ndis-coursing on subjects of the sacred s\u00e1stras.\n\n90. I made baskets for filling them with flowers for my worship, and\nfor keeping the collection of my books in them; and was employed in\nsuch other sacred tasks, in the forest groves of the Kail\u00e1sa mountain.\n\n91. While thus I had been passing my time, in discharging the\naustereties of my devotion; it happened to turn out once on the eighth\nday of the dark side of the moon of the month of _sr\u00e1vana_.\n\n92. And after its evening twilight was over, and the sun light had\nfaded in the face of the four quarters of the sky, that all objects\nbecame invisible to sight, and stood rapt in their saint like silence.\n\n93. It was then after half of the first watch of the night had fled\naway, there spread a thick darkness over the groves and wood lands,\nand required a sharp sword to sever it. (Asich' hedy\u00e1 tami-sr\u00e1-tenebra\nensis encesibelia).\n\n94. My intense meditation was broken at this instant, and my trance\ngave way to the sight of outward objects, which I kept looking upon\nfor sometime; when I observed a flaming fire suddenly rising in the\nforest to my view.\n\n95. It was as bright as a big white cloud, and as brilliant as the\nshining orb of the moon; It illumed the groves on all sides, and struck\nwith amazement at the vision.\n\n96. As I viewed it by the sight of my understanding, or the mental\nvision which was glowing in my mind; I came to see the god Siva with\nthe crescent of the moon on his fore-head, standing on the table land\nand manifest to view.\n\n97. With his hand clasping the hand of Gaur\u00ed, he was led on ward by his\nbrace attendant Nand\u00ed walking before him; when I after informing my\npupils about it, proceeded forward with the due honorarium in my hand.\n\n98. Led by the sight, I came to the presence of the god with a gladsome\nmind; and then I offered handfuls of flowers to the three eyed-god from\na distance, in token of my reverence to him.\n\n99. After giving the honor (Arghya), which was worthy of him, I bowed\ndown before the god, and accosted him; when he cast his kind look upon\nme, from his moon-bright and clear sighted eyes.\n\n100. Being blest by his benign look, which took away all my pain and\nsin from me; I did my homage to the god that was seated on the flowery\nlevel land, and viewed the three worlds lying open before him.\n\n101. Then advancing forward, I offered unto him the honorarium, flowers\nand water that I had with me, and scattered before him heaps of mand\u00e1ra\nflowers, that grew there abouts.\n\n102. I then worshipped the god with repeated obeisances and various\neulogiums; and next adored the goddess Gaur\u00ed with the same kind of\nhomage together with her attendant goddesses and demigods.\n\n103. After my adoration was over, the god having the crescent moon on\nhis head, spoke to me that was seated by him, with his speech as mild\nas the cooling beams of the full-moon.\n\n104. Say O Br\u00e1hman, whether thy affections are at peace within\nthyself, and have found their rest in supreme spirit, and whether your\nfelicitous feelings are settled in the true object of divine essence.\n\n105. Whether your devotion is spading unobstructed by the demons of\nyour passions, and whether felicity attends on you.\n\n106. Have you obtained the obtainable one, that is alone to be\nobtained, and are you set above the fears, that incessantly hunt after\nall mankind?\n\n107. After the Lord of gods and the sole cause of all created beings,\nhad spoken in this manner; I replied to him submissively in the\nfollowing words.\n\n108. O Lord! there is nothing unattainable, nor is there anything to\nbe feared by any one, who remembers the three eyed god at all times in\nhis mind; and whose hearts are filled with rapture by their constant\nremembrance of thee.\n\n109. There is no one in the womb of this world, in any country or\nquarter, or in the mountains or forests, that does not bow down his\nhead before thee.\n\n110. Those whose minds are entirely devoted to their remembrance of\nthee, get the rewards of the meritorious acts of their past lives;\nand water the trees of their present lives, in order to produce their\nmanifold fruit in future births and lives.\n\n111. Lord! thy remembrance expands the seed of our desire, thou art\nthe jar of the nectar of our knowledge, and thou art the reservoir of\npatience, as the moon is the receptacle of cooling beams.\n\n112. Thy remembrance, Lord! is the gate way to the city of salvation,\nand it is thy remembrance which I deem as the invaluable gem of my\nthoughts.\n\n113. O Lord of creation! thy remembrance sets its foot on the head of\nall our calamities (_i.e._ tramples over them). (Because Siva is called\nSankara for his doing good to all, by removal of their misfortunes).\n\n114. I said thus far, and then bowing down lowly before the complacent\ndeity, I addressed him, O R\u00e1ma, in the manner as you shall hear from\nme.\n\n115. Lord! it is by thy favour that I have the fulness of my heart's\ncontent on every side; yet as there is one doubt lurking in my mind, I\nwill request thee to explain it fully to me.\n\n116. Say with your clear understanding, and without hesitation and\nweariness, regarding the manner of the adoration of gods, which\nremoves all our sins and confers all good unto us. (The query was\nquite appropriate as the Tantras of Siva treat principally of such\nformularies).\n\n117. The god replied:--Hear me, O Brahman, that art best acquainted\nwith the knowledge of Brahma; tell you about the best mode of\nworshipping the gods, and the performance of which is sure to set the\nworshipper free. (From the bonds of the world all at once).\n\n118. Tell me first, O great armed Brahman, if you know at all who is\nthat god, whom you make the object of your worship, if it be not the\nlotus-eyed Vishnu or the three-eyed Siva neither.\n\n119. It is not the god born of the lotus Brahm\u00e1, nor he who is the lord\nof the thirteen classes of god--the great Indra himself; it is not the\ngod of winds--Pavana, nor the god of fire, nor the regents of the sun\nand moon.\n\n120. The Brahman (called an earthly god _bhudeva_) is no god at all,\nnor the king called the shadow of god, is any god likewise, neither I\nor thou--the ego and tu (or the subjective self and objective unself)\nare gods; nor the body or any embodied being, or the mind or any\nconception or creation of the mind is the true god also.\n\n121. Neither Laxm\u00ed the goddess of fortune, nor Sarasvat\u00ed the goddess\nof intelligence are true goddesses, nor is there any one that may be\ncalled a god, except the one unfictitious god, who is without beginning\nand end, that is the true god. (The Viswasaratantra of Siva treats of\nthe one infinite and eternal God).\n\n122. How can a body measured by a form and its dimensions, or having a\ndefinite measure be the immeasurable deity! it is the inartificial and\nunlimited Intellect, that is known as the Siva or the felicitous one.\n\n123. It is that which is meant by the word God--Deva--Deus, and that\nis the object of adoration; that is the only _ens_ or _on_, _est_ or\nEsteor Esten, out of which all other beings have proceeded, and in\nwhich they have their existence, and wherein they subsist with their\nformal parts.\n\n124. Those unacquainted with the true nature of the felicitous Siva,\nworship the formal idols and images; as a weary traveller thinks the\ndistance of a mile, to be as long as the length of a league.\n\n125. It is possible to have the reward of one's adoration of the Rudras\nand other gods; but the reward of the meditation of the true God, is\nthe unbounded felicity of the soul.\n\n126. He who forsakes the reward of true felicity, for that of\nfictitious pleasures; is like one who quits a garden of mandara flower,\nand repairs to a furze of thorny _karanja_ plants.\n\n127. The true worshippers know the purely intellectual and felicitous\nSiva, to be the only adorable god; to whom the understanding and\ntranquillity and equanimity of the soul are, the most acceptable\nofferings than wreaths of flowers.\n\n128. Know that to be the true worship of God, when the Deity of the\nspirit (or spiritual Divinity), is worshipped with the flowers of the\nunderstanding and tranquillity of the spirit. (Worship God in spirit\nand with the contriteness of thy spirit).\n\n129. The soul is of the form of consciousness (and is to be worshipped\nas such), by forsaking the adoration of idols; Those that are devoted\nto any form of fictitious cult, are subject to endless misery.\n\n130. Those knowing the knowable one are called as saints; but those\nwho slighting the meditation of the soul, betake themselves to the\nadoration of idols, are said to liken little boys playing with their\ndolls.\n\n131. The Lord Siva is the spiritual god, and the supreme cause of all;\nHe is to be worshipped always and without fail, with the understanding\nonly. (So the sruti: The vipras adore him in their knowledge, but\nothers worship him with sacrifices &c.)\n\n132. You should know the soul as the intellectual and living spirit,\nundecaying as the very nature herself; there is no other that is to be\nworshipped, the true puja is the worship of the spirit. (God is to be\nworshipped in spirit only).\n\n133. Vasishtha said:--The soul being of the nature of intellectual\nvoid, as this world is an empty void also; please tell me, my lord, how\nthe Intellect could become the living soul etc., as you have declared.\n\n134. The god replied:--There being an only vacuous Intellect in\nexistence, which is beyond all limit; it is impossible for an\nintelligible object to exist anywhere which may continue to all\neternity. (The subjective only is self-existent, and the objective is a\nnullity; it being impossible for two self-existent things to co-exist\ntogether).\n\n135. That which shines of itself, is the self-shining Being; and it is\nthe self or spontaneous agitation of that Being, which has stretched\nout the universe.\n\n136. Thus the world appears as a city in dream before the intellectual\nsoul, and this soul is only a form of the inane intellect, and this\nworld is but a baseless fabric.\n\n137. It is altogether impossible for aught of the thinkables and\nvisibles, to exist anywhere except in the empty sphere of the\nintellect, and whatever shone forth in the beginning in the plenitude\nof the Divine intellect, the same is called its creation or the world\nfrom the first.\n\n138. Therefore this world which shows itself in the form of a fairy\nland in dream, is only an appearance in the empty sphere of the\nintellect; and cannot be any other in reality.\n\n139. The Intellect is the human speech, and the firmament that supports\nthe world; the intellect becomes the soul and the living principle,\nand it is this which forms the chain of created beings. (The seeming\nappearances being null and void; the Intellect is all and everything).\n\n140. Tell me, what other thing is there that could know all things in\nthe beginning and before creation of the universe, except it were the\nIntellect which saw and exhibited everything, in heaven and earth as\ncontained in itself.\n\n141. The words sky, firmament, and the vacuum of Brahma and the world,\nare all applicable to the Intellect, as the words arbour and tree are\nbut synonymous expressions for the same thing.\n\n142. And as both our dreams and desires arise in us by our delusion, so\nit is our illusion only which makes us perceive the existence of the\nouter world; in the empty space of the intellect.\n\n143. And as it is our empty consciousness, that shows the sight of the\nexternal world in our dream; so it is that very thing that shows us the\nsame, in the waking dream of ourselves.\n\n144. As it is not possible for the city in a dream, to be represented\nany where except in the hollow space of our intellect; so it is\nimpossible for the waking dream of the world, to be shown elsewhere\nexcept in the emptiness of the same.\n\n145. As it is not possible for any thing that is thinkable to exist\nany where except in the thinking mind, so it is impossible for this\nthinkable world to exist any other place beside the divine mind.\n\n146. The triple world rose of itself at the will and in the empty space\nof the supreme Intellect, as it was a dream rising and setting in the\nself same mind, and not as any thing other than it, or a duality beside\nitself.\n\n147. As one sees the diverse appearances of _ghatas_ and _patas_, pots\nand painting in his dream, and all lying within the hollowness of his\nmind; so the world appears of itself, in the vacuity of the Divine\nIntellect, at the beginning of creation.\n\n147_a_. As there is no substantiality of anything in the fairy land of\none's dream, except his pure consciousness of the objects; so there is\nno substantiality of the things which are seen in this triple world,\nexcept our consciousness of them.\n\n148. What ever is visible to sight, and all that is existent and\ninexistent, in the three times of the present, past and future; and\nall space, time and mind, are no other than appearances of vacuous\nintellect (of Brahma).\n\n149. He is verily the god of whom I have told you, who is supreme in\nthe highest degree (lit. in its transcendental sense). Who is all and\nunbounded and includes me, thee and the endless world in Himself.\n\n150. The bodies of all created beings, of thine, mine, and others, and\nof all in this world, are all full with the intellectuality of the\nsupreme soul and no other.\n\n151. As there is nothing, O sage, except the bodies that are produced\nfrom the vacuous intellect or intellectual vacuity of Brahma, and\nresembling the images produced in the fairy land of one's dream; so\nthere is no form or figure in this world, other than what was made in\nthe beginning of creation.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXX.\n\nINQUIRY INTO THE NATURE OF THE INTELLECT.\n\nArgument.--Description of the Pervasion and Supervision of the\nIntellect; and its transformation into the mind in living beings. Or\nIntellect as universal soul and mind of living beings.\n\n\nThe god said:--Thus the Intellect is all this plenum, it is the sole\nsupreme soul (of all); it is Brahma the Immense and the transcendent\nvacuum, and it said to be the supreme god.\n\n2. Therefore its worship is of the greatest good, and confers all\nblessings to men; it is source of creation, and all this world is\nsituated on it. (The Divine Mind or omniscience).\n\n3. It is unmade and increate, and without its beginning and end; it is\nboundless and without a second, it is to be served without external\nservice (_i.e._ by spiritual adoration), and all felicity is obtained\nthereby. (Hence Solomon's choice of Wisdom).\n\n4. You are enlightened, O chief of sages! and there I tell you this;\nthat the worship of gods is not worthy to the wise, and offering of\nflowers and frankincense is of no use to them.\n\n5. Those who are unlearned, and have their minds as simple as those of\nboys; are the persons that are mostly addicted to false worship, and\ndevoted to the adoration of gods.\n\n6. These being devoid of the quietness of their understandings, are led\nto ceremonious observances, and to the false attribution of a soul, to\nthe images of their own making.\n\n7. It is for boys only to remain contented with their act of offering\nflowers and incense to gods, whom they honour in the modes of worship,\nwhich they have adopted of their own hobby-choice.\n\n8. It is in vain that men worship the gods for gaining the objects of\ntheir desire, for nothing that is false of itself; can ever give the\nrequired fruit.\n\n9. Adoration with flowers and incense, is inculcated to childish\nunderstandings (and not for the wise). I will tell you now, the\nworship that is worthy of men enlightened like yourself.\n\n10. Know, O most intelligent sage, that the god whom we adore is the\ntrue god, who is the receptacle of the three worlds, the supreme spirit\nand no other.\n\n11. He is Siva--the felicity, who is above the ranks of all other gods,\nand beyond all fictions and fictitious images of men; He is accompanied\nwith all desires (will or volition), and is neither the enjoyer of\nall or any part of the production of his will. He is full with the\nimaginations of all things, but is neither the all or any one of the\nobjects in his mind.\n\n12. He encompasses all space and time, and is neither divided nor\ncircumscribed by either of them. He is the manifester of all events and\nthings, and is nothing except the image of pure Intellect Himself.\n\n13. He is consciousness without parts, and situated in the heart of\nevery thing. He is the producer of every thing, and their absorber also\nin himself.\n\n14. Know Brahma to be situated between existence and inexistence and it\nis He who styled the God, the supreme soul, the transcendental, the Tat\nsat--Id Est, and the syllable Om--on or ens.\n\n15. By his nature of immensity, he spreads alike in all space, and\nbeing the great Intellect himself, he is said to be transcendent and\nsupreme being.\n\n16. He remains as all in all places, as the sap circulates through the\nbodies of plants; thus the great soul of the supreme being, extends\nalike as the common entity of all things.\n\n17. It is He who abides in the heart of your spouse Arundhat\u00ed as in\nyours, the same also dwells in the heart of P\u00e1rvat\u00ed as in those of her\nattendants.\n\n18. That intellection which is one and in every one in all the three\nworlds is verily the god, by the best knowing among philosophers: (that\ngod is the universal mind).\n\n19. Tell me O Brahman! how they may be called as gods, who having their\nhands and feet, are yet devoid of their consciousness; which is the\npith of the body. (This is said of idols and images).\n\n20. The Intellect is the pith and marrow of the world, and contains\nthe sap which it supplies to every thing in it. It is the _one and\nall--ego-sarvam_ and therefore all things are obtained from it. (The\ngod Siva is also called the all _to pan-sarva_ and Ego, that is I am\nthe universal ego and giver of all gifts to all).\n\n21. He is not situated at a distance, O Br\u00e1hman! nor is He unobtainable\nby any body; He resides always in all bodies, and abides alike in all\nplaces, as also in all empty space and sky. (This omnipresence of the\ndivine spirit, sets aside the belief of a _swarga_-heaven or _bihesht_\nas the special seat of God).\n\n22. He does, he eats, he supports all, and moves every where; He\nbreathes and feels and knows every member of the body. (This is\naccording to the sruti; He fills and directs every part of the body\nto the end of the nails-\u00e1nakh\u00e1grat. [Sanskrit: puryy\u00e1m\u00e1ste | sa eva\npravishta \u00e1nakh\u00e1grebhyah]).\n\n23. Know him, O chief of sages! to be seated in the city of the body;\nand directing the various functions that are manifest by it, under his\ndirect appointment.\n\n24. He is the lord of the cavity of the heart, and the several hidden\nsheaths--_Koshas_, which are contained within the cavity of the body;\nwhich is made by his moving abodes and moves as he pleases to move it.\n\n25. The immaculate soul is beyond the essence and actions of the mind,\nand the six organs of sense; it is for our use and understanding only,\nthe word chit--intellect is applied to him.\n\n26. That intellectual spirit is too minute and subtile, immaculate and\nall-pervading; and it is his option and volition, to manifest this\nvisible representation of himself or not.\n\n27. This intellect is too fine and pure, and yet manages the whole\nmachinery for beautifying the world, as the subtle and intelligent\nseason of spring, beautifies the vegetable world with freshness and\nmoisture.\n\n28. The beautiful and wonderous properties that reside in the divine\nIntellect, are astonishing to behold in their display into the various\nform as the sky.\n\n29. Some of these take the name of the living soul, and some others\nassume the title of the mind; some take the general name of space, and\nothers are known as its parts and divisions. (These are but parts of\none stupendous whole &c. Popes Moral Essays).\n\n30. Some of these pass under the name of substance, and others of their\naction; and some under the different categories of mode and condition,\ngenus, species and adjuncts.\n\n31. Some of them shine as light, and others stand as mountains and\nhills; some brighten as the sun and moon and the gods above, and others\nare as the dark yakshas below.\n\n32. All these continue in their own states, without any option on their\nparts; and they evolve of their own nature, and causation of the divine\nspirit, as the sprouts of trees grow of their own accord, under the\ninfluence of the vernal spring (season).\n\n33. It is the intellect alone which extends over all the works of\nnature, and fills all bodies which overspread the vast ocean of the\nworld, as the aquatic plants swim over the surface of waters.\n\n34. The deluded mind wanders like a roving bee, and collects the sweets\nof its desire from the lotus of the body, and the intellect sitting as\nits Mistress, relishes their essence from within. (Spiritual substances\ncan taste the essence of sweets. Milton).\n\n35. The world with all the gods and gandharvas, and the seas and hills\nthat are situated in it; rolls about in the circuit of the Intellect,\nas the waters whirl in a whirlpool.\n\n36. Human minds resembling the spokes of a wheel, are bound to the\naxles of their worldly affairs; and turn about in the rotatory wheel of\nthe ever revolving world, within the circumference of the Intellect.\n\n37. It was the Intellect which in the form of the four-armed Vishnu,\ndestroys the whole host of the demoniac asuras; as the rainy season\ndispels the solar heat, with its thundering clouds and rainbows.\n\n38. It is the Intellect, which in the form of the three-eyed Siva,\naccompanied by his ensigns of the bull and the crescent of the moon,\ncontinues to dote like a fond bee, on the lotus-like lovely face of\nGaur\u00ed (his consort).\n\n39. It was the intellect which was born as a bee in the lotus-like\nnavel of Vishnu in the form of Brahm\u00e1, and was settled in his\nmeditation upon the lotus of the triple vedas; (revealed to the sage\nafterwards).\n\n40. In this manner the Intellect appears in various forms, like the\nunnumbered leaves of trees, and the different kind of ornaments made of\nthe same metal of gold.\n\n41. The Intellect assumes of its own pleasure, the paramount dignity of\nIndra; who is the crown jewel over the three worlds, and whose feet are\nhonoured by the whole body of gods.\n\n42. The Intellect expands, rises and falls, and circulates everywhere\nin the womb of the triple world; as the waters of the deep overflow and\nrecede and move about in itself.\n\n43. The full moon beams of intellect, scatter their widespread\nbrightness on all sides; and display to the full view the lotus lake of\nall created beings in the world.\n\n44. The translucent brightness of the mirror of the Intellect, shows\nthe reflexions of the world in it, and receives benignantly the images\nof all things in its bosom; as if it were pregnant with them.\n\n45. The Intellect gives existence to the circles of the fourteen great\nregions (of creation) above and below; and it plants them in the watery\nexpanse of the sea on earth, and in the etherial expanse of the waters\nin heaven. (The fourteen regions are the seven continents--_sapta\ndw\u00edpas_, beset by the seven watery oceans, sapta-samudras on earth;\nand the seven planets revolving in the etherial ocean of the skies.\nManu says the god Brahm\u00e1 planted his seed in the waters; and the Bible\nsays--God divided the waters above from the waters below by the midway\nsky).\n\n46. Intellect spreads itself like a creeper in the vacuous field\nof air, and became fruitful with multitudes of created beings; it\nblossomed in the variety of the different peoples; and shooted forth in\nthe leaves of its dense desires.\n\n47. These throngs of living beings are its farina flying about,\nand their desires are as the juice which gives them their different\ncolours; their understandings are their covering cuticles and the\nefforts of their minds are buds that unfold with flowers and fruits of\ntheir desire.\n\n48. The lightsome pistils of these florets are countless in the three\nworlds, and their incessant undulation in the air, expressed their\ngaysome dance with the sweet smiling of the opening buds.\n\n49. It is the Intellect which stretches out all these real and unreal\nbodies, which expand like the gentle and good looking flowers for a\ntime, but never endure for ever. (The body like a fading flower is soon\nblown away.)\n\n50. It produces men like moon bright flowers in all places, and these\nflush and blush, and sing and dance about, deeming themselves as real\nbodies.\n\n51. It is by the power of this great Intellect, that the sun and other\nluminous bodies shining over the sky as the two bodies in a couple, are\nattracted to one another to taste the fruit of their enjoyment as that\nof gross bodies.\n\n52. All other visible bodies that are seen to move about in this\nphenomenal world, are as flakes of dust dancing about on eddy. (_i.e._\nAll things move about and tend towards their central point the\nIntellect).\n\n53. The Intellect is like a luminary of the universe, and manifests\nunto us all the phenomena of the three worlds, as the flame of a lamp\nshows us the various colours of things: (which are reflected by light\non dark and opaque matter).\n\n54. All worldly things exhibit their beauty to our sight, by their\nbeing immerged in the light of the Intellect, as the dark spot on the\ndisk of the moon, becomes fully apparent to view by its immersion\nin the lunar beams. (The black spot on the moon's surface, becomes\nwhite by the brightness of the moon-beams, so the dark world becomes\nillumined by the presence of the Intellect in it).\n\n55. It is by receiving the gilding of the Intellect, that all material\nbodies are tinctured in their various hues; as the different trees\nreceive their freshness, foliage and fruitage from the influence of the\nrainy weather.\n\n56. It is the shadow (or absence of intellect), which causes the\ndullness of an object; and all bodies are inanimate without it, as a\nhouse becomes dark in absence of light or a lamp. (Intellect gives life\nto dull matter).\n\n57. The wondrous powers of the intellect (which gives a shape and form\nto every thing), are wanting in any thing; it becomes a shapeless\nthing, and cannot possibly have any form or figure in the world, over\nits dull materiality. (Even inanimate nature of all forms and kinds,\nreceives its figure from the power of intellect).\n\n58. The intellect is as the skylight, wherein its active power or\nenergy resembling its consort, resides with her offspring of desire in\nthe abode of the body, and is ever restless and busy in her actions.\n(This active power is personified as the goddess _sakti_ or Energy, and\nher offspring-desire is the personification of Brahm\u00e1).\n\n59. Without the presence of the Intellect, it is no way possible for\nany one to perceive the taste of any flavour though it is set on the\ntip of his tongue, or see it with his eyes? (Intellect is the cause of\nall perception).\n\n60. Hear me and say, how can this _arboretum_ of the body subsist, with\nits branching arms and hairy filaments, without being supplied with the\nsap of the intellect.\n\n61. Know hence the intellect to be the cause of all moving and\nimmovable things in nature, by its growing and feeding and supporting\nthem all; and know also that the intellect is the only thing in\nexistence, and all else is inexistent without it.\n\n62. Vasishtha said:--R\u00e1ma! after the moon-bright and three-eyed god\nhad spoken to me in his perspicuous speech, I interrogated again the\nmoon-bright god in a clear and audible voice and said.\n\n63. O lord! If the intellect alone is all pervading and the soul of\nall, then I have not yet been able to know this visible earth in its\ntrue light.\n\n64. Say why is it that people call a living person, to be endowed with\nintellect so long as he is alive, and why they say him to be devoid of\nintellect, when he is layed down as a dead and lifeless mass.\n\n65. The god replied--Hear me tell you all: O Brahman, about what you\nhave asked me; it is a question of great importance, and requires, O\ngreatest of theists! a long explication.\n\n66. The intellect resides in every body, as also in all things as their\ninherent soul; the one is viewed (by shallow understandings) as the\nindividual and active spirit, and the other is known (to comprehensive\nmind) as unchanging and universal soul.\n\n67. The mind that is misled by its desires, views the inward spirit as\nanother or the living soul, as the cupidinous person takes his (or her)\nconsort for another, in the state of sleep or dreaming. (The unsettled\nmind takes every individual soul for the universal one).\n\n68. And as the same man seems to be changed to another, during his fit\nof anger; so the sober intellect is transformed to a changeable spirit,\nby one's mistake of its true nature. (The _nirvi kalpa_ or immutable\nspirit, is changed to a _savi kalpa_ or mutable one).\n\n69. The intellect being attributed with many variable qualities\nand desires, is made to lose its state of purity; and by thinking\nconstantly of its gross nature, it is at last converted to the very\ngross object of thought.\n\n70. Then the subjective intellect _chit_, becomes itself the _chetya_\nor object of thought, and having assumed the subtile form of a minute\netherial atom, becomes the element of sound; and is afterwards\ntransformed to the rudimental particle of air _vata tan m\u00e1tra_.\n\n71. This aerial particle then bearing relation to the parts of time\nand place, becomes the vital principle (as existing some where for a\ncertain period of time); which next turns to the understanding and\nfinally to the mind.\n\n72. The intellect being thus transformed into the mind, dwells on its\nthoughts of the world, and is then amalgamated with it, in the same\nmanner as a Brahman is changed to chandala, by constantly thinking\nhimself as such. (Thus this creation is a display of the divine mind\nand identic with it).\n\n73. Thus the divine Intellect forgets its universality by its thoughts\nof particulars; and assumes the gross forms of the objects of its\nthoughts and desires. (Hence we say a man to be of such and such a\nmind, according to the thought or desire that he entertains in it,\n_i.e._ the whole being taken for a part and the part for the whole).\n\n74. The Intellect being thus replete with its endless thoughts and\ndesires, grows as dull as the gross objects it dwells upon; till at\nlast the subtile intellect grows as stony dull, as the pure water is\nconverted to massive stones and hails.\n\n75. So the stolid intellect takes the names of the mind and sense,\nand becomes subject to ignorance and illusion; by contracting a gross\nstolidity restrained from its flight upwards, and have to grovel\nforever in the regions of sense.\n\n76. Being subjected to ignorance at first, it is fast bound to the\nfetters of its cupidity afterwards, and then being pinched by its\nhankerings and angry frettings, it is tormented alike by the pleasure\nof affluence and the pains of penury.\n\n77. By forsaking the endless felicity (of spirituality), it is\nsubjected to the incessant vicissitudes of mortality, it now sets\ndejected in despair, and lamenting over its griefs and sorrow, and then\nburns amidst the conflagration of its woes and misery.\n\n78. See how it is harassed with the vain thought of its\npersonality--that I am such a one; and look at the miseries to which it\nis exposed, by its reliance on the frail and false body.\n\n79. See how it is worried by its being hushed to and fro, in the\nalternate swinging beds of prosperity and adversity; and see how it\nis plunged in the deep and muddy puddle of misery, like a worn out\nelephant sinking in the mire.\n\n80. Look at this deep and unfordable ocean of the world, all hollow\nwithin and rolling with the eventful waves of casualties; it emits the\nsubmarine fire from within its bosom, as the human heart flashes forth\nwith its hidden fire of passions and affections.\n\n81. Human heart staggers between hope and fear, like a stray deer in\nthe forest; and is alternately cheered and depressed at the prospects\nof affluence and want.\n\n82. The mind that is led by its desire, is always apprehensive of\ndisappointment; and it coils back for fear of a reverse, as a timorous\ngirl flies afar from the sight of a spectre.\n\n83. Man encounters all pains for a certain pleasure in prospect, as the\ncamel browses the thorny furze in expectation of honey at a honey comb\nin it; but happening to slip from his intermediate standpoint, he is\nhurled headlong to the bottom.\n\n84. One meeting with a reverse falls from one danger to another; and\nso he meets with fresh calamities, as if one evil invited or was the\nharbinger of the other.\n\n85. The mind that is captivated by its desires, and led onward by its\nexertions, meets with one difficulty after another, and has cause to\nrepent and grieve at every step (or is the cause of remorse and grief).\n(All toil and moil, tend to the vexation of the spirit).\n\n86. As a man advances in life, so he improves in his learning; but\nalas! all his worldly knowledge serves at best, but to bind down the\nsoul fast to the earth.\n\n87. Cowards are in constant fear of everything, until they die away in\ntheir fear; as the little shrimp being afraid of the waterfall, falls\non dry land, and there perishes with flouncing.\n\n88. The helplessness of childhood, the anxieties of manhood, the\nmiserableness of old age; are preliminaries to the sad demise of men\nengaged in busy life. (The last catastrophe of human life).\n\n89. The propensities of past life cause some to be born as celestial\nnymphs in heaven, and others as venomous serpents in subterranean\ncells; while some become as fierce demons, and many are reborn as men\nand women on earth.\n\n90. The past actions of men make to be born again as R\u00e1kshas among\nsavages, and others as monkeys in forests; while some become as\nKinnaras on mountains, and many as lions on mountain tops. (All these\nare depraved races of men _viz_; the anthropophagi cannibals, the pigmy\napes--_banars_, the ugly mountaneers _Kinnaras_ and the leonine men\n_narasinhas_).\n\n91. The Vidy\u00e1dharas of the Devagiri mountains, and the Nagas of the\nforest caves (are degenerations of men); and so are the fowls of air,\nthe quadrupeds of wood lands, the trees and plants of forests, and the\nbushes on hills and orchides on trees; (are all but transformation of\nthe perverted intellect).\n\n92. It is self same intellect which causes N\u00e1r\u00e1yana to float on the\nsurface of the sea, and makes the lotus born Brahm\u00e1 to remain in his\nmeditation; It keeps Hara in the company of his consort Uma, and places\nHari over the gods in heaven.\n\n93. It is this which makes the sun to make the day and the clouds to\ngive the rain (or pour in rains); It makes the sea to breathe out in\nwaves, and the volcanic mountains to blow out in fire and flame.\n\n94. It makes the curricle of time to revolve continually in the circle\nof the seasons; and causes the day and night to rotate in their cycles\nof light and darkness.\n\n95. Here it causes the seeds to vegetate with the juice contained in\nthem; and there it makes the stones and minerals lie down in mute\nsilence.\n\n96. Some times it blooms in fruits ripened by the solar heat, and at\nothers maturated by the burning fuel; some where it gives us the cold\nand icy water; and at others the spring water which cannot be lasted.\n\n97. Here it glows in luminous bodies, and there it shows itself of\nimpenetrable thickets and in accessible rocks; It shines as bright and\nwhite in one place, and is as dark and blue in another; It sparkles in\nthe fire and dwindles in the earth, it blows in the air and spreads in\nthe water.\n\n98. Being the all-pervading, omnipresent and omnipotent power itself,\nit is the one in all and the whole plenum. It is therefore more subtile\nand transparent, than the rarefied and translucent air.\n\n99. As the intellect spreads out and contracts itself, in any manner\nin any place or time; so it conceives and produces the same within and\nwithout itself, as the agitation of waters produces both the little\nbillows and huge surges of the sea. (The intellect is the immanent\ncause of all phenomena).\n\n100. The intellect stretches itself in the various forms of ducks and\ngeese, of cranes and crows, of storks, wolves and horses also; it\nbecomes the heron and partridge, the parrot, the dog, the stag, the ape\nand Kinnara likewise.\n\n101. It is the abstract quality of the understanding, beauty and\nmodesty, and of love and affections also; it is the power of illusion\nand the shadow and brightness of night and of moonlight likewise.\n\n102. It stretches itself in these and all other forms of bodies, and is\nborn and reborn in all kinds and species of things. It roves and rolls\nall about the revolving world, in the manner of a straw whirling in a\nwhirlpool.\n\n103. It is afraid of its own desires, as the she-ass is seen to shudder\nat its own brayings; and it has no one like itself. ([Sanskrit: mugva\nb\u00e1l\u00e1-cal\u00e1-val\u00e1]).\n\n104. I have told you already, O great sage! how this principle of the\nliving spirit, becomes vitiated by its animal propensities, and is\nafterwards debased to the nature and condition of brute creatures.\n\n105. The supreme soul receiving the appellation of the living soul or\nprinciple of action, becomes a pitiable object, when it becomes subject\nto error and illusion, and is subjected to endless pains and miseries.\n\n106. The deluded soul is then overpowered by its connate sin, which\ncauses it to choose the wrong unreality--asat for itself, which being\nfrail and perishable, makes the active soul to perish with itself.\n(This passage appears to allude to the original sin of man, which\nbecame the cause of the death and woes of human life. The connate sin\nis compared to the husk which is born with the rice, and not coming\nfrom without. It is otherwise called the inborn sinfulness or frailty\nof human nature--Man is to err &c.).\n\n107. The soul being thus degraded from its state of endless felicity,\nto the miserable condition of mortal life, laments over its fallen\nstate, as a widow wails over her fate.\n\n108. Look on the deplorable condition of intellect--_chit_; which\nhaving forgotten its original state (of purity), is subjected to the\nimpotent Ignorance, which has been casting it to the miseries of\ndegradation, as they cast a bucket in the well by a string, which\nlowers it lower and lower till it sinks in the bottom of the pit. (This\nstring _araghatta_ is said to be the action of human life, which the\nmore it is lengthened, the more it tends to our degradation, unless\nwe prevent by our good action. So the sruti! [Sanskrit: yath\u00e1k\u00e1r\u00ed\nyath\u00e1ch\u00e1r\u00ed tath\u00e1 bhalati | s\u00e1ghuk\u00e1r\u00ed s\u00e1dhurbhabati | pr\u00e1pak\u00e1r\u00ed\npap\u00edbhavati | punyo bai punyema karmmana bhavati | p\u00e1pah p\u00e1pereti |]).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXI\n\nIDENTITY OF THE MIND AND LIVING SOUL.\n\nArgument--The pure Intellect shown to be without vitality; and the mind\nto consist in the vital power in connection with the sensations and\nexternal Perceptions.\n\n\nThe god continued:--When the intellect collects (takes) the vanities of\nthe world to itself (and relies on them) and thinks to be a miserable\nbeing; it is said to have fallen into error, (by forgetting the reality\nand its true nature); it then resembles a man that is deluded to think\nhimself for another, in his dream or ebriety. (The living soul is\nforgetful of its spiritual nature).\n\n2. Though immortal yet it is deceived to believe itself as mortal, by\nits infatuated understanding; as a sick man weeps to think himself dead\nwhen he is still alive.\n\n3. As the ignorant man views the revolving spheres to be at a stand\nstill, so the deluded intellect sees the world and thinks its\npersonality as sober realities.\n\n4. The mind alone is said to be the cause of the perception of the\nexterior world in the intellect; but the mind can be no such cause of\nit, from the impossibility of its separate existence independent of the\nintellect. (The intellect is the cause of guiding and informing the\nmind, and not this of that).\n\n5. Thus there being no causality of the mind, there cannot be its\ncausations of the thinkable world also. Therefore the intellect only\nis the cause of thought, and neither the mind nor the thinkable world\n(which produces or impresses the thought). The gloss says that, \"the\nintellect whereby the mind thinks, is not the mind nor its dependant or\nthe objective thinkable world; but it is the pure subjective self-same\nintellect only.\"\n\n6. There is no spectacle, spectator (or sight of) of anything anywhere,\nunless it be a delusion, as that which appears oiliness in a stone; and\nthere is no matter, making or work of any kind; unless it be a mistake\nlike that of blackness in the moon. (The oily glossiness of the marble\nand the shade in the moon, are no other but the inherent properties of\nthose things).\n\n7. The terms measure, measurer, and measurable are as negative in\nnature, as the privation of forest plants in the sky; and the words\nintellect, intellection and intelligible are as meaningless in\nthemselves, as the absence of thorns and thistles in the garden of\nParadise. (gloss. The intellect _chit_ is the subjective intellection,\n_chetana_ is _chitta vritti_--the property of _chit_, is the attribute,\nand the intelligible _chetya_ is the object of thought. The meaning\nis that, there is no separate subject, object or attribute in nature,\nbut they all blend in the essentiality of God, who is all in all. The\nwords subjective, objective and attributive, are therefore mere human\ninventions, and so are the words thinker, thinking and the thought\n([Sanskrit: mantri, mati, mantavya],) and knower, knowing and knowledge\n([Sanskrit: v\u00edha, vuhvi, v\u00edhavya],) and the ego, egoism and egotist\n([Sanskrit: ahamk\u00e1ra, ahamkartt\u00e1, ahamk\u00e1ryya]) all which refer to the\nsame individual soul).\n\n8. The personalities of egoism, tuism and illism; [Sanskrit: ahantvam\ntvantvam, tatvam], are as false as mountains in the firmament; and the\ndifference of persons (as this is my body and that another's), is as\nuntrue as to find whiteness in ink.\n\n9. The Divine spirit is neither the same nor different in all bodies;\nbecause it is as impossible for the universal soul to be confined in\nany body, as it is impracticable for the mount Meru to be contained in\nan atom of dust. And it is as impossible to express it in words and\ntheir senses as it is incapable for the sandy soil to grow the tender\nherbs.\n\n10. The dictum _netineti_.--It is neither this nor any other, is as\nuntrue as the belief of the darkness of night subsisting in company\nwith the day light: and substantiality and unsubstantiality are both as\nwanting in the supreme spirit, as heat is wanting in ice.\n\n11. It is as wrong to call it either as empty or solid, as it is to say\na tree growing in the womb of a stone to call it either the one or the\nother; is to have it for the infinite _vacuum_ or the full _plenum_.\n\n12. It is the sole unity that remains in its state of pure\ntransparency forever; and being unborn from the thought or mind of any\nbody, it is not subject to the misrepresentation of any body. (The\ngloss says: Not being born from the mind of Brahm\u00e1 as this creation,\nthe Intellect is free from the imperfections of both).\n\n13. It is however imputed with many faults and failings, in the\nthoughts and opinions of men; but all these imputations and false\nattributes, vanish before one knowing its true nature.\n\n14. The learned devoid of indifference, are employed in many other\nthoughts and things; though not a straw of all this vast world, is\nunder the command of any body.\n\n15. It is in the power of every body to get rid of his thoughts,\nbut very difficult to get the object of his thought; How then is it\npossible for one to have, what it is impracticable for him to try for?\n(_i.e._ The full object of desire).\n\n16. The one sole and immutable Intellect which pervades all nature, is\nthe supreme one and without an equal, and is more pellucid than the\ntranslucent light of a lamp and all other lights.\n\n17. It is this intellectual light which enlightens every thing, it is\nubiquious and ever translucent; it is ever shining without a shade, and\nimmutable in its nature and mind.\n\n18. It is situated every where and in all things, as in pots and\npictures, in trees and huts, and houses in quadrupeds, demons and\ndevils, in men and beasts, in the sea, earth and air.\n\n19. It remains as the all witnessing spirit, without any oscillation\nor motion of its own to any place; and enlightens all objects, without\nflickering or doing any action by itself.\n\n20. It remains unsullied with by its connection with the impure body,\nand continues unchangeable in its relation with the changeful mind. It\ndoes not become dull by being joined with the dull body, and is never\nchanged to anything by its extension over all things.\n\n21. The extremely minute and immutable intellect, retains its\nconsciousness in itself; and by rolling itself like a rundle of thread,\nenters the body in the form of a particle of air (or the vital breath\nor air pr\u00e1n\u00e1y\u00e1ma).\n\n22. It is then accompanied with the powers of vision and reflexion,\nwhich are wakeful in the waking state and lie dormant in sleep; whence\nit is said to be existent and inexistent by turns.\n\n23. The clear and pure intellect, comes then to think of many things\nin its waking state, and is thus perverted from its purity; as an\nhonest man turns to dishonesty in the company of the dishonest. (The\nperversion of the intellect is owing to its attachment to the flesh,\nand its entertaining to worldly thoughts).\n\n24. As the pure gold is converted to copper by its alloy, and is again\nrestored to its purity by removal of the base metal; such is the case\nof the intellect owing to its contracting and distracting of vicious\nthoughts.\n\n25. As a good looking glass being cleansed of its dirt, shows the\ncountenance in a clear light; so the intellect being born in the human\nbody, attains its divine nature by means of its good understanding.\n\n26. Its want of the knowledge of itself as the all, presents the sight\nof the false world to it as a true reality; but upon coming to know its\ntrue nature, it attains the divine state.\n\n27. When the mind thinks of itself of its difference (from the\nintellect), and the existence of the unrealities (in nature), it gets\nthe sense of its egoism, and then it perishes though it originally\nimperishable in its nature. (The sruti [Sanskrit: tasya bhayam,\nbhavati], \"it then fears to die\" because the personal soul is subject\nto death, and not the impersonal or universal soul which never dies. So\nthe phrase: \"Forget yourself and you'll never fear to die\").\n\n28. As a slight wind scatters the fruits of trees growing on the sides\nof mountain, so the consciousness of self, drops down at the gust of a\nslight disease, like a large tree.\n\n29. The existence of the qualities of form and colour and others, is\nowing to that of intellect; as the position of subalterns--_adhyasta_\nis dependent on the station of the superior--_adhishthata_. And the\npure intellect--infinite and indefinite in itself, is designated as a\nunity, duality and plurality by want of right understanding.\n\n30. It is from the essence of the intellect only, that the mind and\nsenses derive their faculties of thinking and perception; as it is\npresence of day light, which gives rise to the routine of daily\nbusiness.\n\n31. It is the action of the vital air, which gives pulsation to the\npupils of the eye, and whose light is called the sight, which is the\ninstrument of perceiving the forms and colours of things that are\nplaced without it, but the perception belongs to the power and action\nof the intellect.\n\n32. The air and skin are both of them contemptible and insensible\nthings, yet their union gives the perception of touch or feeling;\nthe mind becomes conscious of that feeling, but its consciousness is\ndependent on and caused by the intellect.\n\n33. The particles of scent being carried by the particles of air to the\nnostrils, give the sense of smelling to the mind; but it is intellect\nwhich has the consciousness of smelling.\n\n34. The particles of sound are conveyed by the particles of air to the\norgan of hearing for the perception of the mind, and the intellect is\nconscious of this as in its sleep. (And as a silent witness of the\nsame).\n\n35. The mind is the volitive principle of action from some desire or to\nsome end and aim of its own, and the thoughts of the mind are all mixed\nwith foulness, while the nature of the intellectual soul is quite pure\nand simple. (The difference between the sensuous mind and the conscious\nintellect, is that the one is the volitive and active agents of its\nactions, the other is the passive and neutral witness of all and every\nthing that is and comes to take place, without its interference in any).\n\n36. The intellect is manifest by itself, and is situated of itself in\nitself; it contains the world within itself, as the crystalline stone\nretains the images of all things in its bosom. (The subjective soul\nbears in it the objective world, which is not different but self-same\nwith itself. Hence the nullity of the objective duality, which is\nidentic with the subjective unity).\n\n37. It is the single and sole intellect which contains the whole,\nwithout dividing or transforming itself to parts or forms other than\nitself. It neither rises or sets, nor moves nor grows at any place or\ntime (but occupies all space and time, in its infinity and eternity).\n\n38. It becomes the living soul by fostering its desires, and remains\nas the pure intellect by forsaking them for ever; and then seated in\nitself, it reflects on its two gross and pure states. (The two gross\nstates are the gross world, and the gross mind that dwells only on\ngross bodies of the world).\n\n39. The intellect has the living soul for its vehicle, and egoism is\nthe vehicle of the living principle; the understanding is the car of\negotism and the mind the seat of the understanding.\n\n40. The mind again has the vital breath for its curricle, and the\nsenses are vehicles of the vital airs; the body is the carriage of the\nsenses, and the organs of action are the wheels of the body.\n\n41. The motion of these curricles forms the course of this world\n(which is hence called _karma_ Kshetra or world of activity); and the\ncontinued rotation of the body (called the cage of bird of life); until\nits old age and demise, which is the dispensation of the Almighty\npower. (That man must toil and moil till he is worn out and goes to his\ngrave).\n\n42. The world is shown unto us as a phantasmagoria of the supreme soul,\nor as a scene in our dream; it is a pseudoscope and wholly untrue as\nthe water in a mirage.\n\n43. Know, O sage, that the vital breath is called the vehicle of the\nmind by fiction only; because wherever there is the breath of vitality,\nthere is also the process of thinking carried on along with it.\n\n44. Wherever the breath of life circulates like a thread, and acts\nas spring, there the body is made to shake with it; as the forms and\ncolours of bodies, present themselves to view at the appearance of\nlight.\n\n45. The mind being employed with its desires, perturbs the vital\nbreath and body as a tempest shakes the forest; but being confined in\nthe cavity of the heart, it stops their motion as when the winds are\nconfined in the upper skies. (The mind being fixed to some particular\nobject of meditation, stops the course of life and gives longevity to\nman).\n\n46. Again the confinement of the vital breath in the vacuity of the\nheart, stops the course of the mind (thoughts); as the hiding of a\nlight, removes the sight of the objects from view. (No thought without\nbreathing, and no sight without light).\n\n47. As the dusts cease to fly after the winds are over; so the mind\n(thought) ceases to move, when the breath is pent up in the heart.\n(These are subjects of _Pr\u00e1n\u00e1y\u00e1ma_ or restraint of breath, treated at\nlarge in chapter XXV of this book).\n\n48. As the carriage is driven wherever the driver wishes to drive it;\nso the mind being driven by the vital breath, runs from country to\ncountry in a moment.\n\n49. As the stone flung from a fling is lost forever, so the thoughts\nof the mind are dispersed in the air, unless they are fixed upon some\nobject. The thoughts are accompaniments of the mind and vitality, as\nfragrance is attendant on flowers and heat upon fire.\n\n50. Wherever there is vital breath breathing (in any animal being),\nthere is the principle of the mind with its train of thoughts likewise;\nas whenever the moon appears to view, it is accompanied with its beams\nalso. Our consciousness is the result of the vibrations of the vital\nair, like our perception of the perceptibles; and this air is the\nsustainer of the body also, by supplying the juice of the food to all\nthe nerves and arteries.\n\n51. The mind and consciousness both belong to the body, the one\nresiding in the hollow of the vital air, and the other is as clear as\nthe intellect, and resides alike in all gross and subtile bodies, like\nthe all pervading and transparent vacuum.\n\n52. It remains in the form of conscious self-existence in dull\ninanimate bodies; and appears to be afraid of the vibrations of animal\nlife (_i.e._ The vegetables and minerals are conscious of their own\nexistence, without having their vital and animal actions of breathing\nand locomotion).\n\n53. The dull body being enlivened by the vital breath, is recognized by\nthe mind as belonging to itself; and plays many parts and frolics with\nit, as in its prior state of existence.\n\n54. The mind vibrates no longer, after the extinction of breathing;\nand then, O sage! the pure intellect is reflected in the eight fold\nreceptacle of vacuum. (These are termed the puryashtakas and consist\nof the mind, life, knowledge, the organs of action, illusion, desire,\nactivity and the subtile body).\n\n55. As it is the mirror only that can reflect an image, and no\nother stone; so it is the mind alone these as their octuple\nreceptacle--_puryashtaka_, and which is the agent of all actions, and\nis termed by different names according to the views of different divine\nteachers.\n\n56. That which gives rise to the net work of our imaginary visible\nworld, and that in which it appears to be situated, and whereby the\nmind is made to revolve in various bodies, know that supreme substance\nto be the Immensity of Brahma, and source of all this world (or as\ndiffused as all in all which is thence called the visvam--the all _to\npan_).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXII\n\nON THE SUSTENTATION AND DISSOLUTION OF THE BODY.\n\nArgument.--Exposition of the animation of the complicate Body, and its\nultimate decomposition at death.\n\n\nThe god continued:--Hear me, holy sage! now relate to you, how the\nactive and oscillating principle of the intellect, acts on the human\nbody and actuates it to all its actions, whereby it receives the noble\ntitle of its active agent. (The disembodied and nameless intellect,\ngets many appellations in its embodied state, according to its various\ntemporal and spiritual avocations and occupations in life. gloss).\n\n2. But the mind of man which is impelled by its former (or pristine)\npropensities, prevails over the (good) intellect; and being hardened\nin its vicious deeds, pursues its changeful wishes and desires. (The\nformer evil propensities refer to those of past lives, and allude to\nthe original depravity of human nature and will).\n\n3. The mind being strengthened by illusion (m\u00e1y\u00e1), the intellect\nbecomes dull and stultified as stone; and this power of delusion\ngrowing stronger by divine dispensation, displayed the universe to\nview. (The m\u00e1y\u00e1 is otherwise called _Brahma Sakti_ Divine omnipotence,\nwhich overpowers on the omniscience of God in the acts of creation, &c.\nHence the neutral omniscience is called the Intellect _chit_, and the\nactive omnipotence is styled the mind).\n\n4. It is by the good grace of this power, that the intellect is allowed\nto perceive sometimes, the fallacy of the aerial city of this world,\nand at others to think it as a reality. (_i.e._ It comes to detect the\nfallacy by exercise of its intellection, and thinks it real by its\nsubjection-illusion).\n\n5. The body remains as dumb as stone, without the presence of the\nintellect, the mind and its egoism in it; and it moves about with their\npresence in it, as when a stone is flung in the air.\n\n6. As the dull iron is made to move, by its contiguity to or attraction\nof the loadstone; so doth the living soul _j\u00edva_ act its parts, by the\npresence of the omnipresent soul in it. (The actions of the living soul\nare its respirations, and direction of the organs of action to their\nrespective function).\n\n7. It is by the power of the all pervading soul, that the living\nprinciple shoots out in infinity forever, as the germs of trees sprout\nforth the seed in all places. And as the recipient mirror receives the\nreflexion of objects situated at a distance from it, so the living soul\ngets the reflex or image of the distant supreme spirit in itself. (God\nmade man in his own image).\n\n8. It is by forgetfulness of its own and real nature, that the living\nsoul contracts its foul gross object, as a legitimate twice-born man\nmistakes himself for a sudra by forgetting his birth by such error or\nillusion.\n\n9. It is by unmindfulness of its own essence, that the intellect is\ntransformed to the sensuous mind; as some great souls are deceived to\nbelieve their miserableness in the distractedness of their intellect\npercipience. (Men are often misled to believe themselves otherwise than\nwhat they are, as it was the case with the princes Lavana, G\u00e1dhi, and\nHarischandra mentioned before and as it turns out with all miserable\nmortals, who forget their immortal and celestial natures).\n\n10. It is the intellect which moves the dull and inert body, as the\nforce of the winds shakes the waters of the deep to roll and range\nabout in chains and trains of waves.\n\n11. The active mind which is always prone to action, leads the machine\nof the body together, with the passive and helpless living soul at\nrandom, as the winds drive about in different directions, together with\nthe inert stones (ballast) contained in it. (_i.e._ The mind is the\nmover of both the body and soul, but the intellect is the primum mobile\nof all).\n\n12. The body is the vehicle, and God has employed the mind and the\nvital breath, as the two horses or bullocks for driving it. (The mind\nis said also to be its driver, the soul its rider, and the breaths are\nits coursers).\n\n13. Others say, that the rarefied intellect assumes a compact form,\nwhich becomes the living soul; and this riding on the car of the mind,\ndrives it by the vital airs as its racers. (Hence the course of the\nmind and its thoughts, are stopped with the stoppage of respiratory\nbreaths).\n\n14. Sometimes the intellect seems as something born and to be in being,\nas in its state of waking and witnessing the objects all around; at\nothers it seems to be dead and lost as in the state of its profound\nsleep. Again it appears as many, as in its dreaming state; and at\nlast it comes to know itself as one and a unit, when it comes to the\nknowledge of truth and of its identity with the sole unity.\n\n15. Sometimes it seems to be of a different form, without forsaking its\nown nature; as the milk becomes the butter and curd etc. and as the\nwater appears in the shape of a billow or wave or of its foam or froth.\n(That changed in all, yet in all the same &c. Pope).\n\n16. As all things depend upon light, to show their different forms\nand colours to view, so the mental powers and faculties, do all of\nthem depend upon the intellectual soul for their several actions. (The\nintellect in the form of the soul, directs and exhibits the actions of\nthe mind).\n\n17. Again the Supreme Spirit being situated in the mind within the\nbody, the animal soul has its life and action; as all things appear to\nsight, while the lighted lamp shines inside the room. (As the silent\nsoul directs the mind, so the active mind keeps the soul alive).\n\n18. The ungoverned mind gives rise to all diseases and difficulties,\nthat rise as fastly and thickly, as the perturbed waters rise in waves,\nwhich foam out with thickening froth.\n\n19. The living soul dwelling like the bee in the lotus-bed of the body,\nis also subject to diseases and difficulties as the bee to the rains\nand flood; and it is as disturbed by the casualties of life, as the\ncalm sea-water are perturbed to waves by the blowing winds.\n\n20. The dubitation that, \"the divine soul is omnipotent, and the\nliving soul is impotent and limited in its powers; and therefore\nthe human soul is not the same with the Divine\"; is the cause of our\nwoe, and serves to darken the understanding; as the clouds raised by\nthe sunlight, serve to obscure the solar disk (this doubt leading to\ndualism, cuts us from God and exposes us to all the calamities of life).\n\n21. The sentient soul passes under many transmigrations in its\ninsensibility, and in utter want of its self consciousness; like one\nsubdued to dull obtuseness by some morphia drug, which makes him\ninsensible of the pain inflicted upon his own person, (This drug is\nsome anaesthetic agent as opium, chloroform and the like).\n\n22. But as it comes to know itself afterwards by some means or other,\nit recovers from its dull insensibility, and regains its state of\noriginal purity; as a drunken or deluded person turns to his duty,\nafter he comes to remember himself. (So the lost and stray sheep,\nreturns to its fold and master).\n\n23. The sentient soul that fills the body, and is employed in\nenlivening all its members, does not strive to know the cause of its\nconsciousness; as a leper never attempts to make use of any part of\nhis body, which he is incapable to raise. (So the soul that is drowned\nin ignorance and dead in its sin, will never rise to reclaim its\nredemption by reproving itself).\n\n24. When the soul is devoid of its consciousness, it does not enable\nthe tube of the lotus-like heart to beat and vibrate with the breath\nof respiration; but makes it as motionless as a sacrificial vessel\nunhandled by the priest.\n\n25. The action of the lotiform heart having ceased, the motion of the\nvital breaths is stopped also; as the fanning of the palmleaf fan being\nover, there is no more the current of the outer air.\n\n26. The cessation of the vital air in the body, and its flight to some\nother form, sets the life to silence and sink in the original soul;\njust as the suspension of the blowing winds, sets the flying dusts to\nrest on the ground.\n\n27. At this time, O sage, the mind alone remains on its unsullied state\nand without its support; until it gets another body, wherein it rests\nas the embryonic seed lies in the earth and water.\n\n28. Thus the causes of life being deranged on all sides, and the eight\nprinciples of the body inert and extinct (in their actions); the body\ndroops down and becomes defunct and motionless. (The eight principles\ncalled the _puryashtakas_).\n\n29. Forgetfulness of the intellect, the intelligible (truth) and\nintelligence, produces the desires of them to vibrate; these give to\nremembrances of the past, and their want buries them to oblivion.\n\n30. The expansion of the lotus-like heart, causes the _puryashtaka_\nbody to expand also; but when the organ of the heart ceases to blow and\nbreathe, the body ceases to move.\n\n31. As long as the puryashtaka elements remain in the body, so long it\nlives and breathes; but these elementary powers being quiet and still,\nthe body becomes inert and is said to be dead.\n\n32. When the contrary humours, the feelings and passions and sensible\nperceptions, and the outward wounds and strokes, cause the inward\naction of the organic heart to stop:--\n\n33. Then the puryashtaka forces are pent up in the cavity of the heart,\nas the force of the blowing winds, is lost in the hollow of a pair of\nblowing bellows.\n\n34. When a living body has its inward consciousness, and becomes inert\nand motionless in its outer parts and members, it is still alive by the\naction of breathing in the inner organ of the heart.\n\n35. Those whose pure and holy desires never forsake their hearts, they\nlive in one quiet and even state of life, and are known as the living\nliberated and long living seers. (The pure desires are free from the\ninfluence of passions, and tendency to earthly enjoyments; which cause\nholy life and give longevity to man). (An unperturbed mind is the best\npreservative of health).\n\n36. When the action of the lotus like machine of the heart has\nceased, and the breath ceases to circulate in the body, it loses its\nsteadiness, and falls unsupported on the ground as a block of wood or\nstone.\n\n37. As the octuple body mixes with the air in the vacuum of the sky, so\nis the mind also absorbed in it at the same time.\n\n38. But being accompanied with the thoughts, to which it has been long\naccustomed, it continues to wander about in the air, and amidst the\nregions of heaven and hell, which it has long believed to await on its\nexit from the body.\n\n39. The body becomes a dead corpse, after the mind has fled from it\nin the air; and it remains as an empty house, after its occupant has\ndeparted from it.\n\n40. The all pervading intellect, becomes by its power of intellection\nboth the living soul as well as the mind; and after passing from its\nembodied form (of puryashtaka), it assumes its spiritual (\u00e1tiv\u00e1hika)\nnature afterwards.\n\n41. It fosters in its bosom the quintessence (pancha tan m\u00e1tram) of the\nsubtile elemental mind, which assumes a grosser form afterwards, as the\nthoughts of things appear in dream.\n\n42. Then as the intensity of its thoughts, makes the unreal world and\nall its unrealities, appear as real before it, it comes to forget and\nforsake its spiritual nature, and transform itself to a gross body.\n\n43. It thinks by mistake the unreal body as substantial, and believes\nthe unreal as real and the real as unreal. (_i.e._ It takes the unreal\nmaterial as real; and the real spiritual as nothing).\n\n44. It is but a particle of the all pervading Intellect, that makes\nthe living soul, which reflects itself afterwards in the form of the\nintelligent mind. (The understanding is a partial reflection of the\nIntellect. Gloss). The mind then ascends on the vehicle of the octuple\nbody, and surveys the phenomenal world as a sober reality. (_i.e._ The\nsenses of the body, represent the universe as real).\n\n45. The intellect is the prime mobile power, that gives force to the\noctuple material (puryashtaka) body to move itself; and the action of\nthe breath in the heart which is called life, resembles the spiritual\nforce of a ghost raising an inert body. (The power of spirits entering\nand moving inert bodies, forms a firm belief in India).\n\n46. When the aerial mind flies into the vacuous air, after the material\nframe is weakened and worn out; then the lifeless body remains as a\nblock of wood or stone, and is called a dead mass by those that are\nliving.\n\n47. As the living soul forgets its spiritual nature, and becomes\ndecayed in course of time and according to the frail nature of material\nthings; so it fades and falls away in the manner of the withered leaves\nof trees.\n\n48. When the vital power forsakes the body, and the action of the\npericardium is stopped; the breath of life becomes extinct, and the\nanimated being is said to die away.\n\n49. As all beings that are born and have come to life, fade away in\ntime like all created things in the world; so do human bodies also fade\nand fall away in time, like the withered leaves of trees.\n\n50. The bodies of all embodied beings, are equally doomed to be born\nand die also in their time; as the leaves of trees, are seen to be\nincessantly growing and falling off at all seasons; why then should we\nlament at the loss of what is surely to be lost.\n\n51. Look at these chains of living bodies, which are indiscriminately\nand incessantly rising and falling like bubbles and billows, in the\nvast ocean of the divine Intellect, and there is no difference of any\none of them from another; why then should the wise make any distinction\nbetween objects that are equally frail in their nature, and proceed\nfrom and return to the same source.\n\n52. The all-pervading intellect reflects itself only in the mind of\nman, and no where else; as it is the mirror only that receives the\nreflexions of objects, and no other opaque substance besides.\n\n53. The acts and fates of men are all imprinted in the spacious and\nclear page of the Divine intellect, and yet are all embodied beings\nloud in their cries and complaints against the decrees of Heaven which\nis owing to their ignorance, and tending to their bitter grief and vain\nlamentation.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXIII.\n\nRESOLUTION OF DUALITY INTO UNITY.\n\nArgument.--Unity, the source, substance, and ultimum of plurality,\nwhich is resolved to unity. The Doctrine of monotheism. One in all and\nall into one.\n\n\nVasishtha said:--Tell me, my lord, that bearest the crescent of\nthe moon on thy fore-head, how the pure and simple essence of the\nintellect, which is an infinite unity and ever uniform and immutable\nin its nature, is transmuted to the finite dualities of the variable\nand impure soul and mind. (Moreover the whole equal to a part is quite\nabsurd and impossible).\n\n2. Tell me, O great god! how this uncaused prime cause, becomes\ndiffused in endless Varieties, and how can we get rid of the plurality\nof our creeds by our wisdom, for putting an end to our miseries. (By\nmeans of our belief in the true unity).\n\n3. The god replied--When the omnipotent God (sad), remains as one unity\nof immensity (Eka Brahma); it is then of course absurd, to speak of his\nduality or plurality, and of the manifestation of a part or minim of\nhimself. (The whole cannot be a part).\n\n4. Taking the monad for a duad, is to ascribe duality to unity; and\nthe imputation of dualism or bipartition to the simple intellect,\nis wholly futile from its nature of indivisibility. (So says the\nsruti: The one is no dual nor a bipartite thing. In Him there is no\nplurality, diversity or any particularity whatever. [Sanskrit: natu\ntaddvit\u00edyamasti tati-nya hvibhaktam | nanuneha n\u00e1n\u00e1stikincana.])\n\n5. The want of the number one, causes the absence both of unity,\nduality; because there can be no dual without the singular, nor a\nsingle one unless there be the number two above it. (_i.e._ There can\nbe no duality without the prime and preceding unity; nor even the unity\nunless it is followed by duality; because the prime number would be\nindefinite and indetermined without the succeeding ones).\n\n6. The cause and its effect being of one nature (or essence), they are\nboth of the same kind, as the fruit and the seed contained in it. The\ndifference which is attributed to them from the change of one thing to\nthe other, is a mere fiction of imagination.\n\n7. The mind itself evolves in its thoughts at its own will; the changes\noccurring in itself, are no way different from its own nature; as the\nmutual productions of seed and fruit, are of the same nature, the same\nfruit produces the same seeds, and these again bring forth the same\nfruits &c. (So the mind and its thoughts, are the same things and of\nthe self-same nature).\n\n8. Many modifications incessantly rise in the infinite mind of the\nalmighty Maker as its eternal will, and these taking place in actu in\npositive existences, and substantive forms bear the relation of causes\nand their effects in this world.\n\n9. These productions are likened to the waves of waters in the sea, and\nmirage to the progeny of a barren woman, and the horns of a hare--all\nwhich are _nil_ and not in being. They are all as negative as the\nwater on the mountaintop, and as the barley corn growing on the head\nof a hare. (In all these instances the producer or container is a\nreality; but the produced or contained waves etc. are false; and so is\nBrahma the producer and container of all as positive entity, but the\nproduction of the world is null and void).\n\n10. Herein enquiring into the real truth, we must refrain from\nlogomachy; and find that though all things tend to stablish the unity,\nyet it is difficult even in thought to do away with the difference of\nthings, as that of words and their senses. (that is to say, though\nunity is the result of right reason, yet duality is inseparable from\ncommon sense).\n\n11. The essence of divine omnipotence, is not divisible into portions\nor their fractions, like the waves of the sea, that are broken into\nbubbles and particles of waters.\n\n12. As the leaves and stalks and branches and flowers of trees, are no\nother than the same substance; so unity and duality, meity and tuity\nand the objectivity of the phenomenal world, are not different from\nthe essence of the subjective intellect, which contains and puts forth\nitself in all these forms.\n\n13. All time and place and variety of figures and forms, being but\nmodifications of the intellect, it is improper for us to question the\nreality of those, and assert the certainty of this intellect.\n\n14. The entities of time and space, and the powers of action and\ndestiny (divine ordinance), are all derived from and directed by the\nintellect and bear their intellectual natures also.\n\n15. As the power of thinking, the thought and its object, jointly\ncompose the principle of mind; so the whole universe and every thing\nthat bears a name, are all included under the term chit or intellect;\nas the water and its rise and fall, are all included under the word\nwave.\n\n16. The thoughts which continually rise and fall, in the great ocean\nof the intellect; are like the waves which heave and set down, on the\nsurface of the boisterous sea.\n\n17. It is this supreme intellect which is known by the various\nappellations of the Lord, God, Truth, Siva and others; as also by the\nvarious names of vacuum, unity and the supreme spirit.\n\n18. Such is the nature of God, whom no words can express; and who is\nstyled the Ego or the subjective \"I am that I am\" and whom it is beyond\nthe power of speech to describe.\n\n19. All that is seen all around, are but the leaves, fruits, flowers\nand branches of the all creeping plant of the intellect; which being\ndiffused in all, leaves nothing that is different from it.\n\n20. The divine intellect [Sanskrit: chit] being omniscient [Sanskrit:\nmah\u00e1vidy\u00e1] has the great nescience or ignorance [Sanskrit: mah\u00e1 avidy\u00e1]\nunderlying it (as the lighted lamp is accompanied by the shadow under\nit); and then looking at this side of itself it takes the name of the\nliving soul, and beholds this shadowy world stretched outside the\ndivine mind, as we see another moon in the reflexion of that luminary,\ncast upon a nebular circle beyond it.\n\n21. Then thinking itself as another or a living being _J\u00edva_, and other\nwise than what it is (_i.e._ the immortal spirit param\u00e1tma); it becomes\njust of the same nature, as it thinks and forms itself by its own will.\n\n22. Being thus transformed from its perfect and immaculate state, to\nthat of an imperfect and impure nature; it is made to wade amidst the\nstream of this world, without ever thinking (of its fall from the state\nof original purity).\n\n23. The intellectual form being then assimilated with the elemental\n(puryashtaka) body, receives its vital or mortal life and living soul,\nwhich lives by reflexion of the essence of the supreme intellect.\n\n24. The spiritual body is also transformed to the frail living body,\nwhich being joined with quintessence of quintuple elements, comes to\nknow itself as material substance (dravymas miti).\n\n25. This substance being next infused with the vital breath, receives\nsoon after its vigor and strength like the seed of a plant; and then it\nfeels itself to be endued with life, and to be conceived in the uterus\nin its own conception.\n\n26. The same erroneous conception of its gross materiality, misleads\nto the belief of its own egoism and personality. It conceives also its\nstate of a moving or unmoving being, and this conception of it converts\nit instantly into the like form. (We have the forms, as we picture to\nourselves in our minds).\n\n27. Again the simultaneous meeting of former reminiscence with the\nlater desire of a person, changes its former habitual and meaner\nform, to that of a larger and grosser kind. (Thus one that had been\na contemptible gnat in its previous state of existence, is come to a\nbig elephant in its next birth, not from its remembrance of its former\nstate of life, but from its settled desire of becoming the would be\nbeing in the next. So it is the will [Sanskrit: v\u00e1san\u00e1] that supersedes\nthe former impression [Sanskrit: samsk\u00e1ra] of what one had been before,\nand transforms it to what it wishes to be afterwards. Hence the will is\nthe parent of thoughts).\n\n28. The difference and duality of one from its identity and unity, are\nresults of one's thinking himself other wise than what he really is;\nas a man becomes a devil by thinking himself possessed by a ghost.\n\n29. The thought of the duality of one self-same soul, in its two\naspects of the supreme and human souls; is driven away by the\npersuasion that I do nothing, and the agency of all actions rests in\nthe great God himself.\n\n30. The unity is considered as a duality, by the dualistic opinions\nof men; while on the other hand the belief in unity, destroys the\nconviction of dualism and plurality from the minds of men.\n\n31. There is no duality or secondary being in the soul, which may be\nregarded as the supreme soul, because there is but one soul only, which\nis unchangeable and unperishable at all times and every where. (All\nother changing and finite beings, are but reflexions of the supreme).\n\n32. All works of imagination are dispersed, with the dispersion of the\nfumes of fancy; as one's aerial castle and the fairy city, vanish after\nthe flight of the phrenzy and the visionary dream.\n\n33. It is painful to raise a fabric of imagination, but there is no\npain whatever in breaking it down; because the chimera of imagination\nis well skilled in building the aerial cities, and not in demolishing\nthem. (Which belongs to the province of reason only).\n\n34. If the fullness of one's desires and fancies, is fraught with the\npains and troubles of life, it must be the want of such wishes and\nviews, that will serve to set him free from these pains for ever.\n\n35. If even a slight desire is enough to expose a man to many cares in\nlife, then its utter privation must afford him complete rest and quiet,\nin his transient state of being.\n\n36. When your mind has got loose, from the manifold folds of your\nserpentine desires; you will then come to enjoy the sweets of the\ngarden of paradise. (Had it not been for the serpent's insinuation to\ntaste the fatal fruit, our first parents would be left to enjoy all the\nsweets of Paradise).\n\n37. Drive away and disperse the clouds of your desire, by the breeze\nof your reason; and come and enjoy your rest, under the calm and clear\nautumnal sky of your indifference--_nonchalance_.\n\n38. Dry the impetuous current of your rapid desires, by the charms of\namulets and mantras; and then restrain yourself from being borne away\nby the flood, and restrict your mind to its dead inaction.\n\n39. Rely thy trust in the intellectual soul _chid\u00e1tm\u00e1_, seated in the\ncavity of thy heart, and look on mankind driven to and fro by the\ngusts of their desire, like fragments of straw flying at random in the\nperturbed air.\n\n40. Wash out the dirt of thy desires from thy mind, by the pure water\nof thy spiritual knowledge; and after securing the perfect tranquillity\nof thy soul, continue to enjoy the highest bliss of a holy life.\n\n41. God is all powerful and omnipresent, and displays himself in\nall forms every where (He is seen in the same manner as one desires\nto behold him in a temporal or spiritual light. [Sanskrit: vrashma\nk\u00e1ranena bhogmak\u00e1ranena b\u00e1 yath\u00e1 bh\u00e1vayate tatha pashyati]).\n\n42. It is the thought or imagination, that makes the false world appear\nas true; and it depends upon the thought also, that the world vanishes\ninto nothing. (The existence and inexistence of the world; depend alike\non the thoughts of divine and human minds; the positive and negative\nare all creations of the mind).\n\n43. It is the net work of our thoughts and desires, that is interwoven\nwith the threads of our repeated births; but the winds of our apathy\nand indifference blow off this web, and settle us in the state of\nsupreme felicity.\n\n44. Avarice is a thorny plant, that has taken deep root in the human\nheart; it is fostered under the shade of the arbor of desire, root out\nthis tree of desire, and the thorny bush of avarice will fade away of\nitself.\n\n45. The world is a shadow and a pseudoscope, and rises to view and\ndisappears by turns; it is an error of the brain that presents the\nsight of the course of nature (sansriti), like that of the fairy land\npresented to us in a dream.\n\n46. The king that forgets his nature of the Lord, mistakes himself for\na prince, or that he is born or become the ruler of the land; this\nconcept of his which springs from ignorance of his divine nature,\nvanishes soon after he comes to the real knowledge of himself.\n\n47. The king in possession of his present royalty, has no reminiscence\nof his past and former state; as we do not recollect the foulness of\nthe past rainy weather, in the serenity of the present autumn.\n\n48. The thought that is predominant in the mind, naturally prevails\nover the fainter and weaker ones, as the highest pitch in music\nsuppresses the _bass_ tones, and takes possession of the ear.\n\n49. Think in yourself that you are one (unit or the unity), and that\nyou are the soul (or supreme soul); keep this single reflection before\nyou, and holding fast to it, you will become the object of your\nmeditation. (This is called [Sanskrit: \u00e1tmap\u00faj\u00e1] spiritual adoration,\nor assimilating one's self to the supreme soul).\n\n50. Such is the spiritual meditation of spiritualists like yourself,\nwho aspire to the highest felicity of the supreme Being; while the\nexternal form of worship, is fit only for ungoverned minds, that\nrapt only for their temporal welfare. In formal worship composed of\nthe worshipper, the formalities of the ritual and the articles of\nofferings, are symbolical of ignorant minds, and too insignificant to\nthe wise.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXIV.\n\nSERMON OF SIVA ON THE SAME SUBJECT.\n\nArgument.--The divine state, above the quadruple conditions of waking,\nsleeping, dreaming and profound sleep.\n\n\nThe god continued:--Such is the constitution of this world, composed\nof reality and unreality, and bearing the stamp of the almighty; it is\ncomposed both of unity and duality, and yet it is free from both. (To\nthe ignorant it appears as a duality, composed of the mind and matter;\nbut the wise take it neither as the one or the other, but the whole _to\npan_--the root of pantheism).\n\n2. It is the disfigurement of the intellect by foul ignorance, that\nviews the outer world as distinct from its maker; but to the clear\nsighted there is no separate outer world, but both blend together in\nthe unity.\n\n3. The perverted intellect which considers itself as the body, is\nverily confined in it; but when it considers itself to be a particle of\nand identic with the divine, it is liberated from its confinement. (In\nthe mortal and material frame).\n\n4. The intellect loses its entity, by considering the duality of its\nform and sense; and be combined with pleasure and pain, it retains no\nlonger its real essence.\n\n5. Its true nature is free from all designation, and application of any\nsignificant term or its sense to it; and the words pure, undivided,\nreal or unreal, bear no relation to what is an all pervasive vacuity.\n\n6. Brahma the all and full (to pans plenum), who is perfect\ntranquillity, and without a second, equal or comparison, expands\nhimself by his own power as the infinite and empty air; and stretches\nhis mind in three different directions of the three triplicates.\n(Namely 1 of creation, preservation and destruction of the universe--2\nthe three states of waking, sleeping, and dreaming--3 the union\nof the three powers--the supernal, natural and material agencies.\n[Sanskrit: srishti, sthiti, pralaya, j\u00e1grat, nidra, sapta | \u00e1dhidaiva,\n\u00e1dhibhautika, \u00e1dhibhauvikanca].)\n\n7. The mind being curbed with all its senses and organs in the great\nsoul, there appears a dazzling light before it, and the false world\nflies away from it, as the shade of night disappears before the\nsunlight. (This verse is explained in the gloss to refer both to the\nsupreme spirit before creation, as also to the yogi who distracts\nhis mind and senses from the outer world, and sees a blazing light\nstretched over his soul).\n\n8. The imaginary world recedes from view, and falls down like a\nwithered leaf; and the living soul remains like a fried grain, without\nits power of vegetation or reproduction.\n\n9. The intellect being cleared from the cloud of illusion, overhanging\nthe deluded mind, shines as clearly as the vault of the autumnal\nsky; and is then called _pashyanti_ or seeing from its sight of the\nsupernatural, and _utsrijanti_ also from its renunciation of all\nworldly impressions. (This is called also the cognoscent soul, from its\ncognition of recondite and mysterious truths).\n\n10. The Intellect being settled in its original, pure and sedate state,\nafter it has passed under the commotions of worldly thoughts; and when\nit views all things in an equal and indifferent light, it is said\nto have crossed over the ocean of the world. (The course of worldly\nlife is compared to a perilous sea voyage, and perfect apathy and\nindifference to the world, is said to secure the salvation of the soul).\n\n11. When the intellect is strong in its knowledge of perfect _susupti_\nor somnolence over worldly matters; it is said to have obtained its\nrest in the state of supreme felicity, and to be freed from the doom of\ntransmigration in future births. (The perfect rest of the next world,\nis begun with one's _ecstasis_ in this).\n\n12. I have now told you, O great Vipra, all about the curbing\nand weakening of the mind, which is the first step towards the\nbeatification of the soul by yoga; now attend to me to tell you,\nconcerning the second step of the edification and strengthening of the\nintellect.\n\n13. That is called the unrestricted power of the intellect, which is\nfraught with perfect peace and tranquillity; which is full of light,\nclear of the darkness of ignorance, and as wide stretched as the clear\nvault of heaven.\n\n14. It is as deep as our consciousness in profound sleep, as hidden as\na mark in the heart of a stone; as sweet as the flavour in salt, and as\nthe breath of wind after a storm. (All these examples show the strength\nof the soul, to consist in its close compactness).\n\n15. When the living principle comes to its end at any place, in course\nof time; the intellect takes it flight like some invisible force in\nopen air, and mixes with the transcendent vacuum.\n\n16. It gets freed from all its thoughts and thinkables, as when the\ncalm sea is freed from its fluctuation; it becomes as sedate as when\nthe winds are still, and as imperceptible as when the flower-cup emits\nits fragrance.\n\n17. It is liberated from the bonds and ideas of time and place (by its\nassimilation to infinity and immortality); it is freed from the thought\nof its appertaining to or being a part of anything in the world; it is\nneither a gross or subtile substance, and becomes a nameless essence.\n(The intellect or soul bears distinctive mark or peculiarity of its\nown, except that it is some thing which has nothing in common with\nanything in the world).\n\n18. It is not limited by time and space, and is of the nature of the\nunlimited essence of God; it is a form and fragment of the quadruple\nstate of Brahma or Vir\u00e1t [Sanskrit: t\u00faryya t\u00faryyam\u00e1sa], and is without\nany stain, disease or decay.\n\n19. It is some thing witnessing all things with its far seeing sight,\nit is the all at all times and places, it is full light in itself, and\nsweeter far than the sweetest thing in the world. (Nothing sweeter than\none's self).\n\n20. This is what I told you the second stage of yoga meditation, attend\nnow, O sage! that art true to your vows, and dost well understand the\nprocess of yoga, to what I will relate to you regarding its third\nstage.\n\n21. This sight of intellect is without a name, because it contains like\nthe Divine Intellect all the thinkables (or objects of thought) within\nits ample sphere, as the great ocean of the world, grasps all parts\nof the globe within its spacious circumference. It extends beyond the\nmeaning of the word _Brahm\u00e1tma_ or the ample spirit of the god Brahm\u00e1\nin its extension _ad infinitum_. (It resembles the comprehensive mind\nof God).\n\n22. It is by great enduring patience, that the soul attains in course\nof a long time, this steady and unsullied state of its perfection\n_purush\u00e1rtha_; and it is after passing this and the fourth stage, that\nthe soul reaches to its supreme and ultimate state of felicity.\n\n23. After passing the successive grades and until reaching the ultimate\nstate, one must practice his yoga in the manner of Siva the greatest\nof the yogis; and then he will obtain in himself the unremitting holy\ncomposure of the third stage.\n\n24. By long continuance in this course, the pilgrim is led to a great\ndistance, which transcends all my description, but may be felt by the\nholy devotee who advances in his course.\n\n25. I have told you already of the state, which is beyond these three\nstages; and do you, O divine sage! ever remain in that state, if you\nwish to arrive to the state of the eternal God.\n\n26. This world which seems as material, will appear to be infused with\nthe spirit of God when it is viewed in its spiritual light, but upon\nright observation of it, it is neither the one nor the other (but a\nreflexion of divine mind).\n\n27. This what neither springs into being nor ceases to exist; but is\never calm and quiet and of one uniform lustre, and swells and extends\nas the embryo in the womb. (The embryo is to be understood in a\nspiritual sense from God's conception of the world in his mind).\n\n28. The undualistic unity of God, his motionlessness and the solidity\nof his intelligence, together with the unchangeableness of his nature,\nprove the eternity of the world, although appearing as instantaneous\nand evanescent. (The solid intelligence is shown in the instances of\nsolidified water in ice and snow, and in the froth and salt of sea\nwater).\n\n29. The solidity of the intellect produces the worlds in the same\nmanner as the congealed water causes the hail-stones, and there is no\ndifference between the existent and nonexistent, since all things are\never existent in the divine mind. (Though appearing now and then to me\nor you as something new).\n\n30. All is good (siva or solus) and quiet, and perfect beyond the power\nof description; the syllable _om_ is the symbol of the whole, and its\ncomponents compose the four stages for our salvation. (All is good. And\nGod pronounced all was good. See the quadruple stages comprised in the\nletter _om_, in our introduction to the first volume of this work).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXV.\n\nADORATION OF THE GREAT GOD MAH\u00c1-DEVA.\n\nArgument.--Of Mah\u00e1deva, the father of Brahm\u00e1, Vishnu and Siva and the\nmanner of his worship.\n\n\nVasishtha said:--Then Hara, who is the lake of the lotus of Gaur\u00ed\n(_i.e._ her husband), being desirous of my enlightenment, glanced on me\nfor a minute, and gave utterance to his lecture.\n\n2. His eyes flashed with light under his heavenly forehead, and were as\ntwo caskets of his understanding, which scattered its rays about us.\n(The eyes are the indexes of men's understanding in Physiognomy).\n\n3. The god said:--O sage, call your thoughts home, and employ them\nsoon to think of your own essence; and to bring about your ends, as\nthe breezes of heaven convey the fragrance to the nostrils. (The mind\nis usually compared in its fleetness with the winds, and therefore the\ntask of the breezes is imposed upon the thoughts, which are as vagaries\nunless they answer one's purposes).\n\n4. When the object long sought for is got in one's possession, what\nelse is there for one to desire any more. I who have known and come\nto the truth, have nothing to expect as desirable nor any thing to\nreject as despicable. (When one is possest of his sole object, he is\nindifferent about all others, whether they be good or bad).\n\n5. When you have got your mastery over yourself, both in the states of\nyour peace and disquiet; you should apply yourself to the investigation\nof yourself or soul, without attending to any thing besides. (Nothing\nbetter than self-culture, and the advancement and salvation of one's\nown soul).\n\n6. You may at first depend on your observations of the phenomenal, (as\npreparatory to your knowledge of the noumenal), which you will now\nlearn from my lecture, if you will attend to it with diligence.\n\n7. After saying in this manner, the holder of the trident told me, not\nto rely on my knowledge of the externals, but to attend to the internal\nbreathings, which move this abode of the body, as the physical forces\nmove a machine.\n\n8. The lifeless body being without its breathing, becomes dull and dull\nand dumb as a block; its power of movement being derived from the air\nof breath, but its powers of thought and knowledge are attributed to\nthe intellect.\n\n9. This intellect has a form more rare and transparent than the vacuous\nair, it is an _ens_ which is the cause of all entities; and is not\ndestroyed by destruction of the living body for want of vital breath.\n\n10. The intellectual is more rarefied and translucent than the ethereal\nair, and never perishes with the body; because it remains as the power\nof intellection, in the mental (percipient) and living body. (The sruti\nsays: it is the life of life, and mind of the mind).\n\n11. As the clear shining mirror, receives the reflexion of external\nthings; so the mind of God reflects all images from within itself, and\nfrom nothing situated without.\n\n12. As the soiled glass receives no reflexion of outward things, so the\nlifeless body has no reflexion of any thing, though it is preserved\nto our view. (And so are all thoughtless persons considered as dead\nbodies).\n\n13. The all-pervasive intellect, though it is formless itself, is yet\nprone towards the movement of sensible objects owing to its sensuous\nperceptions; but coming to the pure understanding of its spiritual\nnature, it becomes the supreme Siva again.\n\n14. The sages then called this immaculate intellect by the several\nnames of Hari, Siva, Brahm\u00e1, and Indra, who are the givers of the\nobjects of desire to all living beings.\n\n15. It is also styled the fire and air, the sun and moon, and the\nsupreme Lord; and it is this which is known as the ubiquious soul and\nthe intellect, which is the mine of all intelligence.\n\n16. It is the lord of gods, the source of celestials, the Dh\u00e1ta or\nBrahm\u00e1, the lord of gods, and the lord of heaven. Any body who feels\nthe influence of this great intellect in himself, is never subject to\nillusion.\n\n17. Those great souls that are known in this world, under the names of\nBrahm\u00e1, Vishnu, Hara and others, are all but offspring of the supreme\nIntellect, and endowed with a greater portion of it.\n\n18. They are all as sparks of hot iron, and as particles of water in\nthe immense ocean of creation; so all those that are mistaken for gods,\nhave sprung from the source of the supreme Intellect.\n\n19. As long as there exist the seeds of error, and the sources of\nendless networks of imagination; so long the arbour of gross illusion\ndoes not cease, to sprout in endless ramifications.\n\n20. The veda, its exposition and the vedic literature, are but tufts of\nthe tree of ignorance for the bondage of men; and these again produce\nmany other clumps, to hold men fast in their ignorance.\n\n21. Who can describe the productions of nature, in the course of\ntime and place; the gods Hari, Hara, and Brahm\u00e1 are among the\nnumber, and have all their origin in the supreme Being--their common\nfather. (So says the Atharva Sera Sruti: [Sanskrit: sarvvamidram\nbrahm\u00e1vishnurudrendr\u00e1ste sampam\u00fayate sarvvani c\u00edndr\u00e1y\u00e1nisaham\u00fateh\nsak\u00e1ranam k\u00e1ran\u00e1n\u00e1ma.])\n\n22. Mah\u00e1deva the great god is the root of all, as the seed is the\nsource of the branches of trees; He is called the All (sarva), because\nHe is the essence of all things, and the sole cause of our knowledge\nof all existence. (The Pur\u00e1na says to the same effect). [Sanskrit:\ntrayaste k\u00e1ran\u00e1tm\u00e1nah j\u00e1t\u00e1h m\u00e1h\u00e1maheshvar\u00e1t | tapas\u00e1 topathitv\u00e1 tam\npitaram parameshvaram |]\n\n23. He is the giver of strength to all beings, he is self manifest\nin all, and is adorable and hallowed by all. He is the object of\nperception to them that know him, and is ever present in all places.\n(The word Mah\u00e1deva commonly applied to Siva, originally meant the\ngreat god, as in the definition of the term in the gloss. [Sanskrit:\nmahatyaparicchinne \u00e1tmajn\u00e1na yogaishvartye mah\u00edyate p\u00fajyate iti\nmah\u00e1devah] So the sruti also: [Sanskrit: yo \u00e1tmajn\u00e1na yogaishvaryye\nmahati mah\u00edvate tasm\u00e1ducyate mah\u00e1devah].)\n\n24. There is no need of addressing invocatory mantras unto the Lord,\nwho being omniscient and omnipresent, knows and sees all things as\npresent before him at all places and times.\n\n25. But being always invoked (or prayed unto) in the mind, this god\nwho resides in every thing is attainable by us in every place; and in\nwhatever form doth one's intellect appear to him, it is all for his\ngood. (This passage means the visible form in which the deity makes his\nmanifestation to the devotee).\n\n26. He takes upon him the visible form, according to the thought in the\nmind of the worshipper, and this form is to be worshipped first of all\nwith proper homage, as the most adorable Lord of gods.\n\n27. Know this as the ultimate of the knowables of the greatest minds;\nand whoso has beheld this self-same soul, is freed from fears and\nsorrows and the complaints of old age, and is released from future\ntransmigration, like a fried grain which vegetates no more.\n\n28. By worshipping this well known and unborn first cause in one's self\nand at ease (_i.e._ without the formal rite); every one is freed from\nhis fears, and attains his supreme felicity, why then do you bewilder\nyourselves amidst the visible vanities of the world.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXVI.\n\nDESCRIPTION OF THE SUPREME DEITY PARAMESWARA.\n\nArgument.--Description of god as the Producer of all, and present in\nevery form; his purity from his intangibleness and his great grandeur.\n\n\nThe god added:--Know now the lord god Rudra, who in the form of one\nself-same intellect, is situated within every form of being, as is of\nthe nature of self-conscious (Swanubhiati) in every one.\n\n2. He is the seed of seeds, and the pith and marrow of the course of\nnature; know it also as the agent of all actions, and the pure gist of\nthe intellect also.\n\n3. He is the pure cause of all causes, without any cause of himself;\nhe is the producer and sustainer of all, without being produced or\nsupported himself by another.\n\n4. He is the sensation of all sensible beings, and the sense of all\nsensitive things; he is the sensibility of all sensuous objects, and\nthe highest object of our sensuousness, and the source of endless\nvarieties.\n\n5. He is the pure light of all lights (of the sight, luminaries &c.),\nand yet invisible by all of them. He is the increate and supernatural\nlight, the source of all sources of light and the great mass of the\nlight of Intellect.\n\n6. He is no positive (or material) existence, but the real (or\nessential) entity; he is all quiet and beyond the common acceptations\nof reality and unreality (Being no absolute or relative entity\nor non-entity). And among the positive ideas of the great entity\n&c. (mah\u00e1sattw\u00e1di), know him as the Intellect alone and no other.\n(Many kinds of Entities are enumerated in Indian philosophy,\nsuch as:--[Sanskrit: matyena ch\u00e1vah\u00e1rikena | satyena pr\u00e1tibha\nsiken\u00e1basth\u00e1tva yena |] Again [Sanskrit: mah\u00e1satta, jagat satta, \u00e1disatt\u00e1\nkarana vy\u00e1ktatasatt\u00e1 |])\n\n7. He becomes the colour, colouring and colouror; He becomes as high as\nthe lofty sky, and as low as the lowly hut. (The colour--_r\u00e1ga_ means\nthe passion and feelings also; and the sky and hut mean the empty space\nand decorated cottage).\n\n8. There are in the expanded mind of this Intellect millions of worlds\nlike sands in the desert, likewise many of these like blossoms of\ntrees, have blown away, others are full blown, and many more will come\nto blow here after.\n\n9. It is ever burning, as an inextinguishable flame by its own inherent\nfire; and though it is ever emitting innumerable sparks of its essence\nall about, yet there is no end of its light and heat and fire.\n\n10. It contains in its bowels the great mountains, likening the\nparticles of dust (or rather as the roes of a fish); it covers also\nthe highest mountains, as the lofty sky hides the dusts on earth. So\nthe sruti--Greater than the greatest and smaller than the smallest.\n[Sanskrit: an\u00edran\u00edyan mahatimahiy\u00e1t]\n\n11. It comprehends the great--_mah\u00e1kalpa_ millennium, like a twinkling\nof the eye; and is also contained in a kalpa age, in its quick motion\nof a twinkling. (_i.e._ He is eternity as well as jot of time).\n\n12. Though minuter than the point of a hair, yet it encompasses the\nwhole earth (as its boundary line); and the seven oceans that encircle\nthe earth with their vests, cannot gird the great Infinity.\n\n13. He is called the great creator of the universe, though he creates\nnothing (Like the makers of other things); and though he does all\nactions, yet he remains as doing nothing (by his calm quietness).\n\n14. Though the deity is included under the category of substance, yet\nhe is no substance at all; and though there be no substantiality in\nhim, yet his spirit is the substratum of all things. (All along he\nis the figure of _vaiparitya_ or opposition, which well applies to\nBrahma who is all and nil or the _omnium et nullum_, _Sarvamasarvam_.\n(Though bodiless, he is the great body of the universe _corpus\nmundi_--_viswar\u00fapa_ or _vir\u00e1t_).)\n\n15. He is _adya_--(hodie) today, and _pr\u00e1tar_--practer tomorrow, and\nthough the preter and future, yet he is always present. Wherefore he\nis neither now or then, but sempiternal and for ever.\n\n16. He is not in the babbling and prattling of babes and boys, nor in\nthe bawling of beasts and brutes, nor in the jargon of savages; but\nequally understood by all in their peculiar modes of speech. (This\nis the interpretation of the gloss; but the words of the text are\nunintelligible and meaningless).\n\n17. These words are meaningless and are yet true, like the obsolete\nwords occurring in the vedas. Therefore no words can truly express\nwhat is God, because they are not what he is (but mere emblems). These\ndifficult passages are not explained in the gloss and left out in the\nCalcutta edition.\n\n18. I bow down to him who is all, in whom all reside and from whom they\nall proceed, and who is in all place and time, and who is diffused\nthrough all and called the one and all--_to pan_.\n\n19. In this verbiology of obscure words, there will be found some fully\nexpressive of the meaning, as in a forest of thick wood we happen to\nfragrant flowers, which we pluck and bear with us in handfuls. (The\nentangled phraseology of the stanza will bear no literal translation).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXVII.\n\nTHE STAGE PLAY AND DANCE OF DESTINY.\n\nArgument.--Of the endless powers or saktis of Siva, among whom the\npower of Destiny is described in this.\n\n\nThe God joined:--The beauty of the words said before is palpable, and\ntheir senses all allude to the truth, that the Lord of all is the rich\nchest of gems of all things in existence. (The gloss is too verbose in\nthe explanation of this passage).\n\n2. How very bright are the rays of the gems contained in the receptacle\nof the supreme Intellect, that shines forth with the collected light\nof all the luminous worlds in it. (It means to say, that the Divine\nintellect must be brighter far than all the orbs of light contained in\nit).\n\n3. The essence of the intellect flies in the air in the form of the\ngranular farina, and becomes the embryotic corpuscula; which in the\nmanner of the vegetable seed, sprouts forth into the germ in its proper\ntime, soil, moisture and temperature. (The gloss explains the essence\n_satta_ to mean the energy--_sakti_, which is represented as the female\nattribute of the Divinity).\n\n4. This power of the intellect, moves in the forms of froth and foam,\nand eddies and whirl pools in the sea; and rolls its waters against the\nhard stones of the beach. (The liquid waters are moving things that are\nhard to touch).\n\n5. It is settled in the form of flavour in the clusters of flowers; it\nmakes them full blown, and carries their fragrance to the nostrils.\n\n6. Seated on bodies of stone (stony rocks), it makes them produce\nunstone-like substances (as the trees and their foliage and flowers of\nvarious hues); and makes the mountains to support the earth without\ntheir actually upholding it. (The mountains are called _bhudharas_ or\nsupports of the earth.)\n\n7. The intellect takes the form of the air, which is the source of\nall vibrations, and touches the organ of touch (skin); with as much\ntenderness as a father touches the body of his child.\n\n8. As the divine power extends itself in every thing, so it contracts\nthe essences of all things in a mass within itself; and having absorbed\nthe whole in the divine entity, makes all nature a vacuous nullity.\n\n9. It casts the reflexion of its own clear image, in the transparent\nmirror of vacuum; and takes upon itself the pellucid body of eternity,\ncontaining all divisions of time.\n\n10. Then there issues the power of Destiny, which predominates over the\nfive principal divinities; and determines the ultimate fate of all that\n\"this is to be so, and this other wise.\"\n\n11. It is in the presence of the bright light of the all witnessing eye\nof the great God, that the picture of the universe presents itself to\nour sight; as the presence of the lighted lamp in the room, shows us\nthe lights of the things contained in it.\n\n12. The universal vacuum contains the great theatre of the universe,\nwherein the Divine powers and energies are continually playing their\nparts, and the spirit of God is the witness there of.\n\n13. Vasishtha asked--What are the powers of that Siva (Jove), my lord!\nwho are they and where are they situated; what is number, and how are\nthey employed and who is their witness.\n\n14. The god replied--The god Siva is the benignant, incomprehensible\nand tranquil supreme soul; He is gracious and formless and of the\nnature of the pure intellect only.\n\n15. His essences are volition, vacuity, duration and destiny; and also\nthe qualities of infinity and fulness.\n\n16. Beside these he has the properties of intelligence and action, as\nalso of causality and quietude; and there are many other powers in the\nspirit of Siva, of which there is no reckoning nor end.\n\n17. Vasishtha rejoined--Whence came these powers to him, and how had\nthey their variety and plurality; tell me, my lord! whence they arose,\nand how they were separated (from omnipotence which comprehends them\nall).\n\n18. The god replied:--The god Siva who is intellect only of himself,\nhas endless forms also (according to his endless attributes), and\nthe powers that I have said to belong to him, are little and no way\ndifferent essentiality. (The properties that are predicated of god,\nbelong to his intrinsical nature and not derived from without).\n\n19. It is the discrimination of the powers of intelligence, action,\npassion, vision and others; that the powers of God are said to be\nmany and different from one another, like the waves of the sea (which\nappears in the different shapes of billows, surges &c.).\n\n20. Thus do those different powers act their several parts for ever, in\nthe grand stage of the universe; as the ages, years, months and weeks\nand days, play their parts under direction of time--the manager of the\nstage.\n\n21. That power which appears as the one or another, is called the\ndivine powers of destiny; and is distinguished by the several\nappellations of action, energy or will of God, or the dispensation of\nhis Time. (Time is said to be the producer, sustainer and leveller of\nall things. [Sanskrit: k\u00e1l\u00ed prabhavati dh\u00e1ryyte, pral\u00edyate sarvvam\ntasm\u00e1t k\u00e1l\u00ed hi valavattarah]).\n\n22. That power which determines the states of gods, and those of the\ngreat Rudras as so and so, and what regulates the conduct of all things\nfrom a mean straw to the great Brahm\u00e1, is called the predominant doom\nor destiny.\n\n23. This destiny continues to dance about the great arena of the\nuniverse, until the mind is cleared of her bugbear and freed from\nanxiety by the knowledge of truth (that it is the Divine will which\ndestines the destiny).\n\n24. The play of destiny is very pleasing to behold, owing to the\nvariety of its characters and contrivances, and the quick changes of\nthe scenes, and the repeated entrances and exits of its players and\nactors. It is conducted all along with the music of the drums and\ntrumpets of the roaring clouds of the Kalp\u00e1nta-doomsday. (_i.e._ On the\nlast day of universal dissolution, when the dance of destiny and her\nplay are over).\n\n25. The vault of heaven is the canopy over this stage, the season\nflowers are its decorations, and the showers of rain serve for the\nsprinkling of rose waters in it.\n\n26. The dark clouds hung about the heavens are, the blue hanging\nscreens around this stage, and the sexcentenary as of the earth with\nthe shining gems in their bosom, serve for the ornamented pits and\ngalleries of this playhouse.\n\n27. The shining sky with its sight of the days and watches, and its\neyes of the twinkling stars; is witnessing the continual rise and fall\nof all being, and the plunging and up heaving of mountaintops at the\ngreat deluge.\n\n28. The revolving luminaries of the sun and moon, and the rolling\ncurrents of the Ganges, appear as the pearly jewels on the person of\nthis actress, and the lustre of the twilight seems as the red red-dye\nof her palms.\n\n29. The incessant motion of the upper and nether worlds, with the\ncontinued gingling of their peoples; resemble the footsteps of this\ndancing destiny, with the ringing trinkets and anklets fastened to her\nfeet.\n\n30. The sunshine and moonbeams, represent the lustre of her smiling\nface; and the twinkling stars in the sky, resemble the drops of sweat\ntrickling on her face.\n\n31. These very many worlds are supposed as so many apartments of this\ngreat theatre.\n\n32. The two states of pleasure and pain or joy and grief, which are\ndestined to the lot of all living beings, show the different shows of\ncomic and tragic representations.\n\n33. The changing scenes, that are always seen to take place in the play\nof destiny, at the great stage of this world; are continually witnessed\nby the great God himself, who is neither distant, or distinct from\nthis, nor is this so from that.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXVIII.\n\nON THE EXTERNAL WORSHIP OF THE DEITY.\n\nArgument.--The External worship of God in his outward temple, with\nbodily acts and service. And also of Internal adoration in spirit or\nthe Way to Liberation.\n\n\nThe god continued:--This god who is the supreme Lord, is the adorable\none of the wise; in the form of the intellect and conscious soul, and\nas all pervading and support of all.\n\n2. He is situated alike in the pot and painting, in the tree and hut,\nin the vehicle and in all men and brute animals; under the several\nnames of Siva, Hara, and Hari, as also of Brahm\u00e1, Indra, Agni, and Yama.\n\n3. He is in the inside and outside of all as the universal soul, and\nalways dwells in spirit and in the soul of every wise person. This Lord\nis worshipped in various forms by different people in the many modes as\ndescribed below.\n\n4. Hear me first relate to you, O great sage! how this god is\nworshipped in the outward form and formulas; and you will next hear me\nrelate unto you, the inward form in which he is worshipped in spirit.\n\n5. In all forms of worship you must cease to think of your body, and\nseparate your mind from your person, however purified it may be (By\nyour ablution and the like). You must then apply your mind diligently\nto think of the pure and bodiless soul, which witnesseth the operations\nof the body from its inside.\n\n6. His worship consists in his inward meditation only, and in no other\nmode of outward worshipping, therefore apply your mind in the adoration\nof the universal soul, in its meditation in your soul only.\n\n7. He is of the form of the intellect, the source of all light and\nglorious as millions of suns; He is the light of the inward intellect,\nand the receptacle (origin) of egoism and tuism. (_i.e._ of the\nsubjective and objective).\n\n8. His head and shoulders reach above the heaven of heavens, and lotus\nlike feet descend far below the lowest abyss of vacuity.\n\n9. His arms extend to the endless bounds of all sides and space;\nand hold in them the many worlds in the infinite firmament as their\nwielding weapons and arms.\n\n10. The worlds rolling over one another, rest in a corner of his\ncapacious bosom; His effulgence passes beyond the limit of the\nunlimited vacuum, and his person stretches beyond all imaginable\nbounds. (Extends through all extent, Pope).\n\n11. Above, below, in all four quarters and in all sides of the compass,\nhe extends unspent and without end; and is beset in all sides by the\nhost of gods, Brahm\u00e1, Rudra, Hari and Indra, and the demi gods also.\n\n12. These series of creatures are to be considered as the rows of hairs\non his body; and the different courses of their actions, are as the\nstrings binding the machines of the world together.\n\n13. His will and destiny are powers proceeding from his person, as his\nactive agencies in nature, such is the Lord--the supreme one, who is\nalways to be worshipped by the best of men.\n\n14. He is the intellect only and the conscious soul, the all pervading\nand the all supporting spirit; and resides alike in the pot and\npainting, as in the moving car as also in living animals.\n\n15. He is Siva, Hari, and Hara, Brahm\u00e1, Indra, Fire, and Yama; He\nis the receptacle of endless beings, and the aggregate body of all\nessences or the sole entity of entities.\n\n16. He contains this mundane sphere, together with all the worlds with\ntheir mountains and all other contents in himself; and the all powerful\ntime which hurls them ever onward, is the warder at the doorway of his\neternity.\n\n17. The great god Mah\u00e1deva, is to be thought upon as dwelling in some\npart of this body of eternity and infinity, with his body and its\nmembers, and with a thousand ears and eyes. (This is same with the\nmacrocosm of vir\u00e1t in the vedas).\n\n18. This figure has moreover a thousand heads and a thousand hands with\ntheir decorations. It has as many eyes all over its body with their\npowers of sight and so many ears also with their power of hearing.\n\n19. It has the powers of feeling or touch and taste all over its\nperson, as also, the power of hearing in the whole body, and that of\nthinking in its mind within.\n\n20. It is however wholly beyond all conception, and is perfectly good\nand gracious to all. It is always the doer of all things that are done,\nand the bestower of every blessing on all beings.\n\n21. It is always situated in the inside of all beings; and is the giver\nof strength and energy to all. Having thought upon the Lord of Gods in\nthis manner, the devotee is to worship him in the usual method of the\nritual.\n\n22. Now hear me tell you, that are best acquainted with Brahma, of the\nmode of worshipping him in spirit; which consists only in adoring him\nin the conscious soul, and not in presenting offerings unto him.\n\n23. It requires no illumination nor fumigation of incense; It has no\nneed of flowers or decorations, nor does require the oblations of rice\nor sprinkling of perfumes or sandal paste.\n\n24. It needs no exhalation of saffron or camphor, nor any painting or\nother things (as chouriflappers and the like); nor has it any need of\npouring the water, which is easily obtainable every where.\n\n25. It is only by effusion of the nectareous juice of the\nunderstanding, that the god is worshipped; and this is styled the best\nkind of meditation and adoration of deity by the wise.\n\n26. The pure intellect which is known to be always present within one's\nself, is to be constantly looked into and sought after, heard about,\nand felt both when one is sleeping or sitting or moving about.\n\n27. By constantly talking on the subject, and resuming the inquiry\nafter leaving it off, one becomes fully conscious of himself; and then\nhe should worship his lord the self-same soul in his meditation of it.\n\n28. The offering of the heart in meditation of the Lord, is more\ndelectable to him than the sweetest articles of food, offered with the\nchoices and most fragrant flowers.\n\n29. Meditation joined with self-consciousness or contriteness of soul,\nis the best _p\u00e1dya_ and _arghya_ water and offering that is worthy of\nthe Lord; because the best meditation is that which is accompanied with\nthe flower--self offering to the Lord. (For naught avails the most\nintense meditation of the mind, when the heart and soul are not devoted\nto the service of the Lord).\n\n30. Without this kind of meditation, it is impossible the supreme soul\nin one's self; and therefore spiritual meditation is said to abound\nwith the grace of God and the greatest enjoyment of happiness and\nprosperity. (So the sruti:--Meditation in spirit is attended with all\nenjoyment and felicity).\n\n31. As the animal or irrational soul enjoys all its pleasures, in the\nabode of its body; so the rational and spiritual soul derives all its\nhappiness from meditation. (Because the Lord being full of felicity,\npours out the same into the spirit of his devotee).\n\n32. The ignorant man that meditates on the Lord, for a hundred\ntwinklings of the eye; obtains in reward thereof, the merit of making\nthe gift of a milch-cow to a Brahman.\n\n33. The man who worships the Lord in his soul, for half an hour in this\nmanner; reaps the reward of making a horse sacrifice (according to law).\n\n34. He who meditates on the Lord in spirit and in his own spirit, and\npresents the offering of his reflections unto him, is entitled to the\nmerit of making a thousand horse sacrifices.\n\n35. Whoso worships the Lord in this manner for a full hour, receives\nthe reward of making the Raj sacrifice; and by worshipping him in this\nform in the midday; he obtains the merit of making many thousands\nsacrifices of such kind.\n\n36. The man who worships him in this way for a whole day, settles in\nthe abode of the deity.\n\n37. This is called the superior yoga meditation, and the best service\nof the Lord, as also the external adoration of the soul.\n\n38. This mode of holy adoration destroys all sins; and whoso practices\nit for a minute with a steady mind, he is certainly entitled to the\nvenerations of gods and demigods, and placed in the rank of emancipated\nspirits like myself.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXIX.\n\nMODE OF THE INTERNAL WORSHIP OF THE DEITY.\n\nArgument.--The inward form in which, He is worshipped in spirit.\n\n\nThe God resumed:--I will now relate to you, the form of the inward\nworship of the spirit in spirit; which is reckoned as the holy of\nholies, and dispeller of all darkness.\n\n2. This mode of worship depends also on mental meditation, and is\nconducted in every state of life, whether when one is sitting or\nwalking, or waking or sleeping.\n\n3. It requires the supreme Siva, who is always situated in the body\nof man; and who is the cause of the perception of all things, to be\nworshipped in spirit and in the spirit of man.\n\n4. Whether you think him, as sleeping or rising, walking or sitting; or\nwhether conceive him touching or intangible contact with any thing, or\nquite unconnected and aloof from every thing about him.\n\n5. Or whether you take him as enjoying the gross objects, or shunning\nthem all by his spiritual nature; or as the maker of all outward\nobjects, and the ordainer of all forms of action.--\n\n6. Or whether you consider him as remaining quiescent in all material\nbodies, or that he is quite apart from all substantial forms; you may\nworship him in whatever form your understanding presents him to you, or\nwhat you can best conceive of him in your consciousness.\n\n7. Whoever has fallen in and is carried away by the current of his\ndesires and who is purified from his worldliness by the sacred ablution\nof his good sense; should worship the _Siva lingam_ as the emblem of\nunderstanding with the offering of his knowledge of it. (The Lingam is\nthe type of unity, represented by the figure, as the syllable om is the\ntype of trinity expressed by its three letters).\n\n8. He may be contemplated in the form of the sun, shining brightly in\nthe sky; as also in that of the moon, which cools the sky with its\nbenign moon beams. (Because the sun and moon are included under the\neight forms of [God] as we see in the Prologue to Sakuntala. [Sanskrit:\nye he k\u00e1lah vidharttah] etc.).\n\n9. He is always conscious in himself of all sensible objects, which are\never brought under his cognizance by means of his senses, as the breath\nbrings fragrance to the nostrils.\n\n10. He gives flavour to all sweets, and enjoys the sweetness of his\nfelicity (\u00e1nanda) in himself; and employs the breathings as his horses,\nand borne in the car of respiration, sleeps in the cell of the heart.\n\n11. Siva is the witness of all sights, and actor of all actions; he\nenjoys all enjoyments, and remembers all what is known.\n\n12. He is well acquainted with all the members of his body, and knows\nall that is in existence and inexistence; he is brighter than all\nluminous objects, and is to be thought upon as the all-pervading spirit.\n\n13. He is without parts and the totality of all parts, and being\nsituated in the body, he resides in the vacuity of the heart; he is\ncolourless himself and yet paints all things in their variegated\ncolours, and is the sensation of every member of the body.\n\n14. He dwells in the faculty of the mind, and breathes in the\nrespirations of the beings; he resides within the heart, throat and\npalate of the mouth, and has his seat amidst the eyebrows and nostrils\n(as intelligence and breath of life).\n\n15. He is situated beyond the limit of the thirty six categories of the\nsaiva s\u00e1stras, as also of the ten saktis ([Sanskrit: dashamah\u00e1vidy\u00e1])\nthat are known to the saktas; he moves the heart and gives articulation\nto sounds, and makes the mind to fly about as a bird of the air.\n\n16. He resides both in equivocal and alterative words, and is situated\nin all things as the oil in sesame seeds.\n\n17. He is without the blemish of parts (being a complete whole in\nhimself), and is compact with all the parts of the world taken\ntogether. He is situated alike in a part of the lotus-like heart of the\nwise, as well as in all bodies in general.\n\n18. He is as clear as the pure and spotless intellect, and the\nimputation of parts to him is the work of mere imagination only. He is\nas palpably seen in everything at all places, as he is perceptible to\nus in our inward perception of him.\n\n19. Though originally of the nature of universal intelligence yet he\nappears in the form of the individual soul according to the desire\nof men; and residing in every individual, he is divided into endless\ndualities (of universal and particular souls).\n\n20. Then this God (the intelligent individual soul) thinks himself as\nan embodied being, endued with hands and legs, and the other parts and\nmembers of the body, with its hairs, nails, and teeth.\n\n21. He thinks of being possest of manifold and various powers and\nfaculties, and is employed in a variety of actions according to the\ndesires of the mind. He feels glad on being served by his wives and\nservants (and thinking himself as their master).\n\n22. He thinks the mind as a porter at the gate, and conductor of the\ninformation of the three worlds unto him; and his thoughts are as the\nchambermaids, waiting at his door with their pure attires.\n\n23. He believes his knowledge of egoism as his greatest power and\nconsort (sakti), and his power of action as his mistress; he thinks his\nknowledge of various lores to be his decorations only.\n\n24. He knows his organs of sense and action to be the doors of the\nabode of his body, and is conscious of his being the infinite soul and\ninseparable from the same.\n\n25. He knows himself to be full of the universal spirit; filled by and\nfilling others with the same; and bears his admirable figure of the\nbody, by his dependance on the Divine spirit.\n\n26. That he is filled with the god-head within him, and is therefore no\ncontemptible soul himself. He never rises nor sets nor is he glad or\ndispleased at any time. (But enjoys the serenity of the Eternal soul).\n\n27. He never feels himself satiate or hungry, nor longs after nor\nforsakes anything; he is ever the same and of an even tenor, temper and\nconduct and form at all times.\n\n28. He retains the gracefulness of his person, the clearness of his\nmind, and the calmness of his views at all times; he is ever the same\nsince his birth, and the equanimity of his soul never forsakes him at\nany time.\n\n29. He is devoted to the adoration of his God, for longsome days and\nnights, and the mind abstracted from his body, becomes the object of\nhis worship. (The gloss explains it otherwise, and makes the mindless\nbody the worshipped object).\n\n30. This God is worshipped with whatever offerings are available by the\ndevotee, and with all the powers of the understanding, employed in the\nadoration of the sole Intellectual spirit.\n\n31. He is to be worshipped with all things agreeably to the received\nritual, and no attempt is to be made to make any offering, which was\nnever made at any time before.\n\n32. Man being endued with the body, should worship the Lord with his\nbodily actions (as prostration, genuflexion &c.); and with all things\nthat conduce to bodily enjoyment.\n\n33. So is Siva to be worshipped with eatables and victuals, food and\ndrink of the best and richest kind; and with beddings and seats and\nvehicles as one may afford to offer.\n\n34. Men must also entertain their souls, which are the abodes of the\nDivine spirit in their bodies; with all kinds of things that they think\npleasurable to themselves; such as excellent food and drink and all\nthings affording enjoyment and pleasure.\n\n35. They must diligently serve the supreme soul in their souls, under\nany calamity, difficulty, danger or disease that may befall on them, as\nalso when they are overtaken by illusions of their understandings.\n\n36. The ends of all the attempts of mankind in this world, being no\nmore than life, death and sleep, they are all to be employed in the\nservice of the soul of nature.\n\n37. Whether reduced to poverty or elevated to royalty, or carried by\nthe currents of casualty; men must always serve their souls, with the\nflowers of their best endeavours.\n\n38. Whether overwhelmed by broils, or buffeting in the waves of\nmishaps, whether undergoing the troubles or enjoying the comforts of\ndomestic life, men must serve their souls at all times.\n\n39. When the gentle beams of fellow feeling, overspread the breast of\nkind hearted men, and when the sweet influence of sympathy melts the\nheart, it is then must meet to serve the soul seated in it.\n\n40. When a man has restrained the turbulent passions of his breast, by\nthe power of his right judgment; and spread the vest of soft tenderness\nand sweet content over his heart and mind; let him then worship in its\nserene aspect within himself.\n\n41. Let men worship the soul, on the sudden changes of their fortunes;\nboth when they come to the possession, or loss of their enjoyments.\n(Because the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken them away).\n\n42. The soul should be adhered to and adored, both when you lose or\nabandon your legal or illegal possession and enjoyment, of anything on\nearth.\n\n43. Isha--the lord of wealth is to be worshipped with relinquishment of\nall wealth, which one may have got by his own exertion or otherwise.\n(Give your all to the giver of all).\n\n44. Regret not for what is lost, and make use of what you have got; and\nadore the supreme soul without any inconstancy in your mind and soul.\n\n45. Retain your constancy amidst the scene of the wicked pursuits of\nmen, and maintain your vow of the holy devotion of the supreme spirit\nat all times.\n\n46. Every thing appears as good in the sight of the Godly, who view all\nthings in God; and they all seem to be mixed with good and evil to the\nworshipper of God and Mammon. Therefore look on all things as situated\nin the divine spirit, and continue in your vow of the adoration of the\nsupreme soul.\n\n47. Things which appear as pleasant or unpleasant at first sight, are\nall to be taken in an equal light, by those that are firm in their vow\nof the adoration of the one universal soul.\n\n48. Give up thinking yourself as such or not such a one, forsake all\nparticularities, and knowing that all is the universal One, continue in\nyour vow of adoring the supreme soul.\n\n49. Worship the supreme spirit as it always resides in all things, in\ntheir various forms and multifarious changes, and that it is all and\nall in their modifications also.\n\n50. Forsake both your pursuit after or avoidance of any thing, and\nremaining in your indifference of both extremes, continue in your\nadoration of the soul at all times.\n\n51. Neither seek nor forsake any thing, but receive what comes to thee\nof itself or by thy own lot; and enjoy all things as the sea does the\nstreams of water, which fall to it of their own accord.\n\n52. Fallen (placed) in this wide world of misery, man should take no\nheed of the lesser or greater sights of woe, that incessantly present\nthemselves to his view. They are as the fleeting tincts and hues that\npaint the vacuous vault of the skies, and soon vanish into nothing.\n\n53. All good and evil betide us by turns at the junction of their\nproper time, place and action; therefore take them with unconcern to\nyou, and serve your own soul. (Which is same with the soul of souls).\n\n54. Whatever things are mentioned as fit offerings of the service of\nthe supreme spirit, it is the equanimity of your soul which is deemed\nthe best and fittest offering. (A contrite spirit is most acceptable\nunto the Lord).\n\n55. Things of different tastes, as the sour, bitter, acid, sharp and\npungent, are useless in the service of the spirit; it is the calm and\nsweet composure of the soul, which is delectable to the holy spirit.\n\n56. Equanimity is sweet to taste, and has the supernatural power of\ntransforming every thing to ambrosia. (The man of an even mind, enjoys\nthe sweetness of contentment in every state of life).\n\n57. Whatever a man thinks upon with the ambrosial sweetness of his\ndisposition, the same is immediately changed to ambrosia, as the\nnectarious dew drops under the moon beams.\n\n58. Equanimity expands the soul, and gladdens the minds, as the\nsunlight fills the vault of heaven; and it is the unchangeable\nsedateness of the mind, which is reckoned as the highest devotion.\n\n59. The mind of man must shine with an even lustre, as the bright moon\nbeams in their fullness, and it must blaze with the transparent light\nof the intellect, as a bright crystal in the sunlight.\n\n60. He who is employed in his outward actions of life, with his mind as\nbright as the clear sky; and which is freed from the mist of worldly\naffections, is said to be the full knowing devotee.\n\n61. The true devotee shines as brightly, as the clear autumnal sky,\nwhen the worldly impressions are quite effaced from the heart, and are\nnot seen even in dream, when the cloud of ignorance is cleared away,\nand the fog of egoism is utterly scattered.\n\n62. Let your mind be as clear as the moon, and as spotless as the\nblazing sun; let it hide the thoughts, of the measurer and measured\n(_i.e._ of the creator and created) in it; let it have the simple\nconsciousness of itself, like a newborn child (without its innate\nideas); and perceiving only the steady light of the intellect the seed\nof all intelligence; you will then come to attain the state of highest\nperfection in your life time.\n\n63. Living amidst the fluctuations of pain and pleasure, attending on\nthe lot of all living beings, and occurring at their fixed times and\nplaces and actions of man, do you remain in the steady service of your\nsoul--the leader of your body, by tranquilizing all the passions and\ndesires of your heart and mind.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXX.\n\nINQUIRY INTO THE NATURE OF THE DEITY.\n\nArgument--That the God Siva is beyond his formular adoration and his\nnature as that of the pure Intellectual soul.\n\n\nThe God continued:--It is of no consequence, whether the spiritualist\nobserve formal adoration in its proper time and manner or not; it is\nenough if he adore Siva in his form of the intellect within himself,\nwhich is equivalent to the worship of the _\u00e1tm\u00e1_ or soul. (_i.e._\nWorshipping the spirit in spirit).\n\n2. This is attended with a delight, which becomes manifest within\nhimself; and thus full of spiritual light and delight, the devotee\nis assimilated to and self same with his God. (This is the state of\necstacy, in which the adept loses himself in his God).\n\n3. The meanings of the words affection and hatred, do not belong to the\nholy soul as separate properties of it; but they blend together and die\nin it as sparks in fire.\n\n4. The knowledge that the dignity and poverty of men, as also the\nhappiness and misery of one's self or others, proceed from God, is\ndeemed as the worship of the supreme spirit, which ordains them all.\n(The gloss explains, that the attribution of all accidents of life to\nGod, in his adoration also, as it is done by the offering of flowers\nunto him).\n\n5. The consciousness of the world as manifestation of the Divine\nspirit, is reckoned as his devotion also, as a pot or other taken for\nthe spirit of God, owing to its residence in it, forms his worship also.\n\n6. The quiet and lightless spirit of Siva, being manifest in his works\nof creation, the whole sensible world is believed to be the form of the\nsupreme spirit.\n\n7. It is astonishing that every soul should forget its own nature, and\nthink itself as a living soul residing in the body, as they believe the\nsupreme soul to be confined in a pot or painting.\n\n8. It is astonishing also, how they should attribute false ideas of\nworship, worshipper and the worshipped to the god Siva, who is the\ninfinite soul of all and a pure spirit.\n\n9. The ritual of worship and adoration, which applies to the finite\nforms of gods (their idols); cannot be applied to the worship of the\ninfinite spirit of God.\n\n10. The pure spirit of the eternal, infinite and all powerful, cannot\nbe the object of ritualistic worship, which relates to finite gods or\nidols.\n\n11. Know, O Brahman! that the spirit of God, which pervades the\nthree worlds, and is of the nature of pure intellect, is not to be\ncircumscribed by any form or figure. (As that of an idol or any natural\nobject).\n\n12. Know, O wisest of the wise! that those that have their god, as\ncircumscribed by time and place (_i.e._ represented as limited and\nfinite beings), are not regarded by us among the wise.\n\n13. Therefore O sage! retract your sight from idols and idolatrous\nworship, and adopt your view to spiritual adoration; and be of an even,\ncool and clear mind, be dispassionate and freed from decay and disease.\n\n14. Do you continue to worship the supreme spirit with an unshaken\nmind, by making him offerings of your desires, and all the good and\nevil that occur to you at any time. (_i.e._ submit to the dispensations\nof Providence).\n\n15. O sage, that art acquainted with the sole unity, in the one uniform\ntenor of thy soul and mind, thou art thereby set above the reach of the\nmiseries attending his frail life, as the pure crystal is clear of the\nshade and dross of all worldly things.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXXI.\n\nVANITY OF WORLD AND WORLDLY THINGS.\n\nArgument.--Refutation of Received Doctrines.\n\n\nVasishtha asked:--What is called the god Siva, and is meant by supreme\nBrahma; and what is the meaning of soul, and what is its difference\nfrom the supreme soul?\n\n2. That the _tat sat_--_Id. est_ is the true entity, and all else is\nnon entity; what is vacuum that is nothing, and what is philosophy\nthat knows everything. Explain to me these differences, for thou lord!\nknowest them all.\n\n3. The god replied:--There exist a _sat ens_, which is without\nbeginning and end; and without any appearance, or reflexion of its own;\nand this entity appears as a non entity, owing to its imperceptibility\nby the senses.\n\n4. Vasishtha rejoined--If this entity, lord! is not perceptible by\nthe organs of sense, and unknowable by the understanding, how then, O\nIs\u00e1na! is it to be known at all.\n\n5. The god replied:--The man that desires his salvation, and yet sticks\nto his ignorance, is a sage by name only; and such men are subjected to\ngreater ignorance, by the s\u00e1stras they are guided by.\n\n6. Let one ignorance removes another, as washerman cleanses one dirt by\nanother. (_i.e._ Let the erroneous and mutually discordant theories of\nthe s\u00e1stras, refute the errors of one another).\n\n7. When the error of ignorance, are removed by the opposition to each\nother; it is then that the soul appears of itself to view as a matter\nof course.\n\n8. As a child daubs his fingers by rubbing one piece of coat against\nanother (so is a man darkened the more by the tenets of contradictory\ns\u00e1stras); but gets them cleansed by washing off his hands from both of\nthem.\n\n9. As they examine both sides of a question in a learned discussion,\nand the truth comes out from amidst them both, so the knowledge of the\nsoul, appears from midst of the mist of ignorance.\n\n10. When the soul perceives the soul, and scans it by itself; and as\nit comes to know it in itself, it is said to get rid of its ignorance,\nwhich is then said to be utterly destroyed.\n\n11. The paths of learning and the lectures of a preceptor, are not the\nproper means to the knowledge of the soul, until one comes to know the\nunity of this thing by his own intuition.\n\n12. All the preceptors of s\u00e1stras, place the soul amidst the bodily\nsenses; but Brahm\u00e1 is situated beyond the senses, and is known after\nsubjection of sensible organs. So the thing which is obtainable in\nabsence of something, is never to be had in the presence of that thing\n(such is the antipathy of the soul and senses against one another).\n\n13. It is seen however, that many things are used as causes of what\nthey are no causes at all; as they make use of the lectures of the\npreceptor and the like, as means for the attainment of spiritual\nknowledge.\n\n14. A course of lectures is of course calculated, to throw light on\nthe student's knowledge of the knowables; but in matters of abstract\nknowledge and invisible soul, it is the soul itself that must throw its\nown light.\n\n15. No explanation of the s\u00e1stras, nor the lectures of the preceptor,\nare calculated to give light on spiritual knowledge, unless it is\nunderstood by the intuitive knowledge of the spirit itself.\n\n16. Again the soul is never to be known without learning and lectures,\nand therefore both of them must combine with our inquiry to bring us to\nthe light of the soul.\n\n17. It is therefore the combination of bookish knowledge with the\ninstruction of the preceptor, joined with the investigation of the\ninquirer, that is calculated to enlighten us on spiritual knowledge, as\nthe appearance of the day with the rising sun and waking world, gives\nan impetus to the rise of duties of the rising world.\n\n18. After subsidence of the senses and actions of bodily organs,\ntogether with the imperceptibility of our sensations of pain and\npleasure; that we come to the knowledge of Siva, other wise known as\nthe soul, the _tat sat_, He that is, and under many other designations.\n\n19. When there was not this plenum of the world, or it existed in its\nspiritual or ideal forms; it is since then that this infinite entity\nhas existed, in its vacuous form which is rarer than the ether.\n\n20. Who is continually meditated upon by the nice discernment of the\nseekers of salvation, and is variously represented by the pure minded\nand those of vitiated minds.\n\n21. There are others who are situated in the sight of, and not far from\nthe path of living liberation, who are employed in leading others to\nsalvation, and in the exposition of the s\u00e1stras in their works.\n\n22. There have been many thinking and learned men, who have used the\nwords Brahm\u00e1, Indra, Rudra, and the names of the regents of worlds\n(for God), in order to justify the doctrines of the Pur\u00e1nas, Vedas and\nSiddh\u00e1ntas.\n\n23. Others have applied the fictitious titles of chit or intellect,\nBrahm\u00e1, Siva, \u00c1tm\u00e1 the soul or spirit, \u00cdsha--the Lord, the supreme\nspirit and \u00cdshvara-god, to the nameless god head that is apart and\naloof from all.\n\n24. Such is the truth of nature and of thyself also, which is styled\nthe siva of felicitous; and which always confers all felicity to the\nworld and to thyself also. (The word siva means jovus or solas and is\nmeant to express the joviality and soliety which always attends on all\nbeings).\n\n25. The words siva, soul, supreme Brahm\u00e1 and some others, have been\ncoined by the ancients to express the supreme being; and though\nthey differ in sound, there is no difference of them in sense and\nsignification.\n\n26. Know, O chief of sages! that wise men always adore this god whom we\nserve also, and unto when we return as the best and ultimate states of\nall. (Siva is a _hypostasis_ of the infinite deity).\n\n27. Vasishtha said:--Please Lord! explain to me in short, how the ever\nexistent Deity remains as non-existent, and could it come to existence\nfrom its prior state of nihility?\n\n28. The god replied:--Know the meaning of the words Brahm\u00e1 &c. to bear\nrelation to our consciousness only, and this though it is as clear as\nthe sky, and as minute as an atom, has the great bulk of the mount Meru\ncontained in it.\n\n29. Although this is unintelligible to us, and far beyond our\nconception and comprehension of it; yet it becomes intelligible to us\nwhen we take it the form of our intellect.\n\n30. By taking it objectively, it becomes intelligible to us in the\nmanner of our Egoism; and by thinking on its personality we have the\nsame idea of it, as one has of a wild elephant from its sight in a\ndream.\n\n31. These ideas of its egoism and personality, being limited by time\nand space, give rise to many aerial forms as attendants upon it. (These\naerial forms are the different attributes of God).\n\n32. Accompanied with these, there proceeds the entity called the\n_J\u00edva_ or living spirit, which is conversant with its oscillation and\nrespiration, in the form of a pencil of air.\n\n33. After the power of vitality is established and has come in force;\nthere follows the faculty of understanding; which remains in utter\nignorance at first.\n\n34. It is followed by the faculties of bearing, action and perceptions;\nall of which operate inward by without their development in outward\norgans.\n\n35. All these powers uniting together, conduce to the excitement of\nmemory, which exhibits itself soon in the form of the mind; which is\nthe tree of desires.\n\n36. Hear now what is called the spiritual body by the learned, it is\nthe inward power of God of the form of the conscious soul, and seeing\nthe divine soul in itself.\n\n37. There rise afterwards the following powers in the mind; which\ndevelop themselves in the outer organs, although their powers may be\nwanting in them. (Such as the blind eyes, deaf ears &c.).\n\n38. These are the essences of air and motion, and of feeling also,\ntogether with the senses of touch and heat emitted by the eyes.\n\n39. There are the essences of colour, water and taste also, and\nlikewise the essences of smell and flavour too.\n\n40. There are the essences of earth and gold, and the essences of thick\nmass; and also the essences of time and space, all of which are without\nform and shape.\n\n41. The spiritual body contains all these essences in itself as its\ncomponent parts, as the seed of a fruit contains the leaves and germ of\nthe future tree in its cell.\n\n42. Know this to be _ativ\u00e1hika_ or spiritual body, and containing the\neight elementary senses, wherefore it is called the _puryashtaka_ also;\nand these are developed afterwards in the organs of sense.\n\n43. The primary or spiritual body which is formed in this manner, is\nactually nobody at all; since it is devoid of understanding, intellect,\nsenses and sensibility.\n\n44. It is the supreme Being only, which contains the essence of the\nsoul, as it is the sea which contains the limpid waters.\n\n45. The soul is that which is possessed of its consciousness and\nknowledge, all besides this is dull and insensible matter; and which is\nviewed by the soul, as the sight of a fairy land in the dream.\n\n46. It is therefore by consciousness and knowledge that Siva can be\nknown, and what is not to be known by these can be nothing at all.\n\n47. The supreme soul sees all things within itself, as parts of itself\n(produced from its will of becoming or dividing itself into many); and\nbeholds particles of his atomic self, formed into innumerable bodies.\n\n48. These soon increased in bulk and became big bodies, and bore the\nmarks of the organs upon them.\n\n49. Then it became of the form of a man, from his thought of being so;\nand this soon grew up in its size of a full grown man.\n\n50. So do our bodies appear to us in our living state, as the fairyland\nappears to one in his dream.\n\n51. Vasishtha said:--I see the appearance of the human body, to\nresemble the vision of the fairyland in the dream; and I see also the\nmiseries awaiting on human life in this world. Now tell me, my Lord!\nhow all this misery is to be removed from it.\n\n52. The god replied--All human woe is owing to their desires, and\nbelief of the reality of the world; but it must be known to be all as\nunreal, as waves of water seen in a sea in the mirage.\n\n53. There why such desire, and for what good and use, and why should\nthe dreaming man be deluded to drink the show of water in the mirage?\n\n54. The viewer of truth, who is freed from his views of egoism and\ntuism, and has got off from the deluded and its delusive thoughts, doth\nverily behold the true entity of God in his presence, in the utter\nabsence of all worldly thoughts from his mind.\n\n55. Where there is no desirer or desire or the desired object, but the\nonly thought of the one unity, there is an end of all error and misery.\n\n56. He whose mind is freed from the true and false bugbears of common\nand imaginary error, and is settled in the thought of one unity alone,\nsees nothing but the unity before him.\n\n57. The desires of the mind, rise as goblins in the midway sky; and\nthe thoughts of the world rove about the sphere of the mind, as the\nnumerous worlds revolve in the sky hence there is no peace of the soul,\nunless these subside to rest.\n\n58. It is useless to advise the man to wisdom, who is elated by his\negoism, and is deluded by the waters of the mirage of this evanescent\nworld.\n\n59. Wise men should advise the prudent only, and throw away their\ninstruction to boys that are wandering in error, and are shunned by\ngood people. To give good counsel to the ignorant, is as offering a\nfair daughter in marriage to the spectre of man seen in a dream.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXXII.\n\nTHE SUPREME SOUL AND ITS PHASES AND NAMES\n\nArgument.--The various Processes whereby the supreme soul becomes the\nanimal soul; and this again extending in all beings.\n\n\nVasishtha said:--Tell me Lord! what is the state of the living soul,\nafter its situation in the open air, and its observation of the vanity\nof the elemental and material body on its first creation.\n\n2. The god replied--The living soul having sprung from the supreme,\nand being situated in the open firmament, views the body formed in the\naforesaid manner, as a man sees a vision in his dream.\n\n3. The living soul being ubiquitous, enters and acts in every part of\nthis body, according to the behest of the embodied intellect, as a\nsleeping man acts his parts in a dream, and bears his body still.\n\n4. It was the indiscrete infinite soul before, and then became the\ndiscrete spirit called the first male, and this spirit was the primary\ncause of creation in itself.\n\n5. Thus this animated spirit became as Siva, at the beginning of the\nfirst creation; it was called Vishnu in another, and became the lotus\nborn Brahm\u00e1 or the great patriarch in the other.\n\n6. This great progenitor of one creation, became the intellect in\nanother, this became the volitive male agent of creation afterwards,\nand at last look upon it a male form according to its volition.\n\n7. The primary volition of ideal creation becoming compact in time,\nit takes the form of the mind; which feels itself able to effect in\nact, whatsoever it wills in itself. (This form of the Mind is called\nHiranyagarbha or Brahm\u00e1--the creative power of God).\n\n8. This creation of the world by Brahm\u00e1 is mere visionary, as the sight\nof a spectre in the air or in a dream; but it appears as a positive\nreality, to the erroneous sight of the realist. (_i.e._ The world is\nideal to the idealist, but a sober reality to the positivist).\n\n9. The prime male agent that becomes the beholder of his creation,\nretains in him the power of exhibiting himself (or displaying his will)\nin the empty air every moment, or to retract them in himself into time.\n\n10. To him a Kalpa or great Kalpa age, is a mere twinkling of his eye;\nand it is by the expansion or contraction of himself, that the world\nmakes its appearance or disappearance.\n\n11. Worlds come to appear and disappear at his will, at each moment of\ntime, in each particle of matter, and in every pore of space, and there\nis no end of this successions in all eternity.\n\n12. Many things are seen to occur one after another, in conformity with\nthe course of our desires; but we never find any thing to take place,\nin concurrence with our sight of the holy spirit. (_i.e._ Nothing is\nboth temporally as well as spiritually good).\n\n13. All things are created (and vanish) with this creation, which\ndo not occur to the unchanging Siva; and these are like the shadowy\nappearances in empty air, which rise of themselves and disappear in air.\n\n14. All real and unreal appearances vanish of themselves, like\nmountains appearing in dreams; all these creations have no command over\ntheir causality, space or time.\n\n15. Therefore all these phenomenals are neither real, potential or\nimaginary or temporary appearances; nor is there any thing, that is\nproduced or destroyed at any time.\n\n16. All these are the wondrous phenomena of our ideas and wishes\n(sankalpas), exhibited by the intellect in itself; and this world is\nlike the appearance of an aerial castle in the dream, and subject to\nits rise and fall by turns.\n\n17. The visible which appears to be moving about in time and space,\nhas actually no motion whatever in either; but remains as fixed as an\nideal rock in the mind for ever. (The unreal world can have no actual\nmotion).\n\n18. So also the extension of the unreal world, is no extension at all;\nas the magnitude of an ideal rock has no dimension whatever. (Things in\nthe abstract, have no imaginable measure).\n\n19. The situation and duration of the unreal world, conform exactly\nwith the ideas of its time and place, which exist in the mind of the\nmaker of all (or the great Archetype).\n\n20. It is in this manner that he is instantly changed to a worm (from\nhis idea of it), and so are all the four orders of living beings born\nin this world.\n\n21. Thus the curative power becomes all things, from the great Rudras\ndown to the mean straws in a minute (from his ideas of these); and even\nsuch as are as minute as atoms and particles of matter (_i.e._ in the\nforms of the protozoa and small animalcula).\n\n22. This is the course of the production of the past and present\ncreations, and it is the reminiscence of the past, which is the cause\nof the delusion of taking the world for a real existence.\n\n23. After giving away the thought of the difference between the creator\nand the created, and by the habit of thinking all as the unity, one\nbecomes Siva in a minute, and by thinking so for a longer period, one\nis assimilated to the nature of the supreme Intellect.\n\n24. The intellect proceeds from the original intellect (of God),\nand rises without occupying any place. It is of the nature of\nunderstanding, and resides in the soul in the manner of empty air in\nthe midst of a stone.\n\n25. The soul which is of the manner of eternal light, is known\nunder the denomination of Brahm\u00e1 and the intellect which seated\nin this (soul), becomes weakened as the creative power increase,\nand strengthens in it. (_i.e._ The power of the thinking intellect\ndecreases in proportion, as the power of the creative mind is on its\nincrease).\n\n26. Next the particles of time and place, join together in the\nformation of minute atoms; which by forming the elementary bodies,\nhave the living principle added to them. (These are called the protozoa\nor animalcules).\n\n27. These then become vegetables and insects, and beasts, brutes and\nthe forms of gods and demigods; and these being stretched out in\nendless series, remain as a long chain of being, connected by the\nstrong and lengthening line of the soul, (called the s\u00fatr\u00e1tm\u00e1).\n\n28. Thus the great god that pervades over all his works in the world,\nconnects all things in being and not being, as pearls in a necklace by\nthe thread of his soul. He is neither near us nor even far from us; nor\nis he above or below anything whatever. He is neither the first nor\nlast but ever lasting (having neither his beginning nor end). He is\nneither the reality or unreality, nor is he in the midst of these.\n\n29. He is beyond all alternatives and antitheses, and is not to\nbe known beyond our imaginary ideas of him. He has no measure or\ndimension, nor any likeness, form or form to represent him. Whatever\ngreatness and majesty are attributed to him by men, they are all\nextinguished in his glory as the fire is cooled in the water.\n\n30. Now, I have related to you all what you asked me about, and will\nnow proceed to my desired place. Be you happy, O sage, and go your way;\nand rise, O P\u00e1rvat\u00ed and let us take our way.\n\n31. Vasishtha said:--When the god with his blue throat had spoken in\nthis manner, I honoured him with throwing handfuls of flowers upon\nhim. He then rose with his attendants, and pierced into the vacuity of\nheaven.\n\n32. After departure of the lord of Um\u00e1, and master of the three worlds,\nI remained for some time reflecting on all I had heard from the god,\nand then having received the new doctrine with the purity of my heart,\nI gave up the external form of my worshipping the Deity.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXXIII.\n\nON REST AND TRANQUILLITY.\n\nArgument.--R\u00e1ma admits before Vasishtha the removal of his doubt in\ndualistic doctrine.\n\n\nVasishtha said:--I well understand what the god said, and you too, O\nR\u00e1ma! know very well the course of the world.\n\n2. When the false world appears in a false light to the fallacious\nunderstanding of man, and all proves to be but vanity of vanities, say\nwhat thing is there that may be called true and good and what as untrue\nand bad. (There is nothing what ever which is really good).\n\n3. As the alternative of something is not that thing itself, so the\noptional form of the soul, though not the soul itself, yet it serves to\nconvey some idea of the soul. (As the explanation of the gloss is;--The\nsimilitude of a thing though not the thing itself, yet it gives some\nidea of the original).\n\n4. As fluidity is the nature of liquids, and fluctuation is that of\nthe winds, and as vacuity is the state of the sky, so is creation the\ncondition of the spirit or divine soul.\n\n5. I have ever since (hearing the lecture of Siv\u00e1), betaken myself to\nthe worship of the spirit in spirit; and have since then, given up my\neagerness for the outward adoration of gods.\n\n6. It is by this rule that I have passed these days of my life, though\nI am tamely employed in the observance of the prescribed and popular\nritual.\n\n7. I have worshipped the Divine spirit, in all modes and forms and\noffering of flowers, as they presented of themselves to me; and\nnotwithstanding the interruptions, I have uninterruptedly adored my god\nat all times, both by day and night.\n\n8. All people in general, are concerned in making their offerings\nacceptable to their receiver (god), but it is the meditation of the\nyogi, which is the true adoration of the spirit.\n\n9. Having known this, O lord of Raghu's race, do you abandon the\nsociety of men in your heart, and walk in your lonely path amidst the\nwilderness of the world, and thereby remain without sorrow and remorse.\n\n10. And when exposed or reduced to distress, or aggrieved at the loss\nor separation of friends, rely on this truth, and think on the vanity\nof the world.\n\n11. We should neither rejoice nor regret, at the acquisition or loss\nof friends and relations; because all things almost are so frail and\nunstable, in this transitory world.\n\n12. You well know, R\u00e1ma! the precarious state of worldly possessions\nand their pernicious effects also; they come and go away of their own\naccord, but overpower on the man in both states (of prosperity and\nadversity).\n\n13. So uncertain are the favours of friends and fortune, and so\nunforeseen is their loss also, that it is no way possible for any body\nto account for them. (_i.e._ to assign any plausible cause to either).\n\n14. O sinless R\u00e1ma! such is the course of the world, that you have\nno command over it nor is it ever subject to you; if the world is so\ninsubordinate to you, why is it then that you should be sorry for so\nunmanageable a thing?\n\n15. R\u00e1ma! mind your spiritual nature, and know yourself as an expanded\nform of your intellect. See how you are pent up in your earthly frame,\nand forsake your joy and grief at the repeated reiterations and exits\nof your corporeal body.\n\n16. Know my boy, that you are of the form of your intellect only, and\ninherent throughout all nature; therefore there is nothing that you can\nresume to or reject from you in the world.\n\n17. What cause of joy or grief is there in the vicissitudes of things\nin the world, which are occasioned by the revolutions of the mind on\nthe pivot of the intellect; and resemble the whirling waters of the\nsea, caused by an eddy or vortex in it.\n\n18. Do you, O R\u00e1ma! betake yourself to the fourth stage of _susupta_\nor hypnotism hence forth, as the even tenor of the intellect, is\nattended by its trance at the end.\n\n19. Be you as cold and composed with your placid countenance and\nexpanded mind, as the quiet spirit of God is diffused and displayed\nthrough out all nature; and remains as full as the vast ocean, in the\ncontemplation of that soul, whose fulness fills the whole.\n\n20. You have heard all this already, R\u00e1ma! and are fraught with the\nfulness of your understanding, now if you have any thing else to ask\nwith regard to your former question, you can propose the same. (This\nwas a question regarding the observance of ceremonial rites).\n\n21. R\u00e1ma said:--Sir, my former doubts are all dispersed at present, and\nI have nothing more to ask you regarding the same (_i.e._ the dualistic\ndoctrine that raised the doubts).\n\n22. I have known all that is to be known, and felt a heartfelt\nsatisfaction at this, and now I am free from the foulness of the\nobjective, and of dualism and fictions. (Knowledge of the objective\nbeing unspiritual, the dualism of matter and mind as unscriptual, and\nthe fictions of the gods etc., as mere vagaries of imagination).\n\n23. The foulness of the soul, proceeds from ignorance of the soul; and\nthis ignorance (of the subjective self), which had darkened my soul, is\nnow removed by the light of spirituality.\n\n24. I was under the error (of the mortality and materiality of the\nsoul), which I have now come to understand, is neither foul matter, nor\nis it born or dies at any time. (_i.e._ It is immaterial, unproduced\nand immortal).\n\n25. I am now confirmed in my belief, that all this is Brahm\u00e1 diffused\nthrough out nature (in his all pervasive form _vivartar\u00fap\u00e1_); and I\nhave ceased from all doubts and questions on the subject, nor have I\nthe desire of knowing any thing more about it. (He desires to know\nnothing, who beholds the lord in every thing).\n\n26. My mind is now as pure, as the purified water of filtering\nmachine; and am no more in need of learning any thing, from the\npreachings and moral lessons of the wise.\n\n27. I am unconcerned with all worldly affairs, as the mount Sumeru is\ninsensible of the golden ores in its bosom and having all things about\nme, I am quite indifferent to them; because I have not what I expect to\nhave, nor do I possess the object of my fond desire.\n\n28. I expect nothing that is desirable, nor reject any thing which is\nexceptionable; nor is there a mean in the interim of the two in this\nworld, because there is nothing that is really acceptable or avoidable\nin it, nor anything which is truly good or bad herein.\n\n29. Thus, O sage, the erroneous thought of these contraries, is\nentirely dissipated from me; wherefore I neither care for a seat in\nheaven, nor fear the terrors of the infernal regions.\n\n30. I am as fixed in the selfsame spirit, as the mount Mand\u00e1r\u00e1 is\nfirmly seated amidst the sea, and which scatters its particles\nthroughout the three worlds, as that mountain splashed the particles of\nwater in its state of churning the ocean.\n\n31. I am as firm as the fixed Mand\u00e1r\u00e1, while others are wandering in\ntheir errors of discriminating the positive and negative and the true\nand false, in their wrong estimation.\n\n32. The heart of that man must be entangled with the weeds of doubts,\nwho thinks in his mind the world to be one thing, and the Divine spirit\nas another. (This duality is the root of doubts in the one ultimate\nunity).\n\n33. He that seeks for his real good in any thing in this world, never\nfinds the same in the unsubstantial material world, which is full of\nthe confused waves of the eternity.\n\n34. It is by your favour, O venerable sir, that I have got over the\nboisterous ocean of this world; and having the limits of its perilous\ncoasts, have come to the shore of safety and found the path of my\nfuture prosperity.\n\n35. I am no more wanting in that supreme felicity, which is the summum\nbonum of all things; and am full in myself as the lord of all. And I am\nquite indomitable by any body, since I have defeated the wild elephant\nof my covetousness.\n\n36. Being loosened from the chain of desire, and freed from the fetters\nof option, I am rich and blest with the best of all things, and this\nis the internal satisfaction of my soul and mind, which gives me a\ncheerful appearance in all the triple world.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXXIV.\n\nINQUIRY INTO THE ESSENCE OF THE MIND.\n\nArgument.--On the means of forsaking all connections and desires, and\nthe subjection of the mind by spiritual knowledge.\n\n\nVasishtha said:--R\u00e1ma! whatever acts you do with your organs of action\nand without application of the mind to the work in hand, know such work\nto be no doing of yours. (An involuntary action is not accounted as the\nact of one, in absence of his will in it).\n\n2. Who does not feel a pleasure at the time of his achieving an action,\nwhich he did not feel a moment before, nor is likely to perceive the\nnext moment after he has done the work. (Therefore it is the attention\nof the mind which gives pleasure to an action, and which is not to be\nfelt in absence of that attention, both before and after completion of\nthe act).\n\n3. The pleasure of a thing is accompanied only with the desire of its\npassion, and not either prior or posterior to the same; therefore it is\nboyish and not manliness to take any delight in a momentary pleasure.\n(All pleasure and pain are concomitant with their thoughts only; and\nthese being fleeting there is no lasting pleasure or pain in anything).\n\n4. Whatever is pleasant during its desire, has that desire only for the\ncause of its pleasantness: hence the pleasurableness of a thing lasting\ntill its unpleasurableness is no real pleasure; wherefore this frail\npleasure must be forsaken together with its temporary cause of desire\nby the wise.\n\n5. If you have arrived to that high state (of knowing the universality\nof the soul); then be careful for the future, and merge yourself no\nmore in the narrow pit of your personality.\n\n6. You who have now found your rest and repose, in being seated in the\nhighest pinnacle of spiritual knowledge (by cognoscence of yourself);\nmust not allow your soul any more, to plunge in the deep and dark cave\nof your egoistic individuality.\n\n7. Thus seated on the pitch of your knowledge, as on the top of the\nMeru mountain; and remembering the glorious prospect all around you;\nyou cannot choose to fall down into the hellpit of this earth, and to\nbe reborn in the darksome cave of a mother's womb. (Because the living\nsoul is doomed to transmigration and regeneration until its final\nliberation).\n\n8. It appears to me, O R\u00e1ma! that you are of an even temperament, and\nhave the quality of truth (satyaguna) full in your nature; I understand\nyou have weakened your desires, and have entirely got over your\nignorance.\n\n9. You appear to be settled in your nature of purity, and the\ntemperament of your mind appears to me to be as calm and quiet as the\nsea, when it is full and untroubled by the rude and rough winds of\nheaven.\n\n10. May your expectations set at ease, and your wants terminate in\ncontentment, let your dementation turn to rightmindedness, and live\nunconnected with and aloof from all.\n\n11. Whatever objects you come to see placed before you, know the same\nas full of the Divine intellect, which is consolidated and extended\nthrough all, as their common essence. (The solid intellect forming the\nbody, and its rarity the mind. \"That extended through all yet in all\nthe same; great in the earth as in the etherial frame\", Pope).\n\n12. One ignorant of the soul, is fast bound to his ignorance; and one\nacquainted with the soul, is liberated from his bondage. Hence, O R\u00e1ma!\nlearn to meditate constantly and intensely, the supreme soul in your\nown soul.\n\n13. It is indifference which wants to enjoy nothing, nor yet refuses\nthe enjoyment of whatever presents of itself to any body; and know\ninappetency to consist in the cool calmness of the mind, resembling\nthe serenity of the sky. (_Insouciance_ is the want of desire and\nrenunciation of prurience and not the abdication of enjoyment).\n\n14. Preserve the cold listlessness of your mind, and discharge your\nduties with the cool application of your organs of action; and this\nunconcernedness of your mind, will render you as steady as the sky at\nall accidents of life.\n\n15. If you can combine the knower, knowable and the knowledge (_i.e._\nall the three states of the subjective, objective and the intermediate\npercipience) in your soul alone; you will then feel the tranquillity of\nyour spirit and shall have no more to feel the troubles of sublunary\nlife.\n\n16. It is the expansion and contraction of the mind, that causes the\ndisplay and dissolution of the world; try therefore to stop the action\nof thy mind, by restraining the breaths of thy desire in thyself.\n\n17. So it is the breath of life, which conducts and stops the business\nof the world, by its respiration and rest; restrain therefore the\nbreathing of the vital air, by thy practice of the regulation of thy\nbreathing (as dictated before).\n\n18. So also it is the act of ignorance to give rise to ceremonious\nworks, as it is that of knowledge to repress them; Do you therefore\nboldly put them down by your own forbearance, and the instructions you\nderive from the s\u00e1stras and your preceptors.\n\n19. As the winds flying with dust, darken the fair face of the sky;\nso the intellect being daubed with the intelligibles (the subjective\nsoiled with the objective), obscure the clear visage of the soul.\n\n20. The action of the relation between the vision and visibles (_i.e._\nthe mutual of the eyesight and outward objects on one another), causes\nthe appearance of the world and its course; as the relation that there\nexists between the solar rays and formations of things, makes them\nappear in various colours to the eye. (Neither the course of the world,\nnor the appearance of colour is in real being, but is owing to the\nrelative combination of things).\n\n21. But the want of this relativity removes the phenomenals from sight,\nas the want of light takes away the colours of things. (The former\nis an instance of the affirmative kind (anvayi); and the latter a\nvyatireki or negative one).\n\n22. The oscillation of the mind causes the illusions, as the\npalpitation of the heart raises the affections, and they are all at a\nstop at the suspension of the actions of these organs. So the waves\nraised by motion of waters and action of the winds, subside in the\ndeep, by cessation of the actions of these elements. (The question is\nwhether the affections are not causes of the palpitation of the heart?).\n\n23. The abandonment of every jot of desire, the suspension of\nrespiration, and the exercise of intellection, will contract\nthe actions of the heart and mind, and thereby prevent the rise\nof the passions and affections and of illusions also. (Entire\ndispassionateness is the perfection of yoga asceticism).\n\n24. The unconsciousness which follows the inaction of the heart and\nmind, in consequence of the suspension of the vital breath is the\nhighest perfection (of yoga philosophy).\n\n25. There is a pleasure in respect to the vision of visibles, which\nis common to all living being; but this being felt spiritually,\namounts to holy pleasure _param\u00e1nanda_. But the sight of God in one's\nconsciousness, which is beyond the province of the mind; transcends the\nmental pleasure, and affords a divine ecstacy, called the Brahm\u00e1nanda.\n\n26. The mind being dormant and insensible, affords the true rapture of\nthe soul; and such as it is not to be had even in heaven, as it is not\npossible to have a refrigeratory or cooling bath in the sandy desert.\n\n27. The inertness of the heart and mind is attended with a delight,\nwhich is felt in the inmost soul and cannot be uttered in words; it is\nan everlasting joy that has neither its rise nor fall, nor its increase\nor decrease. (It is the lasting sunshine and unchanging moonlight of\nthe soul).\n\n28. Right understanding weakens the sensuous mind (by the blaze of\nrationality), but wrong understanding serves to increase its irrational\nsensuousness only. It then sees the thickening mists of error, rising\nas spectres and apparitions before the sight of boys.\n\n29. Though the sensational mind is existent in us, yet it seems as\nquite inexistent and extinct before the light of our rationality, as\nthe substance of copper appears to disappear by being melted with\ngold. (The carnal mind is converted to the rational understanding by\nits association with it).\n\n30. The mind of the wise is not the sensuous mind, because the wise\nmind is an essence of purity by itself; thus the sensible mind is\nchanged in its name and nature to that of the understanding, as the\ncopper is converted to the name and nature of gold.\n\n31. But it is not possible for the mind to be absorbed at once in the\nintellect, its errors only are moved by right understanding, but its\nessence is never annihilated. (As the alloy of copper in gold).\n\n32. Things taken as symbols of the soul, are all unsubstantial as the\nmind and vital principle; all which are as unreal as the horns of a\nhare (which are never known to grow). They are but reflexions of the\nsoul, and vanish from view after the soul is known. (The mind is said\nto be an expansion of the soul [Sanskrit: \u00e1tman\u00edvivartta r\u00fapam|]).\n\n33. The mind has its being for a short time only, during its\ncontinuance in the world; but after it has passed its fourth stage of\ninsensibility, it arrives to the state of comatosity which is beyond\nthe fourth stage.\n\n34. Brahm\u00e1 is all even and one, though appearing as many amidst the\nerrors that reign over the world; He is the soul of all and has no\npartial or particular form of any kind. He is not the mind or any thing\nelse, nor is He situated in the heart (as a finite being). (Gloss:--The\nDivine Soul like the human mind has conceptions of endless things,\nwhich are neither situated in it nor parts of itself, but are as empty\nphantoms in the air).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXXV.\n\nSTORY OF THE VILVA OR BELFRUIT.\n\nArgument.--God represented as the Belfruit or Wood apple; containing\nthe Worlds as its seeds.\n\n\nVasishtha said:--Attend now, O R\u00e1ma! to a pleasant story, which was\nnever told before, and which I will briefly narrate to you for your\ninstruction and wondrous amusement.\n\n2. There is a big and beautiful _vilva_ or _bel_ fruit, as large as the\ndistance of many myriads of miles, and as solid as not to ripen or rot\nin the course of as many many ages.\n\n3. It bears a lasting flavour as that of sweet honey or celestial\nambrosia; and though grown old yet it increases day by day like the\ncrescent new moon, with its fresh and beautiful foliage.\n\n4. This tree is situated in the midst of the universe, as the great\nMeru is placed in the middle of the earth; it is as firm and fixed\nas the Mandara mountain, and is immovable even by the force of the\ndiluvian winds.\n\n5. Its root is the basis of the world, and it stretches to the distance\nof immeasurable extent on all sides.\n\n6. There were millions of worlds all within this fruit as its\nun-countable seeds; and they were as minute in respect to the great\nbulk of the fruit, that they appeared as particles of dust at foot of a\nmountain.\n\n7. It is filled and fraught with all kinds of delicacies, that are\ntasteful and delicious to the six organs of sense; and there is not\none even of the six kinds of savoury articles, that is wanting in this\nfruit.\n\n8. The fruit is never found in its green or unripe state, nor is it\never known to fall down ever over-ripened on the ground; it is ever\nripe of itself, and is never rotten or dried or decayed at any time by\nage or accident.\n\n9. The gods Brahm\u00e1, Vishnu and Rudra, are not sempiternal with this\ntree in their age, nor do they know aught of the origin and root of\nthis tree, nor anything about its extent and dimensions.\n\n10. None knows the germ and sprout of this tree, and its buds and\nflowers are invisible to all. There is no stem or trunk or bough or\nbranch, of the tree that bears this great fruit.\n\n11. This fruit is a solid mass of great bulk, and there is no body that\nhas seen its growth, change or fall. (It is ever ripe without ripening\nor rotting at any time).\n\n12. This is the best and largest of all fruits, and having no pith nor\nseed, is always sound and unsoiled.\n\n13. It is as dense as the inside of a stone in its fullness, and as\neffluent of bliss as the disk of the moon, drizzling with its cooling\nbeams; it is full of flavour and distils its ambrosial draughts to the\nconscious souls of men.\n\n14. It is source of delight in all beings, and it is the cause of the\ncooling moon-beams by its own brightness; It is the solid rock of all\nsecurity, the stupendous body of felicity, and contains the pith and\nmarrow that support and sustain all living souls, which are the fruits\nof the prior acts of people. (_i.e._ The souls of all beings are as\nfruits formed according to the nature and merit of their previous\nacts--karma, and all these souls are filled with delight by the great\nsoul of God).\n\n15. Therefore that transcendent pith which is the wonder of souls, is\ncontained in the Infinite spirit of God, and deposited and preserved in\nthat auspicious fruit--_sriphala_--the bel or wood apple.\n\n16. It is deposited with its wondrous power in that small _bel_ fruit,\nwhich represents the human as well as the divine soul, without losing\nits properties of thinness and thickness and freshness for ever.\n(_i.e._ All the divine powers--of evolution are lodged in the soul).\n\n17. The thought that 'I am this', clothes the unreality with a gross\nform (as the thought of a devil gives the unreal phantom a foul\nfigure); and though it is absurd to attribute differences to nullities,\nyet the mind makes them of itself and then believes its fictitious\ncreatures as real ones.\n\n18. The Divine ego contains in itself the essential parts of all things\nset in their proper order, as the vacuity of the sky is filled with the\nminute atoms, out of which the three worlds did burst forth with all\ntheir varieties. (So the substance of the bel fruit, contains the seeds\nof the future trees and all their several parts in it).\n\n19. In this manner there grew the power of consciousness in its\nproper form, and yet the essence of the soul retains its former state\nwithout exhausting itself. (It means that notwithstanding the endless\nevolutions of the Divine soul, its substance ever continues the same\nand is never exhausted).\n\n20. The power of consciousness being thus stretched about (from its\nconcentration in itself), makes it perceive the fabric of the world and\nits great bustle in its tranquil self. (It means how the subjective\nconsciousness is changed to the objective).\n\n21. It views the great vacuum on all sides, and counts the parts of\ntime as they pass away; it conceives a destiny which directs all\nthings, and comes to know what is action by its operation.\n\n22. It finds the world stretching as the wish of one, and the sides of\nheaven extending as far as the desires of men; it comes to know the\nfeelings of love and hatred, and the objects of its liking and dislike.\n\n23. It understands its egoism and non-egoism or tuism, or the\nsubjective and objective and views itself in an objective light, by\nforgetting its subjectivity. It views the worlds above and being itself\nas high as any one of them, finds itself far below them. (The human\nsoul though as elevated as the stars of heaven, becomes as low as a\nsublunary being by its baseness).\n\n24. It perceives one thing to be placed before, and another to be\nsituated beside it; it finds some thing to be behind, and others to be\nnear or afar from it; and then it comes to know some things as present\nand others as past or yet to come before it. (The soul losing its\nomniscience has a partial view of things).\n\n25. Thus the whole world is seen to be situated as a play house in it,\nwith various imaginary figures brightening as lotuses in a lake.\n\n26. Our consciousness is seated in the pericarp of the lotus of our\nhearts, with the knowledge of our endless desires budding about it, and\nviewing the countless worlds turning round like a rosary of lotus seeds.\n\n27. Its hollow cell like the firmaments is filled with the great\nRudras, who rove about in the distant paths of the midway sky, like\ncomets falling from above with their flaming tails. (The vedas describe\nthe Rudras as blue necked &c. (n\u00edlagr\u00edv\u00e1h). These worshipful gods of\nthe vedas are found to be no other than wondrous phenomena of the\nvacuity which are deified in the Elementary religion of the ancients).\n\n28. It has the great mount of Meru situated in its midst, like the\nbright pericarp amidst the cell of the lotus flower. The moon capt\nsummit of this mount is frequented by the immortals, who wander about\nit like wanton bees in quest of the ambrosial honey distilled by the\nmoon beams on high. (The gloss places the Meru in the northern region\nof the distant pole, while the Pur\u00e1nas place it in the midst of the\nearth). It was the resort of the gods as also the early cradle of the\npristine Aryans, who are represented as gods.\n\n29. Here is the tree of the garden of Paradise with its clusters of\nbeautiful flowers, diffusing their fragrance all around; and there is\nthe deadly tree of the old world, scattering its pernicious farina\nfor culling us to death and hell. (The gloss explains _rajas_ or\nflower dust as our worldly acts, which lead us to the hell torments of\nrepeated transmigrations).\n\n30. Here the stars are shining, like the bright filaments of flowery\narbors, growing on the banks of the wide ocean of Brahma; and there is\nthe pleasant lake of the milky path, in the boundless space of vacuity.\n\n31. Here roll the uncontrolled waves of the ceremonial acts, fraught\nwith frightful sharks in their midst, and there are the dreadful\nwhirlpools of worldly acts, that whirl mankind in endless births for\never more.\n\n32. Here runs the lake of time in its meandering course for ever, with\nthe broad expanse of heaven for its blooming blossom; and having the\nmoments and ages for its leaves and petals, and the luminaries of sun,\nmoon and stars for its bright pistils and filaments.\n\n33. Here it sees the bodies of living beings fraught with health and\ndisease, and teeming with old age, decay and the torments of death;\nand there it beholds the jarring expositions of the s\u00e1stras, some\ndelighting in their knowledge of spiritual Vidy\u00e1, and others rambling\nin the gloom of Ignorance--Avidy\u00e1 (which leads them from error to\nerror).\n\n34. In this manner doth our inner consciousness, represent the wonders\ncontained in the pulp of the _vilva_ fruit; which is full of the\nunsubstantial substance of our desires and wishes, and the pithless\nmarrow of our false imagination.\n\n35. It sees many that are tranquil, calm, cool and dispassionate, and\nwho are free from their restraints and desires; they are heedless of\nboth their activity and inactivity, and do not care for works whether\ndone or left undone by them.\n\n36. Thus this single consciousness presents her various aspects, though\nshe is neither alone nor many of herself, except that she is what she\nis. She has in reality but one form of peaceful tranquillity; though\nshe is possest of the vast capacity of conceiving in herself all the\nmanifold forms of things at liberty.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXXVI.\n\nPARABLE OF THE STONY SHEATH OF THE SOUL.\n\nArgument.--The divine mind is the substratum of the totality of\nexistence.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma said:--Venerable sir, that knowest the substance of all truths; I\nunderstand the parable of bel fruit which you have just related to me\nto bear relation to the essence of the compact intellect, which is the\nonly unit and identic with itself.\n\n2. The whole plenitude of existence together with the personalities\nof I, thou, this and that form the plenum (or substance), of the\nintellect; and there is not the least difference between them, as this\nis one thing and that another. (All this is but one undivided whole,\nwhose body nature is and God the soul. Pope).\n\n3. Vasishtha answered--As this mundane egg or universe is likened to a\ngourd fruit, containing the mountains and all other things as its inner\nsubstance; so doth the intellect resemble the bel fruit or the grand\nsubstratum, that contains even the universe as the kernel inside it.\n\n4. But though the world has no other receptacle beside the Divine\nintellect, yet it is not literally the kernel inside that crust (_i.e._\nthe substance of that substratum in its literal sense). Because the\nworld has its decay, decline and dissolution also in time, but none of\nthese belong to the nature of the everlasting mind of God.\n\n5. The intellect resembles the hard coating of the pepper seed,\ncontaining the soft substance of its pith inside it, and is likened\nalso to block of stone, bearing the sculptured figures peacefully\nsleeping in it. (All things are engraven in the divine mind).\n\n6. Here me relate to you, O moon faced R\u00e1ma! another pleasant story in\nthis place which will appear equally charming as well as wondrous to\nyou. (It is the story of stone like Brahma).\n\n7. There is a huge block of stone somewhere, which is as big as it is\nthick and solid; it is bright and glossy, and cold and smooth to touch;\nit never wastes or wears out, nor becomes dark and dim.\n\n8. There are many full blown lotuses, and unnumbered buds of water\nlilies, growing amidst the limpid lake of water, contained within the\nbosom of this wondrous stone. (It means that the mind of God has all\nthese images of things engraved in it as in a stone).\n\n9. There are many other plants growing also in that lake, some with\ntheir long and broad caves and others with their alternate and joint\nfoliums likewise.\n\n10. There are many flowers with their up lifted and down cast heads,\nand others with their petals hanging before them; some having a\ncombined or common footstalk, and others growing separate and apart\nfrom one another; some are concealed and others manifest to view.\n\n11. Some have their roots formed of the fibres of the pericarp, and\nsome have their pericarps growing upon the roots (as orchids), some\nhave their roots on the tops and others at the foot of trees, while\nthere are many without their roots at all: (as the parasite plants).\n\n12. There are a great many conch shells about these, and unnumbered\ndiseases also strewn all about.\n\n13. R\u00e1ma said:--All this is true, and I have seen this large stone\nof s\u00e1lgr\u00e1ma in my travels; and I remember it to be placed in the\nshrine of Vishnu, amidst a bed of lotus flowers. (The s\u00e1lgr\u00e1ma stone\nis perforated by the vajra-k\u00edta, and contains many marks inside it,\nresembled to the map of the world in the mundane egg of the divine\nmind. See vajra-k\u00edta in the works of Sir William Jones).\n\n14. Vasishtha replied:--You say truly, that you have seen that great\nstone and know its inside also; but do you know the unperforated and\nhollowless stone of the divine mind, that contains the universe in its\nconcavity, and is the life of all living beings (and not the dull,\nlifeless and hollow s\u00e1lagr\u00e1ma stone which they worship as an emblem of\nthe divine mind).\n\n15. The stone of which I have been speaking to you, is of a marvelous\nand supernatural kind; and contains in its voidless bosom all things as\nnothing. (_i.e._ the ideas and not substances of things).\n\n16. It is the stone like intellect of which I have spoken to you,\nand which contains all these massive worlds within its spacious\nsphere. It is figuratively called a stone from its solidity, cohesive\nimpenetrability and indivisibility like those of a block.\n\n17. This solid substance of the intellect, notwithstanding its density\nand unporousness, contains all the worlds in itself, as the infinite\nspace of heaven is filled with the subtile and atmospheric air. (The\ndivine mind like external nature, is devoid of a vacuity in it,\naccording to the common adage: \"Nature abhors a vacuum\").\n\n18. The mind is occupied with all its various thoughts, as the world is\nfilled by the earth and sky, the air and atmosphere, and the mountains\nand rivers on all sides, there is not hole or hollow, which is not\noccupied by some thing or other in it.\n\n19. The solid soul of God which resembles this massive stone, contains\nin it all these worlds which are displayed (to our deluded sight), as\nso many beds of lotuses in their blooming beauty; and yet there is\nnothing so very pure and unsullied as this solid crystalline soul. (The\nsoul like a crystal, reflects its light in various forms).\n\n20. As it is the practice of men to paint blocks of stones, with the\nfigures of lotuses, conch shells and the like images; so it is the\ntendency of the fanciful mind, to picture many fantastic of all times\nin the solid rock of the soul. (The soul like a crystal stone is wholly\nblank in itself, it is only the imaginative mind, that tinges it in\ndifferent shades and colours).\n\n21. All things in the world appear to be situated exactly in the\nsame state, as the various figures carved on the breast of a stone,\nseem to be separate though they are bellied in the same relief. (All\ndistinctions blend in the same receptacle).\n\n22. As the carved lotus is not distinct from the body of the stone, so\nno part of existence is set apart from the substantiality of the divine\nintellect; which represents its subtile ideas in their condensed forms.\n\n23. This formal creation is as inseparable from the formless intellect\nof God, as the circular forms of lotus flowers which are carved in a\nstone, are not separate from the great body of the shapeless stone.\n\n24. These endless chains of worlds, are all linked up in the boundless\nintellect of the Deity; in the same manner as the clusters of lotus\nflowers are carved together in a stone; and as a great many seeds, are\nset together in the inside of a long pepper.\n\n25. These revolving worlds have neither their rise nor fall in the\nsphere of the infinite intellect, but they remain as firm as the kernel\nof a _bel_ fruit, and as fixed as the fidelity of a faithful wife.\n\n26. The revolution of worlds and their changing scenes, that are seen\nto take place in their situation in the Divine Intellect, do not prove\nthe changeableness of the all containing Infinite Mind, because its\ncontents of finite things are so changeable in their nature. (The\ncontainer is not necessarily of the nature of its contents).\n\n27. All these changes and varieties subside at last in the divine\nintellect, as the waves and drops of water sink down in the Sea; and\nthe only change which is observable in the Supreme Intellect, is its\nabsorption of all finite changes into its infinity. (All finite forms\nand their temporary transformations, terminate finally into infinity).\n\n28. The word (Fiat) that has produced this all, causes their changes\nand dissolutions also in itself. Know then that Brahma from whom this\n_fiat_ and these changes have sprung, and all these being accompanied\nwith Brahma and the original fiat, the word change is altogether\nmeaningless. (There is no new change from what is ordained from the\nbeginning).\n\n29. Brahma being both the mainspring as well as the main stay of all\nchanges in nature; He is neither excluded from or included under any\nchange, which occur in the sphere of his immensity (_i.e._ the spirit\nof God being the unchanging source of all phenomenal changes, is not\nexempted from the mutations that occur in his infinity. So says the\npoet: \"These as they change are but the varied God &c.\" Thompson).\n\n30. And know this in one or other of the two senses, that the change\nof the divine spirit in the works of creation, resembles the change or\ndevelopment of the seed into its stem, fruits and flowers and other\nparts; or that it is a display of delusion _m\u00e1y\u00e1_ like the appearance\nof water in the mirage. (Here the changing scenes of nature, are viewed\nin both lights of evolution and illusion).\n\n31. As the substance of seed goes on gradually transforming itself\ninto the various states of its development, so the density of the\ndivine intellect (or spirit) condenses itself the more and more in its\nproduction of solid and compact world, and this is the course of the\nformation of the cosmos by slow degrees.\n\n32. The union of the seed with the process of its development forms\nthe duality, that is destroyed by the loss of either of these. It is\nimagination only that paints the world as a dull material thing, when\nthere is no such grossness in the pure intellect. (The gloss explains\nthis passage to mean that, It is the doctrine of dualists to maintain\nthe union of the productive seed or spirit of God, with the act of\nproducing the material world to be coeternal, and the one becomes null\nwithout the other, but this tenet is refuted on the ground of the\nimpossibility of the Combination of the immaterial with the material,\nwhence the material world is proved to be a nullity and mere illusion).\n\n33. The intellect and dull matter cannot both combine together, nor\ncan the one be included under the other, therefore the ideal world\nresembles the marks inscribed in the stone and no way different in\ntheir natures.\n\n34. As the pith and marrow of a fruit, is no other than the fruit\nitself; so the cosmos forms the gist of the solid intellect, and no way\nseparable from the same; which is like a thick stone containing marks,\nundermarks, underlined under one another.\n\n35. So we see the three worlds lying under one another, in the womb of\nthe unity of God; as we behold the sleeping and silent marks of lotuses\nand conch shells, inscribed in the hollow of a stone.\n\n36. There is no rising nor setting (_i.e._ the beginning or end), of\nthe course of the world (in the mind of God); but every thing is as\nfixed and immovable in it, as the inscription carved in a stone.\n\n37. It is the pith and marrow of the divine intellect, that causes the\ncreative power and the act of creation; as it is the substance of the\nstone, that produces and reduces the figures in the stone.\n\n38. As the figures in the stone, have no action or motion of their own;\nso the agents of the world have no action of theirs, nor is this world\never created or destroyed at any time (but it continues for ever as\ncarved in the mind of God).\n\n39. Every thing stands as fixed in the mind of God, as if they were the\nfirm and immovable rocks; and all have their forms and positions in the\nsame manner as they are ordained and situated in the Divine Mind.\n\n40. All things are filled with the essence of God, and remain as\nsomnolent in the Divine mind; the various changes and conditions of\nthings that appear to us in this world, are the mere vagaries of our\nerroneous fancy; for every thing is as fixed and unchanged in the mind\nof God, as the dormant images on a stone.\n\n41. All actions and motions of things are as motionless in mind of God,\nas the carved lie asleep in the hollow of a stone. It is the wrong\nsuperfluous view of things, that presents to us all these varieties\nand changes; but considered in the true and spiritual light, there is\nneither body nor any change that presents itself to our sight.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXXVII.\n\nLECTURE ON THE DENSITY OF THE INTELLECT.\n\nArgument.--Interpretation of the Intellect compared with the Belfruit\nand carved stone and its further comparison with the Egg of a Peahen.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--The great category of the Intellect which is\ncompared with the _bel_ fruit or wood apple, contains the universe as\nits own matter and marrow within itself; and it broods upon the same:\nas in its dream (by forgetfulness of its own nature of omniscience\nbefore which everything is present).\n\n2. All space and time and action and motion being but forms of itself,\nthere can be no distinction of them in the intellect. (Hence every part\nof creation and all created things, are but composite parts of the\nintellect).\n\n3. All words and their senses, and all acts of volition, imagination\nand perception, being actions of the intellect, they can not be\nunrealities in any respect. (Nothing proceeding from the real one is\never unreal).\n\n4. As the substance contained in a fruit, passes under the several\nnames of the kernel, pith and marrow and seeds; so the pith and marrow\nof the solid intellect being but one and the same thing, takes many\nnames according to their multifarious forms.\n\n5. A thing though the same, has yet different names according to its\ndifferent states and changes of form; and as it is with the contents of\na fruit, so it is with the subjects included under the intellect.\n\n6. The intellect reflects its image in the mirror of the world, as\nthese sculptured images are exprest in a slab of stone.\n\n7. The brilliant gem of the supreme intellects produces myriads of\nworlds in itself; as the gem of your minds casts the reflection of\nevery object of our desire and imagination.\n\n8. The casket of the intellect contains the spacious world, which is\nset in it as a big pearl of vast size; it is but a part of the other,\nthough appearing as distinct and different from the other.\n\n9. The intellect is situated as the shining sun, to illumine all things\nin the world; it brings on the days and nights by turns, to show and\nhide them to and from our view.\n\n10. As the waters of an eddy whirl and hurl down into the vortex of\nthe sea, so do these worlds roll and revolve in the cavity of the\nintellect; and though its contents are of the same kind, yet they\nappear as different from one another as the pulps and seeds of fruits.\n\n11. The body of the stone like intellect contains the marks of whatever\nis existent in present creation; as also of all that is inexistent\nat present (_i.e._ the marks of all past and future creation. The\nomniscience of the divine intellect has all thing present before it,\nwhether they are past and gone or to come to being hereafter).\n\n12. All real essence is the substance of the apple-like Intellect,\nwhether it is in being or not being and all objects whether _in esse_\nor _non esse_, obtain their form and figure according to the pith and\nmarrow of that intellectual fruit. (All outward forms are the types of\nthe intellectual archetype).\n\n13. As the lotus loses its own and separate entity by its being\nembodied in the stone, so do all these varieties of existence lose\ntheir difference by their being engrossed into the unity of the\nintellectual substance.\n\n14. As the diversity of the lotus changes to the identity of the stone,\nby its union with and entrance into its cavity; so the varieties of\ncreation, become all one in the solid mass of the Divine Intellect.\n\n15. As the mirage appears to be a sheet of water to the thirsty deer,\nwhile it is known to the intelligence to be the reflexion of the solar\nrays on the sandy desert; so does the reality appear as unreal and the\nunreal as real to the ignorant; while in truth there is neither the one\nnor the other here, except the images of the Divine Mind.\n\n16. As the body of waters fluctuates itself (owing to the fluidity of\nthe element); so is there oscillation in the solidity of the Divine\nIntellect (owing to its spiritual nature).\n\n17. The lotuses and conch-shells are of the same substance, as the\nstone in which they are carved and engraved; but the world and all\nits contents that contained in the intellect, are neither of the same\nsubstance nor of the same nature (because of their perishableness).\n\n18. Again the big block of stone which serves for the comparison of\nthe divine Intellect, is itself contained in the same; and while the\nfigures of the former are carved out of its body, those of the latter\nare eternally inherent in it.\n\n19. This creation of God is as bright as the autumnal sky, and it is as\nfair as the liquid beams of the moon. (It means to say, says the gloss,\nthat God shines in his form of the world jagat-Brahm\u00e1 or God identified\nwith the world which is the doctrine of cosmotheism).\n\n20. The world is eternally situated in God, as the figures in the stone\nwhich are never effaced; the world is as inseparably connected with the\nDeity, as the god head of god with himself.\n\n21. There is no difference of these, as there is none between the\ntree and its plant; all the worlds that are seen all abouts, are not\ndisjoined from Divine Intellect.\n\n22. These as well as the Intellect have neither their production nor\ndestruction at any time, because of their subsistence in the spirit of\nGod, which shows them in their various forms, as the heat of the sun\nexhibits a sheet of water in the sandy desert.\n\n23. The world with all its solid rocks, trees and plants, dissolves\ninto the Divine Intellect at the sight of the intelligent, as the hard\nhail stones are seen to melt into the liquid and pure water. (All\nsolids vanish into subtle air).\n\n24. As the water vanishes into the air, and that again into vacuum,\nso do all things pass away to the supreme spirit; and again it is\nthe consolidation of the Intellect, that forms the solid substances\nof hills, plants and all tangible things. (Condensation as well as\nrarefaction, are both of them but acts of the great mind of God).\n\n25. The pith that is hidden in the minute substance, becomes the marrow\nin its enlarged state; so the flavor of things which is concealed in\nthe atoms, becomes perceptible in their density with their growth.\n\n26. The power of God resides in the same manner in all corporeal\nthings, as the properties of flavours and moisture are inherent in the\nvegetable creation. (Hence Brahm\u00e1 is said to be the pith or moisture of\nall--_rasovaitata_).\n\n27. The same power of God manifests itself in many forms in things, as\nthe self same light of the sun shows itself in variegated colours of\nthings, according to the constitution of their component particles.\n\n28. The supreme soul shows itself in various ways in the substance and\nproperties of things, as the Divine Intellect represents the forms of\nmountains and all other things in the changeful mind.\n\n29. As the soft and liquid yolk of the egg of a peahen, contains in it\nthe toughness and various colours of the future quills and feathers; so\nthere are varieties of all kinds inhering in the Divine Intellect, and\nrequiring to be developed in time.\n\n30. As the versicolour feathers of a peacock's train, are contained in\nthe moisture within the egg; so the diversity of creation is ingrained\nin the Divine mind (as it is said in the parable of the Peahen's egg).\n\n31. The judicious observer will find the one self same Brahm\u00e1, to be\npresent every where before his sight; and will perceive his unity\namidst all diversity, as in the yolk of the peahen.\n\n32. The knowledge of the unity and duality of God, and that of his\ncontaining the world in himself; is also as erroneous as the belief\nin the entity and nonentity of things. Therefore all these are to be\nconsidered as the one and same thing and identic with one another.\n(This is cosmotheism).\n\n33. Know him as the supreme, who is the source of all entity and\nnon-entity, and on whose entity they depend; whose unity comprises\nall varieties, which appear as virtual and are no real existences.\n(Hence the gloss deduces the corollary, that the unreal or negative is\nsubordinate to the positive, and the variety to the unity).\n\n34. Know the world to be compressed under the category of the\nIntellect, as the Intellect also is assimilated with the works of\ncreation; in the same manner as is the relation of the feather and\nmoisture, the one being the production and the other the producer of\none another.\n\n35. The mundane egg resembles the peahen's egg, and the spirit of\nGod is as the yolk of that egg; it abounds with many things like the\nvariegated feathers of the peacocks, all which serve but to mislead us\nto error. Know therefore there is no difference in outward form and\ninternal spirit of the world, as there is none in the outer peacock and\nthe inner-yolk.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXXVIII.\n\nON THE UNITY AND IDENTITY OF BRAHM\u00c1 AND THE WORLD.\n\nArgument.--He whose essence is the source of all our enjoyments;\nis ascertained as the _Sachchid\u00e1nanda_ or Entity of the Felicitous\nIntellect or the blissful spirit of God.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--That which contains this wide extended universe\nwithin itself, and without manifesting its form unto us, is very like\nthe egg of the peahen and contains all space and individual bodies in\nits yolk. (The mind of God contains the mundane egg).\n\n2. That which has nothing in reality in it, appears yet to contain\neverything in itself; as the spotless mirror reflects the image of the\nmoon, and the hollow egg bears the figure of the future peacock.\n\n3. It is in this manner that the gods and sages, saints and holy-men,\nthe siddhas and great Rishis, meditate on the true and self subsistent\nform of God, as find themselves seated in their fourth state of bliss\nabove the third heaven.\n\n4. These devout personages sit with their half shut eyes, and without\nthe twinkling of their eyelids; and continue to view in their inward\nsouls, the visible glory of God shining in its full light.\n\n5. Thus enrapt in their conscious presence of God, they are unconscious\nof any other thought in their minds; though when employed in the acts\nof life, remain without the respiration of their vital breath.\n\n6. They sit quiet as figures in a painting, without respiration of\ntheir breath, and remain as silent as sculptured statues, without the\naction of their minds. (They forget themselves to stones in their\nexcess of devotion).\n\n7. They remain in their state of holy rapture, without the employment\nof their minds in their fleeting thoughts, and whenever they have any\nagitation they can effect anything, as the Lord God works all things at\nthe slightest nod.\n\n8. Even when their minds are employed in meditative thoughts, they are\nusually attended with a charming gladness, like that of the charming\nmoonbeams falling on and gladding the leafy branches of trees.\n\n9. The soul is as enraptured with the view of the holy light of God, as\nthe mind is delighted at the sight of the cooling moonbeams, emitted\nafar from the lunar disc. (The gloss explains the distant moonlight to\nbe less dazzling than the bright disc of that luminary).\n\n10. The aspect of pure conscience is as clear, as the fair face of the\nbright moon; it is neither visible nor in need of admonition, nor is it\ntoo near nor far from us. (The gloss is silent on the inappropriateness\nof the simile).\n\n11. It is by one's self cogitation alone that the pure intellect can be\nknown, and not by the bodily organs, or living spirit or mind, or by\nour desire of knowing it.\n\n12. It is not the living soul nor its consciousness, nor the vibrations\nof the body, mind, or breath. It is not the world nor its reality or\nunreality, or its vacuity or solidity, or the centre of any thing.\n\n13. It is not time or space or any substance at all, nor is it a god or\nany other being, whatever is quite free from all these and unconfined\nin the heart or any of the sheaths inside the body.\n\n14. That is called the soul in which all things are moving, and which\nis neither the beginning nor end of any thing, but exists from eternity\nto eternity, and is not characterised by any of the elementary bodies\nof air and the rest.\n\n15. The soul is an entity that is never annihilated in this or the next\nworld, though the sentient bodies may be born and die away a thousand\ntimes like earthen pots here below.\n\n16. There is no removal of this vacuous spirit from its seat, both\nin the inside and outside of every body; for know, O thou best of\nspiritualists, all bodies to be equally situated in the all pervading\nspirit.\n\n17. It is the imperfection of our understanding, that creates the\ndifference between the spirit and the body; but it shows the perfection\nof our judgement, when we believe the universal soul, to be diffused\nthroughout the universe.\n\n18. Though warmly engaged in business, yet remain unaddicted to\nworldliness by your indifference to the world, and to all moving and\nunmoving things that there exists on earth.\n\n19. Know all those as the great Brahma--the immaculate soul, that is\nwithout the properties and attributes of mortal beings; it is without\nchange and beginning and end, and is always tranquil and in the same\nstate.\n\n20. Now R\u00e1ma! as you have known by your spiritual vision\n(clairvoyance), all things including time and action, and all\ncausality, causation and its effect, together with the production,\nsustentation and dissolution of all, to be composed of the spirit of\nGod, you are freed from your wanderings in the world in your bodily\nform.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXXIX.\n\nCONTEMPLATION OF THE COURSE OF THE WORLD.\n\nArgument.--Consideration of the changes in the state of things; and\ntheir origination from Ignorance and extinction in the true knowledge\nof their nature.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma said:--Sir, if there is no change in the immutable spirit of God;\nsay how do these various changes constantly appear to occur in the\nstate of things in this world. (Because it is the change of cause that\nproduces a change in the effect, as also a change in the state of any\nthing, argues a change in its cause likewise).\n\n2. Vasishtha replied:--Hear R\u00e1ma! that it is the alteration of a thing\nthat does not revert to its former state, that is called its change,\nas it occurs in the instance of milk, and its conversion to curd and\nbutter, which never become the pure milk again.\n\n3. The milk is converted to curd, but the curd never reverts to its\nformer state of milk, such is the nature of change in the state of\nthings; but it can never affect the great God, who remains alike all\nalong the first, intermediate and last states of things.\n\n4. There is no such change as that of milk or any other things in the\nimmutable Brahma, who having no beginning nor end, can neither have\nany age or stage of life assigned to him. (_i.e._ The Infinite God is\nneither young nor old as any finite being).\n\n5. The states of beginning and end which are attributed to eternal God,\nare the false imputations of ignorance and error, as there can be no\nchange of changeless one. (To say therefore that God is the first and\nlast, the alpha and omega of all, means that the beginning and end of\nall things, are comprised in his everlasting existence).\n\n6. Brahma is not our consciousness, nor the object of our\nconsciousness. He is as unconnected with us as our soul and intellect,\nand is only known to us by the word.\n\n7. A thing is said to be the same, with what it is in the beginning\nand end; the difference that takes place in the form is only a mist of\nerror, and is taken into no account by the wise. (The identity of a\nthing consists in its unalterable part).\n\n8. It is the soul only that remains self same with itself, both in the\nbeginning, middle and end of it, and in all places and times, and never\nchanges with the change of the body or mind and therefore forms the\nidentity of the person.\n\n9. The soul which is formless and self-same with itself, forms the\npersonality and individuality of a being, and because it is not subject\nto any modality or mutation at any time, it constitutes the essential\nidentity of every body.\n\n10. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--If the divine soul is always the same and perfectly\npure in itself, when proceeds our error of its changeableness, and what\nis the cause of the avidy\u00e1 or ignorance that shows these changes unto\nus?\n\n11. Vasishtha replied:--The category of Brahma implies that, He is\nall what is, what was, and what will be in future; that He is without\nchange and without beginning and end, and there is no _avidy\u00e1_\nignorance in him.\n\n12. The signification that is meant to be expressed by the significant\nterm Brahma, does not include any other thing as what is inexistent, or\nthe negative idea of ignorance under it (_i.e._ God is what is and not\nwhat is not).\n\n13. Thyself and myself, this earth and sky, the world and all its\nsides, together with the elementary of fire and others, are all\nthe everlasting and infinite Brahma, and there is not the least\nmisunderstanding in it.\n\n14. Avidy\u00e1 or Ignorance is a mere name and Error, and is but another\nword for unreality; nor can you R\u00e1ma, ever call that a reality, which\nis never existent of itself. (The words ignorance and error are both of\nthem but negative terms).\n\n15. R\u00e1ma said:--Why sir, you have said yourself of Ignorance in the\nchapter on Upasama or Tranquillity, and told me to know all these as\nproducts of error.\n\n16. Vasishtha answered:--R\u00e1ma! you had been all this time immerged in\nyour ignorance, and have at last come to your right understanding by\nyour own reasoning.\n\n17. It is the practice of glossologists and men of letters, to adopt\nthe use of the word ignorance, living soul and the like, for awakening\nthe unenlightened to their enlightenment only.\n\n18. So long as the mind is not awakened to the knowledge of truth, it\nremains in the darkness of error for ever; and is not to its right\nunderstanding; even by its traversing a hundred miles.\n\n19. When the living soul is awakened to its right sense by the force of\nreason, it learns to unite itself to the supreme soul, but being led\nwithout the guidance of reason, it is successful in nothing with all\nits endeavours.\n\n20. He who tells the unenlightened vile man, that all this world is\nthe great Brahma himself, does no more than communicate his sorrows to\nthe headless trunk of a tree. (A lecture to the listless man, is not\nlistened to).\n\n21. The fool is brought to sense by reasoning, and the wise man knows\nthe truth from the nature of the subject; but the ignorant never learn\nwisdom, without the persuasion of reason. (The wise learn by intuition,\nbut the unwise by no instruction).\n\n22. You had been unwise so long as you depended on your own reasoning\n(judgment); but being guided by me, you are now awakened to truth. (No\nbody is wise of his own conceit without the guidance of his preceptor).\n\n23. That I am Brahma, thou art Brahma, and so the visible world is\nBrahma himself; know this truth and naught otherwise, and do as you\nplease. (All inventions and imaginations of Him are false).\n\n24. Inconceivable is the conception of God, and the visible world is\nall that is known of him; know him as one, and the infinite, and you\nwill not be misled into error.\n\n25. R\u00e1ma, think in yourself whether when you are sitting or walking, or\nwaking or sleeping, that you are this supreme spirit, which is of the\nform of light and intelligence, and pervades all things.\n\n26. R\u00e1ma! if you are without your egoism and meity or selfishness, and\nif you are intelligent and honest, then be as oecumenical and tranquil\nas Brahma himself, who is equally situated in all things.\n\n27. Know your self as the pure consciousness, which is situated as one\nin all; which is without beginning and end, and is the essence of light\nand the most transcendent of all being.\n\n28. What you call, Brahma the universal soul and the fourth or\ntranscendent state; know the same to be _materia_ or matter and\n_natura_ or nature also. It is the inseparable one in all, as the mud\nis the essential substance of a thousand water pots.\n\n29. Nature is not different from the nature of the soul, as the clay is\nno other than the pot itself; the Divine essence is as the intrinsic\nclay, and the divine spirit extends as the inward matter of all things.\n\n30. The soul has its pulsation like the whirling of the whirlpool, and\nthis is termed _Prakriti_ force or matter, which is no other than an\neffort of the spirit.\n\n31. As pulsation and ventilation, mean the same thing under different\nnames; so the soul and nature express the same substance, which are not\ndifferent in their essence.\n\n32. It is mere ignorance which makes their difference, and which is\nremoved by their knowledge; as it is sheer ignorance which represents\na snake in the rope, and which is soon removed by knowledge of their\nnature.\n\n33. As the seed of imagination falls in the field of the intellect, it\nshoots forth in the sprout of the mind, which becomes the germ of the\nwide spreading arbor of the universe.\n\n34. The seed of false imagination (of _avidy\u00e1_ or personified\nIgnorance), being scorched by the flames of spiritual knowledge; will\nbe able to vegetate no more, though it is sprinkled with the water\nof fond desire. (_i.e._ Fancy is fed by desire, but fly away at the\nappearance of reason).\n\n35. If you do not sow the seed of imagination in the soil of your\nintellect, you will stop the germination of the plants of pain and\npleasure in the field of your mind. (Pain and pleasure are imaginary\nideas and not really so in their nature).\n\n36. R\u00e1ma! as you have come to know the truth, you must forsake your\nfalse conception of such a thing as ignorance or error existing in the\nworld; and know that there is no duality in the unity of God. Being\nthus full with the knowledge of one supreme soul, you must repudiate\nyour ideas of pain and pleasure in anything here below. Pain turns to\npleasure, and pleasure to pain, know them both as unreal, as they are\nvain.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER L.\n\nON SENSATIONS AND THE OBJECTS OF SENSES.\n\nArgument.--The production of the eight signs or senses in the vital\nsoul, and their development into the External organs for the perception\nof outward objects.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma said:--Sir, I have known whatever is to be known, and seen all\nthat is to be seen; I am filled with the ambrosial draught of divine\nknowledge, which you have kindly imparted to me.\n\n2. I see the world full with the fulness of Brahma, I know the\nplenitude of God that has produced this plenary creation; it is the\nfulness of God that fills the universe, and all its amplitude depends\non the plenum of the all pervading Deity.\n\n3. It is now with much fondness that I like to propose to you another\nquestion, for the improvement of my understanding; and hope you will\nnot be enraged at it, but communicate to me the instruction as a kind\nfather does to his fondling boy.\n\n4. We see the organs of sense, as the ears, nose, eyes, mouth and\ntouch, existing alike in all animals (whether when they are alive or\ndead).\n\n5. Why is it then that the dead do not perceive the objects of their\nsense, as well as the living who know the objects in their right manner?\n\n6. How is it that the dull organs perceive the outward objects, as a\npot and other objects of sense which are imperceptible to the inward\nheart, notwithstanding its natural sensibility and sensitiveness.\n\n7. The relation between outward objects and the organs, is as that of\nthe magnet and iron, which attract one another without their coming in\ncontact together. But how is it that the small cavities of the organs\ncould let into the mind such prodigious objects that surround us on all\nsides.\n\n8. If you well know these secrets of nature, then please to communicate\nthem to me in a hundred ways, in order to satisfy my curiosity\nregarding them.\n\n9. Vasishtha answered--Now R\u00e1ma, I tell you in short, that neither\nthe organs nor the heart and mind, nor the pots and pictures, are the\nthings in reality; because it is impossible for any thing to exist\napart and independent of the pure and intelligent spirit of God.\n\n10. The Divine Intellect which is purer than air, takes the form of the\nmind by itself; which then assumes its elemental form of the organic\nbody, and exhibits all things agreeably to the ideas which are engraven\nin the mind.\n\n11. The same elements being afterwards stretched out into matter or\n_m\u00e1y\u00e1_ and nature or _prakriti_, exhibit the whole universe as its\n_ensemble_, and the organs and their objects as its parts. (This\npassage rests on the authority of the sruti which says--[Sanskrit:\nm\u00e1y\u00e1ntu prakritim vidy\u00e1nam\u00e1yinantu maheshvaram | ash\u00e1bayavabhutestu\nv\u00e1ptamsarvva midamjagat]).\n\n12. The mind which takes the elemental form of its own nature, reflects\nitself in all the parts of nature in the forms of pots and all the rest\nof things. (It is repeatedly said that the mind is the maker of all\nthings by reminiscence of the past).\n\n13. R\u00e1ma rejoined--Tell me sir, what is the form of that elementary\nbody, which reflects itself in a thousand shapes on the face of the\n_puryastaka_ or elemental world, as it were on the surface of a mirror.\n\n14. Vasishtha replied--This elementary body which is the seed of the\nworld, is the undecaying Brahma, who is without beginning and end,\nand of the form of pure light and intellect, and devoid of parts and\nattributes.\n\n15. The same being disposed to its desires, becomes the living soul;\nand this being desirous of collecting all its desires and the parts of\nthe body together, becomes the palpitating heart in the midst of it.\n(The word heart _hrid_ is derived from its _harana_ or receiving the\nblood and all bodily sensations into it; it, is called the _chitta_\nalso, from its _chinoti_ or collecting and distributing these in itself\nand to all parts of the body).\n\n16. It becomes the ego from its thought of its egoism, and is called\nthe mind from its minding--_manana_ of many things in itself; it takes\nthe name of _buddhi_ or understanding from its _bodha_ or understanding\nand ascertainment of things, and that of sense also from its sensation\nof external objects.\n\n17. It thinks of taking a body and becomes the very body, as a potter\nhaving the idea of a pot forms it in the same manner. Such being the\nnature of the soul of being and doing all what it likes, it is thence\nstyled the _puryashtaka_ or manifest in its said eight different forms.\n\n18. The Intellect is also called the _puryashtaka_ or octuple soul,\nfrom its presiding over the eight fold functions of a person; as those\nof perception, action and passion and inspection or witnessing of all\nthings and the like; as also from its inward consciousness and the\npower of vitality. (The gloss gives the following explanations of these\nwords, _viz._--Perception of what is derived by the organs of sense.\nAction of what is done by the organs of action [Sanskrit: karmendriya].\nPassion or the feelings of pleasure or pain that is so derived.\nInspection or the silent witnessing of all things by the isolated soul.\nAnd so on).\n\n19. The living soul takes upon it different forms at different times,\naccording as it is employed in any one of these octuple functions; and\nalso as it is actuated by the various desires, that rise in it by turns.\n\n20. The octuple nature of the soul causes it to put forth itself, in\nthe same form, as it is led to by its varying desire at any time; in\nthe same manner as a seed shoots forth in its leaves, according to the\nquantity of water with which it is watered.\n\n21. The soul forgets its intellectual nature, and thinks it's a mortal\nand material being, embodied in the form of a living creature or some\ninanimate being, and ever remains insensible of itself under the\ninfluence of its erroneous belief.\n\n22. Thus the living soul wanders about in the world, as it is dragged\nto and fro by the halter of desire tied about its neck; now it soars\nhigh and then it plunges below like a plank, rising up and sinking\nbelow the waves and currents of the sea.\n\n23. There is some one, who after being released from his imprisonment\nin this world, comes to know the supreme soul, and attains to that\nstate which has neither its beginning nor end.\n\n24. There are others also, who being weary and worried by their\ntransmigrations in multitudinous births, come after the lapse of a long\nperiod to their knowledge of the soul, and obtain thereby their state\nof final bliss at last.\n\n25. It is in this manner, O intelligent R\u00e1ma, that the living soul\npasses through many bodily forms, and you shall hear now, how it\ncomes to perceive the outward objects of the pots &c. by means of the\nexternal organs of perception--the vision and others.\n\n26. After the intellect has taken the form of the living soul, and\nthe same has received its vitality; the action of the heart sends its\nfeelings to the mind, which forms the sixth organ of the body.\n\n27. As the living soul passes into the air, through the organs of the\nbody it comes in contact with the external objects of the senses; and\nthen joining with the intellect it perceives the external sensations\nwithin itself. (The gloss says--The organs of sense like canals of\nwater, carry the sensations to the seat of the mind).\n\n28. It is the union of the living soul with the outward objects, that\ncauses and carries the sensations to the mind; but the soul being\ndefunct and the mind being dormant, there is no more any perception of\nthe externals.\n\n29. Whatever outward object which is set in the open air, casts its\nreflexion on the subtile senses of living beings, the same comes intact\nwith the living soul which feels the sensation; but the soul being\ndeparted, the dead body has neither its life nor feeling of aught in\nexistence.\n\n30. When the form of the outward object, comes in contact with the\ngemming eye sight of a person; it casts its picture on the same, which\nis instantly conveyed to the inward soul.\n\n31. The image that is cast on the retina of the eye, is reflected\nthence to the clearer mirror of the soul, which perceives it by contact\nwith the same; and it is thus that outer things come to the knowledge\nof the living soul.\n\n32. Even babes can know whatever comes in taction with them, and so do\nbrutes and vegetables have the power of feeling the objects of their\ntouch; how then is it possible for the sensuous soul to be ignorant of\nits tangible objects?\n\n33. The clear rays of the eyesight which surround the soul, present to\nit the pictures of visible objects which they bear in their bosom, and\nwhereby the soul comes to know him.\n\n34. There is the same relation of sensuous contact, between the\nperceptive soul and the perceptible objects of the other senses also;\nthe taste, smell, sound, the touch of things, are all the effects of\ntheir contact with the soul.\n\n35. The sound remaining in its receptacle of the air, passes in a\nmoment in the cavity of the ear; and thence entering into the hollow\nspace of the soul, gives it the sensation of its nature.\n\n36. R\u00e1ma said:--I see that the reflexions of things are cast in the\nmirror of the mind, like the images of things carved on wooden tablets\nand slabs of stone; but tell me sir, how the reflexion of the image of\nGod is cast on the mirror of the mind.\n\n37. Vasishtha replied:--know, O best of gnostics that know the\nknowable, that the gross images of the universal and particular souls,\nwhich are reflected in the mirror of the mind, are as false as the\nimages of God and deities which are carved in stones and wood.\n\n38. Never rely, O R\u00e1ma, in the substantiality of this false world; know\nit as a great vortex of whirling waters, and ourselves as the waves\nrolling upon it.\n\n39. There is no limitation of space or time or any action, in the\nboundless ocean of the infinity and eternity of the Deity; and you must\nknow your soul to be identic with the Supreme, which is ubiquitous and\nomnipresent.\n\n40. Remain always with a calm and quiet mind, unaddicted to anything in\nthis world; know the vanity of worldly pleasures and pains, and go on\nwith a contented mind where ever you will. Preserve your equality, and\ncommit yourself to an indifferent apathy to every thing.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LI.\n\nON THE PERCEPTION OF THE SENSIBLE OBJECTS.\n\nArgument.--Erroneous Belief in the Reality of the Body and Mind;\ninstead of believing the unity and Entity of Brahma as All in All.\n\n\nVasishtha resumed:--R\u00e1ma, you have heard me relate unto you that, even\nthe lotus-born Brahm\u00e1 who was born long before you, had been without\nhis organs of sense at first (_i.e._ Brahm\u00e1 the creative power of God,\nwas purely a spiritual Being, and had necessarily neither a gross body\nnor any of its organs as we possess).\n\n2. As Brahm\u00e1--the collective agents of creation was endued only\nwith his consciousness--_Samvid_ for the performance of all his\nfunctions; so are all individual personalities endowed with their\nself-consciousness only, for the discharge of all their necessary\nduties.\n\n3. Know that as the living soul, dwelling in its body in the mother's\nwomb, comes to reflect on the actions of the senses, it finds their\nproper organ supplied to its body immediately.\n\n4. Know the senses and the organs of sense to be the forms of\nconsciousness itself, and this I have fully explained to you in the\ncase of Brahma, who represents the collective body of all individual\nsouls.\n\n5. At first there was the pure consciousness in its collective-form\nin the Divine Intellect, and this afterwards came to be diffused in\nmillions of individual souls from its sense of egoism. At first was\nthe Divine soul \"the I am all that I am\" and afterwards became many as\nexpressed in the Vedic text \"_aham bahusyam_\".\n\n6. It is no stain to the pure universal, undivided and subjective\nDivine spirit, to be divided into the infinity of individual and\nobjective souls; since the universal and subjective unity comprises\nin it the innumerable objective individualities which it evolves of\nitself. (in its self manifestation in the universe).\n\n7. The objectivity of God does not imply his becoming either the\nthinking mind or the living soul; nor his assuming upon him the organic\nbody or any elemental form. (Because the Lord becomes the object of our\nmeditation and adoration in his spirit only).\n\n8. He does not become the Vidy\u00e1 or Avidy\u00e1--the intelligible or\nunintelligible, and is ever existent as appearing non-existent to\nthe ignorant; this is called the supreme soul, which is beyond the\ncomprehension of the mind and apprehension of the senses.\n\n9. From Him rises the living soul as well as the thinking mind; which\nare resembled for the instruction of mankind, as sparks emitted from\nfire.\n\n10. From whatever source ignorance (Avidy\u00e1) may have sprung, you have\nno need of inquiring into the cause thereof; but taking ignorance as a\nmalady, you should seek the remedy of reasoning for its removal.\n\n11. After all forms of things and the erroneous knowledge of\nparticulars, are removed from your mind; there remains that knowledge\nof the unity, in which the whole firmament is lost, as a mountain is\nconcealed in an atom. (The infinity of Deity, envelopes all existence\nin it).\n\n12. That in which all the actions and commotions of the world, remain\nstill and motionless; [as] if they were buried in dead silence and\nnihility; is the surest rock of your rest and resort, after feeling\nfrom the bustle of all worldly business.\n\n13. The unreal or negative idea of ignorance, has also a form, as inane\nas it is nothing; look at her and she becomes a nullity, touch her and\nshe perishes and vanishes from sight. (Avidy\u00e1 like Ignorantia is of the\nfeminine gender, and delusive and fleeting as a female).\n\n14. Seek after her, and what can you find but her nothingness; and if\nby your endeavour you can get anything of her, it is as the water in\nthe mirage (which kills by decoying the unwary traveller).\n\n15. As it is ignorance alone that creates her reality, her unreality\nappears as a reality, and destroys the seeming reality at once.\n(Avidy\u00e1 or Ignorance is the Goddess of the agnostic s\u00e1ktas, who worship\nher, under the name of M\u00e1y\u00e1 or Illusion also).\n\n16. Agnosticism imputes false attributes to the nature of the Deity,\nand it is the doctrine of the agnostics to misrepresent the universal\nspirit, under the forms of the living soul and the perishable body.\n(from their ignorance of the supreme).\n\n17. Now hear me attentively to tell you the s\u00e1stras that they have\ninvented, in order to propagate their agnostic religion or belief in\nthis avidy\u00e1, by setting up the living soul and others in lieu of the\nsupreme spirit.\n\n18. Being fond of representing the Divine Intellect in a visible form,\nthey have stained the pure spirit with many gross forms, such as the\nelemental and organic body, which is enlivened by the vital spirit\ndwelling in it.\n\n19. Whatever they think a thing to be, they believe in the same; they\nmake truth of an untruth, and its reverse likewise; as children make a\ndevil of a doll, and afterwards break it to nothing.\n\n20. They take the frail body formed of the five elements as a reality,\nand believe its holes of the organs as the seats of the sensuous soul.\n\n21. They employ these five fold organs in the perception of the\npentuple objects of the senses; which serve at best to represent\ntheir objects in different light than what they are, as the germ of\na seed produces its leaves of various colours. (This means the false\nappearances which are shown by the deceptive senses).\n\n22. They reckon some as the internal senses, as the faculties of the\nmind and the feelings of the heart, and others as external, as the\noutward organs of action and sensation; and place their belief in\nwhatever their souls and minds suggest to them either as false or true.\n\n23. They believe the moonlight to be hot or cold, according as they\nfeel by their outward perception. (_i.e._ Though the moon-beams appear\ncooling to the weary, yet they seem to be warm to the love lorn\n_amorosa_).\n\n24. The pungency of the pepper and the vacuity of the firmament, are\nall according to one's knowledge and perception of them, and do not\nbelong to the nature of things. For sweet is sour to some, and sour is\nsweet to others; and the firmament is thought to be a void by many, but\nis found to be full of air by others, who assert the dogma of natures\nabhorrence of vacuum.\n\n25. They have also ascertained certain actions and rituals, which are\nin common practice, as the articles of their creed, and built their\nfaith of a future heaven, on the observance of those usages.\n\n26. The living soul which is full of its desires, is led by two\ndifferent principles of action through life; the one is its natural\ntendency to some particular action, and the other is the direction of\nsome particular law or other. It is however the natural propensity of\none, that gets the better of the other.\n\n27. It is the soul which has produced all the objective duality from\nthe subjective unity only; as it is the sweet sap of the sugarcane\nthat produces the sugarcandy; and the serum of the earth, that forms\nand fashions the water pot. (The objective is the production of the\nsubjective.)\n\n28. In these as well as in all other cases, the changes that take place\nin the forms of things, are all the results of time and place and other\ncircumstances; but none of these has any relation in the nature of God,\nin his production of the universe.\n\n29. As the sugarcane produces its leaves and flowers from its own sap,\nso the living soul produces the dualities from sap of its own unity,\nwhich is the supreme soul itself. (The spirit of God that dwells in all\nsouls. (_Sw\u00e1tmani Brahmasatwa_), produces all these varieties in them.)\n\n30. It is the God that is seated in all souls, that views the dualities\nof a pot, picture, a cot and its egoism in itself; and so they appear\nto every individual soul in the world.\n\n31. The living soul appears to assume to itself, the different forms\nof childhood, youth, and age at different times; as a cloud in the sky\nappears as an exhalation, a watery cloud and the sap of the earth and\nall its plants, at the different times of the hot and rainy seasons of\nthe year.\n\n32. The living soul perceives all these changes, as they are exhibited\nbefore it by the supreme soul in which they are all present; and there\nis no being in the world, that is able to alter this order of nature.\n\n33. Even the sky which is as clear as the looking glass, and is spread\nall about and within every body, is not able to represent unto us, all\nthe various forms which are presented to the soul by the great soul of\nsouls (in which they appear to be imprinted). Here Vasishtha is no more\nan _\u00e1k\u00e1sa-v\u00e1di_--vacuist, in as much as he finds a difference in the\nnature and capacity of the one from those of the other or the supreme\nsoul.\n\n34. The soul which is situated in the universal soul of Brahm\u00e1, shines\nas the living soul (J\u00edva) of living beings; but it amounts to a\nduality, to impute even an incorporeal idea of _Avidy\u00e1_ or Ignorance to\nit; because the nature of God is pure Intelligence, and cannot admit an\nignorant spirit in it (as the good spirit of God cannot admit the evil\nspirit of a demon in itself).\n\n35. Whatever thing is ordained to manifest itself in any manner, the\nsame is its nature and stamp (swabh\u00e1va and neyati); and though such\nappearance is no reality, yet you can never undo what is ordained from\nthe beginning.\n\n36. As a golden ornament presents to you the joint features of its\nreality and unreality at the same time (in that it is gold and\njewellery, the one being real and the other changeable and therefore\nunreal); so are all things but combinations of the real and unreal, in\ntheir substantial essence and outward appearance. But both of these\ndissolve at last to the Divine spirit, as the gold ornament is melted\ndown to liquid gold in the crucible.\n\n37. The Divine Intellect being all-pervasive by reason of its\nintellectuality, it diffuses also over the human mind; as the gold of\nthe jewel settles and remains dull in the crucible.\n\n38. The heart having the passive nature of dull intellectuality,\nreceives the fleeting impressions of the active mind, and takes upon\nit the form that it feels strongly impressed upon it at any time. (The\nheart is the passive receptacle of the impression of the active mind\nand reverberates to the tone of its thoughts).\n\n39. The soul also assumes many shapes to itself at different times,\naccording to the ever changing prospects, which various desires always\npresent before it.\n\n40. The body likewise takes different forms upon it, according to\nits inward thoughts and feelings; as a city seen in a dream varies\nconsiderably from what is seen with naked eyes. So we shape our future\nforms by the tenor of our minds (because our life is but a dream and\nour bodies but its shadows--_prathibas_).\n\n41. As a dream presents us the shadows of things, that disappear on our\nwaking, so these living bodies that we see all about, must vanish into\nnothing upon their demise.\n\n42. What is unreal is doomed to perish, and those that die are destined\nto be born again, and the living soul takes another form in another\nbody, as it sees itself in its dream.\n\n43. This body does not become otherwise, though it may change from\nyouth to age in course of time; because the natural form of a person\nretains its identity in every stage of life through which it has to\npass.\n\n44. A man sees in his dream all that he has seen or heard or thought\nof at any time, and the whole world being comprised in the state of\ndreaming, the living soul becomes the knower of all that is knowable\nin his dream. (The sruti says, the soul comprises the three worlds in\nitself, which it sees expanded before in its dream).\n\n45. That which is not seen in the sight of a waking man, but is known\nto him only by name (as the indefinite form of Brahma); can never\nbe seen in dream also, as the pure soul and the intellect of God.\n(Abstract thoughts are not subjects of dream).\n\n46. As the living soul sees in its dream the objects that it has seen\nbefore, so the intellectual part of the soul sees also many things,\nwhich were unknown to it.\n\n47. Subdue your former desires and propensities, by your manly efforts\nat present; and exert your utmost to change your habitual misconduct to\nyour good behaviour for the future.\n\n48. You can never subdue your senses, nor prevent your transmigrations,\nwithout gaining your liberation; but must continue to rise and plunge\nin the stream of life forever more and in all places.\n\n49. The imagination of your mind, causes the body to grasp your soul as\na shark, and the desire of your soul is as a ghost, that lays hold on\nchildren in the dark.\n\n50. It is the mind, the understanding and egoism, joined with the five\nelements or tanm\u00e1tras, that form the puryastaka or ativ\u00e1hika body,\ncomposed of the octuple subtile properties.\n\n51. The bodiless or intellectual soul, is finer than the vacuous air;\nthe air is its great arbor, and the body is as its mountain. (_i.e._ It\nis more subtile than the empty air and sky).\n\n52. One devoid of his passions and affections, and exempt from all\nthe conditions of life, is entitled to his liberation; he remains in\na state of profound sleep (hypnotism), wherein the gross objects and\ndesires of life, lie embosomed and buried for ever.\n\n53. The state of dreaming is one, in which the dreamer is conscious of\nhis body and self-existence; and has to rove about or remain fixed in\nsome place, until his attainment of final liberation. Such is the state\nof living beings and vegetables (both of which are conscious of their\nlives).\n\n54. Some times the sleeping and often the dreaming person, have both to\nbear and carry with them their _ativ\u00e1hika_ or moveable bodies, until\nthey obtain their final emancipation from life.\n\n55. When the sleeping soul does not rise of itself (by its intellectual\nknowledge), but is raised from the torpor of its sleep by some ominous\ndream, it then wakes to the fire of a conflagration from its misery\nonly. (Here waking to a conflagration is opposed to the waking to a\nseas of woes of Dr. Young. The gloss says, that it is a structure on\nthe unintelligent waking of the Ny\u00e1yikas).\n\n56. The state of the unmoving minerals, including even that of the\nfixed arbor of the _Kalpa_ tree (that is in its torpid hypnotism of\nsusupti), exhibits no sign of intelligence except gross dulness.\n\n57. The dull sleep of _susupta_ being dispelled by some dream, leads\nthe waker to the miseries of life in this world; but he that awakes\nfrom his trance with full intelligence, finds the perfect felicity of\nthe fourth (turya) states open fully to his view.\n\n58. The living soul finds liberation by means of its intelligence, and\nit is by this means that it gets its spirituality also; just as copper\nbeing cleansed of its rust by some acid, assumes the brightness of pure\ngold.\n\n59. The liberation that the living soul has by means of its\nintelligence, is again of two kinds, namely;--the one is termed\nemancipation from life or _J\u00edvan mukta_, and the other is known as the\nrelease from the burden of the body or _deha mukta_.\n\n60. Emancipation from life means the attainment of the fourth state of\nperfection, and intelligence signifies the enlightenment of the soul,\nand this is obtainable by cultivation of the understanding.\n\n61. The soul that is acquainted with s\u00e1stra, and knows the supreme\nspirit in itself, becomes full of the Deity; but the unintelligent soul\nsees only horrors rising before it, like spectres of his troublesome\ndreams.\n\n62. The horrors rising in the heart of man, serve only to disturb the\nrest of the breast; or else there is nothing in the heart of man,\nexcept a particle of the Divine Intellect.\n\n63. Men are verily subjected to misery, by looking at the Deity in any\nother light, than the Divine light which shines in the soul of man, and\nbeside which there is no other light in it.\n\n64. Look at the world whenever you will, and you will find it full of\nillusion everywhere; as you find nothing in a pot full of foul water\nexcept the sediments of dirt.\n\n65. In the same manner you see the atoms of human souls, full with the\nvanities of this world; it is by the fetters of its worldly desires,\nand gets its release by the breaking off those bonds of its desire.\n\n66. The soul sleeps under the spell of its desires, and sees those\nobjects in its dream, it wakes after their dispersion to the state of\nturya-felicity. The spell of gross desire, extends over all animate as\nwell as in-animate creation.\n\n67. The desire of superior beings is of a pure nature, and that of\nintermediate natures is of less pure form. The desires of inferior\nbeings are of a gross nature, and there are others without them as the\npots and blocks.\n\n68. The living soul (passing through the doors of bodily organs)\nbecomes united with the outward object, when the one becomes the\npercipient and the other the object of its percipience; and then the\nentity of both of these, namely of the inward soul and the outward\nobject being pervaded by the all pervasive Intellect of God, they both\nbecome one and the same with the common receptacle of all. (I.e. All\nthings blend in the Divine unity).\n\n69. Hence the belief of the receiver, received and reception, are as\nfalse as the water in the mirage; and there is nothing that we can shun\nor lay hold upon as desirable or disgusting, when they are all the same\nin the sight of God.\n\n70. All things whether internal or external, are manifested to us as\nparts of the one universal and intellectual soul; and all the worlds\nbeing but manifestations of the Divine Intellect, it is in vain to\nattribute any difference to them. All of us are displayed in the\nIntellect, which contains the inner and outer worlds for ever.\n\n71. As the ocean is an even expanse of water, after the subsidence of\nall its various waves and billows, and shows itself as clear as sky\nwith its pure watery expanse to view; so the whole universe appears as\nthe reflexion of one glorious and ever lasting Deity, after we lose\nsight of the diversities that are presented to our superficial view.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LII.\n\nSTORY OF ARJUNA, AS THE INCARNATION OF NARA-N\u00c1R\u00c1YANA.\n\nArgument.--The Narrative of Arjuna given in Illustration of the truth,\nthat the world is a dream and unworthy of our reliance.\n\n\nVasishtha said:--Know R\u00e1ma, this world to be as a dream, which is\ncommon to all living beings, and is fraught with many agreeable scenes,\nso as to form the daily romance of their lives, which is neither true\nnor entirely false.\n\n2. But as it is not likely that the living souls of men should be\nalways asleep; therefore their waking state is to be accounted as one\nof dreaming also. (Life is a dream. Addison).\n\n3. Life is a longer dream than the short lived ones in our sleep; and\nknow it, intelligent R\u00e1ma, to be as untrue as it is unsubstantial and\nairy in its nature.\n\n4. The living souls of the living world, continually pass from dream to\ndream, and they view the unrealities of the world as positive realities\nin their nature. (The unreal is thought as real by the Realists).\n\n5. They ascribe solidity to the subtile, and subtilty to what is solid;\nthey see the unreal as real, and think the unliving as living in their\nignorance.\n\n6. They consider the revolution of all worlds, to be confined in the\nsolar system; and rove about like somnambulists and fleeting bees about\nthe living soul, which they differentiate from the supreme.\n\n7. They consider and meditate in their minds, the living soul as a\nseparate reality, owing to its ubiquity and immortality, and as the\nsource of their own lives. (This is the living liberation--J\u00edvanmukti\nof Buddhists, who consider their living souls as absolute agent of\nthemselves).\n\n8. Hear me to relate to you the best lesson of indifference (_i.e._\nthe unattachment to the world and life), which the lotus-eyed lord\n(Krishna) taught to Arjuna, and whereby that sagely prince became\nliberated in life time. (Here is an anachronism of antedating\nKrishn\u00e1rjuna prior to R\u00e1ma).\n\n9. Thus Arjuna the son of Pandu will happily pass his life, and which I\nhope you will imitate, if you want to pass your days without any grief\nor sorrow.\n\n10. R\u00e1ma said:--Tell me sir, when will this Arjuna the son of Pandu,\ncome to be born on earth, and who is this Hari of his, that is to\ndeliver this lesson of indifference to the world to him?\n\n11. Vasishtha replied:--There is only the entity of one soul, to whom\nthis appellation is applied by fiction only. He remains in himself from\ntime without beginning and end, as the sky is situated in a vacuum.\n\n12. We behold in him the phantasmagoria of this extended world, as we\nsee the different ornaments in gold, and the waves and billows in the\nsea. (Identity of the cause and effect of the producer and produced).\n\n13. The fourteen kinds of created beings display themselves in him; and\nin him is the network of this universe, wherein all these worlds are\nsuspended, as birds hanging in the net in which they are caught.\n\n14. In him reside the deities Indra and Yama and the sun and moon, who\nare renowned and hallowed in the scriptures; and in him abide the five\nelemental creation, and they that have become the regents (of heaven\nand earth).\n\n15. That the one thing is virtue and therefore expedient, and the\nother is vice and therefore improper, are both placed in him as\nhis ordinances (or eternal laws); and depending on the free agency\n(sankalpa) of men, to accept or reject the one or the other for good or\nevil. (Hence there is no positive virtue or vice, nor God the author\nof good and evil; but it is the obedience or disobedience to his fixed\nlaws, that amounts to the one or other).\n\n16. It is obedience to the Divine ordinance, that the gods are still\nemployed in their fixed charges with their steady minds.\n\n17. The lord Yama is accustomed to make his penance, at the end of\nevery four yugas (or kalpa age), on account of his greatness in\ndestruction of the creatures of God. (Yama the Indian Pluto and god of\ndeath.)\n\n18. Sometimes he sat penitent for eight years, and all others for a\ndozen of years, often times he made his penance for five or seven\nyears, and many times for full sixteen years.\n\n19. On a certain occasion as Yama sat observant of his austerity, and\nindifferent to his duty, death ceased to hunt after living beings in\nall the worlds.\n\n20. Hence the multitude of living beings filled the surface of the\nearth, and made ground pathless and impassable by others. They\nmultiplied like the filth born gnats in the rainy weather, that\nobstruct the passage of elephants.\n\n21. Then the gods sat together in council, and after various\ndeliberations came to determine the extirpation of all living beings,\nfor relieving the over burdened earth. (This was to be done by the\nBharata war celebrated in the great epic of the Mah\u00e1bh\u00e1rata).\n\n22. In this way many ages have passed away, and many changes have taken\nplace in the usages of the people, and unnumbered living beings have\npassed and gone with the revolutions of the worlds.\n\n23. Now it will come to pass, that this Yama--the son of the sun and\nthe lord of the regions of the dead; will again perform his penance in\nthe aforesaid manner after the expiration of many ages to come.\n\n24. He will again resume his penitence for a dozen of years, for the\natonement of his sin of destroying the living; when he will abstain\nfrom his wonted conduct of destroying the lives of human beings.\n\n25. At that time, will the earth be filled with deathless mortals, so\nas this wretched earth will be covered and overburthened with them, as\nwith dense forest trees.\n\n26. The earth groaning under her burden, and oppressed by tyranny and\nlawlessness, will have recourse to Hari for her redress, as when a\nvirtuous wife resorts to her husband from the aggression of Dasyus.\n\n27. For this reason, Hari will be incarnate in two bodies, joined with\nthe powers of all the gods, and will appear on earth in two persons of\nNara and N\u00e1r\u00e1yana, the one a man and the other the lord Hari himself.\n\n28. With one body Hari will become the son of Vasudeva, and will thence\nbe called Vasudeva; and with the other he will be the son of Pandu and\nwill thereby be named the P\u00e1ndava Arjuna or Arjuna the P\u00e1ndava.\n\n29. Pandu will have another son by name of Yudhisthira, who will adopt\nthe title of the son of Dharma or righteousness, for his acquaintance\nwith politics, and he will reign over the earth to its utmost limit of\nthe ocean.\n\n30. He will have his rival with Duryodhana his cousin by his paternal\nuncle, and there will be a dreadful war between them as between a snake\nand weasel.\n\n31. The belligerent princes will wage a furious war for the possession\nof the earth, with forces of eighteen legions on both sides. (Those of\nDuryodhana were eleven legions, and Yudhisthira were seven).\n\n32. The God Vishnu will cause Arjuna to slay them all by his great bow\nof G\u00e1nd\u00edva, and thereby relieve the earth of her burden of riotous\npeoples.\n\n33. The incarnation of Vishnu in the form of Arjuna, will comprise\nall the qualities incident to humanity; and will be fraught with the\nfeelings of joy and vengeance, which are connatural with mankind.\n\n34. Seeing the battle array on both sides, and friends and kinsmen\nready to meet their fate, pity and grief will seize the heart of\nArjuna, and he will cease from engaging in the war.\n\n35. Hari will then with his intelligent form of Krishna, persuade his\ninsensible person of Arjuna, to perform his part of a hero for crowning\nhis valour with success.\n\n36. He taught him the immortality of the soul by telling him that, the\nsoul is never born nor does it die at any time, nor had it a prior\nbirth, nor is it new born to be born again on earth, it is unborn and\never lasting, and is indestructible with the destruction of the body.\n\n37. He who thinks the soul to be the slayer of or slain by any body, is\nequally ignorant of its nature, never kills nor is ever killed by any\nbody.\n\n38. It is immortal and uniform with itself, and more rare and subtile\nthan the air and vacuity; the soul which is the form of the great God\nhimself, is never and in no way destroyed by any body.\n\n39. O R\u00e1ma, that art conscious of yourself, know your soul to be\nimmortal and unknown, and without its beginning, middle and end; it is\nof the form of consciousness and clear without any soil, so by thinking\nyourself as such, you become the unborn, eternal and undecaying soul\nyourself.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LIII.\n\nADMONITION OF ARJUNA.\n\nArgument.--Abandonment of Egoism, knowledge of the Adorable one and its\ndifferent stages.\n\n\nThe Lord said:--Arjuna, you are not the killer (of any soul), it is a\nfalse conceit of yours which you must shun; the soul is ever lasting\nand free from death and decay.\n\n2. He who has no egoism in him, and whose mind is not moved (by joy or\ngrief), is neither the killer of nor killed by any body, though he may\nkill every one in the world. (This is an attribute of the supreme soul).\n\n3. Whatever is known in our consciousness, the same is felt within us;\nshun therefore your inward consciousness of egoism and meity, as this\nis I and these are mine, and these are others and theirs.\n\n4. The thought that you are connected with such and such persons and\nthings, and that of your being deprived of them, and the joy and grief\nto which you are subjected thereby, must affect your soul in a great\nmeasure.\n\n5. He who does his works with the parts or members of his body, and\nconnects the least attention of his soul there with; becomes infatuated\nby his egoism and believes himself as the doer of his action. (here is\na lesson of perfect indifference enjoined to any act or thought that a\nman does by or entertains in himself).\n\n6. Let the eyes see, the ears hear, and your touch feel their objects,\nlet your tongue also taste the relish of a thing, but why take them to\nyour soul and where is your egoism situated in these?\n\n7. The minds of even the great, are verily employed in the works that\nthey have undertaken to perform, but where is your egoism or soul in\nthese, that you should be sorry for its pains. (The soul is aloof from\npain).\n\n8. Your assumption to yourself to any action, which has been done by\nthe combination of many, amounts only to a conceit of your vanity,\nand exposes you not only to ridicule, but to frustrate the merit of\nyour act. (So is the assuming of a joint action of all the organs and\nmembers of the mind, and the achievement of a whole army to one's self.\nSo also many masters arrogate to themselves the merit of the deeds of\ntheir servants).\n\n9. The yogis and hermits do their ritual and ordinary actions with\nattention of their minds and senses, and often times with the\napplication of the members and organs of their bodies only, in order to\nacquire and preserve the purity of their souls.\n\n10. Those who have not subdued their bodies with the morphia of\nindifference, are employed in the repetition of their actions, without\never being healed of their disease (of anxiety).\n\n11. No person is graceful whose mind is tinged with his selfishness,\nas no man however learned and wise is held in honour, whose conduct is\nblemished with unpoliteness and misbehaviours.\n\n12. He who is devoid of his selfishness and egotism, and is alike\npatient both in prosperity and adversity, is neither affected nor\ndejected, whether he does his business or not.\n\n13. Know this, O son of Pandu as the best field for your martial\naction; which is worthy of your great good, glory and ultimate\nhappiness. (War in a just cause is attended with glory).\n\n14. Though you reckon it as heinous on the one hand and unrighteous\non the other; yet you must acknowledge the super excellence and\nimperiousness of the duties required of your martial race, so do your\nduty and immortalize yourself.\n\n15. Seeing even the ignorant stick fast to the proper duties of their\nrace, no intelligent person can neglect or set them at naught; and the\nmind that is devoid of vanity, cannot be ashamed or dejected, even if\none fails or falls in the discharge of his duty.\n\n16. Do you duty, O Arjuna, with your yoga or fixed attention to it, and\navoid all company (in order to keep company with the object of your\npursuit only). If you do your works as they come to you by yourself\nalone, you will never fail nor be foiled in any. _i.e._ thy object thou\ncanst never gain, unless from all others you refrain.\n\n17. Be as quiet as the person of Brahma, and do your works as quietly\nas Brahma does leave his result (whether good or bad) to Brahma\n(because you can have no command over the consequence), and by doing\nso, assimilate thyself into the nature of Brahma (who is all in all).\n\n18. Commit yourself and all your actions and objects to God, remain\nas unaltered as God himself, and know him as the soul of all, and be\nthus the decoration of the world. (The gloss says, it is no blasphemy\nto think one's self as God, when there is no other personality besides\nthat of Deity).\n\n19. If you can lay down all your desires, and become as even and cool\nmind as a muni--monk; if you can join your soul to the yoga of sannyasa\nor contemplative coldness, you can do all your actions with a mind\nunattached to any.\n\n20. Arjuna said:--Please lord, explain to me fully, what is meant by\nthe renunciation of all connections, commitment of our actions to\nBrahma; dedication of ourselves to God and abdication of all concerns.\n\n21. Tell me also about the acquisition of true knowledge and divisions\nof Yoga meditation, all which I require to know in their proper order,\nfor the removal of my gross ignorance on those subjects.\n\n22. The Lord replied:--The learned know that as the true form of\nBrahma, of which we can form no idea or conception, but which may be\nknown after the restraining of our imagination, and the pacification of\nour desires.\n\n23. Promptitude after these things constitutes our wisdom or knowledge,\nand perseverance in these practices is what is called Yoga. Self\ndedication to Brahma rests on the belief that, Brahma is all this world\nand myself also.\n\n24. As a stone statue is all hollow both in its inside and outside,\nso is Brahma as empty, tranquil and transparent as the sky, which is\nneither to be seen by us nor is it beyond our sight.\n\n25. It then bulges out a little from itself, and appears as something,\nother than what it is. It is this reflexion of the universe, but all as\nempty as this inane vacuity.\n\n26. What is again this idea of your egoism, when every thing is evolved\nout of the Supreme Intellect, of what account is the personality of any\nbody, which is but an infinitesimal part of the universal soul.\n\n27. The Egoism of the individual soul, is not apart from the universal\nspirit, although it seems to be separate from the same; because there\nis no possibility of exclusion or separation of anything from the\nOmnipresent and all comprehensive soul of God, and therefore a distinct\negoism is a nullity.\n\n28. As it is the case with our egoism, so is it with the individuality\nof a pot and of a monkey also. (_i.e._ of all insensible and brute\ncreatures too), none of which is separate from the universal whole. All\nexistences being as drops of water in the sea, it is absurd to presume\nan egoism to any body.\n\n29. Things appearing as different to the conscious soul, are to be\nconsidered as the various imageries represented in the self-same soul\n(like the sundry scenes shown in the soul in a dream).\n\n30. So also is the knowledge of the particulars and species, lost in\nthe idea of the general and the _summum genus_. Now by _sanny\u00e1sa_ or\nrenunciation of the world is meant, the resignation of the fruition\nof the fruits of our actions. (The main teaching of Krishna to Arjuna\nin the Bhagavadg\u00edt\u00e1, tends to the renunciation of the fruits of our\nactions).\n\n31. Unattachment signifies the renunciation of all our worldly desires,\nand the intense application of the mind to the one sole God of the\nmultifarious creation, and the variety of his imaginary representations.\n\n32. The want of all dualism in the belief of his self-existence as\ndistinct from that of God, constitutes his dedication of himself to\nGod; it is ignorance that creates the distinction, by applying various\nnames and attributes to the one intellectual soul.\n\n33. The meaning of the word intelligent soul, is undoubtedly that it is\none with the universe; and that the Ego is the same with all space, and\nits contents of the worlds and their motions.\n\n34. The Ego is the unity of Eternity, and the Ego is duality\nand plurality in the world, and the variety of its multifarious\nproductions. Therefore be devoted to the sole Ego, and drown your own\negoism in the universal Ego. (Here the purport is given instead of the\nliteral version of the too verbose tetrastich verse).\n\n35. Arjuna said:--There being two forms of the Deity, the one\ntranscendent or spiritual and the other transpicuous or material; tell\nme to which of these I shall resort for my ultimate perfection.\n\n36. The lord replied:--There are verily two forms of the all pervading\nVishnu, the exoteric and the other esoteric; that having a body and\nhands holding the conch-shell, the discus, and the mace and lotus, is\nthe common form for public worship.\n\n37. The other is the esoteric or spiritual form, which is undefined and\nwithout its beginning and end; and is usually expressed by the term\nBrahma--great.\n\n38. As long as you are unacquainted with the nature of the supreme\nsoul, and are not awakened to the light of the spirit; so long should\nyou continue to adore the form of the God with its four arms. (or the\nform of the four armed God).\n\n39. By this means you will be awakened to light, by your knowledge of\nthe supreme; and when you come to comprehend the Infinite in yourself,\nyou shall have no more to be born in any mortal form.\n\n40. When you are acquainted with the knowledge of the knowable soul,\nthen will your soul find its refuge in eternal soul of Hari, who\nabsorbs all souls in him.\n\n41. When I tell you that this is I and I am that, mind that I mean to\nsay that, this and that is the Ego of the supreme soul, which I assume\nto myself for your instruction.\n\n42. I understand you to be enlightened to truth, and to rest in the\nstate of supreme felicity; and now that you are freed from all your\ntemporal desires, I wish you to be one with the true and holy spirit.\n\n43. View in yourself the soul of all beings and those beings\nthemselves; think your own self or soul as the microcosm of the great\nuniverse, and be tolerant and broad sighted in your practice of Yoga.\n(The word _Sama darsi_, here rendered broad sighted, means one who sees\nevery[one] in one and [the] same light; whence it is synonymous with\nuniversal benevolence and fellow feeling).\n\n44. He who worships the universal soul that resides in all beings, as\nthe one self-same and undivided spirit; is released from the doom of\nrepeated births, whether he leads a secular or holy life in this world.\n\n45. The meaning of the word \"all\" is unity (in its collective sense),\nand the meaning of the word \"one\" is the unity of the soul; as in the\nphrase \"All is one\" it is meant to say that the whole universe is\ncollectively but one soul. (The soul also is neither a positive entity,\nnor a negative non-entity, but it is as it is known in the spirit. (of\nthe form of ineffable light and delight).)\n\n46. He who shines as light within the minds of all persons, and dwells\nin the inward consciousness or percipience of every being, is no other\nthan the very soul that dwells within myself also.\n\n47. That which is settled in shape of savour in the waters all over\nthe three worlds. (_i.e._ in the earth, heaven, and underneath the\nground); and what gives flavour to the milk, curd and the butter of the\nbovine kind, and dwells as sapidity in the marine salt and other saline\nsubstances, and imparts its sweetness to saccharine articles, the same\nis this savoury soul, which gives a gust to our lives, and a good taste\nto all the objects of our enjoyment.\n\n48. Know your soul to be that percipience, which is situated in the\nhearts of all corporeal beings, whose rarity eludes our perception of\nit, and which is quite removed from all perceptibles; and is therefore\nubiquitous in every thing and omnipresent every where.\n\n49. As the butter is inbred in all kinds of milk, and the sap of all\nsappy substances is inborn in them, so the supreme soul is intrinsical\nand immanent in every thing.\n\n50. As all the gems and pearls of the sea, have a lustre inherent in\nthem, and which shines forth both in their inside and outside; so the\nsoul shines in and out of every body without being seated in any part\nof it, whether in or out or where about it.\n\n51. As the air pervades both in the inside and outside of all empty\npots, so the spirit of God is diffused in and about all bodies in all\nthe three worlds. (This is the meaning of omnipresence).\n\n52. As hundreds of pearls are strung together by a thread in the\nnecklace, so the soul of God extends through and connects these\nmillions of beings, without its being known by any. (This all\nconnecting attribute of God, is known as s\u00fatr\u00e1tm\u00e1 in the Ved\u00e1nta).\n\n53. He who dwells in the hearts of every body in the world, commencing\nfrom Brahma to the object grass that grows on the earth; the essence\nwhich is common in all of them, is the Brahma the unborn and undying.\n\n54. Brahm\u00e1 is a slightly developed form of Brahma, and resides in the\nspirit of the great Brahma, and the same dwelling in us, makes us\nconceive of our egoism by mistake of the true Ego.\n\n55. The divine soul being manifest in the form of the world, say what\ncan it be that destroys or is destroyed in it; and tell me, Arjuna,\nwhat can it be that is subject to or involved in pleasure or pain.\n\n56. The divine soul is as a large mirror, showing the images of things\nupon its surface, like reflexions on the glass; and though these\nreflexions disappear and vanish in time, yet the mirror of the soul is\nnever destroyed, but looks as it looked before.\n\n57. When I say I am this and not the other (of my many reflexions in\na prismatic glass, or of my many images in many pots of water), I am\nquite wrong and inconsistent with myself; so is it to say, that the\nhuman soul is the spirit or image of God, and not that of any other\nbeing, when the self-same Divine spirit is present and immanent in all.\n(The catholic spirit of the Hindu religion, views all beings to partake\nof the Divine spirit, which is in all as in a prismatic glass).\n\n58. The revolutions of creation, sustentation and final dissolution,\ntake place in an unvaried and unceasing course in the spirit of God,\nand so the feelings on surface of the waters of the sea. (Egoistic\nfeelings rising from the boisterous mind, subside in the calmness of\nthe soul).\n\n59. As the stone is the constituent essence of rocks, the wood of trees\nand the water of waves; so is the soul the constituent element of all\nexistence.\n\n60. He who sees the soul (as inherent) in all substances, and every\nsubstance (to be contained) in the soul; and views both as the\ncomponent of one another, sees the uncreating God as the reflector and\nreflexion of Himself.\n\n61. Know Arjuna, the soul to be the integrant part of every thing, and\nthe constituent element of the different forms and changes of things;\nas the water is of the waves, and the gold is of jewelleries. (The\nspirit of God is believed as the material cause of all).\n\n62. As the boisterous waves are let loose in the waters, and the jewels\nare made of gold; so are all things existent in and composed of the\nspirit of God.\n\n63. All material beings of every species, are forms of the Great Brahma\nhimself; know this one as all, and there is nothing apart or distinct\nfrom him.\n\n64. How can there be an independent existence, or voluntary change of\nanything in the world; where can they or the world be, except in the\nessence and omnipresence of God, and wherefore do you think of them in\nvain?\n\n65. By knowing all this as I have told you, the saints live fearless\nin this world by reflecting on the supreme Being in themselves; they\nmove about as liberated in their lifetime, with the equanimity of their\nsouls.\n\n66. The enlightened saints attain to their imperishable states, by\nbeing invincible to the errors of fiction, and unsubdued by the evils\nof worldly attachment; they remain always in their spiritual and holy\nstates, by being freed from temporal desires, and the conflicts of\njarring passions, doubts and dualities.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LIV.\n\nADMONITION OF ARJUNA IN SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE.\n\nArguments--The causes of the feelings of Pleasure and Pain, and\nHappiness and Misery in this world, and the modes and means of their\nprevention and avoidance.\n\n\nThe lord continued:--Listen moreover, O mighty armed Arjuna, to the\nedifying speech, which I am about to deliver unto you, for the sake of\nyour lasting good and welfare.\n\n2. Know O progeny of Kunti, that the perception of the senses, or the\nfeelings conveyed to our minds by the organic sense, such as those of\ncold and heat and the like, are the causes of our bodily pleasure and\npain; but as these are transitory, and come to us and pass away by\nturns, you must remain patient under them.\n\n3. Knowing neither the one nor the other to be uniform and monotonous,\nwhat is it thou callest as real pleasure or pain? A thing having no\nform or figure of its own, can have no increase or decrease in it.\n\n4. Those who have suppressed the feelings of their senses, by knowing\nthe illusory nature of sensible perceptions; are content to remain\nquiet with an even tenor of their minds, both in their prosperity and\nadversity; are verily the men that are thought to taste the ambrosial\ndraught of immortality in their mortal state.\n\n5. Knowing the soul to be the same in all states, and alike in all\nplaces and times; they view all differences and accidents of life with\nindifference, and being sure of the unreality of unrealities, they\nretain their endurance under all the varying circumstances of life.\n\n6. Never can joy or grief take possession of the common soul, which\nbeing ecumenical in its nature, can never be exceptional or otherwise.\n\n7. The unreal has no existence, nor is the positive a negative at any\ntime; so there can be nothing as a positive felicity or infelicity\neither in any place, when God himself is present in his person every\nwhere. (They are all alike to God and Godly soul).\n\n8. Abandon the thoughts of felicity or infelicity of the world (nor\nbe like the laughing or crying philosopher with your one sided view\nof either the happiness or misery of life), and seeing there is no\nsuch difference in the mind of God, stick fast in this last state of\nindifference to both.\n\n9. Though the intelligent soul, and the external phenomena, are closely\nsituated in the inside and outside of the body; Yet the internal soul\nis neither delighted nor depressed, by the pleasure or pain which\nenviron the external body.\n\n10. All pleasure and pain relating the material body, touch the mind\nwhich is situated in it; but no bodily hurt or debility affects the\nsoul, which is seated beyond it.\n\n11. Should the soul be supposed to participate, in the pleasure or pain\nwhich affect the gross body, it is to be understood as caused by the\nerror, rising from our ignorance only.\n\n12. The gross is no reality, and its feelings of pain or pleasure\nare never real ones, as to touch the intangible soul; for who is so\nsenseless, as not to perceive the wide separation of the soul from the\nbody?\n\n13. What I tell you here, O progeny of Bh\u00e1rata, will surely destroy the\nerror arising from ignorance, by the full understanding of my lectures.\n\n14. As knowledge removes the error and fear of the snake, arising from\none's ignorance in a rope; so our misconception of the reality of our\nbodies and their pleasures and pains, is dispelled by our knowledge of\ntruth.\n\n15. Know the whole universe to be identic with increate Brahma, and is\nneither produced nor dissolved by itself, knowing this as a certain\ntruth, believe in Brahma only, as the most supreme source of all tree\nknowledge.\n\n16. You are but a little billow in the sea of Brahma's essence; you\nrise and roll for a little while, and then subside to rest. You foam\nand froth in the whirlpool of Brahma's existence, and art no other\nthan a drop of water in the endless ocean of Brahma.\n\n17. As long as we are in action under the command of our general, we\nact our parts like soldiers in the field; we all live and move in\nBrahma alone, and there is no mistake of right or wrong in this. (Act\nwell our part and there all honour lies).\n\n18. Abandon your pride and haughtiness, your sorrow and fear, and your\ndesire of pain or pleasure; it is bad to have any duality or doubt in\nyou, be good with your oneness or integrity at all times.\n\n19. Think this in yourself from the destruction of these myriads of\nforces under your arms, that all these are evolved out of Brahma, and\nyou do more than evolve or reduce them to Brahma himself.\n\n20. Do not care for your pleasure or pain, your gain or loss, and your\nvictory or defeat; but resort only to the unity of Brahma, and know the\nworld as the vast ocean of Brahma's entity.\n\n21. Being alike in or unchanged by your loss or gain, and thinking\nyourself as nobody; and go on in your proper course of action, as a\ngust of wind takes its own course.\n\n22. Whatever you do or take to your food, whatever sacrifices you make\nor any gift that you give to any one, commit them all to Brahma, and\nremain quiet in yourself. (With an assurance of their happy termination\nby the help of God).\n\n23. Whoever thinks in his mind, of becoming anything in earnest; he\nundoubtedly becomes the same in process of time; if therefore you wish\nto become as Brahma himself, learn betimes to assimilate yourself to\nthe nature of Brahma, in all your thoughts and deeds. (It is imitation\nof perfection, that gives perfection to man).\n\n24. Let one who knows the great Brahma, be employed in doing his duties\nas occur unto him, without any expectation and any reward; and as God\ndoes his works without any aim, so should the Godly do their works\nwithout any object.\n\n25. He who sees the inactive God in all his active duties, and sees\nalso all his works in the inactive Gods; that man is called the most\nintelligent among men, and he is said the readiest discharger of his\ndeeds and duties.\n\n26. Do not do thy works in expectation of their rewards, nor engage\nthyself to do any thing that is not thy duty or improper for thee. Go\non doing thy duties as in thy yoga or fixed meditation, and not in\nconnection with other's or their rewards.\n\n27. Neither be addicted to active duties, nor recline in your\ninactivity either; never remain ignorant or negligent of thy duties in\nlife, but continue in thy work with an even temper at all times.\n\n28. That man though employed in business, is said to be doing nothing\nat all; who does not foster the hope of a reward of his acts, and is\never contented in himself, even without a patron or refuge.\n\n29. It is the addictedness of one's mind to anything, that makes it\nhis action, and not the action itself without such addiction; it is\nignorance which is the cause of such tendency, therefore ignorance is\nto be avoided by all means.\n\n30. The great soul that is settled in divine knowledge; and is freed\nfrom its wont or bent to any thing, may be employed in all sorts of\nworks, without being reckoned as the doer of any. (One is named by the\nwork of his profession, and not by his attendance to a thousand other\ncallings in life).\n\n31. He who does nothing, is indifferent about its result (whether of\ngood or evil), this indifference amounts to his equanimity, which leads\nto his endless felicity, which is next to the state of God-head. (The\nsentence is climacteric rising from inactivity to the felicity of the\nDeity).\n\n32. By avoiding the dirt of duality and plurality (of beliefs), betake\nyourself to your belief in the unity of the supreme spirit, and\nthen whether you do or not do your ceremonial acts, you will not be\naccounted as the doer.\n\n33. He is called a wise man by the learned, whose acts in life are free\nfrom desire or some object of desire; and whose ceremonial acts are\nburnt away by the fire of spiritual knowledge. (It is said that the\nmerit of ceremonial observances, leads a man only to reward in repeated\nbirths; but divine knowledge removes the doom of transmigration, by\nleading the soul at once to divine felicity, from which no one has to\nreturn to revisit the earth.)\n\n34. He who remains with a peaceful, calm, quiet and tranquil equanimity\nof the soul, and without any desire or avarice for anything in this\nworld, may be doing his duties here, without any disturbance or anxiety\nof his mind.\n\n35. The man who has no dispute with any one, but is ever settled with\ncalm and quiet rest of his soul; which is united with the supreme\nsoul, without its Yoga or Ceremonial observance, and is satisfied with\nwhatever is obtained of itself; such a man is deemed as a decoration of\nthis earth.\n\n36. They are called ignorant hypocrites, who having repressed their\norgans of actions, still indulge themselves in dwelling upon sensible\npleasures, by recalling their thoughts in this mind.\n\n37. He who has governed his outward and inward senses, by the power of\nhis sapient mind; and employs his organs of action, in the performance\nof his bodily functions and discharges of his ceremonial observances\nwithout his addictedness to them, is quite different from the one\ndescribed before.\n\n38. As the overflowing waters of rivers, fall into the profound and\nmotionless body of waters in the sea; so the souls of holy men enter\ninto the ocean of eternal God, where they are attended with a peaceful\nbliss, which is never to be obtained by avaricious worldlings.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LV.\n\nLECTURE ON THE LIVING SOUL OR _J\u00edvatatwa_.\n\nArguments.--The unity and reality is the causal subjective, and the\nduality and unreality is the objective worlds; and the situation of\nGod between the two, means his witnessing both of these without being\neither of them, because the conditions of the cause and the caused do\nnot apply to God who is beyond all attributes.\n\n\nThe Lord said:--Neither relinquish or abstain from your enjoyments,\nnor employ your minds about them or in the acquisition of the object\nthereof. Remain with an even tenor of your mind, and be content with\nwhat comes to thee.\n\n2. Never be so intimately related to thy body, that is not intimately\nrelated with thee; but remain intimately connected with thyself, which\nis thy increate and imperishable soul.\n\n3. We suffer no loss by the loss of our bodies (which are but\nadscititious garments of our souls); but we lose every thing, by the\nloss of our souls which last forever and never perish.\n\n4. The soul is not weakened like the sentient mind, by the loss of the\nsensible objects of enjoyment, and incessantly employed in action, yet\nit does nothing by itself.\n\n5. It is one's addictedness to an action that makes it his act, and\nthis even when one is no actor of the same; it is ignorance only that\nincites the mind to action, and therefore this ignorance is required to\nbe removed from it by all means.\n\n6. The great minded man that is acquainted with the superior knowledge\nof spirituality, forsakes his tendency to action, and does everything\nthat comes to him without his being the actor thereof.\n\n7. Know thy soul to be without its beginning and end, and undecaying\nand imperishable in its nature; the ignorant think it perishable, and\nyou must not fall into this sad error like them.\n\n8. The best of men that are blest with spiritual knowledge, do not\nlook the soul in the same light as the ignorant vulgar; who either\nbelieve the soulless matter as the soul, or think themselves as\nincorporate souls by their egoistic vanity.\n\n9. Arjuna said:--If it is so, O lord of worlds! then I ween that the\nloss of the body is attended with no loss or gain to the ignorant\n(because they have nothing to care for an immortal soul like the\nlearned).\n\n10. The lord replied:--so it is, O mighty armed Arjuna! they lose\nnothing by the loss of the perishable body, but they know that the soul\nis imperishable, and its loss is the greatest of all losses.\n\n11. How be it, I see no greater mistake of men in this world; than when\nthey say, that they have lost anything or gained something that never\nbelongs to them. It appears like the crying of a barren woman for her\nchild, which she never had, nor is expected to have at any time.\n\n12. That it is axiomatic truth established by the learned, and well\nknown to all men of common sense, though the ignorant may not perceive\nit verily, that an unreality can not come to reality, nor a reality go\nto nothing at any time. (This equivalent to the definite propositions,\n\"what is, is; and what is not, is naught; or that, positive can not be\nthe negative, not the negative an affirmative\").\n\n13. Now know that to be imperishable, that has spread out this\nperishable and frail world; and there is no one that can destroy the\nindestructible (or the entity of the immortal soul).\n\n14. The finite bodies are said to be the abode of the infinite soul,\nand yet the destruction of the finite and frail, entails no loss upon\nthe infinite and imperishable soul. Know therefore the difference\nbetween the two.\n\n15. The soul is a unity without a duality, and there is no possibility\nof its nihility. (because the unity is certain reality, and duality is\na nullity). The eternal and infinite reality of the soul, can never be\ndestroyed with the destruction of the body.\n\n16. Leaving aside the unity and duality, take that which remains, and\nknow that state of tranquillity which is situated between the reality\nand unreality, to be the state of the transcendental Deity.\n\n17. Arjuna rejoined:--such being the nature of the soul, then tell me,\nO lord, what is the cause of this certainty in man that he is dying,\nand what makes him think, that he is either going to heaven above or to\nthe hell below. (What is the cause of heavenly bliss and the torments\nof hell).\n\n18. The lord replied:--know Arjuna! There is a living soul dwelling\nin the body, and composed of the elements of earth, air, water, fire\nand vacuum, as also of the mind and understanding: (all of which being\ndestructible in their nature, cause the destructibility of the living\nprinciple, and its subjection to pain and pleasure in this life and in\nthe next. gloss).\n\n19. The embodied and living soul is led by its desire, as the young of\na beast is carried about tied by a rope on its neck; and it dwells in\nthe recess of the body, like a bird in the cage. (Both states of its\nliving and moving about in the body, are as troublesome as they are\ncompulsory to it).\n\n20. Then as the body is worn out and becomes infirm in course of time,\nthe living soul leaves it like the moisture of a dried leaf, and flies\nto where it is led by its inborn desire. (The difference of desire\ncauses the difference of new births and bodies. gloss).\n\n21. It carries with it the senses of hearing, seeing, feeling, taste,\ntouch and smell from its body, as the breeze wafts the fragrance from\nthe cells of flowers (or as a wayfarer carries his valuables with him).\n\n22. The body is the production of one's desire, and has no other\nassignable cause to it; it weakens by the weakening of its desire,\nand being altogether weak and wasted, it becomes extinct in its final\nabsorption in the god-head (because the want of desire and dislike,\nmakes a man to become like his god; or as perfect as god, who has\nnothing to desire and dislike).\n\n23. The avaricious man, being stanch with his concupiscence, passes\nthrough many wombs into many births; like a magician is skilled in\nleaping up and down in earth and air. (The magician _m\u00e1y\u00e1_, _purusha_,\nmeans also a juggler or athlete who shows his feats in air as an\naeronaut).\n\n24. The parting soul carries with her the properties of the senses from\nthe sensible organs of the body; just as the flying breeze bears with\nhim the fragrance of flowers, in his flight through the sky.\n\n25. The body becomes motionless, after the soul has fled from it; just\nas the leaves and branches of trees, remain unruffled after the winds\nare still. (_i.e._ As the breeze shakes the tree, so the vital breath\nmoves the body, and this being stopped, the body becomes quiescent\nwhich is called its death).\n\n26. When the body becomes inactive, and insensible to the incision and\nwounds that are inflicted upon it, it is then called to be dead, or to\nhave become lifeless.\n\n27. As this soul resides in any part of the sky, in its form of the\nvital air, it beholds the very same form of things manifested before\nit, as it was wont to desire when living. (The departed soul dwells\neither in spiritual or elemental sphere of the sky, and views itself\nand all other things in the same state as they are imprest in it, in\ntheir relation to time, place and form. Gloss. This passage will clear\nLocke's and Parker's question, as to the form which the soul is to have\nafter its resurrection).\n\n28. The soul comes to find all these forms and bodies, to be as unreal\nas those it has left behind; and so must you reckon all bodies after\nthey are destroyed, unless you be so profoundly asleep as to see and\nknow nothing.\n\n29. Brahm\u00e1--the lord of creation, has created all beings according to\nthe images, that were impressed in his mind in the beginning. He sees\nthem still to continue and die in the same forms. (So the soul gets its\nbody as it thinks upon, and then lives and dies in the same form).\n\n30. Whatever form or body the soul finds on itself, on its first and\ninstantaneous springing to life; the same is invariably impressed\nin its consciousness, until its last moment of death. (This fixed\nimpression of the past, produces its reminiscence in the future, which\nforms and frames the being according to its own model).\n\n31. The pristine desire of a man, is the root of his present manliness,\nwhich becomes the cause of his future success. So also the present\nexertion of one, is able to correct and make up not only his past\nmistakes and deficits; but also to edify upon his rugged hut of old.\n(_i.e._ that is to improve his dilapidated state and build the fabric\nof his future fame and fortune).\n\n32. Whatever is pursued with ardent exertion and diligence for a\nwhile, the same in particular is gained among all other objects of\none's former and future pursuit (which are reckoned under the four\npredicaments (_Chaturvarga_) of wealth and pleasure for this life, and\nvirtue and salvation for the next).\n\n33. Whether a man is exposed on the barren rock of Vindhya, or blown\nand borne away by the winds, he is yet supported by his manhood;\ntherefore the wise man should never decline to discharge the legal\nduties, that are required of him at all times.\n\n34. Know the heaven and hell of which you ask, to be creatures of the\nold prejudices of men; they are the productions of human wish, and\nexist in the customary bias of the populace.\n\n35. Arjuna said:--Tell me, O lord of the world! what is that cause,\nwhich gave rise to the prejudice of a heaven and hell. (A future state\nof reward and retribution, is a common belief of all mankind on earth).\n\n36. The Lord replied:--These prejudices are as false as airy dreams,\nand have their rise from our desire (of future retribution); which\nwaxing strong by our constant habit of thinking them as true, make us\nbelieve them as such, as they mislead us to rely on the reality of the\nunreal world. Therefore we must shun our desires for our real good.\n\n37. The Lord replied:--Ignorance is the source of our desires, as it\nis the main spring of our error of taking the unself for the true\nself; it is the knowledge of the self therefore combined with right\nunderstanding, that can dispel the error of our desires. (_i.e._\nIgnorance of the nature of a thing, excites our desire for it, as our\nknowledge of the same, serves to suppress it).\n\n38. You are best acquainted with the self, O Arjuna! and well know\nthe truth also; therefore try to get off your error of yourself and\nnot yourself, as this I and that another, as also of your desires for\nyourself and other.\n\n39. Arjuna said:--But I ween that the living soul dies away, with the\ndeath of its desires; because the desire is the support of the soul,\nwhich must languish and droop down for want of a desire. (So says sir\nHamilton: Give me something to do and desire, and so I live or else I\npine away and die).\n\n40. Tell me moreover, what thing is it that is subject to future births\nand deaths, after the living soul perishes with its body at any time or\nplace (or after it has fled from it to some other region).\n\n41. The Lord replied:--Know the wistful soul, O intelligent Arjuna! to\nbe of the form of the desire of the heart, as also of the form that\nanyone has framed for himself in his imagination. (_i.e._ The form of\nindividual soul, is according to the figure that one has of himself in\nhis mind and heart).\n\n42. The soul that is self-same with itself, and unaltered in all\ncircumstances; that is never subject to body or any desire on earth,\nbut is freed from all desires by its own discretion, is said to be\nliberated in this life.\n\n43. Living in this manner (or self-independence), you must always look\nto and be in search of truth; and being released from the snare of\nworldly cares, you are said to be liberated in this life.\n\n44. The soul that is not freed from its desires, is said to be pent\nup as a bird in its cage; and though a man may be very learned, and\nobservant of all his religious rites and duties, yet he is not said to\nbe liberated, as long as he labours in the chains of his desires.\n\n45. The man who sees the train of desires, glimmering in the recess\nof his heart and mind, is like a purblind man who sees the bespangled\ntrain of peacocks tail in the spotless sky. He is said to be liberated\nwhose mind is not bound to the chain of desire, and it is one's release\nfrom this chain that is called his liberation in this life and in the\nnext.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LVI.\n\nDESCRIPTION OF THE MIND.\n\nArgument:--On the liberation of the living soul, and description of the\nmind as the miniature of the world.\n\n\nThe Lord continued:--Now Arjuna, forsake your sympathy for your\nfriends, by the coldheartedness that you have acquired from the\nabandonment of your desires and cares, and the liberation that you have\nattained to in this your living state.\n\n2. Be dispassionate, O sinless Arjuna! by forsaking your fear of death\nand decay of the body; and be as clear as the unclouded sky in your\nmind, by driving away the clouds of your cares from it, and dispelling\nall your aims and attempts either of good or evil for yourself or\nothers.\n\n3. Discharge your duties as they come to you in the course of your\nlife, and do well whatever is proper to be done, that no action of\nyours may go for nothing (_i.e._ Do well or do nothing).\n\n4. Whoso does any work that comes to him of itself in the course of\nhis life, that man is called to be liberated in his life time; and the\ndischarge of such deeds, belongs to the condition of living liberation.\n\n5. That I will do this and not that, or accept of this one and refuse\nthe other, are the conceits of foolishness; but they are all alike to\nthe wise (who have no choice in what is fit and proper for them).\n\n6. Those who do the works which occur to them, with the cool calmness\nof their minds, are said to be the living liberated; and they continue\nin their living state, as if they are in their profound sleep.\n\n7. He who has contracted the members of his body, and curbed the organs\nof his senses in himself, from their respective outward objects,\nresembles a tortoise, that rests in quiet by contracting its limbs\nwithin itself.\n\n8. The universe resides in the universal soul, and continues therein in\nall the three present, past and future times, as the painting-master of\nthe mind, draws the picture of the world in the aerial canvas.\n\n9. The variegated picture of the world, which is drawn by the painter\nof the mind in the empty air, is as void as the vacant air itself, and\nyet appearing as prominent as a figure in relief, and as plain as a\npikestaff.\n\n10. Though the formless world rests on the plane of vacuity, yet the\nwonderous error of our imagination shows it as conspicuous to view; as\na magician shows his aerial cottage to our deluded sight.\n\n11. As there is no difference in the plane surface of the canvas, which\nshows the swelling and depression of the figures in the picture to our\nsight; so there is no convexity or concavity in the dead flat of the\nspirit, which presents the uneven world to view. (_i.e._ All things are\neven in the spirit of God, however uneven they may appear to us).\n\n12. Know, O red eyed Arjuna! the picture of the world in the empty\nvacuum is as void as the vacuity itself; it rises and sets in the mind,\nas the temporary scenes which appear in imagination at the fit of a\ndelirium.\n\n13. So is this world all hollow both in the inside and outside of it,\nthough it appears as real as an air drawn city of our imagination, by\nour prejudice or long habit of thinking it so. (A deep rooted prejudice\ncannot soon be removed).\n\n14. Without cogitation the truth appears as false, and the false as\ntrue as in a delirium; but by excogitation of it, the truth comes to\nlight, and the error or untruth vanishes in nubila.\n\n15. As the autumnal sky, though it appears bright and clear to the\nnaked eye, has yet the flimsy clouds flying over it, so the picture\ndrawn over the plane of the inane mind, presents the figures of our\nfancied objects in it. (Such is the appearance of our imaginary world\nand our fancied friends in the perspective of the mind).\n\n16. The baseless and unsubstantial world which appears on the outside,\nis but a phantasy and has no reality in it; and when there is nothing\nas you or I or any one in real existence, say who can destroy one or be\ndestroyed by another.\n\n17. Drive away your false conception of the slayer and slain from your\nmind, and rest in the pure and bright sphere of the Divine spirit;\nbecause there is no stir or motion in the intellectual sphere of God,\nwhich is ever calm and quiet. All commotions appertain to the mental\nsphere, and the action of the restless mind.\n\n18. Know the mind to contain every thing in its clear sphere, such\nas time and space, the clear sky, and all actions and motions and\npositions of things; as the area of a map presents the sites of all\nplaces upon its surface.\n\n19. Know the mind to be more inane and rarefied than the empty air,\nand it is upon that basis the painter of the intellect, has drawn the\npicture of this immense universe.\n\n20. But the infinite vacuum being wholly inane, it has not that\ndiversity and divisibility in it, as they exhibit themselves in the\nmind, in the rearing up and breaking down of its aerial castle. (The\nimagination of the mind raises and erases its fabrics; but those of\nvacuum are fixed and firm for ever).\n\n21. So the earthly mortals seem to be born and die away every moment,\nas the chargeful thoughts of the all-engrossing mind, are ever rising\nand subsiding in it.\n\n22. Though the erroneous thoughts of the mind, are so instantaneous\nand temporary; yet it has the power of stretching out the ideas of the\nlength and duration of the world, as it has of producing new ideas of\nall things from nothing. (So God created every thing out of nothing).\n\n23. The mind has moreover the power of prolonging a moment to a kalpa\nage; as of enlarging a minim to a mountain, and of increasing a little\nto a multitude.\n\n24. It has the power also of producing a thing from nothing, and of\nconverting one to another in a trice; it is this capacity of it, which\ngives rise to the erroneous conception of the world, in the same\nmanner, as it raises the airy castle and fairy lands of its own nature\nin a moment.\n\n25. It has likewise brought this wonderous world into existence, which\nrose out in the twinkling of an eye, as a reflexion and not creation of\nit. (Because the disembodied mind can not create any material thing).\n\n26. All these are but ideal forms and shadowy shapes of imagination,\nthough they appear as hard and solid as adamant; they are the mistaken\nideas of some unknown form and substance.\n\n27. Whether you desire or dislike your worldly interests, show me where\nlies its solidity, both in your solicitude as well as indifference\nabout it; the mind being itself situated in the intellect of the\nDivine contriver, the picture of the world, can not have its place any\nwhere else. (The world being in the mind, and this again in the Divine\nintellect, the world must be situated also in the same, which is the\nmain receptacle of the world also).\n\n28. O how very wonderous bright is this prominent picture, which is\ndrawn on no base or coating, and which is so conspicuous before us, in\nvarious pieces without any paint or color whereof it is made.\n\n29. O how pleasant is this perspicuous picture of the world, and how\nvery attractive to our sight. It was drawn on the inky coating of\nchaotic darkness, and exhibited to the full blaze of various lights (of\nthe sun, moon, stars and primeval light).\n\n30. It is fraught in diverse colors, and filled with various objects of\nour desire in all its different parts; it exhibits many shows which are\npleasant to sight, and presents all things to view of which have the\nnotions in our minds.\n\n31. It presents many planets and stars before us, shining in their\ndifferent shapes and spheres all about. The blue vault of heaven\nresembling a cerulean lake, brightens with the shining sun, moon and\nstars liking its blooming and blossoming lotuses.\n\n32. There are the bodies of variegated clouds, pendant as the many\ncoloured leaves of trees on the azure sky; and appearing as pictures\nof men, gods and demons, drawn over the domes of the three regions (of\nearth, heaven and hell below, in their various appearances of white,\nbright and dark).\n\n33. The fickle and playful painter of the mind, has sketched and\nstretched out the picture of the sky, as an arena for the exhibition\nof the three worlds, as its three different stages; where all deluded\npeoples are portrayed as joyful players, acting their parts under the\nencircling light of the supreme Intellect. (The world is a stage, and\nall men and women its players, Shakespeare).\n\n34. Here is the actress with her sedate body of golden hue, and her\nthick braids of hair; her eyes glancing on the people with flashes of\nsunshine and moon-beams, the rising ground is her back and her feet\nreaching the infernal regions; and being, clothed with the robe of\nthe s\u00e1stra, she acts the plays of morality, opulence and the farce of\nenjoyments.\n\n35. The Gods Brahm\u00e1, Indra, Hari and Hara, form her four arms of\naction, the property of goodness is her bodice, and the two virtues of\ndiscretion and apathy, are her prominent breasts. The earth resting on\nthe head of the infernal Serpent, is her lotus like foot-stool upheld\nby its stalk; She is decorated on the face and forehead with the paints\nof mineral mountains, whose valleys and caves form belly and bowels.\n\n36. The fleeting glances of her eyes dispelling the gloom of night,\nand the twinkling of stars are as the erection of hairs on her body;\nthe two rows of her teeth emitted the rays of flashing lightnings, and\nall earthly beings are as the hairs on her person, and rising as piles\nabout the bulb of a _Kadamba_ flower.\n\n37. This earth is filled with living souls, subsisting in the spacious\nvacuum of the Universal soul, and appearing as figures in painting\ndrawn in it. This the skilful artist of the mind, that has displayed\nthis illusive actress of the Universe, to show her various features as\nin a puppet show.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LVII.\n\nON ABANDONMENT OF DESIRE AND ITS RESULT OF TRANQUILLITY.\n\nArgument:--The final lecture to Arjuna on the Peace of mind resulting\nfrom its want of desire.\n\n\nThe Lord said:--Look here, O Arjuna! The great wonder which is manifest\nin this subject; it is the appearance of the picture, prior to that\nof the plane of the plan upon which it is drawn. (The appearance of\nthe mind or painting, before that of Vir\u00e1j or the spirit of God which\nexhibits the painting. Gloss).\n\n2. The prominence of the painting and the non-appearance of its basis,\nmust be as wonderous as the buoyancy of a block of stone, and the\nsinking down of gourd shell as is shown in a magic play.\n\n3. The Universe resting in the vacuity of the Divine spirit, appears\nas a picture on the tablet of the mind; say then how does this egoism\nor self knowledge of your substantiality, arise from the bosom of\nthe vacuous nullity. (_i.e._ How can substantial spring from the\nunsubstantial, or some thing come out of nothing).\n\n4. All these being the vacant production of vacuum, are swallowed up\nlikewise in the vacuous womb of an infinite vacuity; they are no more\nthan hollow shadows of emptiness, and stretched out in empty air.\n\n5. This empty air is spread over with the snare of our desires,\nstretching as wide as the sphere of these outstretched worlds; it is\nthe band of our desire that encircles the worlds as their great belt.\n\n6. The world is situated in Brahm\u00e1 as a reflexion in the mirror, and is\nnot subject to partition or obliteration; owing to its inherence in its\nreceptacle, and its identity with the same.\n\n7. The indissoluble vacuum being the nature of Brahma, is inseparable\nfrom his essence; for nobody is ever able to divide the empty air in\ntwain or remove it from its place.\n\n8. It is owing to your ignorance of this, that your concupiscence has\nbecome congenial with your nature; which it is hard for it to get rid\nof, notwithstanding its being fraught with every virtue.\n\n9. He who has sown the smallest seed of desire in the soul of his\nheart, is confined as a lion in the cage, though he may be very wise\nand learned in all things.\n\n10. The desire which is habitual to one, grows as rank as a thick wood\nin his breast; unless it is burnt away in the seed by the knowledge of\ntruth, when it cannot vegetate any more.\n\n11. This mind is no more inclined to any thing, who has burnt away the\nseed of his desire at once; he remains untouched by pleasure and pain,\nlike the lotus-leaf amidst the water.\n\n12. Now therefore, O Arjuna! do you remain calm and quiet in your\nspirit, be undaunted and devoid of all desire in your mind; melt\ndown the mist of your mental delusion by the heat of your _nirv\u00e1na_\ndevotion, and from all that you have learnt from my holy lecture to\nyou, remain in perfect tranquillity with your reliance in the Supreme\nspirit.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LVIII.\n\nARJUNA'S SATISFACTION AT THE SERMON.\n\nArgument:--The knowledge of truth dispels the doubts, and leads to\ndisplay his valorous deeds in warfare.\n\n\nArjuna said:--Lord! it is by thy kindness, that I am freed from my\ndelusion, and have come to the reminiscence of myself. I am now placed\nabove all doubts, and will act as you have said.\n\n2. The Lord replied:--when you find the feelings and faculties of\nyour heart and mind, to be fully pacified by means of your knowledge;\nthen understand your soul to have attained its tranquillity, and the\nproperty of goodness or purity of its nature. (Sattwa Swabh\u00e1va).\n\n3. In this state, the soul becomes insensible of all mental thoughts,\nand full of intelligence in itself; and being freed from all inward and\noutward perceptions, it perceives in itself the one Brahma who is all\nand everywhere.\n\n4. No worldly being can observe this elevated state of the soul, as no\nbody can see the bird that has fled from the earth into the upper sky.\n\n5. The pure soul which is devoid of desire, becomes full of\nintelligence and spiritual light; and it is not to be perceived by even\nthe foresighted observer. (It is the soul's approximation to the Divine\nstate).\n\n6. No body can perceive this transcendental and transparent state of\nthe soul, without purifying his desires at first; it is a state as\nimperceptible to the impure, as the minutest particle of an atom, is\nunperceivable by the naked eye.\n\n7. Attainment of this state, drives away the knowledge of all sensible\nobjects as of pots, plates, and others. What thing therefore is so\ndesirable, as to be worth desiring before the Divine presence.\n\n8. As the frost and ice melt away before a volcanic mountain, so doth\nour ignorance fly afar, from the knowledge of the intellectual soul.\n(_i.e._ Intellectual knowledge drives away all ignorance before it).\n\n9. What are these mean desires of us, that blow away like the dust of\nthe earth, and what are our possessions and enjoyments but snares to\nentangle our souls?\n\n10. So long doth our ignorance (avidy\u00e1) flaunt herself in her various\nshapes, as we remain ignorant of the pure and modest nature of our\ninmost souls in ourselves. (Self-knowledge is shy and modest, while\nignorance is full of vanity and boast).\n\n11. All outward appearances fade away and faint (before the naked eye),\nand appear in their pellucid forms in the inmost soul, which grasps the\nwhole in itself, as the vacuum contains the plenum in it.\n\n12. That which shows all forms in it, without having or showing\nany form of itself; is that transcendent substance which is beyond\ndescription, and transcends our comprehension of it.\n\n13. Now get rid of the poisonous and cholic pain of your desire of\ngain, as also of the permanence of your own existence; mutter to\nyourself the mantra of your resignation of desirables, and thus prosper\nin the world without fear for anything.\n\n14. Vasishtha said:--After the Lord of the three worlds had spoken the\nwords, Arjuna remained silent for a moment before him; and then like\na bee sitting beside a blue lotus, uttered the following words to the\nsable bodied Krishna.\n\n15. Arjuna said:--Lord! Thy words have dispelled all grief from my\nheart, and the light of truth is rising in my mind; as when the sun\nrises to awaken the closed and sleeping lotus.\n\n16. Vasishtha said:--After saying so, Arjuna being cleared of all\nhis doubts, laid hold on his G\u00e1nd\u00edva bow, and rose with Hari for his\ncharioteer, in order to proceed to his warlike exploits.\n\n17. He will transform the face of the earth to a sea of blood, gushing\nout of the bodies of combatants, their charioteers and horses and\nelephants that will be wounded by him; the flights of his arrows and\nthickening darts, will hide the disk of the sun in the sky, and darken\nthe face of the earth with flying dust.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LIX.\n\nKNOWLEDGE OF THE LATENT AND INSCRUTABLE SOUL.\n\nArgument:--The incomprehensible nature of God, expressed by indefinite\npredicates, and his Latency in the works of creation.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--Keep this lesson in view, O R\u00e1ma! and know\nit as the purifier of all sins; remain in your resignation of all\nattachments, and resign yourself to God.\n\n2. Know the Supreme soul, in which all things reside, from which\neverything has issued, and which is everything itself on all sides of\nus; it is changed through all, and is ever the same in itself.\n\n3. It seems to be afar though it is nearest to us, it appears to be\nubiquitous though ever situated in everything. It is by that essence\nthou livest, and it is undoubtedly what thou art thyself. (There is but\none unity pervading over all varieties).\n\n4. Know that to be the highest predicament, which is above the\nknowables, and is knowledge or intelligence by itself; which is beyond\nour thoughts and thinkables, and is the thinking principle or intellect\nitself. (Beyond thought Divine. Milton).\n\n5. It is preeminent consciousness and that supreme felicity, and\npassing wonder of our sight; which surpasses the majesty of majesties,\nand is the most venerable of venerables.\n\n6. This thing is the soul and its cognition, it is vacuum which is the\nimmensity of the supreme Brahma; it is the chief good (summum Bonum)\nwhich is felicity and tranquillity itself; and it is full knowledge or\nomniscience, and the highest of all states.\n\n7. The soul that abides in the intellect, and is of the form of the\nconception of all things: that which feels and perceives every thing,\nand remains by its own essence.\n\n8. It is the soul of the universe, like the oil of the sesame seed; it\nis the pith of the arbor of the world, its light and life of all its\nanimal beings.\n\n9. It is the thread connecting all beings together like pearls in a\nnecklace, which is suspended on the breast of empty air; (the sutr\u00e1tma\nthat connects all nature). It is the flavour of all things like the\npungency of pepper.\n\n10. It is the essence of all substance (ens entium) and a verity which\nis the most excellent of all the truth of truths; it is the goodness\nof whatever is good, and the great or greatest good in itself.\n\n11. Which by its omniscience becomes the all that is present in its\nknowledge, and which we take by our misjudgment for real entities in\nthis world (when our ignorance mistakes the manifest world for its\nlatent cause).\n\n12. We take ourselves the world in mistake of the soul, but all these\nmistaken entities vanish away before the light of reason.\n\n13. The vacuum of Brahma or the space occupied by the Divine spirit,\nis without its beginning and end, and cannot be comprehended within\nthe limited space of our souls; knowing this for certain, the wise are\nemployed in their outward duties.\n\n14. That man is freed from his rising and setting (ups and downs), who\nrests always in the equanimity of his soul, and whose mind is never\nelated nor dejected at any event, but ever retains the evenness of its\ntenor.\n\n15. He whose mind is as vacant as the empty air, is called a mah\u00e1tm\u00e1 or\ngreat soul, and his mind resting in the state of unity, remains with\nthe body in a state of sound sleep. (But this evenness is inadmissible\nin business and behaviour to a preceptor. So it is said, [Sanskrit:\nmostly illegible].)\n\n16. The man of business also who preserves the evenness of his mind,\nremains as undisturbed under the press of his duties, as the reflexion\nof one in a mirror. They are both the same, being but shadows of\nreality.\n\n17. He who retains the impression in his mind, in their even and\nunvaried state, like images in a mirror, is himself as a reflexion in\nthe Divine Intellect. (All beings live and move inseparably in the\nintellect of God. Gloss).\n\n18. So let a man discharge the customary duties of life as they occur\nto him, with the pure transparent of his mind; as all the creatures of\nGod perform their several parts, like images imprinted in the divine\nintellect.\n\n19. There is no unity nor duality in the divine intellect, (where the\nimages are neither inseparably attached to nor detached from it); the\napplication of the words I and thou to one or the other is all relate\nto the same, and they have come to use from the instruction of our\nelders. (Human language is learned by imitation).\n\n20. The intellect which of itself is tranquil in itself (_i.e._ in its\nown nature), acts its wonders in itself (_i.e._ displays or developes\nitself in the very intellect); it is the pulsation of intellect which\ndisplays the universe, as its _vivarta_ or development, and this\npulsation is the Omnipotence of God.\n\n21. The pulsation of the Divine Intellect being put to a stop, there\nensues a cessation of the course of the universe, and as it with the\nsupreme Intellect, so it is with its parts of individual intellects,\nwhose action and inaction spread out and curb the sphere of their\nthoughts.\n\n22. What is called consciousness or its action, is a non entity in\nnature; and that which is a mere vacuum, is said to be the subtile body\nof the Intellect. (_i.e._ The intellectual powers have no material\nforms).\n\n23. The world appears as an entity, by our thinking it as such; but it\nvanishes upon our ceasing to think as such, like the disappearance of\nfigures in a picture, when it is burnt down to ashes.\n\n24. The world appears as one with the Deity, to one who sees the unity\nonly in himself; it is the vibration of the intellect only, that caused\nthe revolution of worlds, as the turning of a potters wheel (is caused\nby the rotatory motion given to it).\n\n25. As the measure, shape and form of the ornament are not different\nfrom the gold, so the action of the intellect, is not separate from\nit; and it is this which forms the world, as the gold, becomes the\nornament and the world and intellect are the same thing, as the\nornament and its gold.\n\n26. The mind is the pulsation of the intellect, and it is want of this\nknowledge that frames a separate world; as it is ignorance of the gold\nwork, that makes the jewel appear as another thing.\n\n27. The mind being wholly absorbed in the intellect, there remains\nthis pure intellect alone; as the nature of one's self or soul being\nknown, there is an end of worldly enjoyments. (He that has known the\nintellectual world, is not deluded by his sensuous mind; and whoever\nhas tasted his spiritual bliss, does not thirst for sensual pleasures).\n\n28. Disregard of enjoyments is an education of the highest wisdom;\nhence no kind of enjoyments is acceptable to the wise: (cursed are they\nthat hunger and thirst for enjoyments of this world).\n\n29. Know this to be another indication of wisdom, that no man that has\neaten to satiety has ever a zest for any bad food that is offered to\nhim. (_i.e._ No sensual pleasure is delectable before spiritual bliss).\n\n30. Another sign of wisdom is our natural aversion, to enjoyments, and\nis the sense of one's perception of all pleasures, in the vibrations of\nhis intellect (_i.e._ the mind is the store house of all pleasures).\n\n31. He is known as a wise man, who has this good habit of his deeply\nrooted in his mind, and he is said to be an intelligent man, who\nrefrains from enjoying whatever is enjoyable in this world. (For thy\nshall hunger hereafter, who stuff themselves with plenty here below.\nSt. Mathew Ch. v).\n\n32. Again whoso pursues after his perfection, in pursuance of the\nexamples of others, doth strike the air with a stick, or beat the bush\nin vain in search of the same, because it requires sincerity of purpose\nto be successful in anything (and not the bodily practices of the\nignorant, as they do in _Hatha Yoga_).\n\n33. Some times they emaciate and torture the body in order to have a\nfull view of the inner soul (because they think to be an envelope of\nthe soul, and an obstruction to its full sight); but the intellectual\nsoul, being settled in a thousand objects of its intelligence, it\nsees only errors instead of the light of the soul. (So the hermits,\nascetics, monks, and friars emaciate their bodies, and the religious\nfanatics torture their persons in vain).\n\n34. So long doth the unconscious spirit flutter in its fickleness,\nand goes on roving from one object to another; as the light of the\nunderstanding do not rise and shine within it. (The ignorant are\nstrangers to rest and quiet).\n\n35. But no sooner doth the light of the tranquil intellect, appear\nin its brightness within the inward soul; than the flattering of the\nfickle spirit is put to flight, like the flickering of a lamp after it\nis extinguished.\n\n36. There is no such thing as vibration nor suspension of the tranquil\nspirit; because the quiescent soul neither moves forward or backward,\nnor has its motion in any direction.\n\n37. The soul that is neither unconscious of itself, nor has any\nvibration in it, is said to be calm and quiet; and as it remains in the\nstate of its indifference to vibrations, and gains its forms of pure\ntransparence, it is no more liable to its bondage in life, nor inquires\nits _moksha_ liberation to set it free from regeneration.\n\n38. The soul that is settled in itself (or the supreme soul), has no\nfear of bondage nor need of its liberation also; and the intellect\nbeing without its intellection, or having no object to dwell upon,\nbecomes unconscious both of its Existence as well as extinction. (One\nthat is absorbed in his self meditation, is unconscious of everything\n_in-esse et non-esse_).\n\n39. He that is full in himself with the spirit of God, is equally\nignorant both of his bondage and liberation; because the desire\nof being liberated, indicates want of one's self sufficiency and\nperfection (or rather the sense of his bondage, from which he wants to\nbe liberated).\n\n40. \"Let me then have my equanimity and not my liberation.\" This desire\nis also a bondage in itself; and it is the unconsciousness of these,\nwhich is reckoned as our chief good. For know the Supreme state to be\nthat, which is pure intelligence and without a shadow.\n\n41. The restoration of the intellect to its proper form consists in\ndivesting it of all its intelligibles; and that form of it (which is\nmarked by desire or the prurient soul), is no more than the oscillation\nof the great Intellect. (All animal souls are vibrations of the Divine\nspirit).\n\n42. That only is subject to bondage and liberation, which is seen and\ndestructible in its nature (_i.e._ the visible and perishable body);\nand not the invisible soul, which take the name of ego, and has no\nposition nor form or figure of itself.\n\n43. We know not what thing it is, that is brought under or loosened\nfrom bondage by any one. It is not the pure desire which the wise form\nfor themselves, and does not affect the body. (It is the vibration of\nmind acting upon the body, and causing its actions that subjects to\nBondage).\n\n44. It is therefore, that the wise practise the restraint of their\nrespiring breath, in order to restraint their desires and actions; and\nbeing devoid of these, they become as the pure Intellect.\n\n45. These being suppressed, the idea of the world is lost in the\ndensity of the intellect; because the thoughts of the mind, are caused\nby the vibration of the intellect only (and set in also in the same).\n\n46. Thus there remains nothing, nor any action of the body or mind,\nexcept the vibration of the intellect; and the phenomenal world is no\nother, than a protracted dream from one sight to another. The learned\nare not deluded by these appearances, which they know to be exhibitions\nof their own minds.\n\n47. Know in thy meditation within thyself that recondite soul, which\ngives rise to our consciousness of the essences of things, appearing\nincessantly before us; and in which all these phantasms of our brain,\ndissolve as dirt in the water; and in which all our perceptions and\nconceptions of the passing world are flowing on as in a perpetual\nstream.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LX.\n\nOF THE MAJESTY AND GRANDEUR OF GOD.\n\nArgument.--Manifestation of mysterious magic of the one, uniform and\npure Monad in multiform shapes, as a display of his all Comprehensive\nplenitude fullness.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--Such is the first great truth concerning the\nsolidity or of the Divine Intellect, that contains the gigantic forms\nof Brahm\u00e1, Vishnu and Siva in it.\n\n2. It is by means of the greatness of God, that all people are as gaudy\nas great princes in their several spheres; and are ever exulting in\ntheir power of floating and traversing in the regions of open air.\n(This means both the flight of bird, as well as aerial rambles of\nYogis).\n\nThe Taittir\u00edya Upanishad says:--God has filled the world with joy,\nand the minute insect is as joyous as the victorious prince: meaning\nhereby, that God has given to every being its particular share of\nhappiness.\n\n3. It is by their dwelling in the spirit of God, that the earth born\nmortals are as happy as the inhabitants of heaven; (That have nothing\nto desire); nay they are free from the pain of sorrow and released from\nthe pangs of death, that have come unto the Lord--(O death where is thy\nsting, O grave where thy victory? Pope).\n\n4. Yes, they live in Him that have found him, and are not to be\nrestrained by any body; provided they have but taken their refuge under\nthe overspreading umbrage of the supreme spirit.\n\n5. He who meditates for a moment, on the universal essence of all (as\nthe ens entium); he becomes liberated in an instant, and lives as a\nliberal minded sage or _muni_ on earth. (The sage that sees his God in\nall and every where through out all nature).\n\n6. He does what are his duties in this world, and never grieves in\ndischarging them. R\u00e1ma said:--How is it possible, Sir, to meditate on\nthe universal soul in all things, when the sage has buried his mind,\nunderstanding and his egoism and himself in the unity of God? And how\ncan the soul be viewed in the plurality, when all things have been\nabsorbed in the unity?\n\n7. Vashistha replied:--The God that dwells in all bodies, moves them\nto their actions, and receives their food and drink in himself,\nthat produces all things and annihilates them at last, is of course\nunknowable to our consciousness (which is conscious of itself only).\n\n8. Now it is this indwelling principle in every thing, that is without\nbeginning and end, and inherent in the nature of all; is called the\ncommon essence of all, because it constitutes the _tattwa_ identity (or\nessential nature or the abstract property) of everything in the world.\n\n9. It dwells as vacuity in the vacuum, and as sonorousness in sound;\nit is situated as feeling in whatever is felt, and as taction in the\nobjects of touch.\n\n10. It is the taste of all tastables, and the tasting of the tongue;\nit is the light of all objects of sight, and vision of the organs of\nseeing.\n\n11. It is the sense of smell in the act of smelling, and the odour\nin all odorous substance; it is the plumpness of the body, and the\nsolidity and stability of the earth.\n\n12. It is the fluidity of liquids and the flatulence of air; it is the\nflame and flash of fire, and the cogitation of the understanding.\n\n13. It is the thinking principle of the thoughtful mind, and the ego\nof our egoism; it is the consciousness of the conscious soul, and the\nsensible heart.\n\n14. It is the power of vegetation in vegetables, and the perspective in\nall pictures and paintings; it is the capacity of all pots and vessels,\nand the tallness of stately trees.\n\n15. It is the immobility of immovables, and the mobility of movable\nbodies; it is the dull insensibility of stones and blocks, and the\nintelligence of intelligent beings.\n\n16. It is the immortality and god-head of the immortal gods, and\nhumanity of human beings; it is the curvedness of crooked beasts, and\nthe supine proneness of crawling and creeping insects.\n\n17. It is the current in the course of time, and the revolution and\naspects of the seasons; it is the fugacity of fleeting moments, and the\nendless duration of eternity.\n\n18. It is the whiteness of whatever is white, and blackness of all that\nis black; it is activity in all actions, and it is stern fixity in the\ndoings of destiny.\n\n19. The supreme spirit is quiescent in all that is sedate, and lasting\nand evanescent in whatever is passing and perishing; and he shows his\nproductiveness in the production of things.\n\n20. He is the childhood of children, and the youth of young men; he\nshows himself as fading in the decay and decline of beings, and as his\nextinction in their death and demise.\n\n21. Thus the all pervading soul, is not apart from anything, as the\nwaves and froths of the foaming sea, are no way distinct from its body\nof waters.\n\n22. These multiformities of things are all unrealities, and taken for\ntrue in our ignorance of the unity; which multiplies itself in our\nimagination, as children create and produce false apparitions from\ntheir unsound understandings. (These as they change are not the varied\ngod as it is generally supposed to be, but various workings of the\nintellect).\n\n23. It is I, says the lord, that am situated every where, and it is I\nthat pervade the whole; and fill it with all varieties at pleasure;\nknow therefore, O high minded R\u00e1ma! that all these varieties are\nbut creatures of imagination in the mind of God, and are thence\nreflected into the mirror of our minds. Knowing this rest in the\ncalm tranquillity of your soul, and enjoy the undisturbed solace and\nhappiness of your high mind.\n\n24. V\u00e1lm\u00edki said:--As the sage was saying these things, the day\npassed away under its evening shade; the sun sank down in its evening\ndevotion, and the assembly broke with mutual salutations to the\nperformance of their eventide ablutions, until they reassembled on the\nnext morning.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXI.\n\nDESCRIPTION OF THE WORLD AS A PASSING DREAM.\n\nArgument:--How our firm faith arises over this entity, and its answer.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma said:--As we are, Oh sage! a dream drawn house, the body of the\nlotus-born Brahm\u00e1--the first progenitor, is the same no doubt.\n\n2. And if this world is a non-entity--_asat_, we must know our\nexistence the same, then how is it possible to arise the firm faith\nover this entity--_sat_.\n\n3. Vasishtha responded:--We are shining here as a created being by the\nprevious birth of Brahm\u00e1, but in fact, the reflexion of soul shines for\never, nothing besides.\n\n4. Owing to the omnipresence of consciousness, all beings exist as\nreality every where, and if she rises from unreal knowledge, she as\nreal knowledge destroys the unreal one. (vice-versa).\n\n5. Therefore whatever comes from these five elements, is but\ntransitory, but owing to the firm belief on _ego_, we enjoy a firm\nfaith for the same.\n\n6. In a dream, we see good many things as reality; but as soon the\ndream is over, we do not find the things dreamt of; so we see the\nreality of the world; as long we remain in ignorance.\n\n7. Oh R\u00e1ma! as the dreaming man counts his dream as reality, owing to\nhis faith on it; so this world appears a reality, like the supreme God\nwho has no beginning and end.\n\n8. That which is to be created by the dreaming man, is to be called his\nown; as we can say by guessing knowledge, what is in the seed, is in\nthe fruit.\n\n9. Whatever comes from non-entity, is to be called non-entity; and that\nwhich is unreal though it can be workable, is not reasonable to think\ngood.\n\n10. As the thinking result of unreality is to be given up, so the firm\nfaith which is arising by the dreaming man; is to be given up likewise.\n\n11. Whatever soul creates in dream is our firm belief, but that remains\nonly for a time being (hence it is _asat_--non-entity).\n\n12. Brahm\u00e1's long drawn portion is this entity, hence we think also the\nsame, but in fact, this entity is a moment to Brahm\u00e1.\n\n13. Consciousness is the creator of all elements, she creates every\nthing according to her model, hence creator and creation are one and\nthe same.\n\n14. As the backward and forward whirling motion of water, makes the\ndeep to swell, and as also fairy comes near in a dream, so all these\nare in reality nothing.\n\n15. So this entity with its change (of creation, sustentation and\ndestruction) is nothing. In whatever manner we look [at the] object,\nthat will appear in return in the same manner.\n\n16. The rule of the erroneous dream is not to reproduce (in waking\nstate, what it produces in sleeping state, though it has a power to\ncreate something out of nothing) as the production is not in the world,\nbut owing to ignorance it appears so.\n\n17. In the three worlds we see wondrous objects, as we see fire burning\nin the water like a sub-marine fire.\n\n18. Good many cities exist in vacuity, as birds and stars remain in the\nsky. We find lotus in a stone like trees growing without an earth.\n\n19. One country gives every kind of object to the seeker, like a tree\nthat gives all objects to the seeker (Kalpa taru) and also we see in a\nstone and rows of jewels (that is counting beads) giving fruits like\nfruitful trees.\n\n20. Life exists within a stone (S\u00e1lgram) as frog exists. Stone gives\nwater as moon-stone gives.\n\n21. In a dream within a minute good many things can be made and unmade,\nwhich in fact, are unreal like one's death in a dream.\n\n22. The natural water of the elements remains in the sky, (that is, in\nthe cloud), when the heavenly river _Mand\u00e1kin\u00ed_ remains in vacuity.\n\n23. The heavy stone flies in the air, when the winged mountain does so.\nEvery thing to be got in stone, when every thing can be secured from\nthe philosopher's stone.\n\n24. In the garden of bliss of Indra every desired object to be got, but\nin salvation such kind of desired object is wanting.\n\n25. Even dull matter acts like machine, hence every object acts like\nwonderful erroneous magic.\n\n26. By magical art (that is, Gandharva vidy\u00e1) we see even impossible\nobjects such as two moons, Kavandhas, mantras, drugs, and pishacha. All\nthese are the works of wonderful erroneous magic, which are in fact\nnothing.\n\n27. We see impossibility as real as we see possibility, hence\nimpossibility becomes real by our erroneous ideas only.\n\n28. The erroneous dream though it appears as real is in fact unreal, as\nthat which is not real does not exist, which is real does exist (unity\nis real, duality is unreal, hence existence and non-existence are one\nand the same).\n\n29. So this dreaming creation is looked by all worldly being here as\nreal, as dreamer takes his dream a reality.\n\n30. By passing from one error to another error, from one dream to\nanother, one firm faithful being comes out.\n\n31. As a stray deer falls into the pit repeatedly for green grass, so\nignorant man repeatedly falls into the pit of this world, owing to his\nignorance.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXII.\n\nIN THE NARRATION OF JIVATA AN EXAMPLE OF DOMESTIC AND MENDICANT LIFE\n\nArgument:--Narration of the mendicant Jiv\u00e1ta, in illustration of the\ntransmigration of the soul in various births, according to the variety\nof its insatiable Desire.\n\n\nVasishtha resumed:--Hear me relate to you, R\u00e1ma, the story of a certain\nmendicant, who fostered some desire in his mind, and wandered through\nmany migrations of his soul.\n\n2. There lived a great mendicant at one time, who devoted his life to\nholy devotion, and passed his days in the observance of the rules of\nhis mendicancy. (The state of mendicancy is the third stage of life\nof a Brahman, which is devoted to devotion, and supported by begging\nof the simple subsistence of life. This story applies to all men, who\nare in some way or other devoted to some profession for acquiring the\nnecessaries of life and the more so, as all men have some ultimate\nobject of desire, which is an obstruction to their _Nirv\u00e1na_ or final\nextinction in the Deity. For the lord says in the Gospel, He that\nloveth anything more than me, is not worthy of me).\n\n3. In the intensity of his _Sam\u00e1dhi_ devotion, his mind was purged\nof all its desires; and it became assimilated to the object of its\nmeditation, as the sea water, is changed to the form of waves.\n(_Sam\u00e1dhi_ is defined by Patanjali, as the forgetting of one's self in\nthe object of his meditation).\n\n4. Once as he was sitting on his seat after termination of his\nmeditation, and was intent upon discharging some sacred functions of\nhis order, there chanced to pass a thought over his clear mind (like\nthe shadow of cloud over the midday sky).\n\n5. He looked into the reflexion of the thought, that rose of itself in\nhis mind; that he should reflect for his pleasure, upon the various\nconditions of common people, and the different modes of their life.\n(the proper study of man is man, and the manner of each rightly).\n\n6. All this thought his mind passed from the reflexion of himself and\nhis God, to that of another person; and he lost the calm composure of\nhis mind, as when the quiet sea is disturbed by whirlpool or whirl\nwind. (This desire of the sage disturbed his breast, like the doubt of\nParnell's Hermit).\n\n7. Then he thought in himself to become an ideal man of his own\naccord, and became in an instant the imagined person Jiv\u00e1t\u00e1 by name.\n(Imagination shapes one to what he imagines himself to be).\n\n8. Jiv\u00e1t\u00e1, the ideal man, now roved about like a dreaming person,\nthrough the walks of the imaginary city, which he had raised to\nhimself, as a sleeping man, builds his aerial abodes in dream. (So\nevery man thinks himself as some one, and moves about in his air built\ncity).\n\n9. He drank his fill at pleasure, as a giddy bee sips the honey from\nlotus cups; he became plump and hearty with his sports, and enjoyed\nsound sleep from his want of care.\n\n10. He saw himself in the form of a Brahman in his dream, who was\npleased with his studies and the discharge of his religious duties; and\nas he reflected himself as such he was transformed to the same state,\nas a man is transplanted from one place to another at a thought. (He\nmakes the man, and places him in every state and place).\n\n11. The good Brahman who was observant of his daily ritual, fell asleep\none day into a deep trance, and dreamt himself doing the duties of the\nday, as the seed hid in shell, performs inwardly its act of vegetation.\n\n12. The same Brahman saw himself changed to a chieftain in his dream,\nand the same chief ate and drank and slept as any other man in general.\n\n13. The chief again thought himself as a king in his dream, who ruled\nover the earth extending to the horizon; and was beset by all kinds of\nenjoyments, as a creeper is studded with flowers.\n\n14. Once as this prince felt himself at ease, he fell into a sound\nsleep free from all cares, and saw the future consequences of his\nactions, as the effect is attached to the cause, or the flowers are the\nforth-comings of the tree.\n\n15. He saw his soul assuming the form of a heavenly maid, as the pith\nof a plant puts forth itself in its flowers and fruits, (what is at the\nbottom, comes out on the top; and what is the root, sprouts forth in\nthe tree).\n\n16. As this heavenly maid was lulled to sleep by her weariness and\nfatigue, she beheld herself turn into a deer, as the calm ocean finds\nitself disturbed into eddies and waves (by its inner caves and outward\nwinds).\n\n17. As this timorous fawn with her fickle eyes, fell into a sound sleep\nat one time; she beheld herself transformed to a creeping plant (which\nshe likes to browse upon so fondly in her pasture).\n\n18. The crooked beasts of the field and the creeping plants of forest,\nhave also their sleep and dream of their own nature; the dreams being\ncaused by what they saw and heard and felt in their waking states.\n\n19. This creeper came to be beautified in times, with its beautiful\nfruits, flowers and leaves, and formed a bower for the seat of the\nfloral goddess of the woods.\n\n20. It hid in its heart the wishes that grew in it, in the same manner\nas the seed conceals in its embryo the germ of the would be tree; and\nat last saw itself in its inward consciousness, to be full of frailty\nand failings.\n\n21. It had remained long in its sleep and rest, but being disgusted\nwith its drowsy dullness, it thought of being the fleeting bee its\nconstant guest, and found itself to be immediately changed to a\nfluttering bee (which it had fed with its farinaceous food).\n\n22. The bee roved at pleasure over the tender and blossoming creepers\nin the forest, and let on the petals of blooming lotuses, as a fond\nlover courts his mistresses.\n\n23. It roved about the blossoms, blooming as brightening pearls in the\nair; and drank the nectarious Juice from the flower cups, as a lover\nsips the nectar from the rubied lips of the beloved.\n\n24. He became enamoured of the lotus of the lake, and sat silent upon\nits thorny stalk on the water; for such is the fondness of fools, even\nfor what is painful to them.\n\n25. The lake was often infested by elephants, who tore and trampled\nover the beds of lotus bushes; because it is a pleasure to the\nmalignant base, to lay waste the fair works of God. (The black big\nand bulky elephants, are said to be invidious of the fair and pretty\nlotuses; hence the elephant is used as symbolical of the devil, the\ndestroyer of all good).\n\n26. The fond bee meets the fate of its fondling lotus, and is crushed\nunder the tusk of the elephant, as the rice is ground under the teeth.\n(Such is the fate of overfondness for the fair).\n\n27. The little bee seeing the big body and might of the mighty\nelephant, took a fancy of being as such; and by his imagining himself\nas so, he was instantly converted to one of the like kind (not in its\nperson but in the mind). (Thus is a lesson, that no one is content with\nhimself, but wishes to be the envied or desired being).\n\n28. At last the elephant fell down into a hollow pit, which was as deep\nand dry as the dried bed of a gulf; as a man falls into the profound\nand inane ocean of this world, which is overcast by an impervious\ndarkness around. (The troublesome world is always compared with a\nturbulent and darksome ocean).\n\n29. The elephant was a favourite of the prince for his defeating the\nforces of his adversaries; and he routed about at random with his giddy\nmight, as the lawless Daitya robbers wander about at night.\n\n30. He fell afterwards under the sword of the enemy, and pierced all\nover his body by their deadly darts; as the haughty egoism of the\nliving body, drops down in the soul under the wound of right reason.\n\n31. The dying elephant having been accustomed to see swarms of bees,\nfluttering over the proboscis of elephants, and sipping the ichor\nexuding from them, had long cherished the desire of becoming a bee,\nwhich he now came to be in reality.\n\n32. The bee rambled at large amidst the flowery creepers of the\nforest, and resorted again to the bed of lotuses in the lake; because\nit is hard for fools to get rid of their fond desire, though it is\nattended with danger and peril.\n\n33. At last the sportive bee was trampled down and crushed under the\nfeet of an elephant, and become a goose, by its long association with\none in the lake.\n\n34. The goose passed through many lives, till it became gander at last,\nand sported with the geese in the lake.\n\n35. Here it came to bear, the name of the gander that served as the\nvehicle of Brahm\u00e1, and thenceforth fostered the idea of his being so,\nas the yolk of an egg fosters a feathered fowl in it.\n\n36. As it was fostering this strong desire in itself, it grew old and\ndecayed by disease, as a piece of wood is eaten up by inbred worms;\nthen as he died with his consciousness of being the bird of Brahm\u00e1, he\nwas born as the great stork of that God in his next birth.\n\n37. The stork lived there in the company of the wise, he became\nenlightened from the views of worldly beings; he continued for ages in\nhis disembodied liberation, and cared for nothing in future. (The soul\nthat rests in the spirit of God, has nothing better to desire).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXIII.\n\nDREAM OF J\u00cdV\u00c1TA.\n\nArguments:--All living souls are occupied with the thought of their\npresent state, forgetful of the past, and altogether heedless of the\nfuture.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--This bird that sported beside the stalk of the\nlotus seat of Brahm\u00e1, once went to the city of Rudra with his god on\nhis back, and there beheld the God Rudra face to face. (The inferior\nGods waited upon the superior deities).\n\n2. Seeing the God Rudra he thought himself to be so, and the figure of\nthe God was immediately imprest upon his mind, like the reflexion of an\noutward object in the mirror.\n\n3. Being full of Rudra in himself, he quitted his body of the bird,\nas the fragrance of a flower forsakes the calyx, as it mixes with the\nbreeze and flies in the open air.\n\n4. He passed his time happily at that place, in the company with the\nattendants and different classes of the dependant divinities of Rudra.\n\n5. This Rudra being then full of the best knowledge of divinity and\nspirituality; looked back in his understanding into the passed accounts\nof his prior lives, that were almost incalculable.\n\n6. Being then gifted with clear sightedness and clairvoyance, he was\nastonished at the view of naked truths, that appeared to him as sights\nin a dream, which he recounted to him as follows.\n\n7. O! how wonderful is this over spreading illusion, which is stretched\nall about us, and fascinates the world by its magic _wand_; it exhibits\nthe palpable untruth as positive truth, as the dreary desert presents\nthe appearance of limpid waters, in the sun beams spreading over its\nsterile sands.\n\n8. I well remember my primary state of the pure intellect, and its\nconversion to the state of the mind; and how it was changed from its\nsupremacy and omniscience, to the bondage of the limited body.\n\n9. It was by its own desire that the living soul assumed to itself a\nmaterial body, formed and fashioned agreeably to its fancy, like a\npicture drawn in a painting; and became a mendicant in my person in one\nof its prior births, when it was unattached to the objects exposed to\nview all around.\n\n10. The same mendicant sat in his devotion, by controlling the actions\nof the members of his body, and began to reflect on outward objects,\nwith great pleasure in his mind.\n\n11. He buried all his former thoughts in oblivion, and thought only of\nthe object that he was employed to reflect upon; and this thought so\nengrossed and worked upon his mind, that it prevented the rise of any\nother thought in it.\n\n12. The phenomenon which appears in the mind, offers itself solely to\nthe view also (by supplanting the traces of the past); as the brownness\nof fading autumn, supercedes the vernal verdure of leaves and plants,\nso the man coming to his maturity, forgets the helpless state of his\nboyhood, and is thoughtless of his approaching decay and decline.\n\n13. Thus the mendicant became the Brahman Jiv\u00e1t\u00e1 by his fallible and\nfickle desire, which laid him to wander from one body to another, as\nlittle ants enter into the holes of houses and things.\n\n14. Being fond of Brahmahood and reverential to Br\u00e1hmans in his mind,\nhe became the wished for person in his own body; because the reality\nand unreality have the power of mutually displacing one another,\naccording to the greater influence of either. (The weaker yields and\nmakes room to the stronger, like the survival of the fittest).\n\n15. The Br\u00e1hman next obtained the chieftainship, from his strong\npredilection for the same; just as the tree becomes fruitful by its\ncontinuous suction of the moisture of earth. (The common mother of all).\n\n16. Being desirous of dispensing justice, and discharging all legal\naffairs, the general wished for royalty, and had his wishes fulfilled\nby this becoming a prince; but as the prince was over fond of his\ncourtesans, he was transformed to a heavenly nymph that he prized above\nall in his heart.\n\n17. But as the celestial dame prized the tremulous eye sight of the\ntimorous deer, above her heavenly form and station; she was soon\nmetamorphosed to an antelope in the woods, and destined to graze as a\nmiserable beast for her foolish choice.\n\n18. The fawn that was very fond of browzing the tender blades and\nleaves, became at last the very creeping plant, that had crept into the\ncrevice of her lickerish mind.\n\n19. The creeper being long accustomed to dote on the bee, that used to\nbe in its company; found in its consciousness to be that insect, after\nthe destruction of its vegetable form.\n\n20. Though well aware of its being crushed under the elephant, together\nwith the lotus flower in which it dwelt, yet it was foolish to take the\nform of the bee, for its pleasure of roving about the world. (So the\nliving soul enters into various births and bodies only to perish with\nthem).\n\n21. Being thus led into a hundred different forms, said he, I\nam at last become the self-same Rudra; and it is because of the\ncapriciousness of my erratic mind in this changeful world.\n\n22. Thus have I wandered through the variegated paths of life, in this\nwilderness of the world; and I have roamed in many aerial regions, as\nif I trod on solid and substantial ground.\n\n23. In some one of my several births under the name of _Jiv\u00e1ta_, and\nin another I became a great and respectable Br\u00e1hman, I became quite\nanother person again, and then found myself as a ruler and lord of the\nearth. (So every man thinks and acts himself, now as one person and in\nthe stage of his life. Shakespeare).\n\n24. I had been a drake in the lotus-bush; and an elephant in the vales\nof Vindhya; I then became a stag in the form of my body, and fleetness\nof my limbs (and in the formation of mind also).\n\n25. After I had deviated at first from my state of godliness, I was\nstill settled in the state of a devotee with devotedness to divine\nknowledge; and practicing the rites befitting my position (such as\nlistening to holy lectures, meditating on the mysteries of nature and\nso forth).\n\n26. In this state I passed very many years and ages, and many a day and\nnight and season and century, glided on imperceptibly in their courses\nover me. (It is said that the sedate and meditative are generally long\nliving men, as we learn in the accounts of the ancient patriarchs, and\nin those of the _yogis_ and _lamas_ in our own times).\n\n27. But I deviated again and again from my wonted course, and was as\noften subjected to new births and forms; until at last I was changed to\nBrahm\u00e1's vehicles of the _hansa_--or _anser_, and this was by virtue of\nmy former good conduct and company.\n\n28. The firm or wonted habit of a living being, must come out\nunobstructed by any hindrance whatsoever; and though it may be retarded\nin many intermediate births for even a millennium; yet it must come and\nlay hold on the person some time or other. (Habit is second nature, and\nis inbred in every being; and what is bred in the bone, must run in the\nblood).\n\n29. It is by accident only, that one has the blessing of some good\ncompany in his life; and then his inborn want may be restrained for a\ntime, but it is sure to break out with violence in the end, in utter\ndefiance of every check and rule.\n\n30. But he who betakes himself to good society only, and strives always\nfor his edification in what is good and great, is able to destroy the\nevil propensities which are inbred in him; because the desire to be\ngood, is what actually makes one so. (Discipline conquers nature).\n\n31. Whatever a man is accustomed to do or think upon constantly, in\nthis life or in the next state of his being; the same appears as a\nreality to him in his waking state of day dream, as unreality appears\nas real in the sleeping or night dream of a man. (It is the imagination\nthat figures unrealities in divers forms both in the day as also in the\nnight dreams of men).\n\n32. Now the thoughts that employ our minds, appoint our bodies also to\ndo their wished for works; and as these works are attended with some\ntemporary good as well as evil also; it is better therefore to restrain\nand repress the rise of those tumultuous thoughts, than cherish them\nfor our pleasure or pain.\n\n33. It is only the thought in our minds, that makes us to take our\nbodies for ourselves or souls; and that stretches wide this world of\nunrealities, as the incased seed sprouts forth and spreads itself into\na bush. (The thought bears the world in it, as the will brings it to\nview).\n\n34. The world is but the thought in sight or a visible form of their\nvisible thought, and nothing more in reality besides this phantasm of\nit, and an illusion of our sight.\n\n35. The illusive appearance of the world, presents itself to our sight,\nlike the variegated hues of the sky, it is therefore by our ignoring of\nit, that we may be enabled to wipe off those tinges from our minds.\n\n36. It is an unreal appearance, displayed by the supreme Essence (of\nGod or His intelligence); as a real existence at his pleasure only, and\ncan not therefore do any harm to any body.\n\n37. I rise now and then to look into all these varieties in nature,\nfor the sake of my pleasure and curiosity; but I have the true light\nof reason in me, whereby I discern the one unity quite apart from all\nvarieties.\n\n38. After all these recapitulations, the incarnate Rudra returned to\nhis former state, and reflected on this condition of the mendicant,\nwhose body was now lying as a dead corpse on the barren ground.\n\n39. He awakened the mendicant and raised his prostrate body, by\ninfusing his intelligence into it; when the resuscitated _Bhikshu_ came\nto understand, that all his wanderings were but hallucinations of his\nmind.\n\n40. The mendicant finding himself the same with Rudra standing in his\npresence, as also with the bygone ones that he recollected in his\nremembrance; was astonished to think how he could be one and so many,\nthough it is no wonder to the intelligent, who well know that one man\nacts many parts in life.\n\n41. Afterwards both Rudra and the mendicant got up from their seats,\nand proceeded to the abode of the _Jiv\u00e1t\u00e1_, situated in corner of the\nintellectual sphere (_i.e._ the mundane world which lies in the divine\nintellect).\n\n42. They then passed over many Continents, Islands, provinces and\ndistricts, until they arrived at the abode of _J\u00edvata_, where they\nfound him lying down with a sword in hand.\n\n43. They saw _Jiv\u00e1t\u00e1_ lying asleep and insensible as a dead body, when\n_Rudra_ laid aside his bright celestial form, in order to enter into\nthe earthly abode of the deceased. (The Gods are said to assume human\nshapes in order to mix with mankind).\n\n44. They brought him back to life and intelligence, by imparting to\nhim portion of their spirit and intellect; and thus was this one soul\nexhibited in the triple forms of _Rudra_, _Jiv\u00e1t\u00e1_ and the mendicant.\n\n45. They with all their intelligence, remained ignorant of one another,\nand they marvelled to look on each other in mute astonishment, as if\nthey were the figures in painting.\n\n46. Then the three went together in their aerial course, to the air\nbuilt abode of the _Brahman_; who had erected his baseless fabric in\nempty air, and which resounded with empty sounds all around. (The open\nair being the receptacle of sounds, the aerial abodes of celestials are\nincessantly infested by the sounds and cries of peoples rising upwards\nfrom the nether world).\n\n47. They passed through many aerial regions, and barren and populous\ntracts of air; until they found out at last the heavenly residence of\nthe Brahman.\n\n48. They saw him sleeping in his house; beset by the members of his\nfamily about him; while his Brahman\u00ed folded her arms about his neck, as\nif unwilling to part with her deceased husband. (The Brahman in heaven,\nwas seen in the state of his parting life).\n\n49. They awakened his drowsy intelligence, by means of their own\nintelligence, as a waking man raises a sleeping soul, by means of his\nown sensibility.\n\n50. Thence they went on in their pleasant journey to the realms of the\nchief and the prince mentioned before; and these were situated in the\nbright regions of their intellectual sphere, and illumined by their\neffulgence of the intellect. (It means to say, that all these journeys,\nplaces and persons, were but reveries of the mind, and creations of\nfancy).\n\n51. Having arrived at that region and that very spot, they observed the\nhaughty chief lying on his lotus like bed.\n\n52. He lay with his gold coloured body, in company with the partner of\nhis bed of golden hue; as the honey sucking bee lies in the lotus cell,\nenfolded in the embrace of his mate.\n\n53. He was beset by his mistresses, hanging about him, like the tender\nstalks and tufts of flowers pendent upon a tree; and was encircled by\na belt of lighted lamps, as when a golden plate is studded about by\nbrilliant gems.\n\n54. They awakened him shortly by infusing their own spirit and\nintelligence in his body and mind, and then they sat together\nmarvelling at each other, as the self-same man in so many forms (or the\nself-same person in so many bodies).\n\n55. They next repaired to the palace of the prince, and after awakening\nhim with their intelligence, they all roamed about the different parts\nof the world.\n\n56. They came at last to the _hansa_ of Brahm\u00e1, and being all\ntransformed to that form in their minds (_i.e._ having come to know the\n_ahamsa_ I am he or their self-identity); They all became the one Rudra\nPersonality in a hundred persons.\n\n57. Thus the one intellect is represented in different forms and\nshapes, according to the various inclinations of their minds, like so\nmany figures in a painting. Such is the unity of the deity represented\nas different personalities, according to the various tendencies of\nindividual minds. (There is the same intellect and soul in all living\nbeings, that differ from one another in their minds only).\n\n58. There a hundred Rudras, who are the forms of the uncovered\nintellect (_i.e._ unclouded by mists of error); and they are acquainted\nwith the truths of all things in the world, and the secrets of all\nhearts (_antary\u00e1min_).\n\n59. There are a hundred and some hundreds of Rudras, who are known\nas very great beings in the world; among whom there are eleven only\n(Ek\u00e1dasa Rudras), that are situated in so many worlds (Ek\u00e1dasa\nBhubanas). (The Vedas have thousands and thousands of Rudras in their\nhymns as to them, as, [Sanskrit: sahashrena sahashrasah ye rudr\u00e1\nadhibh\u00famy\u00e1]).\n\n60. All living beings that are not awakened to reason, are ignorant of\nthe identity of one another; and view them in different and not in the\nsame light; they are not farsighted to see any other world. That which\nis the most proximate to them.\n\n61. Wise men see the minds of others and all things to rise in their\nminds, like the wave rising in the sea; but unenlightened minds remain\ndormant in themselves, like the inert stones and blocks. (Another\nexplanation of it is, that all wise men are of the same mind as Birbal\nsaid to Akbar:--Sao Siyane ekmat\u00e1).\n\n62. As the waves mix with themselves, by the fluidity of their waters;\nso the minds of wise unite with one another, by the solubility of\ntheir understandings, like elastic fluids and liquids. (So says\nMrityunjaya:--the oily or serous understanding ([Sanskrit: tailavat\nvunvih]) readily penetrates into the minds of others).\n\n63. Now in all these multitudes of living beings, that are presented\nto our sight in this world; We find the one invariable element of the\nintellect to be diffused in all of them, and making unreal appear as\nreal ones to view.\n\n64. This real but invisible entity of the Divine intellect remains\nfor ever, after all the unreal but visible appearances disappear into\nnothing; as there remains an empty space or hollow vacuity, after the\nremoval of a thing from its place, and the excavation of the ground by\ndigging it. (This empty vacuum with the _chit_ or Intellect in it, is\nthe universal God of the vacuist Vasishtha).\n\n65. As you can well conceive the idea of existence, of the quintuple\nelemental principles in nature; so you can comprehend also the notion\nof the Omnipresence of the Divine intellect, which is the substratum of\nthe elemental principles.\n\n66. As you see various statues and images, carved in stone and woods,\nand set in the hollows of rocks and trees; so should you see all these\nfigures in the hollow space of the universe, to be situated in the\nself-same intellect of the Omnipresent Deity.\n\n67. The knowledge of the known and the visible world, in the pure\nintellect of the unknown and invisible deity, resembles the view of the\nvariegated skies, with their uncaused and insensible figures, in the\ncauseless substratum of ever lasting and all pervading vacuity.\n\n68. The knowledge of the phenomenal is the bondage of the soul, and the\nignoring of this conduces to its liberation; do therefore as you like,\neither towards this or that (_i.e._ for your liberation and bondage).\n\n69. The cognition and nescience of the world, are the causes of the\nbondage and liberation of the soul, and these again are productive of\nthe transmigration and final emancipation of the animal spirit. It is\nby your indifference to them that you can avoid them both, do therefore\nas you may best choose for yourself. (Here are three things offered to\nview, namely, the desire of heaven and liberation, and the absence of\nall desires. [Sanskrit: svargak\u00e1ma mokshak\u00e1mau nishk\u00e1mashchatra yah]).\n\n70. What is lost at its disappearance (as our friends and properties),\nis neither worth seeking or searching after, nor sorrowing for when\nit is lost and gone from us. That which is gained of itself in our\ncalm and quiet without any anxiety or assiduity on our part, is\ntruly reckoned to be our best gain. (so says the Moha-Mudgura:--Be\ncontent with what offers of itself to thee. [Sanskrit: yatvabhase\nnijakarnm\u00edp\u00e1ttam| bittam tena vinodaya chittam|]).\n\n71. That which is no more than our knowledge of it (as the object of\nour senses and the objective world), is no right knowledge but mere\nfallacy; the true knowledge is that of the subjective consciousness,\nwhich is always to be attended to.\n\n72. As the wave is the agitation of the water, so is this creation but\nan oscillation of the divine intellect; and this is the only difference\nbetween them, that the one is the production of the elements in nature,\nand the other is that of the divine will.\n\n73. Again the undulation of waves occurs, in conjunction with the\nexisting elements at certain spots and times; but the production of the\nworld is wholly without the junction of the elemental bodies, which\nwere not in existence at its creation. (It means to say, that the world\nis only an ideal formation of the divine mind).\n\n74. The shining worlds shine with the light of the divine intellect,\nin which they are situated as the thoughts in its consciousness. It\ntranscends the power of speech to define what it is, and yet it is\nexpressed in the veda in the words that, \"It is the supreme soul and\nperfect felicity\" (Siva Par\u00e1tm\u00e1).\n\n75. Thus the world is the form of its consciousness in the divine\nintellect, and they are not different from one another, as words are\nnever separable from their senses. It is said that the world is the\nundulation of the Divine spirit, and none but the ignorant inveigh\nagainst, by saying that the wave and water are two different things.\n(K\u00e1lid\u00e1sa in the commencement of Raghuvansa, uses the same simile of\nwords and their meanings, to denote the intimate union of P\u00e1rvat\u00ed and\nSiva, which is done to express the inseparability of the world with\nits maker; corresponding with the well known line of Pope: \"whose body\nnature is, and God the soul\").\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXIV.\n\nON THE ATTAINMENT OF ATTENDANTSHIP ON THE GOD RUDRA.\n\nArgument:--The remainder of the former story; and the manner of\nbecoming the attendant Rudras on Siva.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma said:--Tell me sir, what became of the many forms, which the\nmendicant saw in his dream; and whether the several forms of _J\u00edvata_,\nthe Brahman, the gander and others return to themselves, or remained as\nRudras for ever more.\n\n2. Vasishtha replied:--They all remained with Rudra, as parts and\ncompositions of himself; and being enlightened by him, they wandered\nall about the world, and rested contented with themselves.\n\n3. They all beheld with Rudra, the magic scenes which were displayed\nbefore them; till at last they were dismissed from his company, to\nreturn to their own states and places.\n\n4. Rudra said:--Go you now to your own places, and there enjoy your\nfill with your family; and return to me after some time, having\ncompleted the course of your enjoyments and sufferings in the world.\n\n5. You will then become as parts of myself, and remain as my attendants\nto grace my residence; till at last we return to the supreme at the end\nof time, and be absorbed in last _Omega_ of all.\n\n6. Vasishtha said:--So saying, the Lord Rudra vanished from their\nsight, and mixed in the midst of the Rudras, who viewed all the worlds\nin their enlightened intellects. (These are celestial and angelic\nbeings).\n\n7. Then did _J\u00edvata_ and others return to their respective residences,\nwhere they have to share their shares of domestic felicity in the\ncompany of their families, during their allotted times.\n\n8. Having then wasted and shuffled off their mortal coil, at the end of\ntheir limited periods, they will be promoted to the rank of Rudras in\nheaven, and will appear as luminous stars in the firmament.\n\n9. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--All those forms of _Jiv\u00e1ta_ and others, being\nbut creations of the empty imagination of the mendicant; I cannot\nunderstand, how they could be beings, as there is no substantiality in\nimaginary things.\n\n10. Vasishtha replied:--The truth of the imagination lies partly in our\nconsciousness, and partly in our representation of the image; though\nthe imagery or giving a false shape to anything, is as untrue as any\nnihility in nature. But what we are conscious of must be true, because\nour consciousness comprehends everything in it.\n\n11. Thus what is seen in the dream, and represented to us by\nimagination, are all impressed in our consciousness at all times and\nfor ever. (Therefore neither is our consciousness nor the images we are\nconscious of are untrue, though the imagery and the work of imagination\nare utterly false).\n\n12. As a man when going or carried from one country to another, and\nthere again to some other place, has no knowledge of the distance of\nhis journey, unless he is conscious of its length and duration in space\nand time; so we are ignorant of the duration of our dream, and our\npassing from one dream to another, without our consciousness of it in\nour sleeping state.\n\n13. Therefore it is our consciousness that contains all things, that\nare represented to it by the intellect; and it is from our intellection\nthat we have the knowledge of everything, because the intellect is full\nof knowledge and pervades everywhere.\n\n14. Imagination, desire and dream, are the one and same thing, the\none producing the other and all lodged in the cell of the intellect.\nTheir objects are obtained by our intense application to them. Desire\nproduces imagination which is the cause of dream; they are the\nphenomena of mind, and their objects are the results of deep meditation.\n\n15. Nothing is to be had without its practice and meditation of it,\nand men of enlightened minds gain the objects by their _Yoga_ or\nmeditation of them alone. (These are the _Yoga_ siddhas or adepts in\n_Yoga_ as _Siva_ &c).\n\n16. These adepts view the objects of their pursuit in all places, such\nas the _god Siva_ and others of the Siddha Yogis, such was my aim and\nattempt also, but it was not attended with success.\n\n17. I was unsuccessful in want of my fixed resolvedness, but failed in\nboth for my attending to both sides. It is only the firm resolution of\none in one point, that gives him success in any undertaking.\n\n18. As one going in southerly direction, cannot arrive at his house in\nthe north, so it is the case with the pursuers after their aims; which\nthey well know to be unattainable without their firm determination in\nit.\n\n19. Whoever is resolved to gain his desired objects, must fix his\nview on the object before him; the mind being fixed on the object in\nview, brings the desire into effect. (So says Hafiz: If thou want the\npresence of the object, never be absent from it).\n\n20. So the mendicant having the demi God Rudra, for the sole object\nin his view, became assimilated to the very form of his wish; because\nwhoso is intent on one object, must remove all duality from before him.\n(So says the mystic Sadi: I drove the duality from my door, in order to\nhave the unity alone before my view).\n\n21. The other imaginary forms of the mendicant, were all different\npersons in their different spheres; and had obtained their several\nforms, according to their respective desires from one state to another\n(as said before).\n\n22. They did not know or look on one another, but had all their\nthoughts and sights fixed on Rudra alone; because those that are\nawakened to their spiritual knowledge, have their sight fixed on their\nfinal liberation, while the unenlightened mortals are Subjected to\nrepeated births, by the repetition of their wishes (to be born in some\nform or other).\n\n23. It was accordingly to the will of Rudra, that he took this one form\nand many others upon him, such as he wills to become a Vidhyadhara in\none place and a pandit in another.\n\n24. This instance of Rudra serves for an example, of the efficacy of\nintense thought and practice of all men; who may become one or another\nor many more, as also learned or ignorant, agreeably to their thought\nand conduct. (One to be many, means the versatility of parts, to act as\nmany).\n\n25. So one has his manhood and Godhead also (_i.e._ acts as a man and a\nGod likewise), by his manly and Godlike actions at different times and\nplaces; and to be both at the one and same time, requires much greater\nability and energy both of the mind and body (as it is seen in the\npersons of deified heroes).\n\n26. The living soul being one with the Divine, has all the powers of\nthe same implanted in it; the infinite being ingrafted in the finite,\nIt is of the same nature by innate nature.\n\n27. The living soul has its expansion and contraction in its life and\ndeath, as the Divine soul has its evolution and involution; in the\nacts of creation and dissolution; but the Divine soul destroys no\nsoul, because it is the soul of souls and the aggregate of all souls;\ntherefore any one that would be godly, must refrain from slaughter.\n\n28. So the yogis and yogin\u00eds continue in the discharge of their sacred\nrites, as enjoined by law and usage, and either remain in this or rove\nabout in other worlds at large at the free will and liberty.\n\n29. A yogi is seen in several forms at once, both in this world and\nin the next, according to his desert and the merit of his actions; as\nthe great yogi and warrior Karta V\u00edrya Arjuna, became the terror of\nthe world as if he were ubiquitous, while he remained quite at home.\n(_i.e._ though confined in one place, yet he seemed to be present every\nwhere).\n\n30. So also doth the god Vishnu appear in human forms on earth, while\nhe sleeps at ease in the milky ocean; and the yoginis of heaven hover\nover animal sacrifices on earth, while they reside in their groups in\nthe etherial sphere.\n\n31. Indra also appears on earth, to receive the oblations of men, when\nhe is sitting in his heavenly seat on high, and N\u00e1r\u00e1yana takes the\nforms of a thousand R\u00e1mas upon him, in his conflict with the myriads of\nRakhasa legions.\n\n32. So did one Krishna become a hundred, to receive the obeisance of\nhis reverential princes; and he appears as a thousand in the company of\nmany thousand monarchs in the Kuru assembly.\n\n33. So the god became incarnate in many forms, with parts and particles\nof his own spirit for the preservation of the world; and the one lord\nbecame many in the company of his mistresses in a moment. (This was the\ncompany of milk maids in the r\u00e1sal\u00edl\u00e1 sport of Krishna).\n\n34. In this manner did the forms of _J\u00edvata_ and others, which were\nthe creatures of the mendicant's imagination, retire at the behest of\nRudra, to the particular abodes of their own and respective desires.\n\n35. There they enjoyed all their delights for a long time, until they\nentered the abode of Rudra; where they became the attendants of the\ndemigod, and remained in his train for a great length of time.\n\n36. They remained in the company of Rudra, dwelling in the groves of\nthe evergreen and ever blossoming Kalpa creepers of paradise, blooming\nwith clusters of their gemming florets; and roving at pleasure to\ndifferent worlds, and to the celestial city of Siva on the _Kail\u00e1sa_\nmountain, and sporting in the company of heavenly nymphs, and bearing\nthe crowns of immortality on their heads. (This is the description of\nthe heaven of Hindus).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXV.\n\nR\u00c1MA'S WONDER AT THE ERROR OF MEN.\n\nArgument.--Application of the mendicant's case to all men, who are\nequally mistaken in their choice.\n\n\nVasishtha Continued:--As the mendicant saw this transient scene of\nerror in his mind; so it is the case with all living beings, to look on\ntheir past lives and actions apart from themselves, and in the persons\nof other men.\n\n2. The past lives, actions and demise of all reflective souls, are as\nfast imprinted in them, as any thought is preserved in the retentive\nmind and vacuous intellect.\n\n3. Distant and separate things are mingled together, in the present\nsphere of one's soul; and all persons appear as distinct figures in the\ndream.\n\n4. And the human soul, though it is a form of the divine, yet being\nenclosed in its frail and mortal body, is doomed to misery until its\nfinal liberation from birth and body. Thus I have related to you the\nfate of all living souls, in the state and tale of the mendicant\n_Bhikshu_.\n\n5. Now know, O R\u00e1ma! that the souls of all of us like that of the\nmendicant, are vibrated and moved by the impulse of the supreme spirit;\nand are yet fallible in their nature, and falling from error to error\nevery moment (as we find in our dreams).\n\n6. As a stone falling from a rock, falls lower and lower to the nether\nground; so the living soul once fallen from its height of supreme\nspirit, descends lower and lower to the lowest pit.\n\n7. Now it sees one dream, and then passes from it to another; and\nthus rolling for ever in its dreaming sleep, it never finds any\nsubstantiality whatsoever.\n\n8. The soul thus obscured under the illusion of errors, happens some\ntimes to come to the light of truth, either by the guidance of some\ngood instructor, or by the light of its own intuition; and then it\nis released from the wrong notion of its personality in the body, and\ncomes to the true knowledge of itself.\n\n9. R\u00e1ma said:--O! the impervious gloom of error that ever spreads on\nthe human soul, causes it to rely in the mist of its errors, as a\nsleeping man enjoys the scenery of his dreams.\n\n10. It is shrouded by the thick darkness of the night of erroneous\nknowledge, and falls into the pit of illusion which over spreads the\nworld (m\u00e1y\u00e1 or error is the fruit of the forbidden tree whose mortal\ntaste brought death into the world, while knowledge is the fruit of the\ntree of immortality, which liberates the soul from the bonds of birth\nand death).\n\n11. O the egregious error of taking a thing for our own, which in\nreality belongs to no body but the lord and master of all.\n\n12. It behoves you, sir, to explain to me, whence this error takes\nits rise, and how the mendicant with his share of good and right\nunderstanding, could fall into the error (of wishing himself to become\nanother, that was as frail and mortal as himself). Tell me also that\nknowest all, whether he is still living or not.\n\n13. Vasishtha replied:--I will explore into the regions of the three\nworlds in my _sam\u00e1dhi_ meditation this night, and tell you tomorrow\nmorning, whether the mendicant is living or not, and where he may be at\npresent.\n\n14. V\u00e1lm\u00edki said:--As the sage was saying in this manner, the royal\ngarrison tolled the trumpet of the departing day with beat of drum;\nwhich filled the sky with the loud roar of diluvian clouds.\n\n15. The princes and the citizens assembled in the court, threw handfuls\nof flowers at his feet, as the trees drop down their flowers in the\nground, wafted by the odoriferous breeze.\n\n16. They honoured the great sages also, and rose from their respective\nseats; and the assembly broke afterwards, with mutual salutations to\none another.\n\n17. Then all the residents of the earth and air, went to their\nrespective residences with the setting sun; and discharged their duties\nof the departing day, in obedience to the ordinance of the s\u00e1stras.\n\n18. They all performed their services as prescribed in their liturgies,\nin which they placed their strong faith and veneration. (This shows the\ndivision of caste and creed even in the heroic age of R\u00e1ma; which being\nmore marked in later ages, prevented the people from participating in a\ncommon cause).\n\n19. All the mortals and celestials, that formed the audience of\n\"Vasishtha\", began now to reflect on the lecture of the sage, and the\nnight passed as short as a moment with some, and as long as an age\nwith others. (Gloss. They that took the subject for study, found time\ntoo short for their deep meditation of it, while those that were light\nminded and eager to hear more, felt time to roll on heavily on them.\nA very good lesson for lightening time by the practice of patient\nenquiry, and avoiding the troublesomeness of impatience).\n\n20. As the morning rose with the returning duties of men, and employed\nall beings of heaven and earth to discharge their matin in services;\nthe court reopened for the reception of the audience, who assembled\nthere with mutual greetings and salutations to their superiors.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXVI.\n\nTHE WANDERINGS OF THE MENDICANT.\n\nArguments:--The wanderings of men agreeably to their pursuits,\ndescribed in the character of the mendicant.\n\n\nV\u00e1lm\u00edki related:--After the sages Vasishtha and Visw\u00e1mitra had taken\ntheir seats in the court hall, there met the groups of celestials and\nsiddhas of air, and the monarch of earth and chiefs of men.\n\n2. Then came R\u00e1ma and Lakshmana with their companions in the court;\nwhich shone as a clear lake of lotus-beds unshaken by the gentle\nbreeze, and brightened by the moonbeams glistening amidst it.\n\n3. The sire of sages opened his mouth unasked by any body, and not\nwaiting for the request of any one; because wise men are always kind\nhearted, and ready to communicate their knowledge to others of their\nown accord. (Here the sage spoke impromptu, to keep his promise of\nanswering to R\u00e1ma's query in the preceding chapter, on a future\noccasion. Gloss).\n\n4. Vasishtha said:--O. R\u00e1ma! that art the moon in the sphere of Raghu's\nfamily, I have yesternight came to see the mendicant, with the all\nseeing eye of my intellectual vision after a long time.\n\n5. I revolved over in my mind, and wandered wide and afar to find out\nwhere that man was, and so I traversed through all the continents and\nislands, and passed over all the hills and mountains on earth.\n\n6. I had my head running upon the search, but could not meet anywhere a\nmendicant of that description; because it is impossible to find in the\nouter world, the fictions of our air built castle.\n\n7. I then ran in my mind at the last watch of the night, and passed\nover the regions on the north, as the fleet winds fly over the waves of\nthe ocean.\n\n8. There I saw the extensive and populous country of _Jina_ (China)\nlying beyond the utmost boundaries of Valmika (Bhalika or Bulkh); where\nthere is a beautiful city, called as Vihara by the inhabitants.\n\n9. There lives a mendicant, named D\u00edrgha drik or foresighted whose head\nwas silvered over with age, and who continues in his close meditation\nconfined in his homely and lovely cottage.\n\n10. He is used to sit there in his meditative mood, for three weeks\ntogether at a time, and keep the door of his cell quite fast, for\nfear of being disturbed in his silent devotion, by the intrusion of\noutsiders.\n\n11. His dependants are thus kept out of doors for the time, that he is\nabsorbed in meditation.\n\n12. He thus passed his three weeks of deep meditation in seclusion, and\nit is now a thousand years, that he has been sitting in this manner, in\ncommunion with his own mind only.\n\n13. It was in olden times, that there had been a mendicant of his kind,\nas I have already related unto you; this is the living instance of that\nsort, and we know not where and when a third or another like this may\nbe found to exist.\n\n14. I was long in quest like a bee in search of flowers, to find such\nanother, in the womb of this lotus like earth, with all possible\ninquiry on my part.\n\n15. I passed beyond the limit of the present world, and pierced through\nthe mist of future creations, and there I met with what I sought of the\nresemblance of the present one.\n\n16. As I looked into the world lying in the womb of futurity, and\ndeposited in the intellectual sphere of Brahma; I met with a third one\nresembling to Brahm\u00e1 in his conduct.\n\n17. So passing through many worlds one after another, I saw many things\nin futures, which are not in esse in the present world.\n\n18. There I beheld the sages that are now sitting in this assembly, and\nmany more Brahmans also, that are of the nature of these present, as\nalso different from them.\n\n19. There will be this N\u00e1rada with his present course of life, as also\ndiffering from the same; so likewise there will be many others also,\nwith their various modes of life.\n\n20. So likewise there will appear this _Vy\u00e1sa_ and this _Suka_; and\nthese Saunaka, Pulaha and Krutu, will reappear in future creations,\nwith their very same natures and characters. (This doctrine of\nreappearance in a future world, is disbelieved in the sense of the\ntransmigration of souls, but it is taken as strict article of faith\nby all Christians and Moslems, in the name of regeneration and\nresurrection which imply the same thing).\n\n21. The same Agastya and Pulastya and the self-same Bhrigu and\nAngirasa, all of them and all others, will come to re-existence, with\ntheir very forms and traits of character. (The dead will rise again in\ntheir very bodies &c. Gospel).\n\n22. They will be born and reborn sooner and later, so long as they\nare under the subjection of this delusion of regeneration and\nresuscitation; and will retain their similar births and modes of life,\nlike all others to be reborn in this or the future world. (As a Brahman\nwho is twice born on earth, retains his habits as before).\n\n23. So the souls of men revolve repeatedly in the world, like waves\nrolling for ever in the waters of the sea; some of which retain their\nvery same forms, while others are very nearly so in their reappearance.\n\n24. Some are slightly altered in their figures, and others varying\nentirely in their forms, never regain their original likeness; so doth\nthis prevailing error of regeneration, delude even the wise to repeated\nbirths (from which can never get their liberations). (The desire of\nrevivification or regeneration, is so deeply implanted in all living\nsouls, that no body wants to die but with desire to live again in some\nfuture state. \"Ye shall not die.\" Gospel).\n\n25. But what means the long meditation, of twenty days and nights of\nthe mendicant, when a moment's thought of ours, and the results of our\nbodily actions, are productive of endless births and transformations.\n\n26. Again where is the reality of these forms, which are mere\nconceptions of the mind; and these ideas and reflexions, growing ripe\nwith their recapitulation, appear as full blown flowers to sight; and\nresemble the water lily at morn, beset by the busy murmur of humming\nbees.\n\n27. The gross form is produced from pure thought (_i.e._ the material\nfrom the immaterial mind); as a pile of flaming fire is kindled by a\nminute spark or a ray of sun beam. Such is the formation of the whole\nfabric of the world.\n\n28. All things are manifest as particles of divine reflexion, and\neach particle exhibiting in it a variety of parts (in its atoms and\nanimalcules); nor are these nor those together are nothing at all, but\nthey all exist in the universal, which is the cause of all cause, and\nthe source of all sources.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXVII.\n\nUNITY OF GOD.\n\nArgument.--The liberation of the mendicant's soul and destruction of\nhis body, and the application of this instance in the cases of the\nconfinement and liberation of all souls in and from the bondage of\ntheir bodies.\n\n\nDasaratha said:--O great sage, let these attendants of mine, repair\nimmediately to the cells of the mendicant, and having roused him from\nhis hypnotism, bring him hither in my presence.\n\n2. Vasishtha replied:--Great king! the body of that mendicant, is now\nlying lifeless on the ground; it is now pale and cold and daubed with\ndirt, and has no jot of its vitality left in it.\n\n3. His life has fled from his body, like odour from the lotus of the\nlake; he is now liberated from the bond of this life, and is no more\nsubject to the cares of this world.\n\n4. It is now a whole month that his servants have opened the latch of\nhis door, and standing at a distance looking at his emaciated frame.\n\n5. They will afterwards take out the body and immerge it in water, and\nthen having anointed it, they will place it for their adoration, as\nthey do a deified idol. (The bodies of saints are sanctified by their\nvotaries among all nations, and their tombs are visited with religious\nveneration).\n\n6. The mendicant being in this manner freed from his body, cannot be\nbrought back to his senses, which have entirely quitted their functions\nin his mortal frame.\n\n7. It is hard to evade the enchanting delusion of the world, so long\nas one labours under the darkness of his ignorance; but it is easily\navoided by one's knowledge of truth at all times.\n\n8. The fabrication of the world is untrue, as the making of ornaments\nfrom gold; it is the error of taking the form for the substance, that\nappears as the cause of creation.\n\n9. This delusion of the world, appears to be so situated in the supreme\nsoul, as the rows of waves are seen to roll upon the surface of the\ncalm waters of the sea. So it is said in the very words of the Vedas,\nthat the moving worlds are as the fluctuation of the Divine Soul.\n\n10. The intelligent soul, taking the form of the living or human soul,\nsees the phenomenal world, as one sees one dream after another, but all\nthese vanish away upon his waking to sense and right reason.\n\n11. As every man of understanding sees the original in its image, so\nthe man of reason views the archetype of the soul in its representation\nof the creation; while the ignorant man that sees the world as a\nthorny bush or confused jungle, can have no idea of the all designing\nframer of his frame work of the universe. (Right reason points out to\nspiritual source of the world).\n\n12. The world is represented to the view of every living being, as it\nwas seen in the vision of the dreaming mendicant, in the form of the\nundulations of the supreme spirit, like the fluctuation of waves on the\nsurface of the sea.\n\n13. As the world appeared to be presented at first in its visionary\nform, before the view of the universal or collective mind of the\ncreative Brahm\u00e1; so does it rise in its shadowy form in the opacous\nminds of all individual persons. (The world appears in its unspiritual\nform, to the minds of the great Brahm\u00e1 and all other living beings).\n\n14. But to the clear mind this world appears as an evanescent dream, as\nit appeared to Brahm\u00e1 at first; and the multitudes of worlds that are\ndiscovered one after the other, are no more than the successive scenes\nof passing dreams in the continuous sleep of ignorance.\n\n15. So do all living beings in their various forms, are subject to the\nerror of believing the unreal world as a reality, though they well know\nit in their minds, to be no better than a continuous dream or delusion.\n(The varieties of living souls are included under the unintelligible\nterms of universal and individual:--general and particular &c.).\n\n16. The animal soul, though possessed of intellego (or the property of\nthe intellect); is yet liable to transgress from its original nature\n(of holiness and purity); and thereby becomes subject to decay, disease\nand death and all kinds of awe. (It is the _chyuty_ of the fall of man\nfrom his primary purity, that brought on him all his miseries on earth).\n\n17. The godly intellect frames the celestial and infernal regions in\nour dreams, by the slight vibration of the mind at its pleasure; and\nthen takes a delight in rambling over and dwelling in them.\n\n18. It is this divine intellect, which by its own motion, takes the\nform of living soul upon itself; and wanders from itself to rummage\nover the false objects of the deceptive senses.\n\n19. The mind also is the supreme soul, and if it is not so it is\nnothing; the living and embodied is likewise a designation of the same,\nlikening to the shadow of the substance.\n\n20. So the supreme Brahma is said to reside in the universal Brahm\u00e1,\naccording to the distinct view of men, with regard to the one Brahma,\nin whom all these attributes unite, like the water with water and the\nsky with air. (All these attributive words apply to and unite in the\nunity of Brahma).\n\n21. Men residing in this mundane form of Brahma, and yet think it\notherwise than a reflexion of the deity; just as a child looking at its\nown shadow in a glass, startles to think it as an apparition standing\nbefore it.\n\n22. It is the wavering understanding that causes these differences,\nwhich disappear of themselves, after the mind resumes its steadiness in\nthe unity of the Deity, wherein it is lost at last, as the oblation of\nbutter is consumed in the sacred fire.\n\n23. There is no more any vacillation or dogmatism, nor the unity or\nduality, after the true knowledge of the deity is gained; when all\ndistinctions are dissolved in an indistinct intellect, which is as it\nis and all in all.\n\n24. When it is known from the sum and substance of all reasoning, that\nit is the one Intellect, which is the subject of all appellations which\nare applied to it; there remains no more any difference of religious\nfaith in the world. (That is one and all, is the catholic religion of\nall).\n\n25. Difference of faith, creates difference in men; but want of\ndistinction in creed, destroys all difference, and brings on the union\nof all to one common faith in the supreme being.\n\n26. R\u00e1ma, you see the variety from your want of understanding, and\nyou will get rid of the same (and recognise their identity), as you\ncome to your right understanding; ask this of any body and you will\nfind the truth of what I say and be fearless at any party feeling and\nenmity. (Confession of faith in one Divinity, that is acknowledged and\nadored by all alike, is the root of catholicity, and brings on unity in\nphilosophy of religion).\n\n27. In that state of fearlessness, the Brahmav\u00e1d\u00ed finds no difference\nin the states of waking, dreaming, sound sleep or the fourth stage of\ndevotion; nor in his earthly bondage or liberation from it, all which\nare equal to him. (So says the sruti:--The Brahmav\u00e1d\u00ed is ever blest and\nis afraid of nothing in any state of life, in all of which he sees the\npresence of his God).\n\n28. Tranquillity is another name of the universe, and God has given his\npeace to everything in the world; therefore all schisms are the false\ncreations of ignorance, as none of them has ever seen the invisible God.\n\n29. The action of the heart and the motion of the vital air, cannot\nmove the contented mind to action; because the mind which is devoid of\nits desire, is indifferent about the vibrations of his breath and heart\nstrings.\n\n30. The intellect which is freed from the dubitation of unity and\nduality, and got rid of its anxious cares and desires; has approached\nto a state, which is next to that of the deity.\n\n31. But the pure desire which subsists in the intellect, like the\nstain which sticks to the disk of the moon; is no speck upon it, but\nthe coagulation of the condensed intellect. (As the fluid water is\ncongealed in the forms of snow and ice).\n\n32. Do you, R\u00e1ma! ever remain in the state of your collected intellect,\nbecause it concentrates (the knowledge of) everything (that is _sat_)\nin itself, and leaves nothing (that is not _asat_) beyond it. (This is\nthe most faultless undefective form of faith, that I have abstracted\nfrom all religions).\n\n33. The moon like disk of the intellect, having the mark of inappetency\nin it, is a vessel of ambrosia, a draught of which drowns the thoughts\nof all that is and is not (in esse--et non-esse) into oblivion.\n(Contentment is the ambrosial draught for oblivion of all cares).\n\n34. Refer thy thoughts of whatever thou hast or wantest, to the\nprovince of thy intellect (_i.e._ think of thy intellectual parts and\nwants only); and taste thy inward delight as much as thou dost like.\n(Pleasure of intellectual culture, is better than physical enjoyments).\n\n35. Know R\u00e1ma, that the words vibration and inaction, desire and\ninappetency and such others of the theological glossary, serve only to\nburden and mislead the mind to error; do you therefore keep yourself\nfrom thinking on these, and betake yourself to your peace and quiet,\nwhether you attain to your perfection or otherwise.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXVIII.\n\nON THE VIRTUES OF TACITURNITY.\n\nArgument:--Four kinds of Reticence, and their respective qualities.\n\n\nVasishtha said:--R\u00e1ma! remain as taciturn as in your silent sleep, and\nshun at a distance the musings of your mind; get rid of the vagaries of\nyour imagination, and remain firm in the state Brahma.\n\n2. R\u00e1ma said:--I know what is meant by the reticence of speech, and the\nquietness of the organs, and the muteness of a block of wood; but tell\nme what is sleep like silence, which you well know by practice.\n\n3. Vasishtha replied:--It is said to be of two kinds, by the mute like\nmunis and the reserved sages of old; the practiced by the wood like\nstatues of saints, and the other observed by those that are liberated\nin their life time (j\u00edvan mukta).\n\n4. The wood like devotee is that austere ascetic, who is not meditative\nin his mind, and is firmly employed in the discharge of the rigorous\nrites of religion; he practises the painful restraints of his bodily\norgans, and remains speechless as a wooden statue.\n\n5. The other kind of living liberated Yogi is one, who looks at the\nworld ever as before (with his usual unconcern); who delights in his\nmeditation of the soul, and passes as any ordinary man without any\ndistinctive mark of his religious order or secular rank.\n\n6. The condition of these two orders of saintly and holy men, which is\nthe fixedness of their minds and sedateness of their souls, is what\npasses under the title of taciturnity and saintliness (_mauna_ and\nmuni) (who hold their tongue and their peace, and walk _sub silentio_\nand _incognito_ on earth).\n\n7. Thus the taciturn sages reckon four kinds of latitancy, which they\nstyle severally by the names of reservedness in speech, restriction of\nthe organs, woodlike speechlessness and dead like silence as in one's\nsleep.\n\n8. Oral silence consists in keeping one's mouth and lips close, and the\ncloseness of the senses implies the keeping of the members of the body\nunder strict control; the rigorous muteness means the abandonment of\nall efforts, and the sleepy silence is as silent as the grave.\n\n9. There is a fifth kind of dead-like silence, which occurs in the\naustere ascetic in his state of insensibility; in the profound\nmeditation of the dormant _Yogi_, and in the mental abstraction of the\nliving liberated.\n\n10. All the three prior states of reticence, occur in the austere\ndevotee, and the sleepy or dead silence is what betakes the living\nliberated only.\n\n11. Though speechlessness is called silence, yet it does not constitute\npure reticence, in as much as the mute tongue may brood evil thoughts\nin the mind, which lead to the bondage of men.\n\n12. The austere devotee continues in his reticence, without minding\nhis own egoism, or seeing the visibles or listening to the speech of\nothers; and seeing nothing beside him, he sees all in himself, like\nliving fire covered under ashes.\n\n13. The mind being busy in these three states of silence, and indulging\nits fancies and reveries at liberty; makes munis of course in outward\nappearance, but there is no one, who understands the nature of God.\n\n14. There is nothing of that blessed divine knowledge in any of these,\nwhich is so very desirable to all mankind; I vouch it freely that\nthey are not knowers of God, be they angry at it or not as they may.\n(Vasishtha being a theoretic philosopher, finds fault with every kind\nof practical Yoga or pseudo hypnotism).\n\n15. But this dormant or meditative silent sage, who is liberated from\nall bonds and cares in his life time, is never to be born in any shape\nin this world, and it is interesting to know much of them as I will\nrecite to you.\n\n16. He does not require to restrain his respiration, nor needs the\ntriple restraint of his speech; he does not rejoice at his prosperity,\nnor is he depressed in adversity, but preserves his equanimity and\nthe evenness of his sensibility at all times. (He sticks to what is\nnatural, and does not resort to anything artificial).\n\n17. His mind is under the guidance of his reason, and is neither\nexcited by nor restrained from its fancies, it is neither restless\nnor dormant, and exists as it is not in existence. (owing to its even\nmindedness).\n\n18. His attention is neither divided nor pent up, but fixed in the\ninfinite and eternal one, and his mind cogitates unconfined the nature\nof things. Such a one is said to be the sleeping silent sage.\n\n19. He who knows the world as it is, and is not led to error by its\ndeluding varieties, and whoso scans everything as it is without being\nled to scepticism, is the man that is styled the sleeping silent sage.\n\n20. He who relies his faith and trust, on the one endless and ever\nfelicitous Siva, as the aggregate of all knowledge, and the displayer\nof this universe, is the one who is known as the sleeping silent sage.\n\n21. He who sees the _vacuum_ as the _plenum_, and views this all\n_omnium_ as the null and nullum; and whose mind is even and tranquil,\nis the man who is called the sleeping silent sage.\n\n22. Again he who views the universe as neither reality nor unreality\neither, but all an empty vacuum and without a substratum, but full\nof peace and divine wisdom, is said to be in the best state of his\ntaciturnity.\n\n23. The mind that is unconscious of the effects, of the different\nstates of its prosperity and adversity and of its plenty and wants, is\nsaid to rest in its highest state of rest and quiet.\n\n24. That perfect equanimity of the mind and evenness of temper, which\nis not liable to change or fluctuation; with a clear conscience and\nunflinching self-consciousness, are the source of an unimpairing\nreticence.\n\n25. The consciousness that I am nothing, nor is there anything besides;\nand that the mind and its thoughts, are no other in reality (than\nfictions of the intellect); is the real source of taciturnity.\n\n26. The knowledge that the ego pervades this universe, which is the\nrepresentation of the \"one that is\"; and whose essence is displayed\nequally in all things, is what is meant by the state of sleepy silence.\n(_i.e._ the man that has known this grand truth, remains dumb and mute\nand has nothing to say).\n\n27. Now as it is the consciousness which constitutes all and\neverything, how can you conceive your distinction from others, who are\nactuated by the same power, dwelling alike in all? It is this knowledge\nwhich is called the ever lasting sleep, and forms the ground work of\nevery kind of silence.\n\n28. This is the silence of profound sleep, and because it is an endless\nsleep in the ever wakeful God, this sleep is alike to waking. Know this\nas the fourth stage of _Yoga_, or rather a stage above the same.\n\n29. This profound trance is called hypnotism or the fourth state of\nentranced meditation; and the tranquillity which is above this state,\nis to be had in one's waking state.\n\n30. He that is situated in his fourth stage of yoga, has a clear\nconscience and quiet peace attending on him. This is practicable by\nthe adept even in his waking state, and is obtainable by the righteous\nsoul, both in its embodied as well as disembodied states.\n\n31. Yes, O R\u00e1ma! Be you desirous to be settled in this state, and know\nthat neither I or you nor any other person is any real being in this\nworld, which exists only as a reflexion of our mind, and therefore the\nwise man should rely only in the bosom of the vacuous intellect, which\ncomprehends all things in it.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXIX.\n\nUNION OF THE MIND WITH THE BREATH OF LIFE.\n\nArgument.--Willful existence of the attendants of Rudra, and the\nelevation of yogis after their Demise.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma said:--Tell me, O chief of sages, how the Rudras came to be a\nhundred in their number, and whether the attendants of Rudra, are\nRudras also or otherwise.\n\n2. Vasishtha replied:--The mendicant saw himself in a hundred forms in\na hundred dreams, which he dreamt one after another; these I have told\nyou on the whole before, though I have not specially mentioned them to\nyou.\n\n3. All the forms that he saw in the dream, became so many Rudras,\nand all these hundred Rudras remained as so many attendants on the\nprincipal Rudra.\n\n4. R\u00e1ma asked:--But how could the one mind of the mendicant, be divided\ninto a hundred in so many bodies of the Rudras; or was it undivided\nlike a lamp, that lightens a hundred lamps, without any diminution of\nits own light.\n\n5. Vasishtha answered:--Know R\u00e1ma, that disembodied or spiritual beings\nof pure natures, are capable of assuming to themselves any form of\ntheir fancy, from the aqueous nature of their souls (which readily\nunite with other liquids). (The Sruti says, \"the soul is a fluid\";\ncorresponding with the psychic fluid of Stahl).\n\n6. The soul being omnipresent and all pervading (like the all diffusive\npsychic fluid); takes upon it any form whatever, and whenever and\nwherever it likes, by virtue of its intelligence: (which the ignorant\nspirit is unable to do).\n\n7. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--But tell me Sir, why the Lord Rudra or Siva wore the\nstring of human skulls about his neck, daubed his body with ashes, and\nstark naked; and why he dwelt in funeral ground, and was libidinous in\nthe greatest degree.\n\n8. Vasishtha replied:--The Gods and perfect beings as the siddhas &c.\nare not bound down by the laws, which the weak and ignorant men have\ndevised for their own convenience.\n\n9. The ignorant cannot go on without the guidance of law, on account of\ntheir ungovernable minds; or else they are subject to every danger and\nfear, like poor fishes (which are quite helpless, and entirely at the\nmercy of all voracious animals).\n\n10. Intelligent people are not exposed to those evils in life, as the\nignorant people of ungoverned minds and passions, meet with by their\nrestless and vagrant habits.\n\n11. Wise men discharge their business as they occur to them at times,\nand never undertake to do any thing of their own accord, and are\ntherefore exposed to no danger. (Graha in the text means a shark and\ncalamities also).\n\n12. It was on the impulse of the occasion that the God Vishnu, engaged\nhimself in action, and so did the God with the three eyes (_i.e._\nSiva), as also the God that was born of the lotus (_i.e._ The great\nBrahm\u00e1). (All of them took human forms on them, whenever the Daityas\ninvaded the Br\u00e1hmans, and never of their own will).\n\n13. The acts of wise men are neither to be praised or blamed nor are\nthey praiseworthy or blameable; because they are never done from\nprivate or public motives (but on the expediency of the occasion).\n\n14. As light and heat are the natural properties, of fire and sun\nshine; so are the actions of Siva and the Gods, ordained as such from\nthe beginning, as the caste customs of the twice born dwijas (Aryans).\n\n15. Though the natures of all mankind are the same, as they are\nordained in the beginning; yet the ignorant have created differences\namong them, by institution of the distinction of castes and customs;\nand as their institutions are of their own making, they are subjected\nby them to the evils of future retribution and transmigration. (Men are\nbound down by their own laws, from which the brute creation is entirely\nfree).\n\n16. I have related to you, R\u00e1ma! the quadruple reticence of embodied\nbeings, and have not as yet expounded the nature of the silence of\ndisembodied souls (as those of the Gods, siddhas and departed saints).\n\n17. Hear now how men are to obtain this chief good (summum bonum) of\ntheirs, by their knowledge of the intellectual souls in the clear\nsphere of their own intellect, which is clearer far than the etherial\nsphere of the sky.\n\n18. It is by the knowledge of all kinds of knowledge, and constant\ndevotion to meditation; and by the study of the numerical philosophy of\nparticulars in the s\u00e1nkhya system, that men became renowned as _S\u00e1nkhya\nyogis_ or categorical philosopher. (The S\u00e1nkhya is opposed to the\nVed\u00e1nta, in as much as it rises from particulars to general truths).\n\n19. The yoga consists in the meditation of Yogis, of the form of the\neternal and undecaying One; by suppression of their breathings, and\nunion with that state, which presents itself to their mind.\n\n20. That unfeigned and undisguised state of felicity and tranquillity,\nwhich is desired as the most desirable thing by all, is obtainable by\nsome by means of the S\u00e1nkhya Yoga, and by the Jn\u00e1na Yoga by others.\n\n21. The result of both these forms of Yoga, is the same, and this is\nknown to anybody that has felt the same; because the state arrived at\nby the one, is alike to that of the other also.\n\n22. And this supreme state is one, in which the actions of the mental\nfaculties and vital breath, are altogether imperceptible; and the\nnetwork of desires is entirely dispersed.\n\n23. The desire constitutes the mind, which again is the cause of\ncreation; it is therefore by the destruction of both of these, that one\nbecomes motionless and inactive. (Forgets himself to a stone. Pope).\n\n24. The mind forgets its inward soul, and never looks towards it for a\nmoment; it is solely occupied with its body, and looks at the phantom\nof the body, as a child looks at a ghost. (Thinking it a reality).\n\n25. The mind itself is a false apparition, and an unsubstantial\nappearance of our mistake; and shows itself as the death of some body\nin his dream, which is found to be false upon his waking.\n\n26. The world is the production of the mind, else what am I and who is\nmine or my offspring; it is custom and our education that have caused\nthe _bugbears_ of our bondage and liberation, which are nothing in\nreality.\n\n27. There is one thing however, on which is based the bias of both\nsystems; that it is the suppression of breath, and the restriction\nof mind, which form the sum and substance of what they call their\nliberation.\n\n28. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--Now sir, if it is suppression which constitutes the\nliberation of these men; then I may as well say that all dead men are\nliberated, as well as all dead animals also.\n\n29. Vasishtha replied:--Of the three practices of the restriction of\nthe breath, body and mind, I ween the repression of the mind and its\nthoughts to be the best; because it is easily practicable and I will\ntell you how it is to be done to our good.\n\n30. When the vital breaths of the liberated souls, quit this mortal\nframe; it perceives the same in itself, and flies in the shape of a\nparticle in the open sky, and mixes at last with etherial air.\n\n31. The parting soul accompanies with its _tanm\u00e1tras_ or elementary\nprinciples; which comprise the desires of its mind, and which are\nclosely united with breath, and nothing besides.\n\n32. As the vital breath quits one body to enter into another, so it\ncarries with it the desires of the heart, with which it was in the\nbreast of man, as the winds of the air bear the fragrance of flowers.\nThese are reproduced in the future body for its misery only.\n\n33. As a water pot thrown in the sea, does not lose its water, so the\nvital breath mixing with the etherial air, does not lose the desires of\nthe mind, which it bears with it. They are as closely united with it,\nas the sun-beams with the sun.\n\n34. The mind cannot be separated from the vital breath (_i.e._ the\ndesires are inseparable from life), without the aid of the knowledge;\nand as the bird _Titter\u00ed_ cannot be removed from one nest without an\nother (so the soul never passes from one body without finding and\nentering into another).\n\n35. Knowledge removes the desires, and the disappearance of desires\ndestroys the mind; this produces the suppression of breath, and thence\nproceeds the tranquillity of the soul.\n\n36. Knowledge shows us the unreality of things, and the vanity of human\ndesires. Hence know O R\u00e1ma, that the extinction of desires, brings on\nthe destruction of both the mind and vitality.\n\n37. The mind being with its desires, which form its soul and life, it\ncan no more see the body in which it took so much delight; and then the\ntranquil soul attains its holiest state.\n\n38. The mind is another name for desire, and this extirpated and\nwanting, the soul comes to the discrimination of truth, which leads to\nthe knowledge of the supreme.\n\n39. In this manner, O R\u00e1ma, we came to the end of our erroneous\nknowledge of the world, as it is by means of our reason, that we come\nto detect our error of the snake in the rope.\n\n40. Learn this one lesson, that the restraining of the mind and\nsuppression of breath, mean the one and same thing; and if you succeed\nin restraining the one, you succeed in the restraint of other also. (So\nit is said, that our thoughts and respirations go together).\n\n41. As the waving of the palm leaved fan being stopped, there is a\nstop of the ventilation of air in the room; so the respiration of the\nvital breath being put to a stop, there ensues a total stoppage of the\nsuccession of our thoughts. (It is believed that our time is measured\nby succession of our breath and thoughts _aj\u00e1pas_, and the more are\nthey suppressed, the greater is the duration of our life prolonged).\n\n42. The body being destroyed, the breath passes into the vacuous air;\nwhere it sees everything according to the desires, which it has wafted\nalong with it, from the cells of the heart and mind.\n\n43. As the living souls find the bodies (of various animals) in which\nthey are embodied, and act according to their different natures; so the\ndeparted and disembodied spirits--_pr\u00e1nas_, see many forms and figures\npresented before them, according to their several desires. They enter\ninto the same, and act agreeably to the nature of that being.\n\n44. As the fragrance of flowers ceases to be diffused in the air,\nwhen the breezes have ceased to blow; so the vital breath, ceases\nto breathe, when the action of the mind is at a stop. (Hence is the\nconcentration of the mind, to one object only strongly enjoyed in the\n_yoga_ practice).[A]\n\n[A] ON THE SIMULTANEOUSNESS OF THOUGHT AND BREATH.\n\nSwedenborg saw the intimate connection between thought and vital life.\nHe says:--Thought commences with respiration. The reader has before\nattended to the presence of heaving over the body; now let him feel\nhis thoughts, and he will see that they too heave with the mass. When\nhe entertains a long thought, he draws a long breath, when he thinks\nquickly, his breath vibrates with rapid alternations; when the tempest\nof anger shakes his mind, his breath is tumultuous; when his soul is\ndeep and tranquil, so is his respiration; when success inflates him,\nhis lungs are as timid as his concepts. Let him make trial of the\naccuracy, let him endeavour to think in long stretches, at the same\ntime that he breathes in fits, and he will find that it is impossible;\nthat in this case the chopping will needs mince his thoughts. Now\nthis mind dwells in the brains, and it is the brain, therefore, which\nspares the varying fortunes of the breathing. It is strange that this\ncorrespondence between the states of the brain or mind and the lungs\nhas not been admitted in science, for it holds in every case, at every\nmoment. \"He says moreover--Inward thoughts have inward breaths, and\npurer spiritual thoughts have spiritual breaths hardly mixed with\nmaterial.\"\n\n * * * * *\n\nSee Col. Olcott's Yoga Philosophy Page 283.\n\n\n45. Hence the course of the thoughts, and respiration of all animals,\nis known too closely united with one another; as the fragrance is\ninseparable from the flower, and the oil from the oily seeds.\n\n46. The breath is vacillation of the mind, as the mind is the\nfluctuation of the breath; and these two go together for ever, as the\nchariot and its charioteer.\n\n47. These perish together without the assemblage of one another, as the\ncontainer and the contained are both lost at the loss of either (like\nthat of the fire and its heat). Therefore it is better to lose them for\nthe liberation of the soul, than losing the soul for the sake of the\nbody.\n\n48. Keeping only one object or the unity in view will stop the course\nof the mind; and the mind being stopped, there will follow as a matter\nof course, an utter suppression of the breath as its consequence.\n\n49. Investigate well into the truth of the immortality of thy soul, and\ntry to assimilate thyself into the eternal spirit of God; and having\nabsorbed thy mind in the divine mind, be one with the same.\n\n50. Distinguish between thy knowledge and ignorance, and lay hold on\nwhat is more expedient for you; settle yourself on what remains after\ndisappearance of both, and live while you live relying on the Intellect\nalone.\n\n51. Continue to meditate on the existence of all things in one firm and\never existent entity alone, until by your constant habit of thinking\nso, you find all outward existence disappear into non existence (and\npresent the form of the self-existent only to view).\n\n52. The minds of the abstinent are mortified, with their bodies and\nvitality, for want of food and enjoyments; and then there remains the\nconsciousness of the transcendent one alone.\n\n53. When the mind is of one even tenor, and is habituated to it by its\nconstant practice; it will put an end to the thought of the endless\nvarieties and particulars, which will naturally disappear of themselves.\n\n54. There is an end of our ignorance and delusion (avidy\u00e1), as we\nattempt to the words of wisdom and reason; we gain our best knowledge\nby learning, but it is by practice alone, that we can have the object\nof our knowledge.\n\n55. The mirage of the world will cease to exist, after the mind\nhas become calm and quiet in itself; as the darkness of the sky is\ndispersed, upon disappearance of the raining clouds.\n\n56. Know your mind alone as the cause of your delusion, and strive\ntherefore to weaken its force and action; but you must not R\u00e1ma! weaken\nit so much, as to lose the sight of the supreme spirit, which shines as\nthe soul of the mind.\n\n57. When the mind is settled with the supreme soul for a moment, know\nthat to be the mature state of thy mind, and will soon yield the sweets\nof its ripeness.\n\n58. Whether you have your tranquillity, by the _S\u00e1nkhya_ or Ved\u00e1nta\nYoga; it is both the same if you can reduce yourself to the supreme\nsoul; and by doing so for a moment, you are no more to be reborn in\nthis nether world.\n\n59. The word divine essence, means the mind devoid of its ignorance;\nand which like a fried seed is unable to reproduce the arbor of the\nworld, and has no interruption in its meditation of God.\n\n60. The mind that is devoid of ignorance, and freed from its desires,\nand is settled in its pure essence; comes to see in an instant, a full\nblaze of light filling the sphere of the firmament in which it rests\nand which absorbs it quite.\n\n61. The mind is said to be its pure essence, which is insensible of\nitself, and settled in the supreme soul; it never relapses into the\nfoulness of its nature, as the copper which is mixed with gold, never\nbecomes dirty again.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXX.\n\nINTERROGATORIES OF VET\u00c1LA.\n\nArguments:--Conversation of a prince and a Vet\u00e1la, and Dissipation of\nError and manifestation of truth.\n\n\nVasishtha resumed:--Life becomes no life (becomes immortal), and the\nmind turns to no mind, immerges in the soul; no sooner is the cloud of\nignorance dispersed by the bright sun beams of right reason. This is\nthe state which is termed _moksha_ or liberation (from error) by the\nwise.\n\n2. The mind and its egoism and tuism (subjectivity and objectivity),\nappear as water in the mirage, but all these unrealities vanish away,\nno sooner we come to our right reason;\n\n3. Attend now to the queries of a vet\u00e1la, which I come to remember\nat present, concerning our erroneous and dreaming conception of the\nphenomenal world, and which will serve to example by the subject of our\nlast lecture.\n\n4. There lived a gigantic vet\u00e1la in the vast wilderness of the Vindhya\nmountains, who happened to come out on an excursion to the adjoining\ndistricts in search of his prey of human beings.\n\n5. He used to live before in the neighbourhood of a populous city,\nwhere he lived quite happy and well satisfied with the victims; which\nwere daily offered to him by the good citizens.\n\n6. He never killed a human being without some cause or harm, although\nhe roved through the city, pinched by hunger and thirst. He walked in\nthe ways of the honest and equitable men in the place.\n\n7. It came to pass in course of time that he went out of the city, to\nreside in his woody retreat; where he never killed any man, except when\npressed by excessive hunger, and when he thought it was equitable for\nhim to do so.\n\n8. He happened to meet there once a ruler of the land, strolling about\nin his nightly round; to whom he cried out in a loud and appalling\nvoice.\n\n9. The vet\u00e1la exclaimed:--Where goest thou, O prince, said he, thou art\nnow caught in the clutches of a hideous monster, thou art now a dead\nman, and hast become my ration of this day.\n\n10. The ruler replied:--Beware, O nocturnal fiend! that I will break\nthy skull into a thousand pieces, if you will unjustly attempt to kill\nme by force at this spot, and make thy ration of me.\n\n11. The vet\u00e1la rejoined:--I do not tell thee unjustly, and speak it\nrightly unto thee; that as thou art a ruler, it is thy duty to attend\nto the petition of every body (wherein if thou failest, thou surely\ndiest before me).\n\n12. I request thee, O prince! to solve the questions that I propose\nto thee; because I believe thou art best able to give a full and\nsatisfactory answer to every one of them. (These questions are dark\nenigmas, which are explained in the next chapter).\n\n13. Who is that glorious sun, the particles of whose rays, are seen to\nglitter in the surrounding worlds: and what is that wind (or force),\nwhich wafts these dusts of stars, in the infinite space of vacuum.\n\n14. What is that self-same thing, which passes from one dream to\nanother, and assumes different forms by hundreds and thousands, and yet\ndoes not forsake its original form.\n\n15. Tell me what is that pithy particle in bodies, which is enveloped\nunder a hundred folds or sheaths, which are laid over and under one\nanother, like the coats or lamina of a plantain tree.\n\n16. What is that minute atom which is imperceptible to the eye, and yet\nproduces this immeasurable universe, with its stupendous worlds and\nskies, and the prodigious planets on high and mountains below, which\nare the minutest of that minute particle.\n\n17. What is that shapeless and formless thing atom, which remains as\nthe pith and marrow under the rocks of huge mountains, and which is the\nsubstratum of the triple world (of heaven, earth and infernal regions).\n\n18. If you, O wicked soul, fail to answer to these queries, then shalt\nthou be a killer of thyself, by your being made my food this moment.\nAnd know that at the end, I will devour all thy people, as the regent\nof death destroys every body in the world.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXXI.\n\nTHE PRINCE'S REPLY TO THE FIRST QUESTION OF THE VET\u00c1LA.\n\nArguments:--Answer to the first question regarding the Prime cause\nof all, shows the infinite worlds to be the trees and fruits of that\noriginal root.\n\n\nVasishtha related:--The R\u00e1j\u00e1 smiled at hearing these questions of the\nDemon, and as he opened his mouth to give the reply, the lustre of\nhis pearly teeth, shed a brightness on the white vault of the sky.\n(This shows how much the early Hindus prized their white teeth, though\nlatterly they tinged them with blue vitriol).\n\n2. This world was at first a rudimentary granule (in the Divine mind),\nand was afterwards encrusted by a dozen of elemental sheaths as its\npellicles, skin and bark. (Does it mean the component elements or\nlayers _Bh\u00fata-tatwa_ or _Bh\u00fa-tatwa_).\n\n3. The tree which bears thousands of such fruits, is very high also\nwith its equally out stretching branches, and very long and broad\nleaves likewise.\n\n4. This great tree is of a huge size and very astounding to sight; it\nhas thousands of prodigious branches spreading wide on every side.\n\n5. There are thousands of such trees, and a dense forest of many other\nlarge trees and plants in that person.\n\n6. Thousands of such forests stretch over it, abounding in thousands of\nmountains with their elevated peaks.\n\n7. The wide extended tracts which contain these mountains, have also\nvery large valleys and dales amidst in them.\n\n8. These wide spread tracts contain also many countries, with their\nadjacent islands and lakes and rivers too.\n\n9. These thousands of islands also contain many cities, with varieties\nof edifices and works of art.\n\n10. These thousands tracts of lands, which are sketched out as so many\ncontinents, are as so many earths and worlds in their extent.\n\n11. That which contains thousands of such worlds, as the mundane eggs,\nis as unlimited as the spacious womb of the firmament.\n\n12. That which contains thousands of such eggs in its bosom, bears also\nmany thousands of seas and oceans resting calmly in its ample breast.\n\n13. That which displays the boisterous waves of seas, is the sprightly\nand sportive soul, heaving as the clear waters of the ocean.\n\n14. That which contains thousands of such oceans, with all their waters\nin his unconscious womb, is the God Vishnu who filled the universal\nocean with his all pervasive spirit. (And the spirit of God floated\non the face of the waters, Moses. The waters were the first abode of\nN\u00e1r\u00e1yana).\n\n15. That which bears thousands of such Gods, as a string of pearls\nabout the neck, is the Great God Rudra.\n\n16. That which bears thousands of such Great Gods Mah\u00e1devas, in the\nmanner of the hairs on his person; is the supreme Lord God of all.\n\n17. He is that great sun that he shines in a hundred such persons of\nthe Gods, all of whom are but frictions of the rays of that Great\nsource of light and life.\n\n18. All things in the universe are but particles of that uncreated sun;\nand thus have I explained to you that Intellectual sun, who fills the\nworld with his rays, and shows them light.\n\n19. The all knowing soul is the supreme sun that enlightens the world,\nand fills all things in it with particles of its rays. (The soul is the\nsun, whose light of knowledge manifests all things unto us).\n\n20. It is the Omniscient soul, which is that surpassing sun, whose\nrays produce and show everything to light; and without which as in the\nabsence of the solar light, nothing would grow nor be visible in the\nouter world. (The sun's heat and light are the life and shower of the\nsight of the world).\n\n21. All living beings who have their souls enlightened by the light\nof philosophy, behold the sphere of the universe to be a blaze of the\ngemming sun of the intellect; and there is not the least tinge of the\nerroneous conceptions of the material world in it. Know this and hold\nyour peace.[A]\n\n[A] By a figure of speech light and knowledge are synonymous terms, and\nso are their sources the sun and soul interchangeable to one another.\nAnd as the Divine spirit is the creator of all things, so is the sun\nproducer and grower of everything in the visible world. Hence has risen\nthe mistake of taking the sun--the savitar or producer for the Divine\nsoul the creator among the sun worshippers, who believe the sun to be\nthe soul of the universe. (S\u00farya atm\u00e1jagatah in the sruti). Hence has\ngrown the popular error of address in the G\u00e1yatr\u00ed hymn to the sun,\nwhich was used as an invocation of the supreme soul, and is still\nunderstood as such by theists.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXXII.\n\nANSWERS TO THE REMAINING QUESTIONS.\n\nArgument:--The R\u00e1jah's replies to the five remaining questions of the\nDemon.\n\n\nThe R\u00e1jah replied:--The essences of time, vacuum and of force, are all\nof intellectual origin; it is the pure intellect which is the source\nof all, as the air is the receptacle of odours and dusts. (The mind\ncontains all things).\n\n2. The supreme soul is as the universal air, which breathes out the\nparticles contained in the intellect; as the etherial air bears the\nfragrance from the cells of flowers. (The soul is called _\u00e1tm\u00e1_\ncorresponding with the Greek _atmos_ air, in which sense it is the same\nwith the spirit). (This is the answer to the second question).\n\n3. The great Brahma of the conscious soul, passing through the dreaming\nworld (it being but a dream only passes from one scene to another\nwithout changing its form). (The soul is conscious of the operations of\nthe mind, but never changes with the mental phenomena).\n\n4. As the stem (stambha) of plantain tree, is a folding of its\npellicles plaited over one another, and having its pith hidden in the\ninside; so everything in the world presents its exterior coats to the\nview, while its substance of Brahma is deeply hid in the interior.\n\n5. The words ens, soul and Brahma by which God is designated, are not\nsignificant of his nature, who is devoid of all designations like the\nempty void, and indescribable (avyapadesa) in any word in use. (So the\nsruti: na tatra vak gachchhate, to Him no words can approach; _i.e._ no\nwords can express Him).\n\n6. Whatever essence is perceived by one as the product of another, is\nlike the upper fold or plait of the plantain tree, produced by the\ninner one; and all such coating are but developments of the Divine\nIntellect lying at the bottom. (As the essence of the cloth is the\nthread, which is the product of cotton produced by the pod of the\ncotton plant, which is produced from the seed grown by the moisture of\nthe water &c., the last of which has the Divine essence for its prime\ncause and source.)\n\n7. The supreme soul is said to be a minute atom, on account of the\nsubtility and imperceptibility of its nature; and it is said also to be\nthe base of mountains and all other bodies, owing to the unboundedness\nof its extent. (This is in answer to the fifth question).\n\n8. The endless being though likened to a minute atom, is yet as large\nas to contain all these worlds as its minutest particles; which are as\nevident to us as the very many aerial scenes appearing in our minds\nin the state of dreaming. (The small grain of the soul contains the\nuniverse, as the particle of the mind contains the worlds in it).\n\n9. This being is likened to an atom owing to its imperceptibleness, and\nis also represented as a mountain on account of its filling all space;\nthough it is the figure of all formal existence, yet it is without any\nform or figure of its own. (The Sruti says: \"_neti-neti_, He is neither\nthis nor that\").\n\n10. The three worlds are as the fatty bulb of that pithy intelligence;\nfor know thou righteous soul! that it is that Intelligence which dwells\nin and acts in all the worlds. (The Sruti says: the vacuity of the\nheart is the seat of intelligence, which is the pith of the _m\u00e1ssa_ or\nmuscular body, and the vacuous air is the seat of the soul, whose body\nis the triple world).\n\n11. All these worlds are fraught with design of Intelligence, which is\nquiet in its nature, and exhibits endless kinds of beautiful forms of\nits own, know, O young vet\u00e1la, that irresistible power, reflect this in\nthyself and keep thy quiet.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXXIII.\n\nEND OF THE STORY OF THE VET\u00c1LA DEMON.\n\nArguments:--After part of Vet\u00e1la's tale and Preamble to the tale of\nBhag\u00edratha.\n\n\nVasishtha resumed:--After hearing these words from the mouth of the\nprince, the vet\u00e1la held his peace and quiet, and remained reflecting on\nthem in his mind, which was capable of reasoning.\n\n2. Being then quite calm in his mind, he reflected on the pure\ndoctrines of the prince; and being quite absorbed in his fixed\nmeditation, he forgot at once his hunger and thirst.\n\n3. I have thus related to you, R\u00e1ma, about the questions of the vet\u00e1la,\nand the manner in which these worlds are situated in the atom of the\nintellect and no where else.\n\n4. The world residing in the cell of the atomic intellect, ceases to\nsubsist by itself upon right reasoning; so the body of a ghost exists\nin the fancy of boys only, and there remains nothing at last except the\neverlasting one.\n\n5. Curb and contract thy thought and heart from every thing, and\nenclose thy inward soul in itself; do what thou hast to do at any time,\nwithout desiring or attempting any thing of thy own will, and thus have\nthe peace of thy mind.\n\n6. Employ your mind, O silent sage! to keep itself as clean as the\nclear firmament, remain in one even and peaceful tenor of thy soul,\nand view all things in one and the same light (of tolerance and\ncatholicism).\n\n7. A steady and dauntless mind with its promptness in action, is\nsuccessful in most arduous undertakings, as was the prince Bhag\u00edratha\nwith his unsevering perseverance.\n\n8. It was by his perfectly peaceful and contended mind, and by the\nlasting felicity of the equanimity of his soul, that this prince\nsucceeded to bring down the heavenly Ganges on earth, and the princes\nof Sagar's line were enabled to perform the arduous task of digging\nthe bay of Bengal. (Where they were buried alive by curse of the sage\nKapila, for disturbing his silent meditations).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXXIV.\n\nACCOUNT AND ADMONITION OF BHAG\u00cdRATHA.\n\nArgument:--Conduct and character of Bhag\u00edratha, his private reflexion\nand the Instructions of his tutor.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma said:--Please sir, to relate unto me, the wonderful narrative of\nprince Bhag\u00edratha, how he succeeded to bring down the heavenly stream\nof Gang\u00e1 on the earth below.\n\n2. Vasishtha replied:--The prince Bhag\u00edratha was a personage of eminent\nvirtues, and was distinguished as a crowning mark (_Tilaka_), over all\ncountries of this terraqueous earth and its seas.\n\n3. All his suitors received their desired boons, even without their\nasking; and their hearts were as gladdened at the sight of his\nmoon-bright countenance, as were it at the sight of a precious and\nbrilliant gem.\n\n4. His charities were always profusely lavished upon all good people,\nfor their maintenance and supportance; while he carefully collected\neven straws (for his revenue), and prized them as they were gems unto\nhim. (_i.e._ He earned as he gave).\n\n5. He was as bright in his person, as the blazing fire without its\nsmoke, and was never weak even when he was tired in the discharge of\nhis duties. He drove away poverty from the abodes of men, as the rising\nsun dispels the darkness of night from within their houses.\n\n6. He spread all around him the effulgence of his valour, as the\nburning fire scatters about its sparks; and he burned as the blazing\nmidday sun, among all his hostile bands.\n\n7. Yet he was gentle and soft in the society of wisemen, and cooled\ntheir hearts with his cooling speech. He shone amidst the learned, as\nthe moon-stone glistens under the moon light.\n\n8. He decorated the world with its triple cord of the sacrificial\nthread, by stretching out the three streams of the Ganges, along the\nthree regions of heaven, earth and infernal regions. (Hence Gang\u00e1 is\ncalled the tripathag\u00e1 or running in the trivium in heaven, earth and\nhell).\n\n9. He filled the ocean that had been dried up by the sage Agastya, with\nthe waters of Ganges; as the bounteous man fills the greedy beggar with\nhis unbounded bounty.\n\n10. This benefactor of mankind, redeemed his ancestral kinsmen from the\ninfernal region (in which they were accursed by the indignant sage;) and\nled them to the heaven of Brahm\u00e1, by the passage of the sacred Gang\u00e1\n(which ran through the three worlds of heaven, earth and hell).\n\n11. He overcame by his resolute perseverance, all his manifold\nobstacles and troubles, in his alternate propitiations of the god\nBrahm\u00e1 and Siva and the sage Jahnu, for their discharging the course of\nthe stream. (The holy Gang\u00e1 was first confined in Brahm\u00e1's water pot,\nand then restricted in Hara's crown, and lastly locked up under Jahnu's\nseat, whence the river has the nickname of J\u00e1hnav\u00ed).\n\n12. Though he was yet in the vigour of his youth, he seemed even then\nto feel the decay of age, coming fastly upon him, at his incessant\nthoughts on the miseries of human life.\n\n13. His excogitation of the vanities of the world, produced in him a\nphilosophical apathy to them; and this _sang froid_ or cold heartedness\nof his in the prime of his youth, was like the shooting forth of a\ntender sprout on a sudden in a barren desert. (So great was the early\nabstractedness from the world, prized by the ancient Aryans, that many\nmonarchs are mentioned to have became religious recluses in their\nyouth).\n\n14. The prince thought in his retired moments on the impropriety of\nhis worldly conduct, and made the following reflections, on the daily\nduties of life in his silent soliloquy.\n\n15. I see the return of day and night, in endless succession after\none another; and I find the repetition of the same acts of giving and\ntaking (receipts and disbursements), and lasting the same enjoyments,\nto have grown tedious and insipid to me. (So it was with Rasselas the\nprince of Abyssinia, who felt disgusted at the daily rotation of the\nsame pleasures and enjoyments and one unvaried course of life).\n\n16. I think that only to be worth my seeking and doing, which being\nobtained and done, there is nothing else to desire or do in this\ntransitory life of troubles and cares.\n\n17. Is it not shameful for a sensible being, to be employed in the same\ncircuit of business every day, and is it not laughable to be doing and\nundoing the same thing, like silly boys day by day?\n\n18. Being thus vexed with the world, and afraid of the consequence of\nhis worldly course, Bhag\u00edratha repaired in silence to the solitary cell\nof his preceptor Tritala, and bespoke to him in the following manner.\n\n19. Bhag\u00edratha said:--My Lord! I am entirely tired and disgusted with\nthe long course of my worldly career, which I find to be all hollow and\nempty within it, and presenting a vast wilderness without.\n\n20. Tell me lord, how can I get over the miseries of this world, and\nget freed from my fear of death and disease and from the fetters of\nerrors and passions, to which I am so fast enchained. (The Hindu\nmind is most sensible of the baneful effects of the primeval curse\npronounced on man, and the accursedness of his posterity and of this\nearth for his sake; and is always in eager search of salvation,\nredemption or liberation from the same by _mukti_, _moksha_, and\n_paritr\u00e1na_).\n\n21. Tritala replied:--It is to be effected by means of the continued\nevenness of one's disposition (obtained by his quadruple practice\nof devotion _s\u00e1dhana_); the uninterrupted joyousness of his soul\n(arising from its communion with the Holy spirit); by his knowledge\nof the knowable true one, and by his self sufficiency in everything\n(tending to his perfection). (The quadruple devotion consists in one's\nattendance to holy lectures and in his understanding, reflection and\npractice of the same lessons, called the _s\u00e1dhana chatushtaya_).\n\n22. By these means the man is released from misery, his worldly bonds\nare relaxed, his doubts are dissipated, and all his actions tend to his\nwell being in both worlds.\n\n23. That which is called the knowable, is the pure soul of the nature\nof intelligence; it is always present in everything in all places and\nis eternal--having neither its rising or setting (_i.e._ its beginning\nor end). The animating soul of the world, is identified with the\nsupreme and universal soul of God. The ved\u00e1nta knows no duality of the\nanimal and animating souls.\n\n24. Bhag\u00edratha rejoined:--I know, O great sage! the pure intelligent\nsoul to be perfectly calm and tranquil, undecaying and devoid of all\nattributes and qualities; and neither the embodied spirit, nor the\nanimal soul, nor the indwelling principle of material bodies.\n\n25. I cannot understand sir, how I can be that intelligence, when I\nam so full of errors, or if I be the selfsame soul, why is it not so\nmanifest in me as the pure divine soul itself.\n\n26. Tritala replied:--It is by means of knowledge only, that the mind\ncan know the truly knowable one in the sphere of one's own intellect,\nand then the animal soul finding itself as the all-pervading spirit,\nis released from future birth and transmigration. (The belief of the\ndifference of one's soul from the eternal one, is the cause of his\nregeneration).\n\n27. It is our unattachment to earthly relations, and unaccompaniment\nof our wives, children and other domestic concerns, together with\nthe equanimity of our minds, in whatsoever is either advantageous or\ndisadvantageous to us, that serve to widen the sphere of our souls and\ncause their universality.\n\n28. It is also the union of our souls with the supreme spirit, and our\ncontinual communion with God; as also our seclusion from society and\nremaining in retirement that widen the scope of our souls.\n\n29. It is the continued knowledge of spirituality, and insight into the\nsense of the unity and identity of God, which are said to constitute\nour true knowledge; all besides is mere ignorance and false knowledge.\n\n30. It is the abatement of our love and hatred, that is the only remedy\nfor our malady of worldliness; and it is the extinction of our egoistic\nfeelings, that leads to the knowledge of truth.\n\n31. Bhag\u00edratha responded:--Tell me, O reverend sir, how is it possible\nfor any body to get rid of his egoism, which is deep rooted in our\nconstitution, and has grown as big with our bodies as lofty trees on\nmountain tops.\n\n32. Tritala replied:--All egoistic feelings subside of themselves\nunder the abandonment of worldly desires, which is to be done by the\nvery great efforts of fortitude, in our exercise of the virtues of\nself-abnegation and self-command, and by the expansion of our souls to\nuniversal benevolence.\n\n33. We are so long subjected to the reign of our egoism, as we have\nnot the courage to break down the painful prison house of shame at\nour poverty, and the fear at our exposure to the indignity of others.\n(Poverty is shameful to worldly people, but graceful to holy men).\n\n34. If you can therefore renounce all your worldly possessions and\nremain unmoved in your mind (although in actual possession of them);\nyou may then get rid of your egoism, and attain to the state of supreme\nbliss.\n\n35. Bereft of all titular honors, and freed from the fear of falling\ninto poverty (and its consequent indignity); being devoid of every\nendeavour of rising, and remaining as poor and powerless among\ninvidious enemies; and rather living in contemptible beggary among\nthem, without the egoistic pride of mind and vanity of the body; if you\ncan thus remain in utter destitution of all, you are then greater than\nthe greatest.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXXV.\n\nSUPINENESS OF BHAG\u00cdRATHA.\n\nArgument:--Great bounty of Bhag\u00edratha and his indigence in consequence;\nand his recourse to asceticism with his tutor.\n\n\nVasishtha related:--Having heard these monitions from the mouth of his\nreligious monitor, he determined in his mind what he was about to do,\nand set about the execution of his purpose.\n\n2. He passed a few days in devising his project, and then commenced his\n_agnishtoma_ sacrifice to the sacred fire, for consecrating his all\nto it, for the sake of obtaining his sole object (of Nirv\u00e1na or being\nextinct in the essence of God).\n\n3. He gave away his kine and lands, his horses and jewels, and his\nmonies without number, to the twice born classes of men and his\nrelatives, without distinction of their merit or demerit.\n\n4. During three days he gave away profusely all what he had, till at\nlast he had nothing for himself, except his life and flesh and bones.\n\n5. When his exhaustless treasures were all exhausted, he gave up his\ngreat realm like a straw to his neighbouring enemies, to the great\nmortification of his subjects and citizens (paurakas).\n\n6. As the enemy overran his territories and kingdom, and seized his\nroyal palace and properties; he girt himself in his undergarb, and went\naway beyond the limits of his kingdom.\n\n7. He wandered afar through distant villages and desert lands, till at\nlast he settled himself where he was quite unknown to all, and nobody\nknew his person or face or his name and title.\n\n8. Remaining there retired for some time, he became quite composed and\nblunt to all feelings from within and without himself; and he obtained\nhis rest and repose in the serene tranquillity of his soul.\n\n9. He then roved about different countries and went to distant islands\n(to see the various manners of men); till at last he turned unawares to\nhis natal land and city, which was in the grasp of his enemies.\n\n10. There while he was wandering from door to door, as he was led about\nby the current of time; he was observed by the citizens and ministers\nto be begging their alms.\n\n11. All the citizens and ministers recognized their ex-king Bhag\u00edratha,\nwhom they honoured with their due homage, and whom they were very sorry\nto behold in that miserable plight.\n\n12. His enemy (the reigning prince) came out to meet him, and implored\nhim to receive back his neglected estate and self-abandoned kingdom;\nbut he slighted all their offers as trifling straws, except taking his\nslender repast at their hands.\n\n13. He passed a few days there and then bent his course to another way,\nwhen the people loudly lamented at his sad condition saying: \"Ah! what\nhas become of the unfortunate Bhag\u00edratha\".\n\n14. Then the prince walked about with the calmness of his soul, and\nwith his contended mind and placid countenance; and he amused himself\nwith his wandering habits and thoughts, until he came to meet his tutor\nTritala on the way.\n\n15. They welcomed one another, and then joining together, they both\nbegan to wander about the localities of men, and to pass over hills and\ndeserts in their holy peregrinations.\n\n16. Once on a time as both the dispassionate pupil and his preceptor,\nwere sitting together in the cool calmness of their dispositions, their\nconversations turned on the interesting subject of human life.\n\n17. What good is there in our bearing the frail body, and what do\nwe lose by our loss of it. (Since neither reap nor lose any real\nadvantage, either by our having or losing of it at any time, yet we\nshould bear with it as it is, in the discharge of the duties that have\ncome down unto us by the custom of the country).\n\n18. They remained quiet with this conclusion, and passed their time\nin passing from one forest to another; without feeling any joy above\ntheir inward bliss, or knowing any sorrow or the intermediate state of\njoy and grief (which is the general lot of humanity), and the rotatory\ncourse of pleasure and pain in this world.\n\n19. They spurned all riches and properties, the possession of horses\nand cattle, and even the eight kinds of supernatural powers (Siddhis)\nas rotten straws before the contentedness of their minds.\n\n20. This body which is the result of our past acts, must be borne with\nfortitude, whether we wish it or not, as long as it lasts; with his\ncontinued conviction in the discharge of their duties (of asceticism).\n\n21. They like silent sages, hailed with complaisance, whatever of\ngood or evil, or desirable or undesirable befell to their lot, as the\nunavoidable results of their prior deeds; and had their repose in the\nheavenly felicity, to which they had assimilated themselves. (So the\nsruti: The Divine are one with Divine felicity).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXXVI\n\nTHE DESCENT OF GANG\u00c1 ON EARTH.\n\nArgument:--Reinstatement of Bhag\u00edratha in his Kingdom, and his bringing\ndown the heavenly stream by means of his austere Devotion.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--It came to pass at one time as Bhag\u00edratha was\npassing through a large metropolis, he beheld the ruler of that\nprovince, who was childless to be snatched away by the hand of death,\nas a shark seizes a fish for its prey.\n\n2. The people being afraid of anarchy and lawlessness for want of a\nruler, were in search of a proper person joined with noble endowments\nand signs to be made their future king.\n\n3. They met with the silent and patient prince in the act of begging\nalms, and knowing him as the king Bhag\u00edratha himself, they took him\nwith them escorted by their own regiments, to install him on the throne\nas their king.\n\n4. Bhag\u00edratha instantly mounted on an elephant, and was led by a large\nbody of troops, who assembled about him as thickly, as the drops of\nrain water fall into and fill a lake.\n\n5. The people then shouted aloud, \"Here is Bhag\u00edratha our lord; may he\nbe victorious for ever\", and the noise thereof reached to the furthest\nmountains, and filled their hollow caves (which reached to the sound).\n\n6. Then as Bhag\u00edratha remained to reign over that realm, the subjects\nof his own and former kingdom came reverently to him, and thus prayed\nunto their king saying:--\n\n7. The people said:--Great king! the person who thou didst appoint to\nrule over us, is lately devoured by death as a little fish by a large\none.\n\n8. Therefore deign to rule over thy realm, nor refuse to accept an\noffer which comes unasked to thee (so it is said:--It is not right to\nslight even a mite, that comes of itself to any body, but it is to be\ndeemed as a God-sent blessing).\n\n9. Vasishtha said:--The king being so besought accepted their prayer,\nand thus became the sole manager of the earth, bounded by the seven\nseas on all sides.\n\n10. He continued to discharge the duties of royalty without the least\ndismay or disquietude, though he was quite calm and serene in his mind,\nquiet in his speech, and devoid of passions and envy or selfishness.\n\n11. He then thought of the redemption of his ancestors, who excavated\nthe coast of the sea (and made this bay of Bengal); and were burned\nalive underneath the ground (by the curse of sage Kapila); by laving\ntheir bones and dead bodies with the waves of Ganges, which he heard,\nhad the merit of purity and saving all souls and bodies. (The ancestors\nof Bhag\u00edratha were the thousand sons of sagara, who were masters of\nSaugar islands in the bay of Bengal).\n\n12. The heavenly stream of the Ganges did not till then run over the\nland, it was Bhag\u00edratha that brought it down, and first washed his\nancestral remains with its holy waters. The stream was thence forth\nknown by his name as Bhag\u00edratha.\n\n13. The king Bhag\u00edratha was thenceforward resolved, to bring down the\nholy Gang\u00e1 of heaven to the nether world. (The triple Ganges is called\nthe Tripathag\u00e1 or fluvium trivium or running in three directions).\n\n14. The pious prince then resigned his kingdom to the charge of his\nministers, and went to the solitary forest with the resolution of\nmaking his austere devotion, for the success of his undertaking.\n\n15. He remained there for many years and under many rains, and\nworshipped the Gods Brahm\u00e1 and Siva and the sage Jahnu by turns, until\nhe succeeded to bring down the holy stream on the earth below. (It is\nsaid that Gang\u00e1 was pent-up at first in the water pot of Brahm\u00e1, and\nthen in the crown of Siva and lastly under the thighs of Jahnu, all\nwhich are allegorical of the fall of the stream from the cascade of\nGangotri in Haridwar).\n\n16. It was then that the crystal wave of the Ganges, gushed out of the\nbasin of Brahm\u00e1 the lord of the world and rushed into the moony crest\nof Hara; and falling on earth below it took a triple course, like the\nmeritorious acts of great men (which were lauded in all three worlds of\ntheir past, present and future lives).\n\n17. It was thus the trivium river of Gang\u00e1, came to flow over this\nearth, as the channel to bear the glory of Bhag\u00edratha to distant lands.\nBehold her running fast with her upheaving waves, and smiling all\nalong with her foaming froths; she sprinkles purity all along with the\ndrizzling drops of her breakers, and scatters plenty over the land as\nthe reward of the best deserts of men.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXXVII.\n\nNARRATIVE OF CH\u00daD\u00c1L\u00c1 AND SIKHIDHWAJA.\n\nArgument:--Story of the _Princess Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 and her marriage_ with\nSikhidhwaja and their youthful sports.\n\n\nVasishtha related:--R\u00e1ma! do you keep your view fixed to one object, as\nit was kept in the mind of Bhag\u00edratha; and do you pursue your calling\nwith a calm and quiet understanding, as it was done by that steady\nminded prince in the accomplishment of his purpose! (For he that runs\nmany ways, stands in the middle and gets to the end of none).\n\n2. Give up your thoughts of this and that (shilly-shallying), and\nconfine the flying bird of your mind within your bosom, and remain in\nfull possession of yourself after the example of the resolute prince\nSikhidhwaja of old.\n\n3. R\u00e1ma asked:--Who was this Sikhidhwaja, sir, and how did he maintain\nthe firmness of his purpose? Please explain this fully to me for the\nedification of my understanding.\n\n4. Vasishtha replied:--It was in a former _Dw\u00e1para age_, that there\nlived a loving pair of consorts who are again to be born in a future\nperiod, in the same manner and at the same place.\n\n5. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--Tell me, O great preacher! how the past could be the\nsame as at present, and how can these again be alike in future also.\n(Since there can be no cause of the likeness of past ages and their\nproductions with those of the present or future. It is reasonable to\nbelieve the recurrence of such other things, but not of the same and\nvery things as of yore).\n\n6. Vasishtha replied:--Such is the irreversible law of destiny and the\nirreversible course of nature, that the creation of the world must\ncontinue in the same manner by the invariable will of the creative\nBrahm\u00e1 and others. (_i.e._ The repeated creation of worlds must go on\nin the same rotation by the inevitable will (Satya Sankalpa) of the\ncreative power; wherefore bygone things are to return and be re-born\nover and over again).\n\n7. As those which had been plentiful before come to be as plenteous\nagain, so the past appears at present and in future also. Again many\nthings come to being that had not been before, and so many others\nbecome extinct in course of time (_e. g._ as past crops return again\nand again and vegetables grow where there were none, and as a lopped\noff branch grows no more).\n\n8. Some reappear in their former forms and some in their resemblance\nalso; others are changed in their forms, and many more disappear\naltogether (see, for example, the different shapes of the waves of the\nocean).\n\n9. These and many other things are seen in the course of the world; and\ntherefore the character of the subject of the present narrative will\nbe found to bear exact resemblance to that of the bygone prince of the\nsame name.\n\n10. Hear me tell you, also, that there is yet to be born such another\nprince, as valiant as the one that had been in the former _dw\u00e1para age_\nof the past seventh manvantara period.\n\n11. It will be after the four _yugas_ of the fourth creation, past and\ngone, that he will be born again of the Kuru family in the vicinity of\nthe Vindhyan mountains in the Jambudw\u00edpa continent. (This extravagant\nsloka is omitted in other editions of this work).\n\n12. There lived a prince by name of Sikhidhwaja in the country of\nMalava, who was handsome in his person, and endowed with firmness and\nmagnanimity in his nature, and the virtues of patience and self control\nin his character.\n\n13. He was brave but silent, and even inclined to good acts with all\nhis great virtues; he was engaged in the performance of the religious\nsacrifices, as also in defeating bowyers in archery.\n\n14. He did many acts (of public endowments), and supported the poor\npeople of the land; he was of a graceful appearance and complacent\nin his countenance, and loved all men with his great learning in the\ns\u00e1stras.\n\n15. He was handsome, quiet and fortunate, and equally as valiant as\nhe was virtuous. He was a preacher of morality and bestower of all\nbenefits to his suitors.\n\n16. He enjoyed all luxuries in the company of good people, and listened\nto the lessons of the Srutis. He knew all knowledge without any boast\non his part, and he hated to touch women as straws.\n\n17. His father departed to the next world, leaving him a lad of sixteen\nyears in age; and yet he was able at that tender age to govern his\nrealm, by defeating his adversaries on all sides.\n\n18. He conquered all other provinces of the country by means of the\nresources of his empire; and he remained free from all apprehension by\nruling his subjects with justice and keeping them in peace.\n\n19. He brightened all sides by his intelligence and the wisdom of his\nministers, till in the course of years he came to his youth, as in the\ngaudy spring of the year.\n\n20. It was the vernal season, and he beheld the blooming flowers\nglistening brightly under the bright moon-beams; and he saw the budding\nblossoms, hanging down the arbours in the inner apartments.\n\n21. The door ways of the bowers were overhung with twining branches,\ndecorated with florets scattering their fragrant dust like the hoary\npowder of camphor; and the rows of the _guluncha_ flowers wafted their\nodours all around.\n\n22. There was the loud hum of bees, buzzing with their mates upon the\nflowery bushes; and the gentle zephyrs were wafting the sweet scent\namidst the cooling showers of moonbeams.\n\n23. He saw the banks decorated with the _kadal\u00ed_ shrubbery glistening\nwith their gemming blossoms under the sable shade of _kadal\u00ed_\n(plantain) leaves; which excited his yearning after the dear one that\nwas seated in his heart.\n\n24. Giddy with the intoxication of the honey draughts of fragrant\nflowers, his mind was fixed on his beloved object, and did not depart\nfrom it, as the spring is unwilling to quit the flowery garden (so says\nHapiz,--no pleasant sight is gladsome to the mind without the face of\nthe fair possessor of the heart: see Sir Wm. Jones' version of it).\n\n25. When shall I in this swinging cradles of my pleasure garden,\nand when will I in my sports in this lake of lotuses, play with my\nlove-smitten maid with her budding breasts resembling the two unblown\nblossoms of golden lotuses?\n\n26. When shall I embrace my beloved one to my bosom on my bed daubed\nwith the dust of powdered frankincense, and when shall we on cradles of\nlotus stalks, like a pair of bees sucking the honey from flower cups?\n\n27. When shall I see that maiden lying relaxed in my arms, with her\nslender body resembling a tender stalk, and as fair as a string of\nmilk-white _kunda_ flowers, or as a plant formed of moon-beams?\n\n28. When will that moonlike beauty be inflamed with her love to me?\nWith these and the like thoughts and ravings he roved about the garden\nlooking at the variety of flowers.\n\n29. He then went on rambling in the flowery groves and skirts of\nforests, and thence strayed onward from one forest to another, and by\nthe side of purling lakes blooming with the full blown lotuses. (The\nlotus is the emblem of beauty in the east, as the rose is in the west).\n\n30. He entered in the alcoves formed by the twining creepers, and\nwalked over the avenues of many garden grounds and forest lands,\nseeing and hearing the descriptions of woodland sceneries (from his\nassociates).\n\n31. He was distracted in his mind, and took much delight in hearing\ndiscourses on erotic subjects, and the bright form of his necklaced and\npainted beloved was the sole idol in his breast.\n\n32. He adored the maiden in his heart, with her breasts resembling\ntwo golden pots on her person; and this ween was soon found by the\nsagacious ministers of the state.\n\n33. As it is the business of ministership to dive into matters by their\nsigns and prognosis, so these officers met together to deliberate on\nhis marriage.\n\n34. They proposed the youthful daughter of the king of Syrastra (Surat)\nfor his marriage, and thought her as a proper match for him, on account\nof her coming to the full age of puberty (_lit._ to the prime of her\nyouth).\n\n35. The prince was married to her who was a worthy image (or like\nco-partner) of himself; and this fair princess was known by the name of\n_Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1_ all over the land.\n\n36. She was as joyous in having him, as the new blown lotus at the\nrising sun; and he made the black-eyed maid to bloom, as the moon opens\nthe bud of the blue lotus. (Lotuses are known as helio-solenus, the\nwhite ones opening at sun rise and the blue kind blooming with the\nrising moon).\n\n37. He delighted her with his love, as gives the white lotus to bloom;\nand they both inflamed their mutual passions by their abiding in the\nheart of one another.\n\n38. She flourished with her youthful wiles and dalliance, like a new\ngrown creeper blooming with its flowers, and he was happy, and careless\nin her company by leaving the state affairs to the management of the\nministers. (The words h\u00e1v Chavavilasa, implying amorous dalliance, are\nall comprised in the couplet \"quips and cranks and wanton wiles, nods\nand becks and wreathed smiles\".--Pope).\n\n39. He disported in the company of his lady love, as the swan sports\nover a bed of lotuses in a large lake; and indulged his frolics in his\nswinging cradles and pleasure ponds in the inner apartments.\n\n40. They reveled in the gardens and groves, and in the bowers of\ncreepers and flowering plants; and amused themselves in the woods and\nin walks under the sandalwood and a _gulancha_ shades.\n\n41. They sported by the rows of _mand\u00e1ra_ trees, and beside the lines\nof plantain and kadal\u00ed plants; and regaled themselves wandering in the\nharem, and by the sides of the woods and lakes in the skirts of the\ntown.\n\n42. He roved afar in distant forests and deserts, and in jungles of\n_J\u00e1m_ and _J\u00e1m bira_ trees; they passed by paths bordered by J\u00e1t\u00ed or\njasmine plants, and, in short they took delight in everything in the\ncompany of one another.\n\n43. The mutual attachment to one another was as delightsome to the\npeople as the union of the raining sky with the cultivated ground; both\ntending to the welfare of mankind by the productiveness of the general\nweal. (This far-fetched simile and the mazy construction of the passage\nis incapable of a literal version).\n\n44. They were both skilled in the arts of love and music, and were\nso united together by their mutual attachment, that the one was a\ncounterpart of the other.\n\n45. Being seated in each others heart, they were as two bodies with one\nsoul; so that the learning of the s\u00e1stras of the one, and the skill in\npainting and fine arts of the other, were orally communicated to and\nlearnt by one another.\n\n46. She from her childhood was trained in every branch of learning, and\nhe learned the arts of dancing and playing on musical instruments, from\nthe oral instructions of _Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1_.\n\n47. They learned and became learned in the respective arts and parts of\none another; as the sun and moon being set in conjunction (amavasy\u00e1),\nimpart to and partake of the qualities of each other.\n\n48. Being mutually situated in the heart of one another, they became\nthe one and the same person and both being in the same inclination and\npursuit, were the more endeared to one another (as a river running\nto the milky ocean is assimilated to the ocean of milk, so all souls\nmixing with the supreme soul form one universal and only soul).\n\n49. They were joined in one person, as the _androgyne_ body of Um\u00e1 and\nSiva on earth; and were united in one soul, as the different fragrances\nof flowers are mixed up with the common air. Their clearness of\nunderstanding and learning of the s\u00e1stras led them both in the one and\nsame way.\n\n50. They were born on earth to perform their parts, like the God\n_Vishnu_ and his consort Lakshm\u00ed; they were equally frank and sweet by\ntheir mutual affection, and were as informed as communicative of their\nlearning to others.\n\n51. They followed the course of the laws and customs, and attended to\nthe affairs of the people; they delighted in the arts and sciences, and\nenjoyed their sweet pleasures also. They appeared as the two moons,\nshining with their beams.\n\n52. They tasted all their sweet enjoyments of life, in the quiet and\nsolitary recesses of their private apartments, as a couple of giddy\nswans sporting merrily in the lake of the azure sky.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXXVIII.\n\nBEATIFICATION OF CH\u00daD\u00c1L\u00c1.\n\nArgument:--The distaste and indifference of the happy pair to worldly\nenjoyments.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--In this manner did this happy pair, revel for\nmany years in the pleasures of their youth, and tasted with greater\nzest, every new delight that came on their way day by day.\n\n2. Years repeated their reiterated revolutions over their protracted\nrevelries till by and by their youth began to give way to the decay of\nage; as the broken pitcher gives way to its waters out (or rather as\nthe leaky vessel gives way to the waters in).\n\n3. They then thought that their bodies are as frail as the breakers on\nthe sea; and as liable to fall as the ripened fruits of trees, and that\ndeath is not to be averted by any body.\n\n4. As the arrowy snows rend the lotus leaves, so is our old age ready\nto batter and shatter our frames; and the cup of our life is drizzling\naway day by day, as the water held in the palm falls away by sliding\ndrops.\n\n5. While our avarice is increasing on our hand, like the gourd plant in\nthe rainy weather, so doth our youth glide away as soon as the torrent\nfalls from the mountain cliffs to the ground.\n\n6. Our life is as false as a magic play, and the body a heap of rotting\nthings; our pleasures are few and painful, and as fleeting as the\nflying arrows from the archers bow.\n\n7. Afflictions pounce upon our hearts, as vultures and kites dart upon\nfish and flesh; and these our bodies are as momentary as the bursting\nbubbles of dropping rains (or of rain drops).\n\n8. All reasoning and practice are as unsound, as the unsolid stem of\nthe plantain tree; and our youth is as evanescent, as a fugacious woman\nthat is in love with many men.\n\n9. The taste of youthful pleasure, is soon succeeded by a distaste\nto it in old age; just as the vernal freshness of plants, gives room\nto the dryness of autumn; where then is that permanent pleasure and\nlasting good in this world; which never grows stale, and is ever sweet\nand lovely.\n\n10. Therefore should we seek that thing, which will support us in all\nconditions of life, and which will be a remedy of all the maladies\n(evils), which circumvent us in this world.\n\n11. Being thus determined, they were both employed in the investigation\nof spiritual philosophy; because they thought their knowledge of the\nsoul to be the only healing balm of the cholic pain of worldliness.\n(Because spiritual knowledge extricates the soul from its earthly\nbondage).\n\n12. Thus resolved, they were both devoted to their spiritual culture,\nand employed their head and heart, their lives and souls in the\ninquiry, and placed all their hope and trust in the same.\n\n13. They remained long in the study and mutual communication of their\nspiritual knowledge; and continued to meditate upon and worship the\nsoul of souls in their own souls.\n\n14. They both rejoiced in their investigations into Divine knowledge,\nand she took a great delight in attending incessantly, to the\nadmonitions and sermons of the Divine prelates.\n\n15. Having heard the words of salvation, from the mouths of the\nspiritual doctors, and from their exposition of the S\u00e1stras; she\ncontinued thus to reflect about the soul by day and night. (Blessed is\nthe man, that meditates on the laws of God by day and night. Psalm.)\n\n16. Whether when engaged in action or not, I see naught but the one\nsoul in my enlightened and clear understanding; what then, am I that\nvery self, and is it my own self? (The yogi, when enrapt in holy light,\nloses the sense of his own personality. So lost in Divine light, the\nsaints themselves forget).\n\n17. Whence comes this error of my personality, why does it grow up\nand where does it subsist (in the body or in the mind)? It cannot\nconsist in the gross body which knows not itself and is ignorant of\neverything. Surely I am not this body, and my egoism lies beyond my\ncorporeality.\n\n18. The error then rises in the mind and grows from boyhood to old\nage, to think one's self as lean or fat as if he were the very body.\nAgain it is usual to say I act, I see &c., as if the personality of\none consists in his action; but the acts of the bodily organs, being\nrelated with the body, are as insensible and impersonal as the dull\nbody itself.\n\n19. The part is not different from the whole, nor is the product of the\none otherwise than that of the others. (As the branch and the tree are\nthe same thing, and the fruit of the one the same as that of the other.\nHence the actions of both the outward and inward organs of the body,\nare as passive and impersonal as the body itself).\n\n20. The mind moves the body as the bat drives the ball, and therefore\nit must be dull matter also, being apart of the material body, and\ndiffering from it in its power of volition only. (The mind is called\nthe _antah-karana_ or an inward organ of the material body, and also\nmaterial in its nature).\n\n21. The determination of the mind impels the organs to their several\nactions, as the sling sends the pebble in any direction; and this\nfirmness of resolution is no doubt a property of matter. (Like the\nsolidity of current).\n\n22. The egoism which leads the body forward in its action, is like the\nchannel that carries the current of a stream in its onward course.\nThis egoism also has no essence of its own and is therefore as inert\nand inactive as a dead body. (The ego [Sanskrit: aham] is subjective\nand really existent in Western philosophy). But egoism or egotism\n[Sanskrit: ahamk\u00e1ra] is the false conception of the mind as the true\nego.\n\n23. The living principle (J\u00edva or zoa) is a false idea, as the phantom\nof a ghost; the living soul is one principle of intelligence and\nresides in the form of air in the heart. (That life is a produce of\norganism, acted by external physical stimuli).\n\n24. The life or living principle lives by another inner power, which\nis finer and more subtile than itself, and it is by means of this\ninternal witness (the soul), that all things are known to us, and not\nby means of this gross animal life. (Because there is a brute life,\nand a vegetable life also, which are as insensible as dull matter.\nHence there is a distinct principle to direct vitality to all vital\nfunctions).\n\n25. The living soul lives in its form of vitality, by the primordial\npower of the intellect, the vital soul which is misunderstood as an\nintelligent principle, subsists by means of this intellectual power.\n(Life is the tension of the power, imparted by the intellect).\n\n26. The living soul carries with it the power, which is infused in it\nby the intellect; as the wind wafts in its course the fragrance of\nflowers, and the channel carries the current of the stream to a great\ndistance. (Hence life also is an organism and no independent active\npower by itself).\n\n27. The heart which is the body or seat of the intellect, is nothing\nessential by itself; it is called _chitta_ or centre for concentrating\n_chayana_ of the powers of the intellect, and also the _hrid_ or heart,\nfor its bearing _harana_ of these powers to the other parts of the\nbody; and therefore it is a dull material substance. (The heart is\nthe receiver and distributor of force to the members of the body, and\ntherefore a mere organism of itself).\n\n28. All these and the living soul also, and anything that appears real\nor unreal, disappear in the meditation of the intellect, and are lost\nin it as the fire when it is immerged in water. (So the appearances\nat a ghata or pot and that of a _pata_ or cloth, are lost in their\nsubstances of the clay and thread).\n\n29. It is our intelligence _Chaitanya_ alone, that awakens us to the\nknowledge of the unreality and inanity of gross material bodies. With\nsuch reflections as these, Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 thought only how to gain a knowledge\nof the all-enlightening Intellect.\n\n30. Long did she cogitate and ponder in this manner in herself; till\nat last she came to know what she sought and then exclaimed, \"O! I\nhave after long known the imperishable one, that is only to be known\".\n(The knowledge of all things else, is as false as they are false in\nthemselves).\n\n31. No one is disappointed in knowing the knowable, and what is worth\nknowing; and this is the knowledge of the intellectual soul and our\ncontemplation of it. All other knowledge of the mind, understanding and\nthe senses and all other things, are but leading steps to that ultimate\nend. (The end of learning is to know God, Milton, or: nosce te ipsum;\nknow thyself which is of the supreme self or soul).\n\n32. All things besides are mere nullities, as a second moon in the sky;\nthere is only one Intellect in existence, and this is called the great\nentity or the _ens entium_ or the sum total of all existence.\n\n33. The one purely immaculate and holy, without an equal or personality\nof the form of pure intelligence, the sole existence and felicity and\neverlasting without decay.\n\n34. This intellectual power is ever pure and bright, always on the\nzenith without its rise or fall, and is known among mankind under the\nappellations of Brahma--supreme soul, and other attributes. (Because\nbeyond conception can have no designation beside what is attributed to\nHim).\n\n35. The triple appellations of the Intellect, Intelligence, and\nIntelligible, are not exactly definitive of His nature; because He\nis the cause of these faculties, and witness of the functions of\nIntellections.\n\n36. This unthinkable intellect which is in me, is the exact and\nundecaying ectype of the supreme intellect; and evolves itself in the\ndifferent forms of the mind, and the senses of perception.\n\n37. The intellect involves in itself the various forms of things in\nthe world, as the sea rolls and unrolls the waves in its bosom. (The\nintellect either means the Divine intellect, or it is the subjective\nview of the intellect, as evolving the objective world from itself).\n\n38. This world is verily the semblance of that great intellect, which\nis like the pure crystal stone and is manifest in this form. (The world\nreflects the image of the intellect, which again reflects the image\nof the mundane world, the one in the form of its visible appearance\n_m\u00farta_; and the other, in its invisible form _am\u00farta_. Gloss).\n\n39. The same power is manifest in the form of the world, which has no\nseparate existence except in the mind of the ignorant; because it is\nimpossible for any other thing to exist except the self-existing one.\n\n40. As it is the gold which represents the various forms of jewels, so\nthe intellect represents everything in the world as it sees in itself.\n(The Divine is the source and store house of all figures and forms).\n\n41. As it is the thought of fluidity in the mind, that causes us to\nperceive the wave in the water, whether it really exists or not (as in\nour dream or magic); so is the thought in the Divine mind, which shows\nthe picture of the world, whether it is in being or in not _esse_.\n\n42. And as the divine soul appears as the wave of the sea, from its\nthought of fluidity; so am I the same intellect without any personality\nof myself. (Because the one impersonal soul pervades everywhere).\n\n43. This soul has neither its birth nor death, nor has it a good\nor bad future state (Heaven or Hell); it has no destruction at any\ntime; because it is of the form of the various intellect, which is\nindestructible in its nature.\n\n44. It is not to be broken or burnt (_i.e._ though every where,\nyet it is an entire whole, and though full of light; yet it is not\ninflammable); and it is the unclouded luminary of the intellect. By\nmeditating on the soul in this manner, I am quite at rest and peace.\n\n45. I live free from error and rest as calm as the untroubled ocean;\nand meditate on the invisible one, who is quite clear to me, as the\nunborn, undecaying and infinite soul of all.\n\n46. It is the vacuous soul, unrestricted by time or place, immaculate\nby any figure or form, eternal and transcending our thought and\nknowledge. It is the infinite void, and all attempts to grasp it, are\nas vain as to grasp the empty air in the hand.\n\n47. This soul pervades equally over all the Sura as well as the Asura\nraces of the earth; but is none of those artificial forms, in which\nthe people represent it in their images of clay, likening the dolls of\nchildren.\n\n48. The essences of both the viewer and the view (_i.e._ of both the\nsubjective and the objective), reside at once in the unity of the\nintellect; though men are apt to make the distinctions of unity and\nduality, and of the ego and _non ego_ through their error only.\n\n49. But what error or delusion is there, and how, when and whence can\nit overtake me, when I have attained my truly spiritual and immortal\nform, and seated in my easy and quiet state. (This is calmness of the\nsoul attending the thought of one's immortality begun in this life).\n\n50. I am absorbed and extinct in eternity, and all my cares are extinct\nwith my own extinction in it. My soul is in its entranced state between\nsensibility and insensibility, and feels what is reflected upon it.\n(_i.e._ the inspiration which is communicated to the ravished soul).\n\n51. The soul settled in the great intellect of God, and shining with\nthe light of the supreme soul, as the sky is illumed by the luminary of\nthe day. There is no thought of this or that or even of one's self or\nthat of any other being or not being; all is calm and quiet and having\nno object in view, except the one transcendent spirit.\n\n52. With these excogitations, she remained as calm and quiet as a white\ncloudy spot in the autumnal sky; her soul was awake to the inspiration\nof Divine truth, but her mind was cold to the feelings of love and\nfear, of pride and pleasure, and quite insusceptible of delusion.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXXIX.\n\nPRINCESS COMING TO THE SIGHT OF THE SUPREME SOUL.\n\nArgument:--The prince's wonder of the sight of the princess, and her\nrelation of her Abstract meditation.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--Thus did the princess live day by day in the\nrapture of her soul; and with her views concentrated within herself,\nshe lived as in her own and proper element.\n\n2. She had no passion nor affection, nor any discord nor desire in her\nheart; she neither coveted nor hated anything, and was indifferent to\nall; but persistent in her course, and vigilant in her pursuit (after\nher self perfection).\n\n3. She had got over the wide gulf of the world, and freed herself from\nthe entangling snare of doubts (and the horns of dilemmas); she had\ngained the great good of knowing the supreme soul, which filled her\ninward soul.\n\n4. She found her rest in God after her weariness of the world, and in\nher state of perfect bliss and felicity; and her name sounded in the\nlips of all men, as the model of incomparable perfection.\n\n5. Thus this lady--the princess Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1, became in a short time,\nacquainted with the true God (lit. knowing the knowable one), by the\nearnestness of her inquiry.\n\n6. The errors of the world subside in the same manner, under the\nknowledge of truth, as they rise in the human mind by its addictedness\nto worldliness. (The world is an abode of errors and illusion. Persian\nProverb).\n\n7. After she had found her repose in that state of perfect blessedness,\nwherein the sight of all things is lost in its dazzling blaze, she\nappeared as bright as a fragment of autumnal cloud, that is ever steady\nin its place.\n\n8. Apart from and irrelated with all, she continued in the meditation\nof the spirit in her own spirit, as the aged bull remained careless on\nthe mountain top, where he happened to find a verdant meadow for his\npasture.\n\n9. By her constant habit of loneliness, and the elevation of her soul\nin her solitude, she became as fresh as the new grown plant, with her\nblooming face shining as the new blown flower.\n\n10. It happened to pass at one time, that the prince Sikhidhwaja\ncame in sight of the unblamable beauty, and being struck with wonder\nat seeing her unusual gracefulness of her person, he addressed her\nsaying:--\n\n11. How is it, my dear one, that you are again your youthful bloom like\nthe flowery plant of the vernal season; you appear more brilliant than\nthe lightsome world under the bright beams of full moon.\n\n12. You shine more brightly, my beloved, than one drinking the ambrosia\nor elixir of life, and as one obtaining the object of her desire, and\nfilled with perfect delight in herself.\n\n13. You seem quite satisfied and lovely with your graceful person, and\nsurpass the bright moon in the beauty of thy body; methinks you are\napproaching to me as when the Goddess of love or _Laxm\u00ed_ draws near her\nfavourite K\u00e1ma.\n\n14. I see thy mind disdaining all enjoyments and is parsimonious of its\npleasures; it is tranquil and cool, and elated with spiritual ardour,\nand is as deep as it is tranquil in its nature.\n\n15. I see thy mind spurning the three worlds as if they were straws\nbefore it, and tasted all their sweets to its full satisfaction; it is\nabove the endless broils of the world, and is quite charming in itself.\n\n16. O fortunate princess, there are no such gratifications in the\nenjoyment of earthly possessions, which may equal the spiritual joy\nof thy tranquil mind. The one is as dry as the dryness of the sandy\ndesert, compared with the refreshing water of the milky ocean.\n\n17. Being born with thy tender limbs resembling the tendrils of young\nplantains, and the soft shoots of lotus stalks, thou seemest now to\nhave grown strong and stout in thy frame of body and mind. (It is the\nspirit and spiritual power that strengthens both the body and mind).\n\n18. With the same features and figure of thy body as before, thou hast\nbecame as another being, like a plant growing up to a tree, under the\ninfluence of the revolving seasons.\n\n19. Tell me, whether thou hast drunk the ambrosial draught of the Gods,\nor obtained thy sovereignty over an empire; or whether thou hast gained\nthy immorality by drinking the elixir of life, or by means of thy\npractice of yoga meditation in either of its forms of _Hatha_ or _R\u00e1ja\nyoga_.\n\n20. Hast thou got a Kingdom or found out the philosopher's stone (which\nconverts everything to gold); hast thou gained aught that is more\nprecious than the three worlds, or that thou hast obtained, O my blue\neyed lady! something that is not attainable to mankind.\n\n21. Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 responded:--I have not lost my former form, nor am I\nchanged to a new one to come before thee at present; but am as ever\nthy fortunate lady and wife. (There is a far fetched meaning of this\npassage given in the gloss).\n\n22. I have forsaken all that is untrue and unreal, and have laid hold\nof what is true and real; and it is thus that I remain thy fortunate\nconsort as ever before.\n\n23. I have come to know whatever is something, as also all that which\nis nothing at all; and how all these nothings come to appearance, and\nultimately disappear into nothing, and it is thus that I remain thy\nfortunate lady as ever.\n\n24. I am as content with my enjoyments as I am without them, as also\nwith those that are long past and gone away; I am never delighted nor\nirritated at anything whether good or bad, but preserve my equanimity\nat all events and thus I remain for ever thy fortunate consort.\n\n25. I delight only in one vacuous entity, that has taken possession of\nmy heart, and I take no pleasure in the royal gardens and sports, and\nthence I am thy fortunate princess as ever.\n\n26. I rely constantly in myself (or soul) only, whether when sitting on\nmy seat or walking about in the royal gardens or palaces; I am not fond\nof enjoyments nor ashamed at their want, and in this manner I continue\nthy fortunate wife as ever.\n\n27. I think myself as the sovereign of the world, and having no form of\nmy own; thus I am delighted in myself, and appear as thy fortunate and\nbeauteous lady.\n\n28. I am this and not this likewise, I am the reality yet nothing real\nof any kind; I am the ego and no ego myself, I am the all and nothing\nin particular, and thus I remain your charming lady.\n\n29. I neither wish for pleasure nor fear any pain, I covet no riches\nnor hail poverty; I am constant with what I get (knowing my god is the\ngreat giver of all), and hence I seem so very gladsome to thee.\n\n30. I disport in the company of my associates, who have governed their\npassions by the light of knowledge, and by the directions of the\ns\u00e1stras, and therefore I seem so very pleasing to thee.\n\n31. I know, my lord, that all that I see by the light of my eyes,\nor perceive by my senses, or conceive in my mind, to be nothing in\nreality; I therefore see something within myself, which is beyond the\nperception of the sensible organs, and the conception of the mind;\nand this bright vision of the spirit, hath made me appear so very\nbrightsome to thy sight.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXXX.\n\nDISPLAY OF THE QUINTUPLE ELEMENTS.\n\nArgument:--Description of the five siddhis or modes of consummation.\n\n\nVasishtha related:--Hearing these words of the beauteous lady, her\nhusband had not the wit to dive into the meaning of what she said, or\nto understand what she meant by her reliance in the soul, but jestingly\ntold to her.\n\n2. Sikhidhwaja said:--How incongruous is thy speech, and how unbecoming\nit is to thy age, that being but a girl you speak of great things, go\non indulging your regal pleasures and sports as you do in your royal\nstate.\n\n3. Leaving all things you live in the meditation of a nothing (_i.e._\nleaving all formal worship, you adore a formless Deity); and if you\nhave all what is real to sense, how is it possible for you to be so\ngraceful with an unreal nothing? (Nothing is nothing, and can effect\nnothing).\n\n4. Whoso abandons the enjoyments of life, by saying he can do without\nthem; is like an angry man refraining from his food and rest for a\nwhile, and then weakens himself in his hunger and restlessness, and can\nnever retain the gracefulness of his person.\n\n5. He who abstains from pleasures and enjoyments, and subsists upon\nempty air, is as a ghost devoid of a material form and figure, and\nlives a bodiless shadow in the sky.\n\n6. He that abandons his food and raiment, his bedstead and sleep, and\nall things besides; and remains devoutly reclined in one soul only,\ncannot possibly preserve the calmness of his person. (The yogis are\nemaciated in their bodies, and never look so fresh and plump as the\nprincess).\n\n7. That I am not the body nor bodiless, that I am nothing yet\neverything; are words so contradictory, that they bespeak no sane\nunderstanding.\n\n8. Again the saying, that I do not see what I see, but see something\nthat is quite unseen; is so very inconsistent in itself, that it\nindicates no sanity of the mind.\n\n9. From these I find thee an ignorant and unsteady lass still, and my\nfrolicsome playmate as before; it is by way of jest that I speak so to\nyou, as you jestingly said these things to me.\n\n10. The prince finished his speech with a loud laughter, and finding it\nwas the noon time of going to bath, he rose up and left the apartment\nof his lady.\n\n11. At this the princess thought with regret in herself and said, O\nfie! that the prince has quite misunderstood my meaning, and has not\nunderstood what I meant to say by my rest in the spirit, she then\nturned to her usual duties of the day.\n\n12. Since then the happy princess continued in her silent meditation in\nher retired seclusion, but passed her time in the company of the prince\nin the enjoyments of their royal sports and amusements.\n\n13. It came to pass one day, that the self-satisfied princess pondered\nin her mind, upon the method of flying in the air; and though she was\nvoid of every desire in her heart, wished to soar into the sky on an\naerial journey.\n\n14. She then retired to a secluded spot, and there continued to\ncontemplate about her aerial journey by abstaining from her food,\nand shunning the society of her comrades and companions. (During the\nabsence of the prince from home. Gloss).\n\n15. She sat alone in her retirement keeping her body steadily on\nher seat, and restraining her upheaving breath in the midst of her\neye-brows (this is called the Khechar\u00ed mudr\u00e1 or the posture of aerial\njourney).\n\n16. R\u00e1ma asked:--All motions of bodies in this world whether of moving\nor unmoving things, are seen to take place by means of the action of\ntheir bodies and the impulse of their breathing; how is it possible\nthen to rise upwards by restraint of both of them at once?\n\n17. Tell me sir; by what exercise of breathing or the force of\noscillation, one attempts the power of volitation; and in consequence\nof which he is enabled to make his aerial journey (as an aeronaut).\n\n18. Tell me how the adept in spirituality or _yoga_ philosophy,\nsucceeds to attend his consummation in this respect, and what processes\nhe resorts to obtain this end of his arduous practice.\n\n19. Vasishtha replied:--There are three ways, R\u00e1ma, of attaining the\nend of one's object, namely; the _up\u00e1deya_ or effort for obtaining the\nobject of pursuit; second, _heya_ or disdain or detestation of the\nthing sought for; and the third is _upeksha_ or indifference to the\nobject of desire. (These technical terms answer the words positive,\nnegative and neutrality in western terminology, all which answer the\nsame end; such as the having, not having of and unconcernedness about\na thing, are attended with the same result of rest and content to\neverybody).\n\n20. The first or attainment of the desirable _up\u00e1deya_, is secured by\nemploying the means for its success, the second heya or detestation\nhates and slights the thing altogether; and the third or indifference\nis the intermediate way between the two (in which one is equally\npleased with its gain or loss. It is a curious _dogma_, that the\npositive, negative and the intermediate tend all to the same end).\n\n21. Whatever is pleasable is sought after by all good people, and\nanything that is contrary to this (_i.e._ painful), is avoided by\nevery one; and the intermediate one is neither sought nor shunned by\nany body. (Pleasure is either immediate or mediate, as also that which\nkeeps or wards off pain at present or in future).\n\n22. But no sooner doth the intelligent, learned devotee, come to the\nknowledge of his soul and become spiritualized in himself, than all\nthese three states vanished from his sight, and he feels them all the\nsame to him.\n\n23. As he comes to see these worlds full with the presence of God, and\nhis intellect takes its delight in this thought, he then remains in\nthe midmost state of indifference or loses sight of that also.\n\n24. All wise men remain in the course of neutrality (knowing that an\neternal fate overrules all human endeavours), which the ignorant are\nin eager pursuit of their objects in vain, but the dispassionate and\nrecluse shun every thing (finding the same satisfaction in having of a\nthing as in its want). Hear me now tell you the ways to consummation.\n\n25. All success is obtained in course of proper time, place, action and\nits instruments (called the quadruple instrumentalities to success);\nand this gladdens the hearts of a person, as the vernal season\nrenovates the earth.\n\n26. Among these four, preference is given to actions, because it is of\nhighest importance in the bringing about of consummation. (The place\nof success _siddhi_ is a holy spot, its time--a happy conjunction\nof planets and events, action is the intensity of practice, and its\ninstruments are yoga, yantra, tantra, mantra, japa &c.).\n\n27. There are many instruments of aerostation, such as the use of\nGutika pills, application of collyrium, the wielding of sword and the\nlike; but all these are attended with many evils, which are prejudicial\nto holiness.\n\n28. There are some gems and drugs, as also some mantras or mystic\nsyllables, and likewise some charms and formulas prescribed for this\npurpose; but these being fully explained, will be found prejudicial to\nholy _yoga_. (These magical practices and artifices are violations of\nthe rules of righteousness).\n\n29. The mount Meru and Him\u00e1laya, and some sacred spots and holy\nplaces, are mentioned as the seats of divine inspiration; but a full\ndescription of them, will tend to the violation of holy meditation or\nyoga. (Because all these places are full of false yogis, who practice\nmany fulsome arts for their gain).\n\n30. Therefore hear me now relate unto you, something regarding the\npractice of restraining the breath, which is attended with its\nconsequence of consummation; and is related with the narrative of\nSikhidhwaja, and is the subject of the present discourse. (Here\nVasishtha treats of the efficacy of the regulation of breath towards\nthe attaining of consummation for satisfaction of R\u00e1ma, in disregard of\nfalse and artificial practices).\n\n31. It is by driving away all desires from the heart, beside the only\nobject in view, and by contracting all the orifices of the body; as\nalso by keeping the stature, the head and neck erect, that one should\nattend the practices enjoined by the yoga s\u00e1stra (namely: fixing the\nsight on the top of the nose and concentrating it between the eye-brows\nand the like).\n\n32. Moreover it is by the habit of taking pure food and sitting on\nclean seats, that one should ponder into the deep sense and sayings\nof the s\u00e1stras, and continue in the course of good manners and right\nconduct in the society of the virtues, by refraining from worldliness\nand all earthly connections.\n\n33. It is also by refraining from anger and avarice, and abstaining\nfrom improper food and enjoyments, that one must be accustomed to\nconstrain his breathings in the course of a long time.\n\n34. The wise man that knows the truth, and has his command over his\ntriple breathings of inspiration, expiration and retention (p\u00faraka,\nrechaka and kumbhaka), has all his actions under his control, as a\nmaster has all his servants under his complete subjection. (because\nbreath is life, and the life has command over all the bodily actions,\nas well as mental operations of a person).\n\n35. Know R\u00e1ma, that all the well being of a man being under the command\nof his vital breath; it is equally possible for every one, both to gain\nhis sovereignty on earth, as also to secure his liberation for the\nfuture by means of his breath. (So says the proverb, \"as long as there\nis breath, there every hope with it\" [Sanskrit: y\u00e1bat shusah t\u00e1bat\n\u00e1shah] So in Hindi:--_jan hai to Jehan hai_ _i.e._ the life is all in\nall &c. So it is said in regard to the _kumbhaka_ or retentive breath,\n\"repress your breath and you repress all,\" because every action is done\nby the repression of the breath).\n\n36. The breath circulates through the inner lung of the breast, which\nencircles the entrails (antra) of the whole inner frame; it supplies\nall the arteries with life, and is joined to by all the intestines in\nthe body as if they to that common channel.\n\n37. There is the curved artery resembling the disc at the top of lute,\nand the eddy of waters in the sea; it likens the curved half of the\nletter _Om_, and is situated as a cypher or circlet in the base or\nlower most gland. (It is called the kundalin\u00ed or kula kundalin\u00ed n\u00e1rh\u00ed\nin the original).\n\n38. It is deep seated at the base of the bodies of the Gods and demi\nGods, of men and beasts, of fishes and fowls, of insects and worms, and\nof all aquatic molluscs and animals at large.\n\n39. It continues curved and curbed in the form of a folded snake in\nwinter, until it unfolds its twisted form under the summer heat (or\nthe intestinal heat of its hunger _Jathar\u00e1gn\u00ed_), and lifts its hood\nlikening the disk of the moon. (The moon in the yoga s\u00e1stra, means the\nloti-form gland under the upper most crown of the head).\n\n40. It extends from the lower base, and passing through the cavity of\nthe heart, touches the holes between the eye brows; and remains in its\ncontinued vibration by the wind of the breath.\n\n41. In the midst of that curvilineal artery (kundalin\u00ed n\u00e1rh\u00ed), there\ndwells a mighty power like the pith within the soft cell of the\nplantain tree, which is continually vibrating, like thrilling wires of\nthe Indian lute (or as the pendulum of a machine).\n\n42. This is called the curvilineal artery (kundalin\u00ed) on account of\nits curviform shape, and the power residing in it is that prime mobile\nforce, which sets to motion all the parts and powers of the animal body.\n\n43. It is incessantly breathing like hissing of an infuriate snake and\nwith its open mouths, it keeps continually blowing upwards, in order to\ngive force to all the organs.\n\n44. When the vital breath enters into the heart, and is drawn in by the\ncurved _Kundalin\u00ed_; it then produces the consciousness of the mind,\nwhich is the ground of the seeds of all its faculties.\n\n45. As the _Kundalin\u00ed_ thrills in the body, in the manner of a bee\nfluttering over a flower; so doth our consciousness throb in the mind,\nand has the perception of the nice and delicate sensations. (Such as\nthe lungs and arteries receive the crude food and drink; so doth our\nconsciousness perceive their various tastes and flavour).\n\n46. The _Kundalin\u00ed_ artery stirs as quickly to grasp its gross objects,\nas our consciousness is roused at the perception of the object of the\nfiner senses of sight &c. These come in contact with one another, as an\ninstrument lays hold of some material.\n\n47. All the veins in the body are connected with this grand artery,\nand flow together like so many cellular vessels into the cavity of the\nheart, where they rise and fall like rivers in the sea. (It shows the\nconcentration of blood in the heart by all the veins and arteries, and\nits distribution to them in perpetual succession, to have been long\nknown to the sages of India, before its discovery by Harvey in Europe).\n\n48. From the continued rise and fall (or heaving and sinking) of\nthis artery, it is said to be the common root or source of all the\nsensations and perceptions in the consciousness. (It rises and falls\nwith the inhaling and exhaling breaths up to the pericranium and thence\ndown to the fundament).\n\n49. R\u00e1ma regained:--How is it sir, that our consciousness coming from\nthe infinite intellect at all times and places, is confined like\na minute particle of matter, in the cellular vessel of the curved\n_Kundalin\u00ed_ artery, and there it rises and falls by turns.\n\n50. Vasishtha replied:--It is true, O sinless R\u00e1ma, that consciousness\nis the property of the infinite intellect, and is always present in all\nplaces and things with the all pervading intellect; yet it is sometimes\ncompressed in the form of a minute atom of matter in material and\nfinite bodies.\n\n51. The consciousness of the infinite intellect, is of course as\ninfinite as infinity itself; but being confined in corporeal bodies,\nit is fused as a fluid to diffuse over a small space. So the sunshine\nthat lightens the universe, appears to flush over a wall or any\ncircumscribed place. (Such as human consciousness, which is but a flush\nof the Divine omniscience).\n\n52. In some bodies it is altogether lost, as in mineral substances\nwhich are unconscious of their own existence; and in others it is\nfully developed, as in the Gods and human species; while in some it\nis imperfectly developed, as in the vegetable creation, and in others\nit appears in its perverted form, as in the inferior animals. So\neverything is found to have its consciousness in some form or other.\n\n53. Hear me moreover to explain you, the manner in which consciousness\n(or other), appears in its various forms and degrees, in the different\nbodies of animated beings.\n\n54. As all cavities and empty spaces are comprised under the term air,\nso are all intelligent as well as unintelligent beings comprehended\nunder the general category of the one ever existent intellect, which\npervades all things in the manner of vacuum. (Here is another proof of\nthe vacuistic theory of the theosophy of Vasishtha).\n\n55. The same undecaying and unchanging entity of the intellect, is\nsituated some where in the manner of pure consciousness, and elsewhere\nin the form of the subtile form of the quintuple elements. (_i.e._ As\nthe simple soul and the gross body or the mundane soul. So says Pope:\nWhose body nature is, and God the soul).\n\n56. This quintuple element of consciousness is reduplicate into many\nother quintuples, as a great many lamps are lighted from one lamp;\nthese are the five vital airs, the mind and its five fold faculties\nof the understanding; the five internal and the five external senses\nand their five fold organs, together with the five elementary bodies;\nand all having the principles of their growth, rise and decay, as also\ntheir states of waking, dreaming and sleeping ingrained in them.\n\n57. All these quintuples abide in the different bodies of the Gods and\nmortals, according to their respective natures and inclinations (which\nare the causes of their past and present and future lives in different\nforms).\n\n58. Some taking the forms of places, and others of the things situated\nin them; while some take the forms of minerals, and others of the\nanimals dwelling on earth.\n\n59. Thus is this world the production of the action of the said\nquintuples, having the principle of intellectual consciousness,\npresiding over the whole and every part of it.\n\n60. It is the union of these quintuples in gross bodies, that gives\nthem their intelligence; hence we see the mobility of some dull\nmaterial bodies, as also the immobility of others (as of mineral and\nvegetable creations).\n\n61. As the wave of the sea is seen to roll in one place, and to be dull\nand at a lull in another; so is this intellectual power in full force\nin some bodies, and quite quiescent in others.\n\n62. As the sea is calm and still in one place, and quite boisterous\nin another; so is the quintuple body either in motion or at rest in\ndifferent places. (Hence rest and motion are properties of gross bodies\nand not of the intellectual soul, which is ever quiescent).\n\n63. The quintuple body is mobile by means of the vital airs, and the\nvital life (_j\u00edva_) is intelligent by cause of its intelligence; the\nrocks are devoid of both, but the trees have their sensibility by\nreason of their being moved by the breath of winds; and such is the\nnature of the triple creation of animals, minerals and vegetables.\n\n64. Different words are used to denote the different natures of things\n(or else the same word is used for things of the same kind); thus fire\nis the general name for heat, and frost is that of coldness in general.\n\n65. (Or if it is not the difference in the disposition of the quintuple\nelements in bodies, that causes the difference in their natures and\nnames). It is the difference in the desires of the mind, which by being\nmatured in time, dispose the quintuple elements in the forms of their\nliking.\n\n66. The various desires of the mind, that run in their divers\ndirections, are capable of being collected together by the sapient, and\nemployed in the way of their best advantage and well being.\n\n67. The desires of men tending either to their good or evil, are\ncapable of being roused or suppressed, and employed to their purposes\nby turns. (The changeful desires always run in their several courses).\n\n68. Man must direct his desires to that way, which promises him the\nobjects of his desires; or else it will be as fruitless, as his\nthrowing the dust at the face of the sky.\n\n69. The great mountains are but heaps of the pentuples, hanging on\nthe tender and slender blade of consciousness, and these moving and\nunmoving bodies, appear as worms on the tree of knowledge (_i.e._\nbefore the intelligent mind).\n\n70. There are some beings with their desires lying dormant in them,\nas the unmoving vegetable and mineral productions of the earth; while\nthere are others with their ever wakeful desires, as the _deities_,\n_daityas_ and _men_.\n\n71. Some are cloyed with their desires, as the worms and insects in the\ndirt; and others are devoid of their desires as the emancipate yogis,\nand the heirs of salvation.\n\n72. Now every man is conscious in himself of his having the mind and\nunderstanding, and being joined with his hands, feet and other members\nof his body, formed by the assemblage of the quintuple materials.\n\n73. The inferior animals have other senses, with other members of their\nbodies; and so the immoveables also have some kind of sensibility, with\nother sorts of their organs. (The members of brute bodies are, the\nfour feet, horns and tails of quadrupeds; the birds are biped and have\ntheir feathers, bills and their tails also; the snakes have their hoods\nand tails; the worms have their teeth, and the insects their stings\n&c. And all these they have agreeably to the peculiar desire of their\nparticular natures. Gloss).\n\n74. Thus my good R\u00e1ma! do these quintuple elements, display themselves\nin these different forms in the beginning, middle and end of all\nsensible and insensible and moving and unmoving beings.\n\n75. The slightest desire of any of these, be it as minute as an atom,\nbecomes the seed of aerial trees producing the fruits of future births\nin the forms of the desired objects. (Every one's desire is the root of\nhis future fate).\n\n76. The organs of sense are the flowers of this tree (of the body), and\nthe sensations of their objects are as the fragrance of those flowers,\nour wishes are as the bees fluttering about the pistils and filaments\nof our fickle efforts and exertions.\n\n77. The clear heavens are the hairy tufts, resting on the stalks of the\nlofty mountains; its leaves are the cerulean clouds of the sky, and the\nten sides of the firmament, are as the straggling creepers stretching\nall about it.\n\n78. All beings now in being, and those coming into existence in future,\nare innumerable in their number, and are as the fruits of this tree,\ngrowing and blooming and falling off by turns.\n\n79. The five seeds of these trees, grow and perish of their own nature\nand spontaneity, also perish of themselves in their proper time.\n\n80. They become many from their sameness, and come to exhaust their\npowers after long inertness; and then subside to rest of their own\naccord like the heaving waves of the ocean.\n\n81. On one side, there swelling as huge surges, and on the other\nsinking low below the deep, excited by the heat of the dullness on the\none hand, and hushed by the coolness of reason on the other (like the\npuffing and bursting of the waves in the sea).\n\n82. These multitudes of bodies, that are the toys or play things of the\nquintuple essences, are destined to remain and rove for ever in this\nworld, unless they come under the dominion of reason, and are freed\nfrom further transmigration.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXXXI.\n\nINQUIRY INTO _AGNI_, _SOMA_ OR FIRE AND MOON\n\nArgument:--Investigation into the Kundalin\u00ed artery, as the source of\nconsummation.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--The seeds of these pentuples are contained in\nthe inside of the great artery, and are expanding every moment by the\nvibration of the vital breath in the beings.\n\n2. The vibration of the Kundalin\u00ed being stopped, it roused the\nintellect by its touch, and the rising of the intellect is attended\nwith rising of the intellectual powers as follows.\n\n3. This intellect is the living principle from its vitality, and the\nmind from its mental powers; it is the volitive principle from its\nvolition, and is called the understanding, from its understanding of\nall things.\n\n4. It becomes egoism with its octuple properties called the\n_puryashtakas_, and remains as the principle of vitality in the body in\nthe form of the Kundalin\u00ed artery. (The gloss gives no explanation of\nthe psychological truths).\n\n5. The intellect abides in _Kundalin\u00ed_ entrails in the form of triple\nwinds. Being deposited in the bowels and passing downwards, it takes\nthe name of the ap\u00e1na wind; moving about the abdomen it is called the\nsam\u00e1na wind; and when seated in the chest it rises upwards, it is known\nby the name of the _ud\u00e1na_ wind.\n\n6. The ap\u00e1na wind passing downward evacuates the bowels, but the sam\u00e1na\nwind of the abdominal part serves to sustain the body; and the ud\u00e1na\nrising upward and being let out, inflates and invigorates the frame.\n\n7. If after all your efforts, you are unable to repress the passing\noff of the downward wind; then the person is sure to meet his death,\nby the forcible and irrepressible egress of the _ap\u00e1na_ wind (this\nirrepressible egress is called _abishtambh\u00e1_). (The translator\nregrets for his inability to give the English terminology of these\npsychological words in the original).\n\n8. And when one with all his attempts, is unable to suppress his rising\nbreath of life; but it forces of his mouth or nostrils, it is sure to\nbe followed by his expiration.\n\n9. If one by his continual attention, can succeed to repress the\noutward and inward egress of his vital breath, and preserve calm quiet\nof his disposition, he is sure to have his longevity accompanied with\nhis freedom from all diseases.\n\n10. Know that the decomposure of the smaller arteries, is attended with\ndistempers of the body, but the disturbance of the greater arteries is\nfollowed by serious consequences. (There are a hundred great arteries,\nattached to the main conduit of Kundalin\u00ed, besides hundreds of small\nveins and nerves diverging from them throughout the body. The yogi has\nthe power of stopping the current of his breath and blood into these by\nhis restraint of respiration--pr\u00e1n\u00e1y\u00e1ma).\n\n11. R\u00e1ma said:--Tell me, O holy sage! how our health and sickness\nconnected with the organs and arteries of the body (rather than with\nthe blood and humours circulating through them).\n\n12. Vasishtha replied:--Know R\u00e1ma, that uneasiness and sickness, are\nboth of them the causes of pain to the body; their healing by medicine\nis their remedy, which is attended with our pleasure; but the killing\nof them at once by our liberation (from the sensations of pain and\npleasure), is what conduces to our true felicity. (Because both health\nand sickness are attended with but short lived pleasure and pain, and\ncannot give us the lasting felicity to our souls).\n\n13. Some times the body is subject both to uneasiness and sickness\nalso, as the causes of one another; sometimes they are both alleviated\nto give us pleasure, and at others they come upon us by turns to cause\nour pain only.\n\n14. It is ailing of the body, that we call our sickness, and it is the\ntrouble of the mind that we term our uneasiness. Both of them take\ntheir rise from our inordinate desires, and it is our ignorance only of\nthe nature of things, that is the source of both. (Our intemperance\nand covetousness, which are dispelled by our right knowledge).\n\n15. Without the knowledge of the natures and virtues of things, and the\nwant of the government of our desires and appetites, that the heart\nstring loses its tenuity and even course; and is swollen and hurried on\nby the impulse of passions and inordinate desires.\n\n16. The exultation at having obtained something, and ardour for having\nmore; equally boil the blood of the heart, and shroud the mind under a\nshadow of infatuation, as an impervious cloud in the rainy weather.\n\n17. The ever increasing greediness of the mind, and the subjection\nof the intellect under the dominion of foolhardiness, drives men to\ndistant countries in search of a livelihood. (One's natal land is\nenough to supply him with a simple living).\n\n18. Again the working at improper seasons (as at night and in rain and\nheat), and the doing of improper actions; the company of infamous men,\nand aptitude to wicked habits and practices.\n\n19. The weakness and fulness of the intestines caused by sparing food\non the one hand, and its excess on the other, cause the derangement of\nthe humours and the disorder of the constitution.\n\n20. It is by cause of this disordered state of the body, that a great\nmany diseases grow in it, both by reason of the deficit as well as the\nexcess of its humours; as a river becomes foul both in its fulness and\nlow water in the rain and summer heat.\n\n21. As the good or bad proclivities of men, are the results of their\nactions of prior and present births, so the anxieties and diseases of\nthe present state, are the effects of the good and bad deeds both of\nthis life as also those of the past.\n\n22. I have told you R\u00e1ma, about the growth of the diseases and\nanxieties in the _quintessential_ bodies of men; now hear me tell you\nthe mode of extirpating them from the human constitution.\n\n23. There are two sorts of diseases here common to human nature,\nnamely--the ordinary ones and the essential; the ordinary ones are the\noccurrences of daily life, and the essential is what is inborn in our\nnature. (The ordinary cares for supplying our natural wants are of the\nfirst sort, and the inbred errors and affections of the mind are of\nother kind).\n\n24. The ordinary anxieties are removed by the attainments of the\nobjects in want; and the diseases growing out of them, are also removed\nby the removal of our anxious cares.\n\n25. But the essential infirmities of one's dispositions, being bred\nin the blood and bone, cannot be removed from the body, without the\nknowledge of the soul; as the error of the snake in the rope, is\nremoved only by examination of the rope. (So the affection will be\nfound to rise in the mind and not rooted in the soul).\n\n26. The erroneous affections of the mind, being known as the source\nof the rise of all our anxious cares and maladies; it is enough to\nput a stop to this main spring in order to prevent their outlets,\nso the stream that breaks its banks in the rains, carries away the\narbours that grew by it in its rapid course. (The fissures of stopping\nthe source, and breaking out of the course, are quite opposed to one\nanother).\n\n27. The non-essential or extrinsical diseases that are derived from\nwithout, are capable of being removed by the application of drugs,\nthe spell of mantras and propitiating as well as obviating charms; as\nalso by medicaments and treatments, according to the prescriptions of\nmedical science and the practice of medical men.\n\n28. You will know R\u00e1ma, the efficacy of baths and bathing in holy\nrivers, and are acquainted with the expiatory mantras and prescriptions\nof experienced practitioners; and as you have learnt the medical\nS\u00e1stras, I have nothing further to direct you in this matter.\n\n29. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--But tell me sir, how the intrinsic causes produce\nthe external diseases; and how are they removed by other remedies than\nthose of medicinal drugs, as the muttering of mantra incantations and\nobservance of pious acts and ceremonies.\n\n30. Vasishtha replied:--The mind being disturbed by anxieties the body\nis disordered also in its functions, as the man that is overtaken by\nanger, loses the sight of whatever is present before his eyes.\n\n31. He loses sight of the broad way before him, and takes a devious\ncourse of his own; and like a stag pierced with arrows, flies from the\nbeaten path and enters himself amidst the thickest.\n\n32. The spirit being troubled, the vital spirits are disturbed and\nbreathe out by fits and snatches; as the waters of a river being\ndisturbed by a body of elephants, rise above its channel and over flow\nthe banks. (Violent passions raging in the breast burst out of and\nbreak down their bounds).\n\n33. The vital airs breathing irregularly, derange the lungs and nerves\nand all the veins and arteries of the body; as the misrule in the\ngovernment, puts the laws of the realm into disorder.\n\n34. The breathings being irregular, unsettles the whole body; by making\nthe blood vessels quite empty and dry in some parts, and full and stout\nin others, resembling the empty and full flowing channels of rivers.\n\n35. The want of free breathing is attended both with indigestion and\nbad digestion of the food, and also evaporation of the chyle and blood\nthat it produces; and these defects in digestion, bring forth a great\nmany maladies in the system.\n\n36. The vital breaths carry the essence of the food we take to the\ninferior organs, as the currents of a river carry the floating woods\ndown the stream.\n\n37. The crude matter which remains in the intestines, for want of its\nassimilation into blood, and circulation in the frame by restraint of\nbreathing; turn at the end to be sources of multifarious maladies in\nthe constitution.\n\n38. Thus it is that the perturbed states of the mind and spirit,\nproduce the diseases of the body, and are avoided and removed by want\nof mental anxiety. Now hear me tell you, how the mantra-exorcism serve\nto drive away the diseases of the body.\n\n39. As the _karitak\u00ed_ fruit (chebule myrobalan) is purgative of its own\nnature, and purges out the crudities from the bodies; so the headwork\ninto the mysterious meaning of the mantras, removes the crude diseases\nfrom the frame. (Such are the mystic letters ya, ra, la, va, in the\nliquids y, r, l, v), signifying the four elements of earth, water,\nair and fire; curative of many diseases by reflection on their hidden\nmeaning.\n\n40. I have told you R\u00e1ma, that pious acts, holy service, virtuous deeds\nand religious observances, serve also to drive the diseases from the\nbody; by their purifying the mind from its impurities, as the gold is\ndepurated by the touch stone.\n\n41. The purity of the mind produces a delight in the body; as the\nrising of the full moon, spreads the gentle moonbeams on earth. (Every\ngood act is attended with a rapture, recompenses the deed; or as the\nmaxim goes \"virtue has its own reward\").\n\n42. The vital airs breathe freely from the purity of the mind, and\nthese tending to help the culinary process in the stomach, produce the\nnutrition of the body, and destroy the germ of its diseases. (The germs\nof growth and decay and of life and death, are both connate in the\nnature of all living beings; and the increase of the one, is the cause\nof the decrease of the other).\n\n43. I have thus far related to you, R\u00e1ma! concerning the causes of\nthe rise and fall of the diseases and distempers of the living body,\nin connection with the subject of the main artery of Kundalin\u00ed; now\nhear me relate to you regarding the main point of one's attainment of\nconsummation or siddhi by mean of his yoga practice.\n\n44. Now know the life of the _puryashtaka_ or octuple human body, to\nbe confined in the Kundalin\u00ed artery, as the fragrance of the flower is\ncontained in its inner filament.\n\n45. It is when one fills the channel of this great artery with his\ninhaling breath, and shuts it at its mouth (called the Kurma opening),\nand becomes as sedate as a stone; he is then said to have attained\nhis rock like fixity and firmness, and his siddhi or consummation of\n_garima_ or inflation.\n\n46. Again when the body is thus filled with the inflated air, and\nthe wind confined in the Kundalin\u00ed artery, is carried upwards by the\nvital breath (of respiration), from the base or fundamental tube at\nthe bottom, to the cell of the cranium in the head, it touches the\nconsciousness seated in the brain, and drives away the fatigue of the\nprocess. (This is called the ascent of the vital air in its heavenward\njourney).\n\n47. Thence the wind rises upward as smoke into the air, carrying with\nit the powers of all the arteries attached to it like creepers clinging\nto a tree; and then stands as erect as a stick, with its head lifted\nupwards like the hood of a snake. (The art of mounting in the air, is\nas the act of jumping and leaping into it).\n\n48. Then this uprising force carries the whole body, filled with wind\nfrom its top to toe into the upper sky; as an aerosol floats upon the\nwater, or as air balloon rises in the air. (The early Hindus are thus\nrecorded to have made their aerial journeys by force of the inflated\nair, instead of the compressed gas smoke of modern discovery).\n\n49. It is thus that the yogis make their aerial excursions, by means\nof the compression of air in the wind pipes in their bodies; and are\nas happy (in their descrying the scattered worlds all about), as poor\npeople feel themselves at having the dignity of the king of Gods.\n(Indra).\n\n50. When the force of the exhaling breath (rechaka prab\u00e1ha) of the\ncranial tube, constrains the power of the Kundalin\u00ed, to stand at the\ndistance of twelve inches in the out side of the upper valve between\neye-brows.\n\n51. And as the same exhaling makes it remain there for a moment by\npreventing its entering into any other passage, it is at that instant\nthat one comes to see the supernatural beings before his sight. (It\nis said in phrenology, that fixed attention, farsightedness and\nsupernatural vision, are seated between the eye-brows).\n\n52. R\u00e1ma said:--Tell me sir, how we may be able to see the supernatural\nsiddhas, without feeling them by the rays and light of our eye sight,\nand without having any supernatural organ of perception of our own.\n\n53. Vasishtha replied:--It is true, R\u00e1ma, as you say, that the aerial\nspirit of siddhas, are invisible to earthly mortals with the imperfect\norgans of their bodies, and without the aid of supernatural organs.\n\n54. It is by means of the clairvoyance obtained by the practice of\nyoga, that the aerial and beneficent siddhas became visible to us like\nthe appearances in our dreams.\n\n55. The sight of the siddhas is like that of persons in our dream, with\nthis difference only, that the sight of a siddha is fraught with many\nreal benefits and blessings accruing thereby unto the beholder.\n\n56. It is by the practice of posting the exhaled breath, at the\ndistance of twelve inches on the outside of the mouth, that it may be\nmade to enter into the body of another person. (This is the practice\nof imparting one's spirit into the body of another person, and of\nenlivening and raising the dead).\n\n57. R\u00e1ma said:--But tell me sir, how you maintain the immutability of\nnature (when everything is seen to be in the course of its incessant\nchange at all times). I know you will not be displeased at this\ninterruption to your discourse, because good preachers are kindly\ndisposed, to solve even the intricate of their hearers.\n\n58. Vasishtha replied:--It is certain that the power known as nature,\nis manifest in the volition of the spirit, in its acts of the creation\nand preservation of the world. (Here nature is identified with eternal\nwill of God).\n\n59. Nature being nothing in reality, but the states and powers of\nthings; and these are seen some times to differ from one another, as\nthe autumnal fruits are found to grow in the spring at Assam (these\nvarieties also called their nature).\n\n60. Vasishtha replied:--All this universe is one Brahma or the\nimmensity of God, and all its variety is the unity of the same.\n(_i.e._ the various modalities of the unvaried one); these different\nexistences and appearances, are only our verbal distinctions for\nordinary purposes, and proceeding from our ignorance of the true nature\nof Brahm\u00e1. We know not why these words concerning divine nature, which\nare irrelevant to the main subject, are introduced in this place.\n\n61. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--Tell me sir, how our bodies are thinned as well as\nthickened, in order to enter into very narrow passages as also to feel\nand occupy large spaces (by means of the _anima_ and _garima_ yogas,\nof minimizing the body to an atomic spright and of magnifying it to a\nstalwart giant).\n\n62. Vasishtha replied:--As the attrition of the wood and saw, causes a\nsplit in the midst; and as the friction of two things (as of a flint\nand stone) produces a fire between them, in the same manner doth the\nconfrication of the inhaling and exhaling breath, divide the two pr\u00e1na\nand ap\u00e1na gases, and produce the jathar\u00e1gni in the abdomen. (The pr\u00e1na\nair is explained elsewhere as passing from the heart through the mouth\nand nostrils, and the ap\u00e1na as that which passes from the region of\nthe navel to the great toe. The jathar\u00e1gni is rendered some where as\ngastric fire).\n\n63. There is a muscle in the abdominal part of these ugly machine of\nthe internal body, which extends as a pair of bellows both above and\nbelow the navel, with their mouths joined together and shaking to and\nfro like a willow moved by the water and air.\n\n64. It is under this bladder that the kundalin\u00ed artery rest in her\nquiescent state; and ties as a string of pears in a casket of the\nyellow padmariya james. (This place under the navel is called the\nm\u00fal\u00e1dh\u00e1ra, whence the aorta strength upwards and downwards).\n\n65. Here the kundalin\u00ed string turns and twirls round like a string\nbeads counted about the finger; and coils also with its reflected head\nand a hissing sound like the hood of a snake stricken by a stick (it\nrequires too much anatomy to show these operations of the arteries).\n\n66. It thrills in the string of the lotus like heart, as a bee flutters\nover the honey cup of the lotus flower; and it kindles our knowledge\nin the body like the luminous sun amidst the earth and sky. (It gives\naction to the heart string, which arises its cognitive faculties).\n\n67. It is then that the action of the heart, moves all the blood\nvessels in the body to their several functions; as the breeze of the\nouter air, shakes the leaves of trees.\n\n68. As the high winds rage in the sky and break down the weaker leaves\nof the branches of trees, so do the vital airs coil in the body and\ncrush the soft food, that has been taken in the stomach.\n\n69. As the winds of the air batter the lotus leaves, and at last\ndissolve them into the native element; so the internal winds break down\nthe food like the leaves of trees, and convert the food ingested in the\nstomach into chyle, blood, flesh, skin, fat, marrow and bones one after\nanother.\n\n70. The internal airs clash against one another the produce of the\ngastric fire, as the bamboos in the wood produce the living fire by\ntheir friction.\n\n71. The body which is naturally cold and cold-blooded, becomes heated\nin all its parts by this internal heat, as every part of the world\nbecomes warmed by the warmth of the sun.\n\n72. This internal fire which pervades throughout the frame and flutters\nlike golden bees over the loti-form heart, is meditated upon as\ntwinkling stars in the minds of the ascetic yogis.\n\n73. Reflections of these lights are attended with the full blaze of\nintellectual light, whereby the meditative yogi sees in his heart\nobjects, which are situated at the distance of millions of miles from\nhim. (This is called the consummation of clairvoyance or divyadrishti).\n\n74. This culinary fire being continually fed by the fuel of food,\ncontinues to burn in the lake of the lotus-like muscle of the heart, as\nthe submarine fire burns latent in the waters of the seas.\n\n75. But the clear and cold light which is the soul of the body, bears\nthe name of the serene moon; and because it is the product of the other\nfire of the body, thence called the _sum\u00e1gni_ or the residence of the\nmoon and fire (its two presiding divinities).\n\n76. All hotter lights in the world are known by the names of suns\n(as the planetary and cometary bodies); and all colder lights are\ndesignated as moons (as the stars and satellites) and as these two\nlights cherish the world, it is named as the _sury\u00e1gni_ and _som\u00e1gni_\nalso.\n\n77. Know after all the world to be a manifestation of the combination\nof intelligence and ignorance (_i.e._ of the intellect and soul\nmatter), as also of an admixture of reality and unreality among who has\nmade it as such in himself manifest in this form.\n\n78. The learned call the light of intelligence, by the terms knowledge,\nsun and fire, and designate the unrealities of ignorance, by the names\nof dullness and darkness, ignorance and the coldness of the moon.\n(_i.e._ There are antithetical words expressive of Intelligence and\nignorance; the former designated as the light of knowledge and reason,\nthe daylight and the light of lamp &c., and the latter as the darkness\nof night, and the coldness of frost &c.).\n\n79. R\u00e1ma said:--I well understand that the product of the air of breath\n&c. (by their friction as said before); and that the air proceeds from\nthe moon, but tell me sir, whence comes the moon into existence?\n\n80. Vasishtha replied:--The fire and moon are the mutual causes and\neffects of one another, as they are mutually productive as well as\ndestructive of each other by turns.\n\n81. Their production is by alternation as that of the seed and its\nsprout (of which no body knows is the cause or effect of the other).\nTheir reiteration is as the return of day and night, (of which we know\nnot which precedes the other). They last awhile and are lost instantly\nlike the succession of light and shade (the one producing as also\ndestroying the other).\n\n82. When these opposites come to take place at the one and same time,\nyou see them stand side by side as in the case of the light and shade\noccurring into the daytime, but when they occur at different times,\nyou then see the one only at a time without any trace of the other, as\nin the occurrence of the daylight and nocturnal gloom by turns. (These\ntwo are instances of the simultaneous and separate occurrence of the\nopposites. Gloss).\n\n83. I have also told you of two kinds of causality; namely, the one in\nwhich the cause is co-existent with its effect, and the other wherein\nthe effect comes to appearance after disappearance of its cause or the\nantecedent.\n\n84. It is called the synchronous causation which is coeval with its\neffect, as the seed is coexistent with its germ, and the tree is\ncontemporaneous with the produced seed.\n\n85. The other is named the antecedent or preterite cause, which\ndisappears before the appearance of its consequent effect; as the\ndisappearance of the day is the cause of its subsequent night; and the\npreteriteness of the night, causes the retardation of the following\nday. (In plain words it is the concurrence and distance of the cause\nand effect, called the [Sanskrit: samav\u00e1yo] and [Sanskrit: amas\u00e1v\u00e1yo\nk\u00e1rana] or the united or separate causality in Ny\u00e1ya-terminology).\n\n86. The former kind of the united cause and effect (called the\n[Sanskrit: sadr\u00fapa parin\u00e1ma] _i.e._ the presence of both causality and\nits effectuality); is exemplified in the instance of the doer and the\nearthen pot, both of which are in existence; and this being evident to\nsight, requires no example to elucidate it.\n\n87. The kind of the disunited cause and effect (called the [Sanskrit:\nbin\u00e1shar\u00fapa parin\u00e1ma]) in which the effect is unassociated with\nits (cause); the succession of day and night to one another, is a\nsufficient proof of the absence of its antecedent causality. (This\nserves as an instance of an unknown cause, and hence we infer the\nexistence of a pristine darkness, prior to the birth of day-light\n[Sanskrit: tame \u00e1s\u00edt] _teomerant_).\n\n88. The rationalists that deny the causality of an unevident cause, are\nto be disregarded as fools for ignoring their own convictions, and must\nbe spurned with contempt. (They deny the causality of the day and night\nto bring one another by their rotation which no sensible being (can\nignore). They say [Sanskrit: dinas\u00e1 r\u00e1tri nirmmasa katritamsti])\n\n89. Know R\u00e1ma, that an unknown and absent cause is as evident as any\npresent and palpable cause, which is perceptible to the senses; for who\ncan deny the fact, that it is the absence of fire that produces the\ncold, and which is quite evident to every living body.\n\n90. See R\u00e1ma, how the fire ascends upward in the air in form of\nfumes, which take the shape of clouds in the azure sky, which being\ntransformed afterwards into fire (electricity); becomes the immediate\ncause of the moon (by its presence [Sanskrit: \u00e1jn\u00e1t k\u00e1rana]).\n\n91. Again the fire being extinguished by cold, sends its watery\nparticles upwards, and this moisture produces the moon, as the absent\nor remote cause of the same. ([Sanskrit: mauna k\u00e1rana]).\n\n92. The submarine fire likewise that falls into the feeding on the\nfoulness of the seven oceans, and swallows their briny waters,\ndisgorges their gases and fumes in the open air, and these flying to\nthe upper sky in the form of clouds, drop down their purified waters in\nthe form of sweet milky fluids in the milky ocean (which gives birth\nto the milk white moon). (It is said that there is an apparatus in the\nbosom of the clouds, for purifying the impure waters rising in vapours\nin the atmosphere from the earth and seas below).\n\n93. The hot sun also devours the frigid ball of the moon or (the moon\nbeams), in the conjunction at the dark fortnight (am\u00e1vasya), and then\nejects her out in their opposition in the bright half of every month,\nas the stork throws off the tender stalk of the lotus which it has\ntaken. (The sun is represented to feed on, and let out the moon beams\nby turns in every month).\n\n94. Again the winds that suck up the heat and moisture of the earth in\nthe vernal and hot weather, drop them down as rain water in the rainy\nseason, which serves to renovate the body of exhausted nature. (This\npassage is explained in many ways from the homonymous word some of\nwhich it is composed; and which severally means the moon, the handsome,\nthe _soma_ plant and its juice).\n\n95. The earthly water being carried up by the sun beams, which are\ncalled his _karas_ or hands, are converted into the solar rays, which\nare the immediate cause of fire. (Here the water which is by its nature\nopposed to fire, becomes the cause of that element also).\n\n96. Here the water becomes fire both by privation of its fluidity and\nfrigidity, which is the remote cause of its formation as also by its\nacquirement of aridity or dryness and calidity or warmth; which is the\nimmediate of its transformation to the igneous element. (This is an\ninstance of the double or mixed causality of water in the production of\nfire. Gloss).\n\n97. The fire being absent, there remains the presence of the moon; and\nthe absence of the moon, presents the presence of fire.\n\n98. Again the fire being destroyed, the moon takes its place; in the\nsame manner, as the departure of the day introduces the night in lieu\nof it.\n\n99. Now in the interval of day and night, and in the interim of\ndaylight and darkness, and in the midst of shade and light, there is\na midmost point and a certain figure in it, which is unknown to the\nlearned. (This point which is neither this nor that, nor this thing or\nany other, is the state of the inscrutable Brahma).\n\n100. That point is no nullity nor an empty vacuity (because it is\nneither the one or the other). Nor it is a positive entity and the real\npivot and connecting link of both sides. It never changes its central\nplace between both extremes of this and that, or the two states of\nbeing and not being.\n\n101. It is by means of the two opposite principles of the intelligent\nsoul and inert matter, that all things exist in the universe; in the\nsame manner, as the two contraries of light and darkness bring on the\nday and night in regular succession. (so the self moving and self\nshining sun is followed by the dull and dark moon, which moves and\nshines with her borrowed force and light).\n\n102. As the course of the world commenced with the union of mind and\nmatter, or the mover and the moved from the beginning; so the body of\nthe moon, came to be formed by an admixture of aqueous and nectarious\nparticles in the air. (The body of the moon formed of the frozen\nwaters, were early impregnated with the ambrosial beams of the sun).\n(This bespeaks of the creation of the solar orb prior to the formation\nof the satellite of the earth).\n\n103. Know R\u00e1ma, the beams of the sun to be composed of fire or igneous\nparticles, and the solar light to be the effulgence of the intellect;\nand the body of the moon to be but a mass of dull darkness (unless it\nis lighted by its borrowed light from the sun). (The sun is said to\nshine with intellectual light, because it disperses the outer gloom of\nthe world, as the other removes the darkness of the mind. Gloss).\n\n104. The sight of the outward sun in the sky, destroys the out\nspreading darkness of night; but the appearance of the intellectual\nluminary, dispels the overspreading gloom of the world from the mind.\n\n105. But if you behold your intellect in the form of the cooling moon,\nit becomes as dull and cold as that satellite itself; just as if you\nlook at a lotus at night, you will not find it to be as blooming\nas at sunshine (but may be at the danger of contracting lunacy or\nstupefaction of the intellect by looking long at the cold luminary).\n\n106. Fire in the form of sun light enlightens the moon, in the\nsame manner as the light of the intellect illumes the inner body\n(lingadeha); our consciousness is as the moonlight of the inner soul,\nand is the product of the sun beams of our intellect. (So says the\nBharata:--As the sun illumes the worlds so doth the intellect enlighten\nthe soul).\n\n107. The intellect has no action, it is therefore without attribute or\nappellation; it is like light on the lamp of the soul, and is known as\nany common light from the lantern which shows it to the sight.\n\n108. The avidity of this intellectual after the knowledge of the\nintelligibles, brings it to the intelligence of the sensible world; but\nits thirst after the unintelligible one, is attended with the precious\ngain of its _Kaivalya_ or oneness with the self same one. (Blessed are\nthey that hunger and thirst for spiritual knowledge, for they shall\nverily be satisfied therewith).\n\n109. The two powers of the fire and moon (agni-soma), are to be known\nas united with one another in the form of the body and its soul, and\ntheir union is expressed in the scriptures as the contact of the light\nand lighted room with one another, as the reflexion of the sunshine on\nthe wall. (The two powers of igneous and lunar lights are represented\nin the conjoined bodies of the Agni soma deities).\n\n110. They are also known to be separately of themselves, in different\nbodies and at different times; such as bodies addicted to dullness, are\nsaid to be actuated by the lunar influence; and persons advancing in\ntheir spirituality, are said to be led on by force of the solar power.\n\n111. The rising breath (pr\u00e1na) which of its nature hot and warm, is\nsaid to be Agni's or igneous; and setting breath of _ap\u00e1na_ which is\ncold and slow is termed the soma or lunar, they abide as the light and\nshade in every body, the one rising upward and passing by the mouth,\nand the other going down by the anus.\n\n112. The ap\u00e1na being cooled gives rise to the fiery hot breath of\n_pr\u00e1na_, which remains in the body like the reflexion of something in a\nmirror.\n\n113. The light of the intellect produces the brightness of\nconsciousness, and the sun-beams reflect themselves as lunar orbs; in\nthe dew drops on lotus leaves at early dawn.\n\n114. There was a certain consciousness in the beginning of creation,\nwhich with its properties of heat and cold as those of agni and soma;\ncame to be combined together in the formation of human body and mind.\n\n115. Strive R\u00e1ma, to settle yourself at that position of the distance\nof out side the mouth ap\u00e1na, where the sun and moon of the body (_i.e._\nthe pr\u00e1na and ap\u00e1na breaths) meet in conjunction--am\u00e1vasya.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXXXII.\n\nYOGA INSTRUCTIONS FOR ACQUIREMENT OF THE SUPERNATURAL POWERS OF\nANIMA-MINUTENESS &C.\n\nArgument:--Means of acquiring the Quadruple Capacities of Anima minima,\nMahima-maxima, Laghima-lightness and Garima-heaviness, together with\nthe power of entering into the bodies of others.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--Hear me now tell you, how the bodies of yogis\nare capable of expansion and contraction at will; as to be _multum in\nparvo_; and _parvum in multo_.\n\n2. There is above the lotus-like diaphragm of the heart, a blazing fire\nemitting its sparks, like gold coloured butterflies flirting about it,\nand flaring as flashes of lightning in the evening clouds. (This is the\n_jathar\u00e1gni_ or culinary fire).\n\n3. It is fanned and roused by the enkindling animal spirit, which blows\nover it as with the breath of the wind; it pervades the whole body\nwithout burning it, and shines as brightly as the sun in the form of\nour consciousness.\n\n4. Being then kindled into a blaze in an instant, like the early raise\nof the rising sun gleaming upon the morning clouds; it melts down the\nwhole body (to its toes and nails), as the burning furnace dissolves\nthe gold in the crucible. (It is impossible to make out anything of\nthis allegory).\n\n5. Being unextinguishable by water, it burns the whole outer body down\nto the feet; and then it coils inside the body, and remains in the form\nof the mind in the ativ\u00e1hika or spiritual body of man. (It is hard to\nfind out the hidden sense of this passage also).\n\n6. Having then reduced the inner body likewise, it becomes lifeless of\nitself; and becomes extinct as the frost at the blowing of winds (or\nblast of a tempest).\n\n7. The force of the Kundalin\u00ed or intestinal canal, being put out to\nthe fundamental artery of the rectum; remains in the vacuity of the\nspiritual body, like a shadow of the smoke of fire.\n\n8. This smoky shade parades over the heart like a swarthy maiden,\nand encloses in her bosom the subtile body composed of its mind and\nunderstanding, the living principle and its egoism.\n\n9. It has the power to enter into the porous fibres of lotuses to\npenetrate the rocks, to stretch over the grass, to pop into houses and\nstones, to pry in the sky and ply in the ground, and remain and move\nabout everywhere in the manner it likes of its own will. (This power is\ncalled sakti or energy which is omnipotent).\n\n10. This power produces consciousness and sensibility, by the sap and\nserum which it supplies to the whole body; and is itself filled with\njuice, like a leather bag that is dipped into a well or water.\n\n11. This great artery of Kundalin\u00ed being filled with gastric juice,\nforms the body in any shape it likes; as an artist draws the lines of a\npicture in any form, as it is pictured in his mind. (Hence it depends\non the gastric artery to extend and sketch out the body according to\nits own plan).\n\n12. It supplies the embryonic seed placed in the foetus of the mother,\nwith the power of its evolution into the fleshy and bony parts of its\nfuture body; as the tender sprout of the vegetative seed, waxes in time\nto a hard woody tree. (The act of evolution is attributed in the text\nto the triple causality of the physical nutrition in the stomach, the\nmetaphysical cause of the intensity of thought in the growing mind,\nand the psychological tendency of the soul, produced from the fourth\nand prime cause of its prior propensity, which is inbred in grain\nand essential nature of every being, the intense thought is called\n[Sanskrit: hridaya bh\u00e1vn\u00e1]).\n\n13. Know R\u00e1ma, this certain truth which is acknowledged by the wise,\nthat the living principles acquire its desired state and stature, be\nit that of a mountain or bit of straw. (This passage supports the free\nagency of man to go in either way in opposition to the doctrine of\nblind fatalism, and the arbitrary power of the Divine will).\n\n14. You have heard, O R\u00e1ma! of certain powers as of diminishing\nand increasing the bulk and stature of the body, attainable by the\npractice of yoga; you will now hear me give you an interesting lecture,\nregarding the attainment of these capacities by means of knowledge or\n_jn\u00e1na_. (This is the theory or theoretical part of the practice or\npractical art of yoga).\n\n15. Know for certain that there is but only one intelligent principle\nof the Intellect, which is inscrutable, pure and most charming; which\nis minuter than the minutest, perfectly tranquil and is nothing of the\nmundane world or any of its actions or properties.\n\n16. The same chit--intellect being collected in itself into an\nindividuality (by its power of _chayana_ integration) from the\nundivided whole, and assuming the power of will or volition--_sankalpa_\nitself, becomes the living soul by transformation of its pure nature\nto an impure one. (This power of integration is said to be a fallacy\n_adhy\u00e1sa_ or misconception--adhy\u00e1ropa of human mind, which attributes a\ncertain quality to a thing by mistake or _\u00e1ropa_ as [Sanskrit: paratra\npar\u00e1babh\u00e1sah]: or mistaking a thing for another _e. g._ [Sanskrit:\nshuktau ratr\u00e1t\u00e1vad\u00e1bh\u00e1sah]: _i.e._ taking the shell for silver from its\noutward appearance.)\n\n17. The will is a fallacy, and the body is a mistake; (because there\nis no mutation of volition or personality of the infinite intellect);\nand the ignorant alone distinguish the living soul from the universal\nspirit, as the ignorant boy sees the demon in a shadow. (All these are\nfalse attributes of the true one).\n\n18. When the lamp of knowledge brings the mind to the full light of\ntruth, then the error of volition is removed from the living soul, as\nthe cloud of the rainy weather are dissipated in Autumn.\n\n19. The body has its rest, after the wishes have subsided in the mind;\njust as the lamp is extinguished after its oil is exhausted. (Mental\nanxieties cause the restlessness of the body).\n\n20. The soul that sees the truth, has no more the knowledge of his\nbody; as the man awakened from his sleep, has no longer the apparitions\nof his dream appearing before him.\n\n21. It is the mistaking of the unreal for the real or what is the\nsame, the ascribing of reality to the unreality that gives the colour\nof reality to false material bodies; but the knowledge of the truth\nremoves the error of the corporal body, and restore the soul to its\nwonted splendour and true felicity.\n\n22. But the error of taking the material body for the immaterial soul,\nis so deep rooted in the mind; that it is as difficult to remove, as it\nis for the strongest sun beams to perceive the mental gloom of men.\n\n23. This impervious darkness of the mind, is only to be perceived by\nthe sun-shine of knowledge; that our soul is the seat of immaculate and\nall pervading spirit of God, and that I myself am no other than the\npure intellect which is in me. (The _anal Huq_ of Mansur).\n\n24. Those that have known the supreme soul meditate on it in this\nmanner in their own souls, until they find themselves to be assimilated\nto the same by their extensive thought of it. (Here we have the\ncurious doctrine of strong thought _drirha-bh\u00e1van\u00e1_ of Vasishtha again\nwhich inculcates the possibility of one's being whatever he strongly\nthinks himself to be. It is allied to the doctrine of the strength of\nbelief--faith and _bhakti_ of others).\n\n25. It is hence, O R\u00e1ma! that some men convert the deadly poison to\nsweet ambrosial food, and change the delicious nectar to bitter gall.\n(Thus Siva the God and yogi converts the snake poison to his food and\nthe sweets offered to his topmost mouth to the bitterest bane).\n\n26. So whatever is thought upon with intensity in any manner and on any\noccasion, the same comes to take place as it is seen in many instances.\n\n27. The body when seen in the light of a reality, is found to be a real\nexistence; but being looked upon as an unreality, it vanishes into\nnothing (or it mixes in the vacuity of Brahma).\n\n28. You have thus heard from me, o righteous R\u00e1ma! the theoretical mode\n(jn\u00e1na-yukti) of attaining the capacities of magnifying and minimizing\none's person at will; I will now tell you of another method of gaining\nthese powers, to which you shall have now to attend.\n\n29. You can practice by exhalation of your _rechaka_ breath, to extract\nyour vital power (life) from the cell of your Kundalin\u00ed artery, and\ninfuse it into another body; as the winds of the air, carry the\nfragrance of flowers into the nostrils. (This is the mode of ones\nforsaking its own body in order to enliven another).\n\n30. The former body is left lifeless like a log of wood or block of\nstone, and such is the relation between the body and life; as that of a\nbucket and its water, which is powered out to enliven the plants.\n\n31. Thus is the life infused in all movable and immovable things, in\norder to enjoy the pleasures of their particular states at its pleasure.\n\n32. The living soul having relished the bliss of its consummate state,\nreturns to its former body if it is still in existence, or it goes and\nsettles some where else, as it may best suit its taste.\n\n33. The yogis thus pass into all bodies and live with their conscious\nsouls, and fill the world also by magnifying their spirits over all\nspace.\n\n34. The yogi who is lord of himself by his enlightened understanding,\nand his knowledge of all things beside their accompanying evils;\nobtains in an instant whatever he wants to have, and which is present\nbefore the effulgence of divine light (an\u00e1varana Brahma jyoti).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXXXIII.\n\nSTORY OF THE MISERLY KIR\u00c1TA.\n\nArgument:--Perfection of Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 and the imbecility of the Prince;\nefficacy of instruction and its elucidation in the tale of niggardly\nKir\u00e1ta.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--Thus the royal dame was possest of the qualities\nof contracting and expanding herself to any form, and became so expert\nin these by their continued practice of them;\n\n2. That she made her aerial journey and navigated at pleasure over the\nexpanse of waters; she moved on the surface of the earth, as the river\nGanges glides on in her silent course.\n\n3. She dwelt in the bosom of her lord, as the goddess of prosperity\nabides in the heart of Hari, and travelled in a moment with her mind\nover every city and country over the earth.\n\n4. This fairy lady fled in the air, and flashed like the lightning with\nthe flashes of her twinkling eyes; she passed as a shadow over the\nearth, as a body of clouds passes over a range of mountains.\n\n5. She passed without any hazard through the grass and wood, stones\nand clods of earth, and through fire and water and air and vacuum, as\na thread passes through hole of a heart. (Milton says:--That with no\nmiddle flight, to the heaven of heavens I have presented through an\nearthly quest).\n\n6. She lightly skimmed over the mountain peaks, and pryed through the\nregions of the regents of all the sides of heaven; she penetrated into\nthe cavities of the empty womb of vacuity, and have a pleasant trip\nwhatever she directed in her flight. (All this is brain action and no\nreality at all).\n\n7. She conversed freely with all living beings, whether they move or\nprone on the ground as the beast of earth, or crawl upon it as the\nsnakes and insects. She talked with the savage Pis\u00e1cha tribes and\ncommunicated with men and the immortal Gods and demi-gods also. (The\nclever princess like the far-seeing seer saw every thing with her\nmind's eye, and held her converse (vyavah\u00e1ra) with all).\n\n8. She tried much to communicate her knowledge to her ignorant husband,\nbut he was no way capable of receiving her spiritual instruction.\n(\u00c1tmajn\u00e1na means also her intuitive or self taught knowledge).\n\n9. He understood her as no other than his young princess and the\nmistress of his house, and skilled only in the arts of coquetry and\nhouse wifery (and quite ignorant of higher things because the ladies of\nIndia were barred from spiritual knowledge).\n\n10. Until this time the prince had been ignorant of the qualifications\nof the princess Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1, and knew not that she had made her progress in\nthe spiritual science, as a young student makes his proficiency in the\ndifferent branches of learning.\n\n11. She also was as reserved to show her consummate learning to her\nunenlightened husband; as a Brahman declines to show his secret rites\nto a vile sudra.\n\n12. R\u00e1ma said:--If it was impossible, sir, for the seeress of\nconsummate wisdom to communicate her knowledge to her husband\nSikhidhwaja, with all her endeavours to enlighten him on the subject;\nhow can it be possible for others, to be conversant in spiritual\nknowledge in any other means.\n\n13. Vasishtha answered:--R\u00e1ma, it is obedience to the rule of attending\nto the precepts of the preceptor, joined with the intelligence of the\npupil, which is the only means of gaining instruction.\n\n14. The hearing of sermon nor the observance of any religious rite,\nis of any efficacy towards the knowledge of the soul; unless one will\nemploy his own soul, to have the light of the supreme soul shine upon\nit. It is the spirit alone that can know the spirit, as it is the\nserpent only that can trace out the path of another serpent.\n\n15. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--If such is the course of the world, that we can\nlearn nothing without the instruction of our preceptors; then tell me,\nO sage! how the precepts of the wise lead to our spiritual knowledge\nalso.\n\n16. Vasishtha replied:--Hear me R\u00e1ma, relate to you a tale to this\neffect. There lived an old Kir\u00e1ta of yore, who was miserly in his\nconduct as he was rich in his possessions of wealth and grains. He\ndwelt with his family by the side of the Vindhyan woods, as a poor\nBrahman lives apart from his kith and kin.\n\n17. He happened to pass by his native forest at one time, and slip a\nsingle _couri_ from his purse, which fell in a grassy furze and was\nlost under the grass.\n\n18. He ran on every side, and beat at the bush for three days to find\nout his lost _couri_, and impelled by his niggardliness to leave no\nfallen leaf unturned over the ground.\n\n19. As he searched and turned about, he ran and turned it ever in his\nmind, saying:--Ah! this single _couri_ would make four by its commerce,\nand that would bring me eight in time, and this would make a hundred\nand a thousand, and more and more by repetition, so I have lost a\ntreasure in this.\n\n20. Thus he counted over and over, over the gains he would gain, and\nsighed as often at the loss he did sustain; and took into no account of\nthe rustic peasantry on his foolish penury.\n\n21. At the end of the third day he came across a rich jewel, as\nbrilliant as the bright moon in the same forest; which compensated for\nthe loss of his paltry _couri_ by a thousand fold.\n\n22. He returned gladly with his great gain to his homely dwelling, and\nwas highly delighted with the thought of keeping off poverty for ever\nfrom his door. (The word _Kerate_ is commonly used for Kir\u00e1ta--the\nmiser).\n\n23. Now as the Kir\u00e1ta was quite satisfied, with his unexpected gain of\nthe great treasure, in the search of his trifling _couri_; and passed\nhis days without any care or fear of the changeful world.\n\n24. So the student comes to obtain his spiritual knowledge from his\npreceptor, while he has been in quest of his temporal learning, which\nis but a trifle in comparison to his eternal concern.\n\n25. But then, O sinless R\u00e1ma! it is not possible to attain to divine\nknowledge, by the mere lectures of the preceptor; because the lord is\nbeyond the perception of senses, and can neither be expressed by nor\nknown from the words of the instructor's mouth. (It requires one's\nintuition and spiritual inspiration also to see the spirit in one's own\nspirit).\n\n26. Again it is not possible to arrive to spiritual knowledge, without\nthe guidance of the spiritual guide; for can one gain the rich gem\nwithout his search after the _couri_ like the miserly Kir\u00e1ta? (This\nmeans that it is impossible to attain the esoteric or abstract\nknowledge of the soul, without a prior acquaintance of the exoteric and\nconcrete).\n\n27. As the search of _couri_ became the cause of or was attended with\nthe gain of the gem, so our attendance on secular instructions of\nthe preceptor, becomes an indirect cause to our acquirement of the\ninvaluable treasure of spiritual knowledge.\n\n28. R\u00e1ma, look at this wonderful eventualities of nature, which brings\nforth events otherwise than the necessary results of our pursuits (as\nthe search of _couri_ resulted the gain of the gem).\n\n29. As it often comes to pass, that our attempts are attended with\nother result than those which are ought; it is better for us to remain\nindifferent with regard to the result of our act.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXXXIV.\n\nPILGRIMAGE OF PRINCE SIKHIDHWAJA.\n\nArgument:--Sikhidhwaja's abandonment of the world, and remaining as\nreligious Recluse on the Mandara mountain; followed by the visit of the\nPrincess and her admonition to him.\n\n\nVasishtha related:--The prince Sikhidhwaja continued in utter darkness,\nwithout the sight of his spiritual knowledge; and groped his way amidst\nthe gloom of the world, as a childless man passes his woeful days, in\nutter despair of any glimpse of hope. (As son is the hope of a man both\nin this world as well as in the next).\n\n2. His heart burned disconsolate in the flame of his anxieties, without\nthe consolation of his salvation; and the great affluence of his\nfortune, served as full to feed the fire of his hopelessness, for want\nof the cooling shower of religion.\n\n3. He found his consolation in lonely retreats, in the caves of\nmountains and beside their falling waters; where he strayed at large,\nlike the beasts of prey flying from the arrows of huntsmen.\n\n4. R\u00e1ma, he became as distracted as you had been before; and discharged\nhis daily rituals, at the humble request and repeated solicitations of\nhis attending servants.\n\n5. He was as inexcitable and cold blooded, as a religious recluse; he\ndesisted from the enjoyments of his princely pleasures, and abstained\nalso from his usual food.\n\n6. He gave his homage with large largesses of lands and gifts of gold\nand kine to the gods, Brahmans and his relatives also.\n\n7. He went on performing the austerities of the religious rites, and\nthe rigorous ceremonies of the chand\u00e1ryana and others; he travelled\nthrough wilds and deserts and inhabited tracts, to his pilgrimages far\nand near.\n\n8. Yet he found nowhere the consolation of his mind, which he kept\nseeking all-abouts; as a miner digs the sterile soil in quest of some\nmineral, where there is no such thing to be found.\n\n9. He was pining away under the ardour of his anxiety, as it were under\nthe fiery heat of the sun; in search of some remedy for his worldly\ncares, which hunted him incessantly both by day and night.\n\n10. Being absorbed in his thoughts, he sought not for aught of the\npoisonous pleasures of his realm; and with the meekness of his spirit\nand mind, he did not look at the grand estate which lay before him.\n\n11. It happened one day, as he was sitting with his beloved princess\nreclining on his lap; that he spoke to her as follows, in his\nmellifluent speech.\n\n12. Sikhidhwaja said:--I have long tasted the pleasures of my realm,\nand enjoyed the sweet and bitter of my large property and landed\npossessions. I am now grown as weary of them, as they are both the same\nand stale to me.\n\n13. Know my delighted lady, that the silent sage is exempt from\npleasure and pain; and no prosperity nor adversity, can ever betide the\nlonely hermit of the forest.\n\n14. Neither the fear of the loss of lives in battle, nor the dread of\nlosing the territory in the reverse of victory, can ever betake the\nlonely hermit of the forest; wherefore I ween his helpless state, to be\nhappier far than the dignity of royalty.\n\n15. The woodland parterres are as pleasing to me, as thyself with the\nclusters of their blossoms in spring, and with their ruddy leaves\nresembling thy rosy palms; their twisted filaments are as the fillets\nof thy curling hairs, and the hoary and flimsy clouds in the air, are\nas their white and clean vests and raiments.\n\n16. The blooming flowers resemble their ornaments, and their pollen is\nthe scented powder on their persons; and the seats of reddish stones,\nbear resemblance to the protruberances on their posteriors.\n\n17. The ambient and pearly rills flowing amidst them, resemble the\npendant strings of pearls on their necks; and their foaming waves seen\nas clusters of pearls, tied as the knots of their vestures. The tender\ncreepers are as their playful daughters, and the frisking fawns are as\ntheir playsome darlings.\n\n18. Perfumed with the natural fragrance of flowers, and having the\nswarming bees for their eye-lids and eyebrows; and wearing the flowery\ngarment of flowers, they are offering an abundance of fruits for the\nfood of the passengers.\n\n19. The pure waters of the falling cascades are sweet to taste, and\ncool the body as thy company gratifies my senses. I foster therefore\nan equal fondness for these woodland scenes, as I bear for thy company\nalso.\n\n20. But the calm composures which these solitudes seem to afford to the\nsoul, are in my estimation far superior to the delight, that I derive\nfrom the cooling moon light, and the bliss that I might enjoy in the\nparadise of India and in the heaven of Brahm\u00e1 himself.\n\n21. Now my dear one, you ought to put no obstacle to these designs of\nmine; because no faithful wife ever presents any obstructions to the\ndesire of her lord.\n\n22. Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 replied:--The work done in its proper time, is commendable\nas seasonable and not that which is unseasonable or intempestive; it is\nas delightful to see the blossoming of flowers in the vernal season, as\nit is pleasant to find the ripened fruits and grains in autumn.\n\n23. It is for the old and decrepit and those broken down in their\nbodies by age, to resort in their retirement in the woods; and does not\nbefit a young man as yourself to fly from the world, wherefore I do not\napprove your choice. (So says the poet, \"O that my weary age may find a\npeaceful hermitage\").\n\n24. Let us remain at home, O young prince, so long as we have not\npassed our youth, and flourish here as flowers which do not forsake the\nparent tree, until the flowering time is over.\n\n25. Let us like flowery creepers grow hoary with grey hairs on our\nheads, and then get out together from our home; as a pair of fond\nherons fly from the dried lake for ever.\n\n26. Mind also my noble lord, the great sin that awaits on the person\nof that disgraceful prince of the royal race, who forsakes to seek\nafter the welfare of his people during the time of his rule and reign.\n(Abdication of the crown was not allowable without an apparent heir).\n\n27. More over mind the opposition you will have to meet with from your\nsubjects, who are authorized to check your unseasonable and unworthy\nact, as you are empowered to put a check to theirs. (The Hindu law is\nopposed to the spirit of despotism and lawlessness of the ruling power).\n\n28. Sikhidhwaja rejoined:--Know my royal dame, that thy application is\nall in vain to my determination of going away from here; and know me\nas already gone from thee and thy realm to the retreat woods afar from\nhence.\n\n29. Thou art young and handsome, and aught not accompany me to dreary\ndeserts and forests; which are in many respects dreadful to and\nimpassable by men.\n\n30. Women however hardy they may be, are never able to endure the\nhardships of forest life; as it is impossible for the tender tendril to\nwithstand the stroke of the felling axe.\n\n31. Do thou remain here, O excellent lady, to rule over this realm in\nmy absence; and take upon thee the burden of supporting thy dependants,\nwhich is the highest and best duty of women.\n\n32. Vasishtha related:--Saying so to the moon-faced princess, the self\ngoverned prince rose from his seat; to make his daily ablution and\ndischarge his multitudinous duties of the day.\n\n33. Afterwards the prince took leave of his subjects, notwithstanding\nall their entreaties to detain him; and departed like the setting sun\ntowards his sylvan journey, which was unknown to and impassable by\nevery one.\n\n34. He set out like the setting sun shorn of his glory, and disappeared\nlike the sun from the sight of every body; veil of melancholy covered\nthe face of the princess, as she saw the egress of her lord from the\nrecess of her chamber; as the face of nature is obscured from the\nshadow of darkness, upon the disappearance of day light below the\nhorizon. (Here is a continued simile between the parting sun and the\ndeparting prince, and the face of nature and that of the princess).\n\n35. Now the dark night advanced, veiling the world under her mantle of\nthe ash-coloured dusk; as when the God Hara forsakes the fair Gang\u00e1,\nand takes the nigrescent Yamun\u00e1 to his embrace. (The day and night\nrepresenting the two consorts of the sun).\n\n36. The sides of heaven seemed to smile all around, with the\ndenticulated clumps of evening clouds; and with the brightness of the\nmoon beams, glittering on the shoots of T\u00e1mala trees. (_i.e._ The skies\nseemed to smile with their glittering teeth of the evening clouds, and\nsmiling moon beams all around).\n\n37. And as the lord of the day departed towards the setting mountain\nof Sumeru on the other side of the horizon, in order to rove over the\nelysian garden or paradise of the gods on the north; so the brightness\nof the day began to fail, as the shade of evening prevailed over the\nface of the forsaken world.\n\n38. Now sable night accompanied by her lord the nocturnal luminary,\nadvanced on this side of the southern hemisphere; to sport as a loving\ncouple with this cooling light and shade.\n\n39. Then were the clusters of stars seen spangled in the etherial\nsphere under the canopy of heaven, and appeared as handfuls of _l\u00e1jas_\nor fried rice scattered by the hands of celestial maiden on the\nauspicious occasion.\n\n40. The sable night gradually advanced to her puberty, with the buds of\nlotuses as her budding breasts; she then smiled with her moony face,\nand littered in the opening of the nightly flowers.\n\n41. The prince returned to his beloved princess after performing his\nevening services, and was drowned in deep sleep; as the mount Mainaka\nhas drowned in the depth of the sea. (Mainaka is a hidden rock in the\nsea).\n\n42. It was now the time of midnight, when all was still and quiet all\nabout; and the people were all as fast asleep, as if they were pent up\nin the bosom of stones.\n\n43. He finding her fast asleep in her soft and downy bed, and lolling\nin the lap of indolence like the female bee in the cup of the lotus.\n\n44. The prince started from his sleep, and parted the sleeping partner\nof his bed from his cold embrace; as the ascending node of r\u00e1hu slowly\nlets off from its mouth, the eclipsed moon in the east.\n\n45. He got up from one-half of the bed cloth, while the supine princess\nlay on the other-half of it; as when the God Hari rises from his bed of\nthe waters of the milky ocean, leaving the lonely Lakshm\u00ed roll in the\nwaves after him.\n\n46. He walked out of the palace, and bade the guards to stand at their\nplaces; while he was going, he said to arrest a gang of robbers beyond\nthe skirts of the city, with his full confidence in himself.\n\n47. Farewell my royalty, said he, and then passed onward out of his\nprincedom; and passed through inhabited tracts and forest lands, as the\ncourse of a river runs to the sea.\n\n48. He passed amidst the gloom of night and through the thickets of the\nforest beset by thorny bushes; and full of heinous beasts and reptiles,\nwith his firm fortitude.\n\n49. In the morning he arrived at an open tract of land which was\nfree from woods and jungles, and ran the course of the day with his\nperegrination on foot from sun rise to the setting sun; when he took\nrefuge under the bower of the grove.\n\n50. The sun departing from sight left him to the darkness of night,\nwhen he performed his bathing and the daily rite; and having eaten some\nroot or fruit which he could get, he passed the night resting on the\nbarren ground under him. (The custom of evening bath, is now falling\ninto disuse).\n\n51. Again and again the morning appeared and brought to light many new\ncities and districts, and many hills and rivers; which he passed over\nbravely for twelve repeated days and nights.\n\n52. He then reached at the foot of the Mandara mountain, which was\ncovered by a dense and immense forest which no human foot could\npenetrate; and lay (stood) afar from the reach of man and the\nboundaries of human habitation.\n\n53. There appeared a spot beset by sounding rills amidst it, and set\nwith rows of trees with aqueducts under them; here the relics of a\ndilapidated dwelling came to sight, and seemed to bear the appearance\nof the deserted mansion of some holy hermit.\n\n54. It was clear of all heinous reptiles and small insects, and was\nplanted with sacred plants and creepers for the sacerdotal purposes of\nthe holy siddhas; while it was full of fruit trees which supplied its\noccupant with ample food.\n\n55. There was seen a level and pure spot of ground with a water course,\nand presenting the green verdure and verdant trees; loaded with\nluxuriant fruits and stretching a cooling shade all over it.\n\n56. The prince built here a bower of verdant creepers and leafy\nbranches, which with their blooming blossoms glistened; as the blue\nvault of heaven under the lightnings of the rainy season.\n\n57. He made for himself a staff of bamboo and some vessels for his\nfood and drink, as also some plates to put his offerings of fruits\nand flowers in them; and a jar for the presentation of holy water. He\nlikewise strung some seeds together for the purpose of his saintly\nrosary.\n\n58. He procured the hides of dead animals and the deerskin for his seat\nand cover let in cold, and placed them carefully in his holy hermit's\ncell.\n\n59. He also collected all other things, which were of use in the\ndischarge of his sacerdotal functions; and preserved in his sacred\ncell, as the Lord of creatures has stored the earth, with every\nprovisions requisite for living beings.\n\n60. He made his morning devotion, and turned his beads with the\nmuttering of his mantras in the hours of his forenoon; and then\nperformed his sacred ablution, and offered the flowers in the service\nof the Gods in the afternoon.\n\n61. He afterwards took some wild fruits and ground roots, and the soft\nlotus stalks for his food in the evening, and then passed the night\nwith his lonely self-possession, and in the meditation of his Maker.\n\n62. Thus did the prince of Malwa pass his days with perfect cheer of\nhis heart in the cottage cell, which he had constructed at the foot of\nthe Mandara mountain; and thought no more of his princely pleasures\nwhich were utterly lost under the influence of the resignation, which\nhad now taken full possession of his entire soul and mind.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXXXV\n\nINVESTIGATION INTO TRUE HAPPINESS.\n\nArgument:--The princess goes in quest of the Prince. Their Meeting and\nthe Admonition of the _Princess_.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--In this manner, the prince Sikhidhwaja remained\nin his monastery in the forest, in his state of perfect felicity; while\nthe princess remained at home, and did as you shall now hear from me.\n\n2. After the prince had gone away from the palace at midnight, Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1\nstarted from her sleep; as a timid fawn lying in the village, is\nstartled by fear.\n\n3. She found the bed vacated by her husband and thought it as dreary as\nthe sky, without the sun and moon. (A deserted wife is as forlorn as a\ndeserted village or desolate country).\n\n4. She rose up with a melancholy face, and with her heart full of\nsorrow and sadness; and her limbs were as lank as the leaves of plants,\nwithout being well watered in summer.\n\n5. Sorrow sat heavy in her heart, and drove the charm and cheerfulness\noff her countenance; and she remained as a winter day, over cast by a\ncloud or covered by a hoar-frost over its face.\n\n6. She sat awhile on the bedstead, and thought with sorrow in herself;\nsaying, \"Ah woe unto me\" that my lord is gone away from here, and\nabandoned a kingdom for a retreat in the woods.\n\n7. What then can I do now, than repair to my husband; where he is,\nbecause it is appointed both by the law of nature and God, that the\nhusband is the only resort and support of the wife.\n\n8. Having thought so, Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 rose up to follow her husband and she\nfled by the door of a window into the open air. (This means that her\nspirit fled into air, by the power of her yoga).\n\n9. She roamed in her aerial course, and by the force of her breath on\nthe wings of air; and appeared before the face of the aerial spirits\n(siddhas), as a second moon moving in the skies.\n\n10. As she was passing at the night time, she happened to behold her\nlord roving about with a sword in his hand; and appearing as a ghost of\na vet\u00e1la or demon wandering in the solitary forest.\n\n11. The princess seeing her husband in this manner from her aerial\nseat, she began to reflect on the future state which awaited on her\nhusband; and which she foresaw by power of her yoga.\n\n12. It is certain, O R\u00e1ma! that whatever is allotted in the book of\nfate to befall on any body at any time or place or manner, the same is\nsure to take place at the very moment and spot and in the same way (and\nall this is well known to the holy seer and seeress by the prophetic\npower, which they acquire by their knowledge and practice of yoga).\n\n13. The princess seeing plainly in her presence, whatever is to take\nplace on her husband; and knowing it to be averted by no means, she\nstopped from going to him to communicate the same.\n\n14. Be my visit postponed to him to a future occasion, when it is\ndestined for me to be in his company again.\n\n15. Thinking so in her mind Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 turned her course from him, and\nreturned to her inner apartment and reclined on her milk white pillow;\nas the crescent of the moon lies recumbent on the hoary forehead of\nHara.\n\n16. She proclaimed to her people, that the prince was gone on some\nimportant occasion; and having relieved with the consolation of his\nquick return, she took the reins of the government in her own hands.\n\n17. She managed the state in the manner of her husband, according\nto the established rules of toleration; and with the same care and\nvigilance, as the husband-woman guards her ripening cornfields.\n\n18. In this manner they passed their days without seeing one another,\nand the conjugal pair lived separated from each other; in their\nrespective habitations of the royal palace and the solitary forest.\n\n19. And in this manner passed on their days and nights, their weeks and\nfortnights, their months and seasons in regular succession over one and\nanother; the one counting his days in the woods and the other in her\nprincely palace.\n\n20. What is the use of a lengthy description of full eighteen years,\nwhich glided on slowly over the separated couple, the one dwelling in\nher palatial dome, and the other in his woodland retreat.\n\n21. Many more years elapsed in this manner, until the hermit prince\nSikhidhwaja was overtaken by the hoary old age; in his holy hermitage\nin a cell of the great Mandara mountain.\n\n22. Knowing the passions of the prince to be on the wane, with his\ndeclining age and grey hairs, and finding herself not yet too old to\novertake him in the distant forest.\n\n23. And believing that it was the proper time for her to prevail on\nhim, and to bring him back to the palace, she thought of joining her\nhusband where he was.\n\n24. With these thoughts, she made up her mind of going towards the\nMandara mountain; and started from her home at night, and mounted on\nthe wings of air to the upper sky.\n\n25. As she was moving onward on the pinions of air, she beheld in the\nupper sky some Siddhawomen, wearing the thin bark of the kalpa tree and\ngirt with jewels of clustering gems.\n\n26. These were the inhabitants of the garden of paradise, and going out\nto meet their Siddha husbands; and sprinkled over with perfumeries,\nshedding their dews as bright moon beams.\n\n27. She breathed the air perfumed by the flowers of the garden of\nparadise, and worn by the Siddhas of Eden; and wallowed in the moon\nbeams, waving like the billows of the milky ocean.\n\n28. She felt a purer moon light, as she ascended the higher atmosphere;\nand she passed amidst the clouds, as the flashing lightning moves in\ntheir midst. (The fair princess flashed as the lightning).\n\n29. She said, this flashing lightning though situated in the bosom of\nher cloudy spouse, is yet looking at him repeatedly with the winkling\nof her eyes; so must I look out for my absent lord, as I pass like the\nlightning in the midway sky.\n\n30. It is true, she said, that nature is irrepressible during the life\ntime of a person; hence it is impossible for my disquieted mind, to\nhave its quiet without the sight of my loving and lion like lord.\n\n31. My mind roves and runs mad, when I say, I will see my lord, and\nwhen I will see these creepers turning round and clasping their\nsupporting tree. (And all my philosophy avails me naught against my\nnature).\n\n32. My mind loses its patience to see the contraction of these\nsenseless creepers, and the excursion of the superior siddha females in\nquest of their consorts. (All animated nature from the vegetable to the\nimmortal are bound by conjugal love).\n\n33. How then and when, shall I like them come to meet the man that is\nsituated in my heart.\n\n34. These gentle breezes, and these cooling moon-beams and those plants\nof the forest, do all continue to disquiet my heart and set it on fire\n(instead of cooling its fervour).\n\n35. O my simple heart, why dost thou throb in vain and thrill at every\nvein within me? and oh my faithful mind, that art pure as air, why dost\nthou lose thy reason and right discretion?\n\n36. It is thou O faithless mind! that dost excite my heart to run after\nits spouse; better remain with thy yearnings in thyself, than torment\nmy quiet spirit with thy longings.\n\n37. Or why is it, O silly woman! that thou dost long in vain after thy\nhusband, who possibly became too old (to require thee any more); he is\nnow an ascetic and too weak in his bodily frame, and devoid of all his\nearthly desires.\n\n38. I think these desires of the enjoyment of his princely honors and\npleasures, have now been utterly rooted out of his mind; and the plant\nof his fondness for sensual gratifications, is now as dry as a channel\nthat pours forth its waters into a large river or sea.\n\n39. I think my husband, who was as fond of me as to form one soul with\nmyself; has become as callous to soft passions, as a dried and withered\ntree.\n\n40. Or I will try the power of my yoga to waken his mind to sense, and\ninfuse the eager longings and throbbings of my heart into his.\n\n41. I will collect the thoughts of the ascetic devotee to one focus,\nand employ them towards the government of his realm; where we may be\nsettled for ever to our hearts content.\n\n42. O I have after long discovered the way to my object, and it is by\ninfusing my very thoughts into the mind of thy husband.\n\n43. The unanimity of the minds of the wedded pair, and the pleasure\nof their constant union; contribute to the highest happiness of human\nbeings on earth.\n\n44. Revolving in this manner in her mind, the princess Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 passed\nonward in her aerial journey; now mounting on mountains and mountainous\nclouds, and then passing the bounds of lands and visible horizons; she\nreached the sight of Mandara, and found the glen and cavern in it.\n\n45. She entered the grove as an aerial spirit invisible to sight, and\npassed as the air amidst it known by the shaking of the leaves of\ntrees. (The spirits like winds have motion and the power of moving\nother bodies).\n\n46. She beheld a leafy hut in one corner of the wood, and knew her\nhusband by the power of her yoga; though appeared to be transformed to\nanother person.\n\n47. She found his body that was decorated before by a variety of\njewels, and glittered as the mount of Meru with its gold; to have grown\nas lean and thin and as dark and dry, as a withered and dried leaf.\n\n48. He wore a vest of rays, and seemed as if he had dipped in a\nfountain of ink; he sat alone in one spot, and appeared as the god Siva\nto be wholly devoid of all desire.\n\n49. He was sitting on the barren ground, and stringing the flowers to\nhis braided hairs; when the beauteous princess approached before him.\n\n50. She was moved to sorrow at the sight of his miserable plight, and\nthus bespoke to herself inaudibly in her mind. Alas, how painful it is\nto behold this piteous sight!\n\n51. O! the great stupidity that rises from ignorance of spiritual\nknowledge, and which has brought on this miserable condition on this\nself-deluded prince.\n\n52. I must not call him unfortunate, as long as he is my husband;\nthough the deep darkness of his mind (ignorance) hath brought to this\nmiserable plight. (The living husband however miserable, is always to\nbe called true fortunate by the faithful wife.)\n\n53. I must try my best to bring him to the knowledge of truth, which\nwill no doubt restore him to his sense of enjoyment here, and of his\nliberation hereafter; and change his figure to another form altogether.\n\n54. I must advance nearer to him to instil understanding in his mind,\nor else my words will make no effect in him; who treats me always as\nhis young and silly wife.\n\n55. I will therefore admonish my husband in the figure of a devotee,\nand it is possible that my admonition delivered in this manner, will\nmake its effect in him; who is now grown hoary with age (old age must\nhave abated the ardour of youth).\n\n56. It is possible that good senses may dawn in the clear\nunderstanding, which is not perverted from its nature; saying so the\nprincess Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 took the shape of a Br\u00e1hman boy on herself.\n\n57. She reflected a little on the Agni-soma-mantra, and changed her\nform as the water turns to a wave; and then alighted on the earth, in\nthe shape of a Brahman's lad.\n\n58. She advanced toward her lord with a smiling countenance, and the\nprince Sikhidhwaja beheld the Br\u00e1hman boy advancing towards him.\n\n59. He appeared to come from some other forest, and stood before him\nin the form of devotion itself; his body was as bright as the molten\ngold, and his person was ornamented with a string of pearls.\n\n60. The white sacrificial thread graced his neck, and his body was\ncovered with two pieces of milk white vests; he held the sacred water\npot on one hand, and with his pupils staff in the other, he made his\napproach to the prince. (The order of the students was called _dandi_\nfrom their holding the sacred stick in one hand, like the pilgrim staff\nin Europe).\n\n61. His wrist was entwined by a string of beads, and a long and double\nchain of rosary hang from his neck to the ground. (Double and triple\nthreads of sacred seeds worn about the necks of saints).\n\n62. His head was covered over by long and flowing jet black hairs, in\nthe manner of the strings of black bees, fluttering about the tops of\nwhite lotuses; and the radiance of his, shed a lustre on the spot.\n\n63. His face ornamented with earrings, glowed as the rising sun with\nhis lustre of rosy rays, and the knotted hair on the top of his head\nwith the mand\u00e1ra flower fastened on it, appeared as pinnacle of a\nmountain with the rising moon above it.\n\n64. The husband that sat quiet with his tall stature, and his limbs and\nsenses under his subjection; appeared as a mount of ice with the ashes\nrubbed all over his body.\n\n65. He saw the Br\u00e1hman boy appearing before him, as the full moon\nrising on the aureate mount of Meru; and rose before him with the\nrespect. (Which is paid to that luminary by her worshippers).\n\n66. Thinking his guest as the son of some God, the prince stood with\nhis bare feet before him; and addressed him saying, obeisance to thee O\nthou son of a God, take this seat and sit thyself there.\n\n67. He pointed out to him with his hand the leafy bed that was spread\nbefore him, and offered him a handful of flowers which he poured into\nhis hands.\n\n68. The Br\u00e1hman boy responded to him saying: \"I greet thee in return,\nO thou son of a king! that lookest like a dew drop or the beaming\nmoon-light sparkling on a lotus leaf.\" He then received the flowers\nfrom his hand and sat upon the leafy bed.\n\n69. Sikhidhwaja said:--Tell me O thou heaven born boy, whence thou\ncomest and whither thou goest, as for me it is lucky day that has\nbrought thee to my sight.\n\n70. Please accept this pure water, and fragrant flowers and this\nhonorarium also; and receive this string of flowers, that I have strung\nwith my hands; and so be all well with thee.\n\n71. Vasishtha related:--So saying, Sikhidhwaja offered the flowers, the\nwreathed blossoms, the honorariums and other offerings; as directed by\nthe ceremonial law to his worshipful lady.\n\n72. Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 said:--I have travelled far and wide over many countries\non the surface of this earth, and have never met with so hearty a\nreception and such honors; as I have now received from thee.\n\n73. Thy humility, courtesy and complacence bespeak thee to be highly\nfavoured of the Gods, and betoken thee to be attended with long life on\nearth. (Because the meek and gentle are said to be long lived on earth).\n\n74. Tell me O devotee, whether you have ever applied your mind towards\nthe acquirement of your final liberation and extinction; after the\nabandonment of all your earthly desires, by the magnanimity and\ntranquillization of your soul for a long time. (It is true you have\nlong forsaken the vanities of the world, but have you set your heart to\nseek the eternal emancipation of your soul?).\n\n75. You have, my dear Sir, chosen a very painful alternative for your\nfinal liberation, that you have made the vow of your undergoing the\nhardship of this forest life, by forsaking the care of your large\ndominion. (The care of the state is painful, but the pains of hermitage\nare much more so).\n\n76. Sikhidhwaja replied:--I wonder not that thou must know all things,\nbeing a God thyself and thou wearest this form of the Br\u00e1hman boy,\nyet the supernatural beauty of thy person, bespeaks thee to be an\nall-knowing deity.\n\n77. Methinks these members of the body, are bedewed with the ambrosial\nbeam of moonlight, or how could thy very appearance shed such\nnectarious peace even at the first sight.\n\n78. O handsome boy! I see in thy person a great resemblance of the\nfeatures of my beloved one, who is now reigning over my kingdom (and\nwhom perhaps I will see no more in this life).\n\n79. Please now to refresh thy fair and fatigued frame, with wearing\nthese flowery chaplet from the head to foot; as the vest of a hoary\ncloud, invests a mountain from its top to bottom.\n\n80. I see thy face as beautiful, as the stainless moon; and thy limbs\nas delicate, as tender petals of flowers; and I find them now waning\nand fading under the solar gleams.\n\n81. Know pretty youth that it was for the service of the gods, that I\nhad wreathed the flowers together; and now I offer and bequeath them to\nthee, that art no less a God to me.\n\n82. My life is crowned today with its best luck by its service of a\nguest like thyself, for it is said by the wise that attendance on\nguests is meritorious than the merit of attending on the Gods. (Hence\nthe law of Hospitality is not less binding on the Hindu than it is with\nthe Bedouin Arabs).\n\n83. Now deign O moon faced deva (deity) to reveal unto me what God thou\nart, and the progeny of what deity that dost deign to dignify me with\nthy visit; please tell me all this and remove the doubts that disturb\nmy breast.\n\n84. The Br\u00e1hman boy replied:--Hear me, prince, relate to thee all that\nthou requirest to know of me; for who is there so uncivil, that will\ndeceive and not comply to the request of his humble suppliant.\n\n85. There lives in this world, the well known, the holy saint N\u00e1rada by\nname; who is the snowy spot of pure camphor, on the face of those that\nare famed for the purity of their lives.\n\n86. It was at one time that this Godly saint sat in his devotion in\na cavern of the golden mountain; where the holy river of Gang\u00e1, fast\nflows with her running current and huge billows dashing against the\nshore.\n\n87. The saint stepped out once to the beach of the river, to see how\nit glided on in its course; like a necklace of gems torn down from the\nmountain on high.\n\n88. He heard there at once the tinkling sound of trinkets and\nbracelets, and a mixed murmur of vocal voice; and felt the curiosity to\nknow what it was and whence it came.\n\n89. He lightly looked towards the sacred stream and observed there an\nassemblage of young ladies, who equalled the celestial nymphs Rambh\u00e1\nand Tilottam\u00e1 in the beauty of their persons; who had come out to sport\nby and bathe in the clear waters of the holy river.\n\n90. They plunged and played in the waters removed from the sight of\nmen, and were all naked with their uncovered breasts; blooming as the\nbuds of golden lotuses in the lake.\n\n91. These were jogging to and fro and dashing against one another like\nthe ripened fruits of trees, and seemed to be filled with flavoured\nliquor for the giddiness of their observers.\n\n92. Their swollen bosoms formed the sanctuary of the God of love, and\nwere washed by the pure waters of the sacred river.\n\n93. Their fullness with luscious liquor, put to blush the sweet waters\nof the sacred river of Gang\u00e1; they were as mound in the garden of\nparadise, and as the wheels of the car for the God K\u00e1ma to ride upon.\n\n94. Their buttocks were as pillars of the bridge in water, obstructing\nand dividing the free passage of the waters of the Ganges; and their\nupper part of the body, gives a lustre of world's beauty.\n\n95. The shadow of one another's body was clearly visible to the naked\neye, on the limpid waters of the Gang\u00e1; like a Kalpa tree in rainy\nseason, with all its branches.\n\n96. The thick verdure of the verdant season, had put to shade the light\nof the day; and the flying dust of flowers, had filled the forest air\nwith fragrance.\n\n97. Water-fowls of various kinds were sporting on the banks, as they do\nby the sea side and about the watering places round the trees; while\nthe budding breasts of these dames, had put to blush the blooming buds\nof lotuses.\n\n98. They held up their faces, which were as beautiful as a bud of\nlotuses; while their loosened hairs hung by them, like swarms of\nbees; and the loose glances of their eye-balls, were playing as the\nfluttering black-bees.\n\n99. Their swollen breasts resembling the aureate lotuses, which were\nused by the Gods as golden cups to hide their ambrosial nectar; therein\nfor fear of its being ravished by the demons and demi-Gods.\n\n100. They were now seen to be hiding themselves in the secret bowers\nand caverns of the mountain, like lotuses hidden under foliage; and\nnow hastening to the cooling beach of the river, to leave their lovely\nlimbs in its limpid stream.\n\n101. The saint saw the bevy of the young ladies, resembling the body of\nthe full moon complete with all its digits; and his mind was ravished\nwith their beauty (as the minds of men are turned to the delirium of\nlunacy by looking at the moon-light).\n\n102. He lost the balance of his reason, and became elated with\ngiddiness; and his breath of his life throbbed in his heart, by impulse\nof the delight that raged and boiled in his breast.\n\n103. At last the excess of his rapture, gave effusion of his passion;\nas the fullness of a cloud in summer, breaks out in water in the rainy\nweather.\n\n104. The saint turned as wan as a waning moon, and as the pale\nmoon-light in frost; and like a fading plant, torn from its supporting\ntree.\n\n105. He faded as the stalk of a creeper parted in two, and withered\naway as a sapling after it has lost its juicy sap.\n\n106. Sikhidhwaja asked:--How is it that the pure and peerless saint,\nwho is liberated in his life time and acquainted with all knowledge;\nwho is void of desires and devoid of passions, and who is as pure as\nthe clear air both in the inside as well as outside of his body?\n\n107. How is it that even he the holy N\u00e1rada himself, could lose his\npatience and countenance who leads his life of celibacy all along?\n\n108. Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 replied:--Know, O princely sage! that all living beings\nin the three worlds not excepting even the Gods; have their bodies\ncomposed of both ingredients (of good and evil) by their very nature.\n\n109. Some remain in ignorance, and others in knowledge to the end of\ntheir lives; and some remaining in happiness, and others in misery to\nthe end of their days.\n\n110. Some thrive in happiness with their virtue of contentment and the\nlike, and are enlightened in their minds like a room by the light of\nthe lamps; and as the bosom of the sea by the light of the luminaries\nof heaven.\n\n111. Some are tormented by their hunger and poverty, and are involved\nin misery like the face of nature under the darkness of clouds.\n\n112. The true and pure reality of the soul (divine spirit), being\nonce lost to one's sight (the visible or phenomenal world): makes its\nappearance before him, like a dark and thick cloud of rainy weather.\n\n113. Though one may be employed in his continuous investigation into\nspirituality, yet a moment's neglect of his spiritualism is sure to\ndarken his spiritual light; as the apparition of the world appears to\nsight.\n\n114. As the succession of light and darkness makes the course of the\nday and night, so the return of the pain and pleasure indicates the\nprogress of life. (This variety kills the monotony of life).\n\n115. Thus the two states of pleasure and pain, are known to accompany\nover lives from birth to death; as the results of our prior acts (of\nmerit and demerit).\n\n116. This impression of past life marks the lives of the ignorant\nentirely, as the red colouring sticks for ever in a cloth; but it is\nnot so with the intelligent, whose knowledge of truth wipes off the\nstigma of their pristine acts.\n\n117. As the eternal hue of a gem, whether it be good or bad, is\nexhibited on the outside of it; and also as a crystal stone, however\nclear it may be, takes the colour of the outward object in it (so the\nignorant exhibit their inherent nature in their outward conduct, and\npartake also the qualities of their surroundings).\n\n118. But it is not so with the intelligent knower of truth (tatwajna),\nwhose soul is free from all inward and outward impressions in his life\ntime; and whose mind is never tinged like that of the ignorant, by the\nreflexion of anything about him. (Knowledge of truth is vitiated by\nnothing).\n\n119. It is not only the contiguity or presence of things or pleasures,\nthat taint the minds of the ignorant; but the absence and loss also are\ncauses of great regret, from the stain they leave in the memory; as it\nis not only a new paint that paints a thing, but also the vestiges that\nit leaves behind, give it also a colouring. (The remembrance of past\nthings, gives a colouring to the character of man).\n\n120. Thus as the minds of the ignorant are never cleansed from the\ntaint of their favourite objects, so they are never free from their\nbondage in this world; like the liberated sage by his want of earthly\nattachment. Because it is the parvitude of our desires that contributes\nto our liberation, while the amplitudes of our wishes lead us to\nour continued bondage in this world. (This passage presents us with\nthe pains of memory, instead of the pleasures which some poets have\nportrayed on its face).\n\n121. Sikhidhwaja said:--Tell me my lord, why men feel sorry or joyous\nat their pain or pleasure, to which they are bound by their birth in\nthis world; and for what is far off from them (either as past or gone\nand what is in their expectation in future, since both the past and\nfuture are absent from us)?\n\n122. I find your words my lord to be as clear as they are pretty and\nfull of meaning, and the more I hear them so much the more do I thirst\nto listen to them; as the peacock is insatiate with the roarings of\nclouds.\n\n123. Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 answered:--It is pleasant to inquire into the cause of\nour birth, and how the soul being accompanied with the body, derives\nits knowledge through the senses, and feels thereby a delight which is\napparent in babes. (We see by observation how babies are pleased with\nthe exercise of their limbs and senses).\n\n124. But the living soul (or the vital principle), which is contained\nin the heart and runs through the Kundalin\u00ed artery as the breath of\nlife; is subject to pain and sorrow by its very birth. (Hence we see,\nnew born child coming to cry out no sooner it comes to life after its\nbirth).\n\n125. The living soul or vital spirit (which is as free as air), comes\nto be confined in the arterial chains of the prison houses of the\ndifferent bodies; by its entering into the lungs breathing with the\nbreath of life. (The spirit of God was breathed into the nostrils of\nman).\n\n126. The breath of life circulating through the body, and touching its\ndifferent parts or the organs of sense, raise their sensations in the\nsoul; and as the moisture of the ground grows the trees and shrubs on\nearth, so doth our vitality produce the sensations of the pleasure and\npain in the soul.\n\n127. The living soul being confined in the arteries of different\nbodies, gives a degree of happiness and steadiness to some, which the\nmiserable can never enjoy. (The poor are bereft to the comforts of high\nlife).\n\n128. Know that the living soul, is said to be liberated in the same\nproportion as it manifests its tranquilized state; and know also that\nit is bounden bondage in the same degree, as it appears to be sorry\nin the face and choked in its breathing. (The dejected and depressed\nspirit does not breathe out freely).\n\n129. The alternate feeling of pain and pleasure, is likewise the\nbondage of the soul and no other, but this and it is the want of these\nalternations, that constitutes its liberation; and these are the two\nstates of the living soul.\n\n130. As long as the deceptive senses, do not bring the false sensations\nof pain and pleasure unto the soul; so long does it rest in its state\nof sweet composure, and the calm tranquillity of the positive rest.\n\n131. The invisible soul coming in sight of some transient pleasure\nor want of pain, becomes as joyous as the cheerful sea passing the\nreflexion of the bright moon-beams in its bosom.\n\n132. The soul equally exults at the sight of pleasure, as it grieves at\nthe knowledge of its unsteadiness; as a foolish cat rejoices to see of\nfish, which it has not the power to catch or hold fast in its clutches.\n\n133. When the soul, has the pure knowledge of the intelligibles and the\ncognition of itself; it comes to know, that there is no such thing as\npositive pain or pleasure; and has thereby its calm and quiet composure\nfor ever, and under every circumstance.\n\n134. When it comes to know that it has no concern with any pain\nor pleasure, and that its living is to no purpose at all; it is\nthen said to be awakened in itself, and to rest in its quietude of\nnirv\u00e1na-extinction (unconsciousness of one's self or its consciousness\nof itself as a cypher, is termed the state of its nirv\u00e1na-annihilation).\n\n135. When the living soul comes to know by its internal intuition, that\npain and pleasure are unreal in their nature; it is no longer concerned\nabout them, but rests quietly within itself.\n\n136. When the soul comes to the belief, that the visible world is no\nother than the vacuity of Intellect or Brahma himself; it gets its rest\nin its quietness, and becomes as cool as an oilless and extinguished\nlamp. (Here is the vacuism of Vasishtha again).\n\n137. The belief that all nature is vacuity, and all existence is the\none unity together with the thought of an infinite inanity; is what\nleads the soul to its unconsciousness of pain and pleasure. (All is but\nvoid and vacancy, and mere air-drawn phantasy).\n\n138. The thoughts of pleasure and pain therefore are as false, as the\nfalse appearance of the world; and this error is inherited by the\nliving soul from Brahm\u00e1 the first of living beings in the world. (The\nerror of taking the unreal for real began with Brahm\u00e1 himself).\n\n139. Whatever was thought and ordained by the first creative power in\nthe beginning, the same has taken root in the living soul; and is going\non even to the present time as its nature.\n\n140. Sikhidhwaja asked:--It is only when one feels some pleasure in his\nmind, that it runs in the blood through his veins and arteries; but the\nholy N\u00e1rada could not be affected by the sight, nor drop his semen from\nhim.\n\n141. Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 replied:--The animal soul being exited (by the existent\nsight of women), excites the living breath of _pr\u00e1na_ to motion; and\nthe whole body obeys the dictate of the mind, as the body of soldier\nobeys the command of their commander.\n\n142. The vital airs being put to motion, they move the internal sap and\nserum from their seats; as the blowing winds bear away the fragrance of\nflowers and the dust of leaves, and drop down the fruits and flowers\nand leaves of trees.\n\n143. The semen being put to motion falls downwards, as the clouds being\ndriven together burst into the rain water.\n\n144. The semen then passes out of the body by the canals of the veins\nand arteries, as the running waters pass through the channels and\ncanals of a river.\n\n145. Sikhidhwaja said:--O thou divine boy! that knowest both the past\nand present states of things, as it appears from thy instructive\ndiscourse; please to instruct me at present, what you mean by the\nnature of things by the Brahmic power of Brahma.\n\n146. Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 replied:--Nature is that intrinsic character, which is\nimplanted in the constitution of things at the beginning of their\ncreation; and the same which continues to this day the essential part\nof the ghata, pata, and all other things.\n\n147. It comes on by a _k\u00e1k\u00e1t\u00e1lya_ or accidental course of its own,\nas it is compared by the learned with the rise and fall of waves and\nbubbles in the water; and the marks of the lacuna in wood and iron.\n(The fortuitous combination of the atomic principles, is the cause of\nthe formation of concrete bodies; according to the Atomic philosophy of\nLeucippus, Democritus and the Epicureans of old).\n\n148. It is under the power of this nature, that all things move about\nin the world in the various forms; and with all their properties of\nchange and persistence. It is only the indifferent and inappetent soul\nthat is liberated from the subjection of nature, while the apparent\nis fast bound to its chains and wander with their prurient nature in\nrepeated transmigrations.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXXXVI.\n\nTHE PRODUCTION OF THE POT (OR THE EMBRYONIC CELL).\n\nArgument:--The birth of the Br\u00e1hman boy from the seed of N\u00e1rada,\npreserved in a pot whereby he was called the pot-born, and his\neducation.\n\n\nCh\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 continues:--It is the nature of everything in the extensive\nworld to be born in its own kind (_i.e._ the similar only springs from\nthe similar and nothing of a dissimilar kind). All persons and things\ncontinue to go on in it by their desires and tendencies, whether it be\nin the directions of virtue or vice or good or evil. (Nature is the\ninvariable quiddity of a thing; but its desire or inclination is a\nvariable property or quality of it).\n\n2. When this desire or want of the mind of a man is either diminished\nor brought under his control, he is no longer subject to the acts\nof goodness or vice but becomes exempt both from merit and demerit;\nand their consequences of reiterated births and deaths by the utter\nindifference. (Neutrality in action is the way to one's inanity in both\nworlds. This is not a right rule since the commission of a good action\nis as commendable, as an omission in the discharge of duty is held\nculpable in law and morality).\n\n3. Sikhidhwaja rejoined:--O eloquent speaker! your words are as full\nof sense as they are of great import to me, they bespeak your great\npenetration into the depths of wisdom.\n\n4. My audience of the sweet exultance of your speech has given me\na satisfaction, equal to that of my draught of a large dose of the\nambrosial water.\n\n5. Now be pleased to give me a brief narration of the story of your\nbirth and pedigree, and I will hear with all my attention your words of\nsound sense and wisdom.\n\n6. Please sir to relate unto me, what the son of lotus-Brahm\u00e1--the\nvenerable sage N\u00e1rada, did with the seminal strength, which\nunconsciously fell from him on the ground.\n\n7. Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 related:--The _muni_ then curbed back the infuriate elephant\nof his beastly mind by the strong bridle of prudence; and bound it fast\nin the iron chain of the great intelligence.\n\n8. His virile strength which was as hot as fire, resembled the molten\nmoon melted down by the flame of the final conflagration; and as\nliquified as the fluid quick-silver or other metallic solution.\n\n9. The sage who had a water-pot of crystal stone fast by his side, laid\nhold of the same and put the fluid semen in it, in the manner of his\ndepositing the liquid moon-beams in the disc of the moon.\n\n10. There was on one side of the mount of Meru, a projected rock with a\ndeep cavern in it; the passage of which was not obstructed by the heaps\nof stones which lay before it.\n\n11. The _muni_ placed the pot inside that cave as the embryo is\nsituated in the belly, and he filled the pot with milk which he\nproduced by his will; as the lord of creation has filled the milky\nocean with its watery milk. (The sages are said to have miraculous\npowers by force of their yoga).\n\n12. The _muni_ neglected his sacred offering and brooded over the pot,\nas a bird hatches over its egg; and it was in a course of a month that\nthe foetus grew up in the pot of milk, as the reflexion of the crescent\nmoon increases in the bosom of the milky ocean.\n\n13. At the end of the month the pot bore a full formed foetus, as the\norb of the moon becomes full in the course of a month; and as the\nseason of spring produces the lotus bud with its blushing petals.\n\n14. The foetus came out in the fullness of its time, and with the full\npossession of all the members of its body; as the full moon rises from\nthe milky ocean without diminution of any of its digits.\n\n15. The body became fully developed in time, and the limbs were as\nbeautiful as the horns of the moon shine brightly in the lighted\nfortnight.\n\n16. After performance of the initiatory ceremonies (of tonsure and\ninvestiture of the sacred thread); and the sage instructed him in\nwhatever he knew, as one pours out the contents of one vessel into\nanother.\n\n17. In course of a short time the boy became acquainted with all the\noral instructions (Vangmaya) of his father, and became an exact ectype\nof the venerable sage. (The best son likens his father).\n\n18. The old sage became as illustrious with his brilliant boy, as the\norb of the moon shines brightly with its train of resplendent stars.\n\n19. Once on a time the sage N\u00e1rada went to the empyrean of his father\nBrahm\u00e1 accompanied by his young progeny, and there made his obeisance\nto the prime progenitor of mankind.\n\n20. The boy also bowed down before his grandsire, who knowing him to be\nversed in the vedas and sciences; took him up and set him on his lap.\n\n21. The lord Brahm\u00e1 pronounced his blessings on the boy, and knowing\nhim to be born of the pot and acquainted with the vedas; gave him the\nname of Kumbha or the pot.\n\n22. Know me O hermit! to be the son of the sage N\u00e1rada, and grand son\nof the great lotus-born Brahm\u00e1 himself; and know by the appellation of\nKumbha from my birth into the pot.\n\n23. I have the four vedas for my companions and playmates, and I always\ndelighted with their company; in the heavenly abode of my lotus-born\ngrandsire--the Divine Brahm\u00e1.\n\n24. Know the Goddess Sarasvat\u00ed to be my mother, and the G\u00e1yatr\u00ed hymn\nas my maternal aunt; my habitation is in the heaven of Brahm\u00e1 where I\ndwell as the grand-child of the lord of creatures.\n\n25. I wonder at my pleasure, throughout the wide extended world; I rove\nabout with a soul full of felicity, and not on any errand or business\nwhatever.\n\n26. I walk over the earth without touching it with my feet, and its\nflying dust do not approach my person; nor is my body ever fatigued in\nall its rambles. (The spiritual body is intangible and unwearied).\n\n27. It happened this day, that I came to behold thy hermitage in the\ncourse of my etherial journey; and so directed my course this way, to\nsee thee in this place. (This is the substance of my life, as I have\nnow related unto thee).\n\n28. Thus O forester! I have given you the whole account of my life as\nyou have heard just now; because it is a pleasure to good people, to\nhold conversation with the good and wise.\n\n29. V\u00e1lm\u00edki said:--As they were talking in this manner the day past\naway to its evening service, and the sun set down below the horizon;\nthe court broke and every one repaired to his evening ablution, and met\nagain with the rising sun on the next morning.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXXXVII.\n\nCONTINUATION OF THE SAME AND ENLIGHTENMENT OF SIKHIDHWAJA.\n\nArgument:--Sikhidhwaja's praise of Kumbha and expression of his sorrow,\nhe turns to be a disciple of the same and professes his faith in the\nved\u00e1nta doctrines.\n\n\nSikhidhwaja said:--Sir, it appears to me that the hoarded merits of\nall my former lives, have brought you today to my presence here; as an\nunforeseen hurricane drives the waters of the sea on the dry mountain\ntops. (_i.e._ thy speech is as cooling draught to my perished soul).\n\n2. I reckon myself as highly blest among the blessed today to be thus\nfavoured by your presence, and cooled by your speech distilling as\nambrosial dews from your lips.\n\n3. Never did a more sensible speech, touch and cool my soul to such a\ndegree as yours ere this; wherefore I deem your holy presence as more\nprecious to me, than the gaining of a kingdom.\n\n4. The unrestrained delight which is felt in general (from the words of\nthe wise), which are free from self-interest and selfish motives; is\nfar superior to the self-restricted pleasure of sovereignty, which is\ndelightful once in imagination only (and not in its actual possession).\n\n5. Vasishtha said:--As the prince was uttering these encomiums, the\nBr\u00e1hman boy Kumbha passed over them in silence; and interrupted him by\nsaying:--\n\n6. Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 said:--Please put a stop, sir, to these words of yours, and\ngive me an account of yourself as I have given mine to you; and tell me\nwho you are, and what you do in this lonely mountain.\n\n7. How long is it that you have passed in this forester's life of\nyours, and what is your main object in view. Tell me the bare truth,\nbecause it is beyond the probity of an ascetic, to utter anything but\nthe plain truth. (The ascetics are names of _satyavrata_ or vowed to\ntruth).\n\n8. Sikhidhwaja replied:--Lord as you are the offspring of a God,\neverything must be well known to you; and as the Gods are full well\nacquainted with the secrets and circumstances of all people, I have\nvery little to relate to you about me.\n\n9. It is from my fear of the world (and its temptations), that I have\nabandoned it and taken my abode amidst this forest; and this though you\nwell know, will I now briefly state unto you.\n\n10. I am Sikhidhwaja the ruler of a country, which I have long\nrelinquished for a seat in the forest; and know, O knower of all\ntruths, that it is my fear of the trap-doors of the world and future\ntransmigration in it, that has driven me to this retired wilderness.\n\n11. It is no more than the reiteration of pain and pleasure, and of\nlife and death in this accursed world; and it is to evade all these,\nthat I have betaken myself to my austerities in these solitary woods.\n\n12. I wander about on all sides, and perform my rigorous austerities\nwithout any respite; and I give no rest to myself, but keep my vigils\nlike a miser over his little stock.\n\n13. I am without any effort or attempt, and so without any fruit and\nfruition also; I am lonely, and so helpless likewise; I am poor and\ntherefore friendless also, and know me Divine personage! to be pining\nin this forest like a withered tree perforated by worms.\n\n14. I observe strictly all my sacred rites without any fail or failure,\nand yet I fall from one sorrow into a sea of sorrows; and have grown\ntoo pensive, that even the ambrosial draught is unpleasant to me.\n\n15. Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 said:--It was once on a time that I had my great progenitor\n(Brahm\u00e1) to tell me which of the two, the observance of duties or their\nnon-observance for the sake of knowledge (_i.e._ whether practice\nor theoretical knowledge); is the more useful to and preferable by\nmankind.\n\n16. Brahm\u00e1 replied:--Knowledge is no doubt the supreme Good, as it\nleads to ones acquaintance with the unity of the Deity and the oneness\nof himself; but action is inculcated to man at the duty of his life,\nboth for the pleasure and passing of his life time.\n\n17. Let them that have not acquired their intellectual light and the\nsight of the soul, be employed in their duties by their offsprings and\nfellow creatures; for who that is devoid of a silken robe, will go\nabout naked and not wrap himself with a blanket or coarse cloth.\n\n18. The ignorant that are actuated by their desires and live upon their\nhopes, meet with their objects as the reward of their action; but the\nknowing and speculative theorist, having neither any desire in his mind\nnor action of his body, meets with no reward of either.\n\n19. An action without its object goes to naught and for nothing, as\nthe fruit bearing plants become fruitless and die away without being\nproperly watered in their time. (There it is doubtful whether the\ncomparison of watering refers to the desire or action. The gloss refers\nit to the action without which no desire is successful).\n\n20. As the effect of a certain season on plants &c., is displaced by\nthat of the succeeding one; so the fruit of an action, is frustrated by\nits want of its desire (of the object).\n\n21. As it is the nature of kusa-grass never to fructify, though they\nbear the flowers in time; so my son, no action can produce any fruit\nwithout the desire of the main object (as its final cause). (Here\nCh\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 addresses her husband as her son).\n\n22. As the boy possest the idea of a ghost in his mind, sees the\napparition of a devil before him; and as a sick man having hypochondria\nof his malady, is soon attacked by it (so everyone meets with what he\nhas in his mind).\n\n23. As the kusa-grass presents the fair flowers to view, without ever\nbearing their fruits; so does the speculative theorist meditate on the\nbeauty of his theory, without producing its results by its practice.\n\n24. Sikhidhwaja said:--But it is said that all human desire is vain,\nand its accompanying egoism is a fallacy; and that they are the\ncreatures of our ignorance, like our error of a sea in the burning\nsands of a desert.\n\n25. So it is to the gnostic theist, whose ignorance is altogether\nremoved by his knowledge of all things as the Divine spirit; such a man\nof course has no desire rising in his mind, as there is no appearance\nof the sea in the sands before the eyes of the wise.\n\n26. It is by forsaking his desires, that a person is freed from his\nbonds of his disease and death; and his internal soul arriving to the\nperfection of the Deity, is exempted from future birth.\n\n27. But know the human mind to be fraught with desires, from which the\nlearned few are only exempt; it is by their transcendental knowledge of\nthe knowable one, that the Divinely wise alone are exempted from their\nregeneration in this mortal world.\n\n28. Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 replied--It is true, O princely sage! that knowledge is\nsaid to be the chief good (summum bonum), by the Gods Brahm\u00e1 and others\nand also by all sapient sages; and notwithstanding thy knowing of this,\nwhy is it that thou remainest in this state of thy gross ignorance?\n\n29. What mean these pots and staffs, these wooden stools and those\nseats of kusa-grass; and why is it, O royal prince! that you delight in\nthese false playings of fools?\n\n30. Why is it that you do not employ your mind to inquire into\nthe questions as to what thou art, and how has this world came to\nexistence, and how and when will cease to exist (in your consciousness\nof reality). Instead of making inquiries in these solemn truths, you\nare passing your time like the ignorant in your fooleries only?\n\n31. Why don't you discuss about the natures of bondage and liberation\nin the company of the learned, and pay your homage at their venerable\nfeet?\n\n32. Do you want, O prince to pass your life in the discharge of your\npainful austerities, as some insects finish their days in perforating\nthe stones in which they live?\n\n33. You can easily obtain the delight you seek, if you will but betake\nyourself to the service of holy man; and keep company with the tolerant\nand wise souls, arguing with them on spiritual subjects.\n\n34. Or you may continue to remain in your grotto, in this forest living\non the simple food of holy men; and by forsaking the evil propensities\nof your mind, abide here as an insect in a hole under the ground.\n\n35. Vasishtha related:--Being thus awakened to sense by his wife--the\nDivine boy--Sikhidhwaja, melted into tears; and with his face bathed in\nwater, spoke to the lad as follows:--\n\n36. Sikhidhwaja said:--O Divine child! it is after a long time, that\nI am awakened by thee to my senses; and I perceive now that it was my\nweak-headedness, which drove me from the society of respectable to this\nlonely forest.\n\n37. Ah! I find now that my mind is purged to-day of its endless sins,\nwhich has brought thee to my presence here, and remonstrate with me on\nmy past misconduct.\n\n38. O beauteous boy! I deem thee henceforward as my monitor and father\nand my best friend forever, and acknowledge myself as thy pupil;\nwherefore I bow down at thy feet and pray thee to take piety on me.\n\n39. Please admonish me now on the subject of Divine knowledge, as you\nare best acquainted with it; and whereby I may be freed from all my\nsorrows, and be settled with perfect peace and bliss of my mind.\n\n40. You said at first, that knowledge is the supreme bliss or summum\nbonum of mankind; now tell me, which is that knowledge which saves us\nfrom misery; whether it is the knowledge of particulars which lead us\nto the acquaintance of specials, or that of the general which brings\nus to the transcendental. (The former is the inductive knowledge\nof ascending from particulars to the universal, and the latter is\ndeductive knowledge of deducing everything from the primitive one).\n\n41. Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 replied:--I will tell thee prince as far as I know about\nit, and what may be best acceptable to thee; and not throw away my\nwords in vain, like crowing ravens about a headless trunk.\n\n42. Because the words that are uttered to the impertinent questions\nof a person and not heeded by him, are thrown in vain; and become as\nuseless to him, as her eye sight in the dark.\n\n43. Sikhidhwaja said:--Sir, your words are as acceptable to me as the\nordinances of veda (gospel truth); and though you utter them without\nprevious meditation (extempore), yet I have full faith in them.\n\n44. Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 replied:--As a boy obeys the words of his father, knowing\nit to be pronounced for his certain good; so must you receive my words\n(knowing them to tend to your best welfare).\n\n45. Think my advices to be all good for you, after you hear them with\nproper attention; and hear unto my words, as you hear music without\ninquiring into their reason or rhyme.\n\n46. Hear me now relate to you an interesting story of a certain person,\nwhose conduct and character resembled in every way to thine; and who\nwas brought back to his sense after his long aberration. This is a tale\nto dispel the worldly cares and fears of the intelligent.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXXXVIII.\n\nTHE TALE OF THE CRYSTAL GEM.\n\nArgument:--The slipping of a precious stone in ignorance, and picking\nof a glossy glass in view of it.\n\n\nCh\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 related:--There lived once a rich man, combined with opposite\nqualities (of charity and penury) in his character; as the sea contains\nthe water and the submarine fire in its depth.\n\n2. He was as skilled in arts, as he was practiced in arms; and was\ntrained up in all dealings, as he was expert in business. But his\ngreat ambition in all his pursuits, kept him from the knowledge of the\nmost high. (His excess of worldliness, was a preventive to spiritual\nknowledge).\n\n3. He employed all his endeavours to obtain the imaginary gem of the\nphilosopher's stone _chint\u00e1mani_ (by means of his pujas and prayers and\nother sacred rites); as the submarine fire wants to devour the waters,\nand dries up the bed of the sea.\n\n4. His great avidity and persevering patience, succeeded after a lapse\nof a long time to obtain the precious gem at last; because there is\nnothing which may not be effected by the ardent zeal of man. (Omnia\nvincit labor).\n\n5. He succeeded in his attempts by his unwearied labour, joined with\nhis firm resolution and well directed plan; as the meanest man is\nfavoured with a fortune, by his employment of these means. (Fortune\ncrowns all strenuous efforts with success).\n\n6. He saw the stone as lying before him, and ready to be grasped in his\nhand; as a hermit sitting on the peak of a mountain, thinks the rising\nmoon as easy to be grasped by his hand. (Too ardent desire presents the\nshadow of the object to one's view).\n\n7. He saw the brilliant gem before him, but became mistrustful of his\nsight and the reality of the object before it; as a poor man hearing\nof his sudden elevation to royalty, mistrusts the report and doubts its\nbeing meant for him.\n\n8. He was then immerged in himself to think with amazement for a long\ntime, he overlooked and neglected to lay hold on his great gain, and\nkept dubitating in his mind in the following manner.\n\n9. Whether this stone is gem or not, and if so, whether it be the\nphilosopher's stone or any other; shall I touch it or not, for I fear\nlest it fly away from my touch or be soiled by it.\n\n10. No one hath until this time obtained the long sought philosopher's\nstone, and if ever it was obtained by any one, it was, says the sastra,\nin his next life.\n\n11. It is no doubt that my miserliness only, that makes me view aslant\nthis brilliant gem before me with my eyes; as a purblind man sees a\nflashing fire-brand and deep-laid moon in the sky.\n\n12. How could the tide of my fortune run so high at once, that I should\nsucceed so soon to obtain the precious stone, that is the pink and acme\nof perfection and productive of all treasure.\n\n13. There must be few and very few indeed of those fortunate men, who\ncan expect their good fortune to court and wait on them; at a little\npains in a short time.\n\n14. I am but a poor and honest man, and one possest of very little\nqualification nor of any worth and account among mankind; and it is\nimpossible that so miserable a wretch, could ever be blessed with this\nmasterpiece of perfection.\n\n15. The incredulous man hung for a long time in a state of suspense,\nbetween his certainty and uncertainty; and was infatuated by his mental\nblindness, that he did not even stretch out his hand to lay hold on the\njewel lying open before him.\n\n16. Hence whatever is obtainable by anyone at any time, is often missed\nand lost sight of by either his ignorance or negligence of it; as the\nprecious gem in the parable, which was proffered and lay palpable in\nfull view.\n\n17. As the undetermined man hung in the balance of his suspicion, the\nprecious gem flew away and vanished from his sight; as the merited man\navoids his slighter, and as the shaft flies from its string or the\nstone from its sling. (Fly from the fool as the arrow flies from the\nbow-string).\n\n18. When prosperity appears to one, she confers on him her blessings of\nwisdom and prudence &c.; but as she forsakes her foolish votary, she\ndeprives him of all his discretion. (Such is the case with this once\nwise and afterwards foolish devotee of prosperity).\n\n19. The man tried again to invoke and recall the precious gem to his\npresence, because the persevering spirit is never tired to try again\nand again for his expected success.\n\n20. He came to behold before him a brittle piece of glass, shining with\nits false glare as the former gem; and this was placed in his presence\nby the invisible hands of the _siddha_ that had come to tempt him and\nderide his folly.\n\n21. The fool thought this brittle thing to be the real gem now lying\nbefore him, as the ignorant sot believes the sparkling sands to be the\ndusts of the purest gold.\n\n22. Such is the case with the deluded mind, that it mistakes the eight\nfor six and a foe for a friend; it sees the serpent in the rope and\nviews the desert land as the watery expanse, it drinks the poison for\nthe nectar and spies another moon in the sky in the reflexion of the\ntrue one.\n\n23. He took up that sham trumpery for a real gem, and thought it as the\nphilosopher's stone that would confer on him whatever he desired; with\nthis belief he gave up in charity all he had, as they were no more of\nany use to him.\n\n24. He thought his country to be devoid of all that was delightsome\nto him and its people as debasing to his society; he thought his lost\nhouse was of no use to him, and his relatives and friends to be averse\nto his happiness.\n\n25. Thus thinking in his mind, he determined to remove himself to a\ndistant country and enjoy his rest there; and then taking his false gem\nwith him, he went out and entered an uninhabited forest.\n\n26. There his deceptive gem proving of no use to him loaded him all\nimaginable calamities, likening to the gloomy shadow of the black\nmountain and the horrid gloom of deep ignorance.\n\n27. The affections which are brought to one by his own ignorance, are\nby far greater than those which are caused by his old age and the\ntorments of death. The calamity of ignorance supercedes all other\nearthly affections, as the black hairs rise on the top of the body and\ncover the crown of the head.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXXXIX.\n\nTHE PARABLE OF AN ELEPHANT.\n\nArgument:--Freedom of the Incarcerated Elephant; and his falling again\ninto the Pit.\n\n\nCh\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 said:--Hear O holy hermit! another very interesting story of\nmine, which well applies to your case; as the ruler of a land and to\nserve to awaken your understandings: (from its present theory).\n\n2. There lived a large elephant in the Vindhya mountains, which was the\nhead and leader of a great number of elephants; and had as clear an\nunderstanding in its big and elevated head, as the lofty summit of the\nmountain was humbled down at the bidding of Agastya--the sage. (Agastya\nis recorded as the first Aryan emigrant, who crossed the Vindhya and\nsettled in southern India, and civilized the wild mountainous and rude\npeople of Deccan by his wise law and instructions).\n\n3. His two tusks were as strong as the thunderbolts of heaven, and as\nlong and stunning as the far reaching flashes of lightning; they were\nas destructive as the flames of final desolation (kalp\u00e1nta), and as\npiercing as to bore and uproot a mountain.\n\n4. He came to be caught by an iron trap laid by elephant catchers in\nhis way, and was fast held in it as the Vindhya by the Muni's charm;\nand as the giant Bali was bound in the chains of India. (Vindhya and\nits people were spell bound by the Agastya sage).\n\n5. The captive and patient elephant was tormented by the iron goad in\nhis proboscis, and suffered the excruciating pains of his torture;\nlike the Tripura giant under the burning fire of Hara. (Siva is called\nTripura-hara for his quelling that giant by his fire arms).\n\n6. The elephant lay in this sad plight in the net for three days\ntogether, and was thus watched over by his hunter for a distance. (See\nthe paper of elephant catching in the Asiatic Researches).\n\n7. The great suffering of the elephant made him open his mouth widely,\nand utter a loud scream that growled about like the loud noise of\nroaring clouds.\n\n8. Then he exerted the force of both his tusks, and succeeded thereby\nto break asunder the iron bar; as the Titan of old, broke open the\nbolts at the gate of heaven.\n\n9. The hunter saw the breaking of his hard fetters by the infuriate\nbeast from a distance, as Hara beheld the breaking of the demon Bali\n(Belos) from his subterranean cell beneath the mountain, in order to\ninvade his heaven on high.\n\n10. The elephant catcher then mounted a tall _t\u00e1la_ (palm) tree, and\nleaped from its top in order to fall down on its head; but haplessly\nhe fell down on the ground, as the demon was hurled down to hell by\nvictorious Hara.\n\n11. The hunter missed the head of the huge animal, and fell headlong\nupon his legs on the ground; as a ripe fruit, is dropped down by the\nhurrying winds.\n\n12. The great elephant took pity in seeing him falling, and lying\nprostrate before him; as the mind of the noble, is compassionate on\nothers even in their own piteous state.\n\n13. The noble animal thought in his mind, that it was no valour on his\npart to trample over the self-fallen; and had thus the magnanimity of\nsparing the life of his own enemy.\n\n14. He broke only the chains in two pieces, and took his way before\nhim; leaving away all obstacles and barriers, as the rushing waters\nbear down the strongest bridge.\n\n15. His strength broke the strong net, but his piety spared the life of\nthe weak man; he went off as the sun sets, after dispelling the evening\nclouds.\n\n16. The hunter rose up from the ground after he saw the elephant had\ngone away; and he found himself to be as same and sound after his fall\nas he had been before it; and as the elephant was relieved from his\npains, after his liberation from the chains.\n\n17. Notwithstanding with great shock which the man had felt by his\nfall from the tall palm tree, he felt no hurt with any part of his\nbody; whence I ween, the bodies of scoundrels are fortified against\nevery harm.\n\n18. The wicked gain greater strength by execution of their repeated\ncrimes, as the rainy clouds gather the more by their frequent showers.\nThus the hunter went after his fresh excursion.\n\n19. The elephant catcher felt very sorry, at the escape of the elephant\nand unsuccessfulness of his attempt; as one in dejected mind, is to\nlose a treasure that has fallen into his hand.\n\n20. He sought about and beat the forest, to find out the hiding\nelephant amidst the thickets; as the ascending node of Rahu rises in\nthe sky, to lay hold on the moon covered under the clouds.\n\n21. After a long search, he came in sight of the elephant halting under\na tree; as when a warrior returns from the battlefield, and breathes\nthe air under a shady arbour.\n\n22. The cunning huntsman collected a great many tools, capable to\nentrap the elephant at his resting place.\n\n23. He dug a circular ditch round about that place in the forest, as\nthe great creator of the world had stretched the ocean encircling this\nearth.\n\n24. He then covered the great pit, with green branches and soft leaves\nof trees; as the season of autumn covers the face of the empty sky with\nfleecy and flimsy clouds.\n\n25. The elephant roaming at large in the forest, happened to fall down\ninto the pit one day; as the fragment of a rock on the coast, falls\nheadlong on the dried bed of the sea.\n\n26. The big elephant was thus caught in the circular pit, which was as\ndeep as the dreadful depth of the sea; and lay confined in it, as some\ntreasure is shut up in the hollow womb of a chest.\n\n27. Being thus confined at the bottom of that far extending pit, still\npasses his time in endless trouble and anxiety; like the demon Bali in\nhis dark cave under the grounds.\n\n28. This is the effect of the silly elephant, letting unhurt his cruel\nhunter who had fallen ere long before him; or else he would not be\nthus pent up in the pit, if he made an end of him in time.\n\n29. Hence all foolish people that had not foresight to prevent their\nfuture mishaps, and provide against their coming mischances by their\nprecautions at present, are surely to be exposed like the calamity as\nthe vindhyan elephant. (Hence all unforeseeing men are designated as\n_gaja murkha_ or elephantine fools).\n\n30. The elephant was glad with the thought of his freedom from the\nhunter's chains, and thought no more of any future mishap; which was\nthe sole cause of his being by another mischance, which lay at a long\ndistance from him.\n\n31. Know, O great soul! that there is no bondage of man except his own\nignorance; and the jail prisoners are not under such thraldom, as the\nintellectual servitude of freemen under their errors and prejudice.\nThe enlightenment of the soul and the knowledge of the cosmos as one\nuniversal soul, is the greatest freedom of man; while the ignorance of\nthis truth, is the root of the slavery of mankind to the errors of this\nworld.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXXXX.\n\nWAY TO OBTAIN THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE.\n\nArgument:--Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1's Interpretation of the Parable of the Precious\nstone and the Glassy Gewgaw.\n\n\nSikhidhwaja said:--Please explain unto me, O Divine boy! the purport of\nthe parables of the true and false gems; and the unfettered and pent up\nelephant, which you have spoken before to me.\n\n2. Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 replied:--Hear me now expound to you the meaning of my\nstories, and the purport of the words and their senses; which I\nhave stored in your heart and mind, for the enlightenment of your\nunderstanding.\n\n3. That searcher after the philosopher's stone, was undoubtedly\nacquainted with science, but had no knowledge of the truth\n(tatwajn\u00e1na); he searched the gem but knew not what it was, and the\nsame man is thyself.\n\n4. You are versed in the sciences as he, and shinest above others as\nthe shining sun on the mountain tops; but you have not that rest and\nquiet, which is derived from the knowledge of truth; and are immerged\nin your errors, as a block of stone in the water.\n\n5. Know O holy man! that it is relinquishing of errors, which is said\nto be the philosopher's stone (because they are the only men that have\nset themselves above the reach of error). Try to get that O holy man!\nin your possession, and set yourself thereby above the reach of misery.\n\n6. It is the relinquishment of gross objects, that produces the pure\njoy of holiness; it is the abandonment of the world, that gives one\nthe sovereignty over his soul, and which is reckoned as the true\nphilosopher's stone.\n\n7. Abandonment of all is the highest perfection, which you must\npractice betimes; because it is contemning of worldly grandeur, that\nshows the greatest magnanimity of the soul.\n\n8. You have O prince! forsaken your princedom together with your\nprincess, riches, relatives and friends, and have rested in your\nresignation; as Brahm\u00e1 the lord of creatures, rested at the night of\ncessation of the act of his creation.\n\n9. You have come out too far from your country, to this distant\nhermitage of mine; as the bird of heaven the great _Garuda_ lighted\nwith his prey of the tortoise, on the farthest mount of the earth. (The\nlegend of Gaja-_kachchhapa_ borne by _Garuda_, is narrated at length in\nthe _Pur\u00e1na_).\n\n10. You have relinquished your egotism, with your abandonment of all\nworldly goods; and you purged your nature from every stain, as autumnal\nwinds disperse the clouds from the sky.\n\n11. Know that it is only by driving away the egoism of the mind as\nwell as all desires from the heart, that one gets his perfection and\nhas the fulness of the world or perfect bliss in himself. But you have\nbeen labouring under the ignorance of what is to be abandoned and what\nis to be retained, as the sky labours under the clouds. (It is not the\nabandonment of the world, but the greedy desires of the mind, that is\nattended with true felicity).\n\n12. It is not your abandonment of the world, which can give you that\nhighest felicity the _summum bonum_ that you seek; it is something else\nthat must be yet sought after by you. (True happiness is a thing of\nheavenly growth, and is to be obtained by the grace of God only).\n\n13. When the mind is overflown by its thoughts, and the heart is\ncorroded by the canker of its desire; all its resignation flies from\nit, as the stillness of a forest flies before the tempest.\n\n14. Of what avail is the abandonment of the world to one, whose mind\nis ever infested by his troublesome thoughts; it is impossible for a\ntree to be at rest, that is exposed to the tempests of the sky. (Inward\npassions disturb the breast, as tempests rend the sky).\n\n15. The thoughts constitute the mind, which is but another name for\nwill or desire; and so long as these are found to be raging in one, it\nis in vain to talk of the subjection of the mind.\n\n16. The mind being occupied by its busy thoughts, finds the three\nworlds to present themselves before it in an instant; of what avail\ntherefore is the abandonment of this world to one, when the infinite\nworlds of the universe are present before his mind.\n\n17. Resignation flies on its swift pinions, soon as it sees a desire to\nbe entertained in it; as a bird puts on its wings, no sooner it hears a\nnoise below.\n\n18. It is _insouciance_ and want of care, which is the main object\nof the abandonment of the world; but when you allow a care to rankle\nin your breast, you bid a fair adieu to your resignation; as one bid\nfarewell to his honoured and invited guest.\n\n19. After you have let slip the precious gem of resignation from\nyour hand, you have chosen the false glossy gewgaw of austerity for\nsome fond wish in your view. (All outward observances of rites and\nausterities proceed from some favourite object fostered in the mind,\nwhile the pure bliss of holiness is obtained from the purity of the\nheart only, and without any need of outward acts).\n\n20. I see thy mind is fixed in wilful pains of thy austerities, as the\nsight of a deluded man is settled on the reflexion of the moon in the\nwaters (from his error of its being the true moon).\n\n21. Forsaking the indifference of your mind, you have become a\nfollower of the prurience of your heart; and chosen for yourself the\nmortification of an anchorite, which is full of from its first to last.\n\n22. He who forsakes the easy task of his devotion to God, which is\nfraught with infinite bliss; and betakes himself to the difficult\nduties of painful austerity, is said to make a suicide of his own soul.\n(The sruti calls them self-suicides (_\u00e1tmaghanoj\u00e1nah_); who neglect the\nfelicity of their souls).\n\n23. You betook yourself to the vow of self-resignation, by your\nrelinquishment of all earthly possessions; but instead of observing the\nforbearance of resignation, you are bound to the painful austerities of\nyour asceticism in this dreary wilderness.\n\n24. You broke the bonds of your princedom, and decamped from the bounds\nof your realm thinking them as too painful to you; but say are you\nnot constrained here to the faster and far more irksome toils of your\nasceticism, and the unbearable chains of its rigid incarceration.\n\n25. I think you are involved in much more care to defend yourself from\nheat and cold in the defenceless forest, and have come to find yourself\nto be more fast bound to your rigours than you had any idea of this\nbefore.\n\n26. You thought in vain to have obtained the philosopher's stone\nbefore, but must have come to find at last; that your gain is not worth\neven a grain of glassy bauble.\n\n27. Now sir, I have given you a full interpretation of the avidity of\na man to pocket the invaluable gem; you have no doubt comprehended\nits right meaning in your mind, and will now store its purport in the\ncasket of your breast.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXXXXI.\n\nINTERPRETATION OF THE PARABLE OF THE ELEPHANT.\n\nArgument:--Ignorance which is the cause of worldly desire, flies with\nloss of wishes.\n\n\nCh\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 continued:--Hear me, O great prince! now explain to you the\nmeaning of the story of the Vindhyan elephant, which will be as useful\nas it will appear wonderful to you.\n\n2. That elephant of the vindhyan range, is thy very self in this\nforest; and his two strong tusks are no other than the two virtues of\nreasoning and resignation, on which you lay your strength. (_Viveka_\nand _vair\u00e1gya_ _i.e._ reason and resignation are the most potent arms\nof men).\n\n3. The hunter that was the enemy of the elephant and waylaid him in his\nfree rambles, is the personification of that great ignorance, which\nhath laid hold of thee for thy misery only.\n\n4. Even the strong is foiled by weak, and lead from one danger to\nanother and from woe to woe; as the strong elephant was led to by the\nweak huntsman, and as you O mighty prince! are exposed by your imbecile\nignorance in this forest.\n\n5. As the mighty elephant was caught in the strong iron chain, so are\nyou held fast in the snare of your desire (of a future reward); which\nhas brought all this calamity on you.\n\n6. The expectation of man is the iron chain, that is stronger and\nharder and more durable than the other; the iron rusts and wastes away\nin time, but our expectations rise high and hold us faster.\n\n7. As it was in the hostility of the huntsman, that he marked the\nelephant by his remaining unseen in his hiding place, so thy ignorance\nwhich lurks after thee, marks thee for his prey from a distance.\n\n8. As the elephant broke the bonds of the iron chains of his enemy, so\nhave you broken asunder the ties of your peaceful reign and the bonds\nof your royalty and enjoyments.\n\n9. It is sometimes possible, O pious prince! to break down the bonds of\niron fetters; but is impossible, O holy prince, to put a stop to our\ngrowing desires and fond expectations.\n\n10. As the huntsman that had caught the elephant in the trap, fell\ndown himself from on high to the ground; so was thy ignorance also\nlevelled to the ground, seeing thee deprived of thy royalty and all thy\nformer dignity. (The pride and ignorance of a man sinks down with his\nmisfortune).\n\n11. When the man who is disgusted with the world, wants to relinquish\nhis desire of enjoyment, he makes his ignorance tremble in himself,\nas the demon that dwells on a tree, quakes with fear when the tree is\nfelled.\n\n12. When the self-resigned man, remains devoid of his desire for\ntemporal enjoyments; he bids farewell to his ignorance, which quits him\nas the demon departs from the fallen tree.\n\n13. A man getting rid of his animal gratifications, demolishes the\nabode of his ignorance from the mind; as a woodcutter destroys the\nbird-nests of the tree, which he has sawn or cut down on the ground.\n\n14. You have no doubt put down your ignorance, by your resignation of\nroyalty and resorting to this forest; your mind is of course cast down\nby it, but it is not yet destroyed by the sword of your resignation. (A\ncast down or sunken spirit or mind is not really killed, but revives\nand lives again in time).\n\n15. It rises again and gains renewed strength and minding its former\ndefeat, it has at last over powered on you by confining you in this\nwilderness; and restraining you in the painful dungeon of your false\nasceticism.\n\n16. If you can but now kill your fallen ignorance in any way, it will\nnot be able to destroy you at once in your rigorous penance; though it\nhas reduced you to this plight by your abdication of royalty.\n\n17. The ditch that the huntsman had dug to circumvent the elephant, is\nverily this painful pit of austerity, which thy ignorance has scooped\nto enthral you in.\n\n18. The many provisions and supplies with which the huntsman had\nfilled the hollow, in order to entice the elephant; are the very many\nexpectations of future reward, which your ignorance presents before\nyou, as the recompense of your penitence.\n\n19. O prince, though you are not the witless elephant (gaja-murkha);\nyet you are not unlike the same, by your being cast in this forest by\nyour incorrigible ignorance.\n\n20. The ditch of the elephant, was verily filled with the tender plants\nand leaves for the fodder of the elephant; but your cave is full of\nrigorous austerities, which no humanity can bear or tolerate.\n\n21. You are still encaged in this prison house of the ascetic's cell,\nand doomed to undergo all the imaginative torments of your penance and\nmartyrdom. You verily resemble the fallen Bali, that is confined in his\nsubterranean cell.\n\n22. You are no doubt the empty headed elephant, that art fast bound\nin the chain of false rigours, and incarcerated in this cave of your\nignorance; thus I have given the full exposition of the parable of\nthe elephant of Vindhyan mountain, and now glean the best lesson for\nthyself from this.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXXXXII.\n\nTHE PRINCE'S ABJURATION OF HIS ASCETICISM.\n\nArgument.--The prince coming to his sense, took all his relics of\nasceticism and set them on fire.\n\n\nCh\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 continued:--Tell me prince, what made you decline to accept the\nadvice of the princess _Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1_, who is equally skilled in morality,\nas well as in Divine knowledge.\n\n2. She is an adept among the knowers of truth, and actually practices\nall what she preaches to others; her words are the dictates of truth,\nand deserved to be received with due deference.\n\n3. If you rejected her advice, by your over confidence in your own\njudgment; yet let me know, why she prevented you not, from parting with\nyour all to others. (There is a proverb that men should rely on their\nown judgment and that of their elders; but never on those of other\npeople and women).\n\n4. Sikhidhwaja replied:--But I ask you another question, and hope you\nwill reply to it, _i.e._ how do you say that I have not relinquished my\nall, when I have resigned my realm, my habitation and my country all\ntogether; and when I left my wife and all my wealth behind.\n\n5. Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 replied:--You say truly O prince! that you have forsaken\nyour kingdom and habitation, and your lands and relatives, and even\nyour wife and wealth, but that does not make your relinquishment of\nall, since none of these truly belong to thee; they come of themselves\nand go away from man; it is your egoism only which is yours, and which\nyou have not yet got rid of.\n\n6. You have not yet abandoned your egoism, which is the greatest\ndelight of your soul; you cannot get rid of your sorrows, until you are\nquite freed from your egoistic feelings.\n\n7. Sikhidhwaja said:--If you say that my kingdom and possession, were\nnot my all, and that this forest which I have resorted to forms my\nall at present; and these rocks and trees and shrubs form my present\npossessions, then I am willing to quit all these even, if that would\nconstitute resignation of all.\n\n8. Vasishtha said:--Hearing these words of the Br\u00e1hman boy--Kumbha, the\ncold blooded prince Sikhidhwaja held silence for a while, and returned\nno answer.\n\n9. He wiped off his attachment to the forest from his heart, and made\nup his mind to slide away from it; as the current of a stream in the\nrainy weather, glides along and carries down the dust and dirt of the\nbeach.\n\n10. Sikhidhwaja said:--Now sir, I am resolved to leave this forest,\nand bid adieu to all its caves and arbours; say now does not this\nrelinquishment of all, form my absolute abnegation of all things.\n\n11. Kumbha replied:--The foot of this mountain with all its wood-lands,\narbours and caverns are no properties of yours, but the common fells\nand dales of all; how then can your forsaking of them, form your\nself-abnegation at all?\n\n12. The best boon of your egoism which has fallen to your lot, is still\nunforsaken by you; you must get rid of this, in order to be freed from\nthe cares and sorrows of this sublunary world of woes.\n\n13. If none of these things is mine, then my hermit's cell and grove,\nwhich I own as mine are what I am willing to resign, if that would make\nmy total abnegation.\n\n14. Vasishtha said:--The self-governed Sikhidhwaja being awaked to his\nsense, by these admonitions of Kumbha--the Br\u00e1hman boy; he remained\nsilent for a moment, with the light that shone within him.\n\n15. His pure conscience returned to his mind, and the blaze of his\nright knowledge, burnt away the dross of his attachment to the\nhermitage; as a gust of wind drives the dusts from the ground.\n\n16. Sikhidhwaja said:--Know me sir, to have now taken away my heart\nfrom this hermitage, and forsaken my attachment to all its sacred\nbowers and arbours; now therefore consider me to have resigned my all\nand every thing in world.\n\n17. Kumbha replied:--How can I consider you as fully resigned, by your\nresigning these groves and arbours and everything appertaining to them;\nnone of which belong to you, nor are you their master or deserter in\nanyway. (Know there is but one being, who is the sole master of all).\n\n18. Thou hast another thing to be forsaken by thee, and that is the\ngreatest and best thing that has fallen to thy lot in this world; it\nmust be by your resignation of that thing, that you can set yourself\nfree from all. (The prince was so very infatuated with his knowledge\nof the gross sensibles, that he would never come to know what egoism\nmeant).\n\n19. Sikhidhwaja said:--If this even be not the all that I have, and\nwhich you want me to resign; then take these earthen pots and basins,\nthese hides and skins and this my cell also, and know me to forgo all\nthese forever and betake myself elsewhere.\n\n20. Vasishtha said:--So saying the dispassionate prince rose from his\nseat, with his composed and quiet mind; as when an autumnal cloud rises\non the top of a mountain, and disperses elsewhere.\n\n21. Kumbha saw from his seat, the motions and movements of the prince,\nwith her smiles and amazement, as when the sun laughs from above, to\nsee the foolish attempts of men on the earth below.\n\n22. Kumbha looked steadfastly on Sikhidhwaja, and sat silently with the\nthought, \"Ah! let him do whatever he likes for his sanctification and\nrenunciation of the temporal articles of this world, which do not serve\nfor his spiritual edification at all.\"\n\n23. Sikhidhwaja then brought out all his sacred vessels and seats from\nhis grotto, and collected them all in one spot; as the great ocean\nyielded up all her submerged treasures, after the diluvian flood was\nover.\n\n24. Having collecting them in a pile, he set fire to them with dried\nfuel; as the sun-stone or sun-glass burns down the combustible by its\nfire.\n\n25. The sacred vessels and chattels which were set on fire and burnt\ndown by it, were left behind by the prince who sat on a seat beside\nKumbha; as the sun sets on the mount Meru, after he had burnt down in\nthe world by the fire of dissolution.\n\n26. He said to his rosary, you have been confident to me your master,\nas long as I turn you on my fingers as my counting beads.\n\n27. And though I have turned you over and over, with my sacred mantras\nin this forests; yet you have been of no service to me at all.\n\n28. And though I have travelled with you, Oh my reliquary! and seen\nmany holy places in thy company; but as you proved of no good to me, I\nnow resign you to the flames.\n\n29. The burning fire rose in flames and flashes in the sky, and they\nappeared as stars glittering in it; he then cast his seat of the deer's\nskin on the fire, and said: I have borne you about me so long on my\nback as an ignorant stag.\n\n30. It was by my ignorance, that I held you so long with me; and now\nyou are at liberty to go your own way; where may peace and bliss attend\non you forever.\n\n31. Ascend with the rising fire to heaven, and twinkle there as the\nstars on high; so saying he took off his hide garment from his body\nwith his hands, and committed it to the flames.\n\n32. The funeral pyre of the prince spread as a sea of fire and it\nwas driven about as a conflagration by the winds blowing from the\nmountains; when the prince thought of throwing his water pot also into\nthe fire.\n\n33. And said to it, you sir, that bore the sacred water for all my\nsacerdotal functions; O my good water pot, it is true that I have not\nthe power of rendering the proper recompense of your past services.\n\n34. You were the best model of true friendship, good nature,\nbenevolence and constancy to me; and the best exemplar of goodness and\nall good qualities in thy great bounty.\n\n35. O thou! (my water pot), that wast the receptacle of all goodness to\nme; now depart your own way, by your purification in the same sacred\nfire, as thou wast at first found by me (from the potter's fire). Be\nthy ways all blissful to thee! so saying he cast his water pot into the\nconsecrated fire.\n\n36. Because all good things are to be given to the good or to the fire;\nbut all bad things are cast off, like the dust of the earth; and as\nfoolish men fall to the ground, by their secret craft.\n\n37. It is well for thee, my low mattress, to be put to fire and reduced\nto worthless ashes; so saying, he took up his wet matted seat, and cast\nit into the flaming fire.\n\n38. The seat on which he used to sit in his pure meditation on God\n(_i.e._ his _kus\u00e1sana_ or his seat made of kusa-grass), he soon\ncommitted to the flames; because it is better to give up a thing\nbetimes, of which one must get rid shortly afterwards.\n\n39. This my alms-pot which contained the best articles of food, which\nwere presented to me by good people; I now commit to this flame with\nwhatever it has in it.\n\n40. The fire burns a thing but once, and the burnt article ceases to\nburn any more; hence I shun all the implements to my ceremonial rites,\nin order to set me free from the bondage of all actions for ever more.\n\n41. Be ye not sorry therefore, that I forsake you thus; for who is\nthere, that will bear about him things that are unworthy of himself.\n\n42. So saying, he threw into the fire all his cooking vessels, and the\nplates and dishes of his kitchen; and all things whatever he had need\nof in his hermitage. And these began to burn in a blaze, us the world\nwas burnt down by the all destructive fire of the kalp\u00e1nta.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXXXXIII.\n\nADMONITION OF SIKHIDHWAJA.\n\nArgument:--As the prince was going to immolate himself after this, he\nis recalled from his rashness by the wisdom of his young monitor, who\nadmonishes him to the relinquishment of his mind and not of the body.\n\n\nVasishtha said:--He then rose up and set fire to his hut of dry leaves\nand grass, as it is the case with foolish men very often to demolish\nthe structure of their own fancy and caprice. (_i.e._ To undo the\ndoings of their own hobbies and wild imagination).\n\n2. Whatever else there was left beside aught of the chattels and goods\nof the hermit Sikhidhwaja took them all one after another, and set fire\nto them with his composed and unconcerned mind, and observing a strict\ntaciturnity all the while.\n\n3. He burnt and broke down every thing, and then flung away from him\nhis eatables and preserved condiments; his clothings and all, with a\nquite content state of his mind. (This unconcerned state of the mind is\ncalled _avahittha_ or insouciance; which cares for no mortal thing).\n\n4. The hermitage was now turned to a desolation, for its having\nbeen a human habitation awhile before; and resembled the relics of\nthe sacrificial pavilion of Daksha, after its devastation by the\nall-devouring fire of V\u00edrabhadra. (The legend of _Daxa-yajna-bhanga_,\nforms the subject of many Pur\u00e1nas, poems and dramas, but the mystery\nand allegory of the fable remains as dark and inexplicable as the Runic\ncharacters).\n\n5. The timorous fawns being affrighted at the lighted fire, left their\nlairs where they lay chewing the cud at their ease; and fled afar to\ndistant deserts, as the townsmen free from a burning quarter to distant\nabodes.\n\n6. Seeing the vessels and utensils to be all in a blaze, with the fuel\nof the dry woods on all sides; the prince seemed to remain quite\ncontent and careless amidst the scene, with the possession of his body\nonly.\n\n7. Sikhidhwaja said:--I am now become an all abandoning saint, by my\nabandonment of all desire and every object; and wonder that I should\nafter so long a period of my life, be awakened to my right knowledge,\nby the holy lectures of my heavenly child.\n\n8. I have now become a pure and perfect unit, and quite conscious of\nthe ineffable joy in myself; of what use and to what good, are all\nthese appendages of my ever varying desires to me. (No temporal object,\nleads to our permanent good; save our own bodies, which feel the inward\nbliss of the soul).\n\n9. As the knots of the chain that bind the soul to this world, are cut\nasunder and fall off one after another; so the mind comes to feel its\nquiet composure, until it attains to its ultimate rest and inaction.\n\n10. I am quite composed, and in perfect ease with the extinction of my\ndesires; I am joyous and rejoice in myself, that my ties are all broken\nand fallen off from me; and that I have at last, fully accomplished the\nabandonment of all things (_sarva tyaga_).\n\n11. I am become as nude as the open sky, and as roofless as the vault\nof vacuity; I view the wide world as an expanse of vacuum, and myself\nas a nullity within the whole inanity; say, O divine boy! is there\nanything still wanting to my complete renouncement of all.\n\n12. Kumbha replied:--Yet you must be aware! O prince Sikhidhwaja!\nthat you are never released from all the bonds of this life, by your\nrenunciation of every mortal thing; appertaining to this your mortal\nand transitory state of your being.\n\n13. I see the gravity and purity of the nature of your soul, which\nis placed far above the reach and track of the commonality; by its\nabandonment of the innumerable seeds and sprouts of fond desires, which\nincessantly rise as thistles and thorns on the human breast. (If virtue\nwe plant not, vice will fill the place; and the rankest weeds, the\nrichest soils deface).\n\n14. Vasishtha said:--On hearing these words of Kumbha, the prince\nSikhidhwaja reflected on its purport within himself for a short while;\nhe spoke these words in reply as you shall, oh mighty armed R\u00e1ma, now\nhear from me. (_i.e._ The prince was not so very easily prevailed upon\nby his eloquent monitor).\n\n15. Sikhidhwaja said:--Tell me, O heaven born child! what else dost\nthou see remaining in me; except the serpentine entrails within myself,\nand supporting the body composed of a heap of flesh, blood and bones.\n\n16. And if this body reckoned an appendage to myself, I will then\nascend to the top of this mountain, and let it fall to be dashed to\npieces on the ground; and thus get rid of my mortal part for ever.\n\n17. Saying so, as he was proceeding to immolate his body on the craggy\nhill before him; he was interrupted by his monitor Kumbha, who spoke to\nhim as follows:--\n\n18. Kumbha said:--What is it prince that you are going to do, why do\nyou attempt to destroy this innocent body of yours from this hideous\nheight, as the enraged bull hurls its calf below the hill?\n\n19. What is this body, but a lump of dull and gross matter, a dumb\nand poor painstaking thing; it never does you any harm, nor can you\never find any fault in it; why then do you wish in vain to destroy so\nharmless and faultless a thing?\n\n20. It is of itself a dull and dumb thing (as your beast of burden);\nit ever remains in its torpid meditative mood, and is moved to and fro\nby other agencies; as a plank is tossed up and down, by the adverse\ncurrent and waves in the sea.\n\n21. He who hurts or annoys his inoffensive body, deserves to be put to\ntorturous punishment; like the ruffian rogue who robs and annoys the\nholy saint, sitting in his solitary cell.\n\n22. The body is quite guiltless of all the pain and pleasure, which\nbetide the living soul by turns; as the tree is wholly unconcerned\nwith the fall of its fruits and leaves, which are dropped down by the\nblowing winds.\n\n23. You see the gusts of winds dropping down the fruits, flowers and\nleaves of trees; then tell me, O holy men! how you can charge your\ninnocent tree, with the fault of letting fall its best produce.\n\n24. Know it for certain, O lotus eyed prince! that the immolation of\nyour body even, is not enough to make your total renouncement of all\nthings, _sarva ty\u00e1ga_ you must know is not an easy matter.\n\n25. It is in vain that you intend, to destroy this inoffensive body of\nyours on this rock; your quitting or getting rid of your body, does not\ncause your renunciation and freedom from all. (Death releases us from\nthe bondage of the body, but not from the stings of conscience).\n\n26. There is an enemy of this body which agitates it, as an elephant\nshakes a huge tree; if you can but get rid of that mortal enemy of your\nbody and soul, you are then said to be freed from all.\n\n27. Now prince, it is by avoiding this inveterate enemy of yours, that\nyou are freed from the bondage of your body, and everything besides in\nthis world; or else however you may kill your body, you can never put a\nstop to its regrowth (in some form or other).\n\n28. Sikhidhwaja rejoined:--What is it then that agitates the body\nand what is the root of our transmigrations and of the doings and\nsufferings of our future lives? And what is it by the avoidance of\nwhich, we avoid and forsake everything in the world?\n\n29. Kumbha replied:--Know, holy prince, that it is neither the\nforsaking of your realm nor that of your body, nor the burning of\nyour hut and chattels, nor all these things taken together, that can\nconstitute your renouncement of all and everything.\n\n30. That which is all and every where, is the one only cause of all;\nit is by resigning everything in that sole existent being, that one\nbecomes the renouncer of all.\n\n31. Sikhidhwaja said:--You say that there is an all--_to-pan_, which is\nsituated in all to whom all things are to be resigned at all times. Now\nsir, you that know all, what this all or omnium can be.\n\n32. Kumbha replied:--Know, O holy man, this all pervading being is\nknown under the various appellations of the living soul j\u00edva, the\nlife Pr\u00e1na and many more also; it is neither an active or inactive\nprinciple, and is called the mind which is ever liable to error.\n\n33. Know the mind to be the seat of illusion, and to make the man\nby itself; it is the essential constituent of every person, and the\nspeculum of all these worlds in itself.\n\n34. Know the mind, as the source of your body and estates; and know it\nalso, as the root of your hermitage and everything else; just as one\ntree bears the seed of another. (The ingrained desire of the mind is\nthe seed of all extraneous accidents).\n\n35. It is therefore by your giving up this seed of all events, that\nyou really resign everything in the world, which is contained in and\ndepends on this primary seed and mainspring of the mind. All possible\nas well as impossible renunciations, depend on the resignation of the\nmind.\n\n36. The man that is under the subjection of his mind, is ever subject\nto cares, both when he is attentive to his duties or negligent of them;\nas also when he rules his realm, or flies from it to a forest; but the\nman of a well governed mind, is quite content in every condition of\nlife.\n\n37. It is the mind which revolves incessantly in the manner of the\nrotatory world, and evolves itself in the form of the body and its\nlimbs; as the minute seed displays itself in the shape of a tree and\nits branches and leaves.\n\n38. As the trees are shaken by the blowing winds, and as the mountains\nare shook by the bursting earthquakes; and as the bellows are blown by\nthe inflated air, so is the animated body moved about by the mobile\nforce of the mind.\n\n39. These miserable mortals that are born to death and decay, and those\nhappy few that live to enjoy the pleasures of life; and the great\nsages of staunch hearts and souls, are all of them bound alike to the\nthraldom of their minds. (The mind governs all, and there are few to\ngovern it).\n\n40. The mind acts its several parts, in all the various forms and\nfigures of the stage of the world; it shows its gestures in the\nmotions of the body, it lives and breathes in the shape of the living\nspirit, and it thinks and cogitates in the form of the mind. (The mind\nand the heart, the living soul and the active body, are all the one and\nsame thing).\n\n41. It takes the different epithets of the understanding _buddhi_,\nconsciousness _mahat_, egoism _ahamk\u00e1ra_, the life or _pr\u00e1na_ and the\nintellect, agreeably to its sundry internal functions in the body,\nor else it is the silent soul, when it is without any action to be\nassigned to it.\n\n42. The mind is said to be all in all, and by getting release of this,\nwe are released of all diseases and dangers; and then we are said to\nhave avoided and abandoned all and every thing.\n\n43. O ye, that want to know what resignation is, must know that it\nis the resignation of the mind, which makes your renunciation of all\nthings. If you succeed in the abnegation of your mind, you come to know\nthe truth, and feel the true felicity of your soul.\n\n44. With the riddance of your mind, you get rid of the unity and\nduality of creeds, and come to perceive all diversities and pluralities\nblend in one universal whole; which is transcendental tranquillity,\ntransparent purity and undiminished felicity: (which is _an\u00e1maya_\nwithout alloy).\n\n45. The mind is the field for the course of every body, in his career\nin this world; but if this field be over grown with thorns and\nbrambles, how can you expect to grow rice in it?\n\n46. The mind shows its manifold aspects, and plays its many parts at\nwill; it turns and moves in the forms of things, as the waters roll in\nthe shapes of waves.\n\n47. Know young prince, that your abandonment of all things by the\nresignation of your mind, will redound to your joy, not unequal to that\nof your gaining a kingdom to your self.\n\n48. In the matter of self-abnegation, you are on the same footing with\nother men; in that you resign whatever you dislike, and want to have\nsome thing that you have a liking for.\n\n49. He who connects all the worlds with himself, as the thread\nthat connects the pearls in a necklace, is the man that possesses\neverything, by renouncing all things from himself. (This is the\nattribute of _sutr\u00e1tm\u00e1_--the connecting thread of the supreme soul,\nwhich unites all units to it, by living all things as apart from it).\n\n50. The soul that is unattached to all things, doth yet connect and\npass alike through them all; as the thread of the divine soul, connects\nthe world as a string of pearls. (It spreads unspent).\n\n51. The soul that bears no attachment to the world, is like an oilless\nlamp that is soon extinguished to darkness; but the spirit that is warm\nwith its affections, likens an oily lamp, that burns with universal\nlove, and enlightens all objects about it.\n\n52. The lord that lives aloof from all, resembles the oilless lamp in\ndark obscurity; but the same Lord manifesting himself in all things,\nresembles the oily lamp that lights every object. (The two hypostases\nof the supreme spirit--the unknowable and the Manifest, the aprak\u00e1s\u00e1tm\u00e1\nand the saprak\u00e1s\u00e1tm\u00e1).\n\n53. As after the relinquishment of all your possessions (both in your\nestate as also in this forest), you still remain by yourself; so after\nyour resignation of your body, mind and all, you have still your\nconsciousness by you, which you can never get rid of.\n\n54. As by the burning of your articles, you have burnt no part of your\nbody; so by your resignation of all things, you can not resign yourself\nor your soul, which would then amount to _nirv\u00e1na_ or utter extinction\n(which is tantamount to _moksha_ or ultimate absorption in the supreme\nspirit).\n\n55. Sarvaty\u00e1ga or total abnegation, means the voidance of the soul of\nall its worldly attachment, when it becomes the seat of all knowledge;\nand likens to the etherial paradise of the hosts of celestial beings.\n\n56. Sarvaty\u00e1ga or self-abnegation is like the water immortality, which\ndrives away all fear of disease and death by a single draught of it;\nand it remains untouched by the cares of the world, as the clear\nfirmament is untinged by the spots of clouds.\n\n57. Sarvaty\u00e1ga again is the entire abandonment of all affections,\ngives a man his true greatness and glory; and as you get rid of your\ntemporary affections, so you get the stability of your understanding,\nand the firmness of your determination.\n\n58. Sarvaty\u00e1ga or abandonment of all, is fraught with perfect delight;\nas its contrary is attended with extreme misery. This is a certain\ntruth, and knowing as such, choose what you think best for you.\n\n59. He who gives away his all in this life, comes to be in possession\nof them in his future state; as the rivers which pour their waters into\nthe sea, are again filled by its flood tide.\n\n60. After resignation of all things from the mind, its hollowness is\nfilled with full knowledge of them, which is highly gratifying to the\nsoul; as an empty box, is stored with rich gems and jewels in it.\n\n61. It was by virtue of his resignation of all things, that S\u00e1kyamuni\nbecame dauntless amidst the troubles of the Kali-age, and sat as firm\nas a rock. (Hence the yogis of prior ages, have remained as pure air).\n\n62. Total resignation of all things, is tantamount to the acquisition\nof all prosperity; because the lord gives every thing to him, who\ndedicates and devotes his all unto Him.\n\n63. You have now, O prince, become as quiet as the calm atmosphere,\nafter your abandonment of all things; now try to be as graceful as the\nlightsome moon, by the complaisance of your manners.\n\n64. Now, O high minded prince, forget at once your past abdication of\nyour crown and kingdom, as also your subsequent of all things in this\nhermitage; drive away the pride of your total abandonment of all you\nhad, and be of a clear and complacent countenance.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXXXXIV.\n\nENLIGHTENMENT OF SIKHIDHWAJA.\n\nArgument:--On the abandonment of the affections of the mind.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--As the disguised boy was admonishing in this\nmanner on the relinquishment of mind (_i.e._ the mental passions and\naffections); the prince ruminated inwardly on its sense, and then spoke\nas follows.\n\n2. Sikhidhwaja said:--I find my mind fluttering always, as a bird in\nthe open sky of my bosom; and lurking incessantly as an ape, in the\nwilderness of my heart.\n\n3. I know how to restrain my mind, as they do the fishes in the net;\nbut know not how to get rid of it, when it is so much engaged with the\nobjects of sense.\n\n4. Please sir acquaint me first with the nature of the mind, and then\nteach me the method of relinquishing it for ever from me.\n\n5. Kumbha replied:--Know great prince, cupidity to be the intrinsic\nnature of the mind; and know the word desire to be used as a synonym\nfor the mind. (The mind and will are synonymous terms).\n\n6. The abandonment of the mind is very easy, and more facile than\nthe stirring of it; it is attended with a greater delight, than the\npossession of a kingdom can afford, and is more pleasant than the scent\nof fragrant flowers.\n\n7. But it is very difficult for the ignorant, to get rid of or forsake\nthe desires of their minds; it is as hard to them as it is for a boor\nto wield the reins of a kingdom, and for a heap of grass to be as high\nas a mountain.\n\n8. Sikhidhwaja said:--I understand the nature of the mind, to be\nreplete with its desires; but I find my riddance from it, to be as\nimpossible as the swallowing of an iron-bolt by anybody.\n\n9. I find the mind as the fragrant flower in the great garden of the\nworld, and the crater of the fire of all our woes; it is the stalk of\nthe lotus of the world, and it is the bag that bears and blows the\ngusts of delusion all over the world. Now tell me how this thing may be\neasily removed from us.\n\n10. The mind is the locomotive engine of the body, it is the bee that\nflutters about the lotus of the heart; now tell me how I may with ease\nget rid of this mind.\n\n11. Kumbha answered:--The total extirpation of the mind, consists in\nthe entire extinction of the world from it; the learned and the men of\nlong foresight, call this to be the abandonment of the mind (_i.e._\nwhen it is cast out with all its thoughts and cares).\n\n12. Sikhidhwaja rejoined:--I think the extinction of the mind, is\nbetter than our abandonment of it, on account of securing the success\nof our purposes; but how can we know the gradual expurgation of the\nmind, from the hundreds of diseases to which it is subject.\n\n13. Kumbha replied:--Egoism is the root (seed) of the arbour of\nthe mind, with all its branches and leaves and fruits and flowers;\ntherefore root out the mind with its very root of egoism, and have thy\nbreast as clear as the empty and lurid sky.\n\n14. Sikhidhwaja rejoined:--Tell me, O sage, what is the root of the\nmind, what are its sprouts and fruits; tell me also how many stems and\nbranches it has, and how is it possible to root it out at once.\n\n15. Kumbha replied:--Know prince that egoism and all the words\nexpressive of the self as meity &c., and indicative of the mind, are\nthe seeds of the tree of the mind.\n\n16. The field of its growth is the supreme soul, which is the common\nsource of all entities; but that field being filled with illusion, the\nmind is deluded to believe itself as the first born sprout springing\nout of this field. (The first born germ of the Divine spirit being the\nliving soul, which originates in the mind).\n\n17. The certain knowledge of the mind in its discrete state, is called\nits understanding (which in its concrete state is known as sensation);\nthe _buddhi_ or understanding is the state of maturity of the germ or\nsprout of the mind. (The infant mind is ripens into the understanding).\n\n18. The understanding or _buddhi_, being subject to various desires,\ntakes the name of chitta or wasteful mind; and this mind makes the\nliving being, which is as hollow within it, as a carved image of stone\n(or moulded metal), and a mere false conception.\n\n19. The body is the stem of this tree of the mind, and is composed of\nthe skin and bones and juicy matters.\n\n20. The branches of the tree of the mind, extend to a great distance\nall about it; and so the sensible organs of the body, protruding wide\nabout it, perish at last in seeking for its enjoyment.\n\n21. Now try to lop off the branches of the tree of thy mind, and try\nalso to root out the noxious tree at once.\n\n22. Sikhidhwaja said:--I can some how or other lop off the branches of\nthe tree of mind, but tell me, O my sagely monitor, how I may be able\nto pull it out by its very root at once.\n\n23. Kumbha replied:--All our desires are the several branches of this\ntree, which are hanging with loads of fruits; and are lopped off by the\naxe of our reason.\n\n24. He alone is able to lop off the plant of his mind, who is\nunattached to the world, who hold his taciturnity and inward\ntranquillity, who is judicious in all discussions, and does whatever\noffers of itself to him at any time.\n\n25. He who lops off the branches and brambles of the arbour of his\nmind, by his manliness of reason and discretion; is able also to root\nout this tree at once from his heart.\n\n26. The first thing to be done with the mind, is to root it out at\nonce from the heart and the next process is to lop off its branches;\ntherefore employ thyself more to its eradication, than to the severing\nof its boughs and branches.\n\n27. You may also burn it as the first step, instead of lopping the\nbranches; and thus the great trunk of the tree of mind being reduced to\nashes, there remains an entire mindlessness at last.\n\n28. Sikhidhwaja said:--Tell me O my sagely guide, what is that fire\nwhich is able to burn away the seed of the tree of mind, which is\ncovered all over with the cuticle of egoism.\n\n29. Kumbha replied:--Prince, the fire which is able to consume the seed\nof the noxious plant of the mind, is the expostulation of the question,\n\"what am I that bear this corporeal form upon me.\"\n\n30. Sikhidhwaja said:--O sage! I have repeatedly considered the\nquestions in my own understanding, and found that my egoism does not\nconsist in aught of this world, or this earth, or the woods which form\nits garniture.\n\n31. That my ego lay no where in the hills and forests where I resided,\nnor in the shaking of the leaves before me; nor did it lie in any part\nof my gross body, or in its flesh, bones or blood.\n\n32. It does not lie in any of the organs of action, nor in the organs\nof sensation; it does not consist in the mind or in the understanding,\nor in any part of the gross body.\n\n33. As we see the form of the bracelet in gold, so do I conceive my\negoism to consist in the intelligent soul; because it is impossible for\nany material substance, to have anything as intelligence (as I perceive\nmy egoism to be possest of).\n\n34. All real existence depends on the supreme soul for its subsistence,\nso all real entities subsist in the supreme essence; or else it\nis impossible for any thing to exist in a nullity, as there is no\npossibility for a forest to subsist in a vacuity (without a firm\nground).\n\n35. Thus sir, knowing it full well, that my egoism is an aspect or\nshadow of my internal soul and worthy to be wiped off from it; yet I\nregret at my ignorance of the intrinsic spirit from which it is to be\nwiped off, and the internal soul be set in full light.\n\n36. Kumbha replied:--If you are none of these material objects as you\nsay, nor doth your egoism consist in materiality; then tell me prince,\nwhat you think yourself to be in reality.\n\n37. Sikhidhwaja answered:--I feel myself O most learned sir, to be that\nintelligent and pure soul, which is of the form of intelligence, which\nacquaints me of all existence, and which discriminates their different\nnatures.\n\n38. I perceive thus my egoism to be attached to my body, but whether it\nis a caused or causeless principle, is what I am perfectly ignorant of.\n\n39. I am unable O sage, to rub out this sense of my egoism as an\nunreality and unessentiality; and it is on that I greatly regret in\nmyself (for my inability to get rid of my egoism as you led).\n\n40. Kumbha said:--Tell me O prince, what is that great foulness, which\nthou feelest to be attached to thee, which makes thee act as a man of\nthe world, and whether thou thinkest it as something or a mere delusion.\n\n41. Sikhidhwaja replied:--The sense of my egoism, which is the root of\nthe tree of my mind, is the great foulness that attaches to me; I know\nnot how to get rid of it, for however I try to shun it, the more it\nclings about me.\n\n42. Kumbha said:--Every effect is produced from some cause or other,\nand this is the general law of nature everywhere; anything otherwise is\nas false as the sight of a second moon in the sky, which is nothing but\na reflexion of the true moon.\n\n43. It is the cause which produces the effect, whether it be a big one\nor the small rudiment of it; therefore explore into the cause of your\negoism, and tell me what it is.\n\n44. Sikhidhwaja replied:--I know my sagely guide, that it is mere\nillusion--_m\u00e1y\u00e1_, which is the cause of the fallacy of my egoism; but\ntell me sir, how this error of mine is to subside and vanish away from\none.\n\n45. It is from the proclivity of the mind towards the thinkables, that\nI am suffering all these pains and pangs within myself; now tell me O\nmuni, about the means of suppressing my thoughts, in regard to external\nobjects.\n\n46. Kumbha said:--Tell me whether your thinking and knowing, are the\ncauses of your thinkables and knowables, or these latter actuate your\nthinking and knowing powers. If you can tell me this, then shall I be\nable to explain to you the process of the cause and effect.\n\n47. Now tell me which do you think to be the cause and not the cause,\nof knowing and knowable, and of thinking and the thinkable, which are\nthe subjects of my question to you.\n\n48. Sikhidhwaja answered:--I think, O sage, that the sensible objects\nof the body &c., are the causes of the thinking and thinkable\n(thoughts), and of knowing and the knowables or knowledge. (Because\nunless there be things in actual existence, we can neither think of or\nknow anything, nor have any idea or knowledge of it at all).\n\n49. Our knowledge of the entity of things, appears only in the sensible\nforms of bodies; or else the mere abstract thought of a thing, is as\nempty as an airy nothing.\n\n50. As I can not conceive the non-entity of a positive entity, nor the\nabstract nature of a concrete body; so I know not how my egoism, which\nis the seed of my mind, can be at once ignored by me.\n\n51. Kumbha said:--If thou rely on thy material body as a real\nexistence, then tell me, on what does your knowledge depend, when your\nsoul is separated from the body.\n\n52. Sikhidhwaja replied:--The body which is evident to view, and a real\nentity, cannot be taken for an unreality by any body; as the palpable\nsun light, cannot be called darkness by any man of common sense.\n\n53. Who can ignore the body, which is replete with its hands and feet\nand other members; which is full of activity and vivacity, and whose\nactions are so palpable to sight; and which is so evident to our\nperception and conception.\n\n54. Kumbha said:--Know prince, that nothing can be said to exist, which\nis not produced by some cause; and the knowledge or consciousness that\nwe have of it, cannot be but the product of mistake and error.\n\n55. There can be no product without a similar cause, and no material\nform can come out from a formless and immaterial agent. How can any\nthing come to existence, without having its seed of the like nature?\n\n56. Whatever product appears to present itself to anyone without its\ntrue cause, is as false an appearance as the mirage in the sand, before\nits deluded observer.\n\n57. Know thyself to be no real existence, but a false shape of your\nerror only; and with whatever earnestness you took to it, you will\nnever get any water from this delusive mirage.\n\n58. Sikhidhwaja said:--It is as useless to inquire the cause of a\nnonentity, as it is fruitless to look into the origin of the secondary\nmoon which is but false reflex of the true one. Believing in a nullity,\nis as decorating the person of a barren woman's son.\n\n59. Kumbha replied:--The body with its bones and ribs, are products\nof no assignable cause; therefore know it as no entity, because it is\nimpossible for the frail body to be the work of an Everlasting Maker.\n\n60. Sikhidhwaja said:--Now tell me sir, why we should not reckon our\nfathers the causes and producers of our bodies, with all their members\nand parts, since they are known as the immediate causes of these.\n\n61. Kumbha replied:--The father can be nothing and no cause, without\nhis having another cause for himself; because whatever is without a\ncause is nothing in itself.\n\n62. The causes of all things and effects are called as their seeds, and\nwhen there is no seed in existence, it is impossible for a germ to be\nproduced in the earth from nothing. (Ex nihilo nihil fit).\n\n63. So when you cannot trace out the cause of an event, account the\nevent as no event at all; because there can be no thing without its\nseed, and the knowledge of a causeless effect or eventuality, is an\nutter impossibility and fallacy of the understanding.\n\n64. It is an egregious error to suppose the existence of a thing\nwithout its cause or seed, such as to suppose the existence of two\nmoons in the sky, of water in the mirage and of the son of a barren\nwoman.\n\n65. Sikhidhwaja said:--Now tell me sir, why should not our parents be\ntaken as the causes of our production, who had our grandfathers and\ngrandmothers for the causes or seeds of their birth likewise; and why\nshould we not reckon our first great grandfather (Brahm\u00e1), as the prime\nprogenitor of the human race?\n\n66. Kumbha replied:--The prime great grandfather, O prince, cannot be\nthe original cause, since he also requires a cause for his birth, or\nelse he could not come into existence.\n\n67. The great grandfather of creation even Brahm\u00e1 himself, is the\ncause of production by means of the seeds of the supreme spirit which\nproduced him; or else the visible form in which he appeared, was no\nmore than a mere delusion.\n\n68. Know the form of the visible world, to be as great a fallacy as the\nappearance of water in the mirage; and so the creativeness of the great\ngrandfather Brahm\u00e1, is no more than an erroneous misconception.\n\n69. I will now wipe off the dark cloud of your error, that our great\ngrandfather Brahm\u00e1 was conceived in the womb of the supreme spirit\n(whereby he is styled the _padma_-yoni or born of the lotus like navel\nstring of God); and this will be the salvation of your soul. (And\nAdam's ancestors without end. Young).\n\n70. Now therefore know, O prince, that the lord God shines forever with\nhis intelligent soul and mind in Himself; it is from him that the lotus\nborn Brahm\u00e1 and the whole universe, are manifest to our view, and that\nthere is nothing which exhibits itself without Him.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXXXXV.\n\nTHE _anaesthetic_ PLATONISM OF SIKHIDHWAJA.\n\nArgument:--Dispersion of the gloom of ignorance from the mind of\nSikhidhwaja. His coming to the Light of Truth and the Tranquillity of\nhis soul.\n\n\nSikhidhwaja said:--If the view of the whole universe is but a phantom,\nand our knowledge of myself, thyself and of this and that, is but an\nerror of our mind, then why is it that we should be concerned about or\nsorry for anything.\n\n2. Kumbha replied:--The erroneous impression of the existence of the\nworld, has so firmly laid hold of the minds of men; as the frozen water\nappearing as crystal, is believed as dry land by people.\n\n3. It is said by the learned, that the knowledge of gross matter is\nlost with the dispersion of ignorance; and that there is no other way\nof getting rid of this long contracted prejudice, without our riddance\nfrom ignorance.\n\n4. It is the acuteness of the understanding, which is the only means of\nour coming to the knowledge of truth; that the creation and dissolution\nof the world, are dependant on the will and causality of the supreme\nBeing.\n\n5. He whose understanding becomes, is sure to lose his rooted prejudice\nby degrees; and come to the knowledge of the nihility of the material\nworld.\n\n6. In this way of refining your mind from its prepossession of gross\nideas, you will come to find the erroneous conception of a prime male\n(\u00e1dipurusha), as that of Brahm\u00e1 (or Adam) as the first creative power,\nto be as false as the water in the mirage.\n\n7. The great grandfather of the world being a nullity, the creation\nof all creatures by him (who is thence called _Praj\u00e1patih_ or lord\nof creatures); is likewise as false and null, as it is absurd for an\nimpossibility to come into being.\n\n8. The perception of a thing _in esse_, is as false as the conception\nof water in the mirage; a little reflexion is enough to remove this\nerror, like the mistake of silver in cockles and conch-shells.\n\n9. Any work which appears to exist without its cause, is only a phantom\nof fallacy, and has no essential form whatever in reality.\n\n10. Whatever is done by one's erroneous knowledge or mistake of a\nthing, comes to be of no use to him; as the attempt to fill a pot with\nthe water of the mirage, proves to be utterly vain.\n\n11. Sikhidhwaja said:--Why can't we call the supreme Brahma, to be\nthe cause of Brahm\u00e1--the first creator of the world who is called the\nson of God, the one unborn and without end, and the inexpressible and\neverlasting.\n\n12. Kumbha replied:--The God Brahma, being neither the cause nor the\neffect of any action, is but an invariable unity and transcendent\nspirit, and is never the cause or effect of anything.\n\n13. How can the incomprehensible and unknowable Brahma, be designated\nas the creator, when he is not predicable by any of the predicates of\nthe creator or created or as the instrument or cause of anything.\n\n14. The world having no separate cause, is no separate product of any\ncausality whatever; it is no duality but one with the unity, without\nits beginning or end, and co-eternal with the eternal one. (_To\npan_--God is all in all).\n\n15. He that is inconceivable and unknowable, is perfect felicity,\ntranquillity and ever undecaying, and can never be the active or\npassive agent of anything, on account of the immutability of his nature.\n\n16. Hence there is nothing as a creation, and the visible world is but\na nihility, and the Lord God is neither an active nor passive agent,\nbut quite still and full of bliss.\n\n17. There being no causal power, the world is not the production of any\nbody; it is our error only that this world as a production without any\nassignable cause.\n\n18. The uncaused world is the product of nothing, and therefore nothing\nin itself; for if it be the production of nobody, it is a nullity like\nits cause also.\n\n19. The non-existence of anything or the not being of everything\n(except that of the supreme Being), being proved as a certain truth; we\ncan have no conception of anything, and the absence of such conception,\nit is in vain to suppose the existence of an egoism or tuism.\n\n20. Sikhidhwaja said:--Sir, I now perceive the truth, and find the\nreasonableness of all that you have said; I see now that I am the pure\nand free soul, and quite aloof of any bondage or its liberation from\nbonds.\n\n21. I understand Brahma as no cause of anything, for his entire want\nof causality; and the world is a nullity for its want of a cause, and\ntherefore there is no being whatever which we reckon as a category.\n\n22. Thence there is no such category as the mind or its seed, nor its\ngrowth nor decay; I therefore bow down to myself of which alone I have\na consciousness in me.\n\n23. I am alone conscious of myself, existence in myself and have\nno real knowledge of any thing else beside me, and which appear as\nfleeting clouds in the womb of the sky.\n\n24. The distinct knowledge of the different categories of time, place,\naction in the world, is now entirely blended in the knowledge of the\nunity of the tranquil spirit of Brahma (which composes all varieties in\nitself).\n\n25. I am tranquil, calm and quiet and settled in the spirit of God; I\ndo not rise nor fall from nor move about this prop. I remain as you do\nin immovable spirit of God, which is all quiet, holiness and felicity\nin itself.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXXXXVI.\n\nENLIGHTENMENT OF SIKHIDHWAJA.\n\nArgument:--Kumbha's Lecture on Effacing the Impression of Phenomenals\nfrom the mind of Sikhidhwaja or vanity of the visible world.\n\n\nVasishtha said:--Sikhidhwaja having thus found his rest in the\nspirit of Brahma, remained quiet for some moments, as the steady and\nunflagging flame of a lamp in a calm.\n\n2. And as he was about to be absorbed in his unwavering meditation, he\nwas suddenly roused from his trance by the diverting voice of Kumbha.\n\n3. Kumbha said:--Prince, I see you are not to wake from the sleep of\nyour entranced meditation, wherein you are situated in your perfect\nbliss; you must neither be absorbed in your contemplation, nor be a\nstranger to your abstract meditation altogether (but must observe your\nmiddle course between Platonism and perturbation).\n\n4. The mind that is undivided in its attention, is cleansed from all\nduplicity; and being freed from its knowledge of parts and particulars,\nbecomes emancipated in its living states.\n\n5. Being thus enlightened by Kumbha, the prince became full of\nenlightenment; and being roused from his trance, he shone as brightly\nas a rich gem when taken out of its cover.\n\n6. The prince who in his state of quietism, beheld the unreality of\nvisible things; and now perceived them spread all about him, thus spoke\nabout them to Kumbha.\n\n7. Sikhidhwaja said:--Though I know full well about all these things,\nyet I want to propose some queries regarding them; to which I hope you\nwill give your answers, for my correct and perfect knowledge of them.\n\n8. Tell me, how can we intermingle the impure conception of the\nuniversal or mundane soul representing the _mundees_ or universe,\nwith the pure idea of the supreme soul, which is ever calm, quiet and\ntransparent. (The universal soul, is called _visw\u00e1tm\u00e1_, viswar\u00fapa and\nvir\u00e1ta, and is opaque with its contents; while the supreme is quite\npure and clear, and untinged with the shade of creation).\n\n9. Kumbha replied:--You have asked well, O prince, and this shows the\nclearness of your understanding; and if this is all that you want to\nknow, hear me then explain it fully to you.\n\n10. Whatever is seen here and every where together, with all the moving\nand unmoving beings which it contains, are all of them perishable, and\nare extinct at the end of every kalpa age (in which the creator wishes\nto create a new world).\n\n11. Then there remains the true and essential reality at the end of the\nkalpa age, amidst an obscure chaotic state, which is deprived both of\nlight and darkness.\n\n12. This essential reality is the divine intellect, which is pure\nand quiet and as clear as the transparent air; it is free from all\nattributes and imputations, and full of transcendental intelligence.\n\n13. The one that remains at the end of a kalpa, is the supreme soul\nwhich extends over all space, and is purely bright, transparent and\nquiet; it is enveloped in light and is pure intelligence.\n\n14. It is inscrutable and unknowable, it is even and quiet, and full\nof bliss; it is called Brahma--the great, the final extinction of all\nbodies and is full of all knowledge.\n\n15. It is the minutest of the minute, and the largest of whatever is\nlarge in the universe; it is the greatest and greatest of aught that is\ngreat and heavy, and it is the best of whatever is good and excellent.\n\n16. It is so very small, that if you place this sky beside it, the\nlatter will appear as big as the great mount of Meru by the side of a\nsmall mite.\n\n17. It is again so very big and bulky, that this stupendous world being\nplaced side by side to it, the latter must appear as an atom before it\nor vanish into nothing.\n\n18. This is attributed with the epithet of universal soul, for its\npervading all over the universe and being its intrinsic soul; while\nits extrinsic appearance, is called by the title of Vir\u00e1t.\n\n19. There is no difference between this attribute and its attributive,\nas there is none between the air and the wind or the air in motion; and\nas the sky and vacuum are synonymous words, so the very same intellect\nis the phenomenal world, and the same consciousness is manifested in\nthe forms of egoism and tuism.\n\n20. As the water becomes the wave at a certain time and place, by\ncause of the current wind; so the world rises and falls at times in\nthe supreme soul, without any external cause (except the will of the\nsupreme spirit).\n\n21. As gold is transformed to bracelets at certain times and place,\nby means of some or other; so the spirit of God is transformed to the\nvisible world at certain times, without any other assignable cause\nwhatever (save by the supreme will).\n\n22. The most glorious God, is the Lord of his Kingdom of the world; He\nis one with his creation, ever pure, quiet and undecaying, and pervades\nover all these worlds which are scattered as turfs of grass all around\nus.\n\n23. This transcendentally good and great God is the only real\nexistence, and comprises all temporary and finite existences within\nhimself; and we know by our reason, that this glorious creation of the\nuniverse is all derived from him.\n\n24. Know him, O prince, to be the essence of the extended universe, and\nto extend over all in his form of an entire intellect, and an unity\nthat never admits of a duality (under all the varieties and diversities\nin nature).\n\n25. There is no reason therefore, for our conceiving a duality beside\nhis unity; since it is the sole principle of the supreme soul, that is\nfully manifest in all in its ever undiminished and unextinguished state.\n\n26. The Lord always remains as the all in all, and as manifest in all\nthe various forms; and being neither visible nor perceptible by us, he\ncan neither be said to be the cause or effect of anything (but is the\nunknown all in himself).\n\n27. The Lord being neither perceptible nor conceivable by us is\nsomething super-eminently good and superfine; He is all and the soul\nof all, too fine and transparent, and is known only by our conception\nof him; and no sensible perception whatever. (The knowledge of God, is\ninnate and inborn in us. Locke).\n\n28. Being inexpressible by words, and manifest in all without\nmanifestation or appearance of himself; cannot be the cause of whatever\nis real or unreal. (Anything that is indefinite in itself, cannot cause\nanother of a definite or indefinite form).\n\n29. That which has no name of itself, cannot be the seed of another;\nno nameless nothing can grow anything, nor can a commensurable world\nspring out of an incommensurable spirit. (A material and measurable\nthing, must have a material mensurator for its origin. Hence it is\nwrong to say: God measured the seas without a measuring rod).\n\n30. The exhaustless mass of divine intellect, is indeed no cause or\ncasual instrument or effect of any thing; because the product of the\ndivine soul, must be some thing of the form of the invisible soul,\nwhich is its everlasting consciousness or intelligence.\n\n31. So, O sage, nothing is produced by the supreme Brahma nor does\nanything arise from Him, like the waves from water which have their\nwinds for their causality. (But the spirit of Brahma, is as the still\nwater and has no stir or perturbation in it).\n\n32. All distinction of time and place, being absent in the uniform and\nunchanging spirit of Brahma, there can be no creation or destruction\nof the world from him, and hence the world is increate and without any\ncause.\n\n33. Sikhidhwaja said:--I know that the waves of water, have their cause\nin the winds of the air, and so I understand this world and our egoism\n&c., have their causality in the supreme spirit (which produces the\nworlds by its will, and acquaints me of my egoism by its intelligence).\n\n34. Kumbha replied:--Know now the positive truth, O prince as I tell\nyou after all, that there is nothing as a separate world or our egoism\n&c. existent in supreme spirit; though the world and the Ego exist as\none with the divine spirit, without bearing their distinct names and\npersonalities at all. (_i.e._ The world and its gods as one and the\nsame thing).\n\n35. As the subtile ether, contains the subtle element of vacuum in its\nbosom; so the divine soul entertains in itself, the fine spun idea of\nthe mundane system without its substance.\n\n36. Whether you behold this world in its true form of divine\nintelligence, or in any other form of gross matter; it is to be\nunderstood rightly as no other than a representation of the divine\nintellect.\n\n37. The full knowledge of a thing, makes it sweet to the understanding,\nthough it be as bitter as gall to taste; but the imperfect knowledge\nof a thing, as that of the world makes it appear as full of woe,\nthough it is no such thing in reality. (Hence the crying and laughing\nphilosophers took two different views of the world).\n\n38. Ambrosia the water of life being taken in the light of poison, will\nact as poison in the constitution of the patient; so the lord of the\nintellect appears in a favourable or unfavourable light, as knowledge\nand ignorance of him represents him to our understanding.\n\n39. The blessed lord God appears to us in the propitious or\nunpropitious aspect, as our true and false knowledge paints him to our\nminds, just as the blinding eye sees many a false sight in the light of\nthe sun.\n\n40. The essence of Brahma, always remains the same in his essential\nform of the intellect; though the turpitude of our understanding, will\nnow represent him in one form and then in another at a different time\nand under different circumstances.\n\n41. In fact the body and the embodied soul, appear as any other\nsensible object in the world; but being viewed in reality in their\nabstract light, they blend in the spiritual form of God.\n\n42. Therefore it is in vain to make any inquiry, concerning the nature\nof the world and our egoism &c.; because what is really existent is to\nbe inquired into, and not that which is a nullity in itself.\n\n43. It is vain to ask about an appearance, which being looked into\nvanishes into nothing; as it is in vain to speak of the essence of\ngold, when it presents us no figure of it.\n\n44. Therefore there is no entity of the world and our egoism, without\nthe existence of God, these things having no cause, are self-same with\nthe one self-existent Deity.\n\n45. The world does not appear to be prominent, and to rest by itself\nto view; it rests in relief in the spirit of God, and shows itself as\nseparate to us by illusion only.\n\n46. These existences being composed of the five elements, produce many\nother beings; as the copulations of the male and female, produce their\noffspring in infinity; so the divine intellect being joined with the\nillusory intelligence, presents endless form to our view.\n\n47. It is by the inherent knowledge of the divine soul, that it\nrepresents itself the shapes of many things that are comprised in\nhis omniscience. He is full in himself and manifests his fullness in\nhimself, and is never wanting in his fullness which always subsist in\nHim. (So the sea is ever full with its waves and waters, which roll for\never in its bosom).\n\n48. The fullness or plenum of the world is derived from the fullness of\nGod; and yet the divine fullness remains entire, as when you deduct the\ninfinite, that remains the infinite also as the remainder.\n\n49. The divine intellect though forever the same and serene, appears to\nshine forth in the creation with our knowledge of the same, and set at\nits dissolution with our imperceptibility of it; so our egoism being\nthe same with the divine ego, appears to be different from it, as our\nfluctuating minds depict it in various lights.\n\n50. The ego never becomes many, nor forsake its undecaying state; it is\nof a luminous form and having no beginning nor end of its essence; but\nassumes as many forms, as the ever varying mind imposes upon it. (The\nunchanging soul assumes many forms with the changeful mind).\n\n51. The self-same soul believes itself as _Vir\u00e1t_--the lord of the\nworld at one time, and as contemptible being at another; it sometimes\nsees itself in its true form of a divinity, and its thought makes it\nthink as some other thing at another time.\n\n52. The world appears as a vast and extended space, perfectly quiet\nin its nature, inexpressible by words and their senses, (as its real\nnature). All its objects are of wonderful shape to view, and appear to\nus according to our conceptions or without showing their real nature's\nunto us. (The true nature of things is hidden from our knowledge).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXXXXVII.\n\nENLIGHTENMENT OF THE PRINCE IN THEOSOPHY.\n\nArgument:--Effacing the impression of visibles from the mind continued.\n\n\nKumbha continued:--Know that nothing is produced from, nor destroyed by\nthe ever tranquil spirit of God at any time; but everything appears as\nthe panorama of the one all (_topan_) God; like the various kinds of\nornaments made of the same metal of gold.\n\n2. Brahma remains forever in his own essence, and never becomes the\nseed or cause of any other thing; he is ever of the form of our innate\nconception of him, and therefore never becomes any other than our\nsimple idea of him.\n\n3. Sikhidhwaja said:--I grant, Oh sagely monitor, that there subsists\nno separate world nor any other egoism in the one pure Siva (Zeus\nor Jove), except his own essence of omniscience; but please to tell\nme, what thing is this world and individual egoisms that seem to be\ninfinite in number, and appear as distinct creations of God?\n\n4. Kumbha replied:--The essence of God is without its beginning and\nend, and extends to infinite space and time.\n\n5. The same also is this transparent cosmos, and the very same is\nthe body of this world; which is simple and of the form of divine\nintelligence, and neither a void nor any extraneous thing.\n\n6. The essential property of God being his intelligence, he is said to\nbe of essence of intellect; and as fluidity is the property of water,\nso is intelligence the essential property of everything; and there is\nno reason to suppose an unintelligent principle as the prime cause of\nall.\n\n7. The Lord is infinite in himself and is so situated in his infinitude\nfor ever, without the grossness of the infinitesimals ever attaching to\ntheir pure intelligence in the subjective soul.\n\n8. We cannot attribute the creation of the impure world, to the pure\nessence of the divine spirit; because the purity of the divine soul,\ncannot admit the impurity of creation, which would amount to a duality\nof purity and impurity in the supreme soul: (which is altogether absurd\nto believe).\n\n9. The Lord can never be supposed as the seed or cause of the universe,\nsince his nature is inscrutable and beyond our conception, and cannot\nbe thought of as the root of anything whatever.\n\n10. Therefore there is no creation or production of an effect, without\nits cause or seed; nor does reason point out to us, any other source of\ncreation.\n\n11. Therefore there is no gross creation whatsoever, except of the form\nof the intellect itself; and hence all that is visible to us, is no\nother than the solid intellect itself.\n\n12. The feeling of egoism and the term world, are meaningless words\nand mere inventions of men; because nothing whatever can be called an\neffect or product, which has no cause assigned to it.\n\n13. The duality of the world appears in the unity of God, in the same\nmanner as a flower called the sky flower appears in the hollow vacuum\nof the sky (by mere delusion). And all things being perishable in their\nnature, exist only in the intellect in which they live and die. (If the\nworld be of the solid intellect, then the very intellect becomes the\ncause of the same, by means of the solidification of its own substance;\nbut it is not so, because it is impossible for the same thing to be\nboth the cause and effect of something by itself).\n\n14. Destruction is not the giver of life to destruction, nor is it a\ngiver of life to perishable things; hence intellect is the giver of\nlight to all: but you may call whatever you like the best.\n\n15. What difficulty you have, provided all things are to be called one,\nwhen all have come from the intellect; the duality what you call, that\nis the mystery of intellect-chit only.\n\n16. The intellect therefore is the only true entity, which admits no\nunity nor duality in it. And therefore, O prince, you must know the\nnullity of all other entities beside it.\n\n17. The feeling of thy egoism, is as false as thy conception of any\nother thing; and thus the idea of egoism proving to be false, what else\ncan there be except the only entity of the intellect.\n\n18. Thus egoism (being) no other than a form of the intellect, there is\nno difference whatever between them; hence the words I, thou &c. are\nmere human inventions to distinguish one from another (when there is in\nreality no difference in the personality of any body).\n\n19. Whether you remain in your embodied or disembodied state, continue\nto remain always as firm as a rock; by knowing yourself only as the\npure intellect, and the nullity of all things besides.\n\n20. By thinking yourself always as the intellect, you will lose the\nsense of your egoism and personality; and so will your reflexion on the\ncontexts of the texts of the vedas, lead you to the same conclusion.\n(There are numerous texts to the effect that God is the only entity,\nand this all is naught but God).\n\n21. From all these know thyself as the pure essence, which is uncaused\nand unmade, and the same with the first and original principle; that\nthou art same with the emancipate and everlasting Brahma, and multiform\nin thy unity; that thou art as void as vacuity, having neither thy\nbeginning, middle or end; and that this world is the intellect and that\nintellect is the very Brahma himself.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXXXXVIII.\n\nADMONITION OF SIKHIDHWAJA CONTINUED.\n\nArgument:--The non-entity of the mind, proved from the non-existence of\nsensible objects, and the want of these proving only the entity of one\nBrahma only.\n\n\nSikhidhwaja said:--I understand, that there is no such thing as the\nmind also; but as I have no clear and correct knowledge of this\nsubject, I beg of you to tell me, whether it is so (as I believe) or\nnot.\n\n2. Kumbha replied:--You have truly said, O prince, that there is no\nsuch real entity as the mind at any time and in any space whatever; and\nthat which appears as the mind, is no other than a faculty of the only\none everlasting Brahma.\n\n3. Anything besides which is fallible or unconscious of itself,\nas the mind or anything of this world, can never be a positive or\nself-existence substance; therefore the words I, thou and this or that\nare only coinings of our imagination, and have no existence in reality.\n\n4. There is no reality of the cosmos or any of its contents; and\nall that seem to be in existence, are no more than the various\nrepresentations of the one self-existent Brahma himself. (Because there\nis no duality beside the unity of Brahma).\n\n5. It is said that there was no mind or its personification of Brahm\u00e1,\nand the final dissolution of the world, and this proves the unreality\nof both of them. Again it is said that the mind took the form of Brahm\u00e1\nand created the world in the beginning, which proves also the mind to\nbe the divine mind, and represented by substitution of the metaphor of\nBrahm\u00e1.\n\n6. As there can be no material object without the prior existence of\na material cause, so it is impossible to believe the existence of the\nsensible mind and the myriads of the sensible objects in absence of\ntheir material cause, which never existed from before. (The spirit\nalone was the pre-existent thing, which could not create anything\nexcept in its own immaterial form).\n\n7. Hence there is no such thing, as a dull and unconscious world; and\nall that appears to exist as such, is no other than a representation of\nthe Divine spirit (which reflects itself in various ways) as the gold\nexhibits its ornaments to view.\n\n8. It is entirely false to believe, that the nameless and formless\nDeity does this all; and because the world is visible, yet there is no\nproof of its reality in our subjective knowledge of it.\n\n9. That the nameless and formless spirit of God, which has no shelter\nnor support for itself, should make this world for the abode of others,\nis a laughable assumption of the ignorant only (therefore this world is\nhis own abode and the stage of his own action).\n\n10. From these reasons it is plain that there is no world in existence,\nnor even the mind, which is but a part of it; the world being a\nnon-entity, there can be no mind which is conversant alone with it.\n\n11. The mind means no more than the wish, and then only there is said\nto be a wish in any one, when there is an object to be wished for;\nbut this world which appears to be so very desirable, being a nullity\nitself, how can there be the mind to desire it. (The mind is a nullity\nfor want of any of its objects to dwell upon or engage its attention).\n\n12. That which is manifested unto us under the name of the Mind, is\nno other than a manifestation of the spirit of God in itself, and is\ndesignated by various appellations.\n\n13. This visible which is so desirable to everybody, is no production\nof any one; it is an uncaused entity ever existent in the divine mind,\nfrom before its production by the mind of Brahm\u00e1 the creator. (Being\nprior to the mind, it is no production of it).\n\n14. Therefore the divine soul, is of the form of an intellectual\nvacuum, and is a void as the transcendent air; it is full with the\nlight of its intelligence, and having no shadow of the gross world in\nit.\n\n15. The slight light which shines in the divine soul, is like the\ntwilight that fills the etherial sphere; is the reflexion of the mirror\nof the supreme intellect, and is neither the dim light of the mind, nor\nany reflexion of the phenomenal world. (The nature of spiritual light,\nas quite distinct from the mental and physical lights).\n\n16. Our knowledge of I, thou and this world (_i.e._ of the subjective\nand objective), are never real nor reliable; it is like the appearance\nof our dreams, that serve only to delude us to mistake.\n\n17. As the absence of the desirable world, removes our desire of it; so\nthe privation of our desire, displaces the mind which is the seat of\nour wishes.\n\n18. The ignorant believe that this visible world is the mind, (because\nit is the display of the divine mind and the mind dwells upon it);\nbut the unreal and formless mind had not this visible form, before it\ndeveloped itself in the form of creation. (The world is not the mind\nbecause it is posterior in the order of creation, being created by the\nmind of the great Brahm\u00e1).\n\n19. But this world is said to be coeval with the eternal mind, which is\naltogether impossible; because we read nowhere in the s\u00e1stras, nor find\nin the ordinary course of nature, that a visible object has ever come\ninto existence without some cause or other, either in the beginning of\ncreation or at any time afterwards. (Hence the visible world is not\ncoeval with the mind its maker).\n\n20. How can eternity, uncreatedness and everlastingness be predicated\nof this visible world, which is a gross material substance, and subject\nto decay and dissolution.\n\n21. There is no testimony of the s\u00e1stras, nor ocular evidence nor any\nreasonable inference, to show any material thing to be uncaused by some\nagent or other, and to survive the final dissolution of the world.\n\n22. There is no written testimony of the vedas, and of other s\u00e1stras\nand Siddh\u00e1ntas to show, that any material thing is ever exempt from its\nthree conditions of birth, growth and decay, and is not perishable at\nthe last dissolution.\n\n23. He that is not guided by the evidence and dictates of the s\u00e1stras\nand vedas, is the most foolish among fools, and is never to be relied\nupon by good and sensible men.\n\n24. It is never possible for any one to prevent the accidents, that are\nincidentals to perishable things, nor can there be any cause to render\na material object an immaterial one.\n\n25. But the immaterial view of this world, identifies it with the\nunchangeable Brahma, and exempts it from the accidents of action and\npassion, and of growth and decay.\n\n26. Therefore know this world to be contained, in the undivided and\nunutterable vacuity of the Divine Intellect; which is infinite and\nformless void, and is for ever more in its undivided and undivisible\nstate.\n\n27. Brahma who is omniform and ever tranquil in himself, manifests his\nown self in this manner in the forms of creation and dissolution all in\nhimself.\n\n28. The lord now shows himself to our understanding, as embodied in his\nbody of the world, and now manifests himself unto us, as the one Brahma\nin his spiritual form.\n\n29. Know after all, that this world is the essence of the one Brahma\nonly, beside which there is no separate world or any thing else in\nexistence; and it is our imagination only which represents it sometimes\nin one form and then in another.\n\n30. All this is one, eternal and ever tranquil soul, which is unborn\nand without any support and situated as it is. It shows itself as\nvarious without any variation in its nature, and so learn to remain\nthyself with thyself as motionless as a block of wood, and with thy\ndumb silence in utter amazement at all this. (The principles of ved\u00e1nta\nphilosophy being abstraction and generalisation, it takes the world and\nall things in their abstract light, and generalises them all under the\ngeneral spirit of God).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXXXXIX.\n\nREMONSTRATION OF SIKHIDHWAJA.\n\nArgument.--Further exhortations to spiritual knowledge and its\nconfirmations.\n\n\nSikhidhwaja said:--O sage, it is by thy good grace, that I am freed\nfrom my ignorance, and brought under the light of truth; my doubts are\nremoved, and I am situated with my tranquillity of my spirit.\n\n2. I have become as one knowing the knowable, and sits taciturn after\ncrossing over the sea of delusion; I am quiet by quitting my egoism,\nand am set out of all disquiet by my knowledge of true self.\n\n3. O! how long a time have I wandered, amidst the mazy depths of the\nworld; after which I have now arrived to the safe harbour of my peace\nand security.\n\n4. Being so situated, O sage, I perceive neither my egoism, nor the\nexistence of the three worlds; it is ignorance to believe in their\nexistence, but I am taught to believe in Brahma alone.\n\n5. Kumbha replied:--How is it possible for the egoism, tuism or suism\nof any body, to exist anywhere; when this universe, this air and sky,\nhave not their existence anywhere.\n\n6. Sit quiet as usual be calm and as silent as a sage; and remain as\nstill as the calm ocean, without the perturbation of the waves and\nwhirl pools within its bosom.\n\n7. Such is the quiet and tranquil state of Brahma, who is always one\nand the same as he is; and the words I, thou, this and that, and the\nworld, are as void of meaning, as the universal vacuity, is devoid of\nanything.\n\n8. What you call the world is a thing, having neither its beginning\nnor its end; it is the wonder of the Intellect, to shine as the clear\nlight, which fills the etherial firmament.\n\n9. The changes that appear to take place in the spirit of God, are as\nextraneous as the different colours that paint the vault of heaven,\nand the various jewelleries which are wrought upon gold; these have no\nintrinsic essentiality, and never affect the tranquillity of the divine\nspirit, nor the uniform serenity of the empty sky, nor the nature of\nthe pure metal of gold.\n\n10. As the Lord is self-born, so is his eternal will inherent in and\nborn with himself; and what we call as free will or fate, depend on the\nnature of our knowledge of them.\n\n11. Think yourself as something, and you become a bondsman to your\ndesires; but believe yourself as nothing, and you are as free and\nenfranchised as free air itself.\n\n12. It is the certain knowledge or conviction of thyself as a\nreality, and that thou art subject either to bondage or freedom, that\nconstitutes thy personality.\n\n13. It is the privation of thy knowledge of thyself or thy egoistic\npersonality, that leads thee to thy consummation; whereas thy knowledge\nof thy personality exposes thee to danger; therefore think thyself as\nhimself and not thyself (according to the formula (\"so ham ana ham,\"\n_i.e._ I am he and not myself) and thou art safe from all calamity.\n(This is no more than one's self resignation to God)).\n\n14. No sooner you get rid of the conviction of yourself, than your\nsoul is enlightened by the light of true knowledge; and you lose the\nsense of your personality, and become consummated in your knowledge of\nyourself as one with the Holy spirit.\n\n15. The inscrutable nature of God admits of no cause, because causality\nrefers only to what is caused and cannot come to existence without a\ncause, and not to the uncaused cause of all.\n\n16. As we have no knowledge of an object which is not in existence, so\nwe cease to have any knowledge of our personality, if we but cease to\nconsider ourselves as caused and created beings. (The sophists to think\nthemselves as increate and say--_man an wakt budam ke hichak nabud_,\n_i.e._ I exist from a time when there was nothing in existence).\n\n17. What is this world to us if we are unconscious of ourselves, and\nif we are freed from our knowledge of the objective world, we see but\nthe supreme soul remaining after all.\n\n18. Whatever is manifest here before us, is all situated in the spirit\nof the lord; all these are transcendent, and are situated as such and\nsame with the full and transcendental spirit of God. (The fulness of\nthe world, abides in the fulness of the divine spirit).\n\n19. Therefore all these that are protuberant to view, are as figures\ncarved on a rock; and the light that pervades the whole, is but the\nglory of the great God.\n\n20. In absence of this visionary world from view, its light which is\nmore pellucid than that of the transparent firmament will vanish away\ninto nothing.\n\n21. The insensible world seems to move about as a shadow or phantom in\nthe air, whence it is called _jagat_ or the moving world; but he alone\nsees it in its true light, who views it as motionless and without its\nsense of mobility, and as perfectly sedate and stationary in the spirit\nof God.\n\n22. When the sight of the visibles, together with the sense of\nsensibles and the feelings of the mind, become insipid to the torpid\nsoul that is absorbed in divine meditation; it is then called by the\nwise as _nirv\u00e1na_ absorption or the full light and knowledge of God.\n\n23. As the breezeless winds sink in the air, and the jewellery melts in\nits gold; so doth the protruding form of the world, subside in the even\nspirit of God.\n\n24. The sight of the world and the perceptions of the mind, which\ntestify the existence of the world unto us, are but the representations\nof Brahma; as the false mirage, represents the water in the desert\nsands.\n\n25. As when the vast body of water subsists without a wave to ruffle\nits surface, so doth the spirit of God remain in its state of calmness,\nwhen it is free from its operation of creation.\n\n26. The creation is identic with Brahma, as the lord is the same with\nhis creation, and this is true from the dictum of the veda, which says,\n\"All this is Brahma, and Brahma is this (_to pan_)\".\n\n27. The meaning of the word Brahma or immensity, equally establishes\nthe existence of the world; as the signification of the word world or\ncosmos, establishes the entity of Brahma.\n\n28. The meaning of all words taken collectively, expresses a multitude;\nwhich is synonymous with Brahma--the great and immense aggregate of the\nwhole.\n\n29. And if we reject the sense of the greatness of God and of the\nworld, as they are usually meant to express, yet the little or\nminuteness of God that remains at last, is so very minute that words\ncannot express it. (So the sruti, neither the greatness nor minuteness\nof God is expressible by words).\n\n30. The lord that remains as the inherent and silent soul of all\nbodies, is yet but one soul in the aggregate; he remains as a huge\nmountain of his intelligence, as in the form of the whole of this\nuniversal cosmos.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER C.\n\nCONTINUATION OF THE SAME SUBJECT.\n\nArgument:--Difference of Brahma from the world, consisting in the\nindestructibility of his essence.\n\n\nSikhidhwaja said:--If it is so, O most intelligent sir, that the work\nis alike to the nature of its maker; and therefore the world resembles\nBrahma in every respect.\n\n2. Kumbha replied:--Where there exists a causality, there is an\neffectuality also accompanied with it; so where there is no cause\nwhatever, there can be no effect also following the same.\n\n3. Therefore there is no possibility of any cause or its effect in this\nworld, which is manifest before us as the self-same essence of the ever\ntranquil and the unborn spirit of God.\n\n4. The effect that comes to pass from a cause, is of course alike\nto the nature of its causality; but what similarity can there exist\nbetween one, which is neither the cause nor effect of the other?\n\n5. Say how can a tree grow which has no seed for its growth, and\nhow can God have a seed whose nature is inscrutable in thought, and\ninexpressible in words.\n\n6. All things that have their causality at any time or place, are of\ncourse of the nature of their causal influence; but how can there be a\nsimilarity of anything with God who is never the cause of an effect?\n\n7. Brahma the uncausing uncaused cause of all, has no causality in him;\ntherefore the meaning of the word world, is something that has no cause\nwhatever. (Jagat means what is going on forever).\n\n8. Therefore think thyself as Brahma, according to the view of the\nintelligent; but the world appears as some thing extended in the sight\nof men of imperfect understandings.\n\n9. When the world is taken as one and the same with the tranquil\nintellect of God, it must be viewed in the light of the transparent\nspirit of Brahma. (_i.e._ spiritually and intellectually they are both\nthe same).\n\n10. Any other notion, Oh prince, which the mind may entertain about the\nnature of God, is said by the intelligent, to be the destruction of the\nright concept of the Deity.\n\n11. Know O prince, that the destruction of the mind (or mental error),\nis tantamount to the destruction of the soul; and slight forgetfulness\nof the spirit, is hard to be retrieved in a whole kalpa. (He that loses\nthe sight of his Lord for a moment, loses it forever).\n\n12. No sooner you are freed from your personality, than you find\nyourself to be full of Divine knowledge, and your false personality\nflies away for your consummation in spirituality.\n\n13. If you think the world to be existent from the meaning of the word\n_viswa_ or all, then tell me how and whence could all this come into\nexistence.\n\n14. How can you call one to be a Brahman, who lifts up his arms and\nproclaims himself about to be a sudra?\n\n15. He who cries himself saying that he is dead, after the sinking of\nhis pulsation; take him for the dead, and his living to be mistaken for\nlife.\n\n16. All these erroneous appearances, that present themselves before us,\nare as false as a circle described by the whirling flame of a torch;\nand as delusive as the water in the mirage, a secondary moon in the\nmist, and the spectre of boys.\n\n17. What then is the true name of this erroneous substance, misleading\nus to the wrong, which is commonly designated as the mind, and is\nwrapped in ignorance and error.\n\n18. The mind is another name for ignorance, and an unreality appearing\nas a real entity. Here ignorance takes the name of the mind, and\nunreality passes under the title of reality. Ignorance is the want of\ntrue knowledge, as knowledge is the privation of ignorance.\n\n19. Ignorance or false knowledge, is driven by our knowledge of truth;\nas the error of water in the desert, is dispelled by the knowledge of\nmirage.\n\n20. As the knowledge of mirage removes the error of water in the sandy\ndesert, so the knowledge of the mind as gross ignorance, removes the\nerroneous mind from the inward seat of the heart. (The heart and mind\nare often used for one another).\n\n21. The knowledge of the want of a mind, serves to root out its\nprejudice at once; as the knowledge of the rope as no snake, removes\nthe fear of the reptile in the rope.\n\n22. As the knowledge of the privation of the snake in the rope, removes\nits bias from the mind; so the knowledge of the want of the mind,\nremoves this offspring of error and ignorance from within us.\n\n23. The knowledge of there being no such thing as the mind, removes its\nfalse impressions from the heart; because the mind and our egoism, are\nthe brood of our ignorance only.\n\n24. There is no mind nor egoism, seated in us as we commonly believe to\nbe; there is one pure intelligence only both with and without us, which\nwe can hardly perceive.\n\n25. You who had so long the sense of your desire, your mind and your\npersonality from your ignorance only; are quite set free from all of\nthem at this moment, by your being awakened to the light of knowledge.\n\n26. All the troubles that you have to meet with, owing to your\nfostering the inborn desire of your heart; are all driven away by your\nwant of desire, as the wind disperses the flaming conflagration of the\nforest.\n\n27. It is the dense essence of the Divinity that pervades the whole\nuniverse, as it is this circumambient ocean which surrounds all the\ncontinents of the earth.\n\n28. There is nothing in existence as I, thou, this, or that or any\nother; there is no mind nor the senses, nor the earth nor sky; but they\nare all as the manifestations of the Divine spirit.\n\n29. As the visibles appear in the forms of the frail pot and other\nfragile bodies on earth; so the many false invisible things appear to\nus in the forms of the mind, egoism and the like.\n\n30. There is nothing, that is either born or dies away in all these\nthree worlds; it is only the display of the Divine intellect, that\ngives rise to the ideas of existence and non-existence.\n\n31. All these are but representations of the supreme soul, now evolved\nand now spread out from it; and there is no room for unity or duality,\nnor any error or fallibility in its nature.\n\n32. Mind, O friend, that you are the true one, in the shape of your\nsenses; and these will never be burnt at your cremation, nor will you\nbe utterly destroyed by your death.\n\n33. No part of thyself is ever increased or annihilated at any time,\nthe entirety of thy pure self is immortal, and must remain entire for\never.\n\n34. The powers of thy volition and nolition, and the other faculties\nof thy body and mind, are attributes of thyself; as the beams of moon,\nare the significant properties of that luminary. (The attributes are\ndenotative of the subject).\n\n35. Always remember the nature of thy soul, to be unborn and increate,\nwithout its beginning and end, never decaying and ever remaining the\nsame; it is indivisible and without parts, it is the true essence, and\nexisting from the beginning and never to have its end. (The immortality\nof the soul).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CI.\n\nADMONITION OF CH\u00daD\u00c1L\u00c1.\n\nArgument.--Obligation of the Prince for the instructions of his\nMonitor. And his attaining the J\u00edvan-mukta emancipation in lifetime.\n\n\nVasishtha said:--After the prince had so far attended to the lectures\nof Kumbha, he remained for some time in silent and deep meditation of\nhis soul as if in a state of trance.\n\n2. He continued with his intent-mind and fixed eyes and quite\nspeechless all the while, and resembled the figure of a silent sage,\nand a carved statue without its motion and sensation.\n\n3. And then as he awoke after a while with his twinkling eyes, he was\nthus accosted by Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 in her disguised form of Kumbha the Br\u00e1hman\nyouth.\n\n4. Kumbha said:--Say prince, how you enjoyed yourself in your short\nlived trance; did you feel in it that sweet composure of thy soul, as\nthe yogis experience in their bed of steadfast meditation and unshaken\nhypnotism?\n\n5. Say, were you awakened in your inmost soul, and set at large beyond\nthe region of error and darkness; say, have you known the knowable one,\nand seen what is to be seen?\n\n6. Sikhidhwaja replied--O Sir, it was by your good grace, that I have\nbeheld a great glory in the most high heaven of heavens.\n\n7. I have beheld a state of bliss which is full of ambrosial delight,\nnever yet known to mortals, and whose sight is the most ultimate reward\nof the wishes of the best and most intelligent men, and of saints and\nmah\u00e1tmas of great and high souls.\n\n8. It is in your society today, that I have felt a delight, to which I\nhave never experienced in my life before.\n\n9. O lotus eyed sage! I have heretofore, never enjoyed such a degree\nof spiritual bliss which knows no bounds and is a sea of ambrosial\ndelight.\n\n10. Kumbha said:--The mind becomes composed and tranquil, after\nsubordination of its desire of enjoyments, and its indifference to the\ntaste of sweet and bitter, and its full control over the organs of\nsense.\n\n11. There arises a peace in the mind, which is purer than any earth\nborn delight; and is as delightsome as the dew drops falling from\nflowers under the bright beams of cooling moonlight night.\n\n12. It is today, O prince, that your bad desires like the bitter taste\nof bodies, are bettered by your advancement in knowledge.\n\n13. It is by your holiness, O lotus-eyed prince, that the filth of your\nperson is purged out; like the fruits of trees, falling off after they\nare ripened.\n\n14. As the desire of the impure heart, becomes purified by reason it\nis then only capable of receiving the instructions of the wise, as\nthe pipe draws the water inside. (Else, advising the fool is folly or\nspreading pearls before swines).\n\n15. After the bitterness of your disposition, was tempered by my\nlectures; you have been awakened today to your spiritual knowledge by\nme.\n\n16. You are just now cleansed from your impurity, and immediately\npurified by your pure knowledge; even now it is that you have received\nmy admonition, and have been instantly awakened to your knowledge.\n\n17. You are purged today, from the merits and demerits of your good and\nbad conduct; and it is by the influence of good society, that you have\ngot a new life in you.\n\n18. It was before the midday of this day, that I have come to know the\nedification and regeneration of your soul to spiritual light.\n\n19. I find you now, O prince, to be wakened in your mind, by your\ntaking my words to your heart; and having now got rid of the feelings\nof your mind, you are awakened to your spiritual knowledge.\n\n20. As long as the mind has its seat and operations in the heart of\nman, so long does it retain its companion of ignorance by its side;\nbut no sooner doth the mind forsake its residence in the heart, than\npure knowledge comes to shine forth in it as the midday light.\n\n21. It is the suspense of the mind between unity and duality, that is\ncalled its ignorance; and it is the subsidence of these that is known\nas knowledge, and the way to the salvation of the soul.\n\n22. You are now awakened and emancipated, and your mind is driven\naway from your heart; you are now the reality and rescued from your\nunreality, and are set beyond this world of unreality. (The spiritual\nstate is held to be real and all else as unreal).\n\n23. Rest in the pure state of thy soul, by being devoid of cares and\nanxieties; forsaking all society and relying your soul in no body and\nin nothing here; and by your becoming as the devout and Divine and\nsilent sage or saint or _muni_.\n\n24. Sikhidhwaja said:--So I see sir, that all ignorant people rely\nmostly on their minds; but the few that are awakened to the knowledge\nof God, do not mind their minds (_i.e._ they are not led away by the\ninclinations of their minds).\n\n25. Now sir, please tell me, how the living liberated men conduct\nthemselves in their lifetime in this world; and how do these unmindful\nmen like yourself, manage yourselves herein.\n\n26. O! tell me fully and dispel by the lustre of your glowing words,\nthe deep darkness that is seated in my heart.\n\n27. Kumbha replied:--All that you say prince, is exact and\nincontrovertible truth; the minds of the living liberated men are dead\nin themselves, and like blocks of stone, never vegetate nor sprout\nforth in the wishes.\n\n28. The gross desire that germinates in its wishes, which become the\ncauses of the regeneration of men in some form or other, is known by\nthe name of mind; and which becomes altogether extinct in men, knowing\nthe truly knowable one.\n\n29. The desire which guides the knowers of truth, in this life of\naction (or the active life) in the world; is known by the name of\ngoodness (satva), and which is unproductive of future birth.\n\n30. The great-souled and living liberated men, being placed in their\nquality of goodness and having their organs under control; do not place\nany reliance in their minds.\n\n31. The darkened mind is called the mind, but the enlightened one is\nknown as the principle of goodness; the unenlightened rely in their\nminds, but enlightened men of great understanding confide in their\ngoodness only.\n\n32. The mind is repeatedly born with the body, but the nature of\ngoodness is never reborn any more; the unawakened mind is under\nperpetual bondage, but the enlightened soul is under no restraint.\n\n33. Now sir, you are become of the nature of goodness, and deserves the\ntitle of the forsaker of all things; and I understand you to have quite\ngot rid of the propensities of your mind.\n\n34. I find you today as brilliant as the full moon, freed from the\nshadows of the eclipse; and your mind to have become as lucid as the\nclear firmament, without any tinge in it.\n\n35. You have got that equanimity, which is characteristic of the\nconsummate yogi; this is called that total renunciation of all, which\nyou exhibit in yourself.\n\n36. The enlightened understanding is freed from the trammels, of its\ndesire of heaven and future rewards, and its observance of austerities\nand charity, by means of its superior knowledge. (The divine knowledge\nis called the superior or _par\u00e1vidy\u00e1_ in opposition to the worldly or\n_apar\u00e1vidy\u00e1_).\n\n37. All austerities and mortifications, serve but to procure a short\nlived cessation of pain; but the happiness which is wholly free from\nits decay, is to be found only in one's equanimity and indifference\nunder all circumstances of life. (The original word is _samat\u00e1_ or the\nsameness or evenness of disposition at all times).\n\n38. That thing must be truly good, which is different from the\nenjoyment of temporary bliss of heaven, and altogether different from\nan existent pleasure, which is both preceded as well as followed by\npain.\n\n39. We are all doubtful of the happiness, that most await on us\nhereafter in heaven; and what are our religious acts, but for the\npurpose of procuring some happiness to those, who are unacquainted with\nthe consummate felicity of their souls, derived from their spiritual\nknowledge.\n\n40. Let them use their ornaments of brass, who have no gold ornaments\nfor their persons; so let the ignorant adhere to their ritual and not\nthe wise who are quite happy in their knowledge. But you, O prince,\nhave happily come both to your knowledge and happiness in the company\nof Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 and others.\n\n41. Why therefore are you devoted in vain, to the observance of your\nausterities; because the mortifications and penance of asceticism, are\nprescribed for the expiation of the prior misdeeds of men (and neither\nfor their salvation or eternal felicity of the souls).\n\n42. The beginning and end of asceticism are both attended with pain,\nthe middle alone promises a short and temporary happiness; and as\nmortifications are mere preparatory to the purification of the soul.\n(it is better to acquire this purity by divine knowledge, than by the\npainful practices of hermitage).\n\n43. Remain steady in that pure knowledge, which is said to be the\nresult of penitence; and the purity of the soul being had with the\nclearness of the intellectual sphere, all things and thoughts will be\nas perspicuous to view as in the clear light of the sky.\n\n44. All things are seen to rise and disappear in the vacuous sphere of\nthe divine intellect, and the thoughts of our good and bad actions,\nare as the drops of rain which mix with the waters of the immeasurable\nocean of the Divine soul.\n\n45. Therefore, O Sikhidhwaja, abandon the barren soil (of rituals), and\nresort to the abundant field (of divine knowledge); and ask of me to\nknow your best good, as men desire to know of their best friends.\n\n46. As a wife that requires her husband, refrains from asking petty\nthings of him; so should you refrain from asking of trifling blessings\nfrom thy God, if thou dost require thy communion with him. And know\nthe objects of thy desire, are not always for thy good. (Therefore let\nhis will be done and not theirs).\n\n47. As no wise man runs to grasp the sun, in his reflexion in the\nwater; so should you never pursue after the pleasures of heaven or\nfelicity of liberation, after thou hast found him in thy own spirit.\n(Better to posses the whole God than pray for a partial blessing).\n\n48. Forsake what is unstable, though it may appear as stable to thee;\nand thou always stable, by leaving the unstable to perish by itself.\n(_i.e._ All adscititious properties are unstable).\n\n49. Knowing the instability of things, preserve the stability of thy\nmind, because the motionless mind perceives no fluctuation of its\nthoughts, nor the changes and motions of things (as in sound sleep).\n\n50. All our evils proceed from the acts of our bodies, as well as from\nthe thoughts and action of our minds; these two are main springs of the\nmiseries of men, in all places and times.\n\n51. Curb the fickleness of your mind, and be ever calm and quiet; if\nyou desire to enjoy the happiness of quiet and rest.\n\n52. Know all motions and its want to dwindle into perfect rest, in the\nmind of the truly wise men; hold them therefore in equal light and be\nhappy forever.\n\n53. Sikhidhwaja said:--Tell me sir, how can the motion and force of a\nthing be one and the same with its immobility and rest; and you who are\nthe remover of my doubts, will I dare say quickly clear this point to\nme.\n\n54. Kumbha replied:--There is one thing only, which also the all and\nwhole of this universe; it is as the water of the sea, and is agitated\nby its intelligence, as the sea water is agitated into billows.\n\n55. The immensity of Brahma, which is named the only essence and is of\nthe form of the pure intellect; is beheld in the shape of the formal\nworld by the ignorant.\n\n56. The agitation of the intellect is all in all in the world and\nconstitute the moving principle of the universe (or the main spring of\nthe cosmos).\n\n57. The agitation of the intellect being concomitant with the divine\nspirit, it is alike to its stillness, and the unity of these two forms\nthe spirit of God called Siva or Zeus.\n\n58. The agitation of the divine spirit in the work of creation,\nvanishes before the sight of perfect understandings; though it appears\nto be in active operation to the ignorant, who view it as they do a\nfalse snake in the rope.\n\n59. The intellect is ever busy and active, from which it derives its\nname (chit--intellect). But the inactive spirit which is all pervasive,\nis both inexpressible as well as inconceivable, owing to its devoid of\nall attributes (tur\u00edy\u00e1t\u00edta).\n\n60. It is by long study of the s\u00e1stras and association with the wise,\nas also by continued practice of yoga, that the light of the supreme\nspirit dawns in the inner soul, like the rising moon with her benign\nbeams.\n\n61. The supreme spirit is only to be perceived by our understanding,\nfrom the benign rays which it spreads over it; and this says by the\nwise to be the light of the holy spirit.\n\n62. You have now known the essence of your soul, which is without its\nbeginning, middle and end, and must for ever continue in it as your\nreal and true state; there is no other distinct form of the great\nintellectual soul, wherefore know this as yourself, and remain from all\nsorrow and pain.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CII.\n\nREPOSE OF SIKHIDHWAJA IN THE DIVINE SPIRIT.\n\nArgument:--Anxiety of the Prince at the Disappearance of Kumbha, and\nhis falling to a trance in his deep and hypnotic meditation.\n\n\nKumbha continued:--I have already related to you, O prince, how have\nall this phenomenon of the world sprung from Brahma, and how it\ndisappears also in him.\n\n2. Having thus heard from me, and understood and reflected in yourself\nall what I have said; you are at liberty, O sagely prince, to repose in\nthe supreme bliss, which you have well known and felt within yourself.\n\n3. I am now to repair to my heavenly abode, at this time of the\nconjunction of the moon, when it is very likely that the sage N\u00e1rada,\nmay have come before the assemblage of the gods from his seat in the\nhigh heaven of Brahm\u00e1.\n\n4. He may be angry in not finding me there, and it is not mannerly in\nyouth to tease their superiors at any time.\n\n5. May you ever abide at your ease, by your utter abandonment of every\ntint of desire, and by your firm reliance in these holy precepts, which\nthe wise have always in their view.\n\n6. Vasishtha said:--At hearing these words, as Sikhidhwaja was about to\nthrow his handful of flowers, and make his obeisance to his departing\nmonitor, he vanished immediately from his sight and mixed in the\netherial air.\n\n7. As one absorbed in meditation, does not see the things present\nbefore him even in his waking state; so the prince lost sight of Kumbha\nfrom before his presence.\n\n8. The prince was plunged in deep sorrow, after the departure of Kumbha\nfrom before him; and remained as a painted picture, with his thoughts\ndwelling on his vanished friend.\n\n9. He thought how marvellous it was, and how very inscrutable are the\nways of providence, that it should bring him to the light of the\nself-manifest Lord, through the means of strange person of Kumbha.\n\n10. Where is this sage N\u00e1rada, said he, and who is his son this Kumbha\nto me; and how came it to happen after so long, that I should come to\nbe awakened by him.\n\n11. O! how very fully has that son of the divine sage, explained every\nthing to me with his good reasons; and O how I am now awakened from my\nlong slumber in ignorance.\n\n12. How had I been plunged in the mud of my acts for such a long time,\nand was rolling on the wheels of distinguishing between what was right\nor wrong to be done.\n\n13. O how very pure and cold, tranquil and quiet is my present state;\nand I find my essence to be as cooling to me, as I am washed in the\ncold bath of refrigeratory.\n\n14. I am quite calm and lost in my trance, and sit alone as one with\nthe unity; I have no desire for even a straw, but remain solely by\nmyself.\n\n15. Thinking thus in himself, he sat as quiet as a statue carved in\nwood or stone.\n\n16. He then became silent, and had no desire nor refuge for his\nreliance; and remained in his immovable posture, like the peak of\nmountain.\n\n17. Being then freed from fear in an instant, he remained a long time\nwith the tranquillity of his soul and mind; and being united with the\nholy spirit in his hypnotism, he continued long in his sleepy trance,\nwith his soul shining as the rising sun.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CIII.\n\nRETURN OF KUMBHA TO THE HERMITAGE OF SIKHIDHWAJA.\n\nArgument.--Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1's return after three days, and her rousing the\nPrince from his trance.\n\n\nVasishtha said:--Now hear me relate to you about Sikhidhwaja, sitting a\nblock of wood on one side, and the reappearance of Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 to him from\nthe other.\n\n2. After Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 had hypnotized her husband Sikhidhwaja, in her guise\nof the sagely Kumbha; she disappeared from her, and traversed into the\nregions of air.\n\n3. She forsook her form of the son of the Divine sage in the empty\nsky, and which she had took upon her by her magic spell. The enchanted\nform melted away in the air, and she appeared in her female form of\nbeauteous fair.\n\n4. She bent her airy course to her palace in the city, where she showed\nherself as their queen, before her assembled attendants and courtiers,\nand discharged the royal duties of her absent lord.\n\n5. After three days she took again to her aerial journey, retook her\nenchanted form of Kumbha, and advanced to the hermitage of Sikhidhwaja\nin the forest.\n\n6. She saw there the prince in his woodland retreat, and sitting in his\nposture of deep meditation and resembling a figure carved in wood.\n\n7. Seeing him thus, she exclaimed repeatedly in herself; O heyday! that\nhe is reposing here in his own soul, and is sitting quiet and tranquil\nin himself.\n\n8. I must now awaken him from his trance in the supreme Being, or else\nhis soul will soon forsake its mortal frame, owing to his disregard of\nit, and the end of his worldly bondage by his excessive devotion.\n\n9. It is desirable that he should live some time longer, either with\nhis royalty in the palace or with devotion in this forest; and then we\nboth of us will depart together, by shuffling our mortal coils.\n\n10. It would be difficult to instruct him, in all (seven) stages of\ndevotion (saptama bhumi); and as there is no end of these things, I\nwill try to train him in the practical part of yoga only.\n\n11. Thus pondering in herself she made a loud shout, which startled\nthe wild beasts; but did not rouse the entranced prince, though she\nrepeated her loud shouts before him.\n\n12. When neither her shouts and shrieks could rouse him, who remained\nunshaken as a stone in the rock; she shook him with her hands, to bring\nhim back to his sense.\n\n13. Though shaken and moved and thrown down on the ground, yet the\nprince neither awoke nor came to his senses; then Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 thought on\nanother expedient in his guise of Kumbha.\n\n14. She said, Ah! I see my lord is absorbed in his prophetic trance,\nand I must find some expedient to rouse him to his sense.\n\n15. Or why should I try to rouse him deified spirit back to its\nsensation, when he so well absorbed in his state of disembodied or\nabstract meditation (in which he enjoys himself and has forgotten his\nembodiment in the material frame and become as the disembodied or\n_videha_ spirit).\n\n16. I also wish to get rid of my female form, and to reach that state\nof supreme beatitude like him, which is free from further births and\ntransmigrations.\n\n17. Thus thinking in herself, Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 was about to abandon her own\nbody; when her better understanding recalled her undertaking that\nattempt.\n\n18. Let me feel the body of the prince at first, she said, whether\nthere is an end of his life, or there is any feeling or pulsation in\nhis heart.\n\n19. Should he be alive, he must come back to his sense; as the juicy\nroot of trees, recalls the flowers in the flowering season of spring.\n\n20. If he is alive he will walk about like myself, in his state of a\nliving liberated soul; but if he be found to be no longer living, then\nI shall follow him to the next world.\n\n21. With this mind Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 felt his person, and examined it with her\neyes; and then perceiving him to be living, she thus said rejoicingly\nto herself:\n\n22. He has still the relic of his life, pulsating in his breast, the\nbeating of the pulse and the throbbing of his breast, show his life to\nbe not yet extinct.\n\n23. R\u00e1ma said:--How can the little spark of the vital flame, be known\nto reside in the body of the self distracted yogi; whose mind is as\ncold as stone, and whose body becomes as callous as a clod of earth or\na block of wood.\n\n24. Vasishtha replied:--The relic of life remains in the heart, as an\nimperceptible atom and in the manner of sensibility; just as the future\nfruits and flowers, are contained in their seeds.\n\n25. The calm and cold yogi, who is devoid of his knowledge of unity and\nduality, and views all things in the same light; who remains as quiet\nas a rock and without the pulsation of his heart, has yet the vibration\nof his intellect within him; (which keeps him alive).\n\n26. The body of the temperate and tranquil minded man, never wastes\nor swells in bulk; it never decays nor grows up in heights, but ever\nremains in the same state.\n\n27. The man whose mind vibrates with its thoughts of unity and duality\n(_i.e._ which perceives the difference of things); has the change and\ndecay of his body, which is never the case with the yogi of unchangeful\nmind. (The action of the mind impairs the body, but its inaction\npreserves it entire).\n\n28. The action of the heart, is the spring of the life of every body in\nthis world, just as the honey in the flower cup, is the cause of its\nfuture fruit.\n\n29. These frail bodies of mortals, are notwithstanding subject to the\nfits of joy and anger, and of the quickness and dulness every moment;\nand these, O R\u00e1ma! are the seeds of repeated births, and are hard to be\nchecked or subdued.\n\n30. The mind being still and quiet, the body becomes as dull as it\nwere lifeless; when it is subject to no passion nor change whatever;\nbut remains as even as the still and clear firmament which nothing can\ndisturb.\n\n31. The man of even and dispassionate mind, is never ruffled nor\ntainted by any fault; but remains as calm as the waters of the\nbillowless and breezeless ocean.\n\n32. The body is never lifeless, nor is its life ever imperceptible,\nunless the mind is defunct in its action; and is in course of long\npractice, that the mind becomes inexcitable and numb in itself.\n\n33. The body which is without the action of its mind and vitality,\nquickly melts away to rottenness; as the snow melts away under the\nsolar heat.\n\n34. The body of Sikhidhwaja was felt to be hot, though it was without\nits active mind; it was therefore known to be possessed of its\nvitality, which prevented it from wasting and rotting away.\n\n35. The noble lady, having perceived the body of her husband to be in\nthat plight; held it fastly with her hands, and began to consider what\nto do with it.\n\n36. She said, I will try to raise him by infusion of my intellection\ninto his mind; and this will no doubt bring him back to his senses.\n\n37. If I do not raise him now, he must rise himself after sometime; but\nwhy should I wait till then, and must remain alone all the while.\n\n38. Having thought so, Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 left her body--the frame work of the\nsenses; and entered into the body of the body and joined with the\nintellectual essence of the same.\n\n39. She then gave a vibration to the intellection of her living lord,\nand after putting it in its action and motion, she returned to her own\nbody; as a bird flits on the twig of a tree which is shaken thereby,\nit comes back to its own nest again.\n\n40. She rose in her figure of the Br\u00e1hman boy Kumbha, and sat upon\na flowery bed, where she began to chaunt her hymns of the s\u00e1ma veda\n(psalmody); with her soft tunes resembling the melodious chime of\nbuzzing bees.\n\n41. The prince felt an intellectual exhilaration, on hearing the\ntuneful chime of the psalms; and his dormant life was awakened to its\nsensibility, as the lotus bud comes to bloom by the breath of the\nvernal season.\n\n42. His eyelids oped to light, as the lotus bud blooms at the sunlight;\nand the whole body of the prince, became vivid with his renewed life.\n\n43. He beheld the Br\u00e1hman boy Kumbha, singing s\u00e1ma psalms before him;\nand appeared in his divinely fair form, as the divinity of music was\npresent in person.\n\n44. O fortunate am I, said he, to have found my friendly Kumbha again\nbefore me; and so saying, he picked up some flowers and offered them to\nhim.\n\n45. O how great is my good fortune, said he to his guest, to be thus\nrecalled to your gracious memory; or what else is it, that could cause\na divine personage like yourself, to be so favourably disposed towards\nme.\n\n46. It is only the cause of my salvation, that has caused you to come\nto and call at mine, or else what else can it be to bring a godson down\nto revisit me.\n\n47. Kumbha spoke:--O sinless prince, my mind was ever intent on thee,\never since I departed from thee; and now it has come back to me, to\nhave found thee well in this place.\n\n48. I do not reap so much delight in the ever delightful region of\nheaven, as I do here in your presence; because I have the great work of\nyour redemption not pending before me.\n\n49. I have no friend or companion, that is dearer to my soul than\nyourself; nor have I any faithful pupil, nor confidential disciple like\nyou in this world.\n\n50. Sikhidhwaja replied:--Ah! I see now that the arbours of this\nmountain, are about to yield the fruits of my meritorious acts, that\nhave made a retired recluse like yourself to condescend to desire my\ncompany.\n\n51. If these woods and trees and myself who am so devoted to you,\nshould find favour in your sight than the bliss of your heavenly abode,\nthen may you please to take your residence with me in this lonely\nforest.\n\n52. For my part who am so blest with the gift of thy _sam\u00e1dhi_, that I\nhave always my perfect repose in God even in this place; have no desire\nfor heavenly delights (which cannot be better than my absorption in the\nDivine spirit).\n\n53. Reclining in that state of pure effulgence, I enjoy my fill of\nheavenly bliss even in this earth below.\n\n54. Kumbha interrogated:--Have you ever had your repose in the state of\nsupreme felicity, and were you ever freed from the infelicity, which is\never attendant on the knowledge of duality.\n\n55. Have you ever felt a disgust to all temporary enjoyments, and have\nrooted out your taste for insipid pleasures of this earth.\n\n56. Has your mind ever rested in that state of even indifference, which\nhas no liking for the desirable nor dislike to what is undesirable, but\nis ever content with whatever awaits upon it at any time?\n\n57. Sikhidhwaja replied:--It is by your favour sir, that I have seen\nall what transcends human sights; that I have reached beyond the verge\nof the universe, and obtained the best obtainable and most certain\nbliss.\n\n58. It is after long that I am freed from decay and disease, and gained\nall which is to be gained, and wherewith I am quite content.\n\n59. I require no further advice, from anyone for my edification; I feel\nfully gratified with every thing in all places, and am quite at ease\nand out of disease everywhere.\n\n60. I have nothing to know that is unknown to me, and nothing to obtain\nthat is not obtained by one; I have forsaken whatever is not worth\nhaving, and my soul has its reliance in the supreme essence.\n\n61. I rest quite aloof of all, being devoid of my fear and error and\napathy at any thing; I am always manifest in the even and equal tenor\nof my mind, and in the equality of my soul with all others; I am free\nfrom all imagination, as the clear sky is free from all taint and\ncloud.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CIV.\n\nON THE CONDUCT OF LIVING-LIBERATED MEN.\n\nArgument:--Kumbha and Sikhidhwaja's travel, and their conversation on\nvarious subjects; Kumbha's ideas of the predestined law of nature.\n\n\nVasishtha related:--In this manner did these knowers of the knowable\nGod, continue in their mutual conversation on spiritual matters, until\nthe third watch of the day in that forest.\n\n2. Then rising together they wandered in the delightful dales, and\nabout in cooling lakes and pleasant rills.\n\n3. In this manner they kept roving in that forest for full eight days,\nand passed their time in conversations on various subjects.\n\n4. Then said Kumbha to the prince, let us walk to some other forest to\nwhich he gave his consent, with uttering the word om, and then they\nwalked forward in each other's company.\n\n5. In this manner they walked over many forest lands, and passed beside\nmany jungles and shores; and they saw many lakes and thick woods, and\nrising hills and their thickets of dense woods and plants.\n\n6. They traversed many woodland tracts and rivers, and saw many\nvillages, towns and woods on their way; they passed by many sweet\nsounding rivers and groves, and many holy places and the abodes of men.\n\n7. They were united together in equal love and friendship, and being of\nequal age and the same tenor of mind, they were of equal vivacity; and\nboth walked or stayed together with their unanimity.\n\n8. They worshipped the gods and the manes of their ancestors in the\nholy places, and ate what they got at any place; and lived together\nboth in marshy and dry lands in concord and peace.\n\n9. The loving pair bearing equal affection to one another in their\nhearts, dwelt together in mutual concord amidst the _tam\u00e1la_ woods and\nin the forests of the _Mandara_ hills.\n\n10. To them no place was their home or own, but they alike in all;\nnothing occurred to disturb their minds, which were always as\nundisturbed as a mountain amidst the winds.\n\n11. They walked sometimes amidst the flying dust, and at others amidst\nthe far stretching fragrance of sandal wood forests. They were now\ndaubed with ashes, and then besmeared with the sandal paste.\n\n12. They were sometimes clad in good garments, and sometimes in\nvariegated raiments; now they were covered with the leaves of trees,\nand were decorated with flowers at another.\n\n13. Remaining thus in mutual company for some days, and having the\nunanimity of their hearts and minds; the prince turned to be as\nperfected in his nature, as another Kumbha himself.\n\n14. The holy and faithful Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1, seeing the divine form of her\nhusband Sikhidhwaja, began to reflect within herself in the following\nmanner.\n\n15. How divinely fair has my husband become, and how very charming are\nthese wood-land scenes; by living long in this place, we must be an\neasy prey to the God of love.\n\n16. I see that although one is liberated in his life time, yet the\nsense of his liberation, cannot give him freedom from his obligation\nof tasting the pleasures that are presented before him. I think it is\nignorance to refuse the king of a proffered enjoyment.\n\n17. Seeing the husband to be noble minded, and free from all bodily\ndisease and debility; and having a flowery grove before, it must be a\nwretched woman, that rejects to advance to her lord at such a time.\n\n18. That wretched woman is verily undone, who is seated in her bower\nof flowers and has her husband presented before her; and yet fails to\napproach to him for her satisfaction.\n\n19. Accursed is the woman, who being wedded to a handsome husband, and\nhaving him alone in her company fails to associate with him.\n\n20. Of what good is it to one acquainted with true knowledge, to reject\na lawful pleasure that presents itself before that person.\n\n21. So I must contrive some artifice in this forest, whereby I may be\nsuccessful to make my husband join with me.\n\n22. Having thought so in her mind, Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 who was disguised in the\nfrom of Kumbha, thus uttered to the prince, as the female _kokila_\nmutters to her mate from her flowery bower in the forest.\n\n23. This is the first day of the new moon of the lunar month of\n_chaitra_, and this is a day of great festivity in the court of Indra\nin heaven.\n\n24. So I must have to repair to the synod of the gods, and present\nmyself before my father in that assembly. So my departure is ordained\nby destiny, nor can it be averted by any means.\n\n25. You shall have to expect my return till eve in this forest, and\nspend the meantime, by diverting yourself in these flowery arbours,\nwhich will lull your anxiety for me to rest.\n\n26. I shall positively return here from the azure sky, by the dusk of\nthis day; and soon join your company, which is ever delightful to me.\n\n27. So saying, she gave a stalk of flowers of the Nandana forest to her\nbeloved, to serve as a token of her affection for him (and as a pledge\nof her return to him before it fades away).\n\n28. The prince said \"you must return soon\" to me; and she instantly,\ndisappeared from his sight, and mixed with the air, as the light\nautumnal cloud vanishes in the empty sky.\n\n29. He flung flowers after her, as she mounted in the sky; and these\nfloated in the air, like icicles in the cold season.\n\n30. Sikhidhwaja standing on the spot, first beheld her flight, and\nthen her disappearance from him; as the peacock looks at the flight of\na cloud with uplifted eyes (so immutable is the friendship of a true\nfriend).\n\n31. At last the body of Kumbha vanished from the sight of Sikhidhwaja,\nand mixed in the open air, as the waves of the sea subside in the still\nand smooth waters.\n\n32. Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 then reached her celestial city, resembling the garden of\nparadise with its Kalpa arbours in full bloom, and its shining turrets\nwaving with flags, hoisted on both sides of its charming paths.\n\n33. She entered secretly her private apartment, and met the company of\nthe maids waiting for her; as the graceful beauty of the vernal season,\nmeets the long expectant arbours of the forest.\n\n34. She attended to her state affairs, and discharged them quickly; and\nthen flew aloft in the air and dropped at Sikhidhwaja's abode, as the\nautumnal fruits and flowers drop on the ground.\n\n35. She appeared there with a melancholy face, and as deeply dejected\nin her mind; just as the fair moon is darkened under the mist, and the\nbeauteous lotus are hid under a fog.\n\n36. Believing her as his Kumbha, Sikhidhwaja rose up and stood in his\npresence; but being troubled in his mind to see him so sad and sorry,\nhe asked the cause and thus addressed him saying:--\n\n37. I greet thee, O Kumbha, but why appearest thou so sad today; thou\nart the son of a deity and must not be sorry at anything, but please to\ntake thy seat here.\n\n38. Holy saints and the knowers of the knowable one like you, are never\nmoved by joy or grief; but remain untouched by them, as the lotuses\nremain intact in the water.\n\n39. Vasishtha said:--Being thus accosted by the prince, Kumbha sat on\nhis seat, and then said in reply, with a voice as thin and soft as the\nsound of a bamboo flute.\n\n40. I know that the knowers of truth, who are not patient under all\nbodily accidents and mental anxieties, are not truthful men, but cheats\nwho cheat people by their pretended truthfulness.\n\n41. Know prince that the most learned are the most ignorant, who\nexpect foolishly to evade the condition in which they are exposed by\ntheir nature.\n\n42. The sesame seed has naturally the oil inherent in it, and the body\nhas also its incidents connatural with it; he who is not subject to his\nbodily accidents, is able to sever the wind and air with his sword.\n\n43. It is of course to evade the evils that are incidental to the body,\nbut it is to undergo patiently what is unavoidable by our bodily powers.\n\n44. Again as long as we have our bodies, we must exert our bodily\norgans to their proper actions; and never attempt to suppress by our\nunderstanding, as it is done by many wise men.\n\n45. Even the great Brahm\u00e1 and the gods, are subject to the conditions\nof their bodily frames; nor have they with their great understandings,\nthe power to avoid what is determined by irrevocable destiny.\n\n46. It is beyond the power of both the wise and unwise, to deter the\npower of destiny; which makes all things to run in their destined\ncourse, as the waters of rivers run into the sea.\n\n47. The same irrevocable destiny, determines equally the fates of the\nwise and unwise, and guides them as by her fingers to the same goal,\nuntil they get their release from the body.\n\n48. The ignorant however, whether exposed to their states of prosperity\nand adversity, are always destined to undergo their effects upon their\nbodies.\n\n49. Thus therefore it must be known by both the wise and unwise, that\nall beings are destined to roll in their re-iterated rotations of\npleasure and pain (according to the results of their prior merits and\ndemerits); and that there is no power to change the ever changeful\nordinances of unchanging destiny.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CV.\n\nMETAMORPHOSES OF KUMBHA TO A FEMALE FORM.\n\nArgument:--Kumbha's relation of her transformation to a woman by right,\nand her attachment to the prince.\n\n\nSikhidhwaja said:--If such is the case, sir, that destiny over rules\nall events, why should you be sorry for aught that has befallen to you,\nknowing that you are a godson and knowing the knowable also.\n\n2. Kumbha replied:--Hear, O prince, the wonderful accident that has\nbefallen on me; and I will relate to you all that has happened to me in\nbody.\n\n3. The heart becomes light when its griefs are imparted to a friend, as\nthe thickened gloominess of the cloudy atmosphere, is dissipated after\ndischarge of its waters in rains.\n\n4. The troubled mind is restored to its serenity, by its communication\nwith a sincere friend, as the turbid waters of a jar is cleared by its\nbeing filtered with _kata_ seeds.\n\n5. Hear now that after I departed from here, by handing over the spike\nof flowers to you; I traversed though the regions of air, till I\nreached the heavenly abode of the God.\n\n6. There I met my father, and accompanied him to the court of the great\nIndra, where having sat a while, I got up with my father and then\nparted from him at his abode.\n\n7. Leaving the seat of the Gods in order to come down on earth, I\nentered the region of air; and kept my pace with the fleet steeds of\nthe chariot of the sun, in the airy paths of the skies.\n\n8. Thus wafted together with the sun, I reached the point of my\nseparation from him; and there took my path through the midway sky, as\nif I were sailing in the sea.\n\n9. I saw there in a track before me, a path stretching amidst the\nwatery clouds of air, and marked the indignant sage Durv\u00e1sa gliding\nswiftly by it.\n\n10. He was wrapt in the vest of clouds, and girt with girdles of\nflashing lightnings; the sandal taints on his body were washed off by\nshowering rains, and he seemed as a maiden making her way in haste, to\nmeet her lover at the appointed place.\n\n11. Or as a devotee he hastened to discharge in due time his fond\ndevotion, on the beach of the river (Ganges), flowing under the shade\nof the beaching boughs of the rows of trees on the shore. (This refers\nto the custom of hastening to perform the _sandhy\u00e1_ rites on the river\nside in the evening, as it is customary with other nations to hasten\nto the mosque or church at the call to prayers and the striking of the\nchurch-bell).\n\n12. I saluted the sage from my aerial seat, and said, you, wrapt as you\nare in your blue vest of the cloud, seem to advance in haste, as an\namorous woman to meet her lover (by hiding herself in her black mantle\nin the darkness of night).\n\n13. Hearing this, the reverend sage was incensed and pronounced his\ncurse upon me; saying, \"Be thou transformed to an amorous woman as thou\nthinkest me to be.\"\n\n14. \"Go thy way, and bear my curse, that every night thou shall become\na woman, with thy protuberant breasts and long braids of hairs on thy\nhead, and fraught with all womanish grace and dalliance (and seek about\nthy lover)\".\n\n15. As I was thunderstruck and deeply dejected at this imprecation, I\nfound the old _muni_ had already disappeared from before me; and then\nI bent my course this way from the upper sky, being quite sick in my\nheart (at this direful fulmination).\n\n16. Thus I have related to you all, regarding my being changed to a\ndamsel at the approach of night; and my constant thought of the manner,\nhow I shall manage myself under my womanhood.\n\n17. How shall I divulge to my father, the shame of my being a swollen\nbreasted maid at night; and can I reconcile myself to my dire fate,\nthroughout the course of my life. O how wonderful is the decree of\nfate, that we are fated to bear in this world in the course of time!\n\n18. I am now ill-fated to become a prey to young men, and the subject\nof fighting among them, like a piece of flesh among ravenous vultures.\n\n19. O what a fun have I become to the ludicrous boys of the Gods in\nheaven, and ah! how shameful have I been before the sages, who must be\nquite ashamed of me, and how shall I remain anywhere and before any\nbody in my female form at night.\n\n20. Vasishtha said:--After saying so far, Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 became as mute as a\nsilent _muni_; and remained as quiet as if she were in a swoon.\n\n21. The pretended Kumbha then, seeming to recover his senses and his\npatience also, thus spoke out to himself; ah! why do I wail like the\nignorant (for this change in my changeful body), when my soul suffers\nno change by this?\n\n22. Sikhidhwaja spoke:--Why sorrow you sir for the body, that art the\nson of a God; let it become whatever may become of it, it can never\naffect the intangible soul.\n\n23. Whatever pain or pleasure betides us in this life, is all\nconcomitant with the changing body, and can never touch the unchanging\nsoul.\n\n24. If you who are acquainted with the vedas, and fortified against all\nevents; should allow yourself to be so much moved by these accidents,\nsay what will be the case with others, at all the casualties of life,\nto which they are incessantly subject.\n\n25. To be sorry in sorrow; is very sorrowful in the wise; and therefore\nyou who have yourself spoken these precepts before, should now be\noverwhelmed in sorrow, but remain as unmoved, as you are wont to be\nunshaken all along.\n\n26. Vasishtha related:--In this did the two hearty friends, continue to\ncondole with one another; and console themselves by turns, under the\ncooling shade of the grove where they sat together.\n\n27. At last the bright sun who is the light of the world, set down in\ndarkness like an oilless lamp, by involving Kumbha under despondency of\nher female form.\n\n28. The full blown lotuses closed their folia, like the closing\neyelids of the busy worldlings; and the footpaths became as deserted\nby their passengers, as the hearts of loving wives are forlorn in the\nabsence of their husbands, devoted to travelling and staying in distant\ncountries.\n\n29. The upper sky borrowed the semblance of the lower earth, by its\nspreading the curtain of darkness over the groups of its twinkling\nstars, like the outstretched nets of fishermen enfolding the finny\ntribe. (The similarity of the dark curtain of the sky overspreading\nits shining stars, to the black nets of fishers enveloping the silvery\nfishes under them).\n\n30. The black vault of the sky, was smiling above with its train of\nshining stars, as the blue bed of lakes was rejoicing with its chain of\nblooming lilies below; and the sounding black bees and beetles on the\nland, resounded to the cries of the ruddy geese in the water.\n\n31. The two friends then rose and offered their evening prayers at\nthe rising of the moon, and chanted their hymns and muttered their\n_mantras_, and took their shelter under the sylvan retreat.\n\n32. Afterwards Kumbha, changed as he was in the female form, and\nsitting before Sikhidhwaja, lisped his faltering speech to him in the\nfollowing manner.\n\n33. Sir, I seem to fall down and cry out and melt away in my tears, to\nsee myself even now changed to my feminine figure in your presence.\n\n34. See Sir, how quickly are the hairs on my head lengthened to curling\nlocks, and to how they sparkle with strings of pearls fastened to them,\nlike the brilliant clusters of stars in the azure sky.\n\n35. Look here at these two snowy balls bulging out of my bosom, like\ntwo white lotus-buds rising on the surface of waters in the vernal\nseason.\n\n36. Look how my long robe is stretched down to the heels, and how it\nmantles my whole body, like the person of a female.\n\n37. Look at these gemming ornaments and wreathes of flowers decorating\nmy person, like the blooming blossoms of spring ornamenting the forest\ntree.\n\n38. Lo! the moon-bright vest covering the crown of my head (like the\ndisk of the moon resting on the hairy crest of Siva); and the necklaces\nhanging about my body (like the flowery wreathes of K\u00e1ma).\n\n39. Look at my features, how they are converted to their effeminate\ncomeliness, and see how my whole frame, graced all over with feminine\nloveliness.\n\n40. O! how very great is my sorrow, at this sudden change of mine to a\nwoman; and ah! tell me friend, what am I to do, and where to go with\nthis my female form.\n\n41. I perceive also the change to take place in my inner parts, and in\nmy thighs and posteriors; Kumbha said so far to her friend, and then\nremained quite mute and silent.\n\n42. The prince also, seeing him thus, remained in his mute gaze and\nsilence, and then after a while, he oped his mouth and spoke as\nfollows:--\n\n43. It is of course very sorrowful and pitiable, to see you thus\ntransformed to a female; but you, sir, who know the truth, know also\nthat there is no contending with fate.\n\n44. Whatever is destined, must come to pass; and wise men must not be\nstartled at or feel sorry for the same; because all those events betake\nthe body only, and cannot affect the inward soul.\n\n45. Kumbha replied--So it is, and I must bear with my feminine form,\nwith an unfeminine soul. (So it is no disgrace to be an effeminate\nfemale, combined with the grace of a manly soul).\n\n46. I will no more sorrow for, what is never to be averted; but must\nendure with patience what I cannot abjure. Relying on this principle,\nthey alleviated their sorrow for what was impossible to avoid.\n\n47. They passed their nights in peace, and slept in the same bed\nwithout touching one another; and Kumbha rose in the morning in his\nmasculine form again, without any trace of his female features and\nfeminine beauty or grace.\n\n48. Kumbha was Kumbha again, by being shorn of his female form; and\nthus he passed as bisexual and biform being of the Br\u00e1hman boy Kumbha\nby day, and of Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 the princess by night.\n\n49. In his male form, Kumbha continued as a friend to the prince in the\nday time; and in female form of Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1, he lived as a virgin maid with\nhim at night.\n\n50. Thus did Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 cling to her husband, as a string of necklace\nhangs upon the neck and breast of a person. They then continued to\nwander in the company of one another, to different countries and over\ndistant hills, to satisfy their curiosity.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CVI.\n\nMARRIAGE OF CH\u00daD\u00c1L\u00c1 WITH SIKHIDHWAJA.\n\nArgument.--The Gandharva form of marriage, its Courtship and ceremonial\nrites.\n\n\nVasishtha resumed:--After the lapse of some days in this manner,\nCh\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 thus bespoke to her husband, in her guise of the pretended\nBr\u00e1hman boy (or Kumbha).\n\n2. Hear me, O lotus eyed prince, she said, what I tell you in good\nearnest; that since I am obliged to become a woman every night, and\ncontinue to be so for ever more.\n\n3. I wish to fulfill the part of my womanhood, by joining myself to a\nhusband by legal marriage for all that time.\n\n4. I want to taste the pleasure of conjugal union, with a dear friend,\nwho is of his own accord so very friendly to me, and without any\nendeavour on my part: so I hope you will interpose no difficulty in my\nway.\n\n5. So I choose you sir, as my husband, of all others in the three\nworlds: therefore be pleased to accept me for your wife every night.\n\n6. The delightsome pleasure of conjugal union, has come down to us ever\nsince the commencement of creation; and therefore our obedience to the\nordinance of nature, can entail no guilt on our part.\n\n7. I desire this that we may do as we like, without desiring or\ndisliking anything; and be far from expecting the consequence of what\nwe like or dislike.\n\n8. Sikhidhwaja answered:--I see friend, neither any good nor evil, of\naccepting your proposal; so you are at liberty to do as you like.\n\n9. Being possessed of the indifference of my mind, at every thing in\nthe world; I see everything in the same and in an equal light: so I let\nyou have your option as you may like.\n\n10. Kumbha replied:--If so, then I say that this day is very\nfavourable for celebrating the marriage ceremony; it is the full moon\nof Sr\u00e1vana, and all lucky asterism according to my best calculation.\n\n11. On this day of the full moon, our marriage may take place both in\nthe day as well as night-time in the G\u00e1ndharva form (by mutual choice\nand consent).\n\n12. It will be celebrated either on the summit of the Mahendra\nmountain, or on the delightful table-land there abouts; or in the\ngrotto of some mineral mine, and in the light of the shining gems and\nmineral ores in the mountain; (serving as lamps and candle lights in\nthe festivity).\n\n13. The rows of stately trees all around, will shed their flowers at\nthe nuptial ceremony; and the twining creepers on them, will represent\nthe dance of _nanch_ girls by their tremulous shaking. (Dance and music\nbeing necessary accompaniments of marriage festivities).\n\n14. Let the bright luminary of the night, accompanied by his consort\ntrain of shining stars, witness our marriage from the high sky with\ntheir wide open and glaring eyes.\n\n15. Rise, O prince, for your marriage; and let us both hie to cull the\nforest flowers, and prepare the sandal paste and collect the scattered\ngems, in order to deck our nuptial seats therewith.\n\n16. Saying so, they both rose together, and culled the flowers and\ncollected the gems.\n\n17. Then in a short time, they repaired to the gemming steppe, and\nheaped it with flowers of various kinds.\n\n18. They had their marriage vests and necklaces ready on the spot, and\nthe God of love helped with the supply of every thing required on the\noccasion.\n\n19. Having thus prepared the paraphernalia of their nuptials, and\nstored them in a golden grotto of the mountain, they both repaired to\nthe sacred stream of the heavenly Ganges Mand\u00e1kin\u00ed, for making their\nholy ablutions therein.\n\n20. Here Kumbha served as the priest, to lave the holy water profusely\non the lofty head and elevated shoulders of the prince; as the\nelephantine clouds of Indra, pour the rain water in plenteous showers,\non the towering tops and height of hills.\n\n21. So also did the prince act the part of the ministering prince, and\nwashed the body of his beloved princess now in the form of Kumbha. Thus\ndid the two friends anoint and absterge by turns, the persons of their\nquondam and future consorts.\n\n22. Bathed and purified, they adored the gods, the munis and the manes\nof their ancestors, for the sake of their honour, and without any\ndesire of getting any good or gain from them: for they well knew that\nthey could benefit nothing their service, as the deities, the deified\nspirits and the divine sages.\n\n23. They took their frugal and repast, as their nature and the course\nof the world required; and seasoned with the nectarine juice of their\ngood and refined intelligence.\n\n24. They wore the whitish barks of Kalpa trees, as their clean marriage\nraiments, and ate its fruits as their wedding cakes; then they repaired\nto the altar for their nuptial ceremony.\n\n25. At this time the sun descended below his setting mountain, as if to\nconsummate their conjugal union in secret.\n\n26. As it now became dark and dusk they discharged their evening\nservice and offered their prayers; and groups of stars now appeared on\nthe plain of the firmament, to witness their union in marriage.\n\n27. Then came the sable night the only friend of the happy pair,\nspreading the veil of darkness over the face of nature, and smiling\nwith the blushing of snow white lotuses and lilies of the valley.\n\n28. Kumbha collected the rich stones, and placed those gemming on the\ntable land of the mountain, while Brahm\u00e1 lighted his two lamps of the\nsun and moon together in the heavens.\n\n29. Being then changed to the female form, Kumbha anointed the prince\nwith the fragrant sandal paste, agallochum, camphor powder and\npulverised musk.\n\n30. She adorned his person with strings, bracelets and wristlets of\nflowers, and dressed in a robe of the thin bark of Kalpa tree.\n\n31. His body was also decorated with the filaments of Kalpa plant, and\nclusters of _p\u00e1rij\u00e1ta_ flowers and with many other flowers and gems\nfrom his head to foot.\n\n32. She appeared also at this time in her bridal garb and maiden like\nfigure, with her big and swollen breasts, and with all her youthful\ngrace and blandishments.\n\n33. She thought that as she was now attired and appeared as a nuptial\nbride, she must now offer herself to a husband worthy to her.\n\n34. Here am I as a lovely bride, said she to herself, and there is my\nhusband in my presence; I must ask him to accept my hand, nor is this\ntime to be slipped from hand.\n\n35. So saying, she approached her husband sitting apart from her in the\nwood; and appeared as Rati--the goddess of love, was advancing towards\nher loving K\u00e1ma.\n\n36. She went to him and said:--\"I am Madanik\u00e1 by name and thy loving\nwife I therefore bow down at your feet, with the regard due to a\nhusband.\"\n\n37. So saying, the beauteous lady, bent down her head with female\nbashfulness; and made her obeisance to her lord, with the pendant locks\non her head.\n\n38. And then she said to him:--\"O thou my lord! do thou adorn me\nwith ornaments also, and then light the nuptial fire, to attest thy\nacceptance of my hand.\"\n\n39. Thou appearest as exceedingly fair to my eyes, and makest me quite\nfond of thee; and thou seemest to me to surpass the God of love in the\nbeauty of person, even when he wedded his Rati at first in his youthful\nbloom.\n\n40. O prince, these wreathed flowers on thy person, appear as the\nbrightsome beams in the body of the moon; and those strings of flowers\npendant on thy bosom, seem to me as the stream of Ganges, gliding on\nthe breast of the Sumeru mountain.\n\n41. With the flowing braided hairs on thy head, thou appearest as the\nmount of Mandara, with the clusters of creepers hanging down from its\ntop; while thy head itself appears as golden lotus, with its hanging\nhairs resembling the filaments of the flower, and studded with strings\nof blackening bees.\n\n42. The gemming ornaments and flowery decorations of thy person, add to\nit the lustre and gracefulness of the mount Meru, with its mineral ores\non one side and its floral beauty on the other.\n\n43. After her flattering speech was over, the new bride and bridegroom,\nand future husband and wife sat contented together, unmindful and\nforgetful of their past conjugal relation.\n\n44. The brave princess now Madanik\u00e1 by name, and the noble prince\nSikhidhwaja the saint, both sat together on a golden seat (of the\nmineral mountain); which added fresh lustre to the beauty and\ndecoration of their persons.\n\n45. They were bedecked with their head dresses, garlands of flowers\nand ornaments of gems and pearls, and were furnished with flowers and\nointments, and clad in fine cloths all over their bodies.\n\n46. The young lady Madanik\u00e1 blazed as Venus with her maddening beauty,\nand appeared as the goddess Gowr\u00ed--the surpassing paragon of beauty, at\nher wedding festivity.\n\n47. The noble lord having embellished his noble lady with his own\nhands, thus spoke to her after her toilet; \"O thou fawn eyed fairy,\nthou art as graceful as the goddess of grace and prosperity\".\n\n48. I pray for all that prosperity to attend on thee, as it does with\nSach\u00ed.--The queen of heaven, in the company of her lord Indra; and as\nit subsisted between the mutual pairs of Hara and Gowr\u00ed; and Hari and\nhis consort Lakshm\u00ed--the goddess of fortune.\n\n49. Thou appearest as a limpid lake of lotuses, with thy breasts\nblooming like lotus buds; and thy black blue eyes resembling the\ncerulean lotuses (nilumbiums); and the sweet fragrance of thy lotus\nlike person, inviting the buzzing bees fluttering all about thee.\n\n50. Thou appearest likewise as a tender shoot of the Kalpa plant of\nCupid, with thy rubicund palms resembling its reddish leaves; and thy\nswollen breasts likening to its blooming buds, and every part of thy\nbody, is as delicate as its delicious fruits.\n\n51. With thy cold and cooling body, and thy moon like face and its\nsmiles as moon beams, thou art as beautiful as the full-moon, and\nequally delightful to sight.\n\n52. Rise therefore my beauteous lady and ascend on the matrimonial\naltar, and there perform the marriage ceremony, standing on the slab\nof stone, marked with creeping plants and their fruits. (The gloss\nsays, that this stone or stool, is also painted with the colours of the\nnine sorts of precious gems _nava-ratna_, that are sacred to the nine\nplanets).\n\n53. Vasishtha said:--The altar was studded with strings of pearls,\nand bunches of flowers suspended on all sides; and it had four large\ncocoanut fruits, hang over the four sides of its square.\n\n54. There were pots filled with the holy water of Gang\u00e1 set about it,\nand the sacred matrimonial fire was lighted amidst it, and fed with the\nfuel of the sandal wood and other fragrances.\n\n55. They turned round the flaming fire by the right hand side, and then\nsat on seats of leaves with their faces turned towards the east.\n\n56. After sitting on the altar, the matrimonial couple kindled the\nnuptial fire, and made offerings of sesame seeds, and fried rice upon\nits flames.\n\n57. The married pair turned again about the sacred fire, and offered to\neach other their own selves and loves as their marriage dowries.\n\n58. They showed to one another their shining faces, as their nuptial\npresents; and completed the ceremony by going round the fire, and\nscattering the fried rice upon it.\n\n59. The husband and wife now parted other hands, from their hold of the\npalms of one another; and their smiling faces, appeared as the lunar\ndisk on the new moon.\n\n60. After this they went to sleep on a flowery bedstead which they had\nnewly prepared before, when the moon had already run her course of the\nfirst watch of the night.\n\n61. She cast her beams to fall aslant on the bedstead, as when the\nattendant women cast their glances askance on the bridal bed.\n\n62. She next spread her bright beams all about the leafy bower of the\npair; as if to listen to the pleasant conversation, of the new married\ncouple.\n\n63. The pair having sat there awhile, in the light of the mineral\nlamps, retired to their sleeping bed, which they had prepared\nbeforehand in a secluded spot.\n\n64. It was a bedding of flowers, and beset by heaps of flowers of\nvarious kinds. (It is called the pushpa-talpa and is still in vogue\neven in the present form of marriage).\n\n65. There were heaps of lotuses of golden hue, as also mand\u00e1ra and\nother sorts of flowers, to drive away fatigue by their fragrance.\n\n66. The flat of the flowery bed of the bridal pair, resembled the\nplane of the broad and bright moon, and a level surface covered by the\ncooling ice.\n\n67. It bore likewise the resemblance of the wide sea, whose waters are\nimpregnated by the bright moon, and whose surface supplies a bed to\nAnanta--the sleeping spirit of the endless God.\n\n68. The loving pair then lay themselves down, and rolled upon their\nsnow white bed of flowers; as when Mandara mountain, rolled about and\nchurned the Milky ocean.\n\n69. They passed their bridal night in mutual caresses and conversation\non topics of love, and the live long night glided before them as a few\nmoments only.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CVII.\n\nTHE ADVENT OF FALSE INDRA IN THE COTTAGE OF THE HAPPY PAIR.\n\nArgument.--The travels of the pair, and their meeting the false Indra,\nand their call to Heaven.\n\n\nNow as the orient sun, gilded the world with his golden rays; the queen\nconsort of Sikhidhwaja, changed her form of Madanik\u00e1 to that of the\nBr\u00e1hman boy Kumbha.\n\n2. She stood confest as such before her friend, sitting in the cavern\nof Mandara, where they lived in conjugal union together, as a pair of\nsylvan deities by night.\n\n3. They roved about in the daytime, amidst the sylvan forests and\namongst the trees and plants loaded with fruits, and flowers of various\nhues.\n\n4. They passed the day as the two loving friends together, and spent\nthe night as a wedded couple; and never separated from the company of\none another either by day or night.\n\n5. They rambled about the caverns and arbours of the mountain, and\nsported under the bowers of _t\u00e1mala_ and _mand\u00e1ra_ trees.\n\n6. They roved about the skirts of Dardura, Kail\u00e1sa, Mahendra, Malaya,\nGandham\u00e1dana, Vindh\u00e1dri and Lok\u00e1loka.\n\n7. On every third day or night, when Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 found the prince to be\nfast asleep; she used to take upon herself her former form of the\nprincess, and repair to her royal palace, whence she returned to her\nhusband in the forest, soon after her discharge of the state affairs as\nbefore.\n\n8. Thus the loving pair lived as two friends by day, and as husband and\nwife at night; both decked in flowers, and sleeping on their flowery\nbed.\n\n9. They remained for a month in a gemming grotto of the Mahendra, and\nunder the shade of the delightful _sarala_ trees; where they were\ngreatly endeared by the sylvan deities and the Kinnara foresters.\n\n10. They lived a fortnight in the arbour of Suktimat mountain, beset by\nmand\u00e1ra trees and Kalpa plants; and feasted upon the fruits which they\ncould reach with their hands.\n\n11. They passed two months on the southern ridge of the winged mountain\nof Main\u00e1ka, and its bowers overhung by the fruits and flowers of the\ncelestial _p\u00e1rijata_ trees.\n\n12. They dwelt a month in the valley of Jammu, at the foot of Him\u00e1layan\nrange and beside the Jambu river; they regaled on the fruits of _J\u00e1m_,\nwhich gave its name to the whole country (Jambudw\u00edpa).\n\n13. They travelled through the northern Kuru country for ten days, and\nfor seven and twenty days, they sojourned in the districts lying north\nof Kosal\u00e1. (Oudh).\n\n14. In this manner they passed over many countries and hilly districts,\nliving together as two friends by day, and as a conjugal pair at night.\n\n15. Thus many months rolled away in their travels through many places,\ntill there arose a thought in the mind of Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1, to make a trial of\nher associate, and said:--\n\n16. I will make a trial of the heart of my partner, and see whether it\nis liable to have any attraction toward beauty and pleasurable objects.\n\n17. Thinking so, Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 showed by her magic skill the god Indra,\nsporting in the company of celestial nymphs in that forest.\n\n18. Sikhidhwaja seeing the god with his companion there, advanced\nbefore him and worshipped him, as he deserved, and said:--\n\n19. \"O lord of gods!\" will you deign to reveal unto me, the cause of\nyour advent to this forest from your seat in the high and far distant\nheaven.\n\n20. Indra replied:--It is the attraction of the virtues, that has\nbrought us down to these woods, as the flying kites of the air are\ndrawn on earth, by the string fastened in their breasts.\n\n21. Now rise from here, and proceed with us to heaven; where the\ncelestial nymphs are in eager expectation of seeing thee, since they\nhave heard of your wondrous virtues.\n\n22. Wear these sandals and hold the sword, and anoint thy body with\nthe ointment of these pills, and ascend to the upper sky and thence to\nheaven, in the manner of _siddhas_ and perfect _yogis_.\n\n23. On reaching to the region of the gods, you will enjoy all sorts of\ndelights, which awaits on the living liberated souls in this world and\nthe next, and to which I come to invite you at present.\n\n24. No holy man like yourself, doth ever neglect the proffered occasion\nto their prosperity, nor should you scorn to take your heavenward\ncourse with ourselves at his moment.\n\n25. Let there be no impediment to your ascent to and enjoyment of\nheaven, where you will enjoy your full bliss, and which will be blessed\nby your presence as the three worlds by that of Hari.\n\n26. Sikhidhwaja said:--I know O lord of gods, the delights that there\nabound in heaven; but I have my heaven every where, and there is no\nparticular place which I deem as heaven.\n\n27. I am content every where, and am pleased with every place; and my\nsoul being desirous of nothing from its fulness in itself, I am fully\nsatisfied every where.\n\n28. O God! if it be forever to remain in one place and in the same\nstate, what you call heaven; then pardon me for I decline to it\n(because I am at liberty here to go wherever I like).\n\n29. Indra answered:--I know, O holy saint! that those that have known\nthe knowable, and are perfect in their understandings, are indifferent\nto their sensual gratification; it is however not the part of the wise\nto reject an enjoyment, which offers itself unto him by the gracious\nallotment of his destiny.\n\n30. After the God had said so, the prince remained silent and returned\nno answer; when the God told him saying, \"If you are resolved not\nto leave this place, then I must leave you here, and take my way to\nheaven\".\n\n31. Sikhidhwaja said:--I must not go there now (\"though I may do so on\nsome future occasion\"). Upon this the God made farewell to Kumbha (who\nhad invoked him down by his spell, and disappeared from the spot).\n\n32. All the other Gods that were in the train of Indra, vanished also\nfrom view upon the disappearance of their chief; as the huge surges of\nthe sea, subside in the deep together with their foaming froths, and\nthe shoals of whales and fishes that played and lashed about the main,\nafter a lull of the gales that had raised them.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CVIII.\n\nMANIFESTATION OF CH\u00daD\u00c1L\u00c1 IN HER OWN FORM.\n\nArgument:--Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1's artifices to deceive Sikhidhwaja, and\nSikhidhwaja's strength of mind.\n\n\nVasishtha related:--The princess retracted the enchantment by which she\nhad presented the God Indra before the prince; and was glad to find,\nthat he had subdued (_lit._--put to blush) his desire of enjoyment.\n\n2. He remained with perfect tranquillity and equanimity of his mind, at\nthe advent and in the presence of the God Indra, and was fearless and\nindifferent to and unmoved even by the persuasion of that God.\n\n3. I will again try to know by some artifice or other, whether this\nprince is subject to the passions of anger or annoyment or any other\nfeeling, which serve at best but to blind-fold the understanding.\n\n4. With this intention she took upon her the form of the chaste\nMadanik\u00e1, at the approach of night; and when the moon had already\nappeared above that forest land.\n\n5. The wind was blowing gently, bearing the sweet fragrance of flowers;\nand Sikhidhwaja was sitting by the side of a river, to perform his\nevening devotion.\n\n6. At this time she entered her bower formed by the twining creepers,\nand decorated with garlands of flowers, resembling the covert of a\nsylvan goddesses.\n\n7. She slept there on the bed of flowers decked by herself, and adorned\nwith wreaths of flowers on her own person; she had her beloved one\nseated in her heart; and laid her on a pillow.\n\n8. Sikhidhwaja sought for her in the gardens and groves, and found her\nout at last sleeping in the bower, with the pretty paramour enfolding\nher neck in his arms.\n\n9. He had his hairs hanging on his neck and shoulders, and his\nbeauteous body daubed with pasted sandal wood. He had a chaplet of\nflowers on his head, which was distorted from his crown, and lay loose\non the pillow over which it rolled.\n\n10. The flowing tresses of the mistress, fell in two fold braids, on\nher shoulder blades of golden hue; and hung over her ears and eye-brows\nand her cheeks and face.\n\n11. He beheld the amorous pair, with their smiling faces; and both\nkissing and embracing one another, as when the ivy entwines a large\ntree. (Their bodies and lip-like leaves are joined together).\n\n12. They lay with their wreathed flowers, hanging loosely on their\npersons; and both were enamoured of one another by the mutual contact\nof their bodies, which infused their reciprocal passion in the heart of\neach other.\n\n13. They were both infatuated and ravished by their mutual love, and\nwere both bruising their breasts on the bosoms of one another.\n\n14. Seeing this, Sikhidhwaja felt no change in his disposition; but was\nrather pleased to find them sleeping so very happily in one another's\nembrace.\n\n15. \"Remain ye lovers, he said, as you are in your hearts' content; and\nI will put no obstacle in your way, nor make you afraid of me by my\npresence in this place.\" Saying so, he withdrew from there.\n\n16. Immediately at this time, she also withdrew her charm, and\ndisclosed herself as the beauteous Venus, and loving spouse of the\nprince.\n\n17. She came out and saw the prince sitting in a crag of the mountain,\nin the posture of his intense meditation, and with both his eyes open.\n\n18. The lady Madanik\u00e1 advanced towards him with a bashful countenance,\nand then sat silent by his side with her down cast look and melancholy\nappearance; as if abashed and ashamed of her past misconduct.\n\n19. Then as Sikhidhwaja was released after a moment from his\nmeditation, he cast his eyes upon her; and spoke to her with an\nexceedingly sweet voice, which bespoke the frankness of his mind.\n\n20. Lady, said he why do you come so soon to me, and leave off the\nenjoyment of thy happiness? Oh! happiness is the end and aim of all\nbeings on earth. (Oh happiness! our being's end and aim. Pope).\n\n21. Go, return to thy lover, and gratify him with all thy endearments;\nbecause mutual love which is so much desired by all, and is hard to be\nhad by any in this world.\n\n22. Think not, madam, that I am at all angry or sorry for this affair;\nas I am always contented in myself, with knowing the True One, that is\nonly to be known.\n\n23. Myself and my companion Kumbha, are always dispassionate in our\ndispositions; but thou that art sprung from the curse of Durv\u00e1sa as\na woman, art ever at liberty to do whatever thou likest, without\nincurring any displeasure of ours.\n\n24. Madanik\u00e1 replied:--So it is! Oh highly favoured one of Heaven, who\nknowest that women by their nature are ten times more passionate than\nmen, and should not therefore be chid on account of their gratification\nof their natural passions.\n\n25. I am but a frail woman, and find you absorbed in deep meditation, I\ncould not choose other wise than take me a partner as you saw, in the\ndepth of the forest and in the night: (Solitude and the darkness of\nnight, being so very favourable to love affairs).\n\n26. The weak sex in general, and the maidens in particular, are ever\nfond of paramour by their very nature for the gratification of their\nlust, which they can never have the power to check.\n\n27. A woman becomes graceful in the company of man, and no anathema or\nprohibition, nor the menaces of men, nor regard of chastity, is of any\navail to retard them from it.\n\n28. I am a damsel and a weaker vessel and an ignorant and independent\nlass, therefore sir, it becomes you to forgive my fickleness, because\nforgiveness is the most prominent feature of holiness.\n\n29. Sikhidhwaja replied:--Know my belle, that anger has no seat in my\nheart, as there grows no plant in the sky; and it is only for fear of\nincurring the ignominy of good people, that I must decline to take thee\nas my spouse.\n\n30. But I can associate with thee as before in mutual friendship for\never more, without bearing any yearning or grudge in our hearts, either\nfor or against one another (but remain in disinterested amity for life).\n\n31. Vasishtha replied:--After Sikhidhwaja had consented to continue in\nhis indifference and disinterested friendship, with his only companion\nin the forest; Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 was highly pleased to wit the nobleness of his\nmind, and thus said to herself.\n\n32. O the transcendent tranquillity, which this lord of mine has\ngained, and whose dispassionateness has set him above anger, and his\nliving liberation hath attained.\n\n33. No delight doth attract his heart, nor any excellence ever allures\nhis soul; whose mind is not elated by pleasure or prosperity, nor\ndepressed by pain or calamity.\n\n34. Methinks all the imaginable perfections, have jointly met in his\nperson; as the goddess of prosperity, is united with the personage of\nN\u00e1r\u00e1yana. (The Lord is the model of all excellence and perfection).\n\n35. It is now the proper time for me, to bring to his remembrance all\nand every thing relating to myself; by relinquishing my figure of\nKumbha, and disclosing myself to him in my form of Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1.\n\n36. With this thought, she shuffled off her shape of Madanik\u00e1, and took\nthe complexion of Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 upon herself.\n\n37. She then issued forth as Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1, from out of the body of Madanik\u00e1,\nand stood confest before him, as a jewel when taken out of the chest\nand exposed to view.\n\n38. The prince beheld her unblemished and lovely figure, and found his\nbeloved Madanik\u00e1 transformed to his wedded spouse Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 again.\n\n39. He saw his own wife present before him, like a lotus flower\nblooming in the spring; and as the goddess of prosperity rising out of\nthe earth, or as a brilliant gem laid open from its casket.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CIX.\n\nAPPEARANCE OF CH\u00daD\u00c1L\u00c1 IN THE PRESENCE OF HER LORD.\n\nArgument:--Recognisance of Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1, relation of her adventures and\nreunion with her lord.\n\n\nVasishtha related:--Sikhidhwaja was surprised to see princess, so\nsuddenly appearing before him; he looked upon her with his eyes staring\nwith mute astonishment, and then broke his silence, with uttering the\nfollowing words in his faltering speech.\n\n2. What art thou, O lotus eyed maid, and whence comest thou to this\nplace? why comest thou here, and how long hast thou been herein? say\nfor what purpose dost thou abide in this forest.\n\n3. Thy gait and figure, thy features and thy form, thy sweet smiles,\nmanners and courtesy, bespeak thee plainly, to be an ectype or\ncounterpart of the image of my wedded wife.\n\n4. Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 replied:--So it is my lord, as thou thinkest me to be thy\nlawful consort; I am no doubt thy princess Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1, who has met thee\ntoday in her natural and undisguised form, as thou also hast found her\nas the same.\n\n5. I assumed to me the counterfeit forms of Kumbha and others, only to\nremonstrate with thee on thy mistaken course; and used every art and\nstratagem to recall thee only to the right path.\n\n6. Ever since thy foolish renunciation of thy kingdom, for the purpose\nof the performance of thy ascetic austerities in the forest. I have had\nrecourse to the employment of every art, in order to reclaim thee to\nthe right path of religion.\n\n7. I awakened to the light of truth in my form of Kumbha, and all the\nother forms which I took upon myself, were chiefly intended for thy\ninstruction (and rousing thee from thy lethargy).\n\n8. The forms of Kumbha and others, were no real but magical appearance\nbefore thee; and thou that knowest the knowable, can very well discern\nthe whole affair in your meditation.\n\n9. You will be convinced of all this, if you will but look into it by\nthe light of your meditation and not otherwise. After Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 said so\nfar, the prince sat in his meditative mood and in the posture of his\nmeditation--_yog\u00e1sana_.\n\n10. He saw the whole affair, rising and exhibiting itself plainly\nbefore his mental vision; ever since the renunciation of his royalty,\nuntil his meeting with Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 at the end (from first to last).\n\n11. All these he saw rising in his soul, in one moment of his\nmeditation; and the successive events appeared before it, since the\nresignation of his kingdom to the present instant.\n\n12. The prince felt glad in himself, at seeing all these in his\nmeditation; and he greatly rejoiced with his full open eyes, when his\nmeditation was over at the end of the scene.\n\n13. He extended both his arms with the hairs standing at an end of\nhis body through joy, and his countenance shining with the gladness\nof his heart; while the fondness of his heart had its vent, in the\ntears trickling in his eyes, and his limbs slackened by his want of\nself-control.\n\n14. And then embraced her to his bosom, as a weasel does its mate\nfor a long time; and this continued embrace of theirs, indicated the\npermanency of their passion for one another.\n\n15. No body nor even the hundred hooded V\u00e1suki serpent, can express\nwith its hundred tongues, the height of the happiness which the happy\npair felt on this occasion of their reunion; when their two bodies met\ntogether, like the two orbs of the sun and moon in their conjunction;\nor as their two disks were joined in one, by adhesion of some paste or\nclay.\n\n16. The two constant lovers continued in their close contact, like two\ncontiguous rocks sticking to one another; till at last they parted\napart, with the profuse perspiration of their bodies.\n\n17. They then gradually relaxed their arms from their mutual embraces,\nand their hearts which had ere long over flowed with delight, became\nnow as light as two empty pots of water.\n\n18. They loosened their arms, and stared at one another with their\nfixed and mute gaze of amazement; and they sat silent with their deep\nfelt love, after the fervour of their delight was over.\n\n19. Then did the prince lay his hand under the chin of his legal and\nroyal consort, and bespoke to her in soft and sweet words distilling\nwith honey.\n\n20. Matrimonial love, is righteous and sweeter far than the celestial\nambrosia itself; how then was it, O my moon faced love, that thou\ncouldst continue so long without tasting its sweets?\n\n21. Thou hast doubtless undergone much privation, and suffered\ngreat pains in the absence of thy husband, and so also was the toil\nexceedingly great, that thou hast taken on thyself, in order to redeem\nme from the dungeon of the world.\n\n22. I know not with whom to compare thee, for the great wisdom that\nthou hast displayed in thine act of my redemption, for even the pious\nladies Sach\u00ed and Arundhat\u00ed and the great goddesses Gour\u00ed, G\u00e1yatr\u00ed and\nSri (Ceres) and Sarasvat\u00ed, fall short of thy admirable qualities.\n\n23. I see, my love, that even the personified powers of understanding\nand prosperity, the persons of the graces and clemency, and the virtues\nof forgiveness, sympathy and universal love, are unequal to thy\nunequalled virtues and beauty.\n\n24. I know no adequate recompense, that will compensate thy labour\nand repay my gratitude to thee, that hast spared no patience nor\npersevering pains, in the cause of my instruction and redemption.\n\n25. O say, what retribution will requite thy pains, and gladden\nthy mind; for thy redeeming me from the dark pit of ignorance, and\nreclaiming me from the boundless wilderness of errors.\n\n26. It is the true virtue of faithful wives, to raise their fallen\nhusbands much more than the s\u00e1stras or learning, riches, the spiritual\nguide and his teaching, can serve to save a man from his degradation.\n(Such accomplished wife, is very hard to be in India found in these\ndays of degeneration).\n\n27. Faithful and affectionate wives, are by far more serviceable to\ntheir husbands, than a brother or relation or any friend or servant, or\neven a _guru_ or one's riches ever can be.\n\n28. The faithful wife is the best guide of man, and her person serves\nto be his best abode and attendant than anything else in this world.\nTherefore the wife deserves to be always regarded above all others,\nwith utmost diligence and attention.\n\n29. The happiness of both worlds depends entirely on the person of the\ndisinterested and virtuous wife, who serves as a raft to her husband,\nfor his going across the wide ocean of the perilous world.\n\n30. How shall I, O virtuous lady! repay the recompense of what thou\nhast done for me, and whom I now regard as the wisest and best of all\nthe virtuous ladies in the whole world.\n\n31. Thy name must ever afterwards remain foremost of virtuous women in\nthe world, in all future narratives of female virtues and respectable\ncharacter among female sex.\n\n32. Methinks the virtuous lady Arundhat\u00ed and others, whose names are\nimmortalized for their virtues, in the record of sacred history, will\nfeel jealous of thee as they came to learn thy chastity and other\nadmirable qualities. So my dear, let me embrace thee again to my bosom.\n\n33. Vasishtha related:--Saying so, Sikhidhwaja again held Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 to\nhis fast embrace, as the weasel does his mate in their mutual fondness.\n\n34. Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 said:--My lord, I was sorry to find you entirely devoted to\nyour dry ceremonial duties, and it was for that reason, that I took so\nmuch pains to dissuade you from them, and lead you to the knowledge of\nthe intelligent soul.\n\n35. Now tell me, my lord, what shall we do in this place and what is\nthe use of your extolling my virtues so far.\n\n36. Sikhidhwaja replied:--O you most excellent among women, you are\nhere at your liberty to do whatever you think best; as it is the\nprerogative of respectable ladies, to manage everything in their own\nway.\n\n37. Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 answered:--Now my lord! as you have come to know, that you\nare released from the network of this world, and are set free on the\nshore from all its broils: you must have perceived now that your past\nausterities were all in vain and gone for nothing.\n\n38. You must have known that it is all in vain, when you say \"I do this\nor that, and will get its reward, and will thus be settled in life\netc.\"; say, do you smile to think of these and other vagaries of your\nsimple understanding.\n\n39. Do you know that these vagaries are the creatures of your avarice,\nand mere creations of your fancy? (because there is nothing that can do\nor bring out of your will or by your own power).\n\n40. Don't you yet perceive that these false creations of your\nimagination, are as unreal as the situation or appearance of mountains\nin the empty air?\n\n41. Say what is it that you have learnt after all, what is it that you\ndepend upon, and what is the object that you seek at present, and in\nwhat light you view all your bodily acts either of your past or future\nlife.\n\n42. Sikhidhwaja replied:--O dear lady, with thy blooming eyes,\nresembling the leaves of a full blown blue lotus, I am likewise\nsituated in and at the same place, wherein thou art located also.\n\n43. I am tranquil and alike (or likened to) the object of my\nmeditation, and am situated in the true ego long after leaving the\nsense of my personality: I am arrived to that state (of rapturous\ndelight) which is known to and felt by the heart only (lit, by way of\nthe heart).\n\n44. There is no power any where, nor even that of Hari and Hara,\nthat is able to obstruct that heart-felt joy of mine, which makes me\nthink myself as nothing else or less than the very intellect (or a\nparticle--chinm\u00e1tra) itself.\n\n45. I am now free from errors, and liberated from the trammels of the\nworld; I am neither this nor that, nor am I glad nor sorry at any thing\nor at any event in the world.\n\n46. I am neither any gross or subtile matter, nor am I like a ray of\nthe solar light, that emanates from the body of the sun, and falls\nbelow by traversing through the midday sky. (_i.e._ The human soul is\nthe image of God, and not a particle of the undivided essence of the\nDeity).\n\n47. I am of the essence of that glorious light, which is ever without\nits increase or decrease; I am always tranquil and ever even in my\nnature, and I am quite at ease, having no desire of mine own, nor\nanything to expect from any body.\n\n48. O thou most chaste lady, know me to be of that essence, which\nexists as extinct every where; I am what I am and what I cannot\ndescribe, and no other than this.\n\n49. O beauteous lady, with thy eye balls glancing like the flitting\nwaves of rivulets! I bow down to thee as my instructor; because it is\nby thy good grace that I have come across the turbulent ocean of the\nworld.\n\n50. I shall no more be soiled with the dirt of the earth, after being\ncleansed from it like a bit of gold from its alloy by repeated burnings.\n\n51. I am quite calm and easy, quiet and free from passions, and never\ndivided in my attention nor distracted in my mind. I am beyond all\nthings, I am ubiquitous and all pervading, and am situated as I am\n(without any change in me).\n\n52. Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 said:--If you remain in this manner, O thou lord of my\nlife, and dearly beloved one of my heart, then tell me, my lord, what\nis it that is now best agreeable to your most noble disposition.\n\n53. Sikhidhwaja answered:--I know of nothing, O good lady, that is\neither delectable or detestable to me; I do the same as you do, and am\nexactly of the same mind like yours in every thing.\n\n54. O thou that art as fair as the firmament, know that I have nothing\nto choose for myself, beyond what I am possest of; and leave it to you\nto choose and do whatever you think proper for us.\n\n55. I will act as you will do, like your shadow or reflexion in the\nmirror; because my mind being devoid of its desire and effort, I will\npatiently bear with whatever comes to pass on me.\n\n56. I will neither excite nor prevent, nor praise or blame thee for\naught thou doest; but leave thee at thy full liberty, to do whatever\nthou best choosest for thyself.\n\n57. Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 replied:--If it is so as you say, then hear me tell you\nwhat is best to be done by you at present; you are to set yourself\nto imitate the conduct of living-liberated persons, and set yourself\nreleased from your ignorance, by knowing the unity of the Deity,\npervading all things in every place.\n\n58. We are both as devoid of desires, as the empty void of the sky is\nwithout its population; but that which I wish to do is what you do not\nwish at all. (_i.e._ I wish to manage the state, which you dislike to\ndo).\n\n59. Say what man is there, who neglects his life and livelihood, and\nremains only, in his intellect? (No one can make his intellectual\nculture without having his life and living). And as there are three\nstages of human life, namely, its beginning or boyhood, its middle or\nyouth, and its end or old age, and we being situated in the midst of\nit, must do the duties appertaining to this state, before we proceed to\nthe last stage of our being.\n\n60. And as we are by birth the prince and princess of a realm, it is\nparamount on us to rule our state, and pass our days in the discharge\nof the duties of our royalty until our end.\n\n61. Sikhidhwaja said:--Tell me, O fickle minded lady, what you mean by\nthe three stages; and how we stand at the midmost one, without having a\nwhit to care for the final one.\n\n62. Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 replied:--Know prince, that we are royal personages by\nbirths, and must all along continue as such from the first to the last\nstage of our lives.\n\n63. Why then do you allow the imbecility and hermitage of old age, to\novertake you in the prime of your youth; when it is your duty to remain\nin your city and palace, and govern your princely state.\n\n64. And then I will reign there as thy consort queen, and crown the\nladies in the royal apartment; and all young maidens of the city will\ndance about in jovialty, to see their prince and princess again in the\nroyal palace.\n\n65. And then the city glittering with its uplifted flags, and\nresounding with its loud beating drums, and decorated with wreaths of\nflowers hanging all about it; will resemble a vernal garden, smiling\nwith its verdant plants, blooming buds and blushing flowers all around.\n\n66. Vasishtha related:--Hearing these words of the princess, the king\nsmilingly spoke to her in his mellifluous words, which bespoke them to\nproceed from the simplicity and frankness of his soul.\n\n67. If such is your pleasure, O long sighted (eyed) lady, to incite\nme to earthly pleasures, then tell me what cause had I to slight the\nheavenly happiness, which was proffered to me by god Indra.\n\n68. Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 replied:--Know prince, that I also have no taste in earthly\nenjoyments, nor any great zest for its grandeur or greatness. I depend\nupon the bounty of nature, and live as I receive from her hand.\n\n69. Hence I have no relish for heavenly joys or earthly royalty, nor\ndo I derive any pleasure from the performance of virtuous and manly\nacts. My delight is in the undisturbed equanimity of my mind, and the\npositive rest of my position.\n\n70. It is only after I have lost my feeling of pleasure in something,\nand that of pain in another, that I gain my equanimity and indifference\nto both, and am settled in my perfect rest and tranquillity.\n\n71. Sikhidhwaja responded:--You have rightly said, O large eyed dame,\nwith your calm and cool understanding; that it is all alike, whether we\nget or lose a kingdom, since we derive no lasting good nor suffer great\nevil, either from its gain or loss.\n\n72. Let us remain in perfect ease, by shunning all thoughts of pleasure\nor pain; and getting release of the envy, emulation and jealousy; and\ncontinue in the same state of thoughtlessness as we are at present.\n(Lovely lasting peace of mind, sweet delight of human kind; that\nneither envy nor ambition knows &c. see ode on contentment).\n\n73. In this manner did the conjugal pair, pass the day in their sweet\nendearments and mutual conversation; and the day glided on swiftly and\nsweetly over their feast of reason and flow of the soul.\n\n74. They rose on the departure of the day, to discharge their duties on\nthe parting days; and though they were ill provided for the emergencies\nof night, yet they well knew how to suit themselves to every occasions\nin every place.\n\n75. Disdaining heavenly bliss, the loving pair lived together in\nperfect contentment with their conjugal bliss; and they both slept in\nthe same bed-stead, loving and loved by one another.\n\n76. The live long night passed away swiftly in their heaven like\nhappiness of conjugal enjoyment, and upon their conferral of reciprocal\nlove and affection; and by exciting their anxiety for mutual embrace.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CX.\n\nFINAL EXTINCTION OF SIKHIDHWAJA.\n\nArgument:--Return of the Royal pair and retinue to their realm, their\nlong reign therein until their ultimate extinction in the Divine source.\n\n\nVasishtha related:--Then rose the orient sun above the horizon, like a\nbrilliant gem appearing out of its containing casket; and dispelled the\ndarkness of the sky, as the blazing gem enlightens the room with its\nrays.\n\n2. His dawning rays pierced the eyes of sleeping men, and oped their\neyelids, as they open the folia of the closed lotuses; and they roused\nthe lazy world to activity, as if the sun beams gave the sound of the\nmorning bell. (The _\u00e1r\u00e1ti_ bell is rung at dawn, like the matin cry of\nthe Muezzin, to raise the sleeping men to their morning service).\n\n3. The loving pair rose from their bed of flowers, in the grotto of the\nmount brightened by its mineral gold; and sat on their soft and cool\nleafy seats, to make their morning prayers and discharge their matin\nfunctions.\n\n4. Then rose Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 and stood before a golden urn of water, where she\nmade the presence to take his solemn oath by the names of seven oceans\nof the earth. (This oath is more binding than swearing by the water of\nGanges).\n\n5. She then made him sit by the sacred water pot, and facing towards\nthe rising sun in the east; and performed the rite of his installation\nto his kingdom, in this sequestered retreat.\n\n6. After the solemnity of the ceremony was over, they both sat on the\nsame bedding (vishtara), when the god like Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 spoke to her husband\nin the following manner:--\n\n7. Now my lord, leave off your quiet character of a _muni_ or hermit,\nand assume the vigour of the eight rulers of the upper skies and nether\nworld. (These ruling powers are Indra, Varuna &c.).\n\n8. After Ch\u00fad\u00e1l\u00e1 had done speaking in this manner, the prince assented\nto what she said; and told her that he will do as she bade him, and\nreturn to my realm with you.\n\n9. He then said to the princess, who was standing at the post of the\nwarder (_i.e._ who was in attendance); on her inaugurated lord. \"Now\nwill I, my dear, install you in the rank of the queen regent in my turn\nand return for yours.\"\n\n10. Saying so, he caused holy lavation in an adjacent pool, and\ninaugurated as the regnant Regina of his royalty and realm.\n\n11. Then the prince requested her to exert the powers, of her\nconsummation in yoga meditation; and to produce and bring to their\npresence a large force and retinue, as they wanted and thought suitable\nto their royal dignity.\n\n12. Hearing these words of prince, the praiseworthy princess produced\nby the power of her yoga, a body of forces, as large and over-spreading\nas bodies of out-stretching clouds in the rainy season.\n\n13. They beheld their cloud like forces, to be composed of lines of\nhorses and elephants, and flags flying in the air in the form of\nscattered clouds, while the forest land was covered over by the feet of\nfoot-soldiers.\n\n14. The sound of music, resounded in the hollow caves of mountains and\nwoods; and the flash of the coronets on the head of the soldiers, drove\naway the darkness of the sky.\n\n15. Then the royal pair mounted upon a royal elephant, which exuded\nwith the perfume of its ichor; escorted by the army on both sides of\ntheir procession.\n\n16. The prince Sikhidhwaja sat with the princess on the same seat,\nand was accompanied by a mighty force composed of foot-soldiers and\nchariots, that furrowed the ground as they drove on forward.\n\n17. The mighty force gushed out like a rolling mountain, and seemed to\nblow off and break down the rock and highlands, as the cyclone carries\noff every thing in its way.\n\n18. The prince then proceeded from the Mahendra mountain, seeing\non both sides the mountains and flatlands, rivers, forests and\nhabitations of men, as he went onward with his great array.\n\n19. He showed and pointed out to his royal consort, the places where he\nsojourned before, on his way from out of his city, which he now beheld\nin his heavenly brightness, upon his arrival there in a little time.\n\n20. All his chiefs and chieftains, advanced to meet their prince; and\nwelcomed with shouts of his victory, from their heart felt joy or from\nthe revival of their hopes; on the occasion of his happy return.\n\n21. The prince entered the city, accompanied by his two regiments on\nboth sides, and attended by bands of musicians playing in concord with\nthe singing and dancing party.\n\n22. He passed through the market place, and beheld the beauty of the\nshops one after the other; and was hailed by groups of the city women,\nwho pelted their handfuls of flowers and fried rice at him, as he\npassed on by them.\n\n23. He saw numbers of flags and banners hoisted on every side, and\nbeheld strings of pearls hung over the doorways of houses. The women of\nthe city were singing and dancing in merriment all around, and giving\nit the appearance of Kailasa--the happy abode of gods.\n\n24. He entered his royal palace with all his retinue, and was welcomed\nby the congratulations of his courtiers and attendants. He gave due\nhonors to all his servants, and then dismissed the train, as he entered\nthe inner apartment.\n\n25. He ordered a festivity to be observed for a week, and then employed\nhimself to the management of the state affairs, and in conducting his\nmeditation in the inner apartment.\n\n26. He reigned over his realm, for the period of a thousand and ten\nrains; and desisted from bearing the burthen of their bodies, and\nexpired together with his royal consort about the same time.\n\n27. Having quitted his mortal frame, he obtained his extinction like an\noilless and extinguished lamp, and attained the state, whence the high\nminded soul, has no more to return and be reborn on earth.\n\n28. It was by his observance of equanimity, that he enjoyed the\npeaceful reign of above a thousand years; and had the good fortune to\nlive and die together with the princess, with whom he became extinct in\nthe deity at last.\n\n29. It was by his _sama-drishti_ or view of all persons and things\nwith an even sight and in the same light, and his avoidance of fear\nand sorrow, together with his want of pride, envy and enmity, and the\ndispassionateness of his disposition, also his observance of the duties\nto which he was bound by his birth, that made him put off his death for\nmore than a thousand cold seasons (years), and a peaceful reign for all\ntime, with the co-partner of his felicity.\n\n30. Now R\u00e1ma, try to imitate this prince, and be like him in every\nthing; whose virtues had made him the crown of all other Kings on\nearth; who enjoyed all the enjoyments of life, and lived a long life\nuntil he attended his final state of immortality. Do you, O R\u00e1ma!\npursue your own callings, and never be sorry at any accident in life.\nBe ever prompt and vigilant in your duties, and enjoy the prosperity\nboth of temporal enjoyments and spiritual liberations at once.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXI.\n\nSTORY OF KACHA AND HIS ENLIGHTENMENT BY THE BRIHASPATI\n\nArgument:--His coming to knowledge of himself by the instruction of his\nfather Brihaspati.\n\n\nVasishtha related:--Now I have narrated to you fully, and finished my\nrelation of the narrative of Sikhidhwaja; and hope you will imitate his\nexample, to set you free from all sorrow and misery.\n\n2. Shut out the visible world from thy sight, and shut in thy passions\nand affections in close confinement within thy heart; and continue with\nthe dispassionateness of thy mind, for ever attached to the supreme\nspirit.\n\n3. Reign in thy kingdom with the leteration of Sikhidhwaja, and conduct\nyourself in a manner, that may secure to you the fruition of both\nworlds (namely--the peace and tranquillity of thy mind in this and the\nliberation of the soul in the next).\n\n4. As Sikhidhwaja came by degrees to attain his enlightenment, so also\ndid Kacha the son of Brihaspati receive the light of his reason, as I\nshall now relate unto you.\n\n5. R\u00e1ma said, please to tell me sir, in short, how this Kacha the\nsaintly son of the sage Brihaspati, came to his reason and right\nunderstanding, after he was deluded before by error as Sikhidhwaja.\n\n6. Vasishtha began by saying:--Hear R\u00e1ma, another tale as interesting\nas that of Sikhidhwaja, and the manner in which Kacha the progeny of\nthe god like Brihaspati was awakened to the light of truth.\n\n7. As he has passed the period of his youth, and was about to enter the\ncareer of worldly life, and had ere this acquired the full knowledge of\nworlds and things, he proposed the following query to his father.\n\n8. He said, tell me, O father, that knowest all righteousness, how\nthe animal spirit that is bound to the body by means of the too thin\nthread of life, is released from the bondage of it in this temporary\nworld.\n\n9. Brihaspati replied:--The soul, my son, is well able to fly away\neasily and swiftly over the perilous ocean of the world, by means of\nits abandonment of concerns with it.\n\n10. Vasishtha added:--Kacha hearing this holy dictum of his father,\nabandoned all his earthly properties and expectations, and left his\nhouse and went to the forest where he took his shelter.\n\n11. Brihaspati was filled with sorrow at his departure; because it is\nthe nature of good hearted men, to feel equal anxiety both at the union\nas well as the separation of their friends and inmates.\n\n12. After the sinless Kacha had passed three and five years in his\nsolitude, he came to meet unawares his reverent father, seeking for him\nin the wood.\n\n13. The son rose and did homage to his venerable father, who embraced\nhim in his arms and to his breast; and then bespoke to his father--the\nlord of speech, in words that flowed like honey from his lips.\n\n14. Kacha said:--You see father, that I have for these full eight\nyears, forsaken every thing and betaken myself to this solitary\nretreat, and still why is it, that I do not enjoy the lovely and\nlasting peace of mind which I have been seeking so long?\n\n15. Vasishtha related--Upon hearing these sorrowful words of Kacha, the\nlord of speech for Brihaspati told him again to abandon his all, and\nthen left him and made his way to the upper sky.\n\n16. After his father's departure, Kacha cast off his mantle made of the\nbark and leaves of trees; when his frail body appeared out of it like\nthe clear autumnal sky, after the setting of the sun and the stars of\nheaven.\n\n17. He then removed to another forest, where he took shelter in the\ncave of a rock, that defended him from rains and rainy clouds, as the\nautumnal sky protects the landscape from the floods of rain.\n\n18. He lived afterwards all apart on one side of a wood, with his naked\nbody and tranquil and vacant mind, and breathed only the breath of his\nlife; and as he was afflicted on one occasion in this state of his body\nand mind, he happened to see his father standing before him.\n\n19. The pious son rose from his seat, and did reverence to his sire\nwith all the marks of filial piety; being then clasped in his close\nembrace, he asked him in his faltering words as follows:--\n\n20. Kacha said:--Behold my father how I have forsaken every thing,\nand have even cast away my ragged wrapper and my shelter of reeds and\nweeds; and yet why is that I do not find my rest in my god, and what\nmust I yet do to attain to that state.\n\n21. Brihaspati said:--I told you my son, to forsake your all, and\nthis all means the mind, which comprehends all things in it; it is by\nforsaking your mind that you can gain your perfect felicity, because\nthe learned know the mind to be all in all, on account of its being the\ncontainer of every thing in itself, and there being nothing, besides\nthe ideas of them in our minds.\n\n22. Vasishtha related:--Saying so, the lord of speech--Brihaspati\nflew hastily into the sky; and his son Kacha, strove henceforth to\nrelinquish the thoughts and operations of his mind.\n\n23. But as found it impossible to subdue his mind, as also to suppress\nits action and motion; he then recalled his father to his mind, and\nthought in himself to be got into his presence.\n\n24. He considered in himself, the mind to be no part of his body, nor\nanything among the known categories in nature; It is quite aloof and\napart from all, and therefore perfectly guiltless in itself, why should\nI then abandon so innocent and constant a companion of mine.\n\n25. I shall therefore have recourse to my father, to learn how and why\nthe mind is accounted as the greatest enemy of men. Learning this fully\nfrom him, I will forthwith forsake it from me, and purchase my felicity\nthereby.\n\n26. Vasishtha related:--Having thought so, Kacha went upward to the\nupper sky, and meeting the lord of speech there, he bowed down to him,\nand did his homage with filial love and affection.\n\n27. He then called him aside, and asked him to tell him the true nature\nand form of the mind, so that he could be enabled to detect it thereby,\nand forsake it accordingly from him.\n\n28. Brihaspati answered:--The mind is known as the egoism of a man,\nby men acquainted with the mental science or psychology; the inward\nfeeling of one's egoism, takes the name of his mind and no more.\n\n29. Kacha rejoined and said:--O sire of unlimited understanding, that\nart the preceptor of thirty-three millions of gods; explain to me this\nintricate point of identity of the mind or intellect or egoism.\n\n30. I see the difficulty both of forsaking his mind, as also of\nhis forgetting his egoism or self-personality; and own also the\nimpossibility of one's consummation, without his relinquishing both\nof these; tell me now, O thou greatest of yogi thinkers, how is it\npossible to get rid of them in any wise.\n\n31. Brihaspati answered:--Why my son, the demolition of our egoism\nis as easy as the twinkling of our eyelids, and easier far than the\ncrushing of flowers; and there is not the least pain in your rejecting\nthis feeling.\n\n32. Now hear my boy tell you how this is to be done in a trice, and how\nit is to be removed like long standing bias of ignorance, by the true\nknowledge of the nature of a thing.\n\n33. There is no such thing in reality my son, as what you call your\negoism or personality; it is an unreality appearing as reality, and\na false chimera like the ghost of little boys. (Men fear death as\nchildren fear to go in the dark, thinking there are ghost and goblins\nlurking therein of Bacon's Essays).\n\n34. Like the fallacy of water in the mirage, and the mistake of a\nserpent in the rope; and alike all other errors appearing as truths,\nthe misconception of egoism is a mere delusion of the understanding.\n\n35. As it is the delusion of our vision, that represents a couple of\nmoons in the sky, and shows many things as their doubles; so it is\nthe error of our understanding that presents to us our false egoism,\ninstead of the one real and everlasting ego.\n\n36. There is one real Ego alone, which is without beginning and\nend, and quite pellucid in itself; it is more transparent than the\nclear atmosphere, and an Intelligence that knows all things. (Pure\nomniscience).\n\n37. He is always every where, as the light of all things and the life\nof all living beings; It is his essence only that spreads throughout\nall nature and shines in all her phenomena, as the same essence of\nwater, displays itself in all the rolling surges and waves and moving\nbubbles in the sea.\n\n38. Such being the case, tell me what is this special egoism of ours,\nand how and whence could a separate personality come to exist; where\ncan you find dust to raise from water, or behold water to spring from\nfire. (Things of the same kind spring from the same source, and the\nproduct is never different from the original).\n\n39. Shun my son your false belief of the difference of this one and\nthat another, and thyself a quite another person (a tertium quid); and\nabstain to think thyself as a mean and contemptible being confined\nwithin the limits of space and time. (_i.e._ Know thyself as identic\nwith the boundless and everlasting spirit and no other).\n\n40. Know thyself (soul) as unbounded by space and time, and ever\noverspread all over in thy essential transparency, which is always the\nsame in all seeming varieties, the one invariable, pure and simple\nIntellect.\n\n41. Thyself (soul) is situated, in the fruits, flowers and leaves of\nall the trees on every side of thee; and abides in every thing like the\npith and marrow for its subsistence, and as moisture for its growth.\nThe pure intellect eternally inheres in every thing as its soul and\nessence, tell me then O Kacha, whence you derive the belief of your\negoism and personal existence (as an embodied person).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXII.\n\nA FANCIFUL BEING AND HIS OCCUPATION OF AIR DRAWN AND AIR BUILT ABODES.\n\nArgument:--Man likened to a fantastic being, his egoism a mere\nphantasm, and his repeated births and bodies compared to aerial castles.\n\n\nVasishtha related:--Kacha the son of the divine preceptor Brihaspati,\nbeing thus advised by his venerable sire in the best kind of yoga\nmeditation; began to muse in himself as one liberated from his personal\nentity, and lost and absorbed in essence of the sole and self-existent\nDeity. So says the sufi Sadi:--\"_Dui rachum badar kardam Eke binan Eke\ndanam. &c._\" When I kept the duality of my personality out of my sight,\nI saw before me all blending in one, ineffable blaze of light.\n\n2. Kacha remained quite freed from his egoism and meism, with the\ntranquillity of his mind, and cut off from all the ties of nature, and\nall apart from the bonds of worldly life. So I advise you, R\u00e1ma, to\nremain unchanged and unmoved amidst all the changes and movements of\nearthly bodies and vicissitudes of a mortal life.\n\n3. Know all egoistic personality to total nihility, and never hesitate\nto remove yourself from this asylum of unreality, whose essence is as\nnothing at all as the horns of a hare whether you lay hold on it or\nlose your grasp of it (and as inextricable and inexplicable as the\nhorns of a dilemma).\n\n4. If it is impossible for your egoism to be a reality, why then talk\nof your birth and demise or your existence and inexistence; which is as\nit were planting a tree in the sky, of which you can neither reap the\nfruits or flowers.\n\n5. After annihilation of your egoism there remains the sole ego, which\nis of the form of intellect only and not that of fickle mind; It is\ntranquil and without any desire, and extends through all existence; it\nis minuter and more subtile than the smallest atom, and is only the\npower of intellection and understanding. (_i.e._ the omniscience).\n\n6. As the waves are raised upon the waters and the ornaments are made\nof gold; so our egoism springing from the original ego appears to be\nsomething different from it.\n\n7. It is our ignorance or imperfect knowledge only that represents the\nvisible world as a magic show, but the light of right knowledge, brings\nus to see the one and self-same Brahma in all forms of things.\n\n8. Avoid your dubiety of the unity and duality (_i.e._ of the\nsingleness of the prime cause, and variety of its products); but remain\nfirm in your belief of that state, which lasts after the loss of both\n(_i.e._ the one and all the same). Be happy with this belief, and never\ntrouble yourself with thinking any thing otherwise like the false man\nin the tale.\n\n9. There is an inexplicable magic enveloping the whole, and this world\nis an impervious mass of theurgy or sorcery, which enwraps as thickly,\nas the autumnal mists obscure the firmament, and which is scattered by\nthe light of good understanding.\n\n10. R\u00e1ma said:--Sir, your learned lectures, like draughts of nectar,\nhave given me entire satisfaction; and I am as refreshed by your\ncooling speeches, as the parching swallow is refrigerated by a shower\nof rain water.\n\n11. I feel as cold within myself, as if I were anointed with heavenly\nambrosia; and I think myself raised above all beings, in my possession\nof unequalled riches and greatness, by the grace of God.\n\n12. I am never satiated to the fullness of my heart, at hearing the\norations of thy mouth; and am like chakora or swallow that is never\nsatiate with swallowing dewy moon-beams by night.\n\n13. I confess to thee that I am never surfeited by drinking the sweet\nof thy speech, and the more I hearken to thee, the more am I disposed\nto learn from and listen to thee; for who is there so cloyed with the\nambrosial honey, that he declines to taste the nectarine juice again?\n\n14. Tell me sir, what do you mean by the false men of the tale; who\nthought the real entity as a nonentity, and look at the unreal world as\na solar and solid reality.\n\n15. Vasishtha related:--Now attend to me, R\u00e1ma, to relate unto you the\nstory of the false and fanciful man; which is pleasant to hear, and\nquite ludicrous and laughable from first to last.\n\n16. There lived once a man, like a magical machine somewhere; who lived\nlike an idiot with the imbecility of his infantine simplicity, and was\nfull of gross ignorance as a fool or block-head.\n\n17. He was born somewhere in some remote region of the sky, and was\ndoomed to wander in his etherial sphere, like a false apparition in the\nair, or a mirage in the sandy desert. (as a phantom or phantasmagoria).\n\n18. There was no other person beside himself, and whatever else there\nwas in that place, it was but his self or an exact likeness of itself.\nHe saw naught but himself, and aught that he saw he thought to be but\nhis self.\n\n19. As he grew up to manhood in this lonely retreat, he pondered in\nhimself saying: I am airy and belong to the aerial sphere; the air is\nmy province, and I will therefore rule over this region as mine.\n\n20. The air is my proprietory right, and therefore I must preserve it\nwith all diligence, then with this thought he built an aerial house for\nhis abode, in order to protect and rule his etherial dominion.\n\n21. He placed his reliance inside that aerial castle, from where he\ncould manage to rule his aerial domain, and lived quite content amidst\nthe sphere of his airy habitation for a long time.\n\n22. But in course of time his air built castle came to be dilapidated,\nand to be utterly destroyed at last; as the clouds of heaven are driven\nand blown away in autumn, and the waves of the sea are dispersed by the\nbreeze, and sunken down in a calm.\n\n23. He then cried out in sorrow, saying; O my air built mansion, why\nart thou broken down and blown away so soon; and, O my air drawn\nhabitation, where art thou withdrawn from me. In this manner, he\nwailed in his excessive grief and said; Ah, now I see, that an aerial\nsomething must be reduced to an aerial nothing.\n\n24. After lamenting in this manner for a long time, this simpleton dug\na cave in the vacuity of the atmosphere; and continued to dwell in that\nhollow cavity, in order to look up to his aerial realm from below. Thus\nhe remained quite content in the closed air of the cave for a long\nperiod of time.\n\n25. In process of time his cell was wasted and washed away, and he\nbecame immerged in deep sorrow upon the immersion of his empty cave.\n\n26. He then constructed a hollow pot, and took his residence in its\nopen bowel, and adapted his living to its narrow limits.\n\n27. Know that his brittle earthen pot also, was broken down in\ncourse of a short time; and he came to know the frailty of all his\nhabitations, as an unfortunate man finds the fickleness of all the\nhopes and helps, which he fondly lays hold upon.\n\n28. After the breaking of his pot, he got a tub for his residence (like\nthe tub of Diogenes); and from there he surveyed the heavenly sphere;\nas any one beholds it from his particular habitation.\n\n29. His tub also was broken down in course of time, by some wild\nanimal; and thus he lost all his stays, as the darkness and the dews of\nnight, are dispelled and sucked up by the solar light and heat.\n\n30. After he had sorrowed in vain for the loss of his tub, he took his\nasylum in an enclosed cottage, with an open space in the midst, for his\nview of the upper skies.\n\n31. The all devouring time, destroyed also that habitation of his; and\nscattered it all about, as the winds of heaven dispersed the dried\nleaves of trees, and left him to bewail the loss of his last retreat\nand flitting shelter.\n\n32. He then built a hut in the form of a barn house in the field, and\nthence watched over his estate of the air, as farmers keep watch and\ntake care of their granaries in the farms.\n\n33. But the driving winds of the air, drove away and dispersed his\nhovel, as they do the gathering clouds of heaven; and the roofless man\nhad once more to deplore at the loss of his last refuge.\n\n34. Having thus lost all his abodes, in the pool and pot, in the\ncottage and hut; the aerial man was left to bemoan over his losses, in\nhis empty abode of the air.\n\n35. Being thus situated in his helpless state, the aerial man reflected\nupon the narrow confines of the abodes, which he had chosen for himself\nof his own accord; and thought on the multifarious pains and troubles,\nthat he had repeatedly to undergo, in the erection and destruction of\nall his aerial castles by his own ignorance only.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXIII.\n\nTHE PARABLE OF THE VAIN MAN CONTINUED.\n\nArgument.--Interpretation of the parable of the Aerial man.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma said:--Please sir, give me the interpretation of your parable of\nthe false man, and tell me the allusion it bears to the fanciful man,\nwhose business it was to watch the air or sky (and to make his new\nposts for that purpose).\n\n2. Vasishtha replied:--Hear me, R\u00e1ma, now expound to you the meaning of\nmy parable of the false man, and the allusion which it bears to every\nfanciful man in this world.\n\n3. The man that I have represented to you, as a magical engine (m\u00e1y\u00e1\nyantra), means the egoistic man, who is led by the magic of his egoism,\nto look upon the empty air of his personality as a real entity (and\nwhose sole care it is to preserve its vital air as its only property).\n\n4. The vault of the sky, which contains all these orbs of worlds; is\nbut an infinite space of empty void, as it was ere this creation came\ninto existence, and before it becomes manifest to view.\n\n5. There is the spirit of the inscrutable and impersonal Brahma,\nimmanent in this vacuity and becomes apparent in the personality of\nBrahm\u00e1, in the manner of the audible sound issuing out of the empty\nair, which is its receptacle and support.\n\n6. It is from this also that there rises the subtle individual soul\nwith the sense of its egoism, as the vibration of current winds springs\nfrom the motionless air; and then as it grows up in time in the same\nelement, it comes to believe its having an individual soul and a\npersonality of its own.\n\n7. Thus the impersonal soul being imbibed with the idea of its\npersonality, tries to preserve its egoism for ever; it enters into many\nbodies of different kinds, and creates new ones for its abode upon the\nloss of the former ones.\n\n8. This egoistic soul, is called the false and magical man; because it\nis a false creation of unreality, and a production of vain ignorance\nand imagination.\n\n9. The pit and the pot, and the cottage and the hut, represent the\ndifferent bodies, the empty vacuity of which, supplies the egoistic\nsoul with a temporary abode.\n\n10. Now listen to me to relate to you the different names, under which\nour ignorant spirit passes in this world, and begins itself under one\nor other of these appellations.\n\n11. It takes the various names of the living soul, the understanding,\nmind, the heart, and ignorance and nature also; and is known among men,\nby the words imagination, fancy and time, which are also applied to it.\n\n12. In these and a thousand other names and forms, doth this vain\negoism appear to us in this world; but all these powers and faculties\nare mere attributives of the true ego which is imperceptible to us.\n\n13. The world is verily known to rest without its basis, in the\nextended and vacuous womb of the visible firmament; and the imaginary\nsoul of the egoist is supposed to dwell in it, and feel all its pain\nand pleasure in vain. (But the sense of the unreality of the world, as\nalso of one's personality, exempts from the sensations of pleasure and\npain).\n\n14. Therefore O R\u00e1ma, do not like the imaginary man in the fable, place\nany reliance in your false personality; nor subject yourself like the\negoistic man, to the fancied pleasure and misery of this world.\n\n15. Do not trouble yourself, like the erroneous man, with the vain care\nof preserving your vacuous soul; nor suffer like him the pain of your\nconfinement in the hollow of the pit, pot and others.\n\n16. How is it possible for any body, to preserve or confine the vacuous\nspirit in the narrow limit of a pot and the like; when it is more\nextended than the boundless sky, and more subtile and purer than the\nall pervading air.\n\n17. The soul is supposed to dwell in the cavity of the human heart, and\nis thought to perish with the decay and destruction of the body; hence\npeople are seen to lament at the loss of their frail bodies, as if it\nentailed the destruction of their indestructible soul.\n\n18. As the destruction of the pot or any other hollow vessel, does\nnot destroy the subtile air, which is contained in the same; so the\ndissolution of the body, does not dissolve the embodied and intangible\nsoul.\n\n19. Know R\u00e1ma, the nature of the soul, to be as that of the pure\nintellect; it is more subtile than the circumambient air, and minuter\nfar than the minutest atom; it is a particle of our consciousness only,\nand indestructible as the all pervasive air, which is never to be\nnullified.\n\n20. The soul is never born, nor does it die as any other thing at any\nplace or time; it extends over the whole universe, as the universal\nsoul of Brahma, which encompasses and comprehends all space, and\nmanifests itself in all things.\n\n21. Know this spirit as one entire unit, and the only real entity; it\nis always calm and quiet, and without its beginning, middle and end.\nKnow it as beyond the positive and negative, and be happy with thy\nknowledge of its transcendental nature.\n\n22. Now extricate your mind from the false cogitation of your egoism,\nwhich is the abode of all evils and dangers, and is an unstable thing\ndepending on the life of a man; it is full of ignorance and vanity, and\nits own destruction and final perdition (in hell fire). Therefore get\nrid of your egoistic feeling, and rely only on the ultimate and optimum\nstate of the one everlasting Deity.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXIV.\n\nSERMON ON DIVINE AND HOLY KNOWLEDGE.\n\nArgument:--Consideration of the Real and unreal, and of good and evil;\nExhortation to the former and Dehortation from the latter.\n\n\nVasishtha said:--The mind sprang at first from the supreme spirit of\nBrahma, and being possest of its power of thinking, it was situated in\nthe Divine soul, and was styled as the Divine mind or intellect.\n\n2. The fickle mind resides in the spirit of God as the feeling of\nfragrance abides in the cup of a flower; and as the fluctuating waves\nroll about in a river. Know, R\u00e1ma! the mind to radiate from its central\npoint in Brahma, as the rays of the sun extend to the circumference of\ncreation.\n\n3. Men forget the reality of the invisible spirit of God, and view the\nunreal world as a reality; as deluded persons are apt to believe a\nserpent in a rope (as they do in magic play).\n\n4. He who beholds the solar beams, without seeing the sun whence they\nproceed; views them in a different light than the light of the sun.\n(Whoso sees the world without its God, is an ungodly man, and sees a\nGodless world).\n\n5. He who looks at the jewel without looking into the gold whereof it\nis made, is deluded by the finery of the jewellery, without knowing the\nvalue of the precious metal of which it is made.\n\n6. He who looks at the sun together with his glory, or sees the\nsun-beams as not without the sun whence they proceed, verily beholds\nthe unity of the sun with his light, and not his duality by viewing\nthem separately. (The monotheism of ved\u00e1nta comprises everything in the\nunity of the Divinity).\n\n7. He who looks on the waves without seeing the sea, wherein they rise\nand fall, has only the knowledge of the turbulent billows disturbing\nhis mind; and no idea of the calm waters underlying them (like the\ntranquil spirit of Brahma).\n\n8. But who looks on the waves, without exception of the water of which\nthey are composed; he sees the same water to be in common in all its\nswellings, and has the knowledge of its unity and commonalty in all its\nvarieties.\n\n9. In this manner, seeing the same gold in its transformation into\nsundry sorts of jewels; we have the knowledge of the common essence of\ngold in all of them, notwithstanding their formal distinctions to sight.\n\n10. He who sees the flames only, and is unmindful of the fire which\nemits the flashes; is said to be ignorant of the material element, and\nconversant with its transient and evanescent flash only.\n\n11. The phenomenal world presents its aspect in various forms and\ncolours, as the multiform and variegated clouds in the sky; and whoso\nplaces his faith and reliance on their reality and stability, has his\nmind always busied with those changeful appearances.\n\n12. He who views the flame as the same with its fire, has the knowledge\nof the fire only in his mind, and does not know the duality of the\nflame, as a thing distinct from its unity.\n\n13. He who is freed from his knowledge of dualities, has his mind\nrestricted to the one and sole unity; he has a great soul that has\nobtained the obtainable one, and is released from the trouble of diving\ninto the depth of the duality and plurality of all visible objects.\n\n14. Get rid of thy thoughts of the endless multiplicities and varieties\nof things, and keep thy mind fixed steadily within the cavity of thy\npure intellect, and there employ it in the meditation of the supreme\nIntellect, in privation of the thoughts of all sensible objects. (This\nis the Buddhistic meditation of the soul only, by abstraction of the\nmind from all objects of sense).\n\n15. When the silent soul forms in itself its effort of volition, then\nthere rises in it the power of its versatile desires, like the force of\nthe fluctuating winds rising from the bosom of the quiet air.\n\n16. Then there rises the wilful mind from it, as a distinct and\nindependent thing of itself, and thinks in itself as the undivided and\nuniversal Mind of the mundane world.\n\n17. Whatever the volitive mind wills to do in this world, the same\ncomes to take place immediately, agreeably to the type formed in its\nvolition.\n\n18. This mind passes under the various names of the living principle,\nthe understanding, the egoism, the heart &c.; and becomes as minute\nas an animalcule and an aquatic mollusc, and as big as a mountain and\nfleeter than the swiftest winds.\n\n19. It forms and sustains the world at its own will, and becomes the\nunity and plurality at its own option; it extends itself to infinity,\nand shows itself in the endless diversity of objects which fill its\nample space.\n\n20. The whole scenery of the universe, is nothing otherwise than a\ndisplay of the eternal and infinite mind; it is neither a positive\nreality nor a negative unreality of itself, but appears to our view\nlike the visionary appearance in a dream.\n\n21. The phenomenal world is a display of the realm of the divine mind,\nin the same manner as the Utopia and Elysium, display the imaginary\ndominions formed in the minds of men; and as every man builds the airy\ncastle of his mind.\n\n22. As our knowledge of the existence of the world in the divine mind\nalone, serves to remove our fallacy of the entity of the visible world;\nso if we look into the phenomenal in its true light, it speedily\nvanishes into nothing.\n\n23. When we do not consider the visibles in their true colour, but take\nthem in their false colour as they present themselves to view; we find\nthem to ramify themselves into a thousand shapes, as we see the same\nsea-water in its diversities of the various forms of foam and froth, of\nbubbles and billows, of waves and surges, and of tides and whirlpools.\n\n24. As the sea bears its body of waters, so doth the mind show itself\nin the shape of its various faculties (which are in constant motion\nlike the waves of water); the mental powers are always busy with their\nmanifold functions under the influence of the supreme intellect,\nwithout affecting its tranquillity. (The movements of the mental\npowers, can never move the quiet intellect to action).\n\n25. Yet the mind doth nothing otherwise of itself and apart from the\ndictates of the intellect, whether in its state of sleeping or waking,\nor in its bodily or mental actions.\n\n26. Know that there is nothing anew, in whatever thou dost or seest or\nthinkest upon; all of which proceed from the inherent intellect which\nis displayed in all things, and in all the actions and thoughts of men.\n\n27. Know all these to be contained in the immensity of Brahma, and\nbesides whom there is nothing in existence; He abides in all things and\ncategories, and remains as the essence of the inward consciousness of\nall.\n\n28. It is the divine consciousness that exhibits the whole of the\nimaginary world, and it is the evolution of the consciousness, that\ntakes the name of the universe with all its myriads of worlds.\n\n29. Say how and whence rises your supposition of the difference of\nthings from one another, and wherefore you take this thing as distinct\nfrom the other; when you will know that it is your consciousness alone\nthat assumes these various forms, and represents itself to you under\nthe various shapes and colours. (If therefore there is no other object\nof which you are conscious besides our consciousness itself (_i.e._\nif there be nothing objective beside the subjective itself); then you\nhave nothing to fear about the bondage of your soul to any object\nwhatsoever; nor anything to care for your liberation from such bondage).\n\n30. R\u00e1ma, relinquish at once the vanity of your egotism, together with\nall its concomitants of pride, self-esteem and others, and give up\naltogether your thoughts of bondage and liberation (proceeding from\nthe belief of your objectivity and subjectivity); and remain quiet and\nself subdued in the continued discharge of your duties, like the holy\nMah\u00e1tm\u00e1s of elevated souls and minds.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXV.\n\nDESCRIPTION OF THE TRIPLE CONDUCT OF MEN.\n\nArgument.--Siva's interpretations of the three duties of action,\nEnjoyment and charity to his suppliant Bhringi.\n\n\nVasishtha said:--Take my advise, R\u00e1ma, and strive to be an example or\nthe greatest man in thy deeds, enjoyments, and bounty; and rely in thy\nunshaken endurance, by bidding defiance to all thy cares and fears.\n(_i.e._ Remain as a rock against all accidents of life).\n\n2. R\u00e1ma asked:--Tell me sir, what is the deed that makes the greatest\nactor, and what is that thing which constitutes the highest enjoyments;\ntell me also what is the great bounty, which you advise me to practice.\n\n3. These three virtues were explained long before by the God Siva, who\nholds the semi-circular disc of the crescent moon on his forehead; to\nthe lord of the Bhringis, who was thereby released from all disease\nand disquiet. (Were the fair Bhringis the Fringis or Franks of modern\ntimes? If not, then who were this class of demigods?).\n\n4. The God who has the horn of the moon as a crown on his head, used\nto hold his residence of yore, on a northern peak of the north polar\nmountain, together with all his family and attendants.\n\n5. It happened that the mighty, but little knowing lord of the\nBhringis, asked him one day, with his folded palms, and his body lowly\nbending down in suppliant mood before the godlike lord of Um\u00e1. (Um\u00e1\nis the same in sound and sense with Ush\u00e1 the dawn, appearing from the\neastern ridge of the northmost mountain).\n\n6. Bhringi said:--Deign to explain to me, my lord, what I ask thee to\ntell for my knowledge; for thou knowest all things, and art the God of\nGods.\n\n7. Lord! I am overwhelmed in sorrow, to see the boisterous waves of\nthis deep and dark world in which we have been buffeting for ever,\nwithout finding the calm and quiet harbour of truth.\n\n8. Tell me, my lord, what is that certain truth and inward assurance,\nwhereon we may rely with confidence, and whereby we may find our rest\nand repose in this our shattered mansion of this world.\n\n9. The lord replied:--Place always your reliance in your unshaken\npatience, and neither care nor fear for anything else, and ever strive\nto be foremost in your action and passion and in your relinquishment of\neverything (passion and relinquishment here are used in the senses of\npassivity and liberality).\n\n10. Bhringi rejoined:--Explain to me fully, my lord, what is meant by\nbeing the greatest in action and passion; and what are we to understand\nfrom the greatest liberality or abandonment of every thing here.\n\n11. The lord replied:--He is said to be the greatest actor, who does\nhis deeds as they occur to him, whether of goodness or of evil, without\nany fear or desire of fruition. (_i.e._ Who expects no reward of his\nacts of goodness, nor fears for the retribution of some heinous deed,\nwhich he could not avoid to do).\n\n12. He who does his acts of goodness or otherwise, who gives vent to\nhis hatred and affection and feels both pleasure and pain, without\nreference to any person or thing, and without the expectation of their\nconsequences, is said to be the greatest actor in the theatre of this\nworld.\n\n13. He is said to act his part well, who does his business without\nany ado or anxiety, and maintains his taciturnity and purity of heart\nwithout any taint of egoism or envy.\n\n14. He is said to act his part well, who does not trouble his mind\nwith the thoughts of actions, that are accounted as auspicious or\ninauspicious, or deemed as righteous or unrighteous, according to\ncommon opinion. (_i.e._ Best is the man that relies on his own probity,\nand is not guided by public opinion).\n\n15. He is said to perform well his part, who is not affected towards\nany person or thing, but witnesses all objects as a mere witness; and\ngoes on doing his business, without his desiring or deep engagement in\nit.\n\n16. He is the best actor of his part, who is devoid of care and\ndelight, and continues in the same tone and tenor of his mind, and\nretains the clearness of his understanding at all times, without\nfeeling any joy or sorrow at anything.\n\n17. He does his duties best, who has the readiness of his wits at the\nfittest time of action; and sits unconcerned with it at other times,\nas a retired and silent sage or saint (_i.e._ discharge your business\npromptly, but be no slave to service).\n\n18. He who does his works with unconcern and without assuming to\nhimself the vanity of being the doer of it, is accounted as the best\nactor, that acts his part with his body, but keeps his mind quite\nunattached to it.\n\n19. He is reckoned as the best actor, who is naturally quiet in his\ndisposition and never loses the evenness of his temper; who does good\nto his friends and evil to his enemies; without taking them to his\nheart.\n\n20. He is the greatest actor, who looks at his birth, life and death,\nand upon his rising and falling in the same light; and does not lose\nthe equanimity of his mind under any circumstance whatever.\n\n21. Again he is said to enjoy himself and his life the best, who\nneither envies anybody nor pines for any thing; but enjoys and\nacquiesces to whatever is allotted to his lot, with cool composure and\nsubmission of his mind.\n\n22. He also is said to enjoy every thing well, who receives with his\nhands what his mind does not perceive; and acts with his body without\nbeing conscious of it and enjoys everything without taking it to his\nheart.\n\n23. He is said to enjoy himself best, who looks on at the conduct and\nbehaviour of mankind, as an unconcerned and indifferent spectator; and\nlooks upon every thing without craving anything for himself.\n\n24. He whose mind is not moved with pleasure or pain, nor elated with\nsuccess and gain, nor dejected by his failure and loss; and who remains\nfirm in all his terrible tribulations, is the man who is said to be in\nthe perfect enjoyment of himself.\n\n25. He is said to be in the best enjoyment of himself, who hails with\nan equal eye of complaisance his decay and demise, his danger and\ndifficulty, his affluence and poverty, and looks on their returns and\nrevolutions, with an eye of delight and cheerfulness.\n\n26. He is called the man of greatest gratification, who sustains all\nthe ups and downs of fortune with equal fortitude, as deep sea contains\nits boisterous waves in its fathomless depth.\n\n27. He is said to have the highest gratifications who is possest of\nthe virtues of contentment, equanimity and benevolence (lit. want of\nmalice); and which always accompany his person, as the cooling beams\ncling to the disk of the moon.\n\n28. He too is greatly gratified in himself, who tastes the sour and\nsweet, the bitter and pungent with equal zest; and relishes a savoury\nand an unsavoury dish with the same taste.\n\n29. He who tastes the tasteful and juicy, as also the untasteful\nand dry food with equal zest, and beholds the pleasant as well as\nunpleasant things with equal delight, is the man that is ever gratified\nin himself.\n\n30. He to whom salt and sugar are both alike, and to whom both saline\nas well as saccharine victuals are equally palatable; and who remains\nunaltered both in his happy and adverse circumstances; is the man who\nenjoys the best bliss of his life in this world.\n\n31. He is in the enjoyment of his highest bliss, who makes no\ndistinction of one kind of his food from another; and who yearns for\nnothing that he can hardly earn. (Happy is he, who does not itch beyond\nhis reach).\n\n32. He enjoys his life best, who braves his misfortune with calmness,\nand brooks his good fortune, his joyous days and better circumstances\nwith moderation and coolness.\n\n33. He is said to have abandoned his all, who has given up the\nthoughts of his life and death, of his pleasure and pain, and those of\nhis merits and demerits at once from his mind.\n\n34. He who has abandoned all his desires and exertions, and forsaken\nall his hopes and fears, and effaced all his determinations from the\ntablet of his mind, is said to have relinquished every thing in this\nworld, and to have freed himself from all.\n\n35. He who does not take to his mind the pains, which invade his body,\nmind and the senses, is said to have cast away from himself, all the\ntroubles of his mortal state. (Because the mind only feels the bodily\nand sensuous pains, and its unfeelingness of them is its exemption from\ntroubles).\n\n36. He is accounted as the greatest giver (forsaker) of his all, who\ngives up the cares of his body and birth (life); and has abandoned the\nthoughts of acts, deemed to be proper or improper for himself. (These\nare the social, civil, ceremonial and religious acts, which are binding\non worldly people).\n\n37. He is said to have made his greatest sacrifice, who has sacrificed\nhis mind and all his mental functions and endeavours, before the shrine\nof his self-abnegation.\n\n38. He who has given up the sight of the visibles from his view, and\ndoes not allow the sensibles to obtrude upon his senses, is said to\nhave renounced all and every thing from himself.\n\n39. It was in this manner that the lord of gods Mah\u00e1deva, gave his\ninstructions to the lord of the Bhringis; and it is by your acting\naccording to these precepts, that you must, O R\u00e1ma! attain to the\nperfection of your self-abnegation.\n\n40. Meditate always on the everlasting and immaculate spirit, that is\nwithout its beginning and end; which is wholly this entire immensity\nand has no part nor partner, nor representative nor representation of\nitself. By thinking in this way you become immaculate yourself, and\ncome to be extinct in the self-same Brahma, where there is all peace\nand tranquillity.\n\n41. Know one undecaying Brahma, as the soul and seed of all various\nworks or productions that are proceeded from him. It is his immensity\nwhich spreads unopened throughout the whole existence; as it is the\nendless sky which comprehends and manifests all things in itself.\n\n42. It is not possible for anything at all, whether of positive or\npotential existence, to subsist without and apart from this universal\nessence of all, rely secure with this firm belief in your mind, and be\nfree from all fears in the world.\n\n43. O most righteous R\u00e1ma, look always to the inner soul within\nthyself, and perform all thy outward actions with the outer members of\nthy body, by forsaking the sense of thy egoism and personality; and\nbeing thereby freed from all care and sorrow, thou shalt attain to thy\nsupreme felicity.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXVI.\n\nMELTING DOWN OF THE MIND.\n\nArgument.--The Dissolation of the Mind and its Affections, as the only\nway for salvation of the soul.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma said:--O all-knowing sage please to tell me, what becomes of the\nessence of the soul after one's egoism is lost in his mind, and both of\nthem are dissolved into nothing.\n\n2. Vasishtha replied:--However great and predominant is one's egoism\nover himself, and how much so ever its concomitant evils of pride and\nignorance, may overpower on man; yet they can never touch the pure\nessence of the soul, as the water of the lake can not come in contact\nwith the lotus-leaf.\n\n3. The purity of the soul appears vividly in the bright and placid\ncountenance of a man, after his egoism and its accompanying faults are\nall melted down in his mortified mind.\n\n4. All the ties of our passions and affections are cut asunder and\nfall off, upon breaking the string of our desires, our anger becomes\nweakened, and our ignorance wears out by degrees (our desire or\ngreediness being the root of all evils).\n\n5. Our cupidity is weakened and wearied, and our covetousness flies\naway far from us; our limbs become slackened, and our sorrows subside\nto rest.\n\n6. It is then that our afflictions fail to afflict as our joys cease to\nelate us; we have then a calm every where and a coldness in our heart.\n\n7. Joy and grief now and then overcast his countenance, (as a cloud\nand sunbeam hide the face of the sky); but they cannot over shadow his\nsoul, which is bright as eternal day.\n\n8. The virtuous man becomes a favourite of the Gods, after his mind is\nmelted down with its passions; and then there rises the calm evenness\nof his soul, resembling the cooling beams of the moon.\n\n9. He bears a calm and quiet disposition, offending and opposing to\nnone, and therefore loved and honored by everyone; he remains retired\nand assiduous to his task, and enjoys the serenity of his soul at all\ntimes.\n\n10. Neither wealth nor poverty, nor prosperity or adversity, however\nopposite they are to one another; can ever affect or mislead or elate\nor depress the minds of the virtuous (who have already melted them down\nin themselves).\n\n11. Accursed is the man that is drowned in his ignorance, and does not\nseek the salvation of his soul, which is easily obtainable by the light\nof reason, and which serves to save him from all the difficulties of\nthis world. (Reliance in the immortality of the soul, supports a man\namidst all earthly calamities).\n\n12. He that wants to obtain his longed for felicity, by getting over\nthe waves of his miserable transmigrations in the vast ocean of this\nworld; must always inquire in himself as what am I, and what is this\nworld and what am I to be afterwards; what means this short lived\nenjoyments here, and what are the fruitions of my future state. These\ninquiries are the best expedients towards the salvation of the soul.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXVII.\n\nDIALOGUE BETWEEN MANU AND IKSHAKU.\n\nArgument:--Manu's Exposition of the Inquiries what am I &c. to Ikshaku.\n\n\nVasishtha said:--Know R\u00e1ma, that the renowned king Ikshaku was the\nfirst founder of your race; and learn O thou progeny of that monarch,\nthe manner in which he obtained his liberation.\n\n2. Once on a time when this monarch was reigning over his kingdom, he\ncame to think upon the state of humanity in one of his solitary hours.\n\n3. He thought in himself as to, what might be the cause of the decay,\ndisease, and death, as also of the sorrow, pleasure and pain, and\nlikewise of the errors to which all living beings are subject in this\nmortal world.\n\n4. He pondered long upon these thoughts, but was unable to find out\nthe cause he so earnestly sought, and happening to meet the sage Manu\none day, coming to him from Brahm\u00e1-loka or the seat of Br\u00e1hmans, he\nproposed the same queries to him.\n\n5. Having honoured the lord of creatures, as he took his seat in his\ncourt; he said to him to be excused for asking him some questions to\nwhich he was impelled by his impatience.\n\n6. It is by thy favour sir, that I take the liberty of asking thee the\nquestion, regarding the origin of this creation, and the original state\nin which it was made.\n\n7. Tell me, what is the number of these worlds, and who is the master\nand owner thereof; and when and by whom is it said to be created in the\nvedas.\n\n8. Tell me, how I may be extricated from my doubts and erroneous\nopinions regarding this creation, and how I may be released from them\nlike a bird from its net.\n\n9. Manu replied:--I see O king, that you have after a long time come\nto exercise of your reasoning, as it is shown by your proposing to me\nso important a question as this.\n\n10. All this that you see nothing real (they are merely phenomenal and\nunsubstantial); they resemble the fairy castles in the air, and the\nwater in the mirage of sandy deserts. So also anything which is not\nseen in reality, is accounted nothing in existence.\n\n11. The mind also which lies beyond the six senses, is reckoned as\nnothing in reality; but that which is indestructible, is the only thing\nthat is said to exist, and is called the _Tatsat_ the only being in\nreality.\n\n12. All these visible worlds and successive creations, are but\nunsubstantial appearances in the mirror of that real substance.\n\n13. The inherent powers of Brahma, evolve themselves as shining sparks\nof fire; and some of these assume the forms of the luminous worlds;\nwhile others appear in the shapes of living souls.\n\n14. Others again take many other forms, which compose this universe;\nand there is nothing as bondage or liberation here, except that the\nundecaying Brahma is all in all; nor is there any unity or duality in\nnature, except the diversity displayed by the Divine Mind, from the\nessence of his own consciousness (samvid).\n\n15. As it is the same water of the sea, which itself is in the various\nforms of its waves; so doth the Divine Intellect display itself in\nevery thing, and there is nothing else beside this. Therefore leave\naside your thoughts of bondage and liberation and rest, secure in this\nbelief from the fears of the world. (This is pantheistic belief of one\nGod in all).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXVIII.\n\nCONTINUATION OF THE SAME.\n\nArgument:--Manu's answers to the other questions of Ikshaku as \"Whence\nis this creation &c.\"\n\n\nManu continued:--It is by the divine will, that the living souls of\nbeings are evolved from the original intellect, (in which they are\ncontained), as the waves rise from the main body of waters contained in\nthe ocean.\n\n2. These living souls, retain the tendencies of their prior states in\nformer births, and are thereby led to move in their course of light\nor ignorance etc. in this world, and to accordingly subject either to\nhappiness or misery, which is felt by the mind and never affects the\nsoul itself.\n\n3. The invisible soul is known in the knowable mind, which is actuated\nby it (the soul); as the invisible node of Rahu, becomes visible to\nus in the eclipse of the moon (which is affected by it): (so the\nmind acting under the impulse of the soul, becomes liable to pain or\npleasure according to its desert).\n\n4. Neither the preceptor of s\u00e1stras nor the lectures of our spiritual\npreceptors, can show the supreme spirit before our sight; but it is our\nspirit which shows us the holy spirit, when our understanding rests in\nits own true essence (apart from its egoism and meism).\n\n5. As travellers are seen to be journeying abroad with their minds,\nfree from all attainment and aversion to any particular object or spot;\nso the self-liberated souls are found to sojourn in this world, quite\nunconcerned even with their bodies and the objects of their senses.\n\n6. It is not for good and Godly men either to pamper or famish their\nbodies, or quicken or weaken their senses; but to allow them to be\nemployed with their objects at their own option.\n\n7. Be of an indifferent mind (ud\u00e1sina) with regard to your bodies and\nall external objects; and enjoy the cool composure of your soul, by\nbetaking yourself entirely to your spirituality.\n\n8. The knowledge that \"I am an embodied being\" is the cause of our\nbondage in this world; and therefore it is never to be entertained by\nthem, that are seekers of their liberation.\n\n9. But the firm conviction that \"I am no other than an intellectual\nbeing, and as rarefied as the pure air\"; is the only belief that is\nable to extricate our souls from their bondage in this world.\n\n10. As the light of the sun pierces and shines, both within and without\nthe surface of a clear sheet of water; so doth the light of the Holy\nspirit, penetrate and shine both inside and outside of the pure souls\nof men, as well as in everything else.\n\n11. As it is the variety of formation, that makes the various kinds\nof ornaments out of the same substance of gold; so it is the various\ndispositions of the one soul, that makes the difference of things in\nthe world. (The same soul exhibiting itself in sundry forms).\n\n12. The world resembles the vast ocean, and all its created are\nlike the waves upon its surface; they rise for a moment, only to be\nsuccumbed to the latent flame of their insatiable desires.\n\n13. Know all the worlds to be absorbed in the vast ocean of the\nuniversal soul of God, as all things are devoured by death or time\n(K\u00e1la), and lie buried like the ocean itself in the insatiable womb of\nAgastya or Eternity.\n\n14. Cease to consider the bodies of men as their souls, and to behold\nthe visibles in a spiritual light; rely solely in thy spiritual self,\nand sit retired from all except alone with thyself.\n\n15. Men are seen foolishly to wail for the loss of their souls, though\nlying within themselves; as a fond mother moans on missing her child,\nforgetful of its sleeping upon her lap. (We miss our souls though\nsituated within ourselves).\n\n16. Men bewail for themselves as lost upon the loss of their bodies,\nand exclaim as it saying \"Oh I am dead and gone\" and so on, not knowing\nthat their souls are ever undecaying and imperishable.\n\n17. As the fluctuation of water shows many forms upon its surface,\nso the will of God exhibits the forms of all things in the divine\nIntellect. (Just as the active principle of our imagination, represents\nendless varieties of scenes in the mirror of our minds).\n\n18. Now king, keep the steadiness of your mind, repress thy imagination\nand the flights of thy fancy; call thy thoughts home and confine\nthem to thyself; remain calm and cool and unperturbed amidst all\nperturbations, and go and rule thy realm with thy self possession.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXIX.\n\nTHE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.\n\nArgument.--On the Expansion of Divine Powers, and the Perfection of\nHuman Soul.\n\n\nManu resumed:--The Lord with his creative power exerts his active\nenergy, and plays the part of a restless boy (in his formation of the\nworlds); and again by his power of re-absorption he engulphs all into\nhimself, and remains in his lonesome solity.\n\n2. As it is his volition that gives rise to his active energy for\naction, so it is his nolition that causes the cessation of his\nexertion, and the intromission of the whole creation in himself.\n\n3. As the light of the luminous sun, moon and fire, and as the lustre\nof brilliant gems spread themselves on all sides; and as the leaves of\ntrees put forth of themselves, and as the waters of a cataract scatter\ntheir liquid particles all about.\n\n4. So it is the lustration of divine glory, which displays itself in\nthe works of creation; which appears to be intolerable to the ignorant,\nwho know not that it is the self-same god though appearing to be\notherwise.\n\n5. O! it is a wondrous illusion that has deluded the whole world, which\ndoes not perceive the divine spirit, that pervades every part of the\nuniverse.\n\n6. He who looks on the world as a scenery painted in the tablet of the\nDivine Intellect, and remains unimpressible and undesirous of every\nthing, and quite content in his soul, has put an invulnerable armour\nupon himself (which no dart of error has the power to pierce).\n\n7. How happy is he who having nothing, no wealth nor support, has yet\nhis all by thinking himself as the all intelligent soul.\n\n8. The idea that this is pleasurable and the other is painful, being\nthe sole cause of all pains and anxiety, it is the consuming of these\nfeelings by the fire of our indifference to them, that prevents the\naccess of pain and affliction unto us.\n\n9. Use, Oh King! the weapon of your restless anaesthesia (sam\u00e1dhi), and\ncut in twain the feeling of the agreeable and disagreeable, and pare\nasunder your sensation of love and hatred by the sword of your manly\nequanimity.\n\n10. Clear the entangled jungle of ceremonious rites (karma kanda), by\nthe tool of your disregard of the merit or demerit of acts (dharma\nadharma); and relying in the tenuity of your soul (as rarer than the\nrarefied air), shake off all sorrow and grief from you.\n\n11. Knowing thy soul to be full of all worldly possessions, and driving\nall differences from thy mind, bind thyself solely to reason (viveka)\nand be free from all fabrications (kalpan\u00e1) of mankind; know the\nsupreme bliss of the soul, and be as perfect and unfailing as itself,\nand being embodied in the intellectual mind, remain quite calm and\ntransparent, and aloof from all the fears and cares of the world.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXX.\n\nCONTINUATION OF THE SAME. ON THE SEVEN STAGES OF EDIFICATION.\n\nArgument:--The three stages of the seekers of Liberation, and the three\nothers of the Liberated.\n\n\nManu continued:--Enlightenment of the understanding by the study of the\ns\u00e1stras and attendance on holy and wise men, is said to be the first\nstage of yoga by yogis. (These seven stages have been spoken of before\nin other words in the Utpatti-prakarana).\n\n2. Discussion and reconsideration of what has been learnt before, is\nsecond stage of yoga; the third is the rumination of the same in one's\nself and is known under the name of _nididhy\u00e1sana_ or self-communion\nof meditation. The fourth is silent meditation in which one loses his\ndesires and darkness in his presence before the light of God. (This\nis called the atm\u00e1sakshyat kara also; and all these four stages are\nexpressed in the vedic text. [Sanskrit: \u00e1tm\u00e1v\u00e1re sv\u00edtav\u00e1 mantab\u00e1\nnididhy\u00e1sitava karttavasveti]).\n\n3. The fifth stage is one of pure consciousness and felicity, wherein\nthe living-liberated-devotee remains in his partly waking and partly\nsleeping state. (This is half hypnotism).\n\n4. The sixth stage in one's consciousness of ineffable bliss, in which\nhe is absorbed in a state of trance or sound sleep. (This is known as\nsam\u00e1dhi or hypnotism).\n\n5. One's resting in the fourth and succeeding stages, is called his\nliberation, and then the seventh stage is the state of an even and\ntransparent light, in which the devotee loses his self consciousness.\n\n6. The state above turya or fourth stage, is called _nirv\u00e1na_ or\nextinction in God; and the seventh stage of perfection relates to\ndisembodied souls only and not to those of living beings.\n\n7. The first three stages relate to the waking state of man, and the\nfourth stage concerns the sleeping state, in which the world appears in\nthe manner of a dream.\n\n8. The fifth stage is the stage of sound sleep, in which the soul is\ndrowned in deep felicity; and the unconsciousness of one's self in the\nsixth stage, is also called his turya or fourth state: (because it is\nbeyond the three states of waking, sleeping or dreaming and sound sleep\n[Sanskrit: jagatnidrasusupt\u00e1h]).\n\n9. The seventh stage is still above the _turya_ state of\nself-unconsciousness; and which is full of divine effulgence, whose\nexcellence no words can express nor the mind can conceive.\n\n10. In this state the mind being withdrawn from its functions, it is\nfreed from all thoughts of the thinkables, and all its doubts and cares\nare drowned in the calm composure of its even temperament.\n\n11. The mind that remains unmoved amidst its passions and enjoyments,\nand is unchanged in prosperity and adversity, and retains full\npossession of itself under all circumstances, becomes of this nature\nboth in its embodied and disembodied states of life and death.\n\n12. The man that does not think himself to be alive or dead, or to be a\nreality or otherwise; but always remains joyous in himself, is one who\nis verily called to be liberated in his life time. (The happy minded\nare accounted as liberated in life).\n\n13. Whether engaged in business or retired from it, whether living with\na family or leading a single life (_i.e._ whether leading a social or\nsolitary mode of life), the man that thinks himself as naught but the\nintellect, and has nothing to fear or care or to be sorry for in this\nworld, is reckoned as liberated in this life.\n\n14. The man who thinks himself to be unconnected with any one, and to\nbe free from disease, desire, and affections; and who believes himself\nto be a pure aerial substance of the divine intellect, has no cause to\nbe sorry for anything.\n\n15. He who knows himself to be without beginning and end, and decay and\ndemise, and to be of the nature of pure intelligence; remains always\nquiet and composed in himself, and has no cause for sorrow at all.\n\n16. He that deems himself to belong to that intellect, which dwells\nalike in the minute blade of grass, as well as in the infinite space\nof the sky, and in the luminous sun, moon and stars, and as also in\nthe various races of beings, as men, N\u00e1gas and immortals; has no cause\nwhatever for his sorrow.\n\n17. Whoso knows the majesty of the divine intellect, to fill all the\nregions both above and below and on all sides of him, and reflects\nhimself as a display of his endless diversity, how can he be sorry at\nall for his decay and decline.\n\n18. The man that is bound to (or enslaved by his desire), is delighted\nto have the objects he seeks; but the very things tending to his\npleasure by their gain, prove to be painful to his heart at their loss.\n(Hence the wise are never elated or dejected, at either gain or loss of\ntemporal things, but are ever pleased and content with their spiritual\nsouls only which they can never lose).\n\n19. The presence or absence of some thing, is the cause of the pleasure\nor pain of men in general; but it is either the curtailment or want of\ndesires that is practiced by the wise. (The diminishing of desires is\npracticed by yogis in the fourth and its two succeeding stages; but its\nutter annihilation occurs only in the seventh and last stage of yoga).\n\n20. No act of ours nor its result (whether good or bad), conduces\neither to our joy or grief, which we do with unconcern or little desire\nor expectation of its reward.\n\n21. Whatever act is done with ardent employment of the members of the\nbody, and the application of the whole heart, mind and soul to it, such\nan act tends to bind a man; otherwise an indifferent action like a\nfried grain, does not germinate into any effect.\n\n22. The thought that I am the doer and owner of a deed, overpowers all\nbodily exertions, and sprouts fourth with results, that are forever\nbinding on the doer (_i.e._ an indifferent action may pass for nothing,\nbut a conscious and meditated act is binding on the actor).\n\n23. As the moon is cool with her cooling beams; and the sun is hot by\nhis burning heat; so a man is either good or bad according as the work\nhe does.\n\n24. All acts which are done or left undone, are as fugacious as the\nflying cotton on cotton trees; they are easily put to flight by the\nbreath of understanding (Jn\u00e1na or wisdom). All the acts of men are lost\nby discontinuance of their practice (as in Jn\u00e1na khanda).\n\n25. The germ of knowledge growing in the mind, increases itself day by\nday, as the corn sown in good ground soon shoots forth into the paddy\nplant.\n\n26. There is one universal soul, that sparkles through all things in\nthe world, as it is the same translucent water, that glistens in lake\nand large oceans and seas.\n\n27. Withhold sir, your notions of the varieties and multiplicities of\nthings, and know these as parts of one undivided whole, which stretches\nthrough them as their essence and soul.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXXI.\n\nCONTINUATION OF THE SAME.\n\nArgument.--The causes of the Elevation and degradation of living being.\n\n\nManu continued:--The soul is originally full of bliss by its nature,\nbut being subject to ignorance, it fosters its vain desire for temporal\nenjoyment, whence it has the name of the living soul (which is\nsubjected to misery). This corresponds with the scriptural doctrine,\nthat man was originally made in the image of his Maker (_i.e._ full of\nbliss); but being tempted by delusion to taste the forbidden sweetness,\nbecame the mortal and miserable human soul.\n\n2. But when the desire of pleasure, is lessened by the _viveka_ or\ndiscriminative knowledge of man, he forsakes his nature of a living and\nmortal being, and his soul becomes one with the supreme spirit. (Man by\nhis knowledge retrieves his godly nature).\n\n3. Do not therefore allow your desire of earthly enjoyment, to draw\nyour soul up and down to heaven and hell; as a bucket tied in its neck\nwith a cord, is cast down and again lifted up from a well.\n\n4. Those selfish folks who claim something as theirs from that of\nanother, are grossly mistaken and led into error, and are destined like\nthe dragging bucket to descend lower and lower. (The more niggardliness\nthe more degradation or the more selfishness the greater baseness).\n\n5. He who gets rid of his knowledge that, this is I and that is\nanother, and that this is mine and that is the others, gradually\nrises higher and higher according to his greater disinterestedness.\n(Disinterestedness characterises an elevated mind).\n\n6. Delay not to rely your dependance in your enlightened and elevated\nsoul, stretching over and filling the whole space of the sky, end\ncomprehending all the worlds in it. (This magnanimity is characteristic\nof the catholicity of Hindu religion).\n\n7. When the human mind is thus elevated and expanded beyond all limits,\nit then approaches the divine mind, and is assimilated to it. (This\nextinction is called its nirv\u00e1na).\n\n8. Any one who has arrived to this state, may well think in himself to\nbe able to effect whatever was done by the Gods Brahm\u00e1, Vishnu, Indra\n(by his intellectual body Varuna and others; who were of such elevated\nsouls and minds).\n\n9. Whatever acts are attributed to any of the Gods or other persons, is\nno more than the display of divine pleasure in that form.\n\n10. Whoso is assimilated to the divine intellect, and has become\ndeathless and unmindful of his mortal state, has a share of supreme\nfelicity for his enjoyment, which bears no comparison: (unspeakable\ndelight attends on the soul of the spiritualist).\n\n11. Continue to think this world as neither a vacuum nor a plenum; nor\na material or spiritual substance. It is neither an intellectual being,\nnor a quite insensible thing.[A]\n\n[A] Should you think it a nullity by the Sruti which says _neti-neti_\nit is naught, you deny the creatorship of God, who has created it as\nsomething substantial and tangible.\n\nAgain on the other hand, if you consider it as a hypostatic reality,\nyou introduce in that case positive duality, beside the reality of\none unity alone. So every other position being liable to objection,\nyou must think it as neither the one nor the other, but as something\nincomprehensible, or reflexion of the Divine Mind.\n\n12. By thinking in this way, you will have composure of your\ndisposition, or else there is no separate place or time or condition\nfor your liberation or salvation.\n\n13. It is by the absence of our egoism and ignorance, that we get rid\nof our personal existence, and it is our contemplation of the nature\nof God, and his presence before us in our meditation (s\u00e1kshat k\u00e1ra) of\nhim, that constitutes our _moksha_ or liberation.\n\n14. It is the even delight and perpetual tranquillity of the soul, that\nconstitutes our bliss and liberation; and these are to be obtained by\nmeans of calm and cool reasoning in the sense of s\u00e1stras, avoiding all\nimpatience and fickleness of our mind and temper, and the pleasure\nderived from our taste in poetry and light studies and trifling\namusement. (It requires us to be free from the fluctuations of our\ndesires and options of which there is no end).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXXII.\n\nTHE SAME. MANU'S ADMONITION TO IKSHAKU.\n\nArgument.--On the Elevation of Humanity and its ultimate liberation.\n\n\nManu continued:--Now the living liberated yogi, in whatever manner\nhe is clad, and however well or ill fed he may be, and wherever he\nmay sleep or lay down his humble head, he rests with the joy of his\nmind, and in a state of perfect ease and blissfulness, as if he were\nthe greatest emperor of the world. (Hence the fakirs are called _shah\nsahibs_ by people).\n\n2. He breaks down all the bonds of his caste and creed, and the rites\nand restraints of his order by the battery of the s\u00e1stra; and roves\nfreed from the snare of society, as a lion breaking loose from his\ncage, and roaming rampant every where. (Here the s\u00e1stra means the\nupanishads on the esoteric faith of spiritual freedom).\n\n3. He has his mind abstracted from all sensible objects, and fixed on\nan object which no words can express (_i.e._ the unspeakable rapture of\nhis mind); and he shines forth with a grace in his face, resembling the\nclearness of an autumnal sky.\n\n4. He is always as deep and clear (_i.e._ grave in his mind and clear\nheaded), as a large lake in a valley; and being rapt in holy and\nheavenly joy, he is always cheerful in himself, without his care for or\nwant of anything else.\n\n5. He is ever content in his mind without having anything for his\ndependance, or any expectation of the reward of his actions; and is\nneither addicted to any meritorious or unworthy acts, nor subject to\njoy or grief for aught of pleasure or pain.\n\n6. As a piece of crystal does not receive or emit any other colour\nin its reflexion, excepting that of its pure whiteness; so the\nspiritualist is not imbued with the tinge of the effects of his\nactions. (_i.e._ The spiritualist does not benefit by the retribution\nof his acts).\n\n7. He remains indifferent in human society, and is not affected either\nby the torture or subministration of his body; he deems his pain\nand pleasure as passing on his shadow, and never takes them to his\nheart, as they do not touch his intangible soul. (It was by virtue of\nthis indifference, that the holy saints did not shrink under their\npersecutions and martyrdom).\n\n8. Whether honoured or slighted by men, he neither praises nor\nis displeased with them; and remains himself either connected or\nunconnected with the customs and rules of society.\n\n9. He hurts no body, nor is hurt by any; and may be free from the\nfeelings of anger or affection, fear and joy (and other passions which\nare allotted to humanity).\n\n10. No one can have the greatness of mind of his own nature, but it is\npossible for the author of nature, to raise the greatness of mind even\nin a boy.\n\n11. Whether a man quits his body (dies) in a holy place, or in the\nhouse of a low chand\u00e1la; or whether one dies at this moment (in youth),\nor many years afterwards (in old age).\n\n12. He is released from his bondage to life, no sooner he comes to his\nknowledge of the soul and gets rid of his desires; because the error of\nhis egoism is the cause of his bondage, and the wasting of it by his\nknowledge, is the means of his liberation.\n\n13. He the living liberated man is to be honoured and praised, and to\nbe bowed down to with veneration, and regarded with every attention, by\nevery one who is desirous of his prosperity and elevation. (Because we\nhonour ourselves by honouring the great).\n\n14. No religious sacrifice nor wilful austerity, no charity nor\npilgrimage, can lead us to that supremely holy state of human dignity;\nwhich is attainable by us only by our respectful attendance upon the\ngodly, who have got rid of the troubles of the world. (Hence attendance\non saints and at their holy shrines, is accounted as productive of our\nsanctity).\n\n15. Vasishtha said:--The venerable sage Manu, having spoken in this\nmanner, departed to the celestial abode of his sire Brahm\u00e1; and Ikshaku\ncontinued to act according to the precepts, which were delivered to him\nby the sacred seer.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXXIII.\n\nON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE KNOWING AND UNKNOWING.\n\nArgument.--Theoretical and Practical Yogas and the practices of Aerial\njourney &c.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma said:--Tell me sir, that art most learned in spiritual knowledge,\nwhether the living liberated man of this kind (as you have described)\nattains to any extraordinary power; (or remains neutral with his\ntheoretical knowledge of yoga only).\n\n2. Vasishtha replied:--The all-knowing sage, has sometimes a greater\nknowledge of one thing than another, and has his mind directed in one\nparticular way than any other; but the learned seer of a contented\nmind, has his soul quite at rest in itself.\n\n3. There are many that have by their consummate knowledge of particular\nmantras, tantras, and the virtues of certain minerals, attained the\npower of aerial flight &c.; but what is there that is extraordinary\nin these (when these powers are in constant practice in the flight of\nordinary birds and flies?).\n\n4. So the powers of self-expansion and contraction &c., have been\nacquired by others by their constant practice of the same, (anima,\nlaghima and the like), which are disregarded by other seers in\nspiritual knowledge.\n\n5. There is this difference of these knowing seers, from the bulk\nof idle practitioners in yoga, that they are content with their\ndispassionate mind, without placing any reliance in practice.\n\n6. This is verily the sign of the unconspicuous seer in yoga, that he\nis always cool and calm in his mind, and freed from all the errors of\nthe world; and in whom the traces of the passions of love and anger,\nsorrow and illusion and the mischances of life are scarcely visible.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXXIV.\n\nTHE STORY OF THE STAG AND THE HUNTSMAN.\n\nArgument.--Degradation of the divine soul of man to the state of the\nanimal soul.\n\n\nVasishtha said:--Know now that the Lord (Divine soul), stops to take\nupon itself of the nature of the living or animal soul, as a Brahman\n(by birth) assumes the character of a vile sudra for some mean\npurpose, by disregarding the purity of its original nature. (This is\nthe degradation of the lordly and blissful soul, to the state of the\nsensitive animal soul, by reason of its meaner propensity).\n\n2. There are two kinds of living beings, that come into existence in\nthe beginning of the repeated creations; the one coming into existence\nwithout any causality, and are thence called to be causeless or\nuncaused (such as that is they are not made like pots and the like\n(_ghat\u00e1di_)), by means of the instrumental causality of the potters\nwheel, stick &c.\n\n3. Thus the soul emanating from the Divine, is subjected to various\ntransmigrations, and becomes many kinds of beings (in succession),\naccording to its previous acts and propensities. (Thus it is the\ntendency of the soul towards good or evil, that is the cause of its\nrise and fall or elevation or degradation).\n\n4. All beings emanate originally without any cause, from the source of\nthe divine essence; and then their actions become the secondary cause\nof continuous transmigrations (until the end of the world). (All souls\nare bound to their revolutions in repeated births, until their final\nextinction in the deity on the last day of resurrection, or by their\nprior liberation by _mukti_ or _nirv\u00e1na_).\n\n5. The personal acts of men, are the causes both of their happiness as\nwell as misery; and again the will which is produced by the conscious\nknowledge of one's self, becomes the cause of the action (_i.e._ the\nwill proceeding from one's consciousness of himself, is the cause of\nhis action, which again becomes the cause of his pleasure or pain as\nits result).\n\n6. Now this will or desire of any action or fruition, being likewise\nthe cause of one's bondage to this world, it is to be got rid of for\nhis liberation from it; and this what they call _moksha_, is no more\nthan our release from the bond of our desire. (Every wish enchains the\nsoul to earth, and drags it along to repeated birth).\n\n7. Be therefore careful to make your choice of what is right and\nproper, from whatever is wrong and improper; and try betimes to\ncontract your wishes within the narrowest scale.\n\n8. Do not let yourself to be possessor or possest of any thing or\nperson, but give up thinking on anything, beside what remains after\nthe thoughts of all other things. (_i.e._ Think alone of thine and the\nsupreme soul, which remains in the absence of everything else).\n\n9. Anything to which the senses are addicted at all times, serves to\nbind the soul the more that it has its zest for the same; as also to\nunbind and release the mind in proportion to the distaste which it\nbears to it. (_i.e._ Love a thing to be enslaved to it, and hate the\nsame to be saved from it).\n\n10. If there is anything which is pleasing to thy soul, know the same\nas thy binding string to the earth; if on the contrary thou findest\nnothing to thy liking here, you are then freed from the trammels of all\nthe trifles on earth.\n\n11. Therefore let nothing whatever tempt or beguile thy mind, to\nanything existent in either the animate or inanimate kind; and regard\neverything from a mean straw to a great idol as unworthy of thy regard.\n\n12. Think not thyself to be either the doer or giver, or eater or\nofferer, of whatsoever thou doest or givest, or eatest or offerest in\nthy holy oblations of the Gods; but art quite aloof from all thy bodily\nactions, owing to the immaterial nature of thy self or soul.\n\n13. Concern not thyself with thy past acts, or thy cares for future,\nover which thou hast no command; but discharge well thy present duties,\nas they are and come to thy hand.\n\n14. All the feelings and passions of men, as their appetites, desires\nand the rest, are strung together with their hearts; and therefore it\nis requisite to sever these heart strings with the weapon of a brave\nand strong heart (because the feelings are fostered in weak hearts and\nminds only).\n\n15. Now break your sensuous mind by the power of your reasoning mind,\nand restrain its rage of running into errors; as they break the iron\npegs by force of iron hammers (and remove one thing by another of the\nsame kind--similia similibus curantur.)\n\n16. So intelligent men rub out one dirt by another, and remove one\npoison by another poisonous substance; and so do soldiers oppose one\nsteel by a weapon of the same metal.\n\n17. All living beings have a triple form, composed of the subtile,\nsolid and the imperceptible spiritual bodies; now lay hold and rely on\nthe last, in utter disregard of the two former.\n\n18. The solid or gross body, is composed of the hands, feet and\nother members and limbs; and subsist in this nether world upon its\nsubsistence of food only.\n\n19. The living being has an intrinsic body also, which is derived from\nwithin; and is composed of all its wishes in the world, and is known as\nthe mental or intellectual part of the body.\n\n20. Know the third form to be the transcendental or spiritual body,\nwhich assumes all forms, and is the simple intellectual soul; which is\nwithout its beginning or end, and without any alteration in its nature.\n\n21. This is the pure turya state, wherein you must remain steadfast as\nin that of your living liberation; and reject the two others, in which\nyou must place no reliance.\n\n22. R\u00e1ma said:--I have understood the three definite states, of waking,\ndreaming, and sound sleep, as they have been defined to me; but the\nfourth state of _turya_ is yet left undefined, and I beg you to explain\nit clearly unto me.\n\n23. Vasishtha answered:--It is that state of the mind, in which the\nfeelings of one's egoism and non-egoism, and those of his existence and\ninexistence are utterly drowned under a total impassibility; and the\nmind is settled in one invariable and uniform tenor of tranquillity and\ntransparency.\n\n24. It is that state in which the selfish feelings of mine and thine,\nare altogether wanting; and in which one remains as a mere witness and\nspectator of the affairs of life. This is the _turya_ state of living\nliberation. (It is the state of a philosopher who lives to see and\nphilosophise and mix with nothing).\n\n25. This is neither the state of waking, owing to its want of any wish\nor concern, nor it is the state of sound sleep, which is one of perfect\ninsensibility.\n\n26. It is that calmness in which the wise man sees every thing, to be\ngoing on in the world; and it is like the state of insensibility of the\nignorant, in which they perceive no stir in the course of the world.\n(The calmness of the wise like the dullness of others is their _turya_\nalso).\n\n27. The evenness of the mind after subsidence of every jot of its\negotism in it, like the setting of the turbid waters underneath, is the\n_turya_ state of the _insouciance_ of the soul.\n\n28. Hear me relate to you an instance on this subject, which will\nconfer as clear a light to your enlightened mind, as that of all seeing\nGods.\n\n29. It happened once that a huntsman, roaming for his prey in some part\nof a forest, chanced to see a sage sitting silent in his solitude; and\nthinking it as something strange, he accosted him saying:--\n\n30. Have you seen, O sage, a wounded stag flying before me this way,\nwith an arrow fixed in its back?\n\n31. The sage replied:--You ask me, where your stag has fled; but my\nfriend, know that sages like ourselves and living in the forest, are as\ncool as blocks of stone (and insensible of every occurrence on earth).\n\n32. We want that egoism which enables one, in conducting the\ntransactions of the world; and know my friend, that it is the mind,\nwhich conducts all the actions of the senses. (All actions of the\norgans of senses being under the direction of the mind, as well as all\nsensible perceptions under its attention).\n\n33. Know that the feeling of my egoism, has been long before dissolved\nin my mind; and I have no perception whatever of the three states of\nwaking, dreaming and sound sleep. But I rest quiet in my fourth state\nof impossibility, wherein there is no vision of the visibles.\n\n34. The huntsman heard these words of the sage, but being quite at a\nloss to comprehend its meaning, he departed to his own way without\nuttering a word.\n\n35. I tell you therefore, O R\u00e1ma, there is no other state beyond the\nfourth or _turya_ quietism; it is that unalterable impassivity of the\nmind, which is not to be found in any other.\n\n36. The waking, dreaming and sound sleep, are the three palpable\nconditions of the mind; and these are respectively the dark, quiet and\ninsensible states, in which the mind is situated in this world.\n\n37. The waking state presents us the dark complexion of the mind, for\nits susceptibility of all the passions and evils of life; and the\nsleeping state shows us its quiet aspect, for want of its cares and\nanxieties.\n\n38. The state of sound sleep is one of insensibility, and the state\nbeyond these three bears the feature of death in it. Yet this dead\nlike figure possesses the principle of life in it, which is diligently\npreserved by yogis from harm and decay.\n\n39. Now R\u00e1ma, the soul which remains in its quiet rest, after its\nrenunciation of all desire, is said by sages to be in the coma or cool\ncalmness of itself, and the liberated state of the holy and devout yogi\non earth.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXXV.\n\nTHE MEANS OF ATTAINING THE STEADINESS OF THE TURYA STATE.\n\nArgument.--The means of attaining stability on Insouciance.\n\n\nVasishtha resumed:--Know R\u00e1ma, that the conclusion which is arrived at\nin all works on spiritual philosophy, is the negation of every thing\nexcept the entity of the supreme soul; and that there is no principle\nof ignorance (avidy\u00e1) nor that of delusion (m\u00e1y\u00e1), as a secondary agent\nunder one quiescent Brahma, who is ever without a second.\n\n2. The spirit of the Lord is always calm, with the serene brightness of\nthe divine Intellect in itself; it is full of its omnipotence, and is\nattributed with the appellation of Brahma.\n\n3. The Divine Spirit is ascertained by some as the formless vacuum\nitself, and by others as omniscience, and is called as the Lord God by\nmost people in the world.\n\n4. Do you avoid all these, O sinless R\u00e1ma, and remain quite silent in\nyourself, and be extinct in the divine essence, by restraining the\nactions of your heart and mind and by the tranquillity of your soul.\n\n5. Have a quiet soul in yourself, and remain as a deaf and dumb man in\nyour outward appearance; look always within yourself, and be full with\nthe Divine Spirit.\n\n6. Discharge the duties of your waking state, as if you are doing them\nin your sound sleep; forsake every thing in your inward mind, and do\nwhatever comes to thee outwardly, without taking any into thy heart.\n\n7. The essence of the mind is only for one's misery, as its want\nis for his highest felicity; therefore the mind must be drowned in\nthe intelligent soul, by destroying the action of the mental powers\naltogether.\n\n8. Remain as cold as a stone, at the sight of anything, which is\neither delightsome or disgusting to thee; and by this means learn to\nsubdue everything in the world under thy control.\n\n9. The objective is neither for our pleasure or pain, nor is it the\nintermediate state of the two; therefore it is by diligent attention to\nthe subjective, that we can attain the end of all our misery. (Live to\nthyself alone and unmindful of all others, in order to be completely\nblest).\n\n10. He who has known the supreme soul, has found within himself a\ndelight; resembling the cooling beams of the full bright moon; and\nbeing possest of the full knowledge of the essence of all things in the\nthree worlds, performs his parts in a manner as he did not attend to\nthem.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXXVI.\n\nDESCRIPTION OF THE SPIRITUAL STATE.\n\nArgument:--The seven stages of yoga Meditation, and the true state of\nspirituality.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma said:--Tell me sir, the practices of the seven stages of yoga; and\nthe characteristics of yogis in every stage.\n\n2. Vasishtha related:--Know R\u00e1ma, mankind to be divided into two\nclasses of the zealous and resigned (_i.e._ the active and the\ninactive); the one expectant of heavenly reward, and the other inclined\nto supreme felicity. Know now their different characters as follows:--\n\n3. Those that are addicted to enjoyments, think the quietude of\n_nirv\u00e1na_ as nothing to their purpose, and give preference to\nworldliness above the final bliss of others; and he that acts his part\non this sense, is styled an active and energetic man.\n\n4. Such a man of the world bears his resemblance to a tortoise, which\nthough it has its neck well hid in its shell, still stretches it out to\ndrink the salt water of the sea it inhabits; until after many births,\nhe gets a better life for his salvation (as when the tortoise is\nremoved to a lake of fresh water).\n\n5. But he who reflects on the nothingness of the world, and the\nuselessness of his situation in it; such a man does not allow himself\nto be carried on, by the current of his old and rotatory course of\nduties here in day after day.\n\n6. And he who reflects in himself, after being released from the burden\nof his business, on the delight of his rest after labour, he is the man\nwho is said to repose in his quiescence.\n\n7. When a man comes to reconnoitre in himself, how he shall become\ndispassionate, and get over the boisterous ocean of the world; such a\nman is said to have come to his good and right sense, and to stand on\nthe way to his tolerance.\n\n8. He who has an unfeelingness in his heart, of the very many thoughts\nthat daily rise in his mind; and manages his gravest and greatest\nconcerns, without being much concerned about them in his mind; each a\nman is said to taste the delight of his stayedness day by day.\n\n9. He who condemns the rustic amusements and mean employments of men;\nand instead of taking up the faults and failings of others for his\nmerry talk, employs himself to meritorious acts.\n\n10. Whose mind, is engaged in agreeable tasks and unpainsome acts; who\nis afraid of sin, and disdains all pleasures and bodily enjoyments.\n\n11. Whose discourses are full of love and tenderness, and appropriate\nwithout any harshness; and whose speeches are suitable to the time and\nplace in which they are delivered.\n\n12. Such a man is said to stand on the first step of yoga, when he\nmakes it his duty to attend the society of the good and great, whom he\nlearns to imitate in his thoughts, words, and actions.\n\n13. He collects also the work on divine learning from every where, and\nreads with attention and diligence; he then considers their contexts,\nand lays hold on the tenets, which serve to save him from this sinful\nworld.\n\n14. Such a man is said to have come upon the (first) stage of yoga,\nor else he is a hypocrite who assumes the guise of a yogi for his own\ninterest only. The yogi then comes to the next step of yoga, which is\nstyled the stage of investigation--_Vich\u00e1ra_.\n\n15. He then hears from the mouths of the best pandits, the explanations\nof the srutis and smritis, the rules of good conduct, and the manner of\nmeditation and conduct of yoga practice.\n\n16. He then learns the divisions of categories and distinction of\nthings, together with the difference between actions that are to be\ndone or avoided; all which being heard from the mouth of an adept\nin yoga, will facilitate his course through the other stages, in\nlike manner as the master of a house enters with facility into every\napartment of his dwelling. (The guidance of a _guru_ or spiritual\nguide, is essential to the practice of yoga).\n\n17. He wears off his outer habit of pride and vanity, his jealousy\nand avarice, and the other passions which formed as it were an outer\ngarment of his person, as a snake casts off his slough from him.\n\n18. Having thus purified his mind (from the vile passions), he attends\nto the service of his spiritual preceptors and holy persons, and makes\nhimself acquainted with the mysteries of religion. (This is the second\nstage of yoga, which is one of moral discipline and search after truth).\n\n19. He then enters into the third stage of unsociality or avoidance\nof all company, which he finds to be as agreeable to him as a bed of\nflowers. (Lit.: a bedstead be strewn with flowers).\n\n20. Here he learns to fix his mind to its steadiness, according to the\ndictates of the s\u00e1stras; and passes his time in talking on spiritual\nsubjects, in society of hermits and devotees.\n\n21. He sits also with the dispassionate _Vair\u00e1gis_, and religious\nrecluses _sany\u00e1sis_ who are disgusted with the world; and relying on\nthe firm rock of his faith, he wears out his long life with ease.\n\n22. He passes his moral life with cheerful delight of his loneliness,\nand pleasing tranquillity of his mind in his woodland retreat and\nwanderings.\n\n23. By study of holy books and performance of religious acts, he gets a\nclear view of things, as it generally attends upon the virtuous lives\nof men.\n\n24. The sensible man who has arrived to the third stage of his yoga\npractice, perceives in himself two kinds of his unconnectedness with\nthe world, as you will now hear from me.\n\n25. Now this disconnection of one with all others is of two sorts, one\nof which is his ordinary disassociation with all persons and things,\nand the other is his absolute unconnection with every thing including\nhimself. (_i.e._ One's entire irrelation with both the subjective and\nobjective).\n\n26. The ordinary unconnection is the sense of one's being neither\nthe subject or object of his action, nor of his being the slayer of\nor slain by anybody; but that all accidents are incidental to his\nprior acts (of past lives), and all dependant to the dispensations of\nProvidence.\n\n27. It is the conviction that, I have no control over my happiness or\nmisery or pain or pleasure; and that all prosperity and adversity,\nemployment and privation, and health and disease, ever betide me of\ntheir own accord.\n\n28. All union is for its disunion, and all gain is for its loss; so the\nhealth and disease and pain and pleasure come by turns, and there is\nnothing which is not succeeded by its reverse. Because time with its\nopen jaws, is ever ready to devour all things.\n\n29. The negative idea of inexistence, which is produced in the mind,\nfrom our want of reliance in the reality of things; is the very sense\nwhich is conveyed by the phrase of our ordinary unconnection with all\nthings.\n\n30. With this sort of the disunion of every thing in the mind, and our\nunion with the society of high minded men; and disassociation with the\nvile and unrighteous, and association with spiritual knowledge:--\n\n31. These joined with the continual exertion of our manliness in our\nhabitual practice of these virtues, one assuredly arrives to the\ncertain knowledge of what he seeks (_i.e._ his god), as clearly as he\nsees a globe set in his hands.\n\n32. The knowledge of the supreme author of creation, sitting beyond the\nocean of the universe, and watching over its concerns; impresses us\nwith the belief, that it is not I but God that does every thing in the\nworld, and that there is nothing that is done here by me, but by the\ngreat God Himself.\n\n33. Having left aside the thought of one's self agency on any act,\nwhoso sits quiet silent and tranquil in himself, such a one is said to\nbe absolutely unconnected with every thing in the world.\n\n34. He that does not reside within or without anything, nor dwells\nabove or beneath any object; who is not situated in the sky, or in\nany side or part of the all surrounding air and space; who is not in\nanything or in nothing, and neither in gross matter nor in the sensible\nspirit.\n\n35. Who is present and manifest in every thing, without being expressed\nin any; and who pervades all things like the clear firmament, who is\nwithout beginning and end and birth and death. Whoso seeks this Lord of\nall, is said to be set in the best part of this stage.\n\n36. Contentment is as sweet fragrance in the mind, and virtuous acts\nare as handsome as the leaves of a flower; the heart string is as stalk\nbeset by the thorns of cares and anxieties, and thralls with the gusts\nof dangers and difficulties.\n\n37. The flower of inward discrimination, is expanded like the\nlotus-bud, by the sun-beams of reason, and produces the fruit of\nresignation in the garden of the third stage of yoga-practice.\n\n38. As it is by association with holy men, and by means of the\nassemblage of virtuous acts, that one arrives on a sudden to the first\nstage of yoga:--\n\n39. So is this first step to be preserved with care, and grown up like\na tender sprout, with the watering of reasoning at its root (in order\nto lead it to the succeeding steps or stages).\n\n40. The yoga practitioner like a good gardener, must foster the rising\nplant of spiritual knowledge, by the daily application of reasoning\nto every part of it. (The parts of the plant of spirituality, are its\ndispassionateness, unworldliness and the like, which require to be\nreared up by proper reasoning).\n\n41. This stage being well managed, and all its parts being properly\nperformed, introduces the succeeding stages (all of which depend on the\nfirst as their basis).\n\n42. Now the better state of the third stage, as it has been already\ndescribed, is one of all desires and arrogations in the mind of the\nyogi.\n\n43. R\u00e1ma said:--Now tell me sir, what is the way of the salvation of an\nignorant man, of one of a base birth, and addicted to baseness himself;\nwho has never associated with the yogis, nor received any spiritual\ninstruction.\n\n44. Who has never ascended on any of the first, second or succeeding\nstages of yoga, and is dead in the like state of ignorance in which he\nwas born.\n\n45. Vasishtha replied:--The ignorant man that has never attained to\nany of the states of yoga in his whole life, is carried by the current\nof his transmigration to rove in a hundred births, until he happens by\nsome chance or other, to get some glimpse of spiritual light in any one\nof them.\n\n46. Or it may be that one happens to be dissatisfied with the world,\nby his association with holy men; and the resignation which springs\nthereby, becomes the ground of one of the stages of his yoga.\n\n47. By this means, the man is saved from this miserable world; because\nit is the united voice of all the s\u00e1stras, that an embodied being is\nreleased from death, no sooner he has passed through any one stage of\nyoga (or union with his maker).\n\n48. The performance of a part only of some of the stages of yoga,\nis enough for the remission of past sins; and for conducting the\nexpurgated person to the celestial abode in a heavenly car. (The wicked\nman turning from his wickedness, and doing what is right and saveth his\nsoul).\n\n49. He enjoys the Parnassian groves of Sumeru in company with his\nbeloved, when the weight of his righteous acts, outweighs those of\nunrighteousness.\n\n50. The yogi, released from the trap of his temporal enjoyments, and\nhas passed his allotted period; expires in due time, to be reborn\nin the houses of yogis and rich men, or in the private mansions of\nlearned, good and virtuous people.\n\n51. Being thus born, he betakes himself to the habitual practice of the\nyoga of his former birth; and has the wisdom to begin at once at the\nstage to which he was practiced, and which was left unfinished before\n(hence arises the difference in the capacities of youth).\n\n52. These three stages, R\u00e1ma, are designated the waking state; because\nthe yogi retains in them his perception of the differences of things,\nas a waking man perceives the visible to differ from one another.\n\n53. Men employed in yoga acquire a venerable dignity (in their very\nappearance), which induce the ignorant to wish for their liberation\nalso (in order to attain to the same rank).\n\n54. He is reckoned a venerable man, who is employed in all honorable\ndeeds, and refrains from what is dishonourable, who is steadfast in the\ndischarge of all his social duties, whether they are of the ordinary\nkind or occasional ones.\n\n55. He who acts according to customary usage, and the ordinances\nof s\u00e1stras; who act conscientiously and according to his position;\nand thus dispenses all his affairs in the world, is verily called a\nvenerable man.\n\n56. The venerableness of yogis germinates in the first stage, it\nblossoms in the second, and becomes fruitful in the third stage of yoga.\n\n57. The venerable yogi dying in state of yoga, comes first to enjoy the\nfruition of good desires for a long time (in his next birth); and then\nbecomes a yogi again (for the completion of his yoga).\n\n58. The practice of the parts enjoyed in the three first stages of\nyoga, serves to destroy at first the ignorance of the yogi, and then\nsheds the light of true knowledge in his mind, as brightly as the beams\nof full-moon illume the sky at night.\n\n59. He who devotes his mind to yoga, with his undivided attention from\nfirst to last, and sees all things in one even and same light, is said\nto have arrived to the fourth stage of yoga.\n\n60. As the mistake of duality disappears from sight, and the knowledge\nof unity shines supremely bright; the yogi is said in this state to\nhave reached the fourth stage of yoga, when he sees the world as a\nvision in his dream.\n\n61. The first three stages, are represented as the waking state of the\nyogi; but the fourth is said to be the state of his dreaming, when the\nvisibles disappear from his sight; as the dispersed clouds of autumn\ngradually vanish from sight, and as the scenes in a dream recede to\nnothingness.\n\n62. They are said to be in the fifth stage, who have their minds lying\ndormant in them, and insensible of their bodily sensations. This is\ncalled the sleeping state or hypnotism of yoga meditation.\n\n63. In this state there is an utter stop of feelings, of the endless\nvarieties of things and their different species, in the mind of the\nyogi, who relies in his consciousness of an undivided unity only;\nand whose sense of a duality is entirely melted down and lost in the\ncheerfulness of his wakeful mind.\n\n64. The fifth stage is likewise a state of sound sleep, when the yogi\nloses all his external perceptions, and sits quiet with his internal\nvision within himself.\n\n65. The continued sedateness of his posture, gives him the appearance\nof his dormancy, and the yogi continues in this position, the practice\nof the mortification of all his desires.\n\n66. This step leads gradually to the sixth stage, which is a state of\ninsensibility both of the existence and inexistence of things as also\nof one's egoism and non-egoism (of his own entity and non-entity).\n\n67. The yogi remains unmindful of everything, and quite unconscious\nof the unity or duality, and by being freed from every scruple and\nsuspicion in his mind, he arrives to the dignity of living liberation.\n(This tetrastich is based on the sruti which says, [Sanskrit: bhidyate\nhadayagranyi, chidyate svvammshyayah tasmindvashte par\u00e1vare]).\n\n68. The yogi of this sort though yet inextinct or living, is said to be\nextinct or dead to his sensibility; he sits as a pictured lamp which\nemits no flame, and remains with a vacant heart and mind like an empty\ncloud hanging in the empty air.\n\n69. He is full within and without him, with and amidst the fulness of\ndivine ecstasy, like a full pot in a sea; and possest of some higher\npower, yet he appears as worthless on the outside.\n\n70. After passing his sixth grade, the yogi is led to the seventh\nstage; which is styled a state of disembodied liberation, from its\npurely spiritual nature.\n\n71. It is a state of quietude which is unapproachable (_i.e._\ninexpressible) by words, and extends beyond the limits of this earth;\nit is said to resemble the state of Siva by some, and that of Brahm\u00e1\nby others. (The two views of the T\u00e1ntrikas and Ved\u00e1ntists).\n\n72. By some it is said to be the state of the androgyne deity, or the\nindiscriminate of the male and female powers; while others have given\nmany other denominations to it, according to their respective fancies.\n(The other systems have different appellations to designate this state).\n\n73. The seventh is the state of the eternal and incomprehensible God,\nand which no words can express nor explain in any way. Thus R\u00e1ma, have\nI mentioned to you the seven stages of yoga (each branding the other in\nits perfections).\n\n74. By practice of these perfections, one evades the miseries of this\nworld; and it is by subjection of the indomitably elephantine senses,\nthat one can arrive to these perfections.\n\n75. Hear me relate to you R\u00e1ma, of a furious elephant, which with its\nprotruded tusks, was ever ready to attack others.\n\n76. And as this elephant was about to kill many men, unless it could\nbe killed by some one of them; so are the senses of men like ferocious\nelephants of destruction to them.\n\n77. Hence every man becomes victorious in all the stages of yoga, who\nhas the valour of destroying this elephant of its sensuality the very\nfirst step of it.\n\n78. R\u00e1ma said:--Tell me sir, who is this victorious hero in the field\nof battle, and what is the nature of this elephant that is his enemy,\nand what are these grounds of combat where he encounters him, and the\nmanner how he foils and kills this great foe of his.\n\n79. Vasishtha replied:--R\u00e1ma! it is our concupiscence which has the\ngigantic figure of this elephant, and which roams at random in the\nforest of our bodies, and sports in the demonstrations of all our\npassions and feelings.\n\n80. It hides itself in the covert of our hearts, and has our acts for\nits great tusks; its fury is our ardent desire of anything, and our\ngreat ambition is its huge body.\n\n81. All the scenes on earth are the fields for its battle, where men\nare often foiled in their pursuit of any.\n\n82. The elephant of concupiscence kills members of miserly and covetous\nmen, in the state of their wish or desire, or exertions and effort, or\nlonging and hankering after anything.\n\n83. In this manner does this fierce greediness, lurk in the sheath\nof human breast under the said several names, and it is only our\nforbearance from those desires, that serves as the great weapon of\ntheir destruction.\n\n84. This ubiquious desire of our possession of everything in the world,\nis conquered by reflection on the ubiquity of the soul in all of them;\nand that the unity of my soul, stretches over and grasps all things\nthat I covet.\n\n85. He is doomed to suffer under the colic pain of this venomous\navarice, who minds to continue in this world, in the manner as it goes\non with the rest of mankind.\n\n86. It is the mitigation of the smart poison of avarice, that is our\nhighest wisdom, and it is our liberation, when the calm and cooling\ncountenance of inappetency appears to our sight.\n\n87. Words of advice stick to the sapient mind, as drops of oil adhere\non glass mirror; and that our indifference to the world is the only\npreventive of its thorns, and is the best advice to the wise.\n\n88. It is as advisable to destroy a desire by the weapon of\nindifference, no sooner it rises in the breast, as it is proper to root\nout the sprout of a poisonous plant, before it spreads itself on the\nground.\n\n89. The concupiscent soul, is never freed from its miserliness; while\nthe mere effort of one's indifference, makes it set quiet in itself\n(without cringing at others).\n\n90. It is by your carelessness about everything, and by your lying\ndown as supine as a dead carcass, that you can kill your desire by the\nweapon of your indifference, as they catch and kill fishes with hooks\n(by sitting silent beside some pond or lake).\n\n91. Let this be mine or that I may have it, is what is called desire\nby the wise; and the want of every desire for wealth &c., is called\nresignation by them.\n\n92. Know that the remembrance of some thing, is alike the desire of\nhaving the same in one's possession again; and it includes both what\nwas enjoyed before or next.\n\n93. O high minded R\u00e1ma, you must learn to remain as a block in your\nmind, by forgetting whatever you think of or otherwise; all of which\nmust be buried in oblivion, for your estrangement from the world.\n(Retire, the world shut out, imagination's airy wing repress--Young).\n\n94. Who will not lift up his arms, and have his hairs standing at their\nend, to hear and reflect in himself that, want of desire is the summum\nbonum of every one's desire. (Desire of nothing is the most desirable\nthing, is a paralogism in logic).\n\n95. It is by sitting quite silent and quiet, that one attains to the\nstate of his supreme felicity, a state before which the sovereignty of\nthe world seems as a straw.\n\n96. As a traveller traverses on foot through many regions, in order to\nreach to his destination, so the yogi passes through all his ordinary\nacts, to reach his goal of final bliss.\n\n97. What is the good of using many words, when it can be expressed\nin a few; that our desire is our strongest bondage, and its want our\ncomplete liberation.\n\n98. Now R\u00e1ma, rest quiet in your joy, with knowing that all this\ncreation is full of the increate, everlasting, undecaying and tranquil\nspirit of God; and sit quiet and delighted in yourself with viewing the\nvisibles in their spiritual sense.\n\n99. Know that it is the ignoring of every thing and the quiet posture\nof the yogi, which is called as yoga by the spiritual; and continue to\ndischarge your duties even in your yoga state, until you get rid of\nthem by the privation of your desires.\n\n100. It is also the unconsciousness of one's self, which is likewise\nstyled yoga by the wise; and it consists of the entire absorption\nof one's self in the supreme, by wasting away his mind and all its\noperations.\n\n101. Again this self absorption is the conceiving of one's self, as he\nis the all pervasive spirit of Siva, which is increate, self-conscious\nand ever benevolent to all. This conception of one's self is tantamount\nto his renunciation of every thing besides himself.\n\n102. He who has the sense of his egoism and meism (_i.e._ that this is\nI and these are mine), is never released from the miseries of life; it\nis the negation of this sensation that produces our liberation, and\ntherefore it is at the option of every body, to do either this or that\nfor his bondage or salvation.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXXVII.\n\nADMONITION TO BHARADW\u00c1JA.\n\nArgument:--Relation of the Quietude of R\u00e1ma, and the Queries of\nBharadw\u00e1ja; with further description of states of waking and others,\nand of the ultimate tur\u00edya condition of the fourth stage of yoga.\n\n\nBharadw\u00e1ja asked:--V\u00e1lm\u00edki saying:--Tell me sir, what did R\u00e1ma do\nafter hearing the lecture of the sage; whether he with his enlightened\nunderstanding put any other question, or remained in his ecstatic\nquietude with his full knowledge of yoga and the supreme soul.\n\n2. And what did next that supremely blest yogi (Vasishtha) do, who is\nadored by all and honoured even by Gods; who is a personification of\npure understanding, and free from the state of birth and death; who is\nfraught with every good quality and kindly disposed for ever to the\nwelfare and preservation of the peoples in all the three worlds.\n\n3. V\u00e1lm\u00edki replied:--After hearing the lecture of Vasishtha, combining\nthe essence of the ved\u00e1nta philosophy, the lotus-eyed R\u00e1ma became\nperfectly acquainted with the full knowledge of yoga.\n\n4. He felt the failing of his bodily strength, and the falling of the\nmembers of his body, he stared with his glaring eyes, and his clear\nintellect was shrouded under a cloud. He awoke in a moment from his\nentranced state, and felt a flood of rapturous joy within himself.\n\n5. He forgot the fashion of putting his questions, and hearing their\nanswers; his mind was full with the ambrosial draught of delight, and\nthe hairs of his body stood up like prickles in his horripilation.\n\n6. An inexpressibly ineffable light overspreads his intellect with its\nunusual glare; which cast the bright prospects of the eight dignities\nof yoga into utter shade. (The eight dignities--(_ashta-siddhis_) are\nso many perfections arrived at by practice of yoga).\n\n7. In this way did R\u00e1ma attain the supereminent state of Siva, in which\nhe sat sedate without uttering a word.\n\n8. Bharadw\u00e1ja said:--Oh! how much I wonder at such a high dignity,\nwhich R\u00e1ma had attained; and how much I regret at the impossibility of\nits attainment, by a dull and ignorant sinner as myself.\n\n9. Tell me, O great sage, how it may be possible for me to attain to\nthat stage of perfection, which it is impossible for the gods Brahm\u00e1\nand others to arrive at any time; and tell me likewise, how I may get\nover the unfordable ocean of earthly troubles.\n\n10. V\u00e1lm\u00edki replied:--It is by your perusal of the history of R\u00e1ma from\nits first to last, and by your following the dictates of Vasishtha\nas given in these lectures; as also by your consideration of their\ntrue sense and purport in your understanding, that you may be able to\nattain to the state that you desire. This is all that I can tell you at\npresent.\n\n11. The world is an exhibition of our ignorance, and there is no\ntruth in aught that we see in it; it is a display of our error only,\nwherefore it is entirely disregarded by the wise, and so much regarded\nby fools.\n\n12. There is no entity of anything here, beside that of the divine\nIntellect; why then are you deluded by the visibles, learn their\nsecrets and have a clear understanding. (or have the clearness of your\nunderstanding).\n\n13. The perception of the delusive phenomenals, resembles the waking\ndream of day dreamers; and he alone is said to be waking, who has the\nlamp of his intellect ever burning within himself.\n\n14. The world is based on vacuity, and it ends in vacuum also; its\nmidmost part being vacuous likewise, there is no reliance placed upon\nit by the intelligent and wise.\n\n15. Our primeval ignorance (avidy\u00e1) being accompanied by our primordial\ndesires, it presents all what is inexistent as existing in our\npresence; just as our fancy paints an Utopia or fairy city to our view,\nand as our sleep shows its multifarious dreams before us.\n\n16. Being unpracticed to taste the sweet plantain of your beneficent\nintellect, you are deluded greedily to devour the delirious drug of\nyour desire, and make yourself giddy with draughts of its poisonous\njuice.\n\n17. He who lays hold on true knowledge for his support, never falls\ndown into the pit of ignorance during his wakeful state; and those who\ndepend on their subjective consciousness alone (as in the _tur\u00edya_\nor fourth stage of yoga), stand above all the other states (of\nfallibility).\n\n18. So long as the adepts in yoga, do not plunge themselves\n(lit.--their souls), in the fresh and sweet waters of the great\nfountain of their consciousness; they must be exposed to the boisterous\nwaves of the dangerous ocean of this world. (Spiritual knowledge alone\nsaves a man from the troubles of life).\n\n19. That which has no existence before, nor will remain to exist\nafterwards (such as all created and perishable things in the world);\nmust be understood to be inexistent in the interim also, as our night\ndreams and fleeting thoughts that are never in being, and so is this\nworld and whatever is seen in it.\n\n20. All things are born of our ignorance, as the bubbles are swollen by\nthe air; they glisten and move about for a moment, and then melt into\nthe sea of our knowledge.\n\n21. Find out the stream of the cooling waters of your consciousness,\nand plunge yourself deep into it; and drive out all external things\nfrom you, as they shut out the warm and harmful sun-beams from their\nhouses.\n\n22. The one ocean of ignorance surrounds and over floods the world,\nas the single salt sea girds and washes the whole island; and the\ndistinctions of ego and tu etc., are the waves of this salt sea of our\nerroneousness.\n\n23. The emotions of the mind, and its various feelings and passions,\nare the multiform billows of this sea of ignorance; our egoism or\nselfishness is the great whirlpool, in which the self willed man is\nhurled of his own accord.\n\n24. His love and hatred are the two sharks, that lay hold of him in\ntheir jaws; and drag him at last into the depth (or to his death),\nwhich no body can prevent.\n\n25. Go and plunge yourself in the calm and cooling sea of your\nsolitude, and wash your soul in the nectareous waters of your ambrosial\nsolity; dive and dive deep in the depth of unity, and fly from the salt\nsea of duality, and the brackish waves of diversities.\n\n26. Who is lasting in this world, and who is passing from it, who is\nrelated to anyone, and what does one derive from another; why are\nyou drowned in your delusion, rise and be wakeful (to your spiritual\nconcerns).\n\n27. Know thyself as that one and very soul, which is said to be\ndiffused all over the world; say what other thing is there except that\nand beside thee, that you should regret or lament for (since the one\nsoul is all and that is thyself, thou hast all in thee, and there is\nnothing for thee to regret that thou hast not or dost require to have).\n\n28. Brahma appears to the ignorant boys, to be diffused through all the\nworlds; but the learned always rely on the undiffused felicitous soul\nof God.\n\n29. It is the case of unreasonable men, to grieve as well as to be\npleased on a sudden and without cause; but the learned are always\njoyous, and it is a sad thing to find them in error.\n\n30. The truth of the nice subtility of the divine soul, is hid from\neyes of the ignorant; and they are as doubtful about its nature, as men\nare suspicious of land and water where they are not. (Water appears as\nground in dark, and sand seems as water in the barren desert).\n\n31. See the great bodies of the earth, air, water and sky, which are\ncomposed of atomic particles, to be so durable as to last for ever; why\nthen mourn at the loss of anything in the world (which is never lost at\nall).\n\n32. From nothing comes nothing, and something cannot become nothing; it\nis only the appearance of the form, which takes place in the substance\nof things.\n\n33. But it is by virtue of the prior acts in the former births of men,\nthat they are reborn in different shapes to enjoy or suffer the results\nof those acts; adore therefore the lord God and author of the worlds,\nwho is always bountiful and bestower of all blessings.\n\n34. The worship of this God destroys all our sins, and cuts off the\nknots of snares of this world.\n\n35. You may worship Him in some form or other, until your mind is\ncleared and your nature is purified; and then you can resort to the\ntranscendent spirit of the formless Deity.\n\n36. Having overcome the impervious gloom of ignorance, by force of the\npurity of thy nature; you may pursue the course of the yoga, with the\ncontrition of your inner soul, and belief in the s\u00e1stras (and in the\ndictates of your spiritual guide).\n\n37. Then sit a moment in your fixed meditation (sam\u00e1dhi), and behold\nthe transcendent spirit in thy own spirit; in this state the dark\nnight of your former ignorance, will break forth into open and bright\ndaylight.\n\n38. It must be by one's manly exertion or by virtue of the meritorious\nacts of former births only, as also by grace of the great God, that men\nmay obtain the obtainable one. (The unknown God is said to be knowable\nand obtainable by yoga only).\n\n39. It is neither the birth nor character, nor the good manners nor\nvalour of a man, that ensures him his success in any undertaking,\nexcept it be by the merit of his acts in former births.\n\n40. Why sit you so sad to think of the events of inscrutable and\nunavoidable fate, since there is no power nor that of God himself to\nefface what has been already written destined in the forehead (or luck)\nof anybody. (Fate overrules even _Jove_ himself).\n\n41. Where is the expounder of intellectual science, and where is the\npupil that can comprehend it fully; what is this creeping plant of\nignorance, and what is this inscrutable destiny, that joins two things\ntogether, are questions too difficult to be solved.\n\n42. O Bharadw\u00e1ja! Let your reason assist you to overcome your illusion,\nand then you will no doubt gain an uncommon share of wisdom.\n\n43. See how a high mettled hero overpowers on all his imminent dangers,\nand stretches his conquest far and wide; and behold on the other hand,\nhow a mean spirited man is tried and grieves at the ordinary casualties\nof life.\n\n44. A good understanding is the result of, and attendant upon the\nmeritorious deeds of many lives; as it appears in the acts of wise men,\nand in the lives of all living liberated persons.\n\n45. Know my son, that the same action is fraught both with your freedom\nas well as bondage, accordingly as it proves favourable or adverse to\nyou. (As true faith is attended with salvation, but false faith or\nhypocrisy with damnation).\n\n46. The righteous acts of virtuous men, serve to destroy the sins of\ntheir past lives; as the showers of rain water, extinguish the flame of\na conflagration in the forest.\n\n47. But my friend, I would advise you rather to avoid your religious\nacts, and attach your mind to the meditation of Brahma, if you want\nto avoid your falling into the deep eddy of this world. (Because all\nactions bind a man to the world over and over again).\n\n48. So long as one is attached to the outer world, being led to it by\nhis insatiable desires, or so long as one is led by the insatiable\ndesires of his mind, to attach himself to the outer world; he is\nexposed to the contrary wind and waves of the sea, and has only to find\nhis rest in the calm water of his loneliness.\n\n49. Why do you lean so much upon your sorrow only to blind your\nunderstanding, rather support yourself on the strong staff of your good\nunderstanding, and it will never break under you.\n\n50. Those who are reckoned in the number of the great men, never allow\nthemselves to be altered and moved by their joy or grief; and to be\ncarried away like straws by the current of the river.\n\n51. Why do you sorrow, friend, for these people, who are swinging in\nthe cradle of the circumstance of life in the dark night of this world,\nand playing their several parts with giddy amusement.\n\n52. Look at the gamesome time, that sports joyously in this world, with\nthe slaughter and production of endless beings by turns.\n\n53. There is no body of any age or sex for his game in particular, he\nchases all in general like the all devouring dragon.\n\n54. Why talk of mortal men and other animals, that live to die in a\nmoment; even the whole body of gods (said to be immortals), are under\nthe clutches of the remorseless and relentless death.\n\n55. Why do you dance and make yourself merry in your amusement, when\nyou are in danger of losing by degrees the powers of your body and\nlimbs; sit but silently for a while, and see the drama of the course of\nthis world (combining its comedy and tragedy together).\n\n56. Seeing the ever varying scenes of this changeful theatre of the\nworld, the wise spectator, O good Bharadw\u00e1ja, never shrinks nor\nshudders for a moment (knowing such to be its nature).\n\n57. Shun your unwelcomed sorrow, and seek for the favourable amidst all\nthat is unfavourable; nor sadden the clear and cheerful countenance of\nyour soul, which is of the nature of the perfectly blissful intellect\nof God.\n\n58. Bear always your reverence towards the gods, Br\u00e1hmans and your\nsuperiors; and be a friend even to irrational animals; in order to meet\nwith the grace of God, according to the dicta of the vedas (that the\ngrace is the leader to the light of truth, and thereby to the way of\nliberation).\n\n59. Bharadw\u00e1ja rejoined:--I have known by your kindness all these and\nmuch more of such truths, and come to find that, there is not a greater\nfriend to us than our indifference to the world, nor a greater enemy\nthan this world itself to us.\n\n60. I want to learn at present the substance of all the knowledge,\nwhich was imparted by the sage Vasishtha, in many works of great\nverbosity.\n\n61. V\u00e1lm\u00edki answered:--Hear now, Bharadw\u00e1ja, of the highest knowledge\n(which is taught by that sage) for the salvation of mankind; and the\nhearing of which will save you from your drowning in the iniquities of\nthe world.\n\n62. First bow down to that supreme being, who is of the nature of the\nsole entity combined with intellect and felicity; (all which are his\nforms in the abstract), and who is ever existent with his attributes of\ncreation, sustentation and destruction: (which are said to be so many\nstates of himself).\n\n63. I will tell you in short, and upon the authority of the sruti; how\nyou may come to the knowledge of the first principle, and the manner\nin which it exhibits itself in the acts of creation, preservation and\ndestruction of the universe.\n\n64. But tell me first, how you have lost your remembrance of what\nI have told you on this subject; since it is possible by your\nreconsideration of all that from first to last, to know every thing\nfrom your own memory, as they have a survey of the earth from a small\nglobe in their hand.\n\n65. Now consider all this in your own mind, and you will get the truth\nwhich will prevent all your sorrows; associate moreover with the\nlearned and study the best books, which with the help of your reasoning\nand resignation, may lead you to endless felicity.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXXVIII.\n\nRESUSCITATION OF R\u00c1MA.\n\nArgument.--Bharadw\u00e1ja's Enlightenment and the duties of the Enlightened.\n\n\nV\u00e1lm\u00edki continued:--The yogi should be peaceful and tranquil, and\nexempt from all forbidden acts and those proceeding from a desire of\nfruition; he must avoid all sensual gratifications, and have his belief\nin God and his holy religion of the vedas.\n\n2. He must rest quiet in his seat, and have his mind and members of the\nbody under his control; and continue to repeat the syllable Om, until\nhis mind is cleared (from all its doubts).\n\n3. He must then restrain his respiration, for the purification of his\ninner organs (the heart and mind); and then restrict his senses by\ndegrees, from their respective outward objects.\n\n4. He must think on the natures and causes of its body and its organs\nof sense, of his mind and its understanding, as also of his soul and\nits consciousness; and repeat the srutis or the holy texts which relate\nto these subjects.\n\n5. Let him sit reclined in the meditation of Vir\u00e1t, the God of visible\nnature at first, and then in the internal soul of nature; next to this\nhe must meditate on the formless spirit, as a part and abstracted from\nall; and at last fix his mind in the supreme cause alone. (Rising from\nthe concrete to the discrete deity).\n\n6. Let him cast off in his mind, the earthly substance of his flesh\nand bones to the earth; and commit the liquid part of his blood to the\nwater, and the heat of his body to fire.\n\n7. He is then to consign the airy and vacuous parts of his body to\nair and vacuum, and after having thus made over his elemental parts\nto the five elements; he shall deliver the organs of his sense to the\nparticular divinities from whom they are derived.\n\n8. The ears and other organs, which are for the reception of their\nrespective from all sides, being cast aside on all sides, he is to\ngive the skin of his body to electricity (which imparts to it the\nsensations of heat and cold by the electric shock).\n\n9. Let him then resign his eye sight to the solar disc, and his\ntongue to water, he must next give up his breath to air, his voice to\nfire, and his palms to the god Indra (water and fire mean Varuna and\nAgni--the regent gods of these elements).\n\n10. He must then offer his feet to the god Vishnu, and his anus to\nMithra; and after giving up his penis to Kasyapa, he should dedicate\nhis mind to the moon.\n\n11. He must afterwards lay down his understanding to Brahm\u00e1, and the\nother inward faculties to special divinities, and at last abdicate his\nouter senses also to their presiding duties.\n\n12. Having thus resigned his whole body to the gods, he should think\nhimself as the all comprehending Vir\u00e1ta; and this he must do in\npursuance to the dictates of the veda, and not of his own will or\nfabrication.\n\n13. The lord that embodies the whole universe in himself, in his\nandrogynous form of half-male and half-female, is said to be the source\nand support of all sorts of beings.\n\n14. He was born in the form of creation, and it is he that is settled\nin everything in the universe; and caused this earth to appear from the\nbipartite mundane egg, as also the water which is twice as much as the\nland.\n\n15. He produced the heat twice as much as the water, and the air also\nwhich is double in its volume to that of heat, and lastly the vacuum\nwhich is twice more in its extent than the air which it contains. Each\nlatter one lying next above the former. (So the sruti:--each succeeding\none is above its preceding element).\n\n16. These form the world whether they are divided or undivided from\ntheir succeeding and surrounding ones; the earth being girt by the sea,\nand the same by submarine fire.\n\n17. Thus the yogi by contracting his thought of the former one under\nthe latter, will engross his thought of heat under that of air, and\nthis again under his idea of vacuum, which last is swallowed up by his\nthought of the great cause of all.\n\n18. In this manner must the yogi remain for a moment in his spiritual\nform only, by contraction of his corporeal body (composed of the\nelemental particles, his desires and prior acts and his primeval\nignorance--avidy\u00e1), under the same (because the material part is\ncontained under the spiritual, and not the latter under the former as\nit is erroneously supposed by materialist).\n\n19. The spiritual body is represented by the wise, to be composed of\nthe ten senses of perception and conception, the mind or memory and the\nunderstanding faculties; which is above and outside the corporeal half\nof the mundane egg. The yogi must think himself to be this supermundane\nspiritual being. (This form is styled Hiranyagarbha).\n\n20. The former or intramundane half, which is composed of the quadruple\nsubtile elements, is represented by the figure of the four faced\nBrahm\u00e1; and differs from the former by its being an evolution of\nunevolved spirit.\n\n21. That nameless and formless being in which the world subsists, is\ncalled Prakriti or matter by some, and M\u00e1y\u00e1 or delusion by others, and\nalso as atoms by atomic philosophers.\n\n22. The same is said to be ignorance--_avidy\u00e1_, by agnostics, whose\nminds are confused by false reasoning; and it is after all that hidden\nand unknowable something, in which all things are dissolved at the\nultimate dissolution of the world.\n\n23. Again everything which is quite unrelated with the divine spirit\nand intellect (_i.e._ material substance); comes to existence at the\nrecreation of the world; and retains and remains in its primary form to\nthe end of the world.\n\n24. Think of creation in the direct method, and of its destruction in\nthe reversed order; and then betake yourself to the fourth stage of\ntur\u00edya, after you have passed over the three preceding steps. (The\ndirect method of creation is the procedure from vacuity to air, and\nthence to heat, water and earth; or the meditation of the creative\npower under the three hypostasis or substantiality of Hiranyagarbha,\nBrahm\u00e1 and Prakriti; and the reversed order is the annihilation of\nthese in the quiet state of the unpredicable Deity).\n\n25. And in order to that state of blissfulness, you must enter into the\nsupreme spirit by removing from your mind all its impressions (lingas),\nof matter and sense, mind and understanding and all desires and acts;\nthat lie unexpanded and hidden in it.\n\n26. Bharadw\u00e1ja responded:--I am now quite released from the fetters of\nmy impressions, as my intellectual part has found its entrance into the\nsea of _tur\u00edya_ or transcendent blissfulness.\n\n27. The indistinct nature of my soul from the supreme spirit, makes\nme identic to it; and I find myself to be devoid of all attributes,\nand only an intellectual power like the same (the human soul being as\nintelligent a principle as the divine).\n\n28. As the vacuity contained in the hollow of a pot, becomes one with\nthe universal and all pervading vacuum after the pitcher is broken; so\nthe human soul vanishes into the supreme spirit, after it flies from\nthe confines of the body after its destruction.\n\n29. As a fire brand being cast into the burning furnace, becomes the\none and same fire with it; so the kind mixing with its kind, becomes\nindistinctly known under common name, one: (Here we have the axiom, the\neven being added to the even, whole is even).\n\n30. Again as straws swimming in the salt sea, are transformed to the\nsea salt; so all animal souls and the inanimate even mixing with the\ndivine soul, become animated also. (Here is opposite dogma of unequals\nbeing equal; because the greater includes the less under it).\n\n31. As saltpetre being thrown into the sea, looses its name and nature\nand becomes the sea salt; so everything is swallowed in the universal\nsoul and assimilated to it.\n\n32. As water mixing with water, salt with salt, and butter with butter;\nlose their distinctions and not their substances; so my self and all\nother substances mixing with the divine spirit, lose our distinct\nappellations without losing our substantialities.\n\n33. All bodies being absorbed in the all-knowing and ever blissful\nintellect of the great creator of all; become equally all pervading and\ntranquil and everlasting and blessed for ever.\n\n34. So I think myself as that eminently transcendent being, which is\nwithout any part or partner, without action or passion, without the\norgans of sense, and neither loving nor hating any one.\n\n35. I think myself as that sole entity, which is of the form of truth\nand immutable in its nature and desires, which is devoid of virtue and\nvice, perfectly pure and the supreme cause of all worlds.\n\n36. I am that blissful Brahma, who is without a second and without\ndecay, and of the form of pure light; who is expressed by these\nnegative properties, and is beyond the three degrees of quality; as\nthe _satva_, _rajas_ and _tamas_--the positive, comparative, and\nsuperlative, which do not relate to him as they do to others.\n\n37. Thus should one meditate himself as Brahma, even when he is\nemployed in discharging the duties destined to his station in life: and\nhis continued practice of this kind of meditation, will gradually wear\nout all other impressions from his mind.\n\n38. The mind being thus set down, the soul will then appear of itself\nwithin the man; and the appearance of the inward spirit, serves to\ndestroy all his internal grief, and fill its place with his heart felt\njoy.\n\n39. He also perceives the height of the truth shining in himself, that\nthere is no other blissful God beside his own intellect; and this is\nwhat he calls his ego and the supreme Brahma likewise.\n\n40. V\u00e1lm\u00edki said:--Friend, give up your observance of religious acts;\nand be devoted yourself to the meditation of Brahma, if you want to\nstop the revolution of the wheel of this world upon you.\n\n41. Bharadw\u00e1ja replied:--I have well understood the drift of the\nknowledge, you have imparted to me; I have acquired clearness of my\nunderstanding, and I have no more any reliance in the world.\n\n42. I am now desirous of knowing about the duties of those, who have\ngained the spiritual knowledge of God; as to whether they are subject\nto or freed from the performance of meritorious acts (_i.e._ whether\ntheir knowledge is sufficient to to save them or requires their acts\nalso).\n\n43. V\u00e1lm\u00edki said:--The seekers of liberation are not liberated from\nthe doing of those duties, whose avoidance entails the guilt of the\nomission of duty upon them; but he must refrain from doing the acts of\nhis desire (of fruition), and those which he is prohibited to do.\n\n44. When the living soul comes to feel the spiritual bliss in itself,\nand to find his sensuous appetites disappear from his mind; as also\nwhen he perceives his organs of sense lying quite calm and quiet under\nhim; he may then consider himself as one with the all pervading spirit\nof the lord (and therefore freed from the bonds of action and all\nearthly duties).\n\n45. When the sentient soul conceives in itself, the sense of its\nconversion to the essence of God (as conveyed by the formula _Soham_\nHe ego, I am He); and beyond the bounds of his body and its senses,\nand the reach of his mind and understanding; it is then freed from its\nobligation of worldly duties.\n\n46. When the soul is free from all its action and passions, and remains\naloof from all titles and attributes; when it gets rid of the feelings\nof pain and pleasure, he is then exonerated from the burthen of his\nduties.\n\n47. When one sees the supreme soul to pervade over all beings, and\nbeholds all creation to exist in the universal spirit; and when he\nfinds no difference between the mundane soul and the supreme spirit, he\nis then released from the bonds of his action.\n\n48. When the living soul has passed over the three states, of waking,\ndreaming, and sound sleep; and enters into the fourth or turya state of\nperfect bliss, he is then freed from the binding of his earthly duties.\n\n49. The fourth state of tur\u00edya, which consists in the residence of the\nliving soul, in the lap of the universal soul of God, is the state of\nthe soul's liberation from its condition of sleep or hypnotism, and is\nfull of its spiritual blissfulness.\n\n50. This _turya_ state or the consciousness of one's felicity, derived\nfrom the fixedness of the soul in the supreme; is the great end of yoga\nmeditation.\n\n51. After the mental operations of a man have ceased in a man, he\nperceives nothing within himself except the turya state; which is a\ncalm quiescence of the soul, in the sea of the ambrosial waters of one\nsole unity.\n\n52. Why are you plunging yourself, under the waves of the briny waters\nof the sea of duality; fly to the Lord of worlds and adore the great\nGod, who is abundant of all blessings.\n\n53. I have thus related to you my son, all the doctrines of Vasishtha,\nas the best means to the way of your knowledge and practice of yoga\nmeditation.\n\n54. You will verily be able, O wise Bharadw\u00e1ja, to learn everything\nfrom these, by means of your digesting the substance of this s\u00e1stra,\nand reconsidering the purport of the precepts of this great preceptor.\n\n55. It is by continued practice, that we attain to the perfection of\nany thing, according to the dictum of the vedas; therefore must you\navoid to attend to all things besides, and concentrate your mind to the\nobject of your practice.\n\n56. Bharadw\u00e1ja rejoined:--Tell me O sage, the course of conduct which\nR\u00e1ma followed, after he had received his knowledge of yoga or uniting\nhis soul with the supreme spirit.\n\n57. By knowing this I will also try to practice upon the same model,\nthat I may succeed to attain to the same state of spiritual elevation\nand rapture like him.\n\n58. V\u00e1lm\u00edki said:--When the virtuous and high minded R\u00e1ma, was absorbed\nand sat entranced in the divine essence, it was then that Visw\u00e1mitra\naddressed the venerable Vasishta and said.\n\n59. Visw\u00e1mitra said:--O highly endowed son of Brahm\u00e1--wise Vasishtha,\nyou have even now shown the efficacy of your preceptorship, by\nhypnotising and laying dormant the powers of R\u00e1ma.\n\n60. He is verily the best to yoga, who mesmerises the body of his\npupil, by his kind look, touch and sound; and causes his inspiration by\nthe infusion of the holy spirit of Siva in him.\n\n61. So it was with R\u00e1ma, whose pure soul was dispassionate by its own\nnature; and whose earnest desire of hebetude led him to that happy\nstate, by means of his conversation with his _guru_ or spiritual guide.\n\n62. It is the intelligence of the student which is the cause of his\nunderstanding, by means of the guidance of his spiritual preceptor;\nbut when these three roots or principles are imperfect, how can the\nunderstanding arrive to its perfection.\n\n63. It is evident, that knowledge is in need of both the pupil and\npreceptor for its communication; where both of them are competent\nand worthy of one another; it is certain that the result will be so\nlikewise (as in R\u00e1ma's case). (The commentary adds the good s\u00e1stras, as\nthe third means of gaining knowledge).\n\n64. Now be pleased to rouse R\u00e1ma from his torpor, which you alone can\ndo, by your beatification in the apathy; whilst we being employed in\nworldly affairs, are too far from it.\n\n65. Please sir, remember the cause that calls us hither, and the\nbusiness to which we are invited at earnest request of king Dasaratha\nhimself (for the performance of a certain sacrifice).\n\n66. Therefore O sage, do not frustrate that object of ours, by the\npurity of thy mind; we have a service to perform to the Gods, and which\nis the cause of R\u00e1ma's incarnation on earth.\n\n67. R\u00e1ma is to be conducted by me to the abode of the siddhas, and then\nshall he be called to the destruction of the R\u00e1kshasas; after which he\nwill be led to the salvation of Ahaly\u00e1 and to his marriage with Sit\u00e1.\n\n68. He will break the great bow of Siva in a chivalrous feat at that\nmarriage, and then he shall encounter the furious Parusha-R\u00e1ma, and\nrestrain his way to heaven.\n\n69. The fearless R\u00e1ma will then forsake his uncared for paternal and\nancestral realms, and under pretext of his banishment, betake himself\nto the Dandaka woods of foresters.\n\n70. He will restore the sanctity of many places of pilgrimage, and\nwill thereby save the lives and souls of beings from sin and its wages\nof death. He will show to the world the sorrows of men at the loss of\ntheir wives, from his own example of the loss of accompanying Sit\u00e1 by\nR\u00e1vana.\n\n71. He will set the lesson of the husband's duty of recovering the\nwives from the hands of their ravishers, by his recovery of Sit\u00e1 by\nslaughter of R\u00e1vana, and by his assembling the ape-savages of the\nforest in his favour.\n\n72. He will prove the purity of Sit\u00e1 to please his plea, and will be\nemployed in the observance of all religious acts, with his entire\nliberation in this world, and want of the desire of fruition in the\nnext.\n\n73. But in order to secure the future welfare of men, he will encourage\nthe practice both of spiritual devotion and ritual acts, according to\nthe instruction of those best acquainted with those subjects.\n\n74. He will liberally bestow his liberation to every living being of\nevery kind. These and many others are the duties of R\u00e1ma to this world\nand to myself also. (Visw\u00e1mitra means a friend to the world, and the\ngood services of R\u00e1ma done to it were reckoned by the sage as done to\nthe sage himself).\n\n75. Such are the acts that are to be performed by R\u00e1ma, wherefore he is\nto be thanked by every one here for all his conquests which no one else\ncan make. So fare you well.\n\n76. V\u00e1lm\u00edki resumed:--After these words of the sage, were listened to\nby the princes in the court and by the assembled siddhas and great\nyogis as Vasishtha and others; they thanked the hero, and remained to\nthink of his lotus-like feet with respect and esteem.\n\n77. But the sages Vasishtha and others, were not to be satisfied until\nthey could hear further about the lord of Sit\u00e1; whose virtues they all\neagerly expected to hear those fully and recite in their carols.\n\n78. Vasishtha then said to Visw\u00e1mitra:--Tell me sir, who was this\nlotus-eyed R\u00e1ma in his past life, whether he had been a god or sage or\nan ordinary man.\n\n79. Visw\u00e1mitra replied:--Believe what I say, that this R\u00e1ma is that\nprimary Male, who had churned the sea for the good of the world, and is\nknown only by the deepest learning of the vedas.\n\n80. He is full of spiritual joy, meek and gentle, and has the mark of\nthe auspicious calf (lamb) upon his person; he is bountiful to all\nliving beings, and is soon appeased by all (that rely in him).\n\n81. He destroys every one in his rage, and abandons all the frail\ntrifles of this world; he is the first male and creator of all, and is\nthe supporter and nourisher and kind friend of all.\n\n82. He has passed over the unsubstantial and illusory things of this\nworld; he is the sea of felicity, and is dived in by the dispassionate.\n\n83. He is some times known as a liberated soul, and relying in himself;\nat others he is seen to be settled in his _turya_ state of hypnotism,\nand sometimes as a male or female agent of creation.\n\n84. He is the God of the triple veda, and beyond the reach of the three\nqualities of things; he is the soul of the veda and the wondrous male\n(Vir\u00e1t), that is displayed in the six branches of veda.\n\n85. He is the four armed and four-faced Brahm\u00e1--the creator of the\nworld, he is also the great Mah\u00e1deva with his three eyes, who is the\ndestroyer of the world.\n\n86. He is the uncreated creator, that is born by his yoga or union with\nthe power of delusion (m\u00e1y\u00e1). He is the ever wakeful and the ever great\nspirit of God, which though it is formless doth yet form and support\nthis frame of this universe, by transforming himself to the form of a\nman-lion.\n\n87. As victory is borne upon the wings of valour, and as light is borne\nupon the flame of fire; and as learning bears and conveys the fruit of\ngood understanding, so is this god-like R\u00e1ma borne upon the wings of\nthe bird of heaven (_i.e._ as Garuda bears Vishnu upon his back).\n\n88. Blessed in this king Dasaratha, who has the supreme prime male for\nhis son, and fortunate is the ten headed R\u00e1vana, for his finding a\nplace in the mind of R\u00e1ma (as his enemy). (The enemies of the gods are\nnot less fortunate than the godly; because their fall under the blessed\nhands of gods, secures to them the blissful seats of heaven and not of\nhell).\n\n89. Oh! how lamentable is the state of heaven by the absence of R\u00e1ma\nfrom it; and how pitiable is the infernal region from its loss of\nLakshmana who is present here. Happy is this midland of Oudh at\npresent, from the presence of the two gods from those two regions in\nthis place.\n\n90. This R\u00e1ma is an incarnation of the god Vishnu, who sleeps in the\nmidst of the sea; he is the incarnate and undecaying supreme soul, and\nis a consolidation of the divine intellect and felicity in his person.\n\n91. The yogis of subdued organs discern R\u00e1ma in spirit, but we of\nordinary understanding can see him only in his outward figure.\n\n92. We hear that he has come down to blot out the iniquities of the\nrace of Raghu, and hope that the venerable Vasishtha will kindly guide\nhim to the affairs of the world.\n\n93. V\u00e1lm\u00edki said:--Saying so far, the great sage Visw\u00e1mitra held his\nsilence, when the vehement Vasishtha oped his mouth and addressed R\u00e1ma\nsaying:--\n\n94. Vasishtha said:--O great armed R\u00e1ma! O highly intellectual prince!\nit is not the time for you thus to slumber in yoga, rise and rejoice\nthe hearts of your people.\n\n95. Until you satisfy the wants of men and their expectations of you,\nyou are not filled to attain the acme of your pure _sam\u00e1dhi_ meditation.\n\n96. Therefore attend to the temporal affairs of your state for some\ntime, and discharge the onus of your duties to the gods; and then\nbetake yourself to the state of your entrancement, and be happy forever.\n\n97. Notwithstanding R\u00e1ma was addressed in this manner, yet as he\nremained transfixed in his trance and uttered not a word in reply;\nthen the spirit of Vasishtha entered into the heart of R\u00e1ma, through\ndormitory passage of _susumn\u00e1_.\n\n98. It infused its force to the respiratory beings, mental faculties,\norgans and to the vital spirit of R\u00e1ma, it ran through the veins and\narteries and inflated the organs of sense; then R\u00e1ma slowly oped his\neyelids, and saw before him the sage Vasishtha with the learned men\nabout him. He remained gazing upon all without any wish or effort of\nhis own; and without considering aught of his duties, or what he was to\navoid.\n\n99. He heard the voice, which his preceptor Vasishtha had uttered to\nhim; and in reply respectfully answered him saying:--\n\n100. R\u00e1ma said:--By your kindness sir, I am taught to have no concern\nwith aught of the injunctions or prohibitions of the law; yet it is my\nduty to abide by all, what my preceptor bids me to do.\n\n101. I ween, O great sage! that of all the sayings of the vedas,\n\u00c1gamas, Pur\u00e1nas, and smritis, it is the word of the preceptor, is the\nhighest law, his bidding is commandment and its opposite a positive\nprohibition.\n\n102. So saying, the virtuous R\u00e1ma bowed down his head at the feet of\nthe venerable Vasishtha, and then bespoke of his indifference to the\nworld, to all present in the assembly.\n\n103. R\u00e1ma said:--May ye all prosper, and know the most certain truth to\nwhich I have arrived; that there is nothing better than the knowledge\nof the self, and none superior to the preceptor from whom it is derived.\n\n104. The siddhas and others responded saying:--Such is the impression\nof R\u00e1ma, in our minds also; and it is by your favour and conversions\nalso, that this belief is ratified in us.\n\n105. We thank you, R\u00e1ma Chandra, and wish all happiness to attend on\nour great prince; and beg leave of the sage Vasishtha for our departure\nas we are called here (to attend to his lecture).\n\n106. V\u00e1lm\u00edki said:--so saying they rose with giving praises to R\u00e1ma,\nand blessing him with showers of flowers falling upon his head from\ntheir hands.\n\n107. Thus have I related to you the whole narrative of R\u00e1ma, do you\nnow, O Bharadw\u00e1ja, follow the same course of yoga, and be happy forever.\n\n108. Now this relation of mine of the consummation to which R\u00e1ma had\narrived, together with my rehearsal of the varied sayings of the sage\nwhich are as so many strings of gems to be worn on the breasts of yogis\nand poets, will serve by the grace of the sage, to give you liberation\n(from the troubles of the world).\n\n109. Whoever hears and attends to these discourses of R\u00e1ma and\nVasishtha, is sure to be relieved in every state of life; to be united\nwith Brahma after his release.\n\n110. End of the Mah\u00e1 R\u00e1m\u00e1yana of the sage Vasishtha and spoken by\nV\u00e1lm\u00edki, relating the boyhood of R\u00e1ma and consisting of thirty-two\nthousand sloka stanzas.\n\n * * * * *\n\nEND OF THE THIRD VOLUME.\n\n * * * * *\n\n Transcriber's Notes\n\n Variations in spelling, punctuation and hyphenation have been retained\n except in obvious cases of typographical errors. The somewhat erratic\n use of brackets has been corrected where possible.\n\n Words in italics are represented thus; _italic_ while words in bold\n are represented thus; =bold=.\n\n Chapter LXII has been wrongly headed as LXI in the original text.\n The heading and sub-heading have been corrected.\n\n Decent has been changed to descent in para 14, chapter XIV.\n\n In chapter XXXIX, para 8, \"the eight forms of as we see\" has been\n changed to \"the eight forms of [God] as we see\"\n\n In chapter LI para 12, \"remain still and motionless; if they were\n buried\" has been changed to \"remain still and motionless; [as] if\n they were buried\"\n\n In chapter LIII, para 43,\"one who sees every in one and same light\"\n has been changed to \"one who sees every[one] in one and [the] same\n light\"\n\n In chapter LXI, para 15. \"In whatever manner we look object,\"\n has been changed to \"In whatever manner we look [at the] object,\"\n\n Two paragraphs of text duplicated in the table of contents have been\n removed.\n\n The sanskrit is frequently unclear, and in some places illegible\n (represented by ?).","title":"The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, Vol. 3 (of 4), Part 2 (of 2)","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":230539}