{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_71249/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_71249","id":"gutenberg_71249","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/71249","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":"Transcriber\u2019s Notes\n\n\nInconsistent punctuation has been silently corrected.\n\nObvious misspellings have been silently corrected, and the following\ncorrections made to the text. Other spelling and hyphenation variations\nhave not been modified.\n\n Page number for chapter CXXXIX in table of contents, corrected\n from 342-> 742.\n Page number for chapter CLXV in table of contents, corrected\n from 808-> 880.\n Page number for chapter CLXXXXIV in table of contents, corrected\n from 1745-> 1045.\n Page 570, section 16 - missing line \u201c_nihilo nihil reverti posse_; there the\n whole universe is a void nothing).\u201d added from from the Parimal\n edition.\n Page 653, section 12 - fool -> foul\n Page 658, section 9 - with -> without\n Page 708, section 55 - there was darkness nor day -> there was darkness nor day\n Page 799, section 7 - of one's or bad -> of one's good or bad\n Page 980, section 17 - creator -> creation\n Page 901, section 1 - He who is delighted -> He who is delighted\n Page 901, section 2 - whose mind is moved -> whose mind is moved\n\nThe spelling of Sanskrit words are normalized to some extent, including\ncorrect/addition of accents where necessary. Note that the author uses\n\u00e1, \u00ed, \u00fa to indicate long vowels. This notation has not been changed.\n\nThe LPP edition (1999) which has been scanned for this ebook, is of\npoor quality, and in some cases text was missing. Where possible, the\nmissing/unclear text has been supplied from another edition, which has\nthe same typographical basis (both editions are photographical reprints\nof the same source, or perhaps one is a copy of the other): Bharatiya\nPublishing House, Delhi 1978.\n\nA third edition, Parimal Publications, Delhi 1998, which is based on an\nOCR scanning of the same typographical basis, has also been consulted.\n\nThe term \u201cGloss.\u201d or \u201cGlossary\u201d probably refers to the extensive\nclassical commentary to Yoga V\u00e1sishtha by Ananda Bodhendra Saraswati\n(only available in Sanskrit).\n\nAngle brackets: <...> have been used by the transcriber to indicate\nediting of the text to insert missing words. The translator (in a very\nfew places) uses square brackets [...].\n\n\n\n\n\n THE\n YOGA-V\u00c1SISHTHA\n MAH\u00c1R\u00c1M\u00c1YANA\n\n OF\n\n VALMIKI\n\n in 4 vols. in 7 pts.\n (Bound in 4.)\n\n Vol. 4 (In 2 pts.)\n Bound in one.\n\n Containing\n The Nirvana-Prakarana, Uttaradha\n\n _Translated from the original Sanskrit_\n _By_\n VIHARI-LALA MITRA\n\n\n\n\nTHE\n\nYOGA-V\u00c1SISHTHA-MAH\u00c1R\u00c1M\u00c1YANA\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER CVI.\n\n Invalidation of the Doctrine of cause and effect 569\n\n\n CHAPTER CVII.\n\n The nature of ignorance or illusion of the Mind 577\n\n\n CHAPTER CVIII.\n\n Description of the knowledge and ignorance of the soul 579\n\n\n CHAPTER CIX.\n\n Fighting with the invading armies at the gate of the city 585\n\n\n CHAPTER CX.\n\n Battle of the wise Princes, with the ignorant Barbarian 590\n\n\n CHAPTER CXI.\n\n The flight of the soldiers on all sides 596\n\n\n CHAPTER CXII.\n\n Flight of the Foreign F\u0153s 602\n\n\n CHAPTER CXIII.\n\n Description of the Ocean 607\n\n\n CHAPTER CXIV.\n\n Description of the Prospects all-around 612\n\n\n CHAPTER CXV.\n\n The same subject continued 617\n\n CHAPTER CXVI.\n\n Narration of the speech of Crow and Cuckoo 625\n\n\n CHAPTER CXVII.\n\n Description of the Lotus lake, Bee and the Swan 637\n\n\n CHAPTER CXVIII.\n\n Description of deer, peacocks, cranes &c. 643\n\n\n CHAPTER CXIX.\n\n Lamentation of the Lovelorn Traveller 648\n\n\n CHAPTER CXX.\n\n Description of various objects on all sides 652\n\n\n CHAPTER CXXI.\n\n Exposition of the story of Vipaschit 657\n\n\n CHAPTER CXXII.\n\n The King\u2019s survey of the sea, and his locomotion on it 659\n\n\n CHAPTER CXXIII.\n\n The King\u2019s Excursions on all sides 662\n\n\n CHAPTER CXXIV.\n\n Quadripartite state of the King Vipaschit 665\n\n\n CHAPTER CXXV.\n\n On the Living liberation of the Prince 669\n\n\n CHAPTER CXXVI.\n\n Resuscitation and conduct of the Vipaschitas 679\n\n\n CHAPTER CXXVII.\n\n Cosmology of the universe 683\n\n CHAPTER CXXVIII.\n\n The vacuum of Brahma and the sight of the world therein 686\n\n CHAPTER CXXIX.\n\n Vipaschit\u2019s becoming a stag 692\n\n CHAPTER CXXX.\n\n Entering of the stag into the fire 698\n\n CHAPTER CXXXI.\n\n Bh\u00e1sa\u2019s account of the worlds and his journeys throughout 702\n\n CHAPTER CXXXII.\n\n Bh\u00e1sa\u2019s Relation of the Transmigrations of his soul 710\n\n CHAPTER CXXXIII.\n\n Story of the Wonderful carcass 713\n\n CHAPTER CXXXIV.\n\n The Story of the carcass continued 717\n\n CHAPTER CXXXV.\n\n Disappearance of the carcass, and the Reappearance of the earth 724\n\n CHAPTER CXXXVI.\n\n Story of the Gnat and Hunter 726\n\n CHAPTER CXXXVII.\n\n Description of the states of waking, sleeping and dreaming 730\n\n CHAPTER CXXXVIII.\n\n The Pervasion of the mind throughout the universe 737\n\n CHAPTER CXXXIX.\n\n Description of the Dissolution of the world 742\n\n CHAPTER CXXXX.\n\n Workings of Imagination 750\n\n CHAPTER CXXXXI.\n\n Description of the Termination of a Kalpa-period 758\n\n CHAPTER CXXXXII.\n\n Ascertainment of Karma or acts of men 760\n\n CHAPTER CXXXXIII.\n\n Ascertainment of Nirv\u00e1na or ultimate Extinction 767\n\n CHAPTER CXXXXIV.\n\n Investigation into the nature and Vicissitudes of things 778\n\n CHAPTER CXXXXV.\n\n Description of the Waking, Dreaming and Sleeping states 785\n\n CHAPTER CXXXXVI.\n\n Disquisition of sound sleep 794\n\n CHAPTER CXXXXVII.\n\n The Phenomenon and Perspection of dreams 798\n\n CHAPTER CXXXXVIII.\n\n Investigation into the nature of dreams 802\n\n CHAPTER CIL.\n\n Investigation into the Original cause 807\n\n CHAPTER CL.\n\n Transcendental Admonitions 812\n\n CHAPTER CLI.\n\n View of Inexistence 818\n\n CHAPTER CLII.\n\n The sage\u2019s discourse at night 820\n\n CHAPTER CLIII.\n\n One soul is the cause of all 823\n\n CHAPTER CLIV.\n\n Relation of Past events 826\n\n CHAPTER CLV.\n\n Relation of Future Fortune 829\n\n CHAPTER CLVI.\n\n Expostulation on Sindhu by his Minister 835\n\n CHAPTER CLVII.\n\n The Ultimate Extinction or Nirv\u00e1na of Sindhu 839\n\n CHAPTER CLVIII.\n\n Fall of the Huge body of the Hunter 844\n\n CHAPTER CLIX.\n\n Wandering of Vipaschit 847\n\n CHAPTER CLX.\n\n Description of heaven and Hell 855\n\n CHAPTER CLXI.\n\n Explanation of Nirv\u00e1na 861\n\n CHAPTER CLXII.\n\n Annihilation of ignorance 867\n\n CHAPTER CLXIII.\n\n Means and manner of governing the senses and sensible organs 870\n\n CHAPTER CLXIV.\n\n Unity of the Divinity and the Mundane World 878\n\n CHAPTER CLXV.\n\n On the Similarity of Waking and Dreaming 880\n\n CHAPTER CLXVI.\n\n On the Attributes of the Divine spirit, in the form of a\n Dialogue 883\n\n CHAPTER CLXVII.\n\n Absence of the threefold states of Waking, Dreaming and Sleep 888\n\n CHAPTER CLXVIII.\n\n Story of the Hewn statue or Carved Image 894\n\n CHAPTER CLXIX.\n\n Description of the calm and tranquil Mind 901\n\n CHAPTER CLXX.\n\n On the conduct of the sapient Man 907\n\n CHAPTER CLXXI.\n\n Meditation of Pure Vacuum 911\n\n CHAPTER CLXXII.\n\n Establishment of the identity of the Diety and the World 918\n\n CHAPTER CLXXIII.\n\n Brahma G\u00edt\u00e1 or a Lecture on spirituality 924\n\n CHAPTER CLXXIV.\n\n The same or a lecture on Nirv\u00e1na 929\n\n CHAPTER CLXXV.\n\n Param\u00e1rtha G\u00edt\u00e1 or Lecture on Transcendentalism or the solity 933\n\n CHAPTER CLXXVI.\n\n Brahma G\u00edt\u00e1. Account of Brahm\u00e1nda or Mundane system 943\n\n CHAPTER CLXXVII.\n\n Brahma G\u00edta. Description of Divine Nature 946\n\n CHAPTER CLXXVIII.\n\n Brahma G\u00edta. Narrative of Aindava 952\n\n CHAPTER CLXXIX.\n\n The Doctrine of Pantheism or the One as all 960\n\n CHAPTER CLXXX.\n\n Brahma G\u00edta or the story on austere devotee 963\n\n CHAPTER CLXXXI.\n\n Brahma G\u00edta continued 968\n\n CHAPTER CLXXXII.\n\n Brahma G\u00edta continued. Sovereignty of the seven continents 973\n\n CHAPTER CLXXXIII.\n\n Description of the seven Continents 979\n\n CHAPTER CLXXXIV.\n\n A Lecture on the all comprehensiveness of the soul 988\n\n CHAPTER CLXXXV.\n\n Admonition to and clairvoyance of Kunda-danta 995\n\n CHAPTER CLXXXVI.\n\n Demonstration of all nature (and thing) as Brahma himself 998\n\n CHAPTER CLXXXVII.\n\n Of the Living creation 1009\n\n CHAPTER CLXXXVIII.\n\n Description of the Living soul 1017\n\n CHAPTER CLXXXIX.\n\n On the unity of the Divine spirit 1021\n\n CHAPTER CLXXXX.\n\n Ecstasies or inertness of R\u00e1ma 1024\n\n CHAPTER CLXXXXI.\n\n Solution of the great question of unity and duality 1037\n\n CHAPTER CLXXXXII.\n\n On the attainment of spiritual An\u00e6sthesia 1040\n\n CHAPTER CLXXXXIII.\n\n Mental torpor or tranquility 1043\n\n CHAPTER CLXXXXIV.\n\n R\u00e1ma\u2019s rest in Nirv\u00e1na insensibility 1045\n\n CHAPTER CLXXXXV.\n\n Lectured on the Enlightenment of Understanding 1051\n\n CHAPTER CLXXXXVI.\n\n Story of wood-cutter and his gem 1060\n\n CHAPTER CLXXXXVII.\n\n On the Excellence of Universal Toleration 1064\n\n CHAPTER CLXXXXVIII.\n\n Excellence of Universal Toleration 1069\n\n CHAPTER CLXXXXIX.\n\n State of Living Liberated Man 1075\n\n CHAPTER CC.\n\n The Loud applause of the court on the sage\u2019s speech 1081\n\n CHAPTER CCI.\n\n Explanation of rest and repose in ultimate and perfect bliss 1089\n\n CHAPTER CCII.\n\n Remembrance of the assembly to their Hypnotic rest 1094\n\n CHAPTER CCIII.\n\n Description of Nirv\u00e1na or self extinction in divine meditation 1096\n\n CHAPTER CCIV.\n\n Identity of Abstract Intellectuality and Vacuity 1102\n\n CHAPTER CCV.\n\n Reputation of the doctrine of the causality of creation 1106\n\n CHAPTER CCVI.\n\n The great inquiry, or questions of the Buddhist 1112\n\n CHAPTER CCVII.\n\n Replies to the aforesaid queries (of the Buddhist) 1117\n\n CHAPTER CCVIII.\n\n Solution of the great question 1122\n\n CHAPTER CCIX.\n\n On the consciousness or the intuitive knowledge of extraneous\n existences 1126\n\n CHAPTER CCX.\n\n Reputation of the conception of a duality in unity 1132\n\n CHAPTER CCXI.\n\n Lecture on transcendent truth 1138\n\n CHAPTER CCXII.\n\n On ascertainment of truth 1143\n\n CHAPTER CCXIII.\n\n Narration of R\u00e1ma\u2019s prior pupilage under Vasishtha 1147\n\n CHAPTER CCXIV.\n\n Description of the great jubilee of the assembly 1154\n\n CHAPTER CCXV.\n\n Eulogy on this work and the mode of its recital 1161\n\n CHAPTER CCXVI.\n\n Conclusion of the celestial messenger\u2019s message of liberation 1164\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CVI.\n\nINVALIDATION OF THE DOCTRINE OF CAUSE AND EFFECT.\n\n Argument:--Arguments in proof of the intellectual vacuum, and the\n representation of the world therein.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma said:--Tell me again, O Venerable sir, how is intellectual vacuity\nwhich you say to be the entity of Brahma; because I am never satiate to\nhear the holy words, distilling as ambrosia from your lips.\n\n2. Vasishtha replied:--I have fully explained to you that the two\nstates of sleeping and waking imply the same thing; as the twin virtues\nof composure and self-controul are both the same, though they are\ndifferentiated by two names.\n\n3. There is in reality none difference of them, as there is none\nbetween two drops of water; they are both the one and same thing, as\nthe vacuous essence of Brahma and the Intellect.\n\n4. As a man travelling from country to country, finds his self\nconsciousness to be every where the same; so and the very same is the\nIntellect, which dwells within himself in its vacuous form, and is\nstyled the intellectual sphere.\n\n5. This intellectual sphere is as clear, as the etherial sky; wherein\nthe earthly arbours display their verdure, by drawing the moisture of\nthe earth by their roots. (This passage rests on a text of the Sruti;\nand means that the intellectual sphere of men as the sky of trees is\nalways clear, though they live upon the sap of earth).\n\n6. Again the intellectual sphere is as calm and quiet, as the mind of\na man, who is free from desires and is at rest in himself; and whose\ncomposure is never disturbed by anything.\n\n7. Again the intellectual sphere is like the quiet state of am; who\nhad got rid of his busy cares and thoughts, reposes himself at ease;\nbefore he is lulled to the insensibility of his sleep.\n\n8. Again as trees and plants growing in their season, rise in and\nfill the sky, without being attached to it; such also is intellectual\nsphere, which is filled by rising worlds after worlds, without being\ntouched by or related to any.\n\n9. Again the intellectual sphere, is as clear as the cloudless sky; and\nas vacant as the mind of the saintly man, which is wholly purified from\nthe impressions of visibles, and its thoughts and desires are about any\nthing in the world.\n\n10. The intellectual state is as steady as those of the stable rocks\nand trees; and when such is the state of the human mind, it is then\nsaid to have attained its intellectuality (or else its restless state\nis called the active mind and not the intellect).\n\n11. The intellectual chasm, which is void of the three states of\nthe view, viewer and visibles (or the subjective and objective); is\nsaid to be devoid also of all its modality and change. (It means the\nimperceptibility of soul).\n\n12. That is called the intellectual sphere, where the thought of the\nvarious kinds of things, rise and last and set by turns, without making\nany effect of change in its immutable nature.\n\n13. That is said to be the intellectual sphere, which embraces all\nthings, and gives rise to and becomes everything itself; and which is\npermeated throughout all nature for ever.\n\n14. That which shines resplendent in heaven and earth, and in the\ninside and outside of everybody with equal blaze; is said to be the\nvacuity of the intellect.\n\n15. It extends and stretches through all, and bends altogether,\nconnected by its lengthening chain to infinity; and the vacuity of the\nintellect envelops the universe, whether it rises before us an entity\nor non-entity.\n\n16. It is the intellectual vacuum which produces everything, and\nat last reduces all to itself; and the changes of creation and\ndissolution, are all the working of this vacuity. (But how can the\nvacuous nothing produce any thing from itself or reduce any into it\n(_Ex nihilum nihil fit, et in nihilo nihil reverti posse_; there the\nwhole universe is a void nothing)).\n\n17. The vacuity of the intellect produces the world, as the sleeping\nstate of the mind, presents its sights in our dream; and as the dream\nis dispersed in our deep sleep, so the waking dream of the world is\nvanished from view, upon dispersion of its fallacy from the mind.\n\n18. Know the intellectual vacuum to be possessed of its intellection,\nand as quiet and composed in its nature; and it is by a thought of it,\nas by twinkling or winking of the eye, that the world comes to exist\nand disappear by turns. (Manu calls these the waking and sleeping\nstates of the soul, and as causes of the existence and inexistence of\nthe world).\n\n19. The intellectual Vacuum is found in the disquisitions of all the\ns\u00e1stras, to be what is neither this nor that nor any thing any where;\nand yet as all and everything in every place and at all times. (_i.e._\nNothing concrete, but every thing in the abstract).\n\n20. As a man travelling from country to country, retains his\nconsciousness untravelled in himself; so the intellect always rests in\nits place in the interim, though the mind passes far and farther in an\ninstant.\n\n21. The world is full of the intellect, both as it is or had ever been\nbefore; and its outward sight being dependent on its ideas in the mind,\ngives it the form and figure as they appear unto us.\n\n22. It is by a slight winking of its eye, that it assumes and appears\nin varied shapes; though the intellect never changes its form, nor\nalters the clearness of its vacuous sphere.\n\n23. Look on and know all these objects of sense, with thy external and\ninternal organs, and without any desire of thine for them; be ever\nwakeful and vigilant about them, but remain as quite sleepy over them.\n\n24. Be undesirous of any thing and indifferent in your mind, when you\nspeak to any one, take any thing or go any where; and remain as deadly\ncold and quiet, as long as you have to live.\n\n25. But it is impossible for you to remain as such, so long as you fix\nyour eyes and mind on the visibles before you; and continue to view the\nmirage of the world, and look upon its duality rising as two moons in\nthe sky.\n\n26. Know the world to be no production from the beginning; because\nthe want of its prior cause prevents its sequence; and there is no\npossibility of a material creation, proceeding from an immaterial\ncausality.\n\n27. Whatever appears as existent before you, is the product of a\ncauseless cause; it is the appearance of the transcendent One, that\nappears visible to you. (The world is the visible form of the invisible\nOne).\n\n28. The world as it stands at present, is no other than its very\noriginal form; and the same undual and undivided pure soul appears as a\nduality, as the disc of the moon and its halo present their two aspects\nto us.\n\n29. Thus the strong bias, that we have contracted from our false notion\nof the duality; has at last involved us in the error of taking the\nfalse for true, as to believe the shadow of a dream for reality.\n\n30. Therefore the phenomenal world is no real production, nor does it\nactually exist or is likely ever to come to existence; it is likewise\nnever annihilated, because it is impossible for a nihility to be nil\nagain.\n\n31. Hence that thing which is but a form of the serene vacuum, must\nbe quiet, calm and serene also; and this being exhibited in the\nform of the world, is of its own nature quite clear and steady, and\nimperishable to all eternity. (The Beo-vyom or vacuum being a void,\ncannot be annulled to a nullity again).\n\n32. It is nothing what is seen before us, nor aught that is visible, is\never reliable as real; neither also is there ever a viewer for want of\nvisible, nor the vision of a thing without its view.\n\n33. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--If it is such, then please to explain moreover, O\nmost eloquent sir, the nature of the visibles, their view, and viewer;\nand what are these that thus appear to our view?\n\n34. Vasishtha replied:--There being no assignable cause, for the\nappearance of the unreal visibles; their vision is but a deception, and\nyet it maintained as true by the dogmatism of opponents.\n\n35. Whatever there appears as visible to the vision of the viewer, is\nall fallacy and offspring of the great delusion of M\u00e1y\u00e1 only. But the\nworld in its recondite sense, is but a reflexion of the Divine mind.\n\n36. The intellect is awake in our sleeping state, and shows us the\nshapes in our dream, as the sky exhibits the various in its ample\ngarden; thus the intellect manifests itself in the form of the world in\nitself.\n\n37. Hence there is no formal cause or self evolving element, since the\nfirst creation of the world; and that sparkles any where before\nus, is only the great Brahma Himself (not in his person or formless\nform, but in his spirit or intellectuality).\n\n38. It is the sunshine of the Intellect within its own hollow sphere,\nthat manifests this world as a reflexion of his own person.\n\n39. The world is an exhibition of the quality, of the unqualified\nvacuity of the Intellect; as existence is the quality of existent\nbeings, and as vacuity is the property of vacuum, and as form is the\nattribute of a material substance.\n\n40. Know the world as the concrete counterpart, of the discrete\nattribute of the transcendent glory of God; and as the very reflexion\nof it, thus visibly exposed to the view of its beholders.\n\n41. But there being in reality no duality whatever, in the unity of\nthe Divinity; He is neither the reflector nor the reflexion himself;\nsay who can ascertain what he is, or tell whether he is a being or not\nbeing, or a something or nothing.\n\n42. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--If so it be as you say, that the Lord is neither\nthe reflector nor reflexion, and neither the viewer nor the view\n(_i.e._ if he is neither the prototype nor its likeness, and neither\nthe subjective nor objective); then say what is the difference between\nthe cause and effect, what is the source of all these, and if they are\nunreal why do they appear as realities?\n\n43. Vasishtha replied:--Whenever the Lord thinks on the manifestation\nof his intellect, He beholds the same at the very moment, and then\nbecomes the subjective beholder of the objects of his own thought.\n\n44. The intellectual vacuum itself assumes the form of the world, as\nthe earth becomes a hill &c. by itself; but it never forgets itself for\nthat form, as men do in their dream. Moreover there is no other cause\nto move it to action, except its own free will.\n\n45. As a person changing his former state to a new one, retains his\nself consciousness in the interim, so the Divine Intellect retains its\nidentity, in its transition from prior vacuum to its subsequent state\nof the plenum.\n\n46. The thought of cause and effect, and the sense of the visible and\ninvisible, proceed from errors of the mind and defects of vision; it\nis the erroneous imagination that frames these worlds, and nobody\nquestions or upbraids himself for his error. The states of cause and\neffect, and those of the visible and invisible &c., are mere phantoms\nof error, rising before the sight of the living soul and proceeding\nfrom its ignorance, and then its imagination paints these as the world,\nand there is nobody that finds his error or blame himself for his\nblunder.\n\n47. If there be another person, that is the cause, beholder and enjoyer\nof these (other than the Supreme One) then say what is that person, and\nwhat is the phenomenal, that is the point in question; or it is liable\nto reproof.\n\n48. As the state of our sleep presents us only, an indiscernible\nvacuity of the Intellect (which watches alone over the sleeping world);\nhow then is it possible to represent the One soul as many, without\nbeing blamed for it?\n\n49. It is the self-existent soul alone, which presents the appearance\nof the world in the intellect; and it is the ignorance of this truth,\nwhich has led to the general belief of the creation of the world by\nBrahm\u00e1.\n\n50. It is ignorance of this intellectual phenomenon, which has led\nmankind to many errors, under the different names of illusion or\n_m\u00e1y\u00e1_, of ignorance or _avidy\u00e1_, of the phenomenal or _drisya_, and\nfinally of the world or _jagat_.\n\n51. The manifestation in the intellectual vacuum, takes possession of\nthe mind like a phantom; which represents the unreal world as a reality\nbefore it, as the false phantom of ghost, takes a firm hold on the\nmind of an infant.\n\n52. Although the world is an unreality, yet we have a notion of it as\nsomething real in our empty intellect; and this is no other than the\nembodiment of a dream, which shows us the forms of hills and cities in\nempty air.\n\n53. The intellect represents itself as a hill or a Rudra, or as a sea\nor as the God Vir\u00e1t himself; just a man thinks in his dream, that\nhe sees the hills and towns in his empty mind.\n\n54. Nothing formal that has any form, can be the result of a formless\ncause (as God); hence the impossibility of the existence of the solid\nworld, and of its formal causes of atomic elements, at the great\nannihilation both prior to creation, as also after its dissolution. It\nis therefore evident, that the world is ever existent in its ideal form\nonly in the Divine Mind.\n\n55. It is a mere uncaused existence, inherent in its vacuous state in\nthe vacuous Mind; and what is called the world, is no more than an\nemptiness appertaining to the empty Intellect.\n\n56. The minds of ignorant people are as glassy mirrors, receiving\nthe dim and dull images of things set before their senses; but those\nof reasoning men are as clear microscopes, that spy the vivid light\nof the Divine Mind that shines through all. (This light is called\n_Pratyagn\u00e1n\u00e1tma_ or the nooscopic appearance of Divine soul).\n\n57. Therefore they are the best of men, who shun the sight of visible\nforms; and view the world in the light of intellectual vacuity; and\nremain as firm as rocks in the meditation of the steady Intellect, and\nplace no faith or reliance on anything else.\n\n58. The Intellect shows the revolution of the world in itself by its\nincessant act of airy intellection; as the sea displays its circuition\nthroughout the watery world, by the continual rotation of its\nwhirlpools.\n\n59. As the figurative tree of our desire, produces and yields our\nwished for fruits in a moment, so the intellect presents every thing\nbefore us, that is thought of in an instant. (It is the subjective\nmind, that shows the objects of its thought within itself).\n\n60. As the mind finds in itself, its wished-for gem and the fruit of\nits desire; in the same manner doth the internal soul, meet with its\ndesired objects in its vacuous self in a minute.\n\n61. As a man passing from one place to another, rests calmly in the\ninterim; such is the state of the mind in the interval of its thoughts,\nwhen it sees neither the one nor another thing.\n\n62. It is the reflection of the Intellect only, which shines clearly\nin variegated colours, within the cavity of its own sphere; and though\ndevoid of any shape or colour, yet it exhibits itself like the vacuity\nof the sky, in the blueness of the firmament.\n\n63. Nothing unlike can result from the vacuous Intellect, other than\nwhat is alike inane as itself; a material production requires a\nmaterial cause, which is wanting in the Intellect; and therefore the\ncreated world is but a display of the Divine Mind, like the appearance\nof dreams before our sleeping minds.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CVII.\n\nTHE NATURE OF IGNORANCE OR ILLUSION OF THE MIND.\n\n Argument:--Proof of the cosmos as the reflexion of the gem of the\n Intellect, and the Immateriality of the objective material world.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--The world is the subjective Intellect and inborn\nin it, and not the objective which is perceived from without. It is the\nempty space of the Intellect which displays the noumenals in itself,\nand here the _tripart_ or the triple state of the Intellect, its\nintellection and the _chetya_ or intellectual combine together. (_i.e._\nThe thinking principle, its thinking and thoughts all unite together).\n\n2. Here in its ample exhibition, all living beings are displayed as\ndead bodies; and I and you, he and it, are all represented as lifeless\nfigures in a picture.\n\n3. All persons engaged in active life, appear here as motionless blocks\nof wood, or as cold and silent bodies of the dead; and all moving and\nunmoving beings, appear to be seen here as in the empty air.\n\n4. The sights of all things are exposed here, like the glare of the\nchrystalline surface of the sky; and they are to be considered as\nnothing, for nothing substantial can be contained in the hollow mind.\n\n5. The bright sun-beams and the splashing waves, and the gathering\nvapours in the air; present us with forms of shining pearls and gems in\nthem, but never does any one rely on their reality.\n\n6. So this phenomenon of the world, which appears in the vacuum of the\nIntellect; and seems to be true to the apprehension of every body, yet\nit is never relied on by any one.\n\n7. The Intellect is entangled in its false fancies, as a boy is caught\nin his own hobby; and dwells on the errors of unreal material things\nrising as smoke before it.\n\n8. Say ye boys, what reliance can you place on your egoism and meity,\nso as to say \u201cthis is I and that is mine.\u201d Ah, well do I perceive it\nnow, that it is the pleasure of boys, to indulge themselves in their\nvisionary flights.\n\n9. Knowing the unreality of the earth and other things, men are yet\nprone to pass their lives in those vanities and in their ignorance of\ntruth, they resemble the miners, who instead of digging the earth in\nsearch of gold, expect it to fall upon them from heaven.\n\n10. When the want of prior and co-ordinate causes, proves _a priori_\nthe impossibility of the effect; so the want of any created thing,\nproves _a posteriori_ the inexistence of a causal agent (_i.e._ there\nis no creation nor its creator likewise).\n\n11. They who deal in this uncreated world, with all the unreal shadows\nof its persons and things; are as ignorant as madmen, who take a hobby\nto nourish their unborn or dead offspring.\n\n12. Whence is this earth and all other things, by whom are they made,\nand how did they spring to sight; it is the representation of the\nIntellectual vacuum, which shines in itself, and is quite calm and\nserene.\n\n13. The minds of those that are addicted to fancy to themselves, a\ncausality and its effect, and their time and place; are thus inclined\nto believe in the existence of the earth, but we have nothing to do\nwith their puerile reasoning.\n\n14. The world whether it is considered as material or immaterial, is\nbut a display of the intellectual vacuum; which presents all these\nimages like dreams to our minds, and as the empty sky shows its hues\nand figures to our eyes.\n\n15. The form of the vacuous intellect is without a form, and it is only\nby our percipience that we have our knowledge of it; it is the same\nwhich shows itself in the form of the earth &c., and the subjective\nsoul appears as the subjective world to our sight.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CVIII.\n\nDESCRIPTION OF THE KNOWLEDGE AND IGNORANCE OF THE SOUL.\n\n Argument:--The Knowledge of the objective continuing with our\n ignorance of the subjective and the story of the wise prince\n Vipaschit, attacked by his rude enemies.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma rejoined:--He whose mind is bound by his ignorance, to the bright\nvividness of visible phenomenal; views the palpable scenes of the\nnoumenal, as mere his idle dreams, and as visionary as empty air.\n\n2. Now, O sage, please to tell me again, the nature and manner of this\nignorance of the noumenal; and to what extent and how long, does this\nignorance of the spiritual bind fast a man.\n\n3. Vasishtha replied:--Know R\u00e1ma, those that are besotted by their\nignorance, think this earth and the elementary bodies, to be as\neverlasting as they believe Brahma to be. Now O R\u00e1ma! hear a tale on\nthis subject.\n\n4. There is in some corner of the infinite space, another world with\nits three _lokas_ of the upper and lower regions, in the manner of this\nterrestrial world.\n\n5. There is a piece of land therein, as beautiful as this land of ours;\nand is called the _sama bh\u00fami_ or level land, where all beings had\ntheir free range.\n\n6. In a city of that place, there reigned a prince well known for his\nlearning, and who passed his time in the company of the learned men of\nhis court.\n\n7. He shone as handsome as a swan in a lake of lotuses, and as bright\nas the moon among the stars; he was as dignified as the Mount Meru or\npolar pinnacle among mountains, and he presided over his council as its\npresident.\n\n8. The strain of bards, fell short in the recital of his praises, and\nhe was a firm patron of poets and bards, as a mountain is the support\nof its refugees.\n\n9. The prosperity of his valour flourished day by day, and stretched\nits lustre to all sides of the earth; as the blooming beauty of lotus\nblossoms, under the early beams of the rising sun, fills the landscape\nwith delight every morning.\n\n10. That respectable prince of Br\u00e1hmanic faith, adored fire as the lord\nof gods, with his full faith; and did not recognize any other god as\nequal to him (Because _agni_ is said to be the Brahma or father of the\ngods).\n\n11. He was beset by conquering forces, consisting of horse, elephants\nand foot soldiers; and was surrounded by his councillors, as the sea is\ngirt by his whirlpools and rolling waters.\n\n12. His vast and unflinching forces, were employed in the protection of\nthe four boundaries of his realm; as the four seas serve to gird the\nearth on all its four sides.\n\n13. His capital was as the nave of a wheel, the central point of the\nwhole circle of his kingdom; and he was as invincible a victor of his\nfoes, as the irresistible discus of Vishnu.\n\n14. There appeared to him once a shrewd herald, from the eastern\nborders of his state; who approached to him in haste, and delivered a\nsecret message that was not pleasing unto him.\n\n15. Lord! may thy realm be never detached, which is bound fastly by\nthy arms, as a cow is tied to a tree or post; but hear me relate to\nyou something, which requires your consideration. (The word go--Gr.\nge.--Pers. gao--cow, means both the earth and a cow and hence their\nmutual simile).\n\n16. Thy chieftain in the east is snatched away from his post, by the\nrelentless hand of a fever where upon he seems to have gone to the\nregions of death, to conquer as it were, the god Yama at thy behest.\n\n17. Then as thy chief on the south, proceeded to quell the borderers\nthereabouts; he was attacked by hostile forces who poured upon him from\nthe east and west, and killed by the enemy.\n\n18. Upon his death as the chieftain of the west, proceeded with his\narmy to wrest those provinces (from the hands of the enemy).\n\n19. He was met on his way, by the combined forces of the inimical\nprinces of the east and south, who put him to death in his half way\njourney to the spot.\n\n20. Vasishtha continued:--As he was relating in this wise, another\nemissary driven by his haste, entered the court-hall with as great a\nrush, as a current of the deluging flood.\n\n21. He represented, saying:--O lord, the general of thy forces on the\nnorth, is overpowered by a stronger enemy, and is routed from his post,\nlike an embankment broken down and borne away by the rushing waters.\n\n22. Hearing so, the king thought it useless to waste time, and issuing\nout of his royal apartment, he bade as follows.\n\n23. Summon the princes and chiefs and the generals and ministers, to\nappear here forthwith in their full armour; and lay open the arsenal,\nand get out the horrible weapons (of destruction).\n\n24. Put on your bodies your armours of mail, and set the infantry on\nfoot; number the regiments, and select the best warriors.\n\n25. Appoint the leaders of the forces, and send the heralds all around;\nthus said the king in haste, and such was the royal behest.\n\n26. When the warder appeared before him, and lowly bending down his\nhead, he sorrowfully expressed: \u201cLord, the chieftain of the north is\nwaiting at the gate, and expects like the lotus to come to thy sunlike\nsight\u201d.\n\n27. The king answered:--Go thou quickly there, and get him to my\npresence; that I may learn from his report the sterling events of that\nquarter.\n\n28. Thus ordered, the warder introduced the northern chief to the royal\npresence; where he bent himself down before his royal lord, who beheld\nthe chieftain in the following plight.\n\n29. His whole body and every part and member of it, was full of wounds\nand scars; it breathed hard and spouted out blood, and supported itself\nwith difficulty.\n\n30. While he with due obeisance, and faltering breath and voice, and\ncontortion of his limbs, delivered this hasty message to his sovereign.\n\n31. The chieftain said:--My lord, the three other chiefs of the three\nquarters, with numerous forces under them, have already gone to the\nrealms of Yama (Pluto), in their attempt to conquer death at thy behest\n(_i.e._ to encounter the enemies on every side).\n\n32. Then the clansmen finding my weakness, to defend thy realms alone\non this side, assembled in large numbers, and poured upon me with all\ntheir strength.\n\n33. I have with great difficulty, very narrowly escaped from them to\nthis palace, all gory and gasping for life as you see; and pray you to\npunish the rebels, that are not invincible before your might.\n\n34. Vasishtha continued:--As the yet alive and wounded chieftain,\nhad been telling his painful story in this manner to the king; there\nappeared on a sudden another person entering the palace after him, and\nspeaking to the king in the following manner.\n\n35. O sovereign of men, the hostile armies of your enemies, likening\nthe shaking leaves of trees, have all beset in great numbers, the\nskirts of your kingdom, on all its four sides.\n\n36. The enemy has surrounded our lands, like a chain of rocks all\naround; and they are blazing all about with their brandishing swords\nand spears, and with the flashing of their forest-like maces and lances.\n\n37. The bodies of their soldiers, with the flying flags and shaking\nweapons on them, appear as moving chariots upon the ground; while their\nrolling war-cars, seem as sweeping cities all about.\n\n38. Their uplifted arms in the air, appear as rising forests of fleshy\narbours in the sky; and the resounding phalanx of big elephants, seem\nas huge bodies of rainy clouds roaring on high.\n\n39. The grounds seeming to rise and sink, with the bounding and bending\nof their snoring horses; give the land an appearance of the sea,\nsounding hoarsely under the lashing winds.\n\n40. The land is moistened and whitened around, by the thickening froth\nfallen from the mouths of horses; and bears its resemblance to the\nfoaming main, fell with its salt spray all over.\n\n41. The groups of armed armaments in the field, resemble the warlike\narray of clouds in the sky; and likens to the huge surges, rising upon\nthe surface of the sea, troubled by the gusts of the deluge.\n\n42. The weapons on their bodies, and their armours and coronets, are\nshining forth with a flash that equals the flame and fire of thy valour.\n\n43. Their battle array, in the forms of circling crocodiles and long\nstretching whales; resemble the waves of the sea, that toss about these\nmarine animals upon the shore.\n\n44. Their lines of the lancers &c., are advancing with one accord\nagainst us; and flashing with their furious rage and fire, are uttering\nand muttering their invectives to us.\n\n45. It is for this purpose, that I have come to report these things\nto my lord, so that you will deign to proceed in battle array to the\nborders, and drive these insurgents as weeds from the skirts.\n\n46. Now my lord, I take leave of you, with my bow and arrows and club\nand sword as I came, and leave the rest to your best discretion.\n\n47. Vasishtha added:--Saying so, and bending lowly to his lord, the\nemissary went out forthwith; as the undulation of the sea disappears,\nafter making a gurgling noise.\n\n48. Upon this the king with his honorable ministers, his knights and\nattendants and servants; together with his cavalry and charioteers, the\nmen and women and all the citizens at large were struck with terror;\nand the sentinels of the palace, trembled with fear, as they shouldered\ntheir arms and wielded their weapons, which resembled a forest of trees\nshaken by a hurricane.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CIX.\n\nFIGHTING WITH THE INVADING ARMIES AT THE GATE OF THE CITY.\n\n Argument:--Adopting ways and means to quell the disturbances of\n the hostile enemies.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--In the mean while, the assembled ministers\nadvanced before the king, as the sages of yore resorted to the\ncelestial Indra, being invaded by the Daityas--Titans around.\n\n2. The ministers addressed:--Lord! We have consulted and ascertained,\nthat as the enemy is irresistible by any of the three means (of peace,\ndissension and bribe or concession); they must be quelled by force or\ndue punishment.\n\n3. When the proffer of amity is of no avail, and the offer of hostages\ndoth also fail; it is useless to propose to them, any other term for a\nreconciliation.\n\n4. Vile enemies that are base and barbarous, that are of different\ncountries and races, that are great in number and opulence; and those\nthat are acquainted with our weakness and weak parts; are hardly\nconciliated by terms of peace or subsidy.\n\n5. Now there is no remedy against this insurrection, save by showing\nour valour to the enemy; wherefore let all our efforts be directed,\ntowards the strengthening of our gates and ramparts.\n\n6. Give orders to our bravos to sally out to the field, and command the\npeople to worship and implore the protection of the gods; and let the\ngenerals give the war alarm with loud sounding drums and trumpets.\n\n7. Let the warriors be well armed, and let them rush to the field; and\norder the soldiers to pour upon the plains in all directions, as the\ndark deluging clouds inundate the land.\n\n8. Let the outstretched bows rattle in the air, and the bowstrings\ntwang and clang all around; and let the shadows of curved bows, obscure\nthe skies as by the clouds.\n\n9. Let the thrilling bow strings, flash as flickering lightnings in\nthe air, and the loud war whoop of the soldiers, sound as the growling\nclouds above; let the flying darts and arrows fall as showers of rain,\nand make the combatants glare, with the sparkling gold rings in their\near.\n\n10. The king said:--Do you all proceed to the battle, and do promptly\nall what is necessary on this occasion; and I will follow you\nstraightaway to the battle field, after finishing my ablution and the\nadoration of Agni--the fiery god.\n\n11. Notwithstanding the important affairs, which waited on the king;\nyet he found a moment\u2019s respite to bathe, by pouring potfuls of pure\n_Gang\u00e1_ water upon him, in the manner of a grove watered by a showering\nof rain water.\n\n12. Then having entered his fire temple, he worshipped the holy fire\nwith as much reverence, as it is enjoined in the s\u00e1stras; and then\nbegan to reflect in himself, in the following manner.\n\n13. I have led an untroubled and easy life, passing in pleasure and\nprosperity; and have kept in security all the subjects of my realm\nstretching to the sea.\n\n14. I have subdued the surface of the earth, and reduced my enemies\nunder my foot; and have filled the smiling land with plenty, under the\nbending skies on all sides.\n\n15. My fair fame shines in the sphere of heaven, like the clear and\ncooling beams of the lunar orb; and the plant of my renown, stretches\nto the three worlds, like the three branches of _Gang\u00e1_.\n\n16. I have lavished my wealth, to my friends and relatives, and to\nrespectable Br\u00e1hmans; in the manner, as I have amassed my treasures\nfor myself; and I quenched my thirst with the beverage of the cocoanut\nfruits, growing on edges of the four oceans. (That is to say:--his\nrealms were \u091a\u0924\u0941\u0930\u093e\u092c\u094d\u0927\u093f\u0938\u094b\u092e\u093e or bounded by the four oceans on\nall sides).\n\n17. My enemies trembled before me for fear of their lives, and they\ngroaned before me as croaking frogs with their distended pouches, and\nmy rule extended over and marked the mountains, situated in the islands\namidst the distant seas.\n\n18. I have roved with bodies of siddhas, over the nine regions beyond\nthe visible horizon; and I have rested on the tops of bordering\nmountains, like the flying clouds that rest on mountain tops.\n\n19. With my full knowing mind, and my perfection in Divine meditation;\nI have acquired my dominions entire and unimpaired, by cause of my good\nwill for the public weal. (It means the prince\u2019s high attainments in\nspiritual, intellectual as well as territorial concerns).\n\n20. I have manacled the lawless R\u00e1kshasas, in strong chains and\nfetters; and kept my cares of religious duties, and those of my\ntreasures and personal enjoyments within proper bounds, and without\nletting them clash with one another.\n\n21. I have passed my life time, in the uninterrupted discharge of those\ntriple duties of mine; and have relished my life with great joy and\nrenown. But now hoary old age hath come upon me, like the snow and\nfrost fallen upon the withered leaf and dried straw.\n\n22. Now hath old age come, and blasted all my pleasures and efforts;\nand after all, these furious enemies have overpowered upon me, and are\neager for warfare.\n\n23. They have poured upon me in vast numbers on all sides, and the\nvictory is doubtful; it is therefore better for me to offer myself as a\nsacrifice, to the god of this burning fire, which is known to crown its\nworshipper with victory.\n\n24. I will pluck this head of mine, and make an offering of it to the\nFire-god (as a fit fruit to shrine; and say:--O Igneous god, I\nmake here an offering of my head to thee).\n\n25. I give this offering, as I have ever before given my oblations to\nfire; therefore accept of this also, O god, if thou art pleased with my\nformer offerings.\n\n26. Let the four urns of thy fiery furnace, yield four forms of mine,\nwith brilliant and strong bodies, like that of N\u00e1r\u00e1yana, with his\nmighty arms.\n\n27. Thus will I be enabled, with those four bodies of mine, to meet my\nenemies on all the four sides; and be invulnerable like thyself, by\nkeeping my thought and sight, ever fixed in thee.\n\n28. Vasishtha replied:--So saying, the king took hold of a dagger in\nhis hand; and separated the head from his body with one blow of it, as\nboys tear off a lotus bud from the stalk with their nails. (In many\ninstances, the head is mentioned to be torn off by the nails).\n\n29. As the head became an oblation, to the fire of dusky fumes; the\nheadless trunk of the self-immolated sovereign, sprang and flew also\nupon the burning furnace.\n\n30. The sacred fire, being fed with the fat and flesh of the royal\ncarcass; yielded forth with four such living bodies, from amidst its\nburning flames; as it is the nature of the good and great, to make an\ninstantaneous of fourfold, of what they receive in earnest.\n\n31. The king sprang from amidst the fire, in his fourfold forms of his\nkingly appearance, and these were as luminous with their effulgence, as\nthe radiant body of N\u00e1r\u00e1yana, when it rose at first from the formless\ndeep. (The spirit of god rising over the surface of the deep).\n\n32. These four bodies of the king, shone forth with their resplendent\nlustre; and were adorned with their inborn decorations of the royal\ncrown and other ornaments and weapons. (The fire born form allude to\nthe Agniculas or fiery races of men).\n\n33. They had their armours and coronets on, together with helmets,\nbracelets and fittings for all and every part of the body; and\nnecklaces and ear-rings hung upon them as they moved along.\n\n34. All the four princes were of equal forms, and of similar shapes and\nsizes in all the member of their bodies; and were all seated on horse\nback, like so many Indras riding on their _Uchai-srava_ horses (having\ntheir ears pricked up, as in the plight of their heavenward flight).\n\n35. They had their long and capacious quivers, full with arrows of\ngolden shafts; and their ponderous bows and bowstrings, were equally\nlong and strong with the god of war.\n\n36. They rode also on elephants and steeds, and mounted on their\nwar-cars and other vehicles in their warfare; and were alike\nimpregnable by the arms of the enemy, both themselves as well as the\nvehicles they rode upon.\n\n37. They sprang from the bosom of the sacred fire, as the flames of the\nsubmarine fire, rise from amidst the ocean, by being nourished with the\noblations that were offered upon it.\n\n38. Their flowery bodies on jewelled horses, made resplendent on all\nsides as four smiling faces of the moon; and their good figures looked\nlike Hara-Hari, as if they have come out from fire and water.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CX.\n\nBATTLE OF THE WISE PRINCES, WITH THE IGNORANT BARBARIAN.\n\n Argument:--Description of the warfare before the city gates,\n betwixt the Royal armies and the Rude Invaders of the Realm.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--In the mean time the battle was raging in its\nfull fury, between the royal forces, and the hostile bands that had\nadvanced before the city gates.\n\n2. Here the enemies were plundering the city and villages, and there\nthey set fire to the houses and hamlets; the sky was obscured by clouds\nof smoke and dust, and the air was filled by loud cries of havoc and\nwailing on every side.\n\n3. The sun was obscured by the thickening shadow, of the network of\narrows spread over the skies; and the disk of the sun now appeared to\nview: and was then lost to sight the next moment.\n\n4. The burning fire of the incendiaries, set to flame the leaves of\nthe forest trees; and the fire brands of burning wood, were falling as\nloosely all around, as the iron sleets of arrow breast were hurling\nthrough the air.\n\n5. The flame of the blazing fire, added a double lustre, to the\nburnished and brandishing weapons; and the souls of the great\ncombatants falling in battle, were borne aloft to the regions of Indra,\nwhere they were ministered by the heavenly nymphs.\n\n6. The Thundering peals of fierce elephants, excited the bravery of\nbravados: and missile weapons of various kinds, were flung about in\nshowers.\n\n7. The loud shouts and cries of the combatants, depressed the spirits\nof dastardly cowards; and the hoary clouds of dust flying in the air,\nappeared as elephants intercepting the paths of the midway skies.\n\n8. Chieftains eager to die in the field, were roving about with loud\nshouts; and men were falling in numbers here and there, as if stricken\nby lightnings in the battle field.\n\n9. Burning houses were falling below, and fiery clouds dropt from\nabove; flying arrows in the form of rocks, were rolling on high; and\ndescending upon and dispatching to death, numbers of soldiers that were\nready to die.\n\n10. The galloping horses in the field gave it the appearance of wavy\nocean afar; and the crashing of the tusks of fighting elephants,\ncrackled like the clashing clouds in air.\n\n11. The shafts of the arrows of the combatants, filled the forts and\nits bastion; and the flashing of the same on the top of it, made a\nglare of fire around.\n\n12. The dashing of one another in passing to and fro, tore their\ngarments into pieces, and the furling of flags in open air and the\nclashing of shield between combatants made a pat-pat noise all around.\n\n13. The flash of the tusks of elephant, and the crash of weapons\ndashing on stony rocks, and the loud uproar and clangour of the\nbattlefield, invited the elephants of heaven to join in the fray.\n\n14. The flights of arrows, ran as rivers into the ocean of the sky; and\nthe flying lances, swords and discuses, which were flung into the air,\nresembled the sharks and alligators, swimming in the etherial sea.\n\n15. The concussion of the armours of the clamorous combatants, and the\nclashing of the arms in commingled warfare, represented the sounding\nmain beset by islands.\n\n16. The ground was trodden down to a muddy pool, under the feet of\nthe foot soldiers; and the blood issuing out of their bodies from the\nwounds of the arrows, ran as river carrying down the broken chariots\nand slain elephants in its rapid course.\n\n17. The flight of the winged shafts, and the falling of the battle\naxes, resembled the waves of the arrowy sea in the air; and the broken\narms of the vanquished, floated as aquatic animals upon it.\n\n18. The sky was set on fire, by the flames issuing forth from the\nclashing arms; and the celestial regions were filled with the deified\nsouls of departed heroes, now released from the fetters of their\nwrinkled and decaying frames of earth.\n\n19. Clouds of dingy dust and ashes filled the firmament, with flashes\nof lightnings flaming as arches amidst them; the missile weapons filled\nthe air, as the tractile arms occupied the surface of the earth.\n\n20. The contending combatants hooted at one another, and broke and cut\ntheir weapons in mutual contest; the cars were cleft by clashing at\neach other, and the chariots were reft by dashing together.\n\n21. Here the headless trunks of the _kabandhas_ (anthropophagi),\nmingled with the gigantic bodies of the _vet\u00e1la_ demons, were\ndisastrous on every side; and there the demoniac _vet\u00e1la_ plucking\ntheir hearts for their hearty meal.\n\n22. The bravos were tearing the arteries of the slain, and breaking\nasunder their arms, heads and thighs; while the uplifted and shaking\narms of the Kabandhas, made a moving forest in the air.\n\n23. The demons moving about with their open and jeering mouths, made\ntheir maws and jaws as caskets for carrion; and the soldiers passing\nwith their helmets and coronets on, looked fiercely on all around.\n\n24. To kill or die, to slay or to be slain, was the soldier\u2019s final\nglory in the field; as it was their greatest infamy, to be backward in\ntheir giving or receiving of wounds.\n\n25. He is the gladdener of death, who dries up the boast of soldiers\nand chieftains, and drains the flowing ichor of ferocious elephants\n(_i.e._ puts an end to them); and one who is entirely bent on\ndestruction.\n\n26. There were loud applauses given to the victory, of unboasting and\nunrenowned heroes; as there were the great censures, which were poured\nupon the nameless and dastardly cowards.\n\n27. The rousing of the sleeping virtues of prowess and others, is as\nglorious to the great and strong; as the laying out of their treasures,\nfor the protection of their prot\u00e9g\u00e9s.\n\n28. The proboscides of the elephants, were broken in the conflict of\nelephant riders and charioteers; and oozing of the fragrant fluid of\nichor from their front, was altogether at a stop.\n\n29. Elephants left loose by their flying leaders, fell into the lakes,\nand cried like shrill storks in them; and here they were pursued and\novercome by men who inflicted terrible wounds upon them with their\nhands.\n\n30. In some place the unprotected as well as the uninvaded people,\nbeing downtrodden and half dead in their mutual scuffle; fled to and\nfell at the feet of their king, as the daytime takes its shelter under\nthe shining sun.\n\n31. They being maddened by pride with the force of giddiness, became\nsubject to death (_i.e._ they called death, to be re-born); as\nmillionaires and traders seek a better place in dread of their life.\n\n32. The red coats of soldiers, and the red flags lifted upon their\narms as a wood of trees; spread a rubicund colour all around, like the\nadoration of the three worlds.\n\n33. White umbrellas, resembling the waves of the Milky ocean, when\nchurned by the Mandara mountain; covered the weapons of the soldiers\nunder them, and made the sky appear as a garden of flowers.\n\n34. The eulogies sung by the bards and Gandharvas, added to the valour\nof the warriors; and profluent liquor of the tall palma trees (_i.e._\nthe toddy juice), infused a vigour to their veins, as that of Baladeva\n(who fought dead drunk in battle).\n\n35. There was the clashing of arms of the R\u00e1kshasas, who fought\ntogether in bodies; who were as big as lofty trees, and fed on\ncarcasses, with which they filled their abodes in the caverns of\nmountains.\n\n36. There was a forest of spears rising to the sky on one side, with\nthe detached heads and arms of the slain attached to them; and there\nwere the flying stones on another, which were flung from the slings of\nthe combatants, and which covered the ground below.\n\n37. There was the clapping of the arms and hands of the champions,\nresembling the splitting and bursting of great trees; and there was\nheard also the loud wailings of women, echoing amidst the lofty\nedifices of the city.\n\n38. The flight of fiery weapons in the air, resembled the flying fire\nbrands on high, with a hissing and whistling sound; and the people\nbetook themselves to flight from these, leaving their homes and\ntreasures all behind.\n\n39. The lookers were flying away, from the flying darts all about, in\norder to save their heads; just as the timid snakes hide themselves,\nfor fear of the devouring _phoenix_, darting upon them from the sky.\n\n40. Daring soldiers were grinded under tusks of elephants, as if they\nwere pounded under the jaws of death, or as the grapes are crushed in\ntheir pressing mills.\n\n41. The weapons flying in the air, were repelled and broken by the\nstones, flung by the ballistics; and the shouts of the champions,\nresounded as the re-echoing yells of elephants, issuing out of the\nragged caverns.\n\n42. The hollow sounding caves of mountains, resounded to the loud\nshouts of warriors; who were ready to expose their dear lives and\ndearly earned vigour in the battle field.\n\n43. The burning fire of firearms, and the flames of incendiarism\nflashed on all sides; these and mutual conflicts and chariot fightings,\nwent on unceasingly all around.\n\n44. The battle field was surrounded by the surviving soldiers, who\nwere as staunch hearted as the Mount Kail\u00e1sa, with the strong god Siva\nseated therein.\n\n45. The bravemen that boldly expose their lives in battle, enjoy a\nlasting life by their death in warfare, and die in their living state,\nby their flight from the field. (The text is very curt and says:--The\nbrave live by dying, and die by their living).\n\n46. Big elephants being killed in the battle field, like lotus flowers\nimmerging into the waters of lakes; great champions were seen to stalk\nover the plains, as towering storks strutted on the banks of lakes.\n\n47. Here showers of stones were falling in torrents, with a whizzing\nsound; and the showers of arrows, were running with a whistling noise\naround; and the uproar of warriors were growling in the skies. The\nflying weapons were hurtling through the air, and the neighing of\nhorses, the cries of elephants and the whirling of chariot wheels,\ntogether with the hurling of stones from the height of hills, deafened\nthe ears of men all about.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXI.\n\nTHE FLIGHT OF THE SOLDIERS ON ALL SIDES.\n\n Argument:--Description of the Discomfiture of the Royal army, and\n their use of pneumatic arms.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--Thus the war waged with the fury of the four\nelements, in their mutual conflict on the last doomsday of the world;\nand the forces on all sides, were falling and flying in numbers in and\nabout the battle field.\n\n2. The sky was filled with the stridor of the fourfold noise of drums\nand conch-shells; and the rattling of arrows and clattering of arms on\nall sides.\n\n3. The furious warriors were violently dashing on one another, and\ntheir steel armours were clashing against each other, and splitting in\ntwain with clattering noise.\n\n4. The files of the royal forces, were broken in the warfare; they fell\nfainting in the field, and were lopped off as leaves and plants, and\nmown down as straws and grass.\n\n5. At this time the trumpets announced the advance of king, with a peal\nthat filled the quarters of the sky; and the cannons thundered with a\ntreble roar, resounding with uproar of the _kapa_ or doomsday clouds.\n\n6. They rent asunder at the same time, the sides of the highest hill\nand mountains; and split in twain, the rocky shores and banks every\nwhere.\n\n7. The king then issued forth to all the four sides, in the four fold\nor four parted form of himself; like the four regents of the four\nquarters of the sky, or like the four arms of N\u00e1r\u00e1yana, stretching to\nso many sides of heaven.\n\n8. Being then followed by his fourfold forces (composed of horse,\nelephants, war-cars and foot soldiers); he then rushed out of the\nconfines of his city of palaces, and marched to the open fields lying\nout of the town.\n\n9. He saw the thinness of his own army, and the strong armament of his\nenemies all around; and heard their loud clamour all about, like the\nwild roar of the surrounding sea.\n\n10. Flights of arrows flying thickly through the air, appeared as\nsharks floating in the sea; and the bodies of elephants, moving in the\nwide battle field, seemed as the huge waves of the ocean.\n\n11. The moving battalions wheeling circular bodies, seemed as the\nwhirling eddies in the sea; and the coursing chariots with their waving\nflags, appeared as the sailing ships with their unfurled sails.\n\n12. The uplifted umbrellas were as the foams of the sea, and the\nneighing of horses, likened the frothing of whales. The glaring of\nshining weapons, appeared as the flaring of falling rain under the\nsunshine.\n\n13. The moving elephants and sweeping horses, seemed as the huge surges\nand swelling waves of the sea; and the dark Dravidian barbarians\ngabbled, like the gurgling bubbles of sea waters.\n\n14. The big elephants with their towering and lowering bodies, seemed\nas they were mounting or dismounting from the heights of mountains, and\nbreaking their hollow caves, howling with the rustling winds.\n\n15. The battle field looked like the vast expanse of water, in which\nthe slain horses and elephants seemed to be swimming as fragments of\nfloating rocks, and where the moving legions, appeared as the rolling\nwaves of the sea.\n\n16. The field presented the dismal appearance of an untimely\ndissolution; appeared as an ocean of blood, stretching to the borders\nof the visible horizon.\n\n17. The fragments of the shining weapons, showed themselves as the\nsparkling gems in the womb of the sea; and the movement of forces,\nresembled the casting of ballast stones into it.\n\n18. The falling weapons, were as showers of gems and snow from above;\nand presented the appearance of evening clouds in some place, and of\nfleecy vapours in another.\n\n19. Beholding the ocean like the battalion of the enemy, the king\nthought of swallowing it up, as the sage Agastya had sucked in the\nocean; and with this intent, he remembered his airy instrument, which\nhe thought to employ on this occasion; (and which would disperse the\ncloud of the hostile force like the wind).\n\n20. He got the airy instrument, and aimed it at all sides; as when\nthe god Siva had set the arrow to his bow on Mount Meru, to slay the\ndemon Tripura. (This passage shows the slaughter of Tripura, when the\nIndo-Aryans had their habitation on Meru or the polar mountains).\n\n21. He bowed to his god Agni--Ignis, and let fly his mighty missile\nwith all his might; in order to repel the raging fire, and preserve his\nown forces from destruction.\n\n22. He hurled his airy bolt, together with its accompaniment of the\ncloudy arms; both to drive off as well as to set down the fire of the\nenemy.\n\n23. These arms being propelled from his octuple cross bow, burst forth\ninto a thousand dire weapons, which ran to and filled all the four\nsides or quarters of the sky.\n\n24. Then there issued forth from these, an abundance of darts and\narrows; and currents of iron spears and tridents; and volleys of shots\nand rockets.\n\n25. There were torrents of missiles and mallets, as well as currents of\ndiscs and battle axes.\n\n26. There were streams of iron clubs, crows and lances; and floods of\nbhindipalas or short arrows thrown from the hand or through tubes; and\nalso swashes of spring nets, and air instruments of incredible velocity.\n\n27. There was an effusion of fire bolts, and a profluence of\nlightnings, as also showers of fallings shorts, and scuds of flying\nswords and sabres.\n\n28. There were falls of iron arrows, and javelins and spears of great\nforce and strength; and purling of huge snakes, that were found in\nmountain caves, and grew there for ages.\n\n29. It was in no time, that the force of these flying arms, blasted\nthe ocean of the hostile forces; which fled in full haste and hurry in\nall directions, as heaps of ashes before the hurricane and whirlwind.\n\n30. The thunder showers of arms, and the driving rain of weapons, were\ndriven away by the impetuous winds; and invading hosts hurried to all\nsides, as the torrent of a river breaks its embankment, and overflows\non the land in the rains.\n\n31. The four bodies of troops (consisting of horse, elephant, chariots\nand foot-soldiers), fled vanquished from the field to the four\ndirections; just as the mountain cataracts precipitate on all sides\nduring the rains.\n\n32. The lofty flags and their posts, were torn and broken and hurled\ndown as large trees by storm; and the forest of uplifted swords were\nbroken to pieces, and scattered like the petals of _mariche_ flowers\nover the ground.\n\n33. The sturdy bodies of stout soldiers, were rolling as stones on the\nground, and besmeared with blood gushing out of their wounds; while the\ngroans of their agony, broke down the stoutest hearts.\n\n34. Large elephants rolled upon the ground with their elevated tusks\nrising as trees; and roared aloud with their crackling sounds, vying\nwith thunder claps and roaring clouds.\n\n35. The clashing of the weapons against one another, was as the\ncrashing of the branches of trees against each other; and the horses\nclashing on one another, sounded as the clashing of waves of the sea.\n\n36. The crackling of war cars and their huge wheels, sounded as the\nrattling of the hail storm on high; and the mingled noise of the\nclashing of carriages, horse, elephants and foot-soldiers, sounded as\nthe crashing of stones.\n\n37. The harsh sound of war hoops and shouts, was loud on all sides; and\ncries of dying soldiers, crying \u201cwe die, we are slain,\u201d swelled in the\nair all around.\n\n38. The army appeared as a sea, and their march was as the whirling of\nan eddy with its gurgling sound; and the bloodshed on their bodies,\nexhibited the roseate hue of the evening sky.\n\n39. The waving weapons, appeared as a lowering cloud moving upon the\nshore; and the ground besmeared in blood seemed as the fragment of a\npurple cloud.\n\n40. The lancers, mace bearers and spearmen, seemed to bear the tall\n_tala_ trees in their hands; while the cowardly crowds of men, were\nseen to cry aloud like the timid deer in the plain.\n\n41. The dead bodies of horses, elephants and warriors, lay prostrate on\nthe ground liken the fallen leaves of trees; and the rotten flesh and\nfat of the bruised carcasses, were trodden down to mud and mire in the\nfield.\n\n42. Their bones were pounded to dust under the hoofs of the horses; and\nthe concussion of wood and stones under the driving winds, raised a\nrattling sound all around.\n\n43. The clouds of dooms-day were roaring, and the winds of desolation\nwere blowing; the rains of the last day were falling, and the thunders\nof destruction were clapping all about.\n\n44. The surface of the ground was all muddy and miry, and the face of\nthe land was flooded all over; the air was chill and bleak, and the sky\nwas drizzling through all its pores.\n\n45. The huts and hamlets, and the towns and villages, were all in\na blaze; and the people and their cattle, with all the horses and\nelephants, were in full cry and loud uproar.\n\n46. The earth and heaven, resounded with the rolling of chariots and\nrumbling of clouds; and the four quarters of heaven, reverberated to\nthe twanging of his four fold bow on all the four sides.\n\n47. The forky lightnings were playing, by the friction and clashing\nof the clouds; and showers of arrows and missiles fell profusely from\nthem, with the thunder bolts of maces, and darts of spears.\n\n48. The armies of the invading chiefs, fled in confusion from all the\nfour sides of the field; and the flying forces fell in numbers like\nswarms of ants and troops of gnats and flies.\n\n49. The myrmidons of the bordering tribes, were burnt amidst the\nconflagration of fiery arms; and were pierced by the fiery weapons,\nfalling like thunderbolts upon them, from the darkened sky. The flying\nforces resembled the marine animals of the deep, which being disturbed\nby the perturbed waters of the sea, plunge at last into the submarine\nfire.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXII.\n\nFLIGHT OF THE FOREIGN FOES.\n\n Argument.--Account of the routed soldiers, and the names of their\n countries and places of retreat.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--The Chedis of Deccan, who were as thickly crowded\nas the sandal wood of their country, and girt with girdles resembling\nthe snakes about those trees, were felled by the battle axes, and\ndriven afar to the southern main--the Indian Ocean.\n\n2. The Persians flew as the flying leaves of trees, and striking\nagainst one another in their madness, fell like the vanjula leaves in\nthe forest.\n\n3. Then the demon-like Darads, who dwell in the caverns of the distant\nDardura mountains, were pierced in their breasts, and fled from the\nfield with their heart rending sorrow. (The Dardui is a people of\nAfghanistan).\n\n4. The winds blew away the clouds of weapons, which poured down\ntorrents of missile arms, that shattered the armours of the warriors,\nand glittered like curling lightnings.\n\n5. The elephants falling upon one another, pierced their bodies and\ngored each other to death with their tusks; and became heaps of flesh,\nsimilar to the lumps of food with which they filled their bellies.\n\n6. Another people of the same country, and of the Raivata mountains,\nwho were flying from the field by night; were waylaid by the horrid\nPis\u00e1chas, that tore their bodies and devoured them with voracity.\n\n7. Those that fled to the _tala_ and _tamala_ forests, and to the old\nwoods on the bank of the _das\u00e1rn\u00e1_ river; were caught by lions and\ntigers crouching in them; and were throttled to death under their feet.\n\n8. The _yovanas_ living on the coasts of the western ocean, and those\nin the land of cocoanut trees; were caught and devoured by sharks, in\nthe course of their flight.\n\n9. The s\u00e1kas or _Scythians_ being unable to endure the impulse, of the\nblack iron arrows for a moment fled to all directions; and the Rumatha\npeople were blown away and broken down, like the lotus bed by the\nblowing winds.\n\n10. The routed enemy flying to the Mahendra mountain, covered its three\npeaks with their armours of black mail, and made them appear as mantled\nby the sable clouds of the rainy weather.\n\n11. The legions of these hostile forces, being broken down by the arms\nof the king, like the large mines of gold, were first plundered of their\nraiments by the highway robbers, and then killed and devoured by the\nnocturnal cannibals and hobgoblins of the desert.\n\n12. The surface of the land was converted to the face of the sky; by\nthe broken fragments of weapons glistering on like the stars of heaven\ntwinkling in myriads above.\n\n13. The caverns of the earth, resounding to the noise of the clouds\nabove, appeared as a grand orchestra, sounding the victory of the king\nboth in earth and heaven.\n\n14. The peoples inhabiting the islands, lost their lives under the\nwhirling disks; as those dwelling in the watery marshes perish on dried\nlands for want of rain.\n\n15. The vanquished islanders fled to the Sahya mountains, and having\nhalted there for a week, departed slowly to the respective places.\n\n16. Many took shelter in the Gandham\u00e1dana mountains, while multitudes\nof them resorted to the Punn\u00e1ga forests; and the retreating Gandharvas\nbecame refugees in the sanctuaries of the Vidy\u00e1dhara maidens.\n\n17. The Huns, Chins and Kir\u00e1tas, had their heads struck off by the\nflying discuses of the king; and these were blown away by the opposite\nwinds, like lotus flowers by the blast.\n\n18. The Nilipa people, remained as firm as trees in a forest, and as\nfixed in their places as thorns on stalks and brambles.\n\n19. The beautiful pastures of antelopes, the woodlands and hilly\ntracts on all sides; were desolated by showers of weapons, and the rush\nand crush of the forces.\n\n20. The thorny deserts became the asylum of robbers, after they\ndeserted their habitations to be over grown by thorns and thistles.\n\n21. The Persians who were abundant in number, got over to the other\nside of the sea (the Persian Gulph); and were blown away by the\nhurricane, like stars blasted by the storm of final desolation.\n\n22. The winds blew as on the last day of destruction, and broke down\nthe woods and forests all about; and disturbed the sea by shaking its\nhidden rocks below.\n\n23. The dirty waters of the deep, rose on high with a gurgling noise;\nand the sky was invisible owing to the clouds of weapons, which\nobscured its face on all sides.\n\n24. The howling winds, raised a clapping and flapping sound all about;\nand there fell showers of snow also, which flowed on earth, like the\nwaters of the sea.\n\n25. The charioteers of Vidura country, fell down from their cars, with\nthe loud noise of waves; and were driven to fall into the waters of the\nlake, like bees from lotuses.\n\n26. The routed foot soldiers who were as numerous as the dust of the\nearth, and well armed from head to foot; were yet so overpowered under\nthe showers of darts and discs, that they were blinded by the tears of\ntheir eyes, and disabled to beat their retreat. (_i.e._ They were as\ndust, set down by the showers of darts from above, and tears of their\neyes below).\n\n27. The Huns were buried with their heads and heels, in their flight\nover the sandy deserts of the north; and others were as muddied as the\ndirty iron, by their being fastened in the miry shores of northern\nseas. (The Huns had been the progenitors of the present Hungarians,\nresiding beyond the Baltic. They are said to have been as dark\ncomplexioned as their cognate Dravidians of Deccan in Southern India).\n\n28. The S\u00e1ks (Saccae or Scythians), were driven to cassia forests on\nthe bank of the eastern main; there they were confined for some time,\nand then released without being despatched to the regions of death.\n\n29. The Madrasees were repulsed to the Mahendra mountains, whence they\nlightly alighted on the ground as if fallen from heaven; and there they\nwere protected by the great sages, who preserved them there with tender\ncare as they bear for the stags of their hermitage.\n\n30. The fugitives flying to the refuge of the Sahya mountains, found\nin lieu of their imminent destruction, in the subterranean cell, the\ntwo fold gain of their present and future good therein. Thus it comes\nto pass that, many times good issues out of evil, where it was least\nexpected. (We know not what were the two great gains made at this\nplace, except it be made to mean, that the hidden cell of _sahya_ or\npatience is the door to prosperity and success).\n\n31. The soldiers flying to Das\u00e1rn\u00e1 at the confluence of the ten rivers,\nfell into the Dardura forest like the fallen leaves of trees; and there\nthey lay dead all about by eating the poisonous fruits thereof.\n\n32. The Haihayas that fled to Him\u00e1layas, drank the juice of\n_Visalya-karan\u00ed_ or pain killing plants by mistake; and became thereby\nas volant as Vidy\u00e1dharas, and flew to their country.\n\n33. And then the people of Bengal, who are as weak as faded flowers,\nshowed their backs to the field, and fled to their homes; from which\nthey dare not stir even to this day, but remain as Pis\u00e1chas all along.\n\n34. But the people of Anga or Bihar, that live upon the fruits of their\ncountry; are as strong as Vidy\u00e1dharas, and sport with their mates, as\nif it were in heavenly bliss.\n\n35. The Persians being worsted in their bodies, fell into the _tala_\nand _tamala_ forests; whereby drinking their intoxicating extracts,\nthey became as giddy as drunken men. (The addictedness of Persians to\ntheir delicious drinks, is well known in their \u00c1na Cronatics).\n\n36. The light and swift mettled elephants of the swarthy Kalingas,\npushed against their four fold armies in the field of battle, where all\nlay slain in promiscuous heaps.\n\n37. The salwas passing under the arrows and stones of the enemy, fell\ninto the waters which girt their city, wherein they perished with the\nwhole of their hosts, that are still lying there in the form of heap of\nrocks.\n\n38. There were numbers of hosts, that fled to different countries in\nall directions; and many that were driven to the distant seas, where\nthey were all drowned and dead, and borne away by the waves.\n\n39. But who can count the countless hosts, that fled to and lay dead\nand unnoticed in every part of the wide earth and sea, on the fields\nand plains, in forests and woods, on land and water, on mountains and\ndales, on shores and coasts and on the hills and cliffs. So there is\nnobody who can tell what numbers of living beings are dying every\nmoment, in their homes and abodes in cities and villages, in caves and\ndens, and every where in the world.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXIII.\n\nDESCRIPTION OF THE OCEAN.\n\n Argument:--Relation of the cessation of arms, and description of\n majestic ocean.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--The hostile forces of the enemies thus flying\non all sides, were pursued to a great distance by the four forms of\nVihaschit as said before.\n\n2. These four forms of almighty power, and of one soul and mind; went\non conquering the four regions on every side, with one intent and\npurpose.\n\n3. They chased the retreating enemies without giving them any respite,\nto the shores of the seas on all sides; as the currents of rivers keep\non their course without intermission, to the coast of the far distant\nocean.\n\n4. This long course of the royal forces, as well as of the enemies,\nsoon put an end to all their provisions and ammunitions, and all their\nresources and strength were exhausted at last, as a rill is lost under\nthe sands ere it reaches the lake.\n\n5. The king beheld his forces and those of his enemies, to be as\nexhausted at the end; as the merits and demerits of a man are lost up\non his ultimate liberation.\n\n6. The weapons ceased to fly about, as if they were at rest after they\nhad done their part in the sky; and as the flames of fire subside of\nthemselves, for want of fuel and the combustibles.\n\n7. The horses and elephants went under their shelters, and the weapons\nstuck to trees and rocks; and they seemed to fall fast asleep, like\nbirds upon their spray at night fall.\n\n8. As the waves cease to roll in a dried up channel, and the snows to\nfall under the clouded sky; and as the clouds fly before the storm, and\nthe fragrance of flowers is borne away by the wind.\n\n9. So the flying weapons were submerged like fishes, under the falling\nshowers of rain; and the dripping drops of darts, were thwarted by\nthe thickening showers of snow (_i.e._ the dropping arrows were driven\naway, by the drifts of snow).\n\n10. The sky was cleared of the whirling disks, that were hurled by\nhundreds, and hurtling in the hazy atmosphere; and it got a clean sweep\nof the gathering clouds, that were soaring up in surges, and pouring\ndown in floods of rain.\n\n11. The firmament presented the appearance of an immense ocean,\ncomposed of the limpid fuel of the vast void; and containing the\nsparkling gems of the stars in its bosom, and the burning submarine\nfire of the sun in the midst of it.\n\n12. The great vacuum appeared as extensive and deep, and as bright and\nserene, and devoid of the dust of rajas or pride, as the minds of great\nmen (which are of equal extent and depth of knowledge &c.).\n\n13. They then beheld the oceans, lying as junior brothers of the skies;\nbeing of equal extent and clearness, and stretching to the utmost\nlimits of the horizon.\n\n14. These with their deep sounding waves and foaming froths, are as\ngratifying to the minds of people; as the roaring clouds with their\nshowers of snow, are ravishing of human hearts.\n\n15. They having fallen down from high heaven, and stretching wide their\nhuge bodies on the earth below; seem to be rolling grievously on the\nground, with their deep groanings and breathings, and raising up their\nbillowy arms, in order to lift themselves on high.\n\n16. They are gross and dull bodies, yet full of force and motion, and\nthough they are mute and dumb, yet full of noise and howling in their\nhollow cavities; they are full of dreadful whirlpools, as is this world\nwith all its dizzy rounds.\n\n17. The gems sparkling on the banks, add to the brightness of the sun\nbeams (in the morning); and the winds blowing in the conch shells,\nresound all along the coast.\n\n18. Here the huge waves are growling, like the big clouds roaring\nloudly on high; and the circling eddies are whirling around, as the\nshattered corallines were scattered along.\n\n19. The hoarse snorting of sharks and whales, is howling in the bosom\nof the deep; and the lashing of the waters by their tails, sounded as\nthe splashing of the oars of vessels in them.\n\n20. Here are the horrid sharks and alligators, devouring the fleecy\nmermaids and marine men in numbers; and a thousand suns shining in\ntheir reflexions on the rising waves.\n\n21. Here are seen fleets of ships floating on the surface of the\nwaters, and rising aloft on the tops of the waves; and driven forward\nby the blowing winds, howling horribly through the furling sails and\ncracking cordage.\n\n22. The ocean with his hundreds of arms of the heaving waves, handles\nthe orbs of the sun and moon; and displays varieties of sparkling gem,\nwith reflexions of their \u2019beams in them.\n\n23. Here were the shoals of sharks, skimming over the foaming main; and\nthere were the water spouts, rising like columns of elephants\u2019 trunks\nto the skies, and representing a forest of bamboos.\n\n24. In some places, the rippling waves were gliding, like curling\ncreepers, with hairy tufts and frothy blossoms on them; and in others,\nlittle rocks resembling the backs of elephants and bearing the vernal\nflowers, were scattered in the midst of the waters.\n\n25. Some where were the heaps of froth and frost and hills of icebergs,\nresembling the edifices of the gods and demigods; and else where were\nthe groups of sparkling little billows, that laughed to scorn the\nclusters of shining stars in the skies.\n\n26. Here are branches (chains) of rocks concealed in its depth, like\nlittle gnats hidden in the hollows underneath the ground; and there are\nthe huge surges, which make pigmies and dwarfs of the high hills on\nearth.\n\n27. Its coasts are spread over with sparkling gems, like beds of\ngemming sprouts and shoots of flowers on the ground (or) as the ground\nstrewn over with the germinating shoots and sprouts of gemming blossom;\nwhile the glistening pearls bursting out of their silvery shells\nsparkle amidst the spreading sands.\n\n28. The sea seems to weave a vest of silken stuff, with its fleecy\nwaves; and decking it with all its floating gems and pearls; while the\nrivers flowing into it from all directions, serve to colour it with\ntheir various waters.\n\n29. The coasts studded with gems and pearls of various hues, display as\nit were the beams of a hundred moons, in the versicoloured nails of its\nfeet.\n\n30. The shadows of the beaching _tali_ forests, falling on the swelling\nwaves of the sea, were imbued with the hues of the marine gems; and\nappeared as moving arbours with their variegated foliage, fruits and\nflowers.\n\n31. There are seen the shadows of sundry fruit trees, reflected in the\nwaters gliding below; and as rising up and falling down with their\nreflexions in the moving waves and billows. The false and falling\nshadows, gathered numbers of marine beasts under them, for gorging the\nfalling fruits. (This is pursuing a shadow).\n\n32. Again the greedy fishes were collected some where, and leaping to\ncatch the birds that were sitting on the fruit trees, and seen in their\nreflexions on the waves.\n\n33. Here are seen many sea monsters also, that break the embankments,\nand rove about at random in the watery maze, as birds fly freely in the\nvacuous air.\n\n34. The ocean being a formless deep, bears the image of the three\nworlds impressed on its bosom; it bears also the image of the pure\nvacuum in itself, as it bore the image of N\u00e1r\u00e1yana in its breast.\n\n35. Its great depth, clearness and immeasurable extent, gives it the\nappearance of the majestic firmament, which is reflected in its bosom,\nas it were imprest upon it.\n\n36. It bears the reflexion of the sky and of the flying birds thereof,\nas if they were the images of aquatic fowls swimming on its surface, or\nresembled the blackbees fluttering about its lotus like waves.\n\n37. Its boisterous waves are borne to the skies by the violent winds,\nand washing the welkin\u2019s face with their briny sprays; and the deep\nsounding main, resounding from its hollow rocks, is roaring aloud like\nthe diluvian clods.\n\n38. The gurgling noise of the whirlpools, resembles the loud thunder\nclaps of heaven; and the submarine fire is sometimes seen to burst out\nof the deep, like the latent flame of Agastya, that consumed the waters\nof the main.\n\n39. The watery maze presents the picture of a vast wilderness, with its\nwaves as the waving trees; the billows as its branch boughs, its surfs\nas blossoms, and the foams and froths as flowers.\n\n40. The high heaving surges with the shoals of fishes skimming and\nskipping upon them; appear as fragments of the sky fallen below, and\ncarried away by the gliding waters.\n\n41. Thus the hostile forces were driven afar to the shores of the salt\nseas; extending far and wide and bounding the earth on every side;\nwhile the lofty mountains rising to the skies with their verdant tops,\nintercepted the sight on all sides.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXIV.\n\nDESCRIPTION OF THE PROSPECTS ALL AROUND.\n\n Argument:--Description of the forest trees, the hills and seas,\n the forest and hill peoples, and clouds on high.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--Then the royal army beheld whatever there was on\nsides of them; namely, the forests and hills, the seas and the clouds,\nand the foresters and hill people, and the trees of the forest.\n\n2. They said: behold, O lord, that high hill, which lifts its lofty top\nto the sky, and invites the clouds to settle upon it; while its midmost\npart is the region of the winds, and the base is composed of hard and\nrugged stones.\n\n3. See, O lord, how they abound with fruit trees of various kinds, and\nthe groves whose fragrance is wafted around by the gentle winds.\n\n4. The sea breaks down the peninsulas with its battering breakers,\nand disperses the stones of the rocks on its banks; it shatters the\nbordering forests with its wavy axes, and scatters their fruits and\nflowers all over the waters. (The gloss explains the peninsula to mean\nthe maritime lands of Madras).\n\n5. Behold the sea-breeze wafting away the clouds, settling on the tops\nof mountains, by the sufflation of the leafy boughs of trees dancing\nover them; in the manner of men, blowing away the smoke with their fans.\n\n6. Here are arbours on its coasts, like the trees in the garden of\nparadise; whose branches are as white as the conch-shells growing in\nthe full-moon-tide, and whose fruits are as bright as the disk of the\nmoon.\n\n7. Lo, these trees with their spouses of the creepers, are honouring\nyou with offerings of gemming flowers, from the rosy palms of their\nrubicund leaves.\n\n8. There is the Rikshabana rock, howling as a ferocious bear; and\ndevouring the huge sharks and swallowing the swelling waves, in its\ncavern-like mouth, and under its stony teeth.\n\n9. The Mahendra mountain with loud uproar, growls at the roaring clouds\n(moving below its height); as the stronger champion hurls defiance\nagainst his weaker rival.\n\n10. There the enraged Malaya mount lifts his lofty head, decorated with\nforests of sandalwood; and threatens the loud ocean below, rolling with\nits outstretched arms of the waves on the shore.\n\n11. The ocean rolling incessantly, with its gemming waves on all sides;\nis looked upon by the celestials from high, as if he bore away the\ntreasured gems of the earth.\n\n12. The wild hillocks, with woods and ruddy rocks on the tops, and\nwaving with the wafting gales; appeared as huge serpents, creeping with\ntheir crescent gems, and inhaling the breeze.\n\n13. There were the huge sharks and elephants, moving and grappling with\neach other upon the surges; and this sight delights the minds of men,\nas that of a rainy and light cloud opposing and pursuing one another.\n\n14. There is an elephant fallen in a whirlpool, and being unable to\nraise itself from the same, it left its proboscis on the water, and\ndies with sputtering the water from snout on all sides.\n\n15. The high hills as well as the low seas, are all equally filled with\nliving beings; and as the oceans abound with aquatic animals, so are\nall lands and islands full of living beings.\n\n16. The sea like the earth and all the worlds, are full of whirlpools\nand revolutions of things, and all these are mere falsities, that are\ntaken for and viewed as realities.\n\n17. The ocean bears in its bosom the liquid waves, which are inert in\nthemselves, and yet appearing to be in continual motion; so Brahma\ncontains the innumerable worlds, which seem to be solid without any\nsubstantiality in them. (The worlds are as empty and unstable waves).\n\n18. It was at the churning of the ocean, by the gods and giants of\nyore; that it was despoiled of all its bright and hidden treasures,\nwhich have since fallen to the lot of Indra and the gods.\n\n19. It has therefore adopted to wear on its breast, the reflexions\nof the greatest and brightest lights of heaven, as its false and\nfictitious ornaments. These are seen even from the nether worlds, and\nof these no one can deprive it.\n\n20. Among the shining sun is one, whose image it bears in its bosom,\nwith equal splendour as it is in heaven. This bright gem is daily\ndeposited as a deposit in the western main, to give its light to the\nnether world. It is called the gem of day \u0926\u093f\u0928\u092e\u0928\u093f, because\nit makes day wherever it shines.\n\n21. There is a confluence of all the waters from all sides to it, and\nassemblage of them in its reservoir, gives it the clamorous sound, as\nit is heard in the crowds of men in mixed processions.\n\n22. Here is a continued conflict of the marine monsters in their mutual\ncontentions, as there is a jostling of the currents and torrents of the\nwaters of rivers and seas, at the mouths of gulfs and bays.\n\n23. There the large whales are rolling and dancing on the rising waves;\nand spurting forth spouts of water from their mouth; and these shedding\nshowers of pearls, are borne aloft and scattered about by the blowing\nwinds.\n\n24. The streams of water, flowing like strings of pearl, and bearing\nthe bubbles resembling brilliant pearls (abdas) amidst them; adorn the\nbreast of the ocean as necklaces, and whistling by their concussion.\n\n25. The sea winds serve to refresh the spirits of the siddha and s\u00e1dhya\nclasses of spirits, that dwell in their abodes of the caverns of\nMahendra mountains; and traverse the howling regions of the sounding\nmain.\n\n26. Again the winds exhaled from the caves of the Mahendra mountains,\nare gently shaking the woods growing upon it, and stretching a cloud of\nflowers over its table lands.\n\n27. Here is the Mount Gandham\u00e1dana, full of mango and kadamba trees;\nand there the fragments of clouds, are seen to enter into its caves\nlike stags, with their eyes flashing as lightnings.\n\n28. The winds issuing from the valleys of Him\u00e1laya mountains, and\npassing through the encircling bowers of creeping plants, are\nscattering the clouds of heaven, and breaking the breakers of the sea.\n\n29. The winds of the Gandham\u00e1dana mountain, are exhaling the fragrance\nof the _kadamba_ flowers growing upon it; and ruffling the surface of\nthe sea with curling waves.\n\n30. After twisting the fleecy clouds, in the form of the curling locks\nof hair, on the pinnacles of Alaka (the residence of Kubera); the winds\nare passing by the alleys of the Gandham\u00e1dana groves, and forming \ncloud or canopy of flowers at this place.\n\n31. Here the odoriferous airs, bearing the sweet burthen of fragrant\nflowers and gums, and moistened by the admixture of icy showers, are\ncreeping slowly amidst the alleys.\n\n32. Lo there the _n\u00e1likera_ creepers, diffusing their sourish scent\nto the breezes, which being acidulated by their sourness, are turning\ntowards the regions of Persia.\n\n33. Here the winds are wafting the odours, of the flowery forests of\n\u00cdsana on the Kailasa mountain; and there they are breathing with the\nperfume of the lotuses of the mountain lakes; and blowing away the\ncamphor-white (fleecy) clouds from the face of the sky.\n\n34. The fluid ichor which flows from the frontal proboscis of\nelephants, is dried and stiffened by the breezes issuing out of the\ncaverns of the Vindhya mountain.\n\n35. The females of the _savara_ foresters, covering their bodies with\nthe dry leaves of trees, and accompanied by their swarthy males, in\nleafy apparel, have been making a town of their jungle, by extirpating\nthe wild animals, with their iron arrows.\n\n36. Behold, great lord, these seas and mountains, these forests and\nrivers, and these clouds on all sides, look as if they are all smiling\nunder your auspices, as under the brightness of sun-beams.\n\n37. Here they also describe the flowery beds, of the Vidy\u00e1dhari wood\nnymphs; and their sports (which omitted on account of their\nuselessness).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CV.\n\nTHE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.\n\n Argument:--Description of the hills and forests, rivers and other\n objects on all sides.\n\n\nThe Royal companions related:--Hear, O high minded lord! the Kinnara\nfemales from their abodes of leafy bowers, where they enjoy themselves\nwith singing their songs; and the Kinnara also being enrapt with the\nmusic, listen to it attentively by forgetting their business of the day.\n\n2. There are the Him\u00e1laya, Malaya, Vindhya, Krauncha, Mahendra,\nMandara, Dardura and other mountains; which from their distant view,\nappear to the sight of the observer, to be clothed in robes of hoary\nclouds, and seen as heaps of stones covered with the dry leaves of\ntrees.\n\n3. Those distant and indistinct chains of boundary mountains, appear to\nstretch themselves like the walls of cities; and those rivers which are\nseen to fall into the ocean with their gurgling noise; appear as the\nwoof and texture threads of the broad sheet of waters of the ocean.\n\n4. The ten sides of the sky, which are spread over the tops of\nmountains; appear as the royal consorts, looking on thee from their\nlofty edifices, and smiling gladly at thy success. The many-coloured\nand roaring clouds in the sky, resembling the variegated birds of air,\nwarbling their notes on high; and the rows of trees which are dropping\ndown the showers of flowers from high, appear as the arms of heavenly\nnymphs, shedding their blessings upon thy head with their hands.\n\n5. The high hills overgrown with rows of trees, and stretching all\nalong the sea shore; appear as ramparts; and these being beaten by the\nsurges, seem as mere moss gathered on the coast.\n\n6. O! the extensive, all sustaining and wondrous body of the ocean,\nthat supported the body of Hari sleeping upon it; contained the\nunrighteous creation at the great deluge, and it covered all the\nmountains and rocks and the submarine fire under it.\n\n7. There is the northern ocean, to which the Jambu river, pours all the\ngold of the Meru or polar mountain, and it contains numerous cities and\nforests and mountains and countries. It washes the face of the sky and\nall its lights, and is therefore adored by gods as well as men.\n\n8. Here is this polar mountain, reaching to the solar sphere, and\npresenting the trees on its top as its cloud-capt head; may the earth\nextending to this mountain be thine, and may not this mount which hides\nthe sun under its clouds, obstruct the extension of thy realm.\n\n9. Here is this Malaya mount on the south, growing the fragrant sandal\nwood, which converts all other woods to its nature. Its sweet paste\ndecorates the persons of gods, men and demons, and is put as a spot on\nthe forehead like the frontal eye Siva; and is sprinkled over the\nbody belike the bedewed persons of females with sweat.\n\n10. The waves of the ocean are continually laving the coast, overgrown\nwith forests of the sandal wood, and encircled by folds of snakes;\nwhile the woodland nymphs wandering on this mount, throw a lustre about\nit by the beauty of their persons.\n\n11. Here is the hill called Krauncha, with its groves resonant with the\ncooing of cuckoos; and its rugged caves and rivers resounding harshly\nto one another; while the bamboos are crackling with their mutual\nfriction, and the humble bees have been humming about; among these is\nheard the warbling of emigrating cranes on high, and the loud screams\nof peacocks, which are terrific to the serpent tribe.\n\n12. Behold here, O great lord, the sport of woodland nymphs, in the\ngroves of their soft leafy bowers; and listen to the tinkling sound of\ntheir bracelets, which are so sweet to the ears of hearers.\n\n13. There behold the drizzling ichor, exuding from the foreheads of\nelephants, and the swarming bees giddy with the drink; which has made\nthe sea to melt in tears, on account of its being slighted by them.\n\n14. Lo there the fair moon, with his train of fairy stars, sporting in\ntheir reflexions, in the lap of his sire, the milky ocean, from which\nit was churned as its butter or froth.\n\n15. See there the tender creepers, dancing merrily on the table-lands\nof the Malaya mountain; displaying their red petals as the palms of\ntheir hands, and winking with their eyes formed of fluttering bees.\nThe blooming flowers bespeak their vernal festivity, and the warbling\ncuckoos fill the groves with their festive music.\n\n16. Here the rain-drops produce the pearly substance of\n_vansa-lochana_, in the hollows of bamboos; and the _gaja-mati_ or\nfrontal pearl, in the skull of elephants; and large pearls in the womb\nof pearl-shells. So the words of the wise, are productive of unlike\neffects in different persons.\n\n17. So the gems are productive of various effects, according as they\nare produced in varied forms in different receptacles; as in men and\nstones, in seas and forests, in frogs, clouds and elephants. They\ngladden and distract the mind, cause fear and error, fever and death,\nand many other preternatural and supernatural effects.\n\n18. Lo here the city smiling under the rising moon, and singing in\npraise of that ambrosial luminary, through all its windows, doorways\nand openings, as it were from the mouths of its females; and responsive\nto his eulogy sung by the Mandara mountain, from the many mouths of its\ncaves and caverns, and the pipes of hallow bamboos.\n\n19. The wondering women of the siddhas, behold with their astonished\nand uplifted faces and eyes, a large body of cloud borne away by the\nwinds; and dubitate in their minds, whether it is a mountain peak\ncarried away by the winds, or is it a forest of the snowy mountain\nflying upward in the air, or is it a column to measure the distance of\nthe earth and sky, or a balance to weigh their weight.\n\n20. See the moorlands at the foot of the Mandara mountain, how cool\nthey are with the cooling breezes wafting the coldness of the waves of\nGanges; and see its footlands inhabited by the fair Vidy\u00e1dhara tribe;\nand behold its flowery woodlands all around, overtopped by shady clouds\nof flowers above.\n\n21. See the forests and groves and the hursts spread there abouts, with\nthe huts and hamlets and habitations of men scattered therein. Look at\nthe holy shrines, and the sacred brooks and fountains lying in them,\nthe very sight of which, disperses our woes, poverty and iniquities.\n\n22. Mountain craigs and ridges, overhung on all sides of the horizon;\nthe dales and caverns, and the groves and grottos, are overshadowed by\nclouds; the limpid lakes, resemble the clear firmament; such sights are\nsure to melt away masses of our crimes.\n\n23. Lo here my lord, the ravines of the Malaya mountain, redolent with\nthe odour of the aromatic sandal wood; and there the Vindhyan hills,\nabounding with infuriate elephants; the Kail\u00e1sa mount yielding the\nbest kind of gold, in its olden laureate lore; and the Mount Mahendra,\nfraught with its mineral ore (_aguru_--agallochum); the summits of\nthe snowy mountain are plenteous, with the best kind of horses and\nmedicinal plants; thus while every place found to abound with\nrichest productions of nature, why does man set to repine in his time\nworn cell, like an old and blind mouse in its dirty hole.\n\n24. Behold the dark and rainy cloud on high, appearing as another\nworld, to submerge the earth under its flood; and threatening it with\nits flashing and forky lightnings, and gliding as frisky shrimp fishes\nin the etherial ocean.\n\n25. Oh! the bleak rainy winds, blowing with the keen icy blasts of\nfrozen snows, poured down profusely by the raging rainy clouds on high.\nThey are now howling aloud in the air, and now chilling the blood, and\nshaking the body with horripilation.\n\n26. Oh! the cold winds of winter are blowing, in their course with the\ndark clouds of heaven; and scattering cluster of flowers, from the\ntwigs and branches of trees. And there are the drizzling rain drops\ndropping in showers, amidst the thick forests, redolent with the odours\nof kadamba blossoms.\n\n27. There the winds are bearing the fragrance of the breaths of languid\nfemales, as if it were the celestial odour of ambrosia, stolen by and\nborne on the wings of zephyr.\n\n28. Here the gentle breezes are breathing, with the breath of the new\nblown lilies and lotuses of the lake, and sweeping their tender odours\nto the land; and the blasts are bursting the flakes of the folded\nclouds, and wafting the perfumes from the gardens and groves.\n\n29. Yonder the mild airs are lulling our toils, cooled by their contact\nwith the evening clouds of heaven; and resembling the vassal florists,\nperfumed all over in their culling the flowers from the royal gardens.\n\n30. Some of these are perfumed with the odours of different flowers,\nand others with the fragrance of lilies and lotuses; in some places\nthey are scattering showers of blossoms, and shedding the dust of\nflowers at others. Some where the air is blowing from the hoary\nmountain of frost, and at others from those of blue, black and red\nminerals.\n\n31. The sun is scattering his rays, as firebrands in some places, and\nthese are spreading a conflagration with loud cluttering in the woods,\nlike the riotous rabble in a country.\n\n32. The winds like wicked attendants on the sun, are spreading the\nconflagration caused by the solar rays; and carry their clattering\nnoise afar.\n\n33. The cooling winds blowing from the woods, and bedewed by the gentle\nbeams of the moon, or moistened by the watery particles of heaving\nwaves; though cheering to the souls of others, appear yet as fiery hot\nto separated lovers.\n\n34. Lo here, O lord! how the _savara_ women, on the low lands of the\neastern main, are covered in their rude and rough leafy garments,\nand wearing their sounding bracelets of brass; and see how they are\nstrutting about, in the giddiness of their prime youth.\n\n35. See how these newly loving lasses, are clinging round the bodies\nof their mates, for fear of darkness of the approaching night; in the\nmanner of timid snakes twining about the trunk of sandal wood trees.\n\n36. Struck with fear by the alarm, given by the sounding bell at day\nbreak; the loving consort leans on the bosom of her lover, as the\ndarkness lingers in the enclosed room.\n\n37. There is a furze of kinsuka flowers, blooming as firebrands, on\nthe border of the southern sea, which is continually washing them with\nlavations of its waves, as if it wanted to extinguish them.\n\n38. The winds are wafting their fuming farina, which are flying upwards\nlike mists of hazy clouds to heaven; the flowers are falling about like\nflames of fire, and the birds and black-bees are hovering over them as\nextinguished cinders of fire.\n\n39. Behold there on the other side, the real flashes of living wild\nfire, blazing in the forests on the east; and to their flames are borne\nabove the mountain tops, by the flying winds of the air.\n\n40. See the slow moving clouds, shrouding the lowlands lying at the\nfoot of the Krauncha mountain; and observe the crowding peacocks\ndancing under them, and screaming aloud with their grave and shrill\ncries to the clouds. Lo there the gusts of rain-winds rising high, and\nblowing the fruits and flowers and leaves of trees afar on all sides.\n\n41. Behold the sun setting mountain in the west, with its thousand\npeaks of glittering gold; shining amidst the dusky hue of the evening\nsky; and the sloping sun descending below in his chariot whirling down\nwith its rattling wheels in the rustling of evening winds. (But the\nsolar car is a velocipedes with a single wheel only).\n\n42. The moon that rises upon the eastern mount of Meru like a full\nblown flower, in order to give light to the darkened mansion of this\nworld; is itself accompanied by its black spots, sitting as black-bees\nupon the blossom. Hence there is no good thing in this perverted world,\nwhich is free from its fault and frailty.\n\n43. The moon light is shining like the laughter of the god Rudra,\namidst his dome of the triple world; or it is as the white wash of the\ngreat hall of the universe, or it likens the milky fluid of the\nmilky ocean of the sky.\n\n44. Look on all sides of the sky, tinged with the evening twilight, and\nthe variegated hues of mountain tops; and filled with the milky beams\nof the moon, that was churned out by the Mount Mandara from the milky\nocean.\n\n45. Look there, O incomparable lord! those hosts of Guhyka ghosts,\nthat are as hideous as the large _t\u00e1la_ or palm trees; and also those\npuny Vet\u00e1la younglings are pouring upon the ill-fated dominions of the\nHunas; and devouring troubled inhabitants at night.\n\n46. The face of the moon shines brightly like the beauteous face of a\nfairy, so long as it does not appear out of its mansion at night; but\nit is shorn of its beams, and appears as a piece of fleecy cloud, by\nits appearance at day light; as the fairy face becomes disgraced, by\nappearing out of the inner apartment.\n\n47. Look at the lofty peaks of the snowy mountain, covered with the\nfair vesture of the bright moon beams; and see its craigs washed by\nfloods of the falling Ganges; behold its head capped by perpetual\nsnows, and begirt by creepers of snowy whiteness.\n\n48. Behold there Mandara mountain touching the sky, and crowning the\nforest with its lofty ridges; here the winds are wafting the cradle\nchimes of Apsara nymphs, and there the mountainous mines gemming in\nvarious hues.\n\n49. See the high hills all around, abounding with blooming flowers like\nofferings to the gods; see the thickening clouds round their loins,\nand resounding hoarsely within their hollows, while the starry heaven\nshines over their heads.\n\n50. There is the Kail\u00e1sa mountain on the north, vying with firmament in\nits brightness; below it there is the hermitage of _Skanda_, and the\nmoon shines in her brilliance above.\n\n51. Lo, the god Indra has let loose his winds, to break the branches\nof trees, and demolish the huts on the ground, the fragments of which\nthey have been carrying afar.\n\n52. The winds are wafting the profuse fragrance of flowers after the\nrains, and filling the nostrils of men with their odours; while the\nflights of bees are floating as clouds in the azure sky.\n\n53. Methinks the goddess Flora has chosen for her abode, the blooming\nflowers in the forests; limpid waters in the marshy grounds, and in\nvillages abounding in fruitful trees, and flourishing fields.\n\n54. The windows are overgrown with creeping plants in the rains, and\nthe house tops are decorated with the flowers of the climbing creepers\nupon them. The ground is strewn over with the dropping flowers up to\nthe heels, and the breezes are blowing the dust of the flowers all\nabout. All these have made the woodlands the seats of the sylvan gods.\n\n55. The rains have converted the rustic village, to a romantic paradise\nor fairy land; by the blooming _champaka_ flowers, the swinging of the\nrural nymphs in their cradles, of creepers, by the warbling of birds\nand gurgling of water-falls, the blossoming of the tall palm trees in\nthe skirts; the tender creepers blooming with clusters of snow white\nblossom, the dancing of peacocks on the tops of houses, and the borders\nshaded by the sal trees; and the rainy clouds hanging over the village\nand the bordering hills.\n\n56. Again the soft and sweet breathing breezes, the variegated leaves\nof the plants and creepers, the verdure of the village, the cries of\ncranes and other fowls, and the wild notes of the foresters; these\ntogether with the jollity of the swains, and the merriment of the\npastoral people, over their plenty of milk, curd, butter and ghee, and\ntheir glee in their peaceful abodes, add a charm to this hilly tract.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXVI.\n\nNARRATION OF THE SPEECH OF CROW AND CUCKOO.\n\n Argument.--Description of the battle field, and of the hills and\n sky, and the story of the foolish crow.\n\n\nThe companions added:--Look lord, the field of battle, stretching to\nthe bordering hills; look upon the heaps of shining weapons, and the\nscattered forces of elephants, horse, infantry and war chariots.\n\n2. Look at the slain and their slayers, and the combatants attacking\ntheir corrivals; and how their dying souls are borne by celestial\nnymphs in heavenly cars to heaven.\n\n3. The victor finding his adversary worsted in warfare, ought not slay\nhim unjustly, unless he is justified to do so by laws of warfare (as a\nyouth is justified to take unto him no other woman but his legal wife).\n\n4. As health and wealth and prosperity, are good for men when they\nare rightly gained; so it is right to fight for those by whom one is\nsupported.\n\n5. When one kills his opposing corrival in combat, without violation of\nthe laws of warfare, he is justly styled a heavenly champion, and not\none who takes undue advantage of his enemy.\n\n6. Behold there the bold champion brandishing his sword, as if he is\nswinging a blue lotus in his hand; and casting the dark shadow of the\nevening dusk on the ground. Such a hero is courted by Laxmi for her\nspousal.\n\n7. Look at those flourishing weapons, flaming as the flying embers of\nwild fire, in a mountain forest; or as the dreadful dragons of the sea,\ndancing on land with hundreds of their flashing hoods and heads.\n\n8. Look at the sky on one side, resembling the sea with its watery\nclouds, and shining with strings of its stars on another; see how it\nis covered by dark clouds on one side; and how it is brightened by moon\nbeams on the other.\n\n9. Look at the firmament, ranged by multitudes of revolving planets,\nresembling the rolling chariots of warriors; and crowded by myriads of\nmoving stars, likening the soldiers in the battle field; and yet it is\nthe error of the ignorant to think it an empty vacuum; an error which\nis hard for the wise to remove.\n\n10. The sky with its over spreading clouds, its fiery lightnings, its\nthunder bolts that break down the mountain wings; its starry array,\nand the battle of gods and demigods that took place in it; is still\nas inscrutable in his nature, as the solid minds of the wise, whose\nmagnitude no one can measure.\n\n11. O wise man, thou hast been constantly observing before thee, the\nsun, moon and all the planets and stars in the firmament, together with\nall the luminous bodies of comets, meteors and lightnings; and yet\nis astonishing that your ignorance will not let see the Great\nN\u00e1r\u00e1yana in it.\n\n12. Thou dark blue sky, that art brightened by moon-light, dost yet\nretain thy blackness, like the black spot amidst the lightsome disk of\nthe moon; and such is the wonder with ignorant minds, that with all\ntheir enlightenment, they will never get rid of their inward bias and\nprejudice.\n\n13. Again the clear sky which is full with endless worlds, is never\ncontaminated by their faults, nor ever changed in its essential state;\nand resembles the vast and pure mind of the wise, which is full with\nits knowledge of all things, and devoid of all their pollutions.\n\n14. Thou profound sky, that art the receptacle of the most elevated\nobjects of nature, and containest the lofty clouds and trees and\nsummits in thy womb; that art the recipient of the sun, moon and\nthe aerial spirits that move about in thee; art yet inflamed by the\nflames of the fiery bodies that rise in thee to our great regret,\nnotwithstanding thy greatness, which helps them to spread themselves\nhigh in heaven.\n\n15. Thou sky that art replete with pure and transparent light, and\ngreat with thy greatness of giving quarters to all the great and\nelevated objects of nature; but it is greatly to be pitied, that the\ndark clouds to whom thou givest room to rise under thee, molest us like\nbase upstarts, with pelting their hailstones at random.\n\n16. Again thou dark sky, art the attestor of all lights; as the\ntouchstone is the test of gold; and thou art a void in thy essence, yet\nthou dost support the substances of stars and planets of clouds and\nwinds and all real existences at large.\n\n17. Thou art the day light at daytime, and the purple red of evening,\nand turnest black at night; thus devoid of all colour of thyself thou\ndost exhibit all colours in thee; hence it is impossible even for the\nlearned, to understand aright thy nature and its convertible conditions\nalso.\n\n18. As the helpless man is enabled to achieve his purposes, by means\nof his patient perseverance; so the inane sky has risen above all, by\nmeans of its universal diffusion. (The gloss says that, extension of\nknowledge, is the cause of elevation).\n\n19. The sun that persists in his wonted course, rises to the vertical\npoint in time; but the unmoving straws and trees, and the dormant hills\nand places, and stagnant pools and ponds, are ever lying low on the\nground.\n\n20. The night invests the sky with a sable garb, and sprinkles over\nit the fair moonlight like the cooling dust of camphor; with the\ndecoration of stars like clusters of flowers upon it. The day mantles\nthe firmament with bright sun beams, and the seasons serve to cover it\nin clouds and snows, and in the gaudy attire of vernal flowers. Thus is\ntime ever busy, to decorate the heavenly paths of his lords the sun and\nmoon, the two time keepers by day and night.\n\n21. The firmament like the magnanimous mind, never changes the firmness\nof its nature; although it is ever assailed by the disturbances of\nsmokes and clouds of dust and darkness, of the rising and setting sun\nand moon and their dawns and dusks: and of the confluence of stars and\ncombat of gods and demons.\n\n22. The world is an old and decayed mansion, of which the four sides\nare its walls, the sky its covering roof above and the earth its ground\nfloor below; the hills and mountains are its pillars and columns, and\nthe cities and towns are its rooms and apartments; and all the various\nclasses of animal beings, are as the ants of this abode.\n\n23. Time and action are the occupants of this mansion from age to age,\nand all its ample space presents the aspect of a smiling garden; it is\nfeared every day to be blown and blasted away, and yet it is a wonder\nhow this frail flower should last so long and for ever more.\n\n24. It is the air methinks, that puts a stop to the greater height or\nrising of trees and hills; for though it does not actually restrain\ntheir growth, yet its influence (pressure from above), like the\nauthority of noble men, puts a check to the rise of aspiring underlings.\n\n25. O fie for that learning, which calls the air as void and vacuity;\nseeing it to contain millions of worlds in its bosom, and producing and\nreducing also unnumbered beings in its boundless bosom.\n\n26. We see all things to be born in and to return into the air; and\nyet we see the madness of men, that reckon the all containing and all\npervading air, as something different from God.\n\n27. We see the works of creation, to be continually producing, existing\nand extinguishing in air, like sparks of fire; I ween this pure and\nsole air, which is without beginning, middle and end, as the universal\nsource and terminus of all, and no other distinct cause as God.\n\n28. The vacuum is the vast reservoir of the three worlds, and bears in\nits ample space the innumerable productions of nature; I understand\ninfinite vacuity as the body of the Intellect, and that transcendent\nbeing, in which this erroneous conception of the world, has its rise\nand fall.\n\n29. Therein the woodlands on mountain tops, the solitary forester\nchants his charming strains amidst his sylvan retreat; and attracts the\nheart of the lonely passenger, who lifts up his head to listen to the\nrapturous times.\n\n30. Hearken O Lord, to the sweet music, proceeding from the thick\ngroves on yonder lofty mountain; and emitted with the heart rending\nstrains, of love born Vidy\u00e1dhara nymphs; and behold the lonely and\nlovesick passenger, whose lovesick heart being smitten by the sound,\nhas neither the power to proceed forward or recede backward from the\nspot, or utter a word.\n\n31. I hear a lovelorn Vidy\u00e1dhara damsel, singing her love ditty\namidst the woods of the hill with her heaving sighs and tears flowing\nprofusely from her eyes. She sang saying: \u201cLord, I well remember the\nday, when thou ledst me to the recess of the bower, holding my chin and\ngiving kisses on my cheeks with thy smiling face, and now the pleasing\nremembrance of that gladsome moment, hath left me to deplore its loss\nfor years\u201d.\n\n32. I heard her tale, O Lord, thus related to me from the mouth of a\nforester on the way. He said:--Her former young lover, was cursed by\na relentless sage to become an arbour for a dozen of years; and it is\nsince this ill fated change of his, that she has been reclining on that\ntree, and singing her mournful ditty unto the same.\n\n33. And now observe the wonder, that on my approach the arborescent\nlover, was released of his sad curse, and shedding a shower of flowers\nupon her, he changed his form and clasped her unto his arms with his\nface smiling as his blooming flowers.\n\n34. The tops of hills are decorated with flowers, as the heads of\nelephants are painted with white dye; the sky is whitened with the\nstars and falling meteors, as the summit of the mountain is etiolated\nwith hoar-frost and snows.\n\n35. Behold there the beautiful stream of Kaveri, gliding along with\nshoals of fishes skimming in its waters; to its boisterous waves\nresounding with the cries of shrill and clamorous cranes; see its banks\nmantled in vests of flowers, and its shores freely grazed by timid\nfauns without any fear.\n\n36. Look the Bela rock, which is washed by the billows of Varuna--the\ngod of the sea; its stones shining as gold under the solar rays; and\nsparkling as the marine fire when they are laved by the waves.\n\n37. Look at the abodes of the Ghosha shepherds at the foot of the\nmountain, which are continually covered under the shrouding clouds;\nand behold the beauty of the blossoming _pal\u00e1sa_ and _patala_ trees\nthereabouts.\n\n38. Look at the plains, whitened by the full-blown whitish flowers;\nsee the _mandara_ tree with twining and flowering creepers; look at\nthe banks crowded by cranes and peacocks; look at those villages and\nthe water falls, resounding as music from the mouths of mountain caves\nand forests, and redounding to the joy of the happy inhabitants of the\nvalley.\n\n39. Here the buzzing bees are sporting about the new blown petals of\nplantain flowers; and inspiring fond desire in the breasts of the\nPamara foresters; who enjoy a bliss in their rustic pastures and hidden\nhilly caverns, which I ween, is not attainable by the immortal gods in\ntheir garden of Eden. (So says Hafiz:--Thou canst not have in heaven,\nthe blissful fount of Roknabad, nor the flowery groves of Mossella).\n\n40. Behold the black bees sporting and swinging in their cradles of the\nflowery creepers of the forest; and to the Pulinda forester singing\nto his beloved, with his eyes fixed upon her face; and mark also the\nsportive Kir\u00e1ta, forgetting to kill the deer roving beside his lonely\ncavern.\n\n41. Here the weary traveller is regaled, by the sweet scent of various\nfull blown flowers, and is cooled in his body by the odorous dust,\nwafted by the breeze from the flowering creepers; while the winds\nbearing the watery particles of the waves, which lave the vale on all\nsides, render the spot more delightful than the spotted disc of the\nmoon (_i.e._ the people have more of coolness here, than the gods have\nin the moist sphere of the moon).\n\n42. Here the unceasing gliding of waters, and the continued waving of\nthe palm trees; together with the dancing of the blossoming branches,\nand the undulation of the spreading creepers in the air; the forest\nof lofty s\u00e1la trees in the borders, and the hanging clouds over the\nbordering hills, all combine to add a charm to this village of the\nvale, not unlike to that of the gardens in the orb of the moon.\n\n43. The flashing of lightnings, and the deep roaring of clouds; the\nmerry dance of peacocks and their loud shrieks and screams, and their\ntrailing trains displayed in the air, decorate the valley with a\nvariety of variegated gems.\n\n44. The bright orb of the moon appearing on one side, and the dark\nclouds rising as huge elephants on the other; serve to embellish the\nvillage in the valley, and the hills in the skirts, with a beauty\nunknown in the heavenly kingdom of Brahm\u00e1: (which is the empyrean or\ncity of fire only).\n\n45. O! how I long to lodge myself in the mountain grotto, amidst\nthe fragrant arbours of the beauteous _Mand\u00e1na_ forest, and in the\ndelightsome groves of blooming _sant\u00e1naha_ blossoms, and where the busy\nbees are continually fluttering, over the _mand\u00e1ra_ and _paribhadra_\narborets.\n\n46. O, how much are our hearts attracted, by the cries of the tender\ndeer, browzing the verdant and delightsome verdure; and by the blooming\nblossoms on hills and in dales, as by sight of the cities of mankind.\n\n47. Look on yonder village in the valley, where the waterfall appears\nas a column of clear chrysolite; and the peacocks are in their merry\ndance, all about the precipitate cascade.\n\n48. See how the joyous peacocks, and the gaysome creepers, bending down\nunder the burden of their blossoms; are dancing delightfully, beside\nthe purling water of the cataract.\n\n49. I believe the lusty god of desire (K\u00e1ma or Cupid), sports here at\nhis pleasure, in this village of the valley protected by the hills all\naround. He is sporting with the handsome _harita_ birds (the green\npartridges and parrots) in the verdant groves, and beside the crystal\nlakes, resounding with the sweet warblings of water-fowls.\n\n50. O most prosperous and magnanimous lord, that art the centre of all\nvirtues, and the highest and gravest of men; thou art like the towering\nmountain, the refuge of mankind from heat, and the cause of their\nplenty (_i.e._ the rainy clouds on mountain tops, are the causes of\nplenteous produce).\n\n51. Thou cloud that bathest in holy waters (_i.e._ that resist from the\nwaters of seas and rivers); that art exalted above all earthly beings,\nand choosest to abide in hills and wildernesses like holy hermits,\nand art taciturn like them, from the pure holiness of thy nature;\nthou appearest also as fair in the form when thou art emptied (of thy\nwaters) in autumn; all this is good in thee; but say why dost thou\nrise in thy fulness with flashing lightnings in thy face, and roaring\nthunders in thy breast, like lucky upstarts of low origin?\n\n52. All good things being misplaced (or out of their proper place),\nturn to badness; as the water ascending to the clouds, turns to hoar\nfrost and cold ice.\n\n53. O, wonder! that the drops distilled by the clouds, fill the earth\nwith water; and wonder it is that this water supports all beings, and\nmakes the poor grow with plenty (of harvest).\n\n54. Ignorant people are as dogs, in their unsteadiness, impudence, in\ntheir impurity and wayfaringness; hence I know not whether the ignorant\nhave derived their nature from dogs or these from them.\n\n55. There are some persons, who notwithstanding all their faults, are\nyet esteemed for certain qualities in them; as the dogs are taken into\nfavour, on account of their valour, contentedness and faithfulness\nto their masters. (So are men serviceable to their masters for these\nvirtues in them).\n\n56. We see all worldly people pursuing the course of their worldliness\nas madmen, and pushing on in the paths of business at the sacrifice of\ntheir honor, and likely to tumble down with fatigue. I find them flying\nto and fro as trifling straws, and know not whether it is of their will\nor madness or stupidity, that they have made choice of this foolish\ncourse.\n\n57. Among brute creatures, the brave lion hears the tremendous thunder\nclaps without shuddering: while the cowardly dog trembles and shuts his\neyes with fear at the sound.\n\n58. I believe, O vile dog, that thou hast been taught to bark at\nthy fellows, and to ramble about in the streets, by some surly and\nstrolling porter or peon (among men).\n\n59. The divine creator, that has ordained varieties in all his works,\nhas made the nasty breed of his daughter Sarom\u00e1 all equal in their\nfilthiness. These are the dogs, that make their kennels or dog holes in\ndirt, that feed upon filth and carrion and copulate in public places,\nand carry about an impure body every where. (This is a slur against the\nprogeny of one\u2019s daughters, who generally turn to be vicious).\n\n60. \u201cWho is there viler than thee\u201d; says a man to his dog; to which\nhe answered, \u201cthe silly man as thee is the vilest of all\u201d. There are\nthe best qualities of valour, fidelity and unshaken patience, combined\nin the canine tribe; and these are hard to be had in human kind, who\ngrovel in the darkness of their ignorance amidst greater impurities and\ncalamities. (The instinctive sagacity of beasts, is a surer safe guard\nto them, than the boasted reason of man).\n\n61. The dog eats impure things and lives in impurity; he is content\nwith what it gets, feeds upon dead bodies and never hurts the living,\nand yet men are fond of pelting stones on him every where; thus the dog\nis made a plaything by men, contrary to the will of God.\n\n62. Looking at the crow flying there upon the offerings, left on the\n_lingam_ or phallus of Siva on yonder bank; and there appearing to\nsight to tell its tale to people, saying; \u201cBehold me on high, with all\nmy degrading sin\u201d (of stealing from the altars of deities).\n\n63. Thou croaking crow, that crowest so harshly, and treadst the marshy\nlake; it is no wonder that thou wouldst vex us with thy cries, that\nhast put down the sweet buzz of humming bees.\n\n64. We see the greedy rook, devouring ravenously the dirty filth, in\npreference to the sweet lotus stalk. It is no wonder that some would\nprefer sour to sweet, from their long and habitual taste of it.\n\n65. A white crow sitting in a bush, of white lotus flowers and their\nsnowy filaments, was taken at first for a _hansa_ or heron, but as it\nbegan to pick up worms, it came to be known as a crow.\n\n66. It is difficult to distinguish a crow, sitting in company with a\ncuckoo, both being of the like sable plumes and feathers; unless the\none makes itself known as distinct from the other, by giving out its\nown vocal sound.\n\n67. The crow sitting on a forest tree, or on a mould of clay or high\nbuilt building, looks on all sides for its prey; as a nightly thief\nmounts on a _chaitta_ tree; and sits watching there from the ways of\npeople.\n\n68. It is impossible for a crow, to abide with cranes and storks by\nthe side of a lake, which abounds in lotus flowers, that diffuse their\nsombre farina all about.\n\n69. For shame that the noisy crow, should have a seat on the soft lotus\nbed in company with silent swans, and play his disgraceful part and\ntricks among them. (_i.e._ It is impudence on the part of the ignorant,\nto open their mouths, where the learned hold their silence).\n\n70. Thou crow that criest as the hardest saw, say where hast thou left\nor lost thy former reservedness to-day. Why dost thou brood over the\nyoung cuckoo, the sweetness of whose voice thou canst never attain, and\nwhom thou canst not retain as thy young.\n\n71. One seeing a dark crow sitting as a black steg, in a bed of white\nlotuses, and crowing aloud with delight at that place, said unto him\nsaying:--It is better for thee O clamorous crow to rend ears of those\nwith thy cracking voice, that are not tired with splitting the head of\nothers with their wily verbiage.\n\n72. It is well when the cunning consort with the cunning, as the crow\nand the crab meeting at a pool; or the rook and the owl joining in an\narbour; for the two rogues though seemingly familiar, will not fail to\nfoil one another by their natural enmity (k\u00e1 ko lu kik\u00e1).\n\n73. The cuckoo associating with the crow, and resembling him in figure\nand colour; is distinguished by his sweet notes from the other; as the\nlearned man makes himself known by his speech in the society of the\nignorant.\n\n74. The blossoming branch is well able to bear, the spoliation of its\nflowers by the cuckoo; and will not yet suffer the association of crows\nand cranes, and cocks and vultures upon its twigs. (_i.e._ It is\npossible to bear with an injury from the good, but not to tolerate the\nsociety of bad people).\n\n75. How delightfully do people listen to the sweet notes of the\ncuckoo, which unites the separated lovers together; but who can brook\nto hearken unto the jarring cries of the crow or hooting of the owl,\nwithout disgust.\n\n76. When the sweet notes of the young _kokila_, serve to ravish the\nears of hearers, with the gladsome tidings of the vernal season; there\nis the grating cry of the crow, immediately obtruding upon their ears,\nand demanding the melodious cuckoo as its foster child. (It is well\nknown to all here, that young cuckoos are fostered in the nests of\ncrows).\n\n77. Why and what hast thou been cooing so long, O thou tender cuckoo,\nwith so much joy and glee in yonder grove; lo! thy pleasant vernal\nseason is too soon over with its fading flowers, and behold the stern\nwinter approaching fast, to blast the blossoming trees with its icy\nbreath, and bidding thee to hide thy head in thy nest.\n\n78. A separated mistress seeing a sweet kokila, pour forth his notes to\nthe tender blossoms of the vernal season thus address to him saying:\n\u201csay, O sweet cuckoo! who taught thee to tell, that vernal season is\n_tava tava tua tua_, _i.e._ \u201cfor thee and thy enjoyment,\u201d this is\nverily a woeful lie thou tellest me, instead of saying \u201cit is mine and\nmine\u201d that art enjoying thy companion.\u201d (It would better rendering in\nEnglish to reverse the application of the words mine and thine).\n\n79. The cuckoo sitting silent in an assemblage of crows, appears as one\nof them in its form and colour of its feathers; and the graceful gait\nof the cuckoo, makes it known from the rest, as the wise man is marked\nin the company of fools. It is hence that every body is respected by\nhis inward talents and outward deportment, more than by outer form and\nfeathers.\n\n80. O brother kokila! it is in vain that thou dost coo so sweetly, when\nthere is none to appreciate its value; it is far better therefore, that\nthou shouldst sit quiet in thy secluded covert under the shady leaves,\nwhen these flocks of crows are so loud in their cries; and when it is\ntime for the falling dews, and not of vernal flowers.\n\n81. It is to be wondered, that the young cuckoo forsakes its mother for\nits fostering crow; which on her part begins to prick it with its bill\nand claws. As I reflect on these, I find the young cuckoo growing in\nits form to the likeness of its mother; and hence I conclude, that the\nnature of a person prevails over his training every where.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXVII.\n\nDESCRIPTION OF THE LOTUS-LAKE, BEE AND THE SWAN.\n\n Argument:--Description of a Lake of lotus, and the bees and swans\n frequenting them.\n\n\nThe companions said:--Behold there, O lord! the lotus lake on the\ntableland of the mountain; reflecting the sky in its bosom, and\nresembling the pleasure pond of K\u00e1ma or Cupid. Behold there the beds of\nwhite, red and blue lotuses, with their protruding stalks; and listen\nto the mingled sounds of the water fowls sporting thereon.\n\n2. Lo the full blown lotus standing on its stalk with its thousand\npetals, and the royal gander or swan resting on its pericarp; it is\ncrowded by double streaked bees, and birds of various kinds, as if it\nwere the abode of the lotus-seated Brahm\u00e1 himself.\n\n3. All the sides are overspread by mists and fearful frost, and the red\ndust of the farina of full blown flowers and lotuses, have been flying\nall about; the bees and birds giddy with the odours spread around, are\nhumming and warbling their tunes and notes in the open air; and the\nclouds are spreading above as an aerial canopy.\n\n4. There is the lashing sound of the breaking waves, beating against\nthe shore; and here is the rumbling noise of the humming bees, vying\nwith one another; somewhere the silent waters are sleeping in the deep,\nand elsewhere the fair lotus of the lake, are lying hid in the bushes.\n\n5. The pearly particles of water, are lulling away the heat of the\npeople; wild beasts are prowling on the bank, overgrown by wild\nthickets all around; the waves are laving the stones on the bank, and\nthe land appears as the clear sky on the earth.\n\n6. The bosom of the lake displays the rays of lightnings, from the\nredness of the clouds by the dust of flowers borne above by the winds;\nand one side of it is obscured by a dark rainy cloud hanging over it,\nwhile the other side exhibits the variegated rays of the evening skies\nabove it.\n\n7. There is a fragment of the autumnal cloud, borne aloft by the\ndriving winds; and appearing as it were a part of the sky supported\nupon the air.\n\n8. The rippling waves of the lake by gentle breeze, and the wettish\nhumming bees fluttering over the bed of the lotus lake, made a noise\nall around; like the falling of flowers from the branches of trees,\nlying on the bank of a river.\n\n9. The large lotus leaves are waving like fans made of palm leaves, and\nthe foaming froths were puffing as the snowy _chowries_ of princes; the\nbuzzing bees and cooing cuckoos, were singing to and lauding the lake\nwhich lay like a lord, in the assemblage of lotuses, resembling the\nconsorts of his _harem_. (The lake is likened to a lord).\n\n10. Lo the chorus of black bees, singing their charming chimes before\nhim; and the yellow farina of the lotus flowers, have strewn his waters\nwith dust of gold. The yellowish froths are floating like fragments of\nits gold coloured flowers; and the flowery furzes on the bank, decorate\nit as its headdress.\n\n11. The deep fountain, having the beautiful lotuses on its bosom;\nenjoys their sweet fragrance, as princes derive from the assemblage, of\ntalented men in their courts.\n\n12. The pellucid lake, reflecting the clear autumnal sky on its\nsurface; resembles the mind of the wise man, which is ever clear and\ncomposed, with the light of the true s\u00e1stra.\n\n13. The limpid lake is little discernible in winter, when the keen\nblasts have covered it with hoar frost, and converted its blueness to\nwhite.\n\n14. So the world appears to the wise, a vast sheet of the glory of God;\nand all these distinct forms of things, like waves of the sea are lost\nat last, into the bright element of Eternity.\n\n15. It is by one\u2019s own exertion, that every body should try to raise\nhimself above the sea of error, or else he must be continually whirling\nin the whirlpool of blunder, like all other ignorant men.\n\n16. As the waters of wells, tanks, lakes and seas, differ from one\nanother in their quality; so the persons of men and women, are\ndifferent from each other in their respective dispositions.\n\n17. Who can count the aquatic plants and lotuses, which grow in the\nlakes as plentifully, as the passions and desires spring in the\nfountain of the human heart; and which are carried away by the waves of\naccidents, or hurled into the whirlpool of perdition.\n\n18. Oh, the wonderful effect of bad company, that the lotus growing\nin the company of aquatic plants, loses its fragrance in the current\nwaters, and shows its thorny stalks to view.\n\n19. The good qualities of a person like those of the lotus, are lost\nunder the assemblage of vicious faults in the same; such as the pores,\nthe hollowness and the too fine and fragile fibres of the lotus stalks,\nmake them entirely useless to any body.\n\n20. But the lotus which adorns its natal waters, and fills the air with\nits fragrance; is as a nobleman born with the noble qualities of a\nnoble family, and whose virtues are impossible for the hundred hooded\nserpent--V\u00e1suki also to relate. (Such a person is called the lotus of\nhis family).\n\n21. What other thing can equal the lotus in its praise, which in form\nof Laxm\u00ed, rests on the bosom of Hari, and graces his hand in the manner\nof a _bouquet_ or nose gay.\n\n22. The white and blue lotuses, are both esteemed for their quality of\nsweet scent, though they differ in their colour; and hence the one is\nsacred to the sun and the other to the moon.\n\n23. The blooming beauty of the lotus-bed, is not comparable to that\nof the full blown flowers of the forest; nor does the lotus-lake bear\ncomparison with the starry heaven also; but they are to be compared\nwith the comely and smiling face of the dancing girl in her fete.\n\n24. Blessed are bees, that have all along enjoyed their lives in\nrevelling over the sweets of flowers, without having any other thing to\ncare about.\n\n25. Blest are the bees and cuckoos, that feast upon the flavour of\nmango fruits, and regale themselves with the fragrance of their\nflowers; all others not so blest, are born only to bear the name of the\nspecies.\n\n26. The bees cloyed with honey, and giddy with the flavour of lotuses,\nin the lake where they revel; laughed to scorn some others of their\ntribe, that led their humble lives on the common farina of flowers.\n\n27. The black bee that buzzed to the lotus, lived and sported in its\ncompany and slept in its honey cup at night; was in trouble at the\napproach of autumn, not knowing what flower to choose for its fare, and\nwere to resort for its rest.\n\n28. A black bee sitting on the unblown bud of a flower, appeared as a\nblack man placed over a trident by _k\u00e1la_.\n\n29. O thou insatiate bee! that ever rovest over hills and dales, and\nsuckest the sweets of all kinds of flowers; why wanderest thou still,\nunless it were for thy restless discontent.\n\n30. Thou soft bodied bee, that art bred up in sweets, and feedest upon\nthe farina of flowers; it is better for thee to resort to the lotuses\nof the lake, than bruise thy body in thorns and thistles.\n\n31. O humble bee, if thou art deprived of thy mellifluous food and\nthy fair fare of the farina of flowers in stern winter; thou shouldst\nyet repair as wise men do to such as may suit thy taste, and be\ncongenial to thy nature; rather than be mean and debase thyself, by thy\nattendance upon the base and mean.\n\n32. Look there, O lord! the assemblage of milk white swans, swimming\nin the lake, and feeding upon the silvery fibres of lotus stalks, and\nguggling as gravely, as the chaunters of the S\u00e1ma Veda.\n\n33. Here the gander pursuing the geese, seated in their cradles of\nlotus bushes; thinks the limpid lake as the blue sky, and the lotus\ncradle as a cloud, and stops from his pursuit (for fear of falling down\non earth). (Mistake of the terrestrial lake, for the aerial mand\u00e1kin\u00ed).\n\n34. Let no body be so unfortunate, O lord, as was this gander, which\n in pursuit of the shadow of the goose.\n\n35. The sweet music of the swan as it sings of its own accord, is\ninimitable by the crow or crane, although they are taught to learn it\nfor many years in its society.\n\n36. Although the swan and drake are both of the same kind, and of like\nform and figure, and live upon the same sort of food; yet they differ\nwidely from one another in their respective species and qualities.\n\n37. The swan soaring in the sky, with his snow white wings and\nfeathers; appears as the hoary lotus sitting upon its stalk; and then\nit gladdens the minds of men, as the full-moon with her icy beams.\n\n38. The elevated stalks of lotuses, rising as the lofty stems of\nplantain trees, with the lotuses sitting as the goddess Flora upon\nthem, afford delight to swans only, and to no other bird.\n\n39. Lo, how the lake is adorned like a beauteous lady, with the\nwaves resembling her waving bracelets, and the ripples likening her\nnecklaces; while the aquatic plants and flowers, represent wreaths and\ngarlands on her bosom.\n\n40. The strings of fluttering bees, are as streaks of black spots on\nher person; the swelling of cranes and storks are as the tinklings of\nher anklets, and the rippling waves are as the glances of her eyes.\n\n41. The lake is graced like a lady, by the young swans crying by her\nside as her young ones; and looking up to the mountain as her lord, for\na fresh supply of fresh water from his profluent cascade.\n\n42. Don\u2019t you, O harmless swan, says one, reside with the malicious\nwater fowls and birds of prey, in one and the same lake; it is better\nthat thou dost remain with thy own kind, that may assist thee in\ndistress.\n\n43. Look to thy end, O silly bee, says one, that art now so giddy\nwith thy drink of the sweet honey of flower, and treadst on the heads\nof elephants, to sip and suck their exuding ichor, and ramblest at\nlarge among the blooming lotuses, that the winter of scarcity is fast\napproaching to thee, when thou shalt be constrained to live upon the\ndewdrops drizzling on blades of grass or dripping from stones.\n\n44. O lord! the milk white swan with wide stretched wings entered into\nthe lotus bush, to see after his young ones, they on seeing him, begin\nto cackle, as a child does on seeing his father before him. The young\nones said, O father, it is all delusion, like white pearl in silver and\none sees fog over his head at mid-day.\n\n45. The swan is as silently floating over the limpid waters of the\nlake, as the bright moon is gently gliding along the translucent\natmosphere of the firmament; and as it passes through, the beds of\nlotuses, its wings bruise against the blossoms, causing them to distil\ntheir fragrant fluid, which is gulped in by fishes, in the manner of\nthe holy water of Ganges.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXVIII.\n\nDESCRIPTION OF DEER, PEACOCKS, CRANES &C.\n\n Argument:--This chapter is devoted to the description of some\n beasts and birds, some fishes and a traveller.\n\n\nSome companion said:--Behold the crane, which notwithstanding its\ndestitution of all good qualities, has one special instinct of uttering\nthe onomatopoeia signifying the rain.\n\n2. O crane that resemblest the swan in the colour of thy feathers, thou\nmightest well be taken for a young swan, wert thou but without the\nrapacity of the king-fisher (mudgu).\n\n3. So there is a line of king-fishers, that are expert in diving amidst\ndeep waters, and catching the fishes in its wide extended beaks, now\nsitting idle on the shore, and not venturing to dart themselves into\nthe water, for fear of the sharks, floating there with their open\nmouths and wide stretched jaws.\n\n4. Thus murderers also dart upon men, in the manner of diving\nking-fishers, and cry out saying, \u201c_madgu madguru_, this king-fisher is\nour instructor in killing.\u201d\n\n5. Seeing a white heron with its long neck and uplifted head, sitting\nsilently and watching on the shore, the people took it at first for a\n_hansa_ or hernshaw; but finding it afterward to catch a shrimp from\nthe marsh water, they came to know it as a heron at last.\n\n6. A crane was observed by a woman, to be sitting on the shore like a\ndevotee the live long day, while it was in reality watching for prey,\nuntil the evening shade, as the day labourers are wont to do for their\nbread.\n\n7. Look there, says a wayfaring woman to her companion, how these\nrustic women are culling the lotuses amidst the frosty lake; if you\nlike you can follow them, but I will fall back from you.\n\n8. Look there, O lord! (says the companion to the king), how that\ntraveller appeases his angry mate, and leads her to the flowery bower\nof the weedy bush.\n\n9. Look then, O lord, at the dalliance of the lady, and at her smiling\nface mixed with her frowning looks; and hearken to her speech to her\nassociate.\n\n10. The crane, king-fisher and other rapacious birds, that live\ntogether in the same place, are all of the same mind and purpose; but\nthe fool and wise man can never agree, though they abide together in\nthe same society for ever.\n\n11. As the cricket caught under the bill of wood pecker, whistles to\nhis face; so the retribution of our past misdeeds, flies as a flag\nbefore us, and unfolds itself unto us (wherever we may happen to go, or\nchance to be reborn).\n\n12. As long as the cruel crane of fate, keeps clucking upon the tall\ntree on the shore; so long doth the fearful shrimp (of the living\nsoul), keep itself concealed in the bog (of the body) with its inward\ntrepidation. Hence there is no rest or quiet of the body and soul,\nuntil the ultimate _quietus_ of both.\n\n13. The bodies of animals, which are devoured by rapacious beasts\nand birds, and then disgorged unhurt and entire out of their bowels;\nresemble I ween to their rising from the lap of sleep, or a state of\nprofound trance.\n\n14. The fear that overtakes the fishes in their native waters, at the\nsight of rapacious animals, is far greater than those of thunder claps\nor thunder bolts falling upon them; and this I know from remembrance of\nmy past life of a fish, and cannot be denied by the wise.\n\n15. Behold there the herd of deer before thus reposing in raptures over\nthe bed of flowers, under the shade of trees on the borders of the\nlake; and look also at the hive of the bees about the new blown flowers\nof the grove.\n\n16. Look the high minded and lofty headed peacock craving and crying\naloud for rain water, to the great god of the clouds and rains; and\nthe god Indra in return pours in floods to fill the whole earth with\nwater; for the greatness of gods looks to the general and individual\ngood.\n\n17. The peacocks like suckling babes, attend on the clouds as their wet\nnurses; or it may be, that the black peacocks are the offspring of dark\nclouds (that endears and unites them thus to one another).\n\n18. Lo the wanderer looking with wonder on the eyes of the antelope,\nand finding their resemblance with those of his dear one at home,\nremains stupified as statue at the sight of the objects exposed to his\nview.\n\n19. The peacock instead of drinking water from the ground, snatches by\nforce the snake from underneath; wherefore I am at a loss to know which\nof these to blame for its malice. (The peacock kills the snake, but\nthis one destroys all living creatures).\n\n20. Why is it that the peacock shuns to drink in the large lake, which\nis as liberal as the minds of great men; and is content to swallow the\ndrops of rain water, spit out and spirted by the cloud; unless it be\nfor shame of stooping down his head, to drink the water of the lake.\n\n21. See the peacock dancing, with displaying his gaudy train to the\nclouds; and oscillating their starry plumage in the rain, as if they\nwere the offspring of the rainy season.\n\n22. The rainy dark cloud which was carried by the wind from the bed of\nocean, appeared over the forest lake and met with the gleeful dancing\npeacock below.\n\n23. It is better for thee, O ch\u00e1taka! to pick up the blades of grass\nfor thy food, and drink the water of the fountains, and rest in the\nshady plantain grove of the forest; than to dwell in the hollow cave of\na withered tree in sultry heat, by thy pride of never stooping down for\nthy subsistence.\n\n24. Think not, O peacock! this cloud to be a sea and the abode of\nsharks; but know to be a watery cloud, born of the smoke of wild\nfire, and of the vapours of the mountain and ascending to the sky.\n(Therefore thou canst not fear to dance before it).\n\n25. The peacock seeing the cloud that was so profuse of rain even in\nautumn, becoming sometimes so scant of its supply as not even to fill a\ntank (such as in times of drought), sustains its thirst with patience,\nin gratitude to the past favours of the cloud; nor does it fain to\nblame its former supporter for failing, nor deigns to drink any other\nearthly water like the common people.\n\n26. The peacock that was wont to drink the crystal drops of the\nclouds, would not now stoop to drink the dirty water of the ditch,\nthough pressed and pinched by drought and thirst; because the sweet\nremembrance of his past beverage, supports him from fainting, and the\nexpectation of fresh draughts, preserves him from dying.\n\n27. Travellers mitigate the toils of their journey, by mutual\nconversation on the way; as the ignorant that cannot commune with\nthemselves, communicate their thoughts with others, to beguile the\ntediousness of their lives.\n\n28. Look there, O lord! to the slender stalks of the lotuses,\nsupporting the burden of the water on the lotus leaves; like yon tender\ndamsels carrying the water pots on their heads.\n\n29. Being asked why they were carrying those of lotus flowers and\nleaves and for what use; they replied, to make cooling beds for\nassuaging the fever heat of the love sick wives of travellers from\ntheir homes.\n\n30. These impassioned damsels, with their swollen breasts and youthful\ndalliance, and the motions and gestures of their bodies, served to\nexcite the remembrance of the separated brides, whom the travellers had\nleft behind at their far distant abodes.\n\n31. Ah surely, says a traveller, that dear one of mine, must now be\nweeping and wailing, or falling down and rolling on the ground, at the\nsight of yonder dark cloud in the sky in my absence.\n\n32. Lo there the lines of black bees, fluttering on the cups of\nlotuses, and the little bees giddy with the dulcet liquor of flowers;\nthe gentle breezes are blowing on all sides, and wafting the fragrance\nof the opening blossoms; while the leaves of trees are dancing to the\ntunes of the rustling winds.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXIX.\n\nLAMENTATION OF THE LOVELORN TRAVELLER.\n\n Argument:--The lovesick traveller, relating the woes of his\n separation to his beloved one.\n\n\nThe companions continued:--The traveller having returned home, and\nfinding his beloved one by the arbour of _mandara_ trees, began to\nrelate to her the pangs of his protracted separation.\n\n2. Listen to my marvellous tale, said he, and what happened to me one\nday, when I sought to send some one to thee with my tidings.\n\n3. I sought long but sought in vain, at the time of my painful\nseparation, to send one to thee at this house of mine; but where such\na one be found in the world, who would take a severe interest in the\naffliction of another, for the sake of charity or mere friendship?\n\n4. Lo, I came to behold even then and there, a big cloud on the top of\na mount, resembling the steed of cupid, that appeared jocundly before\nme, accompanied by the swift lightening as his precursor.\n\n5. I advanced before him and addressed unto him, saying: ah brother\ncloud, thou bearest the rainbow of Indra, as a collar about thy neck,\nand are graceful in thy course, have pity on me for a moment. Please go\nto my dear one and tell her my tidings, with thy low voice, sympathetic\ntears and breath of sighs; because the tender form of the pliant\ncreeper, will not be able to bear thy loud uproar.\n\n6. I know not, O dark cloud! to what abode to direct thee to find my\nbeloved one, who is pictured in the plate of my heart by the pencil of\nmy mind, and is forever situated in my bosom.\n\n7. But now, O my friendly cloud! my distracted mind has lost that\nfigure of my beloved in my breast, together with the sight of her\nperson from my eyes; and now having lost the freedom of my body in a\nforeign country, I have become but a wooden framework without my love,\nwhich is its living soul: for what living body can bear the pangs of\nseparation.\n\n8. People then thought me dead, and with tears in their eyes, began to\nprepare my obsequies and collect wood for my funeral.\n\n9. I was borne away to be burnt on a dreadful funeral pile, which was\nhorribly crackling with the cracking wood, of the blazing fire on the\nburning ground.\n\n10. There, O my lotus eyed love, I was laid on the pile by some persons\nwith their weeping eyes; and the pyre was surrounded by a number of\nmen, who stood as spectators of the horrible sight.\n\n11. At that time the curling smoke of the pyre, began to enter into my\nnostrils like the creepers or stalks of lotus plants; and as when the\ndark and lengthy body of the curvilinear snake, enters into a hole in\nthe ground.\n\n12. But all this, I was defended by the strong armour of my firm\nlove to thee; as the unborn or selfborn son of god Brahm\u00e1, was defended\nfrom the showers of darts, of the whole host of demons and thinking\nmyself to be plunged in the cooling pool of thy love within my heart; I\nwas untouched by the flames of fire burning all about me.\n\n13. All this time I lay in the ecstacy of my love to thee, and I felt\nraptures of joy rise in my breast, from my fancied association with\nthee. I deemed myself as drowned in an ambrosial lake, while I was in\nthat state of rapture, and thought sovereignty of the whole world, too\ninsignificant before my ecstatic transport.\n\n14. Methought I felt raptures of inexpressible delight fill my whole\nsoul, at the thought of all thy blandishments and graces, and in the\nallurements of thy speech, sweet smiles and sidelong glances, and all\nthe gestures and motions of thy person, that spread an ambrosial charm\nall around me.\n\n15. Methought we clasped in mutual embraces, and together in amorous\nfolds; till exhausted with surfeit, I lay upon the cool soft bed, as\nif I was drowned in the cold and icy ocean of the lunar disc.\n\n16. At this moment as I lay long in my bed, bedewed with cool sandal\npaste, and the cooling beams of the full-moon; I heard a thundering\nnoise accompanied with flames of fire, rising from the burning pile of\nwoods under me, as it was the submarine fire, proceeding from the milky\nocean wherein I was lying.\n\n17. The companions resumed:--When the husband had said so far, his\nlistening spouse cried out aloud; saying \u201cAh me! I am dead, I am gone,\u201d\nand for fear of hearing the sad consequence, fell into a swoon and\nbecame senseless.\n\n18. The husband finding her fainting, began to wave over her fan of\nlotus leaves, besprinkled with water; and taking her up to his bosom,\ntried to restore her to her senses.\n\n19. Being then desired by her to finish his tale, he began to relate\nthe remainder by holding her chin with his hand.\n\n20. As I felt the pain of the burning flame touching my body, I cried\nout and groaned in affliction; the spectators hastened to extinguish\nthe blazing pile, and felt delighted to find me alive.\n\n21. The attendants then with loud shouts of joy, like the sound of\ndrums &c. and with garlands of flowers, raised and embraced me to their\nbosoms; and went on shouting and singing and dancing and laughing with\nexultation.\n\n22. I then saw the funeral ground resembling the formidable body of\nBhairava--the god of destruction. It was equally covered with ashes,\nwreathed with snakes and studded with human skulls: and the scattered\nbones that were strewn over the ground, seemed as the beams of the moon\ncrowning the head of Siva.\n\n23. Here hot winds were blowing from the funeral piles, as from the\nburning fire on Hara\u2019s head; and bearing the burnt ashes of the dead\nbodies, as a dark mist all around; they bore stink of the rotten bones\nto the air, and carried about the rustling noise of the bones jostling\nagainst one another.\n\n24. The burning piles and their flashing flames and flying sparks, and\nthe fiery winds scorching the trees and herbage; give this place the\nappearance of the play ground, of the gods of wind and fire, and of the\nsons of sun--Yama and Saturn.\n\n25. Thus I saw the funeral ground full of terrors, and covered with\nskeletons of half-burnt bodies and putrid carcasses also; it is\ninfested by hungry dogs and howling jackals, and other voracious\nbeasts, and the ravenous ravens and vultures. It is a place where the\nVet\u00e1la--demons and Pis\u00e1cha--hobgoblins, revel with fearful shrieks and\njarring sounds.\n\n26. I beheld there the biers of dead bodies, borne by their mourning\nfriends, with loud cries and lamentations that filled the air all\nabout. I saw the beasts and birds, that tore their entrails and\narteries, yet moist with blood, and I saw the ground strewn over with\nhalf burnt logs of wood and bushes.\n\n27. In some places the glaring pyres, gave a gloomy light, and in\nothers the tufts of hair, were heaped as spots of clouds; somewhere\nthe ground was besmeared with blood, and looked like a lurid sheet of\ncloth; and elsewhere the clouds were roaring, as the setting sun went\ndown the western hill (or horizon).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXX.\n\nDESCRIPTION OF VARIOUS OBJECTS ON ALL SIDES.\n\n Argument:--Prolusion on the winds and the forest trees and wild\n bees; then on celestial nymphs, birds &c.\n\n\nThe companions continued:--Thus the loving pair after taking to one\nanother in the aforesaid manner; began to sip their delicious wine. And\nnow attend, O lotus eyed lord to the other things of things of this\nplace.\n\n2. Lo, there the winds, shaking the plantain leaves and clusters of\ntheir flowers, and blowing to all sides, with the dust of various sorts\nof flowers, with which they have adorned themselves.\n\n3. There the breezes are blowing, loaded with odours exhaled by the\nflowers of the forest; and there the gentle zephyrs are wafting the\nperfumes, which they have stolen from the locks of their favourite\nfairies.\n\n4. Here are the blasts blowing from the salt sea on the south; and\ndriving as fastly as the stern lion rushes into the fastness of woods\nand mountain caves; and as forcibly, as the fierce giants attacked the\ngods on the top of Mount Meru.\n\n5. Again there is the high wind playing and shaking with the high\n_tam\u00e1la_, t\u00e1la and other palma trees; while the gentle gales, are\nsoftly gliding over the waves, and wafting their moisture to the tender\nplants below.\n\n6. There the soft breezes are wheezing, with the dust thrown out by the\nflowers; while gentle zephyrs are moving about as princes amidst the\nbowers and flower gardens.\n\n7. There the god Aeolus plays his sweet sylvan pipe, in the holes of\nthe hollow bamboo; in the manner of the female sweet musicians, tuning\ntheir reeds in the city of P\u00e1ndu or Hastin\u00e1pura. (Here is a palpable\nanachronism with regard to the anterior of prince P\u00e1ndu).\n\n8. Here every plant is fraught with bees, except the _karnikara_\nflower; which is avoided by them, on account of its disregard of the\ngod of air, by withholding to pay him the tribute odour and farina.\n\n9. The _t\u00e1la_ or palm tree, that rises as high as a column but yields\nno fruit nor flower to the hungry passenger, owing to its inaccessible\nheight, is as disgraceful in itself as the uncharitable rich man.\n\n10. Ignorant and unworthy people, build their pride on outward show,\nas the _kinsuka_ flower displays the beauty of its colour to view, in\nabsence of its fragrance.\n\n11. Look at the _Karnikara_ flower, blooming only to decay; because its\nwant of fragrance makes it as worthless and despicable, as unworthy and\nignorant men are disregarded by all.\n\n12. So the _tam\u00e1la_ tree with its blushing blossoms, beguile the\nthirsty _ch\u00e1taka_ by its false appearance of a rainy cloud, so the fair\noutside of the foul, deceives the unwise by his inward foulness.\n\n13. Look at these robust, woody, shady and cloud-capt hills, which\nafford shade and shelter to others; and are possessed of many more\nqualities, befitting the kings of men; are standing in the manner of\nlofty bamboos (having all these qualities in them).\n\n14. Look at yonder cloud on the mountain top, resting as it were upon\nthe seat of its table land of bright gold, and twirling its yellow\nmantle of lightnings; appearing as the god Hari clad in his vest of\naureate yellow.\n\n15. Look on the blooming _kinsuka_ flower, with the flutter-bees and\nbirds about them appearing as a fighting warrior, pierced by flying\narrows, and besmeared with crimson blood.\n\n16. Lo the golden _mand\u00e1ra_ flowers, touching the amber-coloured clouds\nof heaven; appearing as the giddy Gandharva lads, lying on the top of\nthe Mahendra mountain.\n\n17. Behold the weary wayfarers, laying and lulling themselves to rest,\nunder the shade of the Kalpa trees in the garden of paradise; while\nthe siddhas and Vidy\u00e1dharas are sitting there at ease, and singing\ntheir songs to the tune of their stringed instruments.\n\n18. Behold also the celestial nymphs, stretched there at ease,\ntittering and singing in the groves-bowers of the Kalpa arbour of Eden.\n\n19. There is the silent abode of the great sage Mandapala, famed in the\nlegends; and the cave of the celebrated vulture said to be his wife.\n\n20. See there the line of hermitages of the ancient sages; where the\nenvious animals forget their mutual animosities, and together in\nperfect concord and amity.\n\n21. There are the coral plants, growing with other shrubs and bushes,\nby the side of the sea coast; and the drops of water trickling upon\nthem, glisten as gems by the solar rays.\n\n22. The waves are rolling with precious gems, on the bosom of the\nocean; like playful damsels rocking on with their ornaments on the\nbreasts of their lovers.\n\n23. Here the jingling noise of the jewelleries of the celestial nymphs,\nsauntering from the celestial regions, to the infernal abodes of the\nserpents through the midway skies.\n\n24. Here those hollow mountain caves, whistling with a sound resembling\nthe buzzing of wild bees, falling down giddy with drinking the ichor\nexuding from the forehead of elephants.\n\n25. Lo the sea ebbing with the waning moon during the dark fortnight\nof the month; and the receding tides describing and leaving the linear\nmarks of their regression upon the sands on the shore.\n\n26. Lo the woodland decorated as a beauty, with clusters of flowers\nhanging as wreaths and garlands on every side; breathing fragrance all\nabout, and attired in the robe of its cooling shade.\n\n27. The variegated foliage from its party-coloured dress, and the\nwaterfalls seem as its sweet smiles; and the flowers strewn about,\nappear as the flowery bed of the happy woodland dame. (The word _vana_\nmeans the _vana-devi_ or woodland goddess, corresponding with a dryad,\nsylva or Flora).\n\n28. Here the high-minded sages and hermits, are as highly delighted\nwith their quiet sylvan retreats; as the celestials are joyous in\ngardens of Eden. (Eden and Udy\u00e1na are both the same).\n\n29. The placid and indifferent minds of sages, are equally delighted\nwith these solitary woodlands, as the restless and impatient minds of\nlovers and worldly people.\n\n30. The waters of the sea, whether running into the land, or washing\nthe foot of the rock on the sea-shore; are equally shining and sounding\nas their tinkling ornaments or anklets (nupurs).\n\n31. The _punn\u00e1ga_ flowers blooming on mountains, appear as golden mines\nupon them; and the goldfinch birds flying over them, look like winged\nangels in the aerial course.\n\n32. The mountain forests appear to be in a conflagration, with their\nfull blown _champaka_ flowers blazing as fire, and the bees and clouds\nhovering over them as smoke; while the current winds are spreading\nabove their dust and petals like the sparks of fire.\n\n33. Lo the _kokila_ swinging and singing, on his seat of the topmost\nstalk of a _karavira_ tree; when his mate comes and embraces him there,\nand sings responsive to his songs with her clamorous chattering. (It is\na sarcasm on pettish wives, that often interrupt the silent musings of\ntheir consorts with their tastelessness).\n\n34. See the salt waters of the briny ocean, roaring aloud against\nshore; but the coast-lands are kept in subjection under the hands of\ntheir able masters. (The rule of kings stretched to the seashore).\n\n35. O lord! deign to make this earth (_i.e._ the continent of\nJambudw\u00edpa or Asia), stretching to the four seas on the four sides, as\nthy footstool; and establish thy rule over the remaining potentates,\nthat escaped the brunt of thy valour; appoint rulers over all the\nprovinces on all sides; and provide them with proper force and arms,\nwhich are necessary to keep them in order; and continue to govern thy\nrealms with mercy and moderation.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXXI.\n\nEXPOSITION OF THE STORY OF VIPASCHIT.\n\n Argument:--Boundaries of Vipaschit\u2019s Realms. His adoration of\n fire and attempt to proceed further.\n\n\nVasishtha related:--Then the king Vipaschit and his companions, sat\non the coast of the sea, and did whatever was requisite for the\nestablishment of his sovereignty.\n\n2. They then chose spots for their abodes at that place, and made\nhouses for themselves according to their positions; they settled the\nboundaries of the provinces, and set guards for their defence.\n\n3. At last they went down into the ocean, and then proceeded to the\nother side of the world; in order to show his glory; like that of\nVipaschit, to other parts of the world.\n\n4. Then came on the dark night, in the form of an all overshading\ncloud; and the people all sank into the lap of sleep, after finishing\ntheir daily works and rituals.\n\n5. They were amazed to think in themselves, how insensibly they were\nled to so great a distance in so short a space of time, and to meet the\nocean like currents of rivers falling into it.\n\n6. They said: \u201cIt is a wonder that we have come so far, without\nany attempt on our part; and therefore this great velocity must be\nattributed, to the swiftness of the vehicles of the great god Agni (or\nElectricity itself)\u201d.\n\n7. Lord! say they, how extensive is the view that lies before our\nsight; stretching from one end of the Jambudw\u00edpa to its other extremity\nof the vast salt ocean, and thence again to the islands in it, and\nother lands and seas beyond them.\n\n8. There are islands and seas beyond these, and others again beyond\nthem; how many such and many more, may there be of this kind, and how\ninscrutable is the delusion which is thus spread before our minds.\n(_i.e._ All these are but our mental delusions).\n\n9. Let us therefore pray the god of fire (electricity), that we may\nsee at once every thing on all sides by his favour, and with any\nexertion of or pain on our sides.\n\n10. So saying and thinking in this manner, they all reflected on\nthe god with one accord, and meditated on him, as they sat in their\nrespective places.\n\n11. The god appeared to them, and stood manifest before their sight in\nhis tangible form, and spoke to them saying:--\u201cAsk ye my sons, what\nfavor you desire of me.\u201d\n\n12. They said: O lord of gods, that abidest beyond this visible and\nelemental world, ordain, that by means of the vedic mantra and our\npurified minds, we may know the knowables in our minds.\n\n13. Give us, O God, this great and best boon, that we ask of thee; that\nwe may know by thy light, whatever is knowable by either the external\nsenses; mind or by our self-consciousness. (_i.e._ By the three means\nof knowledge).\n\n14. Enable us to see with our eyes O lord! the paths, which lead the\nsiddhas and yogis to the sight of the invisibles; and make us also to\nperceive in our minds the things, that imperceptible to them.\n\n15. Let not death overtake us, till we have reached to the ways of the\nsiddhas; and let thy grace guide us in the paths, where no embodied\nbeing can pass (_i.e._ in our journey to the next world, when we have\nshuffled our mortal coil).\n\n16. Vasishtha said:--\u201cSo be it\u201d, said the igneous god, and instantly\ndisappeared from their sight; as the submarine fire bursts forth, and\nvanishes at once in the sea.\n\n17. As the fiery god disappeared, there appeared the dark night after\nhim; and as the night also fled after a while, the sunshine returned\nwith the reviving wishes of the king and his men, to survey the wide\nocean lying before them.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXXII.\n\nTHE KING\u2019S SURVEY OF THE SEA, AND HIS LOCOMOTION ON IT.\n\n Argument:--The king walks on foot on the sea, his chase of sharks\n and other marine animals.\n\n\nVasishtha related:--Rising then in the morning, they regulated the\naffairs of the state according to the rules prescribed by law; and were\neager to see the sea, as if they were impelled by some preternatural\nforce, which nothing less than the power of ministerial officers could\nrestrain.\n\n2. But they were so exasperated by their mad ambition, that they forgot\ntheir affection for their families, and forsook them all weeping before\nthem, for undertaking their perilous sea voyage.\n\n3. They said, \u201cwe will see what there is on the other side of the sea,\nand then return instantly to this place.\u201d Saying so they muttered the\ninvocatory mantras of the Fire god, who inspired them with the power of\nwalking on foot and dryshod over the sea.\n\n4. All the representatives of the king, being followed by their\ncompanions on all sides, proceeded to the borders of the several seas,\nand then walked on their feet over to watery maze.\n\n5. They walked on foot upon the waters, as if they were walking upon\nthe surface of the ground, and all the four bodies of the quadruple\nking, now met together in one place, and immediately afterwards they\nseparated apart with all their forces.\n\n6. Marching on foot over the vast expanse, they surveyed all that was\nin and upon the sea; and disappeared altogether from the sight of the\npeople on the shore, as a spot of cloud, vanishes from view in autumn.\n\n7. The forces travelled on foot all over the watery path of the ocean,\nwith as much fortitude; as the elephants of the king, traverse with\npatience on land, when they are bound to a distant journey.\n\n8. They mounted high and went down, along with the rising and lowering\nwaves; as when men climb upon and descend from steep mountains, and as\none rides and goes galloping on horseback, or in the manner of Hari\nfloating upon the billowy ocean, or in his act of churning the sea.\n\n9. They paced over the whirlpools, as the straws float upon waters; and\nthey promenaded as gracefully amidst the encompassing waves, as the\nbeauteous moon passes through the surrounding clouds.\n\n10. The brave soldiers that were so well armed with weapons in their\nhands, and so well protected by the power of their _mantras_ and\namulets; that they were as often disgorged from bowels of the sharks,\nas they came to be devoured by them: (because they could neither\nmasticate nor digest them).\n\n11. Pushed onward by the waves, and driven forward by the winds, their\nbodies were carried to the distance of many a league in a moment.\n\n12. The huge surges which lifted them to great heights, represented\nthe enormous elephants, on which they used to mount, and ride about in\ntheir native land.\n\n13. The vast expanse of water appears as the void space of the sky;\nand the succession of heaving waves in it, represents the folds of\ngathering clouds in heaven, and as they were dashing against one\nanother, they emitted the flash of lightnings anon.\n\n14. The loose and loud surges of the sea, resembled the loosened\nelephants in the battle field; and though they dashed against the shore\nwith all their force; yet they were unable to break them down, as the\nelephants are baffled in their attempt to break down a stone built\nrampart.\n\n15. The waving waves reflecting the rays of the brilliant pearls and\ngems, which they bore with them from shore to shore; resemble the\neminent men, who though they pass alone from place to place, appear\nyet to be accompanied by their train and glory every where.\n\n16. The surf tramples over the mass of hoary froth with contempt, as\nthe snowy white swan treads upon the bed of whitish lotuses in disdain.\n(The surf and the swan, being whiter far than the froth and the lotus).\n\n17. The sounding main, which was as loud as the roaring clouds, and the\nre-billowing billows, which were louder than they, bore no terror to\nthem that stood as rocks thereon.\n\n18. The cloud-kissing waves of the ocean, now rising above the\nmountains, and now falling low at their feet, were likely to touch the\nsolar orb, and then sink into the infernal.\n\n19. They were not afraid of the rising or falling waters; but passed\nover the sea as upon sheet of cloth; and shrouded by the drizzling\nclouds, which formed a canopy over them.\n\n20. Thus the companions of the king crossed the ocean, which was full\nof sharks and alligators, and tremendous eddies; they were sprinkled by\nwater like showers of flowers, and adorned with marine gems and pearls;\nand they crossed over on foot, as others do in navies.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXXIII.\n\nTHE KING\u2019S EXCURSIONS ON ALL SIDES.\n\n Argument:--The King and his train, pass over the islands and\n proceed towards the west.\n\n\nVasishtha related:--Thus they proceeded onward, to explore into the\nvisible phenomena, exposed before them by Ignorance (avidy\u00e1 or external\nnature); and continued to walk on foot, over the watery maze and the\nislands it contained.\n\n2. They passed over the ocean to some island, and then from that island\nto the sea again; and in this manner they traversed on foot, over many\na mountain and wilderness in interminable succession.\n\n3. Then as the king was proceeding towards the western main, he was\nseized and devoured by a voracious fish, which was as the undying breed\nof Vishnu\u2019s fish, and as fleet as a boat in the stream of Bitasta\nBeyah. (Vishnu\u2019s fish was the deathless incarnation of himself).\n\n4. The fish fled with him in his belly to the milky ocean; but finding\nhim too hard for his digestion, he bore him in his bowels to a great\ndistance in another direction.\n\n5. He was then borne to the saccharine ocean on the south, and was\nthere cast out in the island of Yakshas; where he was overpowered to\nthe love of a female fiend by her art of enchantment, (or) where he was\nenchanted into the amour of a female Yaksh\u00ed, by her skill in sorcery.\n(The yakshas are the present yakhas of Ceylon, or Egypt, and are said\nto be equally adept in the art of m\u00e1y\u00e1 or magic).\n\n6. He then went towards the east, and passing by the Ganges, he killed\na shark that had pursued him, and arrived at last at the district of\nK\u00e1nya Kubja the modern Cawnpore.\n\n7. Then proceeding towards the north, he came to the country, of\nUttara-kurus, where he was edified by his adoration of Siva, and\nbecame exempted from the fear of death, in all his wanderings on all\nsides of the earth.\n\n8. In this way, travelling long and afar, both by land and sea; he\nwas often attacked by wild elephants on the boundary mountains, and\nrepeatedly gorged and disgorged by sharks and alligators in the seas.\n\n9. Then proceeding towards the west, he was picked up by an eagle and\nset upon his back; and the bird took to his golden pinions, and bore\nhim in an instant to the Kusa-dw\u00edpa across the ocean.\n\n10. Thence he passed to the Krauncha-dw\u00edpa on the east; where he was\nseized and devoured by a R\u00e1kshasa of the mountain, but whom he killed\nafterwards by ripping up his belly and its entrails.\n\n11. Roving then in the south, he was denounced to become a yaksha by\ncurse of Daksha the king of that part: until he was released from that\nstate by the king of the Saca-dw\u00edpa after some years.\n\n12. He then passed over the great and smaller seas lying in the north,\nand after passing over the great frigid ocean, he arrived at the\ncountry of gold, where he was changed to a stone by the siddhas of that\nplace.\n\n13. In this state he remained a whole century, till by the grace of\nhis god Agni--ignis, he was released from the curse of the siddha, who\nreceived him again into his favour.\n\n14. Then travelling to the east, he became king of the country of\ncocoanuts; and after reigning there for full five years, he was\nrestored to the remembrance of his former state.\n\n15. Then passing to the north of the Meru Mountain, he dwelt among the\nApsaras, in the groves of kalpa trees for ten years, and subsisted on\nthe bread fruits of cocoanuts.\n\n16. Going afterwards to the Salmali-dw\u00edpa in the west, which abounds\nin trees of the same name, he dwelt in the society of birds for many\nyears, having been previously instructed in their language, when he had\nbeen carried away by Garuda.\n\n17. Thence journeying in his westerly course, he reached to the\nMandara Mountain which abounded in verdure and _mad\u00e1ra_ forests; and\nhere he sojourned for a day in company with Mandar\u00ed--a Kinnera female.\n\n18. He then journeyed to the Nandana garden of the gods, which abounded\nin kalpa trees rising as high as the waves of the milky ocean; and he\nremained in the company of the woodland gods for a septenary, sporting\nwith the Apsara damsels in their amorous dalliance.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXXIV.\n\nQUADRIPARTITE STATE OF THE KING VIPASCHIT.\n\n Argument.--The actions of the Individual prince, appertaining to\n his quaternary forms.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma said:--Tell me sir, whether the different states and acts of the\nprince, relate particularly to any one part of his quadripartite body,\nor generally or severally to all and each part of himself; because it\nis equally impossible that all and every part should act the same part,\nas that the several parts of the same person, could act differently\nfrom the other. (It is unnecessary to be multipartite to act alike, as\nwell as impossible for the same personality to act differently in its\nmany persons or parts or forms, which are all one and the same being).\n\n2. Vasishtha replied:--Any person that is conscious of his self\nidentity, and its invariability and indivisibility, may yet think\nhimself as another person and doing different things, as a man does in\nhis dream.\n\n3. Again it is the clearness of the soul, that shows the abstract\nimages of things in itself, as it did in that of Vipaschit or the wise\nprince; and as a mirror reflects the discrete figures of objects, and\nof the sky and sea, in its clear and empty bosom.\n\n4. As reflectors made of the same metal, reflect one another in\nthemselves; so all things which are in reality but of an intellectual\nor ideal nature, reflect themselves in the intellect. (The mind is the\nrepository of the ideal forms of things, and it is mental fallacy only\nwhich makes them appear as real ones. This is the idealistic theory of\nBerkeley).\n\n5. Hence whatever object presents itself, to any one of the senses\nof any body, is no other than the concretion or density of his\nintellectual idea of the same in its nature. (Hence the sensibles are\nbut solidified ideas, and ectypes of the ideal; and not as causes or\nprototypes of our eternal ideas).\n\n6. It is the one and self same thing appears as many, and the\nvaried ones are but the invariable one in reality; there is no positive\nvariety nor uniformity either in _esse_, because all apparent variety\nis positive unity (_i.e._ all is one, and the one in all).\n\n7. Hence whatever part of the prince, was conscious of anything,\nwhich presented itself before him of any time; the same is said to be\nthe state of his being during that time. (_i.e._ Whatever a man is\nconscious of doing or suffering at any time, the same forms the state\nor mode of living for the time being).\n\n8. And as it is possible to a yogi, who sits secluded in one place;\nto see all present, past and future events at one view before him; so\nit is possible for a prince, sitting retired in his palace, to manage\nall affairs of his whole domain; and much more for the king Vipaschit,\nwho delegated his viceroys, as members of his body to all parts. (This\npassage explains the quadripartite kings, to mean himself and his three\nviceroys on three sides).\n\n9. So doth a cloud stretch itself to all the quarters of the sky, and\nperform at once the several functions of quenching the parched earth\nwith its water, and of growing the vegetables and fructifying the\ntrees. So also doth a man boast of his manifold acts at the same time.\n\n10. So also are the simultaneous acts of the lord God, and those of the\nlords of men and yogis; who design and perform at the same time, the\nmultifarious acts relating to the creation, preservation and management\nof the world.\n\n11. So doth the one and selfsame Vishnu, with his four arms and as many\nforms, act many parts and separably also, as the preservation of the\nworld on the one hand, and the enjoyment of his fair consorts on the\nother.\n\n12. Again though the two hands of a person, are enough to discharge the\nordinary affairs of life; yet it is requisite to have many arms, in\norder to wield many weapons in warfare.\n\n13. It was in the same manner, that the self same monarch was situated\nwith his fourfold persons, in all the four sides of the earth; where\nthough they were impressed with the consciousness of their self\nidentity, yet they all acted their several parts as quite distinct and\napart from others.\n\n14. They were all alike conscious of the pains and pleasures attending\non their lying down on naked grounds, their passing to distant islands\nand their travelling to different forests and groves, and desert lands\nalso.\n\n15. They all remembered their journeys over hills and mountains, as\nwell as their voyages by water and air; they knew how they floated on\nthe seas, and rested on clouds.\n\n16. They knew how they mounted upon waves of seas, and rode on the back\nof flying wind; and how they lay on the shores of seas, and at the foot\nof mountains.\n\n17. Again the prince proceeding to Scythea, or the land of _sacas_ on\nthe east; passed into the enchanted city of the yakshas, lying at the\nfoot of the Eastern mountain or Udaya-giri; where being spellbound by\ntheir sorcery, he lay asleep for full seven years in the wood of the\nleafless mans\u00e1 sij\u00e1 trees.\n\n18. Rising afterwards from his drowsiness, he was converted to the\ntorpid state of a stone by his drinking some mineral water, and was\ncondemned to remain for seven years more with the mineral substances of\nthe earth.\n\n19. He was then confined in a cave of the western mountain--Ast\u00e1chala,\nwhich reaches to the region of the clouds and is shrouded by darkness;\nand he became enamoured of the company, of Pis\u00e1cha and Apsara females.\n\n20. He then arrived at a region which was free from fear, and where\nthere rose a high mountain with water-falls in all sides of it; here\nthe prince was lost in the forest of _haritaki_ or chebula--myrobalans,\nand become invisible for years.\n\n21. The prince that had erewhile been spellbound by the yaksha,\ntravelled afterwards to the frigid climate; and there being transformed\nto a lion, he roved about the Raivata hills for ten days and nights.\n\n22. And then being deluded by the black art of Pis\u00e1chas, he was changed\nto the form of a frog, and lived in that state in the caves of the\ngolden mountain for a decad of years.\n\n23. Travelling afterwards to the country of Kum\u00e1rika (Cape Comorin),\nhe dwelt at the bottom of the northern ridge of the Black mountain.\nThen going to the _saca_ country, he was transformed to a hog, and\nlived in a dark hole for a hundred years in that shape.\n\n24. He lived for fourteen years as a squint-eyed, in the land of\n_marivaca_; when the western form of the prince was turned to a\nVidy\u00e1dhara, by virtue of his skill in learning various lore.\n\n25. There he enjoyed sexual intercourse at his full satisfaction under\nthe scented bower of _al\u00e1_, and passed his time in amusement.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXXV.\n\nON THE LIVING LIBERATION OF THE PRINCE.\n\n Argument:--Mutual assistance of the four persons of the prince to\n one another, and their true meaning.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--Now of the quadripartite bodies of the prince,\nthat which was transformed to a tree, in the valley called the vale of\nfearlessness in _sacadw\u00edpa_: supported itself by sucking the better\nwater of the rock which it drew by its roots.\n\n2. It was then that the western part of the royal person, came up to\nthe relief of the former or eastern part, and released it from the\ncurse of its vegetable state of full seventy years, by the power of its\nincantations.\n\n3. Again the western person of the king, passing to the frigid clime,\nwas there transformed to a stone by curse of the chief of the Pis\u00e1cha\ntribe; but was released afterwards from that state by southern\npersonage, by his offering of meat food to the carnivorous Pis\u00e1cha.\n\n4. At another time as this western personage, was settled beyond the\nwestern horizon, it was changed to the form of a bull by a female\nfiend, that had assumed on her the form of a cow, and was freed at last\nfrom that state by the southern person.\n\n5. Again the southern figure of the prince, was doomed to live as a\ndemon on a mountain tree in the Kshemaka, and was liberated at last\nfrom it by the yaksha prince.\n\n6. Then again, the eastern person of the prince, was metamorphosed to\nthe shape of a lion, on a mountain in the province of Vrishaka, and was\ndelivered for its metamorphoses by the western personality.\n\n7. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--How is it sir, that the single individuality of\nthe prince, which was confined in one spot as that of a yogi; could\nbe ubiquious at one and the same time, could perform the various\nacts of different times and places at once, by the all comprehensive\nuniversality of the mind.\n\n8. Vasishtha replied:--O R\u00e1ma! Let the unenlightened think whatever\nthey may, respecting this world (_i.e._ let them take its unreality for\npositive reality); but do you attend to what I say, regarding the light\nin which it is viewed by the enlightened yogis (who view it in its\nspiritual light, and conduct all their operations in the mind only).\n\n9. According to spiritualists, there is no other essence, except one\nuniversal Intellect; the phenomenal are an utter inexistence, and the\ncreation or increate entity of the world, blends into nothing. (The\nintellect is a formless and all-pervading essence, and acts in many\nways in all places).\n\n10. This universal Intellect is the eternal residence of and one with\nthe eternal and universal soul; and it is this that constitutes the\nessentiality and universality of the Supreme soul at all times.\n\n11. Say, who can obstruct any where or by any force the course of the\ngreat mind, which is ubiquious and all comprehensive, and exhibits\nitself in various forms in the endless varieties of its thoughts.\n(Hence there is nothing in reality, except they be but representations\nof the inward thoughts of the mind; or manifestations of the\nomnipresent One in various shapes).\n\n12. What is it to us and what can we call to be ours, when all these\nsights are exhibited in the supreme soul or Intellect in all places and\ntimes; and all that is present, past and future, are comprised \nthat all-comprehending mind.\n\n13. So that the far and near, a moment and an age, are the same to it,\nwhich is never altered in its nature (so says the sruti:--It is both\nnear and afar, the past and the present &c.).\n\n14. All things are situated in the soul, and yet look at the act of\nIgnorance, that they appear to be placed without it, as we behold them\nwith our naked eyes (as phantasms of the hidden soul).\n\n15. The soul is the substantial omniscience of vacuous form, and\nexhibits the three worlds in its vacuity, without changing its\nvacuousness (but shows like the magic lantern, the phantasmagoria of\nthese in itself).\n\n16. The universal soul appears in the universe, as both its viewer and\nthe view in itself, or as the subjective and objective in its self-same\nnature; but how is it possible for the inherent soul of the apparent\nworld, to admit of a visible form in any way, unless it be by the\ndelusion of our understanding to think it so.\n\n17. But tell me thou sage that knowest the truth, what thing is\nimpossible to the active agency of the selfsame Deity, to whom all\nthings are alike possible at all times and places; and so also to the\nwise king Vipaschit, who was alike conscious of his self identity in\nall his quadruple forms. (The Lord that spreads unspent, and acts alike\nin all. Pope).\n\n18. The enlightened Intellect of the yogi, that has not yet arrived at\nits transcendent state of unity with the Deity; and retains the sense\nof its individuality; can yet readily unite itself with the souls of\nothers in all places.\n\n19. There is nothing impossible to the supreme soul; but the half\nenlightened soul, that lingers between its knowledge and ignorance, and\nhas not attained to transcendent wisdom, is confounded in its intellect\nregarding the true knowledge of things.\n\n20. The soul that is some what advanced in its knowledge, is said to\nhave partly progressed towards its perfection (siddhi); hence the four\nparts of Vipaschit situated on the four sides, made up a perfect whole.\n(The whole number in common calculation, is usually divided into and\nmade up of four quarters).\n\n21. These four parts were as so many states or degrees of perfection,\nwhich lighted on Vipaschit like the rays of heavenly light; and these\nstates mutually helped and healed each other, as the members of the\nbody assist and supply to the defects of one another.\n\n22. R\u00e1ma said:--Tell me, O venerable Br\u00e1hman, why the quadruple king\nVipaschit, ran on all sides like brutes, if he was so enlightened in\nevery part, and why he did not sit collected in himself as he was.\n\n23. Vasishtha replied:--What I have related to you regarding\nenlightenment, applies only to the case of yogis, who though they\nare combined of many parts in their minds, do yet remain sedate in\nthemselves in the same state.\n\n24. But the Vipaschitas were not so wholly enlightened as the holy\nyogis, but being partly enlightened, they remained in the midmost state\nbetween the two, as if hanging betwixt both state of enlightenment and\nignorance at the same time.\n\n25. They bore upon them the marks of both at once, namely of the one by\ntheir discretion and discernment, and of the other by the passions and\naffections of their minds, that led them to the two different ways of\nliberation as well as of bondage.\n\n26. Those who are ever vigilant in the discharge of their pious acts,\nand are wavering between their temporal and eternal concerns, as the\nVipaschitas continued in their course of action, such persons cannot be\nperfect and esoteric yogis in this life.\n\n27. The devotees that are devoted to their devotion of a particular\ndeity as the Vipaschitas were of the god of fire, are styled as the\ndh\u00e1ran\u00e1 yogis; and not transcendent or _param_ yogis, unless they\nattain to transcendental knowledge (or jn\u00e1na yoga, which removes the\n_avidy\u00e1_--ignorance).\n\n28. The learned yogi does not see any mist of ignorance, to obstruct\nhis sight of the lights of truth; but the ignorant devotee is blind to\ntruth, though he may be received into the favour of his favorite deity.\n\n29. The Vipaschitas were all of them subject to ignorance, and they\nrejected the knowledge of the true soul, by their attachment to gross\nmaterial bodies, which are at best but vain unrealities. Listen\ntherefore to what I will now relate, regarding those that are liberated\nfrom their grossness even in their lifetime.\n\n30. The yogis retain of course their knowledge of the concrete, in\ntheir conduct of the external affairs of life; but liberation is the\nvirtue of the mind, consisting in its freedom from subjection to gross\nmaterials, and subsisting in the mind only, and not in the body or its\nsensibility.\n\n31. But as the bodily properties are inseparably connected with the\nbody, and its sensibility can in no way be separated from it; the\nliberated soul is therefore no way attached to it, nor doth the\nyogi ever take any heed of it in his mind (his thoughts being solely\nfixed in the solity of the soul).\n\n32. The mind of the liberated yogi, is never reunited with his body,\nany more than pollen is ever rejoined with its parent stalk; although\nthe bodily properties of the living liberated yogi, ever remain the\nsame as those of worldly persons. (Freedom consists in the minds and\nsoul, and not in the bonded body).\n\n33. The bodies of both are of course equally perceptible by all, but\nnot the minds which are hidden in them; the liberated soul cannot be\nseen by others; but the incarcerate spirit is known to every body, by\nits addictedness to the discharge of its bounded duties.\n\n34. Self-liberation is as well perceptible to oneself, as his\nperception of the sweetness of honey and the taste of other things, are\nwell known to himself; and one is well acquainted with his liberation\nand bondage, from his consciousness of pleasure and pain from the one\nor other.\n\n35. It is thus by one\u2019s inward perception of his liberation, that he is\ncalled the liberate; and it is also the inward coolness of his soul, as\nwell as the indifference of his mind, that constitute his liberation\neven in his life time.\n\n36. Neither the bondage, or liberation of the soul, nor the pleasure or\npainfulness of one\u2019s mind can be any how known to another; whether you\ndivide the body into pieces or place it upon a royal throne. (Though\nthe features of the face, are said to be indicators of the inward mind).\n\n37. Whether laughing or crying, the liberated soul feels no pleasure or\npain therein; because it is situated in both states in the unalterable\nspirit of God.\n\n38. The minds of liberated persons, are settled in the divine spirit\nand no where else, even when they are in the act of receiving or doing\nany thing with their bodies: But the learned men of the different\nschools, are seen to be quite otherwise from their unacquaintance with\nliberation (and being moved by the circumstances of life).\n\n39. The bodies of liberated persons, are not affected by external\nevents, and though such a one may appear to be weeping, yet he never\nweeps in grief; nor does he die, with the death of his mortal body.\n\n40. The great man that is liberated in his life time, does not smile\nthough he has a smiling face; nor is he affected by nor angry at any\nthing, though he seems to be moved by affections and anger. (_i.e._ His\nfeelings are never lasting).\n\n41. Undeluded he sees the delusions of the world, and unseen by any he\nsees the failings of others; and all pleasure and pain seem as ideal\nunto him.\n\n42. Every thing is as _nil_ to the liberate, as flowers growing in the\ngarden of the sky; and the existence of the world is non-existence unto\nhim, who sees the unity alone in all existence. (The One being all and\nall being one; all others are lost in the only One).\n\n43. The words pleasure and pain, are as aerial flowers to him, who are\nindifferent to them, who have become victorious over their feelings, by\ntheir liberation from all sensations in their life time.\n\n44. They that have known the truth, are unaltered in their natures; as\nthe mouths of Brahm\u00e1, are unflinching in the recital of Vedas. (?)\n\n45. And as Siva ripped the upper head of Brahm\u00e1, as a bud of lotus,\nwith the nail of his hand; and the god neither resented it, nor grew\nanother head instead, which he was well able to do: so the meek yogi\nremains unresentful at any harm done to him.\n\n46. Of what use is the upward or sky-looking face to him, whose inner\nor intellectual eye shows him the voidness of all things around; hence\nthe possession of the external organ of sight, is useless to him, who\nsees everything within himself.\n\n47. Every one gets as it is allotted to him by his fate, in retribution\nof his past actions; and his fatality (of retributive justice), does\nnot betide mortals only; but binds the god Siva also to the sweet\nembraces of Gaur\u00ed, as well as to his melancholy contemplation for\never; and so also doth the milky ocean, bear the ambrosial moon in his\nample bosom. (An irrevocable binds even Jove himself, as Hara to his\nnakedness, and Hari to his serpent bed).\n\n48. Good minded men are seldom seen to abandon their passions, though\nthey are capable of doing so in their life time; but they become quite\ndispassionate upon their death, when the five elemental principles of\ntheir bodies, are burnt away upon the funeral pile. (All lie level with\nthe dust in their silent graves).\n\n49. But the living liberated man, gains nothing by his doing anything,\nnor loses aught by his doing of naught; nor has he any concern with any\nperson, nor interest whatever with anything here on earth.\n\n50. What avails one\u2019s passionateness or dispassionateness in this\nworld; since what is fated in this life, cannot be averted by any means.\n\n51. The god Hari, who is liberated in his life, does not yet cease from\nhis work of slaying the Asuras, or to have them slain by the hands of\nIndra &c.; he becomes incarnate, to die himself or by hands of demons;\nand is repeatedly born and grown up, to be extinct at last. (Such is\nthe general doom of all).\n\n52. No one can give up his alternate activity and rest at once, nor\nis there any good to be reaped by his attachment to the one, or\nrelinquishment of the other.\n\n53. Therefore let a man remain in whatever state he may be, without\nhaving any desire of his own; because the god Hari is without any\ndesire in himself, being the form of pure Intellect or Intelligence\nonly. (Desire subsists in the mind, and not in the intellectual soul).\n\n54. The changing time changes and moves the steady soul, like a ball\non every side; as it turns about the fixed sun round the world in\nappearance (and not in reality).\n\n55. The lord of the day, is not able to restrain his body, from its\napparent course; though he is seated in his _nirv\u00e1na_ as he is, without\nany desire of changing his place.\n\n56. The moon also appears to be waning under her wasting disease,\nthough she remains ever the same in all kalpa ages of the world; so the\nsoul of the liberated person continues the same, though his body is\nsubject to decay by age.\n\n57. The fire too is ever free and liberated in itself, because\nnothing can extinguish its latent heat at any time; and though it was\nsuppressed by the sacrificial butter of marutta, and the seminal liquid\nof Siva for a while, yet it revived again as it was before. (Light and\nheat are coeternal elements).\n\n58. Vrihaspati and Sukra the preceptors of the gods and demigods, were\nliberated in their life time, and with all their ambitious views of\npredominance, they as dull and miserable persons.\n\n59. The sagely prince Janaka is perfectly liberated in his mind,\nand yet he is not loathe to rule over his princedom, and to quell\nhis enemies in battle. (Liberation consists in the mind, and not in\ncessation from action).\n\n60. The great kings Nala, Mandh\u00e1ta, Sagara, Dil\u00edpa, Nahusa and others,\nwere all liberated in their lives; and yet they reigned and ruled over\ntheir realms, with all the vigilance of sovereigns.\n\n61. A man acting either wisely or foolishly in life, is neither bound\nto or liberated in this world; but it is his ardent desire of or apathy\nto worldliness, that constitutes his bondage to or liberation from it.\n\n62. The demoniac princes Vali, Namuchi, Vritra, Andhaka, Mura and\nothers, lived quite liberated in their lives; though they acted as\nunwisely, as if they were elated by their ambition and passions.\n\n63. Therefore the existence or disappearance of the passions, in the\nconduct of any body, makes no difference in his spiritual character;\nbut it is the pure vacancy of the human soul and mind, that constitutes\nhis liberation in this world.\n\n64. Being possest of the knowledge of God as pure vacuum, the living\nliberated person is assimilated to the likeness of vacuity itself; and\nis freed from the duality of thinking himself otherwise than the divine\nspirit. (The sense of self personality, is lost in the knowledge of\nthe universality of the divine soul).\n\n65. He is conscious of the fallacy of phenomenal appearances, which he\nknows to be no more than as the variegated rainbow reflected in empty\nair (by the ineffable light of the glory of God).\n\n66. As the various colours are seen to shine in the rainbow, in the\nfield of empty air; so these myriads of brilliant worldly bodies, are\nbut vacuous particles appearing in infinite space. (The great worlds\nare as minute atoms in the sight of great God).\n\n67. This world is an unreality, appearing as a reality in view; it is\nunborn and increate, and yet it is irresistibly conspicuous to our\nsight, like the appearance of the sky in the empty firmament.\n\n68. It is without its beginning or end, and yet appearing to have both\nof these; it is a mere void, and seeming as a real substantiality;\nit is increate, and yet thought to be a created something; it is\nindestructible, though thought to be subject to destruction.\n\n69. Its creation and destruction are phenomena occurring in the\nvacuous essence of God, as the structure of a wooden post and statue,\ntakes place in the substance of the wood. (Here the Divine essence is\nconsidered as the material cause of the world, and the one being void\nthe other is considered equally void also).\n\n70. The mind being freed from its imagination, and drowned in deep\nmeditation (sam\u00e1dhi), as in the state of a sleepless sleeper; it comes\nto the sight of an even intellectual vacuity, engrossing the sights of\nall the worlds, as if absorbed in it.\n\n71. As a man passing from one place to another, is unmindful of the\nintermediate scenes; so the attention being directed solely to the\nsight of the intellectual void, the thought of all the world and other\nexistences is wholly lost in the same. (Such sight of the single point\nin view is called the _sakh\u00e1 chandra darsana_. _Ny\u00e1ya_).\n\n72. In this state of intense meditation, the thought of a duality is\nlost in that of the unity; and this idea of oneness disappears in that\nof a vast void, which terminates to a state of conscious bliss (which\nis the _summum bonum_ of yoga philosophy).\n\n73. In this state of _insouciance_, the duality of the world is lost in\nthe nullity of vacuity; the knowledge of self personality is dwindled\nto spirituality, and all futurity presents itself clearly to the view\nof the clairvoyance of the enrapt yogi. (This forms the _p\u00farnat\u00e1_ or\nperfectibility of yoga practice).\n\n74. The perfect yogi remains with his mind, as clear as the vacuous\nsky, enveloping the phenomenals in its ample sphere; he sits silent\nand as still and cold as a stone; he views the world in himself, and\nremains quiet in rapturous amazement at the view.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXXVI.\n\nRESUSCITATION AND CONDUCT OF THE VIPASCHITAS.\n\n Argument:--Release of the Dead from the error of the world, their\n wanderings and fancies of themselves.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma said:--Now tell me sir, what the Vipaschitas did, being cast in\nthe seas, islands and forests, in the different parts of the earth.\n\n2. Vasishtha replied:--Hear now, R\u00e1ma, of the Vipaschitas, in all their\nwanderings amidst the forests of t\u00e1la and tam\u00e1la trees, upon the hills\nand in the islands of different sides.\n\n3. One of the Vipaschitas, that was roving about the westerly ridge of\na mountain in Kraunchadw\u00edpa, was crushed to death by the tusk of an\nelephant, as it tears a lotus in the lake.\n\n4. Another of these was smashed in his contest with a R\u00e1kshasa, who\nbore his mangled body aloft in air, and then cast it amidst the marine\nfire, where it was burnt to ashes.\n\n5. The third was taken up by a Vidy\u00e1dhara, to the region of the\ncelestials; where he was reduced to ashes by curse of the god Indra,\nwho was offended at the prince\u2019s want of respect towards him.\n\n6. The fourth that went to the farthest edge of a mountain in the\nKusadw\u00edpa, was caught by a shark on the sea shore, which tore his body\nto eight pieces.\n\n7. In this manner did all these four lose their lives on all sides, and\nthey all fell as sorrowfully as the regents of the four quarters, at\nthe last dissolution of the world on the doomsday.\n\n8. After they were reduced to the state of vacuity amidst the vast\nvacuum, their vacuous and self-conscious souls, were led by the\nreminiscence of their former states to behold the earth (to which they\nhad been so much attached).\n\n9. They saw the seven continents with their belts of the seven oceans,\nand also the cities and towns with which they were decorated every\nwhere.\n\n10. They beheld the sky above, with the orbs of the sun and moon\nforming the pupils of its eyes; and also the clusters of stars, that\nwere hanging as chains of pearls about its neck, and the flaky clouds\nthat formed its folded vest.\n\n11. They saw with their intellectual eye, the stupendous bodies that\nrose out of chaos at the revolutions of past kalpa cycles, and filled\nthe amplitude of the sky and all sides of the horizon with the gigantic\nforms. (These were the big bodies of the many Unitarian Saivas that\nappeared at the beginning of repeated creations).\n\n12. Being possest of their consciousness in their spiritual forms, they\ndescended to observe the manners of elemental bodies that were exposed\nbefore them.\n\n13. All the four Vipaschitas were actuated by their previous\nimpressions, to the inquiry into the measure and extent of the\nignorance, which led people to the belief of the body as soul itself,\nin want of their knowledge of the spiritual soul (as it is the case\nwith gross materialists).\n\n14. They roved from one continent to another, to witness in what part\nof this ideal globe of the earth was this ignorance (avidy\u00e1) most\nfirmly seated, so as to give it the appearance of a visible substance.\n\n15. Then passing over the seven continents and oceans, the western\nVipaschit, happened to meet with the God Hari standing on a parcel of\nfirm land.\n\n16. Receiving then the incomparable knowledge of divine truth from him,\nhe remained in his _sam\u00e1dhi_ meditation at that spot for full five\nyears.\n\n17. Finding afterwards his soul to be full with divine presence, he\nrelinquished even his spiritual body, he fled like his vital breath, to\nthe transcendent vacuum of final extinction _nirv\u00e1na_.\n\n18. The eastern Vipaschit was translated to the region of moon (by his\nadoration of that luminary), and was seated beside that full bright orb\n(for his great purity and piety). But the prince, though placed in the\nexalted sphere of the moon, continued ever afterwards to lament for\nthe loss of his former body. (So heavenly souls are said to long for\ntheir bodies).\n\n19. The southern prince being forgetful of his spiritual nature,\nthinks himself to be reigning in the Salmalidw\u00edpa, and employed in the\ninvestigation of external and sensible objects.\n\n20. The northern one dwelling amidst the limpid waters of the seventh\nocean, thought himself to be devoured by a shark, which retained him in\nhis belly for the space of a thousand and one years.\n\n21. There he fed upon the bowels of the shark, which killed the animal\nin a short time; and then he came out of its belly, as if it gave birth\nto a young shark.\n\n22. Then he passed the frigid ocean of snows and over its icy tracts,\nstretching to eighty thousand yojanas (or leagues) in dimension.\n\n23. He next arrived a spot of solid gold, which was the haunt of\ngods, and stretched to ten thousand yojanas, and here he met with his\nend.\n\n24. In this land the prince Vipaschit attained the state of a Godhead,\nin the same manner as a piece of wood is turned to fire in a burning\nfurnace.\n\n25. Being one of the principal gods, he went to the Lok\u00e1loka or polar\nmountain, which surrounded the globe of the earth, as an aqueduct\nbegirds the base of a tree.\n\n26. It rises to the height of fifty thousand yojanas, and has the\ninhabited earth on one side of it which faces the sunlight, and eternal\ndarkness reigning on the other.\n\n27. He ascended to the top of the polar mount, which pierced the starry\nsphere; and as he was seated upon it, he was beheld in the light of a\nstar by the beholders below.\n\n28. Beyond that spot and afar from this highest mountain, lay the deep\nand dark abyss of infinite void.\n\n29. Here was the end of the globular form of this earth, and beyond it\nwas the vacuity of the sky, of fathomless depth, and full of impervious\ndarkness.\n\n30. There reigns a darkness of the hue of a swarm of black bees, and\nas the shade of the black tam\u00e1la trees; there is neither the stable\nearth nor any moving body under the extended sky; this great void is\ndevoid of support, nor does it support anything whatever at any time.\n(This is chaos).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXXVII.\n\nCOSMOLOGY OF THE UNIVERSE.\n\n Argument:--Account of the Earth and the starry frame below the\n endless Vacuum, which envelops the Universe.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma said:--Please, tell me sir, how this globe of the earth is\nsituated, how and where the polar mountain stands upon it, and do the\nstars revolve about the same.\n\n2. Vasishtha replied:--As boys build their fancied castles in empty\nair, so is this world the creation of the imagination of the mind of\nBrahm\u00e1, and no more than this.\n\n3. As the dimsighted man sees the shadow of the moon, and other false\nsights before his eyes, so the creative Power--Brahm\u00e1 sees in the\nbeginning, the phantoms of the phenomenal world in the vacuity of its\nIntellect (like a shadow of the prototype in the Divine mind).\n\n4. As an imaginary city is situated in the mind, and is invisible to\nthe eye; so the notion of the world is posited in the intellect, and\nnot exhibited in actuality.\n\n5. Whenever there is the reflexion of anything whatever in the\nmind, and arising spontaneously of its own nature (from previous\nreminiscence); the same presents itself even then and in that state\nbefore the sight (as in a dream).\n\n6. As the dimsighted eye, sees false sights in the sky; so the deluded\nmind, sees the earth and the orbs of heaven (_i.e._ the heavenly\nbodies).\n\n7. As the current water flows on the surface of rivers, and there\nresides the latent fire underneath; so the notions of things presenting\nthemselves as dreams of the mind, are manifested as real ones before\nthe sight.\n\n8. Hence as thoughts and notions of things, occur and subside\ncontinually in the mind; so the earth and heavenly bodies, appear\nincessantly to revolve in their spheres (and the stars to rise and set\nin endless succession).\n\n9. The world is entirely inexistent, to dull and inanimate beings; it\nis visible to those that have the visual organs but utterly invisible\nto the blind, and altogether unknown to them that are born as such. It\nis imperceptible to the insensible, and perceptible only in the same\nmanner as it is presented in the mind. So it is in the power of the\nmind alone, to represent it in some form or other to one\u2019s self.\n\n10. It is thus according to the mental conception (of some\nastronomers), that the bodies of stars, are considered to be as large\nas the earth; and the unreal world (of spiritualist), is believed as a\nreal entity (by the materialist).\n\n11. The world has both light and darkness, owing to the presence or\nabsence of the sun; beyond which there is the great abyss of vacuity,\nwhich is a vast expanse of darkness, except where there is a glimpse of\nZodiacal light.\n\n12. The polar circle is called the polar mountain, from the\nprotuberance of the poles at both ends; it is termed also the Lok\u00e1loka\nor having a light and another dark side, owing to the course of the sun\ntowards or away from it. Its distance from the starry circle, derives\nit also of Zodiacal light.\n\n13. Beyond the polar circle, and afar from the sphere of the sky, there\nis the sphere of the starry frame, which revolves around them at a\ngreat distance on all the ten sides.\n\n14. This starry (zodiacal) belt, girds the firmament up and down, from\nthe heavens above to the infernal regions below, in the vast vacuity of\nspace; and extends to all sides.\n\n15. The starry sphere (or belt of the zodiac), turns round the polar\ncircle of the earth, and its nether regions, as it appears to our\nimagination, and not otherwise (as fixed and motionless).\n\n16. The sphere of zodiacal stars, is twice as distant from the poles,\nas those are distant from the middle of the earth; in the same manner\nas the covering crust of a ripe walnut is aloof from the sheath of its\nseeds.\n\n17. Thus the starry belt is settled at double the distance from the\npoles, as the polar circle is situated from the equator; and it turns\nall about the ten sides, as a _bel_ fruit whirls in the sky.\n\n18. The aspect of the world is according to the modality, in which it\nis situated in the imagination of Brahm\u00e1, and as it is reflected from\nits archetype in the Divine mind (or its consciousness of it).\n\n19. There is another sphere of the heavens, which is afar from the\nstarry frame, and twice in its extent than that; this is lighted by the\nzodiacal light and beyond it there reigns a thick darkness.\n\n20. At the end of this sphere, there is the great circle of the\nuniverse; having one half of it stretching above and one below, and\ncontaining the sky in the midst of them. (This is called the _Brahm\u00e1nda\nkharpara_, or the mundane sphere).\n\n21. It extends to millions of yojanas, and is compact with all its\ncontents; it is a mere work of imagination, and formed of vacuity in\nthe immensity of vacuum (which is the mind of God).\n\n22. The sphere of light turns on every side, of the great circle of\nvacuity, with all the lightsome bodies of the sun, moon and stars in\nits circumstance: there is no upside nor downward in it, but are all\nthe same herein.\n\n23. There is no actual ascending, descending nor standing, of any\nplanetary body therein; they are mere manifestations of the intellect,\nwhich exhibits these variations in the workings of the mind.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXXVIII.\n\nTHE VACUUM OF BRAHMA AND THE SIGHT OF THE WORLD THEREIN.\n\n Argument:--Vipaschita\u2019s wanderings beyond the sphere of the world\n and the regions of darkness.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma! I have told you all these by my personal perception of them, and\nnot by any guess-work of mine, because it is by means of their purely\nintelligent bodies, that yogis like ourselves have come to the clear\nsight of these things in nature, which are otherwise unknowable to the\nmaterial body or mind.\n\n2. Thus the world of which I have spoken, appears to us as in a dream,\nand not in any other aspect as it is viewed by others (As either an\nimaginary or solid material body).\n\n3. Now whether the world is viewed in the light of a dream or any\nother thing, it is of no matter to us; since it is the business of the\nlearned, to speak of its situation and what relates thereto (and not of\nits nature or essence).\n\n4. There are the two poles (merus) situated at the utmost extremities\nof the north and south of the world; and it is the business of the\nlearned, to enquire into the endless kinds of beings lying between them.\n\n5. These varieties are well known to the people of those particular\nparts; and not to us here, where they do not appear in their native\nbeauty.\n\n6. The two poles (as said before), standing at the farthest extremities\nof the globe, limit the earth with its seven continents and seas, and\nstretch no farther beyond them.\n\n7. Now hear, O R\u00e1ma, that the whole body of water on earth, is ten\ntimes as much, as the extent of the two continents (lit., valves),\nwhich are surrounded by it.\n\n8. The two continents attract the circumambient waters around them, as\nthe magnet attracts the needles about it; and the water (in its turn),\nupholds the continents (and islands), as the Kalpa tree supports the\nfruits upon it.\n\n9. All things on earth are supported by it, as the fruits of a tree are\nsupported by its stem; wherefore every thing on earth falls down on it,\nas fruits fall upon the ground.\n\n10. Far below the surface of the water, there is a latent heat\nunderneath, which is ever burning without any fuel, which is as still\nas air, and clear as the flame of fire.\n\n11. At the distance of ten times from it, there is the vast region\nof air; and as many times afar from that, there is the open space of\ntransparent vacuum.\n\n12. At a great distance from that, there is the infinite space of the\nvacuity of Divine spirit; which is neither dark nor bright, but is full\nof Divine Intelligence.\n\n13. This endless void of the supreme spirit, is without its beginning,\nmiddle or end; and is named as the universal soul, the great Intellect\nand perfect bliss (nirv\u00e1na or insouciance).\n\n14. Again there are myriads of orbs, in the distant parts of these\nspheres; that appear to and disappear from view by turns.\n\n15. But in reality, there nothing that either appears or\ndisappears, in the uniformly bright soul of Brahma; where every thing\ncontinues in the same manner, throughout all eternity.\n\n16. I have thus related to you, R\u00e1ma, all about the phenomenal worlds,\nthat are perceptible to us; hear me now to tell you, what became of\nVipaschit in the polar region.\n\n17. Being led by his former impressions and accustomed habit, he kept\nwandering about the top of the mountain (as he was wont to do before);\nbut fell down afterwards in the dark and dismal pit therein.\n\n18. He found himself lying as dead at that spot, when the birds of air,\nas big as mountain peaks, alighted upon his dead body, which they tore\nto pieces and devoured at last.\n\n19. But as he died on the holy mount, and had a spiritual body of\nhimself; he did not feel the pains and pangs which are inevitable upon\nthe loss of the material body, but retained his clear consciousness all\nalong.\n\n20. Yet as his self-consciousness, did not attain the transcendent\nperceptivity of his soul; he remembered the grossness of his past acts\nand deeds, and was sensible of them, as any living body.\n\n21. R\u00e1ma asked:--How is it possible sir, for the unembodied mind, to\nperform the outward actions of the body; and how can our spiritual\nconsciousness, have any kind of perception of any thing?\n\n22. Vasishtha replied:--As desire drives the home-keeping man from\nhis house, and as imagination leads the mind to many places and\nobjects, so the mind of this prince was led from place to place (as his\nreminiscence portrayed them before it).\n\n23. As the mind is moved or led by delusion, dream, imagination and\nby error or misapprehension and recital of stories, (to the belief of\nthings); so the mind of the prince was led to the credence (of whatever\nappeared before him).\n\n24. It is the spiritual or intellectual body (or the mind), which is\nsubject to these fallacies (and not the corporeal body); but the human\nmind, forgets in course of time, its spiritual nature; and thinks on\nits materiality (_i.e._ takes it for a material substance).\n\n25. But upon disappearance of these fallacies, in the manner of the\nmistaken notion of the snake in a rope; there appears the spiritual\nbody only, in lieu of the corporeal one.\n\n26. Consider well, O R\u00e1ma! that the spiritual body is the only real\nsubstantiality; because all that appears to exist here beside the\nintellect, is no existence at all (without the mind, which makes and\nunmakes them).\n\n27. As the mind of a man going from one place to another, passes on\nquietly over the intermediate places, and is quite unconscious of them;\nsuch is the case with the intellect, which passes to endless objects,\nwithout ever moving from its fulcrum, or changing itself to any other\nform.\n\n28. Say therefore, where is there a duality, and what object is there\ndeserving your amity or enmity, when all this totality is but one\ninfinite Deity, and known as the transcendent understanding.\n\n29. The transcendental understanding is that calm and quiet state of\nthe Intellect, which is without the workings of the mind; and though\nthe prince Vipaschit was settled in his spiritual body, he had not yet\nattained to that state of transcendentalism. (This is Platonism or\nmusing of the soul in itself).\n\n30. He being in want of this percipience, found his mind on the\nstretch; and with his spiritual body, he saw a dark gloom, as it\nappears to a foetus confined in the embryo.\n\n31. Amidst this gloom, he beheld mundane egg split in twain,\nand perceived the surface of the earth, situated in the lower valve\nthereof. It was a solid substance, as bright as gold, and extending to\nmillions of yojanas.\n\n32. At the end of this he saw the waters, eight times in extent to that\nof the land; and these in the form of crusts of the oceans, formed the\ntwo valves (continents) of the earth (_i.e._ the Eastern and Western\nhemispheres).\n\n33. After passing over this, he reached to the region of light, blazing\nwith the sun and stars; emitting flames of conflagration issuing from\nthe vault of heaven.\n\n34. Having passed that region of fire, without being burnt or hurt in\nhis spiritual body; he was led by his mind to another region, where he\nthought and felt himself to be borne aloft by the winds to his former\nhabitation.\n\n35. As he was carried in this manner, he felt himself to be of a\nspiritual body; for what is it beside the mind, that can lead any body\nfrom one place to another.\n\n36. With this conviction of himself, the patient prince passed over the\nregion of the winds; and got at last to the sphere of vacuum, which was\nten times in extent to that of the former.\n\n37. Passing over this, he found the infinite space of the vacuum\nof Brahma; wherein all was situated, and whence all had proceeded,\nwhich is nothing and yet something, of which nothing can be known or\npredicated.\n\n38. Moving along this empty air, he was carried far and farther onward\nin his aerial journey; until he thought in his mind, he could see from\nthere, all the other spheres of the earth and water, and of fire and\nair, which he had passed over before.\n\n39. There were again the formations of worlds, and repeated creations\nand dissolutions of them to be seen in it; and trains of gods and men,\nand those of hills and all other things; going on in endless succession\ntherein.\n\n40. There was a recurrence of the primary elements, and their assuming\nof substantial forms; and repetitions of creations, and reappearances\nof worlds and the sides of the compass.\n\n41. Thus the prince is still going on in his journey through the\ninfinite void of Brahman; and finds the succession of creations and\ntheir dissolutions in it to no end.\n\n42. He has no cessation from his wanderings, owing to his conviction\nand assuetude of thinking the reality of the world; nor does he get rid\nof his ignorance, which is from God also. (Man is created in ignorance,\nand barred from tasting the forbidden fruit of knowledge).\n\n43. Whatever you view in your waking, or see in your dream; is the\nperspicacity of the Divine soul, and ever displays these sights in\nitself.\n\n44. This world is an apparition of our ignorance, like the spectres\nthat are seen amidst deep darkness; but know that it is the transparent\nintellect of God which represents it so, and will ever do the same.\n\n45. And as the dark sight of the gross world, as well as the clear\nlight of its transparency, do both of them proceed alike from the\nselfsame mind of God; it is impossible to conceive, whether it is the\none or the other, or both alike.\n\n46. Hence, O R\u00e1ma, this prince being uncertain of the transparency of\nthe Divine spirit has been wandering for ever more, in the dark maze\nof his preconceived worlds; as a stray deer, roves amidst the tangled\nwilderness.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXXIX.\n\nVIPASCHIT\u2019S BECOMING A STAG.\n\n Argument:--The fates of the four Vipaschitas, and the\n transformation of one to a stag.\n\n\nI have heard of the liberation of two Vipaschitas, by grace of Vishnu;\nand want now to know what became of the two brothers, that have \nwandering all about.\n\n2. Vasishtha replied:--One of these two, learnt by long habit to subdue\nhis desires, and by his wandering in many islands, had at last settled\nin one of them, and obtained his rest in God.\n\n3. Having relinquished the sight, of the outward livery of the world,\nhe saw millions of orbs rolling in the vacuity and is still enrapt with\nthe view.\n\n4. The second one (or other) of them, was released from his personal\nwanderings, by his continuance in the contiguity of the moon, where\nhis constant association with the stag-like mark on the disc of that\nluminary, changed his form to that of that animal, which he still\nretains in his situation upon a hill.\n\n5. R\u00e1ma asked:--How is it sir, that the four persons of Vipaschit,\nhaving but one mind, and the same desire and aim in view, could differ\nso much in their acts, that brought upon them such different results of\ngood and evil?\n\n6. Vasishtha replied:--The habitual desire of a person, becomes varied\naccording to the various states of his life, in course of time and in\ndifferent places; it becomes weaker and stronger in degree, though it\nis never changed in its nature.\n\n7. It is according to circumstances that the selfsame desire or object\nof a person, is modified in different forms; and whatever of these is\ngreater in its intensity, the very same takes the precedence of others,\nand comes to pass in a short time.\n\n8. In this divided state of their desires, the four persons of the\nprince, arrived to four different states in their modes in life; so\nthat two of them were immerged in their ignorance, the third became a\ndeer, and the last gained his liberation at last.\n\n9. The two former have not yet arrived at the end of their nescience,\nbut have been grovelling in darkness by their blindness to the light of\ntruth; which can hardly dispel the darkness, that is continually spread\nby ignorance.\n\n10. It is only the light of philosophy, that is able to drive the\ngloom of ignorance; which however deep rooted it is, then flies at a\ndistance, as the shade of night is dispersed before the light of day.\n\n11. Attend now to what this Vipaschit did in the other world, where he\nwas cast on the coast of gold, across the far distant ocean of sweet\nwaters, and which he mistook for the habitable earth.\n\n12. Beyond this he beheld an orb in the vacuity of Brahm\u00e1, which was as\nhe thought the vacuum of the great Brahma himself.\n\n13. Here he was led by his excellent virtues, amidst the society of the\nlearned; and learning from them the visible world in its true light, he\nwas amalgamated into the state of Brahma himself.\n\n14. No sooner had he arrived at that state, than his ignorance and his\nbody disappeared from him, as the sea in the mirage vanishes before the\ncloser view, and as falsehood flies before truth.\n\n15. Thus I have related to you all the acts of Vipaschit, and about the\neternity of ignorance as that of Brahma, because it is coeval with him\n(because the positive idea of knowledge, is always blended with that of\nits counterpart or the negative idea of ignorance).\n\n16. See the millions of years, that have been passing in eternity, but\nthe mind by its nature, is quite unmindful of their course and number.\n(So also is the idea of eternity, of which we have no definite idea).\n\n17. As the knowledge of horses is said to be false, when known, so the\nknowledge of the world (as a separate existence) is a falsity, but\nbeing truly known, it is found to be Brahma himself. (?)\n\n18. There is no difference of _avidy\u00e1_ or ignorance, from the essence\nof Brahma; because the one subsists in the other; for Brahma is the\nperfect Intellect himself that shows the difference in the modes of\nintellection. (All differences are displayed in the Divine Mind).\n\n19. Another Vipaschit, that was wandering all about in the universal\nsphere, could not come to the end of his ignorance (avidy\u00e1), in his\ncourse of a millennium.\n\n20. R\u00e1ma said:--How was it, sir, that he could not reach to the utmost\npole of the universe, nor could he pierce its vault to get out of it?\nPlease explain this fully to me, which you have not yet done.\n\n21. Vasishtha replied:--When Brahma was born at first in mundane egg,\nhe broke the shell with both his hands, into the upper and lower halves.\n\n22. Hence the upper valve of the shell, rose too far upwards from the\nlower half; and so the lower valve, descended as far below the upper\npart.\n\n23. Then there are the circles of earth, water and air, which are\nsupported upon these valves; while these two serve as bases for the\nsupport of other spheres.\n\n24. In the midst of these there is the vacuous sky, which is infinite\nin its extent, and which appears unto us, as the blue vault of heaven.\n\n25. It is not bounded by the circles of earth and water, but is a pure\nvoid, and basis of all other spheres that rest upon it.\n\n26. He passed by that way into the infinite void, as the circles of the\nstarry frame revolve amidst the same; in order to examine the extent of\nignorance and to obtain his release from it, as he was taught to find.\n\n27. But this _avidy\u00e1_ or ignorance being coalescent with Brahma, is as\ninfinite as the Deity himself; and there she is as unknowable as God,\nas yet nobody has been able to know her nature. (God and Nature are\nboth unknowable).\n\n28. Vipaschit continuing to mount afar and higher in the heavens, found\nthe nature of _avidy\u00e1_ or ignorance to be coextensive with the extent\nof the worlds, through which he traversed on high.\n\n29. Now see how one of these persons was liberated, and another\ngrazing about as a stag; see the other two fast bound to their former\nimpressions, and constrained to rove about the worlds, which they took\nfor realities in their ignorance.\n\n30. R\u00e1ma said:--Tell me kindly, O sage, where and how far and in what\nsorts of worlds, have these Vipaschitas been still roaming, with\ngetting their intermission.\n\n31. At what distance are those worlds, where they are born over and\nover again; all this is very strange to me, as they have been related\nby you.\n\n32. Vasishtha said:--The worlds to which the two Vipaschitas are\ncarried, and where they have been roving; are quite invisible to me,\nnotwithstanding all my endeavours to look into them. (It is the _terra\nincognita_).\n\n33. So the place where the third Vipaschit is roving as a deer, is also\nin a land which is known to nobody on earth.\n\n34. R\u00e1ma said: you have sir, that the Vipaschit who is\ntransformed to a deer, has been roving on a hill; tell me therefore, o\nmost intelligent seer, where is that hill situated, and how far is it\nfrom here.\n\n35. Vasishtha answered:--Hear me tell you, how far off is that world\nfrom here, where Vipaschit has entered after passing through the vast\nvacuity of the supreme spirit; and has been wandering there in his form\nof a deer.\n\n36. Know it to be somewhere amidst these three worlds, where he has\nbeen roving as a stray deer; because this is the vast vacuity of the\nDivine spirit; in which all these worlds are interspersed at great\ndistances from one another.\n\n37. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--How is it consistent, sir, to say with good reason,\nthat Vipaschit was born and dead in this world, and is still roving\nas a deer in it? (Why did he wander about in infinity, if he were to\nremain a finite being herein? gloss).\n\n38. Vasishtha replied:--As the whole must well know all the parts\nof which it is composed, so do I know every thing every where, which\nis situated in the all comprehensive soul of God, whereto I have\nassimilated myself. (Vasishtha means to say, that he knew all in his\n_sv\u00e1nubhava_ or all knowing mind. Gloss).\n\n39. I know the absent (_i.e._ all things past and future), and all that\nis destroyed, as well as all forms of things whether small or great,\nare all interwoven together and exhibited before me, as if they were\nthe production of this earth of ours.\n\n40. Hence all that I have told you, O R\u00e1ma, regarding the adventures of\nthe prince, was the work of his fancy, and took place in some part of\nthis world, where he lived and died.\n\n41. The Vipaschitas all wandered about the other worlds in empty air,\nand all this was the work of their imagination, which is unrestricted\nin its flight through boundless space.\n\n42. One of these has happened to be born here as a deer, and it is in\nthe dale of a mountain, somewhere upon this earth. (It is believed that\nall mortal souls transmigrate to this again, after their wanderings are\nover in other spheres).\n\n43. The place where the prince is reborn in his form of a stag, after\nall his wanderings in other spheres were over; is in this orb of earth,\nwhere he is placed on a certain spot by an act of unaccountable chance\n(k\u00e1ka t\u00e1liya).\n\n44. R\u00e1ma said:--If it is so, then tell me sir, in what region of this\nearth, on what hill and in what forest of it, is this stag placed at\npresent.\n\n45. What is he doing now, and how does he nibble the grass in the\nverdant plain; and how long will it be, before that veteran seer may\ncome to the remembrance of his former state and past actions.\n\n46. Vasishtha replied:--It is the same stag, which has been presented\nto you by the ruler of the province of Trigarta; and is kept close in\nyour pleasure garden for your sport.\n\n47. V\u00e1lm\u00edki said:--R\u00e1ma was quite surprised with all the people sitting\nat the court, upon hearing the sage say so; and ordered his attendant\nlads in the hall to bring it forthwith before his presence there.\n\n48. Then the brute stag was brought and placed before the open court,\nwhen the court-people found it plump and fat, and quite tame and\ngentle. (Lit.: content with its own state).\n\n49. Its body was spotted all over, as with the stars of heaven; and its\neyes were as outstretched as the petals of lotus flowers, and by far\nmore handsome than the eyes of beauteous damsels.\n\n50. It looked with its timorous glances, on the blue sapphires which\ndecorated the court; ran to bite them with its open month, thinking\nthem to be blades of grass.\n\n51. Then as it gazed at the assemblage, with its raised neck, uplifted\nears and staring eyes through fear; so they raised their heads, pricked\nup their ears, and looked upon the animal with their open eyes, for\nfear of its leaping and jumping upon them.\n\n52. At last the king with all his ministers and courtiers, were all\namazed at the sight of the animal, and thought it was all a magic,\nwhich they saw before them.\n\n53. The wondering eyes of the assembled people, and the shining gems on\nthe persons of the princes, made the court hall appear, as if it were\nstudded with full blown lotuses all around. (The simile of blooming\neyes and blossoming lotuses, is common in all Indian poetry).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXXX.\n\nENTERING OF THE STAG INTO THE FIRE.\n\n Argument:--The stag burnt in the meditation of Vasishtha, and\n turned in its former figure of the Prince.\n\n\nV\u00e1lm\u00edki related:--R\u00e1ma then asked Vasishtha, to tell him by what means\nVipaschit was released from his brutish shape and restored to his human\nform again.\n\n2. Vasishtha said:--The way by which a person has had his rise, is the\nonly means that conduces to his success, welfare and happiness in life\n(and a departure from this course, brings on his ruin).\n\n3. Vipaschit had been a worshipper, and it is by his re-entrance into\nthe refuge of that deity only; that his changed form of the stag, may\nbe altered and restored to its former figure, of bright and unalloyed\ngold.\n\n4. I will now try the means of his restoration in your presence, as you\nmay all witness it with your open eyes; and this stag will of itself\nenter into the fire before your sight.\n\n5. V\u00e1lm\u00edki related:--Saying so, the benevolent sage, touched his water\npot with his hand, and muttered his mantras upon it in the proper form\n(_i.e._ with fixed attention).\n\n6. He thought intently upon the god of fire, with his flashing flames\nall around him; and immediately there sprang a blaze of fire, upon his\nreflection on it (in the midst of the royal hall).\n\n7. This was a pure flame, kindled without any coal or fuel, and burning\nwith a rumbling noise, without emitting any smoke or soot or sloe.\n\n8. Brighter and brighter it burnt in its beauty, and shone as a dome\nof gold, by shedding a golden lustre all about; it was as flushing as\nthe blushing _kinsuka_ blossom, and as glowing as the evening clouds of\nheaven.\n\n9. The assembled hosts receded backward, upon beholding the spreading\nflame; but the stag flushed with the fervour of its former faith, on\nseeing its adored deity manifest before its sight.\n\n10. As it looked on the fire with its ardent desire, he got rid of his\nsins, as if they were burnt away by its flames; and then advancing\nslowly towards it, he jumped at once amidst the blaze, as a lion\nsprings aloft on his prey.\n\n11. At this moment, the Muni moved his mind to meditation, and found\nthe sins of the prince were burnt away from his soul; and then\naddressed the god, saying:--\n\n12. O lord, that bearest the sacrificial butter to the celestials,\nrecall to thy mind the past acts of the prince, in his faith to thee;\nand kindly restore him, to his former handsome figure again.\n\n13. As the sage was praying in this manner, he saw the stag to be\nreleased from the flame, and running towards the assembled princes,\nwith the velocity of an arrow flying towards its butt end or mark.\n\n14. Having entered into the burning fire, he appeared as a flaming\nbody, and was seen by the assembly to be of a form, as bright as the\nappearance of an evening cloud.\n\n15. Thus the stag was changed to the form of a man, before the sight\nof the assembled princes; as a spot of cloud is seen to assume another\nfigure in the face of the bright vault of heaven.\n\n16. It was seen amidst the flame, to assume a figure as that of pure\ngold; which afterwards took the form of a man, of handsome shape and\nappearance. (So the funeral fire purifies the soul of its impurities,\nand gives it a brighter form afterwards).\n\n17. He appeared as the orb of the sun, or as the disc of the moon in\nthe sky; or as the god Varuna in the waters of the deep, or as the\nevening cloud or rising moon.\n\n18. There was the reflexion of the sun in the pupils of his eyes, as\nit was reflected on the surface of water, or on a mirror or bright\ngem; and the fire of his faith, blazed serenely in the sockets of his\neyeballs.\n\n19. Shortly afterwards this blaze of light disappeared from the court,\nas the light of a lamp is blown away by the breath of wind; or as the\ntinges of evening clouds vanish in the sky under the shades of night.\n\n20. The man then stood as plainly in the hall, as the idol of a deity\nis seen to stand in a dilapidated temple (without its brightness); or\nas an actor is seen behind the scene (without his dress).\n\n21. He stood silent holding a rosary on his hand, and having his sacred\nthread, hanging down a chain of gold about his neck; he wore a robe of\npure white blanched by the fiery heat; and appeared as the bright moon,\nrising before the assembly.\n\n22. On seeing the brightness of his person and attire, the courtiers\nall and every one, cried out saying, \u201cO to the lustre\u201d; and because he\nwas as lustrous as day light, he was named, \u201cLustre\u201d by all.\n\n23. The courtiers also confirmed it by saying that, because he is as\nbright as brightness itself, let him be styled the \u201cbright or Bh\u00e1sa\u201d,\nthe name that he bore on him ever afterwards.\n\n24. He sat in the hall in his meditative mood, and remembered all the\nincidents of his past life and former body.\n\n25. The assembly was struck with wonder, and remained quite motionless\nand speechless and absorbed in thought; as Bh\u00e1sa was reflecting in his\nmind the adventures of his past life.\n\n26. Then the prince rose from his reverie after a short while, and\nadvanced towards the assembly, under his newly obtained title of Bh\u00e1sa\nor the light.\n\n27. He advanced at first towards Vasishtha, and saluted him with\ndelight; and then addressed him saying:--\u201cI bow down, sir, before thee,\nas the giver of my life and light of knowledge of myself.\u201d\n\n28. Vasishtha raised him by touching his head with his hand; and said:\n\u201cMay thy protracted ignorance, O prince, dissipate this day and for\never after\u201d.\n\n29. Victory to R\u00e1ma, said Bh\u00e1sa, and bowed down to Dasaratha; who\nrising a little from his seat, thus accosted him smilingly and said:--\n\n30. Dasaratha said:--You are welcome, O prince! be seated on this\nseat; you have wandered through many difficulties of the world, now\ntake your rest here.\n\n31. V\u00e1lm\u00edki related:--Thus accosted by the king, the prince now bearing\nthe name of Bh\u00e1sa, took his seat on a cushion, after making his\nsalutation, to the venerable sages Visv\u00e1mitra and others.\n\n32. Dasaratha exclaimed:--O the pains, that Vipaschit has so long\nundergone, under the thraldom of Ignorance; in the manner of a wild\nelephant, tied in fetters at his feet by ruthless huntsmen.\n\n33. O to what miseries is man exposed, owing to his want of precise\nunderstanding, and by his false knowledge of the reality of these\nworlds, that are seen to be revolving in empty shape.\n\n34. How wondrous are these worlds, so extensive and so remote, which\nVipaschit has traversed out, and how incredible are the pains, through\nwhich he has passed so long.\n\n35. O how wonderful is the nature and glory, of the inane Intellect\nof the vacuous spirit of the Supreme, that exhibits in empty air, the\nblank thoughts of his all comprehensive mind, as sole and substantial\nones (to the apprehension of ignorant mortals).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXXXI.\n\nBH\u00c1SA\u2019S ACCOUNT OF THE WORLDS AND HIS JOURNEYS THROUGHOUT.\n\n Argument:--There is no substantive world, separate from the\n thoughts in the Eternal mind.\n\n\nDasaratha said:--I understand that Vipaschit has acted unwisely, in\ntaking so much pains in his wanderings for a knowledge of the spheres;\nbecause it is all in vain to inquire into unrealities and useless\nmatters, and it was his ignorance or _avidy\u00e1_ alone, that led him to\nthe search.\n\n2. V\u00e1lm\u00edki related:--At this moment the sage Visw\u00e1mitra, who was\nsitting beside the king; oped his mouth and said on the subject now\nunder consideration.\n\n3. Visw\u00e1mitra said:--O king, there are many such men, who without a\ngood understanding, and for want of best knowledge; are apt to think\nthat all things are possible to be known by them.\n\n4. Hence it is that the sons of king Vatadh\u00e1na, have been wandering in\nthis manner, and for very many years, in search of true knowledge, all\nover this earth, and without ever being able to arrive at it.\n\n5. It is for exploring the limits of this earth, that they have been\nemployed with ceaseless toil and unwearied labour, as a river runs in\nits incessant course for ever.\n\n6. This great world (the earth), is situated as an orb in the air,\nlike an imaginary tree of boys growing in the sky, or as a toy ball of\nfanciful Brahm\u00e1, rolling about in empty air.\n\n7. As creeping emmets move about a sugar ball, without falling off from\nit; so do all living bodies move about their support of this earth,\nwhich is sustained in the empty air.\n\n8. Those that are situated on the lower surface of this globe, are\nmoving thereabouts as erectly, as those that are on its upper side\n(and though this earth is turning up and down yet no one sides away\nfrom it).\n\n9. The sun, moon and planets, together with the starry frame and\nthe heavenly stream (the milky way); are attracted to turn round it\nincessantly, without ever coming in contact with it.\n\n10. The sky girds and surrounds it on all sides, though the firmament\nappears to be above our heads, and the earth below our feet.\n\n11. The living beings below the earth, are both moving downward or\nflying upward, as the beasts and birds on the upper side of it; and the\nregion to which they fly is called the upper sky (whether it be in this\nor that side of it).\n\n12. There is on some part of this earth, a warrior race by name of\nVatadh\u00e1nas; and there were born three princes of this royal family, in\ndays of yore (and are said to be living still).\n\n13. They were firmly intent like Vipaschit, to know the limits of the\nvisible world; and set out in their journey to explore the same, with a\nfirm and unfailing resolution.\n\n14. They passed from the land to water, and the waters to other lands\nagain; and thus they passed many lives and ages, in their repeated\ninquiries with their resuscitated bodies in reiterated births (because\nthe steady pursuit of one, follows him in his successive births).\n\n15. Thus wandering for ever all about the earth, they like ants moving\non a sweet cake, found no end of it, nor reached to any other spot,\nbeyond the same even in their thought of another one.\n\n16. They are still turning around it in the air, like busy emmets about\na roll; and they are yet in the same search without being tired of it.\n(Alexander said, \u201cEarth is this thy end?\u201d but these princes found no\nend of it).\n\n17. Because whoever stands on any part of the globe, thinks it as the\nuppermost, and all other places on every side of it, to be lower than\nit; and so the antipodes below think themselves as upmost.\n\n18. They then said among themselves that, if they could not find the\nend of the earth all their toil, they must give up the pursuit and\nremove themselves elsewhere.\n\n19. So it is with this world, O king! which is no more than display of\nthe thoughts of Brahm\u00e1; it is a work or creation of the mind only, and\na delusion as that of a protracted dream.\n\n20. The mind is the Supreme Brahma, and Brahma is self-same with his\nvery mind; they are both of the form of the intellect, and there is no\n difference between them, than that of open air and the sky.\n\n21. The intellect operates in itself, like the running waters in\nwhirlpools; and as the eddies and their swelling bubbles, are no other\nthan the very water, so the operations of the mind, are modifications\nof the mind itself.\n\n22. The sky which is but vacuum, and was a void in the beginning; shows\nitself in the form of the world; which is neither created nor ever\ndestroyed.\n\n23. Whatever the intellect suggests (from its preconceptions and\npredilections); the mind (which is the active principle), obeys the\nsame and is inclined in the same way; and continues to view the outer\nworld, as it has ever existed in thought.\n\n24. The visible world is of the same form, and equally imperishable as\nthe intellectual; it is the eternal God that manifests himself in this\nmanner, which is otherwise nothing of itself.\n\n25. There is an atom of the divine Intellect, an infinity of minuter\natoms in the shape of ideas, just as there are innumerable stones\nin the body of a rock; they reside in the spirit of God, and are as\ntranslucent as the divine spirit.\n\n26. They abide in their own natures in the unexpanded spirit of God;\nbut they do not live independent of themselves, as there nothing\nthat is separate from the supreme spirit.\n\n27. Therefore this world is said to be the manifestation of the Divine\nMind; and this conclusion arrived at by the learned, by means of\ntheir logical consideration of the antecedent and subsequent (_i.e._\nby both their _a priori_ as well as _a posteriori_ arguments).\n\n28. It is strange therefore that the human soul, should sorrow for\nits degradation and think itself as a different thing, though it is\ninseparable from the one universal soul.\n\n29. Now let the so called prince Bh\u00e1sa, who is otherwise known as the\nmighty monarch Vipaschit by his former appellation; what other strange\nthings, he remembers to have seen, in all his wanderings through worlds.\n\n30. Bh\u00e1sa replied:--I have seen many sights, and wandered untired\nthrough many regions; and remember also to have felt various\nvicissitudes in my life.\n\n31. Hear O king, how much I have known and felt, in my course through\nremote regions in the spacious firmament on high; and know the joys and\ngriefs, which I have enjoyed and suffered, in my transmigrations in\ndifferent bodies and distant worlds, from a long long time out of mind.\n\n32. It was by favour of the god of fire, and by the good and bad turns\nof fate; that I have seen a great many scenes, in my course in various\nforms and lives, like the revolving waters in a whirlpool, with a calm\nand constant and resolute mind.\n\n33. Actuated by past reminiscence and misled by mistaken view of\nvisibles; I was impelled by my firm zeal to inquire into all worldly\nthings, in the different forms and changes of my body.\n\n34. I had been an arbour for a thousand years, having my senses\nundeveloped in me, and feeling the rigours of all climates and seasons\nwithin myself. I had no mind nor mental action, save those of drawing\nthe sap of the earth by my roots, and expanding myself into fruits and\nflowers.\n\n35. I had been a mountain stag for a hundred years, with my skin of\ngolden hue, and my ears as flat as leaves of trees; I fed on blades of\ngrass, was charmed with all kinds of music, and being the weakest of\nall animals of the forest, I could do no injury to any one.\n\n36. I lived for half a century as a _Sarabha_, a wild animal with\neight legs; I dwelt in the caves of Krancha mountain, and brought on\nmy death by falling down from a craig, in attempting to fight with the\nraining clouds on high. (The _Sarabha_ is a fabulous beast that dies by\njumping down the hill).\n\n37. I had also been born once as Vidy\u00e1dhara, and had lived upon the\ntable land of Malaya mountains, and amidst the happy bowers of Mandara,\nredolent with the sweet scent of sandal woods and kadamba flowers. Here\nI have breathed the sweet air perfumed by gum agallochum, and enjoyed\nthe company of Vidy\u00e1dhar\u00ed-fairies.\n\n38. I was born as a cygnet of the swan of Brahm\u00e1, and tasted the honey\nof aureate lotuses for more than a century, and sported on the banks of\nthe heavenly stream of Mandakin\u00ed, on the celestial mount of Meru.\n\n39. For a hundred years, I remained by the side of milky ocean,\nfeeling the cooling breezes wafting the moisture of its waves, and the\nfragrance of the forests and listening to the songs of the songsters of\nsprings, which join to vanish the infirmities and sorrows of life.\n\n40. I was once born as a jackal, in the woods of Kalenjara mountains,\nand roved about the blossoming _gunja_ and _karanja_ forests; here I\nwas trodden down by an elephant, and was about to expire, when I beheld\nthat elephant to be killed by a lion in his turn.\n\n41. I was at one time transformed to the form of a celestial nymph, and\naccursed by a siddha to dwell alone in some other sphere; where I lived\nfor the period of half a yuga upon the _sahya_ mountain, smiling with\nthe blooming blossoms of _santanaka_ arbours.\n\n42. I next lived as a Valmika bird of raven, in my nest amidst the\n_karav\u00edra_ plants, growing on the marshy grounds at the foot of a\nmountain; and there I passed my solitary life of a hundred years, with\na fearful breast and ceaseless scrambles on the dreary rocks.\n\n43. I saw afterwards a level plain somewhere, with shady bowers of\nsylvan creepers under the shade of _sandal_ trees; and beheld some\nfemales amusing there with swinging, like fruits on the branches of\ntrees, and to be ravished away by the passing siddhas.\n\n44. At another time, I passed my days as an anchorite, under the shade\nof Kadamba trees at the foot of a mountain; where I dwelt on the\nmeditation of the single object of my devotion, and thus foolishly met\nmy end with the pain of not meeting my object.\n\n45. I saw also this universe to be full of beings, which fill it as\nfishes people the ocean on every side; the air, sky and light, are all\ninhabited by beings, as well as this earth of ours.\n\n45. There is another wonder which fills this universe, as the shadow\nof the sky fills the ocean on all sides; it pervades in the air, water,\nsky and light, as well in all forms of things on earth. (This is the\nreflexion of Brahma in all creation, as that of the sky in water.\nGloss).\n\n46. I also another wonder in a woman, who contains the three\nworlds in her ample womb; and who is pictured with the forms of hills\nand all things, resembling their reflexions in a mirror.\n\n47. I asked her saying: O thou big bodied and big bellied one! tell me\nwho thou art; to which she replied and said:--know me sir, to be the\npure and clear Intellect, that contains all these worlds within herself.\n\n48. She added and said:--O sir, as you see me so wondrous in my form,\nso must you know all things in the world to be of the same kind; but\npeople who view them in their natural form find them otherwise, unless\nthey look into them in their spiritual light, when the gross forms\nvanish into nothing.\n\n49. These numberless beings on earth, are continually hearing, even\nwithout the directions of the Vedas and s\u00e1stras, a warning voice\narising from some part of their bodies, bidding them what is right or\nwrong for them to do. (This is called _an\u00e1hata dhwani_ or the voice of\nconscience).\n\n50. Nature reigns over all elements like _an\u00e1hata dhwani_. The elements\nappear immovable at sight, but in fact, they possess inherent mobile\nforces; no one can assign any cause over them except delusion or _m\u00e1y\u00e1_.\n\n51. I once went to a place, where there were no females to be found,\nnor had the people any desire for them; and yet many among the living\nthere were fastly passing away, and many others newly coming to\nexistence.\n\n52. I have seen the wonder of some portentous clouds in the sky,\ncharging against each other with a jarring noise; and pouring down\ntheir rains with fragments of things on all sides, which were picked up\nand used as weapons by men.\n\n53. I have another wonder somewhere that, these earthly cities\nand buildings, were passing in their aerial course, amidst a mist of\nthick darkness; and then vanishing in the air, returning to be your\nhabitations here below.\n\n54. Another wonder that I saw was, that all these men and gods and\nreptiles, having left their differences of species, came to be of one\nkind in common with all other beings. (All distinctions are lost in the\nend). Because all things proceed at first from vacuum, and to this they\nreturn at last.\n\n55. I also beheld a spot which was full of light, and shone forth\nbrightly without the lights of the sun, moon and stars. I remember well\nthat effulgent glory, before which there was darkness nor day\nand night, and nothing else in existence.\n\n56. I saw also a place never seen before, which was devoid of gods and\ndemons, men and animals of all kinds, it was without the vegetable\ncreation, and habitation of any kind of being; and a world where the\npresent and future, and all worlds are blended into eternity.\n\n57. In short, there is no place which I have not seen, nor any side\n(of the compass) where I have not been; there is no act or event\nwhich I have not known, and in a word there is nothing unknown to me,\nthat is unknown to the knower of all. (The soul that becomes one with\nOmniscient soul, becomes all-knowing like the same).\n\n58. I remember to have heard the jingling sound of the armlets of\nIndra, which resembled the noise of the rattling clouds on high; or\nlikened the jangling jar of the gems, which glistened on the peaks of\nthe Mandara mountain, in its trepidation of churning the milky ocean.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXXXII.\n\nBH\u00c1SA\u2019S RELATION OF THE TRANSMIGRATIONS OF HIS SOUL.\n\n Argument:--Bh\u00e1sa relates his repeated births, the wonders he has\n seen, and the vanity of the world.\n\n\nBh\u00e1sa continued:--It was once at the foot of the Mandara mountain,\nthat I dwelt as a siddha under the shady bower of Mand\u00e1ra trees; and\nhad been sleeping in the sweet embrace of an Apsara, Mandar\u00e1 by name;\nwhen it happened, that the current of a river bore us both away, as it\ncarries down a straw in its course.\n\n2. I supported my partner now floating on the water, and asked her to\ntell me how could it happen to be so; when she with her tremulous eyes\nanswered me thus, saying:--\n\n3. Here it occurs at the full moon, that this mountain which is sacred\nto the moon, gives rise to its outlets, which then rush out as rapidly,\nas ladies run to meet their consorts at the rising of the moon.\n\n4. It was owing to my rapture in your company, that I forgot to tell\nyou of this; saying so she lifted me up, and fled with me into the air,\nas a female bird mounts into the sky with her young.\n\n5. I was to the top of that mountain, where I remained seven years,\nwith my dried and unsoiled body, as a bee remains unsullied on the\npericarp of a lotus flower growing in the bed of the Ganges.\n\n6. I thence saw some other worlds beyond the starry circle, which were\nencircled by one another like the coatings of a plantain tree. They\nwere bright by their own light, and were peopled by luminous bodies.\n\n7. There were no distinctions of directions nor divisions of daytime\n(for want of the sun); there no s\u00e1stras or rules of conduct, nor\nvedas for religious guidance; there was no difference of the gods and\ndemigods, but the whole was bright with its own light.\n\n8. I was next born as a Vidy\u00e1dhara, and lived for twice seven years\nas an ascetic under the name of Amarasoma, dwelling in the grove\nof kadamba trees, at the foot of a cloud-capt mountain, which was\nfrequented by aerial cars of the celestials, for their pleasure, the\nsport and diversion.\n\n9. Then I was borne with the velocity of winds, afar amidst the\netherial regions on high; whence I beheld numberless elephants and\nhorses, lions and deer, and woods and forests filled with beasts and\nbirds, all moving along in the form of clouds beneath.\n\n10. It was thus with the force of the bird of heaven--Garuda, that I\nmounted up to heaven from earth, and passed through infinite space, by\nfavour of the god of fire, in order to see the extensive range of the\ndelusion of Avidy\u00e1 or Ignorance, which was displayed all around.\n\n10. It was thus by favour of the god of fire, and the fervour of\nmy desire to see the extensive range of the delusion of Avidy\u00e1 or\nIgnorance; that I mounted up to heaven from earth, with the force of\nthe bird of heaven--_Garuda_; and passed through the infinite space,\nthat was spread all around.\n\n11. I felt in myself to fall off once, away and afar from the solar\nworld; it seemed to be an etherial ocean inhabited by stars, amidst\nwhich I was situated as one, with the consciousness of my fall and\ncourse of time.\n\n12. With the only consciousness of my fall from the sky on high, I\nfelt in myself the sense of falling fast asleep from fatigue; and then\nin that state of sound sleep of my body, I thought I saw the sensible\nworld in my mind, as if it were in my waking state.\n\n13. I saw again the same world within the horizon, and the same\n_mand\u00e1ra_ mountain of the gods amidst it; whilst I had been fluttering\nin the midst of its abyss, as a bird sitting on a slender twig, is\nshaken and tossed about by the blowing wind.\n\n14. I saw with my eyes to the utmost extent of the sensible world, and\nagain and again I was led to the sight of the visibles, and enjoyment\nof the sensibles only (in the repeated transmigrations of my soul).\n\n15. Thus I passed a long series of years, in viewing the visible and\ninvisible objects (both of my waking and dreaming hours); as well as in\npassing through the passable and impassable paths (of this and other\nworlds).\n\n16. I could not find anywhere, the limit of this Avidy\u00e1 or Ignorance,\nwhich showed unto me the visibles only (in my waking and dreaming,\nand in this world and others). It is a fallacy that has taken the\npossession of our minds, as the apparition of a goblin takes a deep\nroot in the breasts of boys.\n\n17. This and this (_i.e._ the visible) are not realities, is the firm\nconviction of all in their right reasoning; and yet the false sight of\nthis and this as a reality, is never to be removed from any body.\n\n18. We find our pleasures and pains, occurring to us every moment,\nwith the changes of time and place; their course is as constant as the\ncurrents of rivers, which are ceaselessly succeeding one another.\n\n19. I remember to have seen a world, with all kinds of moving and\nunmoving beings in it; and a verdant mountain top in the midst,\nrustling with the blowing breeze, and shining of itself without the\nlight of the luminaries. (This is the pinnacle of the glory of God).\n\n20. This mountain peak is delightsome to solitary recluses, it is quite\nfree, alone and unlimited, and beyond all fear of change or decay. I\nhave never seen in this brightsome world, a glory which is comparable\nto this divine effulgence.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXXXIII.\n\nSTORY OF THE WONDERFUL CARCASS.\n\n Argument:--Description of a carcass falling from above, and\n covering the whole surface of the Earth.\n\n\nVipaschit said:--I saw another great wonder, in some part of some other\nworld, which I will now rehearse unto you; it was a horrible sight\nthat attends on sin, and which I had to see by my blind attachment to\nignorance.\n\n2. There is somewhere amidst the vast vacuum, a wonderfully bright\nsphere, which is quite impassable by you; it is situated in a vacuity\nlike this of ours, and so different from it, as a city in dream differs\nfrom one in sight. (Because the romantic view of the vision is not\nrealizable to ocular sight).\n\n3. As I saw rambling in that sphere, in search of the object that I\nhave in my heart, and looking to all sides of the void; I saw a huge\nand unmoving shadow, like that of a body of locusts spread over the\nearth.\n\n4. I saw astonished at the sight, and cast my eyes on all sides to see\nwhat it was; I came to find the mountainous form of a man, falling fast\nfrom the sky; and hurling down like a whirlpool upon the earth.\n\n5. Who can be this person? said I, is it the lord Vir\u00e1t with his\nmountainous body, or a mountain falling from the clouds? It fills the\nsky and the whole space of heaven, and hides the light of the day under\nits all developing shadow?\n\n6. As I saw pondering in me what might this portent mean; (as whether\nit was the figure of Vir\u00e1t or the form of Brahm\u00e1 himself); I saw soon\nafter, the bulky body of the sun falling down from heaven, it seemed\nto be hurled down by the hurricane of desolation and dashing with a\nhideous crash against the backbone or great belt of the mundane egg of\nBrahm\u00e1.\n\n7. Soon as this hideous and prodigious body, fell down upon the\nearth, it filled its whole surface, and covered the face of the seven\ncontinents and oceans.\n\n8. I dreaded my imminent destruction, together with that of whole earth\nunder its blow; and determined to enter into the ever burning fire by\nmy side.\n\n9. Then the lord fire--the source of vedas, and my adored divinity in\na hundred repeated births, appeared manifest before me in his cooling\nmoon-like form, and said, fear not, no evil will betide thee.\n\n10. I then addressed the god, saying: be victorious, O my lord and\nadored one in repeated births; save me from this untimely desolation,\nwhich is now impending on all.\n\n11. Thus invoked by me, the god responded again saying the same words:\n\u201cFear thou not, but rise, O sinless one, and follow me to my region of\nthe empyrean\u201d.\n\n12. Saying so, he made me sit on the back of his parrot, and flew with\nme up to heaven; by burning athwart a part of the falling body.\n\n13. Getting to the upper sky, I found the body as if it were made of\nwood, and it was this which struck so much terror below, as it is\nattended with the falling of a portent--a comet or meteor from above.\n\n14. Then as it felt down in full force, the earth shook beneath its\nweight, with all trembling waters and tottering mountains, and shaking\nwoods and forests. The mountains burst forth in cataracts, which\noverflowed on the land, and bored it to horrible holes.\n\n15. The earth groaned from her bowels, and the sky roared on all its\nfour sides; the heavens resounded to the roar, and mountains growled\nwith the fearful howling of all beings, as at the approach of their\nlast doom.\n\n16. The earth groaned under the burden, and all the quarters trembled\nwith fear; the vacuum was filled with the echo of cries rising from the\nearth, and the _Garuda_-eagles were on their flight through fear.\n\n17. There arose a harsh and hideous uproar on high, from the loud\nbursting of the mountains below; and like the crashing and clattering\nof the dark and dense clouds of deluge, when they are shattered and\nscattered, by the blasts of diluvian winds.\n\n18. The earth trembled and roared at the impetuous fall of the hideous\ncarcass, and the resounding sky re-bellowed to the sound from its\nhundred mouths; the mountains burst out on all sides, and their falling\nfragments and pinnacles, were hurried headlong, and buried underneath\nthe ground.\n\n19. Its fall was as the breaking down of a mountain pinnacle or\nfragment, smashing the tops of the lower hills, rending and splitting\nthe ground, and levelling all things on earth with the dust.\n\n20. It perturbed the waters of the deep, and hurled down the hills to\nthe ground; it crushed all living beings, and gave ample range to the\nsport of the agents of destruction (the Rudras).\n\n21. The falling of the sun upon the earth, and his hiding the face of\nthe continents under him; the crushing of mountains and the breaking\ndown of towering cities.\n\n22. The celestials saw all these from above this earth, which forms one\nhalf of the mundane egg, turning to a vacuum form; (_i.e._ vanishing\ninto the air).\n\n23. As I was looking on that mountainous body of flesh, (_i.e._ the\nhuge carcass); I observed that the ample space of all the seven\ncontinents of the earth was not enough to contain this single body.\n\n24. Seeing this, I applied to the good grace of the god of fire; and\nasked him saying, Lord what is this and what does it mean.\n\n25. Why did the sun also fall down from heaven, along with that corpse;\nand how is it that the space of the whole earth and all its oceans, has\nnot sufficient room to compass it?\n\n26. The God of fire replied:--Hold your patience, my son, for a while,\nuntil this portentous event passes away; when I will explain this\nmarvellous matter fully to you.\n\n27. Soon as the God had said these words, there flocked an assemblage\nof the celestials all around us; and it consisted of all kinds of\nbeings that are born and move about in the aerial regions.\n\n28. There were the siddhas, sadhyas, Apsaras, Daityas, Gandharvas and\nKinnaras among them; together with the Munis, Rishis, yakshas and\nPatres, Matres and the gods also with them.\n\n29. All these celestials then, bowed down their heads in veneration;\nand all joined with their prostrate bodies to praise the dark goddess\nof Night, who is the refuge and resort of all.\n\n30. The celestials said:--May that goddess protect us her prot\u00e9g\u00e9s, who\nis immaculate and incomparable, and has the grey braids of Brahm\u00e1\u2019s\nhairs, tied at the top of her _khattanga_ ensign, and the heads of the\nslain Daityas, strung to the neck-chain hanging on her breast; who\nwears the feathers of _Garuda_ on her head, and who after devouring the\nworld, drinks off the deep also at the end.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXXXIV.\n\nTHE STORY OF THE CARCASS CONTINUED.\n\n Argument:--Description of the body of the Goddess, and her food\n of the carcass, and drink of the blood.\n\n\nVipaschit continued:--All this time I was looking at the carcass, that\nhad fallen from above, and covered the whole surface of the earth under\nit.\n\n2. I distinguished that part of its body which was its belly, and\nhad hid in it the whole earth, with all its seven continents and\nimmeasurable mountain.\n\n3. I was then told by the god of fire, that there was no limitation of\nits arms and thighs, and of the extent of its head; and that it had\nfallen from beyond the polar region, which inaccessible to mankind.\n\n4. The Goddess who is so much lauded by the celestials, is the\nmanifestation of vacuum, which of itself becomes dry (_i.e._ is\nnaturally empty and void).\n\n5. She is represented as accompanied by ghosts and furies, as followed\nby demons and hobgoblins, which walk in her train, and shine as stars\nand meteors in the open firmament.\n\n6. Her long and muscular arms, are stretched to the skies as the tall\npines of the forest; and her eyeballs flash forth with living fire, and\nscatter the solar beams all around.\n\n7. The flashing weapons in her hands, were jangling in the sky; and her\nmissiles were darting like flocks of birds flying from their aerial\nnests.\n\n8. Her flaming body and flashing eyes and limbs, glistened with the\nglare of a bush of reeds set on fire, or as the sparkling of a flight\nof arrows in the midway air.\n\n9. Her glittering teeth, shed the lustre of the beaming moon, and\nbrightened the faces of the four quarters of heaven, with a milk white\nsplendour; while her tall slender stature, reached to and touched the\nsky.\n\n10. She stood supportless, like the stretching clouds of the evening\nsky; and was mounted on a dead body, as if she rested on the blessed\nseat of Brahm\u00e1. (_Brahma pada_ the throne of God, Elysium, Valhalla or\nNirv\u00e1na).\n\n11. She shone in her brilliant form, like the crimson clouds of\nevening; and added to the ocean of the etherial expanse, the burning\nblaze of submarine fire.\n\n12. She was flaunting in her decorations of human skeleton and bones,\nand flourishing her weapons of the mallet and others; and darting her\narrows all around, as a mountain scatters its flowers all about.\n\n13. She mounted aloft in the air, with her neckchain of human skulls,\nsounding with a harsh clattering noise; resembling the rattling of\nstones, falling down a mountain with the precipitate rains.\n\n14. The gods then prayed to her saying: O mother goddess! we make an\noffering of this carcass to thee; do thou join with thy adherents, and\nsoon take this corpse for your food, and make an end of it.\n\n15. Upon this prayer of the gods unto her, the goddess began to draw in\nwith her inhaling breath, the blood and pith of the carcass into her\nbowels and intestines.\n\n16. As the goddess was absorbing the dead blood, by her inhalation of\nit, the red fluid rushed into her wide open month, like the entrance\nof the evening clouds, into the cavity of the western mountain (of the\nsetting sun).\n\n17. The etherial goddess drank the blood, thus drawn in by her breath;\nas long as her lean skeleton-like frame, grew fat from her satiety, and\nshe stood confest in her form of Chandika.\n\n18. Being thus filled and fattened, by full draughts of the sanguineous\nbeverage; she had the appearance of a blood red cloud, with flashing\nlightenings shooting from her eyes.\n\n19. The pot bellied goddess, being then giddy with her bloody drink;\nbecame loose in her attire, began to flounce her ornaments, and\nflourish all her weapons in the empty air.\n\n20. She began to dance and toss about in the air, which was almost\nfilled by the bulk of her body; while the gods kept watching on her\nmovements, from their seats on the distant border or boundary mountains.\n\n21. Immediately upon this, the whole host of her female ghosts and\ngoblins, composed of Rupikas and others, flew upon the carcass, as the\nrainy clouds alight upon mountains.\n\n22. The mountainous carcass, was laid hold by the clutches of\nKumbhandas, and torn to a thousand pieces by them; while the Rupikas\nbored its belly, and the yakshas gored its back with their elephantine\ntusks.\n\n23. But they could not get or break its arms, shoulders and thighs;\nbecause these members of its body, stretched far beyond the limits of\nthe mundane or solar system.\n\n24. They could not therefore be reached unto by the ghosts, who are\nconfined within the limits of this world, and could not go beyond,\nwhere those parts were rotten away of themselves.\n\n25. As the goddess was dancing in the air, and her hobgoblins were\nprancing over the carcass; the celestials remained sitting on the\nmountain tops, and kept looking on this dreadful scene.\n\n26. The disgusting morsels of putrid flesh, and the stench of the\nrotten carcass filled the air and blood red clouds shrouding the scene,\nseemed as burning bushes, forming the fuel of the furnace (for roasting\nthe rancid meat).\n\n27. The chopping of the fetid flesh, raised a _sap-sap_ sound; (meaning\nthe sap of the carcass); and the breaking of its hard bones, sent forth\na _kat-kat_ noise (purporting to cut them to pieces).\n\n28. The concourse of the demons, caused a clashing sound; resounding as\nthe clashing occasional by the collision and concussion of rocks and\nmountains against one another.\n\n29. The goddess devoured her mouthfuls of flesh, roasted in the fire\nthat flashed forth from her mouth, and the offals and fragments that\nfell down from it, covered the earth below with filth; while the drops\nof blood that distilled from the draughts she had drank, reddened the\nether with tints of vermilion hue.\n\n30. The celestial spectators saw their premises, within the precincts\nof the visible horizon; and the surface of the continents of the earth,\nto present the sight of an universal ocean of blood.\n\n31. All the mountains on earth, were covered with blood, which\nreflected their redness to the cloud on high; which gave the appearance\nof a red mantling veil, spreading over the faces of the female regent\ndeities of all sides of heaven.\n\n32. The sky below blazed with the flash of the weapons, which\nbrandished in the hands of the goddess all around; and there was no\nvestige of any city or habitation to be seen on earth. (Lit.: they were\nlost to sight, but retained in memory: i.e. things absent from sight,\nare present in the mind).\n\n33. It was an incredible sight to see, that all the moving and unmoving\nobjects of nature should be engrossed and absorbed in the bodies of the\nghosts of insatiate death.\n\n34. The dancing demons were waving their arms in air, in a manner as\nif they weaving nets for catching the aerial birds; and were\nlifting and dropping them up and down, so as they seemed to measure the\nheight and depth of the firmament.\n\n35. They stretched out the entrails of their victims, from the earth\nbelow to the solar circle above; and appeared to measure the distance\nwith lines and cords.\n\n36. The gods seeing the earth thus endangered by the portentous carcase\nand its surface converted to an extensive sheet or ocean of blood.\n\n37. They felt themselves dismayed and distressed, from their seat above\nthe polar mountain; and beyond the boundary of the seven continents,\nwhere the stench of the putrid carcass could not stink into their\nnostrils.\n\n38. R\u00e1ma asked:--How is it sir, that the stench of the carcass could\nnot infect the gods, in their seats on the polar mountain; when the\nfallen dead body is said to extend even beyond the limits of the\nmundane system?\n\n39. Vasishtha replied:--It is true, O R\u00e1ma, that the dead body\nstretched beyond the limits of the mundane sphere; but its belly lay\nwithin the boundaries of seven continents, and that its head and thighs\nand its head and feet were without it.\n\n40. But from its breasts and the two sides and its loins and waist,\nwhich lay out of this sphere, one could have a clear view of the polar\ncircle, as well as that of its mountainous top.\n\n41. Sitting in those parts and places, the gods could well behold the\npinnacles of the mountain; which were surely bright to sight, and as\nwhite as the rainless clouds of the skies (_i.e._ white as fleecy\nclouds).\n\n42. Then the maters of furies of heaven, kept on dancing on the wide\nspread dead body; while the hosts of ghosts were devouring its flesh,\nas the corpse lay its face turned downwards (_i.e._ upside down or\ntopsy turvy).\n\n43. Seeing now the streams of reddish blood running around and the\nputrid stink of rotten body spreading on all sides; the gods all felt\nsorrowful at heart, and grieved among themselves with exclaiming (as\nfollows).\n\n44. Ah alas! whither hath that earth disappeared, with all the bodies\nof waters upon her; where are those multitudes of men fled from it, and\nwhere are the mountains swept away from its surface.\n\n45. Alas for those forest of sandal, _mandara_ and _kadamba_ woods\nwhich had so ornamented the earth! and woe for the flower gardens, and\nthe happy groves of Malaya mountains!\n\n46. Where are those uplands of the lofty and gigantic snowy mountains\nof Him\u00e1laya which appear now to be reduced to lurid clay, by ire of the\nredhot blood, of the bloody ghost of the carcass.\n\n47. Even the gigantic Kalpa trees, that grew below the Krauncha\nmountains, in the continent of the Krauncha dw\u00edpa; and which had spread\nits branches up to the Brahma-loka, are now reduced to dirt.\n\n48. O thou lordly milky ocean! where art thou now, that hast produced\nthe moon and the goddess Laxm\u00ed from thy bosom; and that didst yield the\np\u00e1rijata flower and the celestial ambrosia of the gods of yore.\n\n49. O thou ocean of cards! what has become of thee, that was full with\nthy waving forest of billows; which rose as high as mountains, and\nbore about sweet butter with their foaming froth.\n\n50. O thou mellifluous sea of honey, which was bordered by mountains\nstudded by cocoa-nut trees; whose fruits afforded sweet liquor for the\nbeverage of goddesses, where hast thou and they fled at present.\n\n51. O Krauncha dw\u00edpa! that didst abound in Kalpa arbour which were\ninseparably clasped by the twining ivy of golden hue; say where art\n hid with thy towering Krauncha mountain.\n\n52. O Puskara dw\u00edpa! where art thou now with thy limpid fountains,\nwhich were ever decked with beds of lotus bushes, sported upon by the\nsilvery swans of Brahm\u00e1?\n\n53. O where are thy Kadamba groves gone, with their outstretched\nbranches on all sides; and whose sheltered coverts were frequented by\naerial nymphs, for their secluded amusements.\n\n54. O where is the _Gomedha_ dw\u00edpa gone with its springs of sweet\nwaters, and the flowery gardens about its holy places? And where \nthose vales and dales, which were beautified by Kalpa trees and their\ngolden creepers?\n\n55. Ah! where is the Saka dw\u00edpa with its forests of heavenly and ever\nverdant arbours, the very remembrance of whose fair spectacles, raises\nin the minds the sense of holiness and the sensations of heavenly bliss.\n\n56. Ah! where are those tender plants, which waved their leaves at\nthe gentle breeze; and where are those blooming flowers, which had\nbrightened the scene all around.\n\n57. The devastation of all these beauties of the landscape, fills our\nmind with pity and grief; and we know not how much more piteous and\npainful must it be to the majority of mankind.\n\n58. Ah! when shall we see again, the sugar-cane field beside the sea of\nsaccharine waters; and the hardened sugar candy on the dry lands about;\nwhen shall we see the sweetmeats made of molasses and confectionary\ndolls of sugar.\n\n59. When shall we see again, sitting on our golden seats on Mount Meru\nthe merry dance of the beauteous Apsaras daubed with sandal paste\nin their arbours of t\u00e1la and tam\u00e1la trees; and wafted by the cooling\nbreeze of Kadamba and Kalpa trees on sylvan mountains?\n\n60. Ah! we remember the memorable Jambuvat\u00ed river, which flows with the\nsweet juice of jambu fruits, and passes through the Jambudw\u00edpa to its\nboundary ocean (_i.e._ the Indian ocean in the south).\n\n61. I oft remember said one, the giddy song and dance of celestial\nnymphs, in the thick and shady groves of _sailendra_-trees, and in the\ncoverts of mountains beside the heavenly stream; and it rends my heart\nlike the lotus flower, as it opens its petals in the morning.\n\n62. Another one said:--Look at this ocean of blood, sparkling like the\nmelted gold on the top of the golden mountain of Meru; and brightening\nthe beams of the rising and setting sun, or as the moon-beams spread\nover the face of all sides of heaven.\n\n63. Alas! we know not where the earth is gone, with all her\ncircumambient oceans about the continents; nor do we know where that\nhigh hill of Him\u00e1laya has fled, which was the resort of many rainy\nclouds, and yielded the lotus flowers on its summit.\n\n64. We know neither where those rivers, forests and groves have gone,\nwhich decorated the earth before; and pity for the cities and villages\nand their people, that are now to be seen no more.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXXXV.\n\nDISAPPEARANCE OF THE CARCASS, AND THE REAPPEARANCE OF THE EARTH.\n\n Argument:--The corpse was eaten up by the ghosts, and its blood\n sucked up by the goddess.\n\n\nVasishtha resumed and said:--After the corpse had been partly devoured\nby the demons, the gods who had been sitting on the polar mount, with\nV\u00e1sava or Indra at their head spoke to one another in the following\nmanner.\n\n2. Lo! the voracious goblins have not yet wholly devoured the corpse;\nbut flung its fat and flesh into the air to prove the paths of vehicles\nof Vidy\u00e1dharas; and these being wafted away and scattered about by the\nwinds, appear as huge masses of clouds overspreading the skies.\n\n3. See them also throwing away the relics of their food and drink, over\nthe seven continents and oceans of the earth, and making it again to\nreappear to view (in the forms of its mud and waters).\n\n4. Alas! that the once delightsome earth, is now polluted by the impure\ncarrion and blood; and covered under the garniture of its forests, as\nthe sky is over shadowed by clouds.\n\n5. The big bones of its bulky body, form the mountains of this earth;\nand what is this high Him\u00e1laya, but the huge back bone of \ngigantic skeleton.\n\n6. Vasishtha said:--As the gods were speaking in this manner, the\ndemons were employed in the meantime to construct the earth anew with\nthe materials of the carcass, after which they flew in the air, and\nkept on dancing and flouncing there.\n\n7. As the ghosts were disporting in their giddy dance in the air, the\ngod commanded the liquid portion of the dead body, to be collected\ntogether in one great basin of the ocean the abodes of whales and\nsharks.\n\n8. And as this ocean was from the pleasure (_gaudium_) of the gods, it\nis thenceforth styled the ocean of wine (or merriment of the deities;\nin distinctions from the oceans of milk and other beverages).\n\n9. The demons having done their dancing in the pandemonium in air, come\ndown to drink their full draughts of that Stygian pool; after which\nthey repair to their aerial abysm to dance again.\n\n10. The demoniac orgies are still wont, to indulge themselves in\ndrinking of that bloody pool; and to dance in their airy circles, in\ncompany with their co-partners. (It refers to strong drink and drunken\nsots).\n\n11. And because the earth was besmeared, with the fat and flesh\n(_medhas_) of the corpse, it is thenceforward termed the _medin\u00ed_ or\ncorpus. (The earth is said to have been formed of the flesh of the dead\nbody of the demon Madhu, killed by Hari in the beginning of creation).\n\n12. At last disappearance of the dead body of the demon, there\nappeared again the succession of day and night; and the lord of\ncreatures having formed all things anew, restored the earth to its\nformer shape. (This is event of the war between the gods and titans of\nyore).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXXXVI.\n\nSTORY OF THE GNAT AND HUNTER.\n\n Argument:--Explication of the story of the carcass, and the\n Narrative of Asura and others.\n\n\nBh\u00e1sa said:--Hear now, O lord of the earth, what I then said to the\ngod of fire, from my seat under the wing of his riding parrot, and the\nanswer which the god made to my query.\n\n2. I said, O lord, of the sacrificial fire and sacrifice, deign to\nexplain unto me the mystery of the carcass, and the accompanying events\n(of the goddess and her demons).\n\n3. The god fire replied:--Attend, O prince, and I will tell you\nall of what has happened; and relate to you all about the carcass, as\nit is well known in all the three worlds (_i.e._ in the traditions of\nall people).\n\n4. Know there is an eternal formless and transcendent Intellect, in the\nform of the boundless and formless vacuity; wherein there are countless\nworlds, subsisting as minute atoms in endless space.\n\n5. This intellectual void, which contains all and every thing in\nitself; happened of its own spontaneity, to be conscious of its\ncontents in course of time.\n\n6. I conceived by its innate knowledge, the abstract idea of igneous\nparticles of in itself, just as you find yourself to be in the state of\ntravelling in your dream; by thinking yourself as such in the state of\nyour waking. (One dreams whatever he thinks in himself).\n\n7. It was thus that the Divine Intellect saw the particles of fire, as\nin the unconscious state of its dream; and as one sees the lotus dust\n(for any thing,) before him in his imagination.\n\n8. Then as this Intellect reflected on the expansion of these\nparticles, it became itself assimilated with them; and evolved itself\nin the thought in the shape of powers and organs of sense, in those\nparticles of its body.\n\n9. It then beheld the sensible organs, as receptacles of their\nparticular faculties; and saw the world with all its beings, appearing\nbefore it as in its dream; and as we see a city in our dreaming state.\n\n10. There was one among the living by name of Asura, who became haughty\nand proud of his dignity, he was vain and addicted to vanities, and had\nno parents nor forefathers of his own.\n\n11. Being elated with giddiness, he entered once into the holy\nhermitage of a sage, and destroyed and defiled the sacred asylum in his\nrage.\n\n12. The sage denounced his curse upon him and said \u201cwhereas thou hast\ndemolished my abode with thy gigantic figure, be thou now be born as a\ncontemptible gnat, by thy immediate death under my curse.\u201d\n\n13. The burning fire created by the rage of the sage, burnt down the\nAsura to ashes, even at that moment and on the very spot, as the wild\nfire consumes the woods, and as the submarine fire dries up a channel.\n\n14. Then the Asura became as air, without his form and its supporting\nbody; and his heart and mind became as insensible as in a swoon.\n\n15. His sensibilities fled from him, and became mixed with the etherial\nair; and were hurled up and down thereabouts, by the course of the\nflying winds.\n\n16. They existed in the form of the intelligent and airy soul, which\nwas to be the living soul in connection with the body; composed of\nparticles of the undivided elements, of earth, fire, water and air (or\nthe air in motion as distinguished from the vacuous air).\n\n17. The quintessence of five elements being joined with a particle of\nthe intellect, begets a motion of their own accord as the vacuity of\nthe sky, produces the wind by its breath and of its own nature.\n\n18. At last the particle of intellect, is awakened in the airy soul; as\nthe seed developes its germs in connection with the earth, water and\nair, and in course of time.\n\n19. The understanding (or intellectual part) of the Asura, being fully\noccupied with the thought of the sage\u2019s curse and that of its having\nthe nature of a gnat; brooded over the reflection of the parts of its\nbody, and became the very gnat in its shape.\n\n20. This puny insect which is born by daylight in dirt, and is blown\naway by the breath of wind, is the short-lived ephemeral of a day.\n\n21. R\u00e1ma asked:--How can living animals be born from other sources\n(as dirt &c.), if they are but the creatures of our dream as you said\nbefore? So please to tell me, whether they have really their birth; or\nbe anything otherwise.\n\n22. Vasishtha replied:--Know R\u00e1ma, all living beings from the great\nBrahm\u00e1 to the animalcule and vegetable below, have two kinds of birth;\nthe one is that they are all full of Brahma, and the other that they\nare the creatures of our errors.\n\n23. The false but rooted knowledge of the previous existence of the\nworld, and of all creatures besides, leads to the belief of the\nregeneration of beings from the reminiscence of the past; and this\ncalled the erroneous conceptions of births in the visible world.\n\n24. The other is the viewing of the representation of Brahma, in all\nthings appearing to exist in this non-existent and unreal world; and\nthis called the pantheistic view of the world, and not as a production\neither by birth or creation of it.\n\n25. Thus the gnat being produced by its delusive knowledge of the\nworld, and its continuance in the same state of blunder; did not\nallow it to see the one Brahma in all, but led to different views and\nattempts, as you shall hear just now.\n\n26. It passed half a day of its lifetime in whistling its faint voice,\namong the humming gnats in the bushes of reeds and long grass; and\ndrank merrily their juice and dews, and sported and flew all about.\n\n27. The next day it kept fluttering over a pool of mud and mire, in\ncompany with its female copartner.\n\n28. Being then tired with its swinging, it rested on a blade of grass\nin some place, where it was trodden over by the foot of a deer, which\nkilled him on the spot, as it was by the fall of a rock upon him.\n\n29. Now as it died by looking the face of a deer, it was reborn\nin the shape and with the senses of the same (from its reminiscence of\nthem).\n\n30. The deer grazing in the forest, was killed by arrow of an archer;\nand as he saw the countenance of the huntsman in his dying moment, he\ncame to be born next in the same form.\n\n31. The huntsman roaming in the forest, happened to enter into the\nhermitage of a hermit, by whom he was reclaimed from his wickedness,\nand awakened to the light of truth.\n\n32. The _muni_ said:--O erring man! why did you roam so long,\nafflicting the innocent deer with your arrows; why do not rather\nprotect them, and observe the law of universal benevolence in this\ntransitory world?\n\n33. Life is but a breath of air, and overhung by the clouds of\ncalamities, and is as frail as a drop of falling water; our enjoyments\nare a series of clouds interspersed by fickle and flickering\nlightnings; youth is fleeting and its pleasures are as the gliding\nwaters, and the body is as transient as a moment; therefore O my\nchild! attain thy felicity while in this world, and expect thy\n_nirv\u00e1na_-extinction at the end.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXXXVII.\n\nDESCRIPTION OF THE STATES OF WAKING, SLEEPING AND DREAMING.\n\n Argument:--The Hunter\u2019s Inquiry into the means of salvation and\n the sage\u2019s instruction about them.\n\n\nThe Huntsman said:--Instruct me now, O sage, the way to my salvation\nfrom misery; and teach me the best mode of conduct, which may neither\nbe too difficult nor too facile to practice.\n\n2. The sage replied:--Now be submissive to me, and throw away your bow\nand arrows; and betaking yourself to taciturnity and conduct of sages,\nbe free from trouble and remain herein.\n\n3. Vasishtha related:--Being thus advised by the sage, the huntsman\nthrew away his bow and arrows; and betaking himself to the conduct of\nsages, remained still even without asking for food.\n\n4. In course of a few days, his mind turned to the investigations of\ns\u00e1stras; as a full blown flower enters into the minds of men, by means\nof its far smelling fragrance.\n\n5. Once he asked his preceptor, O R\u00e1ma, to tell him, how and in what\nmanner, outward objects come to be seen within us in our dream.\n\n6. The sage said:--This very question, O my good fellow, had also\narisen at first under my scrutiny; how these shadows of things beyond\nus, rise like the bodies of clouds in our sleeping hours in the sphere\nof our minds.\n\n7. I then applied to my meditation, and practiced the closeness of\nmy attention for my introspection into this matter; and steadily sat\nin my _padm\u00e1sana_ posture of folded legs, and intensely intent upon\ninvestigation of this incident.\n\n8. Sitting in this manner, I stretched my thought all about and afar;\nand then retracted them, into the recess of my mind; as the rising sun\nstretches out his beams in the morning, and afterwards draws them back\ninto its disc in the evening.\n\n9. I sent forth my breathings in quest of knowledge, and then called\nto myself; and thus continued in exhaling and inhaling my breaths, as\nflowers let out and contract their fragrance by turns.\n\n10. My breath being accompanied with my mind, was reposed in the air\nbefore me; and then it was with the air inhaled by the pupil sitting\nbefore me, and intromitted into his nostrils.\n\n11. Thus my breath being mixed with his, was admitted into his heart;\nas a snake is drawn in by the breath of a bear, sitting with his wide\nopen mouth at the entrance of his hole.\n\n12. Thus I entered into his heart, by means of my vehicle of my breath;\nand was put into difficulty of being confined therein, by my folly of\nfollowing my breath in its passage into his breast.\n\n13. I passed there amidst the arteries and _aorta_, and was led through\nall the conduits and blood-vessels into all the nerves and veins, both\nlarge and small and inside and outside the body.\n\n14. I was at last confined in the cage of the ribs on both sides of\nthe body, and had the fleshy masses of the liver and spleen presented\nbefore me. This was the painful habitation of my living soul, and these\nwere as potfuls of meat set before it.\n\n15. My intestines kept coiling within me with a hissing sound, and were\nsurrounded by a flood of red hot blood continually flowing and boiling,\nlike the waves of the ocean heated under the hot sunshine.\n\n16. I had fresh supplies of sweet scents, incessantly borne to my\nnostrils by the blowing breeze; and these tended to infuse both life to\nmy body, and sensibility to my soul.\n\n17. But then I was tormented as in hell-fire, by the boiling blood,\nbile and phlegm; in my dark and dismal dungeon. (Which was moreover\ninfected by the stink of dirt within).\n\n18. It is the free and slow passage of the vital airs through the\nlungs, that regulates the circulation of blood in all parts of\nthe body; and this determines the state of the bodily humours, a\nderangement of which tends to generation of future diseases.\n\n19. The vital airs pushing against each other, burst forth in explosion\nwithin their cavities; while the culinary fire is burning as the\nsubmarine blaze, through the tubular stomach, resembling the hollow\npipe of a lotus stalk.\n\n20. The external air carries the particles of things, through the outer\norgans of sense into the body; and these then enter into the mind,\neither in their gross or pure state, as thieves enter into a house at\nnight.\n\n21. The chyle is carried with a chyme by the internal winds, to all\nparts of the body by the passage of the intestines; as the outer air\nbears the low and loud sounds of songs in all direction.\n\n22. I then entered into his heart, which is difficult of access, and\nI passed therein with as much jostling, as a strong man makes his way\namidst a thickly crowded throng of men.\n\n23. Soon afterwards I found the sight of some shining substance, at a\ndistance from the heart (_i.e._ the culinary fire); as a man scorched\nby sun shine, finds the sight of cooling moon in the gloom of night.\n\n24. It was the spiritual light, which reflected like a mirror all this\ntriple worlds in itself, and threw its rays upon all things therein; it\nwas the essence of whatever there is in existence; and the receptacle\nof all living souls.\n\n25. The living soul or life, says the _sruti_ pervades the whole body,\nas the fragrance of a flower runs through all parts of it. Yet it is\nthe heat of the heart in which it chiefly resides, as the perfume of\nthe flower dwells in the pistils, after the blossom is expanded by the\nsolar heat.\n\n26. I then crept unperceived into that heat, which was the cell of the\nliving soul; and was there preserved by the vital airs from extinction,\nas a burning lamp in a lantern, is preserved by its interior airs from\nits being blown out or extinguished. (Because the light is put out in a\nreceptacle).\n\n27. I entered into that heat as fragrance passes into the air, or as\nthe hot wind pushes into the cold air, or as water rushes into a pot\n(_i.e._ I pass through several sheaths, to the seat of bliss).\n\n28. I passed into the second sheath, which is as bright as moon light\nand as clear as a spot of white cloud; and thence I ascend to the\nfair sheaths known by the names of the cells of butter, sweets and\nmilk-white water.\n\n29. Being tired with my arduous passage through these sheaths, I\nreturned and rested in the genial warmth of my breast, where I saw the\nfull view of the world, appearing as a dream before my sight.\n\n30. It showed the images of the sun and moon, and the pictures of the\nseas and hills, with the shapes of gods and demigods and human forms;\nit presented also the sights of cities and countries, and the face of\nthe sky on all sides around.\n\n31. It exhibited also the oceans with their islands, and the course of\ntime and seasons and all moving and unmoving objects to my view.\n\n32. This vision of my dream, continued steadfast and quite alike even\nafter I was awake, wherefore I remained in the same state after my\nsleep as I had been when sleeping, because the view recurred to me in\nmy waking state, as it had occurred to me in my sleep. (_i.e._ The\nworld is but a waking dream).\n\n33. Now listen to me, O huntsman, what then I did. I said to myself,\n\u201cwhat, is this a waking dream I see before me?\u201d and as I was thinking\nin this manner, I had this knowledge of it awakened in me.\n\n34. Verily it is the representation of the Divine Intellect, and it is\nthe manifestation of the Deity himself; and all these objects under the\ndifferent names, are but manifestations of the Divine spirit in various\nshapes in the world.\n\n35. Wherever there is the substance of Intellect, there is the cosmical\nimage of the Deity impressed upon it; in its empty vacuous form, which\nit never forsakes (for aught of a gross nature).\n\n36. Ah! it is now I perceive, said I to myself, that all these\nappearances passing under the names of the world; are mere\nrepresentations of the intellect, in the form of a passing dream.\n\n37. It is a little expansion of the essence of the intellect, which\nis termed a dream (or an imperfect view of things); and it is also a\ngreater expansion and extension of the same, which is said to \nwaking; both being the display of the self-same intellectual essence.\n\n38. A dream is said to be dream in the waking state, and not while one\ncontinues in his dreaming state, when it appears as waking; so our\nwaking is but a dream, whence the two states of our waking and sleeping\ndream.\n\n39. Even our death is a dream, which continues with our intellect even\nafter our death; because the intellect which resides in the body, does\nnot die even in a hundred deaths of the body; for who has ever heard of\nthe death of the soul (which is same with intellect) of any body.\n\n40. This Intellect is a void and vacuous substance, dwelling in and\nexpanding with the body; it is infinite and undivided, and remains\nindivisible and indestructible, both with as well as without the\ndestructible body.\n\n41. The vacuous particle of the intellect, which is indestructible by\nits nature, and shines forth eternally and _ad infinitum_ by itself;\nhas the so called world for its pith and sap and ever attached to\nitself.\n\n42. The vacuum of the intellect, contains within its bosom, the\nminute particles of ideas; each of which represents a part of the\ngreat variety of objects, that compose its totality (\u201cas parts of an\nundivided whole\u201d).\n\n43. The soul breaking off from its view of the visibles, rests in its\nreceptacle of heart; and sees the various sights in its dream, which\nare unfolded by the intellect before it.\n\n44. Again the soul being inclined to the outer mind of sights, exposed\nbefore it by its own intellect; it comes to see the visions of the\nexternal objects, which pass under the phenomenal world.\n\n45. The soul sees in itself and in the same state, the sights of all\nthings both within and without it; such as, this earth and sky, the\nwinds and waters, the hills and cities, and all things spread on all\nsides.\n\n46. As the solar disc which is situated in the heaven above, appears\nalso in the waters below in full blaze; so the soul is situated both in\nthe inside and outside, in the form of the world, (or with the form of\nimprest ideas in it).\n\n47. Therefore knowing that it is the intellectual soul, that sees\nthe internal dream and the external world in itself; whoso abstains\nfrom craving anything is surely blest (because he has every thing in\nhimself. Every soul or mind being full of the thoughts and sights of\nall things in itself, can be no more in want of anything).\n\n48. The soul is both inseverable and uninflammable (_i.e._ it can\nneither be cut asunder nor burnt away); and whoso says otherwise, he\nmust be betrayed by the delusion of duality, as a boy is decoyed by the\ndeceitful yaksha (hocus-pocus).\n\n49. He who sees his inward soul, to view the world internally in\nitself, is said to be dreaming in himself; and whoso finds his soul\nlooking outwardly on the external world, is known to be waking.\n\n50. Thinking so for regarding the dreaming and waking states, I was\ninquisitive to know the state of sound sleep, and went on making my\ninquiries therein.\n\n51. But I thought of what good is the sight of the visible to me?\nBetter remain quiet in myself, because it is the thoughtless oblivion,\nand consciousness of self, is true insouciance or the stupor or\n_susupti--somnum_ or hypnotism.\n\n52. As the hair and nails of the body, are never thought of, though\nthey are well known to belong to and to be attached to it; so the mind\nis quite unconscious of all material and immaterial objects in nature,\nin its state of sound sleep when it rests in its self-consciousness\nalone.\n\n53. Tired with the rambles and sights of my waking and dreaming\nstates, I sought my quiet rest in the state of my thoughtless\nself-consciousness; and this being the sole aim and end of sound sleep,\nthere is no other meaning of the susupti hypnotism.\n\n54. It is possible even in the waking state, to have this sound sleep\nof susupta hypnotism; by our determination of thinking of naught, save\nthat of sitting quiet in one and same state (of abstractedness).\n\n55. The state of abstraction being arrived at, is termed susupti--sound\nsleep; but when the sleep is light (Vikshepa), it is called\n_swapnam--somnum_ or dream.\n\n56. Having ascertained my torpor to the hypnotic susupti, I was\nresolved to seek after the _tur\u00edya_ or fourth state of supreme bliss;\nand with this resolution, I set out in search of it with my best\nintrospection and diligence.\n\n57. I tried my utmost, but could get no indication of its true form and\nfeature: and found out at last, that it was not to be had without our\nclearsightedness, as the sunlight is imperceptible to the dimsighted\neye.\n\n58. That is called clearsightedness, wherein our view of the world, as\nit appears unto us is utterly lost; and whereby we see in that light in\nwhich it exists in the Divine Mind.\n\n59. Therefore the three states of waking, dreaming and sound sleep, are\nall included under this fourth state; wherein the world is seen as it\nexists, in the light of a nihility.\n\n60. This then is the _turya_ or ultimate view of the world, that it is\nproduced by no cause and from nothing; but it is Brahma himself that\nexists in this state of tranquillity, from all eternity.\n\n61. The impossibility of the pre-existent and primordial causes,\nprecludes the possibility of the production of anything and of the\ncreation itself; it is the Intellection of the intellect only, that\ngives rise to the conception of creation; as it is the nature of water\nto assume its fluidity and exhibit its dilation.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXXXVIII.\n\nTHE PERVASION OF THE MIND THROUGHOUT THE UNIVERSE.\n\n Argument:--The joining of the two souls of the sage and his pupil\n together made them twain, and gave a two fold view of objects:\n but their union in unity made them one, and presented the one and\n same view of things to both the united pair.\n\n\nThe ascetic sage continued:--I then thought of being united with his\nconsciousness, and breathed out the breath of my life to be joined\nwith his, as the ripe _mango_ sends forth its flavour, to mix with the\nfragrance of lotus flowers.\n\n2. I did not forsake my vital heat (or energy), until I entered into\nhis intellect; and began with infusing my outward sensations, into the\norgans of his external senses.\n\n3. I then attracted my outward sensations, by the internal sensibility\nof my heart, and mixed them with those of his, as a drop of oil is\nmixed with and diluted in water.\n\n4. As my sensuousness was intermingled with his sensations, I became\nsensible of a duplex feeling of all external objects, which appeared in\ntheir reduplicated forms to my senses.\n\n5. All things on all sides seemed to be doubled about me, and there\nappeared two suns and two moons to be presented to my sight. So the\nheaven and earth appeared in their two fold forms before me.\n\n6. As one face is seen as two in some glasses, so all things presented\ntheir double forms to the mirror of my eyes. And all these biplex\nshapes seemed to be as closely united together as the world (_i.e._ the\nbody and mind).\n\n7. And as the same intellect resides in the form of oil in two sesame\nseeds, so I saw the two worlds mixed up together with my intellect\nunited with his in his body.\n\n8. And though my consciousness was united with his in the same body,\nyet it was not wholly assimilated with his (owing to the difference of\nour desires); but they view the world respectively, in the different\nlights of milk and water (_i.e._ as appearing pleasant to the one and\npainful to the other).\n\n9. Yet as I looked awhile into his consciousness, and compared and\nmeasured it with mine; they were both found to be the same thing and of\nthe self same essence. (Consciousness is joint knowledge of ourselves\nin connection with others).\n\n10. My consciousness was joined with his in the same manner, as one\nseason joins with another (at its end); or as the confluence of two\nrivers runs together, and as the smoke mixes with the clouds, or the\nwind carries the fragrance of flowers with it.\n\n11. This our consciousness being mixed up together, the double view of\nthe world now became one; just as the erroneous sight of the two moons\nin the sky, is soon changed to one upon aright its right view.\n\n12. Then my power of discernment which was in his person, became finer\nand finer without wholly losing itself in his, and resided together in\nhis very body.\n\n13. Afterwards the faculties of the mind which resided in his breast,\nwere found to be directed to the observation of external objects; and\nto take delight in noticing the occurrences of the day (_i.e._ the\npresent objects).\n\n14. He being at rest from his weariness, after taking his meal and\ndrink; felt drowsy and inclined to sleep, as the lotus flower shuts its\npetals at nightfall, after sucking the nectarious liquid of the lake.\n\n15. He withdrew his mind from observing occurrences, that circulated\nall about the busy scene of the external world; as the setting sun\nretrenches his rays from the face of the world, as he goes to take his\nrest in the evening.\n\n16. The functions of his senses receded into heart, and the operations\nof his mind retired to his brain, and remained hidden therein, like the\nmembers of a tortoise drawn inside its shell.\n\n17. His eyelids were closed, as his heart had shut up; and he remained\nas dead as a lifeless block or as a figure in painting or statuary.\n\n18. I also followed the course of his mental faculties, and settled\nwith them in his mind, and my senses being under the direction of the\nmind were reposed in the recess of his heart. (The sensations are said\nto pass from their organs, and run through the veins and arteries to\nthe recess of the heart).\n\n19. Then insensible of all outward perceptions, and their conceptions\ntoo in my mind; I remained with that heat (or spirit) in me, as\nsleeping on a soft bed, and perceiving naught but a void all about me.\n(This is termed the blissful state of _\u00e1nanda-maya_--felicity).\n\n20. And as the breathing of our vital breath, was neither obstructed in\nthe _aorta_, nor passed with rapidity through the lungs, as it does in\ncases of excess in eating and drinking and fatigue, it passed evenly by\nits passage of the nostrils.\n\n21. Then our souls remained with the supreme soul in the breast, and\nkept the course of the naturally ungovernable mind under subjection (of\nthe blissful soul).\n\n22. The soul is then employed in its consciousness of supreme bliss\nin itself, and takes no notice of the actions of others; and the body\nalso then rests in perfect blissfulness, in that state of sound sleep.\n(Sound sleep of hybernation or hypnotism is the perfect rest of the\nbody and soul, when undisturbed by dreams).\n\n23. R\u00e1ma asked:--Say sir, what does the mind do now in its subjection\nunder the vital breath, which was the cause of its operations in the\nwaking state? The mind has no form also beside the breath, how then\ndoes it subsist without the same.\n\n24. Vasishtha replied:--Even so, there is neither the body beside its\nbeing the notion of one\u2019s self; it is the imagination of the mind\nalone that makes the body, just as the dream causes the appearance\nof a mountain and other things. (There is no existence of the mind\nindependent of the vital air of breathing. Gloss).\n\n25. So there is not the mind also in absence of its idea or thought of\nsomething; as there is no production of the visible world, for want of\nits causes at the beginning of creation. (Therefore the phenomenal\nworld is only the effect of our previous reminiscence. Gloss).\n\n26. Therefore all these are forms of Brahma, as he is the soul\nof all; and the world itself is not otherwise than the image of\nGod. (Hypothesis of theological Pantheism, that all things are\nmanifestations of God).\n\n27. The mind and body are both Brahma, to them that know the truth;\nthough they are otherwise to our knowledge of them, than what they are\nin theirs. (The common knowledge of them, is that of Soulism).\n\n28. The manner in which the triple world is Brahma, and how he is the\nsoul of all these varieties; is as you, O intelligent prince, shall now\nhear me to relate unto you.\n\n29. There exists for ever the only pure Intellect (or Intelligence),\nwhich is of the form of infinite vacuum; and it is that alone which\nshows itself always in all forms, without being either the world itself\nor its visible appearance. (The formless God exhibits all forms).\n\n30. The Lord being omniscient, took upon him the form of hypostasis\nof the mind, without forsaking his nature of pure intelligence, and\nexemption from disease and decay (which the material body is subject\nto).\n\n31. Then as the Lord thought upon the movement of his mind, he assumed\nthe substantivity of the vital breath upon himself; and know, O R\u00e1ma,\nthat best knowest the knowable, that these are but modalities of the\nselfsame being of God.\n\n32. Now as this inflation of the air, appears to be a model form of\nthe Divine essence; so the sensations and bodily perceptions, and the\nentities of space and time, are but various modifications of the same\nbeing.\n\n33. Thus the whole world is entirely the formation of the Divine Mind,\nand as this mind is the very intellect of the supreme Brahma; so the\ntotality of creation is only the expansion of the mind of Brahma\nhimself.\n\n34. The formless Brahma who is without his beginning and end, who has\nno reflexion of himself, and is free from disease and decay, is the\nquiet intellect and the only quiescent _Ens_ of Brahma, that was the\nwhole universe for its body. (Whose body nature is, and God the soul.\nPope).\n\n35. The supreme being omnipotent, and so the mind also retains its\npotency every where, though it remains as empty air.\n\n36. The volitive mind is Brahma, which immediately produces in itself,\nwhatever it wills at any time; and the reproduction of every thing in\nthe mind, is a truth too well known even to boys.\n\n37. Now behold, O R\u00e1ma the almighty power of the mind, which at first\nmade itself (or became) a living being by its breathing; and then an\nintelligent being, by its power of thinking; and next became the living\nsoul, with its body; it made the three worlds, and became the prime\nmale in the form of Brahm\u00e1; it became embodied from its aerial form,\nin the shape of Vir\u00e1t; thus it created every thing in itself of its\nown will, as men produce all things in their imagination, and see the\ncities of their fancy in dream.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXXXIX.\n\nDESCRIPTION OF THE DISSOLUTION OF THE WORLD.\n\n Argument:--Predominance of the mind over the vital breath, and\n the view of final Dissolution in Dream.\n\n\nVasishtha related:--Whatever the mind wills, regarding the creation of\nthe world, the same immediately appears before it; whether it be the\nproduction of the non-existent to view, or annihilation of existing\nones, or the representation of one as the other--_pratibh\u00e1shika_.\n\n2. [Now in an answer to R\u00e1ma\u2019s question, \u201chow does the mind subsist or\nhave its action or thought without being moved by the vital breath\u201d, he\nsays that] whenever the mind fancies itself as the vital breath, and\ncan neither subsist nor do any thing without its being actuated by the\nair of respiration; it is then said to be subject to vitality (_i.e._\nto exist with the breath of a living being and no more).\n\n3. It thinks it cannot live long without the association of respiration\n(as in the state of transient and breathless dream) but must come\nback to its life and living action (of thinking) with the return of\nbreathing. (The thinking power of the mind is suspended with the\nbreathing, in the states of dreaming and wondrous sight seeing).\n\n4. Again as the mind fancies itself to be accompanied with the vital\nbreath in some living body; it finds itself instantly joined with same,\nand beholds the world rising as an enchanted city to view.\n\n5. The mind thinks of the convenience of its union with the vital\nbreath and body; and with this persuasion it is pleased to remain for\never as a triplicate being, combined with its intellectuality, vitality\nand corporeality.\n\n6. Know now that the uncertainty of knowledge, which, keeps the mind in\nsuspense, is the cause of great woe to mankind; and that there is no\nway of getting rid of it except of the true knowledge of _tattwajn\u00e1na_.\n\n7. He who has the knowledge of the distinction of his self and another\n(_i.e._ of the ego and nonego--the subjective and objective as\ndifferent from another); can have no redress from his error, save by\nmeans of his spiritual knowledge of the only spirit.\n\n8. There is no way to true knowledge, except by means of the\ninvestigations of liberation; therefore be employed with all vigilance\nto inquire into the means of liberation.\n\n9. Verily the very conceptions of ego and _alias_ I and another are\nerroneous, and proceed from utter ignorance; and there is no other\nmeans to remove them, except by means of liberation. (The knowledge of\n_ego_ and _tu_ is the bondage of the soul: and the want of egoism and\ntuism, leads it to its liberation from all).\n\n10. Hence any thought which is habitual to the mind, comes to be firmly\nimpressed upon it in time; and hence the idea that the vital breath is\none\u2019s life and all, makes his mind dependent upon the breath. (_i.e._\nAs the thought of one\u2019s being this or that, makes him as such; so the\nfirm belief of the mind as breath, makes it subject to the same).\n\n11. So also when the body is in a healthful state with its vitality,\nthe mind is dependent on it and has its free play; but being in ill\nhealth, it feels its life embittered and forgets to know itself in its\ntrue nature.\n\n12. When the respiration is quick in discharging the duties of the\nbody, and the mind is engaged in its busy thoughts, then neither of\nthem capable of meditation, unless they are repressed in the\nbreast.\n\n13. These two the mind and respiration, stand in relation of the car\nand driver to one another, and what living being is there, that is not\ndriven along by them in their train?\n\n14. It was in this manner that the supreme spirit, hath ordained the\nmind and vital breath, in the very beginning of creation; and therefore\nthis law of their co-operation, continues unaltered to this day.\n\n15. Hence the mind and vital airs are acting in concert in all living\nbodies, and conducting them at all times in all places in their stated\ncourse or action all along (except those of yogis who have repressed\nthem under their subjection).\n\n16. The co-equal course of both, serves to the regular conduct of the\nfunctions of life (as in the waking state); but their unequal course,\nproduces dissimilar effects (as that of dreaming when the mind alone is\nactive); and the inactivity of both causes the inertness of the body\nand soul (as in the state of sound sleep).\n\n17. When the intestines are blocked by the chyle of food taken into\nthem, and the breathing becomes dull and slow; the mind also becomes\ncalm and quiet, and then ensues the blissful state of sound sleep.\n\n18. When the stomach is filled with food, and the lungs are languid\nwith weariness, the breathing then remains without its inflation,\nand brings on state of sweet and sound sleep of _susupti_ or\n_hypnotism_.\n\n19. Again when the intestinal parts are cool and phlegmatic, or\nexhausted by effusion of blood owing to some sore or wound, and the\nbreathing being stopped in the body, there comes the state of numbness\nof sleep.\n\n20. The ascetic said:--Then I had entered into his heart, it became all\ndark to me as night; and he fell into a sound sleep, from his satiety\nwith the fulness of his food.\n\n21. I was there assimilated into one with his mind, and lay in deep\nsleep with himself without any effort of my own.\n\n22. Then as the passage of his lungs was re-opened, after digestion\nof the food in his stomach; his breathings resumed their natural\nvibration, and he began to breathe out slowly and softly in his\nslumbering state.\n\n23. After the sound sleep had become light and airy, I beheld the sunny\nworld arising out of my breast, and appearing manifest before me in my\ndream.\n\n24. This world seemed to rise out of the troubled ocean, and to be\nfilled with water (seas) upon its surface; it was released from the\ndarkness of diluvian clouds, which had enveloped it, like the mists\noverhanging on oceans.\n\n25. There was a hurricane blowing over it, bearing aloft the rocks\nand stones, in its whirling and uproarious course; and carrying away\nuprooted arbours, with the furze and grassy turfs along with them.\n\n26. It was carrying away and casting all about, the fragments and\nremains of the last conflagration of desolation; and hurling down the\ndetachments of celestial cities from high.\n\n27. Then as I was looking at a certain place, I found my self situated\nwith my consort in one of the abodes of a splendid city rising at that\nspot.\n\n28. And there as I was sitting in company with my consort and children,\nand attended by my friends and servants, and supplies with dishes and\ncups of food and drink, I was all on a sudden carried away by the waves\nof the deluging waters.\n\n29. The flood swept me away together with the edifice and the city,\nwherein we were situated; and we were floating on the tops of\nmountainous waves, and buffeting in the water.\n\n30. There arose a loud dashing noise louder than the roaring sea; I was\nstunned by the stridor, and was insensible of the fates of my family.\n\n31. Men were driven away and hurled down into the whirling eddies, and\nwere buried deep into the dreadful mud, with their wailings and loud\ncries, with the beating of their breasts.\n\n32. The houses and huts were breaking and cracking, their beams and\nposts were splitting, the pillars and supports were bursting, and the\nroofs and coverings were falling down, while the females were looking\nout with their faces fixed at the windows. (_i.e._ Women stared from\nwithin the doors and windows and dared not to stir without).\n\n33. As I was looking awhile at all this, being affected at the sight;\nand was weeping sorrowfully at the event, I saw the whole edifice\nfalling down on the ground.\n\n34. The walls on the four sides broke down, and buried the old and\nyoung and female inmates under them; and these were borne away by the\nwaves at last, as the impetuous waterfall carries away the shattered\nand scattered stones to a hundred different ways.\n\n35. I was then blown away into the waters of the deluge, leaving behind\nme my family and friend; and accompanying only my mind and vital breath\nwith me.\n\n36. I was tossed about by the waves, and borne away to the distance of\nleagues after leagues; and was thrown upon the floating woods, which\nroasted me by their inburning wildfire.\n\n37. I was dashed against the floating planks and timbers, and slashed\nin many parts of my body, then falling into a whirlpool I was hurled\ninto the abyss of _p\u00e1t\u00e1la_.\n\n38. Being thus tossed all about, and hurled up and down, I had been for\na long time, buffeting amidst the waves and waters, and their gurgling,\nroaring and rumbling sounds.\n\n39. I was then buried under the mud, caused by the friction of the\ndrowned mountains against one another; and was again lifted upward like\nan elephant, by the influx of a flood of water.\n\n40. As I was halting on a hill covered with foam and froth; immediately\nI was run over by a rush of water, as a man is overtaken by his enemy.\n\n41. Being then ingulfed in the water, and carried away by the waves and\ncurrent wheresoever they pleased, I lost the sight of whatever I was\nseeing, and was greatly dejected in my mind.\n\n42. At this moment there, I had come to know by my reminiscence, that\n certain _muni_ will lecture to the public, the Vasishtha\u2019s address\nof R\u00e1ma hereafter.\n\n43. I remembered my former state of holy trance (_sam\u00e1dhi_) and\nexclaimed; O, had I been an ascetic in another world.\n\n44. I have entered into the body of another person, in order to see the\nsights in his dreaming; and all that I am now seeing (of this flood\nand others), is no more than a dream, and mere error of the mind and\nfalsehood.\n\n45. It is from our habitual bias in the present scene, that I believed\nthese falsehoods as true in me; and though I was troubled to see myself\nto be borne away by the flood in my dream; yet I feel myself happy at\npresent to find, it was but the unreality of a dream.\n\n46. What I saw as water, was the whirling eddy in the ocean of the\nuniversal deluge, and as false as the water of mirage; and the hills\nand woods, and the cities and towns, that were swept away by the flood,\nwere as false as any visual deception.\n\n47. There were the gods and aerials, men and women, and huge snakes\nalso borne away by the flood; and the great cities and mansions of the\nrulers of men (_i.e._ royal edifices), all floating upon the waters.\n\n48. I saw the mountain merged in and mixed up with the waters, and\nbeing battered and shattered by the waves; I saw the approaching\ndissolution of the world, and thus considered within myself.\n\n49. There is even the god Siva with his three eyes, swimming upon and\nswept away as a straw by the waves: O fie for shame! that there is\nnothing impossible for the fates.\n\n50. Fragments of houses floating upon the waters, looked like lotus\nflowers flaunting under the sun-beams.\n\n51. It was astonishing to see the bodies of Gandharvas, Kinnaras,\nand of men and N\u00e1gas, floating on the waters, like swarms of bees\nfluttering over lotus-beds in the lake.\n\n52. The fragments of the splendid edifices of the gods and demigods and\nothers, decorated with the ornamental works of the vidy\u00e1dharas, were\nfloating like golden vessels on the wide expanse of the ocean.\n\n53. The god Indra was floating on the glassy water, as if he were lying\nin his crystal palace; he mounted over the waves, as if he rode on his\nelephant; and was swinging on the surges as upon his cradle.\n\n54. The waves rising to the sky, were washing the faces of the stars,\nand the winds were scattering them all about; as they drop down the\nflowers of the garden of Eden on the mansions of the gods, and as men\nstrew the ground with fried rice.\n\n55. Waves as high as mountains rose to the sky, and then their breakers\nflying aloft like stones flung by ballistas, fell upon the lotus seat\nof Brahm\u00e1, and turned it about with the god also, who was sitting upon\nit in his deep meditation.\n\n56. The clouds were roaring aloud with deep and appalling thunder,\nand the billows were flashing like frightful lightnings in the\nair; elephants, horses, and ferocious lions were wandering in the\natmosphere, and forests as large as the earth, were floating in the sky.\n\n57. The dark blue waves of over-flowing waters, pushed with such\nviolent force against one another; as if the god of destruction was\npropelling them one after another to the act, of utter annihilation (or\nas the powers of destruction were propelling one another).\n\n58. The waves were carrying down into the deep, the gods, men, and\nN\u00e1gas, together with their abodes in heaven, earth and the regions\nbelow.\n\n59. The irresistible flood having flooded over all sides, of earth,\nheaven and the infernal region, the bodies of the gods and demigods,\nwere all floating together like shoals of fishes; and their heavenly\ncars and vehicles were swimming over on the surface of the waters, as\nin the field of battle.\n\n60. The body of dark blue waters, resembled the azure form of Krishna;\nand their foaming froths, likened the milk white calves about him. (The\ntext is utterly meaningless).\n\n61. The waves pushed one another, with the _burber_ sound for drowning\nevery thing; and the females both of the gods and giants were heard to\nwail aloud with cries of _hola_ and howling. (Hola is the exclamation\nof wailing, corresponding with _wa\u00edl\u00e1_ in Persian).\n\n62. The loud cries raised by all, at the falling down of their houses,\nwere resounded by the waters on all sides; and the clouds roving over\nthe rolling waves, appeared as the covers of fallen and floating domes.\n\n63. Ah it was piteous to behold, how the whirling waters of whirlpools,\nhurled down even the gods into the deep; and how Indra, Yama, and\nKubera, breathed out their last breaths in the form of flying and\nflimsy clouds.\n\n64. There the learned and saintly persons, were carried away with the\nignorant, in the shape of dead bodies and devoid of their pride; and\nthe cities of the gods Brahm\u00e1, Vishnu, and Indra, were swept away, all\nbroken and crushed to pieces.\n\n65. The bodies of weak women, were washed and carried over by the\nwaves, and there was no body left to save them from the grasp of death;\nwhich devoured them altogether under his horrid jaws.\n\n66. The floods which flowed at first with their serpentine course into\nthe caves of mountains, overflooded them to their tops at last; and the\ncities of the gods, which floated at first as boats upon the waters on\nmountain tops, were hurled to the bottom at last.\n\n67. The gods and giants and all other beings, together with their\nresidences in heaven, and the continents and mountains on earth, were\nall submerged and shattered like lotus-beds by the waters; and the\nthree worlds were turned to an universal ocean and all their grandeur\nand splendour were swallowed up by time, together with all the sovran\npowers of earth and heaven.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXXXX.\n\nWORKINGS OF IMAGINATION.\n\n Argument:--The sage\u2019s situation at the end of the Deluge, and his\n description of the reproduction of creation.\n\n\nThe Huntsman said:--Tell me sir, how a sage as yourself, could be\nexposed to that state (of the dream or delusion of the Deluge); and why\nwere you not delivered from your meditation.\n\n2. The sage replied:--At the end of the Kalpa age, all kinds of beings\nmeet with their destruction; namely, there is a termination of the\nerroneous forms of the worlds, and a cessation of the luminous bodies\nin the heaven.\n\n3. Sometimes the dissolution takes place gradually at the end of a\n_kalpa_; and at others it comes on all on a sudden, with a simultaneous\nturmoil and disorganization on all sides.\n\n4. So when there was an outbreak of waters on every side, and the gods\nwere repairing to Brahm\u00e1 the first cause of all; for redress from the\nimpending danger, they were all swept away by the overflowing tide.\n\n5. Moreover, O forester! know time to be the most mighty destroyer\nof all things; and every thing must occur in its time, as it is\npredestined at the beginning. (Time devours all things).\n\n6. The time of one\u2019s dissolution being nigh, there ensues a detriment\nin the strength, intellect and prowess of everybody not excepting even\nthe great. (Nothing is of any avail before fate).\n\n7. I have told you also, O fortunate forester! that all that is seen\nin a dream is mere dreaming; and nothing of it, comes to take place in\nreality herein.\n\n8. The forester responded:--Sir, if the dream is a mere falsity and\nerror of imagination; then what was the good of your relating all\nthis, that know well what is good and useful for mankind.\n\n9. The sage replied:--There was much use of my relating all this to\nyou, O intelligent huntsman, for improvement of your understanding; and\nas you have come to know, that the visibles are all as false as the\nsights in sleep, you shall now know what is real and true.\n\n10. Now as long as the waters of deluge lasted, I remained seated in\nthe heart of the said medium, and saw some other false sights in his\ndream.\n\n11. I saw the waters of the deluge, to recede to the unknown region\nfrom where they had overflown; and the huge waves disappeared\naltogether, as when the winged mountains fled away for fear of the\nthunders of Indra. (Who lopped of their pinions of yore. See the legend\nin stanza--Book I. Kum\u00e1ra sambhava of K\u00e1lid\u00e1sa).\n\n12. I was borne aloft by my good fate to some distant shore, where I\nwas seated as firmly as upon the elevated peak of a high and solid\nmountain.\n\n13. Thence I saw the waters to subside in their basins, and the stars\nof heaven shining upon them, like the sparkling particles of their\nsplashing billows, or as their foaming and floating froths.\n\n14. The reflexions of the stars in water, seemed as the shining gems\nin the bosom of the ocean; and the stars that shone above in the\nfirmament, appeared as the nightly flaming bushes on the tops of\nmountains. (There are the medicinal plants that are said to burn by\nnight. Vide Kum\u00e1ra Sambhava Stanza--Book I.).\n\n15. The firmament studded with lustrous stars, and had the appearance\nof an island beaming with gold; and the azure sky seemed wrapt over\nwith the blue garments of celestial dames.\n\n16. The blue diluvian clouds that floated in the sky, resembled a bed\nof cerulean lotuses in the etherial lake; and the lightnings that\nflashed in their bosoms, likened the yellow farina of flowers, flying\nall about the midway sky.\n\n17. Masses of mountain-like clouds flushed with frost, and poured down\nshowers of rain on all sides; the floods of the deluge rolled down with\ntheir reflexions, as bearing the huge Kalpa forests in their bosom.\n\n18. Afterwards the basin of the universal ocean was dried up, and\nturned to an empty and dry hollow on all around; and the mountain of\nthe Mandara and Sahya hills, that had been drowned under the waters\nwere found to be melted down to mud or washed away by the receding\nflood.\n\n19. Here the sun and moon were found to be sunk in the slough, and\nthere the gods Yama and Indra to be hid under the soil; somewhere the\nserpents and _takshakas_ were rolling in the mire, and elsewhere the\nKalpa woods lay buried with their tops and branches underneath the mud.\n\n20. In some places the heads and hands of people were scattered over\nthe ground, and looked like lotus buds and flowers torn from their\nstalks and strewn about the bare and barren land.\n\n21. There were the Vidy\u00e1dhara females drowned up to their necks in the\nslime, and crying in their piteous chimes in one place; and there were\nthe big bodied buffaloes of Yama lying in another, and resembling the\nhuge bodies of dead elephants appearing in dream. (The buffalo of Yama\nis no less bulky than the Air\u00e1vata elephant of Indra).\n\n22. In some place the bulky body of Garuda, bulged out like the huge\nmountain of the gods; and in others the embankments were swept away; as\nif they were slashed by the mace of Yama fallen upon the ground.\n\n23. There were the remains of the dead _hansa_ of Brahm\u00e1, muddled in\nthe mire somewhere, and the relics of Indra\u2019s elephant were huddled in\nthe mud in another place.\n\n24. In the meanwhile I found a flat land in one spot, where I resorted\nfor rest from my weariness; and was there overtaken by sound sleep,\nthat insensibility stole upon me.\n\n25. Then waking from my sound sleep, I found myself seated in the heart\nof the hunter; and retaining the possession of my sensibility, I was\nled by my innate desire to see the similar sights of desolation as\nbefore.\n\n26. I beheld upon my waking, the said flat land to lie in the very\nheart of the hunter where I was situated; and was seized with greater\ngrief and sorrow at my sight of the spectacle. (The reproduction of the\nworld being but the renovation of our woe, and happy are they who work\nno more to the sight).\n\n27. I saw therefrom the rising of the bright and beautiful sun on the\nnext day; and by means of the solar light, I came to the sight of\nthe worlds and the sky, of this earth and its hills, which presented\nthemselves to my view.\n\n28. But I soon found that, the earth and sky, the air and all\nits sides, together with the hills and rivers, were all but the\nreproduction of my mind (from its previous ideas of them); as the\nleaves shoot forth from the trees. (Because the insensible stones, have\nno perception of the visibles).\n\n29. Then on seeing the things, as they were exposed to my sight on\nthe earth; I began to manage with them in a manner as I had somewhat\nforgotten their right and proper use. (Reminiscence of the past being\noften liable to obliteration).\n\n30. After my birth I passed sixteen years at that spot, and had the\nknowledge of this person as my father, and that one as my mother,\nand this spot as my dwelling place, and all this knowledge rising\nspontaneously from my self-cogitation.\n\n31. I then saw a village and the hermitage of a Br\u00e1hman at that place;\nand there I beheld a house and found a friend therein, and many more\nother places.\n\n32. Thus I remained in the society of my friends, in the village huts\nand hamlets; and passed many days and nights, in the states of repeated\nwatchfulness and returning sleep.\n\n33. Remaining thus in company with these, I came to lose in course of\ntime the light of the understanding I had attained before, and forgot\nmyself as one of them by my habitual mode of thinking, as the man\nforgot himself to a fish (as it is related before in the story of Dama,\nVy\u00e1la and Kata).\n\n34. In this manner, I remained as a village Br\u00e1hman (or parish-person)\nfor a long time; relying only in my body as begotten by a Br\u00e1hman, and\nquite forgetful of other.\n\n35. I believed my material body only to constitute my person, and my\nwife alone as my copartner; I understood my desires only to be the\nessence of my soul, and thought that riches only were the sole object\nof gain in life.\n\n36. I had an old cow only for my treasure, and the greens of my\ngarden as my only provision; my collections were only the sacred fire\nand sacrificial animals, and my utensil an only water pot. (Kines\nconstituted the wealth of the ancient Indians, as the _pecus_ or sheep\nwere reckoned as riches by the old Latins; hence _godhana_ means kine\nmoney, as _pancha godhanam_--the value of five cows corresponding with\nthe _penta pecuniae_ of the Romans).\n\n37. My hopes were as frail as perennial plants, and my conduct the same\nwith that of other men; and the state of my living was as mean, as of\nthe mud and mire about my dwelling.\n\n38. I passed my days in pruning and weeding the garden of my greens;\nand in performing my daily ablutions, in the rills and rivulets\nreckoned as holy by men.\n\n39. I was employed in providing my food and drink, and in procuring the\nfuel and cow-dung for fire; and remained entangled in the snare, of\nscrutinizing about what was right or wrong for daily observance.\n\n40. In this way a whole century of my life time, passed away at that\nplace, when it happened on a time that a holy hermit passed by that way\nfrom a great distance, and became my guest in my humble abode.\n\n41. Being welcomed and honoured by me, he entered in my dwelling, and\ntook his rest after washing and bathing himself. Then after his meal he\nsat on his bed, and began to tell his fate at the approach of night.\n\n42. He spoke of many climes and countries, and of many lands and\nmountains; and talked of their different customs and manners, which\nwere pleasant to hear, and related to various subjects.\n\n43. All these, he said, are the display of the One Intellect, which is\ninfinite and immutable in its nature; and manifests itself in the form\nof cosmos, which is for ever present with it as it is now seen to be.\n\n44. Being thus enlightened by him, I was filled as it were with a flood\nof light, and remained listening to him with attention, all whatever he\nsaid on this and other subjects.\n\n45. I heard also my own tale from him, and learning that the person\nwhich contained me within its womb, is no less than the body of Vir\u00e1t\nhimself, I was eager to come out of the same.\n\n46. So long as I was not aware, that its mouth is the only door way for\nmy exit of that body; I kept moving through it, as if I were wandering\namidst the vast extent of the earth and oceans.\n\n47. I then left that spot, beset as it was by my friends and relations;\nand entered into his vital part, in order to make my egress with the\nvital breath.\n\n48. Intending then to see both the inside and outside of the Vir\u00e1ta\u2019s\nbody, in which I resided, I continued to mark well the process of its\nouter movements as also of its inner thoughts.\n\n49. I fixed my attention to my consciousness, and remained settled at\nmy station without changing its spot; and then breathed out with his\nbreath, as the fragrance of flowers accompanies the wind.\n\n50. The rising with his respiration, I reached the cavity of his mouth;\nand mounting afterwards on the vehicle of the wind, I went on forward,\nand beheld all that lay before me.\n\n51. I observed there the hermitage of a sage, situated in the grotto of\na mountain at a distance; and found it full with anchorites, and myself\nsitting in my _padm\u00e1sana_ among them. (He saw the sight to which he was\nhabituated all along his life).\n\n52. These anchorites stood before me as my pupils, and were employed in\ntheir duty of taking care of my person in its state of _anaesthesia_.\n\n53. After a while that man was seen among them, in whose heart I had\nbeen residing; and he appeared as lying flat and at ease upon his back,\nafter taking some food which he got in the adjacent village.\n\n54. Seeing this wonder I remained quiet, and did not speak any thing\nabout it to any body waiting upon me; I then re-entered that body for\nmy own amusement.\n\n55. I got to region of vitality which was situated within the\nheart, and was by my lasting desire to see the friends I had before,\nand I left behind.\n\n56. As I was looking around, I saw the end of the world approaching\nwith its direful aspect; and changing the course of nature, together\nwith the positions of the world.\n\n57. The mountains appeared altered and changed to another state,\nthe sky presented another face, and the whole world seemed be\ndislocated from its place.\n\n58. I could find no trace of my former friends or habitation nor mark\nthe situation of that tract of land, nor find the direction where it\nlay before; all these seemed to be swept away by the winds, nor could I\nknow where they were taken.\n\n59. I then found the world appearing in another form, and presenting a\nsight altogether different from what it had been before, and quite anew\nto view.\n\n60. I saw the twelve suns of the twelve signs of the zodiac, shining\nall at once and burning in all the quarters of heaven and melting down\nthe high mountains, like snows and icebergs to water.\n\n61. The volcanic fire spread from mountain to mountain, and the fire of\nconflagration flew from forests to forests; the earth was parched with\nall the gems in her bowels, so that there remained no vestige of them\nsave in the memory of men.\n\n62. The seas were dried up, and the earth was full of burning embers\non all sides; and there rose a strong gale, which wafted the ashes all\naway.\n\n63. Subterranean, terrestrial and etherial fires, began to issue forth\nin flames and flash on all sides; and the face of the whole universe\nflushed with a blaze, glistening like the glowing clouds of the evening\nsky.\n\n64. I entered amidst this burning sphere, as a flying moth falls into a\nflame; and was confined within its cave, as the roving bee is closed\nup in the calyx of the shutting lotus, and was quite unscorched and\nunscathed by the burning flame.\n\n65. I then flew amidst the flames as freely as air, and flickered as\nthe flash of fleet lightnings in the cloud; and sometimes hovered over\nthe burning fire, as the light winged butterfly flies upon the lotus of\nthe lands (_sthala_ padma).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXXXXI.\n\nDESCRIPTION OF THE TERMINATION OF A KALPA-PERIOD.\n\n Argument:--Continuation of the subject of fire and flame, and hot\n winds and fiery clouds at the final Dooms-day Dissolution.\n\n\nThe sage continued:--Though repeatedly burning amidst those fires, yet\nI was neither consumed nor felt the least pain therein; and though\nfalling from one fire into another; yet I thought all this as a dream\nin my dreaming (_i.e._ one dream in another).\n\n2. The fires flew aloft, and filled the vault of heaven with flames;\nand I was flying as a fire-brand amidst and all about it. (So the\nsinless soul soars in the highest empyrean of heaven).\n\n3. As I was wandering with my spiritual light and unwearied soul amidst\nthis universal conflagration, there arose on a sudden a tremendous\nhurricane (raised by the rarefied air on all sides).\n\n4. It howled and growled aloud like the roaring of clouds on high; and\nblew fiercely all along, bearing down and carrying away every thing\nbefore it.\n\n5. The whirling and howling tornado, raged with redoubled force in the\nforest; lifting aloft large tracts of woods in the form of clouds, and\nintermixed with rolling firebrands, resembling the revolving suns above.\n\n6. Flames of fire flashed above, like the evening clouds of heaven, and\nblazed like hundreds of fiery pools on high; and the earth with the\nhabitation of men, giants and gods, burned as burning mountains on all\nsides.\n\n7. The burnt, unburnt and half burnt devils and demons, were roving\ntogether throughout the heated air, and grappling each other in the\netherial streams.\n\n8. The gods and goddesses, were falling down as flames of fire; and\nthe abode of the celestials, were melted down in showers of fire.\n\n9. Flashes of fire were flickering as lightnings, from the burning\nvault of heaven; and clouds of dark smoke hid the face of the vertical\nsky in darkness.\n\n10. The faces of the earth and sky and of all sides of heaven, were\nwrapt in a flaming veil like that of the evening cloud; and the whole\nuniverse with its seven spheres, appeared as a massive mountain of\nflaming fire.\n\n11. On one side the sparks of flaming fire, were flashing over\nthe head; and on another a huge mountainous mist of smoke hid the\nhemisphere from sight. In the midst there appeared a mountainous body\nof fire as that of Hara--the god of destruction, dancing amidst the\ndestructive winds of the Rudras blowing on all sides.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXXXXII.\n\nASCERTAINMENT OF KARMA OR ACTS OF MEN.\n\n Argument:--Here God is ascertained as the Cause of the visionary\n world; and Refutation of the Theory of Karma or Human Deeds and\n Destiny.\n\n\nThe sage resumed and said:--Continuing thus in the vagaries of my false\nimagination, I was led to many such painful sights, until they raised\nin me the feelings of woe and sorrow, and my curiosity gave way to\nweariness.\n\n2. I then thought in my mind that it is a mere dream in the mind of\nanother person, which I have come to see from my seat within his\nbreast; therefore I must refrain from such sights, and restrain my\nsorrow for them in vain.\n\n3. The Huntsman asked:--It was for the investigation of the nature of\ndream, that you had entered into the bosom of another person; say then\nwhat have you come to know about it, and how are your doubts removed\n(with respect to its false phantasms).\n\n4. How came you to see the ocean in the breast, which never exists\ntherein, and how did you see the conflagration in the heart and the\ntornado in the bowels, which are never to be found in any of those\nplaces.\n\n5. You said you saw the earth and sky, and the rivers and mountains and\nmany other things in the mind; but how can these and the world itself,\nbe in any manner situated therein.\n\n6. The sage replied:--All these things and the world also are mere\nnon-entities, as there was no pre-existent material cause for the\nproduction of the world, before its coming to existence; therefore\nneither the term creation nor its sense, is in any way applicable to\nthis world or it is seen by us. (It is therefore but the mere phantasm\nof an everlasting dream).\n\n7. Hence the world creation and its meaning, proceed from ignorance of\nthe supreme soul, which is immutable in its nature; and it is ignorance\nof this truth (lit. true knowledge), that produces the fallacy (lit.\nthe false knowledge) of creation. (Therefore the world (_i.e._ the idea\nof the world), is ever present in the Divine mind).\n\n8. Therefore I say, O thou fortunate one, that after you come to your\nknowledge in this respect (_i.e._ of the nature of God), and your\nignorance of His supremely pure nature is removed:--\n\n9. You will no more believe like myself, the false impression of\nyour consciousness (of the existence of the world); but must come to\nknow that, this causeless and uncreated world, is only the expanded\nreflexion of your own mind.\n\n10. Where is the body and the heart, and where are these elements\nof water &c.; what is this dream and what are these conceptions and\nperceptions, and what is life or death or anything else? (All which are\nnothing in reality).\n\n11. There is but one transpicuous Intellect everywhere, before which\nthe subtile ether is opalescent, and the biggest mountain is but a mite.\n\n12. It is of its own nature that this intellectual vacuity, reflects on\nsomething in its thought; and sees the same as its aeriform body; and\nthis it is what is called the world.\n\n13. As it is our intellect alone, which reflects itself in various\nforms in our dream; and as there is nothing besides it that then\npresents itself to our view, so this world is no other than the aerial\nform of the intellect only.\n\n14. This universe is a quiet vacuity without any stir or shadow of\nanything in it; and it is the dimness of the purblind eye of the\nintellect, that presents these false shapes to sight, as blind men see\nblack spots in the clear sky.\n\n15. To my sight the world is neither an entity nor a non-entity, nor is\nit a mere void or the shadow or reflexion of anything; but the formless\ninfinity of the vacuous intellect only: (or the infinite vacuity of the\nformless intellect only).\n\n16. As it is in the state of our sleep, that the pure intellect sees\nitself in the various forms of its dream, without any cause whatsoever;\nso doth it view every thing in its own vacuum in waking also; without\nthe external objects of sight or its act of seeing them.\n\n17. It is something that is unspeakable and without its beginning and\nend; it is apparent with its own conceptions which are one with it and\nmake no duality in its nature (Lit., whose nature is free from unity or\nduality, or as S\u00e1di says:--_azchunin O chunan_, from this & that and so\n& such).\n\n18. As there is but one endless duration, embracing the periods both\nof creation as well as annihilation; and as the tree comprehends all\nits parts, blossoms and fruit under it; so is Brahma the Soul of all.\n(These are but parts of one stupendous whole. Pope).\n\n19. As the great edifice of one, appears as an empty space to another;\nso as one\u2019s sight of a castle in a mirage, appears as nothing to\nanother; so this visible world of waking people, is the dream of\nsleeping persons, and rising on the ground of their imagination.\n\n20. It is as the transpicuous vacuity of the intellect, exhibits itself\nfrom time to time in itself; that we see the things in our dream, as\nwe behold them when we are awake; and so also we see the sights in our\nwaking state, as we behold them in our dreams in sleep.\n\n21. As the fragrance of flowers, lies hid in the invisible air; so the\nworld lies concealed in the invisible intellect, which sees through\nevery pore of it.\n\n22. It is by shutting out your thoughts of all and everything from your\nmind, that thou mayst quite pure in thyself; and it is then only\nthat thy infinite soul has its everlasting peace and rest, when it is\nfreed from all cares, both within and without itself.\n\n23. The Huntsman said:--Tell me sir, how can men get rid of their\nthoughts and cares of life, when they invariably accompanied by\nthe acts and reminiscences of their past lives. Tell me also what kind\nof men are subject to the tendencies of their past conduct, and who are\nthey that are released from them.\n\n24. The sage replied:--Those souls that are full of intelligence and\nhave their spiritual bodies, are never subject to renewed births nor\nto the consequences of their past actions; and such were the bodies\nof Brahm\u00e1, and Kapila and others, that became manifest of themselves\n(suam-bh\u00e1vah), and such were the supernatural bodies of the gods and\ndivine incarnations.\n\n25. Their bodies were not of this world, nor were they subject to\nits dualistic illusory imaginations; but they were forms of pure\nintelligence and of a subtile and spiritual nature.\n\n26. In the beginning of creation, there was no primordial act of any\nbody, to fashion his form or frame of mind; but there existed the sole\nand self-existent Brahma only, who manifested himself in the form of\nthe world (which is therefore a manifestation of the Deity himself, and\nis thence called _tanmaya_ or full of the Divine essence).\n\n27. As the great Brahm\u00e1 and others, were the manifestations of the\nsupreme Brahma in the beginning, so there have been many thousands more\nthat were manifested from the same divine essence, which are known as\npure intelligences, and superior orders of beings. (Such are the gods\nand angels and spirits of different denominations).\n\n28. But these persons who are deluded by their ignorance of truth,\nto think themselves other than or apart from Brahma, and as dull and\nunintellectual beings, and as a distinct duality from the nature of\nGod:--\n\n29. They are seen to be born again the next time, in consequence of\ntheir past actions, and accompanied with the results of those acts,\nwhereby they are confined in their unintellectual bodies, in order to\nlead their unspiritual lives, quite forgetful of their divine nature,\nand subjected to the false belief of their materiality.\n\n30. But such as preserve the purity of their divine character, by\nthinking themselves as inseparable from the Divine soul, are known here\nas uncontaminated by their former acts, as the persons of the divine\nBrahm\u00e1, Vishnu and Siva or the holy trinity.\n\n31. All those that know the true nature of the soul, remain with its\npurity in the spirit of God; but such as understand it in the light of\nthe living spirit, live in themselves as detached from the Divine soul.\n\n32. Whenever one knows himself as a mere living being, he is then\ncertainly accompanied by his ignorance or avidy\u00e1; and the soul takes\nthe name of the animal spirit or life, which is conversant only with\nthe world wherein it is situated.\n\n33. But as he comes to know in course of time, the true and divine\nnature of his soul, he is then reinstated in his real state and becomes\none with the supreme soul of all.\n\n34. As the fluidity of water exhibits itself in the form of whirlpools\nin some waters; so the divine intellect shows the in-existent world as\nexistent, to those understandings which are ignorant of the nature of\nthe supreme soul. (It is the nature of the omniscient mind, to picture\nin itself, the appearances of things that are not in actual existence).\n\n35. The world is the reflexion of omniscience, and not the\nrepresentation of our dreaming or waking states; therefore it can have\nno action or property of itself, when it is nothing in reality.\n\n36. In fact neither the knowledge of the world nor ignorance of it, or\nits action or motion or any of its properties, is anything in reality;\nall these are the results of our thought, that represents the unreal as\nreal one unto us.\n\n37. In truth Brahma being the very creation or the great cosmos itself,\nis verily the soul of all beings; it is in vain therefore to suppose\nour prior acts as cause of our births. That God is the creator of the\nuniverse, is a mere assumption made from his omnipotence (which is\nsupposed to make everything out of nothing; but as _ex nihilo nihil\nfit_, God is himself diffused throughout all nature).\n\n38. It is impossible for any body to have the bindings of his prior\nacts upon him, at his first creation in the world; it was only\nafterwards through his ignorance that he fabricated to himself a fate\nor causality of his actions for his fruitions in afterlives (_i.e._ in\nhis subsequent and succeeding births or transmigrations in the world).\n\n39. Say whether the vortex of sea has any body or action of its own; it\nis but the whirling water, as Brahma himself is apparent in the form of\nthis seeming world.\n\n40. As the persons appearing in our dream have no prior acts for their\nappearance; so were the living beings in their first formation, endued\nwith pure understanding only (for want of their prior acts to actuate\nthem at first).\n\n41. It is a mere supposition, that they had their causal acts at first\ncreation; and that all living beings have been roving ever since (in\nrepeated births), being fast bound by the chain of their prior acts.\n(Man was pure in his creation, but since his first act of transgression\nor original sin, and then his actual sins, have subjected him to the\nmiserable doom of undergoing repeated births).\n\n42. But this creation is no act of creation, but verily the\nmanifestations of Brahma himself; and such being the case (that the\nworld is the selfsame Brahma), say what can acts mean, whence they\nproceed and where they lie.\n\n43. It is only the ignorance of the supreme soul, which binds us to the\nbondage of acts; but its fetters fall off from the believer of Brahma\nby his knowledge of truth. (Those who rely on their acts of faith,\nare subjected to them; but the believer in One is released from their\nbonds).\n\n44. Know the outward acts of faith, to proceed from ignorance of the\nuniverse; but as the wise man advances in his knowledge, he extricates\nhimself from the bondage of all religions and ceremonial acts and\nobservances.\n\n45. Whereas the external acts of faith entirely devoid of any\nsubstantiality or meritoriousness in them, it is no way difficult to\nget of them at once; it is solely our spiritual bond which is our\nchief concern, beside which there is no bond whatsoever.\n\n46. So long there is the dread of the dreadful illusion of this world,\nas long as you do not attain to your wisdom; and so long do you\nexhibit your wisdom, that you do not fall into the vertiginous eddy of\nworldly affairs. Therefore try always, ye men of pure hearts and soul,\nto acquire your wisdom and learning; because there is no other way of\nyour flying from the fears of the world, save by means of your right\nunderstanding.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXXXXIII.\n\nASCERTAINMENT OF NIRV\u00c1NA OR ULTIMATE EXTINCTION.\n\n Argument:--Praise of wisdom and Intellectual knowledge, and\n arguments in support of the Intellectuality of the world.\n\n\nThe sage continued:--The wise man shines in the assembly of the\nlearned, as the sun illumines the assemblage of lotuses, in his\ninvestigation of the duties of religion and ceremonial acts, leading to\nthe welfare of men in both worlds.\n\n2. The heavenly felicity which is attained by the learned and wise by\nmeans of their spiritual knowledge, is as an ocean of bliss; before\nwhich the prosperity of god Indra even, appears to dwindle away as\nrotten straws amidst the billows.\n\n3. I find no such felicity or prosperity, in the three regions of this\nearth or heaven above or in the p\u00e1t\u00e1la below, which is greater or\ncomparable with the blissfulness of learning and wisdom.\n\n4. The learned have as clear a sight of the true state of all things,\nas the moon-light gives a clear view of the sphere of stars in the\ncloudless sky.\n\n5. The visible world, soon vanishes from sight, and turns to the\ninvisible Brahma, by the sapience of the wise; as a rosary of cord,\nappearing at first as a snake, is soon found to be a line upon its\ninspection.\n\n6. That Brahm\u00e1--the god is ever situated in his Brahma-hood or godhead\nis a truth evident by itself; and that it is his nature that gives rise\nto the terms creation, destruction, body and others. (Gloss: that the\nwords creation &c., appertain to his very nature, and are not distinct\nfrom him).\n\n7. He to whom the existence of the world is _nil_ and naught, has no\ncare or concern for acts and duties, which are no more than blank\nletters to him.\n\n8. It is possible to believe in the production of the material world,\nfrom the prior existence of its material cause; but in want of such\nthere can be no world, nor can there be a cause of it, when it is\nitself null and void.\n\n9. It is only the reflection of Brahma, that takes the names of the\nearth and all other things; wherefore it is not necessary for these\nmere reflexions to have any cause at all. (The substance of God, being\nthe cause of the shadow).\n\n10. As the men seen in a dream, have no real cause except the\nimagination of the dreamer; such are the persons seen in our waking\ndreams, but mere reflexions of our imaginations, and not the production\nof their parents.\n\n11. As there is not the causality of the prior acts, for the appearance\nof persons in human forms in our dream; so neither is there any actual\ncause for people seen in waking dream, to assume the garb of humanity\nupon them.\n\n12. Both prior acts as well as desires, are equally false in their\ncausality, of framing living beings in different shapes in their\nrepeated births, just as they are no causes of producing the persons\nseen in our dreams.\n\n13. Men appear as dreams and their impressions, in the course of their\nbirths and deaths; and they are conscious of this state or that as they\nthink themselves either as the one or the other (_i.e._ we seem to be\nor not, as we think ourselves to be).\n\n14. People appear to be as they think of their being, from their\nconsciousness of themselves; and they seem to be in the same state in\ntheir dream, as they appear in the waking state, both in their intents\nand actions. (The dreamer and the dreamt do not differ from their\nwaking states).\n\n15. The desires and sensations of the dreaming man, are alike those of\nthe waking, and differing only in the dimness of the former, from the\ndistinctness of the latter. Thus a dreaming man is sensible of deriving\nthe same satisfaction, in obtaining the object of his wish as the\nwaking man; though the one is of a concealed and the other of an overt\nnature. (Therefore there is no difference between the states).\n\n16. Whenever our pure consciousness of things, shines forth of its own\nnature in either of its two states of clearness or faintness; it is\nthen the reflexion of the one takes the appellation of waking,\nand the other is known as the dreaming state.\n\n17. As long as this consciousness continues to glare in any body, since\nhis first creation until his final emancipation, he is said to be a\nliving being, under his repeated births and deaths.\n\n18. The import of the words waking and dreaming, is not at all\ndifferent from that of consciousness; whose irrepressible reflexion\nconstitutes the essence of both states, as light is the essentiality of\nluminaries.\n\n19. As heat is the gist of fire, and motion the marrow of the\nsufflated air or wind; or as the fluidity of water is the pith of the\nbillows, and coolness the quiddity of breeze (so is consciousness the\nquintessence of both our waking and dreaming states).\n\n20. The whole universe is an unruffled chasm, and an unchanging\nunreality; and this seeming reality of the world, is even united with\nits negative sense of nihility.\n\n21. Brahma in its exoteric sense, is both the production as well as the\ndestruction of the world, and equally alike its visible form and its\nnotion also; but being viewed in its esoteric light, it only of\nthe nature of the pure Intellect, and the One alone, that is for ever\ncalm and quiet and undecaying in itself.\n\n22. Whatever thought of causality or effect, passes in the mind of\nBrahma at any time, the same comes to take place immediately, as men\nconstruct their houses as they please in cities.\n\n23. The whole creation abides in the mind of God, as the city you dream\nof is in your thought; the cause and effect herein, being the same in\none case as in the other.\n\n24. The causality and effectuality are both contained in the womb of\nthe dense Intellect; and these are exerted in the same manner in the\nact of creation of the world, as in that of the construction of thy\nimaginary castle.\n\n25. The Divine Intellect employs its will, in the causation of its\nintended creation; as you form the plan for the construction of your\nprojected edifice: Thus the causality and its effect are combined\ntogether in the one and same mind.\n\n26. The divine mind develops itself in its own form of the sky, and the\nworld that is for ever situated therein, is then called the creation\nand lying in the expanse of that sky. (Gloss. The srutis deny the\nexistence of the outer and visible world).\n\n27. The light which the sun of our consciousness, cast upon the\nimaginary city in the mind; is of its own nature what is signified\nby the terms causality and its effect. (_i.e._ Our consciousness is\nthe cause of our knowledge of the world--the false creation of our\nimagination).\n\n28. The forms in which the mind displayed itself at first, the\nsame continue to exist ever since in the same state; and these are\ninvariably designated by the terms of time, space and the rest.\n\n29. Whatever names are borne by the things, which are exhibited in the\nvacuity of the Intellect; they are ever after viewed as realities under\nthe designations of some as causes and others as their effect (as the\ncow is the cause of the production of milk, and the pot is the cause of\nits reception, and so forth).\n\n30. The creation which was miraculously displayed in its ideal form in\nthe Intellect, consisted at first of mere ideas, which received the\nname of the (material) world afterwards. (So the sruti: whatever is\nthought of in the mind at first, receives a name (or a word) for its\ndesignation afterwards).\n\n31. This triple world is of a vacuous form, and is situated in\nthe vacuity of the intellect; just as the clear air contains its\ninsufflation inbred in it. (The inherence of vibration inborn in it).\n\n32. As the vapours and clouds covering the face of the sky, give\nthe appearance of blueness to it; so the dizziness of ignorance,\nmisrepresents the clear intellect in the form of the gross world.\n\n33. But on receiving the true reflexion of the spirit in the intellect,\nby means of intense meditation, the notion of the creation turns to\nthat of non-creation; as the false notion of the snake in the rope, is\nchanged to that of the rope upon its revision.\n\n34. The dead find the future world, as what they used to see in their\ndream; but that world as well as this, are equally as formless as the\nvacuum of the Intellect. (Both this world and the next, are situated in\nthe Divine-Mind, and are of the same form as that).\n\n35. The Huntsman said:--Tell me sir, why are men regenerated in new\nbodies; for their sufferings and enjoyments in future births; and\ntell me also what are the principal and accompanying causes of our\nreproduction in this world.\n\n36. If it is on account of the pious or impious acts, which are done\nin our present destructible bodies, that we are destined to their\nretributions afterwards; then say why our indestructible souls, should\nbe brought to feel their results in other bodies, which seems to be\nvery absurd to me.\n\n37. The sage replied:--The words piety and impiety, our desires and\nacts, are words of the same import, and significant of their causality\nin framing the living soul according to their own stamp; but these are\nmere suppositions, and neither true causes of the schesis of our souls,\nnor of the modes of our lives.\n\n38. It is the mind which is situated in the vacuous intellect, and\nis possest of the power of intellection that imagines in itself the\nvarious states of things (and the happiness and miseries of life),\nand gives names to them accordingly. (So says the sruti:--The sapient\nseeing the different form and states of things, coin words to designate\nthem and their various modes also).\n\n39. The conscious soul comes to know by means of its intellection, its\nown body in its vacuous self; and after death it sees the same to exist\nas in its dream or imagination (_i.e._ in its ideal form).\n\n40. The knowledge of the dead in regard to the next world, is likewise\nin the manner of a dream; and though this dreaming state of the soul\ncontinues for a long duration, it bears no truth in its nature.\n\n41. If a new body is framed by another person (such as parents or the\ncreator himself), for the re-entrance of deceased spirit into it,\nthen can the new born body have any remembrance of the past, and how\ncan this body be what the dead person had before, and as for his\nintellect, it is a mere vacuity, and cannot pass from one body into\nanother.\n\n42. Therefore no one that is dead is born again, or is to be reborn\nafterwards at any time; it is only an idea of the mind, that I was so\nand am reborn as such; and a vain wish in its vacuity, to be born again\n some form or other.\n\n43. It is by nature and habitual mode of thinking, that men are\nimpressed with belief of his regeneration, both by popular persuasion\nand scriptural evidence of a state of future retribution, which is\naltogether false and fanciful.\n\n44. The soul is an aerial and vacuous substance, giving rise to the\nphantoms of visibles, in the forms of shadowy dreams in its spacious\nvacuity; and always views its births and deaths in endless repetitions\nin this world.\n\n45. It views every particular object, in the illusive net work, which\nis spread in its ample sphere; and seems to see and act and enjoy\neverything, without being in the actual enjoyment of any thing.\n\n46. In this manner millions and millions of worlds, are constantly\nrising before its sight; which appear to be so many visible phenomena\nin its ignorance; but which when viewed in their proper light, prove to\nbe the display of One all pervading Brahma only.\n\n47. But none of them ever occupy any space, nor do any one of them ever\nexist anywhere in reality; but there is that one Brahma that spreads\nundivided through all, and knows all these an undivided whole,\nand yet every one of them forming a world of itself. (The Lord is full\nand perfect in each and all of these).\n\n48. Now all beings in these worlds, are connected with one another in\na common link (of the universal soul of all); they appear as realities\nto the erroneous sight of people, but being viewed in their true light,\nthey proved to be self-same with the unborn One.\n\n49. That undecaying One which is known as true reality, to the knower\nof the knowable (_i.e._ to him who knows the truth), and what is\nunderstood as unreal by the enlightened sage, is believed to be true\nby the ignorant. (This is the contrariety between both).\n\n50. The belief that all things every where are realities, because they\nare all but reflexions of the selfsame One; is enough to reconcile\nthese opposite parties, and to settle in one common faith of universal\ncatholicism (of One, to pan).\n\n51. Or in order to ascertain, whether the world as one views it is real\nor unreal, let one consult his own consciousness about it, and rely on\nits verdict, with regard to its reality or otherwise: (because nothing\ncan upset the undeniable conviction of consciousness).\n\n52. Who can doubt the evidence of consciousness, or confute its\ndictates of this kind or that; or with regard to the difference or\nidentity of things, or their unity or duality.\n\n53. The knowledge of the knowable God; in as much as it is known to us\nis right, and establishes the identity of the knowable One with his\nknowledge; but the position that the known or visible world, is identic\nwith the unknown and invisible god, is false and mistaken knowledge.\n(_i.e._ God is seen in his works, but the works are not the God).\n\n54. Such being the meaning (of this mystery), the knowable One is\nnot distinct from knowledge of Him; but being seated in our finite\nunderstanding, is quite unknown to and apart from the ignorant, that\nhave no knowledge of the knowable One.\n\n55. The Knowable One is known to us in proportion to our knowledge of\nhim; but not so to those that are ignorant of Him; as our knowledge\nincreases, so the knowable soul spreads of itself over our souls.\n\n56. Hence the unreal worlds, that appear of themselves as real ones\nbefore the eyes of the ignorant, are naught and nothing to my sight.\n\n57. Being rightly understood, all things are but forms of the one\nintellect, and equally void as itself, and this appears in a thousand\nshapes to the understanding of gross instincts.\n\n58. As the one intellectual soul assumes many forms to itself as it\nexhibits in its dreams, and engrosses them all again into one, or the\nsingle form of its unity in its sound sleep; so doth the Divine soul\nappear in one or more forms to our intellects also.\n\n59. Thus our consciousness of God though one and same, yet it appears\nin various forms according to the various apprehensions of men; and\nare either vacuous or formal, as our dreams and the works of our\nimagination.\n\n60. The consciousness of the dreams that we have in the vacuum of our\nminds, is what take the name of the worlds; but the sound sleep of the\nmind or its unconsciousness of anything, is called its _pralaya_ or\nanaesthesia: and this analogy applies equally to them.\n\n61. This substantial totality of existences, are mere perceptions of\nthe mind only; and whatever appears in any manner in the thought in\nany manner at any time or place, the same seems to present itself in\nreality before us even then and there.\n\n62. It was the thought alone at first, that manifested itself in the\nforms of the primary elements of fire and water, and the earth and in\nthe beginning of creation, all which rose in the mind in the manner of\ndreams and the phantoms of its imagination.\n\n63. Again the inward impressions of these things, that are preserved\nin the vacuous space of our consciousness; the same unite together of\nthemselves, and exhibit unto us this world, in the form as we view it\nin our presence.\n\n64. Our consciousness appears unto us, in both its transient as well\nas permanent states; while in reality it is no temporary thing, but\ncontinues with us even at the end of all transitory things, as our\ntransient lives also.\n\n65. Our consciousness accompanies us for ever, wheresoever we remain or\ngo; conceive in yourself for instance as passing on either towards the\neast or west; you see many things and cities on your way; but can never\nlose your memory of the past, nor the consciousness of yourself as you\nproceed onward. (The knowledge which the mind has of its operations, is\nnever effaced from it).\n\n66. Anything that the mind has seen or willed or is long practiced to\ndo or think upon is never effaced from consciousness, unless it be\nfrom numbness of the Intellect. (Gloss. So one is never at a loss to\nrealize his wishes, unless he is remiss in his efforts to bring them to\neffect).\n\n67. You may rove wherever you please, either to the east or west, and\nyou will find your consciousness to continue same, and never\nchanging with the change of your place. (So doth one\u2019s consciousness\naccompany him even after his death).\n\n68. We have seen the man of steady consciousness, attain to the object\nor state of his wish, by his firm perseverance; while on the contrary\nthe unsteady minded are sure to lose them both: (_i.e._ his wished for\nobject together with the consciousness of himself).\n\n69. The man of steady consciousness, is possessed of both states\nwhether he goes to the north or south; but the one that is unsteady in\nhimself and to his purpose also, is deprived of both (himself and his\nobject). (Consciousness is joint knowledge of ourselves, in connections\nwith others, so that the mind knows both what it is, as well as what it\nwills).\n\n70. The man of firm intent that thinks of his being both in heaven\nand earth, has them both by fixing his mind in one, while his body is\nplaced in the other; as the man thinking of going both to the east and\nwest, may do both by walking one way and thinking of the other. But the\nman of unsteady purpose is neither for this world or that, nor walks\none way or the other (but stands in the middle).\n\n71. By steadfast belief in the One, we find the intellect alone\npervading the whole vacuity of space; but this one appears as many and\nmany thousands to the understanding of ignorant sceptics.\n\n72. Be the body destructible because of its materiality, or\nindestructible by reason of it being the reflexions of the divine\nintellect; yet it is after all but a mere appearance in the dream\nof the living soul, whether in this or in the future world. (The\nindestructible intellect, cannot be the destructible body, because the\ndestruction of this would involve the other to destruction also).\n\n73. That the souls of men do not die with their bodies, is evident\nfrom the instances of the ghosts and spirits of the barbarians, that\nare invoked by wizards, and made to relate the incidents of their past\nlives.\n\n74. Men in the country of barbarians that have long been dead and burnt\ndown to ashes, are known to reappear before people, and delivering\ntheir errands, to have disappeared with their living souls.\n\n75. If it is impossible for departed souls to reappear like the\nliving as the Ch\u00e1rv\u00e1kas say; then let me ask them, why do they not\nreckon their absent friends as dead also, and unable to return. (This\nargument maintains the doctrine of spirituality, of the capability of\nthe reappearance of departed spirits from the analogy of the return of\nabsent people to their homes; as Butler proves the rising of the dead\nat the Resurrection, upon the analogy of our waking from sleep).\n\n76. If the property of action be true of the living, why should it not\nbe equally true of the dead also; upon the analogy of our conception of\nthe idea of the action of the one as well as of the other.\n\n77. The doctrine of the visionary dream of the world, being the\nestablished and irrefutable truth of Aryan s\u00e1stras; it is quite\ncompatible and conformable with the tenet of eternal ideas maintained\nin Indian philosophy.\n\n78. These worlds are equally as true as well as false to view, as the\nsight of the appearances in the disc of the moon, which appears as\nrealities to the eyes of beholders, without having any substantiality\nin them (The lunar spots are considered as mere marks--_kalankas_\nthough to all appearance they seem as habitable parts--_chandra-loka_).\n\n79. The subjective world is real, in having all its objects as parts\nof the true Entity; and the subjective mind is a reality, in its being\ncomposed of pure ideas only. The Intellect is true as reflexion only,\nand so they are all true without having any reality of themselves.\n\n80. All these are immutable and quiet, and lie quiescent in the vacuity\nof the Divine Intellect; they are irremovable and unconspicuous of\nthemselves, and lie immanent in the Divine soul.\n\n81. It is the steady consciousness, that is conscious of whatever is\nfixed upon at any time or place; and represents all things whether real\nor unreal, that is inbred or inherent in it.\n\n82. Let our bodies rise or fall, and our destinies overtake us as they\nwill; let happiness or misery befall on us as they are decreed, they\ncannot affect the serenity of the indifferent soul.\n\n83. Hence it is of no matter unto us, whether these are realities or\notherwise, or whether it may be so and so or not; avoid your desire for\nany thing, and be wise and at rest after all your wanderings.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXXXXIV.\n\nINVESTIGATION INTO THE NATURE & VICISSITUDES OF THINGS.\n\n Argument:--The Intellect manifested in the World, which is but a\n manifestation of the Divine--mind and its Omnipotence.\n\n\nThe sage continued:--The visible world is being a something in nothing\nan entity based upon non-entity (_i.e._ a substance based upon the\nintellect), resembles our consciousness of things seen in our dream\nonly. And as all things are eternally situated in the Divine Mind,\nthere can be no meaning in our being bound to or liberated from them.\n\n2. These worlds that appear to rove before us, are seen as the mites\nflying about in the solar rays (or as the bright circlets seeming to\nswim before our closed eyes); they are but evanescent phantoms in the\nair, and appearing as stable bodies in the minds of the ignorant.\n\n3. Whatever is seen to be placed before us in any form or state, is\nsoon found to change its mode and manner before us; so likewise is the\nchangeful state of all things herein, that are continually rotating\nlike the waters in a whirlpool.\n\n4. The earth, air, water &c., are the materials that combine to form\nfrail bodies, that are doomed to decay and dissolve in a short time;\nand yet they are computed by the ignorant to last for ages--as yugas &\nkalpas. (Everything is changing and nothing lasting).\n\n5. The world is a dream, and the totality of existence a mere nihility;\nand yet the notion of entity that we of this nullity, is no\nother than a reflexion of the one Eternal Intellect.\n\n6. Like this solar world of ours, there are hundreds and thousand\nothers to be seen in the skies; nor is it incredible that others have\nthe like notions of other peoples.\n\n7. We see the seas and lakes, teeming with living beings of various\nkinds, and find the pools and bogs full of frogs everywhere; but\nnone of them know anything about the other reservoirs, nor of their\ninhabitants neither beside those of their own.\n\n8. As a hundred men sleeping in one and the same room; see as many air\nbuilt castles differing from another in their dream; so there appear\ndifferent worlds in the airy intellects of some, which are seen and\nunknown to others.\n\n9. As many aerial cities are seen, in the dreams of many men, sleeping\ntogether in the same room; so do these aerial worlds appear in empty\nsphere of our minds, and are said to be in being and not being in the\nsame time (_i.e._ being but a dream which is no-being or nothing).\n\n10. The sky is a miracle of the mind, and a phenomenon of itself;\nit is visible without its form, and appears as limited without its\nlimitation, and as created without its creation. (vacuity being\nincreate).\n\n11. The vacuum bearing the nature of the vacuous mind, is vainly styled\nthe firm firmament; it presents to view the forms of fleeting objects\nin it, as the understanding represents its ideas and passing thoughts\nto our knowledge.\n\n12. The remembrance of a thing, is the cause of its dream by night, as\nthe desire of something causes its conception in the mind; and as the\napprehension of one\u2019s death, proceeds from his seeing in the instances\nof others.\n\n13. In the beginning of creation, the world appears as an image in\nthe mind; which is no other than a flash or reflexion of the Divine\nIntellect, and to which no other name than a _r\u00e9chauff\u00e9_ of the Divine\nIntellect, can be properly assigned.\n\n14. The saying that Brahma shines as the very world means to say that,\nhe did not shine anew in the form of the world, but has this form\neternally subsisting in his omniscience.\n\n15. It is said that the cause is (identic with) the effect, because the\ncommon cause of all, is specialized in its form of the effect (_i.e._\nthe one becomes as many). The action which was confined in the cause\nat first (as vegetation in the seed), becomes evolved in the germ of\ncreation afterwards.\n\n16. When such things (or conditions) occur in the mind in dreams, as\nhave not been seen or known before, they are called _sansk\u00e1ras_ or\npristine impressions in the mind (as our inward-passions and feelings),\nand not the external objects of sense, which are not inbred in the mind.\n\n17. These mental impressions or reminiscences, are perceptible to us in\nour dreaming and not in the waking state; and though they are unseen in\nour waking; yet they are not lost unto us so long as we retain those\nimpressions in the mind. They naturally appear in the soul in dreaming,\nas the visibles appear to sight in the waking state.\n\n18. Thus the ved\u00e1ntist comes to know the inexistence of the outer\nworld, and by knowing the knowable One, they come to attain the\nconsummation of their object (which is the attainment of their final\nemancipation or _moksha_).\n\n19. The impressions of the waking state, which occur in the state\nof dreaming, are the newly made imprints of the waking hours on the\nmemory; and these make the sleeping hours seem as waking to the\ndreaming soul.\n\n20. These recent ideas fluctuate in the mind, as by the breath of the\nwind, and they occur and recur of themselves, without the agency of\npristine impressions.\n\n21. There is one sole Intellect only, possessed of its many multitudes\nof airy dreams; and being dispossessed of them at last, it remains\nsolely by and in itself.\n\n22. The consciousness that we have of the dreams, ranging at large in\nthe empty sphere of our Intellect, is verily what is denominated the\nworld by us; and the want of this consciousness in our sound sleep,\nis what is termed the extinction of world by ourselves. This analogy\napplies also to the nature of the self-existed One.\n\n23. There exists only the infinite sphere of one eternal Intellect, and\nthere appears an infinity of shapes, perpetually rising and setting in\nits open in the manner of dreams. These are born of its own nature and\nare called the world, and bear the same intellectual form with itself.\n\n24. Thus the atomic particle of the Intellect, contains the form of\nthe whole cosmos within its bosom; which is an exact ectype of its\narchetype, as the shadow under a mirror, is the true representation of\nthe prototype.\n\n25. The cavity of the Intellect contains the consciousness which is\ndiffused in it like the dilution of an atom; and extends throughout\nwithout beginning and end, and this is called the cosmos.\n\n26. Hence as far as the vacuity of the Intellect extends to all\ninfinity, there is the appearance of the wide world connected with it,\nas immanent in and identic with itself at all times. (The intimate\nconnection of the subjective mind and objective world together).\n\n27. The intellect is selfsame with the world, and therefore all minds\nand intellectual beings as myself and thyself, are worlds or microcosm\nalso; and it for this reason that the great macrocosm of the\nworld, is said to be comprised in the corpuscle of the mind.\n\n28. Therefore I who am a minute soul, am of the form of the whole\nworld also (being its container in the mind); hence I abide everywhere\nlikewise, even in the midst of an atom also.\n\n29. Being in the form of the _minutiae_ of the intellect, I am also\nas great as the universal soul, and as expanded as the open air all\naround; I also see all the three worlds about one, wherever I abide or\nmove. (All things are present in the mind, at all places and times).\n\n30. I am an atom of the intellectual soul, and am joined with the\nintellectual soul of the universe; it is my sight of the supreme spirit\nin my meditation, that I am lost in it as a drop of water is lost in\nthe ocean.\n\n31. Having entered into the Divine spirit, and feeling its influence in\nme, I am filled with its cognition; and behold the three worlds within\nme, as the seed lies hid in the pericarp or in the seed vessel (to be\ndeveloped in its future foliage).\n\n32. I see the triple world expanding within myself (according to our\nreminiscence of the same which is engraven in the mind), beside which\nthere is no outer world on the outside of any body. (The world lies in\nthe conception of mind only, and the exterior one is but a reflexion of\nthe same).\n\n33. Whenever the world appears in any form, whether of a gross or\nsubtile nature, as in the states of our waking or dreaming; both these\nforms of the interior or exterior worlds, are to be known as the\nreflexion of the ideal one imprinted in the intellect.\n\n34. When the living soul indulges itself in the sight of the world,\nin the state of its dreaming; it is to be known as a reflexion of the\nexpanded particle of the intellect, which the sleeping soul delights to\ndote upon.\n\n35. The Huntsman rejoined:--If the visible world is causeless or\nwithout its maker, then how could it come into existence, and if it be\na caused or created exterior world, how could we have any knowledge of\nit in the sleeping and dreaming of the soul.\n\n36. The sage replied:--All this is without a cause, and the world\nproceeded at first without any causality whatever. (The Muni means\nto say that there cannot be any independent or instrumental cause of\ncreation save the emanation of One oneself).\n\n37. It is verily impossible for gross and perishable bodies and\ntransient beings, to come to being without a cause; but that which is\na facsimile or shadow only of the antitype and original model of the\neternal mind, cannot possibly have any cause at all.\n\n38. It is Brahma himself that thus shines refulgent, by nature of his\nintellectual effulgence; hence the world\u2019s creation and destruction are\nutterly inapplicable to what is without its beginning and end.\n\n39. Thus the uncaused creation, abides in the substance of the great\nGod, and shines forth with divine glory to all infinity. It is to\ngross minds only, which are prepossessed with the grosser ideas of\nmateriality, that it appears in the form of a gross material body.\n\n40. What numberless varieties do there appear in the unvaried Brahma,\nand what un-numbered diversities of shapes and forms are seen in the\nformless One, that is ever unchanged and imperishable.\n\n41. Brahma is formless in his person (which is of a spiritual form);\nyet he exhibits himself in many forms, in his being the mind (or mirror\nof all ideal forms); where he represents his spiritual self or soul, in\nall the various forms of moving and immovable bodies.\n\n42. He makes the gods, sages and seers in his likeness, and directs\nthem to their different degrees and duties also; he stablishes the laws\nand prohibitions of conduct, and appoints the acts and observances at\nall times and places.\n\n43. All existences and privations, productions and destructions, of\nmoving or unmoving bodies, whether great or small ones, are subject to\nhis decree, and can never transgress any of his general laws.\n\n44. Ever since the general decree, nothing takes place without its\nproper special cause; as you can never expect to exude oil from sand\n(save from oily seeds).\n\n45. The destined decree of providence, is the leader of all events\nin the world; it is as one part of the body of Brahma, by which he\nrepresses the other part of himself (_i.e._ his will); as we restrain\nthe action of one hand by the other. (One over-ruling fate governs even\nJove himself).\n\n46. This unavoidable destiny overtakes us, against our prudence and\nwill, like the sudden fall of a fruit on a flying crow (\u0915\u093e\u0915\u0924\u093e\u0932\u0940\u092f) and\ndrives us along with its course, as the tide or eddy bears down the\nwaters with it.\n\n47. The preordination of certain effects from certain causes, is\nwhat is called destiny; without which there result all disorder and\ndisturbance, and in want of which the great Brahma even cannot abide.\nIt is therefore the imperishable soul of all existence.\n\n48. Thus then this destiny is the cause of all, and although it is\nunseen and unknown, yet it acts on all as it is destined for them ever\nsince their very production. (This is no more than the unchangeable law\nof nature).\n\n49. The uncausing Brahma that causes nothing, is believed by the\nignorant as the causal agent of creation; which they mistake as the\nproduction of its maker by error of their judgment.\n\n50. The wise man however, seeing the sudden appearance of world\nbefore him, like the rotation of a wheel, considers its causes as\nsuch and such or this and that, as they have been determined by their\npreordained destiny.\n\n51. So all existent bodies have their special causes, in their\nprimordial destiny, which determines their subsequent lots in endless\nsuccession. Hence the occurrences, of our waking state, resembling the\nvisions in our dream, are never without their antecedent causes.\n\n52. Thus when I dreamt the erroneous dream of the destruction of the\nworld, caused by concussion of the elements and waters I had its cause\ninbred in me, in my reminiscence of the great deluge I had heard of in\ntraditional narration.\n\n53. In this manner we see the reflexions of almighty power in all\nthings that come under own reflection (or observation), just as we\nsee the crystals and shell-fishes shining with their intrinsical\nbrightness. May this Omnipotent power that is ever-living soul of\nsouls, and known to us in our imperfect notion of him, be glorified for\never and ever.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXXXXV.\n\nDESCRIPTION OF THE WAKING, DREAMING AND SLEEPING STATES.\n\n Argument:--The three Humours of Human body Composing the three\n states of its earthly existence.\n\n\nThe sage continued:--The living soul (or man) perceives the dream of\nthe outer world, by means of the external organs of sense; and that of\nthe inner world by the internal senses; but the quickness of both the\ninternal and external senses, gives the sensations of both these worlds\nto the soul.\n\n2. When the outer senses are busily employed with outward objects, then\nthe perceptions of mental objects and inner functions become faint and\nfainter by degrees.\n\n3. When the external senses are all directed to the inside, and the\ninner senses are concentrated in the mind; then the object of thought\nand the idea of the world however minute they had been before, assume\ngradually a more expanded form, and present their extended appearances\nto the soul. (Brooding upon a thought, dilates it the more).\n\n4. In this manner the world which is nothing in reality, being once\nthought upon as something however small in its idea, dilates itself to\nan enormous size in the mind, which cast at last its reflexion on the\nexternal organs of sense also, and make it appear so big and vast to\nsight.\n\n5. When the eyes and senses of a living person, are occupied with outer\nobjects, then the soul beholds the intellect, the form of the exterior\nworld only (so the external senses carry their impressions to the mind\nalso).\n\n6. The intellectual and aeriform soul, is composed of the congeries\nof all outward sensations; namely of the ears or hearing, touch or\nfeeling, seeing and smelling, and taste as also of the four internal\nsensations of will or volition.\n\n7. Therefore the living soul is always present at every place,\naccompanied with all the senses in its intellect, hence the airy\nintellect is to be ever unobstructed, because it always knows and sees\nevery where.\n\n8. When the phlegmatic humour or fluid of the body, fills the veins and\narteries of the living person; the soul is then lulled to sleep and to\nsee false visions in its dream.\n\n9. It seems to swim in a sea of milk, and to soar in the moonlight\nsky; it thinks it sees a limpid lake about it, filled with full blown\nlotuses and their blooming buds.\n\n10. It sees in itself the flowery gardens of the vernal season,\nand mantled in vest of flowers, vying with the bespangled sky, and\nresounding with the warbling of birds, and the buzz of humming humble\nbees.\n\n11. It sees all mirth and festivity afoot in its mansion, and the\nmerry dance of sportive damsels afloat in its compound; and views its\ncourt-yard filled with provisions of food and drink (to its heart\u2019s\ncontent).\n\n12. It beholds profluent streams like adolescent maidens, running\nsportfully to join the distant sea; girt with the swimming flowers\nand smiling with their flashy foams; and darting about their fickle\nglances, in flitting motion of the shrimps, fluttering on the surface\nof the water.\n\n13. It views edifices, turrets, rising as high as the summits of\nthe Him\u00e1layan mountains, and the tops of ice bergs (in the frigid\nclimes); and having their white washed walls, appearing as if they were\nvarnished with moon-beams.\n\n14. It sees the landscape covered by the dews of the dewy season, or as\nhid under the mists of winter, and shrouded by the showering clouds of\nthe rainy weather, and views the ground below overgrown with herbaceous\nplants, and the muddy marshes grown over with blue lotuses.\n\n15. The woodlands were seen to be overspread with flowers, and resorted\nto by droves of deer and the weary traveller; that halted under the\ncooling umbrage of the thickening foliage of the forest, and were\nsoothed by soft breezes of the sylvan spot.\n\n16. The flowery arbour had all its alleys and arcades, bestrewn over\nwith the flaring farina of flowers; and the crimson dusts of _Kunda_,\n_Kadamba_ and _Mandara_ blossoms, were blushing and mantling the\nscenery all around.\n\n17. The lakes were attired in azure with blue lotuses, and the ground\nwore the flowing floral garment of flowers; the woodlands were clear of\nclouds, and the firmament was clear and cold under the autumnal sky.\n\n18. The mountain range was crowned with rows of _Kunda_, _Kadamba_\nand _Kadal\u00ed_ or plantain trees, which waved their leafy fans on their\nexalted heads, which appeared to nod at the dancing of the leaflets.\n\n19. The tender creepers were shaking with negligence, with the unblown\nbuds and blossoms upon them; appeared as young damsels dancing\ngracefully, with strings of pearls on their slender persons.\n\n20. It sees the royal hall and the regal synod, shining as brightly as\nthe blooming lotus-bed in the lake; and he sees also the fanning white\n_chouries_ and waving over them, like the feathered tribe, flapping\ntheir wings over the floral lake (or lotus beds).\n\n21. It sees also the running rills softly gliding in playful mood,\nwith curling creepers and flowers wreathed with their currents; and\nmurmuring along with mixed music of birds on the spray beside them.\n\n22. The dhar\u00e1--terra or earth was filled and flooded, by dh\u00e1ra\nor torrents of water falling from the _adharas_ or cataracts, of\n_dhar\u00e1dharas_ or mountains; and all the sides of heaven were obscured\nby the showers of rain and snows, falling all about its vault.\n\n23. When the internal channels of the body are filled with the fluid of\nbile (pitta), the soul remains with its internal vigor as an atom in\nits cell, and then sees the dreams of the following nature in itself.\n\n24. It sees flames of fire about it, and red _kinsuka_ flowers upon its\nwithered trees and blasted by the winds; it sees also the forms of red\nlotus flowers, burning as flames of fire before it.\n\n25. The inner nerves and veins became as dry of the gastric juice, as\nwhen the limpid streams turn to dry sand banks; and there appear flames\nof wild fire, and dark smoke flying over the darkened face of nature.\n\n26. There appear fires to be blazing around, and the disk of the sun\nseems to dart its burning rays; wild fires are seen in forests, the\nwithered and the dried ponds emit a poisonous gas, instead of their\nlimpid waters.\n\n27. The seas are seen with their boiling waters, and turning to beds\nof hot mire and mud; the horizon is filled with sultry winds, and the\nforests with flying ashes, while the deserts appeared quite desolate\nall about.\n\n28. The moving sands spreading about, and flying like a flight of\nstorks in the air; the landscape appearing otherwise than before, and\nthe former verdure of the trees, are no more coming to sight.\n\n29. It sees the fearful wayfarer, covered over by the burning sand of\nthe parching desert; and looking wistfully on the distant tree by the\nway side, spreading its cooling ambrosial shade over the parched ground.\n\n30. It sees the earth burning as a flaming furnace with all its lands\nand places hid under the ashes, and a dark cloud of dust covering the\nface of the sky on all sides.\n\n31. The world appears in a flame on all sides, with all its planetary\nbodies, cities and seas, together with the hills and forests and the\nopen air, all which seem to be burning in a blaze.\n\n32. It sees the empty clouds of autumn, spring and hot seasons, that\nserve to favour the fires instead of quenching them; and beholds the\nlands below covered with grass and leafy creepers, which entrap them as\nvestures of clouds.\n\n33. It sees the ground glittering as gold on all sides, and the waters\nof the lakes and rivers, and the snowy mountains even all tepid and hot.\n\n34. When the channels of the body are dried up, for want of the gastric\njuice, they are filled with wind and flatulence; and the soul retaining\nits vigour, sees various dreams of the following description.\n\n35. The understanding being disturbed by the wind, sees the earth\nand the habitations of men and the forests, and sees in dream, quite\ndifferent from what they appeared before.\n\n36. The soul beholds itself as flying in the air, with the hills and\nhilly lands all about it; and hears a rumbling noise as that of the\nwhirling of the wheels of a chariot.\n\n37. It seems to be riding about on horse back, or upon a camel or eagle\nor on the back of a cloud, or riding in a chariot drawn by ganders or\nswans.\n\n38. It sees the earth, sky and cities and forests, all appearing before\nit; and trembling as in fear like bubbles in the water.\n\n39. It finds itself as fallen in a blind ditch, or in some great\ndanger, or as mounting in the air, upon a tree or hill.\n\n40. When the conduits of the body are filled, with a combination of all\nthe three humours of phlegm, bile and flatulence; then the soul is led\nby the windy humour to see several dreams of the following nature.\n\n41. It sees rainfalls flowing down the mountains, and hailstones\nhurling down its sides to its terror; it hears the bursting of the\nhills and edifices, and sees the trees to be moving about.\n\n42. Woods and forests, appear to gird the distant horizon; which is\nover cast by huge clouds, and traversed by big elephants and lions.\n\n43. The palm and t\u00e1mala trees, appear to be burning around; and the\nhollow caves and caverns, to resound with the harsh noise of the\nflashing fire and falling trees.\n\n44. The mountain craigs seeming to be clashing and crashing against one\nanother, and the caverns resounding to their hoarse and harsh crackling.\n\n45. The mountain tops also seem to clash against each other, and emit\na harsh and hideous noise about them; and the streams running amidst\nthem, appear as wearing necklaces with the loosened creepers and bushes\nwhich they bore away.\n\n46. Fragments of rocks are seen, to be borne away by the mountain\nstreams to the ocean; and the torn bushes which they carried down,\nseemed to spread as far as the utmost pole.\n\n47. Craggy hills seemed to crash each other with their denticulated\nedges, and crashed and split themselves with their harsh and hideous\nsounds.\n\n48. The forest leaves with creepers were scattered all around by the\nstrong wind, and the broken stones of the mountain made their bed over\nthe moss below.\n\n49. The tall _t\u00e1la_ trees fell to the ground with _marmara_ sound, like\nthe wars of the Gods and Titans of yore; and all birds flew with a\nharsh scream, like the crying of men at the last day of desolation of\nthe world.\n\n50. All woods, stones and earth mixed together as one mass, like\n_jar\u00edkrita j\u00edva_ in dream.\n\n51. Silence reigned there like worm underneath the earth, and frog\nunderneath a stone, boy within the belly, and the seed within the fruit.\n\n52. Like boiled rice and solidified liquid in the bowel, and the\nsapling within the wall of a pillar.\n\n53. The vital air ceased to blow, and the all things are blamed, as if\nthey are encased within the hollow of the earth.\n\n54. Deep darkness reigned there, and _susupti_ appeared like deep dark\nwell within the cavern of a mountain.\n\n55. As heavy food is digested by the digestive organ of the body, and\nafterward by a separate juice a new energy comes within, so the vital\nair which once disappeared, makes its appearance again.\n\n56. As after digestion certain kind of juice appears within the body in\nthe shape of vitality, so stone begins to fall therein.\n\n57. As fire increases more fire, a little adds little more; so the\ncombination of triple humours, composes the inward and outward essence\nof the body.\n\n58. Thus the living soul being confined within the bonds of the body,\nand led by force of the triple humours (phlegm etc.); sees (by means of\nits internal senses), the dreams of the absent world, as it beholds\nthe visions of the visible phenomena, with its external organs of sense.\n\n59. It is according to the more or less excitement of the senses, by\nthe greater or less irritation of the humours, that the mind is liable\nto view its internal vision, in a greater or less degree; but the\naction of the humours being equable, the tenor of the mind runs in an\neven course.\n\n60. The living soul being beset by irritated humours (from the effects\nof intoxication, mantras or poison and the like), looks abroad over the\nwide world, and sees the earth and sky and the mountains to be turning\nround; and flames of fire issuing from burning piles.\n\n61. It finds itself rising to and moving about the skies, the rising\nmoon and ranges of mountains; sees forests of trees and hills, and\nfloods of water washing the face of heaven.\n\n62. It thinks itself to be diving on and floating on the waters, or\nrambling in heavenly abodes, or in forests and hilly places, and finds\nitself to be floating in the sky, upon the backs of hoary clouds.\n\n63. It sees rows of palms and other trees ranged in the sky, and sees\nthe false sights of hell punishments, as the sawing and crushing of\nsinful bodies.\n\n64. It fancies itself to be hurled down by a turning wheel, and rising\ninstantly to the sky again; it sees the air full of people, and thinks\nitself as diving in the waters upon the land.\n\n65. It sees the business of the daytime, carried on everywhere at\nnight, the sun shining then as in the day time; and a thick darkness\noverspreading the face of the day.\n\n66. The mountainous regions are seen in the skies, and the land is seen\nto be full of holes and ditches; rows of edifices are seen in the air,\nand amity is found to be combined with enmity (friends turning to foes\nand _vice versa_).\n\n67. Relatives are thought as strangers, and wicked people are taken\nfor friends; ditches and dells are viewed as level land, and flats and\nplanes appear as caves and caverns.\n\n68. There appear hoary mountains of milky whiteness and crystal gems,\nand resonant with the melody of birds; and limpid lakes are seen to\nglide below, with their water as sweet as butter.\n\n69. Forests of various trees appear to sight, and houses adorned with\nfemales, appearing as lotuses fraught with bees.\n\n70. The living soul thought it lies hid within, and closed in itself;\nyet perceives all these sights without, as if it were awake to them.\n(Thus the derangement of the humours, causes these errors of sensation\nof perceiving what is not present to the senses).\n\n71. In this manner it is the work of vitiated humours, to represent\nmany such sights of external objects, in the forms of dream to the\nminds of people.\n\n72. It is usual with men of disordered humours, to see many\nextraordinary sights and fearful appearances, both within and without\nthem (_i.e._ in their dreaming and outward sight also).\n\n73. When the internal organs are equable in their action, then the\ncourse of nature and the conduct of people, appear in the usual state.\n\n74. Then the situations of cities and countries, and the positions\nof woods and hills, are seen in the same calm, clear and unperturbed\nstate, as they are known to exist, agreeably to the natural order of\nthings; such as cool and clear streams, shady forests, and countries\nand paths traversed by passengers.\n\n75. Days and nights decorated with the pleasant beams of the sun and\nmoon, and the rays of the starry array; and all other appearances,\nhowever unreal in their nature, appear as wonders to the sight and\nother senses.\n\n76. The perception of phenomenals is as innate in the mind, as\nvacillation is inherent in the wind; and viewing the unreal as real,\nand the intrinsical or what is derived from within it, as separate and\nextrinsic or derived from without, is the essential property of its\nnature.\n\n77. It is the calm and quiet spirit of Brahma, that gives rise to\nall things which are equally calm and quiet also; the world is mere\nvacuum, without having any reality in it. It is the vacuous mind that\nrepresents endless varieties of such forms in the sphere of its own\nvacuity, as the endless reflexions of its vacuous person.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXXXXVI.\n\nDISQUISITION OF SOUND SLEEP.\n\n Argument:--Relation of sleep after dream, and followed by dream\n likewise, concluding with proof of the unity of God.\n\n\nThe Huntsman said:--Tell me, O great sage, what did you do and see\nafterwards, from your seat in the erroneous spirit of that person.\n\n2. The sage replied:--Hear me tell you next, what I did and saw\nafterwards, by my union with and my situation in the spirit of that\ninfatuated person.\n\n3. As I resided in the dark cave of his heart, in the confusion of the\nlast doomsday; there arose methought a hurricane, which blew away the\nmountains as straws, on the day of the final desolation of the world.\n\n4. It was soon followed by outpourings of rain water from the mountain\ntops; which bore away the woods and hills in the torrent.\n\n5. As I dwelt in that cavity and in union with the vitality of the\nindividual, I perceived even in that state of my spiritual minuteness,\nthe falling rains and hailstones from the mountain tops.\n\n6. I was then folded in the chyle of that person, and fell into a state\nof sound sleep, and felt a deep darkness enveloping me all over.\n\n7. Having laid down in my sleep for some time, I was gradually raised\nfrom my sleepy state; as the closed lotus of the night, unfolds its\npetals in the morning.\n\n8. Then as a man lying in darkness, comes to see some circular disks\nappearing to his sight; so I saw some flimsy dreams flying about and\nhovering upon me.\n\n9. Being released from the chain of sleep, I fell to a chain of dreams;\nand saw a hundred shapes of things, arising in my spirit, as the\nshapes of unnumbered waves and billows, rise in the bosom of the sea.\n\n10. Very many forms of visible things, appeared in the cell of my\nconsciousness; as a great many flying things are seen to be volitant in\nthe still and motionless air.\n\n11. As heat is inherent in fire, and coldness is innate in water, and\nas fluidity is characteristic of liquids, and pungency is immanent in\npepper &c.; so is the world inborn in Brahma.\n\n12. The nature of the Intellect being uniform and selfsame in itself;\nthe phenomenal world is engrained in it, as the dream of a new born\nchild, presents itself to the sight of a sleeping man. (Sight is here\napplied to the mind\u2019s eye).\n\n13. The Huntsman rejoined:--Tell me sir, how is it possible for the\nIntellect to have the sight of anything in its state of sound sleep,\nsince dreams never occur in the mind except in the state of slight and\nlight sleep.\n\n14. Again in the state of sound sleep both of yourself, as also of the\nperson in whose heart you dwelt; how could the sight of the creation\nappear to you (or has the term _sound sleep_ any other sense than\nthe state of utter nescience?) (Sound sleep is the state of utter\ninsensibility or _anaesthesia_--gloss).\n\n15. The sage replied:--Know that creation is expressed by the words,\n_viz. j\u00e1yati_ is born, bh\u00e1ti appeareth, and _kachati_ shineth; and are\napplied indiscriminately to all material things, as pots and pictures\n(\u0918\u091f \u092a\u091f) as well as to the world also; all these words\nare used to express a duality (or something different as proceeding\nfrom Unity), by men whose brains are heated with dualism, or the notion\nof a duality (as different from the nature of the Unity or the only\nOne).\n\n16. Know that the word _j\u00e1ta_ or born means only being (sattwa), and\nits synonyms are _pr\u00e1durbh\u00e1va_--manifestation, which is derived from\nthe root _bhu_ to be.\n\n17. Now the meaning of Bhu is being, which expresses the sense of being\nborn also, and the _sarga_ meaning production or creation, it is same\nwith being also.\n\n18. With us learned men, there is nothing as j\u00e1y\u00e1ti or what is made\nor may be said to be born or destroyed; but all is one calm and quiet\nunborn being only. (An eternal ideal entity).\n\n19. The whole and soul of this entity, is the one Brahma alone\n(the only Ens to On or the Om); and the totality of existence, is\nthe Cosmos, macrocosm or the world. Say then what hypostasis or\nunsubstantiality is there that can be positively affirmed or denied of\nit, which is of them alike.\n\n20. That which is called _sakti_ or the active energy of God, resides\nliterally in the Divine spirit, but not as a free or separate power of\nitself; because all power subsists in Omnipotence, which is self same\nwith Brahma, and not as an attribute or part of him. (Ved\u00e1nta ignores\nthe predicates of potentiality as predicable of Brahma, who is the very\nessence of Omnipotence).\n\n21. The properties of waking, sleep and dreaming, do not belong to the\nnature of God, according to the cognition of men learned in divine\nKnowledge; because God never sleeps nor dreams, nor does he wake in the\nmanner of His creature. (No changing property appertaining to finite\nbeings can ever be attributable to the Infinite, who is as He is).\n\n22. Neither sleep nor the airy visions of dreaming, nor also anything\nthat we either know or have any notion of, can have any relation to\nthe nature of the Inscrutable One; any more than the impossibility of\nour having any idea of the world before its creation. (So the Persian\nmystic Berun Z\u00e1tash, aztohmate chunan to chunin. His nature is beyond\nour comprehension and presumption of it as so and such).\n\n23. It is the living soul which sees the dream, and imagines the\ncreation in itself; or else the pure intellect is quite unintelligible\nin its nature, and remains as clear as either in the beginning of\ncreation.\n\n24. The Intellect is neither the observer nor enjoyer (_i.e._ neither\nthe active nor passive agent of creation); it is something as nothing,\nperfectly quiet and utterly unspeakable in its nature.\n\n25. In the beginning there was no cause of creation, or creative agent\nof the world; it is only an ideal of the Divine Mind, and exists for\never in the same state, as a vision in the dream or an airy castle of\nimagination.\n\n26. It is thus that the individual Intelligence, is apprehended as a\nduality by the unwise, but never by the intelligent; because ignorant\nmen like silly infants are afraid of the tiger or snake that is painted\nupon their own person; but the intelligent knowing them too well to be\nmarked upon their own bodies, never suspect them as anything otherwise\nthan their own person.\n\n27. The One invariable and translucent soul, which is without its\nbeginning, middle and end, appears as varying and various to the\nunreflecting dualist and polytheist; but the whole appearing so\nchangeful and conspicuous to sight, is all a perfect calm and quiet and\nserene prospect in itself.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXXXXVII.\n\nTHE PHENOMENON AND PERSPECTION OF DREAMS.\n\n Argument:--The rise of dream from sound sleep; and the vision of\n friends and relations in Dreaming.\n\n\nThe sage continued:--Hear me now, O strong armed archer, how I awoke\nfrom my sound sleep, and saw the sight of the world in my dream; just\n a man rising on the surface from the depth of the sea, surveys the\nheavens above him.\n\n2. I saw the heavens, as hewn out of the etherial vacuum; and I beheld\nthe terrestrials, as sculptured out of the earth; but found them all,\nto be fashioned out of the Divine Mind; or framed in that manner, by my\nvisual organs or ocular deception only.\n\n3. The world appeared, as the early or long sprung blossom of the\narbour of the eternal mind; or as the ceaseless waves of the vast\nocean, or as phantoms of my deluded eye sight.\n\n4. It seemed to appear from the bosom of the sky above, or to have\nproceeded from all sides of heaven; it seemed moreover as a masonry\ncarved out of the mountains of all quarters of the firmament, and also\nas a prodigy rising out of the earth or Tartarus.\n\n5. It seemed also to have sprung out of the heart, as any of its\nfeelings or affections; and to have filled all the space of vacuity,\nas the all pervading clouds of heaven; methought it likewise as the\nproduce of a large forest, or like seeds or grains growing out of the\nearth.\n\n6. As pictures of houses with apartments, are painted upon the planes\nof level plates; so the figures of living beings, are drawn upon the\nsmooth flatness of the Intellect, together with all the members and\norgans of their bodies.\n\n7. These worlds appear to have sprung in some unknown part of Infinity,\nand to have presented themselves to our view, like flying herds of\ndistant regions coming to our sight; or as presents are brought\nto the presence of prince from different parts of lands, or as the\nretributions and rewards of one\u2019s or bad deeds in this life,\nmeet him in the next and successive transmigration.\n\n8. The world is but a blossom of the great arbour of Brahma, or a\nlittle billow of vast ocean of Eternity; it is a sculpture on the\ncolossal pillar of the Intellect, without being carved out or cast upon\nit. (It is the macrocosm moulded in the mind of God).\n\n9. The firmament is the ample field, filled with an infinity of worlds,\nappearing as our earthly abodes in the empty city of air; the mind\nwanders at random all over it as an infuriate elephant, with an airy\nempty life, as fickle and fleeting as a breath of air.\n\n10. The edifice of the world appears to be built without its\nfoundation, and is unsupported by walls; and the sky appearing so\nbright and variegated, is without any colour or taint of its own;\nit is the magical power of the great magician, that has displayed\nthese wonders and spread a curtain of delusion over the ignorant and\ninfatuated world. (Instead of knowledge, man has rather eaten the fruit\nof the tree of ignorance).\n\n11. Though the creation seems so exuberant, at all places and in all\ntimes; yet it is quite quiescent, and unbounded by any limitation of\nspace and time; and though it appears as multitudinous yet it is the\nsingle unity; and though seemingly multifarious, yet is all but one\ninvariable uniformity.\n\n12. The instance of the fairy land is exactly alike to that of this\nworld, in respect of the unreality of both; and it is the same error\nwhich occurs to us in our dream, possesses us also even in our\nwaking state of dreaming. (Equality of day and night dreams).\n\n13. It is the reflexion of the mind only, that represents the absent\npast, as well as the future which is yet to be, as already present\nbefore it; whether they relate to aught of time or place, or substance\nor action or anything relating to its creation or its destruction.\n\n14. There are numberless beings contained under every species of\nanimals, which contain others _ad infinitum_ in their ovaries, bearing\nanimalcules like seeds of pomegranate fruits.\n\n15. The rivers, forests and mountains, are seen to be beset by clouds\nof the sky, and studded with the gemming stars of heaven; and the sea\nis heard to resound with the loud larum of battle drums, raised by the\nwarring winds with the conflicting currents.\n\n16. I then beheld there a visible sphere before me, amidst which I saw\nthe village of my prior dream, and recognized the spot of my former\nresidence therein.\n\n17. I saw there all my former friends and relations, at the very spot\nand of the same age as I had seen them before; I saw my wife and my\nvery children seated in the very same house.\n\n18. Seeing my fellow villagers and my former village scenes, my heart\nwished to meet them as violently, as the sea-waves swell to meet the\nshore.\n\n19. I then began to embrace all my relatives, and felt happy at my\njoining with them; and being enrapt by my desire of seeing more and\nmore, I utterly lost all my remembrance of the past.\n\n20. As a mirror receives the reflexion of whatever is present before\nit, so the mirror of the mind is wholly occupied with the objects of\nits future desires, and becomes unmindful of the past.\n\n21. It is the vacuity of the Intellect, that has the knowledge of\neverything; nor is there any other principle of understanding beside\nthe intellect, which ever subsists by itself.\n\n22. He who has not lost his pure understanding, and his remembrance of\nhimself; is never misled by the goblin of dualism or doubt, to think of\na duality.\n\n23. He whose understanding is awakened by his constant inquiry into\ntruth and divine knowledge, and by his study of good s\u00e1stras and\nattendance on divine sages, does not forget his enlightenment any more\n(nor relapses to his former ignorance).\n\n24. He who is imperfect in his divine knowledge, and whose mind\nis bound down by worldly desires; is liable to lose his good\nunderstanding, as it were by the influence of an unfavourable planet or\ninauspicious star.\n\n25. Know thou, O huntsman! that thy understanding also, which is not\nyet cultivated by association with the wise, is liable to fall into\nerror of duality, and involve thee thereby to repeated difficulties.\n\n26. The Huntsman answered:--It is all very true, O sage, that\nnotwithstanding all thy lectures, my understanding does not find its\nrest in the knowledge of only true One.\n\n27. My understanding is still hanging in doubt, as to whether it is so\nor not; and though I rely in my conception of the truth as you have\ndeclared, yet my mind finds no rest in it.\n\n28. Ah! that though I fix my faith on the doctrine you have preached,\nyet I cannot rest secure in it, so long as my ignorance reigns supreme\nin me.\n\n29. Unless the understanding is enlightened in the company of wise men,\nby attending the doctrine of the best s\u00e1stras, and due examination of\ntheir precepts, there can be no end of the errors of the world, nor any\nrest for the weary soul, wandering continually in the maze of errors.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CXXXXVIII.\n\nINVESTIGATION INTO THE NATURE OF DREAMS.\n\n Argument:--Truth and untruth of Dreams.\n\n\nThe Huntsman said:--If the sight of the world is no more than a\nvision in dream, then tell me, O great sage, where lies its truth or\nfalsehood, which is a matter of great doubt and difficulty to me.\n\n2. The sage replied:--That dream is true and comes actually to take\nplace, which rises in our consciousness under the conditions of proper\nplace and time, and right actions and things. (These are the morning\ndreams relating to pious acts and sacred things in some adjacent place).\n\n3. A dream that is caused by use of some gem or drug or by effect of\nsome mantra or amulet, comes to pass in actu, whether it is favourable\nor not to the dreamer.\n\n4. When the earnest desire of a man, presents itself in the shape of a\ndream before his mental sight, it comes to occur by accident by law of\nchance.\n\n5. Whatever we believe with certainty in our consciousness, the same is\nsure as fate, we are sure to see and become the same (by the natural\ntendency and constitution of our minds).\n\n6. Certainty removes the uncertainty, if any one reaches there, the\nother falls down absolutely.\n\n7. No object is ever situated, either in the inside or outside of any\nbody; it is the consciousness alone, that assumes to itself the various\nforms of worldly things, and remains in the same state as it knows\nitself to be.\n\n8. The certainty arrived at by evidence of the s\u00e1stras, that the\nphenomenals are as appearances in a dream, makes it to be believed as\nso indeed; but a disbelief, in this belief makes one a sceptic, who\nwanders about in his doubts for ever. (Without coming to a settled\nbelief).\n\n9. If one gains his object by any other means, notwithstanding his\nbelief in the visionariness of the world; that gain is to be reckoned\nas a visionary one only.\n\n10. Whatever is ascertained as true in the world, by the strong\nconsciousness of any body in his waking state; the same comes to be\nknown as otherwise or (untrue), in course of time and change of place\neither sooner or later.\n\n11. In the beginning the world existed in Divine Intellect, and was\nrepresented in its subtile and incompressible form; It had its essence\nin the mind of God, and then extended its tenuous substance to any\nlength _ad libitum_.\n\n12. Know that beside the true and immutable entity of the intellect\nof Brahma alone, all others are both real and unreal, and lasting and\ntransient also. (They are real as reflexion of the Divine Mind, and\nunreal and transitory in their phenomenal aspects.)\n\n13. Whereas Brahma is the only ens and soul of all, there can be no\nother that may be styled as such; say therefore what else is there,\nthat may be called a reality or non reality either.\n\n14. Whether therefore a dream be true or false at anytime, it cannot be\ndeemed as the one or the other, by either the ignorant or enlightened\npart of mankind.\n\n15. The phenomenal world appears before us, by delusion of our senses\nand misconception of our consciousness; the visible worlds commonly\npassed under the name of illusion (m\u00e1y\u00e1), hath naught of reality or\ncertainty in it.\n\n16. It is the Divine Intellect that flashes forth in the mind, with the\nglare of the glaring world; just as fluidity is seen to be thrilling\nand flowing still, in all bodies of waters and liquids.\n\n17. As one sees a dream at first, and falls fast asleep afterwards;\nso doth everybody behold the phenomenals in his waking state, and\nthen falls naturally into a deep and sound sleep. (This refers to the\nalternate creation and annihilation of the world).\n\n18. Know then, O great sage, that the waking state is analogous to that\nof dreaming; and know the dreaming state to be as that of waking,\nand that both these states are but the two phases of the one and same\nBrahma (as the liquid and condensed states of ghee or butter are both\nthe same).\n\n19. The Divine Intellect is a vacuous and incomprehensible entity,\nand the spacious universe is its reflexion only; the three states of\nwaking, dreaming and sleeping, are the triple hypostases of the same\nbeing (or Divine Existence).\n\n20. There is no law regarding the efficacy of dreams, say how can you\ndetermine any rule for ascertaining the results of various dreams.\n\n21. As long as the mind dwells on the appearance of dreams (either in\nsleep or waking), so long it is troubled with its vagaries; therefore\nthe sage must wipe off their impressions from his consciousness.[1]\n\n22. It is the humour of the mind that gives rise to dreams, like\npulsation in air causing the current wind; there is no other cause of\ndreams nor any laws for governing them; except the sound sleep (or\ninsouciance), when these appearances entirely subside or vanish away.\n\n23. It is the manner of the learned, to impute the cause of the\nimpressions in our consciousness, to external appearances of this thing\nor that (or ghata patadi &c.); but relying on the doctrine of the\ncauselessness of external objects (or the objective), they prove to be\nno other than mere imaginations of the subjective mind (or noumenal\nonly).\n\n24. In this therefore there is other law with respect to this,\nthan the appearances of things whatever they be, are generally granted\nas such by the common sense of mankind (vy\u00e1vah\u00e1rikam).\n\n25. Thus there being no law in dreaming, there is some times some truth\nin some dreams, and at others there is no truth in any of them at all;\nand in want of any constancy, it is only a fortuitous occurrence.\n\n26. Whatever appears subjectively to one\u2019s self, either from his own\nnature or by means of artificial appliances; and whatever one is\nhabituated to think of anything in himself, he sees the same in the\nvery form, both in his dreaming as well as waking states.\n\n27. The appearances of things, both in the sleeping and waking states\nof men, are the mere reflexions of their minds; and they remain the\nsame whether when one is waking or lying in the visionary city of his\ndreams.\n\n28. It is not enough to call the waking alone as waking, because the\ndream also appears as waking to the waking soul that never sleeps. (The\nsoul is ever wakeful).\n\n29. So also there is nothing as dreaming, and may be called by that\nname; it is only a mode of thinking in the Divine Mind, which sees\nsleeping and waking in the same light.\n\n30. Or it may be that there does not exist, either of the two states of\nwaking or dreaming, because the ever living soul of dead person,\ncontinues to behold the visibles; even after its separation from the\nbody, and resurrection after death.\n\n31. The soul remains the same, and never becomes otherwise than what it\nis, in any state whatsoever; just as the endless duration never changes\nwith the course of time, and the ocean continues alike under its\nrolling waves, and the airy space remains unchanged above the changing\nclouds.\n\n32. So the creation is inseparable from the supreme soul, whether it\nexists or becomes extinct; and as the perforations and marks in a stone\nare never distinct from it; so are the states of waking and sleeping\ncoincident with the soul Divine.\n\n33. Waking, sleeping, dreaming and sound sleep, are the four forms of\nbodies of the formless and bodiless Brahma; who though devoid of all\nforms, is still of the form of whole creation, cosmos and the mundane\nsoul.\n\n34. The supreme soul, that pervades and encompasses all space is\nvisible to us in only form of infinite space or sky; the endless\nvacuity therefore being only the body of supreme Intellect, it is no\nway different from it.\n\n35. The air and wind, the fire and water, together with the earth and\nclouds on high, are reckoned as the causes of all creation, and subsist\nin their ideal shapes in the mind of Brahma alone.\n\n36. The Lord is devoid of all appellations and attributes, and remains\nunited with his body of the Intellect, containing the knowledge of all\nthings within itself; and the phenomenal is never separate from the\nnoumenal.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CIL.\n\nINVESTIGATION INTO THE ORIGINAL CAUSE.\n\n Argument:--Conversation of the two sages, and relation of Human\n Miseries.\n\n\nThe Huntsman said:--Tell me, O sage! What then became of the world that\nyou saw in your dream; relate in full all its accounts until its final\nextinction (or nirv\u00e1na).\n\n2. The sage replied:--Hear me then tell thee, O honest fellow, what\nthen passed in the heart of the person wherein I had entered, and\nlisten to the wondrous tale with proper attention.\n\n3. As I remained there in that forgetful state of my transformation,\nI saw the course of time gliding upon me, with its train of months,\nseasons and years, passing imperceptibly by me.\n\n4. I passed there full fifteen years in my domestic life, and happy\nwith enjoyment of my conjugal bliss.\n\n5. It happened there once upon a time, that a learned sage, came as a\nguest to my house, and I received the venerable and austere devotee\nwith honour within my doors.\n\n6. Being pleased with my honourable reception of him, he took his meal\nand he rested himself at ease, when I made him the following inquiry\nregarding the weal and woe of mankind.\n\n7. Sir, said I, you are possest of vast understanding, and know well\nthe course of the world; and are therefore known neither to fret at\nadversity, nor delight in prosperity.\n\n8. All weal and woe proceed from the acts of men, engaged in busy life\nin the world; so as the husbandman reaps good or bad crops in autumn,\naccording to the manner of his cultivation of the field (such is the\ncommon belief of men).\n\n9. But then tell me, whether all the inhabitants of a place, are\nequally faulty in their actions at the one and same time; that they\nare brought to suffer and fall under some severe calamity or general\ndoom all at once.\n\n10. We see alternate famine and drought, portents and catastrophes\nrepeatedly overtaking a large portion of mankind at the same time; say\nthen is it owing to the wickedness of the people at the one and very\ntime.\n\n11. Hearing the words of mine, he stared at me, and looked as if he was\ntaken by surprise, and seemed to be confounded in his mind; and then he\nuttered these words of equal reverence and ambrosial sweetness.\n\n12. The sagely guest said:--O well spoken! these words of yours bespeak\nthy highly enlightened mind; and that you have well understood the\ncause of the phenomenal, be it a real or unreal one, tell me; how you\ncame to know it.\n\n13. (Then seeing me sitting silent before him, he added); Remember the\nuniversal soul only, and think naught what thou art and where thou\nsittest; ponder well in thyself, what am I and from whence, and what\nis the phenomenals, whether it is anything substantial or ideal of the\nmind only.\n\n14. All this is the display of dream and how is it that you do not know\nit as yet? I am a visionary being to you, as you are the phantom of a\ndream before me.\n\n15. The world you see, is a formless and a nameless nothing, and mere\nformation of your imagination; it glares with the glare of the glassy\nIntellect, and is a glaring falsehood in itself.\n\n16. The true and unfictitious forms of the Intellect is, as you must\nknow; that it is omnipresent, and therefore of any form whatsoever, you\nthink or take it to be any where.\n\n17. Now in assigning a causality to things, you will find that the\nIntellect is the cause of all; and in ascribing one cause to anything,\nyou have the uncaused and uncausing Intellect for everything.\n\n18. It is the universal soul that spreads through all, and in whom all\nliving beings reside, that is known as _viraj\u00e1tma_ or common soul of\nall; and the same viewed as residing in us, is known as _s\u00fatr\u00e1tm\u00e1_ or\nindividual souls linked together in a series (composed of all souls).\n\n19. There will be other living beings in future, with the virajan soul\npervading in all of them, and causing their weal or woe according to\ntheir desires. (Lit. causing the affluence and want of men according to\ntheir respective acts).\n\n20. The soul is disturbed by derangement of the humours of the body\nand then the limbs and members of the bodies of men, become perturbed\nlikewise.\n\n21. Drought, famine and destruction, may come upon mankind or subside\nof themselves; because:--\n\n22. It is possible, O good soul! that there are many persons living\ntogether, are equally guilty of some crime at the same time; who\nwait on their simultaneous punishment, falling as the fire of heaven on\na forest at the same time.\n\n23. The mind that relies on the efficacy of acts, comes to feel\nthe effects of its actions; but the soul that is free from such\nexpectation, is never involved in its acts, nor exposed to its result.\n\n24. Whatever one imagines to himself, in any form at any place or\ntime; the same occurs to him in the same proportion as he expected it;\nwhether that object be with or without its cause (_i.e._ actual or not).\n\n25. The visionary appearances in dreams, are in no way accompanied with\ntheir immediate or accessory causes, as all actual existences are;\ntherefore this visionary world is the appearance of the everlasting\nIntellect of Intelligence, which is Brahma itself.\n\n26. The world appearing as an erroneous dream, is a causeless unreality\nonly; but considering it as the appearance of Brahma, it has both its\ncause and reality (Hence it is called _sadasad\u00e1tmaka_ _i.e._ both a\nreality and unreality also).\n\n27. The casual occurrence of dreams, deludes our consciousness of them;\nand so the fortuitous appearance of the world, is equally delusive of\nour apprehension of it. Its extension is a delusion, as the expansion\nof a dream.\n\n28. Everything appears to be caused or uncaused, or as casual or causal\nas we take it to be (hence while we deem our dreams as causeless\ndelusions, we are apt to believe the equally visionary world, as a\ncaused and sober reality).\n\n29. It is a deception of the understanding to take the visionary world,\nas the product of a real causality. It is natural to the waking state\nto it for a reality, what appears as quite calm and unreal in\nour sleep and dreams.\n\n30. Now hear me tell you, O great minded sage, that the one satya--Ens\nor Brahma is the sole cause of existences; or else what other thing is\nit that is the cause of all nature and this all pervading vacuum.\n\n31. Say what can be the cause of the solidity of the earth, and the\nrarity of air; what is the cause of our universal ignorance, and what\nis the cause of the self born Brahma.\n\n32. What may be the cause of creation, and what is the origin of the\nwinds, and fire and water; and what is the source of our apprehensions\nof things than mere vacuum or the vacuous intellect.\n\n33. Tell me what can be the cause, of the regeneration of departed\nsouls, into the mass of material bodies? It is in this manner that\nthe course of creation is going on in this manner from the beginning\n(without any assignable cause).\n\n34. Thus are all things seen to be going on, and recurring in this\nworld, like the rotations of wheels and spheres in air; from our\nconstant habit of thinking and seeing them as such.\n\n35. Thus it is the great Brahma himself, who in the form of Brahm\u00e1\nor creator, spreads and moves throughout the world; and receives\nafterwards as many different names, as the different phases and forms\nof that he displays in nature, such as the earth, air &c.\n\n36. All creations move about like the fluctuations of winds, in the\nspacious firmament of the Divine Mind; which conceives of itself\nvarious forms of things in its own imagination.\n\n37. Whatever it imagines in any form or shape, the same receives the\nvery form as a decree of fate; and because these forms are the very\nimages or ideas of the Divine Mind, they are deemed to form the very\nbody of the Deity.\n\n38. In whatever likeness was anything designed at first by the Divine\nIntellect; it bears the same form and figure of it to this day (and so\nwill it continue to bear for evermore).\n\n39. But as the Divine Mind is all powerful and omniscient, it is able\nto alter them and make others anew, by its great efforts again (_i.e._\nGod can unmake what he has made, and make others again).\n\n40. Whenever anything is supposed to have a cause, it is thought also\nto be subject to the will of that cause; and wherever there is no\nsupposition of a cause, there is no apprehension nor capability of its\nalteration also. (_i.e._ The world is both as changeable as well as\nunchangeable, according as it is believed to be made by or selfsame\nwith its Maker).\n\n41. Like vibration in air, the world existed as first in the ideal\nof the Divine Mind; and as it was an unsubstantiality before, so it\ncontinues ever still.\n\n42. They who amass for themselves, the merits or demerits of their\npious or impious deeds; reap accordingly the good or bad rewards or\nresults thereof in this life. There are others who are crushed under a\nthousand calamities, falling upon them like showers of hailstones or\nthe thunderbolts of heaven.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CL.\n\nTRANSCENDENTAL ADMONITIONS.\n\n Argument:--Conversation of the impossibility of the departed\n soul, to reenter into the former body.\n\n\nThe house keeping sage then said as follows:--It was by this kind of\nreasoning, that my sagely guest expostulated with me, and made \nacquainted with whatever was worth knowing.\n\n2. I then restrained my guest, to remain longer with me by entreaties;\nand he consented to abide at mine, which resembled the abode of a dead\n(ignorant) person. (Those that are dead to reason, are called dead\npeople).\n\n3. The sage that spake to me those edifying words, which were as bright\nand cooling as moonlight; behold him to be the venerable personage,\nthat is now sitting beside you.\n\n4. He said without my request the following speech, for removal of my\nignorance; as if the sacrificial god rose out of fire, being pleased\nwith my sacrifice.\n\n5. Hearing these words of the sage, the huntsman was confounded with\nwonder; and could not know the sage that expounded the theory of\ndreaming, now sitting confest before me.\n\n6. The Huntsman said: O! it is a great wonder, and inconceivable in\nmy mind, that the sage that expounded the nature of dreams, is now\nmanifest before me.\n\n7. I wonder at this, O sage! that the sagely guest whom you saw in your\ndream, and who explained the cause of dreams to you, should now be seen\nin this waking state.\n\n8. Say how could this visionary sage seen in your airy dream, come to\nappear in a solid body, and sit sedate at this place, like the fancied\nghost of boys.\n\n9. Please to explain to me this wonderful narration of yours, in due\norder; as to who he is and whence and wherefore he comes in this\nquestionable form.\n\n10. The sage replied:--Hear me patently, O fortunate man, to relate to\nyou about this wonderful narrative. I will tell this briefly to you,\nbut you must not be hasty about it.\n\n11. This sage that now sits by thee, had told me then for my\nacquaintance of him; that he was a learned man, and has come hither now\nwith his tale too long to relate.\n\n12. He said these words, saying, that he remembered his former nature,\nwhich was as bright and fair as the clear sky, at the end of the foggy\nseason (of the month of _m\u00e1gh_).\n\n13. O! I remember also that I became a sage afterwards, with an\nexpanded mind; my heart was swollen with joy, and remained bathed\n(amazed) at my wondrous change.\n\n14. I was glad at that state of my life, from my desire of the\nenjoyments of the world; but was deceived like a weary passenger,\npursuing a mirage with eager expectation of water.\n\n15. Alack! that the phantoms of the phenomenal world, should so allure\neven the wise; as the tempting fiends of hell, deceive mankind only to\ndeceive them.\n\n16. Alas! and I wonder at it, that I was misled by my ignorance, that\nI was misled by my erroneous knowledge of the world, to this state of\nlife, which is utterly devoid of every good.\n\n17. Or what ever I am, I find myself to be full of errors only, and\nthere is no truth whatever in me; and yet it is the error of errors and\nthe greatest blunder, that we should be so beguiled and betrayed by\nunrealities.\n\n18. Neither am I nor this or that any entity at all; and yet it is a\nwonder, that all these false appearances, should appear as realities.\n\n19. What then must I do at present to break my bondage to these\nfalsities; I see the germ of error lying inside myself, and this tear\noff and cast away from me.\n\n20. Be there the primeval ignorance, prevalent all over the world; she\ncan do us no harm, that is a mere negation herself; It is now that I\nmust try to get rid of my error, of deeming the unreal as real.\n\n21. That this sage is my preceptor and I am his pupil, is all a\nmistake; because I am in and the very Brahma, and the person sitting\nhere by me, is as the man in the moon or in the cloud.\n\n22. Then thought I of speaking to that great sage of enlightened\nunderstanding; and so thinking, I addressed him saying:--\n\n23. O great sage! I will now go to my own body (from out of the body of\nthis person), in order to see what I may be doing there.\n\n24. Hearing this, that great sage said smilingly to me, Ah! where are\nthose bodies of you two; that are blown away afar in their ashes.\n\n25. You may go there yourself if you please, and see the matter\nyourself; and by seeing their present state, you will know every thing\nrelating to them.\n\n26. Being thus advised by him, I thought on entering my former body.\n\n27. I told him, do you remain here, O sage, until I come back to this\nplace, after seeing my former body; so saying I became a breath of air,\nand fled from my abode.\n\n28. Then mounting on the car of wind, I wandered through the air,\nand was wafted to a hundred ways like the odour of a flower, carried\nrapidly all about by the odoriferous breezes for a long time.\n\n29. Roving long in this manner, I sought to enter that body, by the\npassage of its lungs; but finding neither that or any other passage, I\nkept floating in the air.\n\n30. Then with deep felt sorrow, I returned to my place, and became tied\nagain to that stake of the world, by my returning affections to it.\n\n31. Here I saw that venerable sage sitting before me, and asked him\nintensely in the following manner in my house in this place.\n\n32. Tell me sir, said I, for thou knowest all the past and future; and\nknowest what all this is, by means of thy all seeing sight.\n\n33. How was it that the person in whose body I had entered, as also my\nown body likewise, could neither of them be found anywhere.\n\n34. I then wandered throughout the vast expanse of the sphere of this\nearth, and searched amidst all fixed and living bodies herein, but\ncould not find that opening of the throat from which I had come out.\n\n35. Being thus addressed by me, that high minded _muni_ or sage then\nsaid unto me; it is not possible for thee with thy bright and brilliant\neyes to find it out unaided by my advice.\n\n36. If you should search after it with the light of thy yoga\nmeditation, it is then possible for thee to find it out as fully, as\none sees a lotus placed in his palm.\n\n37. Now therefore if you wish to listen to my words, then attend to my\nadvice, and I will tell thee all about it.\n\n38. Know then that as it is the sunlight that expands the lotus\nblossoms in the lake, so it is the enlightening beams of Brahm\u00e1 only\nthat developes the lotus of understanding, and that you can know\nnothing of yourself.\n\n39. Know then that as you sat once in your devotion, you dreamt in\nyour reverie, of entering into the heart of another person, and were\nconfirmed in your consciousness of that belief.\n\n40. The heart wherein you thought to have entered, you believed to have\nseen the three worlds therein; and the great sphere of heaven and earth\ncontained in its bosom.\n\n41. In this manner as you absorbed in your reverie, and thought\nyourself to reside in the body of another person; you happened to fall\nasleep, and your hermitage in the forest suddenly caught fire and was\nburnt down.\n\n42. The burning hut sent forth clouds of smoke to the sky, and the\nblazing cinders, flew to the orbs of the sun and moon.\n\n43. The flying ashes covered the sky, as with a grey cloud or ash\ncoloured blanket; and the blue vault of heaven was spread over as with\na canopy.\n\n44. Wild animals issuing out of their caves and caverns, sent forth\nhorrid yells and growling abroad; and the bursting sparks filled the\nhorizon.\n\n45. The tall palm and other trees, caught the flame and appeared\nas trees of fire; and the flying and falling fires, cracked as the\nclattering cloud.\n\n46. The flames ascending far above in the air, appeared as fixed\nlightenings in the sky; and the firmament assumed a face as that of\nmolten gold.\n\n47. The fiery sparks flying afar to the starry frame, doubled the\nnumber of stars in heaven; and the flashing fires in the bosom of the\nsky, delighted the eyes of damsels (as at the sight of fire works).\n\n48. The blowing and booming fires, rebellowing in the hollow sky;\nstartled the sleeping foresters in the woods, who rushed out of their\ncaves and caverns, and wandered about in the forest.\n\n49. The wild beasts and birds being half burnt in their caves and\nnests, lay and fell dead on the ground; the lakes and river waters\nboiled with heat, and the foresters were suffocated by the fumes.\n\n50. The young _chauri_ bulls, were parched in the flames; and the stink\nof the burning fat and flesh of wild beasts, filled the air with a\nnasty stench.\n\n51. This all devouring wild fire, raging as a conflagration or diluvian\nfire, hath wholly consumed and swallowed up your hermitage, as a\nserpent devours its prey.\n\n52. The Huntsman asked:--Tell me sir, what was the real cause of this\nfire; and why the Br\u00e1hman lads that dwelt in their pupilage there, were\nburnt down also.\n\n53. The sage replied:--It is the vibration or effort of the volitive or\ndesigning mind, that is the true cause or incentive of the production\nor demolition of the desired object; and so its quiescence is the cause\nof the absence of the three worlds.\n\n54. As a sudden fear or passion is the cause of palpitation of the\nheart, so an effort or desire of the mind is the mobile force (or\nprimum mobile) for the causation of the three worlds.\n\n55. It is the pulsation of the Divine Mind, that is the cause of the\nimaginary city of the world; as also of the increase of population and\nof rains and draughts.\n\n56. The will in the Divine Mind, is the source of the creative mind\nof Brahm\u00e1, which in its turn gives rise to the minds of the first\npatriarchs, who transmit it to others in endless progression, all of\nwhich proceed from the first quiet and calm intellect, through the\nmedium of vacuum.\n\n57. The learned know well, that the effulgence of the pure and vacuous\nIntellect, shines in the vacuum of their intellects; but the ignorant\nthink it as it appears to them, which is not the reality (which it is\nnot in reality).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLI.\n\nVIEW OF INEXISTENCE.\n\n Argument:--The world is a vision, and to be known only by\n conception, perception and meditation.\n\n\nThe other sage rejoined:--Afterwards the whole village together with\nall its dwellings and trees, were all burnt down to ashes like the\ndried straws.\n\n2. All things being thus burnt away, the two bodies of you two, that\nhad been sleeping there, were also scorched and burnt, as a large piece\nof stone, is heated and split by fire.\n\n3. Then the fire set after satiating itself with devouring the whole\nforest, as the sea sat below in its basin, after its waters were sucked\nup by the sage Agastya.\n\n4. After the fire was quenched and the ashes of the burnt cinders had\nbecome cold; they were blown away by gusts of wind, as they bear away\nthe heaps of flowers.\n\n5. Then nothing was known, as to where the hermit\u2019s hut and the two\nbodies were borne away; and where was that visionary city, which was\nseen as vividly as in waking, and was populous with numbers of people.\n\n6. In this manner the two bodies having disappeared, their existence\nremains in the conscious soul, as the memory of externals remains in\nthe mind, at the insensibility of the body in the state of dreaming.\n\n7. Hence where is that passage of the lungs, and where is that Virajian\nsoul any more? They are burnt away together with the vigour and\nvitality of the dead body.\n\n8. It is on account of this, O sage, that you could not find out those\ntwo bodies; and wandered about in this endless world of dreams, as if\nyou were in your waking state.\n\n9. Therefore know this mortal state, as a mere dream appearing as\nwaking, and that all of us are but day dreams, and seeing one another\nas we see the visionary beings in our dreams.\n\n10. You are a visionary man to me, and so am I also to you; and this\nintellectual sphere, wherein the soul is situated within itself.\n\n11. You have been ere while a visionary being in your life, until you\nthought yourself to be a waking man in your domestic life.\n\n12. I have thus related to you the whole matter, as it has occurred\nto you; and which you well know by your conception, perception and\nmeditation of them.\n\n13. Know at last that it is the firm conviction of our consciousness,\nwhich shines for ever as the glitter of gold in the vacuum of our\nminds; and the intellectual soul catches the colour of our deeds,\nbe they fair or foul or a commixture of both, in its state of a\nregenerated spirit.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLII.\n\nTHE SAGE\u2019S DISCOURSE AT NIGHT.\n\n Argument:--Refutation of the Reality of Dreams, and the reason of\n the Preceptorship of the Hunter.\n\n\nThe sage resumed:--Saying so the sage held his silence, and lay himself\nin his bed at night; and I was as bewildered in my mind, as if blown\naway by the winds.\n\n2. Breaking then my silence after a long time, I spoke to that sage and\nsaid: sir, in my opinion, such dreams appear some truth and\nreality in them.\n\n3. The other muni replied:--If you can believe in the truth of your\nwaking dreams, you may then rely on the reality of your sleeping dreams\nlikewise; but should your day dreams prove to be false, what faith can\nyou then place on your night dreams (which are as fleet as air).\n\n4. The whole creation from its very beginning, is no more than a dream;\nand it appears to be comprised of the earth etc., yet it is devoid of\neverything.\n\n5. Know the waking dream of this creation is more subtile, than our\nrecent dreams by night; and O lotus eyed preceptor of the huntsman, you\nwill shortly hear all this from me.\n\n6. You think that the object you see now, in your waking state in the\nday time, the same appear to you in the form of dream in your sleep; so\nthe dream of the present creation, is derived from a previous creation,\nwhich existed from before as an archetype of this, in the vacuum of the\nDivine Mind.\n\n7. Again seeing the falsity of your waking dream of this creation, how\ndo you say that you entertain doubts regarding the untruth of sleeping\ndreams, and knowing well that the house in your dream is not yours, how\ndo you want to dote upon it any more?\n\n8. In this manner, O sage, when you perceive the falsity of your waking\ndream of this world; how can you be doubtful of its unreality any more?\n\n9. As the sage was arguing in this manner, I interrupted him by another\nquestion; and asked him to tell me, how he came to be the preceptor of\nthe huntsman.\n\n10. The other sage replied:--Hear me relate to you this incident also;\nI will be short in its narration, for know O learned sage, I can dilate\nit likewise to any length.\n\n11. I have been living here, as a holy hermit for a long time; and\nsolely employed in the performance of my religious austerities; and\nafter hearing my speech, I think you too will like to remain in this\nplace.\n\n12. Seeing me situated in this place, I hope you will not forsake me\nhere alone; as I verily desire to live in your company herein.\n\n13. But then I will tell you sir, that it will come to pass in the\ncourse of some years hence, and there will occur a direful famine in\nthis place, and all its people will be wholly swept away.\n\n14. Then there will occur a warfare between the raging border chiefs,\nwhen this village will be destroyed, and all the houses will be thinned\nof their occupants.\n\n15. Then let us remain in this place, free from all troubles, and in\nperfect security and peace, and live free from all worldly desires, by\nour knowledge of the knowable.\n\n16. Here let us reside under the shelter of some shady trees; and\nperform the routine of our religious functions, as the sun and moon\nperform their revolutions in the solitary sky.\n\n17. There will then grow in this desert land and deserted place, many\nkinds of trees and plants, covering the whole surface of this lonely\nplace.\n\n18. The land will be adorned by fruit trees, with many a singing bird\nsitting upon them; and the waters will be filled with lotus beds, with\nthe humming bees and _chakoras_ chirping amidst them. There shall we\nfind happy groves like the heavenly garden of paradise for our repose.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLIII.\n\nONE SOUL IS THE CAUSE OF ALL.\n\n Argument:--Arrival of the Huntsman, and the sage\u2019s preceptorship\n of him.\n\n\nThe other sage said:--When both of us shall dwell together in that\nforest, and remain in the practice of our austerities; there will\nappear upon that spot, a certain huntsman, weary with his fatigue in\npursuing after a deer.\n\n2. You will then reclaim and enlighten him, by means of your\nmeritorious remonstrance; and he then will commence and continue to\npractice his austerities, from his aversion to the world.\n\n3. Then continuing in his austere devotion, he will be desirous of\ngaining spiritual knowledge, and make inquiries into the phenomena of\ndreaming.\n\n4. You sir, will then instruct him fully in divine knowledge, and he\nwill be versed in it by your lectures on the nature of dreams.\n\n5. In this manner you will become his religious instructor, and it is\nfor this reason that I have accosted you with the epithet or title of\nthe huntsman\u2019s _guru_ or religious guide.\n\n6. Now sir, I have related to you already regarding our errors of this\nworld; and what I and you are at present, and what we shall turn to be\nafterwards.\n\n7. Being thus spoken to by him, and learning all these things from him,\nI became filled with wonder, and was he more amazed as I remonstrated\nwith him on these matters.\n\n8. Thus we passed the night in mutual conversation, and after we got\nup in the morning, I honoured the sage with due respect, and he was\npleased with me.\n\n9. Afterwards we continued to live together in the same homely hut\nof the same village, with our steady minds and our friendship daily\nincreasing.\n\n10. In this manner time glided on peacefully upon us, and the\nrevolutions of his days and nights, and returns of months, seasons and\nyears; and I have been sitting here unmoved under all the vicissitudes\nof time and fortune.\n\n11. I long not for a long life, nor desire to die ere the destined day;\nI live as well as I may, without any care or anxiety about this or that.\n\n12. I then looked upon the visible sphere, and began to cogitate in my\nmind; as to what and how and whence it was, and what can be the cause\nof it.\n\n13. What are these multitudes of things, and is the cause of all these;\nit is all but the phenomena of a dream, appearing in the vacuity of the\nIntellect.\n\n14. The earth and heaven, the air and the sky, the hills and rivers,\nand all the sides of firmament; are all but pictures of the Divine\nmind, represented in empty air.\n\n15. It is the moonlight of the Intellect, which spreads its beams\nall round the ample space of vacuum; and it is this which shines as\nthe world, which is an ineffaceable fac-simile or cartography of the\nsupreme Intellect in the air.\n\n16. Neither is this earth nor sky, nor are these hills and dales really\nin existence; nor am I anything at all; it is only the reflexion of the\nsupreme Mind in empty air.\n\n17. What may be the cause of aggregation of solid bodies, when there is\nno material cause for the causation of material bodies in the beginning.\n\n18. The conception of matter and material bodies, is a fallacy only;\nbut what can be the cause of this error, but delusion of the sight and\nmind.\n\n19. The person in the pith of whose heart, I remained in the manner of\nhis consciousness, was burnt down to ashes together with myself.\n\n20. Therefore this vacuum which is without its beginning and end,\nis full with the reflexion of the Divine Intellect; and there is no\nefficient or instrumental or material cause of creation, except its\nbeing a shadow of the substance of the Divine Mind.\n\n21. All these pots and pictures, these prints and paints before us,\nare but the prints of the Divine Mind; nor can you ever get anything,\nwithout its mould therein.\n\n22. But the Intellect too has no brightness of it, except its pure\nlucidity; for how can a mere void as vacuum have any light, except its\ntransparency.\n\n23. The Intellect is the pure Intelligence, of the extended entity of\nBrahma; which shows in itself the panorama of the universe, what else\nare the visibles, and where is their view besides.\n\n24. There is but one Omnipresent soul, who is uncaused and uncausing,\nand without its beginning, middle and end; He is the essence of the\nthree worlds and their contents. He is something as the universal\nintelligence, and shows all and every thing in itself (and reflects\nthem in all partial intelligences according to their capacities).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLIV.\n\nRELATION OF PAST EVENTS.\n\n Argument:--The living liberation of the sage, by means of his\n habitual meditation.\n\n\nThe sage continued:--Having thus considered the vanity of the visibles,\nI remained free from my anxious cares about the world; and became\npassionless and fearless, and extinct in _nirv\u00e1na_, from insensibility\nof my egoism.\n\n2. I became supportless and unsupporting, and remained without my\ndependence upon any body; I was quite calm with my self-composure, and\nmy soul was elevated and rested in heaven.\n\n3. I did as my duty called, and did nothing of my own accord; and\nremained as void and blank as vacuum, which is devoid of all action and\nmotion.\n\n4. The earth and heaven, the sky and air, the mountains and rivers, and\nall that lies on all sides and the sides themselves, are not but shadow\nin the air, and all living bodies are no more than the embodied (died)\nIntellect or Intellectual bodies.\n\n5. I am quiet and composed, and manage myself as well as I can; I am\nquite happy in myself; having no injunction nor prohibition to obey,\nnor to act an inner or outer part (_i.e._ not having a double part to\nplay, nor any duplicity in the heart).\n\n6. Thus I resided here in my even temper, and the same tenor of my mind\nand actions; and it is by mere chance, that you have come to meet me\nhere.\n\n7. Thus I have fully explained to thee about the nature of dream and my\npersonal self; together with that of the phenomenal world and thyself.\n\n8. Hence thou hast well understood, what is this visible world that\nlies before thee; as also what these beings and these people are, and\nwhat Brahma is after all.\n\n9. Now knowing these things, O thou huntsman, to be mere false, \nmust now have your peace of mind, with the conviction that, all this is\nthe representation of the Intellect in empty air. Yea, it is this that\nis dimly seen in these, and naught besides.\n\n10. The hunts-man rejoined:--If so it be then both me and thee and the\ngods even, you say to be nullity; and that all of these are but the\nphantoms of a dream, and that all men are no men, and all existence as\nnon existence (sadasat).\n\n11. The sage replied:--It is verily so, and all and every one of us is\nsituated as the spectre of a dream to one another, and as _phasma_ in\nthe cosmorama of the world.\n\n12. These spectres appear in forms, according to one\u2019s conception of\nthem; and the only One appears as many, like the rays of light. All\nthese radiations cannot be wholly true or untrue, nor a mixture of both\nof them.\n\n13. The visionary city of the world that appears in our waking state,\nis but a waking dream or an apparition of our minds, and appears as the\nprospect of a distant city before us, that we never saw before.\n\n14. I have fully explained all this to you already, and you have been\nenlightened in the subject to no end; now you have grown wise and well\nknown all and everything; do therefore as you may like best for you.\n\n15. Though thus awakened and enlightened by me, your reprobate mind is\nnot yet turned to reason, nor found its rest either in transcendental\nwisdom, or in the transcendent state of the most high.\n\n16. Without assuetude you cannot concentrate your vagrant mind into\nyour heart; nor can you without the practice of constant reflexion\nattain the acme of wisdom.\n\n17. It is impossible to attain the summit of perfection, without your\nhabitual observance of wisdom; as it is incapable for a block of wood\nto contain any water in it, unless it is scooped out in the form of a\nwooden vessel.\n\n18. Habitual reliance in sapience and constant attendance to the\nprecepts of the s\u00e1stras and preceptors, tend to the removal of\nthe mind\u2019s suspense between unity and duality (_i.e._ between\nGod and the world), and set the mind to its ultimate bliss of\n_nirv\u00e1na_--anaesthesia in quietism.\n\n19. Insensibility of one\u2019s worth and state and inertness to all\nworldly affections, refraining from the evils of bad associations, and\nabstaining from all earthly desires and cravings of the heart--\n\n20. These joined with one\u2019s deliverance from the fetters of dualities,\nand enfranchisement from all pleasurable and painful associations, are\nthe surest means that lead the learned to the state of unalterable\nbliss--_nirv\u00e1na_ (which is ever attendant on the Deity).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLV.\n\nRELATION OF FUTURE FORTUNE.\n\n Argument:--The sage relates the elevation of the Huntsman to\n heaven by means of his austere devotion.\n\n\nThe God Agni said:--Upon hearing all this the huntsman was lost in\nwonder, and remained as dumfoundered as a figure in painting in the\nvery forest.\n\n2. He could not pause to fix his mind in the supreme being, and\nappeared to be out of his senses and wits, as if he was hurled into a\nsea.\n\n3. He seemed to be riding on the wheel of his reverie, which pushed him\nonward with the velocity of a bicycle; or appeared to be caught by an\nalligator, which bore him with rapidity, up and down the current of his\nmeditation.\n\n4. He was drowned in doubt, to think whether this was the state of his\n_nirv\u00e1na_ or delirium; wherein he could not find his rest, but was\ntossed headlong like a headstrong youth in his foolhardiness.\n\n5. He thought the visibles, to be the work of his ignorance; but he\ncame to think upon his second thought, this delusion of the world, to\nbe the production (display) of Providence.\n\n6. Let me see, said he, the extent of the visibles from the beginning;\nand this I will do from a distance, by means of the spiritual body,\nwhich I have gained by means of devotion.\n\n7. I will remove myself to a region, which is beyond the limit of the\nexistent and inexistent worlds; and rest myself quiet at a spot, which\nis above the etherial space (_i.e._ in heaven).\n\n8. Having thus determined in himself, he became as dull as a dunce, and\nset his mind to the practice of his yoga devotion, as it was dictated\nto him by the sage, saying that no act could be fruitful without its\nconstant practice.\n\n9. He then left his habit of huntsmanship and applied himself to the\nobservance of austerities, in company with the sages and seers.\n\n10. He remained long at the same spot, and in the society of the sagely\nseers; and continued in the practice of his sacred austerities, for\nvery many years and seasons.\n\n11. Remaining long in the discharge of his austere duties, and\nsuffering all along the severities of his rigorous penance; he asked\nonce his sagely guide, as to when he shall obtain his rest and respite\nfrom these toils, to which the muni responded unto him in the following\nmanner.\n\n12. The muni said:--The little knowledge that I have imparted unto\nthee, is a spark fire and able to consume a forest of withered wood;\nthough it has not yet burnt down the impression of this rotten world\nfrom your mind.\n\n13. Without assuetude you cannot have your beatitude in knowledge; and\nwith it, it is possible to attain it in course of a long time. (_i.e._\nNo knowledge is efficacious without its long practice, hence a novice\nin yoga is no _yogi_ or adept in it).\n\n14. Such will verily be your case, if you will rely in my assurance of\nthis to you, and wear my words as a jewel about your ears, knowing them\nto be oracular in this world.\n\n15. You praise the unknown spirit of God, in your ignorance of his\nnature; and your mind is hanging in suspense between your knowledge and\nignorance of (divine nature).\n\n16. You are led your own accord to inquire into the nature and\nextent of the cosmos, which is but a phantom of delusion. (The world\nbeing but a delusion, it is in vain to investigate about it).\n\n17. You will be thus employed for ages, in your arduous understanding\nof making this research, until Brahm\u00e1--the creative power will appear\nbefore you, being pleased at your investigation into his works.\n\n18. You will then ask the favour of thy favouring god, to release you\nfrom your ponderous doubt of the reality or delusiveness of the world,\nsaying:--\n\n19. Lord! I see the cosmorama of the phenomenal world, is spread out\nevery where as a delusion before our sight; but I want to see a spot,\nwhich exhibits the true mirror of the Divine mind, and which is free\nfrom the blemish of the visibles.\n\n20. The mirror of the vacuous mind, though as minute as an atom,\nrepresents yet the reflexion of this vast universe in some part or\nother within it. (_i.e._ The minute atom of the mind, is the reflector\nof vast universe).\n\n21. It is therefore to be known, how far this boundless world extends\nto our woe only; and how far does the sphere of the etherial sky\nstretch beyond it.\n\n22. It is for this that I ask your good grace, to make me acquainted\nwith the infinite space of the universe; accept my prayer, O thou lord\nof gods, and readily grant this my request.\n\n23. Strengthen and immortalize this body of mine, and make it mount\nupon the regions of sky, with the velocity of the bird of heaven\n(Garuda or Phoenix).\n\n24. Make my body increase to the length of a league each moment; until\nit encircles the world in the manner of its outer and surrounding sky.\n\n25. Let this pre-eminent boon be granted to me, O great and glorious\nGod, that I may reach beyond the bounds of the circumambient sky, which\nsurrounds the sphere of the visible world.\n\n26. Being thus besought by thee, O righteous man, the Lord will say\nunto thee, \u201cBe it so as though desirest,\u201d and then he will disappear as\na vision from thy sight, and vanish into the air, with his attendant\ngods along with him.\n\n27. After the departure of Dis Pater with his accompanying deities, to\ntheir divine abodes in heaven; thy thin and lean body emaciated by thy\nausterities, will assume a brightness as that of the brilliant moon.\n\n28. Then bowing down to me and getting my leave, thy brightsome body\nwill mount to the sky in an instant, in order to see the object of thy\ndesire, which is settled in thy mind.\n\n29. It will rise high into the air as a second moon, and higher still\nas the luminous sun itself; and blaze above as brightly as a burning\nfire, in defiance of the brightness of the luminaries.\n\n30. Then it will fly upwards in the empty sky, with the force of the\nstrong winged phoenix; and run forward with the rapidity of a running\ncurrent, in order to reach at the bounding belt of the world.\n\n31. Having gone beyond the limit of the world, thy body will increase\nin its bulk and extent; and become as swollen as the diluvian ocean,\nthat covered the face of the whole universe.\n\n32. There thou wilt find thy body, growing bigger and bigger still; and\nfilling like a big cloud the empty space of air, which is devoid of all\ncreated things.\n\n33. This is the great vacuum of the Divine spirit, filled with the\nchaotic confusion of elements, flying about as whirlwinds; and the\nunbounded ocean of the infinite Mind, swelling with the waves of its\nperpetual thought.\n\n34. You will find within this deep and dark vacuity, numberless worlds\nand created bodies, hurling headlong in endless succession; just as you\nperceive in your consciousness, a continued series of cities and other\nobjects appearing in your dream.\n\n35. As the torn leaves of trees, are seen to be tossed about in the air\nby the raging tempest; so you will see multitudes of worlds, hurled to\nand fro in the immensity of the Divine Mind.\n\n36. As the passing world presents a faint and unsubstantial appearance\nto one looking down at it on the top of a high citadel; so do these\nworlds appear as mere shades and shadows when viewed in their spiritual\nlight from above.\n\n37. As the people of this world view the black spots attached to the\ndisk of the moon, which are never observed by the inhabitants of\nthat luminary; so are these worlds supposed to subsist in the Divine\nspirit, but they are in reality no other than the fleeting ideas of the\ninfinite Mind.\n\n38. You will thus continue to worlds after worlds, moving in the midst\nof successive spheres and skies; and thus pass a long time viewing the\ncreation stretching to no end.\n\n39. After viewing the multitudes of worlds, thronging in the heavens\nlike the leaves of trees; you will be tired to see no end of them in\nthe endless abyss of Infinity.\n\n40. You will then be vexed in yourself, at this result of your\ndevotion, as also at the distention of your body, and stretch of your\nobservations all over the immensity of space.\n\n41. Of what good is this big body, which I bear as a ponderous burthen\nupon me; and in comparison with which millions of mountain ranges, as\nthe great Meru etc., dwindle away into lightsome straws.\n\n42. This boundless body of mine, that fills the whole space of the sky;\nanswers no purpose whatever, that I can possibly think of.\n\n43. This ponderous body of mine, that measures the whole space of\nthe visible world; is quite in the darkness--ignorance without its\nspiritual knowledge, which is the true light of the soul.\n\n44. I must therefore cast off this prolated body of mine, which is of\nno use to me, in the acquisition of knowledge or in keeping company\nwith wise and holy men.\n\n45. Of what good is this big and bulky body of mine, to scan the\nunknowable infinity of the endless and supportless Brahma, whose\nessence contains and supports the whole of this universe, and is hard\nto be ascertained.\n\n46. Thinking so in yourself, you will shrivel your bloated body, by\nexhaling your breath (as you had expanded it by your inhalation of it),\nand then shun your frame as a bird cast off the outer crust of a fruit\nafter suction of its juicy sap.\n\n47. After casting off the mortal clod and coil of your body, thy soul\nwill rest in empty air accompanied with its respirative breath of life,\nwhich is more tenuous than the subtile ether (over which it floats).\n\n48. Thy big body will then fall down on earth, as when the great mount\nof Meru fell on the ground, being cleft of its wings by ire of Indra;\nand will crush all earthly beings, and smash the mountains to dust\nunderneath it.\n\n49. Then will the dry and starved goddess K\u00e1l\u00ed, with her hungry host\nof M\u00e1tris and furies, devour thy prostrate body, and restore the earth\nto its purity, by clearing it of its nuisance.\n\n50. Now you heard me fully relate unto your future fate, go therefore\nto yonder forest of palm trees, and remain there in practising your\nausterities as well as you may like.\n\n51. The huntsman rejoined:--O sir, how great are the woes that are\nawaiting upon me, and which I am destined to undergo in my vain pursuit\nafter knowledge (of the infinite nature and works of God).\n\n52. Pray tell me sir, if you have anything to say, for my averting the\ngreat calamity that you have predicted; and tell me also, if there be\nno expedient to avoid the destined evil.\n\n53. The sage replied:--There is no body nor any power whatever, that\nis ever able to prevent the eventualities of fate; and all attempts to\navert them, are thrown on one\u2019s back.\n\n54. As there is no human power to the left on the right, or fix the\nfeet on the head; so there is no possibility to alter the decree of\nfate.\n\n55. The knowledge of the science of astrology, serves only to acquaint\nus with the events of our fate; but there is nothing in it, that can\nhelp us to counteract the shafts of adverse fortune.\n\n56. Therefore those men are blest, who with their knowledge of sovran\npredestination are still employed in their present duties; and who\nafter the death and burning of their bodies, rest in the eternal repose\nof Brahma in their consciousness.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLVI.\n\nEXPOSTULATION OF SINDHU BY HIS MINISTER.\n\n Argument:--The aerial spirit of the Huntsman is reborn on Earth\n as prince Sindhu, who kills Vid\u00faratha, and is remonstrated by his\n Minister.\n\n\nThe Huntsman said:--Tell me Sir, what will then become of my soul in\nits aerial position, and of my body in its situation on earth.\n\n2. The sage replied:--Hear me attentively to tell you, about what is\nto become of your lost body on earth, as also of your living soul\nsustained in the air.\n\n3. The body being subducted from thy whole self, thy soul will assume\nan aerial form, and will remain in empty air, united with its vital\nbreath.\n\n4. In that airy particle of your soul, you will find the surface of the\nearth, situated in the recess of your mind; and you will behold it as\nclearly, as you view the world in your dream.\n\n5. Then from the inward desire of your heart, you will see in the\namplitude of your mind, that you have become the sovereign lord of this\nwide extended globe.\n\n6. The will of this idea rises of itself in your mind, that you have\nbecome a king by name and in the person of Sindhu, who is so highly\nhonoured by men.\n\n7. After eight years of thy birth, thy other will depart from this\nmortal world, and leave to thee this extensive earth, reaching to its\nutmost boundaries of the four seas.\n\n8. You will find in the border of your realm, a certain lord of the\nland by name of Vid\u00faratha, who will rise as thy enemy, and whom it will\nbe difficult for thee to quell.\n\n9. You will then reflect in yourself, of your past and peaceful reign\nof a full century; and think of the pleasures you have so long enjoyed\nin company with your consort and attendants.\n\n10. Woe unto me, that this lord of the bordering land, has now risen\nagainst me in my old age; and has put me to the trouble of waging a\nformidable warfare against him.\n\n11. As thou shalt be thinking in this wise, there will occur the great\nwar between thee and that lord of the land; in which all your quadruple\narmaments, will be greatly worsted and thinned.\n\n12. In that great war, thou wilt succeed to slay that Vid\u00faratha, by\nstriking him with thy sword, and keeping thy stand on thy war-car.\n\n13. You will then become the sole lord of this earth, to its utmost of\nthe four oceans; and become to be dreaded and honoured by all, like the\nregents of all the sides of heaven.\n\n14. Having thus become the sovereign monarch of the earth, and reigning\nover it and the name of the mighty Sindhu, thou wilt pass thy time in\nconversation with the learned pandits and ministers of thy court.\n\n15. The minister will say, It is a mighty wondrous deed, O lord, that\nthou hast achieved, by slaying the invincible Vid\u00faratha in thy single\ncombat.\n\n16. Then thou wilt say, tell me O good man, how this Vid\u00faratha waxed so\nvery rich, and possessed his forces as numerous as the waves of ocean;\nand what cause impelled him to rise against me.\n\n17. The Minister will reply:--This lord has L\u00edl\u00e1 as his lady, who had\nwon the favour of the fair goddess Sarasvat\u00ed; who is the supportress of\nthe world, by her extreme devotion to her. (Sarasvat\u00ed is the goddess of\nwisdom and hand-maid of God. See Sir Wm. Jones\u2019 prayer).\n\n18. The benign goddess took this lady for her foster-daughter, and\nenabled her to achieve all her actions, and even obtain her liberation\nwith ease. (Wisdom facilitates all human act).\n\n19. It is by favour of this goddess, that this lady is able to\nannihilate thee at a single nod or word of hers; wherefore it is no\ndifficult task to her to destroy thee all at once.\n\n20. Sindhu then will answer him saying:--If what thou sayest is true,\nit is wondrous indeed, how then could the invincible Vid\u00faratha come to\nbe slain by me in warfare.\n\n21. And why he being so highly favoured by the goddess, could not get\nthe better of me in this combat (by slaying me with his hand).\n\n22. The Minister will reply:--Because he always prayed the goddess with\nearnestness of his heart, to give him liberation from the cares and\ntroubles of this world.\n\n23. Now then, O lord, this goddess that knows the hearts of all men,\nand confers to all the objects of their desire, gave thee the victory\nthou didst seek, and conferred him the liberation he sought by thy\nhands.\n\n24. Sindhu then, will respond to it; saying:--If it is so, then I must\nask, why the goddess did not confer the blessing of liberation on me\nalso, that have been so earnestly devoted to her at all times.\n\n25. The Minister will then say in his reply:--This goddess resides as\nintelligence in the minds of all men, and as conscience also in the\nhearts of all individual beings, and is known by the title of Sarasvat\u00ed\nto all.\n\n26. Whatever object is constantly desired by any one, and earnestly\nasked of her at all times; she is ever ready to confer the same to him,\nas it is felt in the heart of everyone.\n\n27. You lord never prayed for your liberation, at the shrine of this\ngoddess; but craved for your victory over your enemies, which she has\naccordingly deigned to confer unto you.\n\n28. Sindhu will then respond to it and say:--why is it that prince did\nnot pray the goddess of pure wisdom for his obtaining a kingdom like\nme; and how was it that I slighted to pray her for my final liberation\nas he did?\n\n29. And why is it that the goddess knowing the desire of my heart for\nliberation, left me only to desire it without attempting to seek after\nthe same? (_i.e._ Why does the goddess give us the knowledge of what is\ngood, without enabling us to exist and persist after its attainment)?\n\n30. To this the minister will reply saying:--The propensity of doing\nevil (or slaughter), being inherent in your nature (from your past\nprofession of huntsmanship), you neglected to stoop down to the\ngoddess, and pray unto her for your liberation.\n\n31. It is well known since the creation of the world, that the\nintrinsic gist forms the nature of man; and this truth being evident to\nall from their boyhood to age, there is no body to ignore or repudiate\nit at any time.\n\n32. The purity or impurity of the inner heart, to which one is\nhabituated by his long practice or custom, continues to predominate\nover all his qualities and actions to the very last, and there is no\npower to contravene it in any manner.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLVII.\n\nTHE ULTIMATE EXTINCTION OR NIRVANA OF SINDHU.\n\n Argument:--Description of the nature of Sindhu, his resignation\n of the kingdom, his discrimination and final liberation.\n\n\nThen Sindhu will say:--Tell me sir, what kind of a vile-person and how\nignorant I had been before whereby I still retain the evil propensities\nof my past life, and am doomed to be reborn in this earth (the vale of\nmisery).\n\n2. The minister will say in his reply:--\u201cHear me attentively, O king,\nfor a while; and I will tell you this secret, which you require me to\nrelate, and will surely remove your ignorance.\u201d\n\n3. There is a self existent and undecaying Being from all eternity,\nwhich is without its beginning or end, which is designated the great\nBrahma, and passes herein under the little of I and thou, and of this\nand that &c.\n\n4. I am that self same Brahma, by the consciousness of my self\ncogitation (_ego cogito ergo sum_). This becomes the living principal\nwith the power of intellection (_vivo qui intellego_ I live because I\nthink). This power does not forsake its personality; (but retains its\n_persona_ of I am that I am).\n\n5. Know this Intellect to be a spiritual or supernatural substance,\nhaving a form rarer and more transparent than that of the subtile\nether; it is this which is the only being in existence, nor is there\nanything which is of a material substance. (This passage maintains the\nimmateriality of the world).\n\n6. This formless takes the form of the mind, by its being combined,\nwith volition and its views of this and the next world, (_i.e._ its\nworldly enjoyments and future bliss), in its state of life and death,\nand of waking and sleep. (That is the mind is sensible of these passing\nand alternate phenomena).\n\n7. The mind, though formless, stretches itself into the form of the\nphenomenal world; just as the formless air dilates itself, in the form\nof force or oscillation in all material bodies.\n\n8. The world is identic with the mind, as the seeming and visible\nsky is the same with empty vacuity; so the corporeal is alike the\nincorporeal, and there is no difference whatever, between the material\nand mental worlds.\n\n9. This net work or least of worlds resides in the mind, in their\nimmanent impressions in it, and the outer world is in reality. And\nthat the cosmos consists of ideas in the formless mind, its formal\nappearance has no real substance in it. (The immaterial ideas of the\nmind are real, and not the material objects or the sober reality of the\nsubjective only).\n\n10. There arose at first the pure (satya) personality of the impersonal\nand universal spirit of God (Brahma), in the person of the creative\npower known under the title of Brahm\u00e1. This personal god assumed to\nhimself the appellation of ego from his will of creation, and the\nundivided spirit, was divided into many impure personalities (r\u00e1jasa\nand t\u00e1masa), from its desire of becoming many (aham bahu syam-sim multa\nand plurim\u00e1).\n\n11. The sindhu will say: Tell me sir, what you mean by r\u00e1jasa and\nt\u00e1masa bodies (or impure personalities); and how and whence are these\nappellations at first _in primo_ to the supreme being--_parapada_--the\nIndefinite One.\n\n12. The monitor will reply saying:--As all embodied beings herein, are\npossessed of members and limbs of their bodies; so the bodiless spirit\nis comprised of an infinite variety of minor spiritual forms under it,\nwhich are known as the good or bad spirits.\n\n13. The selfsame spirit then designates all these several parts of\nitself by various appellations, and the incorporeal spirit assumes to\nitself, an endless variety of material and terraqueous natures and\nnames. (That changed through all, yet in all the same; known by this or\nthat or one or other nature and name).\n\n14. Thus the universal spirit continues to exhibit in itself, all the\nvarious forms of this visionary world at its own will; and gives a\ndistinct name and nature to each and every one of these representations\nof itself.\n\n15. When the Divine spirit, deigned to covert itself into the\npersonality of Brahm\u00e1, and in those of me or thee and other\nindividualities; it became altered from its state of original holiness\nand purity to those impurity and foulness, known as _r\u00e1jas\u00ed_ and\n_t\u00e1mas\u00ed_. (When God breathed his spirit into the nostrils of Adam, it\nlost its purity and sanctity by contamination of flesh).\n\n16. The unalterable pure nature of the holy spirit of God, being thus\ntransformed to unholiness, it passed into different states of impurity\nin the living souls of beings. (The same living soul passing different\ndegrees of purity and impurity).\n\n17. The spirit of God being blown at first as the living soul (in an\nanimal body); the soul that comes to perceive its incarceration in\nflesh and its doom to suffering, is said to be of the pure nature of\ns\u00e1ttik\u00ed.\n\n18. Those who while they are living in the world, are possest of\npoliteness and good qualities; they are said to be merely of a good\nnature _Kevala s\u00e1ttiki_.\n\n19. Those who being born in repeated regenerations are destined to\nthe enjoyments of life, and to their final liberation at last, are\ndesignated as the \u0930\u093e\u091c\u0938 \u0930\u093e\u091c\u0938\u0940.\n\n20. Those again who being born in this nether world, are inclined to\nthe practice of their manly virtues only; such souls are famed as the\nmerely r\u00e1jas\u00ed (shining), and are few in their number.\n\n21. Those souls which have been undergoing their repeated\nregenerations, ever since the beginning of creation; and are\ncontinually roving in the bodies of inferior beings, are said by the\nwise, to belong to the species of the most impure _t\u00e1masa t\u00e1mas\u00ed_;\nthough it is possible from them to attain their salvation at last.\n\n22. Those which have been wandering in many births, in the forms of\nvile animals, and until they attain their salvation at the end; such\nsouls are designated as merely vile _Kevala tamasi_ by the wise, who\nare versed in the science of psychology.\n\n23. In this manner have these philosophers classed the emanated soul of\nbeings into many grades and species; among which O my respected sir,\nyour soul is reckoned among the vilest of the vile _tamasa tamas\u00ed_.\n\n24. I know you to have passed through many births of which you know\nnothing; and these have been as various as they were fraught with the\nvariegated scenes of life.\n\n25. You have in vain passed all your lives in doing nothing that is\nuseful; and more particularly your late aeronautic life, with that\ngigantic body of yours.\n\n26. Being thus born with the vile species of thy soul, it is difficult\nfor thee to obtain thy liberation from the prison house of this world.\n\n27. Sindhu will then say in his response:--Tell me sir, how can I\ndivest myself of this inborn vile nature of my soul; that I may learn\nto abide by thy counsel, and try to purify my soul and rectify the\nconduct of my life.\n\n28. There is nothing in all these three worlds, which is hard to be\nacquired by means of earnest endeavour and intense application.\n\n29. As a fault or failure of the previous day, is corrected by its\nrectifications to day; so can you purify your pristine impure soul by\nyour pious acts of the present day.\n\n30. Whoever earns for any thing and labours hard to earn it, is sure to\ngain it in the end, wherein the remiss are sure to meet with failure.\n\n31. Whatever a man is intent upon doing, and tries to effect at all\ntimes; and whatsoever one desires with earnestness, and is constantly\ndevoted to the same pursuit, he is to succeed in it, and have his\nobject without fail.\n\n32. The sage related:--The king being thus remonstrated by his\nminister, was resolved to resign the burthen of his state, and to\nrenounce his realm and royalty even at that very moment.\n\n33. He wished to retire to some far distant forest, and prayed his\nministers to support his realm; but he declined to take the charge,\nthough the state was free from all its enemies (_i.e._ though it was a\npeaceful realm).\n\n34. He then remained in the company of wisemen, and was enlightened by\ntheir discourses; as the sesame seeds became odorous by being placed\namidst a heap of flowers.\n\n35. Then from his inquiries into the mysteries of his life and birth,\nand into the causes of his confinement in this world, he obtained the\nknowledge of his liberation from it.\n\n36. It was thus by means of his continued inquiries into truth, and his\ncontinual association with the wise and good, that the soul of Sindhu\nattained a holy sanctity in comparison with which, the prosperity of\nBrahma even, is as a straw or the dried leaf of a withered tree, which\nthe winds of the sky toss about to and fro.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLVIII.\n\nFALL OF THE HUGE BODY OF THE HUNTER.\n\n Argument:--The aerial body of the Hunter, and its downfall from\n the high heaven.\n\n\nThe sage resumed and said:--I have thus related these future events,\nas if they were past accounts unto thee; do now, O huntsman what thou\nwishest and thinkest best for thyself.\n\n2. Agni the god of fire said:--Hearing these words of the sage, the\nhuntsman remained aghast in wonder for a while; and then rising with\nthe sage, went to bathe themselves to the nearest pool.\n\n3. In this manner they continued together, to conduct their religious\nausterities and discussions at the same spot; and remained in terms of\ndisinterested friendship with one another.\n\n4. After some time the muni met with his final extinction--_nirv\u00e1na_,\nand by casting off his mortal body, obtained his last repose in the\nstate of transcendent tranquility.\n\n5. In course of time and the lapse of ages, it pleased the god Brahma\nto give him a call, in order to confer upon him the object of his\ndesire.\n\n6. The huntsman being unable to resist the impulse of his longing,\nbegged to obtain the very same boon of his god which the sage had\npredicted to him.\n\n7. Be it so, said the god, and he repaired to his favourite abode;\nand the huntsman flew aloft into the open air, in order to enjoy the\nfruition of his austere devotion.\n\n8. He flew with incredible velocity, to the extensive vacuous space,\nwhich lies beyond the spheres of worlds; and it was in course of an\nincalculable duration, that the ever expanding bulk of his body, filled\nthe regions of the upper sky, as a mountainous range is stretched along\nand across this lower world.\n\n9. He fled with the force and swiftness of the great Garuda (the eagle\nof Jove), up and down and to all sides of heaven: until the huge bulk\nof his body, occupied the whole area of the open air, in the process of\nan indefinite period of time.\n\n10. Thus increasing in his size with the course of time, and infatuated\nin the maze of his delusion, began to grow uneasy in himself.\n\n11. From the great anxiety of his mind, he suppressed the respiration\nof his breath; until he breathed out his last breath of life in the\nair, and his body dropped down as a carcass in the nether earth.\n\n12. His mind accompanied with his vital breath, fled through the air\ninto the body of Sindhu, who became the ruler of the whole earth, and\nthe great antagonist of Vid\u00faratha.\n\n13. His great body resembling a hundred mountainous ranges, became a\nhuge mass of carcass; which fell down with the hideous clattering of\nthunders, as one earth falling upon another.\n\n14. At a certain time, it shines as a _Kesandraka_, at others it\nappears as a covering of the huge range of buildings in sky.\n\n15. I have already related to thee, O learned sir, how this huge\ncarcass had fallen from above, and filled the surface of the globe of\nthis earth.\n\n16. The globe of the earth, where upon this huge carcass had fallen,\nresembled in every way this earth of ours, which appears unto us as a\ncity in our dream.\n\n17. The dry and big bellied goddess _chand\u00ed_, then devoured this\ncarcass, filling her bowels with its flesh, and stuffing her entrails\nwith its red hot blood.\n\n18. The earth is called _medin\u00ed_ or fleshy from the flesh of this\ncorpse, which overspreads its surface with its prodigious bulky frame.\n\n19. It was this huge fleshy body, which was reduced to the substance of\nthe earth in time; and had the name of the earth given to it from the\ndust of this body.\n\n20. This fleshy earth gave rise to forests and habitable parts; and the\nfossil bones rose high in the forms of mountains from underneath the\nground, which grew everything useful to men.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLVIX.\n\nWANDERING OF VIPASCHIT.\n\n Argument:--The god of fire, after directing Vipaschit to wander\n over the world according to his desire, disappeared from his\n sight.\n\n\nThe god of fire added:--Go now O sapient Vipaschit, to your wished for\nabodes, and with the steadiness of your mind, conduct with propriety\nevery where on earth.\n\n2. Indra the lord of the assemblage of creatures, has been performing\nhis hundred fold sacrifices in his celestial abode; and there I am\ninvited to attend by an invocation of him.\n\n3. Bh\u00e1sa said:--Saying so, the lord Agni disappeared from that place;\nand passed through the transparent ether like the electric fire of\nlightning.\n\n4. I was then led by my predestination to roam about in the air; and\ndirect my mind into the investigation of my allotted acts, and the\ntermination of my ignorance.\n\n5. I beheld again an innumerable host of heavenly bodies, roving about\nin the air; holding their positions at different stations of the\nfirmament, and containing inhabitants of different natures and customs.\n\n6. Some of these were of one and same form, resembling floating\numbrellas in the sky; and attracting the hearts of men, by their\nshining appearance and slow motion. (The great velocity of heavenly\nbodies, appear to be slow when they are seen by the naked eyes of men\nfrom this distant earth).\n\n7. Some of them are of earthy substance, but shining and moving onward\nlike mountains in motion.\n\n8. Some were of woody appearance, and others of stony substance;\nbut they are all lightsome bodies, and all moving onward in their\nuninterrupted course.\n\n9. I beheld also some figures like carved statues of stone, standing\nin the open space of my mind, and talking together all their live-long\ndays.\n\n10. In this manner I beheld for a long while, many such figures like\nimages in my dream, and was quite bewildered in my utter ignorance of\nthem.\n\n11. I then intended to perform my austere devotion, in order to obtain\nmy liberation; when the god Indra appeared unto me and said: \u201cno\nVipaschit, you are doomed to become a stag again, and not entitled to\nyour liberation now.\u201d\n\n12. You are propelled by your previous predilection to prefer the\npleasures of heaven; therefore I must direct you to dwell in my\nparadise, and wander there amidst my gardens of _mandara_ trees.\n\n13. Being thus bid by him, I rejoined and said to him: I am weary, O\nlord, with the troubles of the world, and want to get my release from\nthem; ordain therefore my immediate emancipation from them.\n\n14. The god listened to my prayer and said: emancipation attends on\nthe pure soul, which is purged from all its desires; and this had been\nalready expounded to you by the god of fire (in his narrative of the\nsage and hunter); ask therefore some other boon, said he, and I begged\nhim to tell me of my next and future state.\n\n15. Indra replied and said:--I find you to be fated to be changed to\nthe state of a deer hereafter, from the fond desire of your heart, to\nwander about and feed freely in the fields.\n\n16. By becoming a deer, you will have to enter the holy assembly (of\nDasaratha); where another deer like you, has obtained his liberation\nbefore, by listening to the spiritual instructions formerly delivered\nthere by me.\n\n17. Therefore be born as a deer in some forest on earth with your\npensive soul; and you will then come to recollect your past life from\nits relation by Vasishtha (in the court of king Dasaratha).\n\n18. You will learn there, that all this existence is but the delusion\nof a dream, and the creation of imagination; and the account of your\nfuture life depicted in its true colour.\n\n19. After being released from the body of the deer, you shall regain\nyour human form, and perceive the rays of holy light shining in your\ninward spirit.\n\n20. This light will then dispel the long prevailing gloom of ignorance\nfrom your mind, and then you shall attain your _nirv\u00e1na_ supineness, as\nthe calm and breathless wind.\n\n21. After the god had said so, I had the presentiment of being a deer\nin this forest, and entirely forgot my human nature, under my firm\nconviction of having become a beast.\n\n22. I have been ever since residing in the recess of these woods, under\nthe impression of my being changed to a stag; and feeding ever since\nupon the grass and herbs growing on the mountain top.\n\n23. Here I saw once a body of troopers coming to a hunting excursion;\nand being then affrighted at the sight, I betook myself to flight.\n\n24. They then laid hold of me, and took me to their place; where they\nkept me for some days for their pleasure, and at last brought me hither\nbefore R\u00e1ma.\n\n25. I have thus related to you all the incidents of my life; and the\nmagical scenes of the world, too full of marvelous events.\n\n26. It is the production of our ignorance, which pervades over all\nthings, and branches out into innumerable forms in everything that\npresents itself to our view; and there is nothing whatever to dispel\nthis darkness, except by the light of spiritual knowledge.\n\n27. V\u00e1lm\u00edki relates:--Then as Vipaschit had held his silence after\nspeaking in this manner; he was accosted by the well minded R\u00e1ma with\nthe following words.\n\n28. R\u00e1ma said:--Tell me sir, how a person without any desire of his\nown, sees the object of another\u2019s desire in himself; and could the deer\nthought of by yourself, come to the sight of others in Indra\u2019s Paradise?\n\n29. Vipaschit replied:--Let me tell you that the earth where upon the\nhuge carcass had fallen, was once before trodden upon by Indra, with\nthe pride of his performance of a hundred sacrifices.\n\n30. There strutting along in his haughty strides, he met the anchorite\nDurv\u00e1sas sitting still in his meditative mood; and believing him to be\na dead body lying on his way, he knocked it down with his feet.\n\n31. At this the angry anchorite threatened the proud god with\nsaying:--O Indra! as you have dashed me with your feet by thinking me a\nlifeless corpse, so will a huge carcass shortly fall upon this ground\nand slash it to pieces and reduce it to dust.\n\n32. And as you have spurned me as a dead body, so art thou accursed to\nbe crushed under the falling carcass on earth.\n\n33. He transformed into a deer, as he was king of kings before, and\nremained in his appearance according to his ideas.\n\n34. In truth neither is the actual world a reality, nor the imaginary\none an unreality; it is in fact the one and same thing, whether we\nconceive it as the one or other (_i.e._ either as the real or unreal).\n\n35. Listen now, O R\u00e1ma, to another reason, which appertains to this\nsubject, and clearly settles the point in question. (That God being\nAlmighty and all in all, it makes no difference whatever, whether the\nworld is viewed as his creation or as a pantheon).\n\n36. He in whom all things reside, and from whom everything proceeds;\nwho is all in all; and who is every where in all must be the One that\nyou may call all, and beside whom there none at all.\n\n37. It is equally possible to him, to bring forth whatever he wills to\nproduce; as also not to produce, whatever he does not wish to bring to\nexistence.\n\n38. Whatever is desired in earnest by any body, must eventually come\nto pass to him in reality (as the desired doership of Vipaschit); and\nthis is as true as the instance of light, being ever accompanied by its\nshade.\n\n39. If it is impossible for the desire and its act, which are opposite\nin their nature, to meet together in fact; then it would be impossible\nfor the omnifarious God to be all things both in being and not being;\ntherefore the objects of our desire and thought, are equally present\nwith us as the real ones.\n\n40. There is a reality (or entity of God) attached to every form of\nexistence, and there is nothing which of itself is either an entity or\nnullity also.\n\n41. O the great magic or illusion, which is overspread every where, and\npervades over all nature in every form and at all times; and binds all\nbeings in inextricable delusion.\n\n42. The nature of the great God comprises the community of spirits\nin his spirit, and combines in itself all laws whether permissive or\nprohibitive acting in concert and eternal harmony.\n\n43. It is his infinite power that has displayed the ignorance or\nIllusion, which spreads over all the three worlds from time with or\nwithout its beginning; and it is our delusion only, which depicts all\nthings in their various forms to our view.\n\n44. Or how could the creation that was once destroyed by the great\ndeluge, come to resuscitate again; unless it were a _r\u00e9chauff\u00e9_ of the\nreminiscence of the past one, else the elementary bodies of air, fire\nand earth, could not possibly be produced from nothing.\n\n45. Therefore the world is no other than a manifestation of the divine\nnature; and this is the verdict of the s\u00e1stras, and the conviction of\nmankind from the very beginning of creation.\n\n46. Things which admit of no sufficient proof for their material\nexistence, are easily proved to exist, by their being considered under\nthe light of the understanding.\n\n47. Things of a subtile nature, which are imperceptible by the senses,\nare known in their essence by the understanding of the learned; hence\nthe essence of Brahma is pure understanding, of which we are quite\nignorant owing to our ignorance of the Intellect.\n\n48. The world is obvious to us from its figure, as the air is evident\nby its vibration; hence no body is born or dies herein, (save that it\nappears to or disappears from our sight).\n\n49. That I am living and the other is dead, are conceptions of our\nmind; hence death being but the total disappearance of the visible\nworld from our view, it must be as pleasing to us as our sound sleep\nitself.\n\n50. If it be the recognition of the visibles, which is called the life\nor revivification of man; then there are no such things in the world,\nas are commonly termed the life and death of beings.\n\n51. At a time, the intellect appears a duality, and at other an unity,\nboth are nothing but intellect.\n\n52. It is the Intellection of the Divine Intellect, that infuses its\nintelligence into all minds; hence what is life without the intellect\nand the faculty of intellection.\n\n53. The intellect being free from pain, there is no cause of complaint\nin any intellectual being; since the word world and all that it means\nto express, are but manifestations of vacuous intellect.\n\n54. It is wrong to say, that the intellect is one thing and the\nbody another; since the unity is the soul of all and pervades all\nmultiformity; and as the waves and whirlpools are seen in the waters,\nso are all these bodies known to abide in the Supreme being.\n\n55. The universal pervasion of divine essence, as that of the subtile\nair, is the cause of causes and the sole cause of all; hence the world\nis a subtile substance also, being but a reflexion of the Divine\nIntellect.\n\n56. It is wonderful, how this subtile world appears as a solid body to\nus; it is only our conception of it as such that makes it appear so\nunto us; but conception is no substance at all, therefore the world has\nno substantiality in it.\n\n57. It is the demon of error that reigns over us in its aerial form,\ndeludes us to take the shadowy world for the substance; while in fact\nthis creation of error is as nil and void, as the vacuous creation of\nthe intellect. (_i.e._ The sensible world is as void and null as the\nideal one).\n\n58. Hence this nether world below and the etherial worlds above, are as\nvoid as the hyperphysical world of the Divine Intellect; and all these\nbeing but reflexions of the Divine mind, are exhibited in various ways.\n\n59. The Intellect being a subtile entity, there is nothing as a solid\nsubstance anywhere; the phenomenals are all unsubstantial rarities,\nthough they appear to us solidified realities.\n\n60. The knowledge of the true verity and that of the unreality, are so\nblended together; that we must remain in mute silence like a block of\nwood or stone, to pronounce anything in the affirmative or negative\nabout either.\n\n61. The visible whole is the infinite Brahma, and this universe\ndisplays the majesty of the great God; and all these bodies are the\nvarious forms, exhibiting the infinite attributes of the deity.\n\n62. In this manner, is the substance of the Divine Intellect displayed\nin itself; and it is the vacuous spirit of God, that manifests this\nunsubstantial world in its own vacuity.\n\n63. The number of living beings, since the beginning of creation, is\nunlimited in every place; and of these there are many, that exist\neither in their corporeal or incorporeal forms.\n\n64. There are other siddha and spiritual beings, abiding with their\nsubtile natures and tenuous forms in the supreme Being; they live in\ngroups in all elements, but never come to see one another of their own\nkind.\n\n65. The exuberance of the visible world, being purely of aerial and\nvacuous form; they are never seen in their true and intellectual light,\nexcept when they appear to us in their aerial shapes in our dreams.\n\n66. The world being well known, remains as it does in our inward\nconception of it, in the form of a hazy mist appearing to our sight at\nthe end of night (_i.e._ dark and obscure).\n\n67. It is a dark and indistinct maze, with nothing distinguishable in\nit when seen from a distance; it becomes clearer at a nearer view, and\nby keeping yourself afar you lose sight of it altogether.\n\n68. As the particles of water fly off, and fall again into the sea; so\ndo the atoms of intellect in all living beings, continually rise and\nsubside, in the vast ocean of the Divine Mind. (So doth every thing\nproceed from and recede into the Divine Spirit).\n\n69. This grandeur of creation is as the crowding throng of our dreams,\nwhich ere before lay slumbering; in the hollow space of the Divine\nMind, therefore know these effusions of the divine Intellect, as calm\nand quiet as the unruffled spirit of God (that ever reposes in its calm\nfelicity).\n\n70. I have seen the infinite glories of creation, and have felt the\nvarious results of my deeds to no end; I have wandered in all quarters\nof the globe for ages; but I found no rest from the toils and troubles\nof the delusive world, except in the knowledge of my vanities of the\nworld.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLX.\n\nDESCRIPTION OF HEAVEN AND HELL.\n\n Argument:--The Breaking and Rejoining of the Court and the\n dissolution of the Ignorance of Bh\u00e1sa and his Liberation in Life.\n\n\nV\u00e1lm\u00edki related:--As Vipaschit was going on saying these things, the\nsun wishing to put an end to his speech, proceed with his rapid strides\nto enlighten another world.\n\n2. Loud trumpets gave the alarum of the departing day, and filled the\nair on all sides with their swelling sound: and all the quarters of\nheaven seemed to re-echo in their joy, the fanfare of victory.\n\n3. The king Dasaratha gave Vipaschit, many gifts in money, maidservants\nand houses; and bestowed on him many rich and royal presents worthy of\nkings, and then rose from his seat.\n\n4. The king, R\u00e1ma and Vasishtha, having taken leave of the assembly,\nand saluted one another in their proper order, retired to their\nrespective abodes.\n\n5. Then having bathed and refreshed themselves, they passed the night\nin ease and repose; then resorted to the assembly in the morning, and\nwere seated in their respective seats.\n\n6. The sage Vasishtha then resumed the subject of the last discourse;\nand spoke his sweet words with such complacence of his countenance, as\nif the comely moon was shedding her ambrosial beams, from her bright\nand cooling face.\n\n7. Let me tell you, O king, that Vipaschit has not been able with all\nhis endeavours, to ascertain the true nature of Ignorance; nor is it an\nerror of the mind which makes the unreal appear as real.\n\n8. The nature of Ignorance as long as it is unknown, appears to be\neternal and endless; but being understood, it proves to be as null and\nnothing, as the limpid water in a mirage.\n\n9. You have already heard, O wise monarch, the narration of Bh\u00e1sa the\nminister of Vipaschit; and shall now hear of his liberation in his\nliving state.\n\n10. It is likely that he will come to be acquainted with truth from\nsome other source or discourse, and then he will be liberated in his\nlife time; by being freed from his ignorance.\n\n11. And because this ignorance or Avidy\u00e1, is ever accompanied with\nIntellect of the Lord himself, it is for this very reason, that the\nunreality is erroneous by taken for the reality itself.\n\n12. If this ignorance--_avidy\u00e1_--nescience, be an attribute of\nGod, then it is no other than the very God; and the unknown or the\nmysterious nature, is not otherwise than the inscrutable nature of God.\n\n13. This ignorance is infinity (in the infinity of created things), and\nis productive of endless shoots like the sprouts of spring, some of\nwhich are insipid and others sapid, some are luscious, while others are\nmellow and inebriating.\n\n14. Some growing as thorny plants, all hollow within and hollow\nwithout, while others are straight and herbaceous as the succulent\nreeds or sugar cane.\n\n15. Some of them are unfruitful and unprofitable, and others are\nattractive of the heart by their untimely blossoming, which is\npredicative of evil only and no desirable good. (Early blossoms are\nominous).\n\n16. Avidy\u00e1 or Nescience has no form nor shape, save that of its\nshapeless bulk, which fills all worlds; it is a long and broad mass of\ndarkness, and infested by demons and devils (that take in the dark and\nat night).\n\n17. Like false light and phantasms in the open air, and like the linked\nand twisted motes of light curling about in the sky; do all these\nvisibles appear to our view in the clear firmament, and are in reality\nbut fallacies of our vision.\n\n18. The variegated views which are stretched all about the empty air,\nwithout any connecting chain or link between them; are as the many\ncoloured rainbows of heaven, which are described by the falling rains\nand melt into the empty air.\n\n19. The world resembles a rainy river, with all its orbs appearing\nas the countless waves of water, with the dirty and foaming froths\nfloating over it; and the fearful eddies and whirlpools, resembling the\nrevolving planetary bodies.\n\n20. The world is a vast and dreary desert, ever exhibiting the waters\nof mirage on its surface; while in reality but a body of dust, and\nfilled with the ashes of dead bodies.\n\n21. As a man wandering in the fairyland of his dream, finds no terminus\nof his journey; so have I been roving forever in the land of my waking\ndream, without finding any end to my travelling.\n\n22. The web of desires that I have been fondly weaving so long, proved\nat last to be fragile and frail; hence men of firm minds learn betimes,\nto abandon their desires for the whole range of visible objects.\n\n23. All those objects (ideas) that are contained in the empty space of\nthe Intellect, are as precious germs safely stored in the casket of\nthe mind; and appear by our misconception of them, as visible objects\nplaced in the open space of air.\n\n24. Those worlds are as the celestial cities of the siddhas, which\nare situated in the air and are quite invisible to us; but these that\nappear to our view, are non-entities, and mere phantoms of our fancy.\n\n25. The heavenly abodes of the siddhas or godly souls, are feigned as\nteeming in gold, precious gems and rubies, with rivers yielding pearls\nand fields of diamonds; they abound with victuals and eatables, and\nrivers running with limpid and drinkable waters.\n\n26. They are said to abound in honey and wines, in milk and curds, in\nbutter and clarified butter also; there are streams of sweet beverage,\nand celestial nymphs in groups.\n\n27. There fruits and flowers grow in the gardens at all seasons, and\nheavenly damsels sport in the bowers at all times; and all sorts of\ngains and enjoyments, readily attends on the immediate desire of every\nbody.\n\n28. There a hundred suns are shining, on one side, and a thousand moons\non another; and some inhabitants are dressed in gold and purple, while\nothers are quaffing their fill of ambrosial draughts.\n\n29. There is a spontaneous darkness in one place, and full sunshine\nin another, and an everlasting joy in some place; and the siddhas or\nperfected spirits are continually wafted as by a breeze, from one of\nthese to another, with their light and ponderous bodies.\n\n30. Some meet with their birth and death at each moment, while there\nare others that live to enjoy their everlasting joys of heaven.\n\n31. There are magnificent palaces and great dignities of all sorts; it\nis fraught with the delights of all seasons, and filled with whatever\nis desirable to mind, and delectable to the spirit.\n\n32. But these desirable blessings, attending upon the pious deeds of\nvirtuous; find no place in the quiet minds of the righteous (which\nfixed divine felicity alone).\n\n33. There is nothing that is desirable to the soul, which is devoted to\nthe contemplation of Brahma only; say therefore, O ye unholy, of what\ngood are all these blessings, if they do not lead to divine felicity.\n\n34. If in the beginning there was no creation at all, owing to its want\nof a creator; say then what is this world, of what it is composed, and\nhow came it to existence.\n\n35. If the world is not the act of causality and nothing in reality,\nthen how does appear to be existent? It is the everlasting will of\nGod, that manifests itself in the manner in the Divine Mind; just as we\nsee the display of our rising thought and wishes in our mind.\n\n36. It is even so, O ye simpletons, that you or I or he, come to see\nour imaginary castles in the air; by the stretch of our imagination, or\nthe liveliness or flight of our fancy.\n\n37. He who has the single object of divine felicity, for his sole\npursuit in life; comes to attain the same supreme bliss, after he\nforsakes his mortal body.\n\n38. But whoso pursues after the two fold objects of heaven and heavenly\nbliss, by means of his religious rites and sacrifices in this life;\nacquires both of them afterwards, as the unity of purpose secures one\nonly to one.\n\n39. The siddhas reign in the said manner, according to the thoughts in\ntheir minds; while the unholy are doomed to the torments of hell, owing\nto the sinful thoughts of their minds.\n\n40. Whatever one thinks upon, he feels the same in himself, as long as\nhe possesses his mortal body; and after he loses his material body, he\nfeels it in his mind, which is but a part of the body.\n\n41. When a living person quits one body for another, he carries with\nhim the same mind into the other that he had in the prior one, and sees\nthe same things in its thoughts, which he was accustomed to look upon\nbefore.\n\n42. A good conscience has all goodly prospects before it, as a vitiated\nsoul meets with ghastly aspects on all sides; the airy mind sees only\nsuch aerial shapes in its vacuity.\n\n43. Pure souls only come to enjoy the sights of these siddha cities in\nthe air, but impure spirits are subjected to suffer their torments in\nhell.\n\n44. There is a continual rotation of the unwieldy stones of grinding\nmills, for crushing the vicious souls; and the hurling of wicked into\nblind wells or dark pits, out of which they can rise no more.\n\n45. There some bodies are cast amidst the frozen snows, where they are\npetrified to stones; and many are thrown into the burning coals of\ndevils, or led amidst the burning sands of trackless deserts.\n\n46. The clouds dropped down living fire, and the skies poured forth\nfiery showers; and red-hot bolts and arrows darted down from heaven.\n\n47. Stones and disks and swords, were floating on the running stream of\nthe sky; and falling like fragments of clouds upon the breasts of the\naccurst, and breaking them as with the strokes of felling axes.\n\n48. The hot iron sleets and brimstones, falling with a hissing sound;\nand weapons were hurled from engines, with a loud tremendous noise.\n\n49. Missiles and bolts and discs, together with pikes and clubs, and\nswords and shafts were falling in showers; and traps and tackles and\nmalls and mallets were striking in hundred.\n\n50. There the hot and burning sands, buried the passengers under the\nground; and there burning meteors were falling like torches; while\nlarge ravens were devouring the dead bodies around.\n\n51. Blazing piles also ingulfed the dead, from which they could never\nget out; while darts and spears and bolts and arrows, were piercing the\nother bodies all about.\n\n52. Hunger and dismay and excruciating pains, tormented by turns, the\nbodies of dead apostates; while others were hurled down from high hills\nand heights, on rough and hard stones below.\n\n53. Some were weltering in blood, and rolling in pools of dirt, rotten\nflesh and disgusting pus; and others were crushed under stones and\nweapons, and beneath the feet of horses and elephants.\n\n54. Hungry vultures and owls, were picking up and tearing the dead\nbodies, out of caves and places; and their limbs and members, were\nmangled and scattered all over the ground.\n\n55. It is thus that men are prepossessed, with these thoughts of the\npunishment of their guilt, from the sacred writings; and thereby come\nto suffer the same, both in their bodies and minds, from their inward\nimpressions of them.\n\n56. Whatever form or figure, ever appears in the vacuum of the\nIntellect; or whatsoever is dreamt or thought of at anytime; the same\nholds fast the imagination, and presents itself before the mirror of\nthe mind of its own accord.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXI.\n\nEXPLANATION OF NIRV\u00c1NA.\n\n Argument:--Manifestations of the self-existent Intellect. Its\n light guiding to Divine knowledge, and ignorance thereof leading\n to darkness.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma said:--Tell me sir, whether these various events incidental to the\nlives of the hermit and hunter, were owing to any cause, or of their\nown spontaneity (_i.e._ whether they were the effects of any cause, or\nof their spontaneous occurrence as mere dreams and phantasies).\n\n2. Vasishtha replied:--These occurrences are as the appearance of\neddies, in the vast ocean of the unknown soul (or mind); and are known\nto be in their continual rotation in the vortex of the soul, of their\nown accord and in their airy forms.\n\n3. As the oscillating particles of air, are ever in motion in the\nair; so the current of thoughts is continually in action, in the vast\nvacuity of intellect (or mind).\n\n4. Whatever issues from its source in any shape, retains its original\nform unless it is converted to and restrained in any other form; so\nthe aerial thoughts of the vacuous mind are always aerial, unless they\nare drawn in painting or exhibited in another form. (Just so a clod of\nearth is always the earth, till it is moulded to the form of a pot or\nany other thing).\n\n5. It is the vacuous essence of the Divine Intellect, that inheres\nin every form that is exhibited by and derived from it; so it is the\nsubstance of the body, that permits through out all its members and\nlimbs; as it is the woody substance of the tree, that is diffused\nthrough all the leaves and branches, that shoot forth from it. (Gloss.\nThe difference consists in the permanence of the permeating principle,\nand the temporiety of the pervaded growth).\n\n6. Brahma appears to remain permanent in some existences, as in the\nfour elemental forms of earth etc.; while he seems to be transcient and\nevanescent in others, as in the frail bodies of mortal bodies, all of\nwhich abide in their aerial state in the vacuous spirit.\n\n7. All these various objects therefore, being but reflections of the\nIntellect impressed upon the soul; it is impossible for us to determine\nwhich of these is substantial or unsubstantial or real or unreal.\n\n8. All these are altogether unknowable except that we know them as\nreflexions in the inanity of the Intellect; say ye therefore that are\nwholly ignorant of all what you think this visible world to be, whether\na reality or unreality.\n\n9. Whatever you behold anywhere in the universe, is but an exhibition\nin the vacuum of the Divine Intellect; and what avails it to you that\nknow the truth, whether you believe it as such or not. Rely therefore\nin your belief of it as it is.\n\n10. These forms of reflexions rise of themselves in the Divine Mind,\nas the waves and billows exhibit themselves on the surface of the\nsea; they are the spontaneous offspring of the Divine Spirit, and are\nof themselves both their causes as well as effects (or self caused\neffects).\n\n11. It is the display of the transcendent vacuum of the Divine Mind,\nthat passed under the appellations of its will or volition, or its\nimagination and creation, or the creation of its imagination; hence\nthis world is to be understood under any one of these senses, and not\nof its being composed of earth and water.\n\n12. It is this appearance of the Divine Mind, that appears in this\nmanner and nothing besides; it is the Divine itself that resides in the\nDivinity, and passes under the title of Avidy\u00e1 or Ignorance, from our\nignorance of its nature.\n\n13. There is no material grossness in the integrity of the Divine\nIntellect; which is purely vacuous and immaterial; and composes the\nwhole universe, this is transcendental knowledge, and its perfection is\nliberation.\n\n14. It is the reflexion of the vacuous Intellect, which spreads over\nthe whole universe; it is rare and uncompressed, and ever calm and\nquiet, and passes by the name of the world.\n\n15. The meditative man whose eye-sight is fixed in his musing, whose\nbody is emaciated in devotion, and whose mind is abstracted from the\nconcrete, and is absorbed in intellection, is only capable of seeing\nthe Intellectual world.\n\n16. Whatever the vacuous essence of the intellect, exhibits in any form\nat any place; the same appears to be present there of its own nature.\n\n17. The unthinking man and unreasonable soul, sees only erroneous\nsights in the midst of skies; as one who is dim-sighted and purblind by\nbirth, does not cease from seeing the double moon in the sky.\n\n18. Whatever is seen anywhere, is no other than the unpolluted Brahma\nhimself; and the vacuous sphere of the Intellect being for ever clear\nand transparent, is never sullied by any foulness (of gross matter).\n\n19. The intellect without forsaking its pure form of\nself-consciousness, exhibits varieties of gross objects in the form of\ndreams within itself. So also is our consciousness of the world, in the\nmanner of our dreams.\n\n20. By comparing the dicta of the s\u00e1stras with one another, and\nweighing them well with acute judgement, one will find his rest in\nhimself; but the man of shallow understanding will not find it so.\n\n21. The ignorance which floats upon the sea of your understanding, does\nnot contaminate my mind, in the manner of dirt polluting a pure and\nclear stream.\n\n22. As there is neither the earth nor any earthly thing, to be met with\nin our sleep, though we are conscious of them in our dream; so also the\nphenomenal world has no real existence, though we are conscious of it\nin our waking.\n\n23. As the clearness of the Intellect, like sunlight or flaming fire,\nshows us many things in our sleeping dreams, so doth its light exhibit\nthe visibles to our view in our waking dreams also by day.\n\n24. There is no difference between the two states of dreaming and\nwaking, they are both of the same nature, and the difference lies in\nthe modes of our apprehension of them.\n\n25. The waking man never apprehends his waking state to be a dream; but\nthe dead man that rises again to life in the next world, thinks his\npast life to have been but a state of dreaming.\n\n26. The shortness and length of time, occupied by the two states\nof dreaming and waking, is generally considered to constitute the\ndifference between them; but during the time of their presence, they\nare both considered alike the other (_i.e._ the dreaming man thinks\nhimself as waking).\n\n27. The sleeping and waking dreams, bearing alike the same quality of\npresenting false objects to view, are necessarily of the same nature;\nand there is no difference whatever in their outward features, as there\nis neither elder and younger of two twin brothers. (Dreaming and waking\nare twin brothers, like sleep and death neither of which is more or\nless).\n\n28. Whatever is the waking dream, just so is the waking in dream also;\nneither of which leaves anything--being, behind the two states of\nwaking and dreaming. (They present many things when present, but leave\nnothing lasting in their absence or when they are past and gone).\n\n29. As we know the inconstancy of hundreds of dreams, all along the\nlength of our life time; so the unredeemed and unenlightened soul, sees\nhundreds of waking states (in its repeated transmigrations in life,\n_i.e._ in this living world).\n\n30. As the living mortals may well recollect the very many sleeping\ndreams, they have seen throughout their lives; so the immortalized\nsouls of siddhas well remember, the number of waking dreams which they\nhad seen, in their past transmigrations in different bodies.\n\n31. Thus our waking is equipollent with our dreaming, and our dreams\nare equivalent with waking, in their correlation with one another in\nlike quality, and our perception of both alike.\n\n32. As the word worlds and phenomenal, are significant of the one and\nsame meaning; so the terms dreaming and waking are homonymous, and\ninterchangeable to one another--_mutatis mutandis_.\n\n33. As the fairy-land in a dream, is as clear as the open space of the\nIntellect; so is this world an inane void and blank, and without the\ngrossness of _avidy\u00e1_ which ignorance imputes to it. (Ignorance views\nthe fair ideal world as a foul material one).\n\n34. The world is a vacuous substance, and represented as a gross stuff\nby ignorance; so I am as free as air and any airy thing in the world,\nand it is my imagination only, that binds me to my grossness.\n\n35. Therefore do not confine your free and unconfined nature, in\nthe bondage of gross matter; and never change the pure vacuum of\nyour person to a material stuff, nor disfigure your formless and\nintellectual self in a gross and finite form.\n\n36. There can be no bondage nor liberation, of aught whatever in this\nvisible world of our ignorance or _avidy\u00e1_; because all things herein\nare mere reflexions of the formless void of the Divine Intellect.\n\n37. Here there is no display of ignorance, nor any misconceptions of\nours of any thing; there is neither any bondage nor release of aught\nwhatever, and nothing that is either existent or inexistent (since all\nare but reflexions of Divine Intellect).\n\n38. There is nescience, nor knowing of anything here by us; because it\nis the uncreated Intellect alone, that manifests itself in this manner;\nit reflects all forms in itself, as if they are all its dreams or\ncreations.\n\n39. As a man passing from one place to another, has his mind kept in\nabeyance in the interim; so should we keep our minds quiet and still\nbetwixt our sight of the visibles and our dreams. (In action of the\nmind is reckoned as _nirv\u00e1na_).\n\n40. As one has his body and mind, quite quiet and calm in his sleep at\nnight; and in the respite of his sights and thoughts, in the states of\nhis waking and dreaming; this very state of insensibility is called\n_nirv\u00e1na_ of the yogi.\n\n41. Know our knowledge of the difference of objects (as the one is\nimmaterial and the other material), is equally untrue as that of\nour waking and dreaming states; because it is impossible for us to\nconceive any other thing as matter, to consist in the immaterial\nIntellect.\n\n42. Our knowledge of identity and diversity, proceed however from the\nsame vacuous intellect; which combines the unity and duality also, in\nunbroken union or harmony in itself.\n\n43. Knowing all as parts of undivided whole, all these are the same\nwhatever they appear to be; hence the visible however diversified they\nmay appear, are all one and the same principle.\n\n44. Hence the etherial sphere of Brahma, contains all in itself; and\nwho as an aerial point concentrates all in it; and the creation is the\nunity of Brahma, together with all its varieties.\n\n45. Knowing all things as full of God, you must however reject them all\n(as mere reflexions of the Deity); and rest yourself at last in the\nvacuous Intellect, as the great rock of your refuge.\n\n46. Now, O fortunate R\u00e1ma, remain to act in conformity with the rules\nof your order, and laws of society and the statues of your position\nand dignity; continue to go on, eat and drink and rest in your usual\ncourse, rely in your desired object, and ever recline in the glorious\nand holy lord of your intellect, and the supreme God of all.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXII.\n\nANNIHILATION OF IGNORANCE.\n\n Argument:--Here Duality is reduced to the unity of Brahma; and\n good counsels given for subversion of ignorance.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--All objects being convertible to the conceptions\nof the vacuous intellect, the whole universe is supposed to have its\nseat in the hollow mind; and therefore both the outward sights of\nthings, as also the inward thoughts of their forms, are all but ideal\nimages in the empty mind.\n\n2. The world being but a dream, and of the form of an ideal city in the\nmind, has nothing substantial in it; and is therefore a quiet vacuity\nin itself, without having anything of any kind, or any diversity\nwhatsoever contained therein.\n\n3. It is the uniform display of the Intellect, appearing as multiform\nunto us; and this variety though unsubjective to the soul, is looked\nupon by it within itself, as we view the fairy-land of our dream,\nrising from ourselves. (Query:--whether our dreams are subjective or\nobjective to us?)\n\n4. In the beginning this world appeared, as the aerial castle of a\ndream in the vacuum of the Intellect; it was a mere reflexion of the\nDivine Mind, and though it was of the form of a false shadow, remained\nas substantive to the supreme spirit.\n\n5. The knowing theosophist well knows this mystery, which is mysterious\nto the unknowing ignorant; because the word creation bears the sense of\nboth the reality as well as unreality in it.\n\n6. The knowing spiritualist as well as the unknowing agnostic, both\nacknowledge the reality of creation; but they can neither understand\nhow it exists, nor communicate to one another their right conception of\nit.\n\n7. They both know the meaning, of the word creation in their minds; the\none having the sense of its sedateness ever wakeful in their minds\n(from their spiritual view of it); and the other having the sense\nof its unsteadiness always waking in them (from their sight of the\nchangeful scenes of the outer world); so they resemble the sober and\ndrunken men, that view the world in its steady and shaking states.\n\n8. As the liquid waters in a river, rise incessantly in restless waves;\nso the rolling worlds, push forward into being, in the vast expanse of\nthe Divine Mind.\n\n9. These creations which are not of the nature of the intellect, have\nyet their sites in the Intellect, like the thoughts that rise and fall\nin it; and these though they are invisible in their nature, appear as\nvisible things, like the fair objects and fairy cities in our dream.\n\n10. It is spreading shadow of the divine Intellect, which pass under\nthe name of the world; and this formless in itself, appears as having a\nform, like the shadow of anything else.\n\n11. It is a gross error, to take the unsubstantial shadow for a\nsubstantial body; as it is a gross error to suppose the empty shadow of\na ghost as an embodied being.\n\n12. The world is as unreal as an imaginary city, and as false as a\nstring of rain drops; why then do you rely in an unreality, which is\npalpable from the testimonies of both the ignorant and knowing men.\n\n13. The words then that are used to express this thing and that, are\nmere empty sounds, as those emitted by a splitting block of wood or a\nbamboo; or those heard in the dashing of waves or blowing of winds; it\nis the current air which conveys the empty sound into the open vacuum\nof the sky, but they are all unreal and meaningless, and bear but a\nconventional sense, with which it has no connection whatsoever.\n\n14. It is light of the lord that reflects itself in his creation, and\nthe reflexion of his _fiat_ that reverberates through the whole; while\nin reality there is neither any sound nor substance, that is to be\nheard or seen in the universe (except the voice and the sight of the\nLord).\n\n15. Whatever shines or exists herein, is the transcendent reality\nof the Lord; otherwise there is nothing that could appear at first\nwithout its cause (all being but parts of the one undivided whole--to\n_pan_).\n\n16. Therefore from (thy knowledge of) the distinctions of words and\nthings; know the one as all in all, and remain as quiet and calm as the\nindefinite and infinite void itself.\n\n17. Forsake the fickleness of thy mind, by means of the calm repose of\nthy soul; the purity of thy understanding, and by an even tenor of thy\ndisposition; because an inconstant soul is troublesome in life.\n\n18. It is one\u2019s self that is a friend or enemy to himself, and if one\nwill not try to guard and save himself by his own self, there is no\nother to do so for him. (He who is no friend to himself, is his own\nenemy himself).\n\n19. Get over the ocean of the world while you are young, and make your\ngood understanding the ferry boat, to bear your body safely to the\nother shore.\n\n20. Do what is good for you today, and why defer till tomorrow; you can\ndo nothing in oldage, when your body becomes a burden to yourself.\n\n21. Know your as oldage (if it is fraught with learning); and\naccount decrepitude as death itself in your lifetime. Youth is verily\nthe life of the living, provided it is fraught with learning.\n\n22. Having obtained thy life in this living world, which is as\ntransient as the fleeting lightning; you must try to derive the essence\nfrom this dirty earth, by availing yourself of the benefit of good\n_s\u00e1stras_ and the company of the wise.\n\n23. Woe to the ignorant! that will not seek their salvation in life;\nthat are sinking in the pits of mud and mire; and never striving to\nlift themselves above them.\n\n24. As the ignorant rustic is afraid at the sight of the earthen images\nof ghosts, and bends down to them; which those that are acquainted with\nthe meaning of the word ghost never do.\n\n25. So those that see God in an idol or in his visible creation, are\nmisled to think it their god and adore it as such; but those that know\nthe true meaning of the term, never pay their adoration to any visible\nobject.\n\n26. As things in motion come to rest afterwards, and the visible\ndisappear from the sight of the learned, who are acquainted with their\ntrue meaning. (The world recedes, and the light of God opens to their\nview).\n\n27. As the sights in a dream, seeming to be true in the state of\ndreaming, disperse at last upon waking, and upon the knowledge of their\nunreal nature.\n\n28. So doth this world, which is conceived as something existing in the\nvacuum of the understanding; melts at last into empty air and nothing,\nupon our knowledge of its intellectual nature.\n\n29. This living world is as a wilderness, burning with the\nconflagration of various evils attendant on life; and here we are\nexposed as weak antelopes, living upon our precarious sustenances; and\nhere we are governed by our ungovernable minds and restless passions\nand senses of our bodies; all these require to be subdued in order to\nobtain our liberation from repeated births and deaths.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXIII.\n\nMEANS AND MANNER OF GOVERNING THE SENSES AND SENSIBLE ORGANS.\n\n Argument:--Government of the senses and fixedness of the Mind,\n and the study of yoga s\u00e1stra.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma rejoined:--I know sir, all knowledge to be in vain and useless,\nwithout proper government of ourselves and senses; tell me therefore\nhow these may be kept under control, in order to give us the true\nknowledge of things unbiased by the senses.\n\n2. Vasishtha replied:--Addictedness to enjoyments and display of\nmanhood, and devotedness to the acquisition of the means of life or\nwealth; are preventives of self-controul and liberation of one\u2019s self,\nas blindness is an obstruction to one\u2019s sight of a light.\n\n3. Then listen to this least advice of mine as the shortest and best\nmeans, for the government of yourself and your senses; and this is sure\nto lead one to his successfulness, by his own endeavour and with no\ntoil or trouble.\n\n4. Know the intellect as the man that mans you, and its power of\nintellection which makes you a living man; and whatever the living\nsoul thinks of within itself, it verily becomes the very same (but the\nignorant man becomes effeminate).\n\n5. Let the strength of your consciousness, ply the pointed goad of\nyour acute good sense; and you will doubtless subdue your ungovernable\nelephantine mind, and come off victorious shortly at last.\n\n6. The mind is the captain of the army of your bodily and mental\nsenses; subdue therefore this leading mind, and you will conquer the\nwhole host of your senses. Just so does a man walking on boots, tread\nover the thorns lying by his way.\n\n7. [In order therefore to subdue your mind], you must settle your\nself-consciousness in your consciousness of the omnipresent vacuum of\nthe Divine soul, and rest yourself quiet in the recess of your heart;\nand then your mind will sit quiet of itself, as the snows of winter\nsettle down of themselves in autumn.\n\n8. Thus by stopping the action of your consciousness, you will\nalso shut up your mind, and put a stop to the operation of all its\nfaculties; as you can never been able to do by means of all your\ndevotion and austerities, your pilgrimages, your knowledge and\nsacrifice, and all other ceremonies and acts and duties.\n\n9. Whatever comes to occur in the consciousness, the same must be\nforgot or buried in the consciousness of the great God alone; and so\nthe forgetfulness of all enjoyments and their objects, amounts to our\nvictory over them. (The way to overcome the pleasures of life, is to\nbury their remembrance in oblivion).\n\n10. We must try by all means, to shut out the objects of sense from\nour consciousness; and this state of our unconsciousness of them, is\ntantamount to the state of godliness or heavenly bliss.\n\n11. Again the contentment which arises, from our acting in conformity\nwith the rules of our order, is another cause of preserving the\nsteadiness of the mind; therefore remain firm in the practice of your\nparticular duties, and seek no happiness besides.\n\n12. He who relinquishes his inclination, towards the attainment of\nwhat is unlawful for him; and remains content with earning his lawful\ngains, is verily said to be a man of subdued appetites, and one who has\ngoverned.\n\n13. He who is pleased with his inward and conscious gratification, and\nis not grieved at the unpleasant things all about him, is said to have\nwell governed and benumbed his mind.\n\n14. By suspension of the action of consciousness, the mind too comes to\nforget and forsake its activity, and the sensations also being relaxed\nfrom their restlessness, pursue their discrimination and judgement.\n\n15. The discriminative and judging soul, becomes ennobled and\nmagnanimous, and keeps its command over the feelings and senses; and\nis not impelled by the waves of its desires, to be tossed about on the\nsurface of the wide ocean of this world.\n\n16. The man of well governed senses comes, by his association with the\nwise, and his constant study of religious works, to know all things in\nthe world in their true light.\n\n17. All worldly errors are dispelled by the light of truth; or else\none must fall into the pit of misery, by his mistake of falsehood for\ntruth; as the ignorant traveller is ingulfed in the dreary sands, by\nhis mistake of the mirage for water.\n\n18. Knowing this world as the unknowable intellect itself, that is the\nknowledge of the material world as the immaterial mind of God; is the\ntrue light in which the cosmos is viewed by the wise, who have neither\nthe fear of their falling into the snare of error, nor require their\nrelease from it.\n\n19. As the dried up waters of a river, are seen no more to glide even\nslightly in their course; so the formless phenomenals of the world,\nnever appear in the sight of the wise, nor leave their slightest\nvestiges behind in their mind.\n\n20. The knowledge of the world as an infinite void, and freed from the\nerroneous individualities of myself and thyself; leads to the knowledge\nof a supreme-self, which is apart from all, and the only ego that fills\nthe whole.\n\n21. All this conception of our subjective egoism and the objective\nworld, are but errors of our brain proceeding from ignorance; they are\nall situated in the void of Intellect, and are void of themselves; and\nall bodies are but empty shadows in air, and as quiet as quietus or\nnullity itself.\n\n22. This world appears as a shadow of the Intellect, in the vacuity\nof the very Intellect; it is a void amidst the void of the Intellect,\nwhich is certainly a void itself.\n\n23. No body can deny its similitude, to the shadowy sight in a dream;\nit is an unreal notion, and as unsubstantial as all notions can be, and\nas the notion of a void is void itself.\n\n24. This dream is no other than our consciousness of it, and the airy\nrealms that it presents to our view for the time; so doth the Intellect\nshow us the sight of the world, without any action or passion or\ninstrumentality of itself.\n\n25. So I am of the substance of the very Intellect, which is without\nits activity, passivity and instrumentality; and the world being\nunassignable to any causality or instrumentality, subsists only in our\nsimple conception of it.\n\n26. As the conception of one\u2019s death in a dream, is no reality at\nall; and the sight of water in the mirage, is a visual deception only\n(so the sight of the world appearing to view, is no real existence or\nentity at all).\n\n27. The vacuous intellect reflects its thoughts at first, in the clear\nmirror of its vacuity (or concavity); which is a mere hap-hazard of\nchance, and has no firm base or support (nor any form or figure of\nitself).\n\n28. The world appears as fixed and firm, without its foundation\nanywhere; and seems to be shining brightly, with its darksome opacity;\nknow then this fixity and this brightness of it, to be the diuturnity\nand glory of the eternal and glorious God.\n\n29. The vivacity of living beings, displays the spirit of the ever\nliving God; the air is his vacuity, and the running waters, show the\nvortiginous current of the eternal soul.\n\n30. As every member of the body is constituent part of the whole frame;\nso all the various parts of animated and inanimate nature, constitute\nthe entirety of the one cosmical deity. (These are but parts of one\nundivided whole, whose body nature is and God the soul. Pope).\n\n31. As the crystal mirror shows the shade of everything in itself, so\ndoth the transparency of Divine soul, exhibit the reflexions of all\nthings in it; the silent soul is as quiet as the mute crystal, but\nshows the varying scenes of nature, as interminably as a clear mirror\nreflects everything.\n\n32. There is no beginning or end of the supreme being (nor of his acts\nand attributes, which are displayed in nature); it is the intermediate\nof the two that is dimly seen by us, the rest is all enveloped in\nignorance, though there is no ignorance in the Omniscient.\n\n33. The living soul wakes from its sleeping dream, to fall back to its\nwaking dream again; and thus it continues for ever in its dreaming\nwhether waking or sleeping which are both alike to it.\n\n34. The soul finds its rest only, while it remains in the fourth state\nof its sound sleep; or else it passes all along from dreaming to\ndreaming, in both its state of sleeping and waking, which continually\nhaunt after it, unless it is drowned in its _susupti_ or sound sleep of\n_hynotism_, the only resort of the wise.\n\n35. But waking and sleeping and dreaming and sound sleep, are all alike\nto the enlightened soul; which is equally indifferent in all states,\nand whether it is asleep or awake, is never infested by dreams nor set\nbeside itself.\n\n36. The knowledge of unity or duality, and that of Ego _and tu_ or the\nsubjective and objective; never disturbs the enlightened; who views the\nwhole as an empty void, and is alike insensible of all as well as null.\n\n37. The distinction of unity and duality, made in the meaningless\nspeech of the unwise, is laughed at by the enlightened and wise, as the\naged and intelligent men laugh to scorn, at the pranks and prattlings\nof young lads.\n\n38. The controversy of unity and duality, is of spontaneous growth in\nthe heart like an indigenious plant; which without its pruning will not\nput forth its blossoms, to perfume the atmosphere of the understanding.\n\n39. The discussion of unity and duality, is as benificial to man as\nhis best friend; in sweeping away the dirt and dross of ignorance from\ntheir minds, as they drive away the dust from within the doors of their\nhouses.\n\n40. Then the minds of men are settled in the Divine Mind, when there\nensues a mutual communion between themselves, and a communication and\nparticipation of their reciprocal joys and felicity with one another.\n\n41. These men being always joined together in their fellowship, and\nserving one another with the mutual delight and obligingness of\ntheir hearts; attain to that state of the enlightenment of their\nunderstandings, whereby they are admitted into their communion with the\nMost High.\n\n42. It is possible for a man to be benefited, even by his careful\npreservation of a trifle (at some time or other); but it is never\npossible for any body, to attain the most recondite knowledge of God,\nwithout his diligent inquiry into the same.\n\n43. Whatever highest position one may enjoy in this material world, is\nto be recognised by all as nothing, provided that one does not remain\naloof from all kind of vices.\n\n44. What is that happiness which is gained by the possession of a\nkingdom, which at last is no better than mere botheration of the mind;\nwhile the mind that has gained its peace and tranquility in truth and\nDivine knowledge, spurns at the state of gods and kings as mere straws\nto him.\n\n45. The sleepy as well as the wakeful, are alike apt to see the\nvisibles, and are rapt with the sight; but the saints that are calm and\nquiet and at rest with themselves, are averse to sight-seeing, and see\nthe only one in themselves.\n\n46. Without painstaking, and your continued practice of contemplation,\nyou can not succeed to attain this state of infinite felicity; for know\nthis state of transcendent bliss, is the fruit of intense devotion only.\n\n47. Thus have I said at length, to impress in you the necessity of\nintense devotion; but to what good is all this say the evil-minded to\nme, and thus slight and take no heed of all that I have been so long\ndelivering unto you.\n\n48. It must be by means of steady attention to these lectures, and\nby long and repeated practice of devotion; as also by hearing these\nsermons and discoursing upon them that the ignorant can come to the\nright light of truth.\n\n49. He who having once read this spiritual work, slights it afterwards\nas already perused by him; and turns to the study of unspiritual books,\nis a vile wretch that collects the burnt ashes after the fire is\nextinguished. (Irreligious works are the ashes of the fiery religious\nones).\n\n50. This excellent work is to be read always, like the recital of the\nvedas, which are embodied herein; and this is calculated to reward the\nlabor of the student, by its being constantly read with reverence, and\nrightly explained with diligence.\n\n51. The student will learn from this _s\u00e1stra_ all that he expects to\nfind in the vedas; because it embodies both the practical as well as\nspiritual doctrines of the sacred scriptures, and a knowledge of both\nof them, is available by proper perusal of this work.\n\n52. By learning this book, one may have a knowledge of the doctrines\nof the ved\u00e1nta, tarka and siddh\u00e1nta _s\u00e1stras_, because this is the\nonly work, that treats of the tenets of all schools. (Here the word\ndrishti is homonymous with _darsana_, which is rendered as a school of\nphilosophy by Colebrooke).\n\n53. It is from my sympathy for you all, that I propound these doctrines\nto you; and by way of imposture, that I impose these lessons on your\ncredulity. You are best judges of my discourse and can well detect,\nwhether there is anything as deception in my prolusions.\n\n54. The knowledge that you may derive, by weighing well the\ninstructions given in this great work; will serve you as salt, in order\nto season and relish the teachings of other _s\u00e1stras_, that are at best\nbut sundry dishes before it.\n\n55. The materialist who is conversant with the visibles, disparages\nthis book for its occult teachings of spiritualism; but don\u2019t you be\nthe killer of your souls as to neglect your eternal salvation, in order\nto revisit this material world, and to be busied with your temporal\naffairs.\n\n56. Biased minds cling to the dogmas of exploded systems, and ignoble\nmen drink the foul water of tanks, dug by their ancestors; you are\nreasoning men yourselves, therefore do not remain for ever fast bound\nto your ignorance.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXIV.\n\nUNITY OF THE DIVINITY AND THE MUNDANE WORLD.\n\n Argument:--Intromission of the Living soul and all bodies, that\n is the subjective and objective into the Divine Essence.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--The atoms of living souls in the world, are as\nthe particles of rays in the orb of the sun (or as the sparks of fire\nin a furnace); and as all these parts taken collectively, make the one\nundivided whole; so there is no division of the unity of the Deity,\nthroughout the whole creation.\n\n2. By attaining the transcendental knowledge of all being the One, and\nthe One as all; every thing loses its shape and form before us, and\nthere remains nothing whatever as a distinct being or duality.\n\n3. The true believer or knower of truth, sees the self-same object\nin all states and forms of things; and this is the transcendent and\ntranslucent Brahma only, and nothing else whatsoever at any time.\n\n4. He is the same, that is known to the ignorant, as their objects\nof sense; but we do not recognize either ourselves or others, or the\nsensible objects of the ignorant as such.\n\n5. The belief of the ignorant man in the reality of himself, thyself\nand all others, does not affect the knower of truth, as the delusion\nof mirage never overtakes the man on Mount Meru: (where the deceptive\nsands of the deserts are wanting).\n\n6. As the man intent upon one object, has no consciousness of any\nother thing in his mind; so one enrapt at the sight of God alone, is\nconscious of nothing besides.\n\n7. There neither is nor was nor shall ever be, any such thing as the\nmaterial world at any time; the world in _esse_ is the image of Brahma\nhimself, and abides in his spirit.\n\n8. The world is the splendour of the chrystalline vacuum of the Divine\nIntellect, and subsists in the vacuity of the supreme soul itself;\nit is in this light that the universe is seen in the _dhy\u00e1na yoga_ or\nabstruse contemplation of yogi.\n\n9. As there is nothing in an empty dream or in the aerial castle of\nimagination except the clear atmosphere of the Intellect; so there is\nno essence or substance nor form or figure of this world, that we view\nin our present waking state.\n\n10. At first there was no creation of any kind, nor this world which\nappears to us (in its material form); it exists in its aerial form\nin the Divine Mind from all eternity; and there being no primary or\nsecondary cause of it, how is it possible to call it a material thing\nof its own spontaneous growth.\n\n11. Therefore there is nothing that sprang itself out of nothing at\nfirst, nor was there ever a creator called Brahm\u00e1 or other by the\nignorant, in the beginning; there is nothing but an infinite void from\neternity to eternity, which is filled by the self-born or increate\nspirit, whose intellect exhibits this creation, contained for ever and\never in its vacuity.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXV.\n\nON THE SIMILARITY OF WAKING AND DREAMING.\n\n Argument:--The steadiness of the Intellect in waking and\n Dreaming, which are alike to one another.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--In the state of waking dream the dream passes\nunder the name of waking; and in the state of dreaming wakefulness,\nthis waking goes by the name of sleeping.[2]\n\n2. The dream terminates into waking, and the waking man rises from his\ndreaming, and falls back into it again; so one awakened from his dream\nlike waking, falls afterwards to his waking dreams.\n\n3. The dream of the waking dreamer, is to be called a dream also, as\nthe waking dream of this world; and so the waking (or consciousness) of\nthe sleeping waker, is to be styled his waking state.\n\n4. Therefore that wakefulness (or consciousness) of one, remains\nin his dreaming state, is to be called his waking likewise and not his\ndreaming; so also the waking dream (of the existence of the world),\nand the imaginations of airy castles while one is waking, is to be\ndesignated his dreaming and never as his waking.\n\n5. Whatever lasts for a short while, as a temporary delusion or flight\nof imagination, passes under the name of a dream even in one\u2019s waking\nstate; and so the short watchfulness of consciousness in the state of\ndreaming, is known as dreaming and never as waking.\n\n6. Therefore there is no difference whatever, between the two states\nof waking and dreaming, beside the absence of one of these two in\nthe other (_i.e._ the absence of shortness in waking, and that of\ndurability in the dream). Again they are both unreal, owing to their\nblending with one another (_i.e._ dreaming blended with the view of\nthe phenomenals in waking; and the wakeful consciousness blending with\ndreaming).\n\n7. The waking dream of the world, vanishes under its unconsciousness in\ndeath; and the consciousness of dreaming is lost, under the knowledge\nof its being an airy nothing. (The world recedes as heaven opens to\nview. Pope).\n\n8. The dying person that does not come to perceive the vanity of the\nvisionary world at his death-bed can have no sight of the state of his\nwaking (or resurrection), in the next or future world.\n\n9. Whoever believing himself as alive, among the varying scenes of this\nvacuous world, lives content with them; he can never come to the sight\nof the visions, which await upon him.\n\n10. As the intellect displays its wonders, in the exhibitions of the\nvarious scenes of worlds, to the sight of one in his dream; so doth\nthis universe appear before the minds of men, at the time of their\nwaking.\n\n11. These creations which are so conspicuous to sight, are at best but\nnothing in their transcendental light and all the forms of things, are\nas the empty shadows of them appearing in our dreams.\n\n12. As the world with all its varieties of visible objects, appear in\nits inane and shadowy form in the dream; so it is seen in its vacuous\nand intellectual form only, in our waking state (although it seems to\nbe tangible body).\n\n13. It is the nature of the vacuous Intellect, to show the form of the\nworld in its own firmament; so doth this earth appear unto us, amidst\nthe spacious atmosphere, like the orbs of light in the skies.\n\n14. It is the wondrous display of the Intellect, that shines before\nus under the name of universe; and these wonders are as inborn and\ninnumerable in itself, as the watery and earthly particles, are connate\nwith, and diffused throughout nature.\n\n15. What thing is there in it, which you can mistake for a reality in\nthis unreal world; that is situated as a vacuous body in the infinite\nwomb of vacuity.\n\n16. The words recipient, receipt and reception, or the percipient,\nperceived and perception (_i.e._ the subject, object and attribute),\nare all meaningless with regard to this vacuous world; and whether it\nis a reality or unreality, we have no perception of it. (Because the\npresence of everything is lost, at the absence of its properties, which\nare adscititious only).\n\n17. Whether it is so or not or be it anything otherwise (as others\nmay have it); yet why should mistake it for anything at all, in\nwhatever light you take it, it will amount to your mistake of an\nempty ball for a fruit (so says the ved\u00e1nta:--\u091c\u0917\u0926\u094d\u092c\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e \u0938\u094d\u0935\u0930\u0942\u092a\u0924\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0924\u094d\n\u092a\u094d\u0930\u093e\u0917\u092d\u093e\u092c \u0924\u0925\u093e \u092a\u094d\u0930\u0927\u094d\u0930\u0902\u0938\u093e\u092d\u093e\u092c \u090f\u092c\u0902 \u0905\u0928\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0928\u094d\u092f \u092d\u093e\u092c\u093e\u0928\u093e\u092e \u0926\u0941\u0930\u094d\u0928\u093f\u0930\u0942\u092a\u094d\u092f\u0924\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0924\u094d \u0915\u0947\u092c\u0932\u093e\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0928\u094d\u0924\u093e\u092d\u093e\u092c\u094b\u093d\u0938\u094d\u0924\u093f \u0964).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXVI.\n\nON THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE DIVINE SPIRIT: IN THE FORM OF A DIALOGUE.\n\n Argument:--Definition of supreme soul and its synonyms and its\n simile to a blue stone.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--The true sense of the word soul or self, is to\nbe understood from the title which is applied to it; and this title of\nthe soul is borne out by the simile, of the solid and transparent blue\nstone.\n\n2. It is from the beginning of creation, that the vacuous soul is\nthus diffused in itself; and the reflexion which it casts in its own\nvacuity, the same passes under the name of this world or creation.\n\n3. There runs no river in it, nor there rises nor sinks any rock in the\nsame; it is the mere vacuum subsisting in its infinite void, wherein\nthe intellect reflects itself without any action or bidding or fiat of\nit.\n\n4. This reflexion of the Divine Intellect, was without its utterance of\n\u201cword\u201d and quite without its \u201cwill\u201d or \u201cthought\u201d. It was also without\nthe appliance of any subsequent material (as matter), and this is the\ntrue sense of the word soul or self.\n\n5. The soul itself is the whole world, which has no other expression\nfor it; and being devoid of a name, it is expressible by no other name\nthough they give many names to it.\n\n6. Its name being nameless, whatever appellation they put to it, is not\nopposite but inappropriate to it; what is the good therefore of giving\nit a name or no name at all.\n\n7. Its namelessness or giving it a misnomer or improper expression, is\nall the same; since all what is visible, is no other than a display of\nthe wondrous fabric of the Divine Mind.\n\n8. Whatever shines in any manner, in the empty space of the Divine mind\nat any time; the same shines forth even then and in that manner, as\nthe rays of that Intellect (emanating therefrom, and concentrating into\nall other minds).\n\n9. It is denominated by one as soul, by another as _asat_, and by some\nas nothing; all these are the mystery of intellect only, but in fact,\nall are the attributes of soul.\n\n10. The word itself conveys the meaning of self--soul. It is without\nbeginning and end, and no language can express it; in fact, it is an\nundivided whole.\n\n11. Now listen to a long narrative which hangs on this subject, and\nwhich will serve to gladden your hearts and ears, by removing the\nduality from your sight, and by enlightening your understanding (with\nknowledge of the unity).\n\n12. Know that there is a very large crystal stone, extending itself to\nthousands of leagues in space; and stretching like the solid cerulean\nfabric of the firmament, or as the blue sky all around us.\n\n13. It is all of a piece without any joining of parts in it, and is as\ndense and compact as the hard adamant; it is thick, big and bulky in\nits size, but at the same time as clear and far as the face of the sky.\n\n14. It continues from countless times, and endures to endless duration;\nand with its comely and pellucid body, it appears as the clear\nfirmament, or the blank vacuum on high.\n\n15. No one ever knows its nature or genus, from his having never seen\nanything of the same kind, nor does any body know from when and where,\nit hath come to existence. (All know it is, but none knows how and\nwhence it is).\n\n16. It does not contain anything substantial, as the material elements\nwithin itself; and yet it is as dense and solidified in itself as a\ncrystalline, and indissoluble as an adamant.\n\n17. Yet it is composed of innumerable streaks and strokes, which are\nembodied in itself; and these resemble the veins and fibres on lotus\nleaves, and the marks of conches etc. in Hari\u2019s feet.\n\n18. These marks are named as air, water, earth, fire and vacuum, though\nthere are no such things to be found therein; except that the stone\nwas possest living soul, which it imparted to its marks.\n\n19. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--Tell me sir, how that stone of yours, could have\nlife or sensibility in it; the stone is an insensible thing, and could\nnot give names to the marks on its body.\n\n20. Vasishtha replied:--That immense and luminous stone, is neither a\nsentient nor inert body; no body knows its nature and state, and there\nis no other like it.\n\n21. R\u00e1ma said:--Tell me sir, who ever saw those marks, which are\nimprinted in the bosom of that stone; and how could any one ever break\nthat stone, in order to see its contents and its marks.\n\n22. Vasishtha replied:--It is hard to break this hard stone, nor has\nanybody been ever able to break it; by cause of its extending over\ninfinite space, and encompassing all bodies within its bosom. (So\nsays the sruti:--There is nothing but is encompassed by it--the all\npervading soul).\n\n23. It is full of numberless spots in its spacious cavity; and these\nconsist of the marks of mountains and trees, and of countries, towns\nand cities.\n\n24. There are also small and large dots in it, with any form or figure\nof them; but serve to represent the forms of men, and gods and demigods\nin them, as an outline shows the images of things.\n\n25. There is a long line drawn in it in the form of a circle, which\nrepresents the great circle of the visible sky or horizon; and this\ncontains the two central points, signifying the sun and moon.\n\n26. R\u00e1ma said:--Tell me sir, who ever saw those marks of such forms;\nand how it is possible for any body, to look into the cell of a solid\nor hollow ball.\n\n27. Vasishtha replied:--It is I, O R\u00e1ma, that beheld those marks of\ndifferent forms in that impenetrable block; and it is possible for you\nto look into it, if you will but like to do so.\n\n28. R\u00e1ma said:--How could you sir, look into those marks inside that\nsolid stone, which you say, is as stiff as adamant, and incapable of\nbeing broken or perforated by any means.\n\n29. Vasishtha replied:--It was by means of my being seated, in the\nvery heart of that stone; that I came to see those marks, as also to\npenetrate into their meanings.\n\n30. Who else is able to penetrate into that rigid stone beside myself,\nwho have been able by my penetration, to pry and pierce into the\nmysteries of those hidden marks.\n\n31. Tell me sir, what is that stone and what are you yourself; explain\nto me where you are and what you are speaking, and what are those\nthings that you have seen and known to mean.\n\n32. Vasishtha replied:--It is the supreme soul, which is the sole\nentity and sober reality; and this is represented by figure of speech,\nas the great stone, of which I have been speaking to you.\n\n33. We are all situated in the cavity of this supreme spirit, and the\nthree worlds form the flesh of this Great being, who is devoid of all\nsubstantiality.\n\n34. Know the spacious firmament to be a part of this solid rock, and\nthe ever flying winds as fragment of its body; the fleeting time and\nevanescent sounds together with all our varying actions and desires,\nand the imaginations of our minds, to be but the fugacious particles of\nits substance.\n\n35. The earth, air, water and fire, and the vacuum and understanding\nalso, together with our egoism and sensibilities, are the portions and\nsections of its totality.\n\n36. We are all but bits and parcels of the great rock of the supreme\nsoul, and every thing whatever there is in existence, proceeds from\nthat source, and we know of no other cause or causality whatsoever.\n\n37. This large stone is the great rock of Divine Intellect, and there\nis nothing whatever, which is beside and beyond its intelligence. Say\nthen if there be any such thing and what it bears.\n\n38. All things are but mere notions of them, as those of a pot or cot,\na picture and all others; they appear in us as our dreams, and rise\nbefore us as the waves of water (which are no other but water).\n\n39. It is all the substance of Brahma and the essence of the great\nIntellect, which fills and pervades the whole; know therefore all these\nas one, with the substantiality of the Supreme spirit, and all as quiet\nand calm as itself.\n\n40. Thus all this plenum is situated, in the bosom of the great rock\nof the intellect; which is without its beginning, middle and end, and\nwithout any hole therein, or doorway thereto. Therefore it is the\nSupreme soul only which contemplates in itself, and produces (as the\nobject of its thought), this ideal creation of the universe (or the one\nconverted into many), and which passes under the title of the visible\nor phenomenal world.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXVII.\n\nABSENCE OF THE THREE FOLD STATES OF WAKING, DREAMING AND SLEEP.\n\n Argument:--Refutation of the four fold Appellations of the World,\n and the three fold states of the Living soul.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--The four titles, namely, the self-styled, the\nmisnamed, the nameless, and the otherwise named, under which the\nworld passes in their different senses; are all meaningless to the\nspiritualist (who view the world in its spiritual light, and as\nselfsame with the Supreme spirit, as it is related in the preceding\nchapter).\n\n2. These different words do not disturb the mind of the spiritualist,\nwhose soul is at rest in the Supreme spirit, and who pays no regard to\nthe use of words (or terminology of theology).\n\n3. All these visibles rise from the Intellect only, and bear no names\nof their own; they are of the nature of pure vacuum, and appear unto us\nin their simple vacuous forms (as phantoms in the air).\n\n4. This is the soul, and this its title (that is giving a name to a\nnameless spiritual thing), is an erroneous conceit or coinage of the\nbrain. The spirit admits of no expressions; therefore take heed of no\nword but mind its meaning.\n\n5. Whatever appears to be moving or staying or doing any action, is as\ncalm and clear as the void air, and devoid of action as the Divine soul.\n\n6. All things however sounding, are as silent as the still stone said\nbefore; and though they seem to be ever moving, they are ever as quiet\nas the void of the sky, and as still as the quiescent stone.\n\n7. Though all things appear to be acting in their various ways, yet\nthey are as motionless as the unmoving vacuum; and though the world\nappears to be formed of the five elements, yet it is but a void and\ndevoid of its quintessence.\n\n8. The world with its fulness of things, is but a congeries of your\nconceptions; it is full with the all pervasive and pellucid Intellect,\nwhich shows the visions of great cities, like the vacant sights in our\ndream (or as a dumb and shadowy show, without any sound or substance in\nit).\n\n9. It is full of action and motion, without any activity or mobility\nin it, like the passing city of our imagination; it is the air built\ncastle of our error, and as the fairy land in our dream.\n\n10. It is a false conception or notion of the mind, and as the fading\nshadow of a fairy; it is creation of our fancies, but altogether\nunsubstantial in its substantiality.\n\n11. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--I ween this world as a waking dream, and\nreproduction of our remembrance of it; because it is reminiscence of\nthe past only, that presents the absent to our view, and brings the\nouter objects to our knowledge. (Hence remembrance is the cause of\nresolving everything to our knowledge of them).\n\n12. Vasishtha replied:--No R\u00e1ma, it is the reflexion which the glassy\nmirror of the Intellect, casts before us at anytime, the same appears\nto us even then in its vacuous form; and there is no idea or thought\nof anything, that lays a firm hold on the mind, or has its foundation\nthere. (Refutation of innate conceptions and prior reminiscence).\n\n13. Therefore the phenomenon always belongs, to the noumenon of the\nSupreme spirit; and the fluctuating phenomenals ever abide in it, as\nthe undulating waves play in the calm waters of the sea.\n\n14. The uncaused world, exists of itself in the Supreme soul; and\nbecomes extinct of itself, in the vacuity of the universal soul.\n\n15. The world is viewed in the same light by every one, as it is\nreflected in himself, hence the ignorant are always in fault in having\na wrong view of it; but not so the wise, who know it as nothing.\n\n16. Again the lord god Brahma himself, has exhibited the lucid nature\nof his being, according to the four states or conditions, which are\nnatural to the soul.\n\n17. These are the three states of waking, dreaming and sleep, together\nwith a fourth called-the _tur\u00edya_ or the state of sound sleep, and\nthese names are applied to the soul by the Supreme soul itself.\n\n18. But in reality none of these quadruple states, belongs either to\nthe Divine or the living soul, which is always tranquil, and which is\nof the nature of an indefinite void.\n\n19. Or it may be said in respect to the soul, that it is either always\nwakeful, or in its ever dreaming state; or in a state of continuous\nrest and sleep. (The Divine soul never sleeps. Sir W. Jones. The ever\nwakeful eyes of Jove. Homer).\n\n20. Or it is ever in its fourth state of _turya_, which is beyond all\nthese triple states; but whether it is in this or that or what state,\nwe know nothing of, being ourselves always in a state of disquiet and\ncontinued agitation.\n\n21. We know nothing of the inanity of the vacuous soul, as to whether\nit is as the chasm in the foam or froth, or whether it is as the air in\na bubble or spray; or whether it is as the gap amidst waves of the sea\nor what it is at all.\n\n22. As a thing is known to be in its imagination, so it is impressed\nalso in our conception of the same; and as anything appears either\nas real or unreal in the dream, we retain the like idea of it in our\nwaking also.\n\n23. All this is the display of our consciousness, and whatever\nreflexion it exhibits unto us it is but an empty shadow in the hollow\nof the vacant mind, which resides in the vacuity of the vacuous\nintellect, that pervades the infinite vacuum of the soul.\n\n24. Consciousness is the pith and marrow of vacuous Intellect, and\nretains this form (of its quiddity) at all times; it neither rises nor\nsets, and this world is inherent in it (_i.e._ it is subjective and\nderived from within).\n\n25. The creations on the beginning, and the dark nights of dissolution,\nare but parts of its body, and resemble its nails and hairs. (_i.e._\nThe light which was the first work of creation, likened the whiteness\nof its nails, and the darkness of the universal deluge, equalled the\nblackness of its hairs).\n\n26. Its appearance and disappearance, that is its clearness and\ndimness; are no other than as the breathing air of the great Intellect.\n(_i.e._ The exhaling and inhaling breaths of the Intellect, are causes\nof its expansion and contraction).\n\n27. Therefore what means the waking, sleeping or dreaming of the soul,\nand what signifies the term sound sleep or the tur\u00edya of the soul\n(which is ever awake) So the word volition and nolition are meaningless\nwhen applied to the soul, which is always composed and indifferent.\n(These attributes belong to the mind only).\n\n28. It is the inward consciousness, that exhibits its inner concepts as\noutward objects; how then is there a duality or anything objective, and\nwhat means this remembrance of extraneous matter.\n\n29. Therefore all these that appear to our sight, are without their\nbase or foundation; they are the reflexion of our consciousness in open\nair, which is wholly devoid of any material object.\n\n30. Though the external world is said to be a reality, it is because of\nits being a concept of the divine mind, out of which it has risen to\nview; and reminiscence is said to be its cause also, by reason of our\nremembrance of the first creation, which continue all along with us.\n\n31. But there is no outward object at all, owing to the absence of\nmaterial elements; and the want of the five principles of matter,\nbefore and at the time of first creation.\n\n32. As there are no horns of hares, and no trees growing in the air,\nand as there is no son of a barren woman, nor a dark moon shining in\nthe sky.\n\n33. So this visible world, and these personalities of ourselves; which\nare mere misrepresentations of our ignorance, are things invisible and\ninexistent in themselves, and are seen and known by ignorant only.\n\n34. To them the world appears as an erroneous body, and our\npersonalities and abstractions of persons; but there is nothing as\nfictile or abstract to the spiritualist, who view them all in one\nundivided whole--the Divine spirit or soul.\n\n35. It is consciousness the pith and marrow of the soul, that exposes\nall these concepts of it to light; and the manner in which it displays\nthem to the imagination, so do they make their appearance to our sight.\n\n36. Whenever our misconception portrays its concept in a material form,\nor gives a name and form to an airy nothing; we come to see the same\nform in our imagination, in the empty void of our mind.\n\n37. The great Intellect has the appearance of the sky for itself, which\nin the ordinary use of language, is expressed by the word matter, as\nconsisting of the four elements, and the endless void which is devoid\nof them.\n\n38. The unchanging and undecaying intellect, bears to itself the form\nof air only; which it conceives by mistake as the stable earth; just as\nimaginary men believe the air built castle to a reality.\n\n39. The intellect being an incorporeal substance, has neither this\nform nor that nor of any kind at all; it has its pulsation and rest of\nitself, like the breath and stillness of winds in the air.\n\n40. As the intellect manifests itself in its own sphere in the two\nstates of its volition and nolition (or action or inaction); so the\nworld seems to be in its states of motion and quiescence; which take\nplace in the bosom of vacuum.\n\n41. As the sphere of the Intellect remains unchanged, at the rise and\nsubsidence of its thought; so doth the sphere of air remain unvaried,\nwith all the creation and its dissolution in its bosom.\n\n42. The world is always in the same unvaried state, whether you call it\nso or otherwise; and the seeming revolutions of bodies and succession\nof events, are well known to be nothing to the learned and wise, and\nnot to others.\n\n43. Because the wise soul dwells in the hearts of all, which it views\nalike as its own self; but the ignorant soul is unconscious of its\nidentity, from its sight of the outer world, and its knowledge of the\ndifference of bodies from one another.\n\n44. What is there the interior or exterior of it, and that what is\nvisible and invisible in it; all this is in the Lord whether active or\nquiescent, know all to be the _om_ or _on_ and rest quiet.\n\n45. There can be no reasoning, without an insight into the meanings of\nthe significant terms and their significates; and it is consideration\nof both sides of the question that leads to our right judgment. Hence\nit is reasoning that leads us to truth, as the light guides us amidst\nthe darkness of night.\n\n46. Therefore drive off the multitudes of multifarious desires and\ndoubts from your mind, by means of the clearness (light) of your\nunderstanding (obtained by your habit of right reasoning), and also\nby your attention to the true interpretation of the _s\u00e1stras_; and\nthen rise and fly aloft to the higher region of light and truth, and\nattain the highest, best and most perfect state of Divine felicity and\nself-liberation.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXVIII.\n\nSTORY OF THE HEWN STATUE OR CARVED IMAGE.\n\n Argument:--The false and ignorant Attribution of creation, to the\n increate and self-manifest world.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--As the unconscious tree, displays various forms\nin its branches; so doth the unconcerned spirit of God, exhibit the\nairy semblance of creation in air.\n\n2. And as the ocean describes the whirlpools, insensibly upon its\nsurface; so doth the spirit of God, exhibit this rotatory worlds\nunconcernedly, on the surface of its own vacuum, and as they are seen\nby all.\n\n3. The Lord gives also to the sensible part of his creation, their\ninternal faculties of the mind, understanding and egoism, as also many\nother powers under different appellations.\n\n4. The phenomenal world is the production of the insensible Intellect,\nwhose volitive faculties are as loose as the rolling eddies of rivers\nand seas.\n\n5. The mind and understanding and all mental faculties, proceed from\nthe Divine Intellect; in the same manner as the whirlpools and eddies,\nand waves and surges rise on the surface of the sea.\n\n6. As a picture is nothing except its canvas, so the world which is no\nmore than a painting, is drawn on the substratum of the intellect; and\nthis is a vacuous substance, with the lustre of the world in it.\n\n7. What I have said before of the insensibility of the tree and sea,\nin the production of the branches and whirlpools by them; the same\ninstance applies to Intellect also, which shows the creation rising in\nits vacuity, not by an act of its intention or will, but by ordinance\nof fate, which governs all things, (and rules over Jove himself). This\nis the doctrine of fatalism.\n\n8. And as a tree exhibits its various forms, receiving the several\nnames of a plant, a shrub, a creeper &c.; so doth the intellect display\nits many features, like its flowers &c., and called by the different\nappellations of earth, air, water &c.\n\n9. And as the branches and leaves of a tree, are not different from the\ntree itself; so the productions of the great Intellect, are no other\nthan its very substance (or are essentially the same with itself).\n\n10. And as there are many things, made of the substance of a tree,\nbearing different names to themselves; so the productions of the\nIntellect, and the offspring of a living being, pass under several\nforms and appellations (of boy, girl, infant, adult and the like).\n\n11. The offshoots of the Intellect are all these creatures, which grow\nin and rise from the mind (of their own spontaniety); they appear to be\nthe works of the mind as their cause, but are no better than the dreams\n(arising of themselves in the mind).\n\n12. Should you say, why these conceptions of creation rise in vain in\nthe mind (if the creation is nothing in substance); I answer that they\nrise in the manner of dreams in the state of sleeping, which you cannot\ndeny to enjoy. (The thoughts of creation like those of imagination and\nthe conception in our dreaming, are not unattended by a certain degree\nof delight, during the time of our enjoyment of them. Gloss).\n\n13. As the tree displays various forms in the productions, and the\nimagination presents different shapes to our mental sights; so the\nintellect is employed in realizing many such creations in empty air.\n\n14. As the odours of flowers fly about invisible in the open air, and\nas pulsation abides inherent in the wind; so the intellectual powers,\nare intrinsic in the very nature of the soul.\n\n15. These creations likewise are ingrained in the Divine spirit, as\nfragrance is inborn in flowers and vacuity is ingenite in the air; and\nas vacillation and velocity are innate in the winds.\n\n16. As the air, wind and the flower, are receptacle of inanity,\noscillation and odours respectively; so the Intellect is container of\ncreation, although it is literally but an empty vacuity.\n\n17. Vacuity is no other than vacuum itself, as fluidity is not separate\nfrom liquids; fragrance is as inseparable from flowers, as pulsation is\nnever to be the disjoined from the wind.\n\n18. Heat is not disparate from fire, nor is coldness apart from snow;\nknow thus the world to be no way different nor disengaged from the\ntransparence of the vacuous Intellect.\n\n19. In the beginning, the Divine Intellect sees the creation appear\nin itself, as a dream rising in the mind; thus the world having no\nextraneous cause, and being subjective to the Intellect (as derived\nfrom within itself); is no way a heterogeneous mass or different from\nthe Divine mind.\n\n20. The instance of the dream is the best illustration of creation, and\nyou can judge it well by the nature of the dream you dream every night;\nsay what is there substantial in it, beside its being essential to the\nuniversal soul.\n\n21. The dream is not the effect of any impression in the mind, nor the\nresult of remembrances stored in the memory; because it shows us many\nsights, unseen and unthought of before; say therefore how these come to\npass.\n\n22. If what is seen in a dream, comes to present itself at the time of\nour remembrance of the dream?\n\n23. Therefore these revolving worlds; are as the rotatory whirlpools\n(in the wide ocean of the infinite mind); they are the fortuitous\nappearances of chance, and whatever occurs in the mind, passes\nafterwards for its dreams.\n\n24. The creations being insensibly produced from the Divine Mind,\nlike the waves and whirlpools in the ocean; receives its stability\nand continuity afterwards, in the manner of the continuation of the\nwhirling waters and ever rolling billows.\n\n25. Whatever is born without its cause, is equal to the unborn; because\nthe unborn are forever similar to those, which have no cause for their\nbirth.\n\n26. As the precious gems growing insensibly of themselves, have their\nlustre inherent in them; and as this brilliance is no substance\nor anything real at all, so the appearance of the world has no\nsubstantiality of itself.\n\n27. Some how or other, the world has its rise, like the wave or eddy\nin a river; and then it continues to go on as the continuous course of\nthe stream.\n\n28. There are numberless worlds of intellectual forms, gliding in the\nvast vacuity of the Intellect; and passing as aerial dreams without any\ncause whatsoever.\n\n29. All these again become causes and productive of others, and they\n all of vacuous forms including even the great Brahm\u00e1 and the gods\nand angels (all of whom are aerial beings, and others of the same kind).\n\n30. All that is born in and produced from void, are null and void also;\nthey grow in the void or air, and return also into vacuity.\n\n31. It is the vacuum that appears as the _plenum_, as in the instance\nof an empty dream seeming as something; the man that denies his own\npercipience of it, is no better than a boor or brute.\n\n32. The unreal appearing as real, is the fabrication of error and\nignorance; but the spiritualist who knows the truth, views the world as\nthe wondrous display of the Divine Mind and falsification.\n\n33. It is the longstanding and deep rooted prejudice, that produces the\nerroneous conceptions of the creation and destruction of the world; it\nis wisdom to know it in its true light, and foolishness to take the\nwrong view of it.\n\n34. The light of the Divine spirit, being once seen in this causeless\nvoid of the visible world, it continues for ever before our sight;\nas the dream that we see in our vacant minds in sleep, remains ever\nafterwards in our remembrance.\n\n35. It happens that the intellect comes to present, the adventitious\nappearance of the world to our minds; in the same manner, as the sea\nshows its whirls and waves to our sight, of its own nature.\n\n36. Such is the nature of the Intellect also, that it shows itself in\nthis manner (as the sea); and exhibits the revolving worlds, in its own\netherial essence only (of its own accord).\n\n37. Then the aerial Intellect, by a retrospective view in itself,\ninvented certain worlds afterwards, significant of the mental\nand intellectual powers as well as of material elements and their\nproperties.\n\n38. R\u00e1ma said:--If it is so sir, that all these powers are the\nspontaneous growth of chance, how can the mental power of memory be\nproduced on a sudden, when it is well known to be the product of\nremembrance or former impressions in the mind. Please explain me this.\n\n39. Vasishtha replied:--Hear me R\u00e1ma, and I will destroy your doubt, as\nthe lion kills an elephant; and will establish the one invariable unity\nas the broad day light of the sun.\n\n40. There is an only universal soul, that is invisible amidst the\nvacuum of his Intellect; as the uncarved doll remains unseen, in the\nwood of every forest tree. (All things are contained in the Divine\nsoul, as the future images in blocks of wood and stone. Aristotle,\nAddison).\n\n41. We see the carpenter that carves out the puppet, from the wood\nof the tree (and the mason who hues out the statue from the block of\nstone); but we know not the soul, which chisels out the figure of the\nworld from the great bulk of Instinct.\n\n42. The statue does not appear in the rugged block, unless and until\nit hewn out by the skill of carver, so the hidden world does not\nmake its appearance in the Intellect, till it is brought to view by the\ningenuity of the Mind (the universal architect).\n\n43. The uncarved body of the world (_Corpus-mundi_), does yet appear\n its aeriform state; which is original and genuine form in the\nDivine Intellect (until is moulded in this its fictitious shape by\ncreative mind).\n\n44. In the beginning of creation, the inventive Intellect forms of its\nnatural originality, the concept of the future world; appearing as an\nairy dream in the sight of the soul (and then the imaginative mind\nframes it according to its conceit in various forms).\n\n45. The vacuous Intellect conceives in its empty bosom, the airy ideal\nof the world; as if it were a toy or doll gliding of itself in itself.\n\n46. It conceives itself as the essential part of the great Brahma, and\nthe seed of the mundane system; and then imagines itself as the source\nof life and the living soul, and the receptacle of egoism.\n\n47. It imagines itself as the understanding and the mind also; and to\nbe the reservoir of space and time. It deems itself as the root of the\nknowledge of I, thou, he, and others, and as the quintessence of the\nquintuple elements.\n\n48. It sees in itself the congeries of the inward and outward senses,\nas also of the eight faculties of the mind; and both the spiritual as\nwell as the elemental bodies contained in itself.\n\n49. It thinks itself as the great trinity, consisting of the three\npersons of Brahm\u00e1, Vishnu, and Siva; and sees the sun, moon and stars\nall in itself. It considers itself as the whole creation and the\ninterior and exterior part of everything.\n\n50. All these being the imaginary creations of the Intellect; there\nis nothing whatever beside itself; but it is quite transparent in its\nessence, there is no concrete matter in it; and neither remembrance\nof gross materials is ever attached to it, nor any duality whatsoever\nsubsisting in the unity of its nature.\n\n51. The world is a causeless, uncaused and increate thing; and a\nnothing at all in reality; its creation is a dream, and its appearance,\nis as that of a delusive shadow in empty air.\n\n52. It appears as a phantom in vacuum, and as an intelligence in the\nIntellect; it is intelligible as it is, and that is in the sense of a\nnihility.\n\n53. What is the remembrance of a thing, any more than the dream of\nsomething, which is nothing in reality; and what is time of which we\nhave no conception, except it be an imagination or devise of the mind\nin empty air.\n\n54. What is contained in the inside of the compact intellect, the\nvery same appears on the outside of it; but in reality there is no\nsubstantiality in the exterior object of sight, as there is naught in\nthe interior object of thought; all which are but the glitterings of\nthe Intellect.\n\n55. Whatever issues out of the bodiless and nameless something, which\nis forever quiescent and calm in its nature; are deemed as causeless\nand uncaused productions, appearing before the blinded sight.\n\n56. Know therefore that this world, is to be viewed in the same\nintellectual light; as you see the supreme Brahma himself; and know it\nto be the very aerial castle of your dream, as it is represented in the\nvacuous space of your mind in your sleeping state.\n\n57. There is no such thing, as the visible or phenomenal world at any\ntime; where can you find any dust on the watery surface of the sea; and\nhow can you see anything visible, in the invisible spirit of Brahma.\n\n58. If the world should appear as anything at all to your sight, you\nmust view it as the manifestation of God himself, in his unthinkable\nand incomprehensible nature. (Nature is the body of God).\n\n59. The world is full of the glory of God, from the fullness of Divine\nglory; nor is the one derived from the other; but a full representation\nof Divine splendour on the face of nature.\n\n60. Though I have been repeatedly giving these lectures, yet the\ndeluded minds of men are far from receiving them; they believe the\nworld of their dream as if it were in waking, and knowing even its\nunreality they will never get rid of their rooted prejudice.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXIX.\n\nDESCRIPTION OF THE CALM AND TRANQUIL MIND.\n\n Argument:--Character of the unexcited and self-liberated man and\n his happiness in Life.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--He who is delighted with his delights,\nnor dejected in his distress; who looks only within himself for his\npeace and solace, is verily called the liberated man in his life time.\n\n2. He is called the self-liberated man, whose mind is moved from\nits steadiness in solid rock of intellectuality, towards the worldly\nenjoyments that are spread before him (and which are ever attractive of\nunrestrained minds).\n\n3. That is called the liberated soul, which reclines in its\nintellectuality, and has its mind ever fixed in it; which delights in\nintellectual culture, and has repose therein.\n\n4. He is verily styled the liberated soul, who reposes in the supreme\nsoul; whose mind does not slide from divine contemplation, nor takes\nany delight in visible objects all around.\n\n5. R\u00e1ma said:--Sir, I ween the man that feels no pain in pain, nor\nderives any pleasure from what is pleasurable, and is entire insensible\nof both, to be a mere block, and devoid both his senses and sensibility.\n\n6. Vasishtha replied:--We call him the self reposed, who rests in his\nvacuous intellect only; and whose soul derives a spontaneous delight\nfrom the purity of his understanding, such as it finds in nothing and\nno where besides.\n\n7. He is said to have his rest in the supreme soul, whose mind is\ncleansed of its doubts in all things; and who has obtained by means of\nhis discrimination, the true and certain knowledge of everything. (So\nsays the sruti: No doubts disturb the mind of one, whose soul confides\nand has found its rest in God).\n\n8. He is said to rest and have his repose in God, who takes no delight\nin any earthly thing whatever; and though he is outwardly employed in\ndischarging the duties of his life, yet his soul is fixed in his god.\n\n9. He is known to have his quiescence, whose activities are all without\nany aim or expectation; and he goes on and lives content, with whatever\nhe gets and offers itself to his lot.\n\n10. He alone is happy and successful, in this world of woe and misery;\nwho in his long restless, helpless and tedious journey in it, has\nfound his repose in the supreme spirit, by means of his intellectual\nimprovements.\n\n11. They who after running their long race, in the active course of\nworldly life; have come at last to set themselves at ease and quiet,\nat the latter end of their lives, are as men that appear to fall fast\nasleep, and enjoy their repose after the vexatious dreams of their busy\ndays.\n\n12. They shine and pass as brightly, in the open sphere of their\nintellects, as the glorious sun rises in the sky, and runs his daily\ncourse without stopping any where.\n\n13. Good people seem to be sleepy in their minds, though they are seen\nto be wakeful and employed in business with their bodies; they remain\nas inactive as any inert body, though they are never dormant in their\nsouls (which are ever awake to their eternal concerns).\n\n14. They who lie asleep on their beds, and are drowned in their\nreveries and dreams; are said and believed to be sleeping: though they\nare not insensible of the workings of their minds.\n\n15. When the tired traveller, halts after his long and wearisome\njourney, and ceases to utter a word owing to his hard breathing, such\ndumbness does not bespeak his dead silence or torpidity.\n\n16. The man of transcendent knowledge, and perfect peace and\ntranquility of his mind and soul; remains as blind to the splendours\nof day as the purblind owl, and as quiet as any body in the darkness\nof night, when the whole creation sleeps in the gloom of ignorance and\nunconsciousness.\n\n17. That man is happy, who sleeps over the varied scenes of this\nvisible world, and does not sights of woe, which it presents to view\nat the time of waking. (The gloss quotes a corresponding passage from\nthe _Bhagavad G\u00edt\u00e1_).\n\n18. He who pays no regard to ceremonial rites, and remains sincere\nto the welfare of his soul; such a man is said to be self satisfied,\nfrom his communion with himself, and is never, O R\u00e1ma, deemed as dead\nhimself.\n\n19. He who has passed over the miseries of this world, and got to the\nother side of it (next world); remains supremely blest in himself, by\nhis sense of heavenly bliss in his inward soul.\n\n20. He who is fatigued with his long and tiresome journey in this\nworld, and is ever deluded by four senses and sensible objects; gets\nweary of and cloyed with his enjoyments in life, and meets with the\nspectres of despair at the end.\n\n21. Being overtaken by hoary old age, he is battered and shattered\nby the hoar-frost of diseases; and then like the old and worn-out\nantelope, he wishes in vain to traverse his native forests and plains.\n\n22. Forsaken by the supreme soul, the sole and faithful guide in our\njourney through life; we are exposed to the intricate maze of thorns\nand thickets, till the weary traveller is at a loss of the shady grove\nwhereto take his rest.\n\n23. Here we are robbed of our passport and passage money, by the\nhighway men of our sins and sensualities; till we are overcome by our\nweakness, and exposed to numberless dangers and difficulties on the way.\n\n24. He that is possest of his soul by means of his spiritual knowledge,\ngets over the ocean of the world to the spiritual regions; where he\nrests calmly in the bedstead of his spirit, and without the bedding of\nhis body.\n\n25. The man who moves about, without any aim or attempt of himself and\nwithout his dream and sound sleep; whose mind is ever wakeful and whose\neyes are never closed in sleep, such a man sleeps softly in the lap of\nhis soul.\n\n26. As a horse of real breed, sleeps in his standing as well as\nrunning; so the self-possest person sleeps in himself, even though he\n employed in the acts of life among mankind.\n\n27. How very sound and profound, is the trance or reverie of the\nphilosophic mind, that it is not disturbed, even at the crackling of\nthunders or cracking of volcanoes.\n\n28. How exquisite is the ecstasy of the right discerner of truth, who\nsees all within himself, which the external observer with his open\neyes, finds as lying afar without himself.\n\n29. The man who with his open eyes, sees the world disappear from his\nsight; is giddy with his ecstatic views, and not with ebriety liquor.\n(He sleeps calmly in the trance of ecstacy).\n\n30. Ah! how happily he sleeps in his reverie, whose soul is satiate and\nat rest, after it has swallowed the visible world in itself, and drank\nthe ambrosial draught of self satisfaction.\n\n31. How happily doth the self-possest man sleep in his solity, who is\never joyous without any joy or anything to enjoy; who is joyful in\nenjoying the everlasting felicity of unity, and who sees effulgent\nlight of his inward spirit, without any mortal thing on the outside.\n\n32. Happy is the self-possest soul, which is blind to the objects of\ncommon desire, and rejoices in the blaze of transcendent light in\nitself; which delights in subtile and spiritual joys, as much as others\nluxuriates in their solid food and gross enjoyments.\n\n33. Happily sleeps the spiritual man, with the inward peace of his\nmind; who shuts his eyes against the outer world, which abounds only in\nsights of woe, and restlessness of the giddy mob.\n\n34. The self-possest rest in perfect peace of their minds, who bemean\nthemselves as the meanest of the mean in their outer demeanour; but\ndeem themselves as the greatest of the great in the greatness of their\nsouls; they have their repose in the lap of the vast void of their\nselves.\n\n35. The spiritualist sleeps happily in the universal soul, with its\nbody resting in its vast vacuity; which contains an infinity of worlds\nin every atom of it.\n\n36. The spiritualist rests perfectly blest in Supreme Spirit, which is\nfull of ineffable light, and in which he sees the repeated creation\nand dissolution of the world, without being destroyed himself.\n\n37. Blest is the godly man, that seeing the world as a dream in his\nsleep, rests in the Spirit of his god, where he sees everything as\nclear as day light, and as bright as open sky.\n\n38. How blest is the psychist with his musings, who contemplates on the\nessences of all substances, and engrosses the entity of whole nature in\nhimself; and whose comprehensive mind grasps the cosmos in itself, as\nthe vacuity of the sky, comprehends the whole universe within its ample\nwomb.\n\n39. How happily does the self-communing sage, sleep in his abstract\ncontemplation of the clear and bright heavens in himself; and who views\nthe whole universe in the light of the clear firmament, resounding with\nthe sound of his own breathings or snoring.\n\n40. How happily doth the self-communist, rest in the depth of his\ninmost thoughts; who finds himself as null and void, as the infinite\nvacuum itself, and views the universe hovering as a dream, in a corner\nof that vacuity.\n\n41. How cheerfully does the self-musing sage, lie down in his humble\nbedstead, which he finds as a matting made of straws, swept before him\nby the tide of time, and the current contented circumstances.\n\n42. The sage, who by his diligent self-consultation, has come to know\nthe true nature of himself (_i.e._ of his soul); lives in his lifetime\nas in the state of dreaming, and deems as an aerial figure of his dream\nsubsisting in empty air.\n\n43. The sage who by his diligent self-cogitation, has come to the\nknowledge of his own vacuousness; comes to the same knowledge of all\nnature at large, till at last he comes to reduce and assimilate himself\nto vacuity.\n\n44. The waking man falls to sleep, and the sleeping person rises to\nwake again, and in this manner they pass their time in endless turns;\nbut the sound sleeper alone is ever wakeful to his true friend of\nspirituality (because sound sleep is one\u2019s absorption in the quiet of\nDivine Spirit).\n\n45. He who having passed his days in this life, in company with his\nbest friend of self-liberation (j\u00edvan mukti) in his lifetime; comes\nto enjoy the sweet companionship of that friend (amurta-mukti), in\nhis future life for a long period of time, he is verily entitled to\nhis perpetual rest and everlasting bliss, in the list of the Divinity\nitself forever.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXX.\n\nON THE CONDUCT OF THE SAPIENT MAN.\n\n Argument:--Our acts are our best friends and relatives; their\n virtues and the enjoyments of their fellowship.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma said:--Tell me sir, who is that friend with whom he lives, and\nwhat is the nature of this enjoyments, whether it is subjective or\nobjective, that is whether derived from within oneself, or from\nexternal objects.\n\n2. Vasishtha replied:--Our own conduct alone is our only true friend,\nwhether it is ingenite in our nature, or derived by our extrinsic\ntraining and education from others. (The two words _svaprab\u00e1ha_ and\n_swapr\u00e1ya_ in the text, are explained in the gloss as _sahaja_--innate\nand _abhyasta_ or learnt.)\n\n3. Our inborn good conduct is as infallibly and friendly to us, as the\nnatural beneficence of our parents; and our extraneous good behaviour,\nis as overruling upon us, as the controul and restraints by a faithful\nwife in the intricate maze of life.\n\n4. A fearless course of life, and a well earned livelihood, and a well\nregulated mode of living; together with a dispassionate temper and\ncoolness of mind, are replete with unrestricted and ambrosial sweets.\n\n5. An unblemished life acquired from early youth, is able to save a\nperson from all dangers and difficulties in the world, and render\nhim confidential for every trust, and a repository of all wealth and\ntreasures.\n\n6. It is able to preserve men from all evils, as a father prevents his\nboys from daubing their bodies with dust and dirt; and hinder them from\nall acts of wickedness.\n\n7. Such a life gives a man the fervour of fire, and the sweet of\nflowers; it adds a clearness to his mind and countenance, as the\nsunlight brightens the face of the day.\n\n8. It supports a man as the father feeds and fondles his child, and\nprotects him from every accident, as the father is ever ready to shield\nhis children from all harm.\n\n9. As fire purifies the body of gold from alloy, and separates the\ngross that is to be rejected; so does it show the good qualities, from\nwhatever is to be shunned and avoided.\n\n10. It gladdens the hearts of men with polite speech, which is policed\nfrom rusticity; and is a repository of all laudable pursuits, as a\ntreasury is full of moneybags and precious gems.\n\n11. As the sun never shows darkness to view, so the good man never\nexposes his dark side to sight; as the loving wife shows only her\naffection to her beloved, so does he show his tenderness only to people.\n\n12. He speaks and behaves kindly with all men, and doth them good only;\nand his words are always sweet and cooling, and without interested or\nselfish view.\n\n13. He is the well-wisher of men, and is therefore revered by them all;\nhe speaks smilingly to all without any craving of his own, and bears\nthe form of goodness only to all beings.\n\n14. Should he happen to meet an enemy in a contest, who is ready to\nstrike the first blow on him; he tries to evade it by eluding his\nopponent by some artifice or sleight of art or skill.\n\n15. He is the patron of gentle and polite men, and protector of women\nand his family; and is as the nectarious physic to the souls, of all\nthose that ailing under sickness and sick-heartedness.\n\n16. He is particularly a patron of learning, and patronizer of the\nlearned; he is a servitor of venerable men, and a favourer of the\neloquent and argumentative. He is a compeer and _alter ego_ to his\nequals in births and breeding.\n\n17. He conciliates the favour of princes, noblemen and the liberal\ntowards him; and in conducting all sacrifices, acts of charities,\nausterities of devotion and pilgrimages, by contribution of his honest\nmeans.\n\n18. He partakes of his good food and drink, in company with his friends\nand Br\u00e1hmans; and joining with his wife and children, and all the\ndependants and inmates of his family (_i.e._, he never eats alone),\nand he never keeps company save with the good and great.\n\n19. He abstains from all enjoyments, deeming them as straws and causes\nof disease; and indulging himself in conversing upon good subjects,\nwith his view to the edification and beatification of mankind.\n\n20. In this manner he passes his time, in company with his friends and\nfamily; he is content with his own state, and glad at what fortune has\nprovided for him (_i.e._, his own lot and profession).\n\n21. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--Tell me Sir, in short, who are his wives and\nchildren and his friends also; what are their different forms, and what\nare the qualities and virtues they are respectively possessed of.\n\n22. Vasishtha replied:--Sacred ablutions and charities, religious\nausterities and meditation are his so many sons; that are all of great\nsouls, and entirely devoted to him.\n\n23. His wife is named Chandra-lekha, who is like a digit of the moon\nin her appearance, and whose very sight delights the eyes; she is his\nconstant companion, always loving to him and content in herself.\n\n24. She is the ravisher of his heart, and dispeller of the gloom of his\nmind, by reason of her loving kindness to him; she is the delight and\ndelighter of his soul, and is ever a faithful helpmate unto him.\n\n25. He has another consort by name of _Samata_ (_i.e._ of the same\nmind) with herself; who is dear to his heart, and keeps at the door to\nhis house, and pleases him by her very appearance.\n\n26. She fixes her mind always, at the mansions of virtue and patience;\nand runs before and guides the steps of her emburdened lord, to the\nabode of the blessed and felicitous.\n\n27. That strong man has another wife named Maitri or friendship, whom\nhe bears along with _Samata_ on his either shoulder; and who advises\nhim how to quell the enemies of his king\u2019s states (in royal service).\n\n28. She is his clever counsellor in all honourable acts, and gave\nproof of the veracity of her advices; by augmenting his wealth and\nrendering him honourable before all.\n\n29. Being thus employed in the discharge of his duties, in the circle\nof his friends, family and advisers, the sapient man always\npleased in himself, and never frets nor grumbles at any person or\nanything whatever.\n\n30. The wise man ever remains as he is, silent and sedate in his mind;\nhe remains always as unmoved as a picture in painting; though he may be\nmoving about in the ordinary affairs of life.\n\n31. He remains as dumb as a stone in fruitless discussions; and feigns\nhimself as a deaf man in useless conversation.\n\n32. He continues as a dead body, in acts which are against the social\nusage; but in conversations regarding polity and good manners, he is\nas eloquent as the wise Brihaspati, and as fluent as the snake V\u00e1suki\n(with its hundred tongues).\n\n33. When engaged in some righteous discourse, he exposes the fallacy\nof sophistical reasoners; and clears all doubts in a moment, by the\nversatility of his conversation on various subjects all at once.\n\n34. He is tolerant and magnanimous, bounteous and charitable; he is\npliant and gentle, sweet in his speech and handsome in his look, and\nfamed for his pious acts.\n\n35. Such is the character of enlightened men of their own nature, and\nno practice nor education can ever make any one as such; as the sun and\nmoon and fire are bright by themselves, and there is none and nothing\nelse, that can ever make them shine.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXI.\n\nMEDITATION OF PURE VACUUM.\n\n Argument:--On the nihility of the Phenomenal, and substantiality\n of the Noumenal vacuum.\n\n\nVasishtha resumed and said:--It is the manifestation of our vacuous\nconsciousness, that exhibits the phenomenal world unto us; whereas\nthere is in reality no such thing as this world, or its appearance, or\na vacuum in nature or a thing as consciousness in ourselves.\n\n2. Whatever is apparent before us, is the manifestation of the\nIntellect, and vainly styled the world; just as the open air called\nthe sky, is no other than the air itself. (So the vacuum known as the\nworld, is not otherwise than the very vacuum).\n\n3. As a man going from one place to another, sees a gap and blank\nbetween; and yet thinks of the place he has seen and left behind, so is\nthe world a mere gap and thought of the mind.\n\n4. Before creation there was nothing, how then could this something\nappear from that nothing; the latter having no material cause, is no\nmaterial or visible thing. (Ex nihilo nihil fit. So the sruti: _sat eva\nasit, na kinchit idam agra asit_).\n\n5. Then there was not an atom--the origin of the world in existence;\nhow then and from where, could this revolving world, have its rise and\nform?\n\n6. Therefore this formal and visible world, could not have sprung from\nit, as no child could ever be born of a barren woman. Hence there\nis nothing as the visible world, and the conception thereof must be\nentirely false (as that of a ghost or goblin).\n\n7. Whatever then appears as visibly present before us, is only the\nblank vacuity of the Intellect; and this is the transcendental state,\nin which the supreme unity appears unto us (according to the doctrine\nof srutis).\n\n8. As it is in depth of our sound sleep, there appears a fleeting dream\nbefore us; so it is with the supreme Intellect, which never forsakes\nthe serene and unalterable tranquility of its divine nature.\n\n9. But exists of itself in itself, and in its calm and quiet state,\never before the appearance of creation; and manifests intellectual\nvacuity, in the form of the visible world, as it appears unto us.\n\n10. As the idle thoughts of the mind, present themselves as airy\ncastles in our sleep; so doth the vacuum of the supreme Intellect,\nexhibit the appearance of the creation in its own empty space.\n\n11. As the empty air evolves itself, in the manner of whirlwinds in\nitself; so does the intellectual vacuum exhibit the phenomenal world,\nsubsisting in its very self (in the noumenon).\n\n12. Hence the three worlds that appear so visibly to our view, are\nquite unintelligible and unexposed to our sight in their very nature;\nit is the Supreme Deity itself, that appears in this manner of its\nsubsistence in its own vacuous substance.\n\n13. There is nothing as the formal earth, or anything whatever at any\ntime; or be it anything either formal or formless, (_i.e._, whether as\nplastic nature or subtile air or spirit, or whatsoever you may choose\nto call it; it is the Great Deity alone, that manifests itself in this\nmanner).\n\n14. As the formless mountain appearing in dream, disappears in air\nupon waking; and as the visible world in waking becomes invisible in\nsleep, so does the triple world appear and disappear by turns, in the\ntransparent and tranquil intellect only.\n\n15. To the watchful and enlightened mind, the world appears as identic\nwith God; but however intelligent we may be, can never know that\nwe are all along sleeping in our waking.\n\n16. As the mind is unoccupied with any object, in the interim of one\u2019s\njourney from one place to another; so the minds of all livings beings,\nare naturally unoccupied with any preconceived idea; and this blankness\nis the true state of the intellect. (This passage contradicts the\ndoctrine of innate ideas in the mind).\n\n17. That unemployed state of mind, which one has in the interval of his\njourney from place to place, is what bears the name of transcendent\nvoid, wherein all existence is contained. (This passage is opposed to\nthe preceding one. To say the intellect to be a perfect void and blank,\nand again the container of all, is quite contradictory).\n\n18. Now this void of the mind, and the vacuity of the world, are\nsimilar to one another as regards the similarity of their contents; as\nneither of them contains anything besides the principles of the five\nelements, either in their ideal or gross forms of elemental bodies,\ncalled as the real and unreal ones. (Sadasad\u00e1tmaka).\n\n19. The ideal or unreal ones, are the inward conceptions of the mind,\nand are called as _manask\u00e1ras_; while the real or gross forms of them,\nare styled the _r\u00fapalokas_ or visible objects, and both of these are\nbut different modes of divine essence. All of them are like the eddies\nand waves, rising on the surface of the infinite ocean of the Deity.\n\n20. Hence there is no such thing as the objectivity of the world,\nexcept that it be of the nature of that vacancy of the mind, as a\ntraveller has in the interim of his journey from one place to another.\n\n21. As the rising and setting of the passions and affections in the\nmind, are mere modes of it; so the being and not being of anything,\nand the presence and absence of the world, are mere modalities of the\nDivine Mind.\n\n22. The chasm that there is between one thought and another, is truly\ncharacteristic of the voidness of the Divine Mind, (which reposes\nforever, in its everlasting and tranquil intellectual felicity\n_sachchid\u00e1nanda_); the visible world is but a wave in the ocean of\nEternity, or as the mirage in a sandy desert.\n\n23. The Divine spirit never changes from its state of calm repose,\nand vacant mindedness, as that of a traveller in the interval of his\njourney from one place to another. Such is the state of this world\nwhich is ever calm and quiet.\n\n24. From the beginning or since the time of the first creation of the\nworld, nothing was made, that seems to be made; it is only a magic show\nthat appears so palpably to sight.\n\n25. Alas! all this is nothing, that is so bright to sight; and yet it\nis something right, when viewed in the light of Brahma himself; and\nthen it affords us fresh delight.\n\n26. Ah! where shall I go, and what can I get from this ungodly world,\nwhich is ever prone to unrighteousness; it is an unsubstantial sight,\nand passes for substantial, and yet no body understands that it is\nBrahma the very god, that exhibits himself in this mode and manner.\n\n27. It is no production nor reflexion, neither the archetype nor its\nectype; what then are these phenomenals, and how and from where? All\nthese that appear to view, are of the vacuity of Brahma, who exhibits\nhimself in this manner (in all shapes).\n\n28. As a gem shines itself of its own lustre, and not derived from\nwithout; so does the vacuous Intellect shine of its own splendour,\nshown forth in the creation, which is selfsame with itself.\n\n29. It is in that calm and quiet vacuity, that this sun shines with all\nhis glory; or rather a spot of that vacuum shines in the shape of the\nsun, which is but a _modicum_ or molecule of it, and nothing beside.\n\n30. Though situated therein, yet neither does the sun nor the moon\nshine of itself; it is that God that illumes those luminaries, neither\nof whom can illumine that transcendent Being the supreme Lord unto us.\n\n31. It is his lustre, that enlightens this visible (the mundane)\nsphere; and it is he alone that is the enlightener of the sun, moon,\nand stars and fire as also of all other shining bodies, that shine with\ntheir borrowed light from him.\n\n32. Whether He is formless or fictile, bodiless or embodied, is the\nverbal disquisition of the ignorant only at all times; whereas it is\nwell known to the learned, that any supposititious form of Him, is as\nunreal as the potentiality of a sky flower growing in empty air. (Here\nare _\u00e1k\u00e1s-latas_--sky-plants or orchids in air, but no _\u00e1k\u00e1s-pushpa_ or\nsky-flower, which must grow on the plant and not in the air.)\n\n33. As a ray of sunbeams, a particle of sand or sunstone, shine\nbrightly in sunshine; but the sun and moon also do not shine even as\nconspicuously as those particles, before the great glory of their\nMaker. (The sun is a grain of sand, and the moon a molecule, before the\nglory of the Great God).\n\n34. The shining sun, moon, and stars being but offshoots, of the\nflaming gem of the vacuous Intellect of the Deity; say how can they be\notherwise than flashes of the same gem, from which they are emitted.\n(The flash is not separate from the gem).\n\n35. The divine state or _hypostasis_ being divested of intellectuality,\nand being devoid of its voidness also, becomes deprived of its\nessentiality, as also destitute of all quality; being thus drained of\nall its properties and attributes, it becomes full of the _plenum_ and\ntotally of all existences.\n\n36. The earth and all elemental bodies reside in it, in a manner as\nthey are absent therein, and all living beings living by it, do not\nabide in the same. (All these opposites meet in its nature).\n\n37. All things combine therein in unity, and in their atomic forms,\nwithout forsaking their grossness without; while the Divine never\nforsakes its uniformity, without any mixture of duality in its pure\nentity of unity.\n\n38. Anything here is nothing, nor is anything a nothing altogether;\ntherefore it is too difficult to say, what thing it is and what not.\n(The nature of God is inscrutable).\n\n39. There is one thing which is infinite, and without any intersection,\nand is ever extended in everywhere; and this is the essence of the vacuous\nintellect, containing the germ and gist of the universe in itself.\n\n40. As the mind is vacant and still, in the interim of its passing\nfrom one thought to another; such is the nature and form of the world\n(_i.e._, of a quiet void), although it appears so variegated to view.\n\n41. Though it appears to be multifarious, yet it is the uniform\nintellect only, which extends invariably over all vacuity; and sees as\nin its dream, the forms of the five elemental bodies hovering about it.\n\n42. As the intellect passes from its rest of sleep, to the sights in\nits dream; so it passes from the state of _pralaya_ or the void of\nuniversal desolation to the commotion of creation. (The sleeping and\nwaking of the soul causing the extinction and resuscitation of the\nworld. Manu I).\n\n43. As sleep and dream recur to every soul, so the extinction and\nrenovation of the world, occur to all alike; so also is waking akin to\nthe _tur\u00edya_, or enlightened state of the soul: hence the world is no\nother than a phenomenon in the intellectual vacuum. (The words waking\nand enlightenment are synonymous terms).\n\n44. Thus the whole universe is no more, than a stage of waking,\nsleeping and dreaming and tur\u00edya scenes; such is the understanding of\nthe learned on this subject; and we know nothing in what light, it is\nviewed by the ignorant.\n\n45. The Lord is inscrutable amidst the living brute and all inert\ncreation; nor can we come to any conclusion, in respect to the\nnature of that Being, who is beyond the knowledge, of our mind and\nunderstanding.\n\n46. This much is knowable of Him, that he is of the pure Intellect, and\nthat all things are full of Him; yet they are not of the form of that\nReality, which manifests itself in the form of the universe.\n\n47. The words permeation and diffusion, of the Divine spirit in\ncreation; are used by the learned only, for explanation of the\nOmnipresence of the Deity; else there is no scent, _i.e._ nothing of\nthe import of the word pervasion (of Divine essence) in all nature.\n(Nature is the mere body; but God its soul is a bodiless Being).\n\n48. It is since the first creation of the world, that this great\nessence of the vacuous Intellect, is situated of itself, in the souls\nof great souled (or high minded men).\n\n49. The all pervading Intellect is ever situated, in the minds of\nthe sages, whose souls are full with the presence of the One supreme\nspirit; and it is that Intellect, which conceived in itself the idea,\nwhich passes under the name of the world.\n\n50. The knowledge of the felicity of the world, like that of a dream\nupon waking, is attained with delight, but the want of this knowledge,\nas of some bad dream at the time of sleeping, makes us uneasy all the\nwhile.\n\n51. The silent saint that knows the truth, is always in the selfsame\nstate of tranquility, whether he be walking or sitting any where, or\nremain in the states of waking and sleeping.\n\n52. The wise man that remains indifferent to everything, and sits\ncontent even in his distress; and cares not whether he lives or dies,\nhas nothing whatever either to gain or lose.\n\n53. The wise man, who is outwardly employed in worldly affairs, without\ntaking any thing to heart, and neither parts with nor craves anything;\nremains inactive in his active life.\n\n54. Utter indifference is characteristic of the wise man, just as heat\nand cold, are natural to fire and snow, and this habit of the mind, is\nnot acquired by practice or education.\n\n55. He who is not by his nature, of this disposition of his mind, is\never ignorant of truth; and ignorance of this truth, is the sign of a\ncharacter, that inclined to base desires.\n\n56. The truly wise man, remains perfect and pithy in his own good\nnature; he is quite satiate with the sweet ambrosial draught, of his\ntranscendent tranquility; he is sedate in his mind, and without his\nvarying desires of this thing or that.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXII.\n\nESTABLISHMENT OF THE IDENTITY OF THE DEITY AND THE WORLD.\n\n Argument:--The world a Pantheon or full with the fullness of God;\n and our erroneous conception of its materiality.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--The world is devoid of any material element, as\nthe earth and others; and I ween the first creator to be the Mind only,\nwhich is the fruitful tree of desires.\n\n2. The word mind derived from the act of minding, came to be used\nafterwards as a name for the thinking power, as it was from the\nwhirling of waters, that is got the name of a whirlpool.\n\n3. It is by its connection with the Intellect, that it has its\nunderstanding and the other faculties; or else it would as blank\nas the void of the air, which could have no dust were it not for the\nearth underlying it.\n\n4. The mind is neither the body nor heart, nor the senses nor desires\nnor even has it any of these; and though these are commonly attributed\nto it, yet in its true sense, it is devoid of all properties.\n\n5. How can reminiscence be the cause of reproduction of the world?\nThe former creator or Brahm\u00e1, being liberated or extinct with the\nextinction of that world, could not have retained his reminiscence\nof it; nor could the new creator of the new world, possibly have any\nremembrance of what he knew not all. (There have been many by gone\nBrahm\u00e1s before).\n\n6. The holy and liberated souls, have neither their bodies nor\nreminiscences any more; nor the passing currents of other rivers,\nreturn or whirl back, like the whirlpools of some. (So the sruti:--The\nliberated souls, return no more to mortality).\n\n7. Or if he have any body at all, owing to the reminiscence of his\nformer state; it must be an unearthly and immaterial body, quite still\nand rarefied as in imaginary forms. (Such are the spiritual bodies of\ngods and angels).\n\n8. As our imagination presents to us, a visionary mountain to the\nmind\u2019s eye; such is the air-drawn body of the all engrossing Vir\u00e1t;\npresented unto us without any earthly form. (Vir\u00e1t is Pantheon).\n\n9. There is therefore no such thing as reminiscence, at any time\nwhatsoever; it is merely built on popular belief, and not upon the\nreason of wise men. (Because the creator had no remembrance of a prior\ncreation in his first formation of the world).\n\n10. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--How do you say sir, that rememberest everything\nthat there was no previous remembrance in the first creator; who\nmust have remembered the creation of a first _kalpa_ or learnt it, O\ninspired sage, by his inspiration also. (So says the sruti:--Brahm\u00e1\nperformed austerities and was inspired by the Lord, see Manu I).\n\n11. Vasishtha replied:--The pre-existence of reminiscence is possible\nin the outward or visible world, which admits of cause and effect; but\ncan it be where there is no such world, but a mere vacuum only.\n\n12. There is nothing visible here, from the highest heaven to\nthe lowest pit; if it so a nullity only, then what is its\nreminiscence and to what use is it.\n\n13. The remembrance of the prior world in its absence, is called its\nreminiscence; but when there never was nor is any visible world at all,\nhow can you think of its reminiscence; even in fancy.\n\n14. The entire absence of the phenomenals at all times, makes it\nidentic with the invisible Brahma himself; and this being the truth of\nit, say how can you fancy the reminiscence of anything.\n\n15. Therefore the prime creator, could have no remembrance of a prior\nexistence; nor could he have any bodily form, being of a spiritual form\nof pure intelligence only.\n\n16. We should remember the past from our present state, that we are\nmortal beings undergoing repeated transmigrations, and not bring other\npersons and things to our remembrance, as others think it to mean. (We\nshould remember ourselves only).\n\n17. Reminiscence means the retention of past things, in our remembrance\nor inward memory; but what can we remember, when there nothing was nor\nis, nor shall ever be anything.\n\n18. All this stupendous fabric, is the supreme Brahma itself; who\nremains as immovable as a mountain, and without its beginning, middle\nor end. What then is the reminiscence or presence of it?\n\n19. The Lord being the universal soul, is the soul or essence of all\nthings; and shines like the lustre of the vacuous Intellect; outwardly\nhe is quite calm, as I may say he is reposing in our remembrance.\n\n20. So the remembrance of the Lord, is as he is seen in the light of\nnature; hence the habitual meditation of the lord, corresponds with the\ncontemplation of external nature. (Because apart from nature we have no\nidea of God, unless we think as the Lord of nature. This is called the\nnatural religion, or the worship of God in nature, the ancient vedic\nreligion).\n\n21. Whatever is known to us is nature, and the same is the object of\nour meditation. Hence the appearance of any thing (in the mind), is\ncalled to be its remembrance.\n\n22. And as anything which is absent or inexistent, appears visible (by\nerror) before our sight, like the false appearance of water in the\nmirage: such is the case with our misleading memory also (which is\nhence called a treacherous memory).\n\n23. Again any prejudice which is rooted in the minds of men, and\nappears as right by long habit of thinking it as such; this also passes\nfor memory also (though it is a wrong impression in the mind).\n\n24. Any sudden accident or passing event, that strikes the mind for a\nmoment; pass also under the name of memory; though it may or may not\nhappen any more.\n\n25. Any idea that rises of itself in the mind, becomes so impressed in\nit, by its being fostered for any length of time; that any other thing\nbearing resemblance thereto, passes for an object of our memory.\n\n26. Any thing whether obtained or not by any means, passes also for an\nobject of memory; as the ventilation of wind by means of a fan. (It\nmeans a negative idea is ever accompanied with its affirmative one in\nthought and memory).\n\n27. Again whatever occurs in the mind, by parts of the whole subject,\nis also called its memory (how imperfect so ever it may be); just as\nany part of the body is called the body also.\n\n28. There are also many chimeras, rising of themselves before the mind,\nlike magic shows appearing before our sight; and if the remembrance of\nthese be called memory, then say what truth or reliance is there in it.\n\n29. Consider then how very imperfect and erroneous, this faculty of\nmemory is to man; and as there is no visible creation at all, its\nmemory therefore is altogether meaningless.\n\n30. Hence then the world being but a display, of the density or volume\nof the Divine Intellect; it is reflected at present as a visible object\nin the minds of the ignorant, who have given them the name of memory,\nwhich in reality is nothing at all.\n\n31. I cannot tell you about the means of liberation, nor do I know\nwherein it consists; yet however to clear the doubt of the inquirer, I\nwill relate something about it at present.\n\n32. Until there is an end of the sight of the visibles, and an oblivion\nof the remembrance of past events; and a cessation of _avidy\u00e1_,\nignorance and delusion, it is hard to be attained. (_i.e._ A slave\nto this world and errors, is never emancipated in this life--_j\u00edvan\nmukta_).\n\n33. The ignorant have a belief, in whatever is quite unknown to us;\nsince they can never conceive whatever is imperceptible to their senses\n(_i.e._ whose minds never rise beyond sensible objects.)\n\n34. The enlightened are unacquainted with the gross errors, which lurk\nin the darkness of ignorant minds; as the ever luminous sun, knows\nnothing of what passes in the gloom of night.\n\n35. Whatever likeness of any thing, ever appears to be impressed in the\nmirror of the mind; the same being habitual to thought, as any thing\nstudied or stored in the mind, receives the name of reminiscence from\nits impression in the memory.\n\n36. But these glaring impressions in the imagination, being rubbed\nout of the mind like the colours of a painting, there remains no more\nany tinge of the mistaken world therein, as in the clear minds of the\nlearned.\n\n37. The mirage shows the appearance of water in it, which is a mere\ndelusion and never true; so is the dream that shows this creation to\nview, which is no more in reality than a false vision.\n\n38. It is the vacuous Intellect, which contains the creation in it; and\nshows its representation in ourselves; thus the world appears in the\nvoid of the Intellect only, and not any thing as fallen or detached\nfrom it. (It is a picture in the plate of the mind).\n\n39. The supreme soul shows this form in itself, and makes its unreality\nappear as a reality unto us; and though this form was manifested at the\nbeginning, yet it is no more than the display of an unreality. (_i.e._\nBeing seen in God it is real, but without him it is unreal and nothing).\n\n40. Then say, whence and where is this world, with all its pleasant as\nwell as unpleasant things; it is never anything of a plastic form, nor\nan appearance proceeding from reminiscence.\n\n41. The world having no cause (either material or instrumental), in the\nbeginning, appears as the very form of the supreme, it is to our woe\nonly, that we view its visible form, or search in our memory (for a\npristine pattern of it).\n\n42. Both of these views are wrong, and tend to our bondage in the\nworld; but the view of its voidness in the vacuity of the Intellect, is\nthe only means to our release and liberation from it.\n\n43. The view of the apparent world in its vacuous form, and as situated\nin the vacuity of the Intellect, and its identity with _swar\u00fapa_ or\nself same spirit of God, and as undetached in their essence from the\ndivine essence (is the only means of our liberation herein).\n\n44. The view of the situation of the visible bodies, as those of\nthe sun, moon, and mountains &c., in the empty space of the Divine\nIntellect; like those of the invisible ones, as space, time, and other\nideal objects therein, is the only means of our release from the\nbondage of this world.\n\n45. The view of the self same spirit, situated or dwelling in the\nrecess of the Intellect, and identic with its own notion of itself, and\nbearing resemblance to the nature of the dream, which proceeds from\nits essence, is the only means of our emancipation from our temporal\nbondage.\n\n46. How can any earthly or other elemental body, have its place in\nthe spirit of God, which is not of the form of the earth or any other\nelement; it shines of itself and in itself, in and as the quiet void of\nthe Intellect itself.\n\n47. How and from where could the earth and other elements, proceed\nin the beginning as in the state of our dreaming; unless they were\ninherent in and coeval with the divine essence, as the many objects of\nour dream rise from our own nature.\n\n48. These effusions of the spirit, as named afterwards as the earth\n&c., and deemed as material objects; but say, how could the spiritual\nemanations or mnemonic effluences, assume such corporal and tangible\nforms.\n\n49. The world is neither the production of our error, nor is it a\nrepresentation of our delusion or as a magic show; nor is it the\npermeation of the spirit as pervading all nature, but it is the very\nessence of the selfsame deity itself.\n\n50. It is the Divinity Brahma itself that shines in the form of this\nwondrous world; it is the self-same unity, which appears to manifest,\nand yet so very obscure as mysterious unto us. What is visible is only\npure light, and that of the serene clearness of open air, which glows\nand grows dim by turns, by the vicissitudes of the light and shade of\ncreation and destruction. (These as they change are but the varied God.\nThomson\u2019s Seasons).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXIII.\n\nBRAHMA GITA OR A LECTURE ON SPIRITUALITY.\n\n Argument:--The attribution of all physical force to the Divine\n spirit, like the ascribing of all our bodily actions to the Mind.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma rejoined:--If the nature of the Divine spirit is, as the notion\nwhich is Universally entertained of it; that it is common soul of all,\nand infinite in its pervasion, why then is it supposed to be the soul\nof the living body only, and called the Ego or a personal being?\n\n2. How does the Intellect become inert, as a block of wood or stone in\nthe state of our sleep, and why is it said to exist or become extinct\nin the state of its numbness (when it is said to be universal in its\nnature).\n\n3. Vasishtha replied:--It is by common usage and mode of speech, that\nthe universal soul is said to reside as the ego or personal being in\nthe body; as it is by common use of language only, to take the hands\nof the body as hands, and not to understand the feet as such. (So the\nembodied soul only is called the ego).\n\n4. As the leaf of a tree is considered only as a leaf or part of the\ntree, so the universal soul residing in the tree (as vegetable life),\npasses under the designation of a tree only.\n\n5. And as vacuity in the sky, is styled the sky also; so the universal\nsoul dwelling in matter, is designated as that matter likewise. (And so\nthe common vacuum indwelling a pot, passes under the name of the pot\nalso).\n\n6. And as an aerial castle in a dream, appears as a tangible castle to\nthe dreamer for the time; so the universal soul living in our sleep,\ndream, and waking, is thought to be sleeping, dreaming or being awake\nat that time.\n\n7. As stony trees or cliffs are seen to rise on mountains, and waves\non the surface of waters; so the huge mountain also rises as a stony\ntree, from the bosom of the all pervading spirit.\n\n8. As the living body gives growth, to dull and dead nails and hairs,\nso the living soul of the universe, grows the insensible stones and\ntrees upon it. (So the spirit produces the matter, and the insensible\nrises from sensibles).\n\n9. As the conscious soul becomes unconscious, as a stone or block of\nwood in its sleep; so the universal soul becomes inert, before creation\nand after its dissolution. And again as the sleeping soul, sees the\ntrain of dreams rising out of it, so the tranquil spirit of God,\nbeholds the lustre of creation issuing out of it.\n\n10. And as the sensible and insensible soul of man, produces both\nsensible offspring and insensible excrements from its body; so the\nuniversal soul, produces both living beings and inert bodies from\nitself.\n\n11. The sensible as well as the insensible, are both embodied in the\nperson of the universal soul; which is possessed of both the movables\nand immovables in itself, although it is formless in its substance.\n\n12. All these contraries in nature, disappear before the sight of the\ntruly learned; as the false sights in dream, disappear from view of the\nawakened man, who knows the falsity of dreams.\n\n13. All this is the vacuity of the Intellect, where there is no sight,\nview nor its viewer; as a dreamer being awakened from his dreaming,\nneither sees his dream nor his dreaming sights any more.\n\n14. Millions and millions of creations, are appearing in and\ndisappearing from the vacuum of the Intellect, in the manner of\nrecurring waves, and the revolving whirlpools in the sea.\n\n15. As the waters of the ocean, show various shining forms in the\nrising waves; so the Intellect raises many creations, bearing different\nnames in its own intellectuality.\n\n16. The world as it is, appears as the very Brahma to the truly\nlearned, while to the ignorant mass of men, it appears as many and\nchanging, for want of the precise knowledge of it.\n\n17. The wave that knows its nature, of calm and cool water only, thinks\nno more of its being a fluctuating wave (so the man that knows himself\nas Brahma, thinks no longer of his frail and mortal state).\n\n18. The conception of the undulation of the divine spirit, from the\nfluctuating appearance of creation, is a mistaking of the calmness of\nthe Divine nature; the fluctuation belongs to the powers residing in\nthe Divinity.\n\n19. The vacuous Intellect never forsakes its tranquility; and the\nvariety of knowledge that rises in it, like the varying train of\ndreams, is attributable to the mind, which they call Brahma or the\ngreat progenitor of all.\n\n20. Thus the prime lord of creatures, was the formless and undecaying\nmind; it was of intellectual form like an imaginary being, and supposed\nas the cause of all.\n\n21. Who says \u201cthou art nothing,\u201d that saying is like the word gold,\nwhich has no form of itself, but whose purity is gold.\n\n22. The increate Brahma, being of an intellectual and vacuous form, and\nan imaginary body endued with volition, appeared as the prime Ego or a\npersonal being, and containing the world in his person.\n\n23. It is the empty void of the Intellect, which displays these wonders\nthat are known to constitute the continued bustle, of the alternate\ncreation, sustentation, and destruction of the world.\n\n24. The clear and increate light, to which the intellect evolves itself\nof its own accord; and which bears resemblance to the evolution of airy\ndreams from the mind; is termed the first father of all. (Light was\nthe first work of God, or coeternal with the Eternal spirit. Hail holy\nlight Heaven\u2019s first-born, or the Eternal coeternal beam. Milton).\n\n25. As a wave assumes one form or other, and rolls on interminably\nover the vast expanse of the sea; so runs the heavenly mind, in the\nforms of the revolving creations and their dissolutions.\n\n26. The light of the intellectual vacuum, which passes under the\nname of Vir\u00e1t; is of the same mind as Brahma, and stretches out the\ncreation, like a castle or city of imagination.\n\n27. Vir\u00e1t is the combined form of the triple states of waking, dreaming\nand sleep; the two first are analogous to the creation and supportance\nof the universe, and the last is similar to the utter darkness of\ndissolution.\n\n28. From the chaotic state of his dissolution, there sprang light and\ndarkness (in the forms of days and nights), like dark and white hairs\ngrowing on his head; and the rotations of time resembling the joints of\nhis body.\n\n29. His mouth represented the fire, his head the upper sky, and the air\nbelow his navel; his foot-stool was the earth, his eyes were the sun\nand moon, and the east and west were his two ears. In this manner did\nthe Lord Vir\u00e1t manifest himself, in the imagination of his mind (Vir\u00e1t\nrepresents the concrete universe).\n\n30. Thus did the expanded vacuous form of Vir\u00e1t, represent the whole\nvisible world in his ideal person; which was a figure of his own\nimagination, as any of the unsubstantial forms of our dream or fancy.\n\n31. Whatever is thought of in the vacuity of the Intellect, the same\ncomes to be vividly exhibited therein; such is verily the form of this\nworld, which we conceive in ourself.\n\n32. Vir\u00e1t is verily an aeriform being in himself, and appears to be as\nwide extended as the vast extent of the universe; and is in his own\nnature, like a city or mountain, that we see in our dreams.\n\n33. Whatever one thinks himself to be, he conceives in him to have\nbecome the same, without his actually being as such, so an actor is\nseen to play his part in dream, from the concept of his acting on the\nstage.\n\n34. Whatever be the tenets of the Ved\u00e1nta, Buddhism, S\u00e1nkhya and\nSaugata systems of the philosophy; and whatsoever may be the doctrine\nof Tryaksha, Pashupati and other propounders of \u00c1gama s\u00e1stras; they\nall agree in acknowledging Brahma, as the giver of the boons that they\nrespectively desire; and all of them obtain the particular object of\nbliss from the same. Such is the glory of the great God, whose soul\nfills all bodies, and whose bounty supports them all (lit., whose body\ncomprehends the whole).[3]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXIV.\n\nTHE SAME OR A LECTURE ON NIRV\u00c1NA.\n\n Argument:--Subsistence of Brahma after evanescence of the world,\n likened to the continuance of Intellection after disappearance of\n dreams upon waking.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--The Intellect alone glistened in the beginning,\nwith its thought of creation, appearing as the vision of a dream before\nit. This was the representation of the three worlds, and a reflexion of\nthe light of Brahma Himself. (The Divine spirit was the archetype, of\nwhich the world was an ectype or _r\u00e9chauff\u00e9_).\n\n2. These creations were as the endless billows in the ocean of the\nDivine Mind, and rising from the fluidity of his omniscience; hence\nthere is no difference between the creation and its absence, nor is\nthere any woe in the one or bliss in the other.\n\n3. As the dream and sound sleep of the soul, do both of them appertain\nto its sleeping state; when the mind remains as vacant as empty air; so\nthe visible and invisible creation (_i.e._ its presence and absence)\nare both of them alike in the vacuity of the Intellect (where they both\nresemble but an empty dream).\n\n4. This world appearing like a city seen in our dream, in our waking\nstate; is not worthy of reliance of the wise, who are well acquainted\nwith its nature of a visionary appearance.\n\n5. And as we find the falsity of the visionary city in the dream, upon\nour waking, so we come to find our mistake of the reality of the world\nat last.\n\n6. As upon waking, we come to find the falsity of all our efforts and\ndesires; in the visionary city of our dream; so do we find at last, all\nour aims and attempts in our waking state in this world, to be equally\nfalse and fleeting.\n\n7. If any one assigns any other cause, then why that one does not\nadmit, what he said, is mere fancy.\n\n8. When guessing knowledge is no better than a dream of the world; so\nocular authority is more strong than inocular one.\n\n9. It is better to judge the soul and other attribute by near example,\nthan by the far off; otherwise it is like a fall from the top of a hill\nin a dream.\n\n10. Perfect insensibility is entire inertness, and a changeless state\nof body and mind; while the nature of the world, and the state of\nthings herein, are incessantly restless and changeful; therefore it is\nincapable to conduct _sam\u00e1dhi_ or intense meditation in either of these\ntwo states.\n\n11. Meditation in worldly life, must be too sensitive and variable;\nwhile its intensity or trance stupifies a man to a stone; but true\nliberation consists neither in the changeableness of mind, nor in its\nstone like insensibility.\n\n12. I think nothing is obtainable from the stone like apathetic trance,\nas there is nothing to be from the drowsy stupor anybody.\n(Hence both fickleness as well as mental torpor are repugnant to\nmeditation and self-liberation).\n\n13. It is therefore by means of consummate knowledge only, that\nreasoning men can dispel their ignorance; and there is no chance of his\nbeing born again, who has secured his liberation in his life time.\n\n14. Inflexible abstraction is said to have no bounds, and it consists\nin sitting steadfast in profound meditation, without distraction or\ndiversion, such a posture is said to be all illuminating, or eternal\nsunshine to the Yogi.\n\n15. It is called the endless hypnotism or absorption of the soul, and\nis the fourth or last state of contemplativeness. It is also styled as\n_nirv\u00e1na_ self-extinction, or losing one\u2019s self in his reveries; and\nthis is what they designate _moksha_ or liberation from all bonds and\ncares of the world. (This is the abstract Platonism of the ancients).\n\n16. It is the density or depth of pansophy, and the intensity of\nexcogitation; and there being an entire absence of the retrospect\nof the phenomenals in it, it is known as the state of perfect\ntranscendentalism or glory.\n\n17. It is not the stone like inertness of some philosophers (Gautama\nand Kanada), nor the hypnotism or sound sleep of others (Hiranya\ngarbas); it is neither the unoptativeness or want of option of the\nP\u00e1tanjalas, nor is the inexistence or utter annihilation of the\nBuddhist.\n\n18. It is the knowledge of Brahma as the prime source of all, and\nnihility of the visible creation; it is knowing God as all and yet\nnothing that exists; and therefore it is to know Him as He is--in his\nall pervading spirit.\n\n19. It is the consummate knowledge of all (as nothing), that gives us\nour positive rest of _nirv\u00e1na_ (in our nothingness); and in knowing\nthat the world as it is, equal to its inexistence.\n\n20. That all this variety is no variety at all, nor all these any\nentity in reality; all apparent realities are mere unrealities, and\nit is the end of all our conceptions and inductions, that is the only\nreality (_i.e._ God the first and last of all--the Alpha and Omega).\n\n21. The entire nihility of the visible world, is the state of its\n_nirv\u00e1na_ or extinction; and the settled knowledge of this in any one,\nconstitutes his supreme felicity.\n\n22. This state is attainable by one\u2019s pure understanding, and his habit\nof constant reconsideration; joined with a knowledge of the _s\u00e1stras_,\nand scrutiny into the right sense of significant words and their\nsignificates.\n\n23. This work is the best guide to liberation, by means of its\nconstant study; or else it is attainable by no other means, save by\nenlightenment of the understanding. \u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0928\u0924\u094b\u092e\u0941\u0915\u094d\u0924\u093f\u0930\u0947\u092c \u0964\n\n24. Neither pilgrimage nor charity, nor sacred ablutions or learning;\nnor meditation or Yoga contemplation, nor religious austerities nor\nsacrifice of any kind (is liberation ever attainable by mankind, except\nby means of divine knowledge).\n\n25. The world is only a delusion, causing the unreal appear as\nreal; it is the empty vacuum only which presents the appearance of the\nworld, which is as a dream in the vacancy of the Intellect.\n\n26. No religious austerity nor pilgrimage, is ever able to remove our\nerror of the world; they can at the best procure for us the reward of\nheaven, but never secure unto us our liberation or final beatitude.\n\n27. Our error is extirpated only, by the light of the _s\u00e1stras_ and of\nour good understanding; but above all, it is spiritual knowledge alone,\nwhich is the best means to our liberation and final salvation.\n\n28. But it is the vivid light of the scriptures, which is sure to\ndestroy our error of the world; as the sunshine serves to dispel the\ngloom of night.\n\n29. The light, clearness and shade, of creation, preservation and\ndestruction respectively, appear by turns in the clear vacuous mirror\nof the Intellect; as the ventilation of breeze in air, and fluctuation\nof waves in water.\n\n30. As the rudiment of the future form, is contained in the heart\nor embryo of every thing; and as the air contains in its incessant\nmotion (_sad\u00e1gati_) within itself; such is the existence of the world,\ninherent in the Divine Intellect, and so has it its evolution and\ndissolution therein, like the rise and fall of wind in empty air.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXV.\n\nPARAM\u00c1RTHA G\u00cdT\u00c1 OR LECTURE ON TRANCENDENTALISM OR THE SOLITY.\n\n Argument:--The appearance of the world in our Ignorance, and its\n Disappearance before the light of true knowledge.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--The vacuity of the Intellect which presented the\nshadow of a dream at first, could not possibly assume the form of a\ncausal and sensible body (as that of Brahm\u00e1), in order to be visible\nand form the visible world. For how is it possible for the intellectual\nvacuum, to have a bodily form at all.\n\n2. In the beginning of creation, O R\u00e1ma, there was nothing except a\nshadow dream in the Intellect. And neither was there this creation nor\nthe next world in visible existence.\n\n3. The world appeared only in the form, of an unsubstantial notion of\nit; and the vacuous intellect remained as quiet with its ideal world,\nas the mind rests quietly with the nightmare in its dream.\n\n4. Such is the essence of the Intellect, which is translucent and\nwithout its beginning and end; and though it is a clear void in itself,\nyet it bears the ideal model of the world in its mirror.\n\n5. So long as this is unknown, the world appears as a gross substance;\nbut being known as contained in the Divine spirit, it becomes a\nspiritual substance also; because how is it possible for any gross\nmatter, to attach itself to the transcendent vacuum, of which there is\nno beginning and end?\n\n6. This pure and abstract knowledge of the world, is as that of a city\nin dreaming; and such being the state of the world ere its creation,\nhow can any earthly or other matter, be ever joined with the same?\n\n7. The light of the Divine soul, shining amidst the vacuity of the\nIntellect, is termed cosmos or the universe; consisting as it is\nsupposed, of matter, mind and faculties.\n\n8. It is want of understanding only, which makes us suppose a thing,\nwhich is turning round like a whirlpool, and having the force of the\nwind in it as the stable earth, although it has no basis or stability\nof it.\n\n9. Afterwards the same Divine spirit (j\u00edva), wishing to display its own\nglory (thought in its personality of Brahm\u00e1), of the ideal forms of the\nearth and other things (in its imagination).\n\n10. Then the great minds of (Brahm\u00e1), shone with a purer light of\nitself; and this is called his creation which is of an aerial form and\nno other. (Light being the first work of creation).\n\n11. That pure light, was nothing substantial of itself; but the\nbrightness of the Intellect only, shining with the effulgence of the\nDivine spirit. (This was the psychic light of the soul in itself).\n\n12. This light is the body of the spirit, which shone as intellectual\nlight in the void of the Intellect; and it presented the appearance of\nthe world in it, in the manner of dreams floating before the empty mind.\n\n13. There being no other inference to be derived, nor any other cause\nto be possibly assigned (to the production of the world), or of its\nbeing produced of itself; it is certain that the divine spirit, sees\nitself in the form of creation, within the vacuum of its Intellect in\nthe beginning. (As anything cannot come by itself or from nothing; the\nworld must therefore be either a nothing or a form of something that is\never existent of itself).\n\n14. This body of the world (corpus mundi), having no property of a\ntangible body, is never fragile in its nature; but it is as void as the\nemptiness of the Intellect, and as inane as the empty air.\n\n15. Its form is that of the supreme Being, which is without any form\nwhatever; and identic with the Divine form, it comprehends all bodies\nin itself, and extends undivided as all in all in its ownself.\n\n16. This will be better understood in the instance of a dream, which\nrises of itself and shows itself in various forms; but as all these\nvarieties are nothing but empty visions, so the diverse scenes and\nsights of the world, are no more than shows of the Divine spirit.\n\n17. The Divine soul of Brahma, assumed to itself the state of the\nliving spirit; and without forsaking its transparent form, became of\nthe form of mind (in the person of the great Brahm\u00e1--the creative\nPower).\n\n18. This power extends the universe in its aerial form in air; which\nappears to be changed from its unchangeable state of transparency, to\nthat of a gross nature (_i.e._ the visible and material world).\n\n19. The Mind is Brahm\u00e1 himself, who gives an external and visible\nform to the world, that was seated invisible in his heart; and\nis continually employed in the process of repeated creation and\ndestruction of all.\n\n20. The immaterial mind of Brahma, evolved the world from its\nprotoplasm, which was originally seated in his heart; and thence it\nappeared in a different form as a counterpart of the original, or as\nthe formless representation of something in a dream.\n\n21. The God Brahm\u00e1 though in himself dwelling with his formless mind,\nin his embodied form of the triple world, and of being diffused in\nendless forms of sensible and insensible beings therein.\n\n22. But there was neither the earth, nor any material form, nor even\nanything of a visible appearance therein; it was only his mind which\nexhibited itself, in the form of the formless and vacuous world. (The\nDivine hypostasis of the personified mind of Brahma, was only a mental\nand aerial form, and not a material one).\n\n23. Then the lord Brahm\u00e1 thought that, this mental form of his, was\nnothing in substance, as it did not appear to sight; it was the\nIntellect only, which shone in this manner within itself, and had no\nsolidity or substantiality in it. (The Intellect is the omniscience of\nGod, and the Mind is the intelligence of Brahm\u00e1).\n\n24. This mental conception or abstract contemplation of the world,\nis inexpressible by words, and makes the meditator remain in mute\nastonishment; and causes him to continue as dumb in this ordinary\nconduct in life. (This is the state of platonic supineness or\n_insouciance_).\n\n25. The Intellect being infinite and unlimited, the mind is lost\nin infinity in its reflection; hence Brahm\u00e1 having long remained\nin his silence, became awakened to his knowledge at last. (Brahm\u00e1\nthe Demiurgic Mind having recovered itself from its wonder and\nbewilderment, becomes detached at last from the divine mind).\n\n26. After the insensible mind of Brahm\u00e1, had come to its sense, it\nrevolved in itself with its thoughts; as the liquid waters of the sea,\nturns in whirlpools by agitation.\n\n27. So the insensible air is put to ventilation by its internal motion,\nand so all living souls which are identic with the calm and quiet\nsupreme soul, slide away like the gliding waters, from their main\nsource.\n\n28. And as the winds and waves, which are identical with the calm air\nand still water, blow and flow in all directions of themselves, so the\nminds of living beings which are same with supreme Intellect, run in\nseveral ways in their own accord.\n\n29. Hence the vacuous intellect of all living beings, is the same with\nthe Divine intellect; and this, O most intelligent R\u00e1ma, is otherwise\nknown as the supreme soul also.\n\n30. The Divine soul appears unto us, to have its twinklings like the\nvacillation of air; its closing causes the close or end of the world,\nas its flashing exposes the creation to view.\n\n31. Its glancing causes the visibility of creation, and its winking\nmakes it invisible or extinct to view, while the want of both these\nacts (opening and closing of its sight), is tantamount to the formless\nvoid of the world.\n\n32. But the view of the opening and shutting of its sight, or the\nvisibility and disappearance of the world in one unvaried light, makes\nthe equality of existence and non-existence in the mind, and bespeaks\nthe perfection of the soul.\n\n33. Seeing and not seeing, and their results of creation and\nextinction, make no difference in the Divine Intellect which is always\nthe same. (The veda says _\u00cdkshati_ or glancing of God, and not his will\nor word is the cause of the world).\n\n34. Know therefore this world, to be as calm and quiet as the Divine\nsoul; and that it is of the nature of the uncreated vacuum, which is\never the same and no decay.\n\n35. The sensuous and conscious intellect, exhibits itself as the\ninsensible and unconscious vacuum; the very intellect shows itself in\nthe form of the world, which is in a manner its body and residence.\n\n36. The Intellect is neither born or made, nor does it ever grow or\ndecay; it is never visible nor perceptible, nor have we any notion of\nit; it displays its wonders in itself, without any extraneous substance\nin it.\n\n37. All that is called the phenomenal, is the brightness of the blazing\ngem of the great Intellect, and proceeding from the quarry of its\nvacuum; as the sunshine which illumines the world, issues from the orb\nof that luminary.\n\n38. It is Brahma himself that shines forth as the creation, just\nas our sleep exhibits the visionary world in its dream; so is all\nthis creation as quiet as sleep, and yet full with the bustle of the\nslumbering world.\n\n39. Whatever is known in any manner in the mind, either as existent or\ninexistent in the world; the same is the reflexion of the Intellect,\nwhether it be an entity or non-entity.\n\n40. Should the impossibility of existence, lead us to the supposition\nof some cause as of the primary atoms and the like; then what cause\ncan there be assigned to the appearance of sights in our dream (and of\nfabrics without their foundation).\n\n41. If the origin of the world is not ascribed to Brahma, as the\norigination of dreams to the Intellect; then neither is there any truth\nin the existence of the one, or in the appearance of other, which\nis never true.\n\n42. The minds of men are inclined towards the particular objects of\ntheir fancy; hence those that believe and delight in God, take him as\nthe origin of all things that appear unto them.\n\n43. Whatever is in the minds of men, and to whatever their hearts are\nconstantly devoted; they know the same as the only objects of their\nlives, and the very gist of their souls.\n\n44. He who delights in Brahma, becomes of the same mind in a moment;\nand so any one who is gratified in any thing, is incorporated with the\nsame in his mind.\n\n45. The man who has obtained his rest in God, has found the highest\nbliss in his mind; though he shows himself as otherwise in his outward\nconduct and social dealings.\n\n46. There is no reason for the supposition of unity or duality herein,\nwhen the whole existence is as I have propounded, and it is in vain to\nlook at anything else.\n\n47. There nothing as visible or invisible, or anything as formless\nor having a form herein; there is nothing as subject or object, nor\naught of reality or unreality here, when the whole is the very Brahma\nhimself.\n\n48. This world is without a beginning and end, and is known to the\nworld as soul; but in fact, one Brahma rules over all without any fixed\nrule, like a path without a name.\n\n49. That which is conceived as the serene Brahma, is considered as the\nbright Brahm\u00e1 or Demiurgus also; just as what is known as the calm and\nclear firmament, the very same is said the empty void likewise.\n\n50. As the nebulae which seem to bedim the face of the sky, are\nsomething in appearance and nothing in substance; just do our\nmental faculties appear to flutter in and obscure the clear atmosphere\nof the Intellect, and seem to be as dualities or otherwise than the\nserene intellectual principle.\n\n51. But the mental, bodily and all other perceptive and active powers\nof living beings, are the common properties of the intellectual soul;\njust as the very many gaps and hollows in various bodies, are in common\nwith the vacuity of the one universal vacuum only. (_i.e._ All these\nare the aerial powers of psychic principle).\n\n52. As the quiet soul passing from its sleeping to the dreaming state,\nretains its identity and invariableness; so the divine soul passing\ninto creation after its quiescence, remains the very unchanged unity as\never.\n\n53. Thus the supreme spirit reflects the shadow of its great Intellect,\nin the forms of creation and dream; hence neither is this creation nor\nthe vision in dreaming, any thing in its substance than a mere shadow\n(of the picture in the Divine Mind).\n\n54. It is the bright picture of the Divine Mind, that exhibits its form\nin the vacuity of the Great Intellect; and so the ideal appearance as\nthe visible creation, like the fairy land in dream (and the airy castle\nof imagination). (The word ch\u00e1ya--shadow means both the glory of God,\nas also the darkness of illusion. Gloss).\n\n55. From the impossibility of the appearance of the world, by any means\nas it is conjectured by different schools, and from its want of a prior\ncause; it must be that the intellect saw itself thus exhibited in its\nown vacuity.\n\n56. In the beginning of creation, the formless void of the Intellect,\nshowed itself in this visible and intangible form; and represented\nitself as a picture of its mind or dream or its imagination.\n\n57. Like the dream it was a blank and without any attribute; it is\nchangeable but not frangible, and although it was the substance of\nintellectual voidness, yet it was vitiated with the stain of our\nmisapprehension of it, called _avidy\u00e1_. (The world is purely of an\nintellectual form, and it is our ignorance which imputes a gross form\nto it).\n\n58. Like the dream, it seems to possess some properties in its\nappearance; but is wholly devoid of any in its substance; it is never\ndifferent from the spiritual nature of the Lord, though it appears\notherwise to our misconception of it.\n\n59. The phenomenal world likens a mountain seen in dream, and is\ninseparable from the soul wherein it resides; therefore the visibles\nappearing in the vacuity of the Intellect, are more vacuous than the\nvacuum of the firmament.\n\n60. That which is the supreme soul; and devoid of all form; the very\nsame and of the same nature is all this, that we call the visible world.\n\n61. Whatever conception we have in our dream, the same is the display\nof our intellect; so the cities and castles that we see in the dreams,\nare no real existences; but appearances presented unto us by the\nintellect.\n\n62. As the recognizance of our acquaintances in dream, and the\nremembrance of the impressions in our memory, are altogether\nunsubstantial (owing to the absence of their prototypes in us); so the\nsight of the visibles and the perception of perceptibles quite unreal\nalso (because none of those things are present in us).\n\n63. Therefore leaving unrealities of our recognitions,\nperceptions and remembrances, which are so much relied upon by the\nignorant; we should take them in the light of the direct manifestations\nof the Deity in those forms.\n\n64. As the waves of the sea, continue to roll incessantly on the\nsurface of the waters; so innumerable worlds that are continually\nrevolving, on the surface of the supreme soul, are of the same nature\nwith itself.\n\n65. All laws and their anomalies, as well as all varieties and\ncomplexities unite in harmony in the Divine nature. (There all discord\nis concord, and all partial evil is universal good).\n\n66. Therefore that Brahma is all in all, and there is none and nothing\nbesides; He alone is the soul of all, as all these live in Him.\n\n67. The roving mind thinks the world to be roving about with all its\ncontents; but the steady minded take it to be quite sedate and quiet;\nhence it is impossible for the learned also, to settle their minds\nwithout the habitual sedateness of their attention.\n\n68. There is no other means, for suppressing the mind from the sight of\nthe visibles; without the constant habit of attending to the lectures\n(of the preceptor) on this sacred _s\u00e1stra_.\n\n69. Though it is difficult to repress the mind from its thoughts of\nthis world, either in its states of living or death, (_i.e._ either\nin its waking or sleeping states); yet it is possible to do so by\neffacing its impressions at once, from the study of this spiritual\ns\u00e1stra.\n\n70. The knowledge of the nihility of the visible body, and that of the\nmind also in want of the body; both in this world as well as in the\nnext world, will always serve to preserve our peace and quietism (and\nthis is attainable by means of studying this _s\u00e1stra_).\n\n71. The mind, body and the visibles, are all three of them suppressed\nunder the sense of their nothingness; as the mind, its force and the\nmoving clouds, do all disappear in absence of their cause (_i.e._\nmotion).\n\n72. The cause of restlessness is ignorance only, which is altogether\ndispelled by the study of this _s\u00e1stra_; and those whose minds are a\nlittle enlightened, have their composure from attending to the recital\nand preaching.\n\n73. The unintelligent will be able to understand the teachings of the\nformer part from the latter; and he that understands the words and\npurports of these lectures, will never return disappointed (in his\nexpectation of _nirv\u00e1na_ or ultimate rest).\n\n74. Then know this _s\u00e1stra_ as the best means, to the dispersion of\nthe error; and to the production of an universal indifference or\n_insouciance_ everywhere.\n\n75. Therefore try your best, to weigh well the precepts of this\n_s\u00e1stra_; and whether you study one or both parts of this work, you\nwill doubtless be freed from your misery thereby.\n\n76. Should this _s\u00e1stra_ prove unpalatable, owing to its being the\ncomposition of a holy sage; in that case the student may consult the\nsacred srutis, for the perfection of his spiritual knowledge.\n\n77. Do not spend your time in false reasoning, nor offer your precious\nlife to flames and ashes; but let your sapient understanding commit the\nvisibles to the invisible soul (_i.e._ view them in their spiritual\nlight, and bury the gross phenomenal in utter oblivion and appear in\nthe noumenal soul only).\n\n78. No one can buy a jot or moment of his lifetime, at the cost of\nall the gems in the world; and yet how many are there, who foolishly\nmisspent their time in their worldly dream?\n\n79. Though we have a clear conception of the world, yet it is a false\nsight together with that of its beholder--the living soul; it is as\nfalse as the dream of one\u2019s own death in his sleep, and his hearing the\nwailing of his friend at his demise.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXVI.\n\nBRAHMA G\u00cdTA. ACCOUNT OF BRAHM\u00c1NDA OR MUNDANE SYSTEM.\n\n Argument:--The world resembling a dream and an atom of the Divine\n mind, and Brahm\u00e1\u2019s account of it.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma rejoined:--There innumerable worlds in the universe, many of\nwhich have gone before, many are in existence, and many as yet to be;\nhow then is it sir, that you persuade me to the belief of their nullity.\n\n2. Vasishtha replied:--you well know, R\u00e1ma, the relation which the\nworld bears to a dream, in that they both mean a passing scene; and\nthis sense of it, can be denied by no one of this audience.\n\n3. The words which are spoken by the wise, who know their application\nand sense; are neither understood nor received in the hearts of common\npeople, though they are in common use.\n\n4. When you will come to know the knowledge One, then you will\ndiscern the three times clearly and behold them as present before you.\n\n5. As it is the intellect alone, that displays itself in the form of\nthe world in our dream; so doth the Divine Intellect also, exhibit the\nworlds in itself, in the beginning of creation; and there is no other\ncause of their production.\n\n6. Hence there are innumerable worlds, revolving like atoms in the\ninfinite space of air; and there is no one who can count their number,\nand descry their modes and natures.\n\n7. It was of old that my venerable sire--the lotus-born Brahm\u00e1, and\nall besmeared with the fragrant dust of that flower, has delivered a\ndiscourse on this subject, which I will now relate unto you.\n\n8. It was of old that my sire Brahm\u00e1, told me about the number of\nworlds, and their respective situations in the heavens, whence they\nthus appear unto us. To this he said (as follows).\n\n9. Brahm\u00e1 said:--O sage, all this is Brahma, that is manifested as the\nworld; it is infinite entity of the Deity in its abstract essence; but\nviewed in the concrete, the world is a nonentity.\n\n10. Attend to this narration of mine, which is as felicitous to the\nsoul, as it is pleasant to the ear; it is called the narrative of \nmundane egg, or of the mundane body or mass.\n\n11. There is in the infinite vacuum, a vacuous substance known as the\nvacuity of the Intellect, in the form of a minute atom only. (Such as\nthe grain of the mind is, in the hollow cerebrum of the head).\n\n12. It saw as in a dream in itself, of its being as the living soul,\nresembling the oscillation of the wind in empty air. (The living\nprinciple or spirit, is a breath of air).\n\n13. The Lord thus became the living being, with forsaking its vacuous\nform; and thought itself to become the ego, in its aeriform form.\n\n14. He had then his egoism, and egoistic sense in himself; and this was\nthe knowledge of himself as an unit, which is an act of delusion only.\n\n15. Then he thought himself, as changed to the conditions of the\nunderstanding, mind and ego, as in his dream; and was inclined of his\nown option, to impose mutability upon his immutable nature.\n\n16. He then saw in his mind as if in dream, the five senses attached\nto his body; these are as formless as the appearance of a mountain in\ndream, which the ignorant are apt to take as a solid body. (The five\nformless faculties of sense, are thought to be composed of the five\norgans of sense by the gross corporealist).\n\n17. Then he beheld in the atom of his intellect, that his mental body\n(or his mind), was comprised of the three worlds; in their aerial\nor abstract forms, apparent to view, but without their substance\nor solidity or any basis at all. (This is the mental form of\nVir\u00e1t--cosmos).\n\n18. This stupendous form was composed of all beings, whether of the\nmoving or unmoving kinds.\n\n19. He beheld all things comprised in himself, as they are seen in\ndream or reflected in a mirror; and the triple world appeared in his\nperson, as the picture of a city newly printed on a plate.\n\n20. He saw the three worlds in his heart, as they are seen in a\nlooking glass; together with all things contained therein, in their\nvivid colours of many kinds (_viz._ the view, viewer and the act\nof viewing;--the doer, deed and the action of doing;--the enjoyer,\nenjoying and the enjoyment).\n\n21. He observed minuter atoms subsisting within the minute atoms; and\nstupendous worlds also on high, clustering together in groups and rings.\n\n22. These being seen in ignorance of their natures; appear as gross\nmaterial bodies; but viewed in the clear light of their essence, they\nprove to be the display of the divine mind only.\n\n23. Thus the viewer who views the world, in the light of Brahma, finds\nthis view of it, as a vision in this dream; and comes to know that\nthere is no real viewer to view of it, nor any cause thereof nor any\nduality whatsoever.\n\n24. All these that appear all around us, are quite quiescent in their\nnature, and in the Divine spirit alone as their main substratum; they\nare all situated in the universal soul from eternity to eternity.\n\n25. Myriads of worlds that are situated in the Divine spirit, appear to\nbe settled without the same; just as the waves of the sea, rise above\nits waters and scatter its salt spray in the air.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXVII.\n\nBRAHMA-G\u00cdT\u00c1. DESCRIPTION OF DIVINE NATURE.\n\n Argument:--The fallacy of assigning a cause to the causeless\n world; which is likened to a dream of the Divine Mind.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma rejoined:--If the world is without a cause, and proceeds of itself\nfrom the essence of Brahma, as our dreams, thoughts and imaginations,\nproceed of themselves from the nature of our minds.\n\n2. And if it be possible for anything to proceed from no cause, then\ntell me sir, why we can never have anything without its proper causes.\n(Such as the production of paddy without its cultivation).\n\n3. Vasishtha replied:--R\u00e1ma, I am not speaking of common practice\nof men, for the production of anything by application of its proper\ncausalities; but of the creation of the world, which is not in need\nof the atomic principle and material elements, as it is maintained by\natomist. (Text). (Whatever invention is adopted by any one, in order to\nproduce a certain end, is never effected without the application of its\nproper means and appliances).\n\n4. In whatever light this visible world is imagined by anybody, he\nviews it in the same light; while another sees it in a different\nmanner, according to his own imagination of it.\n\n5. There are some who imagine it as the diffusion of the Divine soul,\nand think it as one with the nature of the Deity; while others think\nit as the living body of Vir\u00e1t, with the insensible parts of it,\nresembling the hairs and nails growing upon his body.\n\n6. The meanings of the words causality and not causality do both of\nthem belong to the deity; because the Lord being almighty, has the\npower to be either the one or other as he likes.\n\n7. If there be anything whatever, which is supposed to be beside\nBrahma in its essence; it is then reasonable to suppose him as the\ncause of the same, which could not otherwise come to existence.\n\n8. But when all things, that appear so different from one another,\nare all of them without their beginning or end or co-eternal with the\nEternal One. Then say, which of these can be the cause of the other.\n(Hence the world is one with the lord and has no cause of it).\n\n9. Here nothing comes to exist or desist at any time; but are all\neternally existent in the self-existent One; as one and the same with\nhis vacuous self.\n\n10. What is the cause of anything, and to what purpose should any be\ncaused at any time; the Lord expects nothing from his creatures, and\ntherefore their creation is equal to their not being created at all.\n\n11. Here there is no vacuum or plenum, nor any entity nor non-entity\neither, nor any thing between them; as there is nothing predicable of\nthe infinite vacuity of Brahma (as either this or that).\n\n12. Whatever is is, and what not may not be; but all is Brahma only,\nwhether what is or is not (_i.e._ what is past or gone or yet to be,\n_i.e._ all what is present, past or to be in future).\n\n13. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--Tell me sir, how the Divine spirit is not the\ncause of all, when it is believed to be the sole cause, by all who are\nignorant of its quiescent nature (as you maintain).\n\n14. Vasishtha replied:--There is no one ignorant of God, since every\none has an innate conviction of the Divinity as the consciousness of\nhimself; and whoso knows the vacuous entity of the Deity, knows also\nthat this nature admits of no scrutiny or discussion.\n\n15. Those who have the knowledge of the unity of God, and his nature\nof quiescence and as full of intelligence; know also, his unknowable\nnature is beyond all scrutiny.\n\n16. Ignorance of God, abides in the knowledge of God (because one\nacknowledges the existence of God, when he says he is ignorant of his\nnature); and this is as our dreaming is included under the state of\nsleeping. (Gloss. Philosophers dream many false ungodly theories of\ncausation, while they are sleeping in the quiescent spirit of God.)\n\n17. It is for the instruction of the ignorant, concerning the\nomnipresence of God, that I say, He is the soul of all or as all in\nall; while in reality his holy spirit is perfectly pure and undecaying.\n\n18. All existences are thought either as caused or uncaused, according\nto the view that different understandings entertain respecting them.\n(But neither of these views, refutes the doctrine of the unity of the\nDeity. Gloss.)\n\n19. Those that have the right conception of things (as manifestations\nof the unity in different forms); have no cause to assign any cause to\nthem whatever (as the atomic principles or elements): therefore the\ncreation is without any cause whatever.\n\n20. Therefore the assigning of a cause to this creation, either\nas matter--_prakriti_ or spirit--_purusha_, by undermining one\u2019s\nself-consciousness of Divine pervasion; is mere verbiage of sophists\nfor their own confusion only.\n\n21. In absence of any other cause of creation (save that of our\nconsciousness of it), it is naught beside an appearance in our dream;\nand there is nothing as the gross material form or its visible\nappearance whatsoever.\n\n22. Say what cause can the ignorant assign, to their sight of the land\nin their dream, than to the nature of the Intellect, which exhibits\nsuch phenomena to minds. Say if there can be any other meaning of\ndreams.\n\n23. Those who are unacquainted with the nature of dreams, are deluded\nto believe them as realities; but those that are acquainted with their\nfalsehood, are not misled to believe them or this world as real ones.\n\n24. It is the impudence of fools to broach any hypothesis of causality,\neither by their supposition, arrogance or in the heat of their debate\n(as it is the case with all the different schools of philosophy).\n\n25. Is the heat of fire, the coldness of water, and the light of\nluminous bodies, and the natures of things their respective causes, as\nthe ignorant suppose them to be? (Or is it the attribute of Brahma that\nis so manifested in these their several causes? The entity of Divine\nunity, is the prime sole cause of causes).\n\n26. There be hundreds of speculative theorists, that assign as many\ncauses to creation without agreeing in any; let them but tell the cause\nof the aerial castle of their imagination.\n\n27. The virtues and vices of men are formless things, and are attended\nwith their fruitions on the spiritual body in the next world; how\ncan they be causes of our corporeal bodies in this world. (As it is\nmaintained by M\u00edm\u00e1ms\u00e1 philosophers).\n\n28. How can our finite and shapeless knowledge of things, be the cause\nof the incessant rise and fall, of endless, and minute bodies in the\nworld, as it is maintained by _vijn\u00e1na v\u00e1da_ or gnostic school. (These\nassert the existence of things depends upon our knowledge or perception\nof them as such).\n\n29. It is nature says the naturalist, which is the cause of all\nevents but as nothing result from the nature of anything, without its\ncombination with another; it is too indeterminate in its sense.\n\n30. Therefore all things appear as causeless illusions to the ignorant,\nand their true cause to be a mystery to them; while they are known to\nthe intelligent as the wondrous display of the Divine Intellect, that\nshows everything in itself.\n\n31. As one knowing the falsehood of dreams, is never sorry at his loss\nof anything in dream; so those that have the knowledge of truth in\nthem, never feel any sorrow even at the possession or separation of\ntheir lives.\n\n32. In the beginning there was no production of the visible world,\nnor is it anything more than the vacuum of the intellect; in its own\nand true form it appears as a dream, and is no other than that in its\nessence.\n\n33. There is no other supposition, which is more apposite to it: than\nits resemblance to the dream; and our conception of the world, has the\ngreat Brahma only for its ground work.\n\n34. As fluidity, waves and whirlpools, are the inherent properties of\npure water; such are the revolutions of worlds, but appearances on the\nsurface of the Divine Mind, and have the Divine spirit of Brahma at\ntheir bottom.\n\n35. As velocity and ventilation, are inborn in the nature of pure\nair; the creation and preservation of the world, are ingrained and\nintrinsical in the nature of God.\n\n36. As infinity and vacuity are the inherent properties of the Great\nvacuum, so is the knowledge of all things existent and non-existent,\nand of creation and annihilation immanent in the Divine Mind.\n\n37. All things in existence and lying dormant in the Divine Mind, are\nyet perceptible to us, because we participate of the very same mind.\n\n38. This creation and its destruction also, both abide side by side in\nthe dense intellect of the Divine Soul; as the thickening dreams and\nsound sleep, both reside together in the calm sleeping state of our\nsoul.\n\n39. As a man passes from one dream to another, in the same dormant\nstate of his soul; so doth the supreme soul see the succession of\ncreations, taking place alternately in its own essence.\n\n40. The clear atmosphere of Divine Soul, which is devoid of earthy and\nother material substances; yet appears in their utter absence, to be\npossessed of them all, in the same manner as the human soul, sees many\nthings in its dream, without having any of those things in itself.\n\n41. As the human mind sees at a thought the forms of a pot, or painting\nrising before it; so the all seeing mind of God, sees at a glance of\nits thought, worlds upon worlds appearing at once in its presence.\n\n42. The all seeing soul, sees all things as they are in itself;\nand finds them to be of the same intellectual nature with its own\nintellect; and as all things are equivalent to the words expressive\nof them. (As there is a mutual correspondence between the significant\nwords and their significates).\n\n43. Of what use then are s\u00e1stras, and of what good is the reasoning\nupon their verbiage, when our inappetency is the best way to felicity;\nand there being no creation without its cause, we have nothing to do\nwith what appears but seemingly so.\n\n44. It being proved, that the want of want is our best bliss below; the\nsensation of want or desire, must be the source of perpetual misery\nto man; and though our desires are many, yet the feeling of it is one\nand the same, and betrays the prurient mind, as the various dreams by\nnight, disclose the cupidinous nature of the soul.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXVIII.\n\nBRAHMA-G\u00cdTA. NARRATIVE OF AINDAVA.\n\n Argument:--The formlessness of the world, for its formation from\n the formless mind.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma rejoined:--The world is known to consist of two sorts of beings,\nnamely the corporeal or solid substances and the incorporeal or subtile\nessences.\n\n2. They are styled the subtile ones, which do not strike against one\nanother; and those again are said to be solid things, which push and\ndash against each other.\n\n3. Here we see always the dashing of one solid body against another;\nbut know nothing of the movement of subtile bodies, or of their coming\nin contact with another.\n\n4. We know yet something, about the quick motion of our subtile senses\nto their respective objects, and without coming in contact with them,\nas we find in our perception of the distant orb of the moon (without\ntouching it).\n\n5. I repudiate the theory of the half-enlightened, who maintain the\nmaterial world to be the production of the will or imagination; nor can\nI believe that the immaterial intellect, can either produce or guide\nthe material body.\n\n6. It is the will I ween, that the material breath of life, moves the\nliving body to and fro; but tell me sir, what is that power which\npropels, the living breath both in and out of the beings.\n\n7. Tell me sir, how the intangible intellect moveth the tangible body;\nand carries it about, as a porter bears a load all about.\n\n8. Should the subtile intellect, be capable of moving the solid body at\nits will; then tell me sir, why cannot a man move a mountain also by\nhis own will?\n\n9. Vasishtha replied:--It is the opening and closing of the mouth of\nthe aorta in the breast, that lets in and out the vital breath, through\nthe passage of its hole and the lungs.\n\n10. As you see the bellows of ironsmiths about you, having a hollow\ninside them, so it is the hollow of the aorta, which lets in and out\nthe vital air, by the breathing of the heart.\n\n11. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--It is true that the ironsmith closes and expands\nthe valves of the bellows; but tell me sir, what power blows the wind\npipe of the heart, and lets the air in and out of the inner lungs.\n\n12. How the single breath of inhalation becomes a centuple (in order to\npass into a hundred channels of the arteries), and how these hundreds\ncombine again into one (in their exhalation); and why are some as\nsensible beings, and others as insensible as woods and stones.\n\n13. Tell me sir, why the immovables have no oscillation at all; and why\nthe moving bodies alone are possessed of their pulsation and mutation\n(and why the vegetable creation deprived of motion, when it is\npossessed of sensibility in common with the animal creation).\n\n14. Vasishtha replied:--There is an internal percipience (inner man),\nwhich moves the interior cords of the body; just as the ironsmith plies\nhis bellows in the sight of men.\n\n15. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--Say sir, how is it possible for the subtile and\nintactile soul, to move the vital airs and tangible entrails in the\nanimal body.\n\n16. If it be possible for the imperceptible perceptive soul, to put in\nmotion the intestinal and tactual entrails of the body; then it may be\nequally possible for the thirsty soul, to draw the distant water to it.\n(In order to quench its thirst, instead of going to the watery pool).\n\n17. If it be possible for the tangible and intangible, to come together\nin mutual contact at their will; then what is the use of the active\nand passive organs of action (if the will alone be effective of any\npurpose).\n\n18. As the intangible powers of the soul or spirit, bear no connection\nwhatever with the outward objects of the world; some think they can\nhave no effect on the internal organs of the body (in putting them to\naction). So please explain it more fully to me.\n\n19. Tell me, how you yogis perceive the outward corporeal things in\nyour inner incorporeal souls; and how your formless souls, can have any\ncommand over or any contact with solid bodies.\n\n20. Vasishtha replied:--Hear me tell you for rooting out all your\ndoubts, and these words will not only be pleasing to your ears, but\ngive you a conception of the unity of all things.\n\n21. There is nothing here, at any time, what you call as a solid\nsubstance or tangible body, but all is a wide and extended vacuum of\nthe rare and subtile spirit.\n\n22. This spirit is of the nature of the pure Intelligence, quite calm\nand intangible; and all material things as the earth, are as visionary\nas our dreams, and the creatures of imagination.\n\n23. There was nothing in the beginning, nor shall there be anything\nat the end; for want of a cause for its creation or dissolution; the\npresent existence is an illusion, as any fleeting shape and shadow\nappearing before the dreaming mind.\n\n24. The earth and sky, the air and water, and the hills and rivers that\nappear to sight; are lost sight of by the abstracted yogi; who by means\nof his abstraction, sees them in their ideal and intangible forms.\n\n25. The outer elements and their inner perceptions, the earth, the wood\nand stones; are all but empty ideas of the intellect, which is the only\nreal substratum of the ideas, and there is no reality besides.\n\n26. Attend now to the narrative of Aindava, in elucidation of this\ndoctrine; this will not fail to gratify your ears, though I have once\nbefore related this to you. (In the former narration the world was\nidentified with the mind, and here it is represented as identical with\nthe Intellect itself).\n\n27. Attend yet to the present narration, which I am going to relate in\nanswer to your question; and whereby you will come to know these hills\nand others, to be identic with your intellect.\n\n28. There lived once in days of yore, a certain Br\u00e1hman in some part\nof the world, who was known under the name of Indu, and was famed for\nhis religious austerities and observance of vedic ceremonies.\n\n29. He had ten sons by whom he was surrounded like the world by its ten\nsides (of the compass); who were men of great souls, of magnanimous\nspirits, and were revered by all good and great men.\n\n30. In course of time the old father met with his demise, and departed\nfrom his ten sons as the eleventh Rudra, at the time of the dissolution\nof the world.\n\n31. His chaste wife followed his funeral (by concremation), for fear of\nthe miseries of widowhood; just as the evening twilight follows like a\nfaithful bride, the departing daylight with the evening star shining\nupon her forehead (in token of the vermeil spot on women\u2019s forehead).\n\n32. The sons then performed the funeral ceremonies, and in sorrow for\ntheir deceased sire, they left their home and domestic duties and\nretired to the woods for holy devotion.\n\n33. They practiced the best method for the intensity of their\nattention, and which is best calculated to secure the consummation of\ntheir devotion; and was the constant reflection of their identity with\nBrahma (in the formula we are the lords of all, about us).\n\n34. Thinking so in themselves, they sat in lotus like posture; and\nwishing to gain the knowledge of the unity of all things, they did what\nyou shall be glad to learn from me.\n\n35. They thought they sustained in them the whole world, which is\npresided over by the lotus-born Brahm\u00e1; and believed themselves to be\ntransformed, to the form of the mundane God in an instant.\n\n36. Believing themselves as Brahma, they sat long with the thought of\nsupporting the world; and remained all along with their closed eyes, as\nif they were mere figures in painting.\n\n37. With this belief they remained fixed and steady at the same spot,\nand many a month and year glided over their heads and motionless bodies.\n\n38. They were reduced to dry skeletons, parts of which were beaten and\ndevoured by rapacious beasts; and some of their were at once\nsevered and disappeared from their main bodies, like parts of a shadow\nby the rising sun.\n\n39. Yet they continued to reflect that they were the God Brahm\u00e1 and\nhis creation also, and the world with all its parts, were contained\nin themselves (_i.e._ They considered themselves as Vir\u00e1t the form of\nmacrocosm).\n\n40. At last their ten bodiless minds, were thought to be converted to\nso many different worlds, in their abstract meditation of them. (_i.e._\nEach of them viewed himself as a cosmos).\n\n41. Thus it was by the will of their intellects, that each of them\nbecame a whole world in himself; and remained so in a clear or abstract\nview of it, without being accompanied by its grosser part.\n\n42. It was in their own consciousness, that they saw the solid earth\nwith all its hills &c. in themselves; because all things have reference\nto the intellect, and are viewed intellectually only (or else they are\nnothing).\n\n43. What is this triple world, but its knowledge in our consciousness,\nwithout which we have no perception of it, and with which we have a\nclear conception of every thing. So all things are of the vacuous\nnature of our consciousness, and not otherwise.\n\n44. As the wave is no other than the water of the sea, so there is\nnothing movable or immovable whatever, without our conscious knowledge\nof it.\n\n45. As the Aindavas remained in their vacuous forms of intellectual\nworlds in the open air; so are these blocks of wood and stone also,\npure intellectual beings or concept in the sphere of our minds.\n\n46. As the volitions of the Aindavas, assumed the forms of the world,\nso did the will of lotus-born Brahm\u00e1 take the form of this universe.\n(So says the veda: The divine will produced the world, just as the\nadage goes, the will is the mother of the act).\n\n47. Therefore this world together with all these hills and trees;\nas also these great elements and all other bodies, appertain to the\nintellect only, which is thus spread out to infinity.\n\n48. The earth is the intellect, and so are its trees and mountains, and\nheaven and sky also the intellect only; there is nothing beside the\nintellect, which includes all things in itself, like the intellectual\nworlds of the Aindavas.\n\n49. The intellect like a potter, forms every thing upon its own wheel;\nand produces this pottery of the world, from the mud of its own body\n(out of its own intellectual substance).\n\n50. The sensible will being the cause of creation, and framer of the\nuniverse, could not have made any thing, which is either insensible\nor imperfect in its nature, and neither the mineral mountains nor the\nvegetable production, are devoid of their sensations.\n\n51. Should the world be said to be the work of design, or of the\nreminiscence or former impression or of the Divine will; yet as these\nare but different powers of the Intellect, and are included under it;\nthe world then proves to be the production of the intellect, under some\none of its attributes as it is said before. (Hence there is no gross\nbody as the product of intelligent Intellect).\n\n52. Therefore there cannot be any gross substance in the Divine\nIntellect which blazes as a mine of bright gems, with the gemming light\nof consciousness in universal soul of God.\n\n53. Anything however mean or useless, is never apart from the Divine\nsoul; and as it is the nature of solar light to shine on all objects,\nso doth the light of intellect, take everything in the light of the\nGreat Brahma, which pervades alike on all.\n\n54. As the water flows indiscriminately upon the ground, and as the sea\nlaves all its shores, with its boisterous waves; so doth the intellect\never delight, to shed its lustre over all objects of its own accord,\nand without any regard to its near or distant relation.\n\n55. As the great creator evolves the world, like the petals of his\nlotiform navel, in the first formative period of creation; so doth the\ndivine intellect, unfold all the parts of the mundane system from its\nown penetralia, which are therefore not distinct from itself.\n\n56. The Lord is unborn and increate, and unconfined in his nature\nand purely vacuous in his essence; he is calm and quiescent, and is\nimmanent in the interim of _ens_ and _nil_ (_i.e._ of existence and\nnon-existence). This world therefore is no more than a reflexion of the\nintellectual or its ideal pattern in Divine Mind.\n\n57. Therefore the ignorant man, who declares the insensibility of\ninanimate objects, is laughed at by the wise, who are sensible of their\nsensibility in their own kinds. Hence the rocks and trees which are\nsituated in this ideal world, are not wholly devoid of their sensations\nand feelings.\n\n58. The learned know these ideal worlds in the air, to be full with the\nDivine soul; and so they know this creation of Brahm\u00e1\u2019s will, to be but\nan airy utopia only, and without any substantiality in them.\n\n59. No sooner is this material world, viewed in its aerial and\nintellectual light, than the distresses of this delusive world betake\nthemselves to flight, and its miseries disappear from sight.\n\n60. As long as this intellectual view of the world, does not light to\nthe sight of a man, so long do the miseries of the world, beset him\nthicker and thicker and closer on every side.\n\n61. Men besotted by their continued folly, and remaining blind to their\nintellectual view of the world, can never have its respite from the\ntroubles of the world, nor find their rest from the hardness of the\ntimes.\n\n62. There is no creation, nor the existence or inexistence of the\nworld, or the birth or destruction of any one here; there is no entity\nnor nonentity of any thing (beside the essence of the One). There is\nthe Divine soul only, that glows serenely bright with its own light in\nthis manner; or there is no light whatever except the manifestation of\nthe divine spirit.\n\n63. The cosmos resembles a creeper, with the multitude of its budding\nworlds; it has no beginning nor end, nor is it possible to find its\nroot or top at any time, or to discover the boundless extent of its\ncircumference. Like a crystal pillar, it bears innumerable statues in\nits bosoms, which are thickly studded together without having their\ninitium or end.\n\n64. There is but one endless being, stretching his innumerable arms to\nthe infinity of space; I am that vacuous soul embracing every thing ad\ninfinitum, and I find myself as that stupendous pillar, in my uncreated\nand all comprehensive soul, which is ever as quiescent and transparent\nand without any change in itself.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXIX.\n\nTHE DOCTRINE OF PANTHEISM OR THE ONE AS ALL.\n\n Argument:--The intellectuality and incorporality of the World,\n preclude the idea of its materiality.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--Now as the triple world is known, to be a purely\nintellectual entity; there is no possibility of the existence of any\nmaterial substance herein, as it is believed by the ignorant majority\nof mankind.\n\n2. How then can there be a tangible body, or any material substance\nat all; and all these that appear all around to our sight, is only an\nintactile extension of pure vacuity.\n\n3. It is the emptiness of our intellectuality, and contained in the\nvacuity of the Divine Intellect; it is all an extension of calm and\nquiet intelligence, subsisting in the serene intelligence of the\nsupreme One.\n\n4. All this is but the quiescent consciousness, and as a dream that we\nare conscious of in our waking state; it is a pure spiritual extension,\nthough appearing as a consolidated expanse of substantial forms.\n\n5. What are these living bodies and their limbs and members, what are\nthese entrails of theirs, and these bony frames of them? Are they\nnot but mere shadows of ghosts and spirits, appearing as visible and\ntangible to us. (Or very likely they resemble the phantoms of our\ndreams, and the apparitions that we see in the dark. Gloss).\n\n6. The hands, the head, and all the members of the body, are seats of\nconsciousness or percipience; where it is seated imperceptible and\nintangible, in the form of the sensorium or sensuousness.\n\n7. The cosmos appears as a dream in the vacuum of the Divine Mind; and\nmay be called both as caused and uncaused in its nature, owing to its\nrepeated appearance and eternal inherence in the eternal Mind.\n\n8. It is true that nothing can come out from nothing, or without its\ncause; but what can be the cause of what is eternally destined or\nordained in the eternal mind. (Predestination and Preordination being\nthe uncaused cause of all events).\n\n9. It is possible for a thing to come to existence, without any\nassignable cause or causality of it; and such is the presence of every\nthing that we think of in our minds (and so also is the appearance of\nthis world in its intellectual light).\n\n10. If it is possible for things, ever to appear in their various forms\nin our dreams, and even in the unconscious state of our sleep; why\nshould it impossible for them to appear also in the day dream of\nour waking hours, the mind being equally watchful in both states of its\nbeing.\n\n11. Things of various kinds, are present at all times, in the all\ncomprehensive mind of the universal soul; these are uncaused entities\nof the Divine Mind, and are called to be caused also, when they are\nbrought to appearance.\n\n12. As each of the Aindavas, thought himself to have become a hundred\nin his imagination; so every one of these imaginary worlds, teemed with\nmillions of beings--the mere creatures of our fancy.\n\n13. So is every body conscious of his being many, either consecutively\nor simultaneously at the same time; as we think of our multiformity\nin the different parts and members of our bodies. (Or as the king\nVipaschit viewed himself, as dilated in the sun, moon and stars, so\nalso one man thinks himself as many, in different states of his life).\n\n14. As the one universal body of waters, diverges itself into a\nthousand beds and basins, and branches into innumerable channels\nand creeks, and as one undivided duration, is divided into all the\ndivisions of time and seasons (so doth the one and uniform soul become\nmultiform and many). (As the sruti says:--aham-bahu-syam).\n\n15. All compact bodies are but the airy phantoms of our dream, rising\nin the empty space of our consciousness; they are as formless and\nrarefied, as the hollow mountain in a dream, and giving us a void\nnotion of it.\n\n16. As our consciousness consists of the mere notions and ideas of\nthings, the world must therefore be considered, as a mere ideal\nexistence; and it appears in the sights of it and observes in the same\nlight; as the fleeting notions of things glide over the void of the\nintellect. (The mind is conversant only with the ideas and not with the\nsubstance of things).\n\n17. Our knowledge and nescience of things, resemble the dreaming and\nsleeping states of the soul; and the world is same as the intellect,\nlike the identity of the air with its breeze.\n\n18. The noumenon and the phenomenon, are both the one and same state\nof the Intellect; being the subjectivity of its vacuous self, and the\nobjectivity of its own intellections and reveries; Therefore this world\nappears as a protracted dream, in the hollow cavity of the sleeping\nmind.\n\n19. The world is a non-entity, and the error of its entity, is caused\nby our ignorance of the nature of God from the very beginning of\ncreation. In our dream of the world, we see many terrific aspects of\nghosts and the like; but our knowledge of its non-entity, and of the\nvanity of worldliness, dispel all our fears and cares about it.\n\n20. As our single self-consciousness, sees many things in itself; so\ndoes it behold an endless variety of forms, appearing in the infinite\nvacuity of the Divine Mind.\n\n21. As the many lighted lamps in a room, combine to emit one great\nblaze of light; so the appearance of this multiform creation, displays\nthe Omnipotence of one Almighty Power.\n\n22. The creation is as the bursting bubble, or foam and froth of the\nmantling ocean of omnipotence; it appears as a wood and wilderness in\nthe clouded face of the firmament, but disappears in the clear vacuous\natmosphere of the Divine Mind; and there is no speck nor spot of\ncreation in the infinite ocean of the Supreme Intellect.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXX.\n\nBRAHMA G\u00cdT\u00c1 OR THE STORY ON AUSTERE DEVOTEE.\n\n Argument:--Vasishtha\u2019s elucidation of the story of Kunda-danta at\n the request of R\u00e1ma.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma rejoined:--I pray you sir, to remove the shade of a doubt from my\nmind, as the sunshine dispels the darkness from before it; in order to\nbring to light whatever is dark and obscure in the world.\n\n2. I beheld once a self-governed ascetic, who came to the seminary,\nwhere I was sitting amidst the synod of the sages and learned men, and\nconversing on subjects of theology and divinity.\n\n3. He was a learned Br\u00e1hman, and of a godly appearance; he came from\nthe land of the Videhas or the Mithilas, and was practiced in religious\nausterities, and was as unbearable in the lustre of his person as the\nterrific seer Durv\u00e1sas self.\n\n4. On entering the assembly, he made his obeisance to the illustrious\npersons; when we also saluted him in return and advanced his seat for\nhim to sit down.\n\n5. The Br\u00e1hman being well seated, I picked up many discourses with\nhim from the Ved\u00e1nta, S\u00e1nkhya, and Siddh\u00e1nta philosophy, and when his\nweariness was gone, I made this question to him, saying:--\n\n6. Sir, you seem to be tired with your long journey to this place,\nplease tell me, O eloquent sir, from where you have started here today.\n\n7. The Br\u00e1hman replied:--so it is, O fortunate prince, I have taken\ngreat pains to come up to this place; and now hear me to tell you the\nreason, that brings me hither to you.\n\n8. There is a district here, known by the name of Vaideha, it is\nequally populous as well as prosperous in all respects; and is a\nresemblance of its semblance of the heavenly paradise.\n\n9. There I was born and educated, and held my residence at the same\nplace; and named as Kundadanta from the whiteness of my teeth, bearing\nresemblance to the buds of _Kunda_ flowers.\n\n10. I resigned afterwards my worldly concerns, and betook myself to\ntravel far and wide about this earth; and resorted to the asylums of\nholy sages and saints, and to the shrines of gods to rest from my\nfatigue.\n\n11. I retired next to sacred mountain, where I sat silent for a\nlong period, practicing my devotional austerities.\n\n12. There I found a desert, which was devoid of grassy pastures and\nwoody trees; and where the light of the sun and the shade of night,\nreigned by turns, as it was the open sky on earth.\n\n13. There is in the midst of it a branching tree, with little of its\nverdant leaves and leaf-lets; and the luminous sun dispensed his gentle\nbeams, from the upper sky and through cooling foliage.\n\n14. There hung suspended under one of its boughs, a man of a holy mien;\nwho blazed as the resplendent sun pendent in the open air, by the cords\nof his wide extending beams and radiating rays.\n\n15. His feet were tied upwards by a clotted cord of _munja_ grass, and\nhis head hung downward towards the ground beneath; and this gave him\nthe appearance of an offshoot of the banian tree rooted in the earth\nbelow.\n\n16. Having then after a while, approached to him at that place, I saw\nhim to have his two folded palms affixed to his breast (as if he was\nintent upon the meditation of the lord, with the devoutness of his\nheart).\n\n17. Advancing nearer to the body of the Br\u00e1hman, I found it to be alive\nby its respiration, and from its having the feeling of touch, and the\nperception of heat and cold, and that of the breeze and change of\nweather.\n\n18. Afterwards I employed myself solely, in my attendance on that\ndevout personage only; and underwent all the rigours of the sun and\nseasons, until I was received into his confidence.\n\n19. I then asked him saying; who art thou lord, that hast thus\nbetaken thyself to this sort of painful devotion; say, O long sighted\nseer, what is the aim and object of this thy protracted state of\nself-mortification at the peril-expense of thy precious life.\n\n20. He then replied to my question saying:--Tell me first O devotee,\nwhat is the object of thy devotion and those of all other persons,\nthat are devoted to the particular objects of their pursuit. (So it is\nuseless to inquire into the aim and object of another, when there is no\nbody without his particular end in view).\n\n21. This he said as introductory to his speech to me; but being pressed\nfurther by my importunate inquiries, he gave the following answer to my\nquestions.\n\n22. I was born, said he, at Mathura where I grew up from childhood to\nyouth in the house of my father; and acquired my knowledge of philology\nand the arts in course of this time.\n\n23. I then learnt this also, that princes are the receptacles of all\npleasures and enjoyments, and that it is the early bloom of youth, that\nis capable of the fruitions of life.\n\n24. Since then I began to reflect on my being the possessor of the\nseven continents of the earth; and to foster the ardent expectation, of\nthe gratification of all my desires of this life.\n\n25. It is for this purpose that I have come to this place, and have\nemployed myself in this state of devotion, for attainment of objects of\nmy desire.\n\n26. Therefore, O thou disinterested and self offered friend of mine, do\nthou now return to thy own country and desired abode; and leave me to\nremain in this state, with my firm resolution for the accomplishment of\nmy desired object.\n\n27. Being thus bid by him to depart from that place, listen you now to\nwhat I replied unto him; this you will wonder at its rehearsal, and the\nwise will be gladdened in their hearts to learn.\n\n28. I addressed him saying:--O holy saint, let me remain here at thy\nservice, and underneath this holy tree, until you obtain the desired\nboon of your devotion.\n\n29. On my saying so, the meek minded devotee, remained as cool and\nquiet as a block of stone, and with his closed eye lids, he persisted\nin his dormancy as a dead body, without any motion in his outer limbs.\n\n30. I too continued to stay before him, as quiet and quiescent as a\nblock of wood, and endured without shrinking the rigours of the climate\nand seasons, for full six months at that spot.\n\n31. I saw at one time, effulgent as the blazing sun, descending from\nthe solar orb, and then standing in presence of the devotee.\n\n32. As this deific personage was adored mentally by the ascetic, and by\nbodily prostration of myself; he uttered his words, in a tone as sweet\nas the exudation of ambrosial sweetness.\n\n33. He said: O painstaking Br\u00e1hman, that hast long been pendent on\nthe projected bough of this branching banian tree, suspend thy severe\nausterities, and accept thy desired boon, which I am ready to confer on\nthee.\n\n34. Thou shalt as thou wishest, reign over the seven oceans and\ncontinents of this earth; and with this present body, thou shalt rule\nover it, for seven thousand years.\n\n35. In this manner did this secondary sun, give his blessing to the\ndevout ascetic; and was prepared to plunge into the bosom of the ocean\nout of which he rose of himself. (The sun is usually said to rise from\nand set in the mountain top, but he is made to rise out of and sink in\nthe sea, according to the Grecian mythology).\n\n36. The Deity having departed, I accosted the ascetic hanging below\nthe branch, and said to him I witnessed to day what I had heard from\nbefore, that the gods are ever propitious to their suppliants.\n\n37. Now O Br\u00e1hman, as you have gained the object of your desire, it is\ndesirable that you should give up your austerity, and pursue the proper\ncallings and the course of your life.\n\n38. He having assented to my proposal, I ascended on the tree and\nloosened his feet therefrom; as they let loose the feet of an elephant\nfrom the fetters tied to its prop and post.\n\n39. Having then bathed himself, he made his offerings with his pure\nhands for the remission of his sins; and then with the fruits which he\nwas fortunate to pluck from the tree, he broke the fast of his long\nlent.\n\n40. It was by virtue of his meritorious devotion, that we obtained\nplenty of the delicious fruits of that holy tree; where upon we\nrefreshed ourselves, and subsisted for three days.\n\n41. Thus this Br\u00e1hman being desirous of obtaining the sovereignity of\nthe earth, consisting of the septuple continents girt by the seven\noceans all around, made his painful maceration with his uplifted feet\nand downward head, until he obtained desired boon from the god of day,\nand refreshed himself for three days at the spot, till at last both of\nus set out on our journey towards the city of Mathur\u00e1.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXI.\n\nBRAHMA-G\u00cdT\u00c1 CONTINUED.\n\n Argument:--The guest\u2019s description of sanctuary of the\n goddess Gaur\u00ed.\n\n\nThe guest Kunda-danta resumed his narration and said:--We then betook\nourselves to our homeward journey, and bent our course towards the holy\ncity of Mathur\u00e1, which was as fair and splendid as the solar and lunar\nmansions, and the celestial city of Amaravati of Indra.\n\n2. We reached at the rustic habitation of Raudha, and halted at the\nmango forest over an adjacent rock. Then we turned towards the city of\nSal\u00edsa, where we remained two days in the cheerfulness of our spirits.\n\n3. We passed our itinerant time, with that hilarity of our hearts,\nwhich ever attends on travelling through unknown places and scenes; and\nthe succeeding season of our halting, was passed in our repose under\nthe cooling shade of woodland arbours, and refreshing ourselves in the\ncooling brooks and breezes.\n\n4. The faded flowers which were thrown down in profusion, from the\nflowery creepers growing on the banks of rivers; the dashing of\nthe waves, the humming of the bees, and the singing of birds, are\ndelightsome to the souls of passing travellers.\n\n5. The thickening and cooling shades of beachening trees, the droves\nof deer and the flights of chirping birds; and the frozen ice and dew\ndrops, hanging tremulously as pearls on the leaves of verdant trees,\nand at the ends of the blades of green grass (are refreshing to the\nsoul of the weary passenger.)\n\n6. We passed many days through woods and forests, and over hills and\ndales, through caves and defiles, over marshes and dry lands, and in\ncities and villages; and also crossed over a great many rivers and\nchannels and running waters.\n\n7. We passed our nights under the arbours of thick plantain forests;\nand being weary with walking over snow and dew, we laid ourselves on\nbeds made of plantain leaves.\n\n8. On the third we came to a jungle full of gigantic woods and trees,\nwhich for want of human habitation, seemed to have divided the empire\nof heaven between themselves (meaning that there was to be seen\nnothing, except the skies above and woods below).\n\n9. Here that devotee left the right path, and entered into another\nforest, with uttering these useless words to me (which were discursive\nand preventive of our returning to our respective habitations).\n\n10. He said:--Let us go to the sanctuary of Gaur\u00ed here, which is the\nresort of many munis and sages from all quarters; and is the asylum to\nwhich my seven brothers, have repaired for attainment of their objects.\n\n11. We are eight brothers in all, and all of us have fostered great\nambitions in various respects; we are all equally resolved to devote\nourselves to rigorous austerities, for the success of our determined\npurposes.\n\n12. It is for that purpose that have sought their shelter in\nthis holy asylum, and with fixed determination practiced various acts\nof self mortification, whereby they have been expurgated from their\nsins.\n\n13. Ere this I accompanied my brothers to this place, and remained here\nwith them for six months together; and now I find this same sanctuary\nof Gaur\u00ed in the same state as I had seen it before.\n\n14. I see the piece of ground, overhung by the shady flower of trees;\nunder the shade of which I see the young fauns to be reposing in this\ntheir peaceful retreat; I see also the leafy bowers with the sprays of\nbirds thereon, listening to the recital of the s\u00e1stras, conducted by\nthe sages underneath.\n\n15. Let us therefore go to the asylum of the sages, which resembles the\nseat of Brahm\u00e1 crowded by the Br\u00e1hmans on all sides; here shall our\nbodies be purified of their sins, and our hearts will be sanctified by\nthe holiness of the place.\n\n16. It is by sight of these holy men of superior understanding, that\nthe minds of even the learned and saintlike persons, and even those of\nthe knowers of truth are purified (wherefore it must be sanctifying to\nus also).\n\n17. Upon his saying so, we both went together to that asylum of the\nrecluses of sages and hermits; but to our great disappointment, we saw\nnothing but the appearance of a total desolation.\n\n18. There was not a tree nor plant, and neither a shrub nor creeper to\nbe seen on the spot; nor was there any man or _muni_ or a boy or child\nwas met thereabouts; nor any altar or priest was there anywhere.\n\n19. It was only a vast desert, all void and devoid of bounds; an\nunlimited space of burning heat, and appeared as the blank expanse of\nthe sky, had fallen down on the ground below.\n\n20. Ah w\u0153 to us! what is all this come to be! said we to one another;\nand saying so, we continued to rove about for a long while, until we\nchanced to espy an arbour at some distance.\n\n21. It presented a thickly shady and cooling aspect, resembling that of\na dark and drizzling cloud in the sky; and there was observed an aged\nhermit, sitting in his meditation beneath it.\n\n22. We two sat upon the grassy spot, spread out in front of the\neremite; and though we kept sitting there for a long time, yet we could\nfind no respite in the abstracted meditation of the _muni_.\n\n23. Then feeling uneasy at my staying there for a long while, I broke\nmy silence in impatience, and cried out in a loud voice, saying,\nsuspend, O sage, the life-long musings of your mind.\n\n24. My loud cry awakened the _muni_ from the trance of his reverie,\nas the roaring of a raining cloud wakens the sleeping lion, rising\nstraight with his yawning mouth (and stretched out limbs).\n\n25. He then said unto us, who are ye pious persons, that are in this\ndesert; say where is that sanctuary of Gaur\u00ed gone, and who is it that\nhas brought me hither. Tell me what means this change and what time is\nthis.\n\n26. Upon his saying so, I replied to him saying, you sir, know all this\nand not we; say how is that you being a sage and seer do not know\nyourself?\n\n27. Hearing this the holy man betook himself to his meditation again,\nand there saw all the events that had occurred to himself and us also.\n\n28. He remained a moment in deep thought, and then coming to himself\nfrom his abstraction, he said unto us, learn now about this marvelous\nevent, and know it to be a delusion only by your good common sense.\n\n29. This young kadamba tree, that you are seeing in this desert, and\nthat gives me a shelter underneath it, and is now flowering in kindness\nto me.\n\n30. It was for some reason or other, that the chaste goddess Gaur\u00ed,\ndwelt for full ten years upon it, in the form of the goddess of speech,\nand underwent all the inclemencies of the seasons sitting there upon.\n\n31. It was by her that a goodly grove, and an extensive forest was\nstretched out at this place, which became therefore known by her name,\nand was decorated by the flora of all the seasons.\n\n32. It was a romantic spot to all grades of gods and men, who kept\nsinging and sporting here in concert with the melody of tuneful and\nsportive birds; the air was filled with clouds of flowers, which\nbrightened as myriads of moon in the sky; while the flying dust of full\nblown lotuses, perfumed the air on all sides of the forest.\n\n33. The pollen of mandara and other flowers, perfumed the air around;\nand the opening bud and blooming blossoms brightened as moons; the\nflowering creepers sent forth their fragrance all about, and the whole\ncourtyard of the forest, seemed to strewn over with perfumery.\n\n34. Its bowers were the seats of the god of the vernal season and\nflora; and the orchestra of black-bees, sitting and singing in concert\nwith their mates on the top of flowers; the flower beds were spread as\nthe outstretched sheet of moon light, and as cradles for the swinging\nsports of siddha and celestial damsels.\n\n35. Here were brooks frequented by cranes and herons, and aquatic birds\nof various kinds; and there spacious lawns on the ground, graced by\ncocks and peacocks, and land birds of various hues.\n\n36. The gandharvas and yakshas, siddhas and the hosts of celestials,\nbowed down to this kadamba tree, and their coronets rubbed against the\nbranch, which was sanctified by the touch of the feet of the goddess\nSarasvat\u00ed _alias_ Gaur\u00ed. And the flowers of the tree, resembling the\nstars of heaven, exhaled their fragrance all around.\n\n37. Gentle zephyrs were playing amidst the tender creeper, and\ndiffusing a coldness throughout the secret bowers, even in the light\nand heat of the blazing sunshine; while the flying dust of the kadamba\nand other flowers, spread a yellow carpet all over the ground.\n\n38. The lotus and other aquatic flowers, were blooming in the brooks,\nfrequented by storks and cranes and herons and other watery birds, that\nsported upon them; while the goddess regaled herself amidst the flowery\ngroves, which displayed her wondrous powers in the variety of their\nflowers.\n\n39. It was in such a forest as this, that the goddess Gaur\u00ed the consort\nof the god Hara, resided at this spot for a long time, for some cause\nknown to her godly mind; and then by changing her name and form to that\nof kadamba--Sarasvat\u00ed, she waved as gracefully as a kadamba flower, on\nthe crown of the head of her spoused partner Hara or Siva.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXII.\n\nBRAHMA G\u00cdT\u00c1 CONTINUED. SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEVEN CONTINENTS.\n\n Argument:--Meeting of the Kadamba Hermit with his brothers, their\n bane and blessing and final success.\n\n\nThe old anchorite resumed and said:--The goddess Gaur\u00ed dwelt for a full\ndecade of years, on this very Kadamba tree of her own accord; and then\nshe left this arbour of her own will, in order to join her lord Hara on\nhis left side.\n\n2. This young Kadamba tree, being verified by the ambrosial touch of\nthe goddess, never becomes old, nor fades or withers; but ever remains\nas fresh as a child in the lap of her mother.\n\n3. After the goddess had left this place, that great garden was\nconverted to a common bush, and was frequented only by woodmen, who\nearned their livelihood by woodcutting.\n\n4. As for myself, know me to be the king of the country of Malwa, and\nto have now become a refugee in this hermitage of holy ascetics, by\nabdication of my kingdom.\n\n5. On my resorting to this place, I was honoured here by the\ninhabitants of this holy asylum; and have taken any abode beneath this\nkadamba tree, where I have been in my meditative mood ever since that\ntime.\n\n6. It was some time ago, that you sir, had come here in company\nwith seven brethren, and betaken yourselves to the practice of your\nreligious austerities.\n\n7. So did you eight persons reside here as holy devotees since that\ntime, and were respected by all the resident devotees of this place.\n\n8. It came to pass in process of time, that one of them removed from\nhere to the Sr\u00ed mountain; and then the second among them, went out to\nworship the lord K\u00e1rtikeya in another place.\n\n9. The third has gone to Benares and the fourth to the Him\u00e1layas; and\nthe remaining four remained at this place, and employed themselves to\ntheir rigorous austerities.\n\n10. It was the earnest desire of each and every one of them, to become\nthe sovran lord of all the seven continents of the earth.\n\n11. At last they all succeeded to accomplish their objects of their\nself same desire, by the grace and boon which obtained from the\nrespective deity of their adoration, that was pleased with the\nausterity of his particular devotee.\n\n12. The brethren returned to their habitation, when you had been\nemployed in your devotion; and after their enjoyment of the fruition of\nthis earth in golden age, they have ascended to the empyrean of Brahm\u00e1.\n\n13. O sir, those brothers of yours, finding their respective gods\npropitious to them, and willing to confer blessings upon them, had made\nthe following request of them saying:--\n\n14. Ye gods! make our seven brothers, the lords of the seven continents\nof the earth; and let all our subjects be truthful and sincere, and\nattached to the occupations of their respective orders.\n\n15. The gods that were adored by them, gladly occupied their prayer;\nand having assented to their request, disappeared from them, and\nvanished in the open sky.\n\n16. They all went afterwards to their respective habitation, and met\ndeath except this one who is now here.\n\n17. I only have been sitting alone, devoutly intent upon meditation;\nand have remained as motionless as a stone, beneath this kadamba tree,\nwhich is sacred to the goddess of speech.\n\n18. Now as the seasons and years, have been rolling on upon my devoted\nhead, I have lived to see this forest, to be broken and cut down by\nwoodmen, living in the skirts of these woods.\n\n19. They have spared only this unfading kadamba tree, which they had\nmade an object of their veneration, as the abode of the goddess of\nspeech; and me also whom they believe to be absorbed in inflexible\nmeditation.\n\n20. Now sirs, as you seem to have newly come to this place, and bear\nthe appearance of aged ascetics; I have therefore related to you all\nthat I have come to know by my cogitation only.\n\n21. Rise then ye righteous men, and proceed to your native homes; where\nyou will meet your brothers in the circle of their family and friends.\n\n22. You will find eight of your brothers, remaining in their abode; and\nresembling the eight high minded Vasus, sitting in the high heaven of\nBrahm\u00e1.\n\n23. After that great devotee had said so far, I interrupted him\nsaying:--I have a great doubt in this wondrous relation of yours, which\nyou will be pleased to expound it to me.\n\n24. We know this earth to be composed of seven continents only, how\nthen is it possible for eight brothers, to be the lord of them all, at\nthe one and same time.\n\n25. The kadamba ascetic said:--It is not inconsistent what I have\nrelated to you, there are many such are seemingly incongruous, but\nbecome evident when they are explained.\n\n26. These eight brothers, having passed their periods of asceticism,\nwill all of them become lords of the seven continents of the earth, in\ntheir domestic circles. (_i.e._ Each thinks himself as such).\n\n27. All these eight brothers, will remain in their respective houses\non the surface of the earth; and will there become the lords of the\nseptuple continents, in the manner as you shall now hear from me.\n\n28. Every one of these eight persons had each a wife at home, who were\nof unblemished character and persons withal; and resembled the eight\nstars or planets of heavens, in the brightness of their bodies. (They\nwere equally chaste and fair and loving wives also).\n\n29. After these eight brothers have departed, to conduct their\nprotracted devotion abroad; their love lorn wives became disconsolate\nat their separation, which is altogether intolerable to faithful wives.\n\n30. They in their great sorrow of spirit, made painful austerities to\nthe memory of the absent lords; and conducted a hundred _Ch\u00e1ndr\u00e1yana_\nvows and rites, to the satisfaction of the goddess P\u00e1rvat\u00ed. (The\nOlympian Juno, and the patroness of chastity).\n\n31. Invisibly the goddess appeared to them, and spake her words to them\nseparately in their inner apartments; after each and every one of them\nhad performed her daily devotion to goddess.\n\n32. The goddess said:--O Child, that hast been long fading away by thy\nausterities, like the tender shoot under the scorching sun; now accept\nthis boon to thy heart\u2019s desire, both for thyself as also for thy\nhusband.\n\n33. Hearing this voice of the goddess of heaven, the lady Chirantik\u00e1,\noffered her handfuls of flowers to her, and began to address her prayer\nto the goddess, to her heart\u2019s satisfaction.\n\n34. The reserved and close tongued damsel, uttered her words in a slow\nflattering voice flushed with joy; and addressed the heavenly goddess,\nas the peahen accosts the rising cloud.\n\n35. Chirantik\u00e1 said:--O goddess, as thou bearest eternal love to\nSiva--the god of gods, such is the love I bear also to my husband, O\nmake him immortal.\n\n36. The goddess replied:--Know, O goodly minded lady, that it is\nimpossible to gain immortality, from the inflexible decree of destiny,\never since the creation of the world. No devotion, austerity nor\ncharity can buy life, ask therefore some other blessing.\n\n37. Chirantik\u00e1 said:--O goddess! if it be impossible to attain\nimmortality, then ordain it thus far; that he being dead, his soul may\nnot depart beyond the confines of this house of his.\n\n38. When the body of my husband, falls dead in this house; then confer\nme this boon, that his parted soul may never depart from this place.\n\n39. Be it so, O daughter, that your husband being gone to other\nworld, you may still continue to be his beloved wife, even after his\ndemise.\n\n40. Saying so, the goddess Gaur\u00ed held her silence in the midst of the\nair; as the sound of the clouds is stopped, after its betokening the\nwelfare of the world.\n\n41. After disappearance of the goddess in air, the husbands of these\nladies returned to them from all sides, and at the lapse of some time\nafter they had received their desired blessings.\n\n42. Now was there a mutual interview of the wives with their husbands,\nand general meeting of the brothers with each other, and with their\nfriends and relatives.\n\n43. Hear now a wonderful event, which happened to them at this time;\nand which presented itself as an obstacle, towards the achievement of\ntheir noble purpose.\n\n44. It was at the time when the brothers were employed in their\ndevotion, that their parents had gone out with their wives in search\nof them, and were wandering about the hermitages of saints, with their\nsorrowful hearts.\n\n45. Unmindful of their personal pains and pleasures, for the sake of\nthe welfare of their sons, they intended to see the village of Kalapa,\nwhich lay on their way.\n\n46. Passing by the village of _munis_ or saints, they espied on their\nway a white man of short stature, with grey and erect hairs on his\nhead, and his body bedaubed with ashes.\n\n47. Thinking him to be an ordinary old passenger, the parents forgot to\ndo him due honour, and let the dust of the ground they trod upon, fly\nunwarily to his sacred person. This irritated the old passenger, who\nthus bespake to him in his ire.\n\n48. You great fool that are going on pilgrimage in company with thy\nwife and daughters-in-law; don\u2019t you heed me the sage Durv\u00e1sas, that\nyou slight to do me due reverence.\n\n49. For this act of thy negligence, the boons so dearly earned by thy\nsons and daughters in law will go for nothing, and will be attained\nwith their contrary effect.\n\n50. On hearing this malediction the old parents and their daughters\nin law, were proceeding to do him reverence, when the ancient sage\ndisappeared from their sight and vanished in air.\n\n51. At this the parents and their daughters, were greatly dismayed\nand disheartened; and returned disappointed to their home, with their\nmelancholy countenances.\n\n52. Therefore I say, there was not the only inconsistency, in each of\nthe brothers reigning over the seven continents all at once; but there\nwere many other odds awaiting upon them as on all human wishes; and\nthese occurring as thickly one after the other as the sores and ulcers\ngrowing on goitres. (Or pouches on the throat).\n\n53. There are as many oddities and vanities, always occurring in the\nwishes, and aerial castles of the vacuous mind; as the numberless\nportents and comets and meteors and unnatural sights, are seen to\nappear in the empty sky.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXIII.\n\nDESCRIPTION OF THE SEVEN CONTINENTS.\n\n Argument:--Brahm\u00e1\u2019s relation of the contending sides of blessing\n and imprecation.\n\n\nKunda-Danta rejoined:--I then asked the hermit of Gaur\u00ed\u2019s asylum, whose\nhead was hoary with age, and whose hair resembled the dried blades of\nwithered grass.\n\n2. There are but seven continents only, that composed this earth; how\nthen could every one of the eight brothers, become the sole lord of\nearth at one and the same time.\n\n3. Again how could a person, that had no egress from his house, conquer\nthe seven continents abroad, or govern them himself (by sitting quietly\nat home).\n\n4. How could they that had the boon on one hand, and its contrary curse\non the other, go in either way which are opposed to one another, as the\ncool shade of trees and the heat of sunshine?\n\n5. How can opposite qualities reside together at the same time, which\nis as impossible as the container and contained to become the same\nthing? (Here the blessing of the gods and the curse of the sage, must\ncounteract one another, and neither of them could effect anything).\n\n6. The Hermit of the asylum returned:--Attend, O holy man, to my\nrelation of the sequel of their tale; and you will come to see the\nsequence of their contrary fates.\n\n7. As for you two, you will reach to your home, after eight days from\nthis place; and there meet with your relatives, with whom you will live\nhappily for some time.\n\n8. These eight brothers also, having joined with their families at\nhome: will breathe their last in course of time; and have their bodies\nburnt by their friends and relations.\n\n9. Then their conscious souls, will remain separately in air for a\nlittle while; and there continue in a state of torpidity, as in the\ninsensibility of sleep.\n\n10. All this interval their acts will appear, in the vacuous space of\ntheir minds, for the sake of receiving their retributive justice; and\nalso the blessing of gods and the curse of the sage, will wait on them\nat this time.\n\n11. The acts will appear in the shapes of the persons to whom they\nwere done and the blessings and imprecation likewise will assume their\nparticular forms, in order to make their appearance before them.\n\n12. The blessings will assume the forms of fair moon-bright bodies,\nhaving four arms on each, and holding a lotus bud, a club and other\nweapons in each of them.\n\n13. The curse will take the forms of Siva with his three eyes, and\nholding the lance and mace in his either hand; and having a dark\nterrific body, with a surly grim and frowning countenance.\n\n14. The Blessings will vauntingly say:--Avaunt thou accursed curse! it\nis now our time to work; as it is with the seasons to act their parts\nat their proper times.\n\n15. The curse will say in his turn:--Be afar from here; ye blessed\nblessings, and do not intrude upon my time; it will take effect as any\none of the seasons, nor is there any body capable of counteracting its\nwonted course.\n\n16. The blessings will rejoin and say; Thou cured curse, art but a\ncreature of an human sage; but we are messengers of the God of day; now\nas preference is given to the first born God of light, over a human\nbeing (who is the last work of God); it is proper that we should have\nour precedence here (in the present case).\n\n17. Upon the blessings saying so, the personified curse of the sage got\nenraged, and returned in reply saying, I am no less the creation of\na God than you are since we are born of the God Rudra by his consort\nRudr\u00e1n\u00ed--the Fury.\n\n18. Rudra is the greatest of gods, and the sage was born with a portion\nof Rudra\u2019s prowess; saying so the accursed curse lifted up its head, as\nhigh as the exalted summit of a mountain.\n\n19. On seeing the haughty high-headedness of the personation of curse;\nthe personified image of the boon smiled scornfully at him, and then\nmade his reply in his speech of well weighed words.\n\n20. O thou miscreant curse, leave thy wickedness and think on the end\nof this affair; as also about what is to be done, after termination of\nall this altercation of ours.\n\n21. We must have recourse to the father of the gods, for his favourable\ndecision of the case, is it not therefore better for us to do even now\nwhat must come to be finally determined by him.\n\n22. The curse on hearing these words of the personified boon replied,\nwell, I agree to what you say; because a fool even cannot decline to\naccept the reasonable proposal of a person.\n\n23. Then the curse agreed to resort to the abode of Brahm\u00e1; in company\nwith the divine Blessing; because the great-minded gods are always\nresorted to by the wise, for the dissipation of their doubts.\n\n24. They bended down before Brahm\u00e1, and related all that had occurred\nbetween them; and the god on hearing the whole on both sides, replied\nto them in the following manner.\n\n25. Brahm\u00e1 said:--Hearken unto me, ye master of blessing and curse,\nand let him have the precedence of the other, that is possessed of\nintrinsic merit and essence.\n\n26. Upon hearing this from the mouth of the great god, they both\nentered in their turn into the heart of one another, in order to sound\ntheir understandings, and descry their respective parts.\n\n27. They then having searched into the eternal essentialities of one\nanother, and having known their respective characters; came out in\npresence of the God, and besought him by turns.\n\n28. The curse said:--I am overcome, O Lord of creatures, by this my\nadversary, in my having no internal merit in myself, and finding the\ncurses of my foe, to be as sound and solid as the hard stony rock and\nthe strong thunderbolt.\n\n29. But both ourselves and the blessings, being always but\nintellectual beings, we have no material body whatever to boast of at\nany time.\n\n30. The Blessing replied:--The intellectual blessing, which its giver\n(the god in the sun), has given to its askers the Br\u00e1hmans, is here\npresent before you; and this is entrusted to my charge (to be delivered\nunto them).\n\n31. The body of every one is the evolution of one\u2019s intelligence, and\nit is this body which enjoys the consequence of the curse or blessing\nthat is passed on one according to his knowledge of it; whether it is\nin his eating or drinking or in his feeling of the same, in all his\nwandering at all times and places. (_i.e._ The consciousness of one\u2019s\nmerits and demerits, accompanies him every where, and makes him enjoy\nor suffer their results accordingly).\n\n32. The blessing received from its donor, is strengthened in the mind\nof the donee in time; and this acting forcibly within one\u2019s self,\novercomes at last the power or effect of the curse. (_i.e._ Firm good\nwill, turns away the evil ones).\n\n33. The donor\u2019s bestowal of a blessing, to his supplicants for it;\nbecomes strong and effectual only, when it is deeply rooted and duly\nfostered in one\u2019s self. (_i.e._ A good given us by others, is of no\ngood, unless we cultivate it well ourselves).\n\n34. It is by means of the continued culture of our conscious goodness,\nand by the constant habit of thinking of our desert, that these become\nperfected in one\u2019s self, and convert their possessor to their form. (It\nis the habitual mode of the mind\u2019s thought, that makes the future man,\nbe it a holy or accursed one).\n\n35. The pure and contrite conscience alone, consummates one\u2019s\nconsciousness in time; but the impure conscience of the evil minded,\nnever finds its peace and tranquility. Hence the Br\u00e1hmans\u2019 thoughts of\nthe blessing, had taken the possession of their minds, and not that of\nthe curse: because the earlier one, has the priority over the latter,\nthough it be that of a minute only (as the law of primogeniture,\nsupersedes the claim of youngsters to state); and there is no rule;--\n\n36. Nor force of pride to counteract this law. (Hence the blessing of\nthe god, being prior to the curse of the sage, must have its precedence\nover the latter).\n\n37. But where both sides are of equal force, there both of them have\ntheir joint effect upon the same thing; so the curse and blessing being\nconjoined together, must remain as the commingling of milk with water.\n\n38. The equal force of the blessing and curse, must produce a double or\ndivided effect on the mind of man; as a person dreaming of the fairy\ncity in his sleep, thinks himself as turned to one of its citizens\n(without losing the idea of his own personality: so a man has a\ndifferent idea of himself, in different states of his life).\n\n39. Now pardon me, O Lord for my repetition of the same truths before\nthee that I have learnt from thee, and permit me now to take leave of\nthee, and depart to my place.\n\n40. Upon his saying so, the curse felt ashamed in itself, and fled away\nfrom the presence of the god; as the ghosts and goblins fly away from\nthe air, at the dispersion of darkness from the sky.\n\n41. Then the other blessing (which was given by the goddess Gaur\u00ed to\nthe ladies of these brothers), concerning the restriction of their\ndeparted ghosts, to the confines of their house, came forward and\npresented itself before Brahm\u00e1 in lieu of the curse, and began to plead\nhis case, as a substitute does for his constituent.\n\n42. He said:--I know not, O Lord of gods, how human souls can fly over\nthe seven continents of the earth, after their separation from their\ndead bodies (Deign to explain this therefore unto me.)\n\n43. I am the same blessing of the goddess, that promised unto them\ntheir dominion over the seven continents in their own house; and also\ntheir conquest of the whole earth within its confines.\n\n44. Now tell me, O Lord of gods, how am I to restrain their spirits to\nthe narrow limits of their own abodes; and at the same time confer the\ndomain of the septuple earth, to each and every one of them (as it is\ndestined to them by the blessing of the God of day.)\n\n45. Brahm\u00e1 responded:--Hear me, O thou blessing of conferring the\nrealms of the seven continents on each of them; and thou the boon of\ndetaining their departed spirits within the confines of these mansions;\nthat both of you are successful in executing your respective purposes\non them.\n\n46. Now do you retire from this place with full assurance in\nyourselves, that the delivered ghosts of these brothers; will never\nquit nor ever depart from their present abodes after their demise; but\ncontinue to reside there forever more; with the belief of their being\nthe Lords of the seven regions of this earth. (It is the firm belief\nof the mind of the possession of anything, that makes it the true\npossessor thereof, much more than its actual enjoyment of the same).\n\n47. Their souls will remain at proper distances from each other, after\nthe loss and extinction of their frail bodies; and will deem themselves\nas lords of the seven regions of earth, though dwelling in the empty\nair of their own abodes.\n\n48. How could there be the eight regions and seven continents of the\nearth, when to all appearance the surface of the earth, presents but a\nflat level everywhere.\n\n49. Tell us Lord! where are these different divisions of the earth\nsituated, and in what part of their petty abode; and is it not as\nimpossible for the small place of their house to contain this wide\nearth in it, as it is for the little cell of a lotus bud to hide an\nelephant in its pericarp.\n\n50. Brahm\u00e1 replied:--It being quite evident to you as to ourselves\nalso, that the universe is composed of an infinite vacuity only; it is\nnot impossible for its being contained within the hollow of the human\nheart, as in the minute particle of the vacuous mind, which contains\nall things in it in the manner of its dreams.\n\n51. If it were possible for the minute granule of their vacuous minds,\nto contain the figures of their houses and their domestic circles\nwithin itself, why should it be thought impossible for them, to\ncompress the greater and lesser circle of this earth also, within their\nample space.\n\n52. After the demise of a person, the world exhibits itself in the\nsame form as it is, in the minute atom of his mind; and this is but a\nvacuous mass of the visible and material world, in its invisible and\nimaginary figure.\n\n53. It is in this invisible particle of the mind, that the world is\nseen in its abstract form, within the precincts of the body and abode\nof every body; and this earth appears to be drawn in it as in a map,\nwith all its sevenfold continents and the contents thereof.\n\n54. Whatever is manifest in the mind, is a mere mental conception and\ninborn in the mind, and there is no such thing as an extraneous or\nmaterial world in reality. It is the vacant mind that presents these\nvagaries of the world and all other visibles before its vision, as the\nvacuous firmament shows the variety of atmospherical appearances to our\nsight.\n\n55. The personified benediction, having learnt this abstract truth,\nfrom the mouth of the divine Brahm\u00e1, who had conferred this boon to\nthe Br\u00e1hmanical brothers, abandoned his erroneous conception of the\nmaterial world, and repaired to the abode of the deceased brethren,\nthat had been released from the mistake of their mortal bodies.\n\n56. The personated blessing bowed down to the bounteous Brahm\u00e1, and\ndeparting from his presence with speed, entered into the parlour of the\neight brother kings, in his eight-fold spiritual personality (called\nthe ashta siddhi).\n\n57. They beheld the brothers there in their respective residences, each\nsitting as the Lord of the earth with its septuple continents, and all\nof them employed in the performance of their sacrifices and enjoyment\nof their blessings, like the eight Lordly Manus for the whole period of\na day of Brahm\u00e1.\n\n58. They were all friendly to each other, though unacquainted with the\nrespective provinces of one another; each of them was employed in his\nconcern with the world, without clashing with the authority of another\nover it.\n\n59. One of them who was handsome in the bloom of his youth; held his\nhappy reign over the great city of Ujjain, which was situated in the\nprecincts of his own house, or rather in the environs of his own mind.\n\n60. Another one of them had his domain over the country of Scythia\n(s\u00e1ka), where he settled himself for his conquest of the N\u00e1gas\n(saccae); he cruises as a corsair in the wide outlandish seas, for his\nvictory on every side.\n\n61. Another reigns secure in his capital of Kusadw\u00edpa, and confers\nperfect security to his subjects from all alarm; and like a hero who\nhas quelled his enemies, he rests in peace on the bosom of his beloved,\nafter all his conquest.\n\n62. Some one of them indulges himself to sport, in company with the\ncelestial Nymphs of Vidy\u00e1dhara; in skimming over the waters of the\nlakes on mountain tops, and in the gushing water falls on their side.\n\n63. Another one is engaged these eight days in conducting his horse\nsacrifice in his royal abode at Krauncha dw\u00edpa, which he has greatly\naggrandised with his accumulated gold, from the other continents.\n\n64. Another one is employed in waging a battle in the S\u00e1lmali\ncontinents, where his war elephants have assembled, and have been\nuprooting the boundary mountain from their bases with robust tusks.\n\n65. The Monarch of the Gomedha continent, who had been the eighth and\nlast of the Br\u00e1hman brothers, was smitten with love for the princess\nof the Pushkara dw\u00edpa; upon which he mustered a large armament for\nravishing her in warfare.\n\n66. The monarch of the Pushkara continent, who was also the master of\nthe Mountainous regions of Lok\u00e1loka; set out with his deputy to inspect\nthe land of the gold mines.\n\n67. Thus every one of these brothers, thought himself to be the Lord of\nhis respective province, as his imagination portrayed unto him in the\nregion of his mind.\n\n68. The Blessings then, having relinquished their several forms and\npersonalities, became united and one with the consciousness of the\nBr\u00e1hmans, and felt and saw whatever passed in them, as if they were\npassing in themselves likewise. (The divine blessing on them being no\nother than the approbation of their conscience).\n\n69. So these brothers became and found in themselves, what they had\nlong been longing after, in their respective lordship over the seven\nregions of the earth, which they continued to enjoy ever since to their\nheart\u2019s content.\n\n70. It was in this manner that these men of enlarged understandings,\nobtained what they sought in their minds, by means of their austere\ndevotion and firm devotedness to their purpose. So it is with the\nlearned that they find everything beside them, whatever they are intent\nupon in their minds, by means of their acting upon the same principle,\nand using the proper means conducing to that end.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXIV.\n\nA LECTURE ON THE ALL COMPREHENSIVENESS OF THE SOUL.\n\n Argument:--Nature of the unenlightened soul, to represent\n unnumbered worlds within itself.\n\n\nKunda-danta said:--I then asked devotee sitting beneath the\n_kadamba_ tree, to tell me how the seven large continents of the globe,\ncould be contained within the narrow limits of the abodes of each of\nthese brothers (which is next to an impossibility).\n\n2. The kadamba devotee replied:--The essence of the intellect though\nso very vacuous in itself, is notwithstanding the most capacious and\nubiquious of any thing in existence; and is present in its own nature\nwith every thing, wherever it is known to exist.\n\n3. The soul sees itself in the form of the triple world, and every\nthing besides in its different nature and figure, without changing\nitself to any one of them. (_i.e._ The soul remains unchanged in all\nthe changeful scenes of nature).\n\n4. Kunda-danta rejoined:--But how do you attribute the quality of\nvariety or multiplicity, to the purely simple and immutable nature\nof the Supreme soul, as you see them appertaining to the intrinsic\ncharacter of everything else in nature. (Or as Pope says:--That changed\nthrough all, yet in all the same; great in the earth, as in the\netherial frame).\n\n5. The kadamba devotee replied:--The sphere of the intellectual\nvacuum, is all quiet and serene, and there is nothing as any variety\nor multiformity in it; the changes that are apparent in its face, are\nno more, than the waves and eddies, whirling on the surface of the\nchangeless main.\n\n6. It is in the immensity of intellectual vacuity, that infinite\ncreations seem to be continually purling about, as the rising waves are\nseen to be whirling in the sea; and it is in its fathomless depth that\nthey appear to sink, like the waters subsiding in the hollow of the\ndeep.\n\n7. The substantial forms of things, that rise in the unsubstantial\nessence of the intellect, are as the various forms of substances, seen\nin the dreaming state of the soul, and all which are utterly forgotten\nin its state of sound sleep--susupti.\n\n8. As a Hill seen in dream is no hill at all, and as things appearing\nto be in motion in dreaming, are found afterwards to be perfectly\nmotionless; so are all things in nature but mere unrealities, and\nthough as real from the real nature of soul itself. (_i.e._ It is\nthe intellect that fashions everything in its own manner, and its\nimagination gives a form to an airy nothing).\n\n9. The intellect is an immaterial substance, and neither creates nor\nperceives any thing material by itself; but conceives everything as it\nis manifested to it in its idea in the beginning. (_i.e._ The ideas of\nthings are inborn in the mind).\n\n10. As the intellect sees a great variety of objects in dream,\nwhich it takes for realities for the time; so its belief in the reality\nof its ideas, causes it to conceive them as real entities.\n\n11. The vacuous intellect, which glitters of itself in its own state of\ntransparence; comes to find the world shinning in the same light within\nitself. (_i.e._ The world is subjective with the intellect, and not a\npart from our intellectual light of the same).\n\n12. As we have the consciousness of heat in the fire, even when it is\nseen in a dream; so we are conscious of the presence of everything in\nour minds, even in the absence of the thing itself from us. (It was\nthus that the Br\u00e1hman brothers were conscious of their lordship, even\nin their want of the realms themselves).\n\n13. And as we have the idea of the solidity of a pillar, from our dream\nof it in sleep; so have we the idea of the great variety of things in\nexistence; although there is no diversity or difference in the nature\nof the One unvaried unity that pervades the whole. (And that shows its\nunchangeable self, as many and changed through all--_Aham_-bahusyam).\n\n14. In the beginning all substances were as pure and simple, as the\nessence of their maker by and after which they were made; and they\nstill continue to be in the same state of their ideal purity, as they\nwere originally made out of that airy entity and unity.\n\n15. As the tree is diversified in the various forms of its roots and\nfruits, and its leaves, flowers and the trunk; so is the Supreme unity\nvaried in all and everywhere in his self-same and undivided essence.\n\n16. It is in the fathomless ocean of the Supreme essence, that the\nimmensity of creation is subsisting like the waters of the deep; and\nit is in the boundless space of that transcendent vacuum, that the\ninfinity of the worlds have been rolling on, in their original vacuous\nand apparently visible forms.\n\n17. The transcendental and comprehensible _i.e._ the immaterial soul\nand the material world, are but commutual terms as the tree and arbour,\nand their difference lies in the intelligibleness of the one and\nunintelligibility of the other; but true intelligence leads us to the\nunconceivable One, while our ignorance of the same, deludes us to the\nknowledge of many, and tends to our distress only. (True happiness in\nour reliance on the unknown One only).\n\n18. The mundane and supermundane is surely the One and same thing,\naccording to the deduction of spiritual philosophy; and the knowledge\nof this sublime truth, is sure to lead one to his ultimate liberation.\n\n19. The world is the product of the will of God, and the will is a\npower or faculty appertaining to the personality of the Deity; and the\nsame being transmuted to the form of the world, it is proved that the\nworld is the formal part of the Supreme soul. (Whose body nature is,\nand God the soul).\n\n20. He whom no words can define, and yet who defines the senses of\nwords; who is subject to no law or prohibition, or to any state or\ncondition of being, but appoints them for all sorts of beings, is\nindeed the only Lord of all.\n\n21. He that is ever silent but speaks through all, who is inactive\nas a rock but acts in all; who is always existent and appears as\ninexistent, is the Supreme Lord of all.\n\n22. That subtile essence that constitutes the solidity of all gross\nbodies, and remains undecayed in all frail bodies, is the pure Brahma\nhimself; He has no volition or nolition of creation or destruction, and\nthere is no possession or want of the property of anything.\n\n23. It is the one and invariable soul, that rests always in its state\nof rest and sleep, and perceives the succession of creation and\ndestruction of the world, in its alternate states of dream and sound\nsleep, which present themselves as two pictures before its sight.\n\n24. It is also in the substratum of the intellect, that unnumbered\nworlds seem to rise and set in succession; they appear as passing\npictures before the mind, without being rooted or painted therein.\n\n25. As the mixing of one thing with another, produces a different\neffect in the mixture; so doth the union of the mind with the organs of\nsense, cause a variety of impressions to be imprinted in the intellect.\n(So the commixture of curd and sugar creates a different flavour in the\ncondiment, gloss).\n\n26. All things have their existence in the essence of the intellect\nonly, without which nothing is knowable to any body; hence there is\nnothing anew in nature, except its being but a representation of the\noriginal idea in the mind (and this is evident from the identity and\nsimilarity of the ectypes with its antitypes, gloss).\n\n27. Hence our consciousness of the identity of things with the essence\nof our intellect, proves them to be as immaterial and immovable as\ntheir fixed ideas in the mind.\n\n28. Thus the world which is so visible and perceptible to us, is\nnothing but a mere nullity in reality; and whatever appears as existing\nherein, together with the great gods and angels, are no more than the\nfalse visions in our dream and fancy.\n\n29. We see the various fluctuations and phenomena, rising in the waters\nof the vast ocean of the intellect; and appearing in the forms of our\njoy and grief, and those of moving and unmoving bodies in creation.\n\n30. O that the nature and course of the world, should so obscure the\nbright mirror of the intellect; as to hide it under the dirt of our\npassions, and cover it under the clouds and snows of our ignorance.\n\n31. As spectres and dissolving views appear in the air, before the\nsight of the dimsighted; so doth this shadow of the world appear as\nsubstance, to the view of the unspiritual myopist.\n\n32. Whatever we imagine, the same we find, and seem to enjoy for the\ntime; and as we are delighted with the view of our imaginary city, so\ndo we indulge ourselves in the sight of this air-drawn utopia of the\nworld.\n\n33. As we seem to enjoy our ecstasy, in the fairy land of our fancy; so\nwe are betaken by the delusion of this unreal world, under the belief\nof its reality.\n\n34. There is one eternal destiny, which ever runs apace in its wonted\ncourse; and destines all beings to continue in their allotted careers\nas ever before.\n\n35. It is destiny that produces the moving bodies from living beings,\nand the motionless ones from the unmoving; it is that predestination\nwhich has destined the downward course of water and fluids, and the\nupward motion of the flames of fire.\n\n36. It is that blind impulse, that impels the members of the body to\ntheir respective actions; and makes the luminous bodies to emit their\nlight; it causes the winds to wind about in their continuous course,\nand makes the mountains to stand unmoved in their proper places.\n\n37. It makes the luminaries of heaven, to roll on in their regular\nrevolutions, and causes the rains and dews of the sky, to pour down in\ntheir stated seasons; and it is this eternal destiny that directs the\ncourses of years, ages and cycles, and the whole curricle of time to\nrun its wonted course.\n\n38. It is the divine ordinance, that has ordained the limits of the\nearth and the distant ocean and seas, and has fixed the position of the\nhills and rocks in them; it has allotted the natures and powers of all\nthings, and prescribed the laws of rights and duties for all and every\none.\n\n39. Kunda-danta rejoined:--The reminiscence of the scenes of past\nlife, occurs in the present state of existence, in the forms of our\nimagination and of desire for the same; and these inward thoughts\nbecome the gist and marrow to frame our lives in their fashion; but\ntell me sir, how could the first created beings in the beginning of\ncreation have any reminiscence, whereupon their lives and natures were\nmoulded?\n\n40. The devotee replied:--All these that offer themselves to our view,\nare quite unprecedented and without their original patterns in the\nmind, and resemble the sight of our own death that we happen to see\nin a dream. It is the omniscience of Brahm\u00e1, that caused the first\ncreation, and not his memory of the past as it is with us and other\ncreated beings.\n\n41. It is the nature of our intellect, to represent the imaginary city\nof the world in its empty vacuity; it is neither a positive reality,\nnor a negative unreality either; being now apparent and now lost to\nsight by itself.\n\n42. It is the clearness of the intellect, which represents the\nimaginary world in the manner of a dream; but the pure vacuous\nintellect, neither sees nor bears the remembrance of the world in\nitself. (It is the sight of a thing, that leaves its traces in the mind\nafterwards; but when there is no sight of a thing, there can be no\nremembrance of it).\n\n43. The wise that are devoid of joy and grief, and remain unchanged in\nprosperity and adversity; are men of right integrity and equanimity in\ntheir nature, and move on as equably as the wheel of fortune leads them\nonward.\n\n44. As the intellect retains in it, the remembrance of what it has seen\nin its dream; so does it bear in itself the false impression of this\ntriple world to its end.\n\n45. It is only the reflexion of our consciousness, which passes under\nthe name of the world; now knowing the nature of your consciousness as\nmere vacuousness, you will blot out the impression of the world also.\n\n46. That which is all and everything, and from which all have issued\nand in which they exist; know that All as all which fills all space,\nwherein all things are situated.\n\n47. I have thus fully explained to you, how you may come to know this\ncreation as its creator--the Great Brahm\u00e1 Himself; and have also\nexpounded to you the means, whereby you may get rid of your impression\nof the phenomenal world.\n\n48. Now rise ye Br\u00e1hmans and repair to your abodes, as the bees resort\nto their cells and calyxes of lotuses at the dusk of the day; go and\nperform your evening services, while I remain here in my pensive\nmeditation, and absorbed in my spiritual ecstasy forever.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXV.\n\nADMONITION TO AND CLAIRVOYANCE OF KUNDA-DANTA.\n\n Argument:--The return of the interlocutors to the abodes; Demise\n of the brothers and enlightenment of Kunda-danta.\n\n\nKunda-danta rejoined:--The old sage having said so far, closed his eyes\nin meditation; and he became as motionless as a statue or picture,\nwithout any action of his breath and mind.\n\n2. And we prayed him with great fondness and endearment, yet he uttered\nnot a word unto us; because he seemed to be so rapt in his abstraction,\nas to have become utterly insensible of the outer world.\n\n3. We then departed, from that place, with our broken hearts and\ndejected countenances; and were received after a few days journey, by\nour gladsome friends at home.\n\n4. We live there in joyous festivity, as long as the seven brothers\nwere living; and passed our time in narrations of our past adventures,\nand relations of the old accounts of by gone times.\n\n5. In course of time the eight brothers disappeared (perished) one by\none, like the seven oceans at the end of the world, in the vast ocean\nof eternity; and were released like many of my friends also, from their\nworldly cares.\n\n6. After sometime, the only friend that I had, sunk also like the\nsetting sun in darkness; and I was left alone to bewail their loss in\nsorrow and misery at their separation.\n\n7. I then repaired in the sorrow of my heart, to the devotee under\nthe Kadamba tree; in order to derive the benefit of his advice, to\ndissipate my dolor.\n\n8. There I waited on him for three months, until he was released from\nhis meditation, when upon my humble request of him, he deigned to\nanswer me as follows.\n\n9. The devotee replied:--I can not pass a moment, without my\nemployment in meditation; and must without any loss of time, resort to\nmy wonted devotion again.\n\n10. As for you, you can not derive the benefit of my transcendent\nadvice to you; unless you engage yourself to practice my precepts with\nall diligence.\n\n11. Now I tell you to repair to the city of Ayodhy\u00e1 (Oudh), where\nthe king Dasaratha reigns, and remains with his son R\u00e1ma (and other\nchildren and members of his royal family).\n\n12. Do you now go to this R\u00e1ma, who has been attending on the lectures\nof the sage Vasishtha, the preceptor and priest of the royal family,\nand delivered before the princes assembled in the imperial court.\n\n13. You will there hear the holy sermon, on the means of attaining our\nfinal emancipation; and will thereby obtain your best bliss in the\ndivine state like that of mine.\n\n14. Saying so, he was absorbed in the cooling ocean of his meditation;\n which I directed my course to this way, and arrived at last\nbefore R\u00e1ma and this princely assembly.\n\n15. Here am I, and all these are the incidents of my life, as I have\nrelated herein, regarding all what I have heard and seen, as also all\nthat has passed on me.\n\n16. R\u00e1ma said:--The eloquent Kunda-danta that made this speech to me,\nhas been ever since sitting by my side in this assembly.\n\n17. This very Brahmin bearing the name of Kunda-danta, that has sat\nhere all along by me; has heard the whole of the sermon, which has been\ndelivered by the sage, on the means of obtaining our liberation.\n\n18. Now ask this Kunda-danta, that is sitting here by me at present,\nwhether he has well understood the context of this lecture, and whether\nhis doubts are wholly dissipated or not.\n\n19. Vasishtha said:--Upon R\u00e1ma saying so to me, I looked upon\nKunda-danta, and made him the following interrogatory, saying:--\n\n20. Tell me, Oh you goodly Br\u00e1hman Kunda-danta, what you have learnt\nand understood, by your long attendance upon and hearing of my\nlecture, calculated to confer liberation on men.\n\n21. Kunda-danta replied:--Sir, your lecture has wholly removed the\ndoubts of my mind, and I find myself now as perfect master of myself,\nby my victory over all selfish passions, and by my knowledge of the\nknowable One.\n\n22. I have known the immaculate One that is to be known, and seen the\nundecaying One that is worth our seeing; I have obtained all that\nis worth our obtaining, and I have found my repose in the state of\ntranscendent felicity.\n\n23. I have known this plenum, to be the condensation of that\ntranscendental essence; and that this world is no other than a\nmanifestation of this sel-fsame soul.\n\n24. The universal soul being also the soul of every individual, is\nlikewise the soul inherent in all forms of things; it is only the\nself-existent soul, that becomes apparent in all existences and all\nplaces.\n\n25. It is possible for the human mind, which is minuter than the\nmolecule of a mustard seed, to contain the whole world in itself;\nthough it is naught but a mere zero, before the clear sight of the\nintelligent.\n\n26. It is possible also for a little room, to contain the seven\ncontinents of the earth (in its map or picture); though the room itself\nis no more than a mere empty space.\n\n27. Whatever object is perceptible to us at any time or place, is only\nthe concrete form of the divine spirit; which is quite apart from every\nthing in the discrete.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXVI.\n\nDEMONSTRATION OF ALL NATURE (AND THING) AS BRAHMA HIMSELF.\n\n Argument:--Elucidation of the sacred text that \u201call is Brahma\u201d;\n and the equality of curse.\n\n\nV\u00e1lm\u00edki said:--After Kunda-danta had finished his saying in the said\nmanner, the venerable Vasishtha delivered his edifying speech on\nspiritual knowledge and said:\n\n2. Whereas the elevated soul of this person, has found his rest in the\nparadise of spiritual philosophy; he will see the world like a globe in\nhis hand, and glowing with the glory of the great God.\n\n3. The phenomenal world is a false conception, it is verily the\nincreate Brahma himself shining in this manner; this erroneous\nconception is the very Brahma, that is one and ever calm and undecaying.\n\n4. Whatever thing appears any where, in any state, form or dimension;\nit is the very Deity, showing himself in that condition of his being,\nform and mode of extension.\n\n5. This unborn or self-existent Deity, is ever auspicious, calm and\nquiet; he is undecaying, unperishing and immutable, and extends through\nall extent, as the extensive and endless space.\n\n6. Whatever state of things he proposes in his all-knowing intellect,\nthe same is disposed by him in a thousand ways, like the branching out\nof a plant in the rains.\n\n7. The great mundane egg, is situated as a particle in the bosom of\nthe great intellect of God; and this world of ours is a particle also,\nbeing comprised in a grain of our brains.\n\n8. Know therefore, my good friend, thy intellectual sphere to be\nboundless, and without its beginning or end; and being absorbed in the\nmeditation of thy personal extinction, do thou remain as quiet as thou\nart sitting, relying in thy unperturbed and imperishable soul.\n\n9. Wherever there is anything in any state or condition in any part of\nthe world, there you will find the presence of the divine spirit in its\nform of vacuity; and this without changing its nature of calm serenity,\nassumes to itself whatever form or figure it likes (or rather evolves\nthem from within itself at its free will).\n\n10. The spirit is itself both the view and its viewer; it is equally\nthe mind and the body, and the subjective and objective alike; It is\nsomething and yet nothing at all, being the great Brahma or universal\nsoul, that includes and extends throughout the whole.\n\n11. The phenomenal is not to be supposed as a duality of, or any other\nthan the self-same Brahma; but it is to be known as one and the same\nwith the divine self, as the visible sky and its vacuity.\n\n12. The visible is the invisible Brahma, and the transcendent One\nis manifest in this apparent whole (because the noumenon shows the\nphenomenon, as this exhibits the other): therefore it is neither\nquiescent nor in motion, and the formal is altogether formless.\n\n13. Like dreams appearing to the understanding, do these visions\npresent themselves to the view; the forms are all formless conceptions\nof the mind, and more intangible ideas of the brain.\n\n14. As conscious beings come to be unconscious of themselves, in their\ndormant state of sleep; so have all these living and intelligent\nbeings, become unconscious and ignorant of themselves and their souls,\nand turned to torpid trees that are lost to their sensibility.\n\n15. But the intellect is capable to return to its sensibility, from its\nstate of vegetable torpidity in time; as the dormant soul turns to see\nits dreams in sleep, and then to behold the vivid outer world after its\nwakening.\n\n16. Until the living soul is liberated from its charm of self delusion,\nit is subjected to view its guileful reveries of elemental bodies,\nappearing as a chain of airy dreams, before the mind\u2019s eye in sleep.\n\n17. The mind gathers the dross of dullness about it, as the soul\ndraws the sheath of sleep upon itself; this dullness or dimness of\napprehension is not intrinsic in the mind, but an extraneous schesis\ncontracted by it from without.\n\n18. The intellect moulds the form of one, who is conversant with\nmaterial and insensible things, into a motionless and torpid body; and\nit is the same intellect, which shapes the forms of others, that are\nconscious of their intellectual natures, into the bodies of rational\nand moving being. (The dull soul is degraded to the state of immovable\nthings and rooted trees, but intelligent souls, are elevated to the\nrank of moving men and other locomotive animals).\n\n19. But all these moving and unmoving beings, are but different\nmodifications and aspects of the same intellect; as the nails and other\nparts of the human body, are but the multifarious modalities of the\nsame person.\n\n20. The order and nature of things has invariably continued the same,\nas they have been ordained by the Divine will ever since its first\nformation of the world; and because the creation is a transcript of its\noriginal mould in the Divine mind; it is as ideal as any working of\nimagination or a vision in dreaming, both in its states of being and\nnot being.\n\n21. But the intangible and quiescent Brahma, is ever calm and quiet in\nhis nature; he is never permeated with the nature of things, nor is he\nassimilated with the order of nature.\n\n22. He appears as the beginning and end of creation, or as the cause of\nits production and dissolution; but these are the mere dreams of the\nDivine intellect, which is always in its state of profound sleep and\nrest.\n\n23. The world is ever existent in his spiritual nature, and without any\nbeginning or end of himself; the beginning and end of creation, bear no\nrelation with his self-existent and eternal nature.\n\n24. There is no reality in the nature of the visible creation,\nor in its existence or dissolution; all these are no other than\nrepresentations shown in the spirit of God, like figures described in a\npicture.\n\n25. As a legion drawn in painting, does not differ from its model in\nthe mind of the painter; so these tangible objects of creation, with\nall other endless varieties, are not different from their prototype in\nthe mind of God.\n\n26. Notwithstanding the want of any difference, between the noumenal\nand phenomenal worlds; yet the mind is prone to view the variance of\nits subjectivity and objectivity, as it is apt to differentiate its own\ndoings and dreams, in the states of its sleep and ignorance. It is the\nprofound sleep and insouciance of the soul, that cause its liberation\nfrom the view, as its sensibility serves to bind it the more to the\nbondage of the visibles.\n\n27. It is the reflexion of the invisible soul, that exhibits the\nvisible to view, just as the subtile sunbeam, displays a thousand solid\nbodies glaring in sight; and shows the different phases of creation and\ndissolution as in its visions in dreaming.\n\n28. The dreaming state of the sleeping intellect is called its\nideality, and the waking state of the self-conscious soul is termed its\nvitality, as in the instances of men and gods and other intellectual\nbeings.\n\n29. After passing from these, and knowing the unreality of both these\nimaginative and speculative states, the soul falls into its state of\nprofound sleep or trance, which is believed as the state of liberation\nby those that are desirous of their emancipation.\n\n30. R\u00e1ma said:--Tell me, O venerable sir, in what proportion doth the\nintellect abide in men, gods and demons respectively; how the soul\nreflects itself during the dormancy of the intellect in sleep, and in\nwhat manner does it contain the world within its bosom.\n\n31. Vasishtha replied:--Know the intellect to abide alike in gods and\ndemons, as well as in all men and women; it dwells also in imps and\ngoblins, and in all beasts and birds, reptiles and insects, including\nthe vegetables and all immovable things (within its ample sphere).\n\n32. Its dimension is boundless and also as minute as an atom; and it\nstretches to the highest heaven, including thousands of worlds within\nitself.\n\n33. The capacity that we have of knowing the regions beyond the solar\nsphere, and even of penetrating into the darkness of polar circles; is\nall the quality of our intellect, which extends all over the boundless\nspace, and is perfectly pellucid in its form and nature.\n\n34. So very great is the extent of the intellect, that it comprehends\nthe whole universe in itself; and it is this act of his comprehension\nof the whole, that is called the mundane creation, which originates\nfrom it.\n\n35. The intellect spreads all around like the current of a river,\nwhich glides all along over the ground both high and low, leaving some\nparts of it quite dry, and filling others with its waters. So doth\nthe intellect supply some bodies with intelligence, while it forsakes\nothers and leaves them in ignorance.\n\n36. It is intelligence which constitutes the living soul of the body,\nwhich is otherwise said to be lifeless and insensible; it resides in\nall bodies like the air in empty pots, and becomes vivid in some and\nimperceptible in others as it likes.\n\n37. It is its knowledge of the soul (_i.e._ the intellectual belief in\nits spiritual), that removes the error of its corporeity; while the\nignorance of its spiritual nature, tends the more to foster the sense\nof its corporeality, like one\u2019s erroneous conception of water in the\nmirage.\n\n38. The mind is as minute as the minutest ray of sunbeams; and this is\nverily the living soul, which contains the whole world within it.\n\n39. All this phenomenal world is the phenomenon of the mind, as it is\ndisplayed in its visionary dreams; and the same being the display of\nthe living soul, there is no difference at all between the noumenal and\nthe phenomenal.\n\n40. The intellect alone is assimilated into all these substances, which\nhave substantiality of their own; whatever is seen without it, is\nlike its visionary dream, or as the forms of jewelleries made of the\nsubstance of gold. (_i.e._ The intellect is the intrinsic essence of\nall external substances).\n\n41. As the same water of the one universal ocean, appears different in\ndifferent places; and in its multifarious forms of waves and billows;\nso doth the divine intellect exhibit the various forms of visibles\nin itself. (_i.e._ Nothing is without or different from the divine\nessence).\n\n42. As the fluid body of waters, rolls on incessantly in sundry shapes\nwithin the basin of the great deep; so do these multitudes of visible\nthings, which are inherent in and identic with the divine intellect,\nglide on forever in its fathomless bosom.\n\n43. All these worlds are situated as statues, or they are engraved as\nsculptures in the aerial column of the divine intellect; and are alike\nimmovable and without any motion of theirs through all eternity.\n\n44. We see the situation of the world, in the vacuous space of our\nconsciousness; as we see the appearances of things in our airy dreams.\nWe find moreover everything transfixed in its own sphere and place, and\ncontinuing in its own state, without any change of its position or any\nalteration in its nature. (The invariable course of nature, is not the\nfortuitous production of blind chance).\n\n45. The exact conformity of everything in this world, with its\nconception in the mind of man, with respect to their invariable\nequality in form and property, proves their identity with one another,\nor the relation of one being the container of the other. (_i.e._ The\nmind is either same with or container of the world).\n\n46. There is no difference between the phenomenal and noumenal worlds,\nas there none between those in our dream and imagination. They\nare in fact, the one and same thing, as the identity of the waters,\ncontained in tanks, rivers and seas, and between the curse and blessing\nof gods.\n\n47. R\u00e1ma said:--Tell me sir, whether a curse or blessing, is the\neffect of any prior cause or the causation of subsequent consequences;\nand whether it possible for any effect to take place without\nits adequate causality. (Here is a long legend of the transformation\nof Nundi and Nahusha given in illustration of this passage in the\ncommentary).\n\n48. Vasishtha replied:--It is the manifestation of the clear firmament\nof the divine intellect in itself, that is styled as the world; just as\nthe appearance and motion of waters in the great deep, is termed the\nocean and its current.\n\n49. The revolution of the eternal thoughts of the divine mind,\nresembles the rolling waves of the deep; and these are termed by sages,\nas the will or volitions of the ever wilful mind of God.\n\n50. The clear minded soul comes in course of time, to regard this\nmanifestation of the divine will, in its true spiritual light; by means\nof its habitual meditation and reasoning, as well as by cause of its\nnatural good disposition and evenness of mind.\n\n51. The wise man possest of consummate wisdom and learning, becomes\nacquainted with the true knowledge of things; his understanding\nbecomes wholly intellectual, and sees all things in their abstract\nand spiritual light; and is freed from the false view of duality (or\nmateriality).\n\n52. The philosophic intellect, which is unclouded by prejudice, is the\ntrue form of the Great Brahma himself; who shines perspicuous in our\nconsciousness, and has no other body besides.\n\n53. The enlightened soul sees this whole plenitude of creation, as the\ndisplay of the Divine Will alone; and as the exhibition of the tranquil\nand transparent soul of the Divinity, and naught otherwise.\n\n54. This manifestation of the Divine Will, in the boundless space of\nthe universe; likens to the aerial castle of our imagination, or the\ncity of palaces seen in our dream.\n\n55. This all productive will, is selfsame with the Divine Soul; and\nproduces whatever it likes to do any place or time. (Lit. Whatever it\nwills, the same takes place even then and there).\n\n56. As a boy thinks of his flinging stones, at the aerial castle of his\nimagination; so the Divine will is at liberty to scatter, myriads of\nglobular balls, in the open and empty space of boundless vacuity.\n\n57. Thus everything being the manifestation of the Divine will, in all\nthese three worlds; there is nothing as a blessing or curse (_i.e._\ngood or evil) herein, which is distinct from the Divine Soul.\n\n58. As we can see in our fancy, the gushing out of oil from a sandy\ndesert; so can we imagine the coming out of the creation, from the\nsimple will of the Divine Soul.\n\n59. The unenlightened understanding, being never freed from its\nknowledge of particulars and their mutual differences: It is impossible\nfor it to generalize good and evil, under the head of universal good.\n(\u201cAll partial evil is but universal good\u201d. Pope).\n\n60. Whatever is willed in the beginning, by the omniscience of God; the\nsame remains unaltered at all times, unless it is altered by the same\nomniscient will.\n\n61. The contraries of unity and duality, dwell together in the same\nmanner in the formless person of Brahma; as the different members of an\nembodied being, remain side by side in the same person. (The knowledge\nof all contrarieties, blends together in omniscience. Gloss).\n\n62. R\u00e1ma said:--Why some ascetics of limited knowledge, are so very\napt to confer their blessings, as also to pour their imprecations on\nothers; and whether they are attended with their good or bad results or\nnot.\n\n63. Vasishtha replied:--Whatever is disposed in the beginning, by the\nDivine will which subsists in Brahma; the very same comes to pass\nafterwards, and nothing otherwise. (Lit. there is no other principle\nbesides).\n\n64. Brahm\u00e1 the Lord of creation, knew the Supreme Soul in himself, and\nthereby he became the agent of the Divine will; therefore there is no\ndifference between them (_i.e._ betwixt Brahm\u00e1 and Brahma); as there is\nnone between the water and its fluidity.\n\n65. Whatsoever the Lord of creatures--Brahm\u00e1, proposes to do at\nfirst as inspired in him by the Divine will; the same takes place\nimmediately, and the very same is styled this world.\n\n66. It has no support nor receptacle for itself, but appears as vacuous\nbubble in the great vacuity itself; and resembles the chain of pearls,\nfleeting before the eyes of purblind men in the open sky.\n\n67. He willed the productions of creatures, and institution of the\nqualities of justice, charity and religious austerities; He stablished\nthe Vedas and s\u00e1stras, and the five system of philosophical doctrines.\n(Namely; the four Vedas and the Smritis, forming the five branches of\nsacred knowledge, and the five branches of profane learning--consisting\nof the S\u00e1nkhya yoga, P\u00e1tanjala, P\u00e1supata, and Vaishnava systems. Gloss).\n\n68. It is also ordained by the same Brahm\u00e1, that whatever the\ndevotees-learned in the Vedas, pronounce in their calmness or dispute,\nthe same takes place immediately (from their knowledge of the Divine\nwill).\n\n69. It is he that has formed the chasm of vacuum in the inactive\nintellect of Brahma, and filled it with the fleeting winds and heating\nfire; together with the liquid water and solid earth.\n\n70. It is the nature of this intellectual principle, to think of\neverything in itself; and to conceive the presence of the same within\nit, whether it be a thought of thee or me or of anything beside (either\nin general or particular).\n\n71. Whatever the vacuous intellect thinks in itself, the same it sees\npresent before it; as our actual selves come to see, the unreal sights\nof things in our dreams.\n\n72. As we see the unreal flight of stones, as realities in our\nimagination; so we see the false appearance of the world, as true by\nthe will of God, and the contrivance of Brahma.\n\n73. Whatever is thought of by the pure intellect, must be likewise of\na purely intellectual nature also; and there is nothing that can do it\notherwise (or convert it to grossness), as they defile the pure metal\nwith some base alloy.\n\n74. We are apt to have the same conceptions of things in our\nconsciousness, as we are accustomed to consider them, and not of what\nwe are little practiced to think upon; hence we conceive all that we\nsee in our dreams to be true, from our like conceptions of them in our\nwaking state. (It is thus that we conceive this purely ideal world as a\ngross body, from our habit of thinking so at all times).\n\n75. It is by uniting one\u2019s intellectuality, with the universal and\ndivine intellect, and by the union of the subjective and objective and\ntheir perceptibility in one\u2019s self, by means of the _trip\u00fati yoga_,\nthat we can see the world in its true light.\n\n76. One universal and vacuous intellect, being all pervading and\nomnipresent, is the all seeing subject and all seen objects by itself;\nhence whatever is seen or known to be anywhere, is the very verity of\nthe intellect and no other.\n\n77. As oscillation is inherent in air, and fluidity is immanent in\nwater; so is amplitude intrinsical in Brahma, and the plentitude is\ninnate in the Divine mind.\n\n78. Even I am Brahma also in his self manifest form of Vir\u00e1t, which\nembodies the whole world as its body; hence there is no difference of\nthe world from Brahma, as there is none between air and vacuity.\n\n79. As the drops of water as a cataract, assume many forms and run\ntheir several ways; so the endless works of nature take their various\nforms and courses, at different places and times.\n\n80. All beings devoid of their senses and understanding, issue as\nwaters of the waterfall, from the cascade of the divine mind; and\nremain forever in their uniform courses, with the consciousness of\ntheir existence in Brahma.\n\n81. But such as come forth from it, with the possession of their senses\nand intellects in their bodies, deviate in different ways like the\nliquid waters, in pursuit of their many worldly enjoyments.\n\n82. They are then insensibly led, by their want of good sense, to\nregard this world as theirs (_i.e._ the sphere of their actions,\n\u0915\u0930\u094d\u092e\u094d\u092e\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0947\u0924\u094d\u0930); being ignorant of its identity with the uncreated\nspirit of God.\n\n83. As we see the existence and distribution of other bodies in us,\nand the inertness of stones in our bodies; so the Lord perceives the\ncreation and annihilation of the world, and its inertia in himself.\n\n84. As in our state of sleep we have both our sound sleep and our\ndreams also; so doth the divine soul perceive the creation as well as\nits annihilation, in its state of perfect rest and tranquility.\n\n85. The divine soul perceives in its state of tranquility, the two\nphases of creation and destruction, succeeding one another as its day\nand night; just as we see our sleep and dreams recurring unto us like\ndarkness and light.\n\n86. As a man sees in his mind, both the dream of moving bodies as\nwell as immovable rocks in his sleep; so does the Lord perceive the\nideas, both of the stable and unstable in his intellectual tranquility.\n(_i.e._ It is possible for the intellect to conceive the ideas of gross\nbodies also).\n\n87. As a man of absent mind, has no heed of the dust flying on any part\nof his body; so the divine spirit is not polluted, by his entertaining\nthe ideas of gross bodies within itself.\n\n88. As the air and water and stones, are possessed of the consciousness\nof their airy, watery and solid bodies, so are we conscious of our\nmaterial, intellectual and spiritual bodies likewise.\n\n89. As the mind that is freed from seeing the objects of sight, and\nliberated from entertaining all their thoughts and desires also, flows\nalong like a stream of limpid waters; so doth the current of the divine\nspirit glide on eternally, with the waves and eddies of creation and\ndissolution, perpetually rolling on and whirling therein.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXVII.\n\nOF THE LIVING CREATION.\n\n Argument:--Description of nature and destiny, and of creation and\n its teeming with vitality.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma rejoined:--Tell me sir, how can one paramount destiny, guide the\nfates of these endless chains and varieties of beings; and how can one\nuniform nature, be the predominant feature of all these various kinds\nof beings.\n\n2. Say why is the sun so very shining among the myriads of gods, and\ncause is it that lengthens and shortens, the durations of days and\nnights (in summer and winter).\n\n3. Vasishtha replied:--Whatever the Lord has ordained at first of\nhimself (_i.e._ of his own will and wisdom); the same appearing as\nthe fortuitous formation of chance, is called the very system of the\nuniverse.\n\n4. All that is manifested in any manner by omnipotence, is and\ncontinues as real in the same manner; because what is made of the\npith of divine will and intelligence, can never be unreal; nor is it\npossible for the manifest and obvious to be evanescent.\n\n5. All that is situated or appears to us in any manner, being composed\nof the divine intellect, must continue to remain for ever in the same\nmanner; this appearance of creation and its disappearance in its\ndissolution, are both attributed to the unseen power of its destiny.\n\n6. To say this one is such and that is otherwise, is to attribute them\nto the manifestation of Brahma as so and so; and these formations of\ntheirs, together with their ultimate dissolution, are called the acts\nof their destiny.\n\n7. The three states of waking, sleeping and dreaming, appearing to the\nnature of the soul, are no way separated from it; as the fluidity and\nmotion of water, are not otherwise than properties of the same limpid\nliquid.\n\n8. As vacuity is the property of air, and warmth of the sunshine, and\nas odour is the quality of camphor; so the states of waking, sleeping\nand dreaming, appertain to the very nature of the soul, and are\ninseparable from it.\n\n9. Creation and dissolution follow one another, in the one and same\ncurrent of the Divine Intellect; which in its vacuous form, subsists in\nthe vacuous spirit of Brahma.\n\n10. What is believed as creation, is but a momentary flash of the\nDivine Intellect; and that which is thought to be a kalpa period, is\nbut a transient glare of the same. (A kalpa age is but a fleeting\nmoment in the eternal duration of Brahma).\n\n11. The sky and space and the things and actions, that come to our\nknowledge at any time; are as mere dreams occurring unto us, by a flash\nof the glaring nature of the Divine Intellect.\n\n12. The sights of things and the eternal thoughts, and whatever occurs\nat any time or place; are all presented unto us by our minds, from\ntheir formless shapes or ideas in the vacuous intellect of God. (The\nmind derives the formal images, from their ideals subsisting in the\nDivine Intellect).\n\n13. Whatever is thus manifested by the mind or designed by it at any\ntime, the same is termed its destiny, which is devoid of any form like\nthe formless air.\n\n14. The uniform state of things for a whole kalpa age, measuring but a\nmoment of Brahma; is what is expressed by the word nature, by natural\nphilosophers that know all nature.\n\n15. The one soul--consciousness or universal intelligence (of God),\nis diversified into a hundred varieties of living beings; and every\nportion of this general intelligence, retains the same intellection\nlike its original, without forsaking its nature (Note: As the one\nelement of fire, diversifies itself into many forms of sparks, without\nlosing its properties of heat and burning).\n\n16. The intelligences that appertain to and manifest themselves, in\nthe supreme intelligence of God, do some of them imagine to assume\nto themselves some embodied forms, in utter ignorance of their\nintellectual natures.\n\n17. The earth, air, water and fire and vacuum, are severally the\nreceptacles of many properties; but it is the vacuous intellect which\nis the great repository of these, that appear as dreams hovering all\nabout it.\n\n18. This place contains the vast receptacle, for the reception of\nall tangible and solid bodies; and this spacious earth with all the\npopulation on its surface, is seated in the midst of it.\n\n19. It has a place for the vast body of waters, or the great ocean in\nit; and affords a seat to the sun--the source of light; it has a space\nfor the course of the winds, and a vacuum containing all the worlds in\nit.\n\n20. It is the reservoir of the five elements, which are the quintuple\nprinciples of our knowledge; and it being thus the container of the\nquintessence of Brahma, what is seen or anything else before it.\n\n21. The learned call this intelligence as the intellect and\nomniscience; it is omniform, uniformed and all-pervading, and is\nperceived by all owing to its greatness and its great magnitude.\n\n22. Brahm\u00e1 the son or offspring of Brahma; is the selfsame Brahma\nhimself; who by expanding his intelligence, has expanded the vacuum\nunder the name of firmament; and as an awning of silk in cloth. (In\nfact nothing was made by the father but by the son).\n\n23. When delusion rules over the intellect of Brahm\u00e1 and over the\nsubtile and gross matters; then how is it possible for other things,\nthat are but parts of them, to stand good in law?\n\n24. It is simply by his will (and without any external appliance), that\nthis god Brahma stretched the network of the universe, as a spider\nweaves its web out of itself; it revolves like a disc or wheel in the\nair, and whirls like a whirlpool in the hollow depth of the intellect,\nappearing as it were a sensible sphere in the heavens.\n\n25. These spheres present some bodies of great brightness, and others\nof a lesser light; which there are some scarcely visible to us, and all\nappearing as figures in a painting.\n\n26. All created objects appear in this manner and those that are not\ncreated never appear to view; but they all appear as visions in a\ndream, to the sight of the learned.\n\n27. The intellect is the selfsame soul, and the Lord of All, and the\nseeming visibles are all really invisible; they are all evanescent\nfor their want of lasting bodies; and neither are they visible by\nthemselves, nor are they ever perceptible to or seen by us.\n\n28. The vacuous intellect, sees these as its dreams in the great\nvacuity of the intellect, and this world being no other than a\nphenomenon of the vacuous intellect, can have no other form than that\nof mere vacuum.\n\n29. Whatever is manifested by the intellect in any manner, the same is\ncalled its form and body; and the countenance of that manifested form\nfor a certain period, is termed its nature or destiny.\n\n30. The first manifestation of the divine intellect, in the form of\nvacuum and as the vehicle of sound; became afterwards the source of\nthe world, which sprouted forth like a seed, in the great granary of\nvacuity. (The conveying of sound and the containing of worlds are the\nnature of vacuum).\n\n31. But the account given of the genesis of the world, and of the\ncreation of things one after the other, are mere fabrication of sages\nfor instruction of the ignorant, and has no basis on truth. (Because no\nreason can be assigned for the Lord\u2019s production of the material world).\n\n32. There is nothing that is ever produced of nothing, nor reduced to\nnothingness at any time; all this is as quiet and calm as the bosom of\na rock, and ever as real as it is unreal. (The world is real in the\nideal, but an utter unreality in its materiality).\n\n33. As there existed no separate body before, so there can be no end of\nit also; all things exist as inseparable infinitesimal with the spirit\nof God, and can therefore neither rise nor set in it where they are\nalways present.\n\n34. The vacuous world existing in vacuum of the divine spirit, is a\npure vacuity or blank only; how is it possible then to rise or set in\nit, or go beyond it to rise or set elsewhere.\n\n35. What is the world, but a ray of the ever shining gem of divine\nintellect; before whose omniscience, every thing shines for ever in its\nown light and nature.\n\n36. The Divine spirit though unknown to all, makes itself some what\nconceivable to us in our consciousness of it, and in our thinkableness\nof it, and by means of our reasoning and reflection.\n\n37. We can get some knowledge of it by our reason, as we can draw\ninferences of future events by means of our reasoning; this knowledge\nis rarer than that of the subtile element of air, and fainter than our\nprescience into the future of all things.\n\n38. Then this transcendental essence of the divine spirit, being\nabout to reflect in itself, becomes the thinking principle called the\nintellect, which is somewhat intelligible to us.\n\n39. Having then the firm conviction of its consciousness in itself,\nit takes the name of the living soul, which is known by the title of\nAnima, meaning the supreme spirit or soul.\n\n40. This living soul embodied in itself the nameless _avidy\u00e1_ or\nignorance, which shrouded the atmosphere of its intellect, and\nsuperceded the title of the pure intelligence. (The living soul\n_j\u00edv\u00e1tm\u00e1_ is involved in ignorance _m\u00e1y\u00e1_, of its original state of\n_Chidd\u00e1ta_ or the intelligent soul).\n\n41. It is then employed in the thoughts, of its bodily conduct and\nworldly carrier only; and being forgetful of its spiritual nature, is\nengaged in the discharge of his temporal functions.\n\n42. Being thus forgetful of its nature of vacuum, which possesses the\nproperty of conveying the sound, it becomes prepossessed with the error\nof taking the future material bodies for real, in lieu of the reality\nof the intellect.\n\n43. It gets next the motion of its egoism, with the idea of time, in\nits spiritual body; and then these two run together, in quest of the\nmaterial elements, which are the seeds for the growth of the forth\ncoming world.\n\n44. Then the thinking power of the living soul, begets the sense of\nconsciousness within itself; and produces therein the conviction of the\nunreal world, as a positive reality.\n\n45. After this the thinking principle or the mind, bursts out like a\nseed into a hundred sprouts of its wishes; and then by reflecting on\nits egoism, thinks as a living being at the very moment.\n\n46. Thus the pure spirit passing under the name of living soul, is\nentangled in the maze of its erroneous and unreal reality, has been\nrolling like a heaving wave in the depth of the universal spirit. (All\nliving souls of animate beings, are as bursting bubbles in the ocean of\nthe eternal spirit).\n\n47. The mind by constantly reflecting at first on the vacuous nature of\nthe living soul; is stultified at last to think it as solidified into\nthe nature of animal life or the vital air or breath of life.\n\n48. This being became the source of articulate sounds or words, which\nwere expressive of certain meanings, and significant of things, that\nwere to be created afterwards; and were to be embodied in the wording\nof the Vedas. (The Lord spake and all things came out at his bidding,\nwhich were afterwards stated in the Book of Genesis).\n\n49. From him was to issue forth the would be world, by virtue of the\nwords which he spake to denote the things he meant; the words that he\ninvented were fraught with their meanings, and productive of the things\nwhich they expressed.\n\n50. The intellect being employed in this manner (in the thoughts of\ncreation), takes upon it the title of a living being; which being\ngarbed in significant words, was productive of all existent entities.\n(The volitive principle of the divine intellect, takes the name of the\nliving soul or Brahm\u00e1 the creative agent).\n\n51. It was this self-existent entity that produced the fourteen\nspheres, which fill the whole space of vacuity; and which give rise to\nso many worlds that subsist therein.\n\n52. But before this being had the power of his speech, and of the\nuse of his limbs and body, it remained to reflect only on the\nsignifications of words, having had his mind alone the only active\npart of himself. (So the mind alone of a living body, is the only\nactive part of it in its embryonic state, before its attainment of the\nfunctions of all its other parts and members).\n\n53. As the air devolopes a seed to a plant, by exhaling on its outer\ncoat, so doth the intellect develope the bodily functions of living\nbeings, by working in its internal parts. (_i.e._ The mind actuates the\naction of the body).\n\n54. And as the oscillating intellect or mind, happens to come across\nthe idea of light; it beholds the same appearing to view; as it is\nconveyed before it by its significant sound (_i.e._ as meant by the\nword).\n\n55. Light is only our intellection or notion of it, and nothing without\nit; as feeling is our consciousness of it, and not the perception\nderived by means of the touch of anything. (This is theory of Berkeley).\n\n56. So is sound but our consciousness of it, and a subjective\nconception of our mind; as vacuum is a conception of the vacuous mind,\nand as the receptacle of sound caused by itself.\n\n57. As in this state of sound it is known to be the product of\nair in its own vacuity, so everything else is the product of our\nconsciousness, and there nothing as a duality beside it.\n\n58. So the properties of odour and flavour, are as well as the\nsubstances of sound and air; and these unrealities seem as real ones,\nlike the dreams that are seen and thought of in our minds.\n\n59. Heat which is the seed or seat of the arbor of light, and evolves\nitself in the radiance and other luminous bodies; are the forms of the\nsame intellect, that shows itself in all things.\n\n60. So is flavour a mere quality of empty air, is thought of as a\nreality in every article of our food and drink; and is a mere name\nwithout its substance.\n\n61. All other things, which were hereafter to be designated by\ndifferent names as fragrance &c., are but so many forms of the thoughts\nand desires existing in the mind of this living being or Brahm\u00e1.\n\n62. This being had in his mind the seed of all forms and dimensions,\nfrom which was to proceed this terrestrial globe, that was to become\nafterwards the support of all creatures.\n\n63. All things yet unborn, appeared as already born in this divine\nmind, which was filled with the models of all future existences of\nevery kind; and all these formless beings had their forms afterwards,\nas it thought and willed them to be (_i.e._ The ideal became the real\nat last).\n\n64. These forms appeared to view as by an act of chance, and the organs\nwhereby they came to be seen, were afterwards called by name of eyes,\nor the visual organs of sight.\n\n65. The organs which gave the perception of sounds, were named the\nears; and those which bore the feeling of touch to the mind, were\ncalled the organs of feeling or \u0924\u094d\u0935\u0915\u094d.\n\n66. The organ of perceiving the flavours, was styled the tongue or\norgan of taste; and that which received the perception of smell, were\ntermed the nose or organ of scent.\n\n67. The living soul being subjected to its corporeal body, has no\nperception of the distinctions of time and place by means of its bodily\norgans, which are so imperfect and soulless on the whole. (_i.e._ He\nis not thoroughly diffused all over the body, but has its seat in the\nmind also, which perceives the abstract ideas of time and space and all\nother abstract natures of things).\n\n68. In this manner are all things but imageries of the soul, and ideals\nof the intellect, and wholly confined in the soul; they neither appear\nnor set on the out side of it, but are set as silent engravings in the\nstony and stiff bosom of the same.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXVIII.\n\nDESCRIPTION OF THE LIVING SOUL.\n\n Argument:--The Living soul is identified with Brahma or the\n universal soul; its birth is but a fiction of speech; and the\n erroneous conception of its animal soul and body, is fully\n exposed herein.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--The fiction of the first rise of the living\nsoul; from the calm and quiet spirit of God as said before, is merely\nfictitious and not a true one; but was meant to elucidate the nature of\nthe animate soul, as the same with and not distinct from the Supreme\nsoul.\n\n2. In this manner the fiction (of the living soul) means that, this\nbeing a part of the supreme soul is verily the same with it. (As the\nair in the pot or _cot_, is the same as universal air or vacuum).\nIt is when the subjective soul is employed with the thoughts of the\nobjective, that it is termed the living God or spirit. (Hence the\nquiescent and creative souls, are but the states or hypostases of the\nsame soul).\n\n3. The inclination of the self-intelligent or subjective soul, towards\nthinkable objects of thought, garbs it under a great many fictitious\nnames or epithets, which you shall now hear me, O R\u00e1ma, relate to you\nin all their varieties.\n\n4. It is called the living soul or j\u00edva, from its power of living and\nthinking; and from its addictedness towards the thinkables, it is\ntermed the thinking principle and the intellect.\n\n5. It is termed intelligence for its intellection of this thing as\nthat, as well as for its knowledge of what is what; and it is called\nthe mind from its mending, willing and imagining of many things. (The\nthree powers of the mind are here reckoned, as retention, volition and\nimagination).\n\n6. The reliance in self that, \u201cI am\u201d is what is called egoism; and the\nprinciple of percipience called the mind by the vulgar, is when freed\nfrom everything, styled the intellect by the wise and those acquainted\nwith the s\u00e1stras.\n\n7. It is called the aggregate of the octuple principles or totality of\nexistence, when it is combined with all its wishes of creation; and\nthen named as subtile nature, before its production of the substantial\nworld.\n\n8. Being absent from or imperceptible to our perception, it is called\nthe hidden nature; and in this manner many other fictitious names are\ngiven to it by way of fiction or fabrication of our imagination. (The\nword _avidy\u00e1_ here meant as absent, is elsewhere explained as unknown\nand as ignorance and illusion also).\n\n9. All these fictitious appellations that I have told thee here, are\nmere inventions of our fancy, for the one formless and changeless\neternal being.\n\n10. In this manner are all these three worlds, but the fairy lands of\nour dream and the castles of our imagination; they appear as objects\nmade for our enjoyment and bliss, but are in reality an intactible\nvacuity.\n\n11. So must you know, O best of embodied beings, that this body of\nyours is of a spiritual or intangible nature; it is the intellectual\nbody formed of the vacuous intellect, which is rarer than the rarified\nair.\n\n12. It never rises nor sets (_i.e._ it is neither born nor dies) in\nthis world, but continue with our consciousness of ourselves, until\nour final liberation from the sense of our personalities. This mental\nbody or mind of ours, is the recipient of the fourteen worlds and all\ncreated objects.\n\n13. It is in the extensive regions of our minds, that millions of\nworlds continue to be _created_ and dissolved in the course of time;\nand an unnumbered train of created beings, are growing and falling as\nfruits in it in the long run of time. (The mind and time, contain all\nthings).\n\n14. This intellectual body beholds the world, both inside and outside\nof it; as the looking glass reflects and refracts, the outward and\nits inward images both in as well as out of it; and as the open air\nreflects and shows us the upper skies.\n\n15. The mind must bear these images in its mirror, until its final\ndissolution with all things at the end of the world; when all minds\nand bodies and all the world and their contents, are to be incorporated\nin the great vacuum of the Divine Mind.\n\n16. The compactness of the Divine Mind, which comprehends all images\nor ideas in itself, imparts them partly in all individual minds, which\nare but parts of itself, and which are made to think likewise. (This\npassage maintains the innate ideas derived immediately from God).\n\n17. This spiritual body that was employed in viewing the inborn world\nin itself; is turned as the form of the Great Brahm\u00e1 by some, and as\nthat of the God Vir\u00e1t by others.\n\n18. Some call him the _san\u00e1tana_ or sempiternal, and others give him\nthe name of N\u00e1r\u00e1yana or floating on the surface of the waters. Some\nstyle him as \u00cdsha and by his name as Praj\u00e1pati--the Lord of creatures\n(Patriarch).\n\n19. This being chanced to have, his five organs of sense on a sudden,\nand these were seated in the several parts of his body, where they\nstill retain there seats as before.\n\n20. Then his delusion of the phenomenal, seemed to extend too far and\nwide, without any appearance of reality therein, all being a vast waste\nand void. (The noumenal only is the true reality).\n\n21. It was all the appearance of that eternal and transcendental\nBrahma, and not of the unreal phenomenal which is never real; it is the\nvery Brahma, which is without its beginning and end, and appearing in a\nlight quite unintelligible to us. (Being imperceptible in his person,\nhis reality is hid under the garb of unreality).\n\n22. Our inquiry into the spiritual form of the deity, leads us to take\nthe delusive world as such; just as the longing of the ardent lover\nafter his loved one, leads him to the view of its bloated phantom in\nhis dream (_i.e._ in our search after the spiritual, we are misled to\ntake the corporeal as such).\n\n23. As we have the blank and formless notion of a pot, presented in\nthe real shape of the pot in our minds; so have we the notions of our\nbodies and the world also, represented as realities in dreams and\nimagination.\n\n24. As the dreamed objects of our vacuous minds, seem to be real ones\nfor the time in our sleep; so all these aerial objects in nature,\nappear as solid substances in the delusion of our dreams by daylight.\n\n25. This spiritual and formless body (of the deity), comes to be\ngradually perceived in us and by itself also; as we come to see the\naerial forms presenting themselves unto us in our dream.\n\n26. It is then embodied in a gross body, composed of flesh and bones,\nand all its members, and its covering of the skin and hairs; and in\nthis state it thinks (of its carnal appetites and enjoyments).\n\n27. It then reflects on its birth and acts in that body, and upon the\nduration and end of that body also; and entertains the erroneous ideas\nof the enjoyments and incidents of its life.\n\n28. It comes to know its subjection to decay, decrepitude and death,\nand of its wanderings on all sides of the wide sphere of this globe; it\ngets the knowledge of the knower and known, and also of the beginning,\nmiddle and of all acts and things.\n\n29. And thus the primordial spirit, being transformed to the living\nsoul, comes to know the elementary bodies of earth, air, and water\n&c, and the varieties of created beings and conduct of men and finds\nitself as contained and confined within the limits of its body and\nof this earth, after its having been the container of all bodies and\nspace before. (The difference here spoken of, is that of the personal\nsoul of the j\u00edva or living being, and that of the impersonal soul of\nBrahma--the universal spirit).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXIX.\n\nON THE UNITY OF THE DIVINE SPIRIT.\n\n Argument:--Unity of the impersonal and personal _spirit treated_;\n and the materiality of the living soul refuted.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--This spiritual body (or the personal spirit),\nas that of Brahma--the primeval creator of all; being possessed of\nits volition, comes as by an act of chance and of its own motion, to\nthink and brood on its thoughts; (which it had derived from the eternal\nspirit of Brahma).\n\n2. It continues to remain in the same state, as it is ever conscious of\nin itself; and sees of its own nature, this universe exposed before it\nas it had in his mind, nor is there and wonder in this.\n\n3. Now this viewer--Brahma, and his viewing and the view of the world,\nmust either all be false (as there is no duality in nature); or they\nmust all be true, having the spirit of Brahma at the bottom.\n\n4. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--Now sir, please to tell me, how this spiritual and\nshadowy sight of the primeval Lord of creation, could be realized in\nits solidified state, and reality can there be in the vision of a dream.\n\n5. Vasishtha replied:--The spiritual view is ever apparent by itself\nwithin ourselves; and our continuous and ceaseless sight of it, gives\nit the appearance of a solid reality.\n\n6. As the visionary sights of our dreams, come to be realized in times,\nby our continuous poring upon them; so doth the spiritual appear\nas real, by our constant habit of thinking them as such. (So it is\nrecorded in the case of King Harischandra of old).\n\n7. The constant thought of the reality of our spiritual body, makes\nappear as a real object to our sight; as the constant craving of deer\nafter water, makes it appear in the mirage of the parched desert before\nthem.\n\n8. So the vision of this world, has like every other fallacy, misled us\nlike the poor and parching deer, to the misconception of water in the\nmirage; and does this and all other unrealities appear as real ones in\nour ignorance.\n\n9. Many spiritual and intellectual objects, like a great many unreal\nthings, are taken for the material and real, by the avidity of their\ndesires and ignorant admirers.\n\n10. The impression that I am this, and that one is another, and that\nthis is mine and that is his; and that these are the hills and skies\nabout us; are all as erroneous as the conception of reality in our\ndreams and false phantoms of the brain.\n\n11. The spiritual body which was at first conceived, by the prime\ncreator of all--Brahm\u00e1, assumed a material form as that of a globe\nunder his sight. (Meaning the Mundane egg).\n\n12. The living soul of Brahma, being born of the mundane egg in a\ncorporeal body; forgot or rather forsook to think of its incorporeal\nintellectuality, and thought himself as composed of his present\nmaterial body only. He looked into it and thought, that this was his\nbody and the recipient of his soul: (instead of the souls being the\nfountain of the body).\n\n13. Then it becomes confined in that body, by its belief of the\nunreality as a sober reality; and then it thinks of many things within\nitself, and goes on seeking and running after them all. (But the\nsteady soul is sedate, and has all within itself, without seeking them\nelsewhere without).\n\n14. This God then makes many symbolical sounds and forms (invents)\nwords for names and actions; and at last upon his utterance of the\nmystic syllable Om or (on) the Vedas rang out and sang in currents of\nverbiage.\n\n15. Then through the medium of those sacred words, the god ordained the\nordinances for the conduct of all mankind; and everything turned to be,\nas he wished and thought it to be in his own mind. (Hence Brahm\u00e1 is\nsaid the creative mind of God).[4]\n\n16. Whatever exists in any manner, the same is the self same Brahm\u00e1\nitself; and yet no body perceives it as such, owing to the predominant\nerror of all, of believing the unreal world as a real existence.\n\n17. All the things from the great Brahm\u00e1 down to all, are but false\nappearances as those of dreams and magical show; and yet the spiritual\nreality is utterly lost to sight, under the garb of material unreality\n(_i.e._ The unreal matter is taken for real spirit).\n\n18. There is nothing as materiality anywhere and at any time; it is the\nspiritual only which by our habitual mode of thinking and naming, is\nsaid to be substantial, elemental and material.\n\n19. This our fallacy of materiality, has come to us from our very\nsource in Brahm\u00e1--the creator; who entertained the false idea of the\nmaterial world, and transmitted this error even into the minds of the\nwise and very great souls.\n\n20. How is it possible, O R\u00e1ma, for the intelligent soul, to be thus\nconfined in a clod of earth, all this must either be an illusory scene,\nor a representation of Brahma himself.\n\n21. There can be no other cause of this world, except the eternal\ncausality of Brahma; who is self-existent, only without any action or\ncausation of himself; thus the Supreme soul being wholly devoid of\nthe attributes of cause and effect, what can this world be, but an\nextension of the Divine essence?\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXX.\n\nECSTASIS OR INERTNESS OF R\u00c1MA.\n\n Argument:--Description of liberation, as heedlessness of the past\n and future, ignorance of the knowables, and thoughtlessness about\n the thinkables.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--Gaining the knowledge of knowables, is called our\nbondage in this world; but it is our release from the bonds of knowable\nobjects, that is termed our liberation from it.\n\n2. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--But how can it be possible, sir, to get our escape\nfrom the knowledge of the knowables, and how can our rooted knowledge\nof things, and our habitual sense of bounden to them, be removed from\nus.\n\n3. Vasishtha replied:--It is the perfection of our knowledge, and\nfeeling of it as such, that removes our misjudgment; and then we get\nour liberation from error, after disappearance of our inborn bias.\n\n4. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--Tell me sir, what is that simply uniform feeling,\nand what is called that complete and perfect knowledge said to be,\nwhich releases the living soul entirely, from its fetters of error.\n\n5. Vasishtha replied:--The soul is full with its subjective knowledge\nof intuition, and has no need of the objective knowledge of the\nknowables from without; and perfect knowledge is our inward sense of\nthe same, and not expressible in words.\n\n6. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--Tell me sir, whether the knowableness of knowledge,\nthat is whether the internal knowledge of the knowing soul, is the same\nor separate from itself; and whether the word _jn\u00e1na_ or knowledge, is\ntaken in its instrumental or abstract sense (_i.e._ whether it is used\nto mean the power by means of which we derive our knowledge, or the so\nderived knowledge itself).\n\n7. Vasishtha replied:--All perception is knowledge, and this term\nis denotative of its causality also (as we say, my knowledge is my\nguide, _i.e._ the instrumentality of my guidance). Hence there is no\ndifference between knowledge and the known or the knowable, as there is\nnone between the air and its ventilation.\n\n8. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--If it be so (that there is no difference between\nthem); then tell me, whence arises the error of difference in\nour conception of them; the conception of the materiality of the\nperceptible or objective world, must be as erroneous as that of the\nhorns of a hare, which had never been _in esse_, nor are likely to be\nat any time in future.\n\n9. Vasishtha replied:--The error of the reality of external objects,\ngives rise to the error of the reality to our knowledge of them also;\nbut there is no inward object of thought, nor of the outward senses,\nhas ever any reality in it.\n\n10. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--Tell me, O sage, how can you deny the existence of\nthose objects, which are evident to the senses of mine, thine and all\nothers alike; and which are ever present in their thoughts in the minds\nof sensible beings.\n\n11. Vasishtha replied:--It was at the time of the first creation of the\nworld, that the self manifested God Vir\u00e1t, exhibited the outline of the\ncosmos in a corner of his all-comprehensive mind; but as nothing was\nproduced in reality, there is no possibility of our knowing any as a\nknowable or real entity.\n\n12. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--How can our common sight, of the present, past and\nfuture prospects of this world; and our daily perception of things,\nwhich are felt by all in general, be regarded as nothing by your\nteaching. (Common sense can not be controverted by abstruse philosophy).\n\n13. Vasishtha replied:--Just as the dreamer\u2019s vision in sleep, the\ndeer\u2019s mistake of water in the mirage in sand, the illusory sight of\na moon in the sky, and the prospects of our delusive fancies, do all\ndisappear on right observation; so the false perceptions of worldly\nthings, and the mistaken conceptions of our own entities, are as\nerroneous as the sights of the false lights in the empty air. (These\ndissolve as dreams upon waking, and the testimony of one waking man, is\nenough to disperse the deceptive sights of all dreamers and sleepers).\n\n14. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--If our knowledge of I and thou and of this and\nthat, is as false as that of all other things in the womb of the world;\nwhy then were these brought into existence, not left to remain in their\nideas in the mind of their creator, as they had existed before his\ncreation of them?\n\n15. Vasishtha replied:--It is certain that everything springs from\nits cause, and not otherwise; what then could there be the (material)\ncause, for the creation of the world therefrom, after the dissolution\nof everything at the universal destruction?\n\n16. R\u00e1ma replied:--Why sir, cannot that being be the cause of\nrecreation, which remains undestroyed and indestructible, after\ndestruction of the prior creation?\n\n17. Vasishtha replied:--Whatever substance there abides in the cause,\nthe same is evolved in effect also; hence the essence of Brahma being\ncomposed of his intellect only, it could not give rise to the material\nworld from itself; as the substance of a pot, cannot produce that of a\npicture or cloth.\n\n18. R\u00e1ma replied:--Why sir, the world existed in its subtile (or ideal)\nstate, in the person (mind) of Brahma (God); from which it issued forth\nanew and again, after dissolution of the former creation.\n\n19. Vasishtha said:--Tell me, O intelligence R\u00e1ma, how could the Lord\nGod (whose nature is composed of pure intelligence), conceive the\nentity or quintessence of the world in himself, and which like the\nproductive seed, sprang out in the form of the future creation. Say\nwhat sort of entity was it.\n\n20. R\u00e1ma replied:--It is an entity of Divine intelligence, and is\nsituated in the subjective soul of God in that form. It is neither a\nvacuous nullity, nor an unreal entity.\n\n21. Vasishtha said:--If it be so, O mighty armed R\u00e1ma, that the three\nworlds are Divine intelligence only; then tell me why bodies formed of\npure intelligence (as those of the gods and angels), and those having\nthe intelligent soul in them (as those of human beings), are subject to\ntheir birth and death.[5]\n\n22. R\u00e1ma said:--If then there has been no creation at all at any time\nfrom the beginning; then tell me sir, whence has this fallacy of the\nexistence of the world come to be in vogue.\n\n23. Vasishtha replied:--The inexistence of cause and effect, proves\nthe nullity of being and not being (_i.e._ its annihilation also); all\nthis that is thought of to exist, is the thought and thinking of the\ndivine soul, which is the triputi or triple entity of thinker, thinking\nand the thought together. (_i.e._ The soul is both the subjective and\nobjective, as also their connecting predicate by itself).\n\n24. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--The thinking soul thinks about the implements and\nthe acts, as the looker looks on the objects of his sight; but how can\nthe divine looker be the dull spectacle (and the object the same with\nthe subject); unless you maintain that the objective fuel burns the\nsubjective fire (which is impossible).\n\n25. Vasishtha replied:--The viewer is not transformed to the view,\nowing to impossibility of the existence of an objective view; it is the\nall seeing soul, that shows itself as one solid plenum in itself.\n\n26. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--The soul is the pure intellect only, and is without\nits beginning and end; it thinks only on its eternal and formless\nthoughts; how then can it present the form and appearance of the\nvisible world.[6]\n\n27. Vasishtha replied:--The thinkables being all causeless of\nthemselves, have none of them any cause whatsoever; and it is the\nprivation of the thinkables, that bespeaks the liberation of the\nintellect. (The production of the thinkables, is as impossible as the\nbirth of the offspring of a Barren woman. Gloss).\n\n28. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--If it is so, then say how and whence have we the\nthought of our conception of ourselves; and our knowledge of the world,\nand our sense of motion and the like; (as they are suggested to us by\nour common sense, and the universal testimony of all people).\n\n29. Vasishtha replied--The impossibility of cause, precludes the\npossibility of any production; how and whence could the thinkables\nproceed, when all is quite calm and quiet everywhere, and the knowledge\nof creation is but an error and a delusion.\n\n30. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--Here tell us sir, how this error comes to\novershadow the unknowable, unthinkable and the immovable being, that\nis selfmanifest and ever untainted and clear by itself (Swaprak\u00e1sa or\nSwayamprak\u00e1sa).\n\n31. Vasishtha replied:--there is no error or mistake herein, owing to\nits want of any causation also; our knowledge of egoism and tuism, is\ndrowned altogether in that of one unevanescent Unity.\n\n32. R\u00e1ma replied:--O venerable sir, I am so bewildered in the error\nof my consciousness, that I know not what other question I am here to\nmake; I am not so enlightened as the learned, to argue any more on this\npoint.\n\n33. Vasishtha replied:--Do not desist, O R\u00e1ma, from making your\ninquiries concerning the causality of Brahma; until you are satisfied\nwith the proof of his causelessness, as they test the purity of gold\non the stone; and then by knowing this, you will be able to repose\nyourself, in the blissful state of the supremely Blest.\n\n34. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--I grant sir, as you say, that there is no creation\nfor want of its cause, but tell me now whence is this my error of the\nthinkable and its thought (so rooted in me that I can not get rid of\nit).\n\n35. Vasishtha replied:--There is no error in the belief of the uncaused\ncreation, and in its perfect calmness; but it is for want of your habit\nof thinking it so (and your bias of the reality of the world), that\nreally makes you so restless.\n\n36. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--Tell me sir, whence rise this habit as well as the\ndesuetude of this mode of our thinking; and how does our rest proceed\nfrom the one, and our disquiet from the other mode of thought.\n\n37. Vasishtha replied:--Belief in the eternal God, breed no error in\nthat of the eternity of the world; it is the habit of thinking it\notherwise, that creates the error of creation. Be you therefore as\nsound in your mind, as the solid minded sages have been.\n\n38. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--Please to tell me sir, in your preaching of these\nlectures to your audience, what other mode of practice there may be, in\nour attainment of a quietude like that of the living liberated sages.\n\n39. Vasishtha replied:--The lesson that we preach, is to know one\u2019s\nself as Brahma and resting in the spirit of Brahma; and this knowledge\nis sure to release the soul, both from its longing for liberation, as\nalso from its dread of bondage in this world.\n\n40. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--This doctrine of yours, by its all negative\ndistinctions of our knowledge of time and space, and of our actions\nand thing, serves to drive away our consciousness of all existence\nwhatsoever from the mind.\n\n41. Vasishtha replied:--Yes, because all our objective knowledge, of\nthe distinctions of time and place and of actions and things in our\nminds; is the effect of our ignorance of the subjectivity of the soul,\nbeside which there is no other substance--before the liberated spirit.\n\n42. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--The absence of our knowledge of an intelligent\nagent, and also of an intelligible object; deprives us altogether of\nany intelligence at all; the impossibility of the union of the unity\nand duality together, must preserve our distinct knowledge of the\nknowing principle and the known or knowable object. (The transitive\nverb to know must have an object, and cannot like a neuter or\nintransitive verb, be confined to or reflect upon its agent. Gloss).\n\n43. Vasishtha replied:--It is by your act of knowing of God, that you\nhave or get your knowledge of Him; therefore the word is taken in its\nactive sense by you and others (Who have to know a thing before it is\nknown to them). But with us (or sages like ourselves), who are possest\nof our intuitive knowledge of ourselves as the deity, it is but a\nself-reflexive verb. (Gloss. _Buddhi_ with the ignorant, means knowing;\nbut with the sapient, it means feeling).\n\n44. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--But how do you feel your finite selves or egoism,\nand your limited knowledge, as same with the infinite soul and\nomniscience of the deity; unless it were to ascribe your imperfections\nto the transcendental divinity, who is purer than the purest water, and\nrarer than the rarefied ether.\n\n45. Vasishtha replied:--It is the feeling of the perfections of\nthe divine soul in ourselves, that we call our egoism; and not the\nascription of our imperfect personalities unto him. And here the\nduality of the living and divine souls, bears resemblance to the unity\nof the ventilating breeze with the universal and unfluctuating air.\n\u091c\u0940\u092c\u092c\u094d\u0930\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0928\u094b\u0930\u0948\u0915\u094d\u092f\u0902 \u0964\n\n46. As the waves of the ocean, have been continually rising and\nsubsiding in it; so the objective thoughts of one\u2019s egoism and the\nworld besides, must be always rising and falling in the subjective soul\nof the supreme being, as well as self-liberated persons (Hence the\nsubjective and objective cannot be the one and same thing).\n\n47. Vasishtha replied:--If so it be, then say what is the fault, that\nis so much reprehended in the popular belief of a duality; and in\ndisregarding the creed of the Unity, which is eternal and infinite,\nfull and perfect in itself, quite calm and quiet in its nature, and is\ntermed the transcendent One.\n\n48. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--If it be so (that the living soul, is as the breeze\nor breath of the calm air of Brahma and same with it), then tell me\nsir, who and what power is it, which conceives the ego, tu and others,\nwhich feels and enjoys all as their agent, if the fundamental fallacy\nof the world be the root of all. (The whole being false, there is\nnothing as one or an another or as bondage or liberation).\n\n49. Vasishtha replied:--The knowledge of the reality of the objective\nor knowable things, is the cause of our bondage (in this world); true\nknowledge does not recognise their reality, and full intelligence\nwhich assumes the forms of (and shows) all things in itself, sees no\ndifference of bondage or liberation before it. (All things are alike in\nthe full light of intelligence).\n\n50. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--Intelligence like light, does not show us all\nthings in the same light; it shows us the difference between a pot and\na picture, as light shows the white and black to view. Again as the\nlight of our eye sight shows us the different forms of outward objects,\nso does our intelligence confirm and attest the reality of our visual\nperceptions.\n\n51. Vasishtha replied:--All outward objects having no cause of their\ncreation, nor any source of their production, are as incredible as\nthe offspring of a barren woman; and the appearance of their reality\nwhich is presented to our sight, is as false as that of silver in\na conchshell or in the glittering sands, and not otherwise. (The\nphenomenal is a mirage, and deception of sight).\n\n52. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--The sight of the miserable world, whether it\nbe true or false, is like the startling apparition in a dream, and\nattended with pain only for the time; tell me therefore the best means,\nhow to avoid and get rid of this error.\n\n53. Vasishtha replied:--The world being never the better than a dream,\nit is the reflection of the idea of its reality, that is the best\nmethod of getting rid of the snare of its tempting joys and sorrows.\n\n54. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--But how to effect this object, which may redound to\nour bliss and rest; say how to put an end to the sight of the world,\nwhich shows the sights of falsities as realities, in the continuous\ntrain of its deluding dreams.\n\n55. Vasishtha replied:--It is the due consideration of the\nantecedent and subsequent states of things, which must remove the\nerroneous impression of their reality; just as the conception of\nthe substantiality of sights seen in our dreams, is eliminated upon\nreflection of their subsequent disappearance (and bearing no trace of\nformer forms behind).\n\n56. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--But how do the rising apparitions of the world,\ndisappear in the depth of our minds, and what do we then come to\nperceive, after the vestiges of our gross remembrances have faded away?\n(The mind is never vacant of its thoughts of visible objects).\n\n57. Vasishtha responded:--After the false appearance of the world, has\nvanished like the faded sight of a city from view; the unconcerned mind\nof the unconcerned soul, looks upon it as a painting, wholly washed out\nby the rain (_i.e._ as a clear blank or vacuity).\n\n58. R\u00e1ma asked:--What then becomes of the man, after subsidence of\nthe worldly sights and desires from his mind; like the gross looking\nobjects of a dream; and after the mind rests in its state of listless\nindifference.\n\n59. Vasishtha replied:--Then the world recedes from his sight, and then\nthis predilection of it, and his desire for its enjoyment depart and\ndie away along with it.\n\n60. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--How can this blind and deep rooted predilection,\nwhich has accompanied the soul from many previous births, and branched\nout into multifarious desires, resign its hold of the human heart all\nat once?\n\n61. Vasishtha replied:--As the knowledge of truth, serves to disperse\nthe rooted error of the material world from the mind, so the sense of\nthe vanity of human desires, and of the bitterness of their enjoyment,\ndissipate their seeds at once from the heart (where they can take root\nno more).\n\n62. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--After dissipation of the error of materiality, of\nthe visible spheres of worlds; say, O sage, what is that state of the\nmind which follows it, and how its peace and tranquility at last?\n\n63. Vasishtha replied:--After dissipation of the error of the material\nworld, the mind reverts to its seat in the immaterial soul; where it is\nreleased from all its earthly bonds, and finds its rests in the state\nof an indifferent _insouciance_--vair\u00e1gya.\n\n64. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--Tell me sir, if the error of the world is as\nlittle, as that of a child\u2019s idea of sorrow, then what trouble there is\nfor a man to remedy it?\n\n65. Vasishtha replied:--All our desires, like the fond wishes of boys,\nbeing wholly extinct in the mind, there remains no more any cause of\nany sorrow in it; and this you may well know from the association of\ndesires in all minds.\n\n66. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--Tell me sir, what is the mind, and how are we to\nknow its nature and workings; and what good do we derive, by our best\ninvestigation of the mental powers and properties.\n\n67. Vasishtha replied:--The inclination of the intellect towards the\nintelligibles, is called the mind, for its mending the thinkables only;\nand the right knowledge of its workings, leads to the extinction of all\nour worldly desires. (_i.e._ The thoughts of things, are productive of\nour desires for them; banish your thoughts, and you get rid of your\ndesires at once).\n\n68. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--Tell me sir, how long continues this tendency of\nthe intellect towards the thinkables, and when does the mind come\nto have its unmindfulness, which causes our coma or _an\u00e6sthesis_ of\nNirv\u00e1na.\n\n69. Vasishtha replied:--There being a total absence of thinkable\nthings, what is then left for the intellect to be intent upon; the\nmind dwells upon its thoughts only, but the want of thinkable objects,\nleaves nothing for it to think upon.\n\n70. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--How can there be the absence of thinkables, when we\nhave the ideas in store to think and reflect upon; nor is there any one\nwho can deny the existence of ideas, which are ever imprinted in the\nmind (_i.e._ the eternal ideas).\n\n71. Vasishtha replied:--Whatever is the ideal world of the ignorant,\nhas no truth in it and is denied by the learned; and the conception\nwhich the sapient have of it, is that of a nameless and formless unity\nonly.\n\n72. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--What is that knowledge of this triple world of the\nignorant, which has no truth or reality therein; and what is the true\nknowledge of the wise about it, which is inexpressible in words?\n\n73. Vasishtha replied:--The knowledge of the ignorant, regarding the\nduality of the world, is wholly untrue from first to last; but the\ntrue knowledge of the wise, neither recognizes a duality herein; nor\nacknowledges the production hereof; (but views it in the light of a\nnullity and void).\n\n74. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--Whatever is not produced in the beginning, can\nnot of course exist at any time; but how is it, that this unreal and\nunapparent nothing, could come to produce in us its conception of a\nsomething?\n\n75. Vasishtha replied:--This causeless and uncaused unreality of\nthe world, appears unto us as a real entity; like the daydream that\npresents the false sight of the cosmos as a reality in our waking.\n\n76. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--The sights that we see in our dreams, and the\nimages that we conceive in our imagination; are but perceptions derived\nfrom our impressions of them in our waking state.\n\n77. Vasishtha replied:--Tell me, O R\u00e1ma, whether the things that you\nsee in your dream, or conceive in your imagination, are exactly of the\nsame forms, that you see in your waking state.\n\n78. R\u00e1ma replied:--The things that we see in our dream, and conceive of\nin our fancy or imagination; do all of them appear unto us in the same\nlight, as they show themselves to us in our waking state.\n\n79. Vasishtha questioned:--If the impressions of the waking state,\ncome to represent themselves in our dreaming (and if our dreams are\nalike our waking sights), then tell me R\u00e1ma! why do you find your house\nstanding entire in the morning, which you beheld to have fallen down in\nyour dream.\n\n80. R\u00e1ma answered:--I see that the things seen in waking, do not appear\nthe same in dreaming; but tell me sir, why they seem to resemble those\nthat have been seen before.\n\n81. Vasishtha replied:--It is neither the notion nor idea of anything,\nthat appears as a reality in our minds; but the inherent impression of\nthe world in the soul, that exhibits it to us from first to last.\n\n82. R\u00e1ma said:--I find it now, that this world is no better than a\ndream; but tell me sir, how to remedy our fallacy of its reality, which\nholds us fast as a goblin.\n\n83. Vasishtha replied:--Now consider how this dream of the world has\ncome into vogue, and what may be the cause thereof; and knowing that\nthe cause is not different from its effect, view this visible creation\nin the light of its invisible origin.\n\n84. R\u00e1ma said:--But as the mind is the cause of the sights, seen in our\ndreams in sleep, it must therefore be the same with its creation of\nthis world, which is equally unsubstantial and undecaying as itself.\n(The world is the permeation of the Divine mind--its maker or pervader).\n\n85. Vasishtha replied:--So it is, O most intelligent R\u00e1ma, the world is\nverily the _manas--mens_ or the mind of God, which is no other than the\nconsolidation of the Divine Intellect or intelligence. Thus the world\nbeing situated in the mind, and this in that, it is this mind only that\nexhibits these dreamlike shows, which originate from it, and have no\nother source besides.\n\n86. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--But why am I not to think the identity of the\nworld with Brahma himself, as there is the identity of the divine\nmind with him, and that of the mind with the creation. And likewise\nas the relation of sameness subsists between a component part and its\n_ensemble_ or the integral whole, as there is between the branch of a\ntree and the tree itself? (because these are but parts of one undivided\nwhole). But it would be absurd to identify the undivided and formless\nBrahma, with the divided and formal world.\n\n87. Vasishtha replied:--It is impossible, O R\u00e1ma, to identify this\nfrail world with the eternal Brahma, who is increate to identify this\nperishable, quite calm and quiescent and intact in his nature.\n\n88. R\u00e1ma added:--I come to find at last and by a haphazard, my\nerroneous conception of the world from first to last; as also the error\nof my attributing the qualities of activity and passivity, to the\nnature of the transcendent being.\n\n89. Vasishtha concluded with saying:--Now I have fully exposed\nthe erroneous views of the world (entertained both by the wise and\nignorant), both by the elegance of my poetical diction, as also by the\nenlightening reasonings of the learned; both of which are calculated to\nremove the mistaken views of the vacuity and delusion of the world, by\nestablishment of the truth of the whole, as being composed of essence\nof the One sole and Supreme entity.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXXI.\n\nSOLUTION OF THE GREAT QUESTION OF UNITY AND DUALITY.\n\n Argument:--Concerning the identity of the world and God, or the\n total absence of the universe.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma rejoined:--If it is so sir, as you say, the world must be a great\nriddle; as it can neither be said to be in existence with all its\ncontents, or it is a perfect nullity with every thing quite extinct in\nit.\n\n2. This existence that shows itself as the world to sight, appears as a\ndelusion or deception of vision in view; though it cannot properly be\ncalled an illusion, if it is composed of divine essence as you mean to\nsay.\n\n3. Vasishtha replied:--The fortuitous appearance in which Brahma,\nmanifests himself of his own accord; is known to him as the world and\nsubsisting in himself.\n\n4. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--How does Brahma manifest himself as the world,\nbefore existence of space and after its extinction (at the ultimate\ndissolution of creation); and how does the divine spirit shine itself\nas the world in want of the light of the luminaries?\n\n5. Vasishtha replied:--The world shines in this manner in the light of\nthe Divine Intellect; and know this light to proceed from the Divine\nspirit, which is thus diffused all over the universe.\n\n6. As the light of the lamp or chandelier, enlightens the house with\nits lustre; it was thus the holy light of the Divine spirit that shone\nitself, without presenting its outward appearance, or having any one to\nlook upon it (before creation).\n\n7. Thus it is an immaterial and imperishable entity, without any\nappearance of or looker on it; it shines with the light of the\nintellect, upon the basis or stand of the Divine spirit.\n\n8. It shines in its visible appearance, in the sight of the spirit\nonly, that constantly looks upon it, as it sees its dreams in sleep.\n\n9. It shines only in the light of the intellect, and appears as the\ncreated world before its creation; all its visible and shining sheen\nbeing derived from the Supreme.\n\n10. The One supreme intellect alone, assumes the triple forms of the\nsight, seer and seeing (_i.e._ the subjective, objective and the\nattribute), in the beginning of creation; and shows itself as the\ncreated world of its own nature and accord.\n\n11. We have the resemblance of such like appearance, presenting unto us\nin our dreams and creatures of our fancy; and it is in the same manner,\nthat this creation shines before us with the light of the intellect.\n\n12. This world (shining so bright and fair), is like a vacuous body\nappearing in the vacuity of the intellect; the creation has neither\nits beginning nor end, it is a development of the intellect, which is\ndistributed through it.\n\n13. It has become habitual to our nature, to suppose the existence of\nthe world, but the false impression of its visibility, is lost in the\nconsciousness of high-minded men.\n\n14. To them this creation presents no visible forms, nor any sensible\nappearance at all; it is to them a representation of fallacy only, as\nthe mistake of a man in a statue, or taking a false apparition as real.\n\n15. In this manner the blunder of a duality in the soul, produces a\ndualism in the mind; but ere the existence of creation, there existed\nno dualism of the creator and the created, or of the manifester and the\nmanifested.\n\n16. The want of a cause causes the appearance of a duality (_i.e._ of\nthe causal agency and its effect, in the vacuity of the intellect);\nbut tell me how could there be a cause when there is no creation in\nexistence. (The creation presupposes a cause, but not otherwise nor its\nabsence).\n\n17. It is the Divine intellect alone, that manifests itself in the\nmanner of the world, in the total absence of all visible objects; and\nthough this seems to be the waking state of the Supreme soul, yet it\nis neither its waking, sleeping nor dreaming state.\n\n18. The visible world is no production of dream, but a manifestation\nof Brahma himself; and there existed the Divine intellect only, in the\nmanner of the infinite void, before the birth of the atmospheric vacuum\nof the world.\n\n19. The intellect which beholds this universe as its body, without\nbeing distributed or changed in the form of the world; is purely of a\nspiritual or vacuous form, that manifested itself in this visible form\nbefore it came to existence.\n\n20. And this visible world that is so manifest to view, is as void and\nvacuous as the empty air.\n\n21. Now knowing this in your own understanding, you must remain devoid\nof all dualism in your mind; be as mute as a block of stone, nor give\nheed to the words of the universe in your heart, nor care for their\nsayings of earthly enjoyments, (for fear of losing your spiritual\nbliss).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXXII.\n\nON THE ATTAINMENT OF SPIRITUAL ANAESTHESIA.\n\n Argument:--R\u00e1ma\u2019s coma and trance, and his revival by the\n spiritual lecture of his preceptor.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma rejoined and said:--Alas! that I have so long strayed about, in\nthe erroneous maze of the world; without the knowledge of its being a\nmere void and vacuum.\n\n2. I now come to know the fallacy of my conception of the world, which\nis but a mere nullity; which never is nor was, nor shall ever prove to\nbe a positive reality.\n\n3. It is all still and supportless, and existing in our false knowledge\nof it; it is an endless formation of the solid intellect, and a mere\nvacuous conception of ours, without any figure or form or colour or\nmark of its own.\n\n4. It is the transcendental vacuum and of a wholly inconceivable\nnature; and yet how wonderous it is, that we call this our world, our\nearth and the sphere of our action.\n\n5. How it appears as a duality (apart from the unity of God), and\nhow these worlds and mountains seen as separate and solid bodies of\nthemselves; when they are in reality but the pellucid sky appearing as\nthick and opaque to our misconception of them.\n\n6. This creation and the future world, are as the dreams that we see,\nbut working of our imagination; while it is the intellect only that\nshows itself as these intelligible objects, which could not otherwise\npresent their visible aspects to our conceptions of them.\n\n7. The thought that I am situated in heaven or hell in this life, makes\nthis world appear as such unto us; because the visibles are all objects\nor creatures of our consciousness of them. (It is the mind that makes a\nheaven or hell).\n\n8. There is nothing as visible or its vision, nor this world or its\ncreation, unless it is caused as such, by the intellect within us; it\nis neither a scene in our waking or sleeping, nor is this anything as\nreal in its nature.\n\n9. If this be but an erroneous sight, how could the negative error\nproduce this positive spectacle, should it but a false conception\nof the mind, then tell me, O sage, how could this blank fallacy bring\nforth the thought of this real existence.\n\n10. It is not possible for error, to creep into the infallible mind\nof omniscience; nor is it probable that error should reign over this\nperfect creation at large; it is therefore the Lord himself, that\nexhibits his glory in this manner.\n\n11. What can we think otherwise of the continuity of space, infinity\nof vacuum and infinity of time, than they are the attributes of\nomnipotence; and how are we to look on the transparency of the air and\ncrystal, without thinking them as manifestation of his nature?\n\n12. An erroneous notion is as false, as the sight of one\u2019s own death in\na dream; but how can this world which is so palpable to sight, be lost\nto or expunged from our sight, without losing our sight of its great\nmanifester also? (To ignore the world is to ignore its maker also, as\nthe denial of God leads to that of the world).\n\n13. The sights of the mirage, fairy cities and double moons in the sky,\nare of course deceptions of vision and productions of our error; but\nthe same analogy does not apply to our sight of the world.\n\n14. The boys\u2019 apparitions of ghosts, never lay hold on adults and the\nwaking, nor on any one in the day light and open air; this and similar\nerrors arise in our ignorance only, but they vanish upon our second\nthought and true knowledge of them.\n\n15. It is improper in this place to raise the question, regarding\nwhence this bug bear of error could rise among mankind; since it is\nevident from our own reasoning, that there is no such thing as _avidy\u00e1_\nor ignorance (which is the cause of error) ever in existence, nor an\n_asat_ or not being even in being. (Because the Veda says \u0938\u0926\u0947\u0935\u0908\u0926\u092e\u0917\u094d\u0930 \u0906\u0938\u0940\u0924\u094d\nthe existence existed from before).\n\n16. It is evident by rational reasoning, that whatever is invisible and\nimperceptible to us, the same is called as _asat_ or not being, and the\nconception of idea or that is termed an error.\n\n17. That which is not clearly obtained by any proof or reasoning, and\nis as impossible as the sky-flower or the horn of a hare, how can that\nbe believed to be as anything in existence.\n\n18. And a thing however apparent to sight, but having no cause or\nevidence of its reality, cannot be believed as thing in existence,\nbut it must be a nullity like the issue of a barren woman.\n\n19. Therefore there can no error at any time, nor can an error ever\nproduce anything whatever; it is therefore the manifest omniscience of\nProvidence, that is conspicuous in every part of this wide and grand\ndisplay.\n\n20. Whatever then is seen now to shine before us, is the manifestation\nof Supreme being itself; the same Supreme spirit fills this plenitude,\nand is full with it in itself. (So the Veda \u092a\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0923 \u092e\u0926\u0903 \u092a\u0942\u0930\u094d\u0923\u092e\u093f\u0926\u0902 &c.).\n\n21. There is nothing that is either shining or unshining here at any\ntime, unless it be the calm and quiet and transparent spirit of God,\nthat inheres in its body of the mundane world.\n\n22. It is the one unborn, undying and unchanging everlasting Being,\nthat is the most adorable and ever adored Lord of all, that fills\nand pervades the whole with his essence. He only is the word ego,\nselfmanifest--pure and all pervading, while I and all others are\nwithout our egoism, and shine only in that unity (literally, without\nour duality).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXXIII.\n\nMENTAL TORPOR OR TRANQUILITY.\n\n Argument:--R\u00e1ma\u2019s ecstatic hybernation and union with the Supreme\n unity.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma rejoined:--There is the only One alone whom neither the gods nor\nthe _rishis_ know or comprehend; He is without beginning, middle and\nend, and it is that being that thus shines himself, without this world\nand these phenomena.\n\n2. It is useless to us to mind the difference, between the unity\nand duality, and to be led to the doubts created by the misleading\nverboilogy of erroneous doctrines; without relying in the state of one\ntranquil and unvarying Spirit.\n\n3. The world is as clearly a vacuous body, appearing in the womb of\nvacuity; as the string of pearls and the aerial castles, that are seen\nin the open sky.\n\n4. The world is attached in the same manner, to the solidity of the\ninvisible intellect; as vacuity is inherent in vacuum, lapidity in the\nstone, and fluidity in water.\n\n5. Though the world, appears to be spread on all sides of space; yet it\nis no more than an empty vacuity, lying calm and quiet, in the hollow\nwomb of the great intellect.\n\n6. This world appearing so fair and perspicuous, to the sight of\nignorant people; vanishes as a phantom into nothing, at the sight of\nthe boundless glory of the transcendent God.\n\n7. The impression of difference and duality, existing between the\ncreator and creation, among worldly men; vanishes upon reflection, like\nwaves into the waters of the sea.\n\n8. The existence of the world, together with all our miseries in it,\nbefore the light of our liberation; as the darkness of night flies away\nat sunrise, and the light of the day disappears, before the gloom of\nnight.\n\n9. Whether in plenty or poverty, or in birth, death or disease; or in\nthe troubles and turmoils of the world, the wise man remains unshaken,\nthough he may be overpowered by them.\n\n10. There is no knowing nor error in this world, nor any pain or\npleasure, or distress or delight in it; but they are all attributes of\nthe deity, whose pure nature is unsullied by them.\n\n11. I have come to know, that this existence is the immaculate Brahma\nhimself; and is the want of our knowledge, which says anything to be\nbeside the spirit of the Great God.\n\n12. I am awakened to, and enlightened in divine knowledge; and find\nexternal existence cease to exist in any presence.\n\n13. Perfect knowledge tells us, all these worlds to be but Brahma\nhimself; but want of this knowledge says, I was no Brahma before, but\nhave now become so by my knowledge.\n\n14. The known and the unknown, the dark and the bright are all but\nBrahma, as vacuity and unity, and brightness and blueness, do all\nappertain to the one and same sky.\n\n15. I am extinct in the deity (in my divine knowledge), and sit\ndauntless of anything; I am devoid of all desire, with my leaning in\nperfect blessedness; I am as I am, ravished in my infinite bliss,\nwithout my sensibility of what or which.\n\n16. I am wholly that one and sole entity, which is naught but perfect\ntranquility; I see nothing but a calm and quiet, which utterly absorbs\nand enrapts me quite.\n\n17. Knowing the knowable (the unknown One) is to unknow one\u2019s self\nand ignore the visible; as this cognition continues to dawn in the\nsoul, the whole cosmos sinks into oblivion and seems a block of stone,\nwithout the name and sign of anything being known.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXXIV.\n\nR\u00c1MA\u2019S REST IN NIRV\u00c1NA INSENSIBILITY.\n\n Argument:--R\u00e1ma\u2019s feeling of his comatosity, and _his relation_\n of it to his preceptor Vasishtha.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma said:--In whatever manner and form, the living or individual soul\nconceives the universal soul within itself; it has the same conception\nor idea presented before it, agreeably to its concept thereof. (_i.e._\nThe divine spirit appears in the same form in us, as we think it to be).\n\n2. All these worlds lie in concert in their spiritual state, in the\nboundless spirit of the great Brahma; but they appear to us in various\nlights, like the different rays, radiating from the one and same gem.\n\n3. The great and bright quarry of the Divine Mind, contains all these\ngemming worlds in its unbounded bosom; all of which unite to shed and\nscatter their conjoined light upon us, like the commingled rays of the\ngems contained in the womb of a vast mine.\n\n4. All these several worlds, shining together like so many lamps of a\nlustre; are clearly perceived by some and are imperceptible to others,\nas the blaze of day light is dazzling to the clear-sighted, but quite\ndim to the blind.\n\n5. As the rushing of the contrary currents, describe the whirlpools\nin the waters of the deep; so do the contact and conflict of the\nelementary atoms, produce the consolidation and dissolution of worlds,\nwhich are no acts of creation.\n\n6. The creation is everywhere but a coagulation, of the drizzling drops\nof the gelid intellect; who can therefore count the countless watery\nparticles, that are incessantly oozing out of it, and are condensed in\nthe forms of worldly spherules.\n\n7. As the part is not different in its substance, from that of the\nwhole; so the creation is not otherwise than its creator, except in\nthe difference of the two terms of devious significations.\n\n8. The causeless and uncausing unity, being the archetype of infinite\nvariety; these numberless multiplicities are only ectypes of that sole\nmoiety, and neither a duality nor pluralities whatever; nor do these\ncopies and counterparts, ever rise or fall apart from their original\nprototype (but the both are showing the same).\n\n9. It is that intelligence which shows the intelligibles in itself; it\nproduces these unproduced productions to view, as the sun light exposes\nthe visibles to light.\n\n10. It is from my inappetency of all things in existence, that I have\naccomplished that perfection, and acquired that prosperity for myself,\nwhich is termed _insouciance_ or the nirv\u00e1na extinction.\n\n11. It is not by our understanding this bliss, nor can we have any\nknowledge of it by our percipience; neither is there any knowledge\nwhereby we may know, the unknown one which is alone to be known. (Here\nis a pun and play of the word b\u00f3dha or knowledge, which is explained in\nthe gloss to a great length).\n\n12. It is a knowledge that rises of itself, and a waking of the soul\nresembling its somnolence; it throws a light as that of the midday sun\nin the inmost soul, and is neither confined in or absent from any place\nor time. (_i.e._ The full blaze of spiritual light, fills the soul at\nall times and places or as Pope says: It wraps my soul, and absorbs me\nquite).\n\n13. It is after the subsidence of all desire within, and desistance\nfrom all actions without accompanied with one\u2019s desistance from all\nwishes, that this stillness attends upon the enlightened soul.\n\n14. The saint of awakened understanding, that is confined in himself,\nand absorbed in his meditation; is neither inclined to the prurience of\nany thing, nor to the avoidance of aught whatever. (\u201cHave what I have,\nand dare not leave, enamoured of the present day.\u201d Young).\n\n15. In this state of rapture, the mind of the saint, though in full\npossession of its mental faculties; remains yet as fixed and inactive,\nand unmindful of all worldly things and bodily actions; as a burning\ntaper, that consumes itself while illumes others, without any\nshaking or motion of its own. (_i.e._ Thoughtful and inactive).\n\n16. The soul becomes as Viswar\u00fapa or incorporated with the world, in\nits condition of thoughtfulness, when it is called the Visw\u00e1tma or\nthe mundane soul; or else it is said to be situated in the state of\nthe immense void of Brahma, when it is devoid of and unoccupied with\nits thoughts. Hence creation and its cessation, both appertain to the\nDivine Intellect, in its states of activity or thoughtfulness and its\nwants or stupor.\n\n17. He who is enrapt in divine ecstasy, and settled in his belief of\nthe identity of the Deity with his excogitation of him, remains closely\nconfined in himself with his rapture and secure from distraction of his\nmind (and perturbation of worldly thoughts).\n\n18. He who relies only in the cogitation of his self, regardless\nof all other things in the world; comes to find the reality of his\nself-cognition alone, and else beside, to be as _nil_ as empty air.\n(Literally: as empty air is not distinct from vacuity).\n\n19. The man of enlarged understanding, has an unbounded store of\nknowledge in himself; but this ultimately ends in the knowledge of the\nunspeakable one. (The end of all knowledge is the knowledge of God).\n\n20. It is therefore in our quietism, that we feel the very best entity\nof our consciousness, to be either dormant or extinct; and this state\nof tranquility of the mind, is unutterable in words.\n\n21. That which is the acme of all knowledge, is the abstract and\nabstruse knowledge of all as the true One; hence the world is a real\nentity, in as much as it abides in the eternal One (in its abstract\nlight).\n\n22. The felicity of Nirv\u00e1na--ecstasy, with the utter extinction of all\ndesire, and the consciousness of a cool and calm composure of one\u2019s\nself, is the _summum bonum_ or highest state of bliss and perfection;\nthat is aimed at to be attained even by the gods Brahm\u00e1, Vishnu and\nSiva.\n\n23. All things (desirable to the soul), are always present with it,\nin all places and at all times; they are ever accompanied with our\nconcepts of them in the intellect, which is the only pure entity that\nis ever in existence, and is never dissolved. (The thought survives the\nthing it represents).\n\n24. Too hot is the busy bustle of the world, and very cooling is the\nbliss of Nirv\u00e1na insensibility; it is therefore far better to have\nthe cold heartedness of _insouciance_, than the heart burning heat of\nworldliness.\n\n25. As an artist conceives in himself, the contrivance of a statue\nsculptured in relief, in the slab of his mind; so the Great Brahma sees\nthis universe inscribed in him, in rilievo and not carved out of him.\n\n26. Just as the spacious ocean looks upon the waves, heaving upon the\nsurface of its waters; so doth the great Brahma see the myriads of\nworlds, rolling about in the midst of its intellect.\n\n27. But ignorant people of dull understandings, behold those fixed\ninseparable spectacles, in the light of separate spectres, appearing in\nvarious shapes and forms, in the spheres of their intellect.\n\n28. In whatever manner doth any body conceive anything in his mind, he\nverily thinks and beholds it in the same light, by his habitual mode of\nthinking the same as such.\n\n29. As a man waking from his sleep, finds no truth in aught he saw in\nhis dream; whether it be the death or presence or absence of a friend\nor other; so the enlightened soul sees no reality in the Life or death,\nof any living being seen in this visible world because none lives by\nhimself, nor dies or departs away of himself, but all are deputed alike\nin the tablet of the eternal mind.\n\n30. The thought and conviction of this truth in the mind, that whatever\nappears to pass under and away from our sight, is the fixed inert and\nquiescent _r\u00e9chauff\u00e9_ of its divine original, is sure and enough to\nforfend the mind, from its falling into the error of taking the copy\nfor its mould.\n\n31. This lesson will certainly tend to lessen the enjoyments of your\nbody, that none of them will ever serve to prevent its fall to naught;\nas also to protect you from the error of accounting for the reality of\nthese numberless, that are at best but passing sights in your dream.\n\n32. Inappetency of earthly enjoyments increases our wisdom, as wisdom\nserves to diminish our worldly desires, thus they mutually serve to\naugment one another, as the open air and sunshine.\n\n33. The knowledge which tends to create your aversion to riches, and\nto your family and friends, is of course averse to your ignorance and\ndullness; and the one being acquired and accomplished by you, serves to\nput an end to your ignorance at once.\n\n34. That is the true wisdom of wise men, which is unalloyed by avarice,\nand that is the true learning of the learned, which is not vitiated by\nany yearning.\n\n35. But neither wisdom and inappetency, singly and simply, nor their\ncombined and augmented states, are of no good unless they have attained\ntheir perfection, but prove as vain as the blaze of a sacrificial fire\nin a picture, which has not the power of consuming the oblation offered\nupon it.\n\n36. The perfection of wisdom and inappetence, is a treasure which\nis termed liberation also; because any body who has reached to, and\nremains in that state of infinite bliss, is freed from all the bonds of\ncare.\n\n37. In this state of our emancipation, we see the past and present,\nand all our sights and doings in them as present before us; and find\nourselves situated, in a state of even calm and tranquility, of which\nthere is no end nor any breach whatever.\n\n38. The self-contented man who finds all his happiness in himself,\nis ever cool and calm and tranquil in his soul, and is devoid of all\ndesire and selfishness in his mind. He relies in his cool hearted\nindifference and apathy to all worldly objects, and sees only a clear\nvoid stretched before him.\n\n39. We scarcely find one man, among a hundred thousand human beings,\nwho is strong enough and has the bravery, to break down the trammels\nof his earthly desires, as the lion alone breaks of the iron bars of\nhis prison house. (The adamantine chain of avarice, binds us all alike\nto this nether earth).\n\n40. It is the inward light of the clear understanding, that dispels the\nmist of desires that overcasts the cupidinous mind; and melts down the\nincrassated avarice, as the broad sunshine dissolves the thickened ice\nin autumn.\n\n41. It is the want of desire that is the knowledge of the knowable,\n(or what is best and most worthy of being known), and stands above\nall things that are desirable or worth our desiring; it bears its\nresemblance to the breath of air, without any external action of it.\n(_i.e._ The man that is without any desire of his, lives to breathe\nhis vital breath only, without doing any external action of his; but\nbreathes as the current mind, to no purpose whatsoever).\n\n42. He sits quiet and firm in himself, with his thoughts fixed in\nascertaining the truths and errors of the world; and looks all others\nin the light of himself, without having to do with or desire of them.\n\n43. He sits reclined in the immensity of Brahma, with his enlightened\nview of the visibles as subsisting in Him; he remains indifferent to\nall things, and devoid of his desire for anything, and sits quiet in\nthe quiescence of his liberation; which is styled as _moksha_ by the\nwise.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXXV.\n\nLECTURE ON THE ENLIGHTENMENT OF UNDERSTANDING.\n\n Argument:--Vasishtha\u2019s commendation of R\u00e1ma\u2019s knowledge, and his\n further questions for his trial and R\u00e1ma\u2019s replies.\n\n\nVasishtha said:--Bravo R\u00e1ma! that you are awakened to light and\nenlightened in your understanding; and the words you have spoken, are\ncalculated to destroy the darkness of ignorant minds, and rejoice the\nhearts of wise.\n\n2. These phenomenals that ever appear so very bright to our sight,\nlose their gloss at our want of desire and disregard of them; it is\nthe knowledge of this truth, that is attended with our peace and\ntranquility, and our liberation and inexcitability.\n\n3. All these imaginary sights vanish from our view, at the suppression\nof our imagination of them; just as the want of ventilation in the\nwinds, reduces them to the level of the one common, and calm still air.\n\n4. The enlightened man remaining unmoved as a stone, or moving\nquietly in his conduct in life (_i.e._ who is ever unruffled in his\ndisposition), is verily said to have his clear liberation.\n\n5. Look at yogis like ourselves, O R\u00e1ma, that having attained this\nstate of liberation, have been cleansed from all our iniquities; and\nare now set at quiet rest, even in the conduct of our worldly affairs.\n\n6. Know the great gods Brahm\u00e1, Vishnu and others, to have been situated\nin this state of quiet and freedom, that they are remaining as pure\nintelligences, even while discharging the offices of their godship.\n\n7. Do you, O R\u00e1ma, attain the enlightenment of holy sages, and remain\nas still as a stone like ourselves.\n\n8. R\u00e1ma replied:--I see this world as a formless void, situated in\nthe infinite vacuity of Brahma; it is an uncreated and unsubstantial\nnihility, and with all its visibility, it is an invisible nothing.\n\n9. It is as the appearance of water in the mirage, and as a whirlpool\nin the ocean; its glare is as glitter gold in the dust, and of\nsands in the sandy shores of seas in sunshine.\n\n10. Vasishtha said:--R\u00e1ma! if you have become so enlightened and\nintelligent, then I will tell you more for the edification of your\nunderstanding; and put some questions for your answer to them, in order\nto remove my doubts regarding them.\n\n11. Tell me, how can the world be a nullity, when it shines so very\nbrightly all about and above our heads; and how can all these things,\nwhich are so resplendent to sight, and always perceptible _to_ our\nsenses.\n\n12. R\u00e1ma replied:--The world was never created in the beginning, nor\nwas anything ever produced at any time, it is therefore as nil as the\noffspring of an unprolific woman and a creation of our imagination only.\n\n13. It is true that there is no result without its cause, or that\nnothing comes from nothing, but can be the cause of the world when it\nis a nullity, and a production of our error only.\n\n14. The immutable and everlasting deity, cannot be the creator, without\nchanging itself to a finite form; how can therefore be there a cause of\nthis frail and finite form?\n\n15. It is the unknown and nameless Brahma, that shows himself as the\ncause of the world, which having proceeded from him is his very self,\nnor does the word world bear any other sense at all (nor it can be made\nto bear any other sense).\n\n16. The first intelligence named as the God Brahm\u00e1, rises from and\nabides for a little while, that unknown and nameless category of the\nuniversal spirit, as the conscious soul and having a spiritual body.\n(This is called the _j\u00edv\u00e1tm\u00e1_ or the living soul with a personal body\nof it).\n\n17. It then comes to see on a sudden, the luminaries of the sun and\nmoon and the heavenly hosts, rising in the infinity of the Divine Mind,\nand thinks a small moment as a long year as its reverie of a dream.\n(The Morning and evening of the creation of Brahm\u00e1, occupying many a\nyear of mortals).\n\n18. It then perceived the ideas of space and time, together with those\nof their divisions and motions also; and the whole universe appearing\nto its sight, in the vast immensity of vacuity: (of the Divine Mind).\n\n19. Upon the completion of the false world in this manner, its false\ncontriver the _soi-disant_ Brahm\u00e1, was employed in wandering all over\nthe world as his creation.\n\n20. So the living soul of every body, being deluded by its mistaken\nconception of the world as a positive reality, traverses up and down\nand all about it, in its repeated wanderings amidst its false utopia.\n\n21. And though the events of life, takes place according to the wishes\nof the soul; yet these are mere accidents of chance; and it is a\nmistake to think them as permanent result of fixed laws.\n\n22. Because it is as wrong to suppose the substantiality of the world,\nand the permanency of the events; as to grant the birth of a child\nborn of a barren woman, and the feeding of it with the powder of the\npulverized air.\n\n23. Nothing can be positively affirmed or denied, regarding the\nexistence of the world; except that whatever it is, it is no other than\nthe diffusion of the all pervasive spirit of the Eternal one.\n\n24. The world is as clear as the transparent atmosphere, and as solid\nas the density of a rock; it is as mute and still as a stone, and quite\nindestructible in its nature.\n\n25. The world is originally ideal, from the ideas of the eternal mind;\nand then it is spiritual, from the pervasion of the all pervading\nspirit of Vir\u00e1t; it is thus a mere void, appearing as a solid body to\nus.\n\n26. Thus Brahma being the great vacuum and its fulness, where is any\nother thing as the world in it, the whole is a dead calm as quietus,\nand a void devoid of its beginning and end (_i.e._ a round sphere).\n\n27. As the waves have been ever heaving and diving, in the bosom of\nthe waters of the deep; and as the waves are not distinct from those\nwaters, so the worlds rolling in the breast of the vacuous Brahma, are\nno other than the selfsame essence of Brahma himself.\n\n28. The few that are versed in their superior or esoteric, as well as\nin the inferior or exoteric knowledge; live as long as they live and\nthen dive at last in this Supreme, as drops of water mix into the sea.\n\n29. The exoteric (or phenomenal) world, abides in the esoteric (or\nthe noumenal) Brahma; and is of the same transcendent nature as the\nDivine Mind; for it is never possible for the gross, changeful and\ntransitional nature, to subsist in the pure, unchanged and quiet state\nof the deity.\n\n30. For who that knows the nature of dream as false, and that of mirage\nas a fallacy can ever believe them as realities; so any one that knows\nthe visible Nature to be of the nature of Brahma, can ever take it for\ndull and gross material substance. (Nature being one with its God, is\nequally of a spiritual nature).\n\n31. The enlightened sage, that has the esoteric knowledge of the world,\nand reflects it in its spiritual sense; cannot be misled to view it in\nits gross (material) light, as the holy man that tastes ambrosia, is\nnever inclined to drink the impure liquor of wine.\n\n32. He who remains in his _Nirv\u00e1na_ meditation, by reverting his view\nfrom the sight of the visibles, to the excogitation of his self; and\nrepresses his mind from the thoughts of thinkables, he is verily seated\nin the tranquility of Supreme spirit.\n\n33. Vasishtha said:--If the visible creation is situated in\nBrahma--their cause and origin, as the germ or sprout of a plant\nis seated in its producing seed; how then can you ignore the\nsubstantiality or distinction of either of them from their originating\nsource the seed or God (who is said in the sruti, as the seed of the\narbor of the world,--sans\u00e1ramahir\u00fapav\u00edja &c.).\n\n34. R\u00e1ma replied:--The germ does seem to be seated or situated in the\nseed (as a separate or different substance); but as it is produced\nfrom the essence of the seed, it appears to be the same substance with\nitself. (Were it not so, the germ would become another plant than that\nof the seed).\n\n35. If the world as it appears to us is inherent in Brahma, then it\nmust be of the same essence and nature as Brahma; and these being\neternal and imperishable in Brahma, needs have the world to be so also\n(and not of the seed and sprout, or the begetter and begotten).\n\n36. We have neither seen nor ever heard, that any finite, formal\nor perishable, has ever proceeded from an infinite, formless and\nimperishable cause (therefore this world is not as it appears to us).\n\n37. It is impossible for a formless thing, to remain in any form or\nother whatsoever; as it is never possible for an atom, to contain a\nmountain in its bosom.\n\n38. It is the voice of an idiot only who says, that the stupendous\nworld with its gigantic form, abides in the formless abyss of Brahma;\nas bright gems are contained in the hollow of a box or basket. (The\nbasket has a base to support any thing, whereas the vacuity of Brahma\nhas no basis at all).\n\n39. It does not befit any body to say that, the transcendence and\ntranquility of God, supports the material and moving world upon it; nor\nthat a corporeal body (the corpus mundi), is an imperishable thing (as\nthe divine spirit).\n\n40. Our perception of the world having a form, is no proof of its\nreality; because there is no truth whatever in the many curious forms,\nthat present themselves before us in our dreams. (This is a refutation\nof the Buddhists\u2019 reliableness in perception).\n\n41. It is an unprecedented dream, that presents us the sight of the\nworld, of which we had no innate or preconceived idea in us; while our\nusual dreams are commonly known, to be the reproduced representations,\nof our former impressions and perceptions, and the results of our past\nremembrances of things &c.\n\n42. It is not a day dream as some would have it to be, because the\nnight dreams disappear in the day time; but how does a dreamer of his\nown funeral at night, come to see himself alive upon his waking in the\nday? (This continuous sight of the world day by day, is not comparable\nto a transient dream by day or night, but a permanent one in the\nperson of the Great God himself).\n\n43. Others again maintain that, no bodiless things can appear in our\ndream, since we dream of certain bodies only; but this tenet has no\ntruth in it, since we often dream of, as well as see the apparitions of\nbodiless ghosts both by day and night.\n\n44. Therefore the world is not as false as a dream, but an impression\nsettled like a dream in our very conscious soul; it is the formless\ndeity, that manifests itself in the various forms of this world, to our\nunderstandings.\n\n45. As our intellect remains alone and in itself, in the forms and\nother things, appearing as dreams unto us in our sleep; so doth Brahma\nremain solely in himself in the form of the world we see: for God being\nwholly free and apart from all, can not have any accompaniment with him.\n\n46. There is nothing that is either coexistent or inexistent in him\n(that is what can be either affirmed or denied of him); because we have\nno concept or conception of him ourselves, nor do we any notion\nor idea we are to form of him.\n\n47. What is this nameless thing, that we can not know in our\nunderstanding; it is known in our consciousness (_i.e._ we are\nconscious of it), but it is in _esse_ or _non-esse_, we know nothing of\n(this world).\n\n48. It is an inexistence appearing as existent, as also an existence\nseeming to be unexistent; all things are quite manifest in it at all\ntimes and in all forms (but how and whence they are is quite unknown).\n\n49. It is the development of Brahma in Brahma, as the sky is evolved in\nvacuity; for nothing can be found to fill the vacuum of Brahma, except\nBrahma himself (or his own essence).\n\n50. There I, my seeing and my sight of the world, is all mere fallacy;\nit is the calm and quiet extension of the Divine intellect only, that\nfills the infinite vacuity of his own spirit, and naught beside.\n\n51. As the \u00e6rial castle of our imagination, has no building nor reality\nin it; so is this world but a calm and quiet vacuity, and unfailing\nvacant ideality.\n\n52. It is a boundless space full with the essence of the Supreme\nspirit, it is without its beginning and end, wholly inscrutable in its\nnature, and quite calm and quiet in its aspect.\n\n53. I have known my own state also, to be without its birth and death,\nand as calm and quiet, as that of the unborn and immortal Brahma\nhimself; and I have come to know myself (_i.e._ my soul) also, to be as\nformless and undefinable, as the Supreme soul or spirit.\n\n54. I have now given expression, to all that I find to be impressed in\nmy consciousness; just as whatever is contained in the seed, the same\ncomes to sprout forth out of it.\n\n55. I know only the knowledge that I bear in my consciousness, and\nnothing about the unity or duality (of the creation and creator);\nbecause the question of unity and duality rises only from imagination\n(of the one or other).\n\n56. All these knowing and living liberated men, that have been\nliberated from the burthen of life by their knowledge of truth; are\nsitting silent here, and devoid of all their earthly cares, like the\nempty air in the infinite vacuity.\n\n57. All their efforts of mixing with the busy bustle of the world,\nare here at an end; and they are sitting here as quiet and silent as\nyon mute and motionless picture on the wall, medalling on the bright\nregions in their minds.\n\n58. They are as still as the statues engraven in a rock, or as people\ndescribed in fancy tales, to dwell in the \u00e6rial city built by Sambara\nin air (_i.e._ as the inhabitants dwelling in the Elysian of Plato, or\nin the utopia of Sir Thomas Moore); or as the airy figures in our dream.\n\n59. This world is verily a phantom appearing in our dream of the\ncreation; it is a structure without its base, and a figure intangible\nto our touch. Where then is its reality? (Its tangibleness is a\ndeception of our sense).\n\n60. The world appears as a positive reality to the blinded ignorant,\nbut it found to be a negative nullity by the keen-sighted sage;\nwho sees it in the light of Brahma and a manifestation of himself,\nand as still as the calm air, reposing in the quiet vacuity of that\ntranscendent spirit.\n\n61. All these existences, with their moving and unmoving beings, and\nourselves also, are mere void and vacant nullities, in the knowledge of\nthe discerning and philosophic mind.\n\n62. I am void and so are you too, and the world beside but mere blanks;\nthe intellect is a void also, and by having all several voids in\nitself, it forms the immense intellectual vacuum, which is the sole\nobject of our adoration (being as infinite and eternal, as well as all\npervading and containing all as the supreme spirit).\n\n63. Being thus seated with my knowledge of the infinite vacuity of\nBrahma, I take thee also, O thou best of biped beings, as indistinct\nfrom the knowable One, who is one and same with the all comprehending\nvacuum, and so make my obeisance to thee.\n\n64. It is from the all comprehensiveness (_i.e._ omniscience) of the\nvacuous intellect, that this world rises and sets in it by turns; it is\nas clear as the transparent air, and has no other cause of it but the\nundulation of the same.\n\n65. This hypostasis of Brahma is beyond all other existences, and\nabove the reach of all s\u00e1stras, it is by attaining to this state of\ntranscendentalism, that one becomes as pure and superfine as empty air.\n\n66. There is nothing as myself, my feet and hands, or this pot or\naught else that I bear, as any material existence; all is air and\nempty and inane as air, and knowing this, let us turn ourselves to our\nairy intellects only. (_i.e._ I think ourselves as intellectual and\nspiritual beings only, in utter disregard of our bodies and earthly\nthings).\n\n67. You have shewn me sir, the nullity of the world and the vanity of\nall worldly things; and the truth of this doctrine is evident in the\nlight of our spiritual knowledge, in defiance of the sophistry of our\nopponents.\n\n68. The sophist that discomfits the silent sage with his sophistry, can\nnever expect to see the light of spiritual knowledge to gleam upon him\n(spirituality is got by silent meditation and not by wrangling).\n\n69. The Being that is beyond our perception and conception, and\nwithout any designation or indication; can be only known in our\nconsciousness of him, and not by any kind of reasoning or argumentation.\n\n70. The Being that is without any attribute, or sight or symbol of his\nnature, is purely vacuous and entirely inconceivable by us, save by\nmeans of our spiritual light of him.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXXVI.\n\nSTORY OF A WOOD-CUTTER AND HIS GEM.\n\n Argument:--Illustration of the efficacy of knowledge derived from\n Books and Preceptors. In the story of the Wood-cutter, and his\n obtaining a precious Gem.\n\n\nV\u00e1lm\u00edki relates:--After the lotus-eyed R\u00e1ma, had said these words, he\nfell into a trance and remained silent, with his mind reposing in the\nstate of supreme bliss. (The ecstatic state of rapture and transport of\nthe devout).\n\n2. He felt himself supremely blest at his repose in the Supreme spirit,\nand then awaking after a while from his holy trance, he wistfully asked\nhis sagely preceptor, saying:--\n\n3. R\u00e1ma said:--O Venerable sir, that art the dispeller of my doubts, as\nthe clear autumn is the scatterer of dark clouds; that the doubt which\nhad so long rankled in my breast, has at last quite set at rest.\n\n4. I find this knowledge of mine to be the best and greatest of all,\nand capable of saving me from the boisterous ocean of this world; it\ntranscends all other doctrines, which are mere verbiology to ensnare\nthe heedless minds of men.\n\n5. If all this is certainly the very Brahma, and our consciousness of\nhim; then O Venerable sir, he must be unspeakable and inexpressible in\nwords, even by the most learned and wisest of men.\n\n6. Remaining thus in the meditation of the knowable One, and without\nany desire in our minds of any earthly good; we are enabled to attain\nthe consciousness of our highest bliss (The Tur\u00edya state), which is\nunattainable by learning and unutterable in words. (The divine state is\nonly known one\u2019s self, but never to be spoken or expressed).\n\n7. How can this certain and invariable state of felicity, be obtained\nfrom the dogmas of the s\u00e1stras; which are at variance with each other,\nand are employed in the enumeration of their several categories. (The\never varying s\u00e1stras cannot give us any knowledge of this invariable\nfelicity).\n\n8. We can gain no true knowledge from the tenets of the different\ns\u00e1stras, that are best but contradictory of one another; it is\ntherefore in vain to expect any benefit from them, that are based upon\nmere theories of our pretended leaders.\n\n9. Tell me therefore, O Venerable sir, whether it is of any good to us,\nto learn the doctrines of the s\u00e1stras or attend to the teaching of our\npreceptors (when our true knowledge is derived from within ourselves:\n_i.e._ from our intuition, self-consciousness and our personal\nexperiences).\n\n10. Vasishtha replied:--So it is, O mighty armed R\u00e1ma, the s\u00e1stras\nare not the means to divine knowledge; those being profuse in wordy\ntorrents, and this beyond the reach of words.\n\n11. Yet hear me to tell you, O thou best of Raghu\u2019s race, how the\ndictates of the s\u00e1stras and the lectures of your preceptors, are of\nsome avail towards the improvement of your understanding.\n\n12. There lived in a certain place some wood-cutters, who had been ever\nunfortunate and miserable in this lives (or who were miserably poor\nall their lives). They pined and faded away in their poverty, like the\nwithering trees in summer heat.\n\n13. Excessive poverty made them cover themselves with patched up rags,\nand they were as emaciated in their despair as the fading lotus flowers\nfor want of their natal water.\n\n14. Being parched by famine, and despairing of their lives; they only\nthought of the means of filling their bellies.\n\n15. In this state of their distress and despondence, one thought\ngleamed in their minds; and it was to carry the woods day by day to the\ntown, and to live upon the profits of their sale as fuel.\n\n16. Thus determined they went to the forest to fell down the woods,\nbecause any plan that is hit upon in distress, is best to be availed\nof, for the preservation of life.\n\n17. Thus they continued daily to go to the forest to fell the woods,\nand fetch them to the town for sale; and to fill their bellies and\nsupport their bodies with the sale proceeds thereof.\n\n18. It happened that the skirts of the forest whither they went, were\nfull of woods with hordes of treasures, consisting of gold and precious\ngems, lying hidden under the trees, and also exposed to view.\n\n19. It then turned out that some of the log-bearers, happened by their\ngood luck to espy the brilliant gems, which they took with them to\ntheir homes from the forest.\n\n20. Some saw the valuable sandalwood trees, and others beheld beautiful\nflowers in some place; some found fruit trees somewhere, all which they\ntook and sold for their food and livelihood.\n\n21. Some men of dull understanding, slighted all these goods; and kept\ncollecting the blocks of wood, which they bore to the way side of the\nforest, and there sold at trifling prices. (Nothing is valued at home\nunless it is taken to a distance).\n\n22. Among all these wood men, who were employed in common in collection\nof woods, some of them happened by their good luck, to find some\nprecious gems there, which set them at ease for every care.\n\n23. Thus amongst all of these that had been toiling and moiling in the\nsame field of labour; now it happened to obtain their desired boon the\nPhilosopher\u2019s gem. (That converts all things to gold, and is desired by\nall but found by few).\n\n24. Now they having obtained the desirable gem, which bestowed upon\nthem all the blessings of affluence and prosperity; they became\npreeminently happy with their fortune, and remained quite content in\nthe very woods.\n\n25. So the seekers and sellers of worthless wooden blocks, being\ngainers of the all bounteous gem of their heart\u2019s desire (Chint\u00e1mani);\nremained happily with themselves, as the gods dwelling together in\nharmony in the Elysian field.\n\n26. Thus the Kir woodmen, having obtained their best gains of what\nforms the pith and gist of every good in the main, remained in quiet\nand quite content in themselves, and passed their days without any\nfear or grief, in the enjoyment of their everlasting equanimity and\nfelicity.\n\n27. This world is compared to the wilderness, and all its busy people\nare as the day-labouring Kiri foresters, daily toiling and moiling in\ntheir hard work, for their help of daily bread. Some amongst them are\nhappy to find the precious treasure of true knowledge, which gives them\nthe real bliss of life and lasting peace of mind.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXXVII.\n\nON THE EXCELLENCE OF LEARNING.\n\n Argument:--Study of the s\u00e1stras whether for temporal ends or\n ultimate bliss tends mainly to the edification of the Mind.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma said:--Do thou, O greatest of sages, deign to give me the best\ntreasures of knowledge, as the wood-cutter obtained their precious\ntreasures of the Philosopher\u2019s stones, and whereby I may attain to the\nfull, perfect and indubitable knowledge of all things.\n\n2. Vasishtha replied:--The woodmen that I have mentioned bear allusion\nto all mankind in general and their great poverty that I have\ndescribed, refers to the extreme ignorance of men which is the cause of\nall their woe (three fold miseries--_tritapas_ of the body, mind and\nsoul, or of this world and the next. Gloss).\n\n3. The great forest which is said to be the place of their residence,\nis the vast wilderness of knowledge, which the human kind have to\ntraverse under the guidance of their preceptors and the s\u00e1stras; and\ntheir labour in felling and selling the wood for their daily food, is\nthe hard struggle of human kind in their life time for their simple\nfare and supportance.\n\n4. The unavaricious men that are unemployed in business, and are\nyet desirous of the enjoyments of life; are the persons that devote\nthemselves to the acquisition of learning. (Such is the literary body\nof students and scholars).\n\n5. And those people also, who pursue their callings for the provisions\nof life, and are dependents others for their supportance; become\nsuccessful in the acquirement of learning in their minds, by their\npractice of the precepts and studious habits.\n\n6. As the wood-cutters, who sought for the worthless wood at first,\nget the very valuable gems at last; so men prosecuting their studies\nfor a paltry maintenance and self supportance, succeed to gain divine\nknowledge at the end. (Secular knowledge often leads to the spiritual).\n\n7. There are some sceptics who say by way of derision, what is the good\nto be derived from poring upon books? but these have been found to have\nturned to true believers at last. (Those who came to deride, returned\nbelievers at the end and confessed the truth).\n\n8. Worldly men devoted to the objects of their fruition in life, and\nacquainted with the objects of mental and spiritual truths; coming\ndistrustfully to listen to the doctrines of the s\u00e1stras, have become\nfully convinced of their truths at last.\n\n9. Men are led away to many ways by the different tenets of the\ns\u00e1stras, and by direction of their various desires and inclinations;\nbut they come to meet at last in the same path of glory, as the gemming\nforest of the woodmen.\n\n10. He who is not inclined to the injury of others, but goes on in his\nown beaten course; is called the upright man, and it is his judgement\nwhich is sought and followed by every one.\n\n11. But men ignorant of truth, are dubious of the result of righteous\nconduct, in earning their livelihood; and are doubtful also of the\nbenefit, which is derived from the study of the s\u00e1stras. (Hence they\nfall to misconduct and neglect their studies also, in order to earn\ntheir bread by foul means).\n\n12. But men persisting in their righteousness, gain both their\nlivelihood and liberation at once; as the honest woodmen obtained their\nwood as well as the gems together, and in the same place.\n\n13. Among these some succeeded to get the sandal woods, and some to\ngain the precious gems, while others met with some common metals, and a\ngreat number of them, found the wood of the forest trees only. (So are\nour lots differently cast among different individuals, according to our\nrespective deserts).\n\n14. Some of us gain the objects of our desire, and some acquire riches\nor deeds of virtue and merit; others obtain their liberation; and\nattain their proficiency in the s\u00e1stras.\n\n15. Know, O R\u00e1ma, that the s\u00e1stras deal only with instructions for the\nacquirement of the triple blessings of our livelihood, riches and\nvirtue; but they give no direction for our knowing the supreme One,\nwho is inexpressible in words. (Because no word nor thought can ever\napproach to the unknowable One).\n\n16. The words and their significations (which are used in the s\u00e1stras),\nserve only to express the intelligible objects which are signified by\nthem, as the seasons denote the seasonal fruits and flowers which they\nbear; but the knowledge of the supreme being, is derived from one\u2019s\nintuition, and is felt in our consciousness alone.\n\n17. Divine knowledge is said in the s\u00e1stras, to transcend the knowledge\nof all other things; and the transparency of the Divine person,\nsurpasses the brightness of all objects, as the beauty of the female\nbody excels the lustre of the brightest gems. (The personal grace of\nfemales, transcends the beauty of all their decorations).\n\n18. The transcendental knowledge of the Deity, is not to be derived\nfrom the doctrine of the s\u00e1stras, nor from the teachings of our\npreceptors; it cannot be had by means of our gifts and charities; nor\nby divine service and religious observances, can we ever know the\nunknowable One.\n\n19. These and other acts and rites, are falsely said to be the causes\nof divine knowledge, which can never be attained by them; now attend\nto me, O R\u00e1ma, and I will tell you the way to your rest in the Supreme\nsoul.\n\n20. The study of the s\u00e1stras, serves of course to purify the mind\nfrom vulgar errors and prejudices; but is the want of desire or\naversion to worldly enjoyments, that makes the mind look within itself,\nwherein it sees clearly the image of God shining in it.\n\n21. This s\u00e1stra stablishes right understanding in lieu of ignorance,\nand this right reasoning serves to drive away all gross errors from the\nmind at once.\n\n22. The s\u00e1stra or learning serves principally to cleanse the mirror of\nthe mind, from its dross of errors at first, and then it purifies the\nperson of its possessor, by the force of its doctrines. (So the s\u00e1stra\nhas the power of purifying both the body and mind of the learned man).\n\n23. As the rising sun casts his image spontaneously, on the dark bosom\nof the ocean; so doth the luminary of s\u00e1stra or learning, shed of its\nown accord the bright light of truth, in the minds of ignorant.\n\n24. As the sun enlightens all objects, by his presence before them;\nso doth the light of learning illume the dark understandings of the\nilliterate, by its benign appearance therein.\n\n25. In this manner there is an intimate relation, between the learning\nderived from the s\u00e1stra, and the mind of the man that is desirous of\nhis liberation; in as much as the s\u00e1stra alone affords the knowledge of\nthe otherwise unknowable One to our minds.\n\n26. As the sight of the sun and the ocean, shows us the blue waters of\nthe one, turning to a bright expanse by the rays of the other; so the\ninstance of the s\u00e1stra and its doctrines, shows the enlightenment of\nhuman intellect by means of the other.\n\n27. As boys in their play with pebbles, rub them against one another\nin the water, and have their hands cleansed of dirt by abrasion of\nthe stones; so the discussion of the s\u00e1stras, clears the minds of the\ndisputants of their errors, by refutation of discordant opinions.\n\n28. So also do learned men, by their confutation of repugnant\ndoctrines, clear their minds of doubtful questions; and become\nperfected in forming right principles, and ascertaining the truth from\nfalsehood.\n\n29. The s\u00e1stras distil with sweetness of the holy texts, and infuse\nthe sweet balm of true knowledge into the mind; they are as profuse of\ndulcitude, as the sugarcane exudes with its saccharine juice, which is\nso delectable to taste.\n\n30. As the rays of sunlight falling on the walls of houses, become\nperceptible to us, by means of our visual organs; so the light of\nspiritual knowledge, pierces into the souls of men, by means of our\nhearing the s\u00e1stras through the medium of our ears.\n\n31. Learning acquired for the acquisition of the triple good of this\nworld, namely virtue, wealth and the objects of our desire; is no\nlearning at all without the knowledge of the s\u00e1stras leading to our\nliberation. Much learning both in theory and practice, is worth nothing\nwithout the salvation of our souls.\n\n32. That is the best learning, which gives us the knowledge of truth;\nand that is true knowledge, which causes our equanimity in all states\nof our being; and that is called perfect equanimity, which produces our\nhypnotism in waking (_i.e._ whereby we may sleep in insensibility over\nthe waking and tumultuous world).\n\n33. Thus are all these blessings obtained from learning of the s\u00e1stras,\ntherefore let every one devote himself to the study of the s\u00e1stras with\nall diligence.\n\n34. Hence know, O R\u00e1ma! that it is the study of the s\u00e1stras, and\nmeditation of their recondite meanings; together with one\u2019s attendance\non his preceptor, and audience of his lectures and counsels, as well\nby his equanimity, and observance of his vows and discipline, that he\ncan attain his supreme bliss, in the everlasting God, who is beyond all\nworldly things, and is the supreme lord God of all.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXXVIII.\n\nEXCELLENCE OF UNIVERSAL TOLERATION.\n\n Argument:--Sama-darsana or equanimity agreeing with stoic\n fortitude under all the various shades of its meaning,\n elaborately treated here.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--Hear me R\u00e1ma, to tell you again for the\nperfection of your understanding (after what I have said already in\npraise of the virtue of equanimity); because the repetition of a\nlesson, serves to impress it the more in the memory of inattentive\npersons.\n\n2. R\u00e1ma! I have told you before about the existence of the world, after\nI had related to you in length regarding its creation or production;\nwhereby you have come to know, that both the appearance and subsistence\nof the world (_i.e._ its coming to and being in existence), are mere\nfallacies of our understanding.\n\n3. I have next explained to you also, in the Upasama-Prakarana or my\nlecture on Insouciance, of the necessity of observing and maintaining\na total indifference in regard to the whole creation (which is here\nrepeated as leading to our _nirv\u00e1na_ or lukewarmness in this our living\nstate).\n\n4. In my discourse on indifference, I have described to you the\ndifferent stages of nonchalance; the attainment of the highest pitch\nof which, will conduce ultimately to your obtaining the blissfulness\nof the _nirv\u00e1na_ numbness, which is treated of in this book on\n_an\u00e6sthesia_. (From the stage of Upasama or allaying of all excitements\nto that of _upas\u00e1nti_ or absence of excitability, there are some\nintermediate states spoken of before).\n\n5. You shall have here to hear (or learn) from me, regarding the manner\nin which the learned are to conduct themselves in this phenomenal\nworld, after they have learnt and obtained, whatever there is to be\nknown and obtainable herein (_i.e._ after their attainment of divine\nknowledge and wisdom).\n\n6. A man having received his birth in this world, should habituate\nhimself from his boyhood, to view the phenomenals as they are of\nthemselves, and without any concern with himself; in order to have\nhis security and happiness apart from all others. (_i.e._ Constrain\nyourself to yourself, and without any concern of yours with any).\n\n7. Regard all in the one and same light with yourself, and observe\na universal benevolence towards all beings, and then placing your\nreliance in your own equanimity, conduct yourself safely and securely\nevery where.\n\n8. Know the plan of your even-mindedness, to be productive of the\nfruits of purest and most delicious taste; and bearing the blossoms of\nunbounded prosperity, and the flowers of our unfading good fortune.\n\n9. Meekness of disposition, yields the fruit of universal benevolence,\nand makes the prosperity of the whole world wait at its service.\n(Blessed are the meek; for they shall enjoy all the blessing &c.).\n\n10. Neither the possession of a kingdom on earth, nor the enjoyment\nof the best beauties herein; can yield that undecaying and essential\nhappiness, which is derived from the equanimity of the meek.\n\n11. The utmost limit of a cool disposition, and the entire want of all\nanxious cares, are the two antidotes that set at naught the fervour and\nvapours of sorrow from the human mind.\n\n12. It is very rare to meet a person, amidst the spheres of all these\nworlds; who is fraught with the ambrosia of cool insouciance, who is\nfriendly to his enemies and whose enemies are his friends, and who\nlooks on all alike as he does to himself.\n\n13. The mind of the enlightened man, shines as brightly as the luminous\nmoon; and dazzles with drops of ambrosial dews; the sages all lived to\ndrink the cooling draught of immortality, as you learn from the lives\nof the royal sage Janaka and others of immortal fame.\n\n14. The man practising his demureness, has his faults described as his\nqualities, his sorrows seem as his pleasure (_i.e._ he rejoices in his\nmisery); and his death is eternal life unto him.\n\n15. S\u00e1myam or stoicism is ever accompanied, with a good grace, good lot\nand placidness; all of which are constant attendants on the stoic sage,\nas faithful wives fondly cling to the sides of their beloved husbands.\n\n16. Equanimity is the perpetual prosperity of the soul, and not the\ntransitory hilarity of the mind; therefore there is no treasure (_i.e._\nspiritual bliss) whatsoever, which is a stranger to the meekness of\nspirit.\n\n17. He that is honest in all his dealings, and steady in his own\nprofessions; and liberal in his minds (_i.e._ taking no heed of the\nfaults of others); are men as valuable as richest gems, and are deemed\nand desired by all as gods upon earth. (Because men with godly virtues,\nare deemed and deified as gods).\n\n18. The even minded man, that is righteous and upright in all his\ndoings and dealings, who is magnanimous in his soul and benevolent\nin his mind; such a man is neither burnt by fire, nor ever soiled or\nsullied by water (_i.e._ nothing can alter the even tenor of his mind\nand the smoothness of his conduct).\n\n19. Who can foil that man that does what is right, and observes things\nin their true light; who is not susceptible of joy or grief (but goes\non in the even course of his life).\n\n20. The righteous and unflinching man, is relied upon and esteemed\nby all his friends and enemies also; he is honoured by his king and\nmaster, and loved by all wisemen with whom he has any dealing.\n\n21. The wise and even sighted men are of indifferent minds, and do\nnot try to flee from evil, nor rejoice to receive any good; they are\ncontent with whatever comes to pass upon them, as aught of good or bad,\nthey care for naught.\n\n22. These meek minded men are unmindful of any good or desirable thing,\nwhich they may happen either to lose or leave from them; because they\nhave to resort to the happy state of their equanimity (Samat\u00e1 or stoic\nsameness); of which no calamity or chance can deprive them.\n\n23. Men enjoying the felicity of equanimity, laugh to scorn at the\ntribulations of the world; and live uninjured under all the varying\ncircumstances of life; they are venerated by the gods also, for the\ninvariable samat\u00e1 or sameness of their minds, (as those of the gods\nthemselves).\n\n24. If the (unfavorable) course of events, ever happened to ruffle the\ncountenance of the forbearing man; yet the inward equanimity of his\nmind, serves to shed the ambrosial beams, of a placid moon light within\nhimself.\n\n25. Whatever the even minded man acts or does for himself, and\nwhatsoever he says in opprobrium of the misdeeds of others; are all\nlauded with applause by the majority of men (who like to see the\ngoodness of others, and to learn of and correct their own faults).\n\n26. Whatever good or evil is known or seen to be done by the impartial\nobserver, at any time whether past or present; are all approved of by\nthe public (under the impression of their being done for common good).\n\n27. The man that sees all things in the same light (of indifference),\nis never displeased or dejected in his countenance at any calamity or\ndanger, that may betide him at any time.\n\n28. The prince Sibi of old, is recorded in history to have passed\npieces of flesh from his own body, and to have fed a hawk therewith,\nin order to save the life of a captive pigeon from his claws. (This\nis an instance of samadristi or fellow feeling even towards the brute\ncreation).\n\n29. Again mind the impassible prince, who did not sink into despondence\nseeing his beloved consort to be maltreated before his sight. (This is\nan instance of unimpressible fortitude).\n\n30. Mind also how the king of _Trigarta_, offered his only son who\nwas accomplished and successful in all his desires to the horrible\n_R\u00e1kshasa_; upon his being vanquished by the fiend, at a certain wager\nhe had laid with him.\n\n31. Look at the great king Janaka, how he remained undismayed and\nundejected, at the burning of his well decorated city of Mithila.\n\n32. Look at the quiet and submissive prince of S\u00e1lyadesa, how he\ncalmly struck off his head from his body, as if it were the plucking\noff of a lotus leaf or flower from its stem, in order to satisfy the\ndemand of a deity for the same.\n\n33. The Sauv\u00edra sovereign, who had won the big Air\u00e1vata elephant of\nthe god Indra, in a combat with him; made at last a gift of him to the\nvery god, with as much unconcern, as one offers a heap of white kundu\nflowers, or huge heaps of rotten straws upon the sacrificial fire.\n\n34. You have heard how the elephant named kundapa, employed his trunk\nin sympathy to the Br\u00e1hman\u2019s kine, in lifting them from being plunged\nin the mud; and afterwards devoted his body to the service of the\nBr\u00e1hman; wherefore he was taken up to heaven in a celestial car.\n\n35. Let your continued observance of toleration, preserve you from acts\nof intolerance, which tend at best to the oppression of others; and\nknow that the spirit of intolerance, is as the goblin of the kadamba\nforest (whose business was the havoc and depredation of all living\nbeings). (_i.e._ By want of forbearance, you make yourself an enemy to\nall, and make them as enemies to you).\n\n36. Remember the young and gentle Jadabharata, who by the natural\nhebetude of his mind, devoured the firebrand that was thrown into his\nalmspot, thinking as a piece of meat, and without any injury to himself\n(To the meek and tolerant, a furnace of fire, becomes a bed of roses\nand flowers).\n\n37. Think of the soberminded kura, who notwithstanding his following\nthe profession of a huntsman all his lifetime, was at last translated\nto heaven, and placed by the souls of the righteous men after his\ndemise.\n\n38. Think of the listlessness and want of concupiscence, in the person\nof the royal sage Kapardana, who being seated in the garden of paradise\nin his youth, and beset by celestial damsels all about, felt no desire\nfor any of them.\n\n39. Know how many princes and Lords of peoples have from the\nunperturbed apathy of their souls, resigned their realms and society\nof mankind, and betaken themselves to lonely forests and solitary\ncaves of Vindhyan Mountains, and there spent their lives in motionless\ntorpidity.\n\n40. Think of the great sages and saints, and of divine and devoted\nadepts, who were adored by even the gods, for the steadiness of their\nholy devotion, that have passed away in the observance of their rigid\nand unruffled vows of an universal indifference.\n\n41. Call to your mind the instances of many a monarch, of ordinary men\nand of base and mean huntsmen also, that have been honoured in all ages\nand countries, for their observance of an unimpressed equality in all\nstates and circumstances of their lives.\n\n42. All intelligent men strictly observed the rule, of preserving\ntheir equanimity in their course through life; whether it be for the\nachievement of their acts for this life or the next, as also for the\nsuccess of their understandings of every kind.\n\n43. They neither long for longevity nor desire their death in\ndifficulties; but live as long as they have to live, and act as they\nare called to act, without any grudge or murmur.\n\n44. It is the business of the wiseman, to conduct himself in the career\nof his life, with a contented mind and placid countenance, both in his\nfavourable and unfavourable circumstances, as well as in the happiness\nor misery of himself or others.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CLXXXXIX.\n\nSTATE OF LIVING LIBERATED MAN.\n\n Argument:--The liberated man neither gains nor loses anything,\n by his observance or neglect of the acts of life; and yet he\n is enjoined to act in conformity with the prescribed rules of\n conduct of his society and country.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma said:--Tell me sir, why the wise and liberated man is not freed\nfrom his subjection to the prescribed rules of conduct, when his soul\nis beatified with the spiritual light, and his mind is emancipated from\nall earthly cares.\n\n2. Vasishtha replied:--The observance and avoidance of all ritual and\npious acts, are equal and of no avail to the truly enlightened man;\nwho is indifferent to aught of good or evil to his life (_i.e._ who\nis neither solicitous to have anything desirable or leave what is\nunfavourable to him into the world).\n\n3. There is nothing whatever in this frail world, which may be\ndesirable to the man of right understanding, not aught of positive\nevil, which deserves the avoidance and abhorrence of the wise man.\n\n4. The wise man derives no positive nor permanent good, by his doing of\nany act prescribed by custom or usage; nor does he lose anything by his\nneglect of them; wherefore it is best for him to stand in the middle\ncourse, and according to the common rules of society and his country.\n\n5. As long as there is life in the body, it is called a living body and\nhas its motion also; therefore measure your movements according to the\nbreathings of your life, nor accelerate nor slacken them beyond their\njust measure (_i.e._ neither outrun thy breath, nor halt in thy course).\n\n6. If it is equal to any one, to walk either by this way or that to his\njourney\u2019s end, yet it is much better for him, to walk by the beaten\npath, than in a strange and unknown one. (So if it be the same thing to\nsleep at home or abroad; yet it must be safer and more comfortable to\nevery one to sleep at his own lodge than elsewhere).\n\n7. Whatever actions are done at any time, with meekness and mildness\nof disposition, and with a placid frankness of the mind, is ever held\nas perfectly pure and contrite in its nature, and never blameable in\nanywise.\n\n8. We have seen many wise, learned and farsighted men, to have\nconducted themselves very honorably and blamelessly in this world,\nwhich is full of faults and pitfalls, and beset by traps and snares on\nevery way.\n\n9. Every one is employed with perfect compliance of his mind, in\ndischarging the duties of the particular sphere in which he is placed;\nsome commencing their career in life, in the state of householdership\nand others ascending gradually to state of living liberation (when they\nare not exempted from observances of particular duties also).\n\n10. There are many wise and well discerning kings and princes, like\nyourself and those sitting in this assembly who are vigilantly employed\nin the ruling of their respective states, without their attachment or\ntenacity to them, and without their desire of reaping any fruition from\nthem, and by way of the disinterested discharge of duty.\n\n11. There are some that follow the usages, according to the true sense\nof the Vedas, and take their food from what is left after their daily\nofferings to the sacrificial fire. (The early Aryans ever fed upon\ncooked food, after their first offerings to the gods by their mouth of\nthe fire (_Agner vaidevanam Mukham_)).\n\n12. All men belonging to any of the four classes, are employed in the\nobservance of their respective rites and duties, and in the acts of the\nworship of the gods, and in their meditations with different ends and\nviews (Kamya-karma).\n\n13. Some men of magnanimous minds, and higher aims of future liberation\nor _Moksha_, have renounced all their ritual acts _karma k\u00e1nda_; and\nremain inactive as ignorant people, with their spiritual knowledge of\nthe only One.\n\n14. Some are seen to be sitting silent and insensitive, in their\nposture of deep and unbroken meditation; in dreary and dismal deserts\nuntraversed by the deer and wild beasts; and in distant and lovely\nsolitudes, where no trace of a human being was never seen even in a\ndream.\n\n15. Some are found to resort to some sacred place of pilgrimage, and\nthere to perform their acts for future rewards; while others are known\nto recline in some holy hermitage or sacred shrine of saints, and there\nto pass their lives in the practice of resignation and indifference and\nquite unknown to men.\n\n16. Many are seen to leave their own houses, and quit their native\ncountries, in order to avoid the enmity and scorn of their fellow\ncountrymen; and betake themselves to other lands, where they settle as\nstrangers.\n\n17. There are many who being dissatisfied with their families, forsake\ntheir company and desert their homes; and rove about as wanderers, from\nforest to forest, over hills and dales, and cities and towns, without\nbeing settled any where.\n\n18. How many are there that travel to the great city of Benares, and\nto the holy city of Allahabad and visit the holy hills and cities, and\nthe sacred shrine of Badarik\u00e1srama (for performance of their acts of\nrighteousness there).\n\n19. How many are seen to resort the holy places at S\u00e1lagrama, and\nto the sacred cell in Kalapagr\u00e1ma, how many are on their way to the\nholy city of Mathura, and the sacred hill at Kalinjar.\n\n20. See the numbers of pilgrims thronging in the woodlands on Mahendra\nmountains, and upon table lands of Gandham\u00e1dana hills; see also the\npilgrims on the plains of Dardura hills; as those also upon the level\nlands of Sahya Mountains.\n\n21. See the pilgrims thronging on the craigs of the Vindhyan range,\nand those dwelling in the hollows of the Malaya Mountains; see them\nthat dwell in the happy groves of Kail\u00e1sa, and those in the caverns of\nRikshavata mounts.\n\n22. In these as well as many other holy places and mounts, you will\nfind a great many hermits and far-sighted devotees dwelling in peace,\nand wholly devoted to their holy devotion.\n\n23. Those among them that have become _sannyasins_, are deserters of\ntheir prescribed duties, while they that are _Brahmacharins_, are\nstrict observers of the law and their sacred rites: but those that have\nthe faith of Buddha, are apostates from the holy faith, and fanatics in\ntheir practices.\n\n24. Some of these have left their native homes, and others have quitted\ntheir natal lands altogether; some have their settled habitations in\nsome place, and others leading their nomadic lives from place to place.\n\n25. Among these, O R\u00e1ma, that dwell in the sublunar sphere of this\nglobe, as also among them that live at the antipodes, and are known as\ndaityas:--\n\n26. Some are of clear understandings, and well acquainted with the\ncivil laws of their society; some are of enlightened understanding, and\nothers again are acquainted with the past, and have a foresight of the\nfuture.\n\n27. Some are of unenlightened understandings, and are always in\nsuspense, and suspicion of their minds; they are addicted to vice, and\nunable to govern themselves, are always under the government of others.\n\n28. Some there are who are half-enlightened, and proud withal of their\nknowledge of truth; they break loose from the observance of customary\nduties, and are not yet the esoteric yogi or spiritualist.\n\n29. Thus among these great multitudes of men, that are wading in the\nvast ocean of life, every one is striving to get the end, according to\nhis different aim and object.\n\n30. But it is neither one\u2019s confining himself at home, or remaining\nin his native country, nor his betaking him to hermitage or dwelling\nin some solitary forest; nor the observance of customary duties;\nnor practice of painful austerities, whereby one may ford over the\nunfordable gulf of this world.\n\n31. Neither dependence on righteous acts nor the forsaking of them;\nnor one\u2019s employment in the observance of customary usages, or his\nattainment of great powers, can be of any avail to him, in saving him\nfrom the turmoils of the world.\n\n32. It is one\u2019s self-control only, that is the means of his salvation\n(lit., getting over the sea of the world); and the man whose mind is\nnot attached, or tied down to anything in this world, is said to have\ngot or gone over it.\n\n33. It is no matter whether a man does or neglects, the righteous deeds\nof his religion and society; provided he keeps the contriteness of his\nmind in both, and is never attached to nor affected by either: such a\nman is deemed a sage and saved from his return to this nether world.\n\n34. The man that does neither any righteous or unrighteous action in\nhis life, but has his mind fixed in this earth, and attached to earthly\nobjects, is deemed a hypocrite, and destined to revisit this earth in\nhis repeated births.\n\n35. Our minds again are of the nature of nasty flies, which are prone\nto fly about and pour upon the sores of worldly pleasures; from which\nit is hard for us to deter them, as it is impossible for us to kill\nthem at once for attainment of our salvation (or, our minds are as\nsurfeited bees, cloyed with the honey of their cells from which they\ncannot fly away. Gloss).\n\n36. It sometime comes to happen and by the good fortune of a person,\nthat his mind turns of itself towards its perfection; and then by a\nflash of inward light within itself, comes to see the presence of the\ndivine spirit in the very soul.\n\n37. The mind being enlightened by the flash of spiritual light in the\nsoul, becomes enrapt at the sight, and losing all earthly attachment,\nis unified with the supreme unity.\n\n38. Being unmindful of everything, and conscious of thy entity as a\nparticle of the infinite vacuity, remain perfectly happy with thyself,\nand in the everlasting felicity of thy soul.\n\n39. Being replete with the knowledge of transcendental truth, and\ndevoid of the faults and frailties of thy nature, have the magnanimity\nof thy soul, with the equanimity of thy mind and elevation of thy\nspirit; and thus remain O thou support of Raghu\u2019s royal race, without\nsorrow and fear of death and rebirth, and be as holy as the holy of\nholies.\n\n40. Know the translucent state of the most Holy Brahma, to be quite\nclear of all the grossness and foulness of nature, and free from all\nthe qualities and properties that are attributed to Him. He is beyond\nour conception and above the reach of our thought. He is increate and\never existent of Himself, and manifest in his abode of our intellect.\nKnowing him then as thyself, remain quite free and dauntless for ever.\n\n41. There is nothing more that can be gleaned, from greater verbosity\non this subject; nor is there anything remaining to be communicated to\nyou, for your best instruction in divine knowledge. You are roused, O\nR\u00e1ma, to your full knowledge of the essential doctrines of divinity,\nand you have become cognizant, of whatever is knowable and recondite in\nnature.\n\n42. V\u00e1lm\u00edki says:--After the chief of sages had spoken so far, he\nsaw R\u00e1ma rapt in his ecstasy and bereft of his mental efforts; and\nthe whole assembly sitting fixed in the one and same tenor of their\nmeditation. They were all entranced in their reveries and musings, in\nthe mysterious nature of the Divinity; as the humming bees ramble over\nthe lotus petals with their soft and silent murmur, and revel upon the\nsweetness of the honey cups of flowers.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CC.\n\nTHE LOUD APPLAUSE OF THE COURT ON THE SAGE\u2019S SPEECH.\n\n Argument:--Narration of the plaudits of the assembly, accompanied\n with the showering of flowers and uproar of musical instruments,\n at the end of the holy sermon.\n\n\nV\u00e1lm\u00edki continued:--Upon the termination of the holy sermon on\nNirv\u00e1na--anesthesia, there arose loud hubbub without the court house,\nwhich put a stop to the sage\u2019s proceeding further in continuation of\nhis discourse.\n\n2. But the whole audience in the court hall, was immerged in a state of\nstead fast hypnotism, and settled intentiveness in the Supreme; and the\nfaculties of their mind were quite clear, and their workings at rest.\n\n3. The whole audience on hearing the lecture on investigation after\nintellect, became passengers on the raft of _sat_, and they all gained\ntheir salvation.\n\n4. Immediately there arose a loud chorus of applause, from the mouths\nof the emancipated sages or siddhas, dwelling in the upper regions of\nthe skies, and it filled the concave of heaven, with the acclamations\nof praise to the venerable sage.\n\n5. In the same manner there rose shouts of praise also, from the holy\nsages seated in the assembly; together with the loud acclamation given\nby the son of G\u00e1dhi--Visw\u00e1mitra, who sat at their head.\n\n6. Then was heard a swelling sound, filling the face of the four\nquarters of the firmament; just as the blasts of wind filled the\nhollows of the withered bamboos in the forest, and make them resound\nwith a sound with a soft sweet melody.\n\n7. Next arose a flourish of trumpets from the celestials, mingling with\nthe hosannahs of the siddhas; which rumbled together and resounded\nloudly, amidst the hollow caves of distant mountains and dale.\n\n8. Along with the flourish of celestial trumpets, there fell showers of\nflowers from above, resembling the driving rain of snows, which blocked\nthe faces on all sides of heaven.\n\n9. The floor of the court hall was strewn over with flowers, and the\nfanfare of the drums and timbals, filled the mouths of hollow caves and\ncaverns; the flying dust covered the face of the sky, and the rising\nodours after the rain were borne upon the wings of the winds to all\nsides.\n\n10. Then there rose a mingled rumble of the shouts of applause, and\nthe peal of heavenly trumpets; joined with the whistle of the hissing\nshowers of flowers, and the rustling of the winds all about.\n\n11. The courtiers all looked around with their uplifted faces and eyes,\nand were struck in their minds with wonder and surprise; while the\nbeasts all about the palace and in the parks, remained amazed at the\nevent with their pricked up ears.\n\n12. The women and children in the inside, sat staring with their wonder\nstricken eyes; and the princes sitting in the court hall, looked\nastonished on one another with their smiling faces.\n\n13. The face of the firmament became exceedingly brightened, by the\nfalling showers of flowers from above; and the great concavity of the\nworld, was filled with the hissing sound of the falling rains.\n\n14. The showers of flowers and drizzling rain drops, with their hissing\nsounds, made the royal palace an appearance of festivity. (With the\nscattering of fried rice, sprinkling of rose water and blowing of\nconchshells).\n\n15. Not only the palace, but all places in the worlds, seem to\ncelebrate their festive mirth, with tossing of flower garlands, joined\nwith celestial music.\n\n16. The shouts of the siddhas and their ejaculations of joy, rolled\nand growled as high in the upper sky; as the rolling billows and\nrebillowing waves, howled in the depth of the ocean and sea.\n\n17. After the hubbub of the heavenly hosts had subsisted, (in the lull\nof the rains and rackets); the following words of the siddhas proceeded\nfrom above, and were heard to be uttered in an audible and distinct\nvoice.\n\n18. The siddhas said:--We have erewhile since time erst began, listened\nto delivered thousands of sermons, in the assembly of siddhas or\nperfect beings, on the means of attaining liberation, (which is the\nhighest pitch of perfection of the living soul); but never heretofore\nheard a lecture so impressive on the mind, as this last locution of the\nsage.\n\n19. We see boys and women and the bending brute creatures, together\nwith the creeping and crawling animals, are all enrapt by this soothing\nspeech, which will doubtless enrapture its readers and hearers in\nfuture.\n\n20. The sage has used every argument and example, for rousing R\u00e1ma to\nhis beatification; such as it is doubtful whether he had ever shewn\nsuch affection to his Arundhat\u00ed or not.\n\n21. Hearing this lecture on liberation, even the brute creation of\nbeasts and birds, become emancipated from the burthen of their base\nbodies; and as for men, they forget altogether the trammels of their\nbodies in their embodied state.\n\n22. Our draught of these ambrosial drops of divine knowledge, through\nthe vessels of our ears; has not only satiated our appetite for wisdom,\nbut renovated our understandings, and added a fresh beauty to our\nspiritual bodies.\n\n23. On hearing these words of the heavenly host of siddhas, were struck\nwith wonder, and looked upward with full open eyes; and then as they\ncast their looks below, they beheld the surface of the court-hall, to\nbe strewn over with flowers and lotuses, falling in showers from above.\n\n24. They saw heaps of _mandara_ and other celestial flowers, piled\nup to the roof of the lofty hall; and observed the court yard to be\ncovered over with blossoming plants and creepers, and with wreaths and\ngarlands of flowers without an interstice.\n\n25. The surface of the ground, was strewn over with buds and blossoms\nof P\u00e1rijata plants; and thick clouds of Santanaka flowers, shadowed\nover the heads and shoulders of the assembled people in the court.\n\n26. The saffron flowers of Harichandana (yellow sandal wood), hung\nover the jewelled crests of the princes; and seemed as an awning of\nrainy clouds, spread over the glittering chandeliers of the court hall.\n(Harichandana is a tree in the garden of Paradise).\n\n27. Seeing these events in the court, the people all gave vent to the\nrepeated shouts of their loud applause; and talked to one another of\nthis and that, as was fitted to the solemnity of occasion.\n\n28. They then adored the sage with the prostration of their bodies and\nlimbs, and made him their obeisances, with offerings of handfuls of\nflowers.\n\n29. After the loud peals of applause had somewhat abated; the king also\nrose and prostrated himself down and then worshipped the sage, with the\ntray of his presents and wreaths of flowers held in his hands.\n\n30. Dasaratha said:--It was by your admonition, O thou Lord of\nArundhati; that I was released from this my mortal frame; and gained\nthe transcendent knowledge which filled my soul, and joined it with the\nsupreme essence in perfect bliss.\n\n31. We have nothing in this nether earth, nor is there anything with\nthe gods in heaven, which I ween is worthy enough to be given, as a\nproper offering in thine adoration.\n\n32. Yet I beg to pray you something in order to acquit myself of my\nduty to you, and to render my services to thee prove effectual to me,\nand hope you will not be irritated at this address of mine.\n\n33. That I adore you myself with my queens and my weal in both worlds,\ntogether with all these dominions and servants of mine (all which I now\noffer humbly at your venerable feet).\n\n34. All these possessions of mine are yours entirely at present, so\nmy lord take them as yours, and make them as parts of your hermitage;\nplease to dispose of these as you please, or use them as you like.\n\n35. Vasishtha replied:--Know, O great king, that we Br\u00e1hmans are\npleased, only with the mere obeisances of people; we are verily\nsatisfied with receiving reverence of men, and these you have already\ndone and shown to me.\n\n36. You know to rule the earth, and therefore its sovereignty is\nsuitable to thee; nor can you show a Brahmin to have ever reigned as a\nking, keep therefore what is yours to yourself and prosper therein.\n\n37. Dasaratha answered:--What is this trifle of a realm to me, which I\nam ashamed to call and own as mine; it cannot lead me to the knowledge\nof its true Lord, therefore do so as I may clearly and truly know the\nmost high.\n\n38. V\u00e1lm\u00edki relates:--As the king was saying so, R\u00e1ma rose from his\nseat, and threw handfuls of flowers on the sacred person of his\npreceptor; and then lowly bending himself before him, he addressed him\nas follows.\n\n39. Venerable sir, as you have made the king speechless, by telling him\nthat you are pleased with mere obeisance of men; so I am taught to wait\nhere, with my bare prostration at your venerable feet.\n\n40. Saying so, R\u00e1ma bowed down his head, lowly at the feet of his\nguide; and then scattered handful of flowers on his pure person, as the\ntrees on the sides of a mountain, sprinkle their dew drops at the foot\nand base of the mount. (Gloss. The branches of trees serving as their\nhands, and the leaves as their palms).\n\n41. Then the pious prince made his repeated bows of reverence to his\nvenerable preceptor; while his lotus like eyes were suffused with the\ntears of his inward joy and piety. (\u00c1nand\u00e1sru--tears issuing from pious\nand joyous feelings).\n\n42. Next rose the brother princes, of Dasaratha\u2019s royal race; namely\nBharata, Satrughna and Lakshmana, together with their equals in kith\nand kin; and they all advanced to the sage, and bowed down to him with\ntheir respectful reverence.\n\n43. The other chiefs and nobles and regents, that sat in their order at\na distance; together with the saints, sages and the clergy at large,\nrose in groups from their seats, and did their homage to the sage, with\nflinging handfuls of flowers upon him.\n\n44. At this instant the sage was almost covered with and hid under the\nheap of flowers, that were poured upon him from all sides; in the same\nmanner as the snowy mountain of Him\u00e1laya, is wrapped and concealed\nunder the snows of water.\n\n45. After clangor of the assembly was over, and the peals of their\n_pran\u00e1ma-hailings_ had ended; Vasishtha remembered his saying with the\nassembled sages, of proving to them the truth of his doctrines, and\nof removing the doubts of his audience regarding the miracles he had\nwrought.\n\n46. He then shoved off with both his arms, the heaps of flowers from\nabout his sides; and showed out his fair face from amidst them, as when\nthe disc of the moon, shines forth from within the hoary clouds.\n\n47. Then there ensued a hush over the flourish of the trumpets, and a\nsilence upon the fanfare of applauses; the falling of flowers was at a\nstop, and the murmur of siddhas above, ceased with the clamour of the\nassemblage below.\n\n48. After the princes and assembled nobles, had made their obeisances\nand greetings, there occurred a calm stillness in the assembly, as when\na lull takes place in the atmosphere after a storm.\n\n49. Then the chief of sages Vasishtha, upon hearing the applauses\npoured upon him from all sides; spoke softly to the royal sage\nVisw\u00e1mitra, from the unblemished purity of his soul.\n\n50. Hear me, O sage, that art the lotus of the princely race of G\u00e1dhi,\nand ye sages that are assembled here, namely V\u00e1madeva, Nimi and Kruta,\ntogether with Bharadw\u00e1ja, Pulastya, Atri, N\u00e1rada and Ghrishti, and\nS\u00e1ndilya.\n\n51. Hear me also, O ye sages Bh\u00e1sa, Bhrigu, Bharanda, Vatsa and\nV\u00e1tsy\u00e1yana, with all others that are assembled here at present, and had\nthe patience to listen to this contemptible discourse of mine.\n\n52. Please now with your well known affability to me, point out to me\nwhatever you have found as meaningless or unintelligible and ambiguous\nin my discourse.\n\n53. The audience responded:--O Venerable sir, we have never heard or\nmarked in single word in this spiritual and divine discourse of\nthine, that is meaningless or unintelligible to anybody.\n\n54. We confess that whatever foulness was inbred in our natures, by our\nrepeated births in this sinful world; has been all purged out by your\nholy lecture, as the alloy in gold is burnt away by the purifying fire.\n\n55. O sir, our minds are as expanded by your divine sermon, as the blue\nlotus buds are opened to bloom, by the cold and ambrosial beams of moon\nlight.\n\n56. We all bow down to thee, O thou chief of sages, as our best guide\nin divine knowledge; and the giver of true wisdom to us, with regard to\nall things in nature.\n\n57. V\u00e1lm\u00edki relates:--The sages said so far and then hailed and bowed\ndown to Vasishtha again, and their united applause of him, rose as high\nas the loud roar of raining clouds.\n\n58. Then the speechless siddhas, poured down again their showers of\nflowers from above; and these hid the body of the sage under them, as\nthe clouds of winter cover the rocks under ice and snows.\n\n59. Afterwards the intelligent and learned men in the court, gave\ntheir praises to King Dasaratha and to R\u00e1ma also; saying that the four\nprinces were no other than the four fold incarnation of the God M\u00e1dhava\nor Vishnu himself.\n\n60. The siddhas said:--We hail the four princes of Dasaratha line, who\nare the quadruple forms of the self incarnate Vishnu, and are quite\nliberated from the bonds of flesh, in these their living states of\nhumanity.\n\n61. We hail king Dasaratha, as having the mark of the sovereignty of\nthe whole world. (Imprinted in his person); that is of this world which\nextends to the limits of the four oceans, and lasts forever in his race.\n\n62. We hail the sage Vasishtha, who is as bright as the sun, and\nstands at the head of the whole host of sages; and also the royal sage\nVisw\u00e1mitra of renowned fame and dignity.\n\n63. It is through their means (_i.e._ because of their assemblage in\nthis court), that we had this fair opportunity of hearing this divine\ndiscourse, which is so full of knowledge and fraught with reason, that\nit serves to dispel the great gloom of error at once.\n\n64. So saying the siddhas of heaven again let fall their handfuls of\nflowers in showers; and made the assembly look up to them in silence,\nwith their uplifted eyes and gladdened minds.\n\n65. And then there was a mutual greeting of the siddhas from above, and\nof the assembled people to them from below.\n\n66. At last the assembly broke, with their respectful greetings to\none another, accompanied with their mutual offerings of flowers and\nsalutations. And the celestial and terrestrial, the great _Munis_ and\nsages, the Pandits and Br\u00e1hmans; together with the princes and nobles,\nbade adieu to and took leave of one another (in order to repair to\ntheir respective abodes).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CCI.\n\nEXPLANATION OF REST AND REPOSE IN ULTIMATE AND PERFECT BLISS.\n\n Argument:--R\u00e1ma\u2019s conclusion on the lecture of Vasishtha, and\n Visw\u00e1mitra\u2019s request over R\u00e1ma.\n\n\nV\u00e1lm\u00edki related:--After the assembly had rejoined the next day,\nthere was observed a profound silence over it; and there appeared a\ncheerfulness in the countenances of princes from the enlightenment by\nthe last lecture.\n\n2. The people seemed to be smiling in their faces, by reflecting on\ntheir former errors and follies, after their coming to the light of\ntruth. (The reminiscence of the freaks and follies of boyhood, is a\nsource of delight in old age).\n\n3. The wisemen in the assembly, appeared to be sitting fixed in their\nsteadfast meditation, by having the feelings and passions of their\nminds, curbed and subdued upon their access to the relish of true\nknowledge.\n\n4. At this time, R\u00e1ma sat with his brothers, in their posture of\n_padm\u00e1sana_--having their legs crossed upon one another; had the palms\nof their hands folded together, and their eyes fixed steadfastly upon\nthe face of their preacher.\n\n5. The king Dasaratha remained in a sort of entranced meditation, and\nthought himself as liberated in his life time, and placed in a state of\ninfinite bliss.\n\n6. The sage after holding his silence, as long as he was adored by his\nreverential audience, spoke to them at last in distinct words, and\nwanted to know what they would now like to hear about.\n\n7. He said, O lotus eyed R\u00e1ma, that art as the cooling moon in the\nclear sphere of thy race, tell me what thou now wishest to hear, as\nmost desirable and delightsome to your mind.\n\n8. Tell me the state in which you find yourself at present, and in\nwhat light you view the appearance of the appearance of the world now\nbefore you.\n\n9. Being thus addressed by the sage, R\u00e1ma looked at his face; and then\nbespoke to him in his distinctly audible voice, and his plain and\nunfaltering accents.\n\n10. R\u00e1ma said:--It is all owing to thy favour only, O Venerable sir,\nthat I have attained to my state of perfect holiness, and become as\npure as the clear atmosphere in autumnal calm and serenity.\n\n11. I am entirely freed from all the errors, which are so detrimental\nto the right course of our lives in this world, and an act as pure as\nthe clear sky, in the true and very state of finite vacuity. (The very\nstate of the deity).\n\n12. I am set free from all bonds, and released from all attributes and\nadjuncts; I find myself situated in a crystalline sphere, and shining\nthere as clear as crystal.\n\n13. I am quite pacified in my mind and am neither willing to hear or do\nanything else; I am quite satiate in myself, and require nothing more\nfor my satisfaction. I am quite at rest as in the state of hypnotism.\n\n14. My mind is quite calm in its thoughts, and entirely pacified in its\nwishes; all my desires have fled from it, and I find my mind to rest in\nits perfect peace and supreme bliss.\n\n15. I am staid in all my thoughts and allayed in my desires, whilst\nliving in this waking world; I am enrapt and entranced, while I am\nquite sane and sound and sleepless at all hours by day and night.\n\n16. With my soul devoid of all wishes and expectations, I live while I\nam destined to live in this material body of mine; and remain smiling\n(_i.e._ rejoicing) as long as I sit to listen to your inspiring lessons.\n\n17. Now I am no more in need of admonition or instruction of the\ns\u00e1stras, or of the acquisition of riches or friends; nor am I\nwilling either to get rid of them at any time. (Because of my utter\nindifference to them as is theirs also to me).\n\n18. I have found and am in the enjoyment of that unalloyed happiness,\nwhich attends on one in heaven or Paradise, or in his attainment of the\nsovereignty of the whole world.\n\n19. The world which I perceive within myself by my outward senses, is\nconceived to be brighter far and more transparent than the outward\natmosphere, by being viewed in the light of the intellect, and\nconsidered as a part of its infinite vacuous sphere.\n\n20. This world I ween, is certainly a vacuum; and it is by my belief\nin the nihility of the phenomenal, that I am awaked to my immortality.\n(The visible world is a passing and vanishing sight, and it is by our\nbelief in the spiritual only, that we see the everlasting scene).\n\n21. Let me remain content with all that is, or comes to pass on me,\nwhether they are desirable to me or occur themselves; and let me act\nas the law enacts to its full extent and without fail, but without any\nobject of mine or expectation of reward.\n\n22. I am neither content nor discontented with anything, nor rejoice\nnor repine at any event; I do what is my duty in society, without\nretaining the erroneous conception of reaping their reward.\n\n23. Let this creation be otherwise or go to perdition, let the winds of\nthe last destruction blow with their fury also; or let the land smile\nin its plenty and beauty, yet I sit unmoved by them, and remain in the\ndivine self or spirit.\n\n24. I rest in myself which is unseen or dimly seen by others, and is\nundecaying and untainted in itself; I am not enchained to my wishes,\nbut am as free as air, which you cannot compress in your clutches.\n\n25. As the fragrance of flowers upon the trees, is wafted by the breeze\nand deposited in the air, so is my soul borne away from the confines of\nmy body, and posited in empty vacuity (where it ranges at large in its\nfreedom).\n\n26. As these princes and rulers of people, live and enjoy themselves in\ntheir realms at pleasure; and whether they are enlightened or not, they\nare employed in their respective occupations.\n\n27. So do I enjoy myself with the steadiness and equanimity of my\nmind, which is freed from all fear, grief or joy and desire.\n\n28. I am happy above all happiness (derived from this frail world); my\nhappiness is in the everlasting One, than which there is no happiness\nto be preferred by me. But because I live here as a human being, you\nare at liberty to appoint me to any duty, in common with all mankind\nand becoming to humanity.\n\n29. I cannot be averse, to manage myself with the trifles of this\nworld, as long as I am destined to them; in the same manner as boys\nare never to be blamed, for indulging themselves in their playthings\nin their boyhood. So long sir, as I shall have to live in this body of\nmine, I must do my bodily acts, with my mind fixed in the sole One only.\n\n30. I must live to eat and drink, and continue in the course of my\nbusiness in life; but I am freed from all fear of my failings in them,\nby the kind counsels to me. (That the liberated man is at liberty to do\nor undo his duties).\n\n31. Vasishtha replied:--O Bravo R\u00e1ma! that you have chosen for yourself\nthe most meritorious course of life; wherein you shall never have to\nrepent, from the beginning to the end of your career.\n\n32. By this cold indifference in thy self, and complete equanimity in\nevery state, you have verily secured to the unbroken rest in your life,\nas the visible firmament has found in infinite vacuity.\n\n33. It is by your good fortune, that you have got rid of your sorrows,\nand it is fortunate to you to be set so well composed in yourself; it\nis your good luck to be freed from the fears of both worlds, and it is\nhappy for you to be at your heart\u2019s ease and rest.\n\n34. You are lucky, my lord, to be so fraught with your holy knowledge;\nand to have purified the lineage of Raghu, with your knowledge of the\npresent, past and future.\n\n35. Now prepare yourself to accomplish the object, of the chief of\nsages--The great Visw\u00e1mitra\u2019s request and by completion of his holy\nsacrifice at your sire\u2019s behest, continue to enjoy the sovereignty of\nthe earth; in subordination to your royal parent.\n\n36. May the mighty king reign for ever in prosperity, over this\nprosperous realm of his; in conjunction with yourself and his other\nsons, relatives and nobles and in possession of all his infantry,\ncavalry, his chariots and his lines of elephants &c., and without any\ndisease and fear of his enemies.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CCIL.\n\nRECUMBENCE OF THE ASSEMBLY TO THEIR HYPNOTIC REST.\n\n Argument:--Entrancement of the audience to a state of somnolence\n known as Hybernation, hypnotism and Ecstasis in Theosophy.\n\n\nV\u00e1lm\u00edki related:--Upon hearing these words of the sage, the assembled\nprinces and lords of men in the court, felt a _sang froid_ or coolness\nin their souls, as if they were all besprinkled with ambrosial waters\nupon them.\n\n2. R\u00e1ma with his lotus like eyes and moon like face, remained as\nresplendent, as if they were filled with ambrowaters, or the nectarious\nliquid of the Milky ocean.\n\n3. Then the sage V\u00e1madeva and others, who were fraught with divine\nknowledge, exclaimed with their admiration for the preacher; O the holy\ninstruction, that you have imparted unto us this day!\n\n4. The King with his pacified soul and joyous mind, shone as shining\nin his countenance, as if he had a new light infused in himself (and\ncausing the hairs on his body to stand on their ends, from his inward\ngladness).\n\n5. After many other sages, who were well acquainted with the knowledge\nof the knowable One, had thus pronounced their praises; the enlightened\nR\u00e1ma (lit. who was purged from his ignorance), oped his mouth again,\nand spoke in the following manner.\n\n6. R\u00e1ma said:--O thou seer, that knowest the past and future; thou hast\ncleansed away all our inward dross, as fire serves to purge gold from\nits impurity.\n\n7. Venerable sir we have now become cosmognostics or all knowing, by\nour knowledge of the universal soul, though we are confined in these\nvisible bodies of ours, and seeming to all appearance, as knowing\nnothing beyond them.\n\n8. I feel myself now as perfect and full in all, and to have become\nquite undecaying in myself; I am freed from all fear and apprehension,\nand am quite cognoscent with all things.\n\n9. I am overjoyed to no end, and am happy beyond all measure; I\nhave risen to a height from which there is no fear of falling,\nand am elevated to the supreme acme of eminence and perfection.\n(Parama-purush\u00e1rtha).\n\n10. Alack! how am I cleansed by the holy and cooling water of divine\nknowledge, which you have so kindly poured forth in me, and whereby I\nam as joyous, as a full blown lotus in the lake of my heart.\n\n11. I am now set, sir, by your favour to a state of happiness, which\nbrightens to me the face of universe with ambrosial delight.\n\n12. I now hail myself, that have become so fair within myself with the\nclearness of my mind, and by disappearance of all sorrow from it. I\nhave received a grace in my face, from the peace of mind and purity of\nmy wishes. I am joyous in myself with my inward joy, and I wholly\npure with the purity of my soul.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CCIII.\n\nDESCRIPTION OF NIRV\u00c1NA OR SELF EXTINCTION IN DIVINE MEDITATION.\n\n Argument:--Sounding of midday trumpet, performance of daily\n ablution, and description of the setting sun. The meeting of the\n assembly on the next morning upon the discourse on Nirv\u00e1na.\n\n\nV\u00e1lm\u00edki related:--As R\u00e1ma and the sage had been remonstrating in this\nmanner, the sun advanced towards the zenith, to listen to their holy\nconversation in royal dome.\n\n2. The solar beams spread on all sides, with greater force and\neffulgence; as if to expose to clearer and greater light the sense of\nR\u00e1ma\u2019s speech.\n\n3. Then the lotus beds in the tanks of the pleasure gardens, all about\nthe royal palace, began to expand their embosomed buds to bloom before\nhim, as the princes shone forth in brightness amidst the royal hall.\n\n4. The air was exhilarated with joy at hearing the holy lectures of the\nsage; and seemed to be dancing with the sunbeams, glistening in the\nstrings of pearls, suspended at the windows of the palace.\n\n5. The premature gleams of the sun, glistened as bright at the\nglittering glass doors and shining chandeliers of the court hall; as\nthe gladdened hearts of the audience, glowed at enlightening speech of\nthe sage.\n\n6. After R\u00e1ma was settled in his sedateness, his face shone as bright\nas a blooming blue lotus by its reflexion of the rays of the sage\u2019s\nlook upon it. (Here the blue complexion of R\u00e1ma, is compared to a\nblue lotus, blooming under the moon bright look of fair Vasishtha\u2019s\ncountenance).\n\n7. The sun advancing towards the summit of the horizon, like the marine\nfire rising on the surface of the blue ocean; sucked or dried up by\nhis darting flames the dewy humidity of the sky, as the submarine heat\nresorbs the waters of the deep.\n\n8. The cerulean sphere of heaven, appeared as the lake of blue lotuses,\nand the shining sun seemed as the golden pericarp of the flower; his\nbright beams resembled the aureate farina of flowers, and his slanting\nrays likened the aslant pistils in the air.\n\n9. He shone as the dazzling crown upon the head of the azure queen of\nthe worlds; and was hanging down like the resplendent earring, pendant\non the ear of heaven; while the little lay hid under his glaring light,\nlike bits of diamonds lying concealed under the effulgence of a blazing\nruby.\n\n10. The ethereal maids of all the quarters of heaven, held out the\nmirrors of silvery clouds before his face, with their uplifted arms of\nthe mountain peaks all around; and these are emblazoned by solar rays,\nlike the rainless clouds on mountain tops.\n\n11. The sun stones in the quarries on earth emitted a fury blaze, which\nemblazoned the skies around, with a greater light than that of the sun.\n\n12. The trumpets sounded aloud, with the wind blown by the mouths of\ntrumpeters; and the conchshells blew as loudly at midday, as the winds\nof the last deluge, set the sea waves to their tremendous uproar.\n\n13. Then the spherules of sweat, appeared on the faces of the princes,\nas the dew drops falling on lotus leaves; and they were so closely\nconnected together, as to give them the appearance of strings of pearls.\n\n14. The thickening noise of the hurry and flurry of men, resounded as\nhoarsely within the hollow walls of the hall, that they filled the ears\nof men, as the dashing waves fill the concave of the hollow sea.\n\n15. The waiting maids then came forward with cups of liquid camphor in\ntheir hands; in order to sprinkle them on the persons of the princes;\nto assuage their fervour of the solar heat.\n\n16. Then the assembly broke, and the king rose from his seat in company\nwith R\u00e1ma and the princes and Vasishtha, together with all the lords\nand nobles, that were present in the assembly.\n\n17. The assembled lords and princes, the ministers of the state and\nreligion, together with the high priests and sages; rose from their\nseats, and having gladly made their greetings to one another, took\ntheir leave and departed to their respective abodes.\n\n18. The front of the royal inner apartment, was fanned with flappers of\npalm leaves, wafting the clouds camphor powder, that was scattered\nfor allaying the midday heat.\n\n19. Then the chief of sages--Vasishtha, oped his mouth and spoke out\nto R\u00e1ma, amidst the sonata of noonday music, that resounded amidst the\nwalls of the royal hall.\n\n20. Vasishtha said:--R\u00e1ma! you have heard whatever is worth hearing,\nand known also all that is worth your knowing; and now I see nothing\nfurther, that is worth communicating to you for your higher knowledge.\n\n21. Now you have to reconcile in yourself, and by your best\nunderstandings, all that you have been instructed by me, and what you\nhave read and learnt in the s\u00e1stras, and harmonise the whole for your\nguidance.\n\n22. Now rise to do your duties, while I hasten to the performance of\nsacred ablutions; it is now midday, and the proper time of our bathing\nis fastly passing away.\n\n23. And then whatever else you have to enquire about, for the\nsatisfaction of your wishes, you can propose the same to me tomorrow\nmorning, when I shall be happy to expatiate on the subject.\n\n24. V\u00e1lm\u00edki related:--After the sage had spoken in this manner, the\nmighty king Dasaratha saluted the parting chiefs and sages, and\nhonoured them according to their proper ranks and degrees.\n\n25. And then being advised by Vasishtha, the virtuous king with R\u00e1ma by\nhis side, proceeded to give their due honours, to the sages and siddhas\nand to the Br\u00e1hmanas also one after the other.\n\n26. He gave them gems and jewels, and monies and bouquets of flowers;\nand he gave to others riches equivalent to the values of the gems and\njewels; while he gave strings of pearls and necklaces to some also.\n\n27. He honoured some with his respects and civilities, and others with\nmonies suited to their worth and degree, while he gave his gifts of\ncloths and seats, food and drink, and of gold and lands to others.\n\n28. He saluted others with perfumeries and aromatic spices and wreaths\nof flowers; he honoured the elders with due respects, and gave his bare\nregards to others.\n\n29. Then the king rose from amidst the assembly, with the whole body\nof his courtiers, and the holy sages and Vasishtha with him; as the\nsplendid moon rises in the sky, with the train of stars about him. (The\nmoon is masculine in Sanskrit, and twin brother of the sun).\n\n30. The rising of the assembly and its people, was attended with a\nrumbling noise, as it is heard in the treading of men, over a bog of\nknee deep mud and mire.\n\n31. The clashing of the concourse against one another, and the cracking\nof their armlets and wristlets by their friction with each other;\njoined with the broken jewels and scattered pearls, slipped from the\ntorn necklaces of the nobles, gave the floor of the court hall, the\nappearance of the spangled heaven.\n\n32. There was a close concussion of the bodies, of sages and saints,\nof Br\u00e1hmans and princes and nobles all jumbled together; and there was\na rapid undulation of the chourie flappers, waving in the hands of\nfanning maid servants.\n\n33. But there was no huddling or dashing or pushing one against the\nother; as they were intent upon reflecting on the sense of the sages\npreaching, and rather asking excuses of one another, with the gestures\nof their bodies, when they came in contact with others.\n\n34. At last the king and the sages and nobles, accosted one another\nwith sweet and soft words; and took their parting leave (for repairing\nto their respective abode for the day).\n\n35. They then left the palace, and proceeded to their residences, with\ntheir gladdened faces and contented minds; as when the immortals\nrepair to all parts of heaven, from the synod of the king of\ngods--Indra or Sakra.\n\n36. After every one had taken leave of others, and arrived at his\nhouse; he employed himself in the discharge of his ritual services of\nthe day.\n\n37. Thus the king and all, performed their daily ablutions and services\nas usual, until the end of the day.\n\n38. As the day ended with the discharge, of the duties of the daily\nritual; so the sojourner of the etherial path--the tired sun, sat\ndown to rest in the west (as the birds of air repair at eve, to their\nrespective nests). (The sun is said to be the _unka_ or falcon of\nheaven; resting at his _aspiand_ or nest in the west, by a poet of\nPersia).\n\n39. After the performance of their vespers, the prince R\u00e1ma and the\npeople at large, passed their nights awake and fastly, with talking\nabout and thinking upon the discourse of the day.\n\n40. Then the rising sun advanced in the east, with sweeping away the\ndust of darkness from before his path, and strewing about the starry\nflowers on his way, in order to fix his seat in the midst of his dome\nof the universe.\n\n41. The infant or rising sun, reddened the skies with his rays,\nresembling the crimson hue of kusambha flowers; and then he embarked\non the board of his bright orb, amidst the wide ocean of the etherial\nregion. (The sun sailed in the etherial sea, through the scattered\nisland of the hidden stars and planets on his way. Gloss).\n\n42. Then the regnant princes and lords of men, together with the\nnobles, peers and their ministers, met at the court hall of King\nDasaratha; when there gathered also the great saints and sages, with\nVasishtha at their head.\n\n43. They entered into the court and took their seats, according to\ntheir different degrees and ranks; just as the stars of heaven appear\nand occupy their places, in their respective constellations and circles\nin the expanse of heaven.\n\n44. Then the king and his ministers, advanced and bowed down to\nVasishtha, and ushered him to his high seat or pulpit; and they all\npoured forth their praises to him, after that sage was seated in the\nrostrum.\n\n45. Now the lotus-eyed R\u00e1ma, who sat before the king and the holy sage,\noped his lotus like mouth, and spoke in the following manner, with his\nnatural good sense, and usual elegance of speech.\n\n46. R\u00e1ma said:--O Venerable sir, that art acquainted with all\nreligions, and art the great ocean of knowledge; thou art the axe of\nall knotty questions and doubts, and remover of the griefs and fears of\nmankind.\n\n47. Please tell us whatever more is worth our hearing and knowing;\nfor thou knowest best whatever there remains to be said, for the\nedification of our knowledge.\n\n48. Vasishtha replied:--R\u00e1ma you have gained your full knowledge, and\nhave nothing more to learn; you have attained the perfection of your\nunderstanding, and obtained the summum bonum which is sought by all\n(but found by few), and wherewith you are quite content in yourself.\n\n49. You better consider in yourself and say, how do you find yourself\nand your inner mind at present; and what else is there, that you wish\nto know and hear from me.\n\n50. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--Why sir, I find myself fully perfected in my\nunderstanding; and being possest of the peace and tranquility of my\nmind, with the blessing of Nirv\u00e1na or ultimate beatitude of my soul, I\nhave nothing to ask or desire of thee.\n\n51. You have said all that you had to impart to me, and I have known\nall that is worth my knowing; Now sir, take your rest with the Goddess\nof speech, who has done her utmost for the instruction of us all.\n\n52. I have known the unknown and knowable One, that is only to be known\nby us as the true reality; and knowing this all as the One Brahma, I\nam freed from my knowledge of the duality (of the living and supreme\nsoul); and having got rid of the deception of the diversity of the\nvisibles, I am released from my reliance in all worldly things.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CCIV.\n\nIDENTITY OF ABSTRACT INTELLECTUALITY AND VACUITY.\n\n Argument:--The abstraction and intellection of all knowledge,\n merging in the infinite vacuum.\n\n\nVasishtha resumed and said:--Hear me moreover, O R\u00e1ma, to tell thee,\na few words on transcendental knowledge, that the mirror of the mind\nshines more brightly, by expurgation of the external images that are\nreflected on it, than when it is eclipsed by those outward shadows.\n(_i.e._ Wipe off visibles from the mind).\n\n2. Again the significant words that the symbols of the objects of\nour knowledge, are as insignificant as the hissing murmurs of waters\nand waves, and the phenomenal is but a semblance of the noumenal, as a\ndream is the _r\u00e9chauff\u00e9_ or reflexion of the mind, and the visible world,\nis but a recast of the visionary dream.\n\n3. The waking state is that of dreaming, and its scenes are those of\nour dreams; and presenting themselves before us in both these states\nfrom our remembrance of them: they are the inward concept of our\nconsciousness, and appearing to be situated without it. (_i.e._ They\nare the innate ideas of our minds, and not perceptions of our outward\norgans of sense).\n\n4. As I am conscious of the clearness of my intellectual sphere,\nnotwithstanding the view of the fairy lands in its state of dreaming;\nso I find my mind, to be equally clear in my waking also of all its\nimaginary forms of the three worlds and their contents, which in\nreality a formless vacuity only.\n\n5. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--If all things are formless amidst the formless void\nof the universe, as in empty vacuity of the intellect; then tell me\nsir, whence arise these endless shapes and forms, as those earth,\nwater, fire and those of these hills, rocks and pebbles?\n\n6. Tell me why the elements are of different forms and qualities and\nwhy the empty air, space and time have no forms nor properties of\ntheirs; what makes the wind so very fleet, and what is the cause of the\nmotions and actions of waving bodies.\n\n7. How came the sky to be a vacuum only, and why is the mind of the\nsame nature also; these are all the various natures and properties of\nthings, require to be well explained from my knowledge therein.\n\n8. Vasishtha replied:--You have well asked these questions, R\u00e1ma, as\nthey naturally suggest themselves to every inquirer after truth; but\ntell me in one word, why do you see the varieties of earth and sky, as\nwell as of all other things that you see in your dream.\n\n9. Whence do you see the waters in your sleep, and how are the pebbles\nscattered about you in your dream; why do you see the flaming fires in\nyour vision, and all sides of heaven appearing before your sight.\n\n10. Say how you have the idea of time in your dreaming, and perceive\nthe actions and motions of persons and things at that time; and tell\nme from where do all those accidents proceed, that you see to occur in\nyour sleeping and dreaming moments.\n\n11. What is it that creates, produces and gives the formless dream its\nfascinating form, and then dissolves it to nothing at last; you find it\nproduced and presented to your view, but cannot say how it acts and of\nwhat stuff it is composed.\n\n12. R\u00e1ma replied:--The dream of the dreaming world, has no form nor\nposition of its own; its soul and substance is mere void, and the earth\nand rocks which it presents to sight, are nil and _in nubibus_ (and\nleave not a rack behind).\n\n13. The vacuous soul only, is its sole cause, which is likewise as\nformless and supportless like itself; The formless void is never in\nneed of a support for it.\n\n14. Nothing whatsoever of it is ever produced, nor bear any relation\nwith our consciousness; they are the reflexions of the intellect only,\nand are situated in the recess of the mind.\n\n15. The mind is the evolution of the intellect, which reflects the\nimages of things in the form of ideas upon the mind; hence the notions\nof time and space, and of air, water, hills and mountains, are all\nreflexions of the intellect upon the mind.\n\n16. Our consciousness is also a void, and receives the impressions of\nvacuum in the form of its vacuity; and those of the stone, air and\nwater, in the forms of their solidity, fluidity and liquidity. (_i.e._\nThe vacuous mind receives and retains only the abstract ideas of all\nconcrete bodies in the universe).\n\n17. In reality there is nothing as the earth or any solid body or its\nform or sight in existence; but they all exist in their abstract states\nin the great void of the intellect, and are equally void in their\nnatures with itself.\n\n18. In fact there is nothing in reality, nor anything which is visible\nto sight, there is only the infinite vacuity of intellect, which\nrepresents all things in itself, and is identic with all of them.\n\n19. The intellect has the notion of solidity, in the abstract in\nit; and thereby conceives itself in the forms of the earth, rocks\nand hills. (The idea or conception of solidity, gives rise to the\nperception of solid bodies, and not the perception of solids, that\nproduces the abstract idea of their solidity; or that the innate ideas,\ngive birth to appearances in the concrete).\n\n20. So by its conception of oscillation and fluidity, it perceives the\nform of air and water in itself; and so also by its inward conception\nof heat, it feels the fire in itself without forsaking its intellectual\nform.\n\n21. Such is the nature of this intellectual principle, in its airy and\nvacuous form of the spirit, soul or mind; that developes itself in all\nthese various modalities and schemes, without any cause or incentive.\n(These modes or states of being, are here called _nishk\u00e1ranaguna_,\nand _Ak\u00e1rana gunotpannaguna_ in Ny\u00e1ya philosophy, and same with the\n_Vibhu-nishthaguna_ of Ved\u00e1nta; all meaning them to be the increate and\neternal qualities or attributes of the supreme soul or deity).\n\n22. There is nothing any where in nature, beside these intellectual\nattributes of itself; as there is no sky or vacuum without its vacuity,\nnor the vast expanse of the ocean, devoid of the body of waters in it.\n\n23. Know then there is nothing else anywhere, nay not even the sense of\nthyself or myself or any other, except in the recess of intellectual\nvacuity; so commit thyself to that all teeming void; and remain quite\nsedate in thyself.\n\n24. As you see the earth and heaven and all their contents, in thy\ndream and creation of thy fancy, in the recess of thy mind and in the\nmidst of this house of thine; so should you behold everything in their\nincorporeal forms to be contained in the ample space of the infinite\nvacuum of the divine intellect and its all-knowing intelligence.\n\n25. The vacuum of the intellect shines forth as the substratum of all\nbodies, but without a body of its own in the beginning of creation;\nbecause nothing having any prior material cause for its corporeal\nexistence, it is the intellect alone which must be understood, to\nexhibit all formal existence in its vacuous space and to our ignorance.\n\n26. Know your immaterial mind, understanding and egoism, together with\nthe material existences of the elemental bodies, these hills, skies and\nall others, to be situated as dull and dumb stones, in the quiet, calm\nand clear sphere of the infinite intellect.\n\n27. Thus you see there is nothing produced nor destroyed, nor anything,\nthat may be said to exist of itself; this world as it appears to exist,\nexists in this very form (of its immateriality); in the vacuity of the\ndivine intellect.\n\n28. It is the sunshine of the intellect, that manifests the world in\nits visible shape and form; as the sunlight shows the hidden objects of\ndarkness to view, and as the fluidity of water, gives rise to the waves\nand bubbles.\n\n29. This appearance of the world, is no real appearance; it is the\nrepresentation of the intellectual vacuum only, in its true and proper\nsenses and light, as it is viewed by the wise; though the ignorant may\nview it in any light as they please.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CCV.\n\nREFUTATION OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE CAUSALITY OF CREATION.\n\n Argument:--The existence of the world in its spiritual sense, and\n nullity of its creation, destruction and material existence.\n\n\nR\u00e1ma rejoined:--If it is so, sir, that the whole plenum is vacuum, as\nthe phenomenon in our dreams; it must follow therefrom, that the world\nwe see in our wakings is vacuity also, and there can be no doubt in it.\n\n2. But tell me sir, in answer to this important question of mine; how\nthe formless and bodiless intellect appears to become embodied in all\nthese various forms of bodies, that we see in the state of our waking\ndream. (_i.e._ The vanishing visions of our sleeping dreams, prove\nthem to be quite vacuous and nil; but not so the lasting scenes of our\nwaking state which appear to be substantially positive; and how does\nthe negative intellect assume this positive form).\n\n3. Vasishtha replied:--R\u00e1ma, the visibles that appear to view in our\nwaking dream by day light, are all vacuous bodies; owing to their being\nborn, resting and supportance in empty vacuity; hence you cannot on any\nreason doubt about their vacuousness (whose or when their production,\nsustentation, substance and supportance, do all depend on the infinite\nand all comprehending vacuum, which is the very attribute of the unity\nof the formless deity. Gloss).[7]\n\n4. This infinite and eternal void, being entirely devoid of all the\nmaterial causes (_i.e._ earth, air, water and fire, which are necessary\nfor the production of anything); it is impossible that creation could\ncome out from this nothing in the beginning. (_Ex nihilo nihil fit_).\n\n5. And as the formless intellect could not bring forth the earth &c.,\nfor the formation of solid bodies; it is impossible to believe this\nphenomenal appearance, to have their real existence in nature. (The\nsubtile mind cannot make or become any solid body).\n\n6. Therefore the airy intellect sees the visibles in the day time,\nin the manner that it sees the visions in its dreams by night. It\nsees them all rising, in their intellectual light within itself; but\nappearing as real and formal objects, set without it by its delusion.\n(M\u00e1y\u00e1 or Illusion).\n\n7. It is the reflexion of the workings of the intellectual soul, that\nappears as real within the hollow sphere of the intellect; it resembles\nthe representations of the memory in the mind in our sleep, and takes\nthe name of the visible world.\n\n8. It is the clear perception of these intellectual representations, in\nthe vacuum of the mind only, that is styled by us as a vision or dream,\nwhile it is the gross conception of them in the mind, that is called\nthe gross or material world.\n\n9. It is thus the different views, of the same internal thought and\nideas, have different names and appellations, given to them by the very\nintellect itself; the finer and purer ones being called as thoughts,\nand the grosser ones, as sensible and material objects.\n\n10. Thus it is the same reflexion of the intellectual, which takes the\nnames both of the dream as also of the world; the working of the mind\nand its reflexion in itself are natural to intellect, and though the\nvisions subside with the disappearance of the dream upon waking, yet\nthe working and reflecting of the mind are never at rest, either in\nwaking or dreaming.\n\n11. Many such visions of creation rise and set alternately, in the\nvacuity of Brahma\u2019s mind, and are never apart from it; just as the\nempty air is either in motion or at rest in the hollow of the great\nvoid, and always inseparable from it. (Hence the air, vision, dream\n&c., are all void, and the world is but a phantom in it).\n\n12. R\u00e1ma said:--Sir, you have spoken of millions of worlds to me\nbefore; tell me now which of them are situated within the sphere of the\nmundane egg, and which of them are beyond this egg (or supermundane\nones).\n\n13. Which of them are the terrestrial globes and which the vacuous\nspheres; which of them are igneous bodies in the sphere of fire, and\nwhat are the airy bodies in the regions of air.\n\n14. Which are the superfices of the earth, situated in the midst\nof vacuity; of which the hills and forests set at the antipodes,\nare opposed to one another on both sides, and hang up and down\nperpendicular in empty air.\n\n15. Which are the aerial bodies with their living souls, and which the\ninhabitants of darkness with their darksome shapes; what are they that\nare formed of vacuum only, and what can they be, whose bodies are full\nof worms and insects.\n\n16. What sorts of beings settle the etherial sphere, and what are they\nthat live in the midst of rocks and stones; what are they that dwell in\nthe vessels and basins of water, and what be they that people the air\nlike the aerial fowls of air.\n\n17. Tell me, O thou greatest of philosophers, how this mundane egg of\nours is situated among them. (These are questions of cosmogony, and\nbear no relation to theology).\n\n18. Vasishtha replied:--These wondrous unknown, unseen and unheard\nof worlds, are mentioned and described in the s\u00e1stras with their\nexemplifications also; and they have been received and believed as true\nby their students.\n\n19. R\u00e1ma, the cosmology of the world, has been described--given by gods\nand sages, in hundreds of their s\u00e1stras called the _\u00c1gamas_; all of\nwhich you are well acquainted with.\n\n20. Now as you are well acquainted with the descriptions, that are\ngiven of them in the s\u00e1stras; it is not necessary to relate them again\nin this place. (The cosmology of the world has been given before in the\nnarrative of L\u00edl\u00e1).\n\n21. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--Tell me yet, O Venerable sir, how the great void of\nthe intellect came to be produced from divine spirit; tell moreover its\nextent and duration in time and space.\n\n22. Vasishtha replied:--The great God Brahma, is without beginning and\never existent and without decay; there is no beginning, midst nor end\nof him, nor are there any shapes of figures in his transcendent vacuum.\n\n23. The vacuum of Brahma is without its beginning and end, and is\nspread unspent and unbounded to all eternity; it is this which makes\nthe universe, which is ever without its beginning and end.\n\n24. The reflexion of the intellectual vacuum in its own vacuity, is\ncalled the universe by itself to no purpose (_by itself_ or the human\nmind, which views the world in the wrong light of creation, and not as\nthe Divine Mind itself. Gloss).\n\n25. As a man sees a fair city in his dream by night, so is the sight\nof this world to him, in his dream by day light. (The Sanskrit word\n_Bhano_ in the text meaning reflexion, corresponds with the Greek Phano\nto see, and hence phantom or false sights).\n\n26. Think not the solid rock to have any solidity in it, nor the fluid\nwaters any fluidity in them; do not think the empty firmament to be a\nvacuity, nor the passing time to have any flight or counting of it.\n(All these are seemingly so, but they are nothing in reality).\n\n27. All things are fixed in their formless, invariable and ideal states\nin the divine intellect; but it is the fallacious and fickle nature of\nthe human mind, to give and view them in different forms, according to\nits own fancy.\n\n28. The mind views the non-created eternal ideas of the intellect, as\ncreated objects before its sight, just as it sees rocks where there are\nno rocks, and the sky in a skyless place in its dream.\n\n29. As the formless and insensible mind, sees the formal world in its\nsleep, as if it were in its waking state; so does it see the invisible\nand formless world in its visible form, during its waking hours of the\nday also.\n\n30. As the motion of air always takes place amidst the air at rest\n(_i.e._ as the winds fluctuate amidst the still air); so also doth the\nspirit of Brahma, oscillate in his own spirit incessantly, and without\nits rise or fall.\n\n31. This world resides in the same manner in the divine spirit of\nBrahma as the property of fluidity is inherent in water; and vacuity\nappertains to vacuum; and as substantiality is essential to all\nsubstances in the abstract.\n\n32. The world is neither adventitious nor extraneous to the soul, and\ndoes not occur to or transpire from it, in the life or deaths of any\nbody; it is causeless and comes from no cause, and is neither joined\nwith nor set separate from the divine spirit.\n\n33. The One that has no beginning nor end; nor has any indication of\nitself; that is formless and is of the manner of the intellectual\nvacuum only, can never become the cause of the visible and material\ncreation. (Therefore the world is to be supposed to exist in its ideal\nand immaterial form, in the vacuity of the divine intellect).\n\n34. Thus as the forms and features of a whole body, are but parts and\nproperties of its entirety _tout ensemble_; so is this vacuous world\nsituated, in the undivided and formless vacuity of Brahma (\u201cas parts of\none undivided whole\u201d, Pope).\n\n35. All this is a hiatus and quietus, without its support and\nsubstratum, it is but pure intelligence, without any grossness or\nfoulness herein; there is no entity nor nonentity here, nor can\nanything be said to exist or not exist (independent of the Divine Mind).\n\n36. All this is but an air drawn city, of our imagination and dream;\nand everything here, appears to be stretched out in a fairy dance all\nabout us; but in reality it is only a calm and quiet vacuity, full with\nthe unchanging and undecaying spirit of God.\n\n37. The whole is the hollowness of the divine heart, and the vacuous\nsphere of the Omniscient Intellect; it is its intellection, that\nreflects many a transparent image in its own sphere and to no end. This\nit is which is called the world or the image of the divine soul, which\ncontinues forever and ever, (and is said--the world without end. Amen).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CCVI.\n\nTHE GREAT INQUIRY, OR QUESTIONS OF THE BUDDHIST.\n\n Argument:--Entity of Brahma and non-entity of the world,\n illustrated in the story of the king of Kushadw\u00edpa.\n\n\nVasishtha resumed:--The uncreated phenomenon of creation, that appears\nto view, is nothing in reality. It is the transcendental principle of\nsupreme Brahma, that is the only true reality.\n\n2. It was on this subject, that I was once asked by some one, to my\nreply to a certain question of his; which I will now relate to you,\nO high-minded R\u00e1ma, for strengthening your understanding to the full\nknowledge thereof.\n\n3. There is the great island of Kushadw\u00edpa, surrounded by the seas on\nall sides; like a watery belt about it, and this land is renowned (for\nits beauty), all over the three regions of the world.\n\n4. There is the city called Il\u00e1vat\u00ed, situated on its north eastern\nside, and is beset by a colonnade of pillars, gilded all over with\ngold, and glittering with radiant beams, reaching from earth to the\nskies.\n\n5. There formerly reigned a prince, known by the name of Prajnapti; who\nruled on earth as the god Indra in heaven; and to whom this earth or\nland paid its homage (as the skies do to the regent of heaven).\n\n6. It was on one occasion, that I happened to alight at the presence of\nthis prince; as the sun descends on earth on the last day of desolation.\n\n7. The prince hailed and adored me with offerings of flowers and\npresents, made me sit by him with due reverence; then in the course of\nmy conversation with him, he fondly asked me as follows.\n\n8. Tell me sir, said he, what becomes of the world after the\ndestruction of all things; and when the causalities of recreation are\nall extinct and annihilated, in the undefinable vacuum of desolation.\n\n9. What then becomes the prime cause of the causation of things, at the\nrecreation of the world; and what are accompanying elements for the\nreproduction of objects, and how and whence they take their rise.\n\n10. What is the world and what was the beginning of its creation; what\nwas the primeval chaos, and whence is this earth? What is the air the\nsupport of the seas, and what is hell, which is filled by worms and\ninsects? (_i.e._ Whence are these varieties from the one source of\nBrahma?)\n\n11. What be the creatures contained in the womb of air (_i.e._ the\ncelestials), and what are they that are contained in bosom of the\nmountains (_i.e._ the demons); what are the elementary bodies and their\nproductions, and how the understanding and its faculties have come to\nexistence?\n\n12. Who is the maker of all these, and who is their witness; what is\nthe support of the universe, and what are these that are contained\ntherein? I am quite certain, that the world can never have its ultimate\ndestruction.\n\n13. All the Vedas and s\u00e1stras are opposed to one another, in their\ndifferent views and interpretations; and every one of them has made a\nsupposition, according to its particular view.\n\n14. From our knowledge of the world, we know not whether it is\nindestructible or an unreality in itself. (_i.e._ If it is an ideal\nunreality, it needs have no cause nor is it destructible at all; but\nshould it be a reality and destructible thing, then what must be the\ncause of the production and destruction thereof? Gloss).\n\n15. Again tell me, O thou chief of sages, what is the form and cause of\nthose bodies that are doomed to dwell in hell; after the demise of men\non earth, and cremation and destruction of their bodies here.\n\n16. What are the accompanying causes of the regeneration of bodies,\nafter their destruction on death? The virtues and vices of departed\nsouls, being both of them formless things, cannot be their\naccompanying causes, towards the formation of their corporeal frames.\n\n17. It is quite an absurd reasoning, that want of matter could possibly\nproduce a material body; just as it is impossible to believe, that\nthere should be an offspring, without the seminal cause of its parents.\n\n18. Tell me sir, what else should be the cause, of the production of\nmaterial bodies (after death); and for want of any such cause, it is\nimproper also, to deny the existence of a future state.\n\n19. It is contrary to the dictates of Vedas and s\u00e1stras, as also to the\nconviction and common sense of mankind, to deny the future state of\nour existence. The resurrection of our bodies is as unavoidable as our\ntransportation to a distant land by decree of law, though it be against\nour wish or will.\n\n20. How are beings born and actuated in the course of their lives, by\ninvisible causes which are quite unconnected with them (_i.e._ by the\nmerit or demerit of the acts of their past lives, which are altogether\ndetached from their present bodies?). Just as the pillars of stone were\nconverted to gold (by word of the Br\u00e1hman), and without being gilded\nover by it. Say, sir, how this vast treasure was obtained in a moment\nby the Br\u00e1hman. (_i.e._ What could be the cause of this preternatural\nevent).\n\n21. How that to be called a great one, which remains for a moment only?\nfurther what necessity is there to frame strict laws for the present\nto reap harvest in future, when that does not stand good on sound\nreasoning?\n\n22. Tell me sir, how do you reconcile such discordances in the Vedas,\nwhich mention the existence of a being and not being in the beginning;\nand tell us also that, the Not being existed before creation, and\nthen the Being or creation was born of the not being. (The discordant\npassages are \u0905\u0938\u0926\u094d\u092c\u093e \u0907\u0926\u092e\u0917\u094d\u0930 \u0906\u0938\u0940\u0924\u094d \u0909\u0924\u094b \u0938\u0926\u091c\u093e\u092f\u0924 \u0964 again \u0905\u0938\u0926\u0947\u092c \u0907\u0926\u092e\u0917\u094d\u0930 \u0906\u0938\u0940\u0924\u094d\n\u0938\u0926\u0947\u092c \u0938\u094b\u092e\u094d\u092f \u0907\u0926\u092e\u0917\u094d\u0930 \u0906\u0938\u0940\u0924\u094d \u0964).\n\n23. How could the primeval nonentity become Brahm\u00e1, or how could the\nlatter be produced from the former; or if it were the mighty vacuity\nwhich gave birth to Brahm\u00e1, then tell me sir, why there were no other\nBrahm\u00e1s also, born of its spacious womb.\n\n24. Tell me how the vegetable and other creations, could be produced\nwithout their different sources; and how they derived their nature of\npropagating their kinds, by their own seeds and property.\n\n25. Tell me why the life and death of one man, are coeval with those of\nhis friend or adversary; and do people happen to obtain their wishes in\ntheir next lives by dying in the holy places of Pray\u00e1ga &c.\n\n26. Should the wishes of men, be crowned with success in their next\nlives; then tell me sir, why the sky is not filled with myriads of\nmoons, when the worshippers of that luminary, are daily seen to be\ndying with the expectation, of becoming a brilliant orb like it, in the\nnext state of their existence in heaven.\n\n27. Say how can men succeed to their wishes in future, when most of\nthem desire to gain the same object, and it falls to the lot of one of\nthem; just as a maid expected to be wedded by many, is destined to and\nsecured by one man only.\n\n28. Again how can a woman be called a wife, who is either unchaste, or\nleads a life of celibacy even when dwelling in her husband\u2019s house?\n\n29. Say sir, what is the difference between the blessing and curse,\nwhich are pronounced on the Br\u00e1hman brothers, for their sovereignty\nover the seven continents on the one hand, and their having no such\nthing on the other; when they remained thinking themselves as monarchs\nof the world in their very house.\n\n30. The acts of piety consisting of charities, austerities and\nobsequious ceremonies, which are productive of unknown rewards in the\nnext world, and are of no benefit to their observers on earth; then\nwhat is the good derived from them, if they are not attended with any\nearthly benefit to the earthly body, but to a future body with which no\none here has any concern. (Lit. to which none bears any affection).\n\n31. Should it be said that the soul of the pious observer, reaps\nthe reward in its future state; this also is impossible because the\ndisembodied soul is incapable of enjoyment; and should it have another\nbody to enjoy hereafter, but of what use is that distant body to the\nperson of the present observer (of the pious acts)?\n\n32. Should these acts be accompanied with any reward, either in this\nlife or in the next, they could be known to the actor, but in want of\nthis, their observance appears to be an irreconcilable incongruity.\n\n33. These are my doubts (in the s\u00e1stras and practices of men), which\nI beg you will kindly remove by your cool and clear reasoning, as the\nmoon-light disperses the evening twilight.\n\n34. Now sir, deign to dispel my doubts in my inquiry after\ntranscendental truth, that it may conduce to my good in both worlds;\nbecause the company of the righteous, is ever fraught with very great\nblessings to all people.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CCVII.\n\nREPLIES TO THE AFORESAID QUERIES (OF THE BUDDHIST).\n\n Argument:--Desultory replies of the sage to the foregoing\n questions in the three following chapters.\n\n\nVasishtha replied:--Hear me prince, and I will clearly expound to you\nthe doctrine, which will root out your doubts all at once.\n\n2. All these entities in the world, are inexistent nullities for ever;\nthough they appear as realities in our consciousness.\n\n3. Whatever appears in any manner in our consciousness, (either as\nexisting or non-existent, or as so and so); the same is thought as real\nas it seems to be, without our consideration of its true nature of a\nreality or otherwise.\n\n4. Such is the nature of this consciousness, that it is thought to be\none and same with the bodiless soul, by every one who knows what it is\n(by his acquaintance with the science of psychology).\n\n5. It is this knowledge (or the idea) of a thing in the mind, either\nin waking or dreaming, that they call to be its body; hence it is this\nerroneous consciousness of anything, that is believed as its body, and\nthere is nothing else beside this that they call a solid body.\n\n6. The world shines (or shows itself) before us, like the sights seen\nin a dream; and the privation of all causes towards the production of\nthe (material) world, prove it to be not otherwise than the phantom of\na dream.\n\n7. Thus this pure and immaculate knowledge of the universe, is termed\nthe very Brahma himself (because God is said to be infinite knowledge\nonly. \u0938\u0924\u094d\u092f\u0902 \u091c\u094d\u091e\u093e\u0928\u092e\u0928\u0928\u094d\u0924\u0902 \u0935\u094d\u0930\u0939\u094d\u092e). The very same shines as\nthe world, which is not otherwise than that.\n\n8. Thus doth the world remain quite pure and unchanged, from ever\nbefore and forever more; and so it is thought and said to be, by the\nVedas and all good and great s\u00e1stras, as also by the joint assent of\nall thinking men, in all ages and countries.\n\n9. They are the most ignorant fools, and resemble the croaking frogs\ndwelling in the recess of dark caves and pits; who deny the sole\nexistence of the beings which is impressed in the consciousness of all\nbeings, which is full and perfect every where, and is acknowledged by\nall great souls.\n\n10. There are many at present, who are deluded by their notions of\nthe appearances of things, and the evidence of their senses, and have\nfallen into the error of understanding the gross body, as the cause\nof consciousness and inward impressions (_i.e._ they maintain the\nobjectivity of their knowledge as derived from without, and deny the\nsubjective consciousness derived from within).\n\n11. They are giddy with their wrong notions, and are not worthy of\nour discourse; because no conversation can be held with them that are\nintoxicated without intoxication, and are learned with their ignorance\nor learned fools.\n\n12. When the discourse of the learned, is not capable of removing the\ndoubts of men in all places; such discourse is to be understood as the\nfoolish talk of the universe.\n\n13. He who relies in his belief in the sensibles only, and regards the\nbeliever of the invisible as a fool; such a man (_i.e._ the Buddhist or\nCharvaka), is considered for his unreasonable reasoning, as a block of\nstone or stony block head.\n\n14. The fool that maintains this (materialistic) doctrine, in\nopposition to all rational philosophy, is said to be a frog of the dark\ncave (or as a blind mole of the hole); because he is blind both to the\npast which is out of his sight, as also to the invisible future and is\nconcerned only what is present before him.\n\n15. It is the veda and the sayings of wisemen, and the inferences\nof their right reasoning (in support of the invisible), as I have\nmaintained in these lectures, that can remove the doubts in these\nmatters.\n\n16. If the sensible body (_i.e._ its sensation) be consciousness\n(according to the Buddhist); then why is the dead body unconscious\nof anything? (To this the Buddhist retorts by saying:) Should the\nconscious and all pervading soul be the body, then why doth not\nthe dull corpse think as the living body? In reply to this foolish\nquestion, it is thus said in the veda:\n\n17. This world is an imaginary city of the divine mind, in its form of\nBrahm\u00e1--the creator; and it is hence that the phenomenon of the world,\nappears to our minds as a phantom in our dream (or as a reflex of the\nsame).\n\n18. Therefore all this that you see, is but the creation of the divine\nintellect, and an intellectual entity in itself; and you are not amiss\nin your judgement, if you consider them as phantoms in your dream, and\nappearing in the vacuity of your mind.\n\n19. Hence this earth and the skies, these hills and cities, are all but\nappearances in the void of the intellect, and conception of your mind,\nas those appearing in the reveries of dream, or as air built castles.\n\n20. It is the dense vacuum of self-consciousness, which is called the\ngreat Brahm\u00e1 or the personal god of creation; and it is the display\nof his will in the concrete, which is known as Vir\u00e1t or the visible\nuniverse; thus is the pure and discrete consciousness of Brahma,\ncondensed into the form of the world.\n\n21. Whatever is imagined in the imaginary city of Brahma, the same is\nconceived as existent in reality; as you conceive the objects of your\ndesire or fancy, to be present before you in actuality (_i.e._ The\nthought of a thing appears as the thing itself).\n\n22. So whatever is thought of in the fancied city, or fairy land of\none\u2019s imagination at any time; the same seems to be present before him\nfor the time being, as you see in the air-drawn castle of your fancy.\n\n23. Hence as Brahma in his form of the mind, thinks of the action of\nliving and quietus of death bodies; so are they thought of by all\nmankind.\n\n24. After the great dissolution of the world (and dissolution of all\nthings), it is said to be reproduced and renovated anew from nothing;\nbut as the want of any material cause, cannot produce the material\nworld, it is certain there is no material being in existence.\n\n25. Brahm\u00e1--the lord of creatures, having got rid of the world upon\nits dissolution, was freed also from all his remembrance and ideas of\ncreation for ever; therefore it is the reflexion of divine light only\nwhich appears as the world before us.\n\n26. Thus the supreme soul of Brahma, reflected itself in itself in the\nbeginning, in the manner of an imaginary castle of his will, which was\nair-drawn as the visible sky in the invisible vacuum, and known as the\ncosmos or world subsisting in empty space.\n\n27. As an imaginary castle is the creation of the brain or intellect,\nand presents to our minds only its intellectual form alone; so does the\nworld appear to us in its intellectual form, and only as an evolution\nof the intellect, and without having any other cause for its appearance.\n\n28. Whether there be any body or not any where, there is the vacuous\nintellect which is every where (_i.e._ the hollow space of the mind\ncomprehends both the plenum as well as the vacuum of the world). And\nknow the divine spirit to pervade all over this totality, whether it be\nthe embodied duality or vacuous unity.\n\n29. Hence the vacuous mind of a dead body, beholds the figure of the\nwhole world within its vacuity; the empty mind of a living being, sees\nthe shapes both of solid and subtile bodies, in its imagination or\ndream. (It means to say that, the death of the body does not involve\nthe death of the mind).\n\n30. As the living man thinks this immaterial world, to be a solid mass\nof dull matter; so doth the dead person think this vacuous universe, as\na solid and substantial existence lying exposed before him in its mind.\n\n31. But as the enlightened or awakened soul of a living body, sees no\ntrace of scenes of its dream upon its waking; so the redeemed soul of a\ndead being sees no trace of the objects-sight in this world, upon its\nredemption and beatification in the next world.\n\n32. The very same is the case with the enlightened soul, of every body\nin this world; that it bears only the inward conception of it within\nitself; but no outward perception thereof without. Therefore there is\nno material reality in existence, as there is no substantial causality\nin vacuity.\n\n33. As the sleeping man sees the visionary world of his dream, in\nthe light of a real existence; so the unenlightened person views the\nphenomenal world, as a sober reality before him; and so do the souls\nof the dead, deem the empty void of air as the world of their departed\nspirits. (Thus there are three different worlds, for the sleeping,\nwaking and departed souls of men).\n\n34. The unpeopled or open air, appears as the earth and heaven, and\nfull of mountains &c. as before to the souls of the departed (from\ntheir bearing those impressions with them even to the next world, and\nso on throughout all their future transmigration).\n\n35. The departed soul perceives its separation from a dead body, and\nthinks of its regeneration in another frame on earth; where it will\nhave its enjoyments and suffering again as before.\n\n36. The soul never gets rid of this delusion of its regeneration, (and\nof its desire of renovation also), so long as it neglects to resort to\nthe means, of obtaining its salvation and final liberation; it is by\nmeans of its knowledge of truth and absence of desire, that is freed\nfrom its error of reproduction.\n\n37. Hence it is the consciousness of the soul, of its righteous or\nunrighteous desire; that represents the picture of this airy world, in\nthe hollow sphere of the mind. (Thus the world is only the picture and\nproduction of one\u2019s own desire).\n\n38. The world is therefore neither of a substantial nor vacuous form,\nbut the display of divine intelligence; the want of this knowledge\nis the source of all misery to man, but its true knowledge as\nrepresentation of divine wisdom, is fraught with all bliss and joy.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CCVIII.\n\nSOLUTION OF THE GREAT QUESTION.\n\n Argument:--Answer to the question of _future rewards_ and\n punishment of departed souls in another world.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--Hear me now to tell you, why men happen to meet\nwith their (unexpected) good or fortune at home; and in the same manner\nhow rewards and retributions, come to attend on departed souls from\nunforeseen causes in the far distant (or next) world.\n\n2. You know the whole world to be the volitional city (or fabric) of\nDivine will, and appearing as phenomenal to our outward sight, and\nas noumenal in the light of our inward insight of it, and as Brahma\nhimself in its spiritual light. (_i.e._ God has so willed the world,\nas to be viewed in the triple light of the physical, intellectual and\nspiritual also).\n\n3. In this volitional city, everything appears in the same light, as\none would behold it in any of its different aspects.\n\n4. As in your own house, you are master of the direction of your\noffspring, and of the disposal of your things and affairs as please;\nso is the Lord the sole disposer and dispensator of all things in this\nworld of his will, as he likes of his own accord.\n\n5. As in the desired dwelling of your liking, you find everything to be\nas well disposed as you wish it to be; so doth he direct and dispose\nall things in this world of his.\n\n6. The disorder that there appears to take place in the order of\nnature, is to be attributed to the Divine Will as the sovran law of all.\n\n7. The good or evil which waits on men, owing to the obedience to or\ntransgression of law; is both attributable to the Divine Will (which\nhas originated the laws and ordained their results).\n\n8. It is the dispensation of the Divine will also, whereby all living\nbodies have their perceptions of worldly things; just as they have\nthe conception of the existence of the world, which in reality has no\nentity of it.\n\n9. It is by will of the divine intellect, that everything appears to\nbe existent before us; as it is the oscitation and occlusion or the\ngaping and closing of the intellect, which causes the appearance and\ndisappearance of the world to our view.\n\n10. The king said:--Tell me sir, if the world was the production of the\ndivine will, why was it not known to exist before with the eternity of\nthe Will divine, and why and when it came to be manifested and known\nto others afterwards; tell me also, whether the world is an unstable\nand vanishing appearance in the air, or it has any fixity in the divine\nmind or stability in nature.\n\n11. Vasishtha replied:--Such is the nature of the vacuous and\nvolitional city of divine intellect; that it comes to being and not\nbeing in succession, in the states of repeated waking dreams of\ncreation, and in the sleeping oblivion of its desolation.\n\n12. Like the mud built house of playful boys, and the air drawn castles\nof fanciful men, do the appearances of creation, appear both as real\nand unreal in the divine intellect as well as to our minds.\n\n13. As you build and break your imaginary city in the air, and make\nand unmake a fabric of your will elsewhere; whether it be of your own\nor choice or for any other reason, so it is with the Divine will,\nto construct and protract or retract or annul any of its works _ad\nlibitum_.\n\n14. Thus are all beings, continually rising and falling, in this\nvacuous city of the divine will; which is ever shining in its nature,\nwith the pure light of the divine mind. (God throws his own light on\nthe work of his will).\n\n15. The whole plenum of the world is a vacuum, and full with the\ndense intelligence of omniscience; therefore it is this omniscient\nintelligence, which doth still whatever it thinks upon and wills. (This\npassage shows that the Ved\u00e1nta Brahma, is not inactive or Nishkriya as\nmany believe; but the living God, and sole agent of all things and\ndirector of all accidents in this world).\n\n16. Therefore it is not the hidden but self manifest God, that does all\nthings even at the distance of Millions of miles, and myriads of ages,\nas if they lay before him at the present time.\n\n17. So there is nothing in any country or in any world, which is not\nknown nor thought of by the sole and unhidden soul of all. (The gloss\napplies it to every individual soul, which is conscious of its merits\nand demerits everywhere).\n\n18. As a brilliant gem reflects its light and shade within itself, so\ndoth the gem of the intellect reflect by its own light the various\nvicissitudes of the world in itself. (_i.e._ The human mind is sensible\nof its deserts).\n\n19. Laws and prohibitions, which are necessary for the preservation\nof people, are implanted in the human soul. (As they are the eternal\nvarieties of the divine mind), and accompany it every where with their\njust rewards.\n\n20. The soul never sets nor rises (_i.e._ It neither dies nor revives,\nbut supposes itself as such by its error only); It is Brahma himself\nand his reflexion in others, and emanating always from the divine soul\nits source and origin.\n\n21. As from being the viewer, it supposes itself to be the view, and\nthinks its imaginary world as a visible phenomenon; (_i.e._ believes\nitself both as the subjective as well as objective); so it thinks\nitself to be born, living and dying (by the like error of its own).\n\n22. When the soul of its own nature ceases to cast its reflexion, or\nsuppresses it within itself, and remains quietly in the vacuous sphere\nof divine intellect, by assimilating itself with the universal soul of\nBrahma, it is then said to be _quietus_ of quiet in death. (The word\nfor death in the text is _S\u00e1nta-Samita_ or extinct, or instinct in the\ndivine soul).\n\n23. The emission and intromission of its reflexion, are as natural to\nthe ignorant and imperfect living soul of animal beings; as oscillation\nand calm are congenital with air (or as respiration and inspiration\nwith breath).\n\n24. Now as you see in the city of your imagination, the growth, decay\nand death of people, at different times and places;--\n\n25. So it is the nature of this imaginary city of God, to exhibit these\nchanges everywhere, as in the cases of animals, vegetables and all\nthings in all the three worlds.\n\n26. But God neither wills nor does everything himself, in this creation\nof his will, but he acts by general laws and secondary causes, as\nin the cricket play of boys, and growth of grass from grass, and\nproduction of trees and their fruits &c. from seeds.\n\n27. It is the nature of the almighty intellect of God, to bring forth\nforthwith to being whatever it wills to be and appear. (The almighty\nthought, will or word, is variously said to be the prime cause of all).\n\n28. All things being originally of intellectual form, appear afterwards\nin various forms, and with different natures; as the almighty intellect\ninvests them with.\n\n29. Hence everything here, is verily of an intellectual form, by their\noriginating from the divine intellect; and as the intellect includes\nall things in itself, it is omniform and shows itself in any form it\nlikes.\n\n30. This very intellect is the omniscient and universal soul, without\nhaving its beginning, middle or end; it is omnipotent and something\nwhich is nothing, and an entity appearing as non-entity; It appears\nsuch as it remains anywhere, and shows itself as anything; it is the\norigin of all things and beings, and the source of all vegetables and\ngrass.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CCIX.\n\nON THE CONSCIOUSNESS OR INTUITIVE KNOWLEDGE OF EXTRANEOUS EXISTENCES.\n\n Argument:--Reconciliation of the opposite results of virtuous and\n sinful acts, on one and same person at the same time.\n\n\nVasishtha continued saying:--The life of a person is dear and useful to\nhim, as long as he lives and not afterwards; but hear me tell you the\ngood of a man\u2019s dying in some holy place, with a wish for future reward\nin his next life.\n\n2. God has ordained certain virtues and merits to certain places, even\nfrom the beginning of his imaginary city of this world (as to all other\nthings at their very beginning).\n\n3. Whatever merit is assigned to any place, the same awaits on the soul\nof the person, after its release from bondage, by his performance of\nthe acts of piety enjoined by the s\u00e1stras.\n\n4. Hence any great sin that is committed by any body anywhere, is\neither partly or wholly effaced by the good act of the person,\naccording to comparative merit of the holy place, or the degree of\nabsolution in the mind of the penitent sinner.\n\n5. In any case of the insignificance of the sin, with regard to the\ngreater sacerdotalism of the place; there the sinner is quite absolved\nfrom his guilt, and attains the object of his wish (in his future life).\n\n6. But in case of the equality of the merits of penitence, with the\nholiness of the place; the penitent man receives two bodies in his next\nlife, that is both a physical body and spiritual soul.\n\n7. Such is the effect of the primeval guilt and merit of mankind, that\nthey are endowed with double bodies, consisting of their physical\nframes and spiritual souls (the one maculate and the other immaculate)\nand such the divine soul even from before.\n\n8. The principle is called Brahma in its sense of the whole, and as\nBrahm\u00e1--the totality of the living soul _j\u00edva_; and also as _aham_\nor the ego, meaning any living soul in particular; and as he remains\nin any manner of the whole or part, so he manifests himself in his\nsemblance of the world.\n\n9. The reflexion of purity acquired in some holy place, appears to the\npenitent soul in the same manner; as it appears in its contrary light\nto the guilty soul, which is not so absolved from its sin in any holy\nplace. (These different reflexions, present the appearance of heavenly\nbliss to the soul of one, and that of hell torments to the other, as in\ntheir visions of paradise and Styx in dream).\n\n10. The one sees the visions of his own death, and the weeping of his\nliving relatives; and deems himself as a departed ghost to the next\nworld, all alone and without a single soul beside him.\n\n11. He sees also the deaths of his friends there, and thinks also that\nhe hears the wailings of their relations at that place; he sees the\nchimeras of all these in his phrensy, as a man of deranged humours sees\nthe spectres of bugbears in his delirium.\n\n12. So it happens with great souls also, to see the sights both of good\ngrace and affright, according to the measure of their merit or guilt\nin this life; and thus thousands of hopeful and hideous shapes, float\nabout in the imaginations of men, owing to the purity and depravity of\ntheir natures.\n\n13. The friends of the dying man, lying insensible as a dead body; weep\nand wail over his corpse, and then take him to the funeral ground for\nhis cremation.\n\n14. But the guiltless man being accompanied by his self-conscious and\nrighteous soul sees the approach of his decrepitude and death, with\nfirmness and without any feeling of sorrow (as if he had no decay nor\ndeath).\n\n15. With his present body he sees himself to be a living being; and\nwith his invisible part or inward soul, he sees his conquest over death\nby the merit of his holy pilgrimage (and the immortality of his soul in\nthe future world).\n\n16. The guiltless man is in fear of his death for a moment only, but is\nconscious of the indestructibility of his inward soul, as a man clad\nin mail, is dauntless of the shafts of his unarmoured antagonist. (The\npure soul is invulnerable to the shafts of death).\n\n17. In this manner the relatives of the deceased, find his pure soul,\nto obtain its immortality after his death; and that life and death are\nindifferent to the virtuous and purified person.\n\n18. The sights of all the three worlds, are equally fallacious both in\ntheir tangible and intangible forms; as the vision of one object in a\ndream, is as false as another in their visionary nature. (The gloss\nsays that, one error succeeds another, in the same way as one lie is\nfollowed by another).\n\n19. We have clear conceptions of the fallacies, arising in our minds,\nboth in our dreams and imagination; but the fallacies of our waking\ndreams by broad daylight, are more obvious and never less conspicuous\nto our apprehension than either of them (the latter being more general\nand lasting than the former ones).\n\n20. The king said:--But tell me sir, how virtue and vice, both of which\nare bodiless things (as being the abstract qualities of our actions),\nassume to themselves the bodily forms of living beings, in the course\nof the transmigration of our souls. (Virtuous souls being blessed with\nhuman bodies, while vicious spirits are doomed to suffer in various\nbrutish forms).\n\n21. Vasishtha replied:--There is nothing impossible to the creative\npower of Brahm\u00e1, to be produced in the imaginary fabric of this world\nof his mind; nor is it impracticable to the substantive divine will to\ngive substantial forms to understand things. (The substantive will is\ncalled _satyasankulpa_ which brings the inexistent to real existence).\n\n22. There is nothing which is unimaginable, and cannot be produced by\nthe mind of Brahm\u00e1; as it is with us to have no idea of anything and\nnothing in being, of which we have no imagination in our finite minds.\n(Brahm\u00e1 has given forms to all the imaginary ideas of his mind, which\nwe cannot do to our formless and abstract idea of any).\n\n23. A visionary city in the dream and an imaginary castle of fancy, do\nboth present the like ideal form to the mind; and yet both of them are\ncomposed of a train of ideas, which appear as real objects for the time\nbeing. (So the ideal seems as real for a time).\n\n24. All the numerous thoughts, which lie as a dead and dormant mass, in\nthe states of our deep and sound sleep; appear to us in endless forms\nin the vision of our dream and waking our imagination and leave their\ntraces in the memory.\n\n25. Who is there that has not had the notion, of the aerial castles of\nhis dream and imagination; and found them not to be composed of our\nconcepts only, in the airy world of our vacuous consciousness.\n\n26. Therefore what thing is there, that is not capable of being\nproduced in this \u00e6rial world, which is the production of the airy\nimagination of the vacuous intellect; and what thing also which is\nsubstantially produced therefrom? (The creatures of the mind, have\nmental forms only).\n\n27. Therefore it is this fallacy only, which appears in the form of\nthe visible universe; where there is nothing in real existence or\ninexistence; but all things appear to be _in esse_ and _non esse_, in\nthe _Nabhas_ and in the _Nubibus_ of the divine mind.\n\n28. Anything that is perceived in any manner, the same is thought as\na manifestation of its \u00c1ker in the same manner; and the enlightened\nseekers of truth, find no impropriety in their belief as such. (These\nas they change, are the varied God. Thomson\u2019s \u201cThe Seasons\u201d).\n\n29. Hence when a man is taught by the tenets of his religion, to hope\nfor the enjoyment of flowery banks (lit.--hills), and streams flowing\nwith nectar in paradise (lit.--heaven); it is very probable that he\nwill meet with the same things, in his future life in the next world.\n(So the Moslem is taught to expect the gratification of all his carnal\ndesires in heaven, as the promised rewards of his holy Koran. The\nHindus likewise have bodily delights to expect in their different\nheavens).\n\n30. Hence the acts that are done in this world by any body, are\nattended with their like rewards unto him in the next; and there is no\ninconsistency in this belief, though it appears so to the unbeliever\n(The adage--as you sow, so shall you reap, holds equally true in every\nreligion with regard to future retribution, as in every case here\nbelow).\n\n31. Should there be anything, which may be said to be permanent in this\nworld, it must be ever present in the view of its viewer; let then any\nman say upon this criterion, which he does not lose the sight of all\nother things before his eye sight, except the ideas of things in his\nmind, which are ever present in his knowledge, and never lost sight of\nin his consciousness.\n\n32. I have given you the analogy of our dreams and thoughts, to prove\nthe essentiality of our notions and ideas; and whereas the worlds\nappertain to the will and subsists in the mind of omniscience, they are\nnot otherwise than the essence of the Great Brahma Himself.\n\n33. As there is nothing wanting or impossible to be produced, in the\n\u00e6rial castle of your imagination; so there is nothing which does not\nand cannot exist in the will and mind of the almighty.\n\n34. Whatsoever is thought of in any form, in the Divine Mind, the\nsame remains fixed therein in the very form; and the same appears to\nbe situated in the same nature before our views in its photo or in a\nscenography.\n\n35. Hence this semblance of the Divine Mind, is perceived only by our\ninternal senses, and not perceptible to the external organs, or to both\nof these at once; because it is for our minds only to perceive the\nimpressions of the eternal mind, and to impel the internal organs (by\ntheir inward efforts), to receive those reflexions.\n\n36. As the lord has willed everything at first, so it lasts with him to\nthe very last of his creation (_i.e._ from the very beginning of his\nSankalpa, to the end of the kalpa epoch); when his will of creating the\nworld anew, gives another form to the state of things in future.\n\n37. The Lord manifests himself as he wills, in the manner of his will,\nand in the form of another world in every kalpa duration of creation;\nas the minds of men come to see another world and another state of\nthings in their each successive dream.\n\n38. There is nothing which does not exist, in this worldly city of\nDivine will, and all that exists therein is naught but the production\nof the Divine Intellect; therefore this world is to be known, as full\nof the forms of the productive mind of God.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CCX.\n\nREFUTATION OF THE CONCEPTION OF A DUALITY IN UNITY.\n\n Argument:--End of Vasishtha\u2019s Replies to the important queries,\n and his showing the unity of the world with Brahma himself.\n\n\nVasishtha resumed and said:--Now hear me tell you in reply to the\nquestion, why the heaven is not filled with a hundred full moons, if\nit were the wish of a hundred persons to shine as such a luminary on\nfuture, and if the wishes of all are crowned with success in their next\nstate of being. (The souls of the pious are said to twinkle as stars in\nheaven).\n\n2. Those that aspired to become as bright as the full moon of heaven,\nbecame actually so in their conception of themselves as such in the\nsphere of their minds; and not by their situation in the vault of the\nsky or in the orb of that luminary.\n\n3. Say who has ever and anywhere, got into the imaginary city of\nanother; and who has ever got any fancied treasure, except the framer\nof the fancy and the fabricator of the wished for wealth. (Every one is\nthe master of his own Utopia and delights in his hobby horse).\n\n4. Every one has a heaven of his own, in the utopia of his creation;\nwherein he is situated and shines as a full bright moon, and without\nits phases of the wane and waste.\n\n5. All those aspirants to luminosity, had thought of entering into the\nmoon of his own mind; and there he found himself to rest at last, with\nfull light of that luminary and delight of his conscious soul.\n\n6. Each of them thought of entering into the disc of the moon shining\nin their minds, and felt themselves glad in their situation, as if they\nwere seated in the orb of the celestial moon.\n\n7. Whatever one seeks and searches after, the same becomes con-natural\nwith his consciousness; and in the case of his firm belief in the same\nstate, he thinks and feels himself to be the very same.\n\n8. As every aspirer to the state of the full moon, came to be such in\nhis respective conception of that luminary; so the suitors of the same\nbride in marriage, became wedded to her according to his own conception\nof hers. (Every one imagines his doxy, as a fairy paragon of beauty).\n\n9. The one pure maiden that is thought of being taken to wife, by\nmany men in their minds; is never defiled by any one of them in her\ncharacter, by their simple enjoyment of her ideal only. (The ideal is\nnot tangible possession).\n\n10. As the sovereign ruler of the seven continents, holds his sway over\nthem, without ever going out of his city; so the soul passes to them\nall, by remaining in the precincts of its body: and so does every man\nsee his imaginary castle, in the sphere of his own house.\n\n11. When the whole universe owes its origin to the imagination of its\nomniscient originator--the self born Brahma; what can it be otherwise,\nthan an intangible vacuum and quite calm and quiet in itself. (The\nmoving bodies are the fixed figures of the divine mind, and appear to\nbe turning round like the pictures in a panorama or the objects in a\nscenograph).\n\n12. Now hear me tell you of the unknown and invisible results of the\nacts piety, such as charity, obsequeous rites, religious austerities\nand the mutterings of holy mantras, which accrue to the departed ghosts\nof bodily beings in the next world.\n\n13. The souls marked with traces of pious acts in them, come to view\nthem vividly as their actual works, and painted in as lively colours as\ntheir dreams, by fabrications of their lively intellects.\n\n14. The carnal mind distrusting the reality of these impressions of\nconsciousness, and disregarding the internal operation of the inward\nintellect; becomes restless for its sensuous enjoyment and exercise of\nthe outward organs of action, until by abatement of this fervour, it is\nrestored to its inward peace and tranquility.\n\n15. It is the theme of early poets which tells us, that the impressions\nof the acts of piety and charity which are imprinted in the intellect,\nare reflected over the passive soul in the next world, when the\nconscious soul continues to keep the gratification of those acts.\n\n16. Thus the rewards of charity and uncharitableness, are equally felt\nin the gratification and dissatisfaction of the soul in this world\nalso, where everything is by our feeling of it.\n\n17. Thus have answered fully to whatever you have asked of me; and now\nknow from all this, that the sensible world is an intangible dream, and\nan air drawn spectacle of the mind.\n\n18. The prince rejoined:--But please to tell me sir, how could the\nintellect alone and itself before the production of the body; and how\ncan a light subsist without its receptacle of a lamp or lantern.\n\n19. Vasishtha replied:--The sense in which you use the world body, is\nquite unknown to the spiritualist, who discard the material meaning of\nthe term, as they reject the idea of the dancing of stones in air. (The\nlearned know the spiritual body only).\n\n20. The meaning of the word body, is the same as that of Brahma (who is\nall in all); and there is no difference in the meaning of the two, as\nthere is none between the words fluid and liquid.\n\n21. The body is a visionary appearance, and the great body of Brahma,\nis likened unto the figure of a phantom in vision, which represents\nthe forms of all things as in dream in the stupendous fabric of the\nuniverse. [Brahma is more likely the phantasmagoria that shows all\nforms in it. Gloss].\n\n22. But the difference between thy dream or vision and spectrum of\nBrahma, consist in the former representing the figures of thy previous\nthoughts alone, which disperse and vanish upon thy waking; but the\nuniverse which is exhibited in spectrum of Brahma, is not so evanescent\nas that of other.\n\n23. What is thing then we call the body, and how does it appear into\nus in the shape of something in our dream; and why doth anything\nappearing as a reality in dream, appear as nothing and vanish as an\nerror upon our waking.\n\n24. There is no waking, sleeping or dreaming, nor any other condition\nof being, in the _Tur\u00edya_ or transcendent state of Brahma [as in those\nof the divine hypostases of Brahm\u00e1, Vir\u00e1t and others]. It is something\nas the pure and primeval light and as the transparent air, all quiet\nand still, [as the infinite eternity].\n\n25. It is the same as the unknown and inscrutable light, which shows\nand glows before us to this day; It is the same primeval and primordial\nlight, that showed first the sight of the world to view, as if it were\na dream in the gloom of night. (Light was nature\u2019s first born, and\nbrought forth all nature from it).\n\n26. As in passing from one district to another, the body though\nproceeding onward, is ever in the midst of its circuit, and yet never\nfixed at any spot; so are all things in their endless rotation in this\nworld, whether singly or collectively.\n\n27. The sight of the world, like that of a dream, presents favourable\naspect to some minds, but it presents a clear and serene prospect to\nmen of unclouded intellects.\n\n28. The vacuum as well as the plenum of objects, and the reflexion\nas likewise the eclipse or adumbration of things; the existence and\ninexistence of the world and matter, and the unity and duality of the\ndivine entity, are all but the extraneous phases or aspects of the same\nvacuous intellect.\n\n29. The world is entirely or completely evolution from the fulness of\nthe deity; and stands as a complete counterpart of the original; it is\nneither a shining or unshining body by itself, but is as bright as the\ncontents of a crystal within its bowels.\n\n30. Wherever there is the evolution of the world in the intellect,\nthere is the presence of the subtile soul also at that place, and\nwhenever there is a jot of thought anywhere, it is attended with the\nthought of the world also. (The mind and soul are one with creation,\nand the same thing).\n\n31. The vacuum of intellect is present everywhere (pervading and\ncomprehending the whole). And this omnipresence is the divine presence\n(which engrosses and envelopes this all) which is termed the world.\n[The word world-jagat passing [in our right], is spiritually _s\u00e1nta_ or\nquiet].\n\n32. The divine soul is as quiet and unchangeable, as this universe is\nstable and stationary; and it is the fluctuation of the supreme mind,\nwhich causes these variations in the face of the city of the divine\nwill [or the world].\n\n33. The impossibility of any other inference [of the world\u2019s duality\nor its being aught otherwise than the divine entity]; proves it\nnecessarily to be of the very same essence. Any unreasonable hypothesis\nof sophists is inconsistent with this subject [of the absolute unity].\n\n34. The joint assent of the common belief of mankind, the testimony\nof the s\u00e1stras, and the dicta of the Vedas, are established and\nincontrovertible truths. Hence nobody can have any doubt in regard to\nthe real entity of the Divine spirit.\n\n35. This being confessed it becomes evident, that the world is the\ndeity itself; and when the world appears as one with the deity, it\nis seen in our clairvoyance to be extinct in the Divine essence.\n(Clairvoyance is _charama-s\u00e1kshat k\u00e1ra_ or the last sight of creation\nat one\u2019s dying moment; when the world disappears, and eternity appears\nfull open to view. Gloss).\n\n36. From this analogy of the ultimate evanescent sight of the world, it\nwill be evident to the living soul, that the sight of the phenomenal\nis wholly lost before it in the noumenal. This is the doctrine of\ncosmotheism, wherein whole nature is seen in nature\u2019s God.\n\n37. He who is acquainted with the sphere of his intellect, is not\nunacquainted with the fact of the dependency of the arbour of the world\nto it, he sees the three worlds in himself, in either of his two states\nof bondage and liberation. (The fettered soul is fastened to the sight\nof the material and temporal world; but the liberated soul views it in\nits spiritual light).\n\n38. The visible world though so manifest to view, is entirely lost to\nsight upon its right knowledge; and the knower thereof in its light,\nbecomes like the setting sun, wholly invisible to public sight, and\nremains as mute as a clod of silent stone.\n\n39. The way that is established by the Vedas, and received by the\ngeneral assent of wisemen; is to be acknowledged, as the right path\nleading to sure success (vox populi vox dei).\n\n40. He who adheres steadily to his own purpose, by utter disregard of\nall other objects in his view; is said to be firmly fixed to his point,\nand is sure to reap his success at the end.\n\n41. Everything appears to one in the same light, as he is accustomed to\nview and take it for; and whether this object of his faith is a true\nor false one, it appears just the same to any body as he is wont to\nbelieve it.\n\n42. This is the conclusion of your question, as I have determined and\ndelivered to you; now be quick and walk your way with perfect ease of\nyour mind, health of your body and agility of your limbs.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CCXI.\n\nLECTURE ON TRANSCENDENT TRUTH.\n\n Argument:--Relation of Brahma as the all-pervading spirit, and of\n the means of the presentation of spiritual being before one.\n\n\nVasishtha resumed:--As I was sitting relating these things to the\nprince, he honoured me with his obeisance; and then thinking I had\ndispensed my task to him, rose up to proceed on my aerial journey (from\nthe Il\u00e1vrita-Varsha of Kushadw\u00edpa).\n\n2. Thus I have related unto you this day, O most intelligent R\u00e1ma,\nregarding the omnipresence of the Divine spirit; keep this vacuous view\nof Brahma before your sight, and proceed everywhere with the peace of\nyour mind (as you are ever living and moving in the Lord).\n\n3. Know all this to be Brahma itself, and a nameless and unsubstantial\nvoid only; it is something unborn and increate, all calm and quiet, and\nwith out its beginning, middle and end. (It is infinity in space and\neternity in duration).\n\n4. It is said to be the reflexion of the intellect, and named as Brahma\nfrom its immensity, it is termed the most transcendent, and something\nwithout any designation at all.\n\n5. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--Tell me sir, how can we have the sights of the\ncelestial, and of the Siddha and S\u00e1dhya spirits, of Yama, Brahm\u00e1 and of\nthe heavenly Vidy\u00e1dharas and choristers; and tell me also sir, how the\npeople of the other spheres can be visible to us.\n\n6. Vasishtha replied:--The celestial siddhas, S\u00e1dhyas, the gods Yama\nand Brahm\u00e1, and the Vidy\u00e1dhara demigods; these together with all other\nbeings of great souls and wondrous might;--\n\n7. Are all visible to you both by day and night, and above, below,\nbehind and ever before you, if you will but look at them with the eyes\nof your mind; but if you shut your mental eye against spirituality, you\ncan never have the sight of spirit presented before your view. (This\npassage is illustrated in the story of Chudaloka. Gloss).\n\n8. These beings being habituated to be viewed in our minds, are never\nafar from us, and as they are represented to be volitive or self willed\nbeings, they are said to be ever roving everywhere. (The spirits are of\ntwo kinds; some stationary in their particular lokas or spheres; and\nothers to be wandering about. Gloss).\n\n9. These volitional beings are as fickle as the living creatures of\nthis earth of ours; and as the volatile winds, which are blowing at\nrandom in every direction.\n\n10. These resemble the airy creatures of your imagination and dream,\nwhich hover and gather about you by day and night; while the others\nare devoid of their volition and motion, and are settled stationary in\ntheir respective spheres.\n\n11. If you can in the calm quietness of your mind and soul, secure\nthe reflexion of any of these spirits in your silent and steadfast\nmeditation; you can without fail, have the visitation of the same in\nthe inmost recess of your soul (and hold your secret communion with it\nalso. Gloss).\n\n12. In this manner do men see the gods as they see the siddhas, arrayed\nwith all their majesty and glory, as they are feigned to be in their\nintense meditations. (Dhy\u00e1nenaivapara-devah).\n\n13. Now as men of steady minds, find themselves to be soaring to\nheaven, in the company of the siddhas and clad in all their glory;\nthose of fickle and unsubdued minds, have to take great pains, in order\nto confine the fleeting object of their contemplation under their\ncontrol. (It is often dangerous to the unadept novice in meditation, to\nlet slip the object of his contemplation from his grasp).\n\n14. The world is altogether an unsubstantial and imperceptible thing;\nand is ever as silent and a serene void, as the vacuum of the intellect\n(or the Divine mind). It appears however as a solid and compact mass,\naccording as the notion we have of it in our consciousness. (_i.e._\nThis nothing is thought of something, according to our mistaken\nnotion or conception of it).\n\n15. It does not exist in our unconsciousness, nor does it appear to be\nin existence or otherwise it is not dull, insensible and unthinking\nbeings; it is a vacuity and nullity, and utterly an intangible and\nimperceptible thing in our sensibility and unconsciousness of it.\n\n16. It is the nature of the intellect to reflect in itself, and all\nthat is seen about us, is the shadow of that reflexion; the knowledge\nof substantiality in this shadowy reflection, proceeds from the vanity\nof the intellect, and not from its nature which free from mistake.\n\n17. There can be no talk of causation, production or vegetation, in\nthe nature of the universe; which being an absolute void, is entirely\ndevoid of the elements of cause and effect. (Ex nihilo nihil fit &c.).\n\n18. That which appears to be produced, is only a void in the midst of\nprimeval vacuum (teo et beo); nor can there be the attribution of unity\nor duality to the infinite vacuity.\n\n19. Yet the world appears as something existent in your mind; and as\nvisible before your eyes; and this happens in the same manner as you\nhave the consciousness and sight of your dreams; in the unruffled calm\nof your hollow sleep.\n\n20. As imagination causes the mountains and mountainous regions, to\nrise in the hollow sphere of our minds; but neither is the one nor\nthe other found to be really existent therein; such is this creation\nan airy working of the divine mind (and leaving no trace of it left\nbehind).\n\n21. Hence it is the nature of the wise and sapient, to remain as quiet\nand mute as motionless blocks of wood or stone; and the character of\ngreat minds, to manage themselves as wooden puppets, moving wholly as\nthey are moved by the prime mobile power of God alone (Without being\nactuated by their own desire, or deeming themselves as free agents).\n\n22. As the waves are seen to roll about on the surface waters, and as\nthe eddies are whirling round and hurling headlong into the deep; so\nthe whole creation and all created things, turn about the pivot of the\ngreat Brahma alone. (Not an atom herein, has an excentric course of its\nown).\n\n23. As vacuity is inborn in the firmament, and undulations are immanent\nin the air; so are these creations inherent and inseparably connected\nwith the divine spirit, in their amorphous or formless and ideal\nshapes. (This passage maintains the idealistic theory of the ancients).\n\n24. As an air drawn castle of our will or imagination, presents\na substantial shape before us with all its unsubstantialness; so\ndoes this world appear as a compact frame exhibited before us,\nnotwithstanding its situation in the formless mind of Brahma.\n\n25. All these three worlds, that we are accustomed to believe as real\nones, and as seats of our temporal as well as spiritual concerns; are\nall void and formless, and as unreal ones as the airy castles of our\nimagination.\n\n26. As it is the thought of our minds, that creates full populous\ncities in them; so it is the thought of the mind of God, that creates\nthese numerous worlds, and presents them to our minds and eyes.\n\n27. Though ever and all along thought as a reality, this visible world\nbears no meaning at all; and resembles the sight of a man\u2019s own death\nin his dream.\n\n28. As a man sees the funeral of his dead body, conducted by his son in\nhis dream; so the unreal world is seen as a reality, in as much as it\nis reflected as such by its supreme contriver.\n\n29. Both the entity and non-entity of the cosmos or world, constitute\nthe corpus of the immaculate deity; just as a fictitious name applied\nto a person, makes no difference in his personage.\n\n30. Whether what I have said is true or not (that the siddhas and\nothers are mere imaginary or spiritual beings), you have nothing to\nlose or gain therefrom (because we have no concern whatever with them);\nand as it is useless for wise men to expect any reward by casting\nfruits into the Ph\u00e1lgu river, so it is of no good to the intelligent\nwho have known the true God, to take the pains of invoking the aid of\nthe minor gods instead of Him.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CCXII.\n\nON ASCERTAINMENT OF TRUTH.\n\n Argument:--Thinking God as the Ego, Brahm\u00e1 and the creation, and\n the description of God.\n\n\nVasishtha resumed:--The man that considers himself as the Ego, from his\npossession of the intellect and intellectual powers in him; elevates\nhim to the rank of Brahm\u00e1 and contains the whole world in himself.\n\n2. As the Lord Brahm\u00e1 or Hiranyagarbha remained in this state (of the\ntotality of souls) he was not then the creator of the world; but was\nalike the increate Brahma--the everlasting God, as he continued from\nall eternity. (Brahm\u00e1 assimilating himself to the impersonal God, had\nno personality of himself, so the holy trinity was all One, before\nthe Lord caused his coeternal son to create the world; as nothing was\ncreated but by the son).\n\n3. It is in our consciousness, that the world appears in this manner,\nand is like the mirage in a desert, where its very unreality shows\nitself as a reality. (Hence our consciousness, is not always the test\nof truth).\n\n4. It is since the creation, that the primeval vacuum began to present,\nthe blunder or falsity of the world in itself; but how and whence\narose this blunder, unless it were the presentation of Brahma himself.\n(Delusion is God also).\n\n5. The world is a whirlpool (a revolving sphere), in the vast ocean\nof Brahma (_i.e._ in the great expanse of vacuum). Where then is the\nquestion of unity or duality in this, or the talk of the dualism of\nthe eddy from the waters of the deep, or how can there be the topic of\nunity in want of a duality. (The world is therefore Brahma-dharma or an\nhypostasis of God. Gloss).\n\n6. The great Brahma is profoundly quiet, and having his intellect\ninherent in himself, he is conscious of his being the great or sole\nEgo (or the totality of beings) in his mind, and sees himself as the\nmidst of the vast expanse of vacuity.\n\n7. As fluctuation is inherent in air, and heat is inbred in fire; and\nas the moon contains its coolness in itself, so does the Great Brahma\nbrood over the eternal ideas of things, contained in the cavity of his\nfathomless mind.\n\n8. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--Tell me sir, how does the divine mind come to think\nof and brood upon his creation; when the eternal intellect is ever\nemployed in its process of intellection. The course of Divine thought\nbeing unobstructed from eternity to eternity, its even tenor cannot\nbe supposed to be now and then turned to the act of creation, or even\nsaid to be brought in its action and motion, since the time that this\ncreation first began to exist (There can be no talk of the beginning or\nend of the world before eternity).\n\n9. Vasishtha replied:--It is even so, O R\u00e1ma! the great Ego of God\nalways thinks of everything in itself; and the increate and ever\nexistent spirit of God, has never anything unknown to his knowledge.\n(The evolution and involution of the world, are known by the terms of\nits creation and annihilation).\n\n10. The vacuous is ever and every where present both in creation and\nnon-creation (_i.e._ both before as well as after it); and there\nis nothing that is known to him as existent or nonexistent at any\ntime (since the ignorant know the world as existent, and the learned\nconsider it a nihility; but the Lord knows them all in himself).\n\n11. As the mind is conscious of its fluctuation, and the moon of her\ncoldness; and as the air knows its voidness, so doth Brahma know\nhimself as the Ego, and never thinks himself without the other. (They\nare Misra or combined together).\n\n12. Such is the entity of God, and never unlike to or otherwise than\nthis; and whereas the world is without its beginning and end, it must\nbe as imperishable as Brahma himself. (The world is without end).\n\n13. It is only from your want of sufficient intelligence, and hearing\nof or prejudice in the word _non-ego_; that you are led to the belief\nof a duality, in the undualistic unity of the Deity.\n\n14. Never does any body nor anything here, think of itself of anything\nwhatever; there is none and naught whatsoever, that can think unless it\nis the same with the Divine Ego.\n\n15. The apparent threefold world, ever appears in this manner; as one\nwith and inseparable from God that dwells alike and evenly in all,\nwhich composes one uniform whole, without admixture of any diversity or\nduality (all which blend together in harmony in one universal unity).\n\n16. Know O R\u00e1ma, that is nothing like a rock or tree, is produced in\nempty vacuity; so these seeming solid worlds, can never be produced in\nthe vacuous spirit of Brahma (but are all mere phantoms of what they\nappear to be) know this, and go on freely in your own way.\n\n17. Precepts to men of little intelligence and doubtful minds, fail to\npersuade them to the knowledge of truth; and so long as they can not\ncomprehend the unity, they are ever apt to believe in the multiplicity\nof objects.\n\n18. Neither precepts nor s\u00e1stras, can lead the ignorant to the\nknowledge of truth, unless they can get rid of their prejudice of\ndiversity, which the creator Brahm\u00e1, has spread over the minds of men.\n\n19. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--I understand sir, what you say (regarding the ego\nas the agent); but I beseech you to explain it by some illustration,\nfor my clear knowledge of it.\n\n20. What does the supreme Brahma do, by his assuming the title of\nego or thinking agent to himself; you know all this (by your vast\nknowledge), though it is not quite satisfactory to your audience.\n\n21. Vasishtha replied:--The supreme One that was quite indistinct\nbefore (as the undistinguishable chaos); becomes after his assumption\nof the title ego to himself, divided and distinguished into the\ndistinct essences of vacuum, space and its directions and time with all\nits divisions. (The ego itself is diversified into these various forms).\n\n22. The ego then assuming its personality, finds many such distinctions\nappearing before itself; which are quite imperceptible in its state of\nimpersonality. (The personal soul only, is conscious of these).\n\n23. The knowledge of these vacuous principles, their qualities and\nattributes, which is preserved in the soul in the forms of their\nabstract ideas; is expressed afterwards by certain symbolical sounds\nor words, which are also as void as air. (A word is a breath, and the\nbreath is air).\n\n24. It is thus the formless and vacuous principle of the ego,\nentertains in itself or its soul, the notions or knowledge of times and\nspace in their ideal forms.\n\n25. This universe which appears as the _r\u00e9chauff\u00e9_ or reflex of the\nideal of the ego, and seems as the visible and substantial world, is in\nreality but the intangible Brahma, and appearing as the tangible non\nBrahma to view.\n\n26. The world is verily the quiet spirit of Brahma, it is one with Him,\nand without its beginning, middle or end; it is verily the void of\nBrahma, who assumes to himself the titles of Ego and the living soul,\nvacuous himself in his own vacuous self, as this vast and extensive\nphenomenon, and as something otherwise than what He is. (The world is\nthe mirror of the divine Mind and its thoughts).\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CCXIII.\n\nNARRATION OF R\u00c1MA\u2019S PRIOR PUPILAGE UNDER VASISHTHA.\n\n Argument:--Vasishtha\u2019s relation of a lecture delivered to R\u00e1ma in\n a former birth.\n\n\nVasishtha continued:--O R\u00e1ma, the destroyer of thy enemies, this very\nquestion that you have asked me today, was put to me once before, when\nyou had been a pupil under my discipline.\n\n2. In a former age, there was once this spiritual discourse betwixt\nourselves, when you had been a pupil of mine in a certain forest\n(according to Metempsychosis), the present is but a repetition of a\npast life. The wheel of life rolls and revolves incessantly from age to\nage.\n\n3. As I sat there as your preceptor, and your sitting in my presence as\nmy pupil; you then had put this very question to me, with the gravity\nof your understanding.\n\n4. The Pupil said:--You sir that know all things, now deign to remove\nthis doubt and difficulty of mine, regarding what things die and perish\nat the great deluge, and what things are not liable to destruction.\n\n5. The Preceptor replied saying:--Know my son, that the relics of all\nthings are utterly destroyed at the last deluge; as your thickening\ndreams disappear in your sound sleep.\n\n6. The hills and rocks on all the ten sides of the earth, are all\ndestroyed without any distinction, and of the actions of men and\nroutine of their business, there remains nothing behind.\n\n7. All beings are destroyed at the end, and the great void (that is the\nreceptacle of all bodies), becomes a perfect void.\n\n8. The gods Brahm\u00e1, Vishnu, Indra, Rudra and others, that are the prime\ncauses of the causal agencies of this world, do all become extinct at\nthe end of the world, and there remains no vestige of them at last.\n\n9. There remains only the great vacuity of the divine intellect, which\nis ever existent and undecaying; and this appears from the divine\nspirits remaining as the witness both of annihilations as also of the\nregeneration of the past and future worlds.\n\n10. The entity never becomes a non-entity, nor the non-entity never\ncomes to be an entity; tell me therefore where the past world\ndisappears, and from whence the future world comes to existence.\n\n11. The Preceptor replied:--This world, my boy, is not wholly destroyed\nnor does it become altogether extinct; and it is quite true that\nnothing ever goes to nothing, nor does anything, nor does anything\never proceed from a nihility.\n\n12. That which is an entity in reality, never becomes a non-entity in\nanywise, and how can that which is inexistent of itself, ever become a\nnil and null afterwards (Ex nihilo nihil fit &c.).\n\n13. Where is water to be had in the mirage, and when are the two\nseeming moons to be seen in the sky; where are the delusive hairs found\nto be floating in the air, and when does a false conception prove to be\ntrue. (So the seeming world is a nullity, although it appears awhile as\nsomething to our deluded sight).\n\n14. Know my son, all these phenomenals to be mere delusions, and\nwithout any reality in them; they appear as cities and towns in our\ndreams, and are ever obtrusive on us.\n\n15. They are however liable to vanish away quite out of our sight at\nlast, as our dreams disappear upon our waking, and as our waking scenes\nare lost and hid under the veil of our sleep.\n\n16. As we know nothing where the city of our dreaming, vanishes away at\nlast upon our waking; so we are quite ignorant about that chaotic void,\nwherein the universe submerges upon its exit.\n\n17. The Pupil rejoined:--If the world is a nullity as you say, then\nsir, be pleased to tell what is it that thus appears to and disappears\nfrom us by turns; and what is that vacuous intellect which presents\nthis extensive view before us; as also how does the void present its\nreflexion of the plenum and to what purpose.\n\n18. The Preceptor replied:--It is the vacuous sphere of the intellect,\nmy boy, that thus shines with its transparency; and it is this\nreflexion of it which is called the world, which is no other than this.\n\n19. It is the reflexion of the widely extended substance of the great\nvoid of the intellect; and this apparently solid figure of it, is no\nother than the same transpicuous form of that intellect. (So says the\nsruti, Brahm\u00e1 reflects his twofold forms to us, the one opaque and seen\nwith our naked eye, and the other translucent and viewed by our mental\nsight).\n\n20. The incorporeal Brahm\u00e1 like all corporeal bodies, presents both\na fair as well as a dark complexion (the one being his clear or\nintellectual form seen by the clear sighted, and the other his hazy\nfigure viewed by gross understandings). He also discloses himself some\ntimes and closes at another, which cause the creation and annihilation\nof the world. (Manu calls it the waking and sleeping of God, and others\nthe evolution and involution of the divine spirit).\n\n21. The clearness of the divine spirit, ever remains the same and\nunaltered, both before and after the creation and its dissolution;\nas a fountain of limpid waters is always clear, whether it reflects\nthe shadows of its bordering arbours or not. (No change in nature can\naffect the spirit of God).\n\n22. As a man remains unchanged in his sleep, whether he be dreaming\nor enjoying his sound rest; so the spirit continues alike in its\nintellect, whether it is in the act of creation or annihilation.\n\n23. As the ideal world appears to be calm and quiet, both in the dream\nof the dreamer, as well as in the sound sleep of the sleeper; so this\nvisible world of ours is ever viewed in its calmness, in the tranquil\nspirit of the Lord and of the contemplative saint.\n\n24. Hence I do not recognize the existence of a vacuum or sky, anywhere\nand independent of our soul; nor can we expect the same sphere\nappearing in the souls of others, as it does in ours according to our\nview of it.\n\n25. If we can perceive the light of our intellect, even at the point\nof our death, and disappearance of the world from us; why should we\nnot conceive the same to be the case with others, and that they do not\nperceive the same intellectual light also in their consciousness. (This\nis an evidence of the immortality in our souls).\n\n26. The Pupil rejoined:--If such is the case, that others who are\nawake, have the same view of the world, as the dreamer has in his\ndream; then I believe that all those that are living, have the same\nview of the world as those that are dying, (_i.e._ A mere faint idea of\nit and not a substantial one).\n\n27. The preceptor replied:--So it is, O my intelligent lad, the world\nthen does not appear in its real form (of a solid body to the dreamer\nand the dying), as it appears as a reality to the intellects of others\n(that are waking and living). Idealism presents the true picture of the\nworld.\n\n28. The world does not appear and is not anything, and nothing that is\nreal or has any reality in it; it is a mere reflexion of the intellect,\nand there can be no reality in our false sight of it.\n\n29. It is apparent everywhere, and seems to be in every way at all\ntimes; but it does not exist in anyway, anywhere or at\nanytime.\n\n30. And because it is both the real and unreal form of Brahma, it\nis both a reality as well as unreality likewise; and being of the\nintellectual void, is never destructible nor ever destroyed.\n\n31. The vacuous entity of the supreme intellect, which exhibits the\nphenomena of creation and its destruction (in repeated rotation),\nabounds with our misery only, if we attend to its occurrences with any\ndegree of concern; but it does not affect us at all, if we can but\nremain altogether unconcerned with its casualties.\n\n32. All these appearances exist every where at all times, in the same\nmanner as they appear to the ignorant; but in truth, they appear in no\nwhere, in any manner or at any time to the wise and learned (who know\nthe nature of worldly delusions).\n\n33. It is the one self-same Being that appears as a god in one place,\nand as a pot or clod in another. Here he is seen as a hill and there as\na rill or dale; He is an arbour here, of furze or bush there, and the\nspreading grass in another. He is the moving and movable some where and\nthe unmoving and unmovably else where; and He is the fire and all other\nelements also everywhere.\n\n34. He is entity and nonentity, and both vacuity and solidity also; He\nis action and duration, and the earth and sky likewise. He is the being\nand not being, and their growth and their destruction likewise, and He\nis good as well as the evil, that attends on one and forefends another.\n\n35. There is nothing that is not He, who though one is always all\nthings in all places; He is in and out of everything, and extends\nalong the beginning, middle and end of all things. He is eternity and\nduration and the three divisions of time also; (_i.e._ the present,\npast and future, called the triple time).\n\n36. He is all, and existent in all things, in all places and times; and\nyet He is not the All, and neither existing with anything at any time\nor place (but is but dimly seen in these His lowest works. Milton).\n\n37. Know now, R\u00e1ma, that Brahma being the universal soul, He is all\nin all places and times; and because Brahma is the conscious soul, He\nexhibits all things to our consciousness, as if they were images in our\ndreams or the creatures of our imagination. (_i.e._ A corporeal God\nonly can form a formal and plastic world; but the intellectual soul of\nGod, can make only a formless and immaterial creation, as we see in our\ndream and phantasies).\n\n38. The maker of the terrene world, must have an earthly body; and the\nframer of the woody arbours must have a wooden frame, but the Lord God\nof all, has neither a corporeal body nor a material shape. (Thus they\nframe a fire, air and water God, but the true God is none of these\nelements).\n\n39. Others make a mountain God as the Lord of all; and some even make\nand worship a human figure as the supreme God (and so are all the\nheathen gods represented in human figures).\n\n40. Some make a picture the Lord and maker of all; and others make some\nimage as such, and worship it as the great God of all.\n\n41. But there is only one supreme Being, who is the maker, supporter\nand the Lord God of all others; He is without beginning and end, and\nthe Lord Brahma, whose spirit upholds and supports all others.\n\n42. A straw made image or an earthen pot, is attributed with divine\npowers, and represented as the Most high; and so the formless God is\nshown in frail images, which are made and destroyed by human hands.\n\n43. An outward object is made the actor and enjoyer of acts; but the\nwise know intelligence only, as the active and passive agent of all\nactions.\n\n44. But the truly wise (_i.e._ the vacuist) acknowledges no active nor\npassive agent of creation; although many among the wise (_i.e._ the\nP\u00e1shupatas) recognize one God alone, as the only actor, and enjoyer of\nall.\n\n45. All these views may be probable, and well apply to the most high,\nwho is the sole object of all these theories; and as there is nothing,\nwhich can be positively affirmed or denied of Him. (Here the vacuist\nVasishtha is a tolerator of all faiths, as suited to the capacities of\nthe different understanding of men).\n\n46. All these believers look to their desired objects, as manifest to\ntheir view in the vacuous space of their intellects, and by viewing the\nwhole world in themselves, they remain undecayed at all times.\n\n47. All visibles and all laws and prohibitions, together with all\ndesires and designs of men; are confined with their knowledge of them\nin themselves. Hence those that are true to their faiths, and firm\nin the observance of their duties and performance of their acts, are\nverily of the nature of the divine soul, by their viewing all nature in\nthemselves.\n\n48. This very doctrine was inculcated to before, when you had been a\npupil under my preceptorship; but as you could not fully comprehend\nit then, you are doomed to another birth, to learn it again from me.\n(Vasishtha means to say that he is immortal, though R\u00e1ma may have his\ntransmigration in many incarnations).\n\n49. The world representing the longsome dark and dreary winter night,\npresents the pure light of knowledge, shining with the serene and\ncooling beams of the autumnal lunar disk; now O R\u00e1ma! as you \nedified by your pure intelligence, shake off the dross of dull\nignorance from you, and continue in the discharge of your duties, as\nthey have lineally descended to you and to your royal race.\n\n50. Do you remain released from your attachment, to all things of this\ntemporal world; and relying solely in the One supreme and universal\nsoul, whose pure nature is perceptible throughout all nature; then be\nas lucid as the pellucid sky, with the peace of your mind and transport\nof your soul, and learn to rule your realm with justice and equity.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CCXIV.\n\nDESCRIPTION OF THE GREAT JUBILEE OF THE ASSEMBLY.\n\n Argument:--Demonstration of the exceeding exultation of the\n audience at the close of the long winded lengthy lecture.\n\n\nV\u00e1lm\u00edki related:--As the sage had finished saying these things, or so\nfar, the celestials sounded their trumpets from heaven, as the clouds\nresounded in the rainy skies, with showers of nectarious rain drops (on\nthe earth below). The face of the sky was whitened on all sides, as by\ndrifts of snowfalls in hoary winter, and the surface of the earth was\ncovered by rain drops, dropping like showers of flowers. (The sound of\ncelestial trumpets, is ever accompanied with or followed by a shower\n refreshing rain).\n\n2. The earth appeared to be blessed with prosperity in the beauty of\nthe flowers, stretching their pistils and peduncles like beauties in\ntheir evening decorations, and sending afar the fragrance of their\nfarinacious dust, like the perfumery on the persons of fairies, their\nouter garniture and inner cool sweetness are verily the gifts of the\ngods.\n\n3. The falling flowers of heavenly arbors, dropped down from their\ndried boughs, by the rampant and apish hurricane of heaven, are now\nvying with the glittering stars, scattered all over the face of the\nfirmament, and deriding at their grim laughter with their bashful and\nblushing smiles.\n\n4. The lowering clouds accompanied with sounds of trumpets, and\ndrizzling rain drops and falling of flowers (which bore resemblance\nto one another); next lighted upon the court hall, like the shadowy\nsnow fall on Him\u00e1laya\u2019s head, and filled the assembly with wonder, and\ngaping mouths and staring eyes.\n\n5. The assembly seated in their order, took hold of handfuls of these\nheavenly flowers; and poured them upon Vasishtha with their obeisance,\nand cast away all their earthly cares and woes with those celestial\nofferings to the sage. (Every offering confers and recurs, with an\nequivalent blessing to the offerer).\n\n6. The King Dasaratha said:--O wonder! that we are so lightly released\nof our cares and woes, in this wide extended vale of miseries of the\nworld; and that our souls are now lightened of their throws by your\ngrace, like the heavy clouds lightened of their weight, and floating\nlightly at last on Him\u00e1layas.\n\n7. We have reached to the goal of our acts, and seen the end of our\nmiseries of this life; we have fully known the knowable One (that is\nonly to be known), and have found our entire rest in that supreme state\n(by your good grace alone).\n\n8. We have known to rest in the ultimate void in our meditation, and to\nget rid of our erroneous thoughts of bodies, by means of our intense\napplication to the abstract (or Platonic abstraction).\n\n9. It is by our riddance from the coinage and vagaries of our\nimagination, and by our escape from the feverish fervour for the sights\nof the dreaming world; as also by our ceasing to mistake the shells and\ncockles for silver, and by our deliverance from misdeeming ourselves as\ndead either in our sleep or dream, (that we may be enabled to the true\nknowledge of ourselves &c.).\n\n10. It is by our knowledge of the identity of the wind and its\noscillation, and of the sameness of the water with its fluidity; as\nalso by our distrust in this talismanic world, and in this fairy land\nof our fancy (that we can attain to the knowledge of truth &c.).\n\n11. It must be by our discredit in the magical scenes of this world,\nand in the aerial castles of fairies; as also by our mistrust in the\nlimpid currents of the mirage, and in the aerial groves and double\nmoons of heaven (that we can come to know the truth).\n\n12. It is no earthquake, if our tottering foot steps should shake and\nslip in our drunkenness; nor can we view a ghost in a shadow as boys\ndo, nor see the braids of hair hanging down from the clouds in heaven.\n\n13. From these and other instances, which you have given for our\ninstruction; you have sir, at once effaced our credit in the visible\nsights of this world.\n\n14. R\u00e1ma added:--My ignorance is dispelled, and I have come to the\nknowledge of truth by your good grace; and O thou chief of sages,\nI acknowledge thee to have brought me to light from my impervious\ndarkness.\n\n15. I am freed from my doubts, and set to the light of the true\nnature of God; and I will now act as thou sayst, in acknowledging the\ntranspicuous truth (or viewing God as manifest in nature, and not as\nhidden under her veil).\n\n16. Remembering and reconsidering thy words, that are so fraught with\nambrosial sweetness and full of delightsome taste; I am filled with\nfresh delight, though already satisfied and refreshed by their sense\n(_i.e._ the more I think of them, the happier I seem to feel my-self).\n\n17. I have nothing to do for myself at present, nor is there any left\nundone or remaining to be done by me. I am as I am and have ever been,\nand always without any craving for me. (This state of self-satisfaction\nand self-sufficiency, is the highest bliss for man).\n\n18. What other way to our true felicity can there be, than this that\nhas been shown by thee? or else I find this wide-extended field of the\nearth, to be so full of our woe and misery.\n\n19. I have no foe to annoy me nor a friend to give any joy to me; I\nhave no field to work in, nor an enemy to fear nor a good soul to\nrely in. It is our misunderstanding that makes this world appear so\ntroublesome to ourselves, while our good sense makes it all agreeable\nto us. (If the world will not suit thee, suit thyself to it).\n\n20. How could we know all this (for our happiness) without thy good\ngrace unto us; as it is never possible for a boy, to ford and cross\nover a river, without the assistance of a boat or bridge.\n\n21. Lakshmana said:--It is by reason of your removing the doubts, that\nhad been inherent in and inherited by me in my repeated births; and it\nis by virtue of the merit, that I had acquired in my former births;\nthat I have come to know the truth this day, by the divine sermon of\nthe holy sage; and to feel the radiance of a holy light in me, shining\nas brightly as the cooling beams of moonlight.\n\n22. It is strange that in disregard of this heavenly bright and vivid\nlight, that men should be entangled in a thousand errors, and be\nburnt at last as dried wood or fuel, by their foul mistake and great\nmisfortune.\n\n23. Visw\u00e1mitra said:--O! it is by our great merit, that we have come\nthis day, to hear this holy lecture from the mouth of the sage; and\nwhich has at once expurgated our inner souls, as a thousand lavations\nin the clear stream of Ganges.\n\n24. R\u00e1ma rejoined:--We have seen the highest pitch of all prosperity,\nand the best of all that is to be seen; we have known the end of all\nlearning, and the last extremity of adversity; we have seen many\ncountries and heard many speeches; but never have we heard, nor seen\nnor known anything better than the discourse on the beauty of the soul,\nwhich the sage has shown to us to-day.\n\n25. N\u00e1rada added:--Our ears are purified to-day, by the hearing of what\nwe have never heard heretofore; to be preached by Brahm\u00e1 or the gods\nabove or men below.\n\n26. Lakshmana rejoined:--Sir, you have entirely dissipated all our\ninner and outer darkness also; and have shewn us the transcendent\nlight, of the bright sun of the Divine soul.\n\n27. Satrughna said:--I am satisfied and tranquilized, and uncomposed\nin the supreme soul; I am for ever full and perfect in myself, and sit\nquite content with my solity.\n\n28. Dasaratha repeated:--It is by the merit of our deeds, done and\nacquired in our repeated lives, that we have been, O thou chief of\nsages, sanctified this day by thy sacred and sanctifying speech.\n\n29. V\u00e1lm\u00edki related:--As the king and his courtiers, were speaking in\nthis manner, the sage oped his mouth again, and thus bespoke his words\nfraught with pure and purifying knowledge.\n\n30. Vasishtha said:--Hear me, O thou moon like king of Raghu\u2019s race,\nand do as I bid you to do; Rise now and honour the assembled Br\u00e1hmans,\nwho deserve their due honour at the close of a discourse.\n\n31. Rise therefore, and satisfy their desires with thy ample gifts; and\nthou will obtain thereby, the merit that attends on the learning of the\nvedas, and doing thy duties according to their dictates.\n\n32. It is incumbent on even a mean worm-like man, to honor the Br\u00e1hmans\nto their utmost at the termination of a sermon on salvation; how much\nmore important must it then be on the part of a monarch to acquit\nhimself of this necessary duty.\n\n33. Hearing this behest of the sage, the king held his reverential\nsilence; and beckoned to his heralds to proceed to all the ten sides of\nhis dominions, and invite thousands of Br\u00e1hmans, that are acquainted\nwith the vedas forthwith (to the royal court).\n\n34. He bade them to go to Mathura, Sur\u00e1shtra and Gauda, and to bring\nwith them with due respect all the Br\u00e1hmans, that are born of Vedic\nfamilies, and are abiding in those districts and lands.\n\n35. There then assembled more than ten thousands of Br\u00e1hmans to the\nroyal palace, and the king fed them all alike and paying particular\nregard to the more learned among them.\n\n36. He treated them with the best sorts of food and rice, honoured them\nwith their honorariums, and gave them a good many gifts; and after\nhonouring them in this manner, he offered his oblations to the manes of\nhis ancestors, and gave his offerings to the tutelar gods of his house.\n(A Br\u00e1hman has his precedence in a feast to the gods and _patres_; but\nthe merit of giving a feast is lost unless it is followed by other\ngifts).\n\n37. The king next treated his friends and relatives with proper repast,\nand then fed his companions and servants and the citizens all on the\nsame day. His attention was at last directed to the feeding of the poor\nand needy, and of the lame and blind and lunatics.\n\n38. Having discharged to his utmost the duties of the festival, he\ncommanded a great festivity to be held in his hall, all over decorated\nwith silk and embroidery, and with gold, gems and pearls.\n\n39. The city then being adorned and lighted, like the ever bright\nmount of Meru, there went on a merry dance and ball of giddy girls and\nplayers in every house (as a sign of general joy).\n\n40. There was a ringing of bells and sounding of cymbols all about,\nwith the beating of drums and trimbrels at every door; flutes and\nwind instruments were blowing on every side, and guitars and wired\ninstruments were playing with loud gingling, and vying with each other.\n\n41. The markets were closed, and the marketers stopped in their course;\nthe air appeared as an arbour of plants, shaking with the uplifted and\nquavering and waving arms of the merry dancers in the streets; and it\nseemed as the starry heaven, by the glittering light of the teeth of\nstrolling players, displayed in their comic dance and loud laughter.\n\n42. There was the heroic dance attended by the loud shouts of the\nplayers, and melodramas accompanied with the soft and sweet strains of\nthe performers, there was also a staggering and strutting dance on one\nfoot and leg, and thumping the ground with the other.\n\n43. Here they flung wreaths of flowers glittering like stars and\nfalling down in showers; and there the scattered flowers, which were\nstrewn over the ground as rain drops, were indiscriminately trodding\ndown under the feet of passersby.\n\n44. Here the actresses dance about with their loose ornaments and\ngestures of love; and there the bards chanted their hymns with\nclearness, as the Br\u00e1hmans recited them and the songstresses sang.\n\n45. Here the sots and topers drank their fill of wine; and the food\nmongers fed upon their eatables of various kinds (_i.e._ some were seen\nto be indulging their drink and others in their eating).\n\n46. The insides of houses were daubed with wine, as the outer bodies of\nthe princes with ointment of moon light hue.\n\n47. The attendent servants and waiting maids on the king, sauntered\nabout trimmed in gaudy attires of various colours; and graced the royal\nfestival with their decorations of necklaces and sweet perfumes on\ntheir persons.\n\n48. The sprightly ballet girls, being besmeared with a paste of all\nperfumeries (called the yaksha dust), and decorated with glittering\nornaments, repaired to the ball at the royal hall with all alacrity.\n\n49. Thus the king Dasaratha held his entertainment for a whole week,\nand passed full seven nights in festive mirth and rejoicing; while he\ndistributed his gifts and food for as many days, which redounded to\nexhaustless prosperity on earth.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CCXV.\n\nEULOGY ON THIS WORK AND THE MODE OF ITS RECITAL.\n\n Argument:--V\u00e1lm\u00edki speaks in praise of this work to this pupil\n Bharadw\u00e1ja, and blesses him to be as blessed as the divine R\u00e1ma\n with the hearing of it.\n\n\nV\u00e1lm\u00edki said:--O most intelligent Bharadw\u00e1ja, and the chief of my\npupils, you have now heard how the great R\u00e1ma and others, came to the\nknowledge of the knowable One (that is only to be known), and passed\nacross this vale of misery and sorrow, by their attention to these\nlectures.\n\n2. Do you thus fix your sight to the light of Brahma, and conduct\nyourself gladly, by abandoning all your affections and cares of this\nworld, and by remaining dauntless with your living liberation and\ntranquility of mind.\n\n3. Know, O thou sinless one, that the learned and the meek, that do\nnot mix with the society of worldly men, but remain steady as R\u00e1ma\nand others in their right principles, are never liable to be deluded\nalthough they are beset by temptations on all sides.\n\n4. Thus these men of great natures, as the king Dasaratha and the\nprince R\u00e1ma and his brothers, together with companions, have attended\nto the state of the living liberated (even in their life time).\n\n5. Thou my son Bharadw\u00e1ja! that art naturally of a liberal mind, hast\nnow become more liberated at present, by thy hearing of these sermons\non the salvation of our souls.\n\n6. It is possible even for boys to obtain their liberation, by their\nattention to those holy lectures, as the most evident and surest means\nto salvation; and cannot therefore fail to convince thee of the truth\nthereof.\n\n7. As the high minded and sinless and sorrowless sons of Raghu\u2019s race,\nhave attained to their holy state of perfection and self-liberation;\nso do thou also obtain that best and highest state, by your attending\nto the lectures of the divine sage Vasishtha.\n\n8. It is by advice of the good and service under the great, as also by\nmeans of humble inquiries to and explications of the learned; that weak\nmen of good understandings, can know the knowable, as the R\u00e1ghavas and\nothers did under Vasishtha.\n\n9. The ties of avarice and affection that have fast bound the hearts of\nthe ignorant (to this world); do all tend to debar them like playful\nboys from inquiring into the means of their liberation, until they\nbecome too old to benefit by their knowledge.\n\n10. Those that can discern the minds of high minded men, can only come\nto their knowledge of truth; and such men only have no more to return\nto this world of woe; and this is the substance of all that I can speak\nto thee (_i.e._ know and have the minds of the great, in order to\nbecome as great thyself, so says Gay in his Fables. (Hast thou fathomed\nTully\u2019s mind, and the vast sense of Plato\u2019s head)).\n\n11. Having first received your instruction from the preceptor, you must\nweigh well and digest its meaning in yourself; and then communicate its\nsense, to the most sensible and intelligent student. This is said by\nsages and saints, as the trivium of science; know this and you need no\nmore, to become wise when your boyhood is over.\n\n12. Whoso will read this book, not without understanding its sense and\nwhoever will manuscript it without the expectation of getting its fee;\nas also anybody who will recite or cause it to be recited (to a public\naudience), either with or without any desire of reward, shall have his\nample recompense in the land of \u00c1ryas (both in his present and future\nlives). (So it is with the public preaching of its doctrine).\n\n13. These men receive the reward, awaiting on the performance of the\nR\u00e1jas\u00faya sacrifice, and are entitled to their heavenly seats in their\npure essence; as often as they ascend to it after their demise on\nearth, and until they attain their final liberation, which attains\non them as prosperity does on the meritorious (after the third\ntransmigration of their expurged souls).\n\n14. It was at first that the god Brahm\u00e1 of unknowable form, had\ncomposed this work in his excellent diction; and then considering it\nas the only means to the liberation of mankind, had revealed it to\nthe assemblage of saints (of which Vasishtha or V\u00e1lm\u00edki has made this\nversion). Let nobody therefore take the truthfulness of this saying for\nan untruth.\n\n15. At the close of the recital of these lectures, on the means of\nhuman salvation, it becomes every sensible man of good sense, to honour\nthe Br\u00e1hmans with diligence; and to serve them with their desirable\ngifts of food and drink, and furnish them with goodly houses for their\nlodging.\n\n16. They should also be rewarded with their honorariums, and supplied\nwith monies to their hearts\u2019 desire, and to the utmost capacity of the\ndonor; and then the giver or master of the ceremony should rest himself\nassured, of having acquitted his duty to and reaped its merit to the\nintent of the s\u00e1stras.\n\n17. I have thus rehearsed to you the great s\u00e1stra, in elucidation of\ndivine knowledge and its pure truth; with addition of a great many\ntales and stories, serving as example and illustrations of the abstruse\ndoctrines for your clear understanding of them. May your hearing of\nthese, serve to lead you to your utter indifference of this world, and\nto the desire of your liberation in it, while you are alive herein. May\nthis tend also to your continued prosperity, in order to engage your\nattention towards the perfection of your knowledge and devotion, and to\nthe discharge of the duties of your station without failing.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER CCXVI.\n\nCONCLUSION OF THE CELESTIAL MESSENGER\u2019S MESSAGE OF LIBERATION.\n\n Argument:--Acknowledgment of the obligation of _Arishtanemi_ and\n others, to their preceptors and preachers.\n\n\nV\u00e1lm\u00edki continued to say:--I have thus related to you, O prince,\nwhatever the pot born Vasishtha had taught and preached to the princes;\nand it is certain that you will attain the same elevated state, as they\ndid by the hearing of these lectures on sacred knowledge.\n\n2. The Prince Arishtanemi replied:--O Venerable sir, your kind look is\nenough to extricate us from bondage in this world; and it is hence that\nI am not only brought to light, but saved from the ocean of this world\nby your favour.\n\n3. The Heavenly Messenger said:--After saying so, the said prince\nseemed to look amazed in his look; and then he began to speak these\nwords to me with a graceful voice.\n\n4. The Prince said:--I bow down to thee, O Messenger divine, and wish\nall safety to attend on thee; it is said that the friendship of the\ngood is attended with seven benefits, all which hast thou conferred\nupon me.\n\n5. Now return in safety to your seat in the heaven of Indra, and well\nknow that, I am both gladdened as well as grown _insouciant_ of worldly\nconcerns, by hearing this discourse of thine.\n\n6. I shall continue to remain here for ever more, and without feeling\nany anxiety, to think well and ponder deeply into the sense of all\nthat I have heard from thee. Now I tell thee, O Lady! that I was quite\nsurprised (to see so much civility on the part of a prince).\n\n7. He said:--I have never heard before, such words and fraught with so\nmuch knowledge, as I have come now to hear from thee; It has filled\nmy inward spirit with as much joy, as if I have drunk my fill of an\nambrosial draught just now.\n\n8. I then repaired to thee, O thou sinless fairy, at the bidding of\nV\u00e1lm\u00edki; in order to relate unto thee all that thou hast asked of me.\nAnd now I shall bend my course, towards the celestial city of Sakra.\n\n9. The fairy said:--I must thank thee now, O thou very fortunate\nemissary of the gods! for all that thou hast related to me; and my\nknowledge whereof, has entirely composed my spirit, by its benign\ninfluence.\n\n10. I am now quite satisfied in myself, and will ever remain from\nsorrow and all the sickening cares of life; and you may now to your\ndestination at Indras, with all speed attending on your journey thither.\n\n11. So saying Suruchi--the best of fairies, continued to keep her seat\non the slope of the Him\u00e1layas, and contiguous to the Gandham\u00e1dana mount\nof fragrance, and reflect on the sense of what she had heard (of divine\nknowledge).\n\n12. Now as you have fully heard, my son, all the precepts of Vasishtha,\nyou are at liberty to do as you like, by your weighing well their\npurport. (For the effecting of your liberation which is the main object\nof man, both in this life as well as in the next).\n\n13. K\u00e1runya said:--The remembrance of the past, the sight of the\npresent, and the talk of future events, together with the existence of\nthe world; are all as false as the sights in our dreams or of water in\nmirage, or as the birth of a boy of a barren woman.\n\n14. I gain nothing from my deeds, nor lose aught by what is left\nundone; I live to do as it happens, or at the impulse of the occasion\nand without any assiduity on my part.\n\n15. Agasti said:--K\u00e1runya--The worthy son of Agnibesya, said in the\naforesaid manner, and continued to pass his time in the discharge of\nhis duties, as they occured to him from time to time.\n\n16. And you O Sutikshana! should never entertain any doubts regarding\nthe acts, that you shall have to perform after your attainment\nof divine knowledge (Lest they entail their retribution on you\nafterwards). Because dubitation destroys the virtue of the deed, as\nselfishness takes away its merit.\n\n17. Upon hearing this speech of the sage, which reconciles the\nduplicity of action and reflection, into the unity of their\ncombination; he bowed to his preceptor and uttered as follows with due\nsubmission to him.\n\n18. Sut\u00edkshana said:--Any action done in ignorance of the actor, is\nreckoned as no act of his, unless it is done in his full knowledge\nto be taken into account. (So the brute activities of the giddy mob,\nbear no value or blame in them before the wise). But actions done with\nreason and reasonable men, are invaluable in their nature. All our\nacts are best seen by the light of the intellect as the actions of\nstage-players are seen only in the candle light. (So are all our mental\nand corporeal acts, actuated by the essence of the great soul in us).\n\n19. It is the presence of the supreme soul in us, that the action\nof our hearts, directs the motions of our bodies; as it is the\nmalleability of gold, that moulds it to the many forms of jewelleries.\n(Hence we should never reject the one for the other).\n\n20. As it is the great body of waters, that gives rise to the\nboisterous waves, as well as the little playful billows, that heave and\nmove in our sight; so it is the inbeing of the great soul, that fills\nall the great and small alike.\n\n21. I submit to and bear with all that befalls to me, because there is\nno escape from destiny, nor slighting of the sound sayings of sages;\nand I acknowledge O Venerable sir, to owe my knowledge of the knowable\nOne to thy good grace only.\n\n22. I own myself to be quite felicitous to thy favour, and bow down\nprostrate to thee on the ground, for thy lifting me up from the doleful\npit of the world; because there is no other way to repay my gratitude\nto my venerable preceptor.\n\n23. Nay there is no other act, whereby one may give expression to his\nobligation to his tutor, for his salvation in this world, save by means\nof offering himself to his services; with his whole body and mind and\nthe words of his mouth.\n\n24. It is by thy good grace, O my good sir, that I have passed over the\nRubicon of this world; I am filled with infinite joy amidst all these\nworlds, and am set free from all my doubts.\n\n25. I bow down to that Brahma, who is sung in the S\u00e1ma-veda, as filling\nall this universe, as the waters of the ocean fill the boundless deep;\nand whose remembrance fills our soul with ecstasy.\n\n26. I bow down also to the sage Vasishtha, who is of the form of\nincarnate knowledge alone, and who is immerged in the joyous bliss of\ndivine felicity; who is beyond all duality and sees the only One in the\nunity of infinite vacuity. Who is ever alike the pure and immaculate\nOne, and witnesseth the inmost of all minds; who is beyond all states\nand conditions (of so and so or of such and such); and who is quite\ndevoid of the three qualities (which belong to all bodies) _i.e._ There\nis no known quality or property that can be predicated to the Deity.\nThe qualities of the unknown One, as unknown, peculiar and unique as\nown nature.\n\n27. Here ends the Mah\u00e1r\u00e1m\u00e1yana of the sage Vasishtha, with its\ncontinuation by his recorder V\u00e1lm\u00edki, and the speech of the celestial\nmessenger at the latter end of the Book on Nirv\u00e1na or the ultimate\nExtinction of the living soul.\n\n\nFINIS.\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] The mind involved in ignorance, is said to be waking, and the\nuncontrouled mind is styled as dreaming: the mind subdued by weariness\nis said to be asleep, and when brought under subjection by any\neffort, is called _sam\u00e1dhi_ or meditation, lastly its liberation from\nignorance, is known as its state of _mukti_ or emancipation.\n\n[2] Note.--Each of the three states of waking, dreaming and sound sleep\nadmit of three conditions viz. waking wakefulness, waking dream and the\nwaking sound sleep; again dreaming watchfulness, dreaming dream and\ndreaming sleep; and lastly the sleepy waking, the sleepy dream and the\nsleepy sound sleep (see the scholium of Sureshvara for instances of\nevery Kind).\n\n[3] The founder of Ved\u00e1nta was Vy\u00e1sa, of Buddhism--Buddha, of\nS\u00e1nkhya--Kapila, of Saugata--Patanjali. Tryaksha, Pashupati and\nBhairana were professors of \u00c1gama tantras.\n\n[4] Note. The sacred Sanskrit was at once a perfect language, without\nany knowledge of us regarding its formative stage, though a _balabh\u00e1s\u00e1_\nor infant-language is said to have existed before, of which we have no\nrelic nor know anything.\n\n[5] Note. If the world be a form of Divine knowledge, and subsistent\nin and subjective to the eternal mind of God; it can then be neither\ncreated nor destroyed at any time; but since it is subject to creation\nand destruction, it can be a part of Divine knowledge. Nor is it an\nobject for want of any cause of its creation. Therefore it is a mere\nnullity.\n\n[6] Note.--If the thinkables are the produce of their first creation,\nthen it remains to be said, whence (_i.e._ from what materials) they\nwere formed.\n\n[7] Note.--According to Vasishtha, Byam, Beom or vacuum, is possest\nof all the attributes of Brahm Godhead, in its unity, infinity,\neternity, incorporeality and formlessness, as also in its omnipresence,\nomnipotence in its supporting the worlds and in the omniscience of the\nvacuous intellect.","title":"The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana of Valmiki, Vol. 4 (of 4), Part 2 (of 2)","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":189937}